music – Page 6 – University & Unicorns

This is a little bit more drawn out than I hoped, but it’s probably better that it IS like this anyway (the whole fave music acts thing, I mean). I realised some time back that I made a mistake with “I”, adding Iggy Pop to my I list, when rightfully, he should be here. But anyway…

My first P is…Pulp. They were the epitome of Brit Pop on the mid 90’s (even though they’d been around for YEARS already). Loved them. Love “Common People” and bought “Disco 2000” as a single back then. Love Jarvis Cocker as well, continuing the whole “tall-streak-of-piss-cool-geek” thing I’m on atm. He recently wrote a song called “Running The World” with the chorus line “c*nts are still running the world”.

Pulp – Trees
[youtube=http://youtu.be/zvkiAw0ZIw4]

My second choice is Pet Shop Boys. I’ve never really bought any of their stuff, but I love a lot of it.

Pet Shop Boys – Love Comes Quickly
[youtube=http://youtu.be/QHaA1beOwrY]

Finally, a mention to… Power Station. A short-lived supergroup with John and Andy Taylor from Duran Duran, Tony Thompson on drums, and Robert Palmer as singer. I thought their sound was f*cking awesome! I bought the album at the time (circa 1985) and played it to death. Tony Thompson’s drumming was just killer! He did a lot of work for Bowie as well.

Power Station – Get It On
[youtube=http://youtu.be/tR7z2YzwpcU]

Obviously a YouTube clip can not reveal the powerhouse of sound, but it was ROCKIN’, trust me!!!

30 June 2008

Glasto – Last Day

Well, Glastonbury has finished for another year. Overall it was REALLY good (minus Jay-Z and Amy Winehouse). They showed Neil Diamond early in the afternoon. Not my cup of tea, but he sounded on form and the crowd were behind him. Saw little bits of Goldfrapp’s set. They sounded good. Alison Goldfrapp was wearing what co-host Mark Radcliffe described as “one of those string plastic curtains you see in Chinese take-aways that hangs over the door to the kitchen”. That was a good description!

Got to see a bit of The Zutons, tiny bit of Groove Armada and some Mark Ronson too (spoilt somewhat by the presence of Lily Allen). Saw about an hour of Eddy Grant’s set – respect! Even FINALLY got to see a Crowded House song!!!!! But the highlight of the night, if not the whole of Glasto was The Verve. It’s like they’ve never been away. They did the most beautiful version of The Drugs Don’t Work (I covered Chris’s ears every time he sang the line “like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown”). And they also did a killer version of the unofficial British National Anthem – Bittersweet Symphony.

To see some of their set (hopefully you can view it, some BBC things are UK specific), click here

If you can’t see it, enjoy this on me.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/1d7GFQfv1BI]

29 June 2008

More Glasto and The Doctor

Glued to the telly again last night for more Glastonbury and last nights penultimate Doctor Who.

I’ll start with Glasto as I’m waiting for a clip I’ve uploaded to YouTube to be available when referring to Dr Who.

It was Amy Winehouse and Jay-Z headlining Glasto last night. Amy! What a mess! The total shambles that woman has made of herself, honestly. She sounds amazing on the record, but with the things she’s been doing to herself for the last 12 months, she’s now got emphysema and it really shows in her voice. Plus she does all this needless warbling and mumbling. It was just dire.

As for Jay-Z. Good sense of humour starting his set as he did, but it can’t detract from the fact that I (and many other traditional Glasto fans) don’t see a place for rap at Glasto. He went straight into 99 Problems and I tuned out!

I actually liked watching some of James Blunt’s set. He did a lovely version of “Goodbye My Lover” and I love “Same Mistake”. Joan Armatrading sounded on form. I saw her do “I Love It When You Call Me Names”, my fave song of hers. Was pee’d off there was no footage of Crowded House shown. Well, if there was, I didn’t see, and I was surfing all the channels all night. The highlight of the night though, for pure cool was Buddy Guy. Woah, what a legend! I’d not even heard of the guy until last night. He was cool!!!

On to Doctor Who. We’re left with a “cliff-hanger” at the end of the penultimate episode. Is The Doctor about to change?

[youtube=http://youtu.be/u7_HtNN9KLc]

Nnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooo!!!

The episode itself, I thought was a bit mediocre. I really hope it picks up next week. This scene (the reason behind the regeneration) just made me want to throw up, seriously. I know Rose means a lot to The Doctor and likewise, but this running scene was just OTT. And exactly HOW long is that road meant to be? They both seemed to run LONGER than the actual road!

28 June 2008

Chai, Glasto and DW/DT.

There’s a yukky job to be done today. The fish tank needs cleaning (hell, does it need cleaning). But before that I wanted to add a post. I’ve been wanting to write one for the last 48 hours, but just haven’t got round to it. Anyway, here I am (God, you can tell it’s Saturday, the woman next door has started her vacuum marathon! She vacuums her house (same size as owns, the whole 25 squared foot of it -approx) for at LEAST 1 hour!!

Anyway, I digress.

Firstly I wanted to talk about Chai. Em’s friend Stan came to visit last week and he brought with him a box of Twinnings Chai tea bags. I’d heard of chai in the past, about it being a spiced tea that you can sweeten and milk like you would normal tea. That it’s sort of like latte’ for tea drinkers. ANYWAY, I’m into trying different flavours of tea and stuff, I like Earl Grey, Darjeeling and Lapsang Souchong, so I thought I’d give Chai a whirl. My God, this stuff is YUMMY! I love it, especially that I can sweeten and milk it. For as I do drink the other teas mentioned, I don’t do it too much ‘cos you can’t really sweeten or milk them (with the exception of the Lapsang). The first drink of it I had, it reminded me of these varieties of Magnum on the market at the moment called Mayan Mystica. All ginger and cinnamon-y. Very nice.

Next thing, Glastonbury. Coverage of it started on the BBC last night. I watched some of The Feeling’s set. They did good covers of Video Killed The Radio Star and Take On Me. I like The Feeling, and the singer’s a bit nice too – in that skinny, geeky way I’m into at the moment. I watched some Candi Staton too. The woman is SIXTY SIX years old!! She was fab! Saw a bit of The Ting Tings. I’ve been hearing their stuff on tele and radio and that, not knowing it was their stuff. They do anthems for Chrissy like “That’s Not My Name” and “Shut Up And Let Me Go”. Kind of like a mixed-up Brit version of The White Stripes. Bloke on the drums, girl on guitar, singing. But the highlight of last night for me was Kings Of Leon. Their set and performance was just KILLER! Loved it. Probably one of, if not, THE BEST live set I’ve ever heard.

Last thing, tonight’s penultimate Doctor Who, for obvious reasons initially, but also because the last few eps of the show have been stellar. It’s going to be off-air for most of next year, with only some special eps being aired next year. Just when I’m getting into DT, he’ll be pulled from under me!! (cries into hands) I have been OD’ing on past Tennant work at the moment. Just watched the first 3 eps of Takin’ Over The Asylum, a TV series he was in with Ken Stott. About a radio DJ re-starting a hospital radio station in a mental hospital in Glasgow. DT plays a patient called Campbell who’s bipolar. It was made in 1994. He was only a baby, but was acting very well in it. I wanted to add a clip from the show, but all the stuff on YouTube is out of synch and my attempts to get a clip out with my own software has been to no avail (no audio), so it’ll have to wait I’m afraid.

Anyway, here’s looking forward to tonight…

22 June 2008

Favourite Music Artist – O

It was a tough choice. Not much was screaming out to me under “O” and then I saw William Orbit and thought “Yeah, why not”.

He’s done a lot of production stuff, but he has done his own stuff too. I love his version of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, but I chose this piece for the video.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ha-cf0M9NBE]
William Orbit’s reinterpretation of John Cage’s In A Landscape.

19 June 2008

Favourite Music Artist – N

Really there was only one group/artists I could see myself putting in here.

Nirvana.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/pkcJEvMcnEg]

11 June 2008

Favourite Music Artist – M (part 2)

There were two Oz acts I left off the list, as ‘M’ was getting a bit overcrowded (and I’d forgot about them until later in the evening after I’d added the post).

Mental As Anything.

Midnight Oil.

Oh, I agonised over my choice for Midnight Oil and I just couldn’t decide between these! All I know is that I wasn’t going to choose “Beds Are Burning”, not ‘cos I don’t like it, but because it’s the only song outside of Australia that Midnight Oil seem to be known for.

Oh, to think Peter Garrett was once cool and not a politician! Political yes, but not a politician. I suppose at least he is Environment Minister, but still…augh

[youtube=http://youtu.be/mqP61lGsXOM]
Oh, the irony of this choice of song.

Tag: music

Favourite Music Artist – S

Favourite Music Artist – R

Favourite Music Artist – Q

Favourite Music Artist – P