Monthly Archives: February 2012

I guess some people took Dave Grohl’s Grammy speech out of context and thought he was trying to bash music not made by humans playing traditional rock instruments. Lighten up, folks. Here’s Dave’s clarification. And you gotta love that his complimentary close quotes 2012 David Lee Roth wisdom. Dig:

Oh, what a night we had last Sunday at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The glitz! The Glamour! SEACREST! Where do I begin?? Chillin’ with Lil’ Wayne…meeting Cyndi Lauper’s adorable mother…the complimentary blinking Coldplay bracelet…..much too much to recap. It’s really is still a bit of a blur. But, if there’s one thing that I remember VERY clearly, it was accepting the Grammy for Best Rock Performance…and then saying this:

“To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].”

Not the Gettysburg Address, but hey……I’m a drummer, remember?

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The Kills are an angst-ridden trans-Atlantic two-piece consisting of the unlocked-at-the-hips Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart. They manage to exist as simultaneously retro and post-modern and are unclassifiably compared with post-punk, indie-blues, and the all-encompassing garage rock genres while referencing the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, the Nuggets anthology, Shirley Bassey, and traditional American blues.

Hince stands out for his fifty-year-old Hagstrom and Hofner gits, minimal guitar rig, and retro Boss guitar pedals while playing with both time and space through feedback loops, overdrive, fuzz, delays, and rhythmic sound distortions. His sound, filtered through vintage Fender and divided by thirteen amps into Marshall stacks, has both texture and tone in abundance. Only Cream on Disraeli Gears had more.

As with Y3, there is no bass, so Hince plays top heavy chords through a mixer and sometimes channels ersatz drums though a beat box. Moss—no, that is Hince’s wife—hart is the cool girl everyone wants to be, with a way-too-many cigarettes and tequilas voice and a dynamic stage presence that eschews blatant gender-stereotypes. Her unmistakably feminine presence elevates Mosshart beyond her more commercial contemporaries.

Together for ten plus years, The Kills sound has evolved from a medley of alternately hypnotic and jolting hooks (No Wow, Alphabet Pony) to riff- and tone-driven melodies interrogated by detached and mournful lyrics.

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Envoy Enterprises, NP Contemporary Art, and Mute pay tribute to Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget with a three-part project series in homage to Frank Tovey – founder of the 1970s/1980s British electronic group Fad Gadget, marking the 10 year anniversary of the pioneer’s death.

Summoning a diverse group of artists and musicians who have been both directly and indirectly influenced by Tovey, the series will take place from March 1st through to April 8th, 2012 featuring a group exhibition, live music performances, and a film screening. All events are free and open to the public.

FGFt was inspired in 2010 by the film Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey, a documentary produced by the Frank Tovey Estate and Mute, and directed by Morgan Tovey Frost. The documentary incited the possibility of paying tribute to a pioneer of the underground and post-punk music scenes who incorporated innovative electronic textures, Kafka-esque lyrics, and elaborately visceral performances.

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