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'Alternative' Bands // p 1 of 6

Darren's favorite bands for his Song Of The Day filtered by Alternative
505 Bands
Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen (born January 22, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from St. Louis, Missouri who lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Early life and education

Angel Olsen was born on January 22, 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri. At age three, Olsen was adopted by a foster family that had cared for her since shortly after her birth. The difference in years between her and her parents left an impression. "Because there are so many decades of difference between us, I became more interested in what their childhood was like," she says of her parents, both of whom still live in St. Louis. "I fantasized about what it was like to be young in the ’30s and ’50s, more so than other kids my age." Olsen explained that "my mother just has this capacity for children."

Despite early adolescent aspirations to be a "pop star", her interests later shifted in high school. Olsen became more introverted, regularly attending punk rock and noise music shows at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center and the Creepy Crawl as well as Christian rock shows throughout the city. She began learning the piano and guitar and writing her own music. At the age of 16, she joined a local band called Good Fight, self-described as "a meeting of early No Doubt and punk rock." Two years after graduating from Tower Grove Christian High School, Olsen moved to Chicago.

Career

After releasing her first EP, Strange Cacti, and a debut studio album, Half Way Home, on Bathetic Records, Olsen signed with Jagjaguwar, ahead of her first full-band record, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which was released on February 17, 2014. The closing track of the album, "Windows", was featured in the final episode of the Netflix original series 13 Reasons Why in 2017.

Olsen's third studio album, My Woman, was released on September 2, 2016. In a review for Consequence of Sound, critic Ciara Dolan described the album as a "startling record of unimpeachable strength and honesty", while Pitchfork's Jenn Pelly described it as "her best record yet".

In addition to her work with Bonnie "Prince" Billy and the Cairo Gang, Olsen has collaborated with a number of other notable figures of American indie rock, including Tim Kinsella of Cap'n Jazz, LeRoy Bach of Wilco and Cass McCombs. Her collaboration with Kinsella and Bach, as well as with Chicago poet Marvin Tate, resulted in the album Tim Kinsella Sings the Songs of Marvin Tate by Leroy Bach Featuring Angel Olsen which the group released on Indianapolis label Joyful Noise Recordings on December 3, 2013.

Olsen's fourth studio album, All Mirrors, was released on October 4, 2019 to critical acclaim. Laura Snapes of Pitchfork described the album as "breathtaking", and a "strong wind" that blows in and "leaves you undone", while Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described it as "challenging and intriguing", and Luke Saunders of Happy Mag described it as a change of "theatric transcendency", when compared to her previous releases.

Olsen plays a vintage Gibson S-1 guitar from 1979.

On August 28, 2020, Olsen released her fifth studio album Whole New Mess through Seasick Records.

Source Wikipedia

 'Lark'

'Lark'
Sunday, December 13, 2020

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Ariel Pink

Ariel Pink

Ariel Marcus Rosenberg (/ˈɑːriɛl/ AR-ee-el; born June 24, 1978), also known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter whose work draws heavily from 1970s–1980s pop radio. His lo-fi aesthetic and home-recorded albums proved influential to many indie musicians starting in the late 2000s. He is frequently cited as "godfather" of the hypnagogic pop and chillwave movements, and he is credited with galvanizing a larger trend involving the evocation of the media, sounds, and outmoded technologies of prior decades.

A native of Los Angeles, Pink began experimenting with recording songs on an eight-track Portastudio as a teenager. His early influences were artists such as Michael Jackson, the Cure, and R. Stevie Moore. The majority of his recorded output stems from a prolific eight-year period (1996–2003) in which he accumulated over 200 cassette tapes of material. Virtually all of his music released in the 2000s was written and recorded before 2004, the same year he debuted on Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label with The Doldrums (2000), followed with House Arrest (2002) and Worn Copy (2003). The albums immediately attracted a cult following.

In the 2000s, Pink's unusual sound prompted a renewed critical discussion of hauntological phenomena, for which he was a central figure. Until 2014, his records were usually credited to "Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti", a solo project sometimes conflated with his touring band. His fame and recognition escalated following the success of his 2010 album Before Today, his first recorded in a professional studio. Since then, he has recorded three more albums: Mature Themes (2012), Pom Pom (2014), and Dedicated to Bobby Jameson (2017). He has also collaborated with a variety of other artists.

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 'Baby'

'Baby'
Wednesday, August 5, 2020

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Banes World

Banes World

Banes World is a group coming out of Long Beach, CA, lead by singer/songwriter and guitarist Shane Blanchard, who writes and records the music, with other members which help perform the shows live consisting of Michael Seyer, Vincent Reyes, Eric Baisa, and Antonio Aiello. Their music is often described as synth infested Alternative/Indie Pop, with a somewhat 60’s/70’s rock vibe, and 80’s/90’s aesthetic.

Source last.fm

 'You Bet I Stare'

'You Bet I Stare'
Saturday, September 30, 2023

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Beabadoobee

Beabadoobee

Beatrice Laus[a] (born 3 June 2000), known professionally as Beabadoobee (/biːbəduːbiːˈ/; stylized in all lowercase), is a Filipino-born British singer-songwriter. Since 2018, she has released four extended plays under the independent label Dirty Hit including Lice (2018), Patched Up (2018), Loveworm (2019) and Space Cadet (2019). Her debut studio album, Fake It Flowers, was released in October 2020.

Beabadoobee served as a supporting act for labelmates The 1975 during several legs of their Music for Cars Tour, as well as American singer Clairo during her Immunity Tour. She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards, and was presented with the Radar Award at the 2020 NME Awards. Beabadoobee was also predicted as a breakthrough act for 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.

Early life

Laus was born in Iloilo City, Philippines on 3 June 2000 and moved to London with her parents at the age of 3. She grew up in West London listening to original pinoy music as well as pop and rock music from the 1980s. While she was a teenager, she listened to indie rock including Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Florist and Alex G. She was expelled from Sacred Heart High School before completing her thirteenth year at Hammersmith Academy. Laus spent seven years learning to play the violin, before getting her first guitar second-hand at the age of 17. She taught herself how to play the instrument using YouTube tutorials. She was inspired by Kimya Dawson and the Juno soundtrack to start making music.

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 'How Was Your Day'

'How Was Your Day'
Monday, October 19, 2020

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Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known professionally as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide genre styles. Today, he musically encompasses folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 13 studio albums (3 of which were independently released), as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.

Born in Los Angeles in 1970, Beck grew towards hip-hop and folk in his teens and began to perform locally at coffeehouses and clubs. He moved to New York City in 1989 and became involved in the city's small and fiery anti-folk movement. Returning to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he cut his breakthrough single "Loser," which became a worldwide hit in 1994, and released his first major album, Mellow Gold, the same year. Odelay, released in 1996, topped critic polls and won several awards. He released the psychedelic Mutations in 1998, and the funk-infused Midnite Vultures in 1999. The soft-acoustic Sea Change in 2002 showcased a more serious Beck, and 2005's Guero returned to Odelay's sample-based production. The Information in 2006 was inspired by electro-funk, hip hop, and psychedelia; 2008's Modern Guilt was inspired by '60s pop music; and 2014's folk-infused Morning Phase won Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards on February 8, 2015. His thirteenth studio album, Colors, was released in October 2017 after a long production process.

With a pop art collage of musical styles, oblique and ironic lyrics, and postmodern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being among the most idiosyncratically creative musicians of 1990s and 2000s alternative rock. Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are Odelay and Sea Change, both of which were ranked on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The four-time platinum artist has collaborated with several artists and has made several contributions to soundtracks.

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 'Ramshackle'

'Ramshackle'
Thursday, January 31, 2019

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Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead is an alternative rock band composed of Kazu Makino (vocals, keys/rhythm guitar) and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace (drums/keys and lead guitar/keys/vocals, respectively) that formed in New York City in 1993. The band's earliest albums were noted for their noise rock influences, though their sound evolved by the early 2000s with the releases of Misery is a Butterfly (2004) and 23 (2007), which both incorporated elements of dream pop, shoegaze and other genres. They have released nine regular studio albums and have toured internationally.

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 'Messenger'

'Messenger'
Thursday, April 25, 2019

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Brad stank

Brad stank

“I just thought it sounded funny,” Brad Stank says of his artist name. “I wasn't going to keep it at first. I just used it for posting stuff on Soundcloud, but then Flirting in Space started getting some attention and it just stuck. I’ve grown to like it. I guess B Stank is my alter ego now... a true love boy.” We’ve grown to like it too. Same goes for the Liverpool musician’s mellow music – in the vein of Mac DeMarco and his slacker pop disciples – which climaxed with the release of his debut EP Eternal Slowdown a couple of months back via Untitled Records.

Stand-out tracks from the EP will win you over with their lo-fi charm: Condemned To Be Freaky (on which Brad accepts his destiny), Flirting In Space (an ode to alien romance) and lead single Take Me To The Crib (a sweet invitation to come over for green and red wine). Serving up an introverted take on love and loneliness, there’s something charismatic and pretty hilarious about our Brad, who has already played shows with fellow bedroom pop head Clairo and reportedly has a headline UK tour coming soon.

Rumour has is that there are usually some Brad Stank-branded rolling papers floating about at his live shows, so if that's not worth leaving the house for, I'm not sure what is. Anyway, if you’re keen to know more about him, read through these 10 things you need to know about the man formerly known as Bradley Mullins and have a little smile to yourself...

Source vice.com

 'Long Distance'

'Long Distance'
Sunday, November 5, 2023

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 'Maithuna'

'Maithuna'
Sunday, May 9, 2021

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 'She Was a Tease'

'She Was a Tease'
Wednesday, June 3, 2020

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 'Pond Weed'

'Pond Weed'
Monday, September 2, 2019

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 'Take Me To The Crib'

'Take Me To The Crib'
Friday, August 9, 2019

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 'O.T.D.'

'O.T.D.'
Monday, July 22, 2019

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Cass McCombs

Cass McCombs

Cass McCombs (born 1977 in Concord, California) is an American musician, best known for releasing a number of albums since 2002.

Blending genres such as rock, folk, psychedelic, punk, and alt country, he has played in numerous bands in the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest during the 1990s, often in DIY spaces, before relocating to New York City. He moved to San Francisco in 2001, where he recorded his debut E.P., entitled Not the Way E.P., released on Monitor Records in Baltimore. McCombs then recorded a Peel Session for John Peel in 2003, and that year released his first LP A, also touring with Baltimore’s OXES as his backing band. McCombs and his band spent much of 2003 and 2004 touring, performing everywhere from the All Tomorrow's Parties festival to house shows. McCombs otherwise divided his time amongst the Pacific Northwest, England and Baltimore.

In spring 2005 he released PREfection on Monitor Records and 4AD, and in support of the album he toured with Modest Mouse. Later that year, he moved to Southern California to begin work on his third full-length, Dropping the Writ, which was released on October 9, 2007, by Domino Records. It was named one of Amazon.com’s Best Albums of 2007. Also in 2007 he toured with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. He signed a multiple-album deal with Domino Records, who released his following four records including Catacombs (2009), which was voted one of the “50 Top Albums on the Year” by Pitchfork. It was followed by Wit's End (2011), Humor Risk (2011), and Big Wheel and Others (2013).

He toured with John Cale in 2012, and also performed at the benefit concert Occupy Sandy. Other bands he has performed or toured with include Ariel Pink, Cat Power, Band of Horses, Andrew Bird, The Decemberists, Arcade Fire, Peter Bjorn and John, Papercuts, The Shins, Iron and Wine, Deerhoof, The Walkmen, Jana Hunter, Thurston Moore, Joe Russo and The War On Drugs.

His single "Bradley Manning" premiered on the Democracy Now News Hour in 2012. His songs have been featured in films including the surf film The Present (2009), and Ralph Arlyck documentary Following Sean, as well as notable skate videos featuring Jason Dill, Jerry Hsu Chima Ferguson and Dylan Rieder. His song "Bobby, King of Boys Town" appeared in HBO show Girls (Season 2, Episode 9 - "On All Fours").

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 'Minimum Wage'

'Minimum Wage'
Saturday, August 10, 2019

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 'Low Flyin' Bird'

'Low Flyin' Bird'
Friday, February 22, 2019

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Chicha Libre

Chicha Libre

Chicha Libre is a Brooklyn-based six-member band founded by Olivier Conan. Its name is a reference to chicha, a corn-based liquor that has been produced in South America since the time of the Incas. It is also the name of a Peruvian musical genre (also known as Peruvian cumbia) on which the band's music is based.

History
Conan was first introduced to chicha music on a trip to Peru in 2005. Their first album, ¡Sonido Amazonico!, was released in 2008 on Barbes Records, a label which Conan runs from his home in Brooklyn. They released their second album, Canibalismo, in 2012, and an EP, Cuatro Tigres, in 2013, both digitally and on vinyl.

The band's original members were Olivier Conan (lead vocalist, cuatro), Josh Camp (DuoVox, keyboards, background vocals), Vincent Douglas (guitar), Greg Burrows (percussion, background vocals, timbales, bongos, guiro, reco-reco), Timothy Quigley (percussion, bongo, shakers, conga) and Nick Cudahy (bass guitar). Additional members are Neil Ochoa (congas) and Karina Colis (timbales). Featured guest artists have included Jose Carballo (a former member of the seminal Peruvian chicha band, Los Hijos del Sol).

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 'Tres Pasajeros'

'Tres Pasajeros'
Tuesday, April 21, 2020

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 'Six Pieds Sous Terre'

'Six Pieds Sous Terre'
Thursday, January 30, 2020

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Citizen Cope

Citizen Cope

Ask him how he knew it was time to record a new studio album and Clarence Greenwood, the trailblazing artist and producer better known as Citizen Cope, has a simple answer: “It was time.”

Cope has built an entire career on trusting his gut and following his muse, and if his new album, ‘Heroin & Helicopters,’ is any indication, his instincts are sharper now than ever before. As technically innovative as it is emotionally resonant, the record arrives at a uniquely challenging moment in modern American culture, when profound political polarization and social divisions seem to grow deeper by the day. Rather than dwell on our differences, though, Cope tunes in to what unites us here, drawing on everything from Chuck Brown and The Beatles to Randy Newman and Bill Withers, aiming his unique brand of urban-folk inwards to reflect on the personal journeys we all undertake to embrace ourselves despite our flaws.

“I think we’re all on a mission to find some inner peace,” he reflects. “We’re all going towards this collective consciousness, and even though it’s dark right now, I believe we’re going to reach that place together. Peace and harmony and understanding, that’s how you combat the darkness, and that’s what this record is all about.”

While ‘Heroin & Helicopters’ feels particularly timely, the record’s themes have been fixtures of Cope’s music since the release of his self-titled debut in 2002. That album was the culmination of years of pursuing his passion. Cope got his musical start in DC before moving to Brooklyn, where he wrote songs while supporting himself on the streets, buying and selling concert and sporting tickets with a cast of characters outside arenas and stadiums. His music spread from fan-to-fan via word of mouth, and over the course of time his songs have become the soundtrack of his fans lives.

The success of Cope’s music has always been a slow burn, rather than a flash in the pan. His single “Let The Drummer Kick” eventually went Platinum without any support from commercial radio. The Washington Post has hailed him as “DC’s finest export since Marvin Gaye,” while Rolling Stone raved that his “uncommon chords and harmonies combine delicate dissonance with unexpected flashes of beauty.” In 2004, Cope followed up his self-titled debut with ‘The Clarence Greenwood Recordings,’ an album Vibe praised as “flawless throughout,” gushing that Cope “makes music that feeds your soul…this is one of those CDs you hear at a friend’s house and rush out to buy.” The collection was largely ignored by mainstream media and never charted, yet the grassroots swell of support kept sales rolling year after year, to the tune of 700,000 copies, and opened the doors to film and television syncs with tracks appearing in Entourage, Sons of Anarchy, Alpha Dog, and more. Songs from the record would go on to be covered by everyone from Carlos Santana and Sheryl Crow to Richie Havens and Rhymefest, and in the years that followed, Cope has headlined all 50 states and shared stages with superstars like Eric Clapton. He cracked the Billboard 200 for the first time with 2006’s ‘Every Waking Moment,’ and then launched his own label to release 2010’s ‘The Rainwater LP’ and 2012’s ‘One Lovely Day,’ his highest charting album to date.

As Cope’s career grew, his style of urban-folk never settled into any particular genre in an industry fixated on arbitrary distinctions like radio formats. “I can understand why it didn’t go into the cookie-cutter. The music and my life were influenced by growing up in very distinct but different American cultures.” Born in Memphis, spending summer months with his great aunt and uncle in a small west Texas town, while being primarily raised in Washington, DC, Cope grew up equally influenced by the production techniques of George Martin, Dr. Dre and Willie Mitchell while listening to everything from Willie Nelson, to John Lennon, Bob Marley, Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest. Artistic boundaries meant nothing.

The 2011 birth of his daughter proved to be an ideal moment to step away from it all and reevaluate what mattered most, both as a songwriter and a man. “It was really important for me to be there with my daughter as she grew up,” says Cope. “I took these past several years off of recording mostly just to spend time with her. People say it’s not rocket science making records, but there really is a science to making a piece of art that’s going to touch people emotionally and have an impact on their lives, and if you’re not feeling it, you can’t fake it.”

Cope’s time away from music was also a moment to deal with reflecting and addressing the turmoil he faced surrounding the death of his estranged biological father, who had been physically abusive before abandoning his responsibilities decades earlier. “He was sick and I was able to have a sit down with him before he died,” Cope told Lance Armstrong in a poignant conversation for The Forward Podcast. “I had a lot of fear surrounding my father, and when I saw him, I realized I wasn’t scared of him as a person. He was just a flawed individual and I saw him in a whole different light. I didn’t want to go through life having this anger or hatred, and I don’t even know what forgiveness is in that realm, but maybe it’s a little bit of forgiving yourself and giving love to yourself.”

That kind of self-reflection is at the heart of ‘Heroin & Helicopters,’ which actually draws its title from a warning Santana shared with Cope one night backstage at The Fillmore. “Stay away from the two H’s, Heroin and Helicopters” he said, because they all too often prove fatal for musicians and celebrities. The message resonated with Cope, who saw parallels with a broader culture fixated on shortcuts over self-improvement, on mass production over quality, on greed over empathy.

“We’re living in an addicted society,” says Cope, “and not just addicted to drugs or alcohol or substances. We’re addicted to conflict and fame and social media. We’re addicted to getting what we want without working for it, without paying the price.”

‘Heroin & Helicopters opens with “Duck Confit,” a slow-burning and arresting spoken-word meditation that finds Cope looking in as much as he looks out, channeling the uneasy feeling that comes with recognizing your own role in perpetuating the very same social constructs you wish to change. “Where crimes of humanity are concealed and condoned / By self preservation and biblical prophecy...Where you know deep down inside / That something’s not right / Like a man killing the mother of his son / Cleaning his shotgun” he says over a simmering organ punctuated with 808 kicks. The track plays out like an overheard prayer, spiritual in its intimacy, and it sets the stage beautifully for a record unafraid to push boundaries and ask uncomfortable questions, questions that transcend any political party or movement and cut to the heart of what it means to be human.

“People try to politicize my music sometimes, but I don’t write political records,” Cope says definitively. “My music has always been built around consciousness.”

The first single “Justice” challenges our very notion of the concept, wondering if we’ve ever even seen what true righteousness looks like in this world. “The River” castigates and identifies a system built to devalue our lives… “They’ll take you down to the river / Leave you down by the river / They’ll shoot you down by the river / Leave you to drown by the river.” The heavy drum and piano-laden swing of “Sally Walks” is clothed in the story of a lover who’s swallowed whole by addiction, but it’s not clear if Sally is the lover or the substance itself. Though it would be easy to despair in the face of it all, ‘Heroin & Helicopters’ insists on defiance, on standing up to power and resisting the force of the invisible hands that seem to guide our every move. “Yella” could almost be a country song, with Cope singing over acoustic guitar and a drum shuffle played by Abe Laboreal, Jr. With lyrics touching on the migration of people from small towns to big cities, Cope uses the analogy of a little league baseball player striking out, ultimately realizing that strength and redemption are gained through struggle, loss and failure. “And the baseball rolls slowly off the pitcher’s mound / As I stood in the batter’s box once they struck me out / I showed a sign a weakness and I swung my bat / And the fire that once burned yella turned to ash”

“Government / counterfeit / dollar bill / you worship it,” Cope sings on “War,” an infectious track produced by XZ, who worked closely with him in the studio. The song is a perfect distillation of Cope’s brand of wordplay and lyricism, where war not only represents a battlefield, but also alludes to an individual’s self-inflicted inner turmoil, moving between the mandated laws of religion and society, and how we reconcile choices within the human psyche.

“Essentially, I’m trying to connect an emotion and lyrics and wrap them up in heavy drums,” he explains. “The music isn’t hip hop, it isn’t reggae, it isn’t pop, and it isn’t rock and roll. It doesn’t necessarily have a home, genre-wise, but it lives in all of those places, it pays respect to all those places.”

Respect is ultimately what it all comes down to for Cope: respect for the art, respect for each other, respect for ourselves, respect for our instincts. At the end of the day, we all want the same things, and no matter how much the culture conditions us to believe that peace and happiness can be bought and sold, there’s no price tag because they come from within. Change, growth, and satisfaction require patience, work, and love. Seven years in the making, ‘Heroin & Helicopters’ is proof of that.

Source citizencope.com

 'Summertime'

'Summertime'
Tuesday, April 14, 2020

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 'If There’s Love'

'If There’s Love'
Sunday, September 8, 2019

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 'Holdin' On'

'Holdin' On'
Friday, May 17, 2019

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 'Somehow'

'Somehow'
Saturday, September 8, 2018

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Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn OBE (/ˈdeɪmən ˈælbɑːrn/; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-founder, lead vocalist, instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the virtual band Gorillaz.

Raised in Leytonstone, East London, and around Colchester, Essex, Albarn attended the Stanway School, where he met guitarist Graham Coxon and formed Blur, releasing their debut album Leisure in 1991. After spending long periods touring the US, Albarn's songwriting became increasingly influenced by British bands from the 1960s. The result was the Blur albums Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). All three albums received critical acclaim while Blur gained mass popularity in the UK, aided by a Britpop chart rivalry with Oasis. Subsequent albums such as Blur (1997), 13 (1999), and Think Tank (2003) incorporated influences from lo-fi, art rock, electronic and world music. These were followed by The Magic Whip (2015), Blur's first studio album in 12 years.

Albarn formed the virtual band Gorillaz in 1998 with comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. Drawing influences from hip hop, dub, pop, trip hop, and world music, Gorillaz released their self-titled debut album in 2001 to worldwide success, spawning successful follow-ups Demon Days (2005), Plastic Beach, The Fall (both released in 2010), Humanz (2017), The Now Now (2018) and the first season of their Song Machine project, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (2020). Although Albarn is the only permanent musical contributor, Gorillaz albums typically feature collaborations from a range of artists. Gorillaz are cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Successful Virtual Band".

Albarn's other notable projects have included two supergroups: the Good, the Bad & the Queen and Rocket Juice & the Moon, working with the non-profit organization Africa Express, which he co-founded, and composing film soundtracks. He also scored the stage productions Monkey: Journey to the West (2008), Dr Dee (2012) and Wonder.land (2016). His debut solo studio album Everyday Robots was released in 2014, with his second The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows released in 2021.

In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked Albarn number 18 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". In 2016, Albarn received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to music. In 2020, Albarn was granted Icelandic citizenship.

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 'Everyday Robots'

'Everyday Robots'
Wednesday, December 22, 2021

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Dan Auerbach

Dan Auerbach

Daniel Quine Auerbach (born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has recorded and co-produced eleven studio albums with his bandmate Patrick Carney. Auerbach has also released two solo albums, Keep It Hid (2009) Waiting on a Song (2017), and formed a side project, the Arcs, which released the album Yours, Dreamily, in 2015.

Auerbach owns the Easy Eye Sound recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as a record label of the same name. He has produced records by artists such as Cage the Elephant, Dr. John, Lana Del Rey, Ray LaMontagne, Jake Bugg, and the Pretenders. In addition to winning several Grammy Awards as a member of the Black Keys, Auerbach received the 2013 Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

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 'King of a One Horse Town'

'King of a One Horse Town'
Thursday, December 12, 2019

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Danger Mouse

Danger Mouse

Brian Joseph Burton (born July 29, 1977), better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' The Beatles (aka the White Album).

He formed Gnarls Barkley with CeeLo Green and produced its albums St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple. In 2009 he collaborated with James Mercer of the indie rock band The Shins to form the band Broken Bells. In addition, Burton worked with rapper MF Doom as Danger Doom and released the album The Mouse and the Mask.

As a producer Danger Mouse produced the second Gorillaz album, 2005's Demon Days, as well as Beck's 2008 record Modern Guilt and four albums with The Black Keys (Attack & Release, Brothers, El Camino and Turn Blue). In 2016, Danger Mouse produced, performed on and co-wrote songs for the eleventh studio album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers titled The Getaway. Danger Mouse has also produced and co-written albums by Norah Jones (Little Broken Hearts), Electric Guest (Mondo), Portugal. The Man (Evil Friends), Adele (25), and ASAP Rocky's (At.Long.Last.ASAP (ALLA)). He has been nominated for 19 Grammy Awards and has won six. He's been nominated in the Producer of the Year category five times, and won the award in 2011.

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 'Season's Trees'

'Season's Trees'
Monday, January 27, 2020

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 'Revenge'

'Revenge'
Tuesday, May 28, 2019

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David Ramirez

David Ramirez

We’re Not Going Anywhere: At a historical moment of immense political, social, and ecological uncertainty, those four simple words comprise both a promise and a protest, a comforting reassurance of inclusion as well as a hearty cry of defiance. It’s a statement that offers no small sense of hope, in that sense matching the music contained on the album.

On these vividly imagined and passionately performed songs David Ramirez takes in the world from his unique perspective: “Being half white and half Mexican has made this current political climate especially interesting. So many cultures in this country are being viewed as un-American and it breaks my heart. My family have raised children here, created successful businesses here, and are proud to be a part of this country. Most of what I've seen as of late is misplaced fear. I wanted to write about that fear and how, instead of benefiting us, it sends us spiraling out control.”

The album that bears that title marks a departure for Ramirez, who builds on the rootsy sound of his early albums to create something new, something bold, something anchored in the here and now. Scouting out unexplored music territory, these songs bounce around energetically, toying with new ideas and experimenting with new sounds, as barbed-wire guitars and retro-futuristic synths grind against his anguished vocals and evocative lyrics.

“We flipped script a little bit and went in with a pretty specific vision: lots of keyboards and some out-of-the-box guitar sounds. I took a lot of notes from the indie bands I’ve been listening to and from the bands I loved growing up in the ‘80s, like the Cars and Journey. Let’s just live in this spacy world for a while and see what comes out of it.”

What came out of it isn’t just Ramirez’s most adventurous album to date, but a record that captures the mood of the country in its music as well as in its lyrics. While he does tackle some new subjects, Ramirez grounds these songs in his own perspective, which means every song remains both human and humane, outraged and generous. There are some break-up songs on here, sober and self-castigating: first single “Watching from a Distance” thrums with iridescent synths and a tight backbeat that sounds like lines on the highway measuring the widening rift between lovers. “People Call Who They Wanna Talk To” is Ramirez at his catchiest, marrying a playful earworm hook to a somber realization about romantic irreconcilability: “Don’t blame it on the distance, don’t blame it on the booze… people call who they wanna talk to.” A simple line, but completely devastating.

“This is the first album I’ve had properly produced,” says Ramirez, who either produced or co-produced all of his previous efforts. For We’re Not Going Anywhere, he hired Sam Kassirer, who has helmed albums by Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive, Bhi Bhiman, and many other artists. “I needed to evolve and change things up a bit, which is why I chose Sam. He pushed me in a way I hadn’t been pushed before.” Kassirer challenged Ramirez to simultaneously simplify and complicate his songwriting, to find new ways to tell his stories. “He said, I want you to try to tell a story but use fewer words and more space. In other words, let’s not make a singer-songwriter record. Let’s make a band record. Once he said that, my mind just opened up in a way it never had before. It was fun to just be more straightforward lyrically. It left a lot of space for the music.”

In January 2017 Ramirez and his band decamped to the Great North Sound Society, an eighteenth-century farmhouse in rural Maine that serves as Kassirer’s studio. Especially in the winter, when the trees are bare and snow blankets the ground, the setting proved inspiring. “It’s very secluded, which was part of the appeal. We were able to get out of our touring headspace and stay completely involved with the record and what we were doing.” That allowed the band to concentrate on the music, to pursue ideas without distractions and misgivings, but it also removed them from the world during a momentous event.

We’re Not Going Anywhere turns that distance into a big-picture perspective— engaged and informed, compassionately political but not necessarily partisan. “We’d take breaks during the day and watch the news and see all the rallies and marches and the disruption and the out-of-control feeling that was everywhere then—and, frankly, still is now. We were looking around and no one was around us. The closest house was a mile away, so it was just us. We were grateful just to retreat from that social tornado for a while and create something that we hoped would be very beautiful.”

Looming over every song is the ghost of Ramirez’s great-grandmother, who inspired “Eliza Jane,” a deeply poignant and personal tune near the album’s conclusion. In gracefully plainspoken lyrics, Ramirez describes how she and her brothers left Oklahoma during the Great Depression, heading northwest to Oregon, where she played piano in a country band. “My mom was telling me this story and the song was writing itself. I wish I had known her, because I’m curious what drove her. I know what drives a lot of my musician friends, but I really want to ask a family member: Why did you do this? Was it just for fun? Was it a passion so deep-rooted that you couldn’t not do it?”

While he may describe the creative process as fun, Ramirez obviously has inherited a deep-rooted passion—one that will continue to drive him well into the future. “I’m not going to be so afraid to take risks in the future, like I have been in the past. I’ve been so stressed and concerned with every detail, but I learned to let that go. Let’s just have fun. Let’s get weird. I’ve never felt that way about my work. I still respect my older stuff, but I just didn’t want to be afraid anymore. That’s what I learned on this one.”

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 'I'm Not Going Anywhere'

'I'm Not Going Anywhere'
Wednesday, August 7, 2019

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Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards).

Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995.

Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020.

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 'Heaven'

'Heaven'
Tuesday, October 19, 2021

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Bands, p 1 of 6

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