The Sugars, The Curse Of The Sugars

As debuts go, The Curse Of The Sugars is pretty sweet. Bursting with a retro energy that the band call ‘gospel grunge’, the Leeds trio prove themselves well worthy of the buzz that's been surrounding them.

Despite an unexpected assortment of influences - rock and roll, indie, surf-punk, 50s R&B and disco beats - the album doesn't pull in too many directions at once. There's something kitsch, almost vaudeville to the singing at times, but added distortion and a punk sensibility give a rather addictive experience. And although they owe a strong debt to the past, producer Will Jackson (who has also worked with The Pigeon Detectives and The Cribs) ensures that The Sugars' output is dark, twisted and above all, fresh.

Signed to talent-spotting label Bad Sneakers, the band sound like musical extras from a Tarantino movie. Two contrasting front-persons; guitarist Matt Bolton and bassist Anna Greenway share the singing duties on vein-melting duets like Monsters, and they're brilliant together. Bolton's tenacious tenor crooning is a perfect foil to Greenway's deceptive innocence, which in itself is not dissimilar to Meg White's vocal.



Opener Black Friday is a perfect example of the party dynamic The Sugars create, with Bolton's vocals soaring over noisy guitars and pounding drums to form a punchy melody about frustrated love. The doo-wop rhythms of Heaven Knows are far prettier, while Way To My Heart gets dirty, fusing Bolton's excellent vocal pipes with a punk bass line and tropical guitars, as reminiscent of old Havana as modern day Leeds.

By the time the album ends on You Better Go - a gorgeous ballad with strings sung by Greenway - there's no doubt that a great live act have made a seamless transition to record. This despite losing their original drummer to a wrist injury two weeks before the studio date. Last minute replacement Alex Lewis sits in more than adequately, playing relentlessly through this classy, blues drenched debut.


See Also

• Last puff
• Tanners in the Dark Over Best Sunscreens
• Pregnant? Stay away from junk food
• Obese Man: I Will Leave This Bed

DMX may lose Fifth Avenue townhouse

Yet another problem has been added to the list of DMX's legal issues, which recently saw him arrested twice in one week.

Kerry Katona Blasts Amy Winehouse's "Scummy" Husband

Kerry Katona has launched a scathing attack on Amy Winehouse's husband for filming the troubled singer while she was high on drugs.

A video of the Rehab hitmaker singing racist chants was recently posted on the internet. It was filmed by Blake -- even though he promises Amy that the camera isn't on.

Former Atomic Kitten star Kerry, 27, says she's disgusted that Blake -- who's currently locked up in London's Pentonville prison on assault and conspiracy charges -- took advantage of the star's confused state.

"Amy Winehouse�s racist chant was shocking," Kerry says.

"But what is more shocking is that rat of a disgusting husband of hers!

"She shouldn't have sung that song but her scummy husband was filming it after he swore on her life that he wasn't."

Amy, 24, was admitted into a private clinic in Marylebone, London on Monday (16Jun08) after she collapsed in her home in the British capital. She is undergoing treatment and doctors will soon decide whether she is fit to honor her upcoming performance commitments - including an appearance at legendary British music festival Glastonbury at the end of the month.

See Also

• Junior and Don Carlos Reid
• The Legendary Cher Is Back … Again
• The Verdict - Rock in peace
• Cookbook lawsuit: Seinfeld’s lawyers see humour, not defamation

Cormega

   
Artist: Cormega

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

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Discography:


   
 The Testament

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 14


   
 62 Pick Ups

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 3


   
 Legal Hustle

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 17

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An underground and critical favourite, Cormega was the rare hard-core rapper to acquire extolment from all directions, and while he ne'er quite crossed over like some of his New York City peers, he retained a estimable independence over the years yet, self-releasing his exploit on the Legal Hustle label. Born Cory McKay, Cormega grew up in the same Queensbridge trapping projects that were dwelling to a generation of rappers, to the highest degree notably Nas, Mobb Deep, AZ, and Tragedy Khadafi, and a previous generation that magnificently included Marley Marl and the Juice Crew.


Following some early guest appearances on releases by DJ Hot Day (e.g., "Fix It Off" on PHD's Without Warning [1991]), Cormega did fourth dimension, which put his tap life history on hold for a few years. In 1994 Nas mentioned him by diagnose on Illmatic, on "One Love" ("And night fourth dimension is more trife than ever/What up with Cormega, did you see him, are y'all together?"), and upon Cormega's release from pokey in 1995, he was featured as a guest on Nas' endorsement album, It Was Written (1996), on "Approbative Action" with AZ and Foxy Brown. Plans were made for a mathematical group -- named the Firm, lED by Nas, with production by Trackmasters and Dr. Dre -- that would recapitulate the collaborative nature of "Affirmative Action" over the course of an album. Cormega was excluded from the project, however, replaced by fellow Queensbridge rapper Nature. A rift 'tween Cormega and Nas resulted, prima to some bitter exchanges all over the years (the deuce after spotted up their differences, reuniting to perform "Affirmative Action" with Foxy Brown live onstage in December 2006).


Too upon his expiration from jailhouse, Cormega signed a recording constrict with Def Jam that seemed promising at the time. During 1995-1996, he went around recording his debut album, The Testament, with such producers as Sha Money XL, Havoc, Jae Supreme, and Hot Day. Def Jam ne'er released the album, unluckily, and Cormega was forced to hold off out his contract, which didn't exhale until 2000. In the lag, he made rare appearances, including features on the How to Be a Player soundtrack (1997), Mobb Deep's Murda Muzik record album (1999), and Nas' QB Finest digest (2000). Finally disengage of his Def Jam get, Cormega founded his possess sovereign label, Legal Hustle, and, via a partnership with Landspeed Records, released his debut album, The Realness (2001), comprised of new recorded real. The record album was critically acclaimed and peaked at number 111 on the Billboard cc (more tellingly, number four on the Top Independent Albums and number one on the Top Heatseekers charts). A second album followed, The True Meaning (2002), and was likewise critically acclaimed, earning Independent Album of the Year at the Source Awards in 2003. The record album batty the Top 100 of the Billboard cc (peaking at number 95).


Cormega then took some time off to raise his girl, born in November 2002, before he resumed music trading operations. In 2004 he returned with Legal Hustle, a collaborative album, and Special Edition, a twofer including both The Realness and The True Meaning. In 2005 he released The Testament, his unreleased Def Jam record album from ten years prior, to which he had of late secured the rights to the master tapes, and in 2006 he was co-featured on My Brother's Keeper, a collaborative album as well billed to Lake, a fellow Queensbridge rapper of some celebrity. In 2007 Cormega released WHO Am I?, a DVD documental covering the time period of 2001-2005; a CD soundtrack comprised of new recorded music was included as well. Also in 2007, he released Got Beats?, an instrumental show featuring an telling roll of producers, including DJ Premier, the Alchemist, Ayatollah, and Ski Beatz.

Rattan Mohan Sharma

   
Artist: Rattan Mohan Sharma

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

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Discography:


   
 Navagraha Shakti

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 7

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Implant

   
Artist: Implant

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   Other
   

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Discography:


   
 Audio Blender

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 13


   
 Big Brother

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 7

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That Guy: Making hit music from rats and mice

I am back in the recording studio after many years, recording a track called The Hamster man from Amsterdam.This is actually the theme song to the hit reality TV show of the same name. The reality show follows the life of an alcoholic called Colin who runs a pet store specialising in cut-price rodents.Recording a song that could be destined to be a No 1 is quite an involved process, and one of the first stages is to write it. Due to time constraints I was unable to write any more than the first verse until I was actually in the studio preparing to record it.Any top songwriter or musician worth their weight will tell you that, as most recording studios charge out an hourly rate, this isn't the ideal way to go about it. The verse I have written goes a little something like this:Halfway down Dominion Rd there's a man you have to meetHe's the king of the Urban Jungle; he wears shoes upon his feet.He's the hamster man from Amsterdam.(Chorus): Gerbils and hamsters, that's his gameYou want a small rodentJust call out his name




I find that, much like writing a column, the deadline pressure and time constraints can actually sharpen your senses and give you a better sense of rhythm and rhyme.Put it this way - the only reason the song is called The Hamster man from Amsterdam is because, under pressure, Amsterdam is that the only word I could think of that rhymed with Hamster man. Had I not had that kind of pressure I doubt whether I would have been able to come up with that quality of rhyme.Once I wrote the rest, the next job was to teach it to the rest of the band, in this case Greg Hart, my brother, and Matt Johnson, who I spent time with in a French prison.These are the same guys with whom I tried to carve out a musical career back in the 90s.We hope to have a little more success with this recording than we did with our first recording back in 1991.That four-song demo was sent to thousands of record companies in Britain, only to be rejected by all of them.In fact, it got to the stage that we were fairly confident that most A&R people weren't even listening to the product.To test the theory we swapped 25 CDs with burger patties, put them back in the cases and sent them to a selection of record companies.Our rationale was that if the record executives did open the cases they would be amazed and impressed by our humour and initiative and subsequently ask for a copy of the actual CD.If, on the other hand, they simply tossed the demo into their bins, it would only be a matter of time before their offices began to stink and once again they would be forced to open the CD case. Again they would be suitably impressed by our innovative and irreverent approach to the competitive record industry and probably give us a record contract without even listening to the CD.Not surprisingly we received the same stock-standard response from these companies: We enjoyed your sound but unfortunately we can't quite place it right now, etc, etc.Depending on how this recording goes, we should have a product ready for download at about 4.30 this afternoon. I'd better get back to it.

Necroart

   
Artist: Necroart

   Genre(s): 
Metal: Death,Black
   

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Discography:


   
 The Opium Visions

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 8

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Dogzilla

   
Artist: Dogzilla

   Genre(s): 
Trance
   Electronic
   Other
   

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Discography:


   
 Frozen (Inc.PvD and Wippenberg Remix)

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 3


   
 Without You - EP

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 5


   
 Cimbago Neigro

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 8


   
 Your Eyes__incl Dimitri Andreas Remix Vinyl

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 2

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With its energetic blend of straight-ahead stone, funk, stain and DC-style go go, Dogzilla was one of Boston's top dance bands of the late-1980s and early-90s. While lead guitarist George Hall, songwriting and solid guitar rhythms of Sean Brann shared most of the public eye, Dogzilla remained anchored the funky rhythms of Washington, DC-born percussionist Jim Billbrough, bassist Andy McGuire and Keith Moon-like drummer, Fudge.


The origins of Dogzilla trace back to the Archbishop's Enema Fetish, a mid-1980s band that had managed to buzz off itself prohibited from virtually Boston clubs. After the group disbanded, in the spring of 1987, quaternity members continued to bring together as Dogzilla. Adding Billbrough on percussion, they performed their debut exhibit, as opening act for the Dead Milkmen, at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Although they released two telling albums -- Allizgod in 1991 and There's Always Something Wrong the next year -- Dogzilla was ineffectual to break through to a national audience and disbanded. Hall went on to play with Boston-based World flap ring, Seks Bomba.





Perkins, Pinetop