The Big Music Link

N° 128 EVIL SUPERSTARS - SAD SAD PLANET

2013-05-20T12:29:00.001-07:00

A quadrupple link this time. Haley was named after a comet, the name of Bill’s band, star in this band’s name and planet in the title.

A true Belgian rockband who, unfortunately as it is, doesn’t exist anymore. The split was pushed through by their record company A&M because their second album Boogie Children R Us wasn’t the big commercial success as hoped. This is why they seized to exist after a 6 year legacy between 1992 and 1998 although they said afterwards the split was because of artistic disputes between the different band members.

In 2004 though they re-appeared on the scenes for a one time reunion. Apparantly Mauro Powlowski, the front man of the band, had told the press whe the band split up they would only be re-united to play Jerusalem by the doomrockband Sleep, whis is a legendary one hour during song. They did so at the La Belgique 666 Point festival in Brussels.

Fortunaley for music lovers we can still see Mauro perform since he joined dEus after the Evil Supersars split. Also Tim Vanhamel can still be seen on the music scenes since he’s a founding member of Eagles Of Death Metal (he quit after the first album though), Millionaire and Broken Glass Heroes. Tim joined the band after they won the 1994 Humo Rock Rally contest at the age of 15.

Evil Superstars won Humo’s Rock rally in 1994 which meant the real start of their careers quickly followed by a first CD called Love Is Okay. The second and last CD was recorded in 1997 and released in 1998.

N°127 BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS - SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR

2013-05-17T23:33:00.002-07:00

Since the previous band released an album by the name of ‘Alligator’ the link was easily made with Bill Haley and his Comets and the song posted. It’s been a while though since I posted a classic song so there’s another good reason for the choice I’ve made.

Bill Haley died at the age of 55 when I was only 4 years old. We’re situating ourselves in 1981 then so you might wonder how I’ve got to know these songs. Well back in third grade I play backed him once with this song. Not a very good play back though but it got me to listen to some real old classics and that love for good old music never left.

It all started when Bill recorded the song Rock Around The Clock in 1954. Rock ‘n Roll was a very popular music and dance style in the fifties and Bill Haley would become one of the trendsetters of that genre. It wasn’t the biggest hit at first but when a dance movie with the same title was shown in all the movie theatres in 1956 his song was on the track list. It spread out around the whole world together with the increasing popularity of rock ‘n roll itself.

Bill was born to play music with a banjo playing dad and his mom being a pianist. With this musical influence he started his own band halfway the 1940’s. The band’s name would be Bill Haley’s Saddlemen but they changed the name at the recordings of their first album in 1951 into Bill Haley and the Comets. At that same time he was known as one of the best yodellers in America and he performed as Silver Yodelling Bill Haley. He also lead a radio station in the 1940’s, all a continuation of his love for music.

With the success of songs such as ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’, ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and ‘See You Later alligator’ came the downside of success. Haley fought a long battle with alcohol and in the 1970’s he’d admit on national radio to be an alcoholic. This would nowadays probably mean the break-up of a band but The Comets kept touring and playing with Bill. While he and his environment coped well with his alcohol abuse it didn’t cause his death. A brain tumour did, diagnosed only weeks before his late 1980’s tour which got cancelled. His drinking problem got worse in the last few years of his life causing family problems.

Although his troubled life he was granted a star on the Hollywood walk Of Fame and he got post mortem ignaurated in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall Of Fame.

The Comets are still touring in their original form tributing Bill Haley and their successful music.

Enjoy the song and see you later alligator!

N°126 THE NATIONAL - ENGLAND

2013-01-24T23:26:00.001-08:00

From a poppy boysband to some real indie music with the American band The National. When the success from East 17 dropped from the late nineties on, The National only began to dream about international success since they were founded in 1999.

The base of the band is formed by a double pair of brothers: Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Scott and Bryan Devendorf. The last one plays the drums while the rest of them all play guitar (or bass guitar). The only one who hasn’t got any relatives in the band is songwriter, frontman Matt Berninger. He’s also the only one who doesn’t play any instrument.

It took them quite a while to finally break through with their fourth album Boxer; release in 2007. The big success came even with the follow up album High Violet in 2010. One of the hits on this album is ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ while also ‘Is There A Ghost’ and ‘Terrible Love’ reached the top of the charts.

Before the Boxer album they started with an album in 2001 named after the band. I’ll also mention the other two albums: Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (2003) which was named by Chicago Tribune as album of the year and Alligator (2005). In between they created the studio EP Cherry Tree and after their first break through in 2007 they released a second EP The Virginia which contained some older work and B-sides. This EP was accompanied by a band documentary shot by Vincent Moon. Touring with Editors after the Alligator album helped their popularity amongst indie music lovers.

Personally I picked them up after their fourth album and I got to know them on their combined tour with Editors. I saw them perform at Pukkelpop festival and loved their work so very much I instantly became a bit of a fan. Good luck for me since East17 is a quarter in London, capital of the UK (England), and England is my favourite The National song.

Enjoy it.

N°125 - EAST17 - STAY ANOTHER DAY

2013-01-23T03:16:00.002-08:00

I’m back after being gone for a while. Renovating a house apparently drains a lot of energy and time so apologies for all of you who actually missed the music link. But from now on we’ll get back to it on a regular basis. And not a better continuation with an old school boys band from the nineties.

East17 was formed in 1991 and they mixed rap with nineties pop music. Just listen to their songs such as ‘Steam’ or Let It Rain’. Formed by front man Tony Mortimer he sought a few fellow band members after signing his first record deal for London Records. London Records? Yes the band is British. He name of the band was quickly chosen since Tony came from a small town called Walthamstow which postal code starts with E17… Brian Harvey sings the more r&b vocals while Mortimer takes care of the songwriting and the rapping parts. Other members were John Hendy and Terence Coldwell. Since were talking nineties here it needs to be mentioned they were mainly rival for that other boys band Take That.

Their first album named after the town Mortimer grew up in shot to the number 1 place in the UK charts in no time bringing forth a number of hits such as ‘House Of Pain’. ‘Stay Another Day’ was a single from their 1994 second released album named ‘Steam’. Stay Another Day is, until today, still their only number 1 UK hit single whilst all of their other singles made it at least to the top 20. ‘Up All Night‘ was their third album in consecutive years but it would never top the previous successes.

News appeared that Harvey was engaged in an affair on taking drugs and with Mortimer leaving the band in 1997 the split op East17 was final. The split would only last a year when all but Mortimer gave East17 a new kick start. The renamed themselves to E-17 and released a fourth album in 1998 called ‘Resurrection’. The only single making it to the top would be ‘Each Time’. Apparently Mortimer’s songwriting skills had a huge input in the band’s success. It would be a very short comeback since they split again in 1999.

In 2006 all four original members performed a one-time comeback on a gig in London but this would only result in a re-launch of their careers as a three piece band. Again Mortimer would leave the band after a fight with Harvey. One last setup change would happen in 2009 when Mortimer took Harvey’s place as the band thought Harvey’s drug abuse once more disturbed the band’s commitments. This final comeback resulted in the singles ‘Secret Of My Life’ and ‘I Can’t Get You Off My Mind’ together with a fifth album in 2012 (14 years after the fourth !) titled ‘Dark Light’

I never have been and never will be a fan of boys bands but I’m sure you’ll admit East17 have their place in music history so here they are with their only number 1 UK hit.

Talk to you soon.

N°124 WRETCH 32 - DON'T GO

2012-10-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

Wretch32 (pronounce as Wretch Three Two and not Thirty Two) worked on a song with Da Weasel and that’s exactly why I’ve used him in my music link. He’s born and raised in London where he joined two different Grime crews, Combination Chain Gang and The Movement. As a solo artist he got picked up after a live performance at the 2007 MP3 Music Awards. After this he was given the chance to create a first full album named Wretchrospective; released in 2008. Back in these days he also created a few mixtapes with grime, urban and hiphop sounds making his name in this particular part of the music business.

Early 2011 he released a debut single ‘Traktor’ which would later that year appear on his second album Black And White. The single would debut in the charts at number 5 and his album got picked up by a bigger audience. More singles were released such as ‘Unorthodox’ carrying a sample of Stone Roses hit ‘Fools Gold’. At the end of the year a third single saw the light and brought him another success in the UK.

He now started touring with a UK Arena tour bringing his sound to the world and in his latest touring performances he brought a brand new song to his fans with the title ‘Blur’. It is supposed to be the first single of his newest album foreseen for 2013. This single also features on the latest FIFA13 soundtrack as one of the themes.

N°123 DALEY - GAME OVER

2012-09-26T07:00:00.001-07:00

Back in the eighties PacMan was my favourite video game. Unfortunately I encountered many Game Overs before reaching the ultimate level and finish it off. So far concerning the link. I wanted to link it into the Slovenian boys band Game Over but I could find any information on them so I left it with that and sought another solution with a song called Game Over. I’ve chosen the performance by Daley since his career started quite remarkably.

He’s an artist who writes his own songs but he didn’t know exactly how to make them public. That’s why he uploaded one of his tracks to the BBC recording studios. After listening to the track he was invited to do a live session for BBC Introducing and from that moment on he got broadcasted in the UK on national radio creating a little hype.

His voice matched perfectly with the Gorillaz theme and together with Damon Albarn he wrote ‘Doncamatic’. Gorillaz also asked him to lend his voice for that single which appeared on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach. A strange begin of his career maybe but in 2011 Daley produced an online EP called Those Who Wait which got downloaded a lot in the UK. From this EP, Game Over is the first real single release, followed by other songs such as ‘Smoking Gun’ and ‘Spent’. That same period Wretch 32 release the album Black and White on which Daley appears as a guest artist on the single ‘Long way Home’.

I don’t know if he’s a one hit wonder or anything but I’m glad I almost worked myself out of trouble with my music link.

N°122 DA WEASEL - DIALECTOS DA TERNURA

2012-09-12T03:42:00.001-07:00

I’ll make it easy for me and stay in Portugal as the link and I’ll also stick a bit with the genre. Da Weasel was formed by MC Pacman and MC Virgul in 1993. The band seized to exist only recently in 2010 without any explanation. Too bad you might say since Da Weasel had a very good live act with a complete band on stage.

It all started in 1993 when they released a first EP named ‘More than 30 Motherfuckers’. An Ep which set the tone for the rest of their career. Although releasing this EP in English, the first full album carried a Portuguese title and all tracks were also in Portuguese. If I say that they sought their inspiration with Cypress Hill and Public Enemy you can imagine the tone of the full album.

Only in 1997 Virgul joined Da Weasel to replace Yen Sung who went full time solo as a DJ. Virgul added ska and reggae to the band’s sound. This sound influenced the EP 3^°Capitulo in a certain way and Da Weasel changed styles a bit.

After recording their fourth studio album (which has a very difficult title to write down) they were asked to do the warm up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their Portuguese stop on their Californication tour. After this memorable moment for the band a few more left and joined Da Weasel only to leave MC Pacman and Virgul as a security. In 2004 they even changed producers and the following album was a great commercial success. Re-Definitions made platinum in Portugal and the band again decided to go on tour through Europe and Brazil in 2005.

They managed to release one more album and again it reached platinum within days. Amor, Escarnio e Maldizir would be their last album ever since they’d split up two years after. Maybe because Pacman and Virgul didn’t want to cooperate with each other no more, maybe because of other reasons. We’ll probably never know.

N°121 BURAKA SOM SISTEMA - HANGOVER

2012-09-10T03:09:00.001-07:00

It was actually quite hard to link the Balthazar song or band so I types in Balthazar in google and came up with an American beer brand. And what does beer sometimes give you? A hangover off course so here we go with Hangover from Buraka Som Sistema.

BSS is a Portuguese dance project performing a style called progressive kuduro. Kuduro is actually an Angolan dance and music style, born out of mixing different traditional African carnival music. Since Angola used to be a Portuguese colony its logic the music also reach the European mainland.

The formation of Buraka Som Sistema was founded in 2006 by a few DJ’s and rappers. I’ll name their nicknames: Li’l John, Conductor and DJ Riot. The only one performing under his own name is Kalaf Angelo. Conductor is an African hip hop producer and met the others as the band Cool Train Crew while touring in Portugal. They were all looking to create a kuduro collective and this is how their collaboration started out.

Their first two singles led to a first full album in 2007 named From Buraka To The World. Buraca is actually a parish in the city of Amadora, north of Lissabon. That same year after touring BSS found help with a few excellent performers such as M.I.A. for the single ‘Sound Of Buraka’ and Pongolove for the single ‘Kalemba’. Both songs can be found on their second album Black Diamond.

Until 2010 they performed at different European festivals mostly situated in the class of world music festivals but in 2011 their break through with a bigger audience happens with the release of their third, yet most successful album Komba. Their hit single ‘Hangover’ reached high in the charts in most European countries.

I did choose the Hangover single since It’s their biggest hit in the whole of Europe. So grab some alcohol, bottom’s up, and get ready for a little party with this Portuguese sound system (som sistema)?

N°120 BALTHAZAR - FIFTEEN FLOORS

2012-09-06T00:04:00.002-07:00

With an Ep, two early releases, one full album and a second on the way the Belgian rok band Balthazar has been quite busy the past few years. It all started in 2004.

When the band Lost And Found with Maarten Devoldere, Jinte Deprez and Patricia Vanneste wins the competition of Kunstbende (art gang) it was clear there was a lot of talent and chemistry available in the western part of Belgium. They renamed the band to Balthazar and in 2006 they are award with the audience price of that year’s Humo Rockrally. Time for them to create and release a first EP carrying the nme of the band. Early the following year they decide to switch drummer and bass and from that moment on the current formation of the band is complete. Apart from the earlier mentioned foudners there’s also Simon Casier and Christophe Claeys. New settings and they are invited to a few Belgian festivals where they give it their best. The first ever single ‘This Is A Flirt’ was already recorded and released with the complete band as it currently exists. In 2008 they’d release another single named Bathroom Lovin’ Situations’. More live invitations followed on the biggest Belgian festivals and Balthazar also made their way into the charts.

Yet they found the time right to record a first complete studio album. Awaiting the release of the album in 2010 Maarten and his gang decided to release the first track in December 2009. ‘Fifteen Floors’ got picked up on the radio a bit and was a great way to promote the first album. Fifteen floors also knocked its way into my music link. When thinking about three doors down I immediately thought of an apartment building and a fifteen floor building seems big enough to fit the picture in my head.

Balthazar received a lot of applause from their fans at the early stage of the band and wanted to give back some by naming the first full album ‘Applause’. And more of that they got from critics all over the land. The album received well and scored the Album Of The Year award in the 2010 Belgian Music Industry Awards. Correct if you listen to songs as ‘The Boatman’ and ‘Hunger At The Door’. For this they were asked to do the warm up for dEus’ European tour.

Check the clip out I’d say and if you like it you just might buy their second album soon. Expectation date: October 15^th, 2012.

N°119 - 3 DOORS DOWN - KRYPTONITE

2012-09-04T00:09:00.001-07:00

A few songs back I went to Mississippi and already I return there when talking about the American rock band 3 Doors Down. They’re a band best known for the single I’ve used in the link which is an obvious link while using having Superman mentioned the song before. Kryptonite is also their first single ever released by them in the year 2000. Many call them a one hit wonder but if so then these critics are countered by the fact that not many one hit wonders produce five full albums in twelve years.

Following the hit single, 3 Doors Down got signed by Republic Records and they were given the chance to produce their first album A Better Life. I’m not a critic or anything and this blog is not made to promote any artist, song or album but I must agree with those who say this is their most decent album. One can still discuss if the 2002 Away From The Sun album is also as good as the primus but everything after I just don’t like for myself. This second album by the way overshadowed the first when it comes to copies sold. 3 Doors Down were a successful rock band.

Formed by drummer and vocalist Brad Arnold, guitar bass player Todd Harrell and lead guitar by Matt Roberts they started as a rock cover band. Over time Brad Arnold stated to write his own songs and these were mainly used for the band’s first album. After a while guitar player Chris Henderson joined the band and the first song Kryptonite saw the light as mentioned above followed by the album ‘A Better Life’. On that same album you’ll also find the song ‘Loser’ which I personally think is also a pretty darn good song.

For the next album a drummer got hired while another one did the tour. While the basis of the band stayed together the drums were manned by different people on different occasions. When I think of two songs on the first album I can only find one single worth mentioning on the second: ‘When I’m Gone’. Yet it was a very successful album to them.

After touring the band hosted their own benefit concert. These benefits would be held on a yearly base from 2003 on.

Their popularity kept growing and when releasing ‘Seventeen Days’, their third studio album and again they went on tour. This time side by side with the band Lynerd Skynerd both headlining fifty-fifty on a tour around the USA. Again there’s only one song that got stuck in my memory and that’s ‘Landing In London’, a soft ballad like song.

Once more they’d dive into the studios and came out to present us the self-titled album in 2008 with more of the same. Songs like ‘It’s Not My Name’ and ‘Train’ aren’t that bad at all but when listening to it they don’t always live up to my expectations. Sorry for the fans but that’s just my opinion. They managed to record a Christmas song by the end of 2009 and this is actually where I think they went wrong. A true rock band does not, never ever, make a song meant for Christmas. Never !!! Luckily it was released to the world digitally and to my knowledge it doesn’t appear on their latest album.

Time Of My Life was recorded in 2010 and released halfway 2011. The band chose ‘When You’re Young’ to be the first single and ‘Every Time You Go’ as the second. Soft titles and soft songs. That’s what happens when a rock band makes Christmas carols. As always they started touring again but right after the tour around the USA and the UK had finished it was clear that Matt Roberts would leave the band with health issues.

Nowadays it is rumoured they’re working on a greatest hits album for 2013. We’ll see what it’ll bring but I’m sure it will find its way to the true fans.

N°118 THE BIG PINK - HIT THE GROUND SUPERMAN

2012-09-02T03:39:00.000-07:00

A British duo, Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell, bringing us music lovers a mixture of electronic music and rock. Not a very long existing band so far since they started out back in 2007 but since then, they managed to produce two albums called Brief History Of Love in 2009 and Future This, from early this year.

Both artists started of independently from each other on their own labels, respectively Hate Channel and Merok Records. In between 2007, when they decided to co-operate with each other and 2009 they were able to release a few singles on old school 12’’, all produced on a limited base. Neither of them wanted to take The Big Pink in on their label so these releases went on the 4AD label. All of these singles can be found on the first album A Brief History Of Love. A week before the release they promoted it by launching another single called ‘Dominos’ and following the release they toured Europe, the USA and Japan. This again led to being the supporting act for Muse on their UK Arena tour in 2010. For this The Big Pink thanked Muse with a nice remix of Muse’s song ‘Undisclosed Desires’

A second album was destined to follow rather quickly but release was only foreseen at the start of 2012. So far two singles were released from this album. The first was ‘Lose Your Mind’. A song which opens with a sample of the song ‘Happy House’ by Siouxsie and The Banshees. Personally I picked them up with the second single ‘Hit The Ground Superman’ which was a big hit in my home country.

Superman will by the way be the link into the next song. About the link with Feist I can be brief. Just check the line-up for Pukkelpop festival 2012. They were both on it on the opening day. Unfortunately two other bands (Apocalyptica and Isbells) I wanted to see were scheduled at the same time so I missed out on them. Maybe next time. Since Robbie and Milo do the mixes and electronics on stage they’re accompanied by a drummer (Akiko Matsuura) and a bass guitar player (Adam Prendergast or Leopold Ross) whenever performing a live set. Will Superman hit the ground or will he land smoothly? Up to you to decide.

N°117 - FEIST - MY MOON, MY MAN

2012-08-31T05:47:00.003-07:00

Amarain means Two Moons in Arabic so the song posted matches perfectly with the previous one.

I’ve been looking for a while to fit Leslie Feist in since I think she’s a great musician and performer but until now it never worked. I posted her as a solo artist but you might also know her from the rock band Broken Social Scene, an art pop, post rock, shoegaze band with a rotating membership up to a maximum of nineteen performers, and Feist is one of them.

Both her solo career as her band membership started in 1999. She put a first record on the shelves by the name Monarch. Born out of two artistic parents (none in music though) it was clear that Leslie Feist would become an artist as well and she laid her heart into music. It actually started when she, as a fifteen year old, became lead vocalist of a local band called Placebo. This is how she met Brandon Canning who invited her years later to join the band Broken Social Science. In time she had learned to play bass- and lead guitar and she was ready to try it solo as well. Her first album Monarch though never made the charts and her solo career was close to die an early death.

Feist started touring with different bands such as Gonzales the following years and at the same time she recorded private demo tapes which she started called The Red Demos. Only three years later she’d find the time and courage to re-record The Red Demos and release a first successful album by the name Let It Die. From this album I’ve taken My Moon My Man for the obvious linking reasons but other than this song there’s also the fabulous Mushaboom. The album won the Album of The Year Canadian Juno Awards and Feist her name was made. The album contained both her own songs as personal interpretations of existing songs.

Again Feist would start collaborating with different other bands and artists such as the British Jane Birkin. In between she’s touring around the globe with her solo project. Her home base moved from Saskatchewan, Canada to the global city Paris, France. Making an international name for herself she was asked to contribute to the Unicef song Do They Know It’s Halloween and in her French period she also starts to gain interests in making movies and her first project is for the soundtrack of the 2006 movie Paris Je t’Aime. In 2006 she again returns to Paris where she uses her network of people to produce a third album by the name The Reminder.

The reminder is being released first in Europe in 2007 and again she goes on a world tour. Again she takes the prizes at the 2008 Juno Awards for Album Of The Year and finally her song 1234 makes it to the top ten in the US Billboard. She also appears with this song on Sesame Street having children to count until four. She’d also appear as a cameo in The Muppets movie last year. Whenever she makes a presence at a movie she usually plays herself.

After taking a long break from Broken Social Science she joins the band again in 2009 for the release of the band’s biography. She promises to join them on a few tours and contributes to the band’s latest album as well. And after these tours she dives back in the studio to create yet another great album named Metals. Released in 2011 it was given the best critics once more elevating her song writing skills. Also in 2001 and elder Feist song; ‘Limit To Your Love’; was being covered by James Blake becoming a huge hit throughout the most of Northern Europe. Nowadays she plans to make a 7 inch split record in cooperation with metal band Mastodon. Feist would cover a few Mastodon songs where Mastodon would interpret some of her songs. But first we grasp back to a classic Feist single: My Moon, My Man. Enjoy listening.

N°116 AMR DIAB - AMARAIN

2012-08-28T00:02:00.002-07:00

Amr Diab (I won’t try to write down his full name since it’s too long and complicated) is an Egyptian singer of a music style called Al-Jeel, a typical Arabic poppy music style. It contains mixtures of Arabian and Western music styles. His popularity led him to four World Music Awards for best selling Asian artist.

His first album Ya Tariq (The Road) saw the light in 1983 but he’d score his first hit in 1988 with the song Majaal, still one of his biggest successes. For his first worldwide hit song he’d have to wait for another thirteen years until the release of the single Habibi (My Darling). This single was remixed uncountable times by many DJ’s and found its way to the shelves of the western music stores. His duets are also quite known in the Arabic. Due to linking reasons I’ve chosen to post the song Amarain which means two moons. In 2004 he scored a number one success in the whole of Asia with his album El Laila (This Night).

Amr also tried an acting career and he shared the white screen with Omar Sharif; less successful though.

You also might wonder why I jump from the USA to Egypt but the link has geographical roots. Since the previous song mentions the Mississippi Delta I’ve looked it up on a few maps and to my big surprise there’s a city named Cairo, originating close near the river. And Cairo is the capital of Egypt so I went on a search for an Egyptian performer and came up with Amr Diab. Simple no?

N°115 - MUDDY WATERS - MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES

2012-08-24T03:05:00.001-07:00

McKinley Morganfield is probably an unknown name to most of you but when I say Muddy Waters it should ring a bell amongst blues lovers. Muddy, born in 1913 is an old school, black souled, blues artist. It all started when he was given a blues harp at an early age. He’d later trade it in for an acoustic guitar and from that point on it was clear McKinley was made to play music. His nickname “Muddy” was given to him by his grandmother when he was still a young boy. Later Muddy would become Muddy Waters as his stage name.

His first trip to Chicago in 1940 to make it as a musician turned out to be a disappointment. He had to return to his home town a year later. He started a local café with a little stage he used to perform from time to time. This is where Alan Lomax passed his joint and recorded the first Muddy Blues song. This is also the first Time he believed in his music and to make a career out of it. He received a cheque for this Library of Congress recording and he went back to Chicago to give his music career another shot. At first he combined playing the guitar with a regular job but then Big Bill Broonzy picked him up as his opening act. Muddy switched to an electric guitar and his own career took a flight.

In 1948 he scored the first two hits with songs as ‘I feel Like Going Home’ and ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’ which opened the doors of the biggest blues clubs around Chicago. This lead to his best known song ‘Rollin Stone’. A song later picked up by Mick Jagger and his crew as his band name; also picked up by the world’s leading music magazine Rolling Stone Magazine. In the fifties, Muddy would form his own blues band and the success continued. He performed with the biggest blues musicians in the USA. Just listen to songs as ‘Sugar Boy’ and ‘Forty Days And Forty Nights’.

We’re talking 1958 when Muddy changes direction and tours around England where he discovers he has a huge amount of fans amongst white people who liked the sound of his electric blues combined with his great voice. In the sixties and seventies his music was put away for a while. Yet he kept recording with the biggest blues artists around the world. He even recorded a live session in London in 1972 and although being surrounded by great musicians he thought they couldn’t match his sound stating: “If you change my sound, you’ll change the whole man”.

Late 1970’s he makes a comeback LP named Hard Again, bringing Muddy back to his early Chicago sound. He starts touring again with James Cotton and the album will win a Grammy Award in 1978. That same year he’d bring back together some of his old partners to record another successfully album I’m ready. A year later the live Mississippi album was recorded with his regular band and it is said that only on this album you can hear him play just like he sits right next to you. More albums followed but also the troubles came. His band asked more money for their contributions but Muddy’s manager didn’t give in. The band split shortly after.

Muddy being close to his seventies cut back on performing in the nineteen eighties because of a problematic heart disease. He died of a heart failure in 1983 but in his 40 years of playing the blues on a professional level he influenced many music genres and many artists. I already mentioned Mick Jagger but he also helped out Chuck Berry early in his career. Jimi Hendrix also referred to him as his first icon. Other bands and artists would cover some of his songs. His songs also appear in different movies, especially movies situated around that era. He must one of the most influential people in the music business and that’s why he holds a position in the rock and roll hall of fame since 1987.

N°114 MARK LANEGAN BAND - BLEEDING MUDDY WATERS

2012-08-22T01:08:00.001-07:00

Mark Lanegan, now touring under his solo career also works a lot with many other artists or performed in various bands such as The Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age and The Gutter Twins. I can already tell you neither of these bands will be next into the link but I’ll remember them for the near future maybe. I’ll stick to his solo work and liaisons just for now.

While being the frontman for The Screaming Trees Mark Lanegan started up a first project for a solo ep called The Winding Sheet. He did this together with no less than Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. At first it was supposed to be a bluesy album but it evolved into a more Tom Waits sounding art piece. This first liaison led to more co-working with other grunge bands. We’re talking way back, 1990. On this record there’s appeared a version of ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’, later covered by Nirvana as well.

Whiskey For The Holy Ghost followed four years after in 1994 with the known ‘Beggar’s Blues’ and ‘Riding The Nightingale’. It took mister Lanegan almost three years to create this album since the recording didn’t always satisfy him. This project was succeeded the year after by a guest appearance on a Mad Seasons album. He collaborated on two of the songs. Again we’d have to wait for another solo album: Scraps at Midnight. It was recorded during wintertime and mostly written in the dark of the winter nights, hence the title. This time Mark Lanegan produced an album I’ll Take Care Of You only the year after. Most of the songs on this album were used as B-sides for singles of the previous album. It sounded a little bit more like folk and punk than the fans were used to on the previous recordings.

A little jump into the link. If anyone would say that the Pukkelpop 2012 festival could be the link I can't blame them since both Diablo Blvd. and Mark Lanegan Band were scheduled. (I didn't get to see Mark Lanegan though) but I need this link a few songs from now to make another switch (yes I work a little bit up front for this blog) later on. So once more I found the link in the title: Black Heart BLEED followed by BLEEDing Muddy Waters ties in perfectly). Now back to the performer.

Mark sought help from Soundgarden’s bassist Ben Shepherd and recorded a fifth album in 2001; Field Songs and this would be the first of many collaborations with other artists such as PJ Harvey, Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone age and Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs. Also former Guns ‘n Roses members would contribute on his latest and most commercial album called Bubblegum. Probably he also profited from the guest appearance from all these artists and their respective fans. In between both albums Mark Lanegan became a full time member of Queens Of The Stone Age and he appeared on many of the band’s songs in this period. I must say I’ve seen him perform with the Queens back in 2004 and wasn’t really fond of his sound at the time. Did I know much this was Mark Lanegan to be honest? I started to appreciate him better only since a year or so. Sorry. He left the band in 2005 when it comes to touring but would still perform with them from time to time.

In 2004 he’d help out the UK band Belle & Sebastian with additional vocals on the This Is Just The Same album. He’d also write a few songs for them later on and he’d join them on stage during a couple of concerts. He’d also help out on their Sunday at Devil Dirt album and in 2010 they released the album Hawk together. In that same period he’d also start up a project called The Gutter Twins with ex-The Afghan Whigs vocalist Greg Dulli. Nowadays when they come on stage as The Gutter Twins they usually perform as the setup of Dulli’s new band Twilight Sister but with Mark Lanegan added. Without Mark they perform as simply Twilight Sister.

This year Lanegan managed to produce yet another solo album after eight years of solo silence. It was named Blues Funeral and to me this is his best solo album so far. One of the songs was used for the movie The Hangover part II. Great movie by the way. As you can read he’s been around for ages and you can probably hear him in some kind of way on many, many albums or songs so, as did I in 2004, you probably have heard him already on the radio or so. Now it’s just a matter of appreciating his music so here’s one of his songs:

N°113 DIABLO BLVD. - BLACK HEART BLEED

2012-08-20T03:28:00.003-07:00

Diablo Blvd. is actually a song from the metal band Corrocion of Conformity, one of the favourite bands of Diablo Blvd. front man Alex Agnew. Founded about seven years ago in Antwerp building on the great foundations of guitar players TimBekaert (A Brand) and Andries Beckers (The Setup) and Dave Hubrechts. Also with a strong drummer named Kris Martens and off course Alex Agnew, the stand-up comedian lead singer frontman.

The Diablo Blvd. sounds is a mixture of metal with sometimes bluesy lyrics. It’s rock ‘n roll with howling guitars. It’s hard and good. Alex has roots in England so it’s obvious he has no problem writing the perfect lyrics and with such talented musicians around him, Diablo Blvd started to build a name and a huge amount of fans in Belgium and The Netherlands. And not only Alex Agnew, the comedian fans.

A firs demo was recorded in 2006 and named Scarred and Undefeated. It only had four songs with the title song and Sweet Enemy Mine and most eye catching lyrics. This demo would be a step up to a first full cd, although it took them three year to write and record it. This because of the other bands they all played in and with Alex’ comedy tours so free dates were hard to find to work on the full cd.

The Greater God would be released in 2009 and it blew everyone away. It held twelve great songs including the ones on the ep mentioned above. The other two never made the full cd. Second Coming and Outcast are regulars at their live sets nowadays. The success of this album made them want more and they saw themselves as Builders Of Empires and build a new cd in 2011 by that title. This album was mixed by Jens Bogren who worked for Amon Amarth and Opeth. Ten songs of which Black Heart Bleed is the first single. This album is harder than the first one and more metal than blues but hey we like metal.

I saw them play live last weekend by the way at Pukkelpop 2012 and Alex and his crew gave away a great performance. First song he immediately demanded a mosh pit and not even halfway the one hour set he asked for a wall of death and boobs. He got the wall, didn’t know if he saw them boobs since I stood in the back with my girlfriend enjoying his funny remarks in between songs. Even in Diablo Blvd. Alex still remains that little piece of a comedian when showing off on stage. I’d say: go watch them whenever they’re around because they’re worth it.

The colour black was the link by the way: Men in Black -> Black Heart Bleed.

N°112 WILL SMITH - MEN IN BLACK

2012-08-14T05:02:00.004-07:00

Willard Christopher Smith Jr., or Will Smith, or The Fresh Prince, … we all heard of him at a certain point in our lives. He’s been around for ages it seems and that’s kind of normal at 44 years of age. He started his career as a rapper with DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince but went solo after a while to pursue his own career. Will and Jazz first came up with the idea for the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bell Air; etching a Philly downtown boy into a wealthy Bel-Air family. Jazzy Jeff played the character of Jazz in that same sitcom before definitely parting from Will Smith.

Later Will would be asked to play feature roles in Men in Black, Hitch, Bad Boys, Hancock, Independence Day, …. (I won’t mention the terrible I-Robot) and for some of these movies he also made the theme song such as for Men In Black.

You could say that with the song Men In Black he opened both door for an acting career as a singing career. He released his second album called Big Willie Style right after the movie release. The album produced songs such as Getting’ Jiggy With It and Miami. Later he’d perform in Wild Wild West for which he also produced the theme song. This single was given a spot on a later album. His biggest acting effort he did was when he played Muhammed Ali in the movie Ali. As said earlier, more movies followed and music disappeared a little to the background until 2006. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Frech Prince got back together.

As a duo they came up with records as Parent’s Just Don’t Understand and the fabulous nineties song Summertime. After the split up Will Smith kept performing and he always asked Jazz to be his live DJ on stage. Apparently a career move from Will Smith who knew he could reach the top quicker on his own. Around the year 2000 he released his third album Willenium with the song Will2K. He’d also release an only US album called Born To Reign. Right before joining Jazz again in 2006 a fifth studio album saw the light: Lost and Found.

And ‘found’ he did. He found a way to keep life interesting for him by starting to produce movies and to push his own kids towards the white screen. Two of his productions: Hancock and The Karate Kid. In the latest his son Jaden Smith performed the lead role. His daughter Willow Smith already starred with her dad in I Am Legend. I wonder when they will start making music?

Ok when searching for Willow Smith on the internet I just saw she already released a few singles in 2010. Well maybe I should include her into this lost too huh? What do you say? Oh and do I need to mention Danny Elfman worked on the Men In Black album? Didn't think so.

N°111 DANNY ELFMAN - THE SIMPSONS MAIN THEME

2012-07-09T01:32:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I’ve used some kind of instrumental music and thanks to All That Remains I can use one of the most popular TV shows from the past centuries. When I say ‘Doh’. You say Homer Simpson and when I ask where these yellow creatures live you say Springfield. And where did All That Remains resides? Yes indeed Springfield !!!!

Daniel ‘Danny’ Elfman is one of the most famous composers of film music and TV series. If you’re, like I, am a huge fan of the Tim Burton movies you must have at least heard of him since he composed the musical themes for almost all of his movies starting with Pee Wee’s Great Adventure. Danny also made the compositions for the eighties series Beetlejuice; Tim Burton later would create also a movie around this character. But off course if you’re not a fan you might know him from the Desperate Housewives theme or the one I chose: the one from The Simpsons.

Mr Elfman’s parents were also performing artist. His other was a writer, his father played the sax and stimulating their children in art, literature and music they send their sons to France to study theatre arts. Upon his return he and his brother started the band Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo. When the band split Danny took over with some remaining musicians and renamed themselves to Oingo Boingo. Apparently well known in the neighbourhood of California.

His brother left the band to study the art of film and when he produced his first film The Forbidden Zone, Danny created his first movie theme with his band Oingo Boingo. This is how he and Tim Burton got in touch and being a big fan of Oingo Boingo, Burton asked him to compose for his first movie, …, and all the rest. Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow, Batman, Dark Shadows, Big Fish ….. Only exceptions are Sweeney Todd and Ed Wood. Danny also sang the lyrics of the Oompa Loompa’s in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Other series or movies he did: Dick Tracy, Mission Impossible, Spy Kids, Hulk, Red Dragon, Men in Black and many more. When it comes to music, Elfman is a big name in the movie business. This is why he has four Oscar nominations behind his name. Unfortunately he didn’t win any of them. At a late age he married actress Bridget Fonda, daughter of Jane Fonda. I don’t know if they met on the set or not but then again it’s a small world out there.

Now enjoy The Simpsons theme once more.

N°110 ALL THAT REMAINS - SIX

2012-07-06T23:26:00.002-07:00

From a bit of all styles of music to metalcore. It’s possible in the big music link. Six is the link and is the song I’ll be posting here.

Founded in 1998 in Springfield, Massachusets, USA; All That Remains is a metal band with a very strong live reputation. Vocalist Philip Labonte and guitar player Oli Herbert are original founders of the band accompagnied through the years by drummer Jason Costa and bassist Jeanne Sagan.

The first album is different from all their other albums. As they are now known as a metalcore band the first album is more melodical and should be described as death metal. The second album though created their current music style, partly influenced by their producer Adam Dutkiewicz, guitar player for Killswitch Engage. This Darkened Heart was released in 2004 gave us three strong songs: the titlesong, ‘Tattered on My Sleeve’ and ‘The Deepest Gray’. As with all the other songs music video’s were produced and the band insists until today that all their songs are accompagnied by a music video.

The success on different metal gigs led to a third studio album named ‘The Fall Of Ideals’ considered as tier major breakthrough. Although the first single was named ‘This Calling’, the song ‘Six’ is better known since it was used in the Playstation game Guitar Hero II. Rom here on All That Remains would sound a bit more mainstream and that’s why their next album Overcome was less rated than the ones before. Their last album so far For We are Many returns a bit more to the real metalcore but still is a little bit more mainstream than the first few. I like the sound of the posted song and since I don’t know the band very well I’ll think I’ll go and find some of their other music and let’s hope I can put All That Remains in my ultimate playlist sometime.

Greetings !

N°109 ELECTRIC SIX - INFECTED GIRLS

2012-07-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

A six piece Detroit based band with a lot of musical influences. You can put them in the punk corner and they will be fine. You can place them in a new wave box and they’ll also feel fine. Even disco, rock and metal is a part of their repertoire so the band can be seen as a multi musical ensemble. And yet they’re not that known since they only scored one hit to my knowledge. In 2003 that is and the song listens to the title ‘Danger! High Voltage.’ The electric by the way ties into AC/DC off course.

Although less known they created nine albums between 1996 and 2011. It all started as ‘The Wildbunch’ but they immediately had to change the name of the band because of copy-write issues with another band. All the band’s members have nicknames and nowadays there are six of them. Yet the formation changed over the years quite often and no less than fifteen former Electric Sixers can be named with roaring names as Disco, M. or Rock And Roll Indian. The six current performers are Dick Valentine who formed the band with the three named ex members, The Colonel, Johny Na$hinal, Smorgasbord, Percussion World and Tait Nucleus.

The first album called Fire followed only in 2003 and created the hit single Danger! High Voltage. Even before recording a first album the band split for two years between 1999 and 2001. It is said that Jack White performs or even sings on the single but the band denies the presence of any contribution of Jack White to the single or album. Yet the vocals are credited to a John S O’Leary and apparently this is Jack White’s pseudonym often used whenever he wants to be incognito. The second single from this first album was called ‘Gay Bar’ and also reached the charts.

Producing a second album was a bit normal considering the success of the first one and Señor Smoke was released early 2005. First release on this album was a cover from the Queen song ‘Radio Gaga’ . It created huge controversy amongst Queen fans since Dick Valentine appeared in the music video as Freddie Mercury’s ghost dancing on his grave.

In between albums huge setup changes were made and for the album Switzerland the last original member leaves Electric Six. Drummer M. leaves the band and is replaced by Percussion World. The only special about this album is that every song has its own low budget music video.

Albums follow a year apart from each other now and the crazy minds of Electric Six came up with a fucked up title for their 2007 album. I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master brings a new bassist who’s supposed to be Swedish. In fact it’s Keith Thompson from the former band Johnny Headband. This album contains no less than sixteen songs and was released with the addition of a hidden bonus track…. So they say. Later they’d produced the albums Flashy, Kill and Zodiac but not many singles were released. In 2011 their latest album heartbeats and Brainwaves saw the light.

The variety of styles implicates that the band never reached the limits of the early successes and the lyrical nonsense they often bring implies that Electric Six have a rather thin but steady fan base. I only knew them from their überhitsingle but I’ll be posting a different one just to get to know at least one more song by them. I hope you can enjoy all this craziness.

N°108 - AC/DC - WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE

2012-07-03T23:11:00.002-07:00

AC/DC stands for Alternate Current and Direct Current or in other words electrical energy and where ever the rock ‘n roll band AC/DC gives a show there’s loads of that. Careful yet since AC/DC also stands for being bisexual. Once a journalist dared to ask the big question and Bon Scott answered smoothly: ‘I’m neither, I’m the lightning in the middle”.

Formed by the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young but with a quick changeover in setup before the release of the first album High Voltage in 1975. First of all they kicked out lead singer Dave Evans and at the same time AC/DC switched drummer Phil Rudd for Peter Clark. At the time of the recording of High Voltage the setup was the following: Bon Scott (singer), Phil Rudd (drums – left in 1983 but returned after 1994), Mark Evans who stayed only for the period of the first album (bass) and off course Angus Young (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar). Bass guitar was changed after the first EP and Cliff Williams joined the Young brothers. He’s still with them. On drums we now have Phil Rudd again but in between periods we could see Simon Wright and Chris Slade.

The biggest change happened in 1980 when Bon Scott died because of alcohol poisoning and suffocation in his own vomit. For an instant Angus and Malcolm thought about quitting. Luckily Brian Johnson auditioned and AC/DC found their ultimate lead singer who could perform on the same level as Bon Scott did on the successful album Highway To Hell. In between they also released T.N.T... That year the band released also Back In Black, their best album ever. Later they’d release For Those About To Rock We Salute You and Ballbreaker. When changing drummers the band’s success fell a bit back in the late eighties and early nineties so they held on to their classics such as Highway To Hell, T.N.T., …. The only exception is the 1990 album The Razor’s Edge with the rock song Thunderstruck. They kept producing new songs but they hardly succeeded to match the older albums. On Ballbreaker their sound is way too bluesy. Volts and Stiff Upper Lip never really brought success but the latest album, the 2008 Black Ice, is again more the rock ‘n roll AC/DC sounds we all know from the different hits. I must admit I had to get used to this album because it sounded old school but you didn’t knew the songs or lyrics yet. But I like it as much as the classic albums I must say.

In the early years Angus created his typical look with the school uniform and his crazy shit on stage and the band quickly was banished from certain concert halls since their fans brought nothing but trouble. AC/DC conquered Great Britain and the rest of Europa in the late seventies then as the warm up for that other major band Kiss. This way AC/DC got launched in the USA and their worldwide fame rose to the top. Nowadays, although all having an Australian passport the band members live all across the world from the USA to the UK, The Netherlands and off course they all have houses in their home country. Now let’s enjoy one of these oldies and I’ve chosen Whole Lotta Rosie since it ties in perfectly only by the ‘whole lotta’. Have fun.

N°107 LED ZEPPELIN - WHOLE LOTTA LOVE

2012-06-28T03:32:00.002-07:00

Off course the jump from Dave Grohl to Josh Homme works through Them Crooked Vultures but then the next jump ties in also with the same band since John Paul Jones always has been one of the Led Zeppelin faces.

The aircraft started in 1968 and was founded by the rockstar Jimmy Page, remaining from the band Yardbirds. He added Robert Plant on vocals, John Bonham on drums and off course John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards.

Since the Yardbirds split up and Jimmy Page had to fullfill some performances in with that band he needed to find urgently a few new bandmembers to play these Scandinavian gigs. At these shows they performed under the bandname The New Yardbirds, later revised to Led Zeppelin. They liked working together for that short period of time and decided to bring a new album under the Led Zeppelin name. Released early 1969 this album contained some hard blues and many acoustic songs. Later that year they’d already have a follow up under the name Led Zeppelin II. Also the albums Led Zeppelin III and Led Zeppelin IV followed with a year in between of them. After this fourth album the’d get more creative with naming their LP’s.

Everyone knowns Led Zeppelin’s masterpiece Stairway To Heaven, covered by any, but still best in its original sounds, bu what many don’t know is that this song never has been released as a single. Stairway To Heaven never made the charts at that time although you’ll find it in many of all time music charts nowadays. You’ll find it on The Runes Album, a nickname for the fourth Led Zeppelin album.

In between 1971 and 1980 they’d bring five more albums with names as Presence and In Through The Out Door but when drummer John Bonham dies in 1980 Led Zeppelin seizes to exist leaving behind a twelve year legacy of good music. The only studio album released after the break up is Coda (1982) containing forgotten songs or earlier recordings.

Once in a while Led Zeppelin comes back to the surface and the three remaining Zeppelonians perform on different occasions with different drummers. In 1988 was a special one since Jason Bonham, John’s son joined them on drums. Earlier they played also with Phil Collins at the 1985 Live aid. Led Zeppelin will never go on tour again but once in a while, when you’re lucky you can see them perform on special occasions.

This concludes this trilogy of bands. Sorry I didn’t include Queens of The Stone Age yet; which I could have done in between Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures since Dave Grohl played for them for a short period of time; but I’m working a bit ahead from time to time and I needed them in the link later on. I have a no re- appearing within 100 songs rule, remember?

They’ve taken into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1995 and got a Grammy lifetime achievement award ten years after and they also have a few famous cover bands. There are these ladies covering them in the band Lez Zeppelin and they also have a reggae coverband named Dread Zeppelin. In Belgium, my home country the tribute band is called Letz Zeppelin. All cool names for covering the real stuff.

Finally I’d like to conclude with the symbols for each of the 4 musicians. You’ll always find them in this order and are in respective order for Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant. Did you know that the creative producer of the series Charmed based himself on Robert Plant’s symbol for the three witches? He’s a fan. All the symbols have their own meaning and have some king of magical origin:

The Zoso symbol (Robert Plant): A symbol taken from the book Saturn from 1851 which was a reprint of the 1521 book Dragon Rouge et Poulet Noir (red dragon and black chicken). It is also a sign for the planet Saturn.

The non interlaced triquetra overlaying the circle (John Paul Jones) is from The Book Of Signs from 1930. This symbolizes confidence and competence.

The three intersecting circles (John Bonham) is also from The Book Of Signs. It’s a plain symbol for family values representing man, woman and child. It is also assumed the threefold represents Egyptian gods Osiris, Isis and Horus. Respectively the God of the underworld or death, Goddess of love and fertility and their son the Falcon God or known as God of the Heavens.

And the Feither in the circle can be found in the 1933 Feather Symbol Of Truth. The feather used to be the symbol for the Egyptian goddess of justice and fairness named Ma’at.

N°106 THEM CROOKED VULTURES - ELEPHANTS

2012-06-25T23:09:00.003-07:00

Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) on drums again, Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age, Eagles Of Death Metal, Kyuss) on lead guitar and vocals and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass and/or keyboard makes one hell of a setup for a rockband. Put an extra guitarist on the live stage with Alain Johannes (Queens Of The Stone Age, Eleven) and it’s even more explosive.

The idea riped in 2005 in Dave Grohl’s mind but it took them four more years to find the time for this side project. It also started as a secret project between them but Dave Grohl’s wife stated in the summer of 2009 that the three of them sound like no other band before. Pretty Fucking Amazing she said. Later that summer the three of them would start a small tour through the European festivals and music halls. I’ve seen their third concert ever (again) at Pukkelpop 2009 where they were anouced as a surprise act. Some investigation by a friend of mine and me tought us they’d play in The Netherlands the day before and in Austria the day after the so called surprise gig so we were pretty sure it had to be Them Crooked Vultures. And so it was. I remember the Marquee stage was crowded with people and it started raining during the sound check so everyone fled into the Marquee tent. So did we and we were standing at the outer edge of the tent. Wind and rain pouring in our necks, enjoying the raging guitars and snaring drums. Hard sounds, special, three monuments on stage. It was great.

They only toured in 2009 because the three of them continued with their respective bands. They also released only one album carrying the name of the band later that year. They’ll get back together again someday for some more music but who knows when. Untill then you’ll have to do with a line-up of 13 songs. The one even harder than the other and all of them with a Stoneagian FooLed Queen Zeppelin Fighter sound., or something like that.

N°105 FOO FIGHTERS - ROPE

2012-06-21T23:08:00.003-07:00

Rope is the key word and Rope is one of the latest Foo Fighters hit singles from last year release Wasting Light. The band released seven studio albums between its foundation in 1995 and last year. The first one carried the name of the band itself and contained songs written by Dave Grohl himself during his Nirvana period. Dave Grohl himself is a great musician and plays besides the drums (Nirvana, Queens Of The Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Tenacious D, Scream) but he also plays lead guitar and bass guitar which he proves on that same first album. Dave played all the lines on every song all by himself and released the first Foo Fighters album. That same year he’d seek the companionship of his old Nirvana buddy Pat Smear, Nate Mendell and drummer William Goldsmith. The Foo Fighters album still had a lot of the grunge sound and tasted a lot like Nirvana. Not so at the second album The Colour And The Shape.

Since Dave Grohl carried on on his own after the death of Kurt Cobain with a complete new band he was used to do it all by himself and being an exquisite drummer himself he found it difficult to find a drummer who’d live up to his high expectations. This lead to many discussions during the recording period and shortly after the release of the second album, drummer William Goldsmith was replaced by Taylor Hawkins. Goldsmith couldn’t handle the fact that Grohl re-recorded his drum tracks because Dave thought that Goldsmith’s drum didn’t sound exactly the way Dave Grohl wanted it to sound. Goldsmith was replaced by Taylor Hawkins who convinced Dave that he’s the best drummer for the band and he could sound whatever Grohl wanted him to sound. Pat Smear also leaves the band before they start recording a third album called There Is Nothing Left To Lose which is a fitting title for the hard times the band is going through. Two problems keep appearing. Although already created a few strong songs like Monkey Wrench and Hero, Grohl found it hard to live up to the Nirvana legacy. On the other hand Grohl is such a perfectionist that he keeps writing the songs all on his own and asks the band to play the way he wants it to be. Later the band would admit this was the darkest period the band would have known.

Dave admits his mistakes with the band members and decides to do it differently for the 2002 album One By One. On this album Chris Shiftlett joins Foo Fighters. He was already a loose part of the band since he toured with them before. From this moment on Foo Fighters found its original line up. The only thing that changed ever since is that Pat Smear returned in 2010 for live performances and recording the Wasting Light album in 2011. One By One got followed up in 2005 with a fantastic double album called In Your Honour. Some say It’s a little tribute to Kurt Cobain since the first part of that album contains rock songs such as Best Of You and The Last Song. The other side contains acoustic songs which could relate to the famous MTV unplugged session by Nirvana in 1994. At the album In Your Honour the band is helped by great artists such as John Paul Jones, Josh Homme and Norah Jones. I promise you the first two names will appear shortly again in this musical link.

In this period Dave and Josh became close friends which led to many mutual projects. Sometimes Josh pops up with the Foo’s, sometimes Dave helps out with Queens Of The Stone Age. Both have started a mutual project as well but as said you’ll hear more of that in a few days or weeks. This is also the period when I found out about all these bands and started to create a huge love for grunge, rock, metal etc. …. But hey back to the facts.

In 2007 a sixth studio album appeared in the charts and this Echoes, Silence, Patience, Grace album is yet another highlight in the life of the fans. The first single, called The Pretender is so hard it almost kicks your brains out and to be honest the video clip is mighty great. Let It Die, Come Alive and Home are also huge songs on that same album. From that moment on I wanted to see them live and a good friend of mine did so at the O2 Arena in London. I was jealous as hell and pretty much relieved to hear that they’d perform on last year’s Pukkelpop festival. You might not have heard but a few hours gone in the first days of the festival a huge storm ran over the complete festival site destroying everything. Five people died, many got hurt and the festival, and thus the Foo Fighters gig got cancelled. Bummer but understandable. But Dave Grohl wouldn’t be Dave Grohl if he wouldn’t be back this year and so he’ll be back in August and finally I’ll get to see my first (and hopefully not last) Foo Fighters concert. Already looking forward to it.

Did they silence up after Echoes, ….? No they didn’t. As many other bands did before them they released a Greatest Hits album in 2009. As you’ve read before the disputes with Pat Smear got resolved and he joined the band giving them some extra power on stage. February 2011 was the release date for wasting Light which again is a stronger album than the ones before. ‘Rope’ and ‘walk’ are the first two singles released. While recording the Foo’s were captured on camera for the documentary Foo Fighters: Back And Forth. A great documentary about the history of the band. In this documentary Dave Grohl is pretty open and honest about the dark periods and the mistakes the band made during the years and he also says there might not have been Foo Fighters as you know them now if Nirvana still would have existed.

Oh yeah, Foo Fighters is a common name for the different aerial phenomena spotted as UFO’s during World War II. I also forgot to mention the won various awards but for a huge band like this you could have guessed yourselves. Last year Foo Fighters also made international showbiz news when he stopped playing in the middle of a song, turned to a fighting spectator, and kicked him out with the words: “Who's fighting? Let me see him. Hey you in the striped shirt, look at me... Get the fuck out of my show right now. Get the fuck out." You gotta love him.

N°104 GEIKE - ROPE DANCER

2012-06-20T02:10:00.001-07:00

Let’s stick with the solo project of Geike Arnaert, stage name Geike, who left Hooverphonic in 2008. As mentioned in my previous post she wasn’t even eighteen when auditioning for Alex Callier’s band Hooverphonic. Her sweet soft voice won the heart of Alex and she became lead singer for Hooverphonic between 1997 and 2008 and started touring and recording with the band at a very young age. Later, when leaving the band for a solo career she stated she had a great time but looking back she missed a part of her youth. Also being settled in the music business and being rewarded several times for Best Female Belgian Singer over the years made her decide to try it on her own.

The same day she decided to leave the band her last Hooverphonic single was to be released called Mijn Leven. This single was released to raise funds for a patient suffering from terminal cancer. He also appeared on the single. A last good deed with and for the band that was.

The same as Hooverphonic it remained silent around Geike for a very long time. She took a three year break and worked on a first solo album as well on the soundtrack for the Belgian movie Adem (Breath). For this project she shook hands with Erik De Jong from the band Spinvis and when performing together they do it under the name Dorléac. Both of them state that Dorléac still exists but there’s no rush in composing new material quickly. They do perform from time to time in small clubs whenever the both of them find the time.

At the end of 2011 Geike released a first single Rope Dancer under her own name. This first single didn’t take a high flight although it’s not a bad song. Her second ‘Unlock’ and third single ‘Blinded’ also didn’t make it high in the charts. Again not bad songs but also for the Hooverphonic fans amongst us it’s not the same as before. When Hooverphonic found a new strong lead vocalist, Geike is a little bit struggling to make it by herself although I’m pretty sure she’s happy doing so. And you must admit that a result after a long hard fight is more rewarding than when success is simply thrown at you.

I normally don't stick with the same vocalist (although the Hooverphonic song at 103 was sung by another girl) but I needed the 'Rope' to bring you 3 very very very great bands and songs which will all be intertwined. That'll be something for next Friday or Saturday. See you then.