Rueben's Ramblings

Plumb

Tiffany Arbuckle Lee is a contemporary Christian artist who uses the stage name Plumb, who performs several different genres of music, including alternative rock, Christian alternative rock, pop, dance, and electronica. She grew up in Fayetteville, Georgia, starting her career as a backup singer.

The first three albums had Plumb marketed as a band with the album “candycoatedwaterdrops” winning the 2000 Dove Award for Modern Rock Album of the Year with two of the album’s tracks “Stranded” and “Damaged” becoming hits.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Parachute

Parachute is a pop rock band from Charlottesville, Virginia started out as Sparky’s Flaw, releasing 3 EP’s in 2003, 2005 and 2007. When the band graduated from college in May of 2008, they changed the band’s name to Parachute and started touring with artists such as O.A.R., Switchfoot, Duffy and Matt Nathanson; all in an effort to promoting their debut album Losing Sleep.

Their singles “Under Control” and today’s Song of the Day “She is Love” (written by lead vocalist Will Anderson) were used on national skincare TV commercials for Nivea. “She is Love” was the debut single from the album and peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 list and peaked at number 14 on the Adult Contemporary Chart in 2009.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Animal Kingdom

The new band Animal Kingdom is an indie rock band from South London, United Kingdom, consisting of members Richard Sauberlich (vocals, guitar and piano); Wayne Yardley (guitar), Hamish Crombie (bass) and Geoff Lea (drums).

The band formed in the late 2000s with the quartet signing with Warner Records in 2008. They released their debut album called Signs and Wonders in 2009. The first two singles off this album were “Chalk Stars” and today’s Song of the Day “Tin Man”.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Josh Kelley

Josh Kelley is an American singer-songwriter, who was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. His musical career began at the age of 11 when he started playing guitar. While he was a teen, he and younger brother Charles (who is now a musician and singer in the country trio Lady Antebellum) formed a band called Inside Blue and they released a 5-song CD.

After attending college in Mississippi, Josh released an independent album called Changing Faces in 2001 and then signed with Hollywood Records the following year. His first studio album called For the Ride Home was released in June 2003 and featured the singles “Amazing” and “Everybody Wants You”.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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30 Seconds to Mars

The American rock band 30 Seconds to Mars was founded in Los Angeles in 1998 by actor Jared Leto (vocals, rhythm guitar and songwriter) and his brother Shannon Leto (drums and percussion) as a family project. Matt Wachter later joined the band as bassist and keyboard player (he left the band in 2007 however). After working with a number of guitarists, the trio auditioned Tomo Milicevic (lead guitar and keyboards) to round out the band’s roster.

The band’s self-titled debut album was released in 2002 and featured two singles “Edge of the Earth” and “Capricorn (A Brand New Name),” which peaked at number 31 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart.

You can read more of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Stereophonics

The Welsh classic rock band Stereophonics was formed in 1992 in Wales and they have released seven studio albums since 1997. Five of those albums topped the UK albums charts and their compilation album, released in 2008, charted at number two in the UK. They have also achieved a total of 10 top-ten singles as well as one number 1 single.

But first, the formation of the band came about by founding members Kelly Jones (lead vocals, rhythm guitar and keyboard), Richard Jones (bass guitar, vocals, piano and harmonica) and the late Stuart Cable (drums, percussion and backing vocals) who performed as a teenage cover band known as Tragic Love Company. They later changed the band’s name to Stereophonics, named after the manufacturer of a record player that had belonged to Cable’s father.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Anouk

Anouk is a Dutch singer, who has released 10 pop-rock albums since 1997. Her interest in music began thanks to the fact her mother was a blues singer and her early days were spent singing at weddings and parties in the Netherlands.

Her first album called “Together Alone” was released in October of 1997 and remained at the top of the Dutch music charts for a number of weeks, earning her several awards from the Dutch music channel known as The Music Factory in addition to an Edison award.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood was the winner of the fourth season of American Idol and began making strides in the world of country music very quickly. In the few years since her AI win, she has become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, has won multiple Grammy Awards, is a Grand Ole Opry inductee, a three-time American Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner and won back-to-back Academy of Country Music Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/2010).

Her debut album “Some Hearts” was released in 2005 and featured her three hit singles “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Waste” and “Before He Cheats.” In October of 2007, her second album “Carnival Ride” came out and has sold three million copies as of January 2010. This album produced four number one country hits, including “Last Name” and “All-American Girl”.

You can read more of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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Sia

Sia is an Australia pop singer and songwriter, who recorded two albums as part of the jazz and indie formation known as Crisp before recording her own solo album called “Only See” in 1997. It wasn’t until 2000 that she signed with Sony Music and released her major-label debut “Healing is Difficult,” which featured the single “Little Man”. This album received wide critical acclaim, but she soon left Sony for Go! Beat Records (a subsidiary of  UMG). After releasing an EP called “Don’t Bring Me Down” in 2003, Sia released her second major album entitled “Colour the Small Ones” in 2004. This album featured one of Sia’s most recognizable songs “Breathe Me,” which was featured not only in the made-for-TV movie Fallen (which starred Paul Wesley, who can now be seen in the popular series on the CW The Vampire Diaires) but also appeared in the series finale of the HBO show Six Feet Under.

After changing records labels, again, touring throughout the United States and providing the vocals for the band Zero 7 on their hit single “Destiny,” Sia released an “almost EP-ish” album called “Lady Croissant” in April of 2007 and followed that up with her next album “Some People Have Real Problems” in January of 2008. Her most recent album, which was just released last month, is called “We Are Born”.

You can read the rest of this article at my Examiner.com page here.

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