Friday, September 05, 2008
the dodos? it must have been tuesday
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Hip Hop? 21% booty!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
the girl who works in the record shop says i'm not avant garde enough
Something's Going To Happen Soon by Ballboy
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Full Disclosure
Here's proper confession time:
1. I really like Blink 182 and Less than Jake. And NOFX too.
2. I went off one of my favourite bands, Radiohead, when OK Computer got all hyped and jumped on by idiots. Things have never been the same since. It's my own myopic fault for missing out on what is, probly, some of the best music ever made.
I tried to rehabilitate myself with In Rainbows, but it didn't work. Radiohead playing The Forum just after The Bends was released was one of my bestest gigs ever.
3. Sometimes I look at my itunes library of six billion songs and can't find anything I want to listen to, can't find anything that ignites me like the 20 records I had when I was 15. Sometimes i think that's it's all a dead end from here on in. Which, for a music geek like me, is no good.
4. I don't believe in records being "collected" or calling the shitty pile of vinyl I own a collection. "A collection" means one of everything. I dont' want one of everything. All I want is 3 minutes of pure joyous noise where I can experience the moment, and nothing else. I don't want the weight of music history bearing down on me, I don't want context, I don't want to recognise influence, I just want Wow! Blam! Fuck! Like a fucking Lichtenstein painting for my ears!
5. I don't believe in the canonisation of musicians, even if they're ones I like. This goes for Kurt, Lennon, Buckleys, Elliot Smith, Richey Edwards, and the rest. They aren't any more special for being dead. Fuck people who say they are.
6. I got into Belle and Sebastian late, cos I was blinkered by the fact their singer is happily christian when they first came out. This put me off at the time, I now view Tigermilk as being one of the best records ever made. I'm less judgemental these days.
"We're all listening to downbeat shite"
"Are you going to liberate us from male, white, corporate oppression? I just want you to know we can still be friends.."
The shape of my heart?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Truly There Is None Other...Than Holly Golightly!
Without You Here by Holly Golightly
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
You On The Run
Monday, March 10, 2008
Where have all the children gone?
Thursday, March 06, 2008
The Bong in this Reggae Song
The “All Wave” philosophy, which loosely stated, is that everything should be an analog sound recording of someone playing or singing, rather than using a computer to generate or digitally manipulate sounds separated from the dimension of time in which they were performed.
In short, to record All Wave one must use no computers, no digital recording, no auto-tuning, or any other mainstays of contemporary production.
The All Wave philosophy carries through the entire production and mastering process, including mixing, editing, sequencing, post-production and the exceptional step of an all-analog direct-metal master for the vinyl LP.This process has been employed on Title TK, the Off You EP, and upcomingMountain Battles."
It's interesting in a "fight the power" kinda way - but on the other hand, discounts any form of music that 'computers' have had a hand in as somehow substandard, or less "worthy".
I know I'm going to get splinters in my arse, but surely there's a happy medium?
Wouldn't it be better to rail against the close-mindedness of major labels and the record buying public, rather than focussing on one point alone?
Anyways, here's a video clip from a more innocent time, a time when we didn't have to worry about the evils of pro-tools as a force for destroying the innocent ears of "the kids":
Thursday, February 14, 2008
That age old story...
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Tell me that you wanna scold me
Friday, February 01, 2008
Call me, I make you happy
"Don't worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin really does work! I fell so positive after watching the video! Try it!
There was a rumour a while ago that Bobby McFerrin committed suicide, which would have been the ultimate irony, had this been true.
However, according to the internettles, there is a real life counterpart to this rumour, as in 1942, the chap who wrote "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile" took his own life by shooting himself in the heart, whilst wearing his old army uniform.
"Don't worry, Be Happy" was the first acapella track to top the US charts, and was inspired by this:
It's a "inspiraton"card from a chap called Meher Baba, a spiritual master, who plyed his trade from the 30s to the 60s, and inspired this song:
"Baba O'Riley" by The Who, was voted 340th on the Rolling Stone Top 500 songs of all time, incidentally, one place higher than "Don't Worry, Be Happy" at 341!
And play the songs we made
Friday, January 25, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Random Nature...
Feel Good Song No.1
Monday, January 21, 2008
What I'm listening to right this second right now
Watch! As the Fannies fail miserably to do a hip-hop walk towards the camera
Listen! To the lovely restrained, yet hooky, backing track
Wonder! Why the video is all christmassy
Consider! What may have happened if the two parties had done a whole album together
Love It! Just fabby-doo - the bronx/ govan axis !
Want it?, even though the CD is long deleted? Click here!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sunday Morning Warships Part Two
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Sage advice from one so young
Friday, January 18, 2008
I Am A...
Antidote For A Soggy Thursday
Who needs originality?
Sunday Morning Warships
Larry became increasingly neurotic and obscene
Through Fog And Rain I Run My Train
The first thirty seconds may sound like an ice-cream van drowning, but then the acoustic and electric guitars start , and shortly after that the rolling, lolloping drums drive things off.
An evocative almost shoegazey voice comes in, singing a tale of a chance meeting with a beautiful stranger on a train, and then having to part ways. Love and loss on a small, realistic, everyday scale - "It's a real drag that you're leaving", he sings. I guess for twenty seconds here and there, we all fall in love with someone on the bus or train, the mind considers briefly what a relationship may be like with this person, and then the thought is gone, floating away to wherever thoughts go once they're over.
The breakdown at about the two minute mark is fab, echoing the refrain from the intro of the song, before coming back in, with the drums, to to an spacey arpeggio
The song begins to fade at the 3 minute mark, and a most peculiar psychedelic outtro begins, as if a completely different song has been picked up by a badly tuned radio receiving signals from a far flung planet.
Asteroid No. 4 have chosen to hide a wee pop gem inside this song, Only two and a half minutes long really, and I'm glad it has exposed itself to me.
The lyrics, "I can remember, we sat together on the train / You asked about Pittsburgh, but I'd only been there in the rain" conjure up that sort of intangible abstract far-away place, a romantic ideal - an almost dreamilke feeling.