Songs : Ashbury Faith
Year : 1998
Record co : Indisc
The band was formed in 1990. A participation in the Rock Rally comes too early
for the band. The year after they finish second in the Yamaha Band Explosion-competition
and release their debut single "She's an alien". The song becomes a
radio hit (7 weeks in de Afrekening) and also gets picked up by MTV.
The years after, they tour (e.g. a five week tour in Canada) and record their
debut album "Feverjam" in 1993. The album was received favorably,
but definitely is lacking something. As Oor's music encyclopedia said it "Because
of the discrepancy between the experience of the producer (Jean-Marie
Aerts) and the studio-inexperience of the band, the result was no more than
promising".
In 1994, they tour extensively in Belgium, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland
and Britain. The group gets also noted for the ludicrous stage act of singer Axl
Peleman, who generally performs in the nude, with his bass guitar.
In 1995 they record the album "Adrenalin". For this, they
move to Philadelphia and seek the guidance of producer Stiff Johnson (Urban Dance
Squad, G.Love & Special Sauce, The Outriders, The Goats, Kris Kross, Schooly
D...). They record it in an old and battered studio, with almost worn-out echo
tapes, reverb plates and a mixing table that was once used in Jimi Hendrix' Electric
Ladyland studio's and was used by the Stones and Janis Joplin.
The musical spectrum is much broader on this album. As Axl said in an interview
(together with Soapstone)with Het Nieuwsblad in 1995
: "Ashbury Faith got the Chili Peppers-label stuck on it. Not that we
were thinking : we must make a CD that very far from the Peppers ... no, we're
just not listening to them anymore. I get so fed up with the press comparing us
to them. It was going too far. If we performed somewhere abroad, in the flyers
you'd see five times "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and once "Ashbury
Faith"."
Just to make sure Mr. Peleman doesn't get angry with me : "Ashbury Faith,
Ashbury Faith, Ashbury Faith, Ashbury Faith, Ashbury Faith, Red Hot Chili Peppers".
But the "crossover"-label also doesn't appeal to them "What's
that, crossover ? The Rolling Stones were crossover : they reinterpreted the blues.
Now crossover is metalfunk, but I feel it's just an interpretation of music. We
listened to a lot of CD the last years, from Elvis Costello to Rage Against the
Machine. Logical you get influenced by the sound. The age of the Jimi Hendrixes
who did something really new is over. This is not a period of inventing, but of
recycling."
The
third album "Zed" was produced by (and named after) Zed Simon
(Slovenian who has worked with Cure, Exploited, Joyrider en Kula Shaker). "Axl
sounds just as angry as before, but the songs and the vocals are more melodic
than on their previous recordings. Strings and keyboards make their appearance
for the first time, but they still serve the tons of energy the band pours over
their unsuspecting audiences" said an announcement for their gig at
Marktrock in 1997.
The single from the album that gets released sums this band's attitude up quite
well : it's entitled "Go Fuck Yourself". The song is released as a maxi
with a remix by Daniel Bressanuti of Front 242.
I'm not sure this has spelled E.N.D. for Ashbury Faith, but from 1998 no news
was heard of the band and Axl Pelemans started playing the bass for the reassembled
Paranoiacs. In 2000 he left this band for
what it was, and started a completely new outfit named AngeliCo
with ex-Sin Alley members Martine Van Hoof & Ruben
Block. In 2001 he had other things again in store, as he was playing with Automatic
Buffalo (the English-speaking version of Gorki's Luc de Vos) and released
a solo-CD as Camden (live with drummer Michael Schack -see Blue
Blot- and guitar-player Mario Pesic -of D-Tale) called "Miscelaneous".
This album showed the more relaxed side of Axl Peleman, with the single "Black
Paper, Black Ink"
as one of the hardest songs on it.
Drummer Reinert d'Haene (who can claim his place in history also by being the
discoverer of the magnificent Arid, btw) did a musical
production with "De Beenhouwerij", something that started off as a parody
on Dutch percussion-band Slagerij Van Kampen and developed into a interactive
and humouristic music theater with a lot of drums (together with Gerrit de Cock,
also known as the drummer of the disco-ambiance-band Les Truttes, JIM Tv I-Jay
and Big Brother² presenter). In 1998, Reinert started a new band with lots
of electronics (smuggled in through his brother Geert d'Haene) and with singer
Lennerd Busé : Yum. Matthias van der Hallen
also re-appeared in this band, as guitar-player.
Members :
- Axl Peleman (zang, bas)
- Mathias Van der Hallen (gitaar)
- Reinert d'Haene (drums)
Buy CD's of this band at
Platen :
- Axl Peleman (vocals, bass)
- Mathias Van der Hallen (guitar)
- Reinert d'Haene (drums)
Websites :
- Axl Peleman's solo website, devoted
to The Bass.
- Ashbury Faith at Leidsekade.
- Interview with Ashbury Faith and Soapstone in Het
Nieuwsblad
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