So many songs we forgot to play

This is going to be an odds-and-ends kind of post.

I've been listening to Youth Group. It's a band from Australia. One of the members was the bassist for The Vines. Youth Group doesn't sound anything like The Vines. They're inspirational, wistful, and intensely melodic. There's a sort of fuzz. As of waves crashing of a shore, perhaps. As of civilizations ending - but gently. I don't know how else to describe it. Cathartic works too. I first heard them doing a cover of Alphaville's "Forever Young"...on the O.C. [Yes, I admit it, I used to watch the O.C. Mostly because of Mischa Barton.]

Anyway, the name Youth Group, and the O.C. connection set the listener up nicely. You expect crappy teen angst. Perhaps there is a little (angst, not crap). But somehow, it works. And the lead singer has a great voice. Emotive and dreamlike. In order to show that they do more than just covers, I'm posting two of their own songs.

I just heard their album "Casino Twilight Dogs" twice in a row. Good stuff. Not amazing, or brilliantly creative. Just good. And I really like it. I heard it on my friends fancy headphones, which make use of his fancy soundcard. Technology works.

Youth Group - Dead Zoo
Youth Group - Under the Underpass
Youth Group - Forever Young (Alphaville cover)

~

I love to look at people's assorted folders. They tell you so much about a person's tastes, in this age of complete discographies. Here are some favourites - oddities, guilty pleasures, and so on and so forth.

1990s - not just an embarassingly unhip decade, it's also the name of a band. And the lead singer has wonderfully British bad teeth.

1990s - You're Supposed To Be My Friend

The song "Boston" by Augustana gets a lot of airplay here. It's one of those songs you might dismiss as typical American blah, but give it a second listen, and it turns out to be a pretty little song. The lyrics are sweet, and the rising chorus is sung only once, so you feel like hitting repeat.

Augustana - Boston

Mika has been getting some press, both favourable and unfavourable. He's what you might call "infectiously catchy". There's a clear Freddie Mercury influence, but that's not too bad. Before The Darkness showed up, Queen's influence seemed non-existent. Anyway, "Grace Kelly" is a song whose exuberance is hard to deny.

Mika - Grace Kelly

Next up, some intense electronic music from the French DJ SebastiAn. Hyper.

SebastiAn - Ross Ross Ross

Here's something really wack. Hard 'n' Phirm's Rodeohead. That's right. Rodeohead. It's a medley of Radiohead covers - done in the style of bluegrass. Sheer genius.

Hard 'n' Phirm - Rodeohead

Lastly, I want to recommend Beirut. I guess one could put them in the general category of Neutral Milk Hotel, if one were the categorizing type. I like a few of their songs.

Beirut - Postcards from Italy
Beirut - Scenic World

In other news, the sixth White Stripes album is out. Listen to it.

[I've done a little maintenance, as far as the blog's template is concerned. Now it should be easier to look at, and comment on, posts by each member of the team, assuming that this blog will now get multiple posts per week, now that everyone seems to be actively contributing. Feel free to apply other labels to your posts, like "pop", "metal", "funky" or whatever.]

Fairies, Claymores and Bagpipes

First post after being a member for...I don't even remember. It was going to be on Japanese pop/rock, but Yohan's post on The Arctic Monkey's and my recent hike around Scotland and RockNess 2007 made me change my mind.

I haven't been able to find copies of all these songs because many of them I just heard live or in pubs and buses across Scotland, but you can find most of them on www.radioblogclub.com, a rather remarkable site.

Unlike their Irish neighbours, Scottish musicians have never really made a big impact in the rock and roll world. Perhaps the best known names would be Franz Ferdinand and now, KT Tunstall (who actually went to college with Snow Patrol and our good friend, Duncan)... and if you really push it, the Young brothers from AC/DC who were half Scottish. It so turns out that the tiny nation of Scotland has churned out some pretty popular music, many of which sounds too American or British to make us think that they'd be of Scottish pedigree. After all, what would we expect Scottish music to sound like? Screaming cats and bagpipes? Well, here's a small sampling, make up your own mind...

First we have Snow Patrol, a band formed in University of Dundee where Duncan went to college. These guys are pretty much like any other american alternative band, but it's worth a listen to some of their stuff; "Run", "Chasing Cars", "Signal Fire", "You're All I Have" and "Spitting Games". You might have heard the first three songs in the disastrous Spiderman 3 movie.

Paolo Nutini is another up and coming musician with some smooth beats, semi-gruff voice, and catchy lyrics. Here are a few recommendations: "New Shoes", "Jenny Don't Be Hasty", and "Last Request".

I don't know if you remember an old jeans ad with the song "pressure, pressure, pressure", but that was The Zutons. They've done some great work with "Pressure Point", "Valerie", and "Oh Stacey". Although they supposedly formed in Liverpool, Duncan claims that they were initially led by 2 Glaswegians and a prat from Edinburgh.

Before our trip to Scotland, Pragyan and I were discussing what heavy rock bagpipes would sound like and the answer to our queries were the Peatbog Faeries - another group from Skye. I don't have any particular song to recommend but you can try, "Welcome to Dun Vegas", "Wacko King Hako", and "Scots on the Rocks".

If you want to know about the McGreggor massacre or some good old Scottish folk music, The Corries would be an appropriate choice. They do a lot of great traditional songs seeped in history and lore like "Portkey Kid", "Bonnie Prince Charlie" and other patriotic songs like "Flower of Scotland".

Another band with dubious origins, Alabama 3 was formed in Brixton, England, but again Duncan claims they're actually Scots, but as long as they make good music, it doesn't matter right? They're perhaps most famous for "Woke Up This Morning" which was used for the opening sequence for "The Sopranos". I'd also recommend, "Hello... I'm Johnny Cash", and "Peace in the Valley".

Box o' Bananas performed live at the King Haakon Pub in Kyle, Isle of Skye in Northern Scotland while we were there... it's hard to imagine this tiny island in the middle of nowhere have produced some of the biggest names in Scottish modern music and also hosts the annual Skye Music Festival. Coming back to the band, BoB combines a lot of traditional Scottish instruments [read: pipes] with high amp guitars and keyboards. They're great to listen to live, not to mention bloody funny. I couldn't find anything on www.radioblogclub.com, so good luck...

The first Aberfeldy song I heard was "Vegetarian Restaurant". To be honest I really haven't heard much from these guys, but I'm looking around for some more. Radioblogclub has a limited collection for these guys. Try "Tom Weir" and "Summer's Gone".

The Proclaimers are the quitessential Scottish band. The identical twins were voted "the most Scottish band" and are perhaps best known for their song "I'm Gonna Be [500 miles]"... you know, the one that goes, "and I will walk 500 miles, and I will walk 500 more..." These guys are from the little town of Fief just north of Edinburgh and people are suprised they haven't become British sellouts! You've probably already heard "Letter From America", "Sunshine on Leith" and "King of the Road".

Another Dundee Band, The View, has also produced some decent... although certain people seem to hate them. Also accused of being American sellouts, people have called them a cross between The Arctic Monkey's and The Proclaimers, and the worst new band! Make up your mind: "Wasted Little DJs", "Same Jeans", and "Face for the Radio".

Lastly I leave you with a surprise Isle of Skye master DJ: Mylo who along with KT Tunstall was probably the biggest hit of RockNess 2007. I'm sure there are many more great bands and musicians I've missed out, but these are all the guys I know about. Enjoy! Sorry I couldn't provide the songs, but they're all there on www.radioblogclub.com

Cradle of Filth

Oh no, don't go! The name might put you off, but the music is worth a listen.

At least, this song is:



To be perfectly honest, that's not a song, it's an image of an album cover: CoF's 2004 album Nymphetamine, on Roadrunner Records (which, incidentally, is Dream Theater's new home).

Wikipedia informs me that the word 'Nymphetamine' is a portmanteau of 'nymphomaniac' and 'methamphetamine' - a woman with sex on the brain and a 'hard' chemical drug. As Dumbledore would say, peering into his pensieve, "A connection I could have made without assistance" -- and I did. I'm crediting Wikipedia because I didn't know that there was a word to describe words made from running other words together!

Wikipedia also lists the genre of music encompassing Cradle of Filth as 'debated.' Ha! Music genres, apart from the very broad ones, are highly subjective. I don't have much use for them. Music is music. Having said that, I would describe CoF as 'Gothic Metal' -- because it's definitely heavy metal music, and there's more than a dash of gothic influence in their dress and makeup.

Another example of what I would call gothic metal is the band Nightwish. Nightwish and Cradle of Filth are similar in that they exhibit the classic gothic metal feature of having a growling male voice juxtaposed with an operatic soprano female one. This is what really attracts me to this sort of music. I also listen to bands that feature only growling male voices, but the combination of heaviness and sweet melody pushes all the right buttons in my brain!

Those of you unaccustomed to listening to this sort of music might have a mental block against any music with growling vocals. I urge you to open your minds! Listen past the growls... listen to the background guitar chord sequence, in conjuction with the backbeat of the drums. Listen to the catchy main riff. And when the drums degenerate into straight double bass, try closing your eyes and focusing on the overall rythm. The guitar changes chords every bar or so, and the double bass forms a continous beat against that background.

Overall, I find the package very attractive! For this sort of music, growls fit much better than normal singing.

It's not as if this song has tremendously unintelligible growling anyway.

But oh - please don't try and focus on the lyrics (Bob Dylan fans, hark!). That's not the point of metal.

For the same reason, it really helps if you listen to this on speakers with depth - anything other than laptop speakers! If you have no other speakers, try earphones.

Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine (Youtube) (fullscreen recommended)

It's gonna be a glorious day

Today, June 16th, is the 10th anniversary of the release of Radiohead's OK Computer.


OK Computer was a late '90s masterpiece - a fitting requiem for the century that rocked and rolled. Lyrically and musically, OK Computer sank into the dark automated heart of life in the late 20th Century. There were premonitions of what was to come in Radiohead's previous offering, 1995's riff-tastic The Bends. On "My Iron Lung", Thom Yorke wails about how "We scratch out eternal itch / A Twentieth Century Bitch / We are grateful for / Our iron lung."

OK Computer is not a concept album per se. What unifies it is a sonic fuzz -- and sense of melancholy mixed with wistful optimism. We see paranoia, depression, revulsion - in a sense this is like Pink Floyd's The Wall, but it is somehow more personal, more visceral. And unlike on The Wall, there seems to be a sliver of hope. On this album the band rarely "rocks out" as it did on The Bends, except on parts of "Paranoid Android" and on "Electioneering". The distorted guitars provide texture - shades of grey and blue.

I first heard OK Computer in 2003, in my third year at College. It was this album, along with The White Stripes' Elephant that showed me that rock was still progressing, and that I could venture out of the '60s and '70s. I had, however, seen the wonderfully morbid video for "Karma Police" around the time it was released. At the time the video really captivated me, but I don't think I was mature enough to appreciate the mood or the words.

I couldn't really make out much of what Thom Yorke was saying, back then. I printed out the lyrics, once I started to enjoy the sound. And I was pretty much blown away. I'm not going to try and describe the songs. They have that elusive quality that makes them subject to personal interpretation. I shall quote some of my favourite lines from each song. I'll include mp3s from some of the songs that don't get talked about that much.

1. Airbag [mp3]

"In a fast German car, I'm amazed that I survived
An airbag saved my life."

2. Paranoid Android

"When I am king, you will be first against the wall
with your opinion which is of no consequence at all"

"Ambition makes you look pretty ugly"

" Come on rain down on me
From a great height"

"God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah."

3. Subterranean Homesick Alien

"I love in a town where you can't smell a thing"

"[..] all these weird creatures
Who lock up their spirits
Drill holes in themselves
And live for their secrets "

"I'd show them the stars, and the meaning of life.
They'd shut me away, but I'd be alright."

4. Exit Music (For a Film)

"You can laugh
A spineless laugh
We hope that your rules and wisdom choke you
Now we are one
In everlasting peace

We hope that you choke.. that you choke"

5. Let Down [mp3]

"Don't get sentimental,
it always ends up drivel.
One day, I am gonna grow wings,
a chemical reaction,
hysterical and useless"

6. Karma Police

"For a minute there, I lost myself"

7. Fitter Happier

"like a cat
tied to a stick,
that's driven into
frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness)"

8. Electioneering

"Riot shields, voodoo economics,
it's just business, cattle prods and the I.M.F.
I trust I can rely on your vote."

9. Climbing Up the Walls

"And either way you turn
Ill be there
Open up your skull
Ill be there
Climbing up the walls"

10. No Surprises

"You look so tired - unhappy,
Bring down the government,
They don't, they don't speak for her
Ill take the quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide"

11. Lucky [mp3]

"It's gonna be a glorious day!
I feel my luck could change."

12. The Tourist

"Hey man, slow down, slow down,
idiot, slow down, slow down. "

It was 40 years ago, today...

Forty years ago, On June 1st 1967, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is generally considered the greatest album ever recorded. I agree. It's hallowed place in the history of popular music is assured.

I agree with the critics. But not because of the critics. I heard Sgt. Pepper's as a little kid. As a tiny tiny. It was presented to me as the epitome of experiment; of musical exploration itself. I rediscovered it in 11th Standard, when my musical odyssey really began.

Happy Birthday Sgt. Pepper! Here is my circus interpretation of the album!

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: Sgt. Pepper's Band play the music at a psychedelic circus. Their curtain raiser hints at the possibilities, while assuring the customers of their money's worth. Crunchy guitars.

2. With A Little Help From My Friends: Ringo's version is the real deal. Joe Cocker can wave his paraplegic arms all he wants. The humour resides here. The melody springs from Lennon-McCartney. The ringmaster wins the hearts of the public - with a little help from his friends.

3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds: The quintessential psychedelic adventure, in gaudy technicolor, with "newspaper taxis" and of course, "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes". A childlike wonder creeps through the crowd, as the tent becomes a portal..

4. Getting Better: I resonate with this song. It is the song of the optimist: "Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene, and I'm doing the best that I can." What more can any one do? Life is good!

5. Fixing a Hole: Daydreaming about house maintenance as only Paul McCartney can. The hole lets the rain in, and it "stops my mind from wandering, where it will go...oh!" The janitor's dream perhaps?

6. She's Leaving Home: Ethereal, sad, eternal. The ancestor of Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" perhaps? Maybe she runs away to the circus? "Fun is the one thing that money can't buy."

7. Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite: We are reminded that we are still under the Big Top, and a circus is underway! The flipping curly delirium of the trapeze is brought into frabjous fruition, thanks to an antique poster and some Lennon whimsy! "Messrs K and H assure the public their production will be second to none!" There's a merry-go-round in there. Somewhere.

8. Within You Without You: First song on Side B. In a side tent at the circus, an eastern guru of some sort expounds the secrets of life itself, which goes on "within you, and without you."

9. When I'm Sixty-Four: A young man promises eternal love behind one of the tents. He could "be handy, mending the fuse, when the lights have gone."

10. Lovely Rita: She checks the parking meters, but she's hot in that uniform, in a groovy Sixties kind of way.

11.Good Morning Good Morning: A man loses it, wandering into the city to submit to temptation, and hear barnyard noises.

12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Herat's Club Band (Reprise): The circus announces is last act, and the crowds are drawn back under the big top.

13. A Day in the Life: the audience is submitted to a celebration of the mundane; a cacophonic crescendo leads to the upper floor, where a cigarette is lit. Oh boy...

Bad Craziness

I am off to Bangalore. The highway beckons.

So be it.

Here is some Tamil music. Like in that bloody Idea ad. Ha.

I am coming, Mr.Raoul Duke. Have your attorney ready with some advice.

Friendship yen peda RAC, love CONFIRMED panna ne o si.

Boys - Dating [mp3]

Boys - Boom Boom [mp3]

Kaakha Kaakha - Uyirin Uyire [mp3]

PS: I know you think this is outrageous, but you really should listen to some of this stuff.

Arctic F*cking Monkeys

I went for the Arctic Monkeys concert.

Oh hell yeah.

What a fanstastic, fantastic band they are. The guitars crack and fizzle. The drums ratt-a-tatt like machine guns. And the vocals ooze fire and cynicism.

Matt Helders went to the gym to improve his drumming, in preparation for the smouldering 2nd album.



Alex Turner tells is like it is.

I like how when the flash is turned off you get ... art.


The next day I saw this poster. And I thought. I was there. Fist pumping the air. Singing along. Yelling along with the crowd.

Arctic Monkeys are a great rock n roll band, and with their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, they've shown that they're not just going to give us more of the same. The album is like a post-punk experiment. All daggers and sneers. Thumping, funky, and difficult. This band is no flash-in-the-pan. They are the real deal, even if they don't sell ten million records. If they keep this up, they will become a band worth following.

Here are a couple of tracks from the new album. Not as easily acccessible as the stuff from their already-classic debut, but definitely real stompers with the trademark Turner turn-of-phrase.

Teddy Picker
D is for Dangerous

Here's the title track from the EP they released after the first album. It shows the direction they were heading in.

Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys?

And to end with, I'll use the song they closed the show with, as well as their first album.

A Certain Romance