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

THE KILLERS A Dustland Fairytale VIDEO

I am sad to say and maybe some of you are sad to admit that The Cure’s previous album, The Cure (2004), should have been their last. It was one of those rare cases when a collection of new material is as good as the band’s best of. It had everything, from catchy poppy singles, like The End of the World and Taking Off to pain-filled poems like Lost and The Promise. The agent of their ever present dark side is a track called Anniversary and it could be described as One Hundred Years in slow-motion. It’s filled with the Cure-like phaser effects and delayed piano keys and echoes in some apocaliptic distance. It grows and grows and you just get tangled in all the sounds as if in a spider web (you get the reference, right?). We could almost call it music as a fit of some disease that causes amnesia. The lyrics are as ambiguous as ever when Robert Smith is in his dark moods. You never really know if the woman he’s talking to is alive or dead. The beginning of each verse with the line “A year ago today/tonight” doesn’t offer to much hope for the first option. The end, “I never let you go”, suggests a feeling of not moving on… Anyway, it’s not really about words with this one, it’s about the atmosphere. The music is uplifting, yes, but more in the “my spirit is going to Heaven because I’m dead” sense of the word.

LISTEN TO LIVE VERSION HERE

Ok, so the truth is French music gets a bit overlooked around the world. Most non-English-language music does. But even if you might have some difficulties understanding the lyrics, you can still appreciate a well-crafted song. To test the theory give Quand Viendra L’Heure a try. The song is a collaboration between dark rock band, ACWL and Nicola Sirkis, the frontman of not-so-dark rock band Indochine. It’s a two-faced piece of music, half lullaby, half heavy metal lullaby, but all feeling, no surface. It starts gentle with bells and chimes and poetry-reciting-like vocals. Sirkis’ voice is manly and pretty low, but Clin’s adds an unnatural feel to it, as if some Victorian ghost is haunting her husband. The first half is quite soothing, suggesting abstract images dissolving into each other. Then, the drums kick in and bring with them short and heavy guitar hits and you feel the storm coming, but it never does… It all becomes darker, but there is no destructive climax. That reciting of the track’s title is followed by dying voices which stop the song from becoming aggressive. It is weird and lullaby-esque, but still quite a banger, once you get the hang of it. Maybe you woun’t really dance to it, but you woun’t stand still either. You should check out the video, too. Also, even if you are not into Quand Viendra L’Heure, you should “taste” ACWL and Indochine. They are some of France’s best.

THE WONDERFUL VIDEO FOR Quand Viendra L’Heure

Placebo seem to have enraged “the machine” and, of course, by that I mean the labelzilla Virgin, who previously “owned” them for more than a decade. The trio decided to go indie and sign with a label (PIAS) only for distribution, paying themselves for their new album, Battle for the Sun. In recent interviews, they’ve admitted to not being very happy on the Virgin mothership, especially after the guys who brought them in, were fired.

To slap the wrist of the alternative idols and cash in one final check off of them, Virgin decided to release a boxset containing all Placebo albums, except the last one, of course, an album of B-sides, one of live recordings and two dvd’s. As if trying the “if you are a real fan”-blackmail wasn’t enough, the label decided to release the boxset on the 8th of June. For those unaware of recent Placebo history, this is the release date (announced in march) of Battle for the Sun.

So, is this a cautionary tale for bands leaving their violent, brutal, come-home-drunk-late-at-night-demanding-a-hot-meal labels? Well, not in Placebo’s case. Their record debuted in the top 10 in several countries, their gig-agenda is record-breaking (the british band with the most dates this summer). Everybody already knows that big labels are part of the “machine”, so I guess this is just another specific example.

source: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

The answer I choose to sponsor regarding the Corgan-Pumpkins dilemma is: I don’t really care, as long as the music is still good. With their Zeitgeist album, the controversy was pretty much based around the same issue: is it still Smashing Pumpkins without James Iha and Melissa Auf der Maur (who did nicely by herself, by the way)? I don’t know, but the album was part amazing (Bleeding the Orchid), part good (For God and Country) and after all, the music is all that matters. So, Billy, do your best and let us know when it’s done!

On the other hand, I must admit that this whole situation must be really nasty for a hardcore Pumpkins fan. It must be really frustrating to keep changing the posters on your wall… (just joking, sorry).

Since then, Liquido became one of the first things that comes to mind, whenever someone asks me what is my favourite band. Songs like What You Keep Inside, The Opera, Way to Mars, Valentine and others showed me that this band can also

source: www.rock-in-den-ruinen.de

be serious and profound if they want to. Please don’t read the former remark as a diss for their trademark upbeat poppy songs. Not at all. I’m just trying to say that Liquido is more than a one-hit-wonder, they are simply… a wonder.

Its sad what happened to them, but it also shows what horrible thing music industry can be. A lot of lame bands are promoted for all the wrong reasons, forced into the charts and shaped as legends, even though they don’t deserve it. Anyway, Liquido are survived by five kick-ass albums, which will grow and make them proud. Also, singer Wolfgang Schrödl started a new band, Cages, which sounds pretty good, even though a bit harder than what we are used to from him. Liquido, you will be missed…