Sparks Sparks Sparks

"But the power of Mega man is on -my- side, Ron!" Russell shouted and jumped up and down

nailed russell

Chilling in the Masonic Hall and all well.

great show in Portland tonight! them imitating each other was classic, and the duo lineup is really interesting - songs stripped down to the core.

"But the power of Mega man is on -my- side, Ron!" Russell shouted and jumped up and down

"I've got the knobs on my side, Russell" Albert Steptoe Ron.

omfg did loads of sparks just disappear off spotify?!

less urgently: does anyone know if there are any plans to release the 21 london concerts from a few years back? They were recorded, right/

Recorded, yes. Released...who knows. Thank goodness I saw the basic netstream of the whole thing.

man can't we kickstart this

also does anyone know what's up with the spotify thing?

oh actually nm, the stuff is disappeared unless you click on the album name

Philly show was so great! A couple pleasant surprises in the setlist, and the duo lineup really works. Russell's voice has held up surprisingly well! They announced that they will be at Cannes this year attempting to procure backing to make The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman into a film!

The Portland show was incredible, but I think I walked in a little late. Does anybody have the setlist for that show? I see people talking about Sherlock Holmes being played and I'm really hoping I didn't miss that.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/sparks/2013/aladdin-theater-portland-or-13d835b9.html

Linked this on the other thread

http://thequietus.com/articles/12088-sparks-masonic-hall-hollywood-forever-cemetery

thank you for that setlist! xp

I've been repeatedly playing the Two Hands One Mouth versions of Beat the Clock and No. 1 Song in Heaven very loudly...this is exactly the kind of thing I try to do on my synthesizer, but obviously like 100x better. Do these guys rule or what?

Yes, hearing those versions live last week was something else. Was so glad I'd held off on getting the album until I'd seen the show.

Yeah, thanks for the setlist...but, crap, I missed too many songs that I love. xp

No problem! Yeah, when I saw where "Sherlock Holmes" fell in the set that night I felt bad. :(

Also, on a side note: Ron's keyboard having "Ronald" instead of "Roland" stamped on it was a nice subtle touch of genius.

Ha, he's been doing that since the 80s! Very much a stage trademark now.

Proof. Also, one of the greatest moments in SNL history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOtvmlfxseE

This is the other greatest moment, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mq3F328Cc0

OMG, "Under The Table With Her" in the Portland setlist?! Looooooooooove! (way xposts)

More Ron/Russell only dates in fall:

As a thank you to Sparks fans for your overwhelming support of the Two Hands One Mouth tour and album, Ron and Russell announce THE REVENGE OF TWO HANDS ONE MOUTH TOUR.

In FALL 2013 the tour will visit new cities in the USA and Europe (as well as some old favorites), and will feature a selection of previously unperformed songs given the THOM treatment. Dates will be announced shortly!

As the guys bid adieu to the THOM format and get ready for their next album and new adventures in film and beyond, these tour dates will be the final ones of this era. So if you missed seeing them the first go-round or want to see new interpretations of more songs, catch them now before it becomes another memorable page in Sparks' history.

I've never looked at their website before now. Fun design!

Holy crap, they played The Neptune Theater in Seattle recently?!?! Never saw it used as a music venue.

Still can't get over what a great Beatles cover this is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlRJn2YQN1o

In a way I think that lush, orchestrated sound feels like a direction they could(and maybe should) have pursued further, but they never did anything quite like it again. I guess the Maels have never exactly gone for the obvious.

They didn't go for it even then, the single got withdrawn as all the Beatles singles got reissued

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/444355/Kanye-West-Velvet-Underground-and-Glenn-Gould-Sparks-Ron-Mael-on-his-six-best-albums

Franz!

Had completely forgotten I'm seeing these guys tonight! On the train to London now, wishing I weren't so hungover.

Apparently Thurston Moore joined them onstage at the last London show to play guitar on This Town!

!

So jazzed for this. I'm listening to Real Extended, the comp of 12-inch mixes and holy fucking shit

the extended mixes of the moroder tunes

are

EVERYTHING

This is happening
20 mins
You guys

SO FUCKIN GOOD

opened with "your call is v important to us" and I was p much hooked throughout. Popularity, tryouts, heaven, my way: I think the thing that will stick most from the 2h1m project is the reimagining of their fun ones as kinda drive soundtrack torch songs

And they are great for that! Glad you had a good time. Pity I had to miss the LA date for this version of the tour but it couldn't be helped!

Really hoping for a sequel album, setlist was kinda perfect imo. I used "heaven" as shorthand above assuming ppl would know I meant #1 but it could also refer to "here in heaven", which they did along with falling in love with myself, bc, Carnegie, I mean this is about as precision-targeted winsbait as is possible without throwing in whomp & balls faves

i had never seen this thanks to dumb SNL music performance sharing/licensing/whatever but it's pretty great. Sparks playing "Mickey Mouse" on SNL, introduced by Danny DeVito and then Ron Mael giving a short speech about mice. https://my.mail.ru/mail/legych6621/video/3502/6358.html

http://allsparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Cookie-for-website.jpg

http://allsparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Soup-for-Website.jpg

&c

I'm listening to the reviled "Puling Rabbits Out of A Hat" while working, and it's...kind of going down easy? The songs are certainly peppier than the midtempo plod of some of their other lesser albums. Ned called me mad for finding "Angst in My Pants" tough to get through, and I guess I'm mad for kind of liking "Rabbits".

Chaos reigns etc