<< Return to Home 

Apple - They 'Aint All That


The number of cheerleaders for Apple is amazing. Apparently they're the bees knees, their software and products are wonderfully easy to use.

Last night I installed the new version of iTunes. It sat for a while when I first started it up re-registering all my files. However, had it automatically filled in the tags for all my untagged mp3's. No it had not.

Damn you Apple!

11:02 | 3 Comments, | permanent link

...................................................................................................................

The Divine Comedy - Usher Hall, 29/4/04


I went to see the Divine Comedy on Tuesday night in the plush surroundings of the Usher Hall. Very civilised it was too with comfy seats and an interval. Very peculiar when you're used to being at the front near the band and standing up. I like to see the whites of their eyes.

When we went out for the interval to get a drink we passed a guy who I was 95% certain was Billy Boyd or 'the Scottish hobbit' for those unaware of who he is. No-one else seemed to pay him a second glance and I glanced but didn't engage in any witty banter. 'Cool, I thought, he must be a fan'.

The second half begins and almost the first song played is The Booklovers. On the original the verses consist of a long list of writers I seem to remember. Neil thought this was now a bit...'shite?' as someone shouted out. I think he meant pretentious. For the live version on this tour they were getting a different reader out at each date to read something over the verses. Since they were in Scotland they thought it would be appropriate to have someone Scottish. Inevitably it was Billy Boyd. He proceeded to read the first few pages of The Hobbit while Neil Hannon sang the choruses. It actually worked pretty well and was a nice surprise to top off an already good gig.

In summary - suit, shades, hangover, Queens Of The Stone Age cover, front row singalong on National Express, 15 piece band/orchestra, better after the interval than before, the 'Scottish hobbit', nothing from Regeneration, crowd full of old/overweight people who were not to be seen at any of the standing gigs DC have done, imperfect sound, overall not half bad.

13:14 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

...................................................................................................................

Prince


I'm glad that it looks as though Prince is on the way to a commercial and critical comeback. The last couple of months have seen him opening the Grammy's with Beyonce, being interviewed on a couple of different American talk shows and getting inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame including a rip roaring performance. He's got a huge US tour on the go and an album, Musicology, out in a few weeks that I've heard encouraging early words about.

It's as though he's decided now is the time to get back into the mainstream. It'll help if the album he's basing this on is really strong although getting proper promotion for it is almost as important. I always though that Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was a good enough album and should have been bigger but it was obviously not given the promotion it needed to be a success, let's hope this time it's different.

God knows Prince has been one of the most talented and amazing artists of the last 25 years and the public should be reminded of that. He was always lumped in with Michael Jackson and Madonna as the big musical rivals of the 80's but for me Prince was always head and shoulders above those guys. No doubt they released good records but Prince could play, sing and perform them under the table any day.

Yes, we could go on about the rubbish he's released and his need of an editor but just go back and listen to Sign Of The Times, Parade, Purple Rain, Dirty Mind etc etc and you'll forgot all about that stuff.

21:31 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

...................................................................................................................

Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse


An overload of print journalism on old dead bands has annoyed me so much that it's driven me to decide that this year is new music year. Normally I would buy quite a bit of new music but also a lot of back catalogue stuff. This year I want to be able to look back and say that I properly sampled all the delights that 2004 had to offer so any CD cash I have is going on new releases and not old stuff.

In light of this the last few weeks has brought a number of new records my way, the first of which is the new Stereolab CD Margerine Eclipse -

Chris Morris has been involved in some of the best and also most contraversial comedy series over the last 10 years or so from The Day Today to Jam and Brass Eye. Way back when though he was a DJ. He did about 4/5 years on the London station GLR and in 1994 moved to Radio 1 where he produced 24 programs of great entertaining radio. This was around about the time of the Bannister shake up at Radio 1 when the station was going through huge transition but was also producing a lot of really interesting music and non music output. Morris's show, which he presented along with Peter Baynham, was a mixture of music, phone pranks, celebrity interviewing by Wayne Carr and various flights of fancy concocted in the studio by Morris and Baynham. It frequently ran into trouble with those it sought to send up and was sued a couple of times leading to suspensions for Morris and ultimately the show being pre-recorded rather than going out live. I guess that certain interviewees didn't appreciate Wayne Carr's lines of questioning and certainly announcing the death of Michael Heseltine wasn't well received to say the least.

I can't remember if I heard any of these shows first time round but thankfully thanks to this site I can enjoy them now. I have almost all the shows from previous downloads but I've been grabbing them again since they've been putting up broadcast quality rips from DAT. Listening to these shows now is to hear how Radio 1 has changed. Morris was obviously given free reign to play what he wanted so the music runs the gamut from Serge Gainsbourg, The Velvet Underground and Steely Dan to Deee Lite, Public Enemy and Ice Cube. One of the songs he plays that I suppose was probably out about the same time as some of these shows were broadcast is Ping Pong by Stereolab. This is a song I loved at the time and bought on single back in the days when I used to buy such things. Every so often I'll hear that song and be reminded how good Stereolab can be and think to myself "I must go out and buy their new record". Which is exactly what just happened and it really was worth it.

There's a school of thought that it's all been downhill since Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Not sure this is the case since I haven't heard all the records they've released since then. Certainly I enjoyed some of Sound Dust, their last record, despite not feeling the need to hear it very much. However, I think the new one Margerine Eclipse has some great things on it, songs I know that I'll return to.

It kicks off with one of the best 'Vonal Declosion'. You can tell it's them straight away - a few drum beats and in come the keyboards and one of those great bubbly bass lines they do so well. It's already so recognisable as Stereolab, their sound is so well defined now, but then comes Laetitia Sadier singing about who knows what in French and the picture is complete. It's a great Summer song with a wonderful breezy melody.

Another favourite is Margerine Rock, this time sung in English, but it sounds like another classic. A bit more motorik in it's rhythm but the closest that Stereolab will come to a driving rock song even including a bit of a guitar freakout near the end.

Obviously losing guitarist and vocalist Mary Hansen to a cycling accident last year must have affected the band greatly but though she is commemorated by some of music and lyrics here this is far from a maudlin album and at least musically really couldn't be more upbeat and optimistic.

One interesting point to listen out for is that no sound in the left channel is duplicated in the right and vice versa. This basically means lots of different things going on in both ears but nothing in the middle of the stereo picture. Odd.

21:16 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

...................................................................................................................

Powered By Blogbear
(c) Copyright 2003-2004.