This is an alternative compilation not available in the music stores
BIG SLEEP
Ιs an alternative rock/pop band currently based in Salonica, Greece.
Founded in 1992, so far 5 full albums have been released.
"BIG SLEEP"'s debut album "Everything Falls Into Place" immediately became a surprising and great success in Greece, the single "Looking For A Girl With A Washing-Machine" is still played in rock radio and rock bars alike; the following cd "Moonlit
Days" - recorded 1994 in the South-West of France - opened possibilities for concert tours in Ireland, Holland, Italy and France. Soon he was also performing and recording with songwriting colleagues such as Nikki Sudden, Phil Shoenfelt and Terry Lee Hale. In 1995 he moved to Greece, where he still enjoys a huge popularity.
Since then he has recorded two more albums there, "Thermaikos" (1999), and "With God And Her Sisters" (2003), both produced by Chris Eckman of the Walkabouts.
THE WALKABOUTS
The Walkabouts were an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1984. The core members were vocalist Carla Torgerson and vocalist and songwriter Chris Eckman. Although the rest of the line-up changed occasionally, for most of the time the other members were Michael Wells, Glenn Slater and Terri Moeller.
The band drew inspiration from folk and country music, particularly Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young and Johnny Cash, but also from other types of artists and musical styles such as Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, French chanson and Jacques Brel. Their sound was typically rich, with string arrangements and keyboards in addition to the standard rock instruments. In reviews the band's music was often described as melancholic or mellow, while Eckman's lyrics, concerning such themes as human relations, loneliness and restlessness, were often emphasized as poetic.
Albums of Walkabouts on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
Chris and Carla on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
MOTORPSYCHO
Motorpsycho (initiated 1989 at Trondertun, Melhus, Norway) is a band from Trondheim. Their music can generally be defined as progressive or psychedelic rock, but they also mix in elements from metal, jazz, post-rock, pop, country and many other musical styles. The members of
the band are Bent S?ther (born 18 February 1969, bass/vocals), Hans
Magnus "Snah" Ryan (born 31 December 1969, guitar/vocals) and Kenneth
Kapstad (born 20 April 1979, drums). Until March 2005, Hakon Gebhardt
(born 21 June 1969, drums) was also an integral part of the band. A
press release concerning his departure is published at the Unofficial
website. In December 2007 it was announced that former Gate drummer
Kenneth Kapstad was the new drummer in the band as well as an official
band member.
THE INVISIBLE SURFERS
THE INVISIBLE SURFERS formed in 1996 by Alex Berekos, right after the disband of the Greek Rockabilly band THE BLUE JEANS.
Have shared the stage with THE CRAMPS, MARKY RAMONE, ? MARK & THE MYSTERIANS, THE FUZZTONES, DEAD MOON etc, while headlining their own shows, in and around every corner.
Sound-wise, THE INVISIBLE SURFERS are not just Surf.
Fifties Rockabily, Surf, Punk, traditional Greek music, it's al in there!
So well mixed, you won't even notice it!
Alboums of The Invisible Surferes on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
PHIL SHOENFELT
Phil Shoenfelt (born 18 December 1952 in Bradford, Great Britain) is an English musician and author who lived for many years in New York City and who now lives in Prague, Czech Republic.
In New York, early 1980s, he founded together with Barry "Scratchy" Myers (tour DJ of The Clash) and Marcia Schofield (ex-keyboarder of The Fall) the post-punk band Khmer Rouge.
From 1983-1984, Khmer Rouge was managed by noted photographer and Andy Warhol collaborator Nat Finkelstein.
In 1989 his first solo EP, Charlotte's Room, was released by Mark E. Smith's label Cog Sinister. The title track and the b-side "The Long Goodbye" were mixed by Tony Cohen and Mark E. Smith.
One year later Paperhouse Records put out his album Backwoods Crucifixion, in 1993 Shoenfelt's second album God is The Other Face of The Devil was released by Humbug Records. Since 1995 Shoenfelt lives in Prague, where he put together his current band, Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross (also: SHOENFELT). With Southern Cross he recorded by now four albums (Blue Highway, Dead Flowers For Alice, 'Ecstatic and Paranoia.com) and one EP called Electric Garden (2002).
Albums of Phil Shoenfelt on URBAN ASPIRES HERE
GIANT SAND
Giant Sand (also currently recording as Giant Giant Sand) is an American band from Tucson, Arizona. Its most constant member is singer-songwriter Howe Gelb.
Members have included keyboardist Chris Cacavas (of Green on Red), bassist Paula Jean Brown (who was briefly a member of The Go-Go's and was married to Gelb at the time), Mark Walton (of The Dream Syndicate and Continental Drifters), drummer Tom Larkins (later to become a Jonathan Richman sideman). and Iain Shedden, drummer with Australian band The Saints. For a long while the band's rhythm section consisted of John Convertino and Joey Burns (of Calexico fame). In the early 2000s Howe Gelb reinvented the band again - this time with players from Denmark.
Guest artists over the last 3 decades have included Victoria Williams, Neko Case, Juliana Hatfield, PJ Harvey, Vic Chesnutt, Steve Wynn, Vicki Peterson, Rainer Ptacek, M. Ward, Isobel Campbell, nearly all members of the band Poi Dog Pondering, and Indiosa Patsy Jean (Gelb and Brown's daughter).
SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS
Sad Lovers & Giants are a rock band from Watford, England which formed in 1980. Their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards and psychedelia.
The original lineup included vocalist Garce (Simon) Allard, guitarist Tristan Garel-Funk, bassist Cliff Silver, drummer Nigel Pollard and keyboardist/saxophonist David Wood.
Following their debut EP Cle and the "Colourless Dream" single, both issued in 1981, they released two studio albums, Epic Garden Music (1982) and Feeding the Flame (1983), before splitting in 1983.
During this initial period they recorded a John Peel Session for the BBC,[2] and a live concert for the Dutch Radio Hilversum station in 1983, which was subsequently released as the album Total Sound in 1986.[1] Live performances included headline dates at UK colleges and clubs with occasional trips to Europe, although they did support the Sound at a major London venue on the day Epic Garden Music entered the UK Indie Chart.
European interest in the band began to grow, and with the release of Feeding the Flame, they toured Germany and the Netherlands, gaining a dedicated fanbase. Tensions within the band caused a split, with Garel-Funk and Pollard leaving to form the Snake Corps.
During a hiatus, their label Midnight Music released the In the Breeze collection in 1984, which included one of their previously unreleased signature tunes, "Three Lines".
MORPHINE
Morphine was an American alternative rock group formed by Mark Sandman, Dana Colley, and Jerome Deupree in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1989. After five successful albums and extensive touring, they
Morphine combined blues and jazz elements with more traditional rock arrangements, giving the band an unusual sound. Sandman sang distinctively in a "deep, laid-back croon",[1] and his songwriting featured a prominent beat influence. The band themselves coined the label "low rock" to describe their music, which involved "a minimalist, low-end sound that could have easily become a gimmick: a "power trio" not built around the sound of an electric guitar. Instead, with sly intelligence, Morphine expanded its offbeat vocabulary on each album."
disbanded in 1999 after frontman Sandman died of a heart attack. Founding members have reformed into the band Vapors of Morphine, maintaining much of the original style and sound.
Albums of Morphine on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
MIDNIGHT CHOIR
Midnight Choir was a Norwegian alt-rock/alt-country band active from 1992 to 2004.
The members of Midnight Choir were Al DeLoner (Atle Bystrom 'Olsen'), Paal Flaata, and Ron 'Bystrom' Olsen. (Atle and Ron are brothers)
The band played a kind of Americana music and was named after the opening of Leonard Cohen's song "Bird on a Wire": "Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir."
A somber European trio who plays a decidedly American form of rootsy
rock, Midnight Choir has steadily built not only a fervent fan base, but
a unique take on Americana as well.
The trio of Paal Flaata (vocals/guitar), Ron Olsen (acoustic and
electric bass), and Al DeLoner (guitar and various other instruments)
began in
Norway with the
less-serious name of the Hashbrowns , busking and occasionally playing
club gigs until they were heard by veteran keyboard player Lasse
Hafreager.
Albums of MIDNIGHT CHOIR on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
STEVE WYNN
Before forming the Dream Syndicate, Wynn played guitar in the Davis-based band Suspects, whose members included vocalist Kendra Smith (with whom he later founded The Dream Syndicate), and Russ Tolman and Gavin Blair (who would form True West). In 1979, Suspects released a single, "Talking Loud" b/w "It's Up to You", and the band remained active through 1981.
After Suspects disbanded, Wynn formed the trio 15 Minutes with two members of Alternate Learning, bass player Carolyn O'Rourke and drummer Eric Landers.[4] With 15 Minutes, Wynn wrote and produced the 1981 single "That's What You Always Say," b/w "Last Chance For You," which he engineered with Alternate Learning's frontman, Scott Miller.The A-side, "That's What You Always Say," was later performed by the Dream Syndicate.
The Dream Syndicate (1981–1989)
Main article: The Dream Syndicate
The Dream Syndicate's eponymous EP was released on Wynn's own label, Down There (which folded by the end of the band's career). Though they were popular with critics, an influence on other musicians, and signed briefly to a major label, the Dream Syndicate were not commercially successful. They did establish, however, the fan base on which Wynn built his solo career. Dream Syndicate reunited in 2013 for a series of gigs in Europe and USA.
Albums of STEVE WYNN on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
The Dream Syndicate on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
COUSTEAU
Cousteau are a London-based band who enjoyed considerable international success, particularly in Italy and the U.S. from 1998 to 2005. The band's sound has been compared to Burt Bacharach, Scott Walker and David Bowie with an updated contemporary edge.
Their best known song remains the single "The Last Good Day of the Year", from their eponymous debut album. It has featured in advertisements (such as those for Nissan in the United States and Borsci in Italy), films (such as Happily Ever After, with Charlotte Gainsbourg, winner of the Special Selection category at the Toronto Film Festival 2005, and South Kensington with Rupert Everett) and documentaries and television programmes around the world. It also enjoyed radio play on both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 in the UK, later becoming a staple of the NPR and AAA networks in the US.
Cousteau albums on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
LOUIS TILLET
Louis Rohan Tillett (born 1959) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, keyboardist and saxophonist. Tillett was the front man in Australian bands The Wet Taxis, Paris Green and The Aspersion Caste. He has also worked as a backing musician with Catfish, Laughing Clowns, New Christs and Tex Perkins. For
Tillett's solo career he has issued seven albums, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (1987), A Cast of Aspersions (1990), Letters to a Dream (1992), Cry Against the Faith (1998), Learning to Die (2001), The Hanged Man (2005) and Soliloquy (2006). He has often worked with Charlie Owen, releasing two albums, The Ugly Truth (1994) and Midnight Rain (October 1995). The latter album won the Rolling Stone Critics Award for Best Album of 1996.
Louis Tillet Album on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
PETER HAMMILL
Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English singer-songwriter. He is a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano. He also acts as a record producer for his own recordings and occasionally for other artists. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards.
When Van der Graaf Generator broke up again in August 1972, Hammill resumed his solo career. Songs that were intended for Van der Graaf Generator now ended up on his solo albums, notably "Black Room" (on Chameleon in the Shadow of the Night) and "A Louse Is Not a Home" (on The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage). This makes it difficult to separate Hammill's solo work during the 1970s from his work with the band. For the majority of both his solo songs and the band's songs he is credited as the sole songwriter, and some of his solo albums feature all the members of Van der Graaf Generator. In general, Hammill's solo work is thematically concerned with more personal matters, while the band's songs deal with broader themes.
Peter Hammill on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
Van De Graff Generation on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS
The Mothers of Invention were an American rock band from California that served as the backing musicians for Frank Zappa. Their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Originally an R&B band called The Soul Giants, the band's original lineup included Ray Collins, David Coronado, Ray Hunt, Roy Estrada and Jimmy Carl Black. Zappa was asked to take over as the guitarist following a fight between Collins and Coronado, the band's original saxophonist/leader. Zappa insisted that they perform his original material, changing their name on Mothers Day to The Mothers. After record executives objected to the name it was changed. Zappa later said "out of necessity, we became The Mothers of Invention."After early struggles the Mothers earned substantial popular commercial success. Originally formed in 1964, the band first became popular playing in California's underground music scene in the late 1960s. Under Zappa's helm, it was signed to jazz label Verve Records as part of the label's diversification plans. Verve released the Mothers of Invention's debut album Freak Out! in 1966, featuring a lineup including Zappa, Collins, Black, Estrada and Elliot Ingber. Don Preston joined the band soon after.
Frank Zappa on URBAN ASPIRINES HERE
