Where Worlds Collide

This brain-dead review seems to sum up everything that’s wrong with British music journalists. It’s from the Murdoch Times, but seems to demonstrate the sort of NME snobbery British rock fans have had to put up with for the past 20 years. You definitely get the impression that this guy doesn’t actually like music. All he cares about is style and attitude, accompanied by lyrics that are deeply symbolic of man’s struggle against his socio-political environment.

Cloth-eared fools like him are the reason pseudo-intellectual poseurs like Franz Ferdinand or self-destructive idiots like Pete Docherty get all the publicity and exposure, thus ensuring that the British music public doesn’t get to hear anything other than third-rate music.

Cold Spring Shops reflects on the difference in connections and timekeeping between the two sides of the Atlantic.

Amtrak and the railroads could do more for their credibility by scheduling trains to connect, and enforcing the discipline to make the connections more reliably. Amtrak will not guarantee a connection with less than two hours between trains in Chicago. Although the Europeans pin Vienna to London in a day on six minutes in Cologne, there has to be a better solution.

One of these days I’m going to have to travel to Switzerland going by rail all the way instead of flying to Zurich and turning France into ‘flyover country’. French, German and Swiss timekeeping is such that those sorts of connections can actually be relied upon. Even if they can’t, the consequence of missing a connection is usually a delay of an hour, rather than being stranded until the next day.

On Thursday I attended the first day of the Old Trafford test between England and Pakistan, the first cricket match I’ve been to for something like twenty years. It turned out to be a great day for England and not such a good day for Pakistan, who collapsed to 119 all out in the middle of the first afternoon. Over the next two days England went on to win the game by an innings with two days to spare.

American readers probably find it strange that most individual spectators only attend a single day of a five-day match, and only follow the rest of the game on TV or radio. Only hardcore fans like Norm actually attend all five (or in this case, three) days.

I’m not so sure I agree with on this….

Anyone out there envying me my holiday should understand that, in this heat and humidity, it’s really hard work sitting in the sun all day watching cricket. You have to concentrate on the game while you’re sweltering. Plus: for much of the time there are people around you making what can only be described as an unpleasant racket. So it’s hard, I tell you. Others don’t realize. I arrive home in the evening exhausted.

The only ‘racket’ I remember a was group of kids chanting “Pakistan zindabad!”, and a middle-aged Pakistan supporter telling them to shut up with the words “Every time you lot chant that we lose another wicket!”

A few weeks ago, I saw Journey at Manchester Apollo, which I thought at the time to be a superb show. Since then I’ve noticed the stories that have rumbling on for a while across various message boards, such as this one, suggesting that vocalist Steve Augeri had been lip-synching on some songs where he couldn’t hit the high notes.

Initially I dismissed these stories as malicious gossip, perhaps spread by diehard Steve Perry fans, which is why I didn’t blog about it at the time. But since Steve Augeri has been ‘temporarily’ replaced by Jeff Scott Soto, the dead tree media have picked up the story. As the official Journey website states:

Jeff Scott Soto to assume JOURNEY lead singer duties starting on July 7th in Bristow, VA due to Steve Augeri throat infection

July 6, 2006 — Due to a chronic throat infection, Journey’s lead singer, Steve Augeri, has been forced to leave the band’s current nationwide tour with Def Leppard. Jeff Scott Soto, who has previously performed with Journey guitarist Neal Schon, will assume the band’s lead singer duties starting with the July 7th show in Bristow, VA. Steve Augeri’s condition will be closely monitored by his physician to determine when he may be able to rejoin the tour.

According to Journey, “Steve’s been suffering with an acute throat condition since before we kicked off the tour with Def Leppard. We were hoping he’d be in well condition to handle the rigors of the road but unfortunately it appears to be a chronic condition requiring total voice rest. We all wish Steve a speedy recovery.”

I’m still not sure what to make of this. I did notice Augeri’s vocals falter in one song (it might have been ‘Faithfully’, which is one song I’ve heard mentioned), quite early in the set, but he was still note-perfect later in the show. Was I hearing taped vocals later on?

I’m not fond of the use of tapes or programming in live performance. I found myself annoyed when Paradise Lost used a lot of programmed keyboards rather than have a live keyboard player on stage last year. But background keyboards are one thing, lead vocals are another thing entirely.

I hope this story isn’t true, but I fear it might be.

This is the fifth time I’ve seen the mighty BÖC. Last time they played the tiny Live Cafe in Peter Street; this time it was the slightly larger Academy 3, which they at least managed to sell out.

Unfortunately the sell-out crowd didn’t quite get the full Öyster experience, for Allen Lanier was missing. I don’t recall any reason being given for Allen’s absence; I wonder if the eldrich reanimation ritual that Eric and Buck have to perform before every gig failed. More seriously, I hope whatever’s wrong with Allen isn’t too serious, and he’ll soon be back.

It says something about the ability of the rest of the band that they still managed to pull off a decent gig as a four-piece. Sure, there were some holes in the sound on a few songs, where Allen’s keyboard or rhythm guitar were missing from the mix. I’m think they also rearranged the set a bit, dropping some numbers that they really couldn’t do justice to without Allen’s playing. The new rhythm section impressed, especially bassist Richie Castellano, who managed a bass solo that wasn’t boring. He even sang lead vocals on “Hot Rails to Hell”.

There were a lot of songs I’ve never seen them play live before, like “This Ain’t the Summer of Love”, “I Love the Night”, and oldies like “Seven Screaming Dizbusters”, “Harvester of Eyes”, and “Hot Rails to Hell”. Nice to hear them play “Harvest Moon” from their late 90s comeback album “Heaven Forbid”. Still no Astronomy. Now long will I have to wait to see this song performed live?

One think I really noticed this time was the physical resemblance between Buck Dharma and Ken Hite. Has anyone ever seen the two of them together?

Overall, good but not great. I’ve seen far better shows from the Öyster boys, but there were extenuating circumstances.

Yes, it’s true. Igor is the first Dork in space.

Eric Berlin challenges people to name their five favourite bands.

I was intrigued by this challenge, and very much struck both by how challenging it was � and is now � and how much the choices seemingly threaten to define my personality. Define me, really.

For example, the person who chooses Adam Ant, Kajagoogoo, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, and Styx is very likely very different than the Iron Maiden, Metallica, Dream Theater, Queensryche, Rush dude, who again is probably worlds different than the Fiona Apple, Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Patti Smith, Suzanne Vega person.

Here’s my five: I think shows that I’m more interested in musical craftmanship than rebellious posturing or tortured messiah figures. They’re all bands I first discovered around the same period (late 70s/early 80s), and all have careers lasting 20 or 30 years.

Pink Floyd - They’re significant for me, since the first album I ever bought was “The Wall”. The official British ‘rock narrative’ written by self-appointed cultural pundits either ignores the Floyd completely, or dismisses them as symbolic of the worst excesses of 70s corporate rock. Which just goes to show how much such idiots need a clue. Pink Floyd’s amazing performance at Live8 a year ago showed everyone how great they still are.

Blue Öyster Cult - They’re labelled as ‘thinking man’s metal’, but I think they were always more than a metal band. They can rock out with the best of them, but they’ve also excelled at sublime pop with a sinister edge. They’re a great live act even now; I’m seeing them live tomorrow night.

Marillion - They defied the critics by playing full-blown prog rock at the time when it was most unfashionable, and have continued to change and evolve with the times.

Rush - Sometimes I forget just how great their 70s and early 80s material is. Then I dig out classic albums like “Hemispheres”, “2112″ or “Moving Pictures”, and I remember.

Ritchie Blackmore - This is a cheat to include two great bands as my fifth choice, Deep Purple and Rainbow. Forget Jimmy Page, Blackmore was my 70s guitar hero. It didn’t hurt that he worked with three world-class singers, Ian Gillan, David Coverdale and Ronnie Dio.

Honourable mentions - Yes, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath (both with Ozzy and with Dio), Genesis when Steve Hackett was in the band, King Crimson, Uriah Heep.

Possible candidates for ten years time - Mostly Autumn, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, The Mars Volta, Muse.

A couple of links worth reading.

Charlie Stross thinks the political landscape of the early to mid 21st century has already been designed — by Gary Gygax. It’s a scary thought.

Making Light discusses the worst excesses of fantasy and SF cover artwork, mullets and all.

As is always true with Making light, some of the best stuff is in the comments; in this one commenter Paul A comes up with the following:

I remember, at a convention once, somebody advancing the theory that the real reason The Revelation of St John was included in the New Testament canon was that the marketing department had already commissioned cover art featuring a half-dressed bimbo and a dragon with seven heads…

I’m going off to Switzerland for a week.

This means that I’ve (temporarily) disabled comments until I get back, since I don’t want to be faced with having to delete a week’s worth of comment spam on my return:(

I promised I’d post the answers for the 20 first lines tonight, so here they are. Those italics are those people managed to guess, those in bold are those that nobody recognised

1. Too easy to explain, too easy to explain
- Paradise Lost, Shine

2. Transient jet lag ecto mimed bison
- The Mars Volta, Roullette Est

3. Going up, coming down, and she counts every day
- Karnataka, Out of Reach

4. Even after all the days are gone
- IQ, Sacred Sound

5. The ways, the ins and outs of heaven elude us to the end
- Mostly Autumn, Heroes Never Die

6. Coraz bilzej moment, gdy nie poznan juz siebie
- Closterkeller, Cyan

7. József Attila: Reménytelenül
- After Crying, Stalker

8. He captured and collected things and put them in a shed
- Porcupine Tree, The Creator has a mastertape

9. Is there anything good inside of you
- Frank Zappa, Andy

10. Queen of Light took her bow, And then she turned to go
- Led Zeppelin, The Battle of Evermore

11. Every day I have to look to the sun
- Uriah Heep, Traveller in Time

12. You’re burning my heart, you’re burning my mind
- The Scorpions, I’ve got to be free

13. Every time I leave you say you won’t be there.
- Queensrÿche, Jet City Woman

14. I still have questions with no answers
- Queensrÿche, A Junkies Blues

15. The stars are shining bright up here
- Iain Jennings, You Still Linger

16. Is this happening, is this fantasy?
- Blackmore’s Night, All Because Of You

17. Thoughts blow around in your head like a wind that pretends
- Mostly Autumn, Answer the question

18. Lookin’ ’round for a feelin’ I love the rhythm and blues
- Journey, Lay it down

19. It’s killing you, you’re killing me
- Anathema, Alternative 4

20. Morning people take the news, a paper window on the world.
- Renaissance, Can You Hear Me

Hats off to musical rivet counter Steve Jones for guessing no fewer than six.