When a band crawls out of their holes again after 24 years, the first thing you think is that they can probably use the money to rest on their laurels. That's what I thought when I heard that Pulp were releasing a new album.
Spike Island is the name of Pulp's new sign of life. The song is named after an Irish island in the Bay of Cork. However, the song is not about a historical event. In 1990, The Stone Roses played a gig there that would go down in British music history. Back then, 27,000 people gathered to experience the quartet from Manchester on little Spike Island. Jarvis Cocker was not among this huge crowd, but he can still imagine the spectacle.
Jarvis Cocker has never been the great singer and still isn't, but the sound he still manages to produce is a seamless continuation of his last releases. In its best moments, the song is even reminiscent of David Bowie, which is meant in a positive way. In a comment on the video, it was written that 'it's like hugging someone you haven't seen for a long time and it still smells the same and good'. There's nothing more to add to that.
Today I turn 65 and another year has passed far too quickly and I reflect on everything that has happened in these years. We are getting older and that is inevitable. And transience is a theme that crops up in every genre of music, from rock n' roll to country and blues. And songs that have dealt with getting older, the past and everything in between. It's impossible to pick a favourite, especially when you consider how much choice is out there. That's why I limited myself to the songs that came to me spontaneously and that have stayed with me over the years.
In the mid 90's Jarvis Cocker appeared with his band Pulp on the scene. Headdress, greasy hair, no modeling fretting, unbelievable dance style and yet - Jarvis Cocker was and is a sex symbol. Women, whom he did not even dare to look at in his entire youth, worship the man idolatly since he is in the spotlight with Pulp. With Different Class they released their masterpiece and Common People went to the top of the charts. Still a song that explores more than a bit of hip culture like Dead Kennedys did in Holidays In Cambodia. But in the best days Cocker wrote songs that was nearly close to songs Ray Davis wrote decades ago. Songs that described live and situation in England at these days. I remember when I saw this footage for the first time and I really liked what I saw and heard. A few week later I saw them live and Pulp were at the top of their days and after 26 years you can listen to them with big joy.
Today's post is number 2000 when I started later in 2012 with this blog. I didn't have a bigger plan when I started than to create my very own thing featuring the music I really like. And I didn't expected that it lasts until now. During the years I formed friendship with other bloggers out there and I am grateful that you enriched my life and opened my ears for music I didn't knew before. Therefore thank you all and your comments keep me going on this way.
When I look back to this year I see the horrible pictures of the thousand dead Bosnian who was slaughtered in the Srebrenica massacre. Compared to my personal life I have to say that I stay in paradise. All is well an peaceful: I live in a comfortable house, have two young kids and a wife I love and no need to cry about lost or killed persons I used to life with. So this was a year in my life that was very quiet. Just doing my regular job and watching the kids getting older. I spent the most of the time with my kids or we went to visit my parents in law near Cologne and I have to say that it was just a good year.
Records that impressed me much in 1995:
Goldie - Timeless: My entrance into Drum and Bass
Tricky - Maxinquaye: Trip Hop at it's best
Neil Young - Mirrorball: The old man together with Pearl Jam
Pulp - Different Class: This album is the reason why I listen to them for ages
Scott Walker - Tilt: Great songs in a bleak, forlon and funereal mood
Leftfield - Leftism: House music at it's best
Black Grape - It's great when you're straight .... yeah!: Underrated record
Some movies that I saw in these days:
Seven:
Braveheart:
Outbreak:
Smoke:
The Usual Suspects:
Desperado:
Get Shorty:
12 Monkeys:
Dead Men Walking:
What happened in the rest of the world:
A UN tribunal on human rights violations in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serbcommanders with genocide and crime against humanity // Three far-right National Front activists kill an 17 year old Comorian kid living in France // Barings bank collapses after broke Nick Leeson loses 1.4 billion USD by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange // Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system // Oklahoma city bombing kills 169 people including kids // Jacques Chirac gets elected president in France // Srebrenica massacre: Units of the Army of the Republika Srpska under the command of general Ratko Mladic enter Srebrenica with little resistance from Dutch peacekeepers of the UN Protection Force, going to kill thousands of Bosniak men and boys and rape many women // Miguel Indurain wins the Tour de France for the fifth time.
A year with very good records and new sounds and it's hard to pick out one record. I decided to choose Long Fin Killies first record Houdini. I am liking this odd gem of a record. I seldom have heard something like this before. If you can imagine A.R. Kane, Cockteau Twins, Slowdive and early Krautrock on one record - than try this one. Long Fin Killie was a Scottish experimental rock / post-rock band and released three records on Too Pure label. The first thing that came to my mind was: 'Damn, this drummer is a genius' The band is amazing - so amazing that I kind of wish, there were no vocals. Sunderland bubbles on like Morrissey. The odd thin, though, is that the vocals are pretty sporatic and there are noc choruses as a majority of other songs in post-rock style. All in all it's a distinct sound with emphasizing the bass and using offbeat percussion and violins as a garnish. There are hypnotic passages where guitars, percussion and violin circle like spray around the rhythmic booming waves of the booming waves of the ball. One of the highlights was posted last year - it's the brilliant moment when on The head of Dead Surfers,Mark E. Smith (a label mate of the band) joins the vocals.
The Pastels are a Glasgow based independent band, formed in the early 1980s. They started as a classic post-punk band and had inspired a lot of bands of the so called C-86 era to turn later into softer sounds. I listen recently to their 1998 album 'Illuminati' still fascinated how fresh it sounds even today. This song is from their soundtrack to 'The Last Great Wilderness' and is a collaboration with Pulp's Jarvis Crocker.
