We Are Fans is an electro/disco/funk project from Melbourne, Australia. This is also known as Harris Robotis's side project working with vocalist NY Fan. The band made their festival debut at The Hot BBQ in the summer of 09/10 with singer Maxi and drummer Ric. Their debut EP 'Inferno' was released on the 26th of August 2010.
Generation Gap(1995 -1996) was the old band of Alex Band(it was his second band) and Aaron Kamin(both from The Calling) when they began playing together. The band consisted of Alex Band(15), Aaron Kamin(19), a 58 year old drummer and a 40 year old bassguitarist. The huge difference in ages obviously was the reason for the bandname.
When Alex Band and Aaron Kamin got a record deal with RCA Records, the band split up. The Demo Cd consisted of 5 tracks;
1. Stigmatized
2. Stolen Youth
3. Sunday
Chromeo is an electrofunk duo based in Montreal, Canada and New York City. They are P-Thugg, on keyboards, synthesizers and talk box, and Dave 1 (David Macklovitch) on guitar and lead vocals. The two were best friends since childhood and officially formed the band in 2002. They describe themselves as the only successful Arab/Jewish collaboration since the beginning of time. David Macklovitch is currently earning his Ph.D in French literature from Columbia University, where he also teaches undergraduate French classes.
Amos Leon Thomas Jr (born 1937, died May 8, 1999) was an American avant garde jazz singer from East St. Louis, Illinois. He changed his name to Leone in 1974. Thomas is best known for his work with Pharoah Sanders, particularly the 1969 song "The Creator Has a Master Plan" from Sanders' Karma album. Thomas's most distinctive device was that he often broke out into yodeling in the middle of a vocal. This style has influenced singers James Moody and Tim Buckley,among others.
Space Invadas is duo from Australia: Katalyst - a Sydney-based award winning producer signed to BBE & Invada Records, and from the UK, Steve Spacek - the acclaimed voice behind the ground-breaking genre-pushing group Spacek (championed by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to Mos Def). Their award winning collaboration, "How Bout Us" was one of Gilles Peterson's top 20 tracks of 2008. Their forthcoming album is entitled "Soul-Fi".
Funkadelic was originally the backing band for the doo wop group, The Parliaments. The band was added in 1964, primarily for tours, and consisted of Frankie Boyce, Richard Boyce and Langston Booth. They enlisted in the army in 1966, and George Clinton (the leader of Parliament) recruited Billy Bass Nelson and Eddie Hazel in 1967, then also adding Tawl Ross and Tiki Fulwood. Due to legal difficulties between Clinton and Revilot, The Parliaments' label...
Charles Bradley is no stranger to hard times. Born in Gainesville, Florida in 1948 and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Charles spent the better part of his childhood living on the streets. One of the more optimistic moments of his childhood came in 1962, when his sister took him to see James Brown at The Apollo. Brown’s energy formed a lasting impression on Charles. He went home and immediately began practicing microphone tricks with a broom attached to a string, imitating the Godfather’s every move.
The Cat Empire is a six-piece alternative band from Melbourne, Australia. Their sound has been described as a fusion of jazz, funk, and rock with heavy Latin / Salsa influences (not to mention reggae, ska and dub). Currently, the Cat Empire consists of Ollie McGill (keyboard and backing vocals), Ryan Monro (bass and backing vocals), Felix Riebl (percussion and vocals), Harry James Angus (trumpet and vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums), and Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwhala (decks, percussion). A strong, recurrent theme of their music is the rejection of materialism, war, and intolerance and an enthusiastic embrace of cultural diversity and the simple, carefree life.
The Cat Empire began as a trio with McGill, Riebl, and Monro in late 1999, and started playing a wide variety of gigs in Melbourne. The band soon expanded in 2001, adding Angus, Hull-Brown, and Khadiwala.
THE Cat Empire's message, on stage and in the studio, has always been about breaking down borders: musical, geographic, lingual. But they have never done it so powerfully as they do on their new album, Cinema. The album serves up a set which captures the inexorable force - and sheer joy - of their live performances, delivered in a format perfect for lounge-rooms, backyards, BBQ’s, cafes, road trips and parties all over the world.
Cinema, the band's fourth studio album, is a dazzling statement of a band at a peak of its powers, music designed to move the body and the mind. Right from the opening track, Waiting, this is music that leaps from the speakers.
All the elements that people love about The Cat Empire are there but the result is brighter, bolder. And yes, more cinematic. What grabs the ear immediately is that this is not a band playing with genres. In the past, The Cat Empire dived in to any musical style which took their fancy, from reggae to salsa, Latin to hip-hop. Cinema reveals a band that has developed an emphatic voice that is all their own.
``That's a sound that has emerged out of nearly 10 years of playing on stage together,'' says singer and percussionist Felix Riebl. â€The result is an album that's much more integrated than anything we've done before, with a Cat Empire sound that runs consistently through it. The lyrics are perhaps darker, but they are accompanied by music that is uplifting which gives it a strange but powerful feeling.''
Riebl adds: “At times the album is thoughtful, at times it makes you just forget and dance. But it is an album that has more sonic depth than we've ever had before, experimental in parts but with really direct choruses. It's going to be a great album to play live, especially on big stages and at festivals.''
Of course, the stage is never far from the thoughts of this band. In an age when so much of selling music seems to be about celebrity and fashion, The Cat Empire have risen to be one of Australia and indeed the worlds favourite live acts through sheer musicality and the power of their interaction on stage. The band - Riebl, Vocalist and trumpeter Harry Angus, keys player Ollie McGill, bassist Ryan Monro, drummer Will Hull-Brown and Jamshid Khadiwala (aka ‘Jumps’) on decks - played their 700th show in Amsterdam last year, and will hit the 800 mark in 2010. While it is not well known in Australia, The Cat Empire are one of the country's most successful musical exports, doubling their audience numbers at every return stop.
They have headlined some of the world's biggest music festivals, including Summersonic (Japan), Rock am Ring (Germany) and V Fest (UK), playing Bonnaroo (US) as well as to an audience of 300,000 at the Montreal Jazz Festival. They have also played on some of world's highest rating entertainment shows, including Dave Letterman and Jay Leno. This year their worldwide tour in support of the international release of Cinema will see them return to Canada, US, Europe, Japan and the UK, where they will play to a full house at London's Brixton Academy.
The knowledge that they would be playing songs from the new album on so many big stages focused the song writing sessions for Cinema. The album was recorded close to home at Sing Sing studios in Melbourne with producer Steve Schram, and he encouraged them to make an album that was their most collaborative song writing effort yet.
``That was a deliberate decision from all of us,'' says the lion of the live show - Vocalist and Trumpeter Harry Angus. ``With six people in the band sometimes there will be a song on an album that not everyone wants to play live. This album certainly gets around that problem. And I think that after so many years playing together the guys are much more confident about contributing to the writing. Steve encouraged us to do that. That's been great for us.''
Of working with The Cat Empire, Schram says “it was the perfect studio scenario; amazing players open to trying anything and willing to take a back seat when required. Egos were left at the door.†He adds “In terms of musicianship, it's no secret that they don't come much better than The Cat Empire. Yet Cinema shows that simplicity and one well placed note packs more of a punch and serves the song far more than musical chops alone. We set out to explore in depth the mood and character of each song while maintaining a focus on performance rather than studio trickery. “
After taking their longest break from studio recording after the release of 2007's So Many Nights, the band reconvened feeling refreshed. ``In 2008 we took a break from touring for 8 months. Then in 2009 we released our (live album) Live on Earth†Riebl says. ``When we came back to the band, and then into the studio we all rediscovered what we loved about The Cat Empire in the first place; that it is a band that can do the unexpected, that we have great energy and make music that is always a lot of fun to play on stage. The feeling right now is just like when we were starting out. We're all very excited about that.''
Cinema will be released ...
JUNE 25, AUSTRALIA
JUNE 29, CANADA
JULY 6, USA
AUGUST 2010, EUROPE & JAPAN
See www.thecatempire.com for tours and information
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Chic (pron. IPA: /ˈʃiːk/, sometimes fully capitalized as CHIC) is an american disco and funk band that was formed in 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is best-known for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" (1977), "Everybody Dance" (1977), "Le Freak" (1978), "I Want Your Love" (1978), "Good Times" (1979), and "My Forbidden Lover" (1979).
Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949 in Chicago) is an American poet and musician, known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word performer, associated with African American militant activists. Heron is perhaps most well known for his poems/songs "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "What's the Word - Johannesburg" a movement hit during the 1980's South Africa college and national divestment movement in the United States of America.