According to Strokes singer Julian Casablancas it will. Here he is:
“I have my own personal wish that it would sound like Thin Lizzy, but if they could peer into the future and kind of have eighties melodies. Like a super-tight late seventies rock band but with A-Ha moments, if that makes sense.”
A-Ha?! Maybe Julian should save that weird mix for his solo projects… But hey, as long as it sounds as good as The Strokes debut album, that’s all anyone can ask for.
Recently, Lars had plenty to say to Dallas radio station 97.1 The Eagle Rocks when asked about his past battle against Napster and illegal downloading. He was pretty much saying the same thing earlier this year, except back then he said he was “proud” about taking down Napster.
“That was just a bad dream; that never happened. [Laughs] Listen, there’s no glory in any of that. We took a position and a lot of people did not agree with that position that we took. A lot of people are coming now and saying, ‘You were right all along,’ patting me on the shoulder, but it was still a very bizarre summer, and I don’t take any glory away from it.
“We’ve always stood up for what we believed in, we’ve always stood up for kind of an impulsive need to protect Metallica from any dissent or any people that kind of go against us — it’s almost like a gang-like mentality; protect what’s yours — and that caught us in some hot waters, as you’re very well aware of, but still, obviously it was the right thing that we did, because we threw ourselves into it. I wish we would have been a little more prepared for what was coming, but listen, it’s 10 years ago now, and I think people have sort of read the writing on the wall here and people get it.
“Contrary to popular belief, the issue was never with the Internet, the issue was never about downloading… The issue was about… Well, I’ll say it a little more P.C. It was about whose decision it was. What we were standing up for was, I’ve got no problem giving anything away, I’ve got no problem with the Internet. Whose decision is it whether you wanna give it away? We feel that it should be our decision, and another company made that decision for us, and we felt that that was kind of out of line, so we went out there to seek some sort of retribution or something [Laughs] — ‘C’mon, do ten push-ups for doing that.’ So the whole thing got a little crazy. But we’ve always been totally pro… I’m like an Internet whore — I’m on the Internet way too much every day — and I have 13 iPods and whatever else. So that’s not the issue. It’s just about who makes the decisions. If you wanna give your stuff away, then I’ll give my stuff away, but it’s my decision.”
Lars can you explain your philosophy of “giving” again?
Today is the 40th birthday of one of music’s most interesting and talented personalities. PJ Harvey has been adventurous from her first recordings. She is fearless in that she shifts styles with every album. It is always interesting to see what she will come up with next. And she is certainly one of music’s most mesmerizing live performers. You simply cannot take your eyes off of her when she is on stage. She has won many popular and critical accolades over the years and also was the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize in 2001 for her fantastic Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album.
I didn’t really get into Polly Harvey’s music until about 2000, when I started to listen to the UK music radio stations on the Internet and heard her music being played much more regularly than it ever was on American radio. While I “discovered” her music kind of late in the game, as she’d been recording for about a decade at the point, I was so happy to be made aware of her absolutely staggering talent. I’ve seen her perform live several times and have never left the venue disappointed. Her concert in support of the White Chalk album at New York City’s Beacon Theatre in October 2007 was simply one of the greatest nights of live music that I will ever see. It was positively spellbinding.
But enough from me. I’ll let Polly Harvey’s music do the talking. Below are just a few of the songs that she has created during her brilliant career.
“Dress”:
“Man-Size”:
“Rid of Me”:
“C’mon Billy”:
“Down By The Water”:
“That Was My Veil” (with John Parish):
Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4PZIhaM9zU (embedding disabled by request)
“My Beautiful Leah”:
“Good Fortune”:
“This Is Love”:
“Big Exit”:
“Shame”:
“When Under Ether”:
“Silence”:
“Black Hearted Love” (with John Parish:
Powerline A.D. wishes Polly Harvey a very happy 40th birthday. And we hope that she will continue to perform her musical magic for another 40 years.
The Dead Weather’s video for “I Cut Like A Buffalo,” the latest single from the band’s Horehound album, is now available for viewing online. The video’s a bit bizarre, but it works really well with the song. You can judge for yourself by watching the video below:
To read Powerline A.D.’s review of The Dead Weather’s July 16th concert at New York City’s Terminal 5, click here.
For more on The Dead Weather, see:
http://www.thedeadweather.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDeadWeatherTV
During an interview that was published in today’s edition of The Times of London that was supposed to be about Liam Gallagher’s fashion label, Pretty Green, the Oasis frontman revealed that Oasis, arguably the biggest British band of the last 15 years, have come to an end. Gallagher told The Times:
“Well, Oasis is no longer. I think we all know that. So that’s done. It’s a shame, but that’s life. We had a good run at it. The thing about Oasis is no-one… we ended Oasis. No-one ended it for us. Which was pretty, kind of… cool. I’m thinking of what the next step is musically, which is all my mind’s on.”
Gallagher also said that he’d like to someday repair his fractured relationship with brother Noel but did admit that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. He stated, ”Well, that’s a long way off yet, man, but who knows.”
To read the interview in full on The Times of London’s Web site, click here.
To read related articles, see the XFM London Web site and NME.com.
For more on Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green fashion label, go to http://new.prettygreen.com/.
To watch a five-minute film that was shot in Brighton, England in which Liam Gallagher discusses his influences for the Pretty Green fashion line, click below:
Singer-songwriter Adele, now 21 years old, has done a Q&A with BBC 6 Music in which she discusses the follow-up to her smash debut album, 19. She also discusses how much she enjoys being back home in the UK.
On the subject of the pressure on her to equal the brilliance of her debut album, Adele said:
“I’m not being rushed, because you’re only as good as your next record. If you get rushed you can lose that little niche that you’ve created for yourself, whereas if you take your time then you’ll end up delivering.
“Obviously I’m a bit scared that there’s new avenues that I want to go down with the sound, but I don’t want to leave behind my lovely fans who might not like the new sound. So I’m a bit wary of that.”
Adele also talked about the sound that she was looking for on the album:
“I’m more interested in having a body of work rather than a mish-mash of sounds. I think my first album was a bit of pop, a bit of R&B, a bit of jazz, a bit of wannabe rock and a bit of indie folk. I’ve been listening to a lot of Sade at the moment. I bought all these amazing iconic albums and I’m trying to work out why they have a sound. I’ve been listening to a lot of Back to Black too.”
To read the interview in full from BBC 6 Music, click here.
For additional information on Adele, go to:
http://www.adele.tv
http://www.myspace.com/adelelondon
http://www.youtube.com/adelelondon
Responding to negative remarks Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine has made about Metallica lately — Mustaine even stating that drummer Lars Ulrich was close to being fired in 1986 — James Hetfield said this on Dallas Radio:
“… you’ve gotta laugh at it. . . Well, you’ve gotta go big picture with this stuff. It’s sooo odd to me… This is soooo… It is very Dave, and that’s him. And no matter what band he was in or whatever… I mean, Dave is not in this band for a reason, and this is the reason. It’s super-simple. He was in the band for 11 months and it goes on and on and on and on and on. I don’t know any other band on this planet that there was a member in the band for a short amount of time and they’ve still got this big chip on his shoulder. It’s insane! . . . You know what?! He’s in love, and that’s fine, ’cause we love him back.”
And on why Mustaine was not included into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame with Metallica (like Jason Newsted and Cliff Burton were):
“He’s not inducted because he’s not on any records; that’s one of the Hall of Fame deals. . . The Rock and Roll (Hall) Of Fame is what it is. I think it’s 25 years after your first record, you are eligible, so whoever’s played on records is eligible.”
Hetfield makes good points on both. It”s easy to forget that Mustaine was in Metallica for such a short period of time. That does drive Hetfield’s point home. However, Mustaine was crucial back then as far as the initial success with songwriting and creativity.
The bottom line is that Mustaine does need to let go. For his own sake. How many times does it need to be said?
Matt Bellamy and Dominic Howard of Muse recently sat for an interview with DJ Ben Jones of UK radio station Absolute Radio to discuss Muse’s latest album, The Resistance. Absolute Radio’s Web site is currently featuring the interview uncut. It runs about 33 minutes in length. To listen to the interview, click here.
The songs from the album are not included in this version of the interview.
In addition to music, the band also talks about the political situation in the UK and their displeasure with it. It’s an interesting listen.
For more on Muse, see:
http://muse.mu/
http://www.myspace.com/muse
As I reported in this space last week, Pixie Lott is among the British music stars that have filmed hologram performances as part of a promotion for the UK mobile-phone outfit Orange. A film of Pixie’s performance is now available. In the film, Pixie performs her first two singles, “Boys And Girls” and “Mama Do,” both of which went to number one in the UK singles chart. To watch the film of Pixie’s performance, click below:
The hologram performances are part of a promotion by Orange for their pay-as-you-go music tariff Monkey with 4Music. The performances have been taking place at shopping centers around the UK over the past few weekends. There are two remaining performances. They will be at Cabots Circus in Bristol on Saturday, October 10th and Sunday, October 11th and at Arndale Centre in Manchester on Saturday, October 17th and Sunday, October 18th. The hologram gigs will happen every 20 minutes throughout the weekend and take place on a special Orange Hologram “stage.” Admission is free, and no ticket is required.
More information about Orange’s Monkey music tariff can be found at http://www.orange.co.uk/monkey.
The hologram performances are an interesting idea, and a good way to promote new artists. Will they ever replace live performances? Not likely. Not in the near future, anyway. But if the technology advances, it could be another way for artists to connect with their fans. The carbon footprint that has been left by touring bands has been an issue lately. Hologram performances might be one way to reduce that. But I think that day is still far off in the future.
In this past Sunday’s (October 4th) edition of the UK newspaper The Observer, Bruce Foxton, the bassist with The Jam (pictured above in 1982), looked back on the end of the group in the newspaper’s Flashback feature. Foxton spoke of the pressures on the band, particularly on songwriter Paul Weller, and how the band came to an end:
“Earlier that year, when we were on tour in Japan, it was clear that Paul was unhappy. Rick [Buckler, drums] and myself felt we all needed a break. It had been a hectic six years or so and there was a lot of pressure on Paul in particular, with the songwriting. When we got back in the UK, Paul called a meeting. He just said he wanted to leave the band.
“We tried to talk him round, said: ‘Take as long as you need off,’ but he’d made up his mind. We had no idea what direction he was going to go in but when he came out with The Style Council, it made more sense to me. I thought, ‘OK, maybe you made the right decision,’ because at that point I wouldn’t have gone in that direction. Possibly he knew that.”
Foxton also discussed The Jam’s farewell tour in 1982:
“The farewell tour was very emotional. It was a while before I was talked round to have one last fling, and do it for the fans. They were among the best gigs we ever did, but off stage it was totally different. We still met fans after the show, as we’d always done, but their only question was, why? And at that point there was nothing to say but ‘I don’t know.’ I did feel we had more in us as The Jam. That we wouldn’t have become an embarrassment.”
After many years of not speaking to each other, Foxton and Paul Weller have renewed their friendship. Foxton said:
“Paul and I have been on good terms again for a few years now. My wife passed away recently and he’s been amazing. The friendship has been renewed and music aside, that’s all I ever wanted. That means more to me than any reformation.”
To read the article, click here.
Foxton has been playing in recent years with From The Jam along with The Jam’s drummer Rick Buckler. They perform the music of The Jam. Buckler recently announced that he is leaving the band. Foxton is reportedly going to play on Paul Weller’s next solo album.
To listen to The Jam’s final single, “Beat Surrender,” click below:
