Sunday, December 05, 2004

OK, what's going on, how come nobody is saying anything about the new Death in Vegas album, "Satan's Circus"? Maybe it's the daft name, heck, that was a turnoff for me too. But I certainly hope it's not being dismissed for being a 70's throwback. And I hope the people who have praised and re-praised the myriad of recent 80's throwbacks aren't throwing mud at "Satan's Circus" and claiming it's "embarassingly retro", or some crap like that.

DIV are at their best when they're an electronic band that tries to sound like a rock band. Their last album, "Scorpio's Rising", sounded like a rock band, straight up. Now, they're right back to being an electronic band sounding like a rock band which. But now they're playing motorik music, which means they are trying to sound like rock bands that tried to sound like electronic bands. Got all that? In particular, "Sons of Rother" could, aptly enough, turn up as a bonus track on a future reissue of NEU!'s debut and nobody would even blink. Elsewhere, most of Kraftwerk's career is faithfully pilfered (most notably, the lead synth from "TEE" on "Zugaga", and a dead cert for the melody from "Kometenmelodie" on "Kontroll"). The attention to detail (which could also be termed "theft") is startling, and makes this album more of a reunion record by its German heroes than a tribute -- they're not paying homage to NEU! and Kraftwerk, they have become NEU! and Kraftwerk. And honestly, what's better than early-to-mid 70's NEU! and Kraftwerk?

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After all the hype, what an embarrassment that "60 Minutes" interview with Bob Dylan turned out to be. And unlike what we might have expected going in, it wasn't because of Dylan's rambling (which was quite coherent, at least for him). Rather, for a guy who professed that he'd always wanted to interview Bob Dylan, Ed Bradley asked completely inane questions with obvious answers. And dumbing it down for the average "60 Minutes" viewer can't explain it, either. "Let's talk about the press trying to pigeonhole you as a folkie/protest singer/prophet/whatever, you didn't like it when they did that, did you, of course not and to make the point let's roll a clip from "Don't Look Back" just to hammer home the point, so my question for you is this: what do you think of people saying you're one of the greatest songwriters ever, because Rolling Stone recently said that your song was the greatest thing there ever was, so how do you feel about people idolizing you, because you're a deity to them, you know? Come on, you're a prophet, you're an icon, I'm telling you now, just admit it already!!".

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