The Fixx Move Mountains, Don't Move Scruffy Anymore

How long do you continue to follow a band that no longer gives you what you need? The Fixx's first five albums (six if you include the mostly-live REACT) were mainstays for me, but we're talking about late 80's here. The band's finally getting around to releasing a new album, with a teaser tune, Moving Mountains. Actually, the song's a fundraiser for the Love Hope Strength Foundation , an organization that has the motto "One cancer center in every country, one concert at a time", so it's for a noble cause. But it's the first new music in 8 years for the band, and it's underwhelming. I always enjoyed Jamie West-Oram's uniquely compelling guitar work, the sometimes odd synth sounds of Rupert Greenall, and the oft-confusing lyrics and vocals of Cy Curnin. But like the entire last album, this new song is so...normal. It sounds like we're getting little interesting guitar, dull synth/keyboards, and words that could be inspiring from a charity standpoint but are not as compelling as you'd hope. An artist putting their money where their mouth is as this band is doing (and this isn't all they've done) should be applauded, but can't a guy wish for more sonically? Gimme some edge, gimme some mystery, gimme lyrics I can puzzle over, gimme some of that cyclical ringing six-string! Below is the new song immediately followed by a couple of rare live tracks from 1979.



Eye For Design



Acrobat



Red Skies



I'm Life



Driven Out



Sign of Fire



Are we Ourselves?



Less Cities, More Moving People



Secret Separation



Deeper and Deeper



In Suspense



Built for the Future



Shred of Evidence



Sunshine in the Shade



Fatal Shore



Some People



Camphor




Precious Stone



Fixx - Stand Or Fall (Extended) by d-glazer

Fixx - Reach The Beach(Dub) by djmike81

Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another (Rhythm Scholar Full Deception Remix) by Rhythm Scholar

Buy The Fixx from iTunes or from Amazon.

Guitar Heroes of the Non-Video Game Kind Pt .1

photo by stev.ie

Pop Dose recently threw up their list of the top 50 guitar players of all time. I was surprised by some of the omissions and decided to create a post or two to respond, then I noticed that Pop Dose's list was actually created in response to the LA Times magazine's top 50. Okay, so a number of the players missing on one list can be found somewhere on the other. One list skips the Edge, Robert Fripp, Angus Young and Randy Rhoads, but then we see Eddie Hazel, John Mayer, Charlie Hunter, Neal Schon and John Frusciante. Huh? Of course, there are always complaints about lists like these, who got snubbed, who is wrongly placed at the top or bottom, and so on. Sometimes I think the choices are coloured by how much a guitarist sticks out, especially to other musicians or guitar god wannabes (Yngwie Malmsteen, anyone?)So, since I'm a non-guitarist (no musical ability whatsoever, actually) I've compiled a short list of stringbenders I like without any thought to how technically proficient they are, how difficult their music may be to play, or how wizardly they wield their axes. They might not be flashy, might just be rhythm players, but they've made some noises I like and they're not always included on favourite guitar player lists.

Wherever possible, I've tried to include live videos so you can see guitar grandeur without studio trickery.

Jamie West-Oram has made his career with The Fixx, a band some might mistakenly characterize as a synth band because they were lumped in with new wave bands of the 80's. But I always loved his quirky contributions, and he never overplayed or tried to be a rock god, just propelled or served the song.

Saved by Zero



Tom Verlaine has never reached mainstream acceptance and never really attempted to do so. He's been acclaimed by indie rock guitar geeks and critics, mostly for his work with Television. But the TV-love, to me, is part and parcel of his guitar tandem work with Richard Lloyd, with guitar lines intertwining, separating, snaking together again, clashing, and endlessly building ascending and spiralling soundscapes. Verlaine's solo work is not always so dense, but it does contain a similar unique glory.

A Town Called Walker



Elliot Easton's work with The Cars always included tasty licks and and sturdy rhythm to complement Ric Ocasek's more straightforward lines.

Candy-O



Robyn Hitchcock could make my list on his own, and if you've seen him play a solo show, you know what I mean. However, when Hitchcock plays with a foil, such as he does nowadays with Peter Buck in the Venus 3, he seems to be spurred on to different levels. Kimberly Rew in The Soft Boys is another fellow who lifts Hitchcock up to such great heights.

Queen of Eyes



Bob Mould, especially with Husker Du and Sugar, created blisteringly beautiful walls of sound, waves of melodic distortion, and curtains of metallic noisy pop.

Makes No Sense At all/ Love is All Around (Mary Tyler Moore Theme)