Apparently the Devil has all the best tunes, although that apparently doesn’t stop Pope Benedict XVI from rocking out on occasion –at least according to The Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, which has leapt head first into the murky waters of internetsville by publishing a list of his top ten albums. In no particular order of blessedness:
1. Revolver – The Beatles
2. If I Could Only Remember My Name by David Crosby
3. The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
4. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
5. The Nightfly – Donald Fagen
6. Thriller – Michael Jackson
7. Graceland – Paul Simon
8. Achtung Baby – U2
9. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory – Oasis
10. Supernatural – Santana
Apparently the list is designed as a users guide to those spiritual types who want to attend the odd festival this Summer, although the real surprise is..it’s not that bad a list. Oasis are shit obviously, and Santana lost any cool points the second he came across Ricky Martin’s phone number, but otherwise it seems the afterlife has a pretty decent jukebox, balanced out by the presence of an acid tripping lesbian dallier, and an album revolving almost entirely around the dead rising from the grave.
HMV’s Next Big Thing initiative is crawling out across the capital over the next two weeks and offers a pretty tasty deal for fans, with three bands a night for a tenner, leading up to a Valentine’s day climax at The Borderline and featuring up-and-comers like Paloma Faith, Wave Pictures and Band of Skulls. For once, we left our studs and leather in The Crobar next door and braved the non-dingy dungeon to check out Electro’s latest great white hopes Chew Lips.
Let’s be honest, no one wants to be a bass player.
If your nickname at school hadn’t been awkward dork, you’d be a frontman, blowing the clothes off the nearest member of the opposite sex with your tight leather pants and matching lungs.
If you could handle 6 strings without your fingers falling off you’d be a guitar hero, super talented and super sexy.
The bass is where the dorky boring member goes, eschewing even the rage of the drummer for a life of A pedal anonymity. Look at AC/DC. One of the tightest, finest exponents of hot rocking ever to stride the face of the earth, but Cliff Williams seemed to have lost his personality along with his leather wristband in 1976. He stands at the back. He plays an E. Admittedly he makes millions of pounds a year but it can’t be the most creatively satisfying career can it?
Despite this there are a few hardy souls who buck the trend, bass players who appear to be there by mistake. Tweaking the nose of treble clef superiority with their subsonic superpowers, they’re the leanest,meanest and coolest guys in the band – Check ‘em out:
Tonight’s sparse crowd isn’t helped by The Lexington’s weird décor – a mix of Auntie Mabel wallpaper and Bowells of a Steam Ship that still manages to boast a decent stage area and a thunderous PA playing Devo –certainly enough to engage our hipster radars from the get-go.
Plenty of pre-gig buggering about on our part means we miss openers Grave Architects, (but check ‘em out here anyway!) so are initially put in a bad mood by the trying too hard indie antics of Lost Infantry.
First rule of stagecraft: Treat the audience like the dogs they are. They aren’t interested in your in-jokes and self effacing banter. Second rule? Well, not mixing Yes guitar lines with a Dexy’s influence is probably a good one…
Everyone loves colourful flow-charts, they’re just so reassuring, here at DT we’ve spent months turning Immortal lyrics into pie-chart form – but our efforts pale next to those of Beatles fan and designer Michael Deal, who’s spent way too much time creating a series of obscure Fab Four graphs and charts, and from the looks of it, it’s amazing they ever had time to release any music:
The project isn’t finished by any stretch, so get on over to MD’s site and get involved – anyway, here’s your linky for the full gallery – we demand T-Shirt versions!
