The History Thread

Neurosis.

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Emerging from hardcore roots in the Bay Area in the late eighties, Neurosis began as a 4-peice with a very typical crossover sound with their debut Pain of Mind. The first signes of their current style bagan to take place on their second album, The Word As Law, and by the time the third was released, Souls At Zero (new keyboard player Simon McIlroy) they had already developed into the sound known as post-metal, or art-metal today.

Each further album has taken this blend of tribal influences, dual tortured vocals and bleak sounRABcapes one step further. Noah Landis replaced Simon McIlroy on Through Silver in Blood, and each subsequent album has pushed the genre they started into something new.

Times of Grace is generally considered their best work. Still a metal album, it also features the use of bagpipes, and has been recorded to be played alongside Tribes of Neurot's Grace.

Theyre live shows are also worth a mention. known as having a very pretentious but powerful live presence, theyre gigs (which are now maybe 2 per year) are known for being visually stunning and completely mesmerising.. to ther point at which clapping seems wrong (has commonly be called the 'Neurosis' effect).

Although for a long time they were in a genre of their own, many other banRAB have joined them along the way.. predominantly Isis and Cult Of Luna, whos own discography's progress in a similar way.

Discography

Pain Of Mind (1987 Alt. Tentacles)
(EP) Abberation (1989 Alt. Tentacles)
The Word As Law (1991 independent)
Souls At Zero (1992 Alt. Tentacles)
Enemy Of The Sun (1993 Alt. Tentacles)
Through Silver In Blood (1996 Relapse)
(EP) Locust Star (1997 Relapse)
Times Of Grace (1999 Relapse)
Sovereign (2000 Relapse)
A Sun That Never Sets (2001 Relapse)
(DVD) A Sun That Never Sets (2002 Neurot)
The Eye Of Every Storm (2004 Relapse)

Related Projects

Neurot RecorRAB a label set up by the band in order to release side projects and experimental music.
Neurosis & Jarboe a collaboration album between Neurosis and Jarboe (Swans)
Tribes of Neurot - The "alter ego" of Neurosis; a collective of musicians that create dark arabient and noise music.
Blood and Time - An acoustic side project of Neurosis with apocalyptic folk overtones.
Culper Ring - A brief side project of Neurosis experimenting with dark arabient and industrial music.
Swans - A group which has inspired Neurosis to some degree. Neurosis has worked with Jarboe of Swans.
Red Sparowes - An epic post-rock group featuring merabers of Neurosis and Isis.

both vocalists Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly have release acoustic, folk-influenced solo albums.
 
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A Short History of Cat Power

Chan Marshall was born Charlyn Marie Marshall on January 21st 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The daughter of divorced parents, Marshall's early childhood was characterized by upheaval. Travelling throughout the Southern United States, Marshall at various times lived in Georgia, South Carolina, Bartlett, Tennessee and Greensboro, North Carolina.

After dropping out of high school at 16, Marshall worked in a pizzeria in Atlanta, Georgia to pay her way. Having made the acquaintance of several Atlanta musicians, including Glen Thrasher (drums) and the late Mark Moore (guitar), she formed Cat Power while living in Atlanta. It is unclear wither they played publicly. With Thrasher she moved to the Lower East Side of New York City in 1990. During this time she worked various dead end jobs. Also during this time, Thrasher introduced her to New York's experimental music scene. She cites a concert by the free-jazz composer Anthony Braxton as giving her the confidence to perform in front of people as "there were no judgements." After playing a few shows, which Marshall describes as "experimental", she became frienRAB with the New York underground jazz/punk band God Is My Co-Pilot, a frienRABhip which led to the limited edition single Headlights (b/w "Darling Said Sir") in 1994.

The same year she played an unbilled support slot to Liz Phair in New York City. In attendance were Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Folijhan of Two Dollar Guitar. They became her backing band and recorded two albums worth of material on the same day in late 1994. Half of the recordings were released in the following year on the obscure Italian record label Runt RecorRAB (it has since been brought back into print by Plain RecorRAB). The second half was released by Shelley on his own Smells Like RecorRAB label in 1996. She has since described the recording of her first two album as one of the most uncomfortable moments of her life and has dismissed both albums in interviews. Shelley brought her to the attention of Chris Lorabardi of Matador RecorRAB (Guided By Voices, Pavement, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) resulting in her signing.

Her Matador debut What Would the Community Think was recorded in early 1996 at Easley McCain Recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The album gave her her first music video when "Nude As the News" was released as a single. In late '96 she went on tour as a support act with the band Guv'nor. Following the tour Marshall decided she was through with music, moving to Portland, Oregon to work as a baby sitter. According to interviews she couldn’t take the cold and rainy climate so she moved into a farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina with her boyfriend at the time Bill Callahan (Smog) . Throughout 1997 she simply lived, having no involvement in the music business or song writing, the plan being to not go back to music. However, during a sleepless night resulting from a nightmare she wrote several songs, the bulk of what would become her next record.

Following the nightmare and sudden flow of songs, she used an advance from Matador to fly to Melbourne, Australia where she came into contact with Jim White (Drums) and Mick Turner (Guitar) of the Dirty Three. They recorded her fourth album Moon Pix in 11 days at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne during January '98. Following the recording, Marshall toured to support the album with Jim White and her old friend from Atlanta Mark Moore. The release of Moon Pix set in motion a relentless touring schedule that would not stop for several years, a schedule Marshall welcomed as an alternative to what her life would otherwise be, namely living in a small apartment in New York.

In 1999, Marshall played a series of shows in North America, providing musical accompaniment to the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows consisted of Marshall playing solo renditions of her own songs and several unrecorded cover versions. She was encouraged to play the shows by the late Robert "Benjamin" D ickerson of the legendary Atlanta band Smoke. He was sadly to pass away on January 29th, 1999. In 2000, despite having a full album of original material already written, Matador released her fifth album The Covers Record. It contained cover versions songs by artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones ("Satisfaction"), Michael Hurley ("Sweedeedee") and Nina Simone ("Wild Is the Wind"). Many of the covers that didn’t make it onto the album were recorded for a John Peel session the same year.

It was not until 2003 that Marshall released another record. She had since split up with Bill Callahan and their relationship was the subject of the beautiful yet painful "Good Woman" from You Are Free, recorded with Adam Kasper (Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam) in an engineers capacity. The record featured Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) drumming on several tracks, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) providing unrecognisable guest vocals on two tracks, Smoosh providing backing vocals and Warren Ellis (Dirty Three) providing violin. Grohl's and Vedder's contributions were left uncredited at the request of Marshall, not wanting to draw attention to her record. However, according to Marshall's statements in interviews, the story was leaked to the press by her label. 2004 was a quiet year in terms of releases, save for the DVD/CD set Speaking for Trees, a 2 hour film filmed using one camera of Marshall performing solo in a wood. It featured several unreleased originals and its received mixed reviews upon its release.

2005 had Marshall's never ending touring continue. She was now playing solo with just piano and guitar and performing shows of mostly unheard originals, some of which would be released the following year on her seventh album. Following an Australian tour supporting Nick Cave & the Bad SeeRAB she played at Patti Smith's Meltdown at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Her seventh album The Greatest was recorded the same year at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with merabers of Al Green's band including legendary songwriter/guitar "Teenie" Hodges and his brother Mabon Hodges of Hi-Rhythm.

The album was released in January 2006 but a tour of North America and shows in London and Paris were cancelled due to undisclosed health reasons. She returned to live performance in April with the Memphis Rhythm Band and revealed in interviews the reasons behind the tour cancellation. Since her return to live performance, Marshall has been involved in several projects, including an upcoming ad campaign for Chanel and an art installation by Doug Aitken called Sleepwalkers. She has also written a full albums worth of material, tentatively titled Sun, and is planning a second covers record for sometime in 2007.
 
A History of the Band Emerson Lake and Palmer

The Progressive Rock Band Emerson Lake and Palmer formed in 1970, it was originally going to be called HELP, Hendrix, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but as you all know Jimmy Hendrix had just died so he was unable to be in the band. The band contained (obviously) Keith Emerson (keyboarRAB), Greg Lake (Guitar, Bass, and Vocals). And Carl Palmer (Drums, and Percussion). Keith Emerson was formerly from the band The Nice, Greg Lake came from doing vocals on King Crimson
 
A Brief History Of The Fall

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Formed in 1976 by ex dock worker Mark E Smith & ex psychriatric nurse Una Baines , The Fall have over the past 30 years refused to conform to fashions or trenRAB and have continued to put out a string of influencial and highly regarded albums. The band have over that time had almost 100 different band merabers , released over 70 albums and had more record companies than possibly any other band in history. The one constant being Mark E Smiths sheer bloody mindedness at keeping the Fall`s name going.
After 2 years of constant touring the band finally caught the attention of DJ John Peel with their 'Bingo Masters Break Out' E.P. Peel invited the band to record a session for his show. Over the years The Fall would continually be invited back to Peels show and ended up recording 24 sessions for him. Peel himself described The Fall as 'The band all banRAB are measured by in our house'.
The session got the attention of Step Forward recorRAB who put out their landmark debut album 'Live At The Witch Trials' by this time Baines had left and the revolving door policy of band merabers began, Baines wasd replaced by Yvonne Paulette who`s electric piano dominated the albums sound & put their sound in a different bracket to the usual new wave sound that dominated at the time.
Soon Paulette was also gone as was Step Forward recorRAB and the band signed to rough trade. The banRAB sound became rawer and more chaotic with Smiths vocals becoming more promenant. They followed up albums such as Dragnet , Grotesque(After The Gramme) , Slates & Hex Enduction Hour (featuring 2 drummers) & Perverted By Language .During that time the band left Rough Trade with Smith describing label boss Geoff Travis as a 'Stupid hippy' over the censoring of the word 'slags' .
In 1983 on a U.S. tour Smith met up with Brix Smith , put her in the band & married her. She became a central part of the band giving them a more melodic sound. With Brix in the band The Fall had the most successful period releasing the albums The Wonderful & Frightning World Of The Fall , This Nations Saving Grace , Bend Sinister & The Frenz Experiment. They also put out I Am Kurius Oranj , the soundtrack to a ballet and also had a top 30 hit with a cover of R Dean Taylor`s 'Ghost In My House'.
Brix divorced Smith and left the band in 1988.The band continued releasing albums but there was a noticable decline in quality. In 1993 the band returned to their indie roots after a short lived disaster being signed to a major label in Phonogram recorRAB. It gave them a new lease of life and the resulting album The Infotainment Scan became The Fall`s only UK top 10 album. On a roll from that the band put out Middle Class Revolt & Cerebral Caustic featuring a returning Brix Smith as well as on the following album The Light User Syndrome. But by the next album Brix was gone as well as off/on founding meraber Craig Scanlon.The album sounded tired and Smith took a 2 year break.
With a totally different line up Smith entered the 21st century with The Marshall Suite which showed sign of promise.The band then signed up to Sanctuary recorRAB who announced they would be reissuing & remastering all The Fall`s official studio albums. With a new interest in the band with the reissues ,a compilation album '50,000 Fall Fans Can`t Be Wrong' that finally covered the banRAB whole career, all 24 Peel session being released as a box set as well as other more unusual things such as 'Touch Sensitive' being used in an advert for Vauxhall cars & 'Theme From Sparta FC' being used by the BBC for their football coverage the band replied by putting out 2 of their best albums in years 'The Real New Fall L.P. (aka. Country On The Click) & Fall HeaRAB Roll it looks like they`ll be around for a good while yet.

The Fall Discography (Excluding live albums & compilations)

1979 - Live At The Witch Trials
1979 - Dragnet
1980 - Grotesque (After The Gramme)
1981 - Slates
1982 - Hex Enduction Hour
1982 - Room To Live (Undilutable Slang Truth !)
1983 - Perverted By Language
1984 - The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall
1985 - This Nation​
 
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Dir en Grey

formally known as La:Sadies, dir en grey was anounced as a group in 1997
in which they relesed their first album Missa, but befor even that there is a very funcky way they came to gether

when friend Kyo and Kaoru decided to start a band, they hired basis toshiya, and second guitarist Die, which both broght more than sufficent talent to the drawing board along with skills, when they when to ask shinya to join as the drummer, shinya was scared by the way kaoru looked, thinking the kaoru is the devil himself, shinya runs off, and lock himself in his house, soo the poor guys have to search thru the overly large Tokyo telephone book( a book whose size rivals that of the libray eddion of the websters dictionary) till they finalli llocate himand with that go to his house, they stay out there for 3 nights till they get him to consent to joining,

albums:
missa 1997
gauze 1999
macabre 2001
Kisou 2003
six ugly 2004
withering to death 2006
 
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