Monthly Archives: May 2015

My iPod #500: Brakes – Heard About Your Band

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500 posts. That’s crazy. I never thought this would be something I’d still have the energy and commitment to carry on two years later, and yet here we are. I’m proud. Thanks to anyone who has liked, given a comment, or simply checked the blog out. You are part of the reason I choose to do this. A big part nonetheless.

And so the band that has the privilege of having the half-thousand song that I am going to discuss is Brakes. Or BrakesBrakesBrakes, if you are situated in the USA. “Heard About Your Band” is a song from the Brighton band’s debut album Give Blood, released ten years ago in July. The album was recorded in a mere eight days in January 2005, and most of the tracks on there were recorded live and in one take. There are some cuts where the band will finish one track, and you’ll proceed to hear them tuning their guitars and sorting themselves out before going straight into the next one. Many of the songs are under 3 minutes. The shortest is seven seconds. And with a wealthy amount of sixteen tracks, Give Blood doesn’t even reach half an hour in duration. It’s very efficient. It is a belter.

“Heard About Your Band” is the fourth track in, and is about singer Eamon Hamilton’s experience of listening to this guy incessantly rabbiting on his band, and his stories of meeting all these female icons like Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and ‘the girl’ from Sleater-Kinney. Of course, Hamilton is sarcastic throughout his lyricism; he clearly doesn’t give a shit about what this person has to say, but his vocal performance with his gravely yelps and frantic ad-libs make him sound like he’s so excited about the whole ordeal. In the end, he dismisses with a pissed-off sounding “Whatever, dude” and the track comes to a close a minute and ten seconds in.

A great thing about the album is that the tracks don’t go on longer than they should do. All the good parts are crammed into maybe 1-2 minutes, which makes for some enjoyable listening. “Heard About Your Band” is no different.

That’s 500 done. Here’s to the next 500. Keep on reading.

My iPod #499: Kanye West ft. Adam Levine – Heard ’em Say

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“Uh, yeah” are the first ‘words’ we hear uttered by Kanye West on his second album Late Registration, after being ‘woken’ up by the pissed off teacher in the preceding opening skit. And after repeating those words three more times against a booming bass drum, Kanye proceeds to go straight into the first verse in which (and for the rest of the song) he raps about the blunt realities and truths of life alongside a dainty piano sample taken from ballad “Someone That I Used to Love” by Natalie Cole.

I don’t whether to feel happy or sad when listening to this. The soft and smooth instrumentation, from the sweet synthesizers and swooning keyboards are a huge contrast from the confident, joyous curb-stomper opener of “We Don’t Care” – a song released only under two years before. And the falsetto provided by Adam Levine in the choruses doesn’t help but pull on your heartstrings that bit more.

Probably one of the quietest and heartwarming productions Kanye has committed to tape, it is such a pleasant way to get an album such as Late Registration started. Then “Touch the Sky” starts, and then it all seems like it’s back to normal.

Here’s another version of a video you can see.

My iPod #498: Nine Black Alps – Headlights

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“Unsatisfied” has barely faded to silence before the crashing cymbals, drum rolls and minor chord guitar vamps begin the frantic “Headlights”, the fifth song on Nine Black Alps’ debut Everything Is.

The track is another one of Nine Black Alps where the lyrics are focused on a person who the narrator always sees or notices and how people react around them. In this case, this character is one who thinks too highly of themselves and thinks they are indestrictible; the narrator knows that he/she isn’t all that but can’t help but notice the dim-witted people who would want do the most tedious of things “stare into static” to gain a piece of this person’s confidence. The narrator has to put their body on the line for…. something that isn’t really revealed or explicitly stated which reinforces the worrying undertone set in the song’s music.

As for the music. Well it’s typical Nine Black Alps stuff. Full throttle guitars and rhythm to the wall and feedback which closes the track off after being buried in the mix for the last chorus.

Very fond of this one.

My iPod #497: Stevie Wonder – He’s Misstra Know-It-All

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“He’s Misstra Know-It-All” closes Stevie Wonder’s seminal album Innvervisions. Preceded by tracks concerning racial tension, drug abuse and love ballads, the song is essentially a description of a man who gains people’s trust only to let them down, is a straight-up liar, only cares about subjects where there is money involved – whether he gains it or loses it, it doesn’t matter – and overall is someone that many people should avoid. The track is said to be about then President of the USA, Richard Nixon.

Despite the scathing lyrics describing this awful human being (I assume the femininisation of Mister to Miss-tra only emphasises Wonder’s disregard for this person), the song’s music itself is some of the calmest on the album. It is a wonderful five and a half minutes of piano, smooth chugging drums and Wonder’s voice along with some backing vocals that you have to nod your head back and forth to in appreciation. That is before the change up at around three minutes where Mr. Wonder begins to deliver his take with a greater passion (signified by an emphatic “BUM-BUUUHNA-BUUUHNA” ad-lib, hand-claps enter the mix, the rhythm sections play around with the rhythm here and there, and a stronger feel to the song’s groove and mood is brought about.

A real classic. Too good.

My iPod #496: The BPA ft. Iggy Pop – He’s Frank (Slight Return)

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The BPA (aka The Brighton Port Authority) was a little short-lived side project carried out by DJ Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim). The only album to date released under it entitled I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat came out in 2009, and features a wealth of appearances from guests vocalists ranging from Talking Heads man David Byrne and grime MC Dizzee Rascal, to relatively unknowns like Cagedbaby and Olly Hite.

Starting the album off is a cover of the song “He’s Frank” by British post-punk band The Monochrome Set and singing it is no other than the ever charismatic Iggy Pop. He performs quite the subdued vocal take here bar a scream and a few wordless improvisations during the instrumental break, but in context of the whole album and the listening experience it is a decent way to get things rolling. Very enjoyable, at least to me anyway.

The music video features a frightening life-size puppet of Mr. Pop, which then proceeds to physically assault the puppeteers controlling it. It’s strange. But it’s there if you want to see it.