Pioneering ambient artist, film-scorer, and producer of choice for everyone from Willie Nelson to U2, Daniel Lanois has assembled one of the most impressive CVs in modern rock. And with his new album, Shine, having just hit the racks, he’s far from done yet, as he tells Peter Murphy
One thing you could never accuse the Stereophonics of is playing to the in-crowd. From their very first album they have adopted something of an outsider status, attracting more and more of an audience as the barbs of those too cool to bother with them also grew longer. One can only assume therefore that Language, Sex, Violence, Other? sounding so distinctly of the moment has to be more through accident than design. But right from the off, the combination of power chords, throbbing keyboards, samples and beats make Language, Sex, Violence, Other? sound like a thoroughly modern rock record.
Right from the off, the combination of power chords, throbbing keyboards, samples and beats make Language, Sex, Violence, Other? sound like a thoroughly modern rock record. It also has some good songs on it too, which was kind of the whole point of the Stereophonics in the first place.
IF, IN February 2000, you still don't believe that modern rock is on borrowed time as an art form, despite all the overwhelming evidence, then consider this.
No longer the nascent, impressionable - though hugely ambitious - young quintet who unleashed the blood-splattered masterpiece The Bends in the mid-'90s, nor the newly crowned kings of modern rock who enjoyed virtually unprecedented levels of acclaim circa-OK Computer, they have instead settled into a role as sort of latter-day alt. culture godfathers
Since 1996 the Heineken Green Energy Festival has lit up the capital city with some of the brightest stars of modern rock. Patrick Hedlund and hotpress assistant editor, Stuart Clark, report
When Ryan Adams gave his record company an album called 'Love Is Hell', they declined to release this “fucking dark, twisted sad and morose” record. so Adams decided instead to record a loud, punky, uptempo album called 'Rock N Roll'. and guess what? now we get to hear both.
Discovered that there is life after Brett-pop, that is. nick kelly gets the lowdown from "the bloke who left Suede", Bernard Butler, whose mightily impressive solo debut People Move On, has just been released.
He was a midwife to grunge and has worked with artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Hole and Ozzy Osbourne. Far from being a studio boffin, though, Michael Beinhorn believes modern music is too often reliant on technology.
Blow me down, it’s that chirpy Counting Crow adam duritz again, flapping his vocal chords on everything from bunking off the MTV awards, why the Rolling Stones are still “fucking great” and why he won’t be emigrating to Utah just yet. Witness for the defence: Niall Crumlish.
LIMP BIZKIT are a rock'n'roll phenomenon. Notching up in excess of 20 million album sales over the past two years, they're in the vanguard of the nu-metal movement that has seen guitar rock reclaiming its place at the top of the singles charts. In Madrid to catch the band live, PHIL UDELL first hears passionate words from the frontman, FRED DURST. But, amid a welter of controversy, the raging music is put on hold as Limp Bizkit's show in the Spanish capital is cancelled – an ominous foreshadowing of the events that will see their UK, German and Irish dates also sensationally cancelled
PIGEON-HOLE THEM AS BELFAST HARDCORE MERCHANTS AT YOUR PERIL - IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS THERAPY? HAVE RELEASED TWO CLASSIC PUNK-POP EP'S THAT SHOOK THE BRITISH CHARTS, AND EVEN GOT THEM INTO THE PAGES OF TEEN-BIBLE SMASH HITS. AS THEY BEGIN RECORDING THEIR NEW LP, THEY TAKE TIME OUT TO GET NERVOUS ABOUT FEILE, GET ANGRY ABOUT THE BEATLES, AND EXPLAIN WHY THE DAYS OF THE NINE-MINUTE INSTRUMENTAL EPIC ARE OVER. INTERVIEW: LORRAINE FREENEY
Pigeon-hole them as Belfast hardcore merchants at your peril in the past few months Therapy? have released two classic punk-pop EPs that shook the British charts, and even got them into the pages of teen-bible Smash Hits. As they begin recording their new LP, they take time out to get nervous about Fiile, get angry about the Beatles, and explain why the days of the nine-minute instrumental epic are over. Interview: Lorraine Freeney.
Songs for the Deaf takes a slightly less trodden direction than it’s predecessor Rated R: still as cacophonous, rampantly bass-heavy and gut wrenching as you’d expect, but without the polish.
SPARKLEHORSE TAKE CARE of headline duties when the Witnness Rising tour swings by the Empire, Belfast (June 27th); Warwick, Galway (28th); Savoy Theatre, Cork (29th); and Whelan’s, Dublin (30th @ 2 and 7.30pm).
One thing you could never accuse the Stereophonics of is playing to the in-crowd. From their very first album they have adopted something of an outsider status, attracting more and more of an audience as the barbs of those too cool to bother with them also grew longer.
This Wigan four-piece with a tenuous (mainly geographical, it has to be said) Verve connection have accumulated a load of accolades and plaudits on the basis of a handful of singles released over the past year.
Jamie Cullum is naff, and not in an endearing way. There are many artists whose lack of cool is a pleasure to behold (who could not be charmed by The Darkness’ ability to be entertainingly out-of-step with their contemporaries?), but Cullum is a different species.
Any notions that Antony And The Johnsons might somehow retain their underground aura are put well and truly to bed. Tonight the general age profile at Vicar Street puts one in mind of a tea-party thrown in honour of Daniel O’Donnell.
Purveyors of some of the fattest riffs on planet rock, The Datsuns, on working with Led Zepplin’s John Paul Jones, dangerous video making and how to frighten the horses.
Funeral was by no means a fluke. The Arcade Fire are unquestionably the real deal. And to prove it they’ve now thrown in another contender for ‘best record of the decade’.
RTE2 have plenty of live music action to keep us placated for the next few weeks - here's the line up of bands and when to catch them. For more about the Other Voices series, click on the link at the very bottom.
