BigBang - From Acid To Zen

From Acid To Zen

Track Listing

Early December    iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

Wild Bird   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

The One   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

Saturn Freeway   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

Hurricane Boy   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

My First Time   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

Savior Soul   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

From A Distance   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

Wherever You Are   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

From Acid To Zen   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

Where The World Comes To An End   iTunes  Amazon  Ringtone

BIGBANG - Hurricane Boy

BigBang

From Acid to Zen
(Grand Sport/Oglio)

“Big Bang lit the power-pop chine and songwriting of Big Star and late-Eighties R.E.M. with the power-blues dynamics of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Double Trouble” --David Fricke, Rolling Stone

“They seem to have perfected melding Allman Brothers-like harmonies, the hum-along quality of a really good Tom Petty, and the guitar outbursts of a J. Mascis moment.” — Evan George, LA Alternative

BigBang’s new release From Acid to Zen (Grand Sport/Oglio) is an album saturated with a genuine, raw, but melodic rock ‘n’ roll vibe that isn’t weighed down by ‘70s cliché and nostalgia.  One listen to From Acid to Zen could transport the listener back to a ‘70s barroom or to a modern dive where Cream, The Allman Brothers, Petty and the Who would be welcomed on the jukebox along side Dinosaour Jr.

Already a phenomenon in their native Norway, From Acid to Zen is the first full-length BigBang album to arrive on U.S. shores.  Lead singer/songwriter Øystein Greni explains “If there is theme behind this record it would be the search for good rock songs that are melancholic without being nerdy and powerful without being macho.”  These former Warner Music Norway signees are gold-selling artists.  They have earned two Scandinavian #1 albums (2005’s Poetic Terrorism and 2007’s Too Much Yang) and currently hold the highest selling live album in Norway’s history (2003’s Radio Radio TV Sleep).

Much of From Acid to Zen was written on the road as BigBang criss-crossed Northern Europe.  Greni credits a stint as openers for the Raconteurs with “helping to shape the sound of this record.”  The album was also molded from behind the boards by the expertise of Phil Nicolo (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam) who co-produced several of From Acid to Zen’s eleven tracks with Greni and by mixers Sylvia Massey (Tom Petty, Johnny Cash) and Michael Ilbert (the Hives, Soundtrack to Our Lives). 

From the placement of the title track at the end of the CD, it is clear that this band has no weak links when it comes to creating rousing, anthemic, arena-ready tracks that encourage loud sing-alongs and that command repeat listening.  Standout tracks include “Hurricane Boy,” a decadent rock song with a punk vocal delivery and the ethereal “Wild Bird,” which Greni says combines “the mysticism of traditional Norwegian folklore with a classic West Coast sound.”

Rolling Stone - Fricke's Pick

The first American full-length album by the Norwegian trio BigBang, From Acid to Zen (Oglio/Grand Sport), is a mixed bag of then and now: seven tracks pulled from the group’s most recent Norwegian releases, 2005’s Poetic Terrorism and 2007’s Too Much Yang, both Number One albums there, plus recut versions of two older numbers and two new songs. It’s a shotgun buffet, like those early U.S. LPs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones that combined album tracks and singles from unrelated sessions, and it succeeds the same way: like an instant greatest-hits record.

Singer-guitarist-songwriter Øystein Greni has the right history in his genes — his dad sang in a Norwegian band that opened for Led Zeppelin in 1968 — and he grounds songs like “Early December,” “Hurricane Boy” and the brilliantly titled “From Acid to Zen” in the eternal power-chord charge and fish-hook riffs of the Stones and the Who. But Greni also has a knack for wringing fresh excitement from the familiar: the country-angel harmonies and ice-Byrds guitar in the new version of “Wild Bird,” the improbable dream of Badfinger and Hüsker Dü in “The One.” For Greni, who co-produced the new tracks with Phil Nicolo, From Acid to Zen is a big step in a bigger gamble.

After more than a decade of Pearl Jam-like success in Norway, Greni recently moved to Los Angeles, determined to break America the hard way. He, original drummer Olaf Olsen and new bassist Øyvind Storli Hoel now play clubs here with a set list that still rules Scandinavian festivals and is basically this album in your face: proven hits with forward thrust.