HEY!
So, no theme. But it's Sunday and I feel far too sleepy for ten-past-six. I'm relying on black tea to keep my eyes open, and themes are hard, so I'm just going to do a load of songs I've been meaning to share and leave it at that. How's that sound?
Wonderfully sunny electro-rock, with a few splashes of rain here and there. The Dodos, Substance
The nineties called, they wanted their C86 back. Mikal Cronin, Shout It Out
I love this. Not that I don't usually like the songs I post, but I don't always want to climb onto the roof and shout about it. Anyway, here, have a bit of rockabilly. Ida Maria, Cherry Red
Perhaps I should start labeling posts that feature music recommended by that friend I keep mentioning. Yo, Heather, you have good taste. Jeffery Lewis, Anxiety Attack
Also. I mentioned to my Dad earlier today how eclectic this blog is - that yes, I often post the same kind of music, but it's not as if I've never posted any hip-hop, because I have. Once. In a post-script. So, here's a bit more. Aesop Rock (yes, I know it was Aesop Rock last time, too), Zero Dark Thirty.
Mollx
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Thursday Blues
Actually, no. I've been okay today. Though I was surprised to find it was Thursday and not Tuesday, because this week's gone crazy fast, even if this morning felt like it was on pause for three hours.
SO!
Blues songs. Three of 'em. Because I'm good to you like that.
This is fabulously awesome. A bit of blues, a bit of soul, a lot of brilliance. Jessie Mae Hemphill, Standing in My Doorway Crying.
Okay, yes fine, I lied, it's not three blues songs, it's two blues songs and one Tom Waits song, but I don't know how to classify Tom Waits. Drunk-folk? Anyway, I'm not a big fan of yer man Tom, but there are a couple of songs I really like, and this is one of them. Tom Waits, Hold On
And a return to our regular programming to give you a bit of regular, wonderful, good old-fashioned blues. Robert Johnson, Crossroad Blues
Mollx
SO!
Blues songs. Three of 'em. Because I'm good to you like that.
This is fabulously awesome. A bit of blues, a bit of soul, a lot of brilliance. Jessie Mae Hemphill, Standing in My Doorway Crying.
Okay, yes fine, I lied, it's not three blues songs, it's two blues songs and one Tom Waits song, but I don't know how to classify Tom Waits. Drunk-folk? Anyway, I'm not a big fan of yer man Tom, but there are a couple of songs I really like, and this is one of them. Tom Waits, Hold On
And a return to our regular programming to give you a bit of regular, wonderful, good old-fashioned blues. Robert Johnson, Crossroad Blues
Mollx
Monday, 24 June 2013
Eight Tracks From 8tracks
So, of late, I've been all over 8tracks, and I'm not sure why.
I mean, you can't see tracklists, so you've no idea what's coming up and whether you'll like that particular playlist or not. But then again, you don't have to start with more than just a vague idea in mind of what you want to listen to, and the whole playlist thing makes it easier to narrow it down than Last.fm or Jango.
So I like it, I do - there are just a few kinks I think it needs to work on.
But onwards and upwards with the Eight Tracks from 8tracks!
I've been listening to a lot of what gets tagged as 'southern gothic'. Essentially, it's blues rock with swampwater in its shoes. Firstly, The Silent Comedy - Bartholomew
Secondly, The Devil Makes Three - Old Number Seven. Which is blues rock with swampwater in its shoes and a directions to the nearest crossroads.
Thirdly, Noah Gunderson - David. I wasn't so keen on this at first but now I always go yess! when it comes on. Reminds me a bit of a raspy voiced Conor Oberst.
Fourthly, Grace Potter And The Nocturnals - Nothing But The Water (I). I have this going in two tabs at the same time the delay sounds awesome. It's all the above plus a bit of soul.
Fifthly, Frank Turner - Love Ire and Song. I heard this once on 8tracks, I think, and I loved it, so. It's British, so it's not blues, it's folk. That's your general rule of thumb, by the way - on one side of the Atlantic, it's blues, on the other it's folk. Though this really is folk, complete with wordy lyrics and strum-my acoustic guitar.
Sixthly, The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow. Yes, more southern gothic. Shush. Also, one of the singers looks like Johnny Depp.
Seventhly, The Heavy - How You Like Me Now. I honestly don't know whether this fits or not, but I like it, so there.
Eighthly, Delta Rae - Bottom Of The River. I had no idea this was as popular as it is, but she has a hell of a voice, so if you haven't heard it, go listen, and if you have, go listen again.
Also, I recently watched Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's so good. I mean. So good. Also I finished it with a crush on Felicia Day, so, fair warning.
Mollx
I mean, you can't see tracklists, so you've no idea what's coming up and whether you'll like that particular playlist or not. But then again, you don't have to start with more than just a vague idea in mind of what you want to listen to, and the whole playlist thing makes it easier to narrow it down than Last.fm or Jango.
So I like it, I do - there are just a few kinks I think it needs to work on.
But onwards and upwards with the Eight Tracks from 8tracks!
I've been listening to a lot of what gets tagged as 'southern gothic'. Essentially, it's blues rock with swampwater in its shoes. Firstly, The Silent Comedy - Bartholomew
Secondly, The Devil Makes Three - Old Number Seven. Which is blues rock with swampwater in its shoes and a directions to the nearest crossroads.
Thirdly, Noah Gunderson - David. I wasn't so keen on this at first but now I always go yess! when it comes on. Reminds me a bit of a raspy voiced Conor Oberst.
Fourthly, Grace Potter And The Nocturnals - Nothing But The Water (I). I have this going in two tabs at the same time the delay sounds awesome. It's all the above plus a bit of soul.
Fifthly, Frank Turner - Love Ire and Song. I heard this once on 8tracks, I think, and I loved it, so. It's British, so it's not blues, it's folk. That's your general rule of thumb, by the way - on one side of the Atlantic, it's blues, on the other it's folk. Though this really is folk, complete with wordy lyrics and strum-my acoustic guitar.
Sixthly, The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow. Yes, more southern gothic. Shush. Also, one of the singers looks like Johnny Depp.
Seventhly, The Heavy - How You Like Me Now. I honestly don't know whether this fits or not, but I like it, so there.
Eighthly, Delta Rae - Bottom Of The River. I had no idea this was as popular as it is, but she has a hell of a voice, so if you haven't heard it, go listen, and if you have, go listen again.
Also, I recently watched Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's so good. I mean. So good. Also I finished it with a crush on Felicia Day, so, fair warning.
Mollx
Sunday, 2 June 2013
Apparently I've Lost My Knack For Titles
An extra long post for you today, just to clear my list. So, eleven songs from all corners of the interwebs. There's no order to it; There's electronica. There's folk. There's rock. There's blues (sort of). If anyone ever wants you to define 'eclectic', send them here.
I'll start off with something pretty normal for me, just to ease you in. Nice hat, Lucy. Lucy Spraggan - Lighthouse
Ah, Franz Ferdinand. This is the problem with a band who only really have two well-known songs. You forget they've ever done anything else. Franz Ferdinand - Bite Hard
Is it blues? Is it folk? Who cares, eh? It's very good, either way. Castanets - Sway
Straight up alt-rock. Fab. Mike Mains & The Branches - Noises
I adore this. Sort of Faustus-meets-Mawkin-Causley-meets-The-Lumineers-with-a-girl-behind-the-mic. Lovely, lovely, lovely song. The April Maze - Don't Let The Bastards Bring You Down
I suppose it's pretty electro-rock-ish? Very nice. MS MR - Hurricane
Black Keys-ish blues rock. Hanni El Katib - You Rascal You
Hazy, sixties tinged folk-pop. Amarante - The Manic
Very far out for this blog - very eighties, but hey, pretty good. Sick Gemini - Discolo
A bit more eighties electro for ya. Color Theory - What You Said
A return to my more usual fare - rather nice summery folk-punk. I'd say at points it gets to be a bit of a cacophony, but nice regardless. The Tin Can Collective - I Can't Hold On
So that's that, folks! Remember, if you ever want me to listen to something (as you can see, I have rather varied taste) whether that's a new band you've heard, a new band you're in, or an old band you'll adore until the end of time but no-one else seems to know, GET IN TOUCH!! I won't bite, I promise. Either email me: musicalmartyrdom(at)gmail(dot)com, or tweet me, @EmEmBlog.
Also, new chapter of Gargoyle!
Thanks everyone!
Mollx
I'll start off with something pretty normal for me, just to ease you in. Nice hat, Lucy. Lucy Spraggan - Lighthouse
Ah, Franz Ferdinand. This is the problem with a band who only really have two well-known songs. You forget they've ever done anything else. Franz Ferdinand - Bite Hard
Is it blues? Is it folk? Who cares, eh? It's very good, either way. Castanets - Sway
Straight up alt-rock. Fab. Mike Mains & The Branches - Noises
I adore this. Sort of Faustus-meets-Mawkin-Causley-meets-The-Lumineers-with-a-girl-behind-the-mic. Lovely, lovely, lovely song. The April Maze - Don't Let The Bastards Bring You Down
I suppose it's pretty electro-rock-ish? Very nice. MS MR - Hurricane
Black Keys-ish blues rock. Hanni El Katib - You Rascal You
Hazy, sixties tinged folk-pop. Amarante - The Manic
Very far out for this blog - very eighties, but hey, pretty good. Sick Gemini - Discolo
A bit more eighties electro for ya. Color Theory - What You Said
A return to my more usual fare - rather nice summery folk-punk. I'd say at points it gets to be a bit of a cacophony, but nice regardless. The Tin Can Collective - I Can't Hold On
So that's that, folks! Remember, if you ever want me to listen to something (as you can see, I have rather varied taste) whether that's a new band you've heard, a new band you're in, or an old band you'll adore until the end of time but no-one else seems to know, GET IN TOUCH!! I won't bite, I promise. Either email me: musicalmartyrdom(at)gmail(dot)com, or tweet me, @EmEmBlog.
Also, new chapter of Gargoyle!
Thanks everyone!
Mollx
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Album Of The Second: The National, Trouble Will Find Me
Yeah, yeah, Molly is reviewing the new National album, no surprises there.
-
If High Violet was shot through with a fear of love, its reality versus its ideal, then Trouble Will Find Me is about the fear of losing that love, real, imagined, strong, fragile, destructive, healing. That's what the album feels like - the beginning of a recovery, complete with doubts and sneaking fears. Demons says it best: "I get the sudden sinking feeling / Of a man about to fly" There's simultaneously an ease to it and a fragility, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop but willing to see that you've got a good thing going. Even if it feels like the slightest slip could shatter it."I don't want you to grieve / But I want you to sympathise / I can't blame you for losing your mind for a little while / So did I," sings Matt, on Slipped. And a little later, in I Need My Girl; "I know I was a lot of things / But I am good, I am grounded." The music itself, as nuanced as ever, is gentler, this time around. It's cooler, calmer; more about the contrast between the clean open space and the shadows intrinsic to their sound. Where Boxer was shrouded, Trouble Will Find Me is exposed to the light, in spirit as well as sound. The metaphors aren't as oblique, and every line tastes of a confession. It makes the album accessible, relatable; but still the metaphors are there, still strange, still them. It's still a warm record, though, for all that - but it feels more at ease with itself than any album before it. It's something to while away the afternoon with, not something to listen to in the middle of the night with nothing but the glow of your computer screen to keep you company. But the darkness of their previous albums is still there in songs like the glorious This Is The Last Time, and the rain-slicked Fireproof.
It's different, this new, more open sound - but it's still unmistakably a National album. More cohesive, yes - the songs so interwoven that listening to it in pieces feels almost like blasphemy - and some will say more mature. But that's just one of those phrases, isn't it? The truth is that they've always had that maturity, hiding away in songs like 29 Years and Lucky You; it's just that with every song from Secret Meeting onward they've been shifting, through raucous Abel to majestic Mistaken For Strangers and from there to Anyone's Ghost - it's a progression, and as different as Trouble Will Find Me seems it's also nigh on inevitable. The band have become more and more comfortable with themselves as time has gone on - and this is the result. An album made up of great song upon great song, confident and self-assured. Like every album of theirs it benefits from repeated listens, benefits from burying yourself in it and not surfacing for a week - but, that said, there's an immediacy hiding in Sea Of Love and Graceless that grabs you from the very first note. I don't know how they do it - how every album is better than all those that went before - but they've pulled it off. Again.
And the next one will be even better, you'll see.
-
-
If High Violet was shot through with a fear of love, its reality versus its ideal, then Trouble Will Find Me is about the fear of losing that love, real, imagined, strong, fragile, destructive, healing. That's what the album feels like - the beginning of a recovery, complete with doubts and sneaking fears. Demons says it best: "I get the sudden sinking feeling / Of a man about to fly" There's simultaneously an ease to it and a fragility, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop but willing to see that you've got a good thing going. Even if it feels like the slightest slip could shatter it."I don't want you to grieve / But I want you to sympathise / I can't blame you for losing your mind for a little while / So did I," sings Matt, on Slipped. And a little later, in I Need My Girl; "I know I was a lot of things / But I am good, I am grounded." The music itself, as nuanced as ever, is gentler, this time around. It's cooler, calmer; more about the contrast between the clean open space and the shadows intrinsic to their sound. Where Boxer was shrouded, Trouble Will Find Me is exposed to the light, in spirit as well as sound. The metaphors aren't as oblique, and every line tastes of a confession. It makes the album accessible, relatable; but still the metaphors are there, still strange, still them. It's still a warm record, though, for all that - but it feels more at ease with itself than any album before it. It's something to while away the afternoon with, not something to listen to in the middle of the night with nothing but the glow of your computer screen to keep you company. But the darkness of their previous albums is still there in songs like the glorious This Is The Last Time, and the rain-slicked Fireproof.
It's different, this new, more open sound - but it's still unmistakably a National album. More cohesive, yes - the songs so interwoven that listening to it in pieces feels almost like blasphemy - and some will say more mature. But that's just one of those phrases, isn't it? The truth is that they've always had that maturity, hiding away in songs like 29 Years and Lucky You; it's just that with every song from Secret Meeting onward they've been shifting, through raucous Abel to majestic Mistaken For Strangers and from there to Anyone's Ghost - it's a progression, and as different as Trouble Will Find Me seems it's also nigh on inevitable. The band have become more and more comfortable with themselves as time has gone on - and this is the result. An album made up of great song upon great song, confident and self-assured. Like every album of theirs it benefits from repeated listens, benefits from burying yourself in it and not surfacing for a week - but, that said, there's an immediacy hiding in Sea Of Love and Graceless that grabs you from the very first note. I don't know how they do it - how every album is better than all those that went before - but they've pulled it off. Again.
And the next one will be even better, you'll see.
-
Friday, 17 May 2013
Logo! Twitter!
So guess what?!
The blog has a LOGO!
(I know it's just a quick little thing but I wanted a profile pic for twitter so I knocked it up in Paint)
And a TWITTER!
You wanna tweet me? Go ahead!
Mollx
The blog has a LOGO!
(I know it's just a quick little thing but I wanted a profile pic for twitter so I knocked it up in Paint)
And a TWITTER!
You wanna tweet me? Go ahead!
Mollx
Sunday, 5 May 2013
A Random Collection Of Songs With No Connection Whatsoever, Apart From Perhaps Long Hair
Hi!
It's a lot better than it sounds like it's going to be; a bit KOL-y, southern rock with a bit of a saxophone jive and a rather grand bassline. It's very cool and well worth listening, so go on. Click the bloody link, you lot. The Weeds, Brother In The Night
Airy Elliott-Smith-tinged americana-pop! (I like that, americana-pop. Nice phrase). Kurt Vile, Never Run Away.
This is Elbow back when they were just beginning to get popular and weren't yet obsessed with that one bit of violin-work and choral singing that makes all their other singles sound EXACTLY THE SAME. Anyway, I love this song, it's kick-ass northern pub-rock and it is FABULOUS.Not to be confused with the other Grounds For Divorce that I love. Elbow, Grounds For Divorce
And speaking of long hair, Sam Winchester.
I started watching Supernatural again earlier this week, and seriously? Are haircuts not a thing in America? Dean and Cas seem to manage not to have hair like Rapunzel, though. Or do they cut each others' hair? Or do angels not need haircuts? I don't know.
It's possible I'm over thinking this.
Moll x
P.S. Chapter eleven of The Gargoyle Of St John's is up - please read, please vote!
If you read Gargoyle at any point before chapter twelve goes up, either comment on this post or send me an email (address in the side bar) with your favourite song that I have or haven't posted and I'll mention them all in one big reader-appreciation post, because I love you all and you're all brilliant. :)
mx
It's a lot better than it sounds like it's going to be; a bit KOL-y, southern rock with a bit of a saxophone jive and a rather grand bassline. It's very cool and well worth listening, so go on. Click the bloody link, you lot. The Weeds, Brother In The Night
Airy Elliott-Smith-tinged americana-pop! (I like that, americana-pop. Nice phrase). Kurt Vile, Never Run Away.
This is Elbow back when they were just beginning to get popular and weren't yet obsessed with that one bit of violin-work and choral singing that makes all their other singles sound EXACTLY THE SAME. Anyway, I love this song, it's kick-ass northern pub-rock and it is FABULOUS.Not to be confused with the other Grounds For Divorce that I love. Elbow, Grounds For Divorce
And speaking of long hair, Sam Winchester.
I started watching Supernatural again earlier this week, and seriously? Are haircuts not a thing in America? Dean and Cas seem to manage not to have hair like Rapunzel, though. Or do they cut each others' hair? Or do angels not need haircuts? I don't know.
It's possible I'm over thinking this.
Moll x
P.S. Chapter eleven of The Gargoyle Of St John's is up - please read, please vote!
If you read Gargoyle at any point before chapter twelve goes up, either comment on this post or send me an email (address in the side bar) with your favourite song that I have or haven't posted and I'll mention them all in one big reader-appreciation post, because I love you all and you're all brilliant. :)
mx
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