Saturday, 3rd February 2007
All my musical chatter will be posted on my indie mp3 blog 'Song, by Toad' from now on.
Friday, 18th August 2006
Mediocre
Indie makes me cross
- In
recent months there have been an awful lot of heralded young rock groups
who are just plain shit. The NME gets over-excited, singles are released,
gigs sell out and once the recorded music actually sees the light of day
it slowly dawns on everyone: 'my gosh, these lot really aren't very good
at all, are they? They're not even as splendidly mediocre as the latest
Red Hot Chilli Peppers album.' And then we all move on to lionise some
other shite new emerging group as if they'd never existed.
I have been conned into buying so many really, really poor albums recently
on the strength of the building excitement of the music press, so I thought
it was time to name and shame the fuckers, just in case people thought
my loathing was reserved for the Katie Meluas of this world, well no,
there are albums and albums worth of tortured, emotive fucking dismal
indie music out there that drive me nuts. Behold the wall of shame:
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We Are Scientists
- and we are SHIT!
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The Feeling
- The only feeling I get
from this lot is that dawning realisation that we are being had,
once more. These people make me envy that copper in Reservoir Dogs
who got his ear cut off.
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The Kooks
- Like the bastard offspring
of Maroon 5 and The Delays - two of the worst, limpest, emptiest,
gayest examples of pop garbage I have heard for years. Yuck.
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The Automatic
- had a bit more of a go
than the others but ultimately produced nothing more than a couple
of mediocre radio singles. Why did they even bother if they were
going to be this ordinary?
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Forward
Russia - ANY band
with stupid fucking punctuation in the name is bound to be dire
- see Stellastarr* for proof. In fact, I think that every time a
band puts stupid punctuation in their album title or in their name
then god bludgeons a kitten to death with a corpse of an aborted
foetus. I know this is true, I looked it up.
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Kasabian
- Apparentlythey reckon
there are songs on this album 'so good only Kasabian could have
written them'. Whilst I do not want to dispute the accuracy of this
claim I am fairly certain they actually intended it as a compliment
when they said it. Perhaps this is because they are a big, wriggling
bag of cunts.
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New
things, new things - I
am rather looking forward to these...
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Wednesday, 21st June 2006
Greetings Tunesters - It's a bit of a thin time for music at the moment, with not too much coming out in the immediate future. There as been some excellent stuff recently though, with superb releases by The Raconteurs and Dirty Pretty Things. The reviews section includes all this stuff as well as stuff by Bruce Springsteen, Adem, The Fiery Furnaces, My Latest Novel and others. Click here...
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It's that
time of year, once
again...
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T on the Fringe - Edinburgh 2006 - I love this part of living in Edinburgh. Most of the year the onl decent gigs to be found involve repeated travel back and forth to Glasgow which, with all due respect to the city, is a tremendous chore. For one month only, however, the tables turn and all sorts of excellent groups come and play in Edinburgh as part of the Festival Fringe. This year is pretty much the best year yet in terms of lineup, and I shall be attending loads of them: Richard Hawley, Euros Childs, Dirty Pretty Things, The Raconteurs, The Fratellis, Plan B, Regina Spektor and Maximo Park. For a full line up click on the icon left, or here... |
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New
things, new things - I
am rather looking forward to these...
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Monday, 8th May 2006
Salutations once more - Plenty of excellent tuneage at the moment. I have been to four gigs of consistently high quality, and jotted down some witterings about a few recent albums at long last.
Albums recently reviewed
include:
Howe
Gelb hops the gospel bandwagon with Sno Angel Like You; Calexico
take another small step towards the mainstream with Garden Ruin; The
Flaming Lips are shite; and Neko
Case is not half bad. To read the reviews, click
here...
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And of course,
there were
the gigs...
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Jenny Lewis
& the Watson Twins -
Glasgow University Union Debating Chambers I
generally don't like many female-fronted groups, but Jenny Lewis
was every bit the indie goddess. Plenty of charisma, easy on the
eye indeed, and between her and the Watsons there were three absolutely
fantastic female voices to enjoy. Things got better as the gig progressed
from pitch-perfect renditions of album tracks, to more and more
esoteric gospel-tinged obscurata, and a couple of superb new songs.
Kudos also to Jonathan Rice, who opened and played in Jenny's band - his songs were superb and although he seemed a little shy at times on-stage, his wit and warmth impressed pretty much everyone. First class stuff. |
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The Fiery
Furnaces - Glasgow,
ABC2 Eccentric
fiddling about be buggered, this lot rock live! The songs
were completely different to any recognisable album version, which
was excellent, and the new stuff sounded superb. Roll on the next
album.
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The Eighteenth
Day of May - Glasgow,
ABC2 There
was hardly anyone there, but in the excellent style of a Glasgow
audience they made a heck of a racket. A really good performance,
and one very promising new song from the promised second album.
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Willard
Grant Conspiracy - Glasgow,
ABC2 Oh
yes indeed, they were excellent. Robert Fisher's must be my favourite
voice in rock at this point and doesn't it sound mighty fine live.
They closed with the epic, wild, Let It Roll - a great evening.
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Just a note about sound guys: Not withstanding my brother Ben's professional views I have two contrasting experiences. Jenny Lewis's sound guy at the Glasgow Uni gig got things wrong at the start but adjusted very fast. The Willards played the ABC2, which is a professional venue and their sound muppet had to be told what to do (ie: more vocals, please) by Robert Fisher about three songs into the set. And only then did things improve. Retard.
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New
things, new things - I
am rather looking forward to these...
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Monday, 10th April 2006
Greetings
- There's not a lot
of new stuff in the reviews section this time as I've not had a chance
to really absorb a lot of the new albums yet, but there is an indication
of what will be coming shortly. I have had a chance to write about:
The Proposition - Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' rather simmering soundtrack
to the film of the same name.
Willard Grant Conspiracy - Let It Roll. They really are just ace, aren't
they!
What I have done recently is attend a lot of gigs, with quite a few more to come. The Decemberists and Clem Snide were excellent, but that was a few months ago. More recently I've seen Micah P Hinson and Belle & Sebastian through in Glasgow. Micah was excellent - ragged and raw and intense - but B&S were a bit disappointing. All you really got was an immaculate run through of their songs, which you can hear on any album. Personally I prefer a bit more from a live show - slightly different arrangements, a bit more energy, some chat, something more than you can get from just listening to their records. Micah gave us that, B&S didn't really.
Upcoming gigs: Eighteenth Day of May, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, The Fiery Furnaces, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Eels, The New Pornographers and Jolie Holland. All these are through in Glasgow, which is a bit of a chore, but it's an excellent time for gig going, clearly. The only one I'm going to miss is Calexico, who are playing in Manchester which is just a little too far away.
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Imminent
new releases - interesting
stuff on the horizon...
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Grandaddy
- Just Like The Fambly
Cat This is tragically going
to be Grandaddy's swansong. The only real plus is that Jason Lytle
is retiring to Montana to get away from it all, so perhaps some
more tunes might eventually come our way... Go to www.grandaddylandscape.com
to hear a couple of excellent tasters for the new record,
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Lambchop
- The Decline of the
Country & Western Civillisation To
say that I am an ardent Lambchop fan would be an exaggeration, but
when they are good they are absolutely brilliant. This is an eclectic
collection of b-sides and unreleased material, so it could be really
quite interesting.
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The Divine
Comedy - Victory for
the Comic Muse Neil Hannon
hasn't been brilliant for a while now, so I'm really undecided about
just how exciting I actually find the possibility of a new album.
I may give it a go, and I may give it a miss.
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The Stills
- Without Feathers A
friend of mine has somehow managed to hear this album already, shock
horror, and describes it thus: 'Nothing at all like the first one,
but it still rocks. I wish they'd kept some of the old style, but
it's still good'. There we go then.
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Reviews
approaching in the near future...
I have purchased these albums, but haven't listened to them enough to know what I really think yet. I'll review them in a couple of weeks. |
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Tuesday, 28th February 2006
Salutations
- I've just added my thoughts on the following albums to
the reviews section:
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins
white gospel spectacular - Rabbit Fur Coat.
The rejuvenated new album from The Strokes.
The highly anticipated yet slightly disappointing Arctic Monkeys
debut.
Mark Langegan's collaboration with former Belle
& Sebastian chanteuse Isobel Campbell.
The new album by Belle & Sebastian themselves.
Surprise splendiferousness from English psych-folksters The
Eighteenth Day Of May.
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Reviews
approaching in the near future...
One highly anticipated new release, and a couple I really should have already. |
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Tardy Discoveries
- I know, I
know, I should've listened...
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King Creosote - KC Rules OK I suspected I recognised his voice for ages until it clicked, but the link was so obscure I discounted it as impossible. I thought the early nineties Glasgow folk/bluegrass collective The Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra (later renamed the Khartoum Heroes for legal reasons - bah, humbug.) were no more more than a distant twinkle in the eye of the most extreme kind of anorak, but no, it's true, King Creosote is indeed that Kenny Anderson! This is apparently what he wandered off to do when the constrictions of being in a group became a little too much. It's brilliant, less mainstream folk-rock, and more gentle songwriting and story-telling with the folk influences far more subtle these days. But there's just enough of Kenny Anderson in it for me to recognise him some ten years later. Ooh, it's enough to make you want a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. |
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Sufjan Stevens
- Illinoise I never really
took to Michigan, nor his earlier one with the swan drawing on the
front, so I never bought Illinoise. Cue Uncut compliation, one brilliant
song, one speculative purchase and one rather inevitable revision
of opinions. This is a great album, silly song titles aside, and
very much part of that folk revival I am enjoying such a lot.
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New Year's Day, 2006
Top ten best albums of the year completed here, for those who are interested...
A bit about the Arctic Monkeys... When Napster first blew up all over the music scene about six years ago there was an outcry about the evils of digital music - how it would take funding away from the hard-working artists, how it was stealing, etc etc.. Soon they were able to demonstrate the onset of this apocalypse by turning our attention to declining sales of major artists and by adding up the number of downloads taking place and multiplying it by something to show just how much we evil downloaders were stealing from them... [more]
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Shortly
to be reviewed - purchased
as soon as I get my first 2006 wage!
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Ryan Adams
& The Cardinals -
29 I should
really have bought this last year, as it was released in early December,
but given the pressures of Christmas presents etc.. I didn't. It
also snuck up with very little publicity, so I was taken a little
by surprise. That'll be put right soon though!
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The Strokes-
First Impressions Of Earth Given
the relative disappointment of their last album, I wouldn't be too
excited about this, but the reviews reckon it's really good, and
something of a change of direction, so I think I'll give it a go.
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The Arctic
Monkeys - Whatever People
Say I Am, That's What I'm Not To
be honest, I'm just curious to see if this lot are as good as people
say they are. And their new business model should have big labels
quaking in their boots - and quite bloody rightly so!
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New
this year...
Some more distant new releases for 2006 that I am really looking forward to. |
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12th November 2005
RANT follows:
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Katie Mellifluous |
T. K. Cuntstall |
I honestly despair of the human race when I see this sort of unmitigated dross. Who buys this crap? Is it perchance the same people who shelled out for Norah Jones, Dido, Jamie Cullum and the rest of this brain-numbingly dull, pointless genre of dinner party music for the terminally vacant? Music like this makes my ears bleed. Labia FM may love this shite, but it is just the sort of teeth-grating effluent the discovery of which in the CD collections of one's friends should cause those friends to be jettisoned forever. The worst part about it is the pretension to artistic merit. I actually saw Katie MeluArse on telly the other day saying 'I'm don't thing I'm a star, but I think my music is.' Not a star, Katie, what you are is a cunt! |
Rant over. And breathe...
What's on my CD player at the moment...
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Bob
Dylan |
The
Decemberists |
Razorlight |
Riff
Raff |
Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club |
