At the moment, I'm reading Tom Holland's "Millennium", which concerns itself with the history of Europe from the Dark Ages through the millennium (at 1000AD, not the one nine years ago). One of the fascinating little nuggets of information that he's so good at peppering his books with was about the Viking invasion and settlement of northern England. Apparently, despite our perception that the Vikings were a smelly, rampaging horde of barbarians, they bathed once a week, wore eyeliner and took a lot of care over their hair. This, of course, made them rather popular with the [...]
One of the overriding themes of this blog is the fact that, quite frankly, I'm getting on a bit. Yeah, sure, I'm not quite reading Q or Mojo yet, but I'll be 40 in a few years and that mid-life crisis is going to start gnawing at my toes soon. If I start doing posts about my knees hurting or how I'm going to go out and buy me a Porsche, then you know it's hit me right between the eyes. In the interim I shall just do posts like these, in which I bemoan the [...]
Going to a concert whilst wearing a suit is an interesting experience, especially after previously being at a do at the Polish Embassy (yes, really). Ignoring the puzzled glances from my fellow gig-goers at the Shepherds Bush Empire, I settled into the capacity crowd, sadly not at the front. What, you think I'm going to get creases in these trousers? Mew, in case you didn't already know, are one of the most adventurous rock bands around these days. Their songs blend heartstoppingly brilliant bits with slightly more tedious bits. Their best songs blend heartstoppingly brilliant bits [...]
I still remember the fuss when Charlotte Hatherley joined boyish Irish indie-popsters Ash. "What's that girly doing up there playing guitar?" whined all the indie-boys. "Ooh, wish that was me" said all the indie-girls. "Couldn't give a shit, me, as long as she can play guitar like a mean funky devil" said I. And lo, upon seeing Ash at the Reading Festival, it was pretty bleedin' obvious that she could. Watching her lay into the riff from "Walking Barefoot" was wonderful; one of modern rock's great riffs, if flows and twists, all melody [...]
The concept of a band playing their material with a full orchestra has a long and not necessarily glorious history. When the band has songs that make the most of a full orchestra, it can work rather nicely. Think of Elbow's show this year with the BBC Concert Orchestra, or Tindersticks playing at the Bloomsbury Theatre. But just bunging strings on top of basic meat and potatoes rock just doesn't cut it, as many bands during the Britpop era discovered, to their (and our) cost. Grizzly Bear are about as far from meat and potatoes [...]
Authenticity is a funny old thing. In most musical genres you care to mention, there's always a die-hard bunch of fans who complain that these new artists aren't as good as the old ones, things were much better in the old days, blah de blah de blah. Of course, they are missing the whole point that the artists they so venerate were in fact reacting to the status quo of their own time, and were trying something new and revolutionary. Wanting new music to be like the old is just hypocrisy. Run-D.M.C. – It's Like [...]
In case you haven't already heard, Morrissey collapsed onstage during a show in Swindon last night . Here's been unwell this year - having to cancel shows due to illness - and he's currently in hospital under observation. Let's hope that whatever he is suffering from is treated quickly and that he gets better soon. For all his faults, he is an amazing lyricist and one of the most original and influential musicians of the last 30 years . He's given me countless hours of solace and joy, made me laugh and cry (sometimes [...]
Writing a music blog has its ups and downs. Sometimes, you get the feeling that every song you listen to, you're doing it to see if it will fit into the blog and you spend your time trying to find an interesting thing to say about it (and usually failing). For the worrisome types like me, that can get very wearing. But other times, you hear something new and within the first ten seconds you just think "This is special. Really, really special". I've had it in the past with the likes of Grizzly [...]
I've been resisting the temptation to write about the Pavement reunion. Resisted until now, at least, because whilst them playing shows in Austin or New York or Lamar, Nebraska is kind of interesting in a "Pavement reforming and not doing any shows in the UK? Well, that's nice" way, they've just announced a show at Brixton Academy on May 11th, 2010, which is rather more interesting for me. Some Pavement, Yesterday But serious, one show? Look chaps, when The Pixies reformed [...]
Stockholm is a truly lovely place. Beautiful buildings lie dotted around about a thousand islands, so you're never far from a bit of waterfront from which you can survey the city's glacial beauty. Snowy Stockholm And glacial it is, because it's usually fucking freezing. And between October and April, dark. Still, it gives those charming people time to hole up in front rooms, bars, cellars, and anywhere else where you can play guitar and drums and keyboards and sing your hearts out. [...]
All Work And No Play Makes Loft And Lost A Dull Boy All Work And No Play Makes Loft And Lost A Dull Boy All Work And No Play Makes Loft And Lost A Dull Boy All Work And No Play Makes Loft And Lost A Dull Boy So here we are again . Pretty much two weeks of constant work, with a special highlight of being called back into the office at 11pm and not leaving till nearly six hours later. Fun. Mind you, it's strange being in a [...]
Liverpool and Manchester. Two of England's greatest cities, separated by a mere 35 miles, they have a rivalry that has festered for hundreds of years. The economic rivalry drove both cities to build huge Victorian edifices in their city centres. The football rivalry - the cities are responsible for the two most successful clubs in English football - regularly boils over into rancour with Manchester United fans singing about Hillsborough and Liverpool fans singing about the Munich Air Disaster 1 . The musical rivalry, however, has been generally much friendlier. Indeed, Factory Records and [...]
This whole "Doing A Whole Album From 20 Years Ago Live" thing is a curious matter. When bands like Teenage Fanclub do "Bandwagonesque" and Tindersticks play "Second Album", it's really nice, because you've kind of forgotten about them, and it's lovely to be reminded afresh about what great bands they are. But the Pixies did the whole reunion thing five years ago. And that was a fantastic, angry, furious, joyful reunion, the audience's rapture at the sheer inconcievability of the whole event absorbed by the band and reciprocated hundredfold in superb performances. So this feels [...]
The other week, I was listening to a live Radiohead show from Seville. A number of thoughts struck me. The first was that, on form, they are an astonishing live band. To be able to replicate intricate, neo-jazz-dub-funk-rock numbers like "15-Step" live, and to do it well, shows that they are superlative musicians. Second, that people who talk during rock shows should be shot. But the main, overriding thought about them was, "I wish they would stop thinking they are Autechre meets Pink Floyd". Because, since OK Computer, I've found [...]
Liverpool and Manchester. Two of England's greatest cities, separated by a mere 35 miles, they have a rivalry that has festered for hundreds of years. The economic rivalry drove both cities to build huge Victorian edifices in their city centres. The football rivalry - the cities are responsible for the two most successful clubs in English football - regularly boils over into rancour with Manchester United fans singing about Hillsborough and Liverpool fans singing about the Munich Air Disaster 1 . The musical rivalry, however, has been generally much friendlier. Indeed, Factory Records and [...]
I had a dream the other night. Me and the missus went to one of the more salubrious venues to watch The Go-Betweens play a show, starting with an acoustic set, followed by a full electric set. Very good it was too, until I had to take a big metal cage up Bloomfield Road in Bath. Look, it was a dream, you know. The Go-Betweens and a Couch But on waking, I suddenly felt rather sad. Because, of course, we'll [...]
Kids today, eh? Dressing up in black, being all miserable, recording in dank studios underneath railway arches, wasn't like that in my day. Oh hold on, yes it bloody was. Maybe that's why, when I first heard The Xx, I got one of those weird chills. The fact that they were half my age and lived round the corner from me made it doubly weird. Because, unlike pretty much everyone else making music today on either side of the Atlantic, The Xx like space. Lots and lots of it. I haven't heard [...]
So, last week I posted the new single by Barney Sumner's new band, Bad Lieutenant . And thanks to the mysteries of the Interwebs, it didn't show up on Hype Machine . So it goes, and thanks to those lovely people on the Elbows forum, I now know a whole load more about how this kind of stuff works. Thanks folks! In any case, Mark Reeder has done some rather nice remixes of the single "Sink Or Swim", and the band have just released the video, so [...]
Yesterday was Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year. Sitting in the Synagogue for the family service, and reading the story of Abraham, I was struck by the brutality of the tale. God tells some bloke to kill his son, and then lets him off at the last minute, just as Abraham is about to plunge the knife in? That's harsh. Innumerable scholars, writers, artists and atheists wandering into Synagogues on High Holy days have thought long and hard about what the tale has to tell. Me, I thought about Sufjan Stevens. And [...]
The human brain is a funny thing. You can be doing the washing up, walking the dog, pruning the roses, putting out the bins, or any of the other million and one little chores that make up your daily life, when suddenly a thought comes from nowhere and knocks you for six. I get that with songs (as I suspect pretty much everyone does). And, with a heavy dose of irony, the song that did this the other day was a song about unwelcome thoughts coming when you're doing the washing up, walking the dog, pruning the [...]
![Echo & The Bunnymen - Think I Need It Too [Later Live...]](http://cache.elbo.ws/youtube/WI352N2JbBY_130.jpg)
Beach House – “Norway” “Norway” is the first taste we get of Beach House’s upcoming LP, Teen Dream. Due out January [...]More about Beach House
Here is my refix of Lady Gaga`s Paparazzi..It`s on"Paparazzi,remixes part deux",get the full EP on DOWNLOAD Lady Gaga_Paparazzi(Chew Fu [...]More about Lady GaGa
Author insert a music with WS Audio Player Download (Vampire Weekend - Cousins). PMA is giving away Cousins on a 7″ [...]More about Vampire Weekend
Animal Collective are stated as one of the most successful psychaelic bands in the modern days. They have an uncanny ability to create vivid, astmospheric music, summoning all [...]More about Animal Collective
Un voyage hédoniste se profile, vous venez ?Vous venez tous... mayer hawthorne -green eyed love- beck (record club) -femme fatale (of velvet underground & nico)- [...]More about Beck
Some heavy hitters. Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (The Juan Maclean remix) Calvin Harris - Flashback (Eric Prydz [...]More about Beyonce
For two reasons I'm always happy to find emails from James aka Death To The Throne in my inbox: First, his remixes are always excellent and [...]More about The xx
So I really did not feel like re-downloading the mixtape and then re-upping it and having to deal with all that hassle. The No Ceilings [...]More about Lil' Wayne
These 2 songs a more mainstreams then most of the music you guys see here but I’ve been listening to them a lot lately. First it is [...]More about Jay-Z
Like come on...it has been so musically dead over the past couple days. Some good...I guess ok songs have dropped but nothing that blew me [...]More about Kanye West
The Cribs - We Share The Same Skies
k-os - I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman
Animal Collective - In The Flowers
nekocasefallon
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
Friday Five: Surf Songs
Beach House: Norway
No Curve Allowed (Grading This Week's New Tracks)
