STACK NZ June 2015 Issue 63

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Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club
Live In Paris
As ugly as this sounds...
remember when U2 were
amazing? They exuded effortless
power, depth and control. That’s
what BRMC have now, in spades.
Spread over two discs with a
bonus DVD of the entire set,
disc one is essentially the latest
album in studio order; then we
get snippets of an enviable career.
Having experienced them live, one
understands their power, capable
of exploding straight into your soul.
While this is a far more sombre
affair overall (almost The Cure-ish),
it’s a grower – Spread Your Love
and Whatever Happened to My
Rock’n’Roll hit hard, fast and well.
Chris Murray
Willie Nelson
and Merle Haggerd
Django and Jimmie
Willie Nelson joins up with old mate
Merle Haggard to bring us a duet
collaboration of 14 new recordings,
featuring new songs and a couple
of classics. Aging country outlaws
Nelson (aged 82) and Haggard (78)
are still doing it better than ever,
with their mischievous brashness in
songs like It’s All Going to Pot and
The Only Man Wilder Than Me.
They pay tribute to each other,
to folks who’ve inspired them
– including jazz guitarist Django
Reinhardt and country legend
Jimmie Rogers – and one for an old
friend in Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash.
On their own they are fantastic but
put them together and it’s pure
country gold. Denise Hylands
Franz Ferdinand/Sparks
FFS
At the very least, the new collaboration between
Franz Ferdinand and veteran oddballs Sparks reminds
us that most pop music isn’t nearly as funny (or
self-aware) as it should be. But wait, there’s more –
much more. These dozen songs are bouncy, catchy,
sturdy, and yes, hilarious, teeming with cheeky
barbs. Subversive sex comedy is alive and well on the dry-witted Police
Encounters (“I’ve got eyes for the policeman’s wife”) and The Man Without
a Tan, while Johnny Delusional and The Power Couple play like highlights
from a Devo-penned stage musical. Yet this isn’t some throwaway joke,
and FFS rival some of the best output of their component bands. The songs
may feel at times like Hall & Oates hits bent through a funhouse mirror, but
that’s only because it’s so rare to hear such infectious, finely-crafted pop
with such a mischievous heart. FFS mock their own supergroup premise
on Collaborations Don’t Work, have fun with wordplay on Call Girl, and find
the perfect closing message in Piss Off. Fans of Franz Ferdinand’s straighter
material may be taken aback by all the silliness, but anyone who knows and
loves Sparks should relish this instant cult classic.
Doug Wallen
Graham Reid on interesting albums you may have missed.
For more reviews and interviews by Graham Reid see
The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers
When the Rolling Stones entered the ‘70s they were broke,
battered and staggering. The atmosphere around the band was
toxic –≠but out of such circumstances they pulled two great
albums, Sticky Fingers released in April 1971 and the double Exile on Main Streeta
year later. These days Exile– dismissed by many critics at the time – is considered
one of the great, if not greatest, Stones' albums . . . but in many ways Sticky Fingers
(in the zipper cover designed by Andy Warhol) was its equal.
Given the circumstances of its birth – some songs recorded at Muscle Shoals in
Alabama, others at Olympic in London and Mick Jagger's studio at his 16th century
English country estate of Stargroves – it's surprising that it should be so strong and
enduring. The album is aural debauchery which captured the condition of the era.
It is soaked in sex (Brown Sugar ), drugs (Sister Morphine, Dead Flowers, the
nodding-off Moonlight Mile), blues-based rock'n'roll (Bitch) and damaged-sounding
country music (Sway, the world-weary Wild Horses). Newer member Mick Taylor
on guitar contributes fine solos on Sway, the gritty Can't You Hear Me Knocking
stretches to seven minutes ending with a spontaneous jam between Richards and
Taylor, and they went back to their roots on the traditional country blues You Got to
Move which proved what a fine acoustic blues band they could be.
Sticky Fingers – on their newly formed Rolling Stones Records with its famous
tongue logo – topped the charts and stands today as a landmark of drug-soaked
rock'n'roll with its ears on the music's origins in blues and country. The album now
comes in various expanded editions as part of the on-going Stones reissue series.
The most elaborate version includes previously
unreleased songs, two discs of live material and
alternate versions (Brown Sugar with Eric Clapton,
an acoustic Wild Horses , a lot of songs from their
previous album Let It Bleed) and a DVD of Midnight
Rambler and Bitch. Sticky fingers are reaching for
your wallet. Again.
MUSIC DVD
Kurt Cobain Montage of Heck
Brett Morgen’s strength as a filmmaker lies in imbuing the
cinematic language of his documentaries with the aesthetics
of his subjects. His Robert Evans study The Kid Stays in the
Picture creatively utilised classic Hollywood archives to tell
the legendary producer’s story, and his Rolling Stones project Crossfire Hurricane
looked grimy, murky and often thrilling, just like the band. The fragile, strange and
confronting inner world of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is thus perfect in his
hands; Cobain’s journals literally become a living text – via animation of scrawled
lines and drawings – and archival footage drawn from his earliest years on 8mm
film complements the approach and makes Montage... achingly intimate. Morgen
doesn’t shy away from numerous uncomfortable story elements, chiefly drug use
and Cobain’s obviously tragic end; but the tone is one of curiosity, of gentle wonder
at his subject’s obvious intelligence, overt sensitivity and freakish talent. There are
many potential characters in this story, but Morgen sticks to fundamentals – Kurt’s
mother Wendy, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, and his widow Courtney Love. His
daughter Frances Bean appears as an infant via the archives, but her presence looms
largest as executive producer – screeds of this very private family material have
been unseen until now. It won’t make you nostalgic or angry, but it reminds us how
easily damaged human beings can be, and the cathartic nature of good art. Montage
of Heck is unflinching and powerful – just like Nirvana. Jonathan Alley
visit REVIEWS MUSIC
JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi
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