Alternative Sound Bytes

Dishwalla is an alternative rock band from California.The band’s name comes from an Indian term for a person providing cable television to a neighborhood. On another note, in a Vox interview, Rodney claimed the band took the name out of a Wired magazine article.

In 1996, the single “Counting Blue Cars” from the album Pet Your Friends climbed the charts and was much-played on the airwaves, bringing the band a short round of mainstream-scale success. The track earned them a Billboard Award for “Best Rock Song” for 1996 as well as two ASCAP Awards for “Rock Track Of The Year” in both 1996 and 1997. Their 1998 follow-up album, And You Think You Know What Life’s About, failed to sustain the level of popularity achieved by “Counting Blue Cars”. (Partially responsible for the situation was Universal’s 1998 purchase and dissolution of A&M/Polygram, the label that produced the two albums.) The group is remembered by most as a one-hit wonder.

Dishwalla have since made a handful of other ventures into the limelight. In 1998 landed the song “Truth Serum” in The Avengers, in 1999, the song “Stay Awake” was featured in the movie Stir of Echoes, in 2002 the song “Home” was in the movie “The Banger Sisters”, and the The WB series Charmed spotlighted Dishwalla as Musical Guests in one episode. Other TV shows that have used their songs include Smallville, The OC and Cold Case. The band, who sustains a loyal fan following, has gone on to release two more studio albums, Opaline and the self-titled Dishwalla, as well as a live album, Live… Greetings From The Flow State.

Members

• J.R. Richards – vocals
• Rodney Browning Cravens – guitar
• Scot Alexander – bass (1993-2005)
• Jim Wood – keyboards (1996-present)
• Pete Maloney – drums
• George Pendergast – drums (1993-1998)

Their song Collide is almost always used as music for fan-made videos (check Youtube and type in keywords dishwalla, collide), mostly for the Smallville series featuring Clark and Lana as a couple. This is because in one of the scenes during the show’s 5th season, the song was used when the two have reunited after a supposed missile attack.

[Wikipedia]

THE FLYS
The Flys were an American post-grunge group, formed in 1994 and now on indefinite hiatus since 2002. They had success with a minor radio hit in 1998, “Got You (Where I Want You)”, the video for which featured Katie Holmes from the hit TV show Dawson’s Creek. “Got You (Where I Want You)” was also featured on the soundtrack for the 1998 MGM film Disturbing Behavior, which starred Katie Holmes.

The cover of their album, Holiday Man, featuring a picture of drummer Nick Lucero (flying head down over Perris, California), was shot by Fritz Pfnur, a professional skydiver/freeflyer who at the time was a team member of the Fly Boyz.

The Flys was also the name of another band from the late-1970′s punk rock era, hailing from Coventry, UK.

The beginnings of Hollywood-based rockers The Flys lay in informal jam sessions between eventual members James Book (bass), Peter Perdischizzi (guitar), Adam Paskowitz (vocals), and Nicky Lucero (drums). Eventually another singer/rapper, Joshua Paskowitz joined, and the band found themselves signed to Trauma Records. By merging alterna-rock with retro sounds, The Flys take a far more original approach than the majority of other late-90′s alternative bands. Prior to their debut to the August ’98 release of their debut, Holiday Man, the band had already appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Disturbing Behavior, and played at the Bethel/Woodstock site for the A Day at the Garden show. The Flys’ sophomore album Outta My Way followed in the spring of 2000.
~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide

- http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/flys/bio.jhtml
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flys

Gin Blossoms is an alternative rock band formed in 1987, in Tempe, Arizona. They took their name from a photo of W.C. Fields which bore the caption “W.C. Fields with gin blossoms,” referring to the actor’s gin-ravaged nose. The band, who were musically weaned on The Byrds and Tom Petty, released three albums and had several hits in the mid 1990s, before breaking up in 1997. Five years later in 2002, the band reunited, released a DVD, resumed touring, and promised a fourth album. Major Lodge Victory, the Gin Blossoms’ first album in ten years, was released on August 8, 2006 on the Hybrid Recordings label.

The Blossoms are featured on two tribute albums to date—they contributed a cover of Kiss’ “Christine Sixteen” to the Kiss My Ass album, and they backed Tommy Keene for his version of “Carrie Anne” on the Sing The Hollies In Reverse album. They’ve also contributed songs to several soundtracks: “Idiot Summer” for Wayne’s World 2, “Soul Deep” (a Box Tops cover) for Speed, and “Til I Hear It From You” for Empire Records. The Blossoms’ hit “Hey Jealousy” also appears on MTV’s Buzz Bin Volume 1 compilation.

Their song, Follow You Down according to Robin Wilson is the “kind of a general, vague sort of a thing about just kind of being addicted to somebody who you know is bad for you.” And Found About You, is about an ex-girflriend of Doug Hopkins, who did some serious Tae Kwon Do moves on him that landed him on a hospital for a week and a half with a shattered cheekbone and an even shattered occipital lobe.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Blossoms
- http://www.ginblossoms.info

The Used is a rock band from Orem, Utah. Their sound mixes many different genres and has been described as anything from post-hardcore to emo to alternative rock.

The Used formed in Orem, Utah. Drummer Branden Steineckert was the person who got everyone together to make music. The area is known for its large Mormon population, not for its incredible punk rock scene, so The Used had a lot of trouble finding venues that would let them play. The Used’s luck changed when they were signed to Reprise Records. The Used’s hit songs include A Box Full of Sharp Objects, The Taste of Ink.

The members of the Used had to overcome poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse, not to mention the straight-laced attitudes of their hometown of Orem, UT, to bring their screamo-tinged brand of post-hardcore to life. But they persevered and earned a contract with Reprise Records, releasing their self-titled debut album in June 2002.

- www.kidzworld.com/article/3079-band-the-used-biography
- http://music.yahoo.com/ar-292804-bio–The-Used

The rise of alternative rock in the USA. From its early underground days where bands like Black Flag drew inspiration from the DIY ethos of punk, Left Of The Dial traces the history of the network of fans, clubs and fanzines that sustained the scene and launched the careers of bands like R.E.M., The Pixies and Husker Du. The film takes a fresh look at the explosion of the Seattle scene, culminating in the success of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and the tragic loss of Kurt Cobain, an artist whose triumph and tragedy continues to cast an inescapable shadow.Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/programmes/left-of-the-dial/

An alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979.

The band comprised guitarist and vocalist Paul Westerberg, guitarist Bob Stinson, bassist Tommy Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars for most of their career.

The Band began as a punk rock group, but began to incorporate other subgenres of rock music and became instrumental in the development of early alternative rock.The Replacements is one of the influences of these bands such as The Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, Pavement and many more.

Following the critically acclaimed Let It Be (1984), the band signed to Sire Records, becoming one of the first American underground rock bands to sign to a major record label.

In the ’80s the Replacements’ blend of punk guitar and pop melodies garnered critical acclaim but little commercial success. Hailing from the Minneapolis home base of acts as diverse as Hüsker Dü and Prince, the quartet was seen by its fans as generational spokesmen; Paul Westerberg’s angst-ridden confessional songs cast him as a postpunk Bob Dylan and would influence such ’90s stars as the Goo Goo Dolls.

via [Rolling Stone]

Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Known for his ethereal singing voice, Buckley was considered to be one of the most promising artists of his generation after the release of his critically acclaimed 1994 debut album Grace. At the height of his popularity, Buckley drowned during an evening swim in 1997. His work and style continue to be highly regarded by critics and fellow musicians.

via [Wikipedia]

One of my Favorite Song that’s written and sung by Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye and as another post from the blog site And She Writes entitled it as the Best BreakUp Song Ever.. Well, it depends on how you listen it, you may get different meaning and interpretation to it. Anyways I love this song, this song rules.

There are still some good songs that Jeff Buckley wrote and performed but this song really topped the charts for me.

So is there any song in particular that Jeff Buckley wrote that you like?

We’ve seen the future of Rock & Roll and its name is no longer Bruce Springsteen. The band on stage at New York‘s Ritz sounds like an ailing vacuum cleaner riding roughshod over a madrigal choir. Nonchalantly the musicians step out of the stage-divers’ way as waves of high-intensity drone and retina-piercing white lights wash over the crowd. On the one hand, there exists a fossilizing corpse called classic rock-a four-decade-old mummy grown stale and tired, a once vibrant part of mainstream culture now reduced to background music for car commercials and Olympic events. Imagine a major motion picture in which characters sport faded Mudhoney T-shirts, pull Replacements albums from their record collections, and go hear Alice in Chains, and you’ve scripted Singles, Cameron Crowe’s look at love among the ruins in Seattle (due Sept. 18). Then there’s the Lollapalooza ’92 tour, a seven-band alternative- rock circus stuffed with the Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam.

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Source:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,311492,00.html

By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was abuzz about alternative rock’s commercial possibilities and actively courted alternative bands including Dinosaur Jr, Firehouse, and Nirvana.

Nirvana’s surprise success with Nevermind heralded a “new openness to alternative rock” among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular. Many pop punk bands such as Green Day and The Offspring were also labeled “alternative”. The New York Times declared in 1993, “Alternative rock doesn’t seem so alternative anymore.

Source:

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “American Alternative Rock/Post-Punk“. All Music Guide.

Azerrad, Michael. Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1994. p. 160 ISBN 0-385-47199-8

Rosen, Craig. “Some See ‘New Openness’ Following Nirvana Success.” Billboard.

Seems the coming year would be a good one for alternative music fans the world over for Creed and No Doubt has released information that in 2009 there would be reunion tours for them. Creed who last played in 2004 has announced that it is a great possibility when the members of the band had vacant seats when their current bands have split (what’s new). Gwen and the gang have also leaked information that it would also be possible the band would be getting together for a reunion tour 2009. There are no solid facts and industry leaders are not speculating but two bands on a reunion tour, and not just any band, two of the best. Now that’s news for you. Gwen says they took a break to get their lives on the roll and to get new inspiration for the music they oh so love, good for you guys and more power.