Sit down kids and let me tell you a story! The story starts 30 years ago, A badly organised Conservative government was running Britain into the ground, Taxes were through the roof, the rich got richer whilst the poor got poorer. Natural disasters, Famine and War in far off lands filled the news whilst riotting on our streets was rife but for a little ray of light that the UK got a day off for a Royal Wedding of Charles and Di...flash forward to now, albeit names, faces and places may have changed the story is still the same.
Join with me and the facebook campaign to get the Specials 'Ghost Town' back to number one again 30 years on for the Royal Wedding! If you dont have iTunes you can also order from hmv for only 99p from Monday. What are you waiting for? life can only get better...remember the 90's? yea thats right kids, post recession spawned grunge...
So, in the imortal words of the mighty specials "Stop your messing around!"and celebrate the band that gave the country light when it was most needed with their unique mix of rocksteady ska fired by punk energy and attitude. I may even go as far as to dust off my pork pie hat and mohair suit to celebrate the rude boy look!
Hell, if you love as much as me download the entire 'Best Of' again, the band that brought the world songs like 'Too much too young', 'Blank Expression','Friday Night/ Saturday Morning' and my personal favourite 'A Message to you Rudy', turn it up LOUD!!!
Something New...
TV on the Radio have been one of favourite bands since I had the privilage to see them at a festival in the mid 00's. Having formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, NYC their music spans genres from post-punk to electro encompasing aspects of free jazz and soul.
The 5 man band setup (of Tude Adebimpe on vocals, Dave Sitek on keys/guitar and Kyp Malone on vocals and guitar; alongside Jaleel Bunton on drums and Gerrard Smith on bass) have worked alongside David Bowie, Beck and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs so need no introduction.
The group have to date released 3 crittically acclaimed studio albums and a handful of EPs, 'OK Calculator', title inspired by Radiohead obviously, and 'Young Liars' which includes the awesome 'Satelite'. Their debut album 'Desperate Youth, Bloody Thirsty Babes' in 04, includes the fantastic 'Starring at the Sun' and their 2nd album 'Return to Cookie mountain' the following year. It was their breakthru album 'Dear Science' which includes the genius that is 'Halfway Home', 'Golden Age' and 'Dancing Choose' that really brought the band to the attention of the world stage.
Last week they released their 4th studio album '9 types of light' which the band have released as a fantastic free movie on youtube, asking friends and fans to make vids for each single and fantasticly scripted voxpops, absolutely mind blowing...you can watch it here.
The album includes the single 'Will Do' and my personal favourite TVR song 'Repetition', enjoy....
Something Borrowed...
I realise I have waffled on alot this week so this one is gonne be short. Biffy Clyro are a band I have seen many a time and need no introductions, I will be writting a special Biffy blog sometime this Summer cos they are awesome and most worthy. This weeks cover is taken from the Radio 1 live lounge, a bizzare acoustic version Rage Against the Machine 'Killing in the Name' from 08, the year I got the chance to see both bands at Reading, easily the best two sets I have EVER seen live, relax and enjoy...
Something Blue...
Tonight, myself, my other half and our mates get the chance to see one of the most awesome artists in UK play his unique style of folk hip hop spoken word in front of a small audience in my favourite bar Telfords warehouse in my hometown of Chester. The crittically acclaimed, award winning Slam Poet Dizraeli and his band the Small Gods (which includes Bellatrix, the World Champion Female beatboxer on bass) dont make bad music, check out their website to enjoy more of the genius. I had great pleasure to see Diraeli with Bad Science for the 1st time play the tiny Chai Wallah tent at Beachbreak in Kent 09 and then my 1st small gods experience at a tiny stage at Glastobury last year, utterly brilliant. Their debut album 'Engurland, City Shanties', which includes 'Reach In/Out', 'Engurland' and 'Bomb Tesco' is lyrically and musically perfect, go now and buy it! My personal favourite track by them has to be the deeply moving 'Maria'....
As i write this I'm sat outside with the sun on my back knowing this weekend looks like it’s gonna be a hot one! As soon as the sun pears its head out over England the 1st thing I so is reach for my Sublime. Hailing from Long beach, California they in my opinion the greatest ska punk band of the modern era bleding reggae with surf rock and hip hop successfully...the perfect recipie for the summer. The band split in 96 after the death of guitar and vocalsist Brad Nowell from a smack OD leaving a legacy of 4 studio albums behind.
Their 1992 debut album ‘40 Oz. to Freedom’ includes the awesome tracks ‘Date Rape’, ‘What Happened?’, ‘Scarlet Begonias’, Bob Marley cover ‘Smoke two joints’ and Toots and the Maytals ‘5442 That’s my number (Ball and Chain)’...genius.For me though it was the bands self-titled 1996 ‘breakthru’ album, ironically released after the band split that includes some of the greatest chill out songs to ever be released namely ‘Santeria’ and my personal favourite ‘What I got (reprise)’, enjoy...
Something New...
This band are one of the best around at the moment, Funeral party are a 4 piece from California. Named after a song by the Cure and meeting at a Mars Volta gig its a classic recipie for sucess! Taken from the album 'The Golden Age of Success' that came out at the end of January, their debut single 'NYC moves to the sound of LA'. Epic use of the cowbell....
Something Borrowed...
The genius singer songwriter that is Ben Folds aka Benjamin Scott Folds, better known as the frontman of alt rock band Ben Folds Five who now performs as a solo artist and in collaborates with other musicians. One of his best tracks has to be his brilliant piano interpretation of the Cure's 'In Between days', taken from his 2005 EP 'Speed graphic' and 2006 album 'Supersunnyspeedgraphic', this great fan made ball skills montage is perfect for a sunny afternoon....
Something Blue...
The legendry Pink Floyd are in my opinion the greatest prog rock band in musical history and most importantly they’re English! Famed for their use of philosophical lyrics, elaborate album art and live shows but mainly for their psychedelic/sonic experimentation which has sold over 200 millions to date worldwide.
The original 1965 line up consisted of university students Roger Waters, Nick Mason and the late Richard Wright and Syd Barret, before Dave Gilmour joined prior to Barret’s departure in 1968 due to ‘mental health issues’. It was this lineup that would achieve worldwide critical and commercial success with 1970’s albums ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘Animals’, ‘The Wall’ and ‘Wish you were here’. The title track from the later is essentially written about feelings of alienation, however for me nothing sounds more epic on a hot summers day, trust...
As pointed out to me by the frontman of Makelikemadeline (a certain Mr.O'Brien) who knows my obsession with incubus, I think I owe his band a plug:
Check out their awesomley fresh blend of hardcore meets southern rock on their website and make sure you vote for them for hub festival peace + love to them + mega props to their fine ass honky gutairist Mr.Lopez
To read my thoughts/ love forincubusor just simply listen to their 1st single 'Adolescents' taken from the new album 'If Not Now, When?' due for a July 12th release...the song was leaked on Californian radio station K-Rock only hours ago. A very chilled, mid tempo jam with an awesome breakdown midway thru, enjoy...
With one the most underated bands in history announcing they have split last month 80's Matchbox B-line disaster will always hold a special place in my CD collection, their just isn't enough British pyschobilly out there! From their 2002 debut album 'Horse of the Dog', which includes the singles 'Pyscosis Safari' and 'Chicken'; as its mothers day on Sunday Im choosing their 1st single + also the 1st track on the album 'Celebrate your Mother'...turn it up to 11!
Something New...
Easily my favourite Irish band of the modern era Bell X1 release their fifth album 'Bloodless Coup' on 12th April and judging by this 1st single 'Velcro' its gonna be something really special. Both lyrically genius and musically fantastic, enjoy...
Something Borrowed...
As its Jo Whiley's last show on Radio1 this weekend before she joined the saga holiday camp that is Radio2, I was going to choose Vampire Weekend's live lounge cover version of Cheryl Cole's 'Fight for this Love' but then I realised I'm not gay and remembered that they are probably the only band in history to successfully cover Fleetwood Mac. Their version of 'I wanna be with you everywhere' which I was lucky enough to catch live on their 2008 tour, lovely stuff...
Something Blue...
With the death of Hip hop star Nate Dog passing away last month what better way to pay tribute to the man responsible (albeit alongside Warren G) for one of the most memorable hip-hop anthems 'Regulate' - than with the greatest hip hop song and possibly one the phattest basslines in history...Dead Prez's track 'Hip-Hop' from his debut album 'Lets get Free' released in 2000, turn up that bass - fake fake r r rec rrrrrrrecords :)
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.
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...
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....
