You probably have heard of something called trip-hop. It originated in UK in the early 90′s and it was an exciting and successful mixture of hip-hop vibes, sometimes with soft spoken vocals, electronic music like house and chill-out, some jazzy influence and of course pop and rock music. Hailing from Bristol, Portishead were one of the pioneers and their main weapon was the personal and fragile voice of Beth Gibbons. They released their debut Dummy (which is one of the best records in a decade full of great records) to high critical acclaim, they followed that path with their second album and that was all. Like if they had been conscious of the self-limited pattern of what initially was a new subgenre, they ceased their activity avoiding any break-up. They just stopped the band.
Well, few years ago they surprised again with a Third record (called that way, Third) which was jaw-dropping to the entire indie community. These three guys who had been basically doing nothing, came back with a new sound and, far away from what you could call maturity, they shifted from their classy rythms full of grooves and black influences (soul, jazz) to more after-punk and kraut-rock oriented paranoia.
So don’t forget their music, I couldn’t help pointing it out, although that is not the point here.
With this comeback, I rediscover an Adrian Utley gracefully aged. This time, basically the subject hadn’t changed a bit of his looks (same left-ear piercing, same sideburns), it’s just that the hair went a bit whiter and a bit off. To be honest he was as hot back in the time, you know, pink-cheeked and all. A tough but friendly-looking bloke, but he’s getting wider and that’s good to me.
There are not as many great pics of him, since all the focuses center normally in Beth Gibbons. Besides, Geoff Barrow is often given more credit as main composer for the band (which seems to be true) and is also better known than Utley.
When I see him doing nasty things with their guitars, I wanna do nasty things with him
All pink and sweaty…mmmm
I have this sort of attraction to men who shave probably daily but still have beard always growing. I would love to kiss Adrian and feel that shaven facial hair. I find their grey/white sideburns pretty hot, too.
For the last picture, this great portrait. Beautiful as ever and with broken jeans, so provocative!
Too much have been said about The Pixies and everything good. So the story goes basically like this. They record some songs that a UK label release under the EP named “Come On Pilgrim”, the first piece of a work that is aging remarkably well and of course the first success of their brief but astonishing career. His blend of punk-rock and pop with surrealism and sci-fi influences was totally explosive and opened new paths for indie-rock. Then “Surfer Rosa” comes out, with some of his all-time hits, like “Where is My Mind?” or “Gigantic”, this one written by Kim Deal. Later, both albums were released together for the US market, so you’ll probably see it as “Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim” in your store or p2p.
With the nineties and the Pixies being already an influence for a lot of alternative bands, they released “Bossanova”, an album that is less pop or at least includes some more obscure songs like “Is She Weird” or “Ana” with winds of the dusty west and at the same time they made new major hits like “Velouria” or “Dig For Fire” and punk-pop anthems like “Allison” or “Stormy Weather”. A new masterpiece and again, the band shows their wide-range talent, which normally comes, of course, from our subject, Black Francis.
