G’day folks! Howling Bells have succeeded in expanding their range of melancholy graininess into a forte of songwriting which is both formidable and peculiar. Radio Wars showcases some of the old genius from their self-titled debut album, yet also imbeds new and unexplored shades of beautiful darkness into their style. The first album was certainly not a one-off then.
Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Juanita Stein’s sumptuous and wistful voice is like melting chocolate throughout Radio Wars. Gee, I could listen to her voice for hours. However, it is that voice bookended with clever lyrics and unexpected guitar hooks that makes this album so listener friendly, maybe more so than their first album. It may be slightly less intense and more diluted, but I have a feeling this will draw more listeners, hmm. The masses need pleasing folks, and Howling Bells are pulling out all the stops to do just that.
The spectrum of Australian rock is growing ever wider with the psychedelic timewarp that is Tame Impala on the west coast and Howling Bells on the east. It’s all positive stuff - along with many other bands coming out of the woodwork on the far side of the world, it’s like a pleasant burst of hot air in the face to see a resurgence of good guitar-based rock bands coming into the fray from anywhere other than the UK and USA.
So, Howling Bells have still got the attitude and the songs. They paint their music on a technicolour canvass of love and loss and create a dreamlike outback landscape that you can lose yourself in for fifty minutes. They are possibly the best thing to come out of Australia since Nicole Kidman. Nice work!
Friday 27 February 2009
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Hot Leg - Red Light Fever review & interview with Justin Hawkins
Never judge a book by its cover, for falsetto-voiced-boy-wonder Justin Hawkins has created something very much like his previous stadium-filling band The Darkness, only better. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Hot Leg. I thought I told you never to judge a book by its cover?
Spandex leotards have been demoted in favour of attire that would be more at home on Centre Court in W1, and Hot Leg has certainly served up a few aces here. And yes, I am being serious!
Hot Leg’s debut album Red Light Fever - released 9th February - is a return to rock god form with classic blues rock licks stimulating your musical clitoris mercilessly throughout.
Hawkins’ larynx has been rested over the last year or two, but it gets a good workout throughout the album. His impeccable high-pitched wails intertwine with trademark over-the-top guitar solos like never before, and from the first listen it certainly does sound like a return to form. Debut single I’ve Met Jesus is a scorcher of a song, but will Hot Leg always be compared to The Darkness? I recently caught up with Justin to ask him just that, and his response was positive:
‘We have just started in this band so the only thing people have to compare us to are The Darkness,’ he said. ‘However we are our own animal and I think eventually the comparisons will stop.
‘We have more drive and more focus, and the songs are more channelled to the ‘Man Rock’ vibe we’re giving out. I think we are better all round. I really do.’
Man Rock vibe? Red Light Fever is set to take spring by storm and if they live up to the hype and the songs, it will be game, set and match. 7 /10
Spandex leotards have been demoted in favour of attire that would be more at home on Centre Court in W1, and Hot Leg has certainly served up a few aces here. And yes, I am being serious!
Hot Leg’s debut album Red Light Fever - released 9th February - is a return to rock god form with classic blues rock licks stimulating your musical clitoris mercilessly throughout.
Hawkins’ larynx has been rested over the last year or two, but it gets a good workout throughout the album. His impeccable high-pitched wails intertwine with trademark over-the-top guitar solos like never before, and from the first listen it certainly does sound like a return to form. Debut single I’ve Met Jesus is a scorcher of a song, but will Hot Leg always be compared to The Darkness? I recently caught up with Justin to ask him just that, and his response was positive:
‘We have just started in this band so the only thing people have to compare us to are The Darkness,’ he said. ‘However we are our own animal and I think eventually the comparisons will stop.
‘We have more drive and more focus, and the songs are more channelled to the ‘Man Rock’ vibe we’re giving out. I think we are better all round. I really do.’
Man Rock vibe? Red Light Fever is set to take spring by storm and if they live up to the hype and the songs, it will be game, set and match. 7 /10
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
Ah, I remember my pill-popping days of old; raving into the night at Homelands and Creamfields with my chin sticking out a metre in front of me, dancing into a sweaty, frothy frenzy and telling everyone profound, chemical-induced thoughts on life and activism. I loved every minute of it. I have been taken back there over the last couple of days. The Prodigy’s new album Invaders Must Die is responsible.
This is simply vintage stuff. The Prodigy have made a welcome return to the 90s pill-popping rave scene and chucked a few genre-splitting riffs into the melting pot for good measure. They may have been at their peak of fame when The Fat of the Land was released, but they are on the crest of something far bigger here; something that mixes the current urban punk culture with a burning spark of the old skool rave generation. The two collide and make a black hole. That black hole is this record. People with Isle of Wight Festival tickets are in for a treat!
Liam Howlett describes the opening title track Invaders Must Die: ‘The first tune on any Prodigy album has to be got to be something that just tears and smacks you round the head really. Spitfire was like that on the last album, Smack My Bitch Up on the one before. This does it in a different way. It’s a very abrasive sounding electronic track, kind of different to anything we’ve done before.
‘I wrote the riff about a year ago on my laptop when I was on a plane. It sounds like the kind of thing I would have written in 1992, it sort of has that rave melodic feel with a tearing track underneath. I had the track 80% there and hooked up with James from Does it Offend You Yeah and he pulled a few sounds out of the bag and helped put it together. It’s one of my favourite tunes on the album.’
Yes, the rumours are true; Dave Grohl features on the track Run With the Wolves, but until now very few people know how such an unlikely relationship was formed:
Keith: ‘It all started with an email to Liam saying ‘Listen man, I’ve finished touring and I’m bang up for doing something. Liam said he was just finishing the album but Dave said listen, I’m just going to go in the studio and put down some drums, which he did. A hard drive arrived at our studio and out of that came the process of writing this. We had the vocal on another track already but they just weren’t working. They had too much venom for the track. But we still enjoyed the excitement of it and what it was saying and this was the ideal opportunity to make it work. Liam re-did the track, then we re-did the vocals and we sent it over to Dave who was like ‘Yeah I was really hoping it was going to be something like this.’ He was really excited and worked some more on it.’
Liam: ‘I think you were angry the day you wrote this weren’t you?’
Keith: ‘Yeah I was’
Liam: ‘Yeah it was definitely written about a certain someone, we don’t know who it is but Keith does.’
Maxim: ‘Was it about me?’
Liam: ‘Nah, don’t get para. Hah, when I listen to this tune I just want to smash my head against the wall. It kind of like when the riff drops in its, just violent you know?’
Some of the tracks on Invaders are less aggressive and even verge on the anthemic; Omen is the melodic, lovechild of Breathe from TFOTL. With a classic vocal hook, this track is somewhat less intimidating than the sinister sister track Omen Reprise which is,according to Liam, ‘An orchestrated version of Omen but it really reminds me of the music from Scarface. It’s got this 80s Vangelis sound.’ And ‘like a dark Bladerunner’ according to Keith.
It’s great to see these guys back on form and hungry to start the machine again, and they certainly have a few tricks up their sleeve to keep you on the ropes for the duration.
Piranha is a personal favourite. With its 60s garage-meshed-with-old-skool-rave vibe, its urban punk at its absolute best, and Liam likes it too. ‘Piranha is a metaphor for something living off of you, you know, chewing off you. That was the concept of the track. We wanted to have 1960s B-movies vibe to it.’
Maxim made a big move forward with his vocals on this track, ‘For me it was a chance to do different vocal ideas rather than the monotone rap. I tried injected more melody into the vocals. This track, like the rest of my vocals on the album is a real step up for me.’
Already fan favourites, World’s on Fire and final track Stand Up prove this album is not front-heavy. These tracks have a quality that is reminiscent of previous albums, yet they carry a sheen of new hooks and synthetic riffs that bring them to the forefront of where The Prodigy are now; on top of their game. Liam explains: ‘This is the real wild card on the album. I think people will go ‘is that the Prodigy or isn’t it?’ but its got this real victorious feel. It’s a tune I really love and it’s like being wrapped up in a warm blanket before you fuck off home.’
Someone asked me recently if the record sounded big. It’s fucking colossal!! Its like an interstellar war between punk rock, rave, drum’n'bass and breakcore. These electropunk beats batter your skull and shudder through your spine until you are begging to be let go, only to be left with a tremor for days. The Prodigy’s knack for a thousand yard stare will have droves of gurners travelling the miles just to catch a glimpse of a punk band back to their best. They have successfully given the media and mass pop culture a big crooked middle finger. As Liam describes the album title, its clear to see that The Prodigy aren’t quite ready to make their final stand just yet…
‘People were starting to infiltrate our unit, starting to bleed into what we were and we needed to re-establish ourselves as a unit. I can’t remember whether it was Keith or Maxim that said it, but one of them went, ‘fuck it, invaders must die!’. I was like that’s the album title right there. It stayed with us. It’s about protecting what’s yours.’
Well, they have certainly done that. The only way to describe Invaders is contorted electronic genius. The g-word word gets thrown around willy-nilly these days, but I’ll be frank; this album takes you to the edge of an oily, metallic, cliff of bones and sinew, holds you over by your ankle and lets go with a big grin on its face. It absolutely murders your senses and hits you hard right in the keister. It’s a head-shaking mesh of destruction and flag-waving madness.
Phew, I’m glad that part is over, but for all you future listeners and ex-ravers, the writing is most certainly on the wall.
This is simply vintage stuff. The Prodigy have made a welcome return to the 90s pill-popping rave scene and chucked a few genre-splitting riffs into the melting pot for good measure. They may have been at their peak of fame when The Fat of the Land was released, but they are on the crest of something far bigger here; something that mixes the current urban punk culture with a burning spark of the old skool rave generation. The two collide and make a black hole. That black hole is this record. People with Isle of Wight Festival tickets are in for a treat!
Liam Howlett describes the opening title track Invaders Must Die: ‘The first tune on any Prodigy album has to be got to be something that just tears and smacks you round the head really. Spitfire was like that on the last album, Smack My Bitch Up on the one before. This does it in a different way. It’s a very abrasive sounding electronic track, kind of different to anything we’ve done before.
‘I wrote the riff about a year ago on my laptop when I was on a plane. It sounds like the kind of thing I would have written in 1992, it sort of has that rave melodic feel with a tearing track underneath. I had the track 80% there and hooked up with James from Does it Offend You Yeah and he pulled a few sounds out of the bag and helped put it together. It’s one of my favourite tunes on the album.’
Yes, the rumours are true; Dave Grohl features on the track Run With the Wolves, but until now very few people know how such an unlikely relationship was formed:
Keith: ‘It all started with an email to Liam saying ‘Listen man, I’ve finished touring and I’m bang up for doing something. Liam said he was just finishing the album but Dave said listen, I’m just going to go in the studio and put down some drums, which he did. A hard drive arrived at our studio and out of that came the process of writing this. We had the vocal on another track already but they just weren’t working. They had too much venom for the track. But we still enjoyed the excitement of it and what it was saying and this was the ideal opportunity to make it work. Liam re-did the track, then we re-did the vocals and we sent it over to Dave who was like ‘Yeah I was really hoping it was going to be something like this.’ He was really excited and worked some more on it.’
Liam: ‘I think you were angry the day you wrote this weren’t you?’
Keith: ‘Yeah I was’
Liam: ‘Yeah it was definitely written about a certain someone, we don’t know who it is but Keith does.’
Maxim: ‘Was it about me?’
Liam: ‘Nah, don’t get para. Hah, when I listen to this tune I just want to smash my head against the wall. It kind of like when the riff drops in its, just violent you know?’
Some of the tracks on Invaders are less aggressive and even verge on the anthemic; Omen is the melodic, lovechild of Breathe from TFOTL. With a classic vocal hook, this track is somewhat less intimidating than the sinister sister track Omen Reprise which is,according to Liam, ‘An orchestrated version of Omen but it really reminds me of the music from Scarface. It’s got this 80s Vangelis sound.’ And ‘like a dark Bladerunner’ according to Keith.
It’s great to see these guys back on form and hungry to start the machine again, and they certainly have a few tricks up their sleeve to keep you on the ropes for the duration.
Piranha is a personal favourite. With its 60s garage-meshed-with-old-skool-rave vibe, its urban punk at its absolute best, and Liam likes it too. ‘Piranha is a metaphor for something living off of you, you know, chewing off you. That was the concept of the track. We wanted to have 1960s B-movies vibe to it.’
Maxim made a big move forward with his vocals on this track, ‘For me it was a chance to do different vocal ideas rather than the monotone rap. I tried injected more melody into the vocals. This track, like the rest of my vocals on the album is a real step up for me.’
Already fan favourites, World’s on Fire and final track Stand Up prove this album is not front-heavy. These tracks have a quality that is reminiscent of previous albums, yet they carry a sheen of new hooks and synthetic riffs that bring them to the forefront of where The Prodigy are now; on top of their game. Liam explains: ‘This is the real wild card on the album. I think people will go ‘is that the Prodigy or isn’t it?’ but its got this real victorious feel. It’s a tune I really love and it’s like being wrapped up in a warm blanket before you fuck off home.’
Someone asked me recently if the record sounded big. It’s fucking colossal!! Its like an interstellar war between punk rock, rave, drum’n'bass and breakcore. These electropunk beats batter your skull and shudder through your spine until you are begging to be let go, only to be left with a tremor for days. The Prodigy’s knack for a thousand yard stare will have droves of gurners travelling the miles just to catch a glimpse of a punk band back to their best. They have successfully given the media and mass pop culture a big crooked middle finger. As Liam describes the album title, its clear to see that The Prodigy aren’t quite ready to make their final stand just yet…
‘People were starting to infiltrate our unit, starting to bleed into what we were and we needed to re-establish ourselves as a unit. I can’t remember whether it was Keith or Maxim that said it, but one of them went, ‘fuck it, invaders must die!’. I was like that’s the album title right there. It stayed with us. It’s about protecting what’s yours.’
Well, they have certainly done that. The only way to describe Invaders is contorted electronic genius. The g-word word gets thrown around willy-nilly these days, but I’ll be frank; this album takes you to the edge of an oily, metallic, cliff of bones and sinew, holds you over by your ankle and lets go with a big grin on its face. It absolutely murders your senses and hits you hard right in the keister. It’s a head-shaking mesh of destruction and flag-waving madness.
Phew, I’m glad that part is over, but for all you future listeners and ex-ravers, the writing is most certainly on the wall.
Should 2009 be Glastonbury's 'Fallow Year' ?
What can we expect from this year’s Glastonbury Festival? It is almost a given that the heavens will open for at least two of the five days, Pete Doherty will turn up late and someone will fall into one of the many festering toilet pits, but I’m talking about the music, and to be more specific, the headliners.
In the midst of an even longer wait for 2009’s festival - and wanting to play the Gallagher brothers at their own game - Michael Eavis was quoted this week as saying ‘We’ve got four headliners at the moment. If they all confirm, then I’ve got two headliners for Saturday’. Ah, so he’s got TWO headliners this year then, interesting. A brand new feature for a festival that is quickly becoming out of fashion with ye olde faithful and in fashion with a new generation of multi-coloured-welly-donning youths.
I’m slightly concerned; is Eavis trying too hard to make Glastonbury Festival fashionable? I thought one of the main attributes of the festival was the fact that it stuck its proverbial middle finger in the establishments face and said a big fat NO to conformity?
Well, as much as it pains me to say it, I think its high time we all came to realise that Glastonbury Festival is now commercial. There… I’ve said it. Eavis (Michael and Emily) appear to have been trying to spruce up the whole Glastonbury experience over the last decade, and it’s a totally different festival to the one I first attended in 1999.
Yes, there are some positive signs of improvement to the experience as a whole:
1. People aren’t jumping the fence to gain access to the site anymore.2. The new ticket regime this year seems to be fairer than previous years, giving buyers more chance of being able to log onto a website that was previously harder than getting into a nun’s knickers.3. More and more donations are going to Greenpeace and Oxfam every year, so it’s fair to say that Eavis still gets top marks for his green message.
However, what’s all this ‘you wont know who is playing until you have bought a ticket’ nonsense? Michael please, give us a chance mate! Last year attendance was at an all time low because you wanted to look ‘cool’ and added Jay-Z to the Saturday slot when you could have drawn thousands more with Muse, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin to name a few world-class bands.
Is watching someone rap to a CD classed as a real Glastonbury experience? The majority of people said it was refreshing but I think in the backs of their minds they knew it was a slight letdown. Now I’m not saying Jay-Z isn’t a good artist, rather that he doesn’t belong at Glastonbury Festival just for the sake of having something different in front of our eyes. Are the days of booking the best acts in the world gone? Is there any thought going into booking these headlining slots?
Last year I had more fun watching bands on the Park Stage than I did on the Pyramid Stage. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think having ‘The Boss’ as a headline this year is the way to go. Landscape rock dinosaurs will draw the crowds for all the wrong reasons.
As I stand with the Fields of Avalon before me, I want to know that in one hand I have a slightly warm can of Carling, and in the other I have a festival programme that boasts the best acts on the planet. Reading/Leeds, V and Isle of Wight are nicking all the good acts now it seems; The Prodigy, Kasabian and Radiohead? What choice do we have at Glastonbury so far? Bruce Springsteen and Kanye West – do me a favour! We need acts to bring an excitement back to the Pyramid Stage. What Eavis has got to be careful of is having people watching the headline acts out of interest rather than love. It shouldn’t be such a gamble, should it?
With new plans to move the ‘fallow year’ back until 2012 to avoid the Olympic clash, it seems Eavis would be better off taking time out now to seriously rethink things. I hope I am proven wrong, but Eavis, you are too old to start trying to be cool now.
In the midst of an even longer wait for 2009’s festival - and wanting to play the Gallagher brothers at their own game - Michael Eavis was quoted this week as saying ‘We’ve got four headliners at the moment. If they all confirm, then I’ve got two headliners for Saturday’. Ah, so he’s got TWO headliners this year then, interesting. A brand new feature for a festival that is quickly becoming out of fashion with ye olde faithful and in fashion with a new generation of multi-coloured-welly-donning youths.
I’m slightly concerned; is Eavis trying too hard to make Glastonbury Festival fashionable? I thought one of the main attributes of the festival was the fact that it stuck its proverbial middle finger in the establishments face and said a big fat NO to conformity?
Well, as much as it pains me to say it, I think its high time we all came to realise that Glastonbury Festival is now commercial. There… I’ve said it. Eavis (Michael and Emily) appear to have been trying to spruce up the whole Glastonbury experience over the last decade, and it’s a totally different festival to the one I first attended in 1999.
Yes, there are some positive signs of improvement to the experience as a whole:
1. People aren’t jumping the fence to gain access to the site anymore.2. The new ticket regime this year seems to be fairer than previous years, giving buyers more chance of being able to log onto a website that was previously harder than getting into a nun’s knickers.3. More and more donations are going to Greenpeace and Oxfam every year, so it’s fair to say that Eavis still gets top marks for his green message.
However, what’s all this ‘you wont know who is playing until you have bought a ticket’ nonsense? Michael please, give us a chance mate! Last year attendance was at an all time low because you wanted to look ‘cool’ and added Jay-Z to the Saturday slot when you could have drawn thousands more with Muse, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin to name a few world-class bands.
Is watching someone rap to a CD classed as a real Glastonbury experience? The majority of people said it was refreshing but I think in the backs of their minds they knew it was a slight letdown. Now I’m not saying Jay-Z isn’t a good artist, rather that he doesn’t belong at Glastonbury Festival just for the sake of having something different in front of our eyes. Are the days of booking the best acts in the world gone? Is there any thought going into booking these headlining slots?
Last year I had more fun watching bands on the Park Stage than I did on the Pyramid Stage. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think having ‘The Boss’ as a headline this year is the way to go. Landscape rock dinosaurs will draw the crowds for all the wrong reasons.
As I stand with the Fields of Avalon before me, I want to know that in one hand I have a slightly warm can of Carling, and in the other I have a festival programme that boasts the best acts on the planet. Reading/Leeds, V and Isle of Wight are nicking all the good acts now it seems; The Prodigy, Kasabian and Radiohead? What choice do we have at Glastonbury so far? Bruce Springsteen and Kanye West – do me a favour! We need acts to bring an excitement back to the Pyramid Stage. What Eavis has got to be careful of is having people watching the headline acts out of interest rather than love. It shouldn’t be such a gamble, should it?
With new plans to move the ‘fallow year’ back until 2012 to avoid the Olympic clash, it seems Eavis would be better off taking time out now to seriously rethink things. I hope I am proven wrong, but Eavis, you are too old to start trying to be cool now.
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