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ALBUMS Bjork– Volta I give it 7 out of 10 just for originality and its difference from what is generally available.
The Arctic Monkeys – Favourite worst nightmare Lyrically, Alex Turner is still on top form with his observational skills and blistering wit still as sharp as ever. Musically though, this a little slower with a lot more down tempo numbers, well they couldn’t keep up the frantic pace of the first album forever! There are still a few rockers on the album such as ‘Brianstorm’, ‘Balaclava’ and ‘This House Is A Circus’ which are just as rocky if not more frantic than the first. ‘D Is For Dangerous’ is probably the closest you’re gonna get to the first album which isn’t a bad thing as if they were to release an album exactly the same as the last no matter how good, it’d get old pretty quickly! The highlight of the album is the ridiculously catchy ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ with its comical lyrics and eerie similarity to ‘Mardy Bum’ from the first album. If you didn’t like the Arctic Monkeys the first time round you aren’t about to start liking them now but, if you did… buy this album!!
The Pigeon Detectives – Wait for Me Their style is pretty much teenage punky pop stuff with themes such as splitting up with your girlfriend, sex, drink and the old favourite love prelevant. Musically, its pretty much thrash the drums, whack a few bar chords, throw in a bit of lead on the guitar and a minimal bit of bass. Now if you’re over sixteen these are all reasons not to like this album but surprisingly, against my better judgement I found myself singing and bopping along to it. For one simple reason: it’s fun! OK, it hasn’t got the most complicated guitar riffs, most technical lead or debate-inspiring lyrics but it captures the exuberance and simplicity of youth, which makes it enjoyable. The standout songs are the poppy, Libertines-style ‘Romantic Type’, ‘I Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye’ and ‘You Know I Love You’ which just builds, builds and explodes and features the simple but effective chorus ‘you know I love you, take off your clothes, it’s alright’. Teenage stuff and hardly rocket science but, simply fun!
Over thirty years on the bad boys from Boston are still going strong and playing in the RDS this month. One of the very few rock bands who are still as relevant now as when they started out. In the words of lead singer Steven Tyler “we weren’t too ambitious when we started out. We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was!” The group has left indelible footprints on the rock and roll landscape with such milestone albums as “Toys in the attic”, “Rocks”, “Pump” and classic songs like “Dream on”, “Walk this way” and “Janie’s got a gun” to name only a few. Like another famous rock and roll monolith the Rolling Stones the chemistry is built around the frontman Steven Tyler and main guitarist Joe Perry. Their self titled debut album released in 1973 contained probably rock’s first power ballad and they followed this with three strong albums of solid rock music “Get your wings”, “Toys in the attic” and “Rocks” that helped firmly establish them in the 70’s. Having established this fan base Aerosmith contrived to throw it all away by living up to their hard partying, drinking and drugging image. “Our story was basically that we had it all and pissed it all away” says Joe Perry. Their contribution to the 1978 film “Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” a remake of The Beatles “Come Together” proved to be the last time Aerosmith graced the top 40 for nearly a decade. Tyler and Perry became known as the “toxic twins”. Aerosmith’s downward spiral continued with the hostile 1979 departure of Perry, a motorcycle accident that sidelined Tyler for a year and the 1981 exodus of other guitarist Brad Whitford. Perry embarked on a solo career and Aerosmith moved from playing arenas to clubs.The members of Aerosmith began mending their fences when Perry and Whitford showed up backstage after a February ‘84 Aerosmith concert in Boston. They put the band back together, embarked on the lengthy “Back in the saddle” tour and signed with Geffen records. Most importantly the group members got clean and sober in 1987 and reclaimed their rock and roll throne with some of the most passionate and hard hitting music of their career. No group in rock history has ever engaged a phoenix like resurrection to rival Aerosmith’s remarkable recovery and rebound. Remarkably their chart successes from 1987 onwards eclipsed their first rise to the top in the 70’s.Turning more toward power ballads without sacrificing their hard rocking base, Aerosmith conquered the charts with such songs as “Love on an elevator”, “Cryin’” and “Crazy”. They scaled another career milestone when “I don’t want to miss a thing” became their first number one single. Their catalogue of great music and reputation as an amazing live act continues to grow. More than 30 years on the same 5 musicians that came together in the 70’s are still going strong.
WELCOME TO THE GLASTONBUDGET FESTIVAL
This is a small festival, in its third year, with two stages, one for aspiring new acts and a main stage which had a line up of ‘Tribute’ bands. These bands bring the sounds and feel of some of the big-time bands that would be more likely a headline for a major music festival like Glastonbury, the Electric Picnic or Slane or Oxygen here in Ireland. The promoters of Glastonbudget say that they believe that one can have a weekend of brilliant music, good entertainment and top-notch festival atmosphere without breaking the bank. Some 4200 people attended. Tribute bands began in Australia as a solution to the problem of bands not touring in the Antipodes. Patrick Haveron, of Psycho Management, represents 237 tribute bands and is creating more. He’s in the midst of setting up a Razorlike and has spotted a new gap in the market– the Spice Girls. In 2000 he used to have 12 such tribute bands on his books. They faded out, but he feels the time is right for a revival. “We now have four Take That tributes and they are all selling out. I don’t understand why four blokes singing to a backing track is so popular, but it is,” explains Mr Haveron. Of course, the ups and downs of the tribute world reflects wider musical trends. In Britain, it is largely a small-town phenomenon. The gradual erosion of the musical generation gap has opened up music to Britain’s teenagers that they never had a chance of seeing performed live. Kurt Cobain died in 1994, so Burt Cocaine in Teen Spirit has spent 12 years giving people an eerily accurate recreation of seeing Nirvana at their height. Johnny Rotter can swear and snarl as if the Golden Jubilee was still taking place, though two years ago he hadn’t even heard of John Lydon, lead singer of the Sex Pistols. It was only when he saw the former punk on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here that he picked up a CD and his life was changed. The lead singer of Oasis, Paul Higginson, is also in the Stereotonics, but he no longer plays in a Police tribute band. He much prefers being Liam Gallagher to being Andy Summers. However, with The Police set to go back on the road, there’s scope for a new batch of ‘Stings’. This is the answer to overpriced stadium gigs, and while it might attract some sneers, it reflects a demand for something the mainstream music industry hasn’t been providing. Several tribute bands can now fill London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Pink Fraud will themselves be playing at this year’s Glastonbury.
What’s hot Sunburnt Skin. Sore, painful and not worth it. Caused by over-exposure to the Sun (See no.1 in our list). Burnt living tissue best avoided by wearing clothing, applying high factor sun lotions or by staying out of the sun (especially around midday).
What’s not Dead animals are cold. Ice cream– Our nation is the third highest ice cream consumer in Europe. We each eat on average 9 litres of the stuff a year, the average in Europe is 6 litres per person. Studies show it takes about 50 licks to finish off a single ice pop and did you know that ice cream is the only food we eat frozen? We neither. |
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Its been a long time since Bjork released a popular CD. There has been Debut and Post and a few in between. The concentration on Volta is on tribal drumming and techno. How she raises her voice above this is pure Bjork. The backing vocal on ‘The Dull flame of Desire’ is a new idea for her. Trumpets are still blaring for Bjork and do all through the CD. There is a violence to some tracks which is surprising looking at the size of her. On ‘Innocence’ and ‘Declare Independence’ in particular which is a return to Bjork’s punk roots she sings a song about enjoying yourself before you become corpses… fair enough.
The second album from the best new band in the past few years (in my humble opinion) is out this month. Now, they’d be hard pushed to recapture the breath of fresh air greatness of their first album ‘Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not’ but they do a pretty good job of it!
Now that we’ve reviewed the daddy of the indie scene, here’s their son. The pigeon detectives are a foursome out of Leeds, a cross between the Arctic Monkeys (musically) and The Kooks (lyrically) although not nearly as good as either of them.
AEROSMITH
On the UK long weekend of the 25th to the 28th of June I went with a friend, Sarah Rapley to a music festival in Turnpost Farm, Wymeswold in Leicestershire called Glastonbudget.