Timbaland to release first ever mobile download only record

Timbaland is releasing the first ever album made especially for mobile phones. The 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake plans to make one track a month available via US phone company Verizon.

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Led Festival rumour balloons then bursts

A host of music media have ran with the story that Led Zeppelin are to feature at the US festival Bonnarooo. The Police headlined the festival last year as part of their reunion tour but to the mass disappointment of US gig-goers the only band performing Stairway To Heaven at this years event in Tennesse will be Lez Zeppelin, a female tribute act.

New Death Cab For Cutie album in May

Death Cab for Cutie’s forthcoming “really weird” new album Narrow Stairs is nearly ready.

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Bowie sings for Scarlett

David Bowie is featured on Scarlett Johansson’s forthcoming debut album. The Thin White Duke provides vocals for two tracks on the LP, ‘Fannin’ Street’ and ‘Falling Down’. The record is a collection of Tom Waits covers entitled ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’, and is to be released in the US in May.

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Sonic Youth plan art exhibit

Thurston Moore, while not scoring porno flicks, is preparing a Sonic Youth art exhibit. “We’re putting together this museum show that’s utilizing all the artists that we’ve worked with on different covers and concepts, and that’s going to happen for two or three years,” Moore told New York magazine. “It’s going to happen in young museums; there’s one outside of Paris, there’s one in Malmö, Sweden.”

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New Ladytron album on the way

Ladytron have revealed details of their forthcoming album, the band’s fourth. Velocifero is due out in the US on June 3, and contains 13 tracks. The follow-up to 2005’s Witching Hour was recorded in Paris, with the band sharing production duties with Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails) and Vicarious Bliss.

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Classic Clash live on DVD

A live documentary chronicling the Clash’s definitive ontage highlights is on the way. The Clash Live: Revolution Rock will feature footage from London’s the Music Machine performance in 1978 and the Lyceum in 1979 and 1980, as well as the band’s notorious set New York City’s Shea Stadium in 1982. The documentary will be available in DVD from April 15.

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Attack Of The Chrome

Chrome Hoof have announced details for their rescheduled Irish dates. The London disco-metal crackpots were due to play Dublin and Belfast this week (February 12 & 13) but had to postpone the gigs, promising new dates in March. And they have been as good as their word. We can exclusively reveal the new dates below.

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Roísín Murphy (Pt. 2)

Continued from page 1

She has carried that sense of wonderment, that breathless love of music with her throughout life, as ready to enthuse about contemporary music as about the acts which inspired her 16 year old self.

“I think pop music is quite good at the minute. I really like Gorillaz, they’re fantastic and I like Outkast and Kanye West. Anybody who is prepared to embrace opportunity, people that are creative in every aspect of what they do, be it in making good videos, good artwork and of course, good music. These are the kind of artists I look up to today.”

An enthusiasm for adventure is evident not only in her musical tastes, but in everything Murphy does. Look at the artwork for her records, those far-fetched costumes, the over-the-top videos, the artistic escapades, the daring to be different. This determination not to be tethered to convention is, Murphy claims, the product not only of nature but of nurture,

“I was told as a child how special I was, that I didn’t need to be the same as other people. How I am now comes down to the fact that, from a very young age, for right or for wrong, I was told you create the way you are, that you don’t need to be what other people think you should be. I was always told that and that was the way the people in my family were. In Ireland every single person on both sides of my family works for themselves and I’m not saying that they are all millionaires or anything, well actually a couple of them did turn out to be millionaires but there was never anyone telling us what to do, or what to be. Also we weren’t a very religious family; in fact my father was quite anti-religious.”

This constantly questing, independent streak is what makes Murphy such a cherished and idiosyncratic performer, a trait she utilised in the creation of ‘Overpowered’, travelling from place to place, employing numerous collaborators, restlessly seeking to fulfill her unique vision.

“My intention was to work with lots of people, to have whatever I needed to make the dream come true. I could write something in Miami and if it wasn’t right I could get it produced in Sheffield and mixed in New Yor; and then, if I didn’t like that mix, I could get it mixed again in London. I didn’t have to stop until I got as close as I could to achieving what I was trying to express at the outset. It just meant I had to travel a lot, but that was okay. I was proud to be there, at every part of it, keeping the unity of the record. Because if you’re not there, maintaining some kind of vision, or focus, it all becomes impossible, things separate.”

Given the barrage of superlative spewing reviews the record has received, it seems that with ‘Overpowered’ the unity of the dream was made magnificent reality.

“Everybody liked it, didn’t they. There’s something on the internet, a critique comparison site, where all the reviews go into a database and then you get an overall rating ‘Overpowered’ got ‘Universally Acclaimed’, which is better than shit, that’s for sure! Generally though I try not to look at the reviews, it’s really unhealthy, but then we all do a lot of things that are unhealthy.”

In her official website biog it is stated that EMI signed Murphy because she reminded them of Robbie Williams. We ask whether she considers this an unhealthy comparison.

“It’s important to set this in the correct context. Yes, it’s true that EMI came to see me play live and later, when backstage, told me, ‘don’t take this the wrong way, but the only performer we can compare you to is Robbie Williams, you have the same sort of connection with your audience’. Which, given a lot of people consider me some sort of Ice Queen, is not the usual line I hear. It is important to me to be able to communicate; I believe I’m an unconventional performer, that I make little pieces of music art rather than songs.”

For this ‘unconventional performer’ the need to remain faithful to her creative impulses takes precedence over any mainstream concerns.

“It’s the only thing I can do. I’m determined to make records and perform and make images and videos and make them absolutely as good as they can be. That’s the main thing, how good can it be? That is always the priority but sometimes, people talk about it as if it’s a negative thing. Whilst I don’t put my music out there as art, I certainly approach it in that way, because that’s where I get the funk – creating.”

Given Murphy’s openness to opportunity, her willingness to engage with fashion and art, it seems obvious to ask whether a music career alone can provide all the creative fulfillment she desires, to speculate on the possibility that perhaps her future lies within some other artistic sphere?

“I’ll be a happy woman when I know what I’m doing next. Right now I don’t, so I’m a medium type woman at the moment, neither happy nor sad. But when I’m actually on to the next project, when that begins, that’s probably the happiest I can be. You’re all fresh, it’s a clean page and you’ve got a plan and you’re going there. As soon as you’ve made something and you’ve put it out, even if it is ‘Universally Acclaimed’ eventually it will start to get on your nerves, especially hearing what people say about it, how they ruin it.”

For now though the success of ‘Overpowered’ remains relatively fresh and untarnished and Murphy, who for so long had to share the accolades with Mark Brydon her partner in Moloko, can luxuriate in the status of esteemed solo artist,

“All this has come to me through experience and hard work so it’s really satisfying as things get bigger and you’re in control. On the top of all the paper it says ‘RM’. Seeing that, you know that it really is your business. Making the solo records is very satisfying because I have an idea in the beginning and I carry it through to the end. It’s especially true of ‘Overpowered’; I had never really approached a record like that before. But I do approach every record differently regardless of whether it’s as Moloko or as a solo performer. But that’s what my life is all about, looking for the next challenge.”

Words_Francis Jones

This article originally appeared in AU 43, January 2008

Roísín Murphy

Stalactite cool. Peacock plumed. Dance eccentric. That’s the common view of Roísín Murphy. However, truth, slippery fellow that he is, doesn’t reside in such terms alone. AU takes a journey to the heart of the marvelously multifaceted ‘RM’.

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Queens of the Stone Age (Pt. 2)

Continued from page 1

QOTSA’s penchant for hiring new players is well documented but since 2002 the band has always revolved around the core of Josh, Troy and drummer Joey Castillo. So it comes as no real surprise that their fifth album showcases more of a band vibe in a traditional sense than ever before.

“I think ‘Era Vulgaris’ is an album of two complete opposites,” reflects Troy. “On one hand it’s the first album where it feels like a traditional band and Joey’s playing especially is out there in people’s faces. But on the other hand, it’s our most experimental to date. We really didn’t know what was going to happen when we sat down to make it and that’s what I found so exciting. I genuinely think it’s our best work - no bullshit.”

‘Era…’ is also the first Queens’ album where the band have spent a set amount of time (10months) to record it. Described by Homme as “dark, hard, and electrical, sort of like a construction worker” it’s a looser, sexier album than the taught neo-punk sounds of ‘Rated R’ or the rampant riffola of their self-titled debut. It also shows the band in a more light-hearted mood after the darkness of ‘Lullabies’ with two cartoon characters on the cover called Bulby and Patchy, designed by Liam Lynch (he of novelty hit ‘Whatever’ from a few years back).

“Having Bulby on the cover is basically us taking the piss,” laughs Troy. “We decided to make these fake commercials to advertise the new record and Josh was talking about this really weird point in time where cartoon characters advertised smoking. Like you’d have The Thing from the Fantastic Four smoking cigars or you’d have Fred Flintstone buying a pack of Camels, which is so strange when you think about that today. So we decided to invent a character who could sell our new record for us.

“I don’t think anyone in the States has really picked up on that though,” he continues. “We’re even talking about doing this really trippy movie with Bulby just to freak people out but we’ll see how that pans out.”

While Queens may have had a rough few years losing best friends and long time fans along the way, the time is right for a comeback. Though it’s hard to ignore the hole that Nick Oliveri has left in the band - iconically and musically - on stage they’re still as fearsome as ever. Take their recent headlining performance at Oxegen earlier this year for example. They might have taken to the stage at midnight, but for an hour and a half they reminded us just why we got so excited about them in the first place and you can be guaranteed that when they finally make their debut in Belfast after two previously cancelled shows in 2001, it’ll be one of the events of the year.

“There’s no one out there that can touch Queens of the Stone Age when it comes to playing live, I promise you that,” smiles Troy, confirming for us, what we already know. “We’re the fucking best. Whenever we’re onstage, the press, the cynics…none of that bullshit matters anymore. We’re still making amazing music, we’re mixing it up every night and now that we’ve made ‘Era Vulgaris’ I think we can do anything we want.”

Words_Edwin McFee

This article originally appeared in AU 43, January 2008