Cardiff based Status Quo Tribute band “A Taste Of Quo” are entering the race for a spot in the converted Christmas charts with their 70′s hit inspired song “I Can’t Wait For Christmas Day”.
Keeping in the spirit of the festive season, the band have pledged to donate 100% of the proceedings they receive to their local Children’s Hospice: Ty Hafan
The song was written by band members Neil Waters and Jon Walker.
“Having tried to comprehend the impact that Ty Hafan must have on the lives of life limited children and their families, I really wanted to raise money to help support them. The idea of a Christmas song seemed like a fun and novel way of doing so and is something that everybody can get involved in. Hopefully people will like and decide to purchase the song and who knows, perhaps we could sneak into the charts, if we could it would be fantastic, as it would mean that we will have been successful in raising a fairly sizeable donation” says Jon.
Johnny Ray’s “Just Walkin’ In The Rain”, written by Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley, was number for at the time a record 7 weeks, starting the week beginning November 16th 1956. And the story behind it is equally amazing.
Johnny was born blind only to have his sight reveal itself to him when he was six years old. He was a tad wild while we was growing up and was, according to the local community at the time, stitched up by the police. Astonishingly he was accused of six separate rapes, each earning him a 99 year sentence and was sent to prison in Tenessee.
The Tennessee state State Prison is reported to be a vicious institution and he was occasionally beaten unconscious, until in 1953 a new warden brought about reforms and encouraged the inmates to form a band, The Prisonairres. They were to be booked for local functions and although it might be assumed that audiences would stay away. But it was exciting to go and see three murders a rapists and a thief with a following of armed guards! The crowds turned up.
The story goes that Bragg and Riley were walking across the courtyard in the prison campus on their way to the laundry room when Bragg says, “Look, here we are just walking in the rain and wondering what the girls are doing”. That was the magic. Riley decided that was a song and within ten minute had written the first two verse, the writing duo was created, he was illiterate and in exchange for Riley writing it for him he promised him credit. It became the first big hit for Sun Records in Memphis and, despite not being able to tour too much, made it to the top of the R&B chart.
The producer for US Columbia, Mitch Miler caught wind of the song and decided that it would be a hit for for Johnnie Ray. It was given a full orchestral accompaniment and became the No. hit we know today.
Hello there Routenote readers, I hope your week is treating you well. I feel a bit of a cheat this week as I’ve been on holiday for the past few days. As a result this weeks music suggestions have been thrown together in a matter of minutes. That’s not to suggest for a moment that the artists beneath are worth anything other than your undivided attention, only that you may already be aware of them, and it is for this reason you find me apologising.
If you would like to have your music featured in future blog posts then please get in touch; luke@routenote.com or on twitter @monkeyhotel
The first artist to catch my eye this week is the rather excellent female producer and songwriter Dena From The Block. Her music is extremely clever produced and stays firmly on the credible side of pop whilst being fun, catchy and addictive. The two songs below are perfect examples of her songwriting, both building from a minimal musical base that is texturally interesting enough to never become boring.
And keeping with the theme of European Electro-Pop may I introduce you to the first known demos of the Berlin based outfit Mousefolk? Recently picked out by SoundCloud as their artists of the day, the song below and a few other bits on their SoundCloud page have given me enough reason to believe that this is a band to keep a close eye on.
Popular music is a game of phases; it meanders like a sine wave between underground and overground, between fashion and old news. A few days ago the BBC were compelled to report that ‘rock anthems were vanishing from the charts’ with the news that only 5 of the 100 best-selling singles of the year were classed as rock, and one of those was by Pendulum. Bad news for guitar bands? Not at all. Now is the perfect time to sharpen the axes, write the songs, replace the old shoes and pull up from the darkness.
Lurking in this mist waits the unsigned Lightning Strikes The Empire State (LSTES), sending up a distress flare in the shape of their E.P Overnight Lows, which is a curiosity well worth £1.99 of your earned pennies. Their sound is a blend of recognizably hip and agile new wave influences, but it is soiled with library book dust and English ale, with a hint of everyday bitterness.
Opener Happy Slaves has a Strokes-style tropicana that rolls like splashy polynesian waves, with singer James – a kind of middle management Morrissey – declaring ‘it isn’t the worst, and it isn’t the best but it’s a life’, speaking for all the semi-suited trying to make sense of their working life. Sharp Sticks sounds a little like a haunted house ride with its outbreaks of sudden laughter and its mock-gloom. It is a shame that its main riff is a little tired and straight in comparison.
There is much confusion to be found in Tie Yourself To Me Tonight. James begins in whispery and wistful mood, but as chopping guitars enter the mood is broken and the song becomes difficult to navigate. A pretty breakdown of chiming midnight guitars is the highlight and there is a beautiful symphonic ballad hidden somewhere beneath the arrangement. Perhaps they will find it one day? You First is a more finished affair and has a danceable !!! groove sandwiched between it’s marching verses. And although it’s definitely a little ragged in places, the cross-fingered vocal hook is catchy enough to make this unimportant.
It’s a fairly pleasant journey to the last track, but it’s on Daylight Saving when the band really make their claim for your ears, your air bass, your singalong voice and your precious time. Magazine, Futureheads and even a touch of ABBA all are put into this 5 minute mixture, and they mix very very well. Download it, enjoy it, tell your friends about it; rarely do unsigned bands release something as good as this.
With the international break leaving us with no Premier League football this weekend and nothing but an inevitably drab set of international performances to endure, why not fill that excitement void with some new music?
Here are a couple of playlists that might help you get through what will probably be the last remotely warm weekend of the year.
If you know of something that you would like to be featured in a future post then please get in touch; luke@routenote.com or on twitter @monkeyhotel
Music Week have very kindly put together a SoundCloud set focusing around new Irish talent. There is some very good stuff on here, my highlights being the opening song from Cathy Davey and the seventh song from the wonderfully named Electric Penguins, a band well worth investing some time in, should you have the spare time.
David Kirk is a singer/songwriter from London who has already received a decent amount of attention from various authorities in ‘new music’, not least of all from 6 Music who have given tracks from his most recent E.P Fortune Green several plays. If you’re a fan of strummy little dittys and a nice voice then there’s a good chance you’ll like this. I must confess that the E.P isn’t exactly my thing, but David Kirk seems like a nice enough man who just wants to share his music with the world, you could give him at least that, couldn’t you? Listen to the entire E.P below and if you like it you can buy if from his BandCamp page for £2.
Hello RouteNote readers. Once more we find ourselves together on a Wednesday. Would you like some new music to entertain your ear drums? Today I’ve got two new artists for you to listen to and enjoy, or ignore and hear of again. It’s entirely up to you.
If you would like your music to be featured in future posts then please get in touch; luke@routenote.com or on twitter @monkeyhotel
Cutthroat Convention are a band I’ve become slightly obsessed with over the past few days. I don’t know if I particularly like them or not, but they’re not that much like anything else I’ve heard before. Normally if something is sold to me as ‘Experimental’ I expect it to be very boring and very much not experimental. Cutthroat Convention are an exception to this. They seem to have a good sense of humor too, if this quote from their website is anything to go by “You’re experimental, we’re boring c*unts”
Please listen to the song below and if you’re in anyway tickled, then please download their album for free here and visit their MySpace page.
My other little suggestion for you is a BIG M.C by the name of Status Reign. He’s already quite well established in his home town Minneapolis (yes, my contacts reach that far, what of it?) and I can’t particularly see any reason that he shouldn’t become a stinking success elsewhere. He reminds me a little bit of Brother Ali, which can only be a good thing. Listen to the track below and visit his MySpace and Bandcamp pages.
I am often ridiculed for my fandom of pop music. I do see most pop music for what it is, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t think there’s anything wrong with liking well constructed, musically solid and perfectly produced pop songs. Obviously there isn’t anything wrong with it – aside from people being allowed the freedom to think whatever the hell they like about anything (the bastards!!!) most pop music has been purpose written to appeal to as many people as possible. You might say “oh, but it’s so commercial”, well, so is Pepsi (or any other drink you might care to imagine) but you enjoy it, so lap it up. You could also say “but it’s also shallow, it means nothing”, the same could be said of action films, most television, most ‘serious’ music if we’re being honest. You don’t go to McDonalds for fine cuisine, but you probably do go. Think about it and get over yourself. Shall we move on?
So, now I suppose your expecting me to gush over some bubblegum, smile-a-thon pop music? You’re wrong. Dot Dot Dot have everything correct on paper. The music is fun, tight, eclectic and follows a perfect formula resulting in energetic and effective highs and lows. The band are trendy, good looking and doubtlessly talented. Big ticks all over place.
Why then have I gone to the bother of explaining why I like pop music before talking about the band in any depth? I did this because despite knowing all the above of pop music and being a large defender and apologist of its obvious flaws, my main complaint with Dot Dot Dot exposes me as a massive hypocrite – I hate the vocals and lyrics for their total lack of depth.
Sweet Lucifer, I’ve never heard such annoying bilge in my entire life and I happily listen to McFly by choice.
The first song ‘Walking In A Straight Line’ is less a victim of the above than other songs on the E.P. Although the vocals are essentially just playing the role of cheerleader for this uptempo fun-fumble, they are not in anyway out of place and in this particular song, chanted counting in to the chorus and easily remembered repeated lines add to the excitement. It’s also nice to hear a mix of male and female vocals.
Sadly things take an immediate turn for the worse when we are confronted with the E.P’s second track ‘Around The World And Back’ (video below). An excellent opening that doesn’t sound dissimilar from The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’ is quickly ruined by some extraordinarily breathy and annoying vocals (think James Blunt with asthma and American). A similar story in the chorus; lovely chord progressions, fun and poppy synth lines completely destroyed by lyrics so heavily littered with the word “love” and little else you won’t be able to stop cringing, retching or self harming.
This song is the biggest victim of the E.P’s tasteless vocal assault, but it’s a repeat offender and sadly every song is to some degree plagued by this nuisance.
Final track ‘Hold You Tonight’ is to my ears the most obvious single on the album and has by far the most catchy lyrics and tune. It is a pretty flawless pop song in which everything is entirely bearable including a guitar solo.
There are plenty of artists that I’ve remained a fan of despite terrible lyrics and vocals, Biffy Clyro and probably being the best example of that. This should have been the case with Dot Dot Dot. I know some people have a better tolerance for these things than me and it’s entirely possible that a lot of you might like this music, so I’ll leave you with a music video to watch and if you like that you can consider buying the E.P by clicking here.
If you would like to be reviewed the please get in touch; luke@routenote.com or on twitter @monkeyhotel
Good morning and welcome to your bank holiday weekend. I hope you’re doing something fun. I’m working every day of it so whilst I hope you’re doing something fun, I also hope it gets ruined by British bank holiday weather. If you do find yourself stuck in a flat watching the rain you’ll probably want some music to make your disappointment slightly easier to swallow.
A good place to start this weekend is with Jimmy Eat World’s new single ‘My Best Theory’. I had completely forgotten that this band even existed and to be honest the song isn’t my thing at all, but they have always seemed like such nice guys and been so good with the internet that I had to add this link. Please listen.
Next is an album mash up by The Glitch Mob. If you don’t know much about them, I suggest you visit their website by clicking here. Here they have condensed an album by Everything Everything into one track.
The internet is a wonderful thing. It has liberated the small artist and gifted them complete freedom over the release of their work. The result of this is artists who would have 10 years ago had no chance of building up a fan base outside of their home town can build intimate relationships through their music with people living anywhere in the world. What an age we live in! Music being in ‘the cloud’ excites me more than music being in a live venue. This is why I was delighted yesterday to hear that Alex Ljung had made it onto the Top 30 Power Players Under 30 Billboard list: Where then is the downside to all this modern age tomfoolery? Well, with such freedom artists hypothetically have nothing stopping them from releasing as much music as they want, which *might* cloud their judgment and on occasion disable their quality control filter. As a result a good artist could have their image tainted by releasing a few too many duds that a record label may have advised against.
Hello Inkysmudge! Does any of the above sound familiar?
The band have released 4 albums/E.P’s in 9 months according to their website. They are a band that I think perfectly demonstrate my above point. I don’t dislike Inkysmudge by any stretch of the imagination, at their best they reminded me of early Eels and seem extraordinarily charismatic.
Linked below is a track that I was emailed by a member of the band which he described as “the most representative” example of their work. Fine. It’s a perfectly good song that I’m sure many of you will like. The problem is that if you go to their website you will find far too many songs that sound pretty darn similar.
My initial aim was to review a record of theirs, but sadly I found all four too hard to tell apart and released too close together. Instead I published this rather unkind attack, which Inkysmudge certainly don’t deserve to have aimed entirely at them.
I hope that my thoughts have at least entertained you.
Well here we all are then, eh? Wednesday. I suppose that means I should give you some new music to listen to…
Just the two again this week. Thanks for all your emails and tweets about this – I am trying to fit everything in but it’s not always possible.
If you want to be included in my Midweek Music Suggestions at some point, then please get in touch; luke@routenote.com or on twitter @monkeyhotel
First up is a very new and potentially very special man who I know little about, but hope to learn more in the coming months. This little gem of a track from Lee Royster has been my find of the week and although it’s the only thing of his I’ve heard so far, I strongly urge you to keep an eye on his work.
Next (and finally) a band I’ve wanted to blog about for a while, but couldn’t work out exactly what to say of them. It’s a common occurrence in my life that I want to like a band more than I actually do. Avenge Vulture Attack have had rather the opposite affect on me; I want to hate them and their playful enthusiasm, but for some reason their youthful tomfoolery and excellent musicianship bypasses the jaded cynic in me and reminds me of a simpler time. Check out their website and buy their music here.
Cardiff based Status Quo Tribute band “A Taste Of Quo” are entering the race for a spot in the converted Christmas charts with their 70′s hit inspired song “I Can’t Wait For Christmas Day”.
