Mika
Tuesday, February 6th 2007
Isn't Mika the most irritating artist in, oh I don't know how long. The neediness, the obvious desperation to be loved. This boy is trying way way too hard. The ridiculously high vocals that make him sound like Beaker from the Muppets with his balls in a vice. Most irritating of all right now is the stupid 'ker-ching' at the end of the 'Grace Kelly' single. Ugh. The one good thing about him is his love of Harry Nilsson and the fact that he had Jonathon Ross playing 'Without Her' on the radio on Saturday morning.
Let's hope Brian May (see the entry for Feb 5th) isn't reading this.
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Life On Mars
Thursday, January 25th 2007
Here's a trailer for the new series of Life On Mars. Fun for those of us who remember Camberwick Green...
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New release Monday
Monday, January 22nd 2007
Headed to FOPP this evening to buy a couple of the new releases mentioned in the last post, The Good, The Bad and The Queen and Field Music. It proved to me that, for me at least, physical product is still the thing. There's a thrill to heading to a record shop to buy a new release that you're excited about that you just don't get from downloading files onto your computer. It's not the same.
The anticipation was the best bit though as the actual purchasing was a bit disappointing. FOPP has always had a new release section at the front of the store and always had a healthy selection of that weeks new albums, I certainly don't recall not being able to find whatever new CD I was looking for. Walking in the store this evening, prominence was given to a whole bunch of records that they were knocking out for £1 and £3, which is okay, new year stock clear out etc. Beside that were the new releases which consisted of a display of about 4 columns across and 6 rows down all stocked with the debut album from The View. Beneath that were 3 rows of The Good, The Bad and The Queen and at the bottom 2 rows containing 2 or 3 other records. No Field Music to be found. Firstly am I to understand that there were only 4 or 5 releases today? Are the record company that desperate to sell albums by The View, do FOPP expect to sell that many? Why was the Field Music album not out with the new releases, a record that has been given strong reviews all over the place. I had to go and look for it on the shelves and the guy behind the counter said they only got 5 copies of it in.
It seems disappointing if FOPP are going to neglect new music like this and concentrate on knocking out cheap back catalogue and DVD's. The cheap back catalogue has obviously always been a strong attraction but as a shop on the route to the train station you would have thought they would do well from people popping in to pick up the new albums on the way to the train. I know January is a slow month normally and maybe that would justify one album dominating the space but not when you are not even putting out copies of all the new releases in the new releases section.
This is not the first time I've been annoyed at FOPP, I should have been offered a Candylion when buying the Gruff Rhys album last week. By the time I realised this on Wednesday they had none left. I demand my cardboard lion!
Should have gone to Avalanche next door. A feeling strengthend by my noticing they were selling Good, Bad and the Queen for £8.99. Bah!
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January Music
Tuesday, January 16th 2007
January is traditionally a slow month for new releases and good music to listen to. The last couple of years I'm sure it's been March/ April before any worthwhile new albums have been released. This year seems to be a bit different however, lots of good new stuff to listen to. Admittedly, some of them are things that have been hanging around since the tail end of 2006 but January seems particularly rich with good new releases this year.
First the hangovers from 2006 that are tickling my ears right now -
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black This album has certainly had good reviews and in this case they are well deserved. I picked it up off the back of the chorus from the single Rehab being stuck in my head for what seems like weeks. 'They tried to make me go to rehab/ I said no, no, no'. So well have they recreated the sound of 60's soul/Motown records that I had initially thought the tracks were made up of samples but no, there are only 2 samples on the whole album. Having said that it never sounds anything other than modern. Were it just a empty soul pastiche (see Joss Stone) it wouldn't work but Winehouse's songs are so strong melodically and her personality really shines through in the lyrics. All in all a triumph and nary a bad track in sight.
Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis For a while now Jarvis has been writing songs for others (Nancy Sinatra, Charlotte Gainsbourg) or releasing records under pseudonym (Relaxed Muscle) but it's nice to see him back with a proper solo record and it's quite fine too. At first it was the more obvious pop songs at the front of the record that caught my attention but as I'm listening to it more the darker songs on the second side are the ones that are hitting home (I Will Kill Again, From A to I, Fat Children). It's well worth having a look at the video for the single 'Don't Let Him Waste Your Time'
Charlotte Hatherley - Behave EP Very happy this turned up on eMusic, a taster from her next album which I think is due out in February. Her album Fade To Grey was one of my surprise faves of a couple of years ago. The 2 extra tracks didn't grab me but the lead track is quite fine and bodes well for the full release.
The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home YouTube isn't just a great place for watching stuff, it's also a good place to sample music without downloading tracks from iTunes or elsewhere. I read the review of this album on Pitchfork, headed to YouTube to check out some vids and liked their style and their songs. Not really what I was expecting, essentially they are a Britpop band 13 years out of time. Given my age and what I was doing from the early to mid-90's this isn't a problem since I tend to like a lot of music from that time (early Suede, Boo Radleys, Elastica, Pulp, Blur etc). Admittedly The LB's aren't as good as any of the aforementioned bands but this isn't a bad record with some fine singles. Check out Once And Never Again and Weekend Without Makeup
As for Jan releases, most aren't out yet. Still waiting for the new Shins record (out 29th) which is getting good reviews, Damon Albarn's new project The Good, The Bad and The Queen (22nd) and my most anticipated due to the strength of their first album, Field Music's 'Tones Of Town' (22nd). One anticipated release is already out:
Gruff Rhys - Candylion I linked to the video for the title track in one of my prolific postings at the tail end of last year and the album was released last week. Solo albums are always a hit and miss affair and indeed Gruff (lead singer of Super Furry Animals) had mostly a miss with his first solo record (judging that on the fact that I barely listened to it). This however is a lovely collection of off kilter pop songs covering topics as diverse as mythical creatures, archaeology and on the 15 minute long last track Skylon, plane hijackings. Recommended.
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Gruff Rhys
Wednesday, November 8th 2006
Aww cute, a new video from the Super Furry Animals frontman. All very Fingerbobs, songs nice too.
Candylion
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Sandi Thom again
Monday, June 12th 2006
See it's not just me
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Sandi Thom vs Nelly Furtado. FITE!
Friday, June 9th 2006
It is urgent and key that you go to a shop or alternatively iTunes and you buy the Nelly Furtado single 'Maneater'.
Not only is it worth getting anyway because it's a great Timbaland production with a stick in your head chorus but it will hopefully stop that awful awful Sandi Thom song 'I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) from getting to No.1 again. It really is so bad that a stand needs to be taken. Go on, it'll only cost you 79p.
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The Perry Bible Fellowship
Tuesday, June 6th 2006
Go read The Perry Bible Fellowship. The site is a pain to navigate but it's the best strip comic I have seen in a very long time.
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More camera shots
Tuesday, April 4th 2006
Again I'm being impressed by the versatility of this new camera. We were up for a walk at the loch and ecology centre that's a few minutes up the road and snapped this shot of a bud on one of the trees
A couple of days later, last night in fact, and with the same camera and lens was able to get this decent hand held shot of the moon. It was a nice clear night but it was a bit hit and miss as to what settings to have the camera on but managed to get 2 clear shots of which this was the best. Need to get a tripod though if I'm going to get anything better.
Just need to remember when using the movie mode NOT to have the camera on it's side! Idiot!
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Rutland Weekend Television
Tuesday, March 28th 2006
I was delighted over the weekend to get a hold of a copy of the two series and Christmas special of this mid-70's comedy series and in really excellent quality as well. RWT was Eric Idle's post-Python series that he made with former Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes (never released on DVD or video apparently due to legal problems - I'm guessing between Idle and Innes).
I've watched the first five episodes of the first series and it's very enjoyable. Recognisably made by one of the Python team it has the same air of silliness about it. It's a fine idea for a series, basically the premise being that you're watching a low budget television station (and since they had next to no budget for the series, it's very authentic). This allows Idle and his cast to create all manner of parodies of documentaries, quiz programmes, music programs, cookery programmes and so on. This is mixed in rather nicely with Neil Innes's songs. Having converted a work colleagues vinyl collection of Innes albums to CD I know most of these songs pretty well but it's nice to be able to put them in context with the sketches in which they featured.
It remains to be seen whether the second series can match the first and I'm looking forward to seeing the Christmas special featuring as it does a guest appearance by George Harrison dressed as a pirate. I've had a bootleg of his song from this episode for years, it starts as a normal version of My Sweet Lord before veering off into different lyrics 'Oh I'd like to be a pirate, a pirate's life for me...'. Again nice to put this into context, I always wondered where it came from. Also looking forward to seeing the first appearance of The Rutles and the sketch that inspired Lorne Michaels from Saturday Night Live to finance 'All You Need Is Cash'.
This series certainly deserves a proper release on DVD and it's a shame that one hasn't been forthcoming. It would be worthwhile if for no other reason than to highlight Neil Innes's work outside the Bonzos which, for too long, has been neglected.
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The musical taste of a three year old
Tuesday, March 28th 2006
Watching TOTP with a three year old is an enlightening experience. Boys with guitars get a big thumbs up, The Strokes were a hit on Sunday (and Placebo the week before were a hit as well although Brian Molko did ellicit the question 'Is that a girl?'). Girls singing get a thumbs down, they go on too long, apart from P!nk who inspires much jumping around and air guitar soloing.
Much of the rest was just boring though that may just have been eagerness to get away and play with the blue and green tractors.
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Marit Larsen - Don't Save Me
Friday, March 17th 2006
These days, as I keep track of my listening preferences as never before, via iTunes playcounts and submissions to last.fm (formerly Audioscrobbler), it's become apparent that out of all the possible genres of music, pop is the one I love most of all. Oh sure, I've dallied with jazz, swayed to soul and chilled out to reggae but it's always the poppier side of those genres that has tickled me most.
In the past admitting to liking pop music was a rocky road, sneered at by the so-called hip and difficult to defend in the era of production line SAW records. It should be pointed out that I never liked those records then and they don't sound any better now even in the rosy glow of nostalgia (well some do, Mel & Kim's singles still sound quite fine for example). I'm not sure what 'the kids' buy these days but it doesn't seem to be the pop music you'd think they'd like, Rachel Stevens, Annie and Girls Aloud for example, makers of some of the finest pop music over the last few years perform pretty dismally in chart terms. Are the kids buying records at all?
These records almost have built in nostalgia attached mind you - Dee C Lee covers, Adam And The Ants references and misty eyed rememberances of clubbing days past are all reflections of the age of the producers of these records and therefore are likley to appeal to your average over 25 year old rather than your under 10 and your average 25/30 year old probably isn't out buying singles. They may however be the main age group of your music blogger, hence the love for these records in that domain.
Still we're veering off the point of this post, all this preamble is to introduce a new song which is resolutely POP! and which is currently rocking my world. It seems to fit the criteria of several singles that I've loved over the last year (Mark Owen's 'Blame It On The Boogie' and Junior Seniors 'Take My Time' (still not released in the UK!) for example) - I found out about it online but no one in the real world seems to have noticed it. To be fair it's premature to say this about this record, it has after all just been released in Norway and it has yet to be released anywhere else. In addition Stylus reviewers also gave it the highest praise I've seen for any single reviewed there (9.0) and the album just got an A- review too.
As you'll have seen from the post title I'm talking about Marit Larsen's 'Don't Save Me' (follow the link for video and streaming audio). It's upbeat, doesn't outstay it's welcome, features lots of strummed acoustic guitars, a killer chorus, those big piano chords so beloved of ABBA and Steve Nieve on Olivers Army, a proper middle 8 rather than a lazy key change. Handclaps! Hell it's even got a harmonica solo. There's also something about the Scandinavian accent when singing (cf The Cardigans, Annie etc).
I would suggest you check it out at the above link and let me know what you think.
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Rocking good new camera
Thursday, March 16th 2006
I've been playing late at night with my new camera. Discarded many many shots as I play with the features. I haven't taken too much care over composition and so on, just really taking test shots to see what's possible. Despite this I've already taken some pretty cool shots.
Last night I discovered the features that allow you to change colours in the camera before you've actually taken the shot. One of these settings allows you to choose a colour in the scene and then when you take the shot every other colour apart from that one is in black and white. That leads to shots like the one below. I should have taken more care over what's in the background but it still looks pretty cool.
The other thing I was trying the other night was taking shots of water drops. Again I wasn't really taking enough care over this. No tripod and my focusing could have been better executed. Holding the camera in one hand and a dripping water bottle in the other (in the dark) is kind of tricky. Still out of about 60 shots I got 2 that are not bad and at least indicate what could be achieved with a tripod and a bit more care.
Click on these to see them larger.
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Comps
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
Before you ask, here's the tracklistings of those two mix CD's I made.
"SHIMMY SHIMMY SHIMMY"
1.Art Brut - Formed A Band
2.The Strokes - Juicebox
3.The Fall - Clasp Hands
4.The Darkness - English Country Garden
5.Figurines - I Remember
6.Malcolm Middleton - Devestation
7.Linda Perhacs - Paper Mountain Man
8.The Decemberists - The Engine Driver
9.The Left Banke - Dark Is The Bark
10.Os Mutantes - Panis Et Circensis
11.The Tammy's - Egyptian Shumba
12.Handsomeboy Technique - Walk Across The Rooftops
13.Acoustic Ladyland - Iggy
14.Mew - The Zookeeper's Boy
15.Paul McCartney - Jenny Wren
16.Ringo Starr - Early 1970
17.Belle & Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue
18.Jamie Lidell - Multiply
19.Polar Bear - To Touch The Red Brick
20.Johnny Boy - You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
21.Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck
"PERFECT IMPERFECT"
1.The Beatles - It's All Too Much (8min alt mix)
2.The Monkees - Girl That I Knew Somewhere (1st Version)
3.The Pipettes - Your Kisses (Radio 1 Session)
4.Vanity 6 - Vibrator (Unreleased Prince song)
5.Barry Gibb - Woman In Love (Demo)
6.The Divine Comedy - Bad Ambassador (Live on French Radio)
7.Bob Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat (Liverpool 14.05.66)
8.Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum (Live on French Radio)
9.Elvis Costello - I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea (Alt Ver)
10.Prince - Neon Telephone (Unreleased)
11.The Beatles - What You're Doing (Take 11)
12.Slade - Getting Better (Radio 1 Session)
13.Bob Dylan - Quinn The Eskimo (Basement Tapes)
14.David Crosby - Lady Friend (Demo)
15.Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drums (Demo)
16.Pete Townshend - Substitute (Demo)
17.Harry Nilsson - Cuddly Toy (Demo)
18.The Beatles - Can You Take Me Back (Full Version)
19.Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Demo)
20.Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now (Live 1968)
21.Nick Drake - Saturday Sun (Take 1)
22.Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet - God Only Knows (Live)
23.Brian Wilson - Smart Girls (Unreleased-thankfully)
That last track has to be heard to be believed. Brian Wilson raps as bits of Beach Boys records are badly cut up and placed in the song.
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Idiot
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
As I mentioned in the previous post I was out for a few drinks last night with a friend. We meet up every month or two and have a fun time talking about film, music, books and life in general. One of the rituals of this is the making and swapping of mixtapes and more recently mix CD's.
It always takes me ages to make a mix so last time we met I was up till 1am or so putting together a really good 2CD comp only to find out I only had 1 CD-R. Irritating. This time I was well covered in that department, lots of CD-R's to hand. I had decided just to burn the comp from last time with a couple of changes but wanted to make another one with live tracks, demos and outtakes as something a bit different. Again I was up until 1am what with compiling, burning and writing of tracklists. What did I do? Left the discs in work. Damn! That was so annoying.
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Preciousssss
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
One of the drawbacks of shopping online is you miss the instant gratification of taking home the goods you've bought right there and then. As I've discovered over the last few days though, this is more than made up for by the anticipation of waiting for ordered goods to arrive.
This is especially the case if you're given a tracking number once your order has been dispatched. Much time can be spent checking the website to see where your package was last scanned. Time is also spent speculating what the course of action may be should your package arrive whilst there is no one at home vis a vis alternative pick up arrangements. It's great.
Well, actually no it's not. It's torture. I want my stuff NOW!
Thankfully yesterday I was put out of my misery. Of course I had chosen last night to go out for a few drinks with a friend after work so though my stuff was delivered in the afternoon I wasn't able to get at it until 11.30pm when I got home. It was worth the wait though, the Canon S2IS digital camera is lovely and shiny and has lots of buttons on it. Given the lateness of the hour that's about as much of a review as I can give it just now - apart from the fact that all the reviews were right, there's no way that lens cap is staying on.
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YouTube
Friday, February 10th 2006
Youtube is a great site. No doubt it's clogged with rubbish of people jumping around their bedrooms acting like idiots but there is also a wealth of fantastic stuff not least the music related stuff that people have uploaded. Sooooo many amazing clips.
I've been marvelling at Prince again recently. Pretty much a daily task. He was on Saturday Night Live last Saturday and just owned that stage with a version of a new song called 'Fury'. The song was pretty good but the performance just ruled and the backing vocalists with their synchronised dance routines looked really cool too. He's starting to look his age and he's not at the cutting edge as he once was but he's still too cool for school.
I'm not going to post that performance though, I'm going to post something else (if it works)and that's his performance on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame a couple of years ago. It starts off with the same band as performed at Concert For George at the Royal Albert Hall - Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison etc and it sounds great, then there's a grin from Dhani H and the man in the hat who'd been hiding at the side comes front of stage and just takes over. This is a man who can play guitar! Looks good in a hat too...
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Muffin
Tuesday, February 7th 2006
Of all the things I expect to be wiping from the toilet seat before sitting down chocolate muffin crumbs is not one of them.
What possesses someone to buy a chocolate muffin and then to decide to sit in a public toilet with the lid up and eat it leaving crumbs on the seat and the empty paper case floating in the toilet water?
I mean were they sitting with their trousers round their ankles while doing this or would that have been to unhygienic and disgusting?
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Sitcom
Friday, February 3rd 2006
Golden age of sitcom, my arse.
First Hyperdrive fouls up our screen and bleeds away some of the good will that Nick Frost had built up from previous projects and now after Nathan Barley Chris Morris loses some of his cred with his appearance in the painfully bad The IT Crowd. It took all my good natured tolerance to watch past the first 10 minutes just so I could say I gave it a fair chance.
I know what you're going to say, it's the first episode give it another chance. Well sorry but I gave it one full episode and a quick glance at episode two and I just can't takes no more.
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Switch
Friday, February 3rd 2006
Finally I got around to cancelling my Amazon DVD rental account. Like many who sign up for similar deals and start with good intentions of watching lots of films I had stopped watching any at all. I find it hard to find at least 2 hours regularly in an evening where I have the time and energy to watch a full film. So off it went and instead I have diverted the monthly fee to Emusic where I might actually get my money's worth.
I've been thinking about it for quite a while and the joining offer of 100 free songs was just too good to pass up. I've been hunting through their catalogue and I think there's plenty there to keep me interested for quite a while. It's roughly £8 for 65 songs a month and there is no DRM on the files so that's pretty good. There's no major label stuff on there it's all indie but when that includes Sufjan Stevens, Cat Power, Devendra Banhart, The Decemberists Teenage Fanclub, Posies, Belle and Sebastian, Pixies, Go-Betweens, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Sloan, Spoon, lots of 4AD and Cherry Red artists etc etc etc then the lack of major label input is no loss.
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