Artist Of The Week
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10/15/2012
Whoever named Fleetwood Mac was either lucky or prescient. The only thing about the group that hasn't changed since it formed in 1967 is the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Through the '70s, the band's personnel and style shifted with nearly every recording as Fleetwood Mac metamorphosed from a traditionalist British blues band to the maker of one of the best-selling pop albums ever, Rumours. From that album's release in 1977 into the present, Fleetwood Mac has survived additional, theoretically key, personnel changes and remained through the mid-'90s a dominant commercial force.
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was formed by ex–John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Green, McVie, and Fleetwood along with Elmore James enthusiast Jeremy Spencer. McVie had been a charter member of the Bluesbreakers in 1963, Fleetwood had joined in 1965, and Green had replaced Eric Clapton in 1966. With its repertoire of blues classics and Green's blues-style originals, the group's debut at the British Jazz and Blues Festival in August 1967 netted it a record contract. Fleetwood Mac was popular in Britain ...
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10/8/2012
John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, (born October 7, 1951) is a Grammy-winning American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his rootsy, organic brand of heartland rock that is infused with catchy pop hooks and evocative, introspective lyrics about such hot-button subjects as politics, racism, poverty and mortality. Mellencamp has brought together rock, folk, country, blues and R&B into his eclectic body of work.
He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and he has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one.
Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a star-studded concert in Champaign, Illinois to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm ...
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10/1/2012
There is a signature richness and power to the music that Bob Seger has been making for four decades, and as succeeding generations have discovered those qualities, his reputation as an artist and songwriter has only grown. His work represents the honest best of what rock & roll can be. Its passionate, unpretentious, uplifting and true to itself and its audience. Perhaps most of all it is distinctly American, a plainspoken testament to the dignity, hopes and aspirations of ordinary working people. In a time as obsessed with glamour, celebrity, fame and materialism as ours, his songs remain a bracing tonic, an emblem of the belief that everyones life is a worthy subject of art.
Thats one of the reasons why Segers songs have lasted so well and continue to be so well-loved. His Greatest Hits collection has sold more than seven million copies, and albums like Beautiful Loser (1975), Live Bullet (1976), Night Moves (1976), Stranger in Town (1978), Against the Wind (1980) and Nine Tonight (1981) have all enjoyed multiplatinum sales. In ...
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9/24/2012
After many years of fan demand, Randy Bachman and Fred Turner-two giants of rock n' roll-are finally reuniting for the first time in more than 20 years. The musicians at the heart of legendary band Bachman-Turner Overdrive are ready to record and tour again as a new, full-throttle rock machine: Bachman & Turner. The duo and their top-notch band have released their first new single in two decades, "Rollin' Along," which is currently available for streaming at their website bachmanandturner.com and for sale at iTunes. The track offers fans a long-awaited glimpse into Bachman & Turner's self-titled, brand new album currently set for a September 7th release on E1 Music (Canada), and RBE Music/Fontana (U.S.). Bachman & Turner's upcoming studio album will be stocked with all original new tracks penned by the pair; in addition to "Rollin' Along," the album's anthems include "Rock and Roll Is the Only Way Out" and "Slave To the Rhythm," which have a sound that seamlessly fits alongside Bachman-Turner Overdrive classics "Takin' Care of Business" and "You Ain't Seen Nothin' ...
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9/24/2012
Little River Band was formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1975. It was originally a blend of musicians who had enjoyed success in other Australian acts. Their new focus was to get airplay on American radio, and they achieved that goal with good songwriting, powerful vocals, and guitar harmonies. They immediately claimed their place as one of the great vocal bands of the ‘70s…and the ‘80s. Between 1976 and 1983, chart success in America includes the following singles: It's a Long Way There, Help Is on Its Way, Happy Anniversary, Reminiscing, Lady, Cool Change, Lonesome Loser, The Night Owls, Take It Easy On Me, Man On Your Mind, We Two, and The Other Guy. Little River Band is considered to be one of Australia's most significant bands. Worldwide album and CD sales now top 30 million. They also set a record for having Top 10 hits for 6 consecutive years…the first band to achieve that mark. And according to BMI, Reminiscing has garnered rare status with over 5 million airplays on America radio…and Lady ...
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9/17/2012
The origins of The Doors lay in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantastic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, with Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive". Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band.
Keyboardist Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick & Jim Manczarek, while drummer John Densmore was playing with The Psychedelic Rangers, and knew Manzarek from meditation classes. In August, Densmore joined the group and, along with members of The Ravens and bass player Pat Sullivan (later credited using her married name Patricia Hansen in the 1997 box CD release), recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This circulated widely as a bootleg recording and appeared in full on the 1997 Doors box set.
That month the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger, and the final lineup ...
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9/10/2012
ZZ Top is a trio formed in late 1969 in Houston, Texas, US. The group members are Billy Gibbons (lead vocals, guitar), Dusty Hill (vocals, bass, keyboards), and Frank Beard (drums, percussion).
The band holds the distinction of being among the few rock bands still composed of its original recording members for nearly 40 years[1] and until September 2006, the same manager/producer/image maker, Bill Ham.
ZZ Top reached peak commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, scoring many hit songs during that era, but they remain together today and are still touring and releasing albums. ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2004. Summarizing their music, Cub Koda wrote, "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the hard rock idiom ... while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support."[2] Their song lyrics often feature sexual innuendo and humor.
Nearly as well-known as their music is the group's image: Gibbons and Hill ...
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9/3/2012
A Chicago Story - The history of one of the most popular rock bands of all time.Perhaps more than any other city in the United States, Chicago, located at the center of the nation, has reflected the cultural diversity that has served as both a nurturer of significant musical talent and a magnet that drew the best from other areas. Jazzman Lionel Hampton arrived in Chicago when he was 11 years old in 1919, blues man Muddy Waters got there in 1943, when be was 28. But Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, didn't have to travel, he was born in Chicago in 1909.In 1967, Chicago musicians Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Robert Lamm, and Peter Cetera formed a group with one dream, to integrate all the musical diversity from their beloved city and weave a new sound, a rock 'n' roll band with horns. Their dream turned into record sales topping the 100,000,000 mark, including 21 Top 10 singles, 5 consecutive Number One albums, 11 Number One ...
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8/27/2012
Ever wonder how BOSTON got its name or how BOSTON's sound came to be? Here are some answers to those and a lot of other questions about The Origin of Boston:
Although Boston is still active playing and recording today, many listeners associate Boston with the music from their debut album. Ferreting out the origin of those songs, and that sound, explains how the "band" got it's first recording contract in 1976.
Why is "band" in quotes? Because only two people were actually signed by Epic Records to record the album, Tom Scholz and Brad Delp. Scholz and Delp together wrote all of the songs released on the first album, performed 89 percent of the tracks by overdubbing, and Scholz engineered and produced most of it in a studio he built in his basement.
Scholz wrote the first song that would eventually bear the Boston name in 1969 while at MIT. The instrumental, later titled "Foreplay," was also the first piece of music he had ever written.
A year later in 1970 Scholz joined an ...
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8/20/2012
Def Leppard are a hard rock and heavy metal band from Sheffield, England, which formed in 1977 as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott (vocals), Phil Collen (guitar), Vivian Campbell (guitar), Rick Savage (bass guitar), and Rick Allen (drums).
The band's strongest commercial success came in the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Their 1981 album High 'n' Dry was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who helped them begin to define their style, and the album's stand out track "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" became one of the first metal videos played on MTV in 1982. The bands next studio album Pyromania in 1983, with the lead single "Photograph", turned Def Leppard into a household name. In 2004, the album ranked number 384 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Def Leppard's fourth album Hysteria released in 1987, topped the U.S and UK album charts. As of 2009 it has 12x platinum sales in the United States, and has gone ...
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