N°117 - FEIST - MY MOON, MY MAN

Amarain means Two Moons in Arabic so the song posted matches perfectly with the previous one.

I’ve been looking for a while to fit Leslie Feist in since I think she’s a great musician and performer but until now it never worked. I posted her as a solo artist but you might also know her from the rock band Broken Social Scene, an art pop, post rock, shoegaze band with a rotating membership up to a maximum of nineteen performers, and Feist is one of them.

Both her solo career as her band membership started in 1999. She put a first record on the shelves by the name Monarch. Born out of two artistic parents (none in music though) it was clear that Leslie Feist would become an artist as well and she laid her heart into music. It actually started when she, as a fifteen year old, became lead vocalist of a local band called Placebo. This is how she met Brandon Canning who invited her years later to join the band Broken Social Science. In time she had learned to play bass- and lead guitar and she was ready to try it solo as well. Her first album Monarch though never made the charts and her solo career was close to die an early death.

Feist started touring with different bands such as Gonzales the following years and at the same time she recorded private demo tapes which she started called The Red Demos. Only three years later she’d find the time and courage to re-record The Red Demos and release a first successful album by the name Let It Die. From this album I’ve taken My Moon My Man for the obvious linking reasons but other than this song there’s also the fabulous Mushaboom. The album won the Album of The Year Canadian Juno Awards and Feist her name was made. The album contained both her own songs as personal interpretations of existing songs.

Again Feist would start collaborating with different other bands and artists such as the British Jane Birkin. In between she’s touring around the globe with her solo project. Her home base moved from Saskatchewan, Canada to the global city Paris, France. Making an international name for herself she was asked to contribute to the Unicef song Do They Know It’s Halloween and in her French period she also starts to gain interests in making movies and her first project is for the soundtrack of the 2006 movie Paris Je t’Aime. In 2006 she again returns to Paris where she uses her network of people to produce a third album by the name The Reminder.

The reminder is being released first in Europe in 2007 and again she goes on a world tour. Again she takes the prizes at the 2008 Juno Awards for Album Of The Year and finally her song 1234 makes it to the top ten in the US Billboard. She also appears with this song on Sesame Street having children to count until four. She’d also appear as a cameo in The Muppets movie last year. Whenever she makes a presence at a movie she usually plays herself.

After taking a long break from Broken Social Science she joins the band again in 2009 for the release of the band’s biography. She promises to join them on a few tours and contributes to the band’s latest album as well. And after these tours she dives back in the studio to create yet another great album named Metals. Released in 2011 it was given the best critics once more elevating her song writing skills. Also in 2001 and elder Feist song; ‘Limit To Your Love’; was being covered by James Blake becoming a huge hit throughout the most of Northern Europe. Nowadays she plans to make a 7 inch split record in cooperation with metal band Mastodon. Feist would cover a few Mastodon songs where Mastodon would interpret some of her songs. But first we grasp back to a classic Feist single: My Moon, My Man. Enjoy listening.

N°116 AMR DIAB - AMARAIN

Amr Diab (I won’t try to write down his full name since it’s too long and complicated) is an Egyptian singer of a music style called Al-Jeel, a typical Arabic poppy music style. It contains mixtures of Arabian and Western music styles. His popularity led him to four World Music Awards for best selling Asian artist.

His first album Ya Tariq (The Road) saw the light in 1983 but he’d score his first hit in 1988 with the song Majaal, still one of his biggest successes. For his first worldwide hit song he’d have to wait for another thirteen years until the release of the single Habibi (My Darling). This single was remixed uncountable times by many DJ’s and found its way to the shelves of the western music stores. His duets are also quite known in the Arabic. Due to linking reasons I’ve chosen to post the song Amarain which means two moons. In 2004 he scored a number one success in the whole of Asia with his album El Laila (This Night).

Amr also tried an acting career and he shared the white screen with Omar Sharif; less successful though.

You also might wonder why I jump from the USA to Egypt but the link has geographical roots. Since the previous song mentions the Mississippi Delta I’ve looked it up on a few maps and to my big surprise there’s a city named Cairo, originating close near the river. And Cairo is the capital of Egypt so I went on a search for an Egyptian performer and came up with Amr Diab. Simple no?

N°115 - MUDDY WATERS - MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES

McKinley Morganfield is probably an unknown name to most of you but when I say Muddy Waters it should ring a bell amongst blues lovers. Muddy, born in 1913 is an old school, black souled, blues artist. It all started when he was given a blues harp at an early age. He’d later trade it in for an acoustic guitar and from that point on it was clear McKinley was made to play music. His nickname “Muddy” was given to him by his grandmother when he was still a young boy. Later Muddy would become Muddy Waters as his stage name.

His first trip to Chicago in 1940 to make it as a musician turned out to be a disappointment. He had to return to his home town a year later. He started a local café with a little stage he used to perform from time to time. This is where Alan Lomax passed his joint and recorded the first Muddy Blues song. This is also the first Time he believed in his music and to make a career out of it. He received a cheque for this Library of Congress recording and he went back to Chicago to give his music career another shot. At first he combined playing the guitar with a regular job but then Big Bill Broonzy picked him up as his opening act. Muddy switched to an electric guitar and his own career took a flight.

In 1948 he scored the first two hits with songs as ‘I feel Like Going Home’ and ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’ which opened the doors of the biggest blues clubs around Chicago. This lead to his best known song ‘Rollin Stone’. A song later picked up by Mick Jagger and his crew as his band name; also picked up by the world’s leading music magazine Rolling Stone Magazine. In the fifties, Muddy would form his own blues band and the success continued. He performed with the biggest blues musicians in the USA. Just listen to songs as ‘Sugar Boy’ and ‘Forty Days And Forty Nights’.

We’re talking 1958 when Muddy changes direction and tours around England where he discovers he has a huge amount of fans amongst white people who liked the sound of his electric blues combined with his great voice. In the sixties and seventies his music was put away for a while. Yet he kept recording with the biggest blues artists around the world. He even recorded a live session in London in 1972 and although being surrounded by great musicians he thought they couldn’t match his sound stating: “If you change my sound, you’ll change the whole man”.

Late 1970’s he makes a comeback LP named Hard Again, bringing Muddy back to his early Chicago sound. He starts touring again with James Cotton and the album will win a Grammy Award in 1978. That same year he’d bring back together some of his old partners to record another successfully album I’m ready. A year later the live Mississippi album was recorded with his regular band and it is said that only on this album you can hear him play just like he sits right next to you.  More albums followed but also the troubles came. His band asked more money for their contributions but Muddy’s manager didn’t give in. The band split shortly after. 

Muddy being close to his seventies cut back on performing in the nineteen eighties because of a problematic heart disease. He died of a heart failure in 1983 but in his 40 years of playing the blues on a professional level he influenced many music genres and many artists. I already mentioned Mick Jagger but he also helped out Chuck Berry early in his career. Jimi Hendrix also referred to him as his first icon. Other bands and artists would cover some of his songs. His songs also appear in different movies, especially movies situated around that era. He must one of the most influential people in the music business and that’s why he holds a position in the rock and roll hall of fame since 1987.

N°114 MARK LANEGAN BAND - BLEEDING MUDDY WATERS

Mark Lanegan, now touring under his solo career also works a lot with many other artists or performed in various bands such as The Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age and The Gutter Twins. I can already tell you neither of these bands will be next into the link but I’ll remember them for the near future maybe. I’ll stick to his solo work and liaisons just for now.

While being the frontman for The Screaming Trees Mark Lanegan started up a first project for a solo ep called The Winding Sheet. He did this together with no less than Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. At first it was supposed to be a bluesy album but it evolved into a more Tom Waits sounding art piece. This first liaison led to more co-working with other grunge bands. We’re talking way back, 1990. On this record there’s appeared a version of ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’, later covered by Nirvana as well.

Whiskey For The Holy Ghost followed four years after in 1994 with the known ‘Beggar’s Blues’ and ‘Riding The Nightingale’. It took mister Lanegan almost three years to create this album since the recording didn’t always satisfy him. This project was succeeded the year after by a guest appearance on a Mad Seasons album. He collaborated on two of the songs. Again we’d have to wait for another solo album: Scraps at Midnight. It was recorded during wintertime and mostly written in the dark of the winter nights, hence the title. This time Mark Lanegan produced an album I’ll Take Care Of You only the year after. Most of the songs on this album were used as B-sides for singles of the previous album. It sounded a little bit more like folk and punk than the fans were used to on the previous recordings.

A little jump into the link. If anyone would say that the Pukkelpop 2012 festival could be the link I can't blame them since both Diablo Blvd. and Mark Lanegan Band were scheduled. (I didn't get to see Mark Lanegan though) but I need this link a few songs from now to make another switch (yes I work a little bit up front for this blog) later on. So once more I found the link in the title: Black Heart BLEED followed by BLEEDing Muddy Waters ties in perfectly). Now back to the performer.

Mark sought help from Soundgarden’s bassist Ben Shepherd and recorded a fifth album in 2001; Field Songs and this would be the first of many collaborations with other artists such as PJ Harvey, Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone age and Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs. Also former Guns ‘n Roses members would contribute on his latest and most commercial album called Bubblegum. Probably he also profited from the guest appearance from all these artists and their respective fans. In between both albums Mark Lanegan became a full time member of Queens Of The Stone Age and he appeared on many of the band’s songs in this period. I must say I’ve seen him perform with the Queens back in 2004 and wasn’t really fond of his sound at the time. Did I know much this was Mark Lanegan to be honest? I started to appreciate him better only since a year or so. Sorry.  He left the band in 2005 when it comes to touring but would still perform with them from time to time.

In 2004 he’d help out the UK band Belle & Sebastian with additional vocals on the This Is Just The Same album. He’d also write a few songs for them later on and he’d join them on stage during a couple of concerts. He’d also help out on their Sunday at Devil Dirt album and in 2010 they released the album Hawk together. In that same period he’d also start up a project called The Gutter Twins with ex-The Afghan Whigs vocalist Greg Dulli. Nowadays when they come on stage as The Gutter Twins they usually perform as the setup of Dulli’s new band Twilight Sister but with Mark Lanegan added. Without Mark they perform as simply Twilight Sister.

This year Lanegan managed to produce yet another solo album after eight years of solo silence. It was named Blues Funeral and to me this is his best solo album so far. One of the songs was used for the movie The Hangover part II. Great movie by the way. As you can read he’s been around for ages and you can probably hear him in some kind of way on many, many albums or songs so, as did I in 2004, you probably have heard him already on the radio or so. Now it’s just a matter of appreciating his music so here’s one of his songs:

 

N°113 DIABLO BLVD. - BLACK HEART BLEED

Diablo Blvd. is actually a song from the metal band Corrocion of Conformity, one of the favourite bands  of Diablo Blvd. front man Alex Agnew. Founded about seven years ago in Antwerp building on the great foundations of guitar players TimBekaert (A Brand) and Andries Beckers (The Setup) and Dave Hubrechts. Also with a strong drummer named Kris Martens and off course Alex Agnew, the stand-up comedian lead singer frontman.

The Diablo Blvd. sounds is a mixture of metal with sometimes bluesy lyrics. It’s rock ‘n roll with howling guitars. It’s hard and good. Alex has roots in England so it’s obvious he has no problem writing the perfect lyrics and with such talented musicians around him, Diablo Blvd started to build a name and a huge amount of fans in Belgium and The Netherlands. And not only Alex Agnew, the comedian fans.

A firs demo was recorded in 2006 and named Scarred and Undefeated. It only had four songs with the title song and Sweet Enemy Mine and most eye catching lyrics. This demo would be a step up to a first full cd, although it took them three year to write and record it. This because of the other bands they all played in and with Alex’ comedy tours so free dates were hard to find to work on the full cd.

The Greater God would be released in 2009 and it blew everyone away. It held twelve great songs including the ones on the ep mentioned above. The other two never made the full cd. Second Coming and Outcast are regulars at their live sets nowadays. The success of this album made them want more and they saw themselves as Builders Of Empires and build a new cd in 2011 by that title. This album was mixed by Jens Bogren who worked for Amon Amarth and Opeth. Ten songs of which Black Heart Bleed is the first single. This album is harder than the first one and more metal than blues but hey we like metal.

I saw them play live last weekend by the way at Pukkelpop 2012 and Alex and his crew gave away a great performance. First song he immediately demanded a mosh pit and not even halfway the one hour set he asked for a wall of death and boobs. He got the wall, didn’t know if he saw them boobs since I stood in the back with my girlfriend enjoying his funny remarks in between songs. Even in Diablo Blvd. Alex still remains that little piece of a comedian when showing off on stage. I’d say: go watch them whenever they’re around because they’re worth it.

The colour black was the link by the way: Men in Black -> Black Heart Bleed.