Just another great duet. Anita Lane and Blixa Bargeld. This duo contributed their vocals to several albums of the German post-punk band Die Haut. Their song I personally admire is marvelous track "How Long (Have We Known Each Other Now)" from the album "Head On" (What So Funny About, SF 122) released in 1992. This song is also titled "Subterranean World". Worth to mention that they both first met in the Bad Seeds, the band founded by Nick Cave, where Blixa played guitar from 1983 til 2003 and Anita sang and wrote lyrics.
I think that songs performed by male/female duets can be both an enormous success or a complete disaster. Recently I listened to one of the duets which should be classified as a success. The song I mean is entitled "Seven Of Sundays" an was recorded by Curt Smith (co-founder of Tears For Fears) and French artist Sophie Saillet nicknamed SO. This track is coming from Curt's third solo album "Halfway, Pleased" (XIII BIS Records, 70022640643), released in 2008.
Today’s post is about a German band Marcie’s Still
Waiting. Formed in 1984 by Rainer Spachmann (vocals, keyboards, guitars),
Rainer Winschermann (saxophone, recording, mixing), Thomas Dobber (bass) and Frank
Behnke (keyboards) it released in his short-term life only two EPs : “A
Mysterious Song” (Wishbone Records, WM 85001) in 1985 and “Mirrors And Daydream” (Roof Records, RR 134 578) in 1986. But in 2012
Winschermann’s indie record label Mollycat released a compilation CDr titled
“Marcie’s Still Waiting in the 80ies” (Mollycat, MCD 12049) featuring songs from band’s first EP “A
Mysterious Song” and six unpublished tracks which were recorded back in 1986.
Another compilation album was released in October 2014 entitled "From East To West" (Dead Wax Records, DW 006) and comprises four songs from "A Mysterious Song" EP, four songs from "Mirrors And Daydreams" EP and five unreleased songs from the in-between period. Their music can be classified as new wave, dark wave, cold wave touched by
nostalgia and melancholy. In my opinion Marcie’s Still Waiting is one of the
most underrated bands and should achieve much more recognition. My personal choice are two tracks “Sleep” and “Unique World". For
more info please visit band's site on facebook
The rumble of pneumatic hammers which were using by workers who are renovating the building where my office is located and clamour of grinders and sews which another workers were cutting concrete pavers and curbs gave me the idea for today's post. Post’s main theme is industrial rock, whose flagship representative was German band Kowalski. This band, which consisted of four musicians from Cologne, Bochum and Wuppertal can be considered the pioneers of this music genre. Music that was created by them in the years 1982-1984 was very avant-garde and so timeless. Noone has played like them in these years, so even though the band has performed at major rock festivals and renowned music clubs in all over Europe, the global success passed them by. They left one full length album titled "Schlagende Wetter" or "Overman Underground" - English version (1982, Virgin 205099) and several singles, produced by Conny Plank, which hardly grew old and it sounds like it was a product created today. They reminded of themselves in 2013, releasing another album of previously unreleased songs, but sadly they promoted it giving the only one concert on 19 January 2013 in Bochum. In conclusion I recommend to listen one of their best songs called “Liliom”.
Today’s
post is a reminiscence of Finnish export rock band Hanoi Rocks. Formed in
Helsinki, Finland in 1979 by Micheal Monroe ( Matti Fagerholm, vocals,
saxophone ) and his friends Andy McCoy ( Antti Hulkko, guitars ), Nasty Suicide
( Jan Stenfors, guitars ), Sammi Yaffa ( Sami Takamaki, bass ). Last addition
to them was Gipsy Casino ( Jesper Sporre, drums ) who joined the band in
Stockholm in 1980. After some hard time when they struggled due to lack money
or contract with record company finally in 1981 they released their first
full-length album “Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks”. In the meantime
they were touring extensively all over Finland and Sweden. By 1982 they moved
to London and released albums “Oriental Beat” and “Self Destruction Blues”.
Then Razzle ( Nick Dingley, drums ) replaced Gipsy Casino and it was beginning
of their worldwide career. Following two studio albums “Back To Mystery City”,
“Two Steps From The Move” and a lived album “All Those Wasted Years” were well
accepted and sold in million copies all over the world. The band went on tours
in Japan, mainland Asia (India, HongKong, Vietnam) and Europe ( UK, Norway,
Sweden, native Finland ). But gigs in
America in 1984 seemed to be their breakthrough tour. They played west coast in
November and looked for Los Angeles shows which were all sold out in less than
half an hour. But then came the tragic death of Razzle in a car accident nearby
Redondo Beach, California. Tour dates were cancelled, the worldwide success
passed them by. Hanoi Rocks disbanded next year after the short tour in Poland
with Terry Chimes (ex-The Clash)on drums. Their last concert in Poznań,
Poland in May’85 was recorded and released as a live album titled “Rock’n’roll
Divorce”. The band was reactivated in 2003 by Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy,
released next two albums, made some gigs and finally came to an end in 2009. In
conclusion, I recommend to watch and listen to live versions of their classic songs recorded in Poland in 1985. Personally I saw one of their last concerts, I must say that was truly great show.
Frazier Chorus was a four-piece group
from Brighton ( south England ), active in years 1986 - 1996, with band members Tim Freeman, Kate Holmes ( later in another synthpop star Client ), Chris Taplin and Michele Alardyce. They
released three albums and several singles which achieved moderate chart
success. Their first two albums "Sue" ( Virgin, V 2578 ) from 1989 and "Ray" ( Virgin, VFC 2654 ) from 1991 were created by complete band and released by Virgin Records. The third album "Wide Awake" released by small independent label Pure Records in 1996 was more a solo project of the charismatic band leader Tim Freeman.
Frazier Chorus's music is classic synthpop with elements from shoegaze
and dreampop. A little gem in their songlist is a cover of The Sex
Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" made in soft, polished and almost etheric
style. My personal choices from their albums are songs :
"Dream Kitchen", "Forgetful" and mentioned above "Anarchy in the UK".
Level 42 is an unusual group that didn't experienced almost any distinctive changes to its music over last 35 years. Once they started as the jazz-funk influenced dance orientable band way back in 1979 they maintained this style and image throughout whole of their career. What more, they achieved quite a big success, especially int the 80's when they released several albums which were highly acclaimed by music press and well received by audience, so thanks to them they gained worldwide fame. Their last to this date production is a six track EP entitled "Sirens", self-released by band on 31 October 2013. My personal choice from this record is the charming song titled "My Independence Day".
