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the editor's selection of the rock stories from the year that was! Countdown: 12-7
Enter 2012: It's going to be a very busy year and a very exciting year as well! Loads of interesting albums are coming our way! The festival season is going to be epic, and we are anticipating many more big bands to play live here in Cyprus. Not to mention the local rock / metal scene which is 'hotting up' nicely! The third part of our 2011 review gets just "a little bit" more serious! Not that we minded having Mr. Richard Cheese hosting the site for the past 20 days ... the guy is simply a legend! It's just time to take a look at the stories which "shaped up" 2011. This selection is not an attempt to make a glorified summary of the most "important" rock news from the previous year. I am pretty sure that you can find such a summary in gazillion sites over the Internet! In true CyRock style, I present you with my selection of the the top-12 "rock n' roll stories" of 2011! Stories with an "extra spice" that makes them interesting. Stories that we might still be talking about in the years to come. Stories that carry some kind of meaning for music and life in general. Not just some the run-of-the-mill press reports. You are always reminded that the selection and the order of these stories is based on my subjective evaluation. These are the stories that I really found interesting and affected me in one way or another during 2011. Chances are that your respective list would have been totally different! Not a problem! Don't start shooting until you read the rest of this list, which will be published in the following 10-15 days! Enjoy! The Editor
It is no secret that the CyRock family absolutely adores Pearl Jam! Our combined count of listens for the 'Ten' album must be in the region of tens of thousands! It is therefore no surprise that we consider the 20-year anniversary of the band's birth to be one of the most significant rock stories of 2011.
The celebrations were led by the release of the Cameron Crowe - directed rockumentary 'PJ20', one of the finest pieces of cinematographic rock history that has ever been produced. Cameron, who was a friend of the band during its early days, created a captivating, sentimental portrait of the band's history. Intimate interviews, amazing never-before-seen live footage, unique stories (see how they were leaving the stage in their early live shows!) ... all you need to know about this unconventional Seattle outfit (and its totally unconventional frontman!) is here. A MUST HAVE movie for musicians and fans alike.
One of the highlights of the film, comes from an interview with ... Chris Cornell, when he explains which event was the real "end-of-innocence" moment for the Seattle scene ... and it was NOT Cobain's suicide! If you have just arrived on planet Earth, and you have never seen or listened to Pearl Jam, the following live clip of 'Better Man' taken from 'PJ20' movie, tells the whole story ... the unique atmosphere ... the relationship with the fans ... their sheer brilliance! Huge respect to an awesomely different band, and here's to another 20 years of "Aliveness"!
This is a story which did not only radically change the direction of the most famous progressive metal band on this planet, but also seriously damaged the reputation of a super-hyped musician! It all started in 2010, actually! The decision of Mike Portnoy to leave Dream Theater (after his initial plea for a "hiatus" period to the other band members was rejected) came as a shock to all DT fanatics, who have largely considered Portnoy to be the "heart and soul" of the band. Portnoy quickly realised that his decision was rather hastily made, and attempted to return to the band ... only to receive a big 'NO WAY' answer from the band's ... lawyers!
This was embarrassing enough, and should have ended there ... it didn't! This is where the 2011 story actually starts. As we learned much later, there was some kind of legal confrontation between Portnoy and the band regarding the use of the band's name. Portnoy denied that this was the case, but he never actually revealed what was this legal confrontation all about! The band, on the other hand, handled this situation intelligently from a marketing point of view. They released a series of rockumentary-style clips (see the first clip below) regarding the search and auditions for the new drummer. Mind you, some of the best drummers in the world appeared in these clips! Their final choice, Mike Mangini, was universally praised as an excellent one!
Did it stop there? Of course it didn't! The release of the new DT album 'A Dramatic Turn of Events' provided another platform for confrontation! This was by far the most laid-back album DT had released in ages, and it became obvious that many DT members, especially Jordan Rudess, found much more room for artistic expression. The album sold well (considering the current music business environment), and the reviews were positive. But Mike Portnoy was not to be silenced. While he was supposedly working on his new projects (Adrenaline Mob, and Portnoy / Sykes), he found the time to challenge the originality of the new DT album arrangements, claiming that these were basically the same as the ones for the 'Images and Words' album! He also accused DT, for plainly plagiarizing the contents of a song! Sour grapes? Possibly! The current DT band members have (wisely) not responded or confronted Portnoy on any of these. They clearly enjoy the current status of the band, and I don't think that they have any intention to change it soon. DT have actually re-invented themselves. Mike Portnoy locked himself out of the "house" that he had built. The current owners are not going to let him back in easily. A story typical of cases for which the phrase "food for thought" has been invented! They are all humans after all, aren't they?
While Black Sabbath laid the foundations, Judas Priest was the next band to define the sound of the classic heavy metal genre, at least as we largely identify it today (don't forget that during previous decades, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, were also frequently labeled as "heavy metal pioneers"). Their late 2010 announcement that their upcoming 'Epitaph' tour would be their last ever, came as a surprise to many die-hard fans. It was not a totally unexpected one however, given the band members' age! The band clarified that their decision only concerned touring, and they they would continue to record new music as usual.
What came as a total shock to everybody though, was the 20th of April announcement about the decision of K.K. Downing to leave the band! That was, indeed, totally unexpected! K.K. was not just the guitarist of Judas Priest. He was the guy who formed the band almost 43 years ago, and one of the most important guitarists in the history of metal music! The guy who (together with Glen Tipton) established the characteristic metal guitar sound and the twin-lead "metal attack"! How could this guy "leave" Judas Priest? Especially in this particular phase of the band's history? It was like Angus Young "leaving" AC / DC! The circumstances surrounding K.K.'s decision have not been fully revealed (yet!). Supposedly there was some kind of a breakdown in the relationship between himself and the band's management. Was it about money? We might never know, but it doesn't really matter.
What matters is that Judas Priest found themselves, for the first time in their history, without their leading "axeman". Did they quit, just a little bit earlier than expected then? Hell no! Not only they decided to continue, but they also brought Richard Faulkner, a very talented young guitarist, in the place of K.K.! The guy seems to have rejuvenated the band, which has announced more live shows and is preparing its new album! I have a feeling that we are not done with Judas Priest. Even their original decision to abandon touring does not seem to be a certainty anymore. Time will tell. In the meantime, the following picture of Judas Priest, the first one ever without K.K. Downing in their line-up, tells one of the most unexpected rock n' roll stories of 2011!
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Is this "progress"? ... The sad rock n' roll story of hi-tech capitalism. The aim is obvious. Everyone should be enclosed in their own self-servicing digital "cells". Any interaction with other human beings is meaningless. Credit card interfaces are sufficient for all practical purposes. Pay - as - you - watch, pay - as - you - listen, pay - as - you experience the end of this world, as you know it (for more info on this, read number 6). Just watch: 40 images of closed record stores.
75 images of abandoned cinema theaters.
PS AFTER I've written this, I took a closer look at picture no.3 of the 40 closed record stores. Just read the title on the owner's closing note which is attached to the window. There are too many insane coincidences in this life!
Women in rock: from Joan Baez to Janis Joplin, from Patti Smith to Marianne Faithful, from Debbie Harrie to Joan Jett, from Melissa Auf Der Maur to Bjork, from Anneke to Cristina Scabbia, women have played an extremely important role in the history of this genre. Their role is often overshadowed by the numerical dominance of male artists and bands, and the usual stereotyping which women suffer from, especially in the rock culture.
This year was different though. It was one charismatic girl that changed it all, and her name is Adele. I might not be the biggest fan of her music, but nobody can deny that the girl has a truly astonishing voice. Her '21' album has broken all possible chart records, a feat which reminds us of the glory commercial days for pop / rock music. Partly because of Adele's success, and partly due to plain coincidence, women not only dominated the rock charts in 2011, but also received very positive reviews for producing some of the best albums of this year.
That special girl, PJ Harvey, made the start in February with her very "English" folk-rock album 'Let England Shake', which "swept" almost all critics' awards, including the UK Mercury Prize. Florence and the Machine continued to offer us some incredibly rich sonic landscapes with their second effort 'Ceremonials', lead again by the amazing voice of Florence Welch. Feist, this beautiful chaotic Canadian girl (and a personal favorite), went 'Metals' with her new album. Her music is not actually "metal" at all, but her future collaboration with Mastodon will sort this out once and for all!
There were many more of course: Lykke Li, Bjork, St Vincent ... but the most hyped one was none other than Lana Del Rey! Without having actually produced much, by just riding on the wave of the 'Video Games' success, she is ready to "take over" 2012 with her first (non-independent) album 'Born to Die'. She has such a dominating presence and voice that she is really impossible to ignore! All in all, in a few years' time we might look back in 2011 as the year which radically changed the perception about the position of women in the rock scene! Until then, we can certainly say one thing: In a potential 2011 rock dream-team band, the vocals and the compositional duties deservedly belong to female members!
It was the eve of the 21st of September, when the breakup news hit the rock world unexpectedly. I was actually on-line at the time of the announcement. When I received the tweet, I read it four times in a row in order to make sure that I was actually reading what I thought I was reading! It's not that R.E.M. was on the top of their game. Their commercial success and their influence had been waning steadily since the 90s, in sync with the decline of the alternative movement (in both musical and political terms). But hey, they are f**king R.E.M.!
R.E.M. was not just a rock band. It was THE flagship band of the alternative movement, the one that broke into the mainstream and became household name all over the world. The band members were not only musicians. They were citizens with a concrete political stance in all issues, especially Michael Stipe. Their music and lyrics had already become part of the rock and political culture even before they challenged U2 for the position of the no.1 rock band in the world. Anyone who was old enough to listen to their music in the late 80s, will certainly remember the effect that the song 'It's The End of the World as We Know It' had, on shaping up the Green movement worldwide!
For all these reasons, their breakup was arguably the most "thunderous" breakup of 2011. Strangely enough, it was preceded by the breakup of White Stripes, one of R.E.M.'s "children" and perhaps the most successful alternative rock band of the modern era. The alternative rock scene is never going to be the same again from 2011 onwards. Listening to R.E.M. always reminds me of some beautiful summer nights on a Greek island back in the early 90s. Quite a different environment than the one that the band was actually living in and creating their music at the time. But this is why they were so great ...
... because their music became the soundtrack of our own rock n' roll stories! The Editor |
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The CyRock Team (rockcyprus at gmail.com - rockcyprus at hotmail.com) |
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