Saturday, 6 September 2008

Mp3 music: Small Faces






Small Faces
   

Artist: Small Faces: mp3 download


   Genre(s): 

Rock

   







Small Faces's discography:


Small Faces
   

 Small Faces

   Year:    

Tracks: 28
Ogdens Nut Gone Flake
   

 Ogdens Nut Gone Flake

   Year:    

Tracks: 12
Lazy Sunday
   

 Lazy Sunday

   Year:    

Tracks: 16
DIE GROSSEN ERFOLGE EINER SUPERGRUPPE
   

 DIE GROSSEN ERFOLGE EINER SUPERGRUPPE

   Year:    

Tracks: 18
Best of Small Faces
   

 Best of Small Faces

   Year:    

Tracks: 16






The Small Faces were the c. H. Best English banding never to hit it big in America. On this slope of the Atlantic, all anybody remembers them for is their fillet of sole stateside hit, "Itchycoo Park," which was but interpreter of their psychedelic sound, much less their total musical image -- but in England, the Small Faces were one of the to the highest degree extraordinary and successful bands of the mid-'60s, serious competitors to the Who and potency rivals to the Rolling Stones.Lead singer/guitarist Steve Marriott's formal ambit was on the stage; as a danton True Young teenager, he'd auditioned for and won the character of the Artful Dodger in the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! Marriott was earning his living at a euphony give away when he made the conversancy of Ronnie Lane (freshwater bass, backup vocals), wHO had formed a band called the Pioneers, which included drummer Kenney Jones. Lane invited Marriott to jam with his band at a show up up they were playing at a local club -- the gig was a disaster, just out of that express the group members decided to turn their talents toward American R&B. The band -- with Marriott at present installed for in effect and Jimmy Winston recruited on electric organ -- project its luck with a camarilla of British young known as the mods, fashionable posers (and arch enemies of the leather-clad bikers, sometimes with incredibly violent results) wHO, among their other attributes, affected a dandified look and a fanatical embrace of American R&B. The quadruplet, now christened the Small Faces ("human face" beingness a slice of mod gull for a fashion drawing card), began qualification a list for themselves onstage, sparked by their no holds barricaded carrying out style. Marriott had a uniquely powerful representative and was as considerably a very belligerent collar guitar instrumentalist, and the others were able-bodied to play off him, particularly Jones, wHO was a unfeignedly classifiable drummer.The quadruplet was mark by coach Don Arden wHO, through and through and through his direction troupe, got the Small Faces a track book deal with Decca/London. The band's debut single, "What'cha Gonna Do About It," a insistent ripoff of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," co-credited in this version to longtime British songwriter/producer Ian Samwell, was released in August of 1965 and reached identification number 14 on the charts; a second unmarried, "I've Got Mine," failed to graph when released in November. Soon subsequently its recording, Winston exited the lineup; he was replaced by Ian McLagan (organ, guitar, vocals). The grouping returned to the charts in February of 1966 with "Sha-La-La-La-Lee," which rosebush to number terzetto in England. Three months later on, they were back at number decade with "Hey Girl," a Marriott/Lane composition that inaugurated the songwriting squad, a ontogenesis strongly bucked up by their coach, wHO appreciated the enhanced pay that original hits enjoyed. This single heralded their first record album, a quite hurriedly recorded long-player entitled Minuscule Faces. Their material breakthrough came with the succeeding single, some other Marriott/Lane original, entitled "All or Nothing," which topped the U.K. charts in the line of a ten-week run for. Its followup, "My Mind's Eye," was successful as comfortably, simply its release enraged the bandmembers, because as far as they were concerned, it was unfinished -- they'd equipped a demo to Arden wHO, in work, had turned it o'er to Decca as a finished piece, and the latter had released it. That going brought to a head the group's growing alienation from their handler, over his handling of their business personal business and bookings, as well as their relations with Decca. Despite their string of v hits, Arden was treating the chemical group as a unrenewable resource, engagement them to a fault many shows -- as many as three a nox -- as though they had no future and had to bring in fees while the fees were organism offered. This, in turn, prevented Marriott and Lane from exploring their total effectiveness as songwriters, and in 1966, with albums like Rubber Soul and Six-shooter emanating from the Beatles and Backwash from the Rolling Stones, songwriting was seemly an essential bodily function for whatsoever band that could do it. Further, the chemical mathematical group had evolved both musically and intellectually from their beginnings -- by the spring of 1966, in place of the episodic sens or upper (the latter an essential share of the mod life style), they'd begun experimenting with LSD and, like many other artists, establish their work and sensibilities adapted by it -- they could noneffervescent do the soul numbers racket onstage, and write passages in that vein for themselves to play and sing, just the content matter of their songs, fifty-fifty when they did concern intimate love, became in spades more coordination compound and observational, along with their sound.


This is where Arden and Decca Records' treatment of them really began to grate on the bandmembers, because their managing director didn't palpate like budgeting for anything more than than the banner, union-dictated three-hour roger Huntington Sessions with breaks, hopefully yielding at least a sung per school term, and they had songs in intellect now, and sounds to go with them, that were too bold to be worked out in three hours. Despite quaternion stumble singles to their recognition, they'd been given less time to nail their debut LP than the Rolling Stones -- who'd deserted Decca's studios, with their ironclad union rules and engineers world Health Organization wouldn't permit them play at full volume, in favour of RCA Studios in Hollywood -- commonly got to complete one of their singles. And, at last, between the recording costs at Decca and Arden's way of handling their finances, the Small Faces weren't seeing much money, considering their chart successes to engagement. By the end of 1966, the Small Faces had cut off their ties with Arden which, in force, ended their relationship with Decca (though the iI sides would argue and debate that point for a spell), and in early 1967 touched under the wing of Rolling Stones manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham. At the time, Oldham was one of the top ternion or iV producers in England, thanks to his ferment with the Stones (and a few other acts of the Apostles such as Marianne Faithfull), and his direction of that group was considered unmatched of the most successful business relationships in pop music. Oldham had started his possess label, Immediate Records, which was so far devoted to a few licensed American edgar Lee Masters, the ferment of promising neophytes, and a few unwitting contributions by star topology guitarists -- including Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck -- wHO idea they were cutting demos and jam with producer/guitarist Jimmy Page. Getting the Small Faces as clients was the first-class honours degree step to acquiring them onto his mark, thereby providing the mark with the lynchpin of a proven hitmaking rig (the Rolling Stones were locked into their Decca Records contract and, in whatsoever case, normally seemed to keep themselves at arm's duration from Immediate's activities, beyond whatsoever informal obligations they felt they owed Oldham). By mid-1967 he had succeeded in doing exactly that, sign language the group to Immediate -- and with the shift in management and label, the Small Faces suddenly found themselves with a drastically decreased touring schedule and vastly increased time available in the studio, and their sound immediately became looser. They started things off of just right for the new earned run average with one of the most restfully subversive drug anthems e'er to tiptoe its way into the U.K. charts, "Here Comes the Nice." A cheerful, past ode to a zen trader, it someways at large the observance of censors and became one of the finest straightforward expressions of appreciation for recreational drug use of its earned run average. There were other drug songs to come, including "Greens Circles," that complete up on their albums -- they remained a top-flight R&B-driven band, just a much wider array of sounds and instruments began calculation in their euphony. Their low-spirited gear Immediate album, entitled Modest Faces (known in the U.S., where it was released pretty tardily through Columbia Records' dispersion, as In that respect Are But Four Small Faces), was issued in mid-1967, and was an exigent come at. In August of that year, two months afterwards "Hither Comes the Nice" wafted its way to the airwaves, they released "Itchycoo Park," a swingy, lyrical idyll to the Summer of Love, loosely based on a hymn known to Ronnie Lane and featuring Marriott in his gentlest vocal guise -- this ode to a psychedelic cheery afternoon captured the black Maria of listeners on both sides of the Atlantic and became the Small Faces' sole title of respect to renown in the United States.


Ironically, although they were invariably glad to throw a pip, the bandmembers weren't altogether proud of with the single's success, because they felt the strain didn't represent their true sound, and it was too highly difficult to play onstage, owing to its acoustic guitar good and varied musical textures. What's more, the band had bigger aspirations than doing more than pip singles -- the Beatles' success with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had rig the album up as the new primary medium for musical look, and they were aegir to fix to work on a canvass that size. Across five-spot months during 1968, in at least iV different studios, they recorded what proved to be their magnum piece, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. A shuffle of Cockney flightiness, spoken parole recitations (courtesy of actor/recitalist Stanley Unwin), surd rock, white-haired psyche, and druggy freakbeat sensibilities, it was belike the most English and the most ambitious of the construct albums that followed in the wake of Sgt. Pepper's, and farther enticed potentiality purchasers (and mixed-up record distributors and retailers, not to mention American listeners completely unfamiliar with the actual Ogden's tobacco tins) with its The resulting album -- which the radical only performed in its entireness once (although numbers like "Rollin' Over" became permanent parts of their stage rig), in a live-in-the-studio television broadcast called Colour Me Pop -- was a critical and commercial success, and has received newfangled cycles of rant reviews crosswise the decades since. The group's fortunes didn't meet the reception for the album, however -- in June of 1968, to announce the waiver of the album, Immediate took out an ad in the music trade document that included a sendup of the Lord's Prayer that managed to infract several one thousand thousand people earlier an apology from the circle was issued. Their relationship with Immediate was farther forced when, over the objections of Marriott, the label released the strain "Slothful Sunday" -- which he'd recorded as a jest -- as a single. Its subsequent come up to number deuce on the British charts did naught to ease his unhappiness, as the record truly had cypher to do with the band's substantial sound. Their old single, "Tin Soldier" -- which was a hit as well -- was much more than what they were most, a love song intermixture wrenchingly soulful vocals by Marriott and nearly psychedelic sensibilities in the lyrics, with a glaring, buffeting, drive performance by McLagan at the keyboard.The mathematical group members were besides commencement to possess their doubts almost Oldham and Immediate. The producer/manager had parted company with the Rolling Stones in mid-1967, with the outcome that the Small Faces became the originative core of the label (and the sole john Cash cow in Oldham's range). Whereas the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards songwriting squad had contributed songs to some early Immediate acts, suddenly Marriott and Lane were beingness asked to come up with songs and serve as producers, which would experience been OK except that, even with a clean string of hit singles and a pair of LPs that sold well, they were acquiring no royalties -- Immediate was keeping very much of what their recordings earned, all aerated against their studio time at selfsame highschool rates, though the group was at least acquiring more money from fewer simply much better-paying gigs. The reality of the book business is that, to some extent, every tag pads the books -- as in the film industriousness, where expenses from box power bombs, or for ordinary day-after-day operations, somehow handle to get written turned against the tax revenue generated by the hits, the record labels all manage to careen some losings to lucrative acts' fees. The job for the Small Faces was that they were the only remunerative behave on Immediate. Everything else was hit or lack (and most ofttimes miss), some records by the Nice at one point and some early singles by P.P. Arnold and some American-licensed sides by the McCoys, Van Morrison, et al., succeeding, only most losing money.And the mark itself literally hemorrhaged money, in shipway that paralleled the slaughter at Apple Records. In one of the more than far-famed anecdotes, attributed to various artists under contract and likewise to former employees, the typical daily operation went like this: artists and would-be artists hanging out and major stars popping in and kayoed, and then at 4 p.m. or so Oldham would get in a limo, dressed in a kaftan and sandals, accompanied by an retinue, and his business sector partner, Tony Calder, would demo up on an individual basis, go into the office, face at the bills, and start mussitation around break people's legs. The Small Faces' royalties mostly vanished into that black mess up until the inevitable failure, and and then just vanished for 30 years."The Universal," a single released in the summertime of 1968, was to have been Marriott's to the highest degree life-threatening effort in that nervure in over a yr, incorporating a more laid-back, quasi-acoustic, and jazz-like sound (nail with clarinet accompaniment) and his to the highest degree elusive, good lyrics, in direct contrast to the jocose "Work-shy Sunday"; it later failed to crack the Top 20, and often of his interest in chronic with the band seemed to falter as a effect. The chemical group worked on a planned third base Immediate LP and continued to spell (Contiguous even recorded one of their live sets from Newcastle Town Hall early in the year, which showed a band as good as whatsoever in England), and Marriott tested to bring some changes -- he even proposed that a novel quaker, singer/guitarist Peter Frampton, a adolescent matinee idol world Health Organization had recently drop out a successful pop/rock band called the Herd in a request to be taken more seriously as an artist, be brought into the Small Faces lineup, simply the others were content to cover as a quartet. The goal came shortly after, in the last hours of 1968, when Marriott abruptly left the stage spell the dance orchestra was jamming to "Lazy Sunday" during a show at the Alexandria Palace; inside hours, he nd Frampton began map plans for a band of their own called Humble Pie, delivery on base Greg Ridley on bass and Jerry Shirley -- a Marriott musical protégé, Kenney Jones champion, and quondam member of a Small Faces-influenced ring called the Apostolic Intervention -- on drums. The Small Faces did have a roll in the oven on into 1969, and Immediate tested to salvage its situation by issue a double-LP career retrospective called The Autumn Stone, which made it out a few months earlier the company unkindly its doors.


With Marriott gone, the radical required a replacement isaac Merrit Singer and lead guitar player and divided up up the 2 jobs, determination artists to fill up them in Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. Immediate having done for at a lower place the waves in a ocean of long-delayed bankruptcy transactions, the new mathematical group affected to the very much bigger and more than unchanging aegis of Warner Bros. Records; the name "Minuscule Faces" endured, attached to peerless Warner album in front they formally morphed into the Faces, an personification under which they went on to external glory for a time, before Rod Stewart ultimately eclipsed them as a solo act. During the mid-'70s, the Small Faces reunited (with a somewhat limited participation by Lane) for deuce albums, Playmates and 78 in the Shade, that attracted a fate of adjure aid only null resembling the chart action mechanism of their in the beginning releases, and, care their sixties work, those records failed to get wind an audience in America, despite organism released on Atlantic Records. Ironically, at the identical same time, the charts and the weight-lift on both sides of the Atlantic were filled by tough and great power crop up acts of the Apostles whose respective sounds and images often owed a immense amount to the Small Faces' groundbreaking strain.


Lane recorded with Pete Townshend, among others, before contracting multiple sclerosis, which ended his career as a player (he later organised the ARMS benefit concerts to raise money for research toward a cure for the disease). Jones afterward linked the Who, having been recommended by Keith Moon as his switch before of the legendary drummer's sudden death in 1978, and did a couple of tours and a pair of albums with the band. Humble Pie became larger in America than the Small Faces had ever so been with their sword of high-energy stone & roll, which soon estranged cofounder Frampton but light-emitting diode to massive gross revenue and an enviable string of tours, until their breakup in 1975. Steve Marriott's career languished a spot in the years that followed, simply he e'er seemed poised for a comeback -- with that voice and history, he was always a electric potential competitor for stardom -- and in 1991 it looked as though he was going to in the end displume it off. Alas, he died in his nap when fervor swept his home in England, tragically just a couple of years after beginning work on a new album in America with his former bandmate Frampton. Ronnie Lane died at his home in Trinidad, CO, on June 4, 1997, afterward battling multiple sclerosis for almost 20 days. In 1998, Ian McLagan -- who'd gone on from the Faces to record and do with Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, et al. -- promulgated All the Rage, a selfsame hotdog and revealing autobiography covering his 35 eld in professional music. The Small Faces' catalog languished for a fourth dimension, largely as a termination of the bankruptcy of Immediate Records in 1970. Some of their hooey was reissued on vinyl in Canada in the early to mid-'70s, and after on reissue labels such as Compleat, only their bequest was generally in a shambles. That wasn't helped in the early part of the CD era when the licensors of the Immediate catalog sent proscribed a lot of substandard masters, made from sources a long way from first-generation studio apartment tapes, to their clients. In 1990, Sony Music Special Products became the first base label to reissue any part of the Small Faces' catalog down pat from decent tapes, utilizing the duplicate masters that Immediate had furnished to Columbia Records -- the herald to Sony -- in the late '60s. The results were wagerer, if not idealistic, but finally, a combination of consumer complaints and better bank vault research in England, joined with wagerer digital engineering, light-emitting diode to major improvements in their CD program library; anything dating from much afterward 1995 is acceptable by early 21st century standards, and some of the 2002/2003 issues from Sunspots good amazing.


At the same time, that taping inquiry lED to a massive amount of mental confusion -- evidently, in order to drive up fees from Columbia in America and other sixties licensees, Immediate issued undubbed championship tracks and unfinished outtakes with new committed titles; even the surviving bandmembers were disconnected by some of these titles and tracks, though as of 2003 they were portion to form out their real bequest, including a set of live tV appearances released by NMC. Additionally, thanks to deals negotiated with the successor labels to Decca and Immediate, with the spillage of Sanctuary Records' Ultimate Collection in 2003, the members and their estates were assembling full royalties for the very number one time.





The Hold Steady keep V Festival rocking

Thursday, 7 August 2008

Aldo Romano

Aldo Romano   
Artist: Aldo Romano

   Genre(s): 
Jazz
   



Discography:


Oceans in the Sky   
 Oceans in the Sky

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 10


Ten Tales   
 Ten Tales

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 11




Although innate in Italy, Aldo Romano touched to France with his kin at a young age. He was already performing guitar and drums professionally in Paris in the '50s when he heard Donald Byrd's chemical chemical group with drummer Arthur Taylor. Since then, he has consecrate himself to the drums and present-day nothingness. In Paris jazz clubs like le Chat Qui Pêche and the Caméléon, Romano has accompanied visiting Americans like Jackie McLean, Bud Powell, Lucky Thompson, J.J. Johnson, and Woody Shaw






Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Meet the world's best-dressed men

Christian Bale has been named as one of the best dressed men in the world.

The Dark Knight actor has been recognised for his love of sharp suits in a new style list by men's magazine Esquire.

Grammy-award winning US rapper Lupe Fiasco and Cameron Diaz's rumoured ex-boyfriend, environmentalist David Mayer de Rothschild, also joined Bale in the top 10.

Esquire fashion director Catherine Hayward said: "Powerful men know how to dress themselves and often stick to a uniform. Each of the men in our list has given a teasing twist to traditional tailoring and made the look entirely their own.

"Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco wears a tailored jacket and works the look with layering and checks. Each man has interpreted the look to suit his own style."

British TV presenter Jeremy Paxman also appears on the list in recognition for his "confident" dress sense.

Hayward added: "Jeremy Paxman more than holds his own against the Hollywood power set. He obviously takes confidence from his suits and the way he dresses reinforces his authority in interview situations."

US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, British royal Prince Michael of Kent and England's current soccer manager Fabio Capello also feature.

Esquire magazine's 2008 top 10 best dressed men:

Lupe Fiasco - US rapper
Christian Bale - actor
Fabio Capello - England soccer manager
Stuart Rose - Marks and Spencer boss
Jeremy Paxman - TV presenter
Barack Obama - Democrat politician
Prince Michael of Kent - royal
David Mayer de Rothschild - environmentalist Tobias Meyer - Sotheby's auctioneer Lapo Elkann - Italian industrialist





See Also

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

George Michael announces "last ever" arena gigs

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer and former Wham! frontman George Michael announced what his spokeswoman called his last ever big-venue gigs on Wednesday.


The 44-year-old recording star said he would play two extra concerts at Earls Court in London on August 24 and 25 to mark the end of his "25 Live Tour," which started nearly two years ago in Barcelona.


The concerts will be called "The Final Two," which a statement on his Web site explained was a reference to his sell-out Wembley Stadium show in the same city in 1986 that brought down the curtain on Wham!.


Since then the artist has forged a successful solo career, and his overall global record sales are in excess of 100 million.


"He's not going to play any more big arenas," said a spokeswoman, when asked to clarify whether Michael planned to stop touring after the gigs.


"He will never do arena shows again from my understanding, so this is the final two shows of this kind that he will do," she added.


But the spokeswoman could not confirm a report on the BBC Web site that the singer planned to retire from touring altogether.


Michael, whose hits included "Careless Whisper" and "Last Christmas," told Reuters in 2005 that he planned to "disappear" from the world of pop altogether.


Reuters/Nielsen



Thursday, 19 June 2008

Jessica Alba - Albas Brother Coos About Beautiful Baby


LATEST: JESSICA ALBA's newborn daughter is "beautiful" reports the actress' brother Josh, who has visited mother and baby.

The actress gave birth to Honor Marie - her first child with husband Cash Warren - at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday (7Jun08).

She was allowed home on Monday (09Jun08) and has been visited by family members including Josh, 25.

He tells Usmagazine.com, "I'm ecstatic. I have seen her, and she is very beautiful."

When asked who the baby most resembles, he replies, "I can never tell with newborns. There are not really any features. I can't tell yet."

Josh adds his sister "is doing great" and Warren "is one of the happiest men alive right now".





See Also

Friday, 13 June 2008

Sunday, 8 June 2008

Rhydian hoping to put X Factor behind him

'X Factor' runner-up Rhydian Roberts has said that he wants to put the talent show behind him.
The Welsh singer said he cried with disappointment after coming second, and added that he believes there was a "technical fault" on the voting lines.
Speaking to Real Radio Wales' breakfast show from a cottage in Oxfordshire, Rhydian said he was trying to distance himself from the press and wished winner Leon Jackson "the best of luck".
Referring to complaints from fans who say phone lines were jammed, Rhydian said: "How I see it is, it's obviously a technical fault on the night, and it might have affected all three competitors. I can't really complain."
Despite his disappointment, the 24-year-old from Sennybridge, mid Wales, said he believed his career could actually benefit from him not winning the ITV contest.
Commenting on Leon's victory, he said: "He's a talented boy and has his niche with swing music. I wish him the best of luck."
He denied reports that both he and his father believed the show was a fix, and said: "I can categorically say that I have not said any of that. I've stayed well clear - it's not what I believe. The only disappointing thing for us as a family was that they got my dad's age wrong. They said he was 60, so he's livid. He's only 58."
Rhydian said he didn't go to the after-show party because he was "absolutely drained". Instead, he went to see a performance by an orchestra with his family.
Rhydian, who said the interview was his first since Saturday's live final, said: "It's Leon's week and he should be celebrating and I don't want people coming up to me saying 'you were robbed', although it's nice. I didn't want to pull focus."
Rhydian, who is going on a two-week holiday to Mexico with his family on 27 December, added: "All I can say is I want to put that all behind me now - 'The X Factor'. My life is going to go on and I fully intend to record an album so watch this space and thanks so much to everybody."
More than 1,000 people have complained to UK regulator Ofcom, claiming they couldn't get through to vote for Rhydian during the final, but ITV have said Leon won fair and square.

Saturday, 7 June 2008

Vampire Weekend stays busy with summer dates

Afrobeat-influenced indie-rockers Vampire Weekend [ tickets ] will continue to support their debut album with a run of headlining gigs and festival appearances this summer.The New Yorkers will mount a brief run of headlining shows later this week, kicking off June 7 in Orlando, FL. In late June, the group will head overseas for the summer festival season, with various appearances throughout Europe. In July, the band returns home for a slate of domestic festival commitments, highlighted by a July 19 slot at Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival. After another overseas run in August, the group comes back to the US in the fall for another short trek. All of the band's North American dates are included below.The complete overseas schedule can be found at the group's official website.Vampire Weekend's highly anticipated, self-titled debut album was released in January, moving over 27,000 copies during its first week and debuting at No. 17 on The Billboard 200 album chart. The album garnered much pre-release hype through word-of-mouth and Internet attention that the band had received. Earlier this year, the band became the first outfit ever to be photographed for the cover of Spin Magazine before releasing its debut, according to the publication."We recorded most of it ourselves in a couple of different locations," lead singer Ezra Koenig said of the band's debut in an interview with NME.com earlier this year. "In a friend's basement who had a good setup for recording drums ... we did a lot of it in the band's apartments."There's even some stuff on the album that we recorded almost a year ago at our drummer's parents' house in New Jersey, at this barn that they have, so they're really echoey drums."

My Morning Jacket

It's 4 a.m. on the last night of South by Southwest, and Jim James is belting out Rod Stewart's "You're in My Heart." A few hours earlier, the My Morning Jacket frontman dazzled an intimate crowd at an Austin church with a mostly solo acoustic set, and the full band's three other performances during the week were some of the most acclaimed of the industry confab. But of all the places James could be right now, it's a cozy terrace suite at Austin's famed Driskill Hotel, surrounded by a few close friends, a bucket of Miller Lites and an iPod, singing and analyzing songs into the wee hours. As he says the following week, "Music is everything."


That guiding principle has helped MMJ—James, "Two-Tone" Tommy (bass), Patrick Hallahan (drums), Bo Koster (keyboards) and Carl Broemel (guitar)—grow from humble roots in Louisville into the American rock band many feel is most likely to take it to the proverbial next level in the weeks and months to come. Like so many bands that have managed to achieve staying power in a fickle environment, MMJ has developed its touring base and recording career on separate, parallel paths.


Still, "Both are important to us," James says. "We treat them both as equals."


It is true that the best-laid marketing plans are no substitute for enthusiastic word-of-mouth, and the buzz around MMJ is at a fever pitch, both internally and among fans. The reason? Beyond MMJ's ever-building reputation for epic live performances, there's tremendous excitement surrounding the band's fifth album, "Evil Urges," due June 10 via ATO.


"We've always felt that whatever commercial success was realized would be a residual to appreciation for the music," band manager Mike Martinovich says. "It's never been the band's vision to chase opportunities; they'd run themselves ragged and fear losing touch with their original motivations. We'll leave the marketing plan to our friends at ATO and [PR firm] Girlie Action."





Even with live performances that send fans into orbit and critically acclaimed albums, MMJ has not yet achieved neither widespread arena-headlining status nor platinum success. But the band's camp and its many supporters in the music industry at large seem to cherish MMJ's dark horse status, believing that a band that takes a while to develop is building the solid foundation for a decades-long career.


And if MMJ seems to hang its hat on the concert stage, it never shortchanges studio time. "If you ask any artist today if they would rather sell millions of records or millions of tickets, they would choose to sell millions of tickets, and it seems My Morning Jacket is well on their way to that goal," says Scott Clayton, the band's agent at Creative Artists Agency. "Having said that, my feeling is that once the world hears 'Evil Urges,' it will be clear that this band is achieving great things artistically both in the studio and on the stage."


LIVE IS THE THING


As the group built its live performance legend, MMJ has shown time and again that it is more than comfortable on a wide range of concert stages, whether it's marathon performances at festivals like Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza, headlining theaters and ballrooms, or sharing bills with a diverse range of acts that includes Guided by Voices, Doves, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan and John Prine.


"I wouldn't say there was a 'strategy' so much as the band is musically nimble and interested in playing with a variety of artists from different genres and generations," Martinovich says. "If there was any one overriding 'strategy' in the early going, it was to follow up a tour where the band opened for someone with a headline run to establish something of their own and not just hope that they were connecting with another audience."


Such a philosophy creates options and challenges for the band's agent. "Since January of 2002, Scott Clayton turned on a dime to work with the band and has had, until this day, an 'as long as it takes, no matter what' perspective that has only helped keep things on the right track," Martinovich says.


MMJ isn't adding any extra bells and whistles to its 2008 tour, which began May 22 in London and will run through New Year's Eve. But it's clear that demand is higher than ever. A June 20 show at New York's Radio City Music Hall sold out in 22 minutes, and observers are expecting big numbers for an Aug. 21 gig at Red Rocks outside Denver, with support from the Black Keys.


"The greatest thing about live music is that it's something you can't replicate," James says. "It's something very communal, and I think society is lacking that. People are so alienated and trapped in their little cubicles with their computers and texting devices. When you go to a big concert and you're in a room with a bunch of other humans, I think that's really healthy."


URGE TO RECORD


After self-producing its first three studio releases, including its 2003 ATO/RCA debut, "It Still Moves," the band turned to outside producers for "Z" in 2005 and "Evil Urges," with John Leckie and Joe Chiccarelli, respectively, helming the boards. "It Still Moves" has sold 197,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while "Z" has shifted 212,000.


The result has been a true evolution of the band's sound. More adventurous than anything that has come before, the new songs explore falsetto singing ("Evil Urges"), soft rock with a modern twist ("Thank You Too"), disco beats (first single "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2") and gritty, Prince-tinged funk ("Highly Suspicious"), without skimping on the two-guitar jams ("Aluminum Park," "Remnants") and mellow balladry ("Librarian") of MMJ's past work.


"Joe and John are both two very different people and they work in very different ways, but they're both great policemen," James says. "We go into the studio with the songs done; they're thought-out and ready to go. Always some things end up happening to them while you're recording them that you didn't think would happen to them, but Joe and John, their ears are just fantastic."


These outside producers have brought discipline and constructive criticism to the recording process. "They'll scold us when we've done bad and they'll applaud us when we've done good," James says. "And that's what we really need. You can get all excited and think you've done a great take, but it could be way too fast. Or you could think it was really emotional but it was just kind of slow. It's good to have somebody outside of the band to hear that stuff."














See Also

Death Before Dishonor

Death Before Dishonor   
Artist: Death Before Dishonor

   Genre(s): 
Alternative
   Rock
   Other
   



Discography:


Count Me In   
 Count Me In

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 13


Friends Family Forever   
 Friends Family Forever

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 7


True Till Death   
 True Till Death

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 10




 






Guttermouth

Guttermouth   
Artist: Guttermouth

   Genre(s): 
Punk
   Rock: Punk-Rock
   Pop: Pop-Rock
   



Discography:


Eat Your Face   
 Eat Your Face

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 14


Gusto   
 Gusto

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 14


Gorgeous   
 Gorgeous

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 14


Covered With Ants   
 Covered With Ants

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 11


Musical Monkey   
 Musical Monkey

   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 15


Teri Yakimoto   
 Teri Yakimoto

   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 15




Huntington Beach, CA-based punks Guttermouth formed in 1989, comprised of singer Mark "Hg" Adkins, guitarists Derek Davis and Scott Sheldon, bassist Stever Rapp (wHO replaced original bassist Clint Weinrich), and drummer Captain James T. Nunn. Debuting a twelvemonth subsequently with the single "Skunk," Guttermouth issued their debut LP, Full Length, in 1992, followed in 1994 by Friendly People, their number one endeavour for new label Nitro Records. Guttermouth resurfaced in 1996 with Teri Yakimoto, followed a twelvemonth subsequently by Musical Monkey; their number one concert LP, Live from the Pharmacy, appeared in 1998. Their sixth album, Gorgeous, was issued a year later, featuring new drummer Ty Smith; Covered with Ants followed in mid-2000, marking their first for Epitaph.


Guttermouth ar studio hounds; they returned to the punk rock setting in fall 2002 when the challenging Gusto was released, and came back for more than in 2004 with the scathing Rust Your Face (with guitar player Don Horne and ex-Slick Shoes bassist Kevin Clark at present on board). That same summer adage the going of drummer Smith to concentrate on his side project Bullets and Octane; the vocal band too reportedly got kicked off the Warped Tour in August. Adkins later clarified they left the circuit by alternative, sickened by the ignorant political comments spouted during various bands' sets. After departing Epitaph Records, the grouping was officially added to the Volcom Entertainment roster in late 2005. Busy since and then, Guttermouth contributed the runway "April 29th, 1992" to the Sublime testimonial album Eternally Free, and released their installment of the Beyond Warped Live Music Series in January 2006. The band's ten percent album, Shave the Planet, appeared that August, with Adkins, Sheldon, and Horne united by original bassist Weinrich and drummer Ryan Farrell.





High Court Upholds Porno Law

BBC announces Grange Hill will end

The BBC has announced that its school drama 'Grange Hill' is to end after 30 years.
At a launch for new and recurring dramas for CBBC today, it was announced the upcoming series of 'Grange Hill' would be the last.
Announcing the end of 'Grange Hill', Anne Gilchrist, Controller, CBBC, said: "Part of CBBC's reputation for reflecting contemporary Britain back to UK children has been built upon Phil Redmond's ['Grange Hill' creator] brilliantly realised idea and of course it's sad to say goodbye to such a much loved institution. The lives of children have changed a great deal since 'Grange Hill' began and we owe it to our audience to reflect this."
She continued: "We're actively seeking out new and exciting ways of bringing social realism to the CBBC audience through drama and other genres. Yesterday we announced two 'Newsround' Specials tackling divorce and knife crime and we will continue to make programmes about the ups and downs of contemporary Britain."
Jon East, Head of CBBC Drama, said: "For 30 years, Grange Hill has become a byword for realistic and contemporary children's drama. It's now time to apply what we've learned over the years to some of the new ideas we're exploring."

Carrie Underwood - Underwood Outs Cruel Ex

CARRIE UNDERWOOD has named and shamed the boyfriend who was too embarrassed to be seen with her after a softball accident in a new magazine interview.

The pretty country star was left with a broken nose and two black eyes when the ball struck her squarely in the face - and her cruel boyfriend only made her feel worse.

She recalls, "I went on a date to the movies that night, and the guy wouldn't even take me out to eat after.

"The next day he told everyone he was embarrassed to be seen with me."

But Underwood has had the last laugh twice - snubbing the ex after she won American Idol and now naming him in an Instyle article.

She adds, "After Idol I went back home and signed autographs, and his younger siblings were there.

"They said, 'Do you remember Justin? He wanted us to give you his number.' Guess what? I did not call him."




See Also

Enslavement Of Beauty

Enslavement Of Beauty   
Artist: Enslavement Of Beauty

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   Metal
   



Discography:


Traces O' Red   
 Traces O' Red

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 10


Megalomania   
 Megalomania

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 14


Megalomani   
 Megalomani

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 14


Megalomani   
 Megalomani

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 12