Song Of The Day: The Small Print (Earls Court 2004) VIDEO

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Music on my mind today:

Muse – Plug In Baby (Acoustic, 2001)

 

Interesting day today…. Muse are beginning to talk about their next album, see this Daily Star interview with Matt Bellamy (and huge thanks to a-museing from .mu for transcribing it!):

“It says plenty about rockers Muse that they’ve been invited back to headlne Oxegen just two years after last having the honour.  Then again, they’ve upped their game significanlty in that time.  With the latest album The Resistance, they’re hot on U2′s heels in the hunt to become the biggest live band in the world.  But in our exclusive interview with Muse ahead of their headline show on Satrday, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy is modest about their status.  ‘We’ve got at least 10 years to go before we get close to U2′ he says.  ‘They’ve been an inspiration to us, especially when it comes to putting on a live show’.

The group supported Bono and the boys last year – so were able to call up the Edge and get him to join them for their Glastonbury slot last month.  Matt explains ‘We felt bad for the crowd as U2 had to pull out of the festival so we decided to play Where the Streets Have No Name.  But I couldn’t play the guitar part so we decided to ask the Edge’.  The U2 guitarist didn’t reprise his guest duties at Oxegen on Saturday, but he was barely needed as the trio – completed by Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard – delivered a blistering set.

‘We think of Ireland as a second home now’ says Matt. ‘Chris lives in Dublin with his family and a lot of my family come from the North, so they’re coming down to see us.  We’ll be playing our festival set at Oxegen. We have a stadium show with UFOs and spinning platforms and all sorts of stuff, but we can’t bring that to festivals so we try to makeup for it by wearing silly costumes and playing unpredicatable setlists’.

Famed for their spectacular set designs and visuals, we wonder if the reliance on technology is sometimes a hindrance.  ‘Oh yes – we’ve definitely had our fair share of Spinal Tap moments’ the multi-million selling star says.  ‘Like in our indoor arena shows we have 3 moving platforms which go 6 or 7 metres of the ground.  At the start we’re behind a curtain that reveals us, but for the first few concerts it kept getting stuck.  At one of the shows, the curtain came down and landed on my head, so I had to play with this big sheet over me, looking like a ghost!  But I think our fans like it when we embarrass ourselves.’

When talk turns to the new direction of their next album, Bellamy explains the difference between tunes from more recent years like Knights of Cydonia to earlier material like Sunburn.  He says: ‘We’ve been taking influence from our live show by playing music that was relevant to a large environment. Pronouns moved from ‘me’ and ‘I’ to ‘we’ and ‘us’.  But my personal life has changed quite radically in the last year, lots of things have gone on, so there’s every possibility we’ll get back to a little more personal stuff – I can feel that step back is on the cards.  I’ve written some things already and they seem to be more mellowish – it’s basically less orchestrated and more stripped down.  Whether that’s the whole album or not is a different matter’.

The personal stuff, in case you were wondering, has plenty to do with his beau, Kate Hudson.  Bellamy met the actress in April and they have been an item ever since. Recent reports seemed to suggest that it’s very serious, with Matt meeting her mum Goldie Hawn and not denying the possibility of marriage in the future.  But when quizzed about the stunning blonde, he says these quotes are “absolutely made up”. However, he adds it’s going really well.”

*****

I really welcome any news about the next album.  It would be fantastic if we didn’t have to wait for the album #6 as long as we have waited for The Resistance.  And whether it turns out to be 100% acoustic or 100% heavy metal, I am going to be blogging about it and going completely mental when I listen to it!  I think it’s a little too late for me to change my mind about Muse, regardless of what they end up doing.

And… this is my Muse video of the day.  I still hold a grudge against The Small Print (and against Chris and Dom) for making sure that Fury never made it on Absolution (2003).  It’s only when I watch stunning performances like the one at the Earls Court in London, that I find myself almost agreeing with 2/3 of Muse that TSP is just as epic as Fury:

Muse – The Small Print (Earls Court 2004)