RiffRaf

In the Beginning: Alabama Shakes

   

Four years ago, Alabama Shakes was an unknown, high school band from Athens, Alabama. Now they're playing sold out shows, appearing at SXSW, performing on the David Letterman Show, Conan and Later...With Jools Holland and touring the States in support of their debut album, Boys & Girls, which was released earlier this month.

When singer Brittany Howard first approached bassist Zac Cockrell about starting a band, they had no idea what kind of a band it would be. They experimented with everything from progressive rock to country. As Howard described it: “We started to come across our own sound a little bit, though it's evolved a lot since then."

With the addition of drummer Steve Johnson, a punk and metal aficionado, they embraced a soulful rock sound, one proudly showing its blues roots. Heath Fogg, a well-known local guitarist joined after asking the group to open for his own band; they agreed as long as Fogg played with them. The guitarist obliged, later joining Alabama Shakes as a full-time member, and the line-up was complete.

Alabama Shakes got their start playing dives and empty clubs, rounding out sets with covers as they wrote original material and crafted their sound. The band grooves on stage, employing a raucous blues-rock and soul sound, while playing covers as varied as Otis Redding and AC/DC. Brittany Howard tears it up with her powerful, mournful vocals. In a recent interview with American Songwriter Howard said, “We definitely paid our dues.” 

Their first single “Hold On," a song about staying strong, illustrates their signature mix of blues, rock and soul. The band also conducted a recent web exclusive performance of the song “I Ain’t The Same.”

One of their biggest challenges has been to record an album that showcases their greatest strength - live performance. While Boys & Girls doesn't quite capture the energy of Alabama Shakes' live show, their debut is a damn good rock and roll record and a fine introduction to a band that possesses a bright future.

            

(Elford Alley has written plays, sketch comedy, and short stories. He currently lives in Dallas with his wife and daughter. Follow Elford on Twitter.) 

In the Beginning: Aimee Mann

  

Has it really been more than twenty years since Aimee Mann left 'Til Tuesday for a solo career?

To honor her two New York shows - NY Music Hall of Williamsburg (1/27) & Carnegie Hall (1/28) - let's take a look at the singer/songwriter's early days.

After high school, Aimee Mann attended the Berklee College of Music. She didn't stay long, however, dropping out to devote herself full time to her first band, a punk rock outfit called the Young Snakes. In 1982, they released an EP, Bark Along with the Young Snakes, but the following year Mann co-founded the new wave band 'Til Tuesday with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman. 

The 1985 album Voices Carry produced a hit with the title song. The video was in heavy rotation on MTV, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. The band was riding the crest of success, Mann was flexing her creative muscles and on their next two albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now, she wrote most of the material.

'Til Tuesday eventually broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career. Michael Hausman became her manager.

                       

In the Beginning: Mason Jennings

    

Sometimes you just know. Mason Jennings knows.

At sixteen, the songwriter dropped out of high school in order to pursue his music full-time. After moving to Minneapolis, he began working on his first album, which he scrapped several times before settling on the track listing. In 1997, Jennings released Mason Jennings, a record where he did everything: wrote, performed, arranged, recorded and produced the eight tracks.

Dan Lee of Allmusic praised Jennings' debut effort: "If Jennings knows anything about music, he knows how to write a hook. But the songs here are not made up of just catchy melodies. Like Paul Simon, he also knows how to capture a mood and character with a few short lines, and the fact that all of this is set to an undeniable hook and groove is just icing on the cake." 

The album received airplay on local radio stations and helped him secure a Thursday night residency at Minneapolis' 400 Bar. The steady gig helped build a solid fan base. 

Fourteen years later, Jennings has released nine studio albums, including his most recent Minnesota (September 2011), and is ready to embark on a winter tour.

As a teenager, Mason Jennings knew that music would be his life, and now as an adult - husband and father -"remaining steadfastly single-minded about one’s pursuits gets increasingly difficult."

                        

In the Beginning: The War on Drugs

                        
Question: What do you get when you toss Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, My Bloody Valentine and Tom Petty into a blender?

Answer: The War on Drugs cocktail.

Guitarist/vocalist Adam Granduciel moved from California to Philadelphia in 2003, where he met fellow guitarist Kurt Vile. Along with Charlie Hall (organ/drums), Kyle Lloyd (drums) and Dave Hartley (bass), they released a demo EP as The War on Drugs in 2005. The group gave away its Barrel of Batteries EP for free early in 2008.

After their debut album, Wagonwheel Blues (2008), Vile, Hall and Lloyd left the band. Steven Urgo (drums) and Robbie Bennett (keyboards/guitar) joined Granduciel and Hartley for The War on Drugs' second record, Slave Ambient in the summer of 2011. 

The Indie band's brand of Americana is reminiscent of the early Wilco and Son Volt records. Listen to their live performance of "Brothers" and judge for yourself.

               

In the Beginning: Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month and Cameron Crowe - the man behind such films as "Almost Famous," "Singles," and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" - has directed a documentary about the band called Pearl Jam 20.

With so much history behind them, I thought it would be somewhat interesting to take a look at the band's humble history. 

During the 1980's, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament were members of the grunge band Green River. The band toured and recorded for several years, eventually disbanding in 1987.

Gossard and Ament began playing with vocalist Andrew Wood and formed Mother Love Bone. For a couple of years, the band recorded and toured and found a home on the Polygram label. Mother Love Bone's debut album, Apple, was released in July 1990, four months after Wood died of a heroin overdose.

Gossard started jamming with guitarist Mike McCready and Ament quickly joined. The trio sent out a five-song demo tape in order to find a drummer and singer. They gave the demo tape to former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons who passed on the invitation but sent it to his friend Eddie Vedder in San Diego.

Vedder recorded the vocals to three the songs, "Alive," "Once," and "Footsteps." He sent the tape back to the trio, who were so impressed with his performance they flew Vedder out to Seattle for an audition. Within a week, he had joined the band.

With the addition of drummer Dave Krusen, the band took the name Mookie Blaylock after the NBA basketball player. The band played its first show at the Off Ramp Café in Seattle on October 22, 1990, and soon signed to Epic Records who was concerned about trademark issues, forcing the group to change their name to Pearl Jam.

Eddie Vedder claimed that the name was a reference to his great-grandmother Pearl, who was married to a Native American and had a special recipe for peyote-laced jam. 

In a 2006 Rolling Stone interview, Jeff Ament and Mike McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on "Pearl Jam" after attending a Neil Young show in which he jammed on his songs for 15–20 minutes.

The rest is history... 

                      

In the Beginning: Cat Power

                
When Chan Marshall dropped out of high school, she started performing under the name Cat Power, which she took from a Caterpillar advertisement that read: "Cat Diesel Power." 

While in Atlanta, Marshall played in support of her friends' bands, Magic Bone and Opal Foxx Quartet, but according to her, she was primarily interested in hanging out with her friends, getting drunk and experimenting with drugs. 

In 1992 Cat Power accompanied Glen Thrasher to New York City, who in turn introduced her to New York's free-jazz and experimental scene. During one of her shows, she played a two-string guitar and sang the word "no" for fifteen minutes. 

It was around this time when Cat Power met God Is My Co-Pilot, and their relationship resulted in the release of her first single "Headlights" in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label.

Discography:

*Dear Sir (1995)

*Myra Lee (1996)

*What Would the Community Think (1996)

*Moon Pix (1998)

*The Covers Record (2000)

*You Are Free (2003)

*The Greatest (2006)

*Jukebox (2008)

*Dark End of the Street (2008)

                      

In the Beginning: Stone Temple Pilots

          

For the past year, Riffraf has brought you several ongoing columns: Landmark Albums. Greatest Album Covers. Ten Things You Didn't Know. Here's our latest: In the Beginning.

The In the Beginning series will primarily focus on the inception and early days of some of your favorite musical groups. If you'd like to suggest a band, please feel free to comment (the comment box is located just below this post). 

Scott Weiland met Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California in 1986. They began discussing their girlfriends, and much to their surprise discovered that they were dating the same woman. Weiland and DeLeo became friends, broke things off with the girl who ended up leaving town, and moved into her vacated apartment.

The singer and bassist formed a band with two of Weiland's friends from high school, Corey Hicock (guitar) and David Allin (drums). When Hicock and Allin departed, Robert DeLeo's brother Dean (guitar), and drummer Eric Kretz joined the band. They called themselves Mighty Joe Young and recorded a demo in 1990.

The band began working on their debut album with distinguished producer Brendan O'Brien for Atlantic Records when they were informed that there was a blues musician who called himself Mighty Joe Young. They changed their name to Shirley Temple's Pussy, but the record company pressured them to change their name once again. The band liked the initials STP and eventually settled on the name Stone Temple Pilots, inspired by a carving in an ancient temple that depicts a man in a small flying ship.

Discography:

* Core (1992)

* Purple (1994)

* Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996)

* No. 4 (1999)

* Shangri-La Dee Da (2001)

* Stone Temple Pilots (2010)