Tuesday

Hey, this looks cool!

The Moog Guitar

Photobucket

The Moog Guitar can sound­—and feel­—like anything from a banjo to a synthesizer. More HERE

HT:Instapundit

Thursday

Tracie Young

Tracie Young (born 1965, Derby, United Kingdom) was a pop singer in the 1980s. She began her singing career at a mere 17 years of age, when she was discovered by Jam leader Paul Weller through a newspaper ad for his new Respond label. Signed to Respond Records, she had UK hit singles in 1983 with "The House That Jack Built" and "Give it Some Emotion" (both credited simply to "Tracie"), as well as singing back-up on the Style Council album, Introducing The Style Council. She sang on The Jam's final single "Beat Surrender" as well as The Style Council's "Speak Like A Child" and "Boy Who Cried Wolf" (which arguably was a brief but powerful demonstration of her skills).

She has since enjoyed a successful career in local radio, starting out as producer of 'The Best 80s Show In the World, Ever' at Essex FM in the late 1990s, and later moving on to presenting the travel bulletins during the breakfast show and freelancing as a presenter. In 2003 Tracie joined Soul City in Romford to present their breakfast show, but left a year later when Soul was bought by the London Media Group and rebranded as Time FM. In June 2004 Tracie joined Dream 107.7 as mid-morning presenter, but became breakfast presenter in September of that year. She continued in this slot until the Summer of 2006, moving briefly to Drivetime then leaving altogether a few weeks later. She returned in the Autumn to present the networked weekday evening show. As with her early days in radio as a producer, the music appeared to be the most important part of these well-researched evening shows. She included regular featured artists, with in-depth biographies and up to date news on artists from the 60s through to contemporary singers and groups. She also documented the history of labels such as Motown and Stiff.

Tracie presented the weekend sports show at Essex FM and has always included football updates in her weekend shows, most recently at Dream 100 (Tracie is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter). Since September 2007 she has freelanced at various stations in Essex but, according to her Myspace page, she will be returning to a regular slot on Southend Radio 105.1FM when it launches in Spring 2008.

Tracie took part in a charity bike ride in May 2007 from John O'Groats to Lands End in aid of Little Havens Children's Hospice in Essex. She has raised over £4500 for the hospice.

Tracie is divorced with 2 children and lives in Essex.

More info available from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Wednesday

The Cure

The Cure are an English rock band that formed in Crawley, Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several lineup changes, with frontman, guitarist and main songwriter Robert Smith—known for his iconic wild hair, pale complexion, smudged lipstick and frequently gloomy and introspective lyrics—being the only constant member.

The members of The Cure first started releasing music in the late 1970s. Their first album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), and early singles placed them as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre. After the release of 1982's Pornography, the band's future was uncertain and frontman Robert Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had cultivated. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to inject more of a pop sensibility into the band's music. The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States, where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Top 40 charts. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world and have sold an estimated 27 million albums as of 2004.[1] As of 2007, The Cure have released twelve studio albums and over thirty singles, with a thirteenth album in the works.

More info available from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thursday

Devo


Devo (pronounced DEE-vo or dee-VO, often spelled "DEVO" or "DEV-O") is an American New Wave music group, formed in Akron, Ohio in 1971. They are best known for their 1980 hit "Whip It", which made it to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their style has been variously classified as punk, art rock and post-punk, but they are most often remembered for their late 1970s and early 1980s New Wave sound which, along with others (such as Gary Numan, Peter Gabriel, and The B-52's) ushered in the synth pop sound of the 1980s.

Devo's music and stage show mingle kitsch science fiction themes, deadpan surrealist humor, and mordantly satirical social commentary via sometimes-discordant pop songs that often feature unusual synthetic instrumentation and time signatures, and their work has proved hugely influential on subsequent popular music, particularly New Wave and alternative rock artists.

Devo was also a pioneer of the music video, creating many memorable clips that were popular in the early days of MTV, although their use of the video medium dates right back to their very first appearance on stage at Kent State University in 1971, which was recorded with an early black-and-white portable video system.

More info available from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk (pronounced [ˈkʁaftvɛɐk], German for power station) is a Grammy award nominated, electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Kraftwerk sound combines a driving rhythm section with catchy, synthesized melodies and harmony; mainly following a Western classical style of arrangement, accompanied by simple lyrics that are sometimes sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. The Moog synthesizer is heavily present in the majority of the group's works, adding to its signature sound creations. In the mid to late 1970s and the early 1980s, the Kraftwerk sound was revolutionary for its time, and it has had a lasting impact across nearly all genres of modern popular music.

More info available from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia