TRAIN - Drops of Jupiter: 25 Years in the Atmosphere

Train is a Grammy Award winning <a href="http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/tag/rock" rel="nofollow">rock</a> band formed in San Francisco, California. To date, three of their albums have peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and have sold a total of over 4 million albums in the US. Three of their songs have been top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 including their biggest hit "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)". Train has found success on modern <a href="http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/tag/adult%20contemporary" rel="nofollow">adult contemporary</a> radio stations, where they have had eight songs in the top 20 of the Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks chart. What started as two guys with strong voices and one guitar became San Francisco's Train by 1994. It was in late 1993 that Patrick Monahan left Erie, PA, and met up with the Los Angeles band the Apostles. Lead singer/guitarist Rob Hotchkiss and fellow guitarist Jim Stafford had basically disbanded by this time, but the chance meeting with Patrick Monahan proved fortuitous, as Hotchkiss extended an invitation to the crooning Monahan to become a two-man band. After making exhaustive appearances in low-key coffeehouses, they decided to form a full band and enlisted former Apostles members Stafford and bassist Charlie Colin. Colin brought along his good friend, drummer Scott Underwood, and Train were on their way. Train settled in San Francisco to develop their sound in a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. In an unlikely scenario, executives from Columbia Records expressed an interest and, in a somewhat cooperative strategy, farmed the fledgling band out to the minors -- in this instance, Aware Records -- where they could grow naturally and unhurriedly. In 1997, they went on tour, opening for the likes of Blues Traveler, Barenaked Ladies, and Counting Crows. Train knew they had arrived when they sold out a performance at San Francisco's prestigious Fillmore venue. Their completed debut album was released the following year. Drops of Jupiter followed three years later, becoming a platinum hit on the back of its single of the same name. My Private Nation followed in 2003. Though response was initially weak, the single "Get to Me" eventually caught fire, and Train had their latest Billboard chart hit. A holdover live album appeared in 2004 while the band returned to the studio to record My Private Nation's follow-up. The single "Cab" announced the band's return in late 2005, with the full-length For Me It's You following early the next year. Since November 2006, the band has taken a break from recording and touring to be with friends and family. Lead singer <a href="http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/music/Pat+Monahan" rel="nofollow">Pat Monahan</a> released a solo album, Last of Seven, on September 18, 2007. The first single, "Her Eyes", was released in July. The song is available for download at iTunes. As of March 2008, Pat get together with members of Train once a month to write songs for their fifth studio album, due out in the spring of 2009. <a href="http://www.trainline.com" rel="nofollow">www.trainline.com</a> <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Train" rel="nofollow">Listen at Last.fm</a>

Barenaked Ladies Among the truths we hold to be self-evident are these: Canadian bands can play their asses off, and they can also bring the funny. No outfit hailing from north of the border embodies these paired virtues more engagingly than the Barenaked Ladies, whose fusion of hooks and yuks has resulted in more than 14 million albums sold, as well as putting myriad fannies in the seats of t On the occasion of the band’s 25th anniversary, BNL—Ed Robertson (guitar/vocals), Jim Creeggan (bass/vocals), Kevin Hearn (keyboard/guitar/vocals) and Tyler Stewart (drums/vocals)—are celebrating with new album GRINNING STREAK. The album, the band's twelfth, is their first in partnership with Vanguard Records after self-releasing their last four efforts. According to the affable and articulate Robertson, the decision was a no-brainer. “We’ve done the major label thing, we’ve done the other extreme, and it was gratifying that Vanguard was interested in working with the band,” he says. “We like to go with enthusiasm—it’s that simple. We know what we’re capable of, but to have someone working for you and excited about it is really cool.” The album picks up steam via its hyper-hooky 1st single “Boomerang,” produced by Gavin Brown (The Tragically Hip, Metric), who handled 11 of GRINNING STREAK’s 15 tracks. Another session with Toronto's Howie Beck (Feist, Walk of The Earth) yielded four album tracks: the buoyant “Who Knew,” the wistful “Smile,” the swirling “Off His Head” and the chugging “Best Damn Friend.” Rounding out the sessions is a Mark Endert (Maroon 5, Train) super-pop re-mix of "Boomerang." Returning to Toronto in mid-March, the band banged out remainder of the songs with Brown. These remarkably productive final sessions yielded several stone-cold killers, paced by the quintessentially catchy “Odds Are,” which marries a wicked-clever mathematical premise to a chorus hook that elevates with such thrust that it practically leaves a vapor trail. BNL go EDM, so to speak, on “Limits,” as Robertson climbs atop an earth-shaking electro-groove to deliver a cautionary tale about the risks inherent in impulsively exceeding the metaphorical speed limit, while “Did I Say That Out Loud?” is a blast of romantic ardor fueled by “alcohol or alchemy” that clocks in at a pulse-racing 2:27. All three are worthy additions to a canon already bursting at the seams with brainy, big-hearted classics. Indeed, the whole of GRINNING STREAK unfolds with the signature blend of immediacy, tunefulness and witty sophistication that made such BNL hits as “Pinch Me, “Brian Wilson,” “If I Had $1,000,000” and the chart-topping “One Week” modern-day classics. “Pop is a form that I love—it can be high-energy and intricate,” says Robertson of the genre the band has championed throughout the last quarter century. “When I think of pop music, I think of the Cars and Squeeze—interesting melodic rock is what I gravitate to and what I’m always striving for. I want guitar-heavy pop/rock that’s intelligent, evocative and thought-provoking. I want it to be singable and relatable, and I want there to be other layers in there for the people who want to go deeper—because not everybody does. I’ve heard so many times, ‘I love you guys ’cause your songs are just fun and easygoing.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m glad you enjoy them, but there’s a dark underbelly that you haven’t mined.’” Indeed, there’s much more to the Barenaked Ladies than initially meets the ear. Suck on the candy-coated surfaces of Robertson’s songs long enough and you never know what you’ll encounter in their “emotional centers,” as Robertson puts it. He wrestled with the songs for the new album over an extended period as he plumbed the depths of his psyche in search of just those emotional centers. As the ideas steeped in his mind, Robertson experienced periods of stress, though not to the degree he’d endured while writing the material for the band’s previous studio album, 2010’s All in Good Time. That one was their first project following the departure of Steven Page, who’d founded the band with Robertson in 1988, reconfiguring the BNL as a four-piece. “This is the second record since all of that turmoil,” Robertson notes, “but it’s still a part of what we’re going through and informs who we are. On the last record, there were some songs that were directly about the band split, but this record is much more about the emotional rebuilding after that process. Looking back on the maelstrom of all that upheaval, I wanted to convey a sense of hope, reconciliation and healing with these songs. ‘Off His Head,’ for example, is about pushing through difficulty. There’s a double chorus at the end that I flipped, because I didn’t want it to end with, ‘Wishing you were dead.’ That’s part of being exasperated and at your wit’s end. But what I like about this song is that it says you just do it. You think it’s hopeless, but there’s a reason you’re pushing through it. The song says you can let all these things ruin you, or you can take it on the chin and stand up again.” “Boomerang” metaphorically examines the aftermath of a breakup, but on a deeper level it recounts an impassioned interior dialogue.“It’s a really personal song that says, ‘You can be done with me, but I’m not done with you,’” Robertson explains. “For me, it’s about feeling relevant—because, as I started to approach this record, there was a period where I felt like I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t know who cared. But then I realized, y’know, I care. I like what I do, I’m a good songwriter and I’m gonna write—I’m gonna express things. So that song is about getting your confidence back—or, as one of my colleagues would say, getting your swagger back.” On the heels of the album’s release, the Barenaked Ladies will embark on the latest iteration of the summer tours that formed such a big part of their enduring appeal. For this year’s trek, which they’ve dubbed “Last Summer on Earth 2013,” BNL are bringing along their pals and fellow pop/rock mainstays Guster and the Ben Folds Five. The tour, which hits 30 amphitheaters and arenas, kicks off June17 at the Verizon Theatre in Dallas and concludes July 30 at Celebrate Brooklyn in the borough’s Prospect Park. It includes dates at such picturesque venues as Denver’s Red Rocks (6/19), the Santa Barbara Bowl (6/22), L.A.’s Greek Theatre (6/23), the Bangor (Maine) Waterfront (7/21) and Lennox, Mass.’ Tanglewood (7/23). “We built our career playing summer outdoor shows,” Robertson points out. “To be out there with a couple of other great bands bringing a lot of music to people—hey, it’s a nice way to spend the summer. After we put together the ‘Last Summer on Earth” tour last year, tongue firmly in cheek referencing the Mayan calendar, we thought it would be funny to just keep the ‘Last Summer on Earth’ thing going. Let’s enjoy ourselves. Let’s live like it is the last summer on earth. [Insert requisite rim shot here.] Let’s party like it’s 1999.” http://barenakedladies.com

If San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson wasn't so handy with the catchy melodies and dedicated to his music -- independently releasing five albums and an EP and amassing a nationwide fan base before finally singing to a major label for 2003's Beneath These Fireworks -- he still probably could have pursued an equally successful career as a stand-up comic. Not that his songs are jokes -- his lyrics suggest he's far more comfortable wearing his hear on his sleeve than a shallow smirk on his face. But as anyone whose seen him live (or heard new live album, At the Point) can attest, his candid between-song setups are killers. He's no slouch on the 12-string guitar, either. In other words, he's got it all. As the Hollywood Reporter put it matter-of-factly, he belongs in the spotlight by virtue of his strong personality and even stronger material.