Crush 40

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 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". They also included the song "Live and Learn" which later became the theme song of Sonic Adventure 2.

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.

Crush 40 (2001-present)

The band next surfaced in 2001, when Sonic Adventure 2 was being made to commemorate Sonic's 10th anniversary. Commitments to other bands meant Naoto and Hiro could not take part, so Katsuji and Takeshi were brought in to record 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.

Unfortunately, Sons of Angels would not get to keep their name. Because of the reunion of the Norwegian band of the same name, the band decided to change their name to Crush 40, despite the release of "Thrill of the Feel" under the name Sons of Angels just a couple years earlier. 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!"

In 2003, the album "Crush 40", the European version of the Sons of Angels album was announced, under European label Frontiers Records. The self-titled album did not include any instrumental tracks, but it included both prior Sons of Angels songs from the Sonic games and two other songs featuring vocalists Tony Harnell and Ted Poley.

In 2003, Sega announced the first multiplatform Sonic game, Sonic Heroes. Once again, Jun was the sound director, and began writing, this time as a collaboration with artists such as Gunnar Nelson, Julien-K, Kay Hanley and of course Johnny Gioeli. This time, there were two new Crush 40 songs: the theme tune "Sonic Heroes", a bright, melodic song and in contrast "What I'm Made Of", a distinctly dark, energetic hard rock song with metal sensibilities to describe the final struggle of the game. Sonic Heroes was released at the end of 2003 in Japan, and in early 2004 in the US and Europe. The music itself is also found on the soundtrack Triple Threat: Sonic Heroes Vocal Trax

In 2005, Sega announced Shadow the Hedgehog and once again, Crush 40 returned to compose the game's theme song, "I Am... (All of Me)" which was used in the game's intro movie and also during the final boss battle. There is also another song by Crush 40 in the game, this one being the true ending theme entitled "Never Turn Back". Both of these songs also appear on the soundtrack called Lost and Found: Shadow the Hedgehog Vocal Trax.

Crush 40 was also a participating act in the final edition of the game Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. They performed a cover of "All Hail Shadow", Shadow the Hedgehog's pure hero pathway theme song, whose same name and lyrics 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. They changed the rap lyrics in the verses and remixed it with their own. In addition, Jun created a remix 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

News from Jun on his website is that, due to some problems with the official Crush 40 myspace page, 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:

• Sonic Heroes from Triple Threat: Sonic Heroes Vocal Trax

• What I'm Made Of from Triple Threat: Sonic Heroes Vocal Trax

• I Am (All Of Me) from Lost and Found: Shadow the Hedgehog Vocal Trax

• Never Turn Back from Lost and Found: Shadow the Hedgehog Vocal Trax

• All Hail Shadow (redone) from Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx : Several Wills

• His World (redone) from Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx : Several Wills

Genres

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

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."

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

• Vocals: Johnny Gioeli
• Guitars: Jun Senoue
• Bass: Takeshi Taneda
• Drums: Toru Kawamura

Previous Members

• Bass: Naoto Shibata
• Drums: Hirotsugu Homma

External links

• Jun Senoue official fansite
• Crush 40's new temporary Myspace profile
• Crush 40's official Myspace profile
• Jun Senoue's official Myspace profile