My Bloody Valentine Bring the Noise in London

Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine performs in Indio, California.

If quiet really is the new loud, someone forgot to tell My Bloody Valentine. The reunited band's Tuesday night London show was certainly heavy on volume, if surprisingly light on new material.

Staff handed out earplugs to 5,000 fans on arrival at Hammersmith Apollo, the first of two dates at the venue serving as a climax to the band's first tour since the surprise appearance of new album MBV last month. While much of the show was pitched just the right side of deafening, hearing protection was certainly needed for an epic version of "You Made Me Realise." The set's penultimate song, it saw guitarist/vocalist Kevin Shields hammering away at the same chord for almost 10 brutal, feedback-drenched minutes.

That had many fans covering their ears and even sent a few scurrying for the exits, although others raised their arms and were lost in reverie. But the rest of the set was just as effective – if usually more subtle – at highlighting the enduring appeal of My Bloody Valentine's signature noise-pop sound.

The set began with the powerful indie dance groove of "I Only Said," taken from the band's classic 1991 album, Loveless, which provided the spine of the set. Six songs from that album were aired, including uncompromising versions of "Only Shallow," "To Here Knows When" and a pulsating "Soon."

500 Greatest Albums of All Time: My Bloody Valentine, 'Loveless'

But while the follow-up album may have taken 22 years to arrive, songs from MBV had no problem gelling with the rest of the set, sounding almost like a sonic continuation of where the preceding record left off. "New You" saw Shields' phased guitar blending with singer-guitarist Bilinda Butcher's blissed-out vocals, while "Only Tomorrow" brought a harder-edged guitar grind to proceedings.

Meanwhile, set closer "Wonder 2" – which saw drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig come out from behind his kit to play additional guitar – was the loudest, spikiest new song on display, although it still sounded like light relief after the aural assault of "You Made Me Realise."

Ó Cíosóig and bassist Debbie Googe provided most of the onstage movement, urging each other on as the band locked into a mesmerizing groove on songs such as "Slow" and "Thorn." The band has been back playing together since 2008, although there was little of the easy nostalgia or ostentatious bonhomie often seen with reunited acts. While shouts of "We love you!" could be heard from the crowd during the few quieter moments, Shields said maybe 10 words all evening, most of them inaudible, and Butcher even less, both standing impassive during even the most musically extreme moments.

Fortunately, the music spoke volumes, with even older songs such as "You Never Should" and "Feed Me With Your Kiss," from 1988's Isn't Anything, sounding thrillingly contemporary, while some visual spectacle was provided by relentless strobe lighting and the projection of arty, blurry images onto the backdrop throughout. Shields briefly switched to acoustic guitar on "Cigarette in Your Bed," although even then the resulting version was anything but mellow.

Nothing could compare, however, to the maelstrom of white noise that was "You Made Me Realise," which left many of the crowd stunned into silence.

My Bloody Valentine's U.K. tour concludes Wednesday at the same venue. The good news for those with shares in earplug manufacture is that further dates in Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Norway, Poland and Germany have been announced for the summer.

Set list:
"I Only Said"
"When You Sleep"
"New You"
"You Never Should"
"Honey Power"
"Cigarette in Your Bed"
"Only Tomorrow"
"Come in Alone"
"Only Shallow"
"Thorn"
"Nothing Much to Lose"
"To Here Knows When"
"Slow"
"Soon"
"Feed Me With Your Kiss"
"You Made Me Realise"
"Wonder 2"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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My Bloody Valentine Bring the Noise in London

Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine performs in Indio, California.

If quiet really is the new loud, someone forgot to tell My Bloody Valentine. The reunited band's Tuesday night London show was certainly heavy on volume, if surprisingly light on new material.

Staff handed out earplugs to 5,000 fans on arrival at Hammersmith Apollo, the first of two dates at the venue serving as a climax to the band's first tour since the surprise appearance of new album MBV last month. While much of the show was pitched just the right side of deafening, hearing protection was certainly needed for an epic version of "You Made Me Realise." The set's penultimate song, it saw guitarist/vocalist Kevin Shields hammering away at the same chord for almost 10 brutal, feedback-drenched minutes.

That had many fans covering their ears and even sent a few scurrying for the exits, although others raised their arms and were lost in reverie. But the rest of the set was just as effective – if usually more subtle – at highlighting the enduring appeal of My Bloody Valentine's signature noise-pop sound.

The set began with the powerful indie dance groove of "I Only Said," taken from the band's classic 1991 album, Loveless, which provided the spine of the set. Six songs from that album were aired, including uncompromising versions of "Only Shallow," "To Here Knows When" and a pulsating "Soon."

500 Greatest Albums of All Time: My Bloody Valentine, 'Loveless'

But while the follow-up album may have taken 22 years to arrive, songs from MBV had no problem gelling with the rest of the set, sounding almost like a sonic continuation of where the preceding record left off. "New You" saw Shields' phased guitar blending with singer-guitarist Bilinda Butcher's blissed-out vocals, while "Only Tomorrow" brought a harder-edged guitar grind to proceedings.

Meanwhile, set closer "Wonder 2" – which saw drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig come out from behind his kit to play additional guitar – was the loudest, spikiest new song on display, although it still sounded like light relief after the aural assault of "You Made Me Realise."

Ó Cíosóig and bassist Debbie Googe provided most of the onstage movement, urging each other on as the band locked into a mesmerizing groove on songs such as "Slow" and "Thorn." The band has been back playing together since 2008, although there was little of the easy nostalgia or ostentatious bonhomie often seen with reunited acts. While shouts of "We love you!" could be heard from the crowd during the few quieter moments, Shields said maybe 10 words all evening, most of them inaudible, and Butcher even less, both standing impassive during even the most musically extreme moments.

Fortunately, the music spoke volumes, with even older songs such as "You Never Should" and "Feed Me With Your Kiss," from 1988's Isn't Anything, sounding thrillingly contemporary, while some visual spectacle was provided by relentless strobe lighting and the projection of arty, blurry images onto the backdrop throughout. Shields briefly switched to acoustic guitar on "Cigarette in Your Bed," although even then the resulting version was anything but mellow.

Nothing could compare, however, to the maelstrom of white noise that was "You Made Me Realise," which left many of the crowd stunned into silence.

My Bloody Valentine's U.K. tour concludes Wednesday at the same venue. The good news for those with shares in earplug manufacture is that further dates in Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Norway, Poland and Germany have been announced for the summer.

Set list:
"I Only Said"
"When You Sleep"
"New You"
"You Never Should"
"Honey Power"
"Cigarette in Your Bed"
"Only Tomorrow"
"Come in Alone"
"Only Shallow"
"Thorn"
"Nothing Much to Lose"
"To Here Knows When"
"Slow"
"Soon"
"Feed Me With Your Kiss"
"You Made Me Realise"
"Wonder 2"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Premiere: Kill the Noise, 'Kill the Noise (Part I)'

Before he gained notoriety as the dubstep phenom Kill the Noise, Jake Stanczak had been concocting dance-floor bangers for years. The experience has given him a sense of restlessness, even in the midst of his current success.

"I'm not sick of dubstep, but I spend a lot more time working on other stuff," he told Rolling Stone when he called in from London during his European tour. "All those nasty bass sounds – I think the novelty of that has kind of worn off."

Still, after years making drum-and-bass and taking a detour to electro and house, Stanczak's return to the low-frequency fold has been a hit, garnering Kill the Noise a slot on Skrillex's new label, OWSLA. His Kill Kill Kill EP was released last year and has become the second-highest seller of OWSLA's releases, according to the label. Here, you can check out director Mike Diva's video for its first track, "Kill the Noise." 

"Kill the Noise" is a mission statement of sorts for Stanczak: melodic, feathery synthesizers plummet into ninth-circle-of-the-inferno bass wobbles. Diva's vision is a dystopian, zombie-filled future Los Angeles where gore and neon splatter the screen and a band of warriors embark on a video game-esque quest to kill the big bad guy – each of their blows in sync with the bass line. 

Stanczak said that he reached out to Diva because he wanted to see how his music would inspire the director's imagination, and the result was right in his wheelhouse. "I love video games," he said.  "That's my guilty pleasure. If I ever do waste time, it's playing video games." However, Stanczak said he's kicked the habit as he wraps up his forthcoming six-song EP, which he hopes will give listeners a full taste of his range.

"There's still a lot of that stuff people might expect from me, but I'm trying to sneak a track or two in before the deadline that give me a little more chance to experiment," he explained. "The way to build your audience is to approach things from a songwriting perspective, [to] try to write good songs that are memorable and have some emotion in them."

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

Premiere: Kill the Noise, 'Kill the Noise (Part I)'

Before he gained notoriety as the dubstep phenom Kill the Noise, Jake Stanczak had been concocting dance-floor bangers for years. The experience has given him a sense of restlessness, even in the midst of his current success.

"I'm not sick of dubstep, but I spend a lot more time working on other stuff," he told Rolling Stone when he called in from London during his European tour. "All those nasty bass sounds – I think the novelty of that has kind of worn off."

Still, after years making drum-and-bass and taking a detour to electro and house, Stanczak's return to the low-frequency fold has been a hit, garnering Kill the Noise a slot on Skrillex's new label, OWSLA. His Kill Kill Kill EP was released last year and has become the second-highest seller of OWSLA's releases, according to the label. Here, you can check out director Mike Diva's video for its first track, "Kill the Noise." 

"Kill the Noise" is a mission statement of sorts for Stanczak: melodic, feathery synthesizers plummet into ninth-circle-of-the-inferno bass wobbles. Diva's vision is a dystopian, zombie-filled future Los Angeles where gore and neon splatter the screen and a band of warriors embark on a video game-esque quest to kill the big bad guy – each of their blows in sync with the bass line. 

Stanczak said that he reached out to Diva because he wanted to see how his music would inspire the director's imagination, and the result was right in his wheelhouse. "I love video games," he said.  "That's my guilty pleasure. If I ever do waste time, it's playing video games." However, Stanczak said he's kicked the habit as he wraps up his forthcoming six-song EP, which he hopes will give listeners a full taste of his range.

"There's still a lot of that stuff people might expect from me, but I'm trying to sneak a track or two in before the deadline that give me a little more chance to experiment," he explained. "The way to build your audience is to approach things from a songwriting perspective, [to] try to write good songs that are memorable and have some emotion in them."

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Flaming Lips Perform 'The Soft Bulletin' at Noise Pop

The Flaming Lips perform at the Noise Pop Festival 20th Anniversary at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco.

The Flaming Lips kicked off the 20th edition of Noise Pop – a weeklong, citywide festival held in San Francisco each February – with a concert that was everything a rock concert should be: entertaining, poignant, silly, cathartic, psychedelic . . . and orgasmic. Yes, at ringleader Wayne Coyne's insistence, much of the audience participated in a loud, fake group orgasm after Coyne sang the life-affirming ending of "Spoonful Weighs a Ton" early in the night.

The show was special not only because it marked the Flaming Lips' long-awaited return to Noise Pop – in an intimate venue that only holds around 500 people – but also because they had announced they would be performing their 1999 masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, in its entirety.

"I don't think about these songs very often," Coyne told Rolling Stone earlier in the day. "That's how all songs are – you do them, you record them, and then you move on to the next song. But if you're lucky like us, you get to go back and go, 'Oh wow, that's a really great part there! I mean, at the end of 'Spoonful Weighs a Ton,' I get to sing that great line: 'Yelling hard as they can/ The doubters all were stunned/ Heard louder than a gun/ The sound they made was love.' If we hadn't written that song, I would want to sing that – it’s so good."

Indeed, as Coyne explained to the audience several times, in several ways, during several monologues, The Soft Bulletin is an emotionally heavy set of songs, addressing aspects of life which aren't always beautiful and certainly aren't always easy – things like love and loss, addiction, disease and death. But the songs are also triumphs of spirit and humanity. They remind listeners that if we refuse to see these things as defeats, we can start seeing them as something that's somehow an important part of being alive – and that music itself can heal.

"Without our songs, where the fuck would we be?" Coyne asked, rhetorically. "Other people talk about God, but music is the god that I want to submit to and belong to and obey. Because it tells you to hang in there, motherfucker."

Photos: Wayne Coyne's World

Over the years, the Flaming Lips have released several different versions of The Soft Bulletin, with not all the songs making the cut on all the packages. While the band has performed the album perhaps more than a dozen times by Coyne's count, they've rarely played all the songs from all the editions. But they treated the crowd at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Tuesday to what might amount to the album's box set – including one of the only live performances of "Slow Motion" ever.

As the album unfolded and the band expanded various parts to create something that flowed flawlessly – even victoriously – through all its emotional twists and turns, The Soft Bulletin revealed itself to be a genuinely perfect album, meant to be taken whole. It is, in some ways, the Flaming Lips’ own Dark Side of the Moon – that Pink Floyd album that the Lips also happen to sometimes cover live, in its entirety.

During "The Spiderbite Song," a track which many fans have taken to be a metaphor for multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd’s well-documented drug problem, Coyne sang plaintively, "I was glad that it didn’t destroy you/ How sad that would be/ 'Cause if it destroyed you/ It would destroy me." Looking at Drozd, Coyne interjected, "I'm glad that it didn't destroy Steven. I'm so glad."

But Coyne also seized moments where he turned the lyrics around on the audience, taking an opportunity during "Waiting for a Superman" to point out the song's epiphany: We – each and every one of us – are the superheroes we are waiting for.

As the Flaming Lips wrapped up with the tragic and emotionally difficult "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate," Coyne reminded the audience that music "sends us out in the world to say, 'We're in this together!' The dilemma is that we love the world, and we love life, and we're curious – 'What is this stuff that we're feeling?' – but at some point, you start to discover that there are horrible things out there and you can't help but to come to the conclusion that life is more horrible than it is beautiful."

When the crowd started booing that tragic observation, Coyne quickly explained, "We don't want to think that's true, but there are a lot of horrible things out there that affect all of us . . .  The Soft Bulletin says we don't have a choice [about that] . . . but we are the ones that can make the world happy and beautiful. We are the ones that can turn on our light and the light of those around us . . . and we can endure . . . Maybe that, in the end, is the bulletin."

After delivering the album in its entirety – and then some – the Lips encored with the only non-Bulletin cut of the evening, "Do You Realize?" Written for The Soft Bulletin’s follow-up, the song deals with many of the same themes that were recurrent throughout the performance; it is a meditation on the frailty and impermanence of life. Thus, it proved to be a natural coda for the evening and, with cannons of confetti firing away, it was an inspiring mix of celebration and catharsis, reflection and release.

Before launching into it, Coyne invited Noise Pop's producers onstage and presented them with a certificate that came directly from San Francisco Mayer Ed Lee, declaring February 21st- 26th Noise Pop Week. As if local music fans hadn't known that already, for the past 20 years.

Noise Pop continues through Sunday with shows by Sleigh Bells, Die Antwoord, Cursive, Built to Spill, the Budos Band, Surfer Blood, Jolie Holland, the Dodos and a first-ever, post-Sugar performance of Copper Blue, in its entirety, by Bob Mould. Good luck topping the Flaming Lips.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Flaming Lips Perform 'The Soft Bulletin' at Noise Pop

The Flaming Lips perform at the Noise Pop Festival 20th Anniversary at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco.

The Flaming Lips kicked off the 20th edition of Noise Pop – a weeklong, citywide festival held in San Francisco each February – with a concert that was everything a rock concert should be: entertaining, poignant, silly, cathartic, psychedelic . . . and orgasmic. Yes, at ringleader Wayne Coyne's insistence, much of the audience participated in a loud, fake group orgasm after Coyne sang the life-affirming ending of "Spoonful Weighs a Ton" early in the night.

The show was special not only because it marked the Flaming Lips' long-awaited return to Noise Pop – in an intimate venue that only holds around 500 people – but also because they had announced they would be performing their 1999 masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, in its entirety.

"I don't think about these songs very often," Coyne told Rolling Stone earlier in the day. "That's how all songs are – you do them, you record them, and then you move on to the next song. But if you're lucky like us, you get to go back and go, 'Oh wow, that's a really great part there! I mean, at the end of 'Spoonful Weighs a Ton,' I get to sing that great line: 'Yelling hard as they can/ The doubters all were stunned/ Heard louder than a gun/ The sound they made was love.' If we hadn't written that song, I would want to sing that – it’s so good."

Indeed, as Coyne explained to the audience several times, in several ways, during several monologues, The Soft Bulletin is an emotionally heavy set of songs, addressing aspects of life which aren't always beautiful and certainly aren't always easy – things like love and loss, addiction, disease and death. But the songs are also triumphs of spirit and humanity. They remind listeners that if we refuse to see these things as defeats, we can start seeing them as something that's somehow an important part of being alive – and that music itself can heal.

"Without our songs, where the fuck would we be?" Coyne asked, rhetorically. "Other people talk about God, but music is the god that I want to submit to and belong to and obey. Because it tells you to hang in there, motherfucker."

Photos: Wayne Coyne's World

Over the years, the Flaming Lips have released several different versions of The Soft Bulletin, with not all the songs making the cut on all the packages. While the band has performed the album perhaps more than a dozen times by Coyne's count, they've rarely played all the songs from all the editions. But they treated the crowd at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Tuesday to what might amount to the album's box set – including one of the only live performances of "Slow Motion" ever.

As the album unfolded and the band expanded various parts to create something that flowed flawlessly – even victoriously – through all its emotional twists and turns, The Soft Bulletin revealed itself to be a genuinely perfect album, meant to be taken whole. It is, in some ways, the Flaming Lips’ own Dark Side of the Moon – that Pink Floyd album that the Lips also happen to sometimes cover live, in its entirety.

During "The Spiderbite Song," a track which many fans have taken to be a metaphor for multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd’s well-documented drug problem, Coyne sang plaintively, "I was glad that it didn’t destroy you/ How sad that would be/ 'Cause if it destroyed you/ It would destroy me." Looking at Drozd, Coyne interjected, "I'm glad that it didn't destroy Steven. I'm so glad."

But Coyne also seized moments where he turned the lyrics around on the audience, taking an opportunity during "Waiting for a Superman" to point out the song's epiphany: We – each and every one of us – are the superheroes we are waiting for.

As the Flaming Lips wrapped up with the tragic and emotionally difficult "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate," Coyne reminded the audience that music "sends us out in the world to say, 'We're in this together!' The dilemma is that we love the world, and we love life, and we're curious – 'What is this stuff that we're feeling?' – but at some point, you start to discover that there are horrible things out there and you can't help but to come to the conclusion that life is more horrible than it is beautiful."

When the crowd started booing that tragic observation, Coyne quickly explained, "We don't want to think that's true, but there are a lot of horrible things out there that affect all of us . . .  The Soft Bulletin says we don't have a choice [about that] . . . but we are the ones that can make the world happy and beautiful. We are the ones that can turn on our light and the light of those around us . . . and we can endure . . . Maybe that, in the end, is the bulletin."

After delivering the album in its entirety – and then some – the Lips encored with the only non-Bulletin cut of the evening, "Do You Realize?" Written for The Soft Bulletin’s follow-up, the song deals with many of the same themes that were recurrent throughout the performance; it is a meditation on the frailty and impermanence of life. Thus, it proved to be a natural coda for the evening and, with cannons of confetti firing away, it was an inspiring mix of celebration and catharsis, reflection and release.

Before launching into it, Coyne invited Noise Pop's producers onstage and presented them with a certificate that came directly from San Francisco Mayer Ed Lee, declaring February 21st- 26th Noise Pop Week. As if local music fans hadn't known that already, for the past 20 years.

Noise Pop continues through Sunday with shows by Sleigh Bells, Die Antwoord, Cursive, Built to Spill, the Budos Band, Surfer Blood, Jolie Holland, the Dodos and a first-ever, post-Sugar performance of Copper Blue, in its entirety, by Bob Mould. Good luck topping the Flaming Lips.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »