[Follow you follow me]

Stay with me,
My love I hope you’ll always be
Right here by my side if ever I needed you
Oh my love

In your arms,
I feel so safe and so secure
Everyday is such a perfect day to spend
Alone with you

I will follow you will you follow me?
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year

With the dark,
I see so very clearly now
All my fears are drifting by me so slowly now
Fading away

I can say
The night is long but you are there
Close at hand I’m better for the smile you give
And while I live

I will follow you will you follow me?
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year there will be

I will follow you…

[Io seguo te tu segui me]

Stai con me
amore mio, spero che sarai sempre
qui al mio fianco, casomai io abbia bisogno di te
oh, amore mio

tra le tue braccia
mi sento al sicuro e in salvo,
ogni giorno è un bel giorno da trascorrere
solo con te

io ti seguirò, tu mi seguirai?
Tutti i giorni e le notti in cui sapevamo sarebbe stato…
starò con te, starai con me?
una sola lacrima per ogni anno trascorso

nel buio
adesso vedo perfettamente
tutte le mie paure si allontanano da me molto lentamente
dissolvendosi

posso dire
la notte è lunga ma tu sei qui vicino
sto meglio grazie al sorriso che mi hai regalato
mentre vivo

io ti seguirò, tu mi seguirai?
Tutti i giorni e le notti in cui sapevamo sarebbe stato…
starò con te, starai con me?
ci sarà  una sola lacrima per ogni anno trascorso

io ti seguirò…

Back in 2007, I got very very obsessed with the sophomore album from Sunderland’s Field Music, a 30-minute progressive punk art rock odyssey into the mundanity of small-town life. In borrowing the least lifestyle elements of Steely Dan and fusing them to a jerkiness that recalled Wire, the then-trio (comprised of the two brothers Brewis, and their friend Andrew Moore) created a masterpiece that provided concise chunks of song that packed in a multitude of musical ideas – from Billy Joel-esque piano, to crisp beatboxing. Tones of Town was magnificent, and its lack of fame was nigh-upon criminal. When the band announced they were going on hiatus, I practically cried myself to sleep.

Well now, via several intriguing side projects, they’re back. And in a more expansive mood, clearly, because their forthcoming third album, entitled Field Music (Measure), is a double album, with twenty songs that aren’t afraid to be less cohesive, in a manner apparently styled after Tusk and The Beatles. Predictably, I’m very excited, especially since the band (now a four piece, sans Moore) are whetting our appetites with two choice cuts from the album.

The first, “Each Time Is A New Time”, cruises in on a liquid bassline and some pretty FM-rock guitar, backed up by typically intricate drumming. When the vocals come in, the way they harmonise and interlock is sophisticated and aurally pleasing. Halfway through, the song cuts to a stripped-down passage that builds back up with insistently mellifluous guitar figures, wordless chanting and military percussion, before breaking straight back to the original riff. And then, in true Field Music style, it’s over.

The second sample, the title track, “Measure”, explodes from a suitably baroque string arrangement into a clanging, rustling, piano-led groove. The band has not lost its knack of combining the ancient with the modern, as the vocal interplay and hand claps (which sit alongside the strings, and some very steely guitar) will testify. The mood is wistful and meandering, interspersed with occasional shouts that recall Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac. As the song fades out to looped strings and a thrumming beat, I can’t help but feel a wave of relief that the band has stretched away from the brilliant style they had previously perfected, in order to explore new ground.

Both songs are little gems, and, wonderfully, both are available for free, from the band’s charming website. Field Music (Measure) is released 16th February 2010, on Memphis Industries, and promises to be one of the year’s most intriguing albums, not only in terms of scope and scale, but also in terms of the fascinating, filigree-like music it will contain.

Vampire Weekend have a new video. This time for the second promotable track from their upcoming full-length Contra (due out Jan. 12). Watch it here:

Their first single was “Horchata,” and they once had a free mp3 download of the track on their website. Now the same video above dominates their site (a large file that may load slow on some computers, so the link above moves best). You can still download the “Horchata” mp3 at We All Want Someone to Shout For. Check it out, here, with lyrics included.

I’m still kicking myself for missing them at the Gleason Center in Miami Beach during their last tour. I had not given their debut album a proper chance at the time. All the critics couldn’t stop talking about their African roots music, which grated my sensibilities while listening to the album via Napster. The influence really is not as pronounced as most critics might have you think (although they sing “Peter Gabriel” in their track ”Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” that doesn’t mean it sounds like “Biko.”*). Needless to say, the album later grew on me and I picked up the vinyl at Sweat Records. Here’s to hoping they return to South Florida for their second album!

*By the way, you can hear Peter Gabriel’s version of the song here (thanks again, Will). It’s a collaboration with Hot Chip.

Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles.

THE BYRDS – So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star / Everybody’s Been Burned (Columbia 43987 1967)
They had a bit of a nerve poking fun at the Monkees when just a couple of years earlier only McGuinn played on their own debut single. Still it’s a fun piece of satire. The flip is one of the best things the Byrds ever did, a dark but hopeful Crosby ballad.

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE – Soldier Blue / Moratorium (RCA 2081 1971)
Ralph Nelson’s 1970 western Soldier Blue was unlike any other before it. Shockingly violent and, for once, the good guys were definitely not the US Cavalry. Based on a true massacre that happened in 1864, it was also as much about Mai Lai and the Vietnam War. Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Cree herself, invested the song with both anger and bitter sorrow and yet it is just as much a celebration of the natural wonders of a country and her own ancestry.

DUKE ELLINGTON & HIS ORCHESTRA – Solitude / Mood Indigo (Columbia 35427 1940)
Ivie Anderson is one of the most underrated jazz vocalists, and she shines on these two Ellington ballads, both of which have become standards crooned by virtually every nightclub and torch singer since.

PETER GABRIEL – Solsbury Hill / Moribund the Burgemeister (Charisma 301 1977)
Fresh out of Genesis, Peter Gabriel launched his solo career with this, still one of his most poignant songs. Solsbury Hill itself overlooks Bath in Somerset, and the song captures that very special pleasure of sitting somewhere still and peaceful and watching the lights and bustle of the city night below.

JESUS & MARY CHAIN – Some Candy Talking / Psychocandy / Hit (Blanco Y Negro 19 1986)
By 1986 the screech of feedback had largely been excised from the Mary Chain’s records, replaced by cavernous echo. With it went a lot of the vigour and excitement, but that didn’t matter so much on songs as good as this, with its booming Spectorish sound.

LEE HAZLEWOOD & NANCY SINATRA – Some Velvet Morning / Oh Lonesome Me (Reprise 651 1968)
How trippy is this? Essentially it sounds like a verse taken from two completely different songs intercut. Hazlewood’s bit is dark and rumbling like Johnny Cash meets Link Wray while Sinatra’s is hippy-dippy flower child stuff, well away with the faeries. It’s like a cocktail of quaaludes and acid.

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – Somebody to Love / She Has Funny Cars (RCA 9140 1967)
When Grace Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane she brought this song along from her previous band the Great Society, written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick. The Airplane version is tighter and punchier with a chorus so strident it’s almost accusatory.

EDDIE COCHRAN – Somethin’ Else / Boll Weevil Song (Liberty 55203 1959)
STANDELLS – Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White / Why Don’t You Hurt Me? (Tower 257 1966)
By 1959, most of the first generation rock and rollers seemed to be mired in gloopy ballads and sounding little different to the pre-rock generation of singers like Johhny Ray and Frankie Vaughan. Eddie Cochran, on the other hand, still had a raw spirit about him: still sounded like someone a teenaged girl would think twice about introducing to her mother. That’s why he was so popular with the punks nearly two decades later, along with his friend Gene Vincent. The Standells, too, had that snotty fuck you attitude. But as they say in the song “You think those guys in the white collars are better than I am baby? / Then flake off!” True blue-collar working class pride…from a bunch of LA rich kids. Oh, well.

BLUR – Song 2 / Get out of the Cities (Food 93 1997)
The indignation this caused from my Pavement loving underground rock friends always made me laugh. It’s noisy and fun. What’s not to like?

LEFTFIELD – Song of Life / mixes (Hard Hands 002 1992)
A nine minute progressive house monster that pretty much defined the genre and still stands as one of the best tracks of its kind.

THIS MORTAL COIL – Song to the Siren / 16 Days (4AD 310 1983)
Originally This Mortal Coil were convened as a one-off project for this single, but its success was such that they ran to three albums, each with a constantly changing cast of performers. Liz Fraser hadn’t really tackled a proper lyrical song before, her voice more used as another instrument in the Cocteau Twins. But she gives Tim Buckley’s classic song a ghostly innocence that is absolutely captivating. The backing is so subtle that she’s almost on her own, but there’s no sign of nerves – she’s absolutely lost in the song. An amazing performance.

JOSEF K – Sorry For Laughing / Revelation (Postcard 814 1981)
Famously a band who seemed happier the flatter their records sounded; a band who scrapped their first album because it sounded too warm and produced and instead put out something tinny and stark. Paul Haig’s bored drone of a voice isn’t the most appealing instrument, but it gives this song a dry sarcasm. And it’s pretty much the touchstone record for the C86 generation.

LAVERN BAKER – Soul on Fire / How Can You Leave (Atlantic 1004 1953)
She’s better known for appealing, but ultimately disposable pop ditties like “Tweedle Dee” and “Jim Dandy”, but Lavern Baker was happiest singing the blues. If anything, though, “Soul on Fire” is deep southern soul a decade too early.

DAVID BOWIE – Sound and Vision / A New Career in a New Town (RCA 905 1977)
A long long way from Ziggy in just four years. “Sound and Vision” was the introduction to Bowie’s leftfield masterpiece Low and about as traditionally pop as the album got. Which isn’t very.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL – The Sound of Silence / We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’ On (Columbia 43396 1965)
Dylan had gone electric, the Byrds were having big hits doing jangly folk-rock. It made sense for Simon & Garfunkel to add drums and rock arrangements. Unfortunately they weren’t working together at the time, and Paul Simon was touring folk clubs in Europe armed only with his trusty acoustic. Producer Tom Wilson stepped in anyway, gave the track a new “with it” backing and Columbia watched another of their folk acts have a huge hit. Simon might not have liked it, but he could hardly complain at the new levels of exposure, and the duo quickly reconvened.

MEMBERS – Sound of the Suburbs / Handling the Big Jets (Virgin 242 1979)
They came from around ten miles away from me, and lyrically this song captured perfectly the tedium of North Surrey / East Berkshire Sundays. Nothing else to do but kick a football around with your mates. Nothing on telly, nothing on the radio (except David Rodigan’s Sunday show on Radio London) and school next day.

More soon

Hey There,

Every few years, a band that was popular in the seventies or eighties who had broken up will reunite and go on a tour.   In the tours of this nature that I’ve seen (Yes and REM, specifically), the performances were great.

The one group I would like to see reunite is Genesis.  Now, I know they did reunite a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t the lineup I wanted.  During my favorite era of Genesis’ history, the lineup was Peter Gabriel on Vocals, Steve Hackett on Guitar, Mike Rutherford on Bass, Tony Banks on Keyboards and Phil Collins on Drums.  This era, roughly from 1971-1975, produced my favorite Genesis songs.  That’s not to say that I don’t like their later work, but 1971-1975 is second to none.

It’s that lineup that I wish reunited and toured.  There have been rumors of them reuniting from time to time, but they never actually happened.  If they did actually reunite to play live, this is the set list I would like them to play:

1. Lamb Lies Down on Broadway/Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974 – These are the first three songs of Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and exemplify this classic era lineup- great musicianship, excellent lyrics, expert use of dramatic dynamics.  Of these, Broadway Melody is my favorite, but instrumental section at the end of Fly on a Windshield is as heavy as they get.

2. Get ‘Em Out By Friday – This is from Foxtrot (1972).  This is an interesting song, about a fictional version of England where the Directors of Genetic Control have decided to make people shorter.  Peter plays a number of characters in this song, which adds to the drama.  Musically, it’s a busy song with some odd time signatures.  For the eight and a half minutes of the song, there aren’t a whole lot of breaks, which keeps you listening.

3. Firth of Fifth -  This is from Selling England By the Pound.  The lyrics aren’t the best, but the instrumental break contains one of Steve Hackett’s most dramatic solos. I get chills every time I hear it.  After he left the band, Mike Rutherford took over the solo.  While still dramatic, it’s not the same when Mike plays it.

4. Dancing with the Moonlight Knight – This is the opening track of Selling England By the Pound (1973).  It begins with Peter singing a cappella, then builds to a fast instrumental break.  The lyrics contain a number of mythological and English references, which I had to look up, but the first two minutes or so are some of the most beautiful singing and musical accompaniment in Genesis’ history.

5. The Musical Box – This song is from Nursery Cryme (1971) and is one of the most famous songs of the Classic Era.  The instrumental break goes from soft to very hard to soft and the last few minutes are pretty dramatic.  Lyrically, this song is pretty strange.  A boy’s soul is trapped in a musical box that plays Old King Cole.  When a girl (the one who actually killed the boy), opens the box, the boy comes back to life, but starts to age rapidly.  He becomes lecherous towards the girl, whose nanny walks in at the end and kills the “old” boy by throwing the musical box at him.  Like I said, it’s weird, but a great song.  In recent years, the band played the ending of the song as part of a medley.

6. More Fool Me – This is from To give Peter a break and let Phil sing, I’d like them to play this song.  It’s a strangely sweet song about a guy whose girlfriend walked out on him.

7. Anyway – This is from disc 2 of Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  By far, my favorite Genesis song of all time.  Lamb was a concept album, but this song also works on it’s own.  It’s mainly about death, or more accurately, waiting for death.  The main character of the album and the song believes he is going to die and has accepted it, so he’s waiting for the end.  This song includes a great guitar solo, great piano playing and an active drum part.  If this song starts to play on my ipod, I’ll usually listen to it twice before moving to the next song.

8. In the Cage – This is from Disc 1 of Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  I like the keyboard solo on this song most of all.  It’s a pretty fast song that is based on a difficult rhythm.

9. Supper’s Ready – This song is pretty much all of Side B From Foxtrot (Horizons, a short acoustic solo by Steve Hackett is also on Side B).  This is Genesis’  longest song  (over 23 minutes).  Over the course of the song, there are a number of different melodies.  Not all of the sections are great, but taken together, the song does a good job of building the drama to a great climax (a section called Apocalypse in 9/8).  One of my favorites, but I don’t always have 23 minutes to listen to a song.  They regularly played this song live, so I know they could play it during a reunion tour.

10. The Knife – This is the only song from the pre-Phil Collins and Steve Hackett lineup, from an album called Trespass.  In contrast to the rest of Trespass, it is a very aggressive song about a violent revolution.  They often used this as a closing number or an encore and I believe it is the perfect way to end the concert.

These 10 songs amount to about an hour and a half of music.  As an encore, I’d have them play Back in NYC (from Lamb Lies Down on Broadway), Watcher of the Skies (from Foxtrot) and I Know What I Like (from Selling England By the Pound).

Thanks to everybody who commented on my last blog post! I really appreciate you sharing your playlists with everyone and introducing us to some great new music!

As I was responding to your comments, something hit me. You guys have shown us an incredible ammount of support over the last few years. You’ve called your local DJs to request our music. You’ve come to our shows and purchased our CDs. And your votes have caused us to win more contests and get onto more playlists than I could count. Each of you has helped make what we do possible.

Last week was really cool because we had twenty people contribute to our post! But, our anlaytics show that hundreds of people read it. Why is that? I’m not sure. But I feel that it is – at least in some part – due to the fact that so often the creation and delivery of art is a one way street. I want to change that; so I’d like to invite you to take a moment to do three things:

1. Visit atris.wordpress.com (This will be more fun if everyone goes to the same page.)
2. Scroll down to the comment box and introduce yourself. Write a few words about anything you’d like. How did you first hear our music? What city are you from? What are your favorite movies? Pretend we just met at a coffee shop. If you’d like share your blog address, Twitter ID or someplace where we and other people can learn more about you that would be great too!
3. Check the box that says Notify me of follow-up comments via email.

Please don’t do this for us, do this for yourself and for everyone. It takes a certain amount of bravery to put yourself out there; but it’s worth it. We love to get to know people with similar interests, ideas, and opinions. And it’s really cool when group discussions are started. If you have something in common with someone who posts, let him or her know! It makes me feel great to see people responding to my comments, and I love to chime back in to share my thoughts.

Looking forward to meeting you!

-Mason

Welcome to this week’s update on upcoming gigs! Here are my gigging plans for the week, but what about you? Interested to hear what everyone else is up to so let me know with a comment below!

Malcolm Middleton – Bush Hall (Tues 24th Nov)

Other than Xmas single ‘We’re All Going To Die’ a few years back, and one or two Arab Strap songs, I’m not very familiar with the music of Malcolm Middleton. I was impressed with his performance at End Of The Road this year though, and a quick listen to recent album ‘Waxing Gibbous’ on Spotify suggested he’s worth seeing again.

With the suitable title for this time of year ‘Malcolm Middleton’s Long, Dark Night’, it promises lots of songs about love, hate, death and ‘other stuff’. Sounds good to me!

The Leisure Society – St. Giles In The Field (Wed 25th Nov)

If the previous night puts me in a miserable mood, The Leisure Society are sure to perk me up again with their bright and uplifting orchestral pop songs. After a few superb festival appearances this year (End Of The Road and King’s Place in King’s Cross) I’m looking forward to a full headline show.

I’ve also heard great things about the venue, which is new to me. This month’s gigs have been great for discovering new venues (something that doesn’t happen too often) – I’ve also experienced my first visits to The Flowerpot, The Coronet and The Tabernacle during November.

ReGenesis – Shepherd’s Bush Empire (Sat 28th Nov)

After the prog revival incorporated into last week’s Decemberists gig (read review), I’m hugely excited to see the songs of Peter Gabriel era Genesis being played live, even if by a tribute band. It makes sense that a tribute is dedicated to just one era of the original, the Gabriel and Collins eras of the band being vastly different in sound.

What I’ve read suggests they do a good job of recreating the sound and look (including a range of bizarre costumes that Peter Gabriel was famous for wearing). I’m looking forward to the chance to see tracks such as ‘The Return Of The Giant Hogweed’, ‘The Musical Box’ and ‘Dancing With The Moonlit Knight’ performed live.

[Revere - Brixton Windmill (Sat 28th Nov)]

So this one might be a bit ambitious, but if the ReGenesis gig finishes on time I should be able to dash down to Brixton to catch a late headline slot from Revere at the Windmill. It’s a charity gig for a great cause – The National Autistic Society – and following such a great show last weekend at the Flowerpot (read review), I’m keen to grab another chance to see them this year if I can!

Over to you…

Genesis was one of the few British rock bands that successfully made the transition from meddling 60s folk-pop-rock through late-60s psychedelic rock to 80s pop-rock superstardom. Their November 18, 1974 concept album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, was major point along that road and a huge FM radio hit (I remember playing it daily on my radio show at the time). While well received on air, in the critics’ circles and in stores, The Lamb… unfortunately became the last Genesis album on which Peter Gabriel appeared. Gabriel was the lead vocalist, chief songwriter and stage frontman for the band (he wrote all of the material on The Lamb…). His departure could have spelled doom, but remaining members Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett moved on to greater things, including a string of nine straight U.K. Top 10 albums (8 in the U.S.) before they called it quits in 1992.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is available as a CD from Amazon (click here).

…just..thank you. forever.

-sah

Music is a language the whole world can speak, it unites people from across the globe but I think it’s fair to say that music is unequally picked up and transmitted.

Pop music dominates the sound waves and generally these artists tend to be westerners, the world’s biggest stars hailing from America or Europe.

When was the last time you can honestly remember hearing a record by a Senegalese artist on mainstream radio? Artists take inspiration from around the world but most music accreditation lie with those artists from the west.

Youssou N'Dour: Senegalese artist

This is Youssou N’Dour, hailed the greatest African artist of the century but how many of us in the west have heard his name or heard his music?

If we did hear it would we class it as Senegalese music or throw it into the category of World Music? I think the answer to this lies on our High Streets. If you walk into any HMV in any part of the UK you will find, probably near the back of the store,  the World Music section. If you take a closer look at this section you will see it is split into a small number of very simple categories.

On the web page this is shown as:

African

Arabia

Asia

European

Oceanic

The Americas

Such a simplistic way to look at the world generally. It reflects who are the most powerful countries in the world. American and UK artists dominate the majority of shelves in places like HMV but not only in the UK. The global superstars of today are not representative of the world but of the west and richer nations. Those who can afford to compete in music industry. Therefore I believe those who dominate the music industry are a reflection of the uneven wealth of our world.

Artists such as Lady Gaga can afford to market themselves across the world and put on elaborate shows and make expensive music videos so their music is heard by the world.

The music industry has taken a lot of stick recently when it comes to how it has changed and being run as a business by businessmen, not creative people. I found this video quite interesting and the comments made by Radiohead.

For those classed as world music artists, one of the only ways to make it into mainstream music is to collaborate with well-known artists from the west. This can be seen through the example of Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon on his album Graceland, whilst they may have already been contributing to international music in a huge way, for them to be known globally they needed to team up with someone like Paul Simon.

Here’s some of their well-known hits

And a clip on the story of how the album Graceland was made, the first album of its kind, a collaboration between World Music artists and western artists

And an example of how their boost to the limelight by Paul Simon saw them make their way onto the famous American Children’s TV show Sesame Street

The dissemnation of music around the world is uneven and unfair. Artists from the west pick up inspiration from the traditional music of poorer countries but do not give appropriate accreditation. Despite Paul Simon bringing Ladysmith Black Mombazo to the attention of the west, he still received criticism for taking the credit.

The publicity given to the group through the collaboration

Youssou N’Dour also gained greater publicity across the globe by collaborating with Peter Gabriel

So is the music industry stuck in a bad romance? My answer would be yes. Surely it cannot call itself a completely global business if it ignores music that is not from America or Europe?

since i haven’t posted any music videos for a while, i decided to make this monday a double-whammy. and though these two videos are from two different generations, the artists are equally outrageous in their own right: i give you peter gabriel and lady gaga.

i love this video. i love that this video is older than i am and a hundred times more brilliant. seriously, such innovation for an 80’s music video.

and gaga. oh, gaga. this video is beautifully shot and her clothes are to die for, and i love how she satirizes the relationship between media and celebrity. go, girl.

The Czechs aren’t very good at brand development in any context and the development of their national brand is no exception.  Its probably on a par with the efforts of the UK, which in my opinion are pitiful.

An important trick in the national branding arsenal is to big-up national events that support the character of the brand.  The Czechs kinda manage to raise a pulse or two when it comes to their national ice hockey team (who apparently are a bit good) and conjur up a little enthusiasm for their national football (soccer for you Americans out there) team, when they reach the finals of the World Cup, which isn’t the case this time around (he, he!).  However, they haven’t missed the opportunity to milk the lump-in-the-throat, emotional potential of the velvet revolution.  What Czech wouldn’t swell with pride at the memory of their David to the Russian Goliath (well maybe a few old Commies!) which, being twenty years ago this week provided a timely fillip to their national brand development campaign.

Their take on a celebratory TV spectacular was a characteristically high-brow celebration for Vaclav Havel (The figurehead of the revolution and the first post-Communist President) with live (well, I think there was a pulse in most cases) performances by a load of American esoteric like Suzanne Vega, Joan Baez and Lou Reed who, apart from being old muckers of Havel were, I guess, bang on the spirit of a nation whose escape from tyranny was led by a playwright.  British support came in the shape of a series of arms-length video messages from the likes of Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel and … surprise, surprise … Bono – always good for a sound-bite in the cause of liberty, but still can’t pronounce his old mate Vaclav’s name correctly!  The event was probably sufficiently high-brow to pass well over the heads of the majority of those Czechs who would otherwise have been waving football scarves and definitely inaccessible to the average ice hockey supporter, but I hope that’s not all the celebrations this nation can muster.  Well, let’s see.  Meanwhile, maybe what we need to get brand development going in Blighty is a revolution?  Don’t be too quick to discount that idea!

In spring of 2010 Gabriel is slated to release his first album in 7 years. This time around though Gabriel will not be recording new material but covering a number of notable bands hits all orchestrally. UK composer John Metcalfe says:

The songs are not simply covers. They are major reinterpretations of some famous stuff. It’s quite radical …

[It’s] quite onerous, as some of the songs are among the best known in the last 40 years. The album will be acoustic, using only orchestral instruments (no guitars, drums or world instruments), and range in size from sparse chamber music to a much fuller orchestral sound.

I haven’t seen anywhere whether there will be actual vocals involved or not but that just might be something that we have have to wait and hear on the first single

There is one thing that has always bothered me about covers. Is it the highest form of flattery or is it a slap in the face. One might see it as a compliment, as to say “This is a great track, I want a part of that” while on the other hand one could also see it as “Man, I could do that song so much better than they did.” I’m sure it’s gone both ways.

Scratch My Back:

01 Heroes (David Bowie cover)
02 The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon cover)
03 Mirrorball (Elbow cover)
04 Flume (Bon Iver cover)
05 Listening Wind (Talking Heads cover)
06 The Power of the Heart (Lou Reed cover)
07 My Body Is a Cage (Arcade Fire cover)
08 The Book of Love (Magnetic Fields cover)
09 I Think It’s Going to Rain Today (Randy Newman cover)
10 Après Moi (Regina Spektor cover)
11 Philadelphia (Neil Young cover)
12 Street Spirit (Radiohead cover)

Peter Gabriel ha confermato la tracklist del suo prossimo album di cover, Scratch My Back, in uscita il prossimo 25 gennaio. Il lavoro fa parte di una serie di uscite che vedranno Gabriel e altri artisti che reinterpretano le proprie canzoni.

Fra le canzoni di Scratch My Back c’è anche Street Spirit dei Radiohead, Mirrorball degli Elbow e Apres Moi di Regina Spektor (via NME).

Sotto la tracklist:

Heroes (David Bowie)
The Boy In The Bubble (Paul Simon)
Mirrorball (Elbow)
Flume (Bon Iver)
Listening Wind (Talking Heads)
The Power Of The Heart (Lou Reed)
My Body Is A Cage (Arcade Fire)
The Book Of Love (The Magnetic Fields)
I Think It’s Going To Rain Today (Randy Newman)
Apres Moi (Regina Spektor)
Philadelphia (Neil Young)
Street Spirit (Radiohead)

Have had a week off during which i experienced a remarkable lack of exercise, other than a bike ride on Monday where i got a bit lost, cycled with a nice old man and ended up in Wetherby.

The chap that I ended up cycling with was a retired anesthetist and a ridiculously keen cyclist (he had something like 8 bikes…not with him at the time), he said he cycled most days and paced himself according to the heart monitor he was hooked up to – he wasn’t supposed to exceed a certain pulserate – but throughout the ride he completely annihilated me, he was super fit (or i wasn’t…probably the latter).
it wasn’t too uppity-downity but i think the toils with the old man took it out of my legs and the last 5 miles round the ringroad were no fun at all

Currently listening to Kyte’s cover of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Solsbury Hill’ http://hypem.com/track/798511/Kyte+-+Solsbury+Hill+Peter+Gabriel+Cover+ which is quite lovely. we tried to get them to do a session for tapes but they proved impossible to get hold of.

It’s not that I’m an idiot (although, in the spirit of full disclosure, I sometimes am), it’s that I’m sometimes clueless. Or, forgetful. Or, mentally misplaced. You see, there’s a lot of shit floating around in my cranium. Some numbers, some interesting data, some bullshit ephemera about what episode of what season in what obscure TV show a character walked down the wrong hallway to go to the bathroom, tons of music, a few memorized beautiful things I’ve seen in my days, some horrors I’ve always memorized, and a collection of all the breasts I’ve come across and been mesmerized. Yeah, there’s a pun there. A bad one, at that.

This morning, I woke up and smiled that kind of smile that only happens on a day off. I got up, stretched, did the various things I do when I wake up alone, the scratching of places and releasing of certain human fluids, then went to the internet and began absorbing facts. A typical day. There’s “significant amounts” of water on the mother fucking moon!

from here.

And I was reading some stuff about the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which I knew I was a few days late to, but it’s still fascinating, right?

I even put on some music as I did this. Made myself a little playlist in my music player and put it on random/shuffle, and you know what song came on several times? My favorite song by the Cure, that’s what. This one:

That’s “The 13th,” and I just adore it. Not the video so much, but the song, definitely.

There was a commercial on TV for a Friday The 13th marathon. And I thought, “Huh, that’s interesting.” Thought about 2012, the batshit crazy stupid but fun looking Roland Emmerich movie that came on today that I’ll probably see tomorrow with Conrad Noir, who tells me he’s not all that interested because he was let down by The Day After Tomorrow. Well, no shit you were let down by The Day After Tomorrow, right? Anyway, that’s most likely on tomorrow’s agenda.

Long story short, it took me until like noon or later to actually fucking realize that it was Friday the 13th. I probably shouldn’t be bragging about that.

It happened at some local coffee shop that I went to, and, well, it was embarassing, but interesting. I live in a small town, the kind where it’s hard to not get to know everyone and their quaint little stories. And all the Southern gothic ghost stories that goes along with it. So I do my best to avoid people as best I can, but today I felt like getting out of the domecile for a bit and going for a run and experimenting with various Pandora stations on my smart brilliant phone.

The search for the perfect Pandora station is man’s constant crawl towards enlightenment, nirvana, and the fingerbanging of God. The pleasure is in the quest, not the capturing because the goal is unreachable, but we still try. That’s the beauty of the humans, or something. Regardless, I’ve been bouncing back and forth, trying to find a good station while running/walking, and I took a chance on an 80s station.

Not bad, but you know what? As great as they can be, Duran Duran and Frankie Goes To Hollywood and “The Safety Dance” just felt a little too gay for this job. I needed something less festive, so I figured I’d shift a decade forward and did a search for an appropriate 90s station. Came up mostly zero, no joke, except for a fascinating station that played 80s music stars trying to make a comeback in the 90s:

Okay, that’s the lovely Bryan Adams song from the Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves soundtrack, which is fantastic all on it’s own (except when it’s used for a Dawson’s Creek fanvid, sorry), but in actuality, the first song that came on that station was Adams’ “Run To You,” which isn’t bad. And following that was some Tom Petty, which is always good in my book, and some Bon Jovi, which is atrocious (though old Bon Jobi works appropiately in some bar settings, I’m loathe to admit), and a whole fucking lot of Guns N’ Roses. It was weird, but I guess it did the trick, workout-wise.

Then I got to the coffee shop, got something to eat, something to drink, and meant to hide myself in the corner with some headphones and devour my meal and some more internet on my phone. Also with me were some printouts of various things I needed to revise and a copy of Warren Ellis’ new POD book, Shivering Sands, which had just come in the mail today. I feel like I’ve read most of it previously (it’s a collection of various writings of his from the internet of the past few years), but still, I was excited.

But as it sometimes can be when interesting people are in the vicinity, and frightfully true when there’s less than interesting people buzzing around you, I got sucked into some conversation. Found out it was 13th day of the month coinciding with the fact that it was also a Friday. Also absorbed some recent gossip. And, because of the recent anniversary, got involved with a conversation about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

You see, the conversation got even more interesting when it turned out that one of the women there was German, a former resident of East Berlin, who had been 18 when the wall came down, and moved to America shortly after. I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with Germans in the past (and no, I’m not referring to World War II, though that was no picnic either, ha ha!), but every once in a while, I have a good experience with their women.

The woman and I talked for some time about the Berlin Wall, and primarily what it was like for her growing up in East Berlin. Essentially, it was bleak, but fascinating. And we had one of those conversations that always pop where she mentions that she was feeling uneasy today because she had left her cell phone at home and she just feels like she’s naked and out of touch, but growing up poor in Germany, they didn’t even have a phone in their house til she was 16. “How did we live in that ancient, strange world?” she asked with a laugh.

She had just seen The Lives Of Others a few weeks ago, she told me, and we talked about the movie, which is really quite good if you haven’t seen it yet, and about the Stasi in general. She told me that the movie scares her because back then, when she was growing up, you just always knew you were being watched, being monitored. You always suspected who was a Stasi man, but you never really knew for sure. And it didn’t hit you until later that it wasn’t so much agents of the Stasi you had to worry about, but those around you because everyone was informing on each other to get ahead.

Could’ve been worse. He could’ve thrown up in her lap.

From there we went into little aspects of German history, talking about “The Iron Chancellor” and how the Prussians united the country a hundred years before the Wall fell, and we even talked a little about Merkel, or “Angie,” as she called her, and told me what a fan she is, being that they’re both East German girls. She told me how it was so weird for her to come to America in her twenties and get a more full view of her own little world up til then and to compare it to growing up in communist Germany, where history was repainted with a propaganda slant. She mentioned that as a teen they were never allowed to refer to the Wall as just “the Wall,” it was always as the “tool for anti-fascist defense” or something like that.

She told me how when she was in school, it was a mandatory field trip for the kids to be taken to the concentration camps and shown all the gross details, the rooms with human remains permanently staining the walls, with the empty shoes of little babies that were turned to dust, the lampshades made out of flayed skin featuring Jewish tattoos. She told me how the physical evidence of the darkest corners of history would never leave her mind and part of her was glad that she was forced to see that shameful part of her country’s past, but that it’s something she knows kids don’t go to see anymore.

I don’t want to use the word “fascinating” again in this post, but that’s what it was. A fascinating conversation, and a fantastic one, informative and insightful. I thanked her for her time and being so patient with my curiousity, and of course for letting me know that it was actually Friday the 13th. Then I left, since I had been there for quite some time and it was starting to look like it might rain. I wasn’t interesting in listening to sad old men with hair plugs crooning bar anthems into my ear, so I just walked in silence, my head heavy with thoughts about everything we discussed.

“Komm rüber!” Hans Conrad Schumann defects, from here.

It did start raining before I got back to my front door, of course, but my mind was elsewhere and I didn’t actually realize it until I was pulling my key out to let myself back in and realized I was shivering there as the water dripped off of me.

And how did you spend your Friday the 13th?

A day of longing… wanting contact… brushing by, seeking the electricity that courses within…

Day Sixty-Five:  I Have The Touch (Peter Gabriel) – Heather Nova

Why not?

Why not talk about life in its entirety? Life is what there is. Without life, I wouldn’t be writing. Without life, you wouldn’t be reading. But what is life?

Destiny.

Do we have a certain destiny or fate cut out for every single one of us, or do we just float around in space and time, all dependent on the choices we do or don’t make? I believe in the latter of the two, though I like to think we all have a destiny. It would just make life so much easier, if we knew something good (or bad) would eventually show up. I find it hard to see the bright side of life at the moment. Not that I’m in any form of really poor situation. It’s just not as great as it has been. I’m rarely happy, like, the kind of happiness you find in kindergarten, when a child has successfully build a castle in the sand. That’s not me. I don’t build at the moment. Not with success, at least. I cling to the hope of a better tomorrow.

 Joy.

What are the true joys of life? Some say love, others say music, food, dancing in the rain. People have lots of opinions on this. My quick-answer would be music. Mostly because that’s my greatest joy right now. But then again, a good song goes like this:

The book of love has music in it,
In fact that’s where music comes from.
Some of it’s just transcendental,
Some of it’s just really dum.

But I,
I love it when you sing to me.
And you,
You can sing me anything.

(Peter Gabriel: The Book of Love) Obviously, music seems to come from love – or, the book of. Which might be true. I’d say that 99 % of all songs are more or less based on love, lost love or love that isn’t there yet. So is love the true joy? In that case, joy and sadness walks along hand-in-hand. Yes, that seems right. What gets you up, is the same thing that brings you down, whenever you lack it.

Is that me?

That’s probably the reason why I feel down at the moment. People around me feel love all the time. And yet they all seem to complain about their girlfriend or boyfriend not being perfect enough. Jeez, at least you guys have someone who loves you and is there for you when you need it. When I stare at my ceiling, I’m thinking about how lucky all of those guys are. How come they can’t see it?

They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

I’m disgusted.

here’s a link to an article on pitchfork about peter gabriel doing a cover album of contemporary artists like bon iver, arcade fire, magnetic fields, radiohead and regina spektor.  being a huge fan of artists doing covers, i’m looking forward to this one.

http://pitchfork.com/news/36940-peter-gabriel-to-cover-radiohead-arcade-fire-bon-iver-magnetic-fields/

El próximo año se espera que salga a la venta su disco de versiones y no ha podido esperar para desvelar el contenido de álbum

“Scratch My Back” es el nombre del nuevo trabajo de Peter Gabriel y estará a la venta el próximo 25 de enero de 2010.
El disco está producido Bob Ezrin y Tchard Blake, y saldrá a través de Virgin Records.

A continuación el listado de canciones:

Heroes (David Bowie)
The Boy In The Bubble (Paul Simon)
Mirrorball (Elbow)
Flume (Bon Iver)
Listening Wind (Talking Heads)
The Power Of The Heart (Lou Reed)
My Body Is A Cage (Arcade Fire)
The Book Of Love (The Magnetic Fields)
I Think It’s Going To Rain Today (Randy Newman)
Apres Moi (Regina Spektor)
Philadelphia(Neil Young)
Street Spirit (Radiohead)

by Matt Furie

• Matt Furie
• Matt Furie interview on FECAL FACE
• Matt Furie’s Big Adventure on XLR8
• Download his wallpaper, yeah!

by Matt Furie

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Awesome animated video! Some fun facts about the Sledgehammer video (from wikipedia):

• Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time.
• The portion of the song featuring the synthesized flute solo was realized in the video by first one and then two oven-ready chickens, headless and featherless, animated using stop-motion.
• In 1987, it won nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2008.

Thanks for sharing Mike!

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1985 The Goonies Dark Blue Ringer T-Shirt, to wear while watching old movies

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Stuff to do on Friday the 13th:

• Finish up your stuff for Expozine (something many folks in Montreal are actually doing today/tonight)
• Go to Mitz’ Friday the Thirteenth DJ party at Silver Door
• Go to that Silly Kissers/Mixylodian/Witchies show this evening at Le Milieu
• Start planning your outfit for the sure-to-be-amazing Tune-Yards/Dirty Projectors show Sunday evening
• Here’s an awesome quote from Tune-Yards (Merrill Garbus) in this week’s MTL Mirror:

“I consider all art to be political,” says Merrill Garbus. “The fact that I recorded an album all by myself is a feminist statement in this day and age, when most musicians I know, but especially female musicians, have a hard time seeing that they can be a recording artist by their own efforts. For men as well—you don’t have to have approval or a master hand over your creation, it’s yours and it can be all yours.”