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10.20.2010
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | The History of Modern
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | The History of Modern: "
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The 1980s was a decade that ate its own musical young, gobbling up many young bands that began the era as challenging, cutting-edge combos and shitting them out at the end as pale echoes of themselves, guilty by Ringwald association. Simple Minds, The Psychedelic Furs, Yello, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and many more; in 1980, they were all respected post-punk outfits but by 1989 they were all considered (in the U.S., anyway) big-haired, lightweight MTV has-beens, an irritating perception that still short-changes many ’80s bands their rightful places in history.
Few had their legacy bitch-slapped quite as badly as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys mixed musique-concrete, Krautrock, and the Merseyside melodicism native to their hometown of Liverpool and were initially as highly-regarded as Wire or Joy Division, with whom OMD shared the legendary art director Peter Saville. Their initial four albums are uniformly excellent and challenging, culminating with the back-to-back masterpieces of the ethereal yet unsettling Architecture and Morality and the difficult, brilliant Dazzle Ships.
They were the brightest boys in class, ruminating on science, war, religion, and every other topic that fucks up mankind, until their fifth album, Junk Culture, where they discovered that ultimate topic that fucks up mankind: fucking. Junk Culture was still loaded with enough sonic tomfoolery and oddball insights to make it OMD’s last great album, but it marked a shift away from the weighty concerns of their initial albums and toward a new emphasis on standard pop music tropes, ultimately leading to their standing in the U.S. as the one-hit-wonders playing in the ether as Molly Ringwald rode off into the sunset with Andrew McCarthy.
Humphreys departed after two additional good but unremarkable albums while McCluskey soldiered on for three more OMD albums before packing it in and becoming the unlikely Svengali behind Spice Girls knockoffs Atomic Kitten. Now, after more than two decades apart, the original core of OMD has reunited and dropped a new album, The History of Modern.
The signs leading up to the release were promising: Humphreys and McCluskey were working together again, recent critical re-evaluations finally recognized Dazzle Ships as the classic it always was, Saville was back in the fold, and the title was one that suggested the band had a renewed focus on big topics. The end result, however, is less auspicious than just okay.
The History of Modern won’t restore OMD to the upper heights of the post-punk pantheon where they resided in 1982, but it’s a decent continuation from where the band left off after 1986’s The Pacific Age. The music on many tracks is excellent, and songs like “Sister Marie Says,” “RFWK” and “The History of Modern (Part 1)” and “(Part 2)” demonstrate that OMD have lost none of their ability to combine indelible melodies with propulsive yet ethereal technology–no other band has ever been able to conjure up synthetic heavenly hosts with the panache OMD routinely displayed. “New Holy Ground,” which is built around the sounds of someone walking down a deserted hallway, recalls the band’s moody second album, Organisation.
While some tracks find OMD losing their way musically–the souped-up synths of “The Future, the Past and Forever” sound more like warmed-over Pet Shop Boys than OMD-–the lyrics are the main disappointment on The History of Modern. The single in search of a John Hughes sountrack “If You Want It” is awash in greeting card sentimentality, while “Pulse” only serves to demonstrate that McCluskey has never been a very convincing horndog.
It’s too bad OMD didn’t work out a song exchange with Kylie Minogue, sending her “Pulse” in exchange for her OMD-inflected “All the Lovers,” as she routinely rides would-be musical Viagra like “Pulse” to its intended destination, while McCluskey just sounds like a dope. And “Save Me,” the tacked-on mash-up of the band’s early single “Messages” with Aretha Franklin is enjoyable but pointless.
On the whole, it’s good to have OMD back, and the best parts of The History of Modern demonstrate that the revived band can go toe to toe with its legacy on musical grounds. But unless they rediscover their early ambition on the lyrical front, the combination of excellent music with banal words will continue to make any future albums cases of architecture and mundanity.
Watch the video for “If You Want It” from OMD:
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TaunTaun taking a break while its members focus on pursuing other projects
TaunTaun taking a break while its members focus on pursuing other projects: "
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Folks hoping to see TaunTaun at the Anthrax show earlier this week at Summit Music Hall were likely disappointed. We'd heard rumors that the band had parted ways. Turns out, TaunTaun, initially sl...
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Magic Cyclops is back from the dead. Again.
Magic Cyclops is back from the dead. Again.: "
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From the mouth of Magic Cyclops himself, the entertainer is being brought back from the dead for two nights of Halloween-inspired flashback madness, complete with (we're assuming) his usual self-d...
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Peter Black brings Hideous Men, Hollagramz and more to Meadowlark for Halloween bash
Peter Black brings Hideous Men, Hollagramz and more to Meadowlark for Halloween bash: "
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Peter Black, the man behind the explosive Analog Space parties, has enlisted a diverse roster of DJs and bands for his upcoming Voodoo Ball 2010, a glittering Halloween blowout with a hand-picked ...
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Surfacing: An all ages evening of awesomeness
Surfacing: An all ages evening of awesomeness: "
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To call Surfacing just a rock show doesn't really do it justice; it's a showcase of a variety of Denver's talents all in one place. How do we know? Well, just look at this flier. It's got a price ...
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Edward Ka-Spell of the Legendary Pink Dots talks about changes and Tear Garden
Edward Ka-Spell of the Legendary Pink Dots talks about changes and Tear Garden: "
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Since 1980, The Legendary Pink Dots have been creating some of the most inventive, darkly imaginative and emotionally stirring music around. Based originally in London, the Pink Dots relocated ...
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Live review: The Legendary Pink Dots, Munly and the Lupercalians @ the Gothic Theatre
Live review: The Legendary Pink Dots, Munly and the Lupercalians @ the Gothic Theatre: "
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The beloved Edward Ka-Spel, frontman/songwriter of the Legendary Pink Dots, embodies the free spirit of a progressive, acid-laced and psychedelic society with a natural bent for self-determination. The personality fits, since the Dots have called Amsterdam, the European hub of libertarian attitudes (as well as a solidly positive drug culture) home since 1984.
Musically, the Legendary Pink Dots not only bring to mind some fun (if a little involved) Euro-pop, they also embody the very idea behind psychedelic, ambient, electronic, hippy-based trip rock in both sound and aura. Their show last night at the Gothic Theatre promised to take a sadly anemic-sized audience on a Wonka-esque boat ride through the band’s three-plus decades of composition — most of which turned out to be on the more ambient side — as they wound through nearly two hours on stage. Every song was a resplendent example of the many undercurrents of pop to which the Dots play forefather, or at least prolific progenitors.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
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The Legendary Pink Dots and Munly and the Lupercalians brought psychedelia to the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Tina Hagerling, heyreverb.com.
Throughout the band’s history, Legendary Pink Dots has burned through a roster totaling more than 35 musicians and artists, and has benefited from the inclusion of all of them. Currently the lineup is a four piece including Ka-Spel on vocals and keyboards, Phil Knight on keyboards and other electronics, Erik Drost on guitars and Raymond Steeg, who performs sound engineering offstage. They flooded the Gothic last night with music from bands like Bubble Puppy, Love, and the 13th Floor Elevators, all of it steeped in the feel and theory of kraut rock bands like Can. They also presented more accessible brands of psychedelic pop as well, recalling Brian Jonestown Massacre (with none of the “ass-holier than thou” attitude of Anton Newcombe), that led into heavier compositions, songs that would easily soundtrack poetry slams, art museum tours or underwater films.
Thanks to Ka-Spel’s ridiculously fervent and prolific imagination, and his seeming ability to completely avoid aging (at least in the mind) each song formed elaborate stories, microscopically specific observations, brain-flexing imagery, and all contained exhaustive wordplay. His singing style recalled the Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell, while the background psychedelia often pulled stylistically from Stranglers’ “Men In Black” era and electronic scientists Matmos. And yet, these compositions seemed perfectly unique, completely independent.
In fact, one of the most endearing aspects of the Pink Dots’ discography is a seemingly complete lack of regard for outside, contemporary influence. It often appears that the band is content to ignore what may be going on outside of their own world in favor of pure creativity and consistency. They’re completely conscious of their tendency to relax in an often dated version of psychedelia, one they embraced as masters last night.
There was no indication of influence from current, popular sounds; no hip hop, no screamo, no candy-punk. These narratives from the psychedelic world, following the same musical ideas of Can and The Bevis Frond, are perfect fits into the Pink Dot universe.
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Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s explorations at DenverThread.com, and his giglist at Gigbot.
Tina Hagerling is a Denver photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. Check out more of her concert photography.
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Watch Broken Social Scene Play KCRW
Watch Broken Social Scene Play KCRW: "
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The Denver area is still waiting for Broken Social Scene to make a visit.I believe it’s been almost five years since they’ve played the Denver/Boulder area. You can watch them play an extensive playlist on KCRW below.
Broken Social Scene-7/4 (live on KCRW) [mp3]
Broken Social Scene Live on KCRW
Texico Bitch
All to All
7/4
>interview
Chase Scene
Art House Director
Almost Crimes
World Sick
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The Inversion: A Live 1950's TV Show Turned Inside-Out - Crossroads Theater - 10/26/2010, 6:30 PM
The Inversion: A Live 1950's TV Show Turned Inside-Out - Crossroads Theater - 10/26/2010, 6:30 PM: "
The Inversion: A Live 1950’s TV Show Turned Inside-Out
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Show Time: 6:30 p.m.
Brought to you by Denver Office of Cultural Affairs
FREE ADMISSION!
The Inversion is a re-creation of a live 1950’s TV show, turned inside-out. Using dramatic scenes, musical interludes and period commercials, Scott Kinnamon and friends will turn the world of The Help inside-out to explore the giant chasm between the sunny myth of the 50’s and the gritty reality of race, class and Armageddon.
"The Legendary Pink Dots at the Gothic Theatre, 10/19/10
The Legendary Pink Dots at the Gothic Theatre, 10/19/10: "
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THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS
Munly & The Lupercalians
10.19.10 | Gothic Theatre, Denver, CO
Even if you've seen Munly play anytime within the past two decades, nothing really prepares you for this...
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Live review: K’NAAN @ the Fox Theatre
Live review: K’NAAN @ the Fox Theatre: "
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K’NAAN, the thrilling hip hop artist who writes Bob Marley-like anthems, played a sold-out concert Tuesday at the Fox Theatre in Boulder to a hand-waving and sing-a-long audience.
The rapper from Somalia by way of Toronto has lyrics that can humiliate the bravado of American hip hop stars, with street cred from the war-torn alleys of Mogadishu and life among pirates.
He can switch immediately to heart-felt songs with choruses about as catchy as a Madison Avenue jingle. On Tuesday he was also a seasoned showman, prompting the crowd into pogo-ing sing-alongs and revival-like hand-waving.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
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K'NAAN brought his worldly interpretation of hip hop to the Fox Theatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Kyle Wagner, heyreverb.com.
Backed by a tight band, K’NAAN played songs almost exclusively from his 2009 album, “Troubadour,” opening his 90 minute set with “ABCs” — a song that was his first single off the album with lyrics that show his third-world roots, “They don’t teach us the ABCs / We play on the hard concrete.”
At times the Fedora’d singer came off a bit self-indulgent and almost killed the night with a pedestrian mash-up of U2’s “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” and Jay Z’s “Hard Knock Life.” K’NANN, himself, must have recognized the crowd’s ambivalence, asking the audience whether they were too young to even know U2.He also came close to torpedoing his most popular song, “Wavin’ Flag” (a soundtrack for the 2010 World Cup games) with a tortured introduction.
Once the song began in earnest, though, all was forgiven.
The best part of the night that gave insight to why so many believe K’NAAN could be the “next big thing” was when the singer gave an a capella version of a heartfelt song about his native Somalia. It was the same version that he said he initially played for his family and friends that had everyone crying. It’s no wonder, with lyrics like, “They say since you learn how to kill, you should learn how to die,” sung in a hushed tone that invoked Michael Jackson at his most vulnerable.
K’NAAN, who said his tour has taken him to 62 countries, is bound to play bigger venues than the Fox. Surely then, everyone who was at this week’s show will be saying, “Remember when we saw him when…”
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Jeremy Meyer is an education reporter at The Denver Post and a regular contributor to Reverb.
Kyle Wagner is a music freak and journalist at The Denver Post.
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