Friday, May 20, 2005

Who Created Grunge

Grunge is basically the use of overdriven guitars mixed with overwrought vocals. As is often the case the belief is that Nirvana created Grunge, although their sound is mostly the base for modern grunge. Grunge has its roots in Punk, Metal and New Wave. Grunge can probably be traced back to Black Sabbath and the Velvet Underground. Black Sabbath (Nirvana said their main influences were Black Sabbath and Black Flag, an Eighties punk band) was one of the first bands to use heavily distorted guitar.

The Velvet Underground, although their career was short, they influenced many later bands, including the punk generation. Out of the Velvet Underground came the notion of indie guitar, New Wave and Alternative which both ran parrel with punk throughout the seventies and eighties with such bands as the Psychedelic Furs, the
Police
and the Black Crowes. Another indie-punk band that was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground was the Pixies. They, together with a band called Green River, must be credited as the first grunge bands due to their use of the overdriven guitars (which funnily enough was a technique first used by Neil Young) and overwrought vocals.

When Andrew Wood (Green River lead singer) died in 1990, Stone Gossard, (lead guitarist) and Jeff Ament (bassist) along with two members of Sound Garden created the Temple Of The Dog album as a tribute to Wood. The album along with Nirvana’s Nevermind is considered two of Grunge’s definitive albums. Seattle became known as the Grunge city as three of the most influential bands of modern grunge made their mark on the music scene there. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam who had formed from the ashes of Green River and Temple Of The Dog.

It must be said that Nirvana was the band commercialised grunge due to their almost overnight success that was to be a popular sound of the Nineties and into the Naughties. Modern Grunge bands include Queens of the Stone Age, the Foo Fighters, Audioslave and Silverchair. Interested in a more in depth study of Grunge, check out www.seattlesound.de.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

upcoming articles

Haven't done any serious blogging for a while but I have some real good pieces coming up. I have an article on John Lennon and one on who created Grunge. I will have a feature article on a great local Sydney band called the Remainders; an album review on the Vines first album "Highly Evolved" and something on where Rock is going and who is taking it there.

Look out for these in the the near future...

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

and Beefheart's good friend, Frank


The sheik of hollywood

It was not only Frank Zappa's absurd sense of humor that made him a revered rock legend. He was also one of rock's very best composers, drawing from a deep understanding of classical music, as well as 50's rock and 70's pop. He was a flamboyant stage performer and a seriously good guitarist; and always played with great musicians.

Check out 46 tracks by various artists, including Frank himself, celebrating Zappa magic at The Chrome Dinette Website. "Inca Roads" is special.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

A ‘Beefheart’ experience


Beefheart & the Magic Band in action

Found this story on a Beefheart Fan Site. Enjoy…

Melvin N. deSnoids recalls a concert at Paramount Thetre, Portland, Oregon, in 1970:

“The first time I saw Captain Beefheart was in 1970 at the Paramount Theatre in Portland, Oregon, shortly after the Lick My Decals, Baby album came out. My band-mates and I were sitting front-row, centre, along with our friend Matt Groening, who had introduced us to Beefheart via the Trout Mask Replica LP.

First, Ed Marimba came out to a lone microphone that was center-stage, in front of the closed curtains. He was wearing the full-blown evening-suit with tails that he wore on the Decals front-cover. He had a monocle in one eye and was carrying an orchestral slapstick. Without saying a word he faced the audience, standing rigidly erect. Suddenly, he sounded the slapstick., somehow popping his monocle straight out from his eye, simultaneously with the pop of the slapstick. Still without saying a word, he reached into his breast-pocket and withdrew a toy plastic raygun. He held it out at arms-length and moved it from side to side in front of the microphone while pumping the trigger, causing sparks to fly while the raspy sound of the raygun swept spatially across the theatre. He then spoke: "This is my raygun - my REAGAN - got me?"

The curtains opened, revealing a full set of orchestral percussion equipment, along with the Magic Band's gear. He walked back behind a huge marimba and launched into an avant-garde percussion solo that lasted several minutes.

During the solo, Drumbo came out on stage in blackface make-up and cavorted around like a caveman for a few moments before settling-in behind his drum kit. He then joined Ed Marimba in a furious percussion duet while the rest of the Magic Band walked on-stage and took up their instruments. They launched directly into "When Big Joan Sets Up" as Captain Beefheart strolled to centre-stage, playing a soprano saxophone. Beefheart started singing and I blissed out...

It was, without a doubt, the best rock concert that I've ever been fortunate enough to attend.

Afterwards, we milled around in front of the stage until Captain Beefheart and the band came back for their instruments. There were security guards posted by the stage who wouldn't let us go up, so I yelled "Hey, Captain - can we come up?"

He looked up and said, "Sure - come on up!", so we pushed past the security. Beefheart caught a dirty look from one of the guards & said, "Oops - maybe I shouldn't have said that..." but by then it was too late - we were face-to-face with our idols.

Beefheart & the Magic Band members were totally cool - they let us hang out with them and ask a million questions, even though we were only teenagers. Beefheart even introduced us to his wife, Jan. They said that they were living in the mountains above Santa Cruz & invited us to visit them sometime.

The next spring, we loaded up a VW bus and headed down to California. We never did find them, but that's another story... “

Check out the Website where I found this...there is plenty of good info.

Monday, May 16, 2005

...and remember the 'Dead'




Check out dead.net for more about these rockers! Get streaming Dead at GD Radio.