Brad Thomson Layne Meylain Mike Butler Mason Crooks Mike Bradley Phil Lockett Djed Cyril Josh Travis Kade Dodson Jessie Freeland
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza was an American mathcore[3] band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The band was founded (sans a vocalist) in Monroe, Louisiana, by members Layne Meylain, Mason Crooks, Brad Thomson, and Mike Butler. They relocated to Murfreesboro to look for a frontman and found Jessie Freeland.
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza released four studio albums before disbanding in 2012.
On September 24, 2009, the band announced that Layne Meylain and Mike Butler had amicably left the group.[12] At the same time, the band formally announced their next album, Danza III: A Series of Unfortunate Events. The album focuses on lyrical themes such as personal, social, political and global "unfortunate events" tied around the three musical themes of technical, groove-based and ambient music. It was recorded in November 2009 with Jeremiah Scott and Steve Blackmon.[12]
The band released their third album, Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events, on July 6, 2010. On the record, Josh Travis performs lead and rhythm guitar on an 8-string guitar as well as the bass. It also marks the first album by the band to include drummer Mike Bradley. The songs "I Am Sammy Jankis" and "The Union" were released as singles.
During May 2011, the band confirmed that Danza IIII is in the works.[13] In the meantime of its creation, guitarist Josh Travis has joined Jerry Roush's new band Glass Cloud as a side-project with their debut album, The Royal Thousand, being released on July 3, 2012.[14]
On October 16, 2012, their album Danza IIII: The Alpha – The Omega was released.[15] Dave Mustein of MetalSucks gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating, "Danza's bottom end is the single most unified element on The Alpha The Omega. There's no denying that previous Danza releases are heavy[...] but the record's heaviness is primarily due to the fact that all the instrumentation on the album was performed by rhythmic mastermind Joshua Travis[...] The production holds it all together, sounding gritty but professional, digital but uncompressed," but criticized the band for falling "into the trap of writing filler; the numerous samples begin to run together, decreasing the impact of songs like Hold the Line. And it's almost impossible to sit through the entirety of the glitchy, gimmicky Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid."[16]
On August 23, 2012, Joshua Travis made this statement, regarding Danza's future:
"For this album, Jessie and I were looking to create more of a visceral vibe than a completely technical vibe. There's parts that do still get a bit chaotic of course, but not nearly as much as the avid listener is used to. Everything about this record is way more to the point, with much more heart put into it rather than just seeing how many notes could be thrown into a part or seeking to create 'the heaviest shit ever' or any of that nonsense. The record being titled The Alpha – The Omega, to us symbolized the beginning and the end of Danza. Jessie and I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it for you all."[17]
The band's breakup has led the members to pursue different careers. Guitarist Travis went on to join the metalcore band Glass Cloud and, later, Emmure.
The group derived their name (as a joke) from celebrity Tony Danza, upon one of his professions being tap dancing. [4]
Danza himself became aware of the band when a fan sent in a letter informing him about the group and the band consequently had their music played on an episode of the talk show program The Tony Danza Show.[19]
