“BEST IN THE CLASS” – LATE OF THE PIER

Best In the Class – the long-awaited new single from Late of the Pier. If this tantalising song represents the rest of the album-to-come, then we are in for a treat!

“Best In The Class” is released on Phantasy Sound on the 1st March. Available on limited edition 12″ and digital download.

INTERVIEW WITH… myself?

My oversea acquaintance Ceasar asked me questions regarding my YouTube “fame” and musical interests, if you care, check it out here:

“JESSIE OF LONDON”

REVIEW OF “TEEN DREAM” BY BEACH HOUSE.

Before this album, I had only heard the heavenly song “Norway”. I was unaware they released anything before this, so to me, this is their debut – which I found almost hard to believe as you’ll find out why throughout this review. And my my, what an album it is.

I have just finished listening to the magical album from Beach House all the way through, and I felt compelled to write a review. The breathtaking opener “Zebra” is teamed with angelic sighs in the background, which set my mind a’rest. When the music of Beach House meets my ears, I feel like all my troubles have been solved and I can just lay here forever in eternal peace. But we all know that isn’t the case…

The alluring chants of “Zebra” flow into the equally sublime “Silver Soul”. The same can be said for the rest of the album; it all flows beautifully. “Used To Be” almost makes me burst out into tears. It holds such enchanting harmonizing. My favourite “Norway” oozes such ethereal melodies that make me sink back into my bed, which now feels like a pool of feathers.

I regret to say, this album has no imperfections. Every inch of it radiates euphoric feelings which I really can’t get enough of. I was doubtful of this being a debut, I didn’t think it was possible for a new band to create such enticing music. Oh bliss, bliss and heaven. It was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made music.

INTERVIEW WITH DELPHIC

I got to grips with Delphic, the band hugely tipped for 2010, and talked to them about gaming consoles and how well they control their egos…

How would you describe your sound to someone that’s never heard you before?
Electronic music with soul.

Your song titles, and your band name, are often based on Greek words. What is this affiliation you seem to have with Greece?
We just like pretty words.

Do you like confounding people’s expectations? When they hear you’re from Manchester, most people automatically assume you’re some sort of Oasis worshippers?
Exactly. When people hear the M-word they automatically assume lager louts and parkers. It is stigma that is not particularly accurate and bands like ourselves, Everything Everything and Dutch Unlcles are all trying to move Manchester away from this ‘lad-rock’ stereotype.

You’re constantly compared to New Order and/or Underworld. Is this something you would agree with?
Not especially, although we accept that, being from Manchester this is inevitable, particularly with New Order. It doesn’t phase us too much though. We have a strong vision and idea of development and will continue on our own path regardless of people’s need to pigeon hole the band.

I can’t imagine you guys play XBOX or Playstation on the tour bus, so what do you do to while the hours away?
Nintendo DS.

Everything that’s happening to you now must be pretty surreal since you were virtually unknown before August ’09. How do you manage to keep yourself grounded when it could be really easy to get carried away in some vain pursuit of ego?
Well, we try not to pay too much attention to this kind of stuff. We just focus on the things that matter: writing songs and playing shows. Although, Matt’s ego has got the better of him in recent weeks, and we have sadly lost him in a sea of debauchery.

Watch this space! Delphic are going to do incredibly well this year.
Check them out at delphic.cc. Their debut album “Acolyte” is out now. I suggest you get it.

REVIEW OF “CONTRA” BY VAMPIRE WEEKEND.

We were all awaiting to hear the histrionic, contemptuous Vampire Weekend show us another example of their innate talent. So they gave us Contra.

The opening song “Horchata” seems promising; not drastically different from any of the songs off the debut. Contra is shaping up to be a good’un, and definitely not the next “Humbug”… By the song “California English” I can already imagine many fans sneering at the idiosyncrasy of Contra.

It calms down in the next couple songs, they go back to what they’re good at and what their fans love them for. But not for long. The tranquillizing “Run”, is followed by the jumpy, all-over-the-place twangs and barks of “Cousins”. One of my least favourites, it has no order to it and generally makes no sense – which is probably why they released is as their single before the release of Contra.

The second to last song “Diplomat’s Son” sounds like it’s come straight out of 1967, in the midst of Kingston, Jamaica. A peculiar decision for Vampire Weekend to make, after listening to their debut I would have never even thought they would’ve made a relatively reggae sounding song. They proved me wrong. The album ends on the phlegmatic “I Think Ur A Contra”. It’s the perfect ending to an ever-changing-tempo album. It lets the other songs sink in whilst hearing the flutters of the words “I Think Ur A Contra” drift through your mind. A beautiful song, pieced with a beautifully eccentric album. 7/10.

JB x

TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2009

I know this is rather belated but I’ve been quite busy recently. I thought I’d just get this out of the way. I haven’t written why they’re in my Top Albums, because 1. It would take forever and 2. No one would read it anyway. So here we go, my Top 20 Albums of 2009:

20. Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper by Julian Plenti
19. It’s Blitz! by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
18. Grammatics (Self-titled)
17. XX by the XX
16. In This Light and On This Evening by Editors
15. Two Suns by Bat For Lashes
14. First Love by Emmy the Great
13. Humbug by Arctic Monkeys
12. the Resistance by Muse
11. Hey Everyone by Dananananaykroyd
10. Another City, Another Sorry by the Answering Machine
9. Dutch Uncles (Self-titled)
8. Walls of Arms by the Maccabees
7. I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose by Bombay Bicycle Club
6. Two Dancers by Wild Beasts
5. Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro
4. Lungs by Florence and the Machine
3. The Fame by Lady Gaga
2. West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum by Kasabian
1. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix

5 Albums that didn’t make it into my Top 20:

5. It’s Not Me It’s You by Lily Allen – Not exactly a bad album, but it does get horrendously boring after a few listens. A very immature album too, lyrically. You’d think by the age of 24, she wouldn’t still be acting like an 8 year old.
4. Phrazes For the Young by Julian Casablancas - As above, not a bad album. A few catchy songs. But Casablancas tries a bit too hard to conform with the whole “synthpop” scene he was surrounded by. It didn’t really work.
3. Fearless by Taylor Swift - Guuuuurl you are not “country”. Swift tries her best to suppress the “pop” label that she would normally be given, by adding a couple of guitars and banjos to her songs. Sweetheart, look at yourself. Just because your hair is naturally curly and you don’t wear slutty clothes, it doesn’t make you country.
2. the Bachelor by Patrick Wolf – It makes me cringe when so-obviously-politically-uninvolved artists try to get their message across via songs. E.g “Show me some revolution. This battle will be won! Forced to count the hours. Since two towers”, “Battle the conservative. Battle for your, battle battle battle. Battle the homophobe. But battle without war” Ok, if that is so, where the fuck is your revolution?
1. Ignore the Ignorant by the Cribs – MASSIVE disappointment. Ironically, it’s almost as if Jonny Marr joining was a mistake. They just don’t sound as good as they did in “Men’s Needs…”, or any other of their earlier albums. All the hype got me excited and it was such a let down when I got round to listening to it. Very poor. Has no soul or real meaning to it.

2010 Albums I’m looking forward to:
Acolyte by Delphic, Unicorn by Chew Lips, Dirt by Kids In Glass Houses, whatever the Drums release, Radiohead’s new’un, and hopefully the Strokes’, Lights by Ellie Goulding, Contra by Vampire Weekend.

jb X

INTERVIEW WITH EGYPTIAN HIP HOP

I spoke to the budding stars of 2010, Egyptian Hip Hop. The interview is as below:

Your choice of band name is strange, is there a story behind it?
The name is really just something to represent the music, it’s something I saw a while ago and straight away I thought “that’s definitely what we’re called now”.  It’s confusing, a bit stupid and totally memorable..

Do you feel competitiveness amongst the Manchester scene, and trying to get noticed?
I don’t think there’s anyway competition vibes in manc, we’re all striving for different things and audiences – pretty much anyway. We all do our own thing, for example our bro’s Sir Yes Sir are grungy 90s americano indie and Dutch Uncles are classic kinda prog pop. We all get along swimmingly.

Can we expect a single or album release any time soon?
I think we’re definitely gonna have something out by easter next year, February time I think. Planning on a 12″ double A-side of recordings we’ve done with our genius pal Sam Eastgate and on the B-side some smashing remixxes.

You have quite a few good support slots – does this mean you will have a tour of your own in the near future?
I hope so, we’ve got a dandy old booky agent now so he’s probably lining something like that up for us as we speak. Who knows how soon though!

Lovely guys, note to self: must use a better range of questions!
Check them out on MySpace!

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain: 1967 – 1994

So, it is currently 3:28am, and I know it’s stupid for me to be creating a new blog post at this hour, but I have something on my mind. I was hopping through the music channels, and I decided to settle on MTV2 because Bombay Bicycle Club were on it. The song after it was “School” by Nirvana, live at Reading festival. Towards the end of the song, I started to well up. It finally hit me; Kurt Cobain is dead. I realised that no one will ever be able to experience what that Reading crowd (or anyone who has ever seen nirvana) experienced ever again. There will never be another Kurt Cobain.

As much of a shame it may be – and I quote Cobain himself – “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” In many respects, I agree with this. The most inspirational musicians have died at a young age; Ian Curtis, Jimi Hedrix, Janis Joplin, and countless others. This proves that you can only be a true inspiration if you don’t drag out your career, like possible inspirations like Paul McCartney, Bono, Bob Dylan, I could go on forever. If you think about it, people only really take notice of what they have achieved earlier on in their career. No one dare mentions Paul McCartney’s solo career or Bob Dylan poorly live performances, do they? No. That’s because their peek was when they were young budding artists.

At the same time, though, it thoroughly upsets me about Kurt Cobain’s death. I almost wish that he didn’t die. Just so he could’ve lived 5, maybe 10 years longer, so I could experience Nirvana’s live shows. I would’ve only been 11 if he lived for 10 more years, so I probably wouldn’t have even been able to remember any of it, but it would’ve been nice to be able to say “I saw Nirvana live.” I don’t have anything else to say on this subject, for now.

Rest in peace, Kurt. We love you.

MUSE vs. RADIOHEAD: the big debate.

MUSE vs. RADIOHEAD: the big debate.

For many years, rock fans from all over the world have been arguing as to who are better: Muse or Radiohead? I have been both a Muse and Radiohead fan since I was very little. From the age of 8 or 9, infact. I recall inviting my friend Jimmy to come round, and we danced around my parents’ room to the song “Fillip” by Muse off their debut, Showbiz. But I also remember my parents playing OK Computer and me really, really liking it. I used to scribble all over my books at Primary school “Muse”. I did prefer them. But only when I properly listened to Radiohead, did I discover their sheer, undeniable genius.

So, let’s compare.
Albums: Radiohead brought out their first album “Pablo Honey” in 1993. Muse brought their first album “Showbiz” out in 1999. A 6 year gap between the debut albums. Radiohead could be a definite influence for Muse. In the NME, Radiohead have an average of 8.14 for their 7 album reviews, whereas Muse received an average of 7.8 for their 5 album reviews. 1 point to Radiohead.

Live: Evidently, shown by the pictures above, Muse are much more developed and interesting stage-wise. Their gigs are a thousand times more energetic than Radiohead’s are. No doubt of course; Radiohead are amazing live. Thom’s signature “convulsions” whilst performing make their gigs unique. Radiohead are extremely passionate when it comes to their music, but at times, when playing their “hits”, Thom doesn’t seem to care or to want to perform them. Compared to Muse, they put every inch of effort into their performances, and they really prove to their fans how much they care. 1 point to Muse.

Awards & Achievements: Altogether, Muse have recieved 25 awards, including Brits and EMAs. Radiohead have only won 10 awards. But in those 10 awards, 3 of them are Grammys, which Muse have failed to receive. Muse have had 3 number ones for their albums. Radiohead have had 5 albums as number ones. 1 point to Radiohead. 1 point to Muse.

I surveyed 50 friends about who they prefer; Muse or Radiohead?
Muse: 19 votes.
Radiohead: 31 votes.
It is evident who teens prefer out of the two.

Muse are a lot more mainstream than Radiohead are. If you mentioned Muse to a 16 year old who listens to pop, they would have heard of them. However, if you mentioned Radiohead to the same person, they probably wouldn’t have heard of them. You could argue that this makes Muse better than Radiohead. But fame does not justify which band is better. Muse are explorative with their approach to music. As are Radiohead, they are known for their electro style experimentations such as the song “Idioteque”. Muse explore classical music, and in the song “Undisclosed Desires”, it sounds a lot more pop-py and mainstream compared to their other music, but ironically they use a slap-bass technique which wouldn’t really be considered mainstream… sometimes it phases me as to how they can even be compared or put up against each other in an ongoing debate.

Who is the winner? I am a massive Radiohead fan. And I’m trying my best not to make this post biased. But in my honest opinion, I would vote Radiohead as the better band. I have a lot more respect for them as a band, they aren’t pretentious or “up their own arses”, and some may argue that is what Muse are. Muse’s theatricality may be mistaken for arrogance and self-indulgence, partially true, but they’re famous so they may aswell do what they can get away with. Radiohead are a lot more developed musically, and they create such beautiful songs.

So, the winner is: Radiohead.
If anyone objects to this statement, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Jessie Hutchings.

INTERVIEW WITH GRAMMATICS

I spoke to Rory from Leeds’ finest indie band, Grammatics, about what’s in store for us fans in the coming year.

You played Reading and Leeds – how did that go?
As you’d expect. Lots of fun. Got to see The XX and Radiohead twice.

You’ve just completed your tour with Bloc Party too, any funny stories?
I stayed out with Matt in Brighton after the gig. It was White Night, the city’s equinox celebration where everything stays open all night, and the swimming pool was open til 1 or 2 in the morning. We were staying with a friend. We finished a two bottles of wine. None of us had trunks. We all took pants, and were very much looking forward to a swim, only to be confronted by a miniature jobsworth on the door who demanded to see our trunks before we paid in. I showed him the edge of my pants peeping out of my coat. He yanked them out, took a good long look and hissed “These are NOT swimming trunks”. I came on all Richard E. Grant, saying “These are my swimming trunks. I’m bohemian”. He replied “I think you’re a comedian, not a bohemian. And you’re not allowed to be drunk.” We tried to persuade him we were good for it but he wouldn’t budge.

You have a new single, does this mean we can expect a second album some time next year?
That’s the plan. We are settling down to write in the early stages of the new year and hoping to record just before or after the summer.

If so, does this mean you will be touring?
Yes. We have a UK tour in December of this year – as yet no confirmed plans for next year but one would hope we will make the festivals, then presumably plan to tour around release dates and so on.

The December tour dates are as follows:
Dec 1 2009: The Boiler Room, Guildford.
Dec 2 2009: Louisiana, Bristol.
Dec 4 2009: Drift In The City, Portsmouth.
Dec 5 2009: Proud Galleries, London.
Dec 6 2009: The Harley, Sheffield.
Dec 16 2009: Bar 1:22, Huddersfield.
Dec 17 2009: Adelphi, Hull.
Dec 18 2009: The Junction, York.
Dec 19 2009: The Royal, Derby.
Dec 20 2009: Deaf Institute, Manchester.

Their new single “Double Negative” is out on 7″ and download HERE.
Check them out on myspace.