*feels better ...

 

:lol:

haha me too :D thanks again!

 

aww lovely pics, never seen some of them before. especially love that 'one-eye' pic of Matt :cool: (there's a good chance it'll be on my desktop soon ;))

Good to know that you like them :nice:

 

The one eye Matt one is one of my fav picks of him everr haha

 

 

God , Im such a photo freak :sick:

 

 

 

:laugh4:

haha I don't mind, feel free to spam this thread with Muse pics anytime! ;)

:lol: Thanks

Muse love :heart:

 

ah I guess I'd better go and get some sleep.. talk to you soon! :)

Nite :D !!

Hear: The noise muse-um

 

Noiseniks Muse beat its path through the British Rock scene. SHANNON TEOH recounts eight years of feet firmly on distortion pedals.

 

To be honest, I too number among those who dismissed Muse as a sort of Radiohead-via-metal derivative. Impressive though the musicianship of Mathew Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme was on the Muscle Museum EP released in January 1999, the timbre of Bellamy’s voice was too reminiscent of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke circa The Bends.

 

It just seemed so un-British at the time, when Britpop’s swagger was slowly fading and serious pop musicians were taking a bit of Radiohead’s mojo but plugging it into melodies that were irresistible. Coldplay, Elbow, Doves to name a few, they were all moving British Rock towards a new age of subtle romance.

 

No surprise then that British labels were reluctant to back the band from Devon, England. It was left to an American label, Maverick Records, to line up a few gigs and sign it in 1998.

 

Of course, when Maverick (founded by Madonna, and launched the careers of Alanis Morissette, Deftones and Michelle Branch) comes a-calling, people start to think maybe they should’ve paid attention. Upon the band’s return from America, Taste Media arranged deals for Muse with various record labels in Europe and Australia.

 

The result was the choppy and inconsistent debut album Showbiz. Produced by John Leckie (who had also produced the aforementioned The Bends and also albums from the Stone Roses, “Weird Al” Yankovic and The Verve), the album showcased the band’s aggressive style, and featured obscure lyrical references to the difficulties the band faced in its hometown scene.

 

The year 2001 saw the release of its followup, Origin of Symmetry, which was a turn for the darker, with Gothic pianos vying with Bellamy’s incendiary guitarwork for the leading role in a much stronger effort from the band.

 

The distinctive piano playing brought the band much critical attention, drawing comparisons to the work of pianists of the Romantic movement, particularly that of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

 

Bellamy’s operatic falsetto, whilst clearly enjoyed by fans, was a point of contention with Maverick, who refused to release the album with that vocal track, thinking it unsuitable for the American market.

 

Unwilling to replace the vocal track, the band left the label and Origin of Symmetry was only belated released in 2005.

 

Plug In Baby, New Born and Bliss kept Muse in the singles charts all summer long. But other tracks off the album became fan favourites. Sitting right in the centre of the album is Citizen Erased and Micro Cuts, songs that guarantee a rapturous reception at live shows.

 

Muse’s tours were some of the most impressive around, especially given its three-man lineup. Muse released Hullabaloo Soundtrack both in DVD form and as an audio CD which mainly featured a recording of its live performance at Le Zenith in Paris in 2001.

 

The double-CD album did not feature all the songs on the DVD but instead put together a collection of B-as well. On the stage, Bellamy’s high-pitched vocal lines and arpeggiated guitar were dynamic but exacerbated a slight problem with Muse’s music in that it seemed somewhat disjointed and staccato.

 

Absolution, released in 2003, bridged this gap and was a quantum leap for the band. The album yielded the band its biggest American hit yet in its poppiest single ever, Time Is Running Out, and went platinum across Europe and Britain.

 

It was an album so full of ideas that it did the band a kind of disservice. So ambitious it was that the grandiose it affected was a bit too far-flung for many fans and critics alike.

 

Muse continued to blend classical influences into its hard rock sound and with lyrical references to the end of the world, the entire effect was apocalyptical in nature.

 

In was at the hallowed festival of Glastonbury in 2004 that the band wrote themselves into rock’s history books. A defining performance and experience for the band earned it the acclaimed Q magazine’s award for Best Live Act, an accolade reaffirmed at the 2005 Brit Awards.

 

They also won two MTV Europe awards, including Best Alternative Act. The Absolution tour sold like hotcakes, forcing the band to play extra dates and finally, releasing it on DVD in 2005.

 

Whilst the band’s output could be said to be intensely passionate previously, Absolution struck an emotive note that rode on the lingering post-millennial tension.

 

A sense of political paranoia pervaded the album which could possibly explain the high turnup at live shows — people just needing that level of connection to an unexplained disorder.

 

Three years on, Black Holes And Revelations landed in a totally unexpected fashion. Muse received airplay on Malaysian format radio. Amazing.

 

Supermassive Black Hole had a long run in recent months and Starlight looks set to continue on that for a bit.

 

Moreover, the album somehow found its way to No. 9 on the Billboard charts, finally planting its flag on American soil.

 

Black Holes And Revelations has since received both widespread acceptance and critical acclaim. Thematically, it is a sort of sequel to Absolution, with references to conspiracy theories, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and God knows what else on this multi-faceted effort.

 

But its sound has taken a completely divergent path. Synths blast in somewhat 80s-like but coupled with a sense of restraint on the part of Bellamy has resulted in something quite epic. It’s a far more inviting effort than anything it has done before, forsaking somewhat its aggressive and jagged past for something a bit more harmonious and rollicking.

 

This is the album Depeche Mode has been trying to recreate, the one that Garbage will never be able to make, and just maybe, one that Queen would’ve made had it come around a couple of decades later.

 

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Saturday/Features/20061103191316/Article/index_html

Uhhmm dunno if anyone is interested or if it is already been said...anyway I've read an article here on which Matt says exactly where he's living with his girlfriend here in Italy: the place is called Tavernola "a piece of heaven facing the Como Lake between the towns of Moltrasio and Cernobbio" (his words)...so if anyone is coming to see them in Milan maybe you can go around a bit and meet him there, I know some people who plan to do this :nice:

Uhhmm dunno if anyone is interested or if it is already been said...anyway I've read an article here on which Matt says exactly where he's living with his girlfriend here in Italy: the place is called Tavernola "a piece of heaven facing the Como Lake between the towns of Moltrasio and Cernobbio" (his words)...so if anyone is coming to see them in Milan maybe you can go around a bit and meet him there' date=' I know some people who plan to do this :nice:[/quote']

 

That would be annoying to have fans showing up where you live. I would shoot them all.;)

But why does that idiot tells where he lives..:rolleyes:

I think he probably knows he's not that famous to find hundreds of people waiting for him outside his house, so if someone is going to meet him is just to have a chat, nothing more ;) otherwise he wouldn't have said that

I think one of the reasons he moved to Italy was that he wanted to get some privacy and so I guess he expects fans to respect that if he isn't that secretive about it anymore.. I remember reading one interview where he said that he lives next to George Clooney and if it's such a small place people probably know where these 'famous' people live anyway so it's not even possible to keep it a secret.

 

but then again, he's also said he has a habit of talking before thinking when interviewed, so maybe that has something to do with it too.. :D

 

anyways, here are the vids from Jools Holland show (November 3)

the quality is ok but I had to turn up the volume, the sound is not that good.. I might be able to upload the vids (in better quality) if anybody wants them.

 

such a lovely song :heart:

 

a brilliant performance, this has got to be the fourth single! My absolute favourite from the album. The riff at the end is amazing and Matt's giggle there in the middle made me giggle too :lol:

 

another great performance, they used a trumpet! Only wish there had been the Space Dementia outro, other than that it's one of the best performances of KoC I've seen.

Too bad we can't hear the trumpet very well...

Great performances anyway !

thanks for the vids Linnea :D

 

 

 

 

great photos again, thanks! :) Especially the first one (I must say I like all the photos from that photoshoot) and the third. Keep 'em coming! :D

 

ps. what's going on in that one small pic? I'd sure like to know..

Ur orders are my comands :laugh4:

 

ohh on the small pick , is Matt agains Dom haha

 

 

 

 

:laugh4:

oh my that black-white-blue one will probably haunt me in my sleep.. oh and that's a good thing of course.. ;)

 

I love live photos, awww.... :heart: and those Mercury pics are hilarious, can't help thinking what was going on in Matt's head when he decided to choose that striped shirt..

He provably thought he was in franz ferdinand or something :lol:

Ur very welcome for the picks , i love posting them hahaha

haha yes that's what I thought, he had a Franz moment there..

 

love your avi btw :heart:

thanks :D

 

And now im posting more picks :laugh4:

Ok only one .. but its a really really really good one :dance:

 

here