Blur as we know it was born in 1989 when the band signed to Food/EMI. Debut album Leisure (1991) announced the arrival of a band with pop suss warped by an art-punk eccentricity. Yet Blur had more in them: namely, a revolution in the sound of English popular music. Second album Modern Life Is Rubbish reintroduced the idea that English rock music could be cool, and by the time their third album Parklife emerged in 1994, the rest of the UK had caught up. 

The Great Escape (1995) refined the sound palette of Britpop, but Blur were already moving on. 1997's Blur was an about-face - scuffed and noisy and un-English. Follow-up 13 was an even a more radical adventure in sound as William Orbit refereed a truce between organic punkpop and new-fangled technology.

Seventh album Think Tank (2003) was Blur’s first as a three piece after the temporary departure of founding guitarist Graham Coxon, featuring an eclectic variety of rhythms and textures and glorious melodies. 

In 2009 Blur reconvened as a four-piece to play a series of UK shows including two sold out dates at Hyde Park and a historic Sunday night appearance at Glastonbury. A film about Blur, No Distance Left To Run, was released in 2010.

Having grown up in the U.S., the Amason was a Volvo model that passed me by, but in Scandinavia, it was a popular car in the 1960s. Named after the fierce female warriors of Greek mythology, Volvo adopted a Swedish spelling for its design, and the band has followed suit. Perhaps the spirit of a female warrior coupled with the liberatingly swinging ‘60s is a suitable description of this five-piece band of Swedish-born and based touring musicians. Or perhaps their name, chosen spontaneously by Pontus Winnberg of Miike Snow, is just one aspect of this multi-talented, musically minded group of friends that first came together in 2012.  

The security and strength offered in Amanda Bergman’s vocals is reminiscent of a warrior, but the whole picture of Amason carries much more depth than a single simplicity can encompass. The story of Amason begins with brothers Pontus and Petter Winnberg, whose father was a music teacher and classical musician. When Petter was 16, he studied at a jazz music school, where he met Nils Törnqvist, and from then on the two have played together in a multitude of musical constellations, including Little Majorette. In 2008, Nils saw Amanda playing a gig in Gothenburg with her band Hajen, and was so blown away by the power of her performance that he just had to tell Petter and Pontus about her. Pontus contacted Amanda through Myspace, and the two recorded a few tracks together. A few years later, Pontus met Gustav Ejstes of Dungen through Stockholm-based music collective INGRID. Within this open setting, they started speaking about making music together. When Pontus played Gustav a tape of him and Amanda, who currently writes under the name Idiot Wind, as she howled along to a drunken piano, Gustav also was blown away by Amanda’s voice, her way of expressing herself, and began thinking, “Let’s make something together.” Which is precisely what Pontus posed once the tape had finished. At the tail end of 2012, these five finally arrived in a musical space together.

Having arrived in a collective sonic space, they all hopped aboard a vehicle, with their past paths and divergent musical tastes thrown into the mix, and found this was more than enough to fuel Amason forwards. A sound created out of collaboration, with each member inhabiting an equally important space. Be it Nils on drums, Gustav on organ, guitar, and vocals, Pontus on piano and pedals, Petter on bass and vocals, or Amanda on synth and vocals, these simpatico souls share the creative ground as Scandinavians share their land. Everything is everyone’s. And the music is all the greater for it.

When Pontus first booked time in the studio and miraculously managed to get all five of them there during that time, the rest clicked into place. They started out by putting an idea on the drawing board, thrashing it out on their instruments, recording the tracks, writing a melody and lyrics, and swiftly had some finished songs to present. The first song to hit the Swedish airwaves, “Margins,” was soon followed by a self-entitled EP released in August 2013 on Stockholm-based INGRID, complete with single ”Went to War.” In February 2014, Amason released “Ålen” (The Eel), and on October 28th, 2014 they will release their single “Duvan” (The Dove) worldwide on Fairfax Recordings and INGRID. Their debut album, Sky City, is due for worldwide release in early 2015. 

With lyrics in both their native Swedish and the Swedish musical language of choice, English, Amason create in the moment, record almost instantaneously, and soon after scan the horizons for a stage, where the music truly comes alive, where they can share their collected collective moments. They fill their together time with sound, with music-making, with production and lyric-crafting and the joy of the song. Not to say that they don’t have to work to create what they get. Bringing five busy people together and getting crafted songs down in a state of permanence is a mammoth undertaking in and of itself. But as the old adage goes, where there is a will, there is a way. And the Amason will, the Amason way, is celebrated and magnified and revolves around the power of music. While the classic Volvo Amason still motors onwards in its intention to take people places, so too will a pure love of music drive Amason the band far into the future.

The Strokes ‘The New Abnormal’ Available 4.10.20 Pre-Order Now https://smarturl.it/TheNewAbnormal

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About Line 6, Inc. 
Based in Calabasas, California, Line 6 is a leading manufacturer of guitars, amplifiers, effects, effect processors, and recording interfaces.  Line 6 is world renowned for its studio- and stage-standard gear featuring its patented amp and effect modeling and digital wireless technologies.  Line 6 invented digital guitar amp modeling technology in 1996, and is currently the #1 maker of guitar amplifiers.  Its award-winning products are used by musicians worldwide and have been featured on countless platinum and Grammy® award-winning titles.  Line 6 is distributed in over 60 countries, with operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.  For more information, visit www.line6.com.

À propos de Line 6, Inc. 
Basée à Calabasas, en Californie, Line 6 est une société leader dans la fabrication de guitares, d’amplificateurs, d’effets, de processeurs d’effets et d’interfaces d’enregistrement. Line 6 est célèbre dans le monde entier pour ses équipements de studio et de scène dotés des technologies brevetées de modélisation d’amplificateurs et d’effets, ainsi que pour ses systèmes sans fil, numériques. Line 6 a inventé la technologie de modélisation d’amplificateurs guitare en 1996. La société est aujourd’hui N° 1 mondial des fabricants d’amplificateurs pour guitare. Ses produits, primés partout dans le monde, dont le célèbre POD®, sont utilisés par des musiciens du monde entier et ont été choisis pour l’enregistrement d’une multitude de succès de platine récompensés à de multiples reprises par des Grammy’s et autre titres. Les produits Line 6 sont distribués dans plus de 60 pays, avec des filiales aux USA, en Chine et au Royaume-Uni. Pour obtenir de plus amples informations, consultez le site Internet



Ipecac Recordings is the brainchild of Greg Werckman (former label manager for the legendary punk label, Alternative Tentacles, employee for Mercury Records for a record 15 minutes, currently operating Pick-A-Winner Management) and Mike Patton (former frontman for Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, currently of Fantômas, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom).

Werckman and Patton had been scheming for years (in between video games) about starting their very own label, waiting for just the right moment to unleash their master plan. Ipecac Recordings is not about to make music biz history and execute a revolution (although one is surely needed) or bore you by waxing poetic about their original musical philosophies. But if we have to adhere to a "mission statement," how about the notion of being an honest, artist friendly label run on a shoe string with no outrageous promotional or production costs. This label is a home to Mike Patton's eclectic musical collaborations as well as a place where bands we admire have the freedom to release music they might not be able to, or want to, release on other labels.

Blow your mind, since 2008.

From Santiago, Chile. This part of the world is been protected for a long time between the great sea and the Andes mountains, but never been devoid of all the influx going on out there. This long country is blooming in sounds and people with a new perspective, rooted in an ancient land of the trees, rivers, on the south sun, making just what is real.

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