Urge Overkill are an alternative rock band from Chicago that attracted underground attention in the late 80s and early 90s. While their ironic reshaping of 70's arena and glam rock left them marginalized during the height of grunge, they managed to appear on the charts with their cover of the Neil Diamond classic "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, which hit #50 on the US Charts, and #11 on the Modern Rock charts.
Blondie is perhaps the most commercially successful band to emerge from the 1970s punk scene. They formed in New York in 1974. The original lineup consisted of Clem Burke (drums / percussion), Jimmy Destri (keyboards), Debbie Harry (vocals), Chris Stein (guitar / bass guitar) and Gary Valentine (bass guitar / guitar). Blondie released their first album Blondie in 1976. The album was mildly successful and spawned the Australian hit single "In The Flesh".
Nancy Vandal is a punk band from Sydney, Australia that performed from 1993 to 2001 and had a reunion performance in 2003 and have, as of December 2008, planned a reunion and new EP for 2009. The band was initially called Hard Axe To Follow, then Nancy Vandal and the Popgun Assassins, but the last part of the name was later dropped. Nancy Vandal was formed by Warrane College students Foxtrotsky/Fox Trotsky and JJ LaMoore as a strictly pretend band as neither of them could play an instrument. Eventually the pair formed a real band called Meataxe that played on campus.
There are 4 artists which go by the name of Pez: 1) an Australian Emcee from Melbourne
2) a hard, experimental Rock trio from Argentina
3) an emcee based in Plymouth, UK
4) a producer from Holland*. 1) From the shadows of Melbourne’s hip-hop underground steps one of the brightest local talents to emerge in years – 24-year-old emcee Perry Chapman aka Pez – with his stunning debut album A Mind Of My Own.
Spiderbait are an alternative rock band formed in 1991 in Finley, New South Wales, Australia which consists of Mark "Kram" Maher (drums, lead vocals), Janet English (bass, vocals) and Damien Whitty (guitar). They have had two top ten albums and another three albums reach the Australian top 40. Their song Buy Me a Pony was #1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 1996, and the group enjoyed success with their 2004 #1 Australian hit cover of Black Betty.
When you have as big a celebrity fan as Stephen King, you must be doing something right! The three-piece from Finley, New South Wales, Australia, often jump genres from disco-pop (Stevie, Calypso) to mutant dance (Arse Huggin' Pants) - in the course of a single album, no less. And yet, they still manage to rock like mofos (Shazam!, Outta My Head, and - of course - their cover of Black Betty).
The three band members Mark Maher or "Kram" (drums and vocals), Damien Whitty or "Whitt" on guitar and Janet English on bass/vocals come from the small town Finley in southern New South Wales where they jammed together in their youth.
The band moved to Melbourne, Australia where Kram was studying at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Music. The band played its first gig at a loungeroom for a friend's party. The band soon became part of Melbourne's punk scene playing gigs at venues like the Tote Hotel in Collingwood, Victoria. They released their first single Circle K on Au-Go-Go Records with an EP titled P'tang Yang Kipper Bang Uh! following in 1992. The band's first album Shashavaglava was released in 1992. 'Shashavaglava' means 'dickhead' in Croatian. This album featured the songs Old Man Sam and a cover of English comedians The Goodies' song Run.
Spiderbait signed with Polydor Records and released their first album with the new label, their second album overall, named The Unfinished Spanish Galleon of Finley Lake in 1995. The album reached #14 on the Australian charts with singles Monty and Jesus receiving extensive airplay on Triple J. The album title refers to an unfinished project by the Finley Rotary Club, which became a venue for teenage drinking in their home town.
Their third album Ivy and the Big Apples was released in 1996, reached #3 and sold over 180,000 copies in Australia. Their first single Buy Me a Pony received extensive airplay on Triple J resulting in listeners voting it as their favourite song of the year. The second single Calypso also achieved commercial airplay, and reached #13 in the Australian singles charts in 1997.
In 1998, Janet English and her then boyfriend Quan Yeomans of Regurgitator recorded an album as Happyland. Around the same time, Kram and Richie Lewis of Tumbleweed released their own side-project the Hot Rollers - so named as both member's mothers were hairdressers. The Hot Rollers only album (self-titled) was released through Polydor.
Spiderbait returned together in 1999 with the album Grand Slam which also debuted at #10 on the Australian album charts.
Despite good airplay for the Grand Slam singles Shazam! and Stevie, their 2001 album The Flight of Wally Funk was a commercial flop, only selling 20,000 copies. The album was recorded in Whitt's living room.
Spiderbait recorded the Tonight Alright album in Los Angeles with producer Sylvia Massy who had worked with acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Tool, System of a Down and Skunk Anansie. The first single Black Betty was a cover version of the old Leadbelly song which became a hit in 1977 when covered by Ram Jam. The single reached #1 after 10 weeks in the singles chart in May 2004 (after debuting at #12), and stayed there for three weeks, becoming their biggest selling single ever. The film clip featured a hot rod similar to the car on the ZZ Top Eliminator. The song also made the soundtrack to the Electronic Arts video game Need for Speed: Underground 2. Tonight Alright was released on 28 March 2004, and debuted and peaked at #14. The second single Fucken Awesome debuted in the top 30 on June 28 2004. Interscope Records signed the band in 2004 to distribute Tonight Alright in the US and UK.
At the 2004 ARIA awards, Kram performed as part of the supergroup The Wrights, featuring members of many other Australian rock bands.
In September 2005 they released a Greatest Hits collection to reveal their back catalogue to younger fans who were caught up by Black Betty. This debuted at #6 and received a Gold Accreditation.
The band went on hiatus March 2005 after bassist Janet English gave birth to her daughter and planned a cycling tour across Europe. More recently Kram had announced plans of a solo album to be released sometime in 2006.
On 18 November 2006 the band performed at the Queensland Council of Unions organised Rock the Vote! concert in Brisbane after a nine month hiatus from touring. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Kelley Stoltz is a musician from San Francisco.
http://www.kelleystoltz.com/
http://www.electriccity.org/
http://www.myspace.com/kelleystoltz Taken from Pandora.com - "Multi-instrumentalist Kelley Stoltz grew up in the Detroit area, but eventually found his way to San Francisco after taking a detour to New York City, where he worked in the mailroom at Jeff Buckley's management company. Armed with a four-track recorder and tons of great ideas, Stoltz began recording his own songs, performing all the parts himself.
The Vagrant City Scandal burst onto the music scene in early 2007, with a rock n roll energy, the likes of which has rarely been seen. With the release of their debut E.P. ‘Dirty Town’ came dingy pub shows, acclaimed live reviews and the experience to combine a command of the stage with an honest representation of their infectious sound.
The Vagrant City Scandal have supported the likes of British India (MELB), Evermore (MELB) and Art vs Science (SYD)
Danzig is a heavy metal band from the United States, formed in 1987. The band serves as a musical outlet for singer/composer Glenn Danzig, and their music fuses dark lyrics and imagery with blues influenced music. Danzig can be seen as the third stage in Glenn Danzig's musical career, preceded by the punk bands The Misfits and Samhain. On July 14, 1986, Samhain performed what was to be their final show, at The Ritz in New York City.
Created in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, United States by actor Jared Leto and his brother, Shannon, 30 Seconds to Mars initially began as a small family project. Matt Wachter later joined the band as bassist and keyboard player. After working with a number of guitarists (including Kevin Drake and Solon Bixler), the three auditioned Tomo Miličević to round out the band's official roster. After Wachter's departure from the band in 2006, the Leto brothers and Miličević continue on as a trio with additional touring members, including Tim Kelleher on bass.
There are at least four bands using the name "The Dead": *American; rock, jamband genres: The Dead, also known as the Other Ones, are a North American rock band composed of former members of the Grateful Dead. After the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann formed a band called The Other Ones. They performed concert tours in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and released one album, The Strange Remain. In 2003, they changed their name to The Dead.