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.