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RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Californication [FULL ALBUM, ALTERNATIVE FUNK ROCK]
Californication is the seventh studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released on June 8, 1999, on Warner Bros. Records and was produced by Rick Rubin. Californication marked the return of John Frusciante, who had previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, to replace Dave Navarro as the band's guitarist. Frusciante's return was credited with changing the band's sound altogether, producing a notable shift in style from the music recorded with Navarro. The album's subject material incorporated various sexual innuendos commonly associated with the band, but also contained more varied themes than previous outings, including death, contemplations of suicide, California, drugs, globalization, and travel.
Californication is the Chili Peppers' most commercially successful studio release internationally, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide, and more than 6 million in the United States alone. As of 2002, the album had sold over 4 million copies in Europe. The record produced several hits for the band, including "Otherside", "Californication" and the Grammy Award-winning "Scar Tissue". Californication peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200.
The record marked a significant change in style for the band: Rolling Stone's Greg Tate noted that "while all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanic". Another critic, Billboard's Paul Verna, mentioned that the album brought out "the group's softer, melodic side", as opposed to their previous six albums.
In 1991, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released their breakthrough album Blood Sugar Sex Magik on Warner Bros. Records. The album sold seven million copies in the United States, and became a seminal component of the alternative rock explosion in the early 1990s. After the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, guitarist John Frusciante left the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as he became overwhelmed by the band's newfound popularity. Dave Navarro was hired as his replacement, and incorporated elements of heavy metal and psychedelic rock on the band's 1995 album One Hot Minute. The album failed to match the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, and Navarro left in early 1998.
In the years following his departure, Frusciante became addicted to heroin and cocaine, leaving him in poverty and near death. Friends convinced Frusciante to enter drug rehabilitation, and in 1997, he rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the insistence of bassist Flea. While in rehab, Frusciante came to terms with rock stardom; in a Rolling Stone interview, Frusciante said: "It got into my head that stardom was something evil. If you were a rock star, you were trying to put people on. I don't see it that way anymore." With their new guitarist, the Red Hot Chili Peppers began brainstorming ideas for a new album. Flea suggested the group record an album with electronic influences, akin to Zooropa by U2. When the band was turned down by multiple electronic music producers (including David Bowie), they decided to instead return to their funk rock and alternative rock roots.
Much of the album was written in the band members' homes in the summer of 1998. Kiedis and Frusciante spent days together discussing song creation, guitar riffs and lyrics. Bass and percussion were constructed through jam sessions and the work of Flea and drummer Chad Smith.
Most of the material and lyrics throughout the songs in the album came from the "personal and professional turmoil" that different members of the band went through/were currently going through at the time. This resulted in the "sensitive approach that one might not expect from a band whose followers are skate-punks and fraternity boys". Anthony Kiedis's main point behind this album was to "tell tales of wandering souls who've lost their way searching for the American dream in California".
Californication's lyrics were derived from Anthony Kiedis' ideas, outlooks, and perceptions of life and its meaning. "Porcelain" resulted from Kiedis' meeting with a young single mother at the YMCA, who was attempting to battle her heroin addiction while living with her infant daughter in Los Angeles during the summer of 1998. Regarding the meeting that inspired the song, Kiedis said in 1999, "[the] Mum’s in a haze, strung out on heroin, but the little girl’s this beaming-wide sunball of an angel. The woman loves her daughter, but the juxtaposition of their energies is profound." Kiedis also had a love interest in Yohanna Logan, a fashion designer whom Kiedis met while she was working in New York City. Kiedis involvement with Logan influenced his multiple examinations of love throughout Californication, in songs such as "This Velvet Glove." Sarcasm was a concept that Kiedis had dealt with in the past, and he ultimately crafted a song around it. He was inspired by former bandmate Dave Navarro, whom he considered to be the "King of Sarcasm".
Californication is the Chili Peppers' most commercially successful studio release internationally, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide, and more than 6 million in the United States alone. As of 2002, the album had sold over 4 million copies in Europe. The record produced several hits for the band, including "Otherside", "Californication" and the Grammy Award-winning "Scar Tissue". Californication peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200.
The record marked a significant change in style for the band: Rolling Stone's Greg Tate noted that "while all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanic". Another critic, Billboard's Paul Verna, mentioned that the album brought out "the group's softer, melodic side", as opposed to their previous six albums.
In 1991, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released their breakthrough album Blood Sugar Sex Magik on Warner Bros. Records. The album sold seven million copies in the United States, and became a seminal component of the alternative rock explosion in the early 1990s. After the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, guitarist John Frusciante left the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as he became overwhelmed by the band's newfound popularity. Dave Navarro was hired as his replacement, and incorporated elements of heavy metal and psychedelic rock on the band's 1995 album One Hot Minute. The album failed to match the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, and Navarro left in early 1998.
In the years following his departure, Frusciante became addicted to heroin and cocaine, leaving him in poverty and near death. Friends convinced Frusciante to enter drug rehabilitation, and in 1997, he rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the insistence of bassist Flea. While in rehab, Frusciante came to terms with rock stardom; in a Rolling Stone interview, Frusciante said: "It got into my head that stardom was something evil. If you were a rock star, you were trying to put people on. I don't see it that way anymore." With their new guitarist, the Red Hot Chili Peppers began brainstorming ideas for a new album. Flea suggested the group record an album with electronic influences, akin to Zooropa by U2. When the band was turned down by multiple electronic music producers (including David Bowie), they decided to instead return to their funk rock and alternative rock roots.
Much of the album was written in the band members' homes in the summer of 1998. Kiedis and Frusciante spent days together discussing song creation, guitar riffs and lyrics. Bass and percussion were constructed through jam sessions and the work of Flea and drummer Chad Smith.
Most of the material and lyrics throughout the songs in the album came from the "personal and professional turmoil" that different members of the band went through/were currently going through at the time. This resulted in the "sensitive approach that one might not expect from a band whose followers are skate-punks and fraternity boys". Anthony Kiedis's main point behind this album was to "tell tales of wandering souls who've lost their way searching for the American dream in California".
Californication's lyrics were derived from Anthony Kiedis' ideas, outlooks, and perceptions of life and its meaning. "Porcelain" resulted from Kiedis' meeting with a young single mother at the YMCA, who was attempting to battle her heroin addiction while living with her infant daughter in Los Angeles during the summer of 1998. Regarding the meeting that inspired the song, Kiedis said in 1999, "[the] Mum’s in a haze, strung out on heroin, but the little girl’s this beaming-wide sunball of an angel. The woman loves her daughter, but the juxtaposition of their energies is profound." Kiedis also had a love interest in Yohanna Logan, a fashion designer whom Kiedis met while she was working in New York City. Kiedis involvement with Logan influenced his multiple examinations of love throughout Californication, in songs such as "This Velvet Glove." Sarcasm was a concept that Kiedis had dealt with in the past, and he ultimately crafted a song around it. He was inspired by former bandmate Dave Navarro, whom he considered to be the "King of Sarcasm".
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RICKY
Ricky-Skaggs
Ancient Tones is an album by Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, released through Skaggs Family Records on January 26, 1999. In 2000, the album won the group the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.
Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster, and banjo.
Skaggs was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018. On January 13, 2021, it was announced Skaggs had been awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump, alongside fellow country musician Toby Keith.
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DAS R
Das-Racist
Sit Down, Man is the second mixtape by American hip hop trio Das Racist. It was released as a free download by Greedhead Music, Mishka, and Mad Decent on September 14, 2010. It gained over 40,000 downloads in its first week of release. An album release show was held at Santos Party House on September 16, 2010.
The mixtape is produced by Teengirl Fantasy, Chairlift, Diplo, Keepaway, and Boi-1da, among others. It includes guest appearances from Fat Tony, El-P, Kassa Overall, Roc Marciano, and Lakutis.
Pitchfork placed the mixtape at number 23 on the "Top 50 Albums of 2010" list.
"Hahahaha JK?" was placed at number 44 on Pitchfork's "Top 100 Tracks of 2010" list, as well as number 48 on Rolling Stone's "50 Best Songs of 2010" list.
Das Racist was an American alternative hip hop group based in Brooklyn, composed of MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hype man Ashok Kondabolu (a.k.a. Dapwell or Dap). Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist was widely hailed as an urgent new voice in rap, after occasionally being understood of as joke rap when they first appeared.
After rising to Internet fame with their 2008 song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell", Das Racist established themselves as rappers with the release of their 2010 mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Spin picked Das Racist as one of fifty acts to watch at the 2010 SXSW festival, and in April 2010, MTV Iggy selected Das Racist as one of the "25 Best New Bands in the World". Rolling Stone declared the song "Hahahaha jk?" from Sit Down, Man one of the fifty best singles of 2010.
In September 2011, Das Racist released their only studio album, Relax, which was named in many year-end "best of" lists, including both that of Rolling Stone and Spin, as well as being named by Spin as the fourth best rap album of the year. Spin also featured Das Racist on the cover of its November 2011 issue with an article written by Dap's brother, comedian Hari Kondabolu. On November 28, 2011, the group made their United States television debut on Conan.
At the PULS Festival, formerly known as on3-Festival, in December 2012 in Munich, Heems revealed "Das Racist is breaking up and we're not a band anymore." The next day, Kool A.D. revealed that he had left the band, though his reasons for doing so and the status of recorded materials for the group's second album remain unknown.
Suri and Vazquez met in 2003 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where Vazquez was Suri's resident advisor in a "students of color for social justice"-themed dormitory. However, they formed Das Racist only after both had moved to New York following their graduation from college. Kondabolu, who had met Suri when they were both students at New York's Stuyvesant High School, soon joined as their hype man. Suri and Kondabolu are both from Queens, New York and of Indian descent, and Vazquez is of Afro-Cuban and Italian descent and from the San Francisco Bay Area. Vazquez is also a member of power-pop band Boy Crisis.
Himanshu Suri stated in an interview:
I think being minorities at a liberal arts college and that type of environment had an impact on both the way we view race and our sense of humor, which people often use as a tool to deal with race. I always felt like Wonder Showzen was a television show that captured that type of thing perfectly. When I saw the little kid yelling "THAT'S RACIST" it blew my mind. And then it became a game...to take all the seriousness out of making legitimate commentary on race, because that can get very annoying. So when something veering on racially insensitive would pop off in a commercial on television or something it would be like, who could yell "That's Racist" first. And then we thought it would be a cool name. Das EFX may have been an inspiration."
In an interview with Sepia Mutiny, Suri described Das Racist's music:
"we’re not making music that’s instantly appealing. We dabble with non-sequiturs, dadaism, repetition, repetition. We make dance music while talking about not-dancey things. We say things that on the surface can seem pretty dumb but it's a mask on some Paul Laurence Dunbar shit for actual discontent with a lot of shit in the world. Further, not a lot of people want to hear rappers talk about Dinesh D'Souza being a punk, Eddie Said, Gayatri Spivak being dope or even know who they are. A lot of people hear Pizza Hut Taco Bell and then have preconceived notions about our entire body of work that fall pretty flat."
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BEAST
Check-Your-Head
Check Your Head is the third studio album by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released by Grand Royal and Capitol Records on April 21, 1992. Three years elapsed between the releases of the band's second studio album Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head, which was recorded at the G-Son Studios in Atwater Village in 1991 under the guidance of producer Mario Caldato Jr., the group's third producer in as many albums. Less sample-heavy than their previous records, the album features instrumental contributions from all three members: Adam Horovitz on guitar, Adam Yauch on bass guitar, and Mike Diamond on drums.
The album was re-released in a number of formats in 2009, with 16 b-sides and rarities, as well as a commentary track, included as bonus material. It is one of the albums profiled in the 2007 book Check the Technique, which includes a track-by-track breakdown by Diamond, Yauch, Horovitz, Caldato, and frequent Beasties collaborator Money Mark.
Check Your Head was the first Beastie Boys album to be fully co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr., who had been an engineer on Paul's Boutique and was credited as producer on that album's track "Ask for Janice". It also marked the first appearance on one of their albums of keyboardist Money Mark, who became a regular collaborator of the band.
The album was somewhat of a return by the Beastie Boys to their punk roots. It featured the trio playing their own instruments on the majority of the album, for the first time on record since their early EPs, due to the commercial failure of Paul's Boutique. This inspired photographer Glen E. Friedman to shoot photos of the Beasties with their instrument cases, one of which was used as the cover of the album. Supposedly, a trading card for Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. from a set of Desert Storm trading cards was the inspiration for the album's title.
The Beastie Boys toured with the Rollins Band and Cypress Hill in early 1992 to support Check Your Head.
Check Your Head has received widespread acclaim since its release. Kevin Powell of Rolling Stone called Check Your Head the Beastie Boys' "most unconventional outing to date" and stated that "the cross-pollination of styles on Check Your Head is confusing at times, yet the album achieves distinction because of its ingenuity." Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the group were showing "surprising resiliency and versatility", noting their new musical direction on Check Your Head and singling out Money Mark's performance on the album for praise, referring to him as the album's "secret weapon". Entertainment Weekly's David Browne, on the other hand, panned the album as a "muddled, clanking mess". Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called Check Your Head a "great concept", but felt "the execution is halfway there at best", later assigning it a "neither" rating, indicating an album that "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't."
Spin ranked Check Your Head at number four on their list of the 20 best albums of the year, and it ranked in fifth place on The Village Voice's year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[24] Spin later ranked the album number 12 on their list of the 90 greatest albums of the 1990s, while Alternative Press ranked it at number 23 on their list of the top 99 albums released from 1985–95. Pitchfork ranked the album at number 67 on their Top 150 Albums of the 1990s list in 2022, praising the album's funk-inspired instrumentals. In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called Check Your Head "a whirlwind tour through the Beasties' pop-culture obsessions, but instead of spinning into Technicolor fantasies, it's earth-bound D.I.Y. that makes it all seem equally accessible — which is a big reason why it turned out to be an alt-rock touchstone of the '90s, something that both set trends and predicted them." It was ranked number 261 in the 2020 edition of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time list (though it was not ranked in the original 2003 list or the 2012 revision).
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THE N
The-Necks
Drive By is the seventh album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks first released on the Fish of Milk label in 2003 and later on the ReR label internationally. The album features a single hour-long track, titled "Drive By", performed by Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton and Tony Buck.
The Guardian review likened the album to "an hour-long ride through William Gibson territory in a sleek limo, blurred shapes barely visible through the tinted windows" and that The Necks "have created a method of performing that transcends style while retaining meaning - in the most stylish way possible".
The album won the ARIA Music Awards Best Jazz album in 2004.
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BLUR
Parklife
Parklife is the third studio album by the English rock band Blur, released on 25 April 1994 on Food Records. After moderate sales for their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a Century", "Parklife" and "To the End".
Certified four times platinum in the United Kingdom, in the year following its release the album came to define the emerging Britpop scene, along with the album Definitely Maybe by future rivals Oasis. Britpop in turn would form the backbone of the broader Cool Britannia movement. Parklife therefore has attained a cultural significance above and beyond its considerable sales and critical acclaim, cementing its status as a landmark in British rock music.
In 2010, Parklife was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail. In 2015, Spin included the album in their list of "The 300 Best Albums of 1985–2014".
In 1990, a year before Blur's debut album, Damon Albarn, the band's vocalist, had told a group of music journalists, "When our third album comes out, our place as the quintessential English band of the '90s will be assured. That is a simple statement of fact. I intend to write it in 1994."
After the completion of recording sessions for Blur's previous album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, Albarn began to write prolifically. Blur demoed Albarn's new songs in groups of twos and threes. Due to their precarious financial position at the time, Blur quickly went back into the studio with producer Stephen Street to record their third album. Blur met at the Maison Rouge recording studio in August 1993 to record their next album. The recording was a relatively fast process, apart from the song "This Is a Low".
While the members of Blur were pleased with the final result, Food Records owner David Balfe was not, telling the band's management "This is a mistake". Soon afterwards, Balfe sold Food to EMI.
Blur frontman Damon Albarn told NME in 1994, "For me, Parklife is like a loosely linked concept album involving all these different stories. It's the travels of the mystical lager-eater, seeing what's going on in the world and commenting on it." Albarn cited the Martin Amis novel London Fields as a major influence on the album. Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was once quoted saying that Parklife was, "Like Southern England personified". The songs themselves span many genres, such as the synthpop-influenced hit single "Girls & Boys", the instrumental waltz interlude of "The Debt Collector", the punk rock-influenced "Bank Holiday", the spacey, Syd Barrett-esque "Far Out", and the fairly new wave-influenced "Trouble in the Message Centre". Journalist John Harris commented that while many of the album's songs "reflected Albarn's claims to a bittersweet take on the UK's human patchwork", stating that several songs, including "To the End" (featuring Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab) and "Badhead" "lay in a much more personal space".
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STEEL
Aja
Aja (/ˈeɪʒə/, pronounced "Asia") is the sixth studio album by the American jazz rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on September 23, 1977. On the album, band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker pushed Steely Dan further into experimenting with different combinations of session players, enlisting the services of nearly 40 musicians, while pursuing longer, more sophisticated compositions and arrangements.
The album peaked at number three on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, and number five on the UK Albums Chart, ultimately becoming Steely Dan's most commercially successful release. It spawned the hit singles "Peg", "Deacon Blues", and "Josie".
At the 20th Annual Grammy Awards, Aja won Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. It has appeared on many retrospective "greatest albums" lists, with critics and audiophiles applauding the album's high production standards. In 2010, the album was recognized by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
The album was produced by Steely Dan's longtime producer Gary Katz, and their longtime master engineer Roger Nichols and features contributions from numerous leading session musicians. The eight-minute-long title track features a jazz-based chord progression and a solo by saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Co-composer and co-band leader Walter Becker did not perform on the tracks "Black Cow" or "Peg".
The title of the album is pronounced "Asia" (like the continent). Donald Fagen has said Aja was the name of a Korean woman who married the brother of one of his high-school friends. The album cover features a photograph by Hideki Fujii of Japanese model and actress Sayoko Yamaguchi, and was designed by Patricia Mitsui and Geoff Westen. The inside photos of Fagen and Becker were taken by Becker and Dorothy A. White.
Aja was released by ABC Records on September 23, 1977. In anticipation of the release, Katz urged the relatively private Fagen and Becker to raise their public profile, and arranged a meeting with Irving Azoff to discuss employing him as their manager. Fagen initially had reservations, saying: "We were ready to go blissfully through life without a manager."
With Azoff's connections with record stores and the album being offered at a discounted price, Aja became, according to Cameron Crowe in the December 1977 issue of Rolling Stone, "one of the season's hottest albums and by far Steely Dan's fastest-selling ever." It reached the top five of the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart within three weeks of its release, and it ultimately peaked at number three, becoming the band's highest-charting album in the United States. The album was also the group's highest-charting album in the UK, reaching number five on the UK Albums Chart. According to Billboard, Aja was Steely Dan's biggest hit and was one of the first albums to be certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Attempts to make a surround-sound mix of the album for a release in the late 1990s were scrapped when it was discovered that the multitrack masters for both "Black Cow" and the title track were missing. Universal Music canceled plans to release a multichannel SACD version of the album for the same reason. In the liner notes for the 1999 remastered reissue of the album, Fagen and Becker offered a $600 reward for the missing masters or any information that leads to their recovery.
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EDIT
edIT
edIT (born Edward Ma) is an American electronic music producer and DJ based in Los Angeles, California. He is a member of The Glitch Mob.
After growing up in Boston, Edward Ma began his career as a DJ and got into music production while he was studying at the University of Southern California. From there, he built his name in the Los Angeles underground and began his career in the late 1990s as The Con Artist. He was a resident DJ at Konkrete Jungle in Los Angeles and he hosted a Dublab radio show. He has produced tracks for underground hip hop artists such as Sole and Busdriver. He has also worked with P.E.A.C.E. and Myka 9 of Freestyle Fellowship, Daddy Kev, Hive, Dntel, Emanon and Phoenix Orion.
He is an old friend of Aloe Blacc and Daedelus and has contributed a remix of "Dumbfound" to Daedelus' single "Something Bells" in 2004.
His debut solo album, Crying Over Pros for No Reason, was released on Planet Mu in 2004.
Following the release of his debut, Ma continued to work at the fringes of hip hop and electronic music. In 2006, he co-founded The Glitch Mob with band members Josh Mayer (Ooah) and Justin Boreta (Boreta).
His second solo album, Certified Air Raid Material, was released on Alpha Pup Records in 2007. It features guest appearances from Abstract Rude, The Grouch, TTC, Busdriver and D-Styles.
Ten years after his debut solo album release, Crying Over Pros for No Reason (2004), edIT released Crying Over Pros For No Reason (Deluxe Edition) through The Glitch Mob's Glass Air Records imprint on December 9, 2014. The anniversary re-issue included five new tracks and was released in digital and vinyl formats. His works are also featuring in Season 2 of the TV series, Shadowhunters.
Although he has stated in 2015 that there will be no more solo projects as edIT, in 2020 he said will release a new solo album as edIT called "Come to Grips."
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TALKI
Talking-Heads
Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American rock band Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980 by Sire Records. It was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia between July and August 1980. It was the final Talking Heads album produced by Brian Eno.
Following the release of Fear of Music in 1979, Talking Heads and Eno sought to dispel notions of the band as a mere vehicle for frontman and songwriter David Byrne. Drawing influence from Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, they experimented with African polyrhythms, funk, and electronics, recording instrumental tracks as a series of looping grooves. The sessions incorporated a variety of side musicians, including guitarist Adrian Belew, singer Nona Hendryx, and trumpet player Jon Hassell.
Byrne struggled with writer's block, but adopted a scattered, stream-of-consciousness lyrical style inspired by early rap and academic literature on Africa. The artwork was conceived by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, and crafted with the help of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computers and design company M&Co. The band hired additional members for a promotional tour, and following its completion, they went on a year-long hiatus to pursue side projects.
Remain in Light was acclaimed by critics, who praised its sonic experimentation, rhythmic innovations, and cohesive merging of disparate genres. The album peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and number 21 on the UK Albums Chart, and spawned the singles "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion". It has been featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 1980s and of all time, and is often considered Talking Heads' magnum opus. In 2017, the Library of Congress deemed the album "culturally, historically, or artistically significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
In January 1980, the members of Talking Heads returned to New York City after the tours in support of their 1979 critically acclaimed third album, Fear of Music, and took time off to pursue personal interests. Singer David Byrne worked with Brian Eno, the record's producer, on an experimental album, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.[3] Keyboardist Jerry Harrison produced an album for soul singer Nona Hendryx at the Sigma Sound Studios branch in New York City; Hendryx and the studio were used during the Remain in Light recording on Harrison's advice.
Drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth, a married couple, discussed leaving Talking Heads after Weymouth suggested that Byrne was too controlling.[5] Frantz did not want to leave, and the two took a long vacation in the Caribbean to ponder the state of the band and their marriage. They became involved in Haitian Vodou religious ceremonies, practised native percussion instruments, and socialised with the reggae rhythm section of Sly and Robbie.
Frantz and Weymouth ended their holiday by purchasing an apartment above Compass Point Studios in Nassau, the Bahamas, where Talking Heads had recorded their second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food. Byrne joined the duo and Harrison there in early 1980. The band members realised that it had been solely up to Byrne to craft songs even though they were performed as a quartet. They had tired of the notion of a singer leading a backup band; the ideal they aimed for, according to Byrne, was "sacrificing our egos for mutual cooperation". Byrne additionally wanted to escape "the psychological paranoia and personal torment" he had been writing and feeling in New York. Instead of the band writing music to Byrne's lyrics, Talking Heads performed instrumental jams, using the Fear of Music song "I Zimbra" as a starting point.
Eno arrived in the Bahamas three weeks after Byrne. He was reluctant to work with the band again after collaborating on the previous two albums. He changed his mind after being excited by the instrumental demo tapes. The band and Eno experimented with the communal African way of making music, in which individual parts mesh as polyrhythms. Afrodisiac, the 1973 Afrobeat record by Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, became the template for the album. Weymouth said that the beginnings of hip-hop music made Talking Heads realise that the musical landscape was changing. Before the studio sessions began, longtime friend David Gans instructed the band that "the things one doesn't intend are the seeds for a more interesting future". He encouraged them to experiment, improvise and make use of "mistakes".
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MAPS
MapsAndAtlases
Maps & Atlases formed in fall 2004 when the founding members met in art school at Columbia College Chicago. Bassist Shiraz Dada, drummer Chris Hainey, Dave Davison (guitar and vocals), and guitarist Erin Elders first came together trying to find a sound that was both technical and organic, in the same vein as their influences Don Caballero and Hella. According to bassist Shiraz Dada, the group's name originates from a hand-painted advertisement posted on the side of a building near the college. Regarding their musicianship, Elders said that Maps & Atlases' goal as a band was "to put existing technical elements in a new context, and create something artistically unique, but still accessible."
Maps & Atlases came to prominence in the Chicago underground music scene of the early 2000s, among a diverse group of sounds that included post-hardcore, math rock, indie, punk, and emo music. Speaking with The A.V. Club, Davison said,
"When we first started, early on in our academic careers at Columbia, we were finding out about so much stuff at once. Other than bands like Smoking Popes and other groups I would hear about on, like, Q101, I didn’t really know much about underground bands in Chicago. I soon found about the whole Drag City/Thrill Jockey/Touch And Go scene, but it seemed so unattainable and unrelated to the kind of shows that we were playing. Even though we enjoyed the music, it seemed like a different thing. We were all 20, 21 [years old]; all the shows we played were with hardcore bands at American Legions."
Three of the group's early songs appear on an informally-titled EP, Bird Barnyard, which never saw an official physical release, while another appears on a split EP with fellow Chicago band The Antenora. Both recordings are unavailable at conventional retail, though Bird Barnyard has been made available by fans through YouTube.
The band self-released their EP Tree, Swallows, Houses, recorded by Dada, in 2006. Allmusic writer Jason Lymangrover called it "a busy record full of mathematical mastery," praising the "technical wizardry" of its composition and describing it as an "adventurous combination of art rock, indie rock, and prog rock." The band toured Trees, Swallows, Houses for nearly two years, gaining a local following with shows around the Midwest, playing alongside acts including Russian Circles, Matt & Kim, Karma with a K, and Rahim.
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1 year ago
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English