Victoria Williams is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s, Williams was the catalyst for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
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 four to five tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album. An EP originally referred to specific types of records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and LP, but it is now applied to mid-length CDs and downloads as well. In K-pop they are usually referred to as mini albums. Ricardo Baca of The Denver Post said, "EPs—originally extended-play 'single' releases that are shorter than traditional albums—have long been popular with punk and indie bands." In the United Kingdom, the Official Chart Company defines a boundary between EP and album classification at 25 minutes of maximum length and no more than four tracks.
Elf Power is an American indie rock band that originated in Athens, Georgia, United States. The line-up consists of guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger, keyboardist Laura Carter, guitarist Dave Wrathgabar, bassist Bryan Poole, and drummer Peter Alvanos. They are part of the Elephant Six Collective.
A double album is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium. Recording artists often think of double albums as being a single piece artistically; however, there are exceptions such as John Lennon's Some Time in New York City and OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below . Since the advent of the compact disc, albums are sometimes released with a bonus disc featuring additional material as a supplement to the main album, with live tracks, studio out-takes, cut songs, or older unreleased material. One innovation was the inclusion of a DVD of related material with a compact disc, such as video related to the album or DVD-Audio versions of the same recordings. Some such discs were also released on a two-sided format called DualDisc.
Martha Kristin Hersh is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter known for her solo work and with her rock bands Throwing Muses and 50FootWave. She has released eleven solo albums. Her guitar work and composition style ranges from jaggedly dissonant to traditional folk. Hersh's lyrics have a stream-of-consciousness style, reflecting her personal experiences.
James Victor Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990. His commercial breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.
Hefner were a British indie rock band formed in east London in 1995. They were active from about 1996 until 2002; since then they have played together only once, for a tribute to the DJ John Peel, who was a strong supporter of theirs.
New Bad Things were a Portland, Oregon, indie rock band active during the 1990s. They recorded for Candy Ass Records, Rainforest Records, Lissy's Records, Pop Secret, Punk in my Vitamins Records, Kill Rock Stars, and Freewheel Records.
Darren Hayman is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the writer, lead singer, and guitarist in Hefner. Since Hefner disbanded in 2002, Hayman has embarked on a prolific solo career releasing twelve albums under his own name and appearing on albums by Papernut Cambridge, Rotifer and The Great Electric. He has regularly worked with The Wave Pictures, producing an album for them, directing three of their music videos and briefly employing them as his backing band. In January 2011 Hayman recorded and released a song every day in the month of January, working with many collaborators. Hayman also paints and has exhibited his work at exhibitions about animals in space and racing dogs.
Jack Hayter is a British musician. He is best known as a multi instrumentalist with Hefner but is also an acclaimed folk singer-songwriter in his own right. Hayter also played with alt-country band Spongefinger and folktronica band Dollboy. Hayter is also frequently used as a session pedal steel guitar player in the London alternative scene.
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith as the theme song for the 1998 science fiction disaster film Armageddon, in which lead singer Steven Tyler's daughter Liv starred. It is one of four songs performed by the band for the film, the other three being "What Kind of Love Are You On", "Come Together", and "Sweet Emotion". The song was nominated for an Oscar as Best Original Song at the 71st Academy Awards of 1998, but lost to "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. The power ballad was written by Diane Warren, who originally envisioned it would be performed by "Celine Dion or somebody like that". The song received its airplay premiere on May 12, 1998, and was officially added to radio a week later.
"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" is a song by R.E.M. released as the fourth and final single from their tenth studio album New Adventures in Hi-Fi in 1997. It was released in Germany and Japan was the final R.E.M. single and music video to feature Bill Berry until "#9 Dream" in 2007.
Breaking God's Heart is the debut full-length album by British indie rock band Hefner. The album was originally released by Too Pure in 1998, and a reissue was released by Darren Hayman, the band's lead singer, in September 2007. The album's cover was designed by Hayman and Flirt.
The Fidelity Wars is the second full-length album by British indie rock band Hefner. Recorded in London over a period of twelve days at Roundhouse Studios, it was released in 1999 on Too Pure. It was the first Hefner album to feature Jack Hayter.
We Love the City is the third album by British indie rock band Hefner. It was released by Too Pure in two formats in 2000, the standard version and a second version with a disc featuring videos for "I Took Her Love for Granted" and "Good Fruit," as well as a John Peel session. The entire John Peel session was later released as the album Maida Vale. The album was reissued in 2009.
"The Sweetness Lies Within" is a single from British indie rock band Hefner. The second single from their album Breaking God's Heart, it was released by Too Pure in 1998 on both a compact disc and vinyl record format.
"The Greedy Ugly People" is a single by British indie rock band Hefner. Released in 2000 by Too Pure, it was the second single from their album We Love the City.
Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer and songwriter. Between 1990 and 1999, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashville's MCA and Decca branches, with a total of eight albums between those two labels. During this timespan, Chesnutt also charted twenty top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight reached number one: "Brother Jukebox", "I'll Think of Something", "It Sure Is Monday", "Almost Goodbye", "I Just Wanted You to Know", "Gonna Get a Life", "It's a Little Too Late", and a cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". His first three albums for MCA along with a 1996 Greatest Hits package issued on Decca are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); 1994's What a Way to Live, also issued on Decca, is certified gold. After a self-titled album in 2002 on Columbia Records, Chesnutt has continued to record predominantly on independent labels.
The Loves were a heavily 1960s influenced pop band, formed in 2000 in Cardiff, Wales. Their debut album Love was released on Track and Field Records in 2004, but attracted generally hostile press coverage, and was commercially unsuccessful. Recorded mostly by Simon Love alone, their second album Technicolour was released in 2007 on Fortuna Pop. The band recorded four Peel sessions between 2001 and 2002: three in Maida Vale and one at Peel Acres.
The Epic Masters is a box set compilation comprising ten remastered albums by Shakin' Stevens. Released on 16 November 2009, the set contains nine albums originally released by Epic Records between 1980 and 1990, plus an exclusive CD of 12" extended mixes. The set was also made available as a download through iTunes.
