While it has been widely ignored, the post Britpop / pre "The Libertines/The _____/garagey" band era was kind of a dark period in UK music. UK had just witness one of the greatest talent and musical explosions of all time in the early 90s but by the late 90s, those bands had all either broken up, started to suck or completely change their sound. During this time, bands found it hard to garner success, specially with the charts being dominated by the Spice Girls/Westlife/whatever. To put it into perspective, Stereophonics was considered one of the biggest acts from the UK [...]
The Wooden Sky ended up on the "Oops, I missed this one in 20093 list for albums that would have made the top ten list had I heard them that year with If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone . This album was followed up by, what I considered to be, a less than par EP in City of Lights . It's redemption time though. "Child of the Valley" is the lead off track for the band's 3rd studio album titled Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon [...]
John Moore's New Year Message Of Hope ! On Christmas Day, without fail the Queen bestows her wisdom on her loyal subjects and reflects back on what an idiot her husband has been. At the VPME we have gone one better and this New Years message is brought to you by the epitome of sophisticated rock n roll nobility in the shape of the recently knighted Sir John Moore ( Black Box Recorder , The Expressway, The Jesus And Mary Chain , The John Moore Rock N Roll Trio, The Idler, The Guardian ) [...]
A review of an August gig in Edinburgh featuring Cathal Coughlan & birthday boy Luke Haines.
I'm considering a move to Sweden. It's not because I've decided to start an ABBA tribute band, or since my obsession with sturdy wooden furniture has become unfathomable. It's because there seems to be a tidy assortment of artists emerging from there that are incomparable to most pop scenes. Glittering electronic pop, with glimpses into [...]
Luke Hainesin toista, viihdyttävää muistelmakirjaa Post Everything: Outsider Rock and Roll (2011) lukiessa tuli palattua jo hajonneen Black Box Recorderin tuotannon pariin ja todettua sen olevan haalistuneita muistikuvia laadukkaampaa. Yksi Hainesin kirjan huvittavimmista kertomuksista liittyy ajoittain epätoivoiseenkin hitin metsästykseen. Black Box Recorderin tyly ( "Life is unfair, kill yourself or get over it" ) debyyttisingle Child Psychology ei tuotannut odotettua suosiota, jolloin yhtyeen A&R -mies tuumi, että coverversio Althean ja Donnan vuoden 1977 hitistä Uptown Top Ranking olisi varmasti juuri sitä mitä radiokanavat ja ostava yleisö kaipaa. Ja jotta kappaleen [...]
The Elliots evade traditional Swedish pop stereotyping, exchanging key-led twinkles and exuberant string-soaked choruses for moody ambience. The strings and keys remain, as seem the Swedish custom, but are presented with bleaker and darker tones that rely more on evolving moods than receptive hooks. On their new album Love|Decay, producer Charles Storm helped the Gothenburg-based [...]
'Gathering Shadows' By Sarah Nixey. Sarah Nixey looks the very epitome of stylish, sensual English sophistication and her music is very much in the same vein. She is arguably best known for her work with the elegant, sinister musical trio Black Box Recorder , which saw her cast as the arch, coquettish ice maiden alongside John Moore (ex Jesus & Mary Chain ) and Luke Haines (former Auteurs front man.) Her femme fatale image, crystal cut vocals and perfect diction may have reduced [...]
Just a quick reminder to say that following on from the PANHEAD001 (Gemmy) and PANHEAD002 (Idle Hands special with Peverelist, Kowton, Chris Farrell and The Kelly Twins), tonight sees PANHEAD003 touching down with DJ Thinking (head of the mighty Black Box label - check the Kryptic Minds album they just released - proper) and the man they call Mensah, for that is his name. Everything kicks off from 20:00 GMT tonight on www.panhead.co.uk and both DJs are getting 90 minutes [...]
Though Sarah Nixey is British, she's a fille to boot, levitating effortlessly between the realms of innocence and lasciviousness, the subversive and the sublime. With Black Box Recorder – assisted by Luke Haines of Auteurs fame and John Moore, ex-Jesus & Marychain –, she recorded three of the smartest, though too much neglected pop CDs of the last decade. French Rock'n'Roll from Recorder's brilliant second record Facts of Life echoes the spirit of Jane & Serge, London-style, and features even a few lines in French: Black Box Recorder – French Rock'n'Roll Solo, [...]
More catching up: here's the setlist from March, when we were joined by guest DJ Ray Paul, or Eddie as his mum knows him. He added a heavy dusting of euro-synth-disco to the evening. [You may also notice the blog now has handy little players for each of the mp3s. Ooh! Aren't we hi-tech?] Dominic Fabeinne Delsoll – I'm Gonna Catch Me A Rat Alice Dona – Une Voiture Rouge Gary Numan – Cars Stereolab – Les Yper Sound Stereo Total – Heaven's In [...]
Toronto - One of my favorite bands, Black Box Recorder will be breaking up after a nice run in the early 2000s. However, they are releasing one last single before heading off into the sunset - Keep It In The Family/Do You Believe in God will be available for purchase today off Itunes or something. You can hear the stream via their myspace page . I wrote about my fondness of the band here . It's sad, but not really much of a surprise that the band broke up considering they haven't released new material in [...]
Happy St George's Day, pop chums! Black Box Recorder - England Made Me mp3 If you've never heard the England Made Me album, you really are missing out on a treat. One of the very best long players of the nineties, for me. It's a misanthropic masterpiece (and it's going cheap here ).
Shad TSOL May 25, 2010 Black Box Recordings Tracklist: 01. Intro 02. Rose Garden 03. Keep Shining 04. Lucky 1's 05. A Good Name 06. We Are The Ones (Reservoir Poetry) 07. Telephone 08. Call Waiting (Interlude) 09. Yaa I Get It 10. Listen 11. At The Same Time 12. We, Myself, and I 13. Outro Official Website MySpace Facebook Twitter We may have lost an hip hop legend to the Grim Reaper on Monday but there's still [...]
Luke Hainesin , John Mooren ja Sarah Nixeyn muodostama Black Box Recorder on päättänyt lyödä rukkaset tiskiin. Kolme studioalbumia julkaissut yhtye vietti viimeiset vuodet hiljaiseloa muutamaa live-esiintymistä lukuun ottamatta. 6. toukokuuta julkaistaan vielä kaksi viimeisintä äänitystä Keep It In The Family ja Do You Believe In God? , jotka voi käydä kuuntelemassa yhtyeen MySpacessa . Nähtäväksi jää ilmestyykö viime vuonna puheissa ollut neljäs levy ikinä vai oliko tämä sitten tässä. Mistä olikaan kyse? Black Box Recorder @ Spotify [...]
Tomorrow is International Women's Day 2010. It is, according to the event's website , "a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future". The day has been celebrated for over a hundred years and is actually a public holiday in many countries, including China, Russia, Bulgaria and Vietnam. It's not a holiday in Ireland but there are a lot of events taking place to celebrate the day, which you can read about here . The University of Limerick is hosting an International Women's Day Conference entitled "Women & Recession: [...]
I wish for snow. Proper snow. Not that just that one day of snow we had last December. I wish it would snow for the Olympics. Traffic, tons of people...and snow. It would be fun ;) Here's the recap of last week's Lyrics of the Day - "You can make everything out of anything. And you don't believe in violence" Macgyver Blues by My Little Pony "Teach me to [...]
When I started this site, one of my goals was to define what 'indie music' is. After listening to many a song from the pool of what popular culture defines as 'indie', I've come to realize that though you can't really sum up 'indie music' in terms of musical style, you can however, spot the 'indie-ness' of a certain song / band by some tell tale signs. For this week, we've got a list of indie trademarks culled from hundreds of hours of music surfing and an odd number of family and friends commenting on what the heck I've been [...]
On Monday evening, I watched Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth for the first time. This 1976 film was the fourth that Roeg directed and I had already seen and enjoyed his previous three: Performance (co-directed with Donald Cammell), Walkabout and, particularly, Don't Look Now . Another reason I wanted to see the film was because it features David Bowie in the titular role of Thomas Newton. Newton is an alien on a mission to bring water back to his dying planet. Like Roeg's previous films, it's never completely [...]
The Panic Manual
The Muse In Music
The VPME
A Town Full of Losers
Obscure Sound
katosblog.com
bass music.
Filles Sourires
L'Amour Electronique
Too Much Apple Pie
A Good Day For Airplay
The Indie Music Database
Discobelle.net
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Diplo & Usher “Climax”
Coolrunnings - Dracula Is Only The Beginning (album stream)
