UP AND COMING: David Cook

David Cook is an up and coming artist on the Alternative rock scene. Born in Houston, Texas in 1982, this 25 year old is currently rocking out in the seventh season of American Idol.
No stranger to the world of alternative rock, David Cook has been a part of two bands, Axiom and The Midwest Kings. He has also released an Independent album called Analog Heart, which surprisingly made its way to Number 1 on the Amazon.com charts, when David himself is still battling it out to win American Idol. Through Idol as well, he has managed to bring out several iTunes topping covers. His covers of "Billie Jean" and Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" broke through to iTunes top 10, and eventually made it to No. 1.
THE EARLY YEARS: AXIUM
Inspired by love, loss, and everything in between, Cook and his band mates--guitarist Jeff Shrout and drummer Bobby Kerr -- have built a formidable fan base through two years of high-octane performances, during which time they have shared concert bills with artists ranging from Caroline s Spine and Maroon 5 to Smashmouth and Fountains of Wayne.Capturing the energy of Axium's live shows, the group's newest album Blindsided balances delicacy and aggression in equal measure. Stirred by honest antagonism <> and emotional sub currents <>the songs on Blindsided seek a deeper resonance to obvious realities.Of special note is "Truth Is A Gun," based on the ideal that honesty can, and sometimes does, force you to leave your comfort zone.

"My mindset in writing Truth was to convey my regret for whatever dishonesty I had committed in life and how it had hurt those around me", Cook says of Blindsided s first single.
Having an alternative slant to their rock, [Axium's] music is not only fresh and distinctive, but with the strong vocals and BIG sound it is reminiscent of the power rock of the 80's: A little dark, but not depressing a little edgy, but not scary. It's strong, feel-good, soul strengthening music.
courtesy: http://www.david-cook.org/

THE EARLY YEARS: ANALOG HEART


David Cook's Analog Heart is his independent album, released in 2006. It didn't recieve much success until David made it to American Idol. By April 2008, it reached No. 1 on Amazon.com. However due to American Idol rules, the album had to be pulled off, though free download links are still scattered all over the internet.
The song list for the album is as follows:

Straight Ahead
Don’t Say A Word
Fall Back Into Me
The Truth
Searchlights
Porcelain
Stitches
Let Go
Makeover
Silver

CUT TO THE PRESENT: AMERICAN IDOL:
David was not the odds on favourite to win the show. His first two performances, "Happy Together" by the Turtles and "All Right Now" by Free weren't too well recieved by the judges, especially Simon, who said he had "a lack of charisma".

However, Cook turned the tides completely with a haunting emo arrangement of Lionel Richie's 'Hello', which catapulted him to front runner status. Lionel Richie is rumouredly planning to release David Cook's version of Hello as a single.

Top 12 saw even more success with David Cook. He did covers of Eleneor Rigby and Day Tripper for the two Beatles weeks, and also covered songs like Billie Jean, Day Tripper, Little Sparrow(by Dolly Parton), Always be my Baby(Mariah Carey) and most recently Music of the Night, a song from the famous Broadway hit Phantom of the Opera. Many of them have had massive iTunes success.

SOME EXTRA TIDBITS:

• David Cook's brother Adam Cook is currently suffering from Brain Cancer.
• Cook also wears an orange wristband every week, which is a symbol of his support for an 8 year old fan of his who has laeukamia.
• David Cook, when asked about what America would be surprised to know about him, said that he was a "Word Nerd". He loves solving crosswords.

Incubus is an alternative rock band based out of Calabasas, California. Among the band's most successful singles are "Drive", "Wish You Were Here", "Megalomaniac", "Dig", "Anna Molly" and "Pardon Me". The band has reached multi-platinum sales with albums such as Make Yourself, Morning View, and A Crow Left of the Murder. Incubus released their latest studio album, Light Grenades, in November 2006. They also wrote and performed 4 Movements 'Of the Odyssey' for the first volume of the Halo 2 OST.

Current members

Brandon Boyd - Vocals, guitar, percussion
Mike Einziger - Guitar, vocals, piano
Jose Pasillas II - Drums, percussion
Chris Kilmore - Turntables, keyboards, samples, decks
Kenney - Bass, vocals
Jordan Armstrong - Vocals, Guitar

Fungus Amongus

Fungus Amongus is the debut album produced by the rock band Incubus, released November 1, 1995 on Stopuglynailfungus Music On Chillum, Incubus' own independent label. It was later re-released under Sony on November 7, 2000 after popular demand. Many of the names given under 'Personnel' are actually pseudonyms for the Incubus members. 'Fabio' is guitarist Mike Einziger. 'Dirk Lance' is bassist Alex Katunich, who later adopted 'Dirk Lance' as his stage name. 'Brandy Flower' is an actual Sony employee, and 'Happy Knappy' is vocalist Brandon Boyd. 'Brett' and 'Brett Spivery' refer to Brett Spivey, long time friend of the band, who went on to make their first two DVDs, and the videos for I Miss You and Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song). The album cover image is of an amanita muscaria mushroom, also known as a fly agaric mushroom.

Following are the tracks of the debut album..

1. "You Will Be a Hot Dancer"
2. "Shaft"
3. "Trouble in 421"
4. "Take Me To Your Leader"
5. "Medium"
6. "Speak Free"
7. "The Answer"
8. "Psychopsilocybin"
9. "Sink Beneath the Line"
10. "Hilikus"

S.C.I.E.N.C.E

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is an Enhanced CD album by the rock band Incubus, released on September 9 1997. It includes an official video. The album has sold 740,000 copies in the US to date.

The album, Incubus' second, contains some of the band's heavier work, and is considered by many fans to be the original definition of their sound but shows the bands search for an ambient sound and higher sound quality which is found in many their later albums. It is a fusion of their various influences and is characteristic of their experimental tendencies. On songs like "Deep Inside" and "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)" show Jazz influences. Much more mainstream-sounding than their first album, Fungus Amongus, it was not indicative of their slower-tempoed follow-up, Make Yourself, which is referred to in many reviews as having been the band's peak in terms of performance.

Following are the tracks of breathtaking album.

1. "Redefine"
2. "Vitamin"
3. "New Skin"
4. "Idiot Box"
5. "Glass"
6. "Magic Medicine"
7. "A Certain Shade of Green"
8. "Favorite Things"
9. "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)"
10. "Nebula"
11. "Deep Inside"
12. "Calgone"

Make Yourself

Make Yourself is the third album by American alternative rock band Incubus, released by Sony on October 26, 1999. It is often considered the band's best and most widespread of all their albums to date. The album has been certified 2x platinum in the United States. It featured three hit singles, "Pardon Me", "Stellar", and "Drive", all of which reached the top three of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Hit singles of this tracks are

1."Pardon Me"
2."Stellar"
3. "Drive"

Morning view

Morning View is the fourth album by alternative rock band Incubus. It is the last Incubus album to feature bassist Alex Katunich. It was recorded in Malibu, California and released on October 23, 2001 by Incubus. "Morning View Drive" is the name of a street in Malibu where the band lived temporarily and recorded the album.It has a sound that is overall softer than previous albums by the band, especially apparent on songs such as "Echo" and "Are You In?", although due to Incubus' varied influences, there had been examples of softer songs on previous albums, such as "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)" from S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. Songs such as "Just a Phase" display more original song structures.

The final song, "Aqueous Transmission", is unlike anything else the band had attempted, employing the use of Chinese instruments such as the Pipa. The song is 7 minutes and 46 seconds long, with the last minute consisting of frogs croaking outside the studio in Malibu. Lead vocalist Brandon Boyd says that the purpose of the song was to make "the listener pee in his/her pants" from relaxation.

Hitz of dis chillin album

1."Wish You Were Here"
2."Warning"
3."Nice To Know You"
4."Are You In?"
5."Circles"

A Crow left of the murder

A Crow Left of the Murder... is the fifth studio album released on February 3, 2004, by the alternative rock band Incubus. It is the first release by the band featuring Ben Kenney, who replaced Dirk Lance on the bass.

The singles from this album were "Megalomaniac" and "Talk Shows on Mute". "Agoraphobia" and "Sick Sad Little World" were also released as radio-only singles.

The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 332,000 copies in its first week on the chart.It has since gone on to sell 1.5 million copies.

Hitz of dis album

1."Megalomaniac"
2."Talk Shows On Mute"
3."Sick Sad Little World"
4."Agoraphobia"

Light Grenades

Light Grenades is the sixth album by Incubus, released on November 28, 2006 (see 2006 in music). The album sold 229,000 copies during its first week of release worldwide, mostly in the United States.

Light Grenades debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week; it is the band's first number one album.However, Light Grenades also holds the dubious record of the biggest drop from #1 in chart history, falling from #1 to #37 in its second week on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and breaking the record set by Marilyn Manson's The Golden Age of Grotesque, which fell from #1 to #21 in 2003.The album has since gone gold in the US. As of July 11, 2007, it has sold 645,000 copies in the US.The song 'Light Grenades' is used on the Xbox 360 game Project Gotham Racing 4.

Hitz of this album
1."Anna-Molly"
2."Dig"
3."Love Hurts"
4."Oil and Water"

Coldplay

Coldplay are an English rock band. Formed in 1998 in London, the group comprises vocalist/pianist/guitarist Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion. Coldplay have been one of the most commercially successful acts of the new millennium, selling over 30 million albums.

Parachutes - Coldplay Debut album

Coldplay released their first full-length album, Parachutes, in July 2000, which debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart.Parachutes was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in September 2000.Whilst Parachutes was a slow-burning success in U.S., it eventually reached double-platinum status. The album was also critically well-received, earning Best Alternative Music Album honours at the 2002 Grammy Awards.
Following are the songs of this superb debut album.

1. "Don't Panic"
2. "Shiver"
3. "Spies"
4. "Sparks"
5. "Yellow"
6. "Trouble"
7. "Parachutes"
8. "High Speed"
9. "We Never Change"
10. "Everything's Not Lost"
11. "Careful Where You Stand" (Japanese bonus track)
12. "For You" (Japanese bonus track)

A Rush of Blood to the Head :

Coldplay returned to the studio in October 2001 to begin work on their second album, once again with Ken Nelson producing. With much anticipation, Coldplay released A Rush of Blood to the Head in August 2002. The album spawned several popular singles, notably "In My Place", "Clocks", and the ballad "The Scientist".

Coldplay toured for over a year, from June 2002 to September 2003, visiting five continents including co-headlining festival dates at Glastonbury Festival, V2003, and Rock Werchter. The Rush of Blood to the Head tour showed the band's progression into a bona fide stadium act. Many shows included elaborate lighting and individualised screens reminiscent of U2's recent Elevation tour. During the extended tour, Coldplay also recorded a live DVD and CD, Live 2003, at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion.

In December 2003, they were named by readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best artist and the best band of the year. At that time Coldplay covered The Pretenders' 1983 hit "2000 Miles", which was made available for download on their official site. It was the top selling UK download that year, with proceeds from the sales donated to Future Forests and Stop Handgun Violence campaigns. A Rush of Blood to the Head won two trophies at the 2003 Grammy Awards. At the 2004 Grammy Awards, Coldplay earned Record of the Year for "Clocks".

Following are the tracks of dis amazing album
1. "Politik"
2. "In My Place"
3. "God Put a Smile upon Your Face"
4. "The Scientist"
5. "Clocks"
6. "Daylight"
7. "Green Eyes"
8. "Warning Sign"
9. "A Whisper"
10. "A Rush of Blood to the Head"
11. "Amsterdam"

X&Y - Best ever coldplay album

Coldplay's third album, X&Y, was released in June 2005 in UK and Europe. This new, delayed release date had put the album back into the next fiscal year, actually causing EMI's stock to drop.[12] It became the best-selling album of 2005 with worldwide sales of 8.3 million. The lead single, "Speed of Sound", made its radio and online music store debut on 18 April and was released as a CD on 23 May 2005. The album debuted at #1 in 22 countries worldwide and was the third-fastest selling album in UK chart history. Two other singles were released that year: "Fix You" in September and "Talk" in December. Despite the commercial success, the critical reaction to X&Y was less unanimous in its praise than the reviews for its predecessor, with New York Times critic Jon Pareles describing them as "the most insufferable band of the decade."[13]

From June 2005 to July 2006, Coldplay went on their Twisted Logic tour, which included festival dates like Coachella, Glastonbury and the Austin City Limits Music Festival. In July 2005, the band appeared at Live 8 in Hyde Park, where they played a rendition of The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" with Richard Ashcroft on vocals. In September, Coldplay recorded a new version of "How You See the World" with reworked lyrics to War Child's Help: A Day in the Life charity album. In February 2006, Coldplay earned Best Album and Best Single honours at the BRIT Awards.

Following are the tracks of d most rocking album of d all
1. "Square One"
2. "What If"
3. "White Shadows"
4. "Fix You"
5. "Talk"
6. "X&Y"
7. "Speed of Sound"
8. "A Message"
9. "Low"
10. "The Hardest Part"
11. "Swallowed in the Sea"
12. "Twisted Logic"
13. "'Til Kingdom Come"
14. "How You See the World"

Viva la Vida - Latest Album

Work on the band's fourth album started as early as December 2006. It has been quoted as "the album people will remember them by" as well as a concise record "with at least two top-division songs being released independently."[Brian Eno is the producer. In addition, music producer Timbaland told GQ magazine that he would be collaborating. Coldplay took a break from recording and toured South America in early 2007 for the first time, including shows in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.[The band has also revealed that the album seemed to be shaping up with Hispanic influences, after having recorded in churches and other areas in Latin America and Spain during their tour; after which they spent the rest of the year recording the new album, mainly with producer Brian Eno.

In December 2007 a post appeared on the band's website suggesting that the group had nearly finished recording, stating that "the creative momentum keeps on gathering." Coldplay have been mixing the record in New York as announced on their site since late 2007. In a Rolling Stone online article, Chris Martin announced that the next Coldplay album is to be titled Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friendsand will be released on 16 June 2008.

Martin has described this album as a new direction for Coldplay: a change from their past three albums, which they have referred to as a 'trilogy'. Martin has also revealed that this album features much less of his falsetto, and he has allowed his voice's lower register to take precedence. Some songs on Viva la Vida, such as "Violet Hill", contain distorted guitar riffs and bluesy undertones. "Violet Hill" has been confirmed as the first single from Viva la Vida, with a release date of 5 May 2008

Following are d latest tracks

1 "Life in Technicolor"
2 "Cemeteries of London"
3 "Lost!"
4 "42"
5 "Lovers in Japan"/"Reign of Love"
6 "Yes"
7 "Viva la Vida"
8 "Violet Hill"
9 "Strawberry Swing"
10 "Death and All His Friends"

Alternative Rock - An outburst of the soul

Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. The term "alternative" was coined in the 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired bands on independent record labels that did not fit into the mainstream genres of the time.As a musical genre, alternative rock consists of various sub genres that have emerged from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, Brit pop, Gothic rock, and Indie pop. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.

Though the genre is considered to be rock, some of its sub genres are influenced by folk music, reggae, electronic music and jazz among other genres. At times alternative rock has been used as a catch-all phrase for rock music from underground artists in the 1980s, all music descended from punk rock (including punk itself, New Wave, and post-punk), and, ironically, for rock music in general in the 1990s and 2000s.

"Alternative rock" is essentially an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of the punk rock movement since the mid-1980s.Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture. Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth.As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although The New York Times in 1989 asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and squeal in feedback."[12] Sounds range from the dirty guitars of grunge to the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitar pop revivalism of Britpop to the shambling innocence of twee pop. More often than in other rock styles, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, and environmentalism.

Although alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success.The popular and commercial success of Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind took alternative rock into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability.As a result, alternative rock became the most popular form of rock music of the decade and many alternative bands garnered commercial and critical success. However, many of these artists rejected success, for it conflicted with the rebellious, DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity.As many of the genre's key groups broke up or retreated from the limelight, alternative rock declined from mainstream prominence.

In the first decade of the 21st century, mainstream rock has largely moved beyond alternative's 1980s roots and low-fidelity ethos. Today's most popular rock music acts, typified by youth-oriented modern rock groups such as Linkin Park that owe a debt to both metal and grunge, incorporate complex electronic beats and a sophisticated production style. Many alternative rock fans do not see these bands—despite their debt to the genre—as alternative, but rather as nu metal acts. In 2004, alternative rock received renewed mainstream attention with the popularity of indie rock and post-punk revival artists such as Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand, respectively.