Nirvana

Nirvana is the band that brought the kids of their day away from music like Micheal Jackson and Madonna. Their a band out of Washington just in a town outside of seattle and brought about the Grunge revolution. Nirvana started in 1985 with singer Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl, they first had their band “The stiff woodies” with Cobain on the drums and Novoselic on the bass but in 1987 they formed Nirvana. In 1989 they had their first debut album “Bleach” recorded for over $600 and in 1991 they had a documentary made about them called “the year punk broke” which started the beginning of their recognition around the world.

1991 marked the birth of Nirvanamania and everyone listened to them eager for more Nirvana material. They soon signed on with Greffen records and recorded their second album “Nevermind”. The album became a triple platinum and had the anthem of grunge “smells like teen spirit”. Nevermind also happens to be the album with the naked baby swimming after a dollar bill on a fishing line, which just recently that baby turned 20 years old.

Cobain started soon slipping away and rumors of his heroine use were heard everywhere and Nirvana kept getting negativity all over. In 1992 Cobain married Courtney Love and that just made things worse for the band. They had to put off their third album recording thanks to Cobain’s health problems and constant stomach pain. They finally released their third album “Instesticide” and in 1993 they were ready to go back into the studio after recruiting Steve Albini to produce “In Utero”. In 1994 Nirvana went on a European tour that was cut short because of a drug overdose Cobain had in Rome. In March he was induced into rehab and April 1 went back to Seattle. On April 8^th Cobain’s body was found dead with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Its well thought that he was actually murdered by somebody his wife Courtney hired but still others say it was suicide.  Cobain also wrote in a journal and left behind 22 notebooks all from the late 1980’s to 1994 and in 2002 they were made into a 280 page book all in chronological order (sort of because Cobain didn’t date any).  Nirvana was the king of grunge and Cobain was the one who made it all.

Disturbed

Disturbed is a heavy metal band out of Chicago. The original three of the band are Dan Donegan, mike wrengen and Fuzz. In 1997 they hooked up with singer David Draiman who actually grew up in a super religious home and rebelled against his family and was kicked out of five boarding schools. Draimans anger is what gave him the urge to do his music and great heavy, crazy, head thrashing voice which gives joy to all those who love this band. They signed onto Giant records and released their first album “The Sickness” which includes a lot of their greatest songs like “Down with the Sickness” and “Stupify”. In a lot of their songs singer Draiman really seems to enjoy making a lot of funny noises because their full of them. He says a lot of times of how the fans just love the noises. Many people look past the music and only listen for the noises or just some random word or phrase to come up that blows your mind.

In 2002 the band made a documentary called M.O.L that showed the most personal moments in the studio and on tour and in 2002 they came out with their second album “Believe” which was not as heavy as their last but just as good. Believe include hits like “Liberate” and “Prayer” which was actually pulled from a lot of music networks because the video resembled a lot to the September 11 attacks. In 2003 got a new bass player after Fuzz was fired for personal differences and was replaced by current bassist John Moyer.

In 2005 Disturbed came out with their third album “Ten Thousand Fists” and was just like the last was debuted #1 in North America. In 2006 David Draiman started having trouble with his voice and had surgery for a deviated septum and was successful but now limits his drinking on the road. They released the album “Indestructible” was released in June 2008 and was their third consecutive #1 in North America. Disturbeds music has often been compared to AC/DC, Metallica, Slipknot, Pantera and Godsmack but I think they just sound like Disturbed and that’s all to it. Their music can really get you pumped up and brings out the darkness and the world like no other and really brings it out in a semi good kind of way and hopefully lives on in the music world and keeps on for generations to come.

Sublime

Sublime

For those of you who don’t know Sublime is a three man band of bros from the LBC (Long Beach, California) which pretty much mixed together trash punk, ska, reggae and dub riffs and made the greatest most original sounds the music worlds ever seen. Bradley Norwell, Floyed Gaugh, and Eric Wilson started their band in 1988 in their hometown and played their first gig their which started a small riot but gave them unbelievable publicity and made them make their way from lazy slackers to music geniuses.

  In 1992 they formed their own record company “skunk records” and began to sell their first album  “40oz. to freedom” and was definitely a success and an indie icon. In 1994 the second album “Robbin the hood” was released and was also recorded by skunk but so tightly budgeted that four of the tracks were recorded in abandoned houses, friends living rooms and also some help from legendary West Beach Studios Mr. Brett. In 1996 Sublime made their own self-titled album which included tracks such as “Santaria” and “What I Got” which became a huge success and brought them to full publicity and even won them an MTV music video award for “What I Got”.

As they were becoming a national icon of new relaxing music they started going on tour with a van and a motor home and their dog Lou who went everywhere with them on tour or just to the recording studio. As the tours went on they started getting wild and were changing thanks to drugs. Bradley started using cocaine and herion and pretty soon found himself addicted. The other two members were becoming very concerned with this as being best friends for over ten years and knew things would be changing. Then in May 1996 Bradley Nowell was found dead of a heroin overdose and became a national tragedy among Americans.  Floyed and Eric went on to form a new band “the Long Beach Dub All Stars” but definitely never made it as big as the first. Bradley Nowell was one of the most influential musicians of the 90’s and helped give Sublime their own unique sound, a sound just like Bradley Nowell will always be remembered but never redone.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers is a rock band from California with the combined genres of funk, hip hop, and rock n roll which combines to make funk metal. The peppers were the first to use funk metal and are often known to play with their shirts off and the bassist Flea is sometimes known to play naked.  They have been around for 23 thriving years and has definitely had a couple difficulties and a lot of member shuffling. In 1988 the guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose and was replaced by John Frusciante who nearly killed himself the same way, while also singer Anthony Kiedis also had drug addiction problems.  Kiedis actually has limited and almost nonexistent vocal range, but actually his terrible voice is the best thing to happen to the Peppers and gave birth to the genre rap-rock and brought along bands like Limp Bizkit. The rest of the band played to form with kiedis’ voice by having some parts rapped and then suddenly have sung parts come into play. The Peppers are well known for their rowdy shows with kiedis jumping around rapping, headbanging, with a twist of hip hop and a skater look going on he was irrisistable to the ladies. Its all cock rock, where the fans all get hot and bothered by the band playing, only if the Peppers would have took the cock rock less literal. They also have a lot of songs that refer to sex but after awhile they learned how to write good songs that aren’t only about sex surprisingly, but without the sexy it just isn’t the Chili Peppers.  They really seem to write about California a lot but not only sing about the beauty of it but also the flaws and the rot beneath. The Chili Peppers are still rockin in tube socks and is always the first to arrive and last to leave. And in a world of mopey emo, depressive indie rock, and all that gloomy stuff theres always the Chili Peppers to brighten up the mood with their old fashioned beliefe that the point of rock is to make merry.

System Of A Down

A metal alternative band from California “System Of A Down” was formed by two guys of Armenian decent, Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian who first called the band Soil. They decided to name the band Victims of a Down after a poem Malakian wrote but then changed “Victims” to “System” because it is a stronger word and brings it to a whole and not just certain people. The band was first started in 1995 and was also joined by Shavo Odadjian and and Andy Khachaturian. In 1997 system was signed onto American Recordings by Rick Rubin and gained a lot of publicity through live shows and demos. Although Andy Khachaturian left the band and new drummer john Dolmayan . Three days before their first album release they played at Ozzfest, which was their first time playing for a huge crowd. And if you haven’t ever heard of the Ozzfest its pretty much the mother of all rock music festivals. After that they gained a lot of fans and more and more people listened to them. In 2001 System released their second album “Toxicity” and gained them a spot as a mainstream band that everyone knew. A lot of this was thanks to the radio because they always overplay songs, but in a bands case It really helps them get out their.  In 2002 they were asked to headline Ozzfest  and that same year they came out with the album “Steal this album!” which was not as good of a hit as “toxicity” but still sold good and kept them on the top of the music world.  In 2004 they came out with a two part album called “mesmerize/hypnotize”  which mesmerize was released in 2004 and hypnotize was 2005. Unfortunately two weeks before Mesmerize’s  release it was all leaked onto the internet and was a big bust for the band, mostly because it was supposed to be the most anticipated album of the year on an internet poll.  But all in all the album still sold over 500,000 in the week following its release.  Although now the band is on hatius which means they all go a different way for awhile to persue musical differences, System of a down have brough heavy music back into mainstream which hasn’t been done since the early ninties.