It's a wonderful life, this life of music
From the category archives:
Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
If you prefer the big mass posts, [...]
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Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
If you prefer the big mass posts, [...]
{ 0 comments }
Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
If you prefer the big mass [...]
{ 0 comments }
Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
If you prefer the big mass [...]
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Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
If you prefer the big mass [...]
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Post-A-Day Week: It’s not often over a weekend that I’ll be sent enough songs to make up a week of posts. So, this week, I’ve decided to put up a post a day, as opposed to lumping them all into one confusing mess, as I am wont to do.
If you prefer the big mass posts, [...]
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Yeah, yeah; I know the elitest snobs will have something to say about such a mainstream band appearing on this blog, but cmon… who here can honestly claim that Counting Crows didn’t soundtrack much of their life?
While Hard Candy was certainly a slight falter in the Counting Crows trajectory (apart from, of course, the Ryan [...]
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Sorry things have been a bit quiet lately; real life takes it’s toll, and lease renewals and rental inspections take up a bit of time. That said, let’s jump right into a Tuesday Trio.
Gomez – Chasing Ghosts with Alcohol
While Gomez – in my eyes, at least – will always struggle to live up [...]
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Robert Francis
At just 19, Robert Francis is unquestionably a song-writer wise beyond his years. Having already worked with some musical giants (Ry Cooder, and John Frusciante to name just a few), it is clear that the future hold’s great things for Robert Francis.
It’s hard to listen to this guy and picture him at just [...]
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Ok, ok. U2 may not be the coolest band around. Certainly not since their “Elevation” days, anyway.
Despite the travesty of the aforementioned single, however, one good thing that came out of their “Elevation” tour in 2001, was this rendition of their song, “In A Little While”.
Perhaps one of my favourite U2 songs of all [...]
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Unquestionably, one of the most exciting guitarists I’ve seen in the last few years is Andy Mckee.
McKee is one of those players, much like Guy Buttery (featured in my “30 South African Bands You Should Hear” entry), who’s percussive, unorthodox fingerstyle method of playing inspires everyone who is lucky enough to see it live.
In [...]
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It’s been a while since the sounds of London caused me to become excited, but two lads are currently making enough noise to bring London to the main stage again. Those two boys are Jack Penate and Jamie Treays (aka Jamie T).
Jack Peñate
Interesting side-note to begin this: Penate seems to have a problem holding onto [...]
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There’s only a short list of songs who can immediately make me smile when I’m down. To this list, let me welcome “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” by The Wombats.
It’s too early to say how these Liverpudlians will fare; they’ve only released two albums. One of which, “Girls, Boys and Marsupials” was a Japan-only release, [...]
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On Friday night, I achieved one of my life’s goals (dramatic, perhaps… but nonetheless true), and saw State Radio perform live, at the Tivoli in Brisbane.
I almost cried, I was so happy.
Some background: Perhaps my favourite band of all time, was (and is) Dispatch. Darlings of the indie scene, who never caved to pressure, and [...]
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Anyone who hasn’t heard of the BBC’s Live Lounge Tour, you’re too late. It just ended. But while it ran, it was one of my favourite stops online. Basically, the show was exactly as the title suggested; getting together with artists, in an informal setting, such as their home lounge, and then get them to [...]
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So it appears that Jack Johnson’s new album, “Sleep Through The Static” should be ready for release by February, 2008. For this, his 5th album, Johnson worked with his usual rhythm section – bassist Merlo Podlewski and drummer Adam Topol – plus Zach Gill (frequent collaborater and frontman of ALO) on piano and accordion.
Jack has [...]
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On Saturday I was lucky enough to see gods in action; Crosby, Stills & Nash, performing in Brisbane at the Riverstage.
It’s been about 10 years since I last saw these guys live. The last time was in South Africa, on a night where a sudden downpour in an open arena had the sound washed away [...]
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In preparation for the Yuletide season, Coldplay is streaming a cover version of the Pretenders song, “2000 miles” on their website, along with the above note.
While Chris Martin might not be as attractive as Chrissie Hynde, they do a great version. Normally, I’m not a fan of Christmas songs (apart from exceptions such as The [...]
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So on Sunday, I managed to score tickets to Xavier Rudd’s “White Moth Tour” at the Gold Coast Convention Centre; as usual, Xavier was fantastic. His set was perhaps more aggressive than I’ve seen in the past, but that only urged the crowd on all the more.
However, this post is not about Xavier Rudd; everyone [...]
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On Saturday, a new website popped up: foxborohottubs.com, featuring the retro-styled jammings of the “Foxboro Hot Tubs“.
Cheesy as all hell (yet undeniably catchy), the mp3’s are making a bit of a stir online; namely, with questions of, “Who exactly are these old-school garage rockers?”. Not much information is available at the moment, but first reports [...]
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(Update: It’s been brought to my attention that some people aren’t sure how to stream the songs while reading. Um. Click the little “play” icon next to the song name. Easy, huh?)
(Second Update: Song links for below entry have now expired)
I used to be in a band in South Africa. More about [...]
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Ok. So I’m working on a post (or series of posts, not sure yet), which is becoming huge, involving around 30 artists so far. It might take me a few days to get all of this information sorted into something slightly passing as manageable… so, in the meantime, for your auditory and visual pleasure, I [...]
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Ohad Rein is one of those people who simply exemplifies music. You know the type I mean.
That person you know who seems to be living their life according to a different song. Whose every movement seems to be a chord adding to the inevitable crescendo. Everyone knows someone like Ohad.
That doesn’t make it any less [...]
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Those poor ripped-off artists.
Remember when every other post here was about artists allowing digital downloads of their works, for however much you wanted to pay? There have been mixed reports as to how some of those experiments have been going. Did you donate any money for Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” when it came out?
No? Feel guilty?
Then [...]
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So 2007 is nearly over, and there’s one artist who I feel should have made a bigger splash this year – Brett Dennen.
This kid brought the goods with his 2006 album, “So Much More”, but surprisingly his music is only now beginning to reach a larger audience, thanks to an opening slot for John Mayer.
2008 [...]
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Holy. Crap.
State Radio are coming out to Australia.
Some of you may know my… well… slight obsession with the band Dispatch. Seeing as I wasn’t able to make it to their “reunion” Zimbabwe benefit-gig, I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I would have to travel State-side to see either Pete Francis, Braddigan, [...]
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Ok, so this is something we’ve been excited about for a while, but Gibson have released some new pics of their “Robotic Guitar”. No longer must tone-deaf guitar players drown in a sea of irony; the Robot Guitar can tune itself with a simple push of a button.
Release date has been slated as the 7th [...]
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So another online playlist has hit my radar (only about a year late or so, so I’m getting better!)
Anyway, this time the site is projectplaylist, which creates an online playlist for you.
The advertising is a bit of a turn off, but the interface itself is very sleek and sexy…
The good news… it has a great [...]
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“Every number, represents a human being
who was a father, who was a mother
a son or a daughter of this land…oh
it ain’t worth my life…oh
you are here today, tomorrow you are gone
you don’t wanna be another number in the book”
Luck Dube, “The Other Side”
It is with heavy heart that we make this post; while we [...]
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Via Reuters, we’ve seen that Led Zeppelin is finally going to release their music to be sold online.
Page and Plant has previously indicated that they would only be releasing a 24-track sampler via iTunes, but that tune has now changed, with the announcement that “the complete Led Zeppelin catalogue will now be available digitally”, and [...]
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In possibly some of the best news I’ve heard all year,
Peter Hook has signed up Liam Gallagher, Ian Brown and Echo + The Bunnymen frontman Ian Mcculloch to form a new supergroup.
The New Order bassist, Hook, formed Free Bass with former The Smiths bass man Mikey Rourke and Primal Scream star Mani after [...]
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Sigh. I can’t believe I’m mentioning her name in this blog at all, but given past posts, it deserves a mention.
Found via Techcrunch, it appears that Madonna is (in a way) following suit. While she is not offering free to public music just yet (ala NIN and Radiohead), it appears that [...]
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While things are not set in stone now, it looks like the free release of music is sealing the coffin on the current incarnation of the record industry.
Following on from his “Steal my shit” speech in Australia last month, Trent Reznor, via the NIN site, released the following statement:
I’ve waited a LONG time to [...]
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After much wait, “In Rainbows” is now playing on my computer as I type. There’s a feeling of ambivalence for me here. The problem, for me, is that in some parts, Radiohead sounds even… well… slightly generic. Recalling hints of Muse and other contemporaries in parts. Now, this is itself is not a harsh denigration, [...]
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Just a short note to all you Radiohead fanatics… don’t forget, In Rainbows is released in a few hours.
Forget? Who are we kidding?
I mean… YOU didn’t forget, right?
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Unfortunately this will have to be a quickie today (no matter how mature you get, that line always gives a twinge of a chuckle), but time waits for no man!
So, quickly:
The news has spread that Radiohead have placed a price on their new album, “In Rainbows”. The price? Whatever you want to pay for it. [...]
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Teaming up with his old posse, the E-Street Band, Bruce Springsteen has released his new single, “Radio Nowhere”, from his latest album, “Magic”.
It’s about bloody time.
Bruce may be on this side of 60 these days, but he’s still standing. And rocking. Emphatically.
The guitar intro and “pounding drums” may sound extremely generic these days and lost [...]
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Ok, so this might not be news to some of you, but to others, it certainly will be.
Online social music sites have definitely blossomed over the last few years, but I always keep my eye out for another to add to the arsenal. Some of my favourites in the past were Pandora.com (the true OG [...]
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I dare you to find a more raw, honest song that has been released in the last few years.
Although I’ve been listening to the song for a while now, I was only recently exposed to this music video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKb79ltpaU]
Fittingly, considering the song, the video itself leaves me breathless. “That which is lost, that can never [...]
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I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a “band documentary” since Last Dispatch, featuring only my favourite band of all time, Dispatch.
This time it’s “Golden Days” that has me in a lather, featuring The Damnwells. And if you haven’t heard their music(there’s some on their myspace), get going man!
Their Golden Days Ep, along with [...]
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