World Leader Pretend was a five-person rock band from New Orleans, featuring Keith Ferguson (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Parker Hutchinson (keyboards), Matt Martin (guitar), Arthur Mintz (drums), and Alex Smith (bass). The band formed in 2000, and their name came from the 5th track of the album Green by R.E.M..
Their first album, Fit For Faded was released in 2003 on Renaissance Records, a New Orleans label. In 2004, they were signed to Warner Bros. Records. An appearance at the first annual CMJ Cleveland and other North American tour dates coincided with the June 28, 2005 release of their major label debut, Punches.
The band broke up in early 2008, shortly after traveling to Seattle, Washington, to record their 2nd major release, due to "artistic differences" within the band.
Famous quotes containing the words world, leader and/or pretend:
“Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)
“The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“I do not pretend that language is science. It is ... an instrument for the attainment of science.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)