Niki N. Phaser » legend

Lemmy Gets His Own Movie

Niki N. Phaser — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:48:06 +0000

Heavy-metal icon, Lemmy Kilmister, the frontman of Motorhead and the genuine poster boy of true rock’n'roll living is the subject of a new documentary, hitting the festival circuit soon. The movie is titled Lemmy and it is directed by Wes Orshoski and Greg Olliver, who spent a period of roughly three years with the legendary rocker, following him through numerous gigs with Motorhead, as well as in more peaceful and intimate moments.

Important names, like Dave Grohl, Alice Cooper, Slash, Ozzy Osbourne and plenty more (actor Billy Bob Thorton, wrestler Triple H), make appearances in the film, confessing their admiration for the ‘ace of spades’ of heavy metal and sharing funny stories, as expected. Hopefully, there’ll be more to the documentary than a dithyrambic portrait of the bassist, but also a bit of an analysis of the true consequences of a compromise-free rock’n'roll life, Lemmy’s being one for sure.

TRAILER

Le Lac – New Single By Indochine

Niki N. Phaser — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:07:16 +0000

French pop-rock legends, Indochine are preparing the official release (November 20) of a new single, Le Lac, taken from their latest album, La République des Meteors, their eleventh. Not the most obvious choice for a single, Le Lac is still a nice song, but not as poignant as Republika, which was overlooked for the third time. Maybe the fourth is a charm. La lettre de métal is also quite a gripping piece of music, displaying once again Indochine’s pop-rock complexity. Nicola Sirkis and co. have been touring the new album, follow-up to 2x masterpiece Alice & June, in all the familiar places, to great success. They’ll keep at it all troughout the next year, when they have scheduled a monster-gig on “Stade de France” on June 26. It’s been sold-out almost a year in advance.

Le Lac VIDEO and also try La Lettre de Metal and maybe also Republika

A New Pop Icon ?

Niki N. Phaser — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:09:51 +0000

Even before the release of The Dark Knight and, if I remember correctly, even before the death of Heath Ledger, there was a lot of buzz about his performance as Batman’s nemesis, The Joker. The shock of his untimely death, mixed with that buzz, created a suited environment for the birth of something… well, mythical, Hollywood style. When the movie came out, there was no disappointment, Ledger’s performance was as cool as everyone expected, even more. He received the entire package of acting awards and a new movie legend was born.

But since then, The Joker’s Glasgow grin has become a bit of a pop culture icon, finding itself on plenty of pop art items. I am not talking about Heath Ledger, who might or might not become the James Dean of our generation, but solely about his Joker, who makes Jack’s Joker a Joke… (some pun intended). Not only do we see his face on T-shirts and other clothing, but it actually became a hip thing to wear Joker-type make-up, on special occasions, like weddings and funerals… just kidding, but you do see plenty of Joker faces at concerts or clubs or whatnot. Youtube is filled with “Joker make-up tutorials”.

This face of evil might just become the next big thing in iconic pop images. Take down your Don Corleone and Scarface posters, replace them with the “Why so serious ?” series. Tatoo artists, start practicing Heath Ledger’s face lines. Pretty soon, it will become one of those images that few will remember where it came from, but they’ll know it’s cool to sport it. And the truth is, it is cool. I’m hesitant in claiming that it will equal the Che mania, but there will be a few bands in the future that will reference some of Joker’s lines, some parodies very soon, Halloween masks, the make-up craze will hit the mainstream and you’ll see a buch of pop stars all looking like pretty sexy versions of The Joker doing machine-gun moves and wetting their lips after every word. Just keep an eye on the process to see it unfolding step by step in front of us… And if I’m wrong I’ll probably delete this post, so no one will know…

SEE THE SIGN OF THE COMING

Madonna – Forbidden Love : Deep Dance

Niki N. Phaser — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:38:41 +0000

Confessions on a Dance Floor marks another stage and another successful comeback in Madonna’s career, bringing in record numbers all over the world and creating the inertia on which Hard Candy‘s triumph was originated. Lead single Hung Up also did its part of the job, as well as the other three that followed. If choosen as a single, Forbidden Love would have surely prooved to be a hit, but, truth be told, it’s not just pure dance energy like Hung Up, for example. This track holds the strange combination of being a very danceable serious song. It sounds as profound as some Gregorian piece and yet it’s filled with ethereal synths and powerful beats, which make the song seem like a really dirty ‘da-club’ remix, all courtesy of Stuart Price aka Thin White Duke. The somber electro moods do a great job in emphasizing the grandeur of the song’s theme. Love is regarded from a philosophical/existential point of view: “Are we supposed to be together, We seal the destiny forever”. It’s written so that it would fit any kind of ‘forbidden love’ and no matter how free-minded we think the world is there are still plenty of forbidden loves out there. Just think about it, there are plenty of loves you yourself would forbid… In live performances on her Confessions Tour, Madonna went for some religious meaning, brilliantly suggested through coregraphy as you can see in the following video:

LIVE PERFORMANCE OF Forbidden Love

David Bowie – 5.15 The Angels Have Gone : Limbo

Niki N. Phaser — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:28:36 +0000

Chances are that this very moment somewhere in the world two Bowie fans are fighting over which period was better. The work of a man who’s been 50 years in the music world should be divided in periods. For practical purposes, if not because of the sound and image changes. With such a huge catalogue and such a huge talent, there are plenty of non-single masterpieces to choose from, but right now I’ll go for 5.15 The Angels Have Gone from the 2002 classic Heathen, which probably has the most cool cover of all David Bowie albums. You can see from most of the Heathen tracks that the author was in a relaxed zone – there was no pressure, just the joy of making music or of playing it (the album features a few covers, including The Pixies’ Cactus). 5.15 The Angels Have Gone itself has a very chillout vibe, with plenty of seraphic choirs and bells and chime effects. Still, halfway in, you get a drum solo, performed most likely by Bowie himself and, of course, some slap bass (he just couldn’t help it). The airy sound contributes to imagery suggested through lyrics like “5:15 ,Train overdue, Angels have gone, No ticket”, which makes you believe that here Bowie sees limbo as this train station, where you change trains, which will take you either in Heaven or the other place. This is a very luminous piece of music, without it being upbeat. It’s not the kind of song that will cheer you up when you’re feeling down, but it will provide some sort of distance from whatever is happening in your life at that moment.

LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE

The Pixies – “Happy Birthday, Doolitle” Tour

Niki N. Phaser — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:30:43 +0000

The Pixies have some good news for European fans: they will celebrate Doolitle‘s twentieth birthday with several shows, in UK, Holland, Germany, France and Belgium. The tour starts in octomber. In The Cure-Trilogy tradition, they will play their 1989 album in its entirety. Most dates will be in the UK, since this is the place where they were first embraced, Doolitle charting at number eight here, at the time of its release.

In case you are not that familiar with the tracklisting of said album, don’t worry, you will hear a whole bunch of your favourites, even though Where Is My Mind? might miss, since it was recorded on their first full-length venture. Still, you’ll get to hear Frank Black scream both Tame and Hey, while your more melodic needs will be met by crowd-pleaser Here Comes Your Man or love-song parody La La Love You. For those craving for some raw Kim Deal bass, Debaser and Gouge Away will have your stomach vibrate, be at peace.

One thing is sure: this is a great chance to see a band that becomes more and more comfortable with their legend status and those of you who do attend, be sure to make a lot of noise, cheer like crazy, maybe one of these day they might just decide to drop some new material on us.

THE PIXIES PERFORM Here Comes Your Man LIVE

Sonic Youth – New Hampshire : Where eras collide

Niki N. Phaser — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:45:54 +0000

Sonic Youth are not the kind of band you first hear of through a video you see on MTV. Therefore, the whole concept of the single is quite irrelevant to them. Another thing one might state about this band is that their work could be, with few exceptions, divided into two categories, eras, whatever: the crazy, extremely experimental one with unique impossible to reproduce tunnings and the more accessible one, which you don’t have to be a snob to appreciate. New Hampshire, a track from Sonic Nurse (2004) contains the best of both worlds. There are plenty of weird tunnings in it, but they are played with fingers, not hardware. It’s quite a melodic song, despite being filled with layers and layers of guitars and their subtle effects. The vocals are carefully laid on the music, which is not something that happens too often with Sonic Youth records. Lyrically, it’s as confusing and puzzling as they can get. B.B. King gets mentioned at one point and also some New Hampshire boys, but, let’s be honest, no one listens to Sonic Youth for their lyrics. It’s the things they do with that instrument of the devil, named electric guitar, that capture us.

LISTEN TO LIVE VERSION HERE

A new chance to see Blondie in action

Niki N. Phaser — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:59:45 +0000

New wave punk legends, Blondie, will start a North American summer tour pretty soon, i.e. July 18, in Oakville, California. The 31 dates trip will give American fans plenty of chances to hear their favourite songs performed live by those who wrote them and not the yearly crop of covers. The band is working on new material to record a follow-up to 2003′s The Curse of Blondie, but don’t let that worry you, this will be a greatest hits tour, so songs like Call Me, Rapture, Heart of Glass, One Way or Another or The Tide is High will surely be checked. To make the event a perfect 80′s nostalgia party, Blondie will be co-headlining the tour with Love Is a Battlefield darling and Will Ferrell favourite, Pat Benatar. On several dates, The Donnas and The Romantics will serve as special guests. Tickets are still available, so don’t miss the chance to see Debbie Harry still rockin’ it at 64.

SEE BLONDIE LIVE