From provocative and confrontational socio-political opener "2013" to inspirational lullaby-like closer "It's Alright, It's OK," Primal Scream's new album "More Light" takes listeners on a psychedelic pleasure trip across a range of subjects and emotions and musical styles: garage rock, dream pop, and techno just to name a few. Well written by vocalist Bobby Gillespie and guitarist Andrew Innes, the band's first album in five years, featuring guest appearances from Robert Plant and My Bloody Valentine vocalist Kevin Shields, is also their highest-charting in the U.S. thus far, cracking the Top 20.
Best known stateside for their tracks "Loaded," "Come Together," and "Movin' on Up" off the groundbreaking "Screamadelica" (1991) album and "Rocks" off "Give Out But Don't Give Up" (1994), as well as for their notorious drug excesses, Scottish alterna-band Primal Scream is back in the U.S. for the first time in four years, on a West Coast mini-tour. Download.com caught up with singer Bobby Gillespie between rehearsals to get the lowdown on the new album and tour, the band's craziest drug-addled escapade, and the singer's iPhone apps.
What can you tell us about the West Coast tour?
We're going to play songs from the last 23 years. From "Screamadelica," "XTRMNTR," and "Evil Heat," up until the new album. It's a big set list and the band sounds great. So we're going to pick songs from most of the records that we made and create a hi-NRG, psychedelic rock 'n' roll set list. We're playing better than ever and the band is on fire.
I read in the press notes that the new Primal Scream album, "More Light" is about coming out of a dark time. Would you elaborate on that?
That came from an interview I did with a friend of mine who was writing a press release that was a paraphrase of something I said; I don't know if I said it exactly as he said it, but it was quoted. Not really. I don't know how to answer that. I think he made more of it than he should have.
The track "2013" is about a lot of the craziness going on in the world right now and how we're very distracted by consumerism and media. I'm curious; do you feel like people are too focused on their apps and iPhones right now to take in the bigger picture?
Lately people just seem disconnected from each other, in general. I'm as bad as anyone else when it comes to buying clothes and records and books and DVDs. I'm kind of guilty of that stuff, but it seems like there's people who don't look beyond the image or the illusion or the screen. It seems like we're living in right-wing revolutionary times, but they're blind to that. And I may be wrong, but it seems to me like there's less culture. There was more dissent in the past; when you hear punk records or post-punk records, there was a huge critique of society, whether it was a feminist critique or a left-wing Marxist critique. There was some kind of anger there and a critique of what was going on in the world. It seems to not be in music anymore. That's what I was commenting on.
Media has gone insane with iPhones and computer screens and tablets and you're bombarded with these images of all sorts of stuff and advertisers understand the power of an image to suggest, distract, and alter the way people think. It seems people are just equalized now. Where are the freaks in rock 'n' roll? Everyone seems very smug and self-satisfied -- like there's no edge to anything anymore. Where are the confrontational artists in music? The last one was probably Kurt Cobain.
Speaking of culture, I read that the track "Culturecide," was conceived on a train ride through Harlem. I'm curious; what was it about that experience that inspired that song?
You know it's the same as if you get a train in London and go through the housing estates and you can see into people's houses, and from the safety of the train, see the area and see the desolation. So it was really just commenting on that. But most people don't notice, because they're just riding from home to work or work to home, on their phones -- and I'm sure it's the same in America if you drive around and I'm just trying to create an image
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