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Teräsbetoni

Teräsbetoni is a Finnish heavy/power metal band. Their first album, Metallitotuus, was released in 2005 and has so far sold more than 32,000 copies. Teräsbetoni has been strongly influenced by bands such as Manowar. The direct translation of the band's name is "steel concrete", Finnish for "reinforced concrete".

The music of Teräsbetoni has a martial air to it, with lyrics glorifying a pagan warrior lifestyle and a "brotherhood of metal". The style has received mixed reception. Band members themselves have said that they are not dead serious about the band's mentality and are having fun with it. The most famous songs of the band include "Taivas lyö tulta", "Vaadimme metallia", "Voittamaton" and their Eurovision entry "Missä miehet ratsastaa".

The group announced the interruption of activities in August 2011, and it has remained in hiatus ever since.

History
Jarkko Ahola, Arto Järvinen, and Viljo Rantanen met each other in 2002 and decided to form a band. Jari Kuokkanen joined as a part-time drummer, and later became an official member. Rantanen was the one to come up with the name Teräsbetoni. Teräsbetoni made its first songs in 2003. They were published on the band's homepage in the summer of 2003 and were called "Teräsbetoni", "Teräksen varjo" (trans. The Shadow of Steel), and "Maljanne nostakaa" (trans. Raise Your Toast).

The band started to get popular in underground circles and soon the knowledge of the band's existence spread wider. Excited fans circulated a petition, demanding a recording contract for Teräsbetoni, and sent it to several record companies. In 2004, Teräsbetoni performed their first concert and a live version of "Taivas lyö tulta" (trans. The sky strikes down fire) was added to the band's homepage. In their first concerts they used to play cover versions of Ronnie Dio's "Rainbow in the Dark" and Manowar's "Metal Warriors". In late 2004, the band signed a recording contract with Warner Music Finland and the recording for the "Taivas lyö tulta" single started in December 2004. The single was released in February 2005. During its first week on the Finnish single list, it rose to the top, followed by plentiful radio time and the band becoming more widely known.

The recordings for the Metallitotuus album started in January 2005 and the album was released on 6 April 2005. During its first week on the Finnish list, it placed second and stood on the list for 29 weeks. Another single from the album was "Orjatar" ("slave woman"). A music video was also made of this song and it was shown for the first time on the TOP40 show, on 16 April 2005. Taivas lyö tulta was later chosen to be the goal song for the Finnish ice hockey national team A in the Karjala Cup tournament.

Metallitotuus went platinum (in Finland, that means over 30,000 copies have been sold) in the year it was published, with almost 33,000 copies sold, becoming the third most popular heavy rock album in Finland that year. In June 2006, the band's second album, Vaadimme metallia ("we demand metal"), was released. On the day of its release, it nearly broke the gold album line, which in Finland is 15,000 albums sold.

There has been a lot of interest of Teräsbetoni in countries outside Finland, and the band is also very interested in playing outside Finland; so far they have done so only once, at Wacken Open Air 2005. Teräsbetoni competed in the Finnish national preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. On 1 March, they won the nomination with a total of 38.9% of the final votes cast. They represented Finland with their song "Missä miehet ratsastaa". The band was voted as one of the finalists on 20 May. In the finals on 24 May the entry placed 22nd with 35 points. In the semi-final band placed 8th with 79 points.

On 19 March 2008, Teräsbetoni released their third album, Myrskyntuoja, which entered the Finnish album chart at number one. In 2010, a fourth studio album was released, Maailma tarvitsee sankareita.

In the year following the release of their fourth studio album, the group announced that they would cease band activity. They made it clear that they were not breaking up, but rather taking a break. They did play a show to celebrate their 10-year anniversary in July 2013. They played in Turku, honoring the city that hosted many of their earliest shows. They announced the continuation of the break following the event.

Members

 * Jarkko Ahola – lead vocals, bass
 * Arto Järvinen – guitars, backing vocals
 * Viljo Rantanen – guitars
 * Jari Kuokkanen – drums

Albums

 * Metallitotuus (2005) No. 2 (FIN)
 * Vaadimme metallia (2006) No. 2 (FIN)
 * Myrskyntuoja (2008) No. 1 (FIN)
 * Maailma tarvitsee sankareita (2010) No. 14 (FIN)

Singles

 * Taivas lyö tulta (2005) No. 1 (FIN)
 * Orjatar (2005) No. 10 (FIN)
 * Vahva kuin metalli (2005) No. 19 (FIN)
 * Älä mene metsään (2006) No. 3 (FIN)
 * Viimeinen tuoppi (2006)
 * Missä miehet ratsastaa (2008) No. 2 (FIN)
 * Paha sanoo (2008) (Promo)

title: Teräsbetoni


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Kiss (Prince song)

"Kiss" is a song composed, written, and produced by American musician Prince. Released by the Paisley Park label as the lead single from Prince and the Revolution's eighth studio album, Parade (1986), on February 5, 1986, it was a No. 1 hit worldwide, holding the top spot of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks. The single was certified gold in 1986 for shipments of 1,000,000 copies by RIAA.

The song is ranked No. 85 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2021, No. 464 in 2010, and No. 461 in 2004. NME ranked the song at No. 4 in their list of The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time, and voted "Kiss" the best single of 1986.

Following Prince's death in April 2016, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 28 and jumped to No. 23 a week later. The song also reached No. 2 on the French Singles Chart. As of April 30, 2016, it had sold 1.33 million digital copies in the U.S.

Age of Chance and Art of Noise also released versions of the song that were critical and chart successes.

Development, production and release
"Kiss" started as a rough acoustic demo, with a verse and chorus written by Prince. He gave his demo to the funk band Mazarati (who approached him in the first place for an extra song for their debut album), and they worked on it with producer David Z at Sunset Sound Studio 2, while Prince was busy working in the studio next to them, Studio 3. Z recalls having one of the band members play a piano part inspired by Bo Diddley's song "Say Man". In the Sound On Sound article for "Kiss", he recalled programming the song's beat on a LinnDrum drum machine, but the Mixonline article he refers to a Linn 9000. However, it's unlikely either of them were used as the drums sound more like the LM-1, Prince's usual drum machine. In the end, Prince decided to finish the song, retaining David Z's unique, funky rhythm and background vocal arrangements by Mazarati's Bruce DeShazer and Marvin Gunn (David Z recounts how the band had expected a songwriting credit, and were "pissed" when it did not materialise); he removed the bass line, and added the signature guitar and falsetto vocal. For the distinctive "ah-wah-ah" backing vocals, David Z adapted vocals by Brenda Lee - one of the biggest US chart toppers in the Sixties - from her 1959/1960 hit "Sweet Nothin's", a single from her eponymous album. To make up for the absence of bass, the kick drum was run through an AMS RMX-16 reverb on the non-linear setting. The underlying "keyboard chop" in the background is an acoustic guitar (played by David Z.) run through a Kepex noise gate triggered by the hi-hat track on the multitrack tape - this effect, however, was rather difficult to recreate live on keyboards. The final, minimalist song was a hard sell to Warner Bros., but upon Prince's insistence, the song was released and added to Parade.

Despite Warner Bros. not wanting to release it as a single, "Kiss" became Prince's third number-one US hit, following 1984's highly successful "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy". It was also a big hit across the Atlantic, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The song won Prince another 29th Annual Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and was nominated for Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. The song became a staple at Prince's concerts and was usually sung partially by the audience.

The 12-inch single of the song is an extension of the album track. The extended section is based on the funky guitar line and contains much fuller instrumentation than the main track, including bass guitar, organ and horns. New lyrics are present from Prince, along with Jill Jones, that end with a humorous dialogue between a wife and her husband watching Prince on television. The B-side of "Kiss" was "♥ or $" ("Love or Money"), sung in a processed, higher-pitched vocal, which Prince would later use for his Camille material. The song relates to the theme in Under the Cherry Moon, and a bit of the song was heard in the film, as was a bit of the extended version of "Kiss". The extended "Kiss" was included on 2006's Ultimate; "♥ or $" was re-released as a digital B-side on iTunes.

Revolution bassist Brownmark claims to have co-written the song with Prince: he most likely wrote the second verse as the first verse was on the demo Prince provided himself and Mazarati with to work from. Despite being promised a songwriting credit by Prince, he never got any proper credit and has not received any royalties from it.

Composition
The song is written in the key of A major and has a tempo of 112 beats per minute in common time.

Critical reception
Robert Hilburn from Los Angeles Times wrote, "The single combines an ever-so-cool update of a classic James Brown guitar-accented funk riff with witty lyrics that suggest a bit more humility in Prince's sexually aggressive posture. You don't have to be rich to be my girl, he advises. You don't have to be cool to rule my world. Even the put-downs are tinged with humor: Act your age, not your shoe size, he tells one prospective lover."

Music video
The accompanying music video for "Kiss" was filmed on February 13, 1986 at Laird International Studios in Culver City, California, and directed by Rebecca Blake. In the plot of the video, Prince appears in a half shirt and leather jacket and then shirtless and performs dance choreography in a hall. The trousers he wears are strip-off pants. He is accompanied by the veiled dancer Monique Mannen wearing black lingerie and sunglasses while Revolution member Wendy Melvoin sits playing guitar.

Legacy
"Kiss" is widely considered one of Prince's finest songs. In 2016, Paste ranked the song number two on their list of the 50 greatest Prince songs, and in 2022, American Songwriter ranked the song number three on their list of the 10 greatest Prince songs.

In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 28: Mark Beaumont wrote that with this song, "Prince took his crown while the Hip-Hop Wars raged".

Track listings

 * 7-inch single
 * 1) "Kiss" – 3:46
 * 2) "♥ or $" – 3:57

 * 12-inch single
 * 1) "Kiss" (extended version) – 7:16
 * 2) "♥ or $" (extended version) – 6:50

 * CD single
 * 1) "Kiss" (extended version) – 7:16
 * 2) "Girls & Boys" – 5:30
 * 3) "Under the Cherry Moon" – 2:57

Personnel
Credits from Duane Tudahl, Benoît Clerc and Guitarcloud
 * Prince – lead and backing vocals, electric guitar
 * Bruce DeShazer (a.k.a. Tony Christian) – backing vocals
 * Marr Star – backing vocals
 * David Z. – acoustic guitar, Yamaha DX7, Linn LM-1, Linn 9000

Age of Chance version
An industrial cover of the song was released in November 1986 by Age of Chance. Bass player Geoff Taylor described it as: "We basically removed the sex and replaced it with lump hammers."

The band worked out the music from hearing it in clubs and consulted Smash Hits for the lyrics, although they changed them substantially.

The band first recorded the track for a Peel session in June 1986, when the Prince version was still in the UK charts. They were inspired by The Fire Engines having covered Heaven 17's "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" for their first Peel session while that song was still in the charts. John Peel got many listener requests to play Age of Chance's version of "Kiss" again, and it made No. 2 in Peel's Festive Fifty for 1986.

The single version was recorded at Chakk's Fon Studios in Sheffield and released on the Fon label in the UK in November 1986. Its success led to a contract with Virgin Records, who released the single in the rest of the world.

The single was accompanied by a video which received some airplay on MTV in the United States.

The sleeve was one of the first major productions by The Designers Republic, helping make their reputation. It was available in white, pink, orange or green.

The band recorded a remix called "Kisspower" with Alan Smyth of Fon Studios in November 1986, using Fon's Akai S900 sampler. It included samples from the Prince original, Bruce Springsteen, Run–D.M.C. and other artists. Virgin wanted to release it but it was vetoed by Simon Draper of Virgin America over copyright concerns. It was eventually released as a run of 500 white label promotional copies. If released, it would have been one of the first mainstream sample-based singles, six months before "Pump Up the Volume" and "Say Kids What Time Is It?". "Kisspower" was acclaimed as a "landmark" and a "cut'n'paste trailblazer" by musician's magazine Electronic Sound.

Critical response
On release, the single achieved Single Of The Week in Sounds 15 November 1986, which described it as "The first white band on an independent label to deliver a record that successfully crosses the alertness of hip hop and electro" and emphasised the quality of the artwork.

Greil Marcus in The Village Voice 10 March 1987 called it a "trash masterpiece ... Instant party, with an edge of menace."

Simon Reynolds described the single in Blissed Out: The raptures of rock as "anti-anti-pop, a gesture against indie stasis."

Track listings

 * 7-inch (Fon AGE-5) (Virgin VS-951)
 * A. "Kiss" (Prince & The Revolution) – 3:04
 * B. "Crash Conscious" (Elvidge/Howson/Perry/Taylor) – 2:54

 * 12-inch (Fon AGE-T-5) (Virgin VS-951-12)
 * A. "Kiss" – 3:06
 * B1. "Kiss" (Collision Cut) remixed by Crush Commander – 4:11
 * B2. "Crash Conscious" – 2:55

 * 12-inch Jack-Knife Remixes (Fon AGE-L-5)
 * A. "Kiss" (Sonic Crush Symphony) remixed by D.J. Chakk
 * B1. "Kiss" (Your Move America) remixed by D.J. Chakk
 * B2. "Kiss" (Leeds V The Bronx) remixed by D.J. Chakk
 * B3. "Crash Conscious"

 * 12-inch "Kisspower" (Fon AGE-X-5) (promo)
 * A. "Kisspower" – 6:55
 * B. "Kisspower" – 6:55

Chart history
The single reached No. 1 on the UK Indie Charts in late 1986. It spent 11 weeks on the mainstream pop charts in the United Kingdom, starting at 6 December 1986 and peaking at No. 50 in early 1987.

In New Zealand it charted for four weeks, peaking at No. 21.

In the United States, it spent six weeks on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart, peaking at No. 35 on 23 May 1987.

The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones version
In 1988, British synth-pop group the Art of Noise released a cover of the song, featuring Welsh singer Tom Jones on vocals. Jones had added the song to his Vegas live show and the Art of Noise contacted him after seeing him perform it on TV.

The song became the band's biggest hit to that point, reaching No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart (higher than the original in that country), top 10 in several countries and No. 18 on the US dance chart. It was also No. 1 in New Zealand and Spain.

The song alternates between two distinct rhythms: a fast-paced rock beat, panned entirely to the left channel; and a half-speed quiet storm-inspired percussion section. The guitar and horns break in the middle of the track musically references the themes to Dragnet and Peter Gunn (two songs the Art of Noise covered with much commercial success) as well as their own breakthrough hit, "Close (to the Edit)" and "Paranoimia", their 1986 collaboration with Max Headroom. Jones changes the lyric line of "Women, Not Girls rule my world" to "Women and Girls, rule my world."

This version was later included as part of an episode of the series Listed on MuchMoreMusic, which was on the Top 20 cover songs. It can also be heard during the main title sequence of the movie My Stepmother Is an Alien as well as a scene in Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy.

Track listings

 * 7-inch single
 * 1) "Kiss" – 3:30
 * 2) "E.F.L." (The Art of Noise) – 5:15

 * 12-inch single
 * 1) "Kiss" (The Battery Mix) – 8:17
 * 2) "Kiss" (7-inch version) – 3:30
 * 3) "E.F.L." – 5:15

 * CD single
 * 1) "Kiss" (7-inch version) – 3:30
 * 2) "E.F.L." (The Art of Noise) – 5:15
 * 3) "Kiss" (The Battery Mix) – 8:17

Other covers
The song had 46 covers ranging from pop (Anna Kidd, Mikayla Ayres) to soul (Jeff Michel) and jazz (Aleksandra Crossan).

Sufjan Stevens covered the song live in 2016.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Kiss (Prince song)


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Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Episode Zero (新機動戦記ガンダムW EPISODE ZERO), released in the United States as Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero, is a manga miniseries based on the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, featuring stories set mostly before the events of that tale. Unlike other Gundam Wing manga, which are not necessarily considered as being in continuity, Episode Zero has the distinction of being written by Katsuyuki Sumizawa, who was also the writer of the anime series, and thus carries a higher level of credibility. Akira Kanbe handled the art duties for this project.

Episode Zero can technically be considered canon, since it was originally going to be included in the Gundam Wing television series. Director Masashi Ikeda specifically asked Sumizawa to pen the main characters' backstories, and they were to be included in the series following episode 27 ("The Locus Of Victory And Defeat"). However, due to production scheduling being the "worst ever" (in Sumizawa's own words) and his withdrawing as a scenery director, Episode Zero's tale kept being delayed and pushed back. Though it was later intended to play some role in episode 31 ("The Glass Kingdom"), the problems persisted, and the Episode Zero story ended up being left out of the anime series entirely.

Background information
Episode Zero reveals a generous amount of information regarding what led the five protagonists of the series to become Gundam pilots, and what occurrences shaped some of the traits they are best known for. It also features notable information on certain other key characters and events that composed the Gundam Wing story.

One of the most prominent tales is told within Issues 2 and 3, in which it's discovered that a younger Heero once fought alongside Odin Lowe—the man who, years earlier, was responsible for the assassination of the colonial leader Heero Yuy.

A battlefield assault by Heero later on in the tale puts Treize in the hospital, where he would be tended to by Leia Barton—the future mother of his child (who would become the main antagonist of the Endless Waltz story that takes place years later).

The stories involving Trowa and Wufei are, unexpectedly enough, romantic tragedies, as each meet young women who will have significant impacts on their lives. Trowa's story also implies that Catherine Bloom, the circus performer he meets during the series, is in fact his long-lost older sister, who he was separated from as an infant during an attack by the Alliance which presumably killed their parents, and that Trowa's real name is actually Triton Bloom.

The focus is more on origin in the cases of Duo and Quatre. "Duo Maxwell" is revealed to not be Duo's given name; instead, "Duo" was taken by the young orphan in memory of a childhood friend named Solo, who died from a severe illness, and "Maxwell" was taken afterwards from a kind priest named Father Maxwell, who, along with a nun named Sister Helen, ran an orphanage out of the Maxwell Church. Sister Helen and Father Maxwell played a large role in the childhood of Duo, acting in parental roles until they (and the entire orphanage) were made casualties of an Alliance attack on rebels within the church (which was later known as the Maxwell Church Massacre), despite young Duo's best efforts to keep his new family alive.

Quatre, in contrast, has possibly the least tragic past out of all the pilots. Contrary to what he believes, he is not, in fact, the product of test-tube reproduction (his 29 elder sisters, however, are). His mother, Katherine, died in childbirth due to complications from living in space affecting the body's ability to give birth safely. As he refers to himself as a test-tube child in the series, it can be assumed his father and sisters never told him about his mother.

The histories of the two surviving Peacecraft family members, Relena and Zechs Merquise, are unveiled as well. As the Sanq Kingdom fell, only two members of the royal family survived: the children, Zechs and Relena. Relena was adopted by the Darlian family and raised as their own. The story implies that Relena and Zechs met prior to the series, which is how Zechs knew that his little sister was still alive (although she did not know him, having not been told about her true identity until the series). Also appearing in the story is a young boy who briefly attends Relena's school (apparently on an undercover mission) and greatly resembles Heero.

The manga also features undetailed cameos from notable characters in the series, such as Lucrezia Noin (in Heero's story) and Sally Po (in Wufei's story).

Toward the end, the five heroes gather for a brief new mission that is set after Endless Waltz, an event which ends in a cliffhanger but with a promising connotation. The work concludes with an affectionate parting message from writer Sumizawa himself to the fans of Gundam Wing.

title: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero


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User talk:Mandolin~enwiki

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! Andries 10:22, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Mandolin~enwiki