30 day song challenge. A song you wish you heard on the radio

A productive day today, purely because I wanted to get to this post as soon as I could, and with a little reshuffling of the running order, I have.

The amount by which the sales of Janelle Monáe’s ‘The ArchAndroid (Suites II & III)’ ( a sci-fi concept album, dying to be made into a film) have increased since her incendiary performance (which put Beyonce’s Sunday headlining set in it’s place) on the West Holt Stage at Glastonbury was broadcast on BBC3 on Saturday night.

Four Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty Eight per cent.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

I’ve written about her once before, in the incredibly half arsed effort I posted prior to my sabbatical from this place, and until Saturday night I was slightly dumbfounded by the fact she is little know. Not for much longer.

‘Tightrope’, the James Brown/P-Funk inspired meat in this rather filling audio/visual sandwich, is for my money, one of the very best pop songs of the past few years, since 'Hey Ya' even. Not just a song I wish I heard on the radio then, but one I think I will do, increasing so.

 This is pop music exactly as it should be, vital, fun, about futurerobots (see album synopsis – is that a thing? – after the jump) and with a massive heart.

30 day song challenge. A song you used to love but now hate.

Bit of a cheat this one, ad it's not * exactly * the same song, but hey.

Deftones ' White Pony' soundtracked the summer I sat my GCSEs,  it's a seminal record, and it holds a very particular place in my heart. 'Pink Maggit' (top video), the closing track (yes, I know, 'The Boy's Republic', but that was only on the Limited Editions, so I'm discounting it, because I can) from that album really is something special, atmospheric, brooding....imagine my horror then, when, in what I can only assume was a cynical ploy to sell a bucket load of records, they reduced it to a nu-metal (a genre the Deftones were unfairly lumped into) dirge; 'Back to School (Mini Maggit)'  And the end of the video, dear god.....

 Ugh.

30 day song challenge. A song that describes you.

Presented without comment.

30 day song challenge. A song that nobody would expect you to love.

One problem I've encountered in the incredibly slow undertaking of this challenge is the fact that a good friend of mine is also undertaking it.  Shouldn't be a problem really.  But the fucker keeps making the same point that I was planning on making a day or two later, leaving me with the option to either appear to be plagiarising his blog, or writing very little.  You fucker.

I digress,  this subject, much like the last has been one that's had me stumped since day one,  for one thing, I don't know what people expect me to like (skinny white men baring their soul perhaps, step forward Messers Oberst & Stevens) and secondly I think I have fairly eclectic tastes.  So, today's choice is not a song I love, but one I like, and perhaps one that stands out a little amongst my record collection.

*Some over egged analogy about vocals like gravel and other things that would hurt your knee if you fell on it.*
It's an incredibly laid back record, one to get absolutely mashed to (not that I would condone such things, or even know what I'm talking about, Officer), but behind that, lies some considerable menace.  It's also an utter mess, and all the better for it. 

30 Song challenge A song that is a guilty pleasure.

It would seem any pretense of this being a daily (or even weekly) project has long since evaporated, due entirely to me not being bothered (again) and having recently aquired 'LA Noire'.  Maybe I'll get it finished by the end of the year.

As my good friend Paul commented on his recent post on the same subject, the very idea of a guilty pleasure makes no sense to me, the thought of liking something, and being embarassed about it just doesn't compute, and as a result I've really struggled with this subject.  This song is NOT a guilty pleasure, but one I considered fot the next subject, it IS however, one of the best pop songs of the last decade, along with a number of this chap's other singles. (Also - before Timberland wasn't a massive pain in the backside.)

30 day song challenge. A song from a band you hate.

So, after the holiday from hell and an attemped break in twenty minutes after returning from said holiday, we'll get back to it.

I could have gone with The Feeling, or Bumford and Sons (god, i hate them.).  But the one band, over the past five years or so, that have made me vent my spleen (possibly) more than any other are The Hoosiers, (I really did stuggle to choose between this and 'Worried About Ray' - an ardous 8 minutes listening to both songs, sheesh - had to listen to Rebecca Black to cleanse my palate).  Their lead singer (the one with the stupid Ben Stiller-ish face) is called Irwin Sparks (Fuck Off, Yeh?), and there's that cunt with the Moustache.   The fact that it bears more than a passing resembelance To 'Mr Blue Sky' by ELO certainly doesn't help, and that faux kooky shtick....I can feel the rage building. God, i fucking hate this song, reading the utterly inane Youtube comments only adds to this feeling.

uh woah woah woaharrrrrrrrrrrghhhhh

30 day song challenge. A song by your favourite band

As I write this, I'm sat looking out at the North Sea and Farne Islands, it's really rather bloody nice.  I might even post a picture in the next few days, if I can be arsed, that is.

Anyway, back to the point in hand.

It's been just over ten years since Tool's 'Lateralus' was released.  Tool have been my favourite band for ten years.  Coincidence?  It features a song largely written using the Fibonacci sequence, for fucks sake!

The song I have picked for today's post isn't from that album, but the one that followed it five years later, '10000 Days' (surely there's a new one due soon). 'Rosetta Stoned' encapsulates everything that make Tool my favourite band, the humour in the writing, the complexity, the drumming, sweet jesus, the drumming, and, perhaps most of all, Maynard James Keenan's vocal dexterity (especially live).  The video below features the lyrics to the song, and I'd strongly suggest watching it, otherwise you won't stand a fucking chance of understanding what on Earth he's on about. 

30 day song challenge. A song that makes you fall asleep

I can't think of a song that MAKES me fall asleep as such, I had considered posting a Sigur Ros song, but realised the accompanying blog entry would read thusly:

blah blah blah ethereal blah blah serene blah blah blah blah David Attenbrough documentary. blah.

and that would have been something of a cop out, yes?

In my...more formative years...I had a few audio staples that I would carry with me whenever a long journey was likely (it meant I could avoid listening to The Best of Simply Red in my parents car over and over...and over again.)  along with my Roald Dahl audio tapes was 'Now That's What I Call Music! 26'.  I'd like to say that I was an incredibly discerning 9 year old, and that the songs on that double cassette that really grabbed my attention were Radiohead's 'Creep', R.E.M's 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' and 'Play Dead' by Bjork & David Arnold.  But they didn't.  That honour fell to 'Two Princes' by Spin Doctors and most of all 'Boom! Shake the Room' by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

'NTWICM! 26' was also what I listened to, almost exclusively, when going to bed, and every time I did, without fail, I would wake up this song still in my head.

Night All.

30 day song challenge. A song that you can dance to.

I've had few days off, as I've been to see Wild Beasts in Sheffield, had the hangover from hell, and made an evening visit to our allotment.  I don't dance. Rather I can't dance. Rather I REALLY can't dance, so this one had me stumped.  Then the Mrs suggested this.  The video's really poor quality.  So are the lyrics actually, but hey ho.
FIGHT DANCE!!!!!!

30 day song challenge. A song you know all the words to.

Ah, they were heady days. I bought 'The Colour and the Shape' (I think the anglicised spelling made me like it all the more) in ooh... 2001, from HMV for £15.99. I NEEDED that album. It was, and is one of the best, simplest ROCK records I own. Which makes the Foo Fighters' terminal decline since then all the more upsetting. 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose' is by no means a bad album (and the one that introduced me to them, so I'll always have a soft spot for it) but it doesn't reward repeated listening, the way TCATS and 'Foo Fighters' do. Since then it's been a case of stadium rock filler, with a few notable exceptions 'In Your Honor' (note, this time, the lack of anglicised spelling) from the double album of the same name was a welcome surprise, and a lot of the second, acoustic disc is rather pleasant. The two teasers ('Rope', and particularly 'White Limo') from this year’s 'Wasting Light' (insert wasting something joke here) hinted at something of a return to form. They were the exception. It's just so very very dull, and I think, finally I may have finally given up on a band that I once adored (see also: Biffy Clyro).


'Monkey Wrench' isn't my favourite Foo Fighters song (that is, and always will be, clearly, 'Everlong') but it's certainly up there, with much of that second album they released 14 years ago.

 
 

30 day song challenge. A song that reminds you of a certain event.

Fast forward three and a half years, we learn that the child the girl is carrying no longer has a heartbeat, the induction process begins.  On the girls twenty-third birthday, after putting up the Christmas tree, we head to hospital, with the possibility that our child may be stillborn on the girl's birthday looming large in both of our minds.  As it turns out, Noah was born at 03:05 on 8th December 2008.  His hands marginally larger than my thumb nail.  The seven hours or so we spent with him, seemed simultaneously like seven seconds and seven days. 

There are a number of songs that I could have chosen for today's post; Megafaun's 'The Longest Day' (too country) and 'You Held the World In Your Arms' by Idlewild (too shit a title).  In the end I've gone with 'Pink Bullets' by The Shins, just for one line:

 "your memory is here and I'd like it to stay, warm light, on a winters day".

30 day song challenge. A song that reminds you of somewhere

Idiot Pilot - Spark Plug.

A few months before I met the girl mentioned in yesterday's post, I had agreed to move to Leeds with a couple of, we'll call them acquaintances (as one of them is an utter nut, and the other a dick of epic proportions).  This song (and the album it's taken from) reminds me of walking round Leeds looking for a job (unsuccessfully), getting the bus to work in York, and making a surprise visit to the girl's student digs in York, when she thought I was still in Leeds.  This is the first Idiot Pilot (described by Rock Sound as sounding like Hatebreed fucking Radiohead while DJ Shadow watches) song I heard, and it still leaves me slightly breathless.

30 day song challenge. A song that reminds you of someone

Straylight Run - The Tension & the Terror

One Tuesday in April 2005, I went for a drink with some friends, who DJ'd at the local 'rock' pub.  I got my beer, and sat down with them.  There was, amongst their number, someone who I'd not met before, but had been told plenty about, mostly about how ace she was.  We were introduced, and some noises emanated from my mouth.  I didn't see her again for a about 10 days, but she popped into my head every now and then, she seemed really nice I thought.  Back to the pub a few weeks later, and the guys were DJing again, I asked one of them to play this song, then sat, talked, and utterly hit it off (despite my intense awkwardness - which would lead me to believe, on a few occasions, I'd buggered it up without it even starting) with the girl. They played the song, I felt awkward, she didn't twig, they played it at my request over the next few weeks, eventually i told her to listen, oh, man, THAT smile, utterly floored me. 
We had a lot of fun, still do.

30 day song challange. A song that makes you sad

Can I choose an album instead? No? Bugger it, i'm *kind of* going to anyway.

I was struggling to choose today's song, fritting between Brand New's 'Limousine' and Sufjan Stevens' 'John Wayne Gacy Jr', then I remembered that the album this track is taken from existed. 
The album itself, 'Hospice' is about an emotionally abusive relationship, told through the analogy of a hospice worker and a terminally ill cancer patient.  This song, musically at least is one of the more upbeat moments on the record, but listen to the lyrics, and it's really not.  The Antlers new album 'Burst Apart' is released next week, and from what I've heard it's looking like it'll be a similarly sombre (if not quite as soul destroying) affair.

30 day song challenge. A song that makes you happy

I've left this a little late as I've just finished watching Gareth Edwards' stupendous 'Monsters', so it's an incredibly half-arsed effort today, sorry!

Everything about this song, the video included, seems to make me a child again (especially the drop around 2.22) it's so simple, so daft, so fucking catchy, i've listened to it three times in a row now.
Shame they're a bit shit now, ah well.

30 day song challenge. Day 2 - Your least favourite song.

*WARNING: Under NO circumstances should you watch the embedded video.*

No competition, at least until the next time I hear 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

 I can feel my blood boiling as I type this,  this song is the most utterly banal, steaming pile of excrement that I have ever had the misfortune to hear.  There are no prime Fergie nuggets here, no chickens jacking her style, no lady lumps, no two-thousand-and-late, no shots of Tower Bridge in a song that repeatedly features the words 'LONDON Bridge'.

And to those who like this song, you are, without exception a shower of utter Germany's no. 11 at Euro '96.

Eurgh.

Where were we? 30 day song challenge. Day 1

I just couldn't be bothered any more, is the honest truth.  I think it was trying to review Sufjan Stevens' 'Age of Adz' (without question, my favorite album of 2010) that did it, I just didn't know where to start, so I didn't.  But I'm back, at least for a while.  A few blogs I read have featured this meme, and, well, why not?
So, day 1...

Your Favorite Song

This is a toughy.  It's fluid. Yesterday it was 'The City' by The Dismemberment Plan.  But that's only because I listened to it.  In the end, it was a two horse race, and it'll be no suprise, given the name of this here blog, that Death Cab for Cutie's 'Grapevine Fires' edged it.  It ticks all the boxes for me,  Ben Gibbard's writing has rarely been better, the song evokes such a clear picture in my head, (it took me a while to get used the wonderful video that accompanies it) the backing vocals, Jason McGerr's exemplary (as ever) drumming, and that moment (around the 2:50) mark, where the slightly dischordant guitar part comes in....Jesus, I bloody love this song

So, I'm not dead...

...just lazy. And slightly apathetic.

Yeh.

Since i've been away, the right honourable Sufjan Stevens has released what may prove to be my favourite album of the year 'The Age of Adz' (pronounced Odz, apparently) is nothing short of brilliant, and gets better with every listen.  Especially 'Impossible Soul' the 25 minute closing track, the word epic doesn't even begin to describe it, and of course there was the "ep" 'All Delighted People' (over an hour long, not an ep Suffy) which is well worth investing in via the man's bandcamp (where you can also stream '...Adz') page if you haven't already.  Only a couple of quid too.

Other stuff engaging my ears recently, has included Janelle Monae, whose 'ArchAndroid' (concept - see wikipedia's description after the jump) album, is eclectic to say the least, taking in Funk, Soul, RnB, Folk and Grindcore, it's an absolute blast, and in 'Tightrope' has the best James Brown song James Brown didn't record, as you can see below.

And Finally Warpaint, the LA quartet have been together around 6 years and whose début LP 'The Fool' is due out this Monday, it's all kinds of ace, and has just the right amount of scuzz and weirdness for me, you can stream it at HypeMachine until it's release, and here's a little freebie courtesy of Rough Trade Records, in the shape of lead single 'Undertow'.
Before you ask, it reminds of of 'Polly' by Nirvana

Apologies for how crap this post looks! I'm not clever enough to change the size of the video!

"a tattoo of a flower on a broken wrist" Iron & Wine, Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds 12.9.10

It’s only in the past month or two that I’ve really dived into Iron & Wine’s (or Sam Beam, as his mum knows him) back catalogue, having purchased the rather wonderful and eclectic ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ last year, I noticed that he was playing a couple of dates in the UK and thought some further investigation was called for. In those two months, two EP’s, two albums and one two disc collection of B-Sides, Demos etc. have been purchased (all though eBay, still with change from a tenner!). Listening through each of the records, there certainly is a notable progression, an increase in fidelity from ‘The Creek Drank The Cradle’ to ‘Our Endless Numbered Days’, the introduction of a full band set up from that to ‘Woman King’ and ‘In The Reins’ (the latter being a split with Calexico) EP’s, then the expansion of that sound on ‘The Shepherds Dog’.

The set drew largely from ‘…Endless…’ and ‘…Dog’ a virtually a capella ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’, and a plaintive ‘Each Coming Night’ (opening and closing the set, respectively) left me somewhat dumbfounded, as did the 9 minute epic that is ‘The Trapeze Swinger’.


Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger

Unfortunately, it’s not yet possible to judge the progression from ‘...Dog’ to any of the new material from the forthcoming ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’, as the current set up is incredibly stripped back; an acoustic guitar, and accompaniment from, by turns, piano, accordion and some superb slide guitar. During one of the three new songs that is aired, Beam forgets the lyrics (and the title), as he does during ‘Love Song of the Buzzard’ which does, as his says himself “have a lot of words in it…” these are the only points during a set which flies by, where he falters, and even then, it’s rather endearing. Hopefully he’ll come back around early next year, when ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’ is released, and if he does, I’ll be there.

Tremendous!

On a more personal note, it was nice to finally go to The Grand in Leeds, which Howard Assembly Rooms is part of, we had planned to go and see The Mighty Boosh there on 8th December 2008, but were sadly, otherwise engaged.

" Are they American Pants?" Megafaun & Caitlin Rose, The Band Room, Farndale 29.8.10

Megafaun at the Band Room. Picture courtesy of the band's tumblr page

In the months since tickets were bought (largely on the insistence of the Mrs) for this, I had become less and less bothered by my impending third visit to the band room (and the second to see Megafaun there), largely due to the fact that, as good as Megafaun’s ‘Gather, Form and Fly’ is, it just doesn’t pull me in, it’s not a record I’ve been back to very often since I first happened across it last year. But then, to my surprise it was announced that a certain Caitlin Rose would, for one night only, be playing with them, which made me very bothered about it indeed.


Her (drummerless) band’s set draws chiefly from her debut LP ‘Own Side Now’. , ‘For the Rabbits’, ‘Spare Me’ and the title track shining particularly brightly. At the tender age of 23, the fact that she’s already penned songs as well crafted as these suggests she could be capable of breaking through, perhaps not into the mainstream, but certainly to a much larger audience than tonight’s.

I had clearly forgotten just how much I had enjoyed seeing Megafaun here back in December, and once again, they did not disappoint. Addressing the crowd like old friends, and clearly feeling at home, their set was comparatively lacking in the segues of ‘Gather, Form & Fly’ and the last time they played here. ‘The Longest Day’ had me, once again, on the brink of tears, and, as it did 9 months ago ‘Worried Mind’ provokes a mass sing-along. And then another, as the band come back on stage for their encore, the crowd sings refrain back at them, and you can tell, you can just tell, they’ll be back here again soon.