Sleeve notes

[ggreig]

No, not that phone number you wrote on your cuff...

I suppose it's asking for trouble to read the sleeve notes on an album of Propaganda remixes. Not only were they a Euro-industrial art-rock synthesiser dance group emerging menacingly from the ruins of modern romanticism*, but they were signed to ZTT and promoted by Paul Morley.

Introduce the eulogising of a music journalist to this already dangerously volatile mixture and the results are the literary equivalent of painting with a pogo-stick.

Marvel at the artistry of the proseur:

In 1977, alchemical brothers David Bowie and Brian Eno went looking for Europe, the real Europe, the Europe of Dionysian decadence and intellectual hauteur. Seven bleak midwinters later, Propaganda found it.

...the effect achieved by Propaganda at the studio console with ex-Buggle Trevor Horn - the Dada Phil Spector, the Spector who'd heard of Eric Random and Eric Morecambe - for the Wagnerian disco apocalypse that was, is, and forever shall remain "The Nine Lives of Dr. Mabuse".

Propaganda's computerised dance symphonies mo'waxed, rephlexed and warped for the 21st century? Only someone numb from the hair down wouldn't get get turned on by 'that' idea. What did they used to say? The exploitation of all possible sensations. Noise and girls come out to play. Sheer brutal beauty.

Erm, yeah. That's pretty much what I was thinking myself, you know, though I have to say I don't remember "them" saying it, whoever "they" may be. Still, surely some sleeve-notes must be a bit more down to earth? Like the ones from a Motörhead album, perhaps?

Lemmy merely grinned and wiggled his fingers at the ceiling. Each one bore a large and differently designed, evil-looking silver ring. "Yeah, like me - I'm not flash at all, am I? Hargh! Hargh! Hargh!"

Oh... maybe not then.

* Maybe I could be a music journalist!

Comments

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

* Maybe I could be a music journalist!


You're certainly my main source of music reviews. And jolly good they are too. :)

[myceliumme.livejournal.com]

thank you for making me giggle

[msinvisfem.livejournal.com]

Your interests and tastes are quite eclectic! Out of curiosity, is Motörhead your one and only metal album or do you own others?

[ggreig]

I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of metal, but I have a few "greatest hits" on CD - Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Guns n' Roses and the aforementioned Motörhead. A notable omission would be Rainbow, whom I only have represented on vinyl - something I probably ought to sort at some point. I think Rainbow tend to be a bit under-rated these days, which is a shame.

I like quite a lot of heavier rock which falls a bit short of being metal - and I'm never quite sure where the line is drawn!

[msinvisfem.livejournal.com]

¿Qué?

I like quite a lot of heavier rock which falls a bit short of being metal...

Do you mean like Rammstein? **very amused facial expression** Marilyn Manson? Or perhaps the infamous Mayhem? **Okay that was going too far! :-D**

[msinvisfem.livejournal.com]

Stupid me. It just occurred to me that I got carried away **bad imagination** and I actually went in the opposite direction of what you were referring to. Anyway I am still curious to know what you are interested in or what bands fall short of metal? Is perhaps 'hairbands' more like the word you are looking for?

And if my last post (especially the Mayhem bit) unnerved you, I would like to assure you that I am not into scary metal bands... (I only know about Mayhem from being a former VH1 addict!)

[ggreig]

Perhaps not Manson or Mayhem!

When you say hairbands I tend to think of what is also referred to as an Alice band, so unless it's Mr. Cooper we're talking about I'm not sure whether or not hairband would be the mot juste!

Examples of the kind of act I'm thinking of as sometimes heavy-ish but not metal would be Meat Loaf, Garbage, Queen, Jethro Tull, Joan Jett, Suzi Quatro, Slade, assorted bands often labelled as punk, etc. etc.

[msinvisfem.livejournal.com]

You probably have figured out what a hair band is by now but just in case you can get an idea from these nonofficial but fairly accurate definitions of what one is. (Examples being: Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Poison, Def Leppard...)

As for the others I would agree they are not what I would call Hair bands. Actually I don't think I would necessarily group them together either. (I've always been more of a 'splitter' than a 'grouper' or I tend to split first group later, um yeah, whatever :-). That is I would first give them a sub-grouping and from there probably agree that they are all at least rock bands, i.e. Meat Loaf (epic rock), Queen (glam rock, likes of David Bowie), Jethro Tull (rock), Joan Jett (rock), the last two (whoosh, who are they? :-)...

And all that is probably more than you cared to know of my opinions. :-P

[ggreig]

Suzi Quatro and Slade are both acts who were successful in the UK in the 1970s, although Slade continued to have hits into the 1980s before splitting up, and it appears Suzi Quatro is still touring at the moment.

There's more about Suzi Quatro here. Some of the pages include links to audio.

Slade were the biggest selling glam rock band of all (in the UK, anyway), but they never really cracked the States. That might have something to do with the fact that they were no oil paintings. Their biggest American success was actually when Cum on Feel the Noize was quite faithfully covered by Quiet Riot in the early eighties. (Slade song titles were often deliberately mis-spelled.) Slade continue to get airplay every year when Merry Xmas Everybody is one of the less offensive Christmas songs.