On February 2nd 2014 Skinny Puppy sent the US government an invoice after finding out their music was used as a torture device in Guantanamo Bay. They said they had never envisioned their music being used in such a way. They were asked how they felt about their songs allegedly being used in the detention camp for torture, singer cEvin Key replied: “Not too good. We never supported those types of scenarios. … Because we make unsettling music, we can see it being used in a weird way. But it doesn’t sit right with us.” I wonder if the US government had the same complaint from Barney The Dinosaur? Other artists whose music was used in this scenario include Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, David Gray, Eminem and Metallica.
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I don’t get the opportunity to review books here on With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, but I am pleased to say that following hot on the heels (ok more than three months) of my review of John Illsley’s autobiography I have just read another, obviously music-related tome. This one is for ‘Into the Never – Nine Inch Nails And The Creation Of The Downward Spiral’ By Adam Steiner, which was originally published in 2020 by Backbeat Books. This is Adam’s first non-fiction book following his first novel ‘Politics of The Asylum’ from 2018. Adam also publishes poetry and is a journalist. Among other things, presumably in his spare time, he has also lectured on Creative Writing and Publishing at Coventry University.
If you are a fan of Trent Reznor’s music then you may well have already read this book, if you’re not then I would recommend that you do, maybe using the album that it covers in great detail as your soundtrack. There is a similarity between Steiner’s book and the ’33 1/3′ Series that has published some great pocket-sized books which explore the creation of classic albums, (including book 78 in the series covering Nine Inch Nails ‘Pretty Hate Machine’) although ‘Into The Never’ goes to a far greater depth to study how ‘The Downward Spiral‘ came about. In fact, one of the huge collection of Steiner’s references is Daphne Carr’s 33 1/3 book.
‘Into The Never’ not only deals with the actual music and how it was constructed and recorded but also analyses the whole creation of the album. Including Trent Reznor’s probable state of mind at the time and that he initially worked on the album at a home recording set up in a rented property on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. Not just some random property though, this was the house where the infamous Manson Murders took place. Although there is no suggestion that Reznor rented the place because of that. The book has caused me to completely re-examine ‘The Downward Spiral‘ which I always considered a good album. But after playing it quite a few times while reading the book I have come to appreciate it as a great album a truly seminal release and possibly Trent Reznor’s finest recorded moment. Adam Steiner writes with a great intellectual gravity while ordering his words in a beautiful flow that kept me interested from start to finish. Questions about whether ‘The Downward Spiral’ is autobiographical or simply a concept album akin to Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ are considered. As well as Reznor’s fraught addiction issues and his path on a rocky road to self-destruction (which thankfully he survived) the book also deals with relevant aspects of US social history from the aforementioned Manson Murders to the Columbine School shootings via the Vietnam War.
There are some really sharp references to what most definitely did influence the album or in some cases may have influenced. Including, my list is not exhaustive,
Authors; George Orwell, Greil Marcus, Chuck Palahniuk, Albert Camus
Philosophers and Thinkers; Michel Foucault, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche
Musicians; David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Richey Edwards, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, Johnny Cash
Artists; Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon
The book also discusses the theological impact alongside the major world events that probably played a part. Additionally, there are plenty of references to films (‘Natural Born Killers’) and music (“Helter Skelter” by the Beatles). This is perhaps the most in-depth publication about an album that I have ever read and frankly, my musical knowledge and appreciation of ‘The Downward Spiral‘ is so much richer because of it. Fans of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails will devour this book and those who appreciate great music and classic albums will love it too. Click here to find it on Amazon, or better still pay a visit to your local independent book store or your public library!
Adam Steiner
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On the last Mayhem Top 20 post, I mentioned that I was changing how it would be published. Instead of waiting for Obscurify to tot up listens on a seemingly random date, I will now take a snapshot at the end of each month. So the Top 20 for February is the first of those. Many of you know that I am a keen user of a site called Obscurify. It claims to tell you how obscure your listening on Spotify is. Compared to the rest of the UK I achieved a level of 100% more obscure than other users in the UK. 100%, is that even possible? Either way, I am proud of it! Anyway, regular readers will know that it also lists my most obscure artists, (the top two of which have been there since I began doing these posts) which currently are;
Woke Up Dead (One of the two bands that have been ever-present in my obscure list and an excellent band to boot!)
Promethium (This metal bunch continue to fly the flag for great British rock and like Woke Up Dead have been ever-present in this obscure team)
Black Acacias -(I have no idea how I found this lot. Their album came out in 2008 and they have 4 monthly listeners on Spotify. There seems to be no information about them online, apart from the music on Spotify. If you were in Black Acacias or know anything about them please contact me. They appear at number 13 in this week’s chart)
Folk The System – (folky protest and frankly great songs, this lot make their second appearance in the obscure list. They appear at number 27 in the extended chart)
As for the February Top 20, only Dame David and Kate Bush remain from the last chart. Other classic artists include Suede, Arctic Monkeys, Glen Campbell, Alison Moyet, Culture Club, Bob Dylan Dionne Warwick, and Frank Turner. Bruno Skibbild makes his second appearance and there will be another post about him very soon. Nine Inch Nails crash in at number one, I have just read a great book about their album ‘The Downward Spiral’, lookout for a review of that on these pages sometime soon. The rest of the top five is The Skinner Brothers, Hawksley Workman, Heartsink, and the aforementioned Kate Bush. Four of the artists who feature in the February Top 20 are current contenders for my album of the year for 2022, can you guess who they are? Who knew that there was a band called Diamond Dogs? I didn’t until now. Gonora Sounds from Africa produce some of the most uplifting music that I have heard in a long while! Here is that all-important top 20. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
1 Nine Inch Nails 2 The Skinner Brothers 3 Hawksley Workman 4 Heartsink 5 Kate Bush 6 David Bowie 7 Glen Campbell 8 Paul Draper 9 Bob Dylan 10 Alison Moyet 11 Gonora Sounds 12 Culture Club 13 Black Acacias 14 Dionne Warwick 15 L.A.B. 16 Diamond Dogs 17 Suede 18 Arctic Monkeys 19 Frank Turner 20 Hurray For The Riff Raff
There was I just randomly searching for stuff as part of researching a different blog post and up pops this. A great cover of David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid Of Americans” by Dweezil Zappa. While Dweezil doesn’t take it too far from Bowie’s original it is still a pretty good cover of one of the Dame’s best later-period songs. Bowie released it as a single with plenty of remixes (from Photek and Nine Inch Nails) and it was included on the 1997 album ‘Earthling’. Although it did make an appearance on the ‘Showgirls’ soundtrack a little earlier than that. What do you think of Dweezil’s take on the song?
Click here to read my review of the rather spiffing new album from Queen Kwong, ‘Love Me To Death’. Find out what I thought of it by visiting the spectacular 3 Songs & Out site, just go back and click it’s simple! Also a big thank you to those music mega-brains at 3 Songs & Out for giving me the opportunity to undertake this review.
Only thirteen more big sleeps before Satan comes down your chimney. Whoops did I say Satan? Obviously I meant Santa. They both have the same letters in their name after all don’t they. Anyway it’s 12th December and therefore Day 12 of this years advent calendar blog posts. If you haven’t been reading them yet let me tell you that this years subject is the ABC of British bands and today it’s the turn of the letter ‘L’. That letter will be represented by super synth-poppers Ladytron.
Helen Marnie, Mira Aroyo, Reuben Woo and Daniel Hunt formed the band in Liverpool in 1999. Their name comes from the Roxy Music song entitled “Ladytron”. I bet you didn’t guess that did you? As well as releasing their own music they have also been arch-remixers. They have remixed tracks for many artists including Blondie, Nine Inch Nails and Christina Aguilera. As a band they have released five albums between 2001 and 2011. The first time that I saw the band was at the Reading Festival in 2001 and I recall that they were bloody good. The band also had a track on the soundtrack of the computer game ‘FIFA 11‘. It is called “Ace Of Hz”. They have also provided four songs for the Sims game soundtracks.
Four of their five albums reached the top ten of the US Dance chart. Sadly their highest charting UK single was “Destroy Everything You Touch” which reached number 42 in 2005 and was taken from their third album ‘Witching Hour’. In 2001 they recorded a rather good cover of the Human League‘s “Open Your Heart”. Now I urge you to open your heart (and your ears) and listen to some classy tracks from Ladytron.
We began at the Main Stage today for We Are The In Crowd. Note to Nadia Tut; it’s looking ever so slightly less of a cock fest today. I also believe that you and your fellow band mates and bands are in a position to try to change that going forward. These folks have a female singer. We need the Tuts and Colour Me Wednesday playing here next year. As for WATIC what a superb lively start to the day from this New York band.
Back to the NME/ Radio 1 Stage for the Villagers, we had seen them at Reading a couple of years ago. They were good then and are even better now. If you had not seen them before you might be forgiven for thinking you had walked in on the Hogwarts school band fronted by Harry Potter himself. The singer certainly looks like the young wizard. But their music is indeed a magical combination of influences. Once again great use of percussion too.
Aluna George have been subject to mucho hype lately and you know what? They are well worth it. Their music is spectacularly good and Aluna’s stage clothes show that Lady Gaga has jumped the shark fashionwise. Aluna herself is confident and sassy, she commands the stage. I will very soon be the owner of Aluna George’s album.
Over to the Festival Republic stage next for Twenty One Pilots. Unbelievably a drum based rock rap hybrid dressed as skeletons. It shouldn’t work but it does. It’s as though the Strokes were spliced with Eminem and Hawksley Workman in a parallel universe. These guys MUST be on the Main Stage mid afternoon next year; are you listening organisers? This was possibly one of the finest Reading Festival moments ever for us.
As for Chapel Club; very chilled soft rock with a hard edge. I would not have wanted to follow Twenty One Pilots. If I went to a chapel club when I was a kid it wouldn’t have been this much fun! After that we lay in the sun chilling to As Elephants Are. They were pretty good.
Back to the NME/ Radio 1 stage next for Haim. Bloody hell these girls can rock. This had to be the year of the drum with even more percussion from the Haim sisters. But did the bass player have to turn so much? That part was scary.
Fall Out Boy or FOB as they are now branded are back. On form on the Main Stage. But does everything have to be reduced to an acronym? But this band does what it says on the tin. Pop powered punk at its best. A band that has been an acronym for longer than many were next on the Main Stage; it was Nine Inch Nails or NIN as they prefer to be known, certainly on t-shirts. I was expecting great things from Trent Reznor and his chums. Sadly I was very disappointed, the music came across as samey and bland and Mr Reznor was severely lacking in the interaction with the crowd department. As a result we wandered off to pastures new. First to the Festival Republic stage where we saw the Jim Jones Revue; they are a hell of a powerful band. Imagine if AC/ DC, the Stones, the Troggs and Doctor Feelgood all drank in the same pub and became the house band. It would be very much like the Jim Jones Revue. We wandered over to the Rock Stage for the first part of Funeral For A Friend’s set. They definitely do what it says on the tin with their excellent brand of hard punky tunes. After that we returned to the Festival Republic stage for the magnificent Spector. I suppose you could compare them to the Killers in sound, but they are so much more than that. The audience loved them.
Then it was time for Sunday night’s headliners; the regal and magnificent Biffy Clyro. ‘Mon the Bif! This was the first time in eight Reading appearances that they have headlined the Main Stage and after this performance they will do it again in the future too. They were clearly well rehearsed and fired up for this show. For me they were the best headliner of the weekend by far and definitely in my top 5 of all time. The highlights for me were “Many To Horror” and “Black Chandelier”. The light show, the stage set and the pyrotechnics were amazing and added to a stonking performance from Scotland’s finest. Let’s hope they are back soon. As for myself and my good mate Nick Horslen; will we be back next year? I think there is a bloody good chance that we will be.
Well it’s that time of year again; time for me to spend three days standing in a field in Berkshire with thousands of other people. There will be shouting, mud (possibly), booze and drugs (for some), food stuffs thrown (usually scotch eggs) and oodles of great music. Yes the Reading Festival is here again and as has been the tradition for a several years now I will be attending with my good friend and fellow Zimmer Twin Nick. We are two fiftysomething music fans and between us we have seen all the great bands from Led Zep to the Foos and from Bowie to Suede. To be fair we have also seen our share of crap bands too.
Anyway who am I looking forward to most this year? I think the three headliners are a good choice. I saw Green Day back in 2005 at the Milton Keynes Bowl, that was a great show. I have seen Biffy Clyro at Reading a few times and after the release of their current album ‘Opposites’ earlier this year I think that they will make excellent headliners. I am looking forward to Eminem and I think he will be superb. However back in 2001 I thought his set, which included extensive collaboration with D12 was a little subdued.
Other acts I am quite excited about seeing are; Kate Nash (who I saw in York earlier this year), will the Tuts join her on stage? Let’s hope so! Then there is the supremely talented Jake Bugg, Chvrches, Johnny Marr, Savages, Palma Violets, Fallout Boy, Spector, Haim, Villagers, Jagwar Ma, the Bronx, the 1975 and the Fuck Buttons. Sadly I’m sure that some of these acts may be on at the same time on different stages. But whatever happens I intend to be there for the return of Enter Shikari and I will definitely not be missing Christchurch’s finest son Frank Turner and Nine Inch Nails. Fingers crossed that Trent Reznor is joined by his friend David Bowie, somehow I don’t think so though.
As for the BBC Introducing Stage we also take a look at a few of the up and coming bands. Sometimes we pick who we want to see based on their names. So this year we will be looking out for We Are Knuckle Draggers, As Elephants Are and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Who are you most looking forward to this year at Reading and Leeds? Don’t forget if you should bump into us Zimmer Twins feel free to say hello. I will make sure that you get a mention in this blog!
I mentioned another post earlier this month that I would soon be off to see Gary Numan at the Barbican in York, well it came around quite quickly and I was there for the show last night. It was a part of the weekend long DV8 festival across a number of York venues. It also seemed like there had been coachloads of Whitby Goths dropped in York for the weekend. It could easily have been a Bram Stoker convention. But really I jest because I love the fact that some people, mostly young, take the time to be a little different with their appearance. That indeed was one of the many things that I loved about my late, great cousin Deborah Schofield who died way too young quite a few years ago now. I reckon she would have enjoyed herself last night.
Catwoman did accompany me, against my best advice, I did tell her that she probably wouldn’t like the music. But she came anyway, to try to share my interest. That is one of the many things that I love her for. But she did leave halfway through Gary Numan’s set, I was pretty darned impressed that she made it that far actually!
So onto the show. Personally I thought the support band were dreadful and sit very easily in amongst the 5 worst bands that I have ever seen and I saw my first gig in 1973. Their musicianship was very good, the songs were mostly average and the lead vocalist, well I believe they need to get one! The bass player really looked the part though, he could have stepped right out of Johnny Thunder‘s Heartbreakers in the late 70s. But that is all just my opinion and they did seem to have quite a few fans. Of course it could be that they weren’t allowed anywhere near a sound check as often happens with support bands. Click here to check out their MySpace page and tell me what you think. I would like to stress that this is my opinion and I look forward to the inevitable backlash!
Luxury Stranger finished at 9.30 and then we waited nearly an hour for the main man Mr Numan to arrive on stage, but for me it was definitely worth the wait. I suppose tribal loyalty (I’m a Bowie fan) means I shouldn’t like Gary Numan, but frankly I find all that kind of stuff pathetic. Numan opened with a kind of dark electro fanfare which rolled neatly into the excellent “Down In The Park“. I must confess that I probably know more of his late 70s work, but the newer stuff is strong and powerful and he has a great stage presence. he sure as hell knows how to work his very passionate audience. I will almost certainly buy his new album ‘Dead Son Rising’ when it comes out in September.
He played the classic “Cars” shortly after Catwoman left the building. A shame really as this may have been the one song she would have recognised. He finished the pre encore part of the set with my favourite; “Are Friends Electric?” it still sounds fresh and futuristic. The main synth riff was replaced with a piano riff which works really well. He was only off stage briefly before finishing with two songs. The light show was bloody good as was the sound and the venue is great. I went away happy at midnight as I would imagine the rest of the audience did too. I would definitely go and see him again and I truly believe that his show would work well at the Reading Festival, probably late afternoon on the Main Stage. Are you listening for next year Reading organisers?
I don’t have any recordings from last nights show so here are a few excellent clips for your further listening and viewing pleasure.
And finally an excellent old interview with Graham Norton
Last weekend I accompanied the beautiful Catwoman to a free preview of the new film ‘The Social Network‘ at City Screen in York courtesy of the Guardian. It is based on the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires‘ which recounts the story of the birth of Facebook.
The script is tight, pacey and at times very, very funny indeed. The film’s strap line is ‘You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies’ and this is the focus of much of the film, particularly all the legal wranglings about whose idea it was. This largely focuses on the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his former partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and his other battle with the Winklevoss brothers who he refers to rather amusingly as the Winklevi.
I never realised the part that Sean Parker, the guy who created Napster, played in the early days of Facebook. He is played incredibly well by none other than former Mickey Mouse Club star Justin Timberlake.
I suggest that you get yourself off of Facebook right now and go and see this movie, you won’t be disappointed! I can also confirm that JUSTWILLIAM1959, WITH JUST A HINT OF MAYHEM and CATWOMAN all ‘Like’ this movie.
As usual this is indeed a music blog so let’s mention some of that. The actual soundtrack was composed and performed by Trent Reznor (off of Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross and it works really well. There are some excellent songs used during the film and you can find a few of them below;
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 