I don’t quite know how I’ve let this go until now without a post. Mumford and Sons was a band I’d heard mentioned in quite a few places online, but for some reason I’d never bothered to track down much of their stuff. That was, at least, until Song, By Toad (easily one of my favourite music blogs) featured a fantastic video of the group performing their killer track, “White Blank Page”. The video is, quite frankly, sublime, and I’ll simply point you towards the Toad site to watch it there.
After that, I did a bit more digging myself, and found that the band has recently released the official video for their debut single, “Little Lion Man”… and I’ve fallen in love with it.
Both tracks appear on Mumford and Sons upcoming debut album, “Sigh No More”, which I believe drops tomorrow, coincidentally enough. I know what my next purchase will be…
Below, a “live on BBC1” version of them performing “White Blank Page”.
Can you lie next to her and give her your heart, your heart?
As well as your body, and can you lie next to her and confess your love, your love?
As well as your folly and can you kneel before the king and say ‘I’m clean’, ‘I’m clean’?
– Mumford and Sons, “White Blank Page”
There is no better day than today, a Monday, to play this song for you. Below, Dave Smallen‘s “I Think It’s Getting Better”.
You know, I can count on one hand the songs this year that have made me feel just as damn happy as this song has. And I think that maybe… just maybe… Dave’s right: things really just might be getting better.
It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.
The music blogging gig is a weird thing… you can go months without hearing anything that inspires you, and then all of a sudden a whole host of tunes reach out and smack you across the face in a course of a week. This has been one of those weeks.
Today, following a link posted in Jason Mraz’s twitter account (not actually run by Jason, but you know what I mean), I headed across to listen to some of Ben Howard‘s tunes… and immediately spent 20 minutes clicking “play”, again and again.
Ben hails from Devon, in the United Kingdom, and considering his style of playing and musical influences (John Martyn, Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, Ray Lamontagne, Damien Rice, Jose Gonsalez, Bon Iver), I was surprised I hadn’t stumbled across his stuff before… as really, that sounds like a typical afternoon on my iPod.
Ben has that percussive style of guitar playing that’s seen in some of my favourite guitarists mentioned on here before, such as Andy McKee, Guy Buttery, Xavier Rudd and Kaki King. After a bit of surfing, I came across a video – which I’ve embedded below – of Ben playing a live set featuring the song, “Empty Corridors”, that is simply amazing…
Quite frankly, I’m putting Ben Howard on my “Surely Going To Make It” list. And that brings me to the real reason for this post: I’m sending you towards his myspace page to listen to the opening track there, entitled “The Wolves”. If “The Wolves” isn’t enough to convince you of this kid’s future, then I’m not sure what will. From that opening “Ooooh”, it’s sheer perfection.
I was sent a link to this trailer today (hi Mark!), and I must say that “It Might Get Loud“, a documentary by Davis Guggenheim – yes, the “Inconvenient Truth” Davis Guggenheim – looks like it could be very, very cool. The premise?
A documentary on the electric guitar, from the point of view of three rock legends.Filmed through the eyes of three virtuosos from three different generations, audiences get up close and personal, discovering how a furniture upholsterer from Detroit, a studio musician and painter from London and a seventeen year old Dublin schoolboy, each used the electric guitar to develop their unique sound and rise to the pantheon of superstar. Rare discussions are provoked as we travel with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White to influential locations of their pasts.
Yep, you read that right. The three guitarists representing the three generations? Jimmy freakin’ Page, Jack White and The Edge. Take a look at the trailer below…
Ignoring for one second just how damn cool that trailer looks, this documentary is primed to generate no amount of controversy with its choice of guitarists. I mean, I’m sure no one could argue with the choice of Page… but The Edge, deservedly or not, is sure to be a point of discussion. So why not start one here? Sound off in the comments, who would you choose for your three guitarists?
Have you ever had one of those bands that you didn’t realise exactly how much you missed them, until they reformed, and then you realised how happy that made you? No? Well, I’ve just had one of those moments, when @Lenier made me aware that my old favourites, Skunk Anansie, were back.
When Paranoid and Sunburnt came out in 1995, it was like it was the soundtrack of my youth. I was that perfect age, 13, when songs like “Weak” seemed like they were written just. for. me.
Skunk Anansie – Weak (from the Paranoid and Sunburnt album)
And then, when “Stoosh” (arguably my favourite record of theirs) came out in 1996, it was like I had found my musical saviour. Looking back on that album now, it is honestly one of the most complete albums I have ever come across. I can honestly say that each and every track on that album was freakin’ awesome. Seriously. I never had to skip a track on the old CD player (this was back in the days before MP3s, at least for me)
Skunk Anansie – Hedonism (from the Stoosh album)
Then, in 1999, Skunk Anansie released the criminally underrated “Post Orgasmic Chill”. Sure, it was no Stoosh, but Post Orgasmic Chill still offered some killer moments, most notably in the unforgettable “Tracy’s Flaw”.
Skunk Anansie – Tracey’s Flaw (live, originally from Post Orgasmic Chill album)
And then, it was all over. Skunk Anansie broke up, and vocalist Skin went on to forge a solo career, which had its ups and downs. But as much as I wanted to love it, Skin solo was no Skunk Anansie.
Fast forward a decade, and Skunk Anansie release the video for “Because of You”, which was a brilliant way for me to discover that – not only are they back together – but they’re releasing new material!
Skunk Anansie – Because of You Video
So of course I hopped right over to the Skunk Anansie site, and what do I see? This statement from Skin:
“REFORMATION REFORMATION REFORMATION!!
Christ do we hate it all.
Well, on our list of hated words it’s right up there with, recession, nigger, MP’s expenses, and George W. Bush.
The shit of it is, that’s exactly what we’ve done. There’s no denying it, lets not beat around the Gordon Brown, WE HAVE REFORMED, we split up, and now we have reformed our ways, fixed our shit, playing together for the first time in 9 years and to speak plain… loving it.
‘Reformed’ to us is a bastard of a word, it’s like reality TV, everyone copies it, disses it, then bleeds it dryer than a vulture chaff and it sells sells sells like a bag of old football whores, so what’s the difference with Skunk Anansie? Why the freckin’ Gallows should you take a flying Coldplay at us?
Well prick up those giant Obama ears cos we’ll tell you why! We have actually reformed in the true meaning of the word. We have broken down, been to evil places, eaten meat, watched Big Brother, bought Heat magazine, shagged a W.A.G., thought MJ was guilty but now have his CD’s on repeat, dulled bitter pain with Bitterer ale, reckoned Ms Katona’s husband ain’t so bad, voted Greenpeace, smoked coked-spiffs with Winehouse, hit the gutter, licked rock’s bottom, then rehabbed ourselves clean to shade brighter than a Katie Price veneer.
We then looked each other in the eye and been honest about what we did, what we didn’t do and what we want to do.
It made us closer, humble and thankful that our fans love us enough to let us move on to new challenges, cos let’s face it, the world we’ve come back to… it ain’t easy!
Why did we break up? Well… when we sat down together in a vain attempt to work it all out, we drank and talked, then drank and talked some more, then after that we drank, danced, shouted, drank, fell over, puked, drank, sobered up, only to realise after all that jaw ache and messiness, we broke up because we burnt out. Simples.
We are back together because we love each other and being in Skunk Anansie is what made us individually happy deep in our souls. When we are together we are complete and when we were apart we were floundering in the wilderness like a Catholic priest at a Girl Guide convention.
So get off your high horse and listen to the new tracks against the old.
Listen to the love, listen to the chemistry between us that makes it all worth it, listen to the heartfelt feeling, melody, lyrics and energy the new songs convey against the naivety, adrenaline and freedom of the old.
There’s a reason why they were Smashes, they were real, we meant it, we didn’t care about the outside world, we were just a bunch of kids in our dirty little Kings Cross hole with a pot full of passion, ignorantly doing our thing and the people connected and understood it.
So see this as a new beginning, this ain’t no rehash, we ain’t walking down memory lane in a Nirvana T-shirt, bloodshot eyes and heroin dribble whining about how uncool it is that the kids rip us off on this thing called the Internet.
There is no nostalgia in our cause for we have reclaimed our joy together, rediscovered our joint empathy, rekindled the kick arse music and re-lit the fire in our bellies for music that moves us.
We are once again complete, ready to trash the hell out of every song we play, ready to share the brutality of our tunes, why?… because we are Skunk Anansie, and that’s what we do.
Skin”
“We are once again complete, ready to trash the hell out of every song we play, ready to share the brutality of our tunes, why?… because we are Skunk Anansie, and that’s what we do.”? F*ck yeah Skunk. Show me what it’s like to feel again.
So, I know it’s been a while. Here, to help you get through, I present an absolute bundle of joy with We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ video for cracking single “Quiet Little Voices”.
You know, sometimes I’m not the best music blogger in the world. I let emails slip through the cracks. I let this blog take a back seat to my day time job, and to every day life. While that pretty much qualifies me for “a normal person with his priorities right”, it sometimes means my batting average as a blogger doesn’t stand up to others.
But, sometimes you get those people who still persevere. Who don’t let my slack blogging habits get in their way. And sometimes, just sometimes, I love them for it. Joe Raciti is one of those artists. I’m not even sure how long we’ve been communicating via email. It started off when he was pitching me on something – the exact topic escapes me now – which I declined. He got back to me saying that was ok; he was just sending the pitch as part of his day job. His real passion was his own music.
And so followed a few pitches of his own. Each time, I let them slip by the side. Joe has a style of music that isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea, and I suppose in the early days of this blog I might have let that hold me back slightly. Pop, showtunes, musicals… popsical, as Joe terms it. But while his style isn’t always for everyone, one thing that no one can deny is his creativity. Just take a look at this video he released last year, of his song “All Hail the Great Blue Whale”, which was created “using only instruments made out of cardboard and the human voice”.
Anyway, all of this is a precursor to letting you know that Joe has released his new album, “Romantic Shark Attack”… which, as usual, is quirky, melodic, and… above all… never boring.
The below is a track from “Romantic Shark Attack” called “Love Love”, and really showcases Joe Raciti’s pop sensibilities. Quite frankly, I think Joe’s finally ready to blast out. And I want to help him. So Joe, this one’s for you.
I’ve mentioned the Playing for Change movement before on this blog. They’ve just released their latest episode, “Change Is Gonna Come”. And really, words aren’t needed to describe the power of this production. Instead, I’ll just quote directly from their site, and embed the video below. Past that, we’ll let the music speak for itself.
This performance demonstrates what happens when some of the musicians from “Stand By Me” meet and perform for the first time. This song was recorded live in New Orleans, and features Grandpa Elliot and Clarence Bekker on vocals. Thousands of people witness first hand the soul and conviction of two men who make us all believe a change is going to come.
But, sometimes you get those people who still persevere. Who don’t let my slack blogging habits get in their way. And sometimes, just sometimes, I love them for it.