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NEW YORK-To paraphrase the Timex slogan, Duran Duran has taken a
licking over its two-decade life span, but the members keep on ticking.
Now, with the release of "Medazzaland," due Oct. 14 on Capitol,
the band has overcome some recent frustrations and is back on schedule
with renewed confidence and determination.
"Medazzaland," the first album of new material from Duran Duran
since its self-titled set in 1993, has been in the works for some
time, but the group was sidetracked by the 1994 recording and promotion
of "The Cover Album" and then again when founding member John Taylor
quit at the beginning of this year. Now officially a trio, the band
has rebounded to create an exciting, eclectic mix of rock, pop,
and dance music.
"If you want a nice rhododendron bush to flower, you prune it, and
I think that's what kind of happened to us: We got pruned, and then
we blossomed," explains singer Simon LeBon.
"There was a lot of uncertainty for about a 12-month period with
John in Los Angeles and us in London, which made it difficult to
complete the record," adds the other remaining original member,
keyboardist Nick Rhodes.
"But, ironically, when he did actually depart, that was a catalyst
for us to finish the record a lot quicker. We sort of compensated
for our loss, I suppose, and actually wrote some of the best material
on the album."
The result, points out guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who joined the
band in 1990, is that "Medazzaland" "is probably the most current
music that we've put out. It's pretty much right up to the moment."
The 1993 platinum release "Duran Duran" spawned two hits, "Ordinary
World" and "Come Undone," and the band views "Medazzaland" as the
next step. Cuccurullo says, "That was the birth of the new Duran
Duran, and I think that album showed we're about writing great songs
and that we can be as current as anybody."
Adds Rhodes, "Without a doubt, it would've been great
to follow that up a year afterwards, but the chips didn't fall that
way. We're our own harshest critics, and we made sure in the end
we achieved something that satisfied our own standards."
Interestingly, the current trend toward using effects and sampling
in music harks back to the band's roots, and the band likens "Medazzaland"
to its 1982 smash album, "Rio." "It's an area we feel very comfortable
in, and the advent of all this electronic stuff has worked very
much to our advantage with this album. It's a natural habitat for
us, because we've always moved around in our genre, but at the end
of the day we've always had a great interest in mixing rock and
pop with dance music and electronic [music]," says Rhodes.
LeBon agrees. "I think we're definitely related to the music people
are dancing to now. We're part of the ancestry of that, and hopefully
we're part of it again now."
Capitol plans a multi-faceted campaign to market "Medazzaland,"
and executives are unfazed by the delay between albums. "I think
everybody expects it. It's the story of Duran Duran, and people
judge them on every record, not on what they've done in the past.
If it's good they'll play it, if they don't think it's good, then
they won't," says Phil Costello, senior VP of promotion.
"We've seen that consumers, retail, and radio react to each album
as they hear it, and we think the public will respond to 'Medazzaland,'
" adds Joe McFadden, senior VP of sales for the label.
The first single is "Electric Barbarella," a fanciful dance-oriented
tune reminiscent of the act's early '80s heyday. The song is actually
something of an anomaly on "Medazzaland" in that the bulk of the
material explores a range of more intense themes and moods, in a
rock vein. "It's one of the most up pieces of music we've written
in a long time, and we thought it was nice to have something that
was optimistic and fun and makes people smile," says Rhodes.
Adds LeBon, "Nick and Warren had been working on the Blondie track
`Studio 54,' and I got wind of it and said, `Can't we have something
like that on our album?'"
Capitol is planning a multifaceted campaign that aims to reach Duran
Duran's existing fan base, as well as draw a new crop into the fold
with remixes, 12-inch singles, an enhanced CD5, and a specially
priced cassette, among other things.
The first 12-inch of "Electric Barbarella," which has already shipped
to alternative clubs and record pools, is an import on the band's
original Harvest label, with remixes by Russell Simins from the
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Eli Janney from Girls Against Boys.
"That's the first taste to build up awareness that they have a new
track and an album on the way. It's time to go to clubs and regenerate
the base they have there," says Costello.
The second 12-inch, with remixes by Dom T., will ship in early September,
and shortly thereafter a greatest-hits CD-pro with the album version
and an edit of the single will ship to commercial alternative, modern
AC, and pop stations. "Medazzaland" will be serviced upon release
to college and other formats. A third 12-inch with mixes by Todd
Terry will follow to other formats, including dance.
Television appearances near the release date include "The Rosie
O'Donnell Show" and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." The band is
also set to appear on Howard Stern's radio show.
Additionally, Duran Duran and VH1 have linked for a sweepstakes,
with the band performing at the winner's workplace.
A number of special projects are also in the works for retail. First,
the label is pressing 50,000 copies of a limited-edition enhanced
CD5 that includes the director's cut of the video, which will ship
Sept. 15.
In response to retailers' concerns about the declining cassette
market, the "Medazzaland" will carry a $7.98 list price for that
configuration. "There have been a lot of cassettes at low prices,
but they've been mainly new and developing artists. We wanted to
address the issue for retailers who are saying, `Don't walk away
from the cassette business,' so we thought in order to get an accurate
read, we had to try it with a major artist that has a single and
video," says McFadden.
He says Capitol will ask for crossdisplays of the configurations
in stores, as well as featured advertising and signage indicating
that the cassette is fulllength.
Duran Duran will do an in-store at New York's Virgin Megastore on
the day of release, and efforts are under way to air it in Virgin
stores nationwide via satellite. If possible, McFadden says, it
will also be somewhat of an interactive experience with the other
stores, though that technology is still in development. Duran Duran
will also autograph CD booklets to be shipped to the stores it is
linked with in order to involve fans in other markets.
Another possibility is a performance at the grand opening of the
Virgin store in Orlando, Fla., which will be televised on the Disney
Channel.
Capitol has a "very extensive" co-op plan in place for "Medazzaland"
and is working on developing promotions with all the major accounts,
including a special "Medazzaland" listening station/merchandising
display setup, according to McFadden.
Coincidentally, Mojo Records is releasing a tribute album to the
band Oct. 7 featuring Bjorn Again, Eve's Plum, Reel Big Fish, Wesley
Willis, and the Wrens, among others. Tentatively scheduled for October
is a concert in Los Angeles, with Duran Duran set to perform along
with some of the bands on the tribute album.
In mid-November, Duran Duran will launch a major-market, 15-city
tour, playing medium-sized halls.
The act is also enthusiastic about constructing its own World Wide
Web site, which should be up in October. "We're very excited
because we're using all the newest technologies to try and leap
a little bit ahead of what's out there," Rhodes says.
While there may be a certain amount of unavoidable pressure to prove
themselves yet again, LeBon says, the band members are up to the
task. "Some people who review the record might see this as some
sort of twitching of a corpse, and it's up to us to go out there
and show people we're very much still here and we're a part of what's
happening now," he says.
Adds Rhodes, "There's a lot of different perceptions out
there about what people think Duran Duran is about, but ultimately,
to us, it's our vehicle to create unique songs and things that push
us a little bit further and hopefully push our area of music a little
bit further. We're all very proud of [this album], and I absolutely
believe it's the right direction for us and one of the best, if
not the best, album that we've made."
Copyright BPI Communications Inc. Sep 13, 1997
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