Spooky Halloween Music Special

Today's Halloween and I like to introduce you to the SPOOKY and FRIGHTENING side of Rock'n'Roll music...

Here we have Alice Cooper. The 'shock rocker' from the early 70s became a famous representative of the dark rock scene, because of his concerts. During his shows he performed his own execution (decollation on stage) and - most remembered scene of 'shock rock' - he bite off the head of a bat - or was is Ozzy? Well, some of those 'dark' guys...
Besides his music, Cooper appeared in different movies. Spooky but true, he only appeared in horror movies!
For example in the LAFP former worker John Carpenter's movie "Prince Of Darkness" and the sixth part of the Freddy Kruger movies "A Nightmare On Elmstreet". Alice Cooper plays the father of the supernatural serial killer.

Alice Cooper had a performance on the "Muppet Show", where he satirically played his "Elm Street" character again:




Another 'Halloween classic' is Marilyn Manson. The band's name is the name of the singer, too, and is composed of Marilyn Monroe, the beautiful pop ikone and Charles Manson, the serial killer. The band wants to represent the 'Good' and the 'Bad' with this name.
Marilyn Manson's face is always rouged with white make-up. His eyes are painted black and he wears blood-red lipstick. Another 'trademark' are the contacts in his eyes, one black, the other white - like a blind eye.
But not only his appearance is scary. His music can be found between Industrial Rock, Alternative and Dark Metal. His voice sounds like a hissing snake and can be easily adopted to a horror movie.
His most famous releases are "I don't like the drugs (but the drugs like me)", "mOBSCENE" and "Eat Me, Drink Me".
Marilyn Manson shows are bizarre and shocking. Typical poses on stage are copied from Alice Cooper. For example the execution scenery was used several times during the last "Rape The World Tour".

Connections to the satanistic scene cannot be denied, but a connection between the 'Columbine Killers' and the Marilyn Manson music, however, were proved unjustified.
The songs of the band are used for several different horror and thriller movies. "Matrix", "Blair Witch", "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Max Payne".

The cover songs of the Soft Cell classic "Tainted Love" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" let Marilyn Manson be played in the radios and he became well known to people outside of the dark rock scene and besides Halloween.

"mOBSCENE" - Marilyn Manson

Beastie Boys: "Get out and vote"

The Beastie Boys, a famous American hip hop group from New York City, have added three shows to their swing state tour in support of the presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"We are going to do a few shows in hopes that we can remind people to vote," the Beastie Boys said in a joint statement, adding that they are endorsing Barack Obama. "This election is too important, too much is at stake to stay at home. We hope that you can come out, have a nice night, dance, sing, get your freak on, and then wake up the next morning and get everyone that you possibly can to get out and vote."

The 'get out the vote' tour began on October 27th in Charlotte, N.C., together with Sheryl Crow and Santogold.
Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper and Norah Jones supported the tour two nights later in Youngstown, Ohio, while Crow and Harper will play tonight in Dayton, Ohio.
Jack Johnson, Tenacious D and David Crosby and Graham Nash are on board to play shows November 1 in St. Paul, Minn., and November 2 in Milwaukee.

Beastie Boys - Live

GHOST MICE (Bloomington / USA) / / Acoustic Folk

During and after our shows with my band, I Met Violet, we get to know a lot of great musicians and bands - and often become friends.
A band we know, since four years ago, and we're in close contact with - maybe because our first show as I Met Violet had been together with them - is Ghost Mice. Since our first show we played two more gigs with them. Keep in mind that they are from Indiana, we're from Germany.
It's always a great pleasure to support them on their world-wide tours - but we didn't make it out of Bielefeld, yet.

Let me introduce them to you:

In 2002, Chris Johnston (aka Chris Clavin) and Hannah Jones decided to leave their old punk bands behind, to play 100% acoustically - they founded Ghost Mice.

The shortage of space became a concept: Amplifiers and drums presented an obstacle while touring - transporting a violin, a guitar, a harmonica and a tambourine is much easier and uncomplicated.

Combine these instruments with the singing duet (Chris and Hannah) and you will get wonderful, hearty, acoustic country-folk-punk, which the singers scream to their audience - unplugged.

Their songs are about life on the road, painful love or politics. Their sound combines the best elements of punk and folk - it mixes fun with rebellion and makes it appear, as it is all the same.

And according to their anarchist attitude, they want to play everywhere: on the streets, in the backyards, in the living rooms, in the rain, in the clubs - even if the electricity fails - or at the lost and found at the railway station - where the noise of the trains complete the sound...

Instrumentation:
HANNAH JONES plays the violin and lives in Bloomington, IN.
CHRIS JOHNSTON plays guitar, lives in Gainesville, FL.
PASCALOO plays ukulele and concertina, lives in Paris.

more info on Ghost Mice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Mice
http://www.plan-it-x.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ghostmice

Ghost Mice - Hang On Kids

Fall Out Boy against Prop. 8

Isabel wrote about it in her political blog: Proposition 8 in California – the initiative to overturn the legalization of same-sex-marriage in California.

One of my favourite bands, Fall Out Boy, is supporting the "NO" campaign. While some bands like U2 are known for their philanthropic efforts, some simply aren't. Fall Out Boy is one of those bands. However, they're doing everything they can to change that.

They donated $50,000 Dollars to the efforts to defeat Prop. 8, which will be appear on the state's ballots on Election Day (11/4/2008).

Bassist Pete Wentz said: "There are a lot of causes out there — a lot of 'good' fights to be fought. I think Proposition 8 is pretty lame — as many others do, too. It's fucking lame."

Another statement of the band to the Proposition and their donation is kept simple and short:
"We believe government shouldn’t legislate love. Vote 'no' on Proposition Eight."

Concert review: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

Six talented people on one stage, a Mexican feeling and a lot of good music can describe this evening. No, I'm not doing a concert review about Calexico again. Like I mentioned in my last blog entry, Isabel and I have gone to a concert of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.

They played their show at the Warfield in San Francisco. This music venue had been renovated a few weeks ago and is now again open to the public. The interior room reminded me some of the Sistine Chapel: mural paintings on the ceiling, baroque walls and a lot of candelabra.

It's a fact that this show is not a Bright Eyes concert, it's Conor Oberst's solo project. This fact irritated some members of the audience. But all in all you can hardly hear the difference between the Mystic Valley Band and Bright Eyes - the sound's almost the same. But the "false labeling"-band was more down-to-earth. More guitars, no "extraordinary" instruments like violins or xylophones - like Conor Oberst used during Bright Eyes shows.

A mixed audience of younger and older people created a great atmosphere. The concert was sold out. The security measures were exaggerated - I felt like I was taking part in a military drill. Security lines and incompetent doormen spoiled some parts of the evening.

The Mystic Valley Band played almost all the songs of their new album "Conor Oberst" which has a Mexican touch and creates some kind of an "on the road"-feeling. But maybe it's because Isabel and I listen to this album when we're driving in our car.
People who expected some Bright Eyes songs got disappointed - they played not a single song of Conor's "former band". Who would have known that?

All in all it was a great, two hour show with a refreshed and well-rehearsed Conor Oberst and some his Saddle Creek family members. Conor once again showed that the music is the best way to express himself - either as Bright Eyes or as the Mystic Valley Band.

Listen to their songs at http://www.myspace.com/conoroberst

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

“Conor and a tight-knit group of fellow musicians, who aptly call themselves The Mystic Valley Band, crafted a lush and beautiful record that evokes the deep sense of harmony in which they lived and worked during that month of recording at Tepoztlán, Morales, Mexico.” (conoroberst.com)

This quote from Conor Oberst' website is formulated very accurately.
The singer of the Bright Eyes, a Folk-Rock band from Omaha, Nebraska, has just started a new project to express himself: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.
Oberst wanted to start a solo project apart from the brand "Bright Eyes".
Only Nate Walcott plays with Conor Oberst in the Mystic Valley Band and Bright Eyes. The trumpet and piano player supported Oberst to "cast" other musicians for the project.
Nik Freitag joined the band. He's a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Visalia, California. He met Conor Oberst through one of those chance encounters on one of his many nationwide tours. Their meeting resulted in Oberst releasing Nik’s fourth album “Sun Down” on his Team Love Records imprint and supporting Bright Eyes on the “Cassadaga” tour.

Macey Taylor was asked to record the album because Oberst knows him from different projects and jam sessions with musicians of the Saddle Creek label.

Jason Boesel, born in Hawaii, was cast as the MVB drummer. During the last 15 years he played with Saddle Creek bands like Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes.
Last but not least, Taylor Hollingsworth joined the band, who is a great guitar player and was picked by Conor Oberst after he played a short session with him after a show.

The album "Conor Oberst" was recorded in a studio in Mexico where the band rented a house, where they lived together and could record the record within a month.
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band started touring in June 2008 and has played in South America, North America and Europe.
Tonight we will see their show at the Warfield in San Francisco. We are very excited.
You can read my concert review on Monday.

Censored record covers - No. 3

To finish my little report about censored record covers, this entry is again about album covers of actual bands that had been pulled before they could be released or after they had hit the market.

Here is an example of a macabre coincidence that forced the record company and the band to replace the picture of the cover:
The hip-hop band The Coup wanted to release a new record with a cover depicted the World Trade Center exploding.
Two months after finishing the artwork for the cover (the record wasn’t released, yet), the terroristic attacks on the World Trade Center’s twin towers let the picture become a terrible reality.

"We changed the artwork as soon as we saw what had happened," said Daria Kelly, director of sales for 75 Ark, the band's label.
Hours after two hijacked airliners actually smashed in to the WTC, the picture was taken off from the company’s website.

Jane's Addiction - "Ritual De Lo Habitual"

The American band Jane’s Addiction tried to release their album “Ritual De Lo Habitual” with a cover which shows three naked people barely covered with a red blanket. Too much for the American public found the guardian of the public morals, and directed the band and their management to replace the album cover immediately.

The band expressed their protests against this repression with a white cover and a reprint of the First Amendment to the US constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech. Nevertheless, the original cover found its way to the huge public through the internet and caught much more attention than it might had if it had not been recalled.