Lee Mark Ranaldo is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff-selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.
Orphaned Land is an Israeli metal band formed in 1991. They are known to combine Mizrahi and Maghrebi Jewish, Arabic, Turkish, and other Middle Eastern and North African musical elements, with metal, as well as from Sephardic music, and other sounds from the Mediterranean. They have also included "metalized" versions of various piyyutim in all of their albums since El Norra Alila. The band are considered to be the pioneers of oriental metal. Orphaned Land have gone through several lineup changes over the years, but have retained two founding members of the band, Kobi Farhi (vocals) and Uri Zelcha (bass). They are joined by Matan Shmuely (drums), Chen Balbus (guitars/saz) who replaced co-founding member Matti Svatizky in 2012, and Idan Amsalem (guitars/bouzouki) who replaced co-founding member Yossi Sassi in early 2014. Their lyrics promote a message of peace and unity, particularly between the three main Abrahamic religions. The name "Orphaned Land" comes from the lyrics of a Yehuda Poliker song and reflects "a paradox" to the term "Holy Land." Four of their six albums are concept albums relating to the concept of Light and darkness.
Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates - regarded as the Gothenburg fathers in the film entitled Out of Nothing: A DT Documentary released by Century Media, which was filmed in their home town in April 2009. After a nearly three-decade long collaboration of four founding members frequent lineup changes between 2016 and 2021 have left only vocalist Mikael Stanne as an original member, together with long-time keyboardist Martin Brändström.
Tiamat is a Swedish metal band that formed in Stockholm in 1987 and led by Johan Edlund. The band went through a number of stylistic changes, usually leaning toward gothic metal.
Crush 40 is a Japanese-American hard rock band. The group consists of guitarist and composer Jun Senoue and vocalist Johnny Gioeli, although Senoue has featured other lead vocalists on a Crush 40 album. Crush 40 is best known for their contributions to the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series.
Jun Senoue is a Japanese composer and guitarist. Employed by video game company Sega, he is known for his musical contributions to the company's flagship Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. He serves as the primary songwriter and one half of the Japanese-American rock duo Crush 40, which he formed with Johnny Gioeli in 1991 to record the song "Open Your Heart" for Sonic Adventure (1998). The duo contributed songs to each of the series' major titles until 2010, after which Senoue remained involved in musical production for further Sonic titles.
The National is an American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner, as well as brothers Scott Devendorf (bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). Carin Besser, the wife of Matt Berninger, is not a band member but has written lyrics for the band alongside her husband since its 2007 album Boxer.
Jay Malinowski is a Canadian singer, songwriter, visual artist and writer. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known as the vocalist and guitarist for reggae group Bedouin Soundclash.
Aiden was an American horror punk band from Seattle, Washington that formed in the spring of 2003. They achieved underground success during the mid to late 2000s with their classic lineup, featuring vocalist William Francis, guitarists Angel Ibarra and Jake Wambold, bassist Nick Wiggins, and drummer Jake Davison.
"T.N.T." is a song released in 1975 by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, taken from their Australian album T.N.T. and the international version of High Voltage. It was released as a single in 1976 and was written by Bon Scott, Angus Young and Malcolm Young. It peaked at No.19 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The song's title is a reference to the explosive chemical TNT.
Maps & Atlases is an American indie rock group from Chicago, Illinois, United States, equally influenced by alternative rock, folk and experimental music. In addition, they have been labeled as a math rock band.
Peter Bjorn and John are a Swedish indie pop/rock band formed in Stockholm in 1999, named after the first names of the band's members: Peter Morén, Björn Yttling and John Eriksson, known in his solo work as Hortlax Cobra. Yttling also worked as producer for the band's first four albums.
The Pack A.D. is a Canadian garage rock group from Vancouver, British Columbia. Known for their explosive live performances and the ability to generate a massive sound with only two members, the Pack A.D. plays garage rock with an eclectic variety of genre influences including pop, punk, psychedelic, polka new wave, and blues.
Rev Theory is an American rock band formed in 2002 in North Andover, Massachusetts. The band has released four studio albums: Truth Is Currency (2005), Light It Up (2008), Justice (2011) and The Revelation (2016), as well as three EPs: Revelation Theory EP (2004), Acoustic Live from the Gibson Lounge (2009) and Take 'Em Out (2012). The song "Hell Yeah" was the opening theme song for the popular Spike show Blue Mountain State and the song "We Own The Night" was the main theme song for the WWE Network reality series Breaking Ground. The song "Voices" is currently being used by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Randy Orton.
Saint Motel is an American indie pop band from Los Angeles, whose music has been described as everything from dream pop to progressive indie. The band is composed of singer, songwriter, and producer, A. J. Jackson, Aaron Sharp, Dak Lerdamornpong (bass) and Greg Erwin (drums).
Bass Drum of Death is an American garage punk band from Oxford, Mississippi, United States, currently signed to Fat Possum Records.
Night Verses is an American rock band from Fullerton, California. The group consists of guitarist Nick DePirro, bassist Reilly Herrera, and drummer Aric Improta. The band has four releases to date and is currently signed to Graphic Nature/Equal Vision Records (US).
Holocausto Canibal is a Portuguese goregrind band based in Rio Tinto. Formed in 1997, the band has released one demo, six studio albums, three EPs, four splits and a compilation album and is considered one of the most well known Portuguese extreme metal acts in the scene today.
Antonio Lorenzo Rosario, better known as Orikal Uno, is an American rapper and mix DJ / host of "The Check In w/ Orikal Uno" radio show on 98.9 FM KRSM (Minneapolis) "featuring nothing but the best in Twin Cities Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B and Soul music" from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Orikal Uno is also known as a visual artist; painting and shipping custom canvases and skateboards for people via multiple platforms on the internet. He is also a notable music producer and audio engineer.
Gene The Werewolf is an American rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, that was formed in 2007. The band has released three full-length albums, including the European release "Rock n' Roll Animal" on Frontiers Music, an EP, and multiple one-off singles.
