This is an ambitious project gathering together Amanda Palmer – performer, she was the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls, Neil Gaiman – author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, etc, Ben Folds – singer, songwriter, musician and Damian Kulash – vocalist and guitarist of OK Go, for an exciting experiment. Monday, on April 25th, the four musicians joins in Boston at the Rethink Music conference to explore/re-conceptualize the entire notion of artistic creation and its mechanical dissemination and human reception in these topsy-turvy modern times of ours. The original goal was to write and record eight songs in eight hours, after then play a concert and forther release the album. The effort resulting in 6 songs in 12 hours, entitled “Nighty Night”. In addition, the entire process was streamed live on Youtube, lasting from 4 pm on April 22nd to 4 am on April 23rd. Read more 8in8 – Nighty Night (2011)
rock
Ok Go – 180/365 (2011)
In my list of “10 best albums of 2010” one was “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” by OK Go. These guys rocks. They wrote some great songs, they are funny and full of life. Made a few killer videos. Not too many bands have now days their energy and ability to deliver quality stuffs. Actually OK Go were the exception, as I said, I’m pretty sick lately of anything labeled “indie” or “alternative”. Damian Kulash (lead vocals and guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar and vocals), Dan Konopka (drums and percussion) and Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards and vocals) delivered a new package consist of the album and a volume of gorgeous OK Go tour photos taken by Nathaniel Wood. 180 gigs in one year, resumed in 15 great songs. Read more Ok Go – 180/365 (2011)
Iggy Pop – Roadkill Rising, The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009 (2011)
While we’re all waiting for “Angle of the Dangle”, issuing four discs of live recordings and to summarize a career as Iggy Pop’s, it makes sense and we’re talking about a career for 40-plus years. “Préliminaires” was marked obviously by the death of Ron Asheton, Iggy took on a path down to blues with some jazz overtones and it was the less rock-oriented album he ever made, listening now into this raw sounding bootleg, reminds us of who Iggy actually is and why – most of us – love him since the 70s. And well, on the first CD features material from Pop’s legendary 1977 tour with Bowie on keyboards and the Thin White Duke, it is quite something even if the recordings are not surgically clean. And we also have the Stooges reunion gigs from 2003, the best proof that nobody else can play those songs like the guys who wrote them. Read more Iggy Pop – Roadkill Rising, The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009 (2011)
The Lollipops – Hold! (2011)
Available in many flavors and shapes, mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking, the lollipops are hard candies. Chosen as band name is not quite inspired, plenty of artist/bands all over the world use it in different forms. This time, this “The Lollipops” are from Olsztyn, Poland and “Hold!” is filled up with smooth, kind of retro and tasty rock with gloomy indie flavor mixed with some blues, pop and punk spices, reminds me mainly of the good-old days Blondie combined with the doo-wop taste of the song “Blue Moon” in the version of The Marcels from ’61. Kasia Staszko – vocals, Jacek Ruczko – guitar, Romek BaÅ‚tuszka – guitar, Jakub Roszkiewicz – bass and Wojtek Zamaro – drums put 12 (plus one bonus) on this “Hold!” and it’s actually a nice, extremely listenable album. Read more The Lollipops – Hold! (2011)
Bono And The Edge – Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – OST (2011)
The Spider-Man comics were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and published by Marvel Comics for the first time in 1962. As kid, I saw “The Amazing Spider-Man”, which aired in ’77-’78 and obviously Spidey was one of my heroes. Based on a book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” is the most expensive – $70 million and counting – Broadway production in history, a rock musical with music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and The Edge. Two Irish guys writing a rock musical for Broadway, it is something. While U2 fans waiting for the new album, we’ve got “Duals” and now this soundtrack. Bono said: “If we thought it would take this long, there is not a chance on earth we’d have done it.”
The musical get mixed, but mainly negative reviews. “Upon a preliminary viewing back in February, “Spider-Man” was a spectacular mess. The finished version is reasonably improved but somewhat less spectacular.” – Steven Suskin wrote in Variety. The Hollywood Reporter called the show a “bloated monster” while The New York Times branded it “a bore”. Peter Marks for The Washington Post said about the new show – “a definite upgrade” to its previous version, “this effects-driven musical is still situated a wide canyon’s distance from good”. The Associated Press summed up its opinion by saying: “It may not be the best thing in theater, but it is far from the worst show in Broadway history.” Read more Bono And The Edge – Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – OST (2011)
Night Ranger – Somewhere In California (2011)
America’s 80s were characterized by PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) controversy, bands such Mötley Crüe were banned and constantly hunted. The crusade against rock were leaded by four women: Tipper Gore (wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore), Pam Howar (wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar), Susan Garrett Winston (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker) and Sally Nevius (wife of former Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius). When men are leaving for a war or they are too busy with politics, their wife becomes frustrated and get strange occupations… The most famous invention is the Parental Advisory sticker (“Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics”), knowned also as “The Tipper Sticker”. The PMRC also released the “Filthy Fifteen”, a list of the 15 songs they found most objectionable which contains artists and songs such as Prince “Darling Nikki”, Judas Priest “Eat Me Alive”, Mötley Crüe “Bastard”, AC/DC “Let Me Put My Love into You”, Twisted Sister “We’re Not Gonna Take It”,Madonna “Dress You Up”, etc, but one of the albums to receive the “Parental Advisory” sticker was Frank Zappa’s Grammy-winning album “Jazz From Hell”, even though it is a collection of instrumental pieces and contains no lyrics at all while the sticker says “Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics” 😆 😆 😆 I’ve been a little bit off-topics, but I also remembered this verses by Ice-T: “Yo Tip, what’s the matter? You ain’t gettin’ no dick? You’re bitchin’ about rock’n’roll, that’s censorship, dumb bitch.”
Well, we forget “things” too easily and boys and girls, not history repeat itself, but the dumb repeat over and over the same mistakes. Back then the American Senate decided what we should and what we shouldn’t listen, now days the censorship moved forward and “War on Terror” seems a pretty goddamn good excuse to let the governments to decide what’s good or bad for us and taking control over our lives.
But in that decade, the more “reasonable” rock acts such Midnight Ranger (Foreigner, Styx, Bon Jovi and other “good boys”) flourished. They 1987’s album, “Big Life” sold around 800,000 copies. Read more Night Ranger – Somewhere In California (2011)
Slaves To Fashion – Artistic Differences (2011)
“Crossing Over†in 2007 was released under the name P:O:B. but despite positive reviews worldwide, no label could be found to push the self released album to a wider audience. The Norwegian rockers didn’t give it up, they change their name into the more remarkable Slaves To Fashion and continue playing a music that is actually very opposite of fashionable. STF merging metal and progressive hard rock with new, consistent sounds and for their new album, “Artistic Differences” they write some quite catchy and fresh themes and songs. Frank Jaeger, a German journalist and friend of the band, decided to take matters in his own hands and founded Hands Of Blue Records with one specific goal: to release this album. Read more Slaves To Fashion – Artistic Differences (2011)
themuztard seedz
I try to convince others to collaborate, create together. It seems harder than I thought, people mostly are preoccupied with their own shit. I can’t blame anybody, the world today is a pretty fucked-up place, and well, the worst is still to come I guess. Last year I put together a set of recordings with the core of the band Oedip Piaf and some contribution from Mr. Winteller from London, that was “Badtime Stories” (you can grab it for free, by the way), a noisy, gloomy, kind of experimental album which shifting between different genres from punk to free jazz and back to rock through psychedelic whatever.
The experiment still running, I write themes, song structures and I send the tracks around, anybody interested to participate, are welcome. I wrote this theme called “The Mustard Seeds”, Mr. Winteller and the guys from Oedip Piaf have their fun with it and send me back their tracks and I mixed them into one. This is the result: Read more themuztard seedz
Peter Murphy – Ninth (2011)
Older dudes like me remember Bauhaus appeared during the opening sequences of the horror movie “The Hunger” featuring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, performing one of their most popular songs, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. It was almost a lifetime ago, back in 1983…
Bauhaus were an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978, consisted of Peter Murphy (vocals), Daniel Ash (guitar), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass). The band broke up in 1983 and reunited for a 1998 tour and on a more permanent basis in 2005. The group announced plans to disband again following the release of their album, “Go Away White”, in 2008. The youngest perhaps noticed Murphy while Bauhaus toured with Nine Inch Nails in 2006 and Trent Reznor, Murphy and other tour-mate musicians (TV on the Radio, Peaches, etc) were guests on several radio shows together, often performing three to four duets per radio show. Reznor – as many others – cites Bauhaus as one of his primary musical influences.
After Bauhaus disbanded in 1983, Murphy worked with Mick Karn of Japan (bassist, keyboardist, guitarist, saxophonist) and Paul Vincent Lawford (rhythm construction) in the band Dali’s Car and released one album in 1984 “The Waking Hour” before going solo and releasing several albums: “Should the World Fail to Fall Apart” (1986), “Love Hysteria” (1988), “Deep”(1990), “Holy Smoke” (1992), “Cascade” (1995), “Dust” (2002) and “Unshattered” (2004). Read more Peter Murphy – Ninth (2011)
Neil Young – A Treasure (2011)
“You can call me erratic,†Young said “but I’ve been consistent about it, consistently erratic.†This is a Live country album recorded with legendary band, The International Harvesters, on the tour in THE U.S. in 1984-1985, and contains five previously unreleased songs. Young says. “I hadn’t heard these takes in 25 years, but when we unearthed them co-producer Ben Keith said, ‘This is a treasure.’†Tim Mulligan mixed and mastered the tracks. At the time these songs were recorded, Bob Sterne was the tour manager, Tim Foster ran the stage, and Larry Cragg was in charge of the band’s instruments. Part of “The Neil Young Archives” which are divided into several series, “A Treasure” is “Volume 09” from the “Performance Series”. Read more Neil Young – A Treasure (2011)
