Music A to Z 07.10.09: B Is For...

Posted by Chris Crowing on 07.10.2009

Bjork, Bullet for My Valentine and Bush, with an added rant about Fear Factory.



Welcome back to the Music: A to Z, this week we have rundowns of some metal upstarts, fallen grunge superstars and electronic godesses, as well as a quick rant about the schoolyard name calling inside the ranks of the Band Formerly Known As Fear Factory, and a quick response to some of your comments.



To Fear Factory, or not to Fear Factory

It transpires that all concert dates announced for Fear Factory have at this time been cancelled, as 'former' members Christian Old-Wolbers and Ray Herrera dispute Burton & Dino's right to tour under that name.

I have to say my sympathies lie with the rhythm section, as in my eyes to be called Fear Factory, the band really should comprise at least three of the classic members (sorry Byron, you've done well but you just don't count.)

Christian is quoted as saying that "Burton and Dino decided they were friends again and to start a new band, they just wanted to call it Fear Factory."

Now, I'm fine with Burton and Dino having a band, and Christian and Ray having a band, but neither would be Fear Factory in my view - although both projects would likely be pretty amazing. Either group using the name is just a rather cynical way to garner attention to a new project with a beloved and classic moniker - that's well beneath your level guys.

A best case scenario here would be for the two camps to make up like grownups and record and tour as the REAL Fear Factory, whether they want to get their separate projects out of the way first or not. Of course, that's probably too much to ask for...



* Please note, all 'Best...' designations are merely this writers opinion, and stand as a recommendation for new fans, rather than an attempt to make a definitive statement. I'll likely change my mind by next week anyway.

Bjork

What: Icelandic Pop-electronica songstress
From: Reykjavik, Iceland
In the Beginning: First (pop) album Bjork released in 1977 (she was 12), and following years in punk bands, she hit mainstream success with a string of very successful albums in the 90s.
Best Album(s)*: Debut (1993), Post (1995), Homogenic (1997)
Best Song(s)*: "All is Full of Love", "Army of Me"
Recently...: Her sixth album Volta released in May 2007, including the controversial "Declare Independence"

I vividly remember being in my first rush of music fandom, and asking my mentor-uncle what he was most impressed by, and he replied 'an Icelandic electronic singer called Bjork.' I remember shutting off at that point, as I was on the cusp of morphing from indie-kid to metal fan, and if it didn't involve hairy men, guitars and shouting, I wasn't interested. Youthful idiot!

In time, the likes of Nine Inch Nails broke me into the concept of electronic music and I swiftly fell in love with Bjork's command of melody and her sweet, idiosyncratic voice. Time for a quick bio.



Bjork has been a recording artist for a long time, with her first pop recordings made at the precocious age of 12. As she grew older, and more interested in punk and eventually electronica, she was a part of various avant garde acts like Spit & Snot, KUKL (which means sorcery in Icelandic) and eventually the Sugarcubes.

However, real success came with her first adult recordings in the form of Debut and her expressive videos helped raise her profile far above the underground following she had before. Songs of such obvious quality as "All is Full of Love", "Hyperballad", and "Army of Me" surely didn't hurt either.

She has received many accolades, from Grammys to Golden Globes and been named pretty high up on numerous lists of 'most influential artists' and 'best vocalist' but doesn't seem to care, which is very appealing to me for one.



While supporting her most recent record, Volta she has dedicated the song "Declare Independence" to numerous separatist causes across the world, from the Faeroe Islands and Kosovo to Tibet - causing much controversy and potential; the banning of foreign musical acts from China. I'm not sure if that's a misstep or objective successfully caused...

To sum up, is an artist I have great affection for, and along with fellow Icelanders Sigur Ros, she provides the best of what I call my 'easy listening catalogue' in stark contrast to the darker electronica and bevy of sweaty men with guitars who dominate my record collection. That is a pretty poor commendation, but I cannot find the words to fully do justice to her immense talent.

Ah hell, I'll play the guilty pleasure in her resume...



Bullet for My Valentine

What: Welsh metal upstarts
From: Bridgend, Wales, UK
In the Beginning: After changing their name from Jeff Killed John they secured a record deal with Sony and released a self-title EP in 2004 and a debut album, the Poison in 2005.
Best Album(s)*: Scream, Aim, Fire
Best Song(s)*: "Hearts Burst Into Fire," "Waking the Demon"
Recently...: Scream, Aim, Fire released in January 2008 to greater success than it's predecessors. They will play at Sonisphere in August and a new album is slated for 2010.

Let's be honest, my appreciation for Bullet... falls into two distinct time periods. Initially I HATED them without reserve, annoyed at their media-gifted mantle of 'the future of British Heavy Metal' when they were so clearly more than a little bit emo. Basically I regarded them as a poor, cut-price British version of the more impressive 'New Wave of American Heavy Metal' (much as I think the term is nonsense) like Avenged Sevenfold, Mastodon and Trivium.

I don't feel especially bad about this early distaste, as their songs did have a decidedly emo taint, and while the boys could clearly play a bit, singer Matt Tuck shared a similarly grating tone to his voice with Ian Watkins of fellow Welshmen the Lostprophets and this was a great turn off.



Their full length debut the Poison was better, but still lacking in some real metal credibility, largely due to the continually emo-esque lyrics and Tuck's unconvincing scream. However, there was a noticeable improvement in the bands guitar sound, as they started to lean on more thrash influences.



For me, the tipping point was last years Scream, Aim, Fire LP, where they managed to balance their still-cheesy and emotional lyrics, with some better singing, better guitar riffs, better song construction and above all - humour. Two of the promo videos for this album have shown a sense of playing up to the METAL stereotypes, with a wry grin and I'll always like that.



For all that Matt's voice still isn't quite up to real metal growling, that gun-coking motion is pure metal posery, and I loves it!



Purists will still scoff at them for being populist, not heavy enough, emo, Welsh or whatever, but having found the humour in Bullet, I can now happily enjoy them in the same way I enjoy Motley Crue - remembering that rock and metal are FUN, and everybody can't be that serious all the time.

Having written that down, I feel I have to say that Bullet are awesome players, and that has to be noted. This is none better displayed than on this, perversely their most radio-friendly tune...



That opening guitar bit is pure aural awesomeness, IMHO.

While I used to chafe at Bullet's status as the heir apparent to the throne of British metal (although it looks like Iron Maiden will be holding onto that crown for a while), their development is encouraging and increasingly entertaining. I'm keenly looking forward to their next album...

Bush

What: Emigre post-grunge superstars
From: London, England
In the Beginning: Formed in 1992, self released debut album Sixteen Stone in 1994, finds huge success in the US.
Best Album(s)*: Sixteen Stone, Razorblade Suitcase and the Science of Things - I like it, many disagree.
Best Song(s)*: "Greedy Fly", "Glycerine", "The Chemicals Between Us"
Recently...: last two albums were much less successful than their grungier predecessors, and the band split in 2002. Various members have embarked on solo careers and played in other bands such as Stone Gods and Helmet. Singer Gavin Rossdale has appeared in a few films (notably, Constantine) and continues to be the smuggest looking bastard in rock. Contradictory rumours of a reunion abound...

I understand that once upon a time, Bush were mildly huge in North American, neatly slipping into the post-Nirvana void until eventually supplanted by Creed as the pop-grunge band of choice for greasy haired teenagers.



However in the indie and dance obsessed UK of the 90s, they were never so big. Of course to my contrary Amerophile alternative tastes at the time, this just made them more interesting...

It has always been a source of amusement to me that a British band should become so successful overseas, yet remain comparatively underground in the UK - given my current circle of friends, it's almost unbelievable, but then again most of my friends were, like myself looking abroad for musical inspiration as the 90s drew on.

It must be noted that the videos they were producing at the height of their fame showed that they had a lot more money in their pocket than contemporary bands who had remained to fight the good fight in the UK...



Songs like "Swallowed" and "Greedy Fly" were part of my alternative education from the very start, and while many grunge kids were disappointed by the electronic vibes on third album the Science of Things it fitted in quite nicely as my tastes were increasingly coloured by an appreciation for Nine Inch Nails, VAST and Depeche Mode.



However, I completely missed final album Golden State when it came out, and didn't even hear about Bush's demise until years later.

Bush occupy a strange place in musical history - in the UK they are semi-reviled as a band who had to go to the lowbrow US to get successful, and in the US they are fallen heavyweights, who are also looked upon with some scepticism as they aren't American (or from any other sympathetic place, but ENGLAND....ewwww) and quite clearly swept up the crumbs from the very much home grown grunge wave.

As for me, they produced three good-to-very-good albums, would have a decent 'greatest hits' compilation if any was to be forthcoming, and if they did reform, I'd almost certainly go and see them.

One last thought, and perhaps a question for you. Would Bush be remembered better if Gavin Rossdale didn't come across as such an arrogant prick, and was now better known as Mr Gwen Stefani? I think the band deserve better than their semi-forgotten legacy...



awindos said:I can understand that this is your list but how you can have a rock music column and not have Alice Cooper on it is terrible.

The man created a genre all of his own made some of the most poignant rock songs of the 1970's and in the 1980's made Poison one of the best rock songs ever

I couldn't agree more sir, Alice Cooper is a legend, and deserves a pile of kudos. Let me explain the reasons behind his exclusion.

The formula for this incarnation of my column is three acts, preferably one huge act, one well known act, and one that is very different to the other two - usually this will be two rock acts and something else, either electronic, hip hop, pop or whatever.

Alice Cooper would have taken up one of the rock slots and AC/DC are much bigger and are currently on a world tour, while Alice in Chains are very much in my mind due to the impending album - and at the end of the day I like them more than Mr Fournier.

If you are picky, you could make a case for a pile of bands to be included, Mitch suggested I do Aerosmith, A Perfect Circle and Abba, but there is an argument for Avenged Sevenfold, Aphex Twin, Alanis Morisette, Alkaline Trio, Amen, Alter Bridge, Arch Enemy, Air or a host of others as well.

The idea behind limiting the selections to three is that it means once I'm through to Z, I can swing round again - and trying to list every worthy band each week would make the column a million words long, and I do need to sleep, eat and work at a day job. It gives the column a certain unpredictability as well as (hopefully) longevity.

Nevertheless, your suggestions are noted and I'll surely write up Alice when the As come round again in six months time.

That's it, I'm done, and I'll leave you in Bill's capable, troll-like hands, but come back for next week's trawl through bands who's name begins with C, which may or may not incorporate prog, metalcore or arrhythmic Gregorian chanting.



Slainte,
Chris Crowing

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