Termite – Growth EP

Intro

This band got in touch with me a while back, I’ve apologized because of ho late this is, but I have been really busy and I like to give every post a day or two to sit on the page so people can read them. So once again guys sorry, and thank you so much for being oh so very patient.

This band hailing from Manchester/Huddersfield and Leeds, which orginally started out as a two piece but soon  expanded into a four-piece. Taking their influences from quite a variety of artists those being The Beatles, Tame Impala Oceansize and Pink Floyd, majority of those being psychedelic. So now the band is a four piece, who are these four people behind Termite? Well we have:-

George Roberts – Guitar, Vocals
Danny Brown – Drums, Vocals
Sam Mercer – Bass, Vocals
Sam Rodwell – Guitar, Vocals

Growth EP

When they first e-mailed me they said that they don’t really know which genre their music belongs to, and when I heard this I felt that I was going to be the savior and perhaps a genre creator by placing this music in a genre or just make one up and put it there. After listening to the EP twice, I still couldn’t place it anywhere because it features so many different styles, some being psychedelic, some quite jazzy and some just really out there. But this is no reason to turn away, if anything this is a reason to indulge in this music and appreciate it even more.

From the beginning of the EP ‘These Clowns’ had me already hooked, with the loud drums and the LSD guitar riffing in the background you can’t help but feel that you should be in the middle of a field dancing around trees and generally acting crazy. As well as all of these sounds running through your head, you have these vocals which sound very much like Julian Casablancas on the first Stroke’s album, sounding like it’s coming through a tube, a bit like you know the vocals are there, but you don’t exactly know what they’re saying, which is good because it draws you in to listen more intently.

Then it slowly drifts into ‘Memory Loss’, and to be honest the name of the song couldn’t ring more true because it feels as if they’ve totally forgot the song that they’ve just played, and moved onto something totally new.  However it’s still not totally different because you still feel as if you should be in a field, in your pants with the trees and birds. In some parts in this song it seems as if the it’s actually haunted because of the trippy guitar work from George and Sam. Then all of a sudden it drops, so it’s a bit like you’ve been in the most haunted house of the west, and you’ve just walked out, turned around and realized it was the wacky warehouse. An excellent song that took me places.

The final edition to the EP is ‘Kettle of Fish’, this is the most jazziest song out of all of them, with jangly guitar very much like Marr’s. The song seems totally out of time, as if it’s going wrong, but it evidently isn’t because you’re still listening to it, it’s Beatles like work because of how well composed it is, reminding me of ‘Day in The life’, not sounding-wise but how it drops in to Paul’s part. When finally think it’s all safe, it drops in to this horrendously eerie part, very much like in ‘Memory Loss’ and it brings the song and EP to a glorious ending. It’s and EP that will stand them in good stead for the next project, whether it shall be an EP or Album, but for a debut EP they really didn’t play it safe, they totally went to do what they wanted to, and it worked.

Palahniuk – Flying – Unsigned Bands

Intro

Before I write about this band, I would like to apologise because of how long this has took, they got in touch with me a while back, Twitter failed and I didn’t get in touch with them for a while but final I’m doing it, Andrew, Shaun, Chris, I’m very sorry. If you don’t know how to pronounce the name (which I couldn’t), it’s, (Pala-nook), see it’s simple. It’s a three piece band, consisting of are Andrew Ralph (Vox, guitar), Shaun Potterton (Vox, Bass) and Chris Ralph (Vox, drums),they take their influences from The Beatles, Feeder, Travis and a slight bit of Bon Iver (which isn’t evident in this song). They formed in 2007, so been doing it fora while now, getting experience under their belt. They have been on BBC Introducing Three Counties no less than five times as well as featuring on the playlist through December 2010  January 2011. Playing prestigious venues such as The Dublin Castle (London), The Jericho Tavern (Oxford) The Cavern Club and The O2 Academy (both in Liverpool) its no surprise that theyre always called back for more, not too bad then.

The Song

There were two songs they sent me to review, and they said choose one, and I went with this one because I prefer it, simple.

I think it’s quite subtly a very psychedelic piece, with the drums giving this sort of hazy effect off by using the symbols quite frequently. As well as this I find the vocals and the lyrics quite psychedelic, with the ‘lalalalalalas’ in there. The riff which features at the start of the song is really catchy, and when that effect is being put on it, it gives it that psychedelic undertone. There’s also a really nice, solo, riff, diddy, (whatever you wanna call it)  in the middle of the song, which again carries that same effect as the rest of the song, there’s only the one guitarist so he must be using a pedal for the solo part, don’t ask what pedal I don’t know but it’s got quite a crunchy sound to it.

The Beatles

They also have a passion for The Beatles and because I’m a bit of a fan myself I couldn’t resist putting this video on here. The BBC wanted them to cover a Beatles song, so they did, and it’s probably one of Lennon’s best vocal performances in a song, along with Mr. Moonlight, I found out, and many others. Although it’d a cover, they’ve placed their own spin on it,, which I’m a big fan of in covers theirs nothing worse listening to a cover which sounds exactly the same as the song, because that’s not a cover, it’s an imitation.

The Band

Another good band in the UK which we should be supporting, so lets do our part.

https://twitter.com/palahniukmusic

The Cornerstones – Smack me in the face – Unsigned Bands

Intro

Got in touch with this band quite a while back, and decided that I should review them.The four piece hailing from Uxbridge in the UK, and they consist of Richard Ruth, Dan Bennion, Kyle Radbone, Ryan Pincott. They’re an rock/indie band with influences being The Stone Roses, Oasis, The Kinks, The Who and The Beatles which you can clearly hear in their music.

The Song

The song ‘smack me in the face’ is the fourth one of theirs (to my knowledge), and has quite a lot to live up to after their previous three, which I strongly recommend listening to, very catchy pieces of music with some nice riffs in place, with a distorted guitar in the back ground, this is prominent in ‘This is how it ends’. ‘Smack me in the face’, steps away from their other stuff as it has a piano featuring in it, which works quite well with the guitar. The singer although sounding slightly like Liam Gallagher he has more of singing element to his voice, a lot more harmony in his voice compared to Liam, but there are definite comparisons to it. Moving on from his voice, the song is quite slow paced, and can be quite haunting in places especially in the verses.After listening to it the chorus really stands out in my mind, which is always a good sign because it means it’s engrained in your mind. I think they’ve showed some versatility with this song because as I stated previously they’ve stepped away from something they’d normally do.

Overall

A really beautiful song, i found it better when I was listening to it with earphones in, else you get too much noise pollution an ruins the song. Think we can expect a lot more from this band, especially with the three previous songs, listen to them. They’re also working on an album at the moment, I will keep you updated when that will be out, also if you can go to their next gig, Sat Dec 1st at Trinity in Harrow, West London. Entry £5, If you can, just go, enjoy yourself while I slave away at work.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thecornerstonesuk/songs

https://twitter.com/TheCornerstones

Get behind this band, see them when you can, i know I will be looking out for them.

The Beatles – Rubber Soul

The Beatles – Rubber Soul, Lego men, found it quite amusing.

Introduction

After such a good response from the revolver review, I thought why not look at another classic Beatles album. Although it doesn’t break the top 3 in my list, Revolver, Abbey Road and Sgt. Peppers taking those spots respectively, this alum would probably be fourth. Actually my top one would be ‘The best of The Beatles’ (Alan Partridge joke).Also I was listening to this album the other day in the car on the way to Weston-Super-Mare, and I forgot how much I adore this album.

This was the sixth album The Beatles completed and was released in the December of 1965, The Beatles had to record this album just over four weeks so it would make the Christmas market, normally this would affect a band because of the limited time, but these aren’t just any band.

The album was produced by none other than George Martin who famously produced all The Beatles albums alone, except for their final album(shouldn’t have been) where Phil Spector produced it with him and George Martin wasn’t credited for it. This album got a 42 week run in the charts, which isn’t bad really and it also took The Beatles previous album ‘Help’ off the top of the charts on Christmas day.

The Album

The album features songs like ‘Norwegian wood’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Drive My Car’ and probably my favorite on the album ‘In my Life’. George’s own songs also featured on the album, proving once again that he wasn’t just a character to stand behind John and Paul, his songs were ‘Think for yourself’ and ‘If i needed someone’, which I’m quite fond of myself.

Before this The Beatles were known to sing love songs, and this album turned that around slightly with songs like ‘Girl’ which is about a girl that is particularly very nice…bitch,  ‘Norwegian Wood’ which is supposed to have been about John Lennon and the affairs he had while he was with Cynthia, sure I read that somewhere, and finally ‘Run for your life’  where he’s basically saying if I catch you with another man, you’re dead, I’m gonna get you so run off, quite a catchy tune.

This album was sort of a foot in the door to do something slightly different which they hadn’t done before, for instance George used a Sitar for one of the parts in Norwegian Wood, I’m sure I watched something where they said he wasn’t to good at playing at the time so he was just playing the basics. So it was a step in that direction, a set up for ‘Revolver’ if you’d imagine.

In My Life

I think this is one of my favorite Beatles songs of all time, along with ‘across the universe’, ‘a day in the life’ and ‘I’m only Sleeping’ (All Lennon Songs). Apparently it started out as a poem, and then he sort of turned into a song which you can kind of tell when you just look at the lyrics. It doesn’t really have a song structure (except for having a chorus) because none of it really rhymes  or looks like it could be sung together.

This is easily one of John’s best songs and vocal performances I believe, especially with that note at the end. The number of times I’ve attempted to sing that part and it hasn’t worked is countless. Lennon claimed this song as his own but Paul said it was an equal collaboration, but I’d like to think that it was personal John and it was his own work.

Overall 9.0

I can’t stress more that it’s a brilliant piece of work and easily one of the best Beatles albums and probably one of the best albums full stop full stop, because it’s still fresh, it’s still new, and it’s still relevant and I’m sure that this record is still influencing people now. So i’d like to say thank you to them for gifting this album to us :), comment and tell me what you think.

The Beatles – Revolver

Introduction

The Beatles are a very special band who made a lot of great music, and Revolver is one of the shining examples of this. The record is considered to be one of their first ventures out into the weird and wonderful World of music. After spending so many years playing upbeat love songs with a basic structure, the band decided to take themselves into a complete different direct with this one.  Obviously listening back it’s easy to overlook all of the innovative musicality of it , but when you sit down and consider that this album was released back in 1966 you should be quick to realize that this was well ahead of its time. So what made this album so great?

The Album

This album was released 1966, yes, when England won the world cup so a good year for football as well as music. Considering they only released Rubber Soul only a year before this it’s incredible to think they managed to create this in only one year . Having taken LSD in 1965, this had an influence on their ,musical direction and songwriting, working undoubtedly in their favour. Of course LSD was not the sole reason for this album being what it is, but it’s hard to argue that it had no influence on it at all. George really came out in this album as he had three of his own songs in there, and I think he done himself justice, showcasing what he was capable of doing given the creative space as a songwriter.

So why this album over every other Beatles album? I think it’s because it’s the one that always sticks out in my mind whenever I think of The Beatles, immediately I think of Revolver. I’m a big fan of when The Beatles started to lean to the stranger side, and really experimented with their music (backward guitars etc.), but they also kept a bit of the material they had in their previous albums.

By this I mean you have songs like ‘Tomorrow never knows‘, ‘I’m only sleeping‘ and ‘Love You Too’, but as well as these you have songs with more melody, more simple but brilliant songs like ‘Cry for no-one‘ (Which I think is one of the most underrated Beatles songs) and ‘Here There and Everywhere‘. So this album is really versatile in that sense, with the type of songs that are on there.

Then you have the classic riff of ‘Taxman‘ featuring, which I think is one of the best riffs there will ever be, it’s pure genius, and the best thing about it is that it isn’t really complex. George plays it in such a way he makes a bland riff really exciting, combining that with the treble sound it really sticks. You also have the classic riff off ‘And Your Bird Can Sing‘, I can hear it in my head now, so I think I will put the video on here.

 

As well as all the brilliant music pieces in this album, the vocals on the album are incredible. I personally think John Lennon’s voice is second to none, not a brilliant singer but his voice has just got the right amount of huskyness(no huskyness is not a word) in it.

‘Yellow Submarine‘ features on the album, whenever I hear this song on it’s own, out the blue It just makes me think of infant school, I’m sure we did something with the song there and it’s scarred me for the rest  of time. But when you put that song in the mix with all of these, I accept it because it’s a sort of break from it all and you can have a nice sing along. If you get into that song Ringo’s got another lovely little number called ‘Octopus’ Garden‘, which doesn’t get as much credit as it should. However with Ringo featuring like this, you can hear that each of the guys had their hand in it.

Finally this brings me to the simple brilliant (I hate using this cliche) ‘Eleanor Rigby’. I learnt this on guitar, it is the most simple song to play, and at the same time gives you a lot of pleasure. This one of my favorite songs on the album along with ‘I’m only sleeping‘ and ‘Taxman‘.

Overall 10.o

I don’t think you can get much better than this album, it was way ahead of it’s time, you listen to it now, still sounds fresh. For all the brilliant elements in this album, the riffs, vocal, drums, everything there’s not a thing they do wrong. One critacism…there isn’t one.

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM.

Words by Alex Wise @AJWise

Ringo puts Nail in the Coffin for Mini Fab Four Idea

So Ringo has come out and said the four sons of The Beatles won’t be uniting to create a mini fab four, is this a good thing?

Yeah it is, I think it sounds like a good idea, but definitely would not work out well I don’t think. It’s like having a starter, a main course then knowing you’re full and you shouldn’t have the dessert because you’ll throw up, it’s a bit like that.

I think it would be a good gimic because I suppose you could get them to cover The Beatles stuff, and become a very good Beaatles cover band, but I don’t think they could do their own stuff. Partly because they would always be compared to their fathers, and because they will never get out of their father shadows like Julian and Dhani.

Thoughts?

Oh and does anyone think Ringo should stop wearing the earring?

The Beatles – Across the universe – 8th March 2011 – AW

This is easily one of my most favourite Beatles songs of all time, well it’s more John’s which makes it that much better. Obviously I can’t talk about how I felt when it came out, and what was happening at the time because I obviously wasn’t there, but I can’t write about how good the song is and what I think about it. The song appears on the album ‘Let it be’, which  was the last album The Beatles ever did together, and was probably I believe the worst album and ‘Abbey Road’ really should be considered as their final album. ‘Let it be’ came out it 1970 but was recorded before ‘Abbey Road’, and the band were unhappy with it, so they decided against releasing it, however after ‘Abbey Road’ in 1970 Phil Spector (who’s in jail at the moment, only for shooting someone the bastard) had a look at it, and tinkered with it, then they brought it out.

Before I talk about it, I just want to state that they’re a number of versions out there, personally the best version for me is the  ‘World Wildlife Fund’ version, I don’t really know why, I mean they’re all good versions but this to me just stands out. The lyrics to the song are probably the main factor that makes this song what it is, you just hear it, and it really just hit me,  (nearly said a terrible cliché), don’t know if anyone who has heard it before felt that. John said that the song was one of his favourites that he’d ever wrote, and that he particularly liked the lyrics.

The Legend.

Legend has it that John wrote the song after he kept hearing the words “flowing like a endless stream”, and after he kept hearing those words he got up, wrote the complete song on a bit of paper, then went back to bed and when he woke back up he went back downstairs, picked up the bit of paper and started playing it on to piano. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know because I obviously wasn’t there, If I was I imagine the conversation would of went something like this:-

“Alright John!”

“What the fuck you doing here”

“Watching you”

However, I’d like to believe that it was true, and that this really happened.

The lyrics contain the words “Jai guru deva om”, which I believe means “All glory to Guru Deva”, I might be wrong, I’m trusting some other fuckin’ guy on the internet, who might not have a clue (more than likely).

Overall I love the song, it really is a beautiful piece to listen to if you just wanna chill out, not really a song to listen to if you’re trying to get a load of people ‘Jumpin’. It’s also a great one to play on guitar not to hard, well I found it really easy and I’m not the best in the world. Can’t believe it took me this long for my first Beatles post…..dissapointed.