 Road Warriors 33 Lollapalooza 2008 is far from announcing who its artists will be, but the event is already scheduled for August 1-3, so you can start making any early arrangements. For more information, please visit www.lollapalooza.com. Eclectic singer/songwriter Luke Temple is back with a new album, Snowbeast, and has a busy touring schedule to support it. Critics are calling Snowbeast the Brooklyn based artist’s best work to date. To see what the fuss is all about, you can catch Mr. Temple at these shows: 09/26 New York, NY Lit Lounge Los Angeles based five-piece band and Dallas based symphonic pop group The Polyphonic Spree will head out on a co-headlining tour beginning October 14 and running through November 17. |
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He was in town and I missed it? Oh yes, I was playing “Halo 3.” I knew I had my priorities straight. Anyway, Bono received the Liberty Medal in Philly for all his humanitarian work in Africa. He spouted some important-sounding hoo ha: “Your America is where Neil Armstrong takes a walk on the moon,” Bono said. “Your America gave Europe the Marshall Plan. Your America gave the world the Peace Corps. “America is not just a country, it’s an idea, isn’t it? It’s a great and powerful idea. The idea that all men are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” and then jetted off to go save other parts of the world. It’s what he does best, unlike, say, make interesting music anymore. |
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Peter Hook—or “Hooky” as he’s known by dear fans—ye olde ancient bassist for New Order (or as of late last spring, shall we say the “defunct New Order”) has been annoying old fans with a dispute over who gets to use the band name. Or more to the point, if his old mates can use the name after Hooky picked up his bass and decided to go play in another sandbox. Ho-hum. Hooky’s a lot better off playing his bass and spearheading musical groups than he is with the social grace, apparently, because his new project, Freebass, is absolutely awesome. And where can you sneak a listen to the preview cut “I Envy Us?” His MySpace, natch, the same online outlet where he also threatened to sue the other New Order members if they continued on without him and kept the band name (yet also says at his MySpace that he’s “open to negotiation,” whatever that means). 
The shy boy? Or the coy boy? At any rate, the core members of Freebass comprise Hook, ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and ex-Stone Roses/Primal Scream bassist Mani. Get the name? Freebass. Caution: If you think it’s cool, don’t even try copping the name, because one would guess his attorneys are watching for that sort of thing. Lead vocalists allegedly in the running include Charlatans’ Tim Burgess and the Stone Roses’ Ian Brown, says Pitchfork. Add that to an awesome post-Madchester garage-pop Big Beat retro sound, and at least on paper it looks pretty freakin’ awesome. |
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Back in 1989, when Cameron Crowe rounded up John Cusack, Ione Skye, and John Mahoney and produced one of the greatest teen romances of all time (duh, of course we’re talking about “Say Anything…”), he also found time to compose a rather memorable soundtrack as well. The film’s money shot, of course, belonged to Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” but songs from The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Replacements were used to great effect as well. Hiding way, way at the end of the soundtrack album, however, was a song that I fell in love with about as hard and fast as anything I’d heard in awhile: “Keeping the Dream Alive,” by Freiheit…or, as they’re more commonly known in their native Germany, Münchener Freiheit.
I didn’t know the first thing about Freiheit when I discovered “Keeping the Dream Alive,” but, damn, that song was such a gorgeous, sweeping ballad of ELO-sized proportions that I immediately knew that I’d have to seek out more of their material. As it happens, there wasn’t anything else to seek out…well, not in the U.S., anyway. Not long after, however, the band’s debut American release, Fantasy, found its way onto shelves and, almost immediately thereafter, into my collection. To this day, I’m still surprised that it never scored much in the way of success; it’s a highly enjoyable pop album that owes as much to Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus as it does Jeff Lynne. The only real explanation I’ve ever come up with is that it’s a bit heavier on synths and electronic drum beats than the kids were listening to at the time, but it still features heavily in my regular playlist even in 2007. Unfortunately, Fantasy remains out of print in the U.S., and since that was the only Stateside release of the band’s career, Freiheit’s profile remains woefully low on our shores. Even the usually helpful All Music Guide gives them short shrift, with the bio in their entry simply reading, “This German band (orig. Munchener Freiheit) played power-pop music from 1982 to 1988.” That’s it. Talk about your inglorious retrospectives! If you’re curious about the band, there are several import best-of collections available via Amazon, but you should be prepared to find them almost completely free of English-sung material. If you don’t speak German as fluently as the members of Freiheit, however, here’s a song from Fantasy that you might appreciate a bit more: Filed under: Pop and Alternative and Deep Cuts and Lost Bands and Songs and Artists and External Music and Downloads and Ruby Tuesday Comments: None |
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For those of you living under your rocks, yes, today is Halo 3 day worldwide. The launch of the final chapter in Bungie’s mega-selling video game franchise is now upon us after much waiting, anticipation, and record breaking preorders. Yours truly’s copy is headed to his abode right now in the back of a UPS truck. So that means I’m taking the rest of the day off. In the meantime, you enjoy this lovely music video montage, the “Halo 3 Hoedown” and get in the know about how gigantic this game actually is.
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Everybody hates a music critic, especially when they trash one of your favorite artists or albums. Therefore there is the fine “I despise you and your so-called taste.” Just punch in your favorite band, album, or whatnot related to music and watch the “correspondent” deliver a vicious review of it. Good fun for the entire family. |
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Album art gets short shrift in digital marketplace. To which we can all expel a collective “duh.” |
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The Foo Fighter’s new album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, hits stores on September 25, and the band has added more shows to their upcoming tour, including dates in New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta and Atlantic City. Foo Fighters will also be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on October 13. Bruce Springsteen is set to release his new album, Magic, on October 2. Bruce and his E Street Band will play two benefit rehearsals next Monday and Tuesday at the Asbury Park Convention Hall, and proceeds for the tickets, which cost $100, will go to charity. Alt/folk singer Jose Gonalez, who many of you may know as the voice behind ambient band Zero 7, is releasing his latest solo album, In Our Nature, on September 25. To celebrate, Gonzalez will kick off a lengthy North American tour on September 27,, and will also make appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (9/28) and on Jimmy Kimmel Live (10/11). Here are (more…) |
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Curiously, the New Pornographers have not made any videos for the singles from their new album Challengers (or not yet, anyway). This is a shame, because for a bunch of somewhat nerdy Canucks, they have made some fabulous videos, from the cross-dressers in “Sing Me Spanish Techno” to the smokin’ hot blond in “The Laws Have Changed.” So I had to settle for their performance of “My Rights Versus Yours” on David Letterman’s show, and while it’s a good performance, why on earth is there only one close-up of Neko Case, the best looking member of the band? There should be a law against that sort of thing.
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Oh, that John Lydon. What has he said now to stay in the limelight? Well, he ripped into a few celebs during a radio interview. He referred to Sting as “Stink,” saying “That’s like soggy old dead carcasses. You know, listening to Stink try to squeak through ‘Roxanne’ one more time, that’s not fun. It’s like letting air out of a balloon.” Oh, John, you are such a little devil still! Catch you in another few months when you feel like you need some more attention. |
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Look at the following track listing for this upcoming tribute to forty years of the BBC’s Radio 1 - the station begun in 1967, so they’ve gotten current artists to go back and cover one song from each year that they’ve been on the air - and see how far into it you can get before clicking on the big red button on the album cover and ordering it from Amazon.co.uk.
1967 - ‘Flowers In The Rain’ (The Move) covered by Kaiser Chiefs (For the record, I think 1975 was finally the breaking point for me. When you can actually hear the cover in your head at the moment you read the pairing of artist and song, it’s time to suck it up and break out the credit card. And I guarantee that even if Medsker thinks he can hold out, there’s always 2004 to make him go, “Oh, goddammit, now I *HAVE* to get it!” Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Radio and Songs and Artists and External Music Comments: 5 Comments |
 A back-channel email discussion among the B-E editors surrounding the new Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 box led us to this MySpace, administered by a like-minded 1960s garage-rock aficianado that understands the tangled web of musicology that leads punk and 1980s power-pop fans back to this more delicious, primordial musical ooze that sounds staticky and crappy. Like, staticky and crappy for the right reasons, not because some 2007 studio whiz is trying to replicate 1960s garage-rock records because today’s recordings sound so sterile, perfect, and–dare I say it?–dead. This is obscure Pop with a capital P. It’s the stuff that deejays of the era passed over because there wasn’t enough payola. It’s beautiful, undiscovered (by the mass market) music, and the Nuggets-Rubble-Pebbles CD compilation franchises rightfully restore to the great library of songs released to retail. But be warned, if you go down this path: If Nuggets is opium, the Pebbles and Rubble sets are heroin. Once you’re in it, there is no way out–as this architect of this MySpace is walking proof. |
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Hey, let’s give the gal some more coverage! Looks like the hammer has come down on Britney Spears once again as she has been ordered to submit to random drug tests. Both she and ex-hubby K-Fed are required “to refrain from drinking and using drugs around their two young children and 12 hours before either cares for them.” Of the two, only Britney was ordered to submit to the testing. “Based on the evidence presented, the court finds that there is a habitual, frequent and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol” by Spears, Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon said in court documents. Lovely. The judge also ordered Spears to meet with a parenting coach for eight hours a week. Is it time to place Brit-Brit on an official deathwatch? Place yer bets… |
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Spawned from the ashes of Kinky Machine, Rialto was singer/songwriter Louis’ Eliot’s foray into widescreen pop, a blend of Oasis and ABC, as crazy as it sounds (and with two drummers, in an apparent nod to .38 Special). The band’s debut, Rialto, was a nifty little pop record, the kind that any fan of British pop both present and past would appreciate (“Summer’s Over” steals a big chunk of “A Day in the Life” for its chorus). The biggest problem was that the album came out in 1998, a good three years after Brit Pop peaked. By that time, only the most devoted Anglophiles paid the band any mind. I would be one of those Anglophiles. I was hooked by “Love Like Semtex” from the moment I saw the title, since I had been in a rather combustible relationship eerily similar to the one Eliot describes here. Also, being a fan of the Pixies and Nirvana, I like quietLOUDquiet songs, so when this tender ballad, um, blows up in the second half, I had already been hooked, gutted, put on ice and lacquered for mounting. Rialto released one more album, 2001’s Night on Earth, which was arguably better than their debut. They had moved on from Oasis, and went after Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys. Again, an Anglophile’s dream, but “Love Like Semtex” will stand as the band’s lighter-waving moment. |