Wheatus

Wheatus
Brendan B. Brown lead vocalist of Wheatus
Background information
Origin	Northport, New York, United States
Genres	Rock, power pop, hard rock
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Sony BMG Music Entertainment Montauk Mantis
Members	Brendan B. Brown Matthew Milligan Mark Palmer Gabrielle Aimée Sterbenz Leo Freire Joey Slater
Past members	Former members

Wheatus is an American rock band from Northport, New York, formed in 1995. They are best known for their 2000 single "Teenage Dirtbag" which was featured in the movie Loser, the HBO miniseries Generation Kill and most recently as an acoustic opening for the anti-bully film Bully.

Wheatus was formed by Brendan B. Brown in 1995, on the lower east side of New York City. Brown began by writing a few songs, and subsequently enlisted the help of his brother Peter Brown on drums, Rich Liegey on bass and backing vocals and Philip A. Jimenez on various percussion instruments, keyboards, harmonica, providing samples and special effects. The band derives its name from the nickname "wedus" given to the Brown brothers by their father when they were children. They made regular appearances at a local venue called the Luna Lounge until 1999 when they hired New York entertainment attorney Ray Maiello. He helped the group and shopped their self-produced debut album to major record companies and they soon signed a record deal with Kevin Patrick at Columbia Records. Maiello was subsequently hired as the band's manager. Their self-titled debut album was released on August 15, 2000 and spawned the band's first and largest hit, "Teenage Dirtbag", a song which charted at No. 2 in the United Kingdom. Their second single, a cover of one of Erasure's signature songs – "A Little Respect", also reached very high chart positions, peaking at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The third single from the album, a double A-side of "Leroy" and "Wannabe Gangstar", didn't perform as well as expected, only reaching No. 23 in the UK Singles Chart. Another song from the album, "Punk Ass Bitch", was bought by the creators of Jackie Chan Adventures and reworked as "Chan's the Man", the end credits theme for the program's first season.