Earlier this year I had the pleasure of seeing a young band called the Tuts in York when they were supporting the wonderful Kate Nash. They hail from my birth place and old stomping ground of Hillingdon to the west of London. They are Nadia, Harriet and Beverley and they are a three girl punk powerhouse. Why am I telling you this? Well largely because the girls have just launched a new track into cyberspace. It’s called “Worry Warrior” and I must say it’s bloody good. I’d like to know what you think of it. I’ve already purchased it and I urge you to do the same.
Back in those heady days of the late 70s when even I was a mere teenager punk was in some people’s eyes the new fashion, the new style and the new order. But I always saw punk as much more than that. At its core, for me, punk is all about attitude and the Tuts have that in abundance. On top of that they are three very talented people. You’d better check them out and buy their new song. If you don’t then you need to remember that…….. I know where you live! “Worry Warrior” by the Tuts; I’ll give it five out of five and I’m looking forward to the album even more now! Click here to download the song from bandcamp.com.
This is a public service announcement; if you are easily offended by the word FUCK then please read no further. You have been fucking warned ok!
I usually listen to my iPod in shuffle mode when I walk from the car to the office every morning. It gives me a good ten minute blast of tunes before I start the day. This morning up popped Eamon with his UK number one from 2004 “Fuck It (I Don’t Want You Back)” I believe that is the first UK number one to feature the F Word in its title. It even generated an answer song in response from Frankee. That was called “FURB (Fuck You Right Back)”. It got me thinking a few things first that FUCK is a rather good word when used in the right context isn’t it?
The word has featured in plenty of songs; “Working Class Hero” from John Lennon and the MC5 introduced their storming live version of “Kick Out The Jams” with the line ‘kick out the jams motherfuckers!’ The word has perhaps been a little overused by rappers too. But secondly it got me thinking what are my favourite songs with the word fuck in the title. Here are my top choices (plus Eamon and Frankee’s efforts) what are yours?
That well-known badger supporter Brian May has unearthed some recordings made by Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson at Jacko’s home in 1983. He has worked on them with fellow Queen member Roger Taylor and William Orbit. I guess the issue will be whether or not the three songs will live up to the expectations. was it quality control that kept them from release until now? Another big name duet for Jacko was Mick Jagger who joined the Jacksons on the single “State Of Shock” from the brothers ‘Victory’ album in 1984. Personally I was and still remain underwhelmed by that song. Other elements of posthumous twiddling may have fared well but for me the quality was lacking with the Beatles “Free As A Bird” which was based around a very basic John Lennon demo recording.But let’s keep fingers crossed that this stuff is actually good.
Paul Gambaccini has suggested that the songs were dubbed the Llama recordings given that Jacko allegedly brought his Llama into the studio when Freddie was there. A cautionary note was sounded by the Guardian’s Laura Barton who said “It feels like we’re sucking the artists’ bones dry… sometimes it would be nice to leave them with a little bit of dignity.” I think I can agree with her sentiments there. But I obviously won’t pass judgement until I have heard the songs. The release seems likely to be later this year. So while you wait take a listen to some classic Jacko and classic Queen and a couple of Jacko versus Queen mash-ups!
About 18 months ago I had the pleasure of interviewing a rather excellent band on this blog. (Click here to read that interview). Well now it’s time for drum rolls and fanfares because that band have an album out. That band is the splendiferous Colour Me Wednesday and their album is called ‘I Thought It Was Morning’. Earlier this evening, before I ordered my copies, I took a listen to the album as a stream on punk news. So I thought that you might like to know what I thought of this collection of 12 rather spiffing tunes.
The LP kicks off with “Shut”; a perfect start with a quintessentially English rocker which talks about changing the world one person at a time. There really aren’t enough English bands that sing with an accent from Albion. “Holiday From Your Life” has an 80s feel and undertones of Orange Juice in a parallel universe where Edwyn Collins was female. Two tracks in and I’m loving it! This band writes great songs and forget all that X Factor shite, they play bloody well too. A cool reggae vibe is introduced for “Carefree” and it enables the song to jump from the speakers like Lily Allen with balls! So at three songs in it’s also pretty clear that the art of the protest song is alive and well in Uxbridge. Hopefully it will spread much further afield.
The next song I have heard before and I believe that it will become one of my favourite Colour Me Wednesday songs. It’s the supremely titled “Unicorn In Uniform” and it’s the perfect Indie Pop Punk song. What a slow pulsing, brooding song “Lost On The High Street” is. I love the bass line and the harmonies are exquisite. ‘I Feel Like I’m Running Out Of Melodies’ is the first line of “Bitter Boys” and frankly it’s obvious this band have melodies to spare.
Halfway through and this album already feels like one that will get plenty of plays in my collection and one that deserves wide exposure. National Radio need to pick this up! “Don’t Waste Your Breath” is laid out over a really tight reggae bed which is far more the Clash than the Police thankfully. How true is the line ‘Life’s Too Short To Piss Away’? Very true methinks! If you’re a Tory Boy I wouldn’t invite Colour Me Wednesday to your barbecue, you’ll be met with the melodic pop punk of “(I’m Not Coming To Your) BBQ“. I love the way this band draw you into some very commercial sounding tunes that have amazing lyrical bite. “Cat Hair” is no exception to that. The writing on this album belies the fact that this is still a relatively young band.
Perhaps my favourite title on this LP record is “You’re Not My No. 1 Bastard”. I think I’ll be singing that one tomorrow at work! Another song I have heard before and absolutely love is a song that ought to be high in the charts. It’s “Purge Your Inner Tory” and wouldn’t it be fun to see those mindless bigots at the Daily Mail get hot under the collar about such a great song? The album’s title track is also the closing song and it has the makings of a mini epic.
It seems like American goofball supreme Lady Gaga is doing her best to court controversy once again. Her new album ‘ARTPOP‘ is released later this year and it will be released in a several formats, notably an app. A Gaga spokesperson apparently says “the app itself is a musical and visual engineering system that combines music, art, fashion and technology with a new interactive world-wide community”. They then go on to say “The album ‘ARTPOP’ musically mirrors Gaga’s creative process as she passes through the mediums of each artist she collaborates with, scoring a blueprint of her journey. The result, a “rage” of electronic passion and fury, defining each artistic process from beginning to end, ‘ARTPOP’ could mean anything. But for her, this is a celebration of obsession.” Could this woman be any further up herself?
So far up herself she probably left the snorkel somewhere up her backside
If there was a prize for someone with the ability to endlessly talk bollocks and that bullshit was an art form then she would win every award available. Do people believe this shite? Anyway the album as an app type experience has been done before when Bjork released her last album ‘Biophilia‘ as an inventive collection of apps. I’m not saying that Gaga’s album will be bad, in fact I am a fan of her music. What I am saying is do we really have to put up with the pretentious crap that she promotes herself with.
Anyway how controversial is she on this occasion? Well she has released a picture of herself with no clothes on sitting on a chair made of discarded microchips and wearing a pair of eye test glasses. Oh shock horror that will offend everyone won’t it? The new single is released on 19th August and is called “Applause”. I’m happy to applaud her musical output to date but not her image and all the drivel and nonsense she spouts! Oh and finally the single isn’t too bad, perhaps a little bit Madonna-ish in places though.
Is Bjork more tasteful than Gaga? I’ll leave you to decide!
The current UK number one, which has now been at the top for two weeks is “Wake Me Up” by Swedish DJAvicii. It was co written with Mike Einziger off of Incubus. A rather odd and unexpected pairing methinks. Vocals are provided by Aloe Blacc of “I Need A Dollar” fame.
It is a mix of bluegrass with dance beats and is now the fastest selling single in the UK so far this year. It is selling twice as many copies as this weeks highest new entry at number two. So the fact that it is holding back One Direction‘s rather arrogantly titled “Best Song Ever”. That must be seen as a bit of a disappointing failure for Wand Erection surely? I hope so anyway!
Most readers of my blog are probably already aware of the loss of one of musics great innovators. J J Cale passed away a few days ago aged 74. His career began in the late 50s and he never really stopped. He played on Eric Clapton’s new album ‘Old Sock’. Personally I didn’t know much about J J until I heard Clapton’s cover of his song “Cocaine“. Clapton also covered Cale’s “After Midnight“.
Cale received a writing credit on the track “Run” from my favourite Spiritualized album ‘Lazer Guided Melodies’. Largely because it is a cover of J J Cale’s “Call Me The Breeze” with some extra lyrical content. Cale was an early user of drum machines. Neil Young, no slouch in the guitar skills department himself, once said that the two greatest electric guitar players were J J Cale and Jimi Hendrix.
My thoughts are with J J’s family, friends and fans across the world. RIP J J Cale.
The pa-pa pa-pa theme tune, played in cinemas before the ads to promote the Pearl and Dean company, is called Asteroid. The tune was composed by Peter Moore. I never knew it had a name; did you?
It was certainly an ear worm for UK cinema goers and provided a great sample for Goldbug‘s cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love” from 1996. The song reached number 3 in the UK charts. Of course an earlier cover of the song by CCS became the Top Of The Pops theme for many years too. Goldbug took their name from a computer virus.
Paul Hewson a.k.a. Bono Vox off of U2 has recently been awarded one of the highest cultural honours available in France. This was in recognition of his services to music and committment to humanitarian aid. he was given the honour; Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti in Paris. He dedicated the award to his band, saying, ‘I’ve got the biggest mouth and the loudest voice but the music we make comes from each other’. The award was first presented in 1957 and has been awarded to other musicians including; Bob Dylan (1990), David Bowie (1999) and Patti Smith (2005). Two James Bond actors Sean Connery (1987) and Roger Moore (2008). Donald Sutherland, Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood and Audrey Hepburn are also in that exclusive club along with writers T.S. Eliot and Julian Barnes.
Pope steals Bono’s glasses in effort to look cool…….. FAILS!
While we are talking about awards it has been announced that the BMI, the music rights organisation, will present a special icon award for his contribution to music to one-time enfant terrible of the UK tabloids John Lydon formerly Johnny Rotten. Lydon will receive the award in October this year. Since those ‘The Filth And The Fury’ headlines from 1976 when Lydon was known as Rotten and fronted the Sex Pistols he has achieved bigger musical success albeit with a little less notoriety with Public Image Limited (PiL). perhaps in a step away from the rather typecast image that the British press have of him he has also appeared on the UK reality TV show ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ on ITV in January 2004 and later fronted a few wildlife programmes. He is currently touring with PiL and recently took to the stage at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury with the band. So it now remains for me to congratulate Hewson and Lydon on their awards. For me the Lydon award is more appropriate and at least neither is some poxy award from our blood sucking UK royal family!
Apparently Wacko Jacko was at one time lined up to take the lead role in a film version of Doctor Who in 1988. Personally I am so very glad that it didn’t happen. What do you folks think? I suspect he would have had a 12-year-old boy as his assistant though. Quite topical given that his daughter Paris was supposedly turned down for a role in the TV series. Bill Cosby was also considered for the Doctor Who role in 1988 as well. Click here to read the story on the NME site.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 