| And that something is the band Embrace (which, of course, I am
currently listening to. "Target" from their new album, "This New Day"). They've
been really, really big in the UK for quite a while now, and I really,
really love their sound (at least their latest album). So I'm kinda
confused and sad that I had never heard of them. Anyway, I was just
reading their bio on their website, and I posted the first part of it
on here, because I think it's fairly well-written and entertaining.
>>>
For
their part, the band have had some real adventures. They've scaled the
charts and plunged to depths of despair, crossed seas, left cities
behind them. It started in a shed, or a garage, or whatever you
want to call it - a building at the bottom of a garden where you could
make a lot of noise. Richard was playing drums in a thrash band / punk
band / metal band. Whatever they were, they made a lot of noise. His older brother said: "If I was in a band I'd do it like this..." A
new band was formed. They couldn't play. Danny made them practice five
nights a week nonetheless. Richard tuned his guitar by tightening the
strings as far as they'd go because he didn't know any better. The
bassist didn't have a bass. He wouldn't or couldn't buy a bass. The
singer sacked him. "If you're going to play bass, it helps to own a
bass." A drummer auditioned. He'd been drumming since he was 11
and had been in loads of bands, like everyone who wants to be in a
band. This new band couldn't play and didn't have any songs, but the
guitarist was doing something interesting with delay pedals, and ten
minutes with the singer - passionate, wide-eyed, full of belief and
commitment if not prowess - convinced Mike. They might be in a shed at
the bottom of the garden right now, but they were definitely going
somewhere. They stuck an advert for a new bassist in the local
Free Ads, because they couldn't afford to advertise in NME or Melody
Maker. Steve had given up being in bands because he had a wife and a
job and all the bands he'd been in had been rubbish anyway. He was
looking for a wardrobe in the Free Ads because his cat was messing up
his only suit by scratching it when it hung from the back of the door.
He checked the "musicians wanted" section out of habit. This lot were
only up the road and they liked The Pixies and Ride, so why not? He
could put up with them liking REM. When he tried out he realised they
couldn't play and didn't have any songs anyway (and there was his wife
and his job to consider), but ten minutes with the singer, who couldn't
really sing and didn't really know how to write a song, convinced him
as well. It couldn't be any worse than the time he'd lived in a
friend's garden for three months, surely? Richard had a strange
habit of setting himself on fire and jumping off railway bridges. Not
just as a kid; as an adult. Steve sometimes had acid flashbacks, during
which people would take advantage of him at pool. Danny, intense
****er, once stuck a screwdriver in his own arm to convince someone he
was telling the truth. Mike is a drummer, and we all know what they're
like. They had a couple of songs by now, and practiced five
nights a week at Mike's house, headphones on, so all the neighbours
could hear was stamping. They wouldn't play a gig until they were
totally ready, until they had the songs and the telepathy: What was the
point otherwise? Richard dreamed songs in his sleep, while Danny stayed
up late at night fighting with them, trying to drag them out of himself
and beat them into shape. He couldn't really play guitar but sometimes
his hands would shape a chord and then a melody would spill out of his
guts. A handful of the songs seemed like something special. There was a
country-ish one, another that people said sounded like Sly & The
Family Stone (but which actually started with The Beatles, in a vague
way), and a grand one with big ideas that wasn't quite finished. Weeks
turned into months turned into a couple of years. They stripped back
how they made music to nothing and started again from scratch, just so
they knew they were themselves and not some other band. At one point
they settled on a name. Don't ask how or why; they can't remember. But
it was better than Curious Orange. >>> ...and
there's, like, four times that much after that... it gets a little
tedious (it practically outlines the history of the band show by show,
song by song). But if you want to read the rest, it's at
http://www.embrace.co.uk/history Anyway... |
