savantsounds

The Stems - At First Sight

2009-03-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

At First Sight, Violets Are Blue is the debut album from The Stems, released in August 1987 through Mushroom Records' White Label on vinyl, the album only saw limited CD release at that time. The title track "At First Sight" gained mainstream airplay and a position on the Young Einstein sound track. "At First Sight" became the band's signature track and the album is still rated as one of the best Australian guitar pop releases. In the early nineties Rolling Stone Magazine in fact included it in the top 100 Australian releases of all time^[1].

The album was re-issued by Mushroom Records on March 23, 2003 and included a bonus disc with fifteen B-sides and ten live recordings from a live show at the Old Melbourne Hotel (Perth, Western Australia) on April 18, 1986.

Senor Coconut - Yellow Fever

2009-03-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

From the world’s only German/Chilean ‘electrolatino’ Señor Coconut, comes this latest installment of acid-merengue

Renowned for his madcap laptop salsa covers of Kraftwerk, Sade and Michael Jackson, Coconut aka Atom Heart or Uwe Schmidt, has this time around recruited the services of a proper Latin big band to pay homage to Kraftwerk’s Eastern counterparts, Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Fronted by Venezuelan crooner Argenis Brito, a talented ensemble of Latin jazz players on vibraphone, marimba, double bass, horns and percussion join members of the original techno pop pioneers as well as Marina from Nouvelle Vague, Akufen, Mouse on Mars, Burnt Friedman, Schneider TM and Jorge Gonzales, to produce a playful, typically barmy melting pot of skewed Afro Cuban music.

‘Yellow Magic’ is a stunning opener full of bombast with a piano ripped straight from the Afro Cuban tradition; ‘Limbo’ featuring Yukihiro Takahashi is a driving number with plenty of twists and turns and complex musicianship; ‘Behind The Mask’ is one of the LP’s melodic gems, building cleverly upon the original, this Coconut cover could be his finest moment yet since ‘Smoke On The Water’. Rounding things off is ‘Ongaku’ a track with real atmosphere, melody and a ferocious kick.

Filled to the gills with experimental mambofied musical skits Yellow Magic will tax your brain as well as move your feet. Yet another classic Coconut take on classic pop standards.

Graham Crothers
Fly Europe Reviews

Meet The Feebles

2009-03-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

MEET THE FEEBLES -

Rated R 18+

1989 Wingnut Films

The Muppets never acted like this group of miscreants, not that we know of. Possibly the most disturbed puppet show ever filmed and definitely not for kids, of course the machinegun toting hippo on the cover should convey that idea.

"The Feebles Variety Hour" is going to air a special live performance, tensions are high, things could get ugly.

Into the harsh world of real life show biz stumbles Wobert, ready for his chance at live theater. Boy is this theater alive, Bletch has managed to hide his affair from Heidi until the cat starts taunting her with it. Heidi really gets upset, retreating to her dressing room and binge eating. Good old Bletch just goes on with his business, planning to replace his main hippo with the slutty Siamese after the television special.

Fortunately for the doe eyed hedgehog, not everyone is corrupt and jaded. (darn near, but not all). He soon falls in love with Lucy and wins her heart with a serenade. There's a bump in the romantic road when Trevor drugs her drink and takes advantage of her (Wobert walks in), but in the end they make up. The same can not be said for Bletch and Heidi, he dumps her in a most humiliating fashion, she then proceeds to go high and to the right. Grabbing an M60 machinegun and massacring everyone in sight high and to the right. Possibly one of the most amazing scenes in history where you have a hippo walking around and gunning other puppets into hamburger, oh she gets Bletch too.

First and foremost I'd like to say I never need to see ANY puppets having sex again. I thought anatomically correct Cabbage Patch Dolls were too much - that's nothing compared to seeing a cow engaging in S&M with a bug. In a similar fashion Sebastion's "Sodomy Song" and dance routine was totally warped, it's something else, you try watching a gay fox thrust it's pelvis at the camera. All of this accompanied by soft music and stage props which really frightened me. Did I mention the fly sitting in the toilet, on a um, floater? Oh yes, digging in with a spoon and chowing down while asking Harry if it's one of his (evidently had a carrot aftertaste).

Things I Learned From This Movie:

You don't want to see a walrus having sex with a cat.
Fish should never conduct casting calls with a walrus, especially if they suck. Shellfish should avoid them even if they don't suck.
Female hippos are well endowed.
Having someone vomit on you can wreck a golf swing.
Cows are into S&M.
Never let a heroine addicted frog throw knives at you.
Last thing I needed to see was a fly eating shit with a spoon.
Frogs fought in Vietnam.
Your head can fit inside your rectum.
Hippos and porch swings don't mix.
Never snort bleach.

Stuff To Watch For:

2 mins - What did that rat just say? Get the kids out of the room!
8 mins - Love at first sight, are dogs and hedgehogs compatible?
12 mins - Wobert, you cannot talk worth a darn.
17 mins - That puppet is urinating.
18 mins - RANDOM ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST PSYCHEDELIC TRIBBLES!
26 mins - Little bunny three way hopping through the bedroom?
33 mins - Uggghhh...
57 mins - No way a cat is doing that to Bletch...
76 mins - Heidi, you are a hippopotamus. A stronger rope than that is in order.
84 mins - Hippo with a machinegun, RUN LIKE A BITCH!

badmovies.org

Meet The Feebles - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Peter Dasent - 1989

The Frogs

2009-03-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

The Frogs are an American rock music band founded in 1980, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by brothers Jimmy and Dennis Flemion. The brothers mainly write and perform short, catchy pop improvised home recordings which are delivered in a comedic style, and often tackle controversial issues such as race, religion, and sexuality (notably homoeroticism). A history of strife has hindered the band, although a devoted fan base that includes many well-known musicians has supported the group.

History

Early years: 1980-1989

Brothers Jimmy Flemion and Dennis Flemion began playing as the "Gila Monsters" and "Stupid Frogs" in 1980, frequenting Milwaukee clubs and coffeehouses.^[1] In 1983, bassist Jay Tiller bat wings, inspired by the band's set list which at that time featured many glam rock songs about death and gloom. Soon the brothers also began wearing wigs at their performances, and using pyrotechnics. Hence, "wings and wigs" became synonymous with the band. Although in their early days the Frogs played mostly in coffeehouses, they developed a larger following due mostly to their fan-friendly shows. In 1988, the Frogs self-released their first album in limited quantities. In that same year, Brian Hill joined the group as bassist and continues to make appearances with the group to this day.

In 1988, Jay Tiller gave a tape of the Frogs' improvised home recordings to his friend Steve Albini, and the tape eventually made its way to Gerard Cosloy, then head of Homestead Records. Colsoy approached the band and offered to release an album. The Frogs were hoping that Homestead would re-release their first album, but Cosloy wanted to release an LP of the group's improvised home recordings that dealt with over-the-top homo-eroticism. Since the songs were not intended to be released, the group hedged at first, but eventually they relented, and mixed a 14 track collection of songs that were recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel with two microphones. The result was It's Only Right and Natural, the group's second LP. Songs like "Been a Month Since I Had a Man" and "Gather 'Round for Savior #2" gave the album (and the band) a unique theme. Homestead announced that The Frogs were leaders in a "new gay supremacy movement", and the media ran with it. The album was received with mixed reactions; listeners were generally ecstatic, although others, who either disliked the subject matter or misunderstood the concept, were not as enthusiastic.^{[citation needed]} In the gay press, writer Adam Block wrote "I thought I'd find the record a lot more remarkable if I believed the Frogs were actually gay."^[2] It's Only Right and Natural was even denounced by Pat Robertson on the 700 Club and a number of conservative religious organizations as proof of Satan's control over the entertainment industry.^{[citation needed]}

Grunge and success: 1990-2000

In 1991, the Frogs produced a new album titled Racially Yours, which included songs sung from the point of view of both blacks and whites, who find themselves in various race-related situations and predicaments. The lyrics are equally serious as they are satirical. Their label Homestead was unwilling to release it (although it was distributed freely by fans). It was eventually released in 2000 by the Four Alarm label. The Frogs' further plans for a live album went unfulfilled, as labels they pursued all seemed to be suffering through bankruptcy and management problems. Jay Tiller left the band in 1992, to be replaced by Damian Strigens, although there were several substitutes in the meantime, including such notables as Eddie Roeser from Urge Overkill and Kelley Deal from The Breeders.

The Frogs, through their unique sense of humor, have gained a small but very devoted fan base. Although critics have attacked the Frogs for poor taste, bands seen normally as politically correct Billy Corgan saw the band at a small club in Madison, Wisconsin, and invited them to open for the Smashing Pumpkins. The Frogs were soon opening for Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Urge Overkill, and other fans of the group, to mixed reaction. After meeting Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain in 1993, The Frogs wrote two songs about him and also made him a videotape, Toy Porno. The VHS featured select live performances and stop-motion animation with painted action figures. Action figures and dolls were used as sexually promiscuous characters in various short sketches. The tape became constant viewing material on Nirvana's tour bus.^{[citation needed]} The videotape has since been made available to fans and has become a cult classic.

In the summer of 1994, the Frogs played the second stage at Lollapalooza, with Billy Corgan Smashing PumpkinsVieuphoria video compilation. The short film brought the group recognition, but it has also confused Smashing Pumpkins fans who don't know if they should take the band seriously or not.

In 1996, Pearl Jam released a song called "Smile" on their No Code album. The lyrics were taken directly from a note that Dennis hid inside Eddie Vedder's notebook when he was on stage performing. The words used in the note are taken from the Frogs songs "This Is How I Feel" and "Now I Wanna Be Dead". Vedder has told the story of "Smile" several times while performing in Milwaukee. Dennis also gave Vedder a small pair of bat wings from the Frogs' early days, and Vedder has proudly displayed them behind his guitar amplifier. (The wings can seen on the front cover of Touring Band 2000.) Pearl Jam has unfortunately never performed a Frogs song, but Eddie Vedder has sung "I Only Play 4 Money", "Starboy", and "The Longing Goes Away" with The Frogs on more than one occasion. In 1994, Eddie Vedder Joined The Frogs on Stage at the Chicago Stadium wearing a long golden robe only to be boo'd off stage by fans not knowing it was him.

In 1994, The Frogs followed Gerard Cosloy to a new label, Matador Records, releasing two singles. In 1996, Matador released an album of old home-recorded and improvised material called My Daughter the Broad. It became another cult classic, with fans shouting out many of the song's titles and lyrics at every show.

In 1997, their Starjob EP, produced by a pseudonym of Billy Corgan in 1994, was released by Scratchie Records (founded by James Iha, among others), but it almost immediately went out of print when it failed to sell enough units to satisfy the label.^{[citation needed]} The EP contains well-produced studio tracks, including "Lord Grunge" and one of the most well known Frogs songs, "I Only Play 4 Money".

From August 1996 to February 1997, Dennis Flemion replaced recently-deceased keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin for the Smashing Pumpkins' Infinite Sadness Tour. Jimmy Flemion performed "1979" (which was influenced by an unreleased Frogs song, "Pleasure") with the Smashing Pumpkins nightly during their encores, as well as selecting audience members to dance on stage. The Flemion brothers also appeared on The Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" single, and sang backing vocals on 1998's Adore.

In 1997, Jimmy Flemion joined Sebastian Bach's touring band. Rather than stripping Jimmy of his trademark bat wings, the whole band adopted costumes as well. Jimmy also recorded a side project called The Last Hard Men with Bach, Kelley Deal and Jimmy Chamberlin. Bach also performed "Lord Grunge" with The Frogs on an infamous MTV appearance on Oddville. The Frogs destroyed their set and broke several rules set forth by the producers, so the producers retaliated by only broadcasting the first verse of the song.

In 1999, the Frogs covered "Vacation" by the Go-Go's for a tribute album. In that same year, another LP of old home-recorded and improvised material called Bananimals was released on the Four Alarm label, and the unreleased Racially Yours album soon followed in 2000. To support these two releases, the Frogs played in Canada for the first time. However, they were stopped at Canadian Customs as officials seized all of their merchandise, declaring it "pornographic".^{[citation needed]} The Frogs had to play their Canadian shows without any merchandise to sell.

2001-present

The Frogs latest studio effort, Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise, was released by Scratchie in 2001. However, Scratchie wasn't happy with the finished album, and they put it out of print after only a few months, just like they had with the previous Starjob EP. Fans were still enthusiastic about the band's Scratchie releases, regardless^{[citation needed]}.

After Damien Strigens exited the band in 1998, past bassists such as Brian Hill and Jay Tiller returned for some appearances, while some new bassists began performing with the band, including Josh Silverman, David Geschke, and John W. Busher. Australian Ben Lee made a special guest appearance on bass in New York City on September 28, 2001.

In November 2004, the mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak, crowd-surfed during a Frogs set at First Avenue, a popular nightclub in the Twin Cities, fulfilling a promise made earlier in the summer when the club temporarily closed due to financial difficulties.^[3]^[4]

In late 2005, news came on an unofficial website that two LP's were in the works.^[5] One record being "spiritual" and the other "sad". There has been no update since.

In late 2007, Jimmy Flemion performed with the Smashing Pumpkins in Austin, TX.^[6] The Frogs also opened for the Pumpkins on December 7, 2008, in Chicago.

Studio albums

The Frogs (1988)
It's Only Right and Natural (1989)
My Daughter the Broad (1996)
Bananimals (1999)
Racially Yours (2000)
Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise (2001)

Wikipedia®2009

The Frogs - Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise - 2001

Holger Czukay

2009-03-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

Holger Czukay (born Holger Schüring ^[1] on 24 March 1938) is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can.

Biography

Czukay was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk). He studied music under Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1963 to 1966^[2] and then worked for a while as a music teacher. Initially Czukay had little interest in rock music, but this changed when a student played him The Beatles' 1967 song "I Am the Walrus,"^[3] opening his ears to music by rock experimentalists like the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa.

Czukay co-founded Can in 1968. He played bass guitar and performed most of the recording and engineering for the group. Rosko Gee, former bassist of the British band, Traffic joined the band in 1977, with Czukay handling only tapes and sound effects on Saw Delight, his final LP with the group before departing for a solo career.

After his departure from Can, Czukay recorded several albums. One of his trademarks was the use of shortwave radio sounds and his early pioneering of sampling, in those days involving the painstaking cutting and splicing of magnetic tapes. He would tape-record various sounds and snippets from shortwave and incorporate them into his compositions. He also used shortwave as a live, interactive musical instrument (such as on 1991's Radio Wave Surfer), a method of composition he termed radio painting.

Czukay has collaborated with a considerable number of musicians, notably a series of albums with Jah Wobble and David Sylvian, ^[2] two young British musicians who shared his interest in blending pop music with experimental recording and sampling techniques. Other collaborators include Brian Eno, Eurythmics, and the German New Wave band, Trio.

Albums:

Canaxis (1969)
Movies (1979)
Biomutanten / Menetekel (as Les Vampyrettes with Conny Plank) (1981)
On the Way to the Peak of Normal (1981)
Full Circle (1982) with Jah Wobble and Jaki Liebezeit
Snake Charmer (1983) with Jah Wobble, The Edge, and Ben Mandelson
Der Osten Ist Rot (1984)
Rome Remains Rome (1987)
Plight and Premonition (1988) with David Sylvian
Flux and Mutability (1989) with David Sylvian
Radio Wave Surfer (1991) (recorded live in 1984, 1986 & 1987)
Moving Pictures (1993)
Clash (1998) with Dr. Walker
Good Morning Story (1999)
La Luna (2000, remastered and expanded 2007)
Linear City (2001) audio collaborations with Susanne Drescher, Per Odderskove, Ray Darr, Darren B. Dunn, Marc Uzan, Ola Norlander, Haki, U-She, Drew Kalapach, Michael Letourneau, Alan Evil from IFPR, Luca Kormentini, Andrew Paine (Boomboy), The Weeds of Eden, Michael Banabila, Dreamfluid, Beatsystem, Noiseman433, Dane Johnson, James Webb, Panoptic, 1605 Munro, Tom Hamlyn
The New Millennium (2003) with U-She
Time and Tide (2007) with U-She
21st Century (2007) with Ursa Major

Wikipedia®2009

Holger Czukay - Movies - 1979

Swans

2009-03-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

Swans was an influential American post-punk band active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in 1982, the Swans employed a shifting lineup of musicians until their dissolution in 1997. Besides Gira, the only other constant members were keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter Jarboe from 1984 to 1997, and semi-constant guitarist Norman Westberg. The band was noted for droning vocals and strange instrumentation.

Biography

Early years (1982–1985)

Initial influences

The earliest known lineup of Swans comprised Gira on bass guitar and vocals, Jonathan Kane on drums, and Sue Hanel on guitar. Hanel's only recordings with the group are on the compilation Body to Body, Job to Job, but the ambiguous personnel credits do not make it clear on which songs she performed; Kane stated that "Sue was the most fearsome guitarist we’d ever heard in New York. She was unbelievable." ^[5]

Hanel did not stay long in the group, and by the time of their recording debut, she had been replaced by Bob Pezzola. This lineup of the group also featured saxophonist Daniel Galli-Duani. The debut EP, Swans, released on Labor, is markedly different from anything they would do later. The plodding tempos and distorted, detuned guitar work is reminiscent of such post-punk Joy Division. However, the minimal chord structures owe more to blues, while the jazz No WaveCop. The closest reference point to the early Swans sound, as pointed out by one internet reviewer, is probably The Birthday Party, although far less overtly satirical. outfits as instrumentation and awkward time signatures are evidence of Swans' roots in the scene of the late 1970s, which had more or less collapsed by the release of

Early press comparisons

In the same article cited above, Kane compares Swans to blues icon Chester Burnett, a.k.a. Howlin' Wolf. While this comparison might initially seem unlikely, there are in fact some similarities worth noting -- the music of early Swans was often based on a single riff, played repeatedly to hypnotic effect. Some of Burnett's songs -- especially the songs penned by Burnett himself -- have a similar structure and quality. Their early music was typified by slow and grinding guitar noise, and pounding drums, punctuated by Gira's morbid and violent lyrics (inspired by Jean Genet and the Marquis de Sade), usually barked or shouted. Critic Ned Raggett describes Swans' early recordings as "aggressive beyond words." ^[6]

Their first full-length release, Filth (1983), featured driving, choppy rhythms and abrasive drums. The whole is reminiscent of earlier No Wave bands, such as Mars, and the work of Swans' contemporaries, like Sonic Youth's Confusion Is Sex and Kill Yr Idols; but Raggett^[7] Filth was the first album to feature guitarist Norman Westberg, who would play a vital role in much of Swans' music, and would be featured on every subsequent studio album other than Love of Life. contends that "early Swans really is like little else on the planet before or since."

Cop (1984) and the originally untitled Young God EP were both released in 1984 and re-released together on CD in 1992. This release has been known by several names, usually by one of its two A-sides, such as "I Crawled" or, infamously, as "Raping a Slave". This release is often confused with their self-titled debut. The music continues in the same vein as Filth, and is again vaguely reminiscent of heavy metal music played in extreme slow motion. Swans were, in this era, Gira Westberg on guitar, Harry Crosby on bass guitar, and Roli Mosimann on drums. Gira's vocals had changed slightly, becoming slowly more melodic, although the snarl still remained. Some of the songs on the EP, particularly "Young God" and "I Crawled", have an actual vocal melody, if rudimentary, hinting at the sounds of future releases. Young God is considered by many to be the best of their early albums for this reason.^[8] on vocals,

Justin Broadrick shared this impression of the group:

“

The first Swans record I owned was Slave EP, and it absolutely blew me away… it was a sound that I always wanted to hear, just the bleakest and blackest. The minimalist approach of the music, that was what really influenced me. It was non-genre-specific, with a total lack of baggage… purely abstract, surreal, and violent. It communicated to me in a very special way, and taught me that heavy metal could be stripped of everything and reduced to its most primal form. None of the traditional genre bullshit, you know? Really changed my perspective on music at the time. Joy Division, Killing Joke—Swans took the blueprint from these bands and just pushed it way, way further, more outside of the whole rock thing generally, and paved the way for me.^[9]

”

Live shows

One of the trademarks of Swans' early period was playing at painfully loud volumes during concerts, to the point where some audience members would vomit^{[citation needed]} or the police^[10]^[11] This lent a reputation to the name Swans which was one of the contributing factors in Gira's retirement of the band in 1997. ^[12] would stop the show.

Mid-period (1986–1988)

Collaboration with Jarboe begins

1986's Greed had a new addition to the group with vocalist/keyboardist Jarboe joining the band.^[13] Her presence began a slow thawing in the overt brutality and energy of the Swans' early work. For example, both the opening track, "Fool," and the title track are sung, albeit rather ominously.

Collaboration with Algis Kizys begins

Greed also marked the introduction of bassist Algis Kizys as a long-time, near-constant member. The album is not as brutal or noisy as their previous releases but is still an extremely ominous and dark record. This was followed by its "twin" album, Holy Money, the first to feature Jarboe on lead vocals.

Introduction of acoustic elements

Holy Money was also the first album by Swans to incorporate acoustic elements. In particular, the eight-minute dirge "Another You" starts with a bluesy harmonica introduction. It also marks the introduction of religious themes in Swans records with the sacrificial ode "A Hanging", complete with gospel-like backing vocals from Jarboe.

Children Of God (1987) further expanded Jarboe's role, acting as a foil to Michael Gira's tales of suffering, torture, and humiliation. The stories portrayed here, however, are ever the more unusual, given their juxtaposition—and admixture—with religious imagery. The intention was neither to mock nor embrace religion, but experiment with the power inherent in its messages and the hypocrisy of many of its leaders.^[14]

Some songs, such as the raging "Beautiful Child," retain the vocal style of earlier days, but many are quite tame. The almost baroque "In My Garden," for example, added an extra dimension with piano (used before on "Fool" and "Sealed in Skin" to far grimmer effect) and acoustic guitar. Some songs walk the line on this front. Obvious examples include "Sex, God, Sex" (heavy metal-like bass riffs with blues and gospel-inspired singing), "Blood and Honey" (a murder ballad with early post-rock tendencies), and "Blind Love" (a lengthy song, alternating between intoned vocals and violent instrumental passages). Gira considers this to be the band's major turning point.

Later years (1988-1997)

Stylistic shift

After the Children of God album, Gira professed himself tired with the band's fearsome reputation for noise, feeling that their audience now had expectations that he had no intention of fulfilling. He made a conscious decision to tone down the band's sound, introducing more acoustic elements and foregrounding Jarboe as a singer. The first results of this shift in direction were the two records recorded by Gira and Jarboe under the names Skin (in Europe) and World of Skin (in the USA). The first, Blood, Women, Roses, featured Jarboe on lead vocals, and the second, Shame, Humility, Revenge, featured Gira on lead vocals. Both were recorded together in 1987, although Shame, Humility, Revenge was not released until 1988. These albums were full of slow, ethereal, melancholy, dirge-like songs, sounding like stripped down acoustic versions of the Children of God songs.

The band continued this transformation with an unexpected cover of the Joy Division song "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which was released in 1988 on Product Inc. in a confusing array of 7- and 12-inch formats. Both Gira and Jarboe sang lead vocals on different versions of the song. In later years Gira dismissed this release as a mistake, and for a long time refused to reissue his own vocal version, although Jarboe's version was re-released much sooner.

Major label debut

This single was followed by The Burning World (1989), Swans' first and only major label album. Released on Uni/MCA Records, the record was produced by Bill Laswell and expanded the acoustic palette introduced on Greed and Children of God. For this album, the core line-up of Gira, Jarboe and Westberg was augmented by session musicians, and the distinctive heavy guitar element of their earlier work was toned down significantly in favor of folk and world music elements. Though Swans would later explore more acoustic music with similar moods, Gira has stated that, while he admires much of Laswell's work, his efforts with Swans were simply a mismatch.

Flirtations with pop music

The Burning World was the first Swans album to feature more conventional pop melodies. Gira's lyrics still favored themes of depression, death, greed and despair, but were actually sung, rather than the chanting or shouting typical of earlier material. They even covered Steve Winwood's popular Blind Faith hit "Can't Find My Way Home" in 1989, one of two singles from the LP.

In 1990, Gira and Jarboe released the third and final World of Skin album, Ten Songs From Another World. It was less successful than the previous two 'Skin' albums.

End of major label involvement

Michael Gira's disillusionment with their Uni/MCA exploits led to White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991), a successful blending of earlier hard rock and later pop styles. Produced by Gira, the album blended acoustic rock, blues and hypnotic guitar noise successfully, resulting in an album more complex than anything they had released in the past. This album was followed by Love of Life (recorded by Martin Bisi in 1992), and the EP single Love of Life/Amnesia, taking the group even farther into experimentation, and then The Great Annihilator (1995), considered to be one of the band's most accessible releases, possibly through being their most straightforward. The songwriting style and musical approach, however, would take a more unusual turn the following year.

Demise

With other projects occupying his time, Michael Gira decided to bring an end to the group with one last album and a world tour. Soundtracks For The Blind (1996) was the result: a mammoth two-disc album comprising Jarboe-supplied field recordings, experimental music, dark ambient post-industrial epics, post rock suites and acoustic guitar. Gira, Jarboe, and other long time collaborators created one of the most highly regarded albums of their career. Swans Are Dead (1998) brings together live recordings from their 1995 and 1997 tours, documenting the energy and stage presence of Michael Gira and Jarboe. In an interview with Soundsect, Gira revealed that there is more live material that may be released in the future. He described these unreleased recordings as "fairly spectacular". ^[15] soundscapes,

Post-breakup (1997-present)

After dissolving Swans, Gira formed Angels of Light, continued his work with Young God Records and Jarboe continued her solo work.

Studio albums

Filth (1983)
Cop (1984)
Greed (1986)
Holy Money (1986)
Children of God (1987)
The Burning World (1989)
White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity (1991)
Love of Life (1992)
The Great Annihilator (1995)
Die Tür Ist Zu (1996)
Soundtracks for the Blind (1996)

Wikipedia®2009

Swans - White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity - 1991 Swans - Die Tür Ist Zu - 1996 Swans - Soundtracks For The Blind - 1996
Pt. 1 - Pt. 2 - Pt. 3

Jimi Tenor

2009-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Best described as techno's first cabaret star, Finland native Jimi Tenor is what you might imagine Detroit's answer to a cheesy lounge artist to be. Coming off as a kind of lo-fi Prince cross-bred with Maurizio, Atom Heart, and perhaps Jean-Jacques Perrey, Tenor's recordings are released through Sahko/Puu (home to most of the scant Finnish techno scene); despite the fact that they stick out of the label roster like a sore thumb, they have attracted something of a devoted cult following, mainly among the IDM/electronica crowds. Unlike most electronica artists, however, who routinely name-check Kraftwerk, Juan Atkins, and Carl Craig as influences, Tenor leans more toward names like Barry White, Isaac Hayes, and '70s B-movie and blaxploitation soundtracks. Classically trained, Tenor gained the attention of influential Sheffield label Warp after releasing the full-length Europa in 1996, leading to a recording deal and reissue plans for some of Tenor's Sakho releases. Warp featured the previously unavailable Tenor cut "Downtown" on their Blechsdottir label comp and released the 7"/CD single "Can't Stay with You Baby" a few months later, with two additional singles appearing in early 1997.Prior to his solo work, Tenor fronted Jimi Tenor and His Shamans, who starting in 1988 released several albums on the Poko, Euros, and Bad Vugum labels (including Total Capacity of 216, 5 Litres, Diktafon, and Fear of a Black Jesus, which included 3-D sleeve and glasses). Despite the studied imperfection of his recordings (Tenor chides modern electronic music for sounding lifelessly exacting), he spent 12 years studying piano, flute, and saxophone at a Finnish music institute. After dissolving the Shamens in the late '80s, Tenor moved to New York, where he worked as a tourist photographer at the Empire State Building. He finally hooked up with Sahko after receiving a copy of a solo recording by Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and Ø). Impressed with the label's openness to experimentalism (Sahko had previously been known as something of the muso's minimalist techno label), Tenor sent along some tapes and landed a recording contract, releasing his debut, Sahkomies, in 1994. While in New York he also recorded with Khan/4E's Can Oral (under the name Bizz O.D.), releasing the "Traffic" single on Ozon in 1995. Tenor returned to Finland in 1995 to film a documentary of Sahko (funded, oddly enough, by a government grant) and has remained there since, releasing Europa in 1996 and securing licensing and recording arrangements with Warp. The full-length Intervision was released in 1997, followed two years later by Organism. After the release of Out of Nowhere in 2000, Tenor and Sahko parted ways with Warp. His sixth full-length, Utopian Dream, an overtly solo-electronics record, still received import distribution. Tenor was performing with a large band for 2004's Beyond the Stars, distributed widely through Kitty-Yo, and 2007's Joystone (Ubiquity, again through Sahko).
Sean Cooper & John Bush, All Music Guide

Discography

Europa, 1995
Sähkömies, 1994
Intervision, 1997
Venera EP, 1998
Organism, 1999
Out Of Nowhere, 2000
Cosmic Relief EP, 2001
Utopian Dream, 2001
Higher Planes, 2003
Beyond The Stars, 2004
Sunrise, 2006
Deutsche Grammophon ReComposed by Jimi Tenor, 2006
Live in berlin, 2007
Joystone, 2007
4th Dimension, 2009

Jimi Tenor - Europa

1995

Jimi Tenor - Intervision
1997
Pt 1. / Pt 2.
Jimi Tenor - Organism
1999
Jimi Tenor - Out Of Nowhere
2000

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Jimi Tenor - Utopian Dream
2001
Jimi Tenor - Higher Planes
2003
Jimi Tenor - Beyond The Stars
2004
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Jimi Tenor - Deutsche Grammophon ReComposed
2006

Miranda Sex Garden

2009-03-04T00:25:00.000-08:00

source : Fluxeuropa.com 2000

Miranda Sex Garden - one of the UK’s leading underground bands - returns after a five year absence and featuring a new line-up. Their new album Carnival of Souls marks the re-emergence of a band which they admit is made up of the "most inappropriate people ever to work together".

Carnival of Souls is the first album to appear on a new record label, SugarDaddy Records, which lead vocalist Katharine Blake has co-founded. It is also the first since the success of Katharine’s other project - the Mediaeval Baebes - for which she is musical director and whose first two albums have topped the classical charts.
The current incarnation of Miranda Sex Garden consists of founder member Katharine on lead vocals, Trevor Sharpe on drums, Ben Golomstock on weird guitar, Teresa Casella (TC also from the Baebes) on bass, Mike Servent on keyboards and Barney Hollington on violin. The new album features the haunting 'Tonight' on which the band is joined by Katharine’s father Robin on sax and brother Andrew on trumpet; a startling cover of the Duke Ellington jazz standard 'Caravan' and the instrumental 'Escape from Kilburn', a song depicting their exodus from the area towards the upmarket heights of Tufnell Park and Stoke Newington.

The band has come a long way since 1991 when the band consisted of Katharine, Jocelyn West and Kelly McCusker singing madrigals - a trio who had been discovered busking on the Portobello Road by Barry Adamson. Their first album Madra - featuring the single 'Gush Forth My Tears' - was recorded for Mute in just 2 days. Danny Rampling did the remix; Katharine hated it and is unable to listen to it to this day. This era saw Miranda singing madrigals to hostile Blur fans at London’s Astoria. The girls’ refusal to flinch despite the routine beer boy catcalls of "Get yer tits out" won them the respect of press and public alike. "We wouldn’t stop" remembered Kelly. "The tension was incredible. We enjoyed it".

The album Madra had the critics effusing greatly. "The tabernacle in which we sit is transformed by sheer dint of harmony and poise into another place, where the sky lies like a canopy of blue velvet and the brightest stars are MSG" gushed forth the Evening Standard.

Ben and Trevor joined the band for the mini-album Iris, which was followed by the single Play in January 1993. Kelly and Jocelyn departed and other fellow-travellers - notably Donna McKevitt and Hepzibah Sessa - came and later went. The album Suspiria - named after an Italian horror film by Dario Argento and featuring an ultimately weird version of David Lynch’s 'In Heaven (Everything is Fine)' (from Eraserhead) saw the band move away from their classical origins to produce an album which was described by Melody Maker as "like a mosaic or a stained glass window, it can seem thoroughly artificial and heart-stoppingly beautifaul at the same time". The band went on to play live shows with the likes of Nick Cave, Curve and the Balanescu Quartet and played on the soundtrack for Derek Jarman’s Blue.

The band went on their first tour supporting Spiritualized and then began playing at London’s S&M emporium The Torture Garden. Their erotic dabblings (Katharine says "we managed to corner the perv market for a while") also found a place at The Lunatic Fringe for which Katharine also supplied performance art and cabaret. The sessions involved mad all night parties with Miranda Sex Garden headlining eclectic performances from the likes of the late Leigh Bowery, Kula Shaker (known at the time as The Ks), and "a very drunk and very naked" Simon Fisher Turner.
1994 saw the release of Fairytales of Slavery, produced by Einsturzende Neubauten’s Alex Hacke and expressing their growing interest in all things fetishistic. The album was launched with a performance by the band in the window of Tower Records, Piccadilly Circus as bemused tourists strained to catch the significance of this representation of their single Peepshow. A support gig in Berlin turned into an extraordinary experience when 22,000 angry Depeche Mode fans threw everything they could find at the stage - blankets, gherkins and other rubbish. MSG responded musically to the challenge. "It felt like warfare" recalls Ben, "but it was great fun".

Miranda Sex Garden left Mute Records in 1995 and went their separate ways. Katharine continued her cabaret performances in London at the Waikiki Lounge with sets including "Diamonds are Forever" in which she performed in a spangley silver film star dress, then revealed her gold painted body for a naked rendition of 'Goldfinger'. She formed the Mediaeval Baebes on Mayday 1996. (Their third album Undrentide, produced by John Cale, comes out in April.)

Miranda Sex Garden came together again when Katharine met a mysterious male benefactor - the eponymous SugarDaddy - who had been enchanted by the music at a Mediaeval Baebes concert. She founded the company "SugarDaddy Records" with him in the spring of 1999. The album was recorded in a recording studio in the middle of a Norwich graveyard in August 1999. Recording began on Friday 13 August "for that special gothic flavour".
The album was recorded in twelve days during which time the band buried themselves in an orgy of drink, sleep, Nintendo 64 and candle-worship. A video - showing the band dancing around the graveyard worshipping the pagan god of "Red Bull" - was to become a piece of Miranda cult classicism until it mysteriously disappeared on the return journey home. Even today, it is said that the video still exists and could re-emerge at any moment.

But it was the naked photoshoot for the album artwork that risked tearing the band down the middle. A disused warehouse was hired for the evening and a lot of people turned up with the promise of free drink if they would peel for the cameras. The result is artistically a success (and can be seen on the album cover), but years of pent-up frustration erupted between Trevor and Ben who had a punch-up.

There are some encouraging signs though - the music itself, which the band consider to be the seminal Miranda Sex Garden album. The fact that live, few can touch them. The fact that TC plays the meanest bass around; the fact that Katharine’s vocal sends men (and not a few women) dissolving helpless to the ground.

Seeing Trevor Sharpe act like "Animal" from the Muppets on drums. Vibe-ing out to whatever it is Ben does on guitar. Freaking to Mikey’s kinky keyboard riffs. And watching Barney burn up the fiddle.

The audience’s hope that their gothic and erotic expectations will fuse in a night of fetishistic debauchery. So it is with unnatural and unwholesome pleasure that we celebrate the return of MIRANDA SEX GARDEN.

Discography

Madra (1991)
Iris (EP, 1992)
Suspiria (1993)
Fairytales of Slavery (1994)
Carnival of Souls (2000)

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales Of Slavery - 1994

Dwarves

2009-03-02T06:46:00.000-08:00

The Dwarves are an American punk band formed in Chicago, Illinois, as The Suburban Nightmare, in the late 1980s. They are currently based in San Francisco, California. Formed as a garage punk band, their career subsequently saw them move in a hardcore direction before settling into a punk rock sound.

History

The original members of the Dwarves began making music together in the mid-1980s as teenagers in the Chicago garage rock outfit, Suburban Nightmare. The group's original Paisley underground sound was evident on the band's 1986 Voxx Records debut Horror Stories, an album which, like many of its Paisley underground contemporaries, contained a number of mid-1960s Pebbles-inspired garage rock covers, including The Avengers' "Be a Cave man" and Shag's "Stop and Listen."^[1]

The band's sound began to evolve beyond its early garage roots with their second LP, Toolin' For A Warm Teabag, which saw the band drifting towards a more truculent punk rock sound. The band released Blood Guts & Pussy on Sub Pop in 1989. By this time the Dwarves had dropped their early psychedelic sensibilities and morphed into a proper hardcore punk band. The Blood Guts & Pussy LP was followed up by EP Lucifer's Crank released by No.6 Records, as well as another Sub Pop LP, Thank Heaven For Little Girls, both in 1991.

In 1993 the band issued a press release stating that their guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed had been stabbed to death in Philadelphia. Though this later turned out to be a hoax, the band even went as far as to attach a tribute to the "late" guitarist on their 1993 Sub Pop-released album Sugarfix. Sub Pop did not respond well to the hoax and summarily dropped the band from its label. The Dwarves reformed in 1997, releasing The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking and its 2000 followup The Dwarves Come Clean.^[1] In 2004 the band released The Dwarves Must Die, its first LP for the indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry.

Band members

Singer Blag Dahlia (Paul Cafaro), and guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed have always been the two core members of the group. The lineup has shifted around them, and currently consists of members "Fresh Prince of Darkness" on guitar and returning drummer Gregory Pecker (aka Gnarlie Watts). "Rex Everything" and KMFDM drummer Andy Selway (under the alias Dutch Ovens) are on again/off again members. Former members include "Wholley Smokes", "Dutch Ovens", "Clint Torres", "Tazzie Bushweed", "Thrusty Otis", "Crash Landon", "Chip Fracture" "Wreck Tom ", and "Vadge Moore", among others.

Music style

They are known for their simple, loud, yet nuanced punk repertoire, and controversial lyrics. Since the hardcore punk sound of their early days, they have recently developed more of a pop punk influence. Their shows have been notable for some aggressive fights on stage (with the audience and even a cop), and because HeWhoCannotBeNamed performs either in nothing but a jockstrap or totally nude, apart from his trademark wrestling mask, and makes no attempt to hide behind his guitar.

Albums

Their album covers were unusual - naked women, and a naked dwarf sodomizing a rabbit covered in blood, for their 1990 album Blood Guts & Pussy - followed up a decade later, with a similar theme, this time covered in soap suds, for Come Clean. The band was sacked from their previous label, Sub Pop over pranks such as the long-lasting hoax contending that guitarist "HeWhoCannotBeNamed" had died. They have recorded on several labels and recently joined Sympathy for the Record Industry.They also have a track listed on the Punk you compilation album.

Discography

Horror Stories LP (Voxx Records, 1986, VXS 200.037)
Toolin' For A Warm Teabag LP (Nasty Gash Records, 1988, NG 001)
Blood Guts & Pussy LP (Sub Pop, 1990, SP 67)
Lucifer's Crank 7" EP (Rough Trade No.6 (Karbon), 1991, KAR 13/7)
Thank Heaven for Little Girls LP (Sub Pop, 1991, SP 126)
Sugarfix LP (Sub Pop, 1993, SP 197)
The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking LP (Theologian Records, 1997, T53)
Free Cocaine DLP (Recess Records, 1999, RECESS #51) (early singles collection)
Lick It DLP (Recess Records, 1999, RECESS #52)
The Dwarves Come Clean LP (Epitaph Records, 2000, 86575 1)
How To Win Friends And Influence People (Reptilian Records, 2001, REP 068)
The Dwarves Must Die (2004)
Fuck You Up And Get Live DVD (2004)
Greedy Boot 1 (2005) - only available from their website
FEFU DVD (2006)

Wikipedia® 2009

The Dwarves - The Dwarves Must Die - 2004

Alabama 3

2009-02-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

Alabama 3 was the oddest musical outfit to arise from late-'90s London. They were also the most original. The band's origins are shrouded in urban myth -- the band likes to claim that the 3 core members met in rehab, while their Southern accents have many believing they are from the U.S. state of Alabama, although it appears vocalists Rob Spragg and Jake Black met at a London rave when Spragg heard Black singing Hank Williams' "Lost Highway." Bonding, they set out about creating an agenda of Americana, electronica, leftist politics, and laughter. Joined by DJ Piers Marsh, the trio issued two 12" dance singles that combined their interest in gospel and country music, yet these went over the heads of the London dance scene. In Italy, where Spragg and Black began singing Howlin' Wolf songs over Marsh mixes, the idea of the band began to take shape and back in Brixton, South London, they recruited a crew of musicians to shape their vision. This, combined with brilliantly theatrical live shows, meant the band attracted a huge South London following long before they had a record deal.

Signed to One Little Indian, their 1997 debut, Exile on Coldharbour Lane, was a groundbreaking work that effortlessly fused gospel, country, blues, and house music. Dubbed "chemical country," Alabama 3 broke down the barriers between line dancers and ravers. The band's penchant for absurdity was displayed in Spragg and Black's insistence on singing, rapping, and preaching in deep Southern accents alongside samples of cult leader Jim Jones preaching Maoist philosophy and the renaming of all members -- Spragg became the Reverend Larry Love; Black became D. Wayne Love. Yet the songs were strong and imaginative and their observations on contemporary U.K. culture were spot-on: country and blues were used to look at the excesses of dance culture -- all with a pumping 808 beat behind them. The band was picked up on by U.K. roots DJs Charlie Gillet and Andy Kershaw, but the U.K. music press, at the height of its infatuation with Britpop, ignored the group or derided them as a novelty. Fortunately, U.S. audiences displayed a greater degree of irony, and cult TV series The Sopranos employed the band's "Woke Up This Morning" as its theme music. Unfortunately, country-lite vocal outfit Alabama sued over the group's name, which means in the U.S. Alabama 3 is now known as A3.Album number two, La Peste, followed in 2000 and found the band in more muted form. Again, the gospel-country-blues axis was there and the shows were wonderfully outrageous, but it appeared that two years of touring and a stronger awareness of the mounting casualties of rave culture and New Labor Britain had made the band wear a bleaker face. Where their debut cheekily nodded at the Stones' seminal double album, La Peste shared with it a bleak, murky sound that demanded the listener dig into the songs to discover their meaning. In 2007, with a continuing reluctance to conform, the band completed an equally dark and wonderfully uncompromising album titled M.O.R. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that A3 will shake loose their cult status anytime soon, considering that their constant mashing of opposing genres results in a tremendously original soundscape, and this makes it nearly impossible to classify the band or nail it down to a single specific genre. ~ Garth Cartwright, All Music Guide

Studio albums

Exile on Coldharbour Lane (1997) UK #153
La Peste (2000) UK #80
Power In The Blood (2002) UK #88
The Last Train To Mashville vol. 2 (2003)
Outlaw (2005) UK #83
M.O.R. (September 10, 2007)^[5] UK Indie #7
Hits and Exit Wounds (April 21, 2008) ^[6]


ARTiST: Alabama 3
TiTLE: M.O.R
LABEL: One Little Indian
GENRE: Rock
TiME: 63:14 min
SiZE:  78,9 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Sep-05-2007
RELEASE DATE: Sep-10-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Password: sharedmp3.net

Alabama 3 M.O.R. [2007]

Hear The Train A'Comin DivX

Their pre-christmas 2004 live performance at the London Astoria capturing the rapport between the band and an audience of over 2000 hard core disciples who flocked to witness singers Larry Love and the Reverend D Wayne Love preach their soulful but twisted gospel of 'sweet pretty country acid house music').

running time : 71 mins approx

1. Intro
2. Hello... I'm Johnny Cash
3. The Night We Nearly Got Busted
4. Bulletproof
5. R.E.H.A.B
6. Woody Guthrie
7. Up Above My Head
8. The Mansion On The Hill
9. Woke Me This Morning
10. Ain't Goin' To Goa
11. Mao Tse Tung Said
12. Have You Seen Richard Reynolds?
13. How Can I Protect You?
14. Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
15. The 12 Step Plan (Hypo Full Of Love)

pw = purgatory

Barry Adamson

2009-02-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

(born in Moss Side, Manchester, 1 June 1958) is an English rock musician who has worked with rock bands such as Magazine, Visage, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the electronic musicians Pan sonic. He has also worked on film soundtracks for David Lynch, and released numerous solo recordings.

Early life
He read comic books from an early age. In school he absorbed himself in art, music and film, writing his first song, "Brain Pain", at the age of 10. His musical influences were diverse, ranging from Alice Cooper to Motown to David Bowie.

Career
Adamson left school and shifted into graphic design attending Stockport Art College but quit shortly after, favouring to venture into the exploding punk rock scene of the late 1970s. He joined ex-Buzzcocks singer Howard Devoto's band Magazine, playing bass guitar, scoring one chart single, "Shot by Both Sides"; in late 1977, he also joined Buzzcocks, as a short-time replacement of Garth Smith. He played on all of Magazine's albums, and contributed to Devoto's solo album and his next band, Luxuria. He also contributed to the studio-based band Visage, playing on the ensemble's first two albums, Visage and The Anvil.

After Magazine broke up, Adamson worked with another ex-Buzzcock, Pete Shelley, before joining Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He appeared on four of that band's albums: From Her to Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead, Kicking Against the Pricks and Your Funeral, My Trial. After his stint in the band, he went solo, releasing an EP, The Man with the Golden Arm in 1988, and his first solo album, Moss Side Story, the following year, the soundtrack to a non-existent film noir. The album incorporated newscasts and sampled sound effects and featured guest musicians Marcia Schofield (of The Fall), Diamanda Galas, and former colleagues from the Bad Seeds. Adamson's second solo album, was the soundtrack to a real film this time - Carl Colpaert's Delusion, and he would go on to provide sountracks for several other films.

Adamson's third album, Soul Murder, was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize in 1992.

His solo work is influenced by John Barry, Elmer Bernstein and Ennio Morricone. Later works have included jazz, electronica, soul, funk, and dub styles.

In 2002, Adamson left his long-term label, Mute Records, and started his own 'production home', Central Control International. In 2006, he released Stranger on the Sofa, first for his Central Control International imprint, to critical acclaim. Back To The Cat, his second album for the label, was released in March 2008.

In 2007 it was announced that Magazine would reform for concerts in 2008. Adamson will be part of this and the same line up that recorded Secondhand Daylight will reform, with the exception of the late John McGeoch. McGeoch will be replaced by Luxuria/Apollo 440 member Noko.
Wikipedia® 2009

Albums
2008 Back To The Cat
2006 Stranger on the Sofa
2002 King of Nothing Hill
1999 The Murky World of Barry Adamson (compilation)
1998 As Above, So Below
1996 Oedipus Schmoedipus
1993 The Negro Inside Me
1992 Soul Murder
1989 Moss Side Story

Barry Adamson - The Negro Inside Me

Pascal Comelade

2009-02-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

Pascal Paul Vincent Comelade (born June 30, 1955), is a French Catalan musician.

Comelade born was in Montpellier, France. After living for several years in Barcelona, he made his first album, Fluences, influenced by electronic music and by the group Heldon.

Subsequently, his music has become more acoustic and is characterised by the sounds of toy instruments, used as solo-instruments and as an integral part of the sound of his group, the Bel Canto Orquestra. In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. [Wikipedia®2009]

Each new album by Pascal Comelade is in itself a bit of an event. The man makes himself rare in France and is much more prolific in Catalonia, where he is considered to be an essential musician. In France, he is seldom mentioned in the media, and, in record shops, his music is often to be found in the film score section, with experimental music or even with world music. The last time he really got the attention of the critics was for his musical show Psicotic Music-Hall in 2002, a tribute to La Bodega Bohemia, a historical cabaret in Barcelona. Fortunately his new ‘Best Of’ album, ‘The No Dancing’ (Because Music) puts into perspective the importance of his works and demonstrates his many-sided musical vision, his multi-layered pocket symphonies, his bazaar of toy instruments and his playful ramblings, sometimes shared with big names in the world of the bizarre: P.J. Harvey (Love Too Soon) and Robert Wyatt (September Song) among others. A great way to brush-up on your Comelade culture. The 20 tracks on ‘The No Dancing’ were taken from the following Pascal Comelade albums: Danses et Chants de Syldavie - 1994 Musique pour Film - 1997 L’Argot Du Bruit - 1998 Psicotic Music’hall - 2002 Best Of (French version) - 2007 Metode de Rocanrol - 2007 [Israbox]

1975 : Fluence
1978 :
- Séquences Paiennes
- Vertical Pianos
1980 :
- Paralelo
- Ready-Made
1981 : Slow Music

1982 :
- Sentimientos
- Irregular Organs
1983 :
- Fall Of Saigon
- Logique du Sens
1984 :
- La Dialectique Peut-Elle Casser des Briques ?(with Cathy claret's voice).
- Bel Canto Orquestra
- Milano Enharmonisto
- Précis de Décomposition Bruitiste
- Scénes de Musique Ralentie
- Détail Monochrome

un titre inclu dans le disque "cathy claret" delabel/virgin

1986 : Bel Canto
1987 : El Primitivismo
1988 :
- Impressionnismes
- Rock Del Veneno
1989 :
- 33 Bars
- Cent Regards
1991 :
- Ragazzin' The Blues
- Pataphysical Polka
- Haikus de Pianos
1992 :
- Traffic d'Abstraction
- Topographie Anecdotique
- El Ermitaño - with Bel Canto Orquestra
1993 : Yo Quiero Un Tebeo
1994 : Danses Et Chants de Syldavie
1995 : El Cabaret Galactic
1996 :
- Musiques Pour Films Vol.2
- Tango Del Rossello
- Un samedi Sur la Terre - Soundtrack
1997 :
- Un Tal Jazz
- Oblique Sessions - with Pierre Bastien, Jac Berrocal Jaki Liebezeit and
1998 :
- L'Argot du Bruit
- ZumZum.Ka
- Bel Canto Orquestra In Concerto
1999 :
- Musiques De Genre
- Live In Lisbon and Barcelona
- Oblique Sessions II - with Richard Pinhas
- Swing Slang Song
2000 :
- Aigua de Florida Classes de Música a la Granja - with Llorenç Balsach
- André Le Magnifique - Soundtrack (followed by 3 pieces written for the ballet "Spring man" by Ryohei Kondo and 6 pieces written for the ballet "Zumzum-ka" by Cesc Gelabert.)
- September Song - with Robert Wyatt
- Pop Songs Del Rossello - with Gérard Jacquet
- Pastis Catalan - Music for the Musée d'Art moderne de Céret (Limited Edition of 50 copies signed and numbered.)
2001 :
- La Isla Del Holandés - with José Manuel Pagan
- Pop Songs Del Rossello 2 - with Gérard Jacquet
2002 :
- Sense el Resso del Dring
- Psicotic Music' Hall
2003 :
- Logicofobisme del Piano en Minuscul
- Musica Pop (Danses de Catalunya Nord)
2004 :
- La Filosofia del Plat Combinat
- Back to Schizo 1975-1983
2005 : Espace Détente - Soundtrack
2006
- Espontex sinfonia
- La Manera Més Salvatge - with Enric Casasses
- Stranger In Paradigm
2008
- Compassió pel dimoni

Pascal Comelade - The No Dancing

Nina Hagen

2009-02-19T03:07:00.000-08:00

Nina Hagen (born Catharina Hagen on 11 March 1955) is a singer from East Berlin, Germany. Hagen's parents are Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer. Her paternal Jewish grandparents died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine.

When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views influenced young Hagen: she was "dishonorably discharged" from the Free German Youth socialist East German government. group at age 12, and became active in political protests against the socialist East German government.

Hagen left school at age 16, and joined the cover band Fritzens Dampferband (Fritz's Steamboat Band, together with Achim Mentzel and others). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the "allowable" set lists during shows.

From 1972–3, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduation, formed the band Automobil.

Music Career

1970s

In East Germany, she performed with the band Automobil, becoming one of the country's best-known young stars. Her most famous song from the early part of her career was "Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen" ("You forgot the colour film") in 1974. However, her musical career in East Germany was cut short when she and her mother left the country in 1976, following the expulsion of her stepfather.

The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his home country. During a period when bureaucracy was the norm, and families divided by the Berlin Wall had not seen one another in decades, Hagen submitted an application to leave the country. In it, she claimed to be Biermann's biological daughter, and threatened to become the next Wolf Biermann if not allowed to rejoin her father. Just four days later her request was granted, and she settled in Hamburg, where she was signed to a CBS-affiliated record label. Her label advised her to acclimate herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and the Sex Pistols; Johnny Rotten was a particular admirer.

Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, which included the single "TV-Glotzer" (a cover of "White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of "Rangehn" (approximately, "Go On"), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music.

According to reviewer Fritz Rumler,

… she thrusts herself into the music, aggressively, directly, furiously, roars in the most beautiful opera alto, then, through shrieks and squeals, precipitates into luminous soprano heights, she parodies, satirises, and howls on stage like a dervish.

The album gained significant attention throughout Germany and abroad, both for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. However, relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour, and Hagen decided to leave the band in 1979, though she was still under contract to produce a second album. This LP, Unbehagen (which in German also means discomfort or unease), was eventually produced with the band recording their tracks in Berlin and Hagen recording the vocals in Los Angeles, California. It included the single "African Reggae" and a cover of Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number". The other band members sans Hagen, soon developed a successful independent musical career as Spliff.

Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar and she became infamous for an appearance on an Austrian talk show called Club 2, in which she described female masturbation techniques and became embroiled in a heated argument with another panelist.^[1] She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the 1979 film Cha Cha.

1980s

A European tour with a new band in 1980 was cancelled, and Hagen turned to the United States. A limited-edition 10-inch EP was released on vinyl that summer in the U.S. Two songs from her first album Nina Hagen Band were on the A side, and two songs from her second album Unbehagen were on the B-side. All four songs were sung in German.

In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be Ferdinand Karmelk,^[2] and moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica on 17 May 1981. In 1982, Hagen released her first English-language album: NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra.

In 1983, she released the album Angstlos and a minor European tour. By this time, Hagen's public appearances were becoming stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. The English version of Angstlos, Fearless,Zarah Leander (#45 USA) song "Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen") and the disco/punk/opera song, "New York New York" (#9 USA). From 1984 to 1985, she dated Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Her 1985 album Nina Hagen In Ekstasy fared less well, but did generate club hits with "Universal Radio" (#39 USA) and a cover of "Spirit In The Sky" and also featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Frank Sinatra's My Way, which had been one of her signature live tunes in previous years. Her contract with CBS over, she released the Punk Wedding EP independently in 1987, a celebration of her marriage to an 17-year-old-punk nicknamed 'Iroquois'. It followed an independent 1986 one-off single with Lene Lovich, the anthemic Don't Kill The Animals. In 1989, Hagen released the album Nina Hagen which was backed up by another German tour.

In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen.

1990s

In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1991 she toured Europe in support of her new album Street. In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. Also in the same year (1992) she collaborated with Adamski on the European smash and minor uk hit single "Get Your Body". The following year, she released Revolution Ballroom and two years later the German-language album Freud EuchBeehappy in 1996. Also in 1996, Hagen collaborated with electronic music artist Christopher Franke, along with Rick Jude on "Alchemy of Love", the theme song for the film Tenchi Muyo! in Love. In 1997 she collaborated with German hip hop musician Thomas D.
In 1998, Hagen became the host of a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel, in addition to embarking on another tour of Germany. In 1999, she released the devotional album Om Namah Shivay, which was distributed exclusively online and included an unadulterated musical version of the Hare Krishna mantra (in real life she believes that the Hindu incarnation of God known as Krishna was 'the king of Jerusalem'. Krishna is sometimes referred to as "Christ"). She also provided vocals to "Witness" and "Bereit" on KMFDM's Adios.

Also in 1998 she recorded the official club anthem (Eisern Union !) for FC Union Berlin and four versions were issued on a CD single by G.I.B Music and Distribution GmbH.

In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht, alongside Max Raabe.

2000s

In 2000, her song Schön ist die Welt became the official song of Expo 2000. Another cover of a Zarah Leander song "Der Wind hat mir ein Lied erzählt" was a minor hit the same year. The album The Return of the Mother was released in February 2001, accompanied by another German tour. In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached #22 in Germany. and

Hagen dubbed the voice of Sally in the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and she has also done voice work on the movie Hot Dogs by Michael Schoemann. Hagen has been featured on songs by other bands, for instance on Oomph!'s song "Fieber". She did a cover of Rammstein's "Seemann" with Apocalyptica. Later albums include Big Band Explosion, in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. Her most recent album, Journey to The Snow Queen, is more of an audio book—she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. In 2005 Nina Hagen headlined the Drop Dead Festival in New York City. Hagen has been an active protester against the war in Iraq. In 2006 she was a part of the Popstars team. She is a vegetarian.^[3]

Discography

Year
1978	Nina Hagen Band
1979	Unbehagen
1982	Nunsexmonkrock
1983	Angstlos / Fearless (English version, release 1984)
1985	In Ekstase / In Ekstasy (English version)
1989	Nina Hagen
1991	Street
1993	Revolution Ballroom
1995	FreuD euch
1996	BeeHappy
1999	Die Dreigroschenoper
1999	Om Namah Shivay
2000	Return of the Mother
2003	Big Band Explosion
2006	Irgendwo auf der Welt

Wikipedia® 2009

Nina Hagen - In Exstase - 1985
PW: alchimist

Julian Cope

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(born Julian David Cope, on 21 October 1957) is a British rock musician, author, antiquary, musicologist, and poet Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes. Cope has since released many solo albums and is a founding member of the bands Queen Elizabeth and Brain Donor. In addition to his musical career, Cope has written four books of non-fiction: Krautrocksampler (Head Heritage, 1995), The Modern Antiquarian (Thorsons, 1998), The Megalithic European (Element, 2004), and Japrocksampler (Bloomsbury, 2007), plus two volumes of autobiography: Head-On (Head Heritage, 1994) and Repossessed (HarperCollins, 1999).

Career

Cope's musical career began in July 1977, as bass player with a mythical Liverpool punk rock band known as Crucial Three, which also featured Ian McCulloch (later guitarist and singer for Echo and the Bunnymen) and guitarist Pete Wylie, who later formed The Mighty Wah. Although the Crucial Three lasted for little more than six weeks, and disbanded without ever actually playing a note, all three members went on to lead very successful post-punk bands. Cope went on to form other short-lived bands UH? and A Shallow Madness with McCulloch, before finally achieving fame and success as the singer, original bassist and primary songwriter of The Teardrop Explodes.^[3]

In 1981, Cope compiled Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker, which was released by Bill Drummond's Zoo Records. This sparked renewed interest in the work of the reclusive singer; though years later Cope commented that Walker's "Pale White Intellectual" outlook on life no longer held any fascination for him.

After The Teardrop Explodes disbanded in late 1982 following the completion of three albums, Cope returned to live close to his hometown of Tamworth, settling in the nearby village of Drayton Bassett with his new American wife Dorian. In 1983 he recorded some introspective works for his first solo album, World Shut Your Mouth, released on Mercury Records in March 1984. This record was followed just six months later by Fried, which featured a sleeve with Cope clad only in a turtle shell. The failure of this record caused Polygram to drop Cope, but he signed a deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records.

Cope's third solo album was the well-received Saint JulianEd Stasium) and released the single "World Shut Your Mouth", which became his biggest solo hit, reaching #19 in the UK in 1986, becoming his only Top 20 single there. The follow-up album My Nation Underground spawned only one Top 40 single in "Charlotte Anne", and Cope fell out with Island Records at this time. Cope found modest American success with "Charlotte Anne" reaching the top of the Modern Rock Tracks. He recorded his next album, the low-fi Skellington, in secret during the course of a single weekend, playing in the same studio used for My Nation Underground. Neither his record company nor management had any desire to release Skellington (Zippo, 1989), and Cope refused to record any other material while he feuded with them to try to get his new work released. This became the first of many feuds with record companies. Cope next released a Texas-only album entitled Droolian (Mofoco, 1990), the profits of which were used to aid of one of his heroes Roky Erickson, who was in jail without legal representation.

When Cope's war with Island Records had abated, he released the double album Peggy Suicide (Island, 1991), which was heralded by critics as his best work thus far. The record was recorded during the anti-Margaret Thatcher Poll Tax Riots, in which Cope took a prominent role, wearing a huge theatrical costume throughout the march. Cope was later featured on the BBC's Poll Tax documentary, a lone protester walking down Whitehall in the costume surrounded by seven lines of mounted police. For his anti-police tirade "Soldier Blue", Cope sampled Lenny Bruce's Berkeley Concert and mixed in samples of the Poll Tax riot itself . The song was later re-mixed by Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy's Michael Franti, who also provided a rap for the new mix. However, when Island Records refused to release the record as being too overtly political, another argument ensued. Many of the songs on Peggy Suicide also reflected Cope's hatred of organized religion, and his increasing interest in the occult, animal rights, paganism, women's rights, the goddess and ecology. In 1992, Cope released another double album, the fiercely anti-Christian Jehovahkill. While the lyrics of such songs as "Poet is Priest", "Julian H. Cope", and the single "Fear Loves This Place" were again highly critical of the Church, much of the music on Jehovahkill reflected his teenage fascination for both Detroit hard rock and a more electro-acoustic based Krautrock. However, the contents of Jehovahkill were too much for Island Records, who dropped Cope the same week that his three shows sold out at London's 1800 capacity Town & Country Club. The press mounted an outcry at Island Records' decision, NME featuring him on their front cover under the headline 'Endangered Species' and Select magazine started a campaign to have Cope re-signed. Cope refused to comment because he was engaged in a tour of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

In the mid-1990s, Cope signed with Rick Rubin's Def American label, releasing Autogeddon (1994) and 20 Mothers (1995), spawning the single "Try, Try, Try", accompanied by two Top of the Pops performances. He was dropped by the label when he refused to visit the USA. In 1996, Cope released the album Interpreter (Echo Records). Cope's ongoing battle with those he referred to as "greedheads" eventually saw him turn his back on the music industry from this point onwards.

Recent years

Cope has opted out of the mainstream in recent years, releasing and promoting his music himself, rather than working with a major record label. He continues to record new material both under his own name and with regular collaborators under the band names Brain Donor - his heavy metal power trio, and Queen Elizabeth, an experimental collaboration with Thighpaulsandra of Coil/Spiritualized. Most of his more recent releases are available either primarily or exclusively through Cope's extensive and interactive website, Head Heritage ^[1]. Cope is also a musicologist, occultist and an avid champion of obscure and underground music.

His Album of the Month reviews on the Unsung section of his website ^[5] have promoted bands such as Comets on Fire, Sunn O))) (with whom he performed a guest vocal on their White1 album) and several Japanese bands which feature in his book Japrocksampler. Unsung is another community-based site that invites contributors' reviews, and Cope and the site's numerous contributors have been instrumental in kick-starting the interest in bands like Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer, Les Rallizes Denudes, Tractor the Groundhogs. Cope is also considered to be one of the first bloggers; he has been airing his sometimes controversial views since 1998 via his website's "Address Drudion" on the first day of each month ^[6]. and

Cope has continued to perform live in the UK (including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2003) and other parts of Europe in recent years. Despite travelling to Armenia in 2003 for research, Cope has not toured professionally beyond Europe for several years. In 2005, plans to tour the United States were dropped because their INS refused to grant him a visa.

Julian Cope lives near Avebury, Wiltshire (UK) with his wife, Dorian, and their two daughters, Albany and Avalon.

Albums

1984 World Shut Your Mouth (UK #40)
1984 Fried (UK #87)
1987 Saint Julian (UK #11)
1988 My Nation Underground (UK #42)
1990 Skellington
1990 Droolian
1991 Peggy Suicide (UK #23)
1992 Jehovahkill (UK #20)
1993 Rite
1993 Ye Skellington Chronicles (an expanded version of Skellington along with the sequel Skellington 2)
1994 Autogeddon (UK #16)
1995 20 Mothers (UK #20)
1996 Interpreter (UK #39)
1997 Rite 2
1999 Odin
2000 An Audience With the Cope 2000/2001
2001 Discover Odin
2002 Rite Now
2003 Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day
2004 Live Japan '91
2005 Citizen Cain'd
2005 Dark Orgasm
2006 Rite Bastard
2006 Jehovahkill: Deluxe Edition, re-released with a disc of extra material
2007 You Gotta Problem With Me
2008 Black Sheep

Wikipedia® 2009

Julian Cope - Saint Julian - 1987

Welcome

2009-02-17T06:34:00.000-08:00