New Music Tuesday (Week of March 2, 2010)
Cherie Currie with Tony O’Neill, “Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway” (March 16, 2010)
Cherie Currie’s accounts prior to joining The Runaways and the rise and ultimate demise of the female-teenage rock n roll band reads like fiction, it’s hard to imagine that such tough ladies and rock n roll icons in their own right endured such mental and verbal torture from their management and hangers-on. They were young, trash-talking, tough chicks that seemed to be in control. However, the book reveals their softer sides and how impressionable they actually were. One of the most memorable passages came early on where Currie recalls attending a David Bowie concert and how she “watched this impossibly thin, pale, alien prince singing” to her. She continued, “…this beautiful, hypnotic, strange man was singing to me, and although I could not quite put into words, I instinctively knew that what I was experiencing was something religious, something profound…for that moment, I was somewhere else. Somewhere profound. What I was witnessing tonight was nothing short of a revelation.” Her vivid descriptions of concert goers and the way in which the music was depicted, experience and heard was refreshing. With a couple of words, she could transport the reader to the pulsating, sweaty crowds of the late 1970s. What’s clear when reading this book is that for Currie rock n roll was as big as a drug as the coke and Quaaludes she was taking. The bigger The Runaways became the further apart the band grew and her drug intake increased. The book recounts Currie’s struggles with drugs, rape, violence and how she ultimately reclaimed her life.
Pirate Love, “Black Vodoun Space Blues”
Eerie, striking, fast-paced melodies and a distinctive yell open up the track “Shake It” on Pirate Love’s “Black Vodoun Space Blues.” The Norwegian band has its sight set on conquering the globe with their blaring guitars, gothic, garage and punk inclinations. The track “In A Dirty Cellar” has the appeal and potential to enthrall the masses not just the underground crowd. “Black Vodoun Space Blues” will transport listeners to a world of gritty, loud rock n roll.
Adam Green, “Musik for a Play” (May 11th, 2010)
The opening bars of Adam Green’s lead in track “Gallop” has that sort of charm that brings an immediate smile to a person’s face. The melodies are like those you’ve probably heard playing alongside a Saturday morning cartoon but then it turns and shifts into something new fusing elements of samba and other unconventional genres all in the span of two minutes and twenty seconds. The New York City singer-songwriter composed the instrumental tracks that make up “Musik for a Play” for the theatrical adaptation of Paul Auster’s novel “Timbuktu.” The tracks evoke mood, illustrate passion and other elements of the human condition. Like a score for a feature film Adam Green’s “Musik for a Play” will surely provide color to any mundane life.
Francis, “Francis” (EP)
The four-track self-titled EP by Swedish rockers Francis is enough to peak audiences’ interest and tie over devotees until their full-length debut album is released later this year. Opening track, “Eternal Souls” showcases the band’s folk sensibility with Petra’s in your face vocals and pounding piano keys. The track “I Was Never Bored At All” has a blues written all over it and the way in which the vocals and smooth melodies come together is nothing sure of genius.
