Author Archives: The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

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About The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

Just one man who's making his way through life one day at a time writing about the songs he has on his phone. And other things at some points.

My iPod #364: Dinosaur Jr. – Feel the Pain

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“Feel the Pain” is a track I swear I’d heard in an advert somewhere, way before I actually saw its music video on the television one day. As I witnessed J Mascis and Mike Johnson play golf using what appears to be the whole of Lower Manhattan as their golf course, the guitar phrases between each verse sounded very familiar. Wherever I had heard it before – which I’m starting to think I didn’t as time goes on – at least I knew who the music was performed by.

The track is the opener to Dinosaur Jr.’s 1994 album “Without a Sound”, one where Mascis handled most of the instrumentation after the drummer and bassist left. He does a good job though. After a few seconds of what sounds like something being plugged in (or sucked out?) of something else, the actual track starts slowly with the main riff panning from one ear to the other. Mascis lazily slurs out the song’s main refrain during the quiet parts, and volume rises during the breaks where the guitars go wild. In the last few lines, a guitar solo begins under J Mascis waiting for the correct time to leap in and really get to work. The last line finishes, and straight after he bursts one out that I can only nod my head to in appreciation. And whip out some air guitar.

My iPod #363: Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.

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Yeeaaaahh. I remember seeing the video for “Feel Good Inc.” when it was an exclusive, brand new, never before seen thing getting its debut on music television. Nine years later, people know it as being Gorillaz’s signature track (either that or “Clint Eastwood“) but even then, at the age of ten, I knew Gorillaz was onto something.

2D, Noodle, Murdoc & Russell were looking better and more badass than before. One thing that was clearly noticeable was the improvement in animation. Four years gives you a lot of time to get shit done. But the track was so funky and dark with that phat, iconic bassline and manic laughter provided by Maseo of De La Soul. I liked it, my sister liked it. Every time the video ended on TV, we waited for the coming of the next hour so we could see it again. We searched on the ‘Windows Media Guide’ on the Windows Media Player to try and find an mp3 of the thing we thought it was the shit. This was the best ‘new’ song that I had heard for a very long time. The song would be played everywhere – it featured on an iPod advert, the group performed it on stage at 2005 EMA Awards… this was really the song of the year.

The track comes in around the middle of “Demon Days” fading in from the children’s laughter from the previous track. 2D wants us to feel good and also sings about a magical windmill in the chorus, Murdoc plays that bass, Russell provides the solid drum beat and De La Soul (well, Dave from the hip hop trio) come in for the killer rap bridge, sounding very grimy and intimidating. The video reinforces this. Witness 2D’s suffering when the rapping starts. It’s brutal.

And it still sounds as good today as it did then. Almost a decade, Dios Mío.

If you haven’t heard the song before….. where have you been? Under a rock? In a cave? I joke. You’ve heard it. You know you have.

My iPod #362: Sum 41 – Fat Lip

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I wasn’t listening to Sum 41 in 2001. At six years of age, I wasn’t really into music as much as I was into children’s television. But this track always reminds me of the early 00s for some reason. Everything from the sound of it, and its music video. So many pop punk people started showing up in the charts too, it was weird.

“Fat Lip” is just one of those songs isn’t it? No one who listens to Sum 41 has probably heard the track at some point in their lives without even knowing it. If you were to randomly shout out “The doctor said my mum should have had an abortion”, someone will complete the ‘-ortion’ echo because they will know what you’re going on about.

The song’s anti-conformity/fuck rules message is something that’s used all the time, and is a topic that on first listen you might react with approval to but you’ll eventually get over in time. But the rap/rock thing it has going on is pretty catchy, I can’t deny that. Some of the lyrics are downright hilarious.

My iPod #361: Manic Street Preachers – Faster

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‘I hate purity, hate goodness, I don’t want virtue to exist anyway, I want everyone corrupt….’

Er… huh?!

Could you imagine how it was for me, after all these years of listening to post-Richey Manics, to actually sit down and listen to “The Holy Bible” for the first time? That album is not fun. It is very good. But if seeing the absolute worst in mankind is your thing, then “The Holy Bible” will be the best 56 minutes of your life.

No lies, I listened to “The Holy Bible” for the first time nearing the end of last year when Manic Street Preachers came to mind for some reason. Before then I’ve only known of the ‘A Design for Life/If You Tolerate This/You’re Not Alone’ Manics. The ones with the radio-friendly, festival anthems. So to say “Faster” was a change is a definite understatement. It took me a few minutes to get over what I had listened to.

What are essentially phrases, sentences and a few proverbs coined by Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire (mostly Richards) are placed with some of the most ferocious music that James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore have written. The drumming by Moore seems to never end right until that final note, being quick on the bass drum with constant fills here and there and Bradfield melodically shouts at you against a two-note riff that symbolises uneasiness, fast rhythm guitars and loud licks and a terrifying solo before the coda.

This song is a bit scary and disturbing. I give it 10/10, good work.

My iPod #360: Kanye West – Family Business

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“Family Business” is exactly about what it says in the title. It’s Kanye West’s tribute to his family, dead and alive, a particular verse is for a cousin who was incarcerated at the time. But overall, the track is a general salute to those who helped him grow and get where he was back in 2004, or whenever he recorded this track.

It’s probably one of the sweetest tracks Kanye has ever done, not just in terms of quality but to listen to it is very delightful. A cute piano sample starts it all off, with child vocals used during the choir break (which itself is a reference to Rain, Rain, Go Away) and the outro…. It’s a great song to hear if you’re with the people you love.

I love my family, so this is the perfect song.