While putting together this series, I realized that Interpol had never featured on these pages before. Time to change that.
In 1997, Paul Banks and Daniel Kessler, two students at New York University, formed Interpol, a band which, contrary to the conventions of the time, did not draw on garage and indie rock. Their musical influences are far more evident in the post-punk bands of the early 1980's. They were soon signed to Matator Records, which also had acts such as Pavement and Yo La Tengo on its roster. With their debut LP, Turn On The Bright Lights, they heralded a post-punk revival.
Intense, brooding melancholy hangs over the ruins of British post-punk, clinging enigmatically to the melodies, whilst an Ian Curtis lookalike sings, in a stylishly broken voice, of the tribulations of human relationships. The songs are fully arranged, feature stoic drumming and a solid bass line, whilst the guitars float above all the tracks, which nevertheless have a lo-fi sound. An album that evokes the past yet feels firmly rooted in the here and now, featuring wonderful songs – the only one that comes too close to Johnny Marr and The Smiths is Say Hello To The Angels.
The harmonica is typically associated with blues and folk music as a key instrument alongside the acoustic guitar. This makes it all the more surprising when musicians from the indie and electronic scenes use it.The harmonica is typically associated with blues and folk music as a key instrument alongside the acoustic guitar. This makes it all the more surprising when musicians from the indie and electronic scenes use it.
Matt Johnson released what is perhaps his best album, Dusk, as The The in 1993. Its success is largely due to Johnny Marr, who, in addition to playing tasteful guitar parts, also plays the harmonica, which carries nearly the entire album.
The French electronic duo Air has regularly expanded their sound by collaborating with guest musicians. This was also the case in 2001, when they worked with Beck on their album 10,000 Hz Legend in addition to vocals, Beck also contributed harmonica.
Camper Van Beethoven, who helped pioneer indie rock in California in the early 1980s alongside bands like Black Flag and Sonic Youth, released their final album in 1989 before disbanding. As on their earlier albums, they remained true to their surrealistic, humorous folk rock.
Over the past weekend, I listened more closely to some bands that inspired me last year. One of them was Deeply Armed, a new band from Dublin. They recorded a song called The Healing, which is now available in several remixes. The original is a mixture of relaxed music that could have been released 40 years ago. Psychedelic and Krautrock that could have been produced by Conny Plank.
The other band that really impressed me was Thought Leadership, a band from the greater Manchester area that has released several albums. What they all had in common was a reduction to echoing guitar sounds in the tradition of Durutti Column and David Gilmour. With III of Pentacles, they have created an album that enchants with its blend of ambient, Cocteau Twins, and Johnny Marr.
When punk started, The Only Ones were at the start and even had a hit with their debut album and Another Girl, Another Planet. The band was founded by Peter Perrett, who also fronted the band as guitarist and singer.
After the Only Ones broke up, he was only heard from sporadically as a guest musician in other bands, which may have been due to the fact that he was focusing more on drug use. I only became aware of him again when he released his first and good solo album in 2017.
Now, at the age of 72, he has released his third album The Cleansing. With 20 songs, the work seems very ambitious, but even with the help of Johnny Marr, he manages to deliver work on some tracks that is based on classic rock tracks and hardly gets boring. It looks like he is following in the footsteps of Johnny Cash, who is still on top form even in his old age.
I can't believe that I didn't featured Johnny Marr at this little place of the internet. Of course I named him several times especially when The Smiths were around. A few days ago I came back to his live album Adrenalin Baby from his tour in 2014/15 recorded at various venues in Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol. It is one of those live albums I always wished I could have been part of the crowd. 17 songs full of energy and enthusiasm and great versions of songs we all know by The Smiths. And it also shows Johnny's abilities of playing guitar.
And as a bonus a live version of a song from a short lived project. In 1989 Marr and Bernard Sumner of New Order formed Electric an alternative dance band. The original was a song with a fantastic bass line and the voice of Neil Tennent made this an outstanding record of this time. That this song also works with a more guitar based sound is one of the highlights of this album.
Last Friday Nina Walsh released Retrospective a new four-track EP with songs from her long lasting career. Walsh is a British composer, performer, producer and engineer and well known for her long time collaboration with Andrew Weatherall and The Woodleigh Research Fascility. These four track show how different her style is and where she got the influences. Lover Teacher, is driven by a vintage `60s Vox Invader. Its distorted, fuzzed, freaked-out, mutant rockabilly riffing, recalling The Smiths and Johnny Marr from the times when they madeHand In Glove and What Difference Does it make. Great stuff.
A few weeks ago Australian sample kings The Avalanches released after a long break with We Will Always Love You their latest album. It is filled with 25 songs each different and with a lot of guest collaborations. All together is their fondness for psychedelic pop and the combination of different styles into one song. I listened to the album a lot during the last days just because you can find so many new things in these songs the more you listen to them. Their latest single is a collaboration with New York's synth-pop artists MGMT and Johnny Marr. Together with a sample by The Shirelles the created a sound the could be played while having a drink at late afternoon in a far away summer.
Steve Jones and Sally Rodgers aka A Man Called Adam released a few days ago a compilation of unreleased and reworked material. The album sounds like a mixtape from their 30 decade of work. I always liked their combination of electronic sounds from balearic to tribal. One of the forgotten ones is a collaboration with Jose Padilla who died a few weeks ago and on the the other AMCA worked together with African Singer Brenda Fassie, a song with a township jive and jangly guitars Johnny Marr could have played. Two fine pieces to start into the weekend.
I know it's not that typical twanging sound in this song but it shuffled up recently and I can't get it out of my mind. It's a song by a guitar player that was forgotten during the last years - Johnny Marr. The song is from his 2013-EP 'Banging ON' and I am still fascinated of the song. The song is based on a solid ground by an accentuated bass and a straight drum so Johnny Marr can show us how to treat a guitar and it never gets dull.
All in all, this was an unspectacular year with one highlight. Nevertheless, the future already throws her shades ahead. At the middle of the year it was officially announced what many of my colleagues have already supposed. We will merge with another bank and put our arithmetic system completely on another base, in addition, still next year. This means for me that I must invest a lot of time in the preparatory works for a free from problems crossing on the new arithmetic system. Namely after my regular work. With this background we have decided, to visit my sister-in-law who lived at this time in Japan. Presumably we would never have visited Japan if not a part of the family lived there. And we have not regretted it. We have seen a fantastic country with so many places of interest. Thanks Kerstin that you could show us so much from this country. There are some things I will never forget: One of them was the onsen, a Japanese term for hot springs. It's located in the countryside and describes the bathing facilities around hot springs. If you ever get the chance to see it check it out and take a bath in the hot springs. The other are the Pachinko halls. Widespread all over the country you can find them halls filled with a lot of slot machines. From far away you hear the noise from inside the halls and you thousands of flashing lamps which are supposed to animate one to play and spent your money. Another thing you don't have to miss when you visit Japan is to go to a local pub for eating and drinking. I've never seen so small bars filled with so many people drinking their beer and sake and eating yakitori.
Some remarkable records were released in 2007:
Tocotronic - Kapitulation: I follow this band since their first record
Feist - The Reminder: Softly breathed songs of a wonderful singer
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: Indie-rock at it's best
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Simply fantastic
Pantha du Prince - The Bliss: Electric music on a high level shows us the future of this kind of music
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank:
Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge: I simply love to hear him sing
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times: Their third record - great as before
With these songs I connect this year:
300: Another great move based on a comic
No Country for Old Men: The Coen brothers made a fantastic movie again
Hot Fuzz: This kind of movie can only made in Britain
The Bucket List: Nice story about two old men
Some headlines from 2007:
European heat wave: approximately 200 wild fires broke out in Greece // The Nepalese government announces that the 240 year old monarchy will be abolished in 2009 and a new republic will be declared // Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a bomb blast at an election rally // Mine disaster in eastern Ukraine kills more than 100 people
Another great record from Modest Mouse. Already their last publication Good news for people who loves bad news was splendidly they reach with this record their next level. Johnny Marr joined the band and you could hear his guitar on some spectacular riffs. The new album of Modest Mouse differs only some from his younger predecessors. However, it is present not in the least boringly. Since another quality the volume was always to be sounded them, thus richly, variably and essential as usual only a few. Also by often obsessed, broken voice of Isaac Brock which fits usually well to the music of his tapes. It is just no catchy pop music which Modest Mouse characterises. It is the miraculous wide world of the tricky rock music whose borders the tape as usual no other has plumbed. A world whose discovery needs time. Modest Mouse are and remain the Hobos from the province of the American northwest, and Johnny Marr has been incorporated only without further ado. He has become the Hobo and has completed the unbelievable talent this Trucker-Lookalikes.
