Its December 25th 1986, and Nikki Sixx is alone in his mansion, crouched naked under his Christmas tree with a needle in his arm, scribbling in his diary about watching his holiday spirit coagulate in a spoon. He writes, Merry Christmas its just you and me, diary. Welcome to my life.
This is just one scene from a particularly harrowing chapter in Motley Crue bassist and founder Nikki Sixxs new memoir The Heroin Diaries — a collection of riveting entries from his personal journals spanning one year from 1986 to 1987, a year he considers the height of his downward spiral into drug addiction. Its a story about drugs, depression, and the train-wreck of self-destruction — but ultimately its one mans story about survival told with unflinching and unapologetic honesty.
Ari-Up (born Ariane Forster, 1962), of the highly influential and 100% original all-girl punk rock / reggae band The Slits, sadly died today (Wednesday, Oct 20th).
Her mother, Nora Forster, and stepfather, John Lydon, released the following statement.
A mere two months after the dissolution of The Smiths, former New York Dolls fan club president Steven Patrick Morrissey released a single of his own, the now-classic “Suedehead” in February of 1988. The song was a bigger UK hit than any of his previous work with the band, and the defensively sardonic debut solo LP Viva Hate arrived that March. A falling out with producer and collaborator Stephen Street put plans to record a second album indefinitely on hold. As such, Morrissey released a string of hold-over singles: “The Last of the Famous International Playboys,” “Interesting Drug,” and “Ouija Board, Ouija Board” all in 1989. Critical backlash at “Ouija Board” -as well as an ongoing royalty dispute with former Smiths band makes Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke – nearly derailed Morrissey’s solo career altogether.
Indie folk troubadour Sufjan Stevens has a new album called The Age of Adz and despite what the iTunes Store and Amazon.com will tell you, it is not “alternative rock.” The Age of Adz is a big, loud, messy electronic record with gurgling, buzzing synths and sputtering, almost glitchcore/IDM drum programming. To say it diverges from Sufjan’s previously established sound – alternately precious and pretentious acoustic pop with a predilection for Christ and state trivia – is a gross understatement that leads me to an all-too common musicologist dilemma: What type of music is this, exactly?
With the iTunes Library all but replacing the traditional wooden shelf strewn with LPs, CDs, and a stray cassette tape or too, anal-retentive music geeks find themselves in a perpetual pickle: Right click to update an album’s info and you’ve got to decide then and there what genre category this belongs to. How specific should one get? Is “80s Manchester post-punk” really necessary, or will “rock” suffice? Additionally, what do these genre and subgenre tags even mean – really? When forced to, few record collectors can really offer a distinction between, let’s say, “shoegaze” and “dream pop” or “IDM” and “glitchcore.” The intense breakdown of musical styles leads to a massive barrage of labels and movements, one that’s maddening to keep straight. Not to mention the plain fact that not all bands (certainly not the best ones) really adhere to a single sound. There’s also economics to consider – Sonic Youth and R.E.M. signed to major labels half-way into their careers, so is it a misnomer to consider them “indie” or “alternative”?
‘You’re only paranoid if they’re not out to get you,’ is an adage that’s self-evidently true. With that as a given, Massive Attack mainstay 3D (a.k.a. Robert Del Naja) has every right to feel more than a little suspicious and mistrustful, especially when it comes to matters of internet privacy, security and surveillance.
After the FBI passed on a list of 7,300 UK credit card numbers associated with various porn sites (some legal and some of an illicit nature) to UK authorities, 3D was swept up in the excessively wide net of an indiscriminate police sting in 2003. Though allegations of any wrongdoing were unfounded, the repercussions were severe for the outspoken graffiti artist, vocalist and music producer. His home was raided, and all his computers and hard drives were confiscated for several months. To compound the situation, despite the fact that no charges directly relating to the police operation were ever filed, the furor that surrounded the investigation and baseless accusations (which were leaked and sensationally reported by a tabloid newspaper) meant that touring plans to promote Massive Attack’s fourth studio album 100th Window had to be put on hold. The situation was all the more ironic considering the title of that album referred to a book that exposed the flaws in computer security and the rampant misuse of information in the internet age.
The time warp has flipped and landed The Rocky Horror Picture Show at its 35th anniversary. Marking three and a half decades as the premier cult classic, the “sweet transvestites from Transsexual, Transylvania” are celebrating by invading your homes. Comic-Con 2010 brought the announcement that Glee would be doing a RHPS episode (which is set to air on Oct 26th), and now it has been confirmed that Dr. Frank-N-Furter & Co. will also be taking over your games console with a Guitar Hero track pack.
You can’t always control the situations you find yourself in, but you can control how you react to them. This is a lesson that Runaways frontwoman, singer and rock & roll icon Cherie Currie learned the hard way.
After a chance meeting with vocalist/guitarist Joan Jett and demented pop n’ rock Svengali Kim Fowley (a producer whose credits at the time included the novelty hit “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa”), Currie found herself at the eye of the storm that was The Runaways at age fifteen. The year was 1975, and the male-dominated industry was keen to dismiss the fledgling Los Angeles-based all-girl quintet (which, during Currie’s tenure with the group, featured Lita Ford on lead guitar, Jackie Fox on bass, and the late Sandy West on drums).
Under the guidance (or, it could be argued, misguidance) of Fowley, who was a formidable taskmaster, the girls relentlessly rehearsed until they were a beyond tight unit and a force to be reckoned with. Creatively and musically, Fowley’s berating and bullying – his primary motivational tactics – paid off. Over the course of the next two very hectic years The Runaways would leave an indelible mark on the music industry, smashing the misconceptions of those who ever doubted that women could rock.
