April 03, 1999
K-RAP
-- The Little Man From Another Place,
TWIN PEAKS
Ummm, yes. Fine. But was our favourite little man talking about Heaven or hell.
I remember a few years ago, SUEDE's Brett Anderson quickly remarked how sometimes he would stop, in awe, that there was actually a medium out there like radio. That it is undeniably amazing that one could simply click a little knob inside a car or push a button on some box in your home and...golly, music would come out. You had the power, you had the control, and it was all well and wondrous. Which might be stretching it. But come on. Really. Don't you think radio is indeed a piece of magic that makes even die-hard technophobes feel just a little bit better? I mean, music exists out there even if one chooses not to listen to it and this is actually (when you stop to think about it) a comforting fact. After all, sounds are constantly being bounced around and transmitted up and down the world and you can only hear it if you -- yes -- turn them on. Music, literally, is floating in the air.
March 23, 1999
Radiohead's Meeting People Is Easy in LA
Radiohead's documentary, "Meeting People Is Easy", premiered last night in Los Angeles and will be playing again this weekend. You can catch it at midnight at the Sunset 5 on Friday and Saturday.
March 23, 1999
Interesting Auction
There's an interesting auction going on this week at Interactive Collector (http://www.icollector.com) It's called HITS UNDER THE HAMMER, and it's a charity auction of autographed/hand-written lyrics to benefit the Nordoff-Robbins Trust. Among the auctioned items, which are available for bids online, are the original working lyric sheets of "Wake Up Boo!", a lawn chair with the lyrics of "Sit Down" scrawled across it by Tim Booth, as well as lyric sheets from Supergrass, The Cure, and many others.
March 21, 1999
Better Living Through Columnstry
Columns are shit. Egotistical, self-important, dull-as-dirt shit. If reviews of music are a rather sly pseudo-objective plea of, "Look at me!" columns are a clumsy, ham-fisted plea of, "Look at me look at me!" Pathetic. Just pathetic.
As if there aren't enough columns in the world anyway. The sheer glut of people spouting off utter inane nonsense has reached new limits in this day and age of maddening, insecure babble and "How do I spell 'potato'?" cro-magnon illiteracy. The level of written noise has reached new decibels. Everybody from Larry King to Meg Matthews...for the benefit of the clean ears of every man, woman, and child, please, please -- just please -- shut the hell up.
March 17, 1999
SFA Updates
Just as the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS are beginning to promote their second album ("Radiator") in the States, there's already word of a third. Creation is confirming today that the brand new Super Furries single, "Northern Lites," will be released in the UK on May 10. No word yet from Flydaddy on a tentative US release. Be sure to catch the Super Furries on tour in the States (frequently with the OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL, which is a bit of a double bonus.) See our TOURS page for details.
March 15, 1999
The Ides Have It
Ah, the Ides of March. What the hell IS an ide, anyways? I need to become a more literary person. (sigh... teach ME to listen to Ride all day when I damn well SHOULD have my nose in a book... ah well.)
Anyway, it's March. Which means... finally... that we're going to see some decent releases pop up ('allo Blur, 'allo Olivia Tremor Control, 'allo Underworld.) These past two months have, as per usual, been all but unbearable in terms of new music. I understand the fact that after the Christmas season, there's bound to be a bit of a lull in terms of new releases -- if you've got an album in the can, then by all means you should try to release it at the holidays, not directly afterwards. But should this lull last two full months? This gets ridiculous.
But enough of me whining -- my friends have already heard it, and I'm not up for recycling it to you once again. What I've got on the agenda this month is a bit of a different matter. I'm about to try and sort out some GOOD that may come out of this recent lull.
March 12, 1999
Kula Shaker Postone Tour
The Chicago date for KULA SHAKER has been officially postponed. No word yet on whether the San Francisco date of April 21st is on hold as well.
March 11, 1999
Those Good Ol' Stone Roses Reunion Rumors
Ooh.. crank up the rumour mill, 'cause we need to talk about the STONE ROSES. The lives of these four musicians have turned into quite a soap opera of late. Here's what we know thus far:
Two weeks ago, former Roses bassist MANI (currently of PRIMAL SCREAM) spends a few days on the road with a Roses cover band as their touring DJ. Talking to fans at the shows, Mani mentions that the Seahorses are splitting and hints around to a future project involving some, if not all, of the original 4 members of the Roses.
March 08, 1999
Kent Interview
Excellent Online caught up with Harri from Kent towards the beginning of their U.S. tour with The Cardigans.
Interview by Stuart Forrest Reid
March 07, 1999
Ben Folds Five and Beta Band Release Updates
More news on the upcoming releases front: BEN FOLDS FIVE are set to release their new album, "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" in the states on April 27. The first single, "Army" will hit radio a couple weeks before that. We've got Ben Folds Five tour dates for April up in Tours. Also, the first proper album from THE BETA BAND is said to be nearly complete. Clocking in at just under two hours, the album is likely to come out in a double-disc format sometime later this year.
