…and…
Loving the new Devo album, pretty much from beginning to end. How fortunate for the “Devolution” movement that leader Mark Mothersbaugh finally decided to get back into the ring. His close friend, the late Doug Fieger of The Knack had an idea for a “Rock & Roll Funhouse Tour” what would have featured Devo, The Knack, and Cheap Trick. What a great name! Devo was amazing at Coachella and will tour this summer…Being a former label guy probably helped, but I really liked “Get Him to the Greek”… I wished I loved the four Arcade Fire songs that have leaked so far. They’re solid but lack the character we’ve come to expect from these guys. Imagine the enormous pressure on them, given that they’ve influenced more artists than anyone in the past 15 years. Someone who saw them play live said that none of the new material sounds like the band’s imitators, which is fine, but the hope is that the full-length will find some new ground to break…Glad to see The Drums debut at #16 on the UK album chart this week. They’re talented, intelligent guys, and you can catch my SXSW interview with them on my main site…What’s up with the singles charts over there? There are no rock songs listed until Yaz and New Order check-in at 20 and 22. Fyfe Dangerfield and Pendulum also managed to crack the top 40. Word from BBC Radio 1 is that dubstep is about to be very big over there. Some cool stuff, but this isn’t the rock-oriented British pop world that we’ve known and loved… The reformed British group 22-20’s played at Spaceland last week and their album drops next Tuesday. They’re very good live but I miss a certain rawness that they had a few years back…Upcoming shows over the next 10 days include Delphic, John Fratelli, Iron Maiden, Gogol Bordello, Sharon Jones & Dap-Kings, and Heavy. How’s that for variety? I’ll post all of the reviews in a summary of June shows…Finally, Steve Jobs found that his new iPhone wasn’t working with he presented it at the recent Apple Developers Conference. He asked if anyone had a solution and someone from the audience yelled, “Verizon!”
RAVE ON!!