The video I've chosen for you today is "The Reflex", Duran Duran's magnum opus from 1984 (technically, it starts in Part 6, but any excuse for a Duran Duran video!). However, instead of the normal single version video, I've dug out the version from 1984's concert video and live album "Arena". If you haven't seen 'Arena (AN ABSURD NOTION)' and you're a fan of the 80s, then shame on you: it's the most perfectly eighties thing of any description, anywhere! It features Dr Durand Durand - the character from Barbarella from where the band took their name - making his way back from the psychadelic void (to where he'd been banished in the film) and attempting to take over the earth again. Only Duran Duran and their many fans can stop them. It's all quite bonkers and utterly magnificent:

Shenanigans in the Eighties - Part 7:

Format: mp3

Size: 10.1Mb

Tracklisting:

Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
Wham! - I'm Your Man
Man 2 Man featuring Man Parrish - Male Stripper
New Order - Blue Monday

Click here to download “Shenanigans in the Eighties Part 7″

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To take my mind off  that temptation, I've been fleshing out the skeletal fictional history that resulted in the dystopian future that serves as the setting for the novel.  Yet, every so often, I find myself staring off into the blue sky and starting to rearrange chapters, add new characters, etc.  Now, I'm pretty sure (or at least I'm hoping!) that this is the completely normal process of letting my brain peck away at the thing until it starts to take coherent shape just in time for me to embark on the second draft.

In the meantime, I've always got that song . . .

Why do I tell you this?  Basically because of the fact that a more recent song has followed this trend for me.  And these days, I cannot go without listening to it on repeat (with a few breaks for "Rebellion," of course) whenever I am back in my dorm. 

No, I do not speak of the new Nickelback song.  I do hope that no one expecting that of me; I'd be disappointed if you did.

I am talking about The Killers' newest single, "Human." 

"Human" was released to the digital world on the 30th of September.  Being a dedicated checker of iTunes' Music Store every day, I can count myself among those that listened to it that same day.  And my feelings, I must say, were mixed.  I just wasn't sure about it.

Five days later, I was hooked. 

And then there was the brilliant SNL performance. 

The thing that surprises me, I suppose, is the fact that I did/do not consider myself a huge Killers fan.  Yet, if their new album (Day & Age, November 25th) sounds anything like the lead single, I might have to change that. 

I guess that what appeals to me most is the new sound they seem to be exhibiting.  It's slightly reminiscent of an earlier song of theirs, 2006's "Read My Mind," which was the only Killers song on my iPod prior to "Human."  It's the electronica-influence that sells it for me.  To me, The Killers are becoming a modern day New Order.  Don't know New Order?  Here's one of their more popular songs, one many will likely know.

I am not saying that The Killers' new sound is EXACTLY like New Order, of course.  It is merely what I take from it... considering, mainly, the electronic-rock sound.  And as I consider myself a big fan of New Order, you can be sure that I'm loving this.

Of course, there are some nonsensical lyrics that no one's really been able to officially figure out yet ("Are we human?  Or are we dancer?").  Precision Language has taught me that THIS IS WRONG.  And no one else can seem to figure it out either: some wonder if there's an invisible 's' at the end (a likely  story... or not...) that denotes plurality, while others attribute it to an old Hunter S. Thompson quotation lamenting that "America (was) raising a generation of dancers."  I like the Thompson explanation better, don't you?

Whatever the meaning, the fact still remains that "Human" is one of the better songs that The Killers have released.  I recommend that each and every one of you listen to it... you might like it and you might not; I cannot account for another's taste.

November 25th seems so far away...

The last song of Joy Division and the first song of New Order.

Sometimes bands are adamant and New Order was always the casing example. When asked to do Top of the Pops back in the UK in the early eighties the BBC told them they had to mime…they told them they didn’t have to do anything.

Top of the Pops had been the flagship pop program in the UK for many years and were very aware of their importance to the record companies…and in return they were used to doing it their way. The band weren’t being awkward, they just said if they couldn’t do it live they didn’t want to do it at all. No one had ever said this to the BBC, as TOTP was seen as an important component to the continuing success of a record, a vital cog in the promotional wheel. You appeared and the record went up the charts. New Order appeared, played live and the record dropped the following week! Another first for New Order and for Factory….…and another first for Top of the Pops though I'm not so sure they'd be as keen to mention it.... that had never before happened in the history of the show.

You have to admire them for it though, Barney the singer said he’d feel stupid miming and I’m with them on that. They have always been a very popular band and sold millions of records but everything they ever did was of their own doing, rarely from any threat from the label. Factory weren’t like that, they tended to sign artists for their integrity, mostly! and in the belief that they would go away and make the record that the public would want. They might suggest things like a producer or someone they might want to meet and possibly work with but if the band didn’t want to do it, then it was fine.

I worked for Factory doing their regional promotion from day one and a continuing relationship that lasted ten years. I have very fond memories of Tony Wilson and the first time I met him and then many years later when I told him about promotion and what to do with Blue Monday.... and I’ll talk plenty more on here about that. Factory comprised of some great people both at the label and in the bands, many of whom I am still in touch with. We all went through some very testing times and it was an emotional rollercoaster. They nearly cost me my business when they went bust owing me a considerable amount of money, too much of a hit to take back then and at any time for that matter but I managed, things changed and I survived. More than the money and more than anything I’ll always remember the day they closed the doors at Factory…for ever.

was macht man eigentlich, wenn einen die div. Hartz4 Sendungen im Fernsehen langweilen und MTV schon lange nicht mehr das spielt was man gerne hören möchte ?

Man baut sich seinen eigenen kleinen TV Kanal und sendet ihn auf MySpace.

Das macht Spaß und man kann sich sein eigenes Liedchen pfeifen ...

Probiert es ... Nick Nitro

unlike the others

in world time,

sun waiting to rise

with it's silver keel,

on the shining shores

among the old ways.

In a world play,

the companies are sunday papers

we bundle and throw at the door

then dispose of with the kitchen trash,

it didn't matter,

they're good for the day.

Did you sleep, in the new way?

The door closed but not,

the job open but not

same as the other lack luster labor

no need to advertise the same.

The world sings

about the sameness, the shameness

roots cut off and burned,

Keep the door closed,

we knew the outcome, but

didn't expect this.

 I thought I'd simply.

dlb

6 Oct 08

World Thoughts

move- 1275, from Anglo-Fr. movir (O.Fr. moveir), from L. movere "move, set in motion" (pp. motus, freq. motare), from PIE base *meue- (cf., Skt. kama-muta "moved by love" and probably mivati "pushes, moves;" Lith. mauti "push on;" Gk. ameusasthai "to surpass," amyno "push away").

ment- from L.L. mentalis "of the mind," from L. mens (gen. mentis) "mind," from PIE base *men- "to think" (cf. Skt. matih "thought, mind,")

emotion- from M.Fr. emotion, from O.Fr. emouvoir "stir up," from L. emovere "move out, remove, agitate," from ex- "out" + movere "to move" (see move).

Press here

This little trick has movement (or pushes the mind) without really moving. It has to do with moire pattern overlays. Czech this one out. The wikipedia entry also points out that these patterns occur in nature (cf. parrot feathers). The cat chasing the parrot. We imitate.

As a sidenote, I'm bored as a 2X4 by modern computer graphics.

Actually, game developers are relentlessly hyping up higher resolution, breaking graphics into finer and finer parts, when the real innovation was in making those parts whole again. It was all possible in 1981 when a handful of ingenious engineers released a prototype for the Atari Cosmos, the LED holoptic tabletop game. Alas, the suits gave it an emphatic NO go. Why?

Moving along, one California engineer/artist has gone further into the subtleties of *LED and motion. We should take a good look @ Jim Campbell's LED works. They're built with his own custom electronics and hand-coded. Quite mesmerizing. Imagine if they were playable. Related to my topic of motion are his amibiguous icons. Specifically the motion and rest series. Found here, just below.

This moving image has an exiguous total of 768 pixels! Compared to Sony's (insert Big Audio Dynamite song here) state of the art OLED with over half million pixel density. Nice million/1 contrast ratio, too. TVs? Smash them, Smash TV. Am I getting emotional?  No, really though, TVs are just noisy furniture. 768 red LEDs really stretch out the original video into an almost imperceptible running man. Stylin'. In person it's easier to see, when it's not translated onto a LCD screen, you can get a better feel.

There's a long history here.  Props to the inventiveness of  Etienne-Jules Marey and his chronophotographic gun, the birds being natural as only they can be. It's the little inventions, visual tools, that are really cool to me. All the rest, plasma TVs, entertainment, mindless game dev, is the guano.

The rest of it is emotion. Emotions are good if they are natural. The problem is the tools of the trade (media) can heavily manipulate. And you buy into it. Advertising, movies, news all propaganda. And just as an observation, they're pushing us around, but it's a two-way street. Look within. Find stillness. Then move (cf., Skt. kama-muta "moved by love" and probably mivati "pushes, moves;").

Footnote

*Not holography, unfortunately.I always thought a good band name would be The Unfortunates. Is it one? Probably, thanks to MySpace. Anyways, if we had the Atari Cosmos in 1981, this would be a different post entirely. We did have New Order's album Movement, pictured.

I covet this amazing "See No Evil Owl" tshirt from one of my favorite cheap clothiers, Forever21. The tee, a whopping $10.90, is so delicious, and might you snub your nose at a clothier such as this, but I will say that their cotton is uber-soft and their kitsch designs reasonably priced. I'm sorry, but on a student-librarian budget and the economy in the shitter, we, too, can embrace such fancies as $10 tees.

And while I absolutely hate those shops that put random band tees in their collection to putrify a generation of tweens who have no idea about the music of New Order, or Depeche Mode, I have to say that this Fact 50 tee is so yummy I desire it muchly. Is it wrong of me to embrace one such tee and spill vitriol on a whole host of others?

What's more, their knitwear items have given me inspiration. Their pointelle pom beanie is absolutely gush-worthy and while I've never figured out how to wear one of these and look like I can pull it off, this has me desiring to knit one up in copycat fashion and try, as hard as I can, to work it in coldy weather.

File Under: Expect a new series of Favorite Finds, because who doesn't adore staring and drooling over the things they covet, covet, covet.

rob gretton

Originally uploaded by Maddie Yervant

I am looking forward to reading the notebooks of the late Rob Gretton, manager of Joy Division, co-founder of Factory Records and the Hacienda. The notebooks, recovered from a secret lock-up in Manchester are published by by Rob Gretton’s widow, Lesley Gilbert, with a foreword by Jon Savage, the book condenses over 20 working notebooks into a single volume, and contains posters, letters, diaries, band manifestos and studio notes, dating from August 1978 to late 1980.

"These notebooks aren't diaries – they are not a record of Rob's emotional life during the Joy Division years – but his personality and thought processes are on show throughout. His notes on the band's image and aesthetic at the beginning of '79, for example, read like a kind of Joy Division manifesto, and underline his role as 'fifth member' of the band ... It paints a picture of post-punk Manchester and its community of like-minded musicians, promoters and journalists; and, perhaps most importantly of all, it allows us a glimpse of a one of Manchester music's most influential yet elusive characters: it is the real Rob Gretton."

* ‘1 Top Class Manager’ is strictly limited to 1500 copies and is available to pre-order now exclusively through 1 Top Class Manager

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da distante Oxford o Radiohead detona com Ceremony do New Order

"This is why events unnerve me,
They find it all, a different story..."

Nuclear deals
Communal riots
Political impotency
Corrupt veins
False promises
Notwithstanding.

Gandhi must stay

Heal hearts
Lead minds
Treat with love
Listen in patience
Nurture lives
Singlehandedly.

Gandhi must think

Powerful slogans
Empowering thoughts
New order
Fresh ideology
Bold endeavours
Forever.

Gandhi must preach

No borders
Interfaith unity
End to poverty
Self reliance
Inner strength
Unanimously.

Gandhi must cry

Unwilling friends
Failed experiments
Loss of humanity
Selfish dreams
Brittle hopes
Persisting.

Gandhi must die

Nation’s birth
Freedom on rise
Joy of creation
Public service
Golden era
Unveiling.

• Next week a book based off the notes of former Joy Division and New Order manager, the late Rob Gretton will be published.  1 Top Class Manager compiles 20 notebooks written by the manager from 1978 thru 1980.
• Tina Turner kicked off her 50th (!) anniversary tour last night.  Yours truly was there.  Tina rocks - wish the generation of young musicians coming up would go to this show...they could learn a thing or two!
• Alan McGee waxes on (and on) about Oasis in The Guardian...and there are lots of comments to his article.

Interviews

• Snow Patrol
• The Alarm
• Amanda Palmer
• "Pushing Daisies" creator, Bryan Fuller
• Travis
• Rox - is she the next 'It' singer?

I've lived my life in the valleys
I've lived my life on the hills
I've lived my life on alcohol
I've lived my life on pills

Some truly haunting lyrics from a truly unique group

Sometimes I wish it was 1983.

Do you ever rediscover something, and bask in the glory of the old becoming new? It's like listening to New Order's Power, Corruption, and Lies for the first time in 10 years, and then suddenly it makes it's way to your OnTheGo playlist because it destroys everything you've been listening to lately.

This is exactly how I feel about Robotron:2084.

My 2nd favorite game of all time (after Symphony of the Night, of course) has been available for me to play every day for the last 3 years because I work at the company that produced this motherfucking torture machine 26 years ago. We have a cabinet right up front, and lately I've been journeying up there, being mesmerized by the control scheme (TWO JOYSTICKS?!) and frantic nature of the game.

It still holds up after all these years.

I'm stealing this cabinet and bringing it into my office, seriously. Because some asshole in the Purchasing department has the Top Score, and I can't be having any of that.

Oh and cop this album and give it a listen again:

1.      Yazoo: Upstairs at Eric’s (1982)

2.      The Human League: Hysteria (1984)

3.      Thompson Twins: Into The Gap (1984)

4.      Talk Talk: It’s My Life (1984)

5.      Duran Duran: Rio (1982)

6.      Duran Duran: Duran Duran (1981)

7.      Yazoo: You and Me Both (1983)

8.      New Order: Technique (1989)

9.      Pet Shop Boys: Please (1986)

10.   ABC: Lexicon Of Love (1982)

Syntikkapopin klassikkoduo Yazoon kummatkin levyt oli helppo valita listalle. Alison Moyetin ääni ja Vince Clarken loihtimat upeat syntikkamelodiat ovat täydellinen yhdistelmä. Don’t Go, Situation, Only You, Goodbye 70’s, Nobody’s Diary ja Happy People ovat upeita biisejä, joiden taika on vieläkin tallella. Human Leaguen Hysterian ja Thompson Twinsin Into The Gapin ostin samaan aikaan loppukesästä 1984 ja kuuntelin niitä taukoamatta. Kummatkin levyt ovat täynnä upeita ja monella tapaa raikkaita popbiisejä, joiden tahdissa on ollut mahtavaa bailata. Talk Talkin It’s My Life -albumiin sisältyy paljon muistoja Anu -nimisestä tytöstä, joka oli yksi suurista nuoruuden rakkauksistani. Varsinkin äärimmäisen kaunis Renée tuo muistoja mieleeni. Duran Duranin kummatkin listalla olevat levyt ovat yksinkertaisesti täydellisiä. Girl on Film, Planet Earth, Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf ja Save a Prayer ovat suurenmoisia. New Orderin Technique -levy on minulle tärkeä, sillä sitä tuli kuunneltua parhaan kaverin kanssa todella paljon levyn ilmestyttyä. Albumin kappaleet rullaavat vaivattomasti eteenpäin ja koko levy on hieno kokonaisuus. Pet Shop Boysin Please -levy sisältää West End Girlsin, joka on mielestäni yksi parhaista kappaleista koskaan. ABC:n mestariteos Lexicon Of Lovea kuuntelin yhdessä Inka -nimisen tyttöystäväni kanssa. The Look of Love ja All Of My Heart ovat mielestäni täydellisiä popkappaleita edelleen.

Tämän listan levyt eivät ole valikoituneet tähän pelkästään musiikillisten ansioidensa takia, vaan ne ovat myös täynnä muistoja discon tanssilattialta, suurista rakkauksista ja parhaiden kavereiden kanssa vietetystä ajasta. Listan ulkopuolelle jäi monta hienoa levyä ja toisaalta listalla olevien bändien jokin toinen levy on monen mielestä varmasti parempi kuin listalla oleva. Totta, mutta muistoni nostivat nämä levyt niiden musiikillisesti parempien ohi. Listan ulkopuolelle jäi myös Depeche Mode, sillä se olisi vienyt kaiken tilan, eikä se olisi ollut tarkoituksenmukaista.

Haastan sinut tekemään samanlaisen listan ja lupaan kommentoida, kun listasi on valmis.

Famoso por sus letras depresivas, su voz de barítono y sus bailes simulando ataques epilépticos, enfermedad que él mismo padecía, de hecho, a veces, los ataques en el escenario eran verdaderos.

Love will tear us apart (el amor nos destrozará):

When the routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
And the resentment rides high
But emotions wont grow
And were changing our ways,
Taking different roads
Then love, love will tear us apart again

Why is the bedroom so cold
Turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed,
Our respect run so dry?
Yet theres still this appeal
That weve kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again

Do you cry out in your sleep
All my failings expose?
Get a taste in my mouth
As desperation takes hold
Is it something so good
Just cant function no more?
When love, love will tear us apart again

El año pasado se estreno una película sobre su corta vida, Control, que no llegó a España. Os dejo el trailer.

Un saludo y buen fin de semana a todos!

Unfortunately I cannot take complete credit for the actual mixing as it includes mashups of several tracks that I have just segued together. It's not as easy as it sounds however but I think it works pretty well.

Crusty Nomad's Party Mix (Part one)

I would like to name the other mixers in this but I'm afraid I don't have a record of who they are. If by some miracle that someone recognises individual elements I will be delighted to credit them here. What I can do is list (I think) all the artists and songs included.

• Stiltskin - Inside
• Robbie Williams - Let me entertain you
• The Office - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
• Frankie goes to Hollywood - Relax, Two Tribes
• Sister Sledge - Lost in music
• Bee Gees & N-Trance - Stayin' alive
• New Order - Blue Monday
• Tom Jones & Mousse T - Sexbomb
• Yes - Owner of a lonely heart
• Elvis vs JXL - A little less conversation

As the (Part one) implies, there is a part two and even a part three so if you want to hear them you will have to let me know.