December 2008 update

In South Africa, quality radio programming is a problem. Maybe it’s because we live in such a culturally diverse country, but radio station wise, it is very difficult to tune into some good quality rock.

 

This does not always have to be a huge issue since I now have my Squeezebox ( see www.slimdevices.com) and can therefore tune into radio stations around the world via the internet at home. The huge issue relates to what to listen to when I am driving.

 

I have blogged before on the college radio station UJFM that can be picked up in the Johannesburg area, and they have been a bit of a life-saver in this regard. You cannot begin to describe my joy in turning on the radio at 6:45 a.m. on my way to work and hearing the new AC/DC, Kings of Leon, Killers or Metallica song. Sometimes even an old classic comes on that leaves me overjoyed. This radio station can really be a life-saver sometimes.

 

There are slots in their programming where it all goes horribly wrong for me. They do have times that they play more of the commercial type industry bubble-gum. They also have some DJ’s who are abysmal. Some of these guys cannot even pronounce the street names around Johannesburg when providing traffic updates. That kind of makes the whole point of a traffic update redundant.

 

But on the whole, this is still a great station to listen to when looking for some good rock music.

 

A few weeks ago I even entered a competition on a Sunday afternoon whereby I won the new Kings of Leon album – how cool is that? For the record, it is a very good album. I had my reservations about this album and that is why I had not already bought it, but it certainly holds up as a strong offering from a really talented band.

 

Other news for December is that most magazines on the web have got their ‘Best of 2008’ lists out. Have a browse on NME.com (there is even a blog on NME.com that tries to compile results from all over), rollingstone.com and popmatters.com for a view on what people are rating for the year. For a South African flavour check out www.isolation.tv for Lloyd Gedye’s best of 2008 summary. My favourite South African rock offering is the new one (EP only unfortunately) from Foto Na Dans. They are an incredible band doing very fresh stuff. In terms of my favourites for 2008, what is new to me may even actually be a couple of years old.

 

What I can commit to however, is that the greatest musical experience I had this year was seeing Muse live in Johannesburg! Truly truly incredible. I am not sure that I will ever get to see something like this in South Africa again.

 

In terms of albums, Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago is my recommendation for 2008 in terms of what I have heard of all the offerings out there, which probably is not much.

 

The best music related DVD that I bought this year is Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Runnin’ Down a Dream by Peter Bogdanovich.

 

Albums that I listened to a lot this year regardless of when they were released are:

 

Rodriguez – ‘Cold Fact’,

Radiohead – ‘In Rainbows’,

Muse – ‘HAARP’,

AC/DC – ‘Black Ice’.

 

All in all I thought that 2008 has been a great year for music! Let’s see what 2009 has to offer….

CD Review: AC/DC - Black Ice

In nature  some animals imprint. This normally occurs at birth and is a method for improving their chances of survival. For example a new born duck imprints on the first duck-like moving thing it sees, and learns to follow this in convoy style (or so is my limited understanding from Microsoft Encarta). Why am I explaining this?

Well, the first truly cool music I heard was AC/DC. Up until then it had always been stuff like ABBA, Boney M, etc that never really moved me. The moment that George brought his AC/DC albums to school I was intrigued. Once I heard it on a decent sound system - it had imprinted. Therefore I’ll be honest from the outset here – there was no way that I was not going to like this album. I have always believed that AC/DC are the greatest band around, I love Angus’ guitar playing style, and their songs always cheer me up!

There have been some mediocre albums, but over the years, every album has had great songs to offer with new ways of saying the same thing offered, and also new things to say. So, I don’t think that I am like the Robert De Niro Rolling Stones fan in ‘The Fan’ in that I can admit to being a bit more realistic in my expectations of the band.

I do however imagine AC/DC sitting in their well-deserved lap of luxury, being stumped and agonizing over how to keep things fresh and vital after so many years. And my view is that I wish that they would not do that. Get in the studio, make a whole lot of hard driving boogie rock and roll, add lyrics about all the rude jokes and innuendos that you can think of and take it from there – what could be easier? Keep it greasy and menacing with lots of sinister sounding backing vocals. The guitar should be razor sharp, slicing through the clutter that invades my day and the riffing should massage my brain in the way that a physiotherapist would treat your lower back (i.e. not too gently, but it feels great when it stops). The thing is, in my view, AC/DC fans probably are not looking for something that’s too different, as long as it rocks, and gives them a new excuse to pump some seminal AC/DC out of their stereos. They have done enormous bell gongs, and cannons firing, and I suppose it is difficult to top that in the 2000’s? I, of course, would like cannons on every album, but am prepared to admit that they may come across as overused to other none cannon preferring listeners (at least they’re included on most of the live albums). In addition, most of my experiences with AC/DC albums have resulted in some type of damage – AC/DC ‘Live’ resulted in me accidentally breaking the volume button on my car stereo, ‘Back in Black’ broke some speakers, you get the idea. This has sort of become an expectation too….. in short I want to be Thunderstruck! That looks easy enough…….

So, what have they done with ‘Black Ice’?

Well, I’ve listened to it in the car on the way home from the shop, I listened to it twice on the stereo at home and I have listened to it again driving to work and back (it’s an extremely listenable album).

They have made another AC/DC album – that’s what. It’s all in here: the straight ahead AC/DC style boogie rockers, the various innuendoes, the fantastic Young brother’s guitar sound, the rock solid and booming rhythm section and the high spirits. Also, they have slowed things down on a couple of songs, and offered some new things like some that almost sound like Pop songs. To me there is no shock and horror related to this (the slowing down that is), I have always enjoyed songs like ‘Ride On’ and ‘Night Prowler’ and have believed that this element of their oeuvre has been neglected on the last few albums. Even the most classic of their albums such as ‘Highway to Hell’ includes tracks such as ‘Touch too Much’ or ‘Love Hungry Man’ which in my view are pretty ‘light’.


They have also not remained impervious to the world around them. Both lyrically and musically, the 2000’s have had an influence. For example ‘Anything Goes’ and ‘War machine can be musically linked to offerings by younger bands such as the Killers and The Raconteurs (the guitar reminds me a lot of ‘Born in the USA’ era Springsteen). However, there have always been moments when AC/DC have displayed a lighter touch.
On ‘Rock 'n' Roll Dream’ Johnson sounds like a cloth capped version of Grace Slick, Stevie Nicks and the Wilson sisters all rolled into one. Maybe he has believed that all this time, he doesn’t do slow (the last slow AC/DC songs coming from Bon Scott). Well here he does, and it comes across well.

My Favourite track thus far: ‘She Likes Rock ‘n’ Roll’.

But, essentially, the question is: ‘Is this a good album’ i.e. ‘Is this as good as Highway to Hell or Back in Black’? The answer is not as easy. When I first heard those albums I was still in my teens. They resonated with my life at the time. How do I look at ‘Black Ice’: from the point of view of a teenage boy and the minimal baggage that comes with that, or from the point of view of a middle-aged male? While I believe that I am more in touch with my inner teenager than most, I will stick to the middle-aged view for the sake of honesty. After all the ‘boys’ in the band are even older than me, so let’s say that we have all ‘moved on a bit’. The sound and the music are great, what may be missing is the same level of humour in the lyrics that I have come to know and love. In that sense I think that this is a good album certainly better than “Fly on the Wall’ and ‘Flick of the Switch’, probably somewhere between ‘For those about to Rock’ and ‘Stiff Upper Lip’. I will say this: if you like AC/DC, you will like this album!

From a teenaged kid’s point of view amongst the clutter of itunes, ipods, MTV, hormones and insecurity, I don’t think that we will get an opinion on the album as a whole, and that is how the band want us to view it – a complete album.

In a career and history where the band has received so much from Rock and Roll, it is refreshing to see how much they are prepared to give back. I don’t think that they ‘need’ to make albums anymore, and that said, if they were only doing this to keep out of the way of the wife and kids at home it probably would have sounded terrible. But they have been dead serious about this and it shows. I believe that this is the underlying lesson relating to this band – it is not all about taking only, to succeed you also need to give, and these guys do so with all of their collective hearts and two big balls each too.

October 2008 Update

I have recently made some new discoveries and will hopefully post in more detail on them in the future. But just to keep everybody updated, here are few few things worth a mention.

Endless Boogie: I recently became aware of a band called Endless Boogie via a sampler in Uncut magazine. They really rock! These guys sound something like ZZTop and AC/DC with a lot of their own flavour in there too.

Rodriguez: We grew up to Rodriguez's 'Cold Fact' album being a part of the ambient sound in 70's suburban South Africa. It comes as a surprise that the rest of the world (apart from maybe Australia) had not paid this American artist much attention. It seems that now about 30 years later awareness has been raised. Give it a listen you will be amazed at how fresh it sounds, and how relevant the lyrics still are.

The Hold Steady:  I bought the new album recently 'Stay Positive', and it sounds fantastic.

Also: I just can't wait for the new AC/DC album. By all acounts so far it sounds like it is good. I have only heard the single 'Rock 'n Roll Train' thus far and while that is a fine song I really hope that the rest of the album is good.

September update

Well, August has come and gone without me posting a single thing. I apologise to my numerous readers. There are reasons for the slowness of pace in August, none of them very pleasant, and I will not be going into them here.

 

I have not been idle, however, and have been doing a lot of reading, listening and playing around with my new toy. Having recently acquired a Squeezebox, I can only rave. What a really cool device for bringing your computer-residing music collection back into you hifi (check the following link - http://www.slimdevices.com) I love it. I also spent a lot of time re-discovering Fleetwood Mac which traced my involvement from being too young to understand that it was not considered cool to really dig them (my favourite album at the age of 11 was ‘Tusk’), to being slightly embarrassed that I was the only guy in my peer group into ‘Mirage’ and ‘Tango in the Night’, to now understanding that its OK to have the occasional guilty pleasure as long as no-one else is harmed.

 

Uncut magazine is polling their readers for their favourite Pink Floyd song, use this link

http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/pink_floyd/news/12126 to go there and nominate yours.

There is also some good news out there. First AC/DC have completed their new album and it is due out soon. It is called 'Black Ice', and the first single from it is called 'Rock 'n Roll Train'. I was fortunate enough to hear it this morning on UJFM on the way to work, and it definitely improved my Monday for me a lot.

Secondly, Metallica are also ready with their new album called 'Death Magnetic'. It have not heard it yet, but review on my favourite music web-sites are good. Admittedly after 'St. Anger' I remain sceptical, especially since I noticed on Uncut's web-site they give it four stars and going back to their review of 'St. Anger' I saw that they gave that one four stars too. I'll decide for myself, and let you guys know what I think.

Classic albums revisited 2: AC/DC - Back in Black

I clearly remember how I got into AC/DC. I always knew about them, as one of my class-mates in primary school was a big fan. He had the early albums and was always going on about ‘Big Balls’ and ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’. In fact I remember one day when George brought in his record player (the kind in a box whose lid becomes the speaker) so that we could hear some of it. Well to be honest, I was not immediately impressed (probably something to do with the sound quality).

It was only later, in high school, when an exchange teacher from the US took it upon himself to warn us against the dangers of ‘Satanic music’, using AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ as his prime example (he had spotted it in one of the kids bag). This tirade renewed my interest in the band. Not necessarily due to the satanic link, but rather due to the edginess and rebelliousness I suppose. Needless to say, I really got into ‘Highway to Hell’, and then when ‘Back in Black’ came out I was completely hooked (thank you so much Mr. Waters).

It became a soundtrack to those formative high-school years with the driving hard rock encouraging one to keep going, persist and see the humorous side to the day-to-day drudge. It was our primary party album for a long time.

Recently I bought the CD version in a fit of nostalgia and thought I could provide my insights into how it has held up over the years.

‘Back in Black’ is particularly significant to the band as it was their first album with new lead singer Brian Johnson after the tragic passing away of Bon Scott. They had just achieved spectacular sales and success with the Scott album ‘Highway to Hell’ when he died. The band decided to carry on, and immediately started auditions for a new singer. Within the year the new album was out, and must have been viewed as ‘make-or-break’ by the band. Fortunately it was even bigger than ‘Highway to Hell’. Part a dedication to Scott, part a proving ground for Johnson, and part a proving ground for the rest of the bands abilities, it had a lot to live up to, and it is testimony to the collective band that they managed to pull it off so well. I also believe that this has been their most successful album ever.

Hitting ‘play’ let’s have a look at what we’ve got:

Hells Bells

Whenever I hear bells, anywhere, I am always reminded of this song. A meticulous (although obviously demented too) Quasimodo steps up and starts hammering away at an enormous bell. Then it’s the chiming guitars and the rest is history. In the context of the AC/DC fan-base getting their hands on the new album, putting it on and then getting their first hearing of the new lead singer, this is an excellent showcase.


Shoot To Thrill

These days, I think people are less able to identify the use of similes, metaphors and parodies in songs. This one for example would definitely confuse most people with regards to the message it seems to give.

The music is great Chuck Berry times a 1000 riffing, also echoing some hard hitting types of counter-pointal shots. I love it but then so would Julius Malema.

What Do You Do For Money Honey

Gold-diggers have a special place in rock history, and here AC/DC in their most philanthropic of moods try to warn us about them.

Given the Dog a Bone

Dog lovers to the core, these guys don’t hold back when it comes to some of their very personal revelatory types of experiences. Musically this is probably my least favourite song on the album.

Let me put my love into you

'Let me put my love into you, Babe' pleads the cloth capped Johnson. Showcasing the more sensitive side of the band, this song is also an excellent vehicle for the type of lyrics that never cease to amuse. I am going to be starting a post next whereby I gather my, and my readers favourite lyrics to songs, and this may well be on there. They don’t ever say ‘please’, but at least they are asking for permission! I love Angus’ guitar work on this track, especially during the ‘don’t you struggle, don’t you fight, cause it’s your turn tonight’ part, his guitar solos breaking down into manic giggles.

Back in Black

Hmm – I can still recite the lyrics word for word even after 20 years. That’s either very embarrassing or else proof that the human brain is capable of phenomenal feats. Although I must confess that I have listened to it pretty regularly over those 20 years. Who knew that ‘Back’ can be pronounced with 4 syllables?

You Shook Me All Night Long

This is one of my favourite tracks of all time. Another one whose lyrics I can recite word for word. Come to think of it, I think that we always used to play side 2 before side 1 in those good old vinyl days. I think that this song was key in defining my vision of the perfect woman (sad I know, how wrong I was). The guitar solo on this song is still as fresh and original as ever. If you believe in the ‘Pick of Destiny’, this solo would seem to prove the legend.

Have a Drink On Me

Seen as the tribute song to Bon Scott who died after a heavy night of drinking, I find the lyrics a little below what the guys have consistently proven themselves capable of. However it has always been a great song for playing at the heart of some hard partying, often leading to the arrival of a fresh round, so it can’t be all wrong.

Shake a leg

Another track from the band that makes it feel alright to be a guy. Can be interpreted as a call to some rampant head-banging (‘shake your head’), but obviously is not. This is a slower paced song that is still energetic and hard-hitting musically. The actual sound that the band managed to capture in this song is everything that is great about AC/DC – the guitar tones, the thundering drums and Brian’s seemingly shredded vocal chords.


Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution

Proving that the band has always had a strong leaning towards environmental awareness, here they tackle some pretty weighty subject matter. In it they also prophetically predict the overall fortune of the band. It’s really uncanny listening to it 28 years later. It’s a great way to end the album and also alerts us to the possibility of pronouncing ‘Rock’ using 3 syllables. If you close your eyes and listen very carefully you can hear that Angus is smiling all the way through this song.


Well, in review, it is amazing how well this album has stood the test of time. Sure it does not sound as ‘heavy’ as it did in the day, but if anything this is a good thing. The band owes a lot to Chuck Berry, and considering this, I suppose that Mr. Berry sounded pretty ‘heavy’ when he first came out. The lyrics are still fresh and entertaining although ‘Have a Drink On Me’ does start to sound a bit dated, and Angus Young’s guitar work still far surpasses what most guitarists are capable of to this day. Anyway, I’m off to gain a better understanding of what ‘American thighs’ are…….