Friday 25 March 2011

Are you in(cubus)?

Brandon Boyd revealed last week on his facebook which was followed by the official website announcement this week that the long awaited 6th studio album from Incubus is complete!
“True to the Incubus legacy, this record is nothing like its predecessor, but still maintains the quintessential Incubus vibe”.
By far and away my favourite band of the modern era and indeed my lifetime....barely a day goes by when I dont listen to them, their music capturing such a wide spectrum of moods, situations + emotions. I am possibly the biggest incubus fan in the North West of England- to point were I have a very similar tat to Brandon and can boast to have seen them live numerous times and to owning every album and bootleg the band have ever released. 
In my opinion every one of their 101 original tracks to date is faultless in its own way and has help define me as I grew up, from raw funk metal angst filled teenager thru to a technical alt rock sound as they matured into their 30s...no superlative exists to describe how much their music means to me.
In homage to my heroes I will make some tough choices + pick out 5 definitive tracks from each of the studio albums so far and take a look at the new album...

Enjoy / Fungus Amongus

Incubus formed in 91 when vocalist Brandon Boyd, drummer Jose Pasillas, guitarist Mike Einziger and bassist Alex Katunich (otherwise known as ‘Dirk Lance’) began playing together when they were in tenth grade at high school in Calabasas, California.
‘Fungus Amongus’ is the product of this 1995 recording with producer Jim Wurt where the band were joined by DJ Lyfe on the turntables...the album was later rehashed in 97 as the bands first major label release, a 6 track EP ‘Enjoy Incubus’. The music at this stage of their career can best be described as Funk-metal with 3 tracks inspired by Sci-Fi 'Take Me to Your Leader', 'Shaft' which appear on both albums and 'Trouble in 421' from Fungus. 
As a piece of music Fungus flows fantasticly well my standout tracks being 'You will be a hot dancer', 'Pyschosilocybin', 'Hilikus' and my personal favourite 'Sink beneath the line' for the instrumental/vocal mini solo alone showcases their raw individual talent, enjoy...

S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
The bands second album ‘S.C.I.E.N.C.E’ sold over 100,000 copies without support of radio or tv exposure after its release in 1997 which lead to opening for bands such as System of a Down and Sublime. Notably after the albums release  the band sacked DJ Lyfe due to artistic differences and recruited a friend Chris ‘DJ’ Kilmore to fill the position due to his laid back attitude and style aswell as ability.
In my opinion, this album is sheer and utter genius! For me its the only album in history that has sucessfully merged, funk metal with hip hop and yet still incorporates fusions of jazz and triphop - many other bands tried and failed to acheive what incubus did to perfection even spanning the entire genre of 'nu metal'. Flowing from 'Redifine's dij intro to 'Calgone's outro its impossible to select stand out track - my top 3 tracks would be 'New Skin', 'Deep inside' and, ofcourse the classic 'A certain shade of Green'. However, for this riff alone, not to mention the lyrical genius which meant for years everytime I met someone I would "rendezvous at 1/4 too" the utterly genius 'Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)'...
Make Yourself
Incubus released their critically acclaimed third album ‘Make Yourself’, recorded in the majority without a producer, albeit with the exception of REM and Nirvana’s producer Scott Litt who helped mix big singles ‘Drive’ and ‘Stellar’ which propelled the band into the mainstream in 1999. Drive later went onto to be the bands 1st #1 single + won best video at MTV VMAs. The next single, ‘Pardon Me’ was initially not well-received until Brandon and Mike performed it live acousticly which won many new fans and got their name on many playlists the album eventually going double platinum.
The album is a move away from metal to a more traditonal rock sound but still mixes a fusion of hip-hop on 'Battlestar Scralatchica' which feature Cut Chemist and Dj Nu Mark from my the legendry Jurrasic 5. Not only is this my favourite incubus album but one of my top 5 albums of all time. Its impossible to pick a track, however lyrically my three favourites would have to be 'Out my Under', 'Clean' and the track that kicks off the album ‘Privilege’. The title track 'Make Yourself' for me was life changing and I ensure I live by the chorus "You should make ammends with you, if only for better health...but if you really want to live, why not try and make yourself?"  
Morning View
For the bands 4th album they lived together and recorded at a beachside mansion on Morning View, Malibu, California in 2001. I got my 1st chance to see the band on this album tour on the UK leg of their European tour alongside Hundred Reasons. Around this tour bass player Dirk Lance left the band due to personal differences and was quietly replaced by former The Roots guitarist Ben Kenney who began working with Einziger on new songs for a psychedelic jazz-funk project called Time Lapse Consortium which definitely worth a purchase!
The first single from Morning View, the epic ‘Wish You Were Here’ was released prior and reached #2, the band later released the second single and equally incredible 'Nice to know to know you'. 
The album has a sound that is overall softer than previous albums, especially apparent on songs such as 'Echo', 'Warning' and the ultimate chillout track 'Are you in?', however, their heavier side is still evident on tracks like 'Have You Ever','Under My Umbrella' and 'Circles'. My personal favourite track on the album is 'Blood on the ground' for its meaningful lyrics relating to bad vibes with a lover but diffinitively I am going to choose 'Just a Phase' to illustrate their inovation of song structure usage...

A Crow Left of the Murder
After a fierce legal battle with label Epic/ Immortal a new 3 to 4 album was struck in 2003 in order for them to be paid what they deserved the band began writing their next album. Recorded in Atlanta and produced by the legendry producer Brendan O’Brien who worked with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine amongst others.
‘A Crow Left of the Murder...’ was spawned, as an album it is alot faster, energetic and technical than previous albums.The band embarked on a massive word tour were I was lucky enough to see them again on the UK leg alongside Brand:New.

The 1st single ‘Megalomaniac’ raised controversy as attack on the Bush administration and was banned from daytime view on MTV,the band denied making any political statement said:
“Whatever anyone conjures up or takes from our music is good; our point is to get people thinking."
The second single ‘Talk Shows on Mute’ refferences my year of of birth '1984' which is coincidently a great novel by George Orwell, the video is inspired by another of his works, Animal farm. My personal favourite tracks from the album have to be the title track and 'Pistola' for its lyrical brilliance and astonoshing guitar work, check out this fantastic animated vid...

Light Grenades
The band went back into the studio with O’Brien and the album ‘Light Grenades’ was relased in 2006 heading straight for US #1 for one week before dropping from the charts, the album is their most evolved, emotional and mature sound yet.
During touring of this album the band played alongside bands such as the Police, Smashing Pumpkins, Duran Duran and played the VH1 tribue to the Who alongside Pearl Jam, Foo fighters and the Flaming Lips.  

 
The band display their sensitive side on tracks like 'A kiss to send us off', 'Love Hurts' and the lyrically fantastic 'Diamonds and Cole'. Personally, this album really helped me deal with some demons in my life at the time but I still, and always will prefer the more riff driven side to incubus with my favourite tracks being the title track and the 1st single 'Anna Molly' which not only contains a sick riff but the vid is filled with gorgeous cinematography...
Monuments and Melodies...
In 2008 the band took a break from touring and recording while Brandon Boyd enrolled in a university art program, Ben Kenny worked with other artists and on a solo project whilst Mike Einziger went to Harvard music school to study composition and José Pasillas spent time with his new born baby. 
In 2009 the band released their greatest hits 'Monuments and Melodies' which included many unrelased B-sides, acoustic versions, an awesome prince cover and 3 tracks made for the movie 'Stealth' in 2005, incidently dont bother with the movie, I make aircraft for a living and its terrible 'Move a move' being the best part about it!
Two original tracks recorded for the album were  ‘Midnight Swim’ and my favourite track, coincidently the 1st single, the brilliant ‘Black Heart Inetia’ which also has a great vid...
In 2010, Boyd released his first solo album, ‘The Wild Trapeze’ last year which is lyrically a fantastic album but lacks the depth instrumentally the band provide, my favourite tracks being the single 'Runaway Train' and 'Revenge of the spectral Tiger'.  Boyd announced that Incubus will head back into the studio to begin writing and recording, which brings us to present day...
Over the years many critics have praised the band's ambition, it has also made them difficult to correctly genre classify through their differening styles which in my opinion is awesome! Using a wide variety of instruments in their music that are not traditionally not associated with rock, such as sitar, bongos, dideridoo and notably Einziger’s use of Stevie Vai’s pipa on the studdenly beauitful ‘Aqeous Transmission’, fingers crossed for more of this!
Regardless of anything I love incubus and am possibly a little blinded but I'm glad its not been rushed as that is the death of many a succesful band but I litterally cant wait for the new album. 
In the mean time - Peace, Love and Hope to all...

Friday 18 March 2011

Something for Old Saint Pat...

As the saying goes ‘when in Rome’...I’m currently in Ireland so this week blog is a St.Patricks Day special:
Something Old...
Thin Lizzy are, in my opinion the ultimate Irish band and also one of the greatest bands in history. Formed in Dublin in 1969 by drummer Brian Downey and the legendry bassist and frontman Phil Lynott who met at school. The band went onto to produce 13 albums including classics like ‘Jailbreak’, ‘Dancing in the moonlight’ and ‘the Boys are back in Town’. Lynott was one of the few black musicians to achieve commercial success in rock and certainly the 1st black Irishman to do so. As well as being multiracial, the band drew their members not only from both sides of the Irish border but also from both the Catholic and Protestant communities during the Troubles. Their music reflects a slice of working class life, dramas of love and hate influenced by Hendrix, Dylan and Van Morrison.
On the day the 1st black president of the USA, Barack Obama announced a visit to Ireland which coincides with 25 years since Lynott's death. Lynott died in 86, aged just 36 caused by drug dependent multiple organ failure I pay tribute to one the greatest men in Rock n Roll history with on of the greatest songs in history. As covered by Metallica amongst others, the classic ‘Whiskey in the Jar’, turn it up LOUD!
Something New...
From north of the border, Two Door Cinema Club are a young indie band from County Down bringing their unique style of fresh, chirpy riffs to the pallet of the pop charts. The band are composed of Sam Halliday, Kevin Baird and lead singer Alex Trimble who met at school and thought being in a band would be a good way to ‘get with girls’. The band released their debut album ‘Tourist History’ in March last year and it scooped the ‘Choice Music Prize’ for ‘Irish album of the year’ and featured in BBC’s sound for 2010 poll.
The album includes stand out tracks of ‘Something Good can work’, the latest single ‘I Can talk’ and my personal favorite track ‘Undercover Martyn’ for more than the obvious surname similarities...
Something Borrowed...
Axis of Justice is a non-profit organization co-founded by a couple of my heroes, the legendry System of Down frontman Serj Tankian and one of the greatest guitarist of all time Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music and grassroots progressivism to fight racist, fascism and social justice together.
Performances alongside Serj and Tom include Flea from RHCP, Brad Wilk from RATM, Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Perfect Circle, the genius that is Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave, Slash of Guns n Roses and Velvet Revolver, Travis Barker of Blink 182, Hip Hops finest Jurassic 5 and master of spoken word Knowledge, In 2004 a live album/DVD was released of a gig in LA as a benefit to raise money for a variety of causes...taken from this album, possibly the greatest live cover of all time, in aid of St.Patrick himself the U2 classic ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’....
 
 
Something Blue...
The Pogues are an Irish rock band formed in 1982 in North London as Pogue Mahone— being the Anglo-ism of the traditional Irish póg mo thóin, meaning “kiss my arse”. Fronted by the ultimate lad Shane MacGowan, the band reached international prominence in the late 80s and early 90s before he left in 91 due to drinking problems. The band continued first with Joe Strummer and then Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996. After 10 years of ‘getting his act together’ Shane and the band reformed in 2001 and play regular since, notably around Paddies day and in December thanks to their all time 1987 classic ‘Fairytale of New York’ alongside Kirsty MacColl.
Their politically-tinged music is influenced by a punk background yet uses traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, mandolin and accordion. The best way to some up the band would be poetic story-telling and definitive interpretations of old traditional classics like ‘Dirty old Town’, ‘And the band played waltzing Matilda’ as well as my personal favorite Pogues track, with the Dubliners ‘The Irish Rover’, which co-incidentally bankrupted their record company ‘Stiff Records’ after the 1987 release... 
 

Friday 11 March 2011

Something for Spring...

Something Old...
With the turning of the season marking a change - Spring finnaly Sprung this week, it maybe cold but the sun finnally rearing its head for a bit! More importantly with Pancake day last Tuesday and Ash Wednesday marking 40 days til Easter...what better way to celebrate than with a bit of the second coming himself, the almeity, lord of indie himself, Sir Ian of Brown and the Stone Roses

The Stone Roses formed in 83 before the release of their self titled 1989 debut album, which includes some other awesome John Squire riffage alongside Brownies lyrical genius. Stand out tracks such as 'I Wanna be Adored', 'Waterfall', 'She Bangs the Drum' and from the US release which includes the bands classic + some would say definitive track 'Fools Gold'. However, indie is my religion and being 40 days til Easter and all that Im gonna pick my favourite Roses track 'I am the Resurrection'. Filled to the brim with both melodic and lyrical genius, no more needs to be said really.... 


Something New...
Putting a face to the music that will be familiar to those who watch TV, as used in the Nikon ads and some pivotal scenes in TV series like Skins...'Welcome Home' is blissful. Radical Face are the Florida based solo project of Ben Cooper of Electric President fame. This track is taken of the album 'Ghost' which includes 'Winter is Coming' another similar track and something very leftfield 'Pigeon Teeth'. The video for 'Welcome Home' is shot ofcourse, using only Nikon lenses and makes for some great natural cinematics, enjoy....
Something Borrowed...


The Arctic Monkeys put out their pretty decent new single 'Brick by Brick' last week, taken from their forthcoming, 4th studio album 'Suck it and See' before playing a host of European festivals this summer. The MASSIVE hype of the first, undeniably awesome debut album 'Whatever People Say I am, Thats what Im not' in 2006 was a double edged sword as it not only brought massive critical sucess but also the wrong kind of fan base and record companies pushed for more commercial sound. This lead to the bands second album 'Your favourite Worst Nightmare' in 2007, which did include some great songs but lacked the depth of the 1st album. Alex Turner, mostly kept his feet on the ground and stayed away from the limelight + publicity and the 3rd album 'Humbug' which is a much more laid back, meaningful album was released in 2009 with hardly any hype or expectation and moved them back in in respect levels.

What better way to mark the occasion of another Monkeys album? Well, ofcourse I hear you cry...their cover of the Girls Alouds classic 'Love Machine', which it must be said is really a indie riff that was waiting to be abused by a proper band! This fan made video is pretty great aswell...

Something Blue...

"And now is the Winter of our dicontent, made glorius Summer by this Son of York..."
As old Willy Shakespeare wrote as the opening line for the epic 'Richard III', which has many a hidden meaning. For me, I interpret it as leaving the past behind, the coming of change and better times...much like winter turning to spring and the expectations and excitement that Summer brings!
Funnily enough, my childhood heroes, the mighty Supergrass also wrote a song with the same name, which is not only one of my favourite songs by them has one of the greatest indie riffs of all time. Taken from their 2nd album 'In it for the Money', not only is the track bloody brilliant but the dark + moody vid works perfectly....

Thursday 3 March 2011

Foo (fighters) for thought...

Its official...the Foo Fighters aren't sh*t anymore!!! I've pretty much hated everything by them since the release of their 4th album 'One by One' almost a decade ago in 2002. 

However, in the week Dave Grohl's legendry rock'n'roll presence picked up NME's 'Godlike genius' award and 'coincidently' Pat Smear having rejoined the group before the Foo's are due to play a huge UK gig at Milton Keyes bowl and a slew of UK festivals as they are set to release their (lucky number) 7th studio album 'Wasting Light'...proof that things always can go back to how they once were! 

In tribute - I will remember what it was like when they were one of the best bands around and select some tracks from their first 3 AWESOME albums a quick look at some of Grohl's other work before a quick look at the new album....

Foo Fighters...

David Eric Grohl started out his musical career in the lesser known band Scream before joining one of the world's most influencial and sucessful bands of modern times, Nirvana. With Grohl on drums, Krist Novalselic on bass and Kurt Cobain on vocals and guitar they formed a band that lead the seattle grunge movement to a worldwide phenominon and became house house names. Following the untimely suicide of Cobain and inevitably the demise of Nirvana; Grohl had brief stint with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before entering studio in grunge capital of the world, Seattle in the late 94...were he would take the genre to its next level.  

In the studio he recorded 12 of the 40 songs he wrote whilst in Nirvana, singing and playing all the instruments himself. The album proved an instant hit and Nate Mendel and Will Goldsmith were drafted in to play live along with former Nirvana touring bandmate Pat Smear. Stand out tracks from the album include 'Big Me', 'For all the cows' and the grungy number 'I'll stick around'. For me though my favourite track from the album is the Foo's debut single 'This is a call', taken from a very early live performance, enjoy...


Colour and the Shape...

The bands second album is not only my personal favourite Foo's albums, but one the greatest albums ever to be recorded! The Foo's second album was the 1st to be recorded as a band based loosely around the breakup of an intense romance and produced by British born, Pixies producer Gil Norton...hence the spelling of 'colour' the proper way.
Alanis Morrisette's drummer, Taylor Hawkins was enlisted to perform the album live after Goldsmith relocated to LA, this proved to be an inspired decision. The entire album is almost faultless with stand out tracks 'My Hero', 'Monkey Wrench', 'Hey, Johnny Park', 'New Way home' and the track written about Grohl's first divorce 'Walking after you'. Not forgetting one the greatest songs to EVER be written, the awesomely epic 'Everlong', check out this awesome live version + crank it up to 11...

There is Nothing Left to Loose...

In 1999 I got my first chance to see the Foo's, now a 3 piece Grohl, Hawkins and Nate Menel had been busy in the studio and drafted in Chris Shifflet for the massive World Tour! The 3rd album is not on the same level as 'Colour and Shape' but yet still a great album. A serious of fantasic singles and videos followed including 'Breakout', 'Generator', 'Next Year' and probably the funniest music vid in history 'Learn to fly' with a little help from Tenacious D's Jack Black and Kyle Gass. My favourite track from the album has to be the 1st track 'Stacked Actors' written about the fakeness of living in Holywood and is much harder than the rest of the album with a much more abrasive, sharp and distorted sound, crack-a-lacking!...
Grohl Factor...

Not being a fan of the Foo's 4th, 5th and 6th albums I will play the ignorant card, shut my ears and pretend they never existed with the exception of a couple of tracks it was pretty much commercial rubbish. During the past 10-15 years Grohl has had his fingers in many other musical pies, possibly one of the reasons the last decade of Foo's hasn't been so below par. Short-lived side projects Late! and Probot passed me by before Grohl put in some awesome drum work for Queens of the Stone Age and worked with a variety of instruments and artists alike- including: P Diddy, Teanacious D, Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Slash and Juliette Lewis. For me though, Grohl was one third of the greatest supergroup in history 'Them Crooked Vultures' with his long time friend Josh Homme of Kyus and QOSTA fame and Led Zepplin's genius John Paul Jones who made an epic of an album, well worth a purchase!

I could have chosen litterally ANY of this work, however I opted for something a little more Leftfield. An accoustic cover of Elton John's classic 'Tiny Dancer' on a US chat show, the Grohl banter beforehand is a big part of what the mans about, hope you enjoy....
Wasting Light...


Judging from the snipests I've heard that influenced my decision to write this weeks feature blog the new album is very much back to basics. The entire album was recorded in Grohl's garage using only analog equipment and for me, its really paid off without all the annoying over production that is the death of so many big bands! Pat Smear has rejoined the band 13 years after leaving and they are due to play T, Oxegen and Isle of Wight and a sell out MK Bowl to 65,000 Foo's fans. Check out their latest single 'Rope', I cannot express my delight at the intro + the throwback to the classic 'Monkey Wrench' song break 3/4 way through...lovely stuff lads!