Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
The Brunettes were formed in Auckland, New Zealand in 1998 by musical couple Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield. They were a paradox from the beginning - creating boy/girl melodramatic pop inspired by 70s New York punk and 60s girl groups but surrounded in an Auckland scene of opiate-infused garage rock 'n' roll. Inspired by his dreams of domestic bliss while a teenager living in rat infested junkie flats, and in direct rebellion to the messy hair...
Wonkavision is an indie rock band with loads of moogs, power guitars and vocal harmonies a la 60s. Firstly inspired by the north-american band The Rentals, Wonkavision is mostly characterised by the contrast between the sweetness of their melodies and the sarcasm of their lyrics.
Their debut album Wonkainvasion was released in 2004 in Brazil, and won a national award for the best indie rock album that year. In 2007, Wonkavision signed with the Tokyo based label PowerPop Academy and released an English version of the same album in Japan.
The Blow is Khaela Maricich, from Portland, Oregon. The band was a duo until Jona Bechtolt left to pursue his own project, Yacht, full time. The two had been working together as The Blow since 2004, when they recorded a limited edition EP called Poor Aim: Love Songs.
"Blow" is also the name of a Melbourne-based jazz group which Last.fm automatically scrobbles as "The Blow".
Red Box is a British pop group formed in the 1980s. The group was originally a five-piece band, and released its debut single "Chenko" on Cherry Red Records in 1983. Following this, the band slimmed down to a duo, Simon Toulson-Clarke and Julian Close, and took on a more synthpop direction. Their second single "Saskatchewan" (a cover of the Buffy Sainte-Marie song) brought them to the attention of WEA, who signed the duo.
Graham Parker and the Rumour (led by British rock musician Graham Parker, with Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont on guitars, Bob Andrews on keyboards, Andrew Bodnar on bass and Steve Goulding on drums) formed in the summer of 1975 in London, England, and began doing the rounds of the British pub rock scene. The band was also augmented at times by a four-man horn section known as The Rumour Brass: John "Irish" Earle (sax), Chris Gower (trombone), Dick Hanson (trumpet), and Ray Bevis (sax).
Black Francis is the stage name used by Pixies singer, Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV. Inspired by a quip by the late Warren Zevon after the group's 1993 disbandment, Francis embarked upon a successful solo career under the inverted pseudonym, Frank Black; in addition to releasing a prolific number of stylistically departed records with Frank Black and the Catholics; until the 2004 reunion of the Pixies.
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. is a four piece British band incorporating two former members of Les Incompétents; vocalist Frederick Blood-Royale, and guitarist Jareth. Joined by Tommy Gunnzs on bass and Edward Quarmby as drummer, the band formed at the end of 2006. Although relatively young, they have already accumulated a cult following assisted by their myspace page which they operate around until the completion of their official site: http://www.myspace.com/oxeaglelionman
Albert Hammond, Jr. (born April 9, 1980, in Los Angeles) is a musician best known as the guitarist for the rock band The Strokes. Outside of the band, he has released two solo albums. The son of Gibraltarian-British songwriter Albert Hammond, Albert Jr. was sent to the elite boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland at the age of 13. While there, he met Julian Casablancas, who would go on to be a fellow band member. In 1998, Albert met up with Julian in New York City and together they formed a band with Julian's former schoolmates: Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti.
The Datassette project is a series of electronic music recordings by John M Davies, and as the name would suggest there is a heavy influence of the C64 SID Chip at work here. The Datashat Project is a pseudonym used for dodgy bastard pop remixes and DJ appearances. This description as well as free mp3's can be found at http://www.datassette.net.