Nothing’s shocking: Perry Farrell at age 52 is not that restless, rebellious rock and roll singer anymore as he was almost three decades ago when his band, Psi Com. metamorphosed into Jane’s Addiction. Original bass player and former member Eric Avery rejoined the band in 2008, but departing again in 2010, so he was replaced by Chris Chaney, after initially they worked for nine months on the new album with Velvet Revolver and former Guns’N’Roses bass player Duff McKagan. McKagan joined enthusiast and seems to left disappointed. Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio was brought in to writing and recording the album and the result is kind of TV on the Radio featuring Porno for Pyros – Farrell’s post Jane’s Addiction band between ’92-’98… Unfortunately. But it might work quite alright as a soundtrack for a movie about an aging rock star or lonesome mid-age unemployee.
Farrell said: “It’s a strange mixture of that post-punk Goth darkness that Jane’s had, with what’s going on today with groups like Muse and Radiohead. As much as I want to appease fans and make old Jane’s fans love me, I just can’t help myself from moving forward.” And “The Great Escape Artist” actually sounds like a toothless Jane’s Addiction lost into a cinematic post-rock soundscape with few sparking reminiscences of tasteless, so-called alternative rock cliches collected. Kind of exactly what against Jane’s Addiction was about. Minimalist and gloomy, Farrell seems to delivered a possible self-portrait and the portrait of the confused man caught in the midlife crises and lost in the strange and desperate times we’re living nowadays. Read more Jane’s Addiction – The Great Escape Artist (2011)
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Eyeswithoutaface – Monotoneoteny (2011)
A self-titled EP from 2010, their debut album, “Monotoneoteny” released this year in May and a remix album, “Tone Debris”, released this month, all three for free, can grab them from the band’s Bandcamp Page. Their music is a sick blending of Nine Inch Nails with sludge metal, some twisted modern psychedelia and criminal, pitched, black metal growling. Pretty rough mixture in deed, but definitively creative and quite original. So, these guys from Toronto have no connection with Billy Idol, but eventually with the 1960s film of Georges Franju, “Les yeux sans visage”. Definitively “must have” category and not only because it’s free, but they are brilliant. Read more Eyeswithoutaface – Monotoneoteny (2011)
Radiohead – TKOL RMX 1234567 (2011)
Radiohead gone to Ibizia? Surprisingly obsessive, minimal and gloomy, “The King of Limbs”, the eighth studio album by Radiohead now got a remix “brother”, the two-CD of “TKOL RMX 1234567″ which compiles a series of seven 12” vinyl singles/EPs, also released as digital downloads from the band’s website in both MP3 and WAV file types.
Dense and tense, “TKOL RMX 1234567” is not a friendlier version of some of the gloomy songs of “The King of Limbs” as some might expected, there are no dubstep, techno, house or euro-trance remixes, but quite gentle and full of consideration reassembles of the original tracks. I actually expected something more creative and less ambiental. Most of these 19 bands involved in this project seems to be quite intimidated by Radiohead and the appetite for experimentation with these songs seems to be reduced to simply apply their usual sonic tricks to the songs, eventually changing some rhythmic schemes and adding some additional sonic layers, but staying in the same weird and minimalist approach as the originals.
While I’m still not quite comfortable with “The King of Limbs”, this remix album only raise few more questions. Read more Radiohead – TKOL RMX 1234567 (2011)
Puscifer – Conditions Of My Parole (2011)
I wonder if Keenan and his bodies will ever again find the resources to put together another Tool album? When back in ’95 Keenan describes Puscifer as a series of musical ideas he did not have an opportunity to explore with Tool or A Perfect Circle, but “Telling Ghosts”, “Toma” and few other moments, for instance, might quite fit onto a Tool album. Although “Conditions Of My Parole”, is a quite colorful trip between Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and a few other influences from Radiohead to The Smashing Pumpkins, juggling between trip hop and industrial metal, defines genres, merging sounds and delivering – once again – something quite different and unique.
This time Keenan and his long list of contributors including Mat Mitchell, Tim Alexander, Jonny Polonski, Danny Lohner, Josh Eustis, Gil & Rani Sharone, Jeff Freidl, Matt McJunkins, Lustmord, Laura Milligan, Carina Round, Jackie Harris, Paul Greenberg, Micah Player, Juliette Commagere, Mike King, Ainjel Emme, Meats Meier, Evil Joe Baressi, Trey Gunn, Milla Jovovich, Lisa Germano, Tim Cadiente, Ford Englerth, Jeffrey Brooks, Micah, Eddie McClintock, Joe Nagy, Satan’s Muse, and more, delivered a quite dark and tensioned album. Read more Puscifer – Conditions Of My Parole (2011)
Nothing – The New Psychodalia (2011)
Born Jeffrey Lewis Hetrick, infamous for being the vocalist for the alternative/industrial metal band Mushroomhead, but also some other Cleveland-based metal bands such as Purgatory in the mid 80s and later Hatrix, Jeff Hatrix also known as Jeffrey Nothing, is one day away from the official release of his first solo album under the moniker Nothing through Suburban Noize Records. In 2008, Jeffrey announced he will release a solo album titled “The New Psychodahlia” and due to Mushroomheads hectic recording and touring schedule, the album was written over a four year period. The 13 tracks written, shows a quite diverse, colorful collection of songs from alternative to classic metal sounds and from rock to industrial, Nothing throw in his own blender of sounds and styles many different influences and approaches to bring to life his own little monster. “I feel it’s a sort of Sepultura meets Alice in Chains, meets Acid Bath” – said Jeffrey Nothing and with each song listened from the album other and other names are popping up. “Psychodalia” for instance sound like Down, “Burial” is a haunting track where post-grunge and goth rock influences collide while “Deathbed Masquerade” reveals some of their industrial roots. But “Mnemerator” might fits right in onto a Tom Waits or Primus album. And every and each song deliver another taste and surprise. Read more Nothing – The New Psychodalia (2011)
Magazine – No Thyself (2011)
Listening “No Thyself” it’s like a time capsule, a trip back to the late 70s, early 80s. And surprisingly, Magazine sounds fresh, this post-punk mixture with psychedelia still sounds authentically, have the right vibe and that particular glowing, deep groove. Once again, when everybody sweat to be more futuristic, more avant-garde and post-everything and post-whatever, the returning pioneers proves that some good ideas are more meaningful that the sophisticated sound, all the digital shit and eventually some fancy producer. I’m some freak nostalgic? Maybe, but I don’t really think so. I’m just sick of everybody sounds just the same. Sick of all those post, alternative and so-called core – actually fake plastics the industry lately delivered. Magazine are kind of dinosaur? Possibly, but while it seems we lost the direction, we might need them now more than ever. Read more Magazine – No Thyself (2011)
Marc Almond and Michael Cashmore – Feasting With Panthers (2011)
Labeled by some critics as one hit wonder, Almond remains famous as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell (the other half being instrumentalist David Ball) and they originally shot to fame in the early 1980s with UK #1 hits such the cover of “Tainted Love” (a song composed by Ed Cobb and originally singed by Gloria Jones in 1965), “Bedsitter”, “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”, “Torch”, “What!”, “Soul Inside”, “Memorabilia”. But anyway, including his time with Soft Cell, Almond has sold over 30 million records worldwide, which is a considerable amount for a so-called one hit wonder, isn’t it?
Almond released two solo albums under the moniker Marc & the Mambas After in ’82 and ’83 and after Soft Cell disbanded in 1984 he released several solo albums and as Marc Almond with The Willing Sinners. Almond and Ball reunited as Soft Cell in 2001, with a series of live dates and they released during late 2002 a new Soft Cell album, entitled “Cruelty Without Beauty”. The album featured another cover which became hit single: “The Night”, composed by Bob Gaudio and Ruzika. Read more Marc Almond and Michael Cashmore – Feasting With Panthers (2011)
PORN – From the Void to the Infinite (2011)
“Love Like War”, the free download and leading track of the new album, “From the Void to the Infinite” was released last month and back than I introduced the band of Phil D. from Lyon, France, find the whole story HERE . Still can grab the free track. 🙂 Or buy the entire new album on-line HERE. 10 tracks, plus one bonus, the new album by PORN scheduled for a 10th October, 2011 release juggling between the vivid sound of the 80’s dark electro and the pulsing breath of the nowadays post-industrial rock and it’s an excellent soundtrack to set the night on fire down in the club dancing with the death. By duty. 😀 Read more PORN – From the Void to the Infinite (2011)
Peter Gabriel – New Blood (2011)
Roughly one and a half years after “Scratch My Back”, the magician is back with another album recorded with orchestra and not classic rock, electronic instruments. Peter Gabriel after the release of “Up” back in 2002 said that he had a lot of songs and “I/O” will be released “within 18 months”. I’m still waiting that follow-up, but at least that “trick” of two albums within 18 months succeeded with “New Blood”. Still, I rather wished for listening the Gabriel I used to know. And don’t get me wrong, I grew up half on my mom’s symphonic, half on her’s rock (and not only) vinyls, but with all respect, Gabriel is not “some” – quite unappropriated way to put those things – Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev just as Sting never ever gonna be a jazz musician, but nothing else than a punk rocker – and it’s absolutely not a bad thing to be yourself. I guess Gabriel being bored by electronic experiments and the rock s*it and this symphonic adventure seems to be his ultimate challenge. Read more Peter Gabriel – New Blood (2011)
Skinny Puppy – HanDover (2011)
From the classy industrial area slipping to the post-industrial and more cinematic, dark electronic segment of music, Skinny Puppy, the pioneer Canadian band, remains one of the leading motors of the genre. Al Jourgensen of Ministry was part of the band back in 1989, also Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit, etc as many other famous figures contributed to this band since their formation in 1982 and till now. The band almost disbanded in 1995 when drugs and internal conflicts and ultimately death strikes the band which moved from the safety of Vancouver to the temptations of Malibu, but they managed to regroup after a five year gap and since 2000 Nivek Ogre (vocals) and cEvin Key (synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, drums) reunited and performed live extensively.
Mark Walk (keyboards, synthesizer, guitar) joined in 2003 and in 2004 they released the ninth studio album entitled “The Greater Wrong of the Right”, followed in 2007 by the album “Mythmaker”. “HanDover”, the upcoming eleventh studio album of the band will be officially released on October 25, 2011 in the United States and an October 28, 2011 in Europe. Read more Skinny Puppy – HanDover (2011)
