I know next to nothing about Lou Reed, so I’m not in any way qualified to comment. But, I found the article quite disturbing.
Tag: rock
Day 1 of Seven Musical Memories: Infancy
My great friend, Tobbe Janson, asked that I offer seven days of music-related memories. Thank you, Tobbe. Let the nostalgia begin.
Even earlier than my actual memory allows, I used to crawl out of my crib in the middle of the night. Sometimes, I was rather dangerous. My mom and two older brothers remember with much horror the one night that I had crawled onto the stovetop, lighting all the burners to full. When they heard me screaming, they ran down to find me standing in the middle of the stovetop. Amazingly, I stood perfectly in the middle, unharmed.
Usually, though, my 3 in the morning explorations were just plain mischievous. As far as I know, there was never a time in our house that we didn’t have music. Classical, jazz, musicals, rock. All was acceptable. Born in late 1960s, I became rather obsessed with two records. Frequently, I crawled out of the crib, descended downstairs, and put one of my two favorite singles on the stereo system. I’d not only figured out how to play records before I could walk, I knew how to blare the records at full volume, waking up my family. Most likely, I awoke several neighbors in my hometown of Great Bend, Kansas, as well. Our stereo went to 11.
The two songs: the Banana Splits Theme and Snoopy and the Red Barron.
The Charge: Acid in my Veins
The Charge are taking charge of their destiny and have released the videoclip for their single “Acid in My Veins”. The clip was shot and edited by their producer Reggie Bowman – ensuring consistency and feel across both the aural and visual spectrums.
The single, ‘Acid in My Veins” – was released to a ravenous audience on July 17th and the new videoclip premiered yesterday on themusic.com.au.
The clip was shot on location in the forests and hills surrounding Melbourne and in a warehouse space featuring the band.
Drummer from the band, Ben Cuthbert is enthusiastic about the upcoming album. “This is just a first taste of this record. We wanted to give it all we have in this clip – Order of the Owl is our way of making a statement about the world and we want to connect with people through the clip and the album.”
The belting, rollicking single is all about the concept of Rebirth and will be a part of their forthcoming album, “The Order of the Owl.” The album’s release date is yet to be set and an east coast tour will follow.
“The Order of the Owl” as an album is a narrative created by The Charge and the artwork will centre around “Moloch” – an ancient god-like figure worshipped or feared – Moloch is described as a watcher, with an over-arching view of world events and has been used in literature as a person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice.
Formed in 2008 around the talents of guitarist/vocalist Ashley Jones, drummer Ben Cuthbert, bassist Julian Crupi, and guitarist/vocalist Hamish Mills. One of the more notable New Wave of Australian Progressive Rock/Metal acts, a genre spawned in the mid-‘00s by bands like COG, The Butterfly Effect, Karnivool and Dead letter Circus, The Charge’s innovative, lyrically astute blend of 90’s grunge, hard rock, progressive rock and metal has helped position the band as one of the prominent hard rock acts on the Australian scene.
The Charge’s newfound popularity eventually landed them several high profile shows and tours, and saw them share the stage with several long time influences Bugdust, Dead Letter Circus, King Parrot, Floating Me, Over-Reactor and The Nerve, as well as three consecutive years in a row performing at Rock the Bay and Rock N Load as well as Brewtality Festival.
The single is available on iTunes and from thecharge.com.au and The Charge will be playing at The Evelyn in Melbourne on August 21.
THE CHARGE – LIVE DATES
Friday August 21 – Melbourne, VIC
The Evelyn Hotel
with Engine Three Seven, High Side Driver, Entropy and Hammers
$20 ENTRY – Tickets at evelynhotel.oztix.com.au
Rocket 88 Books: Humor and Excellence
Last night, as I was getting ever closer to sleep, I decided to check out the website for Rocket 88 Books.
I’ve been reading and throughly enjoying their book on the history of Dream Theater, LIFTING SHADOWS.
Lo and behold, what did I find on the website? That Rocket 88 will soon be releasing a paperback version of the 2012 coffee-table book, THE SPIRIT OF TALK TALK.
For those of you who know me, you know how much I adore Talk Talk. But, even with my normal lack of frugality and my love of the band, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay the price that was being asked for that hardback–no matter how beautiful–three years ago.
And yet, here it is.
So, of course, I ordered it. Immediately. Here’s the response I awoke to from the press:
Hello Bradley,
Congratulations, you were the first person to pre-order the new paperback edition of the Spirit of Talk Talk book! And before we have even told anyone it is avalable, impressive work
The email that was sent to you to confirm the order bounced back though, that address you gave us was bradletbirzer@xxxxxxx.com
We have taken a high level executive decision and reckon it should have been bradleybirzer@xxxxxx.com and have updated it.
We can also confirm we have your order, reference number: xxxx.
We will keep you updated along the way on progress we can tell you that books are planned to be in the UK in October but will take a little longer to get to our warehouse in the US, so you should expect to have your book in November.
Best wishes,
Rocket 88
Books with extra thrust.
Here’s my response to their response:
Hello Rocket 88,
It sounds like you’re very, very good at executive decisions.
Yes, bradleybirzer@xxxxxx.com is correct. I can only blame large, clumsy fingers on my typo. I don’t want to badmouth my fingers too much, though, as they’ve served me well in handshakes, eating, opening doors, etc.
I just happened to be on the Rocket 88 website and saw the new books. Great press, by the way. I’m just finishing up the LIFTING SHADOWS about Dream Theater.
Again, thanks for taking the time to clarify. No worries on October or November. Either way, I’ll be happy.
Yours, Brad
And, finally, their response to my response to their response:
Ha! Yep keep those fingers handy.
Thanks for your kind words and great to hear you’re also enjoying Lifting Shadows. We have a couple more titles coming in that area too which may interest you as we are presently working feverishly to finish books from Devin Townsend and from Opeth.
Best wishes,
Rocket 88
Books with extra thrust.
Ok, so I know that I wasted some poor person’s time. But, you know what? They now have my total loyalty. If every one in the world brought this kind of excellence and humor to what ever it is they do, we’d have a pretty great world.
Thanks, Rocket 88!
Imagination Head–the Latest Sensation from Atlanta
“Talented and musically adventurous” –Latest Disgrace
“Any fan of Built to Spill, The Shins, or Cake will want to hear Imagination Head. Their indie palette is at once accessible and unique […] weaving a dreamy undertone to peppy melodies” –The Moon and Pluto
“A smart, ambitious band with the ability to flesh out their themes both formally and lyrically” –Little advances
“Imagination Head takes traditional aesthetics and breathes new life into them” -Ohmpark
***
September 16, 2014 –
Imagination Head’s indie psych-pop induces a mellow, creeping euphoria. They’re experts at fusing ’80s British post-punk with subtle space-rock flourishes, creating a mysterious sonic shroud over their impressive songs and masterfully crafted pop arrangements. Lyrically, the band’s songs grasp at untethered freedom while lamenting the doldrums of modern life. Imagination Head’s music is the rabbit hole to Wonderland—a drug to awaken the uninitiated. And their adventurous, infectious sound has landed them on bills with indie-rock contemporaries The Octopus Project & The Orwells.
The Atlanta-based band’s new album, Chromataverse (out Nov 1), is a departure from Imagination Head’s psych-folk roots, exploring an edgier, more guitar-driven sound in which the studio is a lab for experimentation, a place for songs to evolve as the recording process unfolds. With the help of producer Damon Moon (Iron Jayne, Rrest), they’ve utilized space echo, tape hiss and a slew of other analog toys to build their neo-New Wave soundscapes. The journey presented here by J.R. Wicker (guitar, lead vocals), Erin Wicker (keys, vocals), Jason Bogart (bass), Puma Navarro (drums) and Vince Gray (lead guitar) is a bold call for revolution filtered through Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. “This album is a warning,” J.R. says. “The American Dream is constantly dangled in front of your face as you work overtime for nothing in particular, waiting a lifetime in line for your turn. But it’s your fate to avoid the trap—to rise above it.”
Imagination Head recorded Chromataverse at East Atlanta studio The Cottage, which—while within the city limits—provided a secluded, escapist environment, the band’s breaks often spent trekking through the adjacent woods along the ridge of an abandoned rock quarry, soaking up the hushed, primal vibe. The sessions for the new album were fast-paced, spontaneous and mostly live, capturing the feel of the band’s electrifying live sets, before carefully adding layered sonic texture to each track. The album would have been ready sooner, but with Erin nine months pregnant, they had to take a break.
“The Cottage was like a clubhouse,” Erin says. “We were able to concentrate and play in a stress-free environment, but the baby was crushing my lungs the whole time, so I had to come back later, after he was born, to finish my vocals. After the album was mixed, when he was just a few months old, he was crying and J.R. played him one of the new songs and he actually stopped crying. I guess he’s as much a part of this record as anyone.”
Imagination Head is rooted in the relationship of J.R. and Erin Wicker. They met in Memphis, and before long were musically—and romantically—entangled. In the early days, Imagination Head was a collaboration between just them, working as a psych-folk duo. They recorded their first album, The Stale and the Sparkly Air, with a few Memphis friends rounding out the sound. The couple eventually relocated to Atlanta, and made the transition to five-piece band with the album ON/OFF. The current lineup solidified in 2012 with the release of LP Plastic Heart.
J.R. and lead guitarist Gray most often are the ones who bring song ideas to the band, who then collectively fleshes them out, building bridges between disparate parts. “Our workshop is based around modern technology,” Gray says. “When I have an idea, I just record it on my phone and send it to everyone in the band. Sometimes, the ideas comes fast and have to be acted on. ‘Disconnect,’ from the new album, seemed to just explode into existence just days before we began recording.”
This immediacy also drives songs like “Rat Trap” and “Break the Chain,” their message that of a constrained society opening up to the freedom of space. “Mars” practically cries out for listeners to join the expansive exploration of dreams and the cosmos, while “Moon Sings Dance” beckons them to take this epic journey with the band, leaving behind the tired pop convention of verse-chorus-verse.
Chromataverse is the sum total of Imagination Head’s underground evolution—atop their folk-duo foundation, building a vibrant, danceable, electro indie-rock opus.
-Baby Robot Media
For further info: wickerjr@yahoo.com
U2 and Apple: An Editorial of Gratitude
As is more than well known, U2’s latest album showed up in every single person’s iTunes library, wanted or not. A cursory google search reveals how angry this gratuity made a whole lot of folks out in the world. The complaints run as follows: if rock is free, it’s not rock; pulling out guys in their fifties to celebrate the latest piece of technology is just tacky; the music is terrible., etc., etc., etc.
My reaction to these reactions is so strong, my head (and maybe my soul) really really really want to explode. Really.
Admittedly, I’ve not kept up with U2 as well as I once did.
For what it’s worth, I was rather obsessed with them from 1982 to 1987. My love of U2 never came close to equaling my love of Rush, Talk Talk, Yes, or even Thomas Dolby at the same time, but I still knew about everything there was to know about the four guys from Ireland.
To this day (September 12, 2014), I think October and The Joshua Tree are two of the greatest rock albums ever made, “New Year’s Day” a contender for the greatest rock song ever written, and “Under a Blood Red Sky” second only “Exit Stage Left” as the greatest live album of all time.
I still can’t listen either to October or The Joshua Tree (the latter especially) without becoming emotional. The first time I listened to The Joshua Tree, I cried and cried. Perhaps not very manly, but certainly very human. Bono’s voice and lyrics spoke to my lifelong desire for social justice.
As strange or paradoxical as it is seems to me now, I can state with some certainty that while Neil Peart’s lyrics taught me to love myself, Bono’s lyrics taught me to love that which is not myself.
I thought Rattle and Hum a great rockumentary, and I continued to defend—sometimes vehemently—U2’s music post “Rattle and Hum.” I couldn’t do that now. While I think post-Rattle and Hum U2 is very, very good, it’s not excellent. U2 enjoyed a streak of genius from Boy to The Joshua Tree. After 1987, though, it did great things but not brilliant ones. The song with Johnny Cash on Zooropa and Fez from No Line on the Horizon still show that old brilliance, but the glimpses of genius have become rarer as U2 has aged.
I’m sure there are reasons for this, though I’m not sure I could identify them easily. I do think that U2’s social justice made much more sense in the Cold War than it does in the post Cold War period. By this, I don’t mean that Social Justice is less important than it was in the 1980s. It’s ALWAYS important. It’s just that the social justice U2 espoused was anti-Cold War, a focus on problems that did not fit into the Cold War scheme of things. With the Cold War over, U2’s position seems less full, somehow watered down. In hindsight, I think their positions were necessarily anti-Cold War as opposed to a-Cold War. The troubles of early 1980’s Ireland or South Africa just don’t hold the kind of gravitas they once did.
This is all a very long way of saying to U2 and to Apple, thank you. When I look back at my 1980s, Steve Jobs stands next to Bono as heroes. Both spoke for excellence in the human condition. I have no problems with the two being connected, in my memory or in the actual present. Do the guys of U2 looks like they’re in their fifties. Three of the four do. The Edge still looks young. But, hey, who cares? Age is utterly and completely relative. Do I at 47 act like I did at 22? Thank God, NO! Wouldn’t it be much worse if U2 spent their money on plastic surgery rather than advocating aid for the poor in Africa?
And, I really, really like the new album. Is it The Joshua Tree. No. Is it even Actung, Baby? No. Is it good? Yes. Bono’s voice still sounds excellent, the lyrics are quite strong, and, perhaps most importantly, the music is completely earnest. No gimmicks, no fads, no tricks—just four older guys making music.
Thank you, Tim Cook. Thank you, four guys from Ireland.
[P.S. This is my 500th post at progarchy. Tempus fugit.]
Lovely Leah, Metal Maid–GRATIS!
Our great friend, the extremely talented Leah McHenry, is offering all of her music for free at the moment. Take advantage of this while you can. She’s as talented as she is generous. Enjoy.
Summer special!!!
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The Bunnymen’s METEORITES Streaming Now
For some one of my age (46), it’s very hard not to trap Echo and the Bunnymen in the best memories of my youth.
From 1980 to 1984, the band produced four classic albums in a row, the best of which was HEAVEN UP HERE. Their self-titled album of 1987 was ok, but nothing spectacular. In 1990, with a new singer, Echo released an album that has stood the test of time rather well. Though it’s simply not Echo and the Bunnymen, REVERBERATION is a really catchy pop-rock album with a lot of neo-psychadelia. REVERBERATION, still, is better than anything else Echo has released post-OCEAN RAIN.
In 1997, Echo reformed with Ian McCulloch once again taking lead vocals. Everything Echo has produced since 1997 has been unsatisfying, an Echo of an Echo with momentary flashes of brilliance.
The new album, METEORITES, slated to come out in four days, is good but not astounding. Maybe this is simply my fault, my failure to appreciate all that is currently Echo. I very much want the Echo of my youth–angry, hard edged, nasty, lush, claustrophobic, and angular.
METERORITES is, as I just noted, good but not astounding. It’s a safe and nice return to the late 1980s without causing any problems and without taking any serious chances. What saddens me, though, is that the album is on the edge of astounding. A different producer, a different engineer, a different some one (as Rush has down with their last several albums) might have made METEORITES spectacular.
As McCulloch has recently said, METEORITES is a concept album. And, so it seems to be. There’s a lot of discussion of religion, especially historical religion. I’m just not sure what it all means. Still, Echo was always best when combining elements of hard rock and prog with pop sensibilities.
McCulloch’s voice is excellent and the same can be said of Sargeant’s guitar work. But, again, it’s all so safe. The bass and the drums are bland, and, thus, an essential part of Echo seems missing.
The Guardian is streaming the entire album, and you can judge for yourself before buying it. After listening, I’ve decided not to purchase it. I know I would only listen to it a few times, but then I would forget about it, relegating it to mere un-accessed space on my hard drive.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/19/echo-and-the-bunnymen-meteorites-exclusive-album-stream
If you’re looking for the best of Echo, you must return to the band’s past: CROCODILES (1980); HEAVEN UP HERE (1981); PORCUPINE (1983); and OCEAN RAIN (1984). These four albums rank as four of the best in the rock era. Additionally, as Pete Blum has recently argued, the best modern Echo is to be found in Sergeant and Patterson’s prog band, Poltergeist.
Mark Judge on Camilla Paglia and Rock’s Poetry
American cultural critic, Mark Judge, has a great piece on the poetry of current rock and pop music. In particular, Judge is considering the arguments of another famous critic, Camilla Paglia, the bete noire of feminism in academia. Enjoy.
It’s not that today’s female pop stars are not feminists. It’s that, like today’s young male pop stars, they’re illiterate. Songwriters are supposed to be poets. But we now have at least one generation of digital-revolution songwriters who know nothing about symbolism, metaphor, word play, and writing about unexpected and diverse topics.
That’s the point that Camille Paglia missed–or at least did not emphasize enough in a very popular recent post in the Hollywood Reporter. Paglia announced that “Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Hollywood are Ruining Woman.” Paglia, who is not known for subtlety, wrote that when she sees today’s young female pop stars it’s like feminism never happened: “we’ve somehow been thrown back to the demure girly-girl days of the white-bread 1950s. It feels positively nightmarish to survivors like me of that rigidly conformist and man-pleasing era, when girls had to be simple, peppy, cheerful and modest.”
To keep reading (and you should!), go here: http://acculturated.com/has-rock-and-roll-lost-its-poetry/
Black Vines – The Return of the Splendid Bastards
Since moving to South Yorkshire around 10 years ago, it’s been good to discover the great musical heritage that abounds here. Of note must be the great Joe Cocker and one of Mike’s former Mechanics, Paul Carrack. The Classic Rock Society has two great venues here too, at Maltby and Wath-upon-Dearne, and within popular music of various genres the county has given birth to Human League, Heaven 17, Def Leppard, Pulp and Arctic Monkeys among many others.
To that list we can also add The Black Vines. They may seem like an odd band to be reviewing on this site, but as Brad has mentioned them in an earlier post maybe I can get away with it.
This is the second album by this Barnsley four-piece, and the 10 tracks take up just over 41 minutes of your time, ranging from 2:40 to an almost epic 8:00 for the album closer. This is not ‘prog’ as we would understand it: this is honest, stripped-down, bluesy rock; “a hard-hitting dirty riff-based dirge, full of soul and dark matter” as the band’s own Bandcamp page proclaims. There’s nothing unnecessary or pretentious here: this is music taken down to the bare essentials and delivered with power and panache as only guitar, bass, drums and voice can.
That said, there are some quirks to this recording that give it a certain edge: for goodness’ sake, they use a mandolin on ‘Another Second Chance’! A number of the songs use audio clips of old radio shows in polished English accents as introductions. The opening song ‘Come With Us’ has the time signal (the ‘pips’) near the beginning, which is echoed at the end of the penultimate track ‘Wolves’, giving the impression that the ‘long song’, ‘In From The…Reign’, is some kind of coda, or even a summary of the whole collection. The clip that opens it speaks of ‘listening to Britain’ and urges us to ‘hear that heart beating’, and perhaps that’s what the rest of the songs have been seeking to help us to do.
If it is the heartbeat of Britain, then it is a frenetic one! A pounding beat pervades the music, driven by bass and drums that feature quite high in the mix in many places, though without completely overpowering the riffing of the guitar and the calm but powerful authority of the vocals. This album put me in mind (in places) of Black Country Communion, Wolfmother, Bad Company and The Temperance Movement, and even of some of Hendrix’s bluesier pieces.
There are some wonderful crowd-pleasing moments here, and I have no doubt that these guys will rock in the live setting (I’ve not seen them live, but can imagine that something like ‘Black Boots on Red Dirt’ would go down particularly well). If you like your rock ‘down and dirty’, and on the whole bite-sized, then this may be a band for you: this is what the band themselves call – in good Yorkshire style – “mucky Rock”.
Progarchy 