Song of the Week - 06/06/13 - Queens Of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

Queens of the Stone Age  ...Like Clockwork

This is the first new QOTSA album since 2007's Era Vulgaris. Since then the band had been on hiatus, from 2009 to 2011 working on side projects and new bands, Josh Homme with Them Crooked Vultures and Dean Fertita with Jack White's The Dead Weather. The band has seen a change in lineup with drummer Joey Castillo having left meaning that Dave Grohl returns to play drums on the majority of the album reprising the role he played on Songs for the Deaf. 

The album also features a number of guest appearances by the likes of Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, NIN's Trent Reznor, UNKLE's James Lavelle and goddamn Sir Elton John! According to Wikipedia Sir John got in touch with Homme saying he needed an "actual queen" on the album. Here's the full list of appearances plus the corresponding track list (from wikipedia):

Guest appearances (tracks they appear on): 

Dave Grohl – drums, percussion (3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)  

Joey Castillo – drums, percussion (1, 2, 3, 6)   

Jon Theodore – drums, percussion (10) 

Nick Oliveri – vocals (4, 7) 

Mark Lanegan – vocals (4, 7) , lyrics (7)  

Alex Turner – vocals, guitar (4) , lyrics (6) 

Trent Reznor – vocals (6, 7) 

Jake Shears - vocals (1) 

Elton John – piano, vocals (7)

Brody Dalle – vocals 

Alain Johannes 

Tracklist: 

1."Keep Your Eyes Peeled"
2."I Sat by the Ocean"
3."The Vampyre of Time and Memory"
4."If I Had a Tail"
5."My God Is the Sun"
6."Kalopsia"
7."Fairweather Friends"
8."Smooth Sailing"
9."I Appear Missing"
10."…Like Clockwork"  

These brilliant yet kind of eerie animated music video promos created by Boneface and Liam Brazier were released early last month in anticipation of the new album. Viewed as one complete short film (as below) they tell the story of four so far nameless characters and feature excerpts of 4 tracks from the album plus the entirety of the single My God is the Sun. Think the Gorillaz but with blood and violence. (Be sure to watch it in HD!)

If I had to pick one song for my song of the week as the title of the blog stipulates then it would probably have to be I Appear Missing, with its hauntingly beautiful vocals and a vintage QOTSA catchy chorus.

"Calling all comas, prisoner on the loose, description:
The spitting image of me,
‘Cept for the heart shaped hole where the hope runs out
Shock me awake, tear me apart
Pinned like a note in a hospital gown
Prison of sleep, deeper down
The rabbit hole never to be found... "

The lyrics seem to tell the story of Josh Homme's anguish at being bedridden for some four months due to complications following routine knee surgery in 2010. Homme is said to have gone into a deep depression and this dark mood can certainly be seen in the ...Like Clockwork album.

It may be too early to tell but I would rate this album as one of the my favourites of 2013 so far. You can judge that for yourself...

[Sources - Wikipedia, Youtube, Spotify, Google]

Wayne's World Musical Interlude

So I watched Wayne's World for the first time the other day and this post is inspired by this film and its music.

First off, the film was pretty good. Despite being fairly old now (made in '92) it seems to have stood the test of time.

Apparently coming from a Saturday Night Live sketch you can clearly see the now classic Mike Myers humour in there and where it has come from. Like the subtitles seen that must have developed into the Austin Powers 'massive rodent problem' scene in Goldmember.

As for the music I first felt compelled to watch Wayne's World after seeing the advert featuring the Bohemian Rhapsody scene and realising I had never seen this film before! It makes me want to buy an old car that still has a cassette player so I can listen to Queen and live out this scene. My favourite part is when they pick up their 'partied out' friend who looks like he's about to hurl the whole way through the film, oh and Queen of course.

If that wasn't enough there is also this little scene with Garth singing Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady which I also enjoy a lot! [Please ignore the French before/after the clip, all the English versions of youtube seem to be terrible quality.]

Song of the Week - 01/06/13 - Deap Vally - Baby I Call Hell

Deap Vally - Baby I Call Hell

I came across this song last night on the Jools Holland show. It was completely by chance, since it was a show line-up that I wasn't too optimistic about and hadn't really intended to watch. But nonetheless I caught the second half of the show on the off chance and I was really impressed by this group in particular.

They combine a rich bluesy sound with a deep bass guitar and vintage rock  Iggy Pop-esque vocals. There are similarities with the vocalist Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the overall sound the duo is very reminiscent of The White Stripes.

This is one band that definitely surprised me and is one up and coming artist to watch. Check them out if you are going to Reading or Leeds Festival this year.

Check out some clips from their appearance on Later... here
BBC Two - Later... with Jools Holland, Series 42, Episode 7, Deap Vally - Gonna Make My Own Money 
BBC Two - Later... with Jools Holland, Series 42 Live, Episode 7, Deap Vally - Baby I Call Hell  

[Sources - Wikipedia, Youtube, Spotify, Last.fm]

Song of the Week - 22/05/13 - Miles Kane - Don't Forget Who You Are

Miles Kane - Don't Forget Who You Are

Miles Kane first came to my attention when he was part of the collaborative project, The Last Shadow Puppets along with the Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco. Their style was effortlessly cool, distinctively British modern indie meets more classic rock and roll with some grandiose orchestral backing put in for good measure. The dual vocals of both Kane and Turner seems to really strike a chord and they complement each other brilliantly. I was lucky enough to see them live at Reading festival 2008, which was an excellent performance as they were accompanied by a live orchestra.

  

It is clear to see that this project with Miles Kane influenced Alex Turner's style that has seen the musical genre and style of the Arctic Monkeys evolve from the lively indie rock from the initial I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor era to the more mellow and classy vintage rock sound as in the newest albums Humbug and Suck it and See.

Despite only having released the one album The Age of the Understatement (2008), there is the possibility of more in future with the collaboration seemingly only on hiatus. Although this seems unlikely considering the continued success of the Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane's new solo album out soon I'd be sure to watch this space in future. Youtube video here

After coming across The Last Shadow Puppets, I did go back to explore Kane's previous band The Rascals that is quite enjoyable in its rawness and unrefined beauty. Looking back at this early work of Mile Kane's you can really see the progression he has made.
Kane's first proper solo album 2011's Colour of the Trap, was somewhat understated and perhaps unsung (so to speak) but a half decent record in my opinion. His subsequent work seems to be much more focused and polished, I was particularly impressed with 2012's First of My Kind EP, especially the title track that I am a big fan of. Check out First of My Kind here!

The new full studio album Don't Forget Who You Are is set for release on the 3rd June.  The title track is this weeks song, it is quite a banger and I will be eagerly anticipating the album if the rest of the songs are up to this standard!

Tracklist:
1. Taking Over
2. Don’t Forget Who You Are
3. Better Than That
4. Out Of Control
5. Bomb Shells
6. Tonight
7. What Condition Am I In?
8. Fire In My Heart
9. You’re Gonna Get It
10. Give Up
11. Darkness In Our Hearts
Bonus Tracks:
12. Start of Something Big
13. Caught In The Act
14. First Of My Kind

Check it out below, enjoy!

[Sources - Wikipedia, Youtube, MilesKane.com]

Song of the Week - 16/05/13 - Seasick Steve - Freedom Road / Hubcap Music

Seasick Steve - Freedom Road

Carrying on from a point I began to make back in my last post, about the great source of new music that is the The Jools Holland Show on BBC. The Jools Holland show presents a great mix of genres with mainstream artists grouped together with more niche and diverse ones. The show was launched the careers of many of these small upcoming artists, giving them some valuable TV coverage for the first time for many. One good example is that of Seasick Steve, the former hobo and now acoustic folk/blues man and UK music festival favourite after appearing on the new years eve hootenanny. It is commendable that these fresh new artists are given the chance to show what they can be on national TV.

Check out the original Seasick Steve performance here from the New Year's Eve special 2006, the brilliant Dog House.

An extraordinary man, who has lived a turbulent life; has managed to make the remarkable transformation from sleeping rough and hopping trains to make it big in the music industry. His life story would certainly make an excellent autobiography. He is made all the more likeable due to his modesty at his recent success and his simple kind hearted nature. His success can be shown by his numerous award nominations, frequent music festival appearances and having had the opportunity to play live with the likes of Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. Since 2006 he has had 3 albums go gold and one, I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most Of It Left (2008) went platinum in the UK.

His new album Hubcap Music was released the end of last month. This is probably my favourite song from the new album although there are plenty of good tracks to choose from, some nice chilled country styled tracks to some more fast paced, toe-tapping tunes like this one. The album is definitely recommended.

Also check out the full album on spotify below

[Info Sources - Wikipedia, Youtube]

Song of the Week - 08/05/13 - AlunaGeorge - Attracting Flies

AlunaGeorge - Attracting Flies

Electronic duo AlunaGeorge (no space intentional) first came on to the scene last year with the single 'Your Drums, Your Love' released in September to a modest chart ranking of number fifty. They followed up with the much more notable single 'White Noise', a collaboration with Disclosure as a featured artist (according to wikipedia) which reached a lofty no.2 in the UK singles chart.

Their new single Attracting Flies is this week's song of the week. I caught this song while watching Later with Jools Holland last week, which has always been a great source of new music for me. (more on that in my next post)

On first hearing this song on TV the other night, I couldn't help but think that it would be very easy to make your own song (at least in theory). All you really need is a catchy little electronic beat like the one at the beginning of this song and featured throughout. You could probably cook up one of these playing around with an little online synthesiser or an app on your phone. And from there you can mix in some vocals and backing music and voila! Of course it undoubtedly is probably much harder than that but I still think that in principle it does come down to this initial little electro beat, especially for this song. For me it was enough for me to want to carry on listening when I could have quite easily changed channel and watched something else. It provides the hook to entice the listener in. 

A début album Body Music is set for release in the summer on the 8th July.

[Sources - Wikipedia, Youtube]

Song of the Week - 22/04/13 - MS MR - Bones

MS MR - Bones

This week's song comes from indie/electro duo MS MR. I recently stumbled upon this song after rediscovering their 2012 EP, the expertly named Candy Bar Creep Show which I had saved for proper listening on my spotify late last year. I can't quite remember where I came across them first, (probably from the useful new album releases spotify playlist) but nonetheless I seem to have chosen wisely to save this one for later.

According to their last.fm bio they describe their sound as "Tumblr glitch pop, soul fuzz and electroshock", whatever that really means. But they produce some nice mellow electro styled indie that really seems to strike a chord. There are similarities with Florence and the Machine in the vocals at times that I quite like and will probably attract people to this band should the comparison go any further.

With a debut album titled Secondhand Rapture set to be released on the 14th May, i reckon they are one to watch this year.

MSMR - Bones

Also here's the video for Hurricane (by popular demand)

[Sources - Wikipedia, Youtube, Last.fm]