Just Like 1985 All Over Again

I am currently in the process of re-ripping my CD collection, at a slightly higher sample rate, as I have just acquired a 160 GB iPod classic. It replaces my 120 GB Zune which has been well used over the 5 years I have owned it and is still going strong despite it now only holding a charge for 3-4 hours. If they still made the Zune, I would have definitely bought another as this one has been trouble free. It did cross my mind to get the battery replaced but I had a ominous feeling that the moment I replaced the battery something else would fail. So, I am going to use the trusty Zune as a music player, for the house, as it originally came as part of a package with a powered docking station.

Anyway, back to the new iPod.

One of the great joys of doing any reorganisation of music files or media is that the process stimulates you to re-listen to some old albums that maybe you had not listened to in a while. In this case it was, The Cure’s 1985 album “The Head On The Door”, that caught my attention while in the process of re-ripping the ‘C’s in my collection . I actually saw them on the tour for this album when they passed though Brighton (UK) in that same year.

Listening to this album both to and from work, on the transit, I started to think about what I was doing in 1985. I specifically remember going to a lot of gigs in Brighton that year. Also, that it was also a particularly good year for album releases generally. Bands like, Killing Joke, New Order, Sisters Of Mercy, The Cult, The Damned, The Alarm, just for starters.

However, as this is a blog that is primarily focused on new music, I figured I better find a new music ‘angle’ in all of this nostalgia.

So, that got me thinking…..

I wondered, in 2014, who might I consider to be representative of a band like the Cure? If I take a look at there Wikipedia entry for The Head On The Door album it notes the Genre(s) as being: Alternative Rock, New Wave, Gothic Rock. So, I wonder, are there any recent album releases that would fall into all of these genres?

Next stop, Allmusic.com, to see if I can use their, “Related Artists”, feature to locate later bands which fall into a similar area. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-cure-mn0000137390/related

I wonder if there is anyone of interest in the “Followed By” area of the page? Mmm, I notice that Interpol are mentioned, but they aren’t that recent. So, I drill down through Interpol to find that the Editors are listed in the “Related Artists” area for Interpol. I have heard of the band, but not listened to anything by them. Next, I take a look at the most recent album by the Editors. The most recent is The Weight Of Your Love from 2013. Not this year, but close enough for me to want to take a listen. So I fire up Spotify (the perks of still having a UK account in Canada) and give the album a listen.

Wow, this sounds really good. Obviously, the Baritone voice makes it sound quite different from someone like Robert Smith of the aforementioned Cure. However, initially it does remind me a lot of the male vocals in Dead Can Dance and then something interesting happens and ‘vocal register’ changes four tracks in. Actually, the more I listen to the earlier tracks the more I get thinking about the Mission (I did see them in 86 and again at the turn of the centaury).

I will definitely have to listen and read a bit more with regards to the Editors. Just another one of those bands I never got around to listening to and already regretting that.

So, new music mission accomplished. Well, in my little world anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weight_of_Your_Love

Alexisonfire/Billy Talent – 15th April Cunard Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Bands = Awesome!! (Well if you managed to get into see Alexisonfire before they had finished)

Venue Management/Door Security = FAIL!

Ok. Here’s the deal. We arrived outside the venue around 7.15 pm, and Alexisonfire came on at 8.10 pm (from what I understand). By the time we worked out which of the 3 queues we were supposed to be in and then queued for what seemed to be an ‘age’, an hour must have passed, as I got in around 8.20 pm. The hold up seemed to be that security were doing quite time consuming (slow) pat-downs on everyone entering the venue.

However, because of the policy of separate pat-downs and bag searches for males and females and the fact that there seemed to be one female security person, it took my wife a further 20 minutes to get into the hall. Bear in mind that Alexisonfire finished up their set at around 9.00 pm. To top it all no attempt was made speed up the women’s queue despite the lack of any men’s queue at one point.

I really felt for one young woman who had just arrived as the ‘house lights’ went on. She asked me who the band was who had just finished as she had been queuing outside, and was close to tears when I told her that the band she had just missed was Alexisonfire. Not surprisingly she had specifically come to see them.

As I said before, both bands were awesome, and they are blameless in the matter. But, the venue management, get your act together!!! Please!!!

Anyway, rant over.  Well for the moment. Hey, I’m from the UK, what do you expect. But, I think it’s catching….

So for all the fans out there, here is a couple of videos by said bands.

 

Websites:

• Alexisonfire – http://www.theonlybandever.com/
• Billy Talent – http://www.billytalent.com/

Similar Artists

• Alexisonfire: We Are The Ocean, Dance Gavin Dance, A Day to Remember, Emarosa, Underoath, The Ghost of a Thousand, Funeral For A Friend, Chiodos, Cancer Bats, Saosin.
• Billy Talent: Pezz (Billy Talent’s original name), Rise Against, Sum 41, Anti-Flag.

Telegraphs I Don’t Navigate By You @ KCLSU

I was looking on YouTube for some Telegraphs’ stuff and found a great live clip that has been posted recently.

Similar Artists To: EMF

When I was searching yesterday for some Tom Jones video’s for my post, I noticed that he often covered EMF’s hit Unbelievable during his live shows. At one point they actually played together on a music show. So that got me thinking about EMF, the second album Stigma (which was way darker sounding than the debut), and similar artists that were around at that time and I ended up putting together one of my similar artists playlists, the process for which I documented on an earlier “Similar Artists To” posts. Here is the album list I ended up with:

• EMF – Stigma
• Jesus Jones – Liquidizer
• Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – 1992: The Love Album
• Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Brain Blood Volume
• Pop Will Eat Itself – This Is The Day…
• The Farm – Spartacus
• The Soup Dragons – Hang-Tent
• The Wonder Stuff – Never Loved Elvis
• The Shamen – En-Tact
• Inspiral Carpets – Life

Well, I suppose I hade better post that EMF/Tom Jones performance, seeing as I mentioned it. In case you are wondering the track Unbelievable (the bands big hit) appeared on EMF’s first album, Schubert Dip.

 

The Unwinding Hours – The Unwinding Hours

Track listing:

1. Knut
2. Tightrope
3. Little One
4. There Are Worse Things Than Being Alone
5. Solstice
6. Peaceful Liquid Shell
7. Child
8. Traces
9. Annie Jane
10. The Final Hour

The Unwinding Hours on Amazon

 

 

Reviewed at:

• Rocksound – http://www.rocksound.tv/reviews/article/the-unwinding-hours-the-unwinding-hours
• Scotsman – http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/Album-reviews-The-Unwinding-Hours.6091537.jp
• Sputnik – http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=48269
• The Skinny – http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/98364-the-unwinding-hours—the-unwinding-hours
• Chart Attack – http://www.chartattack.com/reviews/79517/the-unwinding-hours-the-unwinding-hours

Genre(s):

• Alternative Rock

 

Similar artists:

• Aereogramme
• Sometree
• Junius
• Savoy Grand

 

Further information:

@Official Website – http://www.theunwindinghours.co.uk/

@Twitter – http://twitter.com/unwindinghours

@MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/theunwindinghours

@Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Unwinding-Hours/238996592074

@Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unwinding_Hours

Mute Math – Armistice

Track listing:

1. The Nerve
2. Backfire
3. Clipping
4. Spotlight
5. No Response
6. Pins and Needles
7. Goodbye
8. Odds
9. Electrify
10. Armistice
11. Lost Year
12. Burden

Mute Math’s second full-length album, Armistice, sees them restrain the wide-ranging genre influences and aim towards a slightly more mainstream alternative rock sound. However, I think, that is a change that most bands have to go through if they want to succeed to any great degree. That said the album is still a heady concoction of electronic breakbeats, processed spiralling riffs, haunting piano, sci-fi strings and a kaleidoscope of other musical noises.

Reviewed at:

PopMatters – http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/111145-mute-math-armistice/

All Music Guide – http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wpfuxz9aldde~T1

Paste Magazine – http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/08/mutemath-armistice.html

Sputnik Music – http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=9494

Hard Music – http://www.hmmagazine.com/reviews/album/m/mute_math0506.php

Tape Deck Mountain – Ghost

Track listing:
1. Scantrons
2. F-
3. On My Honor
4. 80/20
5. Dead Doctors Don’t Lie
6. In the Dirt
7. Ghost Colony
8. A+
9. Bat Lies

I can pretty much sum Ghost by Tape Deck Mountain up in one equation, (33.3333333/45)rpm x ((Slowdive + Jesus and Mary Chain + Stone Roses) x uber-reverb). But, of course, I really love it! It’s a bizarre holiday science project set to music.

Reviewed at:
Pitchfork – http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13757-ghost/

Prefixmag.com – http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/tape-deck-mountain/ghost/33399/