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Don't run too far; you will have to return the same distance. Midrash Ecclesiastes R. 11:9 |
Lisa Anne Loeb (born March 11, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song, "Stay (I Missed You)". She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract.
Loeb's efforts now include music, film, television, voice-over work and children’s recordings. Her five studio CDs include her major label debut, the gold-selling Tails and its follow-up, the Grammy-nominated, gold-selling Firecracker. Loeb has appeared in two television series, Dweezil & Lisa, a weekly culinary adventure for the Food Network and Number 1 Single, a dating show on the E! Network in 2006.
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Loeb was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in Dallas, Texas, where she attended The Hockaday School, an all-girls private school. Her parents still live in Dallas, where her mother is a homemaker and her father, Dr. Peter Loeb, is a gastroenterologist. She has three siblings, all involved with music: conductor Benjamin Loeb, musician Debbie Loeb, and mixing-engineer Philip Loeb. After graduating from high school in 1986, she went to Brown University, where she graduated in 1990 with a degree in comparative literature. At Brown, she and Elizabeth Mitchell formed a band named Liz and Lisa, including future singer/songwriter and Brown classmate Duncan Sheik as a guitarist. The duo released the albums Liz and Lisa (1989) and Liz and Lisa: Days Were Different (1990) independently. After college, the jazz/rock bassist Rick Lassiter and TV and film composer/drummer Chad Fisher joined the band.
After developing a following together, Loeb and Mitchell parted ways a few years after college. Loeb began working with Juan Patiño to make the Purple Tape, the violet cassette that Loeb used as a sonic calling card to industry gatekeepers and that fans could buy at her gigs. Produced by Patiño and recorded at his apartment on 52nd Street in 1992, the cassette includes the earliest recordings of several Loeb favorites including “Do You Sleep,” “Snow Day,” “Train Songs,” and “It’s Over.” Loeb also took this time to record her band playing some other songs, one of which was "Stay (I Missed You)." During the same time, she was recording a band demo with Kevin Salem for a record company demo deal.
Loeb had also developed a following from her solo acoustic performances on the New York City coffeehouse circuit and the rock club circuit. She travelled to cities such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Dallas, but focused mainly on New York City. She played acoustically and with her band in folk and rock clubs, including The Bitter End, CBGB’s, CB's Gallery, The Wetlands, Lonestar Roadhouse and more. Loeb also performed at several music festivals, such as the New Music Seminar and South by Southwest.
Loeb's big break came when she was discovered by actor Ethan Hawke, who lived in an apartment across the street from her in New York City. They met through mutual friends in the NYC theater community. Loeb gave Hawke the Juan Patiño-produced version of "Stay (I Missed You)", who in turn gave it to director Ben Stiller during the making of the 1994 film Reality Bites. Stiller subsequently decided to use the song in the film’s ending credits, and Ron Fair decided to put it on the soundtrack on RCA records. "Stay" ultimately went on to become a number one hit on the American charts. When her song hit number one, Loeb earned the distinction of being the only artist to top the Hot 100 before being signed to any record label. Hawke also directed a rare one-take video of “Stay” with no edits.
In September 1995, Loeb's debut album, Tails, was released. The album was co-produced by Juan Patiño, her then longtime boyfriend. Although none of the singles from Tails matched the breakthrough appeal of "Stay" (which was also included on this album), Loeb still managed a top 20 hit with "Do You Sleep?" and two moderately successful radio hits with "Taffy" and "Waiting for Wednesday". Tails went on to achieve Gold status.
In 1997, Loeb released a second major-label album, Firecracker, and began experimenting even more with orchestrations done with Dan Coleman. At this point, Loeb started going under her own name for the albums instead of using the band name, Nine Stories (named after the J. D. Salinger collection), although she still continued to tour worldwide with the band and acoustically as she had done from the start. Critically praised, Firecracker included hit singles such as "I Do," which received radio success, peaking at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and music television.
In 2000, Loeb participated in the Ozzy Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup performing "Goodbye to Romance" with Dweezil Zappa on guitar. She also contributed to An All Star Tribute To Cher with “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” and to An All Star Tribute To Shania Twain with “Don’t Be Stupid,” both of which were released in 2005.
Her greatest hits compilation, The Very Best of Lisa Loeb, was released through Universal in January 2006 as well as a Japanese version of the album. Other international work includes Loeb’s guest performance on the song “Anti-Hero” for an all-female Japanese musical group Rins album Inland Sea. In 2006, Loeb contributed to the album A World of Happiness, designed to disseminate messages of kindness, compassion, tolerance, and self-reliance to children of all ages, performing as Lady Leonali the Ladybug singing “In the Details.” Loeb contributed vocals to New Found Glory's cover of "Stay," from their 2007 LP From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II, as well as performing the song live with the band. Though Reality Bites was the first, Loeb’s music has been featured in additional soundtracks. The popular single "How" was included on the soundtracks for films Twister and Jack Frost, and was heard in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Homecoming." “We Could Still Belong Together” earned a spot on the Legally Blonde soundtrack (2001), while “I Wish” can be heard on the soundtrack for Anywhere But Here (1999).
Cake and Pie, Loeb’s third album and debut for A&M/Interscope, was released in 2002. She co-produced the album and collaborated with an impressive cast, which included Glen Ballard, then boyfriend Dweezil Zappa, Randy Scruggs (Vince Gill, Sawyer Brown, Waylon Jennings), and Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, Indigo Girls). In mid-2002, Loeb inked a deal with Artemis, a new boutique label run by record company veteran-experts Danny Goldberg and Daniel Glass, after Interscope allowed her to buy the rights to her masters. Artemis had come to Loeb and Ron Stone, offering to re-release the record with more promotion. With new artwork, some songs added and some removed, Cake and Pie was re-launched as Hello Lisa, a play on Sanrio’s signature Hello Kitty, who appears on the album cover wearing Lisa Loeb's trademark glasses. Lisa released an EP with just the new songs on it, as well as an alternate version of the song "Underdog" for fans who'd already purchased the Cake and Pie CD. Lisa made a video for "Underdog" co-starring Hello Kitty playing guitar directed by Lisa and Dweezil. Loeb toured the world again, making special stops in Sanrio stores for in-store autographs while appearing with Hello Kitty at the Japanese MTV Music Awards.
In 2003, Loeb reunited with her college music partner, Elizabeth Mitchell on children’s CD and companion book Catch the Moon through Artemis Records. Videos from this album as well as the single “Jenny Jenkins” have been featured on the Noggin TV network for children, alongside those of Laurie Berkner and Dan Zanes, rockers who have also crossed over into the children's music field.
In 2004, Loeb signed to the more experienced and established independent label Zoe/Rounder Records, home of Grammy Award winners Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The Way It Really Is was released August 2004 as Loeb's fifth studio-recorded album.
The year 2008 proved a productive year for Loeb, as she released the long-awaited Purple Tape album remixed and remastered on a double CD, with an in-depth interview by Andy Denemark, highlighting the creative process for each song to accompany extensive liner notes and photos documenting Lisa’s early history in NYC through Lisa’s own Furious Rose Productions, sixteen years after her self-release of the cassette version in 1994.
Her most recent release was Camp Lisa, also released by Loeb’s own Furious Rose Productions with distribution through Redeye, and produced by Loeb with Michelle Lewis and Dan Petty. The disc includes a mix of 21 original and classic camp songs and some very special guest performers including Kay Hanley, Dave Gibbs, Nina Gordon, Jill Sobule, Lee Sklar, Maia Sharp and funnyman/banjo player Steve Martin. As Loeb spent many summers of her childhood at summer camp, Camp Lisa is largely inspired by her own cherished camp memories as well as '70s-style rock and pop. Camp Lisa has garnered a great deal of award recognition including NAPPA Honors, 2008 Parents' Choice and NPR's year-end Top 10 list of the best kids music for 2008. In conjunction with the release of Camp Lisa, Loeb launched her own non-profit organization, The Camp Lisa Foundation, which helps raise funds to send underprivileged kids to camp through its partnership with SCOPE (Summer Camp Opportunities Provide an Edge, Inc.), a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide children in need the edge to succeed in life through the summer camp experience. In 2009, The Camp Lisa Foundation will provide funding for several "camperships," enabling economically disadvantaged children to attend ACA accredited camps.
Loeb tours with and without her band, recently touring with Daru Oda and Adam Levy. Other band members include: Mark Spencer, Matt Beck, Ronny Crawford, Joe Quigley, Joe Travers, Mark Meadows, Michael Eisenstein, Dave Gibbs, and Leland Sklar..
Loeb was a judge for the 1st and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.
In November 2010, Loeb launched the Lisa Loeb Eyewear Collection, which features her eyewear designs.
On January 16, 2004, Loeb's reality show Dweezil & Lisa first aired on Food Network, in which she shared title billing with then-boyfriend, Dweezil Zappa. The series showed the two musicians touring the country together and sampling unique and diverse dishes. In the opening for each episode Loeb announced she was a vegetarian who enjoyed eating an occasional piece of bacon. In the fall and winter of 2005, Loeb taped a reality show, Number 1 Single, premiering in January 2006 on the E! Channel in New York City. The show focused on her quest for love, success, career, and family.
Loeb has made several guest appearances on television shows such as The Nanny in 1997, and Cupid, the following year. In September 1999, she made an appearance on the comedy show "MADtv," singing the theme song for a WB drama send-up called "Pretty White Kids with Problems." In 2007, Lisa appeared on an episode of Jack's Big Music Show singing the song "Jenny Jenkins." In 2008, she made a guest appearance on Gossip Girl, followed by a cameo on an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program—where the cast formed a mock band called the “Loeb Trotters.”.
In addition to television shows, Loeb has also appeared in the horror films House on Haunted Hill (1999) in a bit-part, Serial Killing 101 (2004), and Fright Night (2011). She has done voice work including the voice of Mary Jane Watson for the animated show Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, broadcast on MTV. Loeb also voiced the character of Lutina in the video game Grandia Xtreme and characters for The Rugrats Movie and Shorty McShorts' Shorts.
In 2008, Loeb was one of the contributors to Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's book Cherry Bomb; she gave advice on how to be the perfect hostess. In 2010, she launched her own branded line of eyewear.
Loeb married Roey Hershkovitz, the music coordinator for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, now Conan, on January 31, 2009. On September 2, 2009, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child. Loeb gave birth to a baby girl, Lyla Rose Loeb Hershkovitz, on November 29, 2009. Loeb identifies as Jewish.
In conjunction with Camp Lisa, she launched her own non-profit, The Camp Lisa Foundation, designed to help underprivileged kids attend summer camp through its partnership with SCOPE (Summer Camp Opportunities Provide an Edge, Inc.).
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