Something from the Heart...

Something Old...

This weeks ‘Something Blue’ was a last minute change of plan due to the sad death of a legendry musician Bert Jansch, thus the news that Bloc Party are auditioning for a new singer following (an alleged) fallout that pushes the band into the ‘Something Old’ category.

The 4 piece made up of genius lyricist and front man Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and the phenomenal drummer Matt Tong draw influence from three of my favourite bands the Cure, the Smiths and Radiohead amongst others. Formed in 1999 after meeting at Reading festival it wasn’t until 2005 when they released the absolutely brilliant debut, platinum selling, critically acclaimed album ‘Silent Alarm’.

Kele supplied the vocals for the Chemical Brothers ‘Believe’ and the band released a follow up track ‘Two more years’ that bridged the gap before they built on this success in 2007 with the release of ‘A Weekend in the City’. The 2^nd album features the brilliant tracks ‘Song for clay’, ‘the Prayer’, ‘I Still Remember’, ‘Hunting for witches’ and a step into electronic with ‘Flux’.

Their 3^rd work ‘Intimicy’ followed the next year in which they worked with producer Jacknife Lee and the features the awesome ‘Mercury’, ‘Talons’ and ‘Ares’ the band have been on hiatus ever since 2009 to focus on side projects.

For me though the bands defining album is their debut, along with the Cribs and the Black Keys they filled my soul with the riffs I needed in the wake of the Libertines split. The album is and always will be one of favourite ever made, every track faultless and includes the quite frankly genius ‘Banquet’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘This modern love’, ‘Pioneers’, ‘Price of Gasoline’, ‘Shes Hearing Voices’ and my favourite track ‘Like Eating Glass’...

Something New...

This probably isn’t Something New to most of you but I don’t watch that much TV so it was for me until it they were pushed my way by @Bowerthe5thKing. The Heavy are a British neo soul/ indie outfit from Bath that you may not be aware of and are made up of two core members guitarist Dan Taylor and vocalist Kelvin Swaby.

They released their debut single ‘That Kind of Man’ in 2007 before signing to the Ninja Tune label and releasing there debut album ‘Great Vengeance and Furious Fire’. Not having much success in the UK they are quite the opposite in the US. Their 2^nd, last and best known album is 2009’s ‘the House that Dirt Built’ and features the tracks ‘No Time’ and ‘How You Like Me Now?’ which you’ll recognise from a TV advert, various series and movie soundtracks, US readers as it was 2010’s Superbowl theme. Despite this its another track from the album that I’m choosing this week, ‘Short Change Hero’ as used for various games, movies, promo ads and a credits for various US series, enjoy...

Something Borrowed...

The original is taken from the bands biggest album, known as the black album which has now sold over 22 million worldwide and is credited as the bands springboard for success. Also containg the tracks ‘The Unforgiven’, ‘Sad but True’ and ‘Nothing else Matters’

This probably isn’t what you expected when I said last week that I would get back to my metal roots but nerveless, as suggested by regular contributor @N_C_R a brilliant cover of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ by a load of 8 year olds...

Something Blue...

This weeks Something Blue is in memory of a true genius that passed away yesterday, the man who to one many “made put down my plectrum and use my fingers like a real man” R.I.P Bert Jansch, a true musical hero.
The Glasgow born, 68 year old was a legend on the folk circuit and is reknown as the leading figure in the folk revival, he may not be very well known to the main stream but his influence goes deep. He came to prominence in the 60’s as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist, but also as a singer and songwriter. He recorded 25 studio albums and has toured extensively, even up until this year. His work influenced so many artists that I class as my heroes including Paul Simon, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Jimmy Page, Nick Drake and Graham Coxon amongst many, many more

His best known work is his 3^rd album ‘Jack Orion’ which quickly followed his 1^st two albums and contains the 1^st recording of the track ‘Blackwaterside’, which would later be taken up by Jimmy Page and recorded as a Led Zepplin’s ‘Black Mountain Side’, Jansch was never credited but its clear for anyone with ears that its an identical arrangement...