Tag Archives: dananananaykroyd

My iPod #108: Dananananaykroyd – Black Wax

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Hey everyone!

That was the name of Dananananaykroyd’s first album , released on April 6 2009. One day after I turned fourteen. I had not heard the song at the time. I do remember hearing the band’s name one time on MTV or something and working out how to pronounce it. That was about it really.

It was months later when I had started Year 10 in autumn 2009. A video for one of their other songs played on MTV2, I liked that. So I went on YouTube to see the video and listen to that song again. It was then that I found the video for this song.

Looking at the video then I think that I may have seen “Black Wax” on TV, but I changed the channel for some odd reason. Bad mistake. It’s a good thing I came back to the song. It’s one of the most joyful ones I have on my iPod collection. According to Wikipedia, “The song’s lyrics, written by vocalists John Baillie Jnr and Calum Gunn are about a dream John had about the thrill of having sex on a bus made of drums (with another musician, but he won’t say who) in an underground world in Paris, and trying to conserve the feeling by sealing it in a wax lined tin.” Now I know that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, but that actually seems legit. I don’t know what the lyrics are about, but the music is upbeat and feel good as anything. Especially the last part when guitars roar in with a triumphant shout of ‘here we are’ by the two vocalists before fading out with the guitar. It’s beautiful stuff.

The song was then chosen by EA Sports to be included in FIFA 10. Whether or not that did anything to the band’s popularity is beyond me.

Dananananaykroyd were one of the happiest bands I’d ever witnessed. Instead of a ‘wall of death, they embraced the concept of a ‘wall of hugs’ at their shows. They always looked like they had a good time in their music videos, as well as their home videos they uploaded on their YouTube channel. Look at their cover of “Whip It” by Devo. You can’t help but smile to it. They split up though. That’s a shame.

I may never see you Dananananaykroyd, but thank you for the music anyway.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #46: Dananananaykroyd – Apostrophe

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I have nothing much to say about this song, I didn’t come with anything prepared.

Most of what I said about the album this song is on, can be found if you click here.

So…. it’s a shame about Margaret Thatcher, eh?

I can’t really say anything about her, I wasn’t born when she was Prime Minister. From what I witness, a lot of people liked her and a lot of people hated her. She’s Marmite.

Whatever though, she’s still dead. She will always go down as being Britain’s first female Prime Minister, and that’s something. I think it would be a long time before another female was elected to be PM. You’ve got to respect the dead… surely…. right?

OK. This is boring.

‘Apostrophe’ is the eighth track on Danananananaykroyd’s second album. It’s actually one of the more slower songs at 140bpm. That sounds fast doesn’t it? Not for Danana…. it isn’t.

It’s a pretty standard song for the band, it follows the verse-chorus-verse-bridge stuff that you would get in regular pop songs today, and for me it’s one of the most radio-friendly songs that the band have ever done.

The duo lead vocals work off together perfectly yet again and it’s hard not to sing along to the melodies. They are Scottish mind you, so it may be hard to understand what they are saying at first. It’s all good though, you can figure it out.

The key changes during the instrumental break, adding a bit of change to the track. It makes you wonder where the song will end up next. Then the last section starts, the lyrics are belted out at the top of the two pairs of lungs, the overall tracks just picks up. It’s one of those things where a crowd could just been seen shouting everything right back at them at a festival. Then the song finishes in a fade out of feedback, except for one guitar that just goes on and on, and leads into the next track ‘Seven Days Late’. That song is crazy. I’ll tell you about it soon.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #27: Dananananaykroyd – All Us Authors

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It is seven o’clock and you know what time it is!

So I’ve spent almost a month bleeding my heart out into these blogs, hoping that you like them and share them and whatever. It’s been quite fun.

If you are regularly viewing these posts and taking an interest in what I say, then I thank you very much. It would be silly to say that I expected more than 100 views a day. But that is what I thought I would be getting. The blog with the highest views is my third one, and that only has about 30.

I should probably understand that it takes a slow process to become popular. This isn’t like YouTube where you can just upload one thing and then suddenly get millions of views. I believe that blog sites are much more respectable, and certainly more peaceful. I would be happy with one sensible comment than with a tirade of those which don’t make any sense or annoy me to no end.

So, about the song. ‘All Us Authors’ is the second track of the band Danananananaykroyd’s second album, ‘There Is a Way’. That album was their last. Released in June 2011, they split up a few months after in November.

I was like a deer caught in headlights when it came to ‘There Is a Way’.  I think it was the day after I had finished my last exam for my GCSEs. A year of highs and hard work, I could forget everything that I had revised. I could stay in bed for ages, and not worry about anything until August. It was a good time to be alive.

I woke up about seven in the morning to tune into Channel 4 and watch the daily music programme ‘Freshly Squeezed’. That show’s not on anymore and understandably so, it got incredibly dull and I doubt that anyone really watched it at that time of day after The Hoobs had just finished.

Anyway, it was then that the show played the band’s new single, ‘Muscle Memory’, which led me to think “Shit! They have a new album, no way. Huh! I have to download it.”

I was already a fan of the band after listening to their debut “Hey Everyone!”. I’ll probably go into more depth on that in another post.

So, I downloaded it and listened to it the whole way through. Initially, this song was one that stuck in my mind. Maybe it was because of the unorthodox time signature in the verses, (10/4 I think), and the chorus, “Just when you got comfy”, which is firstly sung in the song, and then repeatedly yelled at the ending. It’s the second shortest song on the album, and for me was the first that sounded like a song that could have been released on their first album.

I can remember listening to the album and thinking that the band sounded much more fuller. Originally, the band made use of two drumkits in the songs on their first album, but the co-lead singer (who played one of those drums) broke his arm in two places during a gig and had to retire from that post. Also, they had a female bassist who left during the years between the two releases and was eventually replaced. The ‘fuller sound’ might have also been a result of their use of producer Ross Robinson, who has worked with bands ranging from The Cure to Korn.

‘There Is a Way’ is one of my favourite albums, and it’s a shame that the band split when they did. I feel that they could have achieved so much more, with just one more release! Ohhhhhh. People say the third album’s always the best right? Or third time’s a charm? Whatever. It’s just so energetic, the only time that there is time for a rest is in a minute long recording of a street after the song ‘Time Capsule’. That will also come in another blog. That’s won’t be on here anytime soon.

Until next time.

Jamie.