Felony (band)

Felony
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genres	New wave
Years active	1980-1991
Labels	Rock 'n Roll Records
Associated acts	The New Order
Members	Jeff Spry and Joe Spry

Felony is an American new wave and rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1980s by brothers Jeffrey Spirili and Joe Spirili. The brothers were also known as Jeff Spry and Joe Spry.

Before Felony, Jeffrey Spry had been the singer with Detroit Proto-Punk/Hard rock legends, Ron Asheton (of Iggy & The Stooges) and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson (of The MC5) in a short lived super-group (based in Los Angeles) that was called "The New Order" (preceding the English new wave group of the same name). Jeff was in the band in 1975 and recorded an album with them that was released in 1977.

After a period playing shows and making music business connections in the Los Angeles scene, Felony appeared in the horror b-movie Graduation Day (1981), playing their song "Gangsters of Rock." Soon after, they signed with producers/managers Don Rubin, formerly of pop group The Ivy Three, and Artie Kornfeld. Some live shows were mixed by sound engineer Steve Sands.

Felony went into the studio and emerged with single "The Fanatic," which became a hit on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM with help from program director Rick Carroll. The song reached the top 50 in the singles charts and topped the alternative and dance charts. It became a key track in the development of the Modern Rock radio format. "The Fanatic" was included in the influential 1983 Valley Girl soundtrack, which also featured Modern English's "I Melt With You". Felony also performed the track on American Bandstand. A video was made from "The Fanatic" "The Fanatic" video was shot in Hollywood, California in 1983 and aired on MTV. The Fanatic video includes a cameo of Jeffrey Spry with his first wife, SAG actress, Lucrecia Sarita Russo.

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