July 2008 Archives

It may sound like one of the more bizarre collaborations in pop music history, but it seems Jack White really is teaming up with Blog Rockin' Beats fave Alicia Keys for the new James Bond theme tune.

Jack, The White Stripes and Raconteurs mastermind, has penned "Another Way To Die" as the theme song for Daniel Craig's second outing as 007 in the Quantum Of Solace.

It will be interesting to see how Alicia's classic, sweet soul voice sounds alongside Jack's primal, Zed from Police Academy-esqe howling but I'm looking forward to it.

But while we are waiting for the result of this union, here's a pic of Alicia:

It's that time of the week again folks. Here are a selection of new singles out this week which will be judged by the following ratings:

***** The Simpsons
**** The Flintstones
*** The Munsters
** The Osmonds
* The Waltons

"Hometown Glory" - Adele
A rather lovely, if a little haunting piano-led ballad from one of the leading lights of the solo female pop invasion of this year.
Good timing too as she has been nominated for the Mercury Music prize for her "19" album. And songs like this show what has turned the judges' heads.
****

"July" - Natty
This is one hell of a laid back and yet uplifting tune to listen to as you chill out on a lazy sunny afternoon.
In fact, it seems to have been written to earn the tag 'Sound Of The Summer'.
***

"Keep It Simple" - Delays
A sweeping, quite brilliant track that is anything but simple. Delays are one of those under-rated bands who never fail to deliver.
Easily the best thing Southampton has given to the world since developing the footballing genius that was Matt Le Tissier.
****

"Vanished" - Crystal Castles
Hmmmm. A so-so effort from the dance-indie duo, which is a shame as they have been riding the crest of a mental wave up until now.
Not that it's a totally bad track mind, just not in the same league as "Alice Practice".
**

"Moving Mountains" - Usher
First of all, I have to confess that I've never been the biggest Usher fan and never quite understood how someone so dull and unremarkable could become so hugely successful.
And now, with this mid-tempo song, it seems as if he is trying his hand at being all grown up and serious. Not a good result. Still, at least David Beckham loves him...
**

"Movie Star" - Roisin Murphy
This is a delightful, Goldfrapp-esqe slice of electronica/pop from the ex-Moloko songstress.
And to add to all the joy, she has produced a suitably bizarre and eccentric video to match. Fantastic!
****

"Mad About The Boy" - Ava Leigh
A totally gorgeous reggae-pop tune that's been around for some time but now getting a proper CD release on Monday.
Great voice, great lyrics and a great song. What more could you ask for? Single of a rather excellent week!
*****

So this year's nominees for the Mercury Music prize have been announced and we have the usual mixture of commercial and eccentric acts completing the list.

But I have two questions for the judging panel who nominated the 10 albums chosen:

Firstly, do you really think anyone actually cares about this award (or any award for that matter) anymore?

And secondly, can one of you tell me why Portishead's "Third" and M.I.A's "Kala" were omitted from the list? Crazy, just totally crazy!

It's that time of the week again and here are a selection of the singles availble to download or from all good record shops and some rubbish ones too. They will be judged against the following ratings:

***** Beck Hanson
**** Jeff Beck
*** Boris Becker
** Becks Beer
* David Beckham

"Can't Go Back" - Primal Scream
I inexplicably omitted this from last week's review but, better late than never and all that. Especially as this single is fantastic.
A very welcome return to their Exterminator (or Xtrmntr as they called it when they were waging a war against vowels) era. Frenetic and fabulous.
*****

"Shut Up And Let Me Go" - The Ting Tings
Not quite as catchy as That's Not My Name but it will no doubt appeal to people who loved that.
I got to admit that I still think they sound like Shampoo. But that's nothing to be ashamed of. Well, not much anyway.
***

"Sleep When I'm Dead" - The Cure
Excellent. A great hook and certainly the best so far of their "13th" singles. It's dark and yet poppy in a classic Cure kind of way.
One more single to be released on August 13 and then the album on Spetember 13 - good times for Cure fans.
****

"Left Behind" - CSS
One of the many hyped beyond belief electro guitar bands returns with the first single off their forthcoming album.
At first I didn't like it but now I have to say, it's grown on me over the past few days.
***

"You Wot!" - DJ Q and MC Bonez
Ha ha ha - this is hilarious. A very silly, comedy grime effort that will initially put a smile on your face.
But I fear it will lead to people using the "You Wot!" catchphrase to death during the summer, like folk who thought they were funny and original when they got in your face and screamed "Wassuuuuup!" a few years back. The fools.
**

"I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" - Annie
It's bubblegum pop, it has 'text speak' in the title and I know I really should dislike this. But....
***

"One For The Radio" - McFly
Oh great. McFly is back. Whooppee. Where's Biff from the Back To The Future movies when you need him?
And why do all their songs sound the same. This is no different to any other McFly track. Never trust a band whose main influence is Busted. It is one for the radio - if you are deaf.
*

"C'mon C'mon" - Def Leppard
Man, are they still going? Remarkable. Although, I'm afraid to say there isn't anything remarkable about this effort.
It's plodding, tired and sounds as if it is desperately trying to anthemic. But it isn't. By any stretch of the imagination.
*

I read about this a few days ago but have been too stunned to actually write a blog about it. I have rubbed my eyes, got a second opinion and read the article over and over.

I can now confirm that I am not imagining it - Guns N Roses are actually going to release new material, albeit as part of the Rock Band 2 video game, which comes out in September. Well, I say Guns N Roses but basically Axl Rose and whichever 'yes' men are currently in his employment.

The track Shackler's Revenge is taken from the often delayed, 15 years-in-the-making Chinese Democracy album. Who knows...maybe that will see the light of day before the end of the decade...

So finally some positive news for Axl's long-suffering fans. Of course, whether the song will actually be any good and whether enough people still care are different matters entirely and we can only wait and see what happens...

Flicking through my copy of this month's Mojo mag, I was delighted to see six of the original seven members of The Specials on stage together.

They were at the magazine's awards show, having been given their rightful and, quite frankly, overdue place in the Hall of Fame.

For years after they split in the early 80s, there was animosity and mudslinging. But in Mojo there was a lovely pic of Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding, Horace Panter, John Bradbury and Roddy 'Radiation' Byers standing proud as their legacy was rightly lauded. The only guy missing was Neville Staple and there was nothing sinister in his failure to turn up (he was "stuck on a train somewhere" according to Golding!).

The original line-up lasted just two short years, producing two classic albums until Hall, Golding and Staple left to form the Fun Boy Three in 1981. They united black and white cultures and wrote some stinging politically charged songs which, despite the often dark content, still managed to sound uplifting because of the bouncing, infectious ska beat.

Listen to Too Much Too Young, Nite Klub, Gangsters, Do Nothing, Concrete Jungle, Blank Expression, Man At C&A, A Message To You Rudy, Stereotype, I Can't Stand It or, best of all, Ghost Town and tell me they were not brilliant.
Actually, I could have listed any of the songs they released between 79 and 81.

Dammers rebranded them Special AKA after the 81 break up and they released on final album, In The Studio in 1984 which, despite a handful of classic moments, wasn't quite the same.

Recently we have seen Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Happy Mondays and countless, poxy boy bands reform. But, along with the Stone Roses, a reunion of The Specials' classic, original line-up truly would be..well, special.
Over to you guys...you know you want to!

Here's wishing Amy Winehouse's father Mitch a full and quick recovery from the stress-related panic attacks that caused him to collapse at home last week.
It is believed that his efforts to help his immensely talented but troubled daughter has finally taken its toll on him.

He was only recently interviewed talking about his fears that Amy will suffer a slow and painful death because of her lifestyle and urged her friends not to give her drugs or cigarettes.
But if she isn't interested in recovering for her own good, perhaps she will for her dad.

To her credit, the singer has told her dad to look after himself and not to worry about her. But come on. If Amy Winehouse was your daughter, would you be able to stop worrying about her?

Another selection of singles for me to cast my critical eye over. This week, they will be judged by the following ratings:

***** Denise Van Outen
**** Marco Van Basten
*** Van Halen
** LDV Vans Trophy
* Jean Claude Van Damme

"Crank It Up" - Hadouken!
Now, I like Hadouken as much as the next person who likes them. But, is it me or do all their singles sound the same?
I mean, take some shouty manic vocals and place them over an 80s-ish electronic beat and hey presto! Here we go. Still, does the job it set out to do I suppose...
***

"Ring Road" - Underworld
Arrrrgggggghhhh! Don't mention ring road to me as I'm from Walsall and every resident will understand why I'm twitching nervously at the very thought.
Great to have Underworld back though with their big beat sound, even if this sails dangerously close to The Streets at times.
***

"Stay" - Jay Sean
No! Go away. Far, far, away from here. That's it, just keep on walking straight out of that door and take your awful, sub standard pop music with you.
Blander than the blandest thing on sale at the Bland Superstore in Blandsville.
*

"Toe Jam" - The BPA (feat Dizzee Rascal and David Byrne)
Fatboy Slim's latest project is gloriously strange and catchy and features the forever incredible ex-Talking Heads mainman David Byrne, not to mention a star cameo appearance from Mr Rascal!
If you can listen to it and not get the urge to run around, leaping and dancing with gay abandon, then you are made of stone or dead from the top of your head down.
*****

"Big Bros" - Joyriders
A mash up of the Big Brother theme and Bros' "When Will I Be Famous" (hey, why not?!).
Perhaps Bros should reform. I mean, every other awful boy band seems to be getting back together to raise a bit of cash and adulation from ageing fans who really should know better.
**

"Shine On" - The Kooks
More tuneful garage rock, with a hint of country, from the Brighton boys.
Much of the same as before really and will undoubtedly please their fans, NME readers and the like.
***

A selection of this week's new singles which will be judged against the following ratings:

***** Ramones
**** Sex Pistols
*** The Stranglers
** Angelic Upstarts
* Peter and the Test Tube Babies

"J Smith" - Travis
Kinda sounds like a mini rock opera by The Police...well, a Police tribute band anyway. They seem to be trying to shy away from the wet and dull sound we've become accustomed to, which deserves some credit.
But I couldn't help but feel bored while listening to it.
**

"Council Estate" - Tricky
A mish mash of rock, hip hop and trip hop and it works really well, while the Trickster angrily screams over the music.
Apparently, he takes us on a journey through his upbringing and it's easy to settle in and enjoy the fraught ride.
****

"Buff Nuff" - Roots Manuva
Not his best by some considerable distance but there's still quite a bit of fun here.
He frantically raps over some electro which appears to have been taken from a Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrem game.
***

"Mermaids And Slaves" - Paul Heaton
An absolutely terrific, feel good summer tune from the master of witty songwriting. Amazingly, it's his first official solo single too.
Ok, so it doesn't stray too far from the Beautiful South or The Housemartins, but when you're having this much fun - who cares?
****

"Cola Coka" - Rosie Oddie And The Odd Squad
She's the daughter of Bill Oddie. Yeah, yeah, I know she's bound to want to be recognised in her own right but, come on! Bill Oddie!! The ex-Goodie turned birdwatching legend!!!
Anyway the song, apparently about the Camden drug scene, is kooky, mental and absolutely fantastic. Sorry, but I'm still impressed with the Bill Oddie connection...
****

"Does The Lion City Still Roar" - Less Than Jake
I'm less than impressed (see what I did there?) with this one, truth be told. It's one for their fans really.
It's too ska punk by numbers for my liking and doesn't seem to want to jump out and be memorable in any shape or form.
**

"Paris Is Burning" - Ladyhawke
Close your eyes and listen to this and tell me that you can't picture Bananarama singing over Gary Numan's classic "Cars".
This is more 80s than Live Aid, leg warmers and Limahl. Which probably explains why I actually quite like it!
***

Distressing news today about sick thieves stealing Ian Curtis the memorial headstone from Macclesfield Cemetery.

His gravestone bears the words "Love will tear us apart" taken from their most famous song and had been laid in tribute to the tragic 23-year-old Joy Division singer, who took his own life in 1980.

The immensely talented band produced some of the greatest British post punk music with songs such as Transmission, She's Lost Control and Atmosphere and were about to go on tour in the US when Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy, hanged himself in the kitchen of his home.

The memorial gave fans from all over the world somewhere to go to pay tribute to the singer until it was taken overnight on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Understandibly, his family, friends and former bandmates are all shocked and disgusted by the theft.

Police have described the theft as unusual but I'd call it evil, cruel and disgraceful. I'd like to think the thief or thieves will get what they deserve for doing it, but the return of the headstone is the most important thing...