April 09, 2006: Nizlopi gig
Blimey! Three weeks ago this was and I've only just got around to logging it. James and I went to see Nizlopi [Niz-lopp-ee] at the La Scala in Kings Cross. Up until then, I'd only heard the JCB Song and thought there were a bit of a novelty one hit wonder. I still think they could be a one hit wonder, but that would be a shame.
The gig wasn't quite what I expected - samples, hand claps, rap, double bass, gold discs, beat-boxing, crowd participation, deep inhalation and plenty of video documentation. Gary Dunne, who I've not heard of provided the warm-up.
I remember seeing KT Tunstall's exclusive appearance on Later… and being very impressed with her live sampling and cut and paste solo style. Dunne does much the same but with a rockier feel, vocal effects and some crowd participation. I really enjoyed Gary Dunne and the amount of sound one guy can make with only a guitar and looping thingies. Things were looking up.
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February 01, 2006: iPods are shite
I bought him a little jumper, but it wasn’t enough. My third iPod has failed, with the same problem - HDD failure. So I’ve declared all iPods as absolute shite! I find it very hard to say. I have loved my iPod. Especially this one, as it’s lasted the longest (about 10 months). But I’ve spoken to Apple and it turns out that when they replace iPod #1 with the any-old-crap they dish out. Your warranty only covers you for a 90 day period. This was fine for iPod #2 because it broke within 2 months and it was still under the original 12 month warranty. But now, this poor little bugger has gasped it’s last digital breaths and kicked up it’s heals outside of the safe haven of warranty.
It is a shame, iPod #3 and I had some good times. They’re certainly the smallest, easiest to use and the best looking MP3 player available. I was going to also buy an Apple iBook in the near future, but now I’ll have to reconsider any more investment in this company.
Apple have said that I could send it back for repair at a cost of £160. But I think I’ll just smash it up with a hammer.
To be continued…
January 29, 2006: Albums of 2005
I think it's about time I started sharing some lists. I always been a big fan of lists. I think they're a good idea, and everybody should have one. Recently, I've been using BackPackIT to store my CDs to buy lists as I can update it from home or work.
What better way to start off the lists, other than the best Albums of 2005? So here's what I consider to be the top 5.
- Takk… by Sigor Ros
- Silent Alarm by Block Party
- Cuts Across The Land by The Duke Spirit
- Engineers by Engineers
- We Have Sound by Tom Vek
Runners up include Beck's Guero, The Back Room by Editors, Demon Days by Gorillaz.
What were your favourites?
November 11, 2005: White Stripes gig
I’ve been spending a lot of time on purchases for the home, but have managed to pop out for a spot of entertainment. Last Wednesday James and I saw the White Stripes at the Alexandra Palace.
I’ve not been there before and was pleased to discover I could get back to Euston in about eight tube stops. The closest station is Wood Green, where we got a cheeky burger from Flaming Nora’s (which I do recommend) before catching the W3 bus up the hill to Ally Pally.
Wow! It’s quite amazing building, a grand entrance and the roof is so high you I kept thinking I was still outside.
October 02, 2005: Hey big spender
It's always been a dream of mine to walk into a music store with unlimited funds and buy everything I wanted. Well today I did. Almost.
I've been doing a bit of out of hours work for the corporate Intranet recently. It was finally launched last Wednesday. Friday I presented it to the company and as a little thank you, they rewarded me with an HMV Gift Card. Today, I spent it all!
September 15, 2005: Blurred vision
A long time ago, in the height of Britpop, there was a Oasis vs Blur battle of singles. I did really like Oasis when they releases ‘Definitely Maybe’, and yes, they’re touring much bigger venues now, and yes they’ve got a bassist from my all time favourite band Ride. But in the last ten years, I really don’t think they’ve progressed. Blur on the other hand, have experiment and now, Damon Albarn’s side project The Gorillaz have announced they’ll tour in 3D. Although, the prospect of seeing a pre-recorded set doesn’t appeal, I think this proves much greater invitation from southerners by embracing technology and breaking the musical boundaries rather than insistent bickering and claiming they’re the greatest.
August 31, 2005: Queens Of The Stone Age gig
In contrast to Saturday's concert, Monday dealt me a big of slice hard rock from the band everybody wants to see - Queens Of The Stone Age. This was supposed to take place at Somerset House on 7 July, but was postponed due to the London bomb attacks. This date, at Brixton Academy was also for the fans of other cancelled London shows due to various reasons.
August 28, 2005: Bootleg Beatles gig
It's been a while since my last blog. I guess I've been quite busy. Either that or I've been playing Halo2. Anyway, last Saturday Steph & I went to see the Bootleg Beatles at Kenwood as part of this summers Picnic Concerts.
The format is fantastic! The concert starts 7:30pm. You turn up a couple of hours earlier with a picnic, sit in the sun and relax.
June 26, 2005: iPod night
Year ago Andrew and myself used to make a regular thing of visiting each other armed with a handful of CDs. We'd then spend the evening selecting favourites and recent discoveries. Last week he invited me round his new gaff for a long awaited reprise. Only, in this up-to-date version our dusty CDs where replaced with iPods.
June 25, 2005: Tom Vek
Tom Vek is one of the best raw talents around. Like a British, more rocky Beck, creating a very fresh and funky sound whilst reminding us all how good originality is. I've got his album on order and I'm very excited about it. I'll be watching this guy very closely.
May 31, 2005: My third iPod
That's right. My third in eight months. My second iPod, which arrived February 23rd 2005 broke a couple of weeks ago. Today I have received my second replacement. Suffering from similar symptoms as the previous plus I couldn't update it and then screen stopped working.
Apple have been pretty good though. I called them last Monday, they picked it up on Tuesday and now I have a brand new one. Lets hope this one lasts.
May 08, 2005: Soulwax gig
I've been very busy lately and still trying to recover from the stag do last weekend. So this is a little late.
James and I found ourselves at the Highbury Garage on Thursday to check out the electro-rock 5 piece Soulwax (aka 2 Many DJ's) for the first time in about 4 years.
April 28, 2005: John Butler Trio gig
Went to the Carling Brixton Academy last night to see John Butler Trio. I like this venue, the floor is sloped. Where ever you stand, you can see the stage which is great for shorties like me.
Mr Butler and his rhythm section all perform to a very high standard and made our visit worth while by extending nearly every song. I particularly enjoyed watching the drummer who often abandoned a stick in order to play a conga with one hand which I believe to be a talent in itself.
Plenty of Aussie's in the crowd, which is always a good thing although they did talk an awful lot and there was a support act apparently, but we missed that. All-in-all a good gig which has inspired me to purchase some earlier JBT material.
April 22, 2005: DJ Format gig
James, Stu and myself attended the Mean Fiddler last night to see DJ Format with support from Little Barrie, a 3 piece 70s funk style summer jam type outfit who were rather good. The drummer has a surprisingly high singing voice for his chunky hairy appearance, but this is not to say it was bad. The harmonies & rhythm worked very well over the top of the jingley jangly guitar. Shame we missed the solo on Free Salute due to the second broken string of the night.
March 20, 2005: How many songs on a single?
I recently finished importing all my CDs into iTunes in order of plopping them onto my iPod. As all good music playing software does, iTunes is happily finding all the song titles & artist/group names - fantastic!
The problem I've got is what defines a single. Originally vinyl singles were accompanied by second song on the B-side of the record. Then CDs were commonly backed by 2 "B-sides". Nowadays, singles come with 2, 3 or more B-sides. So how do you know when a single becomes an EP?
February 23, 2005: The panic's over
My iPod has returned! Yay! Quite a quick turn around from Apple. They sent me an empty "returns" box last Friday, which I returned that same day. Then a brand spanking new iPod arrived this morning. How good is that! Back in action...
February 04, 2005: iBroke
My chuffin' iPod broke whilst in New Zealand, what a blinkin nuisance! If I select an album, it tries to play each track, fails to even start & move onto the next. Occasionally it will play a song, but it's useless. I can't select what I want to play. Maybe it's a hidden feature that's promoting the new iPod Shuffle?
November 21, 2004: File under?
I was having a conversation about ordering your CD collection last night & all the posible solutions. But, as appears to be a problem for some people to understand the importance of ordering your music, let me explain...
You have 2 CDs. If you CD you pick up is not the CD you are looking for, the chances are, it will be the next one. Now imagine you have over 100 CDs... GET IT?!
OK, back to ordering. There's many ways to order your collection & so you need to find the format which suits you. So here's a few to think about...
October 27, 2004: Farewell to John Peel
A big shock for the UK new music scene today as John Peel yesterday of a heart attack whilst on holiday in Peru. In a nice gesture from Michael Eavis, Glastonbury Festival's new bands tent will be renamed the John Peel Stage in tribute to the veteran BBC Radio 1 DJ.
October 05, 2004: iGot an iPod
It's true, I've taken the plunge. After about 12 months trying to justify buying one - & Amazon making me wait a further 3 painfully long weeks for delivery - I now have it by my side. I saved £30 by using Amazon (it was only £270) on the 40GB model.
There's been some teething problems: iPod's can only be linked to one computer. I had originally installed it on my work PC, then when hooking it up at home it went through the same process & wiped the iPod clean of the 1500 songs I had put on it that day.
Then today, after adding more on at work again I found I couldn't sync it at home at all, nor could I extract the MP3's manually. Luckily I found SharePod, a very handy & simple application which solved all my problems.
Now we're both getting on & I think we'll have a wonderful future together. I really do like having all my music together like this. Using the shuffle mode is forcing me to listen to some songs that I haven't heard for ages & now I'm gradually appreciating them all over again.
September 17, 2004: The Rasmus suck
From watching MTV2 last night, I learnt that The Rasmus were booed & bottled & subsequently left the stage after 2 songs at this years Reading Festival. Which I thought was funny because they suck! ...with all that "I've been waiting", Foreigner rip-off rubbish. AND their website is rubbish! Frames? Pah!
September 16, 2004: iPod vs. The Cassette
The poor old cassette got pushed out the window as soon as MP3 reared it's head. Now it's all iPod this & Metallica lawsuit that. This site has some good points on the subject. It's nicely done & is also relatively amusing.
July 19, 2004: The newer new iPod
Oh boy! There's a new iPod. Apple are now selling 20GB & 40GB "Click Wheel" iPod's at the cheaper prices of £220 & £300 respectively. There's no 15GB version anymore & the 20GB does not come with the dock, although it is dock compatible (for another 30 beans).
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June 16, 2004: Flight Of The Conchords
James & I went to see a folking fantastic parody band on Monday called Flight Of The Conchords. 2 New Zealander's - Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie - are in that from the Phones4U advert with the VW Camper van. With a friendly & charismatic appearance they performed many witty & ridiculous tunes including Bus Driver's Song, something about making love & Bowie which had me in hysterics within seconds.
May 05, 2004: Finding Cool Tunes
So many adverts seem to use a soundtrack straight from my CD collection. But when I like them & I don't have them, I want to know where to get them.
Luckily, thanks to websites like Commercial Breaks and Beats we can find out just what these tracks are.
Recently, sounds that have really caught my attention are coming from that O2 advert with the speakers & sunflowers. It sounds PHAT!
May 02, 2004: Music: The Next Generation
I'm seeing signs of friends & myself getting older. Sitting round MTV2 bitching about the quality of sprouting bands I can't help think about how my parents & elders have said the same Nirvana 10 years ago.
One band I just can't get into is The Libertines. I do like a couple of tracks on their first album, but I saw them earlier in the year at Brixton Academy & I can't say I was impressed. No fantastic musicianship & nothing really struck a chord with me.
Scissor Sisters is another one. What's all that about? They just sound like Elton John with the Bee Gees on backing vocals!
Maybe Iím not into the type of music these bands provide, but I do know that when I was listening to Nirvana, opinions like "That's just a load of noise" & "It doesn't take any talent to do that" were commonly voiced by my parents. Now my peers & I are starting to say the same thing about music today & I can see that when we've got kids we're going to find it hard to enjoy their music, even if we think we can be the coolest of parents.
Do you see what I mean?
April 13, 2004: Second album syndrome
Many bands find that second album difficult. Artists spend years striving to be heard & perfecting the work & seldom get noticed by a record label to release it. That difficult second album can, often prove to be simply pony!
Here though, it's my problem. Trying to invest in more of the great sound I originally stumbled upon is causing problems. Not always the next album chronologically, but they next album I purchase. They are increasingly failing to hit the spot.
Is it the impact of the first offering is so original that the next purchase can't sound so fresh? Or is it because I'm listening to the albums repeatedly all day & getting bored? Or is it the fault of the artists themselves who can not cover more than 5" of polycarbonate substrate with their talent? Or (my greatest fear) I'm getting old & like my elders, buying an album on the strength of a single & thinking I'm still cool!
