Earlier this month, Nick Cave paid tribute to his longtime friend, The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan, by performing a cover of “A Rainy Night in Soho” at MacGowan’s funeral. Now, Cave has honored the late Irish songwriter again by penning an obituary for The Guardian, published on Thursday, December 21st.
After explaining how he and MacGowan first met — a “summit” organized by NME to bring the two writers, plus The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, together — Cave touched on the early days of the two’s friendship. “I was excited [to meet him] because I was a fan, completely in awe of Shane’s songwriting,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, it was my first day out of rehab, and it probably wasn’t the greatest idea to spend the day with two people who were not known for their moderation… Not the most auspicious start to a friendship, but Shane and I did become close friends soon afterwards.
After explaining how he and MacGowan first met — a “summit” organized by NME to bring the two writers, plus The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, together — Cave touched on the early days of the two’s friendship. “I was excited [to meet him] because I was a fan, completely in awe of Shane’s songwriting,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, it was my first day out of rehab, and it probably wasn’t the greatest idea to spend the day with two people who were not known for their moderation… Not the most auspicious start to a friendship, but Shane and I did become close friends soon afterwards.
- 12/21/2023
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
In an interview last year, Yard Act frontman James Smith spoke about how his band had “Trojan Horsed” the music industry. The Leeds-formed group snuck into the charts in 2020 amid a cavalry of post-punk acts. Early singles – the juddery “Dark Days” and the foot-stomping “Fixer Upper”, with its funky “Fame” guitar squalls – saw the four-piece lumped in with London bands such as Dry Cleaning and Black Midi. Eager comparisons were also drawn to the Sprechgesang (spoken-word singing) scene populated by Idles, Sleaford Mods, and Black Country, New Road. But Yard Act’s wry yet good-humoured take on post-punk always had that extra dose of salt, Smith’s tongue firmly in cheek.
“It’s weird, I feel there were a lot of good reviews for the first album that I disagreed with,” the 32-year-old says. He’s referring to their excellent debut The Overload, released in January and shortlisted for this week's Mercury Prize.
“It’s weird, I feel there were a lot of good reviews for the first album that I disagreed with,” the 32-year-old says. He’s referring to their excellent debut The Overload, released in January and shortlisted for this week's Mercury Prize.
- 9/2/2022
- by Roisin O'Connor
- The Independent - Music
At The Sonic Catering Institute, art collectives working with food and sound are given three-week residencies that, in the words of its monied, micromanaging patron Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie), involve “the artistic pursuit of alimentary and culinary salvation to be done as public performance.”
This is the pleasurably esoteric, densely atmospheric world of Peter Strickland’s latest venture into psychological-distress-as-ice-cold-comedy, “Flux Gourmet,” and it is by turns scatological, hilarious, art-referential and, ultimately, moving.
For the cleverly-named group leader Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed) and her collaborators Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield) and Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), all of whom rise, walk and smoke in sync — at first, anyway, before the friction and infighting begins — the prospect of freedom to create their specialized brand of performance is a dream come true. Together they pantomime the process of grocery shopping, attach microphones, effects-generating equipment and amps to their prep stations, then chop and...
This is the pleasurably esoteric, densely atmospheric world of Peter Strickland’s latest venture into psychological-distress-as-ice-cold-comedy, “Flux Gourmet,” and it is by turns scatological, hilarious, art-referential and, ultimately, moving.
For the cleverly-named group leader Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed) and her collaborators Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield) and Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), all of whom rise, walk and smoke in sync — at first, anyway, before the friction and infighting begins — the prospect of freedom to create their specialized brand of performance is a dream come true. Together they pantomime the process of grocery shopping, attach microphones, effects-generating equipment and amps to their prep stations, then chop and...
- 6/23/2022
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
Excavate!, a collection of essays inspired by the music and world of the Fall and Mark E. Smith, is set to be published in the U.S. for the first time on June 22nd via Faber Books.
The book, previously available overseas, features contributions from a variety of writers, as well as a collection of previously unreleased artwork, rare ephemera, and handwritten material. Bob Stanely and Tessa Norton edited Excavate! which includes essays from Grant Showbiz, Michael Clark, Elain Harwood, Ian Penman, Paul Wilson, Owen Hatherley, Mark Fisher, Mark Sinker,...
The book, previously available overseas, features contributions from a variety of writers, as well as a collection of previously unreleased artwork, rare ephemera, and handwritten material. Bob Stanely and Tessa Norton edited Excavate! which includes essays from Grant Showbiz, Michael Clark, Elain Harwood, Ian Penman, Paul Wilson, Owen Hatherley, Mark Fisher, Mark Sinker,...
- 4/22/2021
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
If you’ve been missing the claustrophobic, smoky vibe of DIY shows, Fontaines D.C.’s performance on The Tonight Show Thursday was tailormade for you.
Singer Grian Chatten wanders through a maze-like set reminiscent of a smoky club as the rest of the band appears in nooks and hallways, grinding out “A Hero’s Death” from their 2020 album by the same name. The glimpses of shadowy figures moshing will give any frequent showgoer — stuck home due to Covid-19 — a pang.
The life-affirming lyrics don’t hurt: “Life ain’t always empty,...
Singer Grian Chatten wanders through a maze-like set reminiscent of a smoky club as the rest of the band appears in nooks and hallways, grinding out “A Hero’s Death” from their 2020 album by the same name. The glimpses of shadowy figures moshing will give any frequent showgoer — stuck home due to Covid-19 — a pang.
The life-affirming lyrics don’t hurt: “Life ain’t always empty,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Mark E. Smith wasn’t singing about Washington, D.C. when he bleated “Leave the Capitol! Leave this Roman shell!”, but the song — titled “Leave the Capitol” — is an apt rallying cry for the week the U.S. has had.
A live recording of that track, off of the acerbic British band’s 1981 Slates EP, drops Friday — along with news of a live album, The Fall – Live at St. Helens Technical College, ’81, out February 19th.
Former Fall member Marc Riley discovered the bootleg recording on Twitter, then approached John Dwyer of the Osees’ label,...
A live recording of that track, off of the acerbic British band’s 1981 Slates EP, drops Friday — along with news of a live album, The Fall – Live at St. Helens Technical College, ’81, out February 19th.
Former Fall member Marc Riley discovered the bootleg recording on Twitter, then approached John Dwyer of the Osees’ label,...
- 1/8/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Each month, the editors and critics at Rolling Stone compile a list of our favorite new albums. Our picks for October include Bruce Springsteen’s first new album with the E Street Band in six years, the highly anticipated debut from K-pop group Blackpink, and a new archive release from Joni Mitchell.
Ariana Grande, Positions
How does someone like Ariana Grande follow one of pop’s greatest, boldest break-up albums? With a horny, campy collection of R&b slow jams, of course. In all its naughty glory, Positions doesn’t...
Ariana Grande, Positions
How does someone like Ariana Grande follow one of pop’s greatest, boldest break-up albums? With a horny, campy collection of R&b slow jams, of course. In all its naughty glory, Positions doesn’t...
- 11/2/2020
- by Angie Martoccio, Jon Dolan, Kory Grow, Jonathan Bernstein, Tim Chan, Daniel Kreps, David Browne, Danny Schwartz, Hank Shteamer and Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
That’s saying something; Albarn has always proposed Gorillaz as a space beyond and between pop music’s borders, and over the decades everyone from Mark E. Smith to Bobby Womack to Pusha T has felt at home swinging by to chill. It’s a project that feels especially worthwhile in the era of Brexit and hyper-nationalism, even if the albums it produces can often be so intentionally all-over-the place as to sometimes seem nowhere at all.
On Song Machine: Season One — Strange Timez, the number of guests could violate a nightclub fire code.
On Song Machine: Season One — Strange Timez, the number of guests could violate a nightclub fire code.
- 10/23/2020
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
The Fall will reissue their 1988 LP The Frenz Experiment as a double-disc set featuring non-lp singles, rarities, BBC sessions, B-sides and more.
The Frenz Experiment: Expanded Edition — available to preorder as either a two-cd or two-lp set via Beggars Arkive ahead of its October 23rd release — includes the late Mark E. Smith and company’s original 10-song album. Highlights include the Fall’s rendition of the Kinks’ “Victoria” as well as the two songs from the bonus 7-inch that originally accompanied the U.K. pressing of the album.
The second...
The Frenz Experiment: Expanded Edition — available to preorder as either a two-cd or two-lp set via Beggars Arkive ahead of its October 23rd release — includes the late Mark E. Smith and company’s original 10-song album. Highlights include the Fall’s rendition of the Kinks’ “Victoria” as well as the two songs from the bonus 7-inch that originally accompanied the U.K. pressing of the album.
The second...
- 8/20/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Sports Team are a great six-piece English rock band who formed when they were students at Cambridge. The crisp, jagged tunes on their debut LP, Deep Down Happy, recall Franz Ferdinand or the early Arctic Monkeys; their weird-angled guitars can evoke Pavement or Silkworm; their clever critiques of British life recall Pulp and the Kinks; and singer Alex Rice’s ranting style has shades of Art Brut’s Eddie Argos and Mark E. Smith of the Fall. It’s all conjured with a buoyant sense of good-natured humor, so they...
- 6/11/2020
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
High Off Life is the first Future album since January 2019 — an eternity by his standards. It’s been a rare breather for the hardest-working rapper in the solar system, the Atlanta trap legend with a voice full of the Auto-Tune blues and a head full of astronaut status. Future was originally planning to call it Life Is Good, but he changed the title at the last minute in response to the global health crisis — a rare case of Future adjusting to the realities of any world outside his mind. High...
- 5/19/2020
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
This time around, punk rock is reborn in Dublin, Ireland; an American experimental institution comes to a striking end; and two archival releases affirm, again, that there is still astonishing music out there from the Sixties and Seventies that has never been heard before — and great stories to go with it.
Fontaines D.C., Dogrel (Partisan)
“My childhood was small/But I’m gonna be big,” singer-lyricist Grian Chatten declares in “Big,” the tight, fast blast that starts Dogrel, the debut album by these young post-punk sensations from Dublin, Ireland.
Fontaines D.C., Dogrel (Partisan)
“My childhood was small/But I’m gonna be big,” singer-lyricist Grian Chatten declares in “Big,” the tight, fast blast that starts Dogrel, the debut album by these young post-punk sensations from Dublin, Ireland.
- 4/26/2019
- by David Fricke
- Rollingstone.com
Can a music festival have a mid-life crisis? In its 33rd year, over two weeks in Austin, Texas, SXSW made its biggest headlines in the opening interactive phase, hosting a widely reported forum of prospective Democratic candidates for president. The SXSW film festival featured major premieres and director Q&As, like a spring-break Sundance with a Texas drawl. And a new SXSW sideline – gaming – drew huge lines at the Austin Convention Center. The original founding energy of SXSW, the music festival, was spread out over an entire week, but big...
- 3/18/2019
- by David Fricke
- Rollingstone.com
Sophie Siddique Harvey (left) and Sandi Tan (right) with a film slate in 1992, from Shirkers.Sandi Tan’s Shirkers is the story of a lost film, a reminder that behind the films we celebrate each year there are plenty more that never found their way to audiences. Those are the films from which new cinematic movements could have sprung, from which young filmmakers eager to shake up the status quo might have drawn inspiration, from which a significant historical record of areas soon to change at the hands of urban development could be gleaned. What was originally meant to be Shirkers had the potential to be all of those things; spurred into motion by an ambitious, Diy-spirited, zine-making teenager and her friends in Singapore during the early nineties.But film-club mentor George Cardona, who had decided to direct, would inexplicably disappear with the 16mm film reels, leaving Tan and her...
- 10/24/2018
- MUBI
Mark E. Smith, frontman of the English post-punk act The Fall, has died. He was 60 years old.
“It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Mark E. Smith,” the band’s manager posted in a statement on Facebook Wednesday. “He passed this morning at home. A more detailed statement will follow in the next few days. In the meantime, Pam & Mark’s family request privacy at this sad time.”
A Manchester, England, native, Smith launched The Fall in 1976. Over the years the band released 32 studio albums, most recently July 2017’s New Facts Emerge, on which Smith was the sole remaining founding member.
“It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Mark E. Smith,” the band’s manager posted in a statement on Facebook Wednesday. “He passed this morning at home. A more detailed statement will follow in the next few days. In the meantime, Pam & Mark’s family request privacy at this sad time.”
A Manchester, England, native, Smith launched The Fall in 1976. Over the years the band released 32 studio albums, most recently July 2017’s New Facts Emerge, on which Smith was the sole remaining founding member.
- 1/24/2018
- by Jeff Nelson
- PEOPLE.com
Mark E. Smith, the lead singer of the band the Fall, has died, Cherry Red Records announced Wednesday. He was 60 years old. It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Mark E. Smith. He passed this morning at home. A more detailed statement will follow in the next few days. In the meantime, Pam & Mark’s family request privacy at this sad time.Pam Van DamnedThe Fall – manager — Cherry Red Records (@CherryRedGroup) January 24, 2018 “It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Mark E. Smith,” said the band’s manager in a statement. “He...
- 1/24/2018
- by Ashley Boucher
- The Wrap
The Fall - New Facts Emerge (Cherry Red)
For a band that has existed around the spiteful and brooding presence of Mark E. Smith for over thirty albums and forty years another release shouldn't pack many surprises but it does. Many have served under his difficult demands, being in The Fall almost a rite of passage, an induction by fire for many a Mancunian musician. Some never fully recuperate from the experience.
At his sneering malevolent best, Smith revolts into style with sublime swagger. The opening "Segue" is a drunken spoons hammering against beer glasses outburst that effortlessly slides into '"Fol De Rol" a guitar driven epic resembling Magazine at their most monochromatic and industrial. European in feel. It could easily pass as John Foxx period Ultravox at their most chillingly Germanic. A searing slab of Metal meets Art Rock. A public image uninhibited. "Brillo De Facto" is more conventional Fall-fare,...
For a band that has existed around the spiteful and brooding presence of Mark E. Smith for over thirty albums and forty years another release shouldn't pack many surprises but it does. Many have served under his difficult demands, being in The Fall almost a rite of passage, an induction by fire for many a Mancunian musician. Some never fully recuperate from the experience.
At his sneering malevolent best, Smith revolts into style with sublime swagger. The opening "Segue" is a drunken spoons hammering against beer glasses outburst that effortlessly slides into '"Fol De Rol" a guitar driven epic resembling Magazine at their most monochromatic and industrial. European in feel. It could easily pass as John Foxx period Ultravox at their most chillingly Germanic. A searing slab of Metal meets Art Rock. A public image uninhibited. "Brillo De Facto" is more conventional Fall-fare,...
- 9/24/2017
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Post-punk warhorse the Fall releases its 30th record, Re-Mit, today. As per most great Fall albums, Re-Mit is equal parts brilliant and confounding. Up-tempo garage-rock stompers, like lead single “Sir William Wray,” are balanced by inchoate noodling (one of said tracks is aptly titled “Noise”). The group is led by Mark E. Smith, the outspoken and cantankerous visionary and sole constant member since the group’s formation in 1976. Smith still churns out scalpel-sharp lyrics, this time focusing his wit and zeal on such topics as a Hittite corpse rising from the grave and wreaking havoc and Italian laziness on Sundays. We spoke to him by phone from his home in Manchester about the new album, playing for 6,000 German lawyers, and H.P. Lovecraft.On the Fall’s first live record, 1980’s Totale’s Turns, the cover gave a funny shout-out to your tour itinerary [listing “Doncaster! Bradford! Preston! Prestwich!”]. Tonight you’re playing in...
- 5/13/2013
- by William Van Meter
- Vulture
Tony Fletcher/Tom Hingley 26 November 2012 Waterstones Deansgate, Manchester
Just around the corner from this evening's Manchester proceedings, I once saw an elderly British actor make an early afternoon appearance in the hallowed arena known as the Royal Exchange Theatre. The thespian in question was Dirk Bogarde, who was promoting one of his self-seeking, closeted novels, with which he interspersed his equally closeted and self seeking volumes of autobiography. Bogarde wasn't averse to selling himself, although he was very particular about the parts he chose to throw into the marketplace.
Bogarde admitted that in his days as a matinee idol in the 1950s he had to resort to sewing up the button flies of his sharp suits with dark cotton. In the ensuing scrum of over-heated ladies, whose varnished fingernails immediately went for the area they weren't supposed to access, this was his only means of preventing over-exposure, although it didn't...
Just around the corner from this evening's Manchester proceedings, I once saw an elderly British actor make an early afternoon appearance in the hallowed arena known as the Royal Exchange Theatre. The thespian in question was Dirk Bogarde, who was promoting one of his self-seeking, closeted novels, with which he interspersed his equally closeted and self seeking volumes of autobiography. Bogarde wasn't averse to selling himself, although he was very particular about the parts he chose to throw into the marketplace.
Bogarde admitted that in his days as a matinee idol in the 1950s he had to resort to sewing up the button flies of his sharp suits with dark cotton. In the ensuing scrum of over-heated ladies, whose varnished fingernails immediately went for the area they weren't supposed to access, this was his only means of preventing over-exposure, although it didn't...
- 11/29/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Seems like the major labels will continue to mine the nostalgia angle with the hope that they can squeeze a few more ducats from aging music fans everywhere. Fine by me, if the music merits the "super-deluxe-never-before-heard-or-seen" treatment. And since I've been sucked into that black hole with the Dead, Stones, Rush, Hendrix, Jesus & Mary Chain, et al., I've missed some amazing music and culture this past year. No excuses now as I cram a full year's worth of culture down my gullet before Christmas. You can check out more of my favorite culture from 2011 in these Spring, Summer, and Fall articles.
Mia Doi Todd: Cosmic Ocean Ship (City Zen) - I was struck by her otherworldly vocals after copping her major label debut in 2002. Her ninth effort picks up where her critically acclaimed 2008 self-released effort Gea left off. And it's quite apparent that her time on the road opening...
Mia Doi Todd: Cosmic Ocean Ship (City Zen) - I was struck by her otherworldly vocals after copping her major label debut in 2002. Her ninth effort picks up where her critically acclaimed 2008 self-released effort Gea left off. And it's quite apparent that her time on the road opening...
- 12/25/2011
- by Dusty Wright
- www.culturecatch.com
Photo by Hedi Slimane for Vman
The latest issue of Vman is about to hit newsstands and in the issue, the men's fashion magazine dives into the best music of 2011 and is spotlighting some names you may not be familiar with just yet but might want to start getting used to.
Vman was cool enough to give MTV News an exclusive first look at a few of the gents included in their best-of roundup. Among those getting some love are John Maus, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox and Girl's frontman Christopher Owens (above). These are some seriously talented guys we're sure you'll be hearing a lot about.
Did we mention that they're pretty easy on the eyes too? Not that that's a super important thing when it comes to a man and his music … but it doesn't hurt either. Read on for some exclusive excerpts from Vman's interviews with Owens, Cox...
The latest issue of Vman is about to hit newsstands and in the issue, the men's fashion magazine dives into the best music of 2011 and is spotlighting some names you may not be familiar with just yet but might want to start getting used to.
Vman was cool enough to give MTV News an exclusive first look at a few of the gents included in their best-of roundup. Among those getting some love are John Maus, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox and Girl's frontman Christopher Owens (above). These are some seriously talented guys we're sure you'll be hearing a lot about.
Did we mention that they're pretty easy on the eyes too? Not that that's a super important thing when it comes to a man and his music … but it doesn't hurt either. Read on for some exclusive excerpts from Vman's interviews with Owens, Cox...
- 10/20/2011
- by John Mitchell
- MTV Newsroom
Mark E. Smith has claimed that he turned down the chance to enter I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! The Fall frontman told The Quietus that he was asked if he wanted to replace John Lydon in 2004 when the Public Image Ltd frontman walked out of the jungle. Asked about fellow musician Shaun Ryder's recent stint on the show, Smith said: "I was asked years ago when Johnny Lydon was on it. I was doing this daft pilot show which was something to do with [publisher] James Brown. "Halfway (more)...
- 12/20/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
The new Gorillaz album will sound like an "English voice put through the vocoder of America". The cartoon band's main songwriter has been recording while touring in the U.S., and described how his experience of being on the road in the country for the first time in a decade has affected the sound.
"It's probably more American sounding than Blur," Damon, who rose to fame as a member of Britpop band Blur, told NME, "It sounds like an English voice that has been put through the vocoder of America. It's a studio album made in hotel rooms around America."
A vocoder is a musical device which transforms speech into electronically transmitted information, coding and decoding it transforming it to sound different on output.
Damon also explained how he's been recording all his ideas on an iPad tablet computer, adding "I've made it on an iPad, I hope I'll be...
"It's probably more American sounding than Blur," Damon, who rose to fame as a member of Britpop band Blur, told NME, "It sounds like an English voice that has been put through the vocoder of America. It's a studio album made in hotel rooms around America."
A vocoder is a musical device which transforms speech into electronically transmitted information, coding and decoding it transforming it to sound different on output.
Damon also explained how he's been recording all his ideas on an iPad tablet computer, adding "I've made it on an iPad, I hope I'll be...
- 11/12/2010
- by celebrity-mania.com
- Celebrity Mania
For some, Fall is a time of great beauty and nostalgia, a boon for the sartorialist who can finally break out favorite jackets and scarves. Others are less thrilled, perhaps victims of some primal human apprehension about the coming of winter. One thing is certain, it's a season of greater introspection after the wanton abuses of summer. It's also a great time for music as all the vapid pop hits of the sweltering months fade out and people give more airplay to music with a bit more depth.
Digging through my records for Halloween weekend, I decided it was time for the ultimate Fall playlist -- and the following list is a distillation of that. I dispensed with most of werewolf tunes and tried to focus in on that hazy Autumnal groove, with a touch of foreboding. Consider it a list of costume ideas as well, I've already seen one...
Digging through my records for Halloween weekend, I decided it was time for the ultimate Fall playlist -- and the following list is a distillation of that. I dispensed with most of werewolf tunes and tried to focus in on that hazy Autumnal groove, with a touch of foreboding. Consider it a list of costume ideas as well, I've already seen one...
- 10/31/2010
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
Sneering The Fall rocker Mark E. Smith literally took aim at folk band Mumford & Sons during a recent music festival in Ireland - he launched a bottle at the stage during their set because he didn't like their music.
The Fall shared the bill with Mumford & Sons at the Electric Prom event, which took place near Dublin, in September, and the veteran singer admits he hated what he heard during the English quartet's rehearsal sessions, and made his disdain clear by throwing a missile at them.
He tells Australia's Brag magazine, "We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. "I said, 'Shut them c**ts up', and they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The band said, 'That's the Sons of Mumford (sic) or something, they're number five in the charts!
The Fall shared the bill with Mumford & Sons at the Electric Prom event, which took place near Dublin, in September, and the veteran singer admits he hated what he heard during the English quartet's rehearsal sessions, and made his disdain clear by throwing a missile at them.
He tells Australia's Brag magazine, "We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. "I said, 'Shut them c**ts up', and they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The band said, 'That's the Sons of Mumford (sic) or something, they're number five in the charts!
- 10/21/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Mark E. Smith has insulted Mumford & Sons and claimed to have thrown a bottle at them while they were rehearsing. According toThe Quietus, The Fall's frontman told Australian magazine The Brag that the 'Winter Winds' group had disturbed him when they were at a festival in Dublin. Smith said: "There was this other group like, warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. (more)...
- 10/20/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
With Your Future Our Clutter, Mark E. Smith’s rough beast slouches into its fourth decade of existence, and its second of managed expectations; fortunately, the band is in one of its ever-cyclical upswings, bolstered by what Smith has referred to as “the best lineup I’ve ever had”—and while a characteristically ungrateful slight against all the great Fall permutations he’s sacked, it’s also a fair appraisal of this season’s squad. Its ferocious, streamlined amalgam of the Fall formula—titanic fuzz-bass lines, wracked garage-rock riffs, ham-fisted electronics—occasionally even hearkens back to the band’s ...
- 5/4/2010
- avclub.com
Tonight, animated all-stars Gorillaz will take the stage at London's legendary Roundhouse, and you can watch it all right here, as it happens (ain't technology wonderful?)
Yes, MTV.com is live-streaming the show, which means you can have a front-row seat even if you're sitting in front of your computer in your underwear. The 'Rillaz will be performing tracks off their brand-new Plastic Beach album, and who knows, maybe they'll even bring out a special guest or two (the album features the likes of Snoop Dogg, Mos Def and Mark E. Smith, amongst others.)
But why are you busy reading this? Check out the sold-out show, right now, all the way live from London!
Yes, MTV.com is live-streaming the show, which means you can have a front-row seat even if you're sitting in front of your computer in your underwear. The 'Rillaz will be performing tracks off their brand-new Plastic Beach album, and who knows, maybe they'll even bring out a special guest or two (the album features the likes of Snoop Dogg, Mos Def and Mark E. Smith, amongst others.)
But why are you busy reading this? Check out the sold-out show, right now, all the way live from London!
- 4/30/2010
- by MTV News
- MTV Newsroom
Here's a little of what you can expect from the latest offering from Damon Albarn and crew.
By James Montgomery
Gorillaz
Photo: Emi Music / Jamie Hewlett
Much like Lazarus, Superman and, uh, Sayid from "Lost," Gorillaz are back from the dead with their first new album in nearly five years, a post-apocalyptic parable called Plastic Beach.
Of course, not everyone in the band bit the bullet at the end of the promotional cycle for their last album, 2005's massive Demon Days — just guitarist Noodle, who perished at the conclusion of the band's "El Mañana" video (she's since returned in cyborg form), but there was a definite sense that things were winding down in 'Rillaz land, with co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett even telling MTV News that the group was "retiring ... we're going to do it hip-hop style, like Jay-z."
But, much like Jigga, that retirement didn't stick, and the...
By James Montgomery
Gorillaz
Photo: Emi Music / Jamie Hewlett
Much like Lazarus, Superman and, uh, Sayid from "Lost," Gorillaz are back from the dead with their first new album in nearly five years, a post-apocalyptic parable called Plastic Beach.
Of course, not everyone in the band bit the bullet at the end of the promotional cycle for their last album, 2005's massive Demon Days — just guitarist Noodle, who perished at the conclusion of the band's "El Mañana" video (she's since returned in cyborg form), but there was a definite sense that things were winding down in 'Rillaz land, with co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett even telling MTV News that the group was "retiring ... we're going to do it hip-hop style, like Jay-z."
But, much like Jigga, that retirement didn't stick, and the...
- 3/9/2010
- MTV Music News
Here's a little of what you can expect from the latest offering from Damon Albarn and crew.
By James Montgomery
Gorillaz
Photo: Emi Music / Jamie Hewlett
Much like Lazarus, Superman and, uh, Sayid from "Lost," Gorillaz are back from the dead with their first new album in nearly five years, a post-apocalyptic parable called Plastic Beach.
Of course, not everyone in the band bit the bullet at the end of the promotional cycle for their last album, 2005's massive Demon Days — just guitarist Noodle, who perished at the conclusion of the band's "El Mañana" video (she's since returned in cyborg form), but there was a definite sense that things were winding down in 'Rillaz land, with co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett even telling MTV News that the group was "retiring ... we're going to do it hip-hop style, like Jay-z."
But, much like Jigga, that retirement didn't stick, and the...
By James Montgomery
Gorillaz
Photo: Emi Music / Jamie Hewlett
Much like Lazarus, Superman and, uh, Sayid from "Lost," Gorillaz are back from the dead with their first new album in nearly five years, a post-apocalyptic parable called Plastic Beach.
Of course, not everyone in the band bit the bullet at the end of the promotional cycle for their last album, 2005's massive Demon Days — just guitarist Noodle, who perished at the conclusion of the band's "El Mañana" video (she's since returned in cyborg form), but there was a definite sense that things were winding down in 'Rillaz land, with co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett even telling MTV News that the group was "retiring ... we're going to do it hip-hop style, like Jay-z."
But, much like Jigga, that retirement didn't stick, and the...
- 3/9/2010
- MTV Music News
As much as first albums can capture bands in their purest form, debuts can also find them over-emulating influences, regurgitating what inspired them instead of building upon it. That was the knock against British band These New Puritans, whose 2008 debut, Beat Pyramid, had difficulty escaping the long shadow cast by Mark E. Smith of The Fall. Two years later, Hidden still bears that influence, but These New Puritans have moved into territory more easily called their own. Although the album opens with the subdued melodies of a woodwind ensemble (the instrumental “Time Xone”), the seven-minute follow-up, “We Want War ...
- 3/9/2010
- avclub.com
New album proves that the cartoon band is also an actual band, in Bigger Than the Sound.
By James Montgomery
Gorillaz
Photo: Emi Music / Jamie Hewlett
In 1998, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett cooked up Gorillaz as a knee-jerk reaction to the chiseled boy bands and mawkish mook-rock acts that paraded across the airwaves of MTV. The idea, it would seem, was to create a group that matched the substance of the 'NSYNCs and the Creeds of the world — the joke being, of course, that unlike Justin Timberlake or Scott Stapp, the Gorillaz were actual cartoons.
It was a pretty brilliant concept, but the thing is, it worked, perhaps even too well. Somewhere along the way — whether Albarn and Hewlett liked it or not — Gorillaz became a genuine phenomenon, with hit singles and multiplatinum albums and actual performances, including a sold-out stint at the Apollo Theater and a Grammy duet with Madonna.
By James Montgomery
Gorillaz
Photo: Emi Music / Jamie Hewlett
In 1998, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett cooked up Gorillaz as a knee-jerk reaction to the chiseled boy bands and mawkish mook-rock acts that paraded across the airwaves of MTV. The idea, it would seem, was to create a group that matched the substance of the 'NSYNCs and the Creeds of the world — the joke being, of course, that unlike Justin Timberlake or Scott Stapp, the Gorillaz were actual cartoons.
It was a pretty brilliant concept, but the thing is, it worked, perhaps even too well. Somewhere along the way — whether Albarn and Hewlett liked it or not — Gorillaz became a genuine phenomenon, with hit singles and multiplatinum albums and actual performances, including a sold-out stint at the Apollo Theater and a Grammy duet with Madonna.
- 3/3/2010
- MTV Music News
New Order bassist Peter Hook has branded Morrissey a "tw*t", declaring that he never liked The Smiths. The 53-year-old was speaking at a Q&A session in Bristol at the weekend, where he was promoting his book How Not To Run A Club. "There's no way I could have liked The Smiths as they were our competition. Morrissey's a tw*t anyway. He makes Mark E. Smith look popular! He really does," NME quotes him (more)...
- 10/13/2009
- by By Oli Simpson
- Digital Spy
Mark E. Smith performed from a wheelchair at a London concert last night before finishing the gig in his dressing room. The lead singer of The Fall was recovering from a broken hip and played most of the performance while sitting in his wheelchair, NME reports. Smith finished the gig in his dressing room, from where he sang the final three songs. The frontman altered the (more)...
- 4/2/2009
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
The Smiths and Oasis will feature in a new book about Manchester music by journalist John Robb. Robb's book charts 30 years of music from the Northern city and includes contributions from Morrissey, Ian Brown, the Gallagher brothers, Mark E. Smith, Shaun Ryder and the late Tony Wilson. It will cover Manchester's punk scene, the early '90s Madchester movement and present day acts. "I've spoken to (more)...
- 3/30/2009
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.