This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2008) |
Cuban Boys | |
---|---|
Origin | Torquay, England |
Genres | Dance, synthpop |
Years active | 1998–present |
Labels | Org Records, EMI, House of Beauty |
Members | Ricardo Autobahn Skreen B |
Past members | Jenny McLaren BL Underwood |
Cuban Boys are an English electronic group and production team, currently composed of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn; the band formerly also included B.L. Underwood ("Blu") and Jenny McLaren (Autobahn's sister). Their music is characterised by fast electronic beats, heavy reliance upon samples and the repetition of the name drop "The Cuban Boys" in the background of many of their tracks. They achieved success after being aired on John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show with sample-heavy dance tracks and cut-ups and were responsible for the UK No. 4 [1] hit single "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" which was released through EMI.
The Cuban Boys formed in 1998 using the Internet as a publicity and collaboration tool from the outset. After a web-only release of an anonymous dance track, "Diophantus Arithmetica", with hints that it was by Noel Gallagher, they recorded "Oh My God! They Killed Kenny" (later retitled "Kenny"), which featured sampled dialogue from South Park combined with "The Bump" by Kenny. This was played extensively by John Peel and took the 6th position in the 1998 Festive Fifty. [2] Following this it was released as the band's first single. [3] A six-track EP, Blueprint for Modernisation, followed. A track from this EP, "Cuban Boy (Cuban Boys Go Boom! Mix)", went on to be used as the theme music for the BBC sitcom Still Game .
The Cuban Boys' next single, "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" was built on a sample used from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller which was featured in the Disney movie Robin Hood . It was first featured online as part of the Hampster Dance song on the website of the same name. It was picked up by producer Jonathan King who championed it and found a label to release it. The same sample was later used as the basis for the song "Irritating Hamster" by DJ Mavica, then as part of the Cuban Boys' hit (a close but noticeably different imitation of the original sample was used in the final release, as the licensing fees could not be met).
"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" became a No. 4 hit in the UK in December 1999, [4] following months of speculation and rumours - all of which turned out to be false - that the men behind the Cuban Boys project were in fact Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.[ citation needed ] Either way, the track received many requests for play on radio, and was heavily hyped as a contender for the Christmas number one spot. Upon release, the single peaked at No. 4 on the Christmas chart, outsold only by Westlife, Cliff Richard (with "The Millennium Prayer"), and a re-release of John Lennon's "Imagine". It also took the number one position in the 1999 Festive Fifty. [5]
The Cuban Boys co-wrote Atomic Beat Boy with Helen Love, released as a CD single, followed by a 12-inch remix EP 'Helen Love Vs Cuban Boys: Does Your Heart Go Boom'.
In 2000, the Cuban boys released their first album, Eastwood , through EMI but, despite the popularity of "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia", Eastwood suffered poor sales. It was not released in time to capitalise on the success of "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" and was given limited marketing.[ citation needed ] Some of the older tunes featuring unauthorised samples had them replaced by obvious imitations.
Following the commercial failure of Eastwood, the band were dropped by the label and left with some bitterness, later expressed through their releasing of a 7-inch cover version of the Sex Pistols' "EMI".
Commercially, little was heard of the band itself after Eastwood, although they released several limited release singles and EPs. The band focused mainly on Internet downloads, and made much of their early discography available free of charge from their various websites and on Myspace. All the members became involved in other projects and although the Cuban Boys never formally split up, the band ceased to be active around 2001. Its members continued to work together under various names, most notably Spray.
Following the death of John Peel in 2004, the Cuban Boys (now consisting only of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn) reformed to release a tribute song, "The Nation Needs You", [6] as a free download. [7] Following this, they returned to producing individual tracks, releasing some of them as download-only or limited release CD singles. In 2008, they released their first full album since Eastwood, The Satellite Junkyard [8] on their own record label, House of Beauty.
In 2010, the Cuban Boys released a greatest hits compilation of their singles. Art vs Commerce amounted to twenty one tracks, and was released once again on House of Beauty Records. The cover for the CD consists of a booklet with new artwork and a detailed history of the band.
Their third album, Machines [9] was released in 2017.
Members of the Cuban Boys have also worked on music under various names:
Additionally, the Cuban Boys have featured on alternative compilation albums such as Damaged Goods' Totally Damaged sampler (unique track) and have done remix work featuring on other bands' singles and EPs, e.g. Helen Love.
An extended play (EP) is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 15 to 30 minutes. An EP is usually less cohesive than an album and more "non-committal".
Velvet Acid Christ (VAC) is an electro-industrial band based in Denver, Colorado. The band was formed in 1990 by its leader vocalist, musician, and producer Bryan Erickson, and later featured various ex-members of Toxic Coma. The project gained limited popularity in Europe's underground nightclub scenes during the mid-1990s with the compilation Church of Acid (1996) before expanding into other markets in the goth and industrial subcultures. The band's discography includes 14 albums, the latest being Ora Oblivionis (2019).
Bis are a Scottish indie pop band composed of Steven Clark, John Clark, and Amanda MacKinnon, formed in 1994. The band's name, rhyming with 'this', derives from "black iron skyline", a lyric from the song "Twilight of a Champion" by The The.
The Hampster Dance is one of the earliest Internet memes. Created in 1998 by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte as a GeoCities page, the dance features rows of animated GIFs of hamsters and other rodents dancing in various ways to a sped-up sample from the song "Whistle-Stop", written and performed by Roger Miller for the 1973 Walt Disney Productions film Robin Hood. In 2005, CNET named the Hampster Dance the number-one Web fad.
"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia", also known as "C vs. I", is a song by English electronic music group the Cuban Boys. The song consists almost in its entirety of an unofficial soundalike sampled loop from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller which was featured in the Disney movie Robin Hood, played at high speed in a manner similar to the classic "Chipmunks" records. The original sample, also sped up, was first featured on the Internet as part of "The Hampster Dance" song on the website of the same name.
The Tip Sheet (1993–2002) was a weekly magazine and CD insert for UK music industry insiders. Jonathan King founded it and was managing editor until his imprisonment in 2001. His brother, Andy, took over the position, helped by Joe Taylor.
Spray is a synth-pop duo from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, consisting of siblings Jenny McLaren and Ricardo Autobahn. Following the demise of their previous band, the Cuban Boys, McLaren and Autobahn released the album Living In Neon on Ninthwave Records in the United States. This was followed in 2003 by the extended single "I Am Gothic". A new album, Children of a Laser God was released online in 2006, along with the single "Run With Us", a cover of the theme tune of the popular 1980's cartoon The Raccoons with the "Michael Trenfield" remix as the main single accompanied with the original version and remixes from JKZ, Absorb, FMU and Diskowarp.
Vice Squad are an English punk rock band formed in 1979 in Bristol. The band was formed from two other local punk bands, The Contingent and TV Brakes. The songwriter and vocalist Beki Bondage was a founding member of the band. Although there was a period of time when the band had a different vocalist she reformed the band in 1997. Since 2008, the band have been releasing records on their own label Last Rockers.
David Hodges is an American songwriter and record producer from Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a studio contributor to the rock band Evanescence from 2000 to 2002, and has co-written and co-produced for pop, pop rock and country artists, including Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Daughtry, Backstreet Boys, Avril Lavigne, David Archuleta, Christina Aguilera, Carrie Underwood, Jessie James, 5 Seconds of Summer, Christina Perri, and Tim McGraw.
"Tomorrow Comes Today" is a song from British virtual band Gorillaz's self-titled debut album Gorillaz and was their first release when issued as an EP in November 2000. The first three songs from the EP ended up on their debut album, however, "Latin Simone" was heavily edited, and dubbed into Spanish, for the album release. The new version was sung by Ibrahim Ferrer, and renamed "Latin Simone ". The original version is sung by 2-D and appears along with "12D3" on some versions of the later-released compilation album G-Sides. The song itself was also the fourth and final single from that album, released on 25 February 2002. It peaked at number 33 on the UK Singles Chart. A demo version of the song, "I Got Law" was included as a bonus track of the Japanese edition of 13 by Blur, Damon Albarn's other musical project.
Darren "Daz" Sampson is a British professional football manager/scout, music producer and broadcaster. Sampson is known for his commercial dance music as part of several groups and his television appearances. He has had nine Top 30 UK singles.
"Teenage Life" was the British entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, which was sung by Daz Sampson in English.
Bus Stop was a British dance act made up of Darren Sampson, alongside Graham Turner, Mark Hall and Nikki Reid (Lane). The group was formed in 1998 and had a string of hit singles before disbanding in 2002. Main vocalist, Sampson, went on to represent the UK in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.
Lolly Pop is a theatrical on-stage persona of Brooke R. Calder, produced by Ricardo Autobahn, Monte Moir and Doctor Fink. While considered a musical artist, Pop- whose fictitious real-life identity was later revealed as New York socialite Lorraine Price- has always been a performance artist playing characters-within-characters.
John Matthews, better known by his stage name Ricardo Autobahn, is an English producer, songwriter and musician. He is also known in collaborations with Daz Sampson as in Rikki & Daz and the projects like Barndance Boys, Cuban Boys, and his current project Spray.
Christopher John Allison is a British record producer and founder/head of Sonic360 Records. His work has been associated with artists such as The Beta Band, Coldplay, Walter Becker, Kinky, Plastilina Mosh, Emmanuel Jal, The Wedding Present and Shack.
Eastwood is the Cuban Boys' first and only major label album. It was released in 2000, after some delay, following the band's only UK hit single, "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia".
Rikki & Daz, was a pop music duo, formed in 2002 by John Matthews and Daz Sampson. John Matthews of the Cuban Boys fame and also known as Ricardo Autobahn, became Rikki in the duo. He teamed up with Sampson, named just Daz in the duo and went on to release the single, "Rhinestone Cowboy ", a take on Glen Campbell's hit "Rhinestone Cowboy". It featured the country singer in a new vocal for the release, and Campbell appeared in the video. The single went on to reach No. 12 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 16 in the Irish Singles Chart. The pair also contributed separately to a cover of their version of the song with the band Hyperbubble on their 2017 album Western Ware.
The Barndance Boys was an English trio musical formation made as a country and folk dance act in 2003. Barndance Boys was the brainchild of John Matthews from the Cuban Boys fame. He launched the novelty band with Darren Sampson known as Daz Sampson, with whom he had cooperated in many other musical projects including in the duo Rikki & Daz. Brian LH was also included to complete the trio.
"The Hampsterdance Song" is a novelty song by Hampton the Hampster. The song's hook is based on a sped-up sample of "Whistle-Stop", a song from the 1973 Disney film Robin Hood. This sample was originally used for a 1998 web page called the Hampster Dance, created by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte. Using the web page's popularity as a springboard, she and a Toronto native, Jeffery Lane, worked together with Canadian remix duo The Boomtang Boys to create a full song out of the sample. Due to licensing issues with Disney, Rob DeBoer and Tony Grace of the Boomtang Boys re-recorded the sample and added new lyrics.