W♥M

Kernel Roberts – The Sound Of The Ghost

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:24:25 -0500

This post is dedicated to one thing - the greatest pan tune ever arranged and the ending of my eight year search for the original track.

And before I go on, huge huge thanks to pukshop.com - the "world's 1st Caribbean digital download, jukebox and live stream" - for being seemingly the only place on the planet to provide online Soca music sales, and the provider of the fine specimen stage left (that's, erm, to the right then).

Renegades - Sound Of The Ghost

BP Amoco Renegades

Ok, no idea what I'm on about again? What's new... Anyway, for nigh on 13 years I played the steel pan in and out of school and college, and had the pleasure of being taught by probably the best proffesional pan player in the north of England. Not that it did me much good, other than obsess me with various steel band music for the rest of my life. So, back to this track. Sound Of The Ghost is a track by Kernel Roberts, son of one of the greatest Soca composers ever - Lord Kitchener, and was written as a tribute to his father. Anyways, the recording that got me in to the track - a 2001 Panorama performance (that's Trinidad & Tobago's national steel pan competition, featuring ~100 players in every band, and far too many bands to mention, get just a glimpse of it here, musically and physically a logistical nightmare with bands playing one after another and moved into stadia on huge wheeled contraptions, but I digress...) - was performed by a steel band called Renegades, prefixed Amoco, BP, or god knows what else - they traditionally have some big oil company sponsorship thing going on over there. The 10 minute masterpiece to the left is IMO one of the finest things to come out of Panorama ever. Not like I've ever had more than one CD of the thing. Probably the only one ever to make it over the Atlantic in to the UK distribution channels. But these guys are a huge help.

And just because it's the only other recording of the track I've ever found, here's El Dorado secondary school's band's take, with a digression in to something familiarly Wet Wet Wet.... Now I must be off to finally finish learning to play the Monkey Island theme tune, and muse some more over that Sooz one from As If joining the Navy; weirder than that time Vu ate a durian...

Eldo Panside - Sound Of The Ghost

- Chris-panjumbie-topher.

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Ella ja Aleksi - Yöjuna Rovaniemelle

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:50:28 -0500

Well it's been far too long since I've been tourtured by the editing features of Vox, and I see Vu's plastered the place with Morrisey again, so I guess it's time for some more randomness; a baby star and a walrus. I'd noramlly post a live vid, but apparently the performers are only 4 like, so I'll just leave it at that then...

Ella ja Aleksi - Yöjuna Rovaniemelle

- Chris-se olen minä!-topher.

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W♥M052: Outtakes #1

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:53:31 -0500

W♥M052 [download (16 min, 15mb)]

Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

Sorry this week's episode is an outtakes show because I was out all all weekend. I'm finally home, chillaxing with pajamapants and going to put on Messenger 2: The Scarecrow on the TV.

The Pretenders - Brass in Pocket

I am hoping to put together a semi-regular Britpop Podcast show - please send me name suggestions. I'd like to have the word 'britpop' in the title, but not necessary.

The good news is that we actually have enough material to last for a few weeks (!!), so I don't actually have to do any real work as it's all recorded and processed (I just need to copy and paste it into a 10 minute show).

So, in order of appearance on the first outtakes: Ryan, Goodnight, States, Graeme K, Kate and Lara. Bonus: Devi.

Hopefully next week, we can bring on Raconteurs expert Christopher.

08/23/2009 21:49:04 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

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Jaz Dhami - Theke Wali

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:33:09 -0500

Another random pick from the "no one's ever heard of" bag... here's something I just caught on some obscure digital channel over here - 301 (aka. BBC's "red button") UK freeview viewers, it's looping regularly if you want more. Anyways, it's a track by Jaz Dhami performed at Nottingham's Mela festival, and thanks to the BBC's terrible video content security, you can watch below too (original found here) :o)

Jaz Dhami - Theke Wali (Nottingham Mela)

- क्रिस्टोफर

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Brit Pop Redux?

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:06:45 -0500

Well I may have been living in a musical hole lately but one thing just struck me; regardless of the Hip, Rock, Synth, Electro or just Cheesy prefixes, there's a hell of a lot of British Pop acts around right now, and they appear to be taking over the charts left right and center. Well, inbetween Jacko that is.

Almost Top of the Pops right now is young 'un La Roux. Here she is trying to recreate the 80s pop sound again, in a suitably VCR quality vid of her Glastonbury appearance not too long ago.

La Roux Bulletproof Live at Glastonbury

Then there's BBC's Sound Of 2009 postergirl Little Boots, who gets my vote for best Glasto outfit. The hairdo ain't bad either. What? The music?! Erm... you decide. EDIT: Well that didn't last long. Well done BBC, ruining the promotion of artists once more... Here's the promo then:

little boots NEW IN TOWN official video

I passed on chart darlings The Ting Tings until I heard Mrs Ting speak. Jesus she sounds more of a northern lass than I do. Which isn't quite right... But anyways, I promised to post some so here they are in all their delay pedal glory:

'That's Not My Name' by The Ting Tings on Q TV

And I better post this before I feck it up so... more to come in a few mins.
Ooook... and resume. Lily Allen. Love her or, more likely, hate her, Pop's current front woman can hardly be ignored. So hear you go. I'd post some of her Glasto appearance but I think we've had enought of 5 Kbps video for one post... So here's the official vid for "The Fear".

Lily Allen - The Fear

You didn't think I'd get through a post without writing about one person you've never heard of, did you? Well thanks to the BBC's current video-article on the UK Club Pop scene - today it's Dan Black and his current single that should probably be harrassing the charts much more than it is right now. It's not like it's the wrong genre or anything...

Dan Black - SYMPHONIES

And how can I leave without a nod to yet another decent band to come out of sleepy University town Aberystwyth - The Hot Puppies. Luckily these lot were around while I was doing my degree, so I actually got to see these lot play for once. I'm sure I've posted about them here before but can't find the video so... And I've no idea what they're doing now, but Wikipedia suggest... I hate to be rude but... much Sleeper-esque inbreeding going on ;o) Oh those dirty dirty puppies. Anyways, I'm not sure they're not quite as poppy as the above but what can you do? And I swear I've posted this vid before... where is it? Vu? You didn't steal it again did you?

The Hot Puppies: Terry

Update: I forget the Noisettes' current gift to the advertising gods - Don't Upset The Rhythm.

The Noisettes - Don't Upset The Rhythm - BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge

So that's it. Is the UK pop scene back to full force? Or just a pop in the pan? In true DiS style... Discuss. Below. Somewhere. If you can find the button...

- Christpopher

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NER*D

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:15:12 -0500

NERD - Breakout

It's that time of year again... Glastonbury! Unless they've already been done, I might get some Ting Tings up, but for now I'm gonna complain about the Glasto organizer's plug pulling on N*E*R*D's set. I mean geez, 25 minutes late? That's two hours early compared to any gigs I've been to. It's not like the whole thing ain't gonna run late anyway, is it? Just get Lilly Allen and Lady Gaga to stop flashing their bits and changing costumes and you'll free up 25 minutes easy. But alas, two thirds through their set and N*E*R*D, having arrived just a little late for their slot, had their lead vocals cut and that was that, only the BBC highlights remain.

Even if you've not heard of N*E*R*D (that's "No one Ever Really Dies"), you'll likely know of founding member R&B producer Pharrell Williams. N*E*R*D are a collaborative effor between Pharell, Chad Hugo, Shay Haley and whoever they manage to drag in to band duties, and are pretty much the only band I've ever known to try and combine R&B style lyrics in to Hip-Hop / Rock tunes whilst trying to pass themselves off as an Indie / Rock band in the likes of metal mag Kerrang!. If it was anyone other than Pharell, I'm sure it'd crash and burn, and they've deffinately got their fair share of critics (especially for the lyrics), but the result is at least one extremely catchy album - Fly or Die - from which I've included the track Breakout but you really should check out the rest if you've not already.

- Chris"f*ck glas"topher

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Angela McCluskey

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:55:13 -0500

Unrelated to the late, great Mclusky is this lady, Angela McCluskey from an altogether different school of Amy Winehouse, Duffy and a zillion other white female soul singers. I knew nothing of her until a few minutes ago when I googled to find out who did the lovely 30 second ditty on a new Wilkinson Sword Quattro women's bikini razer advert. Obviously I was only googling this purely for the music... erm... So turns out this miss Angela apparently wrote the song "Your Style" purely for the advert, chances are 30 seconds is all there is of it. Alas... Still, here's another of her songs that lasts a little longer.

- Chris"just spent how much on video games?!?"topher.

Update: From a YouTube posting:
painintheass66: "hi ...there is no name for the song..its just a 30 second piece written specially for the commercial...its not available..but i hear they want us to do a longer version...which i would love to try...
ps im the singer...angela mccluskey....wicked commercial innit xx "

Angela McCluskey - It's Been Done

Wilkinson Sword Bikini advert

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Echobelly - God's Guest List

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:09:42 -0600

Echobelly - God's Guest List

Oh thank god, it already has an image! ... ok, Echobelly. Vu's blogged em before, hell I've blogged em before, but I've taken a distinct liking to one of the b-sides off their Great Things single.

God's Guest List pretty much sums up the band for me, and all the 90s britpop I loved, so take a listen if you've not heard them before. I'll leave Vu to fill in anything else interesting, I mean, I was like 12 in 96, I wasn't paying much attention... except to the Chart Show on ITV and Louise Wener jumping in to swimming pools.

- Chris "oh noes! dead frogs everywhere!" topher.

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Ooberman - Shorley Wall

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:30:34 -0600

Ooberman - Shorley Wall

Ooberman

Sorry Vu, I've pretty much given up on this place eh? Not even a cover pic... still, I have my excuses. New PC and no album art installer thingybob. Inevitably Vu will prevail with pics and info, I'm sure.

Hasn't stopped me listening to strange and ethereal late 90s musical releases though. Keeping my Last.fm account ticking this week is Ooberman's Shorley Wall. I don't know where, when or how I got it. I think a girl by a beach sent it, maybe it's just the beachey lyrics make me think that. Anyway it's not like I know much more about the band either, other than they're from Liverpool, formed 90s broke 03. Just enjoy the sunny synth sounds and pray it doesn't snow again. Girl at the end's a bit epic like, but aren't they all.

- Chris "ohnoes my sites be haxored" topher.

EDIT: So I goes to the trouble of finding the art, downloading the installer, and then can't add it as it's an m4a file. And it's not like Vox is gonne let me change the image, is it? Oh dear... Well, at least you can enjoy the video.

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Blur. And Bert. And Ernie.

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:15:11 -0600

Clearly you're all the worst bunch of britpop fans ever. No one got it? Well... I guess no one listened anyway... Well to understand this post, go listen to the the Crimea track I posted yesterday, then tell me the intro isn't right off this...

Blur - The Universal

Ok, maybe it's not, but seriously, if I had time to mix the two together I would, and it would so sound as good as that santiriani thing yesterday. Speaking of which, Soup, that Cat Stevens vid is classic. If you wanna know what the hell I'm talking about, read the comments for my last post. Anyway, while I'm on a Blur binge, I can't resist. I even remember watching this one live on TOTP back in 95. Where were you when britpop pwnd the world? I was in a christian summer camp. No shit.

Blur - Country House

And here's another classic from the tube, as I'm past trying to get this place to play nice with any other embeds... M.O.P.'s Ante Up plus plush toys equals epic lulz.

Bert & Ernie tries Gangsta-Rap

- Christopher.

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