Happy 25th Birthday Immigrant.

 

Of Gene Loves Jezebel's second album, Ned Raggett has this to say: 

(Jay and Michael Aston) had the advantage of both a stabilizing band lineup (Rizzo had joined on bass) and one of the best producers around, John Leckie. The English mastermind's sharp ear for bringing bands up to newer levels proved the case here, slightly streamlining the wild sound of Promise while sacrificing none of Gene Loves Jezebel's edgy weirdness. 

The Astons themselves whipped up a series of more focused rockers, letting the hooks show through a bit more strongly. The opening "Always a Flame" conclusively demonstrates how well the new combination worked. Buried drums, echoed guitar, and soft cries suddenly transform into a blasting romance number; the rhythm section work easily rivals that of any other early-'80s post-punkers, while the almost mandolin-like arrangement on the chorus is a lovely touch. 

Add in the Astons' passionate lyrics to a missing love and the glammy rush of the song, and Immigrant is off and running. Like Promise, variety is part of the album's appeal, ranging from the slow punch and chanting of "Stephen" to the giddy blasts of "Worth Waiting For" (with an intentionally hilarious spoken word break in the middle) and "Cow," Immigrant's underrated highlight. 

Photo: The Waist High Collection

Happy 25th Birthday "Say It Again."

 

The Danse Society began in 1979 as Y, who then became Danse Crazy in 1981. The band were on the bill in 1980 for the second of the Futurama Music Festivals, a series of weekend-long rock shows held several years in a row at Queens Hall in Leeds. The Futurama Two Festival was filmed by the BBC and Danse Crazy can be seen playing a song called "Sink," and are credited as "The Danse Society." 

Other bands that played the Futurama Festivals were Joy Division, OMD, Cabaret Voltaire, Public Image Limited, Soft Cell, and A Certain Ratio. 

The Danse Society signed to Arista Records in 1983 and the little known Waist High favorite "Say It Again" was released in July 1985. 

Photo: The Waist High Collection

Vince Clarke And The Temple Of Synth.

 

For an episode of Electric Independence Motherboard.TV visits Vince Clarke in the woods of Maine where he constructed a cabin for his vast collection of machines, including some that he used during his time with Depeche Mode. 

"Vince Clarke is a man synonymous with synth pop and a legend in the history of electronic music. He's famous for founding three of the most popular and lasting musical acts in history: Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure. But his distinct sonic output depends upon another feat: he has spent the last 30 years amassing one of the world's most impressive collections of rare, 'holy grail' analogue synthesizers." 

To Clarke, music is still magic even now, an alchemy in which he gets to make "something from nothing." 

Photo: Motherboard.TV

Beck To Cover INXS's Kick.

 

The fourth release from Beck's Record Club is to be an album-length cover of INXS's greatest hits album Kick. 

Kick, released in October 1987, went to #1 in Australia and is INXS's best selling album. Four singles from Kick made it into the US singles chart: "New Sensation," "Never Tear Us Apart," "Devil Inside," and "Need You Tonight." 

From fasterlouder.com: Beck's Record Club is an informal meeting of musical mates who get together to lark about and record an album in a day. 

At his official Record Club site, Beck proudly proclaims that "nothing is rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. There is no intention to 'add to' the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens." 

So far he has enlisted Feist, Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Nigel Godrich, Giovanni Ribisi, Jamie Lidell and members of Wilco to perform Record Club tributes to Skip Spence’s Oar, The Velvet Underground & Nico and Songs Of Leonard Cohen. 

For the INXS record Beck has recruited St. Vincent, Liars and reunited Brazilian Tropicália group Os Mutantes to help out. 

Photo: fasterlouder.com

The Face - The Very Best Of Visage.

 

Celebrating 30 years since the release of Visage's most successful song, the Waist High favorite "Fade To Grey," The Face - The Very Best of Visage is now available in the UK and will be available in the US March 30 from Universal. 

Visage, one of "pop's great vanity projects," evolved from the London clubs Billy's and the Blitz and are widely considered to be the pioneers of the New Romantic movement. 

Tracklist for The Face - The Very Best of Visage 

1."Fade to Grey" (Michael Gray remix 2009) 

2."Mind of a Toy" (12" version) 

3."We Move" (remix) 

4."Tar" 

5."Fade to Grey" 

6."In the Year 2525" 

7."The Anvil" 

8."Night Train" (Edited LP Mix) 

9."The Damned Don't Cry" (LP Mix) 

10."Love Glove" (7" single version) 

11."Pleasure Boys" 

12."Visage" (12" version) 

13."Fade to Grey" (12" version) 

14."Der Amboss" (German language version of "The Anvil") 

15."Fade to Grey" (Lee Mortimer remix 2009) 

Quote: The Quietus

Peter Hook To Honor Ian Curtis.

 

With the upcoming 30 year anniversary of the passing of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis on May 18, former bandmate Peter Hook has organized a special concert to honor the icon. 

From the Macclesfield Express: A showcase of tracks by Joy Division and New Order, the hugely exciting show will include a never-released song, penned by Macclesfield-born Curtis. Former Joy Division and New Order bassist Hooky says he's planning to remember the 30th anniversary of Curtis's death with a Joy Division set, including the recently finished track "Pictures," at his new club FAC251 

Peter said: "Everyone's talking about what they're going to do and I think I'm going to be playing some Joy Division songs to celebrate Ian's life on May 18. I mean, we're never going to do it together again, but it just seems right. Especially to do it at the Factory, there's a definite need to celebrate one of the most momentous days of your life." 

Hooky first performed "Pictures" at the launch of the Factory club with a group of musicians playing as The Light. 

He says: "Some kid brought 'Pictures' to my attention on a tape as a little snippet of a jam with Ian Curtis. I was playing on it but it was unfinished. Ian always used to say that once you start a song you should finish it, that really stuck with me and I didn't know how this one fell through the net. We finished 'Pictures' and it was a real joy to play because you were playing the old stuff but at the same time, we'd discovered something totally new. I don't normally sing so it was a bit weird at first." 

Joy Division ended in 1980 following the suicide of their iconic singer, but the three remaining members continued on as New Order until a messy split in 2007. 

Hooky has gone on to a new musical project, Freebass, with ex-Stone Roses star Mani - and last month launched new nightclub The Factory on the site of the former Factory Records offices on Princess Street. 

He says the club has been jam-packed since it opened last month - and he puts the success down to timeless tracks that sing to the new generation. 

He said: "For all us old timers it's nice to bring a bit of our music back. The club's been full since it opened and in a weird way it's like the younger generation have been waiting for it, but it's something we never expected. I did some Joy Division stuff and the young kids were saying how great it was - people our age like me and Mani shouldn't be appealing to young kids but great music is timeless." 

Photo: Martin O'Neill/Retna Pictures via nytimes.com

Happy 25th Birthday Songs From The Big Chair.

 

The second album from Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair went to #1 in the US in July 1985 where it stayed for five weeks. The album also went to #1 in Canada and #2 in the UK and remains Tears For Fears' highest selling album; reaching quadruple-platinum status. 

"The album title was taken from the 1976 television film Sybil, which is about a woman with multiple personality disorder who only feels safe when she is sitting in the 'big chair' of her analyst." 

Five singles were released from Songs from the Big Chair: "Shout," "Mothers Talk," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," "Head Over Heels," and "I Believe" (UK only). "Shout" went to #1 on the US singles chart, as did "Everybody Wants to Rule The World." 

Roland Orzabal would receive an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Songwriter of the Year at the 31st Annual Ivor Novello Awards in 1986 in the wake of the success of Songs from the Big Chair. 

Quote: tearsforfears.net

PiL's U.S. Tour Will Fund New Album.

 

From Slicing Up Eyeballs: Punk icon John Lydon hopes to use the proceeds from Public Image Ltd.'s upcoming U.S. tour to fund the recording of the reconstituted band's first new album since 1992's That What Is Not, the singer tells billboard.com. 

New PiL sessions likely "will come at the end of this. That's definitely my intention," Lydon says, referring to the reunion that began with a spate of U.K. shows last December and continues with North American concerts beginning with the band's April 16 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. 

"The only way we can make money is the touring, and then we can make a new album," Lydon says. "It’s sort of like the old days of PiL, when the Pistols went kaput; I had to scrimp and scrape out of my own pocket. Not much has changed." 

Lydon says the new album likely will be recorded in the U.S., and possibly at his new home studio in Los Angeles. The frontman, however, says PiL won’t try out any new songs during its upcoming tour. 

PiL is currently John Lydon, Lu Edmonds, Bruce Smith, and Scott Firth. 

Photo: billboard.com

Happy 25th Birthday Low-Life.

After watching Anton Corbijn's absolutely stunning Control three times over the weekend, the staff at Waist High thought it fitting to mention that it will be 25 years ago in May that Factory Records released New Order's third album Low-Life (FAC 100), the only New Order album to feature members of the band on its cover and the first to be accompanied by singles that were actually taken from an album.

Low-Life was preceded by the release of an 8:46 version of "The Perfect Kiss," (the 4:48 version appears on the album) and a remix of "Sub-culture" was released as a 12" single in November.

Five years after the death of Ian Curtis ended the band's former life as Joy Division (with the addition of Gillian Gilbert on keyboards), New Order broke into the mainstream with Low-Life, and to this writer's ear it was the first set of recordings that were not overshadowed by that atmospheric spaciousness that is so closely associated with producer Martin Hannett. This was a new sound.

Low-Life was ranked #97 by Q magazine in 2000 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever, and is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back Now Available.

 

For his first studio album since 2002's Up, Peter Gabriel has covered some of his favorite artists in what he has described as the first installment of a very personal, "grown-up record," an album recorded only with orchestral instruments and voice. 

It is titled Scratch My Back because when he picked a song, he also asked the "songwriter to record a Gabriel song in turn. The original plan was to release two albums in tandem. The songwriters agreed - except for David Bowie, whose collaborator on 'Heroes,' Brian Eno, will participate - but the deadlines came and went. 'We may not get everybody, but I hope we will.'" 

Rather than make a "traditional covers record, I thought it would be much more fun to create a new type of project in which artists communicated with each other and swapped a song for a song, i.e. you do one of mine and I'll do one of yours, hence the titles - Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours. Although, at first, I hoped to have the companion record out at the same time, it became clear it would take a while longer pulling in the second record with all the other artists. This will come later." 

Scratch My Back tracklisting: 

1. "Heroes" (David Bowie) 

2. "The Boy in the Bubble" (Paul Simon) 

3. "Mirrorball" (Elbow) 

4. "Flume" (Bon Iver) 

5. "Listening Wind" (Talking Heads) 

6. "The Power of the Heart" (Lou Reed) 

7. "My Body Is a Cage" (Arcade Fire) 

8. "The Book of Love" (The Magnetic Fields) 

9. "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (Randy Newman) 

10. "Après moi" (Regina Spektor) 

11. "Philadelphia" (Neil Young) 

12. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (Radiohead) 

Quotes: nytimes.com & petergabriel.com

INXS To Release A Covers Album.

 

From rollingstone.com: For their first album in five years, INXS are "reimagining" their classic hits with different arrangements and singers, including Ben Harper, Rob Thomas and the Killers' Brandon Flowers. The still-untitled release is slated for the fall. 

"'Original Sin' with Rob Thomas almost has a Cuban connection with some Spanish rap in it. That was really exciting," drummer Jon Farris tells Rolling Stone, adding that Thomas also recorded a version of "Never Tear Us Apart." He says many backing tracks were laid down in London with most of the London Symphony Orchestra, "So that is really rich and juicy and almost has a James Bond-y sort of rhythm bed along with that. So it was the juxtaposition of the classic and Sixties' secret agent." 

Brandon Flowers did a really beautiful, heart-wrenching rendition of "Beautiful Girl" when the Killers were in Australia for V-Fest. Ben Harper sang "Devil Inside" when INXS were in L.A. before Christmas. Nikka Costa and Tricky have also "been involved," although Farriss won't say on which tracks. He is also trying to prepare a song for Argentina’s Deborah de Corral so she can sing one in Spanish and English. 

While INXS will record another original studio album in the future, this new one - on their manager Chris Murphy's Petrol Records is "a transitional step," says Farriss. "We wanted to use to some of our existing songs and invite and integrate some well-known singers and very experienced and seasoned singers, friends of ours, and some up-and-coming artists, and just make it a collaboration of getting INXS to be involved in all sorts of things - and using the original material as the focal point." 

INXS formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 and are currently Garry Gary Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Tim Farriss, and Kirk Pengilly. 

Photo: The Entertainment Magazine