Monthly Archives: August 2011

New music: Some of my favourite recent albums

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Mike

After last week’s bile fest, here’s something to help wash away the horrid aftertaste of the new RHCP song. To restore your faith in modern music, and humanity in general, here’s a few recent albums that I’ve been loving. Remember, there’s more good music than bad out there, you just gotta look. David Comes To Life – FUCKED UP A hardcore punk concept album from Toronto Canada’s Fucked Up. While the vocals are pure 80s hardcore, the songs are anything but: complex arrangements, female backing vocals and a guitar sound to die for. Must be heard to be believed. Coastal Grooves – BLOOD ORANGE I’ve already posted the full stream of this album a few weeks ago, but I’m still obsessively listening to it so figured it deserved another mention. Here’s Dev Hynes performing its opening song while dressed as a fucking wizard way back in 2009. That’s a contender … Read more →

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The thought of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album makes me weep for humanity

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Mike

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the worst. I mean the absolute worst. I’m not exaggerating. The fact that they are currently leading our Worst Albums Of All Time chart is absolutely no mistake. And now it’s that time again. Every three or four years the Chilis part cheeks and excrete forth another brown nugget of near identical tunes and the whole world goes completely nuts for it. As a huge music fan (or music snob, whatever you want to call me) you just can’t imagine what a depressing prospect this is for me. There is so much great music out there these days, and the idea that people would push all of it aside in favour of another slap bass induced 80s cock rock fest is just completely depressing. I mean can you really tell the difference between their last few singles? “Dani California”, “Scar Tissue”, “Californication”, “By The … Read more →

Posted in Overrated, Rants, Uncategorized, Why are they famous? | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Worst Albums Of All Time: U2 – ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Mike

First things first: Bono is a complete bell-end. Of all of the musicians in the world, he is the most outspoken, pretentious and out of touch of all of them. Bono’s personality can be summed up as the product of over 30 years or so of being surrounded by yes-men, with no-one to say to him “No, Bono. The music industry doesn’t work that way any more” or “Take off those glasses you twat. You look like a geriatric fly.” So to get you in the mood for the rest of the review, here’s a collection of pretentious Bono quotes – that I spent upwards of 5 minutes scouring the internet for – to make you hate the great man even more: “Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.” “Laughter is eternity if joy is real.” “I … Read more →

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Ximena Sariñana proves that pop music doesn’t need to suck

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Mike

I’ve recently become addicted to the song “Different” by Ximena Sariñana. It’s everything a great pop song should be: insanely catchy without dumbing down the lyrics of catering to the lowest common denominator. Just goes to show that there’s plenty of great ideas left in the pop music sphere: don’t let the Black Eyed Peas of this world make you believe that the only way to get sales is by doing shit covers of crap-in-the-first-place 80s songs. There’s another official video here, but it’s a little bit cheesy. I prefer the much more fitting and also official lyric vid above. A bit of background on Ximena: “Different” is the first song taken from her forthcoming self titled album – her second, and first sung in English. Her first album Mediocre was sung entirely in Spanish (she is Mexican) and was released in 2008. She has also dueted with Jason Mraz, … Read more →

Posted in Awesome Shit, Best New Music, Mp3s, Streaming, Top Songs, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New Music: Blood Orange – ‘Coastal Grooves’

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Mike

I discovered this album today as Hype Machine‘s album of the week, and I must have listened to it through about eight times already. I’ve been a fan of Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes for a while now thanks to his work as Lightspeed Champion – sort of a UK indie take on the Alt Country thing – and his more recent work with another favourite of mine Theophilus London. But while Lightspeed’s debut “Falling Off The Lavender Bridge” was an absolute classic, last year’s follow up “Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You” was a bit of a disappointmet. Not a bad album as such, just a difficult and somewhat sprawling piece of work. So it’s great to see that Dev’s back in fine form with his current project “Blood Orange”. Apart from his unique voice there is little to compare to Lightspeed. If I had to describe their music … Read more →

Posted in Awesome Shit, Best New Music, Reviews, Streaming | 2 Comments

The internet is your friend: The Dos and Don’ts of social media for musicians

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Mike

We live in an age where technology is everything. The internet has revolutionised the way we listen to, discover and share music, and if you think otherwise, well.. you’re a bit of a numpty. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are designed to be as easy as possible to use, yet somehow some bands and artists still manage to completely Donald Duck it up. So here’s a list of a few things I’ve noticed, some things not to do and some tips for getting your music out there. Facebook != Twitter Facebook and Twitter are not the same thing, so don’t treat them as such. Facebook is great for sending out links to articles and chatting with your fans in the comments sections. However you want to watch how many posts you send out a day: too many and people will hide your updates, or worse, unlike your page. On Twitter … Read more →

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Best Opening Lyrics: Arctic Monkeys – ‘Suck It And See’

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Mike

Your love is like a studded leather headlock Your kiss it could put creases in the rain You’re rarer than a can of dandelion and burdock And those other girls are just post-mix lemonade I really wasn’t expecting to like the Arctic’s latest album Suck It And See. The singles were average at best: “Brick by Brick” is a nice enough rocker, making up for what it lacks in substance with a decent beat and hum-worthy chorus; “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair”, much like the Beatles’ “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey” seems to be a Pilkington-esque case of great title, figure the rest out later. However, the album itself just keeps pulling me back in, more so than any Arctic Monkeys album since their justifiably praised debut. Opener “She’s Thunderstorms” kicks of with a pleasantly jangly riff reminiscent of Johnny Marr, and … Read more →

Posted in Awesome Shit, Best Lyrics, Reviews, Top Songs | Tagged | 2 Comments

Piss on your knees – Five things we hate about gigs

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Dan

On this blog we are sometimes regarded as dewy-eyed optimists. Well, we are sometimes regarded as being nice about things anyway. At some point though the laughter and good cheer has to stop and you have to see the wood for the trees. Sometimes we even have to see the wood, or in this case the social, and hygienic unpleasantness, about something we hold very dear to us.  I have always liked going out. I would rather go and have a beer with literally anyone than sit at home and face the dark void where a cooked meal, clean dishes and a vacuumed rug should be. This has led to some interesting nights out with some interesting people and every one of them was better than the alternative. I especially love going out and seeing music. I love live music but I am also chuffed with a decent DJ. Bands … Read more →

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