Otep was formed in the fall of 2000 in Los Angeles,California by Otep Shamaya and "Evil" J. McGuire. After performing area shows, the band was noticed by Sharon Osbourne who was impressed enough to offer Otep a spot for the Ozzfest 2001 tour. During this time, the band was unsigned, but had several showcases for labels lined up. Capitol Records was intrigued by Otep and asked them to perform another showcase and soon was signed with them. The band's first record for Capitol was an EP titled Jihad. Thenceforward Otep released two albums (2002's Sevas Tra and 2004's House of Secrets). The second album, House of Secrets was produced by Greg Wells in Los Angeles at Rocket Carousel Studios. Otep performed at Ozzfest again in 2002 and 2004. Another member who played as rhythm guitarist (Melissa DeGott) joined in the beginning of 2005 and quickly departed in late 2006, because they decided as a band she was too young to be touring.
In November 2006 the band began a North American tour to promote their forthcoming album The Ascension. As of May 2007, Otep announced their departure from Capitol Records Music Group. Otep Shamaya states, "We have reached an agreement with the incoming regime over at the newly formed Capitol Records Music Group and we are now, joyously, thankfully, free agents."[citation needed] Since then, the band supported the Static-X tour which ended June 13, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The track "March of the Martyrs" was released via Internet on the band's music player on their official MySpace page temporarily. The Ascension was released October 30, 2007. About a week before the release, samples of all the songs on The Ascension were put on otep.com for the fans. They were recently on the Balls, Volume, Strength tour with Hellyeah and Bloodsimple.[2] After the album release, the first video for the third album The Ascension "Ghostflowers", following "Ghostflowers" was Otep's cover of Nirvana's "Breed". Otep Shamaya has stated that the next music video would be the political anthem "Confrontation" and would be released early 2008. (MARCH)
February 2008--Otep has announced that the band will headline a tour "Circus of Democracy Tour" at the end of march and it was also announced that the 3rd Music video from the new album The Ascension would be released Friday February 29th,2008 on headbangers blog & it would be televised Saturday March 1st,2008 on MTV Headbangers Ball. The video is the political anthem "Confrontation".
In early May, Otep posted on her blog that on May 15, 2008, the video for "Crooked Spoons" would premier on Headbanger's Ball. It contains live footage from their concerts and clips of the film On the Doll.
On August 25, 2008, Otep performed at the 2008 Democratic National Convention held in Denver, CO after winning the MySpace Voter Registration Contest. They generated 532 new voter registrations in two days.
Sat May 02, 2009 7:15 am
