Something Old...
This week’s classic anthem ‘Something Old’ is inspired by this week plugging of a new band in ‘Something Blue’. Not much need to be said really about NYC’s finest New Wave/ Avant Garde pioneers the legendry Talking Heads. Formed in 1975 when David Byrne, Frantz, Harrison and Tina Wymouth met at Design College they went onto explode into the immortality of the art rock hall of fame, often described as "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn several pop hits."
After releasing their debut album ‘Talking heads: 77’ in 1978 following a support slot with the Ramones. It was with their second album, ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’ that the band began its long-term collaboration with super producer Brian Eno; who had previously worked with David Bowie, Roxy Music and Iggy Pop. Eno's unusual style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical directions, from post punk to New Wave and Psychedelic funk, especially prevalent on 1979’s ‘Fear of Music’.
Despite a huge catalogue of massive hits including ‘Same as it ever was’ and ‘Burning down the house’ it’s the lesser known cult anthem ‘Psycho Killer’ from their debut album that makes this week cut....
Something New...
Pulled Apart by Horses aren’t a BRAND NEW band and having formed in 2007, their debut self titled album was released last year to much critical success and brought many a fan on board but was not overly commercially successful. The Leeds based alt-rock 4 piece lead by front man Tom Hudson did however have the honor of being personally invited to support Muse and Biffy Clyro on tour.
2012 is sure to be their year after a lot of hype surrounding the brilliant follow up album ‘Tough Love’ that landed on Monday (January 23rd), playing a special BBC introducing gig tonight and are also this week’s UK iTunes featured artist. If you like lead single ‘V.E.N.O.M’ you will love the album...
Something Borrowed..
I have a huge list of new covers to blog but after driving into town for an Open mic last night I happened upon the Monkey’s latest offering from Radio 1’s live lounge. The Arctic Monkeys are no strangers to a good pop cover, most famously so with ‘Love Machine’. Nevertheless, their mashed up version took by huge surprise, I had grown tired of Alex Turner’s vocals but they have fused the modern pop/dub vocal of Katie B’s ‘On a Mission’ with the legendry (inventor of the power chord himself) Link Wray and the riff from ‘Rumble’...
Something Blue...
London based Theme Park are another highly touted four-piece and have pretensions to Talking Heads' funk-rock mantle – but fail to burn down that house. Lead vocalist/ guitarist brothers Miles and Marcus Haughton and their two school mates had a fairly successful 2011 which included a tour with Bombay Bicycle Club. This followed topping UK independent alt-rock radio charts for three consecutive weeks with their track ‘Milk’, making them the Adele of the digital broadcast scene. ‘Milk’ is their most ‘heads-like number, to an almost parodic degree but it's a bit light and polite - not that David Byrne et al were rock monsters but you see what I mean. I’d throw Vampire Weekend into the mix if you were looking for a similar sound but although tunefully brilliant they lack the edge that VW have.
Strangely though, I can’t help but love Theme Park and find myself listening to their unique sound regularly, in the middle of the day, best described as “a transient tone that regularly alters texture” if I had my pretentious head on. The last official single ‘A Mountain We Love’ isn't half bad but it’s this song that drew my attention when I caught my first glimpse of the bands on a late night Channel 4 TV show; this is 'Wax', enjoy...
No comments:
Post a Comment