info.1l.tanja,
VESTI:
**
U2
have added an extra date to their forthcoming UK shows.
They now play a second show at London Wembley Stadium on
August 23. Tickets are on sale now.
**
Cast
release the first single from their forthcoming second
album next Monday, March 24. 'Free Me', the single, is
available on two CD formats. One CD version also has the
following tracks: 'Come On Everybody', 'Canter' and an
acoustic version of 'Free Me'. The second has 'Release My
Soul' and 'Dancing On Flames'. The band's as-yet-untitled
new album will be released in mid-April to coincide with
their sold-out UK tour which kicks off in Glasgow on April
10.
**
Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder
has been secretly rehearsing with two Mexican transvestite
wrestlers and could be going on the road with them. Vedder
has been practising wrestling moves with the transvestites
- part of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow - at their Seattle
rehearsal space. It has also been hinted that he may join
the act during the circus' current US tour. The two
wrestlers - 'Tickles' Valdez and Billy 'The Barrio Bottom'
Martinez - were arrested following a recent performance in
Lubbock, Texas, for being 'sexually explicit'. Both they
and Rose spent the night in the cells and are currently out
on bail.
This is not the first time Vedder has joined forces with
the Jim Rose Circus. During the 1992 Lollapalooza tour he
showed up at performances to drink the contents of Mat 'The
Pipe' Crowley's stomach. In his act, Crowley downs a
variety of liquids, including beer and chocolate sauce,
which are then siphoned out of his stomach into a glass
which a member of the audience is invited to down. A clip
of Vedder downing this concoction was shown on Channel 4's
The Word. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam have gone into the studio to
begin work on a new album. Epic Records, the band's label,
have no release date or estimated completion time for the
album.
**
Massive Attack
will play a hometown show at Bristol City FC's ground at
Ashton Gate on July 13, in a bid to raise funds for West
Aid Relief. Everything But The Girl are also confirmed to
play but the full line-up will not be announced until after
the licence application has been approved. The hearing is
on March 26. Tickets for the 20,000-capacity event cost ú25
and will go on sale when the line-up is announced. All
money raised will go towards refurbishing an orphanage in
Sarajevo.
**
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley
have joined forces with Mudhoney's Mark Arm and original
Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton to record new versions of
Stooges songs for a forthcoming feature film. The group was
assembled by producer Don Fleming to record songs for
Velvet Goldmine, a homage to the glam-rock scene of the
early '70s. The band, billed as the Wilde Rattz and
featuring bassist Mike Watt, recorded new versions of 'TV
Eye', 'Funhouse', 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', 'Little Doll',
'Real Cool Time' and 'Gimme Danger'. They also recorded two
new songs jointly penned by Asheton and Arm - who takes the
Iggy Pop/lead singer role in the band - called 'Hollow
Around You' and 'Be My Unclean'.
This is the second time Fleming has assembled a band for
soundtrack purposes. He brought together Dave Grohl, Dave
Pirner, Greg Dulli, Mike Mills and Thurston Moore to
provide the music for The Beatles/Stuart Sutcliffe biopic
Backbeat. Velvet Goldmine is directed by Todd Haynes, whose
previous credits include Poison, Safe and Superstar: The
Karen Carpenter Story. It will star Ewan McGregor in a role
reportedly based on Lou Reed, with other characters closely
resembling David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Bryan Ferry. The
soundtrack album, due to be released on London Records, is
also expected to feature contributions from Pulp, Radiohead
and Grant Lee Buffalo.
**
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,
who released their new album 'The Boatman's Call' last
week, will play two London dates as part of their
forthcoming European tour. The gigs are at London Royal
Albert Hall on May 19 and 20. Tickets, priced ú16, are on
sale now.
**
Coolio
is being sued by a record producer who claims the rapper
owes him more than $400,000 for his work on the 1996 hit
'Gangsta's Paradise', a remake of Stevie Wonder's 'Pastime
Paradise'. Producer Doug Rasheed claims the rapper, whose
real name is Artis Ivey Jr, deducted the costs of acquiring
samples of the song from his pay. Rasheed also contended in
the lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, March 4, that Ivey had not
paid him the correct amount of royalties. He claimed they
were supposed to be as high as four per cent, depending on
how well the record sold. The Grammy-winning single was an
international Number One hit and was also used in the film
Dangerous Minds. Coolio's record company Tommy Boy declined
to comment.
**
Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Dodgy and Catatonia
feature on the soundtrack for the forthcoming film Twin
Town, described by critics as the Welsh Trainspotting.
Produced by Trainspotting team Danny Boyle and Andrew
MacDonald and directed by actor and documentary film-maker
Kevin Allen, Twin Town, set in Swansea, is a black comedy
about two brothers who spend their time taking drugs,
stealing cars and taking on the local gangster boss. The
film is released on April 11. The soundtrack album - which
features the Manics' 'Motown Junk', which hasn't been
available since 1991 - is released on April 7.
nme.com
info.2l.tanja,
news:
Primal Scream's
fifth album is released in June and is called 'Vanishing
Point' after Richard Sarafian's cult 1971 film. The first
single taken from the album, 'Kowalski', features samples
from the film - the story of an ex-racing driver on an
amphetamine-deranged road trip across America. The album
sees the Primals returning to a more dance and
dub-influenced sound, closer to 'Screamadelica' than 'Give
Out, But Don't Give Up'. It is also the first to feature
bass player Mani, formerly of The Stone Roses.
'Kowalski' is released on May 5, followed by another single
'Star' on May 27, which features reggae legend Augustus
Pablo. 'Kowalski' is backed by the Primals' version of the
? And The Mysterians garage-punk classic '96 Tears', along
with 'Know Your Rights', which was originally recorded for
an EP to raise funds for the fight against the introduction
of the Criminal Justice Act and the Automator remix of
'Kowalski'. A video was filmed for the single on March 5 in
east London, starring Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh and
a chain saw-wielding Kate Moss. The full tracklisting for
the album is: 'Burning Wheel', 'Get Duffy', 'Kowalski',
'Star', 'If They Move Kill 'Em', 'Out Of The Void',
'Stuka', 'Medication', 'Motorhead' - a cover of the
Motorhead original - 'Trainspotting', which also features
on the soundtrack of the film of the same name, and 'Long
Life'. The band will announce live dates soon.
nme.com
primal.jpginfo.3l.tanja,
news:
Police investigating the disappearance of missing Manic
Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards
say that they are taking seriously information received
from a man who reported spotting him in Goa, India. The
sighting is one of a string of many since Edwards
disappeared on February 1, 1995. College lecturer and
musician Vyvyan Morris, 48, from Swansea, claims he saw the
missing star at a hippy market in Goa on November 6. He
told NME: "I can't be 100 per cent certain, but I'm sure it
was him. I still believe he's out in India and he wants to
be left alone."
Richey's mother, Sherry Edwards, who also believes her son
is alive, said: "We have heard these rumours in the past
and now we're waiting for the police to check it out and
see if there are any developments. We're not planning to
fly out there, but we're keeping an open mind." Manic
Street Preachers spokeswoman Terri Hall said: "In the past
few months, Richey has supposedly been seen in seven
different countries, like Berlin, Poland and the US. "If
anyone genuinely feels they have definitely seen Richey,
they should call the Metropolitan police immediately. What
use is four months later? But if Richey's out there and
alive and well, we're happy. If he wants to get back in
contact with us, that's great."
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, who are handling
the investigation into Richey's disappearance, said: "We
were made aware on February 28 of a reported sighting of Mr
Edwards in Goa in November 1996. If necessary, we will be
making further enquiries through Interpol." Police
interviewed Morris over the phone on March 3 and told him
his story "rang true".
The story was broken on March 2 in the Wales On Sunday by
Maria Williams, the newspaper's assistant news editor.
Williams was talking to Morris about Badfinger, the '60s
Welsh band. Williams asked Morris, who was good friends
with the band in the '60s, if any comparisons could be
drawn between the words of their hit 'Without You' and
Richey's despairing lyrics. Morris, a lecturer in media
studies at Neath College in West Glamorgan, agreed and then
dropped the bombshell that he believed he had seen Richey
in India.
Morris toldNMEhis story. He was on holiday in Goa with his
girlfriend and had seen Richey at Anjuna outdoor market, a
popular hippy and backpacker hangout. He had momentarily
lost his girlfriend, who had their camera, when he spotted
the man who he believed to be Richey sitting opposite him
in a cafÄ. He recognised him, but couldn't quite place his
face. Just as he realised who he was, after about five
minutes, the man stood up, went outside and boarded a
minibus - which is the reason Morris gave for not being
able to speak to him. Morris described the man as "wearing
a kaftan top and jeans" with "quite matted longish hair"and
that he was "fuller" than the "amphetamine gazelle" he
remembered from before. He also said he was "sunburnt and a
bit out of it".
Immediately afterwards, Morris asked a hippy sat nearby if
he knew who the mystery man was. The hippy, Jeff Reid,
originally from Bath who had been in Goa 20 years, told
Morris that the man was called Rick, a 'newcomer' who had
been there for 18 months. Morris asserts he is certain that
the man he saw was Richey, as he had met him at a gig in
Singleton Park, Swansea, in August 1993. He met Richey
after getting a backstage pass from the show's promoter.
Morris said that as soon as he returned to Wales from Goa,
he told the editor and reporters at the newspaper he works
for, but that they were not interested. He added: "I was
quite pleased. I just thought, 'good, leave the poor bugger
alone.' But my main concern of course was for his parents
and family. So I just kept it low-key after that, and then
I mentioned it last weekend in that interview about
Badfinger, and it's all gone hysterical. I didn't want it
to come out like that."
But Wales On Sunday's Maria Williams recognised the
possible significance of Morris' story. She added: "It is
feasible. And Vyv is not barking mad." She said she thought
the only flaw in the story was that Richey had left his
passport behind in the UK when he disappeared. She added
that police in Wales and in London had told her that they
were working on the premise that Richey was alive as no
body had been found. Richey's sister, Rachel, also revealed
last week that she had been told of other sightings of
Richey in Goa before Morris' story. Morris has asserted
that he was not courting publicity and had not received any
money from any publications for his story, nor had he taken
up any of the tabloid offers of trips back to Goa.
Police have previously followed up leads in Germany,
Bedfordshire and South Wales following a constant stream of
supposed sightings and rumours about the whereabouts of
Richey. The most recent of these was that the guitarist had
supposedly been spotted in a book shop in London's Charing
Cross Road in January this year. Police have refused to
comment on the rumour, nor would they comment on or reveal
details of any other reported sightings, as they said all
open police files were confidential. Some have even gone as
far as to allege that Richey is still sending the band
lyrics. Band insiders have pointed out how hurtful they are
to Richey's family and friends who would so dearly love to
hear concrete confirmation of his whereabouts.
nme.com
richey.jpginfo.4l.tanja,
news:
The Prodigy, Beck and Kula Shaker
have been confirmed for V97, joining Blur in Chelmsford and
Leeds on August 16 & 17. The line-up so far for August 16
in Leeds and August 17 in Chelmsford is The Prodigy, Beck,
Foo Fighters and Placebo with The Bluetones, Gene and the
Longpigs on theNMEStage. For August 16 in Chelmsford and
August 17 in Leeds, the line-up is Blur, Kula Shaker,
Dodgy, Reef and Teenage Fanclub with Ash and Mansun
confirmed so far for theNMEstage.
nme.com
beck.jpginfo.5l.tanja,
news:
Notorious BIG,
Bad Boy Records recording artist and long-time Tupac Shakur
rival, was gunned down and killed in the early hours of
Sunday, March 9, as he left a party in Los Angeles.
Notorious BIG, born Christopher Wallace, was in a car with
fellow rapper Little Caesar from Junior Mafia, after
attending the party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Just
after midnight, multiple rounds of gunfire erupted from a
passing vehicle. Wallace, 24, was rushed to Cedars Sinai
hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
LA police have been interviewing the hundreds of people who
attended the party, which Notorious had left when the fire
department closed it down due to overcrowding. The party
was an aftershow following US TV show Soul Train's annual
awards. Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur had been long-time
rivals, although following the death of Shakur there had
been attempts to ease the East Coast/West Coast feud. BIG's
second album, ironically titled 'Life After Death' and due
for release on March 24, was dedicated to Tupac Shakur.
Sean 'Puffy' Combs, Bad Boy label boss, and Tupac's Death
Row labelmate Snoop Doggy Dogg appeared together playing
themselves on US sitcom The Steve Harvey Show in February.
At a press conference after the programme Combs said: "I've
never had a problem with anyone... not Snoop Dogg, Death
Row or anyone else on the West Coast. It's embarrassing the
way that the media has continued to fan the flames of this
East Coast/West Coast rivalry." However, in a magazine
interview in 1994, Tupac accused Notorious and Combs of
being involved in an attempt on his life when he was shot
outside a New York recording studio. The pair hotly denied
this.
Death Row boss Marion 'Suge' Knight also made no secret of
his dislike of Combs, accusing him of complicity in the
murder of a friend in Atlanta, Georgia. When Tupac signed
to Death Row he fuelled accusations that he was sleeping
with BIG's wife, Faith Evans. 'Hit 'Em Up', a Tupac B-side,
included attacks on Junior Mafia, Combs and BIG, as well as
including the line, "Yeah I fucked your bitch, So what?"
Evans was present at the party and aparently heard the
gunshots as Big was gunned down. BIG's debut album, 'Ready
To Die', has sold more than one million copies.
nme.com
big.jpginfo.6l.tanja,
news:
NOTORIOUS BIG (1972-97)
Notorious BIG, born Christopher Wallace, had risen from
poverty to become one of the most influential figures in
the hip-hop world in an incredibly short time. Brought to
national attention when his demo was reviewed in The Source
magazine, Wallace, then working under the name Biggie
Smalls, was courted by industry mogul Sean 'Puffy' Combs.
Following an enforced name change (another rapper was
already using the Smalls moniker), Notorious BIG signed to
Combs' nascent Bad Boy Records and began working on an
album.
Released in 1994, 'Ready To Die' was instantly hailed as a
hip-hop classic, going on to top the US pop album chart.
The album (the cover of which features a picture of Wallace
as a baby) opens with a montage of music and dialogue that
tell a story familiar to the Brooklyn native - birth is
swiftly followed by family strife, and the record's
protagonist begins the seemingly inevitable slide into
crime and incarceration. The character Notorious BIG
portrays on the record is beset by vengeful rivals as he
builds a crime empire, but ultimately finds a life spent
looking over his shoulder to be hollow and meaningless. The
final track, 'Suicidal Thoughts', is framed as a last
desperate phone call to a close friend and ends with the
rapper's suicide.
Controversy was never far from Wallace's heels in life as
well as in his art. Admitting to a past that involved
participating in the drug trade of his Bedford-Stuyvesant
neighbourhood ("If it wasn't for the rap game/I'd probably
be knee-deep in the crack game," he rapped on 'Things Done
Changed'), Notorious BIG had spoken of the jealousy and
hostility he'd encountered since rap had provided him with
riches. Despite the well-documented rivalry with Tupac
Shakur, there are few observers who believe he or Combs
were in any way responsible either for the first attack on
Shakur, or his murder last September. At the time of his
death, Notorious BIG stood on the threshold of becoming a
household name, even in Britain. Arista, Bad Boy's owners,
had announced a headline appearance at Wembley Arena for
late April, and his second album was already keenly
anticipated. He was due to arrive in London for a
promotional trip this week, but cancelled the visit in
order to attend the party in LA where he was murdered.
A considerable talent, Notorious BIG's memory will
inevitably be tied to the machinations that surrounded the
man rather than the eloquent and frequently moving
portrayal of the life of a forgotten black urban underclass
that his music chronicled - but the real tragedy will be if
his death fails to end the worrying, wearying cycle of
violence that is sending hip-hop spiralling out of control.
nme.com
info.7l.tanja,
news:
Foo Fighters
have announced the departure of drummer William Goldsmith -
two months before the release of their new album. Goldsmith
quit on March 4, saying he was leaving of his own accord to
pursue "a variety of other musical interests". Foo
Fighters' Dave Grohl said: "We are all sad that William is
leaving. It's like losing a family member. Plus he's such
an amazing drummer. It is my sincerest hope that he will
continue to rock the universe in all of his future
endeavours." A replacement for Goldsmith has yet to be
named.
The album, tentatively titled 'The Color And The Shape',
will be released on May 12. According to a spokesman, the
band are currently putting the finishing touches to the
record, which will be supported with a full world tour.
Meanwhile, Grohl has collaborated with ex-Pixies frontman
Frank Black and David Bowie on a track for an as-yet
untitled forthcoming solo album by Bowie's guitarist Reeves
Gabrels. Black said, "Grohl wrote the first verse, while me
and Reeves wrote the third verse. Then Dave Grohl and I
sang the first verse Everly Brothers-style. It was pretty
funny. "David Bowie came in, wrote the new song's melody
and the second verse, then took off. He said something
about having to get up early the next morning!"
nme.com
foo.jpginfo.8l.tanja,
news:
The Breeders
have announced the release of a new as-yet-untitled LP
later this year, the follow-up to '93's 'Last Splash', and
also given details of a new line-up. A spokeswoman for the
band said that founder member Kim Deal and drummer Jim
MacPherson are joined by violinist Carrie Bradley,
guitarist Michelle O'Dean (Braniac), guitarist Nate Farley
and bassist Louis Lerma.
Kim's sister Kelley Deal and bassist Josephine Wiggs, who
played on the last Breeders album, are no longer in the
band. The spokeswoman said: "Kim is the only permanent
member of the band. There's always been different members.
The Breeders never 'split up', they just wanted to do other
projects. Then Kim decided she wanted to make another
Breeders record and now she has written about six new
songs. We're expecting great things." She added that there
was no release date for the album yet and that there were
no plans for any UK live dates.
nme.com
breeder.jpginfo.9l.tanja,
novi singlovi:
FUN LOVIN' CRIMINALS: The King Of New York (Chrysalis)
Return of the well 'ard US rappers - out Monday.
ALTER EGO VERSUS DAVID HOLMES: The Evil Needle (Harthouse)
Top techno types in a head-to-head soundclash - out Monday
APACHE INDIAN: Lovin' (Coalition)
Return of the raggamuffin fella - out Monday
CONFUCIUS SAYS: Not In Blue (Koch International)
Two women pledging to bridge Kate Bush-esque pop and
drum'n'bass; cheers - out Monday
SHERYL CROW: Hard To Make A Stand (A&M)
Taken from Crow's double-platinum-selling self-titled LP -
out Monday
FRANKIE CUTLASS: The Cypher Part III (Epic)
Seminal New York hip-hop figure on the comeback trail -
out Monday
THE DELPHINES: I Want You The Way I Want You Not How
You Are (Spit Fire)
Former members of The Go-Go's back with a new combo and a
column-inch-hogging track title - out Monday
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: Spurt Forth (East West)
Debut from the US combo who recently supported Ben Folds
Five - out now
LAURENT GARNIER: 30 (F Communication)
Accomplished house and techno set from the French DJ - out
Monday
GRAVITY KILLS: Guilty (Virgin)
Amp-shaking outfit who've been banned from playing gigs in
Boston on account of their riot-inducing potential,
apparently, rather than the fact that they're not very
good - out Monday
INXS: Elegantly Wasted (Mercury)
Prelude to INXS' forthcoming tenth long-player - out now
JOLT: Punk Jungle Rules (Scared Of Girls)
Mini-LP of fiery rock'n'roll - out Monday
KERBDOG: Mexican Wave (Mercury)
Noisecore outta Ireland - out Monday
LIVINGSTONE: So Tough (Mono)
Latest outing from this less than inspired London combo -
out now
MONSTARS: Hit 'Em High (Atlantic)
Hip-hop supergroup boasting the mike skills of LL Cool J,
Method Man, B-Real, Coolio and Busta Rhymes - out Monday
THE NICOTINES: Mary Wana (Jealous)
Oxford-based band who list Beck, Tiger, Krautrock and The
Police among their influences - out now
ONE INCH PUNCH: If (Audio Ink)
Taken from Justin Warfield & co's 'Tao Of The One Inch
Punch' LP - out Monday
PET SHOP BOYS: A Red Letter Day (Parlophone)
Fourth single from PSB's 'Bilingual' album; features the
Choral Academy Of Moscow on backing, um, stuff - out
Monday
PHOTEK: Ni Ten Ichi Ryu (Science)
Samurai-inspired missive from the rising jungle star - out
Monday
REDD KROSS: Mess Around (This Way Up)
Bone-cracking roars and grunts from the Kross - out Monday
SOLAR RACE: Lee Speaks/My Enemy (Silvertone)
Steve Albini-produced tracks from this Manchester outfit -
out Monday
SPACE DJZ: EP (Novamute)
Tough tribal electro from this Bandulu offshoot project -
out now
SPEEDY J: Ni Go Snix (Novamute)
Hard and heavy Aphex-ish ramblings from Rotterdam's J -
out Monday
STERLING: Out Of The Sunlight (Mantra)
Pop-shaped surrealism - out Monday
SUPERCHARGER: Spacemaker Deluxe (Indochina)
Big beat mayhem of the heavy-riffin', trŔs large noise
kind - out now
VERBENA: Hey, Come On (Setanta)
Raucous and unremitting rock from the US - out Monday.
nme.com
info.10l.tanja,
novi albumi:
AFTER 7: The Very Best Of... (Virgin)
Round-up of the R&B star's big US hits - out Monday
BETTIE SERVEERT: Dust Bunnies (Beggars Banquet)
Tales of insecurity and messed-up relationships from the
Dutch/Canadian Betties - out Monday
CAKE: Fashion Nuggets (Capricorn/Mercury)
Everything from rock to hip-hop from Sacramento's weirdo
tunesmiths - out Monday
FLAMING STARS: Bring Me The Rest Of Alfredo Garcia (Vinyl
Japan)
Summary of this garage rock band's output to date - out
Monday
FREDDY FRESH: Accidentally Classic (Harthouse)
MÚlange of electro, techno and hip-hop from the US - out
Monday
LATEEF & LYRICS BORN: Latyrx (Solesides/A&M)
Innovative hip-hop from San Francisco - out Monday
MAIDS OF GRAVITY: The First Second (Vernon Yard)
Avant-acid-rock produced by John Cale - out Monday
MORPHINE: Like Swimming (Rykodisc)
Fourth long-player from the intense and hypnotic Morphs -
out now
SCARFACE: Untouchable (Rap-A-Lot/Virgin)
Lazy, G-funkish rap from the former member of the Geto
Boys - out Monday
VARIOUS: Cream Separates (deConstruction)
DJs Darren Emerson, Deep Dish, Paul Bleasdale and Les
Ryder in the mix, covering all areas of dance for the
Liverpool superclub - out Monday.
nme.com
info.11l.tanja,
NEWS:
THE PRODIGY, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS and THE ORB
are set to showcase UK techno in a massive three-header US
tour in September. Billed as a techno Lollapalooza, the
Organic Tour will travel to 20 US cities, playing to
10,000-capacity crowds, the biggest tour of its kind by
British techno acts.
FUGEES
are set to play a massive gig in their native Haiti on April
12 in a bid to help calm the gang violence which is ripping
the country apart. Fugees have written a song, 'One Chance',
for the victims of shootings on the impoverished Caribbean
nation and are putting up half the cost of the concert while
the country's government will pay for the rest. According to
Fugees rapper, Wyclef Jean: "We are from this country and we
want to give a positive image to the kids living there, and
maybe kick off some kind of peace treaty and wipe out the
street gangs. We're talking about a bunch of kids who don't
have nothing, no jobs or whatever, so they hustle." Wyclef
has admitted that were it not for a career in music, he
would have become involved in crime and gang violence. Busta
Rhymes and A Tribe Called Quest will also play at the gig.
SPIRITUALIZED
return with a new album, 'Ladies And Gentlemen We Are
Floating In Space', at the end of May. The album, the
follow-up to 1995's 'Pure Phase', features 11 tracks,
including 'Cop Shoot Cop' which is 16 minutes long. Tracks
to be featured are 'I Think I'm In Love', 'All Of My
Thoughts', 'Stay With Me', 'Electricity', 'Home Of The
Brave', 'The Individual', 'Broken Heart', 'No God Only
Religion', 'Cool Waves', 'Come Together' and 'Cop Shoot
Cop'. Guests on the record include New Orleans
psychedelic/R&B legend Dr John, who plays piano on 'Cop
Shoot Shop', the Balanescu String Quartet and the London
Gospel Community Choir.
NAS
cancelled his European tour, including a date at London
Kentish Town Forum on March 29, following the murder of
close friend Notorious BIG. Nas, who attended Biggie's
funeral last week, issued no further statement as NME went
to press. Meanwhile, Sean 'Puffy' Combs, boss of New
York-based Bad Boy Records, will put aside profits from the
last Notorious BIG album 'Life After Death... 'Til Death Do
Us Part' to open a youth centre in Brooklyn, New York, where
BIG was born. BIG, born Christopher Wallace, was cremated
last week in New Jersey after a funeral in New York. Police
in Los Angeles are still investigating his death.
Meanwhile, MTV News reported last week that Las Vegas police
believe Tupac Shakur was shot and killed by gang member,
Orlando Anderson, over a pendant. MTV News says it saw a
police dossier which included a sworn affidavit from an
informant who heard Anderson identified as the killer.
According to the report, Anderson was attacked by a gang
from Shakur's label, Death Row Records, in Las Vegas last
September in retaliation for ripping a pendant from one of
Shakur's security guards in a fight the previous summer. He
was arrested by Los Angeles police in October in connection
with another murder, but charges were dropped because of
lack of evidence. Las Vegas police say that Anderson is a
fugitive and is being sought in connection with the Shakur
shooting.
nme.com
info.12l.tanja,
novi singlovi:
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The LJs return after a three-year break with an absolute
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Sunderland's power-pop trio reissue their May 1995
limited-edition single - out now
SQUAREPUSHER: Vic Acid (Warp)
The increasingly chin-stroking DJ serves up another dollop
of jazzy drum'n'bass noodlings - out now
SUEDE: Lazy (Nude)
Another track from Brett & co's third album 'Coming Up',
backed with four newies - out now
TEXAS: Halo (Mercury)
More toss from the kings and queen of toss - out now
30 AMP FUSE: I Fall Down (Dedicated)
Punk pop with knobs on - out now
CRYSTAL WATERS: Say... If You Feel Alright (Mercury)
The 'La da deee, la da da' lady returns with a song on which
she purrs like a pussycat... it says here - out now
nme.com
info.13l.tanja,
novi albumi:
GUS GUS: Polydistortion (4AD)
Debut album from the nine-piece Icelandic dance collective -
out now
AKASHA: Brown Sugar (Wall Of Sound)
Jazzy drum'n'bass beats straight outta Battersea - out now
BIS: The New Transistor Heroes (Grand Royal)
Debut from Glasgow's candy-coated punk popsicles - out now
DIMITRI FROM PARIS: Sacre Bleu (East West)
Eclectic selection of tunes from the Gallic dance music
magpie - out now
INXS: Elegantly Wasted (Mercury)
And ruddy ker-razy with it - out now
PALACE MUSIC: Lost Blues And Other Songs (Domino)
Rare and deleted singles from the band otherwise known as
one Will Oldham - out now
STERLING: Monster Lingo (Mantra)
Twisted melodies and warped lyrics - out now
TARNATION: Mirador (4AD)
Dreamy country-tinged sounds from the San Francisco
four-piece - out now
THESE ANIMAL MEN: Accident And Emergency (Hut)
The speed kings return with a new sound to dim the memories
of NWONW - out now
VARIOUS: Viva Diablo Blanco - Freestyle Beats Volume One
(Indochina)
Top compilation featuring Propellerheads remixing 808 State,
Apollo 440, The Egg, Arkarna mixing Morcheeba, Fatboy Slim
and the ace Philadelphia Bluntz - out now
VARIOUS: Creative Trip Hop (Club Masters)
Twenty top breakbeat tracks from the likes of Fat Boy Slim,
Up, Bustle & Out and Headrillaz, mixed by Pressure Drop and
Tipper - out now
VARIOUS: Twin Town Soundtrack (A&M)
Top tunes to back the film that's being dubbed the Welsh
Trainspotting, featuring Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry
Animals, Catatonia, Moloko, Stereolab, Dodgy and DJ Shadow -
out now
VERBENA: Souls For Sale (Setanta)
Heavy pop music from two blokes who have been in jail, and
two that haven't, produced by Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips
and Mercury Rev fame
FRANK ZAPPA: Have I Offended Someone? (Rykodisc)
A 'politically incorrect' album compiled by Zappa just
before his death in 1993, featuring gems such as
'Titties'n'Beer', 'He's So Gay' and 'Goblin Girl'.
nme.com
info.15l.tanja,
recenzija albuma
CHEMICAL BROTHERS
Dig Your Own Hole
(Freestyle Dust/Virgin/All formats)
"... The world of 'Dig Your Own Hole' is bruised, pissed,
moody, stubborn, phenomenally cocksure. A trashing of all
dance music's spiritual, pacifying potential. A record
designed not to calm savage beasts, but to make them even
madder... It's fabulous, actually. The images we customarily
imagine techno to soundtrack - great empty vistas of space,
a stainless, genteel vision of the future - don't apply
here. Rather, the Chemicals conjure up a grimy, urban and
unavoidably violent nightworld. As the speedy, sliding title
track whizzes by - a bit like 'Firestarter' but meaner, less
camp - it evokes cars crashing, buildings collapsing, faces
melting... everything, with compelling inevitability,
exploding. Edge-of-the-seat stuff, if you're still sitting
down. Which is unlikely, frankly.
If 1995's 'Exit Planet Dust' was a rough'n'ready
story-so-far, 'Dig Your Own Hole' is the fully-honed full-on
block-rocking cortex-hammering take-no-prisoners real deal,
the album whose party omnipotence will only be matched in
'97 by The Prodigy's tortuously awaited third excursion. The
first three-quarters - 45 seamless minutes - are a
breathtaking object lesson in how this music can be
simultaneously uncompromising and massively accessible. Make
no mistake: it takes a sensitive touch - a certain kind of
genius, even - to make a racket this elemental. So 'Block
Rockin' Beats' kicks things off, brash and deceptively
brainless, petulant rapping swiped off a track by
proto-gangsta Schoolly D and splattered over mighty,
perpetually recycled loops of sound. On 'Piku' the beats
slow down to a menacing stomp, the buzzing swarm of sampled
noise in the background thins out dramatically, and the
Chemicals reveal themselves as close compatriots of DJ
Shadow.
'Piku', though, is very much a temporary lull. 'It Doesn't
Matter' begins as malfunctioning robo-voiced electro before
slipping into a squiggly sub-bass trance state, as dynamic
as ever. 'Setting Sun' drops psychedelic drugs into the mix,
hurtles along faster than The Beatles (whose 'Tomorrow Never
Knows' is the acknowledged template) probably ever imagined
music could go, and provides the first valuable use for Noel
Gallagher since he earned an honest quid shifting the
Inspirals' gear. Finally, 'Get Up On It Like This' - lifted
from '96's limited-edition 'Loops Of Fury' EP - is
loose-limbed, elastically funky and, if possible, even more
demented than what has gone before. Rarely has an album
showcased such sustained, draining audio-thuggery. Respite
comes, eventually, with the ninth track, 'Lost In The K
Hole'. There's a significantly lighter touch here, as
fluttery harps and hi-hat samples provide a terrific disco
spangliness vaguely akin to fellow travellers Daft Punk.
Next, 'Where Do I Begin' provides the album's one remotely
duff moment, an uncharacteristically frail stab at
techno-folk with the hideously overrated Beth Orton's
irritating, mundane voice tangled up in a web of distortion
and spiralling backward guitars. Compared with 'Exit Planet
Dust''s authentically dazed comedown classic 'One Too Many
Mornings', however, it's a disappointing glitch. Skip it.
All that's left, after that, is 'The Private Psychedelic
Reel'. Nine-and-a-half minutes long, and featuring the
superb Oklahoman space-rock explorers Mercury Rev, it's a
possessed, unravelling mantric freak-out executed with
typical Chemicals belligerence, but with the sky-snogging
transcendental atmosphere of, say, Spiritualized or,
especially, The Stone Roses' 'I Am The Resurrection'. With a
sitar that calls to mind '60s German acid-jazz classic
'Mathar' (yep, really) by The Dave Pike Set. And with a
clarinet played by someone out of the Rev that makes it
sound like, uh, 'Racing The Tide' by the Rev, actually.
Marvellous.
It's ironic, though, that for all of the
hard-as-titanium-nails rock'n'roll posturing evoked by much
of the music here (we'll charitably forget the Orton lapse
of judgment. You did it last time, you've done it this time.
Just don't let it happen again), Simons and Rowlands are
such mild-mannered, virtually anonymous techno types.
Perhaps that very fact suggests that, unlike rock'n'roll,
the macho aggression can be channelled entirely into the
music, completely separated from the band's image and
posing. In which case we're confronting the fact that 'Dig
Your Own Hole' has a ruthless character with a life of its
own beyond its creators. (8/10)"
John Mulvey
nme.com
chem.wavinfo.17l.tanja,
Vesti:
Monday, May 5, 1997
Courtney Love To Sell Seattle Mansion
Courtney Love is selling the Seattle mansion where her
husband, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, committed
suicide in 1994. Love is asking $3 million for the
estate, which sits on three-quarters of an acre of land
in an exclusive Seattle neighborhood. "I have a nice
house, but I can't live there," Love told the
Independent newspaper last March. "Kids everywhere all
the time," she said, referring to the devoted Nirvana
fans who have made a pilgrimage to the home and its
neighboring park since Cobain's death. The greenhouse
where Cobain shot himself was torn down by Love a while
ago, but that hasn't stopped the influx of the devoted.
A listing in the Seattle Times said the 1902 mansion had
been "meticulously restored." Among its selling points:
five bedrooms, four bathrooms, fireplaces in the living
and dining rooms, a family room, nanny and guest
quarters, and views of the Cascade mountain range and
Lake Washington. "I have a child who didn't do anything,
and I love waking up and seeing the mountains. That's my
big heartbreak," said Love, referring to four-year-old
daughter Frances Bean. Love, the lead singer of Hole and
star of The People vs. Larry Flynt, has been dividing
her time between New York and Los Angeles. There's no
word on where she'll eventually settle.
www.wallofsound.com
info.18l.tanja,
Vesti:
Monday, May 5, 1997
The End of Violence Soundtrack Lures in Big Names
German director Wim Wenders, he of Wings of Desire and
Faraway, So Close fame, has a well-earned reputation for
landing top musical talent for the soundtracks of his
films, and his latest project, The End of Violence, is
no exception. The Los Angeles Times reports that Bono
presented a song to Wenders just before U2's Pop-Mart
tour kicked off in Las Vegas on April 25. The song,
described as "aggressive" and "up-tempo," will be titled
either "I'm Not Your Baby" or "The End of Violence." The
tracks are getting shipped off to London, where Sinead
O'Connor's vocals will be added. No word on whether it
will be billed as a Bono and Sinead song or U2 and
Sinead song, since the band did provide the music. In
addition to U2 and O'Connor, the soundtrack will feature
the pairing of R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Vic Chesnutt,
the first new piece of music in ten years from German
electronic gurus Kraftwerk, and an unreleased track by
the late Roy Orbison. Other contributors include Tom
Waits, Los Lobos (and their spin-off, the Latin
Playboys), DJ Shadow, the eels, and many others. Ry
Cooder, who wrote the lonesome sounds behind Wenders'
Paris, Texas, will score the film, which stars Gabriel
Byrne, Andie MacDowell, and Bill Pullman. It's set to
hit theaters in September.
www.wallofsound.com
info.19l.tanja,
Vesti:
Monday, May 5, 1997
Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson Feeling Pretty
Nine Inch Nails and its wicked labelmate spawn, Marilyn
Manson, were the big winners last Thursday night at the
seventh annual Music Video Production Awards, taking
home three awards each. The Nine Inch Nails video "The
Perfect Drug," from the Reznor-produced Lost Highway
soundtrack, won for Director of the Year (Mark Romanek),
Best Cinematography in Video (Jeff Cronenweth), and the
coveted Best Hair/Makeup in a music video award
(Cemal--hair, Joanne Gair--makeup). Marilyn Manson won
its trio of trophies for "The Beautiful People," which
was singled out for Best Editing (Michelle Cuzar), Art
Direction (Kenny Baird), and Styling (Carole Beadie).
And what could be more in style these days than
Satan-loving death-rockers? The night's big award, for
Video of the Year, went to Jamiroquai's "Virtual
Insanity."
www.wallofsound.com
info.20l.tanja,
Vesti:
Monday, May 5, 1997
Prince Teams With the Muppets--Overseas
Imagine Prince and Kermit doing a duet of "It's Not Easy
Bein' Green." Or Prince and Fozzie cracking jokes. Or
even Prince serenading Miss Piggy. Sound impossible? It
isn't. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince had his
Muppet debut Saturday night. Missed it? We're not
surprised, since the only place you could catch Prince
guesting on the Muppets Tonight! show was on the Canal+
network in Spain. In the episode, which was dubbed into
Spanish, Prince donned a variety of costumes, including
a cowboy hat and spurs for a country-western number, and
performed "Starfish and Coffee" followed by snippets of
a new take on "Raspberry Beret," which was transformed
by the Muppets into a tasty "sorbet." The show closed,
appropriately enough, with a rocking version of "Let's
Go Crazy." The episode was taped sometime last year,
before the Emmy Award-winning Muppets was put on hiatus
by ABC. But Prince fans shouldn't give up hope. Word is
the series may turn up on the BBC sometime this year,
and segments with Paula Abdul, Heather Locklear, and
Pierce Brosnan have already aired in the U.K. and New
Zealand.
www.wallofsound.com
info.21l.tanja,
Vesti:
Monday, May 5, 1997
Michael Jackson's Hard Copy Suit Dismissed
Michael Jackson's $100-million lawsuit against former
Hard Copy reporter Diane Dimond, Paramount Television,
and KABC Radio was dismissed by a Los Angeles Superior
Court judge on Friday. But all was not lost for the King
of Pop: his lawsuit against freelance writer Victor
Gutierrez still stands. Jackson filed the lawsuit after
Dimond appeared on a KABC morning show earlier this year
and discussed a segment set to appear on that night's
Hard Copy. The story was an interview with freelance
reporter Victor Gutierrez, who claimed to have seen a
videotape of Jackson having sex with a minor. During the
segment it was also alleged that the L.A. District
Attorney's office had reopened its investigation into
child molestation allegations brought against Jackson.
"We've already proven that the story about the tape was
false, and Gutierrez is still on the hook," Jackson's
attorney, Zia Modabber, told Variety. "Although I
haven't spoken with my client yet, I expect that we will
appeal the judge's ruling, because [the defendants'
acts] really did cross the line."
www.wallofsound.com
info.22l.tanja,
Ivtervju
grupa: Depeche Mode
izvor: www.wallofsound.com
Depeche Mode hopes to have found a new way of life
following a season in hell
By Gary Graff
WHEN Depeche Mode traipsed around the globe during
its 1993-94 world tour, it seemed like high times
for everyone's favorite synth-pop quartet. The Mode's
then-new album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, became
one of the band's top sellers and, thanks to the
burgeoning mainstream embrace of modern rock, the songs
were being heard in previously uninterested corners
of the market.
But inside the tour was a nightmare that neither a
"Personal Jesus" nor the psychiatrist hired to stay on
the road with the band could cure. Frontman David Gahan
was addled by a debilitating drug addiction; Martin
Gore endured a grand mal seizure; an Andy Fletcher
suffered a nervous breakdown, was hospitalized, and
had to leave the tour early. A disenchanted Alan Wilder,
meanwhile, chose to leave the band entirely. And things
only got worse for Gahan, who, after the tour, continued
his slide until a May 1996 overdose during which he
died for two minutes.
No wonder Gahan's laugh is rueful when he cracks,
"We do pain well." Fortunately, the pain has subsided.
Gore and Fletcher have regained their health; Gahan
is clean--thanks to a stay at Los Angeles's Exodus
Recovery Center and continuing treatment--
and Depeche Mode is back with a new album, Ultra, that may
be its most aggressive, organic, and rocking yet. Gore
plays more guitar than ever: you'll even find a bluesy
tinge on a couple of songs, though it's layered over the
electronic backing that' defined Depeche Mode since
the group's 1980 inception in Basildon, England.
Wilder's void has been filled by a team that includes
co-producer Tim Simenon, Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit,
and former Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbash. Having
stared down the "Barrel of a Gun," Depeche Mode
has emerged more assured and nimble than ever, which
thirty-year-old fathers Gahan and Gore confirm--with
some degree of relief--for Wall of Sound.
Wall of Sound: How are you feeling these days?
David Gahan: What's been achieved, most importantly,
is I've managed to get myself clean and sober--today.
That's a miracle in itself. To actually complete a
record with my band and be very happy with it is very
fulfilling. That side of things is finished and done.
The other side of things is something else; recovery
for me is definitely possible now. It's something I
have to work on one day at a time.
Was there a moment of epiphany that got you committed
to cleaning up?
Gahan: Probably the end of last May, when I actually
woke up on a hospital bed and was informed by
paramedics I had died for two minutes--I was clinically
dead and had flat-lined. But even then I kind of chose
to ignore it for a few days. Getting arrested again after
getting out of the hospital bed I guess was icing on the
cake. My life was going nowhere, and when you're in that
place, you're either going to die or get clean. I was at
that stage, as simple as that. . . . The diseases convinced
me I could still get high, but I hadn't actually gotten
high for about three years, even taking obscene doses.
I had nowhere to go. The thought of going to another detox
was a big, dark cloud.
I had an intervention done on me, and at first I said no,
but by that evening, I was there, and within about thirty
days I realized that I didn't have to do [drugs] anymore.
I finally got it. I'd been in and out of these types of
programs for three years, but the last nine months have
been pretty incredible. I'm starting to really be
comfortable with my own skin and enjoy the fact that I'm
sitting here, for instance, and being able to talk to
somebody. Nine months ago, picking up a phone and asking
someone for help wasn't something I would do.
How did the rest of the band deal with Dave's continuing
situation?
Martin Gore: I think we were very caring and compassionate
for a very long time. There were periods when Dave was in
such a bad way and his voice was so shot we were getting
absolutely no work done. At that point we were so
frustrated that compassion started turning to anger; I don't
think he felt strongly about anything other than drugs at
that point. And at various points, I did think it was
improbable it would carry on and unlikely we would make
another record.
Did you ever contemplate just firing him and carrying on
with another singer, or with you doing the vocals?
Gore: When I see other bands changing their singers
willy-nilly as if they were not important, that always
makes me laugh. We would never consider carrying on without
Dave. Alan leaving was one thing, but Dave is the focal point
of Depeche Mode. His voice is very distinctive; he's one of
those singers you can recognize instantly on the radio. He
is Depeche Mode. We never considered carrying on without
him. When things were going really badly, I had to consider
finishing myself and putting it out as a solo artist, which
I didn't want to do. I never wanted to be a solo artist. I
liked being in a band.
Does the lifestyle of being a musician in a working and
touring band really foster substance abuse?
Gahan: It's not so much in the music, but in the adulation of
a live performance, walking onstage in front of 20,000 people
who are shouting and screaming. That'll do it, getting to
show off for two hours, getting paid for it. Also, you kind
of surrod yourself with people telling you how wonderful
you are all the time, even if inside you know how you feel
like a piece of shit. Then it's hard to look at yourself in
the mirror when you're on your own. You're always looking for
that quick fix, whether it's people relationships or drugs
or whatever. I find that whole kind of lifestyle really,
really shallow now. I kind of created this monster, and when
I reached out inside myself to find David again, it was so
far gone I couldn't remember where to look.
It's very much a case of getting your life back. When you spend
that much time--I guess it was like seven years or so--shooting
dope, you lose the ability to feel an Ay tin of feeis up, you
oblitrwiroin. It's shug, including alcohol.aleuent is boatng ruld
make ietterhae to reiself te
The last tour sounds like a nightmare. Was that how you
experienced it?
Gahan: We were already exhausted before we started it. The way
we set it up, it was such a huge production--120 people working
for us, airplanes, limousines, nice hotels. I think we were one
of the first bands to actually employ a psychiatrist on the
road! I didn't use him; I had a different kind of doctor who we
also employed on the road. [Laughs.] It was just insane from
the get-go, and then to be out there for nearly two years; when
that bubble bursts and you're left completely alone with yourself,
it's not a very nice feeling. You don't get that pump-up every
night, with the audience and everything. It was a very strange
reality check, coming off the road.
So what happened with Alan Wilder leaving the band?
Gore: It wasn't really a surprise. I think we all knew he was
unhappy. He called a band meeting about six months after the
Songs of Faith and Devotion tour. He'd said at the end of that
tour he felt like he didn't want to continue with the band, and
six months down the line he still felt the same. He said, "I
think it's time for me to leave." That was that.
Gahan: What we realized during the making of Ultra, very much so,
was that Depeche Mode is Martin's songs and my voice; we finally
realized that is our strength. We all need to be pushed and need
direction and help. We had a lot of help around us, people who
were into what we do. When we have that, we know we're capable
of doing something good.
file:
recenzija albuma "Ultra"
i wav - barrel of a gun
depeche.zipinfo.23l.tanja,
Retrospektiva :)
grupa: Aerosmith
izvor: www.wallofsound.com
By Bob Remstein
WHAT does it take to win it all, lose it all, and then
get it all back again? For Aerosmith, arguably the
greatest American hard-rock band of the seventies, it
took more than just talent and hard work--although they
had those qualities in spades. From the very beginning,
Steven Tyler and company vowed that they would become
the best and biggest band around. Well, not only did they
hit the top in the mid-seventies, but they did it again
fifteen years later, winning back the recognition and
popularity they had squandered during a lengthy period
of drinking, drug abuse, and an all-around loss of
creative and personal control.
Aerosmith: Columbia (1973)
This is where it all started. While the now-classic soaring
hard-rock ballad "Dream On" is the strongest track,
there are other highlights too, ranging from the Jerry
Lee Lewis-plus-distortion blast of "Mama Kin" to the
riff-rockin' "Make It," one of everal early songs that
focused on the band's big-time aspirations. They hadn't
fully developed their sound by this point: the guitars
seem thin in spots and, at times, Steven Tyler comes across
as a collection of his vocal influences. Still, their
attitude and ambition are already evident.
Get Your Wings: Columbia (1974)
A year of touring had tightened and toughened up the
band's sound, allowing them to generate a serious groove
on "Same Old Song and Dance," as well as to concoct the
hyper, sleazy art-rock of "Lord of the Thighs." Brad
Whitford really steps out on this disc, tossing off effusive
leads on tracks like their snarly cover of the Yardbirds'
"Train Kept a Rollin'." Though Tyler's nervous habit of
lapsing into a fast vibrato hadn't yet disappeared, he
scored with another moody ballad, "Seasons of Wither." They
were nearing their target, but they wouldn't hit the
bull's-eye until their next release.
Toys in the Attic: Columbia (1975)
Bingo! Fueled by their two finest singles ever and produced
by creative catalyst Jack Douglas, Aerosmith's third album
turned them into full-fledged rock stars. "Sweet Emotion"
and "Walk This Way" serve as models for R&B-tinged hard
rock--the first for its seamless integration of an
open-sounding chorus filled with pop harmonies and a
blustery, bristling verse; the second for its incredible
mix of amped-up rock guitars and a low-down, New Orleans
funk groove. No wonder it became the basis of one of the
first great rap/rock crossovers when Run-D.M.C. covered it
a decade later. While there are certainly other strong cuts
here--a goofball cover of the sleazy novelty tune "Big
Ten-Inch Record," the Stonesy ballad "You See Me Crying,"
the pile-driving title track--the album has an uneven feel.
Ultimately, it would be splitting hairs to try and rate
whether this or Rocks was Aerosmith's best.
Rocks: Columbia (1976)
Though there's nothing here quite as killer as "Walk This
Way" or "Sweet Emotion," this album may be a hair stronger
than Toys. It's certainly more consistent, and the band
rocks with amazing passion and authority throughout.
Whitford's itchy "Last Child" may be their best slow
blues-rocker ever, and "Back in the Saddle," simplistic
though it is, makes for a great raunch-rock anthem. And even
though this was their highest-charting album to date, they
still found room for songs that, in effect, chronicled
the band's achievements, such as "Lick and a Promise."
Essential seventies Aerosmith.
Draw the Line: Columbia (1977)
Here's where Aerosmith began its long slide downhill. Sure,
the album went platinum, and sure, they were still a
tremendous live draw, but other than the somewhat prog-rock
"Kings and Queens," most of the songs are pedestrian,
especially compared to e powerful, inventive material
from the two preceding discs. The title track features a solid
Joe Perry guitar riff, and their cover of "Milkcow Blues"
harbors a certain rootsy charm, but Tyler's vocals are
beginning to sound strained and the band's loss of momentum
is palpable.
Night in the Ruts: Columbia (1979)
By this time, Tyler and Perry's drug use had in essence
separated them from the rest of the group. Not surprisingly,
the rhythm section absolutely cooks on most of this record;
"Cheese Cake," in particular, is a smokin' testament to the
band's playing ability. But Tyler's singing on this album
is screechy, strained, and tough to stomach throughout, and
their ridiculously arranged cover of the Shangri-La's oldie
"Remember Walking in the Sand" is quite possibly the worst
single they ever produced.
Rock in a Hard Place: Columbia (1982)
By the early eighties, both Joe Perry and Brad Whitford had
quit the band, leaving the three remaining members stuck with
two solid but unremarkable replacement guitarists. Clearly,
Tyler had too much responsibility on his shoulders, and so
it's not surprising that with the exception of the agitated,
fiery "Jailbait," there's not much on this album to get
excited about.
Done With Mirrors: Geffen (1985)
With Perry and Whitford back in the fold, the band began its
epic rise back to prominence. On this Ted Templeman-produced
effort, the pumped-up sound and the rock-solid attitude were
back, but the songs failed to connect with the public in an
era when new-wave bands ruled the charts and hard rock
meant Journey, Survivor, and Van Halen. "My Fist Your Face,"
probably the most memorable cut, comes off as a strong
statement, but in general Tyler's lyrics seem unfocused. No
wonder they brought in song doctors to help out on the
following album.
Permanent Vacation: Geffen (1987)
Under the aegis of pop-metal guru Bruce Fairbairn, Aerosmith
finally re-entered the public consciousness with a more
R&B-influenced (and less guitar-oriented) album. Taut, groovy,
and loaded with sass, "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" scored big,
and the grittier "Rag Doll" followed close behind.
Catchy though it is, "Angel" found the boys from Boston sinking
into the pit of eighties pop-metal balladry, and most of the
other tracks seem synth-heavy and dated in retrospect. Tyler's
singing, however, was never as consistently strong as it was on
this album, and that improvement was only a harbinger of what
was soon to come.
Pump: Geffen (1989)
The best of the band's post-1970s albums, Pump features the
same sort of variety that makes Toys in the Attic so entertaining.
From the orchestrated pop touches and no-nonsense social
commentary of "Janie's Got a Gun" to the over-the-top
blues-rock bladry of "What It Takes" (one of Tyler's finest
vocal performances ever) this is a mighty impressive CD.
Granted, "Love in an Elevator" doesn't quite have the edge
to reach the penthouse, but how many other hard-rock/metal
bands of the late eighties could insert pop elements into
their sound as skillfully as these guys?
Pandora's Box: Columbia (1991)
A three-disc set covering the group's first decade of existence,
this box is somewhat overstuffed with filler and sub-par live
recordings. For diehards, though, it's fun to hear the one single
released by Tyler's old N.Y.C. band Chain Reaction (in 1966!),
the somewhat punkish, Standells-like "When I Needed You," and a
cool cover version of Rufus Thomas's "Walkin' the Dog," which
was recorded for a live radio show back in 1971. Tunes by band
members' solo projects Whitford/St. Holmes and the Joe
Perry Project complete the picture.
Get a Grip: Geffen (1993)
Riding on the coattails of Pump's success, the band's final
studio album for Geffen soared to the top of the charts. But
while this album still features the fat, overloaded
late-eighties pop/metal sound, the songs just don't have the
spark of Pump's better numbers. "Eat the Rich" is a valiant
attempt at using a bristling Perry guitar riff to prop up an
ordinary song, while "Livin' on the Edge," despite its
death-defying video, is little better. With Tyler's ideally
edgy vocals leading the way, "Cryin'" makes for a memorable
bluesy ballad, unlike "Crazy," which runs its eighties influences
right into the ground. The formula still works, but it sounds
way too formulaic this time around.
file:
wav - Dream on
wav - Janie's got a gun
aero.zipinfo.24l.tanja,
Povodom koncerta u Beogradu - grupa KISS - biografija
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Members: Gene Simmons
Peter Criss
Paul Stanley
Ace Frehley
Past/Other Members: Eric Carr
Mark St. John
Bruce Kulick
Eric Singer
Vinnie Vincent
Home Base: Los Angeles, California
Label Affiliation: Mercury
Formed: 1973
MORE famous for their campy theatrics, white-face makeup, and
flamboyant black-on-black costumes than for their twenty-four
albums, KISS captured the imaginations of millions of teenagers
(cadets in the KISS Army) with its faux-macho posing and comic-book
mystique. Vending a commercially potent mix of anthemic hard rock
and glossy ballads--a sound that laid the groundwork for the
pop-metal hair bands of the eighties--KISS's brand of rock and roll
fell flat with the critics but ignited an entire generation of
budding music fans. Onstage, the band often obscured its anthems
with pyrotechnics and dry-ice fog, but audiences loved every
fire-breathing, blood-spitting minute of their shows. What some
don't realize is that KISS's massive appeal as a touring band also
translated to album sales, as the band ranks third behind the
Rolling Stones and the Beatles for consecutive gold records, with
twenty-three (which ties them with Rush).
KISS was the brainchild of one Gene Simmons (born Gene Klein in
Haifa, Israel), a former elementary school teacher and bass player,
and singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, who were bandmates in a
Manhattan-based group called Wicked Lester. The two recruited
drummer Peter Criss (born Peter Crisscoula) through an ad in Rolling
Stone magazine, and brought in guitarist Ace Frehley through a
classified ad in the Village Voice. Simmons and Stanley had a
concept for their new band right from the start, which was to
perform in full theatrical regalia, including white pancake makeup
with elaborate facial markings, platform boots, and outrageous black
and silver getups. Fully costumed, each member of the band was in
effect a cartoon character: Simmons was the Bat Lizard, Criss was
the Cat, Frehley was the Spaceman, and Stanley was the Star Child.
With this decision, KISS showed that while they may have been rock
and rollers at heart, they were marketing geniuses first and foremost.
In 1973, the band signed to Bill Aucoin's management company after
only one show, and two weeks later they inked a deal with the
fledgling Casablanca label. Their first three records show a nascent
rock-and-roll band still searching for a sound, and it wasn't until
the 1975 double live album Alive! was released (led by the hit
single "Rock and Roll All Nite") that the band captured its true
flair on record. In 1976, KISS made the glossy and accessible
Destroyer under the direction of former Alice Cooper producer Bob
Ezrin. It had its share of rockers ("Shout It Out Loud," "Detroit
Rock City"), but the album's breakthrough track was the heavily
orchestrated ballad "Beth," which featured drummer Criss on vocals.
The song went to No. 7 on the singles chart, virtually unheard-of
territory for a hard-rock band, and could rightly be called the
first power ballad. With the success of "Beth," Marvel Comics paid
the band the ultimate tribute by publishing a KISS comic book. The
red ink used in the illustrations purportedly contained a small
amount of blood from the band members themselves--another stroke of
marketing genius.
The quartet was very active throughout the late seventies, releasing
five more albums, including the multi-platinum Alive II in 1977 and
the greatest-hits collection Double Platinum in 1978. In October of
that year, KISS made another marketing masterstroke by
simultaneously releasing a solo album by each member. Through the
release of 1979's Dynasty, KISS was a near-permanent fixture on the
road and the band was still performing in full makeup. But by 1980,
the dynasty had begun to come apart. Peter Criss left the band prior
to the recording of Unmasked, and was replaced for the sessions by
future David Letterman show drummer Anton Fig (he had played on
Frehley's solo album). Criss was replaced permanently by Eric Carr
in 1981. Surprisingly competent guitarist Frehley left the band
prior to 1982's embarrassing Creatures of the Night to form his own
band, Frehley's Comet, and KISS's music suffered dramatically. The
next year, with the release of Lick It Up, KISS removed its costumes
and makeup for the first time, and while fans were sympathetic to
dermatological damage the cosmetics had caused over the years, part
of the KISS cachet was lost when they wiped their faces clean.
Vinnie Vincent, who had joined prior to Lick It Up, left two years
later, replaced by Mark St. John for Animalize (1984). St. John, in
a sad twist, took ill with Reiter's syndrome, and in 1985, Bruce
Kulick assumed the role and held it for a decade. Despite these
adversities, the late-eighties saw KISS regaining its stature and
enlisting a new army of fans. "Forever," from the 1989 album Hot in
the Shade, became the band's biggest single since "Beth." But there
would be more tragedy in 1991, when drummer Eric Carr died of cancer
at the age of forty-one, casting a shadow over the band's first
album in three years, Revenge. He was replaced by Eric Singer.
Revenge, a corrosive affair which marked KISS's return to a
harder-rocking style, went gold. A third live album, Alive III,
followed in 1993, and its success sparked another year-long tour.
By this time, KISS had started to take its legion of fans, its
history, and its influence very seriously. Under the watchful eye of
Gene Simmons, a tribute album titled Kiss My Ass was hatched in
1994, which featured covers of KISS songs by artists as diverse as
Lenny Kravitz and Garth Brooks. Next came another brilliant
marketing move: instead of letting others put on KISS fan
conventions, the band created an entire convention tour, the
centerpiece to which was an intimate live performance. For fans, it
was a chance to see KISS play acoustically for the first time, and
the band even took requests.
The outgrowth of these shows was a 1995 MTV Unplugged session
(released on CD in March of 1996), which saw the band bring back
original members Criss and Frehley for special guest appearances.
The current KISS lineup had a new studio album, Carnival of Souls,
finished and set for release in 1996, but with the success of the
Unplugged set, plans changed dramatically. The summer of 1996 saw a
full-fledged KISS reunion tour become the season's hottest ticket,
as Simmons, Stanley, Frehley, and Criss put the makeup back on and
cranked up the fog machine. Singer and Kulick were to go on an
indefinite hiatus for the duration of the reunion, meaning there
would be two KISS lineups--original and new--co-existing peacefully.
But in early 1997, Singer and Kulick left the band amicably when the
reunion tour was extended, meaning there is but one KISS now. The
four platform-shoe wearing, cosmetic-covered men who endured years
of critical derision are not only back, they're hipper than ever.
www.wallofsound.com
info.25l.tanja,
VESTI:
www.wallofsound.com
Friday, June 6, 1997
Sixteen Fans Hurt at No Doubt Show
No Doubt's homecoming show this week didn't end up quite as
bad as the prom in Carrie, but everyone knows the prom is
more intense than homecoming. Still, sixteen fans were
injured at the free outdoor show on Tuesday, June 10, on the
California State University Fullerton campus, the band's alma
mater. "I'd hate to think that we could be responsible for
something like this," No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal told the
Orange County Register, after fans rushed the stage, creating
what one paramedic called a "crush of humanity." KROQ, the
L.A. radio station which helped sponsor the event, had DJs
onstage trying to calm the crowd, warning fans that if the
violence continued, the show might be shut down. Most of the
injuries were minor, ranging from heat stroke to possible
fractures. It was the fans who had been waiting since the wee
hours of the morning who found themselves under the crush of
the crowd. "I was in there with everyone else," a thirteen
year old No Doubt devotee told the Register. "These guys just
pushed me down and jumped on top of me." She suffered an
injured ankle, and her mother told the paper that "the crowd
ended up kicking and biting and spitting."
Thursday, June 5, 1997
Jeff Buckley's Body Found
The body of Jeff Buckley was found Wednesday in a Memphis
harbor leading to the Mississippi river, near where the
singer disappeared while swimming Thursday night. The
thirty-year-old musician, the son of the late folk-rock
singer Tim Buckley, had drowned. The body was spotted by a
passenger on the American Queen riverboat, and police
confirmed that its pierced navel and clothes matched
Buckley's description. Keith Foti, a friend who was with
Buckley when he disappeared, said the singer went into the
water fully clothed and was floating on his back when a
towboat went by. Foti turned to move a stereo away from the
riverbank so the wave from the boat wouldn't get it wet, and
when he turned back around Buckley was gone. Buckley released
a critically acclaimed album in 1994 titled Grace, and had a
minor hit with the single "The Last Goodbye." He was in
Memphis to record a follow-up album. His first solo effort
was a four-song EP from 1993 titled Live at Sin-Ú. His
father, Tim Buckley, died of a drug overdose in 1975 at the
age of twenty-eight.
Friday, June 6, 1997
U2 Sends Three Shots and a Song to Sinatra
U2 lead singer Bono and guitarist the Edge have written a
song for Frank Sinatra called "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot
of Sad." The curiously titled tune takes its name from a most
unusual source: a piece of three-dimensional art Bono created
for a charity auction to benefit War Child, the Bosnian
relief organization based in England. War Child asked a
diverse group of pop stars to create three-dimensional
artworks celebrating "the people who were of a special
significance to them in their musical career." Bono's piece,
listed as "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad" in the
auction catalog, consisted of a music box containing Jack
Daniels whiskey, shot glasses, and a blue napkin. David
Bowie, Yoko Ono, Kate Bush, and Lou Reed also contributed
works to the event which was held this past February.
The Bono-Sinatra connection first took off in 1993, when the
U2 front man sang "I've Got You Under My Skin" with the
Chairman of the Board on the latter's Duets album. They also
appeared together in the subsequent video for the song. At
this week's PopMart tour stop at Giants Stadium in Ol' Blue
Eyes' home state of New Jersey, Bono kissed the crooner's
proverbial bum like never before. "Frank's the man," said
Bono. "We're all guests on his planet, as far as I'm
concerned. The only man we should call Mister--I would call
him Mr. Sinatra." Later in the week, Bono sang the Frank
tribute song during an interview on Access Hollywood.
According to the Associated Press, Sinatra heard "Two Shots
of Happy, One Shot of Sad" and sent his approval, along with
a few words of crooner wisdom.
"Lyrics are the soul of a song," Sinatra was quoted as
saying. "Bono shows he's hip to this. He's a good man and I
wish him many, many shots of happy." Here's hoping he's still
able to stand up after all those shots of happy.
Friday, June 6, 1997
Genesis Turns Page With New Singer
For a band that has sold ninety million albums in its
thirty-year history, choosing a new singer is no easy task.
So the two remaining original members of Genesis--keyboardist
Tony Banks and guitarist Mike Rutherford--chose someone young
enough to be their son, twenty-eight-year-old Ray Wilson. The
Edinburgh-born vocalist, who sang with rock band Stiltskin,
will be the third front man for Genesis, following the
departure of superstar drummer-cum-vocalist Phil Collins.
Peter Gabriel was the original singer for the band when they
formed in the late sixties, but he left in 1974 to pursue a
solo career. Collins quit in March 1996, after more than
twenty years with the band, saying he wanted to devote more
time to his solo career. After being blessed with two of the
most distinctive voices in rock history, Rutherford and Banks
were burdened with finding another.
"We listened to hundreds of tapes but Ray's voice really
stood out," Banks told the Associated Press. "It had a
quality that really moved me. His voice is thicker and harks
back more to the early Genesis." Which means he sounds a bit
more like Gabriel, opening up the possibilities for
revisiting some of the band's earlier material in live
performance.
Wilson sings all eleven tracks on the new Genesis album,
Calling All Stations, which is slated to hit the shelves in
early September. Fans who can't wait that long can preview
three audio clips from the album on the band's new Web site:
www.genesis-web.com. A brief tour of the U.K. is scheduled
for early 1998. The band's last album, I Can't Dance, was
released in 1992.
Friday, June 6, 1997
The Band's Rick Danko Charged in Japan for Heroin
Rick Danko, bassist and vocalist for The Band, will go on
trial in July on charges of smuggling and possessing heroin,
Japanese court officials told the Associated Press. Danko was
arrested on May 6 for receiving a parcel that allegedly
contained heroin at a Tokyo hotel where he was staying while
on tour. The Band member is slated to go on trial on July 2.
According to Japanese authorities, the Rock and Roll Hall of
Famer had his wife send him a parcel from Newark
International Airport in New Jersey--1.25 grams of heroin,
divided up into small packages and hidden inside magazines.
An express company at customs at Narita Airport (outside
Tokyo) detected heroin in the parcel and promptly notified
police, whereupon they traced the package to Danko.
Though Danko has gone through drug rehab, apparently he
wasn't quite rehabilitated--and he picked a bad place to
start up his habit again. Japan prides itself on its relative
absence of drug abuse, and Western musicians are probably the
most obvious targets of drug searches when it comes to
traveling in Japan. In the late seventies, Paul McCartney was
detained by Japanese authorities for several weeks (without a
guitar or paper on which to write songs, he complained) for
possession of a small amount of marijuana. Danko, however,
may not get off so easily. Under Japanese law, suspects are
commonly held without charges for up to twenty-three days
(sometimes longer), and a heroin possession conviction,
however small, could mean up to three years in prison for
Danko.
Friday, June 6, 1997
Another Week on the Wall: June 7 to June 13
The biggest story of the week is the tragedy of Jeff Buckley.
The thirty-year-old musician drowned in the Mississippi River
after wading out, fully clothed, late last week. His body was
found on Wednesday. . . . Neil Young canceled his European
tour, after slicing off the tip of a finger while making a
ham sandwich. HORDE fans needn't worry--Young is still on for
this summer's tour. . . . Bob Dylan left the hospital after
last week's scare. The legendary musician had been admitted
with a heart condition. . . . Fans who showed up in Atlanta
last Saturday to see the Magnificent Seven tour featuring
Tuatara and Mark Eitzel got more than they bargained for when
the other members of R.E.M. joined their bandmate and Tuatara
guitarist Peter Buck onstage for several tunes. . . . The
Tibetan Freedom Concert kicks off tomorrow in New York City,
with an incredible lineup, including the Beastie Boys, U2,
Alanis Morissette, Foo Fighters, Noel Gallagher of Oasis, and
a host of others. . . . Snoop Doggy Dogg has found himself
the subject of a lawsuit. Sharitha Knight, the estranged wife
of Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight, slapped
the rapper with a $1.8 million suit for manager fees she
thinks she is owed. . . . Speaking of Snoop, he's also teamed
up with LL Cool J for an upcoming film, The Real. There's no
rapping involved--the musicians will be playing dramatic
roles. . . . Bush and Veruca Salt took the stage for a Miller
Brewing Company "Blind Date" show at the Palace in Hollywood,
where the beer company flies in fans from all over the
country for a concert, not letting them know who's on the
bill until they take the stage. . . . Lastly, you'll never
guess who may be appearing on an upcoming cover of Hustler.
That's right. M÷tley CrŘe.
Thursday, June 5, 1997
Bush and Veruca Salt on Blind Date
For the first U.S. show in its special concert series, Miller
Brewing Company flew in folks from all over the country to
come see some bands. There was just one catch: Miller didn't
reveal which bands the lucky attendees were going to see
perform. In Miller's "Blind Date" sweepstakes, the
macrobrewer selects random promotion winners to come see top
modern-rock bands perform in small venues, but the identity
of the bands remains undisclosed until they hit the stage.
Sound risky, possibly riotous? Well, the six hundred winners
who attended an intimate gig at the Hollywood Palace in Los
Angeles weren't too terribly disappointed when Bush took the
stage for a ninety-minute set. The British band performed
cuts from both its albums and also let fly a cover of the Sex
Pistols' "Pretty Vacant," which, coincidentally, are two
words frequently used to describe Bush lead singer Gavin
Rossdale. "It's fun to be out there playing to Garth Brooks
fans," Rossdale told Reuters. "And even if you're not
familiar with our style of music, you can still watch the
show and there's enough of a vibe about it that even if you
like Otis Redding only, you can appreciate elements of it."
Uh-huh.
Veruca Salt was the night's other mystery band, and they
performed a full set for the Miller crowd. The two bands are
currently on an arena tour of the States together and will
stay in Los Angeles to play a show at the Forum on Saturday.
Bush has a couple of other L.A. gigs lined up in the next few
days: Thursday, the British quartet will be playing a cover
of the Stones' "Wild Horses" on the Tonight show with Jay
Leno, and on Saturday the band is scheduled to appear at the
MTV Movie Awards. And Miller still isn't finished with its
concert series. The second "Blind Date" show is slated for
next month in San Francisco, with the third set for Chicago
in late August or early September. Of course, the performing
bands remain a mystery.
Thursday, June 5, 1997
Motley Crue To Appear on Hustler Cover
The reunited Motley Crue may be gracing the cover of a
magazine at your local 7-11 later this year. But don't look
for them on the cover of Rolling Stone: this magazine will
only be available from behind the counter. Nikki Sixx, Crue
bassist and Baywatch babe Donna D'Errico's husband, let it
slip on the CrŘe Web site that he and his mates may be
gracing the October cover of Hustler. "OTHER KILLER NEWS IS
HUSTLER WANTS US ON THE COVER TO COINCIDE WITH THE BIG ARENA
TOUR COMING THIS OCTOBER," Sixx writes (the caps are his, by
the way). While a bunch of hard-rockers appearing on the
cover of a girlie magazine may come as a surprise to some,
it's not the first time Crue has crossed paths with infamous
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. It seems that Sixx and Flynt
are buddies, and in May Flynt reportedly agreed to work on
the video for "Afraid," the first single from the band's
upcoming album Generation Swine, which hits stores June 24.
According to the Crue Web page, Hustler's main man wants to
make an X-rated version of the video.
Friday, June 6, 1997
Rush Readies Another Live Album
Look for a new live album from Rush--the Canadian trio's
fourth--when the band comes off the road later this year.
Drummer Neil Peart says Rush has been recording nearly every
show during its past two tours, and that during a recent
break bassist Geddy Lee took the tapes into a studio to
ascertain how things were going. "Now we've been able to
correct what wasn't working for this leg of the tour," Peart
says. "We're really getting some great live stuff." In
addition to the recent tapes, Peart says there's also a radio
concert recorded in 1979, which documents a period that the
band's other live albums haven't covered. Peart says it may
be issued as a bonus disc in whatever package is eventually
released.
"Definitely on the last two tours we've been playing at a
level we've never reached before in terms of musicianship,
accuracy, band tightness, excitement, and all those
categories," Peart says. "On live albums, it's such a hard
balance. Sometimes we make them too polished, sometimes
they're too raw. So this time we're really trying to get
everything." As for new Rush music, Peart--who releases his
Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich,
Volume II later this month--says he doesn't think the band
will take another two-year break like it did before its
latest album, Test for Echo. "The last break served us so
well, and we've been so fired up and we're so happy about the
way we're playing now, that we're already talking about
getting into the studio, perhaps later in this year or early
next year, and getting back into it," he says. "We don't need
that kind of break every time. Just every twenty years!"
--Gary Graff
info.26l.tanja,
VESTI:
www.nme.com
June 7 1997
TINDERSTICKS, BABY BIRD, TEENAGE FANCLUB, THE WANNADIES,
URUSEI YATSURA, ACID BRASS and MOGWAI
will be among the acts taking part in the Flux
Edinburgh New Music Festival in Edinburgh this August.
As reported in NME last week, the festival boasts an
exclusive collaboration between composer Michael Nyman
and The Divine Comedy.
The festival runs alongside the world famous Edinburgh
Festival from August 12 and 31. It's aim is to showcase
modern music alongside the festival's more traditional
line-up, says organiser Alex Poots. The concerts will
be held in a purpose-built venue, The Jaffa Cake, on
Kings Stables Road. The venue has a capacity of 750
Flux will also reunite the East Coast Project, an early
'90s ensemble of Edinburgh black dance DJs that spawned
Blackenized and Sugar Bullet.
***
The MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY SUMMER BALL,
featuring live performances from NENEH CHERRY, DAVID
DEVANT & HIS SPIRIT WIFE and MR C, among others, will
be playing real time audio broadcasts on their website
between midnight Saturday June 7 and 6am Sunday morning
June 8. The broadcast will feature Mr C and a host of
DJs, including UNDERWORLD's Darren Emerson.
***
Manic Street Preachers
walked off with arguably the most important trophy at
the 42nd Ivor Novello Awards last Thursday (May 29)
when they won Best Contemporary Song of last year with
'A Design For Life'. The band, who attended the
ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, said the
accolade had topped off their most successful year to
date - a delighted Nicky Wire proclaiming onstage that
the award made it, "one nil for the sheepshaggers".
After the ceremony, Wire told NME: "It's good, because
Ivor Novello (the songwriter after whom the awards are
named) was born in Cardiff, and not a lot of people
realise it, so it's from one sheepshagger to another.
Cheers, Ivor!"
Asked why the band had decided not to play any more
gigs this year after their headlining slot at the
Reading Festival, Nicky said: "We've done too many, I
think we're boring everyone!" Nicky also said the band
wanted to concentrate on finishing their next album. He
said: "We've got eight songs, so we're well on our way.
They're better than our last lot, too. We want to get
the album out as soon as we can." The Ivor Novello
awards are one of the most respected in the music
industry as they reward songwriting skills in pop.
Other winners included the Spice Girls, who won awards
for Best Selling British Written Single In The UK and
International Hit Of The Year with 'Wannabe'; The
Cranberries, who won the International Achievement
award; Elvis Costello, for the Outstanding Contribution
To British Music; and George Michael, who won Most
Performed Work of 1996 with 'Fastlove' and Songwriter
Of The Year, which he won for a record-breaking third
time.
***
Teenage Fanclub
are back with a new single called 'Ain't That Enough'
on June 30 - their first release in over a year. The
track is taken from their forthcoming album, 'Songs
From Northern Britain', which is due out in July. The
single is backed by 'Kickabout', which has been
rejuvenated for Scotland's World Cup campaign. There's
also a new ballad written by the Fannies' Norman Blake,
called 'Broken', and covers of The Velvet Underground's
'Femme Fatale' and Alex Chilton's 'Jesus Christ'.
Meanwhile, Teenage Fanclub have temporarily abandoned
plans to work with ex-Byrd Roger McGuinn. The group had
been trying to set up a live performance where they
would back McGuinn. Norman Blake told NME: "The initial
idea was to do a session on Radio Scotland but that
didn't happen. "Instead, there was a plan to do Later
With Jools Holland where we would be his backing band
doing a couple of Byrds songs. "He was up for it, but
the Jools Holland people said that they wanted McGuinn
as the solo spot on the show. "But I dare say we'll
work together in the future."
***
Paul Weller
has lined up another live radio performance - this time
for Radio 1. Weller, who's already hosting a Radio
Woking show on GLR on May 26, is to perform six songs
live from his new 'Heavy Soul' album on June 10. He'll
also be playing some of his favourite tracks on the
programme which is broadcast between 6.30 and 8.30pm.
Meanwhile, Arnold play live on Radio 1 this Thursday
(June 5). Their gig at Glasgow King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
will be broadcast live as part of the Evening Session.
***
The Smiths'
former guitarist and songwriter Johnny Marr has
produced the new Marion album, NME can reveal. Marr,
now of Electronic, worked with the band in a Manchester
studio earlier this year. The LP, which is as yet
untitled, is now being mixed and should be released
before the end of the year. The first single from the
album is tipped to be 'Miyako Hideaway', which was
co-written by Marr, who also plays guitar on it. Other
new tracks recorded with Marr include 'The Powder Room
Plan', 'Losing Control', 'Smile', 'Minus You',
'Fallacy' and 'Sparkle', which the band debuted on
their last tour. Guitarist Phil Cunningham said of
'Miyako Hideaway': "It's totally different from
anything on the first album and you wouldn't think it
was a Marion song if you just heard it without knowing.
It's a bit slower. And it's got a different groove to
it, but in a cool way. That's the direction we're
moving in really."
Marr was recruited by the band's manager, Joe Moss, who
formerly managed The Smiths. Comparisons between Marion
and the music of Morrissey and Marr have often been
drawn. Cunningham added: "All the other producers we've
worked with have been nice blokes, but working with
Johnny as a producer was amazing because he's a
musician as well and he's always jamming along with
you. He knows about everything because of the stuff
he's done with The Smiths."
***
A film is to be made of Tupac Shakur's life.
Michael Jackson producer, Quincy Jones has been in
talks with Shakur's mother, former Black Panther, Afeni
Shakur. Jones' daughter, Kidada, had been romantically
linked with Shakur. Quincy Jones said: "We hope to make
a film that will be a message to the kids, one that's
very important. I think his story is a metaphor for a
lot of things that are happening today. There's a part
of Tupac people weren't aware of that needs to be
focused on. A lot of what he was playing in the rap
arena was theatre. He said he was tired of playing that
farce. It was what eventually took him out." The film
will trace Afeni Shakur's life as a black activist and
detail her time spent in prison while pregnant with
Tupac.
***
Super Furry Animals
have announced the dates of their open-air
festival-style gigs to take place in Wales this summer.
The band play two shows, at Cardiff Coopers Field on
July 27 and Bangor Rugby Club on August 2, under the
banner 'Eisteddfod Ryng-Genedlaethol Weriniaethol
Cymru' (The Multinational Republican Eisteddfod Of
Wales). Both gigs are being held in 4,000-capacity
marquees and a host of support bands and DJs are being
lined up. Details of these will be announced soon.
Meanwhile, the band follow up their Top 25 hit 'Hermann
TM's Pauline' with 'The International Language Of Screaming'
on July 14. A new album is due in the summer.
***
Teenage Fanclub's
original drummer, Brendan O'Hare, has joined Mogwai,
who released their new '4 Satin' EP on Monday (June 2).
O'Hare, who played on the first two Fannies albums and
later joined the Telstar Ponies, joined Mogwai onstage
at their recent Tunbridge Wells Forum gig and has now
become a full-time member, playing keyboards and
additional percussion. The band said: "Mogwai have been
augmented by another monk to aid them in their vow of
noise. Brendan O'Hare (previously a member of Rancid
Munky and some other band) has joined to aid in adding
additional instrumentation and vibes. The young team is
five." Mogwai are currently touring the UK.
info.27l.tanja,
Novi singlovi:
www.nme.com
DAVID DEVANT & HIS SPIRIT WIFE: Work, Lovelife,
Miscellaneous (Rhythm Records)
Enormous and entertaining art-wank of the
highest order. And that's a compliment - out
Monday.
3RD BLIND EYE: Semi-Charmed Life (Elektra)
US rockers release new track from their debut
album, due out this summer - out Monday
7 MARY 3: Rock Crown (Atlantic)
Another bunch of numerically fixated US rockers
singing about life being a big freeway or
something - out Monday
AFRO-CELT SOUNDSYSTEM: Whirl-Y-Reel (Real World)
Techno/drum'n'bass dubbiness from festival
stalwarts - out now
BALLROOM: Take It (Mother)
More forceful pop from the new grave ravers -
out Monday
BETTIE SERVEERT: Co-coward (Beggars Banquet)
Dutch heartstring tuggers return with third
track from their 'Dust Bunnies' album - out
Monday
BRUBAKER: Big Wide Wonder (New Millennium)
Debut single comprising guitars, vocals and
drums from Manchester band - out Monday
NAIMEE COLEMAN: Ruthless Affection (Chrysalis)
More folky pop from the 19-year-old Irish
singer/songwriting star - out Monday
PHIL COLLINS: Wear My Hat (Face Value Records)
Cor blimey, more MOR cobblers from the bald
bloke's current album 'Into The Light' - out
Monday
CORNERSHOP: Good Ships (Wiiija)
One of the most underrated bands in Britain
slink back with more groovy, dancey bizarreness
- out Monday
DEPECHE MODE: Home (Mute)
A ballad from Basildon's finest - out Monday
THE FRANK & WALTERS: How Can I Exist? (Setanta)
More melancholia-tinged pop from the Irish trio
- out Monday
GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI: Young Girls & Happy
Endings (Ankst)
More skewed pop from the flawed Welsh geniuses -
out Monday
TERRY HALL: Ballad Of A Landlord (South Sea
Bubble)
Mr Happy returns with track co-written with
former Smith Craig Gannon - out now
JACKIE ON ACID: More Like Television (Blue Rose)
Press release says they are, by no means,
another grunge band... which means they probably
are - out now
JAGUAR: Coming Alive (WEA)
The worst haircuts ever spotted in Camden blight
the world with their debut single - out Monday
LO-FIDELITY ALLSTARS: Kool Roc Bass (Skint)
The big-beat bastard sons of Shaun Ryder with a
kool-as-f-- cut - out Monday
BETH ORTON: She Cries Your Name (Heavenly)
Re-release of last year's stunning debut from
the Norwich songstress - out now
SOURCE DIRECT: Call & Response/Computer State
(Science)
Cutting edge sounds from the St Alban's
drum'n'bass pioneers - out Monday
STAKKA BO & TITIYO: We Vie (Polydor)
The Swedish 'Here We Go Again' stars team up
with Neneh Cherry's sis for Smith & Mighty cover
- out Monday
VEX: New Technology (Ohm)
Terry Bickers-produced debut EP from the band
formerly known as Velcro - out now
WIRELESS: I Need You (Chrysalis)
Hotly tipped Manchester (well, Bardsley) outfit
imbued with the spirit of Dexy's - out Monday.
info.28l.tanja,
Novi albumi:
www.nme.com
BROADCAST: Work And Non Work (Warp)
Birmingham's ace swoon-pop outfit reissue all
their previously released material as a first
offering for their new label - out Monday
BUZZCOCKS: Chronology (EMI)
Mix of previously un-released demos and
out-takes from pivotal punk group - out Monday
CHANGING FACES: All Day, All Night (Big Beat)
R Kelly-produced female swing duo's second album
- out Monday
THE DAWN: Five Days Wiser (Rough Trade)
Preston's answer to The Verve release their
six-track debut - out Monday
DREAM CITY FILM CLUB: Dream City Film Club
(Beggars Banquet)
Sleaze-obsessed indie types display their
aesthetic bent with song titles such as 'Shit
Tinted Shades' and 'Porno Paradiso' on their
debut LP - out Monday
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN: Ballyhoo (WEA)
Compilation of some of Mac & co's best tracks to
mark their return to the pop fray - out Monday
GARAGELAND: Come Back Special (Discordant)
Eight snippets of 'melodo-core pop' from
perfectly-formed Kiwi group - out Monday
J MAJIK: Slow Motion (Infra Red)
Breakbeat vibes from the Metalheadz stable - out
Monday
MONACO: Music For Pleasure (Polydor)
A whole debut LP of soundalike New Order B-sides
from the band's bassist Hooky and sidekick David
Potts - out Monday
NUMBER ONE CUP: Wrecked By Lions (Blue Rose)
Chicago's finest unleash a second LP of storming
pop - out Monday
PINKY & PERKY: Pinky & Perky's Top Pop Party
(EMI)
The porcine duo that give bacon a bad name with
amusing speed-freak versions of popular party
tunes - out Monday
QUICKSPACE: Supospot (Kitty Kitty Corporation)
Featuring early singles, rarities and gems such
as 'Song For NME' - out Friday (June 5)
TINDERSTICKS: Curtains (This Way Up)
More honeyed warblings from the wonderful Stuart
Staples and his masterful band - out Monday
VARIOUS: Def Jam - The Definitive Collection
(Def Jam)
A greatest hits compilation from one of
hip-hop's coolest labels - out now.
info.29l.tanja,
VESTI:
A new book by JIM MORRISON's former lover claims the Doors
singer was murdered by his wife, Pamela Courson. Linda
Ashcroft claims in her book, Wild Child, that Courson gave
an overdose of heroin to the singer telling him it was
cocaine. Ashcroft claims Morrison was murdered because he
was about to leave his wife for her. She says that
Courson, who died of a heroin overdose in 1974 - three
years after Morrison - confessed to the murder during a
chance meeting at San Jose airport. Ashcroft says she's
kept quiet until now because it's what Morrison would have
wanted. Confusion over the exact details of Morrison's
death have arisen from the fact that the singer was buried
very soon after he died, and the doctor who pronounced him
dead from a heart attack has never been located.
***
An investigation launched in the wake of the drug death of
SMASHING PUMPKINS touring keyboardist JONATHON MELVOIN has
resulted in 37 arrests. Melvoin overdosed on a lethal
strain of heroin called Redrum ('murder' backwards) in a
New York hotel room last July. Former Pumpkins drummer
Jimmy Chamberlain called police but the keyboardist was
pronounced dead at the scene. Chamberlain was sacked from
the band following the incident. Police have arrested 37
members of New York's Dead Man Walking gang who they
believe are the exclusive distributors of Redrum.
***
PORTISHEAD
release 'All Mine' on September 8, the second single from
their forthcoming eponymous album, which is due out on
September 29. The single also features 'Cowboys', which
was released as a limited-edition vinyl 12" last month.
The album tracklisting is 'Cowboys', 'All Mine',
'Undenied', 'Half Day Closing', 'Over', 'Humming',
'Mourning Air', 'Seven Months', 'Only You', 'Elysium' and
'Western Eyes'. Portishead are currently scheduling a UK
tour for this November. Details have yet to be confirmed.
***
KRS-ONE
has apologised to Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood after accusing
him of being "dirtied" by the station's music policy.
KRS-One walked out of a live interview with Westwood on
August 10 after making the claim and accusing the station
of destroying hip-hop culture. He also suggested that
Westwood should resign because Radio 1 does not
sufficiently support hip-hop. But within days the rapper
apologised to Westwood. After describing the DJ as "a
long-time friend", KRS-One called the row a "necessary
clearing-the-air exercise". He continued: "Those who cling
to their professional lives at the expense of hip-hop
shall, professionally speaking of course, die. Tim
Westwood is not dead. In fact, Tim can gain new life now
that the truth has been heard." Westwood said that despite
the row, he only had "love and respect" for KRS-One.
KRS-One plays dates at London Kentish Town Forum
(September 7), Luton Palace (8) and Manchester Nia Centre
(9).
***
MICHAEL STIPE
is to have his first book of photography published by the
makers of Raygun magazine later this year. The
as-yet-untitled book features photographs of Patti Smith,
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, Bob Dylan and Tom Verlaine.
Most of the shots were taken while Stipe was travelling
with Patti Smith on her 1995 tour of the US. Meanwhile,
REM have been recording demos in Peter Buck's home in
Hawaii. The band have booked Toast studios in San
Francisco from next February to work on their next album.
Buck recently recorded in the city with Mark Eitzel. A new
REM album is expected next summer.
***
THE BLACK CROWES
have parted company with guitarist Marc Ford. Ford, who
replaced the Crowes' original guitarist Jeff Cease in
1992, just before the band released 'The Southern Harmony
And Musical Companion', cited "musical differences" as his
reason for leaving. Some reports have suggested that the
rest of the band actually asked him to leave. A band
spokesman, however, said that it was just a
straight-forward split and relations remain amicable. The
split came at the end of the band's stint on America's
Travelling Further Festival, during which the Crowes
debuted new tracks, although no new releases are planned
before the end of the year.
***
www.nme.com
info.30l.tanja,
Novi singlovi:
BECK: Jackass (Geffen)
Another track from last year's 'Odelay', this time backed
with two newies, 'Devil Got My Woman' and 'Brother' plus a
Butch Vig remix of the A-side - out Monday.
BEDLAM AGO GO: Flat 29 (Friendly Fire Communications)
Brilliant big-beat high-octane dance mayhem from Leeds -
out Monday
BENTLEY RHYTHM ACE: Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out (Skint)
Top big-beat action from the currently laid-up barmy
Bentleys - out Monday
THE CARDIGANS: Your New Cuckoo (Polydor)
Another lift from their 'First Band On The Moon' album -
out Monday
CAST: Live The Dream (Polydor)
More polished guitar pop from 'Mother Nature Calls' - out
Monday
COCO & THE BEAN: All Star (Mantra)
Hybrid hip-hop, jazz, old-skool funk and soul - out Monday
THE DRIVEN: Secret Police (Polydor)
Punky riff-driven rawk from the Irish outfit - out Monday
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN: Evergreen (London)
Second single from their superb comeback album of the same
name - out Monday
ELLIOT GREEN: Lonely Rider (Playtime)
Impressive outing from the West Country guitar rockers,
produced by PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish - out
Monday
LAURYN HILL: The Sweetest Thing (Columbia)
Solo Fugee's track from forthcoming film Love Jones - out
Monday
HURRICANE #1: Just Another Illusion (Creation)
Above average guitar rock from Andy Bell's new outfit -
out Monday
INTASTELLA: Soon We'll Fly (Planet 3)
Dreamy dance pop from stalwart Mancs - out Monday
LIBIDO: Supersonic Daydream (Fire)
Up-and-coming Norwegian outfit with more well-crafted
gutsy guitar pop - out Monday
LILLIAN: The It Gang (Luna)
Lo-fi debut from all-girl outfit - out Tuesday
LOCUST: The Girl With The Fairytale Dream (R&S)
Post-techno electronic weirdness - out Monday
MANNA: Hoggin' A Dub (R&S)
The guys previously found lurking behind the likes of
Audioweb, Finley Quaye and Cath Coffey release their own
single - out Monday
OCEAN COLOUR SCENE: Traveller's Tune (MCA)
New version of the live favourite which can also be found
on the limited-edition EP of 'The Day We Caught The Train'
- out Tuesday
RADIOHEAD: Karma Police (Parlophone)
More genius from the awe-inspiring 'OK Computer' LP - out
Monday
ROC: (Dis)Count Us In (Virgin)
More off-kilter grooves from the leftfield trip hoppers -
out Monday
SIRENES: Deep End (Higher Ground)
Melodic dubby big beats with mixes from Grooverider,
Attica Blues and Fila Brazilia - out Monday
WARM JETS:Hurricane (Island)
Quirky guitar pop taken from this promising outfit's
'Future Signs' debut LP which is due out this autumn - out
Monday.
www.nme.com
info.31l.tanja,
Novi albumi:
THE KING: Gravelands (Dressed To Thrill)
Elvis impersonator sings tracks such as 'Love Will Tear Us
Apart', 'Voodoo Chile' and other songs by folks who've
spent too long underground - out Monday
MONO: Formica Blues (Echo)
Shimmery easy-listening trip-hop from the luscious duo -
out Monday
NORTHERN UPROAR:Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today (Heavenly)
More than competent return from the much improved
guitar-pop purveying youngsters - out Monday
ORBITAL & MICHAEL KAMEN Event Horizon Soundtrack (London)
Soundtrack to eagerly-awaited sci-fi flick starring
Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill and Sean Pertwee - out
Monday
SPECTRUM: Forever Alien (Space Age)
Sonic Boom, ex-Spaceman 3, returns with some off-your-head
and off-the-wall music for relaxed people everywhere - out
Monday
STEREOPHONICS: Word Gets Around (V2)
Up-tempo rock from the feisty Welsh outfit - out Monday
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS: Radiator (Creation)
Eagerly-awaited follow-up to last year's 'Fuzzy Logic',
including hit singles 'Hermann ž's Pauline' and 'The
International Language of Screaming' - out Monday
VARIOUS: Punk Legends - The American Roots (Jungle)
Rare and unreleased material from pre-Pistols New York
punk scene, featuring the likes of The Ramones, Iggy And
The Stooges, Pere Ubu, Suicide and The Flaming Groovies -
out Monday.
www.nme.com
info.32l.tanja,
vesti:
'MOR' from Blur
BLUR
set out on a major UK tour this winter, their first for
two years. The band play Hull Ice Arena (November 30),
Glasgow SECC (December 1), Newcastle Arena (2), Manchester
Arena (4), Cardiff Arena (5), Birmingham NEC (6),
Sheffield Arena (7) and Wembley Arena (9). Tickets go on
sale on August 30, priced ú16 in advance. They are also
set to release 'MOR' as their next single on September 15.
'MOR' is the fourth single from their platinum-selling LP
'Blur' and will be backed with new song 'Swallows In The
Heatwave', a William Orbit remix of 'Movin' On', and a
Moby remix of 'Beetlebum'.
Meanwhile, Damon Albarn is to appear in a radio play by
the controversial '60s author Joe Orton. Entitled Up
Against It, the play will be broadcast by Radio 3 on
September 21. It was originally written for The Beatles in
1967; Damon plays the part earmarked for George Harrison.
The play was commissioned by Beatles manager Brian
Epstein. However, when Orton delivered the final draft
Paul McCartney turned it down as it associated the band
with murder, dubious political activity, adultery and
dressing in women's clothes. Orton is best known for his
black comedies Loot, Entertaining Mr Sloane and What The
Butler Saw, all of which enjoyed successful West End
theatre runs in the '60s. His famous diaries refer to the
Beatles commission as "money for old rope".
On the morning of August 9, 1967, Beatles PR Derek Taylor
found Orton murdered and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell dead
from an overdose of sleeping pills in their Islington
flat. Ironically, at the time, Orton had an appointment to
see Beatles film-maker Richard Lester with a view to
salvaging Up Against It and turning it into a film
starring Mick Jagger. Albarn also makes his debut as a
film star next month when he plays a getaway driver in the
new Antonia Bird film Face, which also stars Robert
Carlyle and Ray Winstone. Guitarist Graham Coxon,
meanwhile, has been busy producing an album for Chicago's
Assembly Line People Programme, while Alex has co-written
a single for Marianne Faithfull called 'Hang It On Your
Heart', as well as co-writing a track for forthcoming film
Mojo.
www.nme.com
blur.jpginfo.33l.tanja,
vesti:
Prodigy's tour of the land
PRODIGY
have announced a major UK arena tour for this winter to
celebrate the huge success of current album 'The Fat Of
The Land'. The band, one of the headline acts at last
weekend's V97 festivals, will play Manchester G-Mex
(December 6), Cardiff Arena (7), Glasgow SECC (9), Reading
Rivermead (11), Plymouth Pavilions (12), Bournemouth
International Centre (13), Brighton Centre (15), London
Kentish Town Forum (16), London Stratford Rex (17) and
London Brixton Academy (19 & 20). Tickets go on sale at
9.30am on Saturday, August 23 from the venues and usual
outlets.
A spokesman for the band told NME: "They wanted to play
around London rather than at just one big monstrosity like
Earl's Court, to make it easier for people to get to see
them. Besides, by the time they do these dates they will
have played in innumerable countries, so I think it'll be
a rewarding homecoming for everyone. I know the band are
looking forward to it very much." He added that support
acts had yet to be confirmed, and that it was possible
further dates would be added.
Meanwhile, the Prodigy have reneged on their vow never to
play the MTV Awards. They've agreed to play at this year's
ceremony on September 4 at New York's Radio City alongside
U2, Beck, Puff Daddy and the Spice Girls. In the past,
Liam Howlett had been vociferous in his desire not to play
the show, saying: "It's just simple, we don't do it in
England, and we're not doing it over here. In England, we
went to the party but we didn't play. We don't want to do
everything MTV throws at us."
www.nme.com
prod.jpginfo.34l.tanja,
vesti:
Oasis scupper Evening Session exclusive
OASIS
clashed with Radio 1's Steve Lamacq last week by
withdrawing permission for the Evening Session to play
three tracks from the group's new album, 'Be Here Now'.
Last Tuesday (August 12) the band's management company,
Ignition, withdrew a promise to give Lamacq three new
tracks to play because the DJ had failed to play jingles
over six songs the night previously. Radio 1 were given
the tracks on the understanding they would play jingles at
various points over the songs in an effort to discourage
bootlegging. Lamacq refused to do this. The following day,
a member of Oasis' radio plugging team, Anglo Plugging,
phoned Lamacq and told him he would not be given the
further three tracks from the album he'd been promised.
On the air that night, Lamacq told listeners: "Oasis'
management is stopping you from hearing the music you love
and stopping us from playing the music we want to play."
Later that night, when he was handing over to John Peel,
Lamacq kept running jingles over their conversation,
saying: "Sorry about that, it's just that a lot of these
conversations are getting bootlegged and ending up at
Camden Market."
Anglo Plugging's Gary Blackburn admitted that the tracks
had been withdrawn but gave a different explanation:
"We've got five tracks from the album on radio at the
moment - four new tracks and the single. All those tracks
have received a colossal amount of play. With that amount
of exposure going on we wanted the other tracks to be
played closer to release, which is this Thursday (August
21). The band's management felt that that was enough
exposure and asked that the other tracks were played
closer to release. I don't think it's a case of a band or
their management trying to make a radio station bow down.
It was a case of people just not thinking it through
clearly."
Lamacq was uncontactable as NME went to press. But an
Evening Session spokesman said: "We're all baffled by it.
We thought we had a special relationship with Oasis then
it all seems to have changed overnight. There's no
animosity. We understand their concerns about bootlegging
but... it just seems as though the band's media control is
becoming more of a story than the album."
Meanwhile, Oasis' solicitors are launching legal action
against marketing assistant Steve Pockett, who left
messages on Oasis websites saying he had a copy of 'Be
Here Now' and was willing to make tapes of it for anyone
who contacted him. Pockett told The Sun he bought a tape
of the album for 100 pounds. "With hindsight I've been a bit
stupid," he said. "But I certainly didn't mean any harm.
How can I afford to fight Sony? I earn less than 10,000
pounds a year. I only made five copies for friends and
didn't charge a penny." The High Court action claims
"damages for breach of copyright and payment of sums found
due".
www.nme.com
oasis.jpginfo.35l.tanja,
vesti:
Frigging rigging almost kills Urusei
URUSEI YATSURA
narrowly escaped death at a Spanish festival on August 10
when a four-ton lighting rig collapsed on top of them
while they were playing to 15,000 people. The band were at
the Benicassim Festival near Valencia when a 100mph freak
storm suddenly ripped through the site, sending the rig
crashing down. One scaffolding pole skewered the drum kit,
missing drummer Ian Graham by five inches. Amazingly, band
members and crew escaped unhurt. The site was immediately
evacuated and the remaining acts, Pavement and Blur, were
forced to pull their performances. A spokesman for Urusei
Yatsura told NME: "Eyewitnesses say it's unbelievable that
no-one had a scratch on them, especially when you see the
drum kit. The band, though, are as unfazed as ever."
Urusei Yatsura have now returned to the UK where they are
finishing their next album, due for release later this
year.
www.nme.com
urusei.jpginfo.36l.tanja,
vesti:
Ash sign up new guitarist
ASH
have recruited a new full-time guitarist, Charlotte
Hatherley, previously of London-based Nightnurse. She made
her official debut with the band at the weekend's V97
festivals, although she played secret warm-up dates in
Belfast, Aberdeen and Edinburgh the week before. Hatherley
told NME: "It had been talked about for a few months and
nothing happened. My old band were on the verge of doing
this deal and I was also doing my A-levels at the time so
my initial reaction was no. Then I sat down and thought
about it while revising and ended up finding it hard to
resist. We did a rehearsal and it went on from there. I'm
dead chuffed. I knew Tim through a friend of mine and he'd
been going on for quite a while about how they needed a
new guitarist."
Hatherley will be writing material for Ash's next album.
She said: "I think Tim feels under a lot of pressure doing
it all on his own. I think after playing those songs for
fucking ages you want to add another dimension. I've been
doing some backing vocals as well which lift up the
songs." Asked how Tim proposed the union, Charlotte
replied, "very vaguely". "He invited me down to a
rehearsal. We did two songs and then went for a curry. I
met up with their manager and it all seemed to happen
after that with full-on rehearsals. I only joined
officially about a week ago." Hatherley's 'unofficial'
debut with Ash came at their Belfast Limelight show last
Sunday (August 10). "I had to learn 17 songs in four days.
The first gig was scary. But I think everyone was so up
for it they didn't notice the mistakes I made."
Asked about the fans' reaction, she replied: "I think the
boys love it. It's good for them. The girls were quite
supportive about it too. I haven't had any fuck-offs yet.
It was interesting at the Belfast gig to see them all
going, 'Who the fuck is that?' We did a few songs, then
Tim said, 'This is our new guitarist Charlotte.' Everyone
cheered so I was quite pleased with that. "I was very
nervous before the shows. I'm used to venues with 20
people in them. With Ash they're rammed." Hatherley said
the only sadness she had was in leaving her old band: "I
feel I've fucked it up for them but I know they'll be OK."
A statement issued by Nightnurse read: "We wish her all
the luck in the world and hope she achieves all that her
talent promises and deserves."
The band have enlisted former Echobelly guitarist Debbie
Smith to help out on their forthcoming shows, which
include a Reading Festival appearance this Sunday (August
24).
www.nme.com
ash.jpginfo.37l.tanja,
vesti:
LIAM CHALLENGES BEATLES AND STONES: 'I WILL BEAT
THE FUCKING LIVING DAYLIGHT SHIT OUT OF YOU!'
LIAM GALLAGHER
stunned peak-hour listeners all over the UK on Thursday night
with an obscenity-strewn attack on The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones. The Oasis singer was speaking live on Radio 1's
Evening Session at around 7.30pm to DJ Steve Lamacq when he
launched into the vitriolic verbal assault on Britpop's elder
statesmen, who, Liam claimed had been "slagging us off". At
the same time he challenged all the veteran rockers to a fist
fight.
"I'm gonna shoot me mouth off here, all these snakes coming
out the closets, all these old farts, I'll offer 'em out right
here on radio," the singer raged. "If they want to fight be at
Primrose Hill Saturday morning at 12 o'clock. I will beat the
fucking living daylight shit out of them, that goes for
George, Jagger, Richards and that other cunt (Presumably a
reference to Paul McCartney - Ed) that gives me shit. We've
just done a cover of the Stones' 'Street Fighting Man' just to
piss Keith Richards off cos he's been slagging us off.
"If any of them old farts have got a problem with me then
leave yer zimmer frames at home and I'll hold you up with a
good right hook. They're jealous and senile and not getting
enough fucking meat pies. If they want to fight I'll beat them
up."
Brother Noel joined in with an attack upon Paul McCartney's
new classical album: "Sitting around with a bunch of old
lesbians writing doesn't sound classical to me. I've written
three classic albums."
Noel, when asked about his recent visit to Prime Minister Tony
Blair's official residence at Number 10 Downing Street,
retorted: "The only reason you'd want to go to Number 10 is to
have a shit in the bog."
nme.com
oasis.jpginfo.38l.tanja,
vesti:
MINISTRY OF METALLICA!
METALLICA
will play a free show at London's premier dance venue Ministry
Of Sound on November 13 to launch their new album 'Re-Load'.
Asked about the gig, Lars Ulrich said: "I've never heard of
the Ministry Of Sound but I'm sure Metallica playing there
will making it a hit!" Tickets will be available from 10pm on
Saturday, November 1 from Glasgow Missing Records, Edinburgh
Avalanche, Birmingham Swordfish, Nottingham Wayahead,
Newcastle Windows, Hanley Mike Lloyds, Liverpool No Quarter,
Doncaster Track, Preston Action, Exeter Solo, Chesham Track,
Tunbridge Wells Longplayer, Newport Hitman, Norwich Lizard,
Leicester Ainleys, Camberley Rock Box, Sutton Hot Rocks and
Selectadisc and Sister Ray in London's Soho. A limited number
of tickets will be available on the door. A collection for
charity will be made. Guest DJs will be playing throughout the
night.
nme.com
info.39l.tanja,
Novi singlovi:
ADDICT: Dust (Big Cat)
ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION: Naxalite (ffrr)
AUBURN: Sweet Sebastion (Scarlet)
GARY BARLOW: Open Road (RCA)
BENNET: Street Vs Science (Roadrunner)
CAPRI: Something Snaps (Blow Up)
THE CANDYSKINS: Feed It (Ultimate)
GUY CHADWICK: This Strength (Setanta)
DEFTONES: Around The Fur (WEA)
DJ RON: Quintessence EP (RCA)
D*NOTE: Lost And Found (VC)
DUST JUNKYS: Non-Stop Operation (Polydor)
THE EGG: Get Some Mixes Together (Indochina)
ETHER: She Could Fly (Parlophone)
FAITHLESS: Don't Leave (Cheeky)
JB3: Through The Mixer (NovaMute)
MY LIFE STORY: You Can't Uneat The Apple (Parlophone)
REDWOOD: falling Down (Almo)
THE REPLACEMENTS: All For Nothing/Nothing For All (Reprise)
SOUL II SOUL: Pleasure Dome (Island)
SUPER 8: Lately (Naked)
UNUN: I See Red (Deceptive)
nme.com
info.40l.tanja,
vesti:
PRIMAL SCREAM SET SHIELDS TO 'FULL' POWER
PRIMAL SCREAM's
'If They Move, Kill 'Em', from this year's acclaimed album
'Vanishing Point' has had a re-mix by MY BLOODY VALENTINE's
KEVIN SHIELDS. The mix is expected to appear on a limited
edition 12" early next year.
A Primal Scream spokesman said Shields remixed the track in
May this year - and despite his reputation for drawn out work
practices had the recording finished in 24 hours.
"He said if he couldn't do it in 24 hours, then he wasn't
going to do it at all," said the spokesman. "It's brilliant."
"Apparently he hasn't actually played anything at all, it's
all stuff from the tapes of the Primals tracks. He's re-EQ'ed
it, and fucked it up more. In a way I think that's more
impressive, 'cos most re-mixers get rid of most of the
original."
The spokesman said once they heard the track they agreed it
"it was too good not to release". There is no planned release
date yet, but the track is expected to be available separate
to new EP material Primal Scream have been recording over the
summer. The band have also written a track for the Acid House
soundtrack, based on the book by Irvine Trainspotting Welsh.
In addition, much of Primal Scream's next album - their sixth
- is already finished "in one form or another', though the
album isn't likely to be out until late 1998.
The spokesman continued: "They're not out-takes from
'Vanishing Point' either. Most of it's stuff they've done
since. They got on a roll... they didn't want to leave it for
two years and then try to find another creative muse. I was
talking to Bobby [Gillespie] the other day, and he wanted
another album as soon as possible. If they could have it out
next week they would."
nme.com
primal.jpginfo.41l.tanja,
vesti:
SMASHING PUMPKINS SHELL OUT FOR HEROIN O.D. KEYBOARDIST'S FAMILY
SMASHING PUMPKINS
have announced they will pay an undisclosed sum in damages to
the widow and son of Jonathan Melvoin, their tour keyboardist
who died from a heroin overdose last year. Melvoin died aged
34 on July 12, 1996, in a New York City hotel room where he
was using heroin with the Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.
Detectives arrested Chamberlin on a drug possession charge and
the drummer was subsequently sacked from the band.
The keyboardist's widow Laura Melvoin filed suit against the
Pumpkins on behalf of her son, who was only four months old
when his father died, claiming that the other band members
contributed to her husband's death by failing to make sure he
stayed off drugs.
Melvoin was a session keyboard veteran hired by the Pumpkins
to play on their 1996 tour to promote the band's 'Mellon
Collie And The Infinite Sadness' album and earlier in his
career was the drummer in The Dickies.
nme.com
info.42l.tanja,
novi albumi:
CLOUD 9: Millennium (Acid Jazz)
MIDGET: Alco-Pop (Tiny)
MOBY: L Like To Score (Mute)
OLIVE: Extra Virgin (RCA)
OZZY OSBOURNE: The Ozz Man Cometh (Epic)
REGURGITATOR: Tu Plang... Kon Uauk (Coalition)
THE SHIREHORSES: ...Present The Worst (EMI)
SOUNDGARDEN: A-Sides (A&M)
THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES: Welcome To The
Infant Freebase (Coalition)
VARIOUS: Swaraj (Acid Jazz)
WAY OUT WEST: Ajare (deConstruction)
nme.com
info.43l.tanja,
Van Halen Announces Release Date for New Album
The Van Halen brothers have set a tentative
release date for their upcoming album, Van Halen
III. According to the band's official Web site,
fans should look for the record to drop on
Tuesday, February 24, 1998. The cover, handled as
always by skin-pounder Alex Van Halen, "will
feature an old-time movie still of a man being
shot in the stomach with a cannon ball." The site
also notes that the first single will be released
in January. A world tour is expected to kick off
around the same time, opening up in Australia.
This is the first album of original material from
Van Halen since 1995's Balance, which marked the
final collaboration between the band and lead
singer Sammy Hagar. He was replaced by former
Extreme frontman Gary Cherone.
www.wallofsound.com
info.44l.tanja,
Hey, Hey Pissy Monkees
Just as you started to hum "The Last Train to
Clarksville" in giddy anticipation of the Monkees'
thirtieth-anniversary tour, a rift has emerged in
the cheery group. The Los Angeles Times reports
that longtime reunion hold-out Michael Nesmith has
left the tour. But donĺt panic: Nesmith is leaving
to script a movie for the Monkees. Although quite
accustomed to touring Nesmith-less, the exit was a
disappointing revelation to fellow primate Davy
Jones. "That's bloody news to me," Jones tells the
paper, before giving a little character critique
of Nesmith. "He's always been this aloof,
inaccessible person . . . the fourth part of the
jigsaw puzzle that never fit in."
www.wallofsound.com
info.45l.tanja,
Father Blames Marilyn Manson for Teen's Suicide
A North Dakota man says his teenage son's suicide
was a direct result of listening to his favorite
band, Marilyn Manson. Fifteen-year-old Richard
Kuntz killed himself with a gunshot December 11,
1996, while listening to Manson. Beside his bed
was an English paper he had written on the band.
"He was a good boy," the boy's father, Raymond
Kuntz, told the Associated Press. "[The music]
wasn't a symptom. It wasn't symptomatic of other
problems. I would say the music caused him to kill
himself." Kuntz was scheduled to testify before a
congressional hearing Thursday to discuss ways to
make parents aware of the music their kids buy.
Prior to the hearing, some lawmakers were
distributing copies of Manson lyrics, including
those from Richard Kuntz's favorite song, "The
Reflecting God": "One shot and the world gets
smaller/ let's jump upon the sharp swords/ and
cutaway our smiles/ without the threat of death/
there's no reason to live at all/ all my world is
unaffected/ there is an exit here."
Hilary Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording
Industry Association of America, would not address
Kuntz's accusations against Manson, but said the
music industry had made great strides against
drugs and violence. "The music community is making
a positive difference in many ways that don't get
much attention. We have been labeling our product
since 1985 . . . so parents can make intelligent
listening choices for their children."
www.wallofsound.com
info.46l.tanja,
SINGLES
ADDICT: Dust (Big Cat) - out now
AUBURN: Sweet Sebastion (Scarlet) - out now
GARY BARLOW: Open Road (RCA) - out now
THE BEEKEEPERS: Killer Cure (Beggars Banquet)
BENNET: Street Vs Science (Roadrunner) - out now
CAMPAG VELOCET: Drenchum Velocet Synthamesc (Fierce Panda)
CAPRI: Something Snaps (Blow Up) - out now
THE CANDYSKINS: Feed It (Ultimate) - out now
GUY CHADWICK: This Strength (Setanta) - out now
DJ RON: Quintessence EP (RCA)- out now
D*NOTE: Lost And Found (VC) - out now
DUST JUNKYS: Non-Stop Operation (Polydor) - out now
THE EGG: Get Some Mixes Together (Indochina) - out now
ELEPHANT: Separate End/Dance On Me (Mock Rock)
FAITHLESS: Don't Leave (Cheeky) - out now
FOIL: Spread It All Around (13th Hour)
SCOTT GROOVES: A New Day (Soma)
JB3: Through The Mixer (NovaMute) - out now
JUBILEE ALLSTARS: Keep On Chewin' (Lakota)
MAINSTREAM: Privilege (Nude)
MY LIFE STORY: You Can't Uneat The Apple (Parlophone)
- out now
PULP: Help The Aged (Island)
REGULAR FRIES: Dust It, Don't Bust It (Fierce Panda)
THE REPLACEMENTS: All For Nothing/Nothing For All
(Reprise) - out now
SALT 'N' PEPA: RU Ready (ffrr)
SPILLAGE: Killer (Fortunate)
STATE OF BENGAL: Elephant Ride (One Little Indian)
SUPER 8: Lately (Naked) - out now
TIN STAR: Disconnected Child (V2)
WINDY & CARL: A Dream Of Blue (Ochre)
www.nme.com
info.47l.tanja,
ALBUMS
BLACK GRAPE: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid (Radioactive)
BUTTER 08: Butter (Grand Royal)
CLOUD 9: Millennium (Acid Jazz) - out now
KELLEY DEAL 6000: Boom! Boom! Boom! (PIAS)
MICK HARVEY: Pink Elephants (Mute)
LIGHTNING SEEDS: Like You Do (Epic)
MIDGET: Alco-Pop (Tiny) - out now
MOBY: I Like To Score (Mute) - out now
SINEAD O'CONNOR: So Far, The Best Of... (Chrysalis)
OLIVE: Extra Virgin (RCA) - out now
OZZY OSBOURNE: The Ozzman Cometh (Epic) - out now
REGURGITATOR: Tu Plang... Kon Uauk (Coalition) - out now
SANTA CRUZ: Way Out (Universal)
THE SHIREHORSES: ...Present The Worst (east west) - out now
SOUNDGARDEN: A-Sides (A&M) - out now
THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES: Welcome To The Infant
Freebase (Coalition) - out now
STING AND THE POLICE: The Very Best Of... (A&M)
VARIOUS: Swaraj (Acid Jazz) - out now
WAY OUT WEST: Ajare (deConstruction) - out now
www.nme.com
info.48l.tanja,
Micheal Hatchens pronadjen mrtav u hotelskoj sobi.
Overdose ...
info.49l.tanja,
elem :)
Happy New Year everyone and may your
hangovers be minor ones,
vas moderator :)
info.50l.tanja,
Vesti:
www.nme.com
* ASH AND U2 UNITE TO BOLSTER GOOD FRIDAY 'YES' VOTE
* STONES CANCEL FIRST DATES OF EUROPEAN TOUR AFTER KEITH RICHARDS' ACCIDENT
* CALMER POLICE: RADIOHEAD'S SELWAY BACKS SAMARITANS' CAMPAIGN
* GORKY'S STAR IN JOE AND ADAM 'TOYS' VIDEO
* THE VERVE ANNOUNCE FULL WIGAN BILL
* ROD STEWART SETS OASIS STRAIGHT: 'I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!'
ASH AND U2 UNITE TO BOLSTER GOOD FRIDAY 'YES' VOTE
--------------------------------------------------
ASH will be joined tonight by U2 (pictured) for a free concert at
Belfast's Waterfront Hall to rally youth support towards the 'Yes' vote
in the upcoming referendum on the Good Friday agreement.
The two Irish rock bands will perform live and also introduce the
audience to Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP leader John
Hume as the men responsible for a new era in Northern Ireland's
history. The concert is expected to draw an audience of 2,000 Catholics
and Protestants from all over Northern Ireland.
Ash, who come from Downpatrick, say they were all born during the
troubles and want to see Northern Ireland move towards a better future.
U2's Bono, from Dublin, is a personal friend of SDLP leader Hume and
says he is anxious to do all he can to help the 'Yes' campaign.
The concert marks the first joint appeal from high profile 'Yes'
campaigners from opposite sides of the community like Trimble and Hume.
Mr Trimble says: "I'm delighted that groups of such eminence as U2 and
Ash are coming to Belfast to have a concert in support of the Yes
campaign. John Hume and myself are very much looking forward to being
there."
STONES CANCEL FIRST DATES OF EUROPEAN TOUR AFTER KEITH RICHARDS'
ACCIDENT
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE ROLLING STONES have been forced to postpone the start of their
European Tour after lead-guitarist KEITH RICHARDS (far right) was
injured in an accident at the weekend.
The London spokesman for The Stones confirmed that Richards had
"fallen from a ladder in the library" of his home in Westchester,
Connecticut. Richards' injuries are described as two cracked ribs
and bruising to his chest area. The 54-year-old rocker is recovering
at home. The spokesman dismissed as completely false today's first
media reports that Richards had broken many ribs and punctured a
lung in the accident.
The Stones' Bridges To Babylon world tour, which kicked off in Chicago
last September, was due to open in Europe at Berlin's Olympic Stadium
this Friday, May 22. The gig is definitely postponed along with
subsequent gigs at Munich Olympic Stadium (May 24), Gelsenkirchen
Park Stadium (26) and Zagreb Hippodrome (28). All the shows will be
re-scheduled.
The spokesman says the four shows already cancelled could be followed
by more, although it is too early to confirm. Doctors are monitoring
Keith's condition and will advise the tour's promoters on the expected
length of his recovery. The spokesman agreed that at this stage The
Stones could not be sure where or when their European tour would
actually commence.
Meanwhile, BRIAN JONES, the late founder member of The Rolling Stones,
is at the centre of a political row in his hometown of Cheltenham
which has caught the attention of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Pat Andrews, the guitarist's former girlfriend, launched a campaign
last March for a statue to commemorate Jones in the town he was born
in, reports The Times newspaper. The Rolling Stone died in a swimming
pool accident in 1969 at his property Cotchford Farm, the house where
previous owner A A Milne wrote the Winnie The Pooh stories, and is
buried in Cheltenham.
Cheltenham mayor Les Goodwin is aghast at the proposal. He says:
"Brian Jones wasn't a popular man. He lived in a drug culture. When
you remember what this man did in his lifetime, you have to think,
'Does he deserve a statue?' "
The local MP for the area Nigel Jones (Liberal Democrat and
apparently no relation to the Stone) sent Blair's office details
of the situation. The Prime Minister, whose Oxford university band
The Ugly Rumours played Stones covers, replied with a message of
his support to Pat Andrew wishing her and co-campaigners "all
the best".
MP Jones says: "We were thrilled. Mr Blair is in very good company.
Marianne Faithfull also wants to recognise the enormous contribution
that Brian made to the '60s." The PM's support has earned him a
lifetime membership of the Brian Jones Fan Club.
CALMER POLICE: RADIOHEAD'S SELWAY BACKS SAMARITANS' CAMPAIGN
------------------------------------------------------------
RADIOHEAD drummer PHIL SELWAY (pictured, second from left) is
backing a new campaign by The Samaritans which will urge young
people to contact them if they are depressed.
Selway, who's been a volunteer Samaritan for the last 11 years,
is the first musician ever to lend his support to the organisation.
The Samaritans say he was asked to back their campaign because the
emotional subject matter of Radiohead's songs strike a chord with
disaffected young people. They hope Selway's involvement will help
them reach their target under-25 age group.
The Samaritans' new campaign is timed to coincide with the summer
festival season when they say there's extra pressure on young people
to have fun. The Samaritans Festival Branch are attending most of the
major music events this summer. They promise confidentiality wherever
they set up.
The Samaritans' Lise Colyer tells NME: "We were afraid that young
people think the Samaritans are staffed by a bunch of 45-year-olds
in twin sets and pearls. Although young men aren't very good at
talking about their feelings to each other, when you get them on
the quiet they don't mind phoning someone like the Samaritans.
It's really just a matter of letting people know they shouldn't
let things get that bad."
Suicide currently accounts for 19 per cent of deaths among the UK's
15 to 24 year-olds. "That translates into two young suicides in
Britain every day. Most of whom are young men," Phil Selway told NME.
"Talking through emotional problems and feelings, whatever they are,
is a major step in taking some control over them. But finding the
right person to open up to can be very hard, especially for young
people."
Selway says the Samaritans has been the one constant thing in his
life over the last 11 years. He still regularly answers the phones
and is working shifts at the moment. As part of the campaign he will
visit schools and tell people about the work of the Samaritans.
PEARL JAM drummer JACK IRONS says it is depression that has forced
him to take a sabbatical from the band during their current US tour.
Former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron is sitting in with the band
for the dates.
Irons says he is suffering from the psychiatric disorder bipolar
manic depression, a mental illness thought to be caused by a
disturbance in brain chemistry. He says the illness forced him
to previously quit Red Hot Chili Peppers and Eleven. Irons said
he's been taking medication to combat the disorder for ten years.
GORKY'S STAR IN JOE AND ADAM 'TOYS' VIDEO
-----------------------------------------
GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI have teamed up with UK cult TV hosts Adam
& Joe to make the video for their new single 'Sweet Johnny'.
The single, released on May 25, is backed with two new tracks
- 'Un Hogan Trist' and 'Mifi Mihafan'. It's the first release
from the band's forthcoming fifth LP, tentatively titled 'Gorky 5',
due out late this summer.
The band members feature in the promo clip alongside toys from
the duo's hit Friday night series The Adam & Joe Show shown in
the UK on Channel 4. The show includes an opening sequence where
the pair use toys to act out irreverent versions of famous big
and little screen moments.
The 'Sweet Johnny' video depicts the band as 'Singing Gorky's
Zygotic Mynci Action Figures' while the toys act out spoof
versions of famous pop promos - including The Verve's
'Bittersweet Symphony', Supergrass' 'Alright', Prodigy's
'Firestarter', Blur's 'Song 2' and Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
Gorky's singer Euros Childs says Adam & Joe approached the
band about making a video after Gorky's appeared on the
'Vinyl Justice' slot of their show. "We just got talking after
and they're big fans, especially Adam, so we just thought we'd
give them a go." It's the first pop video Adam & Joe have
attempted.
Gorky's embark on a short tour of the UK and Ireland to coincide
with the release of 'Sweet Johnny'. They play Cork Nancy Spains
(May 22), Dublin Mean Fiddler (23), Glasgow Renferry (25),
Manchester Roadhouse (26) and London Camden Dingwalls (28).
The band also appear at John Peel's Meltdown Festival at
London's South Bank this summer, as well as Reading Festival.
THE VERVE ANNOUNCE FULL WIGAN BILL
----------------------------------
THE VERVE have confirmed the support acts for their Wigan Haigh
Hall show on May 24.
Richard Ashcroft and colleagues (pictured) have selected BECK,
DJ SHADOW and '70s folkie singer-songwriter JOHN MARTYN to
complete the show.
Beck was able to join the bill following the cancellation of
the Universe dance festival, at which he had top billing.
Universe was to have been his only UK appearance this year.
John Martyn is a veteran Scottish singer-songwriter whose
craftsman-like blend of blues, folk and jazz has long found
favour with critics although he has never achieved widespread
commercial popularity.
Richard Ashcroft lends vocals to a track on the forthcoming
UNKLE project which features DJ Shadow. The Verve have spent
the last month in a London studio working on new songs where
they have recorded five songs with Chris Potter, co-producer
of 'Urban Hymns' with Youth. The band are working on new ideas
for their next album which Ashcroft has said in interviews
he'd like to get released this year.
Meanwhile, The Verve have denied they are set to quit record
label Virgin, despite widespread rumours in London to the
contrary last week. Reports claimed that the band, who are
signed to the label via subsidiary Hut, were threatening to
sign with a rival label if Virgin did not give them a greater
share of profits. But the band's spokesman says talks currently
being held between label bosses and the band's management are
simply "everyday business".
He says: "Any band, when they have an upturn in their fortunes,
have a look at their contract and renegotiate with their label.
The Verve are no different to anybody else. Any idea that
there's problems between them and the label is pure speculation."
ROD STEWART SETS OASIS STRAIGHT: 'I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!'
-------------------------------------------------------
ROD STEWART has told NME he doesn't "give a fuck" what Noel
Gallagher (right) thinks of his cover version of Oasis'
'Cigarettes And Alcohol'. The onetime 'Tartan Tearway' - a
lifelong non-smoker but reputed to enjoy a tipple or two - is
releasing his recording of the song on his new album, 'When
We Were The New Boys', out through WEA on June 2.
"I hope Noel hears it and gives me his opinion," Stewart
said over the phone from Los Angeles to the NME newsdesk.
"But I don't give a fuck what he thinks, really. If Noel
doesn't like my version, it's tough shit. There's nothing
he can do about it. I hope they all like it, but I'm not
gonna be broken-hearted if they don't. It wouldn't be the
worst thing that's ever happened to me."
Asked why he chose to record the track, Stewart said: "I
think I've brought a new meaning to some of the lyrics.
It's a different reading. I'm not challenging the way
they did it. Our version is just a bit more bombastic."
Stewart also recorded a version of Oasis' 'Rockin' Chair'
for the album but it didn't make the final cut. "It's just
like 'Maggie May' really," Rod said. "It's a bit of a
strumalong and we don't wanna go down that street."
'When We Were The New Boys' also features cover versions
of Primal Scream's 'Rocks' and Skunk Anansie's 'Weak As
I Am'. Stewart said the idea to do an album of 'indie
covers' was the brainchild of WEA MD Rob Dickins. "A lot
of those bands are unknown outside the UK and some of
them could do with better vocals or a different approach.
I think I can sing as good as Liam and as good as the guy
in Primal Scream," Stewart joked.
Stewart said his favourite tracks on the album were 'Rocks'
and Graham Parker's late-'70s pub-rocker 'Hotel Chambermaid'.
"Good rock'n'roll songs are hard to come by and 'Rocks' is
pretty good. It just sounds like The Rolling Stones to me.
We just slowed it up and I spat the lyrics out a bit more.
The most difficult song to sing was Skunk Anansie's 'Weak...'
'cos it goes from the bottom of your register right to the
top and she has some voice. The only reason I tried that was
to see if I could change it from a male standpoint."
Oasis have yet to hear the version of 'Cigarettes And Alcohol'
but Rob Dickins has played Primal Scream the version of 'Rocks'
and they apparently like it. Skunk Anansie were unavailable
for comment. The album was recorded in Los Angeles earlier
this year and also contains a re-recorded version of The Faces'
'Ooh La La', which originally featured vocals from Ron Wood
and the late Ronnie Lane.
Stewart also recorded Paul Weller's 'The Changingman' and
'On And On' by the Longpigs during the sessions but these did
not make the album. Other artists whose songs will enjoy a home
on the finished Rod album include Mike Scott, Nick Lowe and
Superstar.
info.51l.tanja,
Vesti:
www.wallofsound.com
* Dylan, Joni, and Van: The Legends Continue
* Upcoming Chemical Brothers Disc a Mix Bag
* Perry Farrell's Porn Tape Battle Continues
* Keith Richards Injured; Stones Cancel Shows
* Another Spice Girl Heading to the Altar
* Judge Throws Out "Barbie Girl" Lawsuit
* Noel Gallagher Heads Into Studio
* George Michael Pleads No Contest
* Beck and Beck's Pop Guest on Pal's Project
Monday, May 18, 1998
Dylan, Joni, and Van: The Legends Continue
------------------------------------------
GEORGE, WASH., May 16--What becomes a legend most? That
was the question faced, to a greater or lesser degree,
by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell at the Gorge
Ampitheatre Saturday night, in the second of a series of seven
dates the trio is playing this spring. And, given that they
are three of the most individualistic performers of the rock
era, it's not surprising to report that they came up with
three different answers.
Morrison and his nine-piece band kicked things off with a
tightly focused R&B revue, opening with the 1970 hit "Domino"
and moving through a string of classics that included
"Moondance" and a gorgeous, country-tinged rendition of
"Tupelo Honey." In the past, Morrison has seemed dismissive
of the material that made him famous, and has often let
bandmates Georgie Fame and Brian Kennedy share a bit too
much of the spotlight. But on this night, clad in a black
suit and sunglasses, Morrison was clearly in command, and he
attacked his classics with the same intensity he brought
to newer songs like "See Me Through" and "Days Like This."
The highlight of Morrison's set, though, was an exuberant,
soulful version of "That's Life," played in tribute to the
recently departed Frank Sinatra.
If Morrison successfully integrated his older and newer
material, Mitchell seemed reluctant to draw on her legacy,
and the result was a performance strong in voice but notably
lacking in variety and the sort of crowd-pleasers a venue
the size of the Gorge demands. Clutching an electric guitar
and backed by a three-piece band, Mitchell unveiled several
new songs that failed to connect with the audience before
hitting her stride with "Slouching Toward Bethlehem," an
adaptation of W.B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming." The
audience, hungry for something recognizable, exploded when
Mitchell started singing her classic "Big Yellow Taxi,"
complete with a Dylan impersonation on a verse he added to
the song when he covered it on the album Dylan. But by
the time she encored, with a somber rendition of the
flower child anthem "Woodstock," it was hard not to feel
as though she'd overstayed her welcome.
Any bad feelings, though, vanished when Dylan stepped to
the stage. Dressed in a long black coat, with black pants,
string tie, and boots, Dylan launched into a high-spirited,
high-octane version of his Blonde on Blonde classic
"Absolutely Sweet Marie" that quickly had the audience on
its feet. Next up was a new take on "If You See Her, Say
Hello," which transformed the plaintive Blood on the Tracks
ballad into a slice of mid-tempo, Byrds-style folk-rock.
For those familiar with Dylan's live performances, such
transformations are nothing new - 35 years after releasing
his first record, Dylan routinely rearranges his songs to
keep them fresh, both for himself and his audiences.
What was different, though, from past shows was the high
energy, intensity, and good humor Dylan brought to this
performance. After a decade of sleepwalking through often
sloppy, sub-par concerts, in the last few years Dylan seems
to have finally regained his skill and pleasure at playing
before a live audience. If he still steadfastly refuses to
engage the crowd in between-song patter, he nevertheless
seems acutely aware of its presence, and has once again
started crafting shows that have a rhythm and liveliness
that do justice to his majestic songs. On this night, he
worked his magic on everything from the 1964 ballad
"It Ain't Me, Babe" to the gospel-tinged "I Shall Be
Released" (on which he was joined by Morrison and Mitchell)
to the bluesy "Love Sick," from last year's Grammy-winning
album Time Out of Mind. That three such distinct and
memorable songs could be woven together seamlessly in
concert three-and-a-half decades into his career is
perhaps the greatest testament to Dylan's artistry, both
as a songwriter and as a showman.
Monday, May 18, 1998
Upcoming Chemical Brothers Disc a Mix Bag
-----------------------------------------
The Chemical Brothers have announced plans to release a
new album of DJ mixes this August. Tom Rowlands, one
half of the duo, exuberantly proclaims that Brothers
Gonna Work it Out will be "total funky mind-blowing shit!"
The album, which is the first from the Grammy-winning
team since 1997's Dig Your Own Hole, will include material
by the Bros. as well as tracks by other artists all run
though the mixer by Rowlands and partner Ed Simmons.
Simmons explains the incentive to do the album by saying,
"DJ-ing is a big part of what we do. Unfortunately, not
everyone gets to see us DJ in person and this is a way
of offering a taste of that for the rest of the world."
The rest of the world won't be limited to tasting their
mixes via disc either: The Brothers are planning a small
club tour of the United States, but as yet, no dates have
been announced.
Monday, May 18, 1998
Perry Farrell's Porn Tape Battle Continues
------------------------------------------
Perry Farrell has leveled a multimillion dollar lawsuit
at his recent problems, but that doesn't mean they're
going to go away easily. As Wall of Sound reported last
week, the former Jane's Addiction frontman, currently
with Porno for Pyros, filed a $40 million suit to prevent a
website from posting an explicit home video allegedly
starring Farrell "indulging in overt sexual acts and drug
use whilst engaging in a bizarre love pact with his
lover and expounding his life philosophies, [proclaiming]
'I am the Devil.'" While Farrell's legal action has
temporarily prevented the company, Spy7, from posting
the video, which Farrell claims was stolen from him, it
looks as though the rocker is going to have a fight on
his hands. "We own this video," Spy7's website claims.
"We have a written release from Perry, and we will release
it as soon as we lift the injunction. The video portrays
Perry 'wasted' and injecting himself." Unless the courts
move to prevent Spy7, and its parent company, Fairchild
Kirby, Inc., from distributing the video, titled Drugs,
Sex & Perry Farrell, free 60-minute copies will go out to
all who join Spy7, which charges $19.95 a month for access.
Monday, May 18, 1998
Keith Richards Injured; Stones Cancel Shows
-------------------------------------------
It wasn't the type of injury you'd expect from Keith Richards.
The well-preserved Rolling Stones guitarist fell off a ladder
in his library this weekend, suffering injuries to his ribs
and chest. Richards, 54, took the plunge at his Connecticut
home on Saturday, and the injury has forced the aging rockers
to reschedule several dates on the European leg of their Bridges
to Babylon tour. The sold-out May 22 opening date in Berlin has
been postponed, as have concerts in Munich and Zagreb, Croatia.
"During the next week, doctors will give promoters of the
tour a clear indication of Keith Richards' recovery period,
and an announcement will follow if any more European concert
dates are affected," read a statement from Richards' reps. No
word on the extent of the injuries, but they reportedly include
a broken rib. Spokesman Justus Becker made clear to the Agence
France-Press news service that the rocker "had not been drinking"
at the time of the accident.
Friday, May 15, 1998
Another Spice Girl Heading to the Altar
---------------------------------------
A second member of that poppiest of pop groups, the Spice
Girls, has announced her engagement. The Sun reports that
Melanie Brown, a.k.a. Mel B., a.k.a. Scary Spice, has accepted
the marriage proposal of dancer Jimmy Gulzar, joining the
to-be-wed ranks of bandmate Posh Spice (Victoria Adams),
who announced her engagement to soccer player David
Beckham in January. Gulzar is currently on tour with the
"Wannabe" singers, playing the role of Scary's lookalike
"Spice Boy" counterpart. The dancer proposed to Scary in
a Parisian bar, and reports indicate that 22-year-old Mel B.
cried tears of joy, as onlookers applauded the newly engaged
couple. This upbeat romantic news follows on the heels of
a less positive episode in Scary's love life. Just last month,
stories were published detailing her breakup with then-fiance
Fjolnir Thorgeirsson, an Icelandic businessman. Smitten Spice
fans take heart: three-fifths of the ensemble remain
unengaged.
Friday, May 15, 1998
Judge Throws Out "Barbie Girl" Lawsuit
--------------------------------------
Fans of the Danish pop group Aqua can breathe a sigh of
relief. United States District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr.
has thrown out a lawsuit filed by Mattel Inc. against
MCA Records, alleging that the group's hit "Barbie Girl"
infringes upon their copyright. The suit, filed last September,
claimed that the pop ditty tarnished the reputation of the
real Barbie, and asked the court to recall both the single
and all copies of the album Aquarium, on which it appeared.
Mattel also sought to prohibit the single's video from airing,
and to shut down the band's Web site. In March, Byrne
granted the dollmaker permission to sue the record label,
but cast doubt on the future of the suit by writing, "Even
if the song were considered as vulgar as Mattel purports,
it is a parody of the 'party girl' image Barbie may already
have among some members of the general public." Byrne also
dismissed the countersuit filed by MCA that alleged Mattel
had made false and defamatory statements about the label.
Thursday, May 14, 1998
Noel Gallagher Heads Into Studio
--------------------------------
The elder Oasis brother, Noel, will be hitting the studio
towards the end of May, the band's official Web site reports.
Gallagher will be laying down tracks of songs he recently
wrote while on holiday in North Africa. "It is unknown when
these future Oasis tracks could be released [on a future
album]," the site says. Still, fans won't have to wait
forever to hear something new from Noel - he's hit the
studio without his brother Liam to record "Teotihuacan,"
a new song for the X-Files movie soundtrack, inspired by
the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico. The soundtrack, which
also includes contributions from the Foo Fighters,
Bjork, the Cure, and Sarah McLachlan, beams down on June 2.
Thursday, May 14, 1998
George Michael Pleads No Contest
--------------------------------
George Michael put his faith in the California judicial
system, and he was able to walk away without any jail time.
On Thursday, the Grammy-winning pop singer pleaded no
contest to committing a lewd act in a public restroom at
Will Rogers State Park in Beverly Hills. Michael was not
on hand for the arraignment at Beverly Hills Municipal
Court, and his plea was entered through his attorney,
Ira Reiner.
In exchange for the no contest plea, the 34-year-old
"I Want Your Sex" singer was fined $910 and ordered to
perform 81 hours of community service. Judge Charles C.
Rubin also ordered Michael to stay away from the park
and to undergo five one-hour sexual counseling sessions.
"As long as he's getting counseling, that's what the
court is concerned with," Judge Rubin said. "The court
is concerned that he not get into this situation again."
Michael was arrested on April 7 after an undercover
officer allegedly spotted him engaging in a solo sex act
in the park's restroom. He was charged with a single
count of misdemeanor lewd conduct, which carries a
maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
After his arrest, Michael decided to open up publicly
about his sexuality. In an interview with CNN a week
after his arrest, the British pop star admitted he was
gay, and confessed that it wasn't his first time engaging
in such risky behavior. "I put myself in an extremely
stupid and vulnerable position, especially because I'm
in the privileged position I am," Michael said. "I've
put myself in that position before, and I can only
apologize."
Thursday, May 14, 1998
Beck and Beck's Pop Guest on Pal's Project
------------------------------------------
Beck has at least two albums in the works, on Bongload
and Geffen, and possibly a third, depending on who you
talk to, on K Records. There's just one catch - none
of the alleged records has a release date. Fans
hankering for a quick Beck fix have managed to sate
themselves with the artist's occasional guest spot
(That Dog's "silently") or remix project (Air's "Sexy
Boy (Sex Kino Mix)"). Now they have another record to
run out and buy: Amnesia's Lingus, which lands on store
shelves on July 14. Amnesia is actually the pop persona
of Brad Laner, an L.A. musician who, according to a
spokesperson at Island Records, has known Beck "since
they were kids." Their background probably explains
how Laner was able to land both Beck and his old man,
David Campbell, to guest on the album. While Beck
whips out his harmonica on "Drop Down," it's his dad who
gets more time on the disc. The David Campbell Glendale
Hypothetical Chamber Orchestra appears on three tracks:
"Swimming Lessons," "Train Try," and "Leaving." If July
is just too long to wait, fans should surf on over to
the Dust Brothers' Nickel Bag Records site
(www.nickelbag.com), where they can sample "I'm So
Green," Beck's contribution to the upcoming tribute
album to the German '70s avant-garde rock group the Can.
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Godzilla soundtrack
Godzilla is a beast, but we knew it would be. After
all, you don't fill a movie about the greatest
dinosaur to ever walk the Earth (sorry, Jurassic Park)
with the traditional soundtrack fare of Bryan Adams or
John Williams, do you? Of course not; that would be as
silly as dumping radioactive waste in the ocean, where
it could turn some lizard into a big, green,
ill-tempered critter with huge feet and a hydraulic tail.
Instead, Godzilla: The Album goes for the big footprint,
filling itself with a combination of hip names, "event"
songs, and the kind of tough-rock sheen the big, green
stomping machine would consider appropriate for his
concrete-kicking constitutionals. The problem is,
Godzilla, like too many contemporary soundtracks, comes
off as just another radio station on CD; a batch of
guitar-drenched tunes with the occasional mellow number
thrown in for an appropriate change of pace--not bad, so
much as it is unremarkable and surprisingly conventional.
Call it dinosaur modern rock.
Predictable as it may be, this lumbering beast does have
its moments. The Puff Daddy-Jimmy Page team-up "Come With
Me," which borrows the riff from Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir,"
is actually good fun. Puffy, rapping in a lower voice and
with more authority than usual, makes a convincing commando
as he taunts the monster with lines such as "I want to
fight you/ I hope to bite you/ Can't stand nobody like you."
Credit him for recognizing that he's part of a comic book
and playing it to the hilt. Green Day recognizes the mission,
too, in a remixed version of "Brain Stew," which slides
dinosaur roars and orchestrations into the song's loping
gait. And Jamiroquai's "Deeper Underground" mines a sinewy
groove and spare arrangement for the album's most soulful
moment.
From there on, though, Godzilla offers little more than
serviceable radio rock, which is most assuredly the
marketing goal here. The Wallflowers' version of David
Bowie's "Heroes" is reverent and, therefore, redundant.
Australian trio silverchair is its groaning, droning self
on "Untitled," while Ben Folds Five ("Air"), Days of the
New ("Running Knees"), Michael Penn ("Macy Day Parade"),
and others offer minor variations of their usual fare. The
Foo Fighters' "A320" is a dense, lush showpiece that's a
notch above the rest, while Fuzzbubble--the first rock act
signed to Puff Daddy's Bad Boy label--sounds a lot like
the Foo Fighters in rock mode. And for those with an
appetite for "real" movie music, two of composer David
Arnold's pieces from the film close the album.
Because of the names involved and the generally cool,
kitschy nature of all things Godzilla, we had reason to
hope for--even expect--something a little more provocative
from this soundtrack. Sadly, Godzilla plays it safe, which
is why we always liked Mothra better, anyway.
Gary Graff
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LENNY KRAVITZ
5
(Virgin)
IT IS NOT INCONCEIVABLE THAT ONE DAY LENNY Kravitz
could be considered cool, possibly outside Germany.
I mean, he tries hard, he's had a few pretty decent
singles, and pastiche can surely be as high an art
form as any other if you do it with a bit of style
and imagination. Few people these days think Kravitz
is a bad man, merely misguided.
It is therefore disappointing to report that this, his
fifth album (as the title suggests in its
do-not-judge-me-on-my-album-titles type way) is smeared
in exactly the same Benetton-esque, over-stylised
mediocrity we've come to hate him for. The trouble is
the more he jams till his fingers bleed and funks till
he farts, the more he still sounds like a funk rock
machine with kind of soul you find in a Blues Brothers
tribute band.
He fares better with slower soul-based stuff like
'Thinking of You' and 'If You Can't Say No', but then
he feels the need to say something profound on
'Take Time' and it's truly abominable. "Don't you hate
the way it's all so fake/All I wanna do is just be real...
we should take some time to really love/We should find
out who we really are", he whines, then asks the $64,000
question, "Can't you see it in the children's eyes?"
Steady on there 'Chairman Len'! There's really no need
to be so controversial!
And so once more those designer dreads hang limply in
shame. Never mind, maybe they can use it on Gap adverts
or something. 4/10
Johnny Cigarettes
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Lenny Kravitz
5
Virgin
Vilified is the artist who borrows from the past
but gives us nothing new, creative, and, especially,
purposeful in the present. Case in point: On Montell
Jordan's derided new album, Let's Ride, the R&B
singer with the horrifying lack of identity goes the
perilous route of countless, long-forgotten performers
before him, mindlessly rehashing the sounds, singing
styles, and even some specific lyrics of such soul
greats as Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, and the
Isley Brothers. And then there's Puff Daddy. 'Nuff said.
But occasionally, an artist manages to revisit the past
in such a way that absolutely pleases in the present.
For instance, though it so obviously recalled the likes
of Al Green and Earth, Wind and Fire, Tony Toni Tone's
last studio album, House of Music, was a gem - a lovingly
executed recording from skilled contemporary musicians
who were out to prove that the spirit, and not just the
sound, of '70s soul was still alive. In other words,
they did not pilfer merely for pilfering's sake.
Lenny Kravitz knows what it's like to be in both of
those paragraphs.
Though he was applauded for finding the soulful,
psychedelic halfway point between Prince and John Lennon
on his spirited 1989 debut, Let Love Rule, he was
criticized on subsequent albums for becoming increasingly
self-indulgent and for stealing ideas from the likes of
Lennon, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and Curtis
Mayfield. His best effort - the fuzzy, over-the-top Hendrix
homage Are You Gonna Go My Way? - still garnered criticism
for being too retro, even for Kravitz.
On his obviously titled fifth album, Kravitz remains stuck
in the past, but it's a great place to be. The soul brother
spaceman is out to let the funk hit the fans on an earthy
effort that smartly replaces the self-indulgent rock-star
posing that marred recent efforts with chunky, swinging
musicianship. The overall sound of 5 is, well, Kravitzesque -
which is to say, there are plenty of Prince references,
some Sly Stone nods, a few Mayfieldisms, and even a Lennon
entry, "You're My Flavor" - a fine song that actually sounds
slightly out of place on this decidedly loose effort.
The uplifting opener, "Live," gets the party started right
with supercharged vocals (courtesy of ringmaster Kravitz
and a cast of what seems like a thousand backing singers),
layered instrumentation (horns, organs, tambourines, even
a snaking sax solo), and a borrowed melody from Sly and
the Family Stone's "You Can Make It If You Try." The simple,
sexy "I Belong to You" sounds like classic Prince and is even
better executed than some of the Little Purple Polyglot's
own recent output. "Supersoulfighter" - a song that features
the meanest rolling bass line this side of Miami, along with
some of the best shrieks Prince and Al Green never unleashed
- is a wild anthem about a funk superhero who may or may not
be Kravitz himself. And "Thinking of You" is a sublime paean
to his late mother, which takes a page from Maxwell's
modernized Marvin Gaye approach.
Of course, Kravitz - who wrote, arranged, produced, and
performed nearly everything on 5 himself - isn't totally
fixated on doing the time warp again. The experimental "Take
Time" flirts with trip-hop, riding a loping drum track and
some moody, distorted instrumentation that would make Tricky
proud. And the downbeat declaration of heartbreak "If You
Can't Say No" mixes hip-hop beats with Stevie Wonder-styled
Clavinet playing.
Like every Kravitz album, it doesn't all work: "You're My
Flavor" picks the wrong musical flavor; and the dreadfully
titled "Black Velveteen" sounds like a leftover from an
early '80s New Order session. But there are far more hits
than misses here. Even if one can't stand his brand of
referential music, Kravitz should at least be applauded
for knowing this: If you're going to borrow, borrow from
the best.
Josh Freedom du Lac
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Intervju: Lenny Kravitz
www.wallofsound.com
-----------------------
Returning from a much-needed break following the release
of his last record, Lenny Kravitz goes back to the basics
on 5, even as he's embracing new technologies.
As the final arrangements were being made for the release
of Lenny Kravitz's fifth album, his label, Virgin Records,
suggested the title Black Velveteen, after one of the
songs on the album. Kravitz, however, preferred a simpler
statement, and so 5 was born.
It's been nine years since Kravitz's charming debut Let Love
Rule and nearly three since his last album, the commercially
disappointing Circus. The break between that record and 5 was
longer than usual, and for good reason. Following years of
relentless recording and touring, as well as a few major
personal upheavals - including a difficult 1991 divorce from
actress Lisa Bonet, the mother of his 9-year-old daughter,
Zoe, and the more recent death of his mother, actress Roxie
Roker - Kravitz simply needed time away.
Last year, recharged by his self-imposed hiatus, Kravitz went
back to the place where he's most at home: the recording
studio. Holed up in the Bahamas and in his own studio in New
York City, Kravitz embraced new technologies, such as
computer-based digital recording, and experimented with
samples and loops, though in typical Kravitz style, the samples
were of his own creation. But even with a few new digital
forays, in sound, texture, lyrical ease, and spiritual vivacity,
5 stays true to Kravitz's well-established retro-rock M.O.
That funk is even more pervasive here than ever before only
serves to nail him concretely as a '70s music merchant.
Once again self-producing and handling nearly all of the
instrumental parts, Kravitz builds around a core of guitars
that spark with simple but heartfelt lyrics. But there is
more: The towering horns of the opening track, "Live," give
way to the smooth, sensual rhythms of "Thinking of You";
the lullaby of "Little Girl's Eyes"; and the yearning
"Can't We Find a Reason." Call it the Kravitz blueprint:
funk, rock, soul, sincerity, and simplicity. His detractors
often add another word to that list: plagiarism. To which
Kravitz tersely replies, "There is nothing new. There's
still the same amount of notes." And what the retro
Renaissance man makes clear in his conversation with Wall
of Sound is that one either likes what he does with those
notes or not.
* You were raised in both New York and LA. Have you found
a place to hang your hat yet?
Not yet. Really, home to me is in the Bahamas and in Miami.
The Bahamas is where my family is from, and that's where
I've been going since I was a kid. Miami is a close stop;
it's a good place to be in the U.S. but still close to the
Bahamas. I don't spend much time anywhere. Every
few weeks I am somewhere else. I was doing the album for
eight months, so that was three months here [New York] and
five months in the Bahamas, which is the longest I've been
anywhere, you know, stationary.
* Did you have time to hang out with your family while you
were working in the Bahamas?
Oh, yeah. It's very important. My daughter was down there
with me. I put her in school down there.
* It's been nearly three years since Circus came out. That's
quite a long time in rock and roll.
I usually do an album every two years, which is pretty good.
You end up touring for a year and a half, and then you end
up recording for three or five months, so it's pretty much
album-tour-album.
* That must get a bit wearisome.
It does. That's why I took a little time off this time.
After my mom passed and after all the work I'd done, I
needed to regroup and be a human being. It's important so
you can keep your sanity and keep things together. That last
album was very heavy for me, a very heavy record emotionally.
My mom died during that tour, and I went to work five days
after she was buried. I didn't have a chance to get myself
together. We're all humans, we have emotions. We have things
we have to deal with, and they all got put on the back
burner. At some point, if you don't deal with it, it's not
good for you. When the tour was done, I thought that's it,
I'm taking some time off, screw everybody.
* In the end, it can only make the music stronger.
It did, and that's why this album is so strong, so positive,
and so up.
* And so very Lenny Kravitz.
I can only be me.
* 5 has your classic sound, but there are some new things in
there. More loops and samples, and you recorded it digitally
rather than analog, correct?
Yeah, but you wouldn't know it. It's still run through all
my analog gear and through tubes, but it ended up on a digital
format. It's all about the blend, and it worked well for me.
I am playing all the instruments, too, so anything that's a
loop, it's me playing. Most of the drums are live anyway.
* To me, it's not about whether it's old, new, or whatever,
it's about getting your music across. People love to say,
"What's new?"
There ain't nothing new. There's still the same amount of
notes; there's still rhythm; it's still songs. People mask
it with different things or do things with technology and say,
"Oh, that's new." But nothing is new. You're still a guy with
a guitar or a harmonica or a piano singing a song. That's
music, and no matter what we do to make it more modern or more
this or more that, that's just fashion. Music is music.
* One thing that surprised me on the new album is "Thinking of
You," which is a tribute to your mother, but surprisingly
unsentimental.
It's a weird song. It's about someone who has gone on and has
made that transition into the next life. You're missing them
but somehow the chorus comes off so happy because it's about
celebrating what they left behind for you.
* They are still alive in your heart.
Exactly. So it's not this "I miss you, I'm miserable" kind
of thing. It's like: "Hey, I was blessed to have you."
* "Little Girl's Eyes" is obviously for Zoe.
Yes it is.
* She must be getting to that age where she's listening to
music.
Yeah, she called me and said, "I need all your CDs, Dad!"
* Is she showing any signs of musicality herself?
She's done that since day one. She plays five instruments,
and she sings and writes. It's just in her.
* You never got into a situation where having more children
was an option.
At some point I would love that, but it's got to be with the
right person and at the right time.
* Do you find it difficult switching from Lenny the rock star
to Lenny the dad?
No. It's natural when you love somebody, and you love your
children, for me at least. It's more important to be a good
father than it is to be a good rock star. I have a
responsibility to bring up my child, to give her the love
and the security so that when she grows up she's not some
dysfunctional, emotional wreck having to prove herself and
find love in odd places because Daddy and Mommy weren't there
and didn't give her the love and support she needed. We have
to look after our children; one of the reasons we have such a
problem on this planet is that most parents are not raising
their children. It's just a big vicious cycle, and it's sad.
By Linda Laban
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SIMPLY RED
Blue
(East West)
'BLUE' BY JONI MITCHELL IS one of the saddest albums
ever. Painfully lovesick, neurotic and messy. The
singer's self-esteem is in bits, but she finds great,
trembling art in the sadness. Listen to 'A Case Of
You' or 'Little Green' and appreciate that Joni has
been to places you wouldn't go voluntarily.
Now let's check out a track on 'Blue' - the new Simply
Red album - called 'Broken Man'. Lyrically, we should
be hearing a similar story here; that the guy is an
emotional write-off. But that's not the deal at all.
What you hear instead is Mick Hucknall's enormous,
undented confidence. You witness a voice that's
technically good, that can warble low and then a strike
a falsetto in an instant. But you also realise that the
man has forgotten how to understand a song.
Which is a bit unfortunate, since half of the songs on
the new record are covers. We all know 'The Air That
I Breathe' and recall how it's about being so thrilled
by love that the material distractions fade away.
Mick simply trades the magic for a funky beat. And
it's twaddle in excelsis.
Likewise with 'Night Nurse'. On the original, Gregory
Isaacs' singing was equally macho and vulnerable, like
he was spooked by the girl. Hucknall merely uses the
song to celebrate himself and his assumed good taste.
This is disappointing because Mick has always threatened
to make a record that mixes creative risks with
commercial import. He's been there sporadically on songs
like 'Lady Godiva's Room', 'Wonderland', even 'Holding
Back The Years'. His last proper album, 'Life', was
enhanced by a fondness for Latin grooves and '70s
Jamaican vocal acts.
But 'Blue' is a cheerless zone. 'Love Has Said Goodbye
Again' is another chance for the singer to engage, but
he loses it in fussy, '80s production values and a desire
to please rather than to reveal his heart.
At the risk of sounding pompous, you feel that Hucknall's
real problem is a lack of modesty. Loads of the great
singers sound awed by the music they make, but Mick is
forever at the controls, making it shine, loving his
superficial class, rarely giving into the mystery of deep
soul.
If you want to hear amazing interpretations of songs old
and new, listen to 'The Church With One Bell', John
Martyn's new album, which pulsates with the stuff that
Mick only pays lip service to.
This ain't rock'n'roll. This is mass murder. 3/10
Stuart Bailie
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RADIOHEAD
Airbag/How Am I Driving?
(Capitol)
'PEOPLE ARE AWARE, BUT not that bothered.' 'The
more you drive, the less intelligent you get.'
'If you don't ask me out to dinner I don't eat.'
Nope, these aren't juicy excerpts culled from the
Loser's Guide To Chatting Up Ladeeeeez. Although,
in a fit of coincidental activity, they are statements
lifted from the sleeve of this here compact disc by
those notorious beaming Radiohead boys.
Damn fine artwork it is, too, featuring shagged dog
stories, deadpan cartoons, Noam Chomsky quotes and a
profoundly unquestioning questionnaire booklet directed
at 'the' 'kids' and hence destined for intense sixth-form
common rooms across the land. Fair play to the chaps,
obviously: ever since their debut 'Drill' EP, circa '92,
Radiohead have performed a sterling job of proving that
commercially successful music needn't be simply about
facile beauty and empty melody. They were pop's wise owls
with their petulant scowls, and now this odd little beast
is yet more power to Radiohead's impressively angular
collective elbow.
As it so grumpily states on the front cover, "This
mini-album is aimed at the USA." Now, we know that the
Yanks mightily pissed off the 'Head by daring to, like,
actually buy 'Creep' in their thrillions, but is that
really enough justification for behaving like the
proverbial Sardonic Youth? In 'Palo Alto' Thom Yorke
grumps, "Meet the boss/Meet the wife/ Everybody's happy/
Everyone's made for life", and on several other occasions
you get the weird feeling that Radiohead should have come
from Omsk instead of Oxford, so surly is their mistrust
of... well, most things, really.
Even better, if you considered 'OK Computer' to be a tad
difficult, much of 'Airbag/How Am I Driving?' is going
to be impenetrable. 'Airbag' is obviously the main
commercial attraction here (and no, we won't mention
the fact that the peachy 'Let Down' hasn't been a single.
No sirree. Not at all.), but there is much added retail
muscle in the form of no fewer than six previously
unreleased tracks, some of which even have tunes.
'Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)' is the other main attraction
here, bringing together the unusually raw with the
rampantly orthodox as Yorke counts the band into a
blitzkrieg of bionic guitars and the longest guitar solo
this side of summer 1975. Elsewhere, the morose keyboards
on 'Melatonin' would have Spielberg weeping KFC bargain
buckets, 'Meeting In The Aisle' is an instrumental which
could easily be described as 'a bit moody', so we will,
and 'Pearly' and 'A Reminder' are dense, but obviously
not in the intellectual sense, daaaaah-link.
An in-betweener sort of release, unquestionably, but if
this is in any way an indication of future Radiohead
releases then the faithful can rest assured that Thom's
hum will persist in being complicated, cutting and a few
kookies short of the full cuckoo's nest. Loads more rattle
and glum to come, in fact.
Laugh? Goddarn it, I nearly bought a Radiohead
import... 7/10
Simon Williams
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Sonic Youth
A thousand leaves
DGC
Sonic Youth Artist Bio With the release of a
thousand leaves, longtime fans disenchanted by Sonic
Youth's recent flirtations with (as opposed to embracing
of) conventional song structures can rejoice. Forgive the
pun, but the album marks a return to formlessness, and
while it doesn't come close to matching the power of
seminal works like Sister or Daydream Nation, its music is
more audacious than anything these avant-garde punks have
done in nearly a decade. Ironically, the group's renewed
sense of adventure is characterized less by the deliberate
abrasiveness of yesteryear, and more by languid soundscapes
that are often downright serene.
Though the band might bristle at the comparison, the more
sprawling compositions on the album - "Hits of Sunshine
(for Allen Ginsberg)," "Karen Coltrane" - evoke the
atmospheric textures favored by vintage Pink Floyd in the
immediate aftermath of Syd Barrett's departure. Similarly,
"Snare, Girl" and "Hoarfrost" are essentially droopy-eyed
lullabies (albeit unconventional ones) that evidence little
of the caustic bluster usually associated with the band.
Still, a Sonic Youth album wouldn't be complete without at
least a smattering of dissonance, and interestingly, the
task falls primarily to Kim Gordon to furnish the
occasional screech and distortion. The dutiful results,
"Female Mechanic Now on Duty" and "The Ineffable Me," each
boast guitar-mania aplenty (as well as lots of murky sexual
innuendo), and feature vocals that are less disembodied
than one normally expects from the bassist.
Sonic Youth is at its best, of course, when it manages to
integrate all these qualities into a single, tight tapestry.
The album's most ambitious song, "Wildflower Soul," does
just that, building gradually from a lovely ballad to a
hot-wire gallop to a tangled white-noise guitar frenzy that
sounds like the screams of ghosts twisting in a hurricane.
Still, like the rest of a thousand leaves, at its core the
composition clearly reveals a kinder, gentler Sonic Youth.
And in the end, that's a direction befitting a band smart
enough not to rest on its laurels, and yet sophisticated
enough to approach its third decade with subtlety and grace.
Russell Hall
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Intervju: Tori Amos
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-------------------
Tori Amos bares her soul yet again, on her new album
from the choirgirl hotel - only this time, she's not
going it alone.
With the release of the album Little Earthquakes seven
years ago, Tori Amos staked her claim as an arresting
new presence in pop music. Her cascading melodies,
skewed rhythmic sense, and keening piano arrangements
had all the hallmarks of an original - tuneful but
unfamiliar, daring but compelling. Nobody made music
that sounded like this. And despite a legion of Lilith
Fair-minded wannabes, nobody does now, either.
Of course, Amos has the kind of sensibility that leads
to change, and her new album from the choirgirl hotel
is a marked shift from Little Earthquakes and the albums
that followed. Long a solo voice-and-piano performer who
only occasionally deployed other instruments for dramatic
effect, Amos recorded with a full band this time out,
crafting denser textures and fuller soundscapes for songs
that were drawn from difficult personal terrain, including
a breakup with longtime boyfriend and producer Eric Rosse
and a 1996 miscarriage.
Amos may enlist a band on choirgirl hotel, but, true to
form, she uses it like nobody else. With the album due in
stores May 5, she and her group have hit the road for a
"sneak preview" round of club dates that all sold out
within minutes. She'll bring the band back to play larger
venues later this summer, after swinging through Europe for
a stretch. Amos - who married choirgirl hotel co-producer
Mark Hawley in March - is documenting each tour stop on her
official Web site (www.tori.com), where she's also
responding to e-mail notes from fans. All told, the
choirgirl hotel looks like a busy place to be.
"If you can't create physical life, you find a life force.
If that's in music, that's in music. I started to find this
deep, primitive rhythm, and I started to move to it. And I
held hands with sorrow, and I danced with her, and we
giggled a bit." - Amos on the songwriting process that
followed her miscarriage
* So, what is a "choirgirl hotel"?
It's a world I wanted to have on this record. To me, these
girls, this set of songs . . . they know each other. They
have margaritas together, and play pranks on each other.
They hang out together, but they have independent solar
systems from each other. They're not so dependent on each
other. They let me come sometimes, but not always.
* What made you decide to make an album with a full band
at this juncture?
The songs usually dictate what I'm going to do. When they
started coming, I was trying to get through a bad patch.
I was pregnant at the end of the Pele tour, and was
very . . . we were over the moon about it. And I
miscarried at almost three months, and it was a really
difficult time. So the songs started coming not long after
I miscarried. The strange thing is, the love doesn't go
away for this being that you've carried. You can't go back
to being the person you were before you carried life. And
yet you're not a mother, either, and you still are
connected to a force, a being. And I was trying to find
ways to keep that communication going. Along the way on
the search, sort of walking with the undead, I would run
into these songs. The one thing they kept saying to me was
I had to find a deep woman's rhythm. You're sort of in no
man's land as a woman having carried life but lost it -
and yet you're still alive.
* How did songs come from that emotion?
You begin to create where you can. If you can't create
physical life, you find a life force. If that's in music,
that's in music. I started to find this deep, primitive
rhythm, and I started to move to it. And I held hands
with sorrow, and I danced with her, and we giggled a bit.
And this record really became about being alive enough to
feel things, no matter what that is.
* What was it like, then, working with all that
instrumentation on this record?
It became about a conversation. The drums would pull one
way, and the piano would pull another. A relationship was
happening on tape. The voice was working off a high hat,
possibly, or was pushing something, pulling back. Then the
kick [drum] pattern would change, and therefore my left
hand would move differently, which would make the bass
player do something different. So that's the way we did
it - based around live performance and waiting around
until the muse showed up. Sometimes you'd sit there for
a few days, everybody just sitting, waiting. And then I
started to feel her come. And I changed my shoes, and I
knew she was coming. The songs completely take over when
they come. And it might not be the first take - sometimes
it was, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes it wasn't the song
we thought it was going to be. You just hold a space for
the songs to come.
* When you wrote songs in the past, did you hear other
instruments in your head?
In my head there's always an orchestra playing - sometimes
out of tune, but it's playing. I had to understand that
that isn't necessarily what I would put on tape. I would
say, "Okay, just because I'm hearing this in my head
doesn't mean that I've expressed it to the people [who]
are listening to this music. They aren't necessarily
hearing what I'm hearing." So, if I want them to hear this,
I need to call in these players to put this down.
* Did you direct the musicians in what to play, or did you
give them free rein to create their parts?
The songs were written before anybody showed up, so I had
an idea of the story. Obviously, the songs were finished
when they walked in. The engineers heard it first, so they
were thinking sonically how to shape this. I was very open
to trying different effects on all the instruments,
including the vocals, to help develop the characters. I
would say, "Okay, imagine this girl as completely made of
a frozen lake. I want you to imagine a drill - one of those
long motherfuckers - coming right into her. The thing,
though, is that she doesn't bleed blood. She's transparent,
and yet she is in physical form. And I want to hear that in
these eight bars." And they would make me go away for a few
hours so I wouldn't bug them. It was about getting the
musicians to really hear the soul of the song, and then
giving them freedom.
* That entails a certain amount of letting go, after you've
had nearly full control over every sound on your albums in
the past.
It became very much about what instrument is the guiding,
anchored force that's taking us through the rabbit hole
right now. Sometimes it would be: "No, this is all about
the guitar, so forget about everybody else. Mute this and
keep that." You can't be overly precious about, "Well, I
played this and I worked really hard." Well, so what? It's
not about this - it's about the bass line for two bars.
Mute the piano.
* Mute the piano?!
You won't believe this, but once I started doing this,
it was so liberating. The piano, she's very happy. She's
all over this record. But sometimes she only plays for
sixteen bars. And that is what excited me. It was about
when she plays - she's not playing because she has to be
the whole band. She can really be whoever she wants. And
that was exciting. I played very differently because of
that.
"Any time I can get to shower, I'm in the shower, 'cause
that's where I sing. If you have a good shower . . . it's
really fantastic. You're in this water womb, and you're
singing this music, and nobody can make a comment on it."
* Is there a particular process you use to write your
songs?
I spend a lot of time in the water writing music. Any time
I can get to shower, I'm in the shower, 'cause that's where
I sing. If you have a good shower - a glass-enclosed shower
and maybe some good tile, and just the sound that's
reverberating back - it's really fantastic. You're in this
water womb, and you're singing this music, and nobody can
make a comment on it. It takes me away from my instrument
and becomes this pure thing connected to the water world
and the water creatures and the water rhythms and the sea
foam fairies. And all of a sudden you feel - oh wow - you
almost feel like you can breathe in that world. You don't
need oxygen any more. Once it takes you down and underneath
in the water, you start to feel in a completely different
way. "Cruel" was really birthed out of that. I played the
percussion of "Cruel" in the shower on my excess fat. It
sounded really good - it made me feel good when I'd have
that next bag of potato chips. I'd say "Look, 'Cruel'
sounds great in the shower. You eat those chips, girl!"
* Choirgirl hotel was recorded in an old barn in England,
right?
In Cornwall. The barn is three hundred years old. One of
the engineers bought the property, and felt like the barn
could be turned into something. So we all joined forces
and felt like we wanted to make a state-of-the-art studio.
So Mark bought the property, and then Marcel [Van Limbeek],
his partner, pulled in some other engineers that they all
knew, and all put their heads together and figured out the
shape of the barn and brought in the architect. When you
look at the outside of the building, you have no idea that
inside there's a proper studio.
* Did you get anything different out of recording in such
an old building?
The great thing about being away from a music-industry city
is that people can't just pop by - that's the first thing.
It's really important for me to have freedom, and when you're
in London or in L.A. or in New York recording, the access is
just so easy. It's too easy for comfort, really. Being
outside of a major city, for me, has always been desirable.
* You and Mark also got married recently. How did the two of
you get together?
He worked on my last album. He was the engineer on the tour,
and we didn't get together until after the tour. We'd done
a whole world tour together, and we were in completely
different relationships, and I kinda had to do a couple of
other things, as girls do sometimes. Once the tour was over,
we had become friends. So it sort of took off from there. We
had a working relationship, and he and Marcel were slated to
record the next album. Things started taking off from there,
I think.
* And how's married life?
I've only been married four, five weeks. It's very new and
it's very, um, well, it's . . . I can't find the words. It's
tender. I get shy about it. It's very special.
By Gary Graff
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NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
The Best Of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
(Mute)
TEN YEARS AFTER MARK E Smith famously dubbed him a
"typical workshy Australian", Nick Cave offers
definitive evidence to the contrary. Granted, he may
have displayed some quintessential ocker traits in his
time - likes a drink; sense of humour drier than the
Nullarbor Plain; quite probably bowls a mean googly
- but on perusing this compilation of ten albums' and
13 years' worth of emotional hand-to-hand combat,
only a fool or the lead singer in The Fall could
accuse Nicholas Edward Cave of shrinking from hard
graft.
The man himself is understandably ambivalent at the
existence of this record, aware that such
retrospectives invariably betoken creative ossification
(palpably not the case), or else a label's last desperate
pitch at recouping some capital from its fading star
(quite the reverse: Cave's audience continues to grow
with each release). But on the logical premise that
there must be people unaware of the extent and detail
of his history, the case for a Bad Seeds 'Best Of' seems
irrefutable. For sure, it wasn't always a matter of doing
Top Of The Pops with Kylie Minogue...
In Nick Cave's often fraught journey from the burnt-out
wreckage of The Birthday Party to the transcendent
spirituality of last year's 'The Boatman's Call', there
have been threads of consistency. And not just his
relationships with drugs, women or God, either (though
these all undoubtedly have a part to play). Contemplate
these non-chronologically arranged 16 tracks and it is
abundantly clear that the Bad Seeds have never displayed
anything other than the most ferocious integrity with
regard to their art. Be it the lurching bacchanalia of
'From Her To Eternity' or the measured loveliness of
'Nobody's Baby Now', regardless of who was actually in
the band at the time - and on 'Your Funeral... My Trial',
it was primarily just Cave singing, Blixa Bargeld
striving to make his guitar sound like anything other
than a guitar, and poor Mick Harvey doing virtually
everything else - these people are incapable of
half-heartedness.
Yet should neophytes take the time to listen to these
songs in the order they were made, the impression forms
of a writer constantly refining his craft. Of a shy man
gradually overcoming his inhibitions, shedding the
layers of mythology in which he used to shroud his view
of the world. A man finding his voice and the words he
wants to say. In essence, Nick Cave has got better with
every record. And since he was never less than remarkable
to begin with, this is some achievement.
Oddly, there's nothing here from 'Kicking Against The
Pricks', the 1986 album of cover versions that in some
aspects turned out to be Cave's most personally revealing
work up to that point. The Bad Seeds' uproarious yet
sincere renderings of such classics as Jimmy Webb's 'By
The Time I Get To Phoenix' or Johnny Cash's 'The Singer'
unearthed seams of humour and universal empathy that Cave
would go on to extrapolate in his own writing. Indeed,
within four years he had penned 'The Ship Song', an
exquisite lullaby worthy of the all-time greats
acknowledged on '...Pricks'.
It's the latterday, sophisticated Cave that is,
unsurprisingly, most to the fore on this collection.
Hearing '(Are You) The One I've Been Waiting For?'
ş sequenced, crucially, at the album's precise midpoint ş
it's hard to escape the conclusion that this almost
unfathomably beautiful song is the culmination of
everything Cave has done thus far, perhaps his most acutely
realised marriage of the mortal and the metaphysical, sung
in a voice hammered by experience and heavy with reluctant
wisdom: "Stars will explode in the sky/But they don't/Do
they?/Stars have their moment and then they die...". The
epic gloomfest of 'The Carny' follows, just to lend a
little perspective: crows, dwarves and lots of rain. This,
one is bound to ripely conclude, is what it's all about.
Of course, 'Best Of' albums are inherently unsatisfactory.
The track-listing is never quite right, the sleeve is
usually a tacky afterthought and there are always some
stodgy sleevenotes telling you at unnecessary length how
great the artist is. Yet here is the exception that proves
the rule: as Nick Cave once more prepares to tell us about
a girl, as that big black cloud hangs yet again over Tupelo,
as Eliza Day's brains splatter for the umpteenth time all
over the wild roses, those Bad Seeds crank up the ante ever
more trenchantly. You realise that it cannot possibly get
much better than a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 'Best Of'. 9/10
Keith Cameron
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Garbage
Version 2.0
Almo
A conglomeration of three Madison, Wis., producer-musicians
and the Scottish singer they recruited, Garbage has never
really sounded like a band. With star producer Butch Vig
and his longtime pals Steve Marker and Duke Erikson minding
the sonics, frontwoman Shirley Manson just has to fill in
her part, and the rest happens. Or at least that's how it
seems.
On the group's second album, whose title either wittily
posits them or unwittingly pegs them as being a lot like
a computer program, everything chugs along in fine,
automated fashion. The grooves seem even more techno this
time around, the individual parts combine into a slick,
mechanical ensemble sound, and it all works just like a
well-behaved, well-planned sequel should. The first single,
"Push It," is already a smash on modern-rock radio, and
additional hits are sure to follow.
But while the Garbage formula continues to rack up sales
and airplay, it is difficult to dig very deeply into their
music. If the debut lost points because its songs were
well-dressed but empty pop numbers, this disc loses several
more. Nothing here is as undeniably catchy as "I'm Only
Happy When It Rains," and too often, the production
techniques take precedence over the songs themselves. Plus,
both "Push It" and "Special" - two of the CD's better cuts
- depend heavily on hooks from other songs. The first
borrows its "Don't worry, baby" motif from the Beach Boys'
hit of the same name, while the other rather shamelessly
pilfers lyric phrases from well-known Pretenders songs.
Granted, there's nothing to overtly dislike about Version
2.0, but that, in and of itself, is not a recommendation.
How odd that something so well-constructed, accessible, and
expertly performed can still ring so hollow.
Bob Remstein
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SEAN LENNON
Into The Sun
(Grand Royal)
IF THE CHILDREN OF ROCK stars making records is a
potentially terrifying phenomenon (The words 'Dweezil
Zappa' can still make hardened music lovers wince),
marginally less untrustworthy is Beastie Boy Mike D's
'eccentric' Grand Royal A&R policy.
It is my sad duty to report, then, that Sean Lennon falls
into both of the above categories and does further damage
to their public reputation.
The main problem is that, without exception, this is
inconsequential, impossible to remember, hippy whimsy
apparently recorded in a jazz-boho vegan cafe for poshos.
It's surely too easy to compare Sean to his father's
illustrious oeuvre. But Sean kind of insists we do so when
the likes of 'Home' and 'Mystery Juice' sound like The
Rutles doing the most ersatz parts of 'Magical Mystery Tour'
with intermittent grunge-u-like backing from a Soundgarden
tribute band. And when Sean's insufferably insipid nouveau
hippy croon attempts surreal wordplay like, "The loser
blueser choose to flew the coop" or somesuch, you can't help
but cringe.
Worse still are the seemingly ubiquitous use of the 'bossa
nova' button on an old Casio keyboard and the jazz-lite
'textures' it creates. And when Sean tires of floundering
in search of a tune, he adds minutes on end of
'impressionistic' radio noisescapes.
To be fair, some of the tunes are sort of alrigh... oh no
no no NO they fucking aren't. They're boring, insipid,
terminally mediocre, trying-to-be-weirdy-beardy bollocks
and you would forget them all were it not for the fact
they're so ANNOYING. Might I suggest an acting career? 1/10
Johnny Cigarettes
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SOUL ASYLUM
Candy From A Stranger
(Columbia)
"SOUL ASYLUM? AREN'T THEY the ones who sound a bit
like..." Possibly not the kindest of phrases, but one
that dogged them through the '80s (where they sounded
a bit like... Husker Du) and into the '90s (they
sounded a bit like... HŘsker DŘ, but nicer). Soul Asylum
have always been the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Sure, they chalked up the odd hit ('Runaway Train',
'Somebody To Shove') but that all-important cred? Nope.
And thus for head honcho Dave Pirner, a quandary. Just
what do you have to do to get some respect around here?
Answer? More than this. Guitars get louder, the guitars
get softer but ten - that's TEN - albums in, Soul Asylum
are still peddling variations on the same angst-addled
college rock that won them indifference way back when.
Traversing the vast sonic spectrum from Buffalo Tom
('Close') to The Jayhawks ('Creatures Of Habit'), 'Candy
From A Stranger' is a more than agreeable enough listen
- all earnest vocals and shiny guitars - but still
absolutely nothing you didn't hear back in 1992.
Nuances are few. There are nods to current predilections
for alternative country and 'See You Later' is an
REM-flavoured chunk of jangle pie but just when you think
things could get interesting, 'Blood Into Wine' brings
Bon Jovi to the party and that distant sound you hear is
a stereo committing suicide. Happily.
The plain facts, then. Soul Asylum have made a record
that's better than their last one. Soul Asylum have made
a record that'll likely shift a zillion units over the
pond. And Soul Asylum? Soul Asylum are still the ones
who sound a bit like... 5/10
Mike Goldsmith
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Soul Asylum
Candy From a Stranger
Columbia
Soul Asylum is the band that can't win. On one side
it has a cadre of old fans and a rock-critic
establishment who are still pissed off that the
Minneapolis group went pop on them six years ago
with the radio smash "Runaway Train" and the
multimillion selling Grave Dancers Union album. On
the other side are the mainstreamers who jumped aboard
"Runaway Train" and who proved to be short-term
passengers when Soul Asylum released Let Your Dim
Light Shine in 1995 - one of those million-selling
"failures" burdened by excessive expectations and
extreme backlash when its commercial showing was
really more of a market correction after the
out-of-character chart success of Grave Dancers Union.
Of course, a quick rise-and-fall scenario like that
makes the third album in such a sequence a
make-or-break affair, and an undeniable pressure weighs
on Candy From a Stranger. Those who thought (or hoped)
Soul Asylum would retrench and start kicking out the
sloppy jams of its pre-Winona Ryder years will instead
find Candy a continuation of the songcraft that marked
its two immediate predecessors. It rocks in spots
- notably the first single, "I Will Still Be Laughing,"
and the winding, guitar-cranking "Lies of Hate." But
the majority of Candy's songs are mid-tempo and melodic,
with sophisticated instrumental arrangements, airy
harmonies, and hooky, well-defined choruses. And there
are some downright luminous moments to be sure:
wonderfully constructed pop tunes such as "See You
Later" and "No Time for Waiting"; the rootsy, weepy,
Golden Smog-ish "Blood Into Wine"; and the smooth,
ambient "Cradle Chain."
Were Grave Dancers Union Soul Asylum's first album,
Candy From a Stranger would be considered another
creative step forward rather than a betrayal of the
band's roots. In that context, one can feel the
resonance of frontman Dave Pirner's cry in the chorus
of "Dragging the Lake": "Am I still here/ Can you hear
me, please say yes?" Yes, we do, Dave.
Gary Graff
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Massive Attack: Mezzanine
Virgin
If you already invented an entire genre with your
first album, what the hell do you do for an encore?
That's a problem Massive Attack has been facing ever
since its 1991 debut, Blue Lines, introduced to the
masses the groundbreaking blend of loping hip-hop
beats, haunting pop melodies, symphonic soul
instrumentation, and dub atmospherics that would
eventually come to be known as trip-hop. For its
strong 1994 follow-up, Protection, the Bristol,
England, collective didn't do much tinkering with a
formula that had already been altered to great success
by the likes of Portishead and Massive associate
Tricky. By staying the course, they disappointed those
who had hoped that the group might be able to somehow
reinvent itself and turn the dance-music world on its
ear once again.
Mezzanine arrives, then, with considerably reduced
expectations. And the group's creative core of Mushroom,
3-D, and Daddy G easily exceeds them, altering their
musical blueprint just enough to get the juices flowing
(hello, fuzzy guitars!), then peppering the album with
traces of actual songcraft to give the dense, blue-hued
soundscape the sort of firm backbone such atmospheric
mood music so often lacks.
Then again, "firm" may not be exactly the right word to
describe Liz Fraser's slippery vocals. The Cocteau Twins'
singer assumes Massive Attack's rotating chanteuse role
(previously filled by Shara Nelson and Tracey Thorn),
doing her ethereal, entrancing thing on the superlative
single, "Teardrop." In the song, she coos, "Love is a
verb/ love is a doing word," even though her sexy,
hypnotic voice is more likely to induce paralysis and
hardly brings to mind action verbs. Slightly more
forceful is newcomer Sara Jay, who bares her hollow soul
on the haunting "Dissolved Girl," in which she admits,
"I need a little love to ease the pain. Feels like
something that I've done before/ I could fake it but
I still want more."
Of course, as with previous albums, Massive Attack also
succeeds here on instrumental suites like the
introspective, jazz-laced "Exchange," which samples Isaac
Hayes - the George Clinton of trip-hop - and is reprised
in an alternate form as the closing number on this
sprawling, provocative recording. It may not be another
groundbreaker, but Mezzanine still rates high in the
trip-hop canon, ranking somewhere just below Portishead's
Dummy, Tricky's Maxinquaye, and, of course, Blue Lines -
a landmark debut that may never be bettered.
Josh Freedom du Lac
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Happy New Year everyone and may your
hangovers be minor ones,
vas moderator :)
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GOOD YEAR FOR THE ROSES?
Axl reveals his sensitive side
After years of avoiding interviews and publicity - give or take the odd
arrest at an airport - GUNS'N'ROSES singer Axl Rose has issued a statement
about the brand new G'N'R song 'Oh My God', which will appear on the
soundtrack album of the film 'The End Of Days'.
A snatch of the song has already been heard on the TV ads and cinnema
trailers for the film currently running in the US.
Rose says that Dave Navarro - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction etc -
played on the track along with ex-Vandals drummer Josh Freese, former
Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and that the song was written over two
years ago by current G'N'R guitarist Paul Huge.
"The chorus... deals with the societal repression of deep and often agonizing
emotions" Axl Rose
According to Rose, the song "...deals with the societal repression of deep
and often agonizing emotions - some of which may be willingly accepted for
one reason or another - the appropriate expression of which (one that
promotes a healing, release and apositive resolve) is often discouraged and
many times denied. Emotionally the song contemplates several abstract
perspectives drawing from personal expression as well as from the film
(End Of Days) and its metaphors. The appropriate expression and vehicle for
such emotions and concepts is not something taken for granted." (Well, he
would say that, wouldn't he? - Ed)
The band recently recorded a new version of 'Sweet Child O' Mine', which is
used on the closing credits of the Adam Sandler film Big Daddy, though this
song is expected to feature on the forthcoming album - the follow up to
1993's 'The Spaghetti Incident' - which is provisionally entitled '2000
Intentions' and is expected to be out next year.
The End Of Days is an apocalyptic thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger set
for release in the UK in December. The soundtrack - out on Geffen on November
2 - also features tracks by Limp Bizkit, Korn, Prodigy and Creed.
***
Musically the song was primarily written by Paul Huge over two years ago,
with Dizzy Reed writing the musical hook of the chorus. Former member Duff
McKagan as well as former employee Matt Sorum failed to see its potential and
showed no interest in exploring, let alone recording the piece. When the
demos were played for the new band, Josh, Tommy and Robin were as they say
'all over it.' Once the opportunity was presented, the song was given
priority in our recording process. As the verse, performance and lyrics were
decided on, for us (that especially includes Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine)
the choice became obvious. We were more than pleased Mr Roswell (the film's
music supervisor) agreed! Our thanks to Arnold and all for the consideration
- it is an association in which we have always felt honored.
Paul Huge, Gary Sunshine and Dave Navarro appear on the song as well as Robin
Finck. Robin's part was written by Paul and extensively manipulated by our
producer, Sean Beaven. Robin was not involved in the writing of the final
recording though did participate in the arrangement. All lyrics were written
by myself. Additional programming (jack boots, screeching tires, etc.) was by
Stuart White. The fight of good vs evil, positive vs negative, man against a
seemingly undefeatable, undeterrable, unrevealed destiny, along with the
personal and universal struggle to attain, maintain and responsibly manage
freewill can be and often is frustrating say the least. In America our
country's constitutional right to freedom of expression gives us a better
chance to fight for that expression than many in other countries enjoy.
It can be a big gig, like kickin' the crap outta the devil!
Power to the people, peace out and blame Canada,
Axl
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info.68dzim,
The Beatles
Yellow Submarine
(Apple)
Sad as it remains, The Beatles will always be with us. Not so much because
their music continues to enthuse successive generations of listeners as that
they steadfastly refuse to go away. If the 'Anthology' series was meant to be
a cathartic final statement of their place in pop history, then this spit and
polish job on one of many regrettable chapters in the Mop Tops' career is the
moment when any remaining leering reverence of our pop heritage should end.
The 1999 'Yellow Submarine', remastered and beefed up to include all of the
songs featured in the film at the expense of George Martin's soundtrack music,
is effectively a compilation of psychedelic-era Beatles tunes you've already
heard to death saddled together with the four desultory arrogant efforts
provided to give their animated feature debut some box office spice.
'Altogether Now' is a half-arsed nursery rhyme, 'Hey Bulldog' a shambolic
doodle. 'Only A Northern Song' is a meler and 'It's All Too Much' is a
deranged flower power epic which would be worth the price of admission
if you didn't feel the musical soul of your generation was at stake.
The evidence here shows that in 1968 The Beatles treated 'Yellow Submarine'
as an irksome feature of their recently deceased manager Brian Epstein's
legacy. Why, then, should we be fooled by this nasty marketing ploy of
presenting it to us as a prized relic now?
This is an exercise in mercenary economics as crass, lazy and cynical as it
was at the time of the initial '...Submarine' launch. Neither fab nor gear,
someone clearly thinks we're idiots.
If you really need to see a shitty kids movie which isn't half as clever
as it thinks it is, try The Phantom Menace.
Jim Wirth
www.nme.com
info.69dzim,
NAIL BOMBS MANSON
NINE INCH NAILS follow the release of new album 'The Fragile', released
on Nothing/Island on Monday, September 27, with their first UK show in
five years.
NIN play Brixton Academy on November 29, tickets will be priced at 15 pounds.
Trent Reznor, quoted in this week's Kerrang! magazine said that he almost
quit music after a nervous breakdown following his production stint on
Marilyn Manson's 'Antichrist Superstar' and the death of his 85 year old
grandmother.
"It really came down to me thinking ' Do I really want to keep doing this?"'.
I don't know anybody who just stopped when they were at the height of their
career - other than those who killed themselves, which I wasn't wanting
to do," he said.
He also said that he felt betrayed by what Manson wrote about him in his
autobiography.
"He said some very ignorant, mean, malicious things which cross a line of
what is decent," said Reznor. "That friendship was a big fuck up for me.
It fucked me up pretty good."
www.nme.com
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MUM'S THE WORD
Richard (left)
SUEDE were revealed in an unfamiliar light last week when guitarist Richard
Oakes' mum revealed the secrets of her son's rise to fame in the heady world
of pop showbiz. In an interview with the Bournemouth Daily Echo, Maureen
Oakes told of her hopes and fears for the fresh-faced 17-year-old who got
the job after Bernard Butler left the band in 1994.
"He seemed so young and the rock and roll lifestyle is notorious isn't it?
But he doesn't even smoke!", Maureen told the paper. "My intuition is that he
found it difficult. "He was suddenly plunged into a very adult world where he
didn't know anyone and where there were some very dodgy characters.
"Not in the management or the band, but with some of the hangers-on."
Among other revelations, Maureen admits that she was happy to see that her
son had put on weight in the run-up to the release of the band's latest album
'Head Music'. She said: "I think at that stage it was just good living. Still,
it's better to over-indulge in food than in drugs! "He realises that in their
profession that you can't be seen to be too chunky although that James Dean
Bradfield is quite a chunky little lad isn't he?" According to Maureen,
Richard's now settled into his role as guitarist for the band, but at first
the job seemed like a fantasy. She said: "Richard said that getting Suede
for the first year was like Jim'll Fix It but when it came to writing the
album, this wasn't Jim'll Fix It - he'd have to do some work." It's
comforting to see though, that even after five years of international indie
stardom, Richard's still listens to his mother and heeds her good advice.
Maureen revealed: "Richard phoned up before the V99 festival and said:
'I'm going to doing some backing vocals' and I said 'Richard I know what
you're good at. You're good at guitar but you can't sing for toffee!'"
Suede are now preparing for their first UK tour in four years, which calls at
Brighton Centre on October 22.
www.nme.com
info.71dzim,
RPH DO REM
REM: Strings attached
REM's greatest hits are now available in light pseudo-classical versions,
thanks to 'The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays The Music Of REM' which is
released this week. The RPH have already done similar albums of Oasis songs
and have their finger on the pulse of popular culture much more so than the
London Symphony Orchestra, whose forays into rock and roll have been the
dreadful 'Classic Rock' albums leaden 70s Queen and Pink Floyd hits.
The REM songs given the RPH treatment are
Ě 'The One I Love'
Ě 'Stand'
Ě 'Man On The Moon'
Ě 'Losing My Religion'
Ě 'Nightswimming'
Ě 'Everybody Hurts'
Ě 'Strange Currencies'
Ě 'Near Wild Heaven'
Ě 'Drive'
Ě 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight'
Ě 'What's The Frequency, Kenneth?'
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info.72dzim,
Iggy Pop
Avenue B
(Virgin America)
He plays a decent round of golf these days, but there's part of Iggy Pop's
heart that is forever putrid. The self-mocking manner and the wolfman smirk
have allowed him to appear harmless - the Jack Nicholson of rock. But
'Avenue B' dispenses with many of the old ploys and lays a different
character before us. The precedents for this record would be Lou Reed's
'Magic And Loss', Nick Cave's 'The Boatman's Call', and before that,
Sinatra's 'Only The Lonely'. It's about a guy singing his September songs,
feeling the pinch of mortality, losings while feeling sorely jaded.
So, in 'Motorcycles', Iggy doesn't even get a look in with the fabulously
attractive subject. She's brushing him off, causing the singer to muse:
"She's a motorcycle that I can't ride/ She's a precious jewel that I can't
buy", as his spirits plummet and he vows to give up on the romance business.
Yet on 'Long Distance', he's dialling up a lover half his age, realising that
he's only trying to erase the hurt of a previous rejection. As with many of
the songs, the tone is non-judgmental. It's like hearing a confession from
the psychiatrist's couch, raw, rambling and unpretty.
That's certainly the gist of 'Corruption' and 'She Called Me Daddy'.
The latter song plots a break-up with awful, forensic style. "I was always
ashamed because she read Cosmopolitan", Iggy notes, as his subject is indexed
and catalogued, no longer considered a living issue.
'Nazi Girlfriend' is relayed in a dispassionate manner: thoughts from a guy
that can't even excite himself with this nasty stuff. By the end of the LP,
you're feeling that no human can sustain all this scummy outpouring and sure
enough, he delivers 'Facade', which reaches out for some kind of atonement.
You hope. Appropriately, the musical settings are mainly bare. Even when he
tackles the gut-bucket classic 'Shakin' All Over', Iggy makes the affair
sound wretched and unwanted, a sure cousin to Primal Scream's 'Vanishing
Point'. If 'Avenue B' was a book, it might be something by Henry James.
If it was a film set, it would be in Venice. At night. With Dirk Bogarde in
the lead role as the super-creepy seducer. As it stands, it's a remarkable
piece of rock'n'roll from someone who admits, "I can piss on a grave while
welcoming guests." It's hardly the record you expected him to make, but then
that's no problem when the art is so overpowering. Like an expensive cheese,
Iggy's getting more pungent over the years.
Stuart Bailie
www.nme.com
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Vesti sa www.wallofsound.com.
Word 97 doc format.
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Nova izdanja (tek treba da izadju).
Od ove poruke, pa na dalje - html format.
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Recenzije.
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Billboard-ove top liste:
- top 20 albuma
- top 20 singlova
- top 10 mainstream rock
- top 10 modern rock
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Sound off:
- Megadeth
- Billy Corgan
- Tori Amos
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News:
Garbage talk exclusively to NME about new album
Radiohead - behind the scenes at new album
Patti Smith, Nick Cave and Julian Cope contribute to National Poetry day
Vedder supports The Who in Chicago
Kula Shaker's last release will be Bob Dylan cover
REM - new album out in November
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News:
Bono Hails Clinton on Debt Relief
Rage Prepares for Battle of Los Angeles
Boy George Apologizes to Ricky Martin
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Madonna Takes on Coward Role
McCartney Reflects on Linda's Death
Michael Jackson Getting Divorced
David Bowie - Hours...
Beck talks to nme.com about Johnny Marr, Kool Keith and the Puff Daddy
Prodigy and Massive Attack men team up again
Sheryl Crow Talks NetAid, Scallion
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A BEASTIE BOYS SCIENCE LESSON
1999'S DANCE OSCARS:
FATBOY SLIM, The Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx
LIVE DESTRUCTION - GUNS N' ROSES
OL' SWASTIKA EYES IS BACK - PRIMAL SCREAM's
BLOODFLOWERED UP - THE CURE
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Nova izdanja.
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Billoard-ove Top Liste.
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charts.rar