Black

A critical evaluation of Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe with Tom DeSavia and friends, published by Da Capo Press While the stories are (almost) never the same, it’s pretty surprising how consistently structured and formulaic most rock biosand scene expositions are; be it the story of one artist or the collected stories of many, the authors of such books often attempt to condense the finer points of “what happened” down into...

It has been said so often now that most fans (even the newest, least tested ones) can take this as a fact: David Bowie always rocks hardest and best when he’s making a grand artistic statement. The years have proven that as factual but, as Station To Station, Tin Machine, Earthling and, now, Blackstar illustrate, the singer goes that ever-so-important extra step and ascends to a whole other creative echelon when even his biggest supporters are left pretty sure that...

Leave it to David Bowie to wrap a perfectly tongue-in-cheek idea in populist medium and make a celebration of it. That is, of course, precisely what the singer has done in licensing Earthling for a fresh vinyl pressing now, almost twenty years after the album was originally released. Confused, reader? Let me clarify it for you: when Earthling was first released in 1997, much ado was made about how the music was recorded as well as the equipment which was...

Artist: Black Lips Album: Arabia Mountain Label: Vice Records Every two years when Black Lips re-surface, each new recording is slightly more polished than the last, each managing to sound as though it cost nothing make. Sometimes it costs a lot to sound cheap, and with in-demand producer Mark Ronson helming their new opus, the trashy garage sound synonymous with the Lips was in question. However the result is perfect with Ronson’s diverse musical taste fueling the integrity of their...

Artist: Black Lips Venue: The Phoenix – Toronto, Ontario, Canada Date: April 2011 No decade has produced more relentlessly touring bands than the 2000’s. Since the decline of record sales, bands have had to work harder to get noticed and get paid, and there is no better way than to play live shows all over the world all of the time. Every time The Black Lips return to Toronto they get bigger and more fantastic. Even though their show remains...