CONTEST: Win Bad Lieutenant Deluxe Prize Package!

Oh I'm reallllllllly enjoying this Bad Lieutenant album.

So these upcoming concerts are like a special delivery from God itself!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: */FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/*

*VISA DELAY CAUSES BAD LIEUTENANT TO CANCEL U.S. CONCERT APPEARANCES*

It is with frustration and regret that *Bad Lieutenant* reluctantly announces the cancellation of the band's four U.S. dates set to commence next week. The more stringent immigration laws and changing visa parameters resulted in an inability to process the necessary paperwork.

"We were all so very excited about coming to the States to play our new music for our American fans," said Bad Lieutenant's Bernard Sumner, "and are extremely disappointed that on this occasion, we won't have the opportunity to do so. We plan to reschedule the Chicago and New York shows along with some additional U.S. dates in Spring 2010."

The four Bad Lieutenant dates that have been cancelled are:
November 18 - Park West (headline), Chicago, IL
November 19 - supporting the Pixies in Chicago, IL
November 21 - Webster Hall (headline), New York, NY
November 23 - supporting the Pixies in New York, NY

The concerts were in support of /Never Cry Another Tear/, Bad Lieutenant's debut release which arrived in stories on Tuesday, November 10. The band features New Order/Joy Division's Sumner, newcomer Jake Evans on vocals and guitars as well as guitarist Phil Cunningham and drummer Stephen Morris, musicians who helped make the legendary New Order a multi-Platinum-selling band and one of the most influential forces over the past three decades in the alt/rock/dance genres.
Bad Lieutenant's Spring 2010 dates will be announced soon."

Hmmm? What's that? You wanna go? And see what The Music Slut brilliantly described as New Order - Peter Hook + Blur’s Alex James?

Well you can do that! If you get chosen that is :) I've got tickets for shows at both Park West in Chicago and Webster Hall in New York! Two great shows in two of the greatest cities in the world... Put your names in the comment section (if you live in the Chicago/New York area, or can make it on your own dime to Chicago/New York) and one reader will be chosen to win a pair of tix (obviously separate winners for each night) to see one the coolest bands this year with members of a couple of the greatest bands EVER!

While you're waiting to see if you've made it enjoy these lil goodies:

Bad Lieutenant - "Sink Or Swim" YSI



THE NEW CONTEST WILL BE the Deluxe Bad Lieutenant package. What is that? How about you dream of the coolest thing that isn't free tickets to a show and there you have it! No, seriously though, so far what they've come up with is baller so don't be too sad about the change of plans/prizes :)

Check back as the contest will end, oh, let's say... November 15th? ALSO BE AWARE THAT THIS NOW OPENS THE CONTEST UP TO EVERYONE WHO LOVES BAD LIEUTENANT! Be back soon :)

Bernard of New Order comes back with Bad Lieutenant!

Apparently it's legendary musician day here at ISoA! First Ian Brown now this...

I was gutted when New Order broke up because they're one of my favourite bands and I've never gotten to see them play. I'm almost speechless when I think about it...

HOWEVER! Bad Lieutenant has shown up and now my fears are going away... perhaps I'll never see all four New Order members on stage again BUT, based on this new single, I'll still get to hear Bernard Sumner's familiar voice!

I can talk about New Order for some time but let's not live in the past, and let this press blurb lead us into the future!

"In some sense, the album is a little bit like a Manchester reunion – Alex James from Blur and Stephen Morris from New Order and Joy Division can be heard on a handful of recordings.

Bad Lieutenant is Bernard Sumner (New Order, Joy Division), Phil Cunningham (Marion, Run Run Run), and Jake Evans (Marion). Their debut album will be released in October 2009 on Triple Echo Records. The album’s debut single, “Sink or Swim,” will be released on September 21, 2009. “Sink or Swim” – along with the rest of the album – retains a crux of New Order’s three-decade-strong mantra, while at the same time setting sail to a completely novel breeze.

Bad Lieutenant- "Sink Or Swim" YSI

Apparently UK tour dates were announced Wed 8/26 and can be found on MySpace. They are releasing the debut, “Never Cry Another Tear”, in early October. Make sure you pre-order that one! Be back soon :)

New Order new school/old school/out of school...

Alas, if Peter Hook is to be believed, last time I checked, New Order are no longer together. Funny thing seems to be that it was Anton Corbjin's suggestions about the Control soundtrack that helped bring the band to it's knees. Ironic that the man who took some of the most iconic shots of the band, and did their most iconic video (for "Atmosphere"), somehow accidentally helped "off" the band that sprung from Joy Division's ashes by making suggestions as he was doing a movie ABOUT Joy Division... phew... that was a sentence and a half! That's probably unfair... tensions in New Order have been high since the early years and the band has imploded repeatedly... so it probably wasn't Corbjin's fault. Bernard Sumner and Hooky have always seemed to differ on what New Order is/was all about but...

THAT is not the point of this post! Once upon a time electro pioneer Arthur Baker met up with New Order and recorded one of their best known songs called "Confusion". Arthur Baker had been the force behind "Planet Rock" and the young band apparently felt that sound was something that they felt fit with their music. This song has had an impact repeatedly since its original release and that's what I wanted to highlight.

Their have been AMAZING remixes of this song (one of the best done by my boy Larry Tee) but I thought I'd post an old one and a new one just to show you how this songs influence endures... New Order are amazing... more than amazing...

Also amazing... the opening scene of Blade where this song made it's imprint on the world a decade after its release. I'm posting the remix from this amazing scene that makes raves seem as awesome as they really are... but with blood... and swords...



New Order- "Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Remix)" YSI

New Order- "Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Remix)" Rapidshare

Now... this is a little newer... and I cannot justify slighting Ricardo Villalobos by putting this up as a "never ending download" a la Rapidshare... the point of this site is to PROMOTE music, not to "pirate it". So I'm willing to put up a 100 download, 7 day YSI link to help promote his music. Please, if you enjoy this please pick it up...

New Order- "Confusion (Ricardo Villalobos Remix)" YSI

Here's the original...


Hope you enjoyed this flashback/flashforward... I'll be back soon with a Radioactive Man post that will blow your socks off... see you soon!

Dance/Rock Pt 2

So, I had to quit my new job. At the Soccer place. I mean, it could have been straight, but how am I supposed to sell anything when our target market is 3-18 years... and I'm getting households where Little Jimmy is now Big Jimmy who moved out and got married... and has no kids of his own; but that doesn't even MATTER because I'm talking to Big Jimmy's 65 year old parents who can't figure out why I'm trying to get him signed up for soccer. You know? That's 3/4ths of what I was calling all night... in the meantime other people were doing laps around me because they had better material... all I say as I better get a tight paycheck for the week that I worked lol...

ANYWAY!!! On to the music! I just wanted to say, thank you to all you folks who sent me (or posted) nice comments over the last couple days. I'm glad you feel this blog is worth your time, and I'm glad you like my random format. The more and more I thought about it... I'm not a 'journalist' kind of guy... I could sit here and write a slightly different version of what a lot of other people write but... I imagine that most of you are just here for the music and not my banter, so I'm going to assume you would want to read some long winded pretentious load of crap that basically amounts to what I'm already saying!

SOOOOO... I promised you guys more Dance/Rock crossover... and I will deliver
(p.s. sorry it took so long to post, crazy week obviously)! First off is the live version of the CLASSIC Orbital song "Halcyon" WITH with the Bon Jovi and Belinda Carlisle samples mashed in. If you somehow haven't heard this you MUST hear it... fucking amazing... there were two different versions of their "In Sides" album that came out in the U.S. and one had this on the bonus cd and the other didn't. If you can, I suggest picking up that album (with this on the bonus disk) because I think it's probably their best over all album.

Orbital- "Halcyon (Live)" YSI

I just found a live VIDEO version of this little Bon Jovi/Belinda trick... too bad that totally fuck it up at the beginning lol...


And in case you haven't seen the original here it is!



Then I thought I'd give you the polar opposite of the Orbital track. I was initally going to post Orbital's "Satan"... so when I opted to post the other softer Orbital classic I had to come up with a more rough anthem to post. I debated what hard ass song to put up... and I finally settled on the Nine Inch Nails version of David Bowie's "I'm Afraid Of Americans (V1)"... I had five versions to choose from because Astralwerks sent me the "I'm Afraid Of Americans E.P." quite a few years ago (which I never understood because they aren't the ones that put it out) but none of them were as compelling as the NIN one. There is a version with Ice Cube and a Photek remix but neither one is this rad...

David Bowie- "I'm Afraid Of Americans (V1)" YSI

I doubt you haven't seen this... but you probably haven't seen it for a while!


And last but not least... to finish off the Dance/Rock post... how about the best Dance/Rock band ever... that's right, NEW ORDER! I watched 24 Hour Party People for the millionth time last night and just had to post a New Order song. I think "Crystal" is the most recent "classic" they've put out, so I thought "why not post it"! Although, I have to say that "Here To Stay" song they did for 24 Hour Party People is damn close to being as good as "Crystal"... maybe not quite, but close. That last album had some gems too, so if you haven't heard it I'd recommend it...

New Order- "Crystal" zShare



Well I hope you folks enjoyed this post. As usual I will try to be back on the scene as soon as possible to bring you the best in British music via the wrong side of the pond! See you soon! (I'm thinking maybe a Brithop post?)

BTW: The design I put up there is from a t-shirt @ Livin Company. Go check it out! I think it's a dope shirt!

They Keep Calling Me...

We all know about how I dork out about the Libertines (or Babyshambles) like a 16 year old girl... but Joy Division have my heart now and forever as well. It's just hard to freak out about them, well, because Ian Curtis is dead. Now, obviously, the remaining members of Joy Division went on to form New Order (who I also love) and I could rave on about them (and will in the future) but for now we will stick with just Joy Division... in fact not just Joy Division. We'll rewind all the way back to Warsaw.

Prior to taking the name Joy Division (a Nazi tag for a program where Jewish women were used to provide pleasure to Nazi troops) they called themselves Stiff Kittens, and then took the name Warsaw. Pretty obvious imagery beyond the kittens bit (which actually was suggested by the Buzzcocks as their neighbour had a cat that had kittens.. and all of them died! Apparently she ran about screaming 'look at all these stiff kittens!' or something like that).

This is the WHOLE entire Warsaw bootleg album. I can't remember where these songs came from... they aren't all from the same session and if I remember by morning I will let you know where they come from... enjoyed them though! They will be up for a week!

Warsaw- "The Drawback"

Warsaw- "The Leaders Of Men"

Warsaw- "They Walked In Line"

Warsaw- "Failures"

Warsaw- "Novelty"

Warsaw- "No Love Lost"

Warsaw- "Transmission"

Warsaw- "Living In The Ice Age"

Warsaw- "Interzone"

Warsaw- "Warsaw"

Warsaw- "Shadowplay"

Warsaw- "As You Said"











P.s. Speaking of dead rockstars... I thought that I would mention this article about Kurt Cobain. It was written by my father. I am not here to answer your questions about what did or did not happen. I cannot prove or disprove that he was there before Kurt died. All I can do is show you the way... after that it's up to you. He has been refered to by Maxim Magazine as a crackpot, but conversely the authors of "Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" stood by the fact that he had the proof that he was there. This article has been passed around the people who were close to Kurt (Kurt's mom, Courtney, Tom Grant... obviously some believe and some don't), it has been referenced in magazines and books (it almost made it into both Rolling Stone and Spin but he retracted his offer, prefering to put it online years later), and is frequently mentioned on Nirvana message boards. Whether you believe this is the holy grail of Cobain related info is up to your interpretation but, no matter how you look at it, it's certainly an important part of the Cobain legacy.