The Happy Hollows - "High Wire"

Not exactly a great video... but the song is awesome.

Cruxshadows - Winter Born (The Sacrifice)

Awesome song... watch and enjoy.

Amorphis

Check out this video, a friend sent it to me, and I like it alot, so I figured I would share it with you.

VNV Nation - Camie's Perspective

My introduction to VNV Nation:

VNV Nation came into my life towards the end of my freshman year of college (approximately 4 years ago) when a few of my newly acquired college friends took me to a club in Boston called Man Ray. It was my first real introduction to any sort of “Goth” scene and the best club that the area has had IMHO.

A friend of mine at the time, we will call him V for anonymities sake, got very excited to see a flyer hanging saying that VNV Nation was going to be doing a CD release party at the aforementioned location (the length of time from the date we were there escapes me at the current moment, however that’s neither here nor there). I asked him what it was that got him so excited, mind you this was news to me as V always kept a very level head about everything so seeing him any other state than stoic had taken me aback, he then turned slowly and asked me if I had really never heard of them before, I gave a curt nod in response and V was quickly off to the DJ’s Booth to put in a request. I can’t for the life of me even remember which song of theirs it was he had them play, I simply know that I have been hooked since. We went back to the dorms that night and before heading to sleep he gave me a copy of a burnt CD with their music on it and the rest is history.

That was my introduction to VNV Nation, if you haven’t heard of them, I hope that my humble introduction of them and explanation of their style of music will get you interested enough to go listen, and if you have well I hope you find this informative, I know I did. :)

The Basics!

VNV Nation (www.vnvnation.com)
Origin: London England
Current Base Location: Hamburg
Years of existence: 1990 to the Current
Labels (yes more than one): Anachron, Dependant, Discordia, Energy, Metropolis, Off-Beat, SubSpace, and Wax Trax!/TVT

Band Info:

The band members, Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson (they include 2 key boardists for their live shows), list their music as a blend of trance and synthpop, and say some of their earlier influences come from the electronic industrial music style. The VNV in the bands name stands for “Victory not Vengeance” which is their own reminder of their personal motto “One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret”

Ronan Harris (aged 42 years, D.O.B. 6/14/1966) along with being credited with being responsible for the lyrics, music, and vocals of the bands music also used to be a journalist and spent some time as the webmaster for a magazine called Side-line. Along with beginning his own solo project in 2006, Modcom, Harris has recently attributed to A.F.I.’s Decemberunderground Album, and has also performed vocally with the band Bruderschaft on their Forever EP. 1990 Harris made the move from Dublin, Ireland to London, England forming VNV Nation later that year. Currently Harris is performing DJ sets in Germany as well as in the U.S..

Mark Jackson (aged 28 years, D.O.B. 5/10/1970) is credited with the percussion. electronic drums, and live keyboards for the bands live shows. Jackson joined VNV Nation in 1994 (Harris had just returned from touring with the band Nitzer Ebb). Jackson, a well established professional Club DJ, was born in Essex, England. Before working in the music industry Jackson was a computer programmer and designers with such companies as CompuServe, MSN and Microsoft. He is currently living in the south of France, keeping up with his hobby and pet collection of tarantulas, running a T-Shirt company that specializes in merchandise for current industrial bands.

Albums:
I am only going to list the studio release albums as the band has been around for 18 years there are lots of EPs and Singles and Self releases, keeping this to base knowledge for an introduction listing those seems a bit over the top. However, if that information is desired I will gladly point you in the right direction. :)

Advance and Follow (1995): Energy Rekords

Praise the Fallen (1998): Energy Rekords, Off Beat Records, re-released 1999 Wax Trax!/TVT Records, second re-release 2000 Metropolis Records

Empires (1999): Dependant Records, Energy Rekords, Metropolis Records, re-released 2000 Metropolis Records

Futureperfect (2002): Dependant Records, Energy Rekords, Metropolis Records

Matter + Form (2005): Anachron Sounds, Metropolis Records, SubSpace Communications

Judgement (2007): Anachron Sounds (released the promo, the regular CD, and the enhanced CD), Metropolis Records (released the regular CD only), SubSpace Communicatons (Released the promo CD and the regular CD)

Lemmy IS God - An Assessment of Motorhead

Band of the Day: Motorhead
City of Origin: London England
Years in existence: 1975- Current
Labels: Sanctuary, SPV, Epic, GWR, Bronze
Website: www.imotorhead.com

Current Members: Ian Fraser Kimiste: a.k.a. Lemmy, Lemmy Kilmister, Ian Willis, and Lemmy von MotorHead
Phil Campbell
Michael Kiriakos Delaouglou: a.k.a. Mikkey Dee

Former Members: Larry Wallis
Edward Clarke: a.k.a Fast Eddie
Brian Robertson
Michael Burston: a.k.a. Wurzel
Lucas Fox
Phil Taylor: a.k.a. Philthy Animal
Pete Gill
Tommy Aldridge

The bands original name was "Bastard" but after some persuasion from the manager Lemmy decided to change the name to "Motorhead", which was inspired by the last song Lemmy wrote for "Hawkwind", a band he was fired from in 1975 for drug use. The name of the song was simply "Motorhead" which was derived from a slang for a person who is an amphetamine user, the drug itself of course being the subject of the song.

The Bands original line up included Larry Wallis on electric guitar and Lucas Fox on drums, they played their first gig on July 20th the year the band was formed. OPver the course of the next year the band begna to tour with "Blue Oyster Cult" and record at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth under Untied Artist, it was during this time that Philthy Animal replaced Lucas Fox, as Fox had become unreliable. The album "On Parole" however was not released until 1979 after the band had already gained some success as the label was not pleased with the bands recorded material.

It was around this time that the idea that the band needed two lead guitarist emerged and auditions began for a fourth member to the band, however it was during this time that Wallis quit. This lead to "Fast" Eddie Clarks induction to the band, and the birth of what is regarded as the "Classic Motorhead" line up.

Their first released album was "Motorhead" which debuted in 1977 and reached number 43 on the UK Albums Chart. This lead to their signing with Bronze Records a year later and their time at Wessex Studios to record a few singles. It was these sessions that resulted in the song "Louie Louie", the song which earned the band their first trip to the BBC's show "Top of the Pops", their preformance was recorded and then aired on October 25th of 1978.

The success of "Louie Louie" and the popularity of the bands preformance on "Top of the Pops" gave Bronze Records enough faith to bring the band back in for studio time and record more of a formal album. No more than 6 months later on March 9th, 1979 the band was back on T.o.t.P performing "Overkill" as a teaser of the release of the album. The band took off from their and things kept rolling for the band.

Between studio time and singles being released over the next year the band kept busy and in the public eye. However it was during recording sessions at the Jackson's Studios that the bands real kick into stardom was recorded. From these sessions came the "Ace of Spades" album, and the single was released on October 27th, 1980. To celebrate the albums gold status Bronze Records pressed a limited edition copy of the album on gold vinyl, and the band begain on the "Up Your Sleeve" Tour.

The band kept busy over the next few years with more hit releases like the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" Ep and a live version of the song "Motorhead" a few more appareances on T.o.t.P. and also some time spent as guests with the band "Blizzard of Ozz" an early form of Ozzy's band. "Iron Fist" was the last album release of the "Classic Motorhead" line up, Clarke left the band after the last performance of on their US Tour on May 14th after playing at the New York Palladium. Clarke left due to his feelings that the band's cover of "Stand by your Man" compromised the bands principles.

It was then that Brian Robertson joined the band, only lasting until the bands gig at the Berlin Metropol on November 11th 1983. The band then picked up the previous idea of having 2 lead guitarists and hired Wurzel and Phil Campbell, both unknown musicians at the time. The Four person line up of Motorhead then re-recorded "Ace of Spades" for an episode of the television series "The Young Ones". It was after filming and recording scenes for the episode which mimiced a scene from the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" that Taylor quit. Campbell brought up a drummer he knew and Pete Gill was signed into the band.

Bronze Records, being dissatisfied with the current line up of the band decided to insist on the release of a compilation album, the b-sides of which consisted of 6 new songs, but however kept the band and the record studio in and out of court for two years. The band claiming that the album was not getting enough proper publicity, and the court case of course caused the studio to bar the band from recording, causing the band to look to touring for their main source of income.

Leading to the bands 10 year anniversary two shows were schedualed, and a video of the second show was then released later as "The Birthday Party" and the band continued touring through late december of 1985 between Sweden, Norway and then America at the tail end of the aformentioned tour.

With the court case settled in the bands favor the management team created their own label, leading to the birth of GWR and the "Deaf Forever" album which was recorded in the Master Rock Studio in London. The band continued touring during this time.

1987 Lemmy took a leading roll in the film "Eat the Rich" during which Gill left the band, Taylor returned to do a cameo for the film and the band wrote the song "Eat the Rich" specifically for the film. On September 5th of the year the band released the album "Rock 'n' Roll" the second album to be released under the GWR label.

July 2nd 1998 the band was recorded during a performance at the Giants of Rock Festival in Finland and a album was set to be released from the recording. The band wanting the side A single to be "Traitor" but was released with "Ace of Spades" instead as an executive decision via the record label. Upset with the albums format the band pulled it and only released it during the "No sleep at all" tour or to the Motorheadbangers fan club members. This caused the band to file another law suit, bringing GWR to court, this time the case was not settled until mid 1990.

Once the case was settled the band signed on with Epic/WTG records and spent the last half of 1990 recording a new album in L.A. During which time Doug Smith, the bands former manager, released the bands 10th anniversary show much against the bands desires. At the same time the band had to fire Ed Stasium as producer when he added tambourines and claves to the music with out consulting the band. "The One to Sing the Blues" was released on January 5th 1991 on cassette and was followed by the album "1916".

The band then toured with Judas Priest and Alice Cooper in the "Operation Rock 'n' Roll" tour across the US. On March 28th 1992 Talyor played his last gig with the band at Irvine Medows in California. Ontop of loosing Taylor the band went through some managerial shifts firing Doug Banger and bringing Todd Singerman on board. The band was recording their next album during the middle of the 1992 LA Riots, three drummers played on this album, Taylor, who was fired for not learning one of the drum tracks, Tommy Aldridge, who recorded most of the music, and lastly Mikkey Dee who recorded "Hellraiser" with the band, a song that was originally written by Lemmy for Ozzy Osbourne. The "March or Die" album was released and featured Ozzy Osbourne and Slash as guests on different tracks.

Dee had previously been asked to join the band but had declined due to his involvement with the band King Diamond at the time, however after the recording of the "March or Die" album Dee was free to join the band and after an audition Dee was signed to the band and the band went back to touring and recording, playing with bands like Metallica and Guns N' Roses.

The band continued recording and tourning releasing the "Bastards" album and touring with Black Sabbath, and Morbid Angel also performing to a 50,000 person crowd in Buenos Aires with the Ramones.

In 1995 the band recorded the title track to the album "Sacrifice" which was used for the movie "Tromeo and Juliet" a movie which Lemmy narrates. The band continued a tour of Europe and perfomed through october when the band returned to the states to celebrate Lemmy's 50th birthday at Whiskey a Go Go in LA, Metallica played the event under the band name "The Lemmy's".

1996 lead to more touring with Dio and Speedball, during which the recording of the album "Overnight Sensation" happened. "Overnight Sensation" was the bands first official album release as a three piece band set since "Another Perfect Day" The band continued touring through the beginning of 1997, starting the "Overnight Sensation" tour less than a month after ending the 1996 tour. The tour saw guests which included Todd Campbell (former member Phil Campbell's son) as well as Lemmy's own son Paul Inder, both of which performed "Ace of Spades" with the band. Also Fast Eddie returned for one of the tour dates to play "Overkill".

The beginning of 1998 saw the recording and release of "Snake Bite Love". The band joined with Judas Priest and again started touring, kicking off this tour with a show in LA. A concert recorded in Hamburg was later released as the "Everything Louder than Everyone Else" album. The British leg of the tour saw fellow artists of Groop Dogdrill, Radiator, and Todd Campbell's band Psycho Squad.

May 2000 saw the relase of "We are Motorhead" and the single "God Save the Queen" and yet another tour. September of that year lead to the double disc compilation "Best of Motorhead" album and later the "25 & Alive BOneshaker" DVD. A later DVD released in 2002 showed the band in some of its earler forms and tours dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.

The band continued to tour and make music through out the early 2000's and the bands most recent release was made on August 26th of this year, the album was entitled "Motorizer". The band has also confirmed that it will be taking part in the "Metal Masters Tour" along with Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, and Testament.

Studio albums

Motorhead- 1977
Overkill- 1979
Bomber- 1979
Ace of Spades- 1980
Iron Fist- 1982
Another Perfect Day- 1983
Orgasmatron- 1986
Rock 'n' Roll- 1987
1916- 1991
March or Die- 1992
Bastards- 1993
Sacrifice- 1995
Overnight Sensation- 1996
Snake Bite Love- 1998
We are Motorhead- 2000
Hammered- 2002
Inferno- 2004
Kiss of Death- 2006
Motorizer- 2008

In closing...Motorhead still rocks and Lemmy is God....

Camie