bear music

Artists of 2012

2012-12-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

WOW! It’s been a while (10 months in fact) since I last blogged, my only real excuse for my absence was that I lost a bit of faith in the music industry through the constant drivel of the One Direction/ Justin Bieber generation. In reality, it was more over I’ve been busy at work, have a lovely new girlfriend, a heap of top mates and basically had myself a bloody spring and summer drinking, partying and gigging J

Enough about me, It’s cold and I’m tired so I’ll kick off my special end of year blog and say thank you to all 12,500 of you for checking out my blog over the last 2 years...

TOP 10

10. Jake Bugg

Did I miss the note that said Arctic Monkeys were suddenly a point of nostalgia? Are you original enough as an artist to have longevity? Does Noel Gallagher adopted patronage make you the new proud Mary? How real can you be when you only co-write?

Regardless of all these questions, back in summer having only heard a handful of his material, nevertheless I followed Jon McClure from Reverend and Makers recommendation in the festival program and saw Jake’s set at this year’s YNot! Festival (which I must add was a brilliant weekend and well deserving of the ‘best small festival of the year 2012 award’). In short, I was blown away and I caught the ‘Bugg’; very rarely does an artist’s material have such an immediate impact; packed with humour, pathos and heartbreak all delivered by a kid barely old enough to buy a pint, he’s not trendy which is always a bonus, greatness and ubiquity beckon.

It would be a tough choice to decide on his best track from his shiny debut single ‘Lightning Bolt’, the fantastically honest ‘Taste it’ and ‘Seen It All’, however for me it has to be the brilliant ‘Two Fingers’ for the lad-ish sing-a-long chorus alone:

“I drink to remember, I smoke to forget, some things to be proud of, some stuff to regret.”

9. Tame Impala

What an epic year for Kevin Parker and his alter ego Tame Impala, massive praise this side of the water from his fellow Australasian, king of indie Zane Lowe and scooping NME’s album of year for the brilliantly trippy ‘Lonerism’. The album was put together soley by Kevin in various places around the world, influenced by Supertramp, Led Zepplin and load of red wine he is quoted as saying “You never really finish an album, but simply run out of time”. My standout track ‘Elephant’ sits incongruously on the album and serves a brief but nevertheless bluesy psychedelic wash of reverby synths, schizophrenic conversation loops and what f*cking phat beast of a riff....absolute genius.

8. Kendrick Lamar

My list of artists of the year would not be complete without a flavour of old skool, easily my hip-hop track of the year ‘Swimming Pools’ harks back to the tones and melody of Dead Prez’s ‘Hip Hop’. Lamarr’s flow is versatile contrasting with the tracks brilliant beat and his honest storytelling with an edge. His debut album, ‘Good kid, Maad city’ is definitely worth a listen. Even more worth a listen is this special mashup version created ESPECIALLY for this bearmusic 'best of 2012' by my mate Ste Davey aka Neoclassical Champion Rockers (@N_C_R), enjoy...

7. The Cribs

How a band can deliver a lead single from their fifth album with that same youth and vitality they started their career with is beyond me. This year’s offering ‘In the Belly of a Brazen Bull’ follows a hectic time for the Cribs lads but I was lucky enough to catch their homecoming gig earlier this year in Wakefield (aka ‘Wakey’) after a short trip across the Pennines in deepest, darkest Yorkshire on a cold, damp Tuesday night...they still managed to make it the highlight of my week. Back to their best and never failing to deliver, the Jarmin brothers, now minus Smiths legend Jonny Marr, left me deaf for the next two days at work from relentless awesomeness. Highlights from the album that was recorded in both NYC and at the legendry Abbey Road studies include the shiny ‘Chi-town’, ‘Glitter like Gold’, ‘Anna’ and the fantastically raucous, soaring sing-a-long anthem ‘Come On, Be a No-one’ with lyrics straight out of a ‘90s Seattle grunge poetry open mic:

“...Sometimes I’d rather feel cheap, you can’t keep suckling me”.

6. EE [Everything Everything]

Not to be confused with the new super mega, Kevin Bacon promoted mobile merger of T-Mobile and Orange; Everything Everywhere - I have been a huge fan of these guys for some time now since my mate NCR [@N_C_R] introduced me to their brilliance and they since (well still do now) follow me on twitter following some minor stalker age/ fan-boying of their debut album ‘Man Alive’.

This year the band continue to go from strength to strength managing to get their hands on some HUGE playtime in morning, drivetime and day time commercial and the newly revamped radio 1 team for their stand out single ‘Cough Cough’ championed by the likes of Gregg James, Fearne Cotton, Nick Grimshaw and the godfather of new(ish) music Sir Zane of Lowe himself. The Manchester quartet comeback single keeps hold of the guys loveable kinks and proves they remain the kings of staccato pop offered up on a platter of a genius stop/start opener segued into a melodic ‘widescreen’ chorus, keep up the top work.

“...and that eureka moment hits you like a cop car, and you wake up just head and shoulders in a glass jar”

5. Reverend and the Makers

Returning to form with a fantastic online ONLY release of ‘@Reverend_Makers’, promoted solely via twitter and other social media sites they broke the UK Top 10 albums chart on its week of release, with a little help from me downloading 5 copies. I got the opportunity to see the mighty Rev ride again this year, for the 1^st time since back in 2005 and they NEVER disappoint. Drunk as a skunk me and the mrs’ raved our tits to his old stuff and new material alike at YNot! Festival. Standout tracks from the album tracks include indie disco floor filler ‘Bassline’, the massively dub-step influenced ‘Depth Charge’ and the debut reminiscence of ‘Warts N All’ and ‘the Wrestler’. As far as a favorite track goes it HAS to be Jon back to his swaggering, lyrically legendary, whitty, normal kind of c*ntish self with this 'Shine a Light':

“I dreamed of Euromillions, I dreamed I’d scooped the lot, I’ve two words for my boss, and the second one is ‘Off’....I’ve already spent it 10 times over in my head, I’ve swapped this Fiat Punto for a yacht down on the Med”

4. Jack White

Old Jack knows his way around a single or 50, drifting from side project to side project (namely: the Raconteurs alongside Brendon Benson and the Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart) following the end of the White Stripes, briefly dipping his top in the world of a solo material a few years with Alicia Keyes’ to write and perform the song to Daniel Craig’s second outing to revamped, ‘cool’ again Bond in the ridiculously named ‘Quantum of Solice’.

He has now, jumped head first in the mercy depths of soloism with his debut album ‘Blunderbus’. A brilliant piece of old skool garage blues it IS Jack White back at his best, standout tracks include ‘Missing Pieces’ and his softer side on ‘Lovee Interruption’ and the fucky ‘I’m Shakin’ but my track of choice is the lead single ‘Sixteen Saltines’ for its sardonic, stabbing riffs and lyrics steeped with hatred from his divorce:

“She’s got a big mailbox that she puts out front...garbage in, garbage out, she’s gettin’ what she wants, If i’m getting’ busy then I couldn’t care less ‘bout whatcha do”

3. The Maccabbees

Having been around a fair while I used to always be put off from calling myself a Maccabbees ‘fan’ due to the band members being named the upper class names of Hugo, Felix, Rupert, Sam and a bizarre incident in there early days when I was in my early 20s at Reading Festival. In short, on my way to see their set I totally freaked out on my way there that I was “waaaaay to OLD for this stuff maaaaaaan”, due to a HUGE heard of 15 to 16 year olds meandering around hoping to sneak a perve at front man Orlando Weeks.

However, these days, the lucky git I am, have a beautiful girlfriend, 8 years my junior (I’m 28 now and thus NOT a spawn of Jimmy Saville) and a mate of hers encouraged me listen to their latest album. Everything about this album oozes a mature, rich sound, from the insanely contrasting colours of the albums cover (earthy termite nest threatened by a bright orange scrub fire amongst a tranquil savannah with a vast blue sky) to the title tracks blissfully serene intro. Its just generally a beautiful peice of music as an album but stand out tracks include the beautifully sublime ‘Feel to Follow’, ‘Glimmer’, ‘Went Away’ and my personal favourite, sing-a-long indie anthem (sung at tempo, sounding very much like a Ladysmith Black Mambazo track)...‘Pelican’:

“So soon we, so soon we, so soon we too old to carry, And we knew we, and we knew we, and we knew we only had a little...”

2. Bloc Party

Probably my favourite band of my generation, this year finally made their come back with their forth studio album, the imaginatively titled ‘4’ (if Led Zep can, why can’t they?) following a long hiatus and namely Kele, Russ, Gord and Matt Tong’s solo/ side projects. I have been a massive fan since I randomly stumbled across a gig of theirs back my early uni days pre release of their debut album and the fame and critical acclaim it brought with it. Having seen them 5 times thereafter, at regular intervals throughout their career from the humble Liverpool Academy 2 thru to the main stage at Reading Festival I simply couldn’t turn down the chance to see them at what is accentually a rave venue @WHP (Warehouse Project) in Manchester this Autumn. I was absolutely blown away and can confirm they are probably the only band I’ve seen that just keep getting better and better.

Every track on the album is faultlessly tight, from the brilliant opener ‘So He begins to lie’, the rousing chorus of ‘3x3’, the lead single ‘Octopus’ and the meandering ‘Real Talk’ you can instantly the lads are back to their best ‘Silent Alarm’ form. Not being a HUGE fan of their 2^nd and 3^rd offerings as albums (a large handful of tracks aside) this album really is them back to form. My personal highlights from the album come in the form of the big 2^nd single ‘Kettling’, the fantastic ‘V.A.L.I.S’, euphorically epic ‘Team A’ and the absolutely awesome ‘Colliseum’ has to be up there with my top 3 tracks of the year, with it dual melody, phat riff and lyrical genius:

“...nightmare walking on two legs, there's a word for people like us, can't shake the feeling, why even bother, we're moving backwards, history repeating, ain't got the time...”

1.Alt-J Δ

And the winner is...well the artists behind an album that has single headedly restored my faith in a lost generation of music, proving there are new bands out there that truly can a longevity on the music scene. Ok, it may well be early days as far as their career goes but scooping the Mercury prize is no easy feat. I first started banging on about them at the start of the year as one of my ‘ones to watch’ (ref: an earlier blog from January that I can’t be bothered looking for, it was pre NME though I may add, if you care to argue look for yourself...) and their career has since skyrocketed. After the mercury win, there’s been alot of debate as to wether ‘An Awesome Wave’ captures the “sound of modern Britain” as if:

1. That’s what Alt-J set out to do and

2. It’s something the Mercury’s have history of rewarded.

The truth is, it is a remarkable debut album, released back in May when much fewer people felt obliged to have contrarion opinions about it. Well if this sort of smart, sleak, sexy ‘baby-makin’ music isn’t the sound of modern Britian, I certainly wish it was.

Standout tracks from the album include the brilliant ‘Fitzpleasure’, ‘Matilda’, the epic ‘Something Good’ and the absolutely delightful, debut single, the awesomely hipster ‘Tessellate’. For me though, take away the fact they may look like a bunch of clean cut post grads with Joe Newman’s trembling vocals slinkily rubbing up against Gwil’s sparse guitar plucking, the opening 10 seconds of ‘Breezeblocks’ alone would have been enough to secure the tracks place in this year’s top 10; add a walloping of Gus’ and Thom’s thug-step beat, juddering helicopter funk and sinister lyrics lifted straight from an art-rock reimagining of Silence of the Lambs:

“Germonline, Disinfect the scene...I’ll eat you whole”.

Something for the Cold nights...

2012-02-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

Something Old...

To be honest the fact Gomez are touring again isn’t news worthy but the forthcoming gig in April (tickets available from www.seetickets.com – see you there) has an unusual twist as they are allowing fans to pick the entire set list, which has of course, made my day! The Southport indie 4 piece Ian Ball, Tom Gray, Ben Ottewell, Olly Peacock and Blackie are highly distinguished for having three singers and four songwriters, employing traditional and electronic instruments. Their sound is versatile and evades typical music genres falling into blues, indie, alternative, rock, folk, psychedelic and experimental.

Their debut album ‘Bring it On’ won the 1998 Mercury Prize (beating Pulp, Massive Attack and the Verve), giving them much media attention in the UK and throughout the world. The album later won awards from NME, Q and a Brit nomination. 1999’s follow-up album ‘Liquid Skin’ was another brilliant piece of music but just before their third (2002) album ‘In Our Gun’ their record company was forced to downsize (however still half of the album was recorded at Abbey Road) and on the following record ‘Split the Difference’ was disbanded by Virgin/EMI. The band’s sound never really reached the heights of their debut offerings but I will always love them for a discography that includes ‘Gte Myself Arrested', ‘How We Operate’ ‘Bring it On’, ‘See the World’, ‘Rhythm and Blues Alibi’ and the awesome ‘Whippin Piccadilly’...

Something New...

Last week I got my first chance to catch Band of Skulls live for the first time as they supporting the Black Keys. The blues/ alt rock 3 piece from Southampton did not disappoint despite the hype after the success of their debut album ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey’, released exclusively on iTunes and the lead single ‘I Know What I Am’ was chosen as iTunes free single of the week, the highest form of modern promotion. Although you may not be too familiar with their name you may recognize their music as it features heavily in many US movies, TV series and games - they have gone onto support the Dead Weather, BRMC and opened for Muse.

Last year the band released ‘The Devil Takes Care Of His Own’ - the first single to be taken from their new album. The second studio album ‘Sweet Sour’ that also includes the title track and ‘Bruises’ was produced by Ian Davenport (Supergrass/ Badly Drawn Boy) and is planned for UK and European release at the end of the month (Feb 21^st).

Something Borrowed...

This weeks cover is inspired by the first UK Number 1 song that has moved me in a long while, well to be honest, more - not compelled me to smash the nearest radio. 'Somebody That I Used to Know' is a song by Belgian-Australian singer and songwriter Gotye from his third studio album 'Making Mirrors' and features Kiwi singer Kimbra. The song was written by Gotye himself, lyrically about the experiences he has had with relationships, quite contrasting on valentines eve.

The song was released into critical acclaim by music critics and a surprising success in Australia, peaking at number one in the country for eight weeks, becoming the longest running Australian song since...er...Savage Garden (I thought the Australians were cool?).

Any way this brilliant cover is by Canadian indie band Walk off the Earth. Their version is notable for the fact that they appear to use a single guitar, played simultaneously by five people using different strings and surfaces, for all the instrumentation. As of today, it has over 52 million views on YouTube so the chances are if your reading my blog you will already have seen it. Nevertheless, enjoy...

Something Blue...

Happy Mondays fill this weeks’ ‘Something Blue’ slot after they announced, yet another comeback to pay off their dealers. Salford’s finest Shaun Ryder and Bez take to the stage once work but it really is luck of the draw what you will witness on the day dependant on whether their on uppers or downers...luckily I had a rare opportunity to see Shaun perform at a local festival Chester Rocks last year and he was on top form. On their day they are utterly brilliant and back catalogue speaks for itself but when they are bad they are aweful.

The 2^nd and 3^rd album 88’s ‘Bummed’ and 1990s ‘Pills n’ Thrills and Bellyaches’ (produced by Paul Oakenfold) are reknown by many as definitive classic albums of the Madchester generation. Fusing house/ northern soul and aspects of funk it spawned the singles ‘Step On’ and the anthem ‘Kinky Afro’ both of which reached top 5 in the UK...

...Back, Sack and Jack (White)

2012-02-03T04:50:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, ex-White Stripes man, Jack White unveiled his new solo single 'Love Interruption' online. He also revealed in a statement that he is releasing the track as a seven-inch single next Tuesday (February 7th), ahead of the release of his debut solo album 'Blunderbuss' on April 23.

The unveiling of the material comes almost a year to the day (February 2, 2011) that the White Stripes announced their official split. A statement released by the duo – which also featured White's former wife Meg – claimed that artistic differences or health issues were not the reasons for the split.

In the 12 months since the end of the band, White has kept himself busy with collaborations and production work at his Third Man Records label, working with Insane Clown Posse, Tom Jones, US comic Stephen Colbert and rapper Black Milk.

White also played US live dates with The Raconteurs, his band with Brendan Benson and The Greenhornes' Patrick and Jack. Whilst his other band, the Dead Weather– which also features The Kills' Alison Mosshart – released their second album 'Sea Of Cowards' in 2010.

Produced by White at his own Third Man Studio in Nashville, the single comes backed with non-album B-side 'Machine Gun Silhouette' – it's available for pre-order from thirdmanrecords. Speaking about the album, Jack commented that it was "An album I couldn't have released until now, I've put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name.”

Simply beautiful, enjoy...

Something for the links...

2012-01-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

Something Old...

This week’s classic anthem ‘Something Old’ is inspired by this week plugging of a new band in ‘Something Blue’. Not much need to be said really about NYC’s finest New Wave/ Avant Garde pioneers the legendry Talking Heads. Formed in 1975 when David Byrne, Frantz, Harrison and Tina Wymouth met at Design College they went onto explode into the immortality of the art rock hall of fame, often described as "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn several pop hits."

After releasing their debut album ‘Talking heads: 77’ in 1978 following a support slot with the Ramones. It was with their second album, ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’ that the band began its long-term collaboration with super producer Brian Eno; who had previously worked with David Bowie, Roxy Music and Iggy Pop. Eno's unusual style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical directions, from post punk to New Wave and Psychedelic funk, especially prevalent on 1979’s ‘Fear of Music’.

Despite a huge catalogue of massive hits including ‘Same as it ever was’ and ‘Burning down the house’ it’s the lesser known cult anthem ‘Psycho Killer’ from their debut album that makes this week cut....

Something New...

Pulled Apart by Horses aren’t a BRAND NEW band and having formed in 2007, their debut self titled album was released last year to much critical success and brought many a fan on board but was not overly commercially successful. The Leeds based alt-rock 4 piece lead by front man Tom Hudson did however have the honor of being personally invited to support Muse and Biffy Clyro on tour.

2012 is sure to be their year after a lot of hype surrounding the brilliant follow up album ‘Tough Love’ that landed on Monday (January 23^rd), playing a special BBC introducing gig tonight and are also this week’s UK iTunes featured artist. If you like lead single ‘V.E.N.O.M’ you will love the album...

Something Borrowed..

I have a huge list of new covers to blog but after driving into town for an Open mic last night I happened upon the Monkey’s latest offering from Radio 1’s live lounge. The Arctic Monkeys are no strangers to a good pop cover, most famously so with ‘Love Machine’. Nevertheless, their mashed up version took by huge surprise, I had grown tired of Alex Turner’s vocals but they have fused the modern pop/dub vocal of Katie B’s ‘On a Mission’ with the legendry (inventor of the power chord himself) Link Wray and the riff from ‘Rumble’...

Something Blue...

London based Theme Park are another highly touted four-piece and have pretensions to Talking Heads' funk-rock mantle – but fail to burn down that house. Lead vocalist/ guitarist brothers Miles and Marcus Haughton and their two school mates had a fairly successful 2011 which included a tour with Bombay Bicycle Club. This followed topping UK independent alt-rock radio charts for three consecutive weeks with their track ‘Milk’, making them the Adele of the digital broadcast scene. ‘Milk’ is their most ‘heads-like number, to an almost parodic degree but it's a bit light and polite - not that David Byrne et al were rock monsters but you see what I mean. I’d throw Vampire Weekend into the mix if you were looking for a similar sound but although tunefully brilliant they lack the edge that VW have.

Strangely though, I can’t help but love Theme Park and find myself listening to their unique sound regularly, in the middle of the day, best described as “a transient tone that regularly alters texture” if I had my pretentious head on. The last official single ‘A Mountain We Love’ isn't half bad but it’s this song that drew my attention when I caught my first glimpse of the bands on a late night Channel 4 TV show; this is 'Wax', enjoy...

Something for the Metal...

2012-01-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

This weeks metal special is inspired by the news that At.the.Drive.In and Refused last week announced their reunion for the awesome Coachella festival alongside the Black Keys and Radiohead amongst many others.

Something Old...

This weeks’ ‘Something Old’ focuses on the former, Texas’ finest post hardcore outfit At.the.Drive.In Formed in 93 they were famed for their extremely energetic stage shows which hearkened back to the 80s hardcore scene, they were recognized for their blend of surrealistic lyrics, unorthodox guitar melodies and unpredictable shifts in tempo and rhythm. The band broke up following breakthrough success, with Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez starting the awesome prog metal outfit Mars Volta and the other members, Ward, Hinojos and Tony Hajjar starting the more traditional Sparta. Hinojos would then leave to join the Mars Volta from 2005.

Recording for their brilliant breakthrough album ‘Relationship of Command’ was done over a seven week period and features the legendry Iggy Pop with minor parts on a couple of tracks. The album was released in late 2000 to critical acclaim and catapulted them into the mainstream musical spotlight...

"¡ ATTENTION ! To whom it may concern: THIS STATION IS...NOW...OPERATIONAL"

Something New...

I have been meaning to get a spot for these guys on #bearmusic for quite a while now; this week’s metal special provided such a springboard of opportunity. I first heard about the lads through my mate from uni @RockWhore85; as they are her fellas band.

Overspill are currently recording their debut studio album, sorting US gig dates and will soon announce a string of European summer festivals and I for one will be sure to check em out, if the lads can drink as much as Lou I know it’ll be a top night! After a storming performance in Camden last week they are set to play Liverpool’s Lomax on the 28th, Indigo in Manchester on Feb 3^rd and Blackpool in March with many more gigs to be announced shortly. To keep up with latest happening make sure to follow them on twitter (@overspillmusic) and facebook (/overspillmusic).

Having made a huge impact in Liverpool, up and down the UK and even Germany where they have been going down a storm. With well written, highly infectious songs and the talent and presencion of the lads along with superb reviews and a lot of industry interest it’s no wonder fans are chomping at the bit for the next gig. The lads have enjoyed press and airplay from everything from university radio right thru to American radio, appearances on Channel 4, Sky and randomly MTV Asia. This band is definitely one to watch for 2012. They draw their influences from Audioslave, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stoneage thru to early Sabbath, as can be seen in this awesome track ‘My Peeling Skin’...

My Peeling Skin

Something Borrowed...

For a metal special no other cover comes close to 'Hurt', originally written and performed by the genius of metal Trent Reznor; it was first released on Nine Ince Nails’ 94 album ‘The Downward Spiral’. In 2002 it was famously covered by the man in black himself, the legendry Johnny Cash as his swansong. To critical acclaim, it was Cash's final hit releases before his death. Its accompanying video, featuring images from his life was named the best video of the year by the Grammy Awards and best video of all time by NME last year

The meaning of the track is disputed; some listeners say the song acts like a suicide note with notes on depression, whilst others may find it to describe someone finding a reason to live. Officially, the song talks about differences between society and self harm. Never the less its truly a beautiful tragedy and musical up there with the greats....

Something Blue...

Swedish hardcore punk Refused formed in 91 and released five EPs and three albums over a fiery, short lived career before splitting up in 98. Although firey, they burn bright and went out with a bang, RockSound and Kerrang! both place their definitive album ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ in their top 10 Most Influential Albums Of All Time list. The band comprises of vocalist Lyzen, guitarist Bannstrom, bassist Steen and drummer Sandstrom and together their lyrics were often of a non-conformist and politically far-left nature

The bands brake up is sighted by many as a result of a depletion of creative energy and band members wanting different things. There was a clear conflict between the front man and the rest of the band, stating they were emotionally devastated and that their final tour was an awful experience before they eventually cancelled the tour and announced their split. Their last performance of their US tour was played in a friend's basement but was shut down by police, however, they are back, this is 'new noise' and remember...

"REFUSED ARE’NT F*CKING DEAD!”

Something for New Year...

2012-01-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

#bearmusic albums of 2011

Happy New Year everyone, 2011 was a brilliant first year for my blog highlights of which include seeing the Flaming Lips and OKGO play next to giant telescope, feedback on my blog from my two favorite DJs Zane Lowe and Lauren Laverne, Jape's Richie Egan and also mercury prize nominees, the brilliant Everything Everything and the genius ghostpoet; the later three all now follow me on twitter. So with the coming of a new year gives me an opportunity that comes but once a year for me to run through my top 10 best albums of 2011.

The year was brimming with new alt music; much of it of it from new artists but the majority from already established ones. Some good as you will see fill up my top 10 rundown but much of it was drab, predictable and damn right terrible from the likes of Elbow, the Oasis brothers much anticipated dull solo offerings and Coldplay, who never fail to disappoint. Others took me by surprise and offerings from a couple of my favourite bands from Incubus' 7th album, ironically titled 'If not now, When?' and the Arctic Monkeys' dismal 4th album 'Suck it and See' both massively failed to impress me...

Anyway on wards and upwards, heres the good sh*t...

10. The Naked And Famous - 'Passive Me, Aggressive You'

Not necessarily a band name you would want your kids googling, having outgrown New Zealand, TMAF and their debut album were my personal and also the BBC's recomendation as ones to watch for 2011. Making the final cut in fellow Kiwi Zane Lowe's In New Music We Trust and having received critical acclaim by the 'alternative' British press such as NME my opinion was in good company.

Having toured the UK and Europe this year, I missed the boat but will be certain to catch them this summer during the festival season. The album itself is utterly stunning, a classic case of ugly and beautiful, passive melodicism and aggressive innovation clash in a dazzling blaze of psych/sonic fireworks. Stand out tracks include 'Punching in a dream', 'All of This' and the beautiful 'Young Blood'...

9. Foo Fighters - 'Wasting Light'

7 is often a lucky number but in this case it is definitely true, the bands 7th album is a definite return to form from Grohl, Hawkins, Shiflet, Mendel and the returning Pat Smear. The

Foo Fighters’ seven-year itch ended up lasting the full seven years. It followed that the make-up sex was always going to be phenomenal, not strictly 100% true as the first 3 albums being fantastic but since the master piece that is 'Colour and Shape' I've hated everything they have done and been left with a feeling of "not being able to look at them during".
Grohl has made up with the spirit of Nirvana by getting Butch to produce and having Krist pop over too, but he also made peace with the white-hot, throbbing testoste-rock that had marked him out ever since his early days as Nirvana’s engine room. Recorded in Grohl’s garage it was back to basics for the lads, or more aptly middle aged men. Stand out tracks include the lead single 'Rope', 'Walk', 'Bridge Burning' and the hard hitting 'White Limo', the video for which features the legendary Lemmy in the driving seat...

8. Lykke Li - 'Wounded Ryhmes'

The first female entry in the rundown, Lykke is a godess in my eyes, a smoulder that could warm any mans heart. Her explosion of confidence and fearless experimentation form a mixing pot that is both sensual and substantially immense. Moving firmly away from her happier debut pop album this album is rich and comeplling, which bring dark and complex contradictions, but she is, thank god, still rough around the edges. The album serves as a romantic outlook past the age were such a thing is realistic, none more so than two tracks from t'other end of the spectrum on the album, the sexual 'Get Some' and the beautiful 'I Follow Rivers'...

7. Beastie Boys - 'Hot Sauce Committee Part II'

Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock may have been slogging as the kings of white boy hip hop since 1979 but they NEVER fail to impress me! This result of such an experienced career is probably the guys best album since 'Hello Nasty', it does everything you would hope it too. Something inside you overwhelms you to rekindle their epic back catalogue that is stacked with anthems from 'Fight for your right', 'Intergalactic' through to 'Sabotage'. From the latest 16 tracks its impossible so I will choose the first, lead single, and possible the music video of the year 'Make Some Noise'...

6. TV on the Radio - 'Nine Types of Light'

This album is truly an extraordinary work of art as the record and it propelled Dave Sitek’s mob one of the best bands in  the world, rather than simply one of the most revered by people in the alt community. Slingshotting straight into it after his funk solo project the sense of Sitek actually having a laugh making music – rarely present in the previous 4 albums.

For me, TVOTR have always been brilliant since I first clapped ears on them; from the debut offerings of 'Satellite' and 'Starring at the Sun' to the previous album, commercial breakthru 'Dear Science' - 'Dancing Choose', 'Golden Age' and 'Crying'.

The core of the band has been vocalist Tunde, guitarist Dave, bassist Kyp, drummer Jaleel and keyboardist Gerard Smith who sadly lost his fight with lung cancer in April last year. Stand out tracks on 9 types are pretty tough as it just works as a journey through music, each track having its own video, lead single 'Will Do' and the utterly genius 'Repetition' are two that jump out on first listen....

5. The Strokes - 'Angles'

The New Yorkers’ Casablancas, Hammond Jnr, Morreti and Valensi returned this year with their 4th album, not quite the masterpiece some had hoped for, but wait, it’s still one damn fine album!
Yes, it may not redefine a genre of generation like there debut 'Is this it?' a decade ago but some of the insanely innovative tight riffs were most definitely worth the 5 year wait since 'First impressions...'. Need I say more? Go buy it...stand out tracks include the brilliant lead singles 'Under Cover of Darkness' and 'Taken for a Fool', but for me it has to be the utterly refined, floating riffage of 'Machu Picchu'...

4. Radiohead - 'King of Limbs'

One the greatest bands in history have done it again, maybe I'm biased because Yorke is one of my all time heroes for me the album always sounds great whatever the mood. A subtle, multi-layered affair that is suprisingly low key in places, the album is essentially a 37 minute jam, carved out by artists at the top of their trade. Stand out tracks include 'Bloom', 'Mr Magpie', 'Codex' and the truely awesome 'Lotus Flower', shake your limbs like Thom...

3. Ben Howard - 'Every Kingdom'

Ben Howard is the first male solo on my list and the reason why he makes it too third in my chart is because his album is truely one epic, beautiful, inspiring piece of music in a category filled with so much rubbish. Alongside fellow singer songwriter James Vincent McMorrow (who charted for the first time this wkend) a day doesnt go by when I don't sit back and relax to their soulful vocals. The debut album from the Devon born lad features 'Old Pine' as its debut single, followed by the wonderful 'Keep Your Head Up' and the truly beautiful 'Wolves', let it take you to another world...

2. Bell X1 - Bloodless Coup

Very narrowly pipped to the top spot by an honorable late flurrish from the kings of modern blues but Bell X1 were all set to be my chart pinnacle and have featured heavily in #bearmusic this year. The soundtrack to my summer by a four minute mile, I have my gorgeous other half @I_Blame_Kate for introducing me to Paul Noonan and Dave Geraghty 4 years ago. One of the highlights of my year was when she took me to see them for my first time in November and they do not disappoint, dare I say it even better live than on record! This albums has it all from the soft ballads of 'Anna Lena' and 'Nightwatchmen' through to the addition of 'Velcro' to add to their ever growing list of anthems that include 'Tongue', 'Alphabet Soup' and 'the Great Defector' amongst others. The stand out track on the album for though has to be the genius lyrics of 'Four minute Mile', which can be summed up as an modern fable for the uninspired and unambitious much like myself...

1. The Black Keys - 'El Camino'

Words cannot describe how brilliant this album is, so good I wrote a special in its on honor the week it was released (which you can read here). I really don't need to say any more, Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney, praise be to the father of blues for your existence, every track is pure gold, another masterpiece, a more than worthy Number 1, see you in February lads...

Something for Christmas...

2011-12-24T05:57:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from me @B3ARSK1LL and all the #bearmusic collaborators throughout the year, with special thanks going out to @I_Blame_Kate, @N_C_R, @YourLastRolo, @LewisKelly and @Ambershade for all our feedback and suggestions over the blogs first year.
Here is a little festive treat in honor of you, a 5 day advent countdown featuring the coolest Christmas songs to listen to this holiday season!

The Kills' otherwise known as Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince performed this beautiful rendition of the classic Christmas carol, telling the tale of the pivotal part from the nativity. This track was recorded especially for the Queen of Indie Radio DJ, Miss Lauren Laverne and her BBC Radio 6 Music Show and it is available as a free download here, relax and enjoy....

The genius front man of the Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys has released a special 12 track EP for Christmas cunningly entitled 'the Aetheist Xmas'. Featuring a song about Christmas suicide its a parallel universe to the rest of the overly happy tripe out there, truly brilliant stuff.
The stand out track for me however is the first track, and slightly more upbeat than the aforementioned, 'Post Apocolypse Christmas' - need i say more? Wrap your ears around this....

OK, I admit it, I am one of the many that say and have said on this very blog "never touch the Smith's" but on the grounds I'm in a festive mood, I will grant this the same exception I granted Mark Ronson for his efforts. Both my idols Morrisey and Johnny Marr have publicly said they love it, so if its ok by them, its ok by me. The track features on the John Lewis Christmas advert and subsequent compilation album (can you hear the *KERCHING!*?) and to be honest any excuse to shoehorn in the Smiths into my blog its fine by me.
This is the gorgeous, 29 year old, Liverpool born singer/songwriter Amelia Warner's, better known as Slow Moving Millie's beautifully haunting cover of 'Please, Please, Please Let me get what I want', which lets be honest is way better than Muse's attempt a decade ago in 2001...

The Black Keys are in my opinion the greatest band around of the moment; to read more of my love for them click here. Even better live than on record I get a chance to see them again in early February and I literally cannot wait! I hope for your sake if you don't already own their latest masterpiece, the bands 7th album 'El Camino' released at the start of December, its either top of your Christmas list or your spending your vouchers on it come Boxing Day.
Taken from this, 'Hell of Season' is one of the stand out tracks and also very apt for the holiday season, because "in this hell of a season, gives me more of a reason to be with you..."

No alternative Christmas chart rundown would be complete without the ultimate Christmas duet. When king of cool, the musical demi-god that is David Bowie collaborated with possibly the greatest crooner of all time Bing Crosby an all time classic was born, you all know it, you all love it, "Little Drummer Boy/ Peace on Earth"...Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Something to Blur the lines...

2011-12-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

#bearmusic Christmas Special, Same format; an old song that's back in the charts, an old song that'll be new to most of you, a brand spanking new cover of an old song and a truly blue track that always brings a smile to my face...

Something Old...

Not really much needs to be said about this track as it is not only my opinion but the opinion of many including those that make frequently make it feature in Channel 4, VH1 and BBC Radio poll’s for not only top 10 Christmas tracks but also the top 10 tracks of all time. Since its original release, it has been covered by numerous artists from Sinead O’Connor, Dropkick Murphys and more recently Florence Welsh and Billy Bragg.

Never actually being Christmas number 1 in the UK (it was however in Ireland) and as will undoubtedly happen again tomorrow when the official UK Christmas number 1 is revealed, the track will almost certainly re-chart thanks to downloads. In 2009, a group was set up with the express intention of getting the single to Christmas number one. This was in response to a growing trend of X Factor finalists dominating the Christmas singles market, a parallel campaign to get RATM’s ‘Killing in the Name’ succeeded in reaching #1.
‘Fairytale of New York’, for those who havn’t already guessed is song from 1987 by the Irish group the Pogues and British singer Kirsty MacColl, who sadly passed away a few years ago in a horrible water-ski accident whilst rescuing her child. The song itself takes the form of a drunken Irish immigrant man's Christmas Eve reverie about holidays past while sleeping off a binge in New York City. After an inebriated old man also incarcerated in the jail cell sings a passage from an Irish drinking ballad. MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice, and the lyrics are sometimes bittersweet—sometimes purely bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it's our last"...

Something New...

Jape are not new to everyone but they are to me and I guess the vast majority of the UK. Irish electro rock band from Dublin that were formed as a side project by Richie Egan whilst part of Redneck Manifesto. They have released four albums to date from ‘Cosmophere’ in 2003 through to ‘Ocean of Frequency’ earlier this year.

Contrary to what the band’s name suggests Jape is in fact a solo project by singer songwriter Egan but he didn’t want wish to be considered as such in the over saturated market. I got my first chance to see him last week in Manchester whilst he supported the better half of Damien Rice’s Juniper and coincidently my favorite Irish band Bell X1. Guitarist Dave Flaherty and the lyrical genius that is Paul Noonan have a habit of selecting brilliant support acts and Jape can now add Bell X1 to a list that includes the Flaming Lips, CSS, Friendly Fires and MGMT. Jape has also taken to stage at many big European festivals including Electric Picnic, Lovebox and Glastonbury and also had an attempt foiled to get his track ‘Phil Lynnot’, dedicated to the demi-god that was Thin Lizzy’s front man to Ireland's Christmas No.1 back in 2008.

Jape's second album ‘The Monkeys in Zoo have more fun than me’ gave Egan his biggest success and contains the well-known single ‘Floating’, which enjoyed much play on late night alternative radio, and famously attracted the attention of the legendry Brendon Benson during a visit to Dublin. Benson now covers the track whilst performing live with his band the Raconteurs, as do Belgium’s finest 2manyDJs. The video for track was also nominated for Best Budget Video at the UK Music Video Awards in 08, relax and enjoy....

Something Borrowed...

The final week of 2011 will see possibly the best movie of the year released. Boxing day brings us a late present in the form of Steig Larson’s book ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ making its high profile big budget, Hollywood movie release in UK cinemas. The movie itself is the second film based on the Swedish novel of the same name (Originally "Män som hatar kvinnor", for my scandanavian readers, meaning "Men who hate women", for those who aren’t). In essence, the film follows a man's quest to find a girl who has been missing for 40 years and may have been murdered; starring James Bond himself, Chester’s finest Daniel Craig and soon to be a huge star, NYC’s Rooney Mara in the lead roles.
With a movie of such epicness the soundtrack was always going to be something special and has produced one of, if not the greatest cover of the year. Normally I would say (and hav said so many a time) to NEVER touch a Led Zep track but this pair are most definitely on the exceptions list. The amazing, coolest women in music, better known as the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O has collaborated with the genius that is Nine Inch Nails’ himself Trent Reznor to produce a master cover of ‘the Immigrant Song’...

Something Blue...

Scotland’s finest Malcolm Middleton, best known for his work with post-folk indie band Arab Strap as well as his solo career writing and producing. To date, Middleton has released five solo studio albums, with his most recent ‘Waxing Gibbous’ in 2009. His solo work was initially a side project, releasing a hand full of solo album until Arab Strap split in 2006, the album ‘A Brighter Beat’ was released the following year.
The first song on the album ‘We're All Going To Die’ reiterates exactly why I include the Something Blue... feature in my blog each week. Released as a single on 17 December it started off with odds of 1000-1 against becoming the Christmas number one - reportedly the highest odds ever quoted. But after support from social networking websites and from my teenage hero BBC Radio 1 DJ (now turned face of MOTD2) Colin Murray; the odds dropped to 9-1. Middleton was 4th favorite for Christmas number one behind Katie Melua with Eva Cassidy, Leona Lewis off of the X Factor and some other terrible X Factor winner from that year that don’t care to remember. The publicity around the single gave Middleton significant mainstream exposure for the first time in his career.

Murray started supporting the song as a response to repeated Christmas chart domination by manufactured pop acts churned out by the likes of the above. The song was, unfortunately, beaten to the top spot and only reached number 31 in the UK singles chart, with the UK Christmas number one being a cover of some tripe that was originally by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Middleton has said that, despite the song's negative-sounding title, he feels the song perfectly sums up the spirit of Christmas - the need to make the most of life while we have it...

(The Black) Keys to my Heart...

2011-12-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

The Black Keys are otherwise known as US blues rock duo vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Pat Carney. The band formed in Ohio in 2001 and as of 2011 have sold over 3 million albums. The latest album ‘El Camino’ dropped this Monday so this week’s blog is in honour of the pair...

Big Come Up/ Thickfreakness:

The band released their debut album ‘The Big Come Up’ in early 2002. The album was very successful for a new independent rock band and along with their second album, it was recorded entirely in Pat's basement on an 8-track tape recorder from the early 1980s. The band went on to release their debut album ‘Thickfreakness’ in 2003, again recorded in Carney's basement in 14 hours. The album was favoured by critics and spawning some classics including ‘Midnight in her eyes’, ‘Set You Free’, ‘Hurt Like Mine’ and an absolutely brilliant cover of Richard Berry’s ‘Have Love, Will Travel’, all of which have featured in TV series and movies from I Love you Man to School of Rock.

Rubber Factory:

The band's third album, released in 2004, by now the band gained recognition and popularity, boosting their career. Rubber Factory was recorded in abandoned factory and keep that raw blues sound. The album features singles ‘10AM Automatic’, ‘Til I Get My Way’ and the brilliant ‘Girl is on my mind’...

Magic Potion:

In 2006 their fourth album dropped; the bands first album recorded in a real studio but still keeps that familiar raw energy that won them so much plaudits. Featuring the singles ‘Strange Desire’, ‘Just got to be’ and the truly awesome riffage of ‘Your Touch’ which later featured on to the zom/com classic Zombieland

Attack & Release:

The bands fifth album, produced by the legendry Danger Mouse it was leaked onto the net prior to release but still charted in top 10 upon its 2008 release. The album is still very blues but begins to make the bridge into a more commercial sound and thus a wider audience, but yet still remaining truly brilliant. Stand out tracks from the album ‘Strange Times’, ‘Lies’ and possibly the best song of that year ‘I Got Mine’...

Brothers:

Released in 2010, featured15 track listing was a further push to a wider audience the album got the band nominated for 5 Grammys, including Best Rock Song and Best Alternative Album, winning 2. Featuring the amazing ‘Next Girl’ and ‘Howlin' for You’ which an cool as chuff Rodrigues/ Desperado inspired vid. The track I'm gonna pick though is the truly blissful ‘Tighten Up’ which yet another brilliant video...

El Camino:

The Black Keys began recording for their seventh studio album in March this year, reportedly recorded in Dan's new studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Stand out tracks from the album have got to be the lead single ‘Lonely Boy’ alongside, ‘Little Black Submarines’, 'Run Right Back' and the fantastic ‘Dead and Gone', bringing us full circle. Roll on February next year when me and the mrs get to see them live again and taste that sweet sweet live blues in our ears...

*RANDOM FACT ALERT*

The bands name comes from a schizophrenic artist Alfred McMoore that the pair knew; he would leave incoherent messages on their answering machines referring to their fathers as "black keys" such as "D flat" when he was upset with them.

Something for Winter...

2011-11-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

Something Old...

Well, as it was good old thanksgiving in the US last Thursday it would be rude to not dedicate this weeks Something Old to the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. The Boss and the E Street Band are widely known for their brand of rock with poetic lyrics and Americana sentiments. Both critically, award winning and commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented work, famed for the anthemic tracks such as 'Born to Run', 'Dancing in the Dark', 'Streets of Philadelphia'. It could be no other track to some up the occasion as one of the most recognizable tracks in history. Lyrically, the song deals with the effects of the Vietnam War on Americans, although it is often misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem, 'Born in the USA'...

Something New...

This gem was introduced to me by a mate who does the low-fi camera work this band on a shoe string budget, were ideas and concept are worth more than celeb cameos or special FX. Shout out goes out to Skippy aka @littlegurier and the musician himself @bigbandghandi for their excellent work and tireless commitment in their love of music. If you enjoy this make sure to check out their you tube channel to hear more from Steven O'Brien and the Focus Group. From the stylishly shot 'Last Night at the Fair', the lyrical genius of 'Lets grow together' thru to the comic concept behind 'Doorstep' that features highlights of a cat being followed about. However for me its the witty, informed lyrics and concept behind 'Don't Really Care Anymore' that really sticks out for one of Wexford's finest local musicians.
The description reads "Nixon finds himself alone, depressed and destitute after being left by his former group of ex presidents. Rumour has it JFK got a job with the local paper whilst Jimmy Carter returned to peanut farming and Obama f*cked off to Canada after destroying the US economy"...after that, its gotta be worth a go....

Something Borrowed...

The music scene these days is filled with a plethora of less than average singer songwriters and other such x factor /karaoke-esque drivel; however there are a few gems hidden in all the rough. My two personal favorites being Ben Howard (who featured in #bearmusic back in June http://b3armusic.blogspot.com/2011/06/something-ventured) and James Vincent McMorrow (featuring in #bearmusic way back in early February http://b3armusic.blogspot.com/2011/02/something-from-emerald-isle) both which have spent much of the year touring the release of their debut albums.

This weeks cover is by the later and is a chilling cover of Steve Winwood's track 'Higher Love' by Irish folk music singer-songwriter JVM. You may recognize it from the recent Lovefilm ad but this version of the 1986 smash was recorded for the charity album 'Silver Lining' which is available on iTunes now. All proceeds of the album go to Headstrong (headstrong.ie), an Irish charity for youth mental health, sit back and let it take you on a journey....

Something Blue...

Following on from this weeks vague US thanksgiving-ness and last weeks #bearmusic 'blues special' to soften the blow, one of the greatest garage blues outfits in history. The White Stripes, otherwise known as Jack and Meg, formed in 1997 in Detroit. The pair were previously married to each other, but since divorced were instrumental on the modern Detroit music scene and led the garage rock revival. They released six brilliant, DIY, low-fi punk/ blues albums and rose to prominence in 2002. Their successful and critically acclaimed albums made them a worldwide house hold name. From their self titled debut album in 99 thru to their follow up the next year ‘De Stijl’ (Dutch for “The Style”) and then onto their commercial breakthrough in 2001 with ‘White Blood Cells’ they had set their raw sound in stone. Featuring brilliant tracks such as ‘Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me’, ‘Apple Blossom’, ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’, ‘Fell in Love with a Girl’ and the brilliant ‘Hotel Yorba’

Building on this success the pair released the massive success ‘Elephant’ in 2003 that features the more well known of their work such as ‘Seven Nation Army’, ‘I Just Don’t Know what to do with myself’ and ‘Hardest Button to Button’ alongside the brilliant ‘Black Math’, ‘Ball and Biscuit’ and ‘Hypnotize’.

They then went somewhat off piste from their original sound with the release of their 5^th, more rhythmic, arty and experimental ‘Get Behind me Satan’ in between Jack working on his Raconteurs project with the super cool Brendon Benson. The album includes the tracks ‘Blue Orchard’, ‘My Doorbell’, ‘The Denial Twist’, ‘Little Ghost’ , my favourite track by the band ‘Take, Take, Take’ and for this reason it’s this album that will always be my favourite by the band.

The White Stripes' sixth and final album ‘Icky Thump’ was released in 2007 and the band returned their garage blues roots with the title track, ‘Effect and Cause’ and the Hispanic influenced ‘Conquest’.

Late that year the pair announced the cancelled their UK tour dates due to Meg's suffering from anxiety problems and the duo cancelled their remaining 2007 tour dates. Luckily, you can still hear Jack playing in his latest super band the Dead Weather, that features the Kills’ Alison Mosshart amongst others.

As usual a break from the norm, I'm going to confuse you by choosing another track not by the White Stripes but one that shows off Jack White's true genius that led him to be chosen to pen and perform the song for the last James Bond movie. Taken from the Raconteurs second and final album 'Consolers of the Lonely', this is 'Salute your Solution', I salute you Jack...

Something for the Blues...

2011-11-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

As I hit 27 on Wednesday, this weeks blog is in dedication to some heroes that fell too early; not the best known of club 27, namely Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain but this will focus on some of the people who inspired them and were inspired by them, the original rock n roll; blues...

Something Old...

Taste were an Irish blues band formed in 1966 and gained fame in large part because of their unique style and the talent and charisma of the bands founder songwriter. One of, if not the greatest guitarists of all time, the legendary...Rory Gallagher, who sadly passed away in 95,aged only 47 following complications after a liver transplant.

The band, a power trio also moved on to make history as one of the first acts to perform on TV. Only really producing one album, that was originally self titled, then rehashed and repacked as 'On the Boards'. It contains some beautiful blues and if you love alternative music in any form you MUST hear it. The tracks 'Railway and Gun', 'It's Happened Before, It'll Happen Again' and 'If the Day Was Any Longer' are all standout but it was this track that I fell in love with after my old man first introduced me to Rory, 'Whats Going on'...

Something New...

Danny Bryant is better known as front man of the Red eye Band (featuring his father Ken on bass and Trevor Barr on drums), the vocalist and guitarist Bryant has proved himself as one of the hottest young players on the modern blues scene.

Having turned pro at the age of 18 Danny has played on bills with the likes of Buddy Guy, Fleetwood Mac legend Peter Green and Joe Cocker.

The band’s latest album 'Just As I Am' features eight new original songs written by Danny and a cover of John Hiatt’s Master of Disaster. You can preview the album of the band’s website (www.redeyeband.co.uk). It’s righteous stuff.

Something Borrowed...

Needing no introduction, one of, and in my opinion THE greatest cover of all time; 'All Along the Watchtower'. Originally written and recorded by the legendary Bob Dylan, initially appeared on his 1967 album 'John Wesley Harding'. Covered by numerous artists in various genres the track is essentially a blues rock number and none more so as identified with Jimi Hendrix's interpretation on 'Electric Ladyland' released only six months after Dylan's original...

Something Blue...

The originator of Blues is the only man that could make a Blues special 'Something Blue'. Robert Johnson made his landmark recordings from 1936–37 displaying mastery of a superb combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. His records sold poorly during his lifetime, and it was only after the first reissue of his recordings on LP in 61 that his work reached a wider audience. Johnson is now recognized as a master of the blues and went onto be credited by many rock musicians as an important influence; Eric Clapton called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived".

His shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend, including a myth that a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi was branded with a burning desire to become a great musician. He was "instructed" to take his guitar to a crossroad at midnight were he was met by a large black man (the devil) who took the guitar and tuned it. The "Devil" played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. This was in effect, a deal with the devil. In exchange for his soul, Robert Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous..

Something for the dark nights....

2011-11-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

Something Old...

This weeks ‘Something Old’ is dedicated to my lovely mum, not only because it was her birthday this week but it gives me an excuse to sneak this classic into my blog. The list is almost endless of bands I could've chosen that she played when I was a child and somewhat influenced by musical taste. Obviously I was hugely influenced by classic crossover bands both her and my old man love from Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd and the Who. However, it was the more leftfield that became ingrained into me, having brought me up listening to huge variety of artists from Fleetwood Mac, thru Stevie Wonder to Tina Turner...

Yes achieved worldwide success with their prog rock, art and symbolic style and are regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre. Known best for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, and elaborate album art no less than 16 musicians have been a part of the group's line-up, including the king of mullets himself Rick Wakeman (session musician toT Rex, David Bowie and Elton John). Formed in 1968 Yes went onto release 14 albums that have sold over 50 million worldwide. They have a huge back catalogue but my choice comes from their 1983 best selling, and best known album ‘90125’ after the band reformed and adopted a more commercial sound releasing the number one smash ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart.

The track itself is now legendry in its own right and has been sampled by many artists from Frank Zappa thru to modern indie outfit Grizzly Bear. According to the Roots’Questlove it was this song that contained the first use of a sample as a break beat as opposed to a sound effect...

Something New...

Myself and my better half @I_Blame_Kate have been lucky enough to land Black Keys tickets for early next year; probably our favorite band and undeniable one the greatest bands around, the Ohio two piece make some seriously fantastic blues. Otherwise known as vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney, are due to release their seventh studio album 'El Camino' on December 6th. Expect to see a Black Keys special blog that week featuring the 2nd single 'Run Right Back' after the video drops but in the mean time I will leave you with the album's lead single, 'Lonely Boy' and its truly geniusly simplistic video....

Something Borrowed...

The Boss Hoss are a band from Berlin, founded in 2004 with Country & Western style blue grass covers of pop tracks such as OutKast's 'Hey Ya', Britney Spears' 'Toxic' and Nelly's 'Hot in Herre'. They incorporate stereotypical American cowboy behavior into their act wearing stetsons, tank tops, big shades, drinking whiskey and generally yelling "Yeeeeehaw!". The band refers to their music style as "Country Trash Punk Rock" and you may recognize their unique style, as featured on the latest V05 advert with a cover of Cameo's 80's smash 'Word Up'...

Something Blue...

Incubus sneak into this weeks 'Something Blue' based purely on the fact that I went to see them this week in Manchester making it the 5th time I had seen the boys. However negative my feelings for the new album 'If not now, when?' are (as explained in detail in: something for granted) I bit the bullet and crossed my fingers that they would play a fair amount of their old skool material as they are one of my favorite bands of all time (explained at length in a band special: are you in(cubus)). I can confirm that they didn't disappoint and mid set dropped the utterally brilliant 'Vitamin' from 'S.C.I.E.N.C.E' and came back on for their encore with a blistering version of 'Certain Shade of Green', enjoy...

Something for Halloween...

2011-10-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

Forget Michael Jackon's 'Thriller' or the 'Monster Mash' this is bearmusic's top 5 tracks you have to listen to on old hallow's eve, especially tailored for people who actually like music...

No#5: Scarecrow

Narrowly ousting many brilliant tracks including British Sea Power's 'No Lucifer', the Dead Weather's 'Hang me from the heavens', ACDC 'Highway to Hell' and Jamie T 'Hocus Pocus'; its Beck's haunting harmonica that wins though. Taken from his classic 2005 album 'Guero' that includes one of the best guitar riffs of the millennium 'E-Pro' its the lesser known track 'Scarecrow' that gets the nod to start off the top 5

No#4: Poltergeist

No Halloween chart would be complete without a track from the awesome Mars Volta; from there debut album following atthedrivein split when guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala began there prog rock/ jazz fusion outfit they have become infamous for their ryhtmic math rock complexity. The debut album features RHCP's Flea on bass and was produced by the legendry Rick Rubin. 'De-Loused in the Comatorium' is a unified work of speculative fiction telling the 1st person story of a drug-induced coma, battling the evil side of the mind. Although lyrically obscure the debut single 'Inertiatic ESP' (and its intro track 'Son et Lumiere') the title mixes the physical state of inertia and a short Ectopic Shapeshfting Penance-propulsion...spooky stuff

No#3: Zombies

From the band that, in my eyes can literally do no wrong, number 3 on the countdown is the high tempo 'Bodysnatchers' taken from one of the greatest albums of the millennium, 'In Rainbows' (probably the best album since their own masterworks of 'the Bends' and 'OK Computer'...to read my thoughts on the band click here). Anyway Radiohead rimming aside, this track is beautifully haunting and was used as a promo for the album...

No#2: Satan

The penultimate track isn't just a Halloween song but the devil's own anthem, both epic and haunting in its lyrical depth and musical arrangement of the full orchestral strings over the raw Biffy Clyro energy with rising choir vocals this track is truly awesome and the intro is one of the best of this millennium. Taken from Biffy's commercial breakthrough album 'Puzzle' this is 'Living is a Problem (Because everything dies)'...

No#1: Vampires

Not only does this song qualify as the ultimate Halloween tune for the sheer brilliance of the track itself but the bands name as well conjures up all of what the day represents. I was lucky enough to see the Smashing Pumpkins at Reading festival a few years back and can confirm front man Billy Corgan's still got it, developing into somewhat of a comic book bad guy over the years which only adds to the bands live show appeal.

Taken from their best known album 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' that also features the huge '1979', 'Zero' and 'Tonight'; the chosen track is easily my favorite by the band - 'Bullet with Butterfly wings'. From the opening acapella line "The world is vampire, set to draiiiiiiiiiin" its grips you and the song takes flight...

Something for the Dirty South...

2011-10-23T03:30:00.000-07:00

A lot of brilliant music has originated from the south of the US over the years. From Blues thru Tamla Motown then in more recent years modern exports include massive acts who tap into this source such as awesome the Black Keys and the White Stripes. The later was the birth of the genius that is Jack White who went on to work on other projects such as the Raconteurs and the brilliant Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart from the Kills...

Something Old...

The Dirty South is these days a term given to describe the modern drudge of awefully bad hip hop from comes from that region of the world that has spawned one of the worst music to ever be made Crunk...somewere between EuroPop and Trance on the crap list.
However, it must be noted the reason the genre took off was on the back of one the last great hip hop acts. By the late 90s Atlanta had become a controlling city in the hip hop movement spawning the utterly brilliant OutKast. The duo of Big Boi and Andre 3000 became the first southerners to record album sales like the powerhouse rappers on the East and West Coasts winning six Grammies for their album 'Speakerboxx/Love Below' and they will forever be credited/ blamed with playing an enormous part in bringing Southern hip hop to the popularity level it has reached today.
The group's original musical style was a mixture of funk, soul, rock, blues and spoken word elements of the musical palette. For me their best work came in the form of the pair's fourth album, 2000's 'Stankonia'; spawning the brilliant tracks 'Ms. Jackson' that combined a pop hook with lyrics about divorce and relationship breakups, particularly André's breakup with singer Erykah Badu, the title "Ms. Jackson" character being a doppelganger for her mother. Their finest track has got to be track 'B.O.B (Bombs Over Baghdad)', a high-tempo jungle-influenced with brilliant anti-war undertones...

Something New...

As suggested by 'finger on the pulse' DJ mate of mine @yourlastrolo this weeks 'Something New' comes from P Money. Touted by many as the next Dizzee Rascal he is a grime MC from the 'Dirty South' London, well known on the dubstep scene for his style of MCing which is centered around reload bars. Anyway, I'm not really not that cool and I'd be lying if I said I understood this scene but I when I heard him in Rolo's car his fresh vocals over a raw industrial grime beat got me. This is 'Originator' and I'm assured "its gonna go off", whatever that means...

Something Borrowed...

As suggested by regular contributor to the 'Something Borrowed' feature, my mate and resident remix DJ @N_C_R; this weeks brilliant cover is by The Civil Wars. The singer songwriter duo otherwise known as Joy Williams and John Paul White are not only beautiful to eyes but also to the ears. Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee their debut album 'Barton Hollow' is a fantastic listen, selling 25,000 copies in its first week. The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Digital Album Chart and No. 12 on the h'actual top 100 chart, definitely worth a purchase. Taken from Later this is a truely beautiful and raw version of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'....

Something Blue...

Now the British weather has seemingly begun to take its evil grip on the nation its officially time to cuddle up with your loved one in front of a log fire (or in my case a radiator and a duvet) to enjoy a DVD or a boxset. With Halloween only a week away we see the return of the epic The Walking Dead. The graphic novel inspired drama’s second season aired last Sunday in the US.

Me and the other half have taken the most of the wait and finally got round to watching True Blood for the 1^st time. Originally we had it put off as it sounded like another terrible Twilight clone (not that I can even stand that anyway...real vampires should be more like Blade) but its actually brilliant; filled with sex, murder and adult content...yea I know this is a music blog not a DVD box set review but its cold outside ok and I’m rambling!

Tedious a link as ever; as heavily featured in the 1^st series of the brilliant True Blood southern rocks finest Lynyrd Skynyrd. Originating from Florida in 64 the band became prominent in the south US by 73 and rose to worldwide recognition with a back catalogue that now included ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Free Bird’.

The track of choice, however, is ‘That Smell’ taken from the album ‘Street Survivors’. At the time the song was written, the band had been drinking and doing many different drugs. Front man, Van Zant had said that he started drinking heavily to relieve the pressure of performing in front of large audiences and he said, "I had a creepy feeling things were going against us, so I thought I'd write a morbid song (as a warning).” The lyrics cautioned that "tomorrow might not be here for you", and that "the smell of death surrounds you". Three days after the album was released, the band was devastated by a plane crash killing several members including Van Zant...

Something Else...

2011-10-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

With the nights growing colder and darker all we are left with on the TV is X-Factor dominating prime time weekend viewing amongst the plethora of other terrible throw away reality shows on the box. Whilst the radio waves are brimming with awful disposable satanic pop (with added key change) from the reality offspring such as Matt Cardel, One Direction and other equally diabolic noise that makes you want to wrap yourself around a lamppost on the daily commute...Its time to remind the world of dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip.

The hip-hop duo that combine electronic beats with spoken word and intelligent catchy sung chorus. With a name inspired by an intentional misspelling of the Edward Lear poem Scroob and Le Sac take a very wide spectrum of influence from Gil Scott Heron thru to Mogwai. The pair shot to fame in 2008 with their genius debut single ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ and the brilliant album ‘Angles’ before they followed up there debut album with their last single ‘Get Better’ and the album ‘The Logic of Chance’ in 2010.

The debut album includes many brilliant tracks other than ‘Thou Shalt...’, including the moving title track ‘Angles’, the catchy ‘The Beat that my heart skipped’, ‘Look for the woman’ and the track ‘Fixed’ which samples Dizee Rascal and takes a satirical view on the modern hip hop. The track that makes this weeks cut is another track from the debut album. In 2007, still unsigned, they used self promo and the duo created and posted a spoof video on YouTube auditioning for X Factor in front of Simon Cowell et al. The montage of clips of judges' comments are added to their profanity-laden performance of ‘It Ain't No Fun’ by Snoop Dogg. The duo then used this hype as springboard and released a free download of the genius ‘Letter From God To Man’ which includes a sample of Radiohead’s ‘Planet Telex’...

Something New…

“From the mystical, unGoogleable beyond comes a brand new collaboration in the form of Pyyramids”, the duo of OK Go’s Tim Nordwind and singer Drea Smith. “Living in the dark, atmospheric grotto midway between the dance floor and the mopey teenage bedroom of the mind”, their six-song debut ‘Human Beings’ will be available on October 31^st
The band is a reinvention for both players and steps into new, wild territory. For the guy with the bass, beard, and glasses in OK Go, the new expansive textures find him far from the bright indie pop and all-inclusive videos that have made them one of the most recognizable of the digital age. Whilst for Smith, formerly the saucy half of the electro-pop duo He Say She Say - and a stint with Lupe Fiasco - it brings her songwriting into a place of bold new maturity without sacrificing the force of her singular presence. For both, it is an unlikely partnership entirely befitting of the new age.

If you enjoy the alt-rock tension of ‘That Ain’t Right’ you will buy into the promise from the official website that their future is “an inviting one indeed, a long-promised map back to the buried valley of the dance-rock hook”, unfortunately they are so f f fresh their first gig isn't until next week and thus no YouTube vids are available yet so this will have to suffice...

http://soundcloud.com/pyyramids/that-aint-right

Something Borrowed…

Bell X1 have in the last 3 years become one of favourite bands in the world after being introduced to them by better half @I_Blame_Kate. The Irish band from Kildare formed from the ashes of Damien Rice’s 90’s band Juniper have since gone on to release five critically acclaimed albums, including there latest work my album of the year ‘Bloodless Coup’ that includes the tracks the smash hit single ‘Velcro’ the moving ‘Nightwatchman’ and probably my favourite track by the band ‘4 Minute Mile’.

Paul Noonan, drummer turned front man is up there on my list of musical heroes and this week he posted a cover onto the bands facebook. ‘Manic Monday’ was originally written by Prince in 1984 and recorded by the Bangles in 1987, in dedication to my beautiful other half and her ear for brilliant ear for music....

Something Blue...

In homage to the sad news that former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was found dead this week after tweeting in September "dreamt i died in chicago next weekend...”, I take a quick look back through another one of the bands that shaped my youth and were pivotal in making geek chic cool again.

Led by the king of geeks Rivers Cuomo, who famously got one over on king of goths Marilyn Manson back in 90s by stealing his girlfriend, the band had a very humble beginning opening for Keanu Reeves’ band ‘Dogstar’...9 albums later they are one of the most influential and successful groups on the planet.

They are probably best known for their successful singles ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘Say It Ain’t So’ and ‘Undone (the sweater song)’ from the absolutely brilliant self titled debut ‘(the Blue)’ album that also carries the brilliant ‘My Name is Jonas’, ‘Holiday’, ‘No One else’ and the epic ‘Only in Dreams’.

Weezer's second album weighed heavy on their shoulders and ‘Pinkerton’ inevitably, buckled to the weight of critical and commercial pressure and became a cult success, spawning tracks such as ‘El Scorcho’ and ‘Pink Triangle’ before the band went on a hiatus that would take them to the next millenium.

It was following this hiatus in which the band would find Mikey Welsh and recruited him as their new bassist. In 2001 they were back to their best form again and produced their 3^rd yet again self titled ‘(the Green)’ album that includes the brilliant ‘Hash Pipe’ and ‘Island in the Sun’. Following the albums release, Welsh left the band and was checked into a psychiatric hospital before being replaced.

The band took an experimental approach for the recording process of their fourth album by listening to fans feedback, this process was something of a failure, as the fans did not supply them with coherent, constructive advice. Highlights from ‘Maladroit’ however do include ‘Dope Nose’ and the catchy ‘Keep Fishin’. The bands 5^th album ‘Make Believe’ was more of a push back to bands traditional sound and includes the smash hit ‘Beverley Hills’ and my favourite track by the band ‘We Are All on Drugs’.

The band then released there 6^th album in 2008, again self titled, ‘(the Red)’ album is, as far as I’m concerned their last album worth buying. Much more experimental sounding it includes the brilliant upbeat tracks ‘Pork and Beans’ and ‘Troublemaker’. Following this Weezer released 3 rather poor excuses for albums in ‘Raditude’, ‘Hurley’ (named after a character from Lost) and a compilation of rare and unreleased songs ‘Death to False Metal’.

Anyway in honour of the late Mikey Welsh this is ‘Hash Pipe’, “wooaoooooh”...

Something from the Heart...

2011-10-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

This weeks ‘Something Blue’ was a last minute change of plan due to the sad death of a legendry musician Bert Jansch, thus the news that Bloc Party are auditioning for a new singer following (an alleged) fallout that pushes the band into the ‘Something Old’ category.

The 4 piece made up of genius lyricist and front man Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and the phenomenal drummer Matt Tong draw influence from three of my favourite bands the Cure, the Smiths and Radiohead amongst others. Formed in 1999 after meeting at Reading festival it wasn’t until 2005 when they released the absolutely brilliant debut, platinum selling, critically acclaimed album ‘Silent Alarm’.

Kele supplied the vocals for the Chemical Brothers ‘Believe’ and the band released a follow up track ‘Two more years’ that bridged the gap before they built on this success in 2007 with the release of ‘A Weekend in the City’. The 2^nd album features the brilliant tracks ‘Song for clay’, ‘the Prayer’, ‘I Still Remember’, ‘Hunting for witches’ and a step into electronic with ‘Flux’.

Their 3^rd work ‘Intimicy’ followed the next year in which they worked with producer Jacknife Lee and the features the awesome ‘Mercury’, ‘Talons’ and ‘Ares’ the band have been on hiatus ever since 2009 to focus on side projects.

For me though the bands defining album is their debut, along with the Cribs and the Black Keys they filled my soul with the riffs I needed in the wake of the Libertines split. The album is and always will be one of favourite ever made, every track faultless and includes the quite frankly genius ‘Banquet’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘This modern love’, ‘Pioneers’, ‘Price of Gasoline’, ‘Shes Hearing Voices’ and my favourite track ‘Like Eating Glass’...

Something New...

This probably isn’t Something New to most of you but I don’t watch that much TV so it was for me until it they were pushed my way by @Bowerthe5thKing. The Heavy are a British neo soul/ indie outfit from Bath that you may not be aware of and are made up of two core members guitarist Dan Taylor and vocalist Kelvin Swaby.

They released their debut single ‘That Kind of Man’ in 2007 before signing to the Ninja Tune label and releasing there debut album ‘Great Vengeance and Furious Fire’. Not having much success in the UK they are quite the opposite in the US. Their 2^nd, last and best known album is 2009’s ‘the House that Dirt Built’ and features the tracks ‘No Time’ and ‘How You Like Me Now?’ which you’ll recognise from a TV advert, various series and movie soundtracks, US readers as it was 2010’s Superbowl theme. Despite this its another track from the album that I’m choosing this week, ‘Short Change Hero’ as used for various games, movies, promo ads and a credits for various US series, enjoy...

Something Borrowed...

The original is taken from the bands biggest album, known as the black album which has now sold over 22 million worldwide and is credited as the bands springboard for success. Also containg the tracks ‘The Unforgiven’, ‘Sad but True’ and ‘Nothing else Matters’

This probably isn’t what you expected when I said last week that I would get back to my metal roots but nerveless, as suggested by regular contributor @N_C_R a brilliant cover of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ by a load of 8 year olds...

Something Blue...

This weeks Something Blue is in memory of a true genius that passed away yesterday, the man who to one many “made put down my plectrum and use my fingers like a real man” R.I.P Bert Jansch, a true musical hero.
The Glasgow born, 68 year old was a legend on the folk circuit and is reknown as the leading figure in the folk revival, he may not be very well known to the main stream but his influence goes deep. He came to prominence in the 60’s as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist, but also as a singer and songwriter. He recorded 25 studio albums and has toured extensively, even up until this year. His work influenced so many artists that I class as my heroes including Paul Simon, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Jimmy Page, Nick Drake and Graham Coxon amongst many, many more

His best known work is his 3^rd album ‘Jack Orion’ which quickly followed his 1^st two albums and contains the 1^st recording of the track ‘Blackwaterside’, which would later be taken up by Jimmy Page and recorded as a Led Zepplin’s ‘Black Mountain Side’, Jansch was never credited but its clear for anyone with ears that its an identical arrangement...

Something Bizarre...

2011-09-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

In homage to Britain’s bizarre weather that has had been blathering on about as “an Indian Summer”, which roughly translated means “it’s pretty hot for September” this weeks ‘Something Old’ comes from one of the bands that shaped my youth.

Kula Shaker are a British psychedelic rock band led by outspoken front man Crispian Mills. They came to prominence during the post Britpop era of the late 90’s and had great commercial success with the brilliant ‘Tattya’, ‘Hey Dude and an awesome indie-spin cover of Deep Purple’s ‘Hush’ all from their 1996 album ‘K’.

But, of course you already knew I would choose ‘Govinda’, drawing inspiration from traditional Indian music, culture and mysticism and even includes lyrics from the Hindu sacred language, Sanskrit. The band's interest in all things Indian was inspired by a pilgrimage to India born out of a love for the Indian influences present in the music of The Beatles...

Something New...

I know what your thinking, this isn’t exactly brand new but this weeks ‘Something New...’ comes as special request of my aspiring DJ mate @yourlastrolo. As a tribute to one of his heroes, the musical genius that is the bear-esque Joe Goddard best known for his alternative dance work but he is now making a name for himself on the mainstream dance club circuit as a solo artist.

His work with Indie-tronica outfit Hot Chip on the albums ‘Coming on Strong’, ‘The Warning’, ‘Made in the Dark’ and ‘One Life Stand’ including a string of massive tracks such as ’I was a boy at School, ‘One life Stand’ and the massive smashes ‘Ready for the Floor’ and ‘Over and Over’.

He then moved on to his collaborative project The 2 Bears with Raf Rundell and amalgamates aspects of 2 step, house, hip hop and soul, this was the debut single released from there album this year ‘Bearhug EP’, this is ‘Bear Hug’ as released in June, enjoy....

Something Borrowed...

Following the dance theme, the Essex dance outfit the Prodigy also known as Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim; Along with Fatboy Slim and the Chemical brothers shaped dance music for me and I fell in love with big beat and realised dance wasn’t just industrial noise with a women moaning repetitive vocals over the top that was enjoyed by gurning chavs. Drawing influence from the rave and techno scene they packaged it in an intelligent structured form.

As I’m sure you already know some of their best tracks include ‘Charly’, ‘Out of Space’ and ‘No Good’ from their earliest two albums ‘Experience’ and ‘Jilted Generation’. This was then followed by there biggest hits such as ‘Voodoo People’, ‘Poison’, ‘Firestarter’, ‘Breathe’, the controversial ‘Smack my Bitch up’ from there best known album ‘Phat of the Land’.

I was lucky enough to see them in 98 at Reading that was the beginning of there reunion that produced ‘Baby’s got a temper’ and the album ‘Always outnumbered’ that includes the brilliant ‘Girls’, ‘Spitfire’ and my other halves favorite dance track ‘Hot ride’.

Which brings us full circle to their last album ‘Invader’s must die’ that includes the title track alongside the brilliant ‘Omen’, ‘Warrior’s Dance’ and a track ‘Run with the Wolves’ that features the Foo’s frontman Dave Grohl on drums and tediously links us into this. Prodigy’s brand spanking new, absolutely awesome remix of ‘White Limo’ taken from the Foo Fighters last album ‘Wasting Light’....

Something Blue...

I hear a lot of people whinging at me recently “why are banging on about hip hop and dance music over the last few weeks we all know your a metal head at heart”, praise be, your calls have been answered and normal service will be resumed from next week on, well actually...starting now!

Up there with my greatest albums of all time alongside Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’ and Led Zepplin ‘IV’ is this masterpiece, Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ from 1970. The first side of which includes the brilliant title track and the legendry ‘Iron Man’ alongside the truely epic, 8 minute of genius that is ‘War Pigs’. Written as an anti-war song in protest to Vietnam, G’wan Ozzy, stick it to the man...

Something Strange...

2011-09-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

This track narrowly missed out on last weeks hip hop special blog and as I promised a few of my best mates that it would feature it has pride of place this week.

Massive Attack are a trip hop duo from Bristol and over the years they have collaborated with many artists including Neheh Cherry, David Bowie, Sinead O'Connor and Everything but the Girl's Tracy Thorn. Best known for the brilliant tracks 'Unfinished Sympathy' from their 91 debut album 'Blue Lines', 'Protection' from the 2nd album of the same name and the moving 'Teardrop' taken from their best known album, the 3rd of their 5 albums, 98's 'Mezzanine'.

For me, its the track when they collaborated with the genius Mos Def for the Blade II soundtrack that will always be up there as one of my favorite hip hop/dance crossovers, the uplifting, effortlessly cool, 'I Against I'...

Something New...

Alt J (aka Triangle, aka △, aka the band who used to be called Films), like to shy away from the light lime refusing to show us their faces were possible and prefer to let the music do the talking.

The Leeds four piece look freakishly young but have this busy, intricate sound to everything they do that makes you think they're either all Mensa members or about 45 years old. Every song seems to have as many layers as possible – mainly revolving around unusual rhythms, weird jabby bits of guitar and lots of loping dub bass with a brilliant vocal – but it all ends up sounding oddly world-weary and wise. Their debut single is called 'Tessellate' contains the line "Triangles are my favourite shape", genius...

Something Borrowed...

Better late than never, as requested by myself this is my electro DJ mate Stephen Davey's mix track sampling various Mercury Prize artists. Davey is better known as Neoclassic Champion Rockers (NCR) and if you like this you can check him out on soundcloud. A regular contributor to my blog he has been doing well for himself this year after being named as one of BBC Radio Shropshire Introducing and following this he has had extensive play on Radio 1 and 6 Music.

This mix includes samples from tracks by Ghostpoet's 'Survive It', Everything Everything's brilliant 'Photoshop Handsome' and a sample from PJ Harvey's 'England' taken from her winning album all mashed up alongside James Blake, Katy B and Adele, this is, 'Come Back As Something Else'...

Something Blue...

This weeks Something Blue reflects on the sad news following R E M announcing there split this week on there website after there career spanning over 30 years (1980-2011) which is tinted with good news that they will forever be remembered for the good music they produced and not outstay there welcome, churning out rubbish like *cough* U2.

Formed by singer Michael Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck they spent years as a underground success before finally achieving mainstream success in 87 with the single ‘The One I Love’. The single is taken from the album ‘Document’ that also features the tracks ‘Welcome to the Occupation’ and ‘Exhuming McCarthy’, which were reactions to the conservative political environment of the 80s under US President Regan. The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 88 and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.

By the early 90s, when alternative rock began to experience broad mainstream success, R.E.M. was viewed as a pioneer of the genre, influencing bands from Pavement to Nirvana. They released their two most commercially successful albums whilst working with legendry producer Scott Litt, namely ‘Out of Time’ in 91 that was followed by ‘Automatic for the People’ in 92. Both of which were inspired by the feeling of turning 30, veering from the band's established sound. R.E.M.'s 1994 release, ‘Monster’ was a return to a more rock-oriented sound. By this time the band had already built up an awesome legendry catalogue of tracks including ‘Orange Crush’ from the late 80s to ‘Losing My religion’ and ‘Shiny Happy people’ from ‘Out of Time’ and ‘Drive’, the moving, smash hit ‘Everybody Hurts’ and ‘Man on the Moon’ from ‘Automatic...’, and the legendry riff ‘What’s the frequency, Kenneth’. My pick for the track of choice has got be my all time favorite REM track has to be the fast paced 'It's the End of the World (and I feel fine)' taken from there breakthru album 'Document'...

Something for Hip Hop...

2011-09-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

The Roots are one my favourite hip hop acts, hailing from the US as pioneers of alternative hip hop/ funk/ neo soul movement, the 8 piece band formed in 1987 by Tariq Trotter and Ahmir Thompson in Philadelphia, better known as front man Black Thought and drummer Questlove (who also has the best ‘fro in music). Over the years the line-up has included former world champion beat boxer Rahzel and Incubus’ basist Ben Kenney played guitar for them for 3 years. Originally known as ‘the square roots’ they brought their sound of intelligently structured, perfectly musically executed style of intellectual hip hop that stands the test of time against the mass of badly made ghettos, guns, bitches and bling RnB hip hop that fills the airwaves.

Having collaborated with a wide range of artists from Isaac Hayes to Mos Def; career highlights include ‘How I Got Over’ which reflects the relief the band felt at the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama presidency. Other notable tracks from their arsenal are the brilliant tracks ‘The next movement’, ‘You Got Me’ (featuring Erykah Badu) and ‘Here I Come’ the later featuring in the cult comedy Superbad and the utterly genius ‘The Seed 2.0’ featuring Cody Chesnutt which was featured in the movie Collateral taken and from the bands most critically acclaimed album, 2004’s ‘Phrenology’...

Something New...

Ghostpoet aka Obaro Ejimiwe is an English singer and electronic producer with definite hip hop vibe with his vocals somewhere between Maxi from Faithless and a laid back Roots Maneuver. He is known for his remixes, including Cocknbullkid’s ‘Asthma Attack’ and Birdy’s ‘Skinny Love’ but it was following the release of his brilliant debut album this February this year that propelled him to the big time.

‘Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam’ features his genius debut single ‘Cash & Carry Me Home’ and the fantastic new single ‘Liiines’. This then lead to a much deserved Mercury nomination, of which he was my favorite nominee but expectedly lost out to the uba talented PJ Harvey as she became the first person to win the award twice (to read my Mercury Prize 2011 blog click here: mercury rising) and he has since gone on to perform at Glastonbury, Sonar, Latitude, Secret Garden Party and Bestival, definitely one to watch for the future...

Something Borrowed...

Roots Manuva, otherwise known as Rodney Smith is a British rapper from South London, he is described as the voice of urban Britain, encompassing dub, reggae, funk and hip hop as it sweeps from crumbling street corners to ganja-filled dancehalls, setting gritty narratives against all manner of warped beats. His warm and recognizable voice can be heard on many songs with other artists such as DJ Shadow, Herbaliser, Gorrilaz, Sainan Supa Crew and Leftfield’s ‘Dusted’.

He was rewarded for his breakthrough with a MOBO as Best Hip Hop Act and 7 albums later he is still at the top of this game; this mash-up with indie kings Arctic Monkeys works brilliantly. The track used, ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ is probably his best known track taken from his most successful album, 2001’s ‘Run Come Save Me’ that also features the brilliant ‘Dreamy Days’. The lyrics of both the bands’ work seamlessly as they both have a distinctly British edge in both their strong accents and in lyrical references such as eating cheese on toast and drinking bitter, enjoy...

Something Blue...

Jurassic 5 were the 1^st group (along with the Beastie Boys) that made me see the other side to hip hop when I was a teenager and realize it wasn’t all guns, bitches and bling...alternative hip hop is much more up my street and delivers a much more intelligent message in both its content and lyrics.

Formed in 93 when rappers Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir and Mark 7even teamed up with two of the world’s finest DJs; Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist to form J5 and it was their debut, self titled album in 98 and 2^nd brilliant album 2000’s ‘Quality control’ were I fell in love with their intellectual, fast paced style and they will always be one of my favourite albums in history; featuring the genius tracks ‘Concrete Schoolyard’, ‘The Influence’, ‘Jayou’, ‘Improvise’, ‘Action Satisfaction’ and my favourite J5 track ‘Quality Control’. ‘Power in Numbers’ was later released in 2002 featuring the awesome ‘High Fidelity’, ‘What’s Golden’ and ‘Freedom’, this was before Cut Chemist left to pursue a solo career before the 5 remaining members of J5 went on to work with DJ Format on the awesome track 'We know Something'. J5 then went on to release their 4^th album ‘Feedback’ in 2006, featuring a collaboration with Dave Matthews Band on ‘Work it out’ which would be there final single and album proceeding the groups split in 2007 after an argument, making them perfect for this week something blue.

Something Commercial...

2011-09-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

90’s US alt rock 3 piece Semisonic are a band I’d almost forgotten about until their music was heavily involved in the plotline of a rom-com I watched with the other half over the weekend, ‘Friends with Benefits’ sandwiched between a Captain America and Hulk movie marathon. Needless to say it made the film bearable for me, even though I secretly enjoyed it truth be told...Mila Kunis is one fine piece of ass!.

Probably best known for the singles ‘Closing Time’, ‘Secret Smile’ and ‘Singing in my Sleep’ from their 1998 breakthru album ‘Feeling Strangely Fine’ or the fantastic single ‘Chemistry’ from their final album ‘All about Chemistry’ in 2001 before fading into obscurity.

For me though its there lesser known debut album, 96’s the ‘Great Divide’ that is there best work. Alongside the brilliant pop rock tracks ‘Delicious’ and ‘Down in Flames’ is the brilliant love song ‘F.N.T’, as featured in my girlfriends favourite movie “10 things I hate about you”, enjoy....

Something New...

I’m not one for buying into a band for hype that is produced following a big debut single and I tend to wait until I get a chance to hear the rest of the album before passing comment.

You will most probably recognise LA’s indie/electronic Foster the People’s debut single from various soundtracks and TV adverts such as O2. But if you haven’t I can assure you they are definitely worth a listen if you like the commercial surf rock vibe of bands like Aussie bands Temper Trap and Empire of the Sun.

The band got there break after with a standout performances on the Hype Machine and at US festival SxSW and since then have been branding with the tag as the US’s next big thing. The bands debut album ‘Torches’ was released at the end of May this year and alongside ‘Pumped up Kicks’ is the fantastic ‘Houdini’, ‘Call It What You want’ and the brilliant new single, with a fantastic max max inspired video, ‘Helena Beat’...

Something Borrowed...

I was really excited following the Vaccines debut single ‘Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’ that has vibes Ramones-esque 70’s punk meets modern pop. I was however, very put off them after hearing the moany, dreary, dare I say Coldplay/Editor’s-esque follow up single ‘Post Break Up Sex’ and therefore skipped the album ‘What did you expect from...’ when it was released in March. The album includes some top tracks such as 'If you wanna' and the brilliant 'Norgaard'.

Shooting to fame last year with the advantage of having a brother in the Horrors and showbiz links galore selling out gigs on their debut tour; to audiences that included members of White Lies and the Maccabees, it only makes sense that they would cover pop diva Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday night’, and for some reason it works...

Something Blue...

The Cure headline the last big official summer festival this weekend, Bestival; falling into this weeks something blue for 2 reasons, 1. Its rumored to be there last ever live performance and 2. I’m not going to be there :(
They are, in my opinion one of the greatest bands in music history, the band has experienced several line-up changes over the years, with front man, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member.

The Cure first began releasing music in the late 70s with its debut album ‘Three Imaginary Boys’. This album, along with the single ‘Boys don’t cry’ and ‘A forest’ from there 2^nd album, placed the band as part of the post punk new wave movement. In the 80’s they moved into a more gothic phase following the release of ‘Pornography’ in 82 and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 singles ‘Let’s Go to bed’ and ‘Love Cats’ Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music as well as a unique stage image. The Cure released thirteen studio albums and over thirty singles during the course of their career, with their popularity increasing as the 80’s wore on, helped by genius tracks such as ‘Just like Heaven’, 'In Between Days', 'Burn', 'Freakshow', 'Pictures of You', 'Friday, I’m in Love’, the haunting 'End of the World' and possibly my favourite track ever written, the beautiful 'Close to Me'...

Something for the end of the festival season...

2011-08-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

Reading festival special...

Last weekends August bank holiday is the first I havn't been at a festival of sorts since I was 15; having done London's Notting Hill Carnival and Liverpool's Matthew Street Festival the last 2 years and 9 consecutive Reading festivals previously. Thus, understandably, the Carling weekend festival at Reading/ Leeds will always hold a special place in my heart and, for me signals the end of the major festival season (yes I am aware its Bestival in a fortnight!). In previous years I have seen some of my all time heroes play there including the likes of Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Incubus, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins and the Pixies so I dedicate this weeks blog to that very festival and its infamous yellow poster...

Something Old...

NYC three piece Interpol are one of the few bands on my list of 'yet to see live before I die' alongside Radiohead and Kasabian and if the majority of these years lineup wasn't so gash I may well have ticked them off the list. Taking to main the main stage on Sunday night at Reading before Elbow and Muse. To choose a stand out track is a pretty tough decision. It could’ve been almost anything from 2002’s awesome debut ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’ such as the classics ‘Obstacle 1’, ‘PDA’ or ‘Roland’ to the 2^nd to last, but means least 07’s ‘Our love to admire’. This album includes the brilliant ‘Pioneer to the falls’, ‘Mammoth’, ‘No I in threesome’ and the anthem, ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’.

The last, self titled album released late last year really disappointed me and was very samey, truth be told with the exception of a few tracks including the single ‘Barricade’ - so I am going to choose a track from my favourite album, the stunning 2004’s ‘Antics’ featuring the anthemic ‘Slow Hands’, C’mere’ and the epic ‘Evil’, turn it up loud and unwind....

Something New...

Reading and Leeds' festival for me is always leaps and bounds ahead of most other festivals with top quality new bands on their bill (glasto aside), this year being no exception with Naked and Famous, Pulled apart by horses, the Joy Formidable, Dizraeli, Everything Everything and the brilliant Warpaint all with top slots and didn't disappoint with great live performances.
Ever since my mate Dave told me about them a few years ago, I have been in love with the LA art rock 4 piece girl band Warpaint consisting of front lady Emily, Theresa on lead, Jenny Lee on bass and Stella on drums. They released there debut album ‘The Fool’ in 2010, described by the RHCP’s Flea as a “sublime and beautiful record” and Anthony Keidis who described the band as most promising on the LA scene. The album is a joy to the earbuds and features the brilliant singles ‘Shadows’ and the awesome ‘Undertow’, enjoy...

Something Borrowed...

With both the Strokes (click to see my Strokes blog) and Pulp headlining Saturday at this years Reading, both of which who I have been lucky enough to see headline that very same stage in previous years it had to be this track that I choose as this weeks 'borrowed'. The main stage audience of around 60,000 strong were treated as Pulp's legendary front man Jarvis Cocker joined the Strokes' Julian Casablancas on stage during their set for a rare performance to cover the Cars 1978's anthem 'Just What I needed', turn it up loud....

Something Blue...

Unfortunately the sad news that what of my favorite bands Jane's Addiction were forced to cancel there Reading show at the last minute as Perry lost his voice. The band have two rock legends front man Perry Farrell and one of the worlds greatest guitarist's Dave Navarro who are always put on a awesome live show. The band thats line-up at one time included RHCP’s Flea and GnR’s Duff McKagab, their 1^st tour saw them open for Iggy Pop and the Ramones, host their own US festival Lollapalooza that has including bands such as incubus and NiN.

Its another tough one to choose a track with such a quality back catalogue dating back over 20 years including so much from the controversial ‘Mountain Song’ to the epic smash hits ‘Been Caught Stealing’, ‘Superhero’ and ‘Stop!’.

For me, though it was around the time Strays was released in 2002 when I fell in love with the band, all the sexuality/ nudity still present but without the violent side. With there live show being somewhat of a “Sexual Psycho Circus”, it only seems right to choose the bands biggest single to date ‘Just because’, for that very reason...

Something furry....

2011-08-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

It only occurred to me tonight that I had never blogged one of my favorite bands of all time Wakefield's finest, the awesome three piece, twins Gary, Ryan and their younger brother Ross Jarmin, better known as...the Cribs
It's a really tough decision choosing a track by them and it could have been - 'Another Number' from the 2004's debut, 'Hey Scenesters' from the 2005 follow up 'the New Fellas' or the non album track 'You're gonna loose us'. To the hard hitting 'We were aborted' or the beautiful 'We share the same skies' from their last album 2009's 'Ignore the Ignorant' that features my hero, the Smiths and Modest Mouse's legendary guitarist Johhny Marr.
For me personally, the song I am going to choose is taken from my favorite album of there's, 2007's 'Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever' and it could of been anything from 'Men's needs' itself, or 'Our Bovine Republic' but it has to be the track that pretty much sums me up as a person and has been my ringtone for about 4 years 'I'm a realist', "I'm a romantic, I'm an indecisive, piece of sh*t"...

Something New...

The Jiggerman maybe the most financially successfully hip hop and highest selling solo artist in history, having not only mastered the genre with his style of cool and laid back vocals on albums such as ‘the Blueprint‘ and ‘the Black album’ including tracks such ‘Izzo’, ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ ‘Big Pimpin’, ‘Encoure’ and the classic ’99 Problems’. Not content with just this, he is also Beyonce’s husband, owns his own clothing label, Rocawear, co-owns NBA’s New Jersey Nets and the former CEO of Def Jam Records but now he is out of retirement once more and he’s got his swagger back!

My other half Kate and one of her best mates Claire have been acting like regular wiggers since they first heard the album ‘Watch the Throne’ using terms like swagger, vibing and H.A.M which co-insidently is the first single from the new Jay Z and Kanye West's album. The album is very much lyrically themed around opulence, power, fame and materialization and my personal favorite track is the genius ‘Otis’ with shades of the Kanye and Jamie Foxx's hugely successful ‘Gold Digger’ collaborative. The track heavily samples from, as its title suggests, one of the godfathers of soul, Otis Redding and ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ which balances out perfectly alongside the over aggression of ‘H.A.M’...

Something Borrowed...

I almost weeped with joy from my third eye when I first saw the bands chosen for the Muppets inspired ‘Green Album’, which lands on Wednesday (August 23^rd) and will provide the soundtrack to the Muppets movie released on my birthday November 23^rd (starring my hero Animal!). Alongside the likes of the genius Ok Go and Weezer (dueting with Paramore’s Hayley Williams) are the likes of My Morning Jacket, Alkaline trio and my favourite track on the album the brilliant, Airbourne Toxic Event and their version of ‘the Wishing Song’ peppered with their genius and unique twist of LA indie, enjoy...

Something Blue....

Its’ been one of those weeks for me, a shit week in work with the end of holiday blues topped of by my beloved Everton losing their opening game of the season against newly promoted QPR...Queens of the Stone Age (QOSTA) are a band that always cheer me up when I'm feeling blue! Hailing from Palm Dessert, California, they formed in 97 from the ashes of Josh Homme’s previous band, the epic Kyuss, they developed their riff orientated style of grunge/ metal/ blues fusion.

After Homme briefly joined the Screaming Trees as their touring guitarist QOSTA were formed and released the debut EP ‘Gamma Ray’ alongside Pearl Jam/ Soundgarden legend Matt Cameron and Van Conner of the Screaming Trees.
QOSTA released their self titled debut album in 98 with Homme recording the vocals, guitar and bass and Alfredo Hernadez on the drums, before former Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri joined. It wasn’t until 2000 that they released Rated R, that includes the genius 'Feel good hit of the summer', 'Monsters in the parasol' and 'The lost art of keeping a secret'. This album was the bands real breakthrough album and at the height of the hype Mark Lanegan joined as a full time member and Oliveri was arrested in Brazil for one of his infamous naked stage appearance.
The bands rep grew to enormous levels through relentless touring and the band were joined by Nirvana / Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl as the drummer and A Perfect Circle’s Troy Van Leeuwan on the 3^rd album, 2002’s ‘Song for the Deaf’. The album was both critical and commercially successfully with the huge singles ‘No One Knows’, 'First it Giveth' and ‘Go with the Flow’ amongst brilliant tracks such as 'Hangin' Tree', 'Gonna Leave you' and my all time favorite 'You think I ain't worth a dollar, but I feel like a millionaire'...

I chose this track for 'Something Blue' as Oliveri provides lead vocal on as it seemed most fitting considering he faces 15 years in jail following a four charges of gun and drug possession. Following the bands success of SFTD Oliveri and Lanegan were fired in 2004 before they released there 4^th album and the band essentially became Homme and friends. 2005’s ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ features members of ZZ Top and Blue Oyster Cult among some brilliant tracks such as ‘Little Sister’ and 'In my head'.

The band last album ‘Era Vulgaris’ was completed in 2007 and the tracks ‘Sick, Sick, Sick’ and ‘3+7s’ were released as singles. Since the last album Homme has mentioned a new album is in progress and due for release late this year, Homme has since formed supergroup Them Crooked Vultures with Grohl and Led Zepplin’s genius bassit John Paul Jones.

...Panic on the streets of London

2011-08-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

As the riots and looting grip the nation I will answer the loud mouthed idiot Mayor of London, Boris Johnson's twitter "does anyone have batman's number?" with the words of the Stranglers' frontman Baz Warne, "No more heroes anymore".

It's times like these the country needs a real hero, someone who will really command respect and speak to the kids, with no one stepping forward other than the organizers and participants of the clean-up teams we must look further back in time for him.

Rioting:

Please step forward the Smiths and the ultimate anti-hero, Steven Patrick Morrisey with the ugly scenes of violence and rioting spreading across the length and breadth of the capital since erupting three days ago. The trouble initially flared on Saturday night following a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by police. But by the early hours of this morning a large number of London boroughs had been left devastated by the trouble from Hackney to Peckham and Ealing to Croydon were huge groups between 250-500 people gathered, torching buildings, cars and hurling petrol bombs at riot police. The most apt Smiths track containing the lyrics “oh, the devil makes work for idle hands to do, I stole and I lied because you asked me too", taken from there self titled, debut album the brilliant ‘What Difference does it make?’...

Looting:

Scores of local businesses around London have been broken into and looted by troublemakers - many of whom were wearing hoods and masks. 500 youths gathered in Peckham High Street, vandalising shops, lighting fires and targeting officers with missiles whilst Clapham also witnessed violence with looters preying on shops and causing widespread disruption. Targetting everywere from fancy dress stores near Clapham stealing masks to conceal their identities before going onto raid Debenhams, Tesco, Curries, Footlocker and in Enfield 40 fire fighters tackled a blaze at the Sony Warehouse. The Smiths track ‘Shoplifters of the world unite and takeover’, which doesn't appear on an original album but can be found on 'The World won't listen' compilation and contains the lyric which pretty much sums up the root cause of all the troubles “I was bored before I even began”...

Violence:

With violence also erupting in other cities, copycat riots taking place in Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol. From Liverpool were "a number of isolated outbreaks of disorder", including burning cars and criminal damage to West Midlands Police making 100 arrests after rioters rampaged across Birmingham city centre and surrounding areas, were hundreds of youths gathered close to the Bullring, which closed its doors early in anticipation of violence before they went on to set a police station on fire. As Morrisey predicted almost 30 years earlier “Panic on the streets of London, Panic on the street of Birmingham, I wonder to myself, would life ever be sane again?”, taken from the Smiths brilliant 3rd album 'The Queen is Dead', combining with Johnny Marr's floating riffs, the classic 'Panic'...

Something Relaxing...

2011-08-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

After spending the last week on holiday in Corfu, were they seem to think that musically all tourists love Lady Gaga and Rihanna *kill....me...now*. So, understandably, in the time I wasn't eating kebabs, smoking, drinking Mythos or cutting through the water like a buttered dolphin I was mostly chilling in the sun with my iPod on shuffle. This was a great opportunity to rediscover forgotten gems, with so many to chose from it made this weeks 'Something Old' tough, but, this song used to be a mild obsession of mine....
Jack Allsopp better known as Just Jack is thought of by many as a bit of chavvy dance/pop artist after his massively overplayed single 'Starz in their Eyes' made him a household name in 2007. There is however, a lot more to him than this, from his first album 2002's 'The Outer Marker' which features his debut single 'Snowflakes' through to his last album 2009's 'All Night Cinema' that features the brilliant 'Embers', 'The Day I Died' and 'Doctor Doctor'. However, for me track I have chosen is take from his breakthru album 'Overtones' that contains the fantastic 'Glory Days', 'Talk too much' and the awesome bassline and lyrically genius 'Writer's Block'...

Something New...

The 1st play of Kasabian's brilliant new track 'Days are Forgotten' lost its public virginity following a delivery by Serge and Tom on Zane's Radio1 show last night and its been worth the wait, the band just consistently seem to knock out great tunes.
The track is the 2nd single taken from the Leicester lads 4th studio album 'Velociraptor' that lands on September 16th; following 'Switchblade Smiles' which was made available for free download on the official website back in June...

Something Borrowed...

As made aware to me by my mate and serial bear music contributor, @N_C_R; this month marks the 10 year anniversary of the release of the Strokes debut album 'Is This It'. In homage to probably the greatest garage rock album in history, that reinvented and spread the genre to the masses a tribute album, 'stroked' has been spawned. You can download all the tracks for free by clicking on the above link.
To be honest with you most of the album isn't that great but in fairness all the tracks are remakes of the originals and not just covers, with my highlights being New Jersey Psychedelic surf pop Real Estate's version of 'Barely Legal' and Swedish Indie outfit Peter, Bjorn and John's (of 'Young Folks' fame) cover of 'Is this It', enjoy...

Something Blue...

In tribute to my good mate Sadie, who embarks on her life changing trip tomorrow cycling across Canada in aid of Help for Heroes in memory of her brother Paul (click to sponsor Sade). Also my mate Gaz from work who is currently well under way on the Mongol rally in aid of a local hospice (click to sponsor Gaz); I dedicate this weeks 'Something Blue' to both of these epic adventurers.
Taken from the soundtrack of the greatest adventure movie ever made "Into the Wild"; Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedor's epic 'Rise', you can do it guys!!! On a related note to read my Pearl jam special click here: a pearl (jam) of wisdom. Anyways, I'm off to embark on my own marathon, all 3 Lord of Rings movies sitting, alas no sponsorship will be available...

...Something Surreal

2011-07-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

Something Old...

In a week filled with such tragedy the world needs a band that will cheer you up. I got my first chance to see them this month whilst they supported the Flaming Lips, Chicago's OK Go are probably best known for their often elaborate and quirky music videos many often forget how much of a brilliant band they actually are!
Their 2002 debut, self titled album features the brilliant 'C C Cinnamon Lips', 'Don't ask me' and their breakthru single 'Get over it' which was followed by the awesome 2004 2nd album 'Oh No' that features the awesome 'A million ways', 'Do what you want' and the award winning 'Here it goes again' (yes, thats the one with the treadmill video!). My favourite album however has to be their 3rd album 'Of the Blue Colour of the Sky' released last year that includes the genius 'This Too Shall Pass', yet another genius (this time dog orientated) video for the track 'White Knuckles' and the absolutely musically beautiful 'End Love', enjoy...

Something New...

You'll probably know this track from the Kopparberg ad or from the trailer for Skins USA but you might not have heard of the band. Sleigh Bells are Broklyn based noise pop duo, songwriter/guitarist Derek Miller and vocalist Alexis Krauss. After releasing their self titled EP in 2008 they were signed to M.I.A's label before the release of their debut album 'Treats' last year. The album is packed with brilliant tracks 'Tell 'Em', 'Infinity Guitars' and the genius 'Rill Rill' alongside the infamous 'Kids'...

Something Borrowed...

This weeks cover is inspired by the death of a great vocalist. British soul singer Alice Russel (who is still very much alive and touring) provides absolutely stunning vocals on Nostalgia 77's 2007 lo-fi / soul/funk cover of the White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army', turn your bass up LOUD!!!

Something Blue...

This week has been filled with a huge amount of sad news fitting for Something Blue. With the insane nurse seemingly killing innocent patients at random at a Stockport hospital, the Oslo psycho with his bomb and mass shootings all capped off by the death of a troubled popstar. Amy Winehouse yesterday joined the ranks of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones in the infamous Club 27, leaving behind her some brilliant music before her untimely end in her Camden home caused by an E OD after a 3 day drug bender with her ex husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
Her eclectic mix of R&B, soul and Jazz powered by her brilliantly powerful voice shot her to fame in 2003 with her, critically acclaimed, Mercury nominated debut album 'Frank' that includes the brilliant 'Stronger than Me'. This was followed by the 2006, multi Grammy award winning 'Back to black', the most in fact of a female solo artist has ever won in a single ceremony, of which included, album of the year, best new artist AND song of the year. With a life troubled by so many drug, alcohol and court related problems its hard to focus on the music, but this is why, in my opinion she should be remembered. For me, as many others it would could be many a track from her brilliant 2nd album produced by the genius that is Mark Ronson such as 'Rehab', 'Back to Black', 'Love is a losing game' or the fitting 'Tears dry on their own'.
However, the track I'm going to choose is chosen, not only because its my favorite song by her but because it always cheers me up and I never seem to tire of it like her other singles such and the massively overplayed Winehouse/Ronson Zutons cover 'Valerie'. Featuring Wu Tangs' Ghostface Killah and the immortal line "I told you that I was trouble" - 'You Know I'm No good'...