My snap of Lee "Scratch" Perry is the Picture of the Week on Indie1031.com.
The photo was taken last Sunday (Aug 22nd) at Sunset Junction.
See photo gallery for more images from the event.
Recently in Music Category
"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can do to a person's psyche.
In 2008 he released Anthems For The Damned, which served both as a protest against the Iraq war and a tribute to a friend it had claimed. (Anti-war, but very much pro-troops, Patrick has traveled to the region twice to play concerts for those who risk their lives to serve our country.) Two years on, though our president may have changed, the status quo (or lack thereof) remains the same in the Middle East. After too many years listening to grim reports from the frontlines of a war that was misguided from the start, both the troops on the ground and the masses here at home are suffering from a severe case of fuck up fatigue. With dissent now largely falling on deaf ears, and, even worse, serving to remind the proletariat of their powerlessness, Patrick gets why it's therapeutic to embrace indifference, shrug your shoulders and say "fuck it" to the world.
Thus, at least on the surface, the latest Filter release, The Trouble With Angels, channels the middle finger up attitude of Patrick's drug and alcohol dependant youth - and of his band's 1995 breakthrough debut, Short Bus. Featuring songs with titles such as "Down With Me," "Drug Boy" and "The Inevitable Relapse," the new Filter full-length - which is undoubtedly one of the band's best - explores topics such as addiction, murder and suicide. Inspired by the music, but puzzled by the message, I checked in with Patrick to find out where his head was at.
Read my exclusive interview with Richard Patrick on SuicideGirls.com.
Went with SG Radio co-host Sam Doumit to see my SuicideGirls pal Scott Ian play with his lovely wife, Pearl Aday, last week. Pearl, who released her debut solo album Little Immaculate White Fox in 2009, was supporting her dad - Meat Loaf - at the Gibson Amphitheatre. For more images from the night check my SuicideGirls photo gallery.
Took some snaps of Hypernova when they played WeHo's Troubabour recently (see photo gallery). The band have an amazing story (they're from Iran) and an awesome sound (New Order meets Franz Ferdinand).
Hypernova are currently on a nationwide tour with fellow Iranian band The Yellow Dogs (who appeared in an award-winning documentary about the underground rock music scene in Tehran called No One Know About Persian Cats). Both bands are in exile (it's illegal to perform Western style music in Iran) and based in New York now (Hypernova originally obtained work visa thanks to the personal intervention of New York Senator Charles Schumer). They're hoping the tour will open a window on a different, more positive aspect of Middle Eastern culture than we're used to seeing on TV, so be sure to check 'em out.
Visit Hypernova's Facebook for tour dates and their website for a free download of their new single, "Fairty Tales," off their debut album Through The Chaos.
As the frontman for heavy duty California rock band Korn, Jonathan Davis has turned angst into an art form, and has sold an impressive 32 million albums worldwide since the group's inception in 1993. Having battled addiction and long-term depression, much of the inspiration for Davis' lyrics has come from internal demons. But right now he's making noise about an external issue that will likely affect us all in some way - the April 20th drilling explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Owned by Transocean but leased and operated by BP, the disaster at the rig appears to be caused, at least in part, by the oil giant's concern for profits above safety. Channeling his anger at the company's culpability into action, Davis is the instigator behind a boycott of BP's products by a coalition of touring bands. Initially it consisted mostly of those on the traveling Mayhem Festival bill, which Korn are currently co-headlining, however the coalition's ranks have rapidly swelled and now include artists such Lady Gaga, Anthrax, Backstreet Boys, Maroon 5 and Filter.
Though the Deepwater Horizon spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the human and environmental issues it raises are far closer to home for Davis. He was born and raised in Bakersfield, a city within the borders of Kern County, CA, which has the dubious honor of being the largest oil producing county in the US. Though rich in oil, eighteen percent of Bakersfield's population lives below the poverty line. The city also ranks as one of the least educated in the nation.
Music was a way out for Davis, but his ties to his hometown remain strong, as evidenced by the first single off Korn's new album, Korn III: Remember Who You Are. The track is called "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)" and is named after a suburban town 3.5 miles northwest of downtown Bakersfield. Surrounded by oil wells, Davis calls Oildale "the most impoverished, fucked-up place I think I've ever been to." Though this statement is anecdotal, if the video for "Oildale" which was shot there is anything to go by, it's clear the place could do with benefiting a little more from its oil wealth.
SuicideGirls caught up with Davis shortly after he came off stage after performing at the Mayhem Festival in Idaho. Talking the day after the new album's release (Korn III: Remember Who You Are has since debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 sales chart), we spoke about life, music, organized religion, close encounters of the crop circle making kind, and his hope that his wrath for big petroleum will prove to be contagious.
Read my interview with Jonathan Davis of Korn at SuicideGirls.com.
In a world in serious need of some extreme silliness, Moby and his new happy metal project Diamondsnake have successfully filled a void. Phil Costello, of Bee Gees metal tribute band Tragedy, fronts the project, bringing bad hair, a carefully sculptured butt-crack, and an awesome attitude (ie. his love for anything that will give him some sweet lovin' back) to the plate.
More than a few of the SuicideGirls crew were in the house for the band's debut assault on Los Angeles at the Dragonfly on July 7th. I restrained myself from headbanging and stopped laughing for long enough to take these snaps.
More images from the night can be viewed in a sideshow at the link below:
http://suicidegirls.com/members/nicole_powers/albums/site/20222/
For more on Diamondsnake go to:
When Scissor Sisters first burst forth with their debut self-titled filthy gorgeous album in 2004 their brand of hedonistic dance was too hot for mainstream America to handle (the CD was even pulled from Wal-Mart's shelves). It was a different story across the Atlantic in the U.K. however, where the band were welcomed with open arms - and notable record sales. There the release spawned a total of five Top 20 singles, and became the country's top-selling album that year (and the 9th biggest seller of the decade). The band's follow up full-length, Ta-Dah, released in 2006, also fared much better outside of the U.S. It went straight to the top of the U.K. album charts, and the first single, "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'"(a collaboration with Elton John), also hit the number one spot - and stayed there for four consecutive weeks.
The wide chasm in reception and record sales between the two continents - the Scissor Sisters' first two albums each sold in excess of 3 million units across Europe - can easily be explained when looked at in the context of cultural attitudes. The more liberal Europeans have been dancing continuously since the '70s and dance-based music is ingrained in the fabric of European life. In America however, seizing on the opportunity afforded by AIDS, the disproportionately influential Christian right whipped up a frenzy of anti-dance "disco sucks" hysteria, stopping the party in its tracks and creating a deep-seated prejudice against the genre as a whole that remains prevalent to this day in significant pockets of society.
However mainstream America has started to loosen up, shake its collective booty and dance again. The success of European-produced tracks from the likes of Madonna (who enlisted William Orbit for Ray of Light and Stuart Price for Confessions on a Dance Floor) and Britney Spears (who prominently featured Bloodshy & Avant's production talents on her past two albums) has brought the dance aesthetic back to the mainstream, and paved the way for 100% domestic-raised spawn of disco to return to the fore.
So as Scissor Sisters prepare to step back on the dance floor with their much-anticipated third album, Night Work, the mirrored ball is at least proverbially spinning above middle-American heads. Though this bodes well in many respects, it does pose a new set of dilemmas for the band. Previously, against a background of overbearing earnestness as practiced by a generation of shoe-gazing indie bands, their tongue-in-cheek flamboyance seemed refreshing. Now, their once unique style has become de rigueur in pop culture thanks to the Scissor Sisters-influenced and much-imitated House of Gaga. Hence, to stay ahead of the pack, they've been forced to switch things up visually and musically.
I caught up with Scissor Sisters' frontman, founder and driving force, Jake Shears, to talk about Night Work, what inspired it, where his party is headed, and what he'll be wearing to it.
Read my exclusive interview with Jake Shears at SuicideGirls.com.
John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) says he doesn't like tattoos, but try not to hold that against him. If I'd been calling in on behalf of a golf magazine, he'd probably tell me how much he's offended the sport. Not because he's disagreeable -- he really isn't -- but because first and foremost, above all else, the OG punk rocker is a provocateur and contrarian.
The Sex Pistols frontman is back on the scene after reviving his post-punk avant-garde music project Public Image Limited (a.k.a. PiL). The band, which was formed in 1978 in the wake of The Pistols dramatic demise, featured a revolving cast of players (including SG's Martin Atkins), with Lydon being the driving force and only constant.
Returning to the stage after a 17-year hiatus, PiL played a series of critically acclaimed shows in the UK in the latter part of 2009. With the music industry in a state of flux, and with very little cash flowing to support any artistic endeavors, Lydon financed the reunion in a true-to-form, eyebrow-raising fashion. The singer who had once called for "Anarchy in the UK" become a spectacularly unlikely spokesman for a brand of British butter called Country Life, appearing in a humorous commercial which sent sales of the saturated fat soaring.
Lydon, who lives in California, is now set to bring the organized chaos that is PiL stateside. The band will be playing Club Nokia in Downtown LA on April 13 prior to a highly anticipated opening-night performance at Coachella and a series of dates across the US.
I called Lydon up at his Los Angeles beachside home to talk a little bollocks about life, butter, music, politics, PiL, the psychology of punk - and his apparent dislike of body ink.
Read my exclusive interview with John Lydon at SuicideGirls.com.
For her forthcoming release, We Are Born, the darling of downtempo, Sia Furler, hits a distinctly upbeat groove. Indeed, the six tracks we've heard so far are decidedly funky. Just don't, whatever you do, use the F-word in the singer/songwriter's presence - it's very likely to irk her.
Having come to the attention of the KCRW-listening, latte-sipping music intelligentsia thanks to her turns with English post-trip-hop outfit Zero 7, for a while Sia was inadvertently defined by what was initially intended as a very limited, no-strings-attached guest spot with the lush lounge combo. Thanks to the success of Zero 7's debut album Simple Things (2001), and their follow up release, When It Falls (2004), and the numerous international tours that followed, Sia's personal brand became synonymous with the downtempo pigeonhole Zero 7 prominently occupied.
Seeking to capitalize on Sia's credentials in the 90 bpm & under department, record label execs understandably pressurized her to continue in a similar vein with her solo work, despite a personal preference for something a little less languid. It was therefore no surprise when Sia's evocative track "Breathe Me," became her first breakout solo song, thanks to its prominent use at the end of the final episode of Six Feet Under. Indeed the inspired TV license earned Colour The Small One, the album on which the song was originally featured, a long overdue release in the US in 2006 (the CD was released in the UK 2 years earlier). And while her next solo album, Some People Have Real Problems, helped bridge the gap between the music Sia was expected to make and the music she wanted to make, it's her latest offering, We Are Born, that has finally allowed the Australian born (but currently New York based) artist to come into her own.
I caught up with Sia by phone to find out how she got her groove back, and to get the 411 on her aversion to the F-word.
Read my exclusive interview with Sia Furler at SuicideGirls.com.
Floria Sigismondi is the director of one of the most anticipated rock biopics in recent memory: The Runaways, which stars Kristen Stewart (as vocalist/guitarist Joan Jett) and Dakota Fanning (as frontwoman Cherie Currie). Known for her trademark hyper-surreal style (as seen in the music videos she's directed for Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, David Bowie, Christina Aguilera, and The White Stripes), the challenge for Floria with The Runaways was to create an authentic representation of the trailblazing all-girl band and the era they exploded (and imploded) in. Though a seasoned photographer and video director, this is the first time Floria has helmed a feature film project. It's also the first time she's worked as a writer, having taken on the formidable task of transforming Cherie's excellent biography, Neon Angel, a definitive account of the life (and death) of the band into a screenplay.
During a press day held at a Los Angeles hotel, I sat down with Floria to find out how she set about capturing the essence of The Runaways on film.
Read my interview with Floria Sigismondi on SuicideGirls.com.
