Monthly Archives: July 2014

My iPod #329: Enter Shikari – Enter Shikari

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Enter Shikari were a big thing back around 2006-07. Hadn’t known anything about the band until the video for “Sorry, You’re Not a Winner” was played constantly, and it was clear that even then the group had already gained a few dedicated fans who loved the band enough to join them in a cramped, sweat-filled room and mosh along with the track. The band then released the singles “Anything Can Happen…” and “Jonny Sniper” both of which I enjoyed. So I thought why not just buy the album when it comes out?

Eventually I received “Take to the Skies” as a birthday present; I was very happy to get it. Listening to it, I thought there was a storyline to it. The cover art with the alien and human fighting over the earth set that off, really. If it was to be a concept album, “Enter Shikari” is where it all begins with the aliens invading. Do I sound crazy for suggesting this? Sounds pretty plausible to me.

I mean, the way the song starts with the word “SHIT” yelled twice and sounds of people screaming, threats like “Your life’s about to flash before your eyes…..” Something crazy is happening, and the band add great dramatic effect with Rou’s ever-adapting vocals – singing one second before executing guttural howls the next – and bassist Chris Batten’s vocals which sound quite angelic at times.

This song is hyper.

My iPod #328: Mercury Rev – Endlessly

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“Deserter’s Songs” is an album that I have only listened to quite recently. A few months ago, I think. Seeing that it was called one of the best albums of 1998 by a few websites increased my curiosity.

It is a lovely one to listen to. The instrumentation varies from one track to another. One minute you will be listening to three minutes of flutes and twinkling harps, the next you’ll be hearing to raspy saxophones and loud electric guitars.

“Endlessly” is a song that makes use of the lush, woodwind, acoustic atmosphere. I have never really paid attention to the lyrics just because of how damn sweet it sounds. Reminds me of something from a Disney film. I don’t mean that as an insult, but I could really imagine this, “Tonite It Shows” and “Hudson Line” all being sung in a Walt Disney Picture. Like Aladdin or something.

My iPod #327: They Might Be Giants – The End of the Tour

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“The End of the Tour” was a track I heard around the same time as I heard “AKA Driver“, “Dinner Bell“, “Ana Ng“, “Destination Moon“, and many other They Might Be Giants songs for the first time. And that was when, if you’ve read my posts on those few songs you will know, when I was on Yahoo’s Launch site.

I’ve never really cared to think about what this song is about, or what it could mean. I feel very sentimental when I listen to it. Even though I wasn’t alive when this song first came out in 1994, it somehow makes me want to reminisce about friends from the past and other unforgettable moments.

This song is about the end of something…. not just a tour. I think the whole ‘tour’ is a metaphor of life, actually. Whatever. Nothing to care that much about.

It’s a very relieving and comforting way to end the hour-long smorgasbord that is “John Henry”, especially as it comes after the monster “Stomp Box” where you wonder where the album could possibly go afterwards.

My iPod #326: Blur – End of a Century

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Have you ever gone on casually going about on your daily routine knowing that something big and life changing was on the horizon, but you’re just that person too wrapped up in your own life or what’s happening on the television to realise it? Well, I think that’s what Damon Albarn was thinking about when he was writing the lyrics to “End of a Century”, the third track and last single from the 1994 album “Parklife“.

If I was a little older in 1999 – maybe ten or eleven (around those ages) – I would probably be able to tell you how much people were going crazy for the start of the new millennium. I can’t because I was about four and I can barely remember living in the nineties anyway. The only thing I remember vaguely around the start of 2000 was the “Millennium Bug” where all the electricity was supposed to go out and there would be no more power. Even now, I have no idea what it was about.

While there was obviously a large majority of the world who did care that the world was entering a new era, you can’t say that there weren’t some people existing then who didn’t. Thought it was ‘nothing special’. Saw it just like any other day, and were more interested in carrying on with their lives.

So listen to this track, because it’s coming from a guy who was very much aware of what was going on at that time. Well, six years before anyway.

My iPod #325: The Strokes – The End Has No End

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“The End Has No End” is a track by The Strokes that can be found on the band’s album “Room on Fire“, their second album released in 2003.

Although it was released as the final single from that album and The Strokes had been around for about two/three years by that time, this was actually the first Strokes song I ever heard. I distinctly remember watching its video on MTV2, right around the time that it had probably been released or something.

The song’s music video features appearances from hot ladies Mila Kunis and Eva Mendes, though surprisingly they didn’t do anything much for me as much as Julian Casablancas’ voice did. That sounds very wrong, I know. But his general lower register singing voice as well as the repetitive melody of the chorus got stuck in my head for a while. That was until I forgot it some time later. It was until I was lying in my bed looking outside one of the windows of my house when “The Ennnnd Has Noooooooo Ennnnnnd” silently started playing in my head, and I just carried on singing it over and over again.

I like this track a lot. It’s probably one of my favourite Strokes songs just because it was the first one I heard by them. Was very lucky to be watching MTV2 all those years ago.