Song: "Evil Town"
Artist: The Vines
Album: "Winning Days"
Year: 2004
According to The Vines' lead vocalist, Craig Nicholls, "Evil Town" isn't necessarily about one person or one place in particular, but it could be anyone or any place where you just get bad vibes from. The Vines formed as a band in their native Australia back in 1999. At the very beginnings of the band, they were very much a garage band at heart. They drew several comparisons to Nirvana with their debut album, 2002's "Highly Evolved". With their stripped down sound and Nicholls' screaming vocals at times, I can see why there was a little similarity between them and Nirvana. They also had elements in their music that harkened back to 1960's psychadelic rock as well. This style got them lumped in with the many bands that started to hit in the early 2000's. Bands such as The Hives and The Strokes and The White Stripes to a certain extent. These bands were perhaps a breath of fresh air because their music was so stripped down and it was really like a back to basics kind of rock and roll. Though The Vines' first album was a great success for them, not only in Australia but in England and the United States, success also brought a lot of pressure on the band. Many publications hyped them up as the next Nirvana, a label that many bands would fail to live up to and The Vines were no different. "Winning Days", the band's second album, failed to live up to the success of their first and cracks in the band's armor were beginning to surface at this time. Soon the band had to deal with some departing band members, being dropped by their record label and the on again, off again depleting mental state of Craig Nicholls, which made things very hard on the band because Nicholls is the main creative force behind the band. The band had to cancel several tours do to Nicholls treatment of the fans. It got so bad that they would not allow Nicholls to do any interviews do to his mental state and what he would say. Eventually the band would get back on the road when Nicholls was more stable to handle it. They also continues to release album throughout the rest of the 2000's. While their popularity in the United States waned, in Australia they still appear and sometimes even headline some big shows and festivals. Currenty, The Vines just finished up their fifth studio album entitled "Future Primitive". It was released in June of 2011 in Australia but no date has yet been announced for it's release in the U.S.
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