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Crush 40

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Crush 40

Crush 40 are a Japanese American rock band originally known as Sons of Angels, that was made to create music for the SEGA arcade racing game NASCAR Rubbin' Racing/EA Sports NASCAR Arcade. Most of their contributions are music for the various games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The core of the group is the hard rock guitarist and video game composer Jun Senoue and singer Johnny Gioeli, who is also vocalist for the bands Hardline and Axel Rudi Pell. Jun, the guitarist of the group, has been composing themes for Sega since Sonic 3 was produced.

History

Earliest History

Once he had graduated from college in 1993, Jun Senoue got a job as a music composer for videogames. He played in and wrote songs with [[Eric Martin], Tony Harnell, Ted Poley and Paul Shortino. He has also released several of his own albums in Japan. One of his first performances with Sega was composing and playing music featured in Sonic Adventure. Around that time, he contacted another person who would later be his band member, Johnny Gioeli. Together, they recorded their very first song as a group, "Open Your Heart". Even after making that track for Sonic Adventure, the two stayed in contact. Eventually, they got back together and wrote other songs, which were released in the Japan exclusive album "Thrill of the Feel". At this time, they decided that their band name would be "Sons of Angels", with the band name being the exact same as a song that Jun performed with Eric Martin. They also included the song "Live and Learn" which later became the theme song of Sonic Adventure 2.[1]

The band was originally formed while Jun was working on the music used for NASCAR Rubbin' Racing. The original band was Jun as the guitarist, Johnny singing, Hiro playing the drums and Naoto as their bassist. In 2000, "Thrill of the Feel" was publicized, and contained all of the tracks which they had written for the arcade game. The album recieved warm reviews, with its blend of raw, racing rock n' roll and soaring instrumentals coupled with Johnny's unique voice.[2]

as Crush 40

The band next surfaced in 2001, when Sonic Adventure 2 was being made to commemorate Sonic's 10th anniversary. Naoto and Hiro could not take part because they were playing with other groups at the time, so Katsuji and Takeshi were brought in to play the songs for the game. Two tracks came out on the game: "Live and Learn", the main theme of Sonic Adventure 2 and "Escape from the City", background music for the first level, City Escape in the game, with vocals by Ted Poley.[3]

However, Sons of Angels would not get to keep their name. Because another band reunited under their previous alias, the band decided to change their name to Crush 40.[4] When Jun Senoue was asked why he picked "Crush 40" as the name, he responded, "When we had to find another good one, we picked up the word we like…“Crush” is one of them, and Johnny added the number on it. Crush is the name of the soda too…that's my favorite!"[5]

Two years later, the album "Crush 40", a European cover version of "Sons of Angels", was released by Frontiers Records. This time, there were no instrumental tracks, but it did include both prior Sons of Angels songs from the Sonic games and two bonus tracks featuring vocalists Tony Harnell and Ted Poley.[6]

In 2003, Sega announced their first multiplatform Sonic game, Sonic Heroes. This time worked with groups such as Gunnar Nelson, Julien-K, Kay Hanley and his former bandmate Johnny Gioeli. This time, there were two new Crush 40 songs, the theme tune "Sonic Heroes", a upbeat, melodic song and in contrast "What I'm Made Of", a distinctly dark, almost metal sounding song to depict the final battle in the game. [7] The music itself is also found on the soundtrack Triple Threat: Sonic Heroes Vocal Trax[8]

In 2005, Sega announced Shadow the Hedgehog and Crush 40 returned to perform the game's theme song, "I Am... (All of Me)". There is a second song by Crush 40 in the game, the ending theme named "Never Turn Back". Both of these songs also appear on the soundtrack called Lost and Found: Shadow the Hedgehog Vocal Trax.[9]

Despite information and rumors that Crush 40 would not be in the 2006 game Sonic the hedgehog, they proved all of these untrue and performed in the final version of the game. They created their own edition of "All Hail Shadow", previously performed by Magna-Fi in the game, Shadow the Hedgehog. They have even recorded a version of His World, the main theme of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. In this song, they experimented with some hip hop elements, in addition to their normal style. Finally, Jun made his own version of Silver's theme, "Dreams of an Absolution" (subtitled 'LB vs JS Remix'). All three of these songs are on this game's soundtrack, Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx : Several Wills[10][11]

News from Jun on his website is that, due to some problems with the official Crush 40 myspace page[12], there is a new, smaller temporary page at http://myspace.com/redstealthmusic

Discography

Crush 40 have currently released two independent albums (as of 2007), as well as individual tracks on numerous soundtracks to the games listed above.

(2000) Thrill of the Feel
Track Title Time
1 The Star Spangled Banner 1:22
2 Dangerous Ground 2:32
3 Into the Wind 4:28
4 Fill It Up 2:30
5 Revvin' Up 4:35
6 Rush into the Crazy World 0:48
7 In the Lead 4:03
8 Watch Me Fly 5:09
9 On the Road Again 1:40
10 Fuel Me 2:44
11 When the Sun Goes Down 1:50
12 All the Way 4:09
13 Open Your Heart (Bonus Track) 5:11


(2003) Crush 40
1 Live & Learn 4:30
2 Revvin' Up 4:34
3 Into the Wind 4:28
4 In the Lead 4:02
5 Watch Me Fly... 5:08
6 Fuel Me 2:43
7 Dangerous Ground 2:10
8 All the Way 4:09
9 Open Your Heart 5:15
10 It Doesn't Matter (Bonus Track) 4:27
11 Escape from the City (Bonus Track) 2:20

Other Tracks:

Genres

Crush 40's style has been referred to "melodic hard rock, somewhere between XYZ and Burning Rain" [19]

In recent games (Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, etc.), Crush 40 has experimented with other forms of alternative rock. "I Am...(All Of Me)", for example, exhibits a strong use of industrial metal elements, and the Crush 40 version of "His World" has many symphonic rock influences.

Guitarist Jun Senoue has stated the following:

"I know what my style is, and I know what my favourite genres of music are. I listen to a lot of metal music, as well as other genres of music, and my inspiration is always there. The style of the music in the game does change, and it gives a great sense of progression."

"When we got together to write stuff for Shadow, we found that our fresh ideas were a lot different to the songs we’d written back in 2002 – our sound had changed." [20]


Difficulty in finding Crush 40 CDs

Whether it is because they were never released in America, or because the band has only made two of them, Crush 40 CDs are relatively hard to find, even on eBay, or Amazon, sites which are widely believed to sell or carry everything which is buyable. This is much to the dismay of Crush 40's fans, who have to turn exclusively to the Sonic games themselves to hear the music.

Artists

Current Lineup

Previous Members

References

  1. ^ http://www.junsenoue.com/content/view/2/10/
  2. ^ http://www.junsenoue.com/content/view/1/14
  3. ^ http://www.junsenoue.com/content/view/1/14
  4. ^ http://digilander.libero.it/aorwebsite/jan03.htm
  5. ^ http://junsenoue.com/content/view/10/19/
  6. ^ http://www.junsenoue.com/content/view/1/14
  7. ^ http://www.junsenoue.com/content/view/1/14
  8. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31020
  9. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31114
  10. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Vocal_Traxx_:_Several_Wills
  11. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31142
  12. ^ "Problems accessing Crush 40 MySpace page". Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  13. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31020
  14. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31020
  15. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31114
  16. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31114
  17. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31142
  18. ^ http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=WWCE-31142
  19. ^ http://www.progressiveworld.net/crush40.html
  20. ^ "Q&A with Jun Senoue Part 1". Retrieved 2006-08-14.
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