Where can you find Vanilla Ice, The Wiggles and a planeload of zombies ‘genuinely’ linked together in one music review? Buckle in coz IA’s music man David Kowalski delivers that and more.
FLEETWOOD MAC — WE’RE STILL THINKING ABOUT YOU
In a new interview with Mojo Magazine, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac puts an end to speculation about the band’s future.
In the wake of the November 2022 passing of Christine McVie, Nicks says:
‘There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn’t work.’
She confirms the statement Mick Fleetwood made to reporters from the LA Times on the red carpet at the Grammys in 2023:
“I think, right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris… I’d say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before. It’s sort of unthinkable right now.”
Christine McVie, nee Perfect, joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970. She was drafted at short notice by her husband, the band’s bass player John McVie after founding member Peter Green left abruptly late in April that year.
In September 1970, she contributed keyboards and backing vocals (uncredited) on the album Kiln House and was announced as a fully-fledged member from then on. McVie played continuously through the band’s most successful period of the late ’70s up until 1998, when she semi-retired from the music scene. She rejoined in 2014 and continued with the band until her passing in 2022.
It would seem, now, that we can draw a line under the band’s stellar career and thank them for the music.
And, with all the infighting that has spilt over into the public arena since the mid-1970s, I think it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing a Fleetwood Mac hologram show, à la ABBA Voyage, anytime soon.
IT’S A ‘HARD LIFE’ BEING SUED BY EASYGROUP
Towards the end of last year, an up-and-coming hip-hop-adjacent indie band from the UK calling itself “EasyLife” came under threat over the band’s name from huge corporate conglomerate easyGroup.
EasyGroup, which runs numerous companies with the word “easy” in the name (such as budget airline easyJet), called the band “brand thieves“.
The band was served with a lawsuit and, upon considering the legal fees it couldn’t afford, elected to surrender its name and avoid certain bankruptcy.
In the wake of this, the band rechristened itself Hard Life. Its latest single ‘tears’ has already raised the ire of easyGroup lawyers — not for violating any kind of non-disclosure agreement (because there wasn’t one), but because it namechecks easyGroup owner Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and asks for “air miles or a fair trial”.
Lawyers for easyGroup have complained the song is “disparaging and defamatory” and intimated that the band has reignited an argument it walked away from.
They may have a legal argument, but it’s still a bit rich coming from a multi-billion-dollar operation that used its financial and legal clout to rough up a small musical upstart. Besides, it seems ludicrous that a company can copyright a word as commonly used as “easy”.
It’s not likely this next legal threat will go very far. However, Hard Life has to be happy getting this sort of PR — not even money can buy it. It’s hard enough for a young band to make a living without being hounded into submission by corporate interests, so why not make use of the notoriety?
‘ZOMBIE PLANE’ — EVERYONE’S ON BOARD BAR THE WIGGLES
Fresh from the “Are you serious?” files comes a new movie currently in production in Queensland. It’s attracting some big names. However, one global entity has declined the offer to participate.
According to its IMDB entry, ‘Zombie Plane‘ takes viewers on board a jet heading from LA to Sydney. The kicker: it’s filled with patients carrying disastrous zombified viruses.
Ultimately, it’s up to ’90s rapper Vanilla Ice and Australian actress Sophie Monk to stop the plane before the U.S. Air Force – commanded by action’s big cheese Chuck Norris – shoots it down. (Even I couldn’t make this stuff up.) Yup. It’s zombie death set to a ’90s pop music soundtrack, people!
It gets better. In a plot twist one can only admire, Australia’s biggest musical export, The Wiggles, was being scripted into the film.
The kid’s group was initially keen on the idea but finally elected not to participate. According to Yahoo News, directors Lav Bodnaruk and Michael Mier were excited to get the original four Wiggles together on screen again, but the legendary group has said that the film would not suit its “core audience”.
Ya think? Although… imagine littlies used to watching Sesame Street screaming at their new favourite monsters!
Apparently, singer Amy Shark and actress and singer Natalie Bassingthwaite have joined the cast.
I’m not going to cast aspersions on the merits of this film before it is even released, but given what I’ve already read… I can’t wait to see it.
Zombies for the win!
NEW MICHAEL WAUGH SINGLE AS BEAUTIFUL AS IT IS TRUE
Golden Guitar-winning Alt-Country singer Michael Waugh has just dropped his fifth album, Beauty and Truth.
This record sees the songwriter coming to terms with the truth about his sexual identity. He came out well into adulthood, at great personal cost, and this new record is something of an examination of what that meant for him — and those closest to him. Like many lives, his hasn’t always been beer and skittles but Waugh doesn’t hide away from any uncomfortable aspects.
The latest single is the title track of the album and it is something of an apology to Waugh’s family for clinging to a version of life that wasn’t ‘real’ for him.
As he told Rhythms Magazine:
I was holding on to a version of myself that I thought that I needed to be. It was like a suit that didn’t fit me… This is about the pain of having to be honest with someone that you love. It’s also about letting someone go with love. I don’t want to hold on to any bitterness about who I was. Nor do I want to make excuses for the mistakes that I’ve made. This is just about trying to put out into the world a message of love and healing, and hope for beauty and truth.
The stark black-and-white video doesn’t sugarcoat the issue either. The results are as profound and heartbreaking. Waugh at his finest.
HOCKEY DAD SMASHES IT
After a four-year gap since the massively-selling Brain Candy, Wollongong band Hockey Dad returns with a fourth album, Rebuild Repeat.
It is a short and sharp LP with 11 songs – just over half an hour – featuring tunes that showcase everything the band does well while pushing its sonic palette in some new directions.
Hockey Dad has just finished a 20-date headline tour of the USA.
The band is bringing its new tunes to stages in Australia, where it will play its biggest career venues, including the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney and Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne. U.S. indie band Militarie Gun and up-and-coming locals Belair Lip Bombs will support.
Hockey Dad describes this album as a ‘fresh rebirth after a muddy, hazy couple of years for us and everyone else in the world’.
Despite the music’s gloomy post-pandemic origins, it is a fun listen from front to back.
Until next time…
David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts ‘The Sound and the Fury Podcast’ and ‘Audio Cumulus’ can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.
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