109 posts tagged “music”
Found this great website which has been written using the Last.fm API. It's called 'Your Next Favourite Band', and it predicts, well, what your next favourite band will be based on the scrobbling history of you and your neighbours. Mine will be... wait for it....
Judas Priest
Which is really weird and cool because I've been thinking of giving them a go. Give the site a go yourself, all you have to do is type in your last.fm user name.
I love this kind of extension of last.fm awesomeness, there are more that were developed on Last.fm Hack Day, which I wanna look through when I get a chance.
I watched this video of the amazing Holly Throsby the other day, performing one of her songs on one of many pianos that have been setup around Sydney as an art installation. Anyone who wants to play can sit down and have a go, which is a really cool idea. They've evidently filmed some performers doing their thing, Holly Throsby being one.
Which led me to writing about Ms. Throsby, who has been one of my biggest musical obsessions of last year. Her newest album, 'A Loud Call', was released in 2008 and is the best thing she's done. It's struck a massive chord with my wife and me, culminating in us ditching the kids for a night and seeing her live late last year in a really intimate show at a bar.
Hard to describe exactly what separates her from other acoustic-based female singer/ songwriters, but at the same time, listening to her she's actually unlike anything you've heard. Her whispery vocal style is really unique and truly soothing. It envelops you and takes away your cares for a brief time, even though she's often singing about fears of her own. I've read that she's not a big fan of her "odd" voice, but to me it's that oddness that makes it so engaging. Hendrix didn't like his voice, Dylan probably didn't like his, but it's about the feeling and delivery, and more than anything else, the songwriting. In the end, loving the stranger stuff is more rewarding anyway.
Lyrically she writes some beautiful, thoughtful stuff, with one of my favourite passages being this from 'Now I Love Someone' (makes me think of my wife):
"Because my wins are your wins
In the sleet, in the spring
And your losses are my losses when you're opposite me only
Now we love somebody"
'A Loud Call' has songs that have stepped up a notch from her previous albums (which were amazing in themselves). Holly uses her voice to her advantage more than before, sounding a bit more versatile. It's richer and even more intimate in its sound and production, being recorded in Nashville, probably with a bigger budget (though that's not always a good thing). This thing is a near perfect album for any occasion, any time of the day, any mood. It slotted seamlessly into my life almost every day for a while there, and I haven't got sick of it yet -- I'm not sure that would be possible. It'd be like getting sick of dreaming or chilling out on the couch -- great things that you just take for granted that always bring you joy.
Top Artists this Week (see more)
23 Mar 2008 – 30 Mar 2008
 4 |
1 |
|
Nine Inch Nails |
151
|
 1 |
2 |
|
The Black Crowes |
100
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|
1 |
3 |
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Eric Clapton |
86
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| 4 |
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The Raconteurs |
38
|
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|
1 |
5 |
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The Beatles |
33
|
|
3 |
6 |
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David Bowie |
12
|
|
2 |
7 |
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Eddie Vedder |
11
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| 7 |
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Dead Meadow |
11
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12 |
7 |
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Iron Maiden |
11
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10 |
7 |
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Radiohead |
11
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It's been too long since I had time to put my weekly chart up, or indeed, felt it was interesting enough to do so. It's been a bit samey for a while. I really enjoyed my music this week, so here's how it played out.
This week sees the atmospheric, creepy, totally instrumental 'Ghosts I-IV' from Nine Inch Nails grab the top spot, with a bit of 'Year Zero' thrown in the mix. 'Ghosts' is the new album that Reznor has released totally online without a record company. Building on the Radiohead model, he lets you download 'Ghosts I' for free (about 9 tracks) or the whole 36 tracks for $5. You get a PDF booklet plus plenty of wallpapers too. That's a good deal. I paid $5. I don't regret it, and I have a warm fuzzy for not downloading it illegally.
Black Crowes. Seeing them live this week. Love the new 'Warpaint' album, and have been throwing on the old ones too in preparation. They simply are one of my favourite bands of all time. They're cool, their influences are cool, they do what they want and they in turn do things to me. Never seen them live before, they haven't been to our shores since the early 90s I believe, so it's gonna be one spiritual evening (thanks Axeman).
Clapton. Those 86 plays are entirely due to '461 Ocean Boulevard'. Had it on vinyl for ages, but my vinyl lives out in the garage due to too many children vs not enough rooms in the house, so I don't play them much. Got a digital copy of this one, and I simply can't get enough. It surely must be second only to his Derek & The Dominos album in amazingness, although, that's a big call I know. And I love the song title 'Willie & The Hand Jive' ;-)
New Raconteurs seems good, loving Bowie's 'Aladdin Sane' all over again, Beatles have got a running mainly with 'Rubber Soul' and the White Album.
Good week, good tunes.
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A bit of Beatles history to bring us all up to speed for this here post. The album 'Let It Be' came out in 1970 and was the final Beatles album to be released. However, it wasn't the final album to be recorded -- it was actually the result of some aborted recording sessions at Twickenham Studios and elsewhere which took place before the sessions that became Abbey Road (their true final album). These aborted sessions were unpleasant due to the surroundings, the filming that was going on (paul's idea was to make a movie of the sessions) and nasty in-fighting. Some songs were reworked and ended up on Abbey Road, but those that weren't/didn't were given to Phil Spector to turn them into an album, which became 'Let It Be', and which was released just after the Beatles split was announced.
This was a nasty time in Pepperland, as Paul was suing the rest of them and the split wasn't pleasant in general. John was the only one really involved in any way with Phil Spector's work on 'Let It Be' and Paul especially objected to what was done to his songs. Lavish string arrangements were added to 'The Long And Winding Road' and 'Let It Be' which wasn't what Paul wanted (it was Phil "wall of sound" Spector though...it can't have been a total surprise).
Cut to a few years ago and the album is re-released using a completely stripped-back un-Phil'd mix. Called 'Let It Be...Naked', it largely served as a vehicle for Paul McCartney's songs to have the strings removed. Thus, for the majority of the album any differences were hard to spot and the whole thing seemed like a largely unnecessary stroking of Paul's ego. I think I listened to it twice and put it away.
Looking for some Beatles to play the other night, I didn't feel like their other stuff so I chucked it on. Largely, it confirmed what I already thought, but then I listened closely to John's 'Across The Universe' and found a real gem. The original Spector version has strings, ascending 'whoa whoa' male choral lines and a tinny sound, but this 'naked' version has a real warmth and honesty to it. You can almost hear the genesis of the song with the clear acoustic strumming and intimate vocal sound.
Perhaps still not reason enough for the album's existence, but a pleasant find nontheless, and reminiscent of John's very beautiful, very posthumous 'Acoustic' album of recent years (but luckily without Yoko's awful "production" which near ruins that album but for the songs). Here they are for comparison, see which you prefer.
Top Artists this Week (see more)
17 Feb 2008 – 24 Feb 2008
| – | 1 |
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Iron Maiden |
196
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| 2 |
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Radiohead |
39
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| 3 | British India |
27
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| 4 |
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Opeth |
26
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3 |
5 | Robert Plant & Alison Krauss |
18
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| 6 |
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Bruce Dickinson |
17
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| 7 |
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Monster Magnet |
14
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| 8 |
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Ramones |
10
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| 8 |
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Black Mountain |
10
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| 10 |
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Joy Division |
9
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A far more sensible chart than last week, but clearly I have not yet overcome my addiction, following on from the fucking amazing Maiden concert a couple of weeks ago. In fact, on Thursday last week I FORCED myself to put something else on, even though I saw no need to. Since then, I've only kept 3 Maiden albums on my PDA, so there's been a much more even spread.
Opeth's a new one for me, recommended by Mendosus now that I seem to have conquered my death-metal-growl phobia. Dark new musical doors are open, much to my wife's chagrin ;-)
British India were recommended by my wife, and I'm really enjoying them. They've got a real Arctic Monkeys vibe, but they're from Melbourne. They've got those great frenetic rockin' riffs and they make you wanna move about, something best not done in public my yours truly in any form other than foot tapping.
Next week should be a more balanced affair...
Show us something that's got you hooked.
I think I'll let this week's last.fm charts do the talking:
Top Artists for the week ending Sunday 17 February 2008
| – | 1 |
|
Iron Maiden |
330
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4 |
2 |
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Nebula |
1
|
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4 |
2 | Robert Plant & Alison Krauss |
1
|
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4 |
2 |
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Richard Hell and the Voidoids |
1
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| 2 |
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Nine Inch Nails |
1
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This is even more than last week's haul. It can't continue, can it?
I'm very excited about this weekend, as I'm off to see Iron Maiden on their 'Somewhere Back In Time' world tour. I've been listening to all their albums non-stop over the past week, and watching live DVDs -- basically I'm building this thing up to be a major fucking event. Based on their 2004ish 'Death On The Road' DVD that I watched the other day, however, I don't think I'll be disappointed. They seem to be at the top of their game -- check out Hallowed Be Thy Name from this DVD, which FULLY blew me away:
Watching this DVD also made me appreciate their 'Dance of Death' album from 2003, which sits between two of my favourites (Brave New World from 2000, and A Matter Of Life And Death from 2006) and which I had previously thought was shit. There are some real gems on there though, and whilst not as good as the other two abovementioned albums from this reunion period, it's certainly not the pile of horseshit that I previously thought it to be.
I've been reading about the cover, too, which I must say I never liked much. There's a bit of controversy behind it, as I've discovered is standard with Maiden's covers. The artist, Dave Patchett, who is responsible for the amazing Cathedral album covers, was hired to do the artwork for Dance of Death. What he submitted to them first was not quite what they were after, so they asked him to add some ideas to enhance it, which he did by way of very rough computer generated sketches. However, they like this dodgy rough version so much, they just released it as is (with the addition of some masks by a different artist) and didn't want Patchett to finish it. He was so unhappy with it that he subsequently asked to have his name removed from the credits.
Check out the original vs the unfinished-yet-final version and you'll see the problem. The figures aren't even anatomically finished, and check out that 'baby' kinda hovering above the dog. I can see the final version is more in keeping with his other work, but why didn't they just ask him to finish it off??
I've also read that their original and most popular artist, Derek Riggs, responsible for their best covers from the 80s, has now refused to work with them anymore, as they're too difficult. He had concepts for 'Fear of The Dark' and 'Brave New World' rejected, and decided enough was enough. Of course, they took bits of his Brave New World illustration (the sky) and used it in the final. You'd be pissed off I think.
Anyway, none of this detracts from the amazing live feast that awaits us on Saturday night. Up the Irons!! Scream for me Sydney!!!
My first post-PiL obsession has struck, and it's almost as unexpected as 'Metal Box' was. I gave the new Robert Plant & Alison Krauss collaboration a go late last year, mainly (well... completely) because it was Robert Plant. I wasn't too sure whether I'd like it because of Alison Krauss' country influence, but obviously I had to give it a go. It's fucking Robert Plant, so it should be the law.
Turns out it's completely fantastic. It's just a bunch of blues/american roots kind of songs I guess, but I don't actually know any of the originals (except for the Page & Plant song they cover, and 'Fortune Teller', which the Stones covered in the 60s). But they may as well be songs written specifically for this album, because they sound like they were meant to be done this way.
Their voices go together perfectly, and I find myself just following the melodies of each vocal and loving the harmonies. The overall sound of the album may be the most engaging thing, though. It's subtle, warm, mature and powerful. Krauss' fiddle fits perfectly in this context, too, and I never cringe at the 'countriness' of it all -- it's more Neil Young than Garth Brooks when it feels 'country', thankfully. Overall there's a definite blues/roots vibe and a bunch of mesmerising, addictive songs. I must've listened to the thing over 20 times in the past few weeks and it shows no sign of slowing.
I find it very hard to choose one stand-out track that instantly encapsulates everything the album is about, because it's so varied, from the upbeat rock of 'Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)', to the funeral dirge of 'Your Long Journey', to the almost gospel or religious nature of 'Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us'. So I'll go with the song that stood out initially to me, perhaps because of its catchy melodies. If you like this, then you need the whole album because it'll take you to a different place and time with every track, and make it very clear to you just why Robert Plant has no creative need to jump back on the Zeppelin bandwagon.
Top Artists this Week (see more)
25 Nov 2007 – 2 Dec 2007
|
5 |
1 |
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Ramones |
68
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| 2 | The Proton Energy Pills |
56
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||
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10 |
3 |
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The Clash |
34
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3 |
4 |
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Public Image Ltd. |
29
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6 |
5 | The Fauves |
23
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25 |
6 |
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Bright Eyes |
22
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4 |
7 |
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Radiohead |
21
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| 8 |
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Skid Row |
20
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7 |
9 |
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Nine Inch Nails |
17
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3 |
10 | The Pink Fits |
16
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The only real band to talk about this week is the Proton Energy Pills. I've talked about Tumbleweed, Richie & The Creeps and The Pink Fits before, but this was the band they all started in back in the late 80s. Straight outta Wollongong, they made some slight waves by moving to Sydney before it all fell apart and some of them went on to reasonable success in Tumbleweed. The 'Pills is way punky, way dirty, and way awesome.
Bit of a trip down memory lane with Skid Row,
but I wanted to hear their cover of the Ramones' 'Psycho Therapy', and
it was so good I just kept listening to their stuff. They were great,
and they didn't really deserve to get lumped in with all those other
hair metal bands, because they really were punks at heart. Their singer
just liked his pretty boy status a bit too much perhaps...
PiL still hanging on there, but slipping a bit finally...
