Monthly Archives: June 2014

My iPod #313: They Might Be Giants – The Edison Museum

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“The Edison Museum” is They Might Be Giants’ “endearing” tribute to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, which is actually in New Jersey. I put endearing in quotation marks because the the track is quite the opposite. The lyrics and music make it out to be one of the creepiest and mysterious places to exist on the face of the Earth. The track even uses a line from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film, which I only just realised and makes this track a bit more comedic than I thought it was.

The use of only horns, a keyboard and a vibraband mimicking the sound of a sped up voice recording give the track a very eerie and spooky atmosphere. That’s also emphasised by radio DJ Nick Hill’s vocal. He sang  “I Hear the Wind Blow” in the “Fingertips” track on “Apollo 18”, if you didn’t know. His low voice guides the listener through the dusty corridors of the haunted building, which is apparently used as a threat to children if they don’t stop arguing and yet is still a wondrous place which amazes the many people that lay their eyes on it.

This track may be hard to talk about. It’s not one that would be regularly requested for the band to play at their shows that’s for sure. But it is still an interesting one to listen to nonetheless. It’s the last song on the band’s album “Long Tall Weekend“. It brings a very abrupt end to it; I can remember listening through the album for the first time when this song finished expecting something to follow it up. The last line is sung, and then it just stops – that is the end of the album. But that’s due to the fact that the track was originally much longer, but was cut down to the final version that was released.

It is unusual. But that’s what They Might Be Giants do occasionally.

My iPod #312: The Kooks – Eddie’s Gun

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The Kooks are coming back. In fact, they are back. They’ve announced an album “Listen” which is due for release in early Autumn this year, and the tracks unveiled from this upcoming release “Down” and “Around Town” show that the group from Brighton have definitely taken a new approach in their music. Sounds pretty similar to Arctic Monkeys’ change on AM with those R&B vibes going on on both tunes. But whatever. It is a good time to be a Kooks fan.

“Eddie’s Gun” was the first track I ever heard by The Kooks. It was their first single almost ten years ago. The video appeared on MTV2’s new music section/programme thing the channel would do when there was a new band that was on the rise, or if new music videos were out in general. I think I saw the full video once that time, and then a second of it appeared in an advert or something. But I liked it, thought it was cool. Then time was getting closer towards the release of “Inside In/Inside Out“; “Naïve” and “She Moves in Her Own Way” were becoming popular tracks and the band were gaining more and more popularity. The album came out, “Eddie’s Gun” was on there…. but the band had re-recorded it to make it sound better. Understandable…. but it wasn’t the same.

The album version’s alright, but it’s the original/demo version that I have on my iPod. Just because it reminds me of when I first saw its music video and introduced me to The Kooks’ music.

It’s about erectile dysfunction. Just saying.

Here’s the album version, if you want to hear it.

My iPod #311: Pink Floyd – Eclipse

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How tense was that penalty shoot out, oh my god. Looked like it was Brazil all the way when Cesar saved both of Chile’s penalties, then Willian fucked up leading into Chile’s come back and then Chile fucked up when their player hit the post….. Maaan. I feel sorry for Chile, they played very well. But could you imagine what would have happened if Brazil had lost, shit would have gone down on a major scale. Good luck to ’em, I think they just might win it somehow.

Completely unrelated to that is the track I have today. It is “Eclipse”, the closer of progressive rock group Pink Floyd’s classic 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon“. Each track on there details specific things which human beings crazy from death, to money, to choice, to actual brain damage. But “Eclipse” is where everything all comes together. “Eclipse” basically sums the whole album’s message up in the few lines it has. That message is all the good things life can offer are there for us to grasp, but that the influence of some dark force in our natures prevents us from seizing them. Roger Waters said that himself, so neeeeh.

It is an epic finisher even in it’s short duration of two minutes. Set up by three booming simultaneous hits on the toms and snares, the song explodes into life with a cymbal crash and a glorious organ that joins in. As Roger Waters sings, the music builds in intensity with back-up vocals joining in and various female singers wailing and scat singing over it all. That lasts for about a minute and a half before the song fades out on its final chord, only leaving the sound of a heartbeat to eventually fade out to silence.

Yep. Good song. Can’t listen to it by itself though, sounds a lot better when you listen to it along with “Brain Damage”. And the other eight preceding songs for that matter.

R.I.P. Bobby Womack.

My iPod #310: Paul & Linda McCartney – Eat at Home

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“Eat at Home” is probably one of the cheesiest McCartney tunes. And Paul has written a lot of those. Everything from the cheery melody and the melismatic vocals on the word ‘love’ and all the general gushing on Paul’s part on how great his relationship is with Linda may make a listener want to throw up, gag, annoy or just bring to displeasure for a lot of listeners.

I think it’s quite good, actually. One of the most enjoyable tracks on there. A nice, pleasant, easy-going track…. possibly about oral sex. Yeah.

Musically, it’s pretty easy going. But I think it contains one of Paul’s busiest bass takes. He’s always switching between different notes, ascending and descending scales in the bass line while the other instruments play around it. Paul sounds very happy singing, throwing in his trademark “woos” and “ahhs” and really emphasising syllables, as you hear on the very first line (come on little lllllaaaayu-DUH).

Yes, it’s all a bit silly and shit. It does come after one of the album’s most dramatic tracks, so it’s a good way to relieve the tension.

It’s on “Ram“, by the way. Have a listen. You might enjoy it.

My iPod #309: Green Day – East Jesus Nowhere

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Watching the World Cup and then going on to do nothing but browse the Internet after almost made me forget that I had this to do. If you are watching the football, how’s your team doing? Both teams that I were supporting are both out now which smells, but I will of course carry on viewing the action.

So today’s song is “East Jesus Nowhere”, a track and a single from Green Day’s album “21st Century Breakdown”. Not my favourite of the band’s for reasons that have probably been covered in other reviews that you can read elsewhere. For me, the whole ‘concept’ is a bit too much; I still don’t really understand it now but I never tried to in the slightest. That’s just one thing; I won’t go much into the rest.

“East Jesus Nowhere” is an ‘anti-religion’ song inspired by Mike Dirnt’s displeasure on witnessing a baptism in a church filled with ‘hypocrisy and hatred’. Billie Joe himself said to The Sunday Times that “the never-ending hypocrisy of religion, all those snake-oil-salesman types, and that subliminal thing of threatening people and ripping away their individuality.” Can’t ask for more than that really.

It’s a track I don’t care for that much. Sounded good back in 2009, but now….. ehh. It’s alright.