Tag Archives: my ipod

#758: The Clash – London Calling

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Try as I might I could never get into The Clash’s London Calling. The double album of theirs that was released in 1979 that is, and not its title track which is the subject of this post. I think the song is one of the greatest album openers you could have. Though I understand why it’s held in such acclaim. For their previous two albums the band had been delivering meat and potatoes three chord social observation punk rock. With London Calling the band decided they could make any type of music they wanted to: reggae, ska, pop, lounge jazz – it’s all on there. The album has its classics: ‘Lost in the Supermarket’, ‘The Guns of Brixton’, ‘Clampdown’. All signatures tunes from there. But as a whole, I could never vibe with it. It really doesn’t matter in the great scheme of things.

I’ve always enjoyed the title track though. Its stomping introduction with its minor key and thick bass give off this sense of some impending doom, and this is only further emphasised by singer and guitarist Joe Strummer’s vocal about police brutality, casual drug usage, and the city of London drowning because of a flood in the River Thames. Closer listening to this track has always brought out new things in the mix that I never noticed before. Like how much guitar feedback there is throughout. Or the panning of Mick Jone’s yelp just before the strange reverse double guitar solo. And the Morse code that spells out ‘S-O-S’ in the fade out. There’s plenty of small audio tricks and snippets in the production that make the song that more engaging to hear each time you listen.

This song’s been one that’s always just been there for me. I definitely came to know the song through its music video which shows the band performing the track on a boat on the Thames in the rain with huge floodlights shining on them. Made an impression on me as a younger person, however old I was when I first encountered it.

#757: Window Seats – Local Superhero

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Many times on here I’ve made a reference as to how MTV2 was the first place I would hear/see a song and its video and come to like it for years to come. Today’s song is another one of those. ‘Local Superhero’ by Window Seats played on the channel back in 2012 or so. At that point, MTV2 was now known as ‘MTV Rocks’. This is probably one of the last tracks I came to know from watching music television. It just wasn’t like it used to be. It wasn’t the case that MTV2 wasn’t showing music anymore; it was that the channel was showing the same bands and artists almost every day, none of which I cared for at all. It’s probably been about eight years since I last watched it.

I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing who Window Seats are. If you hadn’t heard this song before, you probably know that the band existed. They released the Frozen Bones EP, where this song can be found, in 2011 and a following non-album single in 2015. To this day they remain unsigned by any label, but they could clearly write a banging tune as exemplified by ‘Local Superhero’. It’s a track about helping someone when they’re feeling low and I suppose this sentiment was what inspired the song’s title. The video which makes for a great watch-along takes this further, taking place in a comic book shop where there are a plenty of references to Marvel and Ghostbusters too.

If this post and song urges you to seek out more material by Window Seats then I’m glad. This is the only song of the band’s that I could properly get into, though that definitely shouldn’t be the case for everyone else out there.

#756: Billy Talent – Living in the Shadows

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It never occurred to me how many songs from the first Billy Talent album begin with the letter ‘L’. It feels like I wrote the last one to do so only a few days ago. It’s been three weeks! There are only three songs on that record that begin with that letter, but that still makes up a quarter of the tracklist. This is the last one from those that I’ll cover. It’s ‘Living in the Shadows’, and it’s the second song on the album.

This track just carries on the anger and ferocity that is established on album opener ‘This Is How It Goes’ and threaded throughout the 41 minutes the album lasts for. There’s a theme of seeing through artifice and lies that also runs through the album – and a lot of the band’s discography, thinking about it – and it’s definitely the predominant subject in this song too. Ben Kowalewicz’s sings/screams about those who hop on trends and put on a front to try and look cool but are ultimately lying to themselves because it isn’t truly how they are. All of this is summed up in a chorus which blasts these people for trying to change other people when they don’t even know themselves and are ‘living in the shadows’.

I think this song’s just great. Everything about it is so furious. How Kowalewicz’s can switch from singing to screaming in a split-second during the choruses is beyond me. And the song’s ending where he repeats the chorus among the barrage of guitars, snare hits and cymbals makes it a classic to me. I see it like a sister song to ‘This Is How It Goes’; they’re both sort of similar musically and even use the stop-starting guitar break in their respective instrumental bridges. Both those tracks are just so negatively charged in their outlook of the world… but they both work as a great one-two punch to begin the album.

#755: Bloc Party – Little Thoughts

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‘Little Thoughts’ by Bloc Party was released as a split single with fellow track ‘Tulips’ in July 2004, about half a year before debut album Silent Alarm. The song is very similar in style to the songs that eventually made it onto that album – characterised by a fast tempo, interesting guitar lines by both Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack, and the frantic drumming by former member Matt Tong – but it didn’t make the cut on initial releases of the album, though did appear on re-releases and editions released in the United States.

I didn’t know about this song’s existence until way after Silent Alarm‘s release. ‘Helicopter’ was the first song of theirs that I’d heard/saw and, for a young black nine year old as I was at that time, it was cool seeing a fellow black person being the frontman of an indie band. It was very rare at that time. I wasn’t seeking out albums to listen to at that age and everything I did hear was mainly through the television; whenever a Bloc Party video showed, the music within was usually great and that was more or less how I felt seeing the video for ‘Little Thoughts’. It’s a simple band performance in front of a green screen, but sometimes those are the best kinds of visuals.

Again, like many other songs I discovered at that age, I don’t know much about its subject matter. In the time of writing this, I’ve found one interpretation that the narrator is in love with someone who is of a younger age and wishes that they could go back in time so there would be less of a gap. That sounds fair. Whatever it’s about, it sounds good. And a bit sad, simultaneously.

#754: Queens of the Stone Age – Little Sister

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Hi there, followers. If you read this whole post until the end you will see a picture of the album that this track can be found on. That will then take you to an Amazon link where you will be able to buy that record, should you feel compelled to do so. I’m going to try and update every post on here so this can be done. I’m not sure whether I should direct them to vinyls, CDs, or MP3 downloads. I mean who listens to CDs nowadays? Please, to anyone reading who would be potentially interested, comment below and tell me which format you would prefer me to link to. Want to try and make this blog more interactive, you know? Thanks for your time. Now onto the song.*

For me, ‘Little Sister’ by Queens of the Stone Age is a song that’s always just been there, do you know what I mean? Their music videos would show on MTV2 a lot of the time when that channel mattered and when I saw this one for the first time on there, well, it was clear that the track was very good. And the video just helped to emphasise the track’s atmosphere. I usually associate the song with its video whenever I hear it. The lighting, particularly that deep blue that comes in on the first chorus, and Josh Homme’s Hwoarang from Tekken 3 hairstyle that was never seen again after this video.

The track was released as the first single from the band’s fourth album Lullabies to Paralyze but had been in the works since the Songs for the Deaf sessions. There is a demo take of just the guitar track and Dave Grohl on drums that you can hear online and I will embed that below. Though that has a mind of its own, I think it’s fair to say that what ended up on Lullabies trumps it. What I admire about it is that as soon as it starts with that jam block and the guitar riff, it never lets up. There’s no point where the song slows down and takes a moment to regain composure. I also like that part where guitarist Troy van Leeuwen harmonises on the ‘slowly dancing cheek to cheek’ line. That’s only a split second in what’s an almost three minute song but I think that’s the only other line that gets any harmony on there, apart from the ‘baby’ that leads into the choruses. I don’t know that moment always sticks out to me. And obviously the solo that closes the track out is great too. You can never beat a song ending guitar solo, especially when they’re pulled off well.

And this was all recorded in one single take! I guess there was some overdubbing put on afterwards. But the guitars, bass and drums were at least done live in one go. Always magical when that sort of stuff happens. Definitely deserves to be one of Queen’s signature songs.

*25/08/2020 – I changed my mind about this quite quickly. You’ll find no album cover down here, but you can buy the song from Amazon via a click on the song’s title in the post.**

**15/06/2020 – Forget that footnote too.