SOLID GOLD WITH NIRVANA

The mother in law was in town so I felt obligated to stick around. But when Saturday night arrived, I disappeared for a few hours, retreating to the darkness outside, truck stereo cranked, entering that far off land in a different timezone that a measured flask of tequila takes me.


I received a CD from a friend, asking I take a listen to determine whether I may like the music. First up this evening was a little over a dozen songs played by Gang of Four, 10 off Solid Gold, their second studio album released in March 1981, and five off Another Day/ Another Dollar, an EP released in 1982.

Loved the guitar work on these two albums, and there were times where the band had a Talking Heads feel to them. Now I've got to search and find a few good quality live recordings to see whether that magic carries through to the stage.


Wikipedia describes Gang of Four as such:

Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill. In 2004, the original line-up reunited but in November 2006 Allen was replaced on bass by Thomas McNeice and Burnham on drums by Mark Heaney.

They play a stripped-down mix of punk rock, with strong elements of funk music, minimalism and dub reggae and an emphasis on the social and political ills of society. Gang of Four are widely considered one of the leading bands of the late 1970s/early 1980s post-punk movement. Their later albums (Songs of the Free and Hard) found them softening some of their more jarring qualities, and drifting towards dance-punk and disco. Their debut album, Entertainment!, ranked at Number 490 in Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. David Fricke in Rolling Stone said "Gang of Four are probably the best politically motivated band in rock & roll."


Throw him off their back
Their will can't be overcome
Pyramids crumble


Ideas that take root
Cracking rock they penetrate
From small seeds they grow

Download the two albums here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/-GYfvzXn/024_Gang_Of_Four_-_Solid_Gold_.htm?aff=7637829

As has been the case these last several months, the highlight of the evening was Nirvana, performing live on June 26, 1992 at the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark. Excellent quality soundboard recording. The only thing it lacked was Kurt talking to the audience. Silence. Don't know if this was because of his state of mind or the way the show was edited. I suspect the former, based on what is described below.

From Kurt St. Thomas' book, Nirvana, The Chosen Rejects:

Good news wasn't hard to come by for Nirvana as the band prepared to depart for its ten-day 1992 European tour in June.

However, suspicions of Kurt Cobain's drug addiction had begun to fester, causing subtle rifts in the Nirvana camp. In an interview with New Musical Express magazine, Kurt denied suggestions that he had a heroin addiction.

June 23, 1992, a rainy and gloomy day, began with a terrifying episode: Kurt collapsed in convulsions over breakfast. After an uninspired gig at the Point Depot in Dublin, Ireland, the night before, Kurt had forgotten to take the methadone pills he had been taking to battle his increasing heroin dependence. The press was all over the story, some attributing the incident to a drug overdose. Nirvana's management doused the story with unwavering denials, and the tour continued uninterrupted later that evening at King's Hall in Belfast.

The Breeders and Teenage Fan Club opened the show in front of more than ten thousand screaming fans, but before Nirvana hit the stage, Kurt clashed with overenthusiastic security guards. A report for Select magazine saw the frightful-looking lead singer nibbling on food that night, his hair dyed deathly white. Wearing glasses to disguise himself, Kurt looked like a ghost. The reporter asked him about drugs, but Kurt again denied his heroin use.

Nevertheless, after the gig, Kurt was rushed to a local hospital with abdominal pains. He was suffering from what doctors called stomach ulcers, due partly to the strain put on his abdomen from his ferocious vocal technique and partly due to his unwavering diet of junk food.

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HPX8N21T

INTERPOL ROCKS BOULDER

Having had a ticket in hand for several weeks, I drove up to the Boulder Theater on a snowy Tuesday evening, braving traffic and icy roads, arriving in time to grab a quick bite and then head over to the theater to see Interpol. People were limited to standing in the lobby until some time after 8PM, listening to the band do a sound check behind the theater's curtained doors. We were teased for at least 45 minutes with the repeated playing of the opening guitar riff from "Lights".

Their show in Salt Lake City was canceled due to illness the night before, the two bands then traveling to Denver overnight during a snow storm that dropped about 6 inches in the metro area. They were supposed to arrive at 11 AM to set up, but they arrived at 4:30 PM and were way behind schedule. I think everyone was happy that they even showed up at all considering the weather.

The doors opened and the show began shortly thereafter.


First up was School of Seven Bells, a band originally consisting of identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and Benjamin Curtis, with the sisters singing vocals and Curtis creating the music to back the lyrics. However, Claudia recently left the band due to personal reasons, leaving School of Seven Bells with only one singer. The band is named after the School of the Seven Bells, a mythical South American pickpocket training academy.

Their sound has been described as dreamy and ethereal, and the lyrics as abstract. However, singer Alejandra Deheza insists that the lyrics are not abstract or obscure. In addition, the fact that she is a lucid dreamer is fitting of the lofty sounds they create.

Download my audience recording of the show here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8RSF7QJK

Interpol entered the darkened stage, lit by the moody blue, purple and red lights throughout the show. Although the crowd was not at capacity due to the nasty weather, they made up the difference with their enthusiasm. Those who came were totally into it.

I succeeded in capturing a very good audience recording. Enjoy!

REVERB of The Denver Post had this to say about the show:

Besides their similar feel to Joy Division, Interpol used to stick out in my mind because of their finesse with the sweeping and dramatic, yet sleepily poppy lullaby. Until their Tuesday night show at the Boulder Theater, that is. Their 90 minute set last night showed beyond any doubt that their sound is meant to be anything but sleepy.

The core trio of Paul Banks (guitar, lead vocals), Sam Fogarino (drums) and Daniel Kessler (guitar, vocals) were joined by bassist David Pajo and keyboardist Brandon Curtis as they tore through a flawless set, focusing on many from their latest record, but plenty from the past three as well. Banks’ voice — often compared to that of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis — came across at the top of a truly masterful mix (as the sound always seems to be at this particular venue) as powerful, and still characteristically tentative – as if he was just a little bit unsure of himself. He didn’t go so far in the imitation of that singer as to copy his jerky, stiff dancing, however, but was often seen almost joyously grinning. His guitar work filled in where Kessler’s left off, which wasn’t often, as they built songs around their signature sound, along with the heavy, ever-present bass, imitated perfectly by Pajos.

http://www.heyreverb.com/2011/02/09/live-review-interpol-the-boulder-theater/#4

Download the show here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ROXIAHIB

BACK TO BASICS WITH VAN HALEN

Saturday night and time to party with the boys, old and new, stomping out a patch of flat ground in the freshly fallen snow.

First up was Vampire Weekend performing at the Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK on June 25, 2010. The recording of that show I had included only half the songs, 30 minutes out of the full hour. Still an enjoyable experience listening to this high quality recording.

Vampire Weekend at Glastonbury 2010

Paul MacInnes @ Guardian.co.us

The preppy indie popsters have graduated to the main stage, but struggle to hold the Glastonbury crowd's attention for a full hour.

Dress code: You know Vampire Weekend – preppy, right? Well, think again as Ezra Koenig bounds onstage in customary attire, but with two buttons undone on his pressed plaid shirt! Elsewhere, drummer Chris Tomson wears a vest with the American flag on it and Rostam Batmanglij sports a psychedelic sweatshirt.

What happened: Returning to the festival two years after their debut and with another album under their belt, Vampire Weekend have graduated to main-stage status. They are polite to the audience, and witty too. But there's still a sense that this isn't quite enough to hold a festival crowd's attention for a full hour.

Who's watching: Not nearly as many as were watching Snoop Dogg an hour earlier. It's by no means a thin crowd, but it's not always possible to distinguish fans from sunbathers and my suspicion is there are more of the latter. The crowd certainly isn't particularly animated and seem only infrequently to want to sing along. Given the frequent complexity of Vampire Weekend's lyrics, that's perhaps not too surprising.

High point: A Punk, as ever, was a stand-out moment, as were the flashing disco lights that appeared where the eyes should be on a massive reproduction of the Contra album cover. Top marks, however, go to a rather transcendent and wonderful version of Giving Up the Gun, which extends beyond it's recorded length to shift from refined pop into a house workout. Just as it does so, the sun dips behind the Pyramid stage.

Low point: Horchata and Californian English were among the songs from Contra that failed to elicit much response from the crowd. They're new of course, but they're also a bit shy of a tune.

In a tweet: Smart Americans bring dose of east coast intellecto-rock to hammered, partly grateful Glasto-ites.

What I was most looking forward to this evening was a very good audience recording of Van Halen's live performance at the Garden State Art Center in Holmdel, New Jersey on July 16, 1995 with Sammy Hagar hosting the show. This was a recording I picked up from who knows where, mislabeled and the songs in all the wrong order. It turned out to be the Holmdel show, their second night at this venue, having just returned from their European leg of the Ambulance Tour. Having been traveling for so long and visiting so many cities, Sammy had trouble remembering where he was at.

Great 1995 show. Enjoy.

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1YLJV62V