80s alternative music, college rock, indie // slicing up eyeballs

Video: Making PiL ‘Metal Box’ brownies with ex-Public Image Ltd. drummer Martin Atkins

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:37:33 +0000

[tweetmeme]Drummer Martin Atkins — who manned the kit in Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface and Killing Joke, among other groups — today posted this absolutely brilliant video in which he uses one of the replica film canisters that housed PiL’s 1979 opus Metal Box as a cake pan to bake fudge brownies.

We won’t spoil the ending — Do they turn out? Are they absolutely delicious? — but the whole clip, brought to our attention by one of our readers, is a hoot. It’s soundtracked by The Damage Manual’s cover of Metal Box track “Memories,” and labeled “attempt #1,” which begs the question: Is there a sequel in the offing?

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New releases: Hoodoo Gurus, Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie; B-52s reissue ‘Cosmic Thing’

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:09:45 +0000

[tweetmeme]Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, reissues and/or box sets.

ARTIST: Hoodoo Gurus
RELEASE: Purity of Essence
BACKSTORY: The ninth studio album from the long-running Aussie rockers — and their first in six years — won’t be out in the U.S. until May, but fans can pick up the Australian version on import beginning this week. The 16-track album was co-produced by Charles Fisher, who handled production on the Gurus’ Mars Needs Guitars! and In Blue Cave.
BUY IT: Purity of Essence via JB Hi-Fi or Amazon.com

ARTIST: Robin Guthrie
RELEASES: Sunflower Stories
BACKSTORY: The Cocteau Twins co-founder this week releases the third in a trilogy of EPs that follow last year’s full-length album Carousel. The four-track disc — which includes “Horse Heaven,” “Petals,” “Slightly Out of Focus” and “Sunflower Stories,” none of which appeared on Carousel — arrives in a limited-edition pressing of 1,000.
BUY IT: Sunflower Stories via Amazon.com

ARTIST: The B-52s
RELEASE: Cosmic Thing
BACKSTORY: Attention audiophiles: The mega-selling 1989 album from the Athens, Ga., party rockers — bearing the radio smash “Love Shack,” plus singles “Channel Z,” “Roam” and “Deadbeat Club” — is reissued this week by Audio Fidelity, which remastered the album from the original master tapes and pressed it on a 24-karat gold disc.
BUY IT: Cosmic Thing via Amazon.com

Playlist: Sirius XM’s ‘Dark Wave,’ 3/14/10

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:51:09 +0000

[tweetmeme]It’s once again time to check in with the playlist from “Dark Wave” on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave. And once again, the show is maddeningly bipolar, managing to be both completely repetitive — opening with Public Image Ltd.’s “Rise” for the third week in a row, playing The Sisters of Mercy’s “Lucretia, My Reflection,” The Mission UK’s “Wasteland” and Siouxise and the Banshees’ “Slowdive” seemingly every week — and yet still dig so much deeper than anything else on 1st Wave. Tonight’s highlights: The Swans’ cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” a dash of German synthpop from Cetu Javu, The March Violets’ classic “Snake Dance” and a nice Bauhaus/David J/Love and Rockets run toward the end of the show.

See full ‘Dark Wave’ playlist after the jump…

Playlist: 1st Wave’s “Dark Wave,” 3/14/10

Public Image Ltd., “Rise”
Death Cult, “Christians”
Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Slowdive”
The Sisters of Mercy, “1969″
The The, “Infected”
The Sugarcubes, “Deus”
Skinny Puppy, “Addiction”
Ministry, “Revenge”
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “The Weeping Song”
Peter Murphy, “Big and Tiny” (Live)
Killing Joke, “Eighties”
Cabaret Voltaire, “Sensoria”
The Cure, “Fight”
Joy Division, “Transmission”
The March Violets, “Snake Dance”
Depeche Mode, “Pleasure, Little Treasure”
Duran Duran, “The Chauffeur”
Misfits, “London Dungeon”
The Lords of the New Church, “Open Your Eyes”
Concrete Blonde, “God is a Bullet”
The Smiths, “Unhappy Birthday”
Echo & The Bunnymen, “Rescue”
Death Cult, “With Love”
The Mission UK, “Wasteland”
Nine Inch Nails, “Sanctified”
The The, “Love is Stronger Than Death”
Camouflage, “That Smiling Face”
Siouxsie and the Banshees, “This Wheel’s On Fire”
The Swans, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Cetu Javu, “Situations”
The Cure, “The Hanging Garden”
Modern English, “After the Snow”
The Sisters of Mercy, “Lucretia, My Reflection”
Bauhaus, “Endless Summer of the Damned”
David J, “Silver for Gold”
Love and Rockets, “Yin and Yang the Flowerpot Man” (Remix)
The Church, “Reptile”
Cocteau Twins, “The Gold Dust Rush”
Joy Division, “She’s Lost Control”
The Cult, “Love Trooper”

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Video: Morrissey’s ‘Ganglord,’ off ‘Swords’

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:15:37 +0000

[tweetmeme]Despite proclaiming Swords a “meek disaster” last December, Morrissey has gone ahead and made a music video to promote one of the (best) tracks off his late-2009 b-sides album: “Ganglord,” the flip side to 2006’s “The Youngest Was the Most Loved.” Shown above, the arty, black-and-white clip — brought to our attention by Twenty Four Bit — was directed by Dennis Roberts and features Moz and his bandmates leisurely hanging out in a Los Angeles graveyard.

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Killing Joke’s ‘XIII: Feast of Fools’ album, 30th anniversary tour dates delayed until fall

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:07:27 +0000

[tweetmeme]Reconstituted postpunk act Killing Joke this week announced it will push back the release of its forthcoming reunion album XIII: Feast of Fools from April until early September, and also will delay its lengthy 30th anniversary tour of Europe and North America until later this year.

Due out Sept. 6, the new album will be the band’s first with its original lineup — singer Jaz Coleman, guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker, bassist Martin “Youth” Glover and drummer Paul Ferguson — since 1982’s Revelations. It had been scheduled for release in April, with the tour slated to open April 15 in the U.K.

On Killing Joke’s MySpace blog, Ferguson writes that the delay was undertaken with “great reluctance,” explaining that “unforeseen circumstances have made meeting deadlines impossible and have led to this extremely hard decision.”

Youth, on the band’s website, adds:

“It is with great pain that we had to make the decision to postpone the European and American tour until later in the year, but the wait will be worth it. I guarantee double orgasms all round when you hear the sound of Big Paul’s drum kit reducing your senses to a pulp!”

The delay calls off 24 shows in April, May and June, and, so far, the band only has rescheduled what were to be the first two dates: Edinburgh and London. Ferguson notes that, “Of course, all tickets will be honored to the rescheduled shows.”

See Killing Joke tour dates after the jump…

Killing Joke tour dates:

April 15: Picture House, Edinburgh, UK
April 16: Hammersmith Apollo, London, UK
April 19: Bataclan, Paris, France
April 20: AB Main Hall, Brussels, Belgium
April 21: Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands
April 23: Werkstatt, Cologne, Germany
April 24: Grunspan, Hamburg, Germany
April 26: Lucerna Music Bar, Prague, Czech Republic
April 27: Mega Club, Katowictz, Poland
April 28: Palladium, Warsaw, Poland
April 29: Nosturi, Helsinki, Finland
May 21: Black Cat/9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., USA
May 22: Irving Plaza, New York, NY, USA
May 23: Paradise, Boston, MA, USA
May 25: Cabaret, Montreal, PQ, Canada
May 26: Phoenix, Toronto, ONT, Canada
May 28: Cro Foot, Detroit, MI, USA
May 29: Empty Bottle, Chciago, IL, USA
May 30: Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL, USA
June 2: Venue, Vancuover, BC, Canada
June 3: Shoebox, Seattle, WA, USA
June 4: Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR, USA
June 5: Regency, San Francisco, CA, USA
June 6: Witern, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Oct. 15: Picture House, Edinburgh, UK
Oct. 16: Hammersmith Apollo, London, UK

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John Lydon: Public Image Ltd. reunion tour will fund recording of new album

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:41:35 +0000

[tweetmeme]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.

See Public Image Ltd.’s North American tour dates here.

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Video: Erasure’s Andy Bell and Vince Clarke recording new album in EMI’s parking lot

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:05:28 +0000

[tweetmeme]Holed up in a mobile recording trailer in EMI’s London parking lot, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure this week began offering fans short glimpses into the recording of their 14th studio album, posting a pair of videos (the first is above, the second, released today, is below) in which they discuss their writing sessions — and Clarke’s plans to only use analog synths on the record.

See more video from Erasure’s Andy Bell and Vince Clarke after the jump…

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Milestones: Depeche Mode’s ‘101′ live double album released 21 years ago this week

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:14:58 +0000

[tweetmeme]Milestones is a periodic feature marking important album releases, concerts and figures in the history of ’80s college rock.

RELEASE: Depeche Mode, 101

PERSONNEL: Dave Gahan (vocals), Martin Gore (keyboard, guitar, vocals), Alan Wilder (keyboard), Andrew Fletcher (keyboard)

RELEASE DATE: March 13-14, 1989

BACKSTORY: Depeche Mode’s first-ever live album was recorded at the band’s mammoth June 18, 1988, concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., during the Music for the Masses tour. The two-disc document and accompanying D.A. Pennebaker documentary/concert film (see clip above, and several more below) in many ways captured DM as it crossed from widespread cult stardom to flat-out mainstream success, a move the group would complete with 1990’s blockbuster Violator. The live album also serves as a greatest hits set recapping the band’s first decade, sprinkled with some crowd noise and a lot of “Good evening, Pasadena!”

REISSUED? Yes, Mute Records released a hybrid SACD edition of 101 in 2003, a set that contained a 5.1 Surround mix of the entire Rose Bowl concert.

See full tracklist and more clips from Depeche Mode’s ‘101′ after the jump…

Tracklist: Depeche Mode, 101

Disc 1
1. “Pimpf”
2. “Behind the Wheel”
3. “Strangelove”
4. “Sacred”
5. “Something to Do”
6. “Blasphemous Rumours”
7. “Stripped”
8. “Somebody”
9. “Things You Said”

Disc 2
1. “Black Celebration”
2. “Shake the Disease”
3. “Nothing”
4. “Pleasure Little Treasure”
5. “People are People”
6. “A Question of Time”
7. “Never Let Me Down Again”
8. “A Question of Lust”
9. “Master and Servant”
10. “Just Can’t Get Enough”
11. “Everything Counts”

Video: Highlights from Depeche Mode’s “101″ film

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Elvis Costello to release ‘Live at Winterland, San Francisco,’ recorded in 1978, in Japan

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:59:06 +0000

[tweetmeme]Rocker Elvis Costello is poised to tap his 1978 U.S. tour for a second live album in six months, at least in Japan, where the 16-track Live at Winterland, San Francisco — recorded only three days after the just-released Live at Hollywood High — is slated for exclusive release this summer.

Online retailer Eil.com lists Live at Winterland as an “exclusive limited edition” Japanese SHM-CD (that’s a “super high material CD, playable on regular CD players) release on Universal that features “soundboard-level audio quality” and will be packaged in a mini LP-style card sleeve. The album is scheduled for release June 23.

Recorded with The Attractions on June 7, 1978, the disc isn’t being promoted as part of the musician’s The Costello Show live series, which has seen the release so far of Live at the El Mocambo and the aforementioned Live at Hollywood High. As The Second Disc blog notes, “Will it end up part of the series in America? Doubtful, since the show was recorded only a few days after Live at Hollywood High — but you never know.”

Check out the full Winterland concert right now at Wolfgang’s Vault.

See full tracklist for ‘Live at Winterland, San Francisco’ after the jump…

Tracklist: Elvis Costello, Live at Winterland, San Francisco

1. “Mystery Dance”
2. “Lip Service”
3. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes”
4. “Goon Squad”
5. “Less than Zero”
6. “Blame It On Cain”
7. “The Beat”
8. “This Year’s Girl”
9. “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea”
10. “Pump It Up”
11. “Radio, Radio”
12. “Lipstick Vogue”
13. “Watching the Detectives”
14. “Party Girl”
15. “You Belong to Me”
16. “I’m Not Angry”

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Faith No More to play New York in July; band’s first East Coast date in more than a decade

Slicing Up Eyeballs — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:55:29 +0000

[tweetmeme]The reunited Faith No More continue to eke out U.S. tour dates, today announcing a New York City concert in July — the band’s first East Coast show in more than a decade — to follow its three sold-out San Francisco gigs in April in advance of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

The group — which just wrapped a run of shows Down Under, where they apparently bumped into a very tan Tom Jones, above — will perform July 5 at the Williamsburg Waterfront as part of a benefit series for the Open Space Alliance of North Brooklyn.

Faith No More — featuring Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Billy Gould, Mike Patton and Jon Hudson, one of the late-’90s fill-ins for Jim Martin — reunited last year after 11 years apart, playing a string of festival dates across Europe and South America. So far, though, the band has only announced U.S. shows in New York and California.

Following the Brooklyn show — which goes on sale noon EST Friday via Ticketmaster — the band is slated to head back to Europe for a string of festival performances.

See Faith No More tour dates after the jump…

Faith No More tour dates:

April 12: The Warfield, San Francisco, CA, USA
April 13: The Warfield, San Francisco, CA, USA
April 14: The Warfield, San Francisco, CA, USA
April 17: Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Indio, CA, USA
July 5: Williamsburg Waterfront, Brooklyn, NY
July 8: Alive Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
July 9: Sonisphere Festival, Madrid, Spain
July 10: Bilbao BBk Live, Bilbao, Spain
July 15: Dour Festival, Dour, Belgium
July 16: Gurtenfestival, Berne, Switzerland

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