Live: Spacey Jane at Brudenell Social Club

Roxanna Zoughi on 20 April 2022

The electric and lively show Spacey Jane delivered at the Brudenell was introduced with a prelude from the band’s supporting act, singer-songwriter Morgan Harper-Jones, who performed with just a guitar and her voice. The 23-year-old dazzled the crowd with a series of slow-paced yet vivacious heartfelt songs showcasing the raw emotion at the heart of her performance. During and in-between each song, her performance was embellished with witty banter which lightened the mood of the otherwise beautifully melancholy subject matter of her songs.

As the supporting act’s show came to a close, it was clear the crowd could wait no longer for the Australian band who would soon find themselves playing to a fully packed venue filled with fans who would had long awaited the band’s UK tour. Fans showed their support and enjoyment throughout the entirety of the show by singing along to every song, and jumping around in unison to every performance. The lighting only added to the electric and lively atmosphere as it switched between vividly shocking hues of blue to neon pinks and purples. The abrupt changes in lighting coincided with the eye-catching and vivacious movements of all members of the band who were stomping around to their music as much as the crowd were.

The indie foursome proved their musicianship and range with a series of tight-knit performances as they treated fans to loud, faster-paced hits to more mellow rhythmic favorites like ‘Booster Seat’. With their second album ‘Here Comes Everybody’ soon to release in June, along with a tour of the States, this Australian foursome promise there’s more to come yet.

Image credit: Bruce Baker

Live: Echo and the Bunnymen’s Electric Performance at the O2 Academy, Leeds

Roxanna Zoughi on 10 April 2022

Review of Echo and the Bunnymen’s electric performance at the o2 Academy – icons of the past whose music still insists its permanence and brilliance into 2022.

After roughly two years of live music taking what felt like a never-ending hiatus, The Bunnymen’s show at the o2 Academy on 5th April would have been many of the audience’s first gig since before Covid – and what better gig to reintroduce oneself back into the live music scene with than the Liverpool legends we know as the Bunnymen.

The band first formed in Liverpool in 1978 whose early releases secured them their position as legends of the post-punk genre. Ever since then their evolving sound has proven its musical dynamism from rhythmic pop releases of ‘Songs to Learn to Sing’ (1985) to the moody melancholia that so characterizes the post-punk essence of their 1980 album ‘Crocodiles’. Although the band have proven their skill and versatility as musicians through their ventures into jazz, guitar pop and even psychedelia, they nonetheless stayed largely true to their post-punk essence at the academy with electric performances of their early releases.

Their fantastic ranges in sound and style were perfectly captured in the show as they dazzled the audience through consistently enigmatic performances ranging from well-loved post-punk classics like ‘Going Up’, to dabbling in jazzy undertones. Regardless of the genres the band meandered itself in, the atmosphere of each performance was consistently electric thanks to Will Sergeant’s skillful yet modest mastery of the guitar, which complimented Ian McCulloch’s unwavering, and insistent vocals. As well as performing many of their older and comfortably familiar releases, the band also treated the audience to a new song, ‘Brussels is haunted’, an upbeat number promising there’s more to come from The Bunnymen yet.

James May: Oh Cook! The Cooking Show Hosted by the Man who Can’t Cook 

Roxanna Zoughi on 29 December 2020

The former Top Gear host insists he can’t cook, but he did beat Gordon Ramsay in a fish pie contest in 2011 – whilst drunk.

Following the finale of the Grand Tour a year ago, the Top Gear Trio have gone their separate ways, with Clarkson opening his own farm (albeit with a very muddy intro back in February), May exploring the culinary arts with his food tour of Japan, and Hammond, well, being forced to sell his Ferrari.

May was already enlightening viewers with his food series on YouTube channel ‘Foodtribe’ which saw the Grand Tour host revisiting 70s childhood food classics out of a bunker; including an exploration into what the best cheese is for a classic cheese sandwich (spoiler: it is indeed, cheddar). The semi-established show also featured May’s former Top Gear co-host, Richard Hammond, who did not hold back in rectifying May’s poached egg mishaps. The channel enjoyed substantial success in the millions of views it attracted from viewers who fancied watching James May make pickled sandwiches for 10 minutes straight. It was inevitable then, for May to depart from his beloved bunker, and graduate to a fully operational kitchen to host his newest Amazon Prime show Oh Cook!; a cooking show hosted by a man who can’t cook – or so he says.

May’s show is refreshing and humorous, as well as informative; “did you know Japan Airlines serves instant noodles in the posh seats?” he tells us. His honest and unimposing approach free of condescension draws us in and engages us with his straightforward (but definitely not fuss-free) culinary creations, accompanied by a witty self-narration throughout. Each episode focuses on a certain cuisine, from Asian fusions to pub classics; there’s a culinary style for everyone. And with more restrictions being placed across the country, May’s cooking show is perhaps just what we need to re-familiarize ourselves with our home kitchens to inspire our own wonderful culinary creations.

But if there’s one thing we can learn from Oh Cook!, it’s this: If James May can cook it, so can you.

Todd Phillips’ Joker is a conflation of ‘Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupnick’: What David Fincher’s comments on Joker reveal about the film industry today

Roxanna Zoughi on 21 November 2020

Director of 1999 cult classic Fight Club unapologetically shared his views on Todd Phillips’ 21st-century adaptation of one of the most recognised villains in fiction in his 2019 film, Joker.

As part of promotion for his newest film Mank, Fincher reflects on the massive success Joker enjoyed at the box office followed by a generally warm critical reception, in an interview with The Telegraph. Had it not been for Nolan’s massive success in adapting Ledger’s compelling performance to The Dark Knight, Fincher finds it hard to believe that the 2019 film Joker would have been received as well as it was. “Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with Joker had The Dark Knight not been as massive as it was”. He goes on “I don’t think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s take [Taxi Driver’s] Travis Bickle and [The King of Comedy’s] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars.’”

Fincher highlights the film’s undeniable allusions to 1970s and 1980s classics Taxi Driver, which follows the disorientated quest for redemption of unbalanced New York taxi driver, and The King of Comedy, a black comedy film centered around the delusions of aspiring stand-up comedian whose eccentric mannerisms and even attire, are noticeably emulated in Joker. Both films were directed by Martin Scorsese and star Robert De Niro as lead role, who has also appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. With the emulation and re-emulation of previously successful and popular tropes in film, it is perhaps not unreasonable to consider that some directors may be tempted to recycle aspects of older films which, at some level, secure a degree of success, or at the least, attention for their ‘new’ projects.

The King of Comedy / Medium

Whilst Phillip’s direction of colour and camerawork alongside Phoenix’s stunning performance hold up as a remarkable piece of art, the adaption of the comic book villain was not a challenging or revolutionary one; it’s success was at least partly owed to the legacy of Ledger’s performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), which had already developed and established the Joker as one of the most alluring villains in fiction. However, that is not to suggest that Phillips did not offer an alternative, enlightening perspective to his adaptation of the character; revealing a developed backstory is what developed the Joker in a way other films had not. But at the same time, constructing a history for the Joker defeats the significance of the obscure meaning behind his actions, which is what made his character both elusive and compelling in previous performances.

Fincher highlights the lack of challenging new material in the film industry today, whose studios “don’t want to make anything that can’t make them a billion dollars”. The reproduction of a character whose success had already been established, no doubt assured film studios of its success; Joker profited over $1 billion at the box office.  

However, before criticising filmmakers for the lack of challenging and new material, we should be considerate of their restriction of free movement in actualising their ideas. Whilst some “challenging content” does manage to make it to the big screen Fincher says, directors still face many obstacles to achieving this, which is something he has experienced first-hand; after a 30-year long struggle, Fincher was only recently able to bring his father’s script for Mank to the big screen. So, can we legitimately chastise directors for failing to present viewers with challenging material, when they are compelled to produce films centered around subjects which have already proven to be commercially lucrative? Nonetheless, conceptualizing an idea and adapting an idea for commercial production are evidently two very different things in the film industry.

Fincher’s newest film, Mank, has already received outstanding reviews from critics and will be available for viewing on Netflix from December 4, 2020.

Photo: nofilmschool.com

Neil Young Revives a Forgotten Era with New Live Album ‘Return to Greendale’

Roxanna Zoughi on 16 November 2020

Neil Young’s tour with Crazy Horse has been released as a two-cd, twoLP vinyl set and live recording, documenting his 2003 performance of his 25th album ‘Greendale’. The album, which was released in 2002, was a collaborative piece with rock band Crazy Horse, and its subsequent tour was a theatrical performance of the various individual stories and experiences of the inhabitants of a fictional Californian town called Greendale.

The tour shows the ten songs performed by a cast who lip-synch the words sung by Young. The animation of the character’s experiences through theatre form enhances the storytelling aspect of Young’s music which is especially integral to the original 2002 album. Young’s signature tenor vocals are typified by a naïve suggestion that is both juxtaposed to and enhanced by his punchy musical arrangements on electric and acoustic guitar, harmonized with the help of Crazy Horse.

But what about the words? Young emphasises various socio-political issues in his lyric, including ecological concerns raised in ‘Be the Rain’ which urge mankind to “save the Earth for another day”, whilst ‘Sun Green’ touches on the fear and lack of truth in the media which is only further perpetuated by the State; issues that are all the more relevant 17 years later. The release of Return to Greendale, especially with its accompanying concert film, revives what was a previously forgotten album amongst Young’s other works, and ultimately reasserts the pertinence of its socio-political direction to the 21st century.

Photo: Fraser Harrison/Getty images

Bad Brains: When Punk Met Reggae (Again)

Roxanna Zoughi on 17 October 2020

Roxanna Zoughi celebrates the legacy of Bad Brains, a hardcore punk band formed in 1977, whose incorporation of reggae and funk distinguished them from other performances of punk.

While acid rock bands like Led Zeppelin dominated the mainstream in the early 70s, there was a different kind of sub-culture growing within Washington D.C.’s underground, characterized by a fast-paced, unrelenting sound that would soon be identified as hardcore. This new sound was beginning to emerge in the late 1970s but had not yet solidified an identity, so when Bad Brains came onto the scene with an experimental fusion of funk and punk, this was a cornerstone in the development of the genre.

Bad Brains formed in 1977 and soon earned a reputation for their explosive live shows, eventually prompting their ban from many venues across the state capital, after which the band fled to New York to freely resume their project. Performances would transition seamlessly from fast-paced punk to slower, bass-heavy reggae lead by H.R.’s versatile vocals, typified by a quick-fire delivery of verse and ranging from guttural tremolos to falsetto shrieks – they could do it all. But Bad Brains weren’t the first instance of a punk and reggae unification. Visually and artistically, both sub-cultures were mutual outcasts whose paths were bound to cross, and soon enough bands like Steel Pulse performed at Rock Against Racism shows alongside Generation X in 1976. But this was more of a side-by-side co-existence of punk and reggae rather than a true fusion of the latter and the newly emerging hardcore sound which had not yet been fully realised – until Bad Brains.

Although the band was influenced by anti-establishment groups like Sex Pistols, they did not seek to emulate the same nihilistic tone in their music which had previously defined the punk sound of the early 70s. In other words, they weren’t simply another punk band intent on protesting their frustrations with the system or helicopter parenting. Instead, Bad Brains promoted the power of PMA (positive mental attitude), a term borrowed from self-improvement book ‘Think and Grow Rich’. “We started kicking PMA in our music, and the message was different than the regular punk rock. You know, a punk rocker can write a song about hate─I hate my mom or some shit, you know? We wasn’t on no shit like that.” tells bassist, Daryl Jenifer, to Jon Kirby in Wax Poetics 2008. The group rejected the pessimistic worldview many punk bands had, and instead embraced a traditional, yet progressive approach to their music and the kind of message they wanted to promote to their listeners, embodied by Positive Mental Attitude.

“We had to come up with an angle […] that would be very radical and creative but then at the same time, traditional. And something that people would be able to relate to.”, recalls vocalist H.R. in 2006 documentary ‘American Hardcore’. The group certainly demonstrated their creative grit in their acclaimed first album ‘Banned in D.C.’ in 1982, which achieved a kind of unsynchronized harmony in the placement of reggae in-between hardcore tracks, taking affect as the calm before (and after) the storm. Punk bands had previously sought to deliver only the storm as they protested their contempt and distrust of authority. But Bad Brains offered a different angle, a new meaning for punk other than the frustrated nihilism of bands before them, whilst at the same time maintaining the musical essentials of the genre. Bad Brains reminded people that punk didn’t have to have a single identity; punk didn’t have to mean sticking it to the man or playing strictly fast tempo heavy music, because it didn’t have to conform to one meaning at all.   

Remembering Eddie Van Halen: Legacy of the Guitar Virtuoso

Roxanna Zoughi on 7 October 2020

Roxanna Zoughi pays tribute to Eddie Van Halen, legendary guitarist of pioneering hard rock band Van Halen, who has died of cancer aged 65.  

Eddie Van Halen is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most innovative musicians of all time, and perhaps the greatest guitarist of his generation, who pioneered the technical advancement of his craft and played by no rulebook in doing so. He has been a huge influence on great modern players who came after him, many of whom paid their respects on social media following the death of their fellow musician and friend, including Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page who posted to Instagram: “He was the real deal: he pioneered a dazzling technique on guitar with taste and panache that I felt always placed him above his imitators.”  

The hard rock sound was first sparked in the mid-60s and bands like The Who had carried its flame well into the mid-70s, until newly emerging acts like Van Halen had begun experimenting with the genre; moving away from the psychedelic and bluesy arrangements some hard rock groups had typically stuck to and instead transformed the sound with an incorporation of pop. And with that, like Hendrix had before him, Eddie made people fall in love with the guitar again.

Eddie had originally considered naming his band after the 7th track of Black Sabbath’s debut album, ‘Rat Salad’ before deciding on his own family name, which unbeknownst to him at the time, would become a household name in rock n’ roll history. Despite being influenced by the Birmingham-born metal band, Van Halen shifted away from Iommi’s moody gothic riffs and went on to produce a vivacious hard rock and pop fusion, reflective of the vibrant southern Californian environment from which it was born. With the release of their self-titled debut album in 1978, the band enjoyed massive success as they sold more than 10 million copies and knocked disco out of its chart top spot. Eddie had proved his musical creativity in melodious opening riffs followed by surprisingly short and straight to the point solos, which despite their briskness, did not in any way belie the self-taught guitarist’s evident talent.

Renowned for their explosive live shows, amplified by David Lee Roth’s vocals and enhanced by Eddie’s athletic and dazzling solos, the group earned a reputation as one of the greatest live performances of rock, and would eventually become one of the top 20 bestselling artists of all time. But Van Halen were not just a band just for rock listeners; Eddie knew how to write great pop songs too. Their ‘1984’ album included some of their biggest hits, namely ‘Jump’, most memorable for its vibrant synth opening perfectly enhanced by Eddie’s shimmering solos.

He can also be credited as the creator of one of the most easily recognizable guitars in rock history, which he dubbed the ‘Frankenstrat’. The instrument sports intersecting black and white lines which cut across a fire red surface, complete with flashing truck reflectors on the back. The freakish creation perfectly mirrored its creator’s equally innovative and experimental musical formulations – an instrument fit for its player no doubt. But Eddie (along with his brother Alex, drummer of Van Halen) was originally classically trained on piano as a young child, which afforded him a wide range of musical skill that allowed him to revolutionize the technical advancement of guitar playing. Eddie’s most notable innovation was perhaps his use of a finger-tapping technique which involved using both hands on the neck of the guitar to produce sound, not so dissimilar to how one would play a piano.

Eddie Van Halen told Guitar World in 1981: “If you’re a musician, you just play until you die. It’s not an ordinary job.”

Photo: Paul Natkin/Getty