Last night, New York Times music critic John Pareles and Roger Waters were joined by an audience of 350 for a live interview as part of The New York Times’ TimesTalks series at New York City’s Florence Gould Hall. The interview spanned discussions about the scale Pink Floyd brought to rock music, Waters’ upcoming new album, American politics, and many other topics. A video of the whole interview can be seen at the foot of this piece.
When Pink Floyd and Roger Waters parted ways in the 1980s it was a division not only of musical journeys but also of political presences. David Gilmour’s Pink Floyd shared general philosophical ideas with Waters but the specificity and force with which Waters criticized particular politicians or policies was amplified as he began his solo career.
Waters’ voice on this plane has been rising since and has often demonstrated good instinct for portension: as New York Times music critic John Pareles noted, after 25 years Amused to Death not only remains relevant but has actually turned out “prophetic.”
Given what we know about Waters’ Mexico shows last year (the source of some of the footage shown during the interview) and what he shared with Pareles this evening, it seems we are about to experience the most intense of Waters’ political statements on his new album, Is This the Life We Really Want?, and his upcoming Us + Them Tour. As Waters himself acknowledged following an audience question, it will be interesting how the album and tour is received in proverbial ‘Kansas City.’
The discussion began with questions that were largely focused on the scale, legacy, and impact of Pink Floyd, balanced with questions about Waters’ new album and its construction.
To give you a taster of the new album, a track from it - Smell The Roses - has been released and can be heard in full here:
With many of you out there committed vinyl enthusiasts, we're sure that edition will be a very popular release. Thus, below we list dedicated ordering links for the vinyl AND the CD editions - using these will give a small but vital contribution to the running costs of Brain Damage, without costing you a penny/cent extra, and we really appreciate it!
NOTE: Some of the stores above are yet to list the releases as available to buy but the pages are there for when they do. If your chosen store doesn't have it yet, please keep trying, or consider an alternate store - Amazon ship vinyl worldwide.
On sale next Friday, April 28th, is an addition to Roger Waters' Us + Them North American tour 2017 which kicks off in just over a month's time, bringing the current total up to 55 shows across North America. Roger will be taking the production to the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on June 25th, and this direct link at Ticketmaster.com will be the place to head for to get tickets.
This afternoon the full announcement of the new Roger Waters album - his first rock album in 25 years, following on from 1992's Amused To Death - arrived, with the album, Is This The Life We Really Want? getting its global release on June 2nd.
The release on that date follows the start of his North American Us + Them tour, which begins exactly one week earlier on May 26th in Kansas City. Depending on the set list picked, the audience for the early shows may get a sneak preview of what is to come - Roger has already said that around 25% of the show will be new material...
The long-awaited album - the cover of which is to the left (click the thumbnail to see it rendered larger) is said to be "an unflinching commentary on the modern world and uncertain times. Waters' forthcoming LP serves as a natural successor to classic Pink Floyd albums such as Animals and The Wall".
Produced and mixed by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Paul McCartney, Beck, U2), Is This The Life We Really Want? includes 12 new Roger Waters musical compositions and studio performances. The physical album release includes a double 180-gram vinyl LP in a gatefold jacket and a 4-panel soft pack CD. All album formats, physical and digital, are available for pre-order from April 21st, and we have full details below to enable you to place your orders for the physical editions.
The musicians on the album are: Roger Waters (vocals, acoustic, bass), Nigel Godrich (arrangement, sound collages, keyboards, guitar), Gus Seyffert (bass, guitar, keyboards), Jonathan Wilson (guitar, keyboards), Joey Waronker (drums), Roger Manning (keyboards), Lee Pardini (keyboards), and Lucius (vocals) with Jessica Wolfe and Holly Proctor.
TRACKLISTING:
When We Were Young
Déjà Vu
The Last Refugee
Picture That
Broken Bones
Is This The Life We Really Want?
Bird In A Gale
The Most Beautiful Girl
Smell The Roses
Wait For Her
Oceans Apart
Part of Me Died
The lyrics for Wait For Her were inspired by an English translation by an unknown author of “Lesson from the Kama Sutra (Wait for Her),” by Mahmoud Darwish.
ORDERING INFORMATION:
With many of you out there committed vinyl enthusiasts, we're sure that edition will be a very popular release. Thus, below we list dedicated ordering links for the vinyl AND the CD editions - using these will give a small but vital contribution to the running costs of Brain Damage, without costing you a penny/cent extra, and we really appreciate it!
NOTE: Some of the stores above are yet to list the releases as available to buy but the pages are there for when they do. If your chosen store doesn't have it yet, please keep trying, or consider an alternate store - Amazon ship vinyl worldwide.
One could imagine some inspiration from the Dark Side of Lagoon for this latest news story... sorry, couldn't resist! A new species of shrimp has been named in honour of Pink Floyd - the pistol, or snapping shrimp, now known as synalpheus pinkfloydi, uses its large pink claw to create a noise so loud (some 210 decibels, louder even than a Motorhead concert in their heyday) to kill its prey.
The team behind the discovery spoke to the BBC. Sammy De Grave, head of research at Oxford University Museum of National History - a fan of the band since he was a teenager - said "I have been listening to Floyd since The Wall was released in 1979, when I was 14 years old. The description of this new species of pistol shrimp was the perfect opportunity to finally give a nod to my favourite band. We are all Pink Floyd fans, and we always said if we would find a pink one, a new species of pink shrimp, we would name it after Pink Floyd."
Our thanks to everyone who got in contact with the information of this new discovery.
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On sale next Friday, April 28th, is an addition to 
