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2012-01-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

Biography, Lyrics, Chords and many others. About your favorite band you can find here.

2009-01-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

2009-01-11T23:39:00.000-08:00

2009-01-11T18:27:00.000-08:00

Blink 182 strikes back

2009-01-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

The members of punk pop act BLINK-182 have been brought back together by drummer TRAVIS BARKER's near-death plane crash in September (08).
Barker suffered second and third-degree burns in the tragedy, which left four people dead, and spent almost a month in hospital recovering from his injuries.
And now it looks as if the terrible accident has brought his feuding former bandmates Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge back together.
In a posting on his blog, Hoppus says, "We're just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking. It's a good thing."
But he insists it's too early to start talking about a possible reunion: "We haven't talked about it at all. Right now it's just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect and let the past be the past."

Blink 182

2009-01-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

Full name: Thomas Matthew DeLonge
Wife: Jennifer DeLonge (a.k.a. Jen Jenkins)
Children: 1 girl- Ava Elizabeth DeLonge (born on July 15th/2002)
Pets: German Shepherd named Grey
Current residence: Encinitas, California
Birthday: December 13th,1975
Past and Present Bands: Past-Blink 182, Box Car Racer Current- Angels and Airwaves.
Hometown: Poway, California
Fact about him: When he was 15 years old, he got suspended from school for getting drunk at a basketball game.

Full name: Markus Allen Hoppus
Wife: Skye Hoppus (a.k.a. Skye Everly)
Children: 1 boy- Jack Hoppus
Past and Present Bands: Past- Blink 182 Current- +44
Pets: 3 dogs- Atticus, Cheesburger, and Ahi
Current residence: Encinitas, California
Birthday: March 15th,1972
Fact about him: His role model is Homer Simpson

Full name: Travis Landon Barker
Ex-Wife: Shanna -Former Miss USA
Children: 1- boy Landon Barker
Past and Present Bands: Past- Blink 182 Current- +44
Current residence: San Diego, California
Birthday: November 14th,1975
Fact about him: He has a tattoo along his collar bone that reads- "Can I Sad"

In the life of every band, there comes a time to take stock; to reflect on goals set and goals achieved; to offer a silent prayer of thanksgiving for the many blessings so richly bestowed upon us.

For Blink-182, this is not the time.

In the past, Blink-182 won a Teen Choice Award, a Blockbuster Music Award, and appeared on the MTV Awards '00 where they performed "All The Small Things" and won Best Group Video. In Europe they received an MTV Europe Award for Best New Act. They performed on Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show (twice), appeared in American Pie and opened the Billboard Music Awards. The band also graced the covers of Rolling Stone, Alternative Press (twice), Teen People, Teen and CosmoGirl, just to name a few.

It's safe to say the blink-182 is now a worldwide phenomenon, with their records reaping platinum and their concert tours packing ‘em in all across Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Americas. And earlier this year, blink-182 ventured back to the studio with producer Jerry Finn to record their fourth studio album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (you should say the title out loud to fully appreciate the subtle, sophisticated humor).

By every indication, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket is turning out to be an evolutionary hybrid for blink-182, as hooky as 1999's multi-platinum Enema of the State, but with all the punk spirit of their MCA debut album Dude Ranch. "This is the hardest, fastest record that we've done," says blink's Tom DeLonge of the upcoming album. "It's way more punk-rock than our previous records, and we're excited about it." Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (release date 6/12/01) follows Enema of the State and last year's smash live album The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back).

The band's popularity has only increased since their formation in '93. They began building momentum with a string of popular 7"s, and in 1994 they released their first full-length album, Cheshire Cat, on Grilled Cheese (a division of Cargo Music). In 1996, they signed a joint-venture record deal with Cargo Music and MCA Records, with their first MCA release Dude Ranch (1997) setting the stage for their current success. By the end of 1998, they had emerged as one of the most popular pop-punk bands of the year – the album went platinum in the U.S. and the year-end Billboard Airplay Monitor Report (BDS) stats indicated that "Dammit (Growing Up)" from Dude Ranch earned top spins at many key radio stations.

Blink-182 took a break from the road after Christmas '98 to begin pre-production for Enema Of The State, recorded in the band's hometown of San Diego at Signature Sound. Handling production duties was Jerry Finn, whose previous credits include Green Day and Rancid. Enema Of The State shattered the standard set by Dude Ranch. World-wide sales are now over seven million copies, not to mention the fact that the CD perched high atop the upper-reaches of Billboard's Top 200 for over a year. The album's three singles, "What's My Age Again," "All The Small Things" and "Adam's Song" dominated MTV, alternative, rock and Top-40 radio.

Their summer tour, where The Mark, Tom & Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back) was recorded, sold a third of a million tickets. The aforementioned album was a 20-track collection of live versions of classic blink-182 hits produced by Jerry Finn, and also contained never-before-released songs, a new studio track, and all the hilarious potty-mouthed one liners a fan could want. In its limited release, The Mark, Tom & Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back) sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In other Blink-182 news, a massive U.S. summer 2001 tour is on the drawing boards, and a book about the band's early days, written by Hoppus' younger sister, Anne, now carries a title, Tales From Beneath Your Mom. It's scheduled to hit bookstores in mid-September.

Then there's the ever-expanding blink-182 mercantile empire, which stretches from pole to pole, from sea to shining sea. First there's their own blink182.com website for fans and curious onlookers. Travis's "Famous Stars and Straps" is a successful retailer and website for clothes, belts and accessories. Mark and Tom's "Loserkids.com" is an equally vibrant website for clothes, skates, music, movies. But despite these ancillary success stories, Mark, Tom and Travis never lose sight of what's most important for blink-182 and their worldwide legions of fans: music and tasteless comedy at every opportunity.

------------------
The days of Blink 182 are no more. Tom, Travis and Mark are in various different bands now, in different directions. But the music and the fun that Blink 182 created in our lives will live on.
Check out Blink 18 and +44's music to see what became of the Rock Trio in recent years.

Bon Jovi Biography

2009-01-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

Few bands embodied the era of pop-metal like Bon Jovi. By merging Def Leppard’s loud but tuneful metal with Bruce Springsteen’s working-class sensibilities, the New Jersey-based quintet developed an ingratiatingly melodic and professional variation of hard rock -- one that appealed as much to teenagers as to housewives. Bon Jovi skillfully employed professional songwriters to give their songs, especially their power ballads, an appropriately commercial sheen, inaugurating a trend that dominated mainstream hard rock and metal for the next decade. They also made simple performance videos that emphasized lead singer Jon Bon Jovi’s photogenic good looks, and these clips helped propel 1986’s Slippery When Wet and 1988’s New Jersey into multi-platinum status around the world. Both records were criticized for being more pop than metal, as well as being targeted toward teenyboppers, yet the group managed to subtly change its image in the early ’90s, moving away from metal and concentrating on straightforward arena rock and big ballads. The shift in style worked, and Bon Jovi were the only American pop-metal band of the ’80s to retain a sizable audience in the ’90s.

Jon Bongiovi spent most of his adolescence ditching school to play rock & roll, usually in local bands with his friend David Rashbaum. Bongiovi’s cousin Tony owned the famous New York recording studio the Power Station, which was where Jon hung out. He was hired as a janitor, and soon he was recording demos at the Power Station with several famous musicians, including members of the E Street Band and Aldo Nova. One of these demos, "Runaway," became a hit on local New Jersey radio, and Bongiovi formed Bon Jovi to support the song, recruiting not only Rashbaum, but also guitarist Dave Sabo, bassist Alec John Such, and drummer Tico Torres. Soon, Bon Jovi was the subject of a major-label bidding war, and the group -- or, according to some reports, just Bongiovi -- signed to Polygram/Mercury in 1983. Upon signing, Jon changed his last name to Bon Jovi in order to de-emphasize his ethnic background, and Rashbaum adopted his middle name, Bryan, as his last name. Before the group entered the studio, Bon Jovi replaced Sabo with Richie Sambora.

Bon Jovi’s eponymous debut album was released in 1984, and "Runaway" became a Top 40 hit. Following its success, Tony Bongiovi sued the band, claiming he developed their successful sound; the group settled out of court. The following year, 7800 Fahrenheit was released and went gold. Despite the band’s respectable success, Bon Jovi weren’t becoming the superstars they had hoped, and they changed their approach for their next album, Slippery When Wet. Hiring professional songwriter Desmond Child as a collaborator, the group wrote 30 songs and auditioned them for local New Jersey and New York teenagers, basing the album’s running order on their opinions. After ditching the original cover of a busty woman in a wet T-shirt for the title traced in water on a garbage bag, Slippery When Wet was released in 1986. Supported by several appealing, straightforward videos that showcased the photogenic Jon, the album eventually sold nine million copies in the U.S. alone, helping usher in the era of pop-metal. Two songs, "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin’ on a Prayer," reached number one, while "Wanted Dead or Alive" reached the Top Ten, and Bon Jovi were established as superstars.

Bon Jovi replicated the Slippery When Wet formula for 1988’s New Jersey, which shot to number one upon its release. New Jersey was only slightly less successful than its predecessor, selling five million copies and generating two number one singles, "Bad Medicine" and "I’ll Be There for You," as well as the Top Ten hits "Born to Be My Baby," "Lay Your Hands on Me," and "Living in Sin." In 1989, the band supported Cher, who was then dating Sambora, on her Heart of Stone album, which was recorded while the group was in the midst of an 18-month international tour. Following the completion of the tour, the band went on hiatus. During their time off, Jon Bon Jovi wrote the soundtrack for Young Guns II, which was released in 1990 as the Blaze of Glory album. The record produced two hit singles in the number one title track and the number 12 "Miracle," as well as earning Grammy and Oscar nominations.

The following year, Bon Jovi reunited to record their fifth album, Keep the Faith, which was released in the fall of 1992. While the album didn’t match the blockbuster status of its predecessors, largely because musical tastes had shifted in the four years between New Jersey and Keep the Faith, it was nevertheless a big hit, and its more straightforward, anthemic sound produced the hit single "Bed of Roses." A hits collection, Cross Road, followed in 1994, and in the fall of 1995, they released These Days, which proved to be a bigger success in Europe than America. After appearing in the 1996 film Moonlight and Valentino, Jon Bon Jovi released his first official solo album in the summer of 1997.

Three years later, Bon Jovi regrouped and released Crush. "It’s My Life" and "Thank You for Loving Me" were a chart hits, and Bon Jovi’s star power soared beyond their wildest dreams. Crush eventually went double platinum in the U.S. and sold eight million copies worldwide, but Bon Jovi stayed focus. Within a year they returned with an eighth studio effort, Bounce, which appeared in fall 2002. Tours across the globe as well as dates with the Goo Goo Dolls fared well. In 2003 Bon Jovi re-recorded many of their most well-known songs for the release This Left Feels Right and followed it in 2004 with a DVD companion of the same title. The ambitious 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong four-CD/one-DVD box set of rarities arrived later that November, followed by the all-new Have a Nice Day and a greatest-hits anthology called Cross Road in 2005. The band spent the following year in the studio, putting the finishing touches on a collection of pop-infused heartland country anthems. The resulting Lost Highway, which featured duets with LeAnn Rimes and Big & Rich, arrived in the summer of 2007 and grabbed the band a healthy, new country music fan base in the process. Lost Highway’s cross-genre formula proved to be quite potent indeed, securing the band its third number one album in the U.S., as well as topping the charts in Japan, Australia, Europe, and Canada. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

AXL Roses Biography

2009-01-01T23:43:00.000-08:00

Depending who you ask, Guns N’ Roses vocalist Axl Rose is either considered a rock music icon who is worshipped by millions as an almost Christ-like figure, or hated as a homophobic, misogynistic, and woefully self-indulgent "rock star" (in his defense, Rose has denied that he’s a homophobe or a misogynist), as well as thought of as a tyrant by his ex-bandmates. William Bruce Rose was born on February 6, 1962, in Lafayette, IN, and suffered sexual abuse from his biological father and physical abuse from his eventual stepfather at an early age (Rose changed his name to William Bailey after his mother remarried). Rose was also an outcast in school, where he was picked on for being "different," but found solace in singing with his school and church vocal choir and eventually rock music. His rough teenage years were eased a bit when he befriended a Keith Richards-worshipping chap by the name of Jeff Isbell, who shared Rose’s interest in music. Isbell left Indiana for the streets of Los Angeles in the early ’80s with hopes of forming a rock band, and Rose followed shortly thereafter, changing his name to W. Axl Rose (while Isbell soon adopted the name Izzy Stradlin).

The L.A. rock music scene at the time was split down the center between rough-and-ready punk rock and hair spray-soaked glam rock/heavy metal, and Rose wanted to form an outfit that borrowed equally from each genre. Stradlin and Rose plowed through several outfits that went nowhere (Hollywood Rose being one) before hooking up with fellow streetwise rockers Slash (guitar, real name Saul Hudson), Duff McKagan (bass), and Steven Adler (drums). After slugging it out on the Sunset Strip and honing their act, the newly christened Guns N’ Roses signed a recording contract with Geffen Records after issuing an independent live EP (1986’s Live Like a Suicide). Their full-length debut, Appetite for Destruction, was released a year later, and at first the public didn’t know what to make of the album or the band. Slowly but surely, rock’s fickle audience came around, and by summer 1988, Guns N’ Roses was fast becoming one of the world’s top rock bands (on the strength of such hit singles/MTV-saturated videos as "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child O’ Mine," and "Paradise City").

But with fame came death-defying drug and alcohol abuse among all five bandmembers (as well as last-minute tour/concert cancellations) -- it appeared as though the more successful they became, the more problems arose. To fill the void for a new GNR album, Geffen put out the eight-track stopgap EP G N’ R Lies in late 1988, amid widespread rumors of an impending band breakup. The album was another big seller (on the strength of the hit acoustic ballad "Patience"), but Axl Rose came under immense fire and criticism for the song "One in a Million," in which Rose had derogatory comments for gays, blacks, and immigrants. Undeterred, Rose and co. regrouped and worked on their much-anticipated follow-up to Appetite, which seemed to always miss its numerous projected release dates. Adler was sacked during the recording, while 1991 finally saw the release of the two-part sophomore effort Use Your Illusion. Both discs were massive hits, but the band appeared to have reinvented itself as a bombastic and indulgent rock act, often recalling the music that their punk rock idols attempted to destroy in the mid-’70s. A mammoth two-year tour followed (with Stradlin leaving the band mid-tour) in which GNR found themselves losing their validity as a streetwise rock act in the face of the stripped-down grunge movement (which included such acts as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, et al.).

It only made Rose seem more out of touch from reality when he would hold the band up from going on-stage, resulting in ridiculous multi-hour delays. His public image took a few more shots when several concerts were marred by audience riots caused by Rose’s notorious hijinks and when he tried to pick a fight with Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain backstage at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards for disparaging (yet quite on the mark) remarks Cobain made about Rose in the press. When the tour finally ground to a halt in 1993, GNR issued a lukewarmly received collection of covers, The Spaghetti Incident?, and took a well-deserved rest. But after numerous aborted writing/recording sessions for their third proper studio album, the remaining other two original members (Slash and McKagan) either quit the band or were dismissed by Rose. Rose had been granted full ownership of the name Guns N’ Roses, so he slowly formed a whole new band around himself.

With rumors running rampant that he had become a bloated, bald, and drug-addled hermit (due to the fact that he did not grant a single interview between 1994-1999, staying completely out of the spotlight), Rose continued to work on GNR’s next release himself. 1999 saw GNR’s first new song released in nearly eight years, the industrial rocker "Oh My God" from the End of Days soundtrack, as well as a live compilation of old-school GNR tracks, Live Era: ’87-’93, yet both came and went without much fanfare. But all that changed when Rose and his new cohorts (which included ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, mask-wearing solo guitarist Buckethead, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, ex-Primus drummer Brian Mantia, plus longtime GNR keyboardist Dizzy Reed) played their first live shows together in early 2001, receiving unanimously favorable reviews. With a world tour booked and album nearing completion (reportedly to be titled Chinese Democracy), the GNR/Axl Rose hype machine appeared to be building up to a feverish pitch once again. Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Velvet Revolver Biography

2009-01-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

Velvet Revolver is everything the band’s name suggests and much more. This is modern rock with a sense of danger and beauty that’s been missing for far too long. Their suitably explosive yet gorgeous debut effort, "Contraband", marks the spot for a new beginning from a band of rock & roll brothers united by some legendary pasts and a suddenly brighter future.

"We’re all looking for a rebirth here," explains the group’s lead singer Scott Weiland. "We’re looking to get back that same feeling we had when we all first started making music — the sense of doing it for the pure joy of making music. Along the way the whole idea that got us into this had been raped and sodomized. We were all in mourning of that and wondering if we could somehow get it back. As it turns out, the only way we could get it all back was to start it all new. Now we have that opportunity and it’s fucking amazing. This music is just vicious, very aggressive and it forces you to lace your boots up and sort of get ready for the fight."

The idea behind Velvet Revolver remains a powerfully simple one. "There is no real concept to me," explains guitarist Slash. "We set out to make music we enjoy and can feel proud of playing — music that people we like will want to listen to. As soon as you start thinking beyond that — about wanting to keep up with the Joneses or about fitting in with somebody else’s format — that’s when you lose the map. So we’ve just done what we do, and tried to have a cool time doing it."

Everything you’ve heard about Velvet Revolver is true. This is the band that brings together three former members of one of rock’s greatest groups Guns N’ Roses — Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum — together with one of rock’s most charismatic frontmen Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, and guitarist Dave Kushner, ex-Wasted Youth, Electric Love Hogs and Dave Navarro’s [Jane’s Addiction] band, among others.

While Velvet Revolver inevitably offers a few echoes of its members’ illustrious pasts, their sound is defiantly forward-looking and truly fresh in all senses of that word. "Our music is very aggressive," says Duff. "There’s always that ’Fuck you’ element to it. Really that’s all we know how to do. We can’t play nice or play radio. Slash, Matt and I were always that way in Guns N’ Roses, and Scott and Dave are very like-minded. To me, this is the first dangerous band that’s come around in a while — truly dangerous. People are going to say, ’Oh a supergroup. These guys have everything.’ And I can understand that, but we’re not coming at this that way. We really hope to bring some chaos back into the whole world of rock."

"This is the real deal," says Matt Sorum. "This is all of us firing on all cylinders."

Slash, McKagan and Sorum came together to play a benefit/tribute for their friend and fellow musician Randy Castillo in 2002. The buzz of playing together again got the three thinking. "There was still something very powerful and intense between us," says Slash.

"That chemistry never went away," says McKagan.

Sensing enough time had lapsed since their less-than-pleasant departures from Guns N’ Roses, the trio linked with Kushner — a high school friend of Slash’s who had been playing with Duff in recent years. "He’s our secret weapon," says Duff. "He plays amazing textures and he can handle himself with Slash." After some false starts with other musicians, the four decided to try an unusually open call for a new frontperson.

Documented by VH1 cameras for an upcoming special, this process turned out to be long and sometimes painful. "We heard so many different singers, and every singer lent itself to a different vibe," Sorum recalls. Unfortunately, the vibes were usually not too good. "As soon as we heard the vocals that people were sending in, we knew we were in trouble," Sorum remembers. "And we knew we just couldn’t put out some shabby rock tribute. It had to be something special."

"There were so many fucking variations on the theme," recalls Slash. "And all of them wrong."

As Dave Kushner remembers, "The experience really was brutal. There was nothing fun about it except for the fact that I got to go and play with these guys five days a week. It was just really disheartening and frustrating at times. But in the end because of all the time we spent looking, we went a lot of different places musically. It seemed like we were killing time, but we were really building the foundation."

Fortunately, as the Great Lead Singer search was going on, Duff was spending time socially with Weiland, then still with Stone Temple Pilots.

"I was sort of at the end of my rope, mentally and emotionally with STP at the time, though we’ve actually sort of made up since our last explosion," Weiland explains. "Duff told me he’d gotten together with Slash and Matt and that Dave Kushner was also playing. Now I’ve known Dave for years since he was in Electric Love Hogs who I use to play on bills with when STP was known as Might Joe Young. And I was a huge Guns N’ Roses fan. ’Appetite For Destruction’ had the same impact on me as ’Never Mind The Bollocks’ by the Sex Pistols, Nirvana’s ’Nevermind’ and Jane’s Addiction’s ’Nothing’s Shocking’. ’Appetite…’ was one of those records that made me believe, that became my bible and taught me everything."

For Weiland, the idea of joining forces with this foursome proved enticing. Then when Slash dropped off a CD of some of the music the guys had been recording, Weiland was impressed. "There were like fifteen songs out of the sixty that I could really wrap my head around," Scott recalls. "I thought if we went in that direction, we could turn into a five-headed beast which would be completely lethal and indestructible."

With Weiland, the project became a living, breathing band. "This guy has lived," says Matt. "Because of where we’ve been as musicians — and the kind of frontman we were next to for all those years — it is pretty tough for any guy to step up immediately and be able to stand next to a guy like Slash or Duff. Those guys are rock stars in their own right. To front this band, we needed someone who was above and beyond, and we got one."

"I was beginning to think there were no more great rock frontman," says McKagan.

Quickly the five got down to work. "We recorded the song for ’The Hulk’ (’Set Me Free’), but the only way to really see if you can be a band is to do a gig," says Scott. "So we did a gig at the El Rey [in Los Angeles] in June and that answered every question. It was worth more than any time in the studio or hanging out. This was undeniable and the most sonically violent thing I’ve ever been a part of. Singing ’It’s So Easy’ [from ’Appetite For Destruction’] with those guys at the El Rey was fuckin’ amazing. When I wrote ’Sex Type Thing’ [from STP’s debut album], it was sort of inspired by that low vocal of ’It’s So Easy’."

For Slash, "We were like a bunch of kids who just learned how to play the same chord together. That’s what it’s been like every time we’ve done something together. We’re thrilled, like ’Hey, we wrote a song!’ ’Hey, we played a gig!’ Maybe that’s why this has worked — because we’re actually the opposite of jaded."

Yet for all the good will, launching Velvet Revolver hasn’t always been easy, especially with the group’s frontman publicly going through some personal turmoil of late. "This has been a pretty rough year for me," Scott admits. "The whole divorce thing really pulled me through a keyhole emotionally so I fell backwards on a narcotic slide and had to pay the price. But these guys were there to catch my fall. This has been like a gang. And it helps that they’ve all been through it themselves a million times so there’s no judgment there. They’ve all kicked dope so it’s not like I’m the lone junkie in the band or I’m the only one who knows what it’s like to kick a three-gram-a-day heroin habit. Through all the difficulties I’ve been through, they’ve all been there. That’s more than I could ever ask for — more than I’ve ever experienced before."

"We went through a lot of stuff with Scott," Duff explains. "We got him to come up to the mountains, to Washington State, and he was learning martial arts and learning how to live a different way. Whatever happens, he has some more tools that he didn’t have before."

"I feel like Scott is still struggling in certain areas, but that this is all meant to be," says Matt. "Down the line our hopes are that with this strong a positive influence — and his knowing where we’ve all been with the rock and roll indulgence — we will pull through this together."

Early in its evolution, the group released the song "Set Me Free" on "The Hulk" soundtrack and recorded a cover of Pink Floyd’s "Money" for another movie, "The Italian Job". When it came time to sign a deal and record their first album, the band chose RCA in part because of the interest of Chairman Clive Davis. "Clive actually flew out here and courted us, and he watched us rehearse along with his little posse," Slash remembers. "It was really flattering because he’s such an icon and he’s been doing it for so long and can really recognize something."

That decision made, it was time for Velvet Revolver to take aim and make their first album.

"Contraband" is a rock & roll song cycle with an eclectic streak and a sonic nerviness. It’s a rock-hard headphones classic for a new generation, reflecting the players’ influences from The Beatles to The Refused, and for obvious reasons a little Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots too.

After sampling a number of producers, Velvet Revolver opted to go with Josh Abraham to co-produce the album with them. "Josh was very much for us a fresh face," says Matt. "We went out and we tried other producers and we tried the best of the old school, but we needed to go in a different direction. We needed a young, fresh collaborator with a modern element — whatever the fuck that is. We wanted to compete and we wanted to be represented now."

"Who you work with is important, and Josh and the people we worked with on this album made things feel effortless," says Slash. "They made it feel like us."

"If we sounded slick, we’re going to be some over-thirtysomething, over-produced super rock band," says Duff. "But this is just a rock band and the album had to growl just like we do when we play together live."

The music came into sharp focus when Weiland added his deeply felt, deeply personal lyrics to the mix. "In a nutshell, this whole album for me is pretty much about the poisonous, toxic relationship that I had been in and the catastrophic effects my break-up and subsequent divorce has had on me," Scott explains. "It’s complete honesty so if people relate, great. If not, they can fuck themselves. Each song is about where I was at in the situation at that given day. As you can tell, some days I was dealing with it better than others. This is the most effort I’ve ever put into anything. I put as much effort into the first STP album, but now I know so much more."

With "Contraband" completed in the waning days of 2003, Velvet Revolver now looks forward to the album’s spring 2004 release and hitting the road hard. "We can’t wait," says Slash. "I’m just looking forward to fulfilling a touring thing that I never got to really finish with Guns N’ Roses. That’s what I love, but we never got to do a lot of things for reasons that still don’t make sense to me. I just want to play."

"We’ll go down in the gutter and play dirtbag clubs and we’ll play big fucking stadiums," says Matt. "We don’t give a fuck. And that’s the way we’ve always been. We’re not precious."

But ultimately, Velvet Revolver isn’t about firing at the past. It’s about what these five men can do together in the future. "You know all the possibilities are there," says Slash. "And we don’t want to miss them this time."

The Ramones Biography

2009-01-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

FORMED: 1974, New York, NY

DISBANDED: 1996

Ramones is group from Forest Hills, New York. They started to play as trio in March 1974. Ritchie was replaced soon by Dee Dee Joey was at first drummer, but four months later manager Tommy become a drummer and let Joey sing. All Ramones take Ramone for surname. These original members were singer: Joey Ramone , lead guitar:Johnny Ramone, Basist: Dee Dee Ramone and drummer: Tommy Ramone. They got their first attention on the New York rockscene in August 1974. They got rousing approval from audiences in CBGB in the Manhattan Bowery district. Ramones played many times in CBGB and too all around N.Y.

Sire Records signed them in late 1975. Their first TV appearance was in Radio City Studios in N.Y 1975 and their debut LP, Ramones, came out in early 1976. This music was really fresh and vibrant. Ramones was invited punk. Their concerts included a summer visit to London. They saw there Damned and Clash in fourth of july. Clash was began in that day and Damned before in that week. Sex Pistols had started before, but they took the music be based on Ramones sound.

慉ll the better-known punk groups that followed - The Sex Pistols, The Clash, whoever - they would be the first ones to say that without The Ramones the whole punk movement never would have happened,?has commented Spin magazine editor-in-chief Alan Light.

Second album Leave Home released early in 1977. They came after this for example, to my homecounry Finland in May. They played in Helsinki and Tampere. From Finland they went to England. They released Rocket To Russia in late 1977. Tommy left from the band in May 78 but remains producer. Marc Bell from Richard’s Hells Voivods replaced Tommy. Road To Ruin released in 78. They recorded legendary live album It’s Alive at London’s Rainbow Theatre at new year’s eve 31.12.77.

They featured in Rock’N’Roll Highschool-film. End Of The Century in 1980. It recorded in 5 different studios. This diverged from the group 70’ releases. 1981 they released Pleasent Dreams it was return to basics. Subterranean Jungle 1983 received strong support from critics. Several of whom compared it favourably with the best of group early work. Joey and Johnny were health problems and Marky leaves the group and is replaced by Richard Beau ex-Velveteen. They went to do complete Too Tough To Die 1984.

Animal Boy 1986, song-Bonzo Goes To Bitburg is a reference to a controversial visit by President Ronald Reagan to a nazi war grave. Halfway To Sanity released 1987. Collection album Ramonesmania released 1988, in this album were 30 song and something of each before released albums. By then Richie departed and Marky came back to drums. Brain Drain released 1989 and Pet Sematary had title track for Stephen King Film. Dee Dee leaves group to become rap performer Dee Dee King. His replacement had young Christopher Ward. Ramones is his first big band.

Sire released All The Stuff (And More) Vol.1 which compilated albums Ramones and Leave Home with 2 demo tracks and 1 other. These 3 tracks are previously unreleased tracks. All The Stuff (And More) Vol.2 compilated Rocket To Russia and Road To Ruin with 3 previously unreleased track. Loco Live is second live album from Ramones. It was recorded in Barcelona. 1992 released Mondo Bizarro contain Doors-cover Take It As It Comes. Ramones appears too in cartoon-program The Simpsons. They done more cover tracks and finally the whole albun Acid Eaters. Pete Townshend, Sebastian Bach and Traci Lords appears in this album. Album named Adios Amigos came out in summer 1995. That album was really strong performance from the Ramones and latest Studio Album. Year 1996 was very busy and they got much famous and they released Greatest Hits Live, which featured too studio tracks R.A.M.O.N.E.S and Any Way You Want It.

Last gig was in Los Angeles, The Palace, 6.8.96. Later now Marky has new bands called Marky Ramone And Intruders and Marky Ramone Group, CJ had Los Gusanos (split-up 2000), after CJ started Warm Jets. Also guys played on Remains/Ramainz. At first line-up was Dee Dee Ramone, CJ Ramone, Marky Ramone and Dee Dee’s new wife Barbara Zambini. Dee Dee has released many solo albums and also Joey planned to release album, but then he passed away and ...

It happened April 15th, 2001. Joey Ramone passed away afternoon 2.40PM in a hospital in New York City where he was many weeks being treated for cancer. Arturo Vega wrote to me that Joey’s loving family was there at his bedside. On his last moments Joey listened U2-song: In A Little While.

The Ramones were later hailed as 慣he Beatles of punk rock?for defining punk before punk took off. Ramones is in Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. 2002 was for Ramones first year of eligibility. The 17th annual Rock And Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City on March 18, 2002.

In 2002 Deedee Ramone died and The bassist for the Ramones was soon replaced by Edgar Ramone , one of the best bass players in the world, know for his beats and bass slaps , marky and Johnny agreed to let him Join with his "favorite band in the world" as he said in the interview with carson Daily. Even though he hated the idea that DeeDee was going to be replaced .. playing The Ramones would be such an honor. You can hear hi with bass on the New Ramones tribute CD with awesome Rock stars playing Ramones songs.

"Deedee will always live. And he can never be replaced. NEVER!"

Edagr said

SlipKnot Biography

2009-01-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

lipknot’s mix of grinding, post-Korn alternative metal, Marilyn Manson-esque neo-shock rock, and rap-metal helped make them one of the most popular bands in the so-called nu-metal explosion of the late ’90s. But even more helpful was their theatrical, attention-grabbing (some critics said ridiculous) image: the band always performed in identical industrial jump suits and homemade Halloween masks, and added to its mysterious anonymity by adopting the numbers zero through eight as stage aliases. Add to that a lyrical preoccupation with darkness and nihilism, and an affectionately insulting name for their fans ("Maggots"), and Slipknot’s blueprint for nu-metal success was set.

Slipknot were formed in late 1995 in the unlikely locale of Des Moines, IA; after some early personnel shifts, the nine-piece lineup settled around (in order from number zero to number eight): DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Grey, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler/programmer Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan, guitarist Mick Thompson, and lead vocalist Corey Taylor. The music scene in Des Moines wasn’t much to speak of, and the band’s big-time ambition was usually met with disbelief and ridicule, which provided the initial spark for its mostly anonymous stage visuals. On Halloween 1996, Slipknot self-released an album called Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., which began to build a buzz around the group once it found its way to several labels. It was picked up for distribution by the Nebraska-based -ismist label, and also caught the attention of Roadrunner Records, which signed Slipknot in 1997. Working with producer Ross Robinson, Slipknot recorded their official, self-titled debut album, which was released in 1999. They gradually built an audience through near-constant touring, working their way up to the summer Ozzfest package tour, which really expanded their audience. Their live shows were a much-discussed hit with metal fans, and the band performed with such energy that Crahan gashed his head open on his own drum kit twice that summer, requiring stitches both times. The tracks "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out" got the band some airplay, but most of the buzz came from touring and word of mouth. Finally, in the spring of 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; the first such album in Roadrunner’s history.

The anticipation for Slipknot’s follow-up was intense, and many industry observers predicted that it would debut at number one; however, faced with some stiff competition that week, the band’s sophomore effort, Iowa, bowed at number three upon its release in 2001. More heavy touring followed, including another, more prominent slot on that summer’s Ozzfest. After a long spell on the road, Slipknot took a break while the members worked on side projects. The band set up its own label, Maggot Recordings, and signed a band called Downthesun, whose lead singer had served as Crahan’s drum technician. Wilson, meanwhile, began DJing solo under the name DJ Starscream, and Root and Thompson both worked on solo material. Drummer Jordison worked with a side group called the Rejects, where he’d actually served for quite some time as guitarist. Taylor, meanwhile, started a side band called Superego, and also contributed a solo song, "Bother," to the soundtrack of the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man. That May, the band got some amusing press when some of its fans discovered the website of a British crocheting group also called "Slipknot," and flooded the members’ in-boxes with excessively rude e-mails. Guitarist Joey Jordison and Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen teamed that summer for the Murderdolls project, while Taylor reformed his old band Stone Sour and released an album. By the winter, Slipknot had still not reunited and Taylor wrote a commentary on the band’s website stating that they had not spoken in months, and that they’d rather break up than become "the next Gwar". The statement sparked a quickly resolved minifeud between Taylor and Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus. but it also sent many of the Maggots into a tailspin. By early 2003, Taylor had retracted his comments, and announced plans for a new Slipknot album. By August, the entire squad had decamped Iowa for LA, where they began work on the new record with famously bearded producer Rick Rubin. "Pulse of the Maggots" appeared in early 2004 as an exclusive download; it was followed by a full track listing for Vol. 3: [The Subliminal Verses], which was slated for a May release. Slipknot then embarked on a brief tour as a warm-up for their dates headlining Ozzfest that summer. The group also debuted a fully-redesigned third generation of their famous masks. On May 25th, the Subliminal Verses finally dropped, to the usual clamor of great fanfare and furious anger. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Skid Row Biography

2009-01-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

Porter Wagoner, the Thin Man from the West Plains, is a case of an artist often ahead of his time who has always appeared hopelessly behind the times. He’s among the most immediately recognizable figures in country music, largely due to his exploitation of TV -- and flashy costumes -- a good 20 years before the video boom. And while he’s forever perceived as the man who tried to hold Dolly Parton back from pop success, he was also responsible, in many ways, for putting her in a career position where the issue could even arise. As for his music, since signing with RCA in 1952 he has produced a wealth of superb hard country, and just as much of the most wretchedly oversentimentalized tripe you’ll ever want to hear. The latter, of course, is half the reason he’s loved.

Wagoner was born in West Plains, MO. As he grew up, he fell in love with the country music he heard over the radio, teaching himself guitar so he could sing and play along with them. When he was a teenager, he landed a job at a local market, where he would frequently sing when business was slow. The owner believed that Porter’s singing was actually helping the store’s reputation, so he arranged to sponsor a local radio show that would feature the fledgling vocalist. Throughout the late ’40s, Wagoner was singing on the local West Plains radio station. Eventually, a Springfield radio station called KWTO offered Porter a show in 1951. Around the same time, Red Foley was beginning his Ozark Jamboree program, which was based in Springfield and broadcast both on KWTO and national television. Foley brought Wagoner onto his show, which helped the young vocalist land a record contract with RCA Records. In 1954, his ninth single, "Company’s Comin’," hit the Top Ten. It was followed in the spring of 1955 with "A Satisfied Mind," which stayed at number four for four weeks. At the end of the year he released "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Tomorrow You’ll Cry)," which climbed to number three in early 1956. In 1957, he joined the Grand Ole Opry and moved to Nashville, where he formed his backing band, the Wagonmasters.

For the rest of the ’50s, Porter continued to record, but he never broke the Top Ten again. It would take another television show for him to return to the top of the charts. In 1961, he began hosting his own television show, which was syndicated out of Nashville. It was the most popular country show of the ’60s, growing from 18 stations in 1961 to over a hundred stations in the early ’70s. Wagoner often sang with Norma Jean, a new female singer he introduced to the country audience, on these programs. The look of Porter’s television show defined country music for much of America’s general public during the ’60s, although his music rarely departed from traditional country. In 1967, Norma Jean was fired from the show and replaced by Dolly Parton, who was then an unknown singer. Not only did exposure on Wagoner’s program kick-start Parton’s career, it provided a boost for Porter’s as well. Parton was enormously popular on the show, and their first joint single, "The Last Thing on My Mind," rocketed to number seven at the beginning of 1968. The song launched a string of Top Ten hits that ran more or less uninterrupted until 1975, when the duo stopped working together. In 1968, the Country Music Assocaition named the duo the Vocal Group of the Year; the CMA would award them Vocal Duo of the Year in 1970 and 1971, as well.

Although the duo of Wagoner and Parton was successful, it wasn’t stress-free. Porter continued to have solo hits during the late ’60s and early ’70s, though none of them was as big as his songs with Parton. Furthermore, he resented her attempts at a solo career; on her part, she felt musically restrained by him. The tensions culminated in late 1974, when she parted ways with Wagoner. RCA issued two singles in 1975 and 1976, and both of the songs -- "Say Forever You’ll Be Mine" and "Is Forever Longer Than Always" -- hit the Top Ten. The pair would continue to duet sporadically over the next decade, highlighted by the number two hit "Making Plans" from 1980. After Parton and Wagoner separated in 1975, Porter continued to film his TV show and to chart singles, but all of his hits were minor. In 1976, he retired from touring, choosing to concentrate on producing his own studio, Fireside. Wagoner sued Parton in 1979 over various contractual problems; the suit was settled out of court the following year. For the first few years of the ’80s, Porter had several minor hits, but he stopped recording in 1983.

In 1981, Wagoner and RCA Victor parted ways after nearly 30 years, and his television show went off the air. He mounted a minor comeback in 1982, appearing in the Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man and recording an album, Viva Porter Wagoner, for Eastwood’s label imprint at Warner Bros. Records, Viva, that made the country charts and produced a couple of minor country singles chart entries. After that, he only made occasional recordings for small labels. He toured with the Right Combination, an all-girl band, for several years. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, he became increasingly active on The Nashville Network, to the point that Opryland named him its "Goodwill Ambassador" and he was a regular host of the Grand Ole Opry radio and television program . In July 2000, he released his first new album in many years, The Best I’ve Ever Been. In 2007, as Wagoner turned 80 and some 55 years after his first recording, the Marty Stuart-produced Wagonmaster was released on Anti Records. ~ Dan Cooper & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Jet Biography (1)

2009-01-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

The Australian garage rock band Jet is comprised of Cameron Muncey (guitar/vocals), brothers Chris Cester (drums) and Nic Cester (guitar/vocals), and Mark Wilson (bass). Hailing from Melbourne and with dreams of making it big, the foursome formed just as the new millennium was beginning. They quickly self-released the Dirty Sweet EP in 2002. The vinyl-only album, which was limited to 1,000 pressings, was an instant hit down under. Once they pressed 1,000 more, Jet was being touted in the U.K. An American deal with Elektra surfaced in early 2003 and the Dirty Sweet EP was released domestically in May. An opening slot for the Rolling Stones in Jet’s homeland soon followed. The band’s proper studio full-length, Get Born, appeared in November.

"Are You Gona Be My Girl?" became a radio favorite worldwide, pushing sales for Get Born near the four million mark. Jet also received seven ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) nominations, and won six of those including single and album of the year. European dates with Oasis followed in summer 2005; Shine On, the band’s second effort produced by Dave Sardy, arrived in fall 2006. MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide

Gorillaz Biography

2009-01-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

The story of Gorillaz is a characteristally messy one. Saturday Boy Stu-Pot, a keyboard obsessive and nice kid dullard, is the star employee at Uncle Norm’s Organ Emporium, on course to make regional manager. But then comes a Saturday to end all weeks (just like a Sunday, but with shopping).

Murdoc, with his nasty bad boy crew, ramraids the shop in a tatty Vauxhall Astra. His plan: to seize the synths and form a chart topping band with the booty. He drives... SMASH!... through the shop window and... SMASH!... into Stu-Pot’s head, fracturing his eyeball. Result: 30,000 hours of community service for Murdoc, plus 10 hours every week of caring for the vegetabilised Stu-Pot.

Soon, Murdoc’s rotten driving skills again force life to take a different turn. While attempting a 360 doughnut spin in Nottingham’s Tesco carpark, he catapults Stu-Pot through the windscreen and into a kerb. Stu-Pot’s other eye is fractured, his mind is revived and he stands a young, black eyed god, with hedgehog hair and a vacant stare. Not only that, but his synth playing takes a serious turn for the weird.

Perfect pop material. Stu-Pot is renamed 2D (because he’s got two dents in his head). Now Murdoc needs a drummer.

Rewind a few years. In New York State, Russel, a middle-class kid, is forced out of his posh private school due to his being possessed by a demon. He lies in a coma for four years, until an elaborate exorcism sets him free. Russel joins Brooklyn High, where he falls in with a group of talented street musicians, rappers and DJs. Hip-Hop saves his soul. For a time. A random drive-by shooting kills all of his friends and as Russel, the lone survivor, lies in a state of shock, the spirits of his chums invade his body, turning Russel’s eyes a spooky white and giving him amazing drumming, rapping and general hip-hop skills.

His parents move him to England, where they hope he’ll have the chance of a quieter life. They hadn’t reckoned on Murdoc, who tracks Russel down in a Soho Rap Record Store. Now, all the fledgling group need is a guitarist. They place an ad in the NME. The day the ad is published, a Fed-Ex’d freight container is delivered to their door. Out jumps a small Japanese person carrying a Les Paul. She jabbers at them incomprehensibly, before launching into a riff to end all riffs, rounding it off with a hi-karate jump. The boys are speechless. Noodle has one word for them. It is Noodle.

Metallica Biography

2009-01-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

When you’re able to brandish the kind of musical firepower that Metallica has unleashed for more than two decades - 10 uncompromising albums, marking an unprecedented reign as the Greatest hard rock band in history - you learn a thing or two about where to aim. But curiously enough, the making of their first studio album since 1997’s Re-Load, the primal, raptorial, St. Anger, found Metallica not behind the turrets this time, but in the firing line itself.

The trials and tribulations leading up to St. Anger are well documented. The fissures in what the band members themselves describe as the well-oiled "Metallica machine" were beginning to show; Bassist Jason Newsted’s nebulous exit from the group. James Hetfield’s voluntary sojourn into rehab and much-longed-for sobriety. Public squabbles over the illegal downloading quagmire. All of these issues revealed the kind of seismic fault-lines that even the Metallica jauggernaut could not navigate - could not negotiate away.

At stake? Nothing less than the very existence of the band itself. Metallica’s three principals, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett, along with their frequent producer/collaborator Bob Rock, found themselves at the kind of crossroads worthy of the themes in many a Metallica song. The kind of foreboding scenario Ulrich and Hetfield could write in their sleep.

The irony was, if this was Metallica’s oft-predicted meltdown, each member would have to face it in his own way. And from the inside out this time, without the Metallica heat-shield to fend off all the bullshit that tends to calcify when you’re a member of the most exclusive rock club in the world for twenty-odd years. With James on an indefinite hiatus, the group admitted to becoming ‘professional speculators’ themselves as to whether Metallica was headed for a rebirth, or withering away on life-support.

"It has been a very interesting three years," Lars Ulrich begins with atypical understatement. "A very different three years for us. Difficult. Awkward. It’s been a ride that’s taken us to places inside ourselves, inside the band, inside the potential of human beings and the music and everything else that we could not imagine existed. But if you asked me then, I would say for the first time in my life with Metallica, I was starting to prepare myself that maybe the ride was over."

If it sounds like the tenets of a Herculean struggle, who else but Metallica to apply for the job. The result of the ‘ride’ Lars refers to can indeed be found in the sweat and blood and grooves of St. Anger. From the album’s crushing title song and its burnished heaps of magnified guitar and drums, to the colossal time and tempo changes of "Frantic," to the chugging slabs and staccato exchanges of the exalting confessional "My World," Metallica has once again, in the boldest strokes imaginable, made music its most viable currency.

The three bandmembers, who gingerly refer to themselves as brothers - and mean it - emerged from the other side of their journey with their musical compass intact. St. Anger is an album that invariably will draw comparisons to their best work, to Metallica’s halcyon days, most notably their classic 1983 opus Kill ‘Em All, and 1986’s Master Of Puppets. Monumental in scope, the new album also recalls - by its sheer willfulness - the group’s 15 million selling masterpiece known as the Black Album. But this is clearly a work that couldn’t have been made twenty years ago. Not even a decade ago, though it fits the Metallica canon like a glove.

According to producer Rock (the Black album was his first collaboration with Metallica) St. Anger completes the circular creative cycle that only the greatest artists are able to sustain. "It’s been my experience that only the big artists know how to achieve a goal in their career, like Metallica did with the Black album. Fewer still could have gone through what they experienced with all their personal journeys, throw away the rulebook and try and capture the soul and truth of Metallica again. I think the real vision was to almost take them back to where they were first getting together when three or four guys get together and say: ‘this is the kind of music we like, let’s write some songs.’"

For James, whose own personal quest may have been the tipping point for Metallica’s inspirational sea change, the album was an important step in their evolution not just as bandmembers, but also as friends. "The early days of Metallica were about brotherhood, just survival mode, relying on each other and stuff. As the machine got bigger, you tend to forget about the friendship part and start worrying about where the machine is going. You get a little more protective, a little more isolated. Certain factors ignited the need to look inward again and just get to be friends. Now we’re stronger than ever because we know what we’re doing and we have experience on our side too."

Part of the familial equation the group had to deal with was the departure of Newsted and the search for a new bassist. Enter Rob Trujillo. A former member of Suicidal Tendencies and one of the masterminds behind the ‘90’s cult band Infectious Grooves, the accomplished bassist has also played with none other than Ozzy Osbourne.

All three bandmembers immediately hit it off with the respected Trujillo, and the hole in Metallica’s musical armor was filled. Trujillo came aboard too late to appear on St. Anger. The band members did not seem to be in any rush to hire a bass player. Bob Rock, in addition to being the co-producer and co-songwriter on St. Anger, was considered the 4th member of the band. Bob even filled in (quite masterfully) at a few live events with the guys. But, as Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett says, Trujillo’s chemistry with the band is undeniable. "From the first rehearsal Rob was just mind blowing, because he had such a huge sound and he pulled with his fingers which is very reminiscent of Cliff Burton and we really liked that sound. He delivered on all fronts. He had a big sound and on top of that he’s really a great, solid guy." Adds James: "He pounds. The power that comes through his fingers. He’s a ball of energy and he’s so calm and able and balanced. He’s got great stuff to offer but his personality is just right. He’s on fire, he’s ready, he’s plugged right into the strength of Metallica and helping it shine."

Another aspect of Metallica’s rejuvenated approach on this album was for Hammett to join in on the lyric writing, territory previously exclusive to only James and Lars. "At first I was like I don’t want anything to do with this, this is James’ job. But Bob was very adamant. I looked at James and I said ‘Well, how do I do this?’ James said ‘stream of consciousness.’ I would scribble down some lines and James would single out the good ones. It was a great experience and I think it’s all in line with the theme of the album, if there is an underlying theme, which is just being true to yourself and how important that is to the overall picture."

Which leads to what is sure to be another topic of discussion among Metallica-watchers when pouring over the epic arrangements and knife-edged nuances of St. Anger. For a band that is in the throes of introspection, and in a larger sense, collective healing, they sure have laid down some motherfucking aggressive music. For hardcore fans who patiently waded through their all-covers release, 1998‘s Garage Inc., a spry homage to the songs that shaped their early career, and the symphonic wanderlust of S&M, a stirring experiment that showcased Metallica with noted producer/writer/arranger Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony, St. Anger is a thirst-quencher. But one that offers nothing but fire this time around.

Lars says there was no conscious effort to make this album louder or longer. "I think the great thing about Metallica is that we can pretty much chart where we want to chart. Playing other people’s material (like on Garage Inc.) was something we talked about for years. It was the music the band was basically founded on. With the Symphony stuff we got a call from Michael Kamen who wanted to do it and the band was excited by the challenge - something Metallica has always embraced. "But now that we are back playing the stuff that people think is the purest, it is the most natural, it is the most effortless. The other thing I think we’re challenging here is that most people have the perception that in order for things to be really, really, energetic that they can only come from negative energy. Metallica was fueled by negative energy for twenty years. Now we’ve spent a lot of times working on ourselves and on our relationships and we’ve turned that around. Now Metallica is fueled by positive energy that has manifested itself so it sounds like the album we’ve made."

Case in point: "Some Kind Of Monster," with its bristling, time-bomb refrain, and yet, underneath, a hint of affirmation: ‘this is the voice of silence no more.’ You begin to understand the complex dynamics required for a world-renowned construct like Metallica to be even able to conceive of an intensely personal triumph like St. Anger. For James, the process obviously begins in a much quieter place than a recording studio. "It comes from us realizing the world doesn’t revolve around Metallica. For me it began with ‘my name is James Hetfield.’ St. Anger means to me that now that we’ve found our serenity we’re capable of making this monster of an album going full-throttle all the time. Anger is an energy. It’s a feeling. It’s gotten a bad reputation but it’s what you do with it after that gives it its reputation. I could squeeze out sideways with rage and stuff the shit down, yet it can be such a source of strength. Metallica has always been about invading places where we don’t belong. We just took down the barbed-wire, that’s all."

Queen Biography

2009-01-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Origin

The beginnings of Queen can be traced to 1968, when Brian May and Roger Taylor formed the trio Smile, at Imperial College, London, where they were both students. After the group’s bassist and lead singer Tim Staffell departed in the spring of 1970, May and Taylor took on vocalist Freddie Mercury in April 1970 to form Queen. In 1971 John Deacon completed the lineup as bass guitarist.

Members

John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor

Though Freddie Mercury’s personality always dominated in the press, all four members of the group actually wrote huge hits:
Freddie Mercury, vocals (’Bohemian Rhapsody’)
Brian May, guitars (’We Will Rock You’)
Roger Taylor, drums & percussion (’Radio Ga Ga’)
John Deacon, bass guitar (’Another One Bites the Dust’)

Most of the group’s albums contained at least one song written by each member, and though Mercury penned a lot of Queen’s hits, he was by no means the dominant songwriter; indeed, the group considered themselves creative equals, and quiet bassist John Deacon wrote one of their biggest hits, ’Another One Bites the Dust.’ In their later years, two or three or even all four band members commonly contributed to individual songs; after arguments over the attribution of these cooperative efforts, the band agreed to simply credit ’Queen’ rather than single members (from The Miracle onwards).

History

1968-1970

Brian May and Roger Taylor were playing on a band called Smile with bass player/singer Tim Staffell. Freddie was Tim’s roommate in Ealing Arts College and followed Smile’s rehearsals and concerts closely. At that time Freddie was a singer in other bands, such as Wreckage and Ibex. Still, he was very eager to share his ideas in which musical direction Smile should develop. At some point Tim Staffell decided Smile was not going anywhere and he decided to join a band called Humpy Bong. Freddie quickly stepped in for Tim and they started to search for a bass player. One of the first was Barry Mitchell. It was not until 1972 that they found John Deacon and started to rehearse for the first album, Queen.

1970s

In 1973 Queen released their first album, a self-titled effort. It drew little attention, but succeeded in giving the band an FM radio anthem ’Keep Yourself Alive.’ In hindsight, it’s considered to be a strong first album.

1974 saw two releases; the first being of Queen II, which had the hit ’Seven Seas of Rhye’ on it. The album was highly experimental, so it garnered little mainstream attention, but the single got them on to the charts in Britain.

Later that same year, Sheer Heart Attack was released. The album was huge in the UK and throughout Europe; it went gold in the United States. Considered one of their very greatest efforts, Queen made a surprisingly cohesive album with a wide variety of different types of music; British music hall to heavy metal tunes like ’Stone Cold Crazy’ (which Metallica would later cover and earn a Grammy for) and ’Now I’m Here’ (a live concert favorite); ballads (’Lily of the Valley’), ragtime (’Bring Back That Leroy Brown’), even Caribbean (’Misfire’)

The standout track was ’Killer Queen’ a British Top Ten and which got as high as number 11 on the U.S. charts. It combined campy, vaudeville British music hall with Led Zeppelin-like sound and Brian May’s virtuosity on the guitar.

If Sheer Heart Attack’s blend of eclectic styles and heavy-metal was considered to be gamut-running, their 1975 effort A Night At The Opera was all-encompassing. Considered by many to be their greatest effort (some call it Queen’s Led Zeppelin IV), this is the album that featured the huge worldwide hit, ’Bohemian Rhapsody.’ ’Bohemian Rhapsody’ was number one in the UK for nine weeks, breaking the record set by Paul Anka’s ’Diana.’ It reached number 9 in the U.S.; when it was rereleased in 1992, it reached number one in the UK again, and hit number 2 in America. The album also featured ’You’re My Best Friend’ (which peaked at 14 on the U.S. charts), a sweet, pure pop gem that was unlike anything Queen had ever done to that point. ’I’m In Love With My Car’ was a hard-rock tune, written and sung by drummer Roger Taylor, which is currently being used in Lexus commercials.

The album was a smash in Britain, and went three times platinum in the United States. It was official; Queen had hit the popular music scene.

Back in the studio and unable to really top A Night At The Opera in sales or quality, Queen recorded what essentially was a companion album, A Day At The Races, also in keeping with the Marx Brothers’ movie theme for the title. The cover was the same as Opera’s, only with the colors inverted. Plans were made to eventually release the two together as a package, but those plans never came to fruition.

The album was done very much in the vein of Opera musically as well. Although it was by both fans’ and critics’ standards superb, it was unable to eclipse its predecessor, and thus as a result has been somewhat underrated.

The standout tracks were ’Somebody to Love’ and ’Tie Your Mother Down.’ ’Somebody’ was an incredible rock ballad, on which Freddie Mercury mulitracked his voice to make a 100-voice gospel choir. Staying true to their guitar-driven style, it was filled with Brian May’s virtuoso harmony, and it went to number 11 on the U.S. singles chart and number 2 on the U.K. charts. ’Tie Your Mother Down’ was a typical Queen hard-rocker that produced a very recognizable riff and displayed Queen’s trademark sense of humor.

1977 saw the release of News of the World, an album that was critically panned at the time but has gained recognition over time. This album had more of a sonic punch to it, as well as songs that were tailor-made to be performed (and subsequently have their greatest effect) live. This album produced the anthemic ’We Will Rock You’ and the famous rock ballad ’We Are The Champions’, as well as the punchy, near-punk sound of ’Sheer Heart Attack’ (not to be confused with the album of the same name released three years earlier) - and possibly an influence on Queens Of The Stone Age’s ’Feelgood Hit of the Summer’ which features an alarmingly similar guitar riff.

In 1978 the band released the Jazz album, including the hit singles ’Fat Bottomed Girls’ and ’Bicycle Race’, being a double-A-side single. The album cover was inspired by a painting on the Berlin wall. Important tracks of the album were ’Dead on Time’, ’Let Me Entertain You’ or ’Mustapha’, a song by Freddie, which had a very Arabian sound combined with heavy rock guitar.

Fan response was lukewarm to Jazz and for the first time Queen’s sales saw a bit of a dip. All band members, especially Mercury, noted frustration and disappointment with the album, and as a result, took a break from the breakneck schedule of one or more albums a year, and focused during the year of 1979 totally on a new album to come out in 1980.

They did, however, release their first-ever live album, in response to the exorbitant amounts of money Queen bootlegs were fetching. The album, entitled Live Killers, went platinum (twice in the U.S.) in most developed countries. They also released the very successful single, ’Crazy Little Thing Called Love,’ a song done in the style of Elvis Presley; the single made the top 10 in most countries and was the band’s first number one single in the U.S.

1980s

Queen kicked off the 1980’s with the hugely successful album, The Game. The album turned out to be their highest selling non-greatest hits. The album featured the ’Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ single, as well as the monster hit ’Another One Bites the Dust’ a track that was released in 1981 after Michael Jackson suggested it would make a great single. It combined Queen’s rock sensibilities with a funky minimalism that resulted in a discofied rock classic. It stayed at number one for four weeks in the United States, and the album went four times platinum States-side. The album also featured two of Queen’s greatest ballads; ’Play the Game’ and the fan-favorite ’Save Me,’ both of which were hits in Britain and well-remembered by rock fans in the States.

1980 also saw them do the innovative and critically-acclaimed soundtrack for the movie Flash Gordon. The album sold poorly, but served as a showcase for Queen in a different light.

1981 saw Queen collaborate with David Bowie for the single ’Under Pressure’. The single netted a number one in Britain and a well-remembered rock anthem, a fan-favorite of both Queen and Bowie legionnaires. The group also released a widely successful greatest hits CD, their first, which showcased their rock highlights during the first phase of their career.

The response to ’Another One Bites the Dust’ was overwhelming, so the band decided to do an entire album of disco/funk influenced songs. The result was the 1982 album Hot Space, an album which, either fairly or not, has been almost unanimously regarded by critics and die-hard, loyal fans alike as being one of their worst. The album was especially disappointing to the hard-rock faithful that followed them through the 70s since their first album and their breakthrough success ’Sheer Heart Attack.’ Nonetheless, the album included ’Under Pressure,’ the only real highlight, and ’Body Language,’ a single that only gained attention in the U.S., netting a surprise number 11 hit.

In 1984, Queen successfully bridged the gap between hard rock and pop with the album The Works, which included the incredibly successful glitzy rock anthem ’Radio Ga-Ga,’ the gorgeous pop of ’I Want to Break Free,’ (a song that would become an anthem of the supressed left-wing of Brazil and later Coca-Cola ’C2’ Commercials), the heavy, hard-rock live favorites ’Hammer to Fall’ (a poetic commentary on the Cold War) and ’Tear It Up.’ Despite these hit singles and live barn-burners, the album failed to sell well, contributing to tensions within the band. This led to the members of Queen branching off onto solo projects during this period.

Then came 1985, and the benefit concert Live Aid, which Queen were invited to perform at. In the eyes of critics and fans alike, the group stole the show at the worldwide extravaganza, performing some of their greatest hits and wowing audiences with their energy and superb musicianry and showmanship.

Revitalised by the reponse to Live Aid and the resulting increase in record sales, Queen ended 1985 by releasing the single ’One Vision’, an uptempo guitar-based song credited, unusally for this period, to the four members of the band. It was used in the film ’Iron Eagle’.

In early 1986 Queen recorded the album ’A Kind of Magic’, inspired by the 1986 Russell Mulcahy film Highlander. This album was very successful, producing a string of hits including the title track ’A Kind of Magic’, ’Who Wants To Live Forever?’ and ’Friends Will Be Friends’.

Later that year, Queen went on a sold-out final tour, which culminated at Wembley Stadium in London. Freddie teased the capacity crowd of 89,000 that Queen might be breaking up, only to tell the crowd that it was just a silly rumor, and that Queen would be together until ’we fucking well die, I’m sure!’ much to the delight of the crowd. It is rumored that Freddie contracted AIDS that year as well.

On this tour, Queen performed for the last time together. They couldn’t book Wembley for a third night because it was already booked, but they managed to get Knebworth Park. It sold out within 2 hours, and over 120,000 fans packed the park to get a glimpse of Queen one last time live.

After working in various solo projects during 1988 (including Mercury´s collaboration with Montserrat Caballé, ’Barcelona’) the band released The Miracle in 1989. This record continued the direction of A Kind of Magic with a polished pop-rock sound and hits like ’Invisible Man’, ’The Miracle’ and ’Breakthru’.

1990s

In 1991, rumors started spreading that Freddie Mercury was suffering from AIDS. Even tabloids worldwide got in on the news. Mercury flatly denied these rumors, but knowing the actual truth as his other bandmates did, they decided to make an album free of conflict and differences. That album became Innuendo. Although his health began to deteriorate, Mercury was courageous in handlis heì

This biography is published under the GNU Licence

Yngwie.J.Malmsteen Biography

2009-01-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

Born Lars Johann Yngwie Lannerbach, June 30, 1963, in Stockholm, Sweden; son of an army captain (father) and Rigmor (an artist); youngest of three children; moved to the United States, 1983. Addresses: Record company--Mercury Records, 825 8th Ave., New York, NY 10019.

Yngwie Malmsteen took the hard rock scene by storm in the 1980s with his lightning-fast, explosive guitar style. He garnered significant attention through his work with such bands as Steeler, Alcatrazz, and his own Rising Force. However, his popularity grew more significantly as a solo artist, performing instrumental pieces and songs with guest vocalists. Despite several personal setbacks, Malmsteen continued recording and performing his own style of neoclassical rock well into the late 1990s.

Malmsteen was born Lars Johann Yngwie Lannerback in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1963. His mother, an artist named Rigmor, and his father, an army captain, divorced not long after Yngwie was born. He was the youngest of three children, including his sister Ann Louise and his brother Bjorn. Yngwie discovered his love for music at a very young age. He took piano and trumpet lessons as a child, and his mother had bought him an acoustic guitar when he was just five years old, but he didn’t touch it until he was seven.

On September 18, 1970, seven-year-old Yngwie Lannerback watched a television special on the death of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. It was on that day that he picked up his guitar. "As a kid, you think it’s cool to be a soldier, a policeman, or something, and I thought Jimi Hendrix was my hero type of guy," Malmsteen told Jas Obrecht in Guitar Player . "I took the guitar down off the wall and started playing. I remember playing until my fingers got all sore, and I put Band-Aids on them and kept going."

When he turned ten, Yngwie decided to change his last name to his mother’s maiden name, Malmsteen. Around the same time, he skipped school often and focused all of his energy into music and improving his guitar playing. His mother recognized his talent early on, and allowed him to stay home from school with his records and his guitar.

As his passion for guitar playing grew, so did his interest in both rock and classical music. He explored the sounds of bands like Deep Purple and composers like Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, and Beethoven. "Bach is my god," Malmsteen explained to Obrecht. "Classical was the peak of the musical history of man. Music hasn’t developed since classical music; it stopped being creative." Malmsteen discovered one of his major influences, Nicolo Paganini, through Russian violinist Gideon Kremer’s performance of 24 Caprices . Malmsteen used these influences to combine his love for classical music with rock guitar.

Malmsteen began playing in bands even before he became a teenager. His brother Bjorn played drums in a few of the early bands, such as Burn and Power. By 1976, he settled into a spot with a band called Powerhouse, which lasted two years. Powerhouse focused their music and show around their guitar virtuoso, performing long instrumental breaks. However, their Swedish audiences, used to more pop-flavored bands like ABBA, didn’t respond favorably. Malmsteen continued his journey in hard rock with a vengeance. By the age of 15, he had lost all interest in school and quit for good.

Three years later, the Swedish army attempted to recruit Yngwie Malmsteen as an officer, based on his high intelligence test scores. He fought the enlistment by pretending to be crazy. He held a gun to his head and swore that he would kill himself before joining the military. The recruiters believed him and sent him on his way. That same year, the 18-year-old Malmsteen and several of his friends recorded a three-song demo tape for Swedish CBS Records. The tape included the songs "You’re Going to Break Them All" and "Horizons." The record company asked Malmsteen to record the songs over again with Swedish lyrics instead of English. The guitarist refused and continued his quest for representation and distribution.

In 1982, Yngwie Malmsteen sent a demo tape to a music executive, Mike Varney, who had a column in Guitar Player magazine and owned his own record label called Shrapnel Music. Varney was impressed by the tape, and not only wrote a favorable review in his column, but invited Malmsteen to Los Angeles, California, to begin recording a solo album. Varney had planned to unite Malmsteen with bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Leonard Haze. Yngwie Malmsteen began making the arrangements to move to the United States when he received an offer to join a band called Steeler, also on the Shrapnel Music label.

He accepted the offer and moved to Los Angeles in February of 1983. Steeler was formed around singer Ron Keel, so Malmsteen couldn’t contribute much to the band beyond his guitar solos. But those alone brought him quite a bit of attention in the rock scene. "When I was in Steeler, I turned L.A. totally upside down," Malmsteen told Bill Ebner in Foundations . "Nobody could believe the way I played. They had never heard anything like it."

Malmsteen didn’t enjoy being in a band where he couldn’t contribute to the songwriting and left the group before their self-titled debut had even reached the stores. From there, he joined forces with singer Graham Bonnett to form another band called Alcatrazz. This time, he had the opportunity to write all the music, while Bonnett wrote all the lyrics. Before the end of 1983, Alcatrazz had released No Parole for Rock & Roll and Live Sentence on Rocshire Records. Still, Yngwie Malmsteen felt stifled. He left Alcatrazz and decided that it would be best for his career to embark on a solo career.

Broke the Speed Barrier

The following year, he released his first solo effort as Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force. The album Rising Force was mostly an instrumental recording. Despite the fact that it received almost no radio airplay, it reached number 60 on the Billboard album charts. The album featured the work of Malmsteen’s longtime friend keyboardist Jens Johansson. Malmsteen and Rising Force performed around the world and established Malmsteen’s popularity as a guitar virtuoso. Tim Holmes wrote in Rolling Stone , "This kid’s obviously very serious about cracking the notes-per-second barrier and doesn’t mean to be taken as some heavy-metal clown.’

Yngwie Malmsteen’s popularity increased over the next few years with the albums Marching Out and Trilogy . However, his career almost came to an end after a tragic car accident on June 22, 1987. He hit a tree with his Jaguar and broke the steering wheel with his head. He was in a coma for almost a week, then woke up unable to use his right hand. Doctors discovered that he’d suffered a concussion from the ordeal, which damaged the nerves running into his right hand.

Malmsteen refused to give up his career without a fight. He began intensive physical therapy in an effort to regenerate the nerves in his hand. However, he had to fight more than the pain in his body. During the same year, Malmsteen’s mother and his main inspiration died of cancer in Sweden. He also discovered that his manager had squandered all of his money, just as he was facing rising medical bills. As he had always done, though, Malmsteen relied on his music to bring him through the tough times.

By 1988, he returned with another album, Odyssey , and the hit single, "Heaven Tonight," featuring former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner. In February of 1989, Yngwie Malmsteen and Rising Force performed unprecedented sold-out shows in both Moscow and Leningrad. The final performance was recorded and released as the video Live in Leningrad/Trial By Fire and the live album Trial By Fire . Not long after the tour, the band Rising Force decided to disband, and Malmsteen retired the name.

He moved to Miami, Florida, where he recruited a new band of fellow Swedes for the release of his next solo album Eclipse . In March of 1991, he left Polygram Records and signed a deal with Elektra Records. Two months later, on May 8, he married Swedish pop singer Erika Norberg; the marriage lasted less than a year.

In 1992, Malmsteen was able to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams. On the album Fire & Ice, he recorded with a full orchestra. The LP debuted at number one in Japan and sold gold and platinum all across Europe and Asia. However, his popularity in the U.S. had begun to wane.

Faced Challenges and Tragedies

In 1993, Malmsteen faced another year of tragedy. His manager of four years, Nigel Thomas, died of a heart attack in January. Elektra dropped Malmsteen from their label two months later. In July, he broke his right hand in an accident, and in August he was arrested for a false accusation that made international news. His fiancée’s mother had called the police and said that Malmsteen was holding her daughter Amberdawn Landin hostage with a gun. Malmsteen claimed Landin’s mother made up the story because she didn’t want her daughter to marry him. The charges were dropped a month later. By the end of the year, Malmsteen had begun to rebound. His hand healed completely, and he signed a new recording contract with a Japanese label called Pony Canyon Records. On December 26, 1993, he and Landin got married in Stockholm, Sweden.

Malmsteen returned to the studio and released The Seventh Sign in Japan. After the album sold triple platinum there, CMC International Records picked up the distribution rights for Europe and North America. However, Yngwie Malmsteen still didn’t resurrect his popularity in the U.S. "I really resent people who say I’m stagnating," Malmsteen told Guitar Player ’s Greg Rule. "Think about it like this: Everybody who has a recognizable sound--AC/DC, ZZ Top, whatever--continues to use it. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never written better songs or had better arrangements."

Later that year, Malmsteen released two EPs on Pony Canyon, Power and Glory and I Can’t Wait , and built a recording studio called Studio 308 in Miami, Florida. "It’s a pretty lax vibe, which helps aid in the creativity since there is no `clock’ pressure," Malmsteen told Scott Rubin in Musician . "I never played in any studio as well as I do here."

Regained U.S. Opportunities

Malmsteen continued his recording pace with another release in 1995 called Magnum Opus . The following year, he recorded a tribute album of some of his greatest influences, including such bands as Deep Purple, Rainbow, Kansas, Scorpions, Rush, and of course, Jimi Hendrix. Several guest artists such as Joe Lynn Turner, Jeff Scott Soto, David Rosenthal, Marcel Jacob, and Mark Boals joined him on the album. By 1998, he began to receive more recognition in the U.S. He signed another record contract with Mercury Records, a division of his former label Polygram, and released Facing the Animal . However, Malmsteen had yet to garner the notoriety and sales that he received in the 1980s.

"The U.S. doesn’t support a wide variety of styles" Malmsteen told Ebner. "If anything, it’s extremely trend-oriented. If you’re not following what’s hot, you’re considered old hat. It’s not like that overseas. They have a great loyalty for the artists." Whether he gained back his popularity in the U.S. or not, it didn’t really matter to Malmsteen. As long as he had the opportunity to record and perform his own music, he claimed that was reward enough.

by Sonya Shelton

Yngwie Malmsteen’s Career

Began playing guitar at the age of seven; performed in Swedish bands Burn, Power, and Powerhouse, 1973-78; formed Rising Force, 1978; played in Steeler, 1983; co-founded Alcatrazz, 1983; released Rising Force, Polygram Records, 1984; embarked on a career as a solo artist, 1990; left Polygram Records, 1991; signed contract with Elektra Records, 1991; released Fire & Ice, 1992; dropped from Elektra Records, 1993; signed contract with Pony Canyon Records in Japan, 1994; released two LPs, The Seventh Sign, 1994 and Magnum Opus, 1995; released two EPs on Pony Canyon, Power & Glory, 1993 and I Can’t Wait, 1993; released Inspiration on Foundation Records, 1996; signed contract with Mercury/Polygram Records, 1997.

Sex Pistol Biography

2009-01-01T17:39:00.000-08:00

The Sex Pistols may have only been together for two years in the late ’70s, but they changed the face of popular music. Through their raw, nihilistic singles and violent performances, the band revolutionized the idea of what rock & roll could be. In England, the group was considered dangerous to the very fabric of society and was banned across the country; in America, they didn’t have the same impact, but countless bands in both countries were inspired by the sheer sonic force of their music, while countless others were inspired by their independent, do-it-yourself ethics. Even if they didn’t release any singles by themselves, there was an implicit independence in the way they played their music and handled their career. The band gave birth to the massive independent music underground in England and America that would soon include bands that didn’t have a direct musical connection to the Sex Pistols’ initial three-minute blasts of rage, but couldn’t have existed without those singles.

Guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook were regulars at a boutique owned by their manager, Malcolm McLaren; bassist Glen Matlock worked at the store. Vocalist John Lydon, who would later perform under the name Johnny Rotten, met the rest of the group at the shop and was asked to join the band. While the band played simple rock & roll loudly and abrasively, Rotten arrogantly sang of anarchy, abortion, violence, fascism, and apathy; without Rotten, the band wouldn’t have been threatening to England’s government -- he provided the band’s conceptual direction, calculated to be as confrontational and threatening as possible. The publicity caused by their caustic first single "Anarchy in the U.K." caused the band to be dropped by their record label, EMI. Matlock was fired before their next single "God Save the Queen," which was released on Virgin; it was banned by the BBC. Matlock’s replacement was Sid Vicious, a tough street kid who, unlike the rest of the band, couldn’t play his instrument.

After releasing one album in 1977, the band headed over to the U.S. for a tour in January of 1978; it lasted 14 days. Rotten left the band after their show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on January 14, heading back to New York; he would form Public Image Limited later that year. McLaren tried to continue the band but Cook and Jones soon turned against him. In the two decades following the Sex Pistols’ implosion, an endless stream of outtakes, demos, repackagings, and live shows were released on a variety of labels, which only helped their cult grow.

In 1996, to celebrate their impending twentieth anniversary, the Sex Pistols reunited, with original bassist Glen Matlock taking the place of the deceased Sid Vicious. The band embarked on an international tour in June of 1996, releasing the Filthy Lucre Live album the following month. Four years later, Julien Temple (who helmed the band’s first movie, The Great Rock & Roll Swindle) directed the documentary film The Filth & the Fury. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Scorpions Biography

2009-01-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

At the start of the new millennium and exactly 35 years since the foundation of Germany’s most successful hard rock band of all time, SCORPIONS Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs can look back together on a spectacular career in the international music business.Like many youngsters born in post-war Germany, Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker were influenced by the music and other life-enhancing delights imported into their homeland by American GI’s – Elvis Presley, chewing gum, blue jeans and leather jackets, but most of all rock ‘n’ roll. From an early age, both of them had an irresistible urge to grab a guitar and step into the limelight. In the early 1960s the Beatles sparked off the beat revolution. By the mid-1960s Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker, both of whom were blessed with understanding parents, had also taken to the stage with their beat groups. In 1965 Rudolf Schenker started up the SCORPIONS in Hanover. Rudolf’s younger brother Michael Schenker was, like Matthias Jabs, smitten by beat music and the burgeoning rock culture. Guitarist and songwriter Rudolf Schenker’s earliest influences were the raw riffs of bands like The Yardbirds, Pretty Things and Spooky Tooth, who in those days were regarded as the real hard rockers.At New Year 1970, the younger Schenker brother Michael, who despite his youth had already established himself as an outstanding guitarist, left the Hanover-based group Copernicus, along with singer and composer Klaus Meine, to join Rudolf Schenker’s SCORPIONS. Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine teamed up to form the accomplished Schenker/Meine songwriting duo, so laying the foundations for a spectacular success story.In 1972, the SCORPIONS released their remarkable début album, Lonesome Crow, produced by Conny Plank in Hamburg. The vocal and instrumental ingredients which over the years were to develop into the typical, unmistakable SCORPIONS sound, were already recognisable: uncompromising, guitar-orientated hard rock, on the lines of what Jimmy Hendrix, Cream and Led Zeppelin generated in the mid-1960s. The distinctive SCORPIONS style came from the combination of two electric guitars, a fusion of fabulously forceful power riffs with dazzlingly exuberant guitar solos. Added to which was the instantly recognisable voice of singer and front man Klaus Meine with his highly expressive and polished delivery. In one respect, the SCORPIONS were unique on the German rock scene of the period. Because, right from the start, the band was aiming for the very top of the international hard rock business, Klaus Meine wrote all his lyrics in English. In the creative partnership of Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine Germany had finally found its answer to the famous beat and rock composing teams of the English-speaking world.The first album Lonesome Crow set the band on the path to international success. The SCORPIONS toured as support band with Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep and UFO. Throughout their history Rudolf Schenker has been the unshakeable driving force behind the SCORPIONS. He adopted his father’s philosophy of life – nothing is impossible as long as you believe in it. Right from the foundation of the SCORPIONS, he had only one declared ambition: "one day the SCORPIONS will be one of the best heavy rock bands in the world!" It was an idea to which all the band members were committed. The SCORPIONS were constantly on the lookout for fresh challenges. Every change in the line-up was seen as an opportunity to move closer still to success and the achievement of absolute professionalism.In 1973, following a joint tour with UFO, Michael Schenker joined the British rock group. He was replaced as SCORPIONS lead guitarist by Ulrich Roth. He too was an exceptional guitar player with an almost mystical talent. With Ulrich Roth, the SCORPIONS continued unwaveringly to explore the hard rock genre.In the 1970s, the SCORPIONS undertook tours of Western Europe, playing countless venues and conquering one country after another. They would appear wherever there was somewhere to plug in their instruments. In 1973, they accompanied The Sweet on their first European tour.

The SCORPIONS went on to record their next four studio albums with Ulrich Roth. Fly to the Rainbow, (1974) features a solid, high-energy brand of heavy rock never before heard from a German band. The title track Speedy’s Coming typifies the SCORPIONS style of ultra-hard rock combined with catchy melodies. Beginning with their third LP In Trance, (1975), they began their working relationship with well-known international producer Dieter Dierks. They were firmly launched on their hard rock career. In Trance was the best-selling RCA album in Japan, where a regular SCORPION mania broke out.In 1975 the SCORPIONS toured Europe, sharing top billing with KISS. In Germany that same year, they were voted best live group. During their first UK tour in 1975, the SCORPIONS entered what might be called "the lion’s den", playing at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club. In the birthplace of hard rock, they succeeded in gaining the acceptance of the most dyed-in-the-wool British fans. Gigs at the renowned London venue, the Marquee, were further highpoints of the mid-1970s.The SCORPIONS achieved their ambition to be the top German hard rock band, when their fourth album Virgin Killer (1976) won the "LP of the Year" award in Germany. In Japan, Virgin Killer gained them their first Gold Disc. Their follow-up album Taken by Force (1977) was also awarded a Japanese Gold Disc. In 1978 the SCORPIONS toured Japan, the world’s second largest music market, where they got a foretaste of what it was like to be superstars. When they arrived at Tokyo airport, the five heavy metal men were mobbed by adoring fans. Ulrich Roth left the band after the 1978 Japanese tour. The highpoint and conclusion of the SCORPIONS’ Ulrich Roth period is the double album Tokyo Tapes (1978) which even now is cherished around the world as a collector’s item. Michael Schenker filled in briefly (he recorded several songs on Lovedrive (1979) until Matthias Jabs finally entered the fray.In 1978 an advertisement appeared in the Melody Maker: the SCORPIONS were looking for a new lead guitarist. In London, they auditioned 140 hopefuls, before deciding on Hanover-born Matthias Jabs. Thrown in at the deep end, Matthias Jabs immediately joined the band in recording Lovedrive (1979) which was then in production. The album was to be the group’s biggest triumph so far, and is still one the SCORPIONS’ best-ever albums. The sleeve received a prize for the best artwork of the year.In 1979, Michael Schenker rejoined the SCORPIONS for a short spell, but left the band while on tour. In 1980, he founded MSG, the Michael Schenker Group. Matthias Jabs once again leapt into the breach and achieved the amazing feat of learning, literally overnight, the entire programme for the current tour. His baptism of fire came when the SCORPIONS played to 55,000 fans as support act for Genesis on their German tour. In Matthias Jabs, the SCORPIONS had finally found the lead guitarist whose creativity, virtuosity and enthusiasm continue to make a decisive contribution to the band’s success. With him, the band achieved an even more solid sound. Like the missing piece in the jigsaw, his guitar style fitted to perfection into the group dynamic, creating the unique SCORPIONS sound. Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs still form the musical backbone of the band. With bass man Francis Buchholz (who joined the SCORPIONS in 1973 at the same time as Ulrich Roth) and drummer Herman Rarebell (who first featured on Taken By Force in 1977), they finally established the combination that was to continue its victorious progress across the globe right up until Wind of Change.Already hailed as a super group during the 1978 tour of Japan, in 1979 the band, comprising Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs, set out to conquer the vast US market. Their weapons: a professional attitude paired with a steely determination to succeed and a philosophy of friendship, both within the band and towards their fans, as well as great musicality.

As a rockband working on the international scene, the SCORPIONS had long since created their own musical identity. In the 1980s, the USA was the biggest market of all for hard and heavy rock. Since 1974, the SCORPIONS had built up a considerable following in the States. Van Halen launched their musical career in the mid-1970s with cover versions of SCORPIONS songs: Speedy’s Coming (from Fly to the Rainbow) and Catch Your Train (from Virgin Killer).In 1979, now professionally managed and boosted by the success of Lovedrive, the SCORPIONS with their definitive line-up – Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs – embarked on their first major tour of USA rock arenas as opening act with Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and AC/DC. In Chicago, the SCORPIONS swapped the headliner billing with Ted Nugent, since the SCORPIONS had more fans in the city. On this first American tour, the SCORPIONS quickly learned the rules of the game in the international rock business.Their seventh album Lovedrive was released in the USA in 1979, and was the first SCORPIONS production to receive a Gold Disc there. Animal Magnetism followed in 1980. With the two albums, the band finally made their North American breakthrough. On their second US tour the SCORPIONS were top of the bill. The era of SCORPIONS monster tours had begun.After more successful world tours, in 1981, while recording Blackout, Klaus Meine lost his voice. Not wishing to stand in the way of the band’s success, Klaus Meine wanted to pull out. But the unshakeable friendship between Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine and the close and supportive relationship within the band allowed the seemingly impossible to happen. After lengthy vocal retraining and two operations on his vocal chords, Klaus Meine overcame the trauma. And that was not all: in 1982, he re-emerged with a much increased vocal range. One critic wrote: "They have given Klaus Meine metal vocal chords." The band’s decision to stand by their lead singer through this troubled time later proved to be the most crucial the SCORPIONS ever took in the their entire career. It was Klaus Meine who in 1989 composed their smash hit Wind of Change.In 1982, on their second US tour as headliners with Iron Maiden as support act, the SCORPIONS promoted their groundbreaking album Blackout, with Helnwein’s stunning sleeve design. The single No One Like You and the Blackout LP reached the US Top Ten, the LP was voted Best Hard Rock Album of the year and awarded a Platinum Disc. One hit followed another, and in the 1980s the SCORPIONS captured the hearts of hard rock fans around the world.In 1984 the SCORPIONS became the first German hard rock band to play three successive gigs in front of 60,000 fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The SCORPIONS had finally scaled the Mount Olympus of rock. With three albums featuring simultaneously in the US charts: Animal Magnetism (1980), Blackout, (1982) and Love at First Sting (1984), the SCORPIONS spent two years on the road playing as headliner or co-headliner at all the big rock festivals that sprang up around the world after Woodstock.The SCORPIONS toured the globe, with a fleet of articulated lorries, Nightliner buses, helicopters, private jets and the inevitable limos. Hanover’s heavy metal band played all the main rock venues in North, Central and South America and Europe. In Asia, they played in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. This was the golden age of heavy rock.With gigantic stage and light shows and dramatic firework effects, the SCORPIONS unleashed a pyrotechnic display of sound and light. Their relentless energy sent the fans wild. To US audiences, the SCORPIONS, with their polished, hard-edged "melodic rock" and Klaus Meine’s dramatic power singing with its dizzying top notes, came to epitomise the best in heavy rock. Groups like Bon Jovi, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, later to become mega bands, were support acts on the SCORPIONS’ worldwide tours, learning what it meant for a band to hold its own in the rock arena in front of an audience of millions. Love at First

Sting became one of the most successful albums in rock history. It includes the SCORPIONS’ most electrifying numbers Rock You Like a Hurricane, Bad Boys Running Wild, and the masterpiece Still Loving You. The critics struggled for superlatives.Rolling Stone called the SCOPRIONS "the heroes of heavy metal". The SCORPIONS were admitted to the exclusive club of the world’s 30 greatest rock groups. Their ballad Still Loving You became an international rock anthem. In France alone, the single sold 1.7 million copies. The song unleashed a wave of hysteria among French fans not seen since the Beatles and became the SCORPIONS’ musical trademark around the globe.The SCORPIONS’ most memorable appearances as headliners were at the 1983 US Festival in California’s San Bernadino Valley in front of an audience of 325,000 and at the first Rock in Rio in 1985 where they were cheered by 350,000 enthusisatic South American SCORPIONS fans. The 1985 double album World Wide Live, a counterpart to the 1978 Tokyo Tapes, impressively documented the band’s more recent international triumphs.In 1986, the SCORPIONS topped the bill at the legendary Monsters of Rock Festival and played in the Hungarian capital Budapest, their first-ever appearance in an Eastern Block country. By now the SCORPIONS were a household name, with hard rock hits like Rock You Like a Hurricane, No One Like You, Blackout, Big City Nights, Dynamite, Bad Boys Running Wild, Coast to Coast and The Zoo featuring in the charts around the world. In the 1980s, the SCORPIONS created a kind of modern hard rock that is just as popular today.Their authentic power rock ballads, such as Still Loving You, Holiday and later Wind of Change, Send Me an Angel, When You Came Into My Life and You and I, along with acoustic based songs such as Always Somewhere and When the Smoke is Going Down have managed to win over even the most unyielding haters of hard rock Savage Amusement, the last album co-produced with Dieter Dierks, was released in 1988. It reached N° 3 in the US chart and N° 1 in Europe. Even after years of touring the USA and the rest of the world, the SCORPIONS did not rest on their laurels and continued to seek out fresh challenges.As a prelude to their 1988 Savage Amusement world tour, they penetrated the Iron Curtain to give 10 sell-out concerts in Leningrad for 350,000 Soviet fans. They were the first international hard rock band to play in the former USSR, cradle of Communism. Hard rock, heavy metal and especially the SCORPIONS’ ballad Still Loving You had already found their way through the Iron Curtain. The SCORPIONS are still given a rapturous reception in Russia today.A year later, in August 1989, 20 years after Woodstock, the Soviet authorities, encouraged by the success of the SCORPIONS’ 1988 Leningrad concert, gave permission for the legendary Moscow Music Peace Festival. Here, the SCORPIONS shared the stage with other international hard rock acts, including Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Cinderella and Ozzy Osbourne and the Russian band Gorky Park playing to 260,000 Soviet rock fans in Moscow’s Lenin Stadium. In September 1989 Klaus Meine drew on his impressions of the Moscow Music Peace Festival, to create the SCORPIONS’ smash hit Wind of Change.Then, in November 1989, came a completely unexpected event. The fall of the Berlin Wall. Throughout the world, Wind of Change became the hymn to glasnost and perestroika, providing the soundtrack to the opening of the Iron Curtain, the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War. One year later, in 1990, the SCORPIONS played in Potsdamer Platz where a section of the Wall once stood, in Roger Waters’s spectacular production, The Wall.The SCORPIONS recorded a Russian version of Wind of Change. They also gained a distinguished fan. In 1991, the members of the German band were invited to the Kremlin to meet Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet head of state and party leader. It was a unique event in the history of the USSR and rock music.worldwide mega seller the Wind of Change CD, Crazy World (1990), their long relationship with Dieter Dierks, the Cologne-based producer of so many successful recordings, came to an end. The very first album to be produced by the SCORPIONS themselves, Crazy World, made in Los Angeles, co-produced by Keith Olsen and featuring the smash hit Wind of Change, immediately became the most successful CD to date.

Not only was Crazy World the most successful album, Wind of Change was the worldwide top single of 1991, occupying the N° 1 slot in 11 countries. In 1992, they received the World Music Award as the most successful German rock act.Crazy World is impressive testimony to the songwriting talents of the SCORPIONS’ masterminds: Matthias Jabs’s contribution is the dynamic title track Tease Me, Please Me, while Rudolf Schenker once again proves his ability to hit the spot with his classic SCORPIONS ballad, Send Me an Angel, and Klaus Meine displays his brilliance as a composer in Wind of Change. At the end of the 1992 Crazy World tour, the SCORPIONS parted company with their long-time bass player Francis Buchholz. The 1993 CD Face the Heat (co-producer: Bruce Fairbairn), featured the band’s new bass man, conservatoire graduate Ralph Rieckermann.In 1994 the SCORPIONS again received a World Music Award. Yet another high point of their career came when, at the invitation of the family of the "King of Rock ‘n’ Roll", Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, and the "King of Pop", Michael Jackson, they performed their cover version of His Latest Flame at the 1994 Elvis Presley Memorial Concert in Memphis, Tennessee. In the same year the SCORPIONS committed themselves to helping United Nations efforts on behalf of refugees from the civil war in Rwanda. In only one week the band produced and released their benefit single White Dove.At the end of 1995, just before completing the Pure Instinct CD, co-produced by Keith Olsen and Erwin Musper and released in 1996, the SCORPIONS’ veteran drummer and long-time companion Herman "The German" Rarebell left the band.During the 1988 Savage Amusement tour, the US heavy metal band Kingdom Come, whose producer was Keith Olsen, had been a warm up act for the SCORPIONS. Even then, the Germans were impressed by the style of the group’s Californian drummer James Kottak. In 1995 the SCORPIONS engaged former AC/DC manager Stewart Young¸ and it fell to him to call James Kottak on the phone and hire him as drummer for the upcoming 1996/97 Pure Instinct Live Tour. James Kottak became the first American to play in the German rock band. With the two new members, bass player Ralph Rieckermann and drummer James Kottak, the SCORPIONS had introduced a new generation of musicians into the group.On the Pure Instinct world tour, the SCORPIONS proved that they were still among the global players on the international rock scene. Not only did they play in Europe, the USA and South America. In countries like Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, they continued to notch up well above average record sales and collect gold and platinum discs. In November 1996, the SCORPIONS were the first international hard rock band to play to fans in Beirut after the end of the civil war in Lebanon.On the 1999 recording of Eye to Eye, produced by Peter Wolf, James Kottak worked in the studio with the SCORPIONS for the first time. The cover of Eye to Eye marked a change of image for the SCORPIONS. Only the founder members of the band, Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine and Matthias Jabs feature on the front cover. The album itself is a statement of the SCORPIONS’ awesome talents as songwriters and instrumentalists. Songs like Mysterious, Mind Like a Tree, Eye to Eye, Yellow Butterfly and A Moment in a Million Years show the band at the pinnacle of their creativity. With Du Bist So Schmutzig (You’re So Dirty), the SCORPIONS are heard for the first time singing a German lyric. As part of their 1999 Eye to Eye world tour, at the invitation of Michael Jackson, they played at the Michael Jackson and Friends benefit concert in Munich.True to their motto "Don’t stop at the top" the SCORPIONS are starting the new millennium with a new musical challenge: a crossover project with the internationally renowned classical orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, once conducted by the great Herbert von Karajan.In 1995, the Berlin Philharmonic was exploring the possibility of a crossover project and was on the lookout for a suitable band. Over the years even this classical orchestra had been aware of the SCORPIONS’ success and international reputation. The two Mercedes of German music agreed on a joint venture under the direction of the internationally successful crossover producer, composer, conductor and arranger, Austria’s Christian Kolonovits. As early as 1995 the SCORPIONS began their preparations. Since then, both groups of musicians have continued to working on the project, while still fulfilling current engagements around the world and bearing in mind the timing of EXPO 2000 in Hanover. After the release of the Eye to Eye CD in 1999 and the subsequent world tour, the SCORPIONS got down to serious business in the autumn of the same year.The SCORPIONS gave a foretaste of what is to come when, at the invitation of the German government, they played in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on 11 November 1999, the 10th anniversary of German reunification. Joining them in their performance of Wind of Change were 166 cellists. The work was conducted by the distinguished cello virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich. In January 2000, the SCORPIONS and Christian Kolonovits began studio recordings in Vienna. The Berlin Philharmonic recorded the orchestral parts in April 2000. The complete work was mixed during April and May 2000 at the Galaxy Studios in Belgium, using the state-of-the-art Surround System Atmos 5.1.The crossover CD Moment of Glory, featuring the SCORPIONS with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, was released on 19 June 2000. The first live performance took place at EXPO in Hanover on 22 June 2000. The album also includes the official EXPO anthem Moment of Glory.The enthusiasm and open-mindedness of the SCORPIONS with regard to their flirt with the classic-genre was not finished by any means.

In February 2001 the band performed three concerts in a portuguese monastery.

These concerts served as a basis for the new album Acoustica.

The unusual choice of the recording location also pointed out the musical development of the extraordinary musicians: For the first time in their career the SCORPIONS did their performance without electric instruments to the greatest possible extent.

Klaus Meine’s voice sounds pure and unadulterated rocking, together with Matthias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker playing their acoustic guitars.

The recordings of the SCORPIONS in Portugal, together with some very special guest musicians belong to the greatest milestones in rock history.

Not only the single "When love kills love", that was released on April 30, 2001, shows the outstanding quality of the SCORPIONS as performers and songwriters.

The album Acoustica, that was released on May 14, 2001 contains real treasures: Besides four completely new titles, the greatest classics as "The zoo" and "Hurricane" show themselves in a new acoustic sound and impress as well as the brilliantly arranged cover-versions of bands like Queen or Kansas.

30 years in the rock ’n’ roll circus did not stop the band from exploring different projects in a refreshing, intelligent way.

With the upswing of hardrock worldwide it was time to go back to where the band came from and to team up again with Dieter Dierks, the man who had played such an important part in the Scorpions’ history, producing many of those multi platinum albums in the 70s and 80s.

There are two new songs that were specially recorded for this album.

Bad for Good, is a new recording combining the classic Scorpions’ style with a new arrangement.

Cause I Love You, is a typical Scorpions’ Rocker about a love affair with a guitar.

The next studio album won’t be ready for a summer release, but the Scorpions have nevertheless booked an extensive co-headlining American tour with Deep Purple in summer 2002, with Ronnie James Dio in support.

A brief hiatus in July, the same year, will allow the band to perform additional symphonic shows in Europe, including an appearance in Luxembourg at the start of the Tour de France.

Reflecting on past accomplishments, the band feels fortunate to have been part of music history and participate in memorable shows.

Headlining the biggest festivals in Europe from 1978.

The "US"-Festival, Rock in Rio, the Monsters of Rock Tour with Van Halen and Metallica in 1988, Pink Floyd’s The Wall in Berlin 1990, the many performances associated with "Wind of Change.

" The biggest audience, an amazing 750.000 fans, came to see the Scorpions rock Poland in 2000.

But according to their motto "Don’t Stop At The Top" the band feels that there is always more to accomplish.

"There are still some places we haven’t been" says guitarist Matthias Jabs.

"Who knows? This year we may go to China!" As for other wishes, "It would be great if we could stay at the top in America and Europe," says Rudolf Schenker, but he is not ungrateful for the level of success the Scorpions have already achieved.

"To be able to play our music for people all over the world makes us feel so good.

We’re happy right now.

" He can’t conjecture how many more years the Scorpions have in their future, but he’s sure they will make the most of their present.

"The biggest challenge for us is to come up with a great rock record that will be an album in the best Scorpions tradition", vowing to continue as long as they have fun and the passion for performing motivates them.

Klaus Meine surmises that the Scorpions will be remembered for that above all.

Yes, their catalog of hits will endure.

But as a band most at home on the concert stage, that image is the one Meine hopes will be their legacy.

"This is a live band that always gave 200% on stage," he says.

"Wherever there was electricity, we plugged in.

" And rocked like a hurricane.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers Biography

2009-01-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

The Red Hot Chili Peppers entered the rock world like they entered life--bare-assed with nothing much on except their socks. With an early dictum of rocking with their cocks out, the Peppers were almost more well-known for their antics than their funk-laced, spicy rock. Once the Peppers packed their penises in their pants and offered up only their naked souls, they struck it rich in the mainstream--seven years after they formed.

Classmates at Los Angeles’s Fairfax High School, bassist Flea (Michael Balzary), drummer Jack Irons, guitarist Hillel Slovack and MC Anthony Kiedes first made music together as Anthem School. Years later, in 1984, the band reunited as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, stripped down to their socks on their cocks, blended punk-thrash and funk-hop, and released their self-titled debut--which featured one stellar song "True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes." The band gained credibility by having the P-Funk maestro, George Clinton, produce their follow up, Freaky Styley, a more accomplished outing with groovier songs including "Hollywood" and "Jungle Man." Their reputation as sexist party animals was driven home with the song "Special Secret Song Inside" (aka: "Party On Your Pussy") from their third outing, 1987’s The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, which also contained "Fight Like A Brave." Rumors of drug abuse throughout the band were driven home when Slovack died of a heroin overdose in 1988 and Irons subsequently quit, reportedly because of Kiedes’ drug problems. A more sober Chili Peppers reunited with fan John Frusciante on guitar and Chad Smith on drums to record Mother’s Milk, their highest charting album--No. 52--to date, thanks to the bass-heavy, funk-pumped cover of Stevie Wonder’s "Higher Ground." With the increased attention came increased antics that resulted in various charges--from exposure to battery--against Flea, Kiedes and Smith. The Chili Peppers entered the ’90s in a mansion (reportedly haunted) with veteran rock producer Rick Rubin; the result was the 17-track BloodSugarSexMagik, their most rocking record. While "Suck My Kiss" and "Give It Away" were still driving and rapping, it was the more mellow "Breaking The Girl" and "Under The Bridge" in which Kiedes stretched his vocal abilities, and even though he didn’t exactly meet the goal, it was enough to land the band in the mainstream world, selling almost four million records and landing them the headlining slot on Lollapalooza ’92. Frusciante split before the festival gigs, and after several guitarists, the band finally settled on Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane’s Addiction. Prior to Navarro joining, it was clearly Flea’s wondrous playing that stole the show, but with the black garbed guitarist, the Peppers now have two exceptional players. While BloodSugarSexMagik dragged and lagged through many of the songs, Navarro propelled 1995’s One Hot Minute with his stellar abilities--both at wild, tripped-out licks as well as delicate acoustic strumming. With the party rock mentality deeply buried in the ’80s, Kiedes penned a few lyrical beauties--devoting less time to sex and bragging and more to personal reality.

Through their cock-rock period, and even into attempts at serious behavior, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ career had been peppered with drug abuse and trips to rehab; these battles with the needle caused the untimely death of one member early on, and could have resulted in the demise of the band. But in 1999, Navarro departed for a solo career and a cleaned-up Frusciante returned for the Peppers’ "comeback" album, Californication, which was a massive smash and spawned three big singles ("Scar Tissue," "Otherside," and the title track, all of which were accompanied by awesome music videos). RHCP were back on top of their game and on top of the charts. It remains to be seen if they can stay on top with their long-awaited follow-up, By The Way.

Nirvana Biography

2009-01-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

Kurt Donald Cobain was the leader of Nirvana, the multi-platinum grunge band that redefined the sound of the nineties.

Cobain was born on the 20th of February 1967 in Hoquaim, a small town 140 kilometres south-west of Seattle. His mother was a cocktail waitress and his father was an auto mechanic. Cobain soon moved to nearby Aberdeen, a depressed and dying logging town.

Cobain was for most his childhood a sickly bronchitic child. Matters were made worse when Cobain’s parent’s divorced when he was seven and by his own account Cobain said he never felt loved or secure again. He became increasingly difficult, anti-social and withdrawn after his parent’s divorce. Cobain also said that his parent’s traumatic split fueled a lot of the anguish in Nirvana’s music.

After his parent’s divorce Cobain found himself shuttled back and forth between various relatives and at one stage homeless living under a bridge.

When Cobain was eleven he heard and was captivated by the Britain’s Sex Pistols and after their self-destruction Cobain and friend Krist Novoselic continued to listen to the wave of British bands including Joy Division the nihilistic post-punk band that some say Nirvana are directly descended from in form of mood, melody and lyrical quality.

Cobain’s artistry and iconoclastic attitude didn’t win many friends in high school and sometimes earned him beatings from "jocks" Cobain got even by spray painting "QUEER" on their pick-up trucks. By 1985 Aberdeen was dead and Cobain’s next stop was Olympia. Cobain formed and reformed a series of bands before Nirvana came to be in 1986. Nirvana was an uneasy alliance between Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and eventually drummer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Grohl

By 1988 Nirvana were doing shows and had demo tapes going around. In 1989 Nirvana recorded their rough-edged first album Bleach for local Seattle independent label Sub-Pop

In Britain Nirvana received a lot of recognition and in 1991 their contract was bought out by Geffen, they signed to the mega-label, the first non-mainstream band to do so. Two and a half years after Nirvana’s first C.D. Bleach was released they released Nevermind, a series of different, crunching, screaming songs that along with it’s first single Smells Like Teen Spirit would propel Nirvana to mainstream stardom.

Smells Like Teen Spirit became Nirvana’s most highly acclaimed and instantly recognizable song. Not many people can decipher it’s exact lyrics but Cobain used a seductive hookline to hook the listener. Nevermind went on to sell ten million copies and make a reported $550 million (US) leaving Nirvana overnight millionaires. Cobain was shocked at the reception of his highly personal and passionate music repeatedly telling reporters that none of the band ever, ever expected anything like this. It quickly became obvious that the obsessively sickly and sensitive 24yr old was not going to cope well with the rock’n roll lifestyle. "If there was a rock star 101 course, I’d really have like to take it," Cobain once observed. Cobain fell into heroin in the early 90’s, he said he used it as a shield against the rigorous demands of touring and to stop the pain of stomach ulcers or an irritated bowel. Through the touring and pressure Cobain continued to write his very personal acutely focused lyrics.

Cobain was distressed to find out that what he wrote and how it was interpreted could quite often be miles apart. He was appalled when he found out that Polly a heavily ironic anti-rape song had been used as background music in a real gang-rape. He later appealed to fans on the Incesticide liner notes "If any of you don’t like gays or women or blacks, please leave us the fuck alone." It was to no avail, Cobain found that as an overnight millionaire musician control was something he had very little of. Cobain also worried that his band had sold-out, that it was attracting the wrong kind of fans (i.e the type that used to beat him up.)

In February 1992 Cobain skipped off to Hawaii to marry the already pregnant Courtney Love. Later in the year Nirvana released Incesticide and in August Cobain had hospital treatment for heroin abuse. Shortly after Frances Bean Cobain was born. In early 1993 In Utero was released into the top spot on the music charts. In Utero was widely acclaimed by the music press and it contains some of Cobain’s most passionate work. In Utero was a lot more open than Nirvana’s previous albums. Songs like All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box detailed aspects of Cobain’s sometimes shaky marriage, other songs like Scentless Apprentice detailed the agonies and struggles of Cobain’s experiences.

Nirvana embarked on a support tour and recorded and filmed an "unplugged" (acoustic) performance for MTV in November of 1993. Nirvana’s choice to honour bands and people that had influenced them and Cobain’s passionate and intense vocals especially on "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"silenced many of their who had labeled Cobain talentless. Rumors circulated that the MTV Unplugged compilation would be Nirvana’s last album and the band were splitting up.

Cobain was a gun fanatic and always had several in his possession or in various forms of confiscation. In the northern winter of 1993-94 Nirvana embarked on an extensive European tour. Twenty concerts into the tour Cobain developed throat problems and their schedule was interrupted while he recovered. While recovering Cobain flew to Rome to join his wife who was also preparing to tour with her own band.

On March the 4th Cobain was rushed to hospital in a coma after an unsuccessful suicide bid in which he washed down about fifty prescription painkillers with champagne. The suicide bid was officially called an accident and was not even made known to close friends and associates. Several days later he returned to Seattle. Cobain’s wife, friends and managers convinced Cobain, who was still in deep distress to enter a detox program in L.A. According to a missing person’s report filed by his mother Cobain fled after only a few days of the program.

Cobain was cited in the Seattle area with a shotgun. Days later on the 5th of April he barricaded himself into the granny flat behind his mansion, put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. On Thursday April the 7th ~ two days after a medical examiner says Cobain shot himself and the day before his body was found police say Courtney Love herself was taken to hospital in L.A. for a drug overdose. Released on bail, Love checked herself into a rehab center but left soon after a friend called her the next day with news of Cobain’s death.

Cobain’s body was found when an electrician visiting the house to install a security system went round the back of the house when no one answered the front door and peered through windows. He thought he saw a mannequin sprawled on the floor until he noticed a splotch of blood by Cobain’s ear. When police broke down the door they found Cobain dead on the floor, a shotgun still pointed at his chin and on a nearby counter a suicide note written in red ink addressed to Love and the couples then 19 month old daughter Frances Bean.

The suicide note ended with the words "I love you, I love you." Two days after Kurt Cobain’s body was found about 5,000 people gathered in Seattle for a candlelight vigil. the distraught crowd filled the air with profane chants, burnt their flannel shirts and fought with police. They also listened to a tape made by Cobain’s wife in which she read from his suicide note. Several distressed teenagers in the U.S. and Australia killed themselves. The mainstream media was lambasted for it’s lack of respect and understanding of youth culture.

We’ll Always Remember

Biography By Mick Ronson (I think)

Led Zeppelin Biography

2009-01-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

The Yardbird’s played their final show at Luton Technical College in 1968. But what was seemingly an end; turned out to be the beginning of three tremendously successful careers in music. The careers of guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. It’s seems the three couldn’t agree on anything creatively in the Yardbirds. They were all leaders.

After the bands break-up, Jimmy Page was left with little more than a series of concert obligations. He started jamming with John Paul Jones, a session player, who had collaborated with likes of the Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits and Dusty Springfield. The duo discussed forming a new group, but ended up delaying their plans to back Donovan on his Hurdy Gurdy LP.

After hearing of Pages’ intention of starting a new band, vocalist Terry Reid suggested he hear Robert Plant. When Page got a chance to check Plant out, Jimmy not only ended up liking his voice, but also his stage presence. Plant, in turn, suggested they recruit John Bonham, the drummer of his old Birmingham group, Band of Joy. The foursome clicked so nicely that they toured Scandinavia during October 1968 under the name the New Yardbirds.

By 1969 the group changed their name to Led Zeppelin, recorded, and released their first self-titled album. Within two months the album reached Billboard’s Top Ten. The album is essentially Zeppelin most blues-driven release. Page’s early style drew so heavily on the blues that Willie Dixon later won a large settlement for the copyright infringement. Rumour has it that a few of song titles off the first release ripped off old blues titles; they only changed one word in these songs catch phrases.

Led Zeppelin II and every release after has attained Platinum status, and in 1973 the group began to break box-office records set by the Beatles. By 1975 Led Zeppelin was the most commercially successful rock band in the world.

The group broke up after the tragic death of drummer John Bonham. He died from what is medically termed as asphyxiation: inhaling his own vomit during sleep after a drinking binge. His hard-hitting style has so integral to the bands sound that the remaining members decided to call it quits. Without Bonham there could be no Led Zeppelin.

The mighty Zeppelin has experimented with several musical styles over the bands reign. Their sound began with Blues and thunderous Heavy Metal, softened to mystical Folk and tumbled into the realm of Funk, Psychedelic Rock, and the fusion and integration of all these styles. Perhaps this is why their music has attained the lasting value that only two other groups have been able to secure, the Beatles and Pink Floyd.

My Chemical Romance Biography

2009-01-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

With their emo-punk songcraft, theatrical vocals, and stylized neo-goth appearance, My Chemical Romance rose from the East Coast underground to the forefront of modern rock talent during the mid-2000s. In keeping with the tragic element of the group’s best-known singles -- including "Helena,", "I’m Not OK (I Promise)," "Famous Last Words," and "Welcome to the Black Parade" -- My Chemical Romance has roots in catastrophe, as frontman Gerard Way decided to form the band after watching New York’s Twin Towers collapse on September 11th, 2001. Drummer Matt Pelissier joined the project one week later, while Way dealt with his growing anxiety by penning the group’s first song,"Skylines and Turnstiles". Guitarist Ray Toro climbed aboard soon after, and the quintet’s ranks solidified with the addition of bassist Mikey Way (Gerard’s younger brother) and guitarist Frank Iero. With their lineup in place, the bandmates began playing shows along the Northeast Corridor and made plans to start work on an album.

My Chemical Romance’s debut effort, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, appeared in 2002 courtesy of New York’s Eyeball Records. Comparisons to Thursday were frequent; both bands hailed from New Jersey, both had recorded for Eyeball, and both combined punk-pop’s musical aggression with introspective, confessional lyrics. The album attracted a modest underground following, and My Chemical Romance jumped to the big leagues in 2003 by signing with Reprise Records. The following year, they released the aggressively slick Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, a platinum-selling album that featured cover art by Way himself. Proving to be hugely popular, the album produced several radio singles and popular MTV videos, including "I’m Not Okay (I Promise)," "Helena," and "The Ghost of You."

Amid this growing popularity, Pelissier departed in mid-2004 and was replaced by drummer Bob Bryar, who had previously met the band while running sound for the Used (with whom the band had toured several years prior). Relentless touring followed, with My Chemical Romance headlining dates with Alkaline Trio, scoring an opening slot on Green Day’s American Idiot tour, and sharing bills with Story of the Year and Taking Back Sunday. As My Chemical Romance prepared to enter the studio for their third album, they issued a stop-gap recording, Life on the Murder Scene, in March 2006. The CD/double-DVD package offered an extensive combination of demos, music videos, live footage, interviews, and more; it sufficiently tied fans over until My Chemical Romance (now boasting a sober and bleach-haired Gerard Way) issued the darkly conceptual and highly ambitious The Black Parade that October. Anticipation for the album reached its apex upon the release of its grandiose first single, "Welcome to the Black Parade," whose elaborate music video looked and sounded like the result of Tim Burton directing Queen. The record acheived platinum status by early 2007 and was followed by a live recording, Black Parade Is Dead!, in 2008. Andrew Leahey & Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

Megadeth Biography

2009-01-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

Formed by guitarist Dave Mustaine after he was forced out of Metallica, Megadeth long represented the dark and nasty side of American thrash. Between the manic precision of Mustaine’s riffage, which unlike most thrash bands locked perfectly with the machine-gun pulse of the kick drum, and the inspired cynicism of his songwriting, Megadeth perfectly captured the mood of those metal fans who thought the world was going to hell, and frankly didn’t give a shit. From Killing Is My Business to So Far, So Good, the albums are largely interchangeable, right down to the ellipses in the titles. Rust in Peace upped the ante with "Hangar 18," an impressively expansive conspiracy number, and Countdown to Extinction showed unexpected pop savvy with "Symphony of Destruction" and "Sweating Bullets." By Youthanasia, the band even managed to deliver credible ballads -- well, slow and mostly sensitive songs, anyway -- but it’s Cryptic Writings that marks the band’s zenith. Not only has the band broadened its palette to include synths and electronic treatments, but the powerful, confessional "Use the Man" gives the band a single as strong as any in the Metallica songbook. (In between Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings, Mustaine also released an album under the name MD.45, with punk legend Lee Ving of Fear.) Risk, unfortunately, doesn’t quite maintain that momentum (although it has its moments), while the sluggish, retrograde The World Needs a Hero actually seems a step back for the band.

As it turned out, the album was nearly Megadeth’s last hurrah. Mustaine injured his arm a year after Hero’s release, and killed Megadeth. Sanctuary did its best to keep the name alive in lieu of new material, releasing Rude Awakening, a live recap of that album and the bulk of the Megadeth catalogue that shows off most of the band’s strengths, and Still Alive, a shameless attempt to cash in on fans’ desire for leftovers. Fortunately, Mustaine eventually recovered from his injury, re-formed Megadeth, and remastered the band’s Capitol albums.

Those seeking an overview will find Capitol Punishment to be a perfunctory best-of with two previously-unreleased tracks serving as an alleged bonus; Hidden Treasures is a compendium of nonalbum tracks that’s worth hearing only for "99 Ways to Die." (J.D. CONSIDINE)

From 2004’s The New Rolling Stone Album Guide

Linkin Park Biography

2009-01-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

Band History

The band saw its and first beginings in emcee/vocalist Mike Shinoda’s small bedroom studio, where he and Brad Delson recorded the band’s first material in 1996. The two had attended high school together, where they met the band’s drummer, Rob Bourdon. Shinoda hooked up with DJ Joseph Hahn while studying illustration at Art Center College in Pasadena. Meanwhile, attending UCLA, Delson shared an apartment with bassist Phoenix, who left the band after college and returned a year later. At this point, they named themselves Xero and recorded several demo tracks. They never got signed, and the project floundered. Then Shinoda decided to hire a vocalist, and put out an ad. They got Chester Bennington, a transplanted Arizona native who started making records when he was 16. ’When I was two, I used to run around singing Foreigner songs - there’s tapes of me doing that... since I learned how to talk I’ve been telling everybody I was gonna grow up to be a singer.’ laughs Bennington.

The band called itself Hybrid Theory after the addition of Bennington (the idea being that they were a hybrid of rock and rap), however, due to a trademark issue with a band called Hybrid, they were forced to change their name. Some discarded ideas (serious or not) were Clear (the band’s favorite), Probing Lagers (which they thought was the lamest), Ten PM Stocker (because they would record every night at 10 pm at a place on Stocker Street) and Platinum Lotus Foundation. Eventually, they settled on Lincoln Park, suggested by Bennington because after band practice he would have to drive past there to get home. However the domain ’lincolnpark.com’ cost more than the band could afford, so they changed the spelling to Linkin Park. However, it has also been suggested that the name ’Linkin Park’ was suggested so that the band would appear right next to Limp Bizkit at record stores.

Working with an independent label, the band recorded the album Hybrid Theory EP, which featured ’Carousel’, ’Technique’, ’Step Up’, ’And One’, ’High Voltage’, ’Part of Me’.

After being signed to Warner Brothers in 1999 their first album, Hybrid Theory, was released in 2000. It was the top-selling album in the United States and New Zealand in 2001, with the hit singles ’One Step Closer’, ’Crawling’, ’Papercut’, ’In The End’ and ’Points of Authority’. The album is notable for its absence of profanity, in contrast to many other nu metal bands’ songs.

Linkin Park were part of the Ozzfest in 2001, touring along side Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Crazy Town, Papa Roach, and Disturbed. Linkin Park have also created their own tour - Projekt: Revolution, and on it have toured with Cypress Hill, Adema, DJ Z-Trip, Xzibit, Mudvayne and Blindside.

In 2002, they released a remix album of their Hybrid Theory album, called Reanimation, as well as releasing a remix version of their song, ’Points Of Authority’.

In 2003 their new studio album was released, titled Meteora, which debuted at #1 in the US and UK, and #2 in Australia. It contained the singles, ’Somewhere I Belong’, ’Faint’, ’Numb’, ’From The Inside’ and ’Breaking The Habit’. Later in the year, they joined forces with fellow nu-metal band Limp Bizkit and Metallica for the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003. From this tour, Linkin Park released a new CD/DVD set called Live in Texas. This set contains tracks from their three previous records, and was filmed on location at their Summer Sanitarium performances in Dallas and Houston, Texas .

In 2004, Linkin Park created the Meteora World Tour. This tour included Linkin Park, P.O.D., Hoobastank, and Story of the Year.

In 2004, Linkin Park was touring with Snoop Dogg, The Used, Korn, and Less Than Jake on the main stage, and No Warning, Ghostface, Funeral For A Friend, M.O.P., and Downset on the second stage as part of Projekt Revolution 2004. They also had a travelling DJ, Z-Trip with them, along with Irvin the Urban Action Figure.

On November 30, 2004, Linkin Park released Collision Course, a collaboration with rapper Jay-Z featuring rap-style remixes (’mash-ups’) of songs from Meteora and Hybrid Theory using lyrics from Jay-Z’s repertoire. Collision Course debuted at #1 in the US, but only got to # 17 in the UK. In Holland Collision Course made it to a 7th place. Their first Collision Course hit single ’Numb/Encore’ reached #1 at the Free Record Shop Download Charts in Holland.

Members

Chester Bennington (vocals)

Mike Shinoda (vocals/sampling/guitar/keyboard)

Joe Hahn (turntables, samples)

Brad Delson guitar

Rob Bourdon drums

Dave ’Phoenix’ Farrell bass

Albums

Hybrid Theory EP (1998) US Sales: 1000 (only 1000 printed)

500 copies reprinted for the first 500 people to join LPU

Hybrid Theory (2000) #2 US, #4 UK, US Sales: 8,000,000

Reanimation (2002) (remix album including Hybrid Theory and older tracks) #2 US, #3 UK, US Sales: 1,000,000

LP Underground v2.0 (2002) Unedited songs A.06, Dedicated (Demo 1999) & My December, Pts.Of.Athrty (The Crystal Method Remix) & With you & High Voltage live (Gift to join in LP Fan club)

LP Underground v2.5 (2003) Fixed Hybrid Theory EP & LP Underground v2.0 songs, two Reanimation Songs & a New High Voltage Remix (Gift to join in LP Fan club)

Meteora (2003) #1 US, #1 UK, US Sales: 4,000,000

Meteora was released as a combo pack including a ’behind the scenes’ DVD disc,as well as just the Meteora album.

Live in Texas (2003) #23 US, US Sales: 500,000

LP Underground v3.0 (2003) Audio Tracks of DVD Live In Texas (Gift to join in LP Fan club)

LP Underground v4.0 (2004) Sold My Soul To Yo Mama Mr. Hahn’s Instrumental (with partials of Papercut), Standing In The Middle, Live versions of Breaking the Habit, 1Stp Klosr & a mix of Step Up/Nobody’s Listening/It’s Goin’ Down (Gift to join in LP Fan club)

Collision Course - (Mash-up album featuring rapper Jay-Z’s mixes of songs from Meteora and Hybrid Theory) (2004)

KoRN Biography

2009-01-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

Korn’s cathartic alternative metal sound positioned the group among the most popular and provocative to emerge during the post-grunge era. Korn began their existence as the Bakersfield, CA-based metal band LAPD, which included guitarists James "Munky" Shaffer and Brian "Head" Welch, bassist Reginald "Fieldy Snuts" Arvizu, and drummer David Silveria. After issuing an LP, the members of LAPD in 1993 crossed paths with Jonathan Davis, a mortuary science student moonlighting as the lead vocalist for the local group Sexart. They soon asked Davis to join the band, and upon his arrival the quintet rechristened itself Korn.

After signing to Epic’s Immortal imprint, they issued their debut album in late 1994; thanks to a relentless tour schedule that included stints opening for Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth, Marilyn Manson, and 311, the record slowly but steadily rose the charts, eventually going gold. Its 1996 follow-up, Life Is Peachy, was a more immediate smash, reaching the number three spot on the pop album charts. The following summer, they headlined Lollapalooza, but were forced to drop off the tour when Shaffer was diagnosed with viral meningitis. While recording their best-selling 1998 LP Follow the Leader, Korn made national headlines when a student in Zeeland, MI, was suspended for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the group’s logo (the school’s principal later declared their music "indecent, vulgar, and obscene," prompting the band to issue a cease-and-desist order). Their annual Family Values tour also started in 1998, featuring a lineup that consisted of Korn collaborators such as Limp Bizkit and Ice Cube and likeminded artists such as Rammstein. The tour was an enormous success, so much so that it continued on with Korn overseeing the lineup for years after.

Issues followed in 1999, and in typical Korn fashion they debuted their new single in an episode of South Park. The band toured behind the album into the next year, but their efforts were cut short by an injury that took out drummer David Silveria. They hired former Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin to help them finish the remaining shows, and took a short rest before joining a summer tour with Metallica, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000, and System of a Down. (Silveria later returned amid rumors of leaving the band for a fashion career, but these stemmed from some modeling work he had done before his injury.) In the meantime, Fieldy released a gangsta rap album and Davis scored the film Queen of the Damned, but at the end of 2001 the band reunited as a unit and entered the studio. A few shows with Static-X helped iron the wrinkles out of the new material, and by the next summer they had Untouchables ready for release. Korn did a run of Ozzfest dates in support, and the album was another smash hit. The self-produced Take a Look in the Mirror arrived in 2003. Billed by the band as a reconsideration of their sound, the album was accompanied by a tour of smaller venues called "Back to Basics."

In 2005, Welch left the band, evidently due to his newfound Christian faith. But Korn continued, playing shows that summer as a quartet and signing an expansive recording and development deal with Virgin. The following December they released See You on the Other Side, a number three hit that featured a batch of songs co-written with hitmaking production team the Matrix. Live & Rare, an aptly titled disc of live recordings and rarities, was released in May 2006 with the live acoustic recording MTV Unplugged following in March 2007. Later that year, after returning to the studio, this time without drummer David Silveria, the band resurfaced with an underwhelming album appropriately named Untitled. Jason Ankeny & Bradley Torreano, All Music Guide

Jet Biography (2)

2009-01-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

Everyone talks about rock these days, the problem is, they forget about the roll. How Keith Richards- who made this comment about post 90’s rock music- must love Jet. They rock like there’s no tomorrow yet they also roll like the greats of yesterday. As their debut album ’Get Born’ proves, this Melbourne four piece, Nic Cester (guitar/vocals), Chris Cester (drums/vocals), Cameron Muncey (guitar/vocals), Mark Wilson (bass), stand for everything that is raw, primitive, direct and loose about rock music. Like all the best bands they trace their influences to the source. I think we were always interested in tracing the roots of this music, explains Chris. We wanted to look beyond the sixties and the seventies and find out where that music came from. That’s why we do a cover of Elvis’ ’That’s Alright Mamma’ at the shows. It’s just a natural exploration for us.

Jet are steeped in rock folklore. Like The Kinks, AC/DC and Oasis before them- all major influences- they feature two photogenic brothers (Nic and Chris Cester). Their name is on loan from Paul McCartney’s frazzled post-Beatles peak from 1973, whilst their debut E.P. ’Dirty Sweet’ (Rubber Records) took it’s name from T-Rex, and in acoustic highlight ’Move On’ had the song The Faces were too hungover to write. But then that’s what happens if the first album you ever heard was ’Abbey Road.’ My parents had some bad records, explains Chris. But that one always stood out as great. I’d sit there banging on these cushions with a pair of chopsticks playing ’Mean Mr. Mustard.’ We formed an entire imaginary band, where we’d play guitars on tennis rackets and do gigs. We were called The Boys, I think?

Such fantasy infuses Jet. Just as Liam Gallagher remarked that BRMC deserved their early Oasis support slots because they ’dared to look like a rock’n’roll band’ so Jet see rock music with a clarity only available to those who grew up five thousand miles away in Australia. Where US and British bands subconsciously obey the whims of a media for whom rock’s central texts (Beatles, Stones) are somehow seen as passŽ, Jet bring with them a lucidity and freshness that comes from both youth and sheer Oz-centric bloodymindedness. Jet don’t know the rules, and even if they did, they’d break them.

Beginnings. Having grown up in the suburbs of Melbourne on a strict diet of classic rock, the Cester brothers (Nic is three years older at 24) found disaster looming. A terrible blight was about to hit the youth of the Melbourne suburbs. Grunge. I couldn’t stand the stuff, continues Nic. To me that was real slit your wrists music. It didn’t relate to this idea of rock’n’roll I had in my head. I’d grown up loving The Who, The Easybeats, The Faces and The Stones and these guys were taking music somewhere I didn’t want to go. They didn’t have that feeling in the music that all great bands have got. Oasis were the last ones.

A long spell in the netherworld of the Melbourne live circuit followed. At the time I think we felt we weren’t ever going to break free from that scene, explains Nic. That’s why songs like ’Radio Song’ have got that feeling of resignation about them. At the time it was unimaginable that a band like ours would get any recognition at all. As with everything, timing was all. Having recruited towering bassist Mark Wilson and sworn to get serious Jet’s first few shows coincided with the global success of local heroes The Vines. With the A&R feeding frenzy fuelled by a breathless review in the NME of debut single ’Take It Or Leave It’ describing it as a hybrid of the ’Rolling Stones and the balls-out stadium rock of AC/DC’ the band duly signed to Elektra, the very birthplace of classic American rock.

The result is ’Get Born.’ Produced by Dave Sardy (Dandy Warhols, Marilyn Manson) at the legendary Sunset Sound Studios in LA, ’Get Born’ is a reminder of rock at its most primal, vibrant and honest. At its frantic best: ’Get What You Need’; ’Are You Gonna Be My Girl’; ’Get Me Out Of Here’; it hits you straight and deep in a manner to rival The Ramones. Elsewhere with the Nic-penned ’Look What You’ve Done’, the elegiac ’Radio Song’ and the ELO-ish ’Lazy Gun’ they suggest the wistfulness of everyone from Badfinger to Todd Rundgren after he called time on The Nazz. Lyrically it’s home to an epic wantonness to match legendary Oz-rockers The Saints. When Nic growls I know we ain’t got much to say in new single ’Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ or Dance little deejay c’mon in ’Rollover DJ’ you can almost hear the female knees buckle and feel ten years of club culture whither on the vine. We wanted to make a contemporary album, states Chris. We didn’t want to make a one dimensional rock’n’roll record either. Albums should be able to reflect all sides of your personality, that’s why songs like ’Timothy’ and ’Radio Song’ are on there. We’re trying to get the same amount of emotion you get when you listen to an album like Goats Head Soup. There are quieter moments and others where you just want to go crazy.

Proof of their success came with a call halfway through recording from The Stones camp offering the band the support slot on the Australian leg of The Rolling Stones world tour. Clearly, Jet have got the roll.

I like the idea of ’Get Born’ having two meanings adds Chris finally. Like ’Rubber Soul.’ It’s basically a reminder to forget your problems and celebrate the moment instead. It’s a rejection of all those feelings of negativity or depression you might get. It’s a heartfelt thing, and that’s where that primal energy comes through the music.

The choice is yours. Or, as Nic puts it so succinctly on ’Take It Or Leave It’: You better roll with whatever you know/ You better move/ If you don’t know what to do, here’s the groove.

GreenDay Biography

2009-01-01T16:50:00.000-08:00

Out of all the post-Nirvana American alternative bands to break into the pop mainstream, Green Day was second only to Pearl Jam in terms of influence. At their core, Green Day was simply punk revivalists, recharging the energy of speedy, catchy three-chord punk-pop songs. Though their music wasn’t particularly innovative, they brought the sound of late-’70s punk to a new, younger generation with Dookie, their 1994 major-label debut. Green Day wasn’t always able to sustain their success -- Dookie sold over eight million, while its follow-up, Insomniac, only sold a quarter of its predecessor -- yet their influence was far-reaching because they opened the doors for a flood of American neo-punk, punk metal, and third wave ska revivalists.

Green Day was part of the northern California underground punk scene. Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Mike Dirnt (bass; born Mike Pritchard) formed their first band, Sweet Children, in Rodeo, CA, when they were 14 years old. By 1989, the group had added drummer Al Sobrante and changed its name to Green Day. That year, the band independently released its first EP, 1000 Hours, which was well received in the California hardcore punk scene. Soon, the group had signed a contract with the local independent label Lookout. Green Day’s first album, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hour, was released later that year. Shortly after its release, the band replaced Sobrante with Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III); Cool became the band’s permanent drummer.

Throughout the early ’90s, Green Day continued to cultivate a cult following, which only gained strength with the release of their second album, 1992’s Kerplunk. The underground success of Kerplunk led to a wave of interest from major record labels; the band eventually decided to sign with Reprise. Dookie, Green Day’s major-label debut, was released in the spring of 1994. Thanks to MTV support for the initial single, "Longview," Dookie became a major hit. The album continued to gain momentum throughout the summer, with the second single, "Basket Case," spending five weeks on the top of the American modern rock charts. At the end of the summer, the band stole the show at Woodstock ’94, which helped the sales of Dookie increase. By the time the fourth single, "When I Come Around," began its seven-week stay at number one on the modern rock charts in early 1995, Dookie had sold over five million copies in the U.S. alone; it would eventually top eight million in America, selling over ten million copies internationally. Dookie also won the 1994 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

Green Day quickly followed Dookie with Insomniac in the fall of 1995; during the summer, they hit number one again on the modern rock charts with "J.A.R.," their contribution to the Angus soundtrack. Insomniac performed well initially, entering the U.S. charts at number two, and selling over two million copies by the spring of 1996, yet none of its singles -- including the radio favorite "Brain Stew/Jaded" -- were as popular as those from Dookie. In the spring of 1996, Green Day abruptly canceled a European tour, claiming exhaustion. Following the cancellation, the band spent the rest of the year resting and writing new material, issuing Nimrod in late 1997. Three years later, their long-awaited follow-up, a refreshingly poppy record titled Warning, was released. Another long wait preceded 2004’s American Idiot, an aggressive rock opera that became a surprise success -- a chart-topper around the world, a multi-platinum seller, and easily the best reviewed album of their career. Green Day reveled in the album’s success, hitting numerous award shows and performing as part of Live 8 in July 2005. That fall brought Bullet in a Bible, which documented the trio’s expansive Idiot live show. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Dragon Force Biography

2009-01-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

DragonForce Line-upZP Theart – Lead and backing vocalsHerman Li – Lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocalsSam Totman – Lead and rhythm electric guitars, backing vocalsVadim Pruzhanov – Keyboards, Piano, backing vocalsDave Mackintosh – Drums, backing vocals

Prepare yourself for a gripping, exhilarating ride on January 9th, 2006. On that date, DragonForce release their hotly awaited third album, ‘Inhuman Rampage’. The title is an apt summation of a devastating musical journey, an unstoppable force that the six-man group’s forthcoming tour of duty will leave devastated cities in its wake. Combing the primal force of power metal with hard-earned musical proficiency, old-school thrash and generous quantities of muscular melody in a unique style that they call ‘extreme power metal’, DragonForce have established themselves as THE heavy metal band of the past year.The summer of 2005 saw them sharing festival stages with Iron Maiden, a sell-out headlining tour of the UK generating scenes of pandemonium. Intensive bouts of touring to accompany the band’s two albums to date – ‘Valley Of The Damned’ in January 2003 and the following year’s ‘Sonic Firestorm’ – has seen their fan-base escalate in quite dramatic terms. Meanwhile, the European metal press have swamped the band with almost universal reams of adulation. “DragonForce are getting bigger. Prepare for the onslaught,” Kerrang! warned. "DragonForce are as metal as f**k,” roared the UK’s Metal Hammer, “They’ll be enormous.” Writers and magazines from France, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Japan and many more wasted little time in falling under the band’s spell. Perhaps the best summation of all these accolades was Rock Hard (Germany)’s prediction that: “DragonForce could become the first British metal band in ages to reap respect from all over the world.”Against all the odds, DragonForce have single-handedly revitalised power metal in their homeland of the UK, awarding credibility to a genre that till their arrival was regarded was little more than a joke.Clearly, plenty rides on ‘Inhuman Rampage’. However, instead of resorting to panic and watering down the style of music that secured such a position of prominence, DragonForce have gone further over the top than ever before. The new album is faster, bolder and heavier – yet still as boldly stirring and distinctly hummable – as anything they’ve attempted so far.“We’ve come up with the ultimate formula,” proudly declares Herman Li, one half of the band’s unstoppable guitar army. “Combining intensity, chaos and melody, with all the DragonForce trademarks, it’s something that’s never been done before. “For us, this is the next evolution in the DragonForce sound,” he continues. “I’ve never heard an album that sounds like ‘Inhuman Rampage’ – the title says it all! It’s seriously gonna blow some heads off around the world during the next year.”The eight-song album was recorded at Thin Ice Studios in Surrey and guitarist Herman Li’s own studio in West London, some of its guitar sections recorded in hotel rooms while the band wound up the tour for ‘Sonic Firestorm’.Track titles like ‘Through The Fire And Flames’, ‘Operation Ground And Pound’, ‘Revolution Deathsquad’ and ‘Storming The Burning Fields’ leave the listener in no doubt of DragonForce’s malicious intent, and more importantly their aversion to climbing the ladder of popularity by selling out. Winner of the Dimebag Darrell Best Young Guitarist award at Metal Hammer UK’s Golden Gods, Li and his six-string partner in crime Sam Totman have never sounded hungrier nor eager to prove their worth. From the start of each song to its exhausted finish, notes fly from all angles.The album ends with its sole ballad, ‘The Trail Of Broken Hearts’, though as Totman quite rightly points out: “We still managed to squeeze three separate guitar solos in.

”However, shredding for shredding’s sake has never been among the band’s intentions.Although keen to squeeze as many notes as possible into certain songs, this time the pair has experimented with various new textures and sounds.“We wanted to keep things interesting, and there are sections of certain songs that will remind you of video games,” grins Hong Kong-born Li. “Many people will hear them and assume they were made by keyboards. That’s completely wrong. All those parts are done on the guitar.” Which isn’t intended to under-value the superlative contribution of Vadim Pruzhanov, who co-wrote several of the album’s songs (including ‘Body Breakdown’), is credited along with Li and Totman as a co-producer and whose dazzling keyboard runs are as daring and provocative as anything performed on guitar frets. A Ukrainian by birth, Pruzhanov is fast becoming known for lengthy and insane solo excursions during the band’s live shows and has really come into his own on ‘Inhuman Rampage’. On the other hand, vocalist ZP Theart is already regarded as the glimmering pearl in DragonForce’s crown. Far too many European power metal acts are faced up by singers with the merest grasp of English diction. South African-born, Theart is the real deal – a stomping, roaring, beer-swilling frontman who fronts the band with passion and wit.Alongside Li and Totman, Theart was a co-founder of DragonForce. The trio met in London in September 1999, using the name DragonHeart for their initial two years of existence. Quick to realise the possibilities of the internet, the band posted a set of demos at their website (www.dragonforce.com) and were rewarded not only by half a million downloads, but the interest of Sanctuary/Noise Records.Early support UK spots with Halford and Stratovarius, plus the timely recruitment of a superior rhythm section moulded a professionalism to match their commitment, and before too long the group were placed on the launching pad of international success. The sextet toured Europe, South East Asia and the Far East to promote the debut album, and before too long, critics were queuing up to praise DragonForce’s fusion of modern melodic power metal, the energy of speed metal and the confident, in-your-face delivery of bands twice their age.From day one, the band’s goal was to establish an identifiable style all of their own. To an outsider, the lyrics may seem to tell otherworldly tales of sword-wielding warriors occupying distant battlefield plains, but strip away the fantasy imagery and a message of modern-day positivity is right there beneath your nose.

But most of all, DragonForce’s success is attributable to playing ability and perhaps their most under-played asset of all – a skill for composing ultra-memorable, rabble-rousing heavy metal anthems. ‘Inhuman Rampage’ offers indisputable proof.

Avenged Seven Fold Biography

2009-01-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

It’s not always recognized in today’s “I want it all now” world, but patience is a virtue. And Huntington Beach, California rockers Avenged Sevenfold are being rewarded for remembering that golden rule. After releasing two highly successful albums on an indie label (Sounding The Seventh Trumpet and Waking The Fallen), the quintet is set to unleash its major label debut, City Of Evil, on Warner Bros. Records. City Of Evil, co-produced by Avenged Sevenfold, reunites the group with producer Mudrock (Waking The Fall).

“We’re at the point now where we’ve come into our own,” vocalist M. Shadows says of the ambitious City Of Evil, an 11-song collection that gives a middle finger to the idea of categorization, bridging the sonic guitar assault of Iron Maiden with the frenetic pace of Bad Religion and the musicianship of Dream Theater. “In Southern California you’re really brought up in the whole punk world. At the same time, we were growing up listening to Pantera, Megadeath, Metallica and Slayer records,” Shadows recalls. “So then you think, ‘I want to play in that kind of band, but I want to play in this kind of band.’ Then you pass that point and all of a sudden you’re just writing music and it comes out naturally. But that’s what happens cause of all the different influences we have. And we’re definitely not afraid to put anything in our songs if we think it calls for it.”

Yes, Avenged Sevenfold can rock, as the band recently did at a sold-out show at Hollywood’s Music Box Theater, where they turned the intensity of the new tunes up from 11 to about a 20, but these are musicians as well. However, as the group evidenced during the orchestral interlude in “The Wicked End,” a perfect metal moment live complemented by a boys choir and 14-piece string section, Avenged Sevenfold, in the tradition of Zeppelin, Queen, and Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “November Rain,” meld their intensity with a musical daring their hard rock forefathers would be proud of.

Those looking primarily for a cathartic release live, as so many of the kids moshing their brains out at the Music Box were, need only turn to the ferocious energy of “Bat Country,” a song written for Hunter S. Thompson about the band’s own adventures in Vegas, and the Maiden-esque guitar and Shadows’ perfect caterwaul of the line “city of evil” (where the album’s title stems from) in the opening “Beast & The Harlot.”

And while Avenged, whose influences range from Maiden, Pantera, and Guns ‘N’ Roses (Shadows calls Use Your Illusions 1 and 2 his favorite albums of all time) to Billy Joel, Queen, and Elvis Costello, may not be your typical hard rock band musically, they can hang with the best of them. Epic nights of late night fun have followed this band around the country, and it’s something all of the members freely acknowledge. They like to party, and they like to drink: and plenty. Additionally, and fitting with their chosen lifestyle, the members of Avenged could write the A7X equivalent of the Zagut guide to strip clubs in America.

“Strippers and bands have this bond,” Vengeance says. “They totally do. The band walks in and it’s like special treatment,” Shadows adds. So, what makes a good strip club? “I like strip clubs that are out of control,” he says, citing Vegas, New York and New Orleans (“It’s fucking Bourbon Street. It better be crazy,” he says) as home to some of the better establishments they’ve frequented.

Reflecting the complex personalities though that can lead a hard rock band to throw in a beautiful Flamenco guitar solo near the end of the new album’s savage “Sidewinder,” Avenged Sevenfold is far from just a party band, and it shows on City Of Evil. The album is bursting with displays of their virtuoso musicianship, from the intricate tempo changes of “Burn It Down” to the tender acoustic intro into a Spaghetti Western mixed with classical melody that provides the calm before the storm in the savage “Strength Of The World.”

The group has learned a great deal having spent the last three summers as part of the Warped tour. Shadows got some valuable advice from Fat Mike of NOFX, besides how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. “He’s like, ‘You know what, if you do this stuff long enough, you gotta fucking have fun. If you can’t have fun on tour then you’ll never last,’” Shadows recalls. “I think that’s a really important thing.”

Additionally, the quintet, which started on a Warped side stage, graduated to the second stage, and then made the move last year to main stage, a spot they’ll be returning to this year, learned a lot by the gradual progression. “We’ve seen bands that we started out with that got a little bit of a head start or an early break and they’re done. We’ve learned so much more doing it from the ground up. We’ve got so many more stories than other bands will have; so many more good times, bad times. It has made us stronger as a band too,” Vengeance says.

Hard work is what also accounts for the band’s fiercely loyal following, according to Shadows. “It’s rewarding ‘cause you know you have this really solid core fan base that has been through a lot and they believe in the band now as more than a band, it’s like a lifestyle,” he says. “If anything happens we don’t ever fall, it’s like they’re holding us up. We’re not on the radio, but everywhere we go we always have this rabid group of fans. We would’ve never had that if we had some lucky break and just jumped to the point we’re at now. I hope it gradually keeps going up. The slower you go the more I think it builds underneath you and we’re grateful for that. They can’t just get pulled out from underneath us. There’s nothing you can grab to pull; it’s fans that love that band. So, it’s very gratifying to be at this place now.”

AvA Biography

2009-01-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Angels & Airwaves is an rock band fronted by former blink-182 and Box Car Racer guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge. The band includes guitarist David Kennedy, notably from Over My Dead Body, Hazen Street and Box Car Racer, former Offspring drummer Atom Willard and former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter. The band has released two albums thus far: We Don’t Need to Whisper (2006) and I-Empire (2007). A documentary by the band entitled Start The Machine is also in the works.

History

We Don’t Need to Whisper

Tom Delonge began working on the debut album, We Don’t Need To Whisper, shortly after blink-182 began their hiatus in February 2005. As rumours were floating around about the band’s "indefinite hiatus", Delonge chose to abstain for half a year from any interviews surrounding the issue and his future plans. Instead he concentrated on writing and recording in his home-based studio. In September 2005, he finally spoke publicly in Kerrang! magazine, where he unveiled the name of his new band - "Angels & Airwaves". Upon fiddling randomly for several weeks with the AAA logo, Tom suddenly realized that if he were to invert the middle A into what appeared to be a V, he would have the name of his daughter, Ava. The band included his friend and guitarist David Kennedy from Box Car Racer, The Offspring drummer Adam "Atom" Willard and former The Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn.

In late 2005 and early 2006, Tom gave a number of very enthusiastic interviews about AVA’s upcoming debut album. He called it, among other things, ’the greatest Rock and Roll revolution’. He said it was ’the best music made in decades’, with ’the conceptual depth of Pink Floyd, the anthemic architecture of U2, the energy and youthful vibrancy of blink-182.

Angels & Airwaves released their first single, "The Adventure", on May 18, 2006. They released their first album, We Don’t Need to Whisper, a few days later on May 23, 2006. The album reached 4th on the Billboard 200, and went gold.

On April 23, 2007 - Ryan Sinn’s 28th birthday - it was announced that he did not play the Free Earth Day concert at the M.I.T. campus the day before (22 April 2007) due to difficulties with the band. Following this incident, on 15 May 2007, Sinn posted on the Army of Angels fan club message board, stating that he was no longer part of Angels & Airwaves. He was said to have received a call on the evening of 19 April 2007 concluding his relationship with the band. Sinn is now performing with Love Equals Death.

DeLonge has since talked about Sinn’s departure, telling Kerrang "He’s a really great person and a really great bass player. But we had different priorities and he had things going on in his life that he needed to take care of. The rest of us were relying on him to tackle those things, but he couldn’t do it. And so it put him into a defensive position."

Matt Wachter, previously of 30 Seconds to Mars, covered for him for the tour and was later confirmed as a permanent member of Angels and Airwaves. In addition to this, Atom Willard left the Offspring so he could focus on Angels & Airwaves full time.

I-Empire

In an issue of Kerrang! magazine, DeLonge discussed their upcoming album. He said the new album would be titled I-Empire and would be released on Universal/Island records. He stated that the new album will be stripped down, a departure from the heavy effects found in We Don’t Need To Whisper. DeLonge also revealed that I-Empire would contain 12 tracks, including "Star of Bethlehem", which was recorded in late 2006 and had already been released on the KROQ 2006 Christmas CD.

Angels & Airwaves have announced they are planning on releasing a documentary involving their music, titled Start The Machine, as well as a feature film entitled I-Empire after the upcoming album.

On June 18, 2007, the band released a newly designed website depicting a motorcyclist and a flash application with flashing text including "I-Empire, Fall 2007". The flash application also plays a short music clip, which is from the intro of "Love Like Rockets", along with a portion of the message from President Dwight D. Eisenhower via the Project SCORE Satellite in 1958. The portion of this message included on the website is, "Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space... Through this unique means I convey to you and to all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth..." The flash application ends with the quotation "If I had my own world... I’d build you an empire...".

On July 29, 2007, Angels & Airwaves played an acoustic show and allowed the audience to listen to four new songs from their upcoming album from Atom Willard’s iPod. They were "Secret Crowds", "Sirens", "Everything’s Magic", and "Lifeline". One audience member recorded the show on video and uploaded the songs onto their computer. These songs were spread all over the internet.

On August 29, 2007, Angels & Airwaves updated their website with a new trailer for the upcoming album. The trailer shows a montage of video from the upcoming I-Empire film and the upcoming documentary, featuring the new song "Secret Crowds". Additionally, another trailer was uploaded detailing the motion picture endeavors of the band.

The first single from the new album, "Everything’s Magic", was leaked onto the internet, and on August 25, 2007 it was the most requested song on California radio station KROQ. Angels & Airwaves began streaming the song on their myspace profile on August 28, 2007. It also became available on iTunes. It reached number three on the iTunes Rock Chart on September 11, 2007, before the song was even made available for nationwide airplay.

I-Empire debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No.9 with sales of 66,000 in its first week. It also reached number one on the iTunes Top Albums chart.

On November 16, 2007, Tom announced on Modlife.com that "Breathe" will be the next single/music video off of I-Empire.

Tom has since stated that "Secret Crowds" or "Call To Arms" will be the next single.

+44 Biography

2009-01-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

+44 (pronounced "Plus Forty Four", also known as (+44) or Plus-44) is a band formed by blink-182 members Mark Hoppus (bass guitar and vocals) and Travis Barker (drum set and keyboards). Also playing in the band are former Transplants touring guitarist Craig Fairbaugh and the lead guitarist of The Nervous Return, Shane Gallagher. The band’s debut album, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released on November 14, 2006 in the United States. According to Hoppus, the name +44 refers to the international dialing code of the United Kingdom where Hoppus and Barker first discussed the project.

went on a lunch break in February 2005, Hoppus and Barker wished to keep working on music, and started writing and recording new songs together in Barker’s basement. Originally, the two were using electronic drums, keyboards, samples and direct computer recording.

While working on demos, the two invited punk rock vocalist Carol Heller to sing. Satisfied with her performance, the three kept working on more songs. During the spring of 2005, guitarist Shane Gallagher joined the band. In October of 2005, Barker and Hoppus purchased a studio, according to Hoppus, this move marked a "turning point for +44,"[4] as the band started working in that studio exclusively, and was finally able to play live drums and loud guitars and vocals. The electronic element of the band became less prominent, but still a key element of the band’s sound. By that time Heller found she did not fit well with the band’s new direction, and coupled with her desire to start her family, she left the band. Heller’s vocals remain in the song "Make You Smile" and faintly in the background of the chorus in "Weatherman". Heller was also a back up voice in the "No, It Isn’t" demo. Hoppus also insists that there are no hard feelings between +44 and Heller, and that the band was in full support of her decision.

The band kept working on their first record, and about three-quarters of the way through recording, Craig Fairbaugh joined to play second guitar and backup vocals. He added harmony vocals and new dynamics to the remainder of the songs.

As the projected release date started to draw in, speculation on the title of the band’s debut album began to circulate. At first, it was believed that the album would be called "Little Death". This was later found out to be untrue, and the title was revealed as When Your Heart Stops Beating. A song, entitled "Lycanthrope" was released on the +44 website in early September 2006. This was only the second song that fans had heard other than "No, It Isn’t" and had more of a "punk" feel to it.

Later in September 2006, KROQ radio played the title track of the forthcoming album after a message from Mark Hoppus through his MySpace blog, alerting fans to this fact. The band played their first gig on the September 7, 2006 at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood; Hoppus stated it was the first show he had performed in two years. The audience received free shirts that say "THE FIRST SHOW SEPTEMBER 7, 2006 LOS ANGELES, CA THE ROXY THEATRE" or "BORN IN LONDON AND RAISED IN LOS ANGELES" (referring to the band being created during a conversation between Hoppus and Barker in London and the band writing/recording their record in Los Angeles). The band followed this up by their second ever gig and first ever UK gig in London at the Astoria. Both gigs were met with very encouraging reactions from fans, considering that at that time, only one completely recorded and mastered song, "When Your Heart Stops Beating" had been heard.

A music video for "When Your Heart Stops Beating" was shot in a factory in LA shortly after their first gig. Fans were invited along to feature in the video also. The video debuted in the US on TRL in late September 2006. During the shooting of the video, Travis Barker injured his arm, which was discovered weeks later after playing a whole European promo tour. Fans can hear parts of this through Mark’s Podcast Morning Zoo. This left the band with no option but to postpone part of its US tour, originally scheduled for October 2006, to December of the same year.

The release date for the album was confirmed to be November 14, 2006 for the US, November 13, 2006 for Europe, and November 11, 2006 for Australia. The band will be releasing two singles to support the album release. "When Your Heart Stops Beating" will be released in the US whereas in the UK, "Lycanthrope" will be released as a 7" vinyl on November 8, 2006. On November 13, 2006, a day before the release, during the show at the 9:30 Club, the album was sold early, with a free pink "Cliffdiving" 7".

Upon ordering a t-shirt from +44, fans were randomly chosen to receive a limited edition CD that contains the demo of the song "No, It Isn’t". The packaging states that there are only 500 of these discs

A brand new electronic remix of "When Your Heart Stops Beating" was added to the band’s official website, as well as their MySpace on October 23, 2006. The song "Lycanthrope" is on the soundtrack of the video game Tony Hawk’s Project 8, in which Travis Barker is an unlockable character.

Regarding the lyrical content of the album, Hoppus stated that "the +44 album is by far the most lyrically personal music I have ever written. The words are everything I have inside me put on a CD. This is the most personal album any of us have ever written. You want to know who we are, what we think, or how we feel? Listen to the +44 CD."The album refers to the break-up of blink-182, and "the ugly feelings that were left over afterwards," according to Hoppus. The song "No It Isn’t", released on Tom Delonge’s birthday, December 13, is primarily directed towards DeLonge’s departure from Blink-182.

The band appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on November 15, 2006, playing "When Your Heart Stops Beating", as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live on December 19, 2006.

The band then appeared on UK TV music show "The Rock Hour" describing the reasons of forming +44.

+44 did a cover of the Descendents’ song, "Christmas Vacation" for KROQ’s Kevin & Bean’s Christmas album, and on tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at First Avenue. Later they did a cover of Berlin’s song, The Metro, for their second European Tour.

+44’s When Your Heart Stops Beating was ranked number 2 in Maxim’s top 10 music for 2006.

The second UK single is "When Your Heart Stops Beating" to coincide with their current tour in Europe. It will be released on February 12, 2007. It will be released on 7" vinyl containing the title track and a electronic mix of the title track. The CD version will contain the title track and "Baby Come On". The single’s music video premiered on Kerrang TV on the January 11, 2007. The video is also available to select from the Kerrang Playlist. It can be seen on Scuzz, MTV 2 and The Box as well.

The third single in the UK will be "Chapter 13". Yahoo! released the video for the song which was directed by American video director Jason B. Bergh.

The second single in the USA is supposed to be "Baby Come On" according to Mark Hoppus’ blog, http://himynameismark.com/.

Due to his arm injury, Travis Barker pulled out of going on tour with +44 in Europe, but he will return to perform with +44 in the summer of 2007 with Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is..., Paul Wall, and Cobra Starship on the 2007 Honda Civic Tour. It is rumo

Aerosmith

2009-01-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Rock group. Although many critics of the 1970s dismissed the band as merely a vulgar imitation of the Rolling Stones and other British blues/rock acts, Aerosmith proved one of the most popular acts of the decade and succeeded in conveying their hard-rock style and attitude to a new generation of fans and musicians into the 1980s.

Originally labeled rock's "toxic twins", founding members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry defeated alcoholism and drug use in the 1980s while retaining their characteristic anti-establishment charm and attitude. Chris Norris commented in Spin: "Aerosmith is as close to Hollywood as rock-n-roll gets. In their 25 years, the Boston crew of Tyler, Perry, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer have gone from being the definitive 1970s hard-rock band to a textbook on economy, surliness, and soul to the ultimate comeback band brought back almost literally from the dead in the mid-1980s to the most bankable act in popular music."

Aerosmith began on the East Coast. Tyler was born Steven Tallarico, son of a second-generation Italian classical musician who played and taught music in Yonkers, New York. The Tallarico family also ran a resort in the Catskills in Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, where Tyler and Perry, whose family had a summer house there, first met. Tyler formed his first band, The Strangeurs, later changing the band's name to Chain Reaction. In 1966, Tyler recorded two singles with Chain Reaction. Meanwhile, Perry and future Aerosmith bass guitarist Hamilton formed a combo, Pipe Dream (later Jam Band), also in Sunapee.

In 1970, Perry, Tyler, and Hamilton (whose family also vacationed in Sunapee), formed Aerosmith, with Perry on guitar, Tyler on vocals, and Hamilton on bass guitar. Tyler commented on Perry's hard-edged guitar playing in a 1975 interview with Circus magazine: "I loved Joe's style. He always played out of tune and real sloppy and I just loved it." In 1971, the trio recruited rhythm guitar player Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer and began playing in the Boston area. The band cultivated a young audience following their first successful appearance at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.

Aerosmith signed with Columbia Records in 1972. The same year the band entered Intermedia Sound Studios to record their debut album, Aerosmith, which was recorded in only two weeks. Although the album garnered little notice and achieved only modest financial success, Aerosmith garnered a generally positive critical response and introduced the band to the American public with their classic single "Dream On." "We weren't too ambitious when we started out," commented Tyler in Aerosmith Unwired. "We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We just wanted it all."

Aerosmith's second album, Get Your Wings, further cemented their growing reputation, but received mixed reviews. The album, like its predecessor, fell short of achieving blockbuster status and provoked sarcastic comparisons to the Rolling Stones. Charley Walters of Rolling Stone, however, asserted that Aerosmith's second album "surges with pent-up fury yet avoids the excesses to which many peers succumb {the album} contains the vital elements of economy and ill-advised solo extravaganzas." Get Your Wings remained on the charts for a total of 86 weeks.

Between 1974-76, Aerosmith released many of their biggest hit singles, including "Same Old Song and Dance," "Sweet Emotion," and "Walk This Way." The band toured heavily as their venues became larger and press coverage correspondingly increased. According to Phil Hardy and Dave Laing in their Encyclopedia of Rock, the band's third album, Toys in the Attic, "represented a milestone in the band's career and became their first album to represent the perfect distillation of the Aerosmith sound, a muscular but surprisingly agile rhythm section with the twin guitars howling and snapping around Tyler's vocal lines." Toys in the Attic stayed on the charts for almost two years.

"Coming after a brief era when rock-n-roll fans in their adolescence were bombarded with the exaggerated sexual ambiguity of Alice {Cooper}, {David} Bowie, and {Lou} Reed, it must be reassuring to have a band that knows everything we've wanted to know about sex all along: that it's dirty," commented Wayne Robins of Toys in the Attic, in Creem. Toys became the band's first platinum record and spawned several underground classics, including "No More," and the title cut "Toys in the Attic". Tyler reminisced about the album's sweeping success in all media quarters in Aerosmith Unwired: "I remember reading in a newspaper, in like 1976, about how disgusting rock lyrics are, and they used "Walk This Way" as an example of how lyrics should be nice and wholesome. I couldn't believe it. Obviously, they didn't get the meaning of 'you ain't seen nothin' til you're down on your muffin'."

Rocks followed the formula of Toys in the Attic, also achieving widespread critical and financial success. "Back in the Saddle," "Sick as a Dog," and "Last Child" remained prominent requests on classic rock stations well into the 1990s. "We were doing a lot of ... drugs by then, but you can hear that whatever we were doing, it was still working for us," Perry mentioned in Aerosmith Unwired. Draw the Line, released on Columbia Records in 1978, went platinum faster than any previous Aerosmith album. The band's Draw The Line Tour lasted through 1978 and early 1979, and their previously hectic recording schedule slowed for the first time in their career. In 1978, Aerosmith released one live album, Live Bootleg, and made their Hollywood debut with an appearance in Robert Stigwood's ill-received film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which they covered the Beatles' "Come Together."

During the two-year tour that followed Draw the Line, Aerosmith developed a reputation for drug abuse of legendary proportions, and deep personal animosities developed between the primary band members. Tensions between Perry and Tyler escalated, and during the making of 1979's A Night in the Ruts, Perry bowed out to pursue a solo career with his own group, The Joe Perry Project. The band's 1980 debut, Let the Music Do the Talking, garnered Perry a minor hit with its title cut, and Perry did not return. Guitarist Jimmy Crespo replaced Perry and the band continued recording, keeping several tracks that Perry had recorded. However, shortly after A Night in the Ruts was completed, Brad Whitford left the band as well. In 1981, Aerosmith replaced Whitford with Rick Dufay.

In late 1981, Tyler was injured in a motorcycle accident in which he had been drinking. The accident took off his heel and put him in a hospital for over six months. By the time Aerosmith's next album, Rock in a Hard Place, appeared in 1982, Tyler found that the band's popularity had been eclipsed by a wide range of second-generation heavy metal bands.

In April of 1984, Aerosmith announced to the press that the original band would reunite and tour. "You should have felt the buzz the moment all five of us got together in the same room for the first time again," said Tyler. "We all started laughin, it was like the five years had never passed. We knew we'd made the right move." The band's members took their first steps toward defeating their various drug and alcohol addictions. After auditioning for Geffen Records, the band won a new contract.

For their 1986 comeback album, Done with Mirrors, Aerosmith recruited heavyweight producer Ted Templeman, who had worked with Van Halen on its first six albums. Recorded at the Power Station, the album was recorded quickly when, according to Perry, the band went in with some riffs and winged it. Som critics were skeptical about a sober Aerosmith, including a Stereo Review writer who suggested: "A mediocre Aerosmith concert was two hours of imitation Stones. A great Aerosmith concert was a two- minute sound check punctuated by Steve Tyler hurling a bottle of Jack Daniels against Perry's amplifier, followed by ten minutes of pugilism, after which the band would stumble off-stage." Although the album's sales were flat, possibly indicating that Aerosmith's once-loyal audience had lost faith, Aerosmith re-entered the charts for the first time in six years and successfully teamed with Run- DMC for a Rick Rubin-produced re-make of "Walk this Way." The cover was a hit and a new generation of young MTV viewers suddenly became interested in Aerosmith. Robert Christgau of the Village Voice asserted, "Against all odds the old farts light one up: if you can stand the crunch, you'll find more get-up-and-go on the first side {of Done with Mirrors} than on any dozen random neogarage EP's."

In 1987, Aerosmith achieved undeniable success following the release of their album Permanent Vacation. The recording went triple platinum and sold more than two million copies, featuring several blockbuster hits, including "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)," "Rag Doll," and "Angel." The album also signaled Aerosmith's introduction to the video medium, initiating a tradition of releasing some of the most popular videos MTV ever aired. Permanent Vacation drew largely positive comments from music reviewers. Deborah Frost commented in Rolling Stone: "{Aerosmith} has never worked with people so determined to turn it into Bon Jovi, Heart, or Starship. The good news is that it can't be done.... The raw, dirty edges of the Aerosmith of old slash through the power schmaltz.... The band has never sounded better or more charged."

Aerosmith continued to build upon their new, younger audience by touring with many of the groups they had helped to inspire, including Dokken, Guns-n-roses, and Poison. From 1987-88 the band produced two live albums, Classics Live! and Classics Live II, as well as a greatest hits compilation, Gems. In 1989, Aerosmith released their second chart-buster of the 1980s Pump, which went multi-platinum and garnered several MTV Awards as well as their first Grammy for "Janie's got a Gun," an uncharacteristically moral (at least in the traditional sense) song about child abuse.

Over the next seven years, Aerosmith garnered two more Grammys and many MTV Awards as they achieved increasing respectability for their ability to deliver high-charge rock while avoiding drugs during an era in which many rock stars succumbed to drug-related tragedies.

In late 1991, Sony signed Aerosmith away from Geffen, investing an estimated 30 million dollars in the band despite the fact that their contract would not begin until 1997. In 1993, the band released Get a Grip, which sold over five million copies and scored Billboard hits with such singles as "Livin on the Edge," "Cryin," "Crazy," and "Amazing." The video "Crazy" especially dominated the MTV airwaves. Produced by Bruce Fairburn, Get a Grip featured several songs written with outside collaborators and featured the mixing talents of Atlanta-based producer Brendan O'Brien, who had formerly worked with the Black Crowes.

Nine Lives, Aerosmith's 1997 release for Sony, appeared amidst public allegations of drug relapse and a flurry of personnel changes. The trouble first started when the band fired their producer, John Kalodner, and replaced him with Glen Ballard, who had initially been hired as a songwriter. Next, drummer Joey Kramer temporarily left following his father's death. Kramer was replaced by studio drummer Steve Ferrone.

Well into the recording process, Sony communicated its dissatisfaction with the rough cuts of Nine Lives. "I think they were right," commented Whitford. "I was listening to them and I just thought, Huey Lewis." Aerosmith replaced Ballard with producer Kevin Shirley of Silverchair and Journey fame. Tyler commented of Ballard's release from the band: "the general consensus of the band and the corporation was that, mixed with the fact Joey wasn't down there when we did it, it might be to our advantage to re-record it with someone who has a little more of a rock head and is into the Aerosmith that we all know and love."

Norris characterized Nine Lives as "a rawly produced assertion of hard-rock supremacy, an attempt to fuse Aerosmith's 70s ragged glory with its 90s pop craft." The album failed to achieve the notoriety of previous major releases, but attracted some airplay with several cuts, including "Kiss Your Past Goodbye" and "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)." "The group certainly hasn't lost any of its bite on Nine Lives," Gary Graff said in his Mr. Show Biz interview. "From the eastern touches of "Taste of India" to the industrial clangor of "Something's Gotta Give," and the flick-your-Bic power balladry of "Ain't That a Bitch" and "Fallen Angels," Nine Lives is a consistently strong effort and a message that those who wonder if the band is losing its edge can, well, dream on."

Since the release of Nine Lives, the band has produced yet another greatest-hits compilation A Little South of Sanity (1998). Their latest album, Just Push Play, appeared in 2001. As a testament to Aerosmith's enduring popularity, the album and subsequent tour were linked with a highly publicized promotional deal with DaimlerChrysler.

Dream Theatre Biography

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(1986 - 1990)
Founding members John Myung, Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci in 1986Dream Theater was formed in 1986 by guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy while studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Kevin Moore, a high school band-mate of Petrucci’s, was recruited to play keyboards and Chris Collins was enlisted as vocalist.

The quintet settled on the name Majesty for their newly-formed group (a name inspired by Portnoy’s description of the closing section of "Bastille Day" by Rush), and the three Berklee attendees dropped out to concentrate on the band.

In November 1986, after a few months of writing and performing together, Chris Collins left the band because of creative differences with the other members. After a year of trying to find a replacement, Charlie Dominici, who was far older and more experienced than anyone else in the band, successfully auditioned for the group. With the stability that Dominici’s appointment brought to Majesty, they began playing more shows in and around the New York City area, and gained a considerable amount of exposure for a band that had not yet released an album.

Their first major recording project was The Majesty Demos, a collection of ideas and demos that were released in 1987. The initial run of 1,000 sold out within six months, and dubbed copies of the cassette spread like wildfire through the progressive metal scene all over the world.

Shortly after the release of the demos, they were forced to change their name when another band named Majesty threatened legal action. Various names were trialled until Portnoy’s father suggested the name Dream Theater, which was subsequently settled upon.

They signed their first record contract, with Mechanic (a division of MCA), in 1988 and set out to record their debut album.

When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 to far less fanfare than was anticipated. Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to the band prior to signing their contract, so they were restricted to playing around NYC. The promotional tour for the album consisted of just five concerts, all of which were in New York or Rhode Island.

After the fourth of these gigs, Dominici was fired because of personal and creative differences between him and the rest of the band. Shortly after, however, Marillion asked Dream Theater to open for them at a gig at the Ritz in New York, so Dominici was given the opportunity to perform one last time. It would be a further two years before Dream Theater had another full-time singer.

1991 - 1994
Following Dominici’s firing, Dream Theater fought successfully to be released from their contract with Mechanic, and set about auditioning singers and writing material for their next album. In the time until they had secured a replacement vocalist, they wrote the majority of the music for what would become their second album, Images and Words.

In their search for a new singer they auditioned over 200 people, among them former Fates Warning frontman John Arch, but all were turned down for various reasons. In 1991 a tape arrived from Canadian singer James LaBrie, who was immediately flown to New York for a proper audition. After a short jam session he was hired as full-time singer.

For the next few months, the band resumed gigging, and worked on vocal parts for all the music that they had written to that point. ATCO Records (now EastWest) signed Dream Theater to a seven album contract on the strength of their reputation and a three song demo (later made available as "The ATCO Demos" through the Dream Theater fan club).

The cover of Dream Theater’s Images and Words albumThe first album to be released under their new record contract was Images and Words in 1992. The song "Pull Me Under" gained a lot of radio airplay, and as a result the label commissioned a video clip for its promotion, which had high MTV rotation.

The success of "Pull Me Under", combined with relentless touring throughout the U.S. and Japan, caused Images and Words to achieve gold record certification in the States and platinum in Japan. A tour of Europe followed in 1993, which included a show at London’s famed Marquee jazz club. That show was recorded and released as Live at the Marquee, Dream Theater’s first official live album. Additionally, a video compilation of their Japanese concerts (mixed in with some documentary-style footage of the off-stage portion of the tour) was released as Images and Words: Live in Tokyo.

Keen to work on fresh material, Dream Theater retreated to the studio in May 1994. The 1994 sessions were the first in which Dream Theater as a whole wrote music together that was specifically for an album.

Awake, Dream Theater’s third studio album, was released in October 1994 in a hail of controversy among established fans. Shortly before the album was mixed, Moore announced to the rest of the band that he wished to concentrate on his own musical interests and would be quitting Dream Theater. This rocked a band that had enjoyed just two years of stability after a tumultuous first half-decade, but Moore was no longer interested in the life of a touring musician nor the brand of progressive metal Dream Theater performed, so the two parties went their separate ways.

As a result of that news, the band had to scramble to find a replacement keyboardist instead of jumping head-first into touring mode.

Jordan Rudess, an up-and-coming keyboardist who was relatively unknown to that point, was invited to play a trial performance with Dream Theater in the hopes that he would join the band. The gig went well, but Rudess decided to join The Dixie Dregs as a touring member instead of Dream Theater, and Derek Sherinian was brought on as a hired-gun instead. By the conclusion of the Awake promotional tour, Sherinian was Dream Theater’s full-time keyboardist.

1995 - 1998
After a petition from fans to EastWest Records, the group recorded their previously unreleased song "A Change of Seasons" and distributed it as an EP with a collection of live cover tracks. After a short run of small "one-off" concerts to promote the EP, Dream Theater entered the studio once more to write their next album.

In all, almost two CDs worth of material was written including a 20 minute long follow-up to the Images and Words song "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper". The label, however, did not allow the release of a double album because they felt that a 140-minute record would not be digestible by the general public, so half the songs had to be cut.

In addition to, and as a function of, pressuring the band into adopting a more mainstream sound, EastWest recruited writer/producer Desmond Child to work with Petrucci on re-writing the lyrics to his demo "You Or Me". The whole band substantially reworked the music to that song, and it appeared on the album as "You Not Me" in a form that was barely reminiscent of the original.

The material that made it onto the album proper was released as Falling Into Infinity, which received a mixed reception from traditional Dream Theater fans. Despite the album containing some very progressive-sounding songs, tracks like "Hollow Years" and "You Not Me" prompted some to believe it was the dawn of a new, mainstream-sounding Dream Theater, just as the release of Empire had previously heralded the same shift for Queensrÿche. The album was both a critical and commercial disappointment.

In recent years, the album has been rehabilitated to an extent, and interest was rekindled when Portnoy indicated that the unused songs - including more traditionally progressive cuts such as "Raise the Knife" - would be released through Portnoy’s YtseJam Records.

During the European leg of the Falling Into Infinity world tour, two shows were recorded for a live album entitled Once In A LIVEtime, in France and The Netherlands. The album was released at around the same time as the video 5 Years in a LIVEtime, which chronicled the time from when Kevin Moore left the band right up to the Falling Into Infinity promotional tour.

In 1997, Magna Carta Records’ Mike Varney invited Portnoy to assemble a progressive ’supergroup’ to work on an album, which would become the first in a long string of side-projects for the members of Dream Theater. The lineup that was eventually settled on consisted of Portnoy on drums, Petrucci on guitar, Tony Levin of King Crimson on bass, and Jordan Rudess, who had finished with the Dixie Dregs by that time, on keyboards. The band assumed the name Liquid Tension Experiment, and would act as a medium through which Portnoy and Petrucci could once again court Rudess to join them in Dream Theater. They extended an invitation for him to join them in 1999, and he accepted the offer to become the third full-time Dream Theater keyboardist. Unfortunately for Sherinian, this meant that he was out of a job.

1999 onward
The cover of Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From A MemoryArmed with yet another new member, Dream Theater entered BearTracks Studio once again to write and record their next album. Perhaps as a response to the backlash over Falling Into Infinity, this time their record label gave the band complete freedom with their music. The follow-up to "Metropolis Part 1" off Images and Words, which was written during the Falling Into Infinity sessions (but not used on that album), was taken off the shelf as the first composition for them to work on.

They decided to expand the 20-minute song into a complete concept album, with the story revolving around themes such as reincarnation, murder and betrayal. To avoid stirring up the fan base, a tight veil of secrecy enveloped the writing and recording process. The only things fans knew prior to its release were a tracklist that had been leaked against the band’s wishes, and a release date. They knew nothing of the title, the music, or even the fact that it would be a concept album.

In 1999, Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory was released to high critical acclaim. It was hailed as Dream Theater’s masterpiece by many fans and critics alike, despite only reaching #73 on the charts.

A massive world tour followed, taking over a year to complete and visiting more countries than they had ever toured before.

For one extra special show, at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, actors were hired to play characters in the story, and a gospel choir was enlisted to perform in some sections of the show. One actor played the part of the hypnotherapist, and gospel singer Theresa Thomason sang the part of the female main character, Victoria.

This show, the last North American date of the tour, was recorded for the band’s first DVD release. After many technical delays, Dream Theater fans finally got their hands on the DVD, entitled Metropolis 2000, in early 2001. Shortly after its release, the band announced that an audio version of the concert, with the entire four-hour long setlist (most of which had to be cut from the DVD to save space), would be released shortly thereafter.

The covers of Live at the Marquee and Live Scenes From New York, notice the silhouette of the World Trade Center within the flames on the rightThe cover for the CD version of the concert, titled Live Scenes From New York, showed one of Dream Theater’s early logos (the Images And Words-era burning heart, modelled on the Sacred Heart) modified to show an apple (as in Big Apple) instead of the heart, and the New York skyline, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in the flame above it. In an unfortunate coincidence, the album was released on the same date as the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. The album was immediately recalled, but many copies were snapped up by Dream Theater collectors as a very rare piece of Dream Theater’s history. It was re-released with revised artwork a short time later.

Dream Theater once again entered BearTracks Studios to record their sixth studio album. Four years after they first petitioned EastWest to allow them to release a double album, they finally got their chance with Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The first disc consisted of five tracks of 5-13 minutes in length, and the second disc was devoted entirely to the 42-minute title track, which is to date the longest song Dream Theater have written.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence ended up being received very well by critics and the press. It was the most publicized of Dream Theater’s albums since Awake, debuting on the Billboard charts at #46 and the Billboard Internet charts at #1.

Throughout the next year and a half they toured the world once more, with an expanded live show including a select few special "album cover" gigs, in which they played Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast in their entirety.

At the completion of their promotional tour and a short break, Dream Theater entered the studio to write and record what would become Train of Thought, their heaviest album to that point. The album was a critical success, but it had a polarizing effect, alienating a fair proportion of Dream Theater’s fans who enjoyed the traditional progressive rock influence from bands such as Yes or King Crimson more than Dream Theater’s modern muses like Tool and Metallica. Regardless, it expanded the band’s fan base into new territory, that of mainstream heavy metal and nu-metal.

Their next move was to release another live CD/DVD combination, this time recorded at the famous Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan on their Train of Thought world tour. Live at Budokan was released on 5 October 2004, and further propelled Dream Theater’s reputation as one of the premier live acts in progressive metal.

Upon the completion of their Train of Thought promotional tour, Dream Theater entered the Hit Factory studios in NYC to record their eighth album. As it turned out, they would be the last group ever to record in that famous studio, and after they wrapped up their final session, the lights were turned off at the studio forever.

The new album, Octavarium, was released on 7 June 2005 and took the band’s sound in yet another new direction. Among its 8 songs is a continuation of Portnoy’s Alcoholics Anonymous suite (steps 6-7 in the 12-step plan), and an epic rivalling A Change of Seasons and covering several musical styles in its 24-minute running time. The album has caused much controversy among fans, some thinking that the band wore its influences too prominently on their sleeves, eg. Never Enough has been compared to Muse’s Stockholm Syndrome, and the relatively radio-friendly I Walk Beside You to the trademark sound of U2 blended with Chicago’s Peter Cetera. The album is the last under their seven album deal with Elektra Records. Their plans for the future are currently unknown, although it likely includes slapping together a few sophomoric rifts in a three week period -- the same amount of time the band states they spent writing "Train of Thought."

Poison Biography

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In a decade fueled by party anthems and power ballads, Poison found a high amount of popularity, with only Bon Jovi and Def Leppard outselling them. While the group had a long string of pop-metal hits, they soon became just as renowned for their stage show, and continued to be a major attraction over the course of their first three albums. Although their commercial success was rather short-lived, one cannot deny the major effect that Poison had on the music industry during their heyday.

Formerly known as Paris, Poison were formed in 1984 by singer Bret Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall, and drummer Rikki Rockett. After traveling from Harrisburg, PA, to Los Angeles, CA, the band added guitarist C.C. Deville to its lineup. Poison were signed to Enigma Records in 1986, where they released their first album, Look What the Cat Dragged In. The record, spawning the Top Ten hits "I Want Action," "Talk Dirty to Me," and "I Won’t Forget You," was a surprise success, selling two-million copies within a year following its release.

While the band was already quite popular by the end of 1987, 1988’s Open Up & Say...Ahhh! was its commercial breakthrough, due to the massive hits "Fallen Angel," "Nothin’ But a Good Time," and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." After a prosperous tour with David Lee Roth, the group returned to the studio to record Flesh and Blood in 1990. The album, which included the upbeat "Unskinny Bop" and the sentimental "Something to Believe In," was another major success. The dynamic tour supporting the record brought on the release of Swallow This Live, a double-disc set that included live versions of their biggest hits, along with four new studio tracks. The band was secretly falling apart, as an infamous appearance on MTV showed Deville perform nearly half of "Talk Dirty to Me" with his guitar unplugged. The band broke into a brawl backstage after the disastrous performance.

Shortly after the release of Swallow This Live, Poison fired Deville due to his increasing addiction to drugs and alcohol. His replacement, Richie Kotzen, made his commercial debut with the band on the 1993 Native Tongue album, which, despite some strong reviews and a hit single, "Stand," was a commercial disappointment. Kotzen was fired during the subsequent tour, and Blues Saraceno became Poison’s third guitarist. The band recorded its fifth studio album, Crack a Smile, for release in 1996, but the record was shelved and replaced with the Greatest Hits: 1986-1996 disc. Toward the end of 1996, Saraceno left and Deville returned to the band, which eventually resulted in a successful reunion tour in the summer of 1999; the Crack a Smile sessions were finally released the following spring, soon followed by the mostly live Power to the People. Another tour was cut short by an accident that left Dall with serious back surgery and at least a six-month break from the band.

By the time he got back into shape, the band stepped into the studio and recorded Hollyweird, which was released in the summer of 2002. The following tour was promoted as a nostalgia experience and was funded by VH1, laying the brickwork for a lucrative relationship between the band and the television channel. Deville would later appear in the network’s sixth season of The Surreal Life, while Michaels was awarded his own show, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. Hollyweird’s reception was lukewarm at best, and Poison spent some time out of the spotlight while Michaels and Rockett released solo albums. They reconvened in 2006, celebrating their 20th anniversary with a nationwide tour and a greatest-hits album. The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock debuted in the Billboard Top 20, a feat the band hasn’t accomplished since Native Tongue. The following year brought similar luck, with the band’s seventh studio effort -- a covers album titled Poison’d! -- moving over 20,000 units during its first week. Barry Weber, All Music Guide

Sum 41 Biography

2009-01-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Sum 41 hit worldwide radar in 1996 after tiny Ajax, Ontario, proved unable to fully contain the foursome’s blathering mixture of punk-pop riffing, hip-hop poses, and toilet-bowl humor. Led by guitarist/vocalist Deryck Whibley, who looked like a mash-up of the Prodigy’s Keith Flint and cartoon land’s Calvin, the band also included guitarist/vocalist Dave Baksh, bassist Cone McCaslin, and drummer Steve Jocz. Wooed by the boys’ goofy antics and incendiary live show (and excited about the prospect of promoting their very own blink-182), Island put Sum 41 on the payroll in 1999. The Half Hour of Power EP followed, and Warped Tour dates got the word out. They returned in 2000 with the fun-filled full-length All Killer No Filler, and the singles "In Too Deep" and "Fat Lip" became staples of both modern rock radio and Total Request Live.

An extensive tour followed, and Sum 41 enjoyed their boffo success the way all near-teenage boys would, with plenty of towel-snapping, groupie-loving, and self-depreciating, low-ball humor. In 2002, they returned to wax with Does This Look Infected? While the album was a bit harder-edged, it found the band just as jazzed as ever to mix punk-pop business with sophomoric pleasure: the video for "Hell Song" featured the fellas acting out a sort of rock star debauchery cage match with the aid of a few celebrity action figures. Metallica, Jesus Christ, and the Osbournes all made appearances in the hilarious clip.

Not all fun and games, however, their involvement in the charity group War Child Canada had Sum 41 lending a hand in the making of a 2004 documentary covering the effects of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Five days into filming, fighting and gunfire suddenly erupted around them, and they barely escaped unharmed -- these events led to 2004’s slightly more mature and serious effort, Chuck, named for the UN aid worker, Chuck Pelletier, who was instrumental in getting them to safety. The DVD Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo was released at the end of 2005 and the live album Go Chuck Yourself appeared the following March. Guitarist Dave Baksh left the band during the spring of 2006 due to creative differences, going on to form the metal-punk outfit Brown Brigade. Sum 41 continued on as a trio, and their first album as such, Underclass Hero, appeared in July 2007. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide

AC/DC Biography

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AC/DC is an Australian rock band and considered pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal music. The group was formed in Sydney, Australia in December, 1973. Their albums have sold in colossal numbers - the total is now estimated to be around 100 million copies worldwide.

AC/DC is generally divided into ’Bon Scott era (1974-80)’ and ’Brian Johnson era (1980-present)’. Some fans have a preference, others point to the merits of both singers and appreciate them equally.

History

Born in Scotland, the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young moved with their family to Australia as children. Malcolm began playing guitar first, soon followed by Angus. Malcolm first played with a Newcastle, NSW band called The Velvet Underground (not the Lou Reed group).

Their older brother George Young had been a member of Australia’s most successful Sixties band The Easybeats, who were the first local pop act to score an overseas hit (’Friday On My Mind’) in 1967. After Young and his Easybeats partner Harry Vanda returned to Australia in late 1973, they became the house producers for the newly-formed Albert Productions record label whose owner, Ted Albert (a scion of the venerable Albert & Sons music publishing family), had been the Easybeats’ producer between 1965 and 1967.

Young asked the boys to do some session work for a project he was doing. Angus then formed a band called Tantrum. After The Velvet Underground, Malcolm decided to form a more pure rock and roll band, and enlisted Angus and they were soon signed to the new Albert label, and Vanda & Young produced their first seven LPs.

The early lineups changed often, but the 1974 enlistment of charismatic singer Ronald ’Bon’ Scott as their driving frontman signified the beginning of real success. Another vital innovation was Angus Young’s adoption of his now-famous school uniform as a regular stage outfit; the original was reputedly Angus’ real uniform from his secondary school, Ashfield Boys’ High, in Sydney.

Between 1974 and 1978, aided by regular appearances on the nationally-broadcast TV pop show Countdown, AC/DC became one of the most popular and successful acts in Australia, scoring a string of hits albums and singles including their perennial 1975 rock anthem ’It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)’.

Relocating to London in the late 1970s, they worked all over the UK and Europe to establish themselves, touring almost constantly and gaining invaluable experience on the stadium circuit supporting the top hard-rock acts of the day including Alice Cooper, Rush, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Boston, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, Heart, The Scorpions, Molly Hatchet, Ronnie Montrose, Nazareth, UFO, Journey, Foreigner, Van Halen, Styx, Blue Öyster Cult, Alvin Lee, Rainbow, Savoy Brown, REO Speedwagon, The Doobie Brothers, Thin Lizzy and The Who.

Rhythm Guitarist Malcolm Young once recalled in AC/DC’s VH1 Behind the Music Series an incident from an England tour with Black Sabbath. Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath’s Bassist), in a drunken rage, pulled a knife on Malcolm. The incident was quickly resolved without conflict, and the conjoined tour promptly ended. Ozzy and Bon stayed in contact however.

They survived the punk rock upheavals of 1976-78, partly because they were (erroneously) tagged as a punk band by the British music press. They gained a solid cult following in the UK with their powerful performances and outrageous stage antics; Angus Young quickly became notorious for mooning (i.e. showing his buttocks) to the audience and the group was banned from several British venues because of this. Their meaty hard-rock sound and Bon Scott’s provocative, leering stage persona are also reputed to have been significant influences on Johnny Rotten and The Sex Pistols. The band were also a pivotal influence to the then emerging New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene, with artists such as Def Leppard and Saxon clearly displaying simililarities to the trademark sound of AC/DC.

In 1980, Angus and Malcolm had begun working on the music and guitar riffs for their forthcoming new album when after a night of hard drinking, Bon Scott was found in the back seat of his friend’s car. He died from both choking on his own vomit and hypothermia Ozzy Osbourne would later write and record a song about Scott’s death, the widely misinterpreted ’Suicide Solution’). Shortly after, the band brought in a new lead singer-Brian Johnson, formerly of the band Geordie-completed the song-writing and began recording Back_in_Black. This became their biggest-selling album to date, a hard-rock landmark that would ultimately be named in tribute to Bon.

Over the next eight years, the Young brothers and Johnson wrote nearly all of their songs, but in 1990, with Brian Johnson committed elsewhere, it was left to the Young brothers to carry on the creation of the group’s music, while Johnson assumed all the vocals, lead and background, a feat unable to be duplicated in the band’s live concerts (in the same manner Freddie Mercury’s overdubbed vocal style could never have been duplicated when he and his band Queen toured live).

In 2002, Q magazine named AC/DC as one of the ’50 Bands To See Before You Die’.

In 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America upgraded the group’s U.S. sales figures, increasing their cumulative sales from 46.5 million to 63 million, making AC/DC the fifth-best-selling band in U.S. music history, behind The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Eagles.

In March 2003 the walls at New York’s historic Waldorf Astoria hotel shook as AC/DC performed Highway To Hell during part of their induction to the American Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame. Along side Malcolm, Angus, Phil, Cliff and Brian were two of Bon Scott’s nephews and in a brief acceptance the band again thanked the fans for their support.

On July 30, 2003, the band performed an amazing performance at Sarsfest in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with The Rolling Stones before an audience of 500,000 to help the city overcome the effects of the 2003 SARS epidemic.

2003 also saw the Recording Industry Association of America certify the classic Back_in_Black album as Double Diamond (20,000,000) sales in the US.

"AC/DC" Name

The name ’AC/DC’ (alternating current/direct current) was suggested by their sister Margaret after she read it on a sewing machine label. The term has a bisexual connotation that they were supposedly unaware of at the time, and they often had to deny they were a gay band, a perception that was exacerbated by their ’glam rock’ image at the time.

Some have suggested that the name stood for ’Anti-Christ/ Devil Children’; though this is certainly not the case, the rumour has long persisted both among conservatives who, already disliking the band’s image, use it to paint the band as Satanists, and among some fans who, especially in the 1980s, enjoyed the counter-cultural offense such a meaning would cause.

On 1 October 2004 Melbourne’s Corporation Lane was officially renamed ACDC Lane in honour of the band (street names in the City of Melbourne cannot contain the ’/’ character). It is near Swanston Street, the location where the band recorded their 1975 video ’It’s a Long Way to the Top’.

The name AC/DC is pronounced one letter at a time, although the band is also known to its Australian fans as ’Acca Dacca’

One country music band has named themselves Hayseed Dixie, as a parody of the AC/DC name.

Member History

Current Members

Angus Young (Lead Guitar) 1973-
Malcolm Young (Rhythm Guitar) 1973-
Brian Johnson (Vocals) 1980-
Phil Rudd (Drums) 1973-1983, 1994-
Cliff Williams (Bass Guitar) 1978-

Former Members

Bon Scott (Vocals) 1974-1980
Mark Evans (Bass Guitar) 1973-1977
Simon Wright (Drums) 1984-1989
Chris Slade (Drums) 1989-1994

OffSpring Biography

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Vocal/Guitar --- Dexter (Bryan Holland)

Drums --- Ron (Ron Welty)(Left the band in 2003)Atom Willard (Atom Willard(Joined the band in2003)Guitar --- Noodles (Kevin Wasserman)

Guitar --- Noodles (Kevin Wasserman)

Bass --- Greg K (Greg Kriesel)

By 1984, when what would have become the Offspring formed, the original Orange County punk scene had fractured. We used to go this dance club called Circle City, and there’d be 10 different cliques, " says Kriesel."In our high school there was a rockabilly scene, as well as a mod scene and a New Wave scene, as well as a punk scene," Holland adds. But at Pacifica High, a large public school in Garden Grove, Calif. Holland wasn’t a member of any of those groups. The third of four children born to a hospital administator father and a schoolteacher mother, he kept busy being a "good kid" and hoped to be a doctor. sports were a really big thing," Holland says, "I was on the cross-country team." He also happened to be class valedictorian (thus his nickname, Dexter). His senior year, Holland’s older brother gave him a Rodney on the ROQ compilation album.

Before then, Holland was a casual listener. But soon after, he was devouring Flipside and Maximumrocknroll, fanzines out of Pasadena, Calif., and Berkeley, Calif., respecively, that are virtual how-to guides to punkdome. His favorite bands were T.S.O.L. (particulary 1981’s Dance With Me), the Adolescents and Agent Orange County bands that weren’t as hung up on politic as their Bay Area counterparts. Holland’s cross-country teammate Greg Kriesel discovered punk even later. His investment-banker father saw law school in his son’s future. And for most of high school, Kriesel was a sports fan and self-proclaimed jock (he also played baseball). The first punk records he ever heard were the ones the ones Holland played for him. "Music wasn’t something that meant a lot to me," he says. "But I started listening to it because it was around, and I got used to it."

Holland and Krisel formed their first band, Manic Subsidal, with two other cross-country teammates one night in 1984 after failing to get in a Social Distortion show. At the time, the two didn’t even own instruments, much less know how to play them. "Bryan and I both learned together," says Kriesel, "and he wasn’t even playing chords at the time, so he’d play on one string, and I tried to do the same thing. By the summer we were actually playing songs, but it took a while." Kriesel’s house was the site of the band’s first gigs. "It’s just always a hangout," Kriesel says, "on any given weekend night up to 20 people could drop by. I had a big upstairs that was pretty much mine, and my mom was downstairs. But she’s always been really cool about it.

That fall, Holland began premed studies at USC (he’s currently a Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology). Kriesel was attending Golden West Junior College and later recieved a B.A. in finance from Long Beach State while working part time in a print shop (he’s planning to attend law school). Weekends were the only time the band could rehearse. Once Holland had written a handful of songs with self-explanitory titles like "Very Sarcastic" and "Sorority Bitch," the fledgling band headed for a cheap studio. Momentarily waylaid when its guitarist jumped ship, the band recruited Kevin Wasserman, an older Pacifica grad who then worked as the school janitor. Pretty soon, Wasserman was "not doing a hell of a lot except practicing at Greg’s house on weekends and drinking excessively." Being the only member of the band over 21, Wasserman was particularly useful when it came to buying beer.

"I remember being amazed by Bryan," Wasserman says, "He was valedictorian, he was such a math geek. So when I first saw him with black hair and plaid bondage pants, I was like ’What are you doing?’ But I thought it was cool, going beyond what I thought was society’s role for him." Ron Welty moved to Garden Grove for part of high school, and it was there that his older stepsister introduced him to Holland. "My mom’s been through a few divorces," Welty says. "She’d get remarried and we’d move, and then she’d get divorced, we’d move." Welt was only 16 when he begged Holland to let him substitute for Manic Subsidal’s drummer who had started medical school and wads missing lots of gigs.

In 1987, the Offsping paid to release their own 7-inch single. Unable to afford the additional quarter per copy it cost to paste the front sleves to the backs, the band bought a case of beer and glue sticks and held a party for its friends. "To this day the covers don’t hold together too well," says Holland. It took the band two and a half years to get rid of the 1,000 copies it printed. Two years and a pile of rejections later, the Offspring scored a contract with Nemesis, a small punk label distributed by Cargo.

After tracking down producer Thom Wilson, who had crafted their favorite albums by T.S.O.L., the Vandals and the Dead Kennedys, the Offspring recorded another 7-inch single, called Baghdad, and an album debut titled The Offspring. "All punk bands back in ’84 wrote about was police, death, religion and war," says Holland. "So that’s what we did." While recording a track for a Flipside compilation with Brett Gurewitz - owner of Epitaph records and then Southern California’s biggest punk success story, Bad Religion - the Offspring glimpsed a rosier future. "A little after that, I got a tape," says Gurewitz. "But I have to admit I passed on it."

A year later, when the Offspring began circulating demos for what would become their next album to every punk label they could think of, Gurewitz reconcidered. "It definitely had what people call the Epitaph sound," he says. "High energy, rebelleous punk with great melodies and cool economical song structures. "In 1992 Epitaph released Ignition, 12 brief but energetic Offspring songs that summed up the previous decade of Orange County Punk. Other Epitaph bands include Rancid and NOFX.In 1994 their breakthough single Come out and Play and top hit Self Esteem helped push thier third album, Smash to the best selling independent record of all time (9 million plus), and heavy MTV rotation.

After the success of Smash, new fans discovered Ignition as it reappeared in stores. Due to the amount of overpriced, poor quality bootlegs, they rereleased their self titled The Offspring in 1995 with thier own label, Nitro. Nitro has released albums for several other bands, including The Vandals and Guttermouth. In 1996, the Offspring signed with Columbia records after disputes with Epitaph.Their next album, Ixnay on the Hombre, was released in February 1997. Dexter and Jello Biafra stared their own benefit foundation, FSU this year. They are currently on tour

Cake Biography

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Stridently from California’s fertile Central Valley, this Sacramento band has attracted the kind of ecstatic response most newcomers only dream of and seasoned veterans justifiably envy. Based almost entirely on the strength of their live performances and on word of mouth, CAKE has built up a sizable following that is fast billowing out of the northern California region in a sort of reckless eastward expansion.

With the release of their new CD, MOTORCADE OF GENEROSITY, there is emerging a sound of non-negotiable high quality (not necessarily high fidelity); a juggernaut of true musical enjoyment, virtually unfettered by the uptight and unyieldingly narrow confines of genre and fad which make most music so disposable and landfills so plentiful. Yet this does not make CAKE "quirky" or "eclectic"--the band is dead-serious and is likely to inflict grave personal injury upon those who must lazily define anything not huge and lumberingly monolithic as such. CAKE is bored with "alternative" rock and prefers a sound more decorous and economical. "CAKE doesn’t ask you to suck its angst," writes Donnel Alexander of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Since CAKE views genre as essentially wasteful and divisive, the group has shared the bill with a wide variety of well-known entertainers including the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopricy, Jonathan Richman, the Monks of Doom, the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, and Vomit Launch. CAKE is all-purpose and can bring stern exuberance if not serious enjoyment to even the most discriminating and/or self-conscious audience.

The Rolling Stones Biography

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The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the "World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band" in the late ’60s, and few disputed the claim. The Rolling Stones’ music, based on Chicago blues, has continued to sound vital through the decades, and the Stones’ attitude of flippant defiance, now aged into wry bemusement, has come to seem as important as their music.

In the 1964 British Invasion they were promoted as bad boys, but what began as a gimmick has stuck as an indelible image, and not just because of incidents like Brian Jones’ mysterious death in 1969 and a violent murder during their set at Altamont later that year. In their music, the Stones pioneered British rock’s tone of ironic detachment and wrote about offhand brutality, sex as power, and other taboos. In those days, Mick Jagger was branded a “Lucifer” figure, thanks to songs like “Sympathy for the Devil.” In the ’80s the Stones lost their dangerous aura while still seeming “bad” — they’ve become icons of an elegantly debauched, world-weary decadence. But Jagger remains the most self-consciously assured appropriator of black performers’ up-front sexuality; Keith Richards’ Chuck Berry–derived riffing defines rock rhythm guitar (not to mention rock guitar rhythm); the stalwart rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts holds its own; and Jagger and Richards continue to add to what is arguably one of the most significant oeuvres in rock history.

Jagger and Richards first met at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. When they ran into each other 10 years later in 1960, they were both avid fans of blues and American R&B, and they found they had a mutual friend in guitarist Dick Taylor, a fellow student of Richards’ at Sidcup Art School. Jagger was attending the London School of Economics and playing in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys with Taylor. Richards joined the band as second guitarist; soon afterward, he was expelled from Dartford Technical College for truancy.

Meanwhile, Brian Jones had begun skipping school in Cheltenham to practice bebop alto sax and clarinet. By the time he was 16, he had fathered two illegitimate children and run off briefly to Scandinavia, where he began playing guitar. Back in Cheltenham he joined the Ramrods, then drifted to London with his girlfriend and one of his children. He began playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues, Inc., then decided to start his own band; a want ad attracted pianist Ian Stewart (b. 1938; d. December 12, 1985).

As Elmo Lewis, Jones began working at the Ealing Blues Club, where he ran into a later, loosely knit version of Blues, Inc., which at the time included drummer Charlie Watts. Jagger and Richards began jamming with Blues, Inc., and while Jagger, Richards, and Jones began to practice on their own, Jagger became the featured singer with Blues, Inc.

Jones, Jagger, and Richards shared a tiny, cheap London apartment, and with drummer Tony Chapman they cut a demo tape, which was rejected by EMI. Taylor left to attend the Royal College of Art; he eventually formed the Pretty Things. Ian Stewart’s job with a chemical company kept the rest of the group from starving. By the time Taylor left, they began to call themselves the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters song.

On July 12, 1962, the Rolling Stones — Jagger, Richards, Jones, a returned Dick Taylor on bass, and Mick Avory, later of the Kinks, on drums — played their first show at the Marquee. Avory and Taylor were replaced by Tony Chapman and Bill Wyman, from the Cliftons. Chapman didn’t work out, and the band spent months recruiting a cautious Charlie Watts, who worked for an advertising agency and had left Blues, Inc. when its schedule got too busy. In January 1963 Watts completed the band.

Local entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky booked the Stones at his Crawdaddy Club for an eight-month, highly successful residency. He was also their unofficial manager until Andrew Loog Oldham, with financing from Eric Easton, signed them as clients. By then the Beatles were a British sensation, and Oldham decided to promote the Stones as their nasty opposites. He eased out the mild-mannered Stewart, who subsequently became a Stones roadie and frequent session and tour pianist.

In June 1963 the Stones released their first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” After the band played on the British TV rock show Thank Your Lucky Stars, its producer reportedly told Oldham to get rid of “that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips.” The single reached Number 21 on the British chart. The Stones also appeared at the first annual National Jazz and Blues Festival in London’s borough of Richmond and in September were part of a package tour with the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard. In December 1963 the Stones’ second single, “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney), made the British Top 15. In January 1964 the Stones did their first headlining British tour, with the Ronettes, and released a version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” which made Number Three.

“Not Fade Away” also made the U.S. singles chart (Number 48). By this time the band had become a sensation in Britain, with the press gleefully reporting that band members had been seen urinating in public. In April 1964 their first album was released in the U.K., and two months later they made their first American tour. Their cover of the Bobby Womack/Valentinos song “It’s All Over Now” was a British Number One, their first. Their June American tour was a smashing success; in Chicago, where they’d stopped off to record the Five by Five EP at the Chess Records studio, riots broke out when the band tried to give a press conference. The Stones’ version of the blues standard “Little Red Rooster,” which had become another U.K. Number One, was banned in the U.S. because of its “objectionable” lyrics.

Jagger and Richards had now begun composing their own tunes (at first using the “Nanker Phelge” pseudonym for group compositions). Their “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back to Me)” was the group’s first U.S. Top 40 hit, in August. The followup, a nonoriginal, “Time Is on My Side,” made Number Six in November. From that point on, all but a handful of Stones hits were Jagger-Richards compositions.

In January 1965 their “The Last Time” became another U.K. Number One and cracked the U.S. Top 10 in the spring. The band’s next single, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” reigned at Number One for four weeks that summer and remains perhaps the most famous song in its remarkable canon. Jagger and Richards continued to write hits with increasingly sophisticated lyrics: “Get Off My Cloud” (Number One, 1965), “As Tears Go By” (Number Six, 1965), “19th Nervous Breakdown” (Number Two, 1966), “Mother’s Little Helper” (Number Eight, 1966), “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?” (Number Nine, 1966).

Aftermath, the first Stones LP of all original material, came out in 1966, though its impact was minimized by the simultaneous release of the Beatles’ Revolver and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. The Middle Eastern–tinged “Paint It, Black” (1966) and the ballad “Ruby Tuesday” (1967), were both U.S. Number One hits.

In January 1967 the Stones caused another sensation when they performed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (“Ruby Tuesday”’s B side) on The Ed Sullivan Show. Jagger mumbled the title lines after threats of censorship (some claimed that the line was censored; others that Jagger actually sang “Let’s spend some time together”; Jagger later said, “When it came to that line, I sang mumble”). In February Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug-possession charges in Britain; in May, Brian Jones, too, was arrested. The heavy jail sentences they received were eventually suspended on appeal. The Stones temporarily withdrew from public appearances; Jagger and his girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithfull, went to India with the Beatles to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Stones’ next single release didn’t appear until the fall: the Number 14 “Dandelion.” Its B side, “We Love You” (Number 50), on which John Lennon and Paul McCartney sang backup vocals, was intended as a thank-you to fans.

In December came Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones’ psychedelic answer record to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper — and an ambitious mess. By the time the album’s lone single, “She’s a Rainbow” had become a Number 25 hit, Allen Klein had become the group’s manager.

May 1968 saw the release of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” a Number Three hit, and a return to basic rock & roll. After five months of delay provoked by controversial album-sleeve photos, the eclectic Beggars Banquet was released and was hailed by critics as the band’s finest achievement. On June 9, 1969, Brian Jones, the Stones’ most musically adventurous member, who had lent sitar, dulcimer, and, on “Under My Thumb,” marimba to the band’s sound, and who had been in Morocco recording nomadic Joujouka musicians, left the band with this explanation: “I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting.” Within a week he was replaced by ex–John Mayall guitarist Mick Taylor. Jones announced that he would form his own band, but on July 3, 1969, he was found dead in his swimming pool; the coroner’s report cited “death by misadventure.” Jones, beset by drug problems — and the realization that the band now belonged squarely to Jagger and Richards — had barely participated in the Beggars Banquet sessions.

At an outdoor concert in London’s Hyde Park a few days after Jones’ death, Jagger read an excerpt from the poet Shelley and released thousands of butterflies over the park. On July 11, the day after Jones was buried, the Stones released “Honky Tonk Women,” another Number One, and another Stones classic. By this time, every Stones album went gold in short order, and Let It Bleed (a sardonic reply to the Beatles’ soon-to-be-released Let It Be) was no exception. “Gimme Shelter” received constant airplay. Jones appeared on most of the album’s tracks, though Taylor also made his first on-disc appearances.

After going to Australia to star in the film Ned Kelly, Jagger rejoined the band for the start of its hugely successful 1969 American tour, the band’s first U.S. trip in three years. But the Stones’ Satanic image came to haunt them at a free thank-you-America concert at California’s Altamont Speedway. In the darkness just in front of the stage, a young black man, Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, whom the Stones — on advice of the Grateful Dead — had hired to provide security for the event. The incident was captured on film by the Maysles brothers in their feature-length documentary Gimme Shelter. Public outcry that “Sympathy for the Devil” (which they had performed earlier in the show; they were playing “Under My Thumb” when the murder occurred) had in some way incited the violence led the Stones to drop the tune from their stage shows for the next six years.

After another spell of inactivity, the Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! live album was released in the fall of 1970 and went platinum. That same year the Stones formed their own Rolling Stones Records, an Atlantic subsidiary. The band’s first album for its own label, Sticky Fingers (Number One, 1971) — which introduced their Andy Warhol — designed lips-and-lolling-tongue logo — yielded hits in “Brown Sugar” (Number One, 1971) and “Wild Horses” (Number 28, 1971). Jagger, who had starred in Nicolas Roeg’s 1970 Performance (the soundtrack of which contained “Memo From Turner”), married Nicaraguan fashion model Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, and the pair became international jet-set favorites. Though many interpreted Jagger’s acceptance into high society as yet another sign that rock was dead, or that at least the Stones had lost their spark, Exile on Main Street (Number One, 1972), a double album, was another critically acclaimed hit, yielding “Tumbling Dice” (Number Seven) and “Happy” (Number 22). By this time the Stones were touring the U.S. once every three years; their 1972 extravaganza, like those in 1975, 1978, and 1981, was a sold-out affair.

Goats Head Soup (Number One, 1973) was termed the band’s worst effort since Satanic Majesties by critics, yet it contained hits in “Angie” (Number One, 1973) and “(Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo) Heartbreaker” (Number 15, 1974). It’s Only Rock n’ Roll (Number One, 1974) yielded Top 20 hits in the title tune and a cover of the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Mick Taylor left the band after that album; and after trying out scores of sessionmen (many of whom showed up on the next LP, 1976’s Black and Blue), the Stones settled on Ron Wood, then still nominally committed to Rod Stewart and the Faces (who disbanded soon after Wood joined the Stones officially in 1976). In 1979 Richards and Wood, with Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste and fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, toured as the New Barbarians.

Black and Blue was the Stones’ fifth consecutive LP of new material to top the album chart, though it contained only one hit single, the Number 10 “Fool to Cry.” Wyman, who had released a 1974 solo album, Monkey Grip (the first Stone to do so), recorded another, Stone Alone. Jagger guested on “I Can Feel the Fire” on Wood’s solo first LP, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Wood has since recorded several more albums, and while none were commercial hits (Gimme Some Neck peaked at Number 45 in 1979), his work was generally well received.

The ethnic-stereotype lyrics of the title song from Some Girls (Number One, 1978) provoked public protest (the last outcry had been in 1976 over Black and Blue’s battered-woman advertising campaign). Aside from the disco crossover “Miss You” (Number One), the music was bare-bones rock & roll — in response, some speculated, to the punk movement’s claims that the band was too old and too affluent to rock anymore.

Richards and his longtime common-law wife, Anita Pallenburg, were arrested in March 1977 in Canada for heroin possession — jeopardizing the band’s future — but he subsequently kicked his habit and in 1978 was given a suspended sentence.

In 1981 Tattoo You was Number One for nine weeks (1980’s Emotional Rescue also went to Number One) and produced the hits “Start Me Up” (Number Two, 1981) and “Waiting on a Friend” (Number 13, 1981), the latter featuring jazz great Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone. The 1981 tour spawned an album, Still Life, and a movie, Let’s Spend the Night Together (directed by Hal Ashby), which grossed $50 million.

Through the ’80s the group became more an institution than an influential force. Nevertheless, both Undercover (Number Four, 1983) and Dirty Work (Number Four, 1986) were certifiable hits despite not topping the chart, as every new studio album had done in the decade before. Each album produced only one Top 20 hit, “Undercover of the Night” (Number Nine, 1983) and “Harlem Shuffle” (Number Five, 1986), the latter a remake of a minor 1964 hit by Bob and Earl.

Jagger and Richards grew estranged from each other, and the band would not record for three years. Jagger released his first solo album, the platinum She’s the Boss, in 1984. His second, 1987’s Primitive Cool, didn’t even break the Top 40. Richards, who’d long declared he would never undertake a solo album (and who resented Jagger’s making music outside the band), countered in 1988 with the gold Talk Is Cheap, backed up by the X-Pensive Winos: guitarist Waddy Wachtel and the rhythm section of Steve Jordan and Charley Drayton.

The two Stones sniped at each other in the press and in song: Richards’ album track “You Don’t Move Me” was directed at his longtime partner. Nevertheless, shortly before the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in January 1989 the two traveled to Barbados to begin writing songs for a new Stones album. Steel Wheels (Number Three, 1989) showed the group spinning its wheels musically, and were it not for the band’s first American tour in eight years, it is doubtful the LP would have sold anywhere near its 2 million copies. But the 50-date tour, which reportedly grossed $140 million, was an artistic triumph. As the group’s fifth live album, Flashpoint (Number 16, 1991), demonstrated, never had the Stones sounded so cohesive onstage.

Bill Wyman announced his long-rumored decision to leave the group after 30 years, in late 1992. “I was quite happy to stop after that,” the 56-year-old bassist told a British TV show. The announcement helped deflect attention from Wyman’s love life: In 1989 he married model Mandy Smith, who was just 131⁄2 when the two began dating. The couple divorced in 1990, the same year that Mick Jagger finally married his longtime lover, Jerry Hall. (Jagger and Hall would later split up.)The early ’90s were a time for solo albums from Richards — Live at the Hollywood Palladium and Main Offender (Number 99, 1992)and Jagger’s Wandering Spirit (Number 11, 1993). Neither sold spectacularly; apparently fans are most interested in Jagger and Richards when they work together. Wood released Slide on This, his first solo album in over a decade, and Watts pursued his real love, jazz, with the Charlie Watts Orchestra.

In 1994 Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood, along with bassist Darryl Jones (whose credits include working with Miles Davis and Sting) released the critically well-received Voodoo Lounge (Number Two, 1994) and embarked on a major tour that proved one of the highest-grossing of the year, earning a reported $295 million. Voodoo Lounge brought the Stones their first competitive Grammy, 1994’s Best Rock Album award. Voodoo Lounge was also the group’s first release under its new multimillion-dollar, three-album deal with Virgin Records, which included granting Virgin the rights to some choice albums from the Stones’ back catalogue, including Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers, and Some Girls. After having languished in storage for nearly three decades, the Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus concert film and soundtrack was released in 1996, which featured the Stones in the era of Beggars Banquet, and other rock luminaries — the Who, Jethro Tull, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, and more — as well as various acrobats, fire-eaters, and other circus artists who performed routines between songs.

Meanwhile, back to their standard time lapse of three years between tours, the Stones released Bridges to Babylon (Number Three, 1997, their 19th platinum LP) and launched yet another lavish, sold-out worldwide tour, where they played two-hour concerts consisting of only a few songs off the new album and lots of hits. Corporate sponsorship was particularly intense: long-distance carrier Sprint, for example, paying $4 million to print its company logo on tickets and stage banners. In 1998 the Stones released the obligatory tour album, No Security.

In 1997 Richards coproduced and played on Wingless Angels, an album of Rastafarian spirituals; guested, with Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore, on All the King’s Men, a tribute to Presley; and with the rest of the Stones, played on B.B. King’s Deuces Wild. Assembling the roots-rock band the Rhythm Kings, with Peter Frampton and Georgie Fame sitting in, Bill Wyman put out three albums in the late ’90s. Watts continued his jazz excursions with 1996’s orchestral offering, Long Ago and Far Away, and then forayed into world beat with a 2000 collaboration with veteran session drummer Jim Keltner. Mick Taylor’s recording career revived, as the ex-Stone put out Stonesy releases with Carla Olson.

In 2000 "Satisfaction" topped a VH1 Poll of 100 Greatest Rock Songs. Jagger gained more attention in the social columns. In 1999 29-year-old Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez Morad claimed that she was pregnant with his child; Jagger disagreed. Jerry Hall filed for divorce. Jagger, despite the couple’s four children, maintained that their Hindu nuptials did not constitute a legal marriage. When Morad’s child was born, DNA tests concluded that Jagger was indeed the boy’s father. In 2001 he released his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway (Number 39). At the post-9-11 "Concert for New York City," held at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 21, 2001, Jagger, Richards and a backing band performed "Salt of the Earth" and "Miss You."

In 2002, the Stones released Forty Licks, a greatest hits package including four new songs, and embarked on yet another tour, including two—one in Toronto and another in Hong Kong—to benefit victims of the SARS epidemic. In November 2003, the band inked a deal allowing the Best Buy chain to be the exclusive seller of their 4-DVD tour document Four Flicks. Some music retailers in the U.S. and Canada, including Best Buy competitor Circuit City and the 100-store HMV Canada, responded by pulling Stones merchandise from their shelves. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Stones No. 4 in its "100 Greatest Artists of All Time," just below the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.

On Jagger’s 62nd birthday, July 26, 2005, the Stones announced they were releasing a new album, A Bigger Bang (Number 3), followed by a tour. The album included a rare political song from Jagger, "Sweet Neo Con," which was stingingly critical of the Bush Administration’s post Iraq War tactics and included the line, "You say you are a patriot/I think that you’re a crock of shit." The Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour began in August 2005 and by year’s end had already set the year’s record at $162 million in gross receipts. The tour took the band from North and South America to Europe, Asia and even the 2006 Super Bowl. The tour ended two years later in London. Overall, the Bigger Bang tour earned a staggering $558 million, the highest-grossing tour of all time. The tour was not without its setbacks. During the New Zealand stretch, in May 2006, Richards was hospitalized for brain surgery after reportedly falling from a coconut tree in Fiji. In June, Wood went into rehab for alcohol problems.

The Stones released another 4-CD box set, The Biggest Bang, in June 2007; it also was sold exclusively through Best Buy. The Very Best Of Mick Jagger, a collection of the singer’s solo works, came out in October 2007. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s April 2008 documentary Shine a Light intimately captured the Stones’ 2006 Bigger Bang live performance at New York City’s Beacon Theater from sixteen different camera angles and included guest performances by Christina Aguilera, Jack White, and Buddy Guy.

The Beatles Biography

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The Beatles are among the most influential popular music artists of the second half of the 20th century, affecting the culture of Britain and America and the postwar baby boom generation, and the entire English-speaking world, especially during the 1960s and early 1970s. Certainly they’re the most successful, with global sales reaching past 1.2 thousand million records sold as of 2003. Their influences on popular culture extended far beyond their roles as recording artists, as they branched out into film and even semi-willingly became spokesmen for their generation. The members of the group were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), all from Liverpool, England. The effect of the Beatles on Western culture (and by extension) on the rest of the world has been immeasurable.

Originally a high-energy pop band (typified by the early singles "Twist and Shout" and "Please Please Me"), as the Beatles progressed their style became more sophisticated, influenced in equal measure by Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry. Their popularity was also aided by their attractive looks, distinctive personalities, and natural charisma; particularly on television where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and others.

This was the beginning of Beatlemania in which the committed pop-music band found itself turned into a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans, hysterical adulation, and denunciations by others such as Frank Sinatra. None of this had much to do with music and was regarded by the band members with intermittent awe and resentment.

The Beatlemania Years

The Beatles recorded their first full length album, live in the studio, on February 11, 1963 in one 12 hour session. On February 22, 1963 the Beatles’ second single, "Please Please Me" went straight to No. 1. Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, was released on January 20, 1964. On February 7, 1964 The Beatles travelled to New York for a number of U.S television appearances and performances. Upon arriving at JFK airport, The Beatles noticed thousands of kids screaming and awaiting the plane’s arrival. They assumed that there must have been someone important on the plane with them and were a bit shocked to learn that the crowds were actually there for them.

On February 9, 1964 The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. To this day it remains one of the highest rated television programs of all time, with 73 million people tuning in. The Beatles made four more live appearances on the show in months to come. Two days later, on February 11 in the Washington, DC Coliseum, The Beatles made their first live stage appearance in the United States.

On April 4, 1964, The Beatles set a record that has yet to be broken when they occupied all five top positions on Billboard’s Top Pop Singles chart. Their single "Can’t Buy Me Love" was at number one. In August of that year, The Beatles’ first motion picture was released, A Hard Day’s Night. They started filming their second film, Help on February 23, 1965 in the Bahamas.

A condensed history

Lennon met McCartney at a garden fete, and joined his band, The Quarry Men, into which McCartney also recruited Harrison. The band briefly split before regrouping. After going through several changes in name and band members, it finally became "the Beatles" under the EMI’s Parlophone label. The Beatles’ first full-length album, Please Please Me, was recorded within 12 consecutive hours. In 1964 they held the top five places on Billboard’s Top Pop Singles Chart, a feat which has never been repeated.

In 1965 they began experimenting with LSD and were created as Members of the Order of the British Empire. Lennon caused a great backlash against the Beatles the following year when in an interview he claimed that Christianity was dying. Eventually he apologised after being slammed by among others, the Holy See.

That same year the Beatles performed their last concert. Their fortunes took a turn for the worse when their manager, Brian Epstein, passed away, and the band’s affairs began to unravel. The various members began to pursue their individual interests and got together less often. In 1969 they recorded their last album, Abbey Road (although in 1970 various songs recorded earlier were compiled into Let It Be). In the same year, the Paul Is Dead hoax sprang up. The band officially broke up in 1970, and any hopes of a reunion were crushed when Lennon was murdered in 1980.

Slash Biography

2009-01-01T04:09:00.000-08:00

"Slash Snakepit"

SLASH was born in Hampstead (London), England on July 23, 1965, and he was raised in Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, England. His given name is Saul Hudson. His mother is a Black American, and his father is a white Englishman. Both parents are artistic and work in the entertainment field. His mother is a clothing designer for entertainers. She designed some of David Bowie’s unforgettable costumes. His father provides art direction for record albums. Two notable clients are Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

At age 11 SLASH moved to Los Angeles with his mother while his father remained based in England. Born in the UK, SLASH was an immigrant in the United States and was to remain one for many years. The family eventually lived together again in L.A. where SLASH had a rough transition to conservative Southern California. The long hair, jeans and t-shirts that he wore even then didn’t exactly fit with the other kids. An outsider at school, he lived a bohemian life at home. Surrounded by artistic friends of his parents, SLASH grew accustomed to the moods and eccentricities of those in the music world. Frequent visitors at the Hudson household included Joni Mitchell, David Geffen, David Bowie, Ron Wood and Iggy Pop. SLASH has said that these surroundings prepared him for coping with the stress of the music industry, the conflict between artistry and business.

In the mid-1970’s, his parents separated. SLASH moved in with his beloved grandmother until he could sort out the situation at home. About this time SLASH discovered BMX (bicycle motorcrossing), joined up with a group of kids, and rode with a passion. It’s not surprising to hear that SLASH would ride without brakes! SLASH eventually became a professional BMX biker winning awards and money for his great riding.

While in junior high school (age 15), SLASH’s grandmother gave him his first guitar. Although it had just one string, SLASH was able to learn to play. SLASH’s early musical influences were Led Zep, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith,Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Neil Young. He credits the Aerosmith album ROCKS with changing his life. Getting to play with the musical idols of his life means a lot to him. Standing on a stage in Paris with Jeff Beck and Joe Perry was overwhelming. SLASH also has gotten to play with guitarist "god" Eric Clapton. He has played with many other artists including Lenny Kravitz, Paul Rogers, Iggy Pop, Michael Jackson, Brian May to name just a few.

Soon the bike was put aside. SLASH devoted at least 12 hours a day to playing guitar. His schoolwork suffered when he skipped classes and sat in the bleachers all day playing guitar. School may have suffered, but his social life got better! The other kids now thought SLASH was cool, and he was no longer a social outcast. SLASH joined band after band jamming with other young musicians. Eventually, SLASH gave up on school and dropped out in eleventh grade. Another education was waiting for him in the L.A. band scene. SLASH met Steven Adler, formed the band Road Crew, and was looking for a good singer. Then he met Izzy Stradlin who played him a tape of W. Axl Rose singing. SLASH went to see Axl perform and immediately wanted to steal him from Izzy, but the two Indiana natives were fast friends. SLASH found his bass player in Duff McKagan when Duff answered an ad SLASH had placed in the paper. All the players changed combinations, but the result was Guns N’Roses! With a lot of talent and a lot of drive, the band became an international success story.

After the Illusions tours, Guns N’Roses went on a well-deserved hiatus, and SLASH became a U.S citizen. He decided that immigration hassles, lost green cards, etc. were just too timeconsuming for his lifestyle. So SLASH became a citizen of the United States. Welcome, SLASH! About this time, SLASH became restless and decided to form a new band as a side project to his GNR work which seemed to be taking forever to get started. Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, Mike Inez, Eric Dover, and SLASH formed SLASH’s Snakepit and recorded the album IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK SOMEWHERE. Never content to stay home and smell the roses, SLASH went on the road with his touring band: Gilby Clarke, Brian Tichy, James Lomenso, Eric Dover. Playing to small venues, SLASH was able to get back to playing in clubs and being toe-to-toe with the audience. IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK SOMEWHERE went platinum worldwide, and SLASH promised that Snakepit would be back again.

In the summer of 1996, SLASH was invited to play at a blues concert in Budapest, Hungary. He got together some musicians and headed for Europe. From this beginning came a terrific band called SLASH’s Blues Ball. And though this band never recorded an album, it was in big demand by promoters and fans.

While this was going on, SLASH was waiting for Axl Rose to get Guns N’Roses together. SLASH and Axl had talks about the musical direction of the band. SLASH saw GNR as a rock band while Axl Rose wanted to go in a more techno/industrial direction with GNR. After many, many meetings and heated discussions, SLASH resigned from GNR in October 1996 with Rose retaining the rights to the band name. SLASH didn’t sit at home with his head in his hands. He got busy with Blues Ball! Blues Ball played blues covers, so they could start playing gigs right away. Throughout the end of 1996 till the fall of 1997, SLASH’s Blues Ball played at clubs throughout California, into the southwest and the northeast. Blues Ball has rolled away for the time being but may play some one-offs. You just never know with SLASH!

When SLASH left Guns N’Roses, his many fans wondered what he might be going do with all that talent and personality. The media were wondering, too. At first, there was speculation that the Axl - SLASH rift would be of short duration and a reconciliation was inevitable. SLASH had been quoted as saying that when Axl Rose was ready to make a rock and roll album, he would be back. As Rose filled GNR with hired guns and unknowns, SLASH made it clear that Snakepit will be his permanent band. He says he could do a one off or a short tour with the original band, but he would never walk on stage with a band pretending to be the Guns N’Roses band.

As promised, SLASH brought back Snakepit! He had 300 demo tapes from musicians who wanted to be in his band. He settled on drummer Matt Laug (formerly with Venice) and bassist Johnny Griparic (formerly with SLASH’s Blues Ball). Rhythm guitarist was at first Ryan Roxie. Ryan was in Dad’s Porno Magazine and Alice Cooper’s band. Ryan did the pre-album tour and the recording, but then decided to stick with his many other bands. SLASH was able to enlist the wonderful Keri Kelli as the band’s second guitarist. Snakepit’s vocalist is a newcomer, Rod Jackson, from Virginia and the band Ragdoll there. The new album was released October 10, 2000 in the US with the upbeat title Ain’t Life Grand. Elsewhere in this website, you will find some song clips, lyrics and reviews. SLASH’s Snakepit began their tour by opening for AC/DC on the North American leg of their tour. This gave the band huge exposure. The band toured the Far East with great results and and then did a European tour in December. In February 2001, the ’pit launched a club show in the US. The tour did very well, but on March 11, SLASH came down with the flu and the rest of this tour was cancelled. The band was also to open for AC/DC again in March in the US until SLASH’s flu turned into pneumonia. It’s hard to imagine this dynamo stopped by illness, and he won’t be for long. May 2001 finds SLASH recuperating and planning the next leg of the tour. Snakepit gave its last performance in July 2001. The band went home for some rest before recording the next album. The rest time was getting long, so Snakepit (minus SLASH) got together to write some songs. Sadly, SLASH announced publicly that Snakepit was no more. SLASH was breaking up the band in order to do some solo projects of his own. He said that he had been through all that excitement of touring and arranging gigs when he was starting out. He was glad the guys had a good time, but he was not interested in repeating what they had done. So, Snakepit band members disappeared to other bands.

SLASH then decided he would do a solo project involving music from different countries. He would use guest musicians, but he would write all the music. At the same time, he started jamming with Duff and Matt. Soon, this project went from "not a high priority" to the three ex-Gunners’ sole focus. Izzy was in and out, and The Project (this site gave it this temporary name) had music and some lyrics for 40 songs. Izzy decided he did not want to tour although he might jump in and out of a tour, and the guys picked up the guitarist from Duff’s Loaded band, Dave Kushner. In early 2003, The Project auditioned vocalists. After throwing the job open to experienced and unknown singers, Scott Weiland, ex-Stone Temple Pilots was selected. The band called themselves Velvet Revolver and played their debut gig in the summer of 2003 at the El Rey theater in L.A. The band did some soundtrack work on The Hulk and The Italian Job and found a label (RCA). Velvet Revolver was to have their debut CD in the hands of the label by year’s end 2003, and they had it in by 12/19. Unfortunately, Scott Weiland continued to have drug and legal problems that kept pushing the release date back further and further. The album title is Contraband and the release date is now June 8. While Scott is doing rehab, SLASH and Duff have been doing global promo! They promise a worldwide tour after the album is released. The first single off the album will be "Slither", and a video was done where fans took part. For additional information, check out the Velvet Revolver on this site. Also follow the News Section for additional updated information on SLASH’s new band. Rock ’N’ Fuckin’ Roll!

SLASH’s life once seemed a symbol of rock and roll decadence, but things have calmed down with him in some ways. Once a heroin addict, SLASH has been off drugs for several years. His astounding drinking habits are sometimes in evidence, and he still smokes his Marlboros and Galitanos. A major change occurred when SLASH fell in love with Renee Suran. They were married October 10, 1992 in Marina Del Ray, California. Renee stayed out of the rock spotlight but was described as beautiful, sweet, and very much in love with SLASH. She pursued her own career as model and actress. Renee and SLASH both appeared in Howard Stern’s movie "Private Parts". The two separated and divorced in the fall of 1997. They remain friends. After his divorce, SLASH was in Las Vegas when he ran into a young woman he had known for many years. Her name was Perla Ferrer, and the couple soon began dating seriously. Perla and SLASH eventually started living together, and fans started seeing Perla on the SLASH’s Snakepit tours and his appearances in clubs or on TV. It became clear that Perla was someone very special to SLASH, and in 2000, the two became engaged to be married. Perla’s beautiful, sparkling diamond ring was designed by SLASH himself. On October 15, Saul Hudson married Perla Ferrar in Maui in a solemn relgious service there. The bride wore a strapless, pleated white wedding gown and carried a beautiful floral bouquet that matched those in her long brown hair. SLASH wore new black leather pants, a white shirt, his faithful black leather jacket and a floral lei matching Perla’s flowers. All their fans and friends and families wish Mr. and Mrs. Hudson a wonderful married life. The Hudsons returned to Los Angeles where they will buy a new home. In February 2002, SLASH and Perla announced that they are expecting their first child in September! On August 28, 2002 little London Hudson made his appearance! Despite some problems Perla had with the pregnancy, London was in excellent condition. He is a beautiful baby and the center of the family. SLASH just loves him so much, and he always has a sweet story about his son. As London approaches his second birthday in the summer of 2004, the Hudson’s are looking forward to the birth of their second child at the end of June. The baby will also be a boy! SLASH’s lifestyle has changed over the years. From being a wild rocker, SLASH has settled into a role of husband and father. Some things about SLASH don’t change - his love for his music, his wife, his fans and his friends as well as the California climate and the Los Angeles setting. If you are in the Sunset Boulevard area, you might run into SLASH hanging out with Perla and his friends or jamming with a band on the Strip. He looks healthy and happy and a little more settled, but you can still see a little of that devilish rocker in his eyes!

About his small tv and movie parts, SLASH says that he is not looking to become an actor. He loves music and plays with a lot of artists. He seems not to have changed from the young musician who formed band after band, always looking for another chance to play. It was a family friend who nicknamed Saul Hudson "SLASH". He said SLASH was always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another. He named SLASH well!

KISS Biography

2009-01-01T04:08:00.000-08:00

Rooted in the campy theatrics of Alice Cooper and the sleazy hard rock of glam rockers the New York Dolls, Kiss became a favorite of American teenagers in the ’70s. Most kids were infatuated with the look of Kiss, not their music. Decked out in outrageously flamboyant costumes and makeup, the band fashioned a captivating stage show featuring dry ice, smoke bombs, elaborate lighting, blood spitting, and fire breathing that captured the imaginations of thousands of kids. But Kiss’ music shouldn’t be dismissed -- it was a commercially potent mix of anthemic, fist-pounding hard rock driven by sleek hooks and ballads powered by loud guitars, cloying melodies, and sweeping strings. It was a sound that laid the groundwork for both arena rock and the pop-metal that dominated rock in the late ’80s. Kiss was the brainchild of Gene Simmons (bass, vocals) and Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar, vocals), former members of the New York-based hard rock band Wicked Lester; the duo brought in drummer Peter Criss through his ad in Rolling Stone and guitarist Ace Frehley responded to an advertisement in The Village Voice. Even at their first Manhattan concert in 1973, the group’s approach was quite theatrical; Flipside producer Bill Aucoin offered the band a management deal after the show. Two weeks later, the band was signed to Neil Bogart’s fledgling record label, Casablanca. Kiss released their self-titled debut in February of 1974; it peaked at number 87 on the U.S. charts. By April of 1975, the group had released three albums and had toured America constantly, building up a sizable fan base. Culled from those numerous concerts, Alive! (released in the fall of 1975) made the band rock & roll superstars; it climbed into the Top Ten and its accompanying single, "Rock ’N’ Roll All Nite," made it to number 12. Their follow-up, Destroyer, was released in March of 1976 and became the group’s first platinum album; it also featured their first Top Ten single, Peter Criss’ power ballad "Beth." A 1977 Gallup poll named Kiss the most popular band in America. Kiss mania was in full swing and thousands of pieces of merchandise hit the marketplace. The group had two comic books released by Marvel, pinball machines, makeup and masks, board games, and a live-action TV movie, Kiss Meet the Phantom of the Park. The group was never seen in public without wearing their makeup and their popularity was growing by leaps and bounds; the membership of the Kiss Army, the band’s fan club, was now in the six figures. Even such enormous popularity had its limits, and the band reached them in 1978, when all four members released solo albums on the same day in October. Simmons’ record was the most successful, reaching number 22 on the charts, yet all of them made it into the Top 50. Dynasty, released in 1979, continued their streak of platinum albums, yet it was their last recorded with the original lineup -- Criss left in 1980. Kiss Unmasked, released in the summer of 1980, was recorded with session drummer Anton Fig Criss’ permanent replacement, Eric Carr, joined the band in time for their 1980 world tour. Kiss Unmasked was their first record since Destroyer to fail to go platinum, and 1981’s Music From the Elder, their first album recorded with Carr, didn’t even go gold -- it couldn’t even climb past number 75 on the charts. Ace Frehley left the band after its release; he was replaced by Vinnie Vincent in 1982. Vincent’s first album with the group, 1982’s Creatures of the Night, fared better than Music From the Elder, yet it couldn’t make it past number 45 on the charts. Sensing it was time for a change, Kiss dispensed with their makeup for 1983’s Lick It Up. The publicity worked, as the album became their first platinum record in four years. Animalize, released the following year, was just as successful, and the group had recaptured their niche. Vincent left after Animalize and was replaced by Mark St. John St. John was soon taken ill with Reiter’s Syndrome and left the band. Bruce Kulick became Kiss’ new lead guitarist in 1984. For the rest of the decade, Kiss turned out a series of best-selling albums, culminating in the early 1990 hit ballad "Forever," which was their biggest single since "Beth." Kiss was scheduled to record a new album with their old producer, Bob Ezrin, in 1990 when Eric Carr became severely ill with cancer; he died in November of 1991 at the age of 41. Kiss replaced him with Eric Singer and recorded Revenge (1992), their first album since 1989; it was a Top Ten hit and went gold. Kiss followed it with the release of Alive III the following year; it performed respectably, but not up to the standards of their two previous live records. In 1996, the original lineup of Kiss -- featuring Simmons, Stanley, Frehley, and Criss -- reunited to perform an international tour, complete with their notorious makeup and special effects. The tour was one of the most successful of 1996, and in 1998 the reunited group issued Psycho Circus. While the ensuing tour in support of Psycho Circus was a success, sales of Kiss’ reunion album weren’t as stellar as anticipated. Reminiscent of the band’s late-’70s unfocused period, few tracks on Psycho Circus featured all four members playing together (most tracks were supplemented with session musicians), as the band seemed more interested in flooding the marketplace with merchandise yet again instead of making the music their top priority. With rumors running rampant that the Psycho Circus Tour would be their last, the quartet announced in the spring of 2000 that they would be launching a U.S. farewell tour in the summer, which became one of the year’s top concert draws. But on the eve of a Japanese and Australian tour in early 2001, Peter Criss suddenly left the band once again, supposedly discontent with his salary. Taking his place was previous Kiss drummer Eric Singer, who in a controversial move among some longtime fans, donned Criss’ cat-man makeup (since Simmons and Stanley own both Frehley and Criss’ makeup designs, there was no threat of a lawsuit) as the farewell tour continued. With the band scheduled to call it a day supposedly by late 2001, a mammoth career-encompassing box set was set for later in the year, while the summer saw perhaps the most over-the-top piece of Kiss merchandise yet -- the "Kiss Kasket." The group was relatively quiet through the rest of the year, but 2002 started with a bang as Gene Simmons turned in an entertaining and controversial interview on NPR where he criticized the organization and berated host Terry Gross with sexual comments and condescending answers. He was promoting his autobiography at the time, which also caused dissent in the Kiss camp because of the inflammatory remarks made towards Ace Frehley. Frehley was quite angry at the situation, leading to his no-showing of an American Bandstand anniversary show. His place was taken by a wig-wearing Tommy Thayer, but no one was fooled and the band looked especially awful while pretending to play their instruments during the pre-recorded track. The appearance was an embarrassment for the group and for their fans, but Simmons was quick to dismiss the performance as another in a long series of money-oriented decisions. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Herman Li Biography

2009-01-01T04:05:00.000-08:00

Herman Li (fl. 2000s) Born in Hong Kong, a guitarist in the power metal band DragonForce.

After having played in a number of underground metal/rock bands in London, Herman Li decided to form a band instead of joining one. Li has finally found the right musicians together to take the music he loves to another level in the form of a Power Metal band, DragonForce (previously known as Dragonheart). As well as touring with DragonForce, Li has also given guitar clinics on his own approach to the instrument.

Herman Li is a self-taught guitarist. His work is technical and is often very fast. Li plays with Ibanez guitars. He’s left-handed, but he couldn’t afford a left-handed guitar, so he plays a right-handed guitar. He also draws influences from “video game” music and mimics sounds from popular retro games in his songs.

Their 2004 album Sonic Firestorm earned Li the “Dimebag Darrell Award For Best Young Shredder” at the 2004 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, which he accepted dragging the other members Sam Totman, Vadim Pruzhanov, ZP Theart and Dave Mackintosh onto the stage alongside.

Li is known for his signature guitar solos, wherein he switches hands, using his right for fretting and his left for “shredding”. He also uses a Digitech Whammy Pedal and Wah Pedal To create some of his signature guitar sounds.