Queens of the Stone Age new album

Thank fuck for Queens of the Stone Age frankly. Not only do they make fantastic music but they also provide the Wild office with a permanent debate* about which of their albums is the best. "Obviously the first one is, that's just a fact." "You know nothing, Rated R may not be as 'cool' but it's got far better songs. And Nick Oliveri." "I hate you all, Songs For The Deaf is actually their most complete album - it's got the best of all their aspects in there." And so on.

But soon we will be able to add to that debate* with the new album Era Vulgaris. It's out on June 11th, preceded by a single on June 4th. A couple of the boys in the office have heard a few tracks from it and they say it sounds like a punch in the balls from the hottest hellbitch in christendom. I can't wait.

You can see a video of the band in the studio here, and a longer snippet of one of the new songs here.

Oh hell yes.


(*argument)

Won't You Shut The F**K Up I'm A-Just Trying To Watch The Band

There are plenty of things that annoy me in life - Second Choice Steve being in charge of England, people breaking into my car, not being tall enough to see anything at gigs - but one of the things right at the top of the list is people talking during gigs.

Working in the media, you do become kind of immune to archetypal media-types not paying attention cos they only went to get a free dinner/free drinks out of the PR - but I REALLY don't understand why anyone would pay for a ticket to see someone and then talk all the way through the show.

I especially don't understand it when people do it for an up and coming singer-songwriter like Josh Pyke. It's just him and his guitar. He can't drown you out with swathes of feedback. Just shut up!

As it says on the Luminaire website (for it was here I saw Josh last night): "Q: I'm an idiot who likes to come to gigs and stand at the bar talking very loudly, ruining the performance for others. I don't seem to be able to accept that I'm being rude, inconsiderate and disrespectful. Am I welcome to come in?
A. No."

Well apparently they didn't manage to keep those people out tonight. But anyway, Josh handles it very well - plays his lovely shimmering pop songs with real aplomb. Just him and his two guitars. And his guitar stand. Which gets a round of applause. Stripped down to their bones the songs really shine through, especially 'Private Education', which was a real stand-out. If you get the chance to check him out whilst he's out supporting Scott Matthews, you should really take it. And if the person next to you won't shut up, do everyone else in the crowd a favour and suggest to them the place for conversation really is the pub, not a gig.

www.myspace.com/joshpyke

NIN Album - The First Listen

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Some pretty seismic changes have taken place in the NIN camp since 'With Teeth'. Trent has cleaned up, hit the weights and is now a man of steel like Rollins. He's also written a new album in about a fifth of the time it usually takes him. So, what's it like?

Well, Trent says:
'This record was more of a 'sound collage' than recent efforts from me.
A lot of it was improvised.
It is very tedious describing your own music.
It's probably too long, but it felt like the right thing to do to paint the complete picture.
It will sound different after a few listens.
You cab think about it and it will reveal more than you were expecting.
You can dance to a lot of it.
You can fuck to a lot of it (maybe all of it depending on what you're into)'

Harry says
'Year Zero' is about an imaginary future that isn't much fun. It sounds like 'Blade Runner' with more religious fanatics, more drugs and fewer flying cars. A huge Sci-Fi / comic fan, Trent spent weeks planning out a suitably twisted 'back story' to the album in HUGE detail. The websites below are the tip of the iceberg, there's tons more to come. People will be able to work out the complex 'Lost'-style story behind the album from clues on-line, in the songs and in the packaging.
This may sound completely bananas but I kinda like it. The previous NIN albums were all about Trent's (largely drug-fuelled) inner demons. Now he's hugely rich, successful AND clean I'm glad he's still got plenty of nasty ideas. You wish The Red Hot Chilli Peppers would work this hard on a new album, instead of 'phoning in' the usual boring crap about California, yoga, chakras and California.
The album itself seems more influenced by Trent's soundtrack work than anything else. There are fewer guitars and more electronics, but it's still very loud and very heavy in places. The tunes are a mixture of violent big -bass stuff and more brooding moments akin to 'Something I Could Never Have'. It's a little hard to judge properly in one listen on a Thursday lunchtime, but it sounds like it'll all make sense after a few listens in the dark.

Check these websites from Year Zero. To really read what's on these sites you have to highlight the words. Once you get there, you'll understand what I mean

http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/ Click and drag on this picture long enough and watch what happens
http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/ Official website of Parepin, the drug that's fed into the public water supply
http://www.churchofplano.com/ The government-run church of Year Zero
http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com The mail service of Year Zero. To access the site type 'nooneimportant' into the address bar where 'citizen_unknown' is......try to click on any other section and watch what happens.
http://105thairbornecrusaders.com/ The military troop where the Sniper, a character in Year Zero, received his training.
http://www.uswiretap.com Contains several 'classified' documents. To access the site, type case number 71839J into the address bar. This one is probably the scariest site!
http://www.bethehammer.net/ The Sniper's 'blog,' if you will.
http://artisresistance.com The site to download desktops and wallpaper, but done with a twist....once accessing the site, try to click and highlight any words and watch what happens.

A Rolling Stone article about 'Year Zero'
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/02/22/year-zero-project-way-cooler-than-lost/

My Week In Gigs by Mark WILD (aged 27 and a bit)

I’ve been to a lot of gigs this week. I see this as an achievement cos I’m pretty lazy and normally prefer an evening of TV and Pro Evo to going out. So anyway, here we go:

Monday: Lily Allen @ Hammersmith Apollo

Non-‘work’ gig to start the week, I actually wrote a long and convoluted review full of pontification but it made me realise why I work in PR and not as a journo so I gave up. Here are edited highlights: good gig, people don’t seem to regard Lily in as high esteem as someone like Amy Winehouse – but she’s just as good and just as drunk. She’s more pop and you definitely wouldn’t see little girls in those glowing bunny ears at Amy Winehouse, but great voice and kudos for Blondie and Specials covers.

Tuesday: Betty Curse Showcase @ The Pigalle Club

Ahh, the showcase. Heaven for media types: free booze, free food and all over by half seven so you can be home in time for, erm, WAGs Boutique. Must be hell for artists though: twenty minute set, high pressure situation, no real gig vibe. Ms Betty Curse handles it sparklingly – does her pop/rock thing, plays to the Myspace kids down the front and in the last two songs (‘God This Hurts’ and ‘Do You Mind If I Cry’) she has a genuine chance to make it. Not impressed by the ‘alternative’ magician who followed Betty, but kudos for his Gallows t-shirt.

Wednesday: Patrick Wolf + Arcade Fire @ Brixton Academy

Patrick Wolf was great – a really interesting unique sound, mixing up a range of styles and sounds without veering into avant garde wankery. I was a bit perturbed by the extremely short shorts and the theatrical posing but that’s another story. Arcade Fire were also great, but not amazing. The sound was never quite right – never managed to balance the array of instruments properly and Win’s vocals were too quiet. But it’s still Arcade Fire: ‘Intervention’, ‘Wake Up’ ‘Power Out’ – joyous singalongs. It’s an almost religious experience – the audience was quiet a lot of the time, in hushed awe, worshipping at the church of Arcade Fire, building into rapture properly only at the end.

Thursday: Thursday night is football night. Followed by Skins and Six Feet Under.

Friday: Bright Eyes @ Koko

I’m going to see Bright Eyes tonight, thoughts to follow. I met the band on Wednesday at our student radio conference and they were very nice. A little guarded at first but very witty and very charming. See some pics :

Current listening: Maccabees album, Arcade Fire, new Kings Of Leon album, Sonic Youth, CSS, Belle and Sebastian.

So this is the new Wild Blog, eh? How very nice. I particularly like that bit over there - yes, that one. That's well cool that is.

But what's the point of this, I hear you ask. Well, gentle reader, there's not much of a point at all apart from us to post stuff about music we're into at the minute, things that have made us laugh, gigs we've been to or scurrilous industry gossip. It's intended as an outlet for a lot of the stuff we come into contact with on a day to day basis but can't email everyone about without filling up their inboxes with too much info. Most of all it's a bit of a laugh and should hopefully distract you for a while on otherwise dull days. Cos we're nice like that.

For starters, here are a few updates on the life of Wild Promotions and what we're up to (apart from ruling the world of club and student promotion on a day to basis via dual tactics of brilliance and genius). Krister is moving house; Mark has decided summer is here already and has stopped bringing a jacket to work; Harry's out at a Nine Inch Nails album playback at some swanky bar with free food and drinks (bastard); DB is sweating over a hot website. Actually, that just sounds wrong. But anyway; Natasha is being her calm and sweet self keeping hundreds of scruffy teamers in check as only she can - with threats of massive violence; and we've sent the boss off to a meeting to keep him out of our way. Yep, life as normal for Wild really.

Oh, Krister has demanded we link to a song he's got on rotation on his car stereo at the minute - an oldie but a goldie in the form of 'Carry On My Wayward Son' by Kansas. He swears it's simply because he's playing too much Guitar Hero at the minute but we suspect it's more likely that he just loves really cheesy rock music. In fact we'd put money on it. Having said that, it is a flipping class track so we'll let him off this time.

If you haven't seen the videos for the new Horrors or Bright Eyes songs by the way, then make sure you check them out from the links over to the right *points*. Seriously, we're putting these links in because we really like them and think you will too, not because we've been told to or whatever.

In terms of timewasting while your at work we can heartily recommend this Monty Python Spamalot game - If you manage to get past level seven then you're a cheat and a liar and we call shenanigans on you.

Cool, that'll do for now. Let us know if there's anything you've got from us that you're particularly enjoying at the minute or bands you think we should know about. Or any other old rubbish you want to tell us as well.

Speak to you soon.