Alan Gorrie -- Bass, Guitar, Lead Vocals Onnie McIntyre -- Guitar, Vocals Klyde Jones -- Keyboard, Bass, Lead Vocals Fred ' Freddy V' Vigdor -- Saxes, Keyboards, Vocals Rocky Bryant -- Drums Average White Band are widely regarded as one of the best soul and funk bands in the history of music. Though perhaps best known for their timeless instrumental mega-hit 'Pick Up the Pieces' the band's strength actually lay in their consistently accomplished song-writing, stretching across several gold selling albums and multi- grammy nominations for the legendary Atlantic Records. Somewhat incongruously, given their Scottish roots, the six piece took the influences of their R&B heroes - people like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Donny Hathaway and others - and developed their own 'authentic' sound which was eagerly adopted by black audiences in the US and elsewhere.
Whilst a good number of cuts - 'Cut The Cake' and 'Let's Go 'Round Again' to name but two - attracted chart action as hit singles, many other album tracks, like 'Schoolboy Crush' and 'Person to Person' became much sampled and turn-tabled 'rare' grooves. Many more tunes, such as 'Cloudy', 'A Love Of Your Own' and 'Nothing You Can Do' - amongst many others- stand alongside some of the finest soul 'album tracks' ever recorded.
The current line-up of the band - this time with noted US recruits augmenting founding members Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre - continues to record and tour around the world to ongoing critical and audience acclaim. All this and more is perfectly illustrated in the band's latest release Soul And The City which showcases the breadth and depth of the band's material, all captured within the excitement of a 2006 live performance
Normally, friendship, companionship or simply the music industries bring together various bands. Alkaline Trio is the opposite. This group was brought together sadly by heartbreak, angst and their own relationship with drinking in the year 1997. The Alkaline Trio group is composed of 3 members: Matt Skiba who was in charge of vocals and guitar, Glenn Porter who was in charge of drums and vocals, and last but not least, Rob Doran who played the bass and did vocals. Rather than starting in well-known cities, Alkaline Trio started making a name for themselves all throughout the Midwest, targeting people who had an interest in pop and punk, fueled by lots of emotion. Unfortunately, just like other bands and music groups, members of Alkaline Trio departed. As soon as the year 2000 hit, Glenn Porter left. This left Alkaline Trio as a Duo. Luckily, Mike Felumlee (a drummer) joined the group thereafter and made Alkaline Trio complete once again.
Steve Bertrand - Lead vocals / Guitar Josh Dunahoo - Guitar Joey Clement - Bass Ben Hazlett - Guitar / Keyboards Jamie Wollam - Drums
Taking its name from the French word for "airplane," the Los Angeles-based rock group Avion is proving that the best way to success is old-fashioned hard work and a DIY attitude. Led by Steve Bertrand, former front man of the power-pop band The Tories, Avion has set out to make its mark with a keen sense of musical purpose and cultural vision.
After the amicable split of The Tories in 2002, Bertrand began writing for his yet-to-be-defined follow-up. Over the course of a year, he wrote some 22 songs, taking them frequently to a singer-songwriter night (which he hosted) at the Malibu Inn in Los Angeles, testing them on local audiences. After a short time it became "very clear which 13 songs needed to be on the record." Also very clear was the fact that Bertrand wanted the camaraderie of a band sympathetic to his musical ideas. "I didn't want to be the 'solo acoustic' guy," he admits. "I really missed the element of being in a group."
Scouting the LA area, Bertrand was fortunate to find a group of musicians that shared his sensibilities. Local drummer Jamie Wollam was enlisted first, followed by South Dakota transplant Joey Clement on bass. Josh Dunahoo on guitar and Ben Hazlett on guitar and keyboards came next, both originally hailing from Arkansas and New Mexico respectively. "Having written most of the songs on an acoustic guitar, I didn't really know what the finished versions would sound like until I played with the right guys," Bertrand says. "You hear the power of the song with the right band. That's what happened when we rehearsed for the first time. It was very cool."
On the band's self-titled debut album, Avion has created 13 rich and vital new chapters in the ongoing evolution of pop music. Produced by Bertrand, with the bulk of recording done at his home studio, the album is a powerful collection of truthful and emotionally cathartic songs. Gliding elegantly between the bombastic blast of the album's opener, "Would You Notice" to the orchestral verve of "Love Is Here Again," the music of Avion shows boundless range and diversity. "There's so many different flavors on the record," Bertrand muses. "I had an older brother who loved pop music, so I grew up listening to the Cars and Cheap Trick. Their records would have a heavy song and then a slow one. That's missing from records now." Avion's first single, "Seven Days Without You," speaks to the sorrow of lost love with passion, intensity and an undeniably moving melody. "The song really revolves around that universal feeling you have after losing someone," Steve confesses, "when you're calling everyone you know and trying to fill your day with anything to keep from going crazy, doing whatever you can to somehow numb that nagging sense of longing." As he says about the inspiration for his music, "I could never afford therapy, so it's life, love, death, faith, anger, fear, it's all of those things." When asked about his favorite songs on the album, Steve demurs, saying, "It's like a pair of trousers. I have a different one every day."
Bertrand connected to his standards of pop music excellence at an early age. Growing up slightly south of the Canadian border in Newport, Vermont, Bertrand would tune into the local AM radio stations and listen to "whatever three minute pop songs were at the top of the charts." As a kid, his father took him to a Beach Boys concert where the young Bertrand experienced a transcendent musical apotheosis. "It was electrifying to me. When the lights came on, it hit me right there like a hammer over the head: That's what I was built to do!"
Following graduation from high school, Bertrand moved to Los Angeles to answer the calls of his own muses. After spending a couple of years "meandering around" getting acclimated, Bertrand founded the alt-rock band The Tories, who went on to sign with the legendary producer Phil Ramone. After the group's two critically acclaimed albums fell victim to the demise of Ramone's short-lived N2K label, The Tories called it quits. "We were everybody's favorite band that nobody knew," Steve says. "Towards the end of the band, I fell into the TV world of theme songs, penning the music for Christina Applegate's 'Jesse' on NBC and several other network shows. It was a great bridge between The Tories and the start of Avion."
After completing the Avion record, the real work began. Having experienced first hand the struggle of breaking through with his former band, and witnessing the current state of the ever-changing music industry, Bertrand knew from the start that he wanted to take a very "hands on" approach and put this record out himself. Joining forces with his "friend/business associate," Chris Dickson, Bertrand co-founded The Console, a multi-media company designed to foster and support music, film and television projects that may fall through the cracks or never see the light of day at larger companies. The Console's first project...
Avion.
"We met with our manager, David Christensen, and all agreed the best way to reach the most people with this record was to focus on getting on the radio," recalls Bertrand. As anyone in the music industry knows, this is no small task. "We had a shoe-string budget, nothing compared to the major labels," says Steve, "but we thought if we could find people that believed in the record, we could make it work." Hiring a small, but dedicated and passionate team of radio promoters, the band set out to conquer the charts without the benefit of major label support.
In true DIY fashion, after literally mailing hundreds of promotional albums to stations nationwide from Steve's living room, the band hopped in an RV and set out to see every radio station in the country. "We went to every station that would have us, and some that weren't sure theywanted us," laughs Steve. The band members knew they needed to make an indelible first impression, so instead of arriving in typical "radio promo" fashion with acoustic guitars and a stripped-down performance, they brought an ingenious portable version of the band's full-on stage show. "We showed up with amps, PA, the works and put on a full concert in the station conference rooms," remembers Steve. "It took a lot of people by surprise, but it worked and people started playing the record. Las Vegas added it, Buffalo added it, Denver added it, St Louis added it and it just snow balled." (As of this writing, October 2004, "Seven Days Without You" has hit #20 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart, without the benefit of major label support.)
Over the course of the group's 26,000 mile, 65-city sojourn into the wilds of DIY American radio promotion, Avion has become an incredibly tight and cohesive band. "There's a chemistry and a vibe that the five of us have together," Steve observes, with clear delight. "We did exactly what we set out to do, which was to tell a story without having to chase anybody and to show people that this was the real deal."
And the "real deal" it is. In late summer 2004, Columbia Records/Red Ink signed Avion in conjunction with the bands label, The Console, and will release their debut album nationwide November 2.
Avrigus are a 2 piece gothic doom metal band from Sydney, Australia. The band is comprised of Simon Gruer (ex-Cruciform) and Judy Chiara. They play epic and majestic gothic doom metal with dark ambient passages.
Avrigus first came into existence in 1990. Due to Simon’s role in Cruciform and the Sydney metal scene it wasn’t until 1998 that the very well received EP The Final Wish was released on Warhead Records. In 2001 the album The Secret Kingdom was released on Well of Urd Records, a division of the now-defunct Hammerheart Records.
In 2007 it was announced that Judy had left the band late in the previous year. Despite this Simon is continuing on with Avrigus and a new album called “The Hidden Citadel” is in the works.
It was announced in August 2009 that Avrigus’ new vocalist would be Megan Robins, whose partner Lee Tassaker (bassist/vocalist for Lycanthia) would also be providing vocals on the new album.
Avril Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada on September 27, 1984. At 16, she moved to Manhattan and began work on her debut album. She dropped out of high school after the 11th grade when she secured a record deal. When Avril was almost 18, she released "Complicated" from her debut album titled: "Let Go," which went 6x platinum. As a petite skater girl from a small town, Avril has shown she is independent, full of confidence and determination, providing a good combination to make "Complicated" and Avril a musical breakthrough. "Complicated" went to number #1 on Billboards Top 100 while also earning her 5 Grammy nominations, MTV music awards, MTV European music awards and many more.
Based out of Madrid, Spain, the quintet of Avulsed has maintained their lyrical grimness and death metal chops since their formation in 1992. Consisting of Cabra (guitar), Juancar (guitar), Furni (drums), Dave Rotten (vocals), and Tana (bass), the first full-length Eminence in Putrescence was followed by a handful of demos and the 1992 7" EP Carnivoracity. After their 1998 techno remix album Cybergore, the Colombian-based Quirofano Productions compiled all of Avulsed's demos and unreleased recordings for the compilation Seven Years of Decay. Their second album, Stabwound Orgasm, followed that same year.
Awesome Car Funmaker is a spastic, energetic, crazy, party glam rock band from Madison, Wisconsin. Formed in June 2003, the four piece has played three hundred something shows to countless fans.
ACF has been compared to the likes of Queen, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Styx, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Tubes, Tenacious D, Guns 'n Roses, Franz Ferdinand, Art Brut, Kansas, Primus, Living Colour, At The Drive In, Rush, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, System Of A Down, Hot Hot Heat, OK Go, Arctic Monkeys, Electric Six, They Might Be Giants, & David Bowie.
Awesome Car Funmaker puts on a theatrical show that consists of choreographed kicks, gallops, and jumping jacks. There's guitars flinging and keytars slinging. Lots of running, falling down, smiling, and excitement. All of this combined with snappy, catchy tunes make for a memorable live experience.
The name is a joke that went too far, derived from the first time the band members all met, and nobody was allowed to leave the restaurant before a name was decided upon. Nothing else fits, and after you see the show, you'll know why we are:
Ryan Corcoran: vocals/guitar Adam Manos: drums Brendan McCarty: keyboards Justin Taylor: bass/vocals
AXAMENTA began their career by playing doom, fantasy and even death metal, but after a lot of lineup changes, they decided to make a radical shift in their musical style and began experimenting with a more technical and progressive approach. Their love for movie scores also made them replace the keyboards by orchestra samples, which gives them a unique sound in the Belgian metal scene.
Belgium's Axamenta, the former band of current Epica bassist Yves Huts, have inked a deal with Shiver Records for the release of their new album, "Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture". The Cd was recorded at Hansen studio in Ribe, Denmark with producer Jacob Hansen (Mercenary, Raunchy, Aborted) and was mixed and mastered will at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden under the supervision of producer Fredrik Nordström (In Flames, Soilwork, Dimmu Borgir, The Haunted, Old Man's Child). Pain Of Salvation singer Daniel Gildenlöw is featured as a guest vocalist on one entire song ("Threnody For An Endling"), for which he has written the melody and vocal pattern himself.
Born in Rafael Calzada, a small town in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Axel Fernando began playing the piano at an early age, even gaining acceptance into the national conservatory, though he initially ended up deciding he would rather concentrate on more classic scholastic training. This didn't last too long, however; at 17 he realized it was music he truly wanted to pursue, and began practicing and looking for work. Axel got a small gig as a waiter and bar piano player in a soap opera, and when that was done, he went to the tourist spots on the coast to play for the vacationers who thronged there, moving back home when the season was over to plan his next step. His dedication paid off, and soon he was offered a job as pianist for a children's show, eventually being promoted to host, an opportunity he used to display his own original songs. Sony Music Argentina took interest in the young singer and offered him a contract, which he accepted, and in 1999 Axel issued his debut album, La Clave para Conquistarte, followed by Mi Forma de Amor in 2001.
