Hit 40 UK

If you like pop music, my opinions on music, Simon Cowell, British radio, Top 40 music, countdown lists, Christmas, reality tv shows, or merely have ten minutes to spare, do head on over to this post on my other blog.

If not, you're at the wrong blog, fella...

Deck The Balls With Halls of Folly

Who's up for some modern-day renditions of a few carols?

Relient K is a pretty good gospel rock band. A little too 'American teen', if you get what I mean. But they play their instruments well, their faith is strong, and they have a sense of humour:

What's a partridge? And what's a pear tree?

Well, I don't know, so please don't ask me

But I can bet those are terrible gifts to give!

I'm only posting a few Christmas-y songs here, but they have more secular stuff as well, if you're interested.

Relient K - Angels We Have Heard On High

Relient K - Deck The Halls

Relient K - Twelve Days of Christmas

Relient K - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

If you're only taking one, take the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Folk Music Lives!

There's a lot of nice music floating around the UK Top 40 radio airwaves this time of year. Leona Lewis, Alicia Keys, Timbaland Presents One Republic, and the group that sang 'Uninvited'-- good stuff, all. Worth downloading.

But this is talent!

Amy Macdonald -- Mr Rock and Roll

Talk about a lovely folk/pop song. Very Gordon Lightfoot indeed. Amy Macdonald is only twenty years old. Scottish. Influenced by Travis and The Libertines, apparently. (I have to stop researching posts on Wikipedia! Although I did remember she was Scottish. Virgin Radio made a point of it.)

I suppose as you get older you more and more frequently find that you're older than the best new talent out there, in whichever field. It's still disconcerting, though, having the fact that you're a nobody drilled into you.

Tried to upload some photos but Blogger is being temperamental. Look her up on Google's image search.

Marillion

How can anyone resist a band with such a beautiful name?

I came across Marillion a few years ago, while watching a Dream Theater DVD that had a clip of DT playing at some lucky-ass jazz club in the States with various guest artistes, two of whom were Marillion band members. Easter is a beautiful and underrated song.

Marillion then popped up again after an opportune trip to the UK resulted in my picking up a crateload of excellent prog music cds (prog-- progressive rock / metal) that I would've found impossible to get in India. The bass player, Pete Trewavas, was a member of the prog rock supergroup Transatlantic, which had the sensational lineup of:

Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) - drums
Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings) - guitar
Pete Trewavas (Marillion) - bass
Neal Morse (Spock's Beard) - vocals/keyboards

Dream Theater and Spock's Beard are US bands, Marillion is a UK band, and The Flower Kings are Swedish, so Transatlantic was an apt choice of name. Most of these bands have gone on to become some of my favourite groups.

Marillion's music doesn't really feature the instrumental virtuosity that draws me to Dream Theater, nor the soft keyboard-heavy genius of Spock's Beard or Transatlantic. Their music is far more radio-friendly (not that that's a bad thing), and in fact the Wikipedia page informs me that Marillion have had a string of UK chart hits spanning their career. I like this description, which I have flicked from the said Wikipedia page:

Many current fans would endorse the description of 'complex, melodic rock with a spiritual and sometimes melancholic edge.'

It's strange to see spirituality cropping up here, for Transatlantic (the supergroup) came a cropper when Neal Morse quit both Spock's Beard and Transatlantic to pursue his Christianity. Hmm.

So, to the music.

I really like this video. Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci look so young! And Steve Hogarth has the cutest pointy ears. Do watch it through to the end, where Hogarth does some interesting vocal hopping.

Marillion -- Easter (live with Dream Theater)




The next video is a montage of album art and band pictures. An interesting fascination with jesters seems to emerge. It's a nice song too, and I suspect many of you will enjoy this music more than 'Easter'. I love the line, "For she's got to carry on with her life/ And you've got to carry on with yours!"


Marillion -- Childhood's End





Edit: Sorry Yohan, I know you're not a fan of embedded videos. But one of them is a concert clip, and the other one shows the wonder that is album art!

Psychedelic Electro Freak Folk!

The title of this post is misleading. I don't know how to categorize the music I'm about the write about. It's excellent stuff, though. High quality.

I like neat little symmetries. For example:

1. In the 60's and 70's American bands rawked (MC5, Jimi Hendrix), and the Brits made textured, sophisticated pieces (Pink Floyd and all the other proggie bands).
2. In the 00's, British bands rawk (Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines, Futureheads) and the (North) Americans make textured, sophisticated pieces (Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and the bands I'm about to name.)

This symmetry and reversal would have been cool if it were true. But it isn't. Not a bit. The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin rawked, and Crosby Stills and Nash were sophisticated.

In this decade however, it may prove to be true that Canadian and American indie acts are doing more in the realm of the vague, the mystic, the psychedelic.

Whatever. I have no idea. There are 2 bands I'd like to blog about. I discovered them through Paul Lester's very useful Band of the Day feature in The Guardian. They're both brilliant, as my last.fm page will attest!










First up is MGMT. Their wiki page isn't very informative. They are dreamy, trippy and quirky, yet they have a nice crisp sense of rhythm. I do believe they sing like the best 1970s soft rock bands too! Seek out their album Oracular Spectacular.

MGMT - Time to Pretend
MGMT - Kids










Next up is Yeasayer. They deserve a prize for coolest bandname not involved the word "the" or two incongruous words juxtaposed against each other. Their music is even better. It's "YES" music; true to its name. Psychedelia is in there somewhere, and gospel, and British prog even. They're from Brooklyn, which might be the coolest place to reside in America, if you're in a band. (Montreal, however, may be the coolest place on the continent for a band.) The album is called All Hour Cymbals. Get it.

Yeasayer - Wait for Summer
Yeasayer - Red Cave










Brooklyn, New York is also home to Animal Collective. I first encountered the interesting (and somewhat misleading) terms "freak-folk" and "anti-folk" in connection with their work. I haven't paid close attention to their albums, but their singles are fantastic. Here are two. The new one, "Peacebone", is thoroughly weird and exciting.
Animal Collective - Grass
Animal Collective - Peacebone

New Music is good, people. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Music My Parents Might Like

I've been meaning to do this for a while. I've made a little compilation (or "mixtape" if you're a hipster) for my dad and mum.

My parents had a profound impact on my musical preferences. It took me a while to start listening to music that didn't conform to their taste. In college I rapidly expanded my aural horizons, and during the holidays I occasionally attempted to get them to listen to what I had picked up. At some point I gave up, despite my success in getting them to appreciate The Grateful Dead's American Beauty, and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. I recall playing OK Computer in the car once. My mother found it soporific and sad. Which it is. But she didn't like it.

Here's my playlist. Some of these songs are obviously chosen to suit the children of the sixties, but some transcend their era. Or at least I'd like to think so.

1. Findlay Brown - Don't You Know I Love You
2. The Shins - New Slang
3. Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
4. Dido - Mary's in India
5. David Gray - The One I Love
6. Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping
7. Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
8. Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good
9. Neutral Milk Hotel - King of Carrot Flowers - Part One
10. Interpol - NYC
11. The White Stripes - You've Got Her In Your Pocket
12. Youth Group - Under the Underpass
13. Regina Spektor - Field Below
14. Coldplay - The Scientist
15. Oasis - Who Feels Love
16. The Killers - Read My Mind
17. Wolf Parade - This Heart's On Fire
18. The Decemberists - Sons and Daughters

You can dowload the whole album here.

If music were food

Let's delve right into this subjectivity thing.

If bands were food, what kind of food would they be?

We'll include drinks. Some things are too bitter to chew, but they can be swigged with a minimum wincing. Like tequila. No that you can chew tequila. Er.



So anyway. Off the top of my head:

The early Beatles (pre-Rubber Soul) - Biscuits. Cookies. Simple, sweet, and perfect.

The psychedelic Beatles - Increasingly elaborate confectionery. Fringe gourmet. Like chocolate covered chillies.

The Rolling Stones - Hooch. Moonshine. Country Liquor. Toddy.

Pink Floyd - Scotch. (I'm thinking The Dark Side of the Moon.)

Oasis - BEER!!

Nirvana - Blood. Salty and delicious.

Simon & Garfunkel - Fragrant herbal tea.

ABBA - American chocolate.

Radiohead - Tasty bile? Hee hee. I have no clue.

Led Zeppelin - Steak. Fortified wine. Or maybe "Lembas" bread from The Lord of the Rings. And then, as the seventies wore on... fruit. Often stale fruit.

Cake - cake.

The White Stripes - Red and white candy (obviously). With a hint of cinnamon.

The Grateful Dead - Apple pie. Spiked with magic mushrooms.





We can do this for genres too.

Heavy metal in general - heavy metals.

Disco - Sticky sweet cocktails. Some are good; most are awful.



I could go on forever. But I won't.

People, contribute in the commentspace! Feel free to disagree with me, of course. One man's halal is another man's kosher, after all.