| Weezer Scrap Fifth LP, Start Again from Scratch
After an uncharacteristically productive period in 2001 and 2002, during which they released their first albums in five years, Weezer have been taking things relatively slow, perhaps taking extra care to ensure that their long-gestating (and still forthcoming) fifth full-length exceeds the expectations of their notoriously hardass fanbase. Since December of 2003, Weezer had been in and out of the studio with producer Rick Rubin working on new material, to varying degrees of success. However, the band has now scrapped the results of those sessions, in favor of new material they began work on three weeks ago. According to a post on Weezer.com, the group has been in the studio for much of August laying down songs from scratch. The website explained the band's decision to shelve their work with Rubin, stating that it was a "response to [frontman] Rivers [Cuomo] regaining his sense of momentum with his songwriting, and not feeling right about continuing with the incomplete recordings from December." It goes on to reveal: "In effect, the band is now producing itself, as it did on [the prior albums] Pinkerton and Maladroit, but this time they have a wise shoulder to lean on if and when need be.
The Velvet Teen - Cum Laude!
Eschewing the alt-rock intricacies of Out of the Fierce Parade and mostly down-tempo, piano-centric orchestrations of Elysium, the Velvet Teen once again redefine themselves and their sound on their latest triumph, Cum Laude!. Cum Laude! not only treads new ground for the group, but does so with formidable aplomb, wrecking any notion that this band can be pinned down.
In contrast to Elysium’s six extended tracks, Cum Laude! favors shorter, quicker, and more dynamic compositions. One of the first things you’ll notice on it is the heavy vocal filters, which, ironically, only embolden Judah Nagler’s croon. Nagler has never been stronger and here his voice simply rises above the glitch-heavy rock like a heralding of something prophetic and radical. Opening track "333" attests to this when Nagler belts out, "I took the pain out of my pen / I took my self out of my selfish ways / and wrote all...I took the greed out of my grin / and sunk my teeth into my work instead / and they followed."
Although produced with the same sparkling precision as Elysium, Cum Laude! is a hybridized beast of a supremely varied parentage.
Leap in guitar sales as Arctic Monkeys fuel trend
SALES of guitars in the UK have risen by 18 per cent over the past year to £120 million, as the popularity of rock bands such as Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys persuades the nation to get strumming. The number of guitars sold has more than doubled since 1999 as City bankers hunting trophy guitars and young would-be rock stars flock to guitar shops such as those in Londons Denmark Street. .
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