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David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails- Hallo Spaceboy (live from 1995)
Pro-shot footage of the NIN/Bowie tour from 1995 has finally surfaced, and the duet performance of “Hurt” has been getting all the online hype. However, I find this performance to be much more interesting, because it sums up why the two acts together and Bowie’s diversion into industrial in the 90’s in general didn’t work. A lot of words can be used to describe Nine Inch Nails, but subtle isn’t one of them, and here the pounding beats intensify to create a wall of noise that would ultimately be cathartic if Trent were to scream over top of it. Bowie though is far too restrained and mannered in his performance style to deliver something like that, going for a more dramatic quiet intensity that usually serves him extremely well, (The man isn’t one of the most acclaimed live performers for no reason.) but doesn’t work here, because of the mismatch in tone. By the 90’s, Bowie was too mature in his musical approach to resonate with the kids and moshers in the NIN audience, even if he was performing great material (although let’s be honest, this song is faaaaaaaaaaaaaar from his best), and his audience had gotten old to the point that they didn’t want to thrash around.
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David Bowie- Lady Grinning Soul
So a lot of people might know this song because it was featured in the Runaways movie with Dakota Fanning, but this song deserves so much better than being known through its association with a movie. Although to be fair, I only really listened to it after Tori Amos picked it as one of her 5 favorite songs, so what matters isn’t how you discover songs, but how you appreciate them after.
It’s a classic, with a romantic and twinkling piano part by the underappreciated Mike Garson and a James Bond-like vibe (I would seriously LOVE to see Shirley Bassey cover this). It feels unlike any of Bowie’s other work from the Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane eras, and his vocal delivery on the chorus has the perfect mix of melancholy and seduction to go with describing the woman who “will be your living end”. The lyrics have an undeniably masculine quality to them and not much mystery, but Bowie’s voice imbues them with a more complex and sensual air. It’s interesting that both this song and “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones were supposedly written about the same woman, Claudia Lennear, especially since both can easily be read as drug-inspired as well.
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Cut Copy- Time Stands Still (live)
Pitchfork talked to Dan Whitley, leader of Cut Copy, and he revealed some details about their new album:
Pitchfork: Was there anything you were listening to that influenced that hypnotic sound?
DW: I was obsessed with Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk while working on this record— a lot of the Lindsey Buckingham tracks have a proto-80s African feel. Also Talking Heads, Slave to the Rhythm by Grace Jones, and Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock album. And a lot of acid house era, post-rave indie music like Happy Mondays and Primal Scream.
Pitchfork: Are there any other new things you guys are trying on the album?
DW: Yeah, we had this idea of getting a choir and some strings to add an extra dimension to some songs. I listen to a lot of David Bowie and I really love his Young Americans record where got all these soul singers to do backing vocals. If we’re talking Bowie albums, the production and general sound of this new record is probably closer to Low or “Heroes”, but Young Americans was my reference for the vocal sound in particular.
Pitchfork: Where did you record the new album?
DW: In a warehouse in Melbourne. There’s a certain romance to it. It’s in the middle of this industrial area with lots of fabric warehouses— in fact, right underneath our space is this, like, clothing sweatshop where they play this weird psychedelic 70s pop music. So there might be a hint of that floating into the mics.
There is not a single thing in those 3 answers that doesn’t fill me with excitement. Cut Copy mixed with Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, and Talking Heads with a choir and strings? YES PLS! They’re also going to be playing new stuff at Lollapalooza this summer (which is their only scheduled American show), so that’s another thing for me to get excited about.
They really should’ve accepted Lady Gaga’s offer to open for her though, I would much rather see them again later this year than Semi-Precious Weapons.
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Tori Amos- Heart of Gold (Neil Young cover, live 2007)
When you first saw Tori Amos- Heart of Gold, I bet you thought you knew exactly how this song was going to sound: piano only, sad drawn-out breathy vocals, all her usual tricks and tics. Surprise! She completely deconstructs the song, reinventing it as a glammed-up hard rock track, banging away on the piano over wailing guitar and pounding drums. The vocal is ferocious, especially on the “I’m getting old” lines and the ending, (One of the things I love most about Tori, and it’s a common thread through almost all the musicians I love, is how she always manages to pull out a big finish to her songs, even if the beginning is shaky.) and she throws herself into this song fully, including some old-school piano bench grinding and whipping her hair around.
For everyone (me included) who goes on about her appearance not being what it used to be, she looks STUNNING here. She’s the same age as my mother, and believe me, my mother could not pull off rubber tights and those insane heels. Honestly most of my friends in their early 20’s couldn’t either. The outfits for the Pip character, one of the 5 personas from the American Doll Posse album, (where the concept was pretty much Ziggy Stardust meets Sex and The City meets Greek mythology, with a drag caricature of Tori thrown in. Seriously.) really were the best things Tori’s worn in years, they were sexy without being inappropriate or gross (Madge, take note! Please?) and the black wig was the most flattering of the 5 she wore that tour.
I’m thinking it’s going to be “Tori Amos covers classic rock” week here, there’ll most likely be some Steely Dan, some Springsteen, some Leonard Cohen, some Alice Cooper, maybe Prince, and maybe Oasis. (I know they don’t count as classic rock, but the cover is so good it would pain me to leave it out.)
Barbra Streisand- Life On Mars
Yes, THAT Life On Mars. You know you’re curious. How can you resist the idea of Barbra singing, ” It’s on Amerika’s tortured brow, That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow”?
Now if only it was, you know…good.
Photo reblogged from iamsosorry with 24 notes
“How awesome is it to wake up and be David Bowie every day?” squeaked the grade-school interviewer. Her hands noticeably shook as she anticipated scribbling the answer from this titan of pop music.
Unable to lift his eyes from the synthetic flooring, David Bowie managed to growl, “Awesome? What do you know about being David Bowie? Every morning I open my eyes, hanging upside down in my gilded sleeping chamber, slip into my unitard, prank call Brian Eno, and wonder, ‘Well old boy, how are you going to top yesterday?’ Can you even imagine that pressure? Sometimes it seems I’ve weirded myself into an intergalactic corner.”
But when he glanced sidelong, the girl reporter had disappeared. It was just Bowie in the growing black.
It had always been Bowie.
Source: iamsosorry
