27 Club II

The last member of the 27 Club (before Winehouse) was Jim Morrisson, the singer of The Doors. Born in Melbourne, Florida, the 8th of Desember in 1943, left home when he was 19. He attended to the University of Florida and afterwards he studied cinema at the UCLA, belonging to the same generation as Francis Ford Coppola. But then he devoted to poetry when he started to do drugs like LSD or marihuana. It was said that he had a IQ of 149, but it's true that he used to read complex texts by Nietzsche or Huxley.

Then, in 1965 he casually met Ray Manzarek, a musician and when Manzarek found out his talent, he asked Morrisson to form a band with him and founded The Doors with Robby Krieger (guitarrist) and John Densmore (drums). The name of the band comes from an essay by Huxley that says: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite". 

After giving several gigs around Los Angeles, they finally released their first album in 1967, called The Doors. However, Morrisson suffered from stage fright and he even sang backwards the audience. 

His attitude was so provocative that some cities of the USA. When he was about to be brought to trial he moved to Paris, where he died. He was found dead the 3th of July in 1971. It's said that the cause of his death was a heart attack, but there're other versions like suicide, murder or overdose.

R.I.P Jim Morrisson

God bless music

27 Club I

Have you ever heard about the 27 Club? If not, the 27 Club is formed by some of the most influent musicians of history that died at the age of 27. There was a first list including Robert Johnson (regarded as the first member of the Club), Brian Jones  (guitarrist of the Rolling Stones), Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. Then a second list was formed with other people that died at the same age as Alan Wilson (Canned Heat), Mia Zapata (The Gits, who I have already talked about).

So, I wanna start with the last member of this group, Amy Winehouse (who I like soooo much).

Amy Jade Winehouse was born on the 14th of September in 1983 in London,  in a jew family who liked jazz. His first contact with music was with his father, who sang songs by Fran Sinatra all day long and so she did. She attended a few schools of theatre, when she was 13 she was given her first guitar and started to write music. A little while then, she began to work performing in some pubs of Camden Town. A friend of her, Tyler James give a demo of her to a producer and signed a contract with the discography Island/Universal with only 16 years old.

In 2003 she released her first album, Frank. She was nominated to the Mercury Music Prize and the BRIT Awards.
But she reached the top when released Back to black, in 2006. The critics she received were totally favorable and won dozens of awards, including BRIT Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and 5 Grammys.

But her career was seriously damaged when she started doing drugs.She was said to take cocaine, heroine, alcohol, cannabis...The media strongly focused on her and her addictions. She did gigs drunk, was seen smoking crack and she was hospitalized several times. She finally died on the 23 of July in 2011. She was found in her apartment in Camden, London. The reason why she died is unknown, but it's said because of the abstinence syndrome. 

Amy sang a mix of genres like jazz, soul, R&B or Ska. Her unique voice was often confused with the afroamerican style. It's a huge loss for the musical world. She was the sould diva of the moment. 

R.I.P Amy Winehouse

God bless music.

The White Couple.

Once upon a time, there was a musician called Jack Anthony Gillis (later known as Jack White) maried Meg White in 1996. He was a professional musician and she started to play the drums. So they formed The White Stripes. They began to play in the Michigan underground garage rock scene playing with other local bands. Afterwards, they signed to a small independent label, Italy Records, owned by Dave Buick. He asked them in a bar, if they would like to record a single with the label. They denied at first but then accepted. They recorded Let's shake hands, Lafayette Blues and The Big three killed my baby, all of them released on vinyl only. During the beggining of their career, they insisted on being bother and sister, but then came out that they were husband and wife. 

In 1999 they released their debut album The White Stripes with the label Sympathy For The Record Industry and in 2000 they released De Stjil (The Style in Ducth). Unfortunately, in the same year, their marriage finished. 

They reach the success with their third album White Blood Cells. The single "Fell in love with a girl" won the 2002 MTV Video Music Award.

Two years later, they released Elefant their most successful album.The fisrt album "Seven Nation Army" was their most successful. It won a Grammy for Best Rock Song. Also, Elephant won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. Meanwhile, Jack White was placed at #17 on the list of "100 Greatest Guitarrists of All Time". 

Then produced two more albums before breaking up, in 2011. 

Their music is a mix of blues rock, punk and country. Some of their influences are, Son House, The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan.

God bless music.

Seattle horses.

Carissa's Weird was a group that broke up in 2004. And this lead to the formation of a new group called Band Of Horses. It was formed by Ben Bridwell, Tim Meining, Chris Early and Mat Brooke. The label Sub Pop was pretty interested in the band, so they produced the Tour Ep. It was only sold at show and Sub Pop's website. One year later, they released their first full-length album called Everything All The Time.


It was a minor hit in Scandinavia, entering the lower reaches of the Sweden and Norway album charts. But there wasn't personality match between Meining and Early and Bridwell, so Meining and Early left the band. Everything all the time's first album was "The Funeral". It has been used in several films, television series, video games and adverts.

Before recording their first album, Bridwell wanted to relocate the band's place from Seattle to his native South Carolina. Then they toured Europe in 2007. Their second album was called Ceased To Begin. It was a hit un the USA and Denmark. 

In 2010, they released their third album Infinite Arms and toured Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.




They are a really interesting mix between indie pop and rock. They write lyrics a bit difficult to understant but with a absorbing meaning.






God bless music.

The Riot Grrrrlz

Maybe, you never heard about this band, and it's a pity 'cause they probably were one of the best punk bands ever. They belonged to a movement called Riol Grrrl. They were bands of girls that sung feminist songs, and sometimes agressive. They wanted to show that they were the same good as men were. And personally, I like more girls' rock than men's rock.

Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox and Tobi Vail formed the band. They worked together in a fanzine ( an unofficial magazine made by fans) called Bikini Kill. So they formed the band with the same name and Billy Karren joined them. They encouraged woman at they shows. Their wrote feminine-centric songs.

Tobi Vail, Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox

They released a demo cassette called Revolution Girl Style Now but their debut album was Bikini Kill EP with the indie label Kill Rock Stars. They established themselves an audience. In 1993 they made a tour in the UK and it was the subject of a documentary be Lucy Thane called It changed my life: Bikini Kill in the UK.
The Riot Grrl movement was rising, and Bikini Kill was said to lead it. They came back to the USA, they collaborated with Joan Jett and in 1996 they released Reject all the americans. These was their last album, they broke up in 1998. They started working on their own.

Bikini Kill has been an influence for many bands such as The Gossip or Jack Off Jill.

Bikini Kill rocks!


God bless music.

The savior

Let's change a little bit the music style and the age. This girl is only 23 and is known all around the world. She was born the 5th of May of 1988 and her name is Adele.

She first get interested in music when she sang a song in a school perfirmance. Then, in 2006 entered the same arts school as Amy Winehouse, Katie Melua or Kate Nash and one month later she wrote two songs and publish them in the arts school's web page and then went on tour with other musicians. In 2007 she released her first single Hometown Glory. She get so much fame in My Space, that the media focused on her, and she was contracted by an independent label, XL Racordings. With this label, she released the second single, Chasing Pavements. Her song started to sound in the radio and she won two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Feminine Pop Performance.

In total she has sold 6 million CDs.

I titled this message "The Savior" because I think that nowadays the new artists that appear are all the same and sing the same music. And they even not write their songs. It's a shame! But she has changed this streak of bad singers, she is a REAL singer has is a new soul icon. She can still save the music, so we must trust her.

Dedicated to my friend Laura:)


God bless music.

Rockin' against the world.

Zack de la Rocha and Tim Commerford met at school and they became friends because Zack taught Tim to steal food. Tim started to play the bass and Zack to play the guitar. Meanwhile, Tom Morello was learning to play the guitar too and one day he met Zack rapping in a club, and when he listened to the lyrics, he got astonished by the message. Tom already know Brad Wilk, a drumer. So they formed Rage Against The Machine. The name means "fight against the system".

Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, Zack de la Rocha and Tom Commerford.

They first played at a garage, while they started to write songs. Then, they performed in several clubs around Los Ángeles. And in 1992 they got a contract with Epic Records and released their first album, Rage against the machine.

Their fame started to spread all over the USA and they were frequently on tour, but it didn't let them to know each other and work together, so they separated for a while but finally they decided to go on. In 1995 they produced the CD Evil Empire. 

Afterwards, they started to make collaborations with other bands like Bruce Springsteen, Red Hot Chilli Pepper or The Prodigy.

After the release of their third album Battle of Los Ángeles, Zack announced they he would left the band to start a solo career. However, they released a cover-album called Renegades. 

  

They did a gig to say goodbye officially and in 2000 they broke up. But 7 years after, they re-joined and nowadays they're still together.

But what makes RATM special is that they play metal rap, there's only a few known bands that play it.

And all their lyrics are controversial and critizie the capitalism, globalization and war. They have a  radical left-side ideology and they have taken part of several events against the society.

God bless music.