Dolewave
Dolewave is an Australian music genre that emerged in the early 2010s. Used online as an in-joke to describe one of Melbourne's independent music scenes, the term has since been applied by music critics to many other Australian bands that share a DIY ethic and a "peculiarly and recognisably Australasian sound" drawing on the 1980s jangle pop of local acts such as the Go-Betweens, as well as the lo-fi "Dunedin sound" of New Zealand's Flying Nun record label. Dolewave music has been described as "intrinsically depressed... beautiful and poignant in an aggressively sad way, in a fashion we can only laugh along with." According to webzine Nothing but Hope and Passion, dolewave is "characterised by a dry, drawling vibe tinged with a healthy touch of suburban sarcasm." Lyrics contain local signifiers and other Austalian pop cultural references, giving the songs a distinct sense of place that points both to the musicians' fondness for Australia, their "intense need to scrutinise" it. Academic Ian Rogers writes that dolewave bands choose to sound "rough-and-ready, unskilled", their recordings always have minimal production value.
According to music critic Everett True, dolewave's "recalcitrant and ramshackle" sound mirrors the "makeshift venue culture" that many of the bands find themselves in: "underneath decrepit Queenslanders, in open park spaces, in warehouses, rundown pubs, front rooms of share houses". The term "dolewave" derives from "the dole", an Australian English term for an unemployment benefit that "supposedly supports artists' creative lifestyles", it was first used in 2012 as an "ironic in-joke" on Mess+Noise, a now-defunct Australian music website. That year, one of the site's journalists, Doug Wallen, coined the term "New Melbourne Jangle" to describe a range of jangly indie pop bands from Melbourne—among them Twerps, Dick Diver and the Stevens—who wrote songs about outsider youth and contemporary life in urban Australia. In response to Wallen's article, anonymous users of the site's message board came up with various tongue-in-cheek alternative labels, including "chillmate", "sharehouse-pop", "dolewave", which eclipsed the others in popularity.
"Once uttered, dolewave repeated like a meme, equal parts in-joke and hash-tag shorthand," writes music journalist Shaun Prescott. Over the next year, musicians associated with the term engaged with it such as Dick Diver's lead singer, who called dolewave "a good gag" before vowing to destroy it; the term is said to have stuck because it "epitomised the downtrodden, affectless vocals and slack riffs and rhythms which dominated whatever was happening in the spotlit Australian underground.""Dolewave" remained in "jokey usage" until 2014, when music critics and mainstream publications such as The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald began examining it in-depth. Everett True cited fellow music critic Shaun Prescott's review of School of Radiant Living's 2013 self-titled LP as a turning point for dolewave, one where the "tossed-off phrase" became a legitimate genre once he " out in his own head as to what the word represented". Prescott praises the title track of Dick Diver's 2011 debut album New Start Again as a quintessential dolewave song—"a paean to the years when artists and outsiders could exist without being ‘creatives’, when unprofitable, art-for-its-own-sake wasn't a contract with poverty."
He highlights "Bad Decisions" by Bitch Prefect. A number of independent record labels became associated with dolewave, notably Melbourne's Chapter Music, Sydney's RIP Society, Brisbane's Bedroom Suck; as dolewave gained wider exposure, terms for offshoots of the genre were invented, a non-serious example being "stadium dolewave" which blends dolewave's "homely, DIY trappings" with the "clean and accessible songwriting" of stadium rock. In 2015, Apple Music curated a playlist titled "Best of Dole Wave", among others, Hockey Dad, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, whose debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit was released that year to widespread acclaim in Australia and overseas. Although she has distanced herself from the label, Barnett names dolewave's Dick Diver as one of her favourite bands, regards the scene as a strong influence on her music: "You just find yourself hanging around with the same people and you start making the same music by proxy.
Like pet-owners look like their pets." Melbourne singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon enjoys the sense of camaraderie in the scene, saying that he collaborates with, receives assistance from dolewave musicians. In the years after dolewave's popularisation, many of the genre's "unwilling flag-bearers" seemed to reject it by eschewing its signature jangly guitars and "true blue" references in favour of a "more mature, polished sound". More a wider range of bands have been aligned with dolewave, including the Goon Sax and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Several artists have written songs in response to being classified as dolewave, including Beef Jerk's Jack Lee on "Same Thing" and West Thebarton Brothel Party on their 2016 single "Dolewave". Described as "a case study example of Australianness in music", dolewave has become the focus of discussion and debate around topics related to Australian culture and national identity. Comparing dolewave to 1970s and 1980s Australian pub rock, Vice found that the former genre is more pessimistic in its exploration of Australian identity.
Prescott writes: ‘Dolewave’ is a caustic riff on the few virtuous characteristics of white colonial Australia, the
Funk metal
Funk metal is a fusion genre of funk rock and alternative metal which infuses heavy metal music with elements of funk and punk rock. It was prevalent in the mainstream during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as part of the alternative metal movement; the genre has been described as a "brief but media-hyped stylistic fad". According to AllMusic, funk metal "takes the loud guitars and riffs of heavy metal and melds them to the popping bass lines and syncopated rhythms of funk", they go on to state "funk metal evolved in the mid-'80s when alternative bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone began playing the hybrid with a stronger funk underpinning than metal. The bands that followed relied more on metal than funk, though they retained the wild bass lines." In spite of the genre's name, the website categorises it as a style of alternative rock rather than heavy metal music. The self-titled 1984 debut album from the Los Angeles-based Red Hot Chili Peppers has been cited as the first funk metal or punk-funk release.
Faith No More, another Californian group who gained popularity in the mid-1980s, have been described as a funk metal band that dabbled in rap-metal. Rage Against the Machine's mix of funk and metal not only included rap, but elements of hardcore. Certain bands not from a punk/alternative background, such as glam metal groups Bang Tango and Extreme, have frequently incorporated funk into their musical style. Bands such as Primus and Mordred emerged from the thrash metal underground. Primus, a band that crosses many genres, has been described as funk metal, though bandleader/bassist Les Claypool dislikes the categorization. Claypool has stated "We've been lumped in with the funk metal thing just about everywhere. I guess people just have to categorise you". Living Colour have been cited by Rolling Stone as "black funk metal pioneers." Entertainment Weekly noted in a May 1991 article that "Despite the rise of black rockers like Living Colour, the American funk-metal scene is predominantly white."The funk metal sound was most prevalent in the West Coast of the United States in the state of California, although it managed to gain some international recognition through foreign acts such as British group Scat Opera and Super Junky Monkey, an all-female funk metal/avant-garde band from Japan.
The success of Faith No More's early 1990 single "Epic" helped heighten interest in the genre. It had reached a commercial peak by late 1991, with funk metal albums such as Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut attaining critical acclaim from the mainstream music press. Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post claimed in a 1991 article that "much of it sounds like art rock". By the latter part of the 90s, the genre was represented by a smaller group of bands, including Incubus, Sugar Ray, Jimmie's Chicken Shack and 311. Bands from other genres such as nu metal and punk incorporated elements of funk metal into their sound during the late 90s and early 2000s. Popular 80s and early 90s acts such as Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Red Hot Chili Peppers had abandoned the sound in favor of other styles by this point. AllMusic suggests the genre was "played-out by the end of the decade". During 2001, Alien Ant Farm released a hugely successful funk metal cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", an electro funk song.
Bands from the 2000s and 2010s described as funk metal include Psychostick, Twelve Foot Ninja and Prophets of Rage. In 2016, Vice Magazine referred to funk metal as "a mostly-forgotten and occasionally-maligned genre". Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance mentioned his fondness for the genre in a 2007 interview; when asked if he thought it would make a comeback, he stated "Fuckin' revisionists won't think its cool enough... they'll go straight for the flannels and heroin." Chick, Stevie. Dimery, Robert, ed. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5
Grunge
Grunge is a rock music genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U. S. state of Washington in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. By the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge was commercially successful in the early to mid-1990s, due to releases such as Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chains' Dirt; the success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music at the time Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought conscious issues into pop culture and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself.
Grunge was an influence on genres such as post-grunge and nu metal. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, featuring the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge uses electric guitar, bass guitar, a drummer and a singer. Grunge incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are angst-filled and introspective addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, neglect, betrayal and emotional isolation, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom. A number of factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s, many grunge bands became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest", appeared unusually tortured by success and struggled with an addiction to heroin before he died by suicide at the age of 27 in 1994; the term "grunge" was first recorded as being applied to Seattle musicians in July 1987 when Bruce Pavitt described Green River's Dry as a Bone EP in a Sub Pop record company catalogue as "gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps, ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation".
Although the word "grunge" has been used to describe bands since the 1960s, this was the first association of grunge with the grinding, sludgy sound of Seattle. It is expensive and time consuming to get a recording to sound clean, so for those northwestern bands just starting out it was cheaper for them to leave the sound dirty and just turn up their volume; this dirty sound, due to low budgets, unfamiliarity with recording, a lack of professionalism may be the origin of the term "grunge". The "Seattle scene" refers to that city's alternative music movement, linked to the University of Washington and the Evergreen State College. Evergreen State was a progressive college which did not use grading and which had its own alternative music radio station. Seattle's remoteness from Los Angeles led to a perceived purity of its music; the music of these bands, many of which had recorded with Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop, became labeled as "grunge". The term "Seattle sound" became a marketing ploy for the music industry.
In September 1991, the Nirvana album Nevermind was released, bringing mainstream attention to the music of Seattle. Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain loathed the word "grunge" and despised the new scene, developing, feeling that record companies were signing old "cock-rock" bands who were pretending to be grunge and claiming to be from Seattle; some bands associated with the genre, such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, have not been receptive to the label, preferring instead to be referred to as "rock and roll" bands. Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden stated that he "hates the word" grunge and hates "being associated with it." Seattle musician Jeff Stetson states that when he visited Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a touring musician, the local musicians did not refer to themselves as "grunge" performers or their style as "grunge" and they were not flattered that their music was being called "grunge". Rolling Stone noted the genre's lack of a clear definition. Robert Loss acknowledges the challenges of defining "grunge".
Roy Shuker states that the term "obscured a variety of styles." Stetson states that grunge was not a movement, "monolithic musical genre", or a way to react to 1980s-era metal pop. Stetson states. Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, pointed out vast differences between grunge bands, with some being punk and others being metal-based. In 1984 the punk rock band Black Flag went visiting small towns across the US to bring punk to the more remote parts of the country. By this time their music had become slow and sludgy, less like the Sex Pistols and more like Black Sabbath. Krist Novoselic recalls going along with the Melvins to see one of these shows, after which the Melvins front man Buzz Osborne began writing'slow and heavy riffs to form a dirge-like music, the beginning of northwest grunge; the Melvins were the most influential of the early grunge bands. Sub Pop producer Jack Endino described grunge as "seventies-influenced, slowed-down p
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s. Used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was used interchangeably with alternative rock; as grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, some indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term. Sometimes used interchangeably with "guitar pop rock", in the mid-1980s, the term "indie" 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, 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 several subgenres and related styles, including lo-fi, noise pop, slowcore, post-rock, math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music 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 that played a stripped-down, back-to-basics version of guitar rock emerged into the mainstream; the commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands: The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives and The Vines. Emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s. By the end of the decade, the proliferation of indie bands was being referred to as "indie landfill"; the term indie rock, which comes from "independent," describes the small and low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are struck with major corporate companies, these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences.
The influences and styles of the artists have been diverse, including punk, post-punk and country. The terms "alternative rock" and "indie rock" were used interchangeably in the 1980s, but after many alternative bands followed Nirvana into the mainstream in the early 1990s, "indie rock" began to be used to describe those bands, working in a variety of styles, that did not pursue or achieve commercial success. Aesthetically speaking, indie rock is characterized as having a careful balance of pop accessibility with noise, experimentation with pop music formulae, sensitive lyrics masked by ironic posturing, a concern with "authenticity," and the depiction of a simple guy or girl. Allmusic identifies indie rock as including a number of "varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes". Linked by an ethos more than a musical approach, the indie rock movement encompassed a wide range of styles, from hard-edged, grunge-influenced bands, through do-it-yourself experimental bands like Pavement, to punk-folk singers such as Ani DiFranco.
In fact, there is an everlasting list of subgenres of indie rock. Many countries have developed an extensive local indie scene, flourishing with bands with enough popularity to survive inside the respective country, but unknown elsewhere. However, there are still indie bands that start off locally, but attract an international audience. Indie rock is noted for having a high proportion of female artists compared with preceding rock genres, a tendency exemplified by the development of the feminist-informed Riot Grrrl music of acts like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, 7 Year Bitch, Team Dresch and Huggy Bear. 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. Although Buzzcocks are classified as a punk band, it has been argued by the BBC and others that the publication of Spiral Scratch independently of a major label led to the coining of the name "indie".
"Indie pop" and "indie" were 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 college rock that dominated college radio playlists, which included key bands like R. E. M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK. These two bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s, helped inspire guitar-based jangle pop. In the United States, the term was associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements. In the United Kingdom the C86 cassette, a 1986 NME compilation featuring Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Wedding Present and other bands, was a document of the UK indie scene at the start of 1986, it gave its name to the indie pop scene that followed, a major influence on the development of the British indie scene as a whole. Major precursors of indie pop included Postcard bands Josef K and Orange Juice, significant labels included Creation and Glass.
The Jesus and Mary Chain's sound combined the Velvet
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became popular in the 1990s. In this instance, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music; the term's original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style or the independent, DIY ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, seen to be descended from punk rock. Alternative rock broadly consists of music that differs in terms of its sound, social context and regional roots. By the end of the 1980s, magazines and zines, college radio airplay, word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock, helping to define a number of distinct styles such as noise pop, indie rock and shoegaze.
Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü and R. E. M. had signed to major labels. But most alternative bands' commercial success was limited in comparison to other genres of rock and pop music at the time, most acts remained signed to independent labels and received little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. In the past, popular music tastes were dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become the most popular, therefore who could generate the most sales; these bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, their works sold through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations.
The record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making the decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were excluded from this system. Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups. In 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had a late night new wave show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative". "College rock" was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture. According to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red, NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts".
The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980. At the time, the term indie was used to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie' had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than distribution status; the use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s. Individuals who worked as DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of the 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to top 40 radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music". At first the term referred to intentionally non–mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems".
Usage of the term would broaden to include new wave, punk rock, post-punk, "college"/"indie" rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM. Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that Alternative encompassed variants such as "rap, trash and industrial". In December 1991, Spin magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has been considered alternative rock – a college-centered marketing group with lucrative, if limited, potential- has in fact moved into the mainstream"; the bill of the first Lollapalooza, an itinerant festival in North America conceived by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, reunited "disparate elements of the alternative rock community" including Henry Rollins, Butthole Surfers, Ice-T, Nine Inch Nails and the Banshees and Jane's Addiction. That same year, Farrell coined the term Alternative Nation. In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle,'70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions".
Defining music as alt
Pedro the Lion
Pedro the Lion is an indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. David Bazan formed the band in 1995 and represented its main creative force, backed by a varying rotation of collaborating musicians. In 2006 Pedro the Lion was dissolved. Releasing five full-length albums and five EPs over 11 years, the band is known for its first person narrative lyrics with political and religious themes. Pedro the Lion was formed by David Bazan in 1995. In 1997 they released their debut EP Whole with Bazan playing nearly every instrument, a format he continued on the band's first two full-length albums, It's Hard to Find a Friend, Winners Never Quit. Winners marked Pedro the Lion's first concept album. After its completion, Bazan has claimed he decided not to continue writing concept albums. However, in the process of writing his next full-length Control, he realized he had inadvertently created a narrative link "about 70% of the way through " and decided to finish it in the same vein; the album's thematic content criticizes American capitalism, which Bazan notes was inspired by the sentiments surrounding the World Trade Organization protests in 1999.
Control saw Casey Foubert of Seattle-based Seldom join Pedro the Lion to play bass on the album. Additionally, he co-wrote "Penetration" and "Second Best", the third and eighth tracks on the album, released in 2002. Achilles Heel followed, released on May 24, 2004, marked the beginning of Bazan's partnership with TW Walsh as the band's primary writers and musicians. Bazan described the tracks in the third full-length from Pedro the Lion as a return to the songwriting characterized by Friend and the Secure EP in the sense that there was no "pretense of anything bigger", an allusion to his previous concept albums. In early January 2006, Pedro the Lion formally announced; the split was amicable. Bazan said that their friendship has been strengthened by the breakup. Bazan toured in support of Fewer Moving Parts, his solo debut EP. Walsh returned to his career as a Web application developer and is busy with his band, The Soft Drugs, their debut release, In Moderation. David Bazan released his debut solo LP, Curse Your Branches, on Seattle-based Barsuk Records in 2009.
The Pedro The Lion catalog was remastered for vinyl by TW Walsh and reissued in 2012. Bazan is a member of Overseas with Will Johnson of Centro-matic and Bubba & Matt Kadane of Bedhead and The New Year, their self-titled debut album was released on June 11, 2013. Beginning in spring 2017, Bazan began forming a new band which he envisioned billing as "David Bazan Band" or something similar. In October 2017, Bazan announced that Pedro the Lion would be reforming beginning with several shows in December 2017. Asked if there would be new material Bazan explained that the band will be playing Pedro the Lion's existing catalog along with limited performances of songs from Headphones and Bazan's solo catalog, with new material to follow. It's Hard to Find a Friend – Made In Mexico/Jade Tree – 1998 Winners Never Quit – Jade Tree – 2000 Control – Jade Tree – 2002 Achilles Heel – Jade Tree – 2004 Phoenix – Polyvinyl & Big Scary Monsters – 2019 Whole EP – Tooth & Nail – 1997 The Only Reason I Feel Secure – Made In Mexico / Jade Tree – 1999 Progress – Suicide Squeeze – 2000 Tour EP'04 – Self-released / Jade Tree – 2004 Stations – 2004 "The Longer I Lay Here" – Exploitation of Sound Vol. 1 – Hero Music – 1999 "Breadwinner You" – The Unaccompanied Voice: An A Capella Compilation – Secretly Canadian – 2000 "Rapture", "Backwoods Nation" – Location Is Everything Vol. 1 – Jade Tree – 2002 "I Do" – Location Is Everything Vol. 2 – Jade Tree – 2004 "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day" – Maybe This Christmas Tree – Nettwerk – 2004 The band released various 45 rpm singles in limited quantities: See also: David Bazan discography, Headphones discography The band is featured in the 2004 Christian music documentary Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
Pedro the Lion official site Jade Tree Extensive feature article and interview with Fine Print Magazine Interview with www. CountryMusicPride.com SuicideSqueeze.net
Madchester
Madchester was a music and cultural scene that developed in the Manchester area of North West England in the late 1980s, in which artists merged alternative rock with acid house and dance culture as well as other sources, including psychedelia and 1960s pop. The label was popularised by the British music press in the early 1990s, its most famous groups include the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, the Charlatans and 808 State; the rave-influenced scene is seen as influenced by drugs ecstasy. At that time, the Haçienda nightclub, co-owned by members of New Order, was a major catalyst for the distinctive musical ethos in the city, called the Second Summer of Love; the music scene in Manchester before the Madchester era had been dominated by The Smiths, New Order, The Fall. These bands were to become a significant influence on the Madchester scene; the opening of the Haçienda nightclub, an initiative of Factory Records, in May 1982 was influential in the development of popular culture in Manchester.
For the first few years of its life, the club played predominantly club oriented pop music and hosted gigs from artists including New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, Culture Club, Thompson Twins and the Smiths. It had DJs such as Hewan Clarke and Greg Wilson and switched focus from being a live venue to being a dance club by 1986. In 1987 the Hacienda started playing house music with DJs Mike Pickering, Graeme Park and "Little" Martin Prendergast hosting the Nude night on Fridays; the Festival of the Tenth Summer in July 1986, organised by Factory Records, helped to consolidate Manchester's standing as a centre for alternative pop-culture. The festival included film screenings, a music seminar, art shows and gigs by the city's most prominent bands, including an all-day gig at Manchester G-Mex featuring A Certain Ratio, the Smiths, New Order and the Fall. According to Dave Haslam, the festival demonstrated that "the city had become synonymous with... larger-than-life characters playing cutting edge music...
Individuals were inspired and the city was energised. The Haçienda went from making a consistent loss to selling out by early 1987. During 1987, it hosted performances by American house artists including Adonis. Other clubs in the Manchester area started to catch on to house music including Devilles, Isadora's, House and Man Alive in the city centre, Bugsy's in Ashton-under-Lyne and the Osbourne Club in Miles Platting. Another key factor in the build-up to Madchester was the sudden availability of the drug ecstasy in the city, beginning in 1987 and growing the following year. According to Dave Haslam: "Ecstasy use changed clubs forever; the British music scene was such that The Guardian stated that'The'80s looked destined to end in musical ignominy.' The Madchester movement burgeoned, its sound was new and refreshing and its popularity soon grew. Music by artists such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays began to chart in 1989 with New Order releasing the acid house influenced Technique, which topped the UK album charts.
Although the Madchester scene cannot be said to have started before 1988, many of its most significant bands and artists were around on the local scene long before then. The Stone Roses were formed in 1983 by singer Ian Brown and guitarist John Squire, who had grown up on the same street in Timperley, a district of Altrincham, to the south-west of Manchester, they had been in bands together since 1980, but the Stone Roses were the first to release a record, "So Young", in 1985. The line-up was completed by Alan "Reni" Wren on drums and, from 1987, Gary "Mani" Mounfield on bass; the Happy Mondays were formed in Salford in 1980. The members between and the break-up of the band in 1992 were Shaun Ryder, his brother Paul, Mark "Bez" Berry, Paul Davis, Mark Day and Gary Whelan, they were signed to Factory Records after Haçienda DJ Mike Pickering saw them at a Battle of the Bands contest in which they came last. They released two singles – "45", produced by Pickering in 1985, "Freaky Dancin'", produced by New Order's Bernard Sumner in 1986 – before putting out an album produced by John Cale and bearing the title Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile in 1987.
The Inspiral Carpets were formed in Oldham in 1983. The line-up was Stephen Holt, Graham Lambert, Martyn Walsh and Craig Gill, they released a flexi-disc a year and in 1988 the Planecrash EP brought them to the attention of John Peel. James were formed in 1982 by Paul Gilbertson and Jim Glennie, recruiting Drama student Tim Booth on vocals and Gavan Whelan on drums, they released their first EP, Jimone on Factory Records in 1983, attracted critical enthusiasm, as well as the patronage of Morrissey. Sales of their two albums for Blanco y Negro Records, Stutter in 1986 and Strip-mine in 1988, were disappointing and, at the time Madchester hit, the band was using t-shirt sales to fund its own releases through Rough Trade Records. Madchester helped bring them commercial success and the single "Sit Down" became one of the most popular anthems of the era. 808 State were formed in 1987 by the owner of the Eastern Bloc Records shop on Oldham Street, Martin Price
