Yes, it's true... The Darkness as an entity broke up 2 years ago. Their lead singer/lead guitarist/heart and soul of the band Justin Hawkins essentially quit, saying in order to function as a human being, get over his alcoholism and coke addiction, he could no longer carry on in the scene he had to as a member of The Darkness.
The remaining members decided to soldier on without him, went underground for a while but resurfaced as Stone Gods with the bass player stepping into the lead singer hole (http://www.myspace.com/thestonegods). Their first album (finally) came out this fall, and its a lot heavier than The Darkness. Jury is still out on them, I think.
More surprising, however, has been word surfacing in late August that Justin Hawkins had formed a new group, and was preparing to launch them in short order. He did so, recently, and the British press has been all over it, fawning over his recovery story and stealing any sort of thunder the Stone Gods had built up. His new band is called Hot Leg, which might be the most hilarious and ridiculous name for a band I've ever heard, and in listening to what little there is of their sound thus far, they are much more in line with The Darkness, and... if you can believe it.... possibly even more absurd. I love it. I hold very very high hopes for Hot Leg. http://www.myspace.com/teamhotleg
Whoa! I agree, how can you not like the name Hot Leg? Haha that's awesome.
Well colour me stupid, I didn't even realize it was my turn.
Anyways, sorry for holding things up:
To make room for our second to last pick, BF & the BFFs will be moving WA Mozart into the Keyboard/Piano player category, in order to select, in the category of instrumental soloist, guitar/piano/synthesizer/viola/glockenspiel/ondes martenot/banjo/harmonica/drums virtuoso, Jonny Greenwood!
Best known for his work as lead guitarist in Radiohead, Greenwood is the only classical trained musician of the group. In addition to his multi-instrumental talents, he plays a significant role in the group's electronic and computer generated elements.
Greenwood was also hired by the BBC as its composer in residence in May 2004, enabling him with the opportunity to compose several pieces for symphony orchestra, piano and/or Ondes Martenot. He would win the Radio 3 Listeners' Award at the 2006 BBC British Composer Awards, before turning his considerable talents toward film scoring, composing all of the original score for P.T. Anderson's brilliant 2007 film There Will Be Blood.
Guitar playing, is, however, where his virtuosity is most clearly on display. In my mind, Greenwood is one of the most innovative and original guitarists working today, pushing his guitar sound to new places with each Radiohead release.
Last edited by liamenator; 09-26-2008 at 07:59 AM.
bump... Dooz, don't know if you realized, but you're up.
He may have been waiting for TimSJ to repick, but I don't think he should.
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
OK I'm just going to make my pick, WhiteTom and dooz can pick whenever they decide to check in again.
With our final pick in the category of Wildcard Singer, though our thunder has been stolen somewhat, we are happy to select, (in our humble opinion) one of the most ridiculous, excessive, hilarious, brilliant and entertaining frontmen in the history of rock music. The Siberian Tiberian Tiger-riding, Falsetto-Spandex-Chernobyl-defining catsuit enthusiast himself, Formerly of The Darkness, currently of Hot Leg, the one and only... Justin Hawkins!!!!!
Though he certainly wasn't revolutionary in the sense of doing anything particularly new or original, it is hard to argue against the fact that Hawkins breathed new life into Rock and Roll when it needed someone like him most. Though they never caught on as expected in North America, The Darkness exploded across the rest of the world - particularly in Europe. Even there, however, Hawkins' razor sharp sense of irony and humour was often misunderstood, and thus the band is probably doomed to be forever under-appreciated. In a music climate in which physical units were becoming nearly impossible to move, The Darkness' 2003 debut album, Permission to Land sold over 3.5M copies (over 3 times as many as the debut from the Arctic Monkeys, whom people continue to fall all overthemselves to applaud). In Britain, they had five top 10 singles and won three Brits, an Ivor Novello award for songwriters of the year.
More importantly, however, the effects of J.Hawkins' brainchild continue to be felt today. Bands such as Wolfmother, Priestess, Airbourne, Franz Ferdinand, and many more were enabled to to excel in the market The Darkness helped to re-establish. The Darkness were the first new big, loud, excessive, ridiculous rock and roll band to break through in a long, long time, and the bands that followed should be forever indebted to them for the trail they blazed.
Hawkins' appeal lied in the purity of his presentation. He reveled in being a Rock Star in the decadent, traditional sense of the word, and plugged an audience sick to death of nu-metal back into the world of arena rock. His playful, ironic disposition simultaneously poked fun at, and payed homage to his predecessors and influences: Freddie Mercury, KISS, Led Zep, Motley Crue, etc. etc. etc. In fact - though I'm sure there are many here who could offer counter arguments - the recent resurgence of metal in the mainstream can largely be credited to The Darkness' re-establishment of cawk-rawk as a viable genre.
I am beyond happy to see him re-entering the fold with his new band Hot Leg.. I hold very high hopes that he'll be able to pick up where he left off, hopefully put his substance abuse demons behind him, and resume his position as THE personification of rock and roll.
ANYWAY, clearly Hawkins is a true rock God in my eyes, The Darkness is my favorite band, and I am quite happy to make him my final pick to round up the BF & the BFFs roster.
