Search Results for: joy division

It was another brush-with-an-icon moment for the Killers : back in May of this year, joining Duran Duran – the first name in ’80s fashionista Britpop  – onstage, aptly in Las Vegas, to perform the vets’ chestnut “Planet Earth.” Brandon Flowers, resplendent as ever in a tux, looked like a young James Bond. And you know he had to have been stirred, if not a little bit shaken. There are no more unabashed Anglophiles among U.S. pop-rockers than the Killers. From day one, they have made that clear: They took their name from a New Order video, they’ve covered Joy… Read more »

There comes a time in the career of nearly every band when they officially stop listening to what critics have to say about them. For Interpol, you’d think that time is now.See, recently, Britain’s fabulously, er, bandwagon-leaping music publication, the New Musical Express, wrote a fawning review of a live performance by Editors, a band that could charitably be described as “Interpol-esque.” And while the review itself wasn’t exactly newsworthy, the fact that its author chose to kick it off by calling Interpol “the worst band on the planet, a tuneless, talentless shower of Joy Division copyist f—wits” is. Not… Read more »

British rock band New Order, which arose from the ashes of post-punk band Joy Division in the early 1980s, has broken up, according to a Web posting by the group’s bass player. “I’m relieved really hated carryin on as normal with an awful secret so lets move on shall we?” Peter Hook wrote in a blog published on Wednesday on his MySpace page. Hook first revealed the split as an aside during an interview last weekend with Manchester radio announcer Clint Boon, when he said, “… me and Bernard (Sumner, New Order singer/guitarist) aren’t working together.” Hook and Sumner have… Read more »

You can’t get the question right. You’re fumbling for the right words but all you can hear are the lyrics to “Age of Consent” over and over and over again in your brain… It’s almost too easy to toss the word “influential” in front of a band to hype up its place in the pop-music pantheon. Few acts deserve it, and the word is so damn relative. But the culture mill spits out thousands of new bands each year and inevitably even the most wanly creative gets the “influential” stamp if it can hang in there long enough. So, then… Read more »

What would you say if someone told you Linda Perry, the unforgettable voice behind 4 Non Blondes’ 1992 hit “What’s Up?,” has become one of the hottest producers in pop music? Perhaps, in her words, “Hey, what’s goin’ on?” It’s a behind-the-boards comeback, that’s what, and all the one-hit wonders are doing it. Find it hard to believe Perry co-wrote and produced several songs on Pink’s Missundaztood, including the title track? Or that she’s behind upcoming projects from Christina Aguilera (see “Christina Aguilera: Not Your Puppet”), Solange Knowles and Courtney Love? Consider that Deep Blue Something’s Todd and Toby Pipes,… Read more »

First album together in eight years finds band returning to its roots. For many years over the past two decades, New Order crafted cynical synth-pop that radiated with alternative dancefloor chic. But on Get Ready, the band’s first record together in eight years, New Order have done something they haven’t tried since their pre-Order days. They’ve rocked out. While the album still shimmers and shivers with electronic textures, it’s anchored by organic instrumentation and galvanic grooves. “60 Miles an Hour,” Get Ready’s second single, sounds like a beefier spinoff of the band’s hit “Blue Monday,” and “Rock the Shack” is… Read more »

If anything, the Moby-spearheaded Area:One package, which wrapped up its tour at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion on Sunday, suffered from an embarrassment of riches. With nearly 20 bands and DJs arrayed on three stages over nine hours, there was something worth checking out at given moment, and often two or three. This meant that choices had to be made: to see the Orb in an automaker-sponsored DJ tent meant missing the reunited New Order on the main stage, or forgoing one of the impressive collection of turntablists and MCs holding court on the small urban stage. With the eclectic… Read more »

“We’ve got Billy Corgan playing with us, we’re doing a lot of old stuff, new songs that nobody knows, and we’re reaching a lot of young people,” New Order bassist Peter Hook says. “It’s got all the recipe for complete disaster, to be honest.” It’s a week before he and reunited band mates Bernard Sumner (vocals) and Stephen Morris (drums), as well as keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and guest guitarist Corgan, join up with Moby’s Area: One tour for a few dates in the U.S. (beginning Tuesday, July 31st in Mountainview, California). And Hook – who says, “The excitement in Get… Read more »