Music News
THE GOSPEL According to
THE GOSPEL According to <PIG>
First Album in Over a Decade To Be Released Sept. 9
“Diamond Sinners” Video Premieres with PopMatters
National Tour Announced
“The sound of this record might have changed but all the ingredients used in previous <PIG>albums are the same: Healthy doses of discipline, desire, delectation and delight,” explains post-rock <PIG> frontman Raymond Watts about his new album THE GOSPEL (Metropolis Records; release date September 9, 2016). “Or if one refers to the ingredients as the bricks and mortar of making music – the instruments of daily torture such as drums and synths that deliver it, or the ideas and the oxygen for the flame to fan it – then nothing much has changed… and yet everything has changed.”
While seemingly contradictory and in opposition to its own existence, this dichotomy of thought is the fuel that feeds the gritty yet orchestral environment within <PIG> exists. Over a decade since the release of 2004’s Pigmatyr, THE GOSPEL is a rebirth of sorts, transforming the band’s original post-industrial incarnation to an almost entirely different, dark-rock animal. Opening with the tolling of church bells, the first single “The Diamond Sinners” is a swanky midnight dancefloor track whose video PopMatters premieres this week and can be viewed here:http://www.popmatters.com/post/pig-the-diamond-sinners-video-premiere/.
The “Diamond Sinners” single EP (released last week, Sept. 5) contains the album track as well as three remixes from industrial stalwarts SKOLD, tweaker, and Marc Heal. “Each of them have done a fabulous job and brought their own special flavour and a brand new way to love thy neighbor,” Watts explains about each of the remixers. “I am so thrilled and grateful to these guys that have dipped their trotters in the trough.” Each version adds a new take on the track and reimagines it in different lights. “The tweaker Remix” benefits from “a tempo change and several pulsating synths”, while the “SKOLD Remix” finds “semi-tame Viking” Tim Skold isolating the hook which “slides engagingly into your ear before burrowing deeper and setting up home there for evermore.” Marc Heal’s “MC Lord of The Flies Remix” turns it into a dancefloor banger, by “digging up the carcass of <PIG>, giving it the kiss of life and a little CPR… bless his cotton socks.”
THE GOSPEL treks through different textures and rhythms, crafting a diverse album that finds itself diving deeper into the alt-rock territory of Iggy Pop and the Stooges than it does of <PIG>’s earlier post-industrial material. From the whiskey-drenched swank and howl of “Found in Filth” to the insidious and slinky grind of “Toleration Or Truth” to the swirling sweaty driving anthem of “I’m So Wrong”, it’s an album that defies simple categorization, punctuated by Watts’ distinctively dark growl. Co-written with Marc Thwaite (Peter Murphy) and Z.Marr (Combichrist) who also co-produces.and does double-duty with programming, guitars and additional vocals, <PIG> is rounded out with Watt’s former KMFDM bandmates En Esch on programming, guitars, vocals and Guenter Schulz on guitar.
The 10+ years between Pigmartyr and THE GOSPEL has been a metamorphosis of sorts for Watts. Among the highlights once he put <PIG> into hibernation included writing music for fashion and film for Chloe, Marios Schwab, Halston, The Row and the sound design for the exhibit Punk: Chaos to Couture at NYC’s Metropolitan Music of Art. But the most ground-breaking and perhaps most rewarding was his collaboration with the late and immensely celebrated fashion iconAlexander McQueen who commissioned Watts and his old Psychic TV partner-in-crime John Gosling to embellish the serene instrumental track “Inside” (from <PIG>’s Genuine American Monster album). The fluid soundtrack to McQueen’s masterpiece, Plato’s Atlantis, the show was reprised after McQueen’s untimely death as the finale of Savage Beauty, the posthumous retrospective that broke all records at The Metropolitan Music of Art in New York and Victoria & Albert Museum in London. “Working on Savage Beauty was (and I don’t mean this lightly) absolutely fantastic,” he explains. “To work with so many talented people from so many different fields all in the pursuit of showing Alexander McQueen’s genius (a word often overused but not in this case) was an honour and a joy.”
With THE GOSPEL ready for release in September, <PIG> will be hitting the road for the“American Excess Tour” throughout North America this Fall (tour dates below). “This tour will be a coming together of the old(er) and the new,” Watts explains about the tour’s planned setlist. “I never really feel as safe on stage as when I have a great big bald German to my left (En Esch) and to my right, Guenter Schulz, probably one of Germany’s more amiable and memorable exports… my idea of heaven, and I’m just glad they’re on my side. Also in the trenches with me are Galen Waling [drummer for Julien-K, Left Spine Down and formerly 16 Volt] and Z.Marr.” Supporting the tour will be En Esch’s industrial/mutant/disco/zombie/art rock solo project Peter Turns Pirate with Combichrist drummer Joe Letz adding his DJ skills between sets. Available for purchase exclusively on this tour is the vinyl-only release RISE AND REPENT, containing additional remixes of tracks from THE GOSPEL and previously unreleased material.
Watts concludes, “I am now just looking forward to getting our rag tag bag of miscreants into shape so they can give birth to a <PIG> on show that is fat, healthy and singing for its supper when he’s off the noose and live and loose this September and October…. digging up a backyard near you.”
<PIG> is Raymond Watts (vocals, programming, guitars), Z. Marr (programming, guitars, additional vocals), and En Esch (programming, guitars, additional vocals). THE GOSPEL will be released on September 9, 2016 via Metropolis Records.
AMERICAN EXCESS
TOUR DATES
9/6/2016 Toronto, ON Coalition
9/7/2016 Detroit, MI Smalls
9/8/2016 Pittsburgh, PA Brillobox
9/9/2016 Wilmington, DE Bar XIII
9/10/2016 New York, NY Stimulate
9/12/2016 Atlanta, GA Club Famous
9/13/2016 Tampa, FL Crowbar
9/15/2016 New Orleans, LA The Willow
9/16/2016 Austin, TX Elysium
9/17/2016 Houston, TX Numbers
9/18/2016 Dallas, TX The Church
9/19/2016 Tulsa, OK Vanguard
9/20/2016 Kansas City, KS Riot Room
9/21/2016 St Louis, MO Crack Fox
9/22/2016 Cold Waves Fest Debonaire
9/24/2016 Cold Waves Fest Metro
9/25/2016 Omaha, NE Sokol Underground
9/27/2016 Denver, CO Oriental theater
9/28/2016 Salt Lake City, UT Area 51
9/30/2016 San Francisco, CA DNA Lounge
10/1/2016 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom
10/2/2016 Los Angeles, CA Complex
10/4/2016 Portland, OR Star Theater
10/5/2016 Seattle, WA Highline
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Music News
CREED GREATEST HITS VINYL
Creed who just recently reunited and about to embark on tour. Re-Released their 2004 Greatest Hits on Vinyl. It’s got a nice clean look and sound to it. It comes with 2 vinyls and has 13 tracks. The thing I found interesting is that in the song “What’s this Life For” the God of Goddamn is edited off the track.
The vinyl comes in many variants from Walmart and Target. If you are a fan of Creed this vinyl is a must in your collection . Go buy the vinyl and go check out Creed when they come to a city near you.
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Music News
N.a.s.H. “Vox Populi”
NY. Rock and Roll band N.a.s.H. Have just put out a new single “Vox Populi”. If you’re into good ole rock and roll that’s gritty and fun this band is someone to check out. It’s very “commercial” rock like in the style of band like Creed and Nickelback, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re into that. The video has a cool silhouette style to it and is a fun song.
THIS IS A SPONSORED REVIEW BROUGHT TO YOU BY TAG PUBLICITY
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CD Reviews
Ministry – HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
As we near the collapse of mankind and the imminent doom of our political system, a perfect stage has been set for the outspoken rebels to flood the airwaves with dissident upheaval bathed in musical bliss. With the end looming, no greater landscape could welcome the reemergence of the enigmatic Al Jourgensen and company with their latest release, HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES, via Nuclear Blast Records. Scheduled for a March 1st 2024 release, Uncle Al, along with guitarist Cesar Soto, Paul D’Amour, formerly of TOOL, on bass, John Bechdel on keys, Roy Mayorga (ex-STONE SOUR) on drums, and newly added guitarist Monte Pittman, form the current incarnation of the long-lived Ministry.
This album is an open-book commentary on our American society at large, bathed in slow-burn angst and distortion injected with punk rock/thrash riffs and samples galore.
Within the opening seconds of track one, a female voice proclaims, “What was once forbidden becomes fringe, and what was once fringe becomes mainstream.” Soon Al’s vocals take over with a distorted and effect heavy declaration of “horny little boys filled with hormones and hate, waging war on women ‘’cause they can’t get a date,” thus laying the groundwork for the entire album. As “B.D.E.” (Big Dick Energy) continues, a heavy yet simplistic guitar riff drives the song forward while increasing the energy level and tempo. Al’s vocals continue with his immediate, recognizable attitude and tone, stating, “No one can justify the toxic behavior.”
“Goddamn White Trash” is perhaps the most accessible and rythematic song on the release. It has hints of the Psalm 69 days of the band. Chants of “USA, USA” ring out along side screeching guitar noise reminiscent of Mike Scaccia’s playing style.
Track three is titled “Just Stop Oil,” and it dives into yet another realm of political advocacy. Jourgensen delivers, “Dehumanization at a cellular level. Policy set by the corporate devils, There must be resistance, we cannot be silenced, There is the existence of possible violence” in a growled whisper.
On the track “Aryan Embarrassment,” we are treated to a none-more-fitting guest appearance from what I believe is activist and Dead Kennedys front man Jello Biafra, who delivers a rap-style series of vocal lines backed by a driving rhythm. Jello wails, “How on Earth did all this happen? Plagues of militantly stupid” Followed by “Scamming on the punk scene. Oi, oi, oi. Ain’t proud of you boys at all.”
Another standout track is “New Religion” which starts with a classic industrial riff and buries itself in the repetitive, slow-burn heaviness that has become the Ministry standard as of late. Followed by “It’s Not Pretty,” which opens as a haunting acoustic piece that I imagine being set in a post apocalyptic landscape with the reverberating lyrics “It’s not pretty. This is the end of the world to me. This is the end of society.”
“Cult of Suffering” strays from the format of the balance of the album and could be firmly placed on an Alabama 3 album, and it may feel at home on a Surgical Meth Machine release.
Rounding out the album is a little ditty called “Ricky’s Hand.” This is a synth pop throwback to the early days of Ministry and leaves us longtime fans eager to hear the longtime teased rerecording of some of the very early Ministry material. This track has a Devo, Information Society, and even Depeche Mode feel to it and is a perfect bookend to a solid release from an iconic band.
Ministry will be on tour throughout the summer with Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and Helmet.
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