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After some careful consideration I think I'm going to shut the blog down. I really don't feel I can give it the time and effort I would like to (as has probably become apparent recently). It's also the fact that hardly anybody reads it and I really have no idea as to how to change this.
I don't think I'll delete it, as I can't quite bring myself to throw away all the work I did put into it, but consider this goodbye unless I have a sudden change of heart.
Thanks.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Monday, 14 January 2008
Recent Purchases
The other day I bought 2 albums from the Oxfam across the road for a grand total of £6.50. Hooray for charity shops!
They were:
stellastarr* - stellastarr*
Wanted this one for a while, but never really got around to it. Still, probably wouldn't have got it if it wasn't £1.50. Really like the three singles (Somewhere Across Forever, Jenny, My Coco). Hilariously I once saw them live and turned up halfway through the set. Luckily the first half seemed to have consisted of mostly tracks from the less-good second album.
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
I bought this so I coul see what all the fuss was about (even non-Manics fans seem to consider it the only decent album they've) and also, as a friend excellently put it (hi Pat), so that I can better argue with Manics fans (I'm not generally a fan of them), who will probably say I don't "know them" if I haven't heard The Holy Bible. From the couple of tracks I've heard it seems pretty good. Time will tell.
A week or so before then I bought "Live At The Witch Trials" by The Fall (absolutely great, I'll post about my love of The Fall soon) and "Floodland" by Sisters of Mercy, which I've been after for a while. Hilariously the wrong album was in the case so I had to return it. However I copied the other album onto my computer first, so I got them both. Haha! I win!
I've also got the new Magnetic Fields and British Sea Power albums on order, so I'll review them when they arrive.
Music Is My Boyfriend - Providing you with irrelevant comment intermittently since 2007.
They were:
stellastarr* - stellastarr*
Wanted this one for a while, but never really got around to it. Still, probably wouldn't have got it if it wasn't £1.50. Really like the three singles (Somewhere Across Forever, Jenny, My Coco). Hilariously I once saw them live and turned up halfway through the set. Luckily the first half seemed to have consisted of mostly tracks from the less-good second album.
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
I bought this so I coul see what all the fuss was about (even non-Manics fans seem to consider it the only decent album they've) and also, as a friend excellently put it (hi Pat), so that I can better argue with Manics fans (I'm not generally a fan of them), who will probably say I don't "know them" if I haven't heard The Holy Bible. From the couple of tracks I've heard it seems pretty good. Time will tell.
A week or so before then I bought "Live At The Witch Trials" by The Fall (absolutely great, I'll post about my love of The Fall soon) and "Floodland" by Sisters of Mercy, which I've been after for a while. Hilariously the wrong album was in the case so I had to return it. However I copied the other album onto my computer first, so I got them both. Haha! I win!
I've also got the new Magnetic Fields and British Sea Power albums on order, so I'll review them when they arrive.
Music Is My Boyfriend - Providing you with irrelevant comment intermittently since 2007.
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Happy Nude Year!
I've listened to exactly 666 different songs on my iTunes. Spoooooooky!
Sorry for the massive, massive gap in posting recently. Now I've decided not to delete it after all and maybe to revamp it to breathe some life into it there will be much more of the self-depreciating humour and nerdish enthusiasm that all 4 of you know and love so much.
Here's to a blogtastic 2008!
Horatio
Sorry for the massive, massive gap in posting recently. Now I've decided not to delete it after all and maybe to revamp it to breathe some life into it there will be much more of the self-depreciating humour and nerdish enthusiasm that all 4 of you know and love so much.
Here's to a blogtastic 2008!
Horatio
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Video Of The Week 15/12/07
Yaargh I almost did this yesterday but events took hold (they have a funny way of doing that) and so it has ended up being today. Doesn't really matter - I don't think for one moment anyone really cares.
Anyway, in recognition of the fact that the album was Uncut's album of the year, and is sure to feature of my end of year round-up today's video is the magnificent "Someone Great" by LCD Soundystem off their second album "Sound of Silver".
Enjoy!
Anyway, in recognition of the fact that the album was Uncut's album of the year, and is sure to feature of my end of year round-up today's video is the magnificent "Someone Great" by LCD Soundystem off their second album "Sound of Silver".
Enjoy!
Friday, 14 December 2007
Under The Covers Part Five: I've Forgotten More Stuff
Christ! If I were to contiue the prog-rock metaphor I started earlier this particular point about covers, which I never intended to be this long, is becoming something of a concept album. I'm perilously close to Operation Mindcrime or Tales From Topographic Oceans territory here.
Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me the other day that I completely forgot to mention Hands of Cuba's biggest cover-related failure, although a lot of good did come out of it too.
Just after Hands of Cuba started practising properly - yknow, playing through songs and trying to write stuff just like a proper band - we learnt of a competition, probably through the NME, I don't recall exactly, to cover "Skip To The End" by The Futureheads. The winning cover, as selected by the band, would appear as a B-Side to a future single.
Ever the eager beavers that we were at that stage in our careers we plunged headfirst into the challenge, recorded our composition and sent it off. We were excited. The thing was, though, that our version really wasn't very good. There was simply too much going on. It was a horrible mess of a sound-mulch. Double-tracked vocals courtesy of myself and Pat, our guitarist, were perhaps not a great idea, especially as they were slightly out of tune and completely out of sync.
We never heard back from The Futureheads or indeed anyone else. Mind you I don't recall hearing anything else at all about the competition at all and wikipedia reveals nothing about it appearing on the one and only other single taken from the second album. Maybe with them being dropped from their label and all the whole competition fell through. Who knows.
Anyway we did learn a lot from that recording session, which is handy as it would have been a massive waste of time otherwise. It took ages (quite a few days of solid work) but we learnt a lot about recording, which set us in good stead for when we recorded our own songs. Also by deconstructing the song to the extent we did we realised how little the band had done with the tune and structure and thus realised it wasn't terribly good. We also got some good drum patterns which were to come in lots of use later (especially in "Ted Heath", Cuba fans).
Also we never even attempted to play it live, which shows that lessons had been learnt. I really hope this is the last post about this topic for a while, lest I suddenly get an overwhelming urge to make that album about the Peloponnesian War.
Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me the other day that I completely forgot to mention Hands of Cuba's biggest cover-related failure, although a lot of good did come out of it too.
Just after Hands of Cuba started practising properly - yknow, playing through songs and trying to write stuff just like a proper band - we learnt of a competition, probably through the NME, I don't recall exactly, to cover "Skip To The End" by The Futureheads. The winning cover, as selected by the band, would appear as a B-Side to a future single.
Ever the eager beavers that we were at that stage in our careers we plunged headfirst into the challenge, recorded our composition and sent it off. We were excited. The thing was, though, that our version really wasn't very good. There was simply too much going on. It was a horrible mess of a sound-mulch. Double-tracked vocals courtesy of myself and Pat, our guitarist, were perhaps not a great idea, especially as they were slightly out of tune and completely out of sync.
We never heard back from The Futureheads or indeed anyone else. Mind you I don't recall hearing anything else at all about the competition at all and wikipedia reveals nothing about it appearing on the one and only other single taken from the second album. Maybe with them being dropped from their label and all the whole competition fell through. Who knows.
Anyway we did learn a lot from that recording session, which is handy as it would have been a massive waste of time otherwise. It took ages (quite a few days of solid work) but we learnt a lot about recording, which set us in good stead for when we recorded our own songs. Also by deconstructing the song to the extent we did we realised how little the band had done with the tune and structure and thus realised it wasn't terribly good. We also got some good drum patterns which were to come in lots of use later (especially in "Ted Heath", Cuba fans).
Also we never even attempted to play it live, which shows that lessons had been learnt. I really hope this is the last post about this topic for a while, lest I suddenly get an overwhelming urge to make that album about the Peloponnesian War.
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
A Wimba-way A Wimba-way
So, Atlas. Good isn't it? You possibly need to hear the album version to appreciate it or at least hear, as I keep pointing out, that it sounds somewhat like Can covering "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (though I can't take all the credit for that witticism, I'm afraid). There's also a wicked version on "Later With Jools Holland" that must have led to some serious some heads scratching, especially as they were apparently on directly after Crowded House.
I chose Atlas as Video Of The Week (all that time ago, I've been a bit slack with the write-up) because it was a sort of anthem of last term, being played almost constantly at clubs and house parties, much to the chagrin of a friend who doesn't really like the song. A similar, but less strong role, was played by the stuff off the latest Of Montreal album, especially "Heimdelsgate Like A Promethean Curse".
It's quite interesting how these things happen, and a social group can develop it's own sort of personal soundtrack, which is usually specific to a certain time as well. Last term was most definitely the term of Roxy Music, especially "In Every Dream Home A Heartache". Man, if there's a better song about having sex with an inflatable doll I don't wanna know about it.
I could write more about this, as its pretty interesting from a sociological perspective, but I've got enough of a headache as it is.
I chose Atlas as Video Of The Week (all that time ago, I've been a bit slack with the write-up) because it was a sort of anthem of last term, being played almost constantly at clubs and house parties, much to the chagrin of a friend who doesn't really like the song. A similar, but less strong role, was played by the stuff off the latest Of Montreal album, especially "Heimdelsgate Like A Promethean Curse".
It's quite interesting how these things happen, and a social group can develop it's own sort of personal soundtrack, which is usually specific to a certain time as well. Last term was most definitely the term of Roxy Music, especially "In Every Dream Home A Heartache". Man, if there's a better song about having sex with an inflatable doll I don't wanna know about it.
I could write more about this, as its pretty interesting from a sociological perspective, but I've got enough of a headache as it is.
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Christmas Is Awesome
Surprise video fun for you all today. Take a look at this. In case you can't be bothered to read the blurb English metallers Reuben have released a Christmas song in the hope of there being a decent Christmas number one this year. They probably won't succeed but I would dearly love it to so please download it. It's available on iTunes from 17th of December.
It would be churlish if I didn't, at some point, talk about Christmas songs. I've been thinking and I can only think of three good Christmas songs so far. They are "Fairytale of New York" (no surprises there) "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses and Mike Oldfield's "In Dulci Jubilo" (this is maybe my guilty Christmas pleasure, although it does have an awesome guitar solo). As far as I'm concerned, though I suspect you don't need me to tell you this, all other Christmas songs are mawkish, tatty, or just generally bad for one reason or another. There are less well known bands who have made good ones, such as Xfm's Christmas compilation or Low's Christmas album, but you're unlikely to hear those blasting out in Debenhams.
Incidentally I was quite glad when Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" got to number one. I prefer the original but it really pissed off Justin Hawkins from The Darkness, and meant his band's dismally depressing effort didn't win.
I also need to shit off the part of my brain that makes stupid suggestions. Today I came up with the idea of doing an album called "A Very Doomy Christmas" and, amazingly, the more I think about it the more I like it. Any ideas how this could be done?
It would be churlish if I didn't, at some point, talk about Christmas songs. I've been thinking and I can only think of three good Christmas songs so far. They are "Fairytale of New York" (no surprises there) "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses and Mike Oldfield's "In Dulci Jubilo" (this is maybe my guilty Christmas pleasure, although it does have an awesome guitar solo). As far as I'm concerned, though I suspect you don't need me to tell you this, all other Christmas songs are mawkish, tatty, or just generally bad for one reason or another. There are less well known bands who have made good ones, such as Xfm's Christmas compilation or Low's Christmas album, but you're unlikely to hear those blasting out in Debenhams.
Incidentally I was quite glad when Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" got to number one. I prefer the original but it really pissed off Justin Hawkins from The Darkness, and meant his band's dismally depressing effort didn't win.
I also need to shit off the part of my brain that makes stupid suggestions. Today I came up with the idea of doing an album called "A Very Doomy Christmas" and, amazingly, the more I think about it the more I like it. Any ideas how this could be done?
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