The Cocteau Twins
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The Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde in 1983. The group earned critical praise for their ethereal, effects-laden sound and the soprano vocals of Fraser, whose lyrics often eschew any recognisable language. They pioneered the 1980s alternative subgenre of dream pop. After signing with the British record label 4AD in 1982, they released their debut album '' Garlands'' later that year. The addition of Raymonde in 1983 solidified their final lineup, which produced their biggest hit in the UK, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops", peaking at No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1988, Cocteau Twins signed with Capitol Records in the United States, distributing their fifth album, ''Blue Bell Knoll'', through a major label in the country. After the 1990 release of their ...
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Grangemouth
Grangemouth ( sco, Grangemooth; gd, Inbhir Ghrainnse, ) is a town in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. Historically part of the county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, east of Falkirk, west of Bo'ness and south-east of Stirling. Grangemouth had a resident population of 17,906 according to the 2001 Census. Preliminary figures from the 2011 census reported the number as 17,373. Grangemouth's original growth as a town relied mainly on its geographical location. Originally a bustling port, trade flowed through the town with the construction of the Forth and Clyde Canal in the 18th century. Nowadays, the economy of Grangemouth is focused primarily on the large petrochemical industry of the area which includes the oil refinery, owned by Ineos, one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The town is twinned with La Porte, Indiana. Residents of the town are known as Portonians. History Grangemouth was founded by Sir Lawr ...
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Rock Music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom.W. E. Studwell and D. F. Lonergan, ''The Classic Rock and Roll Reader: Rock Music from its Beginnings to the mid-1970s'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 1999), p.xi It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the blues and rhythm and blues genres of African-American music and from country music. Rock also drew strongly from a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical, and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a time signature using a verse–chorus form, ...
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Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999, and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. The event features musical artists from many genres of music, including rock, pop, indie, hip hop and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures. Across the grounds, several stages continuously host live music. The festival's origins trace back to a 1993 concert that Pearl Jam performed at the Empire Polo Club while boycotting venues controlled by Ticketmaster. The show validated the site's viability for hosting large events, leading to the inaugural Coachella Festival being held over the course of two days in October 1999, three months after Woodstock '99. After no event was held in ...
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Heaven Or Las Vegas
''Heaven or Las Vegas'' is the sixth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 17 September 1990 by 4AD. Despite 4AD president Ivo Watts-Russell proclaiming it one of the best-ever releases on his label, he released the group from their contract at the end of 1990 because his relationship with the band had soured. ''Heaven or Las Vegas'' peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 99 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, becoming the band's most commercially successful release. It eventually sold 235,000 copies by 1996, according to ''Billboard''. The album was included in the book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'', and was voted number 218 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's ''All Time Top 1000 Albums''. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' listed it at No. 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album was voted 18th of ''Scotland’s 100 Best Rock and Pop Albums'' in 2003 and was the focus of a BBC Scotland program ...
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Blue Bell Knoll
''Blue Bell Knoll'' is the fifth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 19 September 1988 by 4AD. This was the band's first album to receive major-label distribution in the United States, as it was originally licensed by Capitol Records from 4AD for North American release. After a period of being out of print while 4AD reclaimed the American distribution rights for their back catalogue, the album (along with much of the band's 4AD material) was remastered by guitarist Robin Guthrie and reissued in 2003. Vocalist Elizabeth Fraser named the album after a peak in southern Utah called Bluebell Knoll. Upon the album's release, it was voted as ''Album of the Week'' by Dutch radio broadcaster Omroepvereniging VARA. In 2014, the album was repressed on 180g vinyl using new high definition masters. Critical reception In a contemporary review of ''Blue Bell Knoll'', Victoria Thieberger of ''The Age'' appraised it as "everything that atmospheric music s ...
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UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling Single (music), singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and music streaming, streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV (Official UK Top 40), is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a Single (music), single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio ...
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Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops
"Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" is a single by Scottish band Cocteau Twins, taken from their 1984 EP ''The Spangle Maker''. The song was written by Cocteau Twins, and recorded at Rooster Studios in London. It was their highest-charting single, peaking at No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Release and promotion During the song's early weeks of release, it quickly become a prominent feature on European radio stations. In the United Kingdom, across all BBC radio stations and other broadcasters such as Capital Radio, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" was the 12th most frequently played song on British radio stations. In the week of May 14, 1984, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" debuted at No. 53 on the European Airplay Top 60 chart, a chart compiled across Europe based on information received from individual European countries relating to radio airplay. Music video A music video for the song, directed by Nigel Grierson of 23 Envelope, was filmed at The Chapel in Holloway Sanato ...
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Garlands (album)
''Garlands'' is the debut album by the Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. It was released on 10July1982 by the record label 4AD. It peaked in the top 5 of the UK Independent Albums Chart, and received support from BBC Radio 1 radio host John Peel. Background ''Garlands'' is the only album the band recorded with original bassist Will Heggie. Prior to the album the band recorded a four-track session for John Peel in June 1982 including "Wax and Wane" and "Garlands". A second John Peel session in January 1983 was included as bonus tracks on the cassette and CD release of ''Garlands''. Cindy Sharp of Cindytalk provided backing vocals on "Dear Heart", "Hearsay Please" and "Hazel". Martin C. Strong noted that the album was "hastily recorded" but also featured an "interesting fusion of monochromatic rhythms, textured guitar distortion, and early sampling technology." The album's sound was described in ''The Rough Guide to Rock'' as "a blend of ominous pulsating bass, st ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Dream Pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the two genre terms have at times been used interchangeably. The genre came into prominence in the 1980s through the work of groups such as Cocteau Twins and A.R. Kane. Subsequently, acts such as My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Galaxie 500, Julee Cruise, Lush, and Mazzy Star released significant albums in the style. It saw renewed popularity among millennial listeners following the late-'00s success of Beach House. Characteristics The term dream pop is thought to relate to the "immersion" in the music experienced by the listener.Goddard, Michael et al. (2013) ''Resonances: Noise and Contemporary Music'', Bloomsbury Academic, ''The AllMusic G ...
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Alternative Rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstream or commercial rock or pop music. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to musicians influenced by the musical style or independent, DIY ethic, DIY ethos of late-1970s punk rock.di Perna, Alan. "Brave Noise—The History of Alternative Rock Guitar". ''Guitar World''. December 1995. Traditionally, alternative rock varied in terms of its sound, social context, and regional roots. Throughout the 1980s, magazines and zines, college radio airplay, and word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock's distinct styles (and music scenes), such as noise pop, indie rock, grunge, and shoegaze. In September 1988, Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' introduced "alternative" into their charting ...
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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