Steven Wells was one of the voices of my teenage years. A frustrating, infuriating, cajoling voice maybe, but also a fiercely intelligent one, never afraid to speak out against anything or anyone. Swells, as everyone called him, was openly gay in a world still not comfortable with homosexuality, and he never failed to let you know about it. In fact he never failed to raise his voice about anything. And whilst that could sometimes make him rather irritating, it also meant he said things that no-one else was saying – and often he was right. [...]
It's terrible getting old. You go through life, having fun, travelling, working, getting married, having a kid, when suddenly you hear a fact that makes you feel terribly, terribly old. This week, it was the news that Orbital have been around for 20 years. 20 years! Blimey. 20 years since I first heard "Chime" in a Newcastle nightclub called Rockshots (previously discussed here ). And slightly less than 20 years since I used to use their "Green" and "Brown" albums to chill out after a long, hard night out. [...]
It's terrible getting old. You go through life, having fun, travelling, working, getting married, having a kid, when suddenly you hear a fact that makes you feel terribly, terribly old. This week, it was the news that Orbital have been around for 20 years. 20 years! Blimey. 20 years since I first heard "Chime" in a Newcastle nightclub called Rockshots (previously discussed here ). And slightly less than 20 years since I used to use their "Green" and "Brown" albums to chill out after a long, hard night out. [...]
First off, I found a great band the other day. They've got a fantastic sound, a mix of The Smiths and The Bhundu Boys, which kind of makes me think they spent their formative years locked in a cupboard under the stairs with only a tape of mid-80's John Peel shows for company. And what a name too, Vampire Weekend. What? What do you mean they came out last year? And the blogosphere did them to death? And everyone's bored of the sight of them? *Sigh* Anyway, I [...]
Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh. If I was Fender’s Head of Marketing, and I wanted to go really out there with my artist endorsements (“New For 2009! G.E. Smith Guitar!”) who would I choose to get that valuable Lawyer-That-Was-A-Huge-Alt-Roc k-Fan dollar (I’m looking at you, Searsy)? J Mascis? Nah, already done . Butthole Surfers? Too bizarre. Sonic Youth? But don’t they stick knitting needles into the strings, tune them all to A# and generally abuse the goddamn life out of their poor Jazzmasters and Mustangs ? Well, yeah, [...]
The last set of songs on the Pitchfork 500 list for 1980-1982 takes us back to the States, with music that was in many ways similar to that discussed in my last couple of posts. Shambolic, rumbunctuous, with a definite amateur feel to them, and three of these four bands won’t be known to your average man on the street 1 . The other would go on to be one of the biggest bands in the world, selling some 35 million records. Not The Feelies, obviously. The Feelies – The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness [...]
Boss: "What are you doing next week?" Me: "Oh, this and that, nothing I can't move" Boss: "How do you fancy going to Istanbul?" 1 Me: "Not Constantinople?" Ahh, that joke never gets old. Anyway, that was a week ago. Last week was spent in a frenzy getting everything organised - from a flight to the right Linux distro to wipe an HP RAID array. Don't ask. And here I am, looking out of the window at my view of the bridge, watching riverboats go by (though there [...]
There was a joke doing the rounds in the Eighties. Thatcher meets Reagan to talk about the American’s nuclear policy. When she warns Reagan that the route he’s taking could precipitate another world war, he responds “Goddamn it, we were late for the first two, we’re gonna make goddamn sure we’re on time for the third!”. I’m like that with Grizzly Bear albums. I completely missed their first album, “ Horn Of Plenty ”, and when “ Yellow House ” became a huge underground hit in 2006, I was so busy looking after our [...]
Last time I saw Mew live, they came on stage and immediately started playing the most cacophonous sound you've ever heard. Disjointed, loud, messed-up, it didn't bode well. But suddenly, you could start to hear a melody coming through all the noise and it all made sense; this gorgeous music just erupted, with Jonas Bjerre's angelic falsetto over the top. Most bands can go from tune to noise, no-one can go the other way like Mew. I've even done a little equation: N -> T > T -> N [...]
Some bands are special to you. They can be huge megastars that you discovered early, and you’ve seen them grow to stardom, from tiny little clubs to huge arenas. There are the small bands who only release an album or two before disappearing. There are the indie favourites who never quite break into the mainstream, but are influential and critically acclaimed. Then there are the bands who give a small bunch of fans a nice warm feeling inside, and pretty much carry on their day jobs, raise families, and still release the occasional record. [...]
This post is all about the jangly, amateur sounds of shambolic Indie-Pop. It's a sound that would go on to heavily influence everyone from REM and The Smiths, the C86 movement, Pavement to Brit Pop and beyond. Not that they realised it at the time of course. This lot were just wanting to make a sound their own on often rather limited funds. $60 in one case. Orange Juice – Blue Boy The Television Personalities – This Angry Silence The Fall – The Classical The Clean – Tally Ho! [...]
Sometimes, I buy a CD that I've never heard a track off of, usually thanks to a recommendation or a good review. Sometimes, it's bloody awful. Sometimes, however, it's like Mew's "Frengers", their 2003 album, which was, quite frankly, amazing. It starts off with the classic "Am I Wry? No": Now if you've not heard it before, you can't help but be thrilled with Jonas Bjerre's stunning falsetto (up there with Jeff Buckley's), and those clean power chords, making [...]
I'm a big fan of Word magazine. Trying to separate itself both from the middle-aged rock-tastic Q and Uncut, and the "THIS BAND ARE THE BEST EVER BAND EVER!!!" ludicrous hyping of NME, it's by and large well written and features lots of different music. The free CD has some pretty decent music on it, though, frankly, I always end up listening to it about three months after it comes out. Sunny Days Sets Fire So, last week I finally managed to [...]
All work and no blog makes Loft and Lost a dull boy. All work and no blog makes Loft and Lost a dull boy. All work and no blog makes Loft and Lost a dull boy. All work and no blog makes Loft and Lost a dull boy. So, in order to try and get back on track, I'm going to try and post more stuff, make it shorter and snappier, rather than the 1000 word Pitchfork spectaculars . Fun though those are. For me, at least. Tortoise [...]
METAL! Skulls. Cider. Screaming. Donington. Long hair. Longer guitar solos. Ludicrous lyrics. Bottles of piss. Dungeons and Dragons. Right, that’s the clichés out of the way. Flipper – Sex Bomb Motorhead – Ace of Spades Iron Maiden – Run to the Hills First off, it’s Flipper with “Sex Bomb”. Who, I hear you ask? I dunno, I reply. After listening to this a few times, reading the book, doing a bit of background work, I still have no idea. [...]
These songs remind me of dark, hot sweaty underground clubs, filled with teenage men, hot sweaty and lithe, writhing against each other, limbs flailing, reaching a state of ecstasy. Ah, the mosh pit. What the hell did you think I was talking about? Bad Brains – Pay to Cum Minor Threat – Minor Threat Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia Black Flag – Rise Above Wipers – Youth of America Bad Brains started off as a jazz fusion act, until deciding to become a hardcore punk band. And that's [...]
These five songs on the Pitchfork 500 are the kind of thing you'd expect to hear on drivetime radio anywhere from California to Krakow. Mixing both European and American bands, all of these bands (aside one) were enormous in the 1970's, making their fortunes in the great commercial explosion of popular music. Fascinating people too, from Abba's intertwined romances, through Roxy Music's son-of-a-coal-miner glamour, Queen's flamboyant Zanzibari singer, to Bruce Springsteen's Noo Joisey working class boy made good from hard, hard work. Oh, and Journey. You just had to go and spoil it, [...]
A very good Bank Holiday to you. First off, a little birdie tells me that Grizzly Bear will be appearing on BBC2's Later on Tuesday night , with the full programme on Friday night. When I say, a little birdie, I do mean my TV's EPG. Not a birdie. Anyway, I suspect I'll be missing it as I'll be busy watching Arsenal beat Man U 3-1 in the Champion's League Semi-Final at Ashburton Grove. I tell you now, Arsenal will be leading 2-0 until the 87th minute, when Ryan Giggs will annoyingly score, [...]
So far, listening to the Pitchfork 500 list has been great fun. In each group of four to eight songs, there have always been personal favourites that I love to talk about, or songs I’ve never heard before and loved, and some songs that I’d forgotten were so good. Sure, there’s been some duffers, but that’s in the nature of a list like this. But this next part, I’ve got to say, was something of a chore. The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love [...]
Well, after nearly five months of being out of work I started a new job last week. It came somewhat out of the blue, but is hugely welcome and has more than a touch of irony about it, given that I worked at the same firm until just over a year ago. Which means I'll have much less time to write this blog, so there won't be so many updates here as of now. I'll be concentrating more on the Pitchfork stuff , and I'll still do some reviews and news, but with less time to [...]
Loft And Lost
Cher’s “Woman’s World” is Now on iTunes, Finally
Deer Tick – “The Rock”
EP: RIVKA – Faded
Escucha el ruidoso regreso de M.I.A.
