Telling people their desire Satan’s sitting there, he’s smiling

Watches those flames get higher and higher

Oh no, no, please God help me!”

Words that the Orlando based studio are soon to bring to life with a Sabbath inspired labyrinth. It will be the only horror attraction to incorporate a 3D video based on the band’s most famous songs and their most recent billboard No. 1 hit ‘13’.

Ozzy Osborne related his enthusiasm for the creation; “We were all really excited when Universal Studios Hollywood approached us about doing a 3D ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ maze based on our music. I’ve seen the drawings of what it will look like when it’s finished and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to walk through it on opening night in September.’ The occasion will be filled with reference to the bands most famous political chillers, from Iron Man to Electric Funeral to Paranoid, all re-invigorated with Satanic figures, bloody corpses and sombre battle-fields.

The creative director of Universal Studio’s, John Murdy, explained why the attraction was so unique; “Very few bands can claim to have defined a genre of music but Black Sabbath’s remarkable influence in the evolution of Heavy Metal will go down in history. Tony Iommi’s dark, iconic riffs, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals and Geezer Butler’s foreboding lyrics provide the perfect soundtrack for ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ and endless inspiration for our new haunted attraction ‘Black Sabbath 13 3D’.”

This is of course true. Black Sabbath turned jazz-influenced rock ‘n’ roll into an industrial, menacing force in music, quite unlike any other innovators at that time. The best part about it was it was all-natural. Ozzy’s  mewing drawl, which cannot be described as overtly talented, made their outfit all the more sinister and inimitable.

The track listing contains the usual tounge-in-cheek, fist-in-mouth gibes ‘Baneswell Express’, ‘Newport Bouncers’ and ‘What Would Biggie Do’,  to yet again prove that observational, self-analytical comedy never gets old. Their music video for ‘At The Drive-Thru’ could be seen as weight-hatred or a senseless indictment of poverty (the chorus’s Country infused South Park impersonations either echo America’s obesity issues or just the general irritation and sense of stereotype stupidity one gleans from the cut-out characters squealing accents) but the ‘humour’ of grown men stuffing their sports-wear with pillows dispels all gravity.

The band still look like they are enjoying themselves, after all their ethos is drenched in ‘piss-take’ and this continues to makes it fun. Due to their cult success the members may have since germinated from the light brown chequered caps, nylon track-suits and chunky chains that they portray to town-houses in the centre of London, but the spirit is still very much tangible.

AUGUST

17 / 18 ‘ V Festival

OCTOBER 2013

2 ‘ Bournemouth Old Fire Station
3 ‘ Bristol Thekla
4 ‘ Newcastle Northumbria Uni SU Reds Bar
5 ‘ Swansea The Garage
10 ‘ Birmingham 02 Academy
11 ‘ Leeds University Mine
12 ‘ Gloucester Guildhall
17 ‘ York Fibbers
18 – Leicester 02 Academy
19 ‘ Coventry Kasbah
23 ‘ Luton Charlie Browns
24 ‘ London Scala
25 ‘ Cardiff Globe

NOVEMBER 2013

1 ‘ Cumbria Barrow The Nines
7 ‘ Sheffield The Corporation
8- Glasgow Audio
9 ‘ Frome Cheese & Grain

Full ticket details at http://www.youknowsit.co.uk/

The band will be playing their first show since 1999 in Baltimore before continuing to onto to 2014′ dates in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Taipei and Tokyo as well as announced appearances at Primavera Sound (Barcelona, Spain, May 29-31, 2014) and Optimus Primavera Sound (Porto, Portugal 5-7 June, 2014).

Of course speculation surrounds this revelation, with many people tipping them for California’s huge Coaechella festival due to a lack of west-coast dates, but until this claim is substantiated their fans will have to live with performances at Toronto’s Kool Haus on January 20 and a row of four dates in Brooklyn’s BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (January 24-25) and the Webster Hall (January 27-28).

The band have certainly been keeping a low profile, despite lead singer Jeff Mangum clocking up a few solo appearances, bafflingly including the curation of Butlins in 2010, a place widely associated with the musicians grave-yard. However we can now look-forward to the complete band’s rejuvenation and maybe even see the dawn of some new creativity.

This was in fact part of a project the two artists hoped would lead to a substantial body of work, but unfortunately the collaboration fell short of its potential due to time constraints. According to Queen’s manager Jim ‘Miami’ Beach, the lead singer found Michael Jackson’s larks slightly unnerving, “Mercury rang me and said: ‘Miami, dear, can you get over here? You’ve got to get me out of here, I’m recording with a llama'”, referring of course to the camelid Jackson graced the California-based studio with.

It is hard to know what form the final outcome of this fusion will take. One would usually suspect that as the songs were recorded by two of the worlds best-loved music icons and have not been publicised yet, that their quality may be dubious. There have certainly been some ‘royal’ partnerships that could have been treated with more restraint… The songs could materialise as the fun, hoppy, synth-driven ballads we all hoped for, ‘Radio Ga Ga’ (1984) meets ‘Billie Jean’ (1982) but on the other hand it could result in the overflows and impulses of two stars who had certainly peaked by that point.

The drummer astutely commented, “obviously there’s no Blondie without Debbie Harry” and cited her age, which is a surprising 11 years senior to her other band mates and once long-term-lover Chris Stein (founding guitarist), as a factor. Despite the imminent new release, a spokesperson for Debbie Harry ominously declared “They are in a hiatus at the moment. They will do some tour dates next year (a string of shows in North America). Nothing is confirmed yet.”

This announcement does however follow a particularly fertile year for the group, who recently returned from an extensive UK tour, which included a set at the Isle of White Festival. The band has had an overtly successful career, releasing 3 original LP’s in the last 10 years and 7 albums previously.

In the age of relentlessly performing veterans, it seems appropriate that such a highly regarded symbol of youth and sexual energy should retire before the affair becomes slightly absurd (The Rolling Stones ahem). Nothing has been finalised, so we could yet see an indefinite continuation. After all, nobody would really mind.

The band described the surreal instalment with a barrage of nonsensical images; “Absurdist horror pantomime choreography cross-dress frog-head bosom sparkle guillotine phew worra scorcha”, perhaps a testament to how much Franz Ferdinand wish to make an impact after living the last four years on the periphery of the public’s musical conscience.

The video is indeed grotesque but feels like a slightly burlesque notion. Parts of the song resonate the theme of crazed, incontinent emotion that is displayed by the absurdist scene changes and odd retro-choreography, but ultimately it feels as if this semblance of a classic Franz Ferdinand song has been shoehorned into the band’s capricious idea of an outlandish music video.

The track does tingle with reminiscence, but without the full package it’s hard to judge the satisfaction of this new material. None of this however will deter the band’s fan base, who due to high demand, will have to enter a ticket lottery to win a chance of purchasing a place in one of the London (20th August) and Glasgow (21st August) shows.

It’s hard to know what spooked Beyoncé in this instance. Having breached her 30’s it would be understandable for any thoroughbred performer who relies upon highly demanding, erotic dance choreography to be daunted by the prospect of middle age, yet her performances are seemingly, perpetually successful. That is not to say that the former Destiny’s Child star is waning, it is popular belief that the self-professed ‘modern-day feminist’ is still one of music’s most accessible performers and overt sexual icons, but musically she seems less stable.

The singer’s 2011 sales for her last creation, 1.4 million copies, showed a decline in purchases, only serving to highlight the fact Beyoncé hasn’t had a staunch hit in 4 years. Columbia’s executives aren’t quite biting their nails down to the hilt just yet, she’s still jammed into the public conscious and selling out arenas, but as we all know, permanency comes with compilation of achievements, it is hard to tell how long she can live off her past trumps.

The answer is almost certainly ‘a very long time’, but that still does not negate the fact that according to Ne-Yo she is “still trying to figure out” her artistic direction. There is something admirable about her decision to confront the crossroads, but she has clearly been uncomfortable with the new tracks, only performing ‘Standing on the Sun’ once in Antwerp and another, her background noise to the H&M advert, ‘Grown Woman’, despite the obviously brilliant platform for promotion that her Mrs Carter Tour offers.

It is unclear whether Beyoncé will be writing her own material, but it’s certain that the pressure will be substantial to release it. After all, being ranked number 18 in the UK charts for her last album should not cut it for ‘RnB’s Queen’.

The Vaccines emerged from one of the largest and most confusing character-hypes of the decade. The press began by touting the return of the classic, raw guitar band model, creating such a furious excitement that it not only prompted the band to wryly name their debut album ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’ but also predictably tripped the heralds into proclamations of flimflam when the retro sound was finally and disappointingly reviewed as a catchy but undeserving flash-mob.

Ultimately the pseudo-super group (Jay Jay Pistolet and Tom from the Horror’s younger brother) were caught in one of the music industry’s most unpredictable times; in a maelstrom of straws that were almost arbitrarily clutched at. Their sound, though affiliated with public and media disillusionment, certainly appeals to many listeners, a Ramones style ruckus that does occasionally thrill.

The band have done well to keep their indie sweeps above the water-line and the water-mark despite the initial craze; most festival posters are strewn with their name, occupying the successful but not exceptional cage of support slots on the main stage. This is a neat metaphor for their aura; likably average. And so, true to this theory, their latest conception sounds like a purposefully overlooked B-side from The Stone Roses and Nirvana’s love child. Frontman, Justin Young, called it “a bridge to something else… I feel very creative at the moment”, so maybe it’s more like ‘Calling For A Melody’ than ‘Melody Calling’.

Check out Everybody’s Gonna Let You Down below

https://soundcloud.com/the-vaccines/everybodys-gonna-let-you-down

The group was formed in California 2008, uniting Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Flea, Becks’ Joey Waronker and producer Nigel Godrich. As is the way with most star spangled projects, many people will have envisioned something quite different to the almost cerebral, trip-hoppy melodies and timbres. The sound is not unlike latter day Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’, just a little more sterile.

The name indicates something beyond the music, the microscopic examination of universal love and tranquillity, a notion that is reflected in their bleepy muses. Thus it seems fitting that Yorke and Godrich spoke out last week against stingy royalty payments from the free-music-phenomenon Spotify. Yorke protested that “new artists get paid fuck all with this model” with Godrich corroborating “Meanwhile small labels and new artists can’t even keep their lights on. It’s just not right.” Atom’s for peace took swift action against the company, removing all music from their database. After all, with Spotify handing out 0.4p for a play, 1 million streams would only generate a measly £3,400. At what point does easy access and good exposure become a negative?

Interestingly, the digital music service ‘Soundhalo’, pioneered by Mercury winners Alt-J, will be utilised by the band for their London shows. This device allows fans to view high-quality mp4s of the performance for a price of 99p/song, instead of the “million shaky, horrible sounding YouTube videos already online… the next day” (Godrich). There is potential that the app’s unprecedented usage in this context is a reaction, almost a sneering gibe, to the “facile mudslinging” (Yorke) and the attempted inhibition of any debate.

We shall see how this confrontation resolves, whether it absorbs or repels the issue, until then it’s likely that Atoms For Peace will continue playing and maybe even seek out alternative mediums to share their music.

The four opened with ‘Cut Me Some Slack’, a song they recorded together for Dave Grohl’s Sound City Film project, a composition that topped both the US Billboard Top Soundtracks and Top Hard Rock Album charts. This was the first time however that they had played multiple tunes together in a live capacity.

For those who winged and cringed about the desecration of Grunge’s paradigms at the 12/12/12 show in aid of Hurricane Sandy last year, the idea that the local legends first united performance in Seattle for 20 years was with the alleged impersonator, wont make them feel any better.

The stage was overrun with four guitarists and two bassists for ‘Get Back’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Helter Skelter’, ‘Golden Slumbers’, ‘Carry That Weight’ and ‘The End’. The thrills they were all receiving from the unannounced convergence during performance was palpable, after all, it is better in a public place of acute awareness and pain that celebration is had rather than remorse.