|
With their new album Accelerate, the bands fourteenth, Stipe and co have taken a step backwards. In a good way! Away from the overproduction of the last few efforts and back to the grittier, stripped down guitar driven sound that made them what they are. The album runs at about 35minutes long and with most of the songs under 3 minutes long and recorded in 9 weeks in Grouse Lodge in Ireland the album is a short, sharp shock to remind us why we loved R.E.M. in the first place. Stipe’s vocals have the air of a man who’s come back to collect his throne with some of the most hummable and lyrically strong choruses in a long time. All in all a step in the right direction!
With huge bluesy, southern rockers like evergreen and walk believer walk the Crowes stomp their way back to where they left off. The real standouts on this album though are the two ballads, oh Josephine and locust street which shows that the lads have put their hard living ways behind them and mellowed with age and perhaps Chris Robinson has achieved some semblance of peace in his old age!
Last season, RTE showed a programme about jazz and a Dublin Family, two brothers and their cousin, and the father who inspired them. “There was this baritone sax player who used to turn up at sessions who seemed to have that X-ingredient.” Eamon Carr is talking about Dick Buckley, who was partly responsible for introducing jazz to Ireland. He was an incredible musician who played with Louis Stewart for years in the Baggot Inn and who was also a founder member of Jim Doherty’s big band in 1977. “There were certain jazz players (60s and 70’s) and they were almost institutions.” Dick married Pam and together they created an atmosphere in which brilliance was allowed to flourish. Richie, their first born, plays the tenor sax and is about ten years older than Michael, who is also a professional musician who plays flutes and tenor sax. Their cousin Hugh, plays guitar and is the son of Sean Buckley, who played bass with Dick when they were in England. “He was very modest, very laid back. Dick led the way while giving the impression he wasn’t leading anyone anywhere.” Husband, father and uncle, sailor and artist: the undisputed head of this musical family, Dick’s legacy, as well as some of the stories, is these three world-class jazz musicians. For the programme on RTE, Richie, Michael and Hugh wrote, rehearsed and recorded pieces that reflect the city they all grew up in, and still live in. They never went to New York to live. Jazz is a reflection, and as composers the Buckleys are producing music which is a part of the jazz which is being created outside of the United States. Ruben Gonzalez reflects, “I admire a good virtuoso, but I prefer a good mix with a lot of heart, head and skill. But the most important thing is to communicate that I am trying to express something. So, first of all, I feel moved, then so do those around me. And a true jazz musician is one who understands this.” The studio for this session has some of the finest young players we have around. The music is many things, moody and exciting, both forceful and sweet. Richie has scored several films, including ‘The General’ and Hugh has just released an album ‘Sketches of Now’ as a follow-up to his two studio albums ‘Spirit Level’ and ‘Yes indeed’. They started young and there were always instruments in the house. But jazz in not for sprinters, it is instead a long-distance event in which the most important thing is to find your own voice. “A teacher couldn’t teach you like that. The most a teacher can do is show you how to teach yourself,” says Jim Doherty. Guy Barker says about this method of learning, “there are points in your life when you study certain players and you try and learn their solos, but then after that you have to find your own way.” Hugh, with beautiful timing and touch, after the west coast style of Grant Green and Wes Montgomery, feels that only recently is he getting closer to his own voice. Richie is like “fire” and Michael is like “ice.” Hugh looks like a brother and is the third point of the triangle. Richie says that you seem to get more mellow and more musical in your later life, and you just want to bring forth as much beautiful music as you can. Hugh and Richie play as ‘Isotope’ with their band every Thursday night at 9.30 pm in JJ Smyth’s in Aungier Street, Dublin 2. Admission is €8.
If you don’t know the band Joy Division, then you must have heard the song ‘Love will tear us apart’. If you happen to be a Joy Division fan you will have a deeper understanding of this Anton Corbijn film. If you happen to be a fan of film itself you will also get a kick from this insight into the life of the most charismatic lead singer from the punk generation. Its filmed entirely in black and white, which adds to the atmosphere of the film. It follows the life of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division from his adolescence to his suicidal death at 23. The music in the film is exactly like the original Joy Division and you want it to continue for the full songs. The catch and crowning glory of this step back in time is that the actor although unknown, who plays Ian Curtis, looks exactly like the original. The shots of him singing and dancing on stage are reproductions of the highest order and will hold you entranced. The film is called ‘Control’ and it seems to reflect Mr. Curtis’s need to stay in control while suffering numerous epileptic fits and watching the world around him in a bleak and realistic manner. You also get an insight into where the songs come from. For example, the song ‘She’s Lost Control’ comes from a visit from an epileptic girl to the job agency where Ian Curtis worked and the band name Joy Division is a brothel which the German soldiers would visit during the war. You may say I am biased because just like Ian Curtis I too am epileptic– that’s may be why he is a hero of mine. This is a polished film and so were the recordings of the band on their vinyl releases ‘Unknown Pleasures’ and ‘Closer’. The only problem is that you want the live shots of the band playing to continue, but for that pleasure you can pick up a Joy Division CD or DVD in any music store and I feel like doing just that after watching this film.
Neil Young, a man to whom no serious music lover needs an introduction, who has inspired generations of musicians is playing in Malahide Castle in June. It’s about time we got re-acquainted with him, isn’t it! Neil Young was born in Ontario, Canada on November 12, 1945. As a youth he survived diabetes, polio and epilepsy. His father was a highly-respected sportswriter for the ‘Toronto Sun’. In 1960 Neil and his mother moved to Winnipeg and it was there that music became a driving force in his life. After switching from ukulele to guitar, he was in a succession of bands such as The Squires. Young recorded an acoustic demo for Elektra records in New York in 1965 featuring an early version of ‘Sugar Mountain’ but he was not offered a contract by the label. Returning to Toronto, he played the coffee house circuit with the likes of Joni Mitchell before joining The Mynah Birds led by Rick James of Super Freak fame. When James was drafted into the navy The Mynah Birds was disbanded. In search of new opportunities, Young moved to Los Angeles, where he formed Buffalo Springfield and had a hit which summed up the paranoia of the time. In 1968 Young quit the band and formed Neil Young and Crazy Horse and released ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ which featured such songs as ‘Cinnamon Girl’ and ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’. In the summer of 1969 Young agreed to join forces with the super group Crosby, Stills and Nash and appeared at Woodstock and brought himself to a much wider audience. In the 1970s Young came into his own and released the classic break-up album ‘After The Goldrush’ featuring ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ and ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down’. He teamed up with the Stray Gators to record ‘Harvest’, which contained such Young classics as ‘Needle’ and ‘The Damage Done, Old Man’ and yielded him the only number one single of his career with ‘Heart of Gold’. This was a bleak period in his life with the break up of a relationship and the heroin overdose death of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten. This carried on through 1975 when Young released ‘Tonight’s The Night’, a dark album tainted by the loss of friends. Young proceeded to throw himself into his work and take out his frustrations on stage and in 1978 created the Rust Never Sleeps tour with a film documenting it. One of the best songs to come from this era ‘Out Of The Blue’ contains the immortal lines Kurt Cobain put in his suicide note, ‘it’s better to burn out than to fade away’. The 1980’s was a particularly strange and erratic decade for Young as he experimented with electronica, rockabilly, R&B and rejoined Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young briefly. However, from 1989 on Young experienced a major comeback, starting with the release of his ‘Freedom’ album which featured ‘Rocking In The Free World’ and with the advent of the grunge era seeing him being hailed as the godfather of grunge and being noticed by the MTV generation. The release of ‘Harvest Moon’ in 1992, which saw a return to the sentimental, acoustic folk-styling’s contained in ‘Harvest’ was his biggest seller in 13 years. In 1994 Young contributed the haunting title song to Jonathan Demme’s film ‘Philadelphia’ which was nominated for an Oscar. In recent years, Young has released ‘Living With War’ an album criticising George Bush, another acoustic folk album ‘Prairie Wind’ and a concert film ‘Heart Of Gold’. So, all in all, there’s a lot of material for him to choose from when he plays Malahide Castle this June.
Upcoming Gigs April May June |
Back to the Front
Page
REM – Accelerate
The Black Crowes – Warpaint
The Buckleys on the Living Bridge 
‘Control’
Neil Young – a man for all seasons