Word: bande
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Just as the music accompanying Austin Powers as he dances around London suits his style, so too does the new album Peach Head fit a certain style. Only the style is "life in the slow lane." The album comes from Natural Calamity, a band The Japan Times calls "Tokyo's best-kept secret." The record brings guest vocalist Stephanie Heasley together with the original members of Natural Calamity, Shunji Mori and Kuni Sugimoto. The result is a "peachy" sounding record with some great moments, but some listeners may find the peach a little too soft...
...Halloween at the Paradise Rock Club, and the Cardigans had found a new costume: a mask of hissing, buzzing electronica over the Swedish band's familiar retro pop face. The catchy pop melodies still lurked behind this sizzling new facade, to be sure, but the Cardigans' fans--hip, Eurotrash 20-somethings--had to grapple with a whole new persona...
...back room at the club, I chatted before the concert with the bassist/lyricist for the band, Magnus Sveningsson, and the guitarist/keyboardist, Lasse Johansson, about this massive reversal on their new album, Gran Turismo. Tall, with gelled-back hair and an intelligent worker's face, Svenningsson explained, "We and Tore [the producer] sat down, and we wanted something new. We even thought about changing producers, but [Johansson] felt the same way: the Cardigans' sound was a bit dull....So we bought a big computer and made this album." If the brave new Cardigans struggled at certain points, as when the electronics...
Still, though the crowd treated the night like a wild masquerade ball, flaunting everything from glam, flamboyant goth-wear to afro-wigged funk getups to the occasional microchip clean room bodysuit, the band seemed bewildered, even a little subdued. Though winsome Emm Gryer, who opened the concert with a derivative, folky set, seemed entirely in her element with the crowd, the Cardigans were adorably incongruous in their neat, Eurotrash sweaters and sleek leather pants. In fact, as singer Nina Persson revealed during the performance, their native Sweden observes Halloween not as a night of costumed revelry, but as a solemn...
...fact, though the Cardigans spun webs of retro romantic pop on their previous albums, this hard core was always there, beneath the sweet melodies; both Peter Svensson, lead guitarist and songwriter, and Sveningsson played in heavy metal bands before forming the Cardigans. Sveningsson explained: "We wanted to become a pop band; [Peter and I] played in individual hard rock bands back in the '80s. We met because we needed someone new to play with. Peter is still in that scene, but I have found other things to listen to." Keyboardist Johansson had a more pithy account of new, harder Cardigans...