"Victim of the Crime" by Phoenix - Alphabetical (2004)
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
"Genres and the Seppuku Sword" (Chris Cornell - 04.01.2009 - Center Stage - Atlanta, GA - Part 1)
Live from Center Stage - Atlanta, GA - 04.01.2009
(Check out 96.1 for at 8pm EST for the live Chris Cornell set.)
(photo taken by Ross Feingold - The Brass Hat Group - 04.01.2009 - Center Stage)
On this rainy Wednesday evening Chris Cornell got down, got dirty, rocked, funked, spoke from the heart, screamed from those banshee lands that made him famous and also played songs from his new fusion, hip-hop, mojo genreless album. In two amazing days of concerts, it was first seeing Chris Cornell, live with Outernational,
(photo taken by Ross Feingold - Brass Hat Group- 04.01.2009 - Center Stage)
an opening band that really is getting little love from writers and bloggers alike, for reasons I can't seem to wrap my head around had a fun and charged up Clash/White Stripes kinda sound, that gave me a new perspective on the current state of music.
I was also fortunate enough to get passes to Crooked Fingers and Neko Case the following night (more on that in a post coming soon) and one thing that was noticed by a few folks, though first by my insightful friend Ginger was that, "Genres or that the fact that they don't seem to exist as much anymore is a good thing ya know, a really good thing for music." To be honest, at first I wasn't certain if I agreed with her, I had always grown up with this notion that music like almost everything ranging from politics to theories on hyperspace had its proper place in the universe. It was Ginger's insight, and seeing these 4 amazing performers in 2 nights; starting with Chris Cornell, a true rock star still as unique as when I first saw him in '93 at Lollapalooza at Lakewood, Amphitheterer that opened my eyes and somehow intertwined everything else going in the world that brought the concept back together for me. I was and still am amazed by anyone, like Chris, who has the ability to invent and reinvent himself, his ideas and sound after 25 years of music. Seriously can you believe it has been that long? The dude is tireless, hard on the road playing, studio recording, big festivals, small venues, soundtracks, mixes and matches and the constant collaborating with everyone from Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Tom Morello and Audioslave to writing American Idol winner David Cook's first solo single to now teaming up with hip hop mogul Timbaland that makes Chris such a contradiction and the ideal example of how genres are dying if not already dead, seppuku 切腹 stomach cutting deep and ritual, the way Chris's music would have it done.
Ultimately, each time I listen to his new album Scream the veritas is reminded to me as Chris Cornell's musical flux wears on. Now a days I hear old artists, new artists, those intent on reinventing themselves on purpose and some who happen to do so by chance. Scream, was done on purpose, teamed with Interscope records, and Timbaland, as Chris focused, recording the entire album in only 6 weeks, intent on going, "back to albums that I listened to when I was a kid, where the music never stops...begs to be listened to on headphones all the way through."
I for one like Scream. Ginger who had about 10 minutes to hear the album before we headed to the show instantly liked the album. I have heard rumblings of people being annoyed with this "new" sound, as the crowd mixed with wild cheers and kids still stuck in 1993 who booed every time a Screm track was played. I don't know about critics or what is or isn't cool, that just has never been my thing, but I do know that when I first heard Scream and when Ginger first heard it, it was an instant, no questions asked, "F#%@ Yea!"
The concert was a fine example of an artist with a legacy that few have while still in their prime, crossing over from style to style, trading his niched confines for naked dance ready tracks that still carry the vintage Cornell vocals. I think this album speaks not just to the music industry itself, but the world partitions opening up as 2009 is a year in which we have crossed barriers where an African American President is not merely allowed, but transcendent world wide even as the G-20 summit was going on and President Obama made believers out of nations at odds.
If you look at the most fusion comprised aspects of all these days, 'the web', where cohesion is essential and optimization grows organically (despite the efforts of many to pay to play); the 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 continues to evolve on and on and on, that INDEED efforts like Scream is where it is at and that INDEED that is where it is going, like it or not you best fasten your seat belts because are like Fitzgerald wrote during his novel on a time of roaring change when the economy was also hitting it's great depression, "we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." This time however, we've got a genreless hope, seppuku swords sheathed and the prospects of what is the start of a sound that springs eternal youth.
(Check out 96.1 for at 8pm EST for the live Chris Cornell set.)
(photo taken by Ross Feingold - The Brass Hat Group - 04.01.2009 - Center Stage)
On this rainy Wednesday evening Chris Cornell got down, got dirty, rocked, funked, spoke from the heart, screamed from those banshee lands that made him famous and also played songs from his new fusion, hip-hop, mojo genreless album. In two amazing days of concerts, it was first seeing Chris Cornell, live with Outernational,
(photo taken by Ross Feingold - Brass Hat Group- 04.01.2009 - Center Stage)
an opening band that really is getting little love from writers and bloggers alike, for reasons I can't seem to wrap my head around had a fun and charged up Clash/White Stripes kinda sound, that gave me a new perspective on the current state of music.
I was also fortunate enough to get passes to Crooked Fingers and Neko Case the following night (more on that in a post coming soon) and one thing that was noticed by a few folks, though first by my insightful friend Ginger was that, "Genres or that the fact that they don't seem to exist as much anymore is a good thing ya know, a really good thing for music." To be honest, at first I wasn't certain if I agreed with her, I had always grown up with this notion that music like almost everything ranging from politics to theories on hyperspace had its proper place in the universe. It was Ginger's insight, and seeing these 4 amazing performers in 2 nights; starting with Chris Cornell, a true rock star still as unique as when I first saw him in '93 at Lollapalooza at Lakewood, Amphitheterer that opened my eyes and somehow intertwined everything else going in the world that brought the concept back together for me. I was and still am amazed by anyone, like Chris, who has the ability to invent and reinvent himself, his ideas and sound after 25 years of music. Seriously can you believe it has been that long? The dude is tireless, hard on the road playing, studio recording, big festivals, small venues, soundtracks, mixes and matches and the constant collaborating with everyone from Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Tom Morello and Audioslave to writing American Idol winner David Cook's first solo single to now teaming up with hip hop mogul Timbaland that makes Chris such a contradiction and the ideal example of how genres are dying if not already dead, seppuku 切腹 stomach cutting deep and ritual, the way Chris's music would have it done.
Ultimately, each time I listen to his new album Scream the veritas is reminded to me as Chris Cornell's musical flux wears on. Now a days I hear old artists, new artists, those intent on reinventing themselves on purpose and some who happen to do so by chance. Scream, was done on purpose, teamed with Interscope records, and Timbaland, as Chris focused, recording the entire album in only 6 weeks, intent on going, "back to albums that I listened to when I was a kid, where the music never stops...begs to be listened to on headphones all the way through."
I for one like Scream. Ginger who had about 10 minutes to hear the album before we headed to the show instantly liked the album. I have heard rumblings of people being annoyed with this "new" sound, as the crowd mixed with wild cheers and kids still stuck in 1993 who booed every time a Screm track was played. I don't know about critics or what is or isn't cool, that just has never been my thing, but I do know that when I first heard Scream and when Ginger first heard it, it was an instant, no questions asked, "F#%@ Yea!"
The concert was a fine example of an artist with a legacy that few have while still in their prime, crossing over from style to style, trading his niched confines for naked dance ready tracks that still carry the vintage Cornell vocals. I think this album speaks not just to the music industry itself, but the world partitions opening up as 2009 is a year in which we have crossed barriers where an African American President is not merely allowed, but transcendent world wide even as the G-20 summit was going on and President Obama made believers out of nations at odds.
If you look at the most fusion comprised aspects of all these days, 'the web', where cohesion is essential and optimization grows organically (despite the efforts of many to pay to play); the 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 continues to evolve on and on and on, that INDEED efforts like Scream is where it is at and that INDEED that is where it is going, like it or not you best fasten your seat belts because are like Fitzgerald wrote during his novel on a time of roaring change when the economy was also hitting it's great depression, "we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." This time however, we've got a genreless hope, seppuku swords sheathed and the prospects of what is the start of a sound that springs eternal youth.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) by Phoenix
Phoenix is a hot French band (that sounds like an oxymoron right)...Finally after years of waiting and debating and even wondering if this would happen, Phoenix is relevant again this time with their 4th album.
If the preview track is any indication of where they are musically these days, then the moon is is definitely waxing in their direction, because it heavy, terse, electric stuff that always made me a fan. I posted a copy of the video to the song "If I Ever Feel Better" below, and that is vintage Phoenix at their best.
Also be sure to check out the free tune made available for download off their website below, "1901". They have a funky sound that reminds almost of those Stevie Wonder - "Superstition" with a post punk almost New Photographers sound. Definitely unique, definitely worth a listen. Enjoy! The best thing to come out of France since those pictures of French President Nicholas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni hit the web. Enjoy!
The Phoenix Official WebsiteIf the preview track is any indication of where they are musically these days, then the moon is is definitely waxing in their direction, because it heavy, terse, electric stuff that always made me a fan. I posted a copy of the video to the song "If I Ever Feel Better" below, and that is vintage Phoenix at their best.
Also be sure to check out the free tune made available for download off their website below, "1901". They have a funky sound that reminds almost of those Stevie Wonder - "Superstition" with a post punk almost New Photographers sound. Definitely unique, definitely worth a listen. Enjoy! The best thing to come out of France since those pictures of French President Nicholas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni hit the web. Enjoy!
(photo cover art - "persephone : spring & winter" 2.5' x 2.5' acrylic - 2005
by: Sanithna Phansvanh xxx)
(Phoenix's 4th Album)
- "Lisztomania" - 4:01
- "1901" - 3:13
- "Fences" - 3:43
- "Love Like a Sunset Pt.1"
- "Love Like a Sunset Pt.2"
- "Lasso" - 2:47
- "Rome" - 4:37
- "Countdown" - 3:55
- "Girlfriend" - 3:24
- "Armistice" - 3:04
Track #2 - 1901
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