Rueben's Ramblings

Aqualung

Matthew “Matt” Hales – who is better known in the music industry as Aqualung – is an English singer/songwriter who grew up in his parents independent record shop and at the age of 16 was awarded a scholarship to study music composition at Winchester College. The next year he wrote his first symphony entitled “Life Cycle”. While he was still a teenager he formed his first band, which went by several different names, producing one album, but they soon broke up.

In 1990, Hales moved to London to study music at City University where he formed a band with his brother Ben. They released several singles as well as an album, but they had very little success. In 2001, they were signed to Mercury Records, released two more singles, but in the following year they were dropped by the record label and the duo split up.

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

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Train

Train is an American rock band that was formed in 1994. Lead vocalist Pat Monahan moved from his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania to California, crossing paths with Rob Hotchkiss, who performed in coffee houses and local clubs. Monahan did vocals and Hotchkiss did backing vocals and guitar. When they decided to form a full band, Jimmy Stafford was recruited to play guitar with Charlie Conn joining at a later date and Scott Underwood was drummer. The band was rejected by Columbia Records in 1996 so they decided to release their first independent self-titled album, which came out in 1998, bringing the band mainstream success.

Their sophomore album “Drops of Jupiter” came out in 2001 (surprisingly) by Columbia Records and brought them massive popularity. The self-titled single became an international hit, garnering the band two Grammy Awards in 2002.

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

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All American Rejects

The All-American Rejects are a four-piece rock band from Oklahoma that was formed in 1999. The current members include Tyson Ritter (lead vocals and bass), Nick Wheeler (guitar), Mike Kennerty (rhythm guitar) and Chris Gaylor (drums).

In 2000, while Ritter and Wheeler were still in high school, they made a demo, featuring a different singer as lead vocalist, which has come to be known as “The Blue Album“. They then put together the “Same Girl, New Songs” EP, which got them signed to Doghouse Records courtesy of a fast-thinking intern.

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

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Lamb

Lamb is an electronic music duo from Manchester, England consisting of producer Andy Barlow and singer-songwriter Louise Rhodes. The duo did subsequently expand to include Jon Thorne (bass), Oddur Mar Runnarson (guitar) and Nikolaj Bjerre (drums). They were frequently joined by London-based string trio Chi 2 Strings and Kevin Davy (trumpet).

Their self-titled debut album was released in September of 1996 and featured their best known single – today’s Song of the Day – “Górecki“, which was inspired by Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Rhodes and Barlow co-wrote the song and part of the lyrics were used by Baz Luhrmann for some of Satine’s lines in the motion picture Moulin Rouge!. The song was also used in an advertisement for Guinness and an advertisement for the Tomb Raider: Underworld video game.

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

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Muse

Muse is an English alternative rock band that was formed in 1994 and is comprised of members Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards) and Dominic Howard (drums, percussion, synthesizers).

The band’s first self-titled EP was released in May 1998 followed 8 months later by their second EP called Muscle Museum. Since that time they have released five studio albums: Showbiz in 1999, Origin of Symmetry in 2001, Absolution in 2003, Black Holes and Revelations in 2006 and The Resistance in 2009. They also have three live albums in their collection: Hullabaloo Soundtrack in 2002, Absolution Tour in 2005 and HAARP in 2008.

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

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Natalie Gauci

Natalie Gauci is an Australian singer who studied at Emmaus College, Vermont South before studying music at the Victorian College of the Arts. She began writing songs at 17 years of age and performed as a session musician. Her debut EP “Take It or Leave It” was released in 2006. She went on to form the Natalie Gauci Band with fellow Melbourne musicians, playing soul, pop, and jazz at local pubs, clubs, weddings, and corporate functions.

Natalie uploaded music from her debut EP to the Triple J, a nationally-networked Australianradio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30, and was subsequently chosen for Unearthed, a project by the radio station to “dig up” hidden talent in regional Australia. This earned her some radio airplay and coverage as well as helping fund her work as a vocals teacher at the Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy.

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

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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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