N°99 SHAKIRA feat. EL CATA - LOCA

First of all something new in this blog. Apart from the youtube video I’ll be posting a picture of the performing artist(s) from now on because it draws a bit more attention when posting on eg. Facebook or other social sites. I’ll also enclose pictures in all the previous posts but that’ll happen along the way so don’t complain there’s no picture yet in let’s say link number 55. Allright, lmet’s get down to buisiness.

Both The Tin Things and Shakira are working for Columbia Records and I wanted Shakira in before the first 100. No particular reason for that but I’d think it wuld be cool to have an extra poppy song before we enter the next hundred songs.

The song I chose she sings together with the Dominican rapper El Cata. El Cata usually sings in Spanish and that’s why the cooperation with Columbian superstar Shakira was a perfect match. He didn’t grow up in his home country though since he was five when his parents migrated to the USA and he stayed untill his mid twenties. His first studio album got released only recently in 2009 and at the same time he co-wrote the latest album of Pitbull, another colleague rapper. Shakira covered his song Loca in 2010 and so the two met and he decided to participate on that song as well doing the rap lyrics on Rabiosa.

Shakira is a Colombian beauty who started her singing career at a very young age in the early nineties singing rocksong with latin and arabic influences. Since she’s quite good at languages she tried not only to sing in Spanish but also in English, and Portuguese. Apparantly she also manages some Arabic, French and Italian. You can’t say she’s all beauty and no brains.

At first she wasn’t well known outside her home country but halfway the nineties her album Dondé Estàn Los Ladrones got well received in most Spanish speaking countries around the world. She actually broke through worldwide in 2001 with the single Whenever, Wherever where all the fans could enjoy her bellydancing and bootyshaking. More albums followed, more hitsingles too. ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, ‘She Wolf’, ‘Underneath Your Clothes’ and ‘Waka Waka’ which was the opening and closing song for the FIFA World Cup Football in South-Africa in 2010.

Apart from singing she gets noticed all the time for her charity work. Amongst them she founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation which support schools for poor children in Colombia. She also headlined the Clinto Global Initiative and many more. Since last year she gets noticed in Catalunya from time to time since she pairs up with Gérard Pique an center defender from footbaal team Barcelona CF. It is said that since dating Shakira, Pique hardly makes the the first team anymore since he’s spending too much time having fun instead of training. On the other hand, Barcelona CF is one of the best football teams in the world so you have tob e extraodinary to maintain a solid spot in the defense. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

N°98 THE TING THINGS - HANDS

Five fingers make a hand so  make the leap to The Tin Things. We all know the duo from hits such as 'Shut Up And Let Me Go' or 'That's Not My Name' from their first album We Started Nothing. As said it's a duo with blonde Katie White and musical brain Jules de Martino. They both play quite a few instruments on stage but Katie is the vocalist.

It all started in 2006 when Jules wrote a few songs for the punk band TKO. TKO was Katie's first real band when she studied at Leeds university. Since Katie, Jules and a mutual friend shared a mutual intrest in the band Portishead they decided to form a tribute band called Dear Eskiimo only to split a few months later. Jules and Katie kept in touch after the split. At that time Jules worked at the Islignton Mill Studios where he wrote songs for different bands and at The Mill both of them found the love for making music again so they started The Ting Things.The first gig given was at these same studios.

'That's Not My Name' was the first single that got finished and released to present the band to the world and the song would become a hit in a few European countries. 'Fruit Machine' was released short after as a second single Both song were picked up by various DJ's to be heavily used for different mixes. This way the band got even more exposure and their career started of big time. They played their first festival in 2007 at the big Glastonbury showing their performance to a huge audience for the first time.

The album We Started Nothing was released in 2008 and their music seemed popular not only live on stage but also for different producers. A few songs were used in series such as Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. Also movie producers used the song 'Great DJ' in the movies The House Bunny and Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. That same song opende the 2008 Carling Cup Final. In 2009 The Ting Things started touring Australie and Asia followed by a US tour supporting Pink!.

Their second album is a recent one released early this year and containing more poppy sounding songs such as 'Hands'. They wrote the album Sounds From Nowheresville in complete isolation in Paris, France because they didn't wanted to deliver a less quality product. Katie and Jules assumed that if they'd write and record in their old studio they'd be influenced by their family and friends or even their record company which they tried to avoid.

At the moment and this summer they'll tour around Europe to play different clubs and festivals. In September the duo will try and conquer Japan playing six gigs over the complete country. I hope you like the sound; at least I do like it a lot, especially Katie's sound since she has quite a good voice.

N°97 FIVER FINGER DEATH PUNCH - AMERICAN CAPITALIST

Rockefeller was an American capitalist and through this google search I came up with the latest album of the American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch (which I think is a pretty cool name for a band). As with many other bands the members changed quite a bit. Formed in 2005 the band switched guitarist in 2009. Jason Hook replaced Darrell Roberts who replaced Caleb Bingham in 2006. Five Finger band didn’t have a bassist for almost a year with the departure of Matt Snell but found a new bass player last year by the name of Chris Kael. Drummer Jeremy Spencer, vocalist Ivan Moody and lead guitarist Zoltan Bathory stayed for the whole period.

The album release dan album every two years starting in 2007 with a debut called The Way Of The Fist. Very catchy with a band name like that. This album was produced and mixed by the band itself and all the contributors to the very first songs. They started touring. The follow up was called War Is The Answer and only last year they released the album American Capitalist which they are promoting during the summer with a tour around the USA. With the second tour ‘The Shock and Raw’ they first conquered the USA and later Europe playing different festivals as well. After the tour with their second album they received an invitation by the US military army to enlighten the spirits of the Iraq based troops performing ten concerts fort hem. More festivals followed such as Rock Am Ring, Download festival and Mayhem festival making their name as a pretty damn good metal festival rockband. I’ve read a story about being witheld by German law for weapon possession but I don’t know if any of that is true.

American Capitalist was recorded in 2010 and released in 2011. A new ‘Share The Welt’ tour was scheduled with well known support acts such as Hatebreed and All That Remains. While being on tour this summer the band promoted it by stating they’d bring a mobile studio along the complete tour and record song in between performing days. The fourth album should then become a road trip recorded album; probably release in 2013; another odd year. By the way if you love these typical b-movie posters you need to take a look at the cover of American Capitalist. You’ll probably love it.

N°96 GETTER JAANI - ROCKEFELLER STREET

I based myself on Adeles first album to continue with the link and searched for someone who turned 19 years old in 2012. I came up with the Estonian Getter Jaani.

Getter is a female Estonian superstar and created het little kingdom of happiness by participating the Estonian version of Idols in which she finished fourth. Following one of her own idols, Kylie Minogue she starred in a tv soap and she’s also known in her country for her role of Sharpay Evans in High School Musical.

Miss Jaani produced one record so far which carries the same titel as the song I’ve posted, Rockerfeller Street. The name of the album was an easy pick since the crowd got to know her even better last year when she represented her country at the Eurovison Song Contest. Unfortunately she ended up in the final at place 24. She did so with this song:

 She grew up around artists since both her parents are choreographers. And although singing is good fun for her and singing brought her a bit of stardom she still dreams of finishing her studies and become a stylist and/or tailor.

N°95 ADELE - LOVESONG

Ok since Laura Marling won the Brit Award for best British Female Singer award in 2012 I've chosen to stick with the 2011 winner Adele.I didn't choose one of her hits though since I believe she's has a fantastic voice which you'll hear better on some other songs such as this one:

Amongst many other great British artists Adele succeeded an education in the performing arts at the BRIT school in 2006. She started touring with a few others as a support act on different festivals. This way she could produce and release her first single 'Hometown Glory' a year after followed by her first hit single 'Chasing Pavements'. Her second single opened many doors so she could start touring around Europe and Amerika. It also opened the doors to a first full album, released early 2008. As you can tell, Adele went up fast. The first album was called 19 and it also contains the Bob Dylan cover 'To Make You Feel My Love'.

Adele's feeling for songwriting stayed with her and led to more number one hits in many different countries with the release of her second album 21. My guess is she has a weakness for numbers.  'Set Fire To The Rain' made first place in many charts as did the first single of this album 'Rolling In The Deep'. I'm almost forgetting to mention two more big hits on this album not mentioning 'Rumour Has It' or 'Someone Like You'.

Adele wrote or co-wrote both albums herselve apart from the earlier mentioned Bob Dylan cover and this song I've posted. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Adele is a great performer with a strong carying voice and a huge talent in writing her own music. She a huge lady in the music buisiness.

N°94 LAURA MARLING - ALL MY RAGE

I’ll stick with rage for the next song and anlthough I never heared of Laura Marling I’ll try and put together some information about her.

As I learend along the way Laura Marling can be put in the same corner as Mumford and Sons or Noah and The Whale because she’s also part of the London folkscene. Strange enough that I never heared of her then since I kind of like these two bands. She also received a Brit Award in 2011 for best female solo artist. It says enough that Adele won that award this year. 

At an early age she learned to play the guitar and since her father owned a recording studio it was easy for her to record her first self wrote songs. At the age of 16 she ended up with the band Noah and The Whale (ok I knew the band but not Miss Marling, excuse me !!!) and at the same age her first ep was born holding the title London Town. Only two year later followed her first full album ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’, later nomited for a Mercury Music Price. She left Noah and The Whale shortly after as she left it’s lead singer Charlie Fink to whom she was romantically involved at the time.

A second studio album was recorded in 2010 and this album also got nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. I Speak Because I Can didn’t win either although it received the best critics. In between both albums she started touring with Mumford and Sons. Mumford himself accopagnied her several times on guitar. Tah same year she appeared on a nep with four songs recorded by herself, Mumford and Sons and Dharohar Project.

A Creature I Don’t Know; her third album was released last year and is as strong as the two albums she created before. Her music style can be described as folk, nu-folk, indie, … and I might put her in my playlists from now on.

N°93 RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - BOMBTRACK

RATM is a band whp produced their best album as a debut. All that comes behind is good but not as good as the 1992 Rage Against The Machine album. I’ll just name three songs and you know I’m right: Killing In The Name, Bombtrack, Bullet In The Head. Don’t need to say anymore do I?

RATM has been active between 1991 and 2000 and from 2007 on. The break wasn’t because of internal fights but Zach De La Rocha; the lead singer; attempting a solo career which never really took off. The other bandmembers engaged themselves in a new band called Audioslave with former Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. When Cornell ended Audioslave in 2007 Rage Against The Machine started with a reunion concert at Coachella festival before playing a first own concert later that year. The only strange thing is that Rage never recorded a new album since coming back together.

Four studio albums they recorded in the period between 1992 and 2000. Rage Against The Machine was the first in 1992 followed in ’96 by Evil Empire. The Battle of LA was created in 1999 with a grand finale the year after: Renegades. Rage also produced two live albums. One of them released in 2003 in the middle of their break up.

Their style should be described as rapcore combining hardrock with politically influenced rap lyrics and is known for the specific guitar sound of Tom Morello. The lyrics are faar inspired by othe bands such as Public Enemy. Morello found rapper De La Rocha at an open mic session and both agreed on their agression against the political system and decided to work together. Morello knew some guys from the band Inside Out and all together they formed RATM. Their rage against the machine or the system peeked in 1993 at the Lollapooza Festival where they performed totally naked with ducktape on their mouths. Thei bodies painted with the letters P.M.R.C. This was fort heir protest against censorship in music

The first little break up was in 1994 when they split up for four months not being able to write a single song fort heir second album. But in 1996 the magic happened once more when they were on location in Los Angeles. Evil Empire was born and rocketed to the number 1 chart position. They kicking against many shins on different occasions. It’s 1998 when they record a song for the Godzilla movie and at the same time they produced a third album and started touring again. Problems with managers and little disagreements in the bend led to the split a week before the release of the last album.

After the reunion they commenced touring again around the biggest festivals around the globe. Rock Am Ring, Pukkelpop, Electric Festival, in Japan and Australia, Pinkpop, Reading and Leeds Festival. You name them, they were there. In 2009 right before Christmas in the Uk an internet campaign was held to try and get Killing In The Name at the Christmas Number One song in this yearly chart instead of another X-factor pussy. As a big thank you for achieving this RATM gave a free festival in London Finsbury Park.

During their career Rage Agaisnt The Machine picked up no less than six Grammys and three MTV Music Awards. 

I’ve chosen bombtrack since a shelter is needed when the bombs are falling. Have fun listening.