Category Archives: Music

My iPod #114: Editors – Blood

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I’ve contemplated on whether I should keep this song on here. “Blood” is an alright song, but I don’t really like Editors anymore. I wasn’t a big fan of them in the first place. Their singles are pretty good, but there was nothing that appealing about the band that made want to listen to all of their albums or whatever.

“Blood” was released as a single from the band’s debut album “The Back Room” in 2005, the year that all these ‘post-punk revival’/’indie’ bands started releasing new music. It was an exciting time. I think the first song I heard by Editors – this may apply for many other fans too – was “Munich”, which has become to be the band’s most notable song. They released that song once in 2005, and then again in 2006. It only took two releases, but the band got their first top-ten single.

The band did the same thing with Blood, only it didn’t do so well the second time reaching 39 when a year earlier it got to 18 the year before. Chart positions are not the main focus though. The main priority is to tell you why I like this song.

Well, one thing is that sound that the lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz gets on his instrument. It’s got one similar to a police siren, and is used throughout their first album and their follow up “An End Has a Start”. He left the band this year. The chorus is probably the best part of the song, I’ve always wondered about the way Tom Smith pronounces veins. To me it sounds like “venes” as in ‘jeans’ or ‘genes’, I guess the actual way it said wouldn’t have sounded that good.

If you want to find out more about Editors, search them up on Wikipedia and listen to their stuff on YouTube.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #113: Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop

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What do I think of when I listen to this song…. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3…… that’s about it.

Yeah, “Blitzkrieg Bop” was another tune that would play on my PS2 weekends when I would spend most of the two days on the console playing FIFA and other games. What made it stand out from so many other songs on the soundtrack – I’ve said how good the soundtrack is already – was how simple it sounded.

It’s got a very noticeable riff which repeats throughout the song and the whole thing is based around only four chords. I didn’t know any of the lyrics though, the only ones I made easily made out was the “AI OH LET’S GO” chant and when the lead singer says the song title. The rest of the time I could only mimic the way Joey Ramone sang.

It was later on when I actually bothered to look up the lyrics. It was at that time that I realised the line “shoot ’em in the back’ was censored in the game. My Year 4 studies had taught all about the ‘blitzkrieg’ and what it’s significance was, so I assumed that the song was just a description of a scene when the ‘blitzkrieg’ was happening. The song’s meaning is vague apparently, so I won’t go much into it.

I tried to get into Ramones. I listened to “Teenage Lobotomy” once, and one of my friends thought “I Wanna Be Sedated” was the most awesome song. They are cool. Ramones’ debut album is very good too, even if it finishes under half an hour. “Blitzkrieg” is good enough for me though.

Ramones apparently founded punk rock and every fan who loves that genre is very happy for that, including me. They are a very important band. Most of their original members have passed which is a shame. Their music and their name still lives on.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #112: Violent Femmes – Blister in the Sun

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Violent Femmes are a band from Wisconsin that formed back in 1980. They’ve split up twice but have got back together this year.

I’m not a fan of them; this is the only song by the band that I have. Not because I’ve listened to their songs and thought that they were crap, but because I haven’t listened to anything else they’ve put out. Well, apart from “Gone Daddy Gone” (not a Gnarls Barkley song), and “Add It Up” (which I can barely remember). But even those are on the same album as “Blister”.

“Blister in the Sun” came on when I was on the LAUNCHcast internet radio in the mid-noughties. It immediately caught my attention when the catchy riff started, and it’s hard to forget it seeing as the riff melody is the same as the lead vocal too. The song was first released on the band’s debut album in 1983, but sounds like it could have been released in the sixties. I don’t know what it is, when I think of the eighties I think of long hair, Footloose, keyboards and drum machines. “Blister in the Sun” sounds like the complete opposite with it’s minimal instrumentation. It makes for good listening when you’re walking in a park, on a nice summer’s day.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #111: Muse – Bliss

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I think this is the first Muse song to come up in this whole iPod thing I’m doing. That’s good. At least I can interest you with a story of how I came to like the band, and why so many of their songs have their spot on my Apple product.

The year was 2003. Muse were about to release their third album “Absolution”, and there was this new song of theirs…. something about running out of time. Of course I know it’s “Time Is Running Out”. I remember my sister liked the song a bit. I think they played the song on Top of the Pops and CD:UK and all those music shows. I remember seeing a glimpse of the video for “Sing for Absolution” on CD:UK, but I didn’t think it was that good. Not as good as “Time Is Running Out” anyway.

Fast forward three years later, and everyone was getting hyped for “Black Holes and Revelations”. “Supermassive Black Hole” was the hot shit, and it was on MTV2 that there were countless repeats of older Muse videos. Now that I was eleven, I could actually absorb what I was listening to. I was much more interested in music, and mostly spent my time watching MTV2. I realised that Muse weren’t too bad. They were pretty awesome. They make good songs. This is where Bliss comes in.

The “Bliss” video features the lead singer Matt Bellamy falling through the earth, whilst Dom and Chris look on, until he eventually falls out the other side into space and then disintegrates into the unknown. I thought the video was cool, the rapid camera changes and the focus on Matt’s flailing T-shirt really captures the urgency of the song. It’s got a belter of a chorus, and is driven along nicely by Christopher Wolstenholme’s bass – much like various other songs on “Origin of Symmetry”, the album on which the song was on when it was released as the band’s second album in 2001.

Yep. Apart from Arctic Monkeys, Muse was the band that got people talking in 2006. It was a good time to be alive.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #110: Kanye West ft. John Legend – Blame Game

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Built upon a well-chosen sample of a track by Aphex Twin is “Blame Game”, the eleventh track from Kanye West’s fifth album from 2010.

If you wanted a song that depicted Kanye at his most vulnerable- if you can ever describe him as that – it’s probably this one. For the background, he had split up with his girlfriend – who then went out with Wiz Khalifa – and was feeling all these emotions that he could only put into song.

Firstly, he raps about ‘gripping’ the girl in question up, ‘fucking’ and ‘choking’ her and then the next minute he’s broken down singing ‘I can’t love you this much’. I put that in a rather simple way but I can’t go through it all with you. That would take too much time. You’ve got rapgenius for that.

The song also features a skit about five minutes into the song, spoken by the one and only Chris Rock. The things he says are very funny, but in context with the song it’s quite tragic.

Surely you can spend seven and a half minutes of your time for this? Surely?

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.