Showing 1 - 25 of 165
Artist: Scraping for Change
Artist: Virginia's Scrapings
Artist: Scraping Foetus off the Wheel
Artist: Janet Jackson
Few celebrity siblings can emerge from the shadows of their already famous relations to become superstars in their own right and with their own distinct personalities. That's exactly what Janet Jackson did in becoming one of the biggest female pop and R&B stars of the '80s and '90s. Since her breakthrough in 1986 with the album Control,... [+] Read More
Artist: The Ecotones
Scraping, plucking and tinkling since I first got a guitar in 1967 [+] Read More
Artist: Def Leppard
Def Leppard, in many ways, was the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder, and were more dangerous, than the Sheffield quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well. Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the group actually owed more to the glam... [+] Read More
Artist: Arctic Monkeys
Citing influences such as the Jam, the Clash, and the Smiths, Arctic Monkeys create a vibrant punk-inspired sound well suited for Britpop and alternative rock fans alike. Alex Turner (vocals/guitar), Jamie Cook (guitar), Andy Nicholson (bass), and Matt Helders (drums) formed Arctic Monkeys in Sheffield, England, in 2003. A year prior, Turner and... [+] Read More
Artist: Starz
Starz were a mid-'70s pop-metal band consisting of lead singer Michael Lee Smith (brother of Rex Smith), guitarists Richie Ranno and Brenden Harkin, bassist Peter Sweval, and drummer Joe X. Dube. They had several singles scrape the bottom ranges of the chart. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [+] Read More
Artist: Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign
Carl Davis, better known for his collaborations with Tyrone Davis, was this Chicago band's producer. Guitarist Lloyd Thomas, keyboardists Michael Woods and George Dennie, bassist Lester Johnson, and drummer Dwayne Gavin backed vocalists Pamela Tanner and Tony Roberts. But all this didn't lead to anything musically consistent or long-lasting.... [+] Read More
Artist: Smalltown Superstar
Smalltown Superstar has been scraped together from the leavings of a lot of great indie bands like Alter-natives, Holy Rollers, Kepon, King Sour, and Mao Tse Helen. Vocalist Carolyn Amy brings the whole crew together to create the gurgling punky math rock that is evident on their debut album for Porcelain Productions, Lanes 23 and 24. ~ Stacia... [+] Read More
Artist: Michael W. Smith
Michael Whitaker Smith has become one of the most enduringly popular artists on the Christian Contemporary Music front and is also finding considerable success as a mainstream artist. He was born in Kenova, West Virginia, the son of an oil refinery worker and a caterer. He became a devout Christian at age ten and spent his teens hanging around... [+] Read More
Artist: Freddie King
Guitarist Freddie King rode to fame in the early '60s with a spate of catchy instrumentals which became instant bandstand fodder for fellow bluesmen and white rock bands alike. Employing a more down-home (thumb and finger picks) approach to the B.B. King single-string style of playing, King enjoyed success on a variety of different record... [+] Read More
Artist: Air Supply
With their heavily orchestrated, sweet ballads, the Australian soft rock group Air Supply became a staple of early-'80s radio, scoring a string of seven straight Top Five singles. Air Supply, for most intents and purposes, was the duo of vocalists Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell; other members came through the group over the years, yet they... [+] Read More
Artist: Shar
An experimental trio founded in Luzern, Switzerland, Shar was put together in the summer of 1999 by Judy Dunaway, Ilja Komarov, and Trixa Arnold. At the center of the band was Dunaway, whose compositions for balloons had earned her some renown. It is her eerie, plastic scraping that gives the unit its distinctly sharp and dissonant sound.... [+] Read More
Artist: The Makeshift Conspiracy
After the break-up of the unknown punk troupe Red in Reverse, members would move on to form the all-female three-piece the Makeshift Conspiracy. Following their start in early 1997, Paroxysm Records released their debut EP on a split album with fellow Southern Californians Sarcastic Bitch. Compared to the likes of the Pixies with an added... [+] Read More
Artist: Big Circo
A.B. Quintanilla's hip-hop/ traditional Mexican fusion project Big Circo debuted with the release of Yo No Fui. Led by singer/songwriter and accordionist Big Boy, who was previously working for popular norteño act Big Circo, comprises different characters: Fantasma ("Phantom"), Mini-Mosca ("Little Fly"), Joker, Diablito ("Little Devil"),... [+] Read More
Artist: Tommy Tutone
Tommy Tutone were an early-'80s power pop band led by vocalist Tommy Heath and guitarist Jim Keller. The group's first single, 1980's "Angel Say No," scraped the bottom of the American Top 40, yet it was 1981's "867-5309/Jenny" that sent the group to the top of the charts. Peaking in early 1982, the single hit number four and went gold. Tommy... [+] Read More
Artist: The Beach Boys
Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America's pre-eminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the overarching success of the Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. From their 1961 debut with the regional hit "Surfin,"... [+] Read More
Artist: Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer (born Gerard Sayer) had a string of highly polished mainstream pop hits in the late '70s. Sayer began his musical career as the leader of the London-based Terraplane Blues Band in the late '60s. He formed Patches with drummer Dave Courtney in 1971; Courtney used to play with British pop star Adam Faith. Faith was beginning a management... [+] Read More
Artist: The Ramones
The Ramones are the first punk rock band. Other bands, such as the Stooges and the New York Dolls, came before them and set the stage and aesthetic for punk, and bands that immediately followed, such as the Sex Pistols, made the latent violence of the music more explicit, but the Ramones crystallized the musical ideals of the genre. By cutting... [+] Read More
Artist: Manchild
Manchild paid their dues in local clubs for most of the early and mid-'70s, before they were signed by the Chi-Sound label in 1977. Their funk and soul sound seemed to finally find a niche, but they couldn't pump their music through the din of the disco era, only scraping the charts with "Especially for You" that year. The label stuck with them... [+] Read More
Artist: Mick Jagger
As the lead singer for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger is one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll. Jagger fronted the Rolling Stones for over 20 years before he began a solo career in 1985. At the time of the release of his debut solo album, She's the Boss, it appeared that the Stones may have been... [+] Read More
Artist: Mario Winans
The most visible Winans family member outside the world of gospel, Mario Winans gravitated toward percussion at an early age and eventually learned piano. Immediately after graduating from high school, he began a production career. In addition to working on several family-related recordings, Winans piled up credits for other gospel artists,... [+] Read More
Artist: Jackie-O Motherfucker
Portland, Oregon-based improvisational weirdos Jackie-O Motherfucker filtered numerous musical genres (avant-garde, electronic music, folk, country, world music, spirituals, etc.) through their noisy, psychedelic scrape and grind. Formed by core members Tom Greenwood and Jef Brown, who both contribute to the band on a variety of instruments,... [+] Read More
Artist: Naked Eyes
A key presence in the synth pop movement of the early '80s, the new romantic duo Naked Eyes formed in Britain in 1981. Comprised of former schoolmates Pete Byrne (vocals) and Rob Fisher (keyboards), Naked Eyes debuted in March 1983 with the LP Burning Bridges, reissued in the U.S. a month later (minus several tracks) as a self-titled effort. The... [+] Read More
