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Post by Fuggle on Jan 7, 2006 16:07:44 GMT -5
From punk to religion and back, with feeling
By Ty Burr, Globe Staff | January 6, 2006
''New York Doll" is the latest entry in that growing field of scholarly endeavor called (by me, anyway) Punkology: music documentaries about the bands that broke rock history in half during the 1970s. There has already been ''The Filth and the Fury" (about the Sex Pistols), ''End of the Century" (the Ramones), ''Punk: Attitude" (everybody): all worthy of study. Now comes this almost ridiculously adorable tale of a man, a Mormon, and the bass player for one of the groups that started it all: Arthur ''Killer" Kane.
Not that either Kane or the New York Dolls lived a life free of catastrophe. The Dolls may have pioneered punk chords and trash couture back in 1972 -- several years ahead of the CBGB's pack -- but their original drummer didn't survive the group's first British tour, and both his replacement (Jerry Nolan) and the Dolls' founding guitarist (Johnny Thunders) were dead of drug excesses by the early '90s. Kane, better known for looking like a cross-dressing Frankenstein monster than for his fairly modest bass skills, survived -- but just barely.
Lead singer David Johansen later found fame as Buster Poindexter (remember ''Hot Hot Hot"?) and opposite Bill Murray in ''Scrooged," but the biggest film role Kane got after the Dolls broke up in the mid-'70s was as an extra in the 1987 sci-fi comedy ''Innerspace." By then, alcohol and drugs had taken their toll, and the musician fell out of a third-story window and into a hospital bed for a year.
So far, so very ''Behind the Music." While hospitalized, though, Kane sent away for a book on the Mormons he saw advertised on TV. ''They don't send it," he recalls in the film. ''They bring it." This led to a religious conversion described by Arthur as ''an LSD trip from God" and eventual employment in the church's Family History Center in Los Angeles.
And this is where ''New York Doll" finds Kane: a balding gentle giant in short sleeves and necktie, unfailingly polite behind his librarian's desk and speaking as if life has kicked him in the head once too often. Director Greg Whitely, a filmmaker who met his subject through the church, neither plays up nor puts down their shared beliefs, and the result is that rarity, an unhysterical American film about religion.
As an American film about rock history, it's frequently hilarious. The Dolls were, in the words of one fan, a ''blighted band," and the name of their second album said it all: ''Too Much Too Soon." Whitely sketches in their impact on both sides of the Atlantic using a dandy graphic rock tree that I for one would like to pin to my kids' wall. Would there have been a Ramones or a Sex Pistols -- and all that followed -- without the Dolls? Perhaps, but they would have looked and sounded a lot different.
Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, the Clash's Mick Jones, and Sir Bob Geldof are called upon to testify to the band's wayward greatness, and the Smiths' Morrissey goes one better: He answers Arthur's prayers and arranges for a New York Dolls reunion at the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London.
Will Arthur make it? Can he still play? Will he be able to meet David Jo without ripping his face off? ''How can I go from the Family History Center to the Royal Albert Hall?" Kane himself asks the director before heading off to reclaim his bass from the pawn shop. His co-workers are delighted, if mildly shocked. ''I can't believe I know a rock star," says Sister Miller.
The ensuing concert is both a triumph (available separately on DVD and excerpted here) and the occasion for a deeper sadness, that of boys who thought they'd never die and men glad to just have one more shot. Kane's encounter with a modern hotel suite is played for sweet-faced comedy, and his explanation of the finer points of Mormonism to a straight-faced Johansen is a stitch (on tithing: ''It's like an agent's fee").
You're left, though, with the bewilderment and joy on Kane's face as he plays the old songs, and the sense of ghosts just behind his back. There are three surviving Dolls, but as Arthur says, ''The other three are onstage, too." Perhaps he has reason to know. The late Johnny Thunders didn't write ''You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" until after the Dolls had broken up, but this lovely little heartbreaker of a movie takes the sentiment as its own.
Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com
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Post by Fuggle on Jan 23, 2006 21:20:38 GMT -5
Everything can change in a New York... Doll? (Above: Arthur "Killer" Kane is embraced by New York Dolls leader David Johansen. Photo by Seth Lewis Gordon.) Donning gender-bending lipstick, high heels and spandex (years before Kiss or Tommy Lee) and singing shout-out-loud lyrics (long before Johnny Rotten met Sid Vicious), the New York Dolls were certainly a sight to behold in 1972. Their in-your-face live performances earned them a cult following, and their 1973 debut garnered critical kudos. But commercial success remained elusive, and only one more studio recording would follow before the Dolls disbanded in 1977. Compounding the frustration of unfulfilled promise was the success of those artists who followed. The musical and sartorial trailblazers were soon cited as the primary influence on many of rock’s most influential acts: The Sex Pistols, The Smiths, The Clash, The Ramones, Kiss, Billy Idol and others. So the band that practically invented punk and glam rock watched from the sidelines as its progeny marched toward mass acceptance and financial success. New York Doll, a documentary from first-time director Greg Whiteley, examines the aftermath through the life of bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane. When we meet modern-day Kane, he looks a far cry from his hedonistic days of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. As opposed to the wild-haired blond giant who donned leopard-skin leggings and stilettos, we find a mild-mannered, gangly tax-accountant lookalike, whose lovely locks have been replaced with a wispy combover and his crazed Jersey-hooker outfit with a thin white shirt and awkwardly askew tie. And he’s on a city bus. But as Kane’s new life is revealed, the pain of seeing this hero passing for a vacuum-cleaner salesman becomes more fascinating and endearing than painful and embarrassing. When the Dolls bassist finally hit rock bottom, he abandoned his drug- and alcohol-fueled lifestyle for a calm, steady job in the Family History Center of his new spiritual home, the Mormon Church. Describing his conversion to the LDS faith as “an LSD trip from the Lord,” Kane seems happy in his new life. Still, a deep melancholy pervades as he reminisces about his days in the band that helped birth punk and glam metal. His only real wish is to reunite and bask in the glory only lavished on the band after its dissolution. But a reunion doesn’t seem in the cards. Record labels and concert promoters aren’t calling, and singer David Johansen (who in the ’80s temporarily became Buster Poindexter) has little interest in the concept. To top it off, Kane’s bass now sits in a pawnshop. He pays $175 a month to make sure they don’t sell it, although he could pay $262 to buy it back. Finally, a fellow Mormon does the math and lends Kane the money to buy back his bass. And self-proclaimed Dolls fan numero-uno, Morrissey, calls. Curating the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London, the former Smiths frontman wants the group that was the “answer to everything” (whose fanclub he once presided over) to headline. With his newly rescued bass in tow, Kane journeys to London to reunite with the remaining surviving New York Dolls (Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain). He’s followed closely by his assigned Mormon home-teacher, director Whiteley. From Whiteley to his bishop, Kane’s church members were supportive of his decision to return to the Dolls. But Whiteley wasn’t confident it would end well. “All along the way I was skeptical,” he says. “Are people really going to enjoy them? Is the band going to play well? Is this really what Arthur wants? Is he really built to go back and do this? Is it going to be disappointing for him?” But the Dolls’ return performance is a rousing success. “In every way, it was this full-blown, joyous, great thing for [Kane],” Whiteley says. After rough-sounding rehearsals and a three-hour soundcheck, the band hit its groove and played a stellar set to an enraptured audience. “I may be a dreamer,” Kane says after the performance, “but the dream has come true.” To the bassist, this dream was more expectation than wish. “I think it was a bigger mystery to him as to why his whole life was not like that,” Whiteley says. “Because at 17, that’s what it was like, and then suddenly it’s gone. Then back at 55, ‘Oh, OK. Here it is again, that’s right. I am a superstar.’ I think that 30-year hiatus was the mystery to him!” Kane’s actual worries were more basic. “It’s funny, because here’s this middle-aged man who thinks he still has groupies,” Whiteley remembers with a smile. “And he was concerned about it enough—one of the reasons why he let us film him was because he thought we should come along to help him against the throngs of groupies who will want to sleep with him when we’re there. And I just thought, ‘That’s hilarious.’ But we got there, and they were there!” Seeing this gentle giant—this “miracle of God’s creation” as Johansen introduces Kane—get what he’s been praying for reduced the filmmaker to tears. “He is adored,” says Whiteley. “And it is one of the great privileges of my life that I got to see that. I think it was a miracle; I think it was an answer to his prayer. I’m so grateful I got see something that good happen to somebody that good.” Whiteley’s affection for Kane extends to the other band members as well, although he wasn’t very familiar with them prior to meeting Kane. “I was too young,” he explains. “The Clash, The Ramones, that was more my age. And so you knew of the Dolls. It’s one of those bands that they’re really cool to drop their name, but I think many people who drop their name are not super familiar with them either.” With a new appreciation for their music and story, Whiteley hopes for a feature film about The New York Dolls. “I think the Dolls story still needs to be told—that’s a great movie,” the director explains. “Arthur is a friend of mine and I found him interesting. [But] I’m convinced somebody someday is going to make that. Frankly I’m hoping I’m lucky enough to get to do it. It’s a great band; it’s a great story. And it’s full of the greatest characters in rock ’n’ roll.”
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Post by Fuggle on Jan 30, 2006 15:16:50 GMT -5
New York Dolls - All Dolled UpUK release date: 30 January 2006The word seminal is bandied around far too much these days - it's been used to describe the Spice Girls, for example. But the New York Dolls really are seminal band. Often compared to the Rolling Stones because of singer David Johanson's looks and voice, they were actually more of a glam rock band who, along with Iggy Pop and Warhol-influenced New York art students in the early seventies, pretty much invented American punk. It's no coincidence that after Malcolm McLaren (briefly) managed the New York Dolls, he went back to England to conceive the Sex Pistols. For fans (and Morrissey's one, dontchaknow - he used to be president of the New York Dolls fanclub) this feature-length documentary film is a veritable banquet of unseen gig footage, band interviews and behind the scenes banter shot in the Dolls' heyday of the early seventies. For the uninitiated, it's an interesting peek into rock excess (and this band really lived the debauched lifestyle). Not only that, it's a great introduction to the band's sleazy brand of lipstick-stained proto punk which has influenced so many after them. Bob Gruen, the man behind the camera, was never actually commissioned to make a film, which is probably why it's taken this long to put together. He was a local photographer who happened to have a handheld video camera, which in 1972 was something of a rarity. Having previously shot other bands (Ike and Tina Turner being one) to help them see what they looked like onstage, his services were soon called upon by the New York Dolls. Soon after, he was hanging out with them and he accompanied them on a trip to LA. Being a band whose image was of equal importance as the music, it's easy to see why the Dolls hired Gruen's services. David Johansen's constant preening and flicking of his shaggy mane reveals the ultimate narcissistic frontman, and the footage shows them continually applying lavish amounts of hairspray and make-up and swapping outrageous outfits prior to photo shoots. But as Bob Gruen goes explains in his sleeve notes, the Dolls weren't transvestites or gay, 'they were just guys dressing up'. To this end, it's a shame the film isn't in colour, as it's harder to appreciate the band's outfits in black and white. The sound quality of the gig footage is fairly raw, but includes classics such as Trash, Personality Crisis and Vietnamese Baby. David Johansen's skinny, Jagger-like stage presence is electrifying, as is the band's exuberant humour. At one point they're shopping for a pair of breast-shaped slippers, at another they're going to the airport in full garb - satin hotpants, platforms and nipple-revealing skinny tops - to LA where they hobnob at Rodney Bingenheimer's infamous E club and play the Whisky A-Go-Go. The backstage footage, meanwhile, shows the amount of booze, drugs and groupies they indulged in. It's hardly surprising that half of the band members are now lost to rock excess. The DVD comes with two commentaries, one from a badly-recorded and throaty David Johansen and another from fellow bandmate Sylvain Sylvain, who amusingly recounts the history behind each outfit shown throughout the film. There's also a lavish booklet with colour stills, which all contributes to a well-presented piece of rock history showing a legendary band at their peak and with plenty of extras for fans to get their teeth into.
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Post by Fuggle on Apr 27, 2006 17:27:10 GMT -5
New York Dolls Make Their Return One To RememberWednesday April 26, 2006 By: ChartAttack.com StaffNew York DollsThe New York Dolls live reunion went so well that they went into the studio to keep the momentum going. The fruits of their labour will emerge on July 25 with the Roadrunner Records release of One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This. Both glam and punk rock owe a major debt to the Dolls, who opened the doors in their native New York City for The Ramones, Blondie, Television and Talking Heads after forming 35 years ago. The British punk scene also owes them a debt through their relationship with impresario Malcolm McLaren, who went on to create The Sex Pistols. While early members Billy Murcia, Jerry Nolan, Johnny Thunders and Arthur "Killer" Kane have all passed away over the years, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain have recruited some fresh blood for the new-look Dolls. Guitarist Steve Conte, Hanoi Rocks bassist Sami Yaffa, drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin all contributed to the 13 tracks on the new album. The Dolls reformed in 2004 at the request of their former fan club president, Morrissey, who wanted them to play the Meltdown Festival that he was curating in London, England. That one-off concert soon turned into several shows and the creation of several new songs. Some of those expected on the new album are "Take A Good Look At My Good Looks," "Maimed Happiness," "Runnin Around" and the first single, "Dance Like A Monkey." Jack Douglas, who engineered the group's self-titled 1973 debut, produced the record. One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This features guest contributions from R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe on "Dancing On The Lip Of A Volcano," Iggy Pop on "Gimme Love And Turn On The Light," Against Me!'s Tom Gabel on "Punishing World" and Dolls hero Bo Diddley on "Seventeen." A summer tour is in the works, though no dates have yet been announced. —Eva Lampert
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Post by Fuggle on Jul 24, 2006 12:47:46 GMT -5
A rock 'n' roll resurrectionSunday, July 23, 2006 BY JAY LUSTIG Star-Ledger StaffOn June 10, 2004, singer David Johansen casually walked into a New York Dolls rehearsal session. The rest of the musicians were already there, playing. They kept going. Johansen placed his lyric book on a stand and joined in. When they finished the song -- a cover of the 1965 Shangri-La's hit, "Out in the Streets" -- he hugged bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane and shook hands with guitarist Sylvain Sylvain. A few pleasantries were exchanged. Then the musicians resumed their positions, and started the next song. This was the first time these three had played together since the mid-'70s, when the Dolls broke up after making two hugely influential albums. But -- as captured in the 2005 film "New York Doll" -- they looked so comfortable you might think they had been apart for months, rather than decades. "I was always a New York Doll," says Sylvain, 57, reflecting on the band's resurrection. "I always felt like the New York Dolls left me. I really never left the New York Dolls." "It's like your fraternity or something," says Johansen, 56. "In lieu of college, we went to the Dolls: we were just out of high school. So, it's embedded in your psyche and your soul." The rock world has never forgotten about the New York Dolls, either. Their two original albums, a self-titled 1973 release and 1974's "Too Much Too Soon," are landmarks, pushing the art form to a crazed extreme as few other albums have done, before or since. The Dolls had a preening glam-rock attitude and an androgynous, artfully unkempt image: old photos of them with their huge hair, high heels and wildly clashing thrift-store clothes still startle. They also had a tough, guitar-driven sound, looking back to the blues and forward, we can say now, to punk. Everyone from Kiss (who once opened a show for them) to the Sex Pistols (formed by their ex-manager, Malcolm McLaren) and Morrissey (a one-time president of their British fan club) paid attention. The Dolls also launched the career of Johansen, who achieved fame as a solo artist, then reinvented himself as party animal Buster Poindexter, and has also acted in movies such as "Scrooged" and "Married to the Mob." Other members continued with music, too, with less commercial success and, in some cases, monumental substance abuse problems. Improbably, a new version of the band that was too wild to last will release a new album, "One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This," on Tuesday. (They will also celebrate with a performance at a Greenwich Village Tower Records store on that day.) Only Johansen and Sylvain remain from the initial Dolls lineup. Kane, a soft-spoken recovering alcoholic and a convert to Mormonism, died in July 2004, of leukemia; the last months of his life were documented in "New York Doll." Even with just two original Dolls on hand, the band is able to conjure flashes of the original group's rowdiness and flamboyance. "It's only, like, blues anyway," says Sylvain. "You strip the Dolls of their lipstick and their frilly little nylon tights, and all you've got is three-chord progressions with cool little hook lines and nasty little guitar riffs." The 2004 reunion was instigated by Morrissey, who wanted the band to play at a festival he was curating, in London. Johansen said that other people tried to get the band together, over the years, "but they were always stubby-fingered vulgarians. They'd say, 'Boys, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do for you ...,' and you just know where it's going to end up. It's going to be a shambles. "With Morrissey ... he's a first-class guy. You know we're going to be staying in a nice hotel. You know they're going to give us something to eat. They're going to give us transportation. And all we've got to do is play music. What I thought was that it would be so great to get back with the guys, and have a couple of laughs." Guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan died in 1991 and 1992, respectively, so new Dolls had to be found. The Thunders replacement was particularly important, as his guitar riffs helped define the band's sound: he was Keith Richards to Johansen's strutting Jagger. On the advice of guitarists Johansen had worked with, such as Jimmy Vivino and Larry Saltzman, he sought out Steve Conte, a busy session musician who had most recently been backing Willy DeVille. "I just asked a couple of guys like that, who are top-notch (musicians)," Johansen says. "I said, 'I'm gonna do this Dolls thing. I need a guitar player.' They all said, 'Conte. Get Conte.' I didn't even know him. Then I went and met him, and it worked out." Conte, who grew up in Matawan, says he wasn't a huge New York Dolls fan previously. "I didn't listen to the albums closely until David gave me the CDs to learn for the show," says Conte, whose membership in the band was oddly foreshadowed, years earlier. In the late '70s, Conte says, the family of Billy Murcia -- the original Dolls drummer, who died in 1972, before they recorded their first album -- moved to Matawan. "Billy's brother Alphonse would chase me down the street, going, 'Hey man, come back here, you know who you look like? Johnny Thunders.' And I would be like, 'Who? Who are you talking about?' He'd go, 'You don't know Johnny Thunders? He was in my brother's band, the New York Dolls.'" Conte says that once he got the gig, it wasn't hard to learn Thunders' guitar parts. "While I was growing up," he says, "my first inspiration was Chuck Berry and Keith Richards. You put Chuck Berry and Keith Richards together, step on a fuzz pedal or put it through a Marshall (amplifier), and you've got Johnny Thunders." The Dolls lineup featuring Johansen, Sylvain, Kane and Conte played together at just two shows, which both took place at Morrissey's festival. After that, Kane became ill and Conte's brother Steve filled in temporarily. Later, when the band decided to continue after Kane's death, Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks became the full-time bassist. The other current members are keyboardist Brian Koonin and drummer Brian Delaney. "There's a lot of New York Dolls out there," says Sylvain. "All you have to do is find them." There is, of course, no shortage of Dolls fans among musicians. Putting together "One Day It Will Please Us ..." Johansen and Sylvain resisted the urge to load it with guests, though they did make a few exceptions. One was Iggy Pop, who howls with Johansen on the one of the album's fastest and most furious tracks, "Gimme Luv & Turn on the Light." "I've known him since we were kids," says Johansen. "We're like cousins." Another was Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who helps the band go in a moodier direction, on "Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano." "I met him at a Patti Smith show, years ago, in the late '90s," says Sylvain, "and he seemed to me to be such a sweet guy, and he seemed to really, legitimately love the Dolls." Johansen and Sylvain wrote most of the album, though Conte, Yaffa and Koonin receive some co-writing credits -- a good indication that the new New York Dolls is a real band. "When it comes to making the decisions like what the title of the album's going to be," says Conte, "David pretty much came in and said, 'I want to call it "One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This",' and we all went, 'Huh?' But it feels like a band when we're onstage. It's not like, 'Hey, look at us, the two original guys, and these guys are behind us.'" "That's the great thing about being in a band," says Johansen. "You don't have all that responsibility of saying, 'This is what we're going to do, and this is how we're going to do it.' I've been in that situation before, which has its merits. But when you're a band, it's more delicious, if you want to compare it to food, because there are more ingredients." The New York Dolls
Where: In-store performance at Tower Records, Broadway and Fourth Street, New York
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
How much: Free. Call (212) 505-1500 or visitwww.towerrecords.com.
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Post by Fuggle on Aug 3, 2006 9:49:03 GMT -5
Yes, he does remember the '70s ...
By JANE STEVENSON, TORONTO SUN
When the New York Dolls first appeared in early '70s, few knew what to make of their passionate, new glitter-era music.
Lead singer David Johansen said they were considered controversial not only for their androgynous looks but their raw musicality, which not everyone appreciated.
Still, Johansen says Downbeat -- "a serious, intelligentsia, jazz magazine" in the U.S. -- used to do big think pieces on the Dolls.
"They would talk about the musicality of it and how this is the future of rock 'n' roll music and stuff like that," he says. "Which is the way I felt about it at the time. But a lot of people ... thought it was too rich for their blood."
For his part, Johansen says he never cared much about mainstream success. He was just satisfied that his group, who wound up getting a room at the Mercer Arts Center for their early performances, was the focal point during some exciting times in New York.
"At the time when we started, we were like the East Village band," Johansen says. "And it was a hotbed of revolution down there. All the liberation movements were starting and there was a lot of artistic activity, a lot of people who wanted to get into whatever art they wanted to get into -- filmmaking, painting, acting -- but with ... a social kind of commitment to it. And that was the environment that we came up in and we kind of became the band for all these disparate kind of groups."
Among the scenesters was Brit Malcolm McLaren, who would go on to much bigger success as manager of the Sex Pistols.
"He went on to say he was the manager of the Dolls but he really wasn't," Johansen says. "He didn't contribute anything except he made some clothes that we would essentially design and order from him. When he went back to England, to get a leg up, he told these kids he was the manager of the Dolls, so they would listen to them. He was never the manager. He had like a tape measure around his neck, and he had half-glasses and straight pins in his mouth. He was kind of like a tailor."
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Post by Fuggle on Aug 3, 2006 9:55:31 GMT -5
Highs and Dolls It has been 32 years since they last released an album. David Johansen tells us why they're backBy JANE STEVENSON, TORONTO SUN(Mark O'Neill/Sun)There are only of a handful of true rock' n' roll characters: Iggy Pop, Keith Richards and Noel Gallagher spring to mind. Lesser known, in some circles anyway, but no less quotable is the New York Dolls' formidable lead singer David Johansen, who has been busy chatting up Tuesday's release of One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This. It's the first album in 32 years from the Dolls, the formerly hard-partying, cross-dressing band that inspired countless punk and hair metal groups in their furious wake. "I need a cup of caw-ffee," are the first strongly accented words out of Johansen's mouth on a recent promotional visit to Toronto. It's about noon and I ask Johansen whether this interview would have ever happened in the early '70s when the Dolls, who only released two albums before imploding in 1975, were probably just going to bed. "I don't think so," Johansen, 56, says with a sly smile. These days, however, he is much better behaved. "Exceptional," he jokes. "It's like you look up good behaviour, my picture's in the dictionary. I'm like Miss-ter Manners. You know, they always say, 'A fool who persists in his folly will eventually become wise,' they don't put the codicil, 'if he lives.' So I don't recommend that axiom." Johansen should know. He and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain are the only surviving members of the Dolls lineup: Original drummer Billy Murcia died from a mixture of drugs and alcohol in 1972; guitarist Johnny Thunders died in 1991 after a long history of heroin abuse; replacement drummer Jerry Nolan died from a stroke in 1992; and bassist and recovering alcoholic Arthur Kane died of leukemia in 2004. "If you do live, I think ultimately you just start to think, 'This (drinking and doing drugs) is like really boring,' " Johansen says. "This is like Groundhog Day or something. So when you stop doing that, it's like a lot of new vistas open up. One of them is daylight. It's funny because near to where I live in Manhattan, there's a park, I wasn't aware of that. I think it's called Central Park." Johansen, who in his post-Dolls phase has done bit parts in films and performed as a lounge-singing alter-ego named Buster Poindexter, reportedly resisted previous Dolls reunion attempts over the years. Sylvain, who didn't fare so well career-wise, and at one point in the '80s was driving cabs to make ends meet, wanted to reunite 20 years ago. The instigator behind the Dolls regrouping ended up being British mope-rock kingpin Morrissey, the band's former fan club president, who wanted them for London's Meltdown Festival in 2004, which he was curating. "When he was a boy, I didn't know him personally, but I knew of him because he was such a voiciferous campaigner for the Dolls," Johansen says of Morrissey. "And he would write letters to the editor, so I would read his missives. You know, 'Rock 'n' roll is a desert and the Dolls are an oasis.' " Morrissey also said that Mick Jagger stole the Dolls frontman's moves, a proclamation that now makes Johansen laugh. "I think that's Morrissey, I don't know," he says. "He's in a very interesting bubble. Kind of like that English actor, Dirk Bogarde? I have no idea (about the claim). I've never considered it. (Jagger's) a lovely man. I think I'm more into modern dance. I'm more Twyla Tharp -- the bounding and leaping." Still, Johansen remembers Morrissey had to do some major cajoling in 2004 for the Dolls to reunite when Kane was still alive. "We kind of hemmed and hawed, because I had tunnel vision," Johansen says. "But then I realized I should consider this. And I asked (Morrissey), 'Would you do this?' Meaning with The Smiths. He said, 'Absolutely not.' But then I thought it would be great to see the guys and have a couple of laughs. So I went into it thinking I'm going to have the most fun I could possibly have." Johansen says the experience -- they added a second Dolls show in London after the first one sold out -- exceeded his expectations. Particularly heartwarming was the fact Kane got to play at those London shows, as documented in both a DVD of the concerts, and the film, New York Doll, before succumbing to leukemia a short while later. "That's such a great artifact to have of Arthur," Johansen says of the documentary. "They almost got him. I mean, you couldn't get him -- it would take a couple of years -- but thank God (director) Greg Whitely came really close to getting Arthur, because Arthur to me was like this mystical kind of creature. When I first met him, I remember the first day that he came to my door, and I was like, 'Who is this guy?' Because his perception would take you up there with him. He saw things in a great way. And then he got into the whole booze thing. It was a shame. But a lot of times that happens to really sensitive people. But then when I saw him again, he was like when I first met him, only better. So it was really a drag when he died because I had really been looking forward to spending more time with him." Shortly after the London gigs, Morrissey invited the Dolls to join him for a big homecoming concert in Manchester. Then the European music festivals started calling and the band starting working on new songs while on the road. Later, a well-received show at South By Southwest in Austin in 2005 lead to the Dolls getting a record deal that same day. They later played that same year in Toronto at North By Northeast. "It was a commitment," Johansen says of making the new record with producer Jack Douglas, who engineered the first Dolls record in 1973 under the tutelage of producer Todd Rundgren. "We had written a couple of songs really without even thinking. I mean, there is a lot of idiot savant-ness going on here in this band." Among the guest artists on the new album are Iggy Pop and Michael Stipe, which makes sense given the Dolls were influenced by the Stooges and Stipe was a fan of the Dolls. "When the Stooges came out, it was like, 'Yeah!'"says Johansen. "So, definitely, they influenced me. It's like when we were making this record, all these songs are kind of like a mixture of all these like influences, but I don't know what they are really. And I think that's what good rock 'n' roll music is. The secret to our music is that we don't do market research. We just get together and make a song. And then we go into the studio and record it. And that's what we sound like. It's not influenced by the prevailing trends." As for Pop, Johanson definitely sees a kindred spirit and has enjoyed getting to tour with the reformed Stooges again over the past two years. "He's a friend. We've both been through the meat grinder and we have this mutual bemusement with our lives and what we do for a living and just being alive, it's almost tacit."
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Post by Fuggle on Aug 3, 2006 9:58:55 GMT -5
A Doll order While the legendary glam rockers sure aren't what they used to be, they still manage to recapture some of their old magic
By DARRYL STERDAN, SUN MEDIA
Johnny Thunders said it best. "You can't put your arms around a memory -- so don't try," the New York Dolls' junkie guitarist warned back in 1978.
Maybe he was right. But it hasn't stopped some of his old bandmates from giving it a shot.
Who can blame them? Everybody wants a do-over. Even The Dolls. The original lipstick killers imploded after blasting out two early '70s glam-laced blues-rock gems that set the stage for punk. But like The Velvet Underground and Big Star, they're a band that influenced everybody yet were seen by almost nobody.
So when Morrissey asked the survivors to reunite for a U.K. fest in 2004, naturally they took the bait. Naturally, everybody loved them. Naturally, they decided to make the reunion permanent, wrote new songs and made One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, their first album in 32 years. And naturally, it's a mixed blessing.
How you feel about this disc probably depends on how you feel about reunions in general and The Dolls in particular. If you hate the former (and we do), it's hard to love this CD. But if you love the band (and we do), you can't hate it either. But you can hate yourself for not being able to love it unreservedly (and we do).
The big problem: This ain't the real New York Dolls. Thunders -- who co-wrote most of their best songs -- died in 1991. Drummer Jerry Nolan went in 1992. Bassist Arthur (Killer) Kane made the initial reunion, but died of leukemia weeks later. Singer David Johansen and second guitarist Sylvain Sylvain are all that remain, joined by acolytes like Hanoi Rocks bassist Sami Yaffa. And that puts them in a no-win situation: If they try to sound like they did 30 years ago, purists will scream. If they don't sound like they did 30 years ago, purists will scream louder.
To their credit, Johansen and Sylvain do a fair job of walking that tightrope between resurrection and reinvention. Half the time, they deftly pillage their platform-heel, feather-boa past.
We're All In Love borrows from brash power-chord guitar-rockers like Lookin' For A Kiss and Personality Crisis. Rainbow Store is a girl-group-gone-wild rewrite of Great Big Kiss. Dance Like A Monkey leaves us Stranded In The Jungle again. You can hear echoes of Jet Boy, Trash, Perfect World and other oldies sprinkled into these retro-rocking tracks like treats in a box of Cracker Jacks.
The rest of the time, The Dolls borrow from some odd sources. Runnin' Around is a bump-and-grinder a la Hot Legs. Maimed Happiness sounds like Dylan at a '50s sock hop. Gotta Get Away From Tommy has the pumping off-Broadway theatrics of Andrew W.K. Take A Good Look At My Good Looks is a slinky revamp of Beast Of Burden.
In other words: There's not a lot here you haven't heard before. That includes Thunders' trademark pick-scrapes, divebombs and stabbing licks, which guitarist Steve Conte replicates with clinical precision.
But there are some new touches to the Jack Richardson-produced mix -- big backup vocals that are a little too slick and fancy for The Dolls. Especially when they're set against Johansen's blaring-foghorn pipes and wheezing blues harp, which are the core of the band's sound.
Indeed, at 56, the cadaverous singer has never sounded better. He's sharp enough to pen dance songs ridiculing intelligent design, self-aware enough to laugh about "jumpin' 'round the stage dressed like teenage girls, casting our swine before the pearls," and cheeky enough to crack, "Why should gay boys get all the good seats?" He's the reason it will please us to remember this album one day. And the reason that ultimately, we're willing to forgive these guys for messing with their legacy, and embrace the notion that any New York Dolls album --even an imperfect one -- is better than none.
So maybe Thunders was only half-right. Maybe you can get your arms around that memory -- even if you can't breathe new life into it.
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THE SONGS
1. We're All In Love (4:38)
2. Runnin' Around (4:11)
3. Plenty Of Music (4:00)
4. Dance Like A Monkey (3:38)
5. Punishing World (2:37)
6. Maimed Happiness (3:02)
7. Fishnets & Cigarettes (3:13)
8. Gotta Get Away From Tommy (2:27)
9. Dancing On The Lip Of A Volcano (4:18)
10. I Ain't Got Nothin' (4:27)
11. Rainbow Store (2:58)
12. Gimme Luv & Turn On The Light (3:19)
13. Take A Good Look At My Good Looks (5:02)
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ONE DAY IT WILL PLEASE US TO REMEMBER EVEN THIS
The New York Dolls
Roadrunner/Universal
Sun Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5
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Post by Fuggle on Aug 3, 2006 10:01:25 GMT -5
Dolls hit more than miss Band dormant 30 years after two big albums is reasonably OK in newest
Malcolm X Abram Beacon Journal
ONE DAY IT WILL PLEASE US TO REMEMBER EVEN THIS The New York Dolls Roadrunner
The New York Dolls are one of those seminal, highly influential bands that all casual music fans are familiar with, but often can't name a single one of its songs.
Like the Stooges, the Dolls are considered proto-punk, and their two records -- New York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon -- were a direct influence on the Sex Pistols and many many other nascent rockers and malcontents who went on to form bands in the '70s and '80s.
Also, like the Stooges (and Dolls-influenced Velvet Underground), the band was largely ignored by the mainstream. Those who paid attention were usually frightened by the band's junkie-glam look and loose, lascivious but elemental rock 'n' roll songs.
The Dolls succumbed to industry apathy and heroin, and in the nearly 30 years since its initial run (1971-1977) ended, four members have died, the most recent being bassist Arthur ``Killer'' Kane, who died shortly after the band's first reunion show in 2003.
With singer David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain the only two original members left, one might assume that the Dolls' new album, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, would be a pale imitation of its ramshackle NYC street noise. But the 13 tracks hit more than they miss, and veteran producer/engineer Jack Douglas (John Lennon, Lou Reed, Aerosmith) keeps the proceedings reasonably loose and loud.
We're All In Love opens the album with a familiar blues ramble, and though the late Johnny Thunder's buzz saw-licks and leads are certainly missed, guitarist Steve Conte smacks the fretboard around pretty good in his place. The best songs on the album -- Fishnets and Cigarettes, Dance Like a Monkey, Punishing World -- almost manage to capture the swagger and drive of the band's early material.
Lyrically, Johansen doesn't pretend it's 1971. Monkey turns the intelligent design vs. evolution flap into a dance-off. Likewise it's doubtful that anything on the band's first two albums would have contained the phrase ``subterfuge, Orwellian double-speak, a self-consciously aware little ego freak.''
The 21st-century Dolls also has discovered its softer side, with mixed results. The ballad Maimed Happiness finds Johansen ruminating on his ``wasted life,'' and Michael Stipe shows up to warble on the less interesting midtempo Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano.
Also included is a DVD featuring a 40-minute making-of documentary, featuring the bonus track Seventeen, standard interviews with band members and producer Douglas, and entertaining snippets, such as Johansen lobbying Sylvain to ``de-Stonesify'' the song Take a Good Look at My Good Looks. It's entertaining, but probably won't engender repeated viewing.
When legendary, long dormant bands reconstitute, one of the biggest outside obstacles is living up (or down) to expectations. If the new record isn't as good as the ``classic'' material, the whole endeavor can be perceived as a failure or a greedy cash-in. It's an often unrealistic and unfair assessment, but good music stirs fans' emotions and those don't cater to notions of fairness.
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This won't make anyone forget the band's first two musical salvos, and for newbies, those are definitely the place to start. But the album retains enough of the rock stench of the old Dolls without applying too much modern perfume. It should be able to sit alongside the band's previous work without shame, and fill in the set list without sending concertgoers to the bar and bathroom.
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Post by Fuggle on Sept 1, 2006 8:46:11 GMT -5
NEW York Dolls to Tour UK!Published By: Chay on 30th Aug 2006Seminal rock icons, the NEW YORK DOLLS have lined up four rare UK shows for this October, as well as an appearance on BBC 1’s ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’ for 29th September. Touring in support of their vastly praised comeback album, ‘One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This’, David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain and the boys are heading this way to bring the house down at the following venues: Fri 20th Oct – Dublin Ambassador Sun 22nd Oct – London Forum Wed 25th Oct – Liverpool Academy Thu 26th Oct – Glasgow ABC Tickets are on sale now, from box offices and all usual agents, priced £16 regionally and £20 in London. You can also buy on line at www.gigsandtours.comCheck out what the press have been saying about the new album: "It’s the kind of rollocking, party-rockin’ fandango which, genuinely, nobody has the spirit or wit to put together these days." – 5/5 – OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY "There isn’t a bad song on here to be frank. And if there was ever a prime example of unfinished business wholly, flawlessly and brilliantly concluded, then this is it." – 8/10 – CLASSIC ROCK "They’ve returned…. to teach 21st Century kids what rock n’ roll is about….. It kicks ass. Excuse me while I kiss the sky." – 4/5 – UNCUT "The Dolls have defied convention with a defiant comeback oozing style, panache and attitude." – ‘BUY IT!’ – DAILY MIRROR "A poke in the eye to anyone who thought New York Dolls were a spent force." – 9/10 – TOTAL GUITAR www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/artists/newyorkdollsNew York Dolls Morrissey recently exclaimed this with a fervour that somehow made his chronologically impossible claims seem plausible. Watching footage of the 'Dolls onstage two years ago at the behest of one of their biggest fans (who was curating London's prestigious Meltdown Festival) one realized just how vast - and heretofore unsung - their influence truly was. Everyone knows the famous logo: chrome lipstick, scrawling that name across an unseen mirror, but it's more than the great brand. It's not about the androgyny either. Skinny boys were wearing make up long before them. Little Richard. Elvis. It's not even about the music, as the Dolls themselves were always quick to credit 50's R&B numbers or early 60's girl group productions as their own influences. Really, what makes the Dolls so eternal is the attitude - it got into rock's water supply and never left. Kiss, Aerosmith, The Ramones, Blondie, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses, Hanoi Rocks, The Strokes, The Libertines and just about any gang of strutting rockers who are convinced that their band could take your band and possibly your whole town in a pretty for pretty, ugly for ugly throwdown. The Dolls and their disciples win, not just with brawn but with what guitarist Sylvain Sylvain calls "plenty of intellect and plenty of sex." The New York Dolls are simply, the Beatles of attitude. Thirty five years into their existence (thirty one since they disbanded down in Florida in a haze of smack withdrawal and managerial anarchy) with three men down, they can still take your band, pretty for pretty, ugly for ugly, onstage, and now, with the long (long) awaited follow up to 1974's awesome 'Too Much, Too Soon' on CD too. "You know how England is," David Johansen quips in his Staten Island drawl, thick as South Ferry sludge, "We made a big noise over there and we were having so much fun, we decided to keep going." "The phone didn't stop ringing," Sylvain adds, "The kids wanted this. Kids of all ages." An album's worth of brand new New York Dolls compositions, as unlikely as it may have seemed in 2003, was a foregone conclusion after wildly successful festival and live dates that spanned the past two years. They were a reunion when they re-started. Now, with replacement members feeling comfortable stepping into the stack heels of departed legends like Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan, and most recently Arthur "Killer" Kane, they're a gang once more. "It won't be very long that we'll be together longer than the original band was," Johansen laughs. And so we have official studio release number three, 'ONE DAY IT WILL PLEASE US TO REMEMBER EVEN THIS', where the New York Dolls' hallmarks: perfectly mean riffs, deceptively sweet choruses and miles of that infamous attitude meet the 21st Century. What's the same? "I think it's still an up kind of thing," Johansen says describing that quality that makes the Dolls, whatever, whomever and whenever, unmistakably "the Dolls." "It's got a non-defeatist philosophy and attitude. It says 'We can do anything." What's different? Well, listen to a track like the harmonica driven mid-tempo ballad "I Ain't Got Nothing," and it's clear that you're also dealing with real survivors. "We are older," Sylvain acknowledges, "but we share the same spirit as when we were fucking 18." They wear it well too. The world-weariness isn't depressive, but rather philosophical… glamorous even. Think mid-period Sinatra (if he'd hailed from the Bronx and not Hoboken) or Leonard Cohen (if he were less Canadian). "It's a statement of where we're at in life," Johansen says, "Life gets better as it goes along and you're more aware of the totality of the thing. When you're a kid, you can - at least I could - block out the not so 'happy happy, party party' aspects of it. Do I feel like a survivor? Yeah." The New York Dolls don't stare into their whiskey glasses too long. The up-tempo, Motown-flavoured single "Dance Like A Monkey" would likely inspire heated debate on intelligent design vs. evolution if its tribal rhythm didn't unite believers and pagans out on the dance floor. It should quickly enter the pantheon of great simian songs in rock history. Tracks like "Gimme Love and Turn On the Light," all blues and garage rock horniness serve to remind (if anyone's forgotten) the "sex" that is brought to the fore, nudging the "intellect" back a bit. Iggy Pop's backing vocals punctuate the statement. "There's an attitude we have towards rock n' roll that's kind of fierce," Johansen explains, "There's something in this band where we really want to swing and swing hard." Radio never really 'got' the 'Dolls in their first time 'round and although they were made for MTV, their own timing was off with that phenomenon. Their first two records are in every cool kids collection today (as they must be) and from "Lonely Planet Boy" off the first record to 'Too Much Too Soon''s "Human Being" (not to mention Johnny Thunder's indelible "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory," which the Dolls still play live), the guys always had a way with a timeless pop melody. 'ONE DAY IT WILL PLEASE US TO REMEMBER EVEN THIS' continues this tradition. "Take A Good Look At My Good Looks," is perfectly realized retro-romantic pop. "Our producer heard it and said, 'Syl, you still have one foot in the Brill Building," Sylvain laughs. "Dancing on the Lip of A Volcano," featuring backing vocals from Michael Stipe and a shimmering hook, is easily as catchy as any new pop written by Swedes and not recorded by rock legends. "We thought, "Michael Stipe would be great on this," Sylvain explains, "and so we called him. I live in Georgia and met him at a Patti Smith show. He said to me that he had seen David and I perform and that I handed him a bottle of Perrier. We heard his voice on the track and it was like 'man this belonged on there all the time." Stipe is one of only a few guests, whose impact on the tracks are subtle. "We got good stuff," Johansen says, "We're a good band. We can do what we gotta do for better or for worse. I didn't feel like we need this, or we need that." Although recorded, mostly live, with producer Jack Douglas (who was an engineer on their self- titled debut, and produced classic albums for Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and John Lennon), this is a cleaner sounding 'Dolls. The rawness is there in the aforementioned attitude, but nobody is pretending Nixon is still in office either. "You can never be amateurish again," Johansen explains, "Those two Dolls albums are like folk art. Urban folk art. Alan Lomax could have made them. They captured some Grandma Moses thing. We were so young and new at playing. When I was considering how to go about writing, I was saying,,. as you go through life and get more skilled at your craft, you can never go back." And so we move forward. "This is phase two," Johansen says. "It's a new band. A whole new thing." Purist fans may scoff that it's not the Dolls without Johnny, Jerry and Arthur, but both Johansen and Sylvain insist that bassist Sammi Yaffa, guitarist Steve Conte, keyboardist Brian Koonin and drummer Brian Delaney are indeed Dolls now. "We didn't set out to replace anyone," Sylvain reminds us. We're talking about the deceased here, not the dismissed, after all. "They're great guys," Johansen assures those who may be in doubt, "They're part of every aspect of everything. That's what being in a band is all about. I've got them all psychoanalyzed. Very interesting subjects." Is the world really ready for The New York Dolls 2006? "I don't care if this record is a hit," Sylvain assures, "Just as long as every man, woman and child buys it." Members:
David Johansen - Vocals
Sylvain Sylvain - Guitars
Steve Conte - Guitars
Brian Koonin - Keyboards
Sammi Yaffa - Bass
Brian Delaney - Drums
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