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Bands

Social Code

Social Code (formerly Fifth Season) was a Canadian alternative rock band from St. Albert, Alberta.

Social Code was founded in 1999 by the High School Friends Travis Nesbitt (vocals) and Logan Jacobs (bass) under the name Fifth Season. David Hesse (guitar) and Andrew Patrick (drums) completed the quartet.

The first album “Patiently Waiting” was released in 2001. After the release, the band decided to change the band name to Social Code, as a band named the Fifth Season existed in Italy.

In 2003, Ben Shillabeer replaced the drummer Andrew Patrick. At the end of the same year Social Code secured their first record deal with Interscope records and published their first album “A Year at the Movies” in May 2004.

This was followed by a tour on which the band appeared as an Opener for Rise Against, Fall Out Boy, Deftones and Good Charlotte. In 2004, Chris Ruddy replaced the guitarist David Hesse. However, he was only in the band for only one year. In 2005, Morgan Gies took over as lead guitarist.

Previous experience with high profile producer Howard Benson (The All-American Rejects, Hawthorne Heights, My Chemical Romance) in Los Angeles gave the band the experience and the necessary self-confidence to create a new record on their own. They built their own recording studio in which they spent the next year to work on their second album titled Social-Code, which was released in May 2007 in Canada. The album was successful with the singles Bomb Hands, The Shortest Line, Everyday (Late November) and He Said, She Said standing out the most. Social Code toured with Sum 41 and Finger Eleven on their Strength In Numbers Tour.

On April 3, 2009, the band announced that they completed another album. This album was produced by John Travis (Kid Rock, Buckcherry) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and mixed by Mike Fraser (AC / DC, Hinder, Aerosmith). In advance, the single Satisfied was published on on iTunes. After that followed a tour of Canada. In the same year, Steve Faulkner joined the band as second guitarists.

In mid-2012, the band announced their dissolution.

I took pictures of Social Code at the Stage 13 music festival in Camrose, Alberta, Canada on July 8, 2004:

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Bands

ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American rock band that was formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. With their mix of Texas blues, blues rock, boogie, southern rock and hard rock, ZZ Top had great success, especially in the 1980s, and filled concert halls and stadiums on extensive tours. The band members since 1969 are Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. Since the late 1970s, Gibbons and Hill have been wearing the long full beards that have become the group’s trademark, appear in long trench coats and wear heavily tinted sunglasses and stetsons.

After the end of Gibbons’ band, The Moving Sidewalks, he decided in the summer of 1969 to put together a new band with which he wanted to orientate himself more towards blues and rock music. Billy Etheridge, who had played with Jimmie Vaughan, offered to play bass. In addition to Gibbons keyboardist Lanier Greig and drummer Dan Mitchell joined the original line-up of the band, which shortly thereafter renamed itself to ZZ Top.

According to Gibbons, the name pays homage to his musical role models Z. Z. Hill and B. B. King. However, the combination ZZ King made too much reference to B. B. King, so he decided on ZZ Top. Top is an equivalent to King because a king is always at the top.

A little later Greig left ZZ Top. The remaining trio made their first musical attempts on a ranch in Texas and decided a little later to put the marketing of the band in the hands of a manager. The choice fell on Bill Ham, a friend of John Mayall. Shortly thereafter, ZZ Top recorded their first single Salt Lick / Miller’s Farm at Doyles Jones Recording in Houston. Since the record deal with London Records was not yet signed, Bill Ham released the single on his record label Scat Records. The single had modest success, aired on local radio stations, and given the group appearances across Texas.

Within a short time the line-up was changed again – Dusty Hill took over the bass and Frank Beard the drums. Both had played in American Blues. In this line-up, ZZ Top first appeared on February 10, 1970 in Beaumont. In the summer of 1970, the recordings for the debut album “ZZ Top’s First Album” followed, which was officially released in January 1971.

In the months that followed, ZZ Top toured with various Texan musicians and bands such as Doug Sahm and Sunny and the Sunliners, and the group supported Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Janis Joplin. During the tour, ZZ Top wrote the songs for the second album Rio Grande Mud and recorded it during the tour breaks. The album was released in 1972 and brought ZZ Top the first listing on the Billboard 200 at number 104. The single Francine reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Due to the success, the group made their first tours as headliners. With the 1973 album Tres Hombres, ZZ Top consolidated their image as a “Texan Braggart” and landed their first hit, La Grange. Following the album, the band toured the US for several years with almost no breaks, only interrupted by the studio recordings on the B-side of the 1975 album Fandango!.

This tour marathon ended with the 1975 Worldwide Texas Tour. For this tour, ZZ Top had its own stage developed, which thematically revolved around the state of Texas. The band took around 75 tons of sound and lighting technology with them to around 100 appearances in the USA. The highlight of the show was the presentation of animals native to Texas such as buffalos, bulls and snakes on stage. With the tour, ZZ Top made about 10 million US dollars.

Outside the US, the tour did not bring the hoped-for commercial success. Band biographer Jürgen Seibold suspects that this was not insignificantly due to the fact that the animals could not be brought abroad because of the quarantine regulations.

Gibbons described the years of almost uninterrupted touring as a “grueling and horrific experience” and after the release of Teja’s next album in early 1977, the three musicians took a break.

Frank Beard retired to the Caribbean, Dusty Hill to Mexico and Billy Gibbons to Europe. During this time, the musicians maintained loose contact by telephone or fax. Gibbons and Hill grew their full beards, which later became their trademark. The complete absence from the tour and the media fueled rumors that ZZ Top had broken up. In 1979 the Warner Music Group signed ZZ Top and released Degüello.

At the beginning of 1980, ZZ Top went on tour again after a three-year break. The appearance on April 19, 1980 in the Rocknacht of the WDR is seen as the initial spark for the commercial breakthrough in Europe. The show was broadcast by numerous European channels as part of Eurovision and it was the first time that ZZ Top was shown live on European television.

The final international breakthrough came with the 1983 album Eliminator. The band combined their guitar blues with modern synthesizers on this and some of the following albums. This approach to contemporary tastes and the widely acclaimed video clips in the then still young medium of music channels such as MTV resulted in sales of several million for the album. The most successful singles were Gimme All Your Lovin’, Legs and Sharp Dressed Man. ZZ Top finally became a top international act.

1983 turned out to be the most commercially successful year in the band’s history to date. The tour for the album recorded 56 stops in the USA with around 1.5 million tickets sold, and around four million copies of the album were sold worldwide. The musicians were particularly pleased with the commercial success that began in Great Britain on 1984, as English musicians such as the Rolling Stones or Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead were among the main influences of the band.

Also in 1984, Gillette offered Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill $ 1 million each for beards shaved off for an advertising campaign. The musicians refused the offer. With the 1985 album Afterburner, ZZ Top reached the climax of their musical career. In the USA alone, around 3 million copies were sold and the album reached the top ten in numerous national hit parades.

The world tour, which began in December 1985, comprised a total of 212 appearances. The tour concluded in March 1987 in Honolulu. During the tour there were disputes between the main sponsor Miller Brewing Company and the opening act The Black Crowes, because the band saw their independence restricted by the rules of the sponsorship agreement. Just a few weeks after the tour began, this led to the support band being kicked out.

After the tour there was a three-year break, during which the band barely appeared musically. Around 1987, the band’s management took legal action against a representation in the popular adventure game Space Quest I from Sierra Entertainment, where they were shown in a space bar, because of a copyright infringement. In order to avoid a legal dispute, Sierra voluntarily removed the relevant passage.

ZZ Top made further headlines when the musicians announced in October 1987 that they had booked three seats for the first passenger flight to the moon. In 1988, ZZ Top donated $1 million to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. The participation of ZZ Top in the film Back to the Future III caused further sensation. Initially, the band was supposed to contribute a song to the film soundtrack with Doubleback and for this reason visited the filming in 1989. Director Robert Zemeckis took this opportunity and shot a scene with the three musicians in which they played doubleback on traditional instruments in a saloon.

Recycler was released in the fall of 1990, followed by a tour of North America. The special thing about the album was that there were six tips on the inside of the CD booklet that could be used to save planet earth. Although the theses should not be understood as deadly serious, the musicians have developed a basic awareness of nature conservation, which they wanted to express with these theses.

The year 1991 was dominated by the murder of the wife of the band manager Bill Ham. In 1992, after the release of the best-of album Greatest Hits, the record deal with Warner ran out. ZZ Top won a new contract with RCA Records, which was endowed with a total of around 55 million US dollars.

The next album Antenna was originally supposed to be released in early 1993, but wasn’t released until January 1994. In the mid-1990s, ZZ Top was represented with two titles in the soundtrack of the feature film From Dusk Till Dawn. After the obligatory tour, the follow-up album Rhythmeen was released in 1996.

In 1999 ZZ released Top XXX, followed by an extensive world tour that took the band to Australia and New Zealand. After the tour ended, the band went back to the studio to record Mescalero, which was finally released in 2003. Also in 2003, ZZ Top took part in the TV show Crossroads, where country musicians met artists from other genres. ZZ Top’s partner was Brooks & Dunn.

In 2004 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On the occasion of the Billboard Music Awards 2006 Billy Gibbons played the song Tush from the 1975 album Fandango! Together with Nickelback and Kid Rock.

After a long break, the next studio album La Futura was released at the end of 2012. In 2019, a British-Canadian-American documentary was made with the title That Little Ol’Band From Texas.

Since the 1970s, cars have been the second essential component of the band’s image, alongside the flair for attractive women. The first vehicle was a Ford Coupé, built in 1933, which ZZ Top had restored from the mid-1970s and converted into a hot rod. As the Eliminator Coupe, the vehicle graced the cover of Eliminator. The second vehicle that caused a stir was the Leapin’ Limo, which was first seen in the Velcro Fly music video. It was a Pontiac Streamliner “Silver Streak” from 1948, which was stretched 40 inches by a Californian tuning company. Frank Beard competed in various IMSA races from around the mid-1980s.

In addition to their cameo in Back to the Future III, the band made short appearances in various television productions. Billy Gibbons played the father of Angela Montenegro in the US TV series Bones between 2005 and 2011. ZZ Top also made a cameo on the television series Two and a Half Men. In Season 7, Episode 21 (The Grandfather Clock) they appeared twice to drugged Charlie Harper at his beach house.

ZZ Top songs have also been used in wrestling series. In 2002, Kid Rock covered the song Legs for the WWF sampler WWF Forceable Entry. Wrestler Jimmy Valiant was inspired by ZZ Top for his outfit and appeared in fights as a Boogie Woogie Man with a full beard like Hill and Gibbons.

I took pictures of ZZ Top at Stage 13 music festival in Camrose, Alberta, Canada on July 11, 2004:

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Bands

Sum 41

Sum 41 is an Alternative Metal band originally from Ajax, Ontario, Canada. The band was formed in 1996 and is currently comprised of Deryck Whibley (rhythm guitar, keyboards, lead vocals), Dave “Brownsound” Baksh (lead guitar), Jason McCaslin (bass), Tom Thacker (lead and rhythm guitar, keyboards) and Frank Zummo. (drums). In April 2013, drummer Steve Jocz announced his departure from the band. More than 10 million Sum 41 albums have been sold worldwide.

In 1999, Sum 41 signed an international record deal with Island Records. They released their debut album, All Killer No Filler in 2001, and achieved commercial success with their first single from the album, “Fat Lip“, which reached number one on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and remains the most successful single on the band to date. All Killer No Filler has been certified platinum in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The band has released seven studio albums: Does This Look Infected? (2002), Chuck (2004) Underclass Hero (2007), Screaming Bloody Murder (2011), 13 Voices (2016) and the most recent work Order In Decline (2019).

Sum 41 has been nominated seven times for the Juno Awards and has won twice (Group of the Year in 2002 and Rock Album of the Year in 2005). Sum 41 was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for the song “Blood in My Eyes”, however they lost to the Foo Fighters.

Sum 41 noted that in the beginning they were strongly influenced by NOFX. Another influence on their music were Beastie Boys especially on the album All Killer No Filler. On the other hand, hip-hop and rapcore influences were found in the singles Fat Lip and What We’re All About. Later with the album Does This Look Infected? the band commented that it had music influenced by The Offspring, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. The Chuck album offers a number of songs influenced by Metallica. More recently, Deryck expressed his fascination with the great vocal range of Queen’s Freddy Mercury. Indeed, Sum 41 sometimes performs a version of ‘We will rock you’ in their shows.

History

Sum 41 was formed by singer-songwriter Deryck Whibley and former drummer Steve “Stevo” Jocz under the name Kaspir. A year later Dave “Brownsound” Baksh joined as lead guitarist and, after playing with several bassists, they recruited Jason “Cone” McCaslin to complete the group.

The group, then Kaspir, used to cover the band NOFX. The members of the group decided to change its name for a Supernova concert on September 28, 1996, when it was then forty-one days after the beginning of summer.

In 1998 a demo was recorded on compact tape which they sent to record companies in the hope of landing a recording contract. The tapes in this demo are rare and the only known recording featuring original bassist Richard “Twitch” Roy.

From 1999 to 2000 the band recorded several new songs. The DVD’s Introduction to Destruction, Cross The T’s and Gouge Your I’s contain self-recorded footage and include a dance performance for “Makes No Difference” in front of a theater.

Sum 41 released the EP Half Hour of Power on June 27, 2000, under the Big Rig and Island labels. It reached positions 176 and 36 on the Billboard 200 and Top Heatseekers charts respectively, both in the United States. The band’s first single released was “Makes No Difference“, which features two different music videos. “Makes No Difference” was ranked 32 on the Modern Rock Tracks tally in the United States. In April 2003 Half Hour of Power was certified gold in Canada.

Sum 41’s first full-length album, All Killer No Filler, was released on May 8, 2001.7 It had a good commercial reception: it ranked in the top 50 of the major charts in Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand. In addition, it received gold disc certification in Australia, platinum in the US and UK, and triple platinum in Canada. The first single from the album was “Fat Lip“. It reached number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100, and on Modern Rock Tracks it reached number 1. A music video for “Fat Lip“, directed by Marc Klasfeld, was released on March 20, 2001. The second and Third single from the album were “In Too Deep” and “Motivation“, respectively.

In 2001, Sum 41 participated in that year’s edition of the Vans Warped Tour, so their song “Tables Have Turned” appeared on the Vans Warped Tour 2001 Compilation. By September of the same year, Sum 41 was on tour with Blink-182, but after the incidents on the 11th of that month, the last dates were canceled. Later the canceled shows were rescheduled and held in February 2002. In April of the same year the group did a tour of the United States to promote All Killer No Filler.

On November 26, 2002, the band’s second studio album, Does This Look Infected? was released.

Sum 41 released the album Chuck on October 12, 2004. The first single was We’re All to Blame. The album was named after Chuck Pelletier, a member of the United Nations peacekeepers who saved the lives of the band members and 40 other civilians while the band was filming a documentary about the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo called Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo.

The band released a live album shortly before Dave’s retirement, which they titled Go Chuck Yourself. This disc is the recording of a show in Ontario during the tour of the same name. During these years, the band began a stage of “maturity“, with the lyrics touching politics, and Deryck marrying the Canadian singer Avril Lavigne.

On May 11, 2006, Dave Baksh announced his retirement from Sum 41 to work in his new band called Brown Brigade.

On July 24, 2007 the album Underclass Hero was released, featuring the homonymous song Underclass Hero as the first single. During the recording of this album and their subsequent tour, they were joined by a new guitarist, Tom Thacker.

On this album they take up the ‘punk’ sound, leaving behind Chuck’s ‘metal’ sound.

On August 7, 2008, McCaslin announced in a journal on the band’s official site that he is currently taking time off from touring to do other things. Later, they began working on a new studio album for the band. McCaslin worked on the second album of his side project, The Operation M.D., Jocz toured as a drummer for The Vandals, and Whibley was touring with his then-wife Avril Lavigne.

Sum 41 announced in a press release that due to the success of Underclass Hero, Universal Music made the decision to have Sum 41 produce an EP in 2009. However, Deryck stated that the new EP was quickly becoming an LP, due to the amount of music they had recorded, which was more than expected. The band entered the studio in late 2008 with the plan of releasing the album sometime during 2009, and with a supporting tour in the summer.

On November 26, 2008, Sum 41 released 8 Years of Blood, Sake and Tears, a greatest hits album, in Japan. The album includes an unreleased song, “Always“, and a DVD, which contains each of the band’s videos. In February 2009, the band said that due to the success and demand for the greatest hits album, which they had, they decided to release it around the world, albeit with a different title and artwork.

In early 2009 the band released All The Good Shit, similar to the compilation released in Japan.

Screaming Bloody Murder went on sale worldwide on March 29, 2011, presenting a darker and rockier Sum 41, with a sound quite similar to their fourth album Chuck.

On April 8, 2013 drummer Steve Jocz announced his retirement from the band. On August 20, 2015, the return of guitarist Dave Baksh was confirmed on social networks.

On March 22, 2016, the band announces on their official Facebook page that Sum 41 will be playing in the 2016 Warped Tour and on March 23, 2016, they announce their participation in the Amnesia Rock Fest, along with NOFX, Blink-182 and Rise Against, among others.

On May 11, 2016, Sum 41 announced that they have signed with Hopeless Records. On February 19, 2017 Deryck Whibley announced through social networks that they would record a live CD on the 22nd at the Zénith room in Paris, France.

On April 23, 2019, the band announced via social media that they were returning with new music. On April 24, they released their first single titled “Out For Blood” via Hopeless Records. On the same day, the band also announced their seventh studio album, Order In Decline, which was released on July 19, 2019.

I took pictures of Sum 41 when they performed at Stage 13 in Camrose, Alberta, Canada on July 11, 2004:

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Bands

Evanescence

Evanescence (from Latin evanescere: “to disappear”) is an American alternative rock band from Little Rock, Arkansas.

The group was founded by lead singer, pianist and songwriter Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. The two met at a youth camp in Arkansas, where Moody heard Lee perform the song I’d Do Anything for Love by Meat Loaf on the piano.

When the two discovered that they were both fans of the singer Björk, they began writing pieces together – starting with Solitude (by Amy Lee), followed by Understanding (by Ben Moody), Give Unto Me (by Amy Lee) and My Immortal (by Ben Moody). The songs were modified lyrically and musically by Lee, which earned both equal recognition for the compositions. When picking the band name, Lee and Moody considered, among other things, “Childish Intentions” and “Stricken“, and then decided on “Evanescence” (Disappear). Amy Lee liked the name because it sounded mysterious, yet beautiful – exactly what she wanted to achieve.

Two of the songs (Understanding and Give Unto Me) soon found their way onto local radio stations’ programs, which also earned them requests to perform. At a concert in 1998 they released their first EP, limited to 100 discs, under the title Evanescence, followed in August 1999 by a second EP, limited to 50 discs, called Sound Asleep. The first album Origin, which, like the two EPs and the subsequent promo EP Mystary, is no longer available, was released on November 2, 2000 on the local label Bigwig Enterprises in an edition of 2500 copies. For this reason, Lee and Moody also stated in interviews that fans should download this material from the Internet.

It was with the inclusion of John LeCompt, Rocky Gray and Will Boyd in early 2003 that a line-up was created that could also perform live. Together they began to rework the existing material, and they were discovered while mastering a new demo recording by producer Pete Matthews. This got them a record deal with the New York label Wind-Up Records.

The recordings for the album Fallen began. Two of the songs prepared for this album – Bring Me to Life and My Immortal – were used on the Daredevil soundtrack, which marked the breakthrough for Evanescence. Bring Me to Life, in which Paul McCoy from 12 Stones sings as a guest musician, was a worldwide hit and reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number one in the British charts. In addition, the band received at the Grammy Awards 2004 in addition to the nomination as “Best New Artist” for this single, the award “Best Hard Rock Performance“. My Immortal made it to number seven on the US charts and likewise number seven in the UK.

In March 2003 the album Fallen was released. It entered the US album charts at number seven, climbed to number three and spent a total of over 100 weeks in the charts. Overall, the album sold over 14 million copies and earned the band platinum and gold awards in over 35 countries.

During a subsequent European tour, co-founder Ben Moody suddenly left the band in October 2003. He was succeeded by Terry Balsamo of the band Cold, which appeared in 2003 as opening act for Evanescence.

In 2004, after long touring in the new formation Evanescence released Anywhere But Home, a DVD / CD compilation which, in addition to a concert in Paris, also contained some background material and a hitherto unreleased song.

The recording for the next album began in September 2005. Shortly after a recording session, guitarist Terry Balsamo had a stroke in November 2005, which was probably caused by a clot in a cervical artery that was caused by headbanging. This incident, which left Balsamo half paralyzed for a long time, and the move to a new manager delayed the completion and release of the album. On July 14, 2006, bassist Will Boyd announced that he would be leaving the band to spend more time with his family. On August 10, 2006, his successor Tim McCord (ex-The Revolution Smile) was announced.

On October 3, 2006, the album The Open Door was released in the United States and Canada. In the first week it sold 447,000 copies in the United States alone and immediately rose to number one in the US album charts. The following months up to December 2007 the band spent mainly on world tour.

On May 5, 2007, Wind-Up Records announced that guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray were no longer active with Evanescence. Will Hunt and Troy McLawhorn (both members of Dark New Day) joined the band as replacements. Lee announced that they would only borrow the two for some time, but their band should remain. Troy McLawhorn stayed in the band for barely a year and did not return as a permanent member of the band until 2011.

Former members Ben Moody, John LeCompt and Rocky Gray founded a new project called “We Are the Fallen” together with new singer Carly Smithson (former participant of American Idol) and released their first single in 2009. The music style is very similar to the style of Evanescence – the name of the band is therefore probably not coincidentally based on the name of the first Evanescence successful album Fallen. The first album was released on May 11, 2010.

A song entitled Together Again was released by Evanescence for the benefit of Haiti. This track was originally intended for The Open Door, but is not included in the album for unknown reasons. The song has been available digitally since February 2010.

The third studio album Evanescence was released on October 7, 2011. According to Amy Lee, the album should represent a new side of the band and has nothing to do with the genre of the two previous albums.

On August 9, 2011 What You Want was released as the first single from the new album. For the film Underworld: Awakening, the band contributed the title Made of Stone. After the 2012 tour, Amy Lee announced that the band would be taking a creative break.

In 2015, guitarist Terry Balsamo was replaced by Jen Majura, who was born in Stuttgart, Germany.

On November 10, 2017, Evanescence returned from a creative break with the new album Synthesis, which, in addition to some new songs, mainly contains old songs with an orchestral arrangement. The new single Bring Me to Life (Synthesis) was released on August 18, 2017. The second single Imperfection followed on September 15, 2017.

The band’s influences include Garbage, Living Sacrifice, Type O Negative, Portishead, Counting Crows and Sarah McLachlan.

Although Amy Lee claims to be a Christian, as a band, Evanescence has distanced itself from the Christian music scene since the release of their album Fallen in 2003.

Likewise, although the group is often given the collective term Gothic Metal due to their popularity in the black scene and their corresponding appearance, they distance themselves from the Gothic scene.

I took pictures of Evanescence at the Stage 13 festival in Camrose, Alberta, Canada on July 10, 2004: