The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.
READ
Are Depeche Mode Metal’s Bigget Secret Influence? | Rolling Stone
“As with like-minded groups the Cure and New Order, Depeche Mode’s mid-Eighties appeal to Future Metal Leaders of the World lied in an almost morbid, matter-of-fact gothy iconoclasm. What set them apart from their peers, though – other than a sparing use of guitar – were the ornate lattices of synthesizer counterpoints and clanging rhythms that defined their albums beginning with 1984’s Some Great Reward (and its hit “People Are People”) onward. It’s a sound that has gone on to inspire many industrial bands, notably Nine Inch Nails and Ministry (though the latter, who started out sounding like Depeche Mode, would later disavow them). That sound would become increasingly sexually charged and trance-inducing on albums like 1986’s Black Celebration, the following year’s Music for the Masses and their masterpiece Violator.”
Alternative nation’s last stand: Lollapalooza 1995, an oral history | Washington Post
“Lollapalooza ’95 would mark alt-rock’s peak, and the beginning of its decline. Metallica would headline the festival the next year, radio station megashows would begin to compete for headliners and the genre eventually collapsed on itself with the arrival of shamelessly commercial bands such as Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind.
But on the road, in those twilight days of alt-rock, life was crazy, fractious, boring — and hot. While some made friends for life, there were outcasts, at least one backstage brawl and even an altercation with the audience.. It was the world’s strangest summer camp, populated by artsy rock stars, a disappearing diva and one giant, inflatable Buddha.”
LISTEN
Tideland — All I Know
There’s an earnest quality behind the slacker vocals of this first track from Tideland’s Love Luster. You hear it in the verses more than anything else — those subtle fluctuations in delivery that expose an emotional nerve and make the song all the more endearing. It’s all guitars awash the rest of the time, and even though this kind of song could’ve easily been made two decades, there’s a timeless vitality to Tideland’s irresistible hooks. All I Know is out August 21 through Robotic Empire.
WATCH
GWAR and Regional Identity in Richmond, VA | TEDxRVA
Though this particular GWAR performance is Cuttlefish– and beheading-free, there is a de-skinning to introduce this thesis on the relevance of GWAR to Richmond, VA, courtesy of GWAR Slave Dr. Michael Bishop. In his talk, Bishop examines how the coalescence of Richmond’s urban decay and the GWAR members’ academic disillusionment with Virginia Commonwealth University led to the creation of one of the most fascinating and enduring art projects-turned-global-musical-phenomenon’s in the the last half-century.
Sumac — Live at Warsaw
There are few things on this Earth heavier than the force of Aaron Turner, Nick Yacyshyn and Brian Cook. This live clip from a recent show at Warsaw in New York shows you why the trio is the best supergroup in metal right now.
