Awolnation

Awolnation (usually stylized as AWOLNATION) is an American electronic rock band, formed and fronted by Aaron Bruno, formerly of Under the Influence of Giants, Home Town Hero, and Insurgence. The band is signed to Red Bull Records, and their first EP, Back from Earth, was released on iTunes on May 18, 2010. They released their first studio album, Megalithic Symphony, on March 15, 2011; it featured their most notable hit, "Sail", which peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on the Billboard Rock Songs chart, and #5 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. The song has been certified 6× platinum by the RIAA and has sold 5,500,000 copies in the United States. As of December 16, 2014, the album has been certified Gold.

The band's second studio album, Run, was released on March 17, 2015.

History

Creation, Back from Earth (2009–10)

Aaron Bruno was approached by Red Bull Records in 2009, asking if he wanted free use of the Red Bull recording studio in Los Angeles. He recorded a few songs in the studio and ultimately signed with the label, calling it more of a "partnership", and was allowed to make the recordings that he wanted. Aaron Bruno has been with numerous bands before he created Awolnation, including Home Town Hero and Under the Influence of Giants. Bruno writes all of his songs himself, but confides in close friends and family or respected artists for guidance. The name Awolnation is derived from Aaron Bruno's high school nickname. In an interview with Kristin Houser of the LA Music Blog, he stated that he "would leave without saying goodbye because it was just easier, so that's where the name AWOL (slang from the military acronym for Absent Without Leave) came from."

Sail

A sail is a catchment device designed to receive and redirect a force upon a generous surface area. Traditionally, the surface was engineered of woven fabric and supported by a mast, whose purpose is to propel a sailing vessel. Sails may be configured in many ways to include traditionally understood maritime purposes, as well as land vehicles and solar collection purposes. The rich encyclopedic history of maritime sails suggests alternative uses of the technology well documented.

History of sails

Archaeological studies of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture ceramics show use of sailing boats from the sixth millennium onwards. Excavations of the Ubaid period (c. 6000 -4300 BC) in Mesopotamia provides direct evidence of sailing boats. Sails from ancient Egypt are depicted around 3200 BCE, where reed boats sailed upstream against the River Nile's current. Ancient Sumerians used square rigged sailing boats at about the same time, and it is believed they established sea trading routes as far away as the Indus valley. The proto-Austronesian words for sail, lay(r), and other rigging parts date to about 3000 BCE when this group began their Pacific expansion.Greeks and Phoenicians began trading by ship by around 1,200 BCE.

Sail (Lake District)

Sail is a hill in the English Lake District, lying between Derwentwater and Crummock Water.

Topography

The North Western Fells occupy the area between the rivers Derwent and Cocker, a broadly oval swathe of hilly country, elongated on a north-south axis. Two roads cross from east to west, dividing the fells into three convenient groups. The central sector, rising between Whinlatter Pass and Newlands Pass, includes Sail. The highest ground in the North Western Fells is an east-west ridge in this central sector, beginning with Grasmoor above Crummock Water and then gradually descending eastwards over Crag Hill, Sail, Scar Crags and Causey Pike.

Sail is in every sense a satellite of Crag Fell, although having sufficient prominence to be listed as a Hewitt. From the summit of Crag Hill the eastward ridge narrows between opposing walls of crag. This rocky crest is The Scar, the depression being at around 2,425 ft. The roughness decreases as the rounded top of Sail is reached, and the ridge then turns east north east. A further depression at 2,015 ft leads to the summit of Scar Crags. This col is unnamed on maps of the Ordnance Survey, but Alfred Wainwright termed it Sail Pass in his influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

Sail (anatomy)

A sail is a large, flattish protrusion from the back of an animal colinear with the spine. Many extinct species of amphibians and reptiles have very extended neural spines growing from their back vertebrae. These are thought to have supported a sail. Paleontologists have proposed many ways in which the sail could have functioned in life.

Function

Many suggestions have been made for the function of the sail. The consensus amongst modern scholars is that, at least for the pelycosaurs, the sail was used for thermoregulation.

Thermoregulation

The structure may have been used for thermoregulation. The base of the spines have a channel which it is proposed contained a blood vessel supplying abundant blood to the sail. The animal could have used the sail's large surface area to absorb heat from the sun in the morning. As ectotherms they required heat from an external source before their muscles would start to function properly. A predator would thus have an advantage over its slower moving prey. The sail could be used in reverse if the animal was overheating. By standing in the shade, the sail would radiate heat outwards.

Lyrics

Lyrics are words that make up a song usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, as a "librettist". The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression.

Etymology

"Lyric" derives via Latin lyricus from the Greek λυρικός (lyrikós), the adjectival form of lyre. It first appeared in English in the mid-16th century in reference, to the Earl of Surrey's translations of Petrarch and to his own sonnets.Greek lyric poetry had been defined by the manner in which it was sung accompanied by the lyre or cithara, as opposed to the chanted formal epics or the more passionate elegies accompanied by the flute. The personal nature of many of the verses of the Nine Lyric Poets led to the present sense of "lyric poetry" but the original Greek sense—words set to music—eventually led to its use as "lyrics", first attested in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Stainer and Barrett used the word as a singular substantive: "Lyric, poetry or blank verse intended to be set to music and sung". By the 1930s, the present use of the plurale tantum "lyrics" had begun; it has been standard since the 1950s. The singular form "lyric" still appears; its present use, however, is to refer to a specific phrase within a song's lyrics.

Lyrics (album)

Lyrics is the sixth studio album by R&B singer-songwriter Donell Jones. It was released on September 28, 2010 through E1 Music. The lead single from the album is "Love Like This", which has peaked at #25 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. The album debuted at #5 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and #9 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #22 on the Billboard 200.

Track listing

References