Vox Vanitas

Mimi Leung

2009-10-30T21:36:00.000+11:00

In the 9 to 5 World

2009-10-28T23:42:00.000+11:00

Rowan Tedge

2009-10-26T22:23:00.000+11:00

Antony & The Johnsons - "Epilepsy Is Dancing"

2009-10-24T23:48:00.000+11:00

Moved

2009-10-21T11:43:00.002+11:00

Oliver has moved: Honigschlaf

These New Puritans - "Elvis"

2009-10-18T00:01:00.000+11:00

Dali

2009-10-16T23:38:00.000+11:00

Hugo Boss A/W 2009

2009-10-15T20:41:00.000+11:00

Jean-Francois Lepage

2009-10-14T23:17:00.002+11:00

Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain

2009-10-12T23:50:00.000+11:00

Contra-ct

2009-10-11T12:50:00.004+11:00

I don't know if Vampire Weekend got paid for the product placement, but holy shit, Ralph Lauren must be making whoopee like a son of a bitch.

Commes des Garcons Campaign

2009-10-10T00:02:00.002+11:00

Alessandro Dal Buoni

2009-10-08T22:33:00.000+11:00

Strands

2009-10-07T21:08:00.008+11:00

View from a plane

2009-10-07T20:06:00.003+11:00

TwoTom

2009-10-06T21:51:00.000+11:00

Prada A/W 2009

2009-10-06T20:29:00.003+11:00

Jil Sander S/S 2007

2009-10-04T22:55:00.003+11:00

Justice - "DVNO"

2009-10-02T09:40:00.000+10:00

Kill Pixie

2009-09-30T21:44:00.001+10:00

Horst Diekgerdes

2009-09-28T18:34:00.000+10:00

Air - "Sing Sang Sung"

2009-09-28T18:30:00.000+10:00

Klaus Schmidt

2009-09-26T22:49:00.003+10:00

Simon Henwood

2009-09-25T23:49:00.000+10:00

Jim Krewson

2009-09-24T16:55:00.005+10:00

Vivienne Westwood Campaign 1997

2009-09-22T19:31:00.002+10:00

Terry Richardson

2009-09-22T19:29:00.002+10:00

1997

Vasarely

2009-09-21T23:57:00.002+10:00

Willy Vanderperre

2009-09-17T00:02:00.001+10:00

Jil Sander Campaign Eyewear

2009-09-16T23:47:00.004+10:00

Alasdair McLellan

2009-09-15T23:45:00.002+10:00

Self Portrait

2009-09-14T22:23:00.004+10:00

Chad Pitman

2009-09-14T22:21:00.001+10:00

La Main

2009-09-14T21:08:00.004+10:00

Raf Simmons Campaign A/W 2009

2009-09-12T20:14:00.002+10:00

The Big Pink Question (an essay)

2009-09-11T13:16:00.021+10:00

…or “Getting sidetracked just long enough to trash Psychocandy”

NME bands blah blah hype blah blah Oasis blah blah blah not very good.

Of course, The Big Pink aren’t a classic NME band. They are derivative enough, but not imitative enough. They have all the anthems the NME adores, but none of the universality (or the wannabe working class credentials). Their personal stories have all the drama, but it’s also all a little too “real”. And they’re just not well dressed enough. Coincidentally, like NME hype-victims The Horrors (or, more specifically, The Horrors 2: This Time We Write Whole Songs), The Big Pink mix electro and krautrock hooks with nearly plagiarized noise-rock and shoegaze. Is this part of a mainstream shoegaze resurgence on par with 2005’s NME fuelled Neo-Wave movement or 200?’s NME-coined WTF-was-that Nu-Rave disaster?

I really hope not.

One respect in which The Big Pink win out over their influences (specifically My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain) is in the way they fully embrace their pop side. My Bloody Valentine would be perfectly capable of writing a sugary dance hit like “Dominoes” but just wouldn’t. With Psychocandy, the Chain had up their sleeves a handful of potential pop hits (that mixed metaphor only works if you imagine them with really long sleeves, covering their hands), opener Just Like Honey alone had a hook as wide and embracing as The Thompson Twins’ Hold Me Now- yet they decided to dwell in indie territory, constantly labeled an art band.

One of the reasons for this seems to be that the Chain appeared to actually believe they were avant-garde, namedropping and being compared to The Velvet Underground at every turn. Ignoring for one moment that the only similarity the Scottish duo had with the forefathers of alternative rock was an interest in ear-bleeding noise- with none of the artistic and literary qualifications of VU, one is still left with the fact that, by 1985, everyone namedropped the Velvets. The kicks in Psychocandy are the purely aesthetic, cheap noise-pop moments, and the rest, lacking any real artistic intention, is just slush.

In the face of years of false critical and popular praise, I have to let it be said that Psychocandy is a repetitive (Just like Honey and Sowing Seeds are the same song), underwritten (The Living End doesn’t know the difference between exploiting a hook and running it into the ground) and overlong mess of an album, with a handful of good pop songs.

Sadly, A Brief History of Love, The Big Pink’s soon-to-be-released debut LP is almost exactly the same kind of mess. Opener Crystal Visions is certainly a piece of deep-fried-space-gold, with a big, noisy, anthemic group-hug of a chorus and sequin-draped glam lyrics to boot. But the group just don’t have enough ideas, or enough vision, to carry them through a full-length. It is still, however, more than worth a listen, thanks to tracks like the aching lament Love in vain.
So, what have we learnt from all this? Psychocandy isn’t very good, A Brief History of Love is decent, but can these two boy-men who call themselves The Big Pink please be the last mainstream NME-neo-nu-gaze-revival band before this gets out of hand? Cheers. These bands fall like Domino-o-oes...

Marrickville

2009-09-10T21:30:00.009+10:00

Saccharine Salt

2009-09-10T19:59:00.005+10:00

Ryan McGinley - Moonage Daydream

2009-09-10T00:29:00.000+10:00

Jil Sander: Men's Collection A/W 2009

2009-09-09T22:55:00.006+10:00

Words by Richard Gray.

Ripples in the Water

2009-09-09T21:17:00.010+10:00

When Native American Indians first saw European ships sailing towards the New World, it is said the vessels were so foreign to the men on the shore they could only see the ripples in the water; their minds incapable of understanding the shape and form of the armada.

When Ernest wore a puffy jacket and camo pants to the Socialist Alternative meeting I only saw flesh; my mind incapable of understanding the shape and form of his clothing.

Sam Shepherd

2009-09-09T21:08:00.000+10:00

Cook

2009-09-09T18:26:00.004+10:00

Serge Leblon

2009-09-09T14:22:00.003+10:00

Paul Robertson - Kings of Power 4 Billion %

2009-09-09T14:20:00.000+10:00

Graham Coxon

2009-09-09T12:37:00.010+10:00

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

2009-09-09T12:31:00.007+10:00

This is the first in what will be a trilogy of retrospective reviews of Bowie’s glam-era albums.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars clearly struck a chord when it was released- it hit number 5 in the UK charts upon release and is fondly remembered by most people of a certain age (specifically- your parents). It’s Bowie’s desperate, make-or-break follow up to the thank-God-it-sold-a-few-records Hunky Dory- boosted by the success of perfect pop single “Starman”. It is a concept album that doesn’t have much more of a concept than spaceships, free love and make-up.

The ‘glam’ label that this album (along with those of T Rex and contemporaries) helped to create instantly brings to mind images of glitzy excess- gold sequins, make-up and bombastic arrangements- and while these elements are certainly abundant, what surprises upon a first listen is the sparseness of the sound. The theatrical opener “Five Years” begins with some oddly thin-sounding drums and a few piano chords. While the arrangement becomes gloriously symphonic, and there is definitely plenty of bass- it somehow sounds as if someone’s cut the balls out of the song’s lower-end. This is really the case for most of the album and, in a way; it actually works in giving the production a very distinctive sound.

It’s in these operatic, anthemic and knowingly superficial statements that the album makes its greatest impact- all summarized in the closer “Rock n’ Roll Suicide” where, over bombastic brass and strings, Bowie screams with the cracked voice of a coked-up, ageing drag queen, “Just give me your hand/ ‘cos you’re wonderful!” Set against the somber regret of lounge-tinged “Lady Stardust”, the emotional impact is undeniable.

At this stage, dear Ziggy hadn’t quite learned how to rock hard in his own way (this would all change come Aladdin Sane)- so all the rockers here are in the vein of either The Who (“Star”) or Bowie’s appropriated Lou Reed persona, first witnessed in Hunky Dory’s “Queen Bitch” (“Hang on to Yourself”, “Suffragette City”).

Undeniably a mixed bag, this Starman isn’t too steady on his feet- all the conviction comes from desperation. And, really, that’s the way it should be; because no one else could say “Put your ray gun to my head” and get away with it.

Tip: Get the Rykodisc CD with bonus tracks. Sweet Head and Velvet Goldmine are absolute essentials, and an acoustic Ziggy demo is gorgeous.

84

Gentian Violet

2009-09-09T11:23:00.003+10:00

The Horrors - "Sea Within A Sea"

2009-09-09T10:47:00.001+10:00

Paul Robertson - Pirate Baby

2009-09-09T01:05:00.000+10:00

Siggi Eggertson

2009-09-09T00:10:00.000+10:00

Women - Women

2009-09-08T23:57:00.001+10:00

Mel Bles

2009-09-08T23:55:00.001+10:00

Boris - Pink

2009-09-08T23:54:00.002+10:00

Loam

2009-09-08T23:46:00.002+10:00

Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun

2009-09-08T23:40:00.001+10:00

Karim Sadli

2009-09-08T22:16:00.003+10:00