Category Archives: Music

My iPod #304: Alexisonfire – Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints

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Alexisonfire were alright, man. The contrast between George Pettit’s psycho screamo vocals and Dallas Greens nicer-to-the-ear singing was a dynamic that I’d never witnessed from a band before. And I liked it. I got into Alexisonfire for a bit; and that initial liking toward the group started just as they were about to release their third album “Crisis” which came out in 2006.

“Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints” is the first track on that album, and what a way to start it. There’s no proper introduction, just a yell of “ALRIGHT” and then it charges on from there. I heard it fully on YouTube when someone matched the track along to some fitting scenes from the anime “Afro Samurai”. The video is still on there if anyone wants to see it; it is very well put together.

The track is about the love of sharing their music to anyone – the suits AND the squares – and they’ll carry on doing their thing because they never get bored of it. That was then obviously. Sure, there are some insecure thoughts the band question us on: do we as an audience really appreciate what we’re doing? Are we even listening? Yes, we are Alexisonfire. We continue to even in your absence.

After an onslaught of screams, angelic singing, something sort of in the middle provided by guitarist Wade MacNeil, and an onslaught of continuous guitars the track comes to a noisy ending as the fading notes roll around in feedback, as drums fade in from the distance. Those segue into the next track, but that’s for another day.

As I said, Alexisonfire were alllllright. This track is slick stuff. A brilliant opener to set the tone for the rest of the album.

SIDE NOTE

The next song is a Lostprophets one.

Now, I’ve been thinking on whether to write posts of the songs that I have on my iPod by the band since… well you know. I like those songs, but I won’t do them if people don’t want me to. I probably should have asked this yesterday so more people could answer.

If you still want to see Lostprophets posts, then comment or something. These are the songs that won’t have them if it comes to it: “Dstryr/Dstryr”, “The Fake Sound of Progress”, It’s Not the End of the World But I Can See It from Here”, “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja” and all the other tracks on “Start Something” that aren’t “Burn Burn” or “Sway….”

So yeah, keep following. Leave a like or something. Tell all your friends.

My iPod #303: The Who – Drowned

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For me, “Quadrophenia” was very difficult to absorb initially. At an hour and twenty minutes fit to burst with long instrumental passages on some songs and the whole concept made the listening process very complicated. Or maybe it was me thinking about it too much. Upon further listens I realised that everything you hear is essential to the story throughout the album. You are taken on a journey with the tragic lead character of Jimmy. In “Drowned”, we find him in a desperate state as he contemplates…. drowning himself in the sea. Although, out of the album’s context it is a tribute to Meher Baba who Townshend admired for his spiritual teachings.

“Drowned” is a great track. A roaring vocal take by Daltrey, that rolling piano phrase throughout, that slick musical reference to 5:15 in the middle…… the final jam at the end which seems to carry on forever before fading into a clip of Townshend singing “Sea and Sand” on the beach…. Those are just the little things I can pick out from memory at the moment. But they are the little things that add to the album’s cohesion. I’m blabbering on a bit; I will leave it there.

All in all, another wall of melodious noise and relentless rhythm provided by The Who.

My iPod #302: They Might Be Giants – Drinkin’

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This may be the first instrumental out of all the songs I’ve talked about so far. Huh. This is “Drinkin'”, a short track that introduces They Might Be Giants’ album “Long Tall Weekend“, the album that was released only for the Internet back in 1999. You can listen to 14 of its 15 tracks right here.

As it is only a minute and a half long, I can’t really go into depth about it. I listened to the album in 2011 when I really started to get into They Might Be Giants’ albums. “Drinkin'” has a pretty decent guitar phrase that leaps from one note to another and stuff. That got stuck in my head after listening to it, after a few days of listening to it I was able to hum the whole thing. Still can’t quite get the hang of it on the guitar, but I think a lot of people would be able to get it straight away.

It changes to 3/4 time in the middle with brief silences, switches back to regular time and the guitar and saxophone play the opening melody in unison until coming to a stop.

It’s an enjoyable little ditty to start off the album. That’s really all there is to it.

Here’s a link to a performance of it 6 years prior to official release. Apparently written just a week before that performance too.

My iPod #301: Super Furry Animals – (Drawing) Rings Around the World

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 I’ve never listened to the “Rings Around the World” album; I should get to doing that sometime soon. I started listening to Super Furry Animals’ discography a few weeks ago, starting with “Fuzzy Logic” and then “Radiator“. Their albums seem to be the only ones from a band where all of them have been acclaimed by critics and stuff, so I wanted to see if they were actually that good. Those first two are. “Guerrilla” too. I’ll carry on listening to the others later.

“(Drawing) Rings Around the World” is the title track from Super Furry Animals’ 2001 album, the Welsh group’s first one on a major label. I’ve known this one for many years now. I saw the video on the television one time, and then completely forgot how the song actually sounded because I never saw it again until a few years later. It’s a cool one. The introduction builds up from a lone synthesizer, which is then gradually accompanied by the guitars, drums and eventually lead singer Gruff Rhys about communication and rings of TVs and satellites around the Earth.

Two minutes of the song is a coda which may be repetitive for some; I enjoy just ’cause the melody’s brilliant. Reminds me of that “Rockin’ All Over the World” song. Don’t really like Status Quo though.

My iPod #300: The Wombats – Dr Suzanne Mattox PhD

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I’m not really into The Wombats anymore. I was never a huge fan of the band but I thought their singles from the first album were catchy. I think I got it for a birthday or something eventually. I think it was those “aaaahh-ooh-wah-wah” vocals that made the first album that bit more enjoyable. I’m sure the band decided to focus more on the singing than on the scatting, and that didn’t work out so well. They’re a bit boring now. Sorry.

“Dr Suzanne Mattox PhD” wasn’t released as a single from “The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation“. I think it could have been, in my eyes. There’s a whole bunch of scat singing occurring in this one. But also it’s got a memorable chorus, a fuzzy guitar line which plays before that chorus begins, and a vocal melody, particularly during the verses, that reminds me of a song from a children’s school play for some reason. I do like that final D7 chord which ends the track too. Just like the way it sounds.

It’s about a guy falling for his GP, and gets upset whenever he sees her because she thinks he’s lying about his injuries/illness just to see her more. If you have been in that situation before, this is the song for you.