After the release of their first album too much critical success but virtually no commercial success, The Chameleons released their second album ‘What Does Anything Mean? Basically’ in 1985 to similar results. However this album was a far different from 1983 ‘Script of the Bridge’, in that it relied much more on slick producing and digital pedals. Here is my personal favorite track from that album “Perfume Garden” (but they are all good tracks).
http://www.spinner.com/2010/10/28/limewire-effectively-shut-down/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11635320
After four years of being tied up in courts file sharing group Limewire has been issued an injunction that reads “This is an official notice that LimeWire is under a court ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software.” It adds that “downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorization is illegal”. Limewire has said it will come up with a new program to comply with the court order and put the user “back at the centre” of the music experience
If they sound familiar it’s because there are 20 different bands out there that copy these guys. The Chameleons (some times known as The Chameleons UK) are probably the most influential band you never heard of with three albums in the 80’s ‘Script of the Bridge‘, ‘What Does Anything Mean? Basically‘, and ‘Strange Times‘. They also got back together in 2000 and released a final studio album in 2001 ‘Why Call it Anything‘. From the opening track of their first album 1983’s ‘Script of the Bridge‘ Don’t Fall , two things are clear 1) these guys were years ahead of their time and 2) when they played together these guys were something special.
Note, Don’t Fall is the first track of the album, Here Today is the second track off ‘Script of the Bridge‘. I wanted to post the studio version and this was the best I could find so you get two for the price of one.
From Kasabian’s 2009 album ‘West Ryder Paper Lunatic Asylum’
Artist: Elvis Perkins
Year: 2007
Label: XL Records
Track Listing
1.”While You Were Sleeping” 9/10
2.”All The Night Without Love” 8/10
3.”May Day!” 9/10
4.”Moon Woman II” 8/10
5.”It’s Only Me” 9/10
6.”Emile’s Vietnam in the Sky” 9/10
7.”Ash Wednesday” 8/10
8.”The Night & The Liquor” 7/10
9.”It’s a Sad World After All” 9/10
10.”Sleep Sandwich” 8/10
11.”Good Friday” 9/10
Final Grade 95/100
Elvis Perkins father, the great actor Anthony Perkins, died a painful death in 1992 of complications related to AIDS, when Elvis was 26. His Mother, Berry Berenson, died in a plane on the September 11 attacks. While he started work on his first album before his Mother’s death, it is clear that the death of his Father and Mother was very influential in the albums creative process. As Elvis states the very title ‘Ash Wednesday’ “refers to being left on Wednesday with nothing but ash, because [my mother] died on a Tuesday – being left with ash on September 12. That was also the day my father died, September 12 [1992, of Aids]. It first occurred to me on Ash Wednesday itself – my consciousness was largely ruled by having lost my mother six months previously”.
Giving his history a person would expect an album full of death and destruction, an album asking questions that nobody can really answer, but Elvis Perkins is smart enough to go a different route. What he delivered is an album that is honest and based in reality, true it is full of lost and yearning, but it is also full of beautiful imagery, imagery of someone who has truly lived. The album opens with the haunting and beautiful ‘While You Were Sleeping’ (my favorite track on the album) where in his best Rufus Wainwright says “while you were sleeping, the babies grew, the stars shined and the shadows moved, time flew, the phone rang, there was a silence when the kitchen sang, its songs competed like kids for space, we stared for hours in our maker’s face, they gave us picks, said go mine the sun, and gold and come back when you’re done”. Elvis Perkins walks a fine line the entire album between the beautiful images he sees and the hardships he’s experienced. Musically he reminds me of Paul Simon and a dozen other folk singers, but he doesn’t copy a particular one, a rare feat. Overall it was an extremely strong debut and a promising effort from a very talented singer songwriter. If you are looking for good modern folk music, it will be hard to beat this album.
R.I.P. Ari Up
Ari Up (born Arianna Forster) has died at 48, John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) has confirmed on his website. Lydon, who is married to Forster’s mother said she died after a long illness on October 20th. Up formed the Slits with drummer Palmolive in 1976 at the age 0f 14 and the original all female punk outfit, became well known for their unpredicatble and outragous antics, breaking the all boys club barriers of punk at the same time. During their formative years they released two very influental albums, 1979’s ‘Cut” which remains famous for having a cover photo of the band topless and covered in mud, and my personal favorite 1981’s ‘Return of the Giant Slits,’ before disbanding. In 2005 the Slits reuntied and released the under appreciated ‘Trapped Animal.’ in 2009.
In a interveiw with Spinner last year Up described the Slits legacy as being a mythology. “They’re like Xena the Warrior Princess. She knew what she wanted. The Slits were totally rebellious and crazy. We were the absolute threat to society. We were such a threat. For our people, we changed the world.”
Yesterday was the moment I have been waiting for quite a while for a chance to see Greg Dulli live in concert, and even though it was an accoustic show, its a chance I have been waitng for since I first heard the Afghan Whigs 6 years ago (I was late to the party, I know)
Opening Act: Craig Wedren from Shudder to Think
Anyway doors were supposed to open at 7:00, they actually opened at around 7:20. First let me just say although the Brattle theater seems like an odd choice for a venue, for this show it worked at least, it was intimate, the sound was great, and everyone had a good view of the stage (which probably couldn’t hold more then 3 people). The opening act Craig Wedren ex lead singer (or current he didn’t seem that sure himself) of the band Shudder to Think. His set consisted of him with a guitar and a few pedals which he used masterfully. It was an experience in minimalism, and he really seemed to enjoy being on stage, all musicians do but he really seemed to relish the opportunity. I wasn’t familiar with his solo work or his work with Shudder to Think, but what I heard I liked, he defiantly falls into the singer-songwriter category of music, in fact for one Shudder to Think song he said here is the song ‘drastically reinterpreted’ and I got the feeling it was reinterpreted not only because of necessity of being the only man on stage, but because this was the song of he had envisioned, and that’s probably the best way to describe Craig Wedren’s music, it was solely is vision. Truth is Craig is just a very, very talented guy who was doing playing his songs, the way he wanted them to be played, and it worked, the set was strong and it set the mood for the main act.
B+
Greg Dulli Setlist
1. St. Gregory
2. God’s Children
3. Blackbird and the Fox
4. The Lure Would Prove Too Much
5. Bonnie Brae
6. Kings Only
7. Fourty Dollars
8. Hyperballad (Bjork Cover)
9. Step into the Light
10. Gunshots
11. If I Were Going
12. Summer’s Kiss
13. Follow You Down
14. The Stations
15. Never Seen No Devil
Encore
16. Candy Cane Crawl
17. Down The Line
18. Teenage Wristband
19. Twilight Kid.
Encore 2
20. Black Love
After Craig left at about 8:35 Greg Dulli and his back up band Twilight Singers guitarist Dave Rosser and multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson of the Polyphonic Spree, took the stage at about 9:00. Throughout the show they seemed relaxed and was joking around with the audience. Greg told a story about the last time he was in the Brattle Theater, that was good for a laugh, and he called out someone in the front row for checking his email while he was playing, also good for a laugh. I guess my one problem is their should have been more audience interaction, the Brattle only holds about 235 people and Greg really could of turned it into an event, something like VH1-Story Tellers, except people would be watching this. Musically what can I say the man has his detractor’s, just before I left, I read something in Blender saying he was embarrassing himself now on this tour, me I thought he was great, his voice sounded strong, the band was in synch, the setlist gave the audience a nice career retrospective plus a little taste of some new material. Since it was an acoustic show everyone was in their seats the entire time, nobody got up until the encore, the atmosphere was very mellow, but the audience was composed of die hard Greg Dulli fans (tickets sold out in under a week) and Greg really put on a great live show, I know I left happy.
A-
For me this is Greg Dulli at his best, when he was with The Afghan Whigs, who for many had two sides to them pre and post sell out the first video is from (in my opinion) one of the greatest albums ever made Congregation (although ‘Miles is Dead’ was a hidden track), the second song ’66’ is from the album they said Greg Dulli sold out for the fame he never achieved 1965. In any case the grunge and R&B infused Afghan Whigs were one of the most influential bands of the 90’s, even though they had two very different sound by the time they broke up, their influence will last for generations.
Beyond The Afghan Whigs, The Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins, fat Greg Dulli (I am a fan, but the nickname came from people who really, really don’t like his music) released a solo album in 2005 called ‘Amber Headlights’ (which was really more of a collection of b-sides, some of which already were released in other forms). The album was self released but didn’t reach the commercial or critical success of his previous work. Still it was an album die hard fans like myself really enjoyed, and while admittedly not his best work, still a solid effort.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 