I will now in fact be writing my blog on my Learning To Love You More assignments on my new blogspot ewan.72.blogspot. I hopefully will be starting these assignments soon and will keep eveyyone posted on how they are going in as many varied ways possible. For now I will continue to use this blog to pretty much carry on what I have been doiong so far, meaningless opions about stuff few will care about.
Anyway if you wish to find out more about my intended project, this website will explain everything http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com
Thank you
Thursday 26 February 2009
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Emmy the Great. First Love
Before actually listening to Emmy the Great, there are two things that could possibly irritate you before you have even switched the stereo on. Firstly there is the name which could give some lazy reviewers the ammunition for a shooting fish-in-a-barrel type review of ‘Emmy the not-so-great (guffaw). Secondly the arbitrary pigeon-holing into that increasingly meaningless catch-all anti-folk, has already cursed the names of Devandra Bahnhart and Jeffrey Lewis since they too play acoustic guitars and sings songs that can be described as ‘quirky’ or ‘kooky’ or other feeble adjectives people try to describe singers who choose to play bare footed.
Once you get past these minor obstacles however, you eventually get the main obstacles of the actually songs that come out of the stereo. First Love rolls by inoffensively with its mellow hippy guitars and slight almost twee vocals without ever really giving it anything to make it stand out from the current crop of exciting female vocalists such as MIA or Regina Spektor.
This despite the songs of fake pregnancies (We nearly had a baby) and the two lovers listening to Leonard Cohen’s track Hallelujah (First Love) try to have a seemingly dark under tone to them but instead end up appearing as edgy as Kate Nash. Lyrically there are some good moments but few and far between and only goes to show how good this album could have been if it took another direction “well you didn't stop, when I told you stop” from the aforementioned We Nearly had a Baby is generally a disturbing lyric, but you get the idea that many a 6th form students have written stuff like this in their bedrooms when trying to get over some guy in their media studies class.
Overall not an awful album, just one with so many petite songs that could it pass you by blandly so easily whilst listening to it. But then again there is a huge market for folkie/indie pop that is ever expanding nowadays and you do feel that Emmy is going to be one of the heavyweights of the genre.
Once you get past these minor obstacles however, you eventually get the main obstacles of the actually songs that come out of the stereo. First Love rolls by inoffensively with its mellow hippy guitars and slight almost twee vocals without ever really giving it anything to make it stand out from the current crop of exciting female vocalists such as MIA or Regina Spektor.
This despite the songs of fake pregnancies (We nearly had a baby) and the two lovers listening to Leonard Cohen’s track Hallelujah (First Love) try to have a seemingly dark under tone to them but instead end up appearing as edgy as Kate Nash. Lyrically there are some good moments but few and far between and only goes to show how good this album could have been if it took another direction “well you didn't stop, when I told you stop” from the aforementioned We Nearly had a Baby is generally a disturbing lyric, but you get the idea that many a 6th form students have written stuff like this in their bedrooms when trying to get over some guy in their media studies class.
Overall not an awful album, just one with so many petite songs that could it pass you by blandly so easily whilst listening to it. But then again there is a huge market for folkie/indie pop that is ever expanding nowadays and you do feel that Emmy is going to be one of the heavyweights of the genre.
Thursday 19 February 2009
Bearded Magazine
Not too long ago I was looking for a magazine to write a presentation about for my magazine writing module. My first choice, the astonishingly designed and equally well written independent film magazine Little White Lies had annoyingly already been taken by my friend Dave. Everyone knows a Dave and a good 75% will apparently hinder your life. So I looked further and discovered an equally impressive looking music magazine called Bearded Magazine.
The signs were all there for a decent indie magazine. Obscure title meaning nothing to the content. Check. Front cover a drawing instead of an actually photo. Check. Made from recycled paper and struggling to make any money at all? Oh I am so there.
I registered online and subscribed to the mag and was further impressed by their mission statement to only review and interview bands who are signed to Independent record labels or even unsigned. With a couple of labels featured including White Stripes and Dizzee Rascal's label XL and Mr Scruff's Ninja Tune records (my own personal favourite for those pathetic enough to care) I was impressed that around 95% of the artists featured are still relatively unknown past the band's girlfriends/parents/ people they have upset at bars when they didn’t realize it was live band night.
What really impressed me however was that they give the opportunity to download, for free, an entire collection of songs from different artists each month. This did excite me. I had this image of me writing reviews of these unknown artists each month, then a year down the line when the band have gone supernova and become the 'next big thing' and the lead singer is pictured holding Duffy's hand on the front cover of the News of the World, I can feel slightly smug about how I gave them a glowing review all those moons ago. So whose career am I going to give the boost it so desperately deserves. Cassetteboy, two lads from Bristol making experimental cut and paste sampling music, perfect here we go...
Listening to Cassetteboy is possibly one of the most migraine invoking waste of time I have ever experienced in my life which many a time has been wasted.
No no no gosh darn it that wasn't supposed to happen but I’m sorry but really it’s a comedy album, full of nob gags I might add, that gets tiring way before each song is finished never mind listening to 17 tracks of it. What consists of samples of speeches by Tony Blair, George Bush, various newsreaders all cut up to make them say things like "weapons of mass destruction are in Blackpool" or as simple as "I am a paedophile" may raise a smile every now and again but soon turns repetitive and has you screaming 'when are the actual songs going to appear?'
Also if I’m honest if you want to hear a cut job of Stephan Fry reading Harry Potter that has been turned into Hermione giving him oral sex (an actual track I assure you) the you are a grotesque ugly freak and I don’t want you reading this page anyway. Although saying that I they should receive some credit (or bravery points/sick evil human beings bonuses depending on how you look at it) for the track 'Di + Dodi Do Di' which is the usual cut and paste news cast sampling of the Princess Diana death to shocking effect, one line reads 'I always knew the Mercedes would kill her' used from three different voice clips, which apparently was made just weeks after her death.
Now I know it seems very harsh to praise a magazine for its determination to support independent music then lampoon it the first chance I get. Let me just then take this opportunity to praise Bearded for introducing me to Throwing Snow, who use banjos and a percussion which consists off the rattle of a spray can that I feel doesn't get used enough nowadays, and the funk/soul oddity that id Ratface, both can be found and downloaded through the website if you so wish to do so. But when it comes to Cassetteboy, no tunes, no reason to ever listen to them again, no point I’m afraid.
The signs were all there for a decent indie magazine. Obscure title meaning nothing to the content. Check. Front cover a drawing instead of an actually photo. Check. Made from recycled paper and struggling to make any money at all? Oh I am so there.
I registered online and subscribed to the mag and was further impressed by their mission statement to only review and interview bands who are signed to Independent record labels or even unsigned. With a couple of labels featured including White Stripes and Dizzee Rascal's label XL and Mr Scruff's Ninja Tune records (my own personal favourite for those pathetic enough to care) I was impressed that around 95% of the artists featured are still relatively unknown past the band's girlfriends/parents/ people they have upset at bars when they didn’t realize it was live band night.
What really impressed me however was that they give the opportunity to download, for free, an entire collection of songs from different artists each month. This did excite me. I had this image of me writing reviews of these unknown artists each month, then a year down the line when the band have gone supernova and become the 'next big thing' and the lead singer is pictured holding Duffy's hand on the front cover of the News of the World, I can feel slightly smug about how I gave them a glowing review all those moons ago. So whose career am I going to give the boost it so desperately deserves. Cassetteboy, two lads from Bristol making experimental cut and paste sampling music, perfect here we go...
Listening to Cassetteboy is possibly one of the most migraine invoking waste of time I have ever experienced in my life which many a time has been wasted.
No no no gosh darn it that wasn't supposed to happen but I’m sorry but really it’s a comedy album, full of nob gags I might add, that gets tiring way before each song is finished never mind listening to 17 tracks of it. What consists of samples of speeches by Tony Blair, George Bush, various newsreaders all cut up to make them say things like "weapons of mass destruction are in Blackpool" or as simple as "I am a paedophile" may raise a smile every now and again but soon turns repetitive and has you screaming 'when are the actual songs going to appear?'
Also if I’m honest if you want to hear a cut job of Stephan Fry reading Harry Potter that has been turned into Hermione giving him oral sex (an actual track I assure you) the you are a grotesque ugly freak and I don’t want you reading this page anyway. Although saying that I they should receive some credit (or bravery points/sick evil human beings bonuses depending on how you look at it) for the track 'Di + Dodi Do Di' which is the usual cut and paste news cast sampling of the Princess Diana death to shocking effect, one line reads 'I always knew the Mercedes would kill her' used from three different voice clips, which apparently was made just weeks after her death.
Now I know it seems very harsh to praise a magazine for its determination to support independent music then lampoon it the first chance I get. Let me just then take this opportunity to praise Bearded for introducing me to Throwing Snow, who use banjos and a percussion which consists off the rattle of a spray can that I feel doesn't get used enough nowadays, and the funk/soul oddity that id Ratface, both can be found and downloaded through the website if you so wish to do so. But when it comes to Cassetteboy, no tunes, no reason to ever listen to them again, no point I’m afraid.
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Fuck Buttons
Sometimes somebody describes a band to me and I simply have to hear them straight away, almost as if my life will forever appear dull and meaningless if I don’t. Especially if the description contains the words Tibetan flutes, post jazz grindcore, New Wave Apocalyptic gangsta funk, or any other similar if somewhat far fetched genres almost certainly not found next to the 3 for £20 DVD sections in HMV. However as in the case of The Courteneers ("they're like a cross between Arctic Monkeys and Oasis") a small piece of my soul dies inside and I purposely go out of my way to avoid listening to dross like this.
Then not too long ago my eldest Brother advised me to listen to a band hailing from Bristol called Fuck Buttons. Now I know what your thinking "they've got a swear word in their name, oh how non conformist." Well technically you're right but in recent years bands such as Holy Fuck and Fucked Up also getting some sort of recognition, I was half expecting last years big Breakthrough band MGMT to actually rename themselves Fuck De Fuck Fuck.
No what made me want to listen to them was my brother’s description of their debut album Street Horsing . It was somewhere between the likes of "it’s the best, no worse album ever...aww this song is great, wait this one makes me feel physically sick when I listen to it. My brain hurts. This one makes me feel weird to my very core." This ever contradictive review goes on for about a fortnight so I’ll skip to the jist of what he though of the album. Listen to it, you might love or absolutely hate it, but the first thing you'll do listen to it again and then play it to a friend to get his opinion.
Well he was right. I did absolutely love it but this album is far from an easy listen. It is possibly the hardest album to categorize I’ve heard in a very long time and with only one song under seven minutes long it really isn't for the faint of heart or weak of mind.
The album opener Sweet Love For Planet Earth starts off with a echoing piano before what can only be described as doom synthesizer kicks in and takes bout four and a half minutes to really go anywhere, then when it does the vocals are just as upsetting and disturbing to listen to as the blackest of black death metal bands. Track two Rib's Out doesn’t get ant better. At a lean 3.57 minutes you would guess this is the albums 'pop' song. You would be wrong. The song consists of an African style drum beat played under what sounds like two Chimpanzees having rather violent sex which Sir David Attenborough recording with the reverb on max. It is possibly one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard coming through my speakers.
So far, so hellish, but you like an ulcer in your mouth that hurts when you touch it with your tongue you can't stop listening to it. From here on out the entire album is beautifully hypnotic and actually do contain some amazing fuzzy synthetic melodies, while at the same time nauseating. It all sounds like it should be played over a sunrise while the Earth is going through Armageddon, the excellent Bright Tomorrow being the perfect example of this.
If after all this you still don’t understand what it is like to listen to this album, well like my Brother said listen to it yourself because you could read a thousand reviews and not one will be able to do it proper justice. In my opinion any album that could provoke such strong opinions either side of the album review spectrum is just what music is about in a world of bland MOR drivel that constantly exists on the airwaves. Just listen to it.
I just can't promise you'll actually like it, or maybe you'll love it, here Dave what do you think, OH DAMMIT!
Then not too long ago my eldest Brother advised me to listen to a band hailing from Bristol called Fuck Buttons. Now I know what your thinking "they've got a swear word in their name, oh how non conformist." Well technically you're right but in recent years bands such as Holy Fuck and Fucked Up also getting some sort of recognition, I was half expecting last years big Breakthrough band MGMT to actually rename themselves Fuck De Fuck Fuck.
No what made me want to listen to them was my brother’s description of their debut album Street Horsing . It was somewhere between the likes of "it’s the best, no worse album ever...aww this song is great, wait this one makes me feel physically sick when I listen to it. My brain hurts. This one makes me feel weird to my very core." This ever contradictive review goes on for about a fortnight so I’ll skip to the jist of what he though of the album. Listen to it, you might love or absolutely hate it, but the first thing you'll do listen to it again and then play it to a friend to get his opinion.
Well he was right. I did absolutely love it but this album is far from an easy listen. It is possibly the hardest album to categorize I’ve heard in a very long time and with only one song under seven minutes long it really isn't for the faint of heart or weak of mind.
The album opener Sweet Love For Planet Earth starts off with a echoing piano before what can only be described as doom synthesizer kicks in and takes bout four and a half minutes to really go anywhere, then when it does the vocals are just as upsetting and disturbing to listen to as the blackest of black death metal bands. Track two Rib's Out doesn’t get ant better. At a lean 3.57 minutes you would guess this is the albums 'pop' song. You would be wrong. The song consists of an African style drum beat played under what sounds like two Chimpanzees having rather violent sex which Sir David Attenborough recording with the reverb on max. It is possibly one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard coming through my speakers.
So far, so hellish, but you like an ulcer in your mouth that hurts when you touch it with your tongue you can't stop listening to it. From here on out the entire album is beautifully hypnotic and actually do contain some amazing fuzzy synthetic melodies, while at the same time nauseating. It all sounds like it should be played over a sunrise while the Earth is going through Armageddon, the excellent Bright Tomorrow being the perfect example of this.
If after all this you still don’t understand what it is like to listen to this album, well like my Brother said listen to it yourself because you could read a thousand reviews and not one will be able to do it proper justice. In my opinion any album that could provoke such strong opinions either side of the album review spectrum is just what music is about in a world of bland MOR drivel that constantly exists on the airwaves. Just listen to it.
I just can't promise you'll actually like it, or maybe you'll love it, here Dave what do you think, OH DAMMIT!
Monday 9 February 2009
In memorial
This is just a quick one to pay my respects to Mr Brian Roberts, my old P.E teacher at Longendale High School who tragically died in a climbing accident last week.
He tragically fell to his death during a fairly routine climb in the Lake District, a fact made even more distressing considering he recently successfully climbed one of the hardest mountains in the world in the Himalayas.
He will be fondly remembered as one of the better teachers at the school which is a great achievement considering 99% of P.E teachers are the usual Mr Sugden from the film Kes type arseholes.
One fond memory of him I have is during a game of football he shouted that I would "play less like a bloody girl if I didn't have hair like a bloody girl."
My condolences go out to his family during this time and i'm sure many who attended Longendale High School feel the same way.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1095209_tributes_to_dead_climber#comments
He tragically fell to his death during a fairly routine climb in the Lake District, a fact made even more distressing considering he recently successfully climbed one of the hardest mountains in the world in the Himalayas.
He will be fondly remembered as one of the better teachers at the school which is a great achievement considering 99% of P.E teachers are the usual Mr Sugden from the film Kes type arseholes.
One fond memory of him I have is during a game of football he shouted that I would "play less like a bloody girl if I didn't have hair like a bloody girl."
My condolences go out to his family during this time and i'm sure many who attended Longendale High School feel the same way.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1095209_tributes_to_dead_climber#comments
Scolari Sacked
Well here we go again, time to dish out the usual 'manager merry-go round' clichés as the news that Chelsea have sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari after a mere 36 games in charge. Chelsea decided to sack the World Cup winner, let me just repeat that for those who may not understand, THE MANAGER OF A WORLD CUP WINNING TEAM, as they felt a change was necessary in order to compete for trophies.
With Chelsea still not technically out of the premier title race just yet, a couple of slip ups for Man Utd will have them right back in it and are still in the Champions League and FA Cup, I can only presume the Carling Cup is what Chelsea were really after this season.
Scolari is now the forth manager to leave/ be pushed at Chelsea during the Abramovich era and I really fear for the next manager who is going to take over the realm. Claudio Ranieri finished 2nd and took Chelsea to the Champions league semi-finals during his reign, which apparently was no where near good enough and was sacked after. But to be fair the man who took his place was 'the special one' Jose Mourinho who easily had potential to be the greatest manager this country has ever seen, for the two seasons he was here. Let us also not forget Avram Grant of course. Well he never stood a chance no matter what he did while he was in charge but at least he got to finish his season, something Scolari surely should of had the chance to do.
This is just another bizarre case of not giving a manger enough time to build and manage a team that has occurred far too often recently.
Paul Ince and Tony Adams, both young new managers in the Premiership, lasted a total of 35 games between them managing Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth respectively. Then there was the whole Kevin Keegan scenario at Newcastle where they went from a laughing stock, to regaining some pride restoring the clubs number one icon, to even bigger laughing stock when King Kev left again. Now the club are in the type of turmoil where their best player feels a move to Man City is an improvement.
Ahhh Man City. I feel a perfect link between them and Chelsea can be found here. Lets be honest what are the chances that Mark Hughes will still be manager of the richest club in the world by next season. This is a man who believes a team of Chelsea rejects (Wayne Bridge) and bloody irritating players (Craig Bellamy) are who you should turn to if you fail to buy Kaka. This remember is a team who have gone through 15 managers in the past 20 years, the same amount of time Man Utd have been with Alex Ferguson, who also risked facing the sack after a miserable first few years at United until he was given one last chance in an FA cup match against Nottingham Forest in 1989. They went on the win that match, then the FA cup overall and the rest is history.
So a manger had a tough first few years, team stuck with him and now they are the biggest team in the world at the moment. I doubt Gianfranco Zola of West Ham will get the same treatment.
With Chelsea still not technically out of the premier title race just yet, a couple of slip ups for Man Utd will have them right back in it and are still in the Champions League and FA Cup, I can only presume the Carling Cup is what Chelsea were really after this season.
Scolari is now the forth manager to leave/ be pushed at Chelsea during the Abramovich era and I really fear for the next manager who is going to take over the realm. Claudio Ranieri finished 2nd and took Chelsea to the Champions league semi-finals during his reign, which apparently was no where near good enough and was sacked after. But to be fair the man who took his place was 'the special one' Jose Mourinho who easily had potential to be the greatest manager this country has ever seen, for the two seasons he was here. Let us also not forget Avram Grant of course. Well he never stood a chance no matter what he did while he was in charge but at least he got to finish his season, something Scolari surely should of had the chance to do.
This is just another bizarre case of not giving a manger enough time to build and manage a team that has occurred far too often recently.
Paul Ince and Tony Adams, both young new managers in the Premiership, lasted a total of 35 games between them managing Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth respectively. Then there was the whole Kevin Keegan scenario at Newcastle where they went from a laughing stock, to regaining some pride restoring the clubs number one icon, to even bigger laughing stock when King Kev left again. Now the club are in the type of turmoil where their best player feels a move to Man City is an improvement.
Ahhh Man City. I feel a perfect link between them and Chelsea can be found here. Lets be honest what are the chances that Mark Hughes will still be manager of the richest club in the world by next season. This is a man who believes a team of Chelsea rejects (Wayne Bridge) and bloody irritating players (Craig Bellamy) are who you should turn to if you fail to buy Kaka. This remember is a team who have gone through 15 managers in the past 20 years, the same amount of time Man Utd have been with Alex Ferguson, who also risked facing the sack after a miserable first few years at United until he was given one last chance in an FA cup match against Nottingham Forest in 1989. They went on the win that match, then the FA cup overall and the rest is history.
So a manger had a tough first few years, team stuck with him and now they are the biggest team in the world at the moment. I doubt Gianfranco Zola of West Ham will get the same treatment.
Friday 6 February 2009
Learning to Love You More
What I want to achieve from this blog and any future blogs is a kind of make shift portfolio, basically any feature, opinion piece, review and any other random articles I wish to write, either for uni or just in my spare time in order to help with my journalistic skills.
I feel i mite as well start with what i feel is a very ambitious project which I hope to write as a full feature for a magazine I will create in one of my modules at uni.
Learning to Love You More is a project currently running at the Baltic in Gateshead until the 8th of March. The idea is that visitors to the Baltic (or the website www.learningtoloveyoumore.com) choose from a list of 70 assignments given by the artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The list differs from the simple and obscure (assignment 12-Get a temporary tattoo of one of Morgan Rozacky's neighbours) to the extreme (assignment 31. Spend time with a dying person)
Each assignment requires the public to send in a report, be it a photo or written piece, to show they have accomplished the assignment and it is these reports that are placed on the website or at one of the many exhibitions worldwide.
The idea is that each person who takes part in these assignments has their own unique experiences in realising how simple creating something that can make you think can be if they think about their own lives.
It is my intention to complete as many of these assignments as possible and write about my experience of this and regularly update my blog depending on what assignments Ii did that day
I hope to gain some sort of positive experience from all this as well as a well written feature (I can assure you the feel and tone of the piece will be more of my own voice than the standard introductory tone you are currently reading)
Anyway wish me luck and who knows maybe my completed assignments may just appear in the next exhibition, wherever that may be.
I feel i mite as well start with what i feel is a very ambitious project which I hope to write as a full feature for a magazine I will create in one of my modules at uni.
Learning to Love You More is a project currently running at the Baltic in Gateshead until the 8th of March. The idea is that visitors to the Baltic (or the website www.learningtoloveyoumore.com) choose from a list of 70 assignments given by the artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The list differs from the simple and obscure (assignment 12-Get a temporary tattoo of one of Morgan Rozacky's neighbours) to the extreme (assignment 31. Spend time with a dying person)
Each assignment requires the public to send in a report, be it a photo or written piece, to show they have accomplished the assignment and it is these reports that are placed on the website or at one of the many exhibitions worldwide.
The idea is that each person who takes part in these assignments has their own unique experiences in realising how simple creating something that can make you think can be if they think about their own lives.
It is my intention to complete as many of these assignments as possible and write about my experience of this and regularly update my blog depending on what assignments Ii did that day
I hope to gain some sort of positive experience from all this as well as a well written feature (I can assure you the feel and tone of the piece will be more of my own voice than the standard introductory tone you are currently reading)
Anyway wish me luck and who knows maybe my completed assignments may just appear in the next exhibition, wherever that may be.
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