Something furry....

Something Old...

It only occurred to me tonight that I had never blogged one of my favorite bands of all time Wakefield's finest, the awesome three piece, twins Gary, Ryan and their younger brother Ross Jarmin, better known as...the Cribs
It's a really tough decision choosing a track by them and it could have been - 'Another Number' from the 2004's debut, 'Hey Scenesters' from the 2005 follow up 'the New Fellas' or the non album track 'You're gonna loose us'. To the hard hitting 'We were aborted' or the beautiful 'We share the same skies' from their last album 2009's 'Ignore the Ignorant' that features my hero, the Smiths and Modest Mouse's legendary guitarist Johhny Marr. 
For me personally, the song I am going to choose is taken from my favorite album of there's, 2007's 'Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever' and it could of been anything from 'Men's needs' itself, or 'Our Bovine Republic' but it has to be the track  that pretty much sums me up as a person and has been my ringtone for about 4 years 'I'm a realist', "I'm a romantic, I'm an indecisive, piece of sh*t"...

  
Something New...

The Jiggerman maybe the most financially successfully hip hop and highest selling solo artist in history, having not only mastered the genre with his style of cool and laid back vocals on albums such as ‘the Blueprint‘ and ‘the Black album’ including tracks such ‘Izzo’, ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ ‘Big Pimpin’, ‘Encoure’ and the classic ’99 Problems’. Not content with just this, he is also Beyonce’s husband, owns his own clothing label, Rocawear, co-owns NBA’s New Jersey Nets and the former CEO of Def Jam Records but now he is out of retirement once more and he’s got his swagger back!

My other half Kate and one of her best mates Claire have been acting like regular wiggers since they first heard the album ‘Watch the Throne’ using terms like swagger, vibing and H.A.M which co-insidently is the first single from the new Jay Z and Kanye West's album. The album is very much lyrically themed around opulence, power, fame and materialization and my personal favorite track is the genius ‘Otis’ with shades of the Kanye and Jamie Foxx's hugely successful ‘Gold Digger’ collaborative. The track heavily samples from, as its title suggests, one of the godfathers of soul, Otis Redding and ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ which balances out perfectly alongside the over aggression of ‘H.A.M’...

Something Borrowed...

I almost weeped with joy from my third eye when I first saw the bands chosen for the Muppets inspired ‘Green Album’, which lands on Wednesday (August 23^rd) and will provide the soundtrack to the Muppets movie released on my birthday November 23^rd (starring my hero Animal!). Alongside the likes of the genius Ok Go and Weezer (dueting with Paramore’s Hayley Williams) are the likes of My Morning Jacket, Alkaline trio and my favourite track on the album the brilliant, Airbourne Toxic Event and their version of ‘the Wishing Song’ peppered with their genius and unique twist of LA indie, enjoy...

Something Blue....

Its’ been one of those weeks for me, a shit week in work with the end of holiday blues topped of by my beloved Everton losing their opening game of the season against newly promoted QPR...Queens of the Stone Age (QOSTA) are a band that always cheer me up when I'm feeling blue! Hailing from Palm Dessert, California, they formed in 97 from the ashes of Josh Homme’s previous band, the epic Kyuss, they developed their riff orientated style of grunge/ metal/ blues fusion.

After Homme briefly joined the Screaming Trees as their touring guitarist QOSTA were formed and released the debut EP ‘Gamma Ray’ alongside Pearl Jam/ Soundgarden legend Matt Cameron and Van Conner of the Screaming Trees. 
QOSTA released their self titled debut album in 98 with Homme recording the vocals, guitar and bass and Alfredo Hernadez on the drums, before former Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri joined. It wasn’t until 2000 that they released Rated R, that includes the genius 'Feel good hit of the summer', 'Monsters in the parasol' and 'The lost art of keeping a secret'. This album was the bands real breakthrough album and at the height of  the hype Mark Lanegan joined as a full time member and Oliveri was arrested in Brazil for one of his infamous naked stage appearance.
The bands rep grew to enormous levels through relentless touring and the band were joined by Nirvana / Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl as the drummer and A Perfect Circle’s Troy Van Leeuwan on the 3^rd album, 2002’s ‘Song for the Deaf’. The album was both critical and commercially successfully with the huge singles ‘No One Knows’, 'First it Giveth' and ‘Go with the Flow’ amongst brilliant tracks such as 'Hangin' Tree', 'Gonna Leave you' and my all time favorite 'You think I ain't worth a dollar, but I feel like a millionaire'...

I chose this track for 'Something Blue' as Oliveri provides lead vocal on as it seemed most fitting considering he faces 15 years in jail following a four charges of gun and drug possession. Following the bands success of SFTD Oliveri and Lanegan were fired in 2004 before they released there 4^th album and the band essentially became Homme and friends. 2005’s ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ features members of ZZ Top and Blue Oyster Cult among some brilliant tracks such as ‘Little Sister’ and 'In my head'.


The band last album ‘Era Vulgaris’ was completed in 2007 and the tracks ‘Sick, Sick, Sick’ and ‘3+7s’ were released as singles. Since the last album Homme has mentioned a new album is in progress and due for release late this year, Homme has since formed supergroup Them Crooked Vultures with Grohl and Led Zepplin’s genius bassit John Paul Jones.