The News Review:
- Jeffrey Lewis – 12 Crass Songs Album Review
- … Clobbers 50 Cent In Week-Two Sales – News Story | Music…
- Music Lead The Mekons
- Perfect pops
- … Win In Court; Sets LP Release Date – News Story | Music…
- The conversion of Sam Beam into Iron & Wine
Jeffrey Lewis – 12 Crass Songs Album Review
Infoshop News – Sep 26, 2007
Jeffrey Lewis12 Crass SongsAlbum ReviewAs one of the leaders of New York’s anti-folk scene Jeffrey Lewis hasn’t exactly followed with tradition from the first moment he learned how to pluck a guitar tunefully and co-ordinate the sound with words of his own. Having played with the likes of Adam Green and Kimya Dawson not to mention toured with such icons as The Fall Frank Black and Thurston Moore it’s fair to say that Lewis is pretty well respected across the musical universe and unsurprisingly his own knowledge and influences are vast and anything but pigeonholed. However what no one could have expected was for his latest record to comprise entirely of reworked compositions originally recorded by London anarchist punks Crass all done in his own inimitable style of course and occasionally lyrically tampered to fit in with his own skewered vision of the 21st century. Crass you see were one of the most uncompromising bands of their generation. Punk rock in style and attitude they may have been but whereas most of their peers went onto international fame and fortune they stuck firmly to their beliefs right to the bitter end and their demise ironically in 1984 operating almost exclusively from a commune-type squat in Epping London. The harsh almost brutal delivery of their work still stands out today so it is quite commendable that someone as wittily observant as Lewis has made the likes of ‘The Gasman Cometh’ sound less provocative and indignant than its title and original lyrical content suggest. Likewise ‘I Ain’t Thick It’s Just A Trick’ the closing mantra on 1979′s ‘Stations Of The Crass’ opus finds the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker rubbing shoulders with Thatcher and Reagan on Lewis’ Crass-inspired hate list… Flanked by keyboard player Helen Schreiner bassist Jack Lewis and drummer David Beauchamp Lewis draws the anarchist warriors’ latent vulnerability to the surface. Illuminated by Schreiner’s little-girl-lost warble ‘Do They Owe Us A Living?’ is re-imagined as an amiably twee sing-along; ‘I Ain’t Thick It’s Just A Trick’ floats on shimmering keys and indie guitars. If the music is unabashed punk nostalgia then the accompanying video show has the air of a 1960s’ art-house ‘happening’. Fans have been encouraged to submit short home movies to Lewis website — beamed from the front of stagethe home-cooked clips flash across the performers’ faces lending their pallid countenances an eerie air. Sometimes Lewis treatments are so radically different it’s hard to tell whether he’s covering Crass or paying ironic homage with one of his own songs. ‘Punk Is Dead’ sounds like a quintessential piece of anti-folk. Connoisseurs may be aghast but it’s testament to Lewis’ talents that amid punk’s sweat and turmoil he finds so much bruised beauty.
… Clobbers 50 Cent In Week-Two Sales – News Story | Music…
MTV.com – Sep 26, 2007
textContenturl:window. href} {button:true} ); For the last month or so everyone in the music industry has been abuzz about Kanye West and 50 Cent — or more specifically the epic sales campaign the two waged during the weeks leading up to the September 11 release of their latest LPs ‘Ye’s Graduation and Fif’s Curtis. And last week the results came in with West the undisputed victor (see. But who’d come out on top after week two? Would West’s sales continue to eclipse 50′s or would the tables turn resulting in a come-from-behind coup?Well neither ended up being the case and the results stayed pretty much the same: Sales of Graduation were significantly stronger than those generated by Curtis and interest in both sets waned… Venus Doom follows at #12 while Motion City Soundtrack’s Even If It Kills Me opens at #16 selling 33000 copies. The Very Best of Diana Krall bows at #19 while Celtic punks the Dropkick Murphys claim the #20 position with The Meanest of Times which scanned more than 28200 copies. Meanwhile Gloria Estefan’s 90 Millas comes in at #25 having generated more than 23700 scans and at #26 with 23600 sold it’s former Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler’s latest solo effort Kill to Get Crimson. One Chance the debut album from “Britain’s Got Talent” winner Paul Potts follows at #30 with 22100 sold and New Found Glory’s cinema-themed covers collection From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II pops up at #42 with 15500 sold. Playlist Babyface’s latest finishes in the #48 slot having sold 13700 units while Between the Buried and Me’s Colors trails in the #57 spot with sales of 12600. Right behind them at #58 is Thousand Foot Krutch’s The Flame in All of Us which sold 12500 copies.
Music Lead The Mekons
Cleveland Free Times – Sep 26, 2007
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Mekons the Leeds punk group who wound up becoming a guiding force for alternative country from the '80s right up to the present. To commemorate their three decades of making music the Mekons will be doing pretty much what they did for their 25th anniversary which is to hit the road in support of a new album. The difference is that five years ago the Mekons were celebrating the release of OOOH! a conscious return to their hard country sound. This time around the Mekons are once again supporting a new album the just-released Natural which represents the first Mekons album since 2002 to feature newly written material. It was also never intended to be released… This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Mekons the Leeds punk group who wound up becoming a guiding force for alternative country from the '80s right up to the present. To commemorate their three decades of making music the Mekons will be doing pretty much what they did for their 25th anniversary which is to hit the road in support of a new album. The difference is that five years ago the Mekons were celebrating the release of OOOH! a conscious return to their hard country sound. This time around the Mekons are once again supporting a new album the just-released Natural which represents the first Mekons album since 2002 to feature newly written material. It was also never intended to be released. "We didn't know we were making an album" says Mekons frontman Jon Langford via phone from his Chicago studio.
Perfect pops
Detroit Metro Times – Sep 26, 2007
Fired by the infectious sounds of female doo-wop pioneers the Chantels street-savvy vixens the Ronettes and ’80s chart-busters Bananarama the Pipettes’ matching polka dots and sunny engaging dispositions stand in direct opposition to the prevalent mood of ironic detached indie rock drone. Formed in Brighton England in 2003 their goal now is the same as it was then: to write the perfect pop song. “We all like different kinds of music” says Becki Pipette of her compatriots Rosay and Gwenno and their backing band the Cassettes. “But what we do all share is the love of a really finely crafted song. So although we appreciate and respect each other’s tastes — which makes it a lot easier to share a creative passion for making music — this notion of the perfect pop song is something we crave something we’re very ambitious about. We always want to write one better than the last one we’ve written. Perhaps that’s why the seamless 16-track We Are the Pipettes (Interscope) — which features their dance floor killer “Pull Shapes” — sounds more like a compilation of classic singles than a debut album.
… Win In Court; Sets LP Release Date – News Story | Music…
MTV.com – Sep 26, 2007
The Voodoo Music Experience is shifting locations but just slightly. The fest to take place October 26-28 has a new site in New Orleans City Park to accommodate ongoing restoration and improvement of the park. The shift brings the fest closer to Tad Gormley Stadium where Voodoo was first held in 1999… The Sex Pistols — who just tacked two more gigs onto their upcoming November reunion in London according to BBC News — have another trick up their collective sleeve: A newly recorded rendition of their punk staple “Anarchy in the U. ” The band entered the studio for the first time in 30 years to record the track which will surface on “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
The conversion of Sam Beam into Iron & Wine
Austin 360 – Austin 360 (subscription) – Sep 26, 2007
One Beam says he wasn’t exactly seeking a record deal. He had a little kid and a steady job. Two Sub Pop was known as the punk rock label that birthed Nirvana and grunge. Beam’s music was acoustic layered on a four-track and mumbled. “When I saw they were doing the Shins I was like well OK” Beam says. “It seemed like too good a thing to pass up honestly. I felt like I didn’t have a lot to lose.