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Metallica

Posted on January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 by Music PPF

Heavy metal band Metallica hails from the United States. James Hetfield (vocals/guitar) and Lars Ulrich (drums) started the band in Los Angeles in 1981, however the group has spent the most of its existence in the Bay Area. One of the “big four” bands of thrash metal along with Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer due to their rapid tempos, instrumentals, and violent musicianship. Hetfield and Ulrich, the band’s original members, create the majority of the songs, while veteran lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo round out the current roster. They’ve had guitarist Dave Mustaine, who established Megadeth after being dismissed, and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton, and Jason Newsted.

In 1986, Metallica released Master of Puppets, widely considered their finest album and one of the hardest metal albums of all time. Metallica received their first Grammy Award nomination for their album…And Justice for All (1988). Metallica’s self-titled fifth album from 1991 was their first not to be primarily rooted in thrash metal, and it was a huge financial success, selling over 16 million copies in the United States to date and becoming the best-selling album of the SoundScan period. Metallica’s ninth studio album, Death Magnetic (2008), saw the band return to its thrash metal origins and was received with the same critical acclaim as the band’s earlier releases despite the band’s experimentation with new genres and directions in previous releases. After this, in 2016, they released Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, and in 2023, they plan to release 72 Seasons, their 11th studio album.

In 2000, Metallica spearheaded a lawsuit against the P2P file-sharing site Napster, in which the band and other artists accused Napster of illegally distributing their copyright-protected work without permission. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, a critically praised documentary released in 2004, followed the band during the turbulent development of their eighth studio album, St. Anger (2003), and the band’s internal issues at the time. Metallica entered the Hall of Fame in 2009, and their music is considered classic rock. Metallica: Through the Never was a concert film released in 2013 that featured the band performing live against a fictitious thriller scenario, and in which the band members also produced the screenplay and appeared with Dane DeHaan.

Metallica has put out 10 studio albums, 4 live albums (2 of which feature the San Francisco Symphony), 12 video albums, a cover album, 2 EPs, 37 singles, and 39 music videos. The band’s past six studio albums (starting with Metallica) have all debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. They have won nine Grammy Awards out of a total of twenty-three nominations. As of 2018, Metallica has sold over 125 million records worldwide, making them one of the most commercially successful bands of all time. Publications like Rolling Stone have included Metallica on their lists of the best artists of all time, placing them at number 61 on their own 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Metallica has sold 58 million albums in the United States since the company began keeping sales records in 1991. This makes them the third best-selling music artist of all time.

Twisted Sister

Posted on January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 by Music PPF

Heavy metal band Twisted Sister formed in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and eventually relocated to Long Island, New York. Both “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” are among their most well-known songs, and their accompanying music videos are legendary for their comical antics.

Silver Star was the precursor to the eventual lineup of Jay Jay French (guitar), Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda (guitar), Dee Snider (lead vocals), Mark “The Animal” Mendoza (bass), and A. J. Pero (drums) in 1982. This lineup is responsible for the band’s first four albums. Under the Blade (1982) and You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll (1983) were Twisted Sister’s first two studio albums, and they were both highly acclaimed and helped make the band famous in the underground. With the release of their third album Stay Hungry (1984) and the accompanying song “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” the band finally broke through to the public. Twisted Sister’s subsequent albums, 1985’s Come Out and Play and 1987’s Love Is for Suckers, failed to equal the success of Stay Hungry, and the band broke up in 1988.

The band reformed for a short time in the late ’90s, and then again in 2003 for good. Still Hungry (2004), a re-recording of their third album, and A Twisted Christmas (2005), a Christmas album, were the next two albums released by the band (2006). They went on one last tour following Pero’s passing in 2015, and then they all went their own ways in 2016.

Snider dislikes the label “glam metal,” which is commonly applied to Twisted Sister because of the band’s members’ penchant for wearing cosmetics.

According to VH1, Twisted Sister is the 73rd best hard rock band of all time.

Peter Criss

Posted on January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 by Music PPF

Peter Criss’s parents, Loretta and Joseph Criscuola, were devout Roman Catholics and gave their five kids a strong faith in God. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. The ancestors of Joseph Criscuola were from Scafati, Salerno, Italy. Criss is a native of Brooklyn and a lifelong pal of Jerry Nolan, the future drummer for the New York Dolls. He was a serious art student and a huge fan of swing music. Criss was able to learn from his hero Gene Krupa at New York’s Metropole Club thanks to his time spent performing with bandleader Joey Greco.
During the middle to late 1960s, Criss played in a number of groups. During this period, Criss became a member of Chelsea, a band that at the time was releasing its debut self-titled album (1970) as part of a two-album deal with Decca Records. After the release of Lips in August 1971, they never released another album (a trio consisting of Criss and his Chelsea bandmates Michael Benvenga and Stan Penridge). By early 1972, Lips had dwindled to Criss and Penridge.

Post-Chelsea Michael Benvenga and pre-Kiss Gene Simmons were featured on an unreleased album recorded by Pete Shepley and Mike Brand in 1973. Session musicians Peter Criss and Gene Simmons. Captain Sanity was the name of the character in it.
Criss advertised in the East Coast version of Rolling Stone after the breakup of his band Lips, saying:

EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music. Peter, Brooklyn.

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who were wanting to expand their band, responded to the ad. It wasn’t until December of 1972 that Ace Frehley joined the band, and it wasn’t until later that month that they changed their name to Kiss. In his book Kiss and Make-Up, Simmons, however, writes of his first encounter with Criss as follows:

While flipping through Rolling Stone one afternoon, I saw an ad that read, “Drummer available – Will do anything.” I phoned him up while he was in the midst of a get-together, and he answered. I introduced myself and told him that I was part of a band that was just getting started and that they needed a drummer and would he be willing to try anything to make it. According to him, he was at once.

In a later section of the chapter, Simmons tells of meeting the drummer at a quaint Italian Club in Brooklyn “The drummer broke into song with a voice reminiscent of Wilson Pickett’s. Both Paul and I agreed, “That guy right there is our drummer.” The man’s name was Peter Criscuola.”

In February of 1974, Kiss released their debut album, simply titled Kiss. Criss led the singing on several Kiss songs, including “Black Diamond,” “Hard Luck Woman,” and “Beth,” the band’s first big hit.

Kiss’ ballad “Beth” was co-written by Criss, and it reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. Although “Disco Duck” also won the People’s Choice Award for “Young People’s Favorite New Song” in 1977, “Love Gun” remains Kiss’s most successful single in the United States. This tune was composed by Criss while he was still a member of Chelsea, before he joined Kiss. The song’s melody was conceived by Criss on a train ride from the band’s practice space in New Jersey to New York City. Together, he and Penridge composed the tune.

In 1971, the song was demoed.

Testament

Posted on January 22, 2023January 25, 2023 by Music PPF

The Berkeley, California-based thrash metal band Testament is an American institution. Originally forming in 1983, the current Legacy lineup consists of rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead singer Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist Steve Di Giorgio, and drummer Dave Lombardo. Peterson is the last surviving founding member of Testament, however one of the band’s composers, Skolnick, who left in 1992 and did not return until 2005, has now returned. In 1986, Billy replaced founding vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza, who had replaced Paul Baloff in Exodus, and thus began his tenure with Testament. He and Peterson are the only continuous members of Testament, with Peterson being the only one to feature on every studio album.

Considered one of the “big six” bands (together with Exodus, Death Angel, Lz Rockit, Forbidden, and Vio-lence) that helped define the thrash metal sound of the 1980s in the San Francisco Bay Area, The band formed in 1983. Testament is widely recognized as a pioneering band of the second wave of thrash metal, which emerged in the late ’80s, and a cultural phenomenon in its own right. [7][8] Along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill, and Death Angel, they are often considered one of the “big eight” of thrash metal. Since the inception of the SoundScan system, the band has sold over 1.4 million records in the United States. and more than 14 million copies sold throughout the globe. As of now, Testament has produced three DVDs, twelve singles, four live albums, five compilation albums, and thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs).

After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986 under the name Legacy, the band changed its name to Testament and released its self-titled debut album in 1987. The following year, they released The New Order, which also received widespread critical acclaim and was widely covered in the press, particularly in heavy metal music magazines. Testament’s third album, Practice What You Preach (1989), was their first to break into the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 list, marking the beginning of the band’s mainstream success. [19] A series of critically and commercially acclaimed albums were produced in the early to mid-1990s. These included Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992), and Low (1994). [19] Testament, who had been experimenting with a groove/death metal-influenced sound by the time Atlantic dismissed them in 1995, kept recording and performing until their extended sabbatical in 2001, when Billy was stricken with cancer. His disease had gone into remission by 2005, and he and Testament were back at it, recording the live album Live in London with the original lineup from The Legacy. Since then, Testament’s fame has skyrocketed; the band has released four albums in the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 (2008’s The Formation of Damnation, 2012’s Dark Roots of Earth, 2016’s Brotherhood of the Snake, and 2020’s Titans of Creation), and they have been on the road nonstop since. The band’s fourteenth studio album is now under production, with a release date set for 2023.

XXXTentacion

Posted on January 22, 2023January 22, 2023 by Music PPF

XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, was a famous American rapper and musician who passed away on June 18, 2018. Despite being a divisive figure due to his high-profile legal difficulties, XXXTentacion was able to build a loyal audience among the young people of his generation with songs about sadness and isolation. Both critics and listeners praise his eclectic musical tastes; he has dabbled with emo, trap, trap metal, nu metal, indie rock, lo-fi, hip hop, R&B, and punk rock. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of the emo rap and SoundCloud rap scenes, both of which saw widespread popularity in the middle to late 2010s.

Though he was born in Plantation, XXXTentacion moved to Lauderhill for the most of his formative years. After being released from a juvenile detention facility, he launched his music career on SoundCloud in 2013. He used methods and genres that were novel in rap music at the time, such as distortion and heavy guitar-backed instrumentals, which he modeled after third-wave emo and grunge. In 2014, he joined forces with like-minded musicians to establish the underground collective Members Only, and the group quickly rose to prominence in the SoundCloud rap scene. The song “Look at Me” by XXXTentacion brought him widespread fame. His self-titled debut album from 2017 debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and went on to earn double platinum certification in the United States. He achieved quadruple-platinum status in the United States with his second album,? (2018), which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Posthumously, its first track “Sad!” topped the Billboard Hot 100[19]. By November 2021, it had gathered over 1.3 billion YouTube views and 1.7 billion Spotify listens, and the RIAA had certified it Diamond.

Over the course of his life, XXXTentacion had several run-ins with the law, but the battery accusations brought against him in 2016 generated the greatest uproar.

Some have said that XXXTentacion’s legacy will be defined by his history of legal issues and alleged violence, while others have criticized the media’s portrayal of him, arguing that his perceived improvements in character later in life have turned his legacy into a tale of the power of second chances and redemption.

The 20-year-old XXXTentacion was killed on June 18, 2018, after being shot at a motorcycle store in Deerfield Beach, Florida. After robbing him of his Louis Vuitton bag carrying fifty thousand dollars in cash, the assailants drove off in an SUV. The motivation for the crime is still unknown, even though four individuals have been detained and charged with first-degree murder and other offenses. [30] One of the four individuals involved in the case pled guilty to second-degree murder in August 2022 in return for testifying against the other three defendants at their impending trial. The remaining three accused are expected to stand trial in 2023.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, XXXTentacion has sold 61 million albums in the United States, while the British Phonographic Industry has recognized sales of over 7 million albums by the artist in the United Kingdom. Since his passing, he has been nominated for 11 Billboard Music Awards and won an American Music Award and a BET Hip Hop Award. [34] After his death, his albums Skins (2018) and Bad Vibes Forever (2019) were both published, with the former being his second consecutive number-one album on the Billboard 200 and the latter breaking into the top five.

Alice Cooper

Posted on January 22, 2023January 22, 2023 by Music PPF

Alice Cooper, whose real name is Vincent Damon Furnier and was born on February 4, 1948, is a legendary American rock star. Many music critics and his colleagues regard Cooper as “The Godfather of Shock Rock” because of his raspy voice and elaborate stage shows that include fireworks, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, snakes, baby dolls, and dueling swords. He is a pioneer of a new kind of macabre and theatrical rock with roots in both vaudeville and garage music, with the intention of shocking listeners.

In 1964, in Phoenix, Arizona, “Alice Cooper” began as a band consisting of Furnier on lead vocals and harmonica, Glen Buxton on lead guitar, and Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar and backing vocals; they traced their musical origins back to a group named the Earwigs. In 1966, Michael Bruce joined the trio on rhythm guitar, and the following year, drummer Neal Smith was recruited. The five friends chose the moniker “Alice Cooper” for their band, and Furnier later used it as a stage name. A studio album was issued by them for the first time in 1969, although it only achieved moderate success on the charts. The band’s commercial apex came in 1973 with the release of their sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, after their breakthrough with the single “I’m Eighteen” and the album Love It to Death in 1970 [citation required]. After the dissolution of the band [citation required], Furnier launched a solo career in 1975 with the concept album Welcome to My Nightmare under the moniker Alice Cooper. Cooper has amassed sales of over 50 million albums over his career.

While his primary musical genres are hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, and glam metal, Cooper has also dabbled in new wave (1980–1983), art rock on DaDa (1983), and industrial rock on Brutal Planet (2000) and Dragontown (2002). (2001).

Heavy metal owes a great deal to his contributions to the genre’s aesthetics and music, and he has been called the “first introduced horror imagery to rock’n’roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre”

Offstage, he is a comedy legend, earning him the title of “beloved heavy metal entertainer” from Rolling Stone. In addition to his musical career, Cooper has also established himself as an actor, golfer, restaurateur, and radio DJ since 2004 with his classic rock program Nights with Alice Cooper.

Eminem

Posted on January 22, 2023January 22, 2023 by Music PPF

Eminem (/mnm/; often styled as EMINM) is the stage name of American rapper Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972). He’s widely considered one of the best rappers of all time and is credited with bringing hip hop to the mainstream in middle America. [2] Many people believe that Eminem broke down boundaries for white rappers by virtue of his worldwide fame and critically praised works. Although most of his provocative work in the late ’90s and ’00s earned him widespread controversy, he eventually became a symbol of the frustration felt by the American working class and was an inspiration to artists working in a broad variety of disciplines.

After gaining some notoriety with the releases of his first album Infinite (1996) and the extended play Slim Shady EP (1997), Eminem joined with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and hit it big with 1999’s The Slim Shady LP. The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and The Eminem Show (2002), his subsequent albums, were both critically acclaimed and commercial triumphs throughout the globe. As a result of his prescription drug addiction, Eminem took a break in 2005 after the release of his second album, Encore (2004). [3] He made his musical comeback four years later with the release of Relapse (2009), followed by Recovery (2010). 2010’s Recovery was the best-selling album in the world, making it Eminem’s second consecutive album to achieve this feat (his first being 2002’s The Eminem Show). The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013), Revival (2017), Kamikaze (2018), and Music to Be Murdered By (2019) all debuted at number one in the United States (2020).

As a fictionalized version of himself, Eminem made his feature debut in the musical drama 8 Mile (2002), for which the song “Lose Yourself” from the film’s soundtrack became the first hip hop song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

[4] Eminem has appeared in many cameo roles, including the movies The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009), and The Interview (2014), and the television show Entourage (2010). Along with manager Paul Rosenberg, he co-founded Shady Records, which was instrumental in the early success of musicians like 50 Cent, D12, and Obie Trice. Additionally, he has launched Shade 45, his own own station on the premium music service Sirius XM.

Even before he became famous as a solo artist, Eminem was a member of the groundbreaking hip hop trio D12. In addition to his solo career, he is famous for his work with fellow Detroit rapper Royce da 5’9.

With over 220 million albums sold globally, Eminem is one of the most successful musicians of all time. On the American charts, he dominated the 2000s and dominated the male charts in the 2010s, ranking third overall. He was honored by Billboard as their “Artist of the Decade” for 2000-2009. He is the first musician to have ten albums launch at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and he has also set a record with five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. [6] A number of Eminem’s albums and singles, including The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Curtain Call: The Hits (2005), “Lose Yourself,” “Love the Way You Lie,” and “Not Afraid,” have received Diamond or higher certification from the RIAA (RIAA). [7] He is in Rolling Stone’s lists of the 100 Greatest Artists and 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Among the many accolades he has received are 15 Grammys, 8 American Music Awards, 17 Billboard Music Awards, an Oscar, a Primetime Emmy, and an MTV Europe Music Global Icon Award. As of that year’s November, Eminem was officially admitted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

KISS

Posted on January 17, 2023January 22, 2023 by Music PPF

Kiss is an American rock band from New York City that was started in 1973 by Paul Stanley (vocals, rhythm guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals, bass), Ace Frehley (lead guitar, vocals), and Peter Criss (vocals, rhythm guitar) (drums, vocals). The group became well-known in the mid-1970s for their face paint and stage outfits. Their live performances in the style of shock rock included fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band has had a few different lineups, with Stanley and Simmons being the only ones who have stayed the same. Stanley, Simmons, Frehley, and Criss were in the band’s first and best-known lineup.

With their make-up and costumes, the band members looked like comic book characters: Stanley was the Starchild, Simmons was the Demon, Frehley was the Spaceman or Space Ace, and the Catman was Frehley (Criss). Criss left the band in 1980, and Frehley left in 1982, because they had different ideas about how to make music. Both would come back, though.

Kiss stopped wearing costumes and make-up on stage in 1983. This was the start of their “unmasked” era, which would last for more than a decade. During this time, the band’s popularity went up again. Their 1983 platinum-certified album Lick It Up introduced them to a new generation of fans, and its music videos were often played on MTV. Eric Carr took over for Criss in 1980. He died of heart cancer in 1991, and Eric Singer took his place. In 1996, the original members of Kiss got back together after a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the mid-1990s. They also brought back their makeup and stage clothes. The result was a very successful reunion tour, which made $143.7 million and was the band’s most successful tour to date. Criss and Frehley have since left the band again, and Singer and Tommy Thayer have taken their places. The band has kept using its original stage makeup. Singer and Thayer, for example, are still dressed as Catman and Spaceman. Kiss announced in September 2018 that the End of the Road World Tour, which began in January 2019 and is set to end in 2023, would be its last tour after 45 years of recording and performing. [1][2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Kiss is thought to be one of the most influential rock bands of all time[7, 8]. They also claim to have sold more than 100 million records around the world, including 21 million RIAA-certified albums[9, 10].

[11] Kiss also has 30 Gold albums, which is more than any other American band. Kiss has 14 Platinum albums, and three of them have won multiple Platinum awards. [8] The original four members of Kiss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10, 2014. Kiss came in at number nine on MTV’s list of the “Greatest Metal Bands of All Time” and number ten on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.” Loudwire magazine ranked Kiss as the third “Best Metal and Hard Rock Live Band of All Time.” [14]

Steve Glus

Posted on January 16, 2023January 21, 2023 by Music PPF

Steve Glus, also known as DJ SVT is a NY native who’s been spinning since the mid 1990s. Steve is known for being able to mix any style of music with grace and fluidity. In his personal life, Steve has served his community as an EMS Medic from which his DJ name derives. SVTs in the medical world are heart arrhythmias that can kill. Steve came up with his DJ name because he drops some killer rhythms. Steve works hard, working a primary day job, running an IT company, and his DJ business, Event Empire. To hire Steve, find him at www.myeventempire.com

Rock Nation

Posted on January 20, 2023February 21, 2023 by Music PPF

With a high emphasis on ‘party rock’, ROCK NATION brings everyone to the dance floor and singing along with crowd favorites that span the decades. And not just a jukebox band, ROCK NATION puts their own original spin on songs that give them an edge above the rest.

ROCK NATION is:

~Matt Whitaker on lead vocals

~Mike Provenzano on lead/rhythm guitar & backing vocals
~Tom Bosco on lead/rhythm guitar & backing vocals

~Bill Stoddard on bass guitar & backing vocals

~Joe Graves on drums and the meanest cow bell

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