NEWS: Jarvis Showcases New Rock Songs

Britpop hero and Quietus guest writer Jarvis Cocker has revealed that he will be roadtesting new material during a short US tour this week.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music today the former Pulp frontman also gave details of his first album since the acclaimed 2006 solo debut and its heavier sound.

“I have been working and I have been writing. I’m doing three shows in America in July where I’m gonna try a lot of new stuff out. I’ll see if I survive that, then I’ll try and get it recorded as soon as possible really.

“I probably won’t get it out this year being realistic. But I’d like to get it out as soon as possible. But I’m afraid I will kill again. There will be another record.”

Elaborating on the new material further, the Artery fan spoke of the more wholesome band sound that will be incorporated into the follow-up to Jarvis.

“It’s hard to say as it’s not all done yet but I think it’ll probably be louder than the last one. The thing was, I wrote that record over a period of time and enlisted the help of Steve [Mackey – bass] and Ross [Orton – drums] and Richard [Hawley – guitar] to help me record it. Then went out and played it, and discovered I had a band that could rock.

“That really made me think. I’d never really had that before. Pulp could be loud, but we didn’t really rock…. Well, maybe occasionally. So what I’ve tried to do with the new stuff, rather than me just sit there and wait for inspiration to come at some point – which takes ages – instead we’ve written stuff together. And it’s a bit louder.

“It’s probably something to do with some kind of midlife crisis as well, y’know? Rock while to still have the ability to do it before your bits start falling off.”

May the testing commence, hopefully with Jarvis’ Cocker full intact. His US tour dates are as follows:

• 19th July - Pitchfork Music Festival, Union Park Chicago
• 21st July - Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• 22nd July - Terminal 5, New York

For a live version of Cocker’s ‘Fat Children’ head below:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Bowie For T In The Park 2009

Singer, dancer, actor, producer and all round good egg David Bowie is being trailed by T In The Park organisers to headline next year’s festival.

Organiser of the Scottish jaunt Geoff Ellis has said that Bowie would be his dream headliner after the star had to cancel his appearance at the 2004 festival due to a shoulder injury.

Ellis said: “It feels like we’ve unfinished business.”

The Darkness replaced Bowie as headliners at the festival four years ago.

Fans keen to buy tickets for next year’s musical outing can get ‘Early Bird’ tickets at 2008 prices from the festival’s website.

It will be held in Balado, Kinross between July 10 and 12.

Glance below for a video of Bowie performing ‘China Girl’ at the Glastonbury Festival in 2000:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Coldplay In Song Giveaway

Musical activists Coldplay have released new track 'Death Will Never Conquer' into the ether of the internet.

Available from the band’s website the previously unreleased song is a gift to all the fans who have supported the them through the ever successful Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends era and to celebrate the start of their world tour.

The track is a stripped down bluegrass affair featuring only Martin and his ivories.

A statement on the site says: “Tonight’s the first night of the tour. To say thank you to everyone who’s bought tickets and supported us hear’s a new song…”

Leaving fans on a bit of a cliffhanger the message ends, “You'll hear it at the concerts with a twist...”

It will be safe to say that this twist will not feature doom metal, drum and bass, dubstep or free jazz.

For a snippet of the band’s appearance at BBC Television Centre on June 18 click below:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Flaming Lips: New Movie, New Album, New Direction

Spacey swooner Wayne Coyne has shot his load and giving information on the The Flaming Lips’ two biggest projects to date.

Talking to BBC 6 Music on Saturday (July 12) and in typical fantastical style Coyne gave details of the band’s new album, its disparate influences and the imminent release of their long-awaited feature film.

“Some of it sounds like John Lennon, but if he got together with Miles Davis and they went back in time, but there was a supercomputer that they could figure out how to work!”

We’ve done a couple of songs, but we have a handful of other songs that I know have a good vibe to them. We’ve been wanting to do it for a while, but we’ve been trying to find the right combination of song and mood. But I think we’ll get there.”

On top of all this activity the first ever full-length Flaming Lips feature film, Christmas On Mars, is in the can. Seven years in the making it looks set for a DVD release toward the end of the year:

“We never knew when we were gonna release the movie for sure. We started making it in 2001, but we always knew were gonna release the Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album [2002] before that came out.

“But then after Yoshimi came out, we never got to go home again. So luckily we were interrupted by popularity – or whatever you want to call it. And luckily we were able to get back to it and I think it’s better now that we didn’t finish it that early because computers, technology, skill level, bravery and all those things, just changed for us. I think we’re able to do something a lot more interesting, a lot more emotional and a lot more weird. It’s just been made better because it took us so long.”

The film’s plot is perhaps as randomly psychedelic as the band’s multi-layered lunacy hints at.

“There’s an abandoned space station on Mars, where there’s a baby being born that happens to be coinciding with Christmas - the baby’s accidentally being born on Christmas Eve,” explains Coyne.

“There’s a major disaster, the oxygen generator breaks, they don’t know if the baby’s gonna survive, but my character [a green-faced Martian] shows up and through some magical thinking, some great things happens.”

For more Flaming Lips craziness check out the video to the band’s 2006 single ‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)’ below:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Snoop Dogg Walks The Line

One the most outrageous collaborations in music history is nigh, with the news that Snoop Doggy Dogg is set to feature on the much anticipated album Johnny Cash Remixed, a new version of Cash’s legendary I Walk The Line.

The project, which involves contemporary artists remixing tracks based on the album, is being overseen by the Cash family.

With his descendents keen loving eyes watching over the project the Man in Black’s work shouldn’t (we hope) be subjected to too much ill-advised and clunky genre cross-pollination.

The full tracklisting including remixing artists is listed below:

• 'I Walk The Line' (featuring Snoop Dogg)
• 'Country Boy' (Sonny J)
• 'Get Rhythm' (Philip Steir)
• 'Leave that Junk Alone' (Alabama 3)
• 'Folsom Prison Blues' (Pete Rock)
• 'Hey Porter' (Mocean Worker)
• 'Sugartime' (Kennedy)
• 'Trail to Mexico' (Mexican Industry of Sound/MIS)
• 'Doin' My Time' (The Heavy)
• 'Wide Open Road' (Count de Money)

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Radiohead Get Laser Treatment

Ever innovative Oxfordians Radiohead are about to release a music video for In Rainbows track ‘House of Cards’.

This isn’t the story though. Staying true to their word and continuing to do away with traditional filmmaking techniques for the videos for their new album the band have produced the groundbreaking short film using the latest laser technology.

Developed by Velodyne's Lidar as an improvement on radar, the laser uses structured light to give detail of objects within a close proximity.

The result: a warbling Thom Yorke highlighted in neon light instead of human skin pigmentation.

The techy stuff goes a bit like this. Using light pulses to portray environments in three dimensions, for the music video Velodyne took 64 lasers, shot 900 times per minute in a 360-degree radius. This way both landscapes and rooms were given a haunting hyper-futuristic aspect.

In a statement Yorke said: “I always like the idea of using technology in a way that it wasn't meant to be used, the struggle to get your head around what you can do with it. I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points - and how strangely emotional it ended up being.”

ASAD can reveal the video will be hosted here Accompanying the video will be a ‘making of’ documentary and a selection of renders lifted from the film for your delectation.

Radiohead have posted a gallery of laser shots, visit the Radiohead website to see them.

Have a look below now for the amazing video:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Chinese Democracy invades Rock Band 2

Following Mötley Crüe’s lead, Guns N’ Roses are to release a song through a computer.

The sequel to the hugely popular Rock Band game will include ‘Shackler’s Revenge’, a track from Chinese Democracy - probably the most anticipated album of recent rock memory.

This news is likely to be confirmed today (July 14) but metalunderground.com broke it earlier quoting anonymous individuals close to the deal as sources.

The song’s inclusion in Rock Band 2 is a hint that the new album will be out this autumn, finally putting an end to years of delays, although a confirmed release date is yet to be announced.

Watch a video of Rock Band 2's drum kit in action below:

This news story can be found on Thrash Hits with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: Google

NEWS: Lydon Slams PR Machine

Potty mouthed old egg John Lydon has today stated that the Sex Pistols never worked a publicity campaign during their entire career.

The current music industry climate of struggling record labels is said to please the edgy veteran, mostly because he’d never enjoyed working with them.

Talking to the Daily Star Lydon said: “My advice to young musicians is: You can do it for yourself, you really can.

“During the whole of my career I've never orchestrated a record with a tour and a publicity campaign. It's never happened.”

In defence of The Sex Pistols somewhat lacklustre efforts at releasing music of late he added: “So what if we released our last album 31 years ago? We make records when we want not when we're told. We’re not a shuttle bus service... Or The Rolling Stones.

“It's more natural to create new material this way because there's a different kind of energy when you’re out there. That's what the Sex Pistols are all about. We spend bugger all on publicity.”

Obviously the sweary Today television interview in 1976 that launched the band and the very public signing of their A&M Records contract outside Buckingham Palace during a special press ceremony was all charity.

In a characteristically witty attack at the close of the interview Lydon slammed musicians such as Madonna who do spend lots of cash on marketing.

“What is it [Madonna] spends? About £250,000 a year to keep her pony-arse face in the paper?”

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Film, Lazarus, Film!!!

A series of short films are being made to accompany the reissuing of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds entire back catalogue.

From Her To Eternity, The First Born Is Dead, Kicking Against The Pricks and Your Funeral My Trial are to be digitally remastered and remixed in full 5.1 surround sound and released at the end of the year with more released throughout 2009.

Each super-dooper deluxe collector’s edition will include the remastered stereo album, the new surround mix, the b-sides from the singles, exclusive sleeve notes and a specially commissioned documentary by acclaimed artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

This epic film-making project will be touring the globe looking for fans who are willing to interviewed talking about their favourite band.

Taking in London, New York, Melbourne and Berlin, Forsyth and Pollard will be looking for people who feel they have a connection to the band's music, or a particular song.

Each film is likely to be a powerful montage of people chatting directly into the camera about their experiences with the band’s work. From the famous to the infamous and not-so-famous, everyone will have a chance to have their say.

The artists already have a history of working with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and have spent the last six months working with them on several projects. They have produced four promo videos for the new album Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!, some live studio footage and a set of seven one minute 'seance' clips which have been broadcast on YouTube.

If you are interested in participating visit the artists’ website here.

Watch the first seance film below:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Primal Scream Explain Glam Direction

Slinky-hipped bowlcut Bobby Gillespie has spoken out about Primal Scream’s latest album, the loss of a bandmate and his glam rock influences.

Released on July 21, Beautiful Future, the band’s ninth studio album, is set to be an ode to early hair rock, vintage British pop rock and dark electro.

Speaking to The Sun this week the frontman seems very fond of the relatively new direction: “Our guitarist Andrew (Innes) began playing the guitar in a different way... very angular, very precise, very machine-like.”

Could this have anything to do with Bloc Party and The Rakes producer Paul Epworth onboard?

“Riot City Blues was garagey, grungey, bluesy, high-energy rock but there are no real blues notes this time round. The songs that came were very pop, almost bubblegum.

“The album is joyful but the band has always had that. Tracks like ‘Movin’ On Up’ and ‘Rocks’ are completely ecstatic. That’s what I like.”

One obstacle the band had to overcome was the lose of long-term guitarist Robert ‘Throb’ Young, an old schoolfriend of Gillespie.

“I love Robert. I mean he was one of the songwriters with me and Andrew. We wrote Screamadelica and Give Out But Don’t Give Up together. We were a great partnership but other things come into play. People’s lives change.”

The band isn’t going to wallow in the despair of being a man down though. Beautiful Future is to dress up the Primal Screams tendencies for stomping militarism and sweating rock & roll in sequins and big bad stompin’ boots. “We love glam rock,” explained Bobby G.

“What The Beatles were for people in the Sixties is what glam rock was for us. We love Glitter, we love Bolan, we love Roxy, we love Suzi Quatro ... 48 Crash is great.”

Fallen star Gary Glitter seems to be of particular inspiration to the singer: “We love Glitter’s big drums and big chants. Basically, we love glam. You can’t be glam enough, especially these days.”

The album will feature collaborations with Lovefoxx (CSS), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss) and folk legend Linda Thompson.

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus