North London’s Just Jack (real name Jack Allsopp) has just released a stunning video for his poignant new single, “The Day I Died.” The video features the actor James Nesbitt from British TV’s Cold Feet and Murphy’s Law, and it follows Nesbitt’s character around on what ends up being the last day of his life. This is one of the best videos I’ve seen in a while. The song and the images in the video complement each other perfectly.
To watch the video for “The Day I Died” by Just Jack, click below:
Just Jack revealed to XFM London that it was his friendship with Elton John that got Nesbitt involved with the video. Elton John was the one who called Nesbitt and got him to appear in the video. For more on this and for audio links to XFM London’s interview with Just Jack, see the article from XFM London.
“The Day I Died” will appear on Just Jack’s upcoming album, All Night Cinema. The album is slated for release in the UK on August 17th. The single is getting a lot of airplay on music radio in the UK.
Ozzy’s longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde had some strong words to say (mostly bleeped out) about the Ozzman — about their current working relationship and the rumors of Ozzy hiring another guitarist — on a recent radio show (blabbermouth has part of the transcript):
“… I call up and go, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was just like, ‘That ain’t cool, dude.’ I go, ‘If you’re gonna can my ass, say it to my face. Don’t be doing this shit behind my back; that ain’t cool. … I’m just like… You could play with anybody you want. Put it this way… It’s like my wife… You can be with any guy you wanna be with. But you know what?! If you’re gonna be banging a guy in our bed, at least let me watch so I can enjoy it. Let me in on the skinny… what’s going on here. That’s just not… I don’t give a [bleep] what anyone says, it ain’t [bleep]ing cool. It’s like, hey, you know what?! You’re just [bleep]ing on me in a back [bleep]ing alley right now and [I'll] rip your [bleep]ing head off if you’re gonna pull this shit. We’ll [bleep]ing find out.”
Holy [bleep]!
Below is an interview with Ozzy about his reservations on continuing to use Zakk as his guitarist.
I first heard about One Man Town (pictured above), a quartet from the West Coast of Scotland, from Soup, the drummer with the all-female, Glasgow-based power-pop quartet The Hedrons. Soup’s sister, Kay McLaren, is One Man Town’s drummer.
One Man Town has several videos up on You Tube at the moment, and two of the songs featured in the clips are so different that one might think that they are by two different bands. “Say You Do (Everybody’s Naked)” is a fun, jaunty, punchy number while “The Days of Your Life” is considerably more serious and introspective. I like the fact that One Man Town can shift styles so drastically and do it well. They also have several songs in the music player on their MySpace page.
To watch the video for “Say You Do (Everybody’s Naked)” by One Man Town, click below:
To watch the video for One Man Town’s “The Days of Your Life,” click below:
Powerline A.D. recently conducted a brief e-mail Q&A with One Man Town’s Andy McGregor to find out more about the band. Here’s what Andy had to say:
POWERLINE A.D.:Is “Say You Do (Everybody’s Naked)” the band’s debut single? Andy McGregor: Originally we just recorded the song and video as an ongoing project for our debut album, but the response has been so great that we are now looking at a single release.
POWERLINE A.D.: Do you have an album coming out? Andy McGregor: We have been working towards our album (working title Evolution Revolution) for some time now, we are about three tracks away from completion. One thing we would like to do is release a video version of the album, where every song has a video accompanying it, ideal for an iPod. We have a bunch of ideas stored up and are always adding new videos to our YouTube, Bebo and MySpace pages.
POWERLINE A.D.: How did the band get together? Andy McGregor: I was in a rock band called Blind Pew for ten years. We achieved some moderate success but, after signing a dodgy record deal, we never broke through and ended up falling to bits. From the ashes I chiseled away at some shiny pop songs in my own little studio. I was happy with the songs but wanted to play them live. The small town where I live (Largs on the West Coast of Scotland) is not known for being an epicenter of rock but I managed to find some willing players fresh from University and school to come and join in the fun. One Man Town have been together for around a year in their current format with myself on vox and guitar, Matt Hickman on guitar, Kay McLaren on drums, and Stuart McArthur on bass. We are joined live by my brother Stuart on keyboards.
POWERLINE A.D.: Do you have any future touring plans (UK, Europe, America)? Andy McGregor: We are looking at touring Britain towards the start of next year once our album is out, just now we are concentrating on local gigs and recording.
This past Saturday, Polly Harvey played her only UK solo show of this year at Camp Bestival in her hometown of Dorset, England. At the show, Harvey debuted two new songs–”The Last Living Rose” and “Let England Shake.” Both songs have been made available on You Tube. I really like “The Last Living Rose.” I predict that it will become a fan favorite among Harvey’s devoted following. “Let England Shake” samples a bit of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by The Four Lads. The video quality on the clips isn’t particularly good (it’s amateur video) but the sound is crisp and clear.
To watch the clips of PJ Harvey’s new songs from Camp Bestival, click in the appropriate places below:
“The Last Living Rose”:
“Let England Shake”:
To read more about Harvey’s new songs and her Camp Bestival set, see the article from NME.com.
Over the last two nights, BBC 6 Music reran a stellar two-part documentary from 2007 about Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett (pictured above second from right with his Pink Floyd bandmates in 1967 ). And thanks to the fantastic “Listen Again” function on the BBC 6 Music Web site, both parts of the documentary are now available for on-demand listening.
Members of Pink Floyd and Barrett’s sister were interviewed for the documentary. One member of the band asserts that Barrett was “dosed” with an overabundance of acid by a hanger-on and that is why he went off the rails. Barrett’s story is a sad one to be sure, but it is also fascinating. I’m kind of surprised that a film hasn’t been made yet about Barrett’s saga.
To listen to Parts 1 and 2, click in the appropriate places below:
There are five days left from today to listen to Part 1 and six days left from today to hear Part 2. The BBC does the best radio documentaries about muisc in the world. Having access to them via the Web is a great thing indeed for a devout fan of music.
The Pixies have announced that they will be touring the United States in November to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of their landmark album, Doolittle. The tour includes three shows in New York City. The entire Doolittle album as well as several associated B-sides will be performed at the shows. The tour dates (and the on-sale dates) are as follows:
NOVEMBER
4 The Palladium, Los Angeles, CA – on sale TBA
8 Fox Theater, Oakland, CA – on sale August 16
9 Fox Theater, Oakland, CA – on sale August 16
12 Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA – on sale August 1
13 Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA – on sale August 1
14 Hult Center, Eugene, OR – on sale August 14
16 The Fillmore, Denver, CO – on sale September 12
20 Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL – on sale September 12
21 Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL – on sale September 12
23 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY – on sale August 14
24 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY – on sale August 14
25 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY – on sale August 14
27 Wang Center, Boston, MA – on sale September 12
30 Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. – on sale September 11
On the subject of the tour, The Pixies’ Black Francis said:
“We wanted to do something special for Doolittle‘s 20th anniversary, and we thought his was a good opportunity to play all of the songs from that album, something we don’t normally do at a regular gig.”
Before the shows in America, The Pixies will be playing in the UK. That tour will include a four-night, sold-out stand at London’s Brixton Academy.
For more info on the tour, see the blog titled “US ‘DOOLITTLE’ TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED!” on The Pixies’ MySpace page.
It seems Steven Adler would do almost anything to be as close of a buddy to Slash as he once was. Now they can share the same restraining order.
That’s pretty close.
Looks like some fan(atic) has stalked both Adler and Slash in the same bizarre fashion. And both “buds” were granted a restraining order against the woman. Check out more here at a TMZ.com exclusive.
Well, you’d think nymphomania is at least better than hardcoring the crack pipe, right? (see our last post)
Looks like another British tabloid, The Daily Star, is getting in on the Amy Winehouse Ex-factor action, too. This time it’s tell-alls from ex-boyfriends of Winehouse.
Lucky gents, huh?
Alex Claire said ‘ol Amy begged him to “tie her up,” among other things.
And then another Alex — Alex Haines — made the comment that Amy was “as addicted to sex as she was to drugs.”
Never kiss and tell, kids. Especially when it’s just one big freak show.
There are those musicians who take a swig of beer or maybe even Jack Daniels between songs. Without a doubt there are those who have a joint on hand. And some simply stick to bottled water.
“Amy would stumble off [stage], with her hands out waiting for the crack pipe. She smoked after every song and without her next hit, she wouldn’t go on. It’s no wonder she couldn’t sing properly. The only thing she cared about was her crack pipe. We carried a crack pipe with us all the time. If we went out to dinner, Amywould get it out and hide under the table so she could have a quick hit. She was quite blatant about it, and no one ever questioned her.”
I guess the crack pipe was like her little Swiss Army knife. It fixed everything.
