The Independent (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009
The 22nd album by Sparks – never ones to do things the easy way – is a biopic in opera form of a legendary Swedish art-house director, with a cast of actor-singers augmenting Russell Mael’s vocals, and a complete orchestra backing Ron’s luxurious pianos. It’s a genre and format to which the brothers, whose work is so often described as “operatic”, are immaculately...
Metro.co.uk (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
The music of Ron and Russell Mael has often had a clever,camp, melodramatic edge that suggests music theatre but this 65-minute mini-opera still comes as a surprise.
bomarr blog (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
north american hallowe'en prevention inc. - "do they know it's hallowe'en?" (stream-only) A couple of things to spice up your Halloween weekend. First, we have this great "indie rock all stars" posse cut by the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Inc . called " Do They Know It's Hallowe'en? ". A satire of the song " Do They Know It's Christmas? " This song features...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
Commissioned by Swedish National Public Radio to devise an original radio musical with Swedish language content, Sparks siblings Ron and Russell Mael have significantly transcended their brief with The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, which has a resonance that goes some way beyond its parochial origins.
PopMatters Music (Free subscription) | 23/10/2009
Who else but Sparks could create a half-English, half-Swedish musical about Ingmar Bergman's fictional, fantastical journey to Hollywood... and still make it good? Siblings Ron and Russell Mael, the core duo of Sparks, have made a career of making hard left turns into unknown territories. Since forming in 1970, pop's fearless experimenters have playfully ducked in and out of genres while maintaining...
The IFC Blog (Free subscription) | 26/08/2009
Sparks -- brothers Ron and Russell Mael -- is a cult band who haven't stopped being odd for nearly 40 years now. Depending on who you believe, Queen stole their hysterical falsetto in the '70s. After making 1974's "Kimono My House" (one of Kurt Cobain's favorite albums) they got bored of glam and became minor disco stars, hooking up with Giorgio Moroder to put out "No 1 Song In Heaven."...
Spacerock Reviews (Free subscription) | 19/08/2009
There was a moment whilst listening to this five-track album by Cologne-based space-rockers, Scarlet Utopia that I wanted so badly to leap out of my chair in a Eureka! moment, similar to that experienced, as legend has it, by John Lennon on first catching sight of Ron Mael from Sparks on his television set, and shout-out (to nobody in particular), ‘Fuck me! It’s Metal Mickey !’ For,...
Radio Dupree (Free subscription) | 14/08/2009
Clicking one of these links should stream Swedish Radio P1 ! Windows Media - Broadband version Windows Media - Modem version Real Audio version Sparks: Ron and Russell Mael Friday August 14 at 19:03 Swedish time we'll sit down in front of the old radio (or computer) to listen to the world premiere of The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman featuring Sparks . [Here's a time zone converter so you can check what...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 24/03/2009
When Ron Mael springs from a bed to open proceedings, he leaps up as if this duo had just recorded 1974's breakthrough album Kimono My House, not last year's 21st effort, Exotic Creatures of the Deep.
LAist (Free subscription) | 18/02/2009
L-R Steven MacDonald, Steven Nistor, Ron Mael, Russell Mael, Jim Wilson, Marcus Blake. Photo by godscomic via Flickr/Used with permission At the near-forty-year mark in their career, the bro-team of Ron and Russell Mael are finally receiving the kind of success that occasionally visits extremely unique musicians who hang in there for the long haul. Even if their music is so out-there as to only appeal...
L. A. Times Dodgers Blog (Free subscription) | 13/02/2009
For nearly 40 years, brothers Ron and Russell Mael s albums have served as the soundtrack for a strange universe all their own.
LAist (Free subscription) | 10/02/2009
Photo of Ron (foreground) and Russell Mael courtesy of Republic Media Since their emergence at the beginning of the 1970s, Sparks has been an outsider act. But while commercial success has only struck a handful of times in the course of their twenty-one albums, everyone who grew up during that time seems to know who they are. There’s something about the sight of Ron Mael, the sinister, Chaplinesque...
tabloid baby (Free subscription) | 01/02/2009
Ron Mael and his brother Russell grew up in neighboring Pacific Palisades, California.
The big take over (Free subscription) | 05/01/2009
They played a cover of the SPARKS classic “Angst In My Pants” as a tribute to RUSSELL MAEL, curator of that evening’s mix CD.
kansascity.com (Free subscription) | 06/03/2008
BUFFALO, N.Y. | Alexander Ovechkin scored twice, including his NHL-leading 54th goal, in the Capitals’ 3-1 victory over the Sabres on Wednesday in a key Eastern Conference playoff-race matchup.
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