Webcuts Music » New Order

Bad Lieutenant – New Single and UK Tour

Craig Smith — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:00:39 +0000

One of the more surprising turnouts from the New Order burnout is the arrival of Bad Lieutenant, formed in 2007 by Bernard Sumner with longtime New Order guitarist Phil Cunningham and new gun Jake Evans. Even more surprising the quality and consistency of the bands debut album Never Cry Another Tear, released in October 2009, in which Webcuts, initially skeptical at the first fruits from the fallout of one of their favourite bands, confidentally admitted that “despite any misgivings, there are more highlights than expected”.

Second single “Twist of Fate” is due for worldwide release on the bands own imprint Triple Echo on March 22nd. The single sees the band doing what they do best – “21st century guitar music, blending catchy guitar hooks, and pounding bass sitting perfectly with Bernard Sumner’s familiar effortless vocal style”. Sumner is simply carrying on the musical legacy that began with Joy Division in the late 70′s, with New Order through the next three decades and into the future with Bad Lieutenant. There’s a familiarity in his voice, but a support base in the talented voice of Evans and in the hands of Cunningham and Steven Morris that take Bad Lieutenant to places New Order had yet to explore.

After a string of exclusive live dates last year and guest support shows with the Pet Shop Boys the band will be playing the following UK dates.

15th March – Sheffield Leadmill
16 March – Glasgow Garage
18th March – London Electric Ballroom
20th March – Preston 53 Degrees
21st March – Liverpool Masque

Bad Lieutenant – Never Cry Another Tear

Craig Smith — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:51:34 +0000

Triple Echo, 2009

7 out of 10 stars

In the 90’s it was Electronic, in the 00’s it’s Bad Lieutenant, a title borrowed from a rather repugnant film starring Harvey Keitel who plays a drug-addicted lowlife law enforcer. This time around it’s not a solo project but a new band, Bernard Sumner retaining the services of Phil Cunningham (New Order 2001-2007) and Salford-born newcomer Jake Evans on guitar/vocals, whom Sumner found in a local pub (seems he’s been taking recruitment tips from Mark E. Smith). Despite shouldering a serious musical heritage, Sumner isn’t attempting a new New Order with Bad Lieutenant, nor is he walking away completely from that heritage altogether.

The glistening pop of “Sink or Swim” is a deceptive opener. Instantly recognisable and characteristically New Order, with or without Hook’s redoubtable bass presence (the ‘lead bass’ riff in this instance transposed to the acoustic guitar), it feels a distant cousin to the hyper-charged harmonies of “Regret” and “Crystal” and it’s also the only track on the album that you could say this about. Despite the added presence of ex-bandmate Steven Morris and Alex James of Blur, and with three guitarists on hand, Never Cry Another Tear is a very guitar-driven record, something that New Order last attempted with 1986′s Brotherhood.

The new vocalist distinctively appears on the Doves-like “Summer Days” sounding uncannily, uncannily like Jimi Goodwin from the selfsame band. If you ever wondered what Doves would sound like if Bernard Sumner joined, well this is the record for you. “These Changes” and Evans’ solo acoustic ballad “Head Into Tomorrow” both capture the same harmonic depth and warm instrumental feel of Doves at their prime to the point where its impossible to ignore. Perhaps it’s a Manchester thing, a cyclic effect of influence, than anything intentional or pre-planned.

The musically weaker tracks like the meat and potatoes pop of “Dynamo“ drift your attention towards the lyrics which is never a good thing. Sumner is not one of the great English lyricists in modern music and his reliance on clichéd couplets and question asking lyrics (“what are you gonna do?” “what are you doing?” etc) get tiresome. So lyrically business and usual, but with the exception of “Sink or Swim”, Never Cry Another Tear is more a group effort than a Sumner-driven vehicle, with more invention on the guitar parts and only a minimal electronic presence, which at best is distracting and only really works on the disco funk of “Shine Like The Sun” that steals the riff (to my ears) from Blur‘s “There‘s No Other Way“.

Despite any misgivings, there are more highlights than you would expected, with even the simple trick of Sumner and Evans taking a verse or chorus each adds an extra dimension to the songs, something that New Order never properly explored. Evan’s presence in the band is a godsend, creating a nice dichotomy in sound that even with a healthy dose of skepticism, is more than enough to keep New Order fans at bay until Hooky and Sumner can kiss and make up. But even then, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Top Ten – B-Sides

Craig Smith — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:53:23 +0000

The B-side is every music geek/fan’s favourite thing to debate over. It’s the one place where an artist is allowed to record whatever they see fit, and the one place where a fan can expect the unexpected and be surprised, or wonder how long it took to throw that piece of junk down and never play it again. Many a great B-side should’ve been an A-side, and vice versa, but what makes a great B-side and what are the best B-sides ever?

An obvious disclaimer here is that these are my (check the name at the bottom of this post) favourite B-sides. This is not a list of the 10 greatest B-sides ever (despite what the paragraph above may suggest), nor have they been voted on by the Webcuts community. Far from it. The definitive over-argued lists are out there if you really want to find out and you’re more than welcome to list your own favourite B-sides in the comments box below. Be my guest. No, really.

There are certain rules about what counts as a B-side. In my world (and it ain’t everybody’s world), a B-side is the opposite of the A-side, also known as “the flipside”. This entails turning/flipping the record over. So goodbye CD singles, you sucked the fun out of the B-side forever and don’t even get me started on download only tracks. There’s no 12” singles or EP tracks included either. This list is based purely on the 7” single and the 7” single only, which coincidentally just celebrated its 60th birthday this year. Happy birthday, the all-magnificent 7″ single. Also, no remixes or live tracks. It has to be something that the band recorded in the studio. Okay?

Just to stress what I said above, this is not a list of the greatest B-sides ever. They’ve already been discussed and there’s no mystery to be found in evaluating old Beatles or Smiths B-sides. I never bought those records at the time, so they never had any impact, and to me “How Soon Is Now“ was just track 5, side 1 of Hatful of Hollow. No moment of “oh wow, they put this on the B-side?” to be found there. This is purely a quick round-up of singles that I once bought and had that exact described “oh wow” moment, which is really what all great B-sides should be judged upon.

With that said (and of which I‘ve meandered far too long already), here, in no particular order, is my rather 80s-centric selection…

1. Duran Duran – “Khanada” (B-side to “Careless Memories”)

The first album Duran Duran album is solid New Wave/New Romantic gold and it’s hard to believe that “Khanada” got relegated to the bench. It’s not without its flaws, as Simon Le Bon does have a touch of the vocal warbles, but it’s a moody, shifting little piece, noticeable for Andy Taylor’s glam-like guitar figure on the intro and chorus and Nick Rhodes’ overly-dominant synth — even bassist John Taylor can only manage the odd bass hiccup. While “Careless Memories” is worthy for the Roger Taylor drum solo, I always felt “Khanada” trumped it hands down. Nothing to do with Canada, either, apparently.

2. Pet Shop Boys – “A New Life” (B-side to “What Have I Done to Deserve This”)

Notorious for stashing away decent tracks on the B-side, “A New Life” stood out for several reasons, one of which is the synth intro reminding me of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” and another is the subtle mood shift into the pre-chorus verse at 53 seconds. At this stage in their career, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe had the pop song craft down to a fine art and despite the mid-tempo beat and “demo” feel, it was an emotionally driven song about one woman’s desire to extract herself from a dead relationship. The last verse is particularly special. Everybody needs their own feel-good song when they feel-down.

3. New Order – “Hurt” (B-side to “Temptation”)

New Order were on an unarguably creative roll once they began to distance themselves from the post-Joy Division mire of Movement. Even with an A-side as great as “Temptation“, “Hurt” was this ominous groove-laden floor-shaker, with Steve Morris’s idiosyncratic hi-hat heavy beat that propels the song at double speed and Bernard Sumner’s vague vocoder-tinged vocals suggesting “I am for you can enjoy I will make you”. If you listen close to the rhythm backing, you can feel the skeleton of what would become “Blue Monday” here, and even with Peter Hook’s bass rumble playing second fiddle to that of a melodica the song still succeeds.

4. Madder Rose – “Baby Gets High” (B-side to “Beautiful John”)

Manhattan’s Madder Rose barely made waves at the time, but they left some decent tunes in their wake and this particular 7” packed an incredibly potent punch. The A-side “Beautiful John” burns some fierce guitar rubber and is a delight on its own, but the B-side here written by guitarist Billy Cote, and with swoony vocals by Mary Lorson is the perfect shoegaze lullaby that would later be covered by the Blake Babies on their reunion album, which only goes to show I wasn’t the only one who noticed. If you were to play any of these tunes, this is the one I’d go for first.

5. The Specials – “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” (B-side to “Ghost Town”)

Two great B-sides on one 7”. It’s almost unfathomable. The haunting and violent “Ghost Town” is matched with the cold light aftermath of “Why?” with Lynval Golding taking further issue with right-wing violence and racism. It sits less than comfortably next to the light-hearted singalong “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning”, but with the all-encompassing bleakness of the previous songs, Terry Hall’s wry deconstruction of the weekend drunk is a welcome antidote and lyrics like “I’ll eat in the taxi queue/Sitting in someone else’s spew/Wish I had lipstick on my shirt/Instead of piss-stains on my shoes” carries a special poignancy if you’ve ever had to wait for a nightbus on Essex Road in Islington on a Friday night.

6. Pixies – “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” (B-Side to “Here Comes Your Man”)

This bends the rules a little as “Wave of Mutilation” first appeared on Doolittle, prior to the release of “Here Comes Your Man”, so the song itself wasn’t so much a surprise at the time, but in my opinion, this is the definitive version of “Wave of Mutilation”. Slowed down the song has a greater resonance, the words ring with extra gravity, Black Francis’ voice a strange mix of despondance and hope, as if he were sailing off into his own oblivion but secretly hoping he’ll enjoy the ride. The slow pace combined with Joey Santiago playing a reverbed rhythm part behind Black Francis’ listless acoustic strum is just perfection. Whereas the original seemed resolute in its path, this version is more considered, a final “Where is my mind? Oh there it is” before pushing off into the unknown.

7. The Slits – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” (B-side to “Typical Girls”)

I’ve a feeling I knew the cover (the Creedence version via the thrills of AM radio) before I knew the band, or maybe I knew the record cover before I knew the band. Otherwise I can’t explain how this 7” wound up in my collection, but it did, and while I thought the A-side was junk this B-side was honestly the best thing I’d ever heard, being wholly unaware of dub-reggae at that point in my musical evolution. Eventually reissued as an extra track on the CD version of Cut and given a new life on the dance floor in hip London clubs during the beginning of the decade (and probably still played now) it was punk reggae meets a Motown classic head on. The lovely Ari Up making her way into the song with a pause between each “I bet” as if she starting a game of jump rope with the beat. I still prefer the Creedence version (jukebox value for money, yo), but that’s just me.

8. The Cult – “Zap City” (B-side to “L’il Devil”)

There are some that would argue that The Cult jumped the shark with Electric and would’ve preferred them to meander in a hippie/goth-like state in perpetuity. It’s hard not to question the evolution of a band who went from the outspoken punk of The Southern Death Cult to the heavy metal posturing of Electric without laughing. But while they were putting down the beads and incense and picking up the studs and torn denim, The Cult recorded and ditched the follow-up to Love, an album that (am stifling the giggles here) was going to be called Peace. “Zap City” was one of those tracks recorded and is by no means a buried classic, but definitely an up-tempo rocker with promise. Something that The Cult must’ve realised when they came to record the follow-up to Electric, as with a quick title and lyric change, the reconfigured “Zap City” would go on to be their biggest hit to date, “Fire Woman”.

9. The Go-Betweens – “When People Are Dead” (B-side to “Right Here”)

It has to be one of Robert Forster’s finest moments, and it literally walks all over the saccharine sing-song of McLennan’s “Right Here”. Of all the songs here, this is the one most worthy of that oft-repeated phrase of “what is this doing on the b-side?” Such a dour, reflective moment would never be A-worthy, but at the time it’s easy to see it would not have sat comfortably on the Tallulah album either. What to do with a slow song about death? The B-side it is. Robert takes hold of the vocal here and imbues it with such raw emotion, especially in his phrasing on the chorus that you’re almost moved with his sincerity as he asks the question (from the point of view of a child), “what do you do when people are dead?”. All in all, its place opposite “Right Here” seems apt. Love on the A-side and Death on the B-side. I did get it, you know.

10. Blur – Young & Lovely (B-side to “Chemical World”)

It’s a loada old toss about Blur writing great B-sides, and while Oasis definitely had the upper hand on the flipside stakes, they played to a formula which Noel Gallagher knew inside out — write an upbeat song with a soaring chorus, or write a downbeat song with a soaring chorus. Blur were far more haphazard about it. I think they took the whole idea of the B-side as a piece of blank canvas than any other band I know. This does account for a lot of shit B-sides, but occasionally something as grand as “Young & Lovely” will come along and you‘ll go “woah…”. What the hell was “Chemical World” doing on A-side? I don’t think it even got played.

Factory Records – Communications 1978-1992

Craig Smith — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:51:12 +0000

Rhino, 2009

7.5 out of 10 stars

The story of Factory Records has been told to a certain degree by way of celluloid in 24 Hour Party People and in the background of last year’s biopic on Ian Curtis, Control, but the real audio legacy of Factory Records has been scattered far and wide, in print and out of print, only brought together once before in a similarly tracked 4CD compliation entitled Palatine that fell into obscurity when the label folded. In the nearly two decades following, the mythology of Factory Records and the impact of the post-punk Manchester scene has had the Hollywood touch not once but twice, so it seems fitting, especially in light of the passing of chief Factory guru Anthony Wilson in 2007 that there be a worthy compilation to document the label’s history. With artwork by in-house designer Peter Saville and the requisite existential essay by Paul Morley, the 56 tracks spread across 4CDs finally reveal the true story of Factory Records.

In some ways, you could say ‘In the beginning there was Joy Division’ and aptly enough, Communications 1978-1992 begins with Joy Division’s “Digital” and Cabaret Voltaire’s “Baader Meinhof”, two tracks from A Factory Sample, the first release from the label. Like so many bands influenced by the rise of punk, Joy Division’s stark, dissonance seemed to leap beyond the simple three chord shouts of disenchantment. Cabaret Voltaire, on the other hand, pursued an avant garde electronic squall that would later find a sympathetic ear in Sheffield. Many of the tracks from the years 1978-1979 sound similar, mostly due from sharing the same production stylings from Martin Hannett. Of the initial Factory bands, it was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark with “Electricity” that showed the most commerical promise and went onto greater success outside of the label. Whilst mostly catering to the post-punk/nascent electronic scene, Factory wasn’t averse to excursions into reggae with X-O-Dus “English Black Boys” and the delicate instrumental driven Durutti Column who’s “Sketch for Summer” and “Messidor” highlight what an under-rated band they were.

It’s readily apparent that the holy trinity of Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays would dominate the track selection of Communications… with a good quarter of the chronological selection featuring contributions by these bands or their off-shoots, and to be honest you’d expect nothing less. A compilation without “Ceremony”, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” or “Hallelujah” or indeed “Blue Monday”, “She’s Lost Control” or “24 Hour Party People” would be seriously amiss. It’s because of the deification of Joy Division and New Order (Happy Mondays not so much) that their presence nestled inbetween the lesser-known acts would overshadow them and in some cases show them up as being less worthy immitators (cf. The Wake). With the exception of the big three and perhaps the Durutti Column, very few bands on Factory would elevate themselves anywhere near the same level of success. Despite these failings, it’s still hard to listen to a track like A Certain Ratio’s “Shack Up” and see how influential it would be on the New York post-punk scene.

Without New Order there clearly wouldn’t be a Factory Records beyond the early ’80′s. The unexpected evolution of New Order into a dance band would go on to be Factory’s greatest money earner with the band themselves hitting a creative peak with singles like “Temptation” and the quintessential classic “Blue Monday”. The success of New Order went on to bankroll many of the questionable acts that appear on discs 2 and 3. Given a fresh ear it’s understandable why the careers of Kalima, Life, Stockholm Monsters, 52nd Street and Miaow have long since faded into obscurity. Even with the rise of Acid House and Madchester, it’s clear that Manchester was not fully the haven of talent that it has often been given credit for, which is probably more to do with Anthony Wilson’s skills as a salesman than anything else. Its an obvious fact that while this compilation is insightful and necessary, the decision to spread this across 4CDs seems a little extravagant.

The temporary dissolution of New Order brought forth three side projects which along with the bewildering rise of the Happy Mondays forms a large section of the final disc. Of the New Order off-shoots, only Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr’s Electronic would show the most promise with “Getting Away With It” being one of the finer Factory releases of the nineties with the nadir quite obviously being the heinous collaboration with the English Football Squad and Northside’s exercise in questionable advice with “Let’s Take a Trip”. Whilst the quality of releases in the nineties is significant, it wasn’t enough to both keep the label afloat and survive the excess of Happy Mondays final album for Factory, the fueled-by-crack antics of Yes Please. It was a disappointing way for such an influential label to bow out. Without the knowledge or the history of the bands involved, Communications 1978-1992 is a potent collection of music for the uninitiated. From the beautiful and fractured Joy Division to the ecstacy lunacy of the Happy Mondays, the legacy of Anthony Wilson’s vision is assured.