Rock Style Music

Sandra One of the Best

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:03:00 +0000

Sandra Ann Lauer (born 18 May 1962 in Saarbrücken), professionally known as Sandra, is a German Euro disco singer who became popular in the 1980s with the help of Michael Cretu whom she had married in 1988. The two met when Sandra was part of a group named Arabesque which saw little success, and he was a musician. She is currently living in Ibiza, Spain with her husband and two children, Nikol and Sebastian.

After enjoying a little success as a lead singer of the disco trio Arabesque, Sandra began performing solo , with Michael Cretu as manager, producer and composer for her first international #1 hit-single "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" in 1985. Sandra has topped the charts from as far afield as Sweden, Egypt, France, South Africa, Israel, Japan and Brazil with even more singles in the '80s. She still remains very popular in Europe, being considered one of the most popular singers of the 1980s in the mainland Europe, and had performed in Romania in the spring of 2010.
Beside "Maria Magdalena", her greatest hits are "In the Heat of the Night" (1985), "Everlasting Love" (1987), "Hi! Hi! Hi! (1986)" and "Hiroshima" (1990). Her top-rated albums are 1988's Into a Secret Land and 1992's Close to Seven. All her major hits are on the 18 Greatest Hits CD compilation.
Her latest singing projects include Enigma, after she decided to end her solo career in the '90s.

Sandra Ann Lauer was born in the German town of Saarbrücken, close to the French border. Sandra’s father, Robert Lauer is French and her mother, Karin Lauer is German. Sandra also had an older brother, Gaston (died in 1995), who was a paraplegic. Her father owned a wine shop in Saarbrücken and her mother worked in a shoe shop. Sandra showed an early interest in music and dancing. She started to learn classical ballet at the age of 5 and had continued lessons for 10 years. When she was 10 years old, she received a guitar and took lessons from a school teacher.
In 1975, at the age of thirteen, Sandra visited a competition in Saarbrücken, called Young Star Festival, where new talents for the music industry were scouted. She was not actually taking part in it, but sitting in the audience. When all the nominees finished their parts and the jury was discussing the results, she told her mother that she had to go to the public toilet, stood up, walked onto the stage, persuaded the DJ to put on the German cover version of a song from Olivia Newton-John, grabbed the microphone and started singing. Aided by newfound recognition, she released the single "Andy Mein Freund", a song about a pet dog. The single, however, performed poorly on the charts dominated by disco mania and she withdrew from the music scene for a few years.

In 1979 Sandra joined Arabesque, a disco group consisting of Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter. Soon after that they recorded their second album with Sandra on lead vocals at Europasound Studios in Offenbach. The studio was owned by famous producer Frank Farian, the creator of Boney M, and later Milli Vanilli. One of the musicians there was a keyboardist named Michael Cretu. Sandra and Michael found that they shared the same birthday, albeit five years apart, and became good friends.
With Arabesque a new period in Sandra’s life began. For the first time, she was away from her family, appearing on stage and TV in foreign countries, giving interviews, photo shoots and singing at concerts. Arabesque became successful, and by Sandra's nineteenth birthday she was a star. Arabesque were particularly popular in Japan dominating the charts, and their outrageous, sometimes daring costumes, dance routines and cheerful music suggested a fun alternative to ABBA and Boney M. They enjoyed success in several other countries and scored a Top 10 hit in Germany with "Marigot Bay" in 1981. After nine albums, differences in musical interests and the end of disco's popularity signalled the group's final break-up.
Sandra and Michael Cretu, romantically involved, moved to Munich, where Michael soon created his own studio, called Data-Alpha, after a song from his solo album Legionäre. Their first single together was 1984's "Japan ist weit", a German cover of the Alphaville song "Big in Japan", an appropriate way to describe Sandra's fame up to that point. However, the song failed to enter any of the charts and only 125 copies of the singe were sold.

Sandra achieved a palpable international success in 1985, owing to her chart-hitting single "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena". This song topped the charts in 21 countries worldwide, and reached the Top 10 in a further five countries. Her first album, The Long Play (1985), reached number 12 in her home country of Germany. It remained in the German Top 20 for 16 weeks, while in Sweden "Maria Magdalena" spent four weeks at number one. The follow-up single "In the Heat of the Night" continued her success all over Europe and internationally, reaching number two in Germany and the Top 5 in France. At that time Sandra was acclaimed the "pop princess". The song also earned Sandra second place at the Tokyo Music Festival in Japan, later in 1986. "Little Girl" became the third single with the music video being filmed in Venice.
Shortly after the release of The Long Play, Sandra moved to London for six months. Helena Shelen, a singing instructor, who had previously worked with artists like George Michael and Paul Young took Sandra under her wings. Sandra also joined the London Berlitz School for Languages, where she improved her English abilities and took drumming lessons to get a better feeling for rhythm and timing. Over weekends she went back to Munich to work on her new album.
Sandra's second studio album Mirrors (released in October 1986) reflected the continuous musical development of Michael Cretu. On this album, he used more of the writing and singing talents of Hubert Kemmler (who was already a popular singer in Germany under the name Hubert Kah). "Don't Cry (The Breakup of the World)" was a non-single track on the album, written in reaction to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. "Innocent Love" was the first of four successful singles from the album, entering the Top 10 in France whereas the second single "Hi! Hi! Hi!" was another Top 10 hit in her native country of Germany. The ballad "Loreen" was the third single released from the album, while the electro-pop "Midnight Man" (with Michael Cretu singing in the chorus and appearing in the music video) became the fourth and final single from the album. The second album continued the same success all over Europe.

Two years after her spectacular debut, in 1987, Sandra released the greatest hits compilation Ten on One, a testimony to her quick rise to stardom. Accompanied with it was the video collection of the album giving fans a glimpse inside her private life and day-to-day routine. Her version of "Everlasting Love", a favorite song since her childhood, went to number five on German charts, becoming one of her biggest hits. The music video showed Sandra and a male model depicting scenes of various lovers through the ages, with Adam and Eve, Bonnie and Clyde, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and a colorful 1980s punk couple, amongst others. The second single from the album, "Stop for a Minute", became another German Top 10 hit and was written especially for the German TV crime series Tatort, where she is found singing the song during a club scene in one of the episodes.
On 7 January 1988, Sandra married Michael Cretu and relocated from Munich to the Spanish island of Ibiza. In the same year they worked on Sandra's new material.
In 1988 Sandra and Michael released Into a Secret Land, moving away somewhat from electro-pop to a more mysterious and seductive sound. Four hit singles were delivered from this album. The first single "Heaven Can Wait" became another Top 10 smash hit in France and number 12 hit in Germany, accompanied by a video featuring Sandra dancing and singing on a Mediterranean beach. The title track, "Secret Land", a cover version of the track "Trenchcoat Man" by the short-lived German synth pop project Fabrique, became the second single, entering the German Top 10. The third single "We'll Be Together" was another German Top 10 hit. ("We'll Be Together" along with "When the Rain Doesn't Come" (from 1992's Close to Seven album) are the only songs written or co-written by Sandra prior to the release of her album The Wheel of Time in 2002.) "Around My Heart", the fourth single released, peaked at number 11 in Germany.

The British team, Stock Aitken Waterman tried to cash in on the success of "Everlasting Love" by releasing a remix of the song in 1988 for the British market. The remixed version was a moderate hit on the UK charts (reaching #45), but did well in Sweden, The Philippines and South Africa. With animal rights and nature conservation high on her personal agenda, she took part in the project Artists United for Nature in 1989. The song "Yes We Can" featured, amongst others, the vocals of Brian May, Harold Faltermeyer and Chaka Khan.
Sandra ended the 1980s as one of the most popular female performers in Europe. At that stage she was also already known as the European queen of pop and rivaled Madonna in terms of her popularity and Top 10 hits.
Sandra's album Paintings in Yellow (released in March 1990) gave her another Top 10 hit with a surprising cover version of Wishful Thinking's "Hiroshima". Elements of the five-part album track "The Journey" foreshadowed the Enigma sound, which was particularly evident on some of the album's tracks. Frank Peterson, who was the co-producer (alias F. Gregorian) on the Enigma project, took up the role of writing and producing some of the tracks with Michael Cretu. His influence was clearly audible.
In the same year, Enigma's song "Sadeness" became a huge hit in many countries all over the world. At first nobody knew who was hiding behind the alias Enigma, but Sandra fans quickly identified her voice. When the song became a Top 10 hit in the United States, it marked Sandra's first successful venture into the US market. Sandra performed the second single off her solo album "(Life May Be) A Big Insanity" at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo when she accepted the prize for Best Selling German Artist at the end of 1990. "One More Night" was the third and final single released from Paintings in Yellow.

Because of the overwhelming success of Enigma, and an almost two-year break after Paintings in Yellow, there was a gap in Sandra's career, which was finally closed, with the album Close to Seven. The album continued a development towards a more meditative, less dance-oriented musical style. Sandra wanted to get rid of her teen idol image and perform for a more mature audience. This was her first album produced almost completely by Michael Cretu. Close to Seven became another German Top 10 album. The male vocals were sung by Andy Jonas, also known as Andy "Angel" Hart.
Although the first single "Don't Be Aggressive" (with the music video being directed by Howard Greenhalgh) entered the European Top 20, subsequent singles failed to achieve the same success. The second single "I Need Love" was the first single after "Japan ist weit" for Sandra to flop and to not reach any of the charts. Nevertheless, Sandra and Michael were recognized as the most successful married couple and were awarded with the Golden Europe Award in 1992.
In the fall of 1992 a new compilation was released, entitled 18 Greatest Hits. Sandra recorded a new version of the song "Johnny Wanna Live", which was previously released on her Paintings in Yellow album. The song, co-written by Frank Peterson and later redone by his then-girlfriend Sarah Brightman for her album Dive, was an anthem against cruelty towards animals. The music video was once again directed by Howard Greenhalgh and showed shocking scenes of cruelty to animals. In an interview in Sweden, Sandra explained the origins of the song citing her disapproval of people wearing fur coats. The compilation reached the Top 10 in both Germany and France and was awarded gold. The release of 18 Greatest Hits marked the end of Sandra's most successful period of her solo career.

In 1993 Sandra released a new techno version of "Maria Magdalena" with a futuristic music video, which wasn't a success. However, it reached number 8 on the charts in Finland.
In 1995, while pregnant with twins, Sandra recorded and released Fading Shades. The album saw a new writer/producer Jens Gad working alongside Michael. The album featured a powerful cover version of "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues. The song went to number one in Israel and entered the Top 20 in Finland and Australia. The music video showed only close ups of Sandra's face as she was heavily pregnant at the time. She even had to sit during the recording sessions of the album. Again Andy "Angel" Hart performed all the male vocals on the album. The second single release was "Won't Run Away" which made no impact on the music charts.
On 6 July 1995, she gave birth to twin sons Nikita and Sebastian in a Munich hospital through Caesarean section. Sandra decided to put her career on hold to raise her children.
1999 saw the release of a double disc album. As the trend began with artists like Modern Talking to remix old material, My Favourites was released featuring remixes of her hits by long-time band companion Peter Ries, featuring also some of Sandra's personal favourite ballads. It quickly made its way into the Top 20 of the German album charts. "Secret Land '99" was taken as the single and showed Sandra sporting a short hairstyle in the music video. In 2000, Sandra did background vocals on Andru Donalds' single release "Precious Little Diamond".
Sandra's first studio album in seven years came with The Wheel of Time in 2002, reaching number eight on the German album charts. The first single "Forever", released in 2001, had a moderate success and showed a new mature, more natural-looking Sandra, still sporting short hair. Although some criticised The Wheel of Time for containing no less than five cover versions of 1980s songs, including the second single release "Such a Shame" (originally performed by Talk Talk), the album, however, was well received by her fans. Prior to this album's release, Sandra had only done three cover versions in English: "Everlasting Love" (1987), "Hiroshima" (1990), and "Nights in White Satin" (1995). Michael Cretu even convinced Sandra to cover "Freelove", a Depeche Mode song, which she did in just one take. The third single to be released was the ballad "I Close My Eyes". "Forgive Me" was also issued, but only as a promo single. In 2003, the DVD The Complete History was released, featuring all of her music videos.

Sandra's public appearances were few and far between when word got out in 2005 that the Swiss star DJ BoBo was planning a duet with her. She met DJ BoBo during the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo in 2002, when her husband accepted the prize for best-selling German artist. That meeting led to the single "Secrets of Love" in 2006. The dance anthem reached number five in Switzerland and number 13 in Germany. The music video was shot at Disneyland Park in Paris with Sandra and DJ Bobo being the only artists ever allowed to film inside the Cinderella castle. During this time Sandra took up performing live again and signs of her retro 1980s look, with the signature long hair, were seen again.
Virgin Records suggested that vocal recordings of Sandra's biggest hits be sent to different teams of producers/remixers so that they could produce entirely new music. Sandra hesitated at first because she had already put out a remix collection in 1999 and did not want to promote all of her former hits once again. She had already finished her eighth studio album and wished to move forward in a new musical direction. Nevertheless, Christian Geller, Schallbau, Felix J. Gauder, Matthias Menck, Ivo Moring and Mirko on Schlieffen delivered a successful result. In late 2006, Reflections was issued. Sandra's 1987 dance hit "Everlasting Love" even got a new vocal and was redone as a powerful ballad and distributed to the radio stations in Germany as a promotional single. Although the album reached the Top 10 of many online stores worldwide, no commercial single was released and not much more was done to promote this album. However, the radio single "Around My Heart 2006" became a huge hit in Poland, where the record company decided to promote it on the radio stations. In 2007 Virgin Music France decided to release a special version of Reflections, containing three new remixes made by French DJs. "In the Heat of the Night" was released online as a digital single containing four new versions of the song.

The highly anticipated studio album, The Art of Love was released in February 2007, entering the 16th position on the German charts. For the first time, Michael Cretu did not work as a producer for the album, as he was reportedly busy producing his new Enigma album A Posteriori. Sandra's management first tried to find producers from the United Kingdom, but Sandra didn't like the idea of leaving her family for a long period of time. Finally, Sandra contacted Michael Cretu's "right hand", Jens Gad, who produced the entire album. Sandra, for the first time during her career, now participated actively in composing and writing the album. Therefore, the lyrics of the songs are more personal, with Sandra revisiting her childhood and all her sad experiences in them. She worked at Gad's studio at nights, returning home to prepare breakfast for her twins, and then sleeping until they would come home from school. Also, for the first time, Sandra revealed her new, sexier look in the promotional pictures shot in New York by Bärbel Miebach.
The first single taken from the album, "The Way I Am", was released in January 2007, and it gained the 50th chart position in Germany, hardly having any promotion. The second single, "What Is It About Me", was released in May 2007 but failed to chart. The album also included a duet with DJ BoBo, and both sons of Sandra, Nikita and Sebastian, sang choirs in three songs. EMI Music in Poland decided to release her cover version of The Hooters' "All You Zombies" as a radio single instead of "What Is It About Me", and it became a big hit in Poland. Fans were campaigning to get the song released as a commercial single, while Sandra revealed in an interview that "Put Your Arms Around Me" (written by Sinéad O'Connor) was planned as a single, with an unreleased duet with DJ BoBo as a B-side. However, in a subsequent interview Sandra said that there would be no more singles released from the album.
In November 2007 it was announced that Sandra and Michael got divorced, citing "personal and professional differences". Both Sandra and Michael have since been reported to be in new relationships.
During all of 2007 and early 2008 Sandra has been busy touring around Eastern Europe and Germany. She decided to return to the busy schedule of concerts from the past, and even gave a performance in the spectacular Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia. Sandra also visited countries such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Lithuania for the very first time. On 23 July 2008, she performed in Athens, Greece. On 24 August 2008, Sandra performed in Poland during a concert dedicated to 1980s music, together with Kim Wilde, Samantha Fox, Sabrina, Modern Talking, Limahl and Shakin' Stevens. The concert was a part of Sopot International Song Festival 2008 and was broadcast live on Polish channel TVN. Sandra performed three songs: "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena", "In the Heat of the Night" and "Hiroshima".
A new Sandra album, entitled Back to Life, was released on 27 March 2009. Sandra revealed it was going to be an up-tempo, pop album, with influences of Latin pop, dance and R&B. The first single, "In a Heartbeat" was released on 6 March 2009. The album was recorded in New York with the help of Jens Gad, and his brother Toby Gad (famous for his work with Beyoncé Knowles and Fergie). The second single, released on 8 May 2009, was "The Night Is Still Young", a duet with Thomas Anders, former member of Modern Talking. Also included on the album is the duet, "I Want You" sung by Sandra and her husband-to-be, Olaf Menges. Another standout track is "Tête à tête", written and composed by Sandra and sung in French language.
On 1 August 2009, Sandra was one of the main acts on the DJ BoBo & Friends festival, held in Engelberg, Switzerland. Sandra rocked fans with a superb live performance featuring her own band, a onstage DJ, plus complete new interpretations of her songs.
On 6 November 2009, a 3-disc greatest hits compilation album entitled The Platinum Collection was released, featuring 51 song including all of her hit singles from "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" to "The Night Is Still Young", as well as some non-released tracks from her albums Into a Secret Land, Paintings in Yellow, Close to Seven, The Art of Love and Back to Life. The third disc includes eleven extended versions of her greatest hits.

Sandra was married to Michael Cretu on 7 January 1988 with whom she had two sons (twins), Nikita and Sebastian, born in July 1995. Sandra and Michael divorced in November 2007, citing "personal and professional differences". Currently she resides in their old house in Ibiza, and Michael was reported to live in Germany since May 2009. In 2010, Sandra married her boyfriend, Olaf Menges.

Sandra is a health food lover and is a vegetarian. She likes sport and lives an active lifestyle. She's also known for her involvement in animal rights and nature protection. Both Sandra and her former husband Michael Cretu have always been gay rights supporters.

Sharon den Adel

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:40:00 +0000

Sharon Janny den Adel (born 12 July 1974, in Waddinxveen, South Holland, Netherlands) is a Dutch singer and composer, best known as the lead vocalist and one of the main songwriters in the Dutch symphonic metal/rock band Within Temptation. She has performed with various bands since she was 13, including a blues rock band called Kashiro, and joined Robert Westerholt in Within Temptation in 1996.

Together with her boyfriend, Robert Westerholt, den Adel is one of the founding members of Within Temptation. She has defined their work as epic and cinematic. Her vocals play a major role in the band's sound, despite having never received formal vocal training.Sharon has sings in the mezzo-soprano range but her vocal quality is light and lyric despite her range.Before Within Temptation became famous, Sharon worked for a fashion company. As the band became more successful with their hit single Ice Queen, Sharon left the fashion industry to focus on music. She utilises her fashion expertise by designing her stage costumes and the band's merchandise.

Sharon den Adel has performed on-stage and in the studio with several notable bands, including Armin van Buuren, After Forever, De Heideroosjes, and Delain. She sang the part of Anna Held in Tobias Sammet's Avantasia projects, and the part of the Indian on Ayreon's rock opera Into the Electric Castle. She sang the vocals of one Timo Tolkki song, "Are You The One?", co-wrote and provided the vocals for the track "In And Out Of Love" from Armin van Buuren's 2008 album Imagine, and sang on the track "No Compliance" for Delain's album Lucidity, as well as working with the band Voyage on the track "Frozen" (not to be confused with the Within Temptation song of the same title).

Sharon den Adel and long-term partner Robert Westerholt have a daughter, Eva Luna, who was born on 7 December 2005. She was pregnant with Luna during the band's The Silent Force tour. They currently live near Hilversum, in the Netherlands and they have two cats, Haplo and Lola. On 22 February 2009, Sharon announced that she was pregnant with her second child.The band's website subsequently announced that, on 1 June 2009, Robin Aiden Westerholt was born. Going by the name of Aiden, he was born premature at 32 weeks and 6 days.

Alice Cooper part 2

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Cooper's albums from the beginning of the 1980s, Flush the Fashion, Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin, and DaDa, were not as commercially successful as his past releases, and Cooper has claimed that, suffering from acute alcoholic amnesia, he has no recollection of recording the latter two of these albums.Flush the Fashion, produced by Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker, had a thick, edgy New Wave musical sound that baffled even long-time fans, though it still yielded the US Top 40 hit "(We're All) Clones". The album Special Forces featured a more aggressive but consistent form of New Wave style, and included a new version of "Generation Landslide". The following album, Zipper Catches Skin was a more power pop-oriented recording, with lots of quirky high-energy guitar-driven songs. While those three albums engaged the experimental New Wave sound with energetic results, 1983 marked the return collaboration of producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner with the haunting epic DaDa, the final album in his Warner Bros. contract.
In 1983, after the recording of DaDa, Cooper was re-hospitalized for alcoholism. In a deathly state of health, he relocated back to Phoenix, Arizona, in order to try and save his marriage from collapse and so that he could receive the support of family and friends. Cooper was finally clean and sober by the time DaDa and The Nightmare home video (of his 1975 TV Special) were released in the fall of that year; however, both releases performed below expectations. Even with The Nightmare scoring a nomination for 1984's Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video (he lost to Duran Duran), it wasn't enough for Warner Bros. to keep Cooper on their books, and in 1984 Alice Cooper became, for the first time in his career, a free agent.
After over a year on hiatus, during which time he spent being a full-time dad, perfecting his golf swing everyday on the course, and also finding time to star in the Spanish B-grade horror movie production Monster Dog, Cooper sought to pick up the pieces of his musical career, and in 1985 he met and began writing songs with guitarist Kane Roberts. Cooper was subsequently signed to MCA Records, and appeared as guest vocalist on Twisted Sister's song "Be Chrool To Your Scuel". A video was made for the song, featuring Cooper donning his black snake-eyes make-up for the first time since 1979, but any publicity it may have given to Cooper's return to the music scene was cut short as the video was promptly banned due to its graphically gory make-up (by Tom Savini) of the innumerable zombies in the video and their insatiable appetite for gorging on human flesh.

In 1986, Alice Cooper officially returned to the music industry with the album Constrictor. The album spawned the hits "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" (the theme song for the movie Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives; in the video of the song Cooper was given a cameo role as a deranged psychiatrist) and the fan favorite "Teenage Frankenstein". The Constrictor album was a catalyst for Cooper to make (for the first time since the 1982 Special Forces tour) a triumphant return to the road, on a tour appropriately entitled The Nightmare Returns. The Detroit leg of this tour, which took place at the end of October 1986 during Halloween,was captured on film as The Nightmare Returns, and is viewed by some as being the definitive Alice Cooper concert film.The concert, which received rave reviews in the rock music press,and which was also described as bringing "Cooper’s violent, twisted onstage fantasies to a new generation"sees a reborn and sober Cooper who is leaner, meaner, fitter and in imperious form, and demonstrating a complete mastery over the stage and his music, in a series of meticulously choreographed and flawlessly executed songs that span his career up to that point, and which feature his full repertoire of stunts, special effects, darkly black humour, horror and gore. The Constrictor album was followed by Raise Your Fist and Yell in 1987, which had an even rougher sound than its predecessor, as well the Cooper classic "Freedom". The subsequent tour of Raise Your Fist and Yell, which was heavily inspired by the slasher horror movies of the time such as the Friday the 13th series and Nightmare on Elm Street, served up a similar shocking spectacle as its predecessor, and courted the kind of controversy, especially in Europe, that recalled the public outrage caused by Cooper’s public performances in America in the early 70s. In Britain, the Labour member of parliament David Blunkett called for the show to be banned, saying "I'm horrified by his behaviour – it goes beyond the bounds of entertainment".The controversy spilled over into the German segment of the tour, with the German government actually succeeding in having some of the gorier segments of the performance removed.It was also during the London leg of the tour that Cooper met with a near fatal accident during the hanging execution sequence at the end of the show.Needless to say the attendant publicity served only to increase public interest and ensure that the tour was completely sold out.

Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell were recorded with lead guitarist Kane Roberts and bassist Kip Winger, both of whom would leave the band by the end of 1988 (although Kane Roberts played guitar on "Bed Of Nails" on 1989's album Trash). Roberts would continue as a solo artist while Kip Winger would go on to form Winger.
In 1987, Cooper made a brief appearance as a vagrant in the horror movie Prince of Darkness, directed by John Carpenter. His role had no lines and consisted of generally menacing the protagonists before eventually impaling one of them with a bicycle frame. Cooper also appeared at WrestleMania III, escorting wrestler Jake 'The Snake' Roberts to the ring. After the match was over, Cooper got involved and threw Jake's snake Damien at The Honky Tonk Man's manager Jimmy Hart. Jake considered the involvement of Cooper to be an honor, as he had idolized Cooper in his youth and was still a huge fan.
In 1988 Cooper's contract with MCA Records expired and he signed with Epic Records. Then, in 1989, his career finally experienced a real revival with the Desmond Child produced album Trash, which spawned a hit single "Poison", which reached #2 in the UK and #7 in the US, and a worldwide arena tour.

1991 saw the release of Cooper's 19th studio album Hey Stoopid, however, amidst the grunge rock explosion, it failed to have the same commercial impact as its predecessor, Trash, though several of rock music’s glitterati again guested on the record. The same year also saw the release of the video Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts which chronicled his entire career using in depth interviews with Cooper himself, Bob Ezrin, and Shep Gordon. One critic has noted how Prime Cuts demonstrates how Cooper had used (in contrast to similar artists who succeeded him) themes of satire and moralisation to such good effect throughout his career.It was in the Prime Cuts video that Bob Ezrin delivered his own summation of the Alice Cooper persona: "He is the psycho killer in all of us. He's the axe murderer, he's the spoiled child, he's the abuser, he's the abused; he's the perpratrator, he's the victim, he's the gun slinger, and he's the guy lying dead in the middle of the street".
By the early 1990s Cooper had become a genuine cultural icon, guesting on records by the most successful bands of the time, such as the Guns N' Roses album Use Your Illusion I, (on which he shared vocal duties with Axl on the track "The Garden"); making a brief appearance as the abusive stepfather of Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare On Elm Street film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991); and making a famous cameo appearance in the 1992 comedy film Wayne's World, in which he and his band intellectually discuss (after a performance of the song "Feed My Frankenstein" from Hey Stoopid) the history of Milwaukee in surprising depth. In a now famous scene, the movie's main characters Wayne and Garth, on seeing Cooper, kneel and bow reverently before him while chanting "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"
Cooper released in 1994 The Last Temptation, his first concept album since DaDa, which dealt with issues of faith, temptation, alienation, and the frustrations of modern life, and which has been described as "a young man's struggle to see the truth through the distractions of the 'Sideshow' of the modern world".Concurrent with the release of The Last Temptation was a three-part comic book series written by Neil Gaiman, fleshing out the album's story. This was to be Cooper’s last album with Epic Records, and his last studio release for six years, though during this period the live album A Fistful of Alice was released, and in 1997 he lent his voice to the first track of Insane Clown Posse's The Great Milenko. In 1999, the four-disc box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper appeared, which contained an authorized biography of Cooper, Alcohol and Razor Blades, Poison and Needles: The Glorious Wretched Excess of Alice Cooper, All-American, written by longtime Creem magazine Canadian editor Jeffrey Morgan.

During his absence from the recording studio, Cooper toured extensively every year throughout the latter part of the 1990s, including, in 1996, through South America, which he had not visited since 1974. Also in 1996, Cooper sang the role of Herod on the London cast recording of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

The 2000s has seen a sustained period of activity from Cooper, in which, in the decade that he turned sixty, he has toured extensively and released (after a significant break) a steady stream of studio albums to favorable critical acclaim. During this period Cooper has also been recognized and awarded in various ways: he received a Rock Immortal award at the 2007 Scream Awards;was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003;he received (in May 2004) an honorary doctoral degree from Grand Canyon University;was given (in May 2006) the key to the city of Alice, North Dakota;he scooped the living legend award at the 2006 Classic Rock Roll of Honour event;he won the 2007 Mojo music magazine Hero Award;and fans have twice tried to induct him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The lengthy break between studio albums ended in 2000 with Brutal Planet, which was a return to horror-lined heavy metal, with a vicious injection of industrial rock, and with subject matter thematically inspired by the brutality of the modern world, set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, and also inspired by a number of news stories that had recently appeared on the news channel CNN.The album was produced by Bob Marlett, with longtime Cooper production collaborator Bob Ezrin returning as Executive Producer. The accompanying world tour, which included Cooper’s first concert in Russia, was a resounding success, introducing Alice Cooper to a new audience and producing the live home video, Brutally Live, in 2001. During one memorable episode in Brutally Live, Britney Spears (being played by Alice Cooper’s real life daughter, Calico), and representing "everything that my audience hates - the softening of rock and roll...the sweetness of it"is executed by Cooper.
Brutal Planet was succeeded by the sonically similar and widely acclaimed sequel Dragontown, which saw Bob Marlett back at the helm as Producer. The album has been described as leading the listener down "a nightmarish path into the mind of rock's original conceptual storyteller"and by Cooper himself as being "the worst town on Brutal Planet".Like The Last Temptation, both Brutal Planet and Dragontown are albums which explore Cooper's personal faith perspective (born again Christianity). It is commonly perceived in the music media that Dragontown forms the third chapter in a trilogy begun with The Last Temptation;however, Cooper has himself indicated that this is in fact not the case.
Cooper again adopted a leaner, cleaner sound for his critically acclaimed 2003 release The Eyes Of Alice Cooper. Recognizing that many contemporary bands were having great success with his former sounds and styles, Cooper worked with a somewhat younger group of road and studio musicians who were very familiar with his oeuvre of old. However, instead of rehashing the old sounds, they updated them, often with surprisingly effective results. The resulting Bare Bones tour adopted a less-orchestrated performance style that had fewer theatrical flourishes and a greater emphasis on musicality. The success of this tour helped support the growing recognition that the classic Cooper songs were exceptionally clever, tuneful, and unique.

Cooper's radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper, began airing on January 26, 2004 in several US cities. The program showcases classic rock, Cooper's personal stories about his life as a rock icon, and interviews with prominent rock artists. The show appears on nearly 100 stations in the US and Canada, and has also been sold all over the world.
A continuation of the songwriting approach adopted on The Eyes of Alice Cooper was again adopted by Cooper for his 24th studio album, Dirty Diamonds, released in 2005. Dirty Diamonds became Cooper's highest charting album since 1994's The Last Temptation.The Dirty Diamonds tour launched in America in August 2005 after several European concerts, including a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 12. Cooper and his band, including Kiss drummer Eric Singer, were filmed for a DVD released as Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux 2005. One critic, in a review of the Montreux release, commented that Cooper was to be applauded for "still mining pretty much the same territory of teenage angst and rebellion" as he had done more than thirty years previously.
In December 2006, the original Alice Cooper band reunited to perform six classic Alice Cooper songs at Cooper's annual charity event in Phoenix, entitled "Christmas Pudding".
On July 1, 2007 Cooper performed a duet with Marilyn Manson at the B'Estival event in Bucharest, Romania.The performance represented a reconciliation between the two artists; Cooper had previously taken issue with Manson over his overtly anti-Christian onstage antics, which included tearing up bibles, and he had sarcastically made reference to the originality of Manson’s choosing a female name and dressing in women's clothing.Cooper and Manson have been the subject of an academic paper on the significance of adolescent antiheroes.
In January 2008 he was one of the guest singers on the new Avantasia album The Scarecrow, singing the 7th track, "The Toy Master".
In July 2008, after lengthy delays, Cooper released Along Came a Spider, his 25th studio album. It was Cooper's highest charting album since 1991's Hey Stoopid, reaching #53 in the US and #31 in the UK. The album, visiting similar territory explored in 1987's Raise Your Fist and Yell, deals with the nefarious antics of a deranged serial killer named "Spider" who is on a quest to use the limbs of his victims to create a human spider. The album generally received positive reviews from music critics, though Rolling Stone magazine opined that the music on the record sorely missed Bob Ezrin's production values.

Alice Cooper part 1

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:51:00 +0000

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948)is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.
Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love it to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.
Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band's name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 2008 he released Along Came a Spider, his 18th solo album. Expanding from his original Detroit rock roots, over the years Cooper has experimented with many different musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, hard rock, new wave, pop rock, experimental rock and industrial rock.In recent times he has returned more to his garage rock roots.

Alice Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage, The Rolling Stone Album Guide going so far as to refer to him as the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer".He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and is seen as being the person who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre".Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur and, since 2004, a popular radio DJ with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper.

On VH1's "100 Greatest artists of Hard Rock", Cooper was ranked #20.

Childhood and early life

Alice Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Ella Mae (née McCart) and Ether Moroni Furnier. He was named after one of his uncles and the writer Damon Runyon.While in Detroit, Furnier attended Nankin Mills Middle School, which is now Lutheran High School Westland. His grandfather, Thurman Sylvester Furnier, was an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Vincent Furnier's father was an Elder in The Church of Jesus Christ. Furnier has some distant French Huguenot ancestry; the remainder of his ancestry is English and Scottish.The young Vincent was very active in the Church of Jesus Christ at the ages of 11 and 12.
After a series of childhood illnesses, Furnier and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. After Washington Elementary School, Furnier attended Cortez High School in northern Phoenix. He was also a member of the Order of DeMolay.

n 1964, at the age of 16, Furnier was eager to take part in the local annual Letterman's talent show and gathered fellow cross-country teammates from the school to form a group for the show.[12] They named themselves The Earwigs, and since they didn't know how to play any instruments at the time, they dressed up like The Beatles and mimed their performance to Beatles songs. As a result of winning the talent show and loving the experience of being onstage, the group immediately proceeded to learn how to play instruments they acquired from a local pawn shop and soon renamed themselves The Spiders, featuring Furnier on vocals and harmonica, Glen Buxton on lead guitar, John Tatum on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and John Speer on drums.[13] Musically, the group were inspired by artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and The Yardbirds. For the next year the band performed regularly around the Phoenix area with a huge black spider's web as their backdrop, the group's first stage prop. In 1965, they also recorded their first single "Why Don't You Love Me" (originally performed by The Blackwells), with Furnier learning the harmonica for the song.
In 1966, the members of The Spiders graduated from Cortez High School. After North High School footballer Michael Bruce replaced John Tatum on rhythm guitar, the band scored a local #1 radio hit with "Don't Blow Your Mind", an original composition from their second single release. By 1967, the band had begun to make regular roadtrips to Los Angeles, California to play shows. They soon renamed themselves The Nazz and released the single "Wonder Who's Lovin' Her Now", backed with future Alice Cooper track "Lay Down And Die, Goodbye". It was around this time that drummer John Speer was replaced by Neal Smith, and by the end of the year the band had relocated to Los Angeles permanently.
In 1968, upon learning that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, the band were again in need of another stage name. Furnier recognized that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. He subsequently chose Alice Cooper as the band's name and adopted this stage name as his own.
Early press releases claimed that the name was agreed upon after a session with a Ouija board, during which it was revealed that Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch named Alice Cooper. However, it is now widely accepted that this story was in fact a publicity stunt—Cooper in later interviews confirmed that the name actually came out of thin air, conjuring an image of "a cute and sweet little girl with a hatchet behind her back". (The name was also once said to be an inside joke associated with a character in the television show Mayberry R.F.D.; Alice Cooper is also the name of Betty Cooper's mother in the Archie comic strips).
In later interviews, Cooper admitted that "Alice Cooper" was only intended to be the name of the band, as Cooper himself used his birth name (Vincent Furnier) during the band's early days. However, as the band played more shows, numerous fans were coming up to Cooper and saying, "Hey, Alice!" Cooper was unaware that the fans were addressing him, and was taken aback by the notion that the fans were mistaking the band's name for his own.
Nonetheless, at the time Cooper and the band realized that the concept of a male playing the role of an androgynous witch, in tattered women's clothing and wearing make-up, would definitely have the potential to cause considerable social controversy and grab headlines. Furnier would later admit that the name change was one of his most important and brilliant career moves.
The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of singer Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier), lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. With the exception of Smith, who graduated from Camelback High School (which is referred to in the song "Alma Mater" on the School's Out album), all of the band members were on the Cortez High School cross-country team, and many of Alice Cooper's stage 'effects' were inspired by their cross-country coach, Emmett Smith(one of Smith's class projects was to build a working guillotine for slicing watermelons). Cooper, Buxton and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would further inspire their future stage antics.
One night, after an unsuccessful gig at a club in Venice, California called The Cheetah, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager Shep Gordon, who ironically saw the band's seemingly negative impact that night as a force that could be directed in a more positive direction. Shep then managed to arrange an audition for the band with composer and renowned record producer Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. For the audition, Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock", however, the band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of psychedelic rock at seven in the morning (a time unbeknownst to most in the rock music world) impressed Zappa enough to sign them on a three-album deal. It was another Zappa signed act, the all-female GTOs, who liked to "dress the Cooper boys up like full size barbie dolls", that played a major role in developing the band's early onstage look.Alice Cooper's first album Pretties for You was released in 1969 and, though it touched the US charts for one week at #193, ultimately met with critical and commercial failure.
After an unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, the band decided to capitalize on tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous 'Chicken Incident', which took place at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was in fact an accident. A chicken somehow made its way on stage during Alice Cooper's performance; not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, since the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly.He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away; the bird instead plummeted into the first few rows of the crowd occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the animal to pieces.
The next day, the incident made the front page of many national newspapers, and Zappa phoned him to ask if the story, which reported that Cooper had bit the head off the chicken and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, "Well, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you didn't do it",obviously recognising that such kind of publicity would be priceless for the band.
Despite the publicity the band received from the Chicken Incident, their stronger second album, Easy Action, released in 1970, met with the same fate as its predecessor. Music label Warner Bros. Records then purchased Straight Records from Frank Zappa, and the Alice Cooper group was set to receive a higher level of promotion from the more major label. It was around this time that the band, fed up with Californians' indifference to their act, relocated to Cooper's birthplace, Detroit, where their bizarre stage act was much better received. Detroit would remain their steady home base until 1972. "LA just didn’t get it. They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else..."

In 1970, after two failed albums, the Alice Cooper group was teamed up with fledgling producer Bob Ezrin for their third album, the last in their contract with Straight Records, and the band's last chance to create a hit. That hit soon came with the single "I'm Eighteen", released in November 1970, which reached number 21 in the Billboard Hot 100. The album that followed, Love it to Death, released in February 1971, proved to be their breakthrough record, reaching number 35 in the US Billboard 200 album charts. It would be the first of eleven Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being instrumental in helping to create and develop the band's definitive sound.The band's trailblazing mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time.As Cooper himself has stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation".
Sporting tight sequined costumes by the prominent rock fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister to band member Neal, and wife to band member Dennis) and stage shows that involved mock fights and Gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, the androgynous stage role now presented a villainous side which posed a potential threat to modern society. With Cooper needing to be punished for his immoral ways, the first of a number of methods of execution were incorporated into the show: the Electric Chair.
The success of the band's single, the album, and their tour of 1971, which saw their first and hugely successful tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included Elton John and David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract.
Their follow-up album Killer, released in late 1971, continued the commercial success of Love It To Death and included further single success with "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" in early 1972, and "Halo Of Flies", which became a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands. Thematically, Killer expanded on the villainous side of Cooper's androgynous stage role, with its music becoming the soundtrack to the group's morality-based stage show, which by then featured a boa constrictor hugging Cooper onstage and the murderous axe chopping of bloodied dead baby dolls. In addition, the method of execution had developed into death by hanging: The Gallows. By mid-1972, the Alice Cooper show had become infamous, but what the band really needed was a big hit single.

That summer saw the release of the appropriately titled single "School's Out". It went Top 10 in the US, was a #1 single in the UK, and remains a staple on classic rock radio to this day. School's Out the album reached #2 on the US charts and sold over a million copies. The band now relocated to their new mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.[30] With Cooper's on-stage androgynous persona completely replaced with brattiness and machismo, the band's traveling carnival of filth and terror cemented their success with subsequent tours in the US and Europe, and won over devoted fans in droves while at the same time horrifying parents and outraging the social establishment. In England, Mary Whitehouse, a well known campaigner for values of morality and decency, succeeded in having the BBC ban the video for "School’s Out"[31] and Member of Parliament Leo Abse petitioned Home Secretary Reginald Maudling to have the group banned altogether from performing in the country.[32] However, this seemed to have little effect on the band's popularity, as they were selected to be the first band to appear on the television series ABC In Concert in September 1972, and in February 1973 Billion Dollar Babies appeared, which was the band's most commercially successful album. It reached #1 in both the US and UK, and is also viewed by many critics as representing the band's creative peak.[citation needed] "Elected", a 1972 Top 10 UK hit from the album, which inspired one of the first MTV-style story-line promo videos ever made for a song (three years before Queen's promotional video for "Bohemian Rhapsody"), was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, "Hello Hooray" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy", the latter of which was the last UK single from the album; it reached #25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by Donovan, was also a US hit single. Due to Glen Buxton's health problems[33] around this time, Mick Mashbir was added to the band (who also played, without credit, on Muscle of Love).
With a string of successful concept albums and several hit singles, the band continued their grueling schedule and toured the US once again. Continued attempts by politicians and pressure groups to ban their shocking act only served to fuel the myth of Alice Cooper further and generate even greater public interest. Their 1973 US tour broke box office records previously set by The Rolling Stones and raised rock theatrics to new heights; the multi-level stage show by then featured numerous special effects, including Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated baby dolls and mannequins, a dental psychosis scene complete with dancing teeth, and the ultimate execution prop and highlight of the show: the guillotine. The guillotine and other stage effects were designed for the band by magician James Randi, who appeared on stage during some of the shows as executioner. The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry. (Cooper's stage antics would influence a host of later bands, including, among others, Kiss, Blue Öyster Cult, GWAR, W.A.S.P. and, later, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.) Beneath the surface, however, the repetitive schedule of recording and touring had begun to take its toll on the band, and Cooper, who was under the constant pressure of getting into character for that night's show, was consistently sighted nursing a can of beer.
Muscle of Love, released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic line-up, and marked Alice Cooper's last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s with "Teenage Lament '74". A theme song was recorded for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, but a different song of the same name by Lulu was chosen instead. By 1974, the Muscle of Love album had not matched the top-charting success of its predecessor, and the band began to have constant disagreements. Cooper wanted to retain the theatrics in the show that had brought them so much attention, while the rest of the group thought they should be toned down so that they could concentrate more on the music which had given them credibility. Largely as a result of this difference of opinion, the band decided to take a much-needed hiatus.
During this time, Cooper relocated back to Los Angeles and started appearing regularly on TV shows such as Hollywood Squares, and Warner Bros. released the Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits compilation album which featured classic artwork and which performed better than Muscle of Love, reaching the US Top 10. However, the band's feature film Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper (mainly concert footage with a faint storyline and 'comedic' sketches woven throughout), released on a minor theatrical run mostly to drive-in theaters, saw little box office success.
As some of the Alice Cooper band's members had commenced recording solo albums Cooper decided to do the same himself, and 1975 saw the release of his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare. Its success marked the final break with the original members of the band, with Cooper collaborating with their producer Bob Ezrin who recruited Lou Reed's backing band, including guitarist Dick Wagner to play on the album. Spearheaded by the US Top 20 hit "Only Women Bleed", a ballad, the album was released by Atlantic Records in March of that year and became a Top 10 hit for Cooper. It was a concept album, based on the nightmare of a child named Steven, featuring narration by classic horror movie film star Vincent Price (several years before he guested on Michael Jackson's "Thriller"), and serving as the soundtrack to Cooper's new stage show, which now included more theatrics than ever (including an eight foot tall furry Cyclops which Cooper decapitates and kills).
However, by this time alcohol was clearly affecting Cooper's performances. During the Welcome to My Nightmare tour in Vancouver, and only a few songs into the routine, Cooper tripped over a footlight, staggered a few paces, lost his bearings and plunged head first off the stage and onto the concrete floor of the Pacific Colosseum. Some fans, thinking it was all part of the act, reached through the barriers to pull at his blood-matted hair before bouncers could pull him away for help. He was taken to a local hospital, where medical staff stitched his head wound and provided him with a skullcap. Cooper returned to the venue a couple of hours later and tried to perform a couple of more songs, but within minutes he had to call it a night. The opening act, Suzi Quatro, had already left the building and the remainder of the concert was cancelled.
Accompanying the album and stage show was the TV special The Nightmare, starring Cooper and Vincent Price in person, which aired on US prime-time TV in April 1975. The Nightmare, the first rock music video album ever made (it was later released on home video in 1983 and gained a Grammy Awards nomination for Best Long Form Music Video), was regarded as another groundbreaking moment in rock history. Adding to all that, a concert film, also called Welcome to My Nightmare and filmed live at London's Wembley Arena in September 1975, was released to theaters in 1976. Though it failed at the box office, it later became a midnight movie favorite and a cult classic. Such was the immense success of this solo project that Cooper decided to continue alone as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. It was also during this time that Cooper co-founded the legendary drinking club The Hollywood Vampires, which gave him yet another reason to indulge his continued ample appetite for alcohol.
Following the 1976 US #12 hit "I Never Cry",another ballad, two albums, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell and Lace and Whiskey, and another ballad hit, the US #9 "You and Me", it became clear from his performances during his 1977 US tour that he was in dire need of help with his alcoholism (at his alcoholic peak it was rumoured that Cooper was consuming up to two cases of Budweiser and a bottle of whiskey a day). Following the tour, Cooper had himself hospitalized in a New York sanitarium for treatment, during which time the live album The Alice Cooper Show was released. His experience in the sanitarium was the inspiration for his 1978 semi-autobiographical album From The Inside, which Cooper co-wrote with Bernie Taupin. The release spawned another US Top 20 hit "How You Gonna See Me Now", which peaked at #12, and was yet another ballad, based on his fear of how his wife would react to him after his spell in hospital. The subsequent tour's stage show was based inside an asylum, and was filmed for Cooper's first home video release, The Strange Case of Alice Cooper, in 1979.Around this time, Cooper performed "Welcome To My Nightmare", "You and Me", and "School's Out" on The Muppet Show (episode # 3.7) on March 28, 1978 (he played one of the devil's henchmen trying to dupe Kermit the Frog and Gonzo into selling their souls). He also appeared in an against-type casting in the campy role of a piano playing, disco bellboy in Mae West's final film, Sextette. Cooper also led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous Hollywood Sign in California. Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of friend and comedian Groucho Marx.

Avril Lavigne Take me away

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:44:00 +0000

I cannot find a way to describe it
It's there inside; all I do is hide
I wish that it would just go away
What would you do, you do, if you knew
What would you do

[Chorus:]
All the pain I thought I knew
All the thoughts lead back to you
Back to what was never said
Back and forth inside my head
I can't handle this confusion
I'm unable; come and take me away

I feel like I am all alone
All by myself I need to get around this
My words are cold, I don't want them to hurt you
If I show you, I don't think you'd understand
Cause no one understands

[Chorus]

I'm going nowhere (on and on and)
I'm getting nowhere (on and on and on)
Take me away
I'm going nowhere (on and off and off and on)
(and off and on)

[Chorus]

Take me away
Break me away
Take me away

Skillet

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Skillet is an American Christian Metal band, formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1996. The band consists of John Cooper (lead vocalist, bassist), his wife Korey Cooper (guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist), Ben Kasica (guitarist), and the newest member Jen Ledger (drummer). Skillet has released seven studio albums, the latest two receiving Grammy nominations: Collide and Comatose.Over the past 13 years, Skillet has spanned many different genres, including hard rock, industrial rock, and symphonic rock.

Early years (1996–1999)
Skillet formed in 1996 with two members: John Cooper, former vocalist for Tennessee progressive rock band Seraph, and Ken Steorts, former guitarist for Urgent Cry. The two bands met through touring together, but those bands disbanded soon after, so John and Ken's pastor encouraged them to form their own band as a side-project.Coming from different styles of rock music, they decided to name the experiment Skillet. Soon afterwards Trey McClurkin joined the band as a temporary drummer. Skillet was only together for a month when they received interest from major Christian record label ForeFront Records. In 1996 they released a self-titled debut Skillet. It was well-received, and the trio continued to write new material as they toured the United States.
Skillet recorded their follow-up album throughout 1997, entitled Hey You, I Love Your Soul, which was released in April 1998. Their second effort was a change in style from the band's first release. With this release, Skillet would abandon their post-grunge approach for a lighter alternative rock that was more dependent on John's keyboard playing. His wife Korey was enlisted soon after to play keyboards live in order to alleviate John's live performance duties.

Invincible, Ardent Worship and Alien Youth (2000–2002)
Shortly before the band began recording for their third album, Invincible, Steorts left the band to be with his family, and Kevin Haaland joined the band as their new guitarist. Korey Cooper joined the band permanently and played keyboards for the recording of Invincible. Because of this change, the musical style on Invincible changed to a more electronic sound.Soon after the release of Invincible in early 2000, Trey McClurkin parted ways with Skillet, and Lori Peters filled the drummer's position. Invincible would be Skillet's best selling record thus far.
The band released their first worship album, and fourth album overall, Ardent Worship in fall of 2000. The band kept much of their sound from Invincible on their next album Alien Youth.With little time between touring and recording, Skillet released Alien Youth in 2001, which was the first album that John Cooper took on production duties. Before the release of Alien Youth, Haaland left the band, and Ben Kasica took over on guitar. The first single, the title track, was a major hit in the Christian market and drove Skillet into their first headlining shows.

Collide (2003–2005)
In 2003, Collide was released by Ardent Records. It caught the attention of Andy Karp, the Head of A&R of Lava Records, and in 2004 the rights to Collide were bought by Lava Records, a division of Atlantic Records. On May 25, 2004, Collide was re-released under Lava Records, with an added track, "Open Wounds". Collide was yet another musical shift for the band. Citing Linkin Park and P.O.D. as inspiration for the musical shift on Collide, Cooper said "Well I’m one of these song writers, everything I hear goes through my John Cooper filter of what I like and what I don’t like... all these things... have been an influence on me."

Comatose (2006–2008)
Skillet's album Comatose was released on October 3, 2006. It features the singles "Rebirthing," "Whispers In the Dark," "Comatose," "The Older I Get," "Those Nights," and "The Last Night". Skillet also released a B-side ("Live Free or Let Me Die") as a single, off their follow-up album Comatose: Deluxe Edition, which includes five acoustic tracks.
In January 2008, Skillet announced that their drummer, Lori Peters, was retiring from the band, feeling that "it's time for her to come off of the road and start a new chapter in her life."Peters' last concert with Skillet was on December 31, 2007.However, during the 2007 Christmas season, she took the time to train Skillet's next drummer, Jen Ledger.
On October 21, 2008, Comatose Comes Alive was released; a CD/DVD combo featuring live recordings of the band's May 9, 2008 concert in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was shown on the Gospel Music Channel on December 5, 2008.

Awake (2009)
Skillet announced that they went into the studio January 12 to finalize the new record with Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson. They added two songs ("Hero" and "Monster") from the new record to their setlist on April 2, 2009 in Evansville, Indiana as part of their Comatose Tour 2009.
The title of Skillet's next studio album, Awake, was announced on April 17, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana.The album will contain 12 songs and will release on August 25, 2009."Hero" was released to radio on May 19, 2009 as the album's first single, and "Monster" was released on July 14, 2009. They are also releasing a deluxe version with two extra songs "Dead Inside" and "Would It Matter", along with the original, radio edit of "Monster" that does not have the distorted growl like in the single and in the CD.

Band members

Current members
John Cooper – lead vocals, bass (1996–present)
Korey Cooper – guitar, keyboard, backing vocals (1999–present)
Ben Kasica – guitar (2001–present)
Jen Ledger – drums, vocals (2008–present)

Former members
Ken Steorts – guitar (1996–1999, founder of Visible School in Memphis, TN, a music and worship arts college)
Trey McClurkin – drums (1996–2000)
Kevin Haaland – guitar (1999–2001)
Lori Peters – drums (2000–2007)

Touring members
Faith Stern – keyboards, backing vocals (2002–2003)
Chris Marvin – guitar, backing vocals (2002–2003, 2005–2006)
Drea Winchell – keyboard (2005–2006)
Tate Olsen – cello (2008–present)
Jonathan Chu – violin (2008–present)

Altaria

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:05:00 +0000

Altaria is a power metal band from Finland. They have released four full-length albums on the record label Metal Heaven.
In January 2008, the band decided to part ways with their record label Metal Heaven for undisclosed reasons. They are currently searching for a new record deal. Songs for a new album have been written which had originally been planned for release in late 2007; as soon a new contract with a record company is signed, work on the planned release will continue.

In the same month, bass player Marko Pukkila parted ways with the band after a disagreement concerning the split with Metal Heaven. His replacement is Ex-Terrorwheel bass player and current Altaria vocalist Marco Lupenero. This means that the only original member still active with Altaria is Tony Smedjebacka.
Towards the later part of 2008 the band announced on their website that they were in the process of writing songs for their fifth (fourth full) studio album. In March 2009, they stated that they had finished recording 12 tracks for their upcoming release. The title has yet to be confirmed, but one track has already been completed which is entitled "Pride and Desire".

Members:

Current
Marco Lupenero - Vocals, Bass (2006-Present)
Juha Pekka Alanen – Guitar (2005–present) (formerly Celesty)
Petri Aho – Guitar (2004 (live), 2006–present) (formerly Terrorwheel)
Tony Smedjebacka – Drums (2000–present)

Former:

Johan Mattjus – Vocals (2000–2001)
Jouni Nikula – Vocals (2002–2003) (also Requiem)
Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen – Guitars (2002–2004) (also Nightwish)
Jani Liimatainen – Guitars, keyboards (2000–2005) (also Sonata Arctica)
Taage Laiho – Vocals (2003–2006) (also Kilpi)
Marko Pukkila – Bass guitar (2000–2008)

Discography:

Sleeping Visions (2001 demo)
Feed The Fire (2002 demo)
Invitation (Metal Heaven, 2003)
Divinity (Metal Heaven, 2004)
The Fallen Empire (Metal Heaven, 2006)
Divine Invitation (2007)
Unholy ([Escape Music], 2009)

Delain biography

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 03:00:00 +0000

Delain was founded by Martijn Westerholt, the ex-pianist and brother of one the founders of Within Temptation, Robert Westerholt. He left Within Temptation in 2001 when he suffered from Pfeiffer's disease. He started Delain in 2002. The band started recording the debut album in July 2005, after they had signed a contract with Roadrunner Records.

The band consists of Martijn Westerholt (keyboard) and Charlotte Wessels (vocals). Furthermore, the live band consists of Ronald Landa (grunts and guitar), Ray van Lente (guitar), Rob van der Loo (bass) and Sander Zoer (drums).

For their first album Lucidity they invited several well known musicians: Jan Yrlund from Lacrimosa (guitar), Ariën van Weesenbeek from God Dethroned (drums), Ad Sluijter from Epica (guitar), George Oosterhoek (grunts) and Guus Eikens, both formers member of Orphanage, Sharon Den Adel from Within Temptation (vocals), Marco Hietala from Nightwish (bass, vocals) and Liv Kristine from Leaves' Eyes (vocals).

Delain recorded a demo in 2002 which was called Amenity. It is very rare, even Martijn himself has no copy of it.

Delain's first album Lucidity was to be released April 2006, but was first postponed to the end May and after that to 21 August before it was finally released on 4 September. Samples of their music have been released on their website, and a full versions of the songs Sleepwalker's Dream and The Gathering, as well as the music video for the song Frozen.

Within Temptation

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 01:58:00 +0000

Within Temptation is a band from the Netherlands. Founded by guitarist Robert Westerholt and vocalist Sharon den Adel, their music is variously described as symphonic metal and sometimes by the media as gothic metal, from which they take influence.

Formation
Long-term partners Robert Westerholt (on guitar) and Sharon den Adel (vocals) began the band in 1996, quickly adding Jeroen van Veen on bass guitar, Martijn Westerholt at the keyboard and (following a succession of short-lived drummers), Ivar de Graaf. They were quickly offered a recording contract and signed to DSFA Records later that year, beginning work on their first release.

Enter (1997)
Enter, the debut album, was released in 1997. The album was well received and the band embarked on a four gig tour across the country, after which they were asked to perform at the Dynamo Open Air festival in Eindhoven, one of the Netherlands' largest heavy metal festivals. The band rounded out 1997 by embarking on their first international tour, of Germany and Austria.

The Dance (1998-1999)
In 1998 the band continued to tour actively - their profile had elevated them to the main stage at Dynamo for the 1998 event. However, Within Temptation had released no new material (and did not have plans for a second album at this point), to which end they elected to release an EP, The Dance.

Finally taking a break from touring, 1999 was largely a sabbatical year for the band. They took the opportunity to construct their own studio, as well as returning to personal pursuits, with plans to return to the fold the next year.

Mother Earth (2000-2003)
2000 was an eventful year for the band as they returned to touring, playing three Dutch festivals; Waterpop, Bospop and Lowlands. In addition they went to work on their second album, releasing Mother Earth in the Low Countries on December 1st. The album was a hit, receiving positive reviews across the board and rooted itself in the Dutch charts.

The band first released the single Our Farewell, which never entered the charts. The second single from Mother Earth, Ice Queen, was regarded as the breakthrough release for the band; in 2001 it climbed to number 4 in the Netherlands but was their first number one single when it climbed to the top in Belgium. The success rebounded to Mother Earth, which continued to climb in the Dutch album chart, ending the year at number 3.

2001 also saw a number of changes in personnel; Ruud Adrianus Jolie was added as a second guitarist, drummer de Graaf was replaced by Stephen van Haestregt, and Martijn Westerholt (suffering from infectious mononucleosis) was replaced by Martijn Spierenburg. Westerholt later started the band Delain.

The band achieved still wider appeal in 2002 with their first concert in France and even a headline gig in Mexico City. They attained their first major award, the Dutch Silver Harp. They bolstered this by embarking on a major international tour supporting Paradise Lost in 2003 and re-releasing Mother Earth on the GUN Records label across more European countries; it was a particularly large success in Germany, where it went platinum and reached number 7 in the charts; the re-release of Ice Queen also charted well in the top 30. In turn the Benelux regions got a different release, a cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill. The band highlighted music festivals across the Netherlands and their Mother Earth tour DVD claimed the prestigious Edison Award.

The Silent Force (2004-2006)
Plans for the band's third album came to fruition in 2004, with the release of The Silent Force on November 15th, 2004 across Europe. Daniel Gibson's production was an instant number 1 in the band's heartland and charted well in many European countries. In support of the release they embarked on another large international tour in 2005, with dates across the continent (including their first major UK concert in London) and a one-off show in Dubai. Stand My Ground and Memories, the first singles from the new album, continued the band's run of chart success, culminating in a second Edison Award. Stand My Ground was promoted on the trailer for the film Blood and Chocolate.

In January 2006, Within Temptation won the Dutch Pop Prize (best Dutch pop contribution) and Dutch Export Prize (best-selling Dutch artist outside The Netherlands), the latter given to them for the third time in a row. The band also reported that they were busy working on their next album, due to be released during the fall, and that they would start playing at festivals starting in April, in addition to going on an international tour at the end of the year.

The Heart of Everything (2007-present)
The new album The Heart of Everything from Within Temptation has been released on the 9th of March in the Netherlands and 24th of July in the United States. The release dates for multiple countries are found on their official Myspace page. Two more tracks, "The Howling" and "The Sound of Freedom", have been recorded as promotion material for the video game The Chronicles of Spellborn, and the first of these will be included on the album. The full track listing was revealed on the 10th of January.The band will embark on their first North American tour with Lacuna Coil in May.The album debuted at #1 in the Dutch Alnum 100, making it their second number-one album. It's also the first any Dutch act ever charted within the United World Chart. It peaked at #38 selling 50,000 copies in their first week. It reached top 10 in eight countries and top 100 in eleven countries. As of March 30, 2007 the album has sold 90,300 copies.

The song "What Have You Done" will be the first single from the new album. Its music video was recorded on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of December in 2006 in London, Windsor and a studio for CGI, and features Keith Caputo's guest vocals. Fans were allowed to participate in the making of the video, and will appear in it. Shortly after, a completely new video for the song was made, and it is this version that can currently be seen on their MySpace page. The song peaked at #7 in the Netherlands and #4 in Finland.

Alanis Morissette 2004-present

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:33:00 +0000

Morissette released her fourth international studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and John Shanks. Selling over 115,000 copies in its first week of U.S. release, the album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews. The album's lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio but failed to reach the top forty on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Because executives at Maverick Records wanted to avoid a censor "bleep" in the first line of the song,[citation needed] the radio and music video versions of the single include the word "nightmare" instead of "asshole"; several verses from the album version were also edited out. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared worse commercially than "Everything", although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a top ten hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

In June 2004, Morissette announced her engagement to actor, and fellow Canadian, Ryan Reynolds.During that time, she also gave an interview to British newspaper The Mirror in which she declared having had homosexual flings in the past, having dated a man thirty years her senior at age fourteen and, in a brief way, her experiences with drugs. In the article she says: "My addictions were work and food. I smoked pot once in a while, but I'm too much of a control freak to be a drug person."She expanded her own acting credentials with the July release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. Morissette hosted the 2004 Juno Awards and embarked on a successful U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians, the Barenaked Ladies.

In February 2005, Morissette became a naturalized citizen of the United States while still maintaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette refers to herself as a Canadian–American. That same month, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation along with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith.

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette released a studio acoustic version in June 2005 entitled Jagged Little Pill Acoustic. The album was exclusively released through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run, much like Ray Charles' successful album Genius Loves Company. This move caused much controversy, with companies such as HMV in Canada removing their entire Morissette catalog for the duration of the deal in protest. The version that went into wide release included enhanced features not included on the Starbucks release version. Jagged Little Pill Acoustic sold about 330,000 copies in the U.S. and one million worldwide; its first single was "Hand in My Pocket". The accompanying tour ran for two months in the summer of 2005, with Morissette playing small, intimate theatre venues. During this period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005, with a cover of the 1991 Seal song "Crazy" as the first single. The song reached the top ten on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimation" and "Can't Not" (the latter appeared in a reworked version on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". Morissette contributed a song entitled "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Original Song".
In April 2006, MTV.com reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 through the May 28.

Rolling Stone reported in January 2006 that Morissette was in between "intense" writing sessions for her upcoming 2007 studio album, which was to be co-produced by Mike Elizondo, and that she was going to spend 2006 working on a memoir. She said of her book, "it will be all the wisdom I've accrued in the thirty-one years of my life (...) A lot about relationships, fame, travel, body-image issues, spirit — with a lot of self-deprecating humor peppered throughout, 'cause I just can't help it."More recently, she has been delving back into acting, guest starring in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International and three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian. In October 2006 Morissette said in an interview with TV Guide that she was going to start writing new material over the next few weeks, saying "I usually fill two journals for each record and at the present, I have seven journals full. I have a lot within me ready to burst out."

In July 2006, People magazine reported that Morissette had split from her fiancé, Ryan Reynolds, but neither party confirmed this report.Later that month, a source said that they were indeed together,and Contact Music reported that their split was a "rumor".Morissette and Reynolds were pictured holding hands in Los Angeles,sinking the rumors. However, in February 2007, Morissette and Ryan Reynolds mutually decided to end their engagement.

On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a cover of The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps"., a spoof sung in a slow, mournful voice. The video of the single, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who attempt to touch her "lady lumps," became an internet sensation, getting over 2.5 million hits in only three days and spurring parodies of her parody.She is currently rumored to be working on her next album with producer Guy Sigsworth.

Alanis Morissette 1998-2003

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:29:00 +0000

Morissette recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of "Best Rock Song" and "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", and was nominated for "Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture". Later in 1998, Morissette released Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, on which she again collaborated with Ballard. Fans and critics alike were unprepared for Morissette's new songwriting approach: most of the tracks, including "Would Not Come" and "Unsent", challenged traditional song formulas. They included one-chord drone melodies and Morissette singing over letter-like prose texts; some songs lacked choruses or took a long time to reach them.

Privately,[citation needed] the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release, but it sold about half of that. Nonetheless, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 470,000 copies — a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. As a follow-up to Jagged Little Pill, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie had very little staying power: its wordy, personal lyrics alienated many fans. After twenty-eight weeks it left the Billboard 200 with sales of 2.6 million, a huge decline from Jagged Little Pill. Worldwide, it sold about seven million copies. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. "Thank U", the album's only hit single, and "So Pure" were nominated for the 2000 Grammy Awards for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" and "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", respectively. The "Thank U" music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy.

In 1999, Morissette released the live acoustic album, Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It included three new songs, including one she wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley, called "No Pressure over Cappuccino". She contributed vocals to the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets, as well as "Mercy" and "Innocence", two tracks from Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle. That same year, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II.

Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since her childhood role on You Can't Do That on Television, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith film Dogma. Smith, a fan of Morissette's, asked her to be in the film several times.She had to turn down the female lead and by the time her schedule allowed her to participate in the film, only the role of God, which involves virtually no dialogue and only an appearance at the very end of the film, was left. She also appeared on the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred in the play The Vagina Monologues.

After a four year absence, Morissette released her third international studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her recording career, Morissette took on the role of sole writer and producer. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments. Me'shell Ndegeocello played bass on the tracks "You Owe Me Nothing in Return" and "So Unsexy". Shortly after recording the album, Morissette hired an entirely new band, featuring Jason Orme, Zac Rae, David Levita, and Blair Sinta, who have been with her since.

Under Rug Swept produced the hit single, "Hands Clean" and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 215,000 in the first week. Under Rug Swept eventually sold a million copies in the U.S. alone, but only "Hands Clean" received any substantial radio airplay. Morissette won a Juno Award for "Producer of the Year".

The CD/DVD combination package, Feast on Scraps, which included live concert footage and eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions, was released in December. The album was nominated for a Juno Award for "DVD of the Year". In November 2003, Morissette appeared in the off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent.

Alanis Morissette 1993-1998

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:22:00 +0000

In 1993, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Living alone for the first time in her life, she met with a bevy of songwriters, but the results frustrated her.A visit to Nashville a few months later also proved fruitless. Morissette began making trips to Los Angeles and working with as many musicians as possible, in the hopes of meeting a collaborator. During this time, she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard.

According to Ballard,the connection was "instant", and within thirty minutes of meeting each other they had begun experimenting with different sounds in Ballard's home studio. Ballard and Morissette penned their first song together, called "The Bottom Line". The turning point in their sessions was the song "Perfect", written and recorded in twenty minutes. Morissette improvised the lyrics on the spot, while Ballard played guitar. The version that appeared on Jagged Little Pill, Morissette's next album, was the only take the pair recorded. Ballard and Morissette recorded the songs on Jagged Little Pill literally as they wrote the tunes. According to Morissette, Ballard was the first collaborator who encouraged her to express her emotions. By the spring of 1995, Morissette had signed a deal with Maverick Records.

As she later revealed, during her stay in L.A., a man with a gun confronted and robbed her on a deserted street, although the thief did not take the writing and brainstorming notes in her purse: the scribblings that soon made up Jagged Little Pill. Morissette subsequently developed an intense and general angst, which manifested in random daily panic attacks, even on planes. She checked herself into a hospital and attended psychotherapy sessions, but with no improvement. She focused all her inner problems on the soul-baring lyrics of the album for her own health.

Maverick Records released Morissette's first international album, Jagged Little Pill, in 1995. Scott Welsh, Morissette's manager and long-time friend, and executives at Maverick expected the album to sell at very best around 250,000 copies.The album debuted at number 118 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart, but the situation changed quickly when a Los Angeles DJ from an influential radio station began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single.The song instantly garnered attention and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers plays bass on the track, along with then-bandmate Dave Navarro on guitar.

After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 for over a year.

According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling debut album of all time by a female artist, with over fourteen million copies sold in the U.S. As of 2005, it had sold thirty million worldwide.In Ireland, when the album Under Rug Swept was released in 2002, Jagged Little Pill re-entered the album chart on February 21 at number seventy-two and reached nineteen on March 7.It took nine weeks for it to depart the chart again.

Morissette was attacked for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard,although she was responsible for all of Jagged Little Pill's lyrics and much of the album's music.[citation needed] The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards in 1996, and Morissette won "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" and "Best Rock Song" for "You Oughta Know", and "Best Rock Album" and "Album of the Year" for Jagged Little Pill (she lost "Best New Artist" and "Song of the Year").

Later in 1996, Morissette embarked on an eighteen-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, currently with the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards: "Record of the Year" and "Best Music Video, Short Form". The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which chronicled the bulk of the tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Music Video, Long Form".

During the tour, Morissette became disillusioned with the music industry and declared being tired of constant travelling, quick and superficial relationships and parties full of drugs – subjects which made her think of ditching her career. She started practicing Iyengar Yoga for balancing, and after the last December 1996 show in Hawaii, she headed to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two female friends.

Alanis Morissette 1974-1993

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 23:44:00 +0000

Alanis Morissette was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Alan and Georgia Morissette. Alanis had a twin brother Wade, and an older brother, Chad.

In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress: five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. Using money she saved from that role, she released an independent single "Fate Stay with Me" with the B-side, "Find the Right Man". She appeared onstage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.
During her high school years, Morissette attended Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa.

At a New York City audition, Morissette landed a spot on Star Search, a popular American talent competition on which she used her stage name, Alanis Nadine.
Morissette flew to Los Angeles to appear on the show, but lost after one round.

In 1990, Morissette signed with MCA Records Canada and was an opening act on rapper Vanilla Ice's tour. Leslie Howe produced her full-length debut album, Alanis, which was released in 1991. At the time, Morissette dropped her stage name and was credited simply as Alanis. The dance-pop album, which was only released in Canada, went double platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top twenty on the Canadian singles chart. Subsequent singles included "Walk Away", "Feel Your Love" and "Plastic".

During the ages 14 to 18, Morissette suffered from anorexia and bulimia nervosa, catalysed by "hardcore" professional pressure and managerial demands from her work towards making her first album. She recalled returning to the studio to re-record some vocals, only to be told "I actually wanted to talk to you about your weight. You can't be successful if you're fat." She lived on a diet of carrots, black coffee, and Melba toast, and her weight fluctuated by 15 to 20 pounds. She subsequently began therapy, which she called "a long process to un-program [my brain]. I try to remember, whatever my body is, it's perfect the way it is."

In 1992, Morissette was nominated for three Juno Awards: "Single of the Year", "Best Dance Recording" (for "Too Hot"), and "Most Promising Vocalist (Female)" (which she won). In the same year, she released her second album, Now Is the Time; this featured the top forty single "An Emotion Away", and attempted to move away from her first album's dance-pop sound, aptly named Barabas. Now Is the Time sold less than half the number of copies of her first album, and, with her two-album deal with MCA Canada complete, she was left without a major label contract.During this period, Morissette dated Dave Coulier of television's Full House fame.In 1993, she appeared in the film Just One of the Girls starring Corey Haim.

Call Me When You're Sober lyrics & video

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:23:00 +0000

Don't cry to me.
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
You want me,
Come find me.
Make up your mind.

Should I let you fall?
Lose it all?
So maybe you can remember yourself.
Can't keep believing,
We're only deceiving ourselves .
And I'm sick of the lie,
And you're too late.

Don't cry to me.
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
You want me,
Come find me.
Make up your mind.

Couldn't take the blame.
Sick with shame.
Must be exhausting to lose your own game.
Selfishly hated,
No wonder you're jaded.
You can't play the victim this time,
And you're too late.

Don't cry to me.
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
You want me,
Come find me.
Make up your mind.

You never call me when you're sober.
You only want it cause it's over,
It's over.

How could I have burned paradise?
How could I - you were never mine.

So don't cry to me.
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
Don't lie to me,
Just get your things.
I've made up your mind.

Everything Back But You lyrics & video

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:19:00 +0000

Today was the worst day I went through hell
I wish I could remove it from my mind
Two months away from you but I couldn't tell
I thought everything was gonna be just fine

The post card that you wrote with the stupid little note
Something wasn't quite right about it
It smelt like cheap perfume
and it didn't smell like you
There's no way you can get around it
Because you wrote

[Chorus:]
I wish you were her
You left without me
You left without me
And now you're somehwere out there
With some bitch slut psycho babe
I hate you, why are guys so lame
[...]
Everything back but you

You first tried to tell me all along
That you werent the right one for me
My friends tried to tell me to be strong
I bet you didnt think that I would see

The postcard that you wrote
With the stupid little note
There wasn't something quite right about it
I wanna to see you cry
Like I did a thousand times
Now you're losing me you're losing me now

[Chorus]

Keep Holding On lyrics & video

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:15:00 +0000

Your sad eyes never told me
No paradise, here for the lonely
But I hold on, half a heart here in my hands
Been so long, would you know me
Who's holding you, who's gonna hold me
If you want me, then I'll be your man
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you come back to me
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you run to me
Can you take me to heaven
Show me the way cause I'm no angel
I'm lost and
Can I hold you one more time
I guess me holding you was holding you down
WIll I have your memory
Or will your memory have me
I don't know, only time
Knows if I'll ever know peace of mind
Only time knows if you're mine, if you're mine
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you come back to me
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you run to me
All I can hold is a shadow of a heart that's gone
And left me shattered
I'm lost and
Can I hold you one more time
I guess me holding you
Was holding you down
I guess me holding you
Was holding you down
I guess me holding you
Was holding you down

Girlfriend lyrics & video

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:53:00 +0000

Hey Hey You You
I don’t like your girlfriend
No way No way
I think you need a new one
Hey Hey You You
I could be your girlfriend

Hey Hey You You
I know that you like me
No way No way
No, it’s not a secret
Hey Hey You You
I want to be your girlfriend

You’re so fine
I want you mine
You’re so delicious
I think about you all the time
You’re so addictive
Don’t you know
What I can do
To make you feel alright

Don’t pretend
I think you know
I’m damn precious
And hell yeah
I’m the mother (fucking) princess
I can tell you like me too
And you know I’m right

She’s like so whatever
You can do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that’s what everyone’s talking about

Hey Hey You You
I don’t like your girlfriend
No way No way
I think you need a new one
Hey Hey You You
I could be your girlfriend

Hey Hey You You
I know that you like me
No way No way
No, it’s not a secret
Hey Hey You You
I want to be your girlfriend

I can see the way
I see the way
You look at me
And even when you look away
I know you think of me
I know you talk about me all the time
again and again

So come over here
and tell me what I wanna hear
Better, yet, make your girlfriend disappear
I don’t wanna hear you say her name
ever again

Because…

She’s like so whatever

And you can do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that’s what everyone’s talking about

Hey Hey You You
I don’t like your girlfriend
No way No way
I think you need a new one
Hey Hey You You
I could be your girlfriend

Hey Hey You You
I know that you like me
No way No way
No, it’s not a secret
Hey Hey You You
I want to be your girlfriend

(Oh)

In a second you’ll be wrapped around my

finger
‘Cause I can, ’cause I can do it better
There’s no other, so when’s it gonna sink in
She’s so stupid, what the hell were you

thinking?

(Oh)

In a second you’ll be wrapped around my

finger
‘Cause I can, ’cause I can do it better
There’s no other, so when’s it gonna sink in
She’s so stupid, what the hell were you

thinking?

Hey Hey You You
I don’t like your girlfriend
No way No way
I think you need a new one
Hey Hey You You
I could be your girlfriend

(No Way) (no way)

Hey Hey You You
I know that you like me
No way No way
No, it’s not a secret
Hey Hey You You
I want to be your girlfriend

(No way,no way)

Hey Hey You You
I don’t like your girlfriend ( No Way!)
No way No way
I think you need a new one (Hey!)
Hey Hey You You
I could be your girlfriend (No Way!)

Hey Hey You You
I know that you like me (No Way!)
No way No way
No, it’s not a secret (Hey!)
Hey Hey You You
I want to be your girlfriend (No Way!)

No Way!
Hey Hey!

ROXETTE biography

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:25:00 +0000

Roxette is a Swedish pop double act, sometimes rock influenced, that consists of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle.

For a significant period of time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Roxette stood among the top bands in worldwide sales and fame, brandishing a simple yet effective blend of pop with a slight edge and occasional hints of dance. The group claims influences ranging from The Beatles to Blondie to new wave music to Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin.

There was a time in 1991 when Roxette could command an arena filled with tens of thousands of fans in places as diverse as Stockholm, Mexico City, Paris, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Rome and Sydney. The 1992 release Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places - with a recording of audience members singing along to the tune of the group's biggest hit, "It Must Have Been Love" - exemplifies this temporary but impressive hold Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson had.

Though there is no firm figure, Roxette is said to have worldwide sales of 75 million copies of its albums and singles. The group's success in the United States was arguable. While seemingly not interested in doing so, even by default Roxette could not associate its image with the now-iconic ABBA, another Swedish pop group that struggled for recognition in America while still intact in the late 1970s, but that managed, through revisionism beginning in the early 1990s, to grow into something more intriguing as a legacy.

ABBA did have some Billboard Top 10 singles and one No. 1 in the 1970s. Even though Roxette couldn't ultimately leave behind the same legacy, the group did outperform ABBA on the singles chart, achieving four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1989 and 1991. Roxette also had two No. 2 singles and a few other Top 40 peaks until falling out of sight of the Hot 100 in 1994. Even so, by that token, Roxette can be considered a highly successful singles act. The group has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with two platinum albums - 1988's Look Sharp! (released in the U.S. in 1989) and 1991's Joyride - and two gold singles - "The Look" and "It Must Have Been Love."

In Sweden the group has had 17 Top 10 hits, and Roxette has developed a large following throughout South America, South Africa and Europe.

Roxette's music is best summed up by the title of its 1995 greatest-hits album: Don't Bore Us - Get to the Chorus! Mostly written by Gessle and produced by Clarence Öfwerman, the songs were melodic pop, what Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor of the All Music Guide, called "extremely catchy and simple hooks and melodies that are sweet but not saccharine." Jon Pareles of The New York Times, however, thought that "Roxette's music is a matter of efficiency and control, not fun...and won't be accused of too much originality". Single releases tend to oscillate between lead vocals by Gessle - whose light, almost sunshiny voice fronts hits such as "The Look" and "Joyride" -- and Fredriksson - whose grainy, throatier delivery can be heard on "Listen to Your Heart" and "It Must Have Been Love," among others.

Though they have claimed that the original aim of Roxette was to apply Gessle's pop compositions to Fredriksson's vocals, they also claim that the spontaneously-written and -recorded "The Look," the group's worldwide breakthrough hit, came as a surprise with Gessle taking lead. Perhaps the claim can be questioned in light of the fact that the first single Gessle and Fredriksson released in Sweden in late 1985, "Neverending Love," was a full-on duet (similar to "Dangerous"), as were several other single releases before the group's reach expanded beyond its home country.

HIM biography

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:08:00 +0000

HIM is a band from Finland formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Linde, and bassist Mige Amour. They have released five full length albums to date.

As of 2006, they are the first and only Finnish rock band to sell Gold in the United States. The band was originally called His Infernal Majesty, but they soon changed this to simply HIM.Also for a short time they were know as either "HER" or "HIM and HER", in the United States and Europe, respectively.

HIM started out as a cover band, covering songs of artists such as KISS, Type O Negative, Danzig, Black Sabbath and Depeche Mode. After many lineup changes and a hiatus from 1991 to 1995 caused by the members' military services, the band now consists of the three founding members plus keyboardist Janne Johannes "Burton" Puurtinen and drummer Mika Kristian "Gas" Karppinen.

666 Ways to love: Prologue

Released in 1996, solely in Finland, only 1000 copies of this album were sold. It was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, and was recorded at Finnvox Studios, MD and Peacemakers, Helsinki.

Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666

The band released their first full-length studio album, Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, on November 20, 1997. It features covers of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". Four singles were released from the album. The album was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, who also produced their EP 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. Like the EP, the album was recorded at Finnvox, MD and Peacemakers in Helsinki, Finland. Guest vocals were provided by Sanna-June Hyde and Asta Hannula on "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "For You", respectively. A special Digipak version was also released with "For You" moved to the first track. Another special edition was released in Germany with the bonus track "Stigmata Diaboli", taken from 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. In keeping with the theme of 666, the album's length is 66 minutes and 6 seconds. This album is also the only HIM album so far, to have hidden bonus tracks.

Razorblade Romance

After gaining popularity in Europe, particularly their homeland, HIM released their second album in 1999, titled Razorblade Romance. This is when the band's popularity began to rise, their single "Join Me in Death" from the album reached #1 on the German music charts, selling over 500,000 of this single in two months.

Following this German success they released two more Germany only singles from this album; "Right Here in My Arms" and "Gone With the Sin", which reached #20 and #19 on the charts respectively. Around this time they were also becoming more well known in other parts of Europe, such as the United Kingdom. The album itself reached #1 in both Germany and their native Finland.

Razorblade Romance in the United States

In 2002, Razorblade Romance was re-released and put into stores in the United States. HIM was not allowed to use their name for sales because of the American band, HiM, owned the rights to that name. Therefore, they changed the name to HER in the United States, and to HIM and HER in Europe, for this release. Eventually, full rights to the name HIM were bought, and copies of the album bearing the name HER were discontinued and replaced by the correctly titled HIM version. Of the alternatively titled album, only 1000 copies exist.

Daniel Lioneye

During 2001, before the group's third release, the members of HIM formed a new band, Daniel Lioneye, it was aimed to be a solo project of guitarist Linde, who took on the vocal spot and the stage name Daniel Lioneye for it.

The style of music played on the album falls between bluesy-hard rock, with sleaze rock themed such as sex and alcohol and rock 'n' roll. Migé Amour played bass, Ville Valo was on drums, with Hiili on keyboards, and Ike on sound effects. They released one album, The King of Rock'n Roll, in September of 2001. Although it was not a commercial success, it retains a cult following.

Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights

After the Daniel Lioneye project, HIM released Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights in August 2001. This was the band's first album with new keyboarder Emerson Burton, the final addition to the current line-up. Once again the album shot to #1 in their Finnish homeland, making them the most dominant homegrown band in their country since Hanoi Rocks in the 1980s, it also reached #2 in Germany. Three singles were released from it "Pretending" (which reached #10 in Germany), "In Joy and Sorrow" and a double single featuring both "Heartache Every Moment" and "Close to the Flame". Such success further facilitated their gradual emergence into the mainstream.

Love Metal

On April 14, 2003, HIM released Love Metal. This was the first album that did not feature singer/songwriter Ville Valo on the cover. Instead, it featured a gold heartagram, the band's well-known logo. The singles also featured sigils. "The Funeral of Hearts" was the first single and their first high appearance on the United Kingdom charts at #15, it also hit #3 in Germany. It was followed by "Buried Alive By Love" and "The Sacrament".

Around the time of the Love Metal album the group became more well-known in America and internationally when professional skateboarder and TV personality Bam Margera began using the band's heartagram logo and promoting them extensively on his MTV series Viva La Bam. Margera produced their video for "Buried Alive By Love", which featured a guest appearance from Natural Born Killers actress Juliette Lewis. They played at Download Festival in 2003 on the second stage with The Hellacopters, the following year they would go on to headline the same stage.

And Love Said No-The Greatest Hits 1997-2004

And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits 1997-2004 is HIM's first greatest hits album. It contains two unreleased songs: "And Love Said No" and "Solitary Man", the latter of which is a Neil Diamond cover. It also had a rerecorded version of "When Love And Death Embrace" and the British version also had a rerecorded version of "It's All Tears (Drown In This Love)". The digipak version of this album came with a DVD with six songs live at Semifinal Club in Helsinki.

Dark Light

HIM's fifth studio album, 2005's Dark Light, became their full breakout in the United States, debuting in the top 20 of the Billboard Top 200 and spawning two major rock hits, "Wings of a Butterfly" and "Killing Loneliness", both of which have accompanying videos. In the summer of 2005 they played the mainstage of Download Festival with Black Sabbath and Velvet Revolver.

The success of Dark Light has also allowed a number of HIM's previous albums (including Love Metal) to chart in the United States. It was announced in October 2006 on their official website that Dark Light had been certified Gold by the RIAA in America. This made HIM the first band from Finland to sell over 500,000 records in the US. Some of the success of the Dark Light album was due to professional skateboarder and Jackass star, Bam Margera, who is an avid supporter of the band.

In addition to their studio albums, HIM has released several compilations. These include the Love Metal Archives DVD, the multi-disc Singles Collection, a greatest hits entitled, And Love Said No, and a DVD collection of their videos through 2003.

Uneasy Listening Vol.1

Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 is HIM's third compilation album. It contains special versions of various songs from their albums Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666, Razorblade Romance, Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights,Love Metal, and Dark Light.Most of which has already been released on various special limited editions of the maxi-singles.

Uneasy Listening Vol. 2

Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 will be released in Germany at 20th April 2007, in Finland and in the rest of Europe at 24th/25th April 2007

the Rasmus

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 06:35:00 +0000

The Rasmus are a Finnish band that formed in 1994 in Helsinki, while the band members were still in high school. Before releasing their album Into (2001), they were simply known as Rasmus, but changed their name to The Rasmus in order to avoid being confused with a Swedish DJ of the same name. Their 2003 hit "In The Shadows" made them famous outside Scandinavia and received worldwide press attention.

The Rasmus formed at the end of 1994 when the band members were still in high school, and were initially known as Sputnik, then Antilla, and then simply Rasmus (a Scandinavian man's name that has no particular meaning). They recorded their first single, '"1st" (released independently through Teja G. Records in late 1995) before signing with Warner Music Finland to release their first album, Peep, when the band members were only aged 16. It went Gold as the band played over 100 shows in Finland and Estonia.

Rasmus released their second album, Playboys, in 1997. This record also went gold in Finland, with the single "Blue". Rasmus' gruelling live schedule included supporting Rancid and Dog Eat Dog and appearing at a Festival on the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. The band would also win a Finnish Grammy Award for "Best New Artist" in 1996.

The band's third album, Hell of a Tester, was released in 1998 with a video for the single "Liquid". It made regular appearances on Nordic MTV. This song was voted Song of the Year by Finnish music critics. The band achieved further recognition supporting Garbage and Red Hot Chili Peppers when they toured Finland.

Rasmus became The Rasmus in 2000, after replacing drummer Janne Heiskanen with drumming merchandise-seller Aki Hakala. In 2001, they released the album Into, which went double platinum in Finland, debuting at #1. The first single "F-F-F-Falling" was #1 in Finland for three months in early 2001. The second single, "Chill", was released in Scandinavia and reached #2 in Finland. The Rasmus toured throughout Scandinavia and Europe, promoting the album, and being the supporting acts to bands HIM and Roxette.

The band in a concert at the Arena VFG, in Guadaljara, MexicoThe band recorded Dead Letters in 2003 at Nord Studios in Sweden, reuniting with Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen who had produced Into. It was released in Europe in early 2003, reaching the top of the album charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as in Finland. Its European success led to the release of the album in other parts of the world. Dead Letters went Top 10 in the UK, and its first single, "In the Shadows", went Top 3. Both also went Top 50 in the Australian ARIA charts in 2004, as well as topping the New Zealand singles chart. The single also reached the top 20 of the American Billboard Heatseeker charts. "Guilty" was the band's second single for the American market. Recently, iTunes Music Store offered the second track on Dead Letters, "In the Shadows", as one of its free singles.The Rasmus tend to provoke strong opinions in people. They made a notable appearance at the Reading Festival in 2004, where they were a victim of bottling, being pelted with plastic bottles and mud until they eventually walked offstage, immediate medical attention being required for bassist Eero's eye.The Rasmus also are a part of a three-band community called Dynasty, alongside modern rockers Killer and hip-hop band Kwan. Dynasty also have a studio in Helsinki, where they recruit new Finnish talent.
Band members Pauli and Lauri flaunt their loyalty to Dynasty by sporting identical tattoos on their arms.Their newest album is Hide From The Sun, which was released in 2005. Three singles have been released from it: "No Fear", "Sail Away" and "Shot".

On April 28, 2006 they received an exclusive statue at the ESKA Music Awards in Poland (it is their second ESKA statue, the first being in 2004) for the category Best World Rock Group. Their most famous song is "In The Shadows".Hide From The Sun was released in the U.S. on October 10, 2006 from their new U.S. label, DRT Entertainment

Aerosmith & The 2000s

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:46:00 +0000

The band entered its next decade by performing at the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXV, in January 2001, along with pop stars 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly. All of the stars collaborated with Aerosmith at the end for a much-celebrated performance of the group's legendary song "Walk This Way".

In March of 2001, the band released their 13th studio album Just Push Play. The album was a large success and quickly went platinum, fueled by the #7 single "Jaded" and the appearance of the title track in Dodge commercials. They were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame soon after their album was released, in late March of 2001, after having been nominated in 2000 without getting in. Later that year, the band performed as part of the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert in Washington D.C. for 9/11 victims and their families. The band flew back to Indianapolis for a show the same night, as part of their grueling yet highly successful Just Push Play Tour.

The band kicked off 2002 by winding up the Just Push Play tour, and simultaneously recording segments for their Behind the Music special on VH1, which not only chronicled the band's history but also the band's current activities and touring. The special was one of the only Behind the Musics to run two hours in length. In July 2002, Aerosmith released the 2-disc career-spanning compilation O, Yeah! The Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, which featured the new single "Girls of Summer", and embarked on the Girls of Summer Tour with Kid Rock and Run-D.M.C. opening. That same year, the band were inducted as MTV Icons, the 2nd act overall to receive the honor.

In 2003, Aerosmith co-headlined with Kiss on the Rocksimus Maximus Tour, in preparation for release of their blues album.

Their long-promised blues album Honkin' on Bobo was released in 2004. Honkin' on Bobo continued to be a success for the resurgence of blues and roots music across the US and Europe. The album was a return to roots for the band, including recording the album in live sessions, working with former producer Jack Douglas, and laying down their blues-rock grit. It was followed by a live DVD, You Gotta Move in December 2004, culled from the first performance on the Honkin' on Bobo Tour. "Dream On" was also featured in an advertising campaign for Buick in 2004, targeting that marque's audience which is now composed largely of people who were teenagers when the song first charted. As the band no longer owned the rights to that song or much of its back catalog, it is unclear whether they authorized the use of the song.

2005 saw Steven Tyler appear in the film Be Cool. Joe Perry released his eponymous solo album that same year. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, he was nominated for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" for the track "Mercy", but lost to Les Paul. In October 2005, Aerosmith released a CD/DVD Rockin' the Joint. The band hit the road for the Rockin' the Joint Tour on October 30 with Lenny Kravitz for a fall/winter tour hitting arenas in the largest U.S. markets. The band planned to tour with Cheap Trick in the spring, hitting secondary markets in the U.S. Rumors of a tour started when Cheap Trick frontman Robin Zander joined the band onstage for "Come Together" during a concert in Tampa, Florida a week before the announcement. Almost all of this leg of the tour was canceled, however, due to "an illness of a member of the band". On March 22, 2006, it was publicly announced that lead singer Steven Tyler needed throat surgery, and the remaining dates on the tour were subsequently canceled.

Aerosmith commenced recording of a new album on Armed Forces Day 2006.Tyler and Perry performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra for their annual July 4 concert on the Esplanade in 2006, a milestone as it was the first major event or performance since Steven Tyler's throat surgery. During this time, the band also announced that they would embark on the Route of All Evil Tour, with Mötley Crüe in fall of 2006.

On August 24, 2006 it was announced that Tom Hamilton was undergoing treatment for throat cancer. In order to make a full recovery, he sat out much of the Route of All Evil Tour until he was well again. Former Joe Perry Project bassist David Hull substituted for Hamilton until his return.

On September 5, 2006, Aerosmith kicked off the Route of All Evil Tour with Mötley Crüe in Columbus, Ohio. The co-headlining tour took both bands to amphitheaters across North America through November 24. After that, a select few arena dates were added, some of which were with Motley Crue, some without. Tom Hamilton returned to the fold officially on December 1st. The tour ended December 17th.

On October 17, 2006,the compilation album Devil's Got a New Disguise - The Very Best of Aerosmith was released. A new song, the title track, peaked at #15 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The album was intended to fulfill Aerosmith's contract with Sony and tide fans over until the band's new studio album is finished and released in fall 2007.

The band is currently working on new material for their next album, their 15th studio album, which is most likely to be released in fall of 2007. Additionally, it was confirmed in early 2007 that the band will be touring Latin America and Europe in spring and summer of 2007, respectively. This will be the band's first touring venture outside North America and Japan in eight years. On Monday, February 19th, the band performed at London's Hard Rock Cafe to promote their upcoming European tour which includes a night in Hyde Park as part of the Hyde Park Calling festival sponsored by Hard Rock Cafe. In addition to their European and South American tours, the band plans to perform in the United Arab Emirates and India for the first time ever.

Aerosmith & The 1990s

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:39:00 +0000

The band finished up the Pump tour in 1990. On February 21, 1990, the band appeared in an infamous "Wayne's World" sketch on Saturday Night Live and performed their recent hits "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Monkey On My Back". On September 18, 1990, the band's performance on MTV's Unplugged aired. That same year, the band was also inducted to the Hollywood Rock Walk. In 1991, the band appeared on The Simpsons episode "Flaming Moe's" and released a box set entitled Pandora's Box.

The band took a brief break and began recording their follow-up to Pump in 1992. Despite significant shifts in mainstream music at the beginning of the 1990s, the band's 1993 follow-up to Pump, Get a Grip, was just as successful commercially, becoming their first album to debut at #1 and racking up sales of 7 million copies in a two-year timespan. The first singles were the hard rocking "Livin' on the Edge" and "Eat the Rich". Though many critics were unimpressed by the focus on the subsequent interchangeable power-ballads in promoting the album, all three ("Cryin'", "Crazy" and "Amazing") proved to be huge successes on radio and MTV. The music videos featured then up-and-coming actress Alicia Silverstone; her provocative performances earned her the title of "the Aerosmith chick" for the first half of the decade. Steven Tyler's daughter Liv Tyler was also featured in the "Crazy" video. Get a Grip would go on to sell more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone with over 20 million copies worldwide.

Much of the mainstream success of Get a Grip involves how the band changed their sound and made it more commercially accessible. This was partly achieved when the management and record company brought in a variety of professional songwriting collaborators to come in and help make nearly all the songs on Get a Grip have a more commercial appeal, a trend which would continue until the early 2000s. However, this led to constant accusations of selling out that would continue throughout the 90s. In addition to Aerosmith's grueling 18 month world tour in support of Get a Grip, the band also did a number of things to help promote themselves and their album and appeal to youth culture, including the appearance of the band in the movie Wayne's World 2 where they performed two songs, the appearance of the band and their music in the arcade game and video game Revolution X, performing at Woodstock '94, using their song "Deuces Are Wild" in The Beavis & Butt-Head Experience, and opening their own club, The Mama Kin, in Boston, MA in 1994.

1994 also saw the release of the band's compilation for Geffen Records, entitled Big Ones featuring all of their biggest hits from Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip, as well as three new songs, "Deuces Are Wild", "Blind Man", and "Walk on Water", all of which experienced great success on the rock charts.

Aerosmith signed to Columbia Records again in the mid-1990s, but they still had to complete two contractual albums for Geffen before recording for the new label...this was later achieved by the label releasing numerous compilations. The band took time off with their families before working on their next album, Nine Lives, which was plagued with personnel problems, including the firing of manager Tim Collins, who according to band members nearly caused the band to break up. The producer of the album was also changed from Glen Ballard to Kevin Shirley. Nine Lives was released in March of 1997. Reviews were generally mixed, and Nine Lives initially fell down the charts, although it had a long chart life and sold double platinum in the United States alone, fueled by the singles, "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)", the ballad "Hole in My Soul", and the crossover-pop smash "Pink". It was followed by another massive tour (the 2+ year-long Nine Lives Tour), which was plagued by problems including lead singer Steven Tyler injuring his leg at a concert, and Joey Kramer suffering second degree burns when his car caught fire at a gas station. However, the band also experienced a major up in the biggest hit of their career, and their only #1 single to date: "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", the love theme from the 1998 film Armageddon, in which Steven Tyler's daughter Liv starred. The song stayed on top of the charts for four weeks and was nominated for an Academy Award. The song helped open Aerosmith up to a new generation and forever solidifed the band's song as a slow-dance staple. 1998 also saw the release of the double-live album, A Little South of Sanity, which was culled from performances on the Get a Grip and Nine Lives tours. The album went platinum shortly after its release. The band continued with their seemingly-neverending world tours promoting Nine Lives and the "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" single well into 1999.

In 1999, they were featured in the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World (and later in 2001 at Euro Disney in the Walt Disney Studios Park) ride, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, providing the soundtrack and theme of the ride. On September 9, 1999, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry reunited with Run-D.M.C. and were also joined by Kid Rock for a collaborative live performance of "Walk This Way" at the MTV Video Music Awards, a precursor to the Girls of Summer Tour. The band celebrated the new millennium with a brief tour of Japan in 2000.

Aerosmith & The 1980s

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:37:00 +0000

Aerosmith released its mammoth-selling Greatest Hits album in 1980 and in 1981 the band suffered another loss with the departure of Brad Whitford. After recording guitar parts for the song "Lightning Strikes", Whitford was replaced by Rick Dufay and the band recorded their seventh album Rock in a Hard Place in 1982. The album was considered a commercial failure, only going gold, and failing to produce a hit single. The tour for Rock in a Hard Place is notable for Steven Tyler collapsing onstage during a 1983 performance.

On Valentine's Day 1984, Perry and Whitford saw Aerosmith perform. They were officially re-inducted into the ranks of Aerosmith once more in April of that year. Steven Tyler recalls, "You should have felt the buzz the moment all five of us got together in the same room for the first time again. We all started laughin'—it was like the five years had never passed. We knew we'd made the right move."

Aerosmith embarked on a lucrative reunion tour entitled "Back in the Saddle" in 1984, which produced the live album Classics Live II. Their problems still not behind them, the group was signed to Geffen Records and began working on a comeback.

Despite the band signing on to a new record company, Columbia continued to reap the benefits of Aerosmith's comeback, releasing the live companion albums Classics Live I and II and the B-sides collection Gems throughout the 1980s.

1985 saw the release of Done with Mirrors, their first studio album with Geffen and their first album since the much-publicized reunion. While the album did receive some positive reviews, it tanked commercially, only going gold and failing to produce a hit single or generate much buzz outside the immediate confines of rock radio. The album's most notable track, "Let the Music Do the Talking," was in fact a cover of a song originally recorded by the Joe Perry Project and released on that band's album of the same name. Nevertheless, the band became a popular concert attraction once again. In 1986, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry appeared on Run D.M.C.'s massively successful cover of "Walk This Way", a track blending rock and roll and hip hop that not only cemented rap into the mainstream of American popular music, but also began Aerosmith's true comeback.

Still standing in the way, however, were the drug problems of the band members. In 1986, lead singer Steven Tyler completed a successful drug rehabilitation program, at the discretion of the band and manager Tim Collins, knowing that the band's future would not be bright if Tyler did not get treated. The rest of the band members completed drug rehab programs over the course of the next couple years. According to the band's tell-all autobiography, Collins pledged he could make the band the biggest band in the world by 1990 if they all completed drug rehab. Their next album was make-it-or-break-it due to the commercial disappointment of Done With Mirrors, and as the band members became clean, they worked hard to make their comeback album.

Permanent Vacation was released in August of 1987. Permanent Vacation was a major hit for the band, becoming their bestselling album in over a decade (selling 5 million copies in the U.S.), and having all three singles ("Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Rag Doll", and "Angel") reach the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. The group went on a subsequent tour with Guns N' Roses, which was intense at times due to Aerosmith's new struggle to stay clean amidst GN'Rs well-publicized, rampant drug use.

Their next album was received even better. Pump, released in October of 1989, featured three Top Ten singles: "Janie's Got a Gun", "What it Takes", and "Love in an Elevator", as well as "The Other Side", reestablishing Aerosmith as a serious musical force. Pump was a critical and commercial success, selling 7 million copies, and earning the band their first Grammy win ever, for "Janie's Got a Gun". The recording process for Pump was documented in the video the The Making of Pump, which has since been re-released as a DVD. Despite certain elements of their sound and style being fashioned at this time with the hair metal genre, the band was able to maintain their own musical innovation and gritty style and outlast and outsell almost every other rock act.

Aerosmith & The 1970s

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:31:00 +0000

After forming the band and finalizing the lineup in 1971, the band started to garner some local success doing live shows. Originally booked through The Ed Malhoit Agency of Claremont NH, Aerosmith signed with Columbia Records in 1972 and issued their debut album, Aerosmith, in 1973. The album was straightforward rock and roll with well-defined blues influences, laying the groundwork for Aerosmith's signature blues-rock sound. Although the highest charting single from the album was "Dream On" at #59, several tracks (such as "Mama Kin" and "Walkin' the Dog") would become staples of the band's live shows and receive heavy rotation on rock radio. The album eventually went on to sell two million copies. After constant touring, the band released their sophomore effort Get Your Wings in 1974, the first of a string of multi-platinum albums produced by Jack Douglas. This did better in the charts and produced the rock radio hits "Same Old Song and Dance" and "Train Kept A-Rollin'", a cover originally done by The Yardbirds. The album also produced several fan favorites including "Lord of the Thighs", "Seasons of Wither", and "S.O.S. (Too Bad)", darker songs which have become staples in the band's live shows. To date, Get Your Wings has sold three million copies.

It was 1975's Toys in the Attic, however, that established Aerosmith as international stars competing with the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. Originally derided as Rolling Stones knockoffs, Toys in the Attic showed that Aerosmith was a talented band in their own right, incorporating elements of blues, glam rock, heavy metal, punk music, psychedelia, and pop. Toys in the Attic was an immediate success, starting with the single "Sweet Emotion", which became the band's first Top 40 hit. This was followed by a successful re-release of "Dream On" which hit #6, becoming their best charting single of the 1970s. The 2nd song from the album, "Walk This Way", reached the Top 10 in early 1977. "Toys in the Attic" and "Big Ten Inch Record" were also rock radio staples. As a result of this success, both of the band's previous albums re-charted. Toys in the Attic has gone on to become the band's bestselling studio album in the States, with certified U.S. sales of eight million copies. Aerosmith's next album, 1976's Rocks was one of the grittiest and hardest rocking albums the band has made. It went platinum swiftly and featured two FM hits, "Last Child" and "Back in the Saddle", as well as the ballad "Home Tonight". Rocks has sold four million copies to date. Both Toys in the Attic and Rocks are highly regarded, especially in the hard rock genre, and appear on such lists as Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums, and are cited by members of Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Mötley Crüe as having large influences on their music.

Soon after Rocks was released, the band continued to tour heavily, this time headlining their own shows and playing to several large stadiums and rock festivals, and becoming kingpins of American arena rock. The next album, 1977's Draw the Line, was not as successful or as critically acclaimed as their two previous efforts, although the title track proved to be a minor hit (and is still a live staple), and "Kings and Queens" also experienced some success. The album went on to sell 2 million copies. While continuing to tour and record into the late 1970s, Aerosmith acted in the movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their cover of the Beatles hit "Come Together" was included in the album's soundtrack and would be the band's last Top 40 hit for nearly 10 years. The live release Live! Bootleg, originally released as a double album, was put out in 1978 and captured the band's rawness during the heyday of the Draw the Line tour; however, as the 1970s came to a close, the band's popularity waned and drug abuse and the fast-paced life of touring and recording began affecting their output. Lead singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry became known as "The Toxic Twins" due to their notorious abuse of drugs on and off the stage. Just after the recording of their sixth studio album, 1979's Night in the Ruts, Joe Perry left the band, citing differences with Steven Tyler, and formed The Joe Perry Project. Perry was replaced first by longtime band friend and songwriter Richie Supa and then by guitarist Jimmy Crespo (formerly of the band Flame). Night in the Ruts quickly fell off the charts, its only single being the cover of The Shangri-Las' "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", which topped out at #67.

Formation of Aerosmith

noreply@blogger.com (zeiad79) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:30:00 +0000

The formation of Aerosmith began in the late 1960s in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Steven Tyler was a drummer/vocalist originally from Yonkers, New York who had been in a series of relatively unsuccessful bands in the mid-late 1960s such as the Vic Tallarico Orchestra, the Strangeurs/Chain Reaction, The Chain, Fox Chase, and William Proud. In 1969, while vacationing in Sunapee, New Hampshire, Tyler met Joe Perry, who was at the time playing in a band called the Jam Band with bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer David "Pudge" Scott, while Perry was washing dishes at the Anchorage in Sunapee Harbor, New Hampshire. This meeting would eventually lead to the formation of Aerosmith.

Perry and Hamilton moved to Boston, Massachusetts in September of 1970. There they met Joey Kramer, a drummer from Yonkers, New York who had also known Steven Tyler, whom he had always hoped to perform in a band with. Kramer, a Berklee College of Music student, decided to quit school to join the band. In October of 1970, they met up once again with Steven Tyler, who was originally a drummer and backup singer, but adamantly refused to play drums in this band, insisting he would only be in the band if he could be the frontman and lead vocalist. The band agreed and thus Aerosmith was born. The band added Ray Tabano, a childhood friend of Tyler, as rhythm guitarist and began playing local shows. In 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, an educated and highly skilled guitarist, who also attended the Berklee School of Music and was formerly of the band Earth Inc. Other than a period from July 1979 to April 1984, the line-up of Tyler, Perry, Hamilton, Kramer, and Whitford has stayed the same.