The News Review:
- Art-punk in the guitar bar
- True Grit
- With Sam Riley Samantha Morton Alexandria Maria Lara Joe Anderson…
- Punk Curmudgeons
- … Arcade Fire And ‘Inclusion’ Rock In Bigger Than…
- The Cleveland Free Times :: Music :: Music Lead :: The Cribs
Art-punk in the guitar bar
Baltic Times – Mar 19, 2008
Their new album is red hot catch them while you can. VILNIUS – Could pop music in the Baltic countries ever measure up to the likes of the Beatles and the Stones? Or is it all just sentimental over-produced formulaic noise pollution? When they emerged in the mid-90s Lithuanian band Biplan fell into the latter description creating likable hummable but ultimately ephemeral cheese-pop. Their gratingly catchy tunes got a lot of airplay and they quickly scored a series of big hits on home territory. They even made inroads into the lucrative Russian market after re-recording their songs with Russian lyrics. For the 2005 album Chuligans however the band managed to pull off an image-change quicker than Kylie Minogue can pull on her hotpants. The result was nothing less than phenomenal… neo-punk band Green Day and the best of Britrock. Propitiously this jubilantly brash art-punk sound proved to be just as popular with Lithuanian audiences as the band?s previous guises. Live the band flourishes. With charismatic dye-blond Max?as Melman kicking and screaming out front the chord changes are quick and tight. All four musicians keep perfect pace. An upcoming gig at Tamsta Club one of Vilnius? most atmospheric live music venues is likely to rock the foundations of the nearby 17th-century Artillery Bastion.
True Grit
Detroit Metro Times – Mar 19, 2008
Over the years Meatmen track have made fun of masturbation (“Orgy of One”) deformity (“Crippled Children Suck”) Lennon’s assassination (“One Down Three to Go”) white trash (“True Grit”) hedonism (“Come on Over to Mah Crib”) and society at large (“We’re the Meatmen and You Suck!”). Perhaps the band’s most infamous song is the Detroit-centric homophobic anthem “Tooling for Anus” which grew not out of homophobia but from an unusual Detroit phenomenon: Punk bands playing gay nightclubs. Such music venues as Bookie’s and Nunzio’s were strictly gay bars most of the time. “But on weekends” Tesco says “they’d have a punk show. And that’s what prompted ‘Tooling for Anus. ‘ You know some of the regulars would hang out and um it was a ‘worlds-collide’ kind of thing. Of course not everybody gets the joke.
With Sam Riley Samantha Morton Alexandria Maria Lara Joe Anderson…
Prague Post – Mar 19, 2008
What makes Corbijn ideal for the subject is that he was a firsthand witness to Curtis’ rise and fall having covered Joy Division for NME magazine in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Control could equally serve as a secret diary for Corbijn himself since like Curtis he came of age in the British music scene as it was moving from the androgynous glam rock of Bowie and Eno into the full-throttled anger of punk. Corbijn has made good on his accidental career change becoming a highly respected video director who has worked with Nick Cave U2 the Red Hot Chili Peppers and more recently Coldplay. His video for Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” won a number of awards and accolades. Prior to the synth-scored years that Joy Division would soon rule there was the unquiet desperation of a spent Britain. Curtis hailed from the grim reaches of Macclesfield a brick labyrinth of row houses with outcroppings of breeze blocks in the north of England… Corbijn masterfully captures these roiling times in stark black and white. We follow Curtis’ band first called Warsaw before switching to Joy Division as they make their way into the same scene with other new groups like the Buzzcocks and Cabaret Voltaire. Their break finally comes when the famed new music impressario of Manchester Tony Wilson (Craig Parkinson as a spitting image) puts them on his Granada TV program. Curtis flailing and trashing epileptically when not clutching the mic stand like a lifesaver becomes a sensation. Tours albums and pressures result and the newly discovered young poet of angst begins to feel life getting out of control. A cancerous self-doubt gets hold which further puts stress on his marriage to the suddenly provincial-seeming Debbie. Curtis momentarily finds some solace with a young Belgian groupie Anik (Downfall’s Alexandra Maria Lara) though this only creates further turmoil.
Punk Curmudgeons
East Bay Express – Mar 19, 2008
They may have cut their teeth on punk rock but calling Triclops! a punk band is somewhat like describing a psychedelic mushroom as a cow pie. The wild catharsis of ’90s punk is there but sharpened to a saw-blade edge in polyrhythmic soundscapes and action-movie riffs. There’s something deeply bent about them but at no time do they seem out of control. “We’re more particular about recording and performing” Boothroyd says. “Most of the horribly destructive behavior is ruled out” Becker pipes in… “I bleed less in this band” agrees Mink who typically spends most of his performances rushing the audience rubbing against them as if infected with a disease he’s committed to sharing. “If I haven’t sobered up by the end of the set I figure I’m doing something wrong. Triclops!’ seasoned savvy extends to how they release their music. The band toasts the resurgence of vinyl as the iPod has turned CDs into little more than shiny drink coasters. “Vinyl is obnoxiously collectible” Mink says. “People want something tactile. “If you’re putting out vinyl and it’s not some weird color it’s just lazy” Beaulieu says noting that all of the Triclops! vinyl releases thus far have been picture disks.
… Arcade Fire And ‘Inclusion’ Rock In Bigger Than…
MTV.com – Mar 19, 2008
But anyway here it is in its most basic terms: Starting right now bands should write and play music that’s aimed at positively everyone (or at least everyone who enjoys pumping their fists shouting and partying hard). The goal of any piece of music should be to facilitate a sense of community inasmuch as it should be awesome and make the listener want to hear it again at very loud volumes while surrounded by his or her friends (or even complete strangers) and should lead to gratuitous fist-pumping and shouting. they should party or support unions or vote etc… they all played wholly inclusive rock and roll. The idea of inclusion led a bunch of bored kids from Queens to pick up guitars (even though they didn’t know how to play them) and start the Ramones. Hard-core and punk were formed on the ideals of inclusion. Even alt-rock in its truest form was about including those who weren’t included anywhere else. And now a whole new generation of acts will carry the inclusion mantle into the 21st century and bring music to the masses. Who it would seem doesn’t want to be included?Well as it turns out lots of people. Seems most Inclusion Rock artists don’t sell tons of records (aside from maybe the Arcade Fire) and the average music fan would be hard-pressed to pick them out of a lineup.
The Cleveland Free Times :: Music :: Music Lead :: The Cribs
Cleveland Free Times – Mar 19, 2008
The new record we had time off and it gave us more time to think about things that used to matter to us. So this one evolved differently for sure. "Still greatly influenced by underground Brit punk and the pioneering and spartan indie efforts of US labels like Kill Rock Stars and K the Jarmans quickly hammered out the songs that would comprise Whatever. With the material coming together so easily the band fast-tracked to discussions about producers. While Kapranos had expressed an interest in recording the band when the Cribs had opened for Franz Ferdinand in 2006 the brothers were slightly hesitant but eventually his positives trumped their doubts. "The downside was if the record did really well some cynics may say that it was because people were interested in Alex and he was equally concerned about that" says Jarman. "He came down to Wakefield where we grew up and hung out for a few days and listened to us play.