Muse: The Lighter Side Of Black Holes
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 29-Sep-06 @ 01:05 PM|
The end of the world may be near, but epic rockers MUSE have discovered it's got a good beat-and you can dance to it, too. Story: Dan LeRoy As their van hurtles through the mean streets of New York, the members of Muse huddle in the back, eyes glued to the flickering screen of a Powerbook. Courtesy of a hijacked wireless connection, the three Englishmen are viewing a website that clearly spells out the rapidly approaching End Of The World As We Know It. Matt Bellamy, the group's lead singer, guitarist and chief investigator of the covered-up and the unexplained, suddenly voices the thought on everyone's mind: "How come no one else is talking about this?" If you're one of those fans who rather enjoys the idea of Muse as Radiohead's over-excitable, conspiracy theory-loving kid brothers, you'll want to stop reading after the next period. The scenario described above is 100-percent true, but, like any good government whitewash, it's also missing a few essential details. For one thing, it's a gorgeous spring afternoon in Manhattan, the kind of perfect day that could make you discount the end of the world even if you had rock-solid proof it'd be arriving in an hour. For another, Muse-Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard-despite having jetted into the Big Apple late the previous night, are definitely feeling the good mood, amusing themselves at a site they've discovered called savelivesinmay.com, which forecasts a massive tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean at the end of May. By now, you'll probably have realized that dire prediction failed to materialize. But it gives Bellamy--who's been on record as endorsing such ideas as alien DNA in humans, as well as mind control via cell phone--a chance to deflate about his image as the conspiracist du jour. As discussion in the van turns to how the predicted tsunami might wipe out the American press junket for Muse's fourth album, Black Holes And Revelations, Bellamy deadpans, "I guess we'll just have to do phoners." The new album has already revealed a lighter side to Muse's massive, prog-inspired sound-which is not a development welcomed wholeheartedly by the group's fanbase. When the first single, the funky and danceable "Supermassive Black Hole" appeared this spring, some una-Muse-d followers of the group took to the message boards to denounce it as a fake. "That was quite funny," admits a grinning Bellamy, jauntily dressed in plaid suit and scarf. "I didn't know people would be that surprised. But I think it's quite nice to challenge people's conception of what the band is." The softspoken Howard puts it more directly: "That's all positive in my eyes. It feels like we've always had very extreme reactions to our work. You either love it or hate it, but at least it's inspiring something." This attitude goes a long way towards why repeated, and sometimes derisive, comparisons to Radiohead and Queen (thanks in part to Bellamy's fearsome falsetto) have only strengthened Muse's resolve. Not every little-known British act would have told Madonna's label to get stuffed; Muse not only did it in 2001, when Maverick tried to get the band to tone down Bellamy's vocals, they also got the last laugh, finally releasing the disputed album, Origin Of Symmetry, in America last year on Maverick's parent, Warner Bros. "We kind of tried it [Maverick's] way for five minutes, and it didn't work," recalls Wolstenholme. "That's when we realized we had no choice but to be ourselves." For the rest of the story, pick up AP 217 below... |
