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Johnette Napolitano
Johnette Napolitano (born Jonette L. Napolitano; September 22, 1957) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde. Early life Johnette Napolitano was born and raised in Los Angeles, the eldest of five children in an Italian Americans, Italian American family. Her parents recognized their daughter possessed musical talent when, as a child, she was able to play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on piano by ear. Her mother loved show tunes. The family also listened to Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, and the Rat Pack. At age five she enrolled in a gifted kids art program at UCLA. Concrete Blonde In 1986, Napolitano co-founded Concrete Blonde with guitarist James Mankey. She sang and sometimes played bass guitar. The pair had worked together under a variety of names since 1982. They released seven studio albums between 1986 and 2004, and one additional album as a collaboration with Los Illegals. Concrete B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, cultural center of Southern California. With an estimated 3,878,704 residents within the city limits , it is the List of United States cities by population, second-most populous in the United States, behind only New York City. Los Angeles has an Ethnic groups in Los Angeles, ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of a Metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan area of 12.9 million people (2024). Greater Los Angeles, a combined statistical area that includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas, is a sprawling metropolis of over 18.5 million residents. The majority of the city proper lies in Los Angeles Basin, a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
God Is A Bullet (song)
"God Is a Bullet" is a song from American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde, which was released in 1989 as the lead single from their second studio album, '' Free''. The song was written and produced by the band. "God Is a Bullet" reached number 15 on the US '' Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart. Background Concrete Blonde were inspired to write an anti-gun song after witnessing shootings and other gun-related incidents first-hand as residents of Los Angeles. The song was written around 1987. Napolitano told '' The Ottawa Citizen'' in 1989, "This country has seen too many John Wayne movies. We were rehearsing one day and someone shot all the windows out of my car. Another day I was driving down the street to park it and I saw someone pull a gun on a guy. I had to keep on driving with my head under the dash hoping that he wouldn't come after me because I saw him do it. You hear guns going off all the time. We've become used to it in L.A. which means it's out of hand." Music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Moreland
Marc Moreland (January 8, 1958 – March 13, 2002) was an American rock musician. He was the former guitarist for rock band Wall of Voodoo, punk band the Skulls, and rock bands Pretty and Twisted and Department of Crooks. He also released a solo album under the name Marc Moreland Mess. Early life Moreland grew up in West Covina, California, and was a student at Raymond Pre-School, Vine Elementary School, Hollencrest Intermediate School, West Covina High School and Coronado High School. In the mid-1970s, Moreland was in Cpt. Cosmos de Venus and the Sky People—a metal/glam hybrid. From 1977 to the early '80s, Moreland played guitar in one of the earliest American punk bands, the Skulls. He wrote some of the band's earliest songs, including "Victims" and "Babies". Wall of Voodoo Moreland was a founding member of Wall of Voodoo, which had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, an unsuccessful film score business started by vocalist-keyboardist-harmonica player Stan Ridgway. Acme So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wall Of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California who were active from 1977 until disbanding in 1989. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single " Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV and alternative radio. The band was known for surrealist lyrics drawing on iconography of the American Southwest. History Formation Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, a film score business started by Stan Ridgway, later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks' office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene. Marc Moreland, guitarist for the Skulls, began jamming with Ridgway at the Acme Soundtracks office and the soundtrack company morphed into a new wave band. In 1977, with the addition of Skulls members Bruce Moreland (Marc Moreland's brother) as bassist and Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holly Vincent
''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody Dioecy, dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The type species is ''Ilex aquifolium'', the common European holly used in Christmas decorations and cards. Description The genus is widespread throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of the world. It includes species of trees, shrubs, and climbers, with evergreen or deciduous foliage and inconspicuous flowers. Its range was more extended in the Tertiary period and many species are adapted to laurel forest habitats. It occurs from sea level to more than with high mountain species. It is a genus of small, evergreen trees with smooth, glabrous, or pubescent branchlets. The plants are generally slow-growing with some species ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dream 6 (EP)
''Dream 6'' is an extended play by American rock band Dream 6 (who later achieved fame as Concrete Blonde), released by Happy Hermit Co. in 1983. Background ''Dream 6'' was recorded at the independent recording studio Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles in 1983. Singer and bassist Johnette Napolitano and guitarist James Mankey first formed a band together named the Dreamers in 1982, who became known as the L.A. Dreamers shortly after. In 1983, Napolitano and Mankey booked themselves into Gold Star Studios and invited drummer Michael Murphy to record with them. The resulting EP and trio were named Dream 6 as there were six songs chosen for the EP. In 2003, Napolitano recalled of the sessions, "We slammed out the songs, but didn't have enough time to mix them all... but used the rough mixes anyway." ''Dream 6'' gained a positive critical response and brought the band to the attention of a number of major labels, including Elektra. Napolitano and Mankey, along with drummer Harry Ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to which Blackwell was inducted in 2001, he is "the single person most responsible for turning the world on to reggae music." '' Variety'' describes him as "indisputably one of the greatest record executives in history." Having formed Island Records in Jamaica on 22 May 1959 when he was nearly 22, Blackwell was among the first to record the Jamaican popular music that eventually became known as ska. Returning to Britain in 1962, he sold records from the back of his car to the Jamaican community. His label became "a byword for uncompromised artistry and era-shaping acts." Backed by Stanley Borden from RKO, Blackwell's business and reach grew substantially, and he went on to forge the careers of Bob Marley, Grace Jones and U2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France (known as Vertigo France until 2014). Current key people include Imran Majid and Justin Eshak who were named co-CEOs of Island Records in 2021. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels. History Rise of the brand Island Records was founded in Jamaica on 4 July 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong, and financed by Stanley Borden from RK ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Weller
John William Weller (born 25 May 1958), better known as Paul Weller, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame in the late 1970s as the guitarist and principal singer and songwriter of the rock band the Jam, alongside Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. The band gained significant critical and commercial success in the United Kingdom, and were the most influential band of the mod revival of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Following the dissolution of the Jam at the end of 1982, Weller formed the Style Council with Mick Talbot, where he explored a wide variety of other musical styles, including pop, jazz, soul, hip hop, folk and classical. Although initially successful, the band's popularity declined in the late 1980s, leading them to break up in 1989. Weller began a solo career in the early 1990s, slowly re-establishing his commercial standing across his first four solo albums, ''Paul Weller (album), Paul Weller'' (1992), ''Wild Wood'' (1993), ''Stanley Road' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, and sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Princess of Asturias Awards, Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. In 2023, ''Rolling Stone'' named Cohen the 103rd-greatest singer. Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1966. His first album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' (1967), was followed by three more albums of Contemporary folk music, fol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
