You've got to decide, whether you Nike it or not.

Which do you prefer? Both Nike, both about £100:





TBH, It's very un-Nike-ly i'll ever get either of them...

Butterfield Montage, Cheers Ta, Dex xxx

Handsoap

Do you ever find you need a helping hand scrubbing your bodus after a particularly filthy day in the big smoke? I know I sudding well do!



Wash all your problems away with baby Handsoap!
Unfortunately, each hand is hand made out of goat’s milk glycerin...

www.geekologie.com/2007/07/handsoap.php

Compaq Ad

Part of a campaign for Compaq conceived by John Webster.

Between Two Mysteries

A lovely, warm and atmospheric composition by Mount Eerie with a steady groove and emotional vocals. This isn't the actual video, but there's a link between the two...



Nice little intricacies in the guitar and xylophone(?)
mmm
'D' x

Paintballing

Nice flash animation by Grant Orchard, the paint effects are wizard.



Inspired by this game, perhap?



I sincerely hope so.
Dan x
P.s - He also did those BUPA ads

Brilliant advert

Totally blew me away...

Personification at it's finest.
Dan xxx

8-bit dream

I can't believe I missed this when researching for my Final Project at Queens Road. You might want to keep the volume down though; the music is pretty relentless.



Fucking Deluxe.
There's even a bit with a giant lego pyramid.

The Best Wedding DJ This Side Of Milan

I fucking aced it.

Oh yes.

You cannot believe the amount of classics I bust out.

I am a DJ.

I am Crunk Up.

Je suis a legend.

ECOUTE

Yours, Graham Jamaica,
Signing off,
love to you all,

Graham.

xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx

Graham Jamaica, Wedding DJ

Hello there, this is Graham Jamaica.

I'm sitting here in Riverstation, behind my decks.

In only two hours time I'm about to unleash some relentless music to the people of the world.

I've got ABBA, Gabba, Celion Dion, ON.

One cannot imagine how good this is going to be.

Wish me luck, I'll post an update at the end of the evening.

Ecoute.

x

x

x

Lovely stuff as always...

Dan xxx

Giving Things A Title Is Always A Pain.

I find myself feeling slightly relieved after giving in my first two university assignments. How good they are, however, is another matter entirely.
So with this day I thought of nothing better than to grace this space with a musical slap in the face.
All of these songs have been part of my last 6 weeks here in some way, shape or form; so I look at them in a very nice light, indeed.
So here we go...



























I saw these guys the other week to- good stuff:
http://www.myspace.com/mountkimbie

Get stuck in.
Huw
xxx

Jeremiah Palecek

This guy does some cool paintings, and also some disgusting expermimental music :http://nerdkore.com/bioretrospoctive/

This painting struck a particular chord with me:



lolz xxx

Here's a 'thank you' card a made for a cousin of mine a while back. She never spoke to me again.


Here's another:


Dan

I'm lovin Jonathan Hodgson at the moment, there's another excellent animation on his website called 'nightclub'. Can't wait to make some stuff like this on my course.
Dan xxx



This short by Run wake just fucked my mind up a bit:

It's that time of the month. My menstrual cycle of musical musings strikes again.
I don't think that made sense at all really.
Yeah, here's some tunes I've been listening to.





















I think I'll leave it there for now.
Huw
xxx

Don't Be Careful What You Wish For

I'm in a state of deep pleasure.

A couple of months back I wrote on this very blog -

''So, if you are a genie, and happen to be reading this, my three wishes for the next decade are:

1. A Name For The First Two Decades of The New Century.
2. Another Great Decade For Pop Music
3. A Coma Emposed Upon Oasis Long Enough That When They Are Rewoken Music Listeners Are Not Blinded By Nostalgia, Have A Listen, And Put Them Back To Sleep.''

They've only gone and broken up, it's amazing, check.


Thank goodness for that, the hangover has finally lifted.

Declan xxx

A P.S To The Below Post, Unrelated, But Nevertheless Critical

Lyrical Ballads, Yours Sincerly, Wordsworst.

Here are some lyrics I've written for you all to lay some eyes on. The first one is still a work in progress, donc: no name as of yet.

"
Suited smartly, with trousers turned up,
Shiva mascot in hand, he drops
In, into the river
With a
Plop! his heart stops.

In the half light his amputated Rolex reflects
His cold white dead eyes,
Utterly perplexed,
Broke, old broken body,
Moldy,
Completely convex.
"


"The Barnacles With Us, Boys"

"
Oh No!
This ship is going down,
Pull in the oars boys and girls
Before we drown.
This one eyed captain
Can't turn this ship around,
So Mutiny!
On this vessel not a rat'll be found.

Six years ago,
Prevailers of Peace,
Against our crew's general distaste
We sailed east.
Rumours of supplies
Burned out on home shores,
So Mutiny!
We were but bitches in our Captain's dorm.

Well back at base,
The most dignified advisers
Were having scrumptious dealings
With the partners of the ugliest misers,
Moats filled with water
And billed to general taxation,
So Mutiny!
Education Education Education.

With defences low
To the good ship Blighty,
We dug to the depths of our Redness
And pulled out some tricks for the party,
If hit by cannons
We'll Identify,
So Mutiny!
You've Forty odd days to comply.

Well we'd be fibbing,
If we said there ain't competition,
There's those blue cheeked pirates
With academic preparatory wisdom.
And that general of theirs, they call him
Long John Smugly Considered
He rows to the office while
His speedboat is secretly delivered.

So what will become of us?
A disgraced and marooned mix.
We're taking the barnacles with us boys
We're sinking the whole ship.
This crash is imminent,
We're surrounded by sharks fins,
Perhaps this might've ended differently if we
Had the decency to sail against the wind.
"

"Some Old Rusty Brahms"


"
An audience of three watches a pianist with a broken arm
Attempt to play the keys but all resounds is some rusty Brahms,
In condition such he's drunk to much and he sings and plays right out of his arse,
And while the crowd permits to laugh there's one in there and she's thinking fast.

Bon nuit, mon cherie, we'll see eachother in the morning, won't we,
The orchestra's second act, this ain't no coup d'etat!

And as she is the foreign bard a cow walks past with a broken arm,
For all his knowledge of improvised scales he can't quite match her new born qualms,
But like the diminishing of a third, a change like this is bereft of curse,
Yet to profess of noise and sound, these don't quite equate the love I've found.

So

Bon nuit, mon cherie, we'll see eachother in the morning, won't we,
The orchestra's second act, this ain't no coup d'etat!
"

"On The Defence Now"

Let's just start by getting this straight.
We only buy the best, yeah, the freest of the meat
And
We only go to burger joints on children's birthdays,
We only buy the best, yeah, you should see what we pay.
Don't you know it's come from a happy home,
Can't you imagine it smiling as you're licking it's bones?

We only roast a carcass on Sunday Lunch,
We'd be happy with just gravy but we're a a traditional bunch,
And we always gut carefully and we never eat liver,
And when we slip in processed pork yeah it's only a slither,
And don't you know it's come from a happy home,
Can't you imagine it smiling as you're licking it's bones?

This is what we're made for, put your hands to your teeth,
The canines are a-hungry, let's turn this cow t'beef,
While chomping and chewing on our secondary energy,
A million pigs in custody are machine lined and ready,
Well don't you know we always buy from a happy home?
Can't you imagine a dead dog on your fireplace throne?
"

Duos Entre Les Nuages
"
If you'll be kind, I'd like to buy back what's mine,
I've a fistful of bills to give, will you forgive, forgive
My old self, drunk, decrepit by oil and wealth,
My sixty years have passed, didn't they run fast, didn't they run fast?
So you call this place hell? Yes I know it all to well,
See I used to run this house, my position pronounced, pronounced
With authoritative fear, their liberation ruthlessly clear,
I spoke right into God's own ear, said "To think of life before democracy here!"

'Don't think you've escaped my gaze,
I've had eyes on you since the missiles were misplaced,
In sixty evil years, do you think I'd let such talent go to miss?
You and I were meant for this.'

What once was mine, you bought for a very good price,
A seamless sacrifice, Divine, Divine
Electoral faith, yes I stole that truthless game,
And I stole it twice, and I stole it twice.
In security's name, I have casually slain and killed,
So Lucifer please, my soul if you will.
"

(This also, is unfinished)
"
Sitting behind you I was inclined to
Take a peek
At the French narrative you were reading and
Try and muster some words to speak.

Formalities aside I missed my train ride
To Chennai,
Perhaps it was because, I think the reason was,
I was wishful something might arise.

But fourteen hours senior to our meeting I believe we were
On a bus,
Some ramshackled old truck, where I gladly observed
What that humour of yours had done.

You seem to use your eyes to inherently see life in
It's newest form. True:
We may all be cynics,
But I'd ask you Amaya, is there some beauty which didn't see you?
"

There's a few more, but in my opinion, this including the last one in certain respects, they're not up to scratch, regardless, Enjoy.

Lots of love,
Declan xxxx

To Be (Shit), Or Not To Be (Shit).

Hmm.
I've always felt a little ambiguous about Kasabian, never quite sure whether I think they're absolutely brilliant, or just a bit dated and sonically uncreative. The lyrics are nothing revolutionary, in my opinion, but definately listenable. Yet I think Serge Pizzorno's got something musically under one of those hats he often sports.
So while I've been away I've just heard rumours, odd bits of information, and suggestions as to what is coming out at the moment, or in the very near future.
An Arctic Monkeys and Wild Beasts single here, a Dirty Projectors suggestion there, a wave of information just round the corner regarding a certain band called The Horrors (I've actually heard only half a song, but I know it's produced by the chap from Portishead, and that means it no doubt has a certain amount of quality to it...).
And I've heard bits about Kasabian. Time to make up my mind, I reckon. So I thought I'd give some of their new songs a listen, and I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQClR22WV0Y

"Fire".

I love the way it drops around a minute in, I hate the way it re-drops about 30 seconds later, cor blimey. I still don't know.
Maybe that's what makes a classic band.
The fact that sometimes you can't work out if they're completely shit, or completely amazing.

Declan xxx

Jay Dee-Lightful...

http://www.we7.com/#/track/Wild!trackId=935114

Listening to J Dilla's 'Ruff Draft' was just another reassurance at how good a producer J Dilla was.
This song in particular stood out to me, not because I think one of his best beats on the album or his flow is grabbing me particularly; in fact, if anything, it's pretty ridiculous. But that's why I love it. I love how off-kilter it is, and I love it's charming, clumsy plod from start to finish. It sounds like a track that doesn't know that it's catchy when it really is, almost like it was self-conscious. But self-conscious in a boisterous way (however much of a contradiction that is), bopping at every hand-clap.
I guess it's ridiculousness comes in the fact that one of the best hip-hop producers of all time sampled a child singing a Slade song.

I have only recently realised now how many of the songs that I heard as a teen and deemed my favourite Hip-Hop tracks or albums, had songs written by or were produced by J Dilla. I guess that says it all.
If you don't know him, get to know him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Dilla

Huw

This Man Has Me Wrapped Round His Little Finger

What a fucking genius on all accounts is Frank Zappa.

Not only is he, à mon avis, the only true rock musician to do anything significant in the field of classical music, but he's edgy, he makes you feel uneasy, he makes you piss yourself laughing, he makes you feel fucking outraged at how perfect some of his modulations and harmonies are, he also took the American Censorship Comittee to court on grounds of evasion of freedom of speech and won.
He also has a moustache of regal proportions.

I like it when artists take the piss out of you, and Zappa certainly does. Not in a childish wasy, in a way to challenge you, and to make you think wisely about how you live your cultural and political life. And he's a top class comedian in terms of lyrics as well, a real satirist.

The only other person in music who I think can match these sorts of qualities, (not to say these are always desirable) is Mark E. Smith, of The Fall:



Imagine Morrisey but more rude, and that's but an introduction to Mark E. Smith.
If ye can, check out 'English Scheme' by The Fall, it's got a great line in it, which is "The clever ones tend to emigrate". It's delivered with such irony. Top class.

Anyway, bon nuit,
I'm off to bed to read "Disgrace" by J.M Coetzee, my new favourite author.

Lots of love to you all,
Declan, Mysore,
India
xxxxx

P.s. I'm home soon. :o)

I Just Think These Are Some Of The Best Written

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
How can I explain?
Oh, it's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him
Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says
"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she, herself, prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Ape Shit...

Nice.
xxx

"Yo! What's up, gee, some homey has been dissing my bitch!"

These were my words to a perplexed Korean tourist when he asked my to give an 'example' of English comedy.

I think I should have left it at "Back of the net".

Free music - Dust On The Ground

A Day In The Life Of HuwTube...

Huw
xxx

Just Heard This Of An Ozzie's Playlist

Dangermouse and Sparklehourse (Featuring Julian Casablancas)
LITTLE GIRL
It's fucking class.

Do it.

Declan, Drunk, India xxxx

What To Do If You're iPod Is Broken, No Computer Will Play 'Hooting And Howling', You Have Two New Frank Zappa C.Ds but Nothing To Play Them On....

...And also if you're really very desperate to listen to Bitte Orca, because at least three people have reccomended it you, and all the YouTube videos on this very blog are unavailable to you due to restrictions laid down by the Internet Cafe L.A.W.

Prescription:
1. Learn the tabla in Varanasi, three hours practice a day, one lesson a day.
2. Play impromptu little gigs on street to curious Indian men, who sing all over the top of it, dancing.
3. Take Indian singing lessons. Maybe just once.
4. Attend a concert every evening, enjoy them more and more per night.
5. Get yourself a new, better, guitar from Calcutta, decorate it all nice and pretty, and write, write, write, write.

Doctors orders, I'm afraid.
:o)

Declan xxxxxxxxxxx

Past-time Pleasantries...

Here's just a few things that I'm liking at the moment.







This is Dan's brother, Ben. He makes very good songs.
www.myspace.com/crackazatmusic

I've been listening to 'Bitte Orca' by Dirty Projectors on repeat. It is one of the best albums I've heard in a long while. No doubt.

Huw
xxx

Another flash of Re-hash...

When I was away, it seemed increasingly evident that the idea of going 'dark' within indie music was becoming the new thing to do; much like when bands were tending to go all big, "epic" and stadium-worthy.
When I was away and travelling down the Australian coast, when tuning into various radio stations, it became quite obvious that 80's bands, particularly Joy Division and The Cure, are aiding a resurgence in the sound bands are lending their tendencies to. I don't think this is a really recent thing, just becoming gradually more popular; Editors were doing it a few years back now.
This isn't me having a go and I'm not about to dive into an anti-recycling rant, but merely observing. If anything, I'm sure we all have learnt to a certain extent, that that's what popular music has become- one big cycle, where now and then a particular period is pounced upon and reintroduced. Like it or not, I guess.
It just doesn't leave much to the imagination, really. That, or my faith in new alternative music.
But what can you do?





To Lose My Life

A Current Collection...

Ladies and gentlemen, the time is nigh. Time for my (imaginary) mixtape of the moment.
I know it's been hard without me. I understand that. I really do.

1. Q-Tip- 'Won't Trade' (This is such a big tune. The album is full of them, too)
2. Rjd2- 'Ghostwriter'
3. Roy Orbison- 'Crying'
4. Bombay Bicycle Club- 'Morning After' (I found this on a blog; it's not on the tracklist for 'I Had The Blues But Shook Them Loose', but is really really good. Listen here)
5. Skream- 'Oskilatah'
6. MED- 'Can't Hold On'
7. Radiohead- 'Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury & Exectutioner)'
8. Vivian Girls- 'Where Do You Run To' (I love the garage-y sound to this song. Nice and rugged)
9. Wild Beasts- 'Hooting And Howling'
10. The Downs- 'Please Mind Your Head' (They were pretty good, weren't they?)

It seems I always resort to putting Bombay Bicycle Club or Wild Beasts in my selections. Call me boring etc, but there is definitely a reason why this happens, which I think speaks for itself.

I'm on the look out for more new artists in the quest of musical satisfaction, so hopefully I'll be back soon with some big ones. As for now, me and Dan are getting started on some of that so aspired musical satisfaction. Let the good times roll.

Huw

xxx

Honey, I'm home!

Yes, honey. I'm home.
It's been a while, but it's nice to be back.
Now I'm home, I can while away endless hours indulging in internet-based interests and musical frivolities. Oh how English I have become on my return.

Here's something pretty cool:



It reminds me of New York, of which I was there only a few days ago, which is a nice thing.
The recorded version with David Byrne is where it's at though:



I'm getting stuck into 'Bitte Orca' at the moment, it's quite a listen.

Huw
xxx

Picky and finickity, in an instant of a flicker he

Picked a parody, that promise me,

I'd rather be seen dead than be.

Dylan Hypermix

1. 'Drifter's Escape'
2. 'Visions of Johanna'
3. 'Isis'
4. 'One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)'
5. 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'
6. The Whole Of Side Two "Blonde On Blonde", beginning with 'I Want You'
7. 'As I Went Out One Morning'
8. 'Simple Twist Of Fate'
9. 'You're A Big Girl Now'
10. 'Highway 61 Revisited'

Danimation

A couple of screen-shots from my masif project. Matches nicely with the blog too.

Your Wish Is My Commad

We're nearly at the end of a decade, I realised today.

Apart from the obvious problems of what to call the the last ten years we've just witnessed (the Noughties just sounds slutty) I also wonder who'll be remembered as the big musical icons of he time.

In my opinion, noboby. This is not to state that I think there has been no music made unworthy of legend, oh no. I just think we've got a proper music scene back, one where you whisper the names of bands every other week, inadvertantly stumble across a remix of "And It Rained All Night" to find the following week everybody else knew about it as well, discover that you weren't the only one who thought "Limbo, Panto" had a touch of "Transformer" to it.

With such a wealth of music to be had, the best stuff is widely adored through private obsevations, exchanges between friends, internet pathways. There is no "Definately, Maybe" of the 2000's, and thank goodness for that. It is but a curse that we still have to sit through conversations about the genius of Oasis.

I think this decade has been about computers. I'm not speaking of Klaxons' production or DJ sets on the beach in Brighton. Par example - the opening 40 seconds of "Amnesiac", Four Tet's simply heartbreaking "Rounds".

The wonderful thing about computers is that they act as recievers. For whatever you want to create. The birth of Ableton and it's likes does not spell the end of guitar music, it just makes it more exciting.

So, if you are a genie, and happen to be reading this, my three wishes for the next decade are:

1. A Name For The First Two Decades of The New Century.
2. Another Great Decade For Pop Music
3. A Coma Emposed Upon Oasis Long Enough That When They Are Rewoken Music Listeners Are Not Blinded By Nostalgia, Have A Listen, And Put Them Back To Sleep.

Declan xxxx

Dan's Tunes of Today

Here are some tunes I am currently indulging in:

'Photobooth' - Exlovers
'Girl From The BBC' - Official Secrets Act
'Roses' - Outkast
'Red & Blue' - Post War Years
'You're A Million' - The Raincoats
'Tell Her Tonight' - Franz Ferdinand
'Help Me Somebody' - Brian Eno/David Byrne
'Assembly' - Wild Beasts
'Cross The Breeze' -Sonic Youth
'Don't Look That Way At It' - White Denim
'Explosions' - Devo
'Rollerskater' - Young Knives

And lots of QOTSA of course.
Lots of love to you all, Dan xxx

The Picture Below This Post Fulfills One Out Of My Five Dreams

I want to recommend a great track, it's by PJ Harvey, who is a westcountry legend.

It's a very famous track, but gorgeous, nonetheless. It features Thom Yorke, and their two voices together are like some apocalyptic bitch. It's called "This Mess We're In", and comes from Polly's mercury award winning album "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea".



Also just some comedy, from Christopher Morris' television show Jam -



And this is one of the best things I've seen in my life.



Lots of love from Nepal, I've sprained my ankle so I've been spent my day in an internet cafe looking funny things up.

Declan .//. xxxxx

A View From My Beach Towel...

Black ants on red ants
Dietary sichophants
Stand and deliver
The desired Salt and Vinegar

Hope you're all well.
Huw
xxx

Sounds.

This is what I've been listening to while I've been away.

1. "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" - Queens of The Stone Age
2. Dance With The Devil - Immortal Technique
3. If You Were There, Beware - Arctic Monkeys
4. Moral Kiosk - R.E.M
5. Life In A Glass House - Radiohead
6. Barbarism Begins at Home - The Smiths
7. 100% Dundee - The Roots
8. Most of the Bob Marley Back Catalogue (Through The Speakers of Assorted Restaurants)
9. Black Mirror - Arcade Fire
10. Murder Summer Burbia - Nathan Daniel and Tilted City

I particually recommend numbers 2 and 10.
Declan xxx

New Fartwork

So Lonely...

Man, I miss Young Hearts Society.

Audacious Results

Audacious results,
Cracked tomb vaults,
Bamboo stacked: old.
Suffering Gold.
.//.
Solipsist Stains,
Marmalade Veins,
Prevention Abstained:
Serious Pain.
.//.
Shangra-Lights,
Ash Burnt Fights,
Forever Delight when
Travelling Nights.
.//.

Love From .//.

We Only Talk In Metpahors...

As Declan bounds off to India, he has left us all with his newly recorded summer stomper of a tune, 'Imagination Discourse'. He recently recorded it with Dan Brown of Phantom Limb fame. And it's very good, of course.

Listen to it here.

We will all miss him greatly.
Have a nice time, matey.

Huw
xxx

Talking Smiths

During the last few months, I've been scouting and searching through the bountiful back-catalogue of Talking Heads. For a while I had only been familiar with the earlier stuff (predominantly 'Fear Of Music' and 'Remian In Light'), but I have recently ventured into the latter albums on the music lover's best friend that is Spotify.

To say I really got into these latter albums would be a lie. I found them lacking the general consistancy and creativity of Byrne and co's earlier stuff, really... Having said that, a band of Talking Heads' calibre couldn't make an album without at least a handful of gems that I'd love. It was listening to their 'Blind' album that I came across a song called '(Nothing But) Flowers', which has Johnny Marr on it, which was most probably why I got into it so much.

In fact, I think there are elements of Declan's guitar playing on our new EP in this song.
Did I just compare him to Johnny Marr?... He can pay me later.

Talking Heads - Nothing But Flowers

Full Fat Goodness...

After extensive recent listens, I highly advise you listen to Black Milk's most recent album, 'Tronic'. Too many good tunes.

Huw

xxx

February Minimix...

My day just got wonderful. I heard Bombay Bicycle Club's new single 'Always Like This'. Immediately hooked.

It's different (in absolutely no negative way- in fact, in a brilliant way), but still the vital elements of the Bombay we love.

I can't get it's groove out of my head.

So with that, I shall commence my February minimix.

1.) Bombay Bicycle Club- Always Like This
2.) Queens Of The Stone Age- 3's & 7's
3.) J Dilla- E= MC2
4.) The Naturals- Counter Respond
5.) Elzhi feat. Royce da 5'9"- Motown 25
6.) Jimmy Ruffin- What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
7.) The Kills- Last Day Of Magic
8.) Television- Marquee Moon
9.) The Futureheads- Man Ray
10.) Talking Heads- This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

And one more for luck-
11.) Huw & Dan- The Only One (My Mylo). Now streaming on the MySpace page, this bad boy was a product of two very bored boys a few months back, trying to write the best Europop song they could...
It was a great day.

Over and oot.
Huw
xxx

Hello? Is It Me You're Looking For?

Huw here.
I'm in a little bit of a predicament right about now. The reason for this predicament is due to Lionel Richie.
Now, you might be wondering how the Lord Of The Jheri Curl is meddling with my day to day thoughts. But the reason is pretty clear:

Is it bad that I more than just 'like' the pop stomper that is the brilliantly, and slightly comically named, 'All Night Long (All Night)'?

I just think the song has everything; soul, some tasty African influences fused with pop gloss, build-ups, break-downs, great melody, and ONE HELL OF A CHORUS.

Here's a quite bombastic performance of his at the '84 Olympics. He doesn't half milk it...



And don't even get me started on the video for 'Hello'...


xxx

Effortlessly Coors

Completely great are the band Magazine, with "About The Weather" being my absolute favourite. This is a band I've been crudely aware of for a while, but was once again prompted by Dead Air Space, which is always informative, entertaining and has some brilliant links down it's left hand side.

I finished my vocals last night, which I'm very grateful of. Watch out for some gruesome falsetto, I also found the above art, which I love.

Much love and happiness to ya,

Duncan Pleydell-Pearce xxx

Too High, Too High, But I Ain't Touched The Sky...

Here's Dan hitting the big notes on a harmony part in 'Sitting Ducks'.

What a maverick.

Gay Paris

So yeah I'm back from Paris. That's right, I went to Paris for a week with college. I had a bit of an art attack though. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed meandering through the streets finding tucked away galleries, chillin' with my peeps in the Jewish Quarter, sketching unfortunate Parisians as I gaze from the window of a charming Cafe, sippin' on a Cafe Creme. But how I have missed music. Sure, I could listen to it, but this only really occurred on the journeys (I'm not one to be anti-social) and I was mostly listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy anyway. I have really been pining to produce the stuff! Nothing really compares, however lame that sounds. G'night.
Daniel xxx

I saw this the other day and thought it was pretty much amazing. Personally I prefer it to Bob Dylan's original. I don't know if that's blasphemy to Dylan boffs, but hey.

Enjoy. I would imagine you will.

Huw

xxx

999? I'm calling for some immediate early 2000's UK garage help...

I remembered about this song the other day. It's genuinely bizarre when listened to again just for the main and sole reason that it samples BBC's 'Casualty'. Yes, 'Casualty'.

I didn't think much of it before, but now I have, I can't get the ridiculousness of it out of my head. 'Casualty'? My parents watch that shit. Really, without wanting to make sweeping generalisations here, how many garage fans watch 'Casualty'? Or at least thought it cool to put it in a song?

I guess it's most probably purposefully humourous. Isn't it? I just can't watch this without thinking the combination of garage music and these guys as pretty fucking hilarious:

Garage was sick. Especially this-

Enough said.

Romeo done.

xxx

A Message From Graham Jamaica, Wedding DJ.

It's 1.11.

"Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" is yesterday's release.

It's my first nighttime visit.

I love the Franz Ferdinand's ethic, I love the unrestricted sonic musk of them, simple, pleasurable and pop. I love half of this album. Half of it is making me uncomfortable, this is positive. Is it genius or shit? It's going to turn out one way, in an inevitable number of listens. Pop music thrives from expectation, a good pop fills me with more.

You know what I mean by pop, so we'll avoid that one.

There are a few times year in which the forthcoming arrival on an ALBUM becomes an issue, a talking point, a distraction, a audio addiction, a disappointment, a statement and a mediocre forgotten post-it note. I love these times of the year as much as the seasons, as they are just as inevitable and just as diverse.

Regardless of recent release or physical impossibility (Claude), here are the albums I would have loved to have bought the day they came out:

1. Remain In Light - Talking Heads

2. Kid A - Radiohead

3. Innervisions - Stevie Wonder

4. Hot Rats - Frank Zappa

5. Nocturnes - Claude Debussy

6. Animals - Pink Floyd

7. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

8. Grotesque (After The Gramme) - The Fall

All My Love, Declan xxxx

And here's my two favourite comedians by far:

SHAKOOM

Should be a good'un.

Tomorrissey Never Dies

Morrissey's getting on a bit, but he's still going; and seemingly strongly, when hearing tracks such as 'All You Need Is Me', 'That's How People Grow Up', and my personal favourite 'Something Is Squeezing My Skull'. We can safely say that by the looks of these penned titles, he's still delivering the Morrissey touch.
This week saw him release his new single from upcoming album 'Years Of Refusal', called 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris'. Immediately I didn't think it was anything particularly grabbing, but it is a grower, and now I've really gotten into it. I think it's important to accept him for what he is post-Smiths, which is on the whole, pretty inconsistant, but also doing something different. I don't think this is particularly his fault- his melodies have maintained their incredible knack of penetrating any fan of popular music with the highest calibre of singalongability (!?). It is the lack of one person that is Marr or less the problem. Sorry, that was awful.
However, I think this album could be a return to form; and I'm pretty excited. And at the age of which he's doing it, much praise needs to be given.



I also came across this Smiths song the other day to my surprise, as I have all of their albums but 'Hatful Of Hollow' (which is more of a compilation of songs- most of which appear on all their other albums), and I heard this one which is amazing, as per usual. Here it is live:

January Minimix #1

I thought I'd share with you what I've been listening to recently; the tracks aren't necessarily new fresh bands or anything, partly because I think the state of new music is lacking something pretty significant right now (that may seem like a sweeping statement, but I'll be back to that in a post in the not so distant future), but plainly because all of these songs are very good and are playing a part in my present day to day life.

Who knows, maybe you'll even like a few of them.

1. Beirut- Nantes
2. Common- U.M.C
3. Deerhunter- Never Stops
4. Wild Beasts- His Grinning Skull
5. Battles- Atlas
6. Black Milk- Hold It Down
7. Dirty Projectors- Rise Above
8. Talking Heads- Sax & Violins
9. Sonic Youth- Diamond Sea
10. The Zombies- Time Of The Season

I'll keep it at ten, for effect and a slight OCD induced need of neatness. Special thanks to Mr. Anderson for the introduction of The Zombies.

I'll get the others to produce their own January mixes for you. The world needs to share music more, and that is what we intend to do for your pleasure.

I encourage you to listen to the songs- there's got to be at least one you like.

Huw
xxx

Face It...

Radio(head) Friendly

Radiohead did a competition for fans and film-makers alike to produce videos of tracks from their 2008 album 'In Rainbows', and I've only just seen them. Pretty amazing though.



Seemingly on a tangent (but hold on), anyone who may be a fan of Jay-Z should hopefully like this song too (along with it's pretty cool video):



And if anyone who thinks a fusion between the two artists would be even better, check out what Minty Fresh Beats did with 'Jaydiohead' (you knew this was going somehere)-

http://www.jaydiohead.com/

There's no doubt Dangermouse's Grey Album is better, but it's a nice pice of work, no doubt.