3 posts tagged “saul williams”

Well, it's over. I meant to post a recap of who I saw on Saturday yesterday morning, but I got sidetracked; and I've been in bed feeling like rubbish all day today. Not sure whether Lollapalooza's to blame or some other source of lurgee, but I can at least see straight now.

So, Saturday. We got to Grant Park in time to see a snippet of Foals. I had no opinion on them either way, which is odd considering they're one of the many "saviours of rock n' roll" that get trotted out by the NME every year. I also caught a little snippet of The Gutter Twins, featuring the inimitable Mark Lanegan. I wasn't paying too much attention, but they sounded alright.

The first band proper for me was MGMT, whose weird Bowie meets dance sound was perfectly suited to the festival vibe. I really enjoyed them, and their guitarist's shredding all over 'Kids' was fantastic.

Josie went off to see DeVotchKa, who are like a Hispanic gypsy folk take on The Smiths, while Jess and I hung out waiting for Brand New to come on. We saw them live already, but in a terrible venue full of teenyboppers, so we were hoping they'd be better at a festival. Not so much. The highlight of their set was the dudes brawling a few metres away from me. It's a shame, because on CD, they're great.

At least frontman Jesse Lacey was as disappointed as us, at one point telling the crowd "You should all be watching Explosions In The Sky."

Somehow, there was a big gap for us, until we ended up watching Okkervil River while waiting for Broken Social Scene to come on. They weren't what I expected (the name conjured up rootsy blues, but they were more folky and upbeat). I liked them.

Then Broken Social Scene... Broken Social Scene were my second favourite band after Radiohead. For a band with such an inconsistent line-up, they manage to be consistently awesome, and played some of my favourites including '7/4 (Shoreline)' and 'Farewell To The Pressure Kids'... and they had Amy from Stars with them, awesome.

We caught the tail end of Toadies' set (apparently they were big in America, never heard of them... and gladly so), then sat patiently waiting for Rage Against The Machine. I had chosen them over Wilco as I don't know that I would get to see them again.

I was... kinda non-plussed. While musically, they were tight, it sounded exactly the same as the CDs. To me, part of the appeal of seeing a band live is seeing how they mess with their arrangements. Add to that the fact they *kept* stopping so Zach could lecture the moshpit, and it wasn't all that entertaining. A massive shame. I wish I had seen Wilco now.

Sunday was the least action packed of the three days, reflected by the fact we were able to head down so late (not helped by The Weakerthans pulling out).

As we arrived, we could hear Iron & Wine and decided against them as they would be a bit of a Debbie Downer. So, our first act of the day was the brilliant Saul Williams. The girls weren't fans, but he did put on an energetic performance.

We caught snippets of Blues Traveller and Love & Rockets, but the next band proper was The National. Having seen them in the colossal United Center supporting REM, I wanted to see if their sound fared better in a relatively smaller environment... and I am pleased to say it did. I love them.

After they left the stage, the girls went over to catch the start of Kanye West's set while I watched Nine Inch Nails. I'd seen them before and really enjoyed them, but for some reason, the magic just wasn't there this time around... I think mostly because they decided to kill the mood a short way into their set by playing some of the instrumental pieces from Ghosts I-IV... which, while great to listen to when you're chilling out, is not really much fun when you're stood in a field.

They did play an awful lot of material from The Downward Spiral, though, which sort of made up for it. Especially 'Closer'.

Overall, it really was a good weekend, marred only - really - by feeling horribly ill today.

Their site is borked right now so I can't order my copy, but the new Nine Inch Nails album - Ghosts I-IV - is now available. It's a collection of instrumental music.

Having tested the waters by releasing rapper Saul Williams' album online (an album he produced), NIN frontman Trent Reznor has adopted the digital/physical combination Radiohead were offering and then some. The different versions of the album are:

- Free: Download the first nine songs from the album as unprotected MP3s with PDF artwork.
- $5: Download all thirty-six songs with the PDF.
- $10: Same as the $5 offering, but you also get the album on 2 CDs.
- $75: Same as the $10 offering but with 1 DVD featuring the songs as multitrack audio to remix and 1 Blu-Ray (which I assume contains the songs set to video footage) in fancy packaging.
- $300: The same as the deluxe edition, but with the album on 180 gram vinyl and two artwork prints. Hand numbered and signed by Trent, limited to 2,500 copies.

Although $300 sounds ridiculous to me, especially when the only slightly less cool Radiohead box was $80, it's great that another successful act is embracing the internet mere years after Metallica and Dr Dre spazzed out over Napster... and in such a way that their fans can choose how much the music is worth to them.

According to the NME, Lily Allen thinks Radiohead are arrogant.

The musical equivalent of The Sun quoted her as saying: "It's arrogant for them to give their music away for free - they've got millions of pounds. It sends a weird message to younger bands who haven't done as well." and that their recent In Rainbows release mechanism devaluates music.

Thankfully, the rag thought her analogy was a little off, stating that she "bizarrely added": "You don't choose how to pay for eggs. Why should it be different for music?"

Listen, sweetheart. If you want to talk about devaluating music, how about the fact twats like you get all the bloody attention in the decreasing number of music magazines for spouting your bollocks opinions about other musicians. Every time I see an article about you, it's you making some stupid comment about other acts. And don't think I'm singling you out - it seems it's much more important to talk about who you hate this week, how much of pointless junkie twat Pete Doherty is and how much Amy 'Elvira' Winehouse wants to sabotage her career. Amy is the odd one out of the three of you, though, as she actually has something resembling talent.

If you actually made decent music instead of slagging off Girls Aloud, The Kooks, Radiohead, Bob Geldof... *insert everyone else you've wasted oxygen on here*... perhaps then I would entertain your notions about what is and isn't good for the music industry. As it is, you're a pox on the ears in every respect.

What kind of message are you sending to younger bands? Judging by the idiot from The Cribs, it seems your message - say lots of stupid things so no one has time to hear how rubbish your music is - is getting through.

By the way, immediately after In Rainbows came out, little-known rapper Saul Wiliams released his album The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust in a similar fashion. Between his $5 asking price and backing of producer Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), I dare say it's done quite well for someone of his reknown. He is not a millionaire, but he too realises that away from the recording industry system, there is a way to get your music out to a wide audience without ripping them off.