The Doghouse v.II

Bulldog · 04-08-2011, 04:37 PM

^ It's reasons like that that I sometimes wish I was older!

I've heard about how the remnants of Joy Division finished the last tour as Joy Division, and I'm really glad they carried on, otherwise some of the best music I've ever heard would never have been made. Of course we'll never know for sure, but I agree that had Curtis lived longer albums like Lowlife and Brotherhood, and of course Movement (which is basically a given) would've been recorded, but I find it hard to believe that others like Technique and Republic (two of my favourite albums of all time) would've seen the light of day. As I say though, who knows!

With the exception of their swansong Waiting For the Siren's Call, I think there's a pretty consistent level of quality that runs through New Order's discography too. It's a shame that they went out on such a bad album, and it broke my heart to admit that how awful it was when I first got hold of it (being quite the NO fan back then, more so than I am now). I did absolutely love Get Ready though, and songs like this one here just go to show that even when they were old, wrinkly and banging out what should've been a pretty boring album, they were inexplicably good at their jobs.

^ I mean, it was far from one of their best albums, but not only is that song one of their absolute finest, but it's still just a really consistent album, and one of my favourite summertime albums for sure.

music_phantom13 · 04-10-2011, 12:07 AM

Sorry to take this back a bit, but... I dunno how much you actually like/care about that Bitter:Sweet album or other music like that, but Kiran Shahani was in another band called Supreme Beings of Leisure. You may have heard of them as I believe they were fairly popular about 10 years ago, but if not their debut self titled album is fantastic in the same vein as Bitter:Sweet. Supreme Beings is a bit more upbeat at times, moving into more house territory possibly? But still very chill theme song type music, I definitely like it more than Bitter:Sweet. As a heads up the band split in half after that debut and I don't remember anything remarkable from any of their later work, I'm assuming that's because it's not as good.

Also good call on Postmarks Gavin, I've always found them to be a band I turn to a lot when I want chill music because I have a bit of an obsession with twee and they do a fantastic job of combining the two. It's been far too long, in fact, since I gave them a listen.

Bulldog · 04-10-2011, 12:50 PM

Yeah, I've got their debut. It's pretty good stuff, and better than the old Bitter:Sweet album a few posts back. I wouldn't call it excellent or anything, but they're decent trip-hop albums and worth the fuss of finding...while all this stuff is free anyway. Like the Mating Game, it's doesn't particularly stand out much on its own but it's worth a shot on its own merits...if that makes sense. I might not have got that across in the album post as I changed the rating after I actually finished the thing.

And on that note, there's more of all that on the way in the coming days. Maybe even later tonight if I'm not doing anything else...

Bulldog · 04-11-2011, 05:08 PM

So, seeing as I haven't actually bothering thinking about anything of much substance for this thread after all, here are a couple more random(ish) tunes I've been listening to a lot of lately...

Artist: David Bowie
Tuneage: Your Turn To Drive

You know what I think my problem is, and that's that I don't talk about this guy enough

So, yeah, I'm a colossal Bowie fan. I guess it goes to show that no matter how much one's taste in music can evolve over the space of about a decade (i.e. since I first bought Low and started listening to him), there are some parts of it that'll remain totally untouched by the fickle nature of anyone's listening habits. In this case, the Bowie-centric portion of my music collection's just been so invaluable to me down the years that I don't think I'll ever grow out of it.

This here's the one in particular I've been getting a load of lately, and that's one of the rarer songs in the man's back-catalogue. Re-recorded in something like the year 2000 or 2001 from an old, unused demo of Bowie's from the 60s, this song was offered as a free download to any lucky soul who ordered his Reality album a few years later from HMV's website. For years then, along with a similarly-rare song called Fun, it was kinda like the holy grail for me. Like that one bottle of pink champagne that's been sitting on the supermarket shelf for years and keeps you going back to it, looking at it for a bit and saying to yourself 'one day, when I've got my hands on some hardcore dough-ra-mi, I'm gonna buy that bottle, pour it over a pyramid of about 25 glasses and chug them all one-by-one at my own sezy party'...

Erm, anyway, this song's worth that kinda fuss. It's just got this really, effortlessly cool and laid-back funky vibe to it. And it's about the only Bowie song I can think of that has a trumpet in it (from the mighty Cuong Vu, no less), so go figure.

Artist: Yann Tiersen
Tuneage: La Rupture

And then there's Yann! Man, if I had 20p for every time I've banged on about how amazing this guy is to random friends, or chicks at some bar downtown who keep nervously looking over their shoulder for their mates a few times before making a quick beeline for the door, I'd probably be about 20p richer...maybe even 10p (I once referred to him as Mr Tiersen to a beleaguered mate this one time...do I get money for that?).

The weirdest thing is, that I didn't get into this guy via the Amelie soundtrack (which he composed and recorded) either. I thought it was an ok film by the way...maybe I just wasn't in the frame of mind for it, but I kept finding myself wanting to yell 'JUST FUCKING TALK TO THE GUY!!! sheesh' all the time. It's up for a re-watch then.

There are very few musical experiences I can think of like a Yann Tiersen album, in any case. First of all, each of the ones I have (a good 4 or 5 of them by now) are of a brain-meltingly consistent quality (even if I do have a slight preference for his instrumental stuff over the vocalised), and secondly it all just sounds so alien to me...stylistically I mean. I'm sure there's plenty of other music just like this out there, but for me it's all about making an impact if you want me to rate an artist highly and, Yann Tiersen, you've got that in buckets! I may even go over one of his albums here in future. I guess we'll see.

If I can work around the uni work I've got left to do, expect another album to rear its head in this post very soon...

Bulldog · 04-15-2011, 10:27 AM

Bet you were expecting one of these eh;

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (2004)
µ-Ziq - Lunatic Harness (1997)
Prince - The Gold Experience (1995)

Well, your luck's out

Murder City Devils
Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts
1998

genre: garage rock, punk-rock
1. I Want a Lot Now (So Come On) - 3:27
2. Dancin' Shoes - 2:26
3. 18 Wheels - 3:21
4. Left Hand Right Hand - 2:28
5. Ready For More - 3:49
6. Cradle To the Grave - 4:16
7. Dear Hearts - 3:20
8. Hey Sailor - 2:05
9. Johnny Thunders - 2:12
10. Stars In Their Eyes - 3:26
11. Another Round On You - 2:36
12. Every Shitty Thing - 3:59

So this one's me kinda going out on a whim, as I've only been listening to this album obsessively for the last 2 or 3 days straight. This might end up being a much shorter post than some of what I've alredy put in this thread but, hey, why would I let that stop me!

Before I finally got hold of this album the other day, I'd only had two things linking me to this bunch of lovable Seattle-bred ragamuffins. 1) That I'd been familiar with and loved the song Dancin' Shoes for about a decade before now, and 2) an album of theirs called In Name and Blood which the awesometacular LoathesomePete hooked me up with (where the fuck are you lad?!). Suffice to say, these guys and a genuine appreciation of what they've given to music had been on my radar with a degree of inevitability for quite some time, like the borderline drinking problems that the first couple of years of university education bring with them, the popping of one's cherry, watching the Exorcist for the first time or any such ultimately inevitable stuff.

What do they sound like then? Imagine a version of the Strokes where the guitars are turned up to 11 and Julian Casablancas yells at you instead of mumbling over the whole of Is This It. Don't get me wrong, I do kinda like the Strokes (nowhere near as much as I once did though - bollocks to getting the new album for a start). What I'm trying to say is that Murder City Devils are of the same garage rock ilk but just much louder, more raw, much less of an emphasis on melody, and just outright manly - listen to this album and the sheer testosterone of it, and you'll find you've grown stubble after the first listen. I guess they don't really sound anything like the Strokes then

How does it all hold up then? I fucking love it - that's how it holds up. I love the production values, and the fact that the guitar just cuts through each track like a scythe. I love Spencer Moody's guttural and bombastic vocal style that really works to give this album its own sense of edge and character. I love the way the rhythm section gives everything such a lively atmosphere that makes it pretty much impossible to sit still during a listen-through. I love the fact that the first three songs are three of my favourite garage rockers ever.

All in all, it's such a consistently enjoyable album, and definitely in the top tier of garage rock in my opinion. Needless to say, their other stuff's well worth checking out too. As for this one, I don't hesitate to give it the following rating;

Bulldog · 09-24-2011, 05:36 AM

It's a beautiful day, I'm soon to go on a 15-mile cycle ride to make something like the most of it, but for now I thought I'd actually try talking about something other than a film I've seen lately or a new album I've just got (just like the old days!). Whether or not anyone's reading this or actually gives a fuck is, of course, secondary!

So then, what's been on my mind lately...

Artist: The Beautiful South
Tuneage: A Little Time

Not that this has been on my mind for any good reason, in case you were wondering. I just think it's neat.

Basically, it's like this; I've been scrubbing floors, cleaning ovens, washing dishes and generally being an entire kitchen's-worth of people's bitch for most of the summer, and as such my time for really sticking my neck out and looking for interesting new sounds was quite severely cut down. I'm between jobs now, so things have been different this last 2 or 3 weeks, but still...

Point is though that I've basically been relying on the old favourites to supply me with my musical diet lately...with the exception of the Beautiful South here. As if by sheer coincidence, it was something like the week that I got my summer job that I started getting into these guys, before I found out that my boss-to-be was a massive fan himself. Two things;

a) he was a cunt of the first degree
b) that said, I couldn't quite agree with him on the matter anyway, regardless of his cuntishness

The thing with the Beautiful South for me is that they're one of many pop artists that suffer from having singles that are far better than most of their albums, the exceptions to this rule being Blue Is the Colour.

What you can't take away from them though in any case is the fact that they had a real knack for lyrics, as I'm sure this juicy little slice of tuneage will testify, this being probably one of my favourite breakup songs ever. Not only is it a perfectly decent little song musically speaking, ticking that 'yeah, I can listen to this' box, but performing this as a duet was a stroke of genius. It's like a divorce in the medium of song and dance - t'riffic, even.

Anyway, that's all I've really got to say now. Got things to do - t'ra!

Bulldog · 11-22-2011, 11:11 AM

Well call me an average-looking lower-middle class white English male - has it really been this long since I last talked about an album here?!

As I can't be bothered to dig up the right thread in General Music, and I've got enough time on my hands, I'm gonna give this a go again...

Death In Vegas
Scorpio Rising
2002

genre: big beat, electronic
1. Leather - 3:30
2. Girls - 4:30
3. Hands Around My Throat - 5:08
4. 23 Lies - 3:49
5. Scorpio Rising - 5:37
6. Killing Smile - 4:49
7. Natja - 3:50
8. So You Say You Lost Your Baby - 3:01
9. Driving Horses - 5:11
10. Help Yourself - 10:31

I remember a time when I was 14/15 years old. Grass was greener, christmas was whiter, global warming wasn't noticeably warm yet, Oasis v Blur was genuinely the clash of the best bands in the world, Highlander was the best movie of all time, and I first heard the title track from this old nugget of an album. So moved was I that I thought it'd be worth a weekend's pocket money to get the single on CD. For any of you younger whippersnappers out there, a CD was like a smallish, round plastic MP3 that, when bunched together with others of its ilk, would make you look hip and knowledgeable to your mates

That was a good 9 years ago now. I got hold of the single, practically wore out my copy of it and I think it was 7 or 8 years later that I finally decided to go for the album it shared a title with. I'm the same way with practically any book I pick up - I'll get it, read it as enthusiastically as some enthusiastic guy for about a week before getting distracted by something or someone, putting it down and not getting back to it for about 6 months or whatever.

This album, then...it's hard to describe the overall sound without resorting to the copout that shall forever be known as 'alternative', so it'd be better to say that it sounds a bit like Primal Scream's XTRMNTR were it recorded by some of the biggest names of the day in mainstream rock with one eye on the benefits of a good chart position. It's awash in synthetic studio trickery, but doesn't sacrifice its emphasis on guitar-work much if at all and has the slightest dash of psychedelia and a touch of shoegaze textures to it. Add to this a few catchy hooks, shake well and you've got Scorpio Rising.

It's a kinda big beat/psychedelic album, basically. It's really not a very bad one by any stretch either. As a unit it does suffer slightly from Let's Dance Syndrome, as in the first half of the album is very impressive while the second is a bit of a letdown. And it is the first half exactly that makes up the consistently-good portion of this one. You've got noisy, feedback-heavy Spiritualized-esque tracks like the opening salvo of Leather and Girls, the ever-welcome 'so catchy this should be illegal' bracket with the title track Hands Around My Throat, and the breathy, spacey vocals and 60s-style guitar of 23 Lies are a whole lotta awesome too.

The rest of it isn't exactly bad, but the jarring transition (or lack thereof) between the title track and Killing Smile is, well, jarring. It's a soft, folk-rocker that's as out of place and misguided as that sex scene in Super. The same goes for the hard-rocking, Paul Weller-fronted So You Say You Lost Your Baby. Diving Horses saves the second half of this album from being completely 'meh', but the damage has already been done.

When all's said and done though, I'd recommend it. It's one you should definitely try and get for free before Protect-IP and SOPA take a strangehold on all things internet anyway.

Death In Vegas - Hands Around My Throat - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJu6vG64C2M&ob=av2e

Bulldog · 12-14-2011, 12:44 PM

I've got time to kill so, even if I am the only person who particularly cares, it's time I updated this again. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you...

Lords Of Acid
Farstucker
2001

genre: industrial, electronic, big beat
1. Scrood Bi U - 4:42
2. Treatise On the Practical Methods Whereby One Can Worship the Lords - 3:45
3. I Sit On Acid - 2:36
4. Rover Take Over - 3:37
5. Pain & Pleasure Concerto - 1:44
6. Slave To Love - 3:23
7. Sex Bomb - 3:34
8. Take Off - 1:04
9. Stripper - 3:36
10. Lover Boy / Lover Girl - 3:21
11. Surfin' Muncheez - 1:36
12. Get Up, Get High - 4:08
13. Dark Lover Rising - 1:31
14. Kiss Eternal - 4:28
15. Lick My Chakra - 1:23
16. Glad I'm Not God - 3:34
17. A Ride With Satan's Little Helpers - 1:32
18. Feed My Hungry Soul - 4:20
19. I Like It - 2:55

As I'm sure a lot of Alcoholics Anonymous speeches begin, I was listening to 2 Many DJs one day, thinking how much I'd rather be living in the city again than the dull, smelly countryside where the most excitement in one's day comes from walking to the shops to pick up a copy of the Independent every morning, when I chanced across the Lords Of Acid remix tucked away near the end of As Heard On Radio Soulwax. Frankly, it's a fucking great album (and if you don't think it's fucking great yourself...well, you should), but this remix caught my attention having gone through the customary routine of listening to the Destiny's Child/Dolly Parton mashups for the seventy-fifth time that day.

More often than not, I'll hear something by or read something about an artist somewhere before then looking them up on you-to-the-tube, and then deciding whether or not it's worth getting hold of any of their material. Yes, it'd seem that even the limitless possibilities and avenues for exploration that the internet offers soon turn into tooth-grindingly monotonous routine as much as anything else. Anyway, the first song I came across was an immaculately-titled little ditty called I Sit On Acid - the very same tune that Soulwax remixed, incidentally. I was instantly impressed...not only is there this great song that sounds like it could fit into the Mortal Kombat soundtrack quite snugly (a soundtrack that I love), is also has one hell of a catchy beat to it, and features the line 'I wanna sit on your face' repeated over and over. It was like love at first sight

So much so that I may well have to revise my long-held opinion that Lovage's Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By is there sexiest album of all time. Hell, this album is basically the sound of not only sex in musical form but the kind of leather-bound, twisted S&M shit that you've only heard about but never actually been moved to try out yourself. With its scatterings of hard-rock riffs, danceable electronic beats, rough vocal stylings and all-round sleaziness, it just sounds like the musical incarnation of getting your groove on with someone who's an absolute volcano in the sack. And before I come off as too weird, I'll have you know that this is what one of their lead singers looks like.

Weird sexual fetishes, musical implications and my own twisted mind aside, is this album actually any good? Well, not to be too blunt or anything, of course it bloody is

Besides the album-closing I Like It which sucks hard (now that I mention it, I Like It by the Rezillos was the far and away the weakest song on their own album...hmmm...), it varies from the kinds of industrial riffs and high tempos that slap you in the face to the slower, more sensual moments. There are enough stylistic variations throughout and interesting little moments in each track to really hold your interest throughout the length of what is a really long album. I loved it anyway.

Lords Of Acid - I Sit On Acid - YouTube

Lords Of Acid - Lover Boy Lover Girl - YouTube

starrynight · 12-14-2011, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

It's a beautiful day, I'm soon to go on a 15-mile cycle ride to make something like the most of it, but for now I thought I'd actually try talking about something other than a film I've seen lately or a new album I've just got (just like the old days!). Whether or not anyone's reading this or actually gives a fuck is, of course, secondary!

So then, what's been on my mind lately...

Artist: The Beautiful South
Tuneage: A Little Time

Not that this has been on my mind for any good reason, in case you were wondering. I just think it's neat.

Basically, it's like this; I've been scrubbing floors, cleaning ovens, washing dishes and generally being an entire kitchen's-worth of people's bitch for most of the summer, and as such my time for really sticking my neck out and looking for interesting new sounds was quite severely cut down. I'm between jobs now, so things have been different this last 2 or 3 weeks, but still...

Point is though that I've basically been relying on the old favourites to supply me with my musical diet lately...with the exception of the Beautiful South here. As if by sheer coincidence, it was something like the week that I got my summer job that I started getting into these guys, before I found out that my boss-to-be was a massive fan himself. Two things;

a) he was a cunt of the first degree
b) that said, I couldn't quite agree with him on the matter anyway, regardless of his cuntishness

The thing with the Beautiful South for me is that they're one of many pop artists that suffer from having singles that are far better than most of their albums, the exceptions to this rule being Blue Is the Colour.

What you can't take away from them though in any case is the fact that they had a real knack for lyrics, as I'm sure this juicy little slice of tuneage will testify, this being probably one of my favourite breakup songs ever. Not only is it a perfectly decent little song musically speaking, ticking that 'yeah, I can listen to this' box, but performing this as a duet was a stroke of genius. It's like a divorce in the medium of song and dance - t'riffic, even.

Anyway, that's all I've really got to say now. Got things to do - t'ra!

Quite a few groups from Hull around that time had that soulful easygoing sound. Most of the group Sade was from there, and there were others like Everything But The Girl and The Housemartins. Maybe it reflected the fact that it wasn't geographically central and so full of the hustle and crowdedness of other cities. But sometimes more space and less rush can lead to more thoughtfulness and that can be a good thing and is undervalued.

Bulldog · 12-19-2011, 03:02 PM

As I can't be bothered to spend literally a whole ten minutes talking about an album, here are a few tunes that have been keeping me company through all this crappy winter weather.

Starting with;

Artist: Norah Jones
Tuneage: Lonestar

No, not this Lonestar, but rather a Lonestar that's had a constant stay on the CD racks of wine bars and upmarket cafes up and down the UK.

At first glance, I once thought of Norah Jones as just some boring warbler who didn't really sound all that different from someone you'd pay a tenner on the door to go and see play at a club near your own gaffe. In fact, that's what I thought for a good number of years until I watched the ok My Blueberry Nights, thought 'hey, this chick can act!', and just got hold of an album or two out of sheer curiosity. An album or two soon became an album or six, as I disocvered that Ms Jones is actually a lot more stlistically diverse and interesting than you'd imagine, veering from vocal jazz to Emmylou Harris-like country rock, or even to a more wholesome sound that's a lot more PJ Harvey than Diana Krall.

Alright, I haven't exactly picked the example to show off her stylistic range, as this is one of her earliest recordings, but ever since a rather bawdy kind of weekend that leaves you aghast at how much money you spent during the course of its nights, I've been feeling kinda mellow.

And speaking of Lonestar, in honor of the unfathomable brilliance that is Spaceballs;

Anyway, before I go and listen to Not Too Late for the umpteenth time...

Artist: The Commitments
Tuneage: Mustang Sally

As I type this, I'm still in the process of twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my month's payslip to come in (due any day now) so that I can order the Commitments/the Van on DVD as an xmas pressie for my little sister.

Both aren't exactly amazing films, but the former in particular boasts a good story that doesn't take itself too seriously, and dare I say it features musical performances that actually rival the Blues Brothers for sheer awesomeness. This rendition of Mustang Sally is all that in microcosm - like an on-screen projection of how you dream of being able to pull off a tune during a karaoke night at your local...and don't pretend you've never thought about it either

Quote:

Originally Posted by starrynight

Quite a few groups from Hull around that time had that soulful easygoing sound. Most of the group Sade was from there, and there were others like Everything But The Girl and The Housemartins. Maybe it reflected the fact that it wasn't geographically central and so full of the hustle and crowdedness of other cities. But sometimes more space and less rush can lead to more thoughtfulness and that can be a good thing and is undervalued.

The Housemartins are the only group you've mentioned that I haven't actually got anything by, but I've been meaning to do something about that for a while now all the same. I think you could be right about the place from what I've heard about it. I just love a good, soft and friendly pop sound every now and again, and the Beautiful South and EBTG in particular are just fantastic at delivering that...almost unparralleled, in fact.

11-22-2011, 11:11 AM	#67 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	Well call me an average-looking lower-middle class white English male - has it really been this long since I last talked about an album here?! As I can't be bothered to dig up the right thread in General Music, and I've got enough time on my hands, I'm gonna give this a go again... Death In Vegas Scorpio Rising 2002 genre: big beat, electronic 1. Leather - 3:30 2. Girls - 4:30 3. Hands Around My Throat - 5:08 4. 23 Lies - 3:49 5. Scorpio Rising - 5:37 6. Killing Smile - 4:49 7. Natja - 3:50 8. So You Say You Lost Your Baby - 3:01 9. Driving Horses - 5:11 10. Help Yourself - 10:31 I remember a time when I was 14/15 years old. Grass was greener, christmas was whiter, global warming wasn't noticeably warm yet, Oasis v Blur was genuinely the clash of the best bands in the world, Highlander was the best movie of all time, and I first heard the title track from this old nugget of an album. So moved was I that I thought it'd be worth a weekend's pocket money to get the single on CD. For any of you younger whippersnappers out there, a CD was like a smallish, round plastic MP3 that, when bunched together with others of its ilk, would make you look hip and knowledgeable to your mates That was a good 9 years ago now. I got hold of the single, practically wore out my copy of it and I think it was 7 or 8 years later that I finally decided to go for the album it shared a title with. I'm the same way with practically any book I pick up - I'll get it, read it as enthusiastically as some enthusiastic guy for about a week before getting distracted by something or someone, putting it down and not getting back to it for about 6 months or whatever. This album, then...it's hard to describe the overall sound without resorting to the copout that shall forever be known as 'alternative', so it'd be better to say that it sounds a bit like Primal Scream's XTRMNTR were it recorded by some of the biggest names of the day in mainstream rock with one eye on the benefits of a good chart position. It's awash in synthetic studio trickery, but doesn't sacrifice its emphasis on guitar-work much if at all and has the slightest dash of psychedelia and a touch of shoegaze textures to it. Add to this a few catchy hooks, shake well and you've got Scorpio Rising. It's a kinda big beat/psychedelic album, basically. It's really not a very bad one by any stretch either. As a unit it does suffer slightly from Let's Dance Syndrome, as in the first half of the album is very impressive while the second is a bit of a letdown. And it is the first half exactly that makes up the consistently-good portion of this one. You've got noisy, feedback-heavy Spiritualized-esque tracks like the opening salvo of Leather and Girls, the ever-welcome 'so catchy this should be illegal' bracket with the title track Hands Around My Throat, and the breathy, spacey vocals and 60s-style guitar of 23 Lies are a whole lotta awesome too. The rest of it isn't exactly bad, but the jarring transition (or lack thereof) between the title track and Killing Smile is, well, jarring. It's a soft, folk-rocker that's as out of place and misguided as that sex scene in Super. The same goes for the hard-rocking, Paul Weller-fronted So You Say You Lost Your Baby. Diving Horses saves the second half of this album from being completely 'meh', but the damage has already been done. When all's said and done though, I'd recommend it. It's one you should definitely try and get for free before Protect-IP and SOPA take a strangehold on all things internet anyway. Death In Vegas - Hands Around My Throat - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJu6vG64C2M&ob=av2e Last edited by Bulldog; 12-19-2011 at 02:31 PM.

12-14-2011, 12:44 PM	#68 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	I've got time to kill so, even if I am the only person who particularly cares, it's time I updated this again. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you... Lords Of Acid Farstucker 2001 genre: industrial, electronic, big beat 1. Scrood Bi U - 4:42 2. Treatise On the Practical Methods Whereby One Can Worship the Lords - 3:45 3. I Sit On Acid - 2:36 4. Rover Take Over - 3:37 5. Pain & Pleasure Concerto - 1:44 6. Slave To Love - 3:23 7. Sex Bomb - 3:34 8. Take Off - 1:04 9. Stripper - 3:36 10. Lover Boy / Lover Girl - 3:21 11. Surfin' Muncheez - 1:36 12. Get Up, Get High - 4:08 13. Dark Lover Rising - 1:31 14. Kiss Eternal - 4:28 15. Lick My Chakra - 1:23 16. Glad I'm Not God - 3:34 17. A Ride With Satan's Little Helpers - 1:32 18. Feed My Hungry Soul - 4:20 19. I Like It - 2:55 As I'm sure a lot of Alcoholics Anonymous speeches begin, I was listening to 2 Many DJs one day, thinking how much I'd rather be living in the city again than the dull, smelly countryside where the most excitement in one's day comes from walking to the shops to pick up a copy of the Independent every morning, when I chanced across the Lords Of Acid remix tucked away near the end of As Heard On Radio Soulwax. Frankly, it's a fucking great album (and if you don't think it's fucking great yourself...well, you should), but this remix caught my attention having gone through the customary routine of listening to the Destiny's Child/Dolly Parton mashups for the seventy-fifth time that day. More often than not, I'll hear something by or read something about an artist somewhere before then looking them up on you-to-the-tube, and then deciding whether or not it's worth getting hold of any of their material. Yes, it'd seem that even the limitless possibilities and avenues for exploration that the internet offers soon turn into tooth-grindingly monotonous routine as much as anything else. Anyway, the first song I came across was an immaculately-titled little ditty called I Sit On Acid - the very same tune that Soulwax remixed, incidentally. I was instantly impressed...not only is there this great song that sounds like it could fit into the Mortal Kombat soundtrack quite snugly (a soundtrack that I love), is also has one hell of a catchy beat to it, and features the line 'I wanna sit on your face' repeated over and over. It was like love at first sight So much so that I may well have to revise my long-held opinion that Lovage's Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By is there sexiest album of all time. Hell, this album is basically the sound of not only sex in musical form but the kind of leather-bound, twisted S&M shit that you've only heard about but never actually been moved to try out yourself. With its scatterings of hard-rock riffs, danceable electronic beats, rough vocal stylings and all-round sleaziness, it just sounds like the musical incarnation of getting your groove on with someone who's an absolute volcano in the sack. And before I come off as too weird, I'll have you know that this is what one of their lead singers looks like. Weird sexual fetishes, musical implications and my own twisted mind aside, is this album actually any good? Well, not to be too blunt or anything, of course it bloody is Besides the album-closing I Like It which sucks hard (now that I mention it, I Like It by the Rezillos was the far and away the weakest song on their own album...hmmm...), it varies from the kinds of industrial riffs and high tempos that slap you in the face to the slower, more sensual moments. There are enough stylistic variations throughout and interesting little moments in each track to really hold your interest throughout the length of what is a really long album. I loved it anyway. Lords Of Acid - I Sit On Acid - YouTube Lords Of Acid - Lover Boy Lover Girl - YouTube Last edited by Bulldog; 12-19-2011 at 02:31 PM.

04-08-2011, 04:37 PM	#61 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	^ It's reasons like that that I sometimes wish I was older! I've heard about how the remnants of Joy Division finished the last tour as Joy Division, and I'm really glad they carried on, otherwise some of the best music I've ever heard would never have been made. Of course we'll never know for sure, but I agree that had Curtis lived longer albums like Lowlife and Brotherhood, and of course Movement (which is basically a given) would've been recorded, but I find it hard to believe that others like Technique and Republic (two of my favourite albums of all time) would've seen the light of day. As I say though, who knows! With the exception of their swansong Waiting For the Siren's Call, I think there's a pretty consistent level of quality that runs through New Order's discography too. It's a shame that they went out on such a bad album, and it broke my heart to admit that how awful it was when I first got hold of it (being quite the NO fan back then, more so than I am now). I did absolutely love Get Ready though, and songs like this one here just go to show that even when they were old, wrinkly and banging out what should've been a pretty boring album, they were inexplicably good at their jobs. ^ I mean, it was far from one of their best albums, but not only is that song one of their absolute finest, but it's still just a really consistent album, and one of my favourite summertime albums for sure.

04-10-2011, 12:07 AM	#62 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	Sorry to take this back a bit, but... I dunno how much you actually like/care about that Bitter:Sweet album or other music like that, but Kiran Shahani was in another band called Supreme Beings of Leisure. You may have heard of them as I believe they were fairly popular about 10 years ago, but if not their debut self titled album is fantastic in the same vein as Bitter:Sweet. Supreme Beings is a bit more upbeat at times, moving into more house territory possibly? But still very chill theme song type music, I definitely like it more than Bitter:Sweet. As a heads up the band split in half after that debut and I don't remember anything remarkable from any of their later work, I'm assuming that's because it's not as good. Also good call on Postmarks Gavin, I've always found them to be a band I turn to a lot when I want chill music because I have a bit of an obsession with twee and they do a fantastic job of combining the two. It's been far too long, in fact, since I gave them a listen.

04-10-2011, 12:50 PM	#63 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	Yeah, I've got their debut. It's pretty good stuff, and better than the old Bitter:Sweet album a few posts back. I wouldn't call it excellent or anything, but they're decent trip-hop albums and worth the fuss of finding...while all this stuff is free anyway. Like the Mating Game, it's doesn't particularly stand out much on its own but it's worth a shot on its own merits...if that makes sense. I might not have got that across in the album post as I changed the rating after I actually finished the thing. And on that note, there's more of all that on the way in the coming days. Maybe even later tonight if I'm not doing anything else...

04-11-2011, 05:08 PM	#64 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	So, seeing as I haven't actually bothering thinking about anything of much substance for this thread after all, here are a couple more random(ish) tunes I've been listening to a lot of lately... Artist: David Bowie Tuneage: Your Turn To Drive You know what I think my problem is, and that's that I don't talk about this guy enough So, yeah, I'm a colossal Bowie fan. I guess it goes to show that no matter how much one's taste in music can evolve over the space of about a decade (i.e. since I first bought Low and started listening to him), there are some parts of it that'll remain totally untouched by the fickle nature of anyone's listening habits. In this case, the Bowie-centric portion of my music collection's just been so invaluable to me down the years that I don't think I'll ever grow out of it. This here's the one in particular I've been getting a load of lately, and that's one of the rarer songs in the man's back-catalogue. Re-recorded in something like the year 2000 or 2001 from an old, unused demo of Bowie's from the 60s, this song was offered as a free download to any lucky soul who ordered his Reality album a few years later from HMV's website. For years then, along with a similarly-rare song called Fun, it was kinda like the holy grail for me. Like that one bottle of pink champagne that's been sitting on the supermarket shelf for years and keeps you going back to it, looking at it for a bit and saying to yourself 'one day, when I've got my hands on some hardcore dough-ra-mi, I'm gonna buy that bottle, pour it over a pyramid of about 25 glasses and chug them all one-by-one at my own sezy party'... Erm, anyway, this song's worth that kinda fuss. It's just got this really, effortlessly cool and laid-back funky vibe to it. And it's about the only Bowie song I can think of that has a trumpet in it (from the mighty Cuong Vu, no less), so go figure. Artist: Yann Tiersen Tuneage: La Rupture And then there's Yann! Man, if I had 20p for every time I've banged on about how amazing this guy is to random friends, or chicks at some bar downtown who keep nervously looking over their shoulder for their mates a few times before making a quick beeline for the door, I'd probably be about 20p richer...maybe even 10p (I once referred to him as Mr Tiersen to a beleaguered mate this one time...do I get money for that?). The weirdest thing is, that I didn't get into this guy via the Amelie soundtrack (which he composed and recorded) either. I thought it was an ok film by the way...maybe I just wasn't in the frame of mind for it, but I kept finding myself wanting to yell 'JUST FUCKING TALK TO THE GUY!!! sheesh' all the time. It's up for a re-watch then. There are very few musical experiences I can think of like a Yann Tiersen album, in any case. First of all, each of the ones I have (a good 4 or 5 of them by now) are of a brain-meltingly consistent quality (even if I do have a slight preference for his instrumental stuff over the vocalised), and secondly it all just sounds so alien to me...stylistically I mean. I'm sure there's plenty of other music just like this out there, but for me it's all about making an impact if you want me to rate an artist highly and, Yann Tiersen, you've got that in buckets! I may even go over one of his albums here in future. I guess we'll see. If I can work around the uni work I've got left to do, expect another album to rear its head in this post very soon...

09-24-2011, 05:36 AM	#66 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	It's a beautiful day, I'm soon to go on a 15-mile cycle ride to make something like the most of it, but for now I thought I'd actually try talking about something other than a film I've seen lately or a new album I've just got (just like the old days!). Whether or not anyone's reading this or actually gives a fuck is, of course, secondary! So then, what's been on my mind lately... Artist: The Beautiful South Tuneage: A Little Time Not that this has been on my mind for any good reason, in case you were wondering. I just think it's neat. Basically, it's like this; I've been scrubbing floors, cleaning ovens, washing dishes and generally being an entire kitchen's-worth of people's bitch for most of the summer, and as such my time for really sticking my neck out and looking for interesting new sounds was quite severely cut down. I'm between jobs now, so things have been different this last 2 or 3 weeks, but still... Point is though that I've basically been relying on the old favourites to supply me with my musical diet lately...with the exception of the Beautiful South here. As if by sheer coincidence, it was something like the week that I got my summer job that I started getting into these guys, before I found out that my boss-to-be was a massive fan himself. Two things; a) he was a cunt of the first degree b) that said, I couldn't quite agree with him on the matter anyway, regardless of his cuntishness The thing with the Beautiful South for me is that they're one of many pop artists that suffer from having singles that are far better than most of their albums, the exceptions to this rule being Blue Is the Colour. What you can't take away from them though in any case is the fact that they had a real knack for lyrics, as I'm sure this juicy little slice of tuneage will testify, this being probably one of my favourite breakup songs ever. Not only is it a perfectly decent little song musically speaking, ticking that 'yeah, I can listen to this' box, but performing this as a duet was a stroke of genius. It's like a divorce in the medium of song and dance - t'riffic, even. Anyway, that's all I've really got to say now. Got things to do - t'ra!