soulRocks » new wave

Metric

soulrocks — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:10:08 +0000

Metric are a band who have embraced an eclectic and adventurous outlook — the group’s music encompasses elements of synth pop, new wave, dance rock, and electronic, while the group has collectively been based in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, and London over the course of their existence. Metric‘s story began when vocalist and keyboard player Emily Haines met guitarist James Shaw in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Haines, the daughter Paul Haines (a poet who has collaborated with jazz artist Carla Bley), was born in New Delhi in 1974 but moved to Toronto with her family when she was three. While studying at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, a high school for aspiring artists in Toronto, Haines formed her first band with fellow student Amy Millan. Haines and Millan would go on to form a group called Stars, which also included Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman. Through Campbell, Haines was introduced to British-born and Canadian-raised Shaw in 1998, not long after he had relocated to Toronto following three years of study at the Julliard School of Music in New York City. Haines and Shaw discovered they were musically simpatico and began writing songs together. During a sojourn in Montreal, Haines and Shaw began recording demos of their new material that would become Metric’s debut EP,Mainstream, released in 1998. Later that same year, Haines andShaw relocated to Brooklyn, New York, and after cutting more demos using synths and a drum machine, they were scouted by representatives of a major music publisher who flew them to London to work with producer Stephen Hague. Haines and Shaw combined the London-recorded tracks with material they cut in Brooklyn, and the results formed Metric’s first album, Grow Up and Blow Away. In 2000, Metric signed a deal with Restless Records, but shortly before the album was scheduled for release in 2001, Restless was bought out by Rykodisc, and under the new ownership the Metric album went onto the back burner. Around this time, Haines and Shaw met drummer Joules Scott-Key, who was born in Michigan but had relocated to Brooklyn after studying at a music school in Texas;Scott-Key was soon invited to join Metric, and before long his friendJoshua Winstead, who attended the same school in Texas, came aboard as bassist. Metric had moved to Los Angeles while trying to sort out their deal with Restless, with Haines and Shaw returning to Toronto for a spell to work with their old friends Amy Millan andKevin Drew in the group Broken Social Scene, and once they began working with the new rhythm section, Metric decided the pop-oriented electronic sound of Grow Up and Blow Away was no longer representative of their music. Metric parted ways with Restless and took the masters for Grow Up with them; in the fall of 2003, the Canadian independent label Everloving Records released Metric’s second “debut” album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?. The album (later picked up by Last Gang Records) was a major critical and commercial success, especially in Canada, and in 2005 Metric issued Live It Out, another success which was followed by a lengthy international tour. Metric took a hiatus after touring behindLive It Out. Haines went on an extended vacation in Argentina and made guest appearances on albums by the Stills and Jason Collett in addition to releasing two records with her solo project Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. Scott-Key and Winstead moved to Oakland, CA and formed the band Bang Lime. Shaw headed back to Toronto and opened a recording facility, Giant Studio. A revised edition of Grow Up and Blow Away received a belated release in 2007. In 2008, afterHaines decided she’d had enough of the downbeat music she’d composed with the Soft Skeleton, Metric regrouped in Toronto and began work on their next album; Fantasies was scheduled for international release in April 2009.

www.ilovemetric.com

Kaiser Chiefs

soulrocks — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:47:09 +0000

When Tears for Fears sang “Kick out the Style/Bring back the Jam” in “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” one can imagine the lads in Kaiser Chiefs raising their mugs of ale in agreement. Comprised of vocalist Ricky Wilson, guitarist Andrew White, bassist Simon Rix, keyboardist Nick Baines, and drummer Nick Hodgson, Kaiser Chiefs resurrected the mod spirit of the Jam in “I Predict a Riot,” supercharged class-of-1977 power pop that quickly electrified the British press when it was released in 2004. The song was inspired byWilson‘s days as a club DJ in Leeds, England, where the group was also formed. The single and Kaiser Chiefs’ pogo-inducing, boot-stomping live performances had them pegged as rising stars in the neo-new wave revolution with Franz Ferdinand, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, and the Futureheads. When Kaiser Chiefs’ first 7″, “Oh My God,” reached number 66 on the U.K. charts — a startling achievement for an unsigned band — doors opened for the group to share the stage with larger acts, consequently grabbing the attention of A&R scouts who wanted to sign them. “I Predict a Riot,” on the other hand, reeled in U.S. modern rock radio programmers caught in a blooming new wave revival. Without an American label deal, Kaiser Chiefs (named after the South African football team) crash-landed on some of the biggest U.S. alternative stations with the “I Predict a Riot” import single in late 2004. That same year they recorded their debut album, Employment, for the U.K. label B-Unique. The album was released domestically in the U.S. in spring 2005. The group’s follow-up, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, arrived in the spring of 2007, with Off with Their Heads arriving a year later.

www.kaiserchiefs.co.uk

Joy Division

soulrocks — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:45:50 +0000

Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the ’80s. Though the group’s raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of ’70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis. While the British punk movement shocked the world during the late ’70s, Joy Division’s quiet storm of musical restraint and emotive power proved to be just as important to independent music in the 1980s.

During late 1979, Joy Division’s manic live show gained many converts, partly due to rumors of Curtis‘ ill health. An epilepsy sufferer, he was prone to breakdowns and seizures while on stage — it soon grew difficult to distinguish the fits from his usual on-stage jerkiness and manic behavior. As the live dates continued and the new decade approached, Curtis grew weaker and more prone to seizures. After a short rest over the Christmas holiday, Joy Division embarked on a European tour during January, though several dates were cancelled because of Curtis. The group began recording its second LP after the tour ended (again with Hannett), and released “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in April. The single was again praised but failed to move beyond the independent charts. After one gig in early May, the members of Joy Division were given two weeks of rest before beginning the group’s first U.S. tour. Two days before the scheduled flight, however, Curtis was found dead in his home, the victim of a self-inflicted hanging.

Before Curtis‘ death, the band had agreed that Joy Division would cease to exist if any member left, for any reason. Ironically though, the summer of 1980 proved to be the blooming of the band’s commercial status, when a re-release of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” rose to number 13 on the British singles chart. In August, the release of Closer finally united critics’ positivity with glowing sales, as the album peaked at number six. Before the end of the summer,Unknown Pleasures was charting as well.

By January of the following year, Hook, Morris, and Albrecht (nowBernard Sumner) had formed New Order, with Sumner taking over vocal duties. Also in 1981, the posthumous release of Still — including two sides of rare tracks and two of live songs — rose to number five on the British charts. As New Order‘s star began to shine during the ’80s, the group had trouble escaping the long shadow ofCurtis and Joy Division. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” charted for the third time in 1983, and 1988 also proved a big year for the defunct band: the reissued single “Atmosphere” hit number 34 and a double-album compilation entitled Substance reached number seven in the album charts. Seven years later, the 15th anniversary of Curtis‘ death was memorialized with a new JD compilation (Permanent: Joy Division 1995), a tribute album (A Means to an End), and a biography of his life (Touching From a Distance) written by his widow, Deborah Curtis. In 1999, the Factory label began a program of concert-performance reissues — all overseen by the remainder of the original lineup — with Preston Warehouse 28 February 1980.

myspace.com/joydivision