Stars – The Five Ghosts

Stars - The Five Ghosts

“Dead hearts are everywhere…It’s hard to know they’re out there” – so states the opening track on Stars’ latest album, The Five Ghosts. These vaguely disconcerting lines help to set the tone of the new collection by the Canadian outfit – melancholic (as always), but also lost and a little hopeless. The recurring theme of ghosts throughout (the album title being the most obvious, but also in individual song titles such as ‘I Died So I Could Haunt You’ and, lyrically, examples such as “the kids that I once knew” from ‘Dead Hearts’), suggests a sense of loss to the feeling of being lost. … Continue Reading

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

Canada’s Broken Social Scene return with their fourth album after a five-year hiatus (founder members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning’s solo albums not withstanding of course). Often an introduction to many for artists such as Feist, Stars and Metric, this Broken Social Scene line up (i.e. the core members for this album – there are still guest spots dotted around) is a much smaller affair than previously heard. … Continue Reading

The Morning Benders – Big Echo

The Morning Benders - Big Echo

California’s The Morning Benders have returned with their second album Big Echo.  After the critical acclaim given to previous album Talking Through Tin Cans, The Morning Benders have signed to Rough Trade Records and garnered an extensive and honourable roll call of tour mates, including Death Cab For Cutie, MGMT, Yeasayer, Yo La Tengo and Grizzly Bear – whose Chris Taylor co-produced the album. … Continue Reading

Parenthetical Girls – Privilege, pt. 1 EP

Parenthetical Girls - Privilege, pt. 1 EP

A favourite of a certain Gareth Campesinos!, this is the first part of what promises to be an exciting endeavour – a series of five self contained, self released EP’s to release, in the words of singer Zac Pennington, “short, appetising bursts of anima”.  And appetising it certainly does sound. … Continue Reading

2002: Coldplay, The Vines, Rival Schools, Muse… CD:UK?

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head

2002.  The year that Eminem cleaned out his closet, The Streets pushed things forward, Lostprophets’ fakesoundofprogress got a shiny new production job, every other new band was The something and I started college, passed my driving test and went to my first ever festivals. … Continue Reading

Eels – My Timing Is Off/Fresh Blood

Eels - My Timing Is Off/Fresh Blood

Hurrah! Eels are back! In that respect it has been a long four years since the release of the epic Blinking Lights and Other Revelations.

In the vein of the afore mentioned Blinking Lights… and Daisies Of The Galaxy rather than the more distortion heavy Souljacker period, ‘My Timing Is Off’ tells a tale of bad luck and unfulfilled love familiar to most Eels fans from tracks such as ‘If You See Natalie’ and ‘It’s A Motherf**ker’.

The clean electric guitar and soft drumming make you feel immediately welcome, and E spins his yarn as if he’s the slightly drunk man on the bar stool next to you in a quiet bar.

He is unabashed in his lament however – “My timing is off/Sometimes that’s how it all works/Believe it or not/We don’t have choices in matters of the heart” … Continue Reading

Classic album: Mr Hudson & The Library – A Tale Of Two Cities

A Tale Of Two Cities

Ahead of the forthcoming hype that there will be regarding Mr Ben Hudson’s second album, Straight No Chaser, executively produced by a certain Kanye West, I thought that I would take some time to recall the first Mr Hudson album.

… Continue Reading

Without further ado

This is frustrating. I am mute. I am not usually mute. However, I am occasionally afflicted with a vanishing of my voice. Not your common or garden croakiness, more like a vocal chord extraction – you cannot tell I am trying to say anything unless you look at me. And even then, I’m likely to have to repeat my silent utterings. The average person’s lip reading skills span to telling when a footballer has forgotten the cameras are live as they spew vitriol at whoever has upset them.

When lip reading fails, I am left with the time consuming method of writing everything down. This strangely has sometimes been met with a similarly written reply – I can still hear, much as just because I am inaudible it doesn’t mean you have to whisper to me! My other option is I can become a mime artist. Which, unless you have actually taken the time to learn the proper, recognised sign language and are trying to commune with a similarly learned person, is kind of like inventing your own language and expecting everyone to decipher the crude cryptography created on the spot to convey our wants and needs. This is extremely frustrating, as not everyone thinks the same.  Ergo, leaving you very open to misinterpretation. This is very frustrating.

It’s All In The Detail

The storyteller has up and left.

Some say he’s a mute.  Some say he’s dumb, some blind.
He’s not.
He’s just gone deaf – just stopped listening.
Just stood up and said:

“There’s no need for me anymore.
There’s no way I can compete, because there is so much being said, yet they’re all leaving so much to be said.
I’m finding there is no longer enough room in my head.
I’m trying to take it all in, to find a point to begin, to assimilate and make any sense of what’s going on.
What is going on?
Where’s the substance, the content?
Where’s the meaning and the subtext?
Theirs is no longer a beginning, a middle and an end.
Theirs is now always, only, a middle.
Theirs is life reduced to not even a page.” … Continue Reading

Asher Roth – I Love College

Asher Roth - I Love College

So, Asher Roth, the latest great white hope of hip-hop… first time I heard this track, I thought the DJ was delving into the archives – the laid back, soulful guitar loops combined with the good times story telling and relaxed flow had me thinking of early De La Soul and The Pharcyde.

Lyrically, it does what it says on the tin – Roth loves college (so much so that he dropped out to pursue his rap career…).  As Roth says “I cant tell you what I learned from school/but I could tell you a story or two”.

These stories centre around partying and drinking with friends, doing a good job of setting the scene, describing the side of college they don’t cover in the prospectus.

Friends are welcomed to the studio for some toasting – cheers for drinking and women; and again later for the chanting – “Chug Chug Chug”, “Freshmen”, “Do something crazy” and “Kegstand”.  Just like being at the party. … Continue Reading