Monthly Archives: June 2014

My iPod #308: Linkin Park – Easier to Run

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Hmmmm…… It’s now 2014. So from what I remember the first time I actually listened to a Linkin Park song was when the “Breaking the Habit” video was showing on the television. Well, either that or the one for “Numb”. Crazy. I’ve known Linkin Park for about ten years now. But they’ve never been my favourite band. I can get into their songs though. Especially their songs. Not the most recent ones though, I’m a bit off with those. I’m more the “Hybrid Theory”-“Minutes to Midnight” Linkin Park guy. I’m actually not that big of a fan of “Minutes” either. The singles off it are great though. Nah. My favourite album of theirs is the one in the middle of those two, “Meteora“.

Yeah man, “Meteora” is the only Linkin Park album that I could sit down and listen to all the way through. It gets a bit of shit for sounding a bit too much like its predecessor. I can’t add much to that. Never listened to “Hybrid” in full. Nu-metal is a genre where you can’t really change much too. You have the rap-rock style which is done very well on “Meteora”. The same can’t be said for a lot of nu-metal albums out there. All the songs segue into each other too, and I like that shit.

“Easier to Run” is a track on “Meteora”. The sixth one, I believe. It’s about finding easier to run away from your problems rather than facing them head on, because of the fear of facing more pain. Quite sad, yes.

I’ve always liked how this song sounds. There’s something very epic and atmospheric about it. The quiet and meek tone established by Chester’s vocal and the light guitar plucks during the verses which then builds tension when Mike comes in with his part and the strings enter before caving into the loud guitars that take over during the chorus. Very cool.

It’s all very slow too. But not in bad way. It just makes you appreciate it more, you know? And it makes a good contrast to the following track, whose one note string opening appears in the last few seconds of this one. Just as the dust settles, there’s something running at you that you can see from a distance. Then “Faint” takes over. Good transition.

My iPod #307: The Who – Early Morning Cold Taxi

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Today’s track is “Early Morning Cold Taxi” by The Who, one that wasn’t released on an album when the band were making music in their heyday. I heard the song when listening to the 1995 Remixed and Remastered version of “The Who Sell Out“, the band’s third album released in 1967.

What the song title actually means is beyond me. I never really think about it that much. Maybe the phrase just fit the melody of the song or whatever. “Cold Taxi” wasn’t written by Pete Townshend, who obviously wrote pretty much everything The Who did, but instead a guy named Dave Langston who was the band’s first roadie. The song is actually credited to both him and lead singer Roger Daltrey, but Daltrey didn’t actually do much. He didn’t write any of it at all really.

But this isn’t a bad thing. “Cold Taxi” is a nice poppy number with, what I think are vocals done by both Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle, the former being in the right side of the ‘stereo field’ (that is how it’s described, right) and the latter on the left. Got great vocal harmonies and a sweet melody, an innocent little ‘ooooh’ bridge section and a few key changes here and there. It’s a nice song.

The song is about three minutes long, and ‘cos of the whole radio concept the album’s supposed to have it is followed by a thirty second Coke jingle that the band actually recorded for the company all those years ago. It does take the momentum out of the track, but it is a rocking advertisement for a drink.

My iPod #306: Dananananaykroyd – E Numbers

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Well, well, well. It’s been a long time coming. But it’s here again! It’s the series that seems to just keep on going. It’s My iPod time. And now we’ve reached the fifth letter of the alphabet…. ‘E’. And we start off with a fire cracker of a track.

“E Numbers” was actually the first track to be revealed from Dananananaykroyd’s second (and sadly, final) album “There Is a Way” in 2011. The track was uploaded on the band’s SoundCloud account and onto YouTube in April of that year, two months before the album was physically released.

I did not know this. I was too busy revising for GCSEs, you see. But it was in the last week of exams, maybe even the last day, when “Muscle Memory” appeared on my television screen. That was the first I had heard from the ‘Kroyd’ in ages, but of course all fans knew that something was coming for about two months. Listened to “There Is a Way” when I got back home, and ended up as a very happy listener by the end of it.

But yeah, the song. “E Numbers” is the third track on “There Is a Way”, coming after the ‘Hey, we’re back’ track of “Reboot” and the “You better fuckin’ buckle your seatbelts” track of “All Us Authors”. There isn’t much of an intro to get you settled into the track; it kind of just launches into this blaring loud drone of guitars and what sounds like really bad horn playing in the background before co-vocalists Calum Gunn and John Bailie Jnr start singing.

I won’t try and be pretentious by coming up with theories about what the song is about. ‘Cos I have no idea. That may annoy a few, but I just really like it. It contains lyrics about seeing things through prisms which is reflected in the album’s cover art, and some about feeding kids with e numbers and wondering on where our tantrums go….. so I’m guessing it’s a song about growing up? Maybe? Still not sure.

Whatever. It’s a real fast song on an album that never lets up on energy. You get one track that’s powerful and punchy and the band just keep feeding you and feeding you and feeding you. Listen to “There Is a Way”; I advise you.

I miss them. Rest in peace.

Update: What’s up?

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Short answer: Took a break from blogging for a while. Got ill in that time. Not feeling very good as I type now, but I feel like my followers need an explanation.

Long answer: Hi everyone. Boy, it’s been a while since I put anything on here. The last you heard anything from me was that Parquet Courts first impression thing. Whether people liked that or not I don’t know. But it’s since then that I had no idea what else to write about, so the blog’s been a bit empty for a while. For you guys that follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I went to the Parklife Weekend Festival in Manchester. “How was it?” I hear you ask. Pretty cool. It was my first festival that I’ve ever been to, and I got to spend it to with two of my greatest friends from secondary school and a whole bunch of his uni mates.

If you want to go to a festival, bear these things in mind: Almost everyone is on drugs. But a lot of people are very friendly. In fact, I had a random chat with a man who was disappointed in Snoop Dogg (who had headlined the first day) for ‘selling out’ and making music for the monetary gain. That was something, I tell you. But things can get fucked up. A person died a few days after being attacked just as Snoop’s set started. Stay safe, and mind where you go.

Also, it can get very muddy. So, like me, don’t assume that the weather is going to be nice because there is a great chance that it won’t be. You will suffer the consequences. I certainly did. Wellington boots are essential. And shorts too.

Saw a whole bunch of artists: Snoop Dogg, Danny Brown (who was probably my favourite, that guy is a crazy mofo), Pusha T, Jon Hopkins, Disclosure, Hannah Wants and a whole bunch of other random DJs whose names I can’t remember. Overall, ’twas a good weekend. Got videos on my phone which I can’t put on Twitter or here, so…. whatever.

That all changed on the train back to uni from Manchester. It got very hot; I felt like I was dying. Been suffering with the flu ever since. And that is why I haven’t made much effort to say anything until now.

Now that I have updated ya? You may want to know what will happen next? Well, I suppose the thing my blog runs on the most is “My iPod” for which the ‘D’ section finished ages ago in May. That will come back. If I’m absolutely better on Monday, it will start then. If not, I’ll try the Monday afterwards. That’s when the “E” section starts, yay.

That’s a daily thing so there probably won’t be any random posts about other things in that time. I’m also watching the World Cup, so that may affect stuff too.

Nice speaking to ya again 😀

jamie.

Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal

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If “Light Up Gold” is a party album, “Sunbathing Animal” is the album for the morning after.

I just finished listening to Parquet Courts’ new album via Spotify. It was alright from what I could tell. It was just playing in the background whilst I was watching YouTube videos on my phone, which isn’t the best way to go about listening to something before giving an opinion on it. But this is not a review. The term ‘review’ would be used very very loosely in that case. This more of a…. first thought kind of thing.

The majority of the tracks are slow and very chill, apart from the album’s title track, “Ducking and Dodging” and possibly the second track “Black and White” which I think would all fit in with “Light Up Gold” had those tracks been thought of or developed at the time.

I’m all for slow and chill material. I will listen to it again, just to get a proper feel of it. And so I can hear for what it itself is, instead of comparing it to their previous album.

If you are a Parquet Courts fan, there is no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy “Sunbathing Animal”. Unless you were a huge fan of the energy that “Light Up Gold” had, then you may have to give this a few listens.