SPOTLIGHT: The Living End

Ten and a bit years later, The Living End have racked up a quintuple-platinum album, two platinum and five gold records, won three ARIA awards, countless other accolades and gathered fans all over the world. What’s more important, while some bands seem old and outdated only two or three years after they start, guitarist Chris Cheney, bass player Scott Owen and “new” drummer Andy Strachan are every bit as exciting a prospect as they were way back when – if you need any convincing, just check out a show the next time they come your way.

But, as mentioned earlier, it was more than a decade ago that a Melbourne rockabilly covers outfit called the Runaway Boys wrote a bunch of original tunes and changed their name to The Living End. Early releases such as the 'Hellbound', It's For Your Own Good' and the ever impressive 'Prisoner of Society/Second Solution' EPs began a mini-cult following. It quickly became a national hit, the double A-side becoming the highest selling Australian single of the 1990s, peaking for several weeks at No.4 and receiving the 1998 ARIA Award for Highest Selling Single. It lasted a record-breaking 47 weeks on the ARIA Top 50 singles charts. Coupled with their unbelievably frenzied and energetic live performances, The Living End were clearly making a name for themselves.

The release of their self-titled debut in 1999 was considered one of the best Australian debut releases of all time. Hits to come off that album included 'Prisoner of Society' and 'Second Solution', both of which sold thousands of copies. An exhaustive tour followed and by the start of the new century, the whole nation were screaming for The Living End. The Living End were awarded two more ARIA awards in 1999 for Best Group, and Best New Artist.

They responded with a debut follow-up, 'Roll On'. This sophmore effort was unfortunately not as successful as their debut. Again, it had some solid singles such as 'Roll On' and 'Pictures In The Mirror', however, it was always going to be compared to 'The Living End' LP and it never lived up to the hype. To this day, it would have to be considered The Living End's least impressive album. Being such a fan killed me to say that last line.

In 2001, the band hit a quiet period due to Chris Cheney's near-fatal car accident on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, rendering him unable to play for a significant period of time.

In 2003, The Living End released their third album 'Modern ARTillery' and was marked as a 'change in direction'. Drummer Trav Dempsey had left the band and new boy, Andy Strachan, was the man in charge at the back. The Modern ARTillery album was a return to musical simplicity in most tracks (the rock anthem "The Room" being an exception), yet contained a number of different styles throughout the album. Due to the quiet period, their return was initially received with much hype and to their fans delight, The Living End went back on tour again.

In 2006, the boys turned to an old cohort to help them in a new direction for album number four, State of Emergency. Deciding it really is better the devil you know, the band once again enlisted the talents of legendary producer Nick Launay, who worked on their platinum selling second album Roll On (not to mention a whole host of other influential titles, including some of the finest records of the last couple of decades).

Coming off the back a very successful 2004 (including huge tours of the US, first with Jet and the Vines and later with Blink 182 and No Doubt) the lads were in high spirits. Andy was well and truly settled in the role he had inherited from former drummer Travis Dempsy just prior to the making of the band’s last record, Modern Artillery, and Chris had, thankfully, avoided any near death experiences.

The record highlights something that crowds the world over already know – The Living End play hard, fast rock & roll. So while 'State of Emergency' dishes out some of the best punk rock energy of The Living End’s career – tracks like first single “What’s On Your Radio” – it also gives fans a better look at that other side they have always known is there. Songs like the Midnight Oil flavoured anthem “Wake Up”, the shimmering Phil Spector-like psychedelia of “Order Of The Day” or the jazzy edge of “Nowhere Town” all show The Living End flexing their musical muscles and minds. This album was quite successful and continued to prove that The Living End are one of the best aussie rock bands of all time.

The Living End are currently touring as 'The Longnecks'. These shows allow them to showcase new material, which hopefully some will show up on their up-n-coming 5th studio album sometime in the middle of 2008.

The Living End are without a doubt one of the best live acts to see. Get their back catalogue, buy a ticket to their gig and fall in love with Melbourne's own rocking band, The Living End.

www.thelivingend.com.au

The following video is Prisoner of Society (live)

SPOTLIGHT: Delorean

Delorean started making open minded pop that sounded on equal parts to the softness of Seam with New Order's use of synths. Like a mix of the darkness from The Cure with Elliott Smith's paleness. All this had as a result the band's first cd "Silohuettes" (2000) on Underhill Records. The record had to be repressed and the band started touring spain. Extensive touring across Europe made the band grow and earn respect and credibility from everyone.

This new found confidence made them evolve into a more mature sound and attitude. Their sound in their second album, "Delorean" (BCore, 2004) is darker, the synths are more present, their guitars are more atmospheric than ever, their coldness is evident, and all of this offers us a record with a sense of rhythm and dancing absolutely awesome. Put simply, its like dance music made by punks such as Kraftwerk and The Cure - eighties sinister dance pop revisited by a new wave of punk attitude.

You could find the Delorean guys playing in the smallest squat or dancing and sweating and having sex at Studio 54. In 2005 a new EP was released giving the definitive sound that the band is today showing. "Metropolitan death" (BCore, 2005) is even more danceable, more electronic and groovy and contained five remixes. And in 2006, third album "Into the plateau" confirmed the absolute devotion for the dancefloor, in eight new tracks inspired by 80's beats, with their classical atmospheric guitar layers and post-punk attitude.

Ekhi, Unai, Tomás and Igor have just released their 4th installment. The fourth album "Transatlaantic KK" brings us a more serious, sober and balanced approach to their music. The combination of 80's beats, house and trance with guitar textures close to The Police, the darkness of The Cure and the attitude of Radio 4, !!! or The Rapture results in seven mesmerizing tracks, intense and nocturne, that each day run further the pop song concept to concentrate in dancefloors. Originally released in the Spring of 2006 on Bcore Discs from Barcelona, this new version of the album has been reconfigured with a new exclusive track "Apocalypse Ghetto Blast" recorded especially for Simple Social Graces Discos.

The music of Delorean recalls the dance funk music of Factory Records. Their precise rhythmic technique and compositional ability demonstrates various musical points. They have some clear musical references such as Underworld, New Order, The Cure and Daft Punk but the way they arrange and transcend their influences is what makes them so special. Hailing from Zarautz in the Basque Country and living in Barcelona now, Delorean is connected to the vibrant Spanish underground scene but have also reached far beyond to Japan, Germany, the UK and parts of the U.S. dance underground. Their live show is an overwhelming dance mind melt and listening to their records on your headphones on the subway, you can't help but dance like one of those dorks on the ipod commercial.

Look for tour information all over the world in 2008 and continued precise musical destruction.

http://www.myspace.com/deloreandanz

SPOTLIGHT: At The Drive-In

During their short but influential career, At the Drive-In crafted musically complex songs laced with cryptic and strongly metaphoric lyrics. Influenced equally by music from the likes of Pink Floyd, Fugazi and The Smiths, the band was founded in 1993 by guitarist Jim Ward and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. ATDI's first studio recording was 'Hell Paso', an EP issued in 1994. Much touring would quickly develop a following as intense in loyalty as the band was on stage. This reputation for hard work, the release of perhaps their best-known album, 'Relationship of Command' and their minor hit radio single 'One Armed Scissor' received positive attention in the rock press towards the end of their career.

In January 2001, ATDI traveled to Australia for the Big Day Out. While performing in Sydney, they left partway through their set after telling the spectators in attendance to calm down and observe the safety rules (I was one of those moshing and it honestly felt like I was going to die). After the refusal of the crowd, frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala told the crowd, “You're a robot, you're a sheep!” and proceeded to baaa at them several times before the band left the stage around 10 minutes into their set. "I think it's a very, very sad day when the only way you can express yourself is through slam-dancing," he proclaimed. Later that day, teenager Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation during a crowd surge in the now infamous Limp Bizkit's Big Day Out set.

Later in 2001, at the peak of their popularity and following a world tour, ATDI broke up, initially referring to the split as an "indefinite hiatus."

A combination of excessive hype, relentless touring, artistic differences, and Rodriguez-Lopez & Bixler-Zavala's drug habits all contributed to the demise of the band. Cedric Bixler-Zavala took responsibility for the breakup of the band, saying repeatedly in interviews that he felt almost as if ATDI were holding him back, and that he didn't want his music to be confined to 'punk' or 'hardcore' - that it should encompass many different genres and be even more progressive, alternative, and "against-the-grain". Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez had stated that they wanted their next album to sound like PInk Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, while the other members of the band were intent on progressing in a more typical rock direction.

Following the break-up of ATDI, Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez started The Mars Volta. This project was a departure from their previous work, as it pursued the prog-rock sound that they had been interested in. Meanwhile, the other members of ATDI—Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar—started the band Sparta. Hinojos has since left Sparta to join Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez in The Mars Volta. Both bands have been very successful in their own right; Sparta's music exchanged the rapturous post-hardcore sensibilities of ATDI for a more mellow yet anthemic sound, while The Mars Volta embarked on a more experimental route, transforming into a progressive hard/Latin rock group.

The music of ATDI is very complex and sometimes unwilling to find in a single genre. The amount of influence early emo and post hardcore had on their sound is undeniable, but it also includes a blend of almost classic and progressive rock sounds. 'Relationship of Command' has to be one of the most intensely insane albums of the last 10 years. It will no doubt be a timeless album for those who love to rock. The end of ATDI was and still is a very sad day in music history.

SPOTLIGHT: Mew

Mew formed in seventh grade at elementary school during a group artistic project. They chose to make a film about man's destruction of mother earth. They made the film and composed the background music. That is how it all began...

At their very first gig an agent for a book publishing company caught them and was so impressed he convinced his company to completely change their business plan to record and release the debut Mew album, 'A Triumph For Man' (1997). Limited to 2000 copies it's now a highly-valued rarity and was a critical hit in Denmark.

By the time second album 'Half The World Is Watching Me' was ready for its release in 2000, Mew's relationship with their parent company was fraying at the edges, so the band created their own label, Evil Office, to release it. No sooner did it get an initial limited release in Sweden, however, than they were snapped up by Sony for a world-wide deal and decided to pull the new record and re-record the best of their catalogue for an international audience. The result was 'Frengers', a tenfold leap in sales figures and suddenly Mew found themselves thrust into the 'big time' of one-bedroom London squat-holes and lengthy Transit van tours of the M6. It was whilst on their tour of the UK that the apocalyptic art boys wrote and recorded their 4th album. Their fourth record 'And the Glass Handed Kites' is an even greater leap into the unknown. Redefining the concept of an 'album' - and, indeed, of a 'concept album' - And the Glass Handed Kites is an eccentric 60 minute rock headfuck, flinging musical ideas, distorted nightmare images and heartbreak choruses at the listener with what at first seems to be a random ferocity.

The best band to have come out of Denmark in recent years - Mew - should be the effervescene of everybody's life. Get into them now!!

N.B. Mew have toured with the likes of Robbie Williams, Sigur Rós, Manic Street Preachers, Kashmir, Cooper Temple Clause, R.E.M. and Elbow. They also received the 2003 Danish Music Critics "Album of the Year" and "Band of the Year" awards.