STEMM

STEMM was an American metal band hailing from Niagara Falls, New York. STEMM's first concert was opening for major label recording artist Sevendust. Their last performance was on December 1, 2012 located in their hometown of Buffalo.

STEMM was endorsed by ESP Guitars, Jägermeister and Mesa Boogie.

They won the Buffalo Music Award for Best Hardcore/Metal act in WNY for 3 consecutive years. (2001, 2002, & 2003)

Former vocalist Tom "T.J." Frost was the vocalist for Buffalo NY death metal band Baphomet (later Banished). He also was a guitar tech for Chimaira and Ill Nino.

Background

The early years

STEMM was formed in June 1998 by Joe Cafarella, Russ Martin and Jimi and Louis Penque. All the members had come from various other local acts. By December the band recorded a two song "promo" disc. Within four months' time, the album had sold well over 600 copies. Initially STEMM incorporated a hybrid of hardcore with rapcore much like the band E.Town Concrete. These sounds were very prominent on their first EP, entitled Further Efforts and also on their first independently released debut, entitled "Dead to Me" which was released in 2002. In July 2000, STEMM would announce the addition of second guitarist, Rich Spalla.

Wakefulness

Wakefulness is a daily recurring brain state and state of consciousness in which an individual is conscious and engages in coherent cognitive and behavioral responses to the external world such as communication, ambulation, eating, and sex. Being awake is the opposite of the state of being asleep in which most external inputs to the brain are excluded from neural processing.

Effects upon the brain

The longer the brain has been awake, the greater the spontaneous firing rates of cerebral cortex neurons with this increase being reversed by sleep. Another effect of wakefulness (which may or may not be related to this) is that it lowers the small stores of glycogen held in the astrocytes that can supply energy to the brain's neurons—one of the functions of sleep, it has been proposed, is to create the opportunity for them to be replenished.

Maintenance by the brain

Wakefulness is produced by a complex interaction between multiple neurotransmitter systems arising in the brainstem and ascending through the midbrain, hypothalamus, thalamus and basal forebrain. The posterior hypothalamus plays a key role in the maintenance of the cortical activation that underlies wakefulness. Several systems originating in this part of the brain control the shift from wakefulness into sleep and sleep into wakefulness. Histamine neurons in the tuberomammillary nucleus and nearby adjacent posterior hypothalamus project to the entire brain and are the most wake-selective system so far identified in the brain. Another key system is that provided by the orexins (also known as hypocretins) projecting neurons. These exist in areas adjacent to histamine neurons and like them project widely to most brain areas and associate with arousal. Orexin deficiency has been identified as responsible for narcolepsy.

Awake (Donkeyboy song)

Awake is an English language hit in Norway for the Norwegian band Donkeyboy, their fourth single taken from their album Caught in a Life after singles "Ambitions" and "Sometimes" (both #1s for 13 and 8 weeks consecutively in the Norwegian Singles Chart) and "Broke My Eyes" (that reached #6).

"Awake" released in 2009 reached #8 in the Norwegian Singles Chart.

Charts

References

Awake (Godsmack album)

Awake is the second studio album by the rock band Godsmack, released on October 31, 2000. It features the song "Goin' Down", which first appeared on the band's first studio recording All Wound Up. This was the only Godsmack album to feature drummer Tommy Stewart.

Since the mid-2000s, the songs "Sick of Life" and "Awake" have been extensively used for the United States Navy's "Accelerate Your Life" commercials.

Recording

The band opted to convert a warehouse in Haverhill into a makeshift studio, rather than use a more traditional studio setting. According to Sully Erna, the band just didn't want to move into any luxurious studio, because they wanted to keep the edge on for writing and "not get too far away from what we're all about". So they just stayed in the slums rather than moving into luxury.

Erna says the results show in the music's "tougher" sound, however it has a very raw edge to it. It's not very polished," he says. "But it still has a lot of good grooves, and it still has a lot of power."