Hard News by Russell Brown

Sorry, I don't don't have a separate clip

We really need to work on that..

not connected to anything, but I wanted to share a clip - Real Groovy has priced down a lot of their old vinyl stock, so I picked this up for cheap.

anyway, the more I hear it, the more have to keep playing it...

apparently David Holmes has used it in his latest mix wotsit.

Back in the day, I was as big a Bowie nut as your hair-man, Russell. But I was progressively alienated by <cough> Tin Machine <cough>, THAT interview with Susan Wood <shudder>, the meh Black Tie White Noise and then the execrable Heathen . Since his best work seemed to be behind him, I just wanted him to stop. The extension of his youthful exuberance and anti-establishment posturing into middle age seemed more and more embarrassing.

But the two new singles I really like. He’s confronting his age and his past, and generating new, and more relevant, personae for himself. And he still knows how to write a kicking tune. Hurrah for all that.

I particularly like the new video, and how skillfully it blends a hard-rocking sexiness with discomfort and anxiety and defeat. Bowie’s making collaborative art again. Yee haa. :-)

Also, Tricky! Thanks for the heads-up. :-)

The Basement Tapes! Mean!

mmmm Tricky. Yummy.

Bowie has always been about theatre more than anything else and the way he's stage managed his reemergence is, possibly, his best effort yet. As a long time fan (and one who actually liked a lot of his 90s and 00s work) having the first single arrive so unexpectedly felt like a gift. That the song was evocative and contemplative seemed to indicate that he was not merely after the nostalgia dollar.

Both the singles so far have, to my ears, an echo of some of the musical ideas he was exploring on Heathen and Reality. A progression rather than departure from the past. I am quite remarkably excited about the rest of the album.

New Bowie now streaming on iTunes...

Because David B is one day older than me, I have been treading on his heels all my life. Where Are We Now? is great but could be longer,

Another remarkable return is Nick Cave's new album, which is currently top-seller in NZ,

I like this track-by-track take of The Next Day, from The Quietus.

New Bowie now streaming on iTunes…

Here, to be precise.

When you've been doing anything for forty-five years, odds are there's going to be a fair amount of not-that-great stuff on the c.v. but the one thing I've got to respect Bowie for (even if I don't like the results that much) is that he's got nothing to prove to anyone any more, and he knows it. He's engaging with the culture around him, doing stuff that interests him creatively. Look at the Stones -- they released their last moderately interesting album before I hit puberty, and I'll be damned if I know why they even bother touring anymore when they could just slap a greatest hit CD on the PA and fuck off back to the hotel. Who'd notice? Who'd care?

Look at the Stones -- they released their last moderately interesting album before I hit puberty, and I'll be damned if I know why they even bother touring anymore when they could just slap a greatest hit CD on the PA and fuck off back to the hotel. Who'd notice? Who'd care?

I'm guessing Some Girls or Tattoo You? If so, I'd have to agree that they're the last of the classic Stones albums. Around the same time, Queen and David Bowie also went through visible turning points in their careers with Greatest Hits I and Scary Monsters respectively.

Mind you, 'retirement' isn't in Jagger or Richards' dictionary. If anything, they'd probably prefer to collapse dead on stage.

That the song was evocative and contemplative seemed to indicate that he was not merely after the nostalgia dollar.

Unless there's money in the sensation of nostalgia itself, in which case he's made a very canny move.

Oh it’s all thoroughly planned and staged and very, very canny. I am well aware that my emotions and perceptions are being manipulated by a master and I’m entirely good with that.

A thing that had struck me as remarkable was the completeness of Bowie's silence. The man had made a record every two years, pretty much constantly from 1967 to 2003... then a decade of silence. Given his mulling of mortality on Reality, and his brush with it on tour, I had thought that was really that.

Quite remarkably excited

for sure!

Very curious to see whether he feels the need to get up on stage again...

I think the new Cave album is poor myself and I saw that as someone for whom they're my all-time favourite band.
The actual songs are ok at best. There just seems to be little focus and effort put in to them. they meander along and really fail to grip me. But worst of all are the lyrics, far and away his worst lot in over a decade.

I liked Abbatoir Blues / Lyre and Lazarus, but Push The Sky Away is a letdown.

I think he's now at the same stage as, say, Neil Young or Leonard Cohen. A formidable reputation based on a long run of classics in his first 10 years or so, but now well into being patchy, quality-wise. There'll be a good album or two, then a clunker.

Bowie has always been about theatre more than anything else

Going out on a limb here, but I'd say that Bowie has always been more about the songs than anything else...

Going out on a limb here, but I'd say that Bowie has always been more about the songs than anything else...

I'd say it's both but the theatre has always been underpinned by extraordinary songwriting and song construction - or at least it was until about 1981 - with a bigger picture in mind. I'd hugely recommend Peter Doggett's song-by-song of Ziggy et al's journey through the 1970s if you haven't.

And that's the silly thing about all these 'greatest comeback of all time' type reviews - for Bowie to achieve anything like the artistic success and impact of his core 1971-80 period he would have to change the popular music idiom with every release as he did then (with the exception of the contract filler PinUps).

The entity of Bowie in that period was so much more than just good records - they were the bi-annual pointer towards where we were going next.

Everything he did was so defining (even if he creatively lifted from just about everyone to do so), that what is really a great album from a legacy artist (which I reckon this is) doesn't come close to what a 'David Bowie' 'comeback' would be if such were possible (and it isn't).

Ironically the one reference point I can hear time and time again on this record is the first Decca album from 1967, both vocally and in the songs. He seems to have come full circle, and if this is it as it might be, it's a cool way to go out.

In terms of the week's music, Esben and the Witch and Thoughtforms at Scala on Tuesday night were pretty hard to beat. Ears are still ringing. Four Tet on Thursday was OK as well ...

Well, if they just keep their stadium E.D.M. out of my club, that’s fine …

*cough* Pretty Lights *cough* ; ) ...which I enjoyed as much as you I think, and the extended "filthy break" in the middle of act two was I reckon just a thoughtful gesture for us old timers so we could go and get a breather and come back in for the last run.

BTW Gramatik plays here soon, and this has been on loop for me a while:

*cough* Pretty Lights *cough* ; )

Heh. But to be fair, he predates and transcends the whole E.D.M. thing

…which I enjoyed as much as you I think, and the extended “filthy break” in the middle of act two was I reckon just a thoughtful gesture for us old timers so we could go and get a breather and come back in for the last run.

I lost track of my mate. Turned out he’d popped next door to D.O.C. for a cheese toastie and a sit-down for a while.

BTW Gramatik plays here soon, and this has been on loop for me a while:

Ooh, so he is. Guess I’ll be capable of another late one by then :-)

I think he’s now at the same stage as, say, Neil Young or Leonard Cohen. A formidable reputation based on a long run of classics in his first 10 years or so, but now well into being patchy, quality-wise. There’ll be a good album or two, then a clunker.

Nothing of his has been to my taste since Abattoir, so I can't speak with certainty, but I've found his musical theatrics to somewhat underwhelming.

I like the new Bowie single. It'll be on repeat for a while.

Ironically the one reference point I can hear time and time again on this record is the first Decca album from 1967, both vocally and in the songs. He seems to have come full circle, and if this is it as it might be, it's a cool way to go out.

That's exactly what my partner said on first hearing though I hear a lot of 80s and 90s echoes too.

I've just finished the Doggett book and found most of his insights very interesting though I was perplexed by his hating on Lodger and the way that, of the later work, he seemed to rate Hours... higher than Black Tie White Noise.