A little reported fact about the brothers Ron and Russel Mael - otherwise known for the past 50 odd years as 'Sparks', is that they are actually identical twins. As such they frequently exchange costumes, wigs, facial hair and roles in order both to confuse the media - to which they have revealed next to nothing about their lives off stage, and to keep their on stage appearances interesting. Actually none of that is true. But it is however "interesting". Unlike their new single 'Do Things My Own Way', which is an immensely forgettable, indigestible lump of stodge rock. But hey Sparks 'do things their own way', so possibly it's a deliberate self parody of Sparks parodying the sort of bands who fill stadiums for concerts where the singer holds his hand mike out towards the audience so they can hear themselves chanting along to the band's chant-along signature number, soon to be released on the inevitable live album. The problem with song parodies though is that they seldom rise above that which they are parodying. Do that with self parody and you risk being identified as that which you parody. Or something. Avoiding that is tricky but over the decades Sparks have managed it on numerous occasions. Most recently - arguably most spectacularly, in 2015 via their wonderful FFS collaboration with Franz Ferdinand, specifically the track 'Collaborations Don't Work'. Except it did, ho, ho, joyously so. The best that can be said for the new single is that hopefully there is better to come on the new album 'MAD!', which their press release informs is due "in 2025". Presumably sometime before they hit the road to promote it with the following confirmed dates:
Sun. June 8 -
Tue. June 10 -
Thu. June 12 - Fri. June 13 -
Wed. June 18 - Thu. June 19 -
Sat. June 21 - Sun. June 22 -
Tue. June 24 -
Thu. June 26 -
Sat. June 28 -
Mon. June 30 - Paris, FR @ La Salle Pleyel
Tue. July 1 -
Thu. July 3 -
Fri. July 4 -
Sun. July 6 -
Tue. July 8 -
