Marina and the Diamonds

Like a marching band of gurning elves bulldozing the entire contents of an Aberystwyth drugstore down their gobs before throwing up a mix of early Gorky’s and Tom Waits’ garage.

Have you heard Magical Trevor? He’s the deliciously annoying viral cartoon that was mutated into an advert for 118-247 earlier this year. Son Capson appear to be his magical Welsh cousin, nestling in the Cambrian Mountains and gouging on Tom Waits’ Swordfish Trombones and Hungarian coming-of-age ceremonies. He conjures past images of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynchi donning wizard outfits and singing about Peanut Dispensers while sounding like Eugene Hutz’s marvellous moustache. He’s got a song about a Sniper on the Roof of Tesco. He’s pretty awesome.

Nicely side-stepping the 80s-girl revival that has seen Pip, Boots and Roux parcelled-up into one comfortably-marketed package for journalists’ pigeon holes, Marina and the Diamonds’ eclectic hymns draw more on the new wave vibrancy of Lena Lovich and Kate Bush. Marina herself puts her roots down to Brody Dalle, Britney, Dolly Parton and a birthplace in “ancient Greece” via Wales. The Joni Mitchell-flavoured ”I’m Not a Robot” and aching, lifting ”Obsessions” show a rich songwriting and storytelling ability that should soon have ‘Marina and the Diamonds’ roll off the tongue with the same eminence as Bat for Lashes.

Martin Carr’s biog should read like the A-Team’s: ‘he gave up the charts and a life in pop for the rich-storytelling of life in the Welsh capital’. Ah, so naive! He should have known that his beautiful craftmanship would be constantly called on and his six Brave Captain albums have tied together the enduring sense of pop that he carved out with the Boo Radleys’s with some captivating lo-fi country and psych. New album ‘Ye Gods (And Little Fishes)‘ is the first he has released under his own name and is his most engaging solo outing yet; warm, brooding laments and that stay with you as the last few notes fizzle out.

Grabbing their name from a low-budget flick film that has been described as “pure heroin for pop-culture junkies” seems an appropriate choice for Science Bastard; they have that wreck-all-the-instruments-then-piece-them-back-together-and-throw-some-pop-bubbles-on-the-mess approach – all fuzzy, amphetamine drumming, short-sharp-shock guitars and gurning vocals . Wonderfully, they have no attention span either – throwing delicious hooks about with abandon they sound like a scratch running after an itch.

Son Capson, Marina and the Diamonds, Martin Carr and Science Bastard play Chapter Arts Centre on 22 October as part of the BBC Wales Adam Walton and BBC Radio 1 Introducing in Wales with Bethan Elfyn evening.

Also appearing are: Post War Years, Race Horses, Bright Light Bright Light and Zimmermans. The show will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 1 Introducing In Wales with Bethan Elfyn

How to buy Swn tix/wristbands and full line-up

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Magical Trevor is just one of those classic animations that everyone should see at least once in their life. Yes, it is annoyingly catchy and will get on your nerves after a while but the combination of the original music and the bubbly animation make it something worth seeing.

Really liking the 118-24-7 ads at the moment, as is my 16 month old daughter who has developed her own little dance to go with the song.   Like her I find the tune really infectious.  As with most things, its based on something else – Magical Trevor.  I like it though, I can’t watch it without smiling – its ‘directory heaven’.

and the source…

BTW: 118247 discovered I’d been tweeting about them via Twitter Search and responded.  It feels nice when a brand you are thinking about talks back to you – a strength of Twitter methinks.

I’m sure most people have seen this ad breaking recently, a catchy little tune and a fun animation to explain yet another 118 number service (OK, I know yell.com is probably one of the biggest and its been around for ages).

A (slightly) lesser known fact is that the Ad is complete copy of Magical Trevor, a pretty old school animation from Mr Weebl, who created weebl and bob, the badger viral and, well, Magical Trevor. 

Will the Ad achieve more Youtube views than Magical Trevor? It has a way to go yet, but Yell have put a Youtube campaign behind the Ad. On the channel they challenge people to see if they can “out-rhyme us” and the description of the ad says “think you can do better?”. I’m yet to see any actual mechanic to do this, other than the video response function – which 5 people have done already.

They’ve also made quite a point of saying “you either love it or hate it”, to the point where their website even has a Love or Hate option. 81% love it. Do 19% actually hate it? It’s not exactly Marmite, maybe 19% of voters are die-hard Magical Trevor fans.

Have a look for yourself – Top one is Trevor, the bottom one is the ad. Nice bit of trivia is that Trevor is in the ad, waiting for his curry…

Ad:

So it occurred to me as I was watching David play lacrosse the other day, that I happened to be one of those parents. Ya know, the ones that live their lives vicariously through their children? Come to think of it, this really should’ve occurred to me before now… I’m always wishing it was me out there instead of them? How sad is that?

I was watching him play lacrosse, trying to scoop the ball up, missing somehwat horrendously sometimes, slowly learning how to do it, and I couldn’t help but think to myself, He really needs to be aiming for the pocket, not the stick. He’s not really going for it. I need to talk to him, tell him how to do it…

Now, rest assured, when I’m coaching him in football, I know exactly what I’m talking about. I am like the God of Football. For real, I know just about everything there is to know about it, hence why I’m considering blackballing my fellow tackle league coaches this year and taking the reigns for real. Lacrosse? Not so much.

I realized, right after I had called him over to tell him what he wasn’t doing right, that I know absolutely jack shit about lacrosse. I mean, sure, I get that the ball goes in the net part, and that you then use that to throw it into the goal or whatever, but that’s about as deep as my knowledge goes. This is ok, he’s got a couple of different coaches on this team who obviously know more than me, but am I going to let that stop me from interjecting my ill-informed opinions? HELL no. I shall just have to read up. The fact that someone, somewhere, knows something more about any particular sport than I do, is just utterly unacceptable.

I think I might also have somewhat of an ego. It actually kinda reminds me of this story I heard one time.

There once was a man, we’ll call him Mr T. for short, who many considered to be the smartest, most attractive, most talented man badass motherfucker who ever lived. He was, quite literally, awesome. Everyone loved him, and they all came from miles around to sit at his feet and hear stories of how he was the coolest person on Earth. Then one day, he met me. That was when he realized, that he was not the smartest, most attractive, most talented, or most badass motherfucker on the planet. He had met someone who was his superior in every way.

The end.

Which also reminds me of the greatest video of all time. Ladies and gentlemen… Magical Trevor.

If you call 118247 on a weekend you may now get the chance to talk to me!
Yell have got weeble who did the magical trevor cartoon to do our new advert and it is so so so so so catchy. So today we had balloons everywhere that said ‘directory heaven’, it looked so cute.

so call me and i’ll tell you a good place to see sharks.

Magical Trevor – Episodio 1

Everyone loves Magical Trevor
‘Cause the tricks that he does are ever so clever
Look at him now, disappearin’ the cow
Where is the cow heading right now?

Taking a bow, it’s Magical Trevor
Everybody seen that the trick is clever
Look at him there with his leathery, leathery whip!
It’s made of magic, and with a little flip

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back
Back, back, back from his magical journey
Yeah!

What did he see in the parallel dimension?
He saw beans,
lots of beans,
lots of beans,
lots of beans.
Oh, beans lots of beans lots of beans lots of beans.
Yeah, yeah!

La prima volta che vidi questo video era tanto tempo fa. Sono pazzo.

Yeah yeah the cow is back yeah yeah the cow is back.

Man I love these songs! Heres all of them in one!

Thse are awesome! Heres the lyrics so you can sing along.

#1

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back
Back, back, back from his magical journey

#2

You might think his new trick is sick,
Sawing a pigeon in half with a stick!
Look at the pigeon, now it’s in two!
Oh my, it’s rear end is having a poo!

Look at the mess,
In aisle two!
Aisle two,
That’s the place where they store the Ragu!
There’s so much Ragu

Start at the gig
here comes the pig
look at Trev’s toe,
it’s started to glow

What will the trick be?
Don’t let that pig pee
Oh my what happened
Trev’s summoned the Kraken

He’s causing havoc,
If I’m not mistaken his face is a haddock
Cheer up pig, don’t you cry,
There’s a special offer on fish pie

ALL FOUR MAGICAL TREVORS! WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

#1
Everyone loves Magical Trevor

‘Cause the tricks that he does are ever so clever

Look a him now, disappearing a cow

Where is the cow headed right now?

Taking a bow it’s Magical Trevor

Everybody’s seen that the trick is clever

Look at him there with his leathery, leathery whip

It’s made magic and with a little flip

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back

Back, back, back from his magical journey

What do you see in the parallel dimension?

You saw beans, lots of beans, lots of beans, lots of beans

Saw beans, lots of beans, lots of beans, lots of beans

Yeah, yeah

#2
He’s back, and he’s got a new trick

Magical Trevor is ten times as slick as the last time

The last time you saw him

Now you could see why we really adore him

You might think his new trick is sick

Sawing a pigeon in half with a stick

Look at the pigeon, now it’s in two

Oh my, its rear end is having a poo

Look at the mess in aisle two

Aisle two, that’s the place where we saw the Ragu

There’s so much Ragu

#3
Magical Trevor is here for the day

We all love him it’s safe to say

It’s twelve pm so he starts with a thriller

He’s gonna do tricks with a chinchilla

Covers it up with his magical cloak

Takes out some petrol, gives it a soak

Look out kids, he’s playing with matches

He’d better be careful incase the cloak catches on fire

Oh no, the cloak is on fire

It’s turning to ashes with our furry friend

When will this horror finally end?

Oh look it’s okay, now that was amazing

The chinchilla’s just fine

But now its turned into a raisin

Shame, no one’s watching

Put this in your journal:

Dear diary, chinchilla’s sure are nocturnal

Check out you animal fact next time Trevor

Ooh, you sure get nice coats at world of leather

#4
Magical Trevor is back once again

He’s doing tricks that will drive you insane

How does he do them?

I wanna know

Aah . . . He’s got a magical toe

Start of the gig

Here comes a pig

Look at Trev’s toe

It started to glow

What will the trick be?

Don’t let that pig pee

Oh my! What happened?

He summoned the Kraken

He’s causing havoc

If I’m not mistaken, his face is a haddock

Cheer up pig, don’t you cry

There’s a special offer on fish pie

Join the Feast HERE.

Appetizer
Describe your laundry routine. Do you have a certain day when you do it all, or do you just wash whatever you need for the next day?

Routine? I prefer chaos, thank you very much.

Pile laundry. Pile until there is enough laundry to sort, or until I can’t walk into my closet anymore.

Sort laundry. Wash laundry. Dry laundry, while hanging various articles of clothing over doorknobs. Take warm, dry, clean laundry out of dryer and toss onto guest bed. Close door until I need a fresh towel or shirt. I hate folding laundry.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Soup
In your opinion, what age will you be when you’ll consider yourself to truly be old?

Yesterday. The age of yesterday.

Salad
What is one of your goals? Is it short-term, long-term, or both?

Pull off a fun, enjoyable wedding. Short term.

Pull off a long, successful, happy marriage. Long term.

Main Course
Name something unbelievable you’ve seen or read lately.

Unbelievable? You want to see unbelievable? I’ll show you unbelievable!

Magical Trevor

Dessert
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how happy are you today?

I’m feeling goofy, so I guess a 7 today. Would be better, but I had to spend a lot of time cleaning and dusting. Yuck. Hate dusting almost as much as folding laundry. HA!

Went grocery shopping today. Not sure why.  I’m self-employed and work on the weekends.  I could shop anytime during the week when the stores are empty.  But for some reason, I choose to do things like go grocery shopping at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon and trek into SoHo at 1:3-pm on the first warm day of the Spring.

But that’s neither here nor there.  The point is, I was checking out in an incredibly long line and obviously annoyed as all hell.  The experience reminded me of David Foster Wallace’s recent commencement speech at Kenyon University (worth reading, by the way):

The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way. And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. And look at how deeply and personally unfair this is.

At this point, a woman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said “I’m just going to leave this basket here and do some more shopping.  Can you watch it and my place in line?”  The basket had 2 pints of fro-yo in it.  “Sure” I nodded.

Ten seconds later another woman approached.  “I’m just going to leave this quart of half-and-half here. Can you watch it and my place in line?”

“Sure,” I say, “but there is another woman who left her fro-yo.  Just FYI.”

“Well, is she coming back?”

“I assume so.”  Wallace is replaying in my ears.

The second woman leaves.  About 30 seconds later, both women converge on the line at the same time.  The rightful first woman gets in line first.  The second woman wastes no time: “Um, excuse me, that’s my half-and-half!”
The first woman ignored her and wheeled around to address me “I thought you agreed to watch my space in line??!!!”

“Umm… yeah, she was just resting her half and half.  I think she knows she’s behind you.”

In a fantastic display of bitter sweet kindness, the first woman replied “Look, if it’s that important to you, why don’t you just cut in front of me.”

At this point, the next part of Wallace’s speech came back to me:

But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

But I realized something more.  The problem was suddenly blindingly obvious and the solution crystal clear.

Neither of these women spent 45 minutes this morning listening to Everybody Loves Magical Trevor on repeat!  THAT must be why they are cranky.  Maybe if I sing the song to everyone in line, they will all cheer up!

At which point I busted out the first verse of the Magical Trevor song and for that brief moment, neither of these women were the most annoying people in the line.

UPDATE: It’s now my ringtone.