Gee muses

I’m a heretic. The best album by a Seattle band wasn’t recorded by Nirvana. Oh no. Or Pearl Jam. Nup. Soundgarden … sorry. Alice In Chains, never. No, the best album EVER recorded by a Seattle band is Dust by The Screaming Trees. A beautiful insouciant mixture of raw grunge, hard rock, psychedelia and melody driven by the fiercest rhythm section of them all, burnished with guitarist Gary Lee Conner ’s elegant licks and monster riffs and capped by the sublime vocals of Mark Lanegan. Dust was massively under-rated but was Kerrang’s album of the year in 1996.

Just as under-rated but coming out of Cincinnati, Ohio, were the Afghan Whigs, a band whose records embraced a sound that harked back to Phil Spector and delivered it’s soul-licked alt-rock with a vastness that embedded elements of every generation since Phil’s widescreen wonder. By sheer chance they were also the first non-Northwestern band to record for Seattle’s Sub Pop label. And like the Trees, their elegant muse was capped by supreme vocals - in this case those of Greg Dulli.

Turn the clock forward and Dulli and Lanegan are now the Gutter Twins, a pairing that is as perfect as it is a bed of contrasts. It’s step on from their collaborations in Dulli’s post-Wigs outfit, the thoroughly excellent, Twilight Singers, and a chance not only for two of the last 20 years’ finest singers and songwriters to bounce off each other but also for those two marvellous voices to spar with one another. Their debut album, Saturnalia, is splendid, big yet stripped back, bare yet full. Songs such as the epic God’s Children - a wonderful, haunting post-psych atmosphere that just defines rock at its most elegiac, the rumbling, brooding Circle The Fringe, the darkly shimmering I Was In Love With You, and the confessional, salvation seeking, All Misery Flowers, are as fine as anything the two men have delivered. And let’s not forget the strutting idle Hands. The Trees would have devoured this one.

Dulli is in a Los Angeles recording studio where he’s working on the next Twilight Singers album. (more…)

It’s a long way to the top if you want to … and Regurgitator have. Now they don’t as much. In their halcyon days The Gurge as we fondly dubbed ‘em, sucked a lot of you know what, danced around in videos with animal suits on - Which Warner’s heavyweight executive was in one of those costumes? My lips are sealed!, made cheap keyboards a comeback novelty, veered erratically from the end of the punk rope to the top candy-smeared pop schtick. The singles and albums flowed to the top end of the charts. The Gurge were mighty. Their moments came and went. And when the fizzle and razzle and dazzle faded, they accepted the movement and passing of time with grace and just got on with what it is they do. Now Regurgitator are on an indie label and are a well-inured-in-the-psyche cult band. They will never be less than good because they are that talented. Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely, Peter Kostic and new girl Seja Vogel, take a bow. You deserve it.

Ely, a splendidly friendly Queenslander who is as well known in that State’s underground scene (he’s played in any number of side projects) as he is for his exploits in The Gurge. At home in Glebe, yes, he’s moved out of Queensland, he talks happily about some 15 years or so in and out of the spotlight.

“It’s not so intense now,” he says. “We don’t take it all as seriously as we used to, we don’t tour as often. Quan now lives in Hong Kong while Pete and I live in Sydney and Seja in Brisbane so we’re quite spread out.

“I think we appreciate it more now though because we do it less; you tend to take it for granted when it’s all you do all the time. Now we do a show in, say, Manly or Dubbo and a crowd turns-up and we tend to put a lot more into the show. It’s more of a fantastic thing. less is more when it comes to the band and music.”

The band’s sixth and most recent album, Love And Paranoia, has been dubbed by the band as it’s first romance album. Think broad definition of romance. After all, Blood & Spunk and Drinking Beer Is Awesome, aren’t exactly Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, although at the same time the allegory and associated imagery does linger in a twice removed 21st century kind of way. Anyway, it’s not a balls and all Gurge record but it is - as usual - a lot of fun and perfectly entertaining.

In a way though, Regurgitator are now in a new world. The old kids on the block. Fans who were 16 when the band first appeared are now in their 30s; others in their late 20s are into their 40s.

“Our audience has been amazing. Very dedicated. We genuinely appreciate the fact they are still coming out to see us,” Ben says. “I mean it’s like ‘Thanks for coming out and here’s a song you’ve heard 500,000 times before … ‘.” And while he jests, Ely does recognise that initially The Gurge’s timing couldn’t have been better.
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Roisin Murphy is a character. Poised to appear in Australia at the V Festival, she’s been tipped off that the Reid brothers, Jim and William, better known as the songwriting partnership that drives feedback and sustain dark rock merchants, The Jesus And Mary Chain, are on the bill. This titillates her no end. “I don’t know what they are going to do,” she laughs. “They’ll end up with a suntan. Maybe they’ll send on somebody out on stage with umbrellas. I mean, all that light and sun.”

This is the third time round the musical rink with Murphy in the past six years and it’s always a pleasure, simply because she never really holds anything back. The former lead singer of Moloko became an instant celebrity when the band released its debut album, Do You Like My Tight Sweater?, and thousands of fans answered in the affirmative. Sexy, with a voice to die before, drawn to the cutting edge yet with an ear for sweet melody, Murphy and her then boyfriend, Mark Brydon, made four albums over nine years all of which proved that electronica really could be both intelligent and passionate. Their music dripped class. In 2003, after the release of Statues, Brydon backed out of doing any PR and Moloko hasn’t been seen since. Murphy has refused to say it’s over for good but she hasn’t said much else about the band either. Instead she’s continued on where Moloko left off producing two excellent solo albums, Ruby Blue, and last year’s Overpowered. Splendid, slightly eccentric, brimming with ideas they underscore her place on the top rung of 21st century songwriters. Remarkably, with Overpowered, she created a modern disco album that doesn’t suck.

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‘heima’ is icelandic for ‘at home’ or ‘homeland’ and this film follows the band as they embarked on a series of free concerts in Iceland.

Jean-Benoît Dunckel (JB) holds what is probably a rare distinction. He studied mathematics before forming his band, Air, in 1995 with Nicolas Godin. Not only is he smart, but he’s also charming, witty and a composer of considerable grace. And he has reason to be content. Air’s electronic moods and atmospheres have graced five sublime studio albums and the duo’s work has found a place in modern culture through its consistent use as backdrop on television shows. They have also composed specifically for films. There are few better modern soundtracks than their beautiful, dark yet richly evocative sophomore album, The Virgin Suicides, for Sofia Coppola’s serene film, and the soundtrack to the excellent Scarlet Johansson/Bill Murray flick, Lost In Translation, contained several contributions from Air.

Then there is the name itself: Air … is a backronym for Amour, Imagination, Rêve which translates to Love, Imagination, Dream. And, yes, that is backronym. It is a phrase that is constructed “after the fact” from a previously existing word or abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or an acronym. So now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s sweetly switch continents to France and Paris where the capital is shivering through winter. JB has a place on the north side of town, near the North Station which apparently is a very important station, in fact, he says, the No 1 station in Europe. Lines end, merge, takeoff and link from there.

JB has just returned from a holiday in the south of France that included some skiing and is now visiting the studio daily. “One day I work on a song then I might get rid of it. Sometimes it’s annoying but I like it. It’s a chance to pass an entire day making music which is what I enjoy.

“I see all my friends going to work in offices. Some are working for big companies and have a lot of pressure on their shoulders. It’s really bad; it can kill you. In music, sure you have some pressure but it’s also art. Every day you work creatively, it is a much better way to be.”

By the time Air reach Australia for the 2008 V Festival, recording of the follow up to 2007’s Pocket Symphony will be underway in the band’s new studio, hopefully for a release date of late 2008.

“The last album was really about something peaceful and calm,” JB says. “A work in the zen musical attitude but for the new one we want to change again. I didn’t like so much the cold aspect of the last one. I want to do something warmer, more dirty in its feel, blacker. I want more soul in it.”
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Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason sounds like he either suffering from an extremely heavy night out or he has the worst cold in history. His voice is deep, fogged out, almost-but-not-quite-yet croaky as the co-founder of quirky Icelandic group, Mum, surveys Manchester’s somewhat bleak and cold streets from a tour bus. It is 9.40am - unnaturally early for many musicians but Örvar is seemingly in a good mood. The group played the hip London club for alternative events, Scala, the night before and the gig went well. “I’m a not a big fan of playing in London,” he says. “Sometimes it can be difficult. It was a very good audience which is quite unusual for that city.”

It’s 10 years since Mum gently prodded its genuinely appealing experimental muse into the marketplace. Gentle vocals, predominantly female, odd beats and effects, more electronic than traditional instrumentation, more digital than real sound. Yet in all that unpredictability, there was always a firm melody. Something of beauty. Until now, their excellent fourth album, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy, and it’s wonderfully titled first single They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded. Things have changed in Mum, you see. Singer Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir left the band in 2006 following in the distant footsteps of her twin sister, Gyða, who left in 2002. The remaining duo, Örvar and Gunnar Örn Tynes, took the chance to break with tradition and bring in a bunch of new musicians including two singers, Mr Silla and Hildur Guðnadóttir.

The result is the first Mum album where instruments dominate over - or at least break even with - electronic sound, where the melodies play and even bigger part, where lyrics are written from a broader, less feminine perspective (although Örvar does disagree with this). It is a genuinely attractive and compelling album. “Very much so,” Örvar says. “It is probably one of the albums I am happiest with. I enjoyed the way it came out. When Kristín left we were joined by our friends in a much larger way [sic]. We worked very well together. We didn’t have alot of discussions. We just got on with it and saw what happened.
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A decade and six albums since being unearthed by JJJ in 1996, Endorphin is in a happy place. His new album, Soon After Silence, sees him veer into a textured world of sound that’s moodier, deeper and less beats driven than before. The DJ and composer meet and exchange notes. His wife and two daughters make it a family picture. She took the photos for the cover, the girls sang. He produced as well. Once a major league star, Endorphin is now impressively free.

Soon After Silence is both subtle and personal; a homage to his French roots – he lived in Paris for many years before coming to Australia in 1984 – and the places that have coloured his landscape since.

“I wanted to make an album that was very artistic and inspired by France and Brooklyn and Japan, the places along the way. It is my personal record, for a lot of reasons. The way it came about was I moved house about one and a half years ago into an amazing environment. I’m still in Sydney but now my studio has a view. And I signed a big contract with a music licensing company in Hollywood for which I write a lot of music for film so the financial pressure became a lot less great. That allowed me to decide that I’d do what I wanted to do and do something close to my heart.

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