As me and the wife are off to Glasgow for the bank holiday to see a couple of the best mates you could have the Milsky and Emilia, I thought what better way this week than to feature one of my favourite Scottish bands. Alongside, Belle and Sebastian, Idlewild, the View and Malcolm Middleton’s Arab stap; Biffy Clyro have been up there amongst my favourite Scottish bands of all time.
The 3 piece are from Kilmarnock and comprise of Simon Neil on vocals and guitar alongside twin brothers Ben and James Johnston on drum and bass, respectively. Formed in 95, known as Screwfish they toured for years with a much more grungier Nirvana sound, although they site their main influence as prog rock legends Rush.
It wasn’t until 2002, when the band released their debut album the fantastic ‘Blackened Sky’ which includes the awesome ‘Justboy’ and ‘57’ that catapulted them to a support slot with Weezer. ‘Joy.Discovery.Invention’ was then released as a double single with ‘...Toys, Choke, Toys...’ which appears on the bands second album ‘The Vertigo of Bliss’. Much more experimental than the debut it includes the introduction of a string section. Late to the party as usual, it was this album featuring ‘The Ideal Height’ and more specifically this track ‘Questions and Answers’ that had me on board as a fan, enjoy...
In 2005 the bands third album ‘Infinity Land’ was released featured the brilliant ‘Only One word comes to mind’ and in the same year the bands side project Marmaduke Duke also released their debut album.
By 2007 the bands popularity had grown massively, supporting the likes of the Who and the Rolling Stones. Later in the year came possibly my favourite album of the last decade, the critically acclaimed, mainstream breakthrough album ‘Puzzle’, the whole album is genius from start to finish and my stand out tracks have got to be ‘9/15ths’, ‘Saturday Superhouse’, ‘Machines’, ‘Semi Mental’ thru to the genius ‘Who’s got a match’ and my all time favourite Biffy track ‘Living is a problem..’.
Many pretentious fans view this album as a sell-out; however in my opinion its utter brilliance, yes it may use less complex song structures than previous work but it definitely retains unusual elements and the lyrics and subject are very dark, written after the death of Neil’s mother. The bridging track between ‘Puzzle’ and Biffy’s US breakthrough album was ‘Mountains’ released in 08, preceding the latest album.
Late 2009’s ‘Only Revolutions’ again, is widely criticised by many pretentious NME reading shoe gazers, in my opinion however, its brilliant. To understand this, a band must change sound as they develop and mature, by not branching out a bands sound will be deluted. Case in point – pushing their 40’s RHCP trying to play and even write similar music they wrote in their 20s, not cool. Biffy, however, still make brilliant, well structured music...which coincidentally is popular and not is in the same direction as a band like Kings of Leon or Muse went by sucking all the life from their once brilliant music and churning out meaningless, daytime radio drivel.
From the very start of the album ‘The Captain’ sets the tone for the album and ‘That Golden Rule’ sets the tempo thru to brilliantly structured pop tracks ‘Bubbles’, ‘Born on a Horse’ which brings us full circle to them being the composers of last year’s Christmas number 1 ‘Many of Horror’ (or whatever the Lord of anti-music Darth Cowell’s apprentice, Darth Cardell renamed it before he ate my soul and sh*t it out again).
Something New...
Brazilian funk electro band, CSS are hailed as pioneers of the Nu Rave explosion on the UK scene alongside the Klaxons.
*Random Fact of the week*
CSS is an abbreviation of Cansei de Ser Sexy, which literally means ‘tired of being sexy’ in Portuguese, and is allegedly a direct Beyonce quote.
CSS Hit the big time via the internet before signing to a label were they released their debut, self titled album which includes the awesome tracks ‘Alala’, ‘Music is my hot sex’, ‘Off tha Hook’ and the massive anthem ‘Let’s make love...’. Since they’re 2nd album ‘Donkey’ in 2008 which includes ‘Left behind’ and ‘Rate is dead’ wasn’t as successful they have been pretty quiet ever since. This had been sited due to band fatigue and the enigmatic front women Lovefoxxx, “didn’t like making music”...until now that is!
The bands 3rd album ‘La Liberación’ is due to land at the end of August this year and judging from the live snippets I’ve heard its gonna be a belter. Yes, they are back to their debut album best and yes rainbow jumpsuits are back! Stand out tracks being ‘City girl’, the B52-esque ‘Echo of Love’ and the superb ‘Hits me like a rock’ which is somewhere between reggae and Primal scream. So, until August I hope you enjoy this badly recorded Dillon Francis remix as a taster (purely as the sound is better than the live versions on youtube)...
Something Borrowed...
Commercial DnB legends Chase & Status maybe used to working alongside other artists on awesome tracks like ‘Pieces’ with Plan B, ‘Heavy’ featuring Dizzee Rascal and the genius ‘Hypest Hype’ with Tempa T and also remixing others work such as the Prodigy’s ‘Invaders must die’ but you won’t often catch them performing live ‘acoustic’ cover versions.
Featuring the sublime vocals of Delila (who also features on their latest single ‘Time') a brilliant cover of the Foo Fighter’s ‘Rope’ from a few weeks back - “Yeoooooow”...
Something Blue...
Australian psychedelic rock band, Tame Impala hail from Perth and maybe after sharing the same name as a meek antelope you wouldn't expect their music is bloody brilliant! Well your wrong cos in their own words they are "bringing the psychedelic grove back with a dream like melody”.
The track I've chosen for this weeks 'blue' is taken from the bands brilliant 2010 debut album 'Innerspeaker' which also includes the awesome 'Bold arrow of time' and 'Expectation', for me though its the truely epic single 'Solitude is bliss' that pips the rest by a long shot. Also just to spice it up a bit the brilliant video features a man randomly kicking a dog which was pointed out to me by the guy who 1st introduced the band to me...
69 year old Brian Wilson, maybe eligible for his bus pass and in the eyes of many he is an obsessive perfectionist with serious mental disorder that derailed much of his career, however, in my eyes he is a genius. Best known as the Beach Boys main songwriter, the multi instrumentalist famed for his producing and harmonizing falsetto vocals this month announced his plans for retirement after announcing this years Bestival will be his last EVER UK live performance.
A very brief history of his career is necessary to explain his genius. It all started when the beach boys 1st gig in 1961 only 3 weeks after Wilson was given an amp and an electric bass by his dad. Shortly after this he penned some of the greatest pop songs in history including ‘Fun,Fun,Fun’, ‘I Get Around’, ‘California Girls’ and the Chuck Berry inspired ‘Surfin’ USA’ after signing with Capitol Records in 62.
In 67 during the ‘Smile’ sessions Wilson had a major nervous breakdown which caused the albums cancelation, some speculate it being brought on after Paul MCCartney played him the Beatles ‘A Day in the life’ when he visited LA...which is understandable, I’d rather deep fry my ears than go near McCartney’s solo work!
Subsequently, 'Smile' wasnt completed until 2004 after being psychologically overwhelmed by the cancellation he spent the majority of the following years in his bedroom sleeping, taking drugs and overeating. During this time, his voice deteriorated as a result of chain smoking, drug ingestion and neglect.
Psychologist Dr. Landy put Wilson on a radical program to 'cure' his health, which involved him being fired from the Beach Boys, isolating him from his family in Hawaii and putting him onto a rigorous diet and health regimen, coupled with extreme counseling sessions it brought Wilson back to reality.
Under a strict level of authoritarian control, Landy regimented his every movement in his life including musical direction. This misconduct would eventually lead to the loss of his psychologist license and a restraining order from Wilson. It wasn’t until years later when Wilson was diagnosed Biopolar schizoaffective, which supposedly caused him to hear voices in his head.
A great example of his true genius comes from the track Wilson held back from the album ‘Pet Sounds’ as he felt that it was not sufficiently complete. The aforementioned, ‘Good Vibrations’ set a new standard for musicians, and what could be achieved in the studio, recorded in multiple sessions over six months in numerous studios...
Coming full circle, in celebration of the musical genius he performed a rare version on Jools Holland’s ‘Later’ last week, seemingly back to full health, kick back, relax and forget the summer sunshine has stalled for a bit...
Something New...
Rising star, Manchester born folk hip hop singer/songwriter Gideon Conn has been on the circuit for a fair few years now having played last year’s Glastonbury festival thru to a gig at my hometown of Chester last Friday.
Not only a musician, he is also a pioneer of Napolean Dynamite-esque 'geek chic’ movement and not only has his own clothing range in collaboration with ‘YES NO MAYBE’ but he also sells his artwork thru his myspace.
*Random Fact of the week*
Gideon provides the voice of the frog for the 2011 Sky TV’s ad campaign.
After receiving plenty of play on XFM and by Radio 1’s Huw Stephens, Gideon's awesomely innovative sound means he is definitely one to watch. Having signed to Skinny Dog Records, which is owned by members of I am Kloot and Elbow he released his amazing debut single ‘I want you around’ from his debut album ‘New Bop Sounds’, enjoy...
Something Borrowed...
Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III, better known as soul singer and rapper Aloe Blacc began his career in 95 as an MC for indie rap duo Emanon. He didn’t begin his solo career until 2003 but didn’t hit the big time until last year with the release of his 2nd album ‘Good Things’ which features one of the most annoying, but yet somehow catchy songs of the year ‘I Need a Dollar’.
On his recent promo visit to the UK he performed a fantastically different cover of Jay Z’s ’99 Problems’ for Radio 1’s live lounge, enjoy...
Something Blue...
Moscow born, Regina Spektor is an mega talented pianist and singer songwriter associated with the ‘anti-folk’ scene. She grew up in a Russian Jewish family having learnt to play piano from her dad’s Queen and Moody Bluescassettes that he traded with friends in the Soviet Union before they emigrated in 89 to New York due to the ethnic and political discrimination.
Influenced by the rock, folk punk and even hip hop world she draws influence not only from her strong Hebrew and Russian background but other influences can be heard having studied all over the world including Israel, Italy, Austria and randomly, Tottenham.
Her songs are not generally auto-biographical but usual scenarios and characters drawn from a vivid imitation utilising her broad vocal range to its full extent. She explores a wide variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques, such as verses composed using beat-box in the middle of ballads and makes use of unusual musical techniques such as using a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of her piano.
A great example of her genius is the vocal talent of the ‘glottal stop’ mixed with accent gymnastics from New York to East London which is prominent in her single ‘Fidelity’ taken from ‘Begin to Hope’. It was this track when I was introduced to her by a great mate of mine Stuey B a fair few years ago and I have been in love with her ever since. If your new to her work but like this make sure you check out more of her work like ‘On the Radio’ and ‘Us’ amongst others...
Bear music’s blog hit 1,000 views this week so to celebrate a musical sandwich served on a platter of the usual format...
Something Old...
Almost 10 years on from Rival Schools cult masterwork ‘United by Fate’ the band finally returned from an inexplicably long hiatus to demonstrate why they’re such luminaries for today’s post-hardcore masses. The band, Walter Schreifels, Ian Love, Cache Roland and Sam Seigler maybe veterans from bands like Quicksand and Gorilla Busquits but the long awaiting 2nd album, ‘Pedals’ (that came out March 7th) somehow passed me by until now.
On reflection I can see why, with the debut album, in my opinion, being one the greatest pieces of music ever made and being lucky to see them live back in the day. From the 1st track its set the scene with the brilliant ‘Travel by Telephone’ thru to the awesome ‘High Acetate', ‘The Switch’, ‘Good things’ and the truely supurb ‘Everything Has It’s Point’ its seamless track to track and is a joy to listen too, I had somewhat, very high hopes.
‘Pedals’, though lacks any real depth, at the very least it contains the odd moment of greatness with the likes of ‘Eyes Wide Open’and the much gentler ‘Racing To Red Lights’ boasting the sort of shimmering choruses that remind you why these New Yorkers once seemed destined to lead the hoodie-clad invasion of the mainstream.
However, I don’t know if it’s because I’m older now and my taste has changed but it just doesn’t grab me, ‘69 Guns’ being the stand out best track on the album and the 1st single ‘Wring it out’, which is a grower, aside, it’s got nothing on the debut album and considering its 10 years in the making, its no more than filler. In reminiscence to days of old, the epic 1st single taken track from the debut album ‘Used for Glue’ enjoy...
Something New...
The Computers are described as “Neo punk hardcore garage”, whatever that means. What I do know is they hail from Exeter and the standard four piece setup of vocals, guitar, bass and drums know how to fuse garage rock'n'roll with 80's hardcore in an ingenius manner. As one online review says think Black Flag playing Chuck Berry dressed like Elvis Costello and you're getting the picture.
Last week the band unveiled the video for the new single ‘Music is Dead’ which was released on May 2nd and is getting quite a lot of airtime on Radio 1 and MTV. Despite its rather provocative title, the song is very much alive, their debut album, ‘This is The Computers’ drops on May 16, bloody brilliant...
If your around the North Wales area tomorrow night (Tuesday 9th May) make sure you swing by and check them out at their gig at Wrexham Central. Get their early and you will see my mates band MakelikeMadeline grace the stage in support. Chester based MLM, bring lightening shred riffs, hammering drums mixed with lyrical thunder creating a storm of a set and an awesome audience rapport...think scouse Glassjaw although the band describe themselves as "like Metallica, but good". Make sure you check out their website and if you like the sound of ‘the Ballad of Braden Walker’ go add them on facebook and order yourself a copy of their EP ‘Show your teeth’.
Something Borrowed...
Better known as the lead singer and guitarist of bloc party, Kele Okereke took a leaf from the Thom Yorke book of ‘how to be an awesomely cool front man’ and went down the electro house road when he realised his debut solo album ‘The Boxer’. Bloc party had been going in the electro direction in part with the last two albums ‘Intimacy’ and to a lesser extent ‘Weekend in the city’ which feature tracks like ‘Flux’, ‘Ares’ and ‘Mercury’. Kele also provided vocals for Martin Solveig’s track ‘Ready 2 Go’ and the awesome Chemical Brothers track ‘Believe’; ‘The Boxer’, was the next step though and includes some stunning tracks, the likes of ‘Everything You Wanted’ and ‘On the Lam’.
My personal favourite track of Kele’s solo work ‘Tendoroni’ has been remixed by a mate of mine, electro DJ Stephen Davey. Davey goes by the name NCR (Neoclassical Champion Rockers) make sure you check out his website and add him on facebook if you like his stuff. NCR featured on this year’s BBC Introducing Musical master class for the remix day, were he got to spend some time in the company of his idol Kissy Sellout amongst others, enjoy...
Something Blue...
Eels formed by singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, better known as E. Everett is a mega talented multi instrumentalist who is best known for writing songs tackling subjects such as mental illness, loneliness and unrequited love making him perfect for something blue....
*Random pub quiz fact of the week* I learnt this week is that E is the son of physicist Hugh Everett III who was the originator of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory, genius must run in the family!
Eels debut album ‘Beautiful freak’ is a beautiful pop record with tormented lyrics heavily influenced by grunge and hip hop and includes the brilliant singles ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ and ‘Your lucky day in Hell’. ‘Electro Shock Blue’ was the follow up and dealt with many personal issues in E’s life including the suicide of his sister, his mother being diagnosed with cancer and his fathers death. It wasn’t until 2000, with the release of ‘Daises of the Galaxy’ which includes the classic ‘Mr E’s beautiful Blues’ were the sound became noticeably more upbeat, were he was joined in the studio by Peter Buck of REM. In 2001, eels released 'Souljacker', which was a much heavier rock orientated sound which includes the single ‘Souljacker Part.1’. Two years on came one of the most underated albums of all time, the fabulous ‘Shootenanny’ which spawned the single ‘Saturday Morning’ and the truly fabulous ‘Lone Wolf’, which I deadicate to the coolest dog in the world, Sammy....
Apologies for the lack of blogging over the past fortnight but me and the mrs have mostly been busy having the time of my life with our mates in LDN; hobknobbing with minor celebs and baking my skin in the sunshine whilst still finding time to fit in maninading my liver with fruit based cider and gorgeing upon various bbqed farmyard animals with the lads up north....but its back to reality and on with the show!!!
Something Old...
If like me, your sick to death of the Rule Brittania b*llocks brought about by the royal wedding (albeit I did LOVE the extra day off work!) brace yourself t'internet lovers and except a new backlash from the grand old U S of gaaaaaaaaaaay. On the day they announce the death of Osama Bin Laden, I thought what better way to celebrate the occasional in the most anti-conventional way I thought possible.
Jane's Addiction for me have to be one of the greatest bands of the 90's, fronted by the utterly camp and alround brilliant frontman Perry Farrel and the genius that is Dave Navarro on lead, their debut album seeing them open for Iggy Pop and the Ramones. Taken from the 1990 2nd studio album 'Ritual de lo Habitual' the massive alt rock anthem 'Been caught stealing' for me, somes up the day through Farrel's brilliant lazy coloquial pronunciation of the opening line "BIN(Laden) CAUGHT stealing", it worked in my head, OK? any excuse 'ey!, neverless enjoy it...
Something New...
The utterly genius, pioneers of white boy hip hop, the Beastie boys are back! You can hear the entire new album, 'Hot Sauce Committee Part Two', props to St.Helens finest hip hop honky Mr.Kelly for making me aware of this fact :D
The band that brought you anthems like 'Sabotage', 'Ch-Check it out', 'Intergalactic', 'Girls' and MANY more never miss a beat and I'm sure you'll agree that the new album is as fresh as they evere were. Dropping tomorrow (May 3rd), make sure you take a look at the video for the 1st single 'Make some Noise'. The concept for which see the band revisit their classic 'Fight For Your Right' aftermath and pits a star studded cameos from Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Elijah Wood, Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Riley playing the Beastie's at various stages of 'Back to the Future'-esque timetravel...genius!
Something Borrowed...
In a shabby atempt to say my 'Last Goodbye' the bank holiday weekends and back down to reality, I hope this cover by the well known actress and alround ultra beautiful Scarlett Johansson brings a smile to your face.
Litterally a day older than myself, the stunning Johansson is most famous as an actress with a CV boasting 'The Horse Whisperer', 'Lost in Translation' and everyones comicbook crush in 'Ironman 2'. However, she has turned her hand to the music biz in recent years, working alongside the legendry Pete Yorn on the album 'Breakup' but predominately doing covers. Her haunting voice and cool attitude mean for me, she has suceeded were many others have failed in sucessfully covering a Jeff Buckley track, not only a track but my personal favourite from 'Grace'. Need I remind you of X Factor winner Alexandra Burke (albeit a Leonard Cohen origional the arrangement was Buckley's) murdering 'Haleluyah'...
Something Blue...
The track 'Somebody to love me' taken fromMark Ronson's latest album 'Record Collection' has some how been the soundtrack to my last two weeks, essentially lyrically steeped in the 'blue' section its still guarenteed to bring a smile to your face. The album was released late last year (September 2010) and see the multi-instrumental DJ, producer and alround genius Ronson perform with his adopted alias band 'The Business Intl.'. The 1st single 'Bang Bang Bang' featured singer MNDR and the legendry rapper Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest fame, the albums 2nd single 'The Bike song' which features Spank Rock and The View's frontman Kyle Falconer. For myself, and apparently MANY others, the highlight of the album has to be this song featuring Boy George and a stupidley sick drumbeat, turn it up LOUD and enjoy...
