The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.
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At Breaking Point: Black Sabbath’s Sabotage Revisited | The Quietus
“It was also almost inevitable that at some point the band would reach a creative crossroads. Iommi wanted to keep experimenting in the studio and investigate new directions, while Ozzy hankered after the early years of knocking it out in a few days and then hitting the road. The spectre of the emerging American FM radio sound also looms over Sabotage as the band’s popularity in the US continued to mushroom (my favourite example of the apparent disconnect between Sabbath’s proto-doom metal and the stadium rock culture they were increasingly living inside is their performance at the California Jam show in 1974 – Ozzy implores the audience, “C’mon, let’s have a party!!” while Iommi stands in front of a giant rainbow grinding out the opening chords to ‘Children of the Grave’). All of which makes for an album that’s reaching out to more mainstream rock tastes (without fatally over-balancing yet) while also trying to pull new rabbits out of the hat – the fact that it’s as enjoyable, and at times genre-defining, as it is shows how imaginative and resilient Sabbath were even under considerable duress.”
Eric Avery Talks Selling Out | The Talkhouse
“In spite of being raised in a household financed by a struggling actor, I didn’t learn anything useful in my young life about the challenges of living on an artist’s unreliable income. In my adolescence, punk rock taught me that you never sell out. Ever. Of course, things like selling out were entirely theoretical at that point. No one was trying to pay me a salary to make music — I couldn’t even yet imagine it. Just a few years later, though, I was able to leave my last day job selling Dr. Martens boots at a small store called NaNa’s. The surprising popularity of my band, Jane’s Addiction, and the money we made in spite of the fuck-all attitude of our decision-making, enabled my youthful, uncompromising artistic worldview to extend far beyond my adolescence. I hadn’t yet found a replacement that incorporated both the creative life and its newly acquired dimension of regular employment. Artist, not yet artisan.”
Looking at 20 Years of Mogwai | Pitchfork
“We tend to believe that art is—or at least should be—an all-encompassing thing: If you’re doing it right, you aren’t doing anything else, and your identity can’t help but be consumed in the process. But Mogwai’s longevity suggests that good art isn’t synonymous with self-destruction or self-delusion; nor is it endangered by normalcy or decency—in fact, it can be built on those things.”
LISTEN
Spirit Level — Wanderer
There’s an intoxicating quality to Spirit Level’s simple repetition. The jangly acoustics almost recall the tinny treble of old video game soundtracks, and I can’t tell if the images of landscapes conjured on my head are of real meadows or waves of pixel green. In any case, this latest taste from Lyndon Blue and Rupert Thomas is perfect zone-out music for lazy Sunday afternoons.
Facemeat — Compliments To Your Band
Like some kind of Mr. Bungle-soundtracked Lynchian nightmare, the first track on Questions for Men induces furrowed brows, indigestion and inexplicable feelings of arousal. Facemeat are the antidote to easy listening. Questions for Men is out August 25 through Art as Catharsis.
WATCH
Lanark — Mojave (Live at Foxhole Studios)
Judging by their recent live shows, Lanark’s new material has taken a sinister shift, forgoing Damian Diggs’ celestial vocal melodies for an alternating synth/guitar assault that moves from comfortably sublime to nervous and unsettling several times a song. Last month, the quintet debuted another new cut at the recently-opened Foxhole Studios, forwhich the pro-shot video has just emerged. There’s a welcome heaviness to the track, and though it’s likely a good half-year before anything’s put to wax, exciting things are ahead for one of Perth’s best-kept secrets.
