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MOJO Rebuilds The Wall!

6:00 AM GMT 26/10/2009

MOJO Rebuilds The Wall!

THE COVERMOUNT CD free on this month's MOJO magazine is The Wall Re-Built!, a fascinating reboot of Pink Floyd's most monumental album. Highlights include San Diego axe-trippers Astra's stoner freak-out on Empty Spaces and Snowbird (that's Stephanie Dosen and ex-Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde to you) mellifluously reimagining Goodbye Blue Sky.

Kicking off proceedings, Mercury Prize-nominated Sweet Billy Pilgrim set the bar high with their version of the portentous In The Flesh? As it turns out, SBP singer-guitarist Tim Eisenburg needed no reacquainting with The Wall.

"I grew up with that record," buzzes Eisenburg. "My father's Dutch, and whenever we'd go over to Holland to visit relatives, I'd hang out with my cousin, who was older than me and really cool. He got me into Bowie. Then he sent me this C90 of The Wall - not even a D! - and I was just amazed. The combination of music and story, at the age of 12 it made me feel very deep and important."

Eisenburg's In The Flesh? dispenses with the crashing guitars and cavernous atmospherics of the original and emerges in the delicate, intimate Sweet Billy Pilgrim idiom.

"I was inspired by the guy from Dirty Projectors," says Eisenburg, "who covered Black Flag's Damaged album, but from memory having not listened to it for years. I hadn't listened to The Wall for a while and I instinctively wanted to go back to it and listen to it again. But I forbade myself. I was kind of drawing on my feelings about The Wall rather than the notes, and we ended up with something much more impressionistic. It's drawn from the well of memory."

Asked to what degree his admiration for Pink Floyd has shaped the development of Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Eisenburg's response is full and frank.

"Well for starters I made a concept album! Their fearlessness is what's inspiring. To come out, in 1979 when everyone was already pretty miserable with the most miserable record ever: that's brave. But it wouldn't have worked if the music hadn't been beautiful."

SBP's In The Flesh? is one of 13 tracks on The Wall Re-Built!. Next month, MOJO magazine completes the set with a covermount cover version of Sides 3 and 4. See you at the newsagents on October 27.

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Sweet Billy Pilgrim release a single, Kalypso, off their album Twice Born Men, on November 9. Meanwhile, they tour with the Portico Quartet. Dates below...

October:

Sat 24 BRISTOL Old Vic
Thurs 29 BASINGSTOKE The Anvil

November:

Mon 2 LONDON Koko
Tues 3 MANCHESTER RNCM
Wed 4 EDINBURGH Electric Circus
Thurs 5 GLASGOW The Arches
Fri 6 MIDDLESBROUGH Town Hall Crypt
Sat 7 BIRMINGHAM CBSO Centre
Sun 8 BRIGHTON & HOVE The Old Market

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 26/10/2009


Related MOJO content:

Pink Floyd , Sweet Billy Pilgrim

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  • Excellent idea! And a great choice for an album to be covered in its entirety. I mean, as brilliant as the Beatles were, it's not as if the word needs more Beatles covers. But I don't think I've ever heard a cover of 'The Thin Ice', for instance. Can't wait to find out who covers 'Comfartably Numb'. (It should be Porcupine Tree).

    Posted by Cowtools at 8:27 AM GMT 26/10/2009 Report Abuse

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  • How much more of that barrel can you scrape lads?

    Posted by Everton Fox at 10:48 PM GMT 26/10/2009 Report Abuse

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  • The band who influenced Beatles and Rolling Stones and more in 60's, when they loved Pink Floyd's show. The first band who compose or insert in yours music psiclodelic-lysergic; space; have metal; punk; eletro; funky rock; trash and more. Deserved all discography cover bonus. The media loves Beatles, the world loves Pink Floyd

    Posted by Anonymous at 10:46 PM GMT 11/01/2010 Report Abuse

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