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My iPod #241: Franz Ferdinand – The Dark of the Matinée

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“The Dark of the Matinée” was the second single from Franz Ferdinand’s debut album, released in February 2004.

According to Kapranos, or what I could make from him before he introduced this song at a festival, the track is about skiving off school and hiding away in the shadows of the matinée. Every music channel showed the song as simply “Matinée” which is (I’m guressing) what everybody generally calls it. Maybe even some Franz Ferdinand fans if they’re too occupied to say the full title. Either way it is the same song, but it is the darkness of the matinée which is being specified that is being established as the hiding place, and not just the building itself.

Whatever.

It is remarkable to think it has been ten years since I first heard this. This was one of my favourite songs at the time. I thought the video made the song even better. The ‘robotic’ choreography, Alex Kapranos’ fringe and the huge painting of Terry Wogan during the final verse. I had daydreams of being in a band and making a video like it. I wanted Looking at it now makes me want to that eight years old who would wake up early in the morning to watch MTV2, actually watch music videos and discover bands for the first time all over again.

It wasn’t as successful as “Take Me Out”, which I’ll get on to ages from now, but to me it certainly brings back some good memories.

My iPod #227: Billy Talent – Cut the Curtains

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I just completely messed up my dinner by leaving it on the cooker for too long. I am a bit depressed now. I had to throw it in the bin; there was no way it could be salvaged. I had the same thing to eat yesterday and it was so good…… 😦 ffs. I think that cooker is too OP, I didn’t even have it on a high flame…. I’ll just cook it tomorrow.

It almost the end of the C section on my iPod, and it is getting to the year anniversary of when I actually first started this thing. Expect the ‘D’ (hehe) next month sometime. Late Feb.

“Cut the Curtains” is a track from Billy Talent’s self-titled debut album. The ninth track on it to be exact. I first listened to the track many years ago, when I wanted to hear all the songs the band made after I’d seen them on the television when I was eight or so.

Even then it was only thirty second samples of it because I didn’t know any downloading sites where you didn’t have to pay. I did eventually get it as a present for my tenth/eleventh birthday, I am not too sure.

After all these years, I still enjoy this album just as much as when I first got it. “Cut the Curtains” isn’t the sole reason why, it is one out of twelve songs that never diminishes on energy, volume, and overall awesomeness.

This track is quite different to the others. It uses a riff, one which I think Ian D’Sa referred to as a chicken, that is practically repeated throughout the song (intro, verses, choruses and all). It probably contains the only part on the album when a track goes quiet for a few seconds. It’s not as quick and pacy as the others, but has a menacing tone and smoothness about it that you still have to move about to it. It’s cool.

The subject matter…. Artifice in a relationship? Maybe? Just a guess.

My iPod #208: The Beatles – The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

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Finally! After almost three years from its release, I have seen the last Harry Potter film. The feels! I kid you not, just two minutes ago I finished watching it. Thank you MegaShare. I never thought I could get an actual working link as the top result on Google, but there you go.

Today’s track is one that would not be acclaimed by a lot of Beatle fans. It was one of my most played tracks in iTunes, which would either impress some people or gain some curious looks by others.

Well I don’t care! I like it. The song’s quite funny. And one based on real events. An American man went to visit his mother in India, where John Lennon and the rest of the band were staying at the time, and set out on elephants to hunt a tiger. A tiger was killed, John didn’t like it, the rest is history.

The song is also noted for the one and only appearance of a female lead vocal on a Beatles track. This pisses off some people, as it was provided by Yoko Ono. For me…. meh. I am indifferent. It is over before you know it.

My iPod #207: The Raconteurs – Consoler of the Lonely

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Sorry for the late post, I had started writing at around seven and then some events occurred which prevented me from finishing it… But here it is.

First day of the new year but the posting doesn’t stop. You think I would take a day off for this momentous occasion? You is stupid. I would never do that. Even though I am at my friend’s place and easily could have missed today. But I feel as if it would have been a waste to let this day go without making a mark on it, so here we go.

I bought “Consolers of the Lonely” in 2008 just because I really liked “Salute Your Solution” and wanted to listen to it on repeat without waiting for it to appear on MTV2. That resulted in me a skipping the almost title track when I first got the album. That was a silly mistake.

I did have a reason as to why I did. The slow guitar introduction did not impress me so I skipped the whole song altogether, not knowing that the song actually changed into a full-on hard rock tune.

Something that I really liked about the first single from the album was the change of the band’s sound. I know that’s said for a lot of artists, but compared to “Broken Boy Soldiers” which sounded like a band writing their tracks and then recording them in a small studio, “Consolers of the Lonely” was the sound of a band ready to take on the biggest festivals and fill the largest stadiums.

With the track beginning on a quiet note, a bunch of studio chatter and aforementioned guitar I wasn’t expecting much. That was until the count-in from the drumsticks appeared and the real song began. The first chord accompanied with the pounding rhythm section hit me like a ton of bricks. It sounded so good. Brendan Benson’s vocals sound as rich as ever, and work ever so well as the ‘lonely’ character as detailed in the album name.

Then the middle begins. The song slows down, and the guitar from the introduction is the backbone of it. Very clever! So it wasn’t some sort of random lick that they just threw in, it actually has purpose. Jack White strides in as the ‘consoler’ as he offers the loner ‘something good to eat’ and slap-bang we’re back to the pumping verses again.

It’s all done really smoothly. This song is one containing a lot of changes. The best one is saved for the last minute when the song suddenly gains pace and the band execute one of the best breakdowns I have out of all the songs I have on my Apple product.

My iPod #196: Maxïmo Park – The Coast Is Always Changing

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“The Coast Is Always Changing” is a track from Maxïmo Park’s first album “A Certain Trigger” which was released in 2005. The eighth track on that album if I remember correctly.

It was a single too. Their very very very first single. Like even before “Apply Some Pressure“. I didn’t know this song existed until the video played on MTV2, and that was way after the album had been released anyway.

One thing that irks me about this song, and others on “Trigger”, is that it sounds a lot different from “Apply Some Pressure”, “Graffiti” and “Going Missing”. Has anyone else noticed this apart from me? In terms of production this song, “I Want You to Stay” and “Signal and Sign” for example sound really rough. A bit like demo recordings. Whereas the former three sound really polished. I don’t know if that’s just me. Maybe it is.

I do like this song though, however different it sounds to the other singles.