Do you feel like a chain store?
Practically floored
One of many zeros
Kicked around bored
Your ears are full but your empty
Holding out your heart
To people who never really
Care how you are

Oh…we could start over again
Oh…we could start over again
Oh…we could start over again
Oh…we could start over again

Ho appena finito di leggere Rock Trip di Kevin Sampson (titolo originale Powder), storia di una fantomatica band di Liverpool, i Grams, dal successo dirompente quanto effimero. Non è un capolavoro, anzi, ma la storia è coinvolgente, soprattutto nella parte iniziale, quella dell’ascesa, il declino è trattato in modo un po’ frettoloso.
Comunque, è un libro intriso di britpop, pubblicato nel 1999, quando il britpop, almeno per quanto riguarda la sua ondata originale, era già morto. Ho amato gran parte di quel movimento, da buon beatlesiano mi piaceva cogliere le citazioni, gli omaggi. Mi sono appassionato alla sfida Blur/Oasis e, allora con un po’ di dubbi dovuti forse all’età e alle chitarre rumorose degli Oasis, ora più convintamente tenevo per i Blur, più creativi, più Ray Davies, più tutto.
Questa cassettina da weekend è dedicata al britpop, non sono i miei dieci pezzi preferiti, non sono i dieci pezzi migliori, non sono dieci pezzi dei dieci artisti più rappresentativi del movimento. Sono dieci pezzi che mi piacciono e per questo vanno presi. Ma anche no. Buon weekend.

Beautiful ones – Suede

Country house – Blur

Live forever – Oasis

Common people – Pulp

This is the one – Stone Roses

What do I do now? – Sleeper

Bittersweet Symphony – Verve

Come back to what you know – Embrace

Connection – Elastica

The day we caught the train  – Ocean Colour Scene

Der erste große Erfolg für den exzentrischen Jarvis Cocker und seine Jungs. Danach ging es steil bergauf mit der Karriere und zahlreiche Hits folgten. Für viele (auch für mich) sind sie die Wegbereiter des BritPop, lange vor Blur und ganz lange vor den völlig überschätzten Oasis.

Quick intro: So we’ve done 100 years of fashion at uni, and now on Monday 3oth November 2009 we have to dress up. We’ve all been given a decade- and as you may have guessed from the title- I’ve been given the 90s. (For the record I’m going grunge) Was hoping of the 70s but oh well, here goes; I hope I do it justice.

 First let’s get the ego part out my system; the best thing about the 90s was me being born in the middle of 1990. I know being a 90s child I should like it, but I don’t. I look back on photos and wonder what on earth I was thinking.

The best fashion moments from this decade are hard to pick and I only have to choose three. It was all about minimising and looking back. There where so many different trends, it really was the start of being an individual. I managed to pick three though and those are: Grunge, Brit Pop and Punk. It’s my blog therefore I can choose what to write on, you may think about hip-hop, the start of sports wear as fashion and all those other things, but I don’t. I shudder at the memory of jelly shoes and a union jack dress and I still feel track suits should be for the gym and that showing off your stomach for your holidays.

Grunge was really a less political version of punk. Charity shop buys was the way forward. Like punk it was a lifestyle not just a fashion and I think that is what draws me to all three. You’re not just making fashion choices, your making a lifestyle statement. The effortless, comfortable feel makes this one of the best things about the 90s. Mixing a floral dress with a men’s baggy checked flannel shirt, add Converse on the bottom and you where dressed. Music came along and joined with bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Who needed the hype of the Take That and dare I say it, the Spice Girls?

Brit-pop or a cheaper Mod you make the decision. Like grunge this had a music scene. Bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp bought Brit-pop to the mainstream. If you look at photos of Mod’s then look at a photo of Brit-pop don’t you see something similar? Smart straight leg jeans, short jackets, baby t’s and a pair of Chelsea boots. Seriously if you add the scooter and a parker you’d get a Mod. Looking back and changing it to fit the current time really get’s proven here.

Skip to the late 90s and we start to see punk emerging. Admittedly not 70s punk, there was nothing political about it. It was just youths dying and spiking their hair, adorning themselves with body piercings, band t-shirts and black jeans. Both sexes would wear black make-up, bringing back the ‘goth’ look.  Compare this to today’s fashion and I think we call it emo.

(I’d add pictures but I don’t know how, I’m not that good yet lol)

Photo of the day:

Click on image to order note cards or prints on Redbubble.

Rock formations

Ново доста приятно трейлърче на Blur.

За съжаление обаче, датата в края продължава да е 2010 г.

PS: Музиката в трейлъра май е на Qemists ама не съм много сигурен?

Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles.

THE BYRDS – So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star / Everybody’s Been Burned (Columbia 43987 1967)
They had a bit of a nerve poking fun at the Monkees when just a couple of years earlier only McGuinn played on their own debut single. Still it’s a fun piece of satire. The flip is one of the best things the Byrds ever did, a dark but hopeful Crosby ballad.

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE – Soldier Blue / Moratorium (RCA 2081 1971)
Ralph Nelson’s 1970 western Soldier Blue was unlike any other before it. Shockingly violent and, for once, the good guys were definitely not the US Cavalry. Based on a true massacre that happened in 1864, it was also as much about Mai Lai and the Vietnam War. Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Cree herself, invested the song with both anger and bitter sorrow and yet it is just as much a celebration of the natural wonders of a country and her own ancestry.

DUKE ELLINGTON & HIS ORCHESTRA – Solitude / Mood Indigo (Columbia 35427 1940)
Ivie Anderson is one of the most underrated jazz vocalists, and she shines on these two Ellington ballads, both of which have become standards crooned by virtually every nightclub and torch singer since.

PETER GABRIEL – Solsbury Hill / Moribund the Burgemeister (Charisma 301 1977)
Fresh out of Genesis, Peter Gabriel launched his solo career with this, still one of his most poignant songs. Solsbury Hill itself overlooks Bath in Somerset, and the song captures that very special pleasure of sitting somewhere still and peaceful and watching the lights and bustle of the city night below.

JESUS & MARY CHAIN – Some Candy Talking / Psychocandy / Hit (Blanco Y Negro 19 1986)
By 1986 the screech of feedback had largely been excised from the Mary Chain’s records, replaced by cavernous echo. With it went a lot of the vigour and excitement, but that didn’t matter so much on songs as good as this, with its booming Spectorish sound.

LEE HAZLEWOOD & NANCY SINATRA – Some Velvet Morning / Oh Lonesome Me (Reprise 651 1968)
How trippy is this? Essentially it sounds like a verse taken from two completely different songs intercut. Hazlewood’s bit is dark and rumbling like Johnny Cash meets Link Wray while Sinatra’s is hippy-dippy flower child stuff, well away with the faeries. It’s like a cocktail of quaaludes and acid.

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – Somebody to Love / She Has Funny Cars (RCA 9140 1967)
When Grace Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane she brought this song along from her previous band the Great Society, written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick. The Airplane version is tighter and punchier with a chorus so strident it’s almost accusatory.

EDDIE COCHRAN – Somethin’ Else / Boll Weevil Song (Liberty 55203 1959)
STANDELLS – Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White / Why Don’t You Hurt Me? (Tower 257 1966)
By 1959, most of the first generation rock and rollers seemed to be mired in gloopy ballads and sounding little different to the pre-rock generation of singers like Johhny Ray and Frankie Vaughan. Eddie Cochran, on the other hand, still had a raw spirit about him: still sounded like someone a teenaged girl would think twice about introducing to her mother. That’s why he was so popular with the punks nearly two decades later, along with his friend Gene Vincent. The Standells, too, had that snotty fuck you attitude. But as they say in the song “You think those guys in the white collars are better than I am baby? / Then flake off!” True blue-collar working class pride…from a bunch of LA rich kids. Oh, well.

BLUR – Song 2 / Get out of the Cities (Food 93 1997)
The indignation this caused from my Pavement loving underground rock friends always made me laugh. It’s noisy and fun. What’s not to like?

LEFTFIELD – Song of Life / mixes (Hard Hands 002 1992)
A nine minute progressive house monster that pretty much defined the genre and still stands as one of the best tracks of its kind.

THIS MORTAL COIL – Song to the Siren / 16 Days (4AD 310 1983)
Originally This Mortal Coil were convened as a one-off project for this single, but its success was such that they ran to three albums, each with a constantly changing cast of performers. Liz Fraser hadn’t really tackled a proper lyrical song before, her voice more used as another instrument in the Cocteau Twins. But she gives Tim Buckley’s classic song a ghostly innocence that is absolutely captivating. The backing is so subtle that she’s almost on her own, but there’s no sign of nerves – she’s absolutely lost in the song. An amazing performance.

JOSEF K – Sorry For Laughing / Revelation (Postcard 814 1981)
Famously a band who seemed happier the flatter their records sounded; a band who scrapped their first album because it sounded too warm and produced and instead put out something tinny and stark. Paul Haig’s bored drone of a voice isn’t the most appealing instrument, but it gives this song a dry sarcasm. And it’s pretty much the touchstone record for the C86 generation.

LAVERN BAKER – Soul on Fire / How Can You Leave (Atlantic 1004 1953)
She’s better known for appealing, but ultimately disposable pop ditties like “Tweedle Dee” and “Jim Dandy”, but Lavern Baker was happiest singing the blues. If anything, though, “Soul on Fire” is deep southern soul a decade too early.

DAVID BOWIE – Sound and Vision / A New Career in a New Town (RCA 905 1977)
A long long way from Ziggy in just four years. “Sound and Vision” was the introduction to Bowie’s leftfield masterpiece Low and about as traditionally pop as the album got. Which isn’t very.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL – The Sound of Silence / We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’ On (Columbia 43396 1965)
Dylan had gone electric, the Byrds were having big hits doing jangly folk-rock. It made sense for Simon & Garfunkel to add drums and rock arrangements. Unfortunately they weren’t working together at the time, and Paul Simon was touring folk clubs in Europe armed only with his trusty acoustic. Producer Tom Wilson stepped in anyway, gave the track a new “with it” backing and Columbia watched another of their folk acts have a huge hit. Simon might not have liked it, but he could hardly complain at the new levels of exposure, and the duo quickly reconvened.

MEMBERS – Sound of the Suburbs / Handling the Big Jets (Virgin 242 1979)
They came from around ten miles away from me, and lyrically this song captured perfectly the tedium of North Surrey / East Berkshire Sundays. Nothing else to do but kick a football around with your mates. Nothing on telly, nothing on the radio (except David Rodigan’s Sunday show on Radio London) and school next day.

More soon

A few quickies.  Not too happy with the CA in the first photo, could probably fix it in post but whatever.  If somebody wants to try it, I’d love to see the result!

I like one or two of these in a wedding set.. the couple blurred out, and some sharp detail subject.  More than one or two gets boring though, and when I see other photogs include several of these, I think it looks lazy.

A década está acabando e não param de surgir listas das melhores coisas destes últimos 10 anos, essa história já ta ficando um pouco chata. Mas a lista da vez é bem legal, novamente a revista britânica NME fez a votação, desta vez para escolha das 100 melhores músicas da década. Legal foi que os brasileiros do Cansei de Ser Sexy entraram na posição 91 da lista, com a música Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above. Ta certo que eu gostaria que algo mais Rock ficasse em primeiro lugar, mas não da pra negar que a Beyonce tocou muito nesses últimos anos e arrebatou uma porrada de prêmios, não faz a minha cabeça, mas a mina é foda. De qualquer forma, tem MUITA coisa boa na lista, escute TODAS!

Veja aqui o Top 10:

1 – Beyonce - Crazy In Love (2003)

2 – MGMT - Time To Pretend (2008)

3 – The Strokes - Hard To Explain (2001)

4 – MIA - Paper Planes (2008)

5 – Outkast - Hey Ya! (2003)

6 – The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers (2002)

7 – Klaxons - Golden Skans (2007)

8 – Blur - Out Of Time (2003)

9 – Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) (2005)

10 – Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance (2006)

E a lista completa no link: http://www.nme.com/list/100-tracks-of-the-decade/158050/

Photo of the day:

Click on image to order prints or note cards on Redbubble.

Fall fuzziness

Damon Albarn y Graham Coxon, terminaron por separar a Blur, una banda que se presagiaba sería la descendencia directa de los geniales The Kinks. Proyectos solistas, arrebatos musicales y diferencias artísticas, fueron solo algunos de los problemas que enfrentaron a los creadores de “Boys and Girls” y “Coffee and Tv”.

Después de 7 años de separación y de haber superado los problemas que alguna vez los aquejo, los oriundos de Colchester  han decidido regresar con un  compilatorio doble llamado “Midlife: A Beginner’s Guide To Blur”, (una guía completa para los que no conocen a la banda) y que recorre 25 aparentes grandes éxitos de los cuales 6 valen la pena ser considerados.

La inconsistencia en este nuevo recopilatorio es evidente, partiendo por la genial “Beetlebum” y pasando por una rockeada “Song 2” ( el video fue ironizado por la banda punk “Millencolin”), los demás temas son meros sobornos, para que suban las ventas de sus Lp, exceptuando “Parklife” y “The Universal”. Sin ir más lejos, los ingleses no logran enganchar como fue con su antecesor y sustancial ‘The Best Of Blur’, además, en este nuevo Greatest Hits que termina con la tranquila y agradable “Battery In Your Leg”, se dejaron de lado grandes y redentores éxitos como “Country House” y “Chamless Man” resignando y decepcionando a los supuestos noveles seguidores de la banda británica.

Por otro lado, hace algunos meses después de los apoteósicos conciertos realizados en Hyde Park, Damon Albarn, confirmó que “el grupo no ofrecería más conciertos”, no obstante, el panorama parece haber cambiado. Cercanos a la banda han mencionado que Blur estaría planeando seriamente realizar una nueva gira mundial, para sus fieles admiradores el próximo año.

Quizás en la ficticia y no confirmada nueva gira mundial, no dejen de lado las maravillosas y legendarias canciones que alguna vez, nos hicieron vibrar al ritmo de guitarras y “rave”. A continuación el decepcionante track list del nuevo recopilatorio de Blur

1 Beetlebum 2 Girls & Boys 3 For Tomorrow 4 Coffee & TV 5 Out Of Time 6 Blue Jeans 7 Song 2 8 Bugman 9 He Thought Of Cars 10 Death Of A Party 11 The Universal 12 Sing 13 This Is A Low 14 Tender 15 She’s So High 16 Chemical World 17 Good Song 18 Parklife 19 Advert 20 Popscene 21 Stereotypes 22 Trimm Trabb 23 Badhead 24 Strange News From Another Star 25 Battery In Your Leg

So last week, my Editor sorta told me that GlamTings are doing an erm… ‘25 fav things’ type special editorial… I dunno… 2 commiserate us being 25? I dunno lol! Anyway so she asks me to do a top-25 songs list or something like that & in my head, I go ‘Pardon Me’, the exact same way Rob Gordon replied when the reporter asked him what his all-time top 5 records were, in the movie ‘High Fidelity’… & so in this movie High Fidelity, the reporter asks again ‘Your desert-island top 5?’, to which Rob replies ‘Oh Boy… in the club OR at home?’ and the reporter ignorantly asks if there’s a difference… Ofcourse there’s a difference & you guys can back me up on this BUT ‘Top 25 Songs?’… What? Love Songs? Gospel songs? Songs to make love to (as Distinctly different from love songs! Understand!), Easy Breazy Sunday Morning Songs? Angry Songs? Songs for the car? Songs for the bus? LIKE what are you tryna do to me out here???

Anyway so Rob eventually mentions 5 of his all-time desert-island favorite records & the reporter ventures to continue interviewing him BUT she CANNOT & you wanna know why? Because he keeps interrupting her to chop & change his all-time top 5 records… It’s near enough an impossible task for the likes of Rob & I… He ends up offering to make the reporter a tape… And… And… He calls the reporter the next week to change, yet again, his all-time top 5 records list!!! ‘WHERE AM I GOING WITH THIS?’ do I hear you ask? Oh figure it OUT, will ya? And oh top 5? top 25? Equally as impossible ok!

BUT this is what I say to my Editor… ‘Ok Cool x’! OK COOL? Somebody shoot me now! Please!

Alright so expect this to be a long & painful process, it might actually take US a long while to arrive at any comprehensive top 25 list on any level so you have duly been warned lol! & that’s why we’ll be dividing this mammoth exercise into PARTS… Jheez!

PART ONE… Because this is my favorite genre of Music at the moment… Top 25 Hip-Hop Records!?!?????? Ah ahn.. Ah Ahn! Nah I can’t! Let’s start off with something easier, we’ll ease in to the tougher lists (in a couple months maybe lol).

OK let’s do that again…

PART ONE… Top 25 Albums of the 21st Century!!! **I Keep digging a GRAVE for myself, don’t I?**

One thing I will say about this list is… The first draft had 70 records on it & I was thinking of changing this ‘top 25′ list to a ‘top 50′ list because it’d be so much easier & OMG I have had to cut out some of my all time favorite albums from the final list BUT alas, the show must GO ON… SO Without further adieu!!!

Slightly MISSING OUT however ARE…

Georgia Anne Muldrow – Olesi: Fragments of an Earth (2006)

Now most of you will probably NOT have heard this album… It’s your LOSS to be honest BUT what I will say though is, THIS is one of the very few R&B albums this decade that made this list because let’s be honest R&B in the 2000s lost its way… Fragments of an Earth is progressive music 4 your soul and I like it so there!

&

Blur – Think Tank (2003)

F**K what you heard alright, Damon Albarn is a MUSICAL GENIUS & this album proves it… This was Blur’s forray away from BritPop into more experimental sounds such as Dub, Jazz, Hip-Hop & World Music BUT still laced with gorgeous melodic sounds of their epic ‘ParkLife’ album… I find it interesting how most of the musical backdrop of this album is led by the BASS sounds as against the strings of a lead-guitar (YES Coxon the lead guitarist left the band around the time of recording BUT I think it’s more than that)… On a different week, this would be in my top 25 easily… That’s how much I love this album & how fickle this top 25 list can be!!!

Other Notable mentions from my original top 70 list include BUT are not exhausted to Ledisi’s ‘Lost & Found’, Little Brother’s ‘The Listening’, Common’s ‘Like Water for Chocolate’, The Clipse’s ‘Hell Hath No Fury’, Amel Larriex’s ‘Brave Bird’, Scarface’s ‘The Fix’, El-P’s ‘Fantastic Damage’, Blu & Exile’s ‘Below the Heavens’, Outkast’s ‘Stankonia’, Queens of the Stone Age’s ‘Songs for the Deaf’, Ryan Adam’s ‘Heartbreaker’, Johnny Cash’s ‘American IV: The Man Comes Around’, Portishead’s ‘Third’… OK! I should stop! We will have another conversation about these albums on a later date!!!

OK NOW to the Nitty Gritty…

25. Femi Kuti – Fight to Win (2001)

It took me a long minute to decide which Femi Kuti LP to include in this list… ‘Shoki Shoki’ or Fight to Win because let’s face it, the man made two CLASSIC albums this century (He seats comfortably in the same box as Radiohead? Jay-Z? M.I.A? Kanye West? in that respect)… Some will argue that without a ‘Shoki Shoki’, there would never have been a ‘Fight to Win’ so ‘Shoki Shoki’ should make the list BUT ‘Fight to Win’ is a near-perfect record! John Armstrong (BBC) calls it an excellent showcase of 21st Century Afrobeat & we cannot argue with that.

24. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2001)

I will come out and say it NOW! I’ve cheated by putting this album so far down this list… It’s Rock & Roll music at its very purest form & at its best! Even if you’re NOT into that kinda garage rock music, this album gets you. its 40 odd minutes and I dare you to want to skip any of the 16 songs on this… I just DARE you!

23. Jamie Lidell – Multiply (2005)

And now for some controversy…

Otis Redding? Stevie Wonder? Sam Cooke? Al Green? Willie Mitchell? Prince? You hear them ALL on this album & you have to ask, how does an Electronica producer all of a sudden turn into this rarity of a Soul Singer creating these amazing soul records. Never mind that he’s White, that just makes it more unreal… This album is Amazing & that is putting it very lightly.

22. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner (2003)

GRIME never & possibly will never sound this GOOD & you can quote me on that one! Dizzee’s 2003 debut is still the only grime LP that I can play from start to finish without wanting to skip a track… Say what you will about the Londoner BUT at 18, he made one of the best records to come out of the UK period! It Certainly isn’t NO ‘Sgt. Pepper’ but it is Iconic in its own right! & for the last time, it’s NOT hip-hop, its GRIME & its GRIME at its very BEST, heights of which the genre will not reach again.

21. Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (2008)

Experimental Hip-Hop? Electronica? Indie Hip-Hop? Psychedelic? Whatever you wanna call it, FlyLo has got it mastered to a tee on ‘Los Angeles’! Now many people will question this inclusion to the list BUT if you’ve heard this LP, if you’ve actually listened to it, you’d understand that the (somewhat premature) comparisons to such greats as Cannibal Ox & El-P stem from this one album & you’d understand why… Just listen to ‘Golden Diva’ & come back to talk to me!!!

20. Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun (2000)

On this one, I really couldn’t decide between this album & last year’s ‘New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War’, I’m sorry! I’m more leaning towards Mama’s Gun to be honest, it’s been with me for longer & it hasn’t LOST it’s GOODNESS… Who know what ‘New Amerykah’ will sound like in 2017 so based off of that longevity and impact continuously over 9 years, ‘Mama’s Gun’ takes the cake. Its beautiful music that’s effortless & what else would you expect from Ms. Badu working with such minds as Questlove, D’Angelo, Jay Dilla & Common… certainly nothing less!

19. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

One of the all-time BEST Emcees at his all-time BEST is what ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ is. It’s nothing short of an epic work of art. Mr. Mather’s lyrical genuis & explicit narratives on this album match up with the best that Hip-Hop has ever had to offer & Dr. Dre is on hand to offer the musical back-drop for the lyrical onslaught… It’s a match made in heaven and the ‘Marshall Mathers LP’ is the miracle baby! SNM!!!

18. The Avalanches – Since I left You (2000)

I kinda have a feeling… let’s call it a theory… that any conversation about the best albums of this decade will be grossly incomplete without mentioning this Album & please quote me on that! It is what DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’ was to the 90’s and a STRAIGHT MASTERCLASS in the art of sampling. If you’re a producer & you sample (which is everybody lol) & you don’t own this record (actually if you don’t own this record & DJ Shadow’s ‘ENDtroducing’)… & you haven’t studied this record THEN you’re for all intents & purposes, well & truly LOST! It’s a travesty in itself that I’ve placed it so low as Number 18!!!

17. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004)

Would it be so BOLD for me to say that this album is the best urban UK album… YES it’s NOT technically Hip-Hop or Grime & it’s NOT Garage-infused like Mike Skinner’s debut LP ‘Original Pirate Material’, it’s JUST an amazingly put-together body of work… Where ‘O.P.M’ was daring & groundbreaking & revolutionary (dare I say), ‘A Grand Don’t Come for Free’ is just simply better… It was a concept album before concept albums became ‘cool’ again in Hip-Hop & it’s 11 tracks of pure genius, witty vivid lyrics, near perfect narratives & an amazing musical backdrop that takes you right into the scene of this ‘movie’… #NuffSaid

16. The Roots – Game Theory (2006)

We always knew that The Roots were somewhat of a phenomena (well to the back-packers they are near enough gods!)… I mean, what else would you get by mixing Questlove, who in my opinion, is one of the greatest musical minds there are & Black Thought, the most slept-on & underrated emcee in the game & arguably one of the greatest all-time emcees… But The Roots had never quite delivered on any of their previous LPs (except for ‘Illadelph Halflife’ & marginally on 1999’s ‘Things Fall Apart’) in my humble opinion… ‘Game Theory’ was the album for me when The Roots became all they could be… It was dark, it was gritty, but it oozed life… it swayed from angry to depressing quite effortlessly & it was The Roots at their most cohesive. Simply put… Amazing music.

**AND BREATHE**

Alright Ladies & Gentlemen, that’s all you get from me for this week… Join me next week and we’ll go through the top 15 albums of this decade!!! OH P.S LET the RIOTING begin…

Until the Next Time

Triple A

La banda británica Blur regaló ayer en el diario The Sunday Times un cd con 10 de sus canciones. Se convirtió en el tercer grupo musical en hacer esto, detrás de Prince y Sigur Rós.

Las canciones que decidieron poner en el disco fueron grabadas durante varios shows que realizaron en el verano europeo.

La lista es la siguiente:

1- She’s So High

2- Girls & Boys

3- Badhead

4- Beetlebum

5- Parklife

6- Out of Time

7- Song 2

8- Pop Scene

9- Tender

10- The Universal

Además, el 29 de noviembre la banda lanzará cinco canciones más para que puedan descargarse desde iTunes.

Hacé click en la tapa del diario y lee la nota completa (en inglés).

Photo of the day, taken at Haskell’s Nursery in New Bedford, Mass.:

Click on image to order note cards on Redbubble.

Succulent

Okay so second installment and I already fail to get it done on time! I blame booze, football and a mediocre metal band, and I apologise if that excuse gets tired throughout this year (hopefully not the metal band one though). My second choice was easy; song two of the blog has to be ‘Song 2′ by Blur.

This song is one of the first thought of when asked to name a Blur song despite it sounding nothing like their other output. It is claimed that this was their attempt at a parody of the American grunge movement but, much like Beastie Boys did with ‘Fight For Your Right’, it ended up being embraced by the exact same music scene that they were poking fun at. Upon it’s release it was everywhere; adverts, video games and drunk blokes singing ‘Woohoo’ repeatedly at the back of night buses, and even now it’s their most played on Spotify. I think that it’s this over-exposure that has seen my appreciation for this song wane.

I mostly blame clubs. It is played almost anywhere and everywhere that would or could normally play this kind of music. If you go to a ‘any music goes’ kind of club you can bet that one of the ladz that has spilled out of Yates will request it and proceed to throw himself around like the prize-prick that he is, while pretentious indie clubs will choose between this or ‘Girls & Boys’ to play as one of their ‘hits that everyone will know’. The fact that it is also often seen by both of those audiences as a ‘heavy’ song means that it seems to get played even more.

Listening to it now, whilst trying my best to hear it anew, it really is a very good pop song, definitely grunge but then definitely Blur too. Damon’s half-arsed vocals, that tended to slip into not-arsed when performing live, are just right and it is a song made to make you want to throw yourself around. The thing is that it just won’t stop being played which just makes me dislike the song more. Will it ever get to the point where it could be missed enough for me to actually enjoy? It probably has as much chance as Chumbawamba.

A britek a kontinens legnagyobb fesztiválozói, ezt nemcsak az példázza, hogy a szigetországban van a legtöbb jelentős zenei fesztivál, de onnan zarándokolnak el legnagyobb számban külföldi eseményekre is a fiatalok. Éppen ezért kicsit sem meglepő, hogy saját fesztiváldíjuk is van, amit minden évben odaítélnek a legjobb rendezvényeknek, illetve előadóknak. Idén a legfontosabb elismerést az év elején visszatérő Blur kapta, a Glastonburyn nyújtott produkciójáért, Damon Albarnt pedig külön is jutalmazták egyéni díjjal, csakúgy, mint Lily Allent, akit a legjobb női fesztivál-előadónak tartottak idén…

Az év legjobb nagy zenei fesztje a Glastonbury volt, a legjobb külföldi rendezvény az ír Oxegen, a legjobb wc-k a T In The Parkon voltak, a legjobb közepes fesztivál a Bestival, a legjobb új fesztivál a Sonisphere volt. Az év himnusza a ‘Sex On Fire’, a Kings Of Leontól, a legjobb új előadó a Florence and the Machine lett.

-est-

I’ve been having a thought recently on songs I love, that if they came out between ‘77 and ‘81 would be deemed as Punk Classics. To me they all have the right combination of noise and attitude and have carried the musical side of Punk into other genres.

I know that they will not be everyones choice of a Punk tune, and I am not saying that they are…just that they would have been if they had come out in 1977.

Here is my list, let me know if you agree or not. Come up with a top five and I will post it as a seperate topic.

Song 2 – Blur

I can feel myself going absolutely mental as the chorus kicks in. Whoo Hoo.

I Predict A Riot – Kaiser Chiefs

It contains the word riot – always a good start – and the immortal line ‘if it wasn’t for chip fat she’d be frozen’, absolute genius.

Buck Rogers – Feeder

Fuckin stupid lyrics but a great riff, a real jump about tune.

Headshrinker – Oasis

The Gallaghers have a definate Punk attitude and some cracking tunes alongside some absolute shite. Headshrinker is one of their best.

Creep – Radiohead

Sums up my teenage years…or at least what most people thought of me. Still am a weirdo.

Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine

Political, Purposeful and Powerful. An amazing tune that builds to a great finale and captures the Punk attitude to life in general.

Richard III – Supergrass

Simply great pogo music.

Fell In Love With A Girl – White Stripes

This song could have been written by Pete Shelley. It would not have been out of place in 1979.

Kto ośmieli się powiedzieć, że Blur to nie jest/był genialny zespół?

A tu dwa razy wyrazy miłości:

Blur – Song 2 (Trash Yourself & The Toxic Avenger Remix)

Blur – Song 2 (TV Rock vs. Moguai Mix)

PS Jeśli od zawsze marzysz o dostawaniu emo-newslettera, to  Jezus w końcu cię wysłuchał. Szukaj po lewej.

I am a fan of Blur. In so far as I like their music and have some of their CD’s. I have also always wanted to see them live. By the time I got ‘into’ music I had only got into the ‘Best of’ that my brother had. I remember in my early days of musical education, my Brother (one of my favourite guitarists) saying “I love Graham Coxon’s sound. he’s very unique.” From my brother that is a BIG compliment. He never compliments anything, let alone anyone. So it stuck with me. Later, when I joined the Psychotic Reaction having loved their album Rumble, and found Alex Williams (another of my favourite guitarists) was a fan of Coxon too. This became more evident as his choice of guitars came to light and certain idiosyncrasies in strumming, chords etc. Prior to this I had always drawn parallels between my friend Josh’s frontman actions to that of Albarn. Both high-energy and stirring stuff. My other friend James can also be said to have a similar presence. So all in all many of my ‘closer-to-home’ influences counted Blur as an influence. As such I got into them and have enjoyed their work eversince. I did, however, miss their heyday and whilst ThinkTank was different and Gorrilaz are great, Coxon solo had the edge but still none of the err… stuff Blur had. So when the initial reunion was mooted I got very excited.
So I got paid yesterday and while paying a bill online I got a targeted add on Facebook that told me there were still tickets available. I checked. There were. They were also expensive. Ticketmaster has a timer on the page so it acts like a virtual ‘que’. With seconds to spare and no one responding to my texts I caved. Normally I buy tickets waaaaaay in advance so I was excited all day today for a gig I hadn’t planned for, for a band i really wanted to see. So I went home and washed and brushed up then headed straight out. Took me half an hour to get to the MEN (I loooooove Manchester) picked up my ticket and went in.
The MEN is a tomb. A frickin’ barn of great proportion. All concrete with little charm. Doesn’t even feel that big. Not an auspicious start. I went in to glance at the support.
As a parenthetical aside, who books, suggests, demands, hires, feels they need support bands? I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of good or relevant support bands I’ve seen when seeing a headline act. They do little to warm-up, enhance or reflect the head bands music/performance normally. In fact, i have plaid a few gigs where I thought “What the hell am I doing here?”
Anyway, I don’t know who the fuck Florence and the Machine are but all I know is I want her dead. I truly haven’t seen a band play a gig that big, that Baaaaaadly. They were actually bad. The girl cannot sing an iota and everything was out of her range. Truly, truly dreadful. I stomached a song and a half then walked out. First time I have ever walked out of anything. Ever.
The Klaxons were up next, who I had at least heard of. I’m not a fan of theirs either. I didn’t like Rave the first time round and I like it less now. They were very energetic and ‘exciting’ but as my Dad used to put it, “All fur coat, no knickers”. Lots of style, no substance. I managed two songs then left again. Dull, dull, dull.
I returned for the main event and realised the MEN can change with more people in it. When the boys came out I experienced that weird sensation you get when you see people you’ve only ever seen in photos and on telly. With barely a hello they Launched into She’s So High and I was in Heaven.
Albarn, say what you will of the man, is a force of nature on stage. Far more so than his oh-so-arrogant counterpart/nemesis L*am G*ll*gh*r. He really goes for it and even more amazingly for a man well in his 30’s kept up the pace and didn’t chicken out on any of the notes. Melodies were almost always note for note and hardly embellished. I was really impressed.
James looked a tad bored, which I might be mistaking for ‘looking-cool’ but the bass sounded excellent and Girls & Boys and Tender were pretty much carried by him.
Rowntree is of the Ringo school of drumming, simple but effective. No real ‘fills’ or showy-off bits but played for the song all the way. Very solid. What more do you need?
Then comes Coxon. As stated, I’ve always liked him but now he is my new favourite guitarist. He seems to match Mathmatical precision with all-out WROCK! He really threw himself around (even causing the guitar to cut out for a good minute) but had a note for note, pitch for pitch guitar sound from record. As such he did the work of 10 guitarists. He favoured his Tele Deluxe and an lovely Gibson ‘59 or ‘60 with P90’s. Twin Marshall stacks pushed a truly bassy and roaring sound out that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Beetlebum sounded Fan-fucking-tastic, I still don’t know how he wrote or plays that riff. Brilliant.
The other thing that was really great was, unlike the G*ll*gh*r brothers, they really seemed to ENJOY the gig. Albarn and Coxon mucked about and laughed and smiled. They all looked rather, well… happy.
Downsides; too bloody loud (i’m getting old) and the rather predictable “Poor Jacko” moment. Blah, blah, blah.
Highlights; Beetlebum probably my favourite. Country House and Parklife- I have never seen an audience go TRULY Ape-shit before (and I mean seriously Gaga) but you really get swept along. Wow. This A Low – Felt the love, man. The first set of encores – punk-tastic! And the truly Epic finale of The Universal. Awesome in the truest sense of the word. Awe inspiring.
In Summation, after REM and Ed Harcourt it comes a very close third in my top 5 best gigs. If you haven’t already seen them, do so. Catch ‘em quick or you might just get a Blur.
(God that was cheesy…)
Leo