18 posts tagged “80s”
BICYCLE DIARIESdavidbyrne.com ♥ penguingroup.com
Fan will take note that Byrne is recording and reading his own book for the audio book version, although from his journal, it did not go too well the first week:
What will make this audio book a treat is that Byrne, always the experimentalist, will be incorporating sound recording he's made from the streets and noise in the book.Did my second audiobook reading of the Bicycle Diaries NY chapter today. My first attempt, last week, was marred by maybe a combination of nerves and a wonky lower lip, as the braces had just gone in and were scraping the inside of my mouth. (I smashed a guitar into my bottom teeth about a week before the tour ended.) There’s less of that slurring and slushing going on now, and perhaps I am more confident and relaxed as well.
Look for Bicycle Diaries in September (preorder information), and you can find out more about Byrne's auctioning of his folding Montague bike for the London Cycling Campaign at Byrne's Journal.
ARTIST MUSIC JOURNALS
soundscreendesign.com
About the series:
Information on how to purchase the book is located here ($17). Special thanks to AAM for sending this in.Artist Music Journals are an ongoing, monthly, limited edition small book series. Each month, a visual artist or musician is asked to create a 24-page book of artworks, drawing inspiration from their connection to music. The different ways in which each artist chooses to represent their connection to music is what makes this ongoing series unique, intriguing and diverse.
Each book is limited to 1,000 copies, printed on thick stock, offset, box-scored and saddle stitched, and comes packaged in a 10" jacket. The jackets for each edition will be identical, keeping the collection's overall outward design aesthetic consistent. However, there is a distinct letterpressed sticker wrapping the opening of the jacket for each installment featuring a replication of the artist's signature, the volume, installment number, and edition.
PARAGRAPHS
myspace.com/paragraphsband ♥ twitter.com
Paragraphs describes themselves as "a Minneapolis trio that plays music featuring a lot of delay pedal, toy Casios", followed by "drummer with a goofy smile".
They have a few other shows coming up, including one with Austin's The Calm Blue Sea.
- 08/28/09
7th Street Entry Minneapolis, MN
09/03/09 Big V’s St. Paul, MN
09/19/09 Applefest - Abnet Field La Crescent, MN
10/03/09 Augsburg College Minneapolis, MN
08/26/2009 18:27:44 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
Almost Top of the Pops right now is young 'un La Roux. Here she is trying to recreate the 80s pop sound again, in a suitably VCR quality vid of her Glastonbury appearance not too long ago.
Ooook... and resume. Lily Allen. Love her or, more likely, hate her, Pop's current front woman can hardly be ignored. So hear you go. I'd post some of her Glasto appearance but I think we've had enought of 5 Kbps video for one post... So here's the official vid for "The Fear".
- Christpopher
However, we have these two music-related films to talk about:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS
fabulousstains.com
I was not disappointed with this release, the video image's been digitally remastered (which should surprise no one since Rhino's been at this re-releasing archival music and video editions for many years now) and the soundtrack is, how can I put it, music to my ears.
The movie is about three teenage girls (two of them being homeless sisters) who formed The Fabulous Stains and ends up going on tour with The Looters (which I thought was called "The Losers", which I prefer) and the all-washed up band The Metal Corpses (whose singer reminds me of Dee Snider).
What's kind of interesting to note here is the movie is way ahead of its time, I wouldn't be surprise if the Riot Grrls were inspired by this movie or even The White Stripes (the singer is dressed up in a red outfit with white stripes in their hair).
As for the soundtrack, it's pretty quintessential 80s music, a mixture of the rock-punk sound of The Looters, the hard-rock sound of The Metal Corpses, the reggae music of their tour manager Lawn Boy, and the new wave-punk rock of The Stains. It has a bit of everything for everyone.
If you were hoping to buy the soundtrack, there seems to be some sort of legal problem between Ode Sounds & Visuals, Rhino Entertainment Company, and Paramount Pictures. Which is a shame, as I suspect the movie was delayed for reissued for so long because of the very same problem. If you want a look and see, the soundtrack is listed on Amazon, but the download option's been removed.
Fans of the Sex Pistols and 80s music will want to check out this fabulous film. I leave you now with The Fabulous Stains doing their cover song of the Looters' "Professionals" (which will explain why their music turned punk-ish).
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA
repo-opera.com
The movie is set, I think, in the future, where health is a concern. If you were desperate enough, you would accept organs from GeneCo ... however if you miss a payment/refusal of payment, they send in the Repo Man.
The DVD advertisement boldly stated that the makers of "Saw" is responsible for this movie. Which I think actually hinders, instead of helping the film. The gruesome blood, violence, and sex in this movie isn't taken so serious - especially when it's framed by comic book-styled sequences and over-the-top exaggerated acting.
I find myself asking, is this supposed to be funny? Apparently, I need to be more depressing to find this black comedy to be funny. Although, I didn't find the movie/musical to be all that enjoyable, I suspect if you are dressed up in seven shades of black (read: goth), you will absolutely love this movie. I personally can't recommend it to people who enjoy daylight.
For the soundtrack, they are making it available on Valentine's Day (February 14th), how sweet, right? I mean what better way of saying I love you than with an actual heart organ and the Repo! Soundtrack. Repo! The Genetic Opera is out now on bluray and DVD.
Trivia: An interesting thing about the movie is that Paris Hilton plays Amber Sweet, a girl who's addicted to drugs and sex... quite a stretch for her, huh?
Other non-music-related movies
Having just watched the too-many-characters-to-keep-track-of movie by Guy Ritchie called Rocknrolla, I will have to say that he's been disappointing me since Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells. Rocknrolla is just a mess of the film, and the voice-over dialogue only made it worst. The characters are all odd balls and I basically didn't sympathized/identify with any of the characters - an epic fail of a film.
Of course it has its moments, but the gruesome tone at the end of the film contrast many of the not so serious moments in the whole film (if you've seen Snatch or Lock Stock, it has that kind of "crime humor" you'd expect).
If you are looking for a 'serious' type of movie, the "PG-13" movie called Taken (in theaters now) is quite good, although it is hard to believe that a mid-50 actor like Liam Neeson can pull off some of the fighting and agility of its main character.
The story is quite simple: slave traders kidnapped the main character's daughter and he basically takes on a small nation to get his daughter back. Although nothing too complicated (point a to point b), the movie is still compelling to watch ... especially as Neeson acts his way into taking down four guys while handcupped without so much as breaking a sweat (yeahhhhh right).
Trivia: to bring it back to 'professionals', the script writer of Taken is none other than Luc Besson, who wowed us with his Léon the Professional, starring big-nosed Jean Reno, wonderfully evil Gary Oldman, and a very, very, young Natalie Portman.
02/01/2009 22:19:52 ♥ vu ()♥weheartmusic.com♥podcast.weheartmusic.com♥news.weheartmusic.com
The theme to this post is creepy duos.
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myspace.com/patronandpatron ♥ nonine.com The first thing you'll notice about Patron & Patron's Gen is that it's the type of music you'll find on a horror movie or some science fiction movie. A little bit dark and a little bit creepy. Like many of these electronic artist, the music is usually composed by one man or a duo, in this case, the later is true: Sakuran (Frederik Van de Moortel) and Me Raabenstein makes up Patron & Patron. There's a lot of usage of bass in these songs, which is kind of unusual for electronic artists. But you'll quickly find yourself at home when you run into random noises and quirks throughout the album. There are no lyrics (although there are random movie lines or something, like "We Are Not Alone"), so you're left to interpret each song. This actually makes it really hard for me to describe to you what each song is about. There seems to be an industrial influence on this album, songs like "Magenta Verve" uses natural sounds like doors opening or chains (?), mixed with artificial energy... but warped somehow. Of all the songs, I thought "Either Or" is perhaps the best one. There's a skeleton structure to it, and there's also a funky jazz feel to it. I'm calling it space jazz. I suggest you really experience this album with headphones to catch all the quirkiness and sound effects. The full album can be purchased on nonine.com, but via paypal and digitally. |
myspace.com/meraabenstein ♥ nonine.com Nonine is also releasing Bedtime Stories from Taub. Between Patron & Patron and Taub, I thought Taub had a more cohesive feel to it. Think of it as a soundtrack to a children book. Once again, Me Raabenstein is co-writing. This time with David Hillary (aka Harold Nono). If Nono sounds familiar to you, that's because we've previously mentioned him twice over. What makes this collaboration interesting is that Nono is Scottish, and with the internet, this teamup is possible. I liked the piano and weird noises on "Chamber Pot" (there's definitely a lot of pianos and keys throughout the album, I'll have to add). Towards the end of this song, you'll notice some sort of singing that sounds like children dying (!) As soon as I heard lyric-type singing (it's not actually someone singing, it's more like distorted vocal samplings) they made the songs more memorable. At least to me. Like "Rouge Absolu" feels like a French film, especially with the dialogue at the beginning. I'm not even sure it was French, come to think about it. Speaking of French, my favorite song on here is "Backyard Maud the Fraudian Fairy", it sounds like scary circus music. The "La Ronde at the Top" song seems to be two songs in one. The first part has a Middle Eastern feel to it, but the second half sounds chaotic. Again, this is available digitally. The cost is 10,90 Euros, which is about $15 at current exchange (keep in mind that a portion of this amount actually goes to paypal), but like Gen they do come with a full size 800x800 cover artwork and PDF file (I am assuming that's the lyric book) and each song is encoded at 320kbps. |
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antenne.suite.dk ♥ nonine.com Speaking of creepy, check out this #3 album by Antenne. As the name suggest, this is the third full length album from a duo (Kim G. Hansen and Marie-Louise Munck) based out of Denmark. The majority of the album features the vocals of Marie-Louise Munck, and despite being Danish, she actually sings in English. Sometime her voice, although sweet and clear, it makes me sad for some reason.... kind of like a haunting ghost. I do actually enjoy feeling sad and depress and songs like "Long to Kiss" and "Blue Light" takes me to an isolated place, surrounded by empty space ("Days into Nights") or unnatural electric field ("Ttreaa#7"). Let me be clear on some things, these are not pop songs... but easily the poppiest, and the most accessible, song on this album is the beautiful "Gloves On". If you like experimental music with haunting vocals, definitely check out Antenne. Don't let the eight tracks fool you, this is by no means an EP. The album clocks in about 50 minutes, perfect for an LP. The album was released earlier in July 2008, and you can purchase it on the record label Helmet Room Records. |
myspace.com/battleoflandandsea In keeping with the creepy duos theme, here's The Battle of Land and Sea. I actually don't know much about this Portland-based band, but they seem to be good friends with a Mr Jacob Golden (if you remember, Ryan went to see him in Newcastle, UK). Their music, based on this (debut?) self-titled EP from Mis Ojos Discos (My Eyes Disc), they seem very acoustically folky. As a cover lover, my favorite song on here is "Harden My Heart". It totally made me dig out my Quarterflash single. Battle's version is so stripped down and haunting that they can be considered two different songs. Special notes: I used to think this song goes, "I'm going to pardon my heart". |
Posted by Soup
Denver, Colorado's Bum Kon (named for Korean mass murderer, Woo Bum Kon, according to the press release) are probably one of the best teenage punk bands of the 80's that you've never heard of. With only a 5-song single, “Drunken Sex Sucks” (which the press release notes fetches about $150 on eBay, these days) under their belt, they could have easily disappeared into obscurity without anyone having noticed. Members went on to play in bands like Soak, Duh, and Hank IV, and Bum Kon was just kind of quietly forgotten.
Thankfully, during the recording session for “Drunken Sex Sucks,” the band recorded twenty more songs that never saw release. Until now. Smooch Records and MAXIMUMROCKNROLL records co-released a CD compilation of these tracks entitled, appropriately, Drunken Sex Sucks. And I'm glad they did. Overall, these recordings have a kind of Circle Jerks style to them. Fast, fun, not terribly serious, but hardly playing like a Descendents album, with a very “teenage” worldview. This is basically a really, really good 80's hardcore album.
The opening track, “Giving In”
almost sounds like a simplified Dead Kennedys song, with a surf rock
guitar riff providing the backbone. Track 2, “Drunken Sex Sucks,”
on the other hand, is more of a straight-up hardcore thing. “Nancy
Reagan Fashion Show” is a fast, fun, thrashy thing that sounds kind
of like something the Circle Jerks would have done. “Slow Death”
is a slower song (as the name implies, I guess). Most of the song is
a repetitive hardcore thing with the singer repeating what sounds
like “Slow death, I wanna die.” Other highlights include “This
is Art,” a really short song with clean guitars and lyrics about
graffiti art, “The Draft,” with its infectious melodic chorus
that kind of reminds me of The Dead Kennedys' “Well Paid
Scientist,” “Reagan Sucks” with its two-step chorus broken up
by fast, thrashy verses (this one reminds me a lot of the Circle
Jerks' “Beverly Hills” in some places), and “Locked Away”
with its wailing guitar leads. The casual homophobia of “Gay Rodeo”
is unfortunate, and was probably more tolerated in hardcore in the 80's than it would be now, and honestly, it might alienate some hardcore kids, but it's here nonetheless. At least it's a cool track, musically with a sort of cowpunk style that, ironically, kind of reminds me of something Pansy Division would do.
There are 32 tracks here and the whole
thing clocks in at as many minutes. There are alternate versions of a
few of the songs at the end. And every one of them sounds like it
should be a hardcore classic, even if they do seem to kind of wear
their influences on their sleeve. They have enough of their own
identity for this to be a really solid document of a really solid
band. Fans of west coast hardcore will definitely find a lot to like
here. More info can be found on Smooch Records' website.
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07/31/08 Storsjoyran Festival Östersund
Discography
08/01/08 Storas Festival Trondheim 08/02/08 Rockerfeller Oslo
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This was a very painless article for me to write, because I am, as you have probably guessed, I am a Blondie fan. I already had several of their albums, some greatest hits/compilations, and was especially looking forward to check out the 30th Anniversary Edition of Parallel Lines. I already had the original 1978 album (which I bought when they reissued it with some bonus tracks), so I already knew all the songs on the Anniversary Edition.
For those that don't have Parallel Lines and their biggest hit, possibly best-known song, "Heart of Glass" is on this album. Other big hits for them includes, "Hanging on the Telephone" - which I previously mentioned was a cover of The Beat.
Revisiting the album, I realized just how good "Picture This" is:All I want is a room with a view/A sight worth seeing, a vision of you/I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower. Although I think this is a great song, it never made it on singles format in the US (although it was the leading single in the UK).
I suppose, it's to be expected because the US was still really into disco (which would explain why "Heart of Glass" did so well), but the UK was more progressive in their music taste (which would explain why they love the Carribean-beat song of "Sunday Girl").
The album ends with "Just Go Away", with its hard-to-get lyrics: "Don't go away sad/Don't go pre-fab/Don't go be bad/Don't go away mad, just go away. JUST GO AWAY!"
That's just the perfect album! The special extra bonus are four songs: "Heart of Glass (7" single version)", "Sunday Girl (French Version"), "Hanging on the Telephone [Nosebleed Handbag Remix]" and "Fade Away and Radiate [108 BPM Remix]".
Between the four song, I especially liked the French version of "Sunday Girl", a song that sounds refreshingly new because I have never heard this particular version. Apparently the song appeared as either an A-Side or B-Side on the "Sunday Girl" 7" that was released in the UK.
The other extra songs, I am guessing is rare. I didn't really care so much for them, as the 7" version of "Heart of Glass" sounds pretty much like the album mix.... while the techno/trance version of "Fade Away and Radiate" sounds nothing like the album version. Talk about extreme end of the spectrum.
There is also a bonus DVD that comes with Parallel Lines: 30th Anniversary Edition. The videos are for promo videos for "Picture This", "Hanging On The Telephone", and "Heart Of Glass", with one previously unreleased Top of the Pops performance of "Sunday Girl". Debbie Harry looked incredibly cool on TOTP, despite badly lip-syncing. I love all the videos, particularly the disco video for "Heart of Glass". My only complaint is that it's only four videos, you'll go through them in no time. Still, it is a nice bonus.
You can pick up Blondie's Parallel Lines: 30th Anniversary Edition at any retail location. If you have never own this album, the 30th Anniversary version is definitely the superior version to get. If you already have the LP, why not upgrade?
They are currently wrapping up their tour dates for promotion of this album... and I hope they come back touring, as I think the last time they were on tour was in 2003 for "The Curse of Blondie".
Links:
blondie.net
myspace.com/blondie
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07/18/08 Chicago, IL House Of Blues
Album Discography
07/19/08 Goshen, IN Elkhart County 4-H Fair 07/21/08 Council Bluffs, IA Harrah's Casino - Stir Concert Cove 07/26/08 Oakville, CA Robert Mondavi Winery 07/27/08 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 08/01/08 C Mesa, CA Pacific Amphitheatre 08/02/08 Primm, NV Star of the Desert Arena 08/03/08 San Diego, CA Humphrey's Concerts 08/05/08 Saratoga, CA The Mountain Winery 08/09/08 Aspen, CO Belly Up Aspen 08/10/08 Colorado Springs, CO Pikes Peak 08/11/08 Beaver Creek, CO Vilar Center 08/14/08 Silverton, OR Oregon Garden 08/15/08 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen 08/16/08 Richmond, BC River Rock Casino 08/17/08 Coquitlam, BC Red Robinson 08/19/08 Medicine Hat, AB Esplanade 08/20/08 Regina, SK Casino Regina Show 08/22/08 ON Thunder Bay Comm Auditorium 08/23/08 MN Grand Casino Hinckley 08/24/08 Sault Ste Marie,MI Kewadin Casino 08/26/08 Verona, NY Turning Stone Casino 08/27/08 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn's Peak 08/29/08 Lincoln, RI Twin River Casino 08/31/08 Bridgeport, CT Klein Memorial Aud 09/05/08 CA Chukchansi Gold Casino 09/06/08 Rancho Cucamonga, CA Lewis Family Playhouse
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I'm probably not qualify to write this article, as I thought I only knew a few popular songs ("Love is a Battlefield" and "Heartbreaker") from Pat Benatar, a pop singer who dominated the American charts in the 80s, but after giving Pat Benatar: Ultimate Collection 2-CD album a listen, I can tell you that I was familiar with a lot of her works!
Her songs, especially the early pop rock hits, reminds me a lot of Patty Smyth in Scandal, both having strong female vocals backed by a tight band, rocking out to music themes such as the heat of the night, children of the street, belonging to something, and promises of love.
There are many good songs on this collection, but I will only be mentioning a few stand-out tracks. "Heartbreaker", her major-hit debut single, originally released in 1979 from her album, In the Heat of the Night.
"Hit Me With Your Best Shot", I've always thought it was an Olivia Newton-John song. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this was a big hit for Benatar!
I was also surprise to hear "I Need a Lover", a John Cougar Mellencamp song! Her take on it emphasized more on her aggressive girl vocals.
"Love is a Battlefield", gives new meaning to synchronized dancing by runaways. I think the cheesy music video to this song, more or less, made the song really popular in the 80s. A little bit of trivia, this original release was on a live album called Live From Earth (1983). Out of this live album are two studio tracks, the battlefield song and "Lipstick Lies".
While the first disc covers most of her singles from her first five studio albums (1979-1983), the second disc covers the rest of her career, but only from her former record label, Chrysalis Records (1984-1993). What's interesting to note is her shift from rocker to a more mellow pop and even jazz, on such classic songs like "We Belong" (this sounds like a Journey song), and the jazzy "True Love" (lots of piano and brass instruments on this one).
It is kind of nice to see Benatar dipping into different genres outside of pop (she even does blues on "Payin' the Cost to Be the Boss"), I suppose it's a sign that she was growing up in those later years. We're talking about thirty year's worth of music, although looking at her discography, there are huge gaps after 1993 that suggests she's in semi-retirement of recording original music? Her last album, Go, came out in 2003, but perhaps with this latest tour and Ultimate Collection that was just released might spark some interest to get her back to the studio?
Ultimate Collection is really meant for casual and new fans, but I think it will also appeal to hardcore fans, as it does a wonderful job compiling Benatar's hits with some misses. The forty songs on two CDs (and official digital tracks), with half of it were top 40 hits. For new fans, this is a great way of getting all these songs for a reasonably low price.
To coincide with the album release (June 24th from Capitol/EMI Records and can be found at all major record stores), Benatar went on tour since May. She's currently just finished up Knoxville, Tennessee, and probably heading to your town. If possible you should see her do live rendition of all her hits.
Links:
www.benatar.com
benatarfanclub.com
myspace.com/officialpatbenatar
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05/07/08 ABBEY PUB (AA) Chicago, IL
05/07/08 ABBEY PUB Chicago, IL 05/08/08 MAGIC STICK Detroit,MI 05/09/08 THE PHOENIX Toronto, ON 05/10/08 Cabaret Musee Montreal, QB 05/12/08 PARADISE Boston, MA 05/13/08 STUDIO B Brooklyn, NY 05/14/08 Bowery Ballroom NY 05/15/08 BLACK CAT Washington DC 05/16/08 PURE Philadelphia, PA 05/17/08 SONAR - Baltimore, MD 05/19/08 ECHOPLEX Los Angeles, CA 06/05/08 Forum Melbourne, Victoria 06/06/08 Forum Melbourne, Victoria 06/07/08 WrestPoint Entertainment Centre Hobart, Tasmania 06/08/08 The Batman Fawkner Inn Launceston, Tasmania 06/12/08 HQ Complex Adelaide 06/13/08 The Capitol Perth 06/14/08 The Capitol Perth 06/18/08 The Great Northern Byron Bay, New South Wales 06/19/08 Coolangatta Hotel Gold Coast, Queensland 06/20/08 The Tivoli Brisbane, Queensland 06/21/08 The Enmore Theatre Sydney, New South Wales 06/26/08 GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL - dance village Glastonbury 07/04/08 ARVIKA FESTIVAL Stockholm 07/05/08 WIRELESS FESTIVAL London 08/09/08 OYA FESTIVAL OSLO |
Cut/Copy are doing great on their tour throughout the US (selling out at most popular venues, adding additional dates due to demand), before making a triumph return to their hometown of Melbourne, Australia, to two, count 'em, two sold-out show at the Forum.
I was pretty impressed with their manufactured/pre-recorded 80s-techno new wave style beats, and they worked the very packed room of young hipsters and college frat boys to a frenzy with their demands of "dance, jump!"
I couldn't help but wondered what they would do without their beat box, as it seems they depend on it a lot. In fact, at some point, the bassist left the stage and the music just kept going without him.
Opening up for them was Black Kids and Mobius Band.
Both bands did a pretty short setlist, lasting about 30-40 minutes
each, which is understandable as having three bands can be too much if
they all did full sets.
The trio Mobius Band are from Brooklyn, New York, with a jerky and energetic Ben (?) pushing buttons and moving back and forth.
When he's not doing the buttons thing, he actually also plays guitars.
Check out the cute cardboard setlist from Black Kids, it lists 9 songs, but it felt like 6, really quick!
Singer Reggie Youngblood, sure sweat a lot. The whole band looked really cute with the two girls, Dawn & Ali, doing synchronizing singing. The crowd do love them, and I suspect many of them were there to see them - because many of them were wearing the $20 tour shirts that reads "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You".
 From Mobius Band to Infinity ♥ photo by vu |
 Black Kids Back Alright! ♥ photo by vu |
 Cut/Copy vs Micro/Phone ♥ photo by vu |
Links:
www.cutcopy.net
www.blackkidsmusic.com
www.mobiusband.com
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Did you know yesterday (Feb 21st) is the Lunar Eclipse? What makes this total eclipse special is that the next one of the moon won't occur until December 21, 2010.
I missed it :/
Of course you know I thought of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. I mean, who wouldn't?
This power ballard song was Tyler's biggest hit song from 1983, hitting the Billboard chart at #1 in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.
The song's been covered by many artists (including boy-band Westlife), but I only have this really wacky version by Hurra Torpedo, a band out of Oslo, Norway.
Apparently this cover song (from 1995) is their only claim to fame. However, before you dismiss them, I should mention that the most interesting thing: they use kitchen appliances as part of their show!
You can download this song on their website, check out their hilarious live performance (complete with butt-crack):
02/22/2008 00:05:44
vu
my♥posts
www.bonnietyler.com
www.hurratorpedo.org
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kazumano wrote:
Dude you should check out the cover by the Dan Band. And check out the rest of his covers too. Some are really good.
| Ann wrote: Feb 22, 2008 at 12:01 PM |
Two years ago for Christmas my friend made a cd of all the versions of this song, including the Tori Amos bootleg. Here's my post about it.
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Band Members
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The press release for Soul Merchants classifies their sound as "psychedelic goth rock". Seeing as how I'd never heard that sort of description before, I was curious to find out what they sounded like. After my initial listen, the closest bands out today that I could compare them to would be Interpol and She Wants Revenge.
To be fair, I could compare them to the likes of Joy Division in tone. Soul Merchants were only around from 1985-1987, but they made 100+ recordings and one LP. Based out of Denver, Soul Merchants gained a small and devoted fan-base, and they played their last show at the inaugural SXSW This dual disc collection titled 1985-1987 has over 160 minutes of music spread over two disks. These are only just their cassette releases, that have been remixed and remastered by former Merchant Bob Ferbrache.
The CD I was sent only had 15 songs out of the 40, but it was more than enough for me to pick out a favorites. "Beating Heart" was a favorite because of the awesome drum intro, and the guitar riffs in the background remind me of a 60's psychedelic acid trip, while "Love" reminds me of T-Rex on a downer. "Johanna" was a favorite with everyone who listened to it, and that got the most comparisons to Joy Division. I myself just liked the way that just when I thought it was repetitive, there was some sort of musical surprise. In any case, I'd really like to hear their LP Gates of Heaven. There's talk about that being reissued.
You can stream more Soul Merchants via their Myspace MySpace or visit the Smooch Records webby for more info. You can also purchase 1985-1987 via the iTunes Music Store
02/18/2008 15:27:53
ceji
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Smooch Records.com
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