New Music: Wings Of Love

          

The English synth-pop duo Erasure shares a new single, "Wings of Love,"  the first track from their forthcoming studio album, "Radio!! Radio!!," due March 12, 2027 on Mute. Andy Bell and Vince Clarke also confirmed a UK and European arena tour for April and May 2027, with Ladytron as special guests on the UK and Ireland dates. The album arrives during the duo's 40th anniversary era, four decades after Erasure released their debut album in 1986. According to the band, Radio!! Radio!! developed from a difficult period marked by personal loss, with the new songs moving through themes of love, grief, injustice, hope and healing. Clarke also expanded the duo’s familiar electronic palette by incorporating more piano and acoustic guitar into the writing. 

In Memoriam: The Beloved Actor "Dennis Haskins" Best Known For His Role As "Mr. Belding" Has Died Aged 75

 

Dennis Haskins, the actor best known for his role as principal Richard Belding on the high school comedy series "Saved by the Bell," has died, his agent said Monday. Haskins was 75. The cause and manner of death were unavailable.

He made his network television debut in 1979 on "The Dukes of Hazzard." Haskins also appeared on "Archie Bunker's Place," Magnum, P.I.," "7th Heaven," "Hot in Cleveland" and nearly 100 other shows as an actor and voiceover artist.

 

His death was confirmed by his longtime friend and caretaker in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. No cause of death has been announced. Some reports say Haskins was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. 

 

Haskins was honored with The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Most Distinguished Alumni of 2000 award and has a regional high school academic decathlon named after him, The Dennis Haskins Open.

 

In recent years, Haskins traveled the country, visiting many Minor League Baseball stadiums in the summer, greeting fans, signing autographs and taking pictures. 

 

Haskins first played Mr. Belding in "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" on the Disney Channel in 1988. The show was renamed "Saved by the Bell" the following year and became a defining sitcom of the 1990s. His greeting of “hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?” became one of the sitcom’s most recognizable running bits and remains instantly associated with the character decades later.

 

Haskins’ role on the show, which aired from 1989 to 1993, would come to define him for millions of fans. "Everyone loved Mr. Belding and those of us who got to know Dennis, loved him even more.

 

Haskins was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he reported for the student newspaper, acted in campus productions and was a founding member of the community theater group known as the Harlequins, according to his university biography. As a young man, he worked as a music manager, agent and concert promoter and boasted Tom Jones and Gregg Allman among his clients.

 

His acting career was boosted by his portrayal of Mr. Belding on Disney Channel's "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" in 1988, according to the university bio. The next year, NBC aired the show as "Saved by the Bell"; it ran until 1993. He reprised the role on "Saved by the Bell: The New Class," which aired Saturday mornings from 1993 to 2000 on NBC. After the show’s end, he found work in several movies and television shows, including "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

New Music: Helen Keller

           

Placebo shares a surprising new single "Helen Keller. The track takes its cue from hidden 1996 instrumental "H.K. Farewell", while the band begin their 30th anniversary tour today. The new track was a hidden instrumental from the era of their self-titled 1996 debut, using its eerie keyboard melody as the foundation for an otherwise entirely new song. Recorded in London earlier this year, "Helen Keller" was produced by Placebo and Adam Noble, with the latter also handling mixing. It retains the spectral atmosphere of "H.K. Farewell" but pushes the idea into a heavier, more anguished rock setting. This is a new rock song inspired by the piano melody from "H.K. Farewell" and named after one of my favourite people from history, Brian Molko said of the track. Keller was the American author, disability rights advocate and political activist who became deafblind as a young child and went on to become an internationally renowned writer and campaigner. Describing the project as a director’s cut, the band said it allowed them to bring three decades of performing the material back into the recordings while maintaining the spirit of the originals.

New Music: Stone Fruit

           

Sabrina Teitelbaum aka Blondshell shares a new single "Stone Fruit" the fourth single taken from her latest 3rd., studio album "Violins" released last 25 September via Partisan Records. The track was written by Sabrina Teitelbaum and Sam Stewart and produced by Yves Rothman. The accompanying music video was directed by Sabra Binder. The artist commented about the song: This song is supposed to rip. So the one thing is just I hope you like the main guitar riff. That's kind of it, and the groove. That's one of those songs that I didn't set out to write. I just was kind of like I need to say all of this. I wrote it when I was on tour last summer. We were in Slovakia when I wrote it. And I think I just felt like, I don't know. I bring a small 'baby tailor' (small acoustic guitar) with me everywhere I go, and I don't usually use it, but I have it in case I feel the need to write. I brought that with me, and I felt like, 'Okay, I have something to say,.' And I didn't expect the song. And I think that's why it feels lived in because it was just unintentional.”

Rocktrospectiva: The Weirdo And Darker Lyrical "Ta-Dah" Turns 20

 

Released on 15 September 2006, "Ta-Dah" was the second studio album by the US alternative band Scissor Sisters. It was produced by the band and includes collaborations with Elton John, Carlos Alomar, and Paul Williams. The album debuted at number 19 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 42,000 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Ta-Dah received positive reviews from most music critics. The album spawned the singles "I Don0t Feel Like Dancing", "Land Of A Thousand Words", "She's My Man", & "Kiss You Off". 

At the beginning, Scissor Sisters were nothing more than a dependable floor-filler at common activities suchas weddings. But the shuffling piano bop of "Take Your Mama" hid subversive lyrics about getting your mother tanked and coming out, which went completely over everyone's heads. Walmart, however, sensed something was up: they banned the group's self-titled debut album because it included the song "Tits On The Radio." Often lumped together with other earnest dance-pop like Electric Six and Chromeo, Scissor Sisters not only managed to pull off wild commercial success. but did more to bring gay culture into the mainstream than they're given credit for.

Scissor Sisters were a New York band, but only in name. They were the opposite of the cool, detached garage-rock revival that would come to define the post-millennium. Just across the bridge, Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Ana Matronic, Del Marquis, and Paddy Boom arrived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during the first wave of gentrification, and embodied the gay, drag, and performance-art parties that populated the borough and lower Manhattan. 

Scissor Sisters started out as just another electroclash outfit, with Shears – a former go-go dancer – gyrating on stage in lavish costumes. But then they gained attention for their disco-pop cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." Their aesthetic might have screamed 80s Danceteria, but musically the group was more kindred spirits to 70s disco, glam, and pop-rock. 

After US labels failed to bite, the band signed with Polydor in the UK and released their debut album in 2004. Soon they were playing Glastonbury and touring with heavyweights like Duran Duran, Morrissey, and Pet Shop Boys, bringing the spirit of NYC’s gay underground to their live shows. In just a few short years, the band had found their spiritual home, and their self-titled debut topped the UK charts.

The album's release was preceded by the release of the single, "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'". The song reached number one on the UK Singles charts in late September and early October 2006.

"Land of a Thousand Words" was released as the second single from the album, peaking at number 19 in the UK in December 2006. "She's My Man" was the third single released in early March 2007 and managed to chart at number 29. The next single that was released was "Kiss You Off" on May 28. This was the poorest charting of the singles of Ta-Dah, though "I Can't Decide" charted at number 64 on downloads alone, garnering attention through its use in the Doctor Who episode "Last of the Time Lords A product of New York City’s vibrant queer nightlife scene, in the early 00s Scissor Sisters led their own glam-disco revival with outrageous stage shows and hedonistic hooks just as the city was experiencing a Strokes-led rock resurgence. Despite their adjacent scenes, Scissor Sisters wouldn’t experience the same kind of breakout success as their peers until they crossed the pond to the UK, where camp is second-nature and their brand of eccentric pop was welcomed by a population raised on George Michael, 10cc, and Elton John.

Ta-Dah received positive reviews from most music critics cause the tracks tended to dull the excitement, others considered the album so great to please their fans, cause there was a darker lyrical side to the album at once incongruous and ingenious when placed in such celebratory music.

 

Ta-Dah Track List:  

 

1. I Don't Feel Like Dancin'

2. She's My Man

3. I Can't Decide

4. Lights

5. Land Of A Thousand Words

6. Intermission

7. Kiss You Off

8. Ooh

9. Paul McCartney

10. The Other Side

11. Might Tell You Tonight

12. Everybody Wants The Same Thing

Rocktrospectiva: The Hip Hop Masterpiece "Endtroducing..." Turns 30

 

Released on 16 September 1996 "Endtroducing..." was the debut studio album by US music producer DJ Shadow; It was an instrumental hip hop work composed almost entirely of samples from vinyl records. DJ Shadow produced Endtroducing over two years, using an Akai MPC60 MKII sampler and little other equipment. He edited and layered samples to create new tracks of varying moods and tempos. The album spawned the singles "Midnight In A Perfect World", "Stem", "What Does Your Soul Look Like", & "The Number Song"/"Painkiller." 

In the United Kingdom, where DJ Shadow had already established himself as a rising act, Endtroducing received praise from music journalists at the time of its release, and reached the top 20 of the UK Albums Chart. It took considerably longer for Endtroducing to find success in the United States. After promoting the album and returning to his hometown of Davis, California, DJ Shadow devoted his time to creating new music. During this period, interest in Endtroducing began to build among the American music press, and it peaked at number 37 on the US Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.

As a high school student, DJ Shadow experimented with creating music from samples using a four-track recorder, inspired by sample-based music such as It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) by the hip hop group Public Enemy. He began his music career in 1989 as a disc jockey for the University of California, Davis campus radio station KDVS. His KDVS work impressed A&R representative Dave "Funken" Klein, who signed him to the Hollywood Basic label to produce music and remixes. DJ Shadow's output for Hollywood Basic, including the 1993 single "Entropy" and his work with the SoleSides crew, brought him to the attention of English musician James Lavelle, who signed DJ Shadow to his Mo' Wax label.

DJ Shadow began production on Endtroducing in 1994 in his California apartment, before moving to the Glue Factory, the San Francisco home studio of his colleague Dan the Automator. Shadow strove to create an entirely sample-based album. His setup was minimal, with only three main pieces of equipment: an Akai MPC60 MKII sampler, a Technics SL-1200 turntable and an Alesis ADAT tape recorder. He used the MPC60 MKII for almost all composition. DJ Shadow bought it in 1992 at the suggestion of DJ Stretch Armstrong, who recommended it as a more advanced alternative to the "industry standard" sampler at the time, the E-mu SP-1200; according to DJ Shadow, the SP-1200 "had been around for like four years, the sound was well established, and it had some real audio limitations in terms of the bit rate and stuff".

DJ Shadow sampled vinyl albums and singles accumulated from his trips to Rare Records, a record shop in his native Sacramento, where he spent several hours each day searching for music. His routine is depicted in the 2001 documentary film Scratch. The Endtroducing album cover is a photograph taken at Rare Records by B Plus, showing producer Chief Xcel and rapper Lyrics Born (the latter wearing a wig), who like DJ Shadow were members of the SoleSides collective. ABB Records founder Beni B (wearing a baseball cap) is also seen in the full version of the photograph, which appears in the album's liner notes.

Endtroducing samples music of various genres, including jazz, funk, and psychedelia, as well as films and interviews. DJ Shadow programmed, chopped, and layered samples to create tracks. He opted to sample more obscure selections, making it a rule to avoid sampling popular material. Though he also used samples of prominent artists such as Björk and Metallica, DJ Shadow said that "if I use something obvious, it's usually only to break my own rules." Minor vocal contributions were provided by Lyrics Born and another SoleSides member, rapper Gift of Gab, as well as DJ Shadow's then-girlfriend Lisa Haugen. He finished recording Endtroducing in early 1996

DJ Shadow described his albums as "really varied", and said of Endtroducing: "I feel like 'Organ Donor' sounds nothing like 'The Number Song' which sounds nothing like 'Midnight' and on and on." He said he was often depressed during the production of the album and that his "feelings of self-doubt and self-esteem come through in the music."

Endtroducing opened by "Best Foot Forward", a sound collage of record scratches and hip hop vocal samples. "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt" was built around a looped piano line sampled from Jeremy Storch's "I Feel a New Shadow", with various other musical elements entering throughout the track, including samples of an interview with drummer George Marsh, a women's choir, bass fills, electronically altered drum kicks, and funk guitar. "The Number Song" used multiple drum breaks and vocal samples of count-offs."Changeling" deviated from the previous uptempo tracks, incorporating new-age sounds and gradually building toward a "sublimely spacey" coda. It segues into the first of three "transmission" interludes placed throughout the album, each featuring a sample from the 1987 John Carpenter film Prince of Darkness. "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)" layered wordless chants over a looped bass groove, creating what Paste's Mark Richardson described it as an "uneasy" techno soundscape. Track six ws an untitled interlude featuring a man reciting a monologue about a woman and her sisters over a funk backing.

The two-part "Stem/Long Stem" began the second half of Endtroducing. a "suite of often melancholy music, a piece that consistently refuses to be pigeonholed into any musical style." The first half, "Stem", placed strings against a recurring sequence of erratic drum beats, before giving way to the more ethereal "Long Stem", followed by "Transmission 2". "Mutual Slump" featured "dreamy" female spoken vocals and prominent samples of Björk's "Possibly Maybe". The sparse "Organ Donor" juxtaposed an organ solo and a drum break. "Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96" was a brief interlude featuring a repeating G-funk-esque beat, over which a voice shouts "It's the money". DJ Shadow composed the track to express his dissatisfaction with the state of commercial hip hop music in the mid-1990s.

"Midnight in a Perfect World" mixed a soulful vocal line with a slow drum beat. It sampled the bassline from Pekka Pohjola's "The Madness Subsides", as well as elements of David Axelrod's piano composition "The Human Abstract". "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain" progressed slowly, starting with a bassline and a drum loop, then gradually increasing in tempo as additional instrumentation enters the mix. The track eventually reached its climax and deconstructs itself, leaving a single string sample playing by its conclusion. Endtroducing ended "on an up note" with "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 – Blue Sky Revisit)", which was anchored by warm saxophone and keyboard hooks. A third and final "transmission" closes the album with the spoken words "It is happening again", sampled from the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks.

Songs like "Midnight In A Perfect World", & "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain" would later appear on DJ Shadow's other release Camel Bobsled Race. While "The Number Song" & "Organ Donor" would also later appear again in DJ Shadow's other release Brainfreeze.

Endtroducing received critical acclaim. and several critics praised the album as "an undeniable hip-hop masterpiece" showing "DJ Shadow remembers that sampling is an art form," others described it as a cinematically broad spectrum so deftly layered that the sampling-is-stealing argument falls flat. One of the most daring and original albums of recent times, but also one of the loveliest, a surreal film soundtrack on which jazz, classical, and jungle fragments are artfully blended with turntable tricks and dialogue snippets" and said that it "takes hip-hop into the next dimension.

 

Endtroducing... Track List: 

 

1. Best Foot Forward

2. Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt

3. The Number Song

4. Changeling/Transmision I

5. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)

6. Untitled

7. Stem/Long Stem/Transmission 2

8. Mutual Slump

9. Organ Donor

10. Why Hip Hop Sucks In '96

11. Midnight In A Perfect World

12. Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain

13. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 - Blue Sky Revisit/Transmission 3

Rocktrospectiva: The Odd "Music That You Can Dance To" Turns 40

 

Released in September 1986, "Music That You Can Dance To" was the 14th., studio album by the US pop duo Sparks, the album spawned four singles "Change", "Music That you Can Dance To", "Fingertips" & "Rosebuds"

Music That You Can Dance To was the band's most dance music inspired album since their eighth studio album Nº 1 in Heaven (1979). The overall sound of the album was dominated by synthesizers and sequencers like Nº 1 in Heaven but it differed from that release by the inclusion of the heavily distorted bass guitar of Leslie Bohem, and the emphasis on discordant sound effects. Certain track s such as "Music That You Can Dance To", "Fingertips" and "The Scene" represented some of Sparks' most hi-NRG dance music leanings. 

While "Shopping Mall of Love", "Let's Get Funky", and (on the original U.S. edition) "Change" presented a side of the band's sound that is discordant and experimental, whereas "Rosebud" and the rerecording of their 1982 single "Modesty Plays" are not dissimilar from the synth-pop sound that the band had pursued on their previous two studio albums. "Armies of the Night" had been recorded for the supernatural horror film Fright Night (1985); the version that appeared on the European editions of Music That You Can Dance To was a re-recording. The song appeared in the movie RAD during the dance sequence.

The recording of the album was the last time that the Mael brothers worked with the backing band line-up of guitarist Bob Haag, bassist Leslie Bohem, and drummer David Kendrick. This line-up had been in place since Sparks' tenth studio album Whomp That Sucker (1981). Sparks' next studio album, Interior Design (1988), was recorded as more of a duo with some guest musicians.

The reviews of the album were mixed and dismissive at the time, some critics considered that the band rather to be avant-garde but now they seem stuck in the techno pop of years past, unfortunately the album was even less succesful on the album charts than their previous studio album- For the MCA releases, the album substituted "Armies of the Night" with the 1985 single "Change".

"Music That You Can Dance To", "Rosebud", and "Fingertips" were each released as singles to promote the album. Each was also released as an extended remix. The UK and US remixes of "Music That You Can Dance To" were different. "Fingertips" was released as a club promo in the US and was backed with "The Scene". The club-orientated singles did not register on the mainstream charts, but did make the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart; "Music That You Can Dance To" made No. 6 (their highest club chart peak) and the double A-side "Fingertips"/"The Scene" made No. 38. Finally "Change" was released in the UK on London Records in 1985 and reached No. 85 on the UK singles chart. The standalone single was promoted by an appearance on the British television talk show Wogan. None of the other singles were popular in the UK.

 

Music That You Can Dance To Track List: 

 

1. Music That You Can Dance To

2. Rosebud

3. Fingertips

4. Change (substitued with Armies Of The Night on-non MCA editions)

5. The Scene

6. Shopping Mall Of Love

7. Modesty Plays

8. Let's Get Funky 

New Music: Waiting For Fisher

           

The Dublin post-punk band Gurriers released a new single and the video for "Waiting For Fisher" to land the same day as their second album, Nobody’s Coming To Save You, is out now. The title nods to two reference points at once — Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and the late cultural critic Mark Fisher, whose writing on capitalist realism has become something close to a touchstone for a certain strain of UK and Irish post-punk. Frontman Dan Hoff has said the song grew out of his friends’ frustrations with the working-day grind, and that context is audible in every bar of it: the guitars from Ben O'Neill and Mark MacCormack don't so much build as clock in and out, distorted and repetitive in a way that mirrors the routine it's complaining about, while Pierce Callaghan's drums keep pushing the tempo like a shift that won't end. The video has been shot by Director Thomas James who portrait a visceral, surreal, grenade of a satire.

New Music: Broken Heart

           

The Dutch iconic darkwave/goth band Clan Of Xymox has just released a brand new double AA "Broken Heart"/"Fire". it is the first new music by the group since the release of their "Exodus" album in mid-2024. Clan of Xymox co-founder and frontman Ronny Moorings describes "Broken Heart" as "a journey through heartbreak, desire and emotional combustion." Driven by haunting synths, a hypnotic pulse and melancholic vocals, his aim with the song was to capture the tension between losing someone and still being consumed by them. 

New Music: The Centre Of My Everything

           

Shed Seven have released "The Centre Of My Everything", their latest single from their upcoming 7th., studio album. The eponymous LP, arrives on January 8, and it serves as the follow-up to their 2024 chart-topping albums "A Matter Of Time" and "Liquid Gold". On the track, lead singer Rick Witter says: That feeling when love is all there is, when two are entwined as one, when nothing else matters apart from the other, when you can’t imagine a life lived alone, when you truly think of someone as being ‘The Centre of My Everything'". The band also said in a separate statement: "We are excited to announce the imminent arrival of our seventh studio album which is eponymously titled Shed Seven to honour the fact. We have taken great care in making this album what we believe to be our best yet, and we hope these songs are taken to people’s hearts."