Modern-day poseurs in the fraudulent '80s

“If you remember the ’80s with anything resembling fondness,
kill yourself.”
— Dr. Francis L. Scurvy

Every few minutes, some wisenheimer trendhawk with voids to fill pontificates on the question “Are the ’80s back?,” oblivious to the rash of similar articles written a few years earlier, which were themselves oblivious to the ones published a few years before that. Truth is, with the exception of a glorious half-decade or so in the early ’90s, THE ’80s HAVE NEVER LEFT. That nostalgia mill kicked to furious life around 1995, pumping out a veritable bounty of decade-related ephemera to cloud the malleable young minds of a generation too young to know better.

I must admit I fell prey to it, too. Most of my hard-fought cabbage went to funding sonic examinations of the Way We Were, primarily the multi-volume various-artist barrel-scrapes that transported Herr Listener (i.e., me) for one blissful afternoon away from the studio apartment he could barely afford on a pauper writer’s salary to the teat of irresponsible, irrepressible youth, when he had a rent-free bedroom under his parents’ roof and a head soaked in testosterone. Ahhh, yes: Standing on your momma’s porch…you told me that it’d last forever…hey, d’ja pay your rent? Got enough bank for Cheetos and Pepsis through payday? Those were the best days of my…mid-life crisis at 23.

But ponder the sentiment, fellow survivors. Were they the best days of our lives? I can only speak for me, and I say hell the fuck no. The more I contemplated that flimsy decade, the more I came to realize how bland and dull (more adjectives to come!) the ’80s were, how tawdry, how banal, how trivial. If you celebrate the ’80s, then you long for a time of hollow mediocrity in a country wheezing on the rusted fumes of a collapsing old boy’s network, those corrupt geezers poisoned by a senile tyranny informed by archaic adherence to paranoid Cold War ideology. Yeah, there were oodles of super-cool neat-o shoulder pads and blinding colors splashed everywhere, but what lay beneath the surface? Not a goddamn thing. Empty suburbia. Mindless pursuits. Endless layers of synthetic materialism. It was a good, long sociological nap, and we drooled fluorescent neon gobs of bloat all over our Pac-Man pillows. What’s that you say? Reagan’s sticking it to the poor again for the amusement of the bourgeoisie? That’s nice; have you heard the new Mr. Mister?

Welcome to the Get-Real World

I can’t fault the kids for perpetuating this ongoing charade. They’ve been slapped with this aggressive revisionist horseshit so long it may as well be peaches and cream. They can recite by rote all the signposts in the hoary narrative we’ve fed them. And, oh, how we’ve spewed. The ’80s were so much tubular bitchen trickly fun! A ceaseless hullabaloo of hedonism and style! Boy, did you young’uns miss out on some killer silly shit! Jellies shoes! Hair metal! Vuarnet sunglasses over an OP shirt over shrink-to-fit button-fly 501s over official Frankie Goes to Hollywood ankle socks stuffed into checkerboard slip-on Vans! Woooo! No. No. No. No. No. All of this iconic claptrap was stretched over a ten-year period of excruciatingly vapid tedium. But it’s typical of what we do: handpick a few images, then insist they represent the entire decade.

Here’s a fun exercise: Build a time machine, travel back to the bestest wowee decade ever, poll a random teenager by asking, “Isn’t this awesome?” then hope to John DeLorean he ain’t packing a bicycle chain. Luckily, of course, you don’t have to go to all that trouble. Remember the years 2000-2008? Shitty, right? ’80s, with a cartoon twist, a similar wardrobe and similar bands. (Remember that ever-so-brief sliver in the mid-mills when we finally acknowledged there was more to ’80s music than a couple of Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Soft Cell singles? The seven minutes we appreciated Gang of Four again?)

Now, some of y’all are gonna pipe up about the slow ascent of what we called “college rock” then and an overwhelming abundance of genre names now. And while that’s true to a point, it still remained very much an underground movement. If you were a sensitive school-aged squirt and openly admitted to liking, say, R.E.M. before about, say, 1987, you were a pussy-ass faggot queer who got dragged behind the school for a right nice stomp. Depeche Mode or The Cure? Justifiable homicide. Even looking “weird” (snerk) could result in considerable infrastructure damage. For all the “kooky” era fashions we highlight today, we weren’t really all that tolerant of anything outside the accepted norm. There was a definite class structure, violently maintained. Despite the burblings that would blossom in the ’90s (a decade we pillory, for some strange reason), there was no question as to who was in charge: the children of Alex P. Keaton, the progeny of Arnold and Sly.

I control your hearts and minds.

Look no further than The Breakfast Club for a solid demonstration of the ’80s in action: Ally Sheedy’s wallflower is an unacceptable companion for Emilio Estevez’s wrestling stud until Molly Ringwald’s spoiled princess transforms her Pygmalion-style into one of Them. Ringwald uses her powers of redheaded privilege to civilize Judd Nelson’s hunky thug (taming the Bender). Anthony Michael Hall’s sexless nerd doesn’t score with anyone, but that’s OK: he gets the satisfaction of writing everyone’s Saturday School assignment for them. On Monday, he’ll return to campus the same hounded hallway geek. The Beautiful People pick up a pair of new passengers while maintaining the status quo.

That, my friends, was the ’80s. Assimilation and control, but with a decent soundtrack.

Last night I had an AMAZING time at the SECC in Glasgow. Last year, Simple Minds did a weird concert in town – they played at the ABC to 350 people and I didn’t get a ticket. But I did get two tickets for the Graffiti Soul tour celebrating 30 years of live tours.

When I booked I didn’t know if they were on their own but when the tickets came through, I was doubly amazed to see the support act was OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark for you non-initiates). Both bands are from the late seventies – actually long before I discovered rock music which wasn’t until about 1988 when I joined Parcelforce as Finance Manager for Scotland and Northern Ireland. That is a tale in itself but is not for today.

It was moderately disappointing to see so many empty seats when OMD started to play but Jennifer said to me that many people don’t turn up for the support. True enough, as the hour long support act – how can you say that OMD is support? – the empty seats filled bringing the total audience size to near enough 9500.

It was a stunning performance and Jim Kerr, lead in Simple Minds, although clearly a little (!) older, still has that iconic voice and is as alive musically as ever.

The huge increase in Db both from the crowd and the huge suite of speakers when they arrived on stage to open with “Sanctify” was painful on my ears at first but you couldn’t not listen. Over the course of the evening we were taken through the less well-known and the old favourites, with the crowd encouraged to sing and join in.

The “Milk song” as we know it here (Don’t you forget about me) was a stunning piece that lasted at least 15 or twenty minutes with total audience participation. It is their most accessible and famous songs.

The guys sang through till nearly 11.30 – that’s two hours of pure entertainment. This was no ordinary gig. I’ve been at others, like Rush, and they are good too but this was something special.

I didn’t want to go home and yet I could see the band were getting tired and no wonder. The pure energy and musicality of the night and what they put into the performance was special. I know this post has been me just oozing about how much I enjoyed the gig.

So what? sometimes even accountants need to get some pleasure.

JohnF

On Friday, I’m going out. It’s a rare occurrence, rare enough to merit comment. A combination of parenthood and financial restraint mean it doesn’t roll around too often. There’s an extra frisson of anticipation about this night out though. We’re heading through to Glasgow to see Simple Minds at the SECC. Ok, maybe not the most fashionable of bands to go see, but it’s special for me.

The Minds were the first band I ever went to see perform live. Growing up in the Borders every band worth their salt, and many not even worth the seawater, bypassed the area. There was no way my parents would be persuaded to ferry me to Newcastle or Edinburgh or Glasgow in order to attend a concert, at least not until I was 17 anyway. I’d been a fan of the band since ‘Sparkle In The Rain’, and finally was going to get to see them play, at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Of course, this was at the height of the anti-apartheid era and so, there was a falling out with the SRU and the gig was re-housed at the vastly inferior Meadowbank. Not that this mattered to us.

I guess technically The Silencers were the first band I saw live as they were the first of the support acts. Thank you to the organizers for introducing me to the best Scottish band no one has ever heard of. Texas were also on the bill, a teenage Sharleen Spiteri tempting fate by asking the crowd “what have you got to show me first?” I’m fairly sure there was someone else on the bill, but for the life of me, I just don’t remember them. Jim and the boys were superb, making me realize that music is meant to be heard live and loud.

The bootleg tape procured from an Edinburgh record fair saw a fair bit of play in the years after the event, despite the out of time clapping, crap wit and tuneless shouting along of the guys stood around the recording device.

I’ve seen the Minds a couple of times since, at the Usher Hall and most recently in Princes Street Gardens, and they are still as good as ever. As an extra treat, Friday’s support act are OMD….it’s back to my youth all over again.

When it comes to favourite gigs, I have a few and for different reasons. The aforementioned Meadowbank show as it was my first. The biggest in terms of crowd numbers was the performance of ‘The Wall’ by Roger Waters and a cast of thousands in Berlin in 1990. Quarter of a million people, a fantastic show and a night spent sleeping rough on the floor of the Zoogardens Rail station. Fantastic. I’ve seen the Silencers a few times in the Queens Hall in Edinburgh. Wonderful gigs, such a small venue you’re almost on stage with the band.

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie was a memorable night at the Barrowlands, down the front, peering up at the soon to be famous Shirley Manson. Shame it took the demise of the Macs to make it happen.

James at Alton Towers rounds out my top five, a gig that was a triumph because of, rather than despite the weather. It had been miserable all day. Rain and wind had almost forced a cancellation. Johnny Rotten and PiL had been pelted with bottles and various other missiles, before James came on and whipped up the crowd. It was a tremendous atmosphere in amongst the fans. Steam rising as body heat counteracted the rainfall.

Here’s hoping that Friday night forces itself into consideration for the top five. It’s going to be good no matter what.

And James/Charlie, if you’re reading, I look forward to hearing, some, most or none of these tracks.

Spotify link

This is great. Awesome playing, arranging and harmonising by Down The Line. I can’t fault this. (watch HQ)

Classic Audi motorsports footage heroically set to “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by the Simple Minds. Just superb!

(Side note: I think “In a Big Country” by Big Country could have also worked just as well.)

(via the great DTMEnthusiast)

- Gyro

#10: Transatlantic: The Whirlwind

Spock’s Beard  put down some amazing progressive music 10 or so years ago. At the same time Transatlantic was cranking out high quality progressive epics. It was a “supergroup” comprised of the Beard’s Neal Morse,  Marillion’s Pete Trewavas, Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy, and the Flower Kings’ Roine Stolt. They were both poised to really hit big a few years ago, but the main songwriter of both groups, Neal Morse, left to pursue a solo career. His debut album, Testimony, was not bad. ? is very, very good, but I couldn’t get into Sola Scriptura. Lifeline was a nice return to form, but not an instant classic the way the first five Beard and the first two Transatlantic cds were. When news came out that Transatlantic were reforming, I had high hopes. My opinion on their latest album is that it sounds a lot like another Neal Morse solo set. While I buy everything the guy releases, I have to admit that a certain “sameness” is creeping into his compositions. That said, anything these guys do is head and shoulders above what most groups aspire to. So this made my Top Ten. Highly recommended if you like classic Yes, Led Zeppelin, Gentle Giant, etc.

#9: Tinted Windows

Another “supergroup”, especially if you are a powerpop aficionado. Tinted Windows are: Taylor Hanson (from Hanson, lead vocals), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins, guitar), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne, bass) and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick, drums). No pretenses here, just flat out fun rock. Compulsively catchy songs that make me think what would happen if the Raspberries and the Ramones had children and they got together to record some songs. This was the soundtrack to my summer.

#8: Porcupine Tree: The Incident

Steven Wilson, who is for all intents and purposes Porcupine Tree, is my current favorite recording artist. He manages to meld elements of Pink Floyd, The Beatles, King Crimson, ELP, and miscellaneous other classic rock bands into something wholly original and beautiful. He is also prolific as all get out, and it is a challenge to keep up with all of his projects (my favorite side project is Blackfield). The best place for news on Steven’s work is The Seaweed Farm.

Anyway, it’s big news at my house when Porcupine Tree has a new album out ( and I use the word “album” deliberately: Mr. Wilson is one of the few musicians still putting together songs meant to be listened to as a whole. Transatlantic is another group in this respect.) So why is this one in the bottom half of my top ten? Well, I can’t put my finger on it, but this is the first PT album where there isn’t a single song that really grabs me and won’t let go. Maybe Steven went into the studio too soon after his Insurgentes solo disc (further up the list!), but I have to admit this isn’t up to Porcupine Tree’s usual high standards. If you’ve never heard anything by them, I recommend you start with In Absentia.

#7: Bleu: A Watched Pot

I love this guy’s music! He channels mid-70’s ELO and Cheap Trick to come up with fantastic tunes that put a big smile on your face. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, and you shouldn’t either. Just enjoy his songs.

#6: Owl City: Ocean Eyes

OK, a little bragging here: I liked Owl City before Owl City was cool. I enjoyed his first two discs, Of June and Maybe I’m Dreaming quite a lot. Adam Young started out recording songs in his basement. When I played them in the car and my 15 year old daughter asked who it was, I knew he could hit it big (my daughter is an extremely discriminating music connoisseur). On the day this was released I went to my local indie record shop to buy it, and all I got were blank stares. The next thing I know, the cd is all over Target. Good for Mr. Young! The best way to describe this is Death Cab For Cutie with synthesizers (LOTS of synthesizers). Ear candy for sure, but it’s addictive.

#5: Five For Fighting: Slice

The title track is one of the greatest songs I’ve heard in years. He decries the splintering of our culture as everyone heads for their comfortable niche of music, news, and movies, and there are no longer any commonly shared experiences that help hold us together as a country. Sample lyrics:

There was a time a long, long time ago
Chevys and levees played on the radio
No cell phones, just 20,000 lights
Swaying on a saturday night alright

Can you imagine that slice of time
Rock and roll was young
People stood in line
To hear music that played into their lives
That you could carry till the day you die

Hey man sing me a song
When we were everyone
We were more than just a slice of American Pie

Have you read my blog today
300 million little USA’s
Your doorstep is just a click away
We’ll get together one of these days

How can you be as nice as me
You’re not from the same slice as me
Where do we go from here my friend
Is this the way our story ends

Hey man sing me a song
When we were everyone
We were more than just a slice of American Pie

#4: Riverside: Anno Domini High Definition

And now for something completely different! These guys are from Poland, and they play excellent melodic hard rock. This one is in the vein of late-80’s to mid 90’s Rush, with keyboards more prominent than on their previous efforts. I highly recommend this disc if you like Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, or Transatlantic. A bit heavier than those, but still an extremely enjoyable listening experience.

#3: Simple Minds: Graffiti Soul

We’re in the Top 3 now! I have always liked Simple Minds, going back to the mid-80’s. They’ve undergone some stylistic permutations over the years, but Jim Kerr’s vocals and Charlie Burchill’s guitar have remained distinctively their own. It’s unfortunate that they are barely noticed here in the US, but this album is amazing. Every song is a gem, and I can’t stop listening to it. Get it while you can.

#2: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives: Communion

TSOOL is from Sweden, and it’s as if they went through time warp in 1972 to land in 2009. They genuflect at the altar of The Who, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Spirit, and other rock gods of the late 60’s – early 70’s. Their latest album (their 5th by my count) is a blast of pure rock and pop pleasure. Did I mention you get 2 discs of music for the price of 1? I like the statement that makes: in this age of disposal one-off pop “hits” these guys put out an extravagant 24-track masterpiece (with extra bonus tracks available as downloads!). And guess what? I can’t hear a trace of Auto Tune anywhere!

#1: Steven Wilson: Insurgentes

And the #1 cd of 2009 is… Steven Wilson’s solo opus Insurgentes. I preordered this in November, received a link to download an mp3 version, and I burned a cd from that to listen to until the official release in 2009. It is a stunning work that incorporates Beatlesque tunes, white noise, Crimsoid thrashing, and Steven’s own inimitable sense of melody. I have listened to this disc more than anything else this year. I will listen to it for years to come. Make sure you get the cd/dvd version for the 5.1 surround sound mix (it’s not any more expensive than a single cd).

Charlie Burchill, Scottish guitarist and keyboardist (Simple Minds)

Simple Minds
17/11/2009
Sala Razzmatazz (Barcelona)

Jordi Teixidó

Un dels grans grups del 80, els Simple Minds, van trepitjar el passat 17 de novembre una sala Razzmatazz mig buida, per fer un repàs dels grans èxits de la seva carrera i de pas, presentar el seu últim disc “Graffiti Soul”, que no desentona gens amb el seu so de sempre.

Com és que un grup que omplia estadis amb una facilitat impressionant, ara no convoca més de 1.000 persones? Així són les modes segurament… El revival 80’s no ha arribat a tots els àmbits. Un grup que ha fet himnes generacionals sembla ser que no ha aconseguit arribar al públic més jove. I això es veia en la audiència que clarament superava els 35 anys de mitjana. Tot i així, la banda va sonar perfecte, amb un so contundent i afinat. El grup, composat únicament per un membre de la formació original, el cantant Jim Kerr, estava format per un guitarra exquisit que treia suc de totes les composicions, i un baixista que donava un perfecte dinasme a les cançons. I com no, moltes de les cançons són inmenses i quan van sonar “Don’t you forget about me” i “Alive and kicking” es va provocar el conseqüent embogiment catàrtic del respectable.

En tot, un concert digne, que segurament els fans que van anar-hi recordaran, per la possibilitat de veure un dinosaure dels 80 a pocs metres de distància, amb una actitut molt digne, fent un concert de 2 hores sense que els importés la poca quantitat de públic. So perfecte, cantant entregat i actiu. Una actitud que els honora i que fa passar la mà per la cara a qualsevol altre grup modern amb fums que hagués cancel·lat sense cap tipus de remordiment de consciència.

Ens treiem el barret davant la professionalitat de Simple Minds.

Simple Minds have been performing live for 30 years. That’s a lot of years of fine, fine, music. The first song I heard from them was “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”- you know that famous song from that famous movie, “The Breakfast Club”. To be completely honest, at the time, I didn’t know who they were or what the name of the song was. It was playing on the local radio station (now defunct) and I could only record the last part. (That would be on a cassette player). Yes, all I had to go on was Jim Kerr’s voice sing: “La, la, la…” These were the days before the Internet and that all powerful search engine. Oh boy.

Days or months later I caught the video for “Hypnotized” on a channel whose name I can’t recall. Needless to say I was “hypnotized” by the sound and the images. I had the song running around for days, but most importantly, I had the name of the artist and the album! I was then to stumble upon the Simple Minds in a music magazine. It was an add for their new album “Good News From The Next World”. And that was that. As fortune would have it my birthday was around the corner and I purchased a copy with my birthday money. (I couldn’t choose between Sting’s “Mercury Falling” and “Good News From The Next World”, so I bought them both. In cassette form that is. I still have them. ^_^)

So began my love of the Simple Minds. Quite a few years later, I still listen to their music. A few months ago they came out with a new CD: “Graffiti Soul”. I don’t know how they did it, but they combine the sound of the old with the new. They took the best of the old Simple Minds (80s) and the best of the new Simple Minds (90s) and created this incredibly, fantastic, wonderful, energetic, awesome album. Some of those tracks could belong in old albums- Jim Kerr’s voice even SOUNDS like it did back then. While others are modern, they could fit in “Cry” or “Black & White 050505”. It blows you away. It ROCKS you to the core of your being. It is the best music I’ve heard in a while. Much better than some currently playing on the radio (does new music even play on the radio anymore?).

Simple Minds even rock the cover songs! Their cover album “Neon Lights” is fantastic. Jim Kerr sings some of those songs better than the original artist. The deluxe version of “Graffiti Soul” comes with a bonus disk (“Searching for the Lost Boys”) that has these awesome covers. (My favorite is “Sloop John B” from The Beach Boys)

Seriously, don’t take my word for it, go out and get a copy for yourself! ^_^

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Favorite tracks:

“Graffiti Soul”

“This is it”

“Stars Will Lead the Way”

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Links:

Simple Minds Website (official)

Dream giver redux

Hace 17 años debutó Radiohead con su single Creep, una canción emblemática que les abrió las puertas del éxito. Aunque no la tocaron en directo durante un tiempo como reacción al temido encasillamiento, está considerada como una de sus mejores composiciones. Muchos han sido los artistas que la han versioneado. He seleccionado dos de entre todos ellos para que la comparéis con la original. En el siguiente video la podéis disfrutar en un lugar exótico, en el MTV Beach House en 1994.

El neoyorkino Moby es uno de los que se han atrevido con la que es para muchos fans un himno. El bisnieto del escritor Herman Melville, autor de la novela Moby Dick de la que coge su apodo, la ha tocado en varios conciertos. En el video por ejemplo tenéis la brillante interpretación que hizo en el Festival de Glastonbury.

Chrissie Hynde y sus Pretenders la adaptaron en formato acústico para incluirla en su box set Pirate Radio del 2006. La maravillosa voz de la ex de Ray Davis (The Kinks) y de Jim Kerr (Simple Minds),  ofrece otra visión de la canción que la hace especialmente atractiva. No os arrepentiréis de darle al play.

Suzi Quatro siempre impone estilo con su bajo

En la historia del rock  siempre han existido músicos que tenían tanto potencial que uno podría pensar que llegarían a ser tan grandes como Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones o Metallica. Sin embargo, a veces el público no los apoya  tanto, lo que provoca que sus carreras se queden en el intento de la gloria absoluta.

A pesar del panorama en contra, su calidad musical es incuestionable y uno de los ejemplos claros  de este tipo de artistas que no llegaron al Olimpo de los dioses del rock,  lo encuentro en Suzi Quatro -antes de The Runaways y de dos graduadas de esta banda femenina, que tuvieron carreras con éxito respetable como Lita Ford o Joan Jett- esta bajista estadounidense salió a escena, tocando con una furia rocanrolera que cualquiera podría augurar que se convertiría en un ícono que podría igualar la gloria de la gran Janis Joplin.

Suzi cantaba con actitud y fuerza y esto se reflejaba en temas como “Can to can” o “Rock Hard”, su estilo te volaba la cabeza y era prácticamente la única mujer rockera al centro de una banda. En Estados Unidos no pudo tener el éxito que tuvo en Europa o en Inglaterra, sin embargo en México llegó a sonar mucho a finales de los 70’s e inicios de los 80’s, lo que me hace pensar que a veces el mercado estadounidense no es tan sabio como se suele pensar.

Aquí unos videos de su estilo sexy y agresivo, donde no le faltaban sus hermosos pantalones de cuero.

La primera vez que vi a Adam and The Ants, vi una actitud punk, pero que ya estaba combinada con el New Romantic,  realmente pensé que el cantante Adam Ant se veía tan sobrado que era sólo cuestión de tiempo para que conquistara Norteamérica y fuera la competencia directa de otro post punk como Billy Idol.

Su look de pirata combinado con maquillaje y esa voz  limpia pero chillona, era digna de un cantante explosivo, que igual pudo llegar a las alturas de un Michael Hutchence de INXS, pero tuvo la mala suerte de ser manejado por Malcom McLaren, el mítico manager de los Sex Pistols, que tenía como característica sólo sacar buen dinero de sus bandas cuando iniciaban y luego abandonarlas a su suerte.

Los escoceses de Simple Minds hubiera podido ocupar el lugar de U2, ya que llegaron a dominar las listas de Estados Unidos y el Reino Unido, como sus colegas irlandenses. La forma de tocar del  guitarrista Charlie Burchill competía sin ningún trabajo con la de The Edge.

También se preocupaban por los problemas sociales, siendo colaboradores de Amnistía Internacional y eran apoyados siempre por la crítica especializada. A pesar de su gran calidad musical, sólo se les recuerda por su sencillo “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, como si solamente hubieran sido una banda de un sólo sencillo.

El público se fue con U2 y dejaron atrás a Simple Minds,porque la banda de Bono se sacudió su estilo europeo y la banda del frontman Jim Kerr prefirió seguir experimentando pero con sus bases del Viejo Mundo.

Dokken fue una banda de hard rock que logró ventas millonarias en los 80’s,  contando con gran calidad en composición, estilo guitarristico y vocal, logrando grandes temas que musicalmente superaban a muchos de sus contemporáneos.

“Breaking the chains”, “Alone again”, fueron clásicos que tenían la fuerza clásica del hard-rock, sin caer en la clásica power ballad,  y que incluso hacía pensar a cualquiera que podrían evolucionar a territorios nuevos y frescos.

Tenían el espíritu de  Bon Jovi, pero sin llegar a ser excesivamente comerciales, pero tampoco entraban en la categoría agresiva de unos Skid Row. Sus diferencias personales entre el cantante Don Dokken y el guitarrista George Lynch, fueron el detonante de su separación, terminando olvidados por los fans, sin ocupar el trono que realmente merecían. 

Cinderella era una banda descubierta por el mismísimo Jon Bon Jovi, quien los recomendó con una disquera y de ser una banda desconocida de Philadelphia, lograron ubicarse como una banda importante de glam metal en Estados Unidos y el mundo.

Sus ventas millonarias y el estilo de sus canciones, lograron darle un aire fresco al hard-rock ochentero y eran de las pocas bandas que realizaban arreglos más elaborados en sus temas, al grado que llegaron a interesar al ex bajista de Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, cuando colaboró con ellos en su disco “Heartbreak Station”. Realmente pensé que llegarían más lejos, pero el público simplemente decidió concentrarse en el grunge.

Fonte “RockOL“

E’ stato aperto in corso Australia, nell’ex area del Foro Boario, a Padova, il Gran Teatro, arcostruttura (lunga 100 metri e larga 48, con un palcoscenico di 26 metri per 20 e oltre 2000 posti a sedere con platea e tribuna digradanti) che ospiterà per tutta la stagione invernale concerti ed eventi anche a carattere musicale: sulle assi del Gran Teatro tra gli altri sono attesi, nelle prossime settimane, Porcupine Tree, Simple Minds, Claudio Baglioni, Vinicio Capossela, Incognito, Europe, Cristiano De André, Mango e J-Ax. Per il programma completo e aggiornato degli spettacoli è possibile consultare il sito ufficiale della struttura o la sezione Concerti di Rockol ad essa dedicata.

The Prodigy

3 December
Invaders Must Die was released in Europe on February 23, 2009 charting at number one with week one sales of over 97,000. To coincide with the release of the album, the band embarked on an arena tour.

Editors

Lead singer Smith revealed that the band will explore a new direction on their next album, pursuing a new, rawer sound. Before January 2009, Editors had written around eighteen new songs for the new album and they have been described as some of the most synthetic, raw and anthemic songs they have written to date. In October the band went to the studio to record some demos. The band spent the first week of April recording the album and on 8 April, they released a short video with information about the recording process. It announced on that Mark ‘Flood’ Ellis would be the producer for the album. Earlier on in the year, the sound of the album was said to have a very electric feel with the band often using the Terminator theme song as a reference.

Arctic Monkeys

6 February
Arctic Monkeys revealed that the band had listened to Jimi Hendrix and Cream while writing the new album. It was revealed via a bulletin on the band’s MySpace page that the title of the album will be Humbug. As announced on the Arctic Monkeys website the first single will be “Crying Lightning”.

"Cough, cough, tossers, cough"

Make no mistake about it. Simple Minds was never more than a poor man’s U2. An 80’s footnote, saved from complete historical obscurity only by continued, nostalgic television repeats of the movie ‘The Breakfast Club’.

The lead singer, Jim Kerr, is now a portly Glaswegian ex-sushi restaurateur. Says it all, really.

Having clearly stated my position, I should point out that the title of this article is a direct reference the second (and thankfully final) blip on their otherwise flat-lining career. Because my unborn child is – in the Sashimi-stuffed-face words of Mr Kerr himself - “Oooh oh oh, alive and kicking.. ooh woh-oh-woh-oh-woh yeah.” (etc, etc, ad very, very nauseum)

Though, to be honest, prodding is probably a more apt description.

In fact, anatomically speaking, it’s hard to tell whether what I’m feeling is even a kick, a punch or, ironically enough, a Glaswegian Kiss.

It’s a sensation not unlike shaking hands with the effete husband of a wife’s colleague, moments before sitting down to dinner, and being presented with the loose, cold grip of a plucked chicken foot. Weak, but weirdly thrilling.

At least my kid has the excuse of being barely bigger than a Care Bear. A one centimeter foot on the end of a 2 inch leg (“Woah there fella.. easy on the Metric/Imperial double analogy!”) is unlikely to make much of a dent on the average abdominal wall. Not a lot of room in the womb for a decent swing, either.

It’s an unusual sensation, feeling similar to the gentle passing of a bolus of wind, just beneath the surface of the skin (in lay terms.. a fart). Which mean that, in the weeks leading up to the first kick, there was endless, confusing speculation as to what the hell we were supposed to be feeling anyway.

Every book, website, forum, and bloke-down-the-pub describes it simply as a ‘flutter‘. But what’s a flutter supposed to feel like anyway? Nerves before a big test? Constipation? A trapped gerbil?

They also say that, the second time round, with the benefit of experience, you will feel baby moving much earlier on. But what shitting good is that to us know? Huh!?

Still, I smell an opportunity to cash in on the many, expensive fears of first motherhood. It’s only a rough idea, but i’m thinking of some sort of electric touch pad strapped to the belly, causing muscle palpitations that resemble baby’s movement.

It could have the added benefit of toning pregnant abs at the same time… good for her, and good for him too!

Of course, it may also cause a miscarriage. Or, at the least, some sort of tinsel-haired electro-baby.

As I say, it needs work.

Till then, however eager we are to feel more, and stronger kicking action, we are ever mindful that, soon enough, we’ll be wishing our little cage fighter would learn to keep it’s GODDAMN HANDS TO ITSELF FOR A CHANGE!

So 9 Stunden Transkripert heut, wohl fast daran krepiert. Vom Umfang her waren das fast 14 Seiten komplett. Wenn man bedenkt ist das schon ne nette Hausarbeit an der Uni. Und was macht man dann, wenn man die Muse nicht im Bett wecken will und der Hals schmerzt vor Verspannung?

Youtube ist um 02:45 Uhr immer ne Gute Idee. Und was kann ich da sehen? Naja Pornos bekommst du woanders. Frag doch mal deinen Nachbarn. Also mein Nachbar ne Etage unter mir, hat angeblich auf seinem Riesen Flatscreen, der Arsch, Pornos geschaut und sich fröhlich dabei den Kuppenkäse runter geschüttelt. Ein Glück, dass mir das nur durch nen Kumpel von meinem Mitbewohner erzählt wurde. Also ehrlich mal, reicht es nicht das der Arsch schon nen Riesen Flatscreen hat. Denk doch mal einer an die armen Kinder hier im Haus!

Achso, der Gurkenrubbler hat übrigens auch ein rosa T-Shirt mit goldener Aufschrift “Prinzessin”. Wer’s brauch.

Wo war ich?

Ach ja Youtube. Also Ich schaute grad ein lustiges Video zum Thema Frauenfußball. Doch seht selbst:

What a Bitch!

More 2 comes soon.

Scheiß auf Englisch!

Hoch leben die Simple Minds! Sowohl im wörtlichen als auch im alkoholisiert, weiblichen Menschheitsrahmen. Dumm fickt gut, hab ich mir sagen lassen. Mal schaun ob die Muse jetzt noch mitmacht? Oder muss ich etwa zur Prinzessin ein Stockwerk tiefer in den braunen Salon?

Man? Kaum wieder auf Deutsch hier und schon nur noch ein Thema. Sex. Sex. Sex. Naja, wer Niveau will soll halt woanders hingehen.

AproPopo Niveau

Good Night and Good Luck:

28 november in vorst nationaal … maar die dag gaat u natuurlijk ook naar Ghinzu nji?