Rock ‘n’ Roll: sex, drugs, and arrogance. For as long as rock stars have been snorting cocaine and spending more on booze than they were paid for a gig, there have been some crucial ingredients to the typical rock and roll personality. It was all about the cool, the seemingly god-like persona that came with the worshipping fans. It was a part of the music itself: rock and roll was cool, it was awesome, it was sticking devil horns in the air and fighting the system. The thing was; you couldn’t stand atop a stage in front of thousands, and represent that kind of anti-establishment, hardcore, rock and roll ideal if you were modest.
Arrogance was the key. It was all about the idea that you were better than everyone and anyone else; that you could throw as many televisions from hotel windows as you felt necessary, and no-one could stop you. The most recent example of such refined rock-star behaviour has to be that of Liam Gallagher; renowned for informing people exactly where they could stick it, that he was better than sliced bread, and that he couldn’t give a monkeys what anyone else thought either way. As part of the world’s biggest British band, of course, it’s possible to see why he might have thought this. But the theme continues: Towers of London front-man Donny Tourette demonstrated in his 2007 appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, as he acted up, smoked, and threw a tantrum on losing the show. Axl Rose, front-man of American rock legends, was too busy wiggling his hips in hot-pants to keep his own band together.
The arrogance, then, created part of the magic rock and roll: it placed the stars on a plinth, gave them the soap-box they needed to stand on and proclaim revolution to the masses. The question is: are those days gone? Is it still cool to be arrogant? Recently, the answer seems to be more and more: yes. Donny Tourette, following his Buzzcocks appearance, was branded ‘as punk as Enya.’ Liam Gallagher’s appearance at the 2010 Brit Awards saw him shout profanities at his audience and throw the microphone crowd-ward... and it struck an odd chord with people. It wasn’t cool. It wasn’t in the spirit of music today. U2 are headlining Glastonbury this year, and have been given control of their supporting acts: Dizzee Rascal is only allowed on because Bono and his pointless orange sunglasses have deemed him worthy. And though this is arrogance in a different sense, it’s still struck the same hollow chord. Glastonbury is an event for the people that pay, the fans that dedicate their time to watch their favourite artists, and even the starry-eyed party goers who are simply up for a good time. What right do Bono and his band of smug Irishmen have to control their support acts at a festival like Glasto? Rock and Roll arrogance has become like wearing sun-glasses inside: it’s just not cool anymore.
The other side of things, however, can’t be ignored. Arrogance does bring the magic to rock ‘n’ roll. The scene wouldn’t be what it is today without rock icons of the past strutting about as though Jesus was their warm-up act. In some ways, it may be that arrogance is a lost part of Rock music, forgotten in the past, in the days when Alice Cooper was ramming swords through his own legs, and Mick Jagger couldn’t tell you what he did yesterday. Or the day before. Or the day before. Despite this, however, Rock music wouldn’t be what it is today without rock-gods like G‘n’R, The Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and so many more bringing rock music to the people as though it was something other-worldy, this anti-establishment, loud, sex-drugs-and-tear-the-roof-off music. The arrogance is what made rock and roll, rock and roll; it made it more than music; it made it a lifestyle, an attitude, a culture.
So maybe today the arrogance is gone from rock and roll, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Times have changed, and moved on, and music today is about the entertainment and the commercialism, instead of the cultures and the revolutions that it used to be. But this makes looking back at the past all the more magical. Those were the days when music had a meaning, had a purpose, had a message. And to try and bring that kind of spirit into music today would be like putting Noel Edmunds in a suitcase in order to send him somewhere far far away: you might really really want to... but it just isn’t going to fit.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Monday, 22 March 2010
Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
Written November 2009
2010 definitely seems to be the year for new and upcoming artists. With Talent shows like the X-Factor (heard of it?) showing no signs of leaving us alone just yet, and companies such as Fiat (previous credentials involve some cars and being French) launching its new ‘Evo-Music Rooms’ contest to find and fulfil the star spangled dreams of some young indie band with large hair and skinny jeans, it looks like 2010 could be the year for new acts.
2010 then, definitely another year for fresh artists to hit the radio-waves and stages of the nation, with underground sensation The XX beginning to find a mainstream audience and superstars Biffy Clyro planning another side project – one that you could be in. Artists like Florence + the Machine and Little Boots are carrying music over into 2010 quite nicely, having both found their niche in 2009. This is all brilliant of course; the rhythmic, vocally amazing Florence seems like one of the best artists yet to be part of the new direction of music, yet far too many people seem to have completely missed one of the biggest, jaw-dropping pieces of news to have come out of music since Courtney Love came home to an awful mess in the shed.
I’m talking about none other than Them Crooked Vultures, a name that usually has to be repeated a few times before even the most avid music fan will recognise the surprised/disappointed look on your face and clamour desperately for information that might save their ‘cool’. Most of these blank faces will feel like they missed out on a rather large piece of news there, and that’s because they did. Them Crooked Vultures, despite floating around as a concept since 2005, finally released their self-titled debut album at the end of 2009 – an album which reversed the trend of many modern artists, in that it deserved more hype than it got.
So what is it that makes Them Crooked Vultures such an amazing band; why exactly am I writing about them as though their guitarist is Jesus? The concept is simple. You take a dash of Californian rockers Queens of the Stone Age, a piece of English rock-gods Led Zeppelin, and a slice of American hard-rockers Foo Fighters and see what you get. It’s not even like we just mean a band with great influences, because although this rings true, what Them Crooked Vultures is actually about is Josh Homme (Guitars and lead vocals), John Paul Jones (bass guitar, keyboards, slide guitar, synthesizer, mandolin etc), and Dave Grohl (drums and percussion) coming together to see just what happens.
I’ll be honest, once the news had reached me there was little anyone could do to stop me heading out to buy the album; the prospect of 3 music gods meeting in one studio to record brand new material? Amazing. So just what does happen when 3 legends of rock run into each other in a studio in Los Angeles and decide to make the most awesome record ever?
The result is something weird and wonderful, the result of experimental guitar rhythms and foot-stompingly catchy riffs complete with a juxtaposition of straight and simple yet punchy drum rhythms which drive the music forwards like a thousand-horsepower Bugatti Veyron. On top of this, Homme’s vocals compliment the obscurity of the riffs and rhythms in a somewhat ineffable way. The album showcases Dave Grohl on drums and percussion in a stable band for the first time since he briefly played for Queens of the Stone Age in 2002, and before that his position as drum-man of a little grunge band called Nirvana. Josh Homme’s musical history comprises mainly of the acclaimed Queens of the Stone Age, as well as side project Kyuss. I think it’s fair to say that the musical influence of QOTSA comes across clearly in TCV in lyrical obscurity and riff-based and crunchy lead guitar. John Paul Jones influence can in no way be denied – but then the influence of Led Zeppelin can hardly be denied in modern rock music as a whole – Grohl and Homme both acknowledging zeppelin as a key influence to their own bands. On the Vultures album Jones dabbles in everything from bass to mandolin, throwing in some keyboard solo’s in tracks such as ‘Mind Eraser, No Chaser’, maybe just to prove he can. The result of these three heavy-weight titans bringing their own musical influences, experience and power to the TCV table is a jaw-dropping result; a fresh sound that can’t exactly be summed up in a catchy by-line, or inferred through listing other bands. At best you could attempt to describe the sound as a QOTSA-meets- Radiohead-meets-Led Zeppelin-meets-Foo Fighters-meets-White Stripes kind of affair.
Perhaps one of the best tracks on the album to showcase the awesome power and drive, yet sheer obscurity of the music is the tempo-shifting, riff-based lyrically-trippy track ‘Elephants’, which seems to attempt to crunch every zeppelin riff ever recorded into an epic 7 minutes of musical magic. Other favourites include ‘New Fang’; the band’s first officially released single back in October ’09 (followed by the album in November) and the inescapably catchy ‘No-One Loves Me & Neither Do I’, the first track of the album, which introduces you to the loose recording style, obscure guitar sounds and lyrical eccentric style in a 5 minute blast of what is a genuinely unique sound.
The question must be asked though – with a sound so obscure, which seems to rest more than an ordinary amount on experimental recording styles and guitar-riffs you have to sort of familiarise yourself with before the song hits home, would the band have come out as such a whopping success without they’re previous credentials? I would say that the answer is somewhere between ‘Of course not’ and ‘not a chance.’ The album seems to ride the line between a cool, innovative, fresh sounding style and an unsuccessful attempt at trying to be ‘new’ through a slapdash recording and a loose control of the guitar strings. I will personally admit that if I had listened to the album without knowing whom it was that was gracing my ears with their musical genius, I might’ve regarded it as the latter, along with any other new-wave band gigging around Camden town on any given night.
However, the case remains that the band in question do carry with them the titles of three (or more) successful and influential bands, revered by fans worldwide, and this means that the threesome could have walked out of a studio in LA one sunny day having recorded their own version of John Cage’s 4 minutes 33 seconds and still made headlines. The album however, is not a rendition of any of John Cages ideas, and is in fact a whirlwind – a powerhouse of musical ideas and styles. Definitely an album to own as part of your definitive Rock collection, and definitely a band to watch in 2010. As good old rock and roll fades away, replaced by punk-pop, new-wave, electronica and so forth (Golden Silvers, a sort of Indie piece with a keyboard at centre is in no way a replacement for rock and roll, my friends) TCV are definitely a group to watch this year.
2010 definitely seems to be the year for new and upcoming artists. With Talent shows like the X-Factor (heard of it?) showing no signs of leaving us alone just yet, and companies such as Fiat (previous credentials involve some cars and being French) launching its new ‘Evo-Music Rooms’ contest to find and fulfil the star spangled dreams of some young indie band with large hair and skinny jeans, it looks like 2010 could be the year for new acts.
2010 then, definitely another year for fresh artists to hit the radio-waves and stages of the nation, with underground sensation The XX beginning to find a mainstream audience and superstars Biffy Clyro planning another side project – one that you could be in. Artists like Florence + the Machine and Little Boots are carrying music over into 2010 quite nicely, having both found their niche in 2009. This is all brilliant of course; the rhythmic, vocally amazing Florence seems like one of the best artists yet to be part of the new direction of music, yet far too many people seem to have completely missed one of the biggest, jaw-dropping pieces of news to have come out of music since Courtney Love came home to an awful mess in the shed.
I’m talking about none other than Them Crooked Vultures, a name that usually has to be repeated a few times before even the most avid music fan will recognise the surprised/disappointed look on your face and clamour desperately for information that might save their ‘cool’. Most of these blank faces will feel like they missed out on a rather large piece of news there, and that’s because they did. Them Crooked Vultures, despite floating around as a concept since 2005, finally released their self-titled debut album at the end of 2009 – an album which reversed the trend of many modern artists, in that it deserved more hype than it got.
So what is it that makes Them Crooked Vultures such an amazing band; why exactly am I writing about them as though their guitarist is Jesus? The concept is simple. You take a dash of Californian rockers Queens of the Stone Age, a piece of English rock-gods Led Zeppelin, and a slice of American hard-rockers Foo Fighters and see what you get. It’s not even like we just mean a band with great influences, because although this rings true, what Them Crooked Vultures is actually about is Josh Homme (Guitars and lead vocals), John Paul Jones (bass guitar, keyboards, slide guitar, synthesizer, mandolin etc), and Dave Grohl (drums and percussion) coming together to see just what happens.
I’ll be honest, once the news had reached me there was little anyone could do to stop me heading out to buy the album; the prospect of 3 music gods meeting in one studio to record brand new material? Amazing. So just what does happen when 3 legends of rock run into each other in a studio in Los Angeles and decide to make the most awesome record ever?
The result is something weird and wonderful, the result of experimental guitar rhythms and foot-stompingly catchy riffs complete with a juxtaposition of straight and simple yet punchy drum rhythms which drive the music forwards like a thousand-horsepower Bugatti Veyron. On top of this, Homme’s vocals compliment the obscurity of the riffs and rhythms in a somewhat ineffable way. The album showcases Dave Grohl on drums and percussion in a stable band for the first time since he briefly played for Queens of the Stone Age in 2002, and before that his position as drum-man of a little grunge band called Nirvana. Josh Homme’s musical history comprises mainly of the acclaimed Queens of the Stone Age, as well as side project Kyuss. I think it’s fair to say that the musical influence of QOTSA comes across clearly in TCV in lyrical obscurity and riff-based and crunchy lead guitar. John Paul Jones influence can in no way be denied – but then the influence of Led Zeppelin can hardly be denied in modern rock music as a whole – Grohl and Homme both acknowledging zeppelin as a key influence to their own bands. On the Vultures album Jones dabbles in everything from bass to mandolin, throwing in some keyboard solo’s in tracks such as ‘Mind Eraser, No Chaser’, maybe just to prove he can. The result of these three heavy-weight titans bringing their own musical influences, experience and power to the TCV table is a jaw-dropping result; a fresh sound that can’t exactly be summed up in a catchy by-line, or inferred through listing other bands. At best you could attempt to describe the sound as a QOTSA-meets- Radiohead-meets-Led Zeppelin-meets-Foo Fighters-meets-White Stripes kind of affair.
Perhaps one of the best tracks on the album to showcase the awesome power and drive, yet sheer obscurity of the music is the tempo-shifting, riff-based lyrically-trippy track ‘Elephants’, which seems to attempt to crunch every zeppelin riff ever recorded into an epic 7 minutes of musical magic. Other favourites include ‘New Fang’; the band’s first officially released single back in October ’09 (followed by the album in November) and the inescapably catchy ‘No-One Loves Me & Neither Do I’, the first track of the album, which introduces you to the loose recording style, obscure guitar sounds and lyrical eccentric style in a 5 minute blast of what is a genuinely unique sound.
The question must be asked though – with a sound so obscure, which seems to rest more than an ordinary amount on experimental recording styles and guitar-riffs you have to sort of familiarise yourself with before the song hits home, would the band have come out as such a whopping success without they’re previous credentials? I would say that the answer is somewhere between ‘Of course not’ and ‘not a chance.’ The album seems to ride the line between a cool, innovative, fresh sounding style and an unsuccessful attempt at trying to be ‘new’ through a slapdash recording and a loose control of the guitar strings. I will personally admit that if I had listened to the album without knowing whom it was that was gracing my ears with their musical genius, I might’ve regarded it as the latter, along with any other new-wave band gigging around Camden town on any given night.
However, the case remains that the band in question do carry with them the titles of three (or more) successful and influential bands, revered by fans worldwide, and this means that the threesome could have walked out of a studio in LA one sunny day having recorded their own version of John Cage’s 4 minutes 33 seconds and still made headlines. The album however, is not a rendition of any of John Cages ideas, and is in fact a whirlwind – a powerhouse of musical ideas and styles. Definitely an album to own as part of your definitive Rock collection, and definitely a band to watch in 2010. As good old rock and roll fades away, replaced by punk-pop, new-wave, electronica and so forth (Golden Silvers, a sort of Indie piece with a keyboard at centre is in no way a replacement for rock and roll, my friends) TCV are definitely a group to watch this year.
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