If Arctic Monkeys were the newest and biggest thing in 2006, then Klaxons can definitely take that title for 2007.
The band was immensely hyped up during the latter stages of the former year, and arguably the one that started the ‘new rave’ genre which a whole load of otherbands were soon labelled as. That whole thing died out around 2008.
The video for ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ first appeared on MTV2 in 2006. It was released as the band’s official single in June, and it was one of the reasons why I got excited over them, and understood what is was that made the NME express so much praise about them.
The flashing lights, the use of the samples from a standard Casio keyboard that I’ve used when I was doing music in Key Stage 3 and the calm, singalong verses that are contrasted with the shouted out chorus. The video is almost seizure-inducing, especially watching it with all the lights off in the house.
But that just made it so much cooler. My sister and I watched it whenever it came on, and she loved it too. You just want to dance and bust out the robot during the verses, and then when the chorus comes just start doing whatever the fuck you want to do. It’s great stuff.
The album it’s on, ‘Myths of the Near Future’, was released in the first month of 2007, and loads of people liked it. I have it, so I can agree with them.
I made another post about The Who a few days ago, so have a look at it if you want.
In that post I mentioned that Summer 2010 was when I began to listen to The Who, and recognised them for the ball of talent that they were back in the day.
However, I had only listened to a few songs by them. In order to get a sense of what their music was about, I would have to listen to one of their albums.
But which one? Where do I start?
Now, I knew that their ‘magnum opus’ was considered to be their album ‘Who’s Next‘. It contains two of their most well known songs, and it is the one where each member had reached their peak at their positions. Together, there was no stopping them.
For me, there was something that prevented me from listening to it. I don’t why. I think it’s just because I had only heard of those two songs, and if people only liked the album for them then what was the point?
So what better way to start my Who experience…. than with their 1967 release, ‘The Who Sell Out‘? Seeing its article on Wikipedia, I saw the praise that it received (full marks by the ones listed), the whole radio concept thing amused me, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to listen to it.
It’s probably their most under-appreciated album. It is their only release where a majority of songs are not written by Pete Townshend and not only sung by Roger Daltrey. Everybody gets to sing, I have the 1995 remastered version which features ‘Jaguar’ with lead vocals by Keith, and ‘Girl’s Eyes’ which is written by him and sung with John Entwistle. It’s really one of my favourite albums.
“DUUUUUH-DUH Monday……..” is the first thing you hear when listening to ‘Armenia City in the Sky’, the first song of the album. The Who Sell Out incorporates radio adverts that were transmitted on a rogue radio station, ‘Radio London’, which would normally be broadcast from a boat in the middle of an ocean. This ‘Days of the Week’ interlude carries on until Sunday, which is when a weird backwards guitar fades in, and boom. The actual song begins.
Another unusual thing about the song is that it’s not actually written by any members of the band. In fact Pete’s chauffeur, Mr John Keen, wrote the song and is also singing it along with Roger Daltrey. Although it’s hard to make it out, seeing as there is this weird pitch shifting effect that is used on the vocals. Maybe they didn’t want people to know that someone who wasn’t in the band was singing.
Listening to it with headphones is another weird experience. You basically have Keith and John playing the rhythm section in the left channel, whilst there are these backwards trumpets and hazey backwards guitars playing in the other. That along with the lyrics, for example:
‘The sky is glass, the sea is brown, and everyone is upside down,’
makes this song one of the trippiest from the album.
I guess as it was 1967, this was supposed to a spoof of the psychedelicmaterial that was coming out, only because this is the only song on the album that uses that sort of drugged-up-on-LSD sound. The others are solid songs that don’t try to sound like it at all.
The solo is backwards too, so that screeching bird-call in the middle is still a guitar. After two repetitions of the title, the band maintain the pace and rhythm, a weird insect-sounding voices says ‘Freak out, freak out’ and the song ends with an explosion that echoes into the next radio transmission.
All in all, it’s a perfect start to a perfect album.
Today, it is Green Day again. This time, it’s the opening track from their fourth album ‘Insomniac.’I listened to ‘Armatage Shanks’ quite a while ago on one of Green Day’s fan sites. This was when I was Green Day crazy, ‘American Idiot’ was my favourite album and gradually I became more and more interested in the band.
I was probably about ten when I first heard ‘Armatage’, and I didn’t think about it so much. It wasn’t really a special song, the title is named after a company that makes bathroom sinks, man. Bathroom sinks. As a title of a song, it’s really cool though. There is something really angst and sharp about it.
Anyone who owns ‘Insomniac’ will recognise the massive difference there is between it and its predecessor ‘Dookie’. Whilst still containing two-three minutes of memorable tracks, ‘Insomniac’ took more of a darker and edgier approach. Look at the difference between the album covers, for goodnesssake. The overdubbed guitars are more distorted and crunchy, Mike Dirnt really cranks it up on his bass playing on this album, Tré is as good as ever on the drums and Billie Joe is a lot more snotty in his vocal delivery.
All of that is really summed up in this track, and as the first one on the album it sets the tone that you will hear for the next thirteen songs straight away.
Can anyone tell me what is being said in the bridge, because I still have no clue.
Today I went to Derby for an open day at its university. Derby is a nice place, it’s far away from my family and the actual place was cool too. I may just consider going there.
So, I’m nearing the end of the ‘A’ series of ‘My iPod’. Only nine more songs to go until all the songs beginning with that letter are covered. It has been a good run. It’s given me something to do whilst revising. Exams are slightly beyond the horizon, so ‘B’ won’t be up on here anytime soon.
Thanks to anyone who has viewed the blog, it’s quite hard to know if anything on here is interesting if people don’t comment. But I’ve got more than 1,000 views on here and I’m very grateful for your appreciation.
Today’s song is another by The Futureheads, who were the band I covered in my first entry of the ‘A’ series. The video for this was linked in that post too, and now here it is.
‘Area’ was a non-album release in 2005. It was neither something recorded during their first album, nor was it something recorded during ‘News and Tributes’. It was more of a single to show their progression in sound.
It was actually a favourite song of mine. I first saw it on the music channel, ‘Q’, which showed decent music from time to time. The ‘derder-derderder-derderder’ hook was instantly embedded into my head, and I would change from channel to channel hoping that the music video would be showing.
Before YouTube, artists would actually put their music videos on their official website, so you were able to download and watch it on Windows Media or RealPlayer. Yeah, I did that with ‘Area’. I would have it on repeat. But you know when you play a song on repeat and it gradually gets quite annoying? That’s what happened to me. I had listened to enough times. So I restrained myself.
That was in 2005, so finding a really good song at ten years old was a really big deal.
I think it’s on the US version of ‘News and Tributes’, but I’m not sure.
In my opinion, Version 1 is the better video. The whole circus concept didn’t really work for me.
Hi everyone.
Apparently I got 158 views on the blog today which is great! I think it’s a bug though, so I won’t get too emotional about it.
I’m quite late too, so I do apologise.
Today’s song comes from Newcastle’s finest, Maxïmo Park. The song’s name? Well, you can see it in the title of the blog.
Maxïmo Park rose in popularity during the mid-noughties when the surge in post-punk revival and indie acts occurred. Bands such as Bloc Party, Editors, The Kooks, Arctic Monkeys, you name it, most of them released their debuts during that golden era of 2004-2006.
Maxïmo released their debut, ‘A Certain Trigger’, in 2005. This song was released once as its second single, and then re-released in 2006, hence the two different music videos.
‘Apply Some Pressure’ is one of the band’s most popular songs. You could probably say it’s their signature song. It appeared on the soundtrack of Burnout Revenge, and possibly on another EA game that I haven’t played. Burnout Revenge was the shit though. If you want a Burnout game, just get Revenge for PS2. Or Legends for PSP.
Personally, ‘Apply Some Pressure’ isn’t my favourite Maxïmo song. That goes to another song that I will post in due time. Don’t get me wrong, the song’s fantastic. I think it’s that when I’m listening to it, I don’t feel anything as much as I do when I’m watching the music video for it. The band are known for their energy, especially from lead singer Paul Smith and keyboard player Lukas Wooller.
Those music videos are almost ten years old. They’re very rarely played on MTV ‘Rocks’. Particularly the first version.
Still, it’s a brilliant song from a brilliant album, and it deserves its place on my iPod.
