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robmillistw2 · 2 years ago

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55 years young: the true masterpiece of psychedelia

When I was 14 or 15 and had decided that the late 60s (at the time about twenty years previously) was the thing, but had exhausted all my Dad’s Stones & Cream albums and bought a few of my own from the same acts (and a couple of Hendrix LPs), I set out to discover more from the era. I can honestly say I wouldn’t be here writing this now if it wasn’t for a very, very cheap double LP compilation called ‘Back On The Road’ which I bought. It was a glorious sampler masterclass in almost everything: it had softer, folksy moments from Fairport, Roy Harper and Nick Drake. It had the heft of Sabbath, Deep Purple and Free. It had the familiarity of Cream and Hendrix. It was my first taste of Traffic & Spooky Tooth. But it was also ocean-spanning: it had the Velvet Underground, the Quicksilver Messenger Service - and Jefferson Airplane.

Despite my first taste of ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Black Night’, ‘White Rabbit’ transcended them both in terms of sheer power. I loved it: it was a bolero, reimagined by the acid rock generation. And so it was I set off to find out more about ‘the Airplane’ (as we will call them henceforth) and really began a love affair with the late sixties Bay Area arts and culture that, circa 32 years later, still rages on in my heart.

It didn’t start well. The liner notes to ‘Back On The Road’ made it clear that this band was at the very top of the family tree of what led to (then relatively recent) unavoidable atrocities ‘We Built This City’ and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’. For a while, ‘White Rabbit’ was ruined - it was unmistakably that same, powerhouse voice: nobody sounds like Grace Slick. But I soon shrugged it off as nonsense and blamed the times, concluding that I couldn’t let ‘Valerie’ and ‘Higher Love’ put me off ‘Paper Sun’ either.

Sadly, it didn’t improve immediately: Jefferson Airplane actually reformed for one album in 1989 just as I set out to discover them for myself. It was of course this album that all the shops stocked, and I bought it. Aside from a couple of moments, it sounded way too much like Starship and not enough like 1960s San Francisco. I later learned that the couple of moments were basically Hot Tuna and the rest of it was a deluxe big-budget Starship-type operation. Jorma Kaukonen summed the reunion up almost word-for-word as I felt the album to be at age 15 in his excellent auto-bio ‘Been So Long’. Buy a copy.

I went to a better record shop the following week where - joy of joys - they actually had a Jefferson Airplane section. Kid in a toy shop moment: I held in my hands and gazed in wonder at copies of ‘Volunteers’, ‘Surrealistic Pillow’, ‘Crown of Creation’…marvelled at the flying toasters on ‘Thirty Seconds Over Winterland’….and then caught sight of ‘After Bathing At Baxters’ for the very first time.

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All the others just vanished into the background. This was it: the iconic American stars and stripes bordering that great image: the old biplane made out of a typical wooden clad Victorian Haight-area house, soaring over a consumer-satire landscape. Now, this was 1989 and vinyl albums from the sixties had largely been robbed of their original gatefold sleeves - or in some cases only ever got them in their home country - and it would be another ten years before I got my hands on a USA original. In fact, it turns out that the (probably Dutch or German) pressing that I got brand new was better than the UK original sleeve which lacked the red, white and blue borders and was distinctly drab.

A brief history lesson: ‘After Bathing At Baxters’ was the third album by the Airplane, and the second with Grace Slick on vocals. The previous release ‘Surrealistic Pillow’ was the breakthrough, with the two bona-fide hits ‘White Rabbit’ and ‘Somebody To Love’ which set them apart from the rest of the freewheeling, often uncommercial (or rather, ‘unconcerned with being deliberately commercial’) San Francisco scene.

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The rock and roll history books will tell you that ‘Pillow’ was a huge leap forward from the debut ‘Jefferson Airplane Takes Off’. Well, yes - the sound had a harder edge and not just in the vocals; it also had hits and was a true breakthrough for the band - but it was still an album of short, structured songs with a nominally folk-rock sound. For my money, the difference between ‘Pillow’ and ‘Baxters’ is immeasurably greater and possibly the most significant audible development of any one band from one album to the next that there has ever been. Even ‘Rubber Soul’ to ‘Sgt Pepper’ was a neatly calibrated climb (and that’s assuming you don’t believe ‘Revolver’ was the truly impressive one of the three; I do).

Hits. That’s what happened - and so Jefferson Airplane were given virtual carte blanche by paymasters RCA Victor to make their next record. It took most of 1967 and I’m not sure that RCA were ever ready for the results!

I’m not going to go through it track-by-track; I want you to do that for yourself if you have a mind and thus won’t pepper this missive with spoilers. Let’s just say it is one of the most successful attempts to capture the psychedelic experience on vinyl (which was always a challenge for the artists who were playing freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness improvised concerts by the seat of their pants, then faced the auspices of the studio).

Look out for Jorma Kaukonen ‘inventing Sonic Youth’ in the fuzzed and multitracked guitar solo of his own ‘Last Wall Of The Castle’. Feel the mood as Paul Kantner’s Rickenbacker XII sets up an eastern-influenced mini raga to usher in ‘Wild Tyme’, which then explodes into a mass of joyous harmonies celebrating the times. Be spellbound at Grace’s icy wit and ‘take no prisoners’ attitudes on ‘Two Heads’ and ‘Rejoice’. But above all, don’t drop your bacon sandwich during ‘Spare Chaynge’ - a wild, improvised jam between Kaukonen, the greatest bass player on the planet Jack Casady and drummer Spencer Dryden.

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No man is an island - he is a peninsular.

Happy 55th Birthday to my absolute favourite long-playing record; the one that made me want to be a musician and not just a record collector. Thanks for everything.

#Youtube

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dran-e · 8 months ago

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I don’t think my grandmother was even that keen of cats.

A review of Somerset House's 'Cute' exhibition.

The Cute exhibition at Somerset House begins in a small pink room, and hanging on the wall we see what is also the start, but in this case of a global culture; the first cat memes captured by photographer Harry Pointer, dating back to 1872. Next to it, following the feline theme, there is a vast collection of 300 china cats inside a vitrine. It is Andy Holden’s ‘Cat-tharsis’ (2016). Playing on the headphones hanging underneath the glass cube, Andy talks about what this collection that his grandmother left to him after her passing, meant to his grandmother; how these cats gave her a sense of control, how she used them as a catalyst for the love within her. He also talks about what cats mean to our culture, to our history. He speaks on the UK economy, and how charity shops - the place where her grandmother collected a great number of these figures- might represent the avid mass-consumption of the British public caused by capitalism. An incredibly interesting and unexpected piece on culture and grief, which a quote from, names the title of this text.

If there is a country knows how to do cute, it is Japan. With a whole room dedicated to Japanese vintage illustrations and art, we can see how these drawings were used as a form of escapism from the after-war times during the 90s, and how Japan influenced the western world with the introduction of the kawaii. Jun’ichi Nakahara’s beautiful book cover illustrations (1913-1983) of women represent a beginning for manga and anime style. Weirdly enough, upon entering the room they called my attention as they resembled ‘Girl with a Kitten’ by Lucien Freud, which coincidentally does match the theme of this particular exhibition.

The Hello Kitty room is probably one of the most talked about parts of the exhibition. With two walls full of Hello Kitty branded objects ranging from notebooks, to rice cookers, to coin purses... A shrine to miss Kitty, and an ode to this epitome of capitalism for having influenced a whole generation, not only of children, but of adults as well. It is interesting to see for yourself how the symbol and brand spread their wings through essentially every demographic, and benefited from the over-consumption boom of the 90s and early 2000s. Sadly, apart from this display of products, the room has the icky feeling of an instagram-like photobooth space without adding any artistic value to the exhibition. But, did you know Hello White (her actual name, I’ve learned) " [...] lives in a London suburb, and dreams of becoming a pianist and poet? [That] her birthday is on the 11th of November, her height is measured as five apples, and she weighs the same as three?" Maybe we’re all just like Hello Kitty, but just measured with a lot more apples.

The exhibition follows with great artworks, like Mike Kelley’s iconic ‘Aah… Youth!’ (1990), a critique of “childhood fetishisation”, and Wang Ping’s ‘An Emo Nose’ (2015), a bright and colourful animation depicting- in a surprisingly charming and accurate way- adult loneliness. The middle of the room is overflowing with objects, which the previous section helped contextualise: A Yung Lean poster, a SADBOYS bucket hat, a bright pink ski mask, a bag of smiley face stamped drugs, a Sylvanian Families toy set, a tamagotchi, a duolingo meme, a Charli XCX vinyl, an Animal Crossing gameplay... I found that, seeing what to me are such quotidian objects in an exhibition space made me laugh. They do however, encapsulate my childhood and teenage years, and quite frankly, are a big explanation of who I am. As someone that grew up with unrestrained access to the internet since the age of 11, I can say that these objects essentially raised me. It made me feel tribal, like I was in a global inside joke. These objects also showcase how cuteness can be used as an advantage politically and how effective it is for conveying a message, making the reality of an ugly theme (oppression, systematic injustice, etc) look easier to digest and divulge.

The last section I visited was an interactive space. To tell you the truth, I did not enjoy these rooms as much as I would've liked, and the reason why has nothing to do with the exhibition itself. The room was full of animalistic and screaming under-12 year old kids, and families with prams blocking stairways and hallways, and parents using the space as a playpen for their kids to run around. I stopped at the arcade, where you could play games that followed the theme of the exhibition. As I was giggling away playing the “linear visual novel about a Froggy chilling a pot”, children began running around impatiently, in the hopes that someone would free up one of the arcade looking screens. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t have the patience.

With a combination of humour, social commentary and critique, the exhibition encapsulates the story of a culture and phenomenon we are still living through. It showcases how we’ve created a subculture for the use of evading the terrifying thought of the internet times and the digitalisation taking over our worlds. It displays a wide arrange of topics all within the main theme, that is kept consistent through out. How cuteness “contains, domesticates and translates our desires”, and how it lives in a great part of who we all are. The exhibition, and now this text, concludes with a question: Does cute’s shiny new confidence represent its apotheosis in our late capitalist world? Or rather, does this sheen allow cute to undermine the very foundations of the neoliberal regime which spawned it with an ability to not only challenge the norm, but to transform it?

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featuredetective · 2 years ago

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Case File: 0110202201 Code Name: Austin Arkansas Comments: Introductions were at Levitation in Austin, TX last year. Thanks Hotel Vegas! This is where I first heard the sounds of Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug. Long story short these two met at a private liberal arts college in NW Arkansas sometime in the late aughties. Several music projects have taken shapes since, over the last decade. The following is a list of projects and where to get a taste. - Wooden Toys (aka Hoop Dreams) (Conway, AR - 2011) - https://livingthehoopdreams.bandcamp.com - Silkies (Boston. MA - 2012) - - Like One - (4 track-Cassette EP) https://heartthrobrecords.bandcamp.com/album/like-one-ep 50 Ltd. ed. from the UK label Heart Throb Records. - Mini Dresses (Boston. MA - 2012-2019) - - Several Vinyl and Cassette releases. https://minidresses.bandcamp.com - Blau Blau (Boston. MA - 2017) - - Ladyfest Boston 2017 Cassette Comp. (1 song - Glassy Eyes) (some copies are floating out there) - Dee-Parts (Boston. MA - 2019) - - Collected Recordings - (Cassette) 100 Ltd ed. from label Disposable America. https://dee-parts.bandcamp.com - Splitting Images (Boston. MA - 2019) - - Thank You (4 track EP) https://splittingimage.bandcamp.com/album/thank-you - Sweeping Promises (Austin, TX - 2020-Current) - - Hunger For A Way Out (LP - Feel It Records) All streaming formats. My personal favorites are Sweeping Promises (Lawrence, KS my ass) of course but also Dee-Parts and a few Mini Dresses cuts. Sweeping Promises album art by David H. Strother or D.H. Strother. He is a musician and designer in Olympia, WA. @dailyillustrated (IG) P.S. Check out the Lira Mondal podcast episode on “Dear Young Rocker”. You will not be dissapointed. Instagram: @sweeping.promises @yallternative @dearyoungrocker @hotelvegastexas @levitation @aspacegirldream @caufields @dailyillustrated

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artofthesleeve · 3 years ago

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“Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven,” a studio album and sleeve by Love and Rocket

Sleeve back cover photography by Mitch Jenkins

Beggars Banquet Records

⚜️ ARTWORK

“Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven,” the debut studio album by Love and Rockets, was released on October 11, 1985, through the Beggars Banquet Records label. Pictured is the UK vinyl front, back, and inner gatefold sleeve artwork by Love and Rockets. [2]

“We purposely designed a logo…,” said bassist David J. “The idea was to come up with something that was as memorable as something like Volkswagen or the BMW car logo. We wanted it to look sort of industrial, sort of corporate, very graphic and immediately representative of the name.” [1]

“It was a great basic design you could toy with and tweak, change the colors, or change it in a subtle way, but it was still always basically the same thing. It’s that stamp, a brand… the rest of the artwork was more elaborate and rather psychedelic, and more complex than Bauhaus, actually. Think of that collage we all made for the gatefold for ‘Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven.’” [1]

“We started it in the studio and we all added little bits. I did most of that, to be honest. We finished it round [guitarist Daniel Ash’s] house when I was tripping on LSD and put the finishing touches on it. The monkey pouring the elixir into the cup held by the hand that’s coming out of the box and inside the box is outer space. I mean, yeah… I thought that was the meaning of life when I did that. And maybe it is… ha!” [1]

Vic Tory

Art of the Sleeve

⚜️ SOURCE(S)

[1] “Kick in the Eye: David J on the visual art of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.” Cover Our Tracks, https://www.coverourtracks.com/single-post/2018/03/05/kick-in-the-eye-david-j-on-the-visual-art-of-bauhaus-and-love-and-rockets. Accessed 10 August 2021.

[2] “Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven.” Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Dream_of_Teenage_Heaven. Accessed 10 August 2021.

#goth rock #goth #love and rockets #bauhaus #newwave #new wave #art #vinylcollector #design #recordsleeve #vinylcollection #vinylcommunity #vinyljunkie #photography #recordcollector #recordjunkie

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continuo-docs · 4 years ago

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Music reviews by Laurent Fairon, April 2021

Ute Wassermann und Joke Lanz – Half Dead Half Alive (February 2021) Christian Marclay – Graffiti Composition (March 2021) Louis Dufort – Volume (March 2021) Makunouchi Bento – Post-Muzica 34 (April 2021)

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Ute Wassermann und Joke Lanz – Half Dead Half Alive - Live In Nickelsdorf (Klanggalerie) https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/half-dead-half-alive-live-in-nickelsdorf

Sound poetry and sound collage duet by German vocalist Ute Wassermann with Swiss turntablist and noise artist Joke Lanz, formerly of Sudden Infant and Schimpfluch groups, recorded live during a performance in Germany in 2019. Ute Wassermann's vocal range is astonishing, from high shrieks to gargling to deep low moans, and she proffers an incredible variety of utterances and noises here, while also complementing her vocals with toy instruments and bird whistles. Joke Lanz plays found vinyl records, special dubplates and sampler—perhaps the bespoke sampling function of a Technics turntable. Some sounds from records are recognizable, like child babble, film music, spoken word, accordion, Japanese shamisen traditional, or even techno, but most of the sampling only plays a fraction of a sound, sometimes reduced to a mere pulp or abstract texture. The duo's music is jumping all over the place in search of new sound combinations, and the album is constantly playful and fun throughout thanks to many unexpected U-turns.

Christian Marclay – Graffiti Composition (Superpang) https://superpang.bandcamp.com/album/christian-marclay-graffiti-composition

This is a new version of Christian Marclay's 1996 Graffiti Composition, a graphic score created from thousands of blank sheet music papers posted in Berlin streets for passers-by to graffiti over. Their anonymous contributions apparently included actual notated music and words as well as any kind of blotches Marclay eventually collected and assembled into a graphic score. Graffiti Composition was premiered in the UK in 2005 by an instrumental ensemble led by Steve Beresford, and then recorded by a New York guitar quintet including Elliott Sharp and Lee Ranaldo in 2006—also available on Bandcamp. This new version is interpreted here by British avant-garde music ensemble Apartment House, and they manage to elevate Graffiti Composition to a gorgeous sound art piece for piano, cello, flute, harp, synthesizer, toy instruments, vocal interjections and noises, all superbly played by ensemble members. While the score itself is a semi-aleatoric assemblage of unconnected abstract parts, it ultimately sounds here like a Fluxus event mixed with classical contemporary music. Apartment House leader Anton Lukoszevieze delivers a great performance on cello, yet he shall also be credited for providing coherence to the original collage work, here delivered as a decent piece of contemporary music in itself, both playful and great fun to listen.

Louis Dufort – Volume (Superpang) https://superpang.bandcamp.com/album/volume

Canadian Louis Dufort, born 1970 in Montréal, is a composer of electronic and electroacoustic music, contemporary instrumental music, as well as compositions combining electronic and acoustic instruments. His music is published by the Empreintes DIGITALes and Pogus labels, among others. Volume is a series of 5 electroacoustic compositions for environmental sound recordings and synthesizer, mingled into dense, homogenous textures with a variety of sound events occuring at all times. Spectacular electroacoustic sound treatments are at work here, with a profusion of radical EQ-ing, algorithmic sound processing effects and stereo positioning, all deliciously ear-tickling, especially on headphones. Unfortunately, both orginal location recordings—rain, stones, stones throwned into water, footsteps—and sound treatments are a tad too traditional and conform to the Empreintes DIGITALes dogma. While the music is cleverly assembled into a coherent whole, the end result is perhaps too polished and lacks diversity and excitement. This is still superb electroacoustic music but more originality and fresh ideas would have been welcomed.

Makunouchi Bento – Post-Muzica 34 (self released) https://makunouchibento.bandcamp.com/album/post-muzica-34

The duo of Felix Petrescu and Valentin Toma from Timișoara, Makunouchi Bento are the first experimental electronic musicians we heard from Romania 20 years ago—before that, us Westerners only knew of the Romanian composers like Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram or Costin Miereanu. Post-Muzica 34 is a radiophonic sound art piece Makunouchi Bento created for a Romanian radio broadcast in April 2021. It is entirely based on environmental sound recordings from Timișoara, processed and assembled into an aural narrative, a portrait of their hometown. To the unexpected ear, the music might sound entirely electronic, but in fact is largely based on processed field recordings of trains, car engines, car horns, sirens, birds, animals in a zoo, voices, etc. All original sounds being heavily processed, you have to pay attention to recognize some of them. What you can't fail to notice, though, is the great variety of sound effects applied, the weird, fantastic sounds, and the Surrealist atmosphere of the piece, which is also remarkably assembled into a coherent narrative, almost like a hörspiel. My only complain is the lack of stereo use throughout, perhaps because this was an improvised live broadcast and the duo didn't care for stereo then. This petty drawback only adds to the vintage aspect of Post-Muzica 34, which brought to my mind echoes of Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna's "Ritratto di Città" [Portrait of a City], 1955, and even Walter Ruttman's silent movie "Berlin, Symphony of a Great City", 1927, in regard to the narrative form. An ambitious hörspiel, Post-Muzica 34 has that kind of historical-cum-avantgarde approach.

#review #music review #Experimental #avantgarde

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brianewing · 3 years ago

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Throw on that polyester jumpsuit & platform shoes and make sure you bring enough #nosecandy for everyone because... The gluttonous glittery girthy glory of the “Disco” Gold and Silver editions are now LIVE at the @sound_and_vision_gallery site. . TWO...YES 2... EXCLUSIVE colorways of the #GhostBoner from @BrianEwing x @UvdToys will be making the trip across the pond to launch for @sound_and_vision_gallery in the UK! And YES, they ship to the U.S.!!! . **These are EXCLUSIVE to @sound_and_vision_gallery !!!** And will NOT be available from @brianewing or @uvdtoys!!! So don't ask us for the hookup! . GHOST BONER is a 3” soft vinyl figure that's produced by @UVDToys and features Gold/Silver vinyl with high-density glitter throughout. Each of these editions are limited to 50 pieces worldwide and will be available for £25 each! Make sure to grab one of these for your collections while supplies last! . . GHOST BONER: ghost-boner.com UVD Toys: UVDToys.com SOUND & VISION: https://soundandvisiongallery.co.uk/search?type=product&q=ghostboner&submit=Search . . . . . #SoundAndVisionGallery #UVDToys #Toys #Art #DesignerToys #ArtToys #UVD #BrianEwing #brianewingfiendclub #ghostwithaboner #bonerghost #discogold #discosilver #coccaineparty #disconap #studio54 #thebeegees #howdeepisyourlove #saturdaynightboner #saturdaynightweiner #ilikethatpolyesterlook #heyladies #PaulsBoutique #seventies #morethanawoman #saturdaynightfever (at Essex) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTp-DwlJZrI/?utm_medium=tumblr

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sagehaleyofficial · 5 years ago

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HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK (1.15-1.21.20):

NEW MUSIC:

· Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil teased new music in a number of Instagram stories, where the singer showed how he uses software to layer vocals. The frontman ended the videos by saying he can’t wait until we hear the song.

· Four Year Strong took to social media to announce they will be releasing their new album, Brain Pain, on February 28 via Pure Noise Records. The band also released two new songs, “Talking Myself in Circles” and the title track “Brain Pain.”

· Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly participated in an interview at the Beats 1 studio, where they announced to host Zane Lowe the title of MGK’s upcoming pop-punk album, Tickets to My Downfall. The album will also feature Escape the Fate’s Kevin Gruft.

· Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams teased more from her Petals for Armor project, posting another black box with the caption “Nothing cuts like a mother.” The Instagram page also posted screenshots from multiple movies including Bird Box and Kidnap.

· Green Day dropped their newest single off their upcoming album Father of All…, titled “Oh Yeah!”. The accompanying music video pokes fun at modern interactions due to the influence of technology.

· Derek Sanders of Mayday Parade announced that he will be releasing a solo record in 2020, a five-song EP titled My Rock and Roll Heart. The EP is scheduled to drop on Valentine’s Day and will feature a cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “A Praise Chorus.”

· Anti-Flag released a live, in-studio, full-length album playthrough of their newest record, 20/20 Vision. The multi-cam video gives us a look at what everyone is doing to create such a killer album.

· Grayscale dropped a live music video for “Tommy’s Song,” a tribute to lead singer Collin Walsh’s late cousin, and are raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The band revealed that they have raised close to $2,500 in donations.

· Creeper dropped the second single off their upcoming album titled “Annabelle,” which premiered on BBC Radio 1. Soon after, the band dropped a second tweet linking fans to the official lyric video.

· Halsey announced that she is releasing an extremely limited version of her new album Manic. The album is now available with its alternate album art and will be signed by the singer, but under her birth name Ashley.

· Australian act Trophy Eyes and WWE star Seth Rollins joined forces for the band’s new music video for the song “Figure Eight.” The music video, or “lyric visual” as they’re calling it, features Rollins lip-syncing to the song as he prepares to fight.

TOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS:

· Jeffree Star recently spoke out to fans regarding the cancellation of his European makeup masterclass tour, due in part to his breakup from longtime boyfriend Nathan Schwandt. Star went on to discuss the complications in his life and that it was more than just the breakup.

· Angels and Airwaves postponed their remaining shows for this month as frontman Tom DeLonge has fallen ill. The band took to social media to tell fans that DeLonge “has come down with a nasty upper respiratory infection.”

· Citizen announced a new tour with support coming from Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Fury, Snarls and Rosie Tucker. The 19-date tour will begin in Detroit on March 20 and finish off its rounds in Indianapolis on April 24.

· Scary Kids Scaring Kids kicked off their reunion run with Secrets and Push Over, the latter of which features Kurt Travis and Thomas Erak (The Fall of Troy). The band hit the stage for the first time since disbanding following a final tour in 2010.

· Sum 41 canceled the second night of their Paris stop for the No Personal Space tour after an explosive device was detonated outside of the venue’s door. After playing Zénith Paris Friday, the band were set to play a sold-out show at the Les Étoiles Saturday.

· My Chemical Romance unveiled details for their much-teased UK show, taking to YouTube to share a video titled “An Offering…” on their channel before adding the same to social media. The band revealed they will be playing in Milton Keynes at Stadium MK on June 20.

OTHER NEWS:

· Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes” has officially held the number one spot on Billboard‘s Hot Rock Songs Chart for 52 straight weeks. The song first hit number one on the chart in November 2018.

· Another defendant in the ongoing Juice WRLD case filed for an extension to February 4. BMG Rights Management requested on January 13 that they have until the new date to respond to the initial complaint filed by Yellowcard.

· My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero announced that he will be making an appearance in a new movie to premiere at SXSW called Drunk Bus. Iero announced the name of the film through an Instagram post.

· Woes announced their breakup on social media, stating that they are prioritizing their own well-being, but will finish out their journey with a tour in the UK. The group dropped their first and only full-length, Awful Things, last year on June 28.

· Fall Out Boy was the topic of heavy debate in Comedy Central’s new satire video. In the video, which includes former Smosh co-founder Anthony Padilla, we see the panelists engaged in hot debate about whether or not the band’s music is considered emo.

· Panic! at the Disco frontman, Brendon Urie, opened Notes for Notes, a new music studio aimed to help young people create music, at the Boys and Girls Club in Henderson, Nevada. The studio was also made possible by a $500,000 donation from State Farm.

· Post Malone announced he would be making his film debut on TV screens everywhere, starring with Mark Wahlberg in a new Netflix action movie Spenser Confidential. The film was first announced in 2018 and originally titled Wonderland.

· Former Black Veil Brides bassist Ashley Purdy revealed in a new interview that he didn’t choose to depart from the band back in November. In an interview with Sonic Perspectives, he said “Technically, I didn’t leave; I’m just not in the band anymore.”

· Funko unleashed plans for their newest Pop! vinyl figures including ones for bands like Slipknot, Weezer, Ghost and more, plus movies like The Craft and Creepshow. The company has many more figures they will be revealing at the 2020 London Toy Fair.

___

Check in next Tuesday for more “Posi Talk with Sage Haley,” only at @sagehaleyofficial!

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burlveneer-music · 5 years ago

Audio

Loose Fit - s/t EP (Sydney) - Now That’s What I Call Post-Punk (4)

Loose Fit began when fashion school friends Kaylene Milner and Anna Langdon bonded over their mutual love of experimental music. After toying with low-fi bedroom recordings, the pair recruited Max Edgar on guitar and Richard Martin on bass and started making some actual noise. With Kaylene behind the kit and Anna on sax and vocal duties, Loose Fit’s unique and focussed sound began to take shape. The band’s rhythm-heavy sound contains echoes of UK post-punk titans such as Public Image Ltd, Maximum Joy and A Certain Ratio. They’re also fans of the US No Wave scene, especially the paint-stripper guitar of James Chance and the pop exuberance of Bush Tetras. Other pop/art heroes are Talking Heads and the B-52’s, while contemporary inspirations include Exploded View, The Native Cats, Raime and Nisennenmondai.

The debut self-titled EP by the Sydney based group delivers a snapshot of their signature groove driven post- punk sound in one short, sharp hit. Informed by a DIY work ethic, the group recorded the EP in one weekend, employing the help of friend and Sydney musician/producer/engineer Jonathan Boulet. Initially self released by the band as a short run of cassettes which quickly sold out, this debut effort by Loose Fit will now be getting the proper vinyl treatment it deserves thanks to FatCat Records.

#postpunk #loose fit #sydney #australia #no wave #female vocal #2018

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eternaleve · 4 years ago

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Watching A Broken Frame music videos for the first time!

Carrying on with my Depeche Mode video rewatch project with the vids for A Broken Frame (first post is found here https://eternaleve.tumblr.com/post/624649762286780416/ive-spent-the-course-of-covid-lockdown-cycling)

I looked through my vinyl and found I did not steal my mother’s Depeche Mode singles from this album (I only stole all her Elvis Costello and Joy Division and a bunch of Japan singles which I suspect she snuck to me in hopes of making me like them) but they are all mysteriously gone. My abusive stepdad recently moved out and I have thoughts about what property he took, but this just seems petty.

Anyway, let’s talk about A Broken Frame! Vince Clarke left the band to go and be the Paul McCartney of 80s electronic music, forming Yazoo and Erasure. Apparently he did not like success and touring and stuff, which is far because it’s a lot of pressure, so he’s out and Alan Wilder is in after responding to an ad in Melody Maker. Remember music journalism? He joined as a tour keyboardist and appears in the videos for the album, but didn’t contribute to the album.

A Broken Frame was released eleven months after Speak & Spell, which doesn’t seem to be enough time to me for a band to create another whole album's worth of material. It just seems that a band spends a few years perfecting their sound and a selection of songs, and then a record label says, ‘Great! Now do the same thing, but in a much shorter timeframe, under much more stress, and in snatched moments between being shuttled from gig venue to gig venue!’. I understand there’s a ~hype train~ that music acts have to follow, because bands can slip out of notice so fricking quickly, but the pressure does not seem set up to maintain the mental and emotional well-being of people. I’m sure nothing like that will happen in the history of this bad though!

This album cover is considered one of the world’s greatest photographs for a reason. It’s stark and beautiful and has echoes of socialist realism and is just a really striking image. I don’t know who has final say over art direction in the band but whoever does has a great eye for images. The picture is taken over by Duxford and as I’m from the Midlands I have been to Duxford on a hundred school trips (it has a big air centre with WW2 planes and things and bits of the Berlin Wall), so I’ve probably been past this field an uncountable number of times without even realising it.

See You (Jan 1982, No 6 UK charts)

I like how it looks like fuzzy felt. It feels very, very different from the singles art from the last album, I guess to indicate a clear difference in direction? Maybe? This is the first single for the band written by Martin Gore and starting his reign as songwriter.

All the music videos for this album were directed by Julien Temple and are Not Liked by the band. I generally quite like Julien Temple’s work and watched a lot of it as a teen (stepdad being hugely into the Pistols), so I am intrigued to say the least how these will turn out to be.

This does give me a bit of a nostalgia kick for an old-fashioned style train station. It’s pretty much what my home station used to look like before everything was privatised, bought out by Virgin, turned bright red and full of commuters. I like how the station sparks to the beat of the music and that someone okayed an actual spending budget for this time around.

YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE STATION THE PHOTOBOOTH IS HAUNTED

Not going to lie, this looks 100% like my Dad’s first ever passport photo. I like the addition of the bowtie. It adds a real ‘First Communion’ vibe to the whole look. The nose stud… well, I had a nose stud at the exact same period of my life. Same age too, I think, only mine stayed around a lot longer when it definitely should not have done.

It was at that moment he knew he had made a grave mistake in confronting the ‘Telephone Box Killer’ on his own.

Insert a standard ‘Original Selfie’ joke here. The use of the photobooth gives a cute little through line in the video, as well as giving other band members a chance to be present. I remember using photobooths to take fun photos, before they started costing so much goddamned money and put them only in the most inconvenient places. I still have a bunch that I keep in my purse.

… And now everyone’s working an office job? To show the passage of time? Or because it’s now a bit with music, so we’re showing the use of keyboards through office equipment that sort of requires you to make similar hand movements?

Something, something, statement about technology? The photobooth theme was fine! It was cute! It said something about the regret and passage of time from teen to young adult romance! Why are there now a lot of calculators?

Just in case you forgot - the single’s out now. Wink, wink.

But let’s go back and check in with our corporate overlords. Bob, how are you doing on the spyware floor?

… is this Julien Temple? Is it a music video within a music video? Did he put himself in the video? Could this part not have been done by a member of the band? Like, y’know, that new one who was clearly added in partly through this video?

I like the main core storyline of the video - thinking about a past relationship and then happening to run into them again unexpectedly - but I can see why this is perhaps not well thought of. Next one!

The Meaning of Love (April 82, No 12 UK charts)

This reminds me a lot of the cover for the first Adrian Mole book which was published the same year. It does not match the first single at all or the album, but I guess the album art was yet to be done? Or maybe two different departments handled them, because I would have gone with a different single cover if I knew that one of the greatest photographs of all time was in the wings for the album.

Reader, my heart dropped. I knew we were in for some deeply 80s bullshit. And, like, not good 80s bullshit.

This is the lounge act in the cruiseship of my nightmares

Martin Gore there looking like 99% of the lesbians on the DIY punk scene.

What the fuck is going on?

What, and I must reiterate, the fuck is going on? Are those pies? Pie eyes? Pie eye glasses? What does it mean?

Now’s not the time for your science homework, it’s time to film a music video.

Great, I know what image will be repeating in my night terrors tonight. Martin Gore’s face earnestly singing at me from the depths of a paramecium.

THIS JUST GETS WORSE AND WORSE. THERE IS NO SITUATION ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET MADE BETTER WITH PUPPETS.

No, my night paralysis nightmare will be Dave Gahan’s face turning into a fucking pie over and over and over again.

Oh, I see, the Meaning of Love is that your wife will turn into a bitter harpy that won’t let you live your dream and also your life is ruined because she keeps letting the puppets sleep in the bed.

I guess the video has a sort of XTC vibe? It does remind me of the video of ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, which I do like, but also this video is fucking awful should be seen to be believed. I liked the band’s awkward choreography which was four men showing how much they did not want to be doing any of this.

Leave In Silence (August 82, No 18)

The font is nice. That’s about all there is to say for this. It doesn’t match the other two singles. I’m not saying everything has to be matchy-matchy, but it is nice to have visual similarity and consistency. This looks like the record label gave up on trying.

Okay, so we’ve got the album art sorted and starting out with a - I guess you could call it ‘low rural farming vocalisation’, and neither of these two things match the other singles or music videos, which have had a very poppy, teen girl, Smash Hits vibe.

This week on The Generation Game, you could win a stainless steel bowl, a cuddly toy, and the lead singer of Depeche Mode!

This video started with a group of people vocalising while pouring out grain and looking very plaguecore, now we’re all playing around on a conveyor belt because I think Julien Temple has run out of ideas and is being artsy and surreal and weird to cover that up.

Ladies and gentleman, I’m sad to say that ‘The Fanciest Little Cowboy’ competition will not be running this year due to a lack of other contestants. This is a very fancy Little Cowboy though.

…. I…. what?

I have seen many bad, bad, bad cursed images in my time, but this is going straight up to the top. What the fuck does this say about the song? The band? The image the record label is trying to project? This pointless weird imagery for the sake of being pointless and weird.

It’s okay, Jess. Bright Red Martin Gore can’t really hurt you. Only haunt you.

And now spacehoppers. Because of course spacehoppers!

The players from Pathologic show up to make a cameo appearance, matching nothing in the video, and seeming wildly out of place with everything else. Pick a theme or story, Julien! It is EITHER the Generation Game OR a terrifying children’s show OR guttural Soviet inspired plaguecore. You can pick one! Not all of them!

The Blue Man Group really had a rough start. The wheat is… just there. Because I guess Julien Temple couldn’t think of how to organically weave it an advertisement for the album. So there’s just a bundle of wheat for no good reason.

By this point, same, mate. That is the only reaction I am having.

These videos were… not great. I think ‘See You’ is the best and most cohesive - it tells a cute little story that ties in with the themes of the song and provides an emotional resonance. And then things just go off the bloody chain a bit. They get weird and experimental in a way that does not work in selling the band or the song. They seem pretty disconnected from what a music video should be and Julien Temple seemed to just run out of ideas by ‘Leave In Silence’. C- Mr Temple, must try harder.

And then onto Construction Time Again! ... well, when I get round to it. In a few days maybe.

#depeche mode #a broken frame #i'm making myself laugh at least #see you #leave in silence #the meaning of love

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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My Favorite Art Books of 2018

74 is the final count for the number of art books I’ve reviewed this year in 2018; a slight dip from the 82 I did last year. Quantity notwithstanding, 2018 was still a fantastic year for those of us who enjoy beautiful art books, with plenty of amazing book releases, and I hope next year will be even better.

As we welcome 2019 here’s the round up of my favorite art books of 2018 ( in no particular order ); I hope you’ll find something of interest in the list. Do note that not all the books listed here were published in 2018. Enjoy, and Happy New Year ! –

1) The Electric State – Simon Stålenhag

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag’s art book once again makes it to my list of favorites this year ( Things From The Flood was on my 2017 list ). The Electric State delivers more of the artist’s signature art work, sci-fi images evoking a strangely detached combination of awe, loneliness and nostalgia all at once.