Look Back in Anger: Noel Quits Oasis

While Noel Gallagher has been hinting at a solo album for a while this year, and has walked away from the band several times in the past only to rejoin, over the weekend the elder Gallagher issued a statement via his blog on Oasis' website that he has left the band.

"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quite Oasis tonight." read Noel's blog post.

"As of last Friday, August 28, I have been forced to leave the Manchester rock 'n' roll pop group Oasis

"The details are not important and of too great a number to list. But I feel you have the right to know that the level of verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family, friends and comrades has become intolerable. And the lack of support and understanding from my management and bandmates has left me with no other option than to get me cape and seek pastures new.

"I would like firstly to offer my apologies to them kids in Paris who'd paid money and waited all day to see us only to be let down AGAIN by the band. Apologies are probably not enough, I know, but I'm afraid it's all I've got.

"While I'm on the subject, I'd like to say [sorry] to the good people of V Festival that experienced the same thing. Again, I can only apologise - although I don't know why, it was nothing to do with me. I was match-fit and ready to be brilliant. Alas, other people in the group weren't up to it.

"In closing I would like to thank all the Oasis fans, all over the world. The last 18 years have been truly, truly amazing (and I hate that word, but today is the one time I'll deem it appropriate). A dream come true. I take with me glorious memories."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a family and a football team to indulge. I'll see you somewhere down the road. It's been a fuckin' pleasure."

Will he be back? Did he finally tell little bro Liam that he sounds like a frog shitted in his throat when he sings these days? Time will tell.

Live Review: Oasis / Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Oasis with Ryan Adams & the Cardinals and Matt Costa
Oracle Arena, Oakland CA
12.03.08


Show # 2 on a month- long rock 'n roll live show extravaganza saw us head north to Oakland's Oracle Arena to catch up with the Gallagher bros in Oasis and watch a rocking opening set by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals.

This is going to show my age, but remember when big arena shows were these crazed, just-one-step-away from sheer anarchy affairs? Beer and drugs flew through the air like a WWII firefight and bodies tumbled over the barricades like the incoming tide of a hurricane, and the last thing you wanted to be caught doing was actually sitting in your assigned seats?

Yeah, those days are gone.

The sight of people carrying buckets of popcorn and a tall soda as they searched for their floor seats and tried to text their new bff on Facebook are the norm these days and the gestapo security of Oracle arena ensured a safe PG-13 time in what should have been an R-rated environment.

But enough about that, lets talk about some fucking music.


Normally a band that plays theaters and large clubs, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals adjusted their song selection to provide an uptempo and rocking opening set to fill the cavernous arena. The tom-heavy percussion of opening song "Cobwebs" off this year's Cardinology created an urgency as the band - Neal Casal, Brad Pemberton, Jon Graboff, Chris Feinstein and Ryan Adams launched into a set that sampled their extensive catalog.

Highlights included a driving rendition of "Let it Ride" off 2005s Cold Roses, "Come Pick Me Up" from 2000s Heartbreaker, and "Sink Ships" off Cardinology. After slowing down briefly with "Two" off last year's Easy Tiger album, the band let out one last blast of rock with "Magick" and then exited the stage.

All in all, you couldn't have asked for a better set by an opening band. I look forward to the band returning to the Bay Area for their own headlining show in 2009.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Setlist:
Cobwebs
Crossed Out Name
Everybody Knows
When the Stars Go Blue
Fix It
Let it Ride
Go Easy
Sink Ships
Come Pick Me Up
I Taught Myself How to Grow Old
Two
Magick

Promptly at 9PM, the house lights dimmed and the familiar cacaphony of "Fuckin' in the Bushes" exploded from the arena PA as the huge video screens and stage lights went crazy and synched with the song's backbeat, prepping the crowd for the band's entrance. Vocalist Liam Gallagher strutted non-chalantly to the front of the stage and greeted the crowd with his patented Mancunian attitude as the rest of the band took their positions with their instruments.

Everywhere else in the world, Oasis are huge, drawing fans by the tens of thousands to their sold out gigs. Stateside, they draw a lot less, but the 6,000 strong fans cheered loudly as the band revved up with opener "Rock 'n Roll Star" and launched into a two hour show that pulled from their back catalog and showcased tunes off this years big-beat psychedelic album Dig Out Your Soul.

"Lyla" off 2006s Don't Believe the Truth and new song "Shock of the Lightning" lubricated the crowd nicely before sending them over the edge with the classic "Cigarettes & Alcohol". Oasis did a great job all night of balancing classics with newer, more unfamiliar material off Dig Out Your Soul. New drummer Chris Sharrock more than filled the vacancy left by Zak Starkey, pummeling his kit with reckless abandon on songs like "Meaning of Soul" and the new, Middle Eastern-tinged song "To Be Where There's Life".

Highlights included the stomping march of the new, Noel Gallagher-sung "Waiting for the Rapture", a roaring, riff heavy "Morning Glory" and the Brit Pop psychedelia of "Slide Away" which caused one fan to pass out and Noel to reply "Did someone get overwhelmed? I'm sorry about that. Buy a t-shirt on the way out, please".

The encore ended the show on a high note: a touching, acoustic rendition of "Don't Look Back in Anger", the pharmacological haze of new song "Falling Down" and the bliss of the crowd-sung "Champagne Supernova" set up the show closing "I Am the Walrus" complete with the crowd coo-coo-a chooing as Liam spat out the verses and the band paid tribute to their idols in the Beatles.

Oasis setlist:
Rock 'N Roll Star
Lyla
Shock of the Lightning
Cigarettes & Alcohol
The Meaning of Soul
To Be Where There's Life
Waiting for the Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain't Got Nothing
The Importance of Being Idle
I'm Outta Time
Wonderwall
Supersonic

-encore-
Don't Look Back in Anger
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova
I Am The Walrus

Photos used without permission and found here at Rollingstone.com and Anirudh Koul's flickr page under the Creative Commons license.

God's Not Making Good Albums

Never in short supply of a good quote, Liam Gallagher recently sat down with RollingStone.com for a Q&A on the new Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul and various other topics, including the death of the rock star and why MySpace sucks arse.

Among the highlights was Gallagher's response to the question of the Beatles vs. God, to which his reply was:

It's got to be being in the Beatles. When was the last time God made a decent record?

Album Review: Dig Out Your Soul

Oasis
Dig Out Your Soul
Big Brother Records

Buy From Amazon: Dig Out Your Soul

It took the band ten years, but Oasis has regained their confident swagger with the heady, musical brew of new album Dig Out Your Soul. With a strong batch of songs showcasing Oasis' expanding songwriting and musical explorations, Dig Out Your Soul is a hurricane of buzzing guitar riffs and thunderous drums living in harmony with Beatlesesque sonics and head-bobbing basslines.

While not everything works, Dig Out Your Soul shows a band that's played it safe since imploding on 2000s Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, to now be rediscovering it's mojo to thrilling effect.

Rocker "Bag it Up" launches us into orbit with a propulsive rhythm that locates the groove lurking within the pounding percussion and holds on for dear life. Vocalist Liam Gallagher sneers in his best Mancunian wail: "Someone tell me I'm dreaming / the freaks are rising up through the floor / everything I believe in / telling me that I want more". The velocity of the song's rhythm threatens to careen the song right off the tracks but layers of droning keyboards slow the inertia enough to seque to the next track, "The Turning".



"Waiting for the Rapture" is one of Noel Gallagher's better tunes in recent years. A muted fuzz guitar that even Jack White would be proud of rumbles underneath the melody, creating a constant tension that is only tempered by Gallagher's soulful croon.



This appears to be the M.O. for the first four songs on the album: big, sneering rock grooves balanced with pure Manchester-approved Northern Soul.

Liam also contemplates mortality on his self-penned tune, "I'm Outta Time", and includes some sampled recordings of a John Lennon interview to maintain the Beatles fixation for the band. (Recording the new album at the Fab Four's Abbey Road studios didn't hurt the process either.)

But where in the past the band would have Xeroxed the first 5 songs for the second half of the album, Oasis break out musically and follow their sonic muse.

The Noel-penned "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady" has a bluesy back-porch stomping percussive groove and filtered vocals that make Noel sound like he's singing from a desolate telephone booth in the wee hours of the night. The sitar-ladden, Middle Eastern psychedelia of "To Be Where There's Life" employs an elastic bassline and mantra like vocals that weave in and out of the song, creating a trance like tune that will have college kids firing up the black lights and burning some crops while listening to the album.

"Ain't Got Nothing" is a punked out Liam tune that might work better live, but on record drills itself into an oblivion of noise. (This approach worked better on "Meaning of Soul" off 2005s Don't Believe the Truth album.) "The Nature of Reality" also plods along to nowhere and suffers from the band's Achilles heal of tepid lyrics.

A few stinkers aside, Dig Out Your Soul is a welcomed return to form. Minus the revolving drummer situation (Zak Starkey recorded with the band for Dig Out Your Soul, but has since left), Noel Gallagher, Gem Archer, Liam Gallagher and Andy Bell have been playing together as Oasis for 3 albums and almost ten years of live gigs, giving the new album a cohesive and confident feel in the musicianship and the songwriting.

The creative rebirth that germinated on 2005s Don't Believe the Truth is in full bloom on Dig Out Your Soul, and along with the release The Verve's comback album Forth, suddenly it feels like 1994 all over again.