N°111 DANNY ELFMAN - THE SIMPSONS MAIN THEME

It’s been a while since I’ve used some kind of instrumental music and thanks to All That Remains I can use one of the most popular TV shows from the past centuries. When I say ‘Doh’. You say Homer Simpson and when I ask where these yellow creatures live you say Springfield. And where did All That Remains resides? Yes indeed Springfield !!!!

Daniel ‘Danny’ Elfman is one of the most famous composers of film music and TV series. If you’re, like I, am a huge fan of the Tim Burton movies you must have at least heard of him since he composed the musical themes for almost all of his movies starting with Pee Wee’s Great Adventure. Danny also made the compositions for the eighties series Beetlejuice; Tim Burton later would create also a movie around this character. But off course if you’re not a fan you might know him from the Desperate Housewives theme or the one I chose: the one from The Simpsons.

Mr Elfman’s parents were also performing artist. His other was a writer, his father played the sax and stimulating their children in art, literature  and music they send their sons to France to study theatre arts. Upon his return he and his brother started the band Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo. When the band split Danny took over with some remaining musicians and renamed themselves to Oingo Boingo. Apparently well known in the neighbourhood of California.

His brother left the band to study the art of film and when he produced his first film The Forbidden Zone, Danny created his first movie theme with his band Oingo Boingo. This is how he and Tim Burton got in touch and  being a big fan of Oingo Boingo, Burton asked him to compose for his first movie, …, and all the rest. Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow, Batman, Dark Shadows, Big Fish ….. Only exceptions are Sweeney Todd and Ed Wood. Danny also sang the lyrics of the Oompa Loompa’s in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Other series or movies he did: Dick Tracy, Mission Impossible, Spy Kids, Hulk, Red Dragon, Men in Black and many more. When it comes to music, Elfman is a big name in the movie business. This is why he has four Oscar nominations behind his name. Unfortunately he didn’t win any of them. At a late age he married actress Bridget Fonda, daughter of Jane Fonda. I don’t know if they met on the set or not but then again it’s a small world out there. 

Now enjoy The Simpsons theme once more.

N°110 ALL THAT REMAINS - SIX

From a bit of all styles of music to metalcore. It’s possible in the big music link. Six is the link and is the song I’ll be posting here.

Founded in 1998 in Springfield, Massachusets, USA; All That Remains is a metal band with a very strong live reputation. Vocalist Philip Labonte and guitar player Oli Herbert are original founders of the band accompagnied through the years by drummer Jason Costa and bassist Jeanne Sagan. 

The first album is different from all their other albums. As they are now known as a metalcore band the first album is more melodical and should be described as death metal. The second album though created their current music style, partly influenced by their producer Adam Dutkiewicz, guitar player for Killswitch Engage. This Darkened Heart was released in 2004 gave us three strong songs: the titlesong, ‘Tattered on My Sleeve’ and ‘The Deepest Gray’. As with all the other songs music video’s were produced and the band insists until today that all their songs are accompagnied by a music video.

The success on different metal gigs led to a third studio album named ‘The Fall Of Ideals’ considered as tier major breakthrough. Although the first single was named ‘This Calling’, the song ‘Six’ is better known since it was used in the Playstation game Guitar Hero II. Rom here on All That Remains would sound a bit more mainstream and that’s why their next album Overcome was less rated than the ones before. Their last album so far For We are Many returns a bit more to the real metalcore but still is a little bit more mainstream than the first few. I like the sound of the posted song and since I don’t know the band very well I’ll think I’ll go and find some of their other music and let’s hope I can put All That Remains in my ultimate playlist sometime.

Greetings !

N°109 ELECTRIC SIX - INFECTED GIRLS

A six piece Detroit based band with a lot of musical influences. You can put them in the punk corner and they will be fine. You can place them in a new wave box and they’ll also feel fine. Even disco, rock and metal is a part of their repertoire so the band can be seen as a multi musical ensemble. And yet they’re not that known since they only scored one hit to my knowledge. In 2003 that is and the song listens to the title ‘Danger! High Voltage.’ The electric by the way ties into AC/DC off course.

Although less known they created nine albums between 1996 and 2011. It all started as ‘The Wildbunch’ but they immediately had to change the name of the band because of copy-write issues with another band. All the band’s members have nicknames and nowadays there are six of them. Yet the formation changed over the years quite often and no less than fifteen former Electric Sixers can be named with roaring names as Disco, M. or Rock And Roll Indian. The six current performers are Dick Valentine who formed the band with the three named ex members, The Colonel, Johny Na$hinal, Smorgasbord, Percussion World and Tait Nucleus.

The first album called Fire followed only in 2003 and created the hit single Danger! High Voltage. Even before recording a first album the band split for two years between 1999 and 2001. It is said that Jack White performs or even sings on the single but the band denies the presence of any contribution of Jack White to the single or album. Yet the vocals are credited to a John S O’Leary and apparently this is Jack White’s pseudonym often used whenever he wants to be incognito. The second single from this first album was called ‘Gay Bar’ and also reached the charts.

Producing a second album was a bit normal considering the success of the first one and Señor Smoke was released early 2005. First release on this album was a cover from the Queen song ‘Radio Gaga’ . It created huge controversy amongst Queen fans since Dick Valentine appeared in the music video as Freddie Mercury’s ghost dancing on his grave.

In between albums huge setup changes  were made and for the album Switzerland the last original member leaves Electric Six. Drummer M. leaves the band and is replaced by Percussion World. The only special about this album is that every song has its own low budget music video.

Albums follow a year apart from each other now and the crazy minds of Electric Six came up with a fucked up title for their 2007 album. I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master brings a new bassist who’s supposed to be Swedish. In fact it’s Keith Thompson from the former band Johnny Headband. This album contains no less than sixteen songs and was released with the addition of a hidden bonus track…. So they say. Later they’d produced the albums Flashy, Kill and Zodiac but not many singles were released. In 2011 their latest album heartbeats and Brainwaves saw the light.

The variety of styles implicates that the band never reached the limits of the early successes and the lyrical nonsense they often bring implies that Electric Six have a rather thin but steady fan base. I only knew them from their überhitsingle but I’ll be posting a different one just to get to know at least one more song by them. I hope you can enjoy all this craziness.

N°108 - AC/DC - WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE

AC/DC stands for Alternate Current and Direct Current or in other words electrical energy and where ever the rock ‘n roll band AC/DC gives a show there’s loads of that. Careful yet since AC/DC also stands for being bisexual. Once a journalist dared to ask the big question and Bon Scott answered smoothly: ‘I’m neither, I’m the lightning in the middle”.

Formed by the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young but with a quick changeover in setup before the release of the first album High Voltage in 1975. First of all they kicked out lead singer Dave Evans and at the same time AC/DC switched drummer Phil Rudd for Peter Clark. At the time of the recording of High Voltage the setup was the following: Bon Scott (singer), Phil Rudd (drums – left in 1983 but returned after 1994), Mark Evans who stayed only for the period of the first album (bass) and off course Angus Young (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar). Bass guitar was changed after the first EP and Cliff Williams joined the Young brothers. He’s still with them. On drums we now have Phil Rudd again but in between periods we could see Simon Wright and Chris Slade.

The biggest change happened in 1980 when Bon Scott died because of alcohol poisoning and suffocation in his own vomit. For an instant Angus and Malcolm thought about quitting. Luckily Brian Johnson auditioned and AC/DC found their ultimate lead singer who could perform on the same level as Bon Scott did on the successful album Highway To Hell. In between they also released T.N.T... That year the band released also Back In Black, their best album ever. Later they’d release For Those About To Rock We Salute You and Ballbreaker. When changing drummers the band’s success fell a bit back in the late eighties and early nineties so they held on to their classics such as Highway To Hell, T.N.T., …. The only exception is the 1990 album The Razor’s Edge with the rock song Thunderstruck. They kept producing new songs but they hardly succeeded to match the older albums. On Ballbreaker their sound is way too bluesy. Volts and Stiff Upper Lip never really brought success but the latest album, the 2008 Black Ice, is again more the rock ‘n roll AC/DC sounds we all know from the different hits. I must admit I had to get used to this album because it sounded old school but you didn’t knew the songs or lyrics yet. But I like it as much as the classic albums I must say.

In the early years Angus created his typical look with the school uniform and his crazy shit on stage and the band quickly was banished from certain concert halls since their fans brought nothing but trouble. AC/DC  conquered Great Britain and the rest of Europa in the late seventies then as the warm up for that other major band Kiss. This way AC/DC got launched in the USA and their worldwide fame rose to the top. Nowadays, although all having an Australian passport the band members live all across the world from the USA to the UK, The Netherlands and off course they all have houses in their home country. Now let’s enjoy one of these oldies and I’ve chosen Whole Lotta Rosie since it ties in perfectly only by the ‘whole lotta’. Have fun.