Broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 2001, Top Ten: X-Rated looks at the banning of rock and rap songs and videos on radio and TV. Hosted, appropriately, by a snarling John Lydon.
Ironically, the documentary itself was not banned despite been chock full of nasty bits - thanks to the progressive programming at Channel 4
Among the banned: Scott Walker, 2 Live Crew, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, The Sex Pistols, Ice T, N.W.A, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Kool Keith, Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin and The Pogues.
Inspired by the iconic sleeve of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album, this Waves Mickey Mouse Tee incorporates Mickey’s image within the graphic of the pulse of a star. That’s appropriate given few stars have made bigger waves than Mickey!
No, this is not merely another lame meme, this is something that is actually manufactured and sold by the Walt Disney Corporation! Reedonkulous. Buy yours at the Disney store...
Well whad’ya know? Dinosaur Jr. frontman, J Mascis, gets his own Throbblehead figure. Apparently J comes with the “signature silver mane that features REAL DOLL HAIR.”
You can pre-order one now (shipping starts in April) at Aggronautix.
Had I seen this as a young impressionable kid, I would have opted to be a jock instead of a rock and roller.
The agonized expressions on the faces of the Patriots and Ravens seem like the prelude to an ass-kicking. Fortunately, for those among us who find this silly fellow some kind of legend and wish him no ill, Tyler got out alive. The rest of us will have to wait for next year when Tyler attempts to sing “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba at a football game in Liverpool.
Here’s something from the Dangerous Minds’ archives that was originally posted on March 4, 2011.
Wolfgang Riechmann was part of the German electronic scene of the 1970s centered in and around Düsseldorf . He started composing music in the 60’s in a group called Spirits of Sound with Wolfgang Flur who later became a founding member of Kraftwerk.
Riechmann released only one album, the brilliant Wunderbar, just one month before he was tragically stabbed to death in a random act of violence.
In Wunderbar, which was released from Sky Records in 1978, the influences of the so-called Berlin school (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze etc.) and the so-called Düsseldorf School (NEU!, Kraftwerk, La Düsseldorf) can be recognised. The main elements of his compositions are simple sequencer and drum patterns, filtered through Riechmann’s personal harmonies and simple (even simplistic) but mature melodies. The music in Wunderbar has been described as ‘‘modern, electronic pop, in a league with Kraftwerk and NEU!.”
The following video consists of all six tracks of Wunderbar.
The video is a collage of vintage European erotica that contains some nudity that most viewers will find more campy than sexy. But I think it works nicely with Reichmann’s music.
I’m an unabashed Scissor Sisters fan. I fucking love them. Like Gorillaz, Spice Girls, Pet Shop Boys, Human League, ABBA and the Bee-Gees before them, the Sisters are practitioners of a polished brand of pure pop perfection that makes it nearly impossible not to give into their music and sing along. The Scissor Sisters write pop hooks like nobody’s business. Their production is flawless, the musicianship as good as it gets. The put out albums with no filler. They’re here, they’re queer—well, some of them are, anyway—so why can’t they score a proper breakthrough in the US despite being massive superstars the rest of the world over?
And it’s not that they’re “too gay for America”—that doesn’t mean shit anymore. Why haven’t they had a hit record here? It boggles the mind. You’d figure that there’s about an 85% overlap between their fans and Lady Gaga’s in the rest of the globe. Just not in America. I can’t figure it out. Even the biggest grouch could find something to like in their bag of tricks. They’re the best pop band in the world right now and they get no respect at home.
Maybe things will change with the release of their latest single “Shady Love,” a sick collaboration with hot property Azealia Banks (performing under the pseudonym “Krystal Pepsy”). She really keeps Jake Shears on his game here. Sublime!
I’ve been playing this like crazy for the last week. “Shady Love” could be the first monster song of 2012. It’s about time for the Scissor Sisters to have a hit in America. They deserve it. The country deserves them!
Awesome “Shady Love” video directed by Hiro Murai.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a vintage interview with David Bowie from the BBC that included more footage from his Broadway turn in The Elephant Man than I have ever seen elsewhere. This is a follow-up to that, a personality profile from ABC’s 20/20 shot around the same time.
You don’t tend to think of 20/20 as being so cutting edge today, but this story must’ve been quite a startling thing for some Americans to have beamed into their living rooms 30 years ago. I can vividly recall my parents being very perplexed by this piece and why I thought David Bowie was “cool” in the first place. It just didn’t make sense to them.
People, I have a new guru. A visionary, a sage, a seer. I hang on his every uttering like they are precious droplets of Mana. He is a true master, and I am keen to follow in his ways.
His name is David Gibson, and he is the author of a book called The Art Of Mixing, a text used by some of the world’s top music production courses to show how best to “mix down” a track using its individual parts (drums/bass/vocals/etc). At some point in the early-to-mid 90s David also produced a video guide to accompany his book, using primitive computer graphics to help explain various ideas. Imagine if Wayne Campbell’s cable-access show had been directed by Tim & Eric, and concerned solely with music production techniques and the intricacies of a track’s mix, and you’re in the right ballpark.
The Art of Mixing (subtitled A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering and Production) uses a very clever two-dimensional representation of a song’s “sound world” to show how effects, pan, track levels and EQ can be used to alter a song’s final mix, its shape, movement and dynamics. As well as imparting valuable information that any music producer will appreciate—be they bedroom or studio, headphone, Mackie mixer or Neve desk, witch haus, thrash metal or trad jazz—what really shines through is Gibsons sheer joy at working with music. This dude just exudes good vibes (in a slightly goofy, 90s-retro way, natch.)
In the modern world music is both hugely rejoiced and profoundly debased. Talent shows spread a myth that music is merely an easy route to fame, and that fame should be a musician’s ultimate goal before they are disposed of by the corporate behemoth in favour of the next big thing that comes down the machine’s pipeline. At the same time the tools for creating music have become easier than ever to obtain, as have the distribution methods, and now everyone’s voice can be heard. I believe we NEED people like David Gibson right now to remind us WHY we make music, and just why music is so precious, so magical, so moving and so much fun.
Gibson does not shy away from talking about music’s innate spiritual dimension and the long path of discovery, both personal and musical, for anyone who chooses to work with music. To the more literal-minded reader this may sound corny, but it is important to remember that music IS an artform, with as much wisdom to impart to the practitioner as any other discipline, be it scientific, artistic or spiritual. David Gibson is the Buddha of the track bounce. He IS the Anti-Cowell.
What you see below is the conclusion of The Art Of Mixing in its video form, as uploaded to YouTube, and it is truly inspiring. I have started at the end because it gives a very neat summary of the topics covered in the book/video, but also, in the words of Guru Dave himself:
Now that we have covered all of the dynamics you can create using the equipment… we’ll let you begin this lifelong exploration on your own.
David Gibson “The Art Of Mixing (Part 17)”
David Gibson’s The Art Of Mixing: A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering and Production is available to buy, in book form, on Amazon.
Minutemen unplugged on Los Angeles public access TV, 1985. The band’s stripped-down, percussive sound, gets into some sinuous grooves in this soulful acoustic set.
Setlist: The Meter Man/Corona/Themselves/The Red And The Black/Badges/
I Felt Like Gringo/Time/Green River/Lost/Ack Ack Ack/Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love/
History Lesson Part II/Tour Spiel/Little Man With A Gun In His Hand
