tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86969230943696249852024-03-06T05:04:47.423+00:00Suburban Ghetto MusickTom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-35905095043933752062008-11-07T16:20:00.002+00:002008-11-07T16:28:56.649+00:00DEATHI have decided to officially say this blog is pretty much over, because basically I do not want to keep feeling guilty about not writing enough on here but I also really can't be bothered to write on here anymore. My life has literally got so hectic since starting A-levels and sharing my opinion on bands I like or might not like has slipped off the radar a bit. And the amount of time I waste on statcounter looking at what google search terms people have used to stumble on here ("Alice Practise did a party poo", anyone?) is time that really could be spent on other things. <br /><br />i'm not going to delete this, on the offchance that I decide to start agin vaguley in the future, but this is probably the end. It was fun while it lasted.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-43279910723318057412008-10-11T16:11:00.007+01:002008-10-15T20:19:57.246+01:00Enter Shikari @ The Alban Arena, 08/10/08<img src="http://a831.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/29/l_5182697edf5b604acae4a68ae4525216.jpg" width="400" /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(Photo from a totally different concert, but included here for aesthetic and 'show you what the band look like' reasons)</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/entershikari">Enter Shikari</a> are a band I have never been wildly enthusiastic about, but half of them went to the same school as me, and this show was about a mile and a half from my house and I've heard they are quite good live. The rumours were true. Never in my life have I got so battered at a gig, nor have I ever been that violent in a moshpit. I usually just dance in the middle until someone runs over and floors me, but this time I was going for it, flying into people and punching and kicking and screaming. School on thursday was not a very fun experience, but it was definitely worth it. Support from one local band who I didn't think were very good, and a drum and bass called DJ Pdex who was probably not all that brilliant but at the time was very fun to jump around to.<br /><br />Musically, Enter Shikari are only slightly different to pretty much every other ridiculous emo band, despite the fact that they like to make a big fuss about the fact that they use a bit of synth every now and then. The singing, when it goes into a full 'screamo' mode is, a bit horrible, but they aren't badly-written songs and if you pretend Enter Shikari's fans don't all have myspace names such as "<3 GEORGIA♥[ravetingz]FTW <3" it's possible to almost enjoy some of their songs, but only in a really S-Club 7 guilty pleasure kind of way.<br /><br />Enter Shikari - Kicking Back On the Surface Of Your Cheek<br /><a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/20384143100e0019/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://www.yousendit.com/download/bVlCanZseWFUME0wTVE9PQ">YouSendIt</a><br /><br />///Update: If you've found me through a search engine looking for photos, as far as I know there was no official photographer but a girl called Lorien took a few decent shots and you can see them on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31148487@N04/">her Flickr</a>Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-47962978972641344552008-09-05T16:59:00.011+01:002008-09-18T20:50:19.567+01:00Underage Festival 2008<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2812970109/" title="Gallows @ Underage Festival by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/2812970109_620913d58b_o.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="Gallows @ Underage Festival" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2812968309/" title="IMG_2684 by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2812968309_9af86efbd2_o.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="IMG_2684" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2813886122/" title="FOALS @ Underage Festival by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/2813886122_c719df7b9a.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="FOALS @ Underage Festival" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2860902176/" title="Dizzee Rascal @ Underage Festival by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/2860902176_8696243263_b.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="Dizzee Rascal @ Underage Festival" /></a><br /><br />(All photos by me, please don't use without permission!)<br /><br />The one-day extravaganza for all of London's annoyingly fashionable topshop-lovers returned for its second year. It was bigger, louder and more chaotic but I'm going to be honest: it wasn't as good as last year. This is mainly due to the fact that the line-up did not include as many bands I loved, but also there were way too many stages, and it didn't seem to be as organised as before. I managed to score myself a photopass which was a very interesting and fun experience, but from it I have also learned that the actual fun in gigs is definitely from jumping round and getting horribly sweaty. So, no more photopassing for me I reckon. Unless someone wants to pay me, but this is quite unlucky to happen.<br /><br />First act I managed to catch was Kid Harpoon, but he was pretty boring so I headed off to see a bit of Nick Harrison, and to be honest I cannot actually remember for the life of me what I thought of this band, but they were probably OK. After this I saw Polly Scattergood playing in a shed for about 2 songs, and she was really good. I hadn't heard of her before but she is honestly really good.<br /><br />From there it was Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. This is a group I have been casually aware of for a while, but hadn't actually got round to listening to, and upon seeing them live I have no idea why anybody would want to listen to them ever. The singer, who runs around calling himself Frederick Blood-Royale, puts on this ridiculous moaning posh voice, like Antony Hegarty but about 10 times worse. The songs themselves seemed reasonably well-written but the rest of the band need to find a new vocalist.<br /><br />From here I saw Pull in Emergency who I didn't really have an opinion about and still don't, White Williams who I thought were really intresting and inventive, and if we are going to go along the Santogold/MIA method of describing bands then they are a bit like a cooler New York version of Metronomy. I didn't stay for the whole set because I wanted to check out a bit of Poppy & The Jezebels who I though were OK and then I saw Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds in the Topman tent and they were absolutely fantastic. Really good slightly shouty indie dance-punk. After this one of my friends persuaded me top see a bit of Count and Sinden, who were good in terms of the actual music but they had a really annoying rapper person just sort of repeating 'yeah, yeah Count and Sinden' on top and this totally ruined it.<br /><br />Care Bears on fire were crap. They were yet another band of american 10 year olds. There was one of these last year and they were crap also. Nobody had heard of them or liked them or decided they were good after watching them. Sorry, I am being horribly mean and nasty to these spoiled american tweenagers or whatever the disney channel is calling them at the moment but whoever decided to fly out this rubbish band and put them on the main stage is a fool.<br /><br />I decided to go see FrYars, and have now made up my mind that I do not like his music, because it is annoying. Team Waterpolo I thought were reasonably listenable but slightly too middle of the road to appeal to me, Those Dancing Days were awful and then I saw some very small new unsigned band called A Girl Called Kate which is a rubbish name for a band but they were really good. Then for about 5 minutes I saw SCUM and they were the most amazing noise terroroists and it was fantastic, but based on the music on their profile, the recordings bear no resemblance to the live show. Then I spent a short while being slightly more impressed than I thought I was going to be with ridiculous emo outfit My Passion before i headed off to take about a million photos of Florence and The Machine, who was amazing in just about every way every way possible. That's all there is to say really. <br /><br />After that I saw a bit of Sons & Daughters. i was quite impressed, but not so much that since then I've actually bothered to listen to any of their stuff. XX Teens are crap. In every way. Goldilocks was quite good, but rap when it's not knowingly taking the piss out of itself I never find that exciting. After that it was back to the red bull bandstand to see a scary girl metal band called Kasms. I think my obsession to weird scary electro bands is translating into also having the ability to appreciate non-electro scary hardcore music, which I find slightly worrying. Next time you see me I will look like <a href="http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/shumitbasu.jpg">this</a> probably. Then it was off to see Ipso Facto, who aren't that good, but for some reason in my head I think of them as nice people even though they wear strange black and white outfits. From here it was Dizzee Rascal, who in terms of musical skill is not a great live performer but everyone was dancing and having fun so we will forgive him for that. <br /><br />I left Dizzee early to check out the amazing Bonde do Role, who were incredibly fun to watch and came across as really genuinely hilarious people. From here I saw Foals, which was absolutely insane. The tent was so packed that the crowd barriers were actually bending, and some safety-conscious stage manager decided to temporarily stop the set and get all the photographers OUT RIGHT NOW, ALL OF YOU, IT'S FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY YEAH ETC ETC. Which was quite annoying. After this was headliners Gallows, who were not exactly something to listen to whilst doing your homework but the insane onstage (and eventually offstage) antics were a sight to behold.<br /><br />SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. More than a month late, and badly written as well, and no mp3s either. I am spoiling you people I really am.<br /><br />MORE PHOTOS:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2860156175/" title="Florence & The Machine by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3085/2860156175_2368757cb1_b.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="Florence & The Machine" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2861011138/" title="IMG_2318 by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/2861011138_342cd296ef.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="IMG_2318" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2860980256/" title="IMG_1659 by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/2860980256_17d77d9994_b.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="IMG_1659" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2860920476/" title="Ipso Facto @ Underage Festival by Tom.Oakley, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/2860920476_c93a4648d3_b.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="Ipso Facto @ Underage Festival" /></a>Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-27745346841836654652008-08-30T16:42:00.003+01:002008-08-30T16:52:06.954+01:00summer's over<img src="http://a457.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/113/l_16463b3885fb8629976a11dd305f0600.jpg" width=400><br /><br />since i've last been on here i've managed to fail to go to the partyshank gig I was advertising, had a wicked time photographing loads of bands at the underage festival, spent a week sheltering from welsh rain in a welsh caravan, saw loads of brilliant comedy acts in edinburgh, got my results (they were good), rocked out at the reading festival then cheated at a ridiculous number of card games with my brother in southwold. I've also given up using capital letters because THERES NO TIME, DAMMIT.<br /><br />this summer has been amazing, and i am planning on gradually writing about all the musick-related stuff eventually - even if that means you'll have to wait til october.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-72910882010756652732008-07-16T21:27:00.005+01:002008-08-06T10:16:18.865+01:00A Severe lack Of Blogging<img src="http://www.sailtraininginternational.org/uploads/images/1196179218468_0.23479544103574362.jpg"><br /><br />I am back from 3 weeks of having amazingly good fun sailing the seven seas from Liverpool to Norway (OK - there aren't actually seven seas there but you get the idea), then running round the tiny fishing town of Maloy and generally spreading mischief and mayhem - well, as much as you can when bars are charging £6.50 for a pint of beer. <br /><br /><img src="http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn118/howzanewman/finalmyspaceheader.jpg" width=400><br /><br />Anyway, this summer I am going to be away from the computer quite a bit - hopefully not as long as my nearly-two-month absense that has just happened, but SGM is not dead. Things here are due to be a bit slow for a while, but I have a couple of gigs lined up for this week: <a href="http://www.myspace.com/partyshank">Partyshank</A> and Glamour for Better in Bedford, and the amazing Underage Festival in Victoria Park where I will be taking millions of photos with the photopass I have managed to acquire using underhand and corrupt methods - lying, stealing, bribing, murdering etc. Catcutter Records have sent me a compilation CD which i'm going to listen to at some point, and it's pretty much all bands i haven't heard before but having been out the 'sphere for about a month I am ready to listen to some new exciting bands.<br /><br />Also, on a bit of a side note, the Forestry Commission is building a massive forest in the fields across my road. Which means I will have to have a big party there at some point.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-21899017012275294932008-06-12T16:41:00.003+01:002008-06-13T15:18:22.014+01:00HEALTH live at Pure Groove, 10/06/08Readers, it's been a while, but now my GCSEs are finally over. Summer's here!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2567296711/" title="HEALTH at Pure Groove, London by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/2567296711_ccb735d98e_o.gif" width="400" height="360" alt="HEALTH at Pure Groove, London" /></a><br /><br />Seriously, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/healthmusic">Health</a> are amazing. On tuesday I decided to skip revising and go see them play a free instore at the new <a href="http://www.puregroove.co.uk/">Pure Groove</a> store that's just opened up this month. I was not disappointed. The shop is literally tiny, and the band took up basically the whole of the stage with their piles and piles of crazy equipment. And as they launched into their first track 'Girl Attorney', John Famiglietti the guitarist immediately started jumping and spinning round through the crowd, and nearly whacking us in the face with his guitar. It was a half hour set of what could be described as solid noise, but as performers they are incredibly interesting to watch just to marvel at their equipment and techniques. The lead singer Jake Duzsik had two microphones, one making normal sound and the other making a shrill, high pitched scream. And despite their eagerness to do a bit of 'crazy dancing', and the slightly chaotic nature of their songs, you can see they are amazingly well-rehearsed and slick. <br /><br />Usually at concerts I consider about 90% of the fun to be based on jumping around, getting very sweaty and slightly injured; but this was a lunchtime concert full of 30-somethings and vinyl. The strange thing (for me at least) was that the lack of dancing was a good thing. Most of their songs are completely chaotic and strange anyway, and with the band getting so into what they were doing it was nice to be able to just observe, if that makes sense. The volume was incredibly loud, and the songs really took on a new dimension in a live setting. They played pretty much all their album, sadly omitting 'Lost Time' and possibly a few others, but there were definitely a few new tracks I'd never heard before. <br /><br />The band's UK tour finished last night, so UK readers will have to wait until august to see them again, whereas any Americans I urge you to see them on their US tour which is starting next week!Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-29958029734844340732008-05-25T11:30:00.003+01:002008-05-25T11:38:36.642+01:00Tellier Was RobbedThis is the best video I could find, recorded from french TV. it's worth watching for the spectacle of Sébastien Tellier's five female backing singers each with matching beards and sunglasses, a golf cart and the slightly counterproductive decision to inhale a load of helium.<br /><br /><div><object width="400" height="323"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x5jj2h" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x5jj2h" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="323" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x5jj2h">Eurovision 2008 - Sébastien Tellier</a></b><br /><i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Woodythefrench">Woodythefrench</a></i></div><br /><br />The UK managed to come joint last, and the top spot was run by Russia, seemingly because every former Soviet Union state awarded a maximum douze points for them.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-68561814988159656532008-05-24T18:03:00.008+01:002008-06-03T17:27:50.395+01:00Lillica Libertine remixes Does it Offend You, Yeah?<img src="http://www.radarmaker.co.uk/yeah.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />I think now would be a good time to say that, in all honesty, I didn't really like 'Epic Last Song' on <a href="http://www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou">Does It Offend You, Yeah?</a>'s debut album. It's not an awful song, it's not a crying on the floor with fingers in your ears song, it just didn't really do anything for me. And the Lifelike remix might be a slight improvement, but it's still not really anything to get that excited about.<br /><br />Anyway, clearly the band disagrees with me about 'Epic Last Song' and they're releasing it as their next single, out on the 2nd of June. You can watch the video below.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="playerLoader" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab" height="301" width="360"><param name="movie" value="http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/343446/load/pADAY633BS6gc01j.swf"><param name="quality" value="best"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/343446/load/pADAY633BS6gc01j.swf" name="playerLoader" wmode="transparent" play="true" loop="false" quality="best" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" align="middle" height="301" width="360"></embed></object><img style="visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px;" src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/bT*xJmx*PTEyMTE2NDk1MDAxNDAmcHQ9MTIxMTY1MDc5MDM1OSZwPTIzMjk3MSZkPTM3MjA4MyZuPSZnPTI=.jpg" border="0" height="0" width="0" /><br /></div><br />They've also comissioned a remix by <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ilovelillicalibertine">Lillica Libertine</a>, which pushes the epicness (is epicness a word?) of the song all the way up to 11. It slows everything down, throws away all the vocals apart from the central chorus line, adds in some strange vocal effects and turns it into a grinding acid house track from the future. It's pretty 'out there' but at the moment I wholeheartedly approve.<br /><br />Does it Offend You, Yeah? - Epic Last Song (Lillica Libertine Remix)<br />-link removed by request.<br /><br />The single is available in loads of different formats, including CD, download or two 7" singles each with a different remix; which I quite like the idea of but there hasn't been a working record player in my house since 2002 so I might have to pass on those - alternatively you can order all 3 for just £4, and get a free japanese logo poster that I desperately want. Available to buy from <a href="http://doesitoffendyou.trinitystreetdirect.com/store/page3.asp?suptype=&t=1&sub_type=3&prod_id=16&col=30">here</a>.<br /><br />Please don't let my lack of enthusiasm about Epic Last Song deter you from the rest of the album, which has some really brilliant songs. <a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=298023">Buy it from Rough Trade</a>.<br /><br />And finally - they've also launched a forum where you can make internet friends and compare which one in the band is your favourite. <a href="http://youngoffenders.ning.com/">YOUNG OFFENDERS</a>. it has a good name, methinks.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-62196255144678026942008-05-23T10:43:00.005+01:002008-05-23T11:43:48.766+01:00GCSE Music - What Idiots.<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/133/366958167_939986949c.jpg" height="300" width="400" /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackhynes/">Jack Hynes</a>)</span><br /><br />Year 11 pupils sitting music GCSE have been given exam papers with the answers written on the back. The OCR exam board (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) paper involved pupils listening to pieces of music and then identifying composers and styles of music, and at the end of the paper was a copyright acknowledgement for each piece of music. Twelve thousand people took this exam. Hahaha.<br /><br />Listen to my friend Wil being interviewed about it yesterday by BBC Radio (<a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/22/1924924/Untitled.mp3">Mp3</a>)<br /><br />or read more on this <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7414585.stm">BBC news article</a>Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-28485514432182791192008-05-17T15:51:00.008+01:002008-05-17T18:42:02.699+01:00BRONZE BY GOLD HEARD THE HOOFIRONS<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/12760263/" title="kandinskylike by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/11/12760263_9f46ecb38a.jpg" width="400" height="280" alt="kandinskylike" /></a><br /><br />Well, recently I have been getting really into listening to a lot of HEALTH. And I'm not even talking HEALTH/DISCO remixes, I mean the full-on noise rock experience. Yeah, I am that hardcore.<br /><br />Usually when there's really short tracks on an album they are really crap and pointless, for example 'Number One' on Lightspeed Champion's debut or 'Silver Thoughts' From Cut Copy's latest offering. If it's a little bit of fluid sound that does not stand up on its own as a song, it shouldn't be a seperate album track. HEALTH's shorter tracks however, might just be their best ones. Highly compressed thrash-noise compositions that properly get you awake and ready for anything. Like this one:<br /><br />HEALTH - Girl Attorney <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/12166426e6bcb3a5/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/D1E82B7E63D049E5">YouSendIt</a><br /><br />Another one of my favourite tracks from their self titled album is 'Courtship', and anyway I just want to show off to the world how clever I am when it comes to recognising a bit of sampling. Listen to this song, and at the 0.17 mark it launches into this cool scream/shout thing, and Crystal Castles fans will definitely recognise this from the backing to Crystal Castles' latest single 'Courtship Dating'. And this isn't just something i've thought up, on a bit of paper that comes with the album it says 'background screaming courtesy of Health'. There's clearly some kind of conspiracy going on here with them both using the word 'courtship', but i don't know what it is yet.<br /><br />Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/12166769d560ed55/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/760195A90690F645">YouSendIt</a><br />HEALTH - Courtship <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/121665510beee2c9/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/F1653FFD62717FCB">YouSendIt</a><br /><br />And anyway as I was having a read round the rest of the album literature I was intrigued to see that the track 'Air War' does not credit the vocals to Alice, but in fact they are sampled from 'Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)' by someone called Berio. I wasn't all that surprised the vocal wasn't Alice - and I don't think anyone would be, seeing as to be honest it sounds absolutely nothing like her - but without another option most people had assumed they were by her. And so in the name of investigative blogging, I decided to have a look around. After a bit of googling I found out the song is on a few different CDs, all of which are out of print. I then stumbled upon <a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/2006_09_27_jsarchive.html">this blog</a>. It didn't have an mp3 of Thema, but it made a bit of a reference to it, along with a lot of interesting stuff about postmodern composing that I didn't understand at all, but was still quite interesting to stumble through. So I decided that at the end of the day it wouldn't hurt to email the blog author, a Mr Jacob Sudol, and ask ever so nicely if he'd send me an mp3. It turns out he'd actually already posted it on <a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/sudol.html">his blog</a> last June, and I've posted it here it is for you to enjoy as well.<br /><br />To introduce it a bit, it's a reading of the opening to the Sirens chapter of James Joyce's Ullyses, which I haven't read but I think I will one day. It's not read the composer Luciano Berio himself, but his wife Cathy Berberian. Herself a soprano singer, she definitely deserves a lot of the credit for it due to her crazy vocal acrobatics, but then gradually her voice is subjected to all kind of crazy effects: distortions, echoes, stutterings; the tape speeds up, and then it slows down. Eventually it becomes an unrecognisable mess of sound. It's pretty weird, and although it's obviously a bit dated sounding - it was made in the 1950s - it's quite amazing to think people were messing around with sound like this before either of my parents were born. If you like it, I might suggest you also have a listen to 'Visage', which, although unlikely to get into your last.fm most played, is quite a terrifying experience and worth hearing at least once.<br /><br />In the CC track 'Air War' the vocals are a bit more high pitched and of course, made even less recognisable to the point that a lot of people thing the words are in a completely different language. I've just found an old <a href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/40769-crystal-castles-air-war-lovers-who-uncover-little-ones-remix-mp3s">Pitchfork article</a> that is quite funny to read now, because it describes "Alice's vocals" as "reminiscent of Luciano Berio's Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)". Haha, silly pitchfork.<br /><br />Luciano Berio - Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)<a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/121671291ef2aa9f/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/6E57F3D0487EB1E5">YouSendIt</a><br />Luciano Berio - Visage <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/1216819825225813/">zShare</a> | <a href="">YouSendIt</a><br />Crystal Castles - Air War <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/121679098afe101f/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/6DA7B1507B3A6035">YouSendIt</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=298597">Buy Crystal Castles' Album</a><br /><a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=294783">Buy HEALTH's album</a><br /><a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=300054">Buy HEALTH's remix album</a><br /><br />Oh yeah, and because this blog is now a year old, as of a few days ago, I am posting the lyrics as well, to celebrate.<br /><br />Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, steelyrining imperthnthn thnthnthn.<br />Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips. Horrid! And gold flushed more.<br />A husky fifenote blew.<br />Blew. Blue bloom is on the<br />Gold pinnacled hair.<br />A jumping rose on satiny breasts of satin, rose of Castille.<br />Trilling, trilling: I dolores.<br />Peep! Who's in the... peepofgold?<br />Tink cried to bronze in pity.<br />And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.<br />Decoy. Soft word. But look! The bright stars fade. O rose! Notes chirruping answer.<br />Castille. The morn is breaking.<br />Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.<br />Coin rang. Clock clacked.<br />Avowal. Sonnez. I could. Rebound of garter. Not leave thee. Smack. La cloche! Thigh smack. Avowal. Warm. Sweetheart, goodbye!<br />Jingle. Bloo.<br />Boomed crashing chords. When love absorbs. War! War! The tympanum.<br />A sail! A veil awave upon the waves.<br />Lost. Throstle fluted. All is lost now.<br />Horn. Hawhorn.<br />When first he saw. Alas!<br />Full tup. Full throb.<br />Warbling. Ah, lure! Alluring.<br />Martha! Come!<br />Clapclop. Clipclap. Clappyclap.<br />Goodgod henev erheard inall.<br />Deaf bald Pat brought pad knife took up.<br />A moonlight nightcall: far: far.<br />I feel so sad. P. S. So lonely blooming.<br />Listen!<br />The spiked and winding cold seahorn. Have you the? <br />Each and for other plash and silent roar.<br />Pearls: when she. <br />Liszt's rhapsodies. <br />Hissss.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-56598900277514602172008-05-05T15:18:00.004+01:002008-05-05T16:48:22.289+01:003 Songs That Are Somewhat Vaguely Relevant To A Recent News Item<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2468241028/" title="Fritzl by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3218/2468241028_2a5c968a2e_o.jpg" width="400" height="192" alt="Fritzl" /></a><br /><br />Shock! Horror! Incest! Rape! Here are some vaguely disturbing-ish songs that could be seen as some form of commentary.<br /><br />Death From Above 1979 - Little Girl <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/A4ABAC0E5DF903CE">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/A4ABAC0E5DF903CE">YouSendIt</a><br />(from the album 'You're a Woman, I'm a Machine'. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Youre-Woman-Machine-Death-Above/dp/B0007OGXKK">Buy</a>)<br /><br />Interpol - Evil <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/11569836de1714fb/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/1978D4E8002B531F">YouSendIt</a><br />(from the album 'Antics'. <a href="http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=93;-1;-1;-1&sku=198005">Buy</a>)<br /><br />Patrick Wolf - The Childcatcher <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/11569656ff20cce8/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/55659E103069E083">YouSendIt</a><br />(from the album 'Lycanthropy'. <a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=164642&anchor=fai003cd">Buy</a>)<br /><br />************<br /><br />1. Of the following options, is this idea of using mp3s to belatedly bring you the news<br />A. Too pretentious?<br />B. Not pretentious enough?<br />C. Just right with regards to levels of pretentiousness?<br /><br />2. Of the following options, how obvious is it that I have stolen the idea of having loads of questions from <a href="http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/">Hipster Runoff</a>?<br />A. Too obvious?<br />B. Not obvious enough?<br />C. Just right with regards to levels of obviousness?Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-29667916363104699842008-04-29T20:06:00.008+01:002008-04-30T19:37:27.802+01:00Love Music Hate Racism Carnival @ Victoria Park, 27/04/08<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2454033067/" title="Image004 by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2238/2454033067_14f1871856.jpg" alt="Image004" height="320" width="400" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(Truly awe-inspiring cameraphone photography by me)</span><br /><br />Mmmkay. Sunday was fun but overall the day was quite badly organised, and whoever thought it would be a good idea to encourage every act to badmouth the BNP at every possible oppurtunity was foolish. Obviously the BNP are stupid evil racist nazis, but I didn't need to be told that by twelve different people at 20 minute intervals. Some of the politics were also a bit wonky too, such as the festival's organiser saying the BNP should be banned as a party, which is obviously wrong. If the government just goes around banning political groups on the basis that their political beliefs are wrong, then how can this country be any better than Nazi Germany, Apartheid era South Africa or McCarthyist America? Anyway - rant over - I spent most of the day jamming out in the dance tent to a load of trance/grime/dubstep/bassline/garage and old nineties house music, breaking all the rules of '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4">Thou Shalt Always Kill'</a> and dancing like an easily amaused moron but it was very fun. There were a lot of 'Gyals wiv Attitood' who I can only assume hadn't been to the kind of musical event that might be described as a 'gig' before, and some of them got very annoyed at people like me who wanted to jump around. There were more than a few times when it looked like someone who'd accidentally stepped on someone's toe was 'gonn get slapped' for 'disrespecting ma family' or something. But it was alright on the whole.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2454032837/" title="Love Music Hate Racism by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2118/2454032837_ebf105f8e7.jpg" alt="Love Music Hate Racism" height="320" width="400" /></a><br /><br />After a bit I made the mistake of thinking it might be a good idea to check out Hard-fi, seeing as I figured the people dancing there might be a bit tolerant of getting brushed against by accident, but after spending about 5 minutes saying 'excuse me' I was at the front and I realised nobody was dancing or was going to. There were several thousand people crammed in like sardines with their eyes on the stage and no intention of moving. Ever. Which, all in all is not their fault because Hard-fi really are the worst band in the world. Ever.<br /><br />With reference to me saying it was badly organised, I asked a million stewards when Patrick Wolf was playing, and it turned out they hadn't even decided which stage he was playing on until about an hour before he took the stage. It took a lot of asking to find out when he was actually on, but when he finally took the stage he was really good. We arrived a bit early and saw the last ten minutes of Akala, and heard a few tracks from his new(ish) album, and one bit where he managed to rap a whole song a capella at a rate of about ten syllables per second. Which I thought was quite impressive. Back to Mr Wolf - it was quite a short set, starting with 'Accident & Emergency' and closing with the brilliant 'Magic Position'.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2454052143/" title="wolf by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2131/2454052143_3ed7a50b9c.jpg" alt="wolf" height="320" width="400" /></a><br /><br />The show started off with Patrick wearing a black shirt and trousers combo but in the middle of one song he threw them off revealing some rather brilliant Union Jack pyjamas. It was quite an upbeat poppy set, with a full backing band and Mr Wolf dancing round the stage armed with a microphone only. Last time I saw Patrick Wolf, at the Underage Festival (also in Victoria Park), it was a more piano-based ballady show that eventually I left to go rock out to Boy Kill Boy instead, because I couldn't see anything or hear it that well. As Patrick introduced the track 'Vultures', a massive pit opened up behind me and the rest of the set became a big euphoric crowdsurfing pile-up, as opposed to a million teenage girls trying to get as close to Mr Wolf as possible. It ended with Patrick Wolf climbing all over the crowd barriers and flailing around Alice Glass-style, and it was really fun.<br /><br />Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position<br /><a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/11320460a73e9649/">ZShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/250B4B1F2CC15BC4">YouSendIt</a><br /><br />And the fact that I heard this song about 20 times means I am actually starting to like it. Please don't hate me, I am already full of enough self-loathing as it is.<br /><br />T2 Ft Jodie - Heartbroken<br /><a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/1132255268647a9a/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/64606C9F2866749D">YouSendIt</a>Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-75281015605352859612008-04-22T16:19:00.005+01:002008-04-26T12:18:17.324+01:00HYPED<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2395404417/" title="T-shirt design by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/2395404417_e6e920e4ae_o.gif" width="400" height="280" alt="T-shirt design" /></a><br /><br />When i started this blog I was under the impression it was going to be a matter of minutes until the Hype Machine lovingly welcomed me. 11 months later, I Am In. The shameless whiney email paid off, and Zoya told me she'd added my blog (Thanks Zoya!). At least i think so, because at the moment i can't find it anywhere. But I think this might be because as of yet I haven't posted any mp3 links that aren't via zShare. Anyway to celebrate here is a really nice track by <a href="http://www.myspace.com/lateofthepier">Late of the Pier</a>. It's one of those songs that make you feel really alive. Not saccharine-sweet happy-clappy sugar-pop, not crying-in-the-corner emo-pop, it's just a really nice song. I'm not 100% sure what the significance of 'Fairy Lights' is, if it's been remixed by Fairy Lights or that's just the name of the mix by LOTP, but it's really wicked anyway.<br /><br />Late of the Pier - Broken (Fairy Lights Mix) <br /><a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/11095969bd2f4ee1/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/5A6C09415703735F">YouSendit</a><br /><br />And the latest offering by <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ilovelillicalibertine">Lillica Libertine</a> is similarly brilliant. This is what I imagine the papparazzi were listening to when Diana's face got sprayed across the tunnel.<br /><br />Lillica Libertine - Britney Spears <br /><a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/11096205bcb2d978/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/245B0D270E27E1F5">YouSendit</a><br /><br />Oh and don't be tempted to try to put these two wicked acts together. No offence to Lillica libertine, but his remix of Bathroom Gurgle is waaaay below the standard he's usually at.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-34203227920812828742008-04-20T17:31:00.008+01:002008-05-23T12:02:04.281+01:00Eurovision.<img src="http://www.thefader.com/ys_assets/0005/1960/tellier_main.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />Tomorrow night. It feels very strange to actually care about who wins. <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=76331486">Tellier</a> all the way.<br /><br />Sébastien Tellier - Divine (Danger Remix) (<a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/12455713b854e181/">zShare</a> | <a href="http://download.yousendit.com/1FC7F64C03E9BB7F">YouSendIt</a>)<br /><br />From what I read in Kruger magazine, Sébastien Tellier's next album may or may not be about mental illness. <a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=296393">Buy 'Sexuality'</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/2emedanger">Danger</a> for French Eurovision '09?Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-88998220533317583532008-04-15T18:14:00.010+01:002008-04-20T13:24:58.993+01:00Scenesters, Sneakers, Hipsters, Blogs<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2090/2353916801_b7f48f25c1_b.jpg" width=400><br />(image credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/karinashah/">karina shah</a>)<br /><br />Blood Red Shoes released their debut album on monday. I'm about ten blog years behind with this, but it's well good. I was reading in the enemy and the reviewer was saying how the guitars were full of 'raw sexual energy' or something - I'm not too sure if the guitars are all that 'sexual', but there's some really good tracks and what I really like about it is the way it's got a whole range of emotions, including all the more negative ones, they are properly shouting and it's got loud aggressive guitars - but it's still about a thousand miles from the border to emo territory. Playing the whole album, some of the songs are a little bit same-y but I think you can forgive that when the songs are as good as they are, and on their own each track can stand up as a decent bit of rock and roll. There aren't any cringingly awful tracks, unlike say 'Good Time' or 'Numbers', on Crystal Castles and These New Puritans' debut albums.<br /><br /><img src="http://a720.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/111/l_1c527cc89d0925cdff67a78d6c8b873f.jpg" width=400><br /><br />And now onto SebastiAn, king of whoosh noises and glitchy violin masterpieces. Four new tracks have surfaced all at roughly the same time, on the Motor EP are Motor, Momy and Army; all quite nice and relatively standard Ed Banger industro-techno that we've come to expect from SebastiAn. And soon to be released on Ed Banger Records 3 is Dog, the most insane change in direction since Marilyn Manson recorded that folk-pop album in 2004. It's got unintelligible Metallica-style vocals and heavy metal guitars. It probably was put together electronically, and still sort of fits the style of a HGHLY BLGGBL BNGR, but if you close your eyes you can almost see Jimi Hendrix's corpse jamming it out. Judging by the 'minimix medley' put out by Feadz, Ed Rec 3 is gonna be pretty amazing. Some of the stuff on Ed Rec 2 got boring very quickly, such as Limousine by Vicarious Bliss (which, if I ever hear again, will probably lead me to kill someone). And 'Robot Oeuf' by Uffie may be the best thing she has ever done. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2424841267/" title="eeeeeeeee by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2153/2424841267_82f5e8b1f9_o.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="ed banger innit" /></a><br /><br />Oh and be jealous - look who rolled up to Rough Trade and bought the t-shirt. Oh yes, I did. The fact I am semi-terrified of wearing it out for fear of ruining it I am counting as irrelevant. Seriously though, So-Me is possibly the best graphic artist of the 21st century. I'm not saying he has superhuman photo-realistic drawing skills, and I'm sure most of his work is photo-traced, but he has brilliant taste. And he's better than Kate Moross anyway. <br /><br /><img src="http://i30.tinypic.com/30idphd.gif"><br /><br />This year's Underage Festival: The line-up is not that impressive if I'm honest. It will still be fun but I'm not buying the souvenir t-shirt this year. zShare time!<br /><br />Blood Red Shoes - This Is Not For You <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/10837547fc8f053a/">zShare</a><br />SebastiAn - Dog <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/108375983341609a/">zShare</a>Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-21233112956493971052008-04-04T16:42:00.005+01:002008-04-04T17:05:55.893+01:00Love Music Hate Racism Carnival<a href="http://www.lmhrcarnival.com/"><img src="http://www.lovemusichateracism.com/images/LMHRC_03sn4.gif" /></a><br /><br />On Sunday 27th April the 30th anniversary of the 1978 'Carnival Against the Nazis' is being celebrated by another open-air concert in Victoria Park, organised by the everyone's favourite music-related anti-racist charity, <a href="http://www.lovemusichateracism.com/">Love Music Hate Racism</a>. It's going to be fun. The full line-up can be viewed <a href="http://www.lmhrcarnival.com/LMHR_carnival_lineup/">here</a>, but rather than bore you with a massive list of acts you and I have neither heard of nor would particularly like, I will tell you now that Patrick Wolf, Babyshambles, Bishi and the Roll Deep Crew are all performing live, and as well as that there's going to be loads of speakers including Tony Benn. Try to ignore the fact that Hard-fi are playing, I think the best option would be to just pretend you haven't noticed.<br /><br />Also, I think I may have forgotten to mention entry is entirely free!<br /><br />Patrick Wolf's set is going to be particularly interesting, seeing as he'll hopefully be playing some entirely new and unreleased tracks from his upcoming fourth album. A new demo surfaced on his <a href="http://www.myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf">myspace</a> a while ago (it's now been removed) but luckily the ever-brilliant Saam at <a href="http://keephopeinside.blogspot.com/">Keep Hope Inside</a> managed to speedily rip it and put it up for download. <a href="http://keephopeinside.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-patrick-wolf-demo.html">Read the full post</a> for some in-depth discussion.<br /><br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=audio&file=PatrickWolfWargamesDemo.mp3">Patrick Wolf - Wargames (Demo)</a> (Yourfilehost)<br /><br />So, unless you've got something better to do in three sundays' time, or maybe you're a racist, why not roll up to Victoria Park?Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-33656770144684185582008-03-30T13:06:00.009+01:002008-03-31T16:21:49.396+01:00NEWS NEWS NEWS<span style="font-weight: bold;">BOLT ACTION FIVE IS DEAD.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm15c3BhY2UuY29tL2JvbHRhY3Rpb25maXZl" target="_blank"><img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e15/thecarnivore/BAF-Button.gif" alt="Bolt Action Five Myspace" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />I am sure in a few years one of them will be an folk-pop singer songwriter, and the twelve-year-olds of now will be the sooooo up-to-date Bolt Action Five fans of tomorrow.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LYKKE LI'S ALBUM IS REALLY GOOD.</span><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0G0vXie5adq3qHs4jYRmDzgSrN8nisdHtEFXnx-qjaeS67X5L6MqXu5hBTt_GGt_INV5-zijRs7fixkWkya4NtNFOCQvKg93TJqfrq3id8dlJUU19eeLGXZePhBvb3O-bFvpZfB0AoRs/s400/Lykke.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />I like it a lot more than I thought I would. i think the steel pans or whatever they are in 'Little Bit' put me off a bit but there's some real gems on it. My favourite has to be 'Complaint Department' which is all sort of moody minimalist techno and sounds like it was produced by Kraftwerk of something.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CUT COPY'S ALBUM IS REALLY GOOD.</span><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDwKsIJCfuPzUQxLn3zNHIX_hbMzuVie17UXcnVf9cFhi8jkw5Y0S7n3t8bmEGnemPp-xOUR3w0t1zwZxmMVZFAvG5tpcUC5OEBRBxw8m7bK5jrvkSrNZw936mBXwCvOBfVNSMCeExrOA/s400/cut+copy+-+ghosts.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />Apart from the weird noises in between songs - literally the last 35 seconds of 'Out There on the Ice' and the first 14 seconds of 'Lights and Music' should just be cut. They are horrid.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CRYSTAL CASTLES' ALBUM ISN'T OUT.</span><br /><br /><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m251/gabrielsbetter/madonna.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />Which is weird, because usually all their stuff is released in the UK first. On the other hand they are now on a canadian label, and it's not like it matters, seeing as I have all the mp3s anyway, which will do me fine for now. 28th of April is, I think, the UK release date.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TREVORBROWNCRYSTALCASTLESMADONNABLACKEYEGATE.</span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pileup.com/babyart/blog-images/garbage.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />OK, they completely ripped him off and he now hates them, which is fair enough from his point of view. But I am not capable of feeling any sympathy for a man who earns a living making <a href="http://www.pileup.com/babyart/myalphabet.html">this</a> sort of stuff. Seriously, do not click that link. I think I am actually glad they were such utter bastards to work with (Trevor Brown has now given up trying to get payment from them) because I am really not sure how I would feel wearing my CC/TB shirt if i knew that my money was going into that man's pocket. To label him as a paedophile would be unfair, but he clearly has a lot of unresolved mental health issues, as do his fans. I can't remember where I saw this or who wrote it, but to quote/paraphrase an unnamed blogger/internet lurker, "Madonna is going to owe Trevor Brown a lot of money if she ever gets a black eye".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE PRESETS' ALBUM IS PROBABLY GOOD BUT I HAVEN'T HEARD IT</span><br /><br />Apart from 'My People', which is a bit like having your head stamped on but definitely in the good sense.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I'M GOING BANKRUPT</span><br /><br /><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m251/gabrielsbetter/madonna.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br />My recently discovered sense of not wanting to illegally download everything I listen to is not sustainable, I am going to have to either<br />a.) rob a bank<br />or<br />b.) make a cool band and sell loads of t-shirts with a stolen Trevor Brown design.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-15308426792178345332008-03-24T14:00:00.005+00:002008-04-03T16:38:25.240+01:00You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2357294911/" title="poster by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2026/2357294911_edab2a2094_o.gif" alt="poster" height="533" width="400" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(artwork by me)</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou">Does It Offend You, Yeah?</a>'s debut album dropped today. <a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=298023">Buy it</a>. It's a horrible mish-mash of of rock, electro and, surprisingly, pop. The first three tracks are all pretty heavy stuff, but at number four, 'Dawn of the Dead', it goes all indie-pop and conventional. Although not necessarily the best track on the album, probably the most inventive would have to be number six, the brilliantly-titled Attack Of The 60 Ft Lesbian Octopus. It's a two minute instrumental that is just begging to be the theme to a low-budget eighties sci-fi film of the same name.<br /><br />Important People in The Film Industry: if you managed to make $2.7 billion from a film based on a theme-park ride (according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_the_caribbean">wikipedia</a> anyway) then just think how successful this film could be. And, er... give me some of the money, thanks.<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/94414847ece9f1/">Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Attack Of The 60 Ft Lesbian Octopus</a> (zShare)Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-26550659501227127822008-03-21T10:59:00.008+00:002008-03-21T15:20:22.638+00:00I quite like comix too, actually<img src="http://i32.tinypic.com/21aelbl.jpg" width=400><br /><br />Time to pretend I'm part of an American superblog! Franki Chan, Superstar DJ/President of Blog/Record Label <a href="http://www.IHEARTCOMIX.com">IHEARTCOMIX</a> has been very busy making a mixtape. I know I only just posted about one mixtape, but this one is seriously too good to wait. It's one second short of an hour and includes 19 tracks, 10 of which are completely brand new IHEARTCOMIX tracks, 8 of which are exclusive remixes made just for the mixtape by RADIOCLIT, FLOSSTRADAMUS, DESIGNER DRUGS, MIAMI HORROR, MANO feat HOLLYWOOD HOLT, TOM NEVILLE, LIES IN DISGUISE and LA RIOTS and 2 other originals just for the mixtape by ACID GIRLS and HEARTSREVOLUTION. Here's the tracklisting:<br /><br /> 1. ACID GIRLS – Intro Track<br /> 2. THE GLAMOUR – Respect The Party<br /> 3. THE TOXIC AVENGER – Pokerface (Lies In Disguise Remix)<br /> 4. HEARTSREVOLUTION – Switchblade (LA Riots Remix)<br /> 5. OCELOT – Lo Sforzo (St. Andrew Remix)<br /> 6. MATT & KIM – No More Long Years (Radioclit Remix)<br /> 7. HEARTSREVOLUTION – C.Y.O.A. (Flosstradamus Remix)<br /> 8. HAIL SOCIAL – Heaven (Designer Drugs Remix)<br /> 9. GAMEBOY/GAMEGIRL – Fruit Salad<br /> 10. MATT & KIM – It’s A Fact (Printed Stained) (Mano Remix feat. Hollywood Holt)<br /> 11. PROTOKOLL – Moving Forward (Designer Drugs Remix)<br /> 12. THE DEATH SET – Negative Thinking<br /> 13. TOTALLY MICHAEL – Winona (Miami Horror Remix)<br /> 14. HEARTSREVOLUTION – Dance Till Dawn<br /> 15. ACID GIRLS – Matter Made<br /> 16. SURKIN – White Knight Two<br /> 17. THE TOXIC AVENGER – Stage Divin’<br /> 18. OCELOT – Our Time (Tom Neville Remix)<br /> 19. FUTURECOP! – Starworshipper<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/download/862214955ddd65/">IHEARTCOMIX RECORDS REMIXED - FRANKI CHAN MIXTAPE</a> (zShare)<br /><br />The 8 new remixes are going to be surfacing as separate mp3s soon enough, one that I personally cannot wait to get my hands on is the the LA Riots Remix of HEARTSREVOLUTION's 'Switchblade'. I think it's an undeniable fact that it's very special. And here's something not on the mixtape they also sent me:<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.frankichan.com/websongs/Escape(LARiotsRemixV8).mp3">Toxic Avenger - Escape (LA Riots Remix)</a><br /><br />And everyone's Myspace:<br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/lariotsofficial">myspace.com/lariotsofficial</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/dreamburger">myspace.com/dreamburger</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/heartsrevolution">myspace.com/heartsrevolution</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/officialjuiceboxxx">myspace.com/officialjuiceboxxx</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/mattandkim">myspace.com/mattandkim</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/ocelotmthrfckrs">myspace.com/ocelotmthrfckrs</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/protokoll">myspace.com/protokoll</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/oxycottontail">myspace.com/oxycottontail</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/toxavanger">myspace.com/toxavanger</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/thisblush">myspace.com/thisblush</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/totallymichael">myspace.com/totallymichael</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/thefuturecop">myspace.com/thefuturecop</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/surkin">myspace.com/surkin</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/gameboygamegirl">myspace.com/gameboygamegirl</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/thedeathset">myspace.com/thedeathset</a><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/mattandkim">http://www.myspace.com/mattandkim</a><br /><br />Oh and seeing as I've mentioned HEARTSREVOLUTION a few times in this post, does anybody know where <a href="http://discoattack.imeem.com/music/3w_ufSrj/heartsrevolution_choose_your_own_adventure_cyoa_love/">this</a> came from? It's some kind of remix/mash-up that's about 90% CYOA and 10% Love Will Tear Us Apart. Who made it? Where can I get a lovely 320kbps mix of it? I NEED ANSWERS!Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-70356558693530700752008-03-20T15:51:00.008+00:002008-03-20T16:30:30.366+00:00Un mixtape pour vous et aussi un chanson avec un piano<img src="http://i26.tinypic.com/bhwtbp.jpg" width=400><br /><br /><a href="http://www.myspace.com/32doubledjs">32 double DJs</a> are three 16 year-olds and they want to spin some vinyl at as many gigs as possible. If you're a venue/promoter/dictator of a small foreign country, email them now. They're very nice people too. Probably.<br />They've got a fair few mixtapes on their myspace available to download, but everybody hates the nasty 96kbps myspace compression, so here's a lovely zShare link to their 'Electro House' mixtape. It's short and sweet, here's the tracklist:<br /><br />New Jack (Steve Angello Mix) by MBG and SDS<br />We Run This (Duke Dumont Remix) by Missy Elliott<br />Enur Ft Natasha - "Calabria 2007 (Hatchmatik Clubabria Remix)"<br />Stuck on Repeat By Little Boots<br />Like This Like That (Count of Monte Cristal Remix) by SE:SA<br />Put Your Hands Up For Detroit - Fredde Le Grand<br />Perfect Exceeder by Princess Superstar<br />Out At The Pictures by Hot Chip<br />Polkomatic by Vitalic<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/89796332412812/">32 Double DJs Electro House Mix</a> (zShare)<br /><br />oh and seeing as it's on there and everybody loves it at the moment:<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/9231479d564ba9/">Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat</a> (zShare)<br /><br />***BONUS: <a href="http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=5ABF108C65CA59E2">Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat (Acoustic)</a> (YSI)<br /><br />I won't post the Hot chip dub version because I don't like it. But if you think you might - <a href="http://hypem.com/search/Little%20boots/1/">knock yourself out</a>.<br /><br />(For more about Little Boots, check her <a href="http://www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic">Myspace</a> or read this <a href="http://www.ohhcrapp.net/2008/02/interview-little-boots.html">interview</a> at ohhcrapp.net)Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-70457958071860284342008-03-18T11:36:00.007+00:002008-03-20T14:43:59.044+00:00Album Review: Crystal Castles<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/artblogtom/2318637091/" title="Concept by Tom Oakley OMG, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3003/2318637091_bea6ffb25f.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Concept" /></a><br /><br />Today the Crystal Castles album dropped. I am currently wrapped up in a duvet on the sofa on the laptop, having spent most of last night vomiting into the bath. My original plan of preordering it off Rough Trade sort of slid off the to-do list at around the same time I found an entire leaked copy of the album as a zip file, after searching google for 'Crystal Castles album' to find the release date. At some point I will probably roll up to HMV and buy it anyway.<br /><br />The album is 16 tracks long and includes a massive range of different styles. Because daytime TV is not what it used to be, here's a track by track review of the album.<br /><br />01 Untrust Us<br />This song could be described as beautiful. It's strange and ethereal, like some kind of alien opera.<br />02 Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH)<br />An old favourite. It's a bit contraversial I'd say to put a remix on an album, but with HEALTH basically saying how completely in love they are with Crystal Castles at just about every oppurtunity they can get, it's not as if they are likely to object.<br />03 Alice Practice<br />Listen to this on headphones as you walk down a busy street and try to not imagine you are Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator. YOU CAN'T.<br />04 Magic Spells<br />The thing with these subdued sounding tracks is that they can sound almost more scary than the more 'thrash' songs. and the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSsvcT9cDZ0">video</a> makes it even worse.<br />05 Xxzxczx Me<br />AIDS ROBOTS<br />06 Air War<br />This song is incredible fun.<br />07 Courtship Dating<br />How Timbaland can claim to not have stolen the backing music from this is a miracle. <br />08 Vanished<br />A remix of Van She's 'Sex City', I am told. I have to say I prefer this to the original.<br />09 1991<br />I'm sure this used to be called 1983<br />10 Good Time<br />the only track that does nothing for me. A poor bit of album filler if you ask me.<br />11 Love And Caring<br />Step into the shower. Turn the shower on. ARGH that's not water that's tiny shards of broken glass pouring out the shower ARGH I'm bleeding everywhere.<br />12 Knights<br />My five year-old brother said this song makes him think of monsters and the monsters are scary.<br />13 Through The Hosiery<br />This is basically a pop song that Girls Aloud or something could have done. And that's a good thing. I might be wrong and it might all be sorted on the actual album, but the vocals in this song seem to be a bit too quiet. And the last verse just fades out which is annoying. Otherwise, good.<br />14 Reckless<br />BEST INSTRUMENTAL CC SONG EVER<br />15 Black Panther<br />The tune is brilliant, but the vocal effects are a bit distracting. It was quite charming on the old tracks where the awful sound quality was due to the band using old broken microphones, but these effects here are just sort of distracting from the actual content opf the song.<br />16 Tell Me What To Swallow<br />What the hell? It's a bit of a cliche to have an acoustic track at the end of an album, butI think the idea of Crystal Castles conforming to a cliche is probably more surprising than them not. This really is not a brilliant song, but the bizzare soundscape just adds to the dizzying effect.<br /><br />OK that was rubbish but I'm ill so you'll have to forgive me. Most of the new tracks are better recorded in the vocals, but also stylistically different in that none of them are really shouty thrash-rock. Which is OK for on the one album, but let's just hope it's not a decided change in direction for the band. More scariness please.Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-10062002463050642252008-03-07T22:11:00.006+00:002008-03-09T10:26:47.706+00:00A Thought<img src="http://www.sonicbids.com/Opportunity/logos/11294.jpg" width=400><br /><br />Why is it that I still feel disappointed that I'm not going to SXSW, when it is blatantly obvious that there was never any chance of me going? I feel genuine upset that I will not be attending. What is wrong with me?Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-62453392622654717352008-02-27T18:13:00.009+00:002008-02-27T19:07:39.058+00:00BLOG MORE WRITE LESSI need to post more. I always write these massive essays, then I go ages without posting anything, because it's too much effort to write. so anyway, here are some tracks that have been getting a lot of play in the old windows media player, and they're offered with no explanation. AT ALL.<br /><br />But first, picture made me incredibly happy:<br /><img src="http://i26.tinypic.com/xlezio.jpg" width=400><br /><br />All these are on zShare<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/8181650ca80d93/">HEALTH // DISCO - Triceratops (Acid Girls Before Dancefloorasauruses Ruled the Earth Remix)</a><br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/81819659d9e49c/">HEALTH // DISCO - Zoothorns (Nastique's Thornzoo Remix)</a><br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/818171169488de/">Björk - Wanderlust (Ratatat Remix)</a><br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/81817646e1329b/">Channels 3x4 - Meeting</a><br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/8181818dc00743/">Sébastien Tellier - Sexual Sportswear (SebastiAn remix)</a><br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/81820056d1515e/">Crystal Fighters - I Love London (Vocal)</a> (zShare)Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-59577046067735195472008-02-24T21:53:00.011+00:002008-03-26T17:15:49.589+00:00Crystal Castles - 'Through the Hosiery' Lyrics<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b6/C64_Crystal_Castles.png" width=400; height=250><br /><br />Once again I have been trying to decipher the words of a <a href="http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles">Crystal Castles</a> song, because is there really a better way to waste a sunday evening?<br />The track 'Through the Hosiery' appears on Crystal Castles self released album, which is out march 18. The thought of uploading one of the previously unseen unseen album tracks (unseen on the blogosphere anyway) is very tempting, but realistically I'd rather not live in fear of being emailed with copyright notices. Crystal Castles love leaking their content all over the internet and have been doing so for the last 2 or 3 years, so it's not like you can't wait another 3 weeks to hear the 5 or 6 songs you don't already have. If you are going to buy one album this year, make it Crystal Castles. You owe it to them.<br /><br />Anyway, here's my attempt at guessing the words to one of the tracks on the new album. I'm guessing these are about 50% right, so if anyone's thinks they have a better idea of what the actual words are, I'd be delighted to hear. Leave a comment or something. I'm not hosting the mp3 but you can probably find it on the <a href="http://hypem.com/search/crystal%20castles/1/">Hype Machine</a>.<br /><br />**Altered a bit on 26/03<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />You want it all but don’t care what you want<br />Feel complete, uh it’s good<br />You sleep by my side, it’s understood<br />It’s not too late you wanted it good<br /><br />Through the hosiery<br />To the ovary<br />To the nothing<br />How do you feel when you can’t feel nothing?<br /><br />Feel so good, You said it before<br />To your feet, you fall to the floor<br />Deep inside you still want more<br />Deal or not, you look to the door<br /><br />Through the hosiery<br />To the ovary<br />To the nothing<br />How do you feel when you can’t feel nothing?<br /><br />You can’t get, you’re waiting for me<br />You put it in, You need discipline<br />Cover my head, but you can’t beat nothing<br />Blood on my hands, you can wait on something <br /><br />Through the hosiery<br />To the ovary<br />To the nothing<br />How do you feel when you can’t feel nothing?<br /><br />Drink some more, feeling opened up<br />We’re holding it in, now look what you’ve done<br />One more go, you can’t hold it back <br />Drink some more, get it off your back<br /><br />You can’t get, you’re waiting for me<br />You put it in, You need discipline<br />Cover my head, but you can’t beat nothing<br />Blood on my hands, you can wait...</span><br /><br />I originally thought it was armoury, but that didn't really sound right or make any sense. Ovary it is.<br /><br />I really do like this song a lot, my only critique is that it's a bit annoying at the end where the last verse just fades out halfway through the line. And the vocals seem a bit quiet. But it might be to do with the mp3 I have of it being a leak and it's not the real thing. Who knows? And here are some lovely Crystal Castles and rap mash-ups, made by the wonderful ABX at <a href="http://www.thehoodinternet.com/">thehoodinternet.com</a>. Enjoy!<br /><br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/8139277a6ed1a9/">Crystal Castles vs Nice & Smooth - I Rhymed Slow in 1991 (ABX Mix)</a> (zShare)<br />DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/8139281c1c9b89/">Crystal Castles vs The Pack - I'm Shining Like A Crystal (ABX Mix)</a> (zShare)Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696923094369624985.post-65281576844759938132008-02-21T20:29:00.004+00:002008-02-21T20:45:05.447+00:00OH ITS THE BASS: Crystal Castles Album!<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEuARn68wZYhjat7bVyQkPdi6vnUA-iXtuWC2_s7lKdlRRDhmLkcNYxuKAs6kdLMvTnmMK4be67l1FcUqcgL5xfoaHVspwbEMvek7nIC4qhvCQrTN7qQy6Fno2knnibONRXAElr_Kxoc/s400/madonna076pg.jpg" width=400><br /><br />I AM IN LOVE. I AM NOT GOING TO REVIEW IT PROPERLY IT LEAKED ON THE INTERNET A FEW DAYS AGO IT IS SO COMPLETELY NOT WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT - THE LAST TRACK HAS AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR IN IT - I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ALBUM AND IT BETTER HAVE <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEA-elGjcwA">THIS</a> TRACK IN IT OR I WILL BE MOST UPSET. <br />And looking at that picture there, doesn't Alice actually look a little bit like everybody's least favourite pop granny?Tom Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313738646505374005noreply@blogger.com2