“A.I. killed the rock and roll star,” sing Welsh alt-rock icons THE ALARM as they prepare for the release of brand new album MUSIC TELEVISION, a technicolour homage to the video explosion of the 1980s through a reinterpreted collection of MTV channel classics. Music Television will only be available on vinyl and CD at venues throughout the Live Today Love Tomorrow tour (info below) or online at TheAlarm.com.
Inspired by David Bowie’s 1973 album of glam-proto-punk cover versions Pin Ups, Music Television by The Alarm will step back into the future reinterpreting songs from some of rock’s most influential and defining moments in visual music. “The Alarm came of age in the MTV era” continues Peters, “So many of our longstanding fans grew up on MTV and saw The Alarm for the first time on MTV’s The Cutting Edge or via the historic ‘Spirit Of ‘’86 Live Global Broadcast’ concert, and have stayed with us ever since,”
Featuring 11 tracks celebrating both influential and underrated artists from Generation MTV that changed and influenced the lives of so many, the first single from Music Television is a psychedelic David Bowie-inspired / Nirvana-influenced acoustic cover of “The Man Who Sold The World.” which Mike Peters attributes to his fascination with the groundbreaking MTV Unplugged acoustic performance series. “Unplugged was a series that redefined music as we knew it,” he says. “I remember watching in awe at some of the incredible stripped-down arrangements of classic songs and, at the same time envious that I had been denied the opportunity to appear on the show back in the day. [The Alarm appeared in the series’ first season but without Peters]. This is my chance to take back part of music television history and pay my respects to an era that changed everything.”
PROGRAM ONE
Money For Nothing (Dire Straits)
Video Killed The Radio Star (The Buggles)
Live Today Love Tomorrow (The Blow Monkeys)
Imagination (Belouis Some)
Beat It (Michael Jackson)
PROGRAM TWO
Don’t Change (INXS)
In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
I Melt With You (Modern English)
Screaming For Emmalene (Gene Loves Jezebel)
The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)
MTV Theme
Music Television kicks off with a reimagining of the first ever song to be played on MTV back in 1981 – The Buggles “Video Killed The Radio Star” with a subtle lyric change that reflects the threat of A.I. and new technology on rock and roll as we now know it. Dire Straits MTV anthem “Money For Nothing” (the first song to be played on MTV Europe in 1987), is re-modeled into a garage rock harmonica-driven anthem in the electro-acoustic style of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. Among other songs getting re-imaginings include INXS’ “Don’t Change,” The Blow Monkeys’ “Live Today Love Tomorrow,” Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” and Modern English’s classic “I Melt With You” (full track listing below).
A redrawing of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” embraces the original’s spacious atmospherics and injects raw electronic blues into the mix, centering it on Peters’ iconic vocals. “I was walking with my guitar in NYC’s Central Park when I came across a busker playing a stripped-back minor key version on a beat-up old guitar and I joined in,” recalls Peters about his chance encounter in 2023. “It was truly amazing to hear a song so familiar in unfamiliar surroundings. I asked him where he first heard the song, and he said, ‘MTV, Man!’ and that gave me the inspiration for this version of the track.”
As an honor to their Live Today Love Tomorrow MMXXIV tour mates Belouis Some and Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel (both of whom had sizeable success across the MTV and US Radio Networks back in the mid-’80s), The Alarm pays tribute with covers of “Imagination” (that caused huge controversy at MTV with the first-ever full-naked video directed by Storm Thorgerson) and “Screaming For Emmalene” respectively.
The tour, which was announced earlier this year, has been extended coast to coast, with over 30 shows starting in New Orleans on May 1st and continuing through to July when the tour reaches Florida. The Alarm also features on the bill of the massive Cruel World Festival in California on May 11th, alongside Duran Duran, Simple Minds, Placebo and Interpol.
Music Television by The Alarm will be released as a Limited Edition Yellow / Purple Vinyl press exclusively via the band’s website www.thealarm.com, and on CD at all US venues throughout the Live Today Love Tomorrow Tour.
PART ONE:
May 01 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
May 02 Austin, TX Emo’s
May 03 Houston, TX House of Blues
May 04 Ft. Worth, TX Tannahill’s
May 07 Kansas City, MO Knuckleheads
May 08 Minneapolis, MN TBA
May 09 Chicago, IL Des Plaines Theatre
May 10 Detroit, MI Magic Bag
May 11 Los Angeles. CA Cruel World *
May 12 Pittsburgh, PA Jergels
May 13 Toronto, ON El Mocambo
May 14 Buffalo, NY Asbury Hall
May 15 Cleveland, OH Temple Live @ Masonic
May 16 Asbury Park, NJ Asbury Lanes
May 17 Philadelphia, PA Colonial Theater [Phoenixville)
May 18 Falls Church, VA State Theater
May 19 Richmond, VA The National
May 22 Huntington, NY Paramount
May 23 Pawling, NY Daryl’s House **
May 24 New York, NY Irving Plaza
May 25 Salisbury, MA Blue Ocean Music Hall
May 26 New Haven, CT Toad’s Place
May 29 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall
PART TWO:
June 18 Seattle, WA APEX Art and Cultural Center
June 20 San Francisco, CA Bimbos 365
June 21 Sacramento, CA Ace of Spades
June 25 Denver, CO Oriental Theater
June 28 Louisville, KY Mercury Ballroom
July 03 West Palm Beach, FL Respectable Street
July 05 Mt Dora / Orlando, FL Mt. Dora Music Hall
July 06 Clearwater, FL Capitol Theater
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