Showing posts with label AC/DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AC/DC. Show all posts
Friday, 30 September 2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
AC/DC Drug Bust
AC/DC Drug Bust was a top story in December.
AC/DC frontman Phil Rudd real name Phillip Hugh Normnan Witschke Rudzevecis, he has been guilty for being on possession of cannabis and his criminal record could affect the band's future touring plans.
His lawyer 56 years old asked that to be discharged because a court definitely could affect his job.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Surprise hit AC/DC
AUSTRALIAN fast bowler Doug Bollinger was bemused by the revelation that England's batsmen were being blasted with AC/DC tunes to force them to focus harder on the bowling in the practice nets at their indoor cricket centre.
The Ashes tour to help prepare, at the indoor center the temperature is increased quite a few uncomfortable degrees to simulate Australia's summer conditions. England have also imported from the US a high tech batting machine that replicates any bowler's action.
But their choice of music surprised Bollinger most of all.
The Ashes tour to help prepare, at the indoor center the temperature is increased quite a few uncomfortable degrees to simulate Australia's summer conditions. England have also imported from the US a high tech batting machine that replicates any bowler's action.
But their choice of music surprised Bollinger most of all.
''I don't understand it,'' he said with a hint of a grin. ''I don't like AC/DC, so I won't be singing any of their songs (to the English).''
The paceman described his current tour of England - which resulted in a one-day series loss to England and a drawn Test series with Pakistan - as a learning curve. He said the biggest lesson was to expect Ashes mania. Also, competition for a spot in the attack would be fierce.
''We tried to concentrate on the series, but it was hard to escape the Ashes because everyone was hyping it up over there,'' he said. ''I'm focusing on the Indian series to ensure I get a game in the Ashes. Competition is tough - we have so many good bowlers. Ryan Harris is coming back (from injury). Peter Siddle is as well.
''Everyone has to be on top of their game, and that's good because it means we'll all have to work harder.''
The paceman described his current tour of England - which resulted in a one-day series loss to England and a drawn Test series with Pakistan - as a learning curve. He said the biggest lesson was to expect Ashes mania. Also, competition for a spot in the attack would be fierce.
''We tried to concentrate on the series, but it was hard to escape the Ashes because everyone was hyping it up over there,'' he said. ''I'm focusing on the Indian series to ensure I get a game in the Ashes. Competition is tough - we have so many good bowlers. Ryan Harris is coming back (from injury). Peter Siddle is as well.
''Everyone has to be on top of their game, and that's good because it means we'll all have to work harder.''
Friday, 28 May 2010
AC/DC and Vaya Con Dios play Poland
Belgian group Vaya Con Dios is appearing in Zabrze, southern Poland, Thursday night, while Australian rock veterans AC/DC are billed at
The Silesian audience at the Music and Dance Stage in
Hard rock enthusiasts in Warsaw will have a treat with “Highway To Hell” and a long list of favorites they last heard back in August 1991 when AC/DC performed in Chorzow Stadium, down south.
Some 50,000 tickets have been sold for the open air concert in the capital. City transit authorities inThursday, 1 April 2010
The Back Ice Tour.
Two weeks from today, the Black Ice Tour makes its triumphant return to North America when it rolls into Vegas, but this week the band continued to enjoy some time off while continuing to prep for the shows. Good luck to all those who entered to win tickets, whether you donned a superhero cape and did the duck walk or dubbed yourself "The Weirdo" and dressed up in a questionable "costume." While you wait to find out if you won, the Acca Dacca action just keeps coming.
For European fans, this summer's list of Black Ice Tour dates grew even larger, as the band added two June dates in Spain to the calendar--one on June 26th in Seville and another on June 28th in Bilbao. Tickets for both these shows go on sale April 22nd at 10am (local time). As usual, at the same time that tickets go on sale to the general public, ACDC.com will hold a members-only Fan Club Onsale from a separate allotment with reserved seats and general admission tickets for these shows. Head over to the ACDC.com Tickets page for more information. If you're not a member but want to take part, join today for ticket access and more AC/DC that you can 'shake a leg' at.
For European fans, this summer's list of Black Ice Tour dates grew even larger, as the band added two June dates in Spain to the calendar--one on June 26th in Seville and another on June 28th in Bilbao. Tickets for both these shows go on sale April 22nd at 10am (local time). As usual, at the same time that tickets go on sale to the general public, ACDC.com will hold a members-only Fan Club Onsale from a separate allotment with reserved seats and general admission tickets for these shows. Head over to the ACDC.com Tickets page for more information. If you're not a member but want to take part, join today for ticket access and more AC/DC that you can 'shake a leg' at.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
New Orleans Arena, AC/DC packed a formidable and familiar punch
In an unstable world, it is good that some things never different. AC/DC is one such thing.
For counting and 36 years, the quintet has trafficked in a blues based form of hard rock ‘n’ roll served up with a naughty wink. They do not pander with power ballads. They do not experiment with drum loops. And they most certainly do not rap.
The band’s 1980 masterwork “Back In Black” is, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, the fifth best selling album of all time in the United States, at 22 million copies and counting. Many of the songs on that album would work just as well on any other AC/DC album – except, perhaps, a couple of lame late-‘80s efforts – and vice-versa.
As evidenced by AC/DC’s Wednesday night show at a not-quite-full New Orleans Arena, not only does the song remain the same, but the presentation as well. Lead guitarist Angus Young, at 54, still vamps in his crushed-velvet schoolboy uniform. Vocalist Brian Johnson still wears his working-guy tight jeans, motorcycle boots, sleeveless shirt and flat cap.
As for the rest of the band, drummer Phil Rudd, bassist Cliff Williams and guitarist Malcolm Young look like guys who collect tickets at a traveling carnival’s Ferris wheel. They could easily pass for members of their own road crew.
But collectively, they rank among the tightest, most dependable rhythm sections in rock. They are why AC/DC songs are so popular in strip clubs; their groove speaks directly to the hips.
They formed three legs of a tripod. Malcolm Young and Williams stood rooted in place on either side of Rudd’s kit, except when they ventured forth in unison to add backing vocals. Vocal chores complete, they retreated to their stations. During Angus’s finale of a solo, they stood patiently, arms folded across their instruments, until their contributions were again required. As usual, they resumed exactly in place and in time.
So it went for two hours. Hundreds of souvenir red devil horns flickered red throughout the arena; one could also purchase an Angus Young school boy tie for $35. An opening cartoon starring our heroes in a PG-13 adventure aboard a “Rock ‘n Roll Train” gave way to the song of the same name and a smoking, life-size locomotive that served as the stage backdrop.
As far as arena rock props go, the train managed to walk that fine line between awesomeness and Spinal Tap-esque excess. So, too, the giant inflatable floozy – her bosoms were taller than the Young brothers – that straddled the locomotive during “Whole Lotta Rosie.”
During his traditional striptease in “The Jack,” Young dropped his shorts. In years past, he flashed a full moon. In his only concession to advancing years, this time he revealed only a pair of AC/DC boxers.
Otherwise he was his manic old self, a perpetual motion machine whose solos in “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” and elsewhere were spot on. Happily, he is a rock guitarist who still remembers how, and why, to solo. His sources go back to the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll and beyond. The hard blues that cranked over the P.A. as the pre-show music is an obvious influence. His duck walk is straight-up Chuck Berry.
Unlike, say, Eddie Van Halen, Young remains in full possession of both his abilities and the willingness and focus to deploy them. “Let There Be Rock” ended the regular set with an epic Angus guitar excursion. Camera operators had the good sense to project a close-up of his fingers on the 30-foot-tall center screen, so all could bear witness to the details.
Johnson was, as usual, the whole arena’s best mate. How, at 62, he sustains his voice – it is the sound of gravel being gargled – for two hours a night, let alone a months-long tour, is a mystery. He ranged back and forth across the stage and the runway that extended halfway across the arena’s floor, grinning, enjoying himself and making sure those in attendance did as well.
With few exceptions – the sleazy, slow-blues bump ‘n grind of “The Jack,” the bombast of “For Those About to Rock” – AC/DC sticks to a familiar tone and tempo. Material from 2008’s “Black Ice,” the band’s first studio album in eight years, coexisted amicably with the classics. “Thunderstruck,” questionable in its studio version, benefited from a live treatment.
No one does AC/DC better than AC/DC, and they are as potent as ever. The staggering riffage of “Hell’s Bells,” the nearly-tipping-over-the-side-of-the-freeway rush of “Shoot to Thrill,” the curt, snarling guitars of “TNT,” the dirty boogie of “Whole Lotta Rosie” – it’s all still intact.
Early on, in “Back in Black,” Johnson changed the “I’m back” line to “we’re back.” But AC/DC has never really gone – or faded -- away.
For counting and 36 years, the quintet has trafficked in a blues based form of hard rock ‘n’ roll served up with a naughty wink. They do not pander with power ballads. They do not experiment with drum loops. And they most certainly do not rap.
The band’s 1980 masterwork “Back In Black” is, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, the fifth best selling album of all time in the United States, at 22 million copies and counting. Many of the songs on that album would work just as well on any other AC/DC album – except, perhaps, a couple of lame late-‘80s efforts – and vice-versa.
As evidenced by AC/DC’s Wednesday night show at a not-quite-full New Orleans Arena, not only does the song remain the same, but the presentation as well. Lead guitarist Angus Young, at 54, still vamps in his crushed-velvet schoolboy uniform. Vocalist Brian Johnson still wears his working-guy tight jeans, motorcycle boots, sleeveless shirt and flat cap.
As for the rest of the band, drummer Phil Rudd, bassist Cliff Williams and guitarist Malcolm Young look like guys who collect tickets at a traveling carnival’s Ferris wheel. They could easily pass for members of their own road crew.
But collectively, they rank among the tightest, most dependable rhythm sections in rock. They are why AC/DC songs are so popular in strip clubs; their groove speaks directly to the hips.
They formed three legs of a tripod. Malcolm Young and Williams stood rooted in place on either side of Rudd’s kit, except when they ventured forth in unison to add backing vocals. Vocal chores complete, they retreated to their stations. During Angus’s finale of a solo, they stood patiently, arms folded across their instruments, until their contributions were again required. As usual, they resumed exactly in place and in time.
So it went for two hours. Hundreds of souvenir red devil horns flickered red throughout the arena; one could also purchase an Angus Young school boy tie for $35. An opening cartoon starring our heroes in a PG-13 adventure aboard a “Rock ‘n Roll Train” gave way to the song of the same name and a smoking, life-size locomotive that served as the stage backdrop.
As far as arena rock props go, the train managed to walk that fine line between awesomeness and Spinal Tap-esque excess. So, too, the giant inflatable floozy – her bosoms were taller than the Young brothers – that straddled the locomotive during “Whole Lotta Rosie.”
During his traditional striptease in “The Jack,” Young dropped his shorts. In years past, he flashed a full moon. In his only concession to advancing years, this time he revealed only a pair of AC/DC boxers.
Otherwise he was his manic old self, a perpetual motion machine whose solos in “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” and elsewhere were spot on. Happily, he is a rock guitarist who still remembers how, and why, to solo. His sources go back to the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll and beyond. The hard blues that cranked over the P.A. as the pre-show music is an obvious influence. His duck walk is straight-up Chuck Berry.
Unlike, say, Eddie Van Halen, Young remains in full possession of both his abilities and the willingness and focus to deploy them. “Let There Be Rock” ended the regular set with an epic Angus guitar excursion. Camera operators had the good sense to project a close-up of his fingers on the 30-foot-tall center screen, so all could bear witness to the details.
Johnson was, as usual, the whole arena’s best mate. How, at 62, he sustains his voice – it is the sound of gravel being gargled – for two hours a night, let alone a months-long tour, is a mystery. He ranged back and forth across the stage and the runway that extended halfway across the arena’s floor, grinning, enjoying himself and making sure those in attendance did as well.
With few exceptions – the sleazy, slow-blues bump ‘n grind of “The Jack,” the bombast of “For Those About to Rock” – AC/DC sticks to a familiar tone and tempo. Material from 2008’s “Black Ice,” the band’s first studio album in eight years, coexisted amicably with the classics. “Thunderstruck,” questionable in its studio version, benefited from a live treatment.
No one does AC/DC better than AC/DC, and they are as potent as ever. The staggering riffage of “Hell’s Bells,” the nearly-tipping-over-the-side-of-the-freeway rush of “Shoot to Thrill,” the curt, snarling guitars of “TNT,” the dirty boogie of “Whole Lotta Rosie” – it’s all still intact.
Early on, in “Back in Black,” Johnson changed the “I’m back” line to “we’re back.” But AC/DC has never really gone – or faded -- away.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Record staff with offer to sign AC/DC record 'Scruffy geezer' stuns Keswick
So co-owner David Lomas thought nothing of it when he saw a “scruffy geezer in a flat cap” browsing through the vinyl albums at the St John’s Street shop currently.
The man brought one record to the counter.
The rock band AC/DC was Back In Back.
Released in 1980, this is one of the best selling albums of all time, having shifted something in the region of 40m copies.
“Would you like me to sign it?” asked the customer.
“Er... who are you?” replied David.
“I’m the singer.”
Yes, the scruffy geezer was AC/DC front man Brian Johnson, whose gravelly voice is one of the most familiar in rock music.
David was glad to let Brian sign the album and the signature quickly made the record a very lucrative item.
So lucrative that another customer offered to buy it there and then.
The price was raised from £8 to £25 and the deal was done.
Mark Stainton, another of the shop’s three co-owners, tells Reiver: “David didn’t recognise him. He does the books, not the records.
“He wouldn’t recognise Madonna if she came in wearing a pointy bra.
“I got a phone call from David just afterwards. He’d looked on the internet and seen pictures of Brian. He said he looked just the same as he does on stage, in his flat cap.”
Johnson, now 62, is from Gateshead. His main home is in Florida but he has been seen in the Lakes before.
Although its members are nearing retirement age, AC/DC are still going strong.
The band’s most recent album, Black Ice, reached number one last year.
Johnson joins Paul McCartney on the short list of famous musicians who shop in Cumbria; McCartney having said that he enjoys shopping in Carlisle because he can apparently do so without being recognised.
As for AC/DC, Reiver wonders if their singer’s love of Cumbria might inspire them to re-record some of their best-known songs?
Perhaps we can look forward to Back in Blackford, Highway to Helvellyn and Whole Lotta Rosley.
The man brought one record to the counter.
The rock band AC/DC was Back In Back.
Released in 1980, this is one of the best selling albums of all time, having shifted something in the region of 40m copies.
“Would you like me to sign it?” asked the customer.
“Er... who are you?” replied David.
“I’m the singer.”
Yes, the scruffy geezer was AC/DC front man Brian Johnson, whose gravelly voice is one of the most familiar in rock music.
David was glad to let Brian sign the album and the signature quickly made the record a very lucrative item.
So lucrative that another customer offered to buy it there and then.
The price was raised from £8 to £25 and the deal was done.
Mark Stainton, another of the shop’s three co-owners, tells Reiver: “David didn’t recognise him. He does the books, not the records.
“He wouldn’t recognise Madonna if she came in wearing a pointy bra.
“I got a phone call from David just afterwards. He’d looked on the internet and seen pictures of Brian. He said he looked just the same as he does on stage, in his flat cap.”
Johnson, now 62, is from Gateshead. His main home is in Florida but he has been seen in the Lakes before.
Although its members are nearing retirement age, AC/DC are still going strong.
The band’s most recent album, Black Ice, reached number one last year.
Johnson joins Paul McCartney on the short list of famous musicians who shop in Cumbria; McCartney having said that he enjoys shopping in Carlisle because he can apparently do so without being recognised.
As for AC/DC, Reiver wonders if their singer’s love of Cumbria might inspire them to re-record some of their best-known songs?
Perhaps we can look forward to Back in Blackford, Highway to Helvellyn and Whole Lotta Rosley.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
AC/DC: Argentina, Brazil Dates Announced
Anglo Australian hard rockers AC/DC will send on a tour of South America in late November/early December. Confirmed dates so far are as follows:Nov. 27 - Sao Paulo, BRA @ Morumbi Stadium Dec. 02 - Buenos Aires, ARG @ River Plate StadiumFan-filmed video picture of AC/DC performing the song "Rock N Roll Train" on July 31, 2009 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey can be viewed below.AC/DC made Forbes magazine's list of Top Earning Musicians list of the year, with MADONNA, CELINE DION and BEYONCÉ taking the top three spots. Says Forbes: "The Aussie rock band fronted by aging schoolboy Angus Young tied for No. 5 on this year's list of top earners thanks to their apparently relentless popularity. Their fall 2008 effort, 'Black Ice', was the band's first album in eight years. Sales of 'Ice' combined with international catalog sales made AC/DC the No. 1 catalog artist of 2008. As well, their domestic tour grossed $38 million in 2008."
Friday, 28 August 2009
ROCK ON IN THE RAIN AC/DC
AC DC refused to halt their outdoor show in Edmonton, Canada on Tuesday night (25Aug09) after the venue was hit by a monumental electric storm .Wild weather conditions thrashed the city's Commonwealth Stadium just before the Back In Black hitmakers took the stage, with thunder and lightning rocking the region. But the band was intransigent the show would go on and took to the stage in spite of the storm, with heavy rain descending on the 60,000-strong crowd an hour into the show. The rockers were forced to halt the show when a giant inflatable devil horn joined to the side of the rigging collapsed in the wet, but the band continued as soon as the prop was removed by technicians.
Monday, 24 August 2009
Makes a party to AC/DC
Poking around the parking lot prior to the AC/DC show at Canad Inns Stadium yesterday afternoon, a party from the Saskatchewan town requisition top prize for for the best tail gate. And it wasn't even close.
Sorry, Winnipeg.
Hours before the Australian rockers took to the stage, a group of about 20 Esterhazians in two RVs got down to business, enjoying their trip to the Manitoba capital by shaking it all night long.
"We got here (Friday night), checked out the peelers, went to a few bars and saw MC Hammer," said a rather festive Brad Nicholausol, not at all baffled by the list of events his AC/DC Eve necessitate.
The rural Manitoba rocker was also represented last night.
Near the Esterhazy RV Park was a group from St. Pierre, St. Malo, and Ste. Agathe. Five adolescent, all with their shirts off and the letters A-C-/-D-C painted on their chests.
On the backs, a similar tribute, with A-N-G-U-S painted in bright red.
"The country is where the party's at," laughed Al Baudry, a father who was supporting this team.
According to Shirlee Preteau, vice president of event process with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, more than 36% of the tickets sold for the Black Ice world tour stop were bought from outside the city.
"They range all the way from Victoria to Newfoundland, from up in Yellowknife down to New Mexico," she said.
Angie Martin started her AC/DC journey from Portage la Prairie. With her young son Gavin be her side and a few merchandise trinkets in her aplomb, her anticipation of watching guitar legend Angus Young dance around the stage in his schoolboy out fit was sky high.
"The radio was playing their songs and you're getting goosebumps all the way in," she said. "They got the good music. Hard tunes ... and they got Angus."
Angus was certainly connected in with the local AC/DC circuit last night. While a few dudes looked very much the part as Brian Johnson (with the black curls creeping out from under his flat cap), the Angus costume knows no gender bounds.
"This will be the best show of the year, by far," Lorette native Riley Pichlyk predicted, as a girl walked past the conversation dressed in full Angus-gear.
Despite the popularity of the event, the promoters at True North Sports and Entertainment and police did not take any special measures to ward off scalpers and those looking to flip their tickets.
AC/DC also took steps to abash scalpers on the Internet. The first 3,000 tickets that were sold are only available for pick up at 2 p.m. yesterday -- ensuring a small window for a cyber re-sale.
adam.wazny@sunmedia.ca
Sorry, Winnipeg.
Hours before the Australian rockers took to the stage, a group of about 20 Esterhazians in two RVs got down to business, enjoying their trip to the Manitoba capital by shaking it all night long.
"We got here (Friday night), checked out the peelers, went to a few bars and saw MC Hammer," said a rather festive Brad Nicholausol, not at all baffled by the list of events his AC/DC Eve necessitate.
The rural Manitoba rocker was also represented last night.
Near the Esterhazy RV Park was a group from St. Pierre, St. Malo, and Ste. Agathe. Five adolescent, all with their shirts off and the letters A-C-/-D-C painted on their chests.
On the backs, a similar tribute, with A-N-G-U-S painted in bright red.
"The country is where the party's at," laughed Al Baudry, a father who was supporting this team.
According to Shirlee Preteau, vice president of event process with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, more than 36% of the tickets sold for the Black Ice world tour stop were bought from outside the city.
"They range all the way from Victoria to Newfoundland, from up in Yellowknife down to New Mexico," she said.
Angie Martin started her AC/DC journey from Portage la Prairie. With her young son Gavin be her side and a few merchandise trinkets in her aplomb, her anticipation of watching guitar legend Angus Young dance around the stage in his schoolboy out fit was sky high.
"The radio was playing their songs and you're getting goosebumps all the way in," she said. "They got the good music. Hard tunes ... and they got Angus."
Angus was certainly connected in with the local AC/DC circuit last night. While a few dudes looked very much the part as Brian Johnson (with the black curls creeping out from under his flat cap), the Angus costume knows no gender bounds.
"This will be the best show of the year, by far," Lorette native Riley Pichlyk predicted, as a girl walked past the conversation dressed in full Angus-gear.
Despite the popularity of the event, the promoters at True North Sports and Entertainment and police did not take any special measures to ward off scalpers and those looking to flip their tickets.
AC/DC also took steps to abash scalpers on the Internet. The first 3,000 tickets that were sold are only available for pick up at 2 p.m. yesterday -- ensuring a small window for a cyber re-sale.
adam.wazny@sunmedia.ca
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Why less is always more the genius of AC/DC?
One note amazement abound in rock ‘n’ roll, and the leering king of them all is headlining Friday at the United Center. I say this with all due respect and affection: AC/DC is one of the best rock bridle of all time.
But leader they are not. They are what they are, and they really haven’t changed a whole lot since they started raising a ruckus in Australian biker bars in the early ‘70s. Angus Young wore his trademark schoolboy knickers and beanie back then, and he does now. Brother Malcolm Young and his rhythm guitar still tend to the almighty groove like a hawk guarding its young against beast of prey. And singer Brian Johnson (and before him the great Bon Scott) still screams and struts like he’s Jack the Ripper on the hunt. They mix juvenile humor with pithy (and sometimes abstruse) observations about sex, death and drinking. They come apposite it as regular, blue-collar guys because they once were (and still are to a large amount, despite their multimillionaire status). Their accomplishment has come on the back of hard work and on one of the most reliable, bang for the buck agreement experiences anyone could wish for. No posh rock star attitude for these guys. Just a party that swings like a wrecking ball.
Now Johnson’s voice is pretty much shot, and Angus Young isn’t the active kid he used to be when he band down to his shorts and does whirlybirds on his back while soloing. But beauty and youth was never the point. These guys always looked like they belonged in a alley gang alternately of a band. What endures is their sense of fun, their unrepentant love of blues-based rock ‘n’ roll, those titanic riffs, and Malcolm Young’s undeniable sense of groove and grind. With any justice, he’d be as big as Keith Richards, but Malcolm has always chosen to remain in the shadows, content to toil in the band’s engine room alongside chain-smoking drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams.
So what if every AC/DC song more or less sounds the same (admit it, it’s not absolutely a broad palette these guys play with)? Angus and Malcolm Young learned to play listening to Chicago blues records, which in turn drew upon the oral convention and one chord songs of the Mississippi Delta blues. This was not an art form that celebrated formal design. This was a language based on nicety and personality much more so than complex arranging and songcraft. The art is in how it simultaneously celebrates and reconfigures the source material; the sound loses allure and power the farther it isolated from that fundamental feel (think of all the really bad tourist blues bands you’ve seen play in motel concourse across the land; same chords, same words, but still sadly lacking the brio and bravado of greatness). And so AC/DC sticks to what it does best. It scraps to change, to adapt, to ride the chir style.
They are matched in their resolve by only a handful of bands. The Ramones and Motorhead spring quickly to mind. So do the Cocteau Twins and Bad Religion. All these bands developed iconic, signature sounds and made at fewest a dozen (if not more) records that as the matter of fact refined it, but especially strayed from the source. Critics tend to beat up bands for not innovating, but in the cast of these outfits, it’s like they made up their own language, and speak it like no one else. They’ve achieve their sense of unwavering style.
It’s also difficult to complain about truth in packaging. Whenever you got an AC/DC or Ramones album, you often knew what it was going to sound like before you even played it. At their performance, you’d go in knowing how you were going to come out three hours later: with a giddy, satisfied smile on your face.
But leader they are not. They are what they are, and they really haven’t changed a whole lot since they started raising a ruckus in Australian biker bars in the early ‘70s. Angus Young wore his trademark schoolboy knickers and beanie back then, and he does now. Brother Malcolm Young and his rhythm guitar still tend to the almighty groove like a hawk guarding its young against beast of prey. And singer Brian Johnson (and before him the great Bon Scott) still screams and struts like he’s Jack the Ripper on the hunt. They mix juvenile humor with pithy (and sometimes abstruse) observations about sex, death and drinking. They come apposite it as regular, blue-collar guys because they once were (and still are to a large amount, despite their multimillionaire status). Their accomplishment has come on the back of hard work and on one of the most reliable, bang for the buck agreement experiences anyone could wish for. No posh rock star attitude for these guys. Just a party that swings like a wrecking ball.
Now Johnson’s voice is pretty much shot, and Angus Young isn’t the active kid he used to be when he band down to his shorts and does whirlybirds on his back while soloing. But beauty and youth was never the point. These guys always looked like they belonged in a alley gang alternately of a band. What endures is their sense of fun, their unrepentant love of blues-based rock ‘n’ roll, those titanic riffs, and Malcolm Young’s undeniable sense of groove and grind. With any justice, he’d be as big as Keith Richards, but Malcolm has always chosen to remain in the shadows, content to toil in the band’s engine room alongside chain-smoking drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams.
So what if every AC/DC song more or less sounds the same (admit it, it’s not absolutely a broad palette these guys play with)? Angus and Malcolm Young learned to play listening to Chicago blues records, which in turn drew upon the oral convention and one chord songs of the Mississippi Delta blues. This was not an art form that celebrated formal design. This was a language based on nicety and personality much more so than complex arranging and songcraft. The art is in how it simultaneously celebrates and reconfigures the source material; the sound loses allure and power the farther it isolated from that fundamental feel (think of all the really bad tourist blues bands you’ve seen play in motel concourse across the land; same chords, same words, but still sadly lacking the brio and bravado of greatness). And so AC/DC sticks to what it does best. It scraps to change, to adapt, to ride the chir style.
They are matched in their resolve by only a handful of bands. The Ramones and Motorhead spring quickly to mind. So do the Cocteau Twins and Bad Religion. All these bands developed iconic, signature sounds and made at fewest a dozen (if not more) records that as the matter of fact refined it, but especially strayed from the source. Critics tend to beat up bands for not innovating, but in the cast of these outfits, it’s like they made up their own language, and speak it like no one else. They’ve achieve their sense of unwavering style.
It’s also difficult to complain about truth in packaging. Whenever you got an AC/DC or Ramones album, you often knew what it was going to sound like before you even played it. At their performance, you’d go in knowing how you were going to come out three hours later: with a giddy, satisfied smile on your face.
Saturday, 11 April 2009
AC/DC Rock N Roll Train Live at Wachovia Arena
This should be a cracking rock band for the best rock festival - AC/DC at Reading Festival. They're rumored pretty much each year though! With a world tour due soon for their new album, Black Ice, we'd say it was a good shout.
Would be good to listen to the classics and show other pretenders how to properly rock out. Reading Festival 2009 needs some classic rock and roll. Their new album Black Ice has been received well. Who knows, maybe AC/DC will play at long last?
AC/DC Performing live this summer. AC/DC Tickets and Reading Festival Tickets are available at amazing prices... Get 'em Now
Would be good to listen to the classics and show other pretenders how to properly rock out. Reading Festival 2009 needs some classic rock and roll. Their new album Black Ice has been received well. Who knows, maybe AC/DC will play at long last?
AC/DC Performing live this summer. AC/DC Tickets and Reading Festival Tickets are available at amazing prices... Get 'em Now
Sunday, 15 March 2009
AC/DC - "Bon Scott Potrait"
Aussie painter Bill Leak has a series about painting dead famous Australians. In December, 2008 he did Bon Scott.
Source: crabsodyinblue.com
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