The Rock Review

Take a Trip to the Bullfight before it’s too late

The bullfight in Spain has been an institution for hundreds if not thousands of year. The thrills of seeing the matadors play with the bull in an almost ceremonial ritual that has enthralled visitors to Spain for a long time and drawn many people on holiday. While it is not for those people who have a weak stomach or for people who are concerned with animal rights, it is still an incredible sight to behold. Men put themselves a few More

Jail Weddings: get off your Cheap Sofas and check them out.

The name of the LA band, Jail Weddings directly denotes the theatrical drama and the stage performance of a 10-band member (3 gals and 7 guys) ensemble, though these musicians are too cool to take themselves seriously without irony. They are a pied combination of punk and the 60’s girl-band the Shangri-Las with a bit of Elvis, including the well-performed sound production rivaling Phil Spector’s huge Wall of Sound.

Gabe Hart who is the front man and leader of Jail Weddings is a passionate singer whose full voice and ‘snarl of the upper lip’ sometimes resembles early Elvis, but the polite naivety of Elvis is replaced with the edgier darker aesthetics of Nick Cave. Watching this band perform is literally a party celebration primarily because of the shear size of its members and variety of instruments used. In addition to the usual rock ‘n roll standards of guitar, bass and drums there are an occasional violin, piano, sax and xylophone.

The retro influence to Hart’s compositions and lyrics are with those of intense themed songs revealing obsessive heartbreak and sappy love popular to young adults in the Doo-Wop era music of the early 60’s and perhaps the irony here is that the innocence of that time is long past, lost and gone. Revealed in Hart’s delivery of music is an extreme heightened drama that often holds a prolonged tension similar to a David Lynch movie without a release and creating a mystery. The retro fashion worn by the Jail Weddings’ members, especially the female singers beckon viewers to become part of the ‘event’ and performance, so get off of your Cheap Sofas and check them out on the net and let’s hope they get over to play in London soon.

Jail Weddings

http://www.jailweddings.net/

http://www.myspace.com/jailweddings

Photo by Sara Morrison

Response to: ‘Iron Maiden Rock the Chart’

As a dyed-in-the-wool Iron Maiden fan, I find it comforting reading that after 35 years and fifteen studious albums, an East End London band that has come from meagre roots is still topping the album charts ahead of younger and more ‘popular’ bands without the gravitas that now is synonymous with Maiden.

Day to day listening to the radio introduces me to countless young, new ‘cool’ acts put together by music corporations rather than formed together, played countless gigs in grimy pubs and clubs and come out the other end still lucid.

Maiden made their name against the backdrop of a decadent era-arising in the early 80’s and made their mark for their epic music and stood out as a band still rooted in London. This article, though only mentioning Maiden briefly does acknowledge their achievement of topping the charts and gives some idea of the extent of their career to date which I feel completely contrasts the other artists listed on the album chart.

I remember this band from before my white collar days, when I was still hunting in the papers for sofas for sale cheap to deck out my studio flat. To have survived over three decades as a world-renowned band constantly on the road has shown signs of wear on the band members-however this does nothing to affect their stunning performances that never fail to entertain the crowd and attract a young generation of fans to their entourage. Most recently at Sonisphere Festival, Maiden headlined to a crowd of fans of all ages and still showed they were the best in the business and were prepare to go out with a bang.

It appears that Iron Maiden still have ‘it’ and their new album the Final Frontier whether it is their last, is set to impress. It’s nice to see how even after so many years one band which has made such an effect on my life can still affect that of so many others.

John Digweed at Bedroom Beach, Sunny Beach

So it was the middle of August and I bought a sexy dress from Motel Rocks and a ticket for the performance of John Digweed at Bedroom Beach (Sunny Beach summer resort), Bulgaria. It was rated as one of the most anticipated parties for the summer with the Armin Van Buuren and Sandy Rivera performances. People were so eager to see and listen to Digweed performing that even a month before the performance at the famous club, the tickets were More

The

So I just recently got back from an eleven-day holiday in Spain and during this time had a good old knees up at Benicassim, supposedly the “Best Festival in Europe”. Although I had a fabulous time, I did fail to get fully engulfed in the festival fever.

I have been to quite a wide variety of festivals, all of which have been in the UK. I’ve been to the big ones; Reading and Glastonbury and smaller ones like Womad and More

Madonna will be a living legend for years to come

Madonna has always been one of the women that has been unique within the music industry. When she first starting performing she was known for her crazy outfits, provocative nature, and amazing voice. When you go to see Madonna perform it is a show that leaves you amazed.

Madonna first started as a young and upcoming performer. Her music dripped in sex and scandal. She sang of things that were not the norm. Nothing about Madonna was of the norm. More

Musician Review: Azu

Azu is an unsigned musician. He calls his music “organic pop.”It is a fresh, unique style. Azu’s music is unlike typical pop. It has a distinct sound to it. This is a new style of music that I believe will become as huge as today’s pop.

Azu is from the United Kingdom and keeps his accent in his music. He is inspired by Michael Jackson, and began singing at a young age. Azu writes all his own music and insists More

Trends and Fans

Trends have always worried me in the same way as fanaticism: the way that people blindly follow, without really thinking. So really, with that in mind, what’s the difference? Generally speaking both feature many people doing a similar thing, often not because they believe in it, but because they believe it is the right thing to do to follow. You could argue that trends in music are harmless, but then, aren’t fans? Music gets away with a lot. Put simply: More

Kim Deal: a.k.a female vocalist of The Pixies

Kim Deal has never won any prizes for being the sexiest female vocalist alive, or even the best, but Pixies fans will know her as the female driving force behind one of the most pioneering rock bands of the last fifty years.

Deal, like the rest of The Pixies, didn’t dress to impress. As was the band’s indifferent stage-style—not confined to the stage, it has to be said, that was just how they did things, as if a huge More

Kate Bush: Surrounded By Music

By the age of sixteen English born Kate Bush—christened Catherine Bush on but it shot to number one and went down in history as the first self-written number one song by a female artist, ever.
Bush’s music populates the strange place in the brain where fairy-tale magic combines with vivid story-telling to create a dynamic, passionate, unmistakeable sound. Calling it a sound seems almost condescending, though, because the songs themselves, as is the case with whatever she touched, are so much more than the sum of only lyrics and music: each song is a story layered deeply on complex layers of intersecting sounds—by the end of a Kate Bush song you haven’t only heard something great, you’ve seen something visual too. Each one a journey, a whole Kate Bush album seems like an almost total separation from listening to other types of similarly defined music.

Much has been said of Kate Bush’s voice and the evocative nature of her songs; a common attribute you’d think, but she uses it differently to the majority, shrieking and contorting sounds into fantastical and bizarre shapes which anyone else would turn into nonsense drivel.

Another stand-out quality has to be her expert handling of music production; a record producer herself, Bush understands every facet of the music-making process as well as anyone, and as such is able to hack and cut at her songs, warping them at will, but keeping the original integrity of her voice in check.

By the way, I have just checked out the Enigin Geek website that Chris recommended to me and I have to say that it really did answer all of those questions I kept asking him about energy savings. Really useful site!