Sixties

“I was originally inspired to write this track when series one of The Umbrella Academy was being shot,” Way said of the song in a statement. “By the time I finished it 2020 was in full swing, the world had taken a profound turn and the song was finished in a surreal new reality.” … [Read more...] about ‘Umbrella Academy’ Season Two Trailer Finds Our Heroes Lost in Time

Well, rock comes from blues. Blues comes from work song. Work song comes in part from Kongo. But how do you define rock & roll, and where do Talking Heads fit in?This guy named Timothy White said that rock delivered a personal truth. That the musician and the singer were delivering a personal truth to the listener. In that sense you could say that reggae is the rock & roll of Jamaica because it performs the same function: it delivers a personal truth. That’s a nice, broad definition. But I tend to think of rock & roll as being a specific musical form: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran, who were blues based and embodied a kind of attitude – body attitude and stance. Now that’s a much narrower definition. If you take that definition, then a lot of what Talking Heads have been doing is outside of that tradition, trying to break out of it. But if you take the broader definition, then we’re in, we’re inside the definition. … [Read more...] about David Byrne: Rock Master of Multicultural Sound

For Talking Heads, the trap is the Cartesian disjunction between mind and body, and rarely — if e’er — the twain shall meet. Byrne’s own head is distanced from his body by a long elastic neck, and he sings as if he were being strangled by a tightly knotted tie (from Brooks Brothers, no doubt). His high-pitched voice seems to emanate entirely from his straining vocal chords, not at all from his diaphragm. Quite literally, Byrne is a Talking Head. And his group’s compulsively rocking beat — martial yet nervous, halfway between a goose step and St. Vitus’ dance — is exciting, but seldom sexy and never cathartic. Though rock & roll usually celebrates release, Talking Heads dramatizes repression. If they’re an anomaly, they’re also one of the very best as well as most interesting American rock bands performing and recording today. … [Read more...] about More Songs About Buildings & Food

For me, the direct, crisp, jaunty Talking Heads and the abstracted, unrestrained, fiery Television stand as the Beatles and Rolling Stones of the restless, displaced Seventies. Not only is this a great album, it’s also one of the definitive records of the decade. … [Read more...] about Talking Heads ’77

Our big hit in the U.K. was “Common People,” and in the wake of that, there was pressure to re-create it. But it always becomes diminishing returns. I think everybody knows at heart that good ideas just come from nowhere. That’s what’s frustrating about pursuing a life in music. But also, if you’re honest about it, it’s what keeps you doing it. Because you never know what’s ‘round the corner — there’s always the chance that something magical is going to happen. Sometimes you might think, “Jesus Christ, come on — hurry up! Magic needs to happen soon!” But it’s slippery and unpredictable. So trying to re-create things by formula is never going to work. You’ve just got to set off in a direction, and if something exciting does start to happen, pay attention and make the most of it. That’s all you can do. … [Read more...] about Jarvis Cocker Will Never Give Up on Pop