Alternative | Musicosity

Alternative

Reel Big Fish

Reel Big Fish ("RBF") is a ska punk band from Huntington Beach, California, United States who broke into the mainstream in the mid to late 1990s. Their debut album, "Everything Sucks" (1995), was an underground hit and led to a deal with MOJO RECORDS (see also Mojo), an indie label. "Turn the Radio Off" (1996) established the band in the underground music scene, and they began touring throughout the USA.

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The Bon Scotts

The Bon Scotts are a five piece from Melbourne, with a catchy, playful and above all, honest energetic music. Formed in 2005 the band released only one EP, the yellow fall before disbanding. Reforming in 2009 to record Oddernity the band has quickly gained recognition with its animated live show and distinctive image. Confounded by Zimmerman’s witty and pertinent song writing, rarely is a new music more considered, confident and ingenuous.

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Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Seversen III on 23 December 1964) is the lead singer and lyricist for the band Pearl Jam. He has also been involved in other music outside of Pearl Jam, and released his first solo album, a soundtrack to the movie 'Into the Wild' in September 2007.
In the 1980s Vedder sang with several Southern California rock bands, most notably Bad Radio, but rose to fame only after moving to Seattle in 1990 and joining Pearl Jam.

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Lenny Kravitz

Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964. New York, USA) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, guitarist and actor whose retro amalgam of rock, pop, funk, and even techno is inspired by such music icons as David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. Like Prince and Sly Stone before him, Kravitz uses a multi-ethnic, mixed-gender backing band.

Kravitz plays guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, percussion, and sitar. He often plays these instruments on each recorded track, but frequently collaborates with other musicians as well when recording.

His 1989 debut album Let Love Rule was a moderate success. In 1991 he released his second album, Mama Said, which reached the top 40 of the Billboard album charts. In 1993, the album Are You Gonna Go My Way was released, reaching #12 on the Billboard 200 and Kravitz earned a Brit Award for best international male artist in 1994. He released the Circus album in 1995, which reached number 10 on the Billboard chart on the back of his past achievement. With 5 (1999), Kravitz embraced digital technology such as Pro Tools and samplers for the first time. He would win the first of his four consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1999.

His cover version of The Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 2000. Kravitz released a Greatest Hits compilation in 2000. It proved to be his most successful album. The single "Again" would earn him his third consecutive Grammy for the Best Male Rock Vocal in the Grammy Awards of 2001. Kravitz released his sixth album Lenny in October 2001. He won his fourth consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal at the Grammy Awards of 2002. Kravitz's seventh album Baptism was released in May 2004. His album, It Is Time For A Love Revolution was released in 2008. He has always edited his albums on Virgin Records America. The lead single from Kravitz’s ninth album, Black and White America, "Stand" was released on June 3, 2011. (Stand Songfacts).

He is the son of Ukrainian-Jewish American NBC television news producer Sy Kravitz, and Bahamian American actress Roxie Roker, best known as her character Helen Willis on the hit 1970s television sitcom The Jeffersons. Black and White America's title track is an autobiographical look back at his upbringing in New York. (Black and White America Songfacts).

Artist website: www.lennykravitz.com
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Models

Three bands share this page: an Australian rock group, a 70s punk rock band, and a Serbian pop band. 1. Models were an alternative rock group from Melbourne, Australia, active from 1978-1987. Various versions of Models have reformed for short tours. 1) They formed from two earlier punk/New Wave bands, Teenage Radio Stars (singer and guitarist Sean Kelly) and JAB (Ash Wednesday, Pierre Voltaire and Johnny Crash, keyboards, bass and drums respectively).

When they formed, Models were hailed as one of the most innovative and imaginative Australian bands.

Four decades later, nothing has changed.

Well, that’s not quite right – a lot of things have changed, but not the band’s approach to making music.

Models have always done things their own way.

As the authors of The 100 Best Australian Albums (which featured Models’ The Pleasure Of Your Company) stated: “Melbourne electronic outfit Models followed a distinctly perverse and disjointed course from the outset.”

The band actually had a “no singles” policy when they started – which annoyed Molly Meldrum. In 1980, Molly stopped his car on busy Chapel Street in Melbourne when he spotted a couple of Models. “He blocked traffic for several minutes to berate us,” singer Sean Kelly chuckles, “telling us that we were doing no one any favours and that our song ‘Happy Birthday IBM’ could’ve been a hit!”

(Molly didn’t hold a grudge, later calling Models “one of my favourite bands from the Countdown era”.)

Models rescinded their “no singles” policy with their second album, Local &/or General, and their chart-topping run of hits includes I Hear Motion, Big On Love, Barbados and Out Of Mind Out Of Sight.

Models are that rare breed of bands – one that has successfully straddled critical acclaim, cult appeal and commercial success.

“Alongside The Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party, Models were one of the first Melbourne bands to rise out of the ashes of that city’s hothouse punk/new wave explosion of the late 1970s with a clear vision and wider appeal,” says Ian McFarlane, author of The Encyclopedia Of Australian Rock And Pop.

Models were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2010.

“We might go into hibernation occasionally – actually, quite a lot,” Sean Kelly says, “but we have never broken up.”

Models have continued to record, recently releasing two EPs, GTK and MEMO. And live, the band pays tribute to the pop genius of James Freud, who died in 2010.
The songs still sound fresh. “We don’t think of them as being old,” Andrew Duffield says.
Models never go out of style.

Paramore

Paramore is an American rock band that was formed in Franklin, Tennessee, United States in 2003. The band consists of Hayley Williams (lead vocals/keyboard), Josh Farro (lead guitar/backing vocals), Jeremy Davis (bass guitar), Taylor York (rhythm guitar), and Zac Farro (drums). The band have released three studio albums in total; All We Know Is Falling (2005), RIOT! (2007) and Brand New Eyes (2009).

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Alkaline Trio

Alkaline Trio are a punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois consisting of Matt Skiba (guitar/vocals), Dan Andriano (bass/vocals), and Derek Grant (drums/backing vocals). Their music is characterized by dark lyrics, catchy hooks, fast tempos and recurring subjects of alcoholism, depression, shattered relationships, drugs and death. The band formed in December of 1996, originally consisting of Skiba, Rob Doran (bass/vocals), and Glenn Porter (drums/vocals).

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Kristeen Young

KRISTEENYOUNG is a piano/keyboard and drums "rock" duo, in the golden years sense of the word, when rock was simultaneously adventurous, original, scary and fun. The pair is made up of singer, writer, pianist/keyboardist, Kristeen Young and drummer "Baby" Jeff White. Kristeen's distinctive voice has been heralded, by many, as the best new voice in rock. She bashes, slams and bangs her piano/keyboard in a rock-riff manner, while running it through effects pedals to make it sound like a cross between a piano and guitar.

Billy Talent

Billy Talent is a Juno Award-winning Canadian rock band formed in 1993. They performed and recorded together for about a decade before finding a wide mainstream following. Originally called Pezz, the group originates from Streetsville, in Mississauga, Ontario, but now hail from Toronto, Ontario. The band is currently on tour, promoting a new album released in July 2009, named "Billy Talent III".

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Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz (born June 23, 1977 in Mechanicsville, Virginia) is a Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter. Mraz’s stylistic influences include reggae, pop, rock, folk, jazz, and hip hop. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come in 2002 but it was not until the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z that Mraz achieved commercial success. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 200 and sold over one hundred thousand copies in the US.

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