Alabama Shakes: the new Janis Joplin?

   / Southern-Rock, Soul, Blues-Rock, USA

                                                                                                               (posted in Danish, April 26, 2012)


Another of my friends who has an ear for music, Alex, pointed my attention to this band... thank you, Alex :)

The Joplin thing... if you ask me, this band / singer has A LOT of potential.

Alabama Shakes is a real intense band. They have an original sound and catchy, groovy, bluesy swing.  I love them already, here a few minutes after watching them on Facebook.

Now I've done a bit of research...

Alabama Shakes is a band out of Athens, Alabama. The lead singer (Brittany Howard) og bassplayer (Zac Cockrell) met at highschool in 2009 and started meeting after school, writing songs. They tried out a lot of genres connected to "the old southern USA" and after a while, they got the drummer Steve Johnson aboard. They started writing and recording music. But for performances they found a guitarist (Heath Fogg) who later became a band member. They would play Led Zeppelin, Otis Redding, AC/DC and James Brown-songs to fill up 45 minutes of concert. Then they changed their name from The Shakes to Alabama Shakes, to avoid being confused with other bands that were named the same. By 2011 Ben Tanner (keyboards) joined them on tours.

Below is more info, but first an hour-long concert from New York, aired on MTV...

Edited: the concert has been removed, but here is another, just as good :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcFxxvxjkAU

Their 1st EP was released September 2011. It attracted the attention of people in some cities, and after having their song in a big tv-commercial, MTV added them to the list of 11 bands to pay attention to in 2012! They got a record contract and were nominated for the prize of Best Live Act. They have had several big talkshow-appearances, including Letterman on his birthday.

And now they are playing at Roskilde Festival 2012. I'm 100% sure it will be a fantastic concert.

(Editet: Their 1st Album "Boys & Girls" was released in 2012 and the 2nd one "Sound & Color" in 2015 - listen on Spotify)

MUSIKKlik:

Alabama Shakes' 1. musikvideo "Hold On": http://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw

Alabama Shakes' homepage (scroll below picture): http://www.alabamashakes.com/

Alabama Shakes in Gaffa: https://gaffa.dk/search/14647

SKYLAR GREY: singer-songwriter in a new millenium

   / Dark-Pop, Hardcore-Ballads, USA          (Posted in Danish, 2012 February 15th)

As a consequence of my general curiosity I had to test MTV Push (mentioned in the previous post). It took 4 attempts and I found something very interesting!

Skylar Grey (her real name is Holly Brook Hafermann; the first album is released under the name Holly Brook) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer.

She has worked with Marilyn Manson, Rihanna, Eminem, P Diddy and Dr. Dre. She was nominated for a handful of Grammys 2012 in cooperation with others, but did not win.

More info below ...

She started her career as a child: she performed in a folk duo with her mother, and at age 15 she sneaked into bars to perform / play with jazz musicians in Wisconsin. At age 18 she moved to Los Angeles and made a demo. She was discovered by Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson, who helped her progress.

She changed her artist name to sound more original and less feminine - "it's more masculine. I'm not a very feminine person." she says.

She works with a lot of other artists and has been nominated for her good work.

She has released two albums - the third published 2015.

M U S I C Click:

Skylar Grey video "Invisible":

http://youtu.be/NVVrT_wNw_Y

Skylar Grey's website:

http://www.skylargreymusic.com/

MTV Push Denmark:

http://www.mtv.dk/shows/mtv-push/

FOSTER THE PEOPLE - super brilliant!!!

   / Indie-Pop, Indie-Rock, USA 

Here is a big new name: Foster The People. 

Foster the People origin from Los Angeles, they started in 2009 and consists of Mark Foster (vocals, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, guitar, programming, percussion) + Cubbie Fink (bass and backing vocals) + Mark Pontius (drums and extra percussion) + they have two extra musicians on stage, on tour.

Before further info, here's Call It What You Want, one of their many great tracks:

Mark Foster has had a long "non-career" and was, in spite of great talent and many songs written in many genres over many years, unable to find a group and a breakthrough. When he finally got together with someone and started a band, things went just as slow ... until it suddenly sped up. "Everyone is calling me and emailing me - what do I do? Who are the good guys, der er the bad guys?" Mark said, as he went from being a guy who could not get hold of anyone to a guy who suddenly gets hundreds of emails. "For so many years, it was slow, playing in front of pretty small crowds and trying to get your friends to show up ... And then all of a sudden, it kind of took off ..." 

Their cool debut album (Torches, 2011) made gold / platinum in the USA, Canada and Australia. The single below: Pumped Up Kicks (2010) went #1 more places around the world, it was nominated for a Grammy and won a Billboard Music Award.

Foster The People are nominated for 1 Brit Award in 2012 and 2 Grammy's in 2012 (where they will be playing with The Beach Boys and Maroon 5). They have been nominated for 2 MTV music awards 2011, 2 Q awards 2011 and at SharkOneAwards they won the New Artist of the Year-Award. They have recently been on MTV Push ("Do you need a new favorite band? Then MTV will help! Each month, we Push you the newest and hottest acts in the world and, of course, explains why they are so special."; O)

Foster The People did release 2 albums and 2 EP's, so far.

M U S I C Click: 

Foster the People website: 

http://www.fosterthepeople.com/us/home

MTV Push: 

http://www.mtv.co.uk/mtv-push

SKRILLEX - evil electro in a whole new league

   / Dubstep, Electro-House, USA.          (Released in Danish, 2012 January 23rd)

This is Skrillex. A brilliant electro-musician, who seems to be nerd / genius and a rising star.

Skrillex is Sonny John Moore, born in 1988 in Los Angeles, a former frontman of the post-hardcore band From First To Last. In 2007 he started his solo carreer. Skrillex has made 1 album, 14 EP's, some singles, remixes in amounts and been a guest artist on various people's tracks.

23rd of december 2012 he released a new music video, quite "noir" (especially when you look at the date it was released and the story in the video), watch closely ...

Skrillex informs that the music he started listening to was Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson ... which tells us where he gets "it" from. He has made electro music since he was 14 years old!

In 2011 he was nominated for 5 Grammy's (including Best New Artist), the BBC's Sound of 2012 and MTV's best Electronic Dance Music. He has won a total of 6 Grammys by now.

Skrillex will be playing for the first time in Denmark 5th of may 2012. The concert at Store Vega was sold out in 24 hours and the gig was moved to Forum. Ah, would like to have been there :)

If you want an impression of Skrillex Live, you can search Youtube for the clips from one of his tours: listen to "Skrillex-The Mothership (Massive Mix)"there are 8 parts - he mixes "every genre of techno known to man!!!!" - It IS massive :-) (Link below)

M U S I C Click:

Skrillex - The Mothership (Massive Mix):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Skrillex-The+Mothership+%28Massive+Mix%29

Skrillex website:

http://www.skrillex.com/

Skrillex at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrillex

MAROON 5 - Live, Falconer Salen

   / Concert, Pop-Rock, Neo-Soul, USA          (Posted in Danish, 2011 6th of December)

Main act: Maroon 5 (90 min.)

Opening act: Emily King (30 min.) 

Music (max 5): ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

Venue (max 5): ♪ ♪ ♪

We went to see Maroon 5 in Falconer Salen (Copenhagen) December 2nd 2011. And we never regretted. It was an excellent concert. The band peformed great. The venue on the other hand, was not that good.

First, the main act:

It was Maroon 5 like on their best albums - all of them were swinging, especially the guitarist. They were really enthusiastic. The band was Adam Levine on vocal and also guitar once in a while, and he had brought one guitarist (James Valentine), one bass player, one drummer and two on tangents. 

The concert started with their big new hit Moves like Jagger (instead of saving it for the middle of the concert) and instantly the crowd got in the mood ... The first 30 minutes they delivered hit followed by hit, with no breaks. The crowd was singing and dancing. It was tracks like Harder to Breathe and Sunday Morning (live on video from the concert below).

... and hits like If I Never See Your Face Again and Makes Me Wonder and more funky tunes. The following 10 minutes they played smaller hits and quiet songs. Afterwards the rest of the concert was right up in pace, with songs that suddenly lapsed into Tina Turner's What's love got to do with it, or with guitar / vocal Battle, guitar solos and a metal rock intro on a single track (Wake Up Call, seen below, however, this clip was filmed without the intro). Quite entertaining for a pop band and although the audience was very spread in age, they all partied.

The opening act:
Was a singer / songwriter, Emily King on Guitar, and she was so incredibly boring that people weren't listening but chit-chatted, waiting for her to leave. She had a dude playing the guitar and electronics, he gave a small boost to the boring warm-up. We were, after she went, no hotter than before she came.

And now: the venue:
It was a canceled / postponed concert that should have been played at Vega, that unfortunately was moved to Falconer Salen. Vega has a nice concert venue, as opposed to Falconer Salen (despite Vega sometimes lack in service, they will close one of many queues to the wardrobe due to lack of hangers in one row and people must get back behind a new queue downstairs in the lobby and faintly hear the band you payed to watch, play the first 2½ songs, while the staff from the closed wardrobe disappeares, maybe goes upstairs watching the concert?!) Falconer Salen were in full control of the queues for both wardrobe and bar, but people can't see much - the scene is too low and the shorter people can not see the band. like they can at Vega. And the sound at Falconer Salen was bad ... when paying kr. 400,- it should be near perfect. The only upside is I probably would have no tickets if they were playing at Vega, since our tickets were bought just before they got sold out in this bigger venue.

Conclusion:
An awesome concert with a great band, which despite the venue and opening act delivered a Truly Great evening.



M U S I C Click:

Maroon 5 website:
http://www.maroon5.com/

Maroon 5 channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Maroon5?blend=1&ob=4#g/c/447CE9E513965C65

COLLETTE - new R&B star

   / RnB, USA (posted in Danish 2011 Nov. 14th)



Here is a fairly new R&B / soul artist + singer / songwriter / producer from Columbia (South Carolina). Her name is Collette Blakeney. And she sings fabulous.

Collette played the saxophone and the piano as a child. As a teenager she began to sing, probably inspired by her mother, who sang gospel. She sang in a choir for several years until she finally was ready to sing on her own.

Above: Material Star (ft. Akil Dasan).

Collette has many talents, both music wise and others. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in media production in 2004 with a minor in Japanese language and culture and she owns / runs a PR- and communications-company in New York.

She gets good reviews ... both live and on the debut CD (Experience Collette - 2008). This year she released Coco By Request - her next album, which was well received.

Above: Good Morning Heartache (Live In Chicago).

Collette was nominated for the title "Female Vocalist of the Year" by "The Soul Tracks Readers' Choice Award". In 2010 she won The John Lennon Songwriting Contest.



M U S I C Click:

Collette's website: http://www.collettemusic.com/

The John Lennon Songwriting Contest: http://jlsc.com/

Collette’s impressive resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collettesings

MADONNA: 1. single of the next album

   / Pop, USA          (posted in Danish 2011 Nov. 11th)

Madonna's first single from her new album is leaked on the net... But now it can be heard in the official version ...

EDIT: leaks of music is damaging to the music. For example Björk's new album, Vulnicura: it was leaked two months before she was ready to release it, and it could be difficult to sell some albums / downloads, if she did not rush a release in a few days, instead of when it was ready for release. And she rushed it! Leaking makes artists rush releases and loose money.

Here's the video for her new single, Gimme All Your Luvin' (feat. M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj).

The video will be shot in New York December 2011. The album is to be called MDNA, will be published in 2012 and follow up on the album Hard Candy from 2008, which sold 3,8+ million.

Equally interesting are the rumors Madonna fan website drownedmadonna.com says of her upcoming world tour - which is that she should play in Horsens 23/06/2012.

M U S I C Click:

The fansite:

http://drownedmadonna.com/

Madonna's website:

http://www.madonna.com/