Michael Becker News Editor michacl@nsnews.cor: HUGH who? Hugh Cornwell, former lead guy with the Stranglers. Remeniber? Thev were thick in with that batch of snotey British punk blokes whe kept black clothes cool and made anger the defining emotion ofa generation itching to crash the walls of corporate rock. While in school during the late 1960s Cornwell formed an R & B group, Emile & The Detectives. The band included Richard Thompson (of Fairport Convention fame). Thev covered material like Swnokestack Lightning and other blues classics. Cornwell says Thompson taught him to play bass, but he’s not in touch with Thompson these days. “He's a Sufi, isn’t he? Not that there's anything wrong with that, he’s just in another world,” says Cornwell. During the early 1970s he attended Bristol University to study biochemistry. Cornwell performed solo acoustic gigs in restaurants. He took up a jaboratory jeb at Lund Universizy in Sweden and formed Johnny Sox with two Swedes and twa Americans. Johnry Sox eventually moved to England where the group dropped the unfortu- nate mame in favour of a more deliciously menacing one: The Stranglers, or the Guildford Stranglers as they were sometimes known. The punkish anger has long subsided. The Stranglers and Cornwell parted compa- ny in 1990. He suffered what he terms a “complete musical identity crisis. “When I was in the Stranglers I had a big respon- sibility on my head. I was playing guitar, singing and | was the one doing all the MC-ing. When I came out of that I lacked complete condi- dence in my guitar plaving and I just didn’t want to play.” hugh cornwell. tee 3 2 black hair black eyes black suit HUGH Cornwell brings his unpiugged show to Seattie on Aprii 1. The sound on his latest solo career dise is a cool blend of Motown-inspired pep. . Black Hair, Black Eves, Black Suit is a Velvel Records re-release of an album record- ed during 1996 and originally released as Guilty in the fall of 1997 in the U.K. and Europe. Cornwell acknowledges a mixed bag of musical rei:r- ences. He loves early Soft Machine, Hendrix and jazz. Says the singer-songwniter on the reasoning behind the original title of Black Hair, Black Eves, Black Suir, “The reason we called it Guilty in England is that I felt a bit guilty about it, embarrassed, but my producer said, ‘No, no, it won't come out like the influences, itll come our tike your version. Just play.’” He is in the midst of a limited “unplugged” tour of several North American cities: one man, a guitar and a head full of crafty songs. The plan is to bring a band (nwo gui- tars, bass and drums) over te the Srates and Canada in June. What does he make of come-back artists like Blondie, Sex Pistcls,or bands like the Stranglers or U.R Subs, groups that never left the scene in a flash of bril- liance? “People do what they have to do. IF people are short of money and somebody says if you get back together you can make all this money, it’s very tempting. “I've scen so much progress in what Pm doing over the fast few vears that when people say, “Would you rejoin the Stranglers?*, Pve got no intention of going back. What I’m doing is working. “They carried on when I left, instead of splitting up. They've got a new singer, a new guitarist, most of their sets are based on old material that I was iavolved with. Deconstruction of the senses At their Lambshop web site the Brooklyn band have a message for listeners: From page 22 another for Primal Scream as well as this one. Axntumn Sweater (from a Yo La Tengo CDS) begins as a relatively straight reading of the song before breaking down into a distinc- tive Shields’ soundwash. Wonderful decon- struction of the senses. Shields (looking like John Lennon trom 1969) is featured in the March issue of The Wire (Adventures in Modern Music) talking about MBV and other bands. He says if they had come cut with a record straight after Loveless it would have been heavily drumi’n’bass influenced. One song is “160 bpm drunv’n’bass style, except that it’s mostly snare-based, like a constant reliercoaster effect.” My Bloody Valentine songs never let you catch your breath. i & kK Solex -— Solex West (from Solex All Lickety Split CD5) (4:11). Durch artist Elisabeth Esselink performs under the name Solex with one CD Solex rs. the Hitmeister released su far on Matador. Esselink owns a second-hand record store in Amsterdam and records found sounds on an old sampler and eight-track recorder. Like Khan’s track this refers back to early techno, in this case influenced by Laurie Anderson. & wi Lynnficid Pioneers — Astral Plane (from upcoming CD Free Popcorn) (3:22). “Technology, ain’t fun, especially when it’s free. Download it, trade it with a friend, burn baby burn.” Ouch. Unwilling participants in the Matador experiment, their CD will be out soon. aca In other Internet music news: i Microsoft plans to launch its own digital recording and playback system next month tc counter the success of MP3. MS Audio 4.0 will be included in the Windows Media Player 4.0 — it reportedly has better sound quality than MP3 burt only half the size. It also has an automated protection system to combat inter- net piracy and illegai downloads. The BBC reports that Warners ordered the removal of Tom Petty’s song “Free Girl Now” from the MI’3 website after there were 150,000 downloads of the song in nwo days. Petry had given MP3 the song to post. B The Beastie Boys have launched their own MP3 radio station featuring all the artists on their label, except themselves. Grand Royal Radio uses Shoutcast technology to broadcast MP3-quality sound. Listeners cannot down- load the music. Other artists already involved on the Internet include Public Enemy’s Chuck D. and Prince . They’re playing themselves into a corner. “The more they rely on this old material, the more difficult it is to get people to accept the new stuff. You become your own copy band. Te’s sad. I wish them the best, but they did it because they couldn’t do anything else. They want to make a living, so I totally understand.” The closest Cornwell comes to Vancouver this time around is Seartle on April 1. if PRESSURE WASHER soe Friday, March 26, 1999 ~ North Shore News ~ 2 @ Pipes and Tobaccos Spring 1999 www.pr- magazine.com $5.95 Well, new that cigars have just about had their dav, { guess it time for the pipe. 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