Thursday, March 26, 2009

"Who's That..." Artists of the Day

Looking for some new artists...this is the place to be!

1) Bic Runga: One of the highest-selling New Zealand artists ever, it is strange why the Pop-folk singer is not huge in the United States and Britain. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand to a Chinese Malaysian mother and a Maori (native of New Zealand) father, Briolette Kah Bic Runga grew up around a musically-inclined family and at the age of four recorded songs with her sisters, Boh and Pearl. She learned to play drums at eleven and learned the guitar at fourteen, along with learning the keyboard. By her mid-teens, she was joining local Jazz groups and high school bands. In 1993, she entered the Smokefreerockquest with Kelly Horgen as the group "Love Soup," and won third place, leading to a contract with Pagan Records. Runga recorded the first single, "Drive," in Wellington, but she was not happy with the direction that her music was going, so she moved to Aukland in 1994 to spend a year writing and performing. One year later, she sent the demo to Sony Music, who signed her that year. The song entered the Top 10 in New Zealand and won her the Silver Scroll Songwriting Award in 1996. Bic released the album Drive, which included the hit singles, "Sway," "Good Morning Baby" (the two songs were in AMerican Pie and Cruel Intentions) and "Drive." Since then, she has released her top-charting albums in New Zealand, Beautiful Collision, Birds and Try to Remember Everything.

Sway



Drive



Suddenly Strange



Get Some Sleep



Something Good





2) Eclectic Collective (Now called the Bad Rabbits): The Boston-focused band is a mix of Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rhythm and Blues and Rock with socially conscious lyrics. It felt like they were this decade's Fugees. Made up of nine members, the band gave other groups with fake musical sounds a run for their money. Sadly, their last show as a group under that name was in October of last year. Fortunately now members of the group have reorganized into the Bad Rabbits. Many fans are hoping they are as good as or even better than Eclectic Collective.

So Sad



Anti-Depressent



Teenage Love w/ Slick Rick



The Fall Off



Stick Up Kids



3) Eve 6: The Southern Claifornia Rock band were made up of Max Collins (vocals, bass), Jon Siebels (guitar), and Tony Fagenson (drums). Forming in 1995 in La Crescenta, California, the group's first names were Yakoo and Eleventeen before they adopted the name Eve 6. Getting a record contract with RCA while still in high school and changed their name after Tony saw an X-files episode called "Eve" (they had a song on the show). The only hit singles the group had were "Inside Out" and the slow anthem "Here's to the Night." Poor sales of It's All In Your Head lead to Eve 6 being released from their RCA contract. After this, they announced their breakup on their last show in July 2004. Max and Tony have since reunited to form the band The Sugi Tap and then changed it back to Eve 6.

Inside Out



Here's to the Night



Tongue Tied



Open Road Song



Leech

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