1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
3.
Austin, Texas
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Austin is the capital of the U. S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. It is the 11th-most populous city in the U. S. and it is the fastest growing large city in the United States and the second most populous capital city after Phoenix, Arizona. As of the U. S. Census Bureaus July 1,2015 estimate and it is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 2,056,405 as of July 1,2016. In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River, in 1839, the site was officially chosen to replace Houston as the new capital of the Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas and the republics first secretary of state. The city subsequently grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. After a lull in growth from the Great Depression, Austin resumed its development into a city and, by the 1980s, it emerged as a center for technology. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including Amazon. com, cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle Corporation, Texas Instruments, 3M, and Whole Foods Market. Dells worldwide headquarters is located in nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, residents of Austin are known as Austinites. They include a mix of government employees, college students, musicians, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers. The city also adopted Silicon Hills as a nickname in the 1990s due to an influx of technology. In the late 1800s, Austin was known as the City of the Violet Crown because of the glow of light across the hills just after sunset. Even today, many Austin businesses use the term Violet Crown in their name, Austin is known as a clean-air city for its stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, including restaurants and bars. The FBI ranked Austin as the second-safest major city in the U. S. for the year 2012, U. S. News & World Report named Austin the best place to live in the U. S. in 2017. Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of habitation since at least 9200 BC. When settlers arrived from Europe, the Tonkawa tribe inhabited the area, the Comanches and Lipan Apaches were also known to travel through the area. Spanish colonists, including the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition, traveled through the area for centuries, in 1730, three missions from East Texas were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now Zilker Park, in Austin. The mission was in area for only about seven months
4.
Conan (talk show)
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Conan is a late-night talk show airing each Monday through Thursday at 11,00 p. m. eastern time on TBS in the United States. The hour-long show premiered on November 8,2010, and is hosted by writer, comedian and performer Conan OBrien, accompanied by his long-time sidekick Andy Richter. Describing itself as a traditional late-night talk show, Conan draws its comedy from recent news stories, political figures and prominent celebrities, on May 14,2014, TBS renewed the show through 2018. The show opens with Richter proclaiming Coming to you from Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, its Conan. and introducing OBrien, The Basic Cable Band, as well as the episodes guests. For the first several seasons of Conan, each episode had a title, the titles were in the style of old fashioned murder-mystery radio shows, television sitcoms, or other assorted jokes. The episode titles were dropped in early 2014, the title sequence was designed by Rob Ashe, Dan Dome and Eric McGilloway. There were several different variations of the credits, with the final product being inspired by graphic designer Saul Bass. The opening design process was described by Ashe as utilizing organic-looking textures made of paper, soak them in soda. OBrien opens each episode with a drawing from current news stories and issues. The monologue is sometimes accompanied by clips and brief comedy skits, one or more comedy bits follow the monologue. Following the monologue, some bits are presented from the monologue stage. Following the first commercial break, additional sketches are typically presented from the desk area. Some sketches are original and appear only once, occasionally an additional sketch will air between the first and second guest. October 31–November 3,2011, taped at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, Guests included Jimmy Fallon, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Broderick and Louis C. K. June 11–14,2012, taped at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Guests included Jack McBrayer, Andy Samberg, Johnny Galecki and Adam Sandler. April 1–4,2013, taped at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, Guests included Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Steven Yeun and Charles Barkley. March 31–April 3,2014, taped at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, Texas to coincide with the NCAA Final Four, Guests included Dirk Nowitzki, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Simon Helberg and Charles Barkley. July 8–11,2015, taped at the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego, Guests include Elijah Wood, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Peter Capaldi
5.
Art rock
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Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from teen entertainment to an artistic statement, influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental rock, avant-garde music, classical music, and jazz. The genres greatest level of popularity was in the early 1970s through British artists, art rock is most associated with a certain period of rock music, beginning in 1966–67 and ending with the arrival of punk in the mid 1970s. After, the genre would be infused within later popular music genres of the 1970s–90s, in the rock music of the 1970s, the art descriptor was generally understood to mean aggressively avant-garde or pretentiously progressive. Art rock is used synonymously with progressive rock. Historically, the term has been used to describe at least two related, but distinct, types of rock music, art rock emphasizes Romantic and autonomous traditions, in distinction to the aesthetic of the everyday and the disposable embodied by art pop. Common characteristics include album-oriented music divided into compositions rather than songs, with complicated and long instrumental sections. Its music was used within the context of concept records. Compared to progressive rock, art rock is more challenging, noisy and unconventional and less classically influenced, art rock can also to refer to either classically driven rock, or a progressive rock-folk fusion. S. Eliot than to Carl Perkins or Willie Dixon, the boundaries between art and pop music became increasingly blurred throughout the second half of the 20th century. The first usage of the art rock, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. As pop musics dominant format transitioned from singles to albums, many rock bands created works that aspired to make grand artistic statements, as it progressed in the late 1960s – in tandem with the development of progressive rock – art rock acquired notoriety alongside experimental rock. According to biographer Richard Williams, created a new concept, the producer as overall director of the creative process, Spector transformed rock music as a performing art to an art which could only exist in the recording studio, which paved the way for art rock. The Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson is also cited as one of the first examples of the music producer. Like Spector, Wilson was known as an eremitic studio obsessive who laboriously produced fantastical soundscapes through his mastery of recording technology. Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that Wilson was the forerunner of a new kind of art-rock that would combine the transcendent possibilities of art with the accessibility of pop music. According to journalist Richard Goldstein, many musicians from California desired to be acknowledged as artists. They yearned for fame, as only needy people can, but they wanted to make art
6.
Indie rock
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Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Originally used to independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. In the mid-1980s, the term began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels. Some prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s, during the 1990s, Grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term alternative lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term indie rock became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status, by the end of the 1990s indie rock developed subgenres and related styles including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the industry and in music technology enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success. In the early 2000s, a new group of bands played a stripped-down. The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives, emo also broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s. By the end of the 2000s the proliferation of bands was being referred to as indie landfill. The term indie rock, which comes from independent, describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released, the influences and styles of the artists have been extremely diverse, including punk, psychedelia, post-punk and country. Allmusic identifies indie rock as including a number of varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes, in fact, there is an everlasting list of genres and subgenres of indie rock. Many countries have developed a local indie scene, flourishing with bands with enough popularity to survive inside the respective country. However, there are still indie bands that start off locally, Indie rock has been identified as a reaction against the macho culture that developed in alternative rock in the aftermath of Nirvanas success. However, Cortney Harding pointed out that this sense of equality is not reflected in the number of women running indie labels. The BBC documentary Music for Misfits, The Story of Indie pinpoints the birth of indie as the 1977 self-publication of the Spiral Scratch EP by Manchester band Buzzcocks, Indie pop and indie were originally synonymous. In the mid-1980s, indie began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the rock that dominated college radio playlists. In the United States, the term was associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr
7.
Dan Boeckner
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Dan Boeckner /ˈbɛknər/ is a Canadian singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 2012-2013, he was involved in a project called Divine Fits and he is a member of Wolf Parade, and previously a member of Atlas Strategic and Handsome Furs. Currently, Boeckner has a new band called Operators which released an album, EP1, Boeckner grew up in Lake Cowichan, British Columbia and, immediately upon graduating high school, moved to Victoria, BC. In Victoria he became a singer/guitarist for many small, independent outfits, one of these bands was named God Shaped Vacuum, and featured a pre-Frog Eyes Carey Mercer on drums. They released one album in their existence, entitled Apocalypse Now. In 2000 Boeckner co-founded notable British Columbian band Atlas Strategic with organist/vocalist John Pollard, the album was released on a local label, Global Symphonic. The band toured and recorded a second album/EP, which they self-released upon their demise in 2002, Boeckner then moved to Montreal, Quebec, where he eventually met with Spencer Krug and helped form Wolf Parade. Boeckner contributes his guitar skills, while splitting the role of lead singer with band-mate Krug. The band is signed to Sub Pop Records, in November 2010, Wolf Parade announced that they were taking an indefinite hiatus. Boeckner formed the Handsome Furs with his then fiancée Alexei Perry, the duo signed to Sub Pop Records and released their debut album Plague Park in 2007. Face Control was released in 2009, while Handsome Furs latest album Sound Kapital was released in 2011, on May 17,2012 Handsome Furs announced the band was no more on their official website. Later, it was confirmed that the couple had broken up, in October 2005, Boeckner was a part of the satirical North American Halloween Prevention Initiative and contributed to the UNICEF benefit song Do They Know Its Halloween. Boeckner also played on Islands debut album Return to the Sea and he played guitar on the opening track Swans and he played in the marching band on the track Where Theres a Will Theres a Whalebone. After the breakup of Handsome Furs, Boeckner formed Divine Fits with Britt Daniel in 2011 while Daniel was on break from his band Spoon. The band released one album, A Thing Called Divine Fits, in 2012 to positive reviews and one live album, Live At Third Man Records. In May 2014, Boeckner debuted his new band, Operators, in January 2016, the Operators announced that their debut album, Blue Wave, would be released on April 1st 2016. In January 2016, Wolf Parade announced on their website that their hiatus was over, and that they would be returning to the stage with a series of live shows starting in May 2016
8.
Britt Daniel
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John Britt Daniel is the co-founder, lead singer and guitarist of the Austin, Texas, rock band Spoon and the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and singer of the band Divine Fits. Britt Daniel was born in Galveston, Texas and grew up in Temple, Texas, Daniel is the oldest of three children from his parents marriage. He also has two younger half-siblings, in 1988 Britt Daniel formed his first band The Zygotes while in high school. In 1990, while a student at the University of Texas, Daniel formed his band, Skellington, with Travis Hartnett, Mac Stringfellow, Paul Cannon. Skellington recorded and self-released This Towns Gone Dry in 1991, before breaking up, the band released Skellington Rex, which contained songs that were re-recorded on Spoons debut album Telephono. The following year, Daniel joined a three-piece rockabilly band named The Alien Beats with Brad Shenfeld, during a 1993 Alien Beats recording session, computer-chip designer and percussionist Jim Eno was brought in as a substitute drummer, but he was later added as the permanent drummer. The Alien Beats released a 7 single in May 1993, disbanding soon after, in 1993, Daniel and ex-Alien Beats drummer Eno, along with guitarist Greg Wilson and bassist Andy McGuire, formed Spoon. Spoon has served as Daniels primary musical focus, Daniel has been involved in a new band called Divine Fits, consisting of members from Spoon, Wolf Parade and New Bomb Turks. The groups debut, A Thing Called Divine Fits, was released on August 28,2012 through Merge Records, the first single from the album, My Love Is Real, was released on July 10,2012. In 1999, Daniel played bass for two gigs in the rock supergroup Golden Millennium, composed of fellow Peek-A-Boo Records labelmates. In 2002, Daniel worked with Bright Eyes on the volume of Post-Parlos Home Series. In 2002, Daniel recorded bass, keyboards and backing vocals on the first Sally Crewe & The Sudden Moves album, Daniel has produced songs for the bands I Love You But Ive Chosen Darkness and Interpol. In 2004, Daniel remixed Interpols Slow Hands, which appears on the Slow Hands single and he previously worked as a sound designer and composer for the computer game company Origin Systems. In 2006, Daniel teamed up with Brian Reitzell and helped create some of the music for the film Stranger Than Fiction. He also appeared in the Veronica Mars episode Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle, air date February 1,2006, in 2009, he produced the White Rabbits album Its Frightening. In 2015, he collaborated with Austin band Sweet Spirit on the song Have Mercy and a cover of Spoons Paper Tiger
9.
Late Show with David Letterman
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Late Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the Late Show franchise. The show debuted on August 30,1993, and was produced by Lettermans production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, the shows music director and leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, was Paul Shaffer. The head writer was Matt Roberts and the announcer was Alan Kalter, of the major U. S. late-night programs, Late Show ranked second in cumulative average viewers over time and third in number of episodes over time. In most U. S. markets the show aired from 11,35 p. m. to 12,37 a. m. Eastern and Pacific Time, and recorded Monday through Wednesdays at 4,30 p. m. the second Thursday episode usually aired on Friday of that week. In 2002, Late Show with David Letterman was ranked No.7 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. As host of both Late Night and Late Show for more than 30 years, Letterman surpassed Johnny Carson as the longest running talk show host in 2013. That same year, Late Night and Late Show were ranked at #41 on TV Guides 60 Best Series of All Time, in 2014, Letterman announced his retirement and the final episode of Late Show aired on May 20,2015. The show was succeeded by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, hosted by Stephen Colbert. For most of the 20 years preceding Late Show, CBSs late night fare consisted of movies, reruns and specialty programming packaged under the title CBS Late Night and broadcast to middling ratings. When David Letterman became available following a conflict with NBC, CBS was eager to lure him and offered him a three-year, $14 million per year contract, according to their agreement, the show would spend a month in Hollywood at least once a year. CBS purchased the Ed Sullivan Theater for $4 million, spending several million to renovate it, the renovation was supervised by architect James Polshek. CBS total cost for acquiring the show including renovations, negotiation rights paid to NBC, signing Letterman, announcer Bill Wendell, Shaffer, the writers and the band was over $140 million. A significant issue regarding Lettermans move to CBS was the ownership of long-running comedy bits used on Late Night, NBC claimed that much of what he did on Late Night was intellectual property of the network. Ultimately a compromise was reached in key areas, NBC gave Letterman the choice of at least two options to name his new show, Late Show with David Letterman or Nightly with David Letterman. On this matter CBS executives stepped in, rejecting Nightly in part because of confusion with Nightline on ABC. Thus, Late Show with David Letterman quickly became the official title, after Letterman was introduced on Late Shows very first episode, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw accompanied him on stage and wished him reasonably well. As part of an act, Brokaw then proceeded to retrieve a pair of cue cards while stating that These last two jokes are the intellectual property of NBC
10.
Spoon (band)
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Spoon is an American rock band formed in Austin, Texas. The band is composed of Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, Rob Pope, critics have described the bands musical style as indie rock, indie pop, art rock, and experimental rock. Formed in 1993 in Austin, Texas by Britt Daniel and Jim Eno, Spoon released their studio album, Telephono. Their next full-length, A Series of Sneaks, was released in 1998 on Elektra Records, the bands ninth album, Hot Thoughts, was released on March 17,2017, on Matador Records. The band was formed in late 1993 by the singer and guitarist Britt Daniel. The name Spoon was chosen to honor the 1970s German avant-garde band Can, Eno describes Spoons music as psychedelic. Spoons first recording was the release of the EP Nefarious in May 1994. In 1995 the band signed with Matador Records, and within a year, the album was met with mixed reviews, with critics often comparing their sound with the likes of Pavement, Pixies and Wire. But comparisons aside, Telephono showed signs of a band slipping free of its influences, less than a year later, Spoon released its second EP, Soft Effects, which served as a transition to their more distinctive, honed sound. Unlike its predecessors, Soft Effects was less noisy and brash, showcasing a more sophisticated, in late 1996, Spoon was playing a gig at the Argo in Denton, Texas with Ed Cooper and local band Maxines Radiator, which then featured Josh Zarbo on bass. Zarbo was invited to audition for Daniel and Eno in 1997, after the release of Soft Effects, Spoon signed to Elektra Records in 1998. Appropriately enough, Elektra had also been the record label that found, through Elektra the band released A Series of Sneaks in May 1998. They lamented their experience with the business executive and questioned his motivations with the songs The Agony of Laffitte and Laffitte Dont Fail Me Now. Spoon signed with the rock label Merge Records and released the Love Ways EP in 2000. They did this without bassist Josh Zarbo, who had left the band. In 2001, Spoon released its third LP entitled Girls Can Tell, the new record was a success, selling more copies than both their previous LP releases combined. The band’s next release in 2002, Kill the Moonlight had similar success and their next album, Gimme Fiction, was released in May 2005, and debuted at number 44 on the Billboard 200, selling more than 160,000 copies. Spoon’s Britt Daniel collaborated with Brian Reitzell to compose and arrange the soundtrack for the 2006 film Stranger than Fiction, on July 10,2007, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was released and debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200
11.
Handsome Furs
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Handsome Furs was a Montreal-based indie rock duo which consisted of Dan Boeckner, of Wolf Parade and Atlas Strategic, and his now ex-wife, Alexei Perry. The band announced its breakup on May 17,2012 via Facebook, Handsome Furs signed on to Sub Pop Records in late 2006, and released their first full-length album, Plague Park, in 2007. Handsome Furs was the title of a story that Alexei was writing at the time of the bands conception. It’s going to be different than the last record, the last one was so intense and heavy in one direction that we wanted to do something different. A number of new songs were showcased during their tour, Officer of Hearts, Heaven, Legal Tender. On November 12,2008, Sub Pop records announced that Handsome Furs second album Face Control would be released February 3,2009, also reported was the albums complete track listing, which includes twelve tracks. Later the release date was pushed back to March 10, a New Order song is referenced in the track All We Want, Baby, Is Everything, the first single from Face Control is Im Confused, and the video is directed by Scott Coffey. Their third album, Sound Kapital was released on June 28,2011, the duo starred in a new original travel web series, Indie Asia produced by CNN. com that premiered January 21,2010. The weekly documentary series followed the travels in China, Hong Kong, Thailand. While on their first Asian tour, the stopped and performed at Club Culture in Bangkok. They have also played in China more than once and have worked closely with China-based promoters Split Works on both occasions. A
12.
Wolf Parade
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Wolf Parade is an indie rock band formed in 2003 in Montreal, Quebec of musicians from British Columbia. The band went on hiatus in 2011, but announced its return to recording and performing in January 2016. Wolf Parade began in April 2003, when former Frog Eyes member Spencer Krug was offered a gig by Grenadine Records Alex Megelas, with only a three-week deadline to form a band, Krug contacted a fellow Canadian guitarist Dan Boeckner and began writing songs in Krugs apartment. During the tour, Wolf Parade recorded and released their self-titled debut EP, in September 2003, Hadji Bakara joined Wolf Parade, contributing his synthesizer and sound manipulation skills to the lineup. By the summer of 2004 the band released its second independent, self-titled EP, in September 2004, the band traveled to Portland, Oregon to record with Modest Mouses Isaac Brock. Brock had recently signed the band to Sub Pop when he was an A&R man for the label at the time. He had known Dan Boeckner from his days in Atlas Strategic, Wolf Parade spent two and a half weeks working 14-hour days in Portland. After some remixing, the returned to Montreal to finish recording. The album was scheduled for a May release, but then pushed back, on its new record label, the band released its first widely distributed EP, Wolf Parade, in July 2005. In September 2005, the debut album Apologies to the Queen Mary was released on Sub Pop Records to critical acclaim. Dante DeCaro joined sometime in 2005 as a second guitarist and percussionist, in 2008, an arrangement by Kenji Fusé of the Wolf Parade song Ill Believe in Anything for full symphony orchestra received a reading by the Victoria Symphony. The bands second album, At Mount Zoomer, followed in June 2008, an on-stage announcement in November 2008 that Dante DeCaro would no longer be playing with the band was later revealed to have been a joke. Hadji Bakara left the band in 2008 to pursue an academic career and he is currently a Ph. D. student in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. Wolf Parade reconvened in November 2009 to begin work on their third album, magazine, Dan Boeckner stated that the album may be released as a double album or as an LP and an EP, given the sheer amount of quality songs to come out of the sessions. The five members realized they had all been at Vancouvers World Fair in the week when they were kids. The album was produced by Howard Bilerman and was released in the United States on June 29,2010, in 2010, the song Shine a Light from Apologies to the Queen Mary appeared in the Criminal Minds episode The Fight. Wolf Parade kicked off their 2010 North American tour in Montreal, following the tour, the band announced it would go on indefinite hiatus after playing a small number of shows in 2011, including the Sasquatch. On January 14,2016, Wolf Parade updated their website adding 2016 and launched new Twitter and Instagram pages, the following day, they announced a series of concert dates for later that year, and that they had been working on new music
