American post-grunge hard rockers Fuel ruled the airwaves in 1998 with their song Shimmer, which was taken off their debut album, Sunburn.
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The song became the most played song on alternative radio for that year in the US, and in Australia it peaked at number 16 on the ARIA music chart.
The group went on to have further hits with songs such as Hemorrhage (In My Hands) in 2000 and Falls On Me in 2003 to name but a few.
Today, the group remain active and tour the US regularly and are currently working on new material.
“We’re working on a new album right now,” confirms Fuel’s primary songwriter and guitarist Carl Bell.
“And we’re playing some new songs live, too.
“We’ve got a great vocalist in Aaron Scott, who has been great with us for a few years now, and working on the new stuff, we’re excited about it all.”
Shimmer was kept off the top spot by the enormous popularity of Iris by Goo Goo Dolls.
“We were number two behind Iris for months,” says Bell.
“We were just trying to get to number one but just could not get there.
“But you know what, that is a great song and if I have to play second fiddle to any song, at least it was that one.
“It would be hard if you were behind, say Chumbawamba, or something, and it was number one, and you couldn’t get there.
“I'd be like, ‘come on, man’.”
Bell has a knack for writing really cool songs with catchy pop hooks.
He says that growing up with pop radio informed his songwriting process.
“I grew up in a rural area of Tennessee, and so most of the music that I listened to was pop radio,” he says.
“I was just listening to whatever was on the Billboard Hot 100 or American Top 40 with Casey Kasem.
“So, a lot of the stuff I got was pop.”
With Fuel on a busy touring schedule in their native US, are there any plans for a tour of Australia?
“No plans right now, but I would love to come back,” he says.
“You guys have always been great and always been huge supporters of ours.
“We have some crazy stories from you guys back in the day when we toured there, so, we would love to come down and see it again.
“We’d love to come in December when you have summer, as that’d be perfect for us.”
For more info on Fuel visit their official website, fuel-official.com
Music news
The Doobie Brothers have a new album coming on June 6, titled Walk This Road.
It will be the group’s 16th studio album since forming in 1970.
After having released a new single, Livin’ It up Down In Texas, in January, ZZ Top frontman and guitarist Billy Gibbons says he plans on releasing a solo album.
In a new interview with the UK’s MOJO magazine, Queen guitarist Brain May alluded to the possibility of new Queen music stating that “I think it could happen”.
“Both Roger (Taylor) and I are constantly writing and coming up with ideas and doing things in our studios,” he said.
“I could have the beginnings of a Queen song right there in front of me now.
“It’s just whether the idea reaches maturity or not.
“It’s whether that seed can grow.”
The Searchers, who are known to be ‘longest-running band in pop history’, are set to play their last ever show at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
Formed in 1959, the group were one of the prominent groups along with The Beatles and Rolling Stones of the ‘British Invasion’ of the mid-1960s.
Goth rock group Evanescence have teamed up with Netflix’s new upcoming adult animated urban fantasy action television series Devil May Cry for their brand-new single, Afterlife, which is out on all streaming platforms this Friday, March 28.
The series is scheduled for release on April 3.
The view from here
First it was vinyl records, then cassettes.
Are we now about to see a resurgence in iPods?
The ever-growing use of streaming services such as Spotify and the total reliance on smartphones and the way we consume music, together with the overwhelming barrage of notifications, messages and algorithm-driven choices, is marring our music listening experience.
Yet, MP3 players may give us back the one thing missing from streaming platforms; the total control of our listening habits, and the ability for us to press pause on a world that is literally filled with noise.
In turn providing a welcome respite from the attention economy of notifications, messages and algorithms.
While the vinyl resurgence caters for those who have a nostalgic need for physical product, MP3s give those with a digital bent a return to the days of making your own playlists without the help of algorithms. It also helps cut down on screen and phone time.
Dedicated music players such as the iPod also convey an experience that our smartphones can never match.
It’s been noted that users of iPods, tend to spend more time ardently listening to music rather than having it playing in the background.
Smartphones and streaming music platforms have all played a huge part in rewiring our attention spans, which over recent years have seen them become shorter and shorter.
The reason for the renewed interest in iPods is partly because the iPod terminates the continual switching between apps and notifications, something that fragments our music listening.
And iPods offer a purer music listening experience, one that is engaging for the listener.
Global country music charts
US: Billboard Top Country Albums: No.1 One Thing At A Time — Morgan Wallen
UK: Country Album Chart: No. 1 Whirlwind — Lainey Wilson
Australia: ARIA Country Albums: No. 1 This One’s For You — Luke Combs
Fun fact
Suzanne Vega’s 1987 pop hit Tom’s Diner was the song that key MP3 developer Karlheinz Brandenburg used to test and perfect MP3 technology during its early development.
Due to the song’s nearly monophonic nature and wide spectral content, it made it easier for Brandenburg to hear imperfections in the compression format upon playback.
Joe Matera is a local singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and music journalist providing readers with all the latest music news.
Musical Musings columnist