A Cool Noise

This Blog has moved!

2006-07-16T18:44:00.000+01:00

It continues on Cool Noise. All the posts and comment have been imported.

The End Of The Blog?

2006-07-15T13:50:00.000+01:00

I was intending to do another mass review today but I'm a bit distracted. There's always been this split in my interest between this blog and the main Cool Noise site. I love being able to post regularly here but I know that bands prefer a review on the main site.

I've been playing with Wordpress over the past few weeks and it's really easy to install. It also can import all your posts from a Blogspot blog - although it loses embedded videos and pictures. It has occurred to me that I could move the blog over onto Cool Noise wholesale. The problem is the amount of time it would take because it would mean writing a template from scratch to match the original design (all pages were written manually in HTML and I don't have time to rewrite them all). Then I would have to try to get all the links changed.

Hmmm, do I really want to take this task on?

Day 31 of 365: Led Man

2006-07-14T22:07:00.000+01:00

Led Man's music encompasses Rock and Pop, with soulful funky touches. What makes him stand apart is a wonderful gravelly voice and some devilish songwriting. The track Ways That We Fall Apart is one of my favourite songs of the past year (I was going to feature it in my planed but abandoned Podcast). If you are very old you may remember Kevin Ayers and Ways is as good as Kevin at his very best.

Led Man

Day 30 of 365: Modern American Science

2006-07-13T21:58:00.000+01:00

It's not so long since I reviewed Modern American Science's first EP. It has three of the finest emotional tracks you could hope to hear. The nearest equivalent is a couple of alt-country bands who mix a touch of sadness with inspiring melodies (Scud Mountain Boys/ Songs: Ohia).

Modern American Science

Day 29 of 365: Shut Your Eyes And You'll Burst Into Flames

2006-07-12T21:33:00.000+01:00

Another Leeds band. Another that seems to have few recognisable musical antecedents. Impossible to describe other than to say there's a freshness of approach and a willingness to take risks similar to the alternative post-punk explosion.

Shut Your Eyes And You'll Burst Into Flames

Have I Got Noise For You

2006-07-11T23:11:00.000+01:00

First, a mention of recent CDs:

Introstay by Years Around The Sun

Beautiful music that reminds me of The Go-Betweens in the Cattle and Cain period. I even think one of them looks like Grant McLennan.

Years Around The Sun

Can't go back by *Armstrong

Debut single from a young Rock band who have energy and enthusiasm and an understanding of melody.

*Armstrong

Twenty Years of Love and Pain...They Feel The Same by Gojo' music

Political Roots music from Wolverhampton. A little bit of Blues, a bit of funk and lots of fine acoustic guitar playing.

Gojo' Music

Now the reason for the title of this post. I received 10 CDs from Italy. Eight of these CDs are firmly in the Hardcore camp ranging from the high octane guitar and shouting to the post-electronica remix of Hardcore. I'm actually a bit sad to pass them on but my new reviewer RichardTheGreat actually knows about this style of music. I don't know if they read my appeal for Hardcore and Metal on the site but this is like manna from heaven. To name a few of the bands they are Orange Man Theory, Ensoph (my particular favourite), 7 Times Suicide, Madwork, and Straight Opposition.

For a sample try Orange Man Theory and Ensoph

Day 28 of 365: These Monsters

2006-07-11T21:01:00.000+01:00

The maturity of the the music that These monsters make shines through, even though they look young and are at the first self-produced EP stage. They are chilled when they want to be chilled, and yet they effortlessly turn up the dial to full power. These Monsters are Post Rock instrumental in the Mogwai vein with atmospheric textures you can let wash over you like ocean waves.

These Monsters

Syd Barrett

2006-07-11T15:32:00.000+01:00

It's just been announced that Syd Barrett died last Friday. Truth is Syd was lost to the world a long time ago. But his star burnt bright for a short while. Here is a glimpse of his genius, live in 1967 playing Astronomy Domine.

Day 27 of 365: Scouting For Girls

2006-07-10T22:44:00.000+01:00

Songs from a more innocent age from a band in their early stages. It's simply pop music. A sort of pop music that only the English (and the Scandinavians) can produce: quirky, charming, and off-kilter. Have no fear, you will hear of this band again. They have some marketing nous - you can join the Wolf Cubs for free and you get a free CD, badge and booklet. They release each CD with a handy scouting booklet. I predict that these will become highly prized collectible items (I'm eagerly awaiting mine). But hey, who cares; the world as a few more songs that celebrate life and love.

Day 26 of 365: Belarus

2006-07-09T23:31:00.000+01:00

This is the Belarus video I last mentioned a month ago in another context. This is epic Indie. This is a band that write great songs and are there to inspire you.

Day 25 of 365: Things In Herds

2006-07-08T22:45:00.000+01:00

Do you ever like to spend time alone. To get away from everyone and have time to think. Turn the lights low and just sit quietly and mull things over. Well, there is a soundtrack for that. A soundtrack that will sweat out any disappointment in love you have ever experienced. I listen and it hurts as they drag that emotion up - but I always feel better afterwards. Things In Herds touch me like no other band.

Things In Herds on MySpace

Times They Are A Changin'

2006-07-07T23:51:00.000+01:00

Having just posted about An Immaculate Affair, I read today that they have parted company with their singer Mychael (whose voice I liked so much). Time to download the tracks off the myspace site before they are replaced. I hope AIA prosper with a new front man but I also desperately want to hear Mychael again in some other project.

Day 24 of 365: The Half Rabbits

2006-07-07T21:53:00.000+01:00

Todays highly recommended lesser known band was easy. I just opened my mail and there it was: Tiny Knives For Tiny Minds an EP by The Half Rabbits. Three tracks of very confident Indie rock. Great songs, insistent guitar work and rhythmic variation. You can hear the swagger in the singer's voice and it really is a voice that warrants a big swagger with its power and depth. Certainly made my night.

Dare I even mention that they are from Oxford (where I currently reside) so I think I might even have a reason for leaving the house one evening.

The Half Rabbits

Fugitive From The Law (rant)

2006-07-07T00:04:00.000+01:00

I'm in hiding currently. I used a swear word in my blog a few days ago. Now I read about the action being taken against such depravity in Britain at the moment.

A man fined 80 pounds for saying a metal detector was a "piece of shit that wouldn't stop anyone".

An 18 year old who answered the question "What have you been up to?" with "Fuck All" and was fined 80 pounds.

Best of all is the quote from the second story:

"Swearing and abusive behaviour certainly is not normal behaviour and I feel it should never be used in a public place," said councillor Julie Rook.

What world is she living in? 1950's Britain? But even in the 50's it was only the fucking middle class that said "Sugar" instead of shit. The upper and working classes called a spade a shit shovel.

Give the police, the councils any power and this what they do with it. Swearing AT people is aggresive and unpleasant. But no, use any "bad" word now and six policemen jump on you.

I'm waiting for armed police to break down the door as I write...

Day 23 of 365: The Perfects

2006-07-06T22:32:00.000+01:00

From Washington DC, The Perfects add Electro synth to guitar and a bit of 80's glam texture. There's more than a hint of real power underneath what they do. They do a terrible song on their MySpace site (Hungry Like A Wolf) but I can just about forgive them for that because the other tracks show they are better that that Duran Duran band. And the above is a truly inspiring photo.

The Perfects

Day 22 of 365: The Lodger

2006-07-05T22:33:00.000+01:00

The Lodger are yet another talented band from Leeds. They play Indie Pop music of such charm that it would melt the heart of even the most determined Noisenik. These are songs about the trials and tribulations of everyday life and relationships. There's a fragileness in the singer's voice that means he can add a touch of sadness and uncertainty to everything he sings. The video above is of their latest single Let Her Go.

The Lodger on MySpace

Day 21 of 365: An Immaculate Affair

2006-07-04T18:39:00.000+01:00

I used to get sent submissions by email with MP3 links. I resigned from it because the quality of submissions was so low. A few hundred bands and I hadn't found anyone. I deleted all the MP3s except for one by An Immaculate Affair called Last Days. I wasn't sure about it to begin with but there was something so addictive I couldn't bear to part with it. Even though they are from Florida the music sounds to me like classic British Alternative music such as B-Movie, Essential Bop, The Comsat Angels and at times there's a hint of The Sisters of Mercy. How can I put this, the singer has one of the most perfect imperfect voices. If I could sing better, then this is what I would want to sound like.

An Immaculate Affair

Day 20 of 365: Big Joan

2006-07-03T20:38:00.000+01:00

Describing themselves as Country/ Black Metal/ Happy Hardcore (I think they're joking about the Country bit) - Bristol's Big Joan come out fighting. The heaviness of Chicago Punk mixed with some of the challenge of The Pop Group or even James Chance and the Contortions. Needs to be played loud enough for your ears to ring.

Big Joan on MySpace

Cool Noise Gets Noisier!

2006-07-03T10:59:00.000+01:00

I have a new reviewer to help out over on the Cool Noise site: RichardTheGreat. His first review is up on the site (Hunting Lodge's Energy Czar).

But Richard isn't going to help out on all of the CDs - he will specialise in Hardcore, Metal, and Death Metal. Obviously, that includes Grindcode (I don't even know what Grindcore is!). So we need to find some seriously loud bands.

Day 19 of 365: Mars Bonfire

2006-07-02T22:35:00.000+01:00

I'm still getting around to reviewing the first Mars Bonfire EP. It's the sort of CD I don't want to review because I will put it in my reviewed pile and will rarely have time to go back. It gives me a welcome rush of blood everytime I put it on. It is guitar rock of the very best sort: hard and dynamic. In the tradition of the MC5, Led Zeppelin, and the Black Keys. I have even found myself playing air guitar - its that good.

Mars Bonfire on MySpace

Day 18 of 365: Beangrowers

2006-07-01T23:50:00.000+01:00

I just found my first Alt Rock from Malta last night. Good enough to go straight into my 365 challenge as a band who know how to rock and have a great female singer. We are talking Carina Round/PJ Harvey in full flow.

Here are the Beangrowers with their new single You Are You Are:

Beangrowers on MySpace

num and DMB

2006-07-01T13:41:00.000+01:00

Robert James of The Lead Balloon record label writes of a num album in a note "Thought this might be up your street, seems to fit with your other reviewed albums". How right he is. I've listened to the first track, typed the track names into CDDB, and I already know that I have another great album. The sort of album that would fit into my old "Drowning In A Well of Sadness" series. A real treat

num on MySpace

I finally have a copy of the album "Boom Times" by Don's Mobile Barbers so I can update my review page on Cool Noise with even more words about their wonderful music.

Don's Mobile Barbers on MySpace

New CDs

2006-06-30T23:05:00.000+01:00

You Can Know Danger by At Dusk

I was on At Dusk's MySpace the other night and I saw they were bringing out a new album. I thought, I bet they don't send one to me. After all my last review wasn't overly complimentary - even though they wrote that they appreciated it because I did listen a lot before explaining why it didn't work for me. But these boys are made of sterner stuff and, sure enough, the latest album arrived. Already I can hear more edge but at the same time want to shout: play less notes!

At Dusk on MySpace

Total Punk Rock by Calcaza Records

Follow up the Wait And See compilation and Gary of Calcaza records doesn't hide his affiliations to anything punk. The spirit of '76 lives.

Calcaza Records

Sl.ep by Lo Ego

My first listen said "Radiohead". My second listen said "I'm a fuckwit - this is great". Since I accused the mighty This Et Al of the same thing on their first demo, it just shows why I should keep quiet sometimes.

Lo Ego on MySpace

Hollow Angel by Nowhere Fast

Punk with anthemic melodies from Kentucky - I doubt they have heard of the Ruts but there's some guitar work that would bear comparison.

Nowhere Fast on MySpace

Day 17 of 365: The Peter Parkers

2006-06-30T22:22:00.000+01:00

Time for a bit of noise, I think. The Peter Parkers sent me their This Is Sity Music album a while ago and it is not an album for the faint hearted. Think Pale Saints in an angry mood. Sometimes they make challenging noise, sometimes they shoegaze. Inventive and bewildering. From reading the comment on MySpace it sounds like they have been making some new recordings so that's something to look forward to.

The Peter Parkers on MySpace
The Peter Parkers website

Day 16 of 365: North Sea Navigator

2006-06-29T22:44:00.000+01:00

I'm slightly confused here. I was going to introduce you to a band that uses a droning harmonium (brought back from Sri Lanka), cello and guitar. But on MySpace there is now Paul Nash with demos of a solo album as North Sea Navigator. I can't think of anything much better than cello and harmonium for instrumentation but even without that, this is intensely atmospheric and beautiful music. The three songs currently on MySpace are the sort of songs that can affect me and change my mood completely. I'm sorry, I can't say much more than that - I'm in the very early stages of coming to terms with this music but there is a detector in my head that is going crazy and saying "sit down, listen, listen and listen again". This is my favourite time of listening to new music - when you find something that you weren't looking for, but suddenly you realise you always needed.

North Sea Navigator on MySpace
North Sea Navigator live set

Day 15 of 365: Phideaux

2006-06-28T22:17:00.000+01:00

I've been keeping Phideaux in reserve because he was featuring songs from his early 80's Portastudio tapes - charming for me and his loyal fans but not the best idea when I am going to introduce him in this series. He has just posted four great tracks from his forthcoming album The Great Leap so it is now time to say Go Listen!

Phideaux (along with Rich Hutchens and a cast of friends) makes music that starts off in 1970's Prog, adds in the lightness of touch of 80's alterative music. The musicianship is excellent but the main thing is he writes and plays great songs. He's the only person in my musical world world I will allow to plunge into allegorical/sci-fi/epic fantasies.

The thing is, there's no-one quite like Phideaux. Imagine reading nothing but Airport sex and shopping novels for a year and then starting on G.G. Marquez's 100 Years Of Solitude. It's a different world.

Phideaux on MySpace
Phideaux website
My Phideaux reviews

Is This The Finest Moment In Modern Music?

2006-06-28T11:29:00.000+01:00

The six and a half seconds of silence before Sister Ray starts.

Day 14 of 365: Wintersleep

2006-06-27T23:00:00.000+01:00

Wintersleep are from Halifax in Nova Scotia. They evoke the feeling being cut of by snow for 6 months and slowly edging into madness. The singer's voice is strange but compelling. The intensity is one of emotionally tinged grunge but the music actually has a much more acoustic feel than that. If you like your music to explore the depths and desolation then you will love this.

The video is of the track Caliber from their first album.

Wintersleep on MySpace
Wintersleep website
My review of Wintersleep

Day 13 of 365: The Hickories

2006-06-26T23:17:00.000+01:00

I like noise just as much as the next man. All right, I like noise more than most next men. But there's a softer side to me as well. Sometimes I get excited and inspired by pure melodies, great pop songwriting, and an American folk/country twang. So, I'm happy to include The Hickories in my list of 365 wonderful bands. They produced a great EP that lovers of The Byrds and R.E.M. should find addictive and rewarding. I regard the track Killers as one of the best songs of this young century. Add to that the romantic yearning of Lost In Pennsylvania and you can quickly see why they took a little bit of my heart.

The Hickories on MySpace

You're So 70s, You're So 80's

2006-06-25T23:12:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I'm a little slow. Sometimes exceptionally so. No more slow than in my realisation that my whole approach to music has been mistaken. I have always searched out the new. Always looking for something totally original without precedent. How often have I actually found that complete originality? It's been rare - The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, Teenage Jesus, Swans come to mind. But even these bands, when I check out their antecedents, I realise that they are really often just a very unusual mix of influences with a new twist added.

One of the biggest problems I had with the whole 1976 Punk explosion was that I considered I had heard the music before. Having spent a lonely musical adolescence with my Stooges and New York Doll's albums, I already knew that any more than three chords was showing off. My time came later when bands were formed around the concept that you could just pick up an instrument, learn to play, and release your own record (but you could almost guarantee there was at least one card-carrying Muso amongst them).

But if I was young now, I would have the chance to look at 40 years of Rock and Pop music. I could take Lou Reed's story telling lyrics, some My Bloody Valentine guitar glissando and mix it up. But I probably wouldn't have much choice about revealing my essential music history and it's roots in the 70s and 80s. There are only 12 notes in music (not quite true but I won't go into John Fahey or Ligeti and beyond) so there are not really any new combinations left.

In truth, if I point out the 60's/70's/80's influences of a band then what I mean is that they have a sense of history and musicianship. I remember John Peel talking about having a curry with the White Stripes before they recorded a session. He mentioned his love of Son House (a bluesman). Jack White then recorded a cover of a Son House song for the session. Now, that is knowledge. It tells me that the White Stripes are worth listening to (ok, I knew that from hearing the first single). Their music is not an accident, even if I choose not to get excited by the most recent recordings.

So, Apollo 13, Mars Bonfire, Phideaux, Breakup Breakdown - if I mention comparisons to earlier music, then I am saying that you know what you are doing and you are producing a deeper, more varied musical experience than any other band that just fits into a current genre.

Day 12 of 365: Breakup Breakdown

2006-06-25T21:42:00.000+01:00

Let's cross country to New York. Breakup Breakdown are a band taking inspiration from the garage. The track She Went Black IS Rob Tyner on vocals. I mean this is not someone sounding like the late MC5's vocalist - it is his spirit come back to earth. Ok, the political lyrics have gone but every inflection, every imperfection in the voice is as good. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. The combination of genuine Rhythm & Blues and Goth and just great energetic music is electric. If Jimmy Page and Robert Plant had heard this then they would have formed Led Zeppelin as a tribute band.

Breakup Breakdown

Day 11 of 365: Stereotactic

2006-06-24T23:22:00.000+01:00

So, I seem to have mentioned mostly UK bands so far. Here is a few words for Southern California's Stereotactic. I guess the genre is Screamo, Emo, melodic rock. The guitar work is Metal combined with hardcore and is very fine indeed. It's ever present and ever inventive while remaining simple. The vocal style is anthemic melodic but it works best for me the closer it gets towards screaming.

Stereotactic on MySpace

Day 10 of 365: Being 747

2006-06-23T22:51:00.000+01:00

Back in Leeds again. Being 747 are Dave Cooke and the Morricone brothers of Scaramanga Six mentioned a few days ago. With a similar musical intelligence, great quirky songs, and a voice. Listen to Ghosts of Victorian Seances or Seedless Grapes and you will hear vocal performances that are reminiscent of The Monochrome Set in the early Rough Trade days.

Is the echo provided by the headgear?

Being 747 on MySpace
My review of Being 747's Health & Safety

Day 9 of 365: Apollo 13

2006-06-22T23:09:00.000+01:00

Rather than give you a considered opinion, I am going to express my current confusion. I have a CD from a band called Apollo 13. There are moments that I hate what they do, there are moments I love them. Why mention them as one the best 365 lesser-known bands in existence? Easy: they are confusing. They take from a long history of music. But how the hell do they have the nerve to mix stuff up like that?

I mean Interference (on their MySpace site) - WTF are they doing? That Vocoder? But just listen to the Post-Rock elements they drop in towards the end of the song. Grandiose Palaces is truly awful to my ears - only a Beatles fan could like it. I do know that there will people who really love this song but I hate it. They then play a song The Bomb that is quite simply Led Zeppelin becoming a post punk alternative band. Stunning.

In a world of copyists, you will find musicians who entice, confuse and enrage you. These are the important bands. Anyone who merely meets your expectations, is a charlatan.

Apollo 13 on MySpace

Day 8 of 365: 8mm

2006-06-21T23:50:00.000+01:00

From New Orleans in the USA, come 8mm. They are a duo dealing in atmospheric music and a breathy female voice. You may notice that this is a favourite type of line up for me - I will can think of three other wonderful bands with this male/female combination. This series is in no particular order, so let's start with this ethereal and erotic band.

Here is a video of 8MM with the song Don't You Give It Up:

8MM on MySpace

Day 7 of 365: The Tides

2006-06-20T23:15:00.000+01:00

No video for this band. Not even a single (soon, I hope). I've only heard a promo but that was enough. If you are really old you may remember Pavlov's Dog or if you are younger you may possibly have heard Puressence or more recently the Delays then you will recognise the quality of the voice. Take that beautiful voice in the upper registers and add pure, emotional songs. Then wash it all over in swathes of guitar - the sort of guitar that isn't just the sum of the notes played but manages to create timbres and interplay of acoustics that adds a new dimension.

You will get a glimpse of what they capable of on MySpace. But you will have to wait to hear the song You'll Never Change. I think this is going to be on the first single. The version I heard was 6 minutes of glory.

The Tides website
The Tides on MySpace

Day 6 of 365: The Scaramanga Six

2006-06-19T22:27:00.000+01:00

Let's get back to Leeds, the current centre of the Indie universe. Who the hell are The Scaramaga Six and why are there rarely six of them? I don't know. I do know that this band play music that is imperiousity defined. They can be claustrophobic when they want to be - the album Cabin Fever is named that for a reason. It was a very bad time emotionally for me when I first heard it but it crystalised the confusion and being overwhelmed by the world that I was going through. Sometimes you need to go deeper to be able to get out.

The Scaramanga Six have forgotten nothing - they have listened to the last 40 years of music, put it in a pressure cooker and compressed it until it screams. They also understand that nothing looks better on a man than a rabbit's head:

The Scaramaga Six website
The Scaramanga Six on MySpace

Day 5 of 365: The Hot Puppies

2006-06-18T12:36:00.000+01:00

From Aberystwyth in Wales came The Hot Puppies (I reviewed a single in 2002). A ray of sunshine in amongst the Indie gloom. Bright and a bit punky and destined to make you smile. There should be an album this year.

The Hot Puppies website
The Hot Puppies on MySpace

Here's an inventive and entertaing video of their latest single The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful:

The Dixie Chicks and Patriotism

2006-06-18T11:49:00.000+01:00

I'm monitoring blog posts about various bands for my (the book of) Cool project. I'm looking for reviews of the bands playing live. The problem with The Dixie Chicks is that I am not going to see any live reviews because the blog searches are full of posts about the 'controversy' over Natalie Maines' comments about being ashamed President Bush was from Texas while on tour a few years ago. The effect of the controversy has been to hit their record sales and ticket sales for their upcoming US tour. In particular they are having trouble in the southern states.

La Dolce Divas discuss part the controversy in a restrained way but what struck me in the post was this:

people who don’t understand why patriotism is important will never understand the strength and passions that make this country the great nation that it is.

It is the notion that Patriotism itself is important. I understand "loving your country" but I don't get "loving the love of your country". If you love your country then you can be proud of the achievements and what it has brought to the world. You can also be ashamed of the wrongs it may do and campaign against those wrongs. If you love the love of your country then it becomes "my country right or wrong" and you begin to hate people who criticise any aspect of it. I speak as someone grateful to be British but aware that we introduced the world to concentration camps in the 1899-1902 Second Boer War.

For us over in the UK, we almost expect our musicians to say such things. Of course they are going to be idealistic, unrealistic and critical. Their fame is based on strumming a few chords and warbling words over the top - hardly a qualification in philosophy, politics, or economics. Remember that the man who sang "Imagine" was a very rich man indeed. So Morrissey can be against all animal testing but so what, he isn't a health worker or research scientist helping to save and prolong lives.

Incidentally, the Dixie Chicks are very talented musicians and make admirable music. And I shall get back to purely music posts from now on.

Day 4 of 365: Forward Russia

2006-06-17T23:13:00.000+01:00

I seem to being doing Leeds bands at the moment. Let me introduce you to ¡Forward Russia!. I present a video from more than a year ago and yes, their recorded work sounds cleaner and has much more sublety. All the same, you will see demonstrated the energy and battering they can give an audience.

Quite honestly, if you don't yearn to be in the Mosh Pit for a gig by this band, then you are already dead.

Part Two of the video is here

Forward Russia on MySpace

The Order Of A Record Collection

2006-06-17T11:44:00.000+01:00

In High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, the main character orders his record collection by the date the record came out. When a girlfriend moves in, she complains that she can't find anything and re-arranges them alphabetically. When she leaves him, he considers (but I don't think he actually does) arranging them autobiographically - that is, in the order he bought them.

Talk about seeing a bit of myself in a fictional character! But my record collection order wasn't as simple as chronological. From the age of 18 to 31 (before a girlfriend moved in and changed the order to alphabetical) I arranged my record collection by the bands relationship to the music of The Velvet Underground. Beginning with the box set From The Seven Days by Stockhausen (mentioned in this blog a little while ago), it went from the experimental classical through Berio and Slovak chamber music. Then into electronic/Kraut Rock like Faust, Can and Amon Duul until you arrived at the first Velvets album. Next were all of the solo projects by Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico. Following that were Iggy and The Stooges, New York Dolls, and the MC5. Then came the biggest section: the Post Punk alterative music starting with Joy Division, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire. Although David Bowie had connections with Lou Reed, I placed him at the beginning of the Pop section. Finally on the far right I had one dance record.

Incidentially, now I've returned to the feral male state, my record and CD collection is in no order whatsoever. I'm open to suggestions as to how to order things, my current favourite is by the amount of Sonic Distortion, but I can't decide whether that should take into account the recording quality or not.

Day 3 of 365: iLiKETRAiNS

2006-06-16T16:13:00.000+01:00

When iLiKETRAiNS do domestic dramas there are knives, poisonings, murders by obsessed strangers. Then they do a glorious songs about a real life Chess Master in decline. Whatever they do, they do it with passion and near-orchestral textures fronted by a deep sonorous voice. They are a Classic Band, even though they haven't even released an album yet.

Have a look at the video for the latest single, TERRA NOVA, an historical epic:

iLiKETRAiNS website
iLiKETRAiNS on MySpace

Day 2 of 365: This Et Al

2006-06-15T12:27:00.000+01:00

This Et Al are from Leeds/Bradford up in the North of England and play dynamic Alternative Rock that leaves me breathless. This is the video to an earlier single Wardens - watch, listen, and (if you are like me) weep with joy.

This Et Al
This Et Al on MySpace

Day 1 of 365: Bleeding Hearts

2006-06-14T22:35:00.000+01:00

The first band I am going to recommend are not one of my established favourites (I bet you thought I'd start with Things In Herds or Nomad 67) but a band I heard on the Hereford & Worcester BBC radio programme "The Friday Session" on last Friday's show. They play Punk with guitars and a fiddle (and I'm a sucker for any violin playing). They have anger, energy, and a powerful vocalist. You also download a copy of their latest EP Bose Liebe (Some Kind Of Love Song) free - just click on the link on their website. Obviously ask your parents if they will let you listen to it because they express some of their passion in Anglo-Saxon words. I particularly like the EP because it is a bitter take on love, whereas normally their themes tend toward the political.

Bleeding Hearts website

Bleeding Hearts on MySpace

Here is a video of them on tour in Europe. I actually prefer some of their other songs but this is obviously a crowd pleaser and gives a good idea of the drive and quality they have. Looks like they have lots of fun touring.

The 365 Challenge

2006-06-14T22:06:00.000+01:00

I was reading Bob Gentry's blog and re-read a comment I placed on a post a while ago about the lack of talent and mediocrity of current bands. Bob Gentry is a talented singer/songwriter in a more mainstream vein than I listen to, but my words were more in response to some of the other comments than Bob's post.

"The truth is you have all turned into your parents. Modern music is always rubbish to the previous generation. If you were aged 16 to 20 you would be finding great music that you fall in love with and that love would stay with you for the rest of your lives. I've got one blog that is following a number of bands around (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dresden Dolls, etc) as they tour - I post fans' reviews of their shows. You wouldn't believe the enthusiasm and excitement of these fans for the music. For them, this is the Golden Age of music.

"There seems to be a time in life when people search out new music, new passion. Then the urgency of that need declines in the person and in their whole social group. Gradually, it becomes a search for the familiar and the comfortable.

"Of course, there are problems such as the manufactured nature of much commercial music - but it was always that way, I remember The Osmonds! I'm no defender of Rap, but I will say that just about the only music I have heard in the last year that attempts to confront the existing Political and Economic system has been Rap. Ok, it mostly just complains about powerlessness just like 70's Punk did, but it is being made.

"As for me, I recently compiled a top 20 albums ever for my MySpace profile - starting in 1967 with The Velvet Underground and ending in 2006 with an album sent to me by three 15 year olds from a little rural town in England that have somehow made a record of snotty guitar rock that, IMHO, ranks along with of The Stooges, Nirvana, MC5. The great new music is out there, maybe it comes down to whether you have the energy to go and find it."

Now I am challenging myself to prove it. I am going to make a post every day for the next 365 days that recommends a band. The bands will be currently active and either unsigned or on a small independent label. They will be the sort of band that I don't expect most people to know. The qualification will be that I think they are good and should be heard by a much wider audience.

Fell City Girl

2006-06-13T23:49:00.000+01:00

I've just done a short review of the entrancing music of Fell City Girl on the Cool Noise site. Here is a video of the lead track on the Swim EP.

Fell City Girl

A Few More CDs

2006-06-13T00:42:00.000+01:00

I found a few more CDs I should be reviewing:

45 Rebellion

I have to say that Everest is a great track on this Promo, lowdown guitar and vocals with tensed fists. I'm not so convinced about the other two tracks (competent but not inspiring).

45 Rebellion

Robert The Bruce's Spider by Instant Species

Instant Species sound to me like Tex-Mex from Yorkshire - implausible but intriguing. I even hear echoes of Three Dog Night in there! The track Hombrecide was on the Dance To The Radio sampler and it still sounds brilliant hearing it again.

Instant Species

Happy Endings Make You Weak by The Mourning After

I feel sure I've already mentioned this band but looking through my previous posts I can't find it. I'm not sure if I've ever understood what 'Emo' was but that word comes to mind as I listen to this EP. If it means songs with an emotional impact, then this is Emo. Very nice.

The Mourning After

Different Like Everybody Else by Cardboard Radio

On the experimental Rhythm and Blues (they say R 'n' B, I say Punk) fringe we have Cardboard Radio. I don't know what to make of this yet. Constantly distorted vocals and obtuse guitar. Jesus, have I gone so soft I want a tune? All the same I hope and trust they completely ignore what I've just said.

Cardboard Radio

The Party Sounds Of Grandmaster Gareth

Absolutely does nothing for me and that goes to show I'm not John Peel. Beyond quirkyness.

Gradmaster Gareth

Annie's Well by Luxury Car

I did get send an EP by Luxury Car last year but didn't review it. Now I have an album and I like it. I'm guessing they have the same Cabaret Voltaire albums as me but they are a much more melodic combination than that. For me, they recall the better 80s synth bands but I shall listen more because there's a certain something there.

Luxury Car

Hi Ho Come On England

2006-06-12T11:17:00.000+01:00

The World Cup is under way and finally I've heard the first World Cup song I actually like. It's Hi Ho Come England by Blind Granny's Taxi Nightmare and they do a version of Jeff Beck's Hi Ho Silver Lining with new lyrics. The sort of song that you could easily imagine being sung on the terraces. All profits go to the charity Fourth Lion which pays for sporting equipment for underprivileged children. The band are named after a headline in the local Worcestershire newspaper. That's a small but select club - my band was Roftop Sex Plunge, named after a small article in The Manchester Evening News commenting on the number of people who died in Turkey falling off roofs having made love.

Musical Snobbery?

2006-06-11T22:30:00.000+01:00

I have recently been on Yahoo Answers (hours of pointless fun) and stuck my oar in a few times. One of the questions where I ventured an answer was to the question "Punk Rock Songs: can you name some?". Obviously I ventured Anarchy In The UK by The Sex Pistols since that was the first Punk Rock song I ever saw on British TV. But what surprised me was some of the other suggestions: My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte, Violent Femmes (???). Now I can accept The Ramones or even Richard Hell as Punk Rock if you are American - but I don't seem to be able to accept any recent music as Punk. I would accept Punk Revivalist/Hardcore/Wanky kids Looking For A Marketing Opportunity as a category for music that sounds like Punk.

Punk was such a revolution in The UK but it was a short lived thing. It was an angry shout that self-destructed quickly but completely changed the musical outlook. Alternative TV turned into a bunch of hippies, Adam Ant turned theatrical, Patrik Fitzgerald brought out an album Grubby Stories where he noted that "bondage trousers are sold in Woolworths". It was over then. End of story.

What it spawned was something very special. Sniffing Glue fanzine published a guide on how to produce your own record, Desperate Bicycles and Scritti Politti included complete cost breakdowns of their singles ("It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it"). Suddenly, you didn't even need to know how to play an instrument - pick up a guitar, learn three chords, and that was it. The explosion of creativity still reverberates now. It also allowed Rough Trade Records to start and their first 50 singles, for me, include the best 20 singles ever.

So, I don't accept My Green Chemical Charlotte as punk. They just play a style of guitar rock music.

What I do want to highlight is a band Swell Maps that took the Punk ideal and throttled it until it begged for mercy. But this is 1979, not 1976/7, so this is not punk but the start of Alternative Music.

Broken Promises

2006-06-09T14:35:00.000+01:00

I remember promising that I would at least acknowledge the arrival of CDs in this blog. I've not quite been true to my word, so here is a catch up and mention of today's CDs.

The One and Only Typicals - Riot In My Head

A Power Pop band, rooted in the simplicity and directness and enthusiasm of bands like The Jam.

The One And Only Typicals

Soundpool - On High

Do you rememeber the Simon Dupree and The Big Sound song Kites? A similar Pyschedelic wall of Sound and ethereal vocals is created by New York's Soundpool.

Soundpool

Tom Beaulieu - As The Artist Waits

I was going to say I was unsure about Tom's voice - but I've just realised that it isn't that far from Neil Young's. Musically a throwback to earlier times, but then who's to say that's a bad thing.

Tom Beaulieu

Wreckage Of The Modern City - Singularity

This band prove that Prog mixed with Nu-Metal overtones is a potent combination.

Wreckage Of The Modern City

OMR - Superheroes Crash

OMG. There's that moment when you are driving on a country road at night and you see a rabbit in the middle of the road transfixed in your headlights. I'm that rabbit and OMR are driving their Citroen straight at me.

OMR

Belarus and Seven Years On - the Faringdon Connection

2006-06-08T12:54:00.000+01:00

Faringdon is a little market town in between Oxford and Swindon. I've never stopped there but I've driven through loads of time on my way to and from the Cotswolds. There are two bands who both list Faringdon/Swindon as their location. First there is Belarus who play epic, sweeping Indie with a swagger. Check out the video to their last single Standing In The Right Place:

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Secondly, there is a new band Seven Years On. For me, they are immediately important because this is three ex-members of Latitude Blue. Latitude Blue released a near perfect EP called Searching For Perfect a couple of years ago. The new band are still in their very early days but beyond the driving guitars there is a voice at work with that touch of Bourbon and far too many cigarettes.

Belarus
Seven Years On

These Monsters... and sending me stuff

2006-06-08T00:08:00.000+01:00

I am really enjoying this 5 track promo of post-rock passion by These Monsters. Of course, the first thing I did was lose any pieces of paper that came with it. If the band find a lot of listens to Track 1 etc. on LastFm then they will know it's me. Should I ask for a track listing? I'm not sure it matters.

Just to point out that this CD is a CDR with These Monsters... written in pen in a photocopied piece of paper. I may pay compliments when I get particularly good packaging but it really doesn't matter - in the end it's the music that will work or not. I do have difficulty with MP3s however because they seems so disposable and I tend to just skip through the tracks (Western Civ excepted). Same with MySpace, I always give a listen to bands but rarely comment and I don't tend to listen right through all the tracks.

These Monsters

Slippery Slope by Paper Cuts

2006-06-07T23:30:00.001+01:00

I feel sure I must have mentioned this before as it was released back in December 2005. But it looks like I haven't. Two songs on the promo I have: Born On A Slippery Slope and Stand Up Be Counted. That's fitting because people have two ears. Two ears to bleed from. But only one head to shake. Ummmmmm...look, words aren't going do this. Maybe I'll take a video of me throwing myself around my prison cell of a room, crash helmet on, knocking into walls. The spirit of '76 but right up to date as great rock music is.

Paper Cuts on MySpace

Elektradog

2006-06-07T23:30:00.000+01:00

This is going to be a short review. Sometimes you hear something that just doesn't work for you. It's only my humble opinion, etc. But as I put the CD on for the last time, suddenly there's a glimmer of enjoyment. What if it is meant to be slightly cheesy, bouncy electronic rock? what if it is taking knowingly from the 1980's synth bands and using melodic pop hooks without adding the saccharine? Not so easily dismissed, after all. Then it goes into Drive and you realise they can find some really rough synth sounds. I still can't make up my mind - is All The Same To You like early Depeche Mode? Is it knowingly so? Why the hell did I ever start reviewing? Who am I to say anything? One thing I know is that when I get confused like this there's a good chance the band are worthwhile. Need a pet? Get an Elektradog.

Elektradog on MySpace

I'm Not Sorry by The Pigeon Detectives

2006-06-07T23:29:00.000+01:00

I must be catching up on my review backlog: this single was only released last March on Dance To The Radio. It's a rumbustious romp through anthemic punky Indie. If they are like this live then they are well worth seeing. Your problem is that this was a limited release so it's probably sold out by now. No worries, you can hear both tracks on MySpace and they have a new single next month.

The Pigeon Detectives on MySpace

Fallen By Vib Gyor

2006-06-07T23:28:00.000+01:00

This came today. Ok, first I've got to say it's not for me. But this a lush, velveteen take on a Radiohead and Coldplay style, played and sung really well. And yet as I listen again, surely this is just as glorious as The Tides? There's some really nice guitar work punching underneath. It just lacks some rough edges. So, my problem is that Vib Gyor sound like they are accomplished and well-produced enough not to need my help. It's too good for me!

Funny how first impressions are wrong. One to listen to a lot more.

Vib Gyor on MySpace

Neenor By Neenor

2006-06-04T00:09:00.000+01:00

Sadly, Neenor have split up in the time it has taken me to actually pen a review. I'm sure that various members will reappear in the Brighton scene (and it is a vibrant Indie scene down there) or maybe even a return to Yorkshire. They were a pure Indie band with a taste for imperious vocal. I was going to comment that they hadn't moved on from My Corporation days enough, but that's redundant now. I'll miss them and their easy charm.

Neenor website

What We All Want From Dance To The Radio

2006-06-03T23:55:00.000+01:00

This is the follow up to the astonishing Dance To The Radio: Leeds that was my 2005 album of the year. I just couldn't review it when it came out because it suffered from the compilation disease - some great tracks but no overall theme. I think it paled in comparison to the first release but there are still some great bands and some great tracks so it is worth me saying a few words even at this late stage.

Shut Your Eyes And You'll Burst Into Flames are a revelation with the track Amputee Smile. The spirit of Punk with the nerve to challenge any preconceptions of how music should be played. I remember an earlier single by Napolean IIIrd but the track they contribute to this album is a bit special with its desperate vocal. iForward Russia! continue to impress me every time I hear them play.

I don't think Dance To The Radio are sending me any more releases (they always went to my previous address anyway). But this happens as bands/labels begin to get national coverage and my little website is not seen as important enough. The great thing is that there are always more bands and labels to replace them and I will never forget the music they introduced me to. There is a possibility that in the next twelve months, for the first time in many years, I might be able to afford to buy some records. If this happens, then I will be bidding on a lot of the bands featured on this album.

My Black Girlfriend by The Disco Students

2006-06-03T23:11:00.000+01:00

Firmly from the DIY/John Peel style of music making we have The Disco Students. Their Mark E Smith's Dead may be factually inaccurate but it is a good song with a snarl to enjoy. Lo-Fi fun for the discerning in the family.

The Disco Students website

Space Cowboys By Space Cowboys

2006-06-03T22:49:00.000+01:00

I'm not quite sure why I was sent this CD since it's from the year 2000. What I can say is the influence of David Bowie shines through, perhaps too much. I really like the track Girl With Two Heads as much as most of Bowie's work over the past 10 years. Sadly Round & Round isn't the Bowie song (now that was a classic). There's no web link because the website mentioned on the cover no longer exists. Maybe The Space Cowboys no longer exist, a pity because they had considerable talent if they could only have got beyond their main influence.

Black Rain By Army Of One

2006-06-03T22:48:00.000+01:00

I did get half way through a review of a Wilde Club Records sampler with Army Of One last year but never finished it. A pity because it was pretty good. This release is an EP just by Army Of One and reminds me a bit of the Delays because the vocals are often in the upper range but their ethos is much more towards the punky. They actually sound a bit more polished on this EP than I would want. By way of illustration, I went onto their MySpace site and found a track Queen Of Hearts that has the punkier sond I expected.

I've just checked out their website and they have this month called it a day. Now I feel really guilty about not reviewing them (not that a review from me would have brought them fame and fortune).

Army Of One website
Army Of One on MySpace

Actum Procul Live EP by Opus Dai

2006-06-03T22:47:00.000+01:00

A curious mixture of Prog with Alt-Rock and even Metal. Not the sort of Prog that ever attracted me, unfortunately. They do sound like one hell of a live band even if you aren't going to bump into me in the audience.

Opus Dai on MySpace

Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt by Lily Holbrook

2006-06-03T22:46:00.000+01:00

I think my problem with ths is the fact that Lily sounds in such pain throughout. And her voice, though rather a good voice in itself, is too reminiscent of others. But there's a nagging whisper in my head that is saying "You are going to of hear her again". I can see adolescent girls getting obsessed by this and it's concerns for the self and body, and it is so TV friendly that songs may well pop up on US teen melodramas. One for the MySpace generation.

Lily Holbrook website

Energy Czar by Hunting Lodge

2006-06-03T22:44:00.001+01:00

I had completely forgotten I had this. It's another release conected to the Bristol label Blood Red Sounds. And Blood Red means the sort of cry an Antelope makes when caught by a Lion. It's just so refreshing to hear some blatantly objectionable noise with not a single reference to melody. There are similarities with the stilted rhythmic assault of the Chicago Punk movement and in particular Lake Of Dracula. With loins girded, I can just revel in the percussive use of every instrument including voice as a weapon.

To quote from their Biography: Hunting Lodge provide the perfect soundtrack to an evening spent dismembering a horse in a glue factory. Can't say fairer than that.

Hunting Lodge website

Racecar

2006-06-03T22:44:00.000+01:00

Racecar is one man: David Alyassin. He has a touch of the Joe Strummer about his voice that sets him apart from the pop/middle of the road Pop gang. If I had to give comparisons then maybe David Gilmour would be appropriate. Much too mainstream for me but a pleasant set of songs nevertheless.

Racecar website

At The Adelphi by The Pomes

2006-06-03T22:43:00.000+01:00

Chicago's The Pomes are a pleasant mix of serious melodic songs tinged with a bit of Country. For me the best tracks are when Jessie Wehrie sings and highlights the Country side of things. Her voice adds a touch of delicious sadness to the songs.

The Pomes website

Mystery by Nozzle

2006-06-03T22:40:00.000+01:00

Nozzle are ex-New Model Army guitarist Dave Blomberg and friends. They play anthemic pop/rock songs backed up by some very powerful guitar playing. Particularly attractive is the track Fatal Beauty that has a violin added (I'm a big fan of the violin). The song was used on the soundtrack of the American Indie film Cherry Crush.

Nozzle website

Man & The Cousin by The Harpeth Trace

2006-06-03T22:39:00.000+01:00

From the ashes of the wonderful band Boxing come The Harpeth Trace. I just couldn't get into this originally. Less immediate and in your face than Boxing and even more difficult to categorise. There is no compromise to easy listening. On A Letter To The Room they create a ghostly vibe mixed with an atonal stasis. While The Man & The Cousin takes Country music to places it hasn't been since Will Oldham took it to hell and back.

The Harpeth Trace on MySpace

The Last Men In Europe by Initial Prayer

2006-06-03T22:37:00.000+01:00

Heavy, industrial soundscapes that could have been produced at any time since the mid-80s. This is probably the CD I most wanted to review out of my awaiting pile. But I'm afraid I couldn't find the words. They play doomy and dark experiments in guitar/synth that lower the temperature in the room by 5 degrees. I used to listen to a lot of music with similarities to this (Swans/Throbbing Gristle) and it's nice to be reminded that it still is being made. I am wondering whether the title is a doff of the cap to Olaf Stapleton (the SF writer).

Corrosive Growth Industries

Twelve by ¡Forward, Russia!

2006-06-03T22:34:00.000+01:00

I really don't know why I have seemed to ignore ¡Forward, Russia! so far. They have the same sort of breathless drive as This Et Al. Twelve was a single released in January and it's an unsettling slice of neurotica. The b-side, Four (yes, they give all of their tracks numbers instead of titles) is also disturbing. This band are never going to let their audience relax and chill. Imagine what a whole album of this wide-eyed intensity would sound like - well, their debut album Give Me A Wall has just come out. Seriously good.

Forward Russia on MySpace

Mirror (Promo) by Liner

2006-06-03T22:33:00.000+01:00

Birmingham band Liner are a confident blend of guitar Indie fronted by a voice with a touch of sandpaper. Tight and powerful musically with an energetic groove throughout.

Liner on MySpace

Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying by Hoover Dams

2006-06-03T22:31:00.000+01:00

Intense and claustrophobic music from Bradford. Extra proof, as if anyone needed it, of the Leeds/Bradford axis of musical accomplishment. More edge than a very edgy thing.

Hoover Dams on MySpace

Echo The World (We Live In) by Wallpaper Silhouettes

2006-06-03T22:30:00.000+01:00

From Trondheim in Norway we have a set of quirky songs that can confuse or intrigue depending on your mood. Imagine Orange Juice or The Associates deliberately missing all the pop hooks and you are pretty close to Wallpaper Silhouettes sound. They create a very efective off-kilter atmosphere.

Wallpaper Silhouettes website

Circlesend by Undertheigloo

2006-06-03T22:29:00.000+01:00

Tuneful Indie music from here in Oxford (though I was living in Manchester when I was sent it). Perhaps too Pop for my taste but there are times when they get a bit heavier and turn up the guitar such as on Silence In Space and Springtime when they grab me. It's the sort of album that needs to be listened right through to draw you into their mood.

Undertheigloo on MySpace

Mass review

2006-06-03T22:25:00.000+01:00

I have been going through my collection of unreviewed CDs. I'm going to have to put them to one side. There are many reasons for non-review: I don't like the music sometimes, but the most common one is that I can't think of much to say apart from 'nice' or 'good'. The following (i.e. the reviews above this post) are the results of a day's listening and the re-filing of CDs to the towers against the wall. A big thanks to all the bands that sent me the music.

Alice Cooper: A Pie In The Face

2006-06-03T13:04:00.000+01:00

I know it's all been superceded by the theatrics, the Muppet Show, the golf, etc. but, in the early days, Alice Cooper were one of the great Detroit guitar bands and Vince's voice is still amongst the best Rock voices.

I was looking for a good early video that would demonstrate their mastery of rock n roll, when I came across this from 1970:

Stockhausen

2006-06-02T10:38:00.000+01:00

When I was fifteen I worked in a record shop. One day, in lieu of pay I accepted a 7 album box set of records - Aus Den Sieben Tagen (From The Seven Days) by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was the first in what became a large collection of Stockhausen music. I have never actually undertook my task of listening all of his music that I have in one sitting - it would take 25 hours solid listening.

But I'm not going to tell you about the innovative electronics of Prozession or the hypnotic inevitability of Mantra - I've never bothered with trying to convert anyone to Comtemporary Music so I won't start now. But I will talk a bit about that original 7 record set. Each piece of music was an improvisation based on a piece of text. The fourth piece Gold Dust:

Live completely alone for four days
Without food
In complete silence, without much movement
Sleep as little as possible
Think as little as possible.

After the musicians lived for 4 days without food or human contact (in the same house, by the way) they start to play using various instruments including a sitar, a ship's bell, a saucepan half-filled with water, and a house key. It sure ain't Rock and Roll.

A few years later me and my mate Alan tested out the power of this record. Two girls had come round to see him. For some reason we wanted to get rid of them but without being nasty and actually asking them to leave. Stockhausen came to our rescue, and after 25 minutes of From Aus Den Sieben Tagen they left and never came back.

The Downfall

2006-05-31T23:45:00.000+01:00

I don't know why I picked up the CD Transporter by The Downfall again but I did. I think I had fogotten that I had given it a not very good review last year. But I have listened to it a few times over the past week and it really is very good. Great guitar (with feedback, hooray!) and a real energy that drives every song. There is a tightness of composition and performance that tells me I'm listening to a quality band.

Why did I not pick up on this? I was so wrapped up in the Leeds scene that reaches across the generations to appeal to even Prog Rock/Post Punk lovers and presents a peculiarly British view of music. The Downfall take their influence from America and update the grunge/alt-rock sound.

I remember after my review of Darlington's Solanoid (who I liked a lot) their manager did kind of agree with me about my observations about Americanisms such as 'Math'. He had questioned the band and they just argued that they had grown up on a diet of American TV/Films/Music.

I wonder whether I am just too old for reviewing young bands. But at least I can say that I was wrong and The Downfall really are a bit special.

The Downfall

Tedium

2006-05-30T13:45:00.000+01:00

I went out for a couple of drinks yesterday afternoon. When I got back I found that the Internet connection no longer worked. It was a Bank Holiday so there was no chance of getting it fixed.

So, what do I do with no Internet? First I had a snooze (I don't normally drink until the sun sets so that was easy). Cooked some food. I couldn't face sitting at my emasculated computer listening to music, although there are plenty of CDs to be reviewed. So, I ended up watching television. How do people bear to do such a thing for a whole evening, let alone night after night? The most fun I had was every time I went to get a beer, the cat would come skidding along the wooden floor at full pelt in the hope I was going to feed him. I guess television is a social activity where bonding takes place in small talk inspired by the minutiae of action on the small screen but I must have been absent from school when they did the "small talk lessons" so that's not much use for me.

...and that's how I came to make the most boring, inconsequential post ever in this blog (posted from work).

But for anyone who has been foolish enough to read this far, here is a reward: iLiKETRAiNS with BEFORETHECURTAiNSCLOSE PART i - gloriously brooding.

Memory Of A Free Festival

2006-05-26T14:44:00.000+01:00

It was 1974, a long time ago and I only have hazy recollections. I can't even remember whether I went on the Sunday or Monday night but according to one source it was Monday. But I'd better write something before all trace of it vanishes from my deteriorating memory.

The Windsor Free Festival was in Windsor Great Park, a place open to all people by law just down the road from the Queen and Windsor Castle. When I say Free, I mean the bands played for free, no fences, no wristbands, no security guards checking your bags to see if you were smuggling in your own food or drink. Free as in not licensed. Such an event could never happen today, imagine the furore if there were such blatant transgressions of Health and Safety regulations as to allow glass bottles in a festival. Someone could cut their finger!

This was the tail end of the Hippy generation. Long hair, Afghan coats or Greatcoats, kaftans. The smell of hash pervading the air. Announcements on the tannoy about beware of the Yellow Acid. I was young and didn't know what a 'straight' was when asked - luckily enough the hippy used sign language to indicate he wanted a normal cigarette and the language barrier was broken - "Thanks man" he said, not meaning that he had conferrred adulthood on me but that we were brothers. I was offered a 'skewer' (I think) at one point and I still don't know what one of those is. There was one very good game. Every time you saw two men with short hair, t-shirts and shiny black boots you had to shout PIG! Most entertaining but the Pigs would have their revenge.

Not many memories of the music since I was just overwhelmed with the experience. I remember Hawkwind playing and they were always a great band live. After them was the French band Gong. A bigger bunch of hippies you couldn't imagine. Hightlight of the act - the band pointing into the night sky and saying "Look a flying teapot" (I won't explain because you would have to partake of illegal substances to understand). So, it was a night of Spaced Progressive Rock. I left that night, relying on my inbuilt sense of direction to walk to London - luckily enough a hippy Roadie picked me and my mate up on the motorway and gave us a lift.

On the Thursday when the numbers had dropped, the Police moved in. They gave people 10 minutes to leave and then waded in with truncheons. Cracked a few hippy heads, used truncheons on at least two pregnant women. I saw the fighting on the television news - or rather I saw the Police attacking long-haired people (fighting implies two sides).

All a bit disjointed I know - I'm trying to stop myself going into a rant about the loss of freedom, state oppression, and revolution against the capitalist system. It was all a long time ago and the possibilities that seemed to exist then have been killed off.

Obviously, there was no footage of the event. But I did find a video of Hawkwind playing the 1972 hit "Silver Machine".

(Edit) I found this picture of what is believed to be Hawkwind at Windsor Free Festival 1973 just the year before I went:

more on Windsor 74

Things In Herds

2006-05-24T23:30:00.000+01:00

What could make me post again about Things In Herds? As little as a new demo acoustic song on their MySpace page. One listen to You Know and the whole evening changes.

You know.
We should be making up
While, while we're still waking up
And the light draws through our eyes
I don't want to miss this at all...at all

I'm afraid nothing can follow it but more Things In Herds so I have to get the Everything Has To End Sometime album out and immerse myself in that. Sad enough to burn away all that scar tissue from a broken heart. Sad enough to make you cry and yet leave you feeling much better than when you started.

Thing In Herds on MySpace

More CDs

2006-05-24T23:24:00.000+01:00

I've been having trouble with my CD player but I have received CDs from Crawling With Kings, Lost Disciple, Apollo 13, and Proof recently. I may have to mess about ripping to MP3 to listen properly to some.

To any band that sends me stuff, you can now see what I'm listening to on my Last.fm page - click on the "Listening To" section at the top of the blog and you should see your name somewhere in the various lists.

Nostalgia Part 5: MC5

2006-05-22T23:50:00.000+01:00

I've been listening to the MC5 tonight. Various live and demo recordings of a band that loom large in my history of rock music. The particular video I have chosen to feature is poor quality but it transmits the excitement of finding a band and revelling in the most deadly dual guitar attack known to Mankind.

Another video that is interesting is Rambling Rose - featuring Wayne Kramer on vocals rather than the Afro haired Rob Tyner. I love the girl that introduces this video surrounded by balloons. Television has come a long way since. But just play attention to Wayne's guitar playing. You may notice that the audience seems disinterested, while the roadies enjoy sharing a spliff and bopping along.

Ramblin Rose

If you want to them in context of what was going on in the the MC5s world then you need to watch a short Spanish-subtitled documentary:

MC5 documentary

Pitch Black Dream and Hey Pablo!

2006-05-21T23:57:00.000+01:00

I've posted two reviews on the main Cool Noise site this weekend and both for bands that I would like to change direction a bit.

First there was Hey Pablo! who are a few blokes from Worcestershire having fun in a sort of comedy boy band playing at being Americans. But they really are good in musical terms. Three out of four tracks on the latest EP work really well and quite honestly, put a lot of rap/nu metal to shame. But having just added OmarTheMystic to my MySpace friends I see that maybe the Comedy link is the most important. Certainly I wouldn't advise them to go looking for the Rock and Roll fame route but they would be contenders if they chose to.

And this afternoon I posted a review of Pitch Black Dream and their album Fading Away. They are more interested in promoting their music for TV and films than being famous as a band. I'm ok with that, but it does mean I'll never see a Pop Video of any of their songs and the video I see in my head would be so good - an erotic, sensuous classic to match their music. Of course, what's really embarassing than that is I have a major crush on Pitch Black Dream. It isn't just Bernadette (she is a very fine looking woman) but the whole premise of the band and the sound they create. I feel almost guilty at the pleasure they give me, as if I should hide their CDs under the mattress.

I'd better stop there, I think I'm digging a hole for myself. Anyway here are the reviews:

Hey Pablo!
Pitch Black Dream

Crazy Lyrics R.I.P.

2006-05-18T12:33:00.000+01:00

I have finally called a halt to my five year old joke. I have announced the death of the Crazy Dutchman, Klaas on the site Crazy Lyrics. Threatened with many forms of violence including shooting, hammers, and fists - he exposed stupidity, naivete, and mainly lack of irony in many people.

I estimate that the site has annoyed/entertained/mystified well over one million visitors and it seems like a good time to call a halt. The pages will remain as a reminder to believe nothing you read on the Internet.

Karma Pilot, Sub-Rosa, and GunsLikeGirls

2006-05-18T00:24:00.000+01:00

I just got these CDs today so here are my very early impressions:

A New Career by Karma Pilot

The very talented Daniel Vincent's latest incarnation. More direct than Onion Jack perhaps? There's a musical intelligence happening here in the same way that Sparklehorse had.

Karma Pilot

Tea For A Viper EP by Sub-Rosa

A Leicester band who have guitars and know how to use them. It reminds me of the This Et Al demos I got a couple of years ago and I can't say better than that.

Sub Rosa

The Octopus In The Igloo by GunsLikeGirls

Very American, and a very good mix of melodic and hardcore. Screaming alternating with singing over energetic songs is a very potent mix

GunsLikeGirls

Diastole

2006-05-17T22:50:00.000+01:00

I just got a Friend request on MySpace (yes, even old people can be on MySpace!) from a band called Diastole. I always give MySpace band requests a listen and I was very impressed. It is particularly fitting, having just blogged about Solar Race that I should get to hear another new band with a taste for loud guitar and a female singer with a powerful voice. More on the PJ Harvey side of things than the totally ear-shattering Solar Race but that is great as well.

Diastole on MySpace

Nostalgia part 4: Solar Race

2006-05-15T23:32:00.000+01:00

This is entirely due to The Ghosts that I have returned to listening to Solar Race. Their Hoodoo Voodoo track reminded just how good a female fronted punk band can be. So many alternative bands try to use a female singer with a melodic voice - and end up with a pastiche of pop music like The Primitives (no fun in my sun! what a lyric). But, for me, there is nothing like an angry woman shouting and screaming. I do have a penchant for the shouting to be done in the German language, but I'd better keep quiet about that.

I knew nothing about Solar Race. They don't even feature on allmusic.com. However, I somehow acquired their Homespun album in 1997. With Solar Race, it was pure, beautiful, inspirational anger (and lots of loud guitar as well. I'm sure The Ghosts will appreciate that they were from Salford and therefore check them out. There's a glorious legacy to be explored.

(edited, now that I have found at least one of the Solar Race members on MySpace)

Solar Race on MySpace

Nostalgia Part 3:Teenage Jesus and The Jerks

2006-05-15T21:38:00.000+01:00

It's all getting so nicey nicey on here isn't it? Loads of compliments for melodic masterpieces and I even managed to mention The Beatles without losing any stomach lining. I've obviously gone soft and learnt to appreciate other people's point of view. But it wasn't always this way. There was a time when music was there to thrill me and leave others floundering in incomprehension, when my friends would physically restrain me from putting on records while they lay around smoking and chilling.

I was reminded of this when I found this video. This is quite simply perfection. Lydia Lunch was Teenage Jesus and The Jerks. And this is what they sounded like (I hope you have a fast connection because this video needs it):

The Beatles vs The Stones

2006-05-15T13:23:00.000+01:00

It's the age-old question - do you like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones? It has used to find out whether you are a Mummy's Boy or a Rebel, a Rock 'n' Roller or a lover of Pop. The truth is that The Beatles weren't really the clean-cut heroes and they partied almost as hard as The Stones, but musically it is still a defining question.

Forget opinion and let's look at the Stats. Google Trends is a great new service that allows you to compare the search volumes for different terms. Let's see what Google says of the battle Beatles vs Stones:

The surprise to me is that they were fairly close in 2004, I had always assumed that The Beatles would be far ahead. In 2005 onwards we see The Stones taking over as their longevity and continued touring makes them clear winners.

Google Trends (Beatles vs Stones)

Being 747

2006-05-14T22:29:00.000+01:00

The Leeds scene is pretty intimidating as it is - the bands (Scaramanga Six, This Et Al, iLiKETRAiNS, The Lodger) have such arrogance in their control over musical expression and their ability to create soundscapes of the passion and neuroticism of modern life. Being 747 are a very welcome addition to this roll call. How the hell is my brain meant to take this? I have a collection of the greatest singles ever made from the late 70s when punk was redefined by Joy Division, The Fall, The Cure, etc. That should always remain my Golden Age because of the great music and because of being a young man discovering HIS music. But one city in England is producing an equivalence of brilliance with all that history.

Their website has a very funny intro.

Being 747

My review of Being 747

Revolution74

2006-05-12T23:18:00.000+01:00

Revolution74 are a Chichester based Alternative band. They have a promo CD out at the moment - you can hear tracks from it on MySpace or their website. They play a kind of alternative pop that you just know would be great live. For me, there's one track that just stands out as just great: Not That Kind. It starts off with a slow building tension - choppy guitar, spinning synth arpeggios, and a plaintive vocal. The chorus (or rather some sort sort of bridge because there's no vocal) is built around around a bouncing guitar riff that dervishly spins your body and head - that's the time to throw yourself into the Moshpit and dislocate a few joints.

Revolution74 website
Revolution74 on MySpace

Canadian Invasion

2006-05-11T23:30:00.000+01:00

I have a new CD from Canadian Invasion, a band from Philadelphia (that's not in Canada by the way), called Songs For The Atco Ghost. It's good Indie music, towards the pop end of the spectrum. Not normally my cup of tea. But I can hear the influence of Joe Pernice in there and that is what draws me in. There's a similarity in the slow, melodic, and atmospheric approach to making music. It's so, so listenable and lush that I am really enjoying it.

Canadian Invasion website

Canadian Invasion on MySpace

Dumped Media Player

2006-05-11T21:15:00.000+01:00

I found that adding an album to Microsoft's Media Player libray left me with "Unknown Artist" in the playlist, even though I had entered Pitch Black Dream as the artist. I tried again and quickly checked the support pages but found no mention of it. Being a Geek, I don't end up thinking I'm stupid - I just swear at Microsoft's incompetence and move on. So I have returned to Winamp for music (a much nicer interface in my opinion) and CDDB will now get the beneft of my typing in the album details for loads of CDs they haven't yet heard of.

What I was forced to do was enter a Genre. How would you describe Pitch Black Dream? I looked under Alternative and found Ambient/Dream Pop and I like that description of their ummmm ambient, dream pop.

LastFM

2006-05-11T00:00:00.000+01:00

I just signed up for LastFM. It seemed like a good way of listing the songs I'm listening to. My initial impressions are not good but I am a real newbie on this. All I get is

'Some tracks you submitted have not been added to your profile for the following reason: The track you submitted appears to be badly tagged - please check the file's tags'

Well, that's pretty obvious - you don't have the CD details in your database because it hasn't been released yet. So I go over to MusicBrainz, create an account, and add the CD details. But it can't be a live lookup because I play songs off the CD and it still shows the same message.

Hopefully, it will all sort itself out. But I am worried that it is just not set up for users like me. If there is a delay in getting the details from MusicBrainz then my listening just won't be registered. As for the Nag message on the MusicBrainz application to donate to them - hey man, I'm spending my time adding albums you don't have a clue about, maybe you should be donating to me.

Oh well, MySpace was totally confusing when I signed up. I hope this is the same and I will soon be raving about the service.

I have it all working a day later! You can now see the tracks I am listening to. I had to reduce my security and let my Media Player talk to the Great Satan Microsoft so the LastFM plug-in could identify the tracks. My Recently listened to tracks will be in the header and I will put a list of the bands I've been listening to somewhere.

Wise Men Say...

2006-05-10T10:47:00.000+01:00

Everybody has a right to dream.

Grant Mclennan Singing Right Here

2006-05-08T00:36:00.000+01:00

Grant McLennan

2006-05-07T22:47:00.000+01:00

1978. One night, in a bedsit in Coventry a 19 year old boy was listening to the John Peel show. A song by some unknown band was playing. After the first two lines of the song, the boy spins around in his chair and reaches for the tape recorder, causing the chair to fall over but in an unparallelled act of athleticism he manages from a supine position to hit the Play and Record buttons simultaneously. The song was Karen, the b-side of the first single by an Australian band: The Go-Betweens

So began a love affair that has never quite ended. More reliable and constant and long-lasting than any other love affair I've known. The Go-Betweens were a combination of two of the finest songwriters of my generation. In my pantheon of taste, there is noise, aural assault, depressive epics but only One Great Pop Group. One band who wrote the best melodic songs of hopeless or inspiring love. One band that with a couple of guitars and occasionally with a violin, could create atmospheres of spring rain, hot dark nights, stillness, and how a broken heart can heal.

Strangely enough, when the go-Betweens split the solo albums of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan were never as satisfying as them together. Even so, I always saw them when either one played Manchester. Then in 2000 they got back together and have just continued producing great records. Simply put, you can play James Blunt, Coldplay or whatever pop music to me - but how could love it? I have lived my life listening to better pop music than they could ever hope to reproduce.

Of the two songwriters, Grant McLennan was the one that wrote the pure romantic epics while Robert Forster was on the more quirky side. I love them both - they have provided a song for just about every heartache, jealousy, empathy I have felt.

Yesterday, Grant McLennan died unexpectedly in his sleep aged just 48.

I'll borrow someone else's words here. They did an acoustic perfomance on a Santa Monica radio show and this is the reaction of the Host, Deirdre O'Donaghue to Grant singing Quiet Heart:

"Everytime I think that it's been completely done and I feel as though I'm absolutely, totally, permanently jaded, The Go-Betweens come along with a new record and take me apart cell by cell."

Going To Gigs

2006-05-04T12:20:00.000+01:00

I don't do many gigs these days but I always had a set of rules/guidelines for them.

Select gig:
Simple rule, avoid all venues where you are seated. Can occasionally be broken for really special occasions such as Van Der Graaf Generator (after all most of their fans are over 50 and need to sit down). Avoid ALL festivals. Avoid Arenas as those bands are big enough that they don't need your support any more and the sound is terrible.

Nutritional advice:
Eat a light meal. Just enough to stave off the hunger but not so much that you will feel a leaden weight in your stomach for the evening. Now you have room for a beer or two before you leave the house.

Soundtrack:
There's no harm in brushing up on the music of the band you are going to see but not the latest album because you are about to hear that reinterpreted. If you need to get in a lively mood then The Stooges first album or Raw Power has never yet failed.

Select Clothing:
Easy - jeans and some kind of jacket. But the important thing is which t-shirt to wear. For some reason I don't know it shouldn't be a plain t-shirt. It has to be one that is music related in some way. The important thing is that it should not be a t-shirt of the Band you are going to see but it should be kind of related. So, if it was Nirvana you were seeing, a Pixies t-shirt was suitable. If it was Swell Maps, then a home-made Desperate Bicycles shirt.

Pre-gig Drinks
Go to the venue first and check on the door about running times. I am assuming that you don't want to see the support bands. Get to the nearest pub that serves decent beer and have a few. Aim to arrive about three songs from the end of the last support band - just so you can check them out and figure out if they would be worth seeing in their own right. If you do want to see the support bands then prepare to suffer tasteless beer in plastic mugs.

I noticed while reading live reviews the other day that RoadMutha has a very different set of considerations (getting ready for Snow Patrol in this post):

"I managed to persuade my doctor to give me an intermuscular injection as opposed to the usual drip today and then I was hoping and praying that the effects of chemo would not kick in until this night was over"

Shay

2006-05-03T23:16:00.000+01:00

Always nice to find someone who links to my blog. I wonder how ShAyChAeL/AzMi found me - I suspect there may be a Triple Whip connection there through Kung Fu? Anyway, I'm very glad he did because he has a video on his blog that is just brilliant. My 5 year old is learning Tae Kwon Do and it is just brilliant for co-ordination and confidence. He is of course obsessed by it. I'm going to show him this video - it is just a great combination of athleticism, music, and sheer physicality. Enjoy.