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SPARKS
Discussions about the band SPARKS
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| We've got a hit single!? |
| A wiff of Perfume is enough to make anyone go SPARK-ravingmad, it'll spend a lifetime in the charts, and that is no old spice. |
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4% |
[ 2 ] |
| As I Sit To Play The Organ At The Notre Dame Cathedral, is a godly choice, if folks don't get this one they'll never will like anything else by Sparks. Can i play with your organ? |
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11% |
[ 5 ] |
| Dick Around, is a firm favourite and no idle hands at work here, if it don't grap you, it'll grap you!! it's so sympatico and i love how it scratches me. Please baby, take me back to the days of This Town. |
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11% |
[ 5 ] |
| Rock, Rock, Rock will get everybody rocking, no motherless child will leave home without it and i really feel i have to say this, it won't get the audience into trouble. Look mom, no soft passages! |
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7% |
[ 3 ] |
| (Baby, Baby) Can I Invade Your Country. That's no idle chat-up talk, i will take it out to proof you wrong. See, this is a red hot tip. Reenforcements stand down. |
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9% |
[ 4 ] |
| Waterproof, honest guys this will will get every single one dripping wet. So if i was you i'll have my umbrella with me for a bit of protection |
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26% |
[ 11 ] |
| The Very Next Fight, a seriouse contender put 'em up if you have 'em. It's a bleeding showstopper, with controled displays of emotion. |
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2% |
[ 1 ] |
| No Such Thing As Aliens, it's the number one requested at Radio Area 51. So close to Mexico incase i need to waltz to a quicky divorce. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Here Kitty, listen to it once and the cat's get/got your thong. I purrsonally vouch that it's a firemen favourite. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Metaphor will rock their boat and she will slip into the charts more comfortabely, o darn no mixing them. |
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26% |
[ 11 ] |
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| Total Votes : 42 |
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E-Clect-Eddy
Sparks Guru
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 7555
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Uhu_Rodion wrote: | Perfume stops looking commercial when you dig a bit deeper into the lyrics (and you pay care to the brief intermission that interrupts the perfumes' enlisting), but at first it's just easy to catch up because of a peculiar mesmerizing pace, which doesn't fail to attract attention. So I don't think it was a bad choice as a first single.
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If talking about the music there is indeed something of Indiscreet that comes to mind. Subtle it moves on and the guitar/piano works great with the synthy violins, under the table with her-ish with a jazzy hit-hat and grunge-ing guitar twist. I can't find anything wrong with the music, it's all good, execpt Mr Tony V. would probably have used more real instruments!
| Uhu_Rodion wrote: | | .. or be it that Perfume's qualities - so evident to us - are too subtle to be generally appreciated, you need something more shocking to shake people and focus their attention. |
Those qualities are indeed too subtle... at least to a non-English-first-language person like myself!? How do Italians get those English/American typical words, phrases, jokes? I'm still having trouble with Factory Sense which i think is blocking my view on a deeper level to Perfume. Or maybe to any/the pun of screw the past?
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"
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Uhu_Rodion
Power Groupie
Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Posts: 353
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:42 am Post subject: |
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Alex,
maybe you have a too much optimistic view of how things go here.
You ask "how widely played was Perfume in Italy...was HYL also pushed there", and the answers I can give are negative - a full zero.
Right while I'm writing, there's Top Of The Pops on TV - Sparks never mentioned there as far as I know; my daughter tells me on MTV they never passed Perfume's clip - I trust her, she's well informed.
Radio stations, let them alone - music programs are usually down to a very low level, and anyway people here doesn't listen too much to radio, not for the music at least. So I cannot say if they ever trasmitted Perfume, but I strongly suspect not at all.
Amongst several rock magazines, the most diffused here are Rock Sound, Rock Star and Rolling Stone - not a review of HYL there; instead, I was lucky enough to find a couple, one on Rockerilla (7/10), positive but without any enthusiasm, and a second on Rumore (4 stars), which is a lot better.
If you want, I can translate back to english the substance of the text.
Anyway, consider that, if I'm not wrong, the official release date of HYL in Italy was Feb. 20th, so it might be the March issues of those magazines will make amend.
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Eddy,
Someway I think you're right, I thought too there were some echoes of Indiscreet into HYL - but here we go: through so many stylistic changes, Sparks music always keep peculiar characteristics that make it instantly recognizable - at least to devotees.
About using more real instruments, I think that - apart from the obvious reason it would have hugely inflated the costs - this was made on purpose; looking at those pics of the concerts that you so generously shared (how envious I am!), confirmed an opinion I made about this... but there will be time to expose it.
Subtleties are a hard matter indeed when English is not your mother language; add to this that, in my case, I even have troubles grasping the words when lyrics are not available on print - like in the alternative Baby, Baby. Further trouble is when subtleties are expressed without words, and this is quite often the case with Sparks' music, where plenty of quotes and digressions make the path hard to follow.
Do you guess where is the miracle? That at first listening everything seems so simple and crystal clear! Like in Perfume: it's apparently just a catchy tune... but the problem is that the charts are full of catchy tunes, the difference is that, mostly, behind the shiny curtain, there's nothing else. How to address people to the difference? And I'm back to my point: with a big slap in their face, or a blow in their stomach, if you prefer.
;-)
Marco |
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E-Clect-Eddy
Sparks Guru
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 7555
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 11:15 am Post subject: |
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| Uhu_Rodion wrote: | | Someway I think you're right, I thought too there were some echoes of Indiscreet into HYL - but here we go: through so many stylistic changes, Sparks music always keep peculiar characteristics that make it instantly recognizable - at least to devotees. |
I'd say there are a lot of 'echoes' of Indistcreet on some HYL songs. Expanding on that rather than re-using it, characteristics i'd call chambermusic-ish. Are R&R going for chambermusic with synths, drums and guitars?
| Quote: | | About using more real instruments, I think that - apart from the obvious reason it would have hugely inflated the costs - this was made on purpose; looking at those pics of the concerts that you so generously shared (how envious I am!) |
Besides sharing my big mouth i haven't shared any photos, just my admiration of the good work on part of the photographer who's name i've forgotten > Ocean + Forum gigs. Real instruments/musicians don't have to cost much if you've got enough friends. But are you now talking of the live-sets cos i was talking about the making of the album.
| Quote: | | Subtleties are a hard matter indeed when English is not your mother language; add to this that, in my case, I even have troubles grasping the words when lyrics are not available on print - like in the alternative Baby, Baby. Further trouble is when subtleties are expressed without words, and this is quite often the case with Sparks' music, where plenty of quotes and digressions make the path hard to follow. |
Yes, daily-English-speaking folks will get more of the fun and pun and deeper layers in the lyrics than those that don't which explains why most fans are from those countires. That's a big handycap for them and us that live in those countries that don't have English as main language.
| Quote: | | Do you guess where is the miracle? That at first listening everything seems so simple and crystal clear! Like in Perfume: it's apparently just a catchy tune... but the problem is that the charts are full of catchy tunes, the difference is that, mostly, behind the shiny curtain, there's nothing else. How to address people to the difference? And I'm back to my point: with a big slap in their face, or a blow in their stomach, if you prefer. ;-) Marco |
For lots of folks a shiny curtain is all they want, they will not like SPARKS unless it's highly danceable or has a catchy refrain or if it's played to death on radio/tv. I'm also guessing not everybody wants to have songs explained to them either, like they need to be told. Nor do they want deeper meanings or things other than the obviouse. I think most won't get it if they heard it anyway but it might reach some and so give R&R another chance to continue with their love for making music. I'm with you on the choice for AS I SIT....
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"
www.last.fm/user/E-Clect-Eddy |
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Uhu_Rodion
Power Groupie
Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Posts: 353
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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Hi, Eddy,
| Quote: | | I'd say there are a lot of 'echoes' of Indistcreet on some HYL songs. Expanding on that rather than re-using it, characteristics i'd call chambermusic-ish. Are R&R going for chambermusic with synths, drums and guitars? |
I agree if you refer to the instruments employed, and the "flavour" of several tracks is similar, but beyond that I see a big difference - I can't find a better word - in the attitude, which seems to me darker and a lot more brooding in HYL (as well as in all the latest albums since Interior Design - a sort of tendency); more, it seems to me that the Maels really kept their promise, when they stated they had their song handbook thrown away - the tracks on HYL can hardly be still called "songs" - their structure defies most of the rules we're so accustomed to, and not only on As I Sit.
I recall I read on an interview Ron saying that, at present, he's listening at Shostakovich, Billy Holiday, and a third name I forgot. This should be a good hint. Shostakovich is well known for his string chamber music, but a lot more for the gorgeous orchestras he assembled for his symphonies. Multi-layered sections of strings and brass and percussions, often in strict contrapunct; a quite free use of harmony, though still firm into the tonal system; melodies eeeeeeextremely long; a peculiar sense for quoting and self-quoting, and a lively sense of humour which often bordered with self-irony.
(In brackets, I know you might not care less but, because of Mozart, it's passing totally unnoticed that this year is also the centennial of Shostakovich birth - 1906/1975.)
I'd be curious to know your opinion on what kind of influence Billy Holiday can have... I still can't figure out.
| Quote: | | Besides sharing my big mouth i haven't shared any photos, just my admiration of the good work on part of the photographer. Real instruments/musicians don't have to cost much if you've got enough friends. But are you now talking of the live-sets cos i was talking about the making of the album. |
Ehr, here I used "you" referring to the forum community in general, and in the heat of the writing got confused... sorry ;-)
Anyway, just to put one more sausage on the barbecue, this things of real instruments...
At first, I start always thinking nothing from the Maels is unintentional; so, if they use "fake" instruments, there must be a reason - the fact that what we hear in the CD is specularly reflected on the stage, or so it seems to me from the reports I read here, should be a further proof of it; of course, I'm drooling after the release of a DVD, so to get confirmations, and share at least part of the excitement of many members here.
Another clue: since LB, "a Sparks' show" means a first part literally replicating the CD, and a second one with a "normal" sequence of songs.
The first part is like when you read a Sheakespeare's drama on the book, and then you go to the theatre to see it: obviously, you expect all the roles and the parts to be respected. So it happens with R&R: it's a live representation of a "drama" in "n" acts.
Making there to appear a true saxophone, or a true organ, would be to deceit the spirit of the play, (instruments like characters - note that Ron keyboard is called Ronald - written using Roland original font) and having a Casio sax on stage in place of a real one in the CD would be inconsistent. More than a matter of "which intruments where", it seems to me it's like "what is this here for".
I start thinking I'm talking rubbish... maybe I'm better to go in stand-by for a bit ;-)
Marco |
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E-Clect-Eddy
Sparks Guru
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 7555
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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@Uhu_Rodion
brains are definetifely overcooking. I'm no classicalmusic expert, i don't even like much of it anyway... just small doses. Structures is altogether another subject apart from the real-instruments-issue. I think it's just the way 'the boys' work that sampled sounds/synths are used rather than real musicians/instruments hired. In the eighties it was already debated real versus synth. Some songs definetively sound better with synths how inadequate they be/sound at time. Other songs than again would sound horrible if synths/samples had been used (par example Simon&Garfunkel). Am i correct to say R&R have a HOME-Studio? Most musicians wanna have 'em but in the end they cost more to set up, buildt and songs often will be reworked anyway in another (professional) studio. Musicians spendt more time than on technical issues and the actual songwriting moves to second place and the joy of making music escapes ... alas i've been there. Working on songs take up more time because you do wanna get that violin to sound as a real violin. You end up spending more time on samplesounddetails that a real musician with instrument can do in a days work.
However if R&R are on the bandwagon casi/spectrum/commodore revival that is going on than i sure hope it'll pass us by quickly. It was fun then but no repeats please. I loved it then because you got weird electronic sounds sequenced into some sort of song. More soundeffects than actual craftmanship. I liked POPCORN when it was on the radio in the early seventies but i would not buy any album today that would do that again. Who's up for that great international dutch hit > birdsong by electronicas? 
Shakespear > i liked Al Pacino in that movie, and Siobhan Fahey + Marcella Detroit > Stay, with meeeeeeeeeeeeee 
Billy Holiday...blues...have to think. No i haven't got it. Where does that fit into Sparks songs? If Shostakovich and Mozart lived today they be on MTV with synths/ samplers/ sequencers/ computers spanking that monkey... sex, drug and rock'n'roll. Yo Ho Ho...
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"
www.last.fm/user/E-Clect-Eddy |
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Uhu_Rodion
Power Groupie
Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Posts: 353
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:30 am Post subject: |
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LOL! Popcorn... I remember that, funny indeed, but I agree with you totally - I'd never buy music made like that today... well, I didn't in the past either 
And, yes, you're right, working all by themselves allows a greater freedom, but lenghtens the process; I guess the endless overdubbing job the Maels had to do for HYL must have been quite stressing!
I was wondering... somewhere else here in this forum, members suggested future involvements with a producer, just in order to release creative power and leave behind part of the assembling work... any idea? I have a name in mind, but not sure he would fit.
;-)
Marco |
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E-Clect-Eddy
Sparks Guru
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 7555
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject: |
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This pollstation is still open. Have you voted already? Have we got a hit-single on Hello Young Lovers? Would you have prefered it to Perfume?
Would Sparks alienate themself from the charts with There's No Such Thing As Aliens? The truth is out there... very very far away. Don't turn your back on this one... they're a fun bunch of guys.
Would the scatting cats video for Here Kitty not be an instand (visual) hit!? There is nothing outthere like it, Scatman John (R.I.P.) sold more than 2,5 million and proofed that in 1995. He got to sing it his way.... and succeeded very well. Here Kitty!
If you love Perfume than you need to vote, does (almost) nobody support R&R to have released this one first!??
VOTE 
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"
www.last.fm/user/E-Clect-Eddy |
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powpowpow
Sparkologist
Joined: 20 Feb 2006
Posts: 572
Location: london
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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hmm i'm beginning to think that perfume was probably the right lead single - not overly attention grabbing, but the album and single have got sparks a fair bit of media coverage.. the second single will be dick around (yes yes yes please, i'm hoping anyway), the name sparks will already be floating around in people's heads, and BANG top 40 at least! age old trick..
releasing waterproof after perfume would be terrible, the two tracks are almost equivalent in my head, and the non-album owning public would readily assume (and with good reason) that that's what new sparks sounds like.
the hyl promo of edits floating around only has perfume/metaphor/dick around/waterproof on, so i'm assuming they're the only possibilities for singles. perfume is just toes in water territory. warmer weather, dick around, wowow it'll go far..
dick around dick around dick around dick around dick around dick around
all seven minutes, no edits
dick around
yes yes yes yes yes |
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E-Clect-Eddy
Sparks Guru
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 7555
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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Hi powpowpow i think i have to agree on the idea that Waterproof should NOT be the next single for the same reasons you mention. It's a beautiful song which should have been released maybe as a first or third. Perfume surely belongs on radio/tv maybe moreso than Waterproof but that's how it now stands. I love Waterproof but think it won't make enough of a splash.
If it's true that only Waterproof, Metaphor, Dick Around and Perfume are single-candidates than i think DA is the best choice. I agree that Dick Around has got a lot going for it and my defences are wearing down to the Darkness influences. I don't wanna knock Justin's work. I've been to their concert here and that was great while it lasted. Thing is i can't remember any of his songs even if my girlfriend at the time put that cd on a couple of times. Many also seem to think his is a joke band rather than a fun band. So it should be rework before releasing DA. I still think the best choice is As I Sit To Play The Organ At Notre Dame Cathedral. My defences towards Metaphor are also caving in. The harmonies are great even if most of the song leaves me empty, there is a bit of go-go's feel i like. I think it also needs work before it can be used as a single. Who's up for a re-mix? You wouldn't dream of mixing them?
So were are those that wanna Rock, Rock, Rock?
VOTING IS FREE 
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"
www.last.fm/user/E-Clect-Eddy |
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parus
Groupie
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Posts: 247
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:35 am Post subject: |
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I have said elsewhere, and I am saying it again:
"Can I Invade Your Country" could easily be made a hit with the right marketing and a single/radio mix with a 4-on-the-floor kick drum (if we can snatch it back from the rhythm thief for a few minutes).
Then again, if Sparks had wanted a single hit on those premises, they would have done that already, so who am I to even suggest it?
Still, singles are wastly over-rated as a popularity measurement. Single sales in most markets are so small that a shopping mall signing tour can make the difference between not charting at all and reaching top three. In Sweden (population 8½ million), singles reportedly sell on average seven (7) copies.
Maybe download sales can make the single concept relevant again. Until then, two words: "compilation albums".
/MSj
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"But the pressure is on, and I can't make up nothing special" |
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E-Clect-Eddy
Sparks Guru
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 7555
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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Voting is still open but once the hurt/heal game Hello Lil Young Beethoven Lover is done i call it a day!
So what song is the best to release...?
Parus
i'm with you on compilation albums and on stuff about single sales did the Artic Monkey not become very pupulair tru internet / myspace / downloads? Wasn't there a band recently that got a number one without before the actual material single(s) ever reached the stores?
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"Somebody's been putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!"
www.last.fm/user/E-Clect-Eddy |
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