RUSH – Beyond the Lighted Stage

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I love watching band documentaries and I’ve really been filling my boots recently.  Here’s one I enjoyed.  ‘Beyond the Lighted Stage‘ brings the career of Canadian band Rush to life.  Let me just (perhaps sadly, perhaps not?!?) admit right now that I have never been a Rush fan.  In fact, it’s a credit to the film that I now just might seek out a few Rush albums.   Well… ’70s albums.  No matter how good this documentary, I’m still to be convinced about the ’80s synth albums!

So… this is a review of a Rush documentary by someone who knows nothing about Rush.  Okay…  I knew they were a prog rock band.  I knew the individual band members’ names.  I knew Geddy Lee had a big nose and could play incredible bass.  I thought Rush were a pretty light, keyboard-centric rock band.  But I honestly hadn’t really heard anything by them.  There were a couple of occasions during the documentary where I had moments of song-recognition.  But on the whole… nothing.  So am I the ideal, or worst person to comment on this film?  Hmmmm.  I think I might just be perfect. 🙂

There’s certainly an unusual amount of ‘home-filmed’ archive footage.  This lends an essence of authenticity to this documentary above and beyond the usual cash-in.  I should Wikipedia why and how some of this footage exists… that would be the right sort of thing to do when writing a review.  But, as a friend of mine said recently after making a truly bizarre sweeping statement.  – “Life’s too short for research”.  Ha ha!  Anyway… you don’t want Wikipedia’d nonsense.  You want my honest, expert opinion.

The first think that hits you in the face is the sheer level of musicianship on display in this band.  The three members are superhuman.  Geddy Lee, on bass, is an animal.  Basslines that make me re-evaluate what breakfast cereal I eat in the morning.  In fact… I actually eat breakfast cereal last thing at night.  So I actually eat supper cereal.  Hmmm.  …and his vocals, while not quite to my taste, are undoubtedly superb.  Alex Lifeson must be one of the most underrated guitarists of all time.  I have been a fan of the guitar, and the guitar hero, all my life and yet I rarely see Mr Lifeson make an appearance in any top-ten lists.  Well… I tell you… Alex Lifeson has some chops.  Oh yes… he has a whole butcher’s shop full!!!

I used to read ‘Rhythm‘ magazine at my old drummer’s house.  It’s not a porn mag… it’s a mag about drumming!  Neil Peart was a regular in the pages of that magazine.  So I have more knowledge of the type of drums Mr Peart uses than the average man on the street… and yet I still hadn’t really heard him play.  Well… let me say now that he certainly lives up to the reputation of ‘consummate drumming professional’ – ‘The Drummer’s Drummer’.  Amazing tom rolls that remind me of Maiden’s Nicko.   And above all, a well-read drummer who writes the band’s lyrics.  Bats away the drumming clichés!  So…. huge Kenny Everett thumbs up to the musicians of Rush.

Elements of the narrative of Beyond the Lighted Stage chime with my own life.  There’s a discussion of how ‘local’ bands were ignored by the locals (essentially Canadian bands in Canada). American bands would play Canada… hear Rush, and think they were the greatest thing since sliced bread.  The locals of course still thought “but they’re just a local band”.  People not seeing the bigger picture.

I used to play in a band that would routinely blow signed, touring bands off the stage.  They would genuinely approach me afterwards and ask what record label we were signed to and where we were playing next.  I would answer “we’re not signed”… and watch their jaws drop.  That’s ‘local band syndrome’.  It’s like a disease.  But the cure for this disease is building up enough of a following that the generals in charge of the ‘power of music’ can no longer ignore you.  This, unfortunately, is trickier now than ever before.  I once watched an interview with someone… I can’t remember who – some old rock star… and he said that if you formed a band in the ’60s and played your instruments relatively well…. you would be signed.  You would be famous.  This is no longer the case.  If watching these band documentaries tells me anything it’s that the game has changed completely.  It will be interesting to watch a documentary in 20 years time about a band making it big today.  The documentary will probably feature more about social networking, public relations, home recording and luck than it will licking Jack Daniels off a hooker’s tits in a LA studio.  Horses for courses I suppose.  It’s just a shame my ‘childhood’ memories of great rock are being struck over the head with a shovel and buried along with all the great albums.

This documentary, ‘rock’umentary if you will… shows Rush veering into Spinal Tap territory on more than one occasion.  They are obviously highly aware of this as I’m sure I spotted a tiny Stonehenge monument perched on one of Geddy Lee’s keyboards.  The usual ‘talking heads’ pop up to offer their ‘expert’ opinion… but it’s nice to see a few more unfamiliar faces (and no Lars Ulrich!).

Beyond the Lighted Stage is an excellently edited and expertly put together film.  I’ve seen some pretty muddled and amateurish efforts in my time and this isn’t one of them.  At times it is a window into the world of the care-free millionaire musician – but there’s enough heartbreak featured to bring the brick of real life careering towards that fragile glass.

Verdict.. I have been won over by the entity that is Rush.  I enjoyed this film.  What more is there to say… it’s nice to see three ‘normal’ blokes who make excellent, technical music.  This is not a film of sex, drugs and rock and roll.  This is a film of oxymorons.  A band with adoring fans and the wealth, fame and ability to do whatever they want in life.  A band that is completely unknown to the population at large.    Alex Lifeson sums it all up beautifully “A million monkeys typing on a million typewriters may eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare.  But who the hell’s going to clean those typewriters?”.  Geddy Lee: “We’re getting into a weird area here… monkey defecation.”

Album Review: Liars – ‘WIXIW’

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The most beautiful day of the year so far.  Straight blue skies.  No clouds.  No breeze.  Still.  Sitting on a bench and reading a book.  Drinking Amstel.  Felt the need to enter my studio and listen to a record… just for a bit… to get out of the rays.  The vinyl is spinning the perfect album for this day.  I even have the window open – a very rare occurrence in a room that is all about keeping sound in!

So I listen to WIXIW by LIARS.  A very strange album title… apparently pronounced ‘Wish You’.  Hmmmmm… not sure which world you’d have to inhabit to pronounce such a collection of letters in that manner.  Anyway… the album starts with a delightful song.  The Exact Color of Doubt.  This song sounds like I imagine sunshine tastes.  Perfick.  Another swig of Amstel.  This bottle is a little warm now.  Luckily I have another to follow… although I opened the other a few minutes ago in preemptive preparation.  Everything’s warming.  I shouldn’t complain.

I’ve loved Liars since their first album.  I had that album going round and round in my car for a long time.  I remember it had a kind of ‘looped’ final track that lasted longer than the whole rest of the album combined.  A journey?  Art rock?  They Threw Us All in a Trench was captivating.  It was different in the extreme.  If I were to listen to it now it would probably sound ‘normal’… but at the time it sounded like half a band.  Slightly dislocated from what everyone else was doing.  Not the greatest album… but far from the worst.  A slightly twilight zone-like middle ground.  The kind of middle ground that is nowhere near the centre of anywhere!

Then came everything that was right… They Were Wrong, So We Drowned.  An album that changed the game.  And yet received review scores so low they could be found providing foundations for foundations.  You have to question reviews.  You have to question their purpose.  Are they a means to turn you onto good music?… or are they a means to give an individual a sense of lofty self-worth?!?  I was never quite the same after They Were Wrong.  My music felt ‘narrow’, ‘restricted’… average.  Yet everyone was out there listening to Coldplay and the Kaiser Chiefs.   Narrow and restricted was selling.  Narrow and restricted will always sell.  Since I formed COTWS I have made a point of expanding everything.  For this reason it’s nice to check back with Liars and see what they’ve been up to.  I didn’t really enjoy the albums after They Were Wrong… even the critically acclaimed Drums Not Dead.  So it is with relish that I proclaim WIXIW as containing moments of God-like genius.  Ha ha!  My album of the year so far.

I’ve lived with this album a fair while now.  I’ve always found the idea of commenting on an album immediately somewhat mystifying.  Initial opinions are historically inaccurate!  Remember Be Here Now?  Ha ha!

WIXIW works as a unified set of songs.  An album… in an albumless age.  I can’t fault the opening track.  Beautiful, swamping layers padding the exterior of your brain.  Then singing!  Actual proper singing.  Not screaming.  Really sweet singing.  This takes a little mind shift to adjust.  Realigning perceptions of what’s to come.   You expect an ordeal from Liars.   Are they growing up?  Are they getting old?  Are they relaxing?  Let’s see.

Octagon drags us back into more familiar territory.  Slightly drawled vocals across a bed of repetitive rhythms.  Distorted string sounds and (slight) abuse.  As part of the tapestry it works.

No.1 Against the Rush is the ‘hit’ on an album with no hits.  This song is the filling of the sandwich, the bread being everything else.  Although the song wouldn’t be totally out-of-place on an ’80s electro compilation album it feels new.  What’s more it feels human.  It sounds like a song Rutger Hauer would play to Harrison Ford to prove that humanity is more than simply being human.  This song is a revelation.  In an age where every mainstream band feels the urge to turn Dubstep and ‘get down’ with the kids here’s a song that forges a new path without taking a sideways glance.  Tunnel vision with a purpose.  Narrow and restricted like narrow and restricted has never been. /swigs Amstel.

This record has an outstanding A-side.  Such momentum that you wonder how the B-side will compete.  Twists and turns of rhythms.  Liars have always been a band more about rhythms and soundscapes than they have about songs.  At least on the albums that I have loved.  “You’re no better than you were”  loops on A Ring on Every Finger.  The past glitters in the new-found darkness.  This is Liars experimenting with electronics, soley, for the first time… however to my ears sonically we’re in very much the same ball park as always.  Maybe it’s like when they say that no matter which guitar you give Brian May, he sounds like Brian May.  You don’t have to chisel your mantlepiece like a genius musical butcher.  Liars can hack at sound and they hack with a clever head.  A little nod to Radiohead here and there.  Ill Valley Prodigies is in danger of a bow to the floor.  But who isn’t influenced by at least a breath of a Radiohead era?

/swigs beer, flips record.

Come on then side B.  Show us what ya got.  WIXIW comes in with hints of a Jeff Buckley 4-track demo.  Loops and singing.  Identifiable song structures… just. Perhaps this is an album for people who have previously dismissed the band as noise-merchants.  If you were of wicked mind you could hazard a suggestion that this record is tame.  However, you’d be wrong.  Maturing is becoming more at one with your goals and gaining intelligence and the ability to use that intelligence intelligently.  This record goes to those places.  For me anyway.  WIWIW is pleading exasperation over a train track rhythm.  It’s that determination again.  Purpose of spirit.  And as Lars said in “Some Kind of Monster“… “When is a song done?”.   Every artist faces that dilemma.  When do you stop layering?  When is a song finished?  Liars seem to stop one brush stroke short.  On their first album I felt they’d stopped a whole paint box short.  Here they are nearing a perfect balance.  I have in the past been obsessed with ‘Wall of Sound’tm.  To the point where I’m taking a step back with my current project and trying to create a sense of space.  Gaps don’t necessarily have to be filled.   Liars aren’t about leaving gaps.  It’s not the old Eric Clapton adage about what you don’t play being what’s important.  It’s more about knowing when to stop.  And knowing why.  That important, eternal query.  “Why?”

The B Side is flying by whilst I type.  A side of rhythms.  Reminds me of  ’60s Alice Cooper.  Like it’s testing you.  Beautiful programming, intricate tapestries, audible vocals.  Messages.  And real instruments – that’s a description of this album by the way… not ’60s Alice Cooper!!!  For what was purported to be a wholly electronic album I’m a little confused.  In a good way.  But confused all the same.  Nothing wrong with being confused.

Who is the Hunter is the lynchpin of side B.  I can feel Jim Morrison.  Then a driving bass drum enters.  Then a massive ’80s arpeggiated synth.  Empty and full.  This album quietly blows me away.  It has bombast without ramming it in your face.  Can you even have quiet bombast?  I’m not sure… but listen to this album to experience.  Experience.  Now strings.  Strings can be conventional.  But they can also be timeless.  I love strings and I’ll always use them.  Nice to hear such an awkward band make such unawkward use of them.

Brats is a bit of a head turner.  It sounds like a Madchester song.  Honestly… you could be listening to the Happy Mondays.  Not sure it fits the ‘spirit’ of the album.  Luckily there are some really cool Faithless-style keys that lift the song.  I would personally knock Brats off the album.  But perhaps that’s simply because it followed such an awe-inspiring song.

And so… before you know it we’re at the end of side B.  The end of the album.  So… what have they got for me?  How are we going to end this partnership?  Annual Moon Words sounds a little Madchester/Trip Hoppy again (with the tiniest hint of Dirty Diana by Michael Jackson?!?).  Not negatively this time.  Comes across as a genuine goodbye.  Goodbye Liars.  Perfect last note.

If I was forced at gun-point (dangerous place.. gun point) to compare WIXIW to one of my albums I would probably say The Galton Detail.  That same kind of aloofness but still keeping an eye on the concept of ‘the song’.  I suggest booking your place on a sunny bench and listening to WIXIW.  Or just drink a few beers in the sun.  Cheers.

Indescribable… Indestructible! Nothing Can Stop It!

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So I was clicking through my Facebook profile last night and I saw a few photos that I had accidentally set to ‘public’.  I panicked and quickly set them to ‘friends only’.  That’s a bit strange isn’t it? I don’t like the thought of people from the past clicking on my profile and seeing anything of my present.  And yet…. I’m happy to pour out endless nonsense to the world on this website. – so I asked myself, “Why is that?”.

A more pertinent question is probably “What is the value of privacy in the ‘social-media-age’?”.  We all have friends who say “I don’t have a Facebook page and I never will”.  We all know people who have a real aversion to all things ‘public’ about the internet.  And yet, one by one, we are all being caught by the creep of the Blob-like privacy invasion(/Steve McQueen-less).  Our phones now have apps that are sneakily sending and receiving info about us behind our backs.  Before you know it your phone will start judging your behaviour.  People with iPhones already have that ‘assistant’ guy who schedules appointments for them and tells them the time in Beijing (I know, I’ve seen the adverts).  Soon that assistant will be giving you a right kicking for drinking too much coffee and watching too many YouTube clips when you’re supposed to be cleaning the house.  Invasion of privacy is pervading all of society now… even the naysayers who claim they don’t know what Twitter is.  (I’m on Twitter… but I don’t really #understand it @like I probably should).

You either fight the creeping blob, switch your phone off and spend every night at the pub… or you learn to embrace it.  I’ve opted for the embracing, although I do quite fancy the drinking.

With my previous musical exploits I tended to be quite secretive.  I didn’t really want people to know too much about me.  I certainly didn’t want them to know how I created the songs.  Being in a band was like being in the bestest, most funnest club ever.  Outsiders were scorned… unless they were fans.  Then when I no longer had a band I wanted to be the mad scientist, locked in the lab, creating sound from bubbling test tubes of self-indulgence.  But the problem then was… if I’m not giving anything up… why do I think anyone will care?

And now we are here.  Confession of the Whole School.  The band name itself suggests a major revelation.  I created this site to spill the beans on what it takes to create great music.  We are talking self-sacrifice, extremely good looks, a level head, extremely good looks and, most of all, the ability to open one’s soul to the world.  This is the difficult bit – because it clashes with my fundamental desire to skulk in the shadows – to be an enigma.  But this is more fun.  Being open is fun.  I love watching documentaries about the making of art.  I love eavesdropping on snippets of the Beatles in the studio.  I watch endless YouTube clips on ‘behind the scenes’ music-related bollocks.  It’s all good.  I’ve entered into the spirit of it, and I have made myself available to the world.  This website is my voice piece… my megaphone.  And where my band was my club and any fans were just a bonus… now this website is my club and any ‘fans’ are members of the club too.  It’s like a bigger club.  Whereas before I was playing venues with an audience of one man and his dog… today I can probably afford to hire a decent sized tent.  As my web-based-fan-base grows I’ll up-size.  Next stop… a decent static caravan.  The world is my oyster.

Hmmmm… Now, just gotta change my Facebook profile picture to an old cartoon show or something just so that anyone who searches for me by name can’t see my face!  Imagine that!!!  Arrrghhhh!!! The horror.

The Making of THE FINAL CHAPTER

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A documentary on the making of my latest song – THE FINAL CHAPTER.  This song was completed in incredibly fast (by my standards) time and I think it was all the better for it.  I created a pretty unusual sound… and I managed to fuse elements of rock and jazz without being ‘jazz-rock’.   I could easily write more on the subject… but when I have a video to post – why bother?  Anyway… press play… what else are you gonna do?  – Watch an episode of CSI where someone steals a whole house?!?