Sparks - C ou D

A lot of fun, this documentary.

Quite right

https://glidemagazine.com/271576/sparks-reissuing-five-post-millenial-releases-on-cd-vinyl/

Sparks are celebrating their post-millennial renaissance with the 21st Century Sparks collection of deluxe reissues, to be released by BMG on CD and vinyl later this spring. Balls (2000), Lil’ Beethoven (2002), and Hello Young Lovers (2006) arrive on Friday, April 29; Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (2008) and The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman (2009) follow on Friday, May 27.

great news, especially since I just looked up what Li'l Beethoven is selling for and holy fuck. I actually have Hello Young Lovers and the price is absurd even though the record itself doesn't sound great, on account of being over 50 minutes long and all. so the 2xLP should be pretty good.

welp I just played "Here Kitty" seven times in a row

These guys were absolutely terrific at Big Ears.

They don't stop. New movie musical in the works, new Sparks album and world tour in 2023: https://deadline.com/2022/11/sparks-duo-ron-russell-mael-developing-musical-x-crucior-at-focus-1235162734/

new album in the can already? wonder how much stuff out there is completed but waiting due to the vinyl shortage. I heard Todd Rundgren's new album was done for like a year.

Apparently Russell announced it was done at one of their shows in Japan back in August. I'm hoping for an early 2023 release, but we'll see...

Stay tuned — more news soon! ✨ pic.twitter.com/DnKLQWbDpP

— SPARKS (@sparksofficial) November 14, 2022

Nice that a new Sparks album is actually an event.

no one writes funnier horny songs than Sparks. listening to "Let The Monkey Drive" rn and it's really cracking me up

They're just that good.

Exotic Creatures actually has a lot of really funny lyrics. I mean all Sparks albums do but some of them will randomly be really great, like this and Whomp That Sucker. The opening lines to "This is the Renaissance" are so good. the whole song is actually

Seeing them do that whole album at UCLA was a treat, thanks to extra staging as well. Imagine a whole bunch of women dressed as Ron coming out during "She Got Me Pregnant" (with fake baby bumps of course). Ron's looks to them in (fake) confusion were amazing.

Has any other band had such an Indian Summer as them? It’s wonderful they are not only getting the recognition they deserve in the US, but still putting out vital new work—for over two decades!—that can stand beside their best. It’s like of Bowie was putting out consistent Blackstars since 2000.

Suede have been making a hell of a second run but then again they had broken up. Sparks had the dry gulch period but after that, it just all kept coming.

I guess Gary Numan comes to mind, as he's got that same pattern of acclaimed and innovative early stuff leading to a decade of mediocre, floundering pop records, only to score an out of nowhere comeback that not only changed his sound but brought in a whole new audience, from which he's never looked back. all his records have been pretty similar since then. idk how true that is for Sparks exactly but I would say all their records from Hello Young Lovers on are kinda the same amalgam of all the elements of the "Sparks" sound, as opposed to the ones before that which were often hyperfocused on a specific thing. obviously not a bad thing, I feel like I enjoy those records even more than the old ones.

Seeing them do that whole album at UCLA was a treat, thanks to extra staging as well. Imagine a whole bunch of women dressed as Ron coming out during "She Got Me Pregnant" (with fake baby bumps of course). Ron's looks to them in (fake) confusion were amazing.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, January 9, 2023 8:40 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This was amazing and it's really too bad they didn't release a DVD of any of these shows like they did with the previous few tours.

It's the 21 x 21 set of shows in London I'd love to see a full set of; you get a quick montage of snippets in the documentary but that's it (I saw nearly all of them via webcast, probably mentioned way earlier on this thread). The other one I would love is the one-off Guy Maddin staging of The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman; again, we get a clip in the documentary so a full recording must exist. In a weird way, the fact that R&R keep being engaged with trying something new first and foremost is a blessing and maybe a slight curse; while they'll do reissues and things there's very little sense of sustained creative retrospection with them, which is why 21 x 21 was such a thoroughly unique one off.

feels way too big to release even as a DVD set but yes I do wish recordings of all that would come out. I mean this band has a long and storied career spanning four decades at that point and they just played every single one of their songs live, that's basically a fever dream

we get a clip in the documentary so a full recording must exist

If it hasn't been done already, there must be a great thread to be had in "a clip of x artist in x situation is out there, so a full recording must exist"

Of course, the artist(s) themselves not liking how it turned out is almost certainly the answer to why we can't see it. Still, I feel like there are a ton of examples of this.

just want to add another vote for "Let The Monkey Drive" as one of their best/funniest songs

"I think his license has expired"

So good. I just love the inner logic of that song, "Can't fool around while we're driving on the PCH but can't wait until we get to Santa Barbara. What to do, what to do? Oh, of course, we'll let the monkey drive. It is his car, after all."

xps Yeah, it's kind of crazy that they've mounted so many different projects for which no there's no real official documentation: 21x21, the Exotic Creatures full-album performances, that Seduction stage show, Kimono with an orchestra, the Revenge of Two Hands One Mouth tour (with its own unique theme song!)... they and their collaborators clearly put a ton of work into these things that basically just existed for those who were lucky enough to be there at the time.

all their records from Hello Young Lovers on are kinda the same amalgam of all the elements of the "Sparks" sound, as opposed to the ones before that which were often hyperfocused on a specific thing

I'm not familiar yet with all the recent records, but I had this same thought recently listening to Balls and A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip: how the earlier record has songs that feel jammed into arrangements that aren't entirely germane but have to conform to a dance-oriented electronic template. Really, you could say this started with Big Beat, where eclecticism within a given album became a bad word. Each record has to stick to "hard rock"/MOR/Eurodisco/New Wave/Synthpop/dance/"classical" etc.. In the last 20 years, they seem to have the confidence that the Sparks name is selling the record, not their conformation to somebody else's genre that will lead listeners blindfolded to their album.

Signed to Island once again -- that has to feel a little weird, almost literally fifty years later from the first time around -- and new album in May, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. Also said something about a big headline show in America in particular.

were they still on In The Red previously? seems like a step up...

Honestly can't remember which one the last album was on, hadn't been on ITR for a while. All the 2000s albums and at least some of the 2010s got reissues on BMG last year, so I half thought they'd be sticking with that but who knows.

BMG for the last couple, I believe.

just got a message that Sparks will be in MILWAUKEE on July 6th, so there's gotta be a big tour announcement soon. really excited to see it.

Yup, announcement is live (scroll down for tour dates)

https://allsparks.com/

that doesn't have any US dates on it that I can see. just sayin if they're coming to Milwaukee then it might be like 25-30 shows

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I'm only seeing five European dates...

Huh, weird. Well here's a tweet with the full array:

#SparksTour2023, let’s go!! ✨

🚨Tickets go on sale Friday, February 3rd @ 10AM local time.

→ https://t.co/F5CioIdbn3

Pre-sales:
Sparks Fan Club - Tue, 1/31 @ 10AM
Maeling List - Wed, 2/1 @ 10AM

The venue for the hometown show in Los Angeles will be announced soon! 👀✨ pic.twitter.com/KdaPKLvZp9

— SPARKS (@sparksofficial) January 30, 2023

I just grabbed an 11th-row ticket for the 850-capacity venue in Boulder and couldn't be more fucking stoked for this show. My first-ever opportunity to see Sparks!!

And the LA date is announced -- they're headlining the Hollywood Bowl on July 16, They Might Be Giants as openers.

Info on that:

Series subscriptions are available now.
Sparks Fan Club Presale: Tue, April 25 at 10am
General single day ticket sales start: Tue, May 2 at 10am
→ https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/programs/1393

"Our first experience of the Hollywood Bowl was in 1964 when our mom took us there to see The Beatles. Our futuristic Fiat Multipla could barely make it up the Bowl’s steep parking lot due to the Italian car’s meager horsepower. We risked life and limb driving backwards in reverse gear up the hill. It was way worth it…we got to see The Beatles.

We never would have dreamed that in 2023 we would be standing on that same hallowed stage, performing for fans of our own group, Sparks.

And hopefully everyone will have a better experience with the parking lot than we did."

Sparks and TMBG, holy cow

I don't know if this is region locked but here they are at the chateau d'hérouville, French chateau & studio: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/108474-000-A/sparks-au-chateau-d-herouville/ (available until June 2023)

snippet of the new album, hoping this isn't just some out of context bit

THE GIRL IS CRYING IN HER LATTE
the 26th Sparks album | out May 26, 2023

Photography: Munachi Osegbu
Album artwork: Julie Vlasak #TheGirlIsCryingInHerLatte ☕️ pic.twitter.com/AgbG6tA7tc

— S P A R K S (@sparksofficial) February 14, 2023

Single live:

https://sparks.lnk.to/TheGirlIsCrying

And the video tomorrow features Cate Blanchett!

oooh I like this

love the main synth part but don't care for the vocal melody at all. i do like that they're doing their classical weirdo thing over such a massive synth part though

Yeah, that synth intro is brilliant. The main refrain sounds like the Sgt Pepper's run-out groove.

Something about the vocal melody in the verses reminds of 90s Sparks. Fun song, a little underwhelming for the first single, but seems like it'll be a good album opener.

And I was staring at Ron the whole time. Because you just never know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTAxPhxADo0

the top comment right now is an On Cinema reference, awesome

Also, tracklisting:

The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
Veronica Lake
Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is
Escalator
The Mona Lisa's Packing, Leaving Late Tonight
You Were Meant For Me
Not That Well-Defined
We Go Dancing
When You Leave
Take Me For A Ride
It's Sunny Today
A Love Story
It Doesn't Have To Be That Way
Gee, That Was Fun

And an interview about it all

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/sparks-cate-blanchett-music-video-album-girl-is-crying-in-her-latte-1235542099/

dropped the ball by not getting Cate to do Ron's signature dance.