| Professor Murder | |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Origin: | New York City, New York, United States |
| Label: | Kanine Records, RCRD LBL |
| Website: | http://www.professormurder.com |
| Current Members: | Jesse Cohen Andy Craven Michael Bell-Smith Tony Blankets |
Professor Murder is a dance-punk quartet from New York City that mixes synthesizers and percussion-based compositions in a method that has drawn comparison to post-punk and new wave bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s. They released their critically hailed[1] debut EP, Professor Murder Rides the Subway, on Kanine Records in July 2006. Members of the band are Jesse Cohen (keyboards), Andy Craven (drums), Michael Bell-Smith (vocals, percussion, bass, keys), and Tony Blankets (bass, melodica). In 2009 Bell-Smith, Cohen and Blankets joined with Eric Emm of Tanlines to create a new band, Restless People.
Professor Murder was a character played by the British actor and model Sam Sarpong in two comedy sketches on HBO's "Mr. Show with Bob and David" in the 1990s. He was a rapper who was featured in a sketch about the East Coast ventriloquists' feud with the West Coast ventriloquists, which mirrored the same regional divide in the world of rap music. Professor Murder made a second appearance in another sketch as a ringer brought in by the rich kids from the fat camp when they wanted to win a rapping contest against a group of Buddhist monks. It has been said that this Mr. Show character's name inspired the band's name.
EPs
Singles