Hi,

This is the first posting of my new blog, Lost in the Library. I will be writing about anything that inspires me; reviews, opinions, stories, whatever, etc. The name is from an instrumental track by the English band Saint Etienne from their album The Misadventures of Saint Etienne. I like the feel of the phrase, a little bit of alliteration, and getting lost in a big library with a long list of books to look for is one of my favorite activities. I used to do it when I was at UC Santa Barbara, and have taken it up again at Brown University, where I am employed. But this isn’t necessarily a book or literary blog; libraries contain information on just about every topic you can think of. And I hope to write with an equal variety. Nor are libraries just where they hide the books. Any venue of information is a library.

Here is a random list of things that interest me:

Books, turtlenecks, Vespas, the FIFA World Cup, old time pipes, sailing, comedy in all its forms, South Africa, writing, Mods, chess, wax cylinder recordings, clay, the Munich Olympics tragedy, boxing, the look of vineyards, parkour, John F. Kennedy, the Royal Navy, late ’50s/early ’60s ennui, Mad Men, Rene Magritte, dating, Picasso, musicals, movies from the ’60s, Rome (ancient and contemporary), Greece, Ernest Hemingway’s life and times, Mini Coopers, corduroy, film festivals, the Victorians, walking, psychedelia, Terence Malick, 19th century urban America, the France soccer team, Tottenham Hotspur, clay court tennis, Chester A. Arthur, Sarah Vowell, dystopian futures, and art deco.

There is plenty more but all in good time.

“Libraries gave us power.” – ‘A Design For Life’, Manic Street Preachers

As someone commented the other day, I’m old.

Well, not really. I mean, I am older than I was, but I’d like to think that I am not close to as old as I will be.

However, since my brush with death last week, I’ve been giving great thought to my mortality and the things I have yet to achieve.

(it really wasn’t so dire and I rarely think of my own mortality aside from the fact that it would be an unimpeachable excuse to stay home from work)

I do eyeball the obituaries in the New York Times most days. It’s nothing morbid. Some of it is a natural interest in current events.

Some of it is because of a game a couple of friends and I played when we were co-workers, working on Billboard’s musical database. When an artist died, whoever removed them from the database first received a small, photocopy the size of a postage stamp of a skull and crossbones.

This competetion became quite heated and we proudly taped our “kills” to our cubicle walls.

But, one reason to read the obituaries in the Times is for the intriguing taglines like “Robert Rines, Inventor and Monster Hunter, Dies at 87 ” or “William Belton, Self-Taught Ornithologist, Dies at 95.”

I’d like something like that for myself when the time comes except I am not an inventor, monster hunter, or self-taught ornithologist. I have done pioneering work in the combination of peanut butter and bacon as a sandwich and I do quite like those Monsterquest documentaries, though.

But, the only thing involving birds that I have taught myself, so far as I can think, is how to make fried chicken (though I’m more inclined to drag Paloma out of the way on a road trip for such foodstuff).

So, in the meantime, I’ve got some work to do. Fortunately, I’m hoping I have some time to amass some accomplishments that will result in an eye-catching lead when I do finally shuffle onward.

Here are some songs by artists who have passed away in the month of November in years past…

Quiet Riot – Cum On Feel The Noize
from Metal Health

From all I’ve read and based on a few first-hand accounts, Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin DuBrow worked ceaselessly to break his band. Then, he proceeded to alienate most of the music industry and Quiet Riot, who had been the first metal act to have a Number One album in the US, plummeted back to obscurity (with DuBow getting fired from the band).

However, during the autumn of ‘83, Quiet Riot’s cover of Slade’s classic Cum On Feel The Noize was inescapable and Metal Health was heard blaring from every car stereo in our high school parking lot. DuBrow, who later rejoined the band, passed away on November 19, 2007 of a cocaine overdose.

Chris Whitley – Power Down
from Terra Firma

Texan Chris Whitley went from busking on the streets of New York City to being one of the musical surprises of 1991 when his debut Living With The Law found favor with critics and fans. It took four years for him to follow it up and, when he did he incorporated elements of grunge, alternative rock, and dissonant noise to his bluesy folk rock.

Power Down is a smoldering four minutes of jagged, wiry rock. Sadly, the underappreciated Whitley – who counted artists including Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Hornsby, Tom Petty, Iggy Pop, John Mayer, Daniel Lanois and Keith Richards among his admirers – passed away from lung cancer on November 20, 2005.

Bow Wow Wow – Do You Wanna Hold Me?
from When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going

Bow Wow Wow was formed when impresario Malcolm McClaren poached Adam’s Ants and made teen-aged ingenue Annabella Lwin lead singer. The result was one of the iconic songs of the ’80s with their version of The Strangeloves’ I Want Candy.

The group also had a minor hit with the equally energetic (if less remembered) Do You Wanna Hold Me? Guitarist Matthew Ashman died of diabetes-related complications on November 21, 1995, but, having been in both Adam & The Ants and Bow Wow Wow, he managed to be in two of the most beloved acts of the New Wave era.

Manic Street Preachers – This Is Yesterday
from The Holy Bible

Almost unknown in the States, the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers have been superstars in the UK for two decades. And, anyone who has followed the band is well aware of their history, particular rhythm guitarist/lyricist Richey Edwards, who mysteriously vanished in February, 1994.

The lovely, melancholic This Is Yesterday appeared on The Holy Bible, the group’s third album and one which is regarded by many critics to be as powerful as and the equal of Nirvana’s landscape-changing Nevermind. Edward’s vanished a day prior to embarking on a US protional tour for the record.

Edwards has never been found (though he has been “sighted” everywhere from India to the Canary Islands). It was only on November 23, 2008 that he was officially declared to be “presumed dead.”

Music overload the last few days. Lots of work. I love this video (filmed by Andrew Dosunmu) and this band. This was filmed at the Paul Robeson theater which is two blocks away from where I live.

1. “The Everlasting” – 6:09
2. “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” – 4:50
3. “You Stole the Sun from My Heart” – 4:20
4. “Ready for Drowning” – 4:31
5. “Tsunami” – 3:50
6. “My Little Empire” – 4:09
7. “I’m Not Working” – 5:51
8. “You’re Tender and You’re Tired” – 4:37
9. “Born a Girl” – 4:12
10. “Be Natural” – 5:12
11. “Black Dog on My Shoulder” – 4:48
12. “Nobody Loved You” – 4:44
13. “S.Y.M.M.” (South Yorkshire Mass Murderer) – 5:57

[RS] [MU]

Por Juliana Gomes

} Dias 12, 13 e 14 de Novembro têm Brooklyn Bridge @ Sesc Pompeia.

Começou ontem o movimento Brooklyn Bridge @ Sesc Pompeia. A cena independente de Nova Iorque das as caras por São Paulo para apresentar o resultado de toda a diversidade e da cena independente do Brooklyn, o mais alternativo dos distritos de Nova Iorque.

O projeto Ponte Brooklyn – Pompeia trará um recorte breve e representativo da atual produção musical do distrito novaiorquino.

Chairlift foi a primeira banda a se apresentar no projeto,  ficou conhecida após ter a música em um comercial para o Ipod, “Bruises”, do disco Does you inspire you, de 2008. O som pop do trio, Aaron Pfeinning, Patrick Wimberly e Caroline Polachek, já tocou esteve em palcos do mundo todo e não é atoa que são comparados e lembrados com o The Knife, Of Montreal e Yaz.

Telepathe são duas garotas insasiáveis, são uma mistura muito boa de tropicália, Africa e o Ocidente. A percussão é o que mais saiu dessa insasiavel vontade pelo novo, produzida também em banda como Tv on the Radio e Dave Sitek, após muito estudo saiu o dico Dance Mother, de 2009. Que com certeza não irá deixar você parado nenhum segundo.

Bear Hands é uma das principais apostas entre as novas bandas do Brooklyn . Formado em 2006, por Dylan Rau (voz/guitarra), Ted Feldman (guitarra), Val Loper (baixo) e TJ Orscher (bateria), o grupo é consequência de uma tarde de ensaio que deu certo. O quarteto ombina rock e percussão com batidas orgânicas e letras irônicas. O resultado é um indie rock cheio de groove e psicodelia. O primeiro trabalho do grupo, o EP “Golden”, foi bem recebido pela crítica especializada e garantiu ao grupo apresentações ao lado de bandas como MGMT, Vampire Weekend e Manic Street Preachers.

It’s a bit tough to review the music proper on Journal for Plague Lovers without burrowing into the story behind it – the two are so strongly intertwined that they very nearly define one another.

The band, formed in 1986, was originally a quartet. In winter 1995, however, rhythm guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards (famously volatile – he used a razor to carve the phrase ‘4 REAL’ into his arm after a music journalist suggested that Manic Street Preachers lacked authenticity) went missing, and hasn’t been found since. While the band remained together, and continued to write and release albums long after his disappearance, it’s with Journal, their ninth studio album, that they finally seem to be attempting to put Edwards’ memory to rest. The lyrics here are dark and literate, culled from a small portfolio of work that Edwards gave to band member Nicky Wire only a few weeks before disappearing, and the respect and passion with which the band treats the material is evident. In a sense, Journal is both a derivative of Edwards’ life and, the band hopes, a memorial to it.

It’s comforting, then, that the album works.

Musically, there’s a comfortably homey sort of mac-and-cheese quality to things; it’s solid Brit-rock with a sharp, nostalgic whiff of the 90s. Edwards’ lyrics, however, are crumbled bacon, rich and heavy and keeping things far more tasty than they have any right to be. Not to say that the music itself is bad per se – just that it’s often not, by its own merits, buoyant enough to support a few stanzas of dead weight and still keep its head above water (cf. Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations). With Edwards’ help, though, the album often noses its way into quality. Opening track “Peeled Apples,” is a good example of this; superficially, it’s your standard-issue mosh-pit anthem, floating pleasantly atop a scowling, grimy, radio-ready bass line. But as a track, it’s propelled by words (“riderless horses on Chomsky’s Camelot / bruises on my hands from digging my nails out / a series of images against you and me / trespass your torment if you are who you want to be”), and the intrigue of those words keeps the track afloat. So too does “Jackie Collins Existential Question Time,” which has all the hallmarks of a great single, but, as we’re slammin’ out the air guitar, slyly asks us “if a married man / a married man fucks a Catholic / and his wife dies without knowing / does it make him unfaithful, people?” – which is just the sort of thing I like to think about when I’m half-conscious and puttering along in morning traffic. The interplay of pleasant and prickly here is like cinnamon toast spiked with habañeros.

Manic Street Preachers’ “She Bathed Herself In A Bath of Bleach,” from Journal for Plague Lovers.

There are a solid handful of standout tracks – the aforementioned “Jackie Collins” is one, as is hard-rocking “She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach,” which sounds as though it might cause nearby hotel rooms to spontaneously wreck themselves. Acoustic track “Facing Page: Top Left” also works quite well, a delicately orchestrated criticism of Western beauty culture that has vocalist James Dean Bradfield deftly sputtering its refrain as a single uninterrupted string of syllables (“thisbeautiadippineophobia!”). But perhaps the high point of the album, musically and thematically, is the closing track, “William’s Last Words,” a peaceful, melancholy sigh of a song that can’t help but strike the listener as Edwards’ own gentle goodbye (“leave me, go Jesus, I love you / yeah, I love you / just let me go / I even love the devil / but yes, he did me harm / don’t keep me any longer / ‘cos I’m really tired / I’d love to go to sleep / and wake up happy”).

Journal for Plague Lovers, musically, is a bit of a chimera: catchy Brit-pop for the depressed literati, a sort of love child of Damon Albarn and Craig Finn. As an experience, though, it’s a little harder to quantify. There’s a great deal of genuine pathos, sometimes leavened by the pop music on which it rests, sometimes amplified; one gets the impression that the album was made as much for the band themselves as for the audience. The mad swings between glistening, cynical rock and honest, uncoiled emotion paint a fascinating picture of a group that has spent the greater part of its career living in the shadow of a missing friend. A sense of purpose washes over the album, bare and honest in its softer moments, while in others marked only by a sharp jab of the quill. Some might perceive the album’s whole concept as a sort of emotional exploitation, but it’s hard to be cynical when Manic Street Preachers sound so fully committed, so naked, and so, well, real. I imagine Edwards would be satisfied.

- DF

[direktlink]

album: journal for plague lovers
year: 2009

• La otra orilla – Los Enemigos
• Fallen from the sky – Glen Hansard
• Venus – Air
• Friend is a four letter word – Cake
• Til the end of time – Devotchka
• Back to the start – Polly Paulusma
• Black gives way to blue – Alice in Chains
• William’s last words – Manic Street Preachers
• Where did all the love go? – Kasabian
• Secret door – Arctic Monkeys

Atormentado por la culpa de no haber ido a bailar Thriller al monumento de la revolución, Godínez decide dedicarle la ofrenda de este año al Jack-O. Unas mallas a la Peter Pan y unos muñecos japoneses (de esos con los brazos marcaditos y los genitales bien rasuraditos) acompañan al cigarro y tequila que le procura cada año al abuelo.

Únase a Godínez y póngase a cotorrear con sus muertos favoritos.

Duración: 82 minutos 12 segundos / 33.3 MB

Canciones:

• Jim Carroll / People Who Died
• The Cramps / New kind of kick
• Les Paul / Guitar boogie
• The Ventures / Walk don’t run
• Mercedes Sosa / Alfonsina y el mar
• Manic Street Preachers / Mausoleum
• Nacha Pop / Persiguiendo Sombras
• The Seeds / Can’t Seem To Make You Mine
• Michael Jackson / Workin’ day and night
• Gustavo Pimentel / El Magazo
• Koko Taylor / I’m A Woman
• Oingo Boingo / Weird Science
• The Stooges / I Wanna Be Your Dog
• Chavela Vargas / Que te vaya bonito
• La talentosa Marilyn Chambers.

Arte: Folder para tu Pc / imprime, recorta y arma el empaque.

Descarga: Godínez pone su ofrenda. 14 canciones para comer huesitos de azúcar.

Escucha en línea:

Godínez se lleva de la ferretería el candado más grande que el dinero puede comprar, con una dotación de sardinas y chicharitos Herdez le pone cerrojo a su casa, desconecta el teléfono y arroja el móvil a la taza del baño. El que los Ángeles negros chilenos anuncien su regreso triunfal le da la certeza que todos esos librajos del Sanborns están equivocados, es posible vivir en la melancolía.

Deje de fingir que le agradan sus colegas y acompañe a Godínez en este encierro voluntario con las grabaciones completas del río Delta.

Duración: 72 minutos 52 segundos / 33.3 MB

Canciones:

• José José / El Triste
• Grandaddy / Jed’s other poem (Beatiful ground)
• Fito Paez / Las Tardes del Sol, las Noches del Agua
• Sufjan Stevens / John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
• Ugly Kid Joe / Cats In The Cradle
• Youth Group / Someone else´s dream
• The Animals /  The House Of The Rising Sun
• Manic Street Preachers / I live to fall asleep
• Ayo / Down on my Kness
• Love / Always see your face
• Soda Stereo / Té Para Tres
• David Bowie / And I Say To Myself
• Tears for Fears / Mad World
• The Smiths / Please, please, let me get what I want

Arte: Folder para tu Pc / imprime, recorta y arma el empaque.

Descarga: Godínez y la cebolla electrónica. 14 canciones que le harán desear no haber nacido.

Escucha en línea:

Hello internet,

This blog entry is dedicated to Phil, who claims he follows this blog via the DSS (or RSS), and asked me to write an entry for his Monday morning commute. Look at you Phil, with your fancy Iphone and commute and everything. I hope it’s going smoothly and you haven’t got a sweaty businessman’s armpit in your face right now.

Last night Phil was dressed as Jesus. It was his house’s Halloween Party, and I went along even though I’m scared of parties (but not spooky ghosts). I went as a mad hatter, and spent the evening looking a bit like Jimmy Saville playing Willy Wonka. I drank whiskey out of a teapot.

Parties are interesting experiences, because they’re full of people you have to be interested to talk to, because there’s no escape from them, because it’s a party. I’m not very good at parties, but I think I did ok last night. I didn’t get too drunk, I didn’t make a total embarrassment of myself, and I didn’t burn anything.

The party was very impressively set out. The theme was the asylum, and people came as blood-splattered doctors, nurses, and mental patients. The costumes, they were not half-arsed. In the main room were crayons and paper, to express one’s hidden raging fears and desires. I drew pacman eating a ghost and, later, Dr Screw, the pornographic companion piece to our favourite timelord adventurer. Shit, it’s the daleks! And they’ve got COCKS.

Jesus was a benign presence, if a bit preachy. I kept asking him for answers. You can always trust Jesus. He’s like a policeman in that sense. That said, it is best not to approach Jesus if he’s in riot gear. Then it’s probably time for holy war.

I remember having a very boring conversation about protest, and whether it does any good. I spoke to Harley Quinn out of Batman (she was a psychiatrist who went mad and fell in love with the Joker, in case you were wondering) about Kermit Roosevelt and Iran and managed not make a joke about puppet dictators.

Also I talked to a woman from Switzerland about Nazi gold. She offered me drugs, I think. I’m not really good at such things.

Finally, there was a guy who wrote a book about a terrible band, and I managed not to talk to him about how terrible said band are. This I count as progress, and consequently I was allowed out of the asylum at lunchtime today.

My wife was dressed as a member of the Viet Cong.

A strange 3.5 mile race this afternoon, the first 2.5miles were in burning sun and the last mile was in a heavy shower. I struggled in the heat as I was expecting a cold run, but then when the rain fell I felt more comfortable and felt far more at ease.

I made it to the 1.75 mile mark with ease but hit “the wall” almost instantly there and walked for a little while before restarting and thought I might have had to stop again shortly later but the rain came and spurred me on.

Today’s run was powered by the albums “Send Away the Tigers” by Manic Street Preachers and “Nu-Clear Sounds” by Ash, it was sponsored by the letter S. S is for Sun and Soaked.

O grupo foi formado em 1989 por James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Sean Moore e Richey James e primordialmente se chamava Betty Blue, mas antes mesmo de lançar o primeiro trabalho, adotaram o nome de Manic Street Preachers. Eles são originários do País de Gales e obtiveram notoriedade ao divulgar notas dizendo coisas do tipo ‘’faremos apenas um disco e que venderá 16 milhões de cópias’’ e a falta de humilde gerava curiosidade que posteriormente se transformava em assédio. O grupo ainda está na ativa depois de um pausa e voltaram em 2oo7 lançando um cd fenomenal reforçando seu som pop.

Aqui para download o álbum Send Away the Tigers      Download

1 – Send Away the Tigers

The quixotic charm of The James Warner Prophecies is that their music contains a myriad of styles, oeuvres and impressions – much like J-Rock -  but theirs is less disposable pop in style and more harmonic indie in ambition. Thus we get thick slices of American Punk (i.e. think ‘Bad Religion’) laced generously with Brit indie folk sound reminiscent of ‘The Magic Numbers’.

So with The James Warner Prophecies you get melodic singing together with hardcore drum beats and haunting flute.  Yeah, I know it shouldn’t work. But it does.  Just.  Sometimes you feel poised on the edge of something a little too grand and opulent to be really honest …  but then the twinkle-in-the-eye  gentle humour of the band shines through,  and the result is an agreeable love fest of sound and virtue.

Benign Rasputin-like figure Joe Brown is the mighty front-man power-house lead singer/guitar of the band. Striding about the stage looking like a kindly ginger version of Edward Teach (the notorious pirate) – with an enormous burning red beard and a savage glint in his cruel eye. Instead of cutlass and sword, though, we get electric mandolin & guitar – but the results are similarly battle hardened with an abundance of inventive fireworks from the fret-boards and vindictive encounters with the spiteful strings of the mandolin.

Bringing some calm and beauty to the proceedings, Kate Rounding plays a mournful flute on many songs, plus the haunting chords on Korg. I understand Kate also adds violin to the mix – but we didn’t see her fiddle at The Hob. Lanky long-haired hippy Matt Anthony adds some low inventive and, ultimately, reassuring bass to the songs and the ‘Noel Fielding’ look-alike Dan Williams in assured and competent on drums.

The band moved ruthlessly from song-to-song keeping up the pressure and starting with an appropriately named tune ‘Braincell Piracy’ before launching into ‘King of The Killers’, then onto ‘Judas Stone’ and ‘The Itch’. The big end to the show was their ‘Set The World on Fire’ track (the unimaginatively named) ‘Mandolin Song’. This song has some fierce fretting from Joe (on mandolin) with audacious flares of light and fire from Kate and plenty of pounding crashing percussion from Dan and Matt. A truly exciting and heart pummelling joy of a song.

From my own point of view, I would prefer something a bit more languid and soulfully helpful from Kate (at times it seemed like her contributions were repetitive and almost go through-the-motions routine in content) and I would also like a little less sympathy from the band for the folk-country traditions of their home county (Derbyshire) and a little more hard driving rock from the ensemble … but that is just my personal taste.

Overall, though, the band makes a positive contribution to the Rock / Folk Rock scene. The band members are a jolly hardworking crew with a capable and naturally talented energy. I Strongly recommend that you see their live show soon.

© Neil_Mach
October 2009

Link:

http://www.myspace.com/thejameswarnerprophecies

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Manic Street Preachers are an alternative rock band from Blackwood, Wales, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield (vocals, guitars), Nicky Wire (bass, occasional vocals) and Sean Moore (drums, backing vocals, occasional trumpet). The band were originally a quartet: lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards mysteriously vanished on 1 February 1995..In November 2008 he was declared presumed deceased; 13 years after his disappearence.

A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
Is it to be or not to be
And I replied ‘oh why ask me?’

Haciendo zapping mientras desayunaba hoy sábado a las tantas (ya sólo veo la televisión en el desayuno), he aterrizado en Telemadrid (cosas de la tele digital) y estaban poniendo un video de Muse de hace unos añitos… lo he dejado porque hacía un montón que no escuchaba esa canción, Time Is Running Out (no deja incrustar el video, sorry), me ha traído un par de recuerdos de cuando lanzaron su Absolution, en 2003 (un año sin rima) y me he quedado viendo el programa de videoclips, que se llama Todo Hits.

Después del tema de Muse, que en su día no me sedujo pero que me ha agradado recordar, el programa me ha regalado los que para mí son la mejor canción y video de Placebo:

Espero que no lo capen en seguida, para que podáis recordar Pure Morning…

Empezaba despertarse cierta nostalgia en mi interior… este tema es del 98, de su segundo disco, que a mí me llegó entero al año siguiente, el de mis 18 años… Termina Pure Morning y entonces pasa algo extraño: Shining Light de Ash!!

Es uno de esos himnos pop-post-grunge machacón, comercial (para su época), pegadizo a más no poder y del que se han hecho varias versiones, la mayoría de ellas más malas que los donuts light, por cierto (incluída, con todos los respetos, la de Annie Lennox)… pero también es una de esas canciones que te alegra el día. A mí personalmente me recuerda, una vez más, a mis 18 años, a la mítica y extinta tienda de alquiler de discos de Indautxu, a los años en que mp3 era sinónimo de Audiogalaxy…

El siguiente video es VOW de Garbage, una de sus mejores canciones a pesar de que por estos lares no sea muy conocida porque pertenece a su primer disco y aquí despegaron con Versión 2.0.

Vow es de mediados de los 90, pero yo descubrí el primer disco (Garbage) un poco después que el primero… así que una vez más me traslada a mis 17, 18, 19 años. Empiezo a pensar que quien selecciona los videos para este programa es de mi quinta y más o menos comparte mis gustos (o los que tenía por aquella época…).

Confirmada mi sospecha porque los siguientes videos serán Everything Must Go de Manic Street Preachers, la mítica y ultraquemada Song 2 de Blur y Favorite Game de The Cardigans. (también ha habido uno de Courtney Love por en medio, pero a esta tía no la pongo en negrita… incluso aunque me gusten algunas canciones suyas… residuos de mi adolescencia nirvanera, cada uno tiene sus chorradas).

No he podido evitar quedarme pegado al sofa viendo los videos hasta que ha terminado el programa porque son parte de mi historia. Me han dado a la vez la sensación de tener un millón de años y de ser de antes de ayer. Casualidades de la vida el haber puesto la tele un sábado, haber aterrizado precisamente en Telemadrid, precisamente en este programa, precisamente hoy que cumplo 28.

Video source www.wordmagazine.co.uk

“Motorcycle Emptiness” – Manic Street Preachers

Generation Terrorists is the debut album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 10 February 1992, and produced by Steve Brown.

It was recorded by tracking (the band recorded each instrument separately rather than playing it as a live band and then adding the overdubs later) over a period of 23 weeks at Blackbarn Studios, near Guildford, England. Despite the whole band being credited in the album notes, vocalist James Dean Bradfield played all guitars and bass on the album.

To avoid controversy in the U.S., the track list was changed and some of the more “difficult” tracks were dropped. The album was released in its full, uncensored form everywhere else.

All lyrics were written by Nicky Wire (real name Nicholas Jones) and Richey James Edwards. All music was written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore (except “Damn Dog”, which is a cover version of a song by the Sleez Sisters from the 1980 movie Times Square).

The album’s lyrics are politicised like that of The Clash and Public Enemy. Wire and Edwards’ love of poetry is also evident in their lyrics. The track “Repeat (Stars And Stripes)” is a remix of the band’s own anti-monarchy tirade, originally a double A-Side single with “Love’s Sweet Exile”, by Public Enemy production team The Bomb Squad of whom Bradfield and Edwards were big fans.

The cover was originally intended to be Andres Serrano’s Pisschrist, a Jesus figure inside a tank of blood and urine, but Sony wanted to avoid any religious controversy; also, the royalty demanded for the piece was deemed excessive. Other ideas were the Bert Stern Marilyn Monroe photographs, a sandpaper sleeve that would scratch the album itself as well as anything else that it was shelved by (an old Situationist prank, this idea was used by Guy Debord for his first book Memoires and by The Durutti Column for their first album The Return of the Durutti Column), as well as several other famous religious paintings.

The final front cover of the album was a picture of Edwards’ left arm and chest. The arm had a tattoo of a rose with the words “USELESS GENERATION” underneath, which was changed to “GENERATION TERRORISTS”. This was not without problems, as the original pressing had made Edwards’ flesh to be bright pink as opposed to the intended mustard. The back featured a design similar to their earlier New Art Riot EP cover, an EC Flag, though this time it was crumpled and in flames.

To buy the music of the Manic Street Preachers click HERE

Do Manic Street Preachers, Ocean spray. A música do dia.

Nuevo enfrentamiento entre una canción original y sus versiones. Esta vez hemos elegido una de Los Clash, Train In Vain (Stand By Me), que fue publicada en 1980 en su mítico disco London Calling.  La compusieron una noche y al día siguiente la grabaron. La incluyeron en el álbum pero como pista oculta. La letra curiosamente no menciona en ningún momento el título,  pero sí su subtítulo Stand By Me. En una de mis películas favoritas, Alta Fidelidad, basada en el libro de Nick Hornby, suena de fondo mientras John Cusack intenta asimilar que su chica le ha dejado (ver video). Aquí tenéis a Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon y Topper Headon en acción. Esto es una banda encima de un escenario:

En 1999 la banda de Gales Manic Street Preachers hizo una versión bastante fiel al sonido inicial aunque con la característica guitarra de James Dean Bradfield. Se editó como cara B de su single You Stole The Sun From My Heart. Así suena de bien en directo:

La integrante de Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, aportó un toque muy diferente a la canción, haciendo una versión entre el soul y el pop cuyo resultado es también brillante. Y es que las buenas canciones soportan cualquier estilo. Se publicó en 1995 en su album Medusa. Con cuál de las 3 os quedáis?

Okay I’m a bad bloggist. School started again and I had a bit of a life again. I’ve noticed that when I am writing or playing music, I tend to write less about it. So, blame enormous amounts of creativity on my silence.

Anyway, what has happened? I saw the fucking Manic Street Preachers (last month…) There’s nothing I can say except that it’ll be difficult for any concert to ever top this one. Who knows though… I am seeing fucking Morrissey next month! So maybe he can top the Manics. I met James and Nicky too, and they were as charming as I could have hoped. Nicky grinned and bared it as a psychotic fan clamped on to him (it wasn’t me, by the way). The show itself was spectacular with 21 songs. Hopefully the boys will return before it’s another ten years. I had begun to write an in-depth review of the gig, but decided it was impossible to describe. The opener, Nico Vega was awful though, I felt as though I were witnessing a bunch of kids playing dress-up with their parents old 70s clothes. Not recommended.

Some footage a person with a decent camera took of the gig. Amazing.

Some songs I’ve been enjoying lately.

Marina and the Diamonds “I Am Not A Robot (unplugged)”- If you’ve not heard Marina’s lovely voice, that seems to harken back to Kate Bush, although less mystical and more interested in electronic music. Her lyrics aren’t brilliant but they’re catchy. Here’s the unplugged version.

Four Tops “I’ll Turn To Stone”- One of my favourite Motown groups, I’ve been listening to this song constantly the past week.

Saint Etienne “Jackie Collins Existential Question Time” (Manic Street Preachers cover)- This comes as a free download with the Journal For Plague Lovers vinyl record, it says “remix” but it’s actually a cover song. Featuring the soft and sweet vocals of Sarah Cracknell, who censors the line “a married man fucks a Catholic” and replaces it with “does a Catholic”. It’s kind of cute.

Chapterhouse “Precious One”- From the classic shoegaze album Whirlpool, the song features the standard soft buried vocals and shimmery droney guitar, but the best part of this song is the interesting percussion and the really pumping bassline. It makes me think of Screamadelica meets shoegaze. It’s this close to being a dance song like Primal Scream or The Happy Mondays.

download here.

Stay Gold