Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd, has released a new version of the band’s song “Comfortably Numb,” “Comfortably Numb 2022” via his long-time label Sony Music. The iconic song originally appeared on the seminal Pink Floyd album, The Wall. “Comfortably Numb 2022” is now on all streaming platforms, and watch the animated video, produced and directed by Sean Evans with photography by Kate Izor, now!
When I last saw Brit Floyd in August, I said that I would gladly see them again. I did just that on Tuesday night at The State Theatre in New Brunswick NJ.
Over the last two years, the State Theatre took advantage of the downtime forced by the pandemic to completely refurbish the facilities. New carpet, new seats, new bar, new bathrooms…everything has been updated and it looks great. I would swear that the seats are even a bit wider than they were before. Parking is readily available in a public garage just a five minute walk from the venue, and there are tons of restaurants of every type in the immediate area. Continue reading
Brit Floyd is a Pink Floyd tribute band, but to call them such diminishes what they have really achieved. They formed in 2011, and have been performing the Pink Floyd catalogue ever since. The brainchild of now musical director Damian Darlington, it has evolved over the years to become a grand spectacle closely mirroring a Pink Floyd concert. Brit Floyd is more of a passion project honoring the music and performances of Pink Floyd than just a tribute.Continue reading
Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters will release a concert movie shot during his sold-out ROGER WATERS: US + THEM worldwide tour of 2017-2018. Us and Them is being released via 4K, HD and SD Digital, EST & TVOD on the 16th of June via Sony Pictures Entertainment. The tour comprised of a total of 156 shows to 2.3 million people across the globe, it features classic songs from The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here, as well as his most recent album, Is This The Life We Really Want? The film was directed by Sean Evans. Viewers on digital will have access to all-new post-feature content including two additional concert songs not included in the original feature (“Comfortably Numb” and “Smell the Roses”) as well as A Fleeting Glimpse, a documentary short featuring behind-the-scenes moments from the tour. Roger recently lashed out in the press at David Gilmour of Pink Floyd for not allowing him partner access to Pink Floyd’s website and fan community access via social media. Except for the full band reunion at Live 8 in 2005, Roger Waters Was legally separated from Pink Floyd in a court case in the mid-1980s where we argued in court and lost that he “was Pink Floyd”. Watch the trailer now!Continue reading
Roger Waters has been keeping busy and keeping in touch with fans during the quarantine. Watch him perform his classic song ‘Mother’, from Pink Floyd’s The Wall right now! Continue reading
40 Years, Still Breaking The Wall
Ever wondered what makes a “classic band” classic? Have you ever sat down and play records of bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc. just to analyze the components of what makes them be as magnificent as they are? Even more, how is it that forty, fifty years later their music still as intact and as relevant as ever before? This is the case with Pink Floyd, especially when we think about that four classic albums run that they had in the mid-seventies. Albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals, brought us records that still are in the charts and are, basically, soundtracks of our current lifestyle. Continue reading
Pollstar, the music industry bible of data for recording artists has released their list of Highest-grossing Touring bands of the last decade and ranking on the list were Rock and Metal heavy hitters like Bon Jovi, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. Other top bads include U2, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Roger Waters, and The Eagles. Continue reading
“It’s Pink Floyd turned up to fifty”, my mate said. I’d never heard Waters or Gilmour roar with the same ferocity as Steff, lead vocalist of Sheffield quartet Ba’al, but the band do display a level of progression and turn of pace that would fit in with the Prog legends’ template. The phenomenal power and blackened hostility of the music, however, leaves any such comparisons in the shade.Continue reading
According to a news report from Billboard Magazine, Desert Trip, the music festival jokingly called “Oldchella” will not be making a return in 2017. The festival made a huge return on their investment, and drew an audience of over 150,000 for a high-end festival experience and had the likes of Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Who, Roger Waters, and Neil Young at the Empire Polo Club in Coachella Valley, Indio, California is officially not coming back for round two.Continue reading
It has been said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it”. While I paraphrase The X-Files, there is nothing quite like an anti-hero with an existential crisis to detail that future in a chilling way. I am talking about singer Mat McNerney. Much was made the last few years of his band Beastmilk being the next great hope in underground music. They certainly acquitted themselves well over a demo, an EP and their full-length, the much-loved Climax (Napalm Records). Many bands have since picked up and jumped on the trend they started, bringing the romantic post-punk/No Wave (look it up) sound and style back in a heavy modern context. Few could do it as well as the masters. Of course such magical things cannot last and as the band gave way to lineup changes, and dissolved. What they mutated into is Grave Pleasures. While their début Dreamcrash has been out for a while in Europe, its proper release comes from Metal Blade on a more appropriate gloomy early November day.
Dreamcrash, in spite of the new players in the band is the spiritual child of Climax in many ways. The album plays with a sense of urgency and a dripping sexual swagger that makes you take notice on repeated listens. It is very consistent track after track and when you first hear it all the way through, it is a very satisfying feeling when you think of the progression from the old band to now. McNerney channels all of his energy to his rubber-voiced range, making some stunning melodic choices and killer phrasing per usual. It helps that his lyrics here are among his most biting, yet sad at the same time. Mat has all the dour charm that the Ian Curtis/Peter Murphy/Adam Ant wanna-bees all wish they had. At the same time his vocals have a deeply fragile psychosis about them, not unlike Roger Waters conveyed at his peak. Something tells me Mat would hate that I reached this comparison, but that is what is in my heart listening back to these tracks.
The music is the real equalizer on this album. Although my own jaw dropped at the thought of Linnea Olson (ex-The Oath) joining the Dreamcrash dream-team, her contribution is only part of the special equation. Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu) was the real difference maker in the writing. Together Olson and Vanhanen crafted beautiful menacing tracks, with layers of riffs and motifs that pop up unexpectedly. Songs like ‘Utopian Scream’, ‘New Hip Moon’, ‘Futureshock’, ‘Crisis’, and ‘Lipstick On Your Tombstone’ play like the soundtrack to the end of the world, or at least the end of your love life. If you were somehow in a group of people who were not ready for the sooth-Sayers’ words to come true about the apocalypse, this music would cut right through you.
In terms of originality, Grave Pleasures are not trying to reinvent themselves or music here, and so over time you do feel a sameness in the songs that takes this down a slight notch. However, in the view of the band re-imagining itself a bit and fulfilling their earlier bands’ glorious promise, they get full marks. Hopefully the apocalypse is everything they ever wanted and more.
7.0/10