MUSE ARE BACK

So, let me start this post with a loud and ear-drum piercing shout.. MUSE ARE BACK!

Yes, one of Britain’s best acts is back on the scene. Their latest creation “The Resistance” is due out in September…so not too long of a wait.
And in true Muse spirit they are promoting the album with a treasure hunt, but this one is GLOBAL…and I mean, global.

Paris, Dubai, Tokyo, Moscow…. The band have placed USB sticks across the planet and every time a one is found 20% of their new track “UNITED STATES OF EURASIA” is uploaded to http://ununitedeurasia.muse.mu/music/ so do check it out (I think you have to be a registered member) and listen to it yourself!

My first impressions of the song were… Great, it has piano in it (my favourite instrument), oh and a great Muse-esque build up then wow, are those “Egyptian-style” piano sounds?… is that a hint of Queen I hear? As you can see, many different emotions spawned from the my first play. Personally, the song sounds fantastic and I cannot wait for the album to hit the shelves.

I know I go on about the ‘greatness of Muse’ but I do really feel they are a truly unique band both musically and live. They are a breath of fresh air in the sea of pop-punk-poppy-emo-overproduced-badly produced-screamo-3 chord-comicy-drunken-looks driven… bands out there.

I find it fantastic that if any member of Muse walked through the streets of London or New York or Tokyo that most people wouldn’t even bat an eye-lid but they can happily sell out 90,000 capacity shows, or a 35-date arena tour. Which other act can do that?
Muse are appreciated for their music and their live show that comes along with that. They have no need to grace every magazine cover half naked, they don’t have to marry a ‘celebrity’ in order to be known, they don’t need some big shot Producer, they don’t have to cause havoc or be controversial to sell tickets or records and they definitely do not need gimmicks.

With Muse, its always about the music. And its this reason and this reason alone why I regard them so highly.

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Catch Muse on “The Resistance” Tour. Dates on http://muse.mu/tour-dates/

Filed under: Annoyances, Bands, Gigs, Muse, Music, Music Reviews

Sparks The Rescue.

I’m pretty much finished with all the end-of-tour duties I usually have.

Money, accounts, payments, equipment, press..all of that stuff has to be wrapped up to make it officially done.

The tour I just came off was the All American Rejects tour throughout the major markets of Europe – England, France, Germany, Austria…it was a very fun tour. I was Tour Managing and Driving their only support act ‘Sparks The Rescue’ – a great bunch of guys from Maine, USA. It was the band’s first time away from the USA so everything was new to them…so I also had to act as tour guide…which is always nice.

Anyhoo, the tour went very well for both acts and hopefully the guys will be back later in the year…
A tour video is currently being made by STR about the Euro tour.

I can’t wait to see that.

Filed under: Bands, On Tour

I was greeted with two huge dressing rooms

I have just realised that I haven’t updated this in quite a long time and I really should not neglect it.
There’s some things twitter can’t do – it can’t really provide depth (unless there’s a link – which would be shortened of course) and I feel that is where the role of the blog comes back into force!

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As you may or may not know I now work with another Chicago-based band (The last one being Madina Lake) called “The Audition”, they are really good guys and perform brilliantly live, they really should be bigger than they are but what with the music industry being so saturated nowadays its hard to piece the veil of originality.
They do this though, quite often…it is only a matter of time before these guys are on super huge tours and playing in new markets like Japan and South America, places they have never been before.

Hopefully, I will be along for the ride.
Anyway, the band recently flew in for two shows; one was in Leeds at the ‘Slam Dunk’ Festival. The show went really well and the band shared the stage with some of the biggest pop-rock-punk outfits of today. It was basically a big hang-out session for the bands as everyone knew EVERYBODY, which is great at a festival, makes it much more relaxed.

I then drove the guys down to the infamous Camden Barfly expecting the usual 2m x 3m dressing room which we all dread and love at the same time. However, I was greeted with two huge dressing rooms, wifi and leather sofas! It was like seeing the second coming of Christ, honestly.

This show was just about us, no supports, no openers, just the Audition. The band played their entire new album front-to-back and some requests..oh and they even threw in a few BLINK-182 hits which really set off the crowd.

The “tour” (two shows isn’t a tour) really seemed like a much longer string of shows, I think it was due to their super busy nature and the incredible heat the UK was experiencing that weekend. Either way, they were very fun.

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This weekend (June 5th) I embark on a 8-show run with ‘Sparks The Rescue’…we’re direct support for the famous ‘All American Rejects’ . ‘Sparks’ have been around since 1999 (according to Wikipedia) but it’s their first time overseas. Every American is always amazed by Europe and the United Kingdom just as every British person is amazed by the USA… I expect a barrage of “Wow, whats this?” and “Woahhhh look at the size of that!” statements and questions….

It’s ok, this is when my ‘random’ knowledge of the UK/EU really comes into play.

- Charlie.

Dates:

Day Date Country City Venue Sat 06/06/2009 GERMANY BOCHUM ZECHE Sun 07/06/2009 OFF Mon 08/06/2009 ENGLAND LONDON BARFLY Tue 09/06/2009 ENGLAND LONDON ROUNDHOUSE Wed 10/06/2009 OFF Thu 11/06/2009 FRANCE PARIS LE TRABENDO Fri 12/06/2009 GERMANY MUNICH 59to1 Sat 13/06/2009 OFF Sun 14/06/2009 AUSTRIA VIENNA ARENA Mon 15/06/2009 SWITZERLAND GENEVA TIKI’S CLUB Tue 16/06/2009 GERMANY FRANKFURT BATSCHKAPP

Seeyou there!!

Filed under: Bands, On Tour