Some new press:
NYC Newsday:
http://www.newsday.com/features/printed ... 3614.story
Miami - Miami New Times:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/200 ... usic2.html
PSB in the press today
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lucienchardon
- Posts: 1127
- Joined: Thu 08 Jan 2004, 8:22 am
They are in today's New York Times:
The New York Times
October 16, 2006 Monday
No Longer Puppies, the Pet Shop Boys Are 20
By KELEFA SANNEH
In 1986, two British fellows obsessed with dance music released ''Please,'' an album full of meticulously engineered beats and infectious songs that weren't nearly as silly as they first sounded. Twenty years later, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are still the Pet Shop Boys. And they have aged surprisingly well.
They came to Radio City Music Hall on Saturday for a sold-out concert, which may surprise listeners who associate them with only their 1980's hits: ''West End Girls'' and the rest. The concert was a reminder that these two have kept busy, recording elegant pop songs that often manage to be sly and silly at the same time. In Britain, where they have remained pop stars, their albums invariably crack the Top 10. In the United States, judging from Saturday's show, they attract an appreciative crowd in which women are a distinct minority.
The most recent Pet Shop Boys album is ''Fundamental'' (Rhino), which reunites the duo with the pop producer Trevor Horn. It's also an explicitly political album: in ''I'm With Stupid,'' Mr. Tennant, who is gay, imagines the unhealthy (but passionate) relationship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair. When he sang the song on Saturday, the satire seemed pretty hackneyed, but the love story still sounded intriguing. ''Fly across the ocean/ Just to let you get your way,'' he sang, sounding less like a Labor leader and more like your average sad-sack boyfriend.
The duo's current tour, with a brilliant stage set by Es Devlin, emphasizes the members' love of machine music. For most of the night, Mr. Lowe's small keyboard was the only instrument onstage. (As a rule, he doesn't sing, talk or move.) And while Mr. Tennant worked the stage, sometimes trailed by two dancers and three singers, images and letters and colors were projected onto a big white cube that split into three square panels, which were nimbly arranged and rearranged by two stage hands in white hazmat suits.
On albums, Mr. Tennant's thin, ultranasal voice sounds great on top of those thin electronic beats. Onstage, though, he sounds -- well, he sounds like a guy who is smart enough to make sure there are plenty of visual distractions. During ''Minimal,'' an oddly engrossing song from the new album, he exhaled the simple words (''M-I-N-I-M-A-L/ Minimal, minimal'') over a suitably skinny-sounding track. Then the two segued into ''Shopping,'' an old favorite in which Mr. Tennant also spells out the titular word; this show is nothing if not well planned.
Somehow the Pet Shop Boys manage to do just about everything -- from crooning a ballad to covering the Village People (''Go West'') -- with raised eyebrows. Even when they're making a deplorable visual pun (they wheeled out giant Chris-and-Neil heads, perched a dancer on top of each one, and did their version of ''Always on My Mind''), they looked suave and lovable. And if the best thing about the show was the design, well, you might say the same about the Pet Shop Boys' music. And you might mean it as high praise.
The New York Times
October 16, 2006 Monday
No Longer Puppies, the Pet Shop Boys Are 20
By KELEFA SANNEH
In 1986, two British fellows obsessed with dance music released ''Please,'' an album full of meticulously engineered beats and infectious songs that weren't nearly as silly as they first sounded. Twenty years later, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are still the Pet Shop Boys. And they have aged surprisingly well.
They came to Radio City Music Hall on Saturday for a sold-out concert, which may surprise listeners who associate them with only their 1980's hits: ''West End Girls'' and the rest. The concert was a reminder that these two have kept busy, recording elegant pop songs that often manage to be sly and silly at the same time. In Britain, where they have remained pop stars, their albums invariably crack the Top 10. In the United States, judging from Saturday's show, they attract an appreciative crowd in which women are a distinct minority.
The most recent Pet Shop Boys album is ''Fundamental'' (Rhino), which reunites the duo with the pop producer Trevor Horn. It's also an explicitly political album: in ''I'm With Stupid,'' Mr. Tennant, who is gay, imagines the unhealthy (but passionate) relationship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair. When he sang the song on Saturday, the satire seemed pretty hackneyed, but the love story still sounded intriguing. ''Fly across the ocean/ Just to let you get your way,'' he sang, sounding less like a Labor leader and more like your average sad-sack boyfriend.
The duo's current tour, with a brilliant stage set by Es Devlin, emphasizes the members' love of machine music. For most of the night, Mr. Lowe's small keyboard was the only instrument onstage. (As a rule, he doesn't sing, talk or move.) And while Mr. Tennant worked the stage, sometimes trailed by two dancers and three singers, images and letters and colors were projected onto a big white cube that split into three square panels, which were nimbly arranged and rearranged by two stage hands in white hazmat suits.
On albums, Mr. Tennant's thin, ultranasal voice sounds great on top of those thin electronic beats. Onstage, though, he sounds -- well, he sounds like a guy who is smart enough to make sure there are plenty of visual distractions. During ''Minimal,'' an oddly engrossing song from the new album, he exhaled the simple words (''M-I-N-I-M-A-L/ Minimal, minimal'') over a suitably skinny-sounding track. Then the two segued into ''Shopping,'' an old favorite in which Mr. Tennant also spells out the titular word; this show is nothing if not well planned.
Somehow the Pet Shop Boys manage to do just about everything -- from crooning a ballad to covering the Village People (''Go West'') -- with raised eyebrows. Even when they're making a deplorable visual pun (they wheeled out giant Chris-and-Neil heads, perched a dancer on top of each one, and did their version of ''Always on My Mind''), they looked suave and lovable. And if the best thing about the show was the design, well, you might say the same about the Pet Shop Boys' music. And you might mean it as high praise.
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lucienchardon
- Posts: 1127
- Joined: Thu 08 Jan 2004, 8:22 am
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01061.html
October 17, 2006 Tuesday
Pet Shop Boys, Camped Out in the Confines of Constitution Hall
"Lovely to be here at this rather posh venue," said Neil Tennant, the singing half of Pet Shop Boys, which also features keyboardist Chris Lowe. Joined by three backup singers and two dancers (who were usually dressed like the Boys themselves), the iconic British duo performed nearly two hours of self-described "electronic entertainment" on Sunday at the classy if somewhat stuffy DAR Constitution Hall. The stage design, based on a giant cube, was wonderfully theatrical, but the "posh venue," with its fixed seating, waylaid an outright dance party.
The other thing that momentarily held back the celebration was the Pet Shop Boys' decision to play so many tunes from their latest CD, "Fundamental." Not that the new record is poor; in fact, it's one of the duo's best. But far too few in the crowd seemed to know the songs from "Fundamental," and the tracks "Psychological" and "Minimal" kept the audience sitting on their hands.
Whenever the classics came out, however, the crowd found its dancing shoes. Originals such as "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," "West End Girls" and "It's a Sin," as well as hit covers of "Always on My Mind," "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" and "Go West," provided plenty of incentive to break a sweat.
But one "Fundamental" song did make a huge impact: "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show," a grandiose dance-pop number that was augmented by a bass player and a drummer. The dancers and backup singers were decked out in gold lamé military outfits, and the whole thing had a Mel Brooks-gone-disco-game-show feel. The song's performance encapsulated the smart, satirical camp that Pet Shop Boys have long mastered.
-- Christopher Porter
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01061.html
October 17, 2006 Tuesday
Pet Shop Boys, Camped Out in the Confines of Constitution Hall
"Lovely to be here at this rather posh venue," said Neil Tennant, the singing half of Pet Shop Boys, which also features keyboardist Chris Lowe. Joined by three backup singers and two dancers (who were usually dressed like the Boys themselves), the iconic British duo performed nearly two hours of self-described "electronic entertainment" on Sunday at the classy if somewhat stuffy DAR Constitution Hall. The stage design, based on a giant cube, was wonderfully theatrical, but the "posh venue," with its fixed seating, waylaid an outright dance party.
The other thing that momentarily held back the celebration was the Pet Shop Boys' decision to play so many tunes from their latest CD, "Fundamental." Not that the new record is poor; in fact, it's one of the duo's best. But far too few in the crowd seemed to know the songs from "Fundamental," and the tracks "Psychological" and "Minimal" kept the audience sitting on their hands.
Whenever the classics came out, however, the crowd found its dancing shoes. Originals such as "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," "West End Girls" and "It's a Sin," as well as hit covers of "Always on My Mind," "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" and "Go West," provided plenty of incentive to break a sweat.
But one "Fundamental" song did make a huge impact: "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show," a grandiose dance-pop number that was augmented by a bass player and a drummer. The dancers and backup singers were decked out in gold lamé military outfits, and the whole thing had a Mel Brooks-gone-disco-game-show feel. The song's performance encapsulated the smart, satirical camp that Pet Shop Boys have long mastered.
-- Christopher Porter
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lucienchardon
- Posts: 1127
- Joined: Thu 08 Jan 2004, 8:22 am
The Miami Herald
Oct. 19, 2006
Concert review | Pet Shop Boys electrify crowd
BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY
The Pet Shop Boys have always transcended mere dance-pop. The British duo's songs are a combination of effortless melodies, intellectual lyrics and a campy, theatrical playfulness that propels the group into performance-art territory.
On their first American tour in four years, the Pet Shop Boys thrilled the largely gay crowd Tuesday night at Miami Beach's Jackie Gleason Theater with an often flamboyant and uniformly classy show.
The concert comes on the heels of PSB's excellent new album Fundamental, which was well represented, but the group also satisfied old-school fans with a near-complete journey through their greatest hits. They also wisely avoided the all-too-common practice of making fans wait an hour-plus, taking the stage 20 minutes after the 8 p.m. start -- perfect timing for people to get settled.
The Pet Shop Boys' charismatic singer Neil Tennant, whose voice was dead-on the entire show, emerged as dramatic Hitchcockian strains gave way to Psychological, the surreal opening track from Fundamental. The song's Kraftwerk-like beats, powered by keyboardist Chris Lowe, were emphasized by dancers decked out in neon-yellow hoodies and white baseball caps, which seemed both retro and futuristic.
Male dancers in street gear lent extra energy to the classic Left To My Own Devices, for which Tennant donned a top hat and tails (making him look a bit like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote).
New songs seamlessly fit in with the old, sometimes adding political commentary: I'm With Stupid, with British and U.S. flags in the background, jabbed at both President Bush and Tony Blair, while The Sodom and Gomorrah Show mocked Nazi goose-stepping with dancers in drab olive military gear bedecked with glittering jewels.
But the dominant theme of the night was how intertwined the Pet Shop Boys' music and fashion can be. Almost every tune was enhanced by extravagant costumes, inventive sets and interpretive dance. Break-dancing during Suburbia. LCD-type lights spelling out the title of Minimal. Dancers in pinstripe suits and thick, black-rimmed glasses for Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money). Vintage Denver Nuggets jerseys with the name ''English'' (for '80s NBA star Alex English) across the backs for Domino Dancing, a clever nod to PSB's British roots. The fabulously nonchalant British chanteuse Sylvia Mason-James singing backup on West End Girls while lying on a lounge chair.
The group's two pumped-up cover songs featured inspired costume choices: For Willie Nelson's Always On My Mind, dancers wore massive flowers on top of their heads, while shimmering, gold suits jazzed up the medley of Where the Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off of You.
But one of the most mesmerizing moments was comparatively low-key. Tennant sang the fan-favorite Rent from inside a cubicle shrouded by see-through pink fabric, while another figure mimed from a cubicle placed higher onstage.
The encore delivered a delirious, bacchanalian dance orgy for So Hard, It's A Sin and the remake of the Village People's Go West, making it clear why the Pet Shop Boys are so embraced by the gay community. But they're beloved by every community, really.
Oct. 19, 2006
Concert review | Pet Shop Boys electrify crowd
BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY
The Pet Shop Boys have always transcended mere dance-pop. The British duo's songs are a combination of effortless melodies, intellectual lyrics and a campy, theatrical playfulness that propels the group into performance-art territory.
On their first American tour in four years, the Pet Shop Boys thrilled the largely gay crowd Tuesday night at Miami Beach's Jackie Gleason Theater with an often flamboyant and uniformly classy show.
The concert comes on the heels of PSB's excellent new album Fundamental, which was well represented, but the group also satisfied old-school fans with a near-complete journey through their greatest hits. They also wisely avoided the all-too-common practice of making fans wait an hour-plus, taking the stage 20 minutes after the 8 p.m. start -- perfect timing for people to get settled.
The Pet Shop Boys' charismatic singer Neil Tennant, whose voice was dead-on the entire show, emerged as dramatic Hitchcockian strains gave way to Psychological, the surreal opening track from Fundamental. The song's Kraftwerk-like beats, powered by keyboardist Chris Lowe, were emphasized by dancers decked out in neon-yellow hoodies and white baseball caps, which seemed both retro and futuristic.
Male dancers in street gear lent extra energy to the classic Left To My Own Devices, for which Tennant donned a top hat and tails (making him look a bit like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote).
New songs seamlessly fit in with the old, sometimes adding political commentary: I'm With Stupid, with British and U.S. flags in the background, jabbed at both President Bush and Tony Blair, while The Sodom and Gomorrah Show mocked Nazi goose-stepping with dancers in drab olive military gear bedecked with glittering jewels.
But the dominant theme of the night was how intertwined the Pet Shop Boys' music and fashion can be. Almost every tune was enhanced by extravagant costumes, inventive sets and interpretive dance. Break-dancing during Suburbia. LCD-type lights spelling out the title of Minimal. Dancers in pinstripe suits and thick, black-rimmed glasses for Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money). Vintage Denver Nuggets jerseys with the name ''English'' (for '80s NBA star Alex English) across the backs for Domino Dancing, a clever nod to PSB's British roots. The fabulously nonchalant British chanteuse Sylvia Mason-James singing backup on West End Girls while lying on a lounge chair.
The group's two pumped-up cover songs featured inspired costume choices: For Willie Nelson's Always On My Mind, dancers wore massive flowers on top of their heads, while shimmering, gold suits jazzed up the medley of Where the Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off of You.
But one of the most mesmerizing moments was comparatively low-key. Tennant sang the fan-favorite Rent from inside a cubicle shrouded by see-through pink fabric, while another figure mimed from a cubicle placed higher onstage.
The encore delivered a delirious, bacchanalian dance orgy for So Hard, It's A Sin and the remake of the Village People's Go West, making it clear why the Pet Shop Boys are so embraced by the gay community. But they're beloved by every community, really.
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lucienchardon
- Posts: 1127
- Joined: Thu 08 Jan 2004, 8:22 am
Riverfront Times (St. Louis, Missouri)
October 18, 2006 Wednesday
Climb Ev'ry Mountain;
B-Sides gets lonely with the Mountain Goats and pays the rent with Pet Shop Boys.
By Brooke Foster Roy Kasten, Christian Schaeffer and Alison Sieloff
Boys Don't Cry
The Pet Shop Boys (or maybe Pet Shop Men would be more accurate - keyboardist Chris Lowe just celebrated his 47th birthday) began their North American tour earlier this month. Lowe and Neil Tennant are out supporting their new CD Fundamental. B-Sides checked in with the famously shy Lowe right before his birthday. B-Sides: I was looking on your Web site, and noticed you just opened up the new music department at your old school. How was that?
Chris Lowe: Oh Neil put that on the Web site. It's something I would never dream of doing, because, you know, public speaking. You know, I made a speech. And I did it really for my mum because she really wanted to walk around the school and see how it had changed, because she was on the ladies' committee when I was there. So I agreed to do it. I had a very, very nice time being shown around the school and sort of reminiscing, because I left there in 1978. But that was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've had to do.
So as far as fashions go you all started in the '80s and all of the '80s styles are back. Has that been weird or is that not happening in Europe right now?
Well the fashion in London at the moment is very tight jeans, everything is very slim-fit and very rock & roll whereas the '80s although we were never part of this really, but the '80s was all about big shoulders wasn't it? And there isn't a big comeback in those fashion terms at the moment.
You all have been around for a very long time. What do you think has stayed the same about Pet Shop Boys and about you and about songwriting?
Well Pet Shop Boys are about writing songs, so we don't really see ourselves as about any particular time in music or any musical style. We see ourselves as songwriters, and I think that's one of the reasons why we're still doing what we do. [We] try to do things differently from the norm and to avoid cliché at all cost and that's really our manifesto.
What is your favorite song on your new album?
I really like "I Made My Excuses and Left." It was written in an unusual way and I think it's a very sad and tragic song - and I tend to like the emotional ones.
It's a pretty big stage show that you do right?
The whole show is being conceived by this woman called Es Devlin who mainly works designing operas. We know her because she designed the set for our musical Closer to Heaven. [The concert is] a very clever show, which relies on projections and clever use of light. And there's this structure which sort of folds out like a box of tricks - it's a very visual show.
October 18, 2006 Wednesday
Climb Ev'ry Mountain;
B-Sides gets lonely with the Mountain Goats and pays the rent with Pet Shop Boys.
By Brooke Foster Roy Kasten, Christian Schaeffer and Alison Sieloff
Boys Don't Cry
The Pet Shop Boys (or maybe Pet Shop Men would be more accurate - keyboardist Chris Lowe just celebrated his 47th birthday) began their North American tour earlier this month. Lowe and Neil Tennant are out supporting their new CD Fundamental. B-Sides checked in with the famously shy Lowe right before his birthday. B-Sides: I was looking on your Web site, and noticed you just opened up the new music department at your old school. How was that?
Chris Lowe: Oh Neil put that on the Web site. It's something I would never dream of doing, because, you know, public speaking. You know, I made a speech. And I did it really for my mum because she really wanted to walk around the school and see how it had changed, because she was on the ladies' committee when I was there. So I agreed to do it. I had a very, very nice time being shown around the school and sort of reminiscing, because I left there in 1978. But that was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've had to do.
So as far as fashions go you all started in the '80s and all of the '80s styles are back. Has that been weird or is that not happening in Europe right now?
Well the fashion in London at the moment is very tight jeans, everything is very slim-fit and very rock & roll whereas the '80s although we were never part of this really, but the '80s was all about big shoulders wasn't it? And there isn't a big comeback in those fashion terms at the moment.
You all have been around for a very long time. What do you think has stayed the same about Pet Shop Boys and about you and about songwriting?
Well Pet Shop Boys are about writing songs, so we don't really see ourselves as about any particular time in music or any musical style. We see ourselves as songwriters, and I think that's one of the reasons why we're still doing what we do. [We] try to do things differently from the norm and to avoid cliché at all cost and that's really our manifesto.
What is your favorite song on your new album?
I really like "I Made My Excuses and Left." It was written in an unusual way and I think it's a very sad and tragic song - and I tend to like the emotional ones.
It's a pretty big stage show that you do right?
The whole show is being conceived by this woman called Es Devlin who mainly works designing operas. We know her because she designed the set for our musical Closer to Heaven. [The concert is] a very clever show, which relies on projections and clever use of light. And there's this structure which sort of folds out like a box of tricks - it's a very visual show.
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psbnyc
- Posts: 465
- Joined: Sat 20 May 2006, 1:27 am
The New York Times made the following correction (Oct 20) to the review of the Radio City show:
"A picture caption on Monday with a music review of the Pet Shop Boys, at Radio City Music Hall, referred incorrectly to the man on the left. He was an unidentified dancer — not the duo’s keyboard player, Chris Lowe. (As part of the performance, the dancer was dressed like Mr. Lowe.)"
And the Boys are back in the Times again today:
POP
Kelefa Sanneh
“Fundamental,” the new album from the long-running British pop duo PET SHOP BOYS, includes “The Sodom and Gomorrah Show,” a peppy disco-rock ode to decadence. Some copies of the album also come with a bonus disc, and it’s there that you’ll find a remix called “Sodom.” It starts with a pinprick-sharp rhythm and a slightly dirty-sounding bass line. Neil Tennant’s breathy voice eventually arrives (“I lived a quiet life/ A stranger to Champagne”), and for the next six minutes the song keeps mutating: it sounds, by turns, like a New Order outtake, a fidgety minimalist experiment and a sleazy club track.
This remix is the work of ANDERS TRENTEMOLLER, a Danish producer and D.J. whose sleek, vaguely menacing tracks and remixes have earned him a devoted following in Europe, and a devoted (but much smaller) following in America, too. His debut full-length album, credited simply to Trentemoller, is a seductive CD called “The Last Resort” (Poker Flat; available through forcedexposure.com). It consists of 14 interlocking, mainly electronic compositions, though recognizable instruments occasionally show up: what he calls “surf guitars” on one track, a glockenspiel on another. This is moody, mysterious music, and like many meticulous dance-music producers from Europe, Mr. Trentemoller finds ways to hint at two very different places at once: a nearly empty bedroom and a not-at-all-empty nightclub.
For the most part, American fans of music like this are best off sticking to bedrooms. But on Thursday night, Mr. Trentemoller is coming to town for a gig at Cielo, in the meatpacking district. Expect an amusing and hopefully invigorating culture clash: obsessive fans and blithe revelers, all moving to the same beat. From 10 p.m. until 4 a.m., Cielo, 18 Little West 12th Street, (212) 645-5700, wearerobots.net; $10 in advance, $18 at the door.
"A picture caption on Monday with a music review of the Pet Shop Boys, at Radio City Music Hall, referred incorrectly to the man on the left. He was an unidentified dancer — not the duo’s keyboard player, Chris Lowe. (As part of the performance, the dancer was dressed like Mr. Lowe.)"
And the Boys are back in the Times again today:
POP
Kelefa Sanneh
“Fundamental,” the new album from the long-running British pop duo PET SHOP BOYS, includes “The Sodom and Gomorrah Show,” a peppy disco-rock ode to decadence. Some copies of the album also come with a bonus disc, and it’s there that you’ll find a remix called “Sodom.” It starts with a pinprick-sharp rhythm and a slightly dirty-sounding bass line. Neil Tennant’s breathy voice eventually arrives (“I lived a quiet life/ A stranger to Champagne”), and for the next six minutes the song keeps mutating: it sounds, by turns, like a New Order outtake, a fidgety minimalist experiment and a sleazy club track.
This remix is the work of ANDERS TRENTEMOLLER, a Danish producer and D.J. whose sleek, vaguely menacing tracks and remixes have earned him a devoted following in Europe, and a devoted (but much smaller) following in America, too. His debut full-length album, credited simply to Trentemoller, is a seductive CD called “The Last Resort” (Poker Flat; available through forcedexposure.com). It consists of 14 interlocking, mainly electronic compositions, though recognizable instruments occasionally show up: what he calls “surf guitars” on one track, a glockenspiel on another. This is moody, mysterious music, and like many meticulous dance-music producers from Europe, Mr. Trentemoller finds ways to hint at two very different places at once: a nearly empty bedroom and a not-at-all-empty nightclub.
For the most part, American fans of music like this are best off sticking to bedrooms. But on Thursday night, Mr. Trentemoller is coming to town for a gig at Cielo, in the meatpacking district. Expect an amusing and hopefully invigorating culture clash: obsessive fans and blithe revelers, all moving to the same beat. From 10 p.m. until 4 a.m., Cielo, 18 Little West 12th Street, (212) 645-5700, wearerobots.net; $10 in advance, $18 at the door.
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psbnyc
- Posts: 465
- Joined: Sat 20 May 2006, 1:27 am
Maybe. Or it's just the Times. They always end up getting things right.
I actually loved the fact that they mistook the dancer for Chris, and I'm sure that Chris loved it, too....might give him the idea that he doesn't really need to be on stage
Anyway, I'll be at the Trentemøller gig on Thursday, should be interesting.
They could actually also find a Neil look-a-like, and then have a European tour going on at the same time - would keep almost everybody happy
I actually loved the fact that they mistook the dancer for Chris, and I'm sure that Chris loved it, too....might give him the idea that he doesn't really need to be on stage
Anyway, I'll be at the Trentemøller gig on Thursday, should be interesting.
They could actually also find a Neil look-a-like, and then have a European tour going on at the same time - would keep almost everybody happy