Alternative Rock | Musicosity

Alternative Rock

Tenacious D

Tenacious D (often referred to as "The D" and sometimes introduced as "The Greatest Band in the world. Period.") is an American satirical rock duo formed by musicians and actors Kyle Gass and Jack Black in Los Angeles, California in 1994. Their music fuses vulgar absurdist comedy with rock music in a style that critics have described as "mock rock". The band first gained reputation in 1999, starring in a self-titled HBO TV series.

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Fading Hour

Fading Hour is emerging as one of the most promising young bands to hit the Australian music scene. Their sound is dynamic, distinct and lucid, showing influences by everyone from Incubus, Tool, Dredg and Porcupine Tree to likes of Chevelle, Disturbed and The Deftones. Their music is an amalgamation of genres which can best be described as progressive melodic and heavy rock. The Melbourne four piece originally formed back in 2005, when guitarist Peter and drummer Shannon teamed up with Michael on vocals and Jono on bass.

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Smudge

Please be aware that the tracks StayFeelregret, Flatline and Lock and Load are by Smudge (UK).. please head over to http://www.last.fm/music/Smudge+UK for their profile. Sorry for any inconvenience! Thankyou Smudge Australia
Smudge is a pop band which formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. The group is fronted by vocalist and guitarist, Tom Morgan who co-authored The Lemonheads breakthrough 1992 album It's A Shame About Ray as well as a number of other hits for that group.

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The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady is a Brooklyn-based rock band formed by vocalist/guitarist Craig Finn (ex-Lifter Puller) in 2004. Wanting to capture the sound of bands such as The Replacements and The Grifters, he recruited guitarist Tad Kubler (also ex-Lifter Puller), drummer Judd Counsell, and bassist Galen Polivka. In 2005 the band grew to include Franz Nicolay (of The World/Inferno Friendship Society) on keyboards and Bobby Drake took over on drums following Counsell's departure.

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Dead Leaves

Dead Leaves is a hard rock band formed in 1994, in Shamokin, PA. The band consists of Jer Waugh on Bass,
Jason Dampman on Lead Guitar,
Kris Guitas on Lead Vocals,
Rich Pastuszek on Drums.
Jason Walters on Guitar,
They are a band that does not stray much from the Hard Rock sound, no rap, no techno, Just heavy hitting lyrics and Bass Lines. Dead Leaves is from Central Pennsylvania, USA. They were sponsored by Jagermeister. They only have two albums, the Dead Leaves E.P. and Your Kind is Labeled.

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The Vines

The Vines are an Australian alternative rock band noted for producing a musical hybrid of '60s rock and '90s alternative music. Since 2006 their line-up has consisted of vocalist and lead guitarist Craig Nicholls, rhythm guitarist Ryan Griffiths, bassist Brad Heald and drummer Hamish Rosser. They appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in October 2002 (the first Australian band to do so since Men at Work in 1983) with the words "Rock is Back: meet the Vines" boldly emblazoned underneath.

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The National

The National is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band formed in 1999, by friends from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The band's lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger in a distinctive, deep baritone. The rest of the band is composed of two pairs of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar, bass, keyboards), Bryce Dessner (guitar), Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).

Their self-titled debut album"The National" (Brassland 2001) was recorded and released before they had played even a single show. They cut the album with engineer Nick Lloyd and formed a label with writer Alec Bemis, so those recordings could be released. Kerrang! magazine gave it four Ks, calling it "the stuff underground legends are made of."

The National made a second album, "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers" (Brassland/Talitres 2003). The staff was the same, though Peter Katis, who produced "Turn on The Bright Lights" and "Antics" by Interpol, helped produce and mix, and Australian composer Padma Newsome from Clogs collaborated on arrangements and strings.

Following the first session of several for Bernard Lenoir on France's Radio Inter, an in-between EP was released, Cherry Tree, containing what would become the blueprint for the sound on their next record and the session of Sad Song's standout Murder Me Rachael. After these accolades and being impressed by their live show, Roger Trust signed them to Beggars Banquet.

A show at their favorite bar became a van ride to neighboring cities, became a plane ride to Europe, became two summers overseas. Their ties to those good jobs slackened. And they continue on their own path, moving out even further out in Brooklyn to Ditmas Park, where there is space and familiar suburban streets and even Geese on Beverly Road. Their album, "Alligator", much of which was recorded at their homes in Ditmas Park, was engineered by Paul Mahajan, who has worked with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio. Padma Newsome camped out for a month with the band, and Peter Katis added more production and mixed the record at his house in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Berninger's potent baritone still intones about matters fraught and funny and sad; about record collections, missing persons and medium-sized American hearts. But the record's not simply gothic or miserablist -- more like the plays of Tennessee Williams, it's full of peculiar intimacies and awkward grace. Alligator's heroes are reckless and possessed seducers, but they are apologetic ones. In The National's imaginings, in songs alternately lush and spare, there is something twighlit and dreamy worked out in the basement of our brains.

"Abel," "Secret Meeting," and "Lit Up" were released as singles.

On May 22, 2007, The National released their follow-up to Alligator, Boxer, on Beggars Banquet. Taking advantage of the fact that nobody had heard their first album and earliest demos, Matt proceeded to steal lyrics and melodies from them and give them the attention they deserved while keeping the intimacy that made them special. They even managed to convince new friend Sufjan Stevens to lay down some piano tracks for them, and recorded the album in a scant 6 months after coming off the long post-Alligator road.

"Mistaken for Strangers", "Fake Empire" and "Apartment Story" have been released as singles. The band have just finished touring North America and are on a large European autumn/winter tour after playing high slots at several large festivals. In their Dec. 07/Jan. 08 issue, Paste magazine named Boxer best record of 2007.

The band's fifth album, High Violet, was released on May 10, 2010 by 4AD Records. "Bloodbuzz Ohio", "Anyone's Ghost" and "Terrible Love" were released as singles.

In 2013 their sixth studio record Trouble Will Find Me was released and named "Best New Music" by Pitchfork. The album contained the single "I Need My Girl". In 2015, the album outtake "Sunshine On My Back" was released.

Four years after Trouble Will Find Me, marking the longest timespan between albums in their career so far, they released their seventh album Sleep Well Beast on September 8th, 2017 and were yet again met with great critical success.

The National homepage: http://www.americanmary.com/
The National blog http://tntl.tumblr.com
The National on Twitter http://twitter.com/The_National
Brassland homepage: http://brassland.org/
Beggars Banquet homepage: http://www.beggars.com/ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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