January - alexisonfire

Biography
Alexisonfire was the brain child of Helcama von shnowsitz, a reclusive Norwegian doctor. Dr. Helcama had advance knowledge of cloning and test tube human production.

One day he grew weary of the constant pressures of the outside world so he drew up plans to make a lethal hit squad of 5 Catholic school girls who would bring down the capitalist regime that had crushed his will to live. But unfortunately during the cloning process he spilled a vile
of what is known in the scientific world as AGENT X606.(two parts lysol, one part jack Daniels) into the cloning tanks. this had a drastic effect on his children of destruction. what he thought to be girls were turning into boys. mildly unattractive boys.

The first of the lethal creations to gain consciousness was one that was given the name "Dallas", after the successful mid 80's soap opera, a favorite of Dr. Helcamas. Dallas was a mild mannered young man who displayed great skills with the guitar and had a lovely singing voice. The next to emerge was a husky foul mouthed, sarcastic, but highly intelligent young man who was named wade. he instantly took to the guitar as well but he played a much scarier brand of music and instantly corrupted Dallas.

The next to come was named Jesse. Jesse was destructive and broke everything around him so Dr Helcama placed him behind a set of drums which he instantly fell in love with. Jesse also had the super power of consuming great quantities of sandwiches and granola bars and never ever gaining weight. A child named George was the next to awaken. George was resentful of the Doctor and refused to play any instruments, instead George took to screaming and yelling. The last child was young Chris. Chris may have been insane.but he also may have been brilliant. Chris played the bass and he seemed to be able to function with out any sleep what so ever.

After Dr. Helcama was finished his studies of the boys he thought it would be too risky to unleash them upon the world so he loaded his gun and decided to destroy the boys and any proof of their existence. George became aware of the doctors plans and was the first to strike. The doctor was hog tied and thrown off a bridge never to know that he created the greatest rock band of all time. The group of genetic miscreants decided to start a band.Dallas
stepped forth with a name. Since Dallas had no mother he had taken to watching lactating pornography...

and thus ALEXISONFIRE, the band, was born.

http://www.theonlybandever.com

February - The Mars Volta

"We're a rock'n'roll band who wants to be a salsa band" - Omar

It started in the summer of 2001. Cedric Bixler's and Omar Rodriguez's (both from At the Drive-In) fame had been playing in their dub band De Facto with Ikey Owens and Jeremy Ward. They had been playing for years, but after ATDI split up, De Facto teamed up with drummer Jon Theodore (Golden) and bassist Eva Gardner to start The Mars Volta.

They went on tour with The Anniversary in the fall of 2001. They got very mixed responses to the material. Some people expected another ATDI, some just wanted to see what the buzz was about, and a whole lot of people wondered who the freaks with the afros were and why The Anniversary weren't playing yet. With a less than apparent "sound", more often improvised than not and without clear cut beginnings and ends of songs, The Mars Volta was a disappointment to some, but won the hearts of many more.



Original lineup - April 2002
After the band toured Europe in spring of 2002, they teamed up with producer Alex Newport (who had produced ATDI's Vaya) and recorded what was to become the Tremulant EP. By early 2002, the buzz was going around that The Mars Volta was like a bomb ready to explode. After the successful European tour and a quick trip to Japan, Tremulant was released on Omar's label GSL, and most skeptics were quickly silenced. With the three song, 19 minute EP, The Mars Volta made a clear statement of what they were all about, and what was to come.



This Aint No Picnic - Oct 2002
Not much was heard from The Mars Volta for a while, but the fans were adding up. The band played at Goldenvoice's Coachella Valley Festival in May, which was to be the last show with the band for Eva and Ikey. There was never an official statement as to why the lineup changes were made. Before the summer was over, Linda Good had joined on keyboards and Ralph Jasso, formerly of Universal Recovered, joined on bass.

The rest of the summer was spent writing new tracks, De Facto was seen jamming with The Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Fruiscante, Omar finished up a film project, and a short tour was scheduled for the fall of 2002, including Goldenvoice's This Ain't no Picnic Festival in Irvine.

After the short tour, Ikey was back and the band entered the studio with Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run DMC, System of a Down) for an LP, De-Loused in the Comatorium, due out June 24th, 2003. The album would have Flea on bass and would even feature John Frusciante playing guitar on Cicatriz. After finishing recording, the band supported the Red Hot Chili Peppers throughout the spring of 2003. Jason Lader played bass on the European part of the tour, but Juan Alderete took over after they landed in the US.

During a break from the Chili tour, tragedy struck the band as [Jeremy Ward], sound manipulator, was found dead in his apartment on May 25th, just under a month before the album release. He was a 27 years old.

http://www.inertiatic.com/

march - the sound of animals fighting

Tiger & the Duke

Crass, experimental and haunting, the sound of animals fighting is the collective, concerted efforts of musicians across the gamut of independent music. These artists have cast themselves together to build a new sort of album, one that is simultaneously homage and reinvention to and of the genres that these artists adore. Tiger & the Duke, built with a distinctly operatic structure, fuses elements of electronic, hardcore and progressive music into a cohesive, alternate sound void of broader qualifying characteristics that would anchor it in any one style of music.

The artists themselves remain anonymous, for reasons of legality (and mystery) and have taken on animal pseudonyms; the walrus, the bear, the ferret, the hyena, the skunk, the swan, the raven, the tiger, the tortoise, the dog, the llama, the octopus, the armadillo, the nightingale and the lynx, each of whom lent their hands to the work in its final form.

The lyricism of The Sound of Animals Fighting, though immediately ambiguous, contains in its cyclical referencing and re-referencing a separate narrative, a story of what has become of the animals, the tiger and the duke. This coupling earns for itself status as a true opera, as the story and the sound are inseparable.


www.thesoundofanimalsfighting.com, www.myspace.com/thesoundofanimalsfighting

april - death from above 1979

DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979

1979 is the year of my birth
1979 is the year of off the wall
1979 is the year of pleasure principle
1979 is the last year of the last cool decade
1979 is scratched into my arm
1979 is scratched into my arm
1979 is scratched into my fucking arm

~ Sebastien Grainger, Death from Above 1979


“We wanted our band to be like an elephant in your living room,” says Jesse F. Keeler, one half of Death from Above 1979. “That’s why we gave ourselves trunks.”

Of course there have been two-piece bands before. The two-piece is indelibly engrained in the lexicon of rock: the Righteous Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, the Chemical Brothers, the White Stripes. It is fair to say, however, that none before have managed to make as much noise with as little instrumentation as Death from Above 1979. Death from Above 1979 is a two-piece: two friends who met in prison, Jesse F.Keeler and Sebastien Grainger, who now live in a funeral parlor in Toronto. To hear them on record, it is hard to believe that (with the exception of the odd flute sample or moog oscillation) the only instruments being played are bass and drums. It’s a bit like Queen writing “no one played synthesizers” in the liner notes of their early albums. With Death from Above 1979, no one played guitars. “We don’t need them, and besides, why would we want to put anyone else on the payroll?”

So from where does this almost militant attitude toward the guitar come? Clearly, Death from Above 1979 is a band that rocks--really, really, really rocks--but they also understand dance music. “We have both always listened to dance music. It runs along the same road as rock music. Most hip hop and dance music is made with just bass and drums, so we wanted to see how far we could go with just those instruments. We wanted the music to be stripped down…and sweaty”. Death from Above 1979 is trying to make as much noise as possible without compromising that ideal. Or compromising on anything else, for that matter.

“We have very primal ideas about everything,” explains Sebastien. “Our music is an expression of those primal ideas. Ultimately we want our songs to make people completely lose it.”

Death from Above 1979 recently completed a remarkable debut visit to the UK that included three headlining shows in one night, and one indescribable date in a 15-year-old fan’s front room. The NME writes, “In the corner two inspired 13-year-old girls are discussing forming a death metal band.”

After two EPs on Ache and Sonic Virus, Death from Above 1979 recorded their debut album You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine for VICE Records. Look for their first single and video,”Romantic Rights,” along with US shows in September and the VICE Records Tour in November and December.



» www.deathfromabove1979.com