+44 (band)

+44 (pronounced "Plus Forty Four", also known as (+44) and Plus 44) is a pop punk band formed by former Blink-182 members Mark Hoppus (bass guitar and vocals) and Travis Barker (drums and keyboards). The group consists of former Transplants touring guitarist Craig Fairbaugh and the lead guitarist of The Nervous Return, Shane Gallagher. The band name refers to the international dialing code of the United Kingdom, the country where Hoppus and Barker first discussed the project.

Muse

In Greek mythology, the Muses (Greek Μοῦσαι, Mousai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- "think") are a sisterhood of goddesses or spirits, their number set at nine by Classical times, who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music, and dance. They were water nymphs, associated with the springs of Helicon and with Pieris, from which they are sometimes called the Pierides. The Olympian system set Apollo as their leader, Apollon Mousagetēs. Not only are the Muses explicitly used in modern English to refer to an inspiration, as when one cites his/her own artistic muse, but they are also implicit in the words "amuse" or "musing upon".
According to Hesiod's Theogony (seventh century BC), they are the daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. For Alcman and Mimnermus, they were even more primordial, springing from Uranus and Gaia. Pausanias records a tradition of two generations of Muses; the first being daughters of Uranus and Gaia, the second of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Another, rarer genealogy is that they are daughters of Harmonia (the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares) which contradicts the myth in which they were dancing at the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmus.
Compare the Roman inspiring nymphs of springs, the Camenae, the Völva of Norse Mythology and also the apsarasa in the culture of classical India.

Bad Religion

Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Southern California in 1980 by Jay Bentley (bass), Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett Gurewitz (guitars) and Jay Ziskrout (drums). They are often credited for leading the revival of punk rock during the late 1980s, as well as influencing a large number of other punk and rock musicians throughout their career. In the 28 years since its inception, Bad Religion has had numerous lineup changes, and Graffin has been the only constant member.
To date, Bad Religion has released fourteen studio albums, two EPs, three compilation albums, one live recording, and two DVDs. Their 1988 album Suffer has been regarded by some critics as one of the most important hardcore punk albums of all time,[1] although it was not charted in Billboard. Bad Religion rose to fame with their 1994 major-label release Stranger Than Fiction, which produced their well-known hit singles "21st Century (Digital Boy)" and "Infected". When Gurewitz left the band in 1994, Bad Religion declined in popularity and poor record sales continued until the release of The New America in 2000. Gurewitz returned to the fold in 2001 and contributed to the band's last three albums.
They are particularly known for their sophisticated use of style, metaphor, vocabulary, imagery, and vocal harmonies (the oozin' aahs), whether reflective on matters of personal feelings or of personal or social responsibility.

My Chemical Romance

My Chemical Romance (often shortened to MCR or My Chem is an American rock quintet that formed in 2001. The current members of the band are Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Frank Iero, Ray Toro and Bob Bryar. Shortly after forming, the band signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major label debut Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in 2004. The album was a major commercial success, selling over one million copies due in part to the success of the singles "Helena", "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", and "The Ghost of You". The band followed this success with 2006's The Black Parade, featuring their hit singles, "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You" and "Teenagers". The band also recently filmed a live DVD in Mexico City, which is due for release in early 2008.

Good Charlotte

Good Charlotte is an American Rock/Pop punk band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. They took their name from a children's book called Good Charlotte: The Girls of Good Day Orphanage by Carol Beach York, and have released four albums in total, most notably 2002's multi-platinum seller The Young and the Hopeless, which spawned the singles, "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", "The Anthem", and "Girls & Boys". Their newest album, Good Morning Revival, was released on March 19, 2007 in Europe and on March 27, 2007 in the North America. The band is fronted by identical twin brothers Joel (lead vocals) and Benji Madden (lead guitar and backing vocals). Other members of the band include Billy Martin (rhythm guitar and keyboards), Paul Thomas (bass guitar) and Dean Butterworth (drums and percussion)

Blink 182

Blink 182 was an American trio that played pop punk[1][2][3] and punk rock[4][5] music. The band was originally formed in 1992 in Poway, California[6] (a northern suburb of San Diego) by Tom DeLonge (vocals and guitar) and Mark Hoppus (bass and vocals)[7] who quickly recruited Scott Raynor (drums). Originally, the band's official name was "Blink" with the numerical three digit suffix being appended early in their career following an objection from an Irish band with the same name. In 1998, midway through a U.S. tour, Raynor announced that he was leaving the band, due to undisclosed reasons. Drummer Travis Barker, who was touring with The Aquabats on the same bill as Blink-182, joined the band permanently. DeLonge left the group in early 2005, with the band portraying it as an "indefinite hiatus". DeLonge went on to play alternative rock in a band called Angels & Airwaves, while Hoppus and Barker continued in a similar genre with their band +44.
Blink-182 were known for their catchy, simple melodies, teen angst and lyrical toilet humor. Songwriters Hoppus and DeLonge cite punk rock bands such as NOFX, The Descendents, Unwritten Law, and Screeching Weasel[8] as their early influences although the band's songwriting and production was driven by a pop sensibility and they were primarily known for popular hits such as "All the Small Things", "Feeling This", "Adam's Song", "What's My Age Again", "The Rock Show", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "Stay Together for the Kids

Green Day

Green Day is an American rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of three core members: Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, lead vocals), Mike Dirnt (Back-up vocals, bass), and Tré Cool (drums).
Green Day, often misspelled as Greenday, was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Its early releases for independent label Lookout! Records earned them a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label.Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie became a breakout success in 1994 and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone. As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.Green Day's three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum and gold status respectively.Its 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling 5 million copies in the U.S.
The band has sold over 65 million records worldwide, including 22 million in the United States alone. They also have three Grammy Awards, Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, and Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".

Chris Cornell

Cornell was born on July 20, 1964 in Seattle, Washington and lived there in his childhood and attended Shorewood High School (Washington). His parents are Ed Boyle (a pharmacist from an Irish Catholic background) and Karen Cornell (an accountant from a Jewish background).[1] He has two older brothers Peter and Patrick, and three younger sisters, Katy, Suzy, and Maggie. Peter, Katy and Suzy formed the band Inflatable Soule, a moderately popular band in Seattle during the 1990s. Peter Cornell is now in the band Black Market Radio, which released their debut album entitled Suicide Parlour in 2006. Cornell and his siblings took his mother's maiden name after his parents divorced.
Cornell mentions on the Audioslave – Live in Cuba DVD documentary that he spent a two-year period between the ages of nine and eleven solidly listening to The Beatles after finding a large collection of Beatles records abandoned in the basement of a house. He then suffered from a severe case of depression during his teenage years, rarely leaving the house. At one point, he spent a whole year of his life without leaving his house, during which time he would spend his time drinking, playing drums and guitar.[citation needed] Before becoming a successful musician, he worked at a seafood wholesaler and was a sous chef at a restaurant named Ray's Boathouse.
He is currently married to Vicky Karayiannis, a Paris-based publicist, and was previously married to Susan Silver, the manager of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. He had a daughter with Silver, Lillian Jean, in June 2000. He and Silver divorced in 2001 and he remarried in 2003 to Karayiannis. She gave birth to his second daughter, Toni, in September 2004, and their second and his third child, Christopher Nicholas, in December 2005.

PEARL JAM

Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has consisted of Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guitar), Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), and Mike McCready (lead guitar). The band's current drummer is Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden, who has been with the band since 1998.
Formed after the demise of Ament and Gossard's previous band Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream with its debut album Ten. One of the key bands of the grunge movement in the early 1990s, Pearl Jam was nevertheless criticized early on as being a corporate cash-in on the alternative rock explosion. However, its members became noted for their refusal to adhere to traditional music industry practices as their career progressed, including refusing to make music videos and engaging in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster. Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame."
Since its inception, the band has sold 30 million records in the U.S.,and an estimated 60 million albums worldwide.Pearl Jam has outlasted many of its contemporaries from the alternative rock breakthrough of the early 1990s, and is considered one of the most influential bands of the decade, and "the most popular American rock band of the 1990s".Pearl Jam continues to generate hit albums, tour successfully, and garner critical acclaim into the 21st century

ALICE IN CHAINS

After a long hiatus the members of ALICE IN CHAINS have decided to honor their musical legacy by taking their beloved songs to the road this spring/summer (2006). JERRY CANTRELL, MIKE INEZ and SEAN KINNEY will be joined by WILLIAM DUVALL, who will handle lead vocals for the group's five U.S. club shows and overseas festival performances in Europe and Southeast Asia.
CANTRELL says, "We're gonna take it like we always did, and we've always kind of made it up as we've gone along. If you were looking at how to really capitalize on this experience and really make dough and make it a profitable thing, a band might, you know come out with a singer, have a record ready and all that. But that's not where we're coming from with this thing. We're coming from the place of 'It feels good, and we're having a good time, so we'd like people to be a part of that.'" KINNEY told Reuters, "We're not trying to replace Layne…We want to play these songs one more time, and if it seems like the right thing to do, it'll happen. I don't know how long it will go or where it will take us. It's kind of a tribute to Layne and our fans, the people who love these songs."
The ALICE IN CHAINS legacy dates back to 1987 when the tight-knit group began a riotous ride that saw them escorted from their illegal rehearsal space by Seattle's finest to a 1989 record deal with Columbia Records. Their instantly recognizable brand of dark, moody rock would become a signature sound and a major influence on later rock bands.
ALICE IN CHAINS released their debut EP WE DIE YOUNG (July 1990) and the title track went on to be their first of many rock radio hits. The platinum-certified FACELIFT followed in August of 1990 and the video for the grinding hit "Man in the Box" went into regular rotation on MTV. In 1992 ALICE IN CHAINS began recording DIRT with Dave Jerden again producing. DIRT--which debuted at #6 on the Billboard charts in September 1992 and went platinum in less than two months--was their darkest release to that point with a heavy, guitar-driven sound and lyrics exploring a sense of alienation and addiction. 1992 also saw the release of SAP--a five-song acoustic EP. But it was Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles, about the lives of 20-somethings in Seattle that transformed the song "Would?" into an anthem for the brooding angst of Generation X. While the band was touring to promote DIRT, MIKE STARR left the group to be replaced by former Ozzy Osbourne bassist MIKE INEZ. In 1993, Alice in Chains' first collaboration with INEZ was two tracks ("What the Hell Have I" and "A Little Bitter") for the Last Action Hero soundtrack. JAR OF FLIES — released in January 1994 — marked a return to more mellow acoustic arrangements, punctuated by Cantrell's signature electric guitar riffs and Staley's bracing vocal intensity. It would be the first EP in Billboard chart history to debut at #1. A year later the band released ALICE IN CHAINS which also debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts and launched a handful of hard rock singles that would cement the band’s place in the pantheon of metal legends.
Over the next few years, CANTREll, KINNEY and INEZ would go onto different projects including CANTRELL's Degradation Trip (his sophomore solo album) which was dedicated to STALEY. The 25-song double album was a stunning emotional tour-de-force, written before STALEY’s passing but often cited for the prophetic mournfulness of its lyrics. After the 2002 death of LAYNE STALEY, the members of ALICE IN CHAINS continued on with their projects until a 2005 benefit in Seattle. Overwhelmed by the Tsunami, they were moved to put together a charity show for CARE. It was the first time the band performed together in eight years. Five months later, KINNEY posed the question, "Should we go round the world and play these songs one more time." Their March 2006 performance on the "VH1 Decades Rock Live" tribute to Heart in Atlantic City confirmed that their fans still wanted to hear them live. This year, JERRY CANTRELL, SEAN KINNEY and MIKE INEZ are thrilled to be reunited and returning to the music they created and the legacy that is ALICE IN CHAINS. They are also looking forward to 2006 as a watershed moment for all of them and a chance to move into the future with the project that has meant so much to all of them.