Pretty Handsome Awkward

The Used is a band that turns personal problems into art, and for that they need a creative (yet tortured) singer.  Bert McCracken is just that, the lead vocalist and songwriter for an atypical rock band.  He also has a darkened past, is truly passionate about music, and is a self-described gourmet chef.  All these things make him one of the ultimate frontmen.

Bert was born into a Mormon family under which he rebelled by going to other churches, causing him to be kicked out of the house at sixteen.  Afterwards, he dropped out of school.  He was homeless and addicted to crystal meth due to drug experimentation.  Ironically, he used to edit for a magazine called "Drugs Suck" before sixteen.  When he was young, Bert played in a trumpet band before The Used.  When Bert was given music without lyrics in order to audition for the already formed band, he wrote his first The Used song called "Maybe Memories."  The Used then gained popularity with tours and albums.  When Bert moved to Los Angeles for work, he was fascinated and disgusted with the city and all the "liars," inspiring him to write more vicious songs like "Pretty Handsome Awkward."  After the release of their fourth album, Bert fell off the stage at a show and broke his elbow and hand.  Through the next four months, he fell into a diet of painkillers.  He said he then felt "useless, like a waste of space," but this caused him to feel the creative fire.  Inspired to shed his drug habit, he wrote twelve songs in twelve days to produce Vunerable.   Bert has a softer side as well.  Backstage at Vans Warped Tour, he's well known for his cooking.  He says his usual dishes are tapas, bacon-wrapped shrimp, and Mediterranean.  "If you can get backstage come find us, I'll be throwing down." he says.  Bert also eats a lot of peanut butter before shows due to the immense amount of singing and screaming.

Bert no longer does serious drugs.  His love for music is apparent.  The Used recently went off of their record label because the label was pushing them towards the Top 40 vibe, and they felt that was compromising the integrity of the band.  He has often said "Rock and roll is imperfection.  It always has been.  That's what makes it special."  The band and Bert are currently working on touring and re-releases.




Sources:
Information:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_McCracken
05/09/13 wikipedia.com
-http://kroq.cbslocal.com/2012/03/26/ exclusive-the-useds-bert-mccraken-on-painkillers-bbq-record-labels-and-vulnerable-stream-full-album/
05/09/13 KROQ.com  interview

Pictures:
-http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/bert-mccracken/images/25011700/title/bert-mccracken-photo 05/09/13 fanpop.com
-http://www.angelfire.com/music6/proudposer/ now_you_have_all_of_/index.album/bert-mccracken?i=14 05/09/13 angelfire.com
-http://www.myspace.com/bert_fansite 05/09/13 myspace.com

Something to Believe In

Along with mainstream grunge bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden, Pearl Jam has made history in 90's music. With their debut album Ten their instrumental jams rocketed to relative fame. The band has three guitarists, and one of them is the lead singer Eddie Vedder. Vedder is the frontman and writes most of the band's music and lyrics.

After their first and their second album, Pearl Jam had won a Grammy and a MTV Music Video Award. Vedder and the band handled fame differently than most others. After a tour overcharge, they engaged in a boycott of Ticketmaster, who Vedder said was a concert "monopoly." The band, wanting to keep music fresh and for the people, refused to make more music videos because their song "Jeremy" won four awards from MTV including Video of the Year. Vedder said "Before music videos first came out, you’d listen to a song with headphones on, sitting in a beanbag chair with your eyes closed, and you’d come up with your own visions, these things that came from within. Then all of a sudden, sometimes even the very first time you heard a song, it was with these visual images attached, and it robbed you of any form of self-expression." Vedder also wrote the wildly popular song "Better Man," which even overtook pop charts.  Eddie Vedder also wrote a series of three songs described as a Momma-Son mini-opera inspired by his personal experience of finding out the man he thought was his father was actually his adopted stepfather, and that his real father was dead.

Vedder is a vegetarian and supports the Green Party.  Pearl Jam often play
s benefit concerts and Vedder has collaborated with many rock artists, including some of my personal favorites: The Strokes and drummer Jack Irons of Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Pearl Jam's strong emotional rock round that doesn't disregard the need for a good chorus combined with Vedder's riffs and talent for songwriting has made this band and it's frontman a transcendent entity. 

"I think at some point along the way we began feeling we wanted to give people something to believe in because we all had bands that gave that to us when we needed something to believe in. That was the big challenge for us after the first record and the response to it. The goal immediately became how do we continue to be musicians and grow and survive in view of all this... The answers weren’t always easy, but I think we found a way."

Sources: 

Photo 2, 04/25/13, uproarradio.com

http://www.uberproaudio.com/who-plays-what/187-pearl-jams-eddie-vedder-guitar-gear-rig-and-equipment 

Photo 1, 04/25/13, tumblr.com

http://eddie-vedder.tumblr.com/post/15300983543

Quote, 04/25/13, Wikipedia.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Jam

“Biggie Biggie Biggie Can’t You See?”

He is often called the savior of “east-coast hip hop,” and the nickname is well deserved.
Biggie Smalls, or Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace), was the leader and mentor of the
group Junior M.A.F.I.A., the group of east coast and New York rap. More than that, he is hailed
as the best MC of all time, the most skillful, and certainly the most popular.

B.I.G. is the only child of Voletta Wallace, and was very close to his mother. Biggie
Smalls earned the nickname “Big” in middle school because of his size. Also in middle school,
he won many English accolades and began selling illegal drugs. He grew up in Brooklyn, and
would later represent his city in many verses. Big rose to fame in a time where West Coast rap
was very popular, and when he was signed by Sean “P.Diddy” Combs to Uptown Records, he
increased New York fame on the charts.  He had a problem with selling drugs, but after his daughter T'yanna was born was forced to quit by P. Diddy.   He gained real notoriety with his platinum song, "Big Poppa".

After Biggie became invovled with Junior M.A.F.I.A., he was also entered into a coastal feud between Bad Boy Records (east) and Death Row Records (Tupac Shakur's record label).  The feud increased when Shakur released a "diss song" that Wallace refused to respond to.  In 1996 Shakur was inexplicably shot (there is much mystery surrounding the gang-like feud and both their deaths), and Wallace had his second child, C.J.  Wallace continued to surround himself with drugs and gang members until he was shot four times in 1997 in a drive-by.  Reports often like the Shakur and Wallace shootings.  Nonetheless, Biggie Smalls' career thrived, even posthumously, with songs like "Hypnotize".  While working with Junior M.A.F.I.A., Wallace worked with many artists like Lil’ Kim and Lil’ Cease, who went on to become solo artists. But Biggie is one of the widest known rap celebrities, when working with a group or a as a solo artist, of all time.



All general knowledge taken from Wikipedia's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggie_Smalls on 03/11/13
Photo 1: 03/11/13 Bossip.com http://bossip.com/?s=biggie+smalls&x=0&y=0
Photo 2: 03/11/13 Tumblr.com http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/biggiesmalls

30% Physics, 68% Play Dough

With heavy rimmed glasses, long sideburns, and crazy hair, Justin Pierre is hard to miss.  But the frontman of Motion City Soundtrack has much more than crazy hair under his belt: he is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and backing guitar for Motion City Soundtrack, he is a short film maker, and he’s done guest vocals on some very awesome bands (Fall Out Boy, Metro Station, Grown Ups, and Limbeck).  The band has made five albums; the first and the last one are not very well recognized but still a good listen.  The middle three, Commit to This Memory (2005), Even If it Kills Me (2007), and My Dinosaur Life (2008), are the most reflective of Pierre‘s writing style and personal lyrics.

In Commit to This Memory, Pierre attempts to write both from his father’s point of view and his own.  During a large part of his life he struggled with an alcohol addiction, reflected in the lyrics “The liquor store’s closed/ we were so close to scoring/ it hurts, it destroys ‘till it kills.”  In Even If it Kills Me, Pierre was praised by music journalists as “the star of this album” and “refreshing, completely incapable of taking himself seriously.”  My Dinosaur Life veers a little more pop than punk, and is reflective of Pierre’s lightening up after beating his addiction, yet it still has that geeky heartbreak vibe that he is known for.  

Whether he‘s known for his hair (he once said, “It’s a complicated physics equation.  Thirty percent physics, Sixty eight percent play dough.” ) or his power pop lyrics, he’s certainly an interesting frontman.   When asked what’s next for MCS, Justin replied “tour, tour, tour.”


Fun Facts: 
-Pierre had the thick-rimmed, Buddy Holly glasses long before it was ever "a thing."
-Justin has asthma, and uses his inhaler as a prop during live performances.  Endearing, isn’t it?
-Also endearing, Pierre’s middle name is “Courtney.”

Sources:
Scene Point 2/20
http://www.scenepointblank.com/features/interviews/motion-city-soundtrack/ 
Wikipidia 2/20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_City_Soundtrack
Last FM (Image) 2/20
http://www.last.fm/music/Motion+City+Soundtrack/+images/29695387
Tumblr (Image) 2/20
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/joshua%20cain
Blogarts (Image) 2/20
http://blogs.artvoice.com/exitmusic/2010/07/19/warped-tour-2010-veterans-rookies-and-the-crawl-of-death/

Gutter Punk

“Under the bridge downtown/ Is where I drew some blood/ Under the bridge/ I could not get enough."  You’ve probably heard these autobiographical lyrics from The Red Hot Chili Peppers.  They’re Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees, toured with Nirvana, and have been around since for-ev-er.  And so has their lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, who has been making music since his teens when he met Flea, his bassist, bandmate, and best friend.  He recently turned 50; he’s still making music and he’s probably healthier than ever.

Kiedis: Then and Now

Kiedis spent his early life in LA, with divorced parents (he idolized his mostly absent father).  But during driver’s ed he met fellow social outcast Flea.  Flea encouraged him to make music,  and to be adventurous; he hurt his back jumping from a roof into a swimming pool, a frequent habit of theirs.  He also encouraged the experimentation with drugs that would begin a life-long drug addiction that is braided deeply into his lyrics.   “Under the Bridge” was written by Kiedis to reflect how his opiate addiction had affected his life, written from pure loneliness.  Kiedis said he was “shooting speedballs under a bridge” and how emotionally drained he felt looking back to that.  This song is a large Rosetta Stone of the 90’s Alt-Rock movement.  Kiedis’ style has changed over the years, he’s run the scale from funk scat-singing to punk rapping, all over music by his amazing band mates like Frusciante, Hillel Slovak, Chad Smith, and of course Flea.  But the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ style of melodious self-described “gutter punk” of the 90’s, as well as Kiedis’ personal unique voice, make them omnipresent.

Kiedis was deeply affected by the death of his band mate Hillel Slovak by overdose, and for six years was clean from drugs.   His major relapse was when a doctor prescribed him a synthetic opiate, which caused serious cravings.  His book Scar Tissue describes his life and drug-use in detail, which is a really moving read.  Red Hot Chili Peppers released their tenth album I’m With You in 2012.   Currently, Kiedis has been clean since December of 2000, and has taken on yoga and workouts to improve his back problems.  He has a son, Everly Bear, and is working on his relationship with his father Blackie.  Personally, I think this gutter punk’s story is so moving, and there’s so much more to his life and lyrics as well as the band than other artists.

Under the Bridge Live at Slane Castle

Thanks to (02/07/12):
http://redhotchilipeppers.wikia.com/wiki/File:Anthony_Kiedis_12.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Kiedis
http://www.youtube.com

Everything You Don't Need To Know

            My name is Tessa and I’m here to tell you a multitude of stuff I think is cool about popular bands' frontmen or women.  I spend a lot of my own time on Wikipedia, Google, and Youtube learning about these people, because for some reason I care about whether Freddie Mercury likes Chinese food (he does by the way).  So why not put it all together for other people?  I’ve always been enthralled by the men behind the music.  You’ve heard their music, and maybe you know their name, but I’m going to tell you their story. 

            A “frontman” is the public face of most bands, usually the lead vocalist.  Each post will be about a different singer from a different band, from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees to starving-artist garage bands.  The post will outline their music career, provide some interesting facts, and discuss some high and low points of their life.  It may also have some scandals, pictures, and unnecessary information only devoted fans would even care about.  I want to focus on their lives, but most importantly the personalities that made them into their style of musicians. 

            Lyrics and riffs have a propensity to touch our lives and music is notorious for “fitting the moment.”  But the people who write these songs and work on concept albums are inspired their own lives, and maybe knowing their biographies will help people better understand them.

Background image of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be found: at http://hbowatch.com/hbo-to-air-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-ceremony/ 

Image Used: http://hbowatch.com/hbo-to-air-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-ceremony/