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Formed in 2007 by Ima Robot frontman Alex Ebert after a brief period of existential crisis, cultish 11-piece indie rock outfit Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros draw their inspiration from the communal musical communities that peppered Southern California (specifically Laurel Canyon) with their positive vibrations during the '60s and early '70s. Employing a unique sound that brings to mind a not so subtle mix of Parliament, Polyphonic Spree, Bob Marley, and the Incredible String Band, the group released its debut EP, Here Comes, in May 2009 followed by the full-length Up from Below in July.
Out of the spring break sunshine of Stockton California and on to the pinball rhythms of Brooklyn; taking you in by charm, choruses and their good looks Pavement made five masterpieces then split, having taught the globe how to dress, drink and laugh at themselves. Slanted & Enchanted the classic debut cast a shadow miles wider than its modest tape width. Officially cute: SM, Spiral Stairs, Mark Ibold, MC Bob Nastanovitch and Steve West, laid down the follow up, the hook-heavy Crooked Rain Crooked Rain with the detached confidence of heirs apparent. Pedal steel and social commentary in a shiny pop whole. MTV rotation and world tours beckoned, the A list made it backstage and the band could talk up any football game. Wowee Zowee was their undisputed classic, a stoned and emotional mess just like the people who made it. It's the 90s White Album. MTV got the fuck out the way but the Pavement live spectacle was now both elegiac and psychotic; 'fight this generation' few could want more from their favourite band. Forever the coolest name to drop Pavement turned into gentleman ambassadors of a beautifully non-indexed modus operandi. Career musicians wanted in. The kids just loved them. The last two LPs Brighten The Corners and Terror Twilight are stately showboats, intelligent, warm and cool. Their last ever show at the Brixton Academy felt like the Fillmore must have on a cold night, and the glow will always remain. Try watching the Slow Century DVD without stopping and sighing. So next time you find yourself staring at all the people walking round with coffee in their hands, remember it wasn't always this way.
British singer/songwriter David Gray had released three overlooked albums by the time White Ladder (and its international hit single, "Babylon") brought his mix of acoustic instrumentation and electronic samples to the mainstream.Gray celebrated his mounting recognition by issuing a handful of albums in 2001, including the compilations Lost Songs 95-98 and The EPs 92-94 as well as reissues of A Century Ends and Flesh. Although Gray's popularity proved to be greater in Europe, he became a moderate success in the States as well, and A New Day at Midnight followed up his successful international breakthrough in the fall of 2002. Gray worked with producer Marius de Vries (Björk, Rufus Wainwright) for 2005's Life in Slow Motion; the reflective album debuted at the top of the charts in both Ireland and the U.K., giving Gray the highest chart rankings of his career. The singer then cobbled together his older material for 2007's Shine: The Best of the Early Years. The career-spanning Greatest Hits followed that fall, featuring two new tracks as well as Gray's most popular numbers.
One of the earliest and most important ska revivalist groups, Birmingham's the Beat formed in 1978 (the band had to change its name to the English Beat in the U.S. to avoid confusion with Paul Collins' band of the same name). The multiracial band carved a distinct sound through the use of alternating lead vocals by guitarist Dave Wakeling and punk toaster/rapper Ranking Roger An opening spot for the Selecter led to the band's signing to 2-Tone, where they released the hit single "Tears of a Clown," a wonderful version of the Smokey Robinson classic. A string of hit singles followed in the U.K., including "Mirror in the Bathroom." Their debut LP, I Just Can't Stop It, combined the early hits with other pop/ska-oriented material. 1982's Special Beat Service helped the band increase its U.S. fan base through MTV exposure of "Save It for Later" and "I Confess".
A genre- and gender-defying mix of rock, pop, and dance inspired by burlesque, drag queens, and glam rock, New York's Scissor Sisters made a splash in late 2003/early 2004 with their neon-bright reimagining of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," the B-side to the band's first single, "Electrobix." The song made quite a name for the band, which features singers Jake Shears and Ana Matronic, keyboardist/bassist Babydaddy, guitarists Del Marquis and Derek G, and drummer Paddy Boom: along with becoming the calling card that got the band signed to Polydor in the U.K., "Comfortably Numb" was heralded Single of the Month by Dazed and Confused and Jockey Slut magazines, named an Essential New Tune by Pete Tong on Britain's Radio 1, and also received considerable play by DJs including Felix da Housecat and Tiga. Scissor Sisters came from the cutting edge of New York's nightlife and gay culture, incorporating elements of burlesque and drag shows, as well as performance art, into their theatrical live shows. This was the perfect setting for their music, which gleaned the best of Elton John, the Bee Gees, the B-52's, David Bowie, and many other artists with a campy sense of humor and impeccable style.
As a songwriter and a performer, Willie Nelson played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music. Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, Nelson spent the '60s writing songs that became hits.
Even when he was a star, Willie never played it safe musically. Instead, he borrowed from a wide variety of styles, including traditional pop, Western swing, jazz, traditional country, cowboy songs, honky tonk, rock & roll, folk, and the blues, creating a distinctive, elastic hybrid.
Amazingly prolific as a recording artist, Nelson has released over a dozen albums in the 2000's alone and continues to tour throughout the year.
Minnesota's Cloud Cult may use Odelay as a touchstone on Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus but the outfit's experimental beats and hip-hop junk are far more out there than that influence could ever be. Lyrically and vocally removed from the Beck Hansen school of thought, the group evokes strains of the Polyphonic Spree and the Flaming Lips, while brainchild Craig Minowa comes down heavy in terms of topics. The engaging, experimental "Living on the Outside of Your Skin" makes effective use of toy pianos and handclaps to keep listeners on their toes, and Cloud Cult's environmentally astute stance is evident in tracks like "Moving to Canada" -- which pays homage to minimalist groups like the Black Keys with inexplicable skill. From the acoustic-techno shuffle of "Start New" to the pulsating, warped pop of "Happy Hippo," this cult can't help but leave a strong impression. When the latter nicks a hook from Neil Young's "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)," it puts Minowa's wide musical scope, which varies from folk to funk to punk to electronica (sometimes in the same song), on display for all comers.
Sara Bareilles joins the ranks of such assured, precocious newcomers as Rachael Yamagata and Brandi Carlile. Bareilles has learned from Fiona Apple, but she stabilizes her sensitive/troubled alternative singer-songwriter template with a touch of soul and a dollop of Sarah McLachlan.
Gorilla Manor, the debut album from L.A.'s Local Natives, features rustic and yearning vocals, three-part harmonies, clattering percussion, wiggly guitar leads, euphoric chanting, and a Talking Heads cover. In short, the Silver Lake quintet have followed indie rock's major players in recent years-- they knew how to dress for success in 2010. Great for them-- now, what's in it for you? Plenty as it turns out.
Local Natives have already gained a foothold in parts of Europe-- their album has received attention in the UK and they graced the cover of Scandinavia's Sonic magazine late last year-- at home in L.A., and online. With good reason too: Advance singles "Airplanes" and "Sun Hands" recalled elements of Dodos or the Fleet Foxes. The best comparison perhaps is that they're sort of a West Coast Grizzly Bear-- right down to naming an album after the location in which it was recorded. Yet whereas Grizzly Bear's Yellow House is a cozy, isolated New England seaside shack, Local Natives' Gorilla Manor is a squalid Orange County party pad.
The blurry electronic pop project of an initially anonymous composer from Brooklyn and video artist from Austin, TX, Neon Indian was conceived as a multimedia experience combining their music and video into short films, teasers, and straight-up pop songs. Though Neon Indian released the No Way Down EP in 2008, the buzz around the pair didn't really start until spring 2009, when the songs "Should've Taken Acid with You" and "6699 (I Don't Know if You Know)" were posted and praised by indie blogs. A few months later, the songs "Deadbeat Summer" and "Terminally Chill" received similar treatment, and that summer, the identities of Neon Indian's members were revealed: Alan Palomo, formerly of the band Ghosthustler and also of the one-man electro project VEGA, was behind the music, while video artist Alicia Scardetta provided visuals. The pair's collaboration dated back to Palomo and Scardetta's time on their high school literary magazine, and Palomo wrote "Should've Taken Acid with You" about their friendship. Their EP Psychic Chasms was released in fall 2009.
Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. From their beginnings as Oklahoma weirdos to their mid-'90s pop culture breakthrough to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 2000s, the Lips rode one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as true originals.
Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Win's kid brother William Butler formed the Arcade Fire in summer 2003. The experimental indie rock quintet, who hail from Montreal, initially began when the elder Butler spotted Chassagne singing jazz standards at a local art exhibit at Concordia University in their hometown. From there, two became inseparable, both professionally and personally. Gathering Parry on organ, Kingsbury on bass, and the younger Butler on synthesizer and percussion, the Arcade Fire fleshed out an eclectic mix of bossa nova, punk, and classically tinged songs. A self-titled EP appeared in 2003. That same year, the band signed with Merge and prepped for their first studio album. During its recording, the band dealt with several tragedies. Chassagne's grandmother passed away in June 2003 while the Butlers' grandfather, swing-era composer/arranger Alvino Rey, and Parry's aunt perished within a month of each other in spring 2004. Heartache into beauty when Chassagne married Win six months earlier. The Arcade Fire's debut album Funeral arrived in September 2004. A headlining tour of the U.S. coincided its release.
An unlikely but undeniably catchy mix of Factory Records-style indie and '50s-inspired melodies, the Drums have roots that can be traced to the childhood friendship of Jonathan Pierce and Jacob Graham. After meeting at summer camp, the pair formed the electro-pop duo Goat Explosion while they were still in their teens. However, the band split and Pierce and Graham went on to other projects: Graham formed the indie pop group Horse Shoes, who released an EP on Shelflife in 2009. Meanwhile, Pierce and another friend, Adam Kessler, founded the new wave-inspired band Elkland, who were signed to Columbia Records and issued the album Golden in 2005. That year, Pierce left the band (which broke up in 2006) and took a hiatus from making music. In 2008, Graham and Pierce reconnected and began writing songs together, trading the electronic direction of their earlier collaboration for a guitar-based approach. Early the following year, Pierce and Graham moved from central Florida to New York City, where Kessler became their second guitarist. With the addition of drummer Connor Hanwick, formerly of Cape of No Hope, the Drums' lineup was complete, and by that summer, the band's shows were gaining buzz. Moshi Moshi released the Drums' singles "Let's Go Surfing" and "I Felt Stupid," and their debut EP, Summertime!, arrived late in 2009. The singles Best Friend and Forever and Ever Amen preceded the band's self-titled first album, which Moshi Moshi released in the UK in spring 2010; it arrived in the States that autumn.
As one of the first groups to be dubbed "the next Smiths," James became an institution on the British alternative music scene during the '80s and '90s with their pleasant folk-pop. Early in their career, James were blessed by praise from their idol Morrissey, which turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. The group was pegged as second-rate Smiths, yet continued to tour and record, eventually gaining a sizable following. In the late '80s, James, like many of their British peers, became involved in the acid house-inspired "baggy" scene and recorded the baggy-inspired "Sit Down," which became their breakthrough hit. Shortly after "Sit Down," James became more experimental, culminating in a collaboration with Brian Eno that resulted in their biggest American album, Laid, in 1993. James took four years to follow Laid, by which time their audience had returned to a cult following.
With guitarist Adrian Oxaal in tow, James returned in early 1997 with Whiplash, a more straightforward record that was greeted with mixed reviews. Released in 1999, Millionaires, recorded with new guitarist Michael Kulas, was initially released only in the U.K. Their spectacular follow-up, 2001's Pleased to Meet You, was also available only in the U.K. A few months later, frontman Tim Booth announced his departure from the band he founded nearly 20 years before, and James called it quits following a winter tour of the U.K. in December 2001. The break was short-lived, however, as the band re-formed in 2007 and embarked on a tour in support of the double-disc compilation Fresh as a Daisy: The Singles. The following year saw the release of Hey Ma, James' tenth studio album. The band returned in 2010 with a pair of "mini-albums" called The Night Before and The Morning After, respectively.
Perhaps no band was more emblematic of the true spirit of American indie rock during the 1990s than Superchunk, the pride of Chapel Hill, NC. Following the D.I.Y. ethic to the letter, the group operated solely by their own rules, ignoring all passing trends by sticking to their trademark sound -- typified by the buzzing guitars and high, impassioned vocals of frontman Mac McCaughan -- and rejecting all major-label advances in favor of the unlimited freedom afforded by owning their own company, the highly successful Merge Records. Although Superchunk's resistance to the overtures of the music industry may have deprived them of the wider audience their work deserved, perhaps their greatest legacy remains their unwavering dedication to the indie tradition, a model which other up-and-coming bands often strive to emulate.
Ten years on, Superchunk remained as prolific as ever with their eighth full length release, Come Pick Me Up, which arrived in 2001. A third collection of singles, the double-disc Cup of Sand, followed in 2003, compiling the band's singles and assorted rare tracks from 1995 to 2002. Superchunk contributed songs to various compilations over the following years, including a humorous duet with Meatwad, the meatball-shaped character from Comedy Central's Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which ultimately appeared on the show's soundtrack. They also released material on their own, including the 2009 EP Leaves in the Gutter.
Broken Social Scene materialized when K.C. Accidental's Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, formerly of By Divine Right, bonded their friendship into a band. They spent the next few years honing an atmospheric rock sound in their native Toronto. Feel Good Lost marked their debut album in 2001 and introduced a revolving cast of Canadian indie musicians. By the time their guitar-fueled sophomore effort, You Forgot It in People, was released in fall 2002, Broken Social Scene had become an 11-piece collective. Jason Collett, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff and Leslie Feist fulfilled the band's bombastic, orchestrated sound and critics loved it. You Forgot It In People was a buzz among indie cohorts and plans for a stateside release on Arts & Crafts was slated for the following summer. A surprise, however, coincided those plans in spring 2003 when Broken Social Scene won a Juno for "Alternative Album of the Year" for You Forgot It In People. In order to maintain praise from critics, the band issued their first ever b-siders & rarities collection, Bee Hives, in spring 2004. For the band's 2005 self-titled studio album, Broken Social Scene once again joined producer David Newfeld. Their latest Something For All of Us was released last summer.
Like her contemporary Shania Twain, singer/songwriter Terri Clark came storming out of Canada and captured the attention of America's country music industry in the mid-'90s. Where Twain incorporated more rock & roll elements into her music, Clark largely stayed close to her country roots, even if those roots were more new country than hardcore honky tonk. Raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Clark (born in Montreal, August 5, 1968) was part of a musical family. Her grandparents, Ray and Betty Gauthier, were country stars in Canada, opening shows for stars like George Jones and Little Jimmy Dickens, while her mother sang folk songs in local coffeehouses. As a child, Terri listened to her grandparents' country records and taught herself how to play guitar. Throughout her adolescence, Clark sang, played, and listened to country music; she was particularly inspired by female artists like Reba McEntire, the Judds, and Linda Ronstadt.
Following her high-school graduation in 1987, she moved to Nashville. Upon her arrival, she wandered into Tootsie's Orchid Lounge unannounced and asked if she could sing. Surprisingly, she impressed the management and landed a job as the club's house singer. Though her initial arrival in Nashville was successful, it took Clark quite a long time to work her way into the actual industry. For the next seven years, she sang at clubs and worked odd jobs, all the while trying to land a record contract. During this time, she met and married a fiddler named Ted Stevenson. In 1994, she landed an audition for Mercury Records. After seeing a live performance by Clark, the label's president signed the singer.
Clark's eponymous debut album was released in the summer of 1995. Terri Clark was a hit upon its release, spawning the Top Ten hits "Better Things to Do," "When Boy Meets Girl," and "If I Were You," as well as going gold. Clark supported the album with a tour opening for George Strait. In 1996, she was nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, as well as the Academy of Country Music Awards' Best New Female Vocalist. She won a bevy of Canadian Country Music Awards in 1996, including Album of the Year and Single of the Year; she was also named the Top New Female Country Artist of 1995 by Billboard magazine. Her second album, Just the Same, was released in the fall of 1996, preceded by the hit single "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." How I Feel followed in 1998. Fearless brought the country chart single "A Little Gasoline" in fall 2000, and Pain to Kill was released in 2003. Mercury unleashed Clark's Greatest Hits 1994-2004 the next year, followed by Life Goes On in 2005.
A band that takes its name from a French children's television series about a boy and his dog would almost have to be precious, and to be certain, Belle & Sebastian are precious. But precious can be a damning word, and Belle & Sebastian don't have the negative qualities that the word connotes -- they are private but not insular, pretty but not wimpy; they make gorgeous, delicate melodies sound full-bodied. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Murdoch, the seven-piece band has an intimate, majestic sound that is equal parts folk-rock and '60s pop, but Murdoch's gift for not only whimsy and surrealism, but also for odd, unsettling lyrical detail keeps the songs grounded in a tangible reality.
Like Syd Barrett, a common point of reference, Roky Erickson rose to cult-hero status as much for his music as for his tragic personal life; in light of his legendary bouts with madness and mythic drug abuse, the influence exerted by his garage-bred psychedelia was often lost in the shuffle. Born Roger Kynard Erickson on July 15, 1947, in Dallas, TX, he began playing the piano at age five; by age 12, he had also taken up the guitar. The child of an architect and would-be opera singer, Erickson dropped out of high school to become a professional musician. In 1965, he penned his most famous composition, "You're Gonna Miss Me," which he first recorded with a group called the Spades. The song and his high, swooping tenor brought him to the attention of another area band, the psychedelia-influenced 13th Floor Elevators, whose lyricist and jug player Tommy Hall invited Erickson to join; the Elevators soon cut their own version of "You're Gonna Miss Me," and took the single to number 56 on the pop charts in 1966.
Conventional wisdom dictates that the Vaselines might have been relegated to footnote status were it not for Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, who regularly cited the little-known Scottish quartet's influence in interviews with the music press. Cobain's gospel-spreading no doubt accelerated their rise to cult sainthood, but truth be told, the Vaselines would have gotten there sooner or later on their own accord. Lewd but naïve and abrasive yet tender, the band's shambling, primitivist squall remains a perfect distillation of pop at its most guileless and euphoric.
The Vaselines were formed in Edinburgh in 1987 by singers/guitarists Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, who were later joined by Kelly's brother Charles on drums and James Seenan on bass. Soon signing to Pastels frontman Stephen Pastel's newly formed 53rd & 3rd label, the Vaselines embarked on their first-ever studio session, which yielded their debut single, 1987's fantastic "Son of a Gun." The follow-up, "Dying for It," appeared a year later, with the inclusion of viola player Sophie Pragnell plainly acknowledging the band's debt to the Velvet Underground. The demise of 53rd & 3rd proved fatal to the Vaselines as well, however, and the group dissolved the same week its lone studio LP, 1989's Dum-Dum, was released via Rough Trade, although the following year the original lineup briefly reunited to open for Nirvana in Edinburgh. Nirvana would go on to cover the Vaselines' "Molly's Lips" and "Son of a Gun" (both later compiled on their Incesticide collection) as well as perform "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" on their legendary MTV Unplugged appearance.
Renewed interest in the band resulted in the 1992 Sub Pop release of The Way of the Vaselines, an assemblage of all 19 of their official recordings. Eugene Kelly later went on to front Captain America (subsequently and rather unfortunately renamed Eugenius), while McKee spent the better part of the decade out of sight, resurfaced in Suckle, and released a solo album in 2006. Kelly and McKee eventually re-formed their band and played a series of shows -- including a small U.S. tour -- across 2008 and 2009. They recorded their second proper album, Sex with an X, and released it on Sub Pop in 2010.
The brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, euphoric indie popsters Of Montreal were among the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collective.
Of Montreal's first album,Cherry Peel,debuted in 1997.
Barnes' wife, Nina, joined the band and they signed to Polyvinyl Records, delivering one of their best records, Satanic Panic in the Attic, in early 2004. 2005 found Barnes exploring a bouncier, synth-driven avenue with the release of Sunlandic Twins, but things began to get complicated in his personal life around this time. Through the emotional turmoil he experienced, Barnes concocted what was to be his darkest, most personal and most ambitious album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? in 2007.
With a voice that's somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Nico, Ingrid Michaelson carries the tradition of the female singer/songwriter into the 21st century. Befitting a musician of the digital age, Michaelson first gained wide exposure through spots on TV soundtracks. Born and raised on New York's Staten Island to an artist mother and classical composer father, Michaelson began exploring music through piano lessons at the age of four. After college, she toured with a national theater troupe and spent her free time writing songs, later compiling them for her debut album, Girls and Boys, which was released on Michaelson's label, Cabin 24 Records, in January 2007. Three months later, she won a national songwriting contest sponsored by Mountain Stage, a radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide. Four songs from her debut were also featured prominently in the prime time television drama Grey's Anatomy and commercials for clothing company Old Navy.
Born in Dublin on July 6, 1987, Kate Nash moved to Harrow in North London while she was still a child. She learned to play the piano at school and took an early interest in acting, but a rejection from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School dashed her hopes of a career in theater. Following a foot injury that forced her to remain at home while the bones healed, Nash turned her focus to songwriting instead. She booked herself a local gig to showcase the songs she had written while housebound, and performed these alongside covers of current hits. Eventually, Nash uploaded some of her own compositions to the MySpace website, where she began to receive support for the storytelling nature of her songs; they were told in a distinctive London accent in a very similar way to Lily Allen, who had broken through to the mainstream earlier in the year. Indeed, the two women became real friends via their respective MySpace sites, each recommending the other's music.
Nash's debut release was a 7" vinyl-only pressing of the song "Caroline's a Victim", backed with the acoustic track "Birds" and released on the London independent label Moshi Moshi Records. This led to a major-label deal with Fiction, an offshoot of Polydor with releases from mainstream artists such as the Cure and Snow Patrol. The label released her first single, "Foundations," which surprised everyone by becoming a smash hit, reaching number two on the U.K. charts and remaining there for five weeks in the summer of 2007. Nash appeared at various festivals that summer, including the O2 Wireless Festival, Isle of Wight, Glastonbury, and the Latitude Festival; she also made several television appearances (Later with Jools Holland, The Jack Daniels Set, Popworld, and The Friday Night Project). Following the success of the single, her debut album, Made of Bricks, was rush-released in August 2007. It entered the U.K. charts at number one, with sales of nearly 60,000 copies during its first week, and was released in America the following January.
Born from the saloon vaudeville that toured the Wild West in the late 1800's. SLAMMED into the underworld of modern American road culture. The Yard Dogs combine the elements of vaudeville and burlesque - creating a timeless space for the union of ancient theatrical alchemy and modern POP culture. A true story on stage. Sword swallowers, dancing dolls, fire eaters and sunset hobo poetry - all animated by the live sounds of the Yard Dogs cartoon gypsy band. This is pure VISUAL and SONIC voodoo. The times have demanded it and HERE it is: "The new emergence of road show nobility".
Kurt Vile is a lo-fi indie rock singer/songwriter from Philadelphia who made his commercial recording debut in 2008 to much critical fanfare. Based in Philadelphia, Vile grew up outside the city in the nearby town of Lansdowne. His passion for music was encouraged by his father, a bluegrass aficionado who bought him a banjo. Vile eventually advanced from the banjo to other instruments, primarily guitar, and began writing songs that he would record at home. These lo-fi home recordings, often featuring drum machines and other one-man-band, lo-fi adornment, were compiled on a series of CD-Rs that Vile would release in limited editions. Meanwhile, in addition to his solo work, Vile began collaborating musically with singer/guitarist Adam Granduciel in 2003. Calling themselves the War on Drugs, Vile and Granduciel released an eponymous demo EP in 2005. Over time the War on Drugs grew to become a full-scale band, and following another self-released EP, Barrel of Batteries (2007), they made their full-length album debut with Wagonwheel Blues (2008) on the label Secretly Canadian. Around this same time, Vile made his commercial recording debut as a solo artist with Constant Hitmaker (2008), a full-length release on the label Gulcher. Comprised of home recordings previously released on CD-R, plus new material (most notably the stand-out studio recording "Freeway"), Constant Hitmaker was at first something of a sleeper hit in the indie rock underground. While some online publications were quick to champion it as one of the more notable albums of the year, it wasn't until 2009, when Constant Hitmaker was reissued by the label Woodsist, that Vile began garnering widespread accolades. In the midst of the acclaim, Vile released the mini-album God Is Saying This to You? (2009) on the label Mexican Summer and The Hunchback EP (2009) on Richie Records.
Formed in Southern California in 1980 by Jay Bentley (bass), Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett Gurewitz (guitars) and Jay Ziskrout (drums)Bad Religion are often credited for leading the revival of punk rock during the late 1980s, as well as influencing a large number of other punk and rock musicians throughout their career. In the 28 years since its inception, Bad Religion has had numerous lineup changes, and Graffin has been the only constant member, however the band currently features three of the original four members.To date, Bad Religion has released fourteen studio albums, two EPs, three compilation albums, one live recording, and two DVDs. Their 1988 album Suffer has been regarded by some critics as one of the most important hardcore punk albums of all time, although it was not charted in Billboard. Bad Religion rose to fame with their 1994 major-label release Stranger Than Fiction, which produced their well-known hit singles "21st Century (Digital Boy)" and "Infected". Following Gurewitz's departure in 1994, Bad Religion declined in popularity and poor record sales continued until the release of The New America in 2000. Gurewitz returned to the fold in 2001, making Bad Religion a six-piece band, and contributed to their three most recent albums.
Following the break up of Live, Taylor, Gracey and Dahlheimer needed a vocalist for the new songs they had been writing. Gracey called his friend Kevin Martin and suggested he should join them.With Taylor no longer wanting to play guitar solos, Martin suggested that his Candlebox bandmate Sean Hennesy could do the job. Once Hennesy was recruited The Gracious Few's line-up was completed.
The band began rehearsing in California in September 2009. Their debut album, titled The Gracious Few, is scheduled for release on September 14, 2010.[2] It will be produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads[3] and mixed by Tom Lord-Alge.[4]
On November 30, 2009 Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey issued a statement announcing that Live had disbanded following the departure of lead singer Ed Kowalczyk and that The Gracious Few was now their main focus.[5] The statement alleged that Kowalczyk had demanded a $100,000 "lead singer bonus" to appear with the band at the 2009 Pinkpop Festival as well as obtaining sole publishing rights to the band's songs without the knowledge of the other three band members.
The first single from the album is "Honest Man." It was made available for listening on the band's Myspace page on May 11, 2010, along with the track "Tredecim."
The Reverend Horton Heat is perhaps the most popular psychobilly artist of all time, really rivaled only by genre founders the Cramps. The Reverend (as both the three-man band and its guitar-playing frontman were known) built a strong cult following during the '90s through constant touring, manic showmanship, and a twisted sense of humor. The latter was nothing new in the world of psychobilly, and Heat's music certainly kept the trashy aesthetic of his spiritual forebears. The Reverend's true innovation was updating the psychobilly sound for the alternative rock era. In his hands, it was something more than retro-obsessed kitsch -- it had roaring distorted guitars, it rocked as hard as any punk band, and it didn't look exclusively to pop culture of the past for its style or subject matter. Most of the Reverend's lyrics were gonzo celebrations of sex, drugs, booze, and cars, and true to his name, his concerts often featured mock sermons in the style of a rural revivalist preacher. His initial recordings were released by that bastion of indie credibility, Sub Pop, at the height of the grunge craze