Apparently, ‘fratelli’ is ‘brother’ in Italian. So here we have The Brothers with the song ‘Baby Brother’.
Evening, everybody.
The Fratellis are a three-piece band from Scotland. They haven’t been around for some time, but around 2006/07 the band was one of the most popular indie rock bands in the UK.
I first came across the band when I was eleven – a time when MTV still showed music, and ‘MTV Rocks’ was ‘MTV2’ and a much better music channel.
“Creepin’ Up the Backstairs” was their first single, but it was released as a song on their first EP and so it was not eligible for a placement in the charts. It’s good, I like it. The band re-recorded for inclusion on their first album, but I much prefer the video version.
They released “Chelsea Dagger” which became their most popular song due to its memorable hook, and because it is played in many sports stadiums when a team scores a goal.
“Baby Fratelli” was the album’s fourth single. You may recognise it as a song that is played in the film ‘Hot Fuzz’. I’ve never seen that film, but the actual music video for the song features random clips of it that are thrown amongst the band performing the song on a rooftop somewhere.
Even though they are Scottish, I always get this Italian vibe when I listen to their music. Especially on their first album. I know they are called The Fratellis, and that itself is an Italian word, but it’s just something about their songs. I always get a picture in my head of Italian people. And images of people doing the can-can.
The latter springs to mind in this song, particularly in the final chorus when the horns kick in.
I don’t know what this song is about, I just like it.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Rest until July, then I’ll find something to do.”
That was one exchange of words by my mum and I after I had finished my last exam in secondary school. I have been working endlessly all year for this stuff, and it feels like a whole weight has been lifted off my shoulders, it feels very relaxing. Everytime I feel like I should be doing something… but I don’t, and it feels weird and a bit creepy.
It’s fine not doing anything at the moment but seeing as other people still have exams to do, it’s quite boring being in your house by yourself when the weather’s crappy and there’s nothing on except…. daytime television…. eurgh.
At least I have my iTunes library to keep me company. And that reminds me… it’s the second of the ‘B’ series. Yay.
I feel like I’ve already gone on about The Who in an earlier post, so I won’t rabble on too much. “Who’s Next”, the album ‘Baba O’Riley’ is on, is actually the most recent one of theirs that I downloaded and listened to. It’s considered to be their magnum opus by many critics, and I knew that their two most overplayed songs including this and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” were on it. I didn’t want to listen to an album which I thought was only good for two songs, so I chose to listen to “Quadrophenia” and “Sell Out” instead. Heck, I might have even listened to “By Numbers” before it. I can’t remember. I’ll have a look at my computer.
Yeah, “Who’s Next” is beast. This song is the perfect way to start things off.
Firstly, the synthesizer which seems to last for an eternity until the descending riff is introduced by the piano and Moon’s drums come crashing in. “Who’s Next” is mainly regarded to be the album in which each individual member had reached their peak in creativity, much like “Revolver” by The Beatles. Although Roger Daltrey wasn’t much of a songwriter, but listen to his vocals on here compared to those of “Tommy”… I know right? Pete Townshend was well in the way of writing songs with meaning, and with links between one another to tell a story, simply put as a concept album, and had completely abandoned the writing for the “singles band” that The Who was once regarded to be. John Entwistle and Keith Moon…. well with a rhythm section like that, how much better can you get? Come on, people.
Yep. I don’t want to ruin the song for you. It’s already up there.
Until tomorrow.
Jamie
P.S. I can confirm that I did listen to “The Who by Numbers” before “Who’s Next”. And what… bitch.
That was meant to be the introduction to the song, by the way.
Hi everyone! I’m in a good mood. I am now a free man, exams are finished, nothing’s gonna change my clothes until results day. Until then, I should probably get started with this again. It is time… for the B SERIES. YES! YES! COME ON!
So System of a Down…. what can I say?
In 2005 it had been three years since the band released their third album. I didn’t follow the band so much, so I had no idea that this album was even out. However, “Chop Suey!” and “Toxicity” were two songs of the band that I saw on MTV2 and, although the former’s video was quite weird and I was quite confused by the actual song, the band really rocked and I guess I wanted to hear more from them.
“B.Y.O.B.”, acronym for ‘Bring Your Own Bombs’, was released as the first single from Mezmerize, the first half of a double album that would be out by the end of the year. It is considered to be yet another of System of a Down’s trademark songs due its fast pace, contrasts between quiet and loud in the verses and chorus, and lines that you are able to shout out at the top of your lungs.
This was also their first single where Daron Malakian had lead vocals in the part of the song. I remember seeing the video when it first came out, and again I was confused at how the song randomly changed in the middle. They were singing about “having a real good time” and “going to the party” and then it was “BLAST OFF IT’S PARTY TIME, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!!!!!!”. It was crazy. But it makes it that much awesome.
This is another song out of the hundreds in the world that are anti-war. I think this song depicts the message quite clearly. It is about how the government chat shite most the time and how much they suck. George Bush had been re-elected as president the year before, which I guess no one understood back then. So people were pissed. I’m thinking Serj and Daron pretty much felt the same way.
Why do they always send the poor? Why? WHY.
That was alright. It’s good to be back.
Until next time.
Jamie.
P.S. I WAS LOOKING THROUGH MY POSTS YESTERDAY AND I REALISED I MISSED TWO BLOODY SONGS IN MY ‘A’ SERIES.
How did I do that? Yeezus. I might as well do them pretty quickly, and without focus.
George Harrison – Apple Scruffs
That is not the album version, but it’s pretty close.*
Another song from ‘All Things Must Pass’. Not much to say about the song. I listened to the album back in 2011, and this song was one that caught my ear. Great harmonies in the chorus by Harrison, and a delightful tribute to the ‘Scruffs’ who would hang outside Abbey Road when The Beatles were there.
Very nice.
11/06/2020* It is now the album version.
Nine Black Alps – Along for the Ride
OK, Nine Black Alps are one of my favourite bands ever.
They released their newest album “Sirens” last October, which you can listen to here.
“Locked Out from the Inside”, the album this song is on, was released in 2009 after the second album “Love/Hate”. I was dissappointed by the second album, because their first album was so good. So good. It’s one of my favourites. “Love/Hate” was just so mellow, and indie and using acoustic guitars. It was such a bore compared to “Everything Is”.
“Locked Out from the Inside” for me was a return to form. Their crunchy, rough Nirvana-esque sound was back, no acoustic guitars in sight. It just felt like everything was back to normal.
“Along for the Ride” is the penultimate song from the album. I think it’s about wanting a relationship, or being interested in someone. I don’t know, I don’t really look deep into lyrics. Even though I typed the lyrics up for every song and got them up on the Internet.
If you don’t know Nine Black Alps, listen to their stuff. Please.
The end of the ‘A’ section that is. It’s been a good two months.
When I first came onto Blogger, I didn’t have anything in mind that I wanted to get off my chest. The first thing I had was just talking about things that were interesting to me, or events in my life that I had regrets about or whatever.
When I changed my mind and decided to focus on ‘My iPod’, I never thought I would be able to continuously talk about a song and why it meant so much to me for fifty-six days straight, and yet here I am about to post about another one.
I have exams. Those are very important, so I probably won’t be posting on here as regularly. Maybe something will pop up here and there, but for the moment ‘My iPod’ won’t be back until June.
And so, the song today is ‘Awaiting on You All’ by George Harrison, another one from his triple album, ‘All Things Must Pass’, in 1970.
Beatles fans will know that out of the four, George was the most religious. Or at least the one who most believed that there was an almighty, higher power who cared for the world and the people who inhabit it.
Any of you guys who also own ‘All Things Must Pass’ will definitely know the song, ‘My Sweet Lord‘. That song was George’s first single as a solo artist, and topped the music charts worldwide upon release in 1970. It got to number one in the UK again after his death in 2001.
‘My Sweet Lord’ is a very religious song, for obvious reasons. But for those who haven’t heard it, Harrison incorporates the use of the “Hare Krishna” mantra and chants of hallelujahs which build up as a countermelody whilst Harrison sings, building an epic climax which eventually fades out. With Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ production technique, there is this gigantic albeit very echoey atmosphere.
‘Awaiting on You All’ is quite religious too, and if ‘My Sweet Lord’ is the music that plays on the organ in church when the service is starting, everyone is sitting down and the pastor or whoever is up on the stage announcing what will take place, then the former is when the first hymn starts and everybody is up on the feet, yelling rejoice to the heavens, bellowing the lungs to the skies above and break dancing in the middle of the aisle. Maybe I’m thinking of The Blues Brothers, but that’s what it reminds me of.
‘Awaiting’ has more of a political message to it than My Sweet Lord. Harrison desires to experience spirituality directly whilst rejecting organised religion as well as political and intellectal substitutes. That is basically what it says on the song’s article on Wikipedia. He criticises the Pope, and includes jibes at John Lennon and Yoko Ono about their week in bed.
“THE LORD IS AWAITING ON YOU ALL TO AWAKEN AND SEE. BY CHANTING THE NAMES… OF THE LORD…. YOU WILL BE FREE!”
HALLELUJAH, TESTIFY!
Come on, that sounds like something a guy would say in church, am I right? Or am I right?
Oh well. That’s the end for now. You won’t be hearing from me for some time. Got work to do.
‘My iPod’ will be back in June! When the ‘B’ series begins!
Don’t let the song title fool you. It is not about being at the controls of a plane and deciding to press a few buttons so that it flies by itself. That’s what the band wants you to believe.
‘Rated R’ is the second album by Queens of the Stone Age, but was their first to be released on Interscope Records, the label with whom the band would go on to make ‘Songs for the Deaf’, ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ and ‘Era Vulgaris’ under.
So in 2005, when there was nothing to do, my sister and I would buy music on CDs or through the use of MSN (remember that?) would receive mp3 files from our friends. One day, I saw this song called ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’ by Queens of the Stone Age. This is the opening track from the Rated R album. I had never heard of the song or the album, although I had watched the video for ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret‘ on the TV.
“Feel Good Hit of the Summer, huh?” I thought to myself, “I wonder why it’s called that, must have been a really popular song.”
You can probably say that it is. Not because it was a single or anything, but because of its subject matter.
That’s how I was introduced to ‘Rated R’. 2005 was the year that I took a particular interest in QotSA, for reasons I will explain another day.
However it was 4 years later in 2009, when I decided to download Rated R. I probably thought that it couldn’t get better than ‘Songs for the Deaf’, but I didn’t have another of their albums to compare it with.
I still don’t think that ‘Rated R’ is better than ‘Deaf’, but it can vary from person to person. That’s just my opinion.
One thing that most Queens fans probablu agree on is the significant contribution of former member Nick Oliveri. He is very controversial, and apparently Josh Homme doesn’t like him too much, but the songwriting partnership between the two produced the majority of the material that makes up, what are arguably, the band’s two most popular albums.
‘Auto Pilot’ is the fourth song listed on ‘Rated R’ and contains lead vocals by Oliveri and backing by Mark Lanegan and Josh Homme. It is the only one on ‘Rated’ with Oliveri at lead vocals, that does not have him screaming his vocals at the top of his lungs. Instead, he sings very smoothly with a little gravel under his voice. The song sets you in a very relaxing mood, you could just close your eyes and let it glide past you. The bridge where Josh sings, ‘Ahhhhhhhhh….. auto pilot, no control’, emphasises this even further.
The song is very ambiguous but the whole ‘getting high in a plane’ metaphor is not unusual to those who have listened to songs about taking drugs and the ‘joys’ of it.
Don’t let that spoil it though. Listen to the song. Don’t do drugs though.
The Music in My Ears 