Month: February 2018

Experience RICHARD JAMES SIMPSON’s Pitch Black Vision On The Most Sacred Number Of All… 10

Posted on by JL

Clips that will have an impact on your eyes and your ears…

VivaVideo

9 February 2018

INTRO
To be honest I never thought I would ever mention Ionian Greek philosopher Pythagoras
in a review but according to the press message accompanying this Richard James Simpson video the eponymous founder of the Pythagoreanism movement “was the first to discover that musical notes are related in a simple mathematical fashion to the lengths of the vibrating strings that produce them. Numbers, Pythagoras believed, were the elements behind the entire universe. He taught his followers that the world was controlled by mathematical harmonies that made up every part of reality. More than that, though, these numbers were sacred, almost like gods: 7 was the number of wisdom, 8 was the number of justice, and 10 was the most sacred number of all.”

RICHARD JAMES SIMPSON
RJS was lead guitarist and vocalist for the band Teardrain (which included bass player and co-songwriter Jill Emery of such bands as Hole, Mazzy Star and Super Heroines) and bassist for Invisible Chains.

10
It’s the title of a pitch black track from RJS’ debut LP ‘Sweet Birds Of Youth’ and, as said here on top, 10 is the most sacred number of all. The song is about completion and the torrid need for justice in an unjust world. 10 is the number of heaven, the world, and universal creation.

VIDEO
The short but remarkable video is as dark, confusing, ominous and hellish as the track itself. It feels like the countdown to irreversible madness, the last chapter of humanity
as we know it. A scary reflection of the dark side of this troubled planet we live in. Let’s hope for a better new one in the unknown future…

RICHARD JAMES SIMPSON: Facebook – All info on the album


Stream the experimental and compelling SWEET BIRDS OF YOUTH right here

PICK OF THE DAY – You’ll Want Toronto Tandem FREEDOM BABY To Stay After Hearing ‘WHEN WE GO’…

Posted on by JL

Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…

Band: FREEDOM BABY

Base: Toronto, Canada

Who: “Over the course of 2017 Freedom Baby, initially a Toronto-based bedroom project between Eric Reid and Brianna Bordihn, has progressed and evolved, experiencing considerable growth and making the jump from part-time passion project to committed, full-time band.”

Track: WHEN WE GO – first track from upcoming debut EP titled ‘How You’ll Grow‘.
The tandem says about the song: “It’s an ode to death and dying, both an acceptance
of the loss of loved ones and a hopeful questioning of the ideas of rebirth and existence
beyond a physical death but from the perspective of a child.”

Score: Here’s a truly spectacular symphony with four different stages. It starts with
a smooth and melancholic Beirut like trumpets intro before Brianna‘s alluring voice
comes on, quickly joined by Eric‘s vox for a charming harmony. Suddenly the pace
goes up and you’re completely surprised by an electrical flare-up. Wow! ! Thereafter
the trumpets return, now injected with some fiesta ecstasy before this pearl ends
in silence. A really magnificent performance with dazzling orchestrations, striking arrangements and vivid voices. If this is an ode to death, I wonder what Freedom
Baby would sound like if they wrote an ode to life. Discover the delightfulness here…

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FREEDOM BABY: Facebook – Twitter

DINOSAUR JR Released Supreme Album ‘WHERE YOU BEEN’ 25 Years Ago

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Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums

8 February 2018

BAND: DINOSAUR JR

ALBUM: WHERE YOU BEEN

RELEASED: 9 February 1993 – 25 years ago

ROLLING STONE wrote: “On their second major-label album, these college-underground champs recall the shambling lope of ‘Crazy Horse-era Young’, as well as hints of minor Seventies icons from ‘Blue Oyster Cult’ to ‘Humble Pie’. But far from being derivative, leader J Mascis takes a familiar deck of cards and deals out a new game. While for Young guitar clamor signaled rage and desperation, for Mascis it’s retreat. Before a roiling torrent of distorted guitars and oceanic drum bash, Mascis sings in a laid-back croak, like a character talking calmly to the camera in the midst of a riotous crowd scene. The turmoil on Where You Been is a relationship crippled
by misunderstanding, detailed in a poignant second-person narrative that consumes virtually every song on the album. Like many of its peers, Dinosaur Jr is a musical cargo cult, turning the detritus of another culture into something that can be used — and maybe even worshiped. For one of the crowning glories of slacker culture, look no further.”

TURN UP THE VOLUME! says: to my ears one the best Dinosaur longplayers – with an arresting mix of sparkling electricity, poppy grunginess and amplified balladry

THREE HIGHLIGHTS: Get Me / Out There / Not The Same

* GET ME – galvanizing mixed emotions romanticism

* OUT THERE – crackling leccy…

* NOT THE SAME – melancholic splendour at its very best…

In full…


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DINOSAUR JR : Website – Facebook –  Twitter – Discography

PICK OF THE DAY – Aussie Trio ‘SCK CHX’ With Glam Slam ‘SPINNING AROUND’…

Posted on by JL

Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…

7 February 2018

Band: SCK CHX
Base: Sydney, Australia
Who: Deranged trio producing ‘surf punk you can listen to naked….’
Pick: SPINNING AROUND – new single “sounding like a bull through a china shop track that celebrates the feeling of losing control, being weird and being okay with it.”
Score: If your head will not spin around 360° when this big glam slam bang jumps out of your speakers you need to consult your doctor and your shrink. Tell them they also need to listen to this bouncy banger so they can figure out precisely why your electrified body can’t stop hopping forth and back and why the hard drive of your mind goes completely bananas. Yes, wackos out there, here’s something you’ll scream along on repeat! 1-2-3-4…

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SCK CHX: Facebook / Label: Yeah Nah Yeah

Louder Is Better! Not When You’re Messing It Up Like VIRGINIA WING And HOOKWORMS Yesterday…

Posted on by JL

VIRGINIA WING / HOOKWORMS – Nest, Ghent (Belgium) – 6 February 2018

Is louder always better?
I must have been at about 4000 concerts by now (I’m much older than Justin Bieber but much younger than Keith Richards), so you can call me an experienced noise addict. I like
it very loud at gigs, in a way when the music’s volume lifts you to a mind-expanding place. But the VOLUME of the NOISE need to be balanced in a way that it doesn’t blow up your ears. MY BLOODY VALENTINE must have been the loudest band ever on a podium, but WITHOUT getting terribly annoying and dangerously damaging. Louder is only better when the noise elevates you, not when it crushes your Eustachian tube.

Virginia Wing / Hookworms
A good (Virgina Wing) and a great band (Hookworms), on record that is, because yesterday on stage they both broke the sound rules badly. No balance, no equilibrium at all. Just noise, only disturbing noise. A textbook example of macho behavior. You know, that arrogant attitude of ‘hey mom, listen how loud we can play‘. No, guys, it’s not about the quantity of the decibels, it’s about the quality of the decibels and you both failed sadly yesterday. End of story. Before I’m gonna listen to Hookworms’ excellent new album ‘Microshift‘ again ( like I just said a minute ago, they’re a great band on record) – only
with my right ear as my left one is still out of order – I have this small message for that snotty bassist of Virginia Wing who abused, two songs in the set, the sound mixer as if
that man was a piece of shit: ‘Fuck you too, prick! ”

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Sorry, Virginia, too much out of tune…


Hookworms going arty ‘Pink Floyd’ farty on stage...

(pics by Turn Up The Volume!)

TURN UP THE VOLUME’s JIVING JUKEBOX – Get Rid Of Your Nasty Demons With… COURTNEY LOVE

Posted on by JL

The Jukebox Series: only the greats can fill a Wurlitzer…

One of the media’s former favorite targets and so-called psycho (read: bipolar, hurt, abandoned by her closed ones as a teenager, confused, outspoken, confused, straight
in your face, yes like so many of us, totally HUMAN) COURTNEY LOVE can fill a shiny Wurtlizer, easily. If you can’t believe this I guess you were paying too much attention
to all the sensational bullshit stories on her private life invented by the pathetic gutter press (she had a fucked up teenage life, no doubt about that, just read the right biography to find out why, not the fucking paparazzi rubbish). And yes, she wasn’t a great musician, but bloody hell, she wrote a series of smashing killer crackers nobody can ignore!! From the brutal Teenage Whore to the heartbreaking, confessional ballad that Letter To God is. And she was one of the hottest rock and roll performers I saw on a podium. A genuine primal scream grunge legend in my own borderline book. Oil your vocal chords, you’ll definitely need them to clamor along with L.O.V.E…

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Tracks selected from the four HOLE albums: Pretty On The Inside (1991) /
Live Through This (1994) / Celebrity Skin (1998) / Nobody’s Daughter (2010)
and her only full solo record America’s Sweetheart (2004)

Back in 2010 I saw LOVE twice – in the legendary Paradiso in Amsterdam and in, the
later deeply deceived, Bataclan Venue in Paris. Here’s Courtney covering The Rolling Stones in Amsterdam (me, fourth row). She looked cool, healthy and happy. And she was just brilliant that night. An icon forever!…

COURTNEY LOVE: Facebook – Twitter

The real – turbulent – story…

VIVA VIDEO – Watch KING TUFF Having A Bizzare ‘PSYCHO STAR’ Reflection…

Posted on by JL

Impressive clips that will have an impact on your eyes and your ears…

VivaVideo

6 February 2018

Garage pop weirdo KYLE THOMAS just dropped a new, second track from his, upcoming new album THE OTHER, out 13 April, featuring contributions from fellow spirits like Ty Segall, Jenny Lewis, Greta Morgan, and Mikal Cronin. New cut PSYCHO STAR is about this wacko planet we live on. It’s bizarre that we are here and in the end we are all wicked creatures, one way or another. So, let’s make the best of it and let’s have a dance and
go mental to this trippy psycho sunbeam…

KING TUFF on the new album: “I was a lost soul, I didn’t know who I was anymore, I just sat there staring out the window. So I went down deep into the void for a few years. And while I was there I found some worms, some crazy flowers, and some songs. These songs blasted me back into the sunshine. They saved me and I’m more excited about this record than I have been in a long time. Come join me in ‘The Other’.”


KING TUFF: Website – Facebook / LABEL: Sub Pop Records

Watch Out For Passional Rockers JOSH MOVER & THE SHAKERS – They’re Here To Steal And Sell Your Heart…

Posted on by JL

Sonic havoc that thrills us in a way we want to scream out loud…

6 February 2018

Band: JOSH MOVER & THE SHAKERS
Base: Toronto, Canada
Who: “The musical project of songwriter Josh Mover. Combining elements of dark indie pop with a dash of folk and a pinch of punk, their forthcoming EP debut “Into A Ghost” offers up a promising five song appetizer for hungry ears.”
Track: ‘WHEN I STEAL YOUR HEART
Score: With this band name you better make my hips shake from left to right and back,
on repeat. Well, after only one listen it’s crystal clear that these Canadian rockers were actually born to activate your pelvis. This post-break-up eruption rolls all over Beethoven with a psychotic twist. Yes, the thief in ‘When I Steal Your Heart’ is a crazed maniac who steals hearts in order to make a profit from it on the black market. Before that disturbed human being comes after me I’ll give him the honor to explain what this song is all about. Listen up, scary people, here’s Dr. Josh and Mr. Mover…

“I was trying to come to terms with a relationship that ended and I was also listening to quite a bit of Tom Lehrer. I liked how he subverted the expectations of the genre he played in singing really dark, often tongue-in cheek lyrics over these poppy, piano arrangements. So when I heard his tune “I Hold Your Hand In Mine” the idea came to me to write an anti-love song from the perspective of a psychopath who’s going to take their lost love’s heart, and sell it on the black market.”

About time to hit the boulevard of broken dreams and make some hard cash…

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JOSH MOVER & THE SHAKERS: Facebook – Twitter – Instagram


On 16 February the band will release 5-track EP ‘Into A Ghost‘

KRAFTWERK – Visionary Single ‘DAS MODEL’ Released In 1978 – 40 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

When timeless and memorable it’s a …

quotefield-kopie

6 February 2018

The story of DAS MODEL by KRAFTWERK

The visionary song was first released in 1978 – 40 years ago – only in Germany, as
a 7″ single. Three 3 years later, in 1981, the English version came out as the B-side
on the ‘Computer Love‘ single. After English DJ’s started to play that B-side over and
over again the song was re-released in 1982 by record label EMI although the band opposed. It became the first No 1 hit for a German act in the UK on 6 February 1982.

Quick, get yourself a clean haircut.
Take that old red shirt out of the closet.
Steal your daughter’s red lipstick.
Look like a robot on strike and
pretend you’re a cool model…

[Verse 1]
Sie ist ein Model und sie sieht gut aus
Ich nähm sie heut gerne mit zu mir nach Haus
Sie wirkt so kühl, an sie kommt niemand ran
Doch vor der Kamera da zeigt sie was sie kann

[Verse 2]
Sie trinkt in Nachtclubs immer Sekt (Korrekt!)
Und hat hier alle Männer abgecheckt
Im Scheinwerferlicht ihr junges Lächeln strahlt
Sie sieht gut aus und Schönheit wird bezahlt

[Verse 3]
Sie stellt sich zur Schau für das Konsumprodukt
Und wird von Millionen Augen angeguckt
Ihr neues Titelbild ist einfach fabelhaft
Ich muß sie wieder seh’n, ich weiß sie hat’s geschafft

KRAFTWERK: Website – Facebook – Discography


‘Das Model’ was on THE MAN-MACHINE LP – released 19 May 1978, almost 40 years ago – and spelled in German up to the 2009 remaster when English title ‘The Model’ was used.

When Greats Cover Greats – When SONIC YOUTH Barks Like THE STOOGES…

Posted on by JL

Smashing covers of smashing originals…

‘I Wanna Be your Dog’ by SONIC YOUTH
Original by THE STOOGES

I WANNA BE YOUR DOG is one of the nastiest, filthiest, sexiest rock blasts of all time
with its repetitive and monstrous guitar drone, Iggy‘s horny barks and that single-note piano riff played by producer John Cale (then member of The Velvet Underground). The single was released back in 1969 and a couple of decades later SONIC YOUTH played a
S-H-A-T-T-E-R-I-N-G live version on some American TV Show with a bunch of crazed guests, including a far-out saxophonist and… a mental flutist. Collect all your old furniture ’cause here’s the soundtrack to smash it against the wall to. HELL BLOODY HELL YEAH!…

The single was on the raw and rough self-titled debut LP of THE STOOGES.