The Wire provided some excellent tv for me towards the end of this year and provided a great substitute for The Soprano’s. The tv program is set in the city of Baltimore, Maryland which is the reason this song perked my interest as I had done a search for the word Baltimore in my music collection  and came up with a few songs of but I think this is the best of the bunch.

The song is taken from his sixth studio album called Little Criminals from which backed by Glenn Frey of The Eagles fame and other members of that band contribute some of the music. Before this I only knew the song Political Science by Newman and the shed load of covers that other musician’s have done of his work including Tom Jones.

This album came out in the late 70’s around the time that punk rock was taking off in a big way but this song is so different its not funny. To me it has a real 80’s feel to it but it does stand the test of time. The narrative of the song provides a great description of the city that sounds pretty depressing but then again it’s pretty much the same for any relatively large city anywhere in the world. Here’s is the second and third verse to give you a taste

‘Hard times in the city
In a hard town by the sea
Ain’t nowhere to run to
There ain’t nothin’ here for free

Hooker on the corner
Waitin’ for a train
Drunk lyin’ on the sidewalk
Sleepin’ in the rain’

Later in the song he talks about escaping from city life and moving to the country as he has had enough of the city

Get my sister Sandy
And my little brother Ray
Buy a big old wagon
Gonna haul us all awayLivin’ in the country
Where the mountain’s high
Never comin’ back here
‘Til the day I die

Overall the song is really goog from both a lyrical and musical point of view and is really worth checking out. Nina Simone also does a pretty cover of the song although I do have a hard accepting the crossover from male to female covers and vica versa. Check out the song here.

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I stumbled across this great song a couple of months ago while traversing the world of music blogs when I hit upon this music blog that’s mainly focused on Irish musicians so kudos to the blogger from keeping it local as its a great source if ur interested in what’s going on musically in this wee country.

The song is from a now defunct band called The Mary Janes which was fronted by the late Mic Christopher. Prior to visiting the weblog, I didn’t even know that Mic was even in a band. In fact I knew nothing about the man at all apart from the song ‘Hey Day’ that was made famous by a Guinness tv ad.

The song is taken from their first album Bored with their laughter - they only had one album called Sham which I’m told is excellent but i have yet to get my hands on it.  What got me was his voice which sounds completely different on this song than Hey Day it’s deep, gravelly and very forceful in it’s delivery of what is a very simple song that eulogizes on the importance of friendship and the role they play in people’s lives and how they help you through the bad times as well as the good times.

The song musically reminds me of a little of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s, don’t ask me where I got that idea from but I just do with a catchy hook that bellows up and down throughout the song which adds to the intensity of Mic’s voice. You can check out the song here

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I watched Stanley Kubrick’s classic Paths of Glory (the 43rd best movie of all time, according to the IMDb top 250) the other night, and was thinking of a good anti-war song that could be written for the blog. Then, yesterday at lunchtime I called into the National Museum of Ireland to see “Soldiers & Chiefs: The Irish at War at Home and Abroad from 1550″, and got thinking about it again.

Now, Des has already written a post on Edwin Starr’s ‘War’, so that’s out. I was thinking Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Goin’ On’, but then I thought of another classic Kubrick film, Dr. Strangelove… (IMDb’s 25th best film of all time). Then, of course, I thought of Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

First off, let’s talk Strangelove. I first saw this movie when I was in college, and was shocked at how Kubrick could take the Cold War, the prospect of instant world annihilation over a clash of ideologies, and make such a funny film out of it.

As the Americans file into the “War Room” and start to talk about “acceptable casualty levels”, “nuclear combat toe to toe with the Rooskies” and suchlike, you can see parallels with how George Bush Jr might have handled the whole Iraq affair. You can certainly see Rumsfeld in George S. Scott’s ‘Buck’ Turgidson character.

As the accidental global standoff reaches its conclusion (I will say no more if you haven’t seen the film, other than that it’s simultaneously hilarious and thought-provoking), we hear probably the most ironic choice of song Kubrick could come up with.

‘We’ll Meet Again’ struck a strong chord with the soldiers marching off to fight another pointless war with origins in Central Europe. As the War began to drag on into the 1940s, and especially as Hitler took the bombing campaign to the heart of Britain, many began to see the overtones of “some sunny day” as being the afterlife.

The song has been covered by Johnny Cash, The Byrds, Pete Doherty and PJ Proby, is referenced by Pink Floyd in their song ‘Vera’, and has been featured in Dennis Potter’s 1986 BBC drama The Singing Detective.

But it will always be remembered as the song that plays as the curtain falls (in all senses of the phrase) on Dr. Strangelove. [SPOILER]: Here is the ending of Dr. Strangelove with ‘We’ll Meet Again’, but if you have yet to see this amazing movie, watch this video of the song instead.

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I guess you could say that Audioslave could be termed a Supergroup on the basis that all members of the band were members of successful grunge and rock bands in previous incarnations. I don’t know about you but I was curious when I first heard of this band was forming, after all we had one of the most powerful voices in rock Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and one of the most distiintive guitar players still giging in Tom Morello (Rage against the machine) but I wasn’t excited enough to go out and buy their first album and still haven’t.

The song is taken from their second album Out of Exile and is what you expect from this group of talented musicians and contains everything that’s good from Cornell and Morello – a strong, powerful vocal performance and some guitar wizardy from Morella. Lyrically the song is based on a low period in Cornells life and the lyrics reference doing some unusual things, anything really that takes his mind off thing. Check out the first verse

‘I walk the streets of Japan till I get lost
Cause it doesn’t remind me of anything
With a graveyard tan carrying a cross
Cause it doesn’t remind me of anything
I like studying faces in a parking lot
Cause it doesn’t remind me of anything
I like driving backwards in the fog
Cause it doesn’t remind me of anything‘

I usually take from the song an activity, energetic or otherwise, that will ease a bothered mind and relax a person. Everybody needs this every now and then. The remaining verses of the song continue in the same vain except the last where it seems to be directed at a lover that’s sung in a higher pitch than the rest of the song and just before the Morello trademark solo kicks in. I love the phrase ‘graveyard tan‘ because i think it’s a great description of an Irish person with our pasty white skin. Check out a video of the song here.

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I’m drinking a lot of coffee this weather, and was thinking about songs about coffee. ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ by Dylan is an obvious one I guess, but we’ve got a couple of posts about old Bob already. Ahm, apart from that, it’s the easy option of Google to discover other songs about coffee. Then I thought about Blur, and Graham Coxon’s charming little ditty from 1999’s 13 album. In between all of Damon Albarn’s wallowing in lost love, comes a great song about giving up booze and overdosing on something else, something that’s probably not a whole lot healthier.

When I was a lad of seventeen (we’re talking ‘93/’94 here), Blur came from the arse-end of the Stone Roses and rose to be Britain’s Best Band™. With albums like Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife, they brought working-class English culture into the 1990s with an ironic wink and a “how’s your sister” type humour, while also poking fun at binge drinking, group holidays, the lottery and commuter towns. Kind of like a funnier version of The Jam.

Then came The Great Escape, and it was poor. Hyped up by the brilliant-but-severely-dated ‘Country House’ single, it was indulgent, smarmy, arrogant, egocentric, overlong, and quite low on quality (’The Universal’ aside). There are only so many songs about wife swapping and meeting Morrissey that anyone can handle. Oasis won the media and sales war, and Blur headed ‘to the ditch’ (as Neil Young might say) with 1997’s Yankee-alternative-influenced Blur album.

‘Coffee & TV’ shows the influence of Graham Coxon. Trebly, ringing Kinks-y guitars are out, as are lyrics cocking a snoot at the Mr. Cleans, service stations and the like. Albarn does backing vocals and batters an old acoustic guitar while Coxon sings about ‘black gold’ and the idiot box, doubling up with searing guitar runs that push excitedly into feedback, like the brain of a man who’s watched too much Lost (terrible show) or Coronation Street.

Coxon’s lyrics speak of a life of grinding boredom, where the days just pass by in a haze of caffeine and the couch potato lifestyle. Ironically, because the song is so upbeat you get the feeling he’s enjoying it, compared to the alternative, which he doesn’t really outline.

The video to this song deserves special mention – a cute little milk carton dancing around to the music, and getting into some strange situations. Leaving the safeness of home, the milk carton (seriously) nearly gets shredded by a lawnmower, is chased by children, finds and loses love in a second, and eventually ends up crashing a Blur rehearsal. A great video and a great song.

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I’ve spoken before about my love of Gomez. In my opinion they are still the best indie band to come out of the UK in the last ten to fifteen years. All the guys in the band are talented artists and all contribute to the lyrics as well as the music in all the albums plus there is at least two singers in the band that compliment each other very well.

This song was the third single from the band’s fifth studio album called How We Operate  and is the first album that they didn’t produce themselves and has a more feel good, popier sound than any of their other albums and see the world  is a good example of this. With it’s catchy hooks, beautiful melody and some nice harmonies if they ever wanted a radio hit then this song would be it.

To me the song is dealing with a friend that’s lost his way a little bit and won’t listen to any of his friends as in the verse below he refer’s to his friend as a ’soldier’ that’s lost his ‘composure’.

‘You seem like a soldier
Who’s lost his composure
You’re wounded and play a waiting game
In no-man’s land no-one’s to blame’

The chorus provides some advice to this friend regardless of whether they want it or not. The advice tells the friend to relax and enjoy life and don’t take things too seriously.

‘See the world
Find an old fashioned girl
And when all’s been said and done
It’s the things that are given, not won
Are the things that you earned’

There is two reason’s why I really like this song even though there is more rockier songs on the album, songs that I would normally prefer and one of the reason’s is the fact that the context of song deals with friendship and those days when you try to reach out to a friend but they don’t want to listen. Its the delievery of this context that’s really the clincher for me. It is so spirited and uplifting. I dare anyone to tell me that this is not a dinky little number.

The second reason is that Ben Ottewell is on vocal duty…say no more. Check out the  video of song.

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Ah, the rock opera single. Much maligned, it has nonetheless had its enthusiastic exponents. Notable highlights of the genre include ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Good Vibrations’ and The Beatles’ ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’, a direct inspiration for this song. Radiohead updated the template for the late-90s with this tense, unsettling observation on fashion, culture and vapidity – and created a song that artistically rivalled all of the above.

While The Bends was an excellent album, with a top-rate set of guitar-based songs that dealt with isolation, paranoia and a general feeling of dread, 1997’s OK Computer was a revelation. The verse-chorus-verse structure was subverted, the lyrics tried to make metaphors of the daily commute, European integration, loud taling and German automotive engineering. Instead of talking about his own maladjustment, lead singer Thom Yorke widened the issue to include a general malaise in society, one that was directly linked to the way we lived.

For the millions of us on the comedown from Britpop’s hollow journey, this rang very true. Coming as the first single off of OK Computer, ‘Paranoid Android’ was one of the most unlikely hits of all time, while at the same time being strangely comforting in how weird and “far out” it was.

The song is split into four sections, starting with acoustic guitar and a soft guitar figure, with Yorke crying in a high-pitched voice about the “unborn chicken voices in my head”. The first of several great riffs has him dragging out the words “What’s that”. Feelings of impending dread and doom were never felt so keenly since Ian Curtis.

While the song shifts gears, with new riffs and tempos introduced and left behind, Yorke aims at familiar Radiohead themes like ruthless ambition, arrogance, egotism, business networking and so on, juxtaposing these targets with “off with his head”, “panic”, “vomit” and other disturbing feelings.

The general impact on the listener is that the protagonist is having a really bad time at some event or other, and fantasises secretly about molotov-ing (verb?) the whole place, nay the whole world. Vintage Thom Yorke, in other words.

The video is a story on itself – check the Wikipedia article for the background on this. Musically, it’s amazing, especially with headphones on in a darkened room (which I always called “the Pink Floyd experience”). Guitars duel with each other over intermittent feedback bursts, the bass goes all over the register, and the drums switch tempo as the canvas for the madness.

So, then, truly a great moment in music – and OK Computer is the first time I heard an album and considered it a classic on first listen. Here’s the video for ‘Paranoid Android’.

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Elbow are receiving some long overdue credit this year due to the winning of the Mercury Prize winning album The Seldom Seen Kid released earlier this year. Their music deserves to be up there with the best indie band in the UK like Radiohead and Gomez. What’s most appealing about them is their ability to draw the listener into their world and make you listen to the album repeatedly as the couple of albums I’ve listened were real slow-burners and you only begin to appreciate the album once drawn in. The downside of course is that people may not want to be drawn in and leave the album on the shelve collecting dust but if you do persevere then more often than not it will be worth it. They deserve to be mentioned alongside Gomez and Radiohead for this alone.

The song Not a Job is the third single from the album Cast of Thousands – a stark, layered album dealing with real issues affecting almost everybody – love, drinking, etc although the lyrics often seem, to me at least, to be complex and indecipherable but this song is probably one the most accessible songs on the album (along with Buttons and Zips) in terms of reaching a general audience with it’s beautiful, soft melody. For the most part I think I do get this song as its a breakup song but he’s still hurting and coming to rash decisions which everybody that experiences this comes too. The cold light of day often brings a different perspective.

Words to make her stay: you said
Leave me and the plants die
A panic smile across your face
Corrugated browline
The hissing bitter punchline
Call when you can tie your lace

From this verse he is still bitter over the breakup and the emotions are still raw as ‘when you can tie your  lace’ seems full of contempt for the ex although he does seem to admit this, in a roundabout way from the line above ‘the hissing bitter punchline’. While I did state that their lyrics can be complex and indecipherable, it is still their strongest weapon when you do understand them in someway. An example of complex lyrics in this song are:

‘The dream again nobody understands
Walking through the long grass on your hands
It’s not a job to do today
Sleep it off’

Sometimes I think he’s just saying that nobody understands his feelings better than himself and to explain them is like ‘Walking through grass on your hands’ which could be a metaphor for why bother? but he will bother another time. To summarise what I really think about them is…they are a compelling listen at the worst of times.  Here is a link to the video they made for the song.

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I like this song, but I think I’d have liked it more if it came out in 1965 or 1976. Black Lips claim to be “flower punks”, but if this is anything to go by they’re just unashamed retroists, plundering every trick in the riffbooks of the Kinks, the Clash, the Damned or the Ramones.

An extremely simple song, both musically and lyrically, it’s still an exhilirating listen, and would make an excellent song to drink to or put on at a party. The bass and power chording guitar play the same riff the whole way through, while the singer demonises Katrina, which I initially thought was some girl.

But listening to the lyrics, you realise it’s really about Hurricane Katrina (how slow am I on the uptake?) – lines like “you saw a highway down in New Orleans” pretty much give it away.

The guitar solo comes in bursts of high-pitched fretwork and feedback, reminiscent of Raw Power-era Stooges or the Velvet Underground. It adds nicely to the punky feel of the song.

All in all, a simplistic song that’s a damn good listen. The video is here.

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Hailing from the town of Bristol, England Massive Attack are part of the Bristol invasion into the early nineties music scene blending electronic, ambient, jazz, hip-hop , soul etc into a new sound called trip-hop. Along with fellow Bristalites Portishead and Tricky, they really revolutionised the sound of England and did as much, if not more (in my opinion a lot more), than the whole BritPop explosion did during the mid-nineties to bring international attention to England’s music once again.

Safe From Harm was the third single from their debut album Blue Lines and is probably not the most well known song, we’ll have to give that to Unfinished Symphony, from what is a truely exceptional album in terms of production, experimentation and courage, yes courage in a sense of bravery to try something new. I’ve alway’s liked Massive Attack, even up to this day so I was somewhat dissappointed when I saw them live at the electric picnic 07 but that was probably more because of the high expectation from me as opposed to the performance of the band itself.

With vocalist Shara Nelson at the helm and 3D providing the ‘hop’ element the song’s beat is heavily, if not totally, sampled from the great jazz Panamanian drummer Billy Cobham’s song Stratus, well the begining of Cobham’s song anyway. The song quickly gets into the rythm with great intent. The song always reminds me of a human’s or animal’s instinct to protect those they love when Nelson sings the line

‘if you hurt what’s mine, I’ll sure as hell retaliate’

and could be extended even further to include inanimate objects that are very important to someone. To me the line totally encapsulates human behaviour in society in general whether they are trying to protect loved ones or trying to surive. The line is almost a Darwinian statement and is repeated a number of times throughout the song. Another line that I like in the song is

‘I was lookin’ back to see if you were lookin back at me To see me lookin back at you’

The line doesn’t necessarily hold any meaning for me but instead it’s the dichotomy betweens 3D’s rapper’s voice and Nelson’s beautiful voice that intrigue’s me and really bring the song to a higher level. Here is the origional video of the song which is itself pretty cool.

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