| CD REVIEW Hollywood Undead |
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Band: Hollywood Undead This Rap Rock/ Alternative Hip Hop sextet was formed in 2005, after a song titled “The Kids” made by producers/ singer Deuca aka Tha Producer and singer/ keyboardist/ guitarist J-Dog and posted on their MySpace generated positive reviews. They turned to their friends Johnny 3 Tears (vocals), Charlie Scene (vocals, guitar), Funny Man (vocals), Da Kurlzz (vocals, drums & percussion), and Shady Jeff (more vocals) to make a full-size band. Later, they made Shady Jeff leave, settling on the current sextet! Their coming together became a true success story: in the first 9 weeks on MySpace they had almost a million plays, and by 2006 (year during which they released their Hiollywood Undead Demo) they were said to be leading MySpace’s unsigned artists list with over 8 million plays. Still a studio project, HU then won 285.000 votes (half of which in a Book The Band contest against 4 other bands) and made its live debut at the Virgin Mobile Festival in August 2008. By then the band had developed an image performing in individual masks, thus also creating an air of mystery. This took form after the members had filled their MySpace profile with pictures of themselves in hockey masks. The band’s debut album (recorded in a total of 4 California studios and co-produced by Danny Lohner and Don Gilmore) was originally supposed to be released through MySpace Records in 2007, but was postponed by the label when they wanted some songs removed and others censored. HU refused, and the album was eventually signed over to A&M/ Octone (a Polydor subsidiary). The album was eventually released on September 22, 2008, and preceeded by singles “Everywhere I Go” (a somewhat playful song of Charlie Scene’s promiscuousness, it was a web-single and only downloadable through iTunes) and “Undead” (a somewhat free-style and very succeeded cover of the Ozzy Osbourne song, it is now featured as part of the Madden NFL 09 and UFC 2009 Undisputed soundtracks, and also in a trailer for the new G.I. Joe movie G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra – the single went into three charts: peaking at #12 in the U.S. Modern Rock and #10 in the U.S. Mainstream Rock charts). More statistics: the album peaked at #22 in the Billboard album charts, selling 21,000 copies in the first week of release. By November 2008, the band’s MySpace profile counted over 440,000 friends! Three more singles were culled off the album to date: “No. 5”, “City”, and most recently “Young” (for the latter a video clip was made, following earlier videos for “Undead” and “No. 5” – those directed by Jonas Äkerlund; the single, which features the nice inclusion of a children’s choir, peaked at #34 and #28 in the above mentioned charts, and is now featured as a backtrack to an April 2009 cinematic trailer for Velvet Assassin – a video game developed for Microsoft Windows andthe Xbox 360) (source: Wikipedia). Personally, I can quite understand why HU have had such an impact: half of their songs are played with a clearly discernable Rock guitar (7 of the 14 tracks featured on the album either have nó, or no discernable guitar, which doesn’t mean they’re any lesser for it), which gives their tunes a catchy vibe. Also, their sometimes frank and outspoken lyrics (multi-vocal as normal in the Rap/ Hip Hop scene), could be portrayed as somewhat juvenile in respect to the other sex…are about certain to find youngsters liking the band! In the US, the guys hold “contests” for an amount of their concerts while on tour, the winner being invited to all kinds of special treats, such as performing on stage with the band. Yet another tactic which is certain to make ‘em die-hard fans! Surf to myspace.com/Hollywoodundead to find 30-second samples to 5 tracks and one full-length “City”.If you wanna hear more, you’ll either have to check out amazon.com (which is almost certain to have more samples), the band’s own website hollywoodundead.com (I failed to check it myself, but you might find some videos there?, or on YouTube perhaps?)…or check out the band on stage during their European tour: they’re currently in the UK and will be on the main continent from June 1 to 10 (no gigs in Belgium, but two in Holland – the rest in Germany). Time for an end conclusion, and I think the rating speaks for itself: top class act, but I wanna know whether they can make a follow-up album with an equal appeal before putting their material in my year-lists (huh…I might still list ‘em there anywhere!). 93/100 Tony. |