It’s been pretty dead here in the last few weeks and for good reason …
The changes I made to the site a few weeks ago didn’t produce the kind of results I wished in terms of maintenance. So I spent the last two weeks doing more development. On Saturday, May 14, 2005, I will be shutting down the site while I bring some of these changes online.
As a result of these changes, all Audiobins will be cleared out. If you’re a Premiere or Basic user, grab what you can before this weekend. I’ll do my best to preserve the bins, but at this point, it would be easier to start from scratch.
When the site comes back online, the discography information in the artists directory will be changed slightly. Aside from that, nothing else on the site should change too signficantly. (Most of the changes are on the back-end, which will give me some options for future development.)
I apologize in advanced for any inconvenience that may occur this weekend. Thank you for your patience!
Your judgment is being seriously impaired, if the songs on the promo CD, Beautiful Colours, are any indication.
Since acquiring this disc a few weeks ago, I have played it with the familiar regularity I extend the best of your repertoire. I enjoy listening to the songs that didn’t make the cut on Astronaut, and I find the alternate takes on the album tracks illuminating.
(I will give you credit for the versions that do appear on the album — they are indeed the superior performances of those songs. “Bedroom Toys” still sucks, though. Amazing to think you guys could write something worse than “Palomino” or the majority of Pop Trash.)
But the more I listen, the more apparent the weaknesses of Astronaut are, and the more obvious they become, the more I feel cheated.
You have a long, storied history of mishandling your career, and if the two boxed sets of singles are any indication, you have a terrible habit of relegating incredible songs to obscurity. “I Believe/All I Need to Know” should have started side two of Big Thing, not that cover of “Suzy Q”.
In the case of Beautiful Colours, the volume of unused material could have meant the difference between a brilliant comeback and an antisceptic one.
“Beautiful Colours”, the song, lives up the adjective contained within the title. “Salt in the Rainbow” harkens to the poignancy of your most recent work, such as “Come Undone”.
Even a party track such as “The Pretty Ones” has more heft to it than that wimpy “Taste the Summer”. And “Virus”? And “TV vs. Radio”? You have guitar muscle in Andy Taylor — show him off, dammit!
Who is that backing singer on “Lonely Business”, by the way? She makes me glad Lamya isn’t hanging out with you guys anymore.
Beautiful Colours has the songs that would have convinced me this reunion was worth the effort. In fact, it’s disappointing you could actually validate my low opinion of Astronaut.
And it’s frustrating to think you had the material to make a better album all along.
As such, I had to piece together my own version of what this latest Duran Duran album should have been. I was an ardently loyal fan up until 2000, and now I consider myself proudly lapsed.
I will still pay attention to what you guys do creatively, and I will support you with my disposable income when it seems right to do so.
But there are other artists out there with a clearer vision of how they want to work, and they have cut into the devotion I once reserved exclusively for you. (Man, I can’t wait to hear Cocco again!)
I know you have it in you to whittle away my skepticism. It’s there in Beautiful Colours. Now if only you could get your act together to do so.
Supercar will release a DVD of its final performance on June 29, according to the band’s official site. The two-hour concert, performed at studio coast on Feb. 26, will be presented uncut. Supercar announced it would disband in early 2005.
The Mad Capsule Markets announced it was signing a new label deal with Sony Music. No releases have yet been scheduled with Sony. The band will first head to the UK to perform in the Download 2005 festival on June 11. The three-day festival also includes performances by Black Sabbath, Velvet Revolver and Him. The Mad Capsule Markets are also scheduled to perform at this year’s Summer Sonic festival.
A number of guest artists ranging from Hirai Ken to members of the Miceteeth appear on Bonnie Pink’s cover album, Reminscence, according to the artist’s official site. Other collaborators include mito from clammbon, Yuka Honda and Saito Kazuyoshi. Pink covers artists such as the Sundays, Frente! and Soul Flower Union on the album, which hits stores on June 22.
Singer Songer announced it will release its debut album, titled Barairo Pop, on June 29. The band’s first single, “Shoka Rinrin”, has already gained radio airplay and will hit stores on May 25. Details about the album have yet to be determined. Singer Songer features Cocco and Quruli guitarist Kishida Shigeru, who collaborated on the single “Sing a Song ~No Music, No Love Life~” for Tower Records’ 25th anniversary.
I’ll be heading out of town starting Thursday, April 21, and I won’t be back till late Monday, April 25. Rather than worry about the server — which I wouldn’t be able to fix remotely if it breaks anyway — I’m taking it offline while I’m away. Audio playback and saving will be disabled, as will new user registration. I’ll bring the server back online when I return. Thank you for your patience.
It probably isn’t wise to write about a covers album with unfamiliar source material, sung in a foreign language.
So I was going to pass over writing about Molotov’s Con Todo Respeto since I don’t speak Spanish and am familiar with only two of the tracks on the album.
But after a few spins — and an initial disappointment that Dance Dense and Denso wasn’t followed up by more of the same angry, caustic music — I discovered I actually like this album.
Molotov may have built its reputation on anger and sarcasm, but beneath that fury is a sense of humor.
And while Con Todo Respeto contains no original material by the band, the interpretations could have been done only by Molotov.
Falco’s “Amadeus” becomes “Amateur”, a song that doesn’t celebrate genius. And under Molotov’s hands, the Latin undertones of “Da da da” come to light.
Some of the transformations (compared to snippets available on Amazon — hey, I’m cheap that way) are pretty drastic. Gil-Scott Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” sounds like it was done by Jimi Hendrix. The Misfits’ “I Turned Into a Martian” turns into a Mexican romp.
The band’s interpretation of the Beastie Boys’ “Girls” imagines what it would have sound like if the Beasties stayed punk. And it’s tough to hear Lipps, Inc.’s “Designer Music” after hearing Molotov’s “Diseño Rolas” first — the song works better in Spanish.
If there’s a general conceit to Con Todo Respeto, it’s juxtaposition. Latin music gets the punk treatment, while American rock goes through a Latino filter.
“La Boa a Go-Go” retains none of Sonora Santanera’s big band feel, and the raging punk of “Mi Aguita Amarilla” is a far cry from Los Toreros Muertos’ blues shuffle.
Toward the end of the album, Molotov breaks down its own mash-ups in the titles — “Perro Negro Granjero” combines ZZ Top’s “La Grange” with Three Souls In My Mind’s “Pero Negro y Callejero”, while “Aguela” mixes up “Mi Abuela” with the Clash’s “The Magnificent Seven” and Young M.C.’s “Bust a Move”.
A band that can seamlessly blend Latin music, punk and hip-hop from other artists deserves respect of its own.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Con Todo Respeto is its ability to entertain without the context of the original material. The band has fun with this music, and it comes through, right down to 17th century-styled busts on the cover.
It probably helps to know the source to appreciate these reworkings. But this covers album stands firmly on its own.
P.S. Hybrid Magazine was nice enough to drop enough names for me to make my own comparrisons. It would be rude not credit them.
It’s too weird for country, but too country for avant-garde. It’s difficult, cryptic. It’s nearly hookless, and the singer? At the time the album was released in 1990, writers described her voice as “an acquired taste”.
Robin Holcomb’s self-titled debut album was not designed to be a star-making vehicle. There’s little evidence it was designed to be an indie statement.
It is, in the end, a purely personal album. It’s also one of my favorites.
Nonesuch Records must have spent a pretty penny on advertising through Tower Records to drum up back-channel enthusiasm for Holcomb’s music. For a month after its release, Tower labeled it a “No-Risk Disc”. Didn’t like it? Take it back for a refund.
So I took the risk. And I never went for the refund.
Holcomb is the wife of Wayne Horvitz, keyboardist for John Zorn’s Naked City and the leader of his own myriad of ensembles. Both were active in the downtown New York improvisation scene of the 1980s.
An accomplished improviser and keyboardist herself, Holcomb recorded an album of jazz instrumentals before making the leap as a singer-songwriter. Or, for anyone who buys into the distinction between high and low arts, a singer-composer.
Compared to her work with the New York Composers Orchestra — and later, a solo piano album of classical pieces — Holcomb’s debut was, well, conventional. The songs were songs — verses, choruses, solos.
But even within the limited confines of the pop song, Holcomb still managed to stretch the structure’s abilities.
“American Rhine” employs a minimal amount of lyrical, melodic, even harmonic material, but a dissonant clarinet melody provides a stark contrast.
The uneasy chorus of “Hand Me Down All Stories” makes the verses all the more solid. Booming percussion makes the already surreal piano backdrop of “So Straight and Slow” even moreso.
Even when Holcomb flaunts the influences on her music — the south on “Troy”, a Thelonius Monk quote on “this poem is in memory of!” — it’s never quite a straight reading.
“Nine Lives” is as close to a single as Robin Holcomb, the album, gets, and even that song is hard to sing along to.
Holcomb’s voice is indeed an acquired taste — a nasal, trembly instrument that muddies her own melodies as much as deliver them.
And yet, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else handling her music.
The album also features Horvitz and guitarist Bill Frisell — two members of Naked City on a set songs the polar opposite of John Zorn’s frenetic ensemble. It’s nice to pair the two self-titled albums together and realize they emerged from the same time period.
Robin Holcomb introduced me to the music of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and for the six years following, it would be a fruitful exploration.
This album may be found in the cutout bins, but its effect on me was far more profound.
Kicell will release both a new album, Tabi, and a new single, “Natsu ga Kiru”, on May 21. The coupling songs on “Natsu ga Kiru” include English versions of “Enola Gay” and “Mado ni Chikyuu”. It’s been a year and three months since Kicell released its previous album, Mado ni Chikyuu.