Category Archives: Music

My iPod #129: Pink Floyd – Brain Damage

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…… Okay.

“Brain Damage” is the penultimate tune from Pink Floyd seminal 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon”. I first listened to “The Moon” in 2009, when I randomly started downloading albums for fun from weird dutch websites.

When I became interested in Pink Floyd, I was more of a guy who was into “The Wall” more than anything. “Another Brick in the Wall” was the band’s video that played on the TV when I was much younger and freaked me out a bit. I have the feeling I’ve told this story before. I think it was in the post for “Any Colour You Like”. Check that out too. That’s another song on this album.

I digress. “Dark Side” was an album that I always knew existed, but all the comments and acclaim about it made me think that it couldn’t be that good. It is a really cool album; I guess I should have been born in the 50s or so to really understand how extraordinary this album is, but I’m not complaining.

I am also a mega fan of albums where the songs segue into one another, so The Dark Side was heaven for me. It irks me when I download an album and there’s a click or a sudden stop between songs which are meant to flow into each other. “Brain Damage” ends quite abruptly because it does this into the next song. I would have included that song in this post, but that’s a bit of a cheat.

“Brain Damage” was the song that stayed in my head for some time after I listened to the album in 2009. The calm verses are quite hypnotizing with Roger Waters’ cool vocals until they eventually build in intensity for the choruses where the title of the album is mentioned. The album’s overall theme is madness, and the individual songs are on a subject that apparently lead all human beings to madness (time, money, death etc.) so “Brain Damage” along with “Eclipse” is the climax that the whole album has been leading towards.

It’s also a small tribute to former lead singer Syd Barrett, who went a bit mad.

I thought I would have a hard time with this post. I’ve enjoyed it though, I hope you like it.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #128: Mystery Jets – The Boy Who Ran Away

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“The Boy Who Ran Away” was Mystery Jets’ third official single in 2006. Their first album “Making Dens” was out, and they were played a minority of the time on MTV2. Most of their airtime came in the NME Chart, before NME up and went to go and have their own channel.

At first, “The Boy Who Ran Away” wasn’t to my liking. I would always skip the channel everytime the video came on. I take that back – it’s not that it wasn’t to my liking, it was just that I barely gave it a chance.

I did like their other songs though. “Alas Agnes” was a good one, as was “You Can’t Fool Me Dennis” which weirded me out because the lead singer looked very similar to a friend I had in primary school. “The Boy Who Ran Away” must be alright then, shouldn’t it?

Well, yes it is. I wouldn’t be wasting my time on writing about a song I didn’t like. The majority of people in the UK liked the song too; it reached #23 over here and remains to be the band’s highest charting single.

The song tells a story about… a boy who runs away. From home apparently. But he ends up in a rubbish place, and goes home back to his parents even though he knows they don’t like him. Pretty miserable. It’s an upbeat song, so you probably wouldn’t realise the tragedy.

Look out for the ‘lo-lo-lo’ bridge singalong too. That’s catchy as hell.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #127: Kanye West – Bound 2

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A FACEBOOK CONVERSATION MY FRIEND AND I HAD UPON OUR FIRST LISTEN OF YEEZUS
14th June 2013 (GMT)
Friend: YEEZUS LEAKED                                                                                               19:19
            OMFGODBOSBFOUSBNCONOSIC

Me: No way, where                                                                                                           19:26

       wtg
       wtf
       show me

Friend: BRO ARE YOU STILL THERE?!                                                                         19:40

            ILL SEND YOU THE LINK
           TO DOWNLOAD
           http://www.sharebeast.com/riate2ihstqp                                          (Link doesn’t work anymore)

 

Me: HOLY SHIIIIIT                                                                                                          19:44

 

 

Friend: I JUST STARTED PLAYING IT                                                                           19:44
           I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF MATHS
           MATHS IS SUCH A DICK

 

Me: I was doing biology                                                                                                      19:52
       OMDZ

 

 

Friend: HOLD MY LIQUOR AND IM IN IT                                                                    20:03
           OMDS
           AND NEW SLAVES IN GOOD QUALITY
           HALF WAY THROUGH
           IM ALMOST CRYING

 

 

Me: MATE I’M ON BLACK SKINHEAD                                                                        20:04
       THIS SHIT IS CRAZY

 

 

Friend: LOOL                                                                                                                    20:04
            I AM GOD IS SO BLASPHEMOUS
           HOLD MY LIQUOR MY CURRENT FAV

 

 

Me: THIS IS SO SICK                                                                                                     20:04
        I’M ONLY ON THE 2ND SONG

 

 

Friend: IT IS SERIOUSLY ONLY GETTING BETTER                                                    20:09
           I HAVE CHANGED MY FAV SONG 3 TIMES

 

 

Me: THIS ALBUM GOES IN SO HARD                                                                         20:09

 

 

Friend: BLOOD ON THE LEAVES                                                                                  20:09
           OMDS
           WE AINT GONNA REVISE FOR ANOTHER HOUR
           LMAO

 

 

Me: IT’S FINE                                                                                                                  20:11
       I HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THIS

 

 

Friend: WE HAVE TO, HAVE TO                                                                                   20:11

            SWEET BABY YEEZUS HAHAHAHAMe: 😀                                                                                                                              20:13

 

 

Friend: I CANT TELL WHO SOME OF THE COLLABERS ARE                                 20:14

 

 

Me: SAME
       THE GUY AT THE BEGINNING OF HOLD MY LIQUOR SOUNDS FAMILIAR        20:15
       I THINK HE’S IN DARK FANTASY

 

 

Friend: OMDS KEEP GOING                                                                                          20:15
            KID MOTHERFUCKING CUDI
            COMING UP SOON
            ITS SO PERFECT
           OH YEAAHHH
           OMDS THE LAST TRACK HAS A BEAT LIKE ITS MIXED FROM ALL HIS ALBUMS
           LOVING THIS

 

 

Me: OH MAN…                                                                                                               20:20

 

 

Me: dude.                                                                                                                         20:40
       that was an experience

 

 

Friend: im pulling an all nighter today                                                                                  20:55

           that is my fuel————-

So as you can see…. we were both very excited.

Looking at it retrospectively, I have no idea why I was typing in caps lock. Yeezus isn’t really that good of an album. That’s right I said it.

I think it was just so unexpected. I was revising for my final exam and then my friend messaged me with that, it was just so sudden.

“OMDS THE LAST TRACK HAS A BEAT LIKE ITS MIXED FROM ALL HIS ALBUMS” refers to today’s blog song “Bound 2”, which is definitely one of the better songs from Yeezus – if not the best one.

It is… kinda like my friend said, reminiscent of the many older songs where Kanye utilised his chipmunk sampling producing on his first two albums.

It’s basically Kanye yelling at us over a sample about his, apparently everlasting love with Kim Kardashian but with similes and metaphors all over the place which I’m not able to explain to you.

Yeezus is a very loudly mixed album – it’s partly produced by Rick Rubin so there’s the explanation, so on a lot of the songs there is clicking and crackling everywhere. This song is no exception. Especially in the first few seconds where you can literally hear the cut and paste of the sample. The way it ends is quite abrupt and anticlimactic with the “UH-HUH HONEY” part. Nevertheless, it is a standout on an otherwise standard album.

Oh yeah, it also features vocals by the man who sings “Ooh wee” in “Signs” by Snoop Dogg ft. Justin Timberlake. Charlie Wilson, that’s his name. What a G.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #126: Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams

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Can you believe it? It has been almost ten years since “American Idiot” was released.

It seems like a few days ago I got the album as a present for my tenth birthday, listened to the story of the son of rage and love and never looked back as Green Day started to become one of my favourite artists ever.

Those of you who have the album should definitely understand what I mean when I mention ‘the son of rage and love’. To those of you who don’t, I can try and explain it to you but it would be better if you listened to “American Idiot” yourselves.

The album itself has a concept. To put it very short the story of a boy named Jimmy, who leaves his hometown to look for better things, but realises the things out there aren’t so great and returns home. That is very basic, but you can search it up.

“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” comes in after Jimmy gets a real adrenaline rush of being away from home and wakes up the next morning to find that everything around him is morose and bleak. He is alone. He walks alone too. He walks alone, he walks alone.

How did “BoBD” become so important to me that it’s had a place on my portable device? I don’t know. I remember liking “Holiday” a lot more. I think it was the time that I realised that the video for “Broken Dreams” is set straight after the “Holiday” video, just like the two songs are on the album. The music videos for the song were shot in the same studio too. That was quite cool to know.

“Dreams” is a proper Green Day anthem. If you are to go to one of their shows, you better be prepared to know all the words to this. You don’t want to be the one mumbling the words and then singing “I walk alone, I walk alone”. That’s not the title of the song. There are other lyrics, people.

Personally, my favourite part of the song is the last minute when Billie Joe sings the last words and the band just rocks out, because the chord progression and the notes are so awesome. It sounds like it comes from out of nowhere.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #125: The Who – Boris the Spider

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One time when I was bored on YouTube, I remembered this cartoon from the nineties that would show on the BBC. The cartoon followed the adventures of a clumsy spider, who played around with his human friend. I completely forgot what the animation was called, until I found the other day that it was simply called “Spider”.

During that time, I typed in ‘spider’ which instead resulted in videos involving real spiders and “Boris the Spider” by The Who. The video above was the one that I clicked onto.

This time, it’s not a song by Pete Townshend. No, no. “Boris the Spider” was the second song on the band’s second album “A Quick One” which is known for being the only album by the rock band to involve songs written by all four members. “Boris” was the first song John Entwistle wrote for the band, and took a tolling time of five minutes to write.

Seems about right. It’s a tale of a black, hairy and very small spider, who crawls up a wall then drops to the floor, heads toward the bedroom door, comes out again, crawls into a ball and is then squashed with a book by the person who sees all of this activity. The spider’s name is Boris too. And all of this is sung over a simple bass line and a haunting bridge where John puts on his falsetto.

This song is also known for being the first in music history to incoporate the ‘death growl’. Betcha didn’t know that, huh?

So that’s the song for today. That fake spider in the video is very similar to one that I saw on my living room floor the other day. I was so freaked out wandering what to kill it with that it disappeared under the sofa. That bastard hasn’t come out since. It’s only a matter of time.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.