The spring of Elbow has begun. “Neat Little Rows,” the first single from Build a Rocket, Boys! released today. And, like a crack-addicted monkey, I had to download the song. Oh, I’ve seen the video the band released in January: I’ve even used some audio jiggery-pokery to get a listenable mp3 from the video’s audioContinue reading “On Downloading Elbow’s New Single”
Category Archives: Music
On This Week’s Scottish Musical Discovery
Every few months, I’ll discover a new and interesting band on Vic Galloway’s Scotland Introducing podcast for the BBC. While the main point of interest this week for me was two live tracks by The Seventeenth Century from Ally McCrae’s BBC Introducing in Scotland show, the podcast kicked off with a track from Aerials Up,Continue reading “On This Week’s Scottish Musical Discovery”
On a Coldplay Demos Album
Earlier this week, Coldplay released their newest single, “Christmas Lights.” It’s a Christmas song, though not a particularly festive one. It’s a piano-based ballad, a bit like A Rush of Blood to the Head‘s “The Scientist” by way of Viva La Vida. Much like Carbon Leaf’s Christmas album, Christmas Child, it’s a song set atContinue reading “On a Coldplay Demos Album”
On Musical Covers Better than the Original
Over the weekend, I acquired an inexpensive 8-gig USB flash drive. Its intended purpose? To become a portable music repository; I could put some of my music collection on the flash drive, and then listen to my library at home or at the office from the portable drive, instead of clogging up hard drives orContinue reading “On Musical Covers Better than the Original”
On The Music That Cheers Me Up
I listen to music. I listen to music a lot. Music makes the work day go faster. Music makes the words flow. Music lets me shut out the world and just write. At the office, I put on the headphones. At home, I crank up the stereo. And I just go. It's how I roll.Continue reading “On The Music That Cheers Me Up”
On Carbon Leaf’s New Christmas Album
My musical interests, which tend to be Scottish and Anglophile, have one major exception — Carbon Leaf. I discovered the band in college; they made frequent appearances on the University of Richmond campus a decade ago, and they played other venues around the city when I was student there. 2010 has been a big yearContinue reading “On Carbon Leaf’s New Christmas Album”
On The Scottish Enlightenment’s “St. Thomas”
A year and a half ago, I began listening to the BBC’s Scotland Introducing Podcast, a fifteen minute survey of the latest and greatest from some of Scotland’s best unsigned bands. Every Friday morning, I look for the link in my RSS reader, and I’ve discovered some very good music this way, bands like WashingtonContinue reading “On The Scottish Enlightenment’s “St. Thomas””
On Beady Eye’s First Single
A little more than a year ago, Oasis went its separate ways. Always a volatile group, the Gallagher brothers had finally had enough of one another, and Noel bolted. In a few months, the first post-Oasis album from either of the Gallaghers will be out. Liam Gallagher has carried on with the last Oasis line-up,Continue reading “On Beady Eye’s First Single”
On A Brand-New Rutles Project
The Rutles! Who among us is not a fan of the Prefab Four? Who can’t remember where they were when Ron, Dirk, Stig, and Barry appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show? Who could forget the riots when they played the concert at Che Stadium? Who could forget the outcry when Dirk announced that he wasContinue reading “On A Brand-New Rutles Project”
On Movies When I Was Twelve
Courtesy of Dayton Ward, “The ‘When I was 12’ movie meme thing.” Here’s how it works: go to Wikipedia (as the most convenient resource), and copy the list of movies that were released in the year when you were 12 years old. Mark in italics the movies that you’ve seen. (Not necessarily that year.) MarkContinue reading “On Movies When I Was Twelve”