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Jerry Harrison

Jerry Harrison

Jerry Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is the keyboardist and guitarist of the influential New Wave group Talking Heads. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he played with Jonathan Richman in the Modern Lovers, first in Boston, then in Berkeley, California. Harrison was the last of the four Talking Heads members to join that band; they already had a single out by the time he left Richman to join them. Independent albums include The Red and the Black, Casual Gods, and Walk on Water. He has produced numerous albums by such groups as The Violent Femmes, Foo Fighters, General Public, Live, Crash Test Dummies, and No Doubt.

Singles

Harrison, Jerry

February 21

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in leap years.

Events


- 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria
- 1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins.
- 1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
- 1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
- 1613 - Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia .
- 1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson".
- 1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
- 1842 - John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.
- 1848 - Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto.
- 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
- 1875 - Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history.
- 1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
- 1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"
- 1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
- 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile
- 1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1947 - In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
- 1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
- 1952 - Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then East Pakistan (currently, the independent state of People's Republic of Bangladesh)
- 1952] - The government of Winston Churchill abolishes Identity Cards in the UK to "set the people free".
- 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
- 1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
- 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
- 1970 - Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
- 1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
- 1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
- 1973 - Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
- 1974 - The long-running Japanese comic strip "Sazae-san]"] publishes its final installment in the [[Asahi Shimbun]].
- 1974 - The last [[Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.
- 1975 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
- 1986 - The Legend of Zelda was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan.//Metallica released their 3rd album Master of Puppets.
- 1988 - Jimmy Swaggart, on his own televangelism program being taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit.
- 1995 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
- 1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
- 2000 - David Letterman returns to The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.
- 2003 - Over 100 concert goers die in a fire during a performance of the rock band Great White.
- 2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.

Births


- 1484 - Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
- 1556 - Sethus Calvisius, German calendar reformer (d. 1615)
- 1621 - Rebecca Nurse, American accused witch (d. 1692)
- 1675 - Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d. 1750)
- 1688 - Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741)
- 1705 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d. 1781)
- 1721 - John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (d. 1796)
- 1723 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
- 1728 - Tsar Peter III of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great (d. 1762)
- 1791 - Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)
- 1801 - John Henry Newman, English Catholic cardinal (d. 1890)
- 1821 - Charles Scribner, American publisher (d. 1871)
- 1836 - Léo Delibes, French composer (d. 1891)
- 1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
- 1865 - John Haden Badley, English author and school founder (d. 1967)
- 1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire and benefactor (d. 1934)
- 1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
- 1885 - Sacha Guitry, Russian dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)
- 1893 - Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d. 1979)
- 1893 - Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
- 1895 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- 1903 - Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)
- 1903 - Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
- 1907 - W. H. Auden, English poet (d. 1973)
- 1910 - Douglas Bader, British pilot (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d. 1979)
- 1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1925 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
- 1924 - Robert Mugabe first President of Zimbabwe
- 1927 - Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d. 1996)
- 1927 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer
- 1933 - Nina Simone, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1934 - Rue McClanahan, American actress
- 1936 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 - King Harald V of Norway
- 1937 - Gary Lockwood, American actor
- 1941 - James Wong, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)
- 1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, French actor, film director, and writer
- 1943 - David Geffen, American record producer
- 1946 - Tyne Daly, American actress
- 1946 - Anthony Daniels, British actor
- 1946 - Alan Rickman, English actor
- 1947 - Olympia Snowe, American politician
- 1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician
- 1953 - Christine Ebersole, American actress
- 1953 - William Petersen, American actor
- 1955 - Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
- 1958 - Alan Trammell, baseball player and manager
- 1961 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (d. 1993)
- 1961 - Christopher Atkins, American actor
- 1961 - Martha Hackett, American actress
- 1961 - Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
- 1963 - William Baldwin, American actor
- 1967 - Leroy Burrell, American sprinter
- 1969 - Eric Wilson, American musician (Sublime)
- 1970 - Michael Slater, Australian cricketer
- 1972 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician
- 1974 - Ivan Campo, Spanish footballer
- 1974 - Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist
- 1975 - Affirmed, American race horse (d. 2001)
- 1977 - Kevin Rose, American television host
- 1979 - Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
- 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer
- 1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player
- 1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer

Deaths


- 1437 - King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
- 1471 - John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop
- 1513 - Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
- 1543 - Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal
- 1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German botanist
- 1595 - Robert Southwell, English poet
- 1668 - John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b. 1616)
- 1677 - Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (b. 1632)
- 1715 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b. 1637)
- 1788 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1824 - Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)
- 1846 - Emperor Ninko of Japan, (b. 1800)
- 1862 - Justinus Kerner, German poet (b. 1786)
- 1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- 1938 - George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b. 1868)
- 1941 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)
- 1944 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
- 1945 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b. 1902)
- 1965 - Malcolm X, American black activist (b. 1925)
- 1967 - Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)
- 1968 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmocologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)
- 1974 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1905)
- 1984 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)
- 1994 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (b. 1948)
- 1996 - Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
- 1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- 2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)
- 2004 - John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
- 2004 - Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)
- 2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
- 2005 - Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances


- Language Martyrs' Day - A day celebrated by Bengali speaking people for gaining right of mother tongue.
- International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
- Catholicism - Feast day of St Peter Damian.
- Presidents' Day in the United States (2005)
- Family Day in Alberta (2005)

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/21 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050221.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 20 - February 22 - January 21 - March 21 -- listing of all days ko:2월 21일 ms:21 Februari ja:2月21日 simple:February 21 th:21 กุมภาพันธ์

New Wave music

:This article is about the 1980s musical movement New Wave. For other meanings, see New Wave. New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in American, Australian, British, Canadian and European popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, growing out of the New York City punk rock scene, itself centered around the club CBGB. The genre was most popular during the 1980s, but became somewhat popular again during the 2000s. The term itself is a source of much confusion. Originally, Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records, needed a term by which he could market his newly signed CBGB's veteran bands. Because radio consultants in the US had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad (and because many stations that had embraced Disco had been hurt by the backlash), Stein settled on the term "new wave". He felt that the music was the aural equivalent of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s. Like those film makers, his new artists (most notably Talking Heads) were anti-corporate, experimental, and a generation that had grown up as critical consumers of the art they now practiced. Thus, the term "new wave" was interchangeable with punk rock. Very soon, listeners themselves began to see these musicians as different from their compatriots. Music that followed on from The Ramones (the Sex Pistols and all who followed them) was distinguished as "punk", while music that followed from the artistic and poetic experimentation of Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith and Blondie were called "new wave". However, those artists were all originally classified as punk. Eventually, the term was applied indiscriminately to any punk band that did not embrace the loud-fast ethos, whether they were reggae, ska, or experimental. Thus, The (English) Beat, R.E.M., and The Police were equally New Wave, even though these bands would have as little in common with each other as they would with nominally punk bands such as The Clash. Later still, New Wave came to imply a less noisy, poppier sound, and to include acts manufactured by record labels, while the term post-punk was coined to describe the darker, less pop-influenced groups. Although distinct, punk, New Wave, and post-punk all shared common ground: an energetic reaction to the supposedly overproduced, uninspired popular music of the 1970s. Many groups fit easily into two or all three of the categories over their lifespan. New Wave is also commonly used to describe the style and fashion associated with New Wave music. Examples include hairstyles of the band A Flock of Seagulls and Kajagoogoo, and Elvis Costello's bi-colored glasses poster. As fashion, there were two major components of New Wave adornment. First, there was an eclectic revivalism. Paisley prints (from the 1960s), very thin neckties and pleats (from the 1940s), and simple colors were one part. The other part was a desire to embrace contemporary synthetic materials as a protest and celebration of "plastic". This involved the use of spandex, bright colors, and mass-produced (or apparently mass-produced) and tawdry ornaments. Men's and women's fashions thus split from one another dramatically, and men wearing spandex and bright colors were ridiculed (and became emblematic of the mass marketing of New Wave in department stores). As a fashion movement, then, New Wave was both a post-modern belief in creative pastiche and a continuation of Pop Art's satire and fascination with manufacturing. New Wave is generally considered to have died by about 1986, although it still influenced pop music production up to about 1992. Between about 1993 and 2002 New Wave became a thing of the past and underground scene, but in the first decade of the 21st Century, however, many newly formed "indie rock" bands once again popularized the New Wave genre with varying success, most importantly Franz Ferdinand and The Killers. (See Post-punk revival)

New Wave bands and artists (past & present)

New Wave music styles


- New Romantic
- Synthpop
- Two-Tone ska revival
- Power pop
- Mod Revival
- 1980s Electronic music
- Dark Wave
- Rockabilly revival
- Neue Deutsche Welle
- Novi val Category:Punk Category:Punk genres ja:ニューウェーブ

Talking Heads

:For the Alan Bennett monologues, see Talking Heads (plays). Talking Heads (plays) Talking Heads were an American rock band existing between 1974 and 1991, and composed of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison.

History

Jerry Harrison Talking Heads married punk rock sensibilities with poppy sounds, clipped funk, art school intellectualism, and latterly world music. In David Byrne, they had one of the most distinctive front men of the period; they remained popular during their lifetime, and their concert film Stop Making Sense (which was made at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, and directed by Jonathan Demme) is widely acclaimed as one of the finest examples of the genre [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/talking_heads_stop_making_sense/]. Formed in 1974 at the Rhode Island School of Design, the band first consisted of three members: David Byrne (vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), and Tina Weymouth (bass). The group settled on the name 'Talking Heads' from an issue of TV Guide featuring definitions of commonly used terms in television. A talking head is a shot sometimes used in news programs that reveals only the head and shoulders of the person speaking. 'All content, no action' seemed to fit the band's musical style and stage presence, so the name stuck. Moving to New York the nascent Heads landed a gig, opening for The Ramones at the legendary CBGBs club. In 1976, they added one more member, Jerry Harrison (keyboards and guitar), formerly of Jonathan Richman's band The Modern Lovers. The group quickly drew a following and was signed to Sire Records in 1977. Their first album, Talking Heads: 77 was released soon afterward. Combining a taut rhythm section with David Byrne's signature neurotic vocals, '77 was a potent slab of art-punk virtuosity that, despite poor sales, instantly endeared the band to the more experimental elements in New York's burgeoning punk scene.

With Brian Eno

It was with their second album, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food that the band began its long-term collaboration with Brian Eno, one-time keyboard player for Roxy Music, later famous for his experimental, ambient art-pop and for collaborating on several respected albums for David Bowie. As a producer, Eno became a virtual fifth member of the band for the first part of their career. Eno's unusual style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they gained the confidence to explore in a wide variety of musical directions. Though the first album's "Psycho Killer" had been a minor hit, it was this album's cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" that broke Talking Heads into general public consciousness. The experimentation continued with 1979's Fear of Music, featuring "Life During Wartime" and 1980's Remain in Light, both of which flirted with the darker stylings of post punk rock. The single from the latter, "Once in a Lifetime", failed to make an impression upon its release, but grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the back of its music video, one of the first signs of the power music videos would exert during the 1980s. 1980s After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group then spent nearly three more before releasing another. In the meantime they released a live album The Name of this Band is Talking Heads and parted ways with Brian Eno, who went on to successfully produce U2. 1983 saw the release of Speaking in Tongues, a commercial breakthrough that produced the band's first American Top 10 hit, "Burning Down the House". Once again, a striking video was inescapable during the song's run. The following tour was documented in Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, which generated another live album of the same name. Three more albums followed, 1985's Little Creatures, 1986's True Stories (Talking Heads covering all the soundtrack songs of Byrne's musical comedy film, in which the band also appeared) and 1988's Naked. All were poppier and more accessible than previous releases, without discarding the group's characteristic quirky thoughtfulness. During that time, however, the group was falling more and more under David Byrne's sway, and after Naked the band went on "hiatus". It took until 1991 for an official announcement to be made that Talking Heads had broken up.

Post break-up

A brief reunion occurred in 1992 for "Sax and Violins", an original single that appeared on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. Frustrated by David Byrne's lack of interest in another album, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison also reunited without him for a one-off album called No Talking, Just Head under the name "The Heads" in 1996, featuring a rotating cast of vocalists, including Debbie Harry. 1996 Byrne has gone on to become something of a "rock icon" in recent years (using Pete Townshend's definition of the term: "It means no one buys your records any more"), while Harrison has become a producer of some note—his resumé includes the Violent Femmes' The Blind Leading the Naked, the Fine Young Cannibals' The Raw and the Cooked, Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet, Live's Throwing Copper, and No Doubt's Return of Saturn. Frantz and Weymouth had been recording on the side as Tom Tom Club since 1981, their debut album selling almost as well as Talking Heads themselves leading to the band appearing in Stop Making Sense. They achieved several pop/rap hits under that name, particularly in the UK; their single "Genius of Love" has been sampled numerous times, notably on Mariah Carey's 1995 hit "Fantasy". They also have produced several artists, including Happy Mondays, and are among Blur singer Damon Albarn's collaborators on his Gorillaz side-project. Talking Heads' body of work has been extremely influential, with bands as wide-ranging as Radiohead (named after a Talking Heads song), Phish (covering the entire album "Remain In Light" at a 1996 Halloween show), and Red Hot Chili Peppers acknowledging them among their roots. The band played together one last time on March 18, 2002 at the ceremony of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Discography

Studio albums


- Talking Heads: 77 (1977)
- More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
- Fear of Music (1979)
- Remain in Light (1980)
- Speaking in Tongues (1983)
- Little Creatures (1985)
- True Stories (1986)
- Naked (1988)

Compilations


- Sand In The Vaseline: Popular Favorites (1992)
- Don't Worry About The Cover Band: Tribute Album (2000)
- Once In A Lifetime (box set) (2003)
- Best Of Talking Heads (remastered) (2004)
- Brick (box set) (2005)

Lives and videos


- Stop Making Sense [live] (1984) (reissued in expanded form in 1999)
- Storytelling Giant(1988)
- The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads [live] (1982) (reissued in greatly expanded form in 2004)

Feature-length film


- True Stories - Starring David Byrne, cameos of other Talking Heads members, soundtrack by Talking Heads

Singles


- "Life During Wartime"
- "Psycho Killer"
- "Take Me To the River"
- "Once In a Lifetime"
- "Burning Down the House"
- "And She Was"
- "Stay Up Late"
- "Road to Nowhere"
- "Wild Wild Life"
- "Blind"
- "(Nothing But) Flowers"

External links


- http://www.thismustbetheplace.net (fan site containing album reviews, lots of pictures, lyrics, etc, in English)
- http://talking-heads.net (lots of info and a bulletin board)
-
-
- [http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists/T/Talking_Heads/ ] at the dmoz Open Directory Project
- [http://www.bl3nder.com/music/rhapsody/playlists/Talking_Heads_on_rhapsody.rpl Talking Heads on Rhapsody] (a Real Player playlist)
- [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/151307 God I Hate 'Em, a flash movie showing a played-backwards interpretation of Burning Down the House]
- [http://www.lyricsdir.com/talking-heads-lyrics.html Talking Heads Lyrics] Category:American musical groups Category:American rock music groups Category:Early punk groups Category:New Wave groups Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rock music groups
- Talking Heads ja:トーキング・ヘッズ

Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman (born May 15, 1951) is an American proto-punk icon and one of the progenitors of "indie rock."

Biography

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Jonathan Richman began playing music and writing his own songs in the mid-1960s. In 1969 he moved to New York City, where he spent time living on the couch of The Velvet Underground's manager and working odd jobs while trying to break in as a professional musician. Failing at this, he returned to Boston. The Velvet Underground Having moved back, he formed The Modern Lovers, a proto-punk garage rock band. Other notable members of the group were keyboard player Jerry Harrison and drummer David Robinson, who later joined Talking Heads and The Cars respectively. In 1972 they recorded a series of songs, including the seminal "Roadrunner," which were eventually released as the group's sole album, Modern Lovers, in 1975. Shortly after these recordings were made, Richman broke up the band and embarked on his long and eclectic solo career. For a while he continued recording under the "Modern Lovers" name (or rather, the more telling "Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers" appellation), but all the members were different, and in the new incarnation were essentially his backing band. The sound of the new group was considerably different as well, focusing on acoustic instrumentation rather than the prior electric guitars and drums. The album Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers was released in January 1977, Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers followed a month later and "Modern Lovers Live" in 1978. In 1979 Richman finally went completely solo. That year's Back in Your Life was released under the "Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers" moniker, but this was true of only about half the disc—the rest was solo work. This album was probably the most extreme detour by Richman into eclecticism; after the odd but traditional acoustic rock of the previous albums, this one's solo tracks showed off a string bass and Glockenspiel as main instruments. Glockenspiel A few years' hiatus ended in 1983 with Jonathan Sings!—memorably featuring a cover with Richman serenading a crowd wearing nothing but a guitar and neck strap. This was followed up with a series of pop efforts (Rockin' and Romance, It's Time for Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, and Modern Lovers 88 from 1985, 1986 and 1988 respectively). Soon after, he returned to swooping madly around the musical landscape: country with 1990's Jonathan Goes Country, and Spanish translations of his earlier work (as well as traditional Spanish songs) with 1993's Jonathan, Te Vas a Emocionar! Always possessing an ardent cult following, Richman has become better known in recent years thanks to a series of appearances on fan Conan O'Brien's show; also helping was a major part in the 1998 movie There's Something About Mary, where he played half of a two-man Greek chorus that commented on the movie while performing in the framed action itself. He has continued his release schedule all along, with You Must Ask the Heart in 1995, Surrender to Jonathan in 1996, I'm So Confused in 1998, Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow in 2001 and Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love in 2004. In 1998 a live album of Modern Lovers recordings from the early '70s was released, Live at the Long Branch & More. There is also a DVD of a live performance Take me to the Plaza 2002. In live 'solo' shows, he frequently tours with drummer Tommy Larkins, the other part of the two-man chorus mentioned above. He is a tremendously charismatic stage presence, and this has helped maintain his dedicated cult following.

Heritage

Richman has been influential in two fields, first affecting American Punk with the work he did in the first incarnation of the Modern Lovers. His music since then has set the tone for any number of quirky "college rock" acts like Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Weezer, and solo Frank Black.

References


- Tim Mitchell, There's Something About Jonathan, London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1999, ISBN 0-7206-1076-1

Discography

The Modern Lovers


- The Modern Lovers (1976)
- Rock 'n' Roll With The Modern Lovers (1977)
- The Original Modern Lovers (1981)
- Live At The Longbranch Saloon (1992)
- Precise Modern Lovers Order (1994)
- Live At The Longbranch And More (1998)

Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers


- Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers (1977)
- Modern Lovers 'Live (1977)
- Back In Your Life (1979)
- Jonathan Sings! (1983)
- Rockin' And Romance (1985)
- It's Time For (1986)
- Modern Lovers 88 (1988)

Jonathan Richman


- Jonathan Richman (1989)
- Jonathan Goes Country (1990)
- Having A Party With Jonathan Richman (1991)
- I, Jonathan (1992)
- ¡Jonathan, Te Vas A Emocionar! (1994)
- You Must Ask the Heart (1995)
- Surrender To Jonathan (1996)
- I'm So Confused (1998)
- Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow (2001)

External links


- [http://www.sjrp.org Simes' Jonathan Richman Pages] - a comprehensive Jonathan Richman discography
- [http://jojo.d-and-h.net/ Jonathan Richman Rockin' Lyrics Pages]
- [http://www.modernlovers.com modernlovers.com]
- [http://users.ids.net/~dmsr/sessionography.html An early sessionography]
- [http://www.dirtywater.com/a2z/r/richman/harvard.html An indepth history of the Modern Lovers]
- [http://homepage.mac.com/ramonrempel/JoJo/index.html The (Unofficial) Jonathan Richman Chords & Lyrics Site]
- [http://www.frankwu.com/JRlyrics.html Another Jonathan Richman lyrics site, with corrections and annotations] Richman, Jonathan Richman, Jonathan Richman, Jonathan

Modern Lovers

Led by Jonathan Richman, the protopunk band The Modern Lovers came out of Massachusetts in the early 1970s. Their classic debut album contained heartfelt songs about dating awkwardness, growing up in Massachusetts, and love for life. Many feel their best work is the first album and the outtakes from those sessions. For the first album, The Modern Lovers, the band included Richman, bassist Ernie Brooks, keyboardist Jerry Harrison, and drummer David Robinson. The album featured the tracks "Roadrunner", "Astral Plane", and "Pablo Picasso". After recording several tracks in 1972 and '73, including the haunting "I'm Straight" (referring here to abstinence from drug use), and "Government Center", Richman wanted to scrap the tracks that were recorded and start over with a mellower, more lyrical sound. The rest of the band, while not opposed to such a shift later, insisted that they record as they sounded now. They continued, and eventually, the first album was released in 1976. Long before, however, creative differences split the band apart. Harrison moved on to the seminal new wave band Talking Heads. Robinson became the drummer for another nationally-known Boston band, The Cars. Beyond this first album, the band became a solo project for Richman as he experimented with different music styles. Almost three years after the first album's release, the album Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, featuring a completely new lineup, was released.

External links


- [http://www.sjrp.org Simes' Jonathan Richman Pages] includes a comprehensive Modern Lovers Discography. Modern Lovers Modern Lovers

Berkeley, California

] Berkeley is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California, in the United States. Its neighbor to the south is the city of Oakland, California. Its eastern border is formed by the Tilden Regional Park. Berkeley is located in Alameda County. Home to the University of California, Berkeley, the city is known for its leftist politics, eclectic mix of residents, nuclear research, and gourmet food. University of California, Berkeley]

Places

Berkeley is the site of the University of California, Berkeley, the flagship campus of the University of California, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Hall of Science, Space Sciences Laboratory, and Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, which are on the campus grounds. Another well known educational institution in Berkeley is the Graduate Theological Union. Graduate Theological Union] Other notable places include:
- The Campanile belltower (Sather Tower) in the University of California, Berkeley campus.
- Telegraph Avenue, along with People's Park, known as a center for "hippie" activity during the 1960s-70s, marijuana, and now the several "old timers" left over from the age.
- The critically acclaimed restaurant Chez Panisse, the birthplace of California cuisine.
- The Claremont Resort.
- Berkeley High School (the city's only public high school), is considered a [http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/berkeley_highschool.html Landmark].
- The Berkeley Community Theater, a well known concert hall.
- The bicycle-pedestrian bridge across I-80 at University Avenue, the first of a new generation of people-friendly transportation improvements that focus on access instead of cars.
- The Berkeley Rose Garden. Main streets include:
- Shattuck Avenue, home to the downtown business district, and the Gourmet Ghetto to the north
- Telegraph Avenue
- University Avenue, including the Indian business districts
- San Pablo Avenue, in West Berkeley
- College Avenue, the main commerce area being in the Elmwood Neighborhood. It continues into the Rockridge District of Oakland, California
- Martin Luther King Junior Way
- Solano Avenue, in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood
- 4th Street, with a relatively new retail area which tends towards more expensive specialty stores.

History

The history of the city is inextricably linked to its university. According to the Centennial Record of the University of California, "In 1866...at Founders' Rock, a group of College of California men were watching two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, was reminded of the lines of Bishop Berkeley, 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for the eighteenth-century British philosopher and poet." In 1873, Governor Newton Booth declared Berkeley to be the "Athens of the West". The University of California first operated in Berkeley in 1872. Much of Berkeley's economy, status, and reputation has long derived from its relationship with the institution. The Pacific School of Religion (PSR), was founded by Congregationalists in 1866 as an ecumenical theological school— the first graduate seminary west of the Mississippi, and one of the two largest religious schools in the world (the other is in Leuven, Belgium). As a result, Berkeley is reputed to have the most churches per capita of any city in the US. The 1910 "First Church of Christ, Scientist", designed by Bernard Maybeck, is a mix of Craftsman, Gothic, and Romanesque styles. It is a National Historic Landmark. Both city and university have long been famed as a center of activist politics and radical social ideas. Early in the twentieth century, West Berkeley became a center for Finnish immigrants, many of whom were Socialists, and who contributed to the growing labor movement in the 1920s and 30s. The Finnish Hall (Toveri Tupa) in the 1800 block of Tenth Street is a now-landmarked community meeting place built by these Finnish activists in 1908. In 1911, Berkeley had a Socialist mayor, J. Stitt Wilson. The movement for women's suffrage was strong in Berkeley. In 1911, when it became law, California became the sixth state in the US to allow women to vote. While surrounding Alameda County as a whole voted against the female right to vote, it won easily in Berkeley. In the late 1920s several large women's organizations combined to form the Berkeley Women's City Club. Its beautiful Italianate building on Durant Avenue, designed by renowned Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan and completed in 1930, is a California Historical Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today Berkeley has one of the still relatively few female fire chiefs in the US, Deborah Pryor, an African-American. The Free Speech Movement began on the Berkeley campus, arguing for free speech on campus, despite its ownership by the Regents. Many student demonstrations against the Vietnam War occurred there in the 1960s, which American news organizations dramatically televised. news Another notable series of events that helped to solidify this popular conception of Berkeley is the repeated takeover by populists of an open lot owned by the University of California. The University has long sought to build on the lot, but the populists have demanded that the lot remain undeveloped and open as a public park. Today this lot is called People's Park and 1960s era culture and spirit still lives on on Telegraph Avenue. Due to the generally liberal to radical views of the Berkeley public, the city is sometimes mockingly referred to as the People's Republic of Berkeley (and have led some to deride it as "Berzerkley"). This reputation—along with its generally temperate weather, high rates of tourism, and large student population—have attracted large populations of transient people, many of whom are homeless. As a result of this large homeless population, and of the city's proximity to high-poverty areas in neighboring Oakland, California, crime rates per capita are often among the top in the state. Berkeley's police department, under its first chief August Vollmer early in the 20th century, was the first in the US to require that officers have a college degree. This department developed the lie detector test, and was one of the first to use fingerprints and radios. In 1973, Berkeley's city council enacted its well known Berkeley Marijuana Initiative. The act ordered Berkeley police to make "no arrests and issue no citations for violations of marijuana laws." In 1986 Berkeley officially became a Nuclear Free Zone after a local vote, disallowing the operation of nuclear reactors within city limits and preventing work from being done on nuclear weapons within its borders. While this can be seen as a logical extension of its radicalism, it also is an ironic play with Berkeley's past: the University of California, Berkeley played a major role in the development of nuclear weapons during World War II, a DOE National Laboratory (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) still sits in the expensive hill-side real estate above the city. The University of California, as of this writing, still has a contract with the U.S. government to manage LBNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (the latter of which designed all nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal, and still maintain the programs of stockpile stewardship). Street signs posted at the city borders declaring its Nuclear Free Zone status are the most noticeable effect of the measure. (The University also once housed a small research reactor which would have been in noncompliance with the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act. This was replaced in the 1990s with a computer laboratory, though the University denies that this had anything to do with the Act). Berkeley also celebrates "Indigenous People's Day" rather than "Columbus Day" in October. In 1989, Berkeley banned the use of polystyrene packaging for keeping McDonald's hamburgers warm. This was one of the earliest events in the plastics recycling movement in the U.S. The city of Berkeley is home to a number of well-known artists, architects, composers, writers and thinkers: Fritjof Capra, Susan Griffin, Christopher Alexander, John Adams, Rita Moreno, Michael Parenti, Michael Lerner, Michael Chabon, and others. The city also has more independent publishers per capita than any other city in the country, and more bookstores per capita. Additionally, many famous bands have originated in Berkeley, including Operation Ivy and Green Day. More recently, Berkeley has become known as a gourmet food center. Even by the standards of the Bay Area it has an exceptional number of specialist food shops and restaurants, the [http://www.berkeleybowl.com/ Berkeley Bowl Supermarket], and a Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, is regarded as the birthplace of California cuisine. Its proprietor, Alice Waters, has been called "the mother of American cooking." Among the shops, [http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/ The Cheeseboard Collective] is a well-known, cooperatively-run bakery and cheese shop. Since the 1970s, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART), a metro train system, has linked Berkeley to San Francisco and the other cities of the Bay Area. Berkeley has nevertheless maintained its own character. Originally the planners of BART proposed an above-ground route through Berkeley, but Berkeley residents voted for a tunnel route instead, whose extra cost was funded by a bond issue. Consequently, BART runs entirely in tunnel through Berkeley, but above ground in the neighboring city of Albany. Berkeley is also serviced by the Berkeley Daily Planet, a free progressive daily newspaper which is a daily ritual for many residents on the throne. The Daily Californian serves the UCB campus and environs. The City is also the birthplace of the nation's first Community Funded radio station. KPFA, still located in downtown Berkeley at 1929 Martin Luther King Blvd, was founded by pacifists in 1948. KPFA still broadcasts a strongly anti-war message and is now the flagship station of the Pacifica Network. An unattributed quote about Berkeley reads, "Three things have come out of Berkeley: LSD, BSD, and the SCA. This is no coincidence." Its accuracy is questionable; LSD is better said to have come out of Switzerland, Harvard, and Stanford. Interestingly, fewer people live in Berkeley today than did 55 years ago. Few other cities in the western United States can make this claim. Population by decade:
- 1890 - 5,101
- 1900 - 13,214
- 1910 - 40,434
- 1920 - 56,036
- 1930 - 82,109
- 1940 - 85,547
- 1950 - 113,805
- 1960 - 111,268
- 1970 - 116,716
- 1980 - 103,328
- 1990 - 102,724
- 2000 - 102,743

Geography

2000Berkeley is located at 37°52'18" North, 122°16'29" West (37.871775, -122.274603). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 45.9 km² (17.7 mi²). 27.1 km² (10.5 mi²) of it is land and 18.8 km² (7.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 40.94% water. Berkeley borders the cities of Albany, Oakland, and Emeryville and unincorporated Contra Costa County including Kensington as well as San Francisco Bay.

Demographics

mi² The city's population is culturally diverse, with a significant portion in transient residence attending UC Berkeley. As of the census of 2000, there are 102,743 people, 44,955 households, and 18,656 families residing in the city. The population density is 3,792.5/km² (9,823.3/mi²), one of the highest in California. There are 46,875 housing units at an average density of 1,730.3/km² (4,481.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 59.17% White, 13.63% Black or African American, 0.45% Native American, 16.39% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 4.64% from other races, and 5.57% from two or more races. 9.73% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 44,955 households out of which 17.8% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.9% are married couples living together, 9.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 58.5% are non-families. 38.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 7.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.16 and the average family size is 2.84. In the city the population is spread out with 14.1% under the age of 18, 21.6% from 18 to 24, 31.8% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there are 96.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 95.1 males. The median income for a household in the city is $44,485, and the median income for a family is $70,434. Males have a median income of $50,789 versus $40,623 for females. The per capita income for the city is $30,477. 20.0% of the population and 8.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 13.4% of those under the age of 18 and 7.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Transportation

Berkeley is served by Amtrak, AC Transit, BART (Downtown Berkeley Station, North Berkeley, and Ashby Station) and bus shuttles operated by major employers including UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. The only major freeway is Interstate 80. Each day there is an influx of thousands of cars into the city by commuting UC faculty, staff and students, making parking for more than a few hours an expensive proposition. Berkeley has one of the highest rates of bicycle and pedestrian commuting in the nation. Berkeley is the safest city of its size for pedestrians and cyclists, a fact that new research is attributing to a [http://www.tsc.berkeley.edu/html/newsletter/Spring04/syntax.html safety in numbers] effect. Berkeley has modified its original grid roadway structure through use of diverters and barriers, moving most traffic out of neighborhoods and onto arterial streets (visitors often find this confusing, because the diverters are not shown on all maps). Berkeley maintains a separate grid of arterial streets for bicycles, called Bicycle Boulevards, with bike lanes and lower amounts of car traffic than the major streets to which they often run parallel. Berkeley hosts a car sharing network run by [http://www.citycarshare.org/ City CarShare]. Rather than owning (and parking) their own cars, members share a group of cars parked nearby. Online reservation systems keep track of hours and charges.

Mayors

[http://www.cityofberkeley.info/mayor/ City of Berkeley Mayor's Office]
- Tom Bates, Mayor of Berkeley (elected 2002), married to California State Assemblymember and former Berkeley Mayor Loni Hancock
- Shirley Dean, mayor 1994-2002
- Loni Hancock, mayor 1986-1994, currently representing [http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a14/ California State Assembly District 14], the East Bay Area, married to Berkeley Mayor and former California State Assemblymember of District 14 Tom Bates

Notable Berkeley residents (past and present)


- Ben Affleck - (actor)
- Billie Joe Armstrong - (member of punk rock band Green Day)
- Tim Armstrong - (member of punk rock bands Rancid and Operation Ivy)
- David Brower - (Environmentalist)
- Michael Chabon - (author)
- Francis Ford Coppola - (filmmaker and vintner)
- Robert Crumb - (cartoonist)
- Adam Duritz - musician
- Daniel Ellsberg - (military analyst)
- John Fogerty - (singer/songwriter)
- Matt Freeman - (member of punk rock bands Rancid and Operation Ivy)
- Allen Ginsberg - (poet)
- Whoopi Goldberg (actress and comedian)
- Wavy Gravy - (activist and 1960s counterculture icon)
- Davey Havok - (singer for AFI)
- Patty Hearst - (Newspaper heiress and kidnap victim)
- Gregory Hoblit - (film and television director)
- David Horowitz - (1960s radical turned conservative activist)
- Ishi, last of the Yahi - "Stone Age" Native American
- Theodore Kaczynski - (Unabomber)
- Phil Lesh - (former Grateful Dead bassist)
- George Lucas - (filmmaker)
- Country Joe McDonald - Singer/Songwriter
- Roger Montgomery - Urban Designer, City Planner, Architect, Dean University of California, Berkeley
- Huey P. Newton - (Black Panther Party)
- Robert Oppenheimer - (directed construction of nuclear bomb)
- Mario Savio - (1960s Free Speech Movement icon)
- Edward Teller - (nuclear physicist, thermonuclear weapons)
- Lars Ullrich - (Metallica drummer)
- Alice Waters -(restaurateur)
- Saul Zaentz - (film producer)
- Pete Wilson - (former governor of California)
- Norman Mineta - (Transportation Secretary under US President George W. Bush)
- Gordon Moore - (co-founder of Intel) See also these lists of notable people associated with the University, most of whom probably didn't commute.
- List of Nobel laureates associated with UC Berkeley
- List of UC Berkeley faculty
- List of UC Berkeley alumni

Points of interest


- Berkeley Community Theatre
- Berkeley Repertory Theatre
- Chez Panisse
- Cloyne Court Hotel, a member of the University Students' Cooperative Association
- Fantasy Records
- Hearst Greek Theatre
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Regional Parks Botanic Garden
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California Botanical Garden

External links


- [http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ Official Government Website]
- [http://www.cityofberkeley.info/ City Of Berkeley, California]
- [http://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/ Berkeley Public Library]
- [http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/landmarks.html Berkeley Landmarks]
- [http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a14/ California State Assembly District 14]
- [http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/ Berkeley Daily Planet Website]
- [http://www.peoplespark.org/ People's Park]
- [http://www.yeah-berkeley.org/ Homeless Youth Shelter]
- [http://www.bffa1227.org/ Berkeley Firefighters Association]
- [http://www.terragalleria.com/california/california.berkeley.html Photos of Berkeley]
- [http://www.dailycal.org/ The Daily Californian]
- [http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~tobin/wiki/moin.cgi/FrontPage Berkeley Wiki], a local community wiki / visitor's guide Category:Cities in California Category:Alameda County, California
- Berkeley Category:University towns ja:バークリー (カリフォルニア州)

The Violent Femmes

,Gordon Gano]] Violent Femmes are a rock band that formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the early 1980s. Gordon Gano (singer/guitarist), Brian Ritchie (bassist), and Victor DeLorenzo (percussionist) founded the group and were discovered (and subsequently forgotten) by James Honeyman-Scott (of The Pretenders) when the band was playing on a street corner in front of the Milwaukee venue that The Pretenders would be playing later that night. The band signed to Slash Records and released a self-titled album in 1982. The music was an innovative combination of American folk music and indie rock. The lyrics were the common adolescent themes of yearning for love, sex and affection. The group quickly gained a small cult following that never burgeoned into widespread popularity, although a few songs from this album did get some recognition ("Add It Up", "Blister in the Sun", and "Kiss Off"). The debut album went platinum ten years after its release. The following year, the Violent Femmes released Hallowed Ground, which moved the group to a more country music sound and introduced spiritual themes. Their third album, The Blind Leading the Naked, produced by fellow Milwaukee native Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, was more mainstream and pop-oriented, resulting in a minor hit with "Children of the Revolution" (originally by T. Rex). The group then disbanded, with Gano releasing an album in 1987, the result of a gospel side project Mercy Seat. Ritchie also released several solo LPs. The group came back together in 1989, releasing 3 and then Why Do Birds Sing? (1991), after signing to Reprise. In 1993 DeLorenzo departed the group to act and make solo records. Guy Hoffman (formerly of the Oil Tasters and BoDeans) was brought in to tour what was to become one of their biggest selling records, the Add It Up (1981-1993) collection (1993). Over the next nine years, Hoffman recorded four full-length CDs and a handful of one-offs for motion picture soundtracks and other compilation projects. New Times (1994, Elektra Records), and Rock!!!!! (1995, Mushroom Records) was released in 1995 in Australia only. Viva Wisconsin, a live album, was released in the United States in 1999 on the independent label Beyond, and was followed by Freak Magnet in 2000. Something's Wrong (2001), an album of unreleased studio tracks, covers, demos, and acoustic live performances was released as an MP3-only album through [http://www.emusic.com/ emusic.com]. The following year in the winter of 2002, Ritchie and Delorenzo were requested by Rhino records to repackage their debut 1983 album along with demos and live tracks to coincide with a 20th anniversary reissue. DeLorenzo asked to rejoin for what was to be a farewell tour, thus reinstating the old lineup. 2005 saw the release of two collections of past work. A CD called Permanent Record - The Very Best Of Violent Femmes (Slash/Rhino) and a DVD, Permanent Record - Live & Otherwise (Rhino), which showcases a concert performance from 1991, and also many of the group's videos. The CD is the first record that recognizes all four musicians and their contributions on the same disc, as what is known as the music of the band, Violent Femmes. 2005 sees the original trio touring Australasia, North America, Europe and Africa.

Members


- Gordon Gano - Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter
- Brian Ritchie - Bassist/ Multi-Instrumentalist
- Victor DeLorenzo (1981-1992, 2002-present) - Drummer
- Guy Hoffman (1993-2002) - Drummer

Discography

Albums


- Violent Femmes (1982)
- Hallowed Ground (1984)
- The Blind Leading the Naked (1986)
- 3 (1988)
- Debacle: The First Decade (1990)
- Why Do Birds Sing? (1991)
- Add It Up (1981-1993) (1993)
- New Times (1994)
- Rock!!!!! (1995)
- Viva Wisconsin (1999)
- Freak Magnet (2000)
- Something's Wrong (2001) (MP3 release)
- Violent Femmes (Deluxe Edition) (2002)
- Permanent Record: The Very Best of Violent Femmes (2005)

Singles

|- | 1982 | "blister in the sun" | #65 | the violent femmes |

Foo Fighters

: This article is about the band. For the aerial phenomenon, see Foo fighter. Foo Fighters are a rock group formed by musician Dave Grohl in 1995. They are named after the World War II term "foo fighter", used to refer to mysterious aerial phenomena. Foo Fighters have earned a strong worldwide following, and have scored a number of hit songs, including "This Is a Call", "I'll Stick Around", "Monkey Wrench", "Everlong", "My Hero", "Learn to Fly", "All My Life", "Times Like These", "Best of You", and "DOA". On top of their five studio albums, they have also contributed to several movie soundtracks, including the song "The One" on the 2002 Orange County soundtrack.

History

Foo Fighters began as a studio solo project for Grohl while he was a member of the hugely popular group Nirvana. Unbeknownst to most of Nirvana's fanbase, Grohl had gradually written a stockpile of songs that he had held back from the band for fear of ruining their chemistry. Following Kurt Cobain's death, Grohl entered Robert Lang's Studio in Seattle with friend/producer Barrett Jones to put many of his new and old songs to tape. With the exception of a guitar part on "X-Static" by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Grohl played every instrument and sang every vocal on the tracks. Lured to Capitol Records by former Nirvana A&R (and then-Capitol president) Gary Gersh, Grohl had the demo recordings professionally mixed, and the results became the Foo Fighters' self-titled debut album. However, Grohl didn't want the Foo Fighters to be a one-man studio project, so he worked to try to put together a band. Initially, former bandmate Krist Novoselic was a main candidate for the band, but both were concerned that it might portray Foo Fighters as a reincarnation of Nirvana. Having heard through the grapevine about the disbanding of Seattle-based Emocore band Sunny Day Real Estate, Grohl drafted SDRE's bass player, Nate Mendel, and drummer, William Goldsmith. Pat Smear, who was an "unofficial member" of Nirvana after the release of In Utero, was added as a second guitarist, completing the band. The band's first single "This Is a Call" was released in June of 1995, and their eponymous debut album was released the next month to enthusiastic fan response. "I'll Stick Around" and "Big Me" were released to radio and MTV in the months that followed. After touring through the spring of 1996, the now full band Foo Fighters entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record the band's second album. However, conflict erupted between Grohl and Goldsmith, resulting in Goldsmith's decision to leave the band. The band regrouped in Los Angeles and almost completely re-recorded the album with Grohl on drums. The album, The Colour and the Shape, was released in May of 1997. In need of a drummer, Grohl contacted Alanis Morissette's touring drummer Taylor Hawkins to see if he could recommend anybody. Grohl was surprised when Hawkins volunteered himself. Hawkins made his Foo debut in time for the album's release. In September of 1997, in front of a crowded street outside the MTV Video Music Awards, Pat Smear simultaneously announced his departure from the band and introduced his replacement, former Scream guitarist Franz Stahl (Grohl had earlier played in Scream). Prior to the recording of the band's third album There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Stahl departed the band, citing creative differences. The band auditioned a number of potential guitarists, eventually settling on Chris Shiflett, who previously peformed with 22 Jacks and No Use for a Name. Shiflett initally joined the band as touring guitarist, but achieved full-time status prior to the recording of the group's fourth album. Before the release of There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Capitol president Gary Gersh was forced out of the label. Given Grohl's history with Gersh, the Foo Fighters' contract had included a key main clause that allowed them to leave the label upon Gersh's departure. They subsequently left Capitol and signed to RCA. (Gersh eventually joined forces with former Nirvana manager John Silva to form GAS Entertainment, a company that manages the Foo Fighters and other artists such as Jimmy Eat World, Beck, and the Beastie Boys.) One notable moment in the band's history came in 2000 when American late-night talk show host David Letterman invited the Foo Fighters to perform on his first show after undergoing heart bypass surgery, where the band played "Everlong". Letterman introduced them by proclaiming, "My favorite band, playing my favorite song". Near the end of 2001, the band reconvened to record their fourth album. After spending four months in a Los Angeles studio completing the album, Grohl spent some time helping the Queens of the Stone Age complete their 2002 album Songs for the Deaf. Once the Queens of the Stone Age album was finished, Grohl, inspired by the sessions, decided to reconvene the Foo Fighters to rework a few songs on their album. Instead, they completely re-recorded the album in a ten-day stretch at Grohl's studio in Virginia. The final album was released in October of 2002 under the title One by One. (Hawkins jokingly refers to the first version of the album as the "Million Dollar Demos".) For most of its history, the Foo Fighters chose to stay away from the political realm. However, in 2004, upon learning that George W. Bush's presidential campaign was using "Times Like These" at rallies, Grohl decided to lend his public support to John Kerry's campaign. Grohl attended several Kerry rallies and occasionally performed solo acoustic sets. The entire band eventually joined Grohl for a performance in Arizona coinciding with one of the presidential debates. Grohl later cited his experiences with the Kerry campaign as inspiration for the title of their next album. The band's newest recording is a double LP, In Your Honor, released on June 14, 2005. Singer Dave Grohl says that the two-disc release – one full of rock songs, the other featuring acoustic tracks – is a perfect memorial for band's 10th anniversary. Grohl hinted about the release in an interview with NME magazine: "It's really amazing. The good thing about doing it is that you split it up so that there's no middle ground. So the rock stuff is the most rocking stuff we've ever worked on, ever." One highlight on the acoustic part of the set is a song called "Friend of a Friend", which has a surprisingly long history. Grohl wrote the song in 1990, basing it on his initial impressions of Cobain and Novoselic after joining Nirvana. He recorded the song in 1990, and included it on an informal collection of songs (called Pocketwatch) released on cassette in 1992 under the pseudonym "Late!". The version on In Your Honor is very similar to the original recording (albeit more polished), with Grohl simply accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. During promotion of In Your Honor, Grohl had the chance to feed his fascination with UFOs when the Foo Fighters performed a show in a hangar at the Roswell International Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico. The Roswell International Air Center is the site of the former Roswell Army Air Field, where the fragments of the supposed alien crash landing in 1947 were stored. (Grohl named his label Roswell Records for the incident.) Grohl commented after the show that he wished he had had a chance to examine what was being stored inside the hangar. The future of the band seems unpredictable. While doing press for In Your Honor, Grohl has been quoted as saying that he'd like to go out on a high, and that In Your Honor might be that high. However, he's also said that he could see the Foo Fighters go on for years. Other ideas thrown out during recent press have included a possible box set including b-sides and covers recorded over the years, as well as RCA/BMG's desire to release a Greatest Hits album covering the band's career.

Band members


- Dave Grohl - vocals, guitar
- Taylor Hawkins - drums, percussion (1997 - present)
- Nate Mendel - bass guitar
- Chris Shiflett - guitar, backing vocals (1999 - present)

Former members


- William Goldsmith - drums, percussion (1995 - 1997)
- Pat Smear - guitar (1995 - 1997)
- Franz Stahl - guitar (1997 - 1999)

Discography

Albums

Singles

currently active on charts.

Samples


- Download sample of "February Stars" from The Colour and the Shape

See also


- List of songs covered by the Foo Fighters
- List of alternative music artists

External links


- [http://www.foofighters.com/ Foo Fighters' official web site]
- [http://www.foofans.com/ FooFans.com: Downloads (audio/video), lyrics, more]
- [http://www.soundtrackinfo.com/search.asp?q=Foo+Fighters&pos=2 Foo Fighters @ the SoundtrackINFO project]
- [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040404011849420769&sql=Btoge4j371way All Music Guide entry for Foo Fighters] Category:American musical groups
- Category:Post-grunge groups Category:Supergroups ja:フー・ファイターズ

Live (band)

LIVE is an American post-grunge/alternative rock band from York, Pennsylvania, USA. Live gained international prominence in the 1990s as one of the most successful alternative rock bands of its time. The band is comprised of Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals & guitar) Chad Taylor (lead guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (