Join us in September as we celebrate 40 years since the release of Blondie’s third studio album Parallel Lines.
Originally born out of the New York punk rock scene of the mid-1970s, the band made a surprising shift toward more pop-oriented material on this album, a deft mix of new wave, pop and disco produced by Mike Chapman.
In a sense, that time has long passed: Blondie, like contemporaries such as the Cars and the UK’s earliest New Pop artists specialized in whipsmart chart music created by and for adults, a trick that has all but vanished from the pop landscape. Parallel Lines, however, is practically a blueprint for the stuff: “Picture This” and “One Way or Another” are exuberant new wave, far looser than the stiff, herky-jerky tracks that would go on to characterize that sound in the 80s; “Will Anything Happen?” and the band’s cover of the Nerves’ “Hanging on the Telephone” are headstrong rock; “11:59” does run-for-the-horizon drama, while “Sunday Girl” conveys a sense of elegance. The record’s closest thing to a ballad, the noirish “Fade Away and Radiate”, owes a heavy debt to the art-pop of Roxy Music.
Join us to experience this album as never before.
Buy the album here
London
Time & Date: Sunday 16th September 2018 16:00 – 18:30
Venue: Giant Steps, SWAN WHARF, Dace Rd, London E3 2NN
Tickets: £10 plus booking fee in advance here
Presenter: Kris Needs
Audio Menu: Dynavector D17D3 MC Cartridge, Rega P9 Turntable, Rega IOS Phono Stage Audio Note Jinro Integrated Amp, Chord Signature Speaker Cable, Chord Signature Tuned Aray interconnects, ISOL-8 Substation Integra Power Conditioner and Klipschorn Loudspeakers
Washington DC
Date and Time: Sunday September 16th 2018 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Venue: Songbyrd Music House and Record Cafe, 2477 18th St NW, Washington DC 20009
Tickets: $5 – $7 in advance here
Presenter: Joe Lapan
Audio Menu provided by Audioism.
REGA Planar 3 turntable with Elys MM Cartridge, REGA Fono MM Phono Preamp, Audioism MicroZOTL Preamp (David Berning Design), Audioism Venue-Class Playback System, Xcilica HD System Processor, Audioism ZOTL Amplifiers (David Berning Design), Class AB Hybrid Amplification for Subs, WyWires Audio Interconnects
Sydney
Date and Time: Sunday September 16th 2018, 6 to 11:45pm
Venue: The World Bar
Tickets: $15 in advance here
Presenters: J.P. Ducharne (The Mancusian Circus), Jim Poe (Deep House Australia)
Audio Menu: Turntable: Rega RP6, Cartridge: Rega Exact, Amp: Accuphase E-202 Integrated Amplifier, Speakers: Klipsch Heresy, Subs: Klipsch R-10SW