19 posts tagged “london”
)
I generally like more established bands, as you may have probably figure out why I never do coverage on up-and-coming, hot buzz bands, etc. So many bands are here today, gone tomorrow.
Here's a band that I see a lot of potential in, The Joy Formidable. You probably know as much about them as I do, which isn't much.
What I can tell you is that this is a London based band, by the way of North Wales, and they have a debut single, Austere to be released August 18th on Another Music=Another Kitchen. I believe there's only going to be 500 pressed 7", that's a pretty limited number... but if my prediction is right, you will regret it later if you don't get it now and when they become massive and the 7" is selling for $500 on ebay.
I don't normally get videos (we're not a video site), but I was given a DVD-R with some cryptic "TJF official video" written on it. You know what though? It was pretty good. I thought it was a well made black and white video and show off some kind of Alice in Wonderland theme. Isn't that "Ritzy" girl adorable or what? She kind of reminds me of KatieJane Garside, but I'm sure only more sane.
Anyroad, I wanted to mention them quickly because they are playing in a few days:
- 07/11/08 Club JOIE DE VIVRE Kilburn, London
07/18/08 Latitude Festival Suffolk
They look and sound fantastic, so hopefully that is the case live in concert. See them now and you can brag about how you knew them when they were nobody. You'll still have to wait for the debut EP in August. In the meantime, they are allowing a few songs to be downloaded on their 'space and the facebook.
Links:
myspace.com/thejoyformidable
|
|
When I say I like folk music it is because, more than anything else, I like lyrics. So when I receive an album labeled folk I have certain expectations. With the exception of Banhart, I don't take kindly to nonsensical mumbo jumbo song writing. My other gripe is this singer-songwriter genre aka bland songs about why you ain't getting regular oral sex or love...mostly about love.
Of course, none of these criticisms can be lodged against Eugene Francis Jr; I just woke up in an armchair surrounded by cheap beer; with the shopping network trying to sell me something that looked like a sex aid but turned out to be a gas powered candle. My eyelids were pretty heavy and the flame wasn't lit. Again, nothing to do with EFJ, who releases his latest album, The Golden Beatle, on 28th April 2008.
The album art is pretty cool, depicting EFJ as a Native American riding on the back of a dog while being hunted by a gang of men and hounds. To explain what is at first glance an absurd piece of art, EFJ has Native American and Eskimo blood and he loves his dog.
The biggest criticism I have against The Golden Beatle is I've heard it all before, a great singing voice and ability to play instruments are no substitute for original content. My favourite song on the album is 'Poor Me', with the lines like 'I favour tigers but I celebrate cowards' followed quickly by 'don't want a world where religion is power'. What can I ; I am a sucker for any hint of atheism in a song. However the best line in this song and the entire album is, '...it's not a story where boy meets a girl, more like a story boy encounters world'. For this line alone I am grateful.
I could relate to 'Mistakes I Have Made', by all accounts a breakup song. While the songs isn't a gritty hard hitting attack on the girl (or guy) who smashed your heart into a thousand pieces before running off with some singer in a second-rate band; it is a pretty decent song about the fear that the mistakes made in one relationship may echo in all future relationships.
The theme of mistakes continues in the next song, 'My Own Pollution'. To me this is a song about the human condition, dealing with the thoughts and feelings that make us all human. It's an optimistic piece, set to a nice electronica tune.
Another track on the album is Kites. I'll admit I looked up the word 'Kites' in google, hoping for a less obvious definition. As an interesting piece of trivia, the name Kites was "applied to the goddesses Isis and Nephthys in the Osirian cult but also represented women who were hired to accompany or greet the coffins of the deceased at funerals (professional mourners)". Disappointingly, this is a song about actual kites or the metaphor of a kite representing the freedoms and failures of life. Strangely, the song then moves on to use a metaphor of a river to represent a similar idea.
All-in-all, Golden Beatle contains exactly what you would expect from this sort of album, the passing references to love, a mention of poetry and some witty lyrics (Or, at least, I think it was wit; my witdar hasn't really worked since I watched the 1997 pirate comedy, Captain Butler). It won't change your life. It won't really teach you anything you didn't know about yourself. It just sounds pretty nice.
Vincent Vincent and the Villains - Gospel Bombs
This one is a hard one to put my finger on. Gospel Bombs, the latest release and debut album by Vincent Vincent and the Villains, takes snippets from a wide range of genres. Although I can see where they get their influences from, it's not easy to pin them down into one genre. Not that you really need to, I guess.
I heard I’m Alive quite a few months ago (another acquisition on a free CD attached to a certain magazine) and expecting the rest of the album to be as poppy and uplifting, so I thought I’d say “yup, send it my way, I’ll review it!” Now, I’m not saying I was disappointed to find that the each song on the album is entirely different from the next. If anything, it’s intriguing, and is the reason why it has been on repeat on my hand-held-music-machine for the last week since it arrived.
Gospel Bombs has elements of flamenco-type guitars and dance-hall style ska/reggae/rockabilly spattered within 50’s early rock’n’roll stylings. The album, as a whole, takes me back to a time of where dancehalls where the place to be. For example, Sweet Girlfriend is a cute little barbershop quartet-esque track about a guy and how grateful he’s not single. I imagine the girl he’s talking about to be wearing clothes similar to those of the cast of Grease and sitting at a 50’s diner drinking a strawberry milkshake.
The main
thing I love about the group is that they aren’t a same old indie rock band.
They’ve captured something different and although it’s not original in any way,
it’s a style that these days, there’s not a lot of in the main stream (but tonnes in all the right places, of course).
Ooh and they appear to be touring quite heavily around the UK, so go check 'em out for me, ok?
Official Website: http://www.vincentvincentandthevillains.com
The Enemy - This Song
In contrast to what I have just written above, the new single from Coventry-based band,The Enemy, This Song, is exactly what I mean when I ever refer to bands that have jumped upon the indie bandwagon. This Song sounds just like a song by Embrace… and when I first heard Embrace, I thought it was Oasis. I guess that sums up this single.
It’s quite
grandly a produced single, with a brass section and what sounds like a string
section (but most probably is synthesized); lots of echo and a feeling that something
very important is being said, but I’m not sure what that message could be.
There would be a wide berth of kids that The Enemy would appeal to though (an album debuting at No. 1 in the UK album charts confirms my suspicions of this... and I admit, i quite liked). This Song has a good tune, I’ll give it that!
The b-side however, a techno version of This Song, I kept expecting it to break into a round of “We’re gonna rock down to Electric Avenue”…. But it didn’t.
Prove me wrong and have a listen to them on their MySpace page. They're also currently touring so hop along and see them and let me know if they put on a good live show. I can only imagine that it would be, at least, 7 times better then their recordings.
alright..... back to it: Sally
|
Discography
Band Members
Trivia Singer Muffin Spencer is the sister of Jon Spencer. Yes, that Blues Explosion guy! |
|
|
I recently picked up Brassy's Got it Made to complete my two-album collection of this band. The band sort of broke up in 2004-ish, and their official website (brassy.com) is not available.
Anyway, for some reason, I've always thought Brassy came from New York or somewhere in uban USA. The fact is, they were based out of London.
I saw them a few years ago, I think they were opening up for Peaches and Gonzales. I didn't really know who they were at the time, but I was impressed with Stefan Gordon's (the guitarist) fancy foot movements and their funky sound that I ended up picking up their Gettin' Wise album.
I also got to see them a second time (this time they were the main act, not the opening band).
The song you're listening to is "Hit 'Em Hard", I think kind of represent the band with their DJ-style mix and unique sound.
Since I just got their first album, Got It Made, I quite like "Playing with D". Apparently a lot of their fans love this song too - as according to their discography, this was their debut single from Wiiija Records.
01/02/2008 17:56:35
vu
my♥posts
www.wiiija.com
Discography
Influenced By Ben Gibbard, Rilo Kiley, Zero 7, Grandaddy, Ron Sexsmith, Ivy, Ed Harcourt, Dionne Warwick, Badly Drawn Boy, Supergrass, Val McDeermid, The Clash, The Beach Boys |
|
|
Jonna Lee is originally from Stockholm, Sweden, but is currently living in London. Her debut solo album is called 10 Pieces, 10 Bruises and was released on October 10th, 2007 on Razzia Records. Supposedly she had released music when she was 16, but I couldn't find any information on her previous releases.
She wrote a full electro-influenced album prior to 10 Pieces, 10 Bruises, but then right before releasing the album in 2006, she changed her mind. You can listen to "Passerby", a demo from 2005 on her myspace page.
She then started working on brand new material with Claes Björklund (her fiancé). She wrote a song called "And Your Love" with Ed Harcourt in mind as the male singer. She sent the song to him and he loved it so much that he ended up producing and playing on most of her album.
Harcourt even invited Lee to be the opening act on his tour through Sweden and Norway, which, sadly, just ended on December 12th.
Regarding the album, I think it would've been kind of cool to have just 10 songs on the album (representing 10 Pieces/Bruises), but there is an eleventh track called "Prints" with "bonus track" written next to it. The only information about this song listed on the liner notes is that it was recorded at Ed Harcourt's house in London last August. They must've really liked this song to stick it on the album (probably at the very last minute!)
There's some great songs on this album, including the single Dried Out Eyes and "I Wrote This Song", featuring Danny Goffey (from Supergrass[W♥M]) on drums and backup singing. It's a fun love song: "I wrote this song about you/I thought it might attract you/Sweet thing now would you like to..."
Although this might not be considered "singles" friendly, I quite like "Autumn Song", complete with its clapping. It made me miss the orange leaves of the Fall... and it's the song I've chosen.
Anyway, in a Christmas-related song theme of late, she's recorded Mariah Carey's 1994 song, "All I Want For Christmas is You", at Johan Lundgren's new large studio.[1] The song is available for download on her myspace.
12/21/2007 00:09:18
vu
my♥posts
www.jonnalee.com
This song, "In the City" by Madness came to my attention recently, popping up randomly on music shuffle.
If you're not familar with Madness, they are a ska band from Camden Town, London and had a massive hit with "Our House" in the US (although all their singles charted very well in the UK).
They are still active, producing new music and, in fact, they're playing live tonight (Dec 14th) at 02 Arena in London.
"In the City" was a b-side to the Cardiac Arrest single, released in 1982. Interesting enough, song was actually written for a Japanese television advertisement for Honda City Cars. I don't think the advertiser actually used the the song (instead opting to use "Driving in My Car" song instead).
So check out this really fun song, I especially love the "gumba gumba gumba" part (it made the song sound as if it's like a horror comedy song).
12/14/2007 08:40:40
vu
my♥posts
madness.co.uk
|
|
Please excuse me while this music website becomes a gaming review site!
And you thought Halloween was over! Hellgate: London was released on October 31st, although some stores received it late (or perhaps store employees were too lazy to put it on shelves).
Most people consider Hellgate kind of a sequel to Blizzard's "Diablo" and "Diablo II", although I think they're wrong - it's an entirely different game. You can play the game in third person (behind) view or as a first-person shooter (this works best if you choose the Marksman class). The only Diablo reference is because these are the same people that made Diablo, but under a new company: Flagship.
I'm not exactly sure what the story is, but the game takes place in the future. There is a hellgate that opened up in London (hence the name) and humanity have gone into the subway and lives out in the London Underground stations.
I've only
played the marksman class, but it's pretty fast-paced and the
frame rates are pretty smooth. Unfortunately the load time is
horrendous, but I suspect it is because I have all my settings maxed
out. Before you add that I need a faster computer - trust me: I have a pretty high performance computer. (Having said this, I will go and check to see if there are new Nvidea drivers).
LIMITED EDITION
What is up with the crappy extras lately? For an extra $10 you get:
- Exclusive useless online-only pet (I'm not that excited about these in-game items)
- A useless oversized box (it's seriously huge, like about the size of a DC's Absolute Edition)
- Bonus DVD, "Making of"
- Soundtrack
- Dark Horse's "Hellgate: London" comics, by Ian Edginton and Steve Pugh. It's probably the same thing as the trade paperback, but smaller (resized to the size of a DVD case).
Really, the only cool thing is probably the Soundtrack and the Comic Book. It seems like they just threw on the Soundtrack as an after thought because there's no tracklisting, you don't even know who the composers are, and no ID3 Tags (all the music files were in WAV at an insane 2304kbps).
The two composers who worked on the soundtrack are named Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan.
I haven't gotten around to listening to the whole album, but it's pretty safe to say that it's ambient and scores to the game. For instance, the frantic fightings might call for a faster/agressive/loud song, etc.
Since I've
only played it for a few hours, I have to say that it's a pretty good
game so far. I did notice a NPC called "Steven Patrick" in the game
that is supposed to be Morrissey. His quests includes "Panic" and "Some
Quests are Bigger than Others". The "Panic" reference is funny
because the lyrics goes: "Panic on the streets of London".
UPDATE: Complete tracklisting, thanks to Cris
|
HELLGATE: LONDON SOUNDTRACK 1.Into The Rift 2.Fight for the Crypts 3.Respite 4.Battle Comes 5.Bedlam 6.Into the Depths | 7.Closing In 8.Lost 9.Ambush 10.Remember the Dead 11.The Covent Gardens 12.For the Living 13.Hellgate London |
11/06/2007 22:04:38
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.hellgatelondon.com
In my final installment of Halloween treats, I'm going to compile some songs about Werewolves. I actually had a lot more Halloween-related posts I wanted to do, but lately I have not been home.
It began with the Greek mythology about Lycaon who was transformed into a wolf from eating human flesh. The term "werewolf" is based on old English, meaning "man-wolf".
In modern pop culture, the definitive portrayal of the Werewolf was by Lon Chaney Jr in "The Wolf Man" (1941).
Some characteristics of the Werewolves (all based on folklore): Once bitten by a Werewolf, that person also becomes a Werewolf. They turn into a Werewolf on a Full Moon. The only way to kill them is with a Silver bullet.
My favorite Werewolf movies are "Ginger Snaps". The first movie is about two teenage girls. It was brilliantly executed, paralleling the transformation to a Werewolf and going through puberty. The second movie does the same thing - only Werewolf/drug addiction. The third movie takes place in the past. All the sequels are very different from each other, in story and theme, but they are all about Werewolves.
Update: I was gonna add this yesterday, thought better of it, but Vu's convinced me... The Ginger Snaps theme, composed Michael Shields and available only on his website for free download. It's hauntingly good! Oh maybe I should also mention that the girl who played Bridget in the movie, Emily Perkins (shorter darked haired one), came to my Uni a couple years ago to give a lecture / q&a session on the show (all 3 of which we got to see free, though I'd seen the first before), then ran off with and married one of the Uni lecturers! And that thing about puberty is exactly what I though, but apparently it is just about lesbians. Who knew. - Christopher.
|
My favorite Werewolf song is - hands down - "Werewolf" by Cocorosie. Coco (Bianca Casady) and Rosie (Sierra Casady) are real-life sisters. They have released three albums through Touch and Go Records. I don't know which of the two is singing (probably Coco as her name goes first in their name), but she has this very interesting vocal style. It's like a weird accent, it reminds me a lot of Joanna Newsom[W♥M] |
Warren Zevon has perhaps the best-known song of this group, "Werewolves of London". The song has a comic feel to it and not to be taken too seriously. According to listeners' polls, on the Jeremy Vine show, the first verse is the #1 "Greatest Opening Song Line."
|
|
Running Wild are a German heavy metal band from the 80s. What you probably didn't guess is that this song (and many of their other songs) are in English. "Prowling Werewolf", in particular, is a pretty good song. It's more like a power rock song than metal. An interesting note about Running Wild, is that they became the world's first "Pirate Metal" band. They arrrrr still an active band. |
Speaking of cheesy 80s metal, this song "Werewolf in London" by London, was suggested by This Episode. The song is fairly typical of this genre: loud guitars and the lead singer can really scream. Incidentally, in doing research for this American band, I found out that there is a British band also called London. But they are better suited for this name, seeing as they do live in London... |
|
Harry and the Potters was previously mentioned on W♥M. I've never read any of the books, but I get the impression that one of Harry's teacher was turned in a Werewolf? This information is what I've derived from the song. As for Werewolves in Harry Potter, apparently there's only three in the series: Remus Lupin, unnamed character, and Fenrir Greyback. I've deduced that Lupin is the teacher by day and wolf at night. |
I didn't know about Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's "She Said" until Life in Ruins mentioned it. Listening to the lyrics, it's obvious now. The "She" in this song are words spoken by a Gypsy, who warns that the singer is a Werewolf: "you ain't a man no more, you're outta control. These wolf bites gonna find out what its like to lose your soul." |
|
Scary Bitches has a song called "Werewolf". Beyond that, I don't really know much about this British band. They seem to have a huge following in Germany, and are drenched in Goth-Rock. |
La Union's song "Lobo Hombre in Paris" is a Spanish song, sent in by Cristina. Since I don't understand Spanish, I just thought of that movie "An American Werewolf in Paris" - the sequel to "An American Werewolf in London". But I am assuming this song pre-date the 1997 film? |
|
The Dillinger Escape Plan's "Sunshine the Werewolf" is LOUD. It's too loud and hardcore and screamo for me to really enjoy. I figure if I was ever at one of their liv |