While the most influential glam punk band has been the New York Dolls in the 70s, the 80s had the Finnish Hanoi Rocks which were formed in 1979 and had a major influence Poison, L.A. Guns, Ratt and Guns N’ Roses, as well as Manic Street Preachers, Murderdolls, Skid Row and the Foo Fighters have admitted being Hanoi Rocks fans and they open the way to the success for other Finish bands such HIM. Drummer Rezzel death’s in 1984 – caused by a car crash for which responsible was Mötley Crüe’s lead singer Vince Neil – had a big impact on the band and they broke up next year. Considered a “rebirth”, not a reformation of Hanoi Rocks, Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy rejoined in 2001 and released three more albums, but split once again in 2007. Michael Monroe sung on eight Hanoi Rocks albums, one Jerusalem Slim and one Demolition 23. album and “Sensory Overdrive” is his eight studio album. Read more Michael Monroe – Sensory Overdrive (2011)
Reviews
Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone (2011)
I’m not quite a big fan of instrumental rock music, perhaps because I get into rock music and I spent over a decade spiting into the microphone, but this “I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone”, the third album by Maybeshewill, band from Leicester, U.K. formed in 2005, it’s quite impressive. They play a sort of post-rock, pretty gloomy themes, but in a quite charming way, and they using programmed and sampled electronic elements alongside acoustic and electronic instruments. Maybeshewill has seen a number of musicians come and go, but core members Robin Southby on guitar, John Helps on guitar and James Collins on drums have been with the band since their first tour and album. On bass currently is Jamie Ward.
They might be compared by some with Mogwai, but Maybeshewill’s music is more intense, powerful, in a particular way more rock oriented, but also much more colorful, I would say deeper. Comparisons have also been made with Sigur Rós, but once again, Maybeshewill sounds much heavier I think, they have stronger rock roots and their music is not that spacy, soundscape and soundtrack/cinematic like. Read more Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone (2011)
KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
When I saw the cover and read that is an “experimental” labeled product, I admit, I was pretty scared that I stumbled into another dark and twisted noisy “sick something”, connected to S & M, bondage and god knows what else. Well, I was absolutely misleaded, this is quite a nice, pulsing, even sunny trip into the pop flavored, electro-dance-funk area with charming trance filtered moments, groovy pop punk like turns and tempos, catchy themes and “feel good” spices. KYNAN is a young musician from San Diego, CA, and “High Heals” was digitally release on 31 March 2011 via the Absent Fever label on their Bandcamp page from where you can downloaded for the symbolic price of $1. 10 tracks, extremely pleasant listening, a nice mixture of indie pop and electro-acid, chill moments and quite danceable explosions in a fluid flow of sparking sounds. Read more KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
In an interview in June 99 they said: “We never say what we think, and we never believe what we say, and if we tell the truth by accident, we hide it under so many lies that it is difficult to find out”. They were talking bout them self, but it’s quite true generally speaking. From the moment when information is overflowing and filtered, truth stops existing and I believe, that was the end of democracy as once Greece defined it. “Genocide Organ have provoked reaction from listeners – be those extremists who perceive the group have certain sympathies that align with their own, or vocal detractors labeling the group as racist, fascist, or more crudely – hate mongers. likewise for those listeners intelligent enough or otherwise uninterested in making such simplistic and polarized views of Genocide Organ, merely the extremity of sound can likewise provoke reactions from revulsion through to pure pleasure, the pleasures received in pain is an amply adage here.”
Formed back in 1986, Genocide Organ explore the borders of industrial and power electronics, sometimes reminds me of the 80s militarist Laibach, the pioneering Slovenian band which majorly influenced the German electro/industrial scene and being the source of inspiration for the so-called Neue Deutsche Härte fulminating by the outbreak of bands such as Rammstain, but as well, Genocide Organ reminds me of some experimental moments of the Chicago based Martin Atkins’s Pigface. Read more Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
Project Bob Dylan – celebrates Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday and more!
There are probably million different point of views, different perceptions of America. All of them are simultaneously right and wrong and that might be the “secret” of “the land of hope” and that’s why nobody is indifferent about America. On the other hand, I believe we don’t actually know enough about America as we actually do not know enough about each other generally speaking. Just for example, probably most of the people may thought that the official language of America is English while the truth is that America have none official language at federal level and English is only de facto national language. Everyone identify America by something, most of us by some products such as Coca-Cola, Marlboro or McDonald’s, others might think about country music or blues… In one way or the other, all these are icons. And speaking ’bout blues, Bob Dylan is one of the most respected and loved icons. And Dylan is not only a singer-songwriter and musician, but also poet and painter as well.
As a huge Laibach fan I read about this project of the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana on their web site and I didn’t hesitate to write an e-mail to obtain my free copy of the CD: [email protected]. One week later – this morning 🙂 – I received the CD and a beautiful 78 pages booklet. Read more Project Bob Dylan – celebrates Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday and more!
Channel Zero – Feed Em With A Brick (2011)
Often referred to them as “the Belgian Metallica”, “Feed Em With A Brick”, the band’s fifth studio album comes after “Black Fuel” released 14 years ago, engineered and produced by Attie Bauw, a Dutch producer who worked previously with Fight (Rob Halford). Channel Zero split in August 1997.
Singer Franky De Smet Van Damme, drummer Phil Baheux and bassist Tino De Martino are back with full force while original guitarist Xavier Carion due to a traumatized ear will be replaced by Mikey Doling (ex-Soulfly). And “Feed Em With A Brick” is another classy, powerful and groovy metal album, fans will be delighted. Read more Channel Zero – Feed Em With A Brick (2011)
Heroin and Your Veins – Lovely Bone Structure (2011)
I stumbled into this accidentally on the Bandcamp, but well, I still don’t believe there is anything accidental in this life, so…Heroin and Your Veins is a one-man band started in 2006 by Janne Perttula in Tampere, Finland and Solina Records released the debut album entitled “Dead People’s Trails” in August 2007. The second album is called “Nausea” and it was released in April 2009 by Verdura Records. It is available also on Bandcamp for 8 Euro. “Lovely Bone Structure” is one single track last for 48 minutes, it was released on 19 April 2011 and only available in the internet at Bandcamp and “name your price” actually means that you can downloaded even for free typing zero. Well, it’s not quite polite, but… I think art and artists deserves our support in a world where everything becomes more and more plastic, fake and prefabricated. Read more Heroin and Your Veins – Lovely Bone Structure (2011)
DJ Clonepa – Courroux (2011)
Mixing breakcore with classic, symphonic music and sometimes with jazz, DJ Clonepa actually make pretty interesting blending of music. Nathaniel Marlow, from Richmond, Kentucky, started in 2007 his mixing and “Courroux” is a pretty exciting and intense material, an explosive collision of groovy and twisted drums with smooth, harmonic symphonic orchestral constructions and jazzy musical inserts. Sometimes this blending is smooth, sometimes the drums overlapping everything creating hell of a noise, but still, there are some extremely interesting moments, good twists and turns, the gloomy, kind of authentic Baroque/Gothic atmosphere and these contorted rhythms and breaks are making an unique and exciting pair.
Following the tradition of precursors as Venetian Snares, DJ Clonepa bring to the surface some extremely intense and exciting mixes and there are a few very good tracks. Read more DJ Clonepa – Courroux (2011)
Helms Alee – Weatherhead (2011)
Helms Alee were formed in 2007 by Ben Verellen (of the Harkonen, Roy, and These Arms Are Snakes), Dana James and Hozoji Margullis. “Weatherhead” is a boiling mixture of fury and beauty melting together vibrating and smooth acoustic elements and raging post-hardcore riffings, delivering perfect balance of what we mainly labeled as “alternative rock” and post-metal. Dana James have a powerful and expressive voice, she both singing and howling while Ben Verellen sometimes bring some extreme raw vocals as support. “Weatherhead” sounds cutting, dirty, full of energy, but still, they built in smooth and beautiful moments which gives a gloomy shining and more dynamics to their songs and this powerful album.
The trio sliding between styles and genres, switching from metal to psychedelic, from hardcore to folk, but they do all this extremely fluidly. Read more Helms Alee – Weatherhead (2011)
Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear (2011)
While Brits have Massive Attack, Americans have Thievery Corporation. In 1996 Thievery Corporation released “Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi”, their debut album, and with it they defined an entire genre of music and crystallized their distinct “outernational sound” aesthetic. Thievery Corporation was formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. Over the next 14 years the duo would write and record four more critically acclaimed studio albums (“The Mirror Conspiracy” – 2000, “The Richest Man in Babylon” – 2002, “The Cosmic Game” – 2005, and “Radio Retaliation” – 2008), three remix albums (“Abductions and Reconstructions” – 1999, “Babylon Rewound” – 2004, and “Versions” – 2006), and various DJ mixes and film soundtracks (“The Outernational Sound” – 2004, and the recent Babylon Central Film Soundtrack). On the album “The Cosmic Game” featured high-profile guest singers including Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction, David Byrne, and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.
In 2006, the band also recorded “Sol Tapado” for the AIDS benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 2006 they toured around the United States, playing at Lollapalooza and they were the opening act on August 1, 2009 for Sir Paul McCartney at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. Read more Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear (2011)
