Terri Hooley may not be a household name, but to a music fan and punk lover in 1970s Belfast, he is a local treasure. Now, in his biopic ‘Good Vibrations’, named after the record store and label he owned in the city, the story can be told of how he gave punk a voice in a place city at a very troubled time.

Starring Richard Dormer and Jodie Whittaker, ‘Good Vibrations’ charts the journey of Terri (Dormer) from rock-bottom pub DJ to store owner and independent record producer. The Belfast Film Festival website lists the following synopsis, “Terri Hooley is a radical, rebel and music-lover in 1970s Belfast when the bloody conflict known as the Troubles shuts down his city. As all his friends take sides and take up arms, Terri opens a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and calls it Good Vibrations. Through it he discovers a compelling voice of resistance in the city’s nascent underground punk scene. Galvanising the young musicians into action, he becomes the unlikely leader of a motley band of kids and punks who join him in his mission to create a new community, an alternative Ulster, to bring his city back to life.”

He discovers one band, The Undertones, whose song ‘Teenage Kicks’ has gone on to become a punk anthem and covered by dozens of artists in the 34 years since its release. Yet, for the most part ‘Good Vibrations’ tells the story of a man who never achieves long-lasting success because he is led by sentiment and passion rather than any clear-headed business sense.

As a result, the film shows Terri’s marriage suffering, his finances waning, his drinking increasing and his focus wandering to the point where he is the victim of a brutal physical assault in his own store. Still, Terri’s resolve inevitably returns no matter how many times he gets knocked down, and it is this which drives the film through a somewhat meandering plot and ultimately unconventional conclusion. Terri’s optimism and idealism make him an incredibly endearing figure, due in large part to the sincerity and wholeheartedness with which Dormer brings to the role.

‘Good Vibrations’ launched the 2012 Belfast Film Festival, and it was clear from some audience feedback that it was a refreshing change to see a big-screen representation of Northern Ireland which did not exclusively detail the Troubles. Rather, this film operates on the level of almost any biopic, where the historical and political context remains mainly on the fringe while the personal trumps and failures elevate the narrative beyond any single cultural consciousness. Audience member Eamonn Knocker told Toonari Post, “I liked the fact that it was a part of Belfast history, that it was funny and sad, and that it’s a change [from films about The Troubles]“.

With the festival being bookended by ‘Whole Lotta Sole’, already previewed by Toonari Post, the message is loud and clear that Northern Ireland is acknowledging its past difficulties while still finding ways to move forward and explore new characters and untold stories.

Image Courtesy of  Terri Hooley

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WorldService Project (WSP) is a young British jazz/punk/experimental quintet formed by Dave Morecroft (keyboard/compositions), Tim Ower (saxophones), Raphael Clarkson (trombone), Conor Chaplin (bass), Neil Blandford (drums).

Dave Morecroft, keyboarder/compositor and leader of the band tells to Toonari Post the whole story of WSP and their unconventional music mash-up experiment.

Toonari Post (TP): How long have you been playing together and how did you start?

Dave Morecroft (DM): WSP in its current form has begun approaching three years ago, [but] we have known each other for a lot longer because we all went to the same sixth form college in Alston, Hampshire, where four out of five of us studied at the age of 16 to 18. We were there in different years and times.

Our average age is 23 years and 2 months, I think, because of the actual gap between the oldest – Neil, the drummer, who is 26 – and the youngest – Conor, our bass player, who is 20. The great thing about this college is that there was a very active music department. There were computer LAN night shows where we knew about Neil.

Me, Neil, Conor and Tim, the sax player, were very familiar with each other playing, and we met up and played together. We have been playing since a very young age, especially myself and Conor.

We did our first gig when he was 12 and I was 15. So, we’ve  known each other playing for a long time and I think that it really helps and gives a kind of brother fit to the band. When I left the college, I went to university in York, in the north of England, and I met Raph. [That] was when WSP started. Raph joined in with us just to see how it worked out and then in 2009, we recorded an EP and that was the real start.

TP: In 2010, you got the prestigious Peter Whittingham Jazz Award for best emerging jazz band. Can you tell a bit about this experience and how it affected your path?

DM: In 2009/2010 we were working on some material and defining the sound — and rehearse as much as possible. Then, in the winter 2010, we were very fortunate to be awarded with the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award which creates fantastic opportunities to young musicians. If you look in the scene there is no[t] really many other things like it, it’s very unique. The musicians kind of curate the benevolent fund that comes from the Peter Whittingham Award and the Whittingham family. There is nothing else like it, especially for this kind of music.

If you look at the previous winners there are some fantastic British jazz musicians from several generations. I think it really did kickstart on to what we are doing now – the “Match&Fuse” – that is the project proposal we’d submitted for the Peter Whittingham.

TP: Your music is a patchwork of styles, how would you define it and how did you come up with this mash-up?

DM: As you said, the music we play is a patchwork of styles. Defining is always very interesting and difficult. Sometimes we’ve done gigs and people came up at the end saying different things. Some people listen in a very kind of gestural sense, or they see just diversity of colors on [a] structure scales, completely [choosing] the contradictory term. Some people listen in a way like ‘oh you must listen to Frank Zappa’ or ‘there is a bit of Meshuggah’ or ‘you really like Weather Report’ and that’s how we came up with this mash-up and what every individual member of the band brings to WSP.

Neil the drummer is very interested in metal and funk as well as 80’s music. I’ve studied in university all kind of improvisation, contemporary and 20th century classical music like Stravinsky and Meshuggah, so that’s what I brought compositionally. Conor is very much the kind of funk bass player and strains at jazz classics, Raph and Tim the horn players are [into] all ranges [of] stuff, it’s really a mixture.

There [is] a press review we use that says our music is a kind of “a four-way cage match between Stravinsky, Meshuggah, Weather Report, and Frank Zappa” or something like that. It’s the mash-up literally of the composers I’ve listen to, combined also with the mash-up sense of each individual band member’s different sound that go together and form who we are.

A Punk-Jazz Interview with WorldService Project – Part 2

Image Courtesy of  http://worldserviceproject.tumblr.com

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The Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop, recently announced the release of his new album, ‘Après,’ a record containing a diverse set of covers of mostly French songs, which will be available on May 9.

Iggy and The Stooges are set to tour Europe over the summer, carrying on stage over 40 years of experience on the music scene. The band re-released in 2010 ‘Raw Power,’ the band’s third album originally released in 1973. The record, though not receiving commercial success at the time of its first release, is considered a milestone of Punk’s development.

With ‘Après’ Iggy Pop, as a solo artist, decides to follow a different approach to music; this kind of experimentation is not new for the artist. The record follows the 2009 release ‘Preliminaires,’ Iggy’s successful English/French album. ‘Preliminaires’ contains flavors of country, blues, jazz and electro-pop, which rotate around the concept of human existence’s futility.

In ‘Après,’ the rock star seems to take a more personal approach; according to his website, Iggy Pop collected on the album some of the songs that have inspired him as a musician. Furthermore, for fans’ enjoyment, Iggy Pop explains in the album booklet about his personal choices, song by song, making his work even more authentic.

Iggy Pop briefly explained the reasons behind this album on his website

“All popular music forms of today get their strength from the beat. Rap, hip-hop, metal, pop, and rock producers will tell you that the beats they use imitate the human heartbeat and that is where the power lies. The feeling of listening to any of these forms is always some variation on excitement, but before the birth of the blues there was another form of popular song, in which the timing comes from the human breath and the feelings are much more about emotion.

These older ways of expression were known variously as bel canto, chanson, plainsong or just folk music. I’ve always loved this other feeling, one that is intimate, sometimes a little sad, and does not try to beat me on the head.

So I wanted to sing some of these songs myself, hoping to bring the feeling I felt as a listener to my listeners through my voice. Many of these songs are in French, probably because it is French culture which has most stubbornly resisted the mortal attacks of the Anglo-American music machine.”

The album will be available for purchasing on May 9, through vente-privee.com

Here is the track listing:

1. Et si tu n’existais pas (Joe Dassin)
2. La Javanaise (Serge Gainsbourg)
3. Everybody’s Talkin’ (Harry Nilsson)
4. I’m Going Away Smiling (Yoko Ono)
5. La vie en Rose (Edith Piaf)
6. Les Passantes (Georges Brassens)
7. Syracuse (Henri Salvador)
8. What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter)
9. Michelle (The Beatles)
10. Only the Lonely (Frank Sinatra)

Image Courtesy of   NRK P3

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For every music style it is possible to identify the milestone tracks or bands that made possible for it to develop; this kind of classification can often be a source of discussion, with people identifying the turning point of a musical movement with different bands and songs. Hardly with grunge.

Although grunge is a very diversified music style, with fans’ preferences spread around several bands and approaches, it is acknowledged worldwide that there is a record label, an album, and a track of that album, which made grunge one of the most influential music movements of rock history.

The record label is Sub Pop Records, the album is ‘Nevermind’ by Nirvana, and the song is the first single of that album, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ Neither Nirvana nor Sub Pop started the grunge movement, but they made it what it has been since their creation.

Grunge developed in the state of Washington, U.S., mainly in the Seattle area, during the second half of the ’80s. It is indeed often referred to as ‘The Seattle Sound.’ Grunge reached the peak of its commercial success in the first half of the ‘90s; it has often been defined as the last rock revolution. As it usually happens when a musical innovation takes place, the sound development was accompanied by a strong social movement.

Musically speaking, the aim of grunge music was to take the sincerity of punk, and to mix it with the sludge sound that pertained to metal bands such as Black Sabbath, and the structure of popular melodies pertaining to bands like The Beatles. One of the main features of grunge music, although it presents itself in very differentiated shapes depending on the bands, is the raw, dirty, sound, full of heavy guitar distortions, along with angry, disappointed, and profound lyrics.

In 1986, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman founded in Seattle the independent record label Sub Pop records; the label was interested in the local bands that were developing at the time. Pavitt and Poneman worked to create a proper sound identification for the label, carrying a promotion of the Sub Pop product itself.

They associated that image to the Seattle sound, signing several artists of the area. Sub Pop is the record label that first signed bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney, who then became central acts of the grunge scene.

By Nirvana is the most influential track of the Seattle Sound: ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ Although probably not Nirvana’s best song, the track, together with the album ‘Nevermind,’ changed the music scene forever; it became an icon for the grunge movement and for an entire generation. Developed around the idea of young people’s mixture of angst and apathy, the song presents itself extremely catchy, with intriguing lyrics along with a powerful sound.

‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has been defined as the anthem of a generation at the time, and has become, ever since its release in 1991, the anthem of people who look at the world in a specific way.

The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, portraits the band performing in a school gym, together with anarchic cheerleaders, and kids who end up destroying everything around; Cobain said he had been inspired by The Ramones’ video for ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll High School’. The ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video won Nirvana the Best New Artist and Best Alternative Group awards at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1992, and it has also become a milestone of music history.

‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ announced the upcoming rock revolution. It is the first track of the album ‘Nevermind,’ the record responsible for the redistribution of power between mainstream and counterculture in the music industry.

When it was released on September 24 in 1991, not even Geffen Records, the major record label Nirvana had moved to, was prepared for the huge success of the album; the label initially pressed only 40,000 copies of ‘Nevermind,’ which instead sold a million within six weeks. Geffen had to stop pressing any other record in order to meet the demand.

The huge commercial success of ‘Nevermind’ led bands pertaining to the counterculture to sing with major record labels and to gain visibility in the commercial channels, and took grunge on top of the music world; according to various artists of the scene, record labels would sign any band coming from the Seattle area at the time, just to be part of the grunge movement.

As Krist Novoselic, bassist of Nirvana, once said, “Nirvana didn’t go to the mainstream; the mainstream went to Nirvana.” ‘Nevermind’ is not only considered the most influential album for grunge, but also one of the most influential and meaningful albums of all times.

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Public Image Ltd. (PiL), the English post-punk band led by John Lydon, the infamous Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, recently announced the release of its ninth studio album, being the first one in 20 years. PiL is currently composed of vocalist John Lydon, guitarist Lu Edmonds, drummer Bruce Smith, and bassist Scott Firth. PiL, which was founded by John Lydon in 1978, after the Sex Pistols broke up, was active for 14 years, before going on hiatus. The band’s last release, ‘That What Is Not,’ dates back to 1992. In 2009, the band reunited and started touring.

The new PiL record will debut on May 28 and will be preceded by the vinyl-only EP ‘One Drop,’ which will be released for ‘Record Store Day’ on April 21; the EP will contain four of the songs of the upcoming record. Here is the complete track listing for the EP:

1. “One Drop”
2. “I Must Be Dreaming”
3. “The Room I Am In”
4. “Lollipop Opera”

Through the EP, fans will have the chance to taste the flavor of the musical approach the band explored in the new album. According to John Lydon, the sound is going to be very experimental and very impulsive, as he stated during his talk with BBC 6Music, “We record live; some songs are made up on the spot.” During the interview, Lydon also described the meaning of one of their new tracks, ‘One drop.’ You can listen to the track here.

“’One Drop’ is a reflection of where I grew up in Finsbury Park, London. The area that shaped me and influenced me culturally and musically, a place I will forever feel connected to. But, within this, I am also saying it doesn’t matter where you come from, we all go through the same emotions, especially the disenchanted youth of today, yesterday, and the future. Bearing in mind the Olympics are in London this year, and who knows what that could bring for London and our country….”

He also talked about the name of the upcoming record, which will feature a total of 12 new tracks, saying, “It is probably going to be called ‘This is PiL’, basically because it is, it is all the work, effort, and energy we put into this record.” The band finished recording the album during the summer of 2011 and mastered it in September.

The release got postponed to next May due to financial issues. According to the PiL official website, both album and EP were recorded at Steve Winwood’s studio in the UK and are indeed self-financed. They will be released on the band’s own label, PiL Official, via Cargo UK Distribution.

During his interview with BBC 6Music, John Lydon said, “I was always full of ideas, but I had to wait until I had enough money to release an album. Everybody thinks I made such a fortune with the Sex Pistols. Well, unfortunately, that is not true. To make this record, we had to tour extensively for two years.” PiL will perform as special guests at the BBC Radio 6 birthday celebration at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on March 16.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/pilofficial

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Michael Davis, bassist for the proto-punk band MC5 died on Friday 17, at the age of 68. Davis died of liver failure; he was hospitalized at the Enloe Medical Center in Chico, CA, about one month ago for a liver disease. Davis leaves his wife, Angela Davis, three sons and a daughter.

Michael Davis joined the revolutionary band MC5 in 1964, replacing the band’s original bass player, Pat Burrows. In order to join the band, Davis dropped out of Wayne State University, where he had been attending a program in Fine Arts. He played in all the three studio albums MC5 recorded, including their debut record, ‘Kick Out The Jams’, released by Elektra Records in 1969.

MC5 band is categorized as one of the pioneers of the punk movement in the USA. Their lyrics were characterized by strong political and anti-racist identification, while their musical style swept from garage rock to hard rock. Davis left the band in 1972, and then reunited with the surviving members in 2003 for live performances.

After MC5 split up in 1972, Davis co-founded the art rock band Destroy All Monsters, together with his friend Ron Asheton of The Stooges. Although they never recorded a proper studio album, Destroy All Monsters became, through live performances, an influential band in the Detroit area. Davis remained with the band for seven years.

Michael Davis also carried on his painting work; he restarted studying art at several institutes, and collaborated with a variety of artists along the years. He also worked as a music producer.

After a dangerous motorcycle accident in May 2006, where he injured his back, Michael Davis and his wife Angela started the non-profit Music Is Revolution Foundation. The aim of the foundation is to support music education in public schools and raise awareness about the importance music education covers for cognitive abilities, understanding and cultural knowledge.

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The year that marked the twentieth anniversary of one of the most meaningful progressions in rock history and of some of the most influential masterpieces like Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Achtung Baby” by U2, just ended. Twenty years after 1991, what is the state of rock music?

2011 was in itself a good year for rock: “Wasting Light” by Foo Fighters, “Endgame” by Rise Against, and “I’m With You” by Red Hot Chili Peppers are just few of the good releases that signified the past year and the presence of the beautiful diversity of rock. However, to make a comparison between the state of rock in the contemporary music scene and the one of 1991, seems unfair.

Twenty years ago, the rise of grunge not only brought to life a new musical style, expressing alternative sonorities and meaningful messages, it also changed the roles in the game of the music industry, making the counterculture mainstream. It is undeniable that almost all rock bands have been influenced ever since by what happened twenty years ago, so in some ways this revolution is still present.

“Never lose faith in real rock ‘n’ roll music … Never lose faith in that. You might have to look a little harder, but it is always going to be there” said Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters frontman and ex Nirvana drummer, when accepting the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video for Foo Fighters’ “Walk.”

What surprises most people nowadays is exactly what Dave Grohl said: you have to look harder to find ‘real’ rock. After rising to power twenty years ago, the contemporary music industry seems to be ruled by a kind of pop music that does not really care about content or sonorities, but rather gossip, fashion and superficiality instead.

Many newer singers and bands seem to care more about impressing instead of touching people, even to the extend of not doing it through music. Lady Gaga, with her multiple costumes and creation of an alter ego, seems to be more concerned with what to wear rather than what to play; child stars like Justin Bieber, who relies on his looks rather than his voice, make provocative declarations like “I feel like the Kurt Cobain of my generation,” in order to make people talk about him, but the mere statement shows that he has no idea who Kurt Cobain was as a musician.

Rihanna has a sexy pose for every word in her songs but who can be sure it’s her real voice in the haze of voice effects and computerized distortions. Furthermore, a new type of music worker is forged through television today. Reality shows will throw any wannabe with any camera appeal to the audience, and the audience seems to blindly enjoy it.

Music charts of 2011 were often dominated by well-advertised groups created by TV standards. For example, since 2005, the UK Chart’s Christmas No. 1 has always been a song from the winner of some reality show, with the exception of 2009 when Rage Against The Machine won after a Facebook campaign against reality shows.

These few examples merit the proposition that what is really missing in the music industry is real music, real artists. Some of the most successful artists are so focused on building their imaginary characters that they forget to actually make music, relying on computerization rather than authenticity. The music industry supports this and the audience buys it all. Meanwhile, great rock bands who carry on their projects and make good music are almost lost in the scene.

“Music the great communicator,” sing Red Hot Chili Peppers in their song “Can’t Stop,” but thinking about the message that current mainstream music is communicating, nothing good comes to mind. In this scenario, there is no sign of a revolutionary and innovative rock movement about to explode. It is true that twenty years ago, nobody saw grunge coming.

On the other hand, the situation is different now. Music gets everywhere through the internet, everybody has the chance to be known somehow, and it should have gotten easier to distribute something with as much potential as grunge had in 1991 and punk in 1976.

“It’s sad to think what the state of rock ‘n’ roll will be in 20 years from now. It just seems when rock ‘n’ roll is dead the whole world is going to explode” said Kurt Cobain in an interview a few months before his death on 1994. Rock is not dead, at least not yet, but Cobain prophesied correctly: it is quite sad to think what Rock has come to today.

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