Echo and the Bunnymen, Live at the Keswick Theater

Last weekend, my friend who dances with goats- and I- went to see Echo and the Bunnymen live at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. They're currently touring to promote their new album, The Fountain.
I didn't really know about Echo and the Bunnymen until the goat dancer himself introduced me to them a few years ago through their masterpiece, Ocean Rain.
They played some classics, many of which happen to be personal favorites of mine, such as Villiers Terrace, the Killing Moon, and Seven Seas as well as many new gems. They also performed a few covers, some of which were slipped into largely improvised medleys.
Between songs, Ian McCulloch bantered with the audience about such topics as leaning on the stage, acceptable volume for rock and roll concerts, fish, Moses, and American television- particularly ads for Tupperware... Tupperware that "wears your tupp".
While this kind of behavior isn't usually conducive to an awesome concert, its contribution to a show that was fantastic in every other way made it all the more delightful.
Performance: awesome
Sound quality: awesome
Venue (Keswick theater): awesome
Talking to Ian McCulloch about hieroglyphic interpreters and the occupational hazards of being a professional bomb diffuser after the show: awesome.

Swervedriver, Raise

I know not everybody will agree with me on this but I believe the early nineties produced a wealth of rock music that has yet to see the positive influence and attention its sheer magnificence was justifiably expected to produce. I'm not talking about bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Green Day, etc, etc. While these groups did deserve the acclaim that thrust them into the mainstream, the best of the early nineties remained trapped in the harsh obscurity of the underground that many of these bands seemed to so gloriously romanticize.

One band in particular whose ability screamed past their recognition was Swervedriver, an Oxford band that consistently melded hard hitting riffs with melodic complexity and depth that is still unheard of on mainstream radio. Swervedriver's debut album, Raise (1991), exhibits a style that is as timeless as it was preemptively fashionable. The album's energetic, fast-moving, and heavy accents are perfectly complimented by the songs' depth, complexity, and compositional sincerity.
Today, Swervedriver's frontman, Adam Franklin, does most of his touring with his new band band, Bolts of Melody.

www.swervedriver.com

Swervedriver. Raise. A&M, 1991.

Jean Pierre Ferland, Jaune

I've been listening to Jaune by Quebec artist, Jean-Pierre Ferland. Although most of the album is in French, it has a lot to offer to anyone truly interested in good-rock-music.

Ferland started by performing mainly folk songs in the 60's. Departing from his folk influences, Ferland's Jaune, both celebrates and contributes to contemporary music in ways which were unprecedented in 1970- and which are still refreshingly innovative today.

I'd never heard of Jean Pierre until I heard Charlotte Gainsbourg's cover of Ferland's "Le Chat du Cafe des Artistes" on Princeton Radio. At first, I was thrilled to hear what I thought was new music that actually sounded like new music. Although it turned out to be a (fantastic) cover, I was equally thrilled to have stumbled upon the enlightening music of an artist who, in my opinion, is greatly under appreciated among Anglophones.

www.jeanpierreferland.com

Jean Pierre Ferland. Jaune. Barclay, 1970.