The 30 Day Song Challenge, Part 11: Days 27, 28, 29 and 30

Before I disappear from the blogosphere for a Christmas holiday time break, I thought it would be good to finally finish the 30 day song challenge… So, in a slightly extended post, here are the last four songs from the challenge:

Day 27: A Song That You Wish You Could Play : Hey Joe, Jimmi Hendrix

I mean, who wouldn’t want to play that riff? Actually, I might have a crack at learning it… I suspect the solo parts may be a bit beyond my basic guitar skills, but who knows, it might just work.

Day 28 – A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty: Friendly Fire, Ben Marwood

Why this song invokes a vague feeling of guilt and sadness I’m not sure. But it does, in a slightly regretful nostalgic way. I guess it’s because the lyrics ring true, although they don’t directly apply to any situation I’ve been in personally, and that, my friends, is the key to excellent lyric writing.

Day29 – A Song From Your Childhood: The Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

We all grow up listening to the music our parents liked. My folks like The Beatles, Carole King, Fleetwood Mac and Mike Oldfield.. you know, that kind of thing… While My Guitar Gently Weeps was and still is one of my favourites from that selection. I love it.

Day 30 – Your Favourite Song at This Time Last Year:  Many of Horror (When We Collide), Biffy Clyro

I was kind of happy when Matt Cardle covered this song last year… I thought, well at least he’s singing a good song and maybe that will draw attention to the original artists Biffy Clyro, who are great (although I was annoyed when they didn’t call it Many of Horror). But then, wondering around a supermarket one day, I actually heard it – a startling example of how sickly sweet over-produced pop-i-ness can decimate a song. S**t.

Oh well, here is the original version in all its glory. ‘Mon the Biffy!

See you all after Christmas!

The 30 Day Song Challenge, Part 8: Days 18, 19 and 20

Time for another dose of the 30 Day Song Challenge. We’re now up to days 18, 19 and 20 – that means only 10 more days to go! Yeah!

Day 18: A Song That You Wish you Heard on the Radio: Paranoid Android, Radiohead

I love OK Computer era Radiohead, but you never, ever, ever hear those songs on the radio. Paranoid Android is over 6 minutes long, and has weighty lyrics & lots of dynamics, making it particularly unfriendly for our radio-waves (apparently). Oh well, it’s an amazing song anyway, so enjoy!

Day 19: A Song From your Favourite Album: Singalong, Ben Marwood

Hmm, choosing a song from my favourite album involves me deciding what my favourite album is. There are many albums that I love, each stirring up different memories or emotional states. In fact, OK:Computer, mentioned above, is one of my all time favourites. But, no – I think I’ll go for something more recent. One of my favourite albums of the moment is Ben Marwood’s Outside There’s a Curse. I couldn’t find the track I wanted (JJ Abrams) on YouTube , so you’ll have to make do with a live version of Singalong. Which is fine by me really (although the sound quality isn’t great).

And lastly:

Day 20: A Song That You Listen You When You’re Angry: We’re In This Together, Nine Inch Nails

When I am frustrated or angry, I like the sound of distorted guitars to soothe my soul. This is a great song for screaming along with after a bad day (in the privacy of the car or shut in your room like a teenager, of course). Grahh!

2000Trees 2011: A Review of One Girl’s Festival Weekend

Two Thousand Trees Festival holds a special place in my heart.

This year was our fourth of attending the eco-minded, friendly little festival based in Withington, near Cheltenham, and previous years haven’t failed to impress.

Unlike last year, we didn’t manage to persuade any of our friends to join us for the weekend, but that didn’t deter our high spirits as we arrived on Thursday late afternoon. Already loud guitars could be heard emanating from new stage, The Cave, as we pitched up our tent within sight of the main stage. 2000Trees is about discovering new and exciting music and, although I have seen a couple of the bands on the line up before,  it was with an open mind that I approached this year’s festival.

We started out heading to The Cave to catch one of our local favourites, OST (it would have been rude not to). Their set seamlessly blended elements of dance, heavy rock, classical piano and pumping bass lines to create a sound which is uniquely theirs. It rocks, yet you can’t help but dance to it.

Heading up to the littlest stage of the festival, The Greenhouse (a sweet, tiny stage set in a field full of poppies with a natural slope, so everyone could see and hear clearly – nice) we caught comedy act, Flange Krammer (Power Horse!), before returning to The Cave for Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun’s fantastic set of punk-influenced folk songs.

I think we ended up back at The Greenhouse for the end of the evening, but copious amounts of cider have made my recollection a little hazy in this area… it was fun anyway… I think some funny people called Bob and Jim were involved somewhere…

Friday dawned with a hangover, some lovely bright sunshine and an exciting day of music ahead of us. Breakfast, strong tea and a walk round the nature trail sorted out the hangover, so that just left the music and sunshine!

We caught The Anomalies on the main stage for an up-beat, hip-hop influenced start, followed by the fantastic Dive Dive for some jagged yet catchy post-hardcore (see my review of latest album, Potential here, if you like). Next up was Oxygen Thief at The Greenhouse, so we hot-footed it up there to see him – I’m a bit of a fan, but for those of you not in the know, Oxygen Thief does metal with nothing but some awesome acoustic guitar playing, a few effects pedals (which got soaked in beer – oops) and aggressive vocals.  Excellent stuff.

Back at the main stage we checked out Jim Lockey’s second set of the weekend, which was as impressive as the first, and then once again headed back up to The Greenhouse for some more acoustic loveliness with a little  David Gibb, followed by another of my favourite artists of this year, Ben Marwood.

Phew – all this and it was still only around 6 in the evening. Time for a Pie Minister and a break while Dinosaur Pile Up and Twin Atlantic were on stage, and then one of the weirder experiences I’ve had at a festival happened… We noticed a tent in the corner of the field with a sign next to it simply saying “The Hide: Please Come In”. How could we resist? So into the tent we squeezed, with a pair of lads and another couple, for a chat and a laugh. And then, fairly randomly, the guys exited by jumping out one of the many window flaps to go and listen to the King Blues, who had since taken to the stage. This attracted the attention of two lovely young girls who kept us all entertained by leaping in and out of the tent. Surreal, but fun!

Once the kids had been safely returned to their parents, our new friends recommended that we check out Tellison in the Leaf Lounge – and I’m glad we did. With some catchy,  up-beat post-rock type tunes, I thought they were great! The night ended with some pretty soggy covers with Oxygen Thief at the busking box – a wet and cold, but brilliant end to a fabulous day.

Saturday morning, and it was still tipping it down. We decided not to venture from the tent until the music kicked off at 12 with an excellent set from Gaz Brookfield at the Greenhouse. Luckily, the weather had settled down a little by this point and we decided it was safe to put on our fancy dress robot costumes. Every year, 2000Trees has a fancy dress day theme, and this year’s was robots vs ninjas vs cowboys – cue people in boxes, tinfoil,  cowboy hats and some very odd all-in-one ninja suits. Brilliant.

We spent the afternoon drifting between stages (as much as robots can drift anyway), enjoying bands here and there without really paying attention to what we were listening to. Heading back to the main stage, the fancy dress winner was announced – the prize went to a guy dressed as the robot from the Beastie Boys’ ‘Intergalactic’ vid. It was a fair victory! We decided to abandon our costumes at this point (due to the annoyance of not being able to eat… or drink… or pee…), but managed to make it back to the main stage for Imperial Leisure’s ska-drenched beats. Excellent stuff.

Again we drifted, ending up in The Leaf Lounge for The Travelling Band (nice), and finally it was time for the last band of the festival – Scottish rock band Frightened Rabbit. I’ve only heard a little of their stuff before, but their melodic, mellow rock was a good end to round off the festival line up.

We packed up on Sunday with smiles on our faces.

I appreciate I’ve gone on a bit for this post, so here’s the TL;DR version: 2000Trees is a great little festival. You should go.

Review of Frank Turner at St George’s in Bristol

Ok, I will confess now that this review will not be as objective as perhaps it should be. If you read back through my blog entries you will already know that I am a massive fan of Frank Turner and, since Frank was nice enough to speak to hubby and I after the show last night, I am still totally buzzing with excitement and over-enthusiasm; meaning that this review might dissolve into a ramble about how great I think he is.

Because he is great. And last night’s show was amazing. And I was soo very lucky not only to get last minute tickets, but also to end up right at the front. So much awesome in one evening…

Ah – it’s already happened, hasn’t it?

*Ahem* Well then, now that that’s out the way…

Let’s start with the venue. St George’s is (or was) a church, and so the gig was seated – which just felt weird – but the acoustics were beautiful, and the space open and light. The atmosphere was one of contained excitement, the normal pre-gig chatter slightly subdued by the grand surroundings, but it was pleasant none-the-less.

The supports for the evening (and for the rest of the tour) were Ben Marwood and Franz Nicolay, both of whom were very good. Franz pointed out that it’s traditional when attending big shows that the support acts are always shit… and ably then went on to prove that’s not the case.

I’ve seen Ben Marwood a couple of times before, and really love his songs – as I’ve said before, they’re clever, intricate and honest and Ben has one of those voices that I could listen to for hours. His set was a good mix of some older songs, some from his recently released album Outside There’s a Curse and some that I’ve not heard before. After touring for a while he was clearly more relaxed on stage, and was chatty and humourous between songs. Definitely recommend checking him out (I’ve told you this before – why haven’t you already heeded my repeated calls to do so? Hmmm?!).

Multi-instrumentalist Franz Nicolay was the enigma on the bill (for me anyway) as I  had never seen him, or even heard of him, before. Very much enjoyed his set; it felt like a combination of folk and vaudeville traditions, and really suited the arena of St George’s. His songs were story-like in their lyrics and structure and the mixture of guitar, accordion and banjo playing was great. Plus, he has a brilliant moustache!*

Right then, on to our headliner – Mr Frank Turner himself. Of course I loved every second, so I guess I should clarify why.

Firstly, as much as I enjoy the energy when Frank plays with his band, it was really awesome to see a show that was just him and his acoustic guitar(s). It just shows how strong the songs are, and how much emotion he puts into performing them, that one voice and one instrument can keep a packed hall at rapt attention.

The set itself was fantastic – as you would expect he played some songs from the new album (out in a few weeks, I believe), including I am Disappeared. As for older songs,  he played Better Half, a heart-wrenching classic that is rarely heard live; I was surprised and completely overjoyed to hear A Decent Cup of Tea – my absolute favourite song from Sleep is for the Week – which in all the times I’ve been to Frank Turner gigs**, I have never seen him play. He followed it up with another sad song that I didn’t know, then broke into Long Live The Queen. Embarrassing confession time – I almost cried (how very teenage of me)… But then he lifted the mood and got the crowd up, singing and stamping their feet.

He did a song with Franz Nicolay as part of the encore, and then brought Ben Marwood back on stage so all three of them could do an amazing cover of The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by The Postal Service.

When it came to the finale of  The Ballad of Me and My Friends, for which Frank climbed off the stage to stand on the seats in the crowd, the place was in a frenzy. It was an amazing experience – hubby had to duck the neck of Frank’s guitar, and suddenly there he was, right in front of me, and we were all singing and it was indescribably, awe-inspiringly good.

Wow.

Best gig ever***.

Alright, I shall stop now – I think you’ve probably got the idea! But, there is already a video on YouTube from last night’s gig, so in the interest of demonstrating the reason for my possibly-verging-on-obsessive fandom here it is. Enjoy!

*Yes, I know – I shouldn’t judge on appearances… But c’mon, who doesn’t love curly moustaches?!

**On the way to the gig, hubby and I worked out that we’ve seen Frank Turner seven times now – and that’s if you count the year he played about 5 sets at the 2000Trees Festival as one…

***I may have to confess that I might have said that last time… and maybe even the time before that… *awkward cough* But honestly – it will take a lot to beat last night.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Blog (A Mash-up of Blogs I Think You’d Like)

I like blogging, and I like reading blogs. So, I thought it’d be a nice thing to share some nice things with you.

Like this:

[Edit] Radio is a music blog/podcast site and features music news and opinion on the blog side, and loads of amazing artists-that-you-probably-haven’t-heard-of-yet in their podcasts.

The Ocelot is an actual paper magazine (<mild sacrasm>I know, paper is so retro!</mild sarcasm>), which you can pick up in various places around Swindon for free. It’s normally a fun read, and contains loads of info on local happenings/gigs. I’ve only just discovered their website, but even so, their blog seems quite entertaining.

Ben Marwood’s blog details Ben’s adventures through touring, recording and life in general. Check out his blog. And, more importantly, check out his music because it’s clever, charming and compelling – and Frank Turner will cut off your legs off if you don’t*.

And finally, Don’t Make That Face is nothing to do with music, but you should read it anyway. Because it’s funny. The end.**

Um, that’s it for now…

So yeah, have a gander – and if you like, you can add your own recommendations in the comments. Or don’t. It’s a free country after all. But bear in mind that I do like to feel the warm glow of your commenty goodness (ooh, that kind of sounded naughty… *giggle*. It’s not though, just to be clear.).

Alright, this image has nothing to do with the post - but it's always good to be organised, right kitteh? (image from icanhascheezburger.com)

*Genuine, actual Frank Turner quote from this YouTube vid.

**I should mention for the more ‘sensitive’ men out there… the last post I read by Don’t Make That Face was about feminine hygiene products. Just be warned if you’re the type of guy who runs screaming from the word ‘cramps’. Yes, I said it, and I’ll say it again too. Cramps, cramps, cramps! Mwhahaaahaa!

Two Reviews in one! Ben Marwood and Dive Dive

I was putting off listening to these albums until I actually had time to listen to them properly.

They both sat on my coffee table, calling me to listen, since they arrived from Amazon. Until it got to the point where I could stand it no more… and so Ben Marwood went on while I was washing up, and Dive Dive made it into my car. And I’m glad that they did, because once I started listening, I couldn’t stop…

So anyway, on to the reviews. Let’s start with melodious punk rock band Dive Dive, for no particular reason other than we have to start somewhere.

Potential is Dive Dive’s latest album(number 3, I believe) but is the first of theirs that I have listened to. After catching them live supporting Frank Turner* and being impressed (review of that night’s performance here), it seemed a good idea to check out some of their recorded material.

I suspect Potential will stay on my car stereo for some time, as this is one of the few places I get to turn music up and enjoy. And it is  certainly an album that you’ll want to turn up, especially if you’re into guitar music.

Every track has merit, and the album fits together nicely together as a coherent whole. Combining intricate guitar lines with interesting harmonies and a wide range of dynamics, this is definitely worth giving more than a few listens.

Stand out tracks: Ape like  me (Planet of the Apes condensed into 3 minutes 26 seconds – excellent),  Damage Control (catchy and driving, yet poignant),  Collapse from the Hurt and Let’s Swap Places (slower, building to a dramatic close and featuring some clever panning).

In short – love it.

And so we move on to our next offering; Outside There’s a Curse.

Ben Marwood’s first full album, released on Xtra Mile Recordings, Outside There’s a Curse is a heartfelt collection of intimate acoustic songs with clever lyrical twists. With a hefty dose of cynicismn tempered with honesty and few gentle swipes at modern culture, this is an interesting listen.

There’s something charming about Ben’s voice, sometimes soothing, sometimes gruff, it carries the record, tying the album together through tracks which vary in tone.

Stand out tracks: Singalong (fuller in instrumentation than some other tracks on the album, it’s a catchy little number), I Will Breathe You In, and the final track – an acoustic cover of Postal Service’s The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.

Prize for the best song title has to go to Tell Avril Lavigne I Never Wanted to be her Stupid Boyfriend Anyway.

This is an excellent piece of work, and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning for Mr Marwood.

*In case you didn’t know, members of Dive Dive also make up part of Frank Turner’s backing band. That is your interesting factoid of the day.

In which Ells ponders genre boundaries (or what the hell is anti-folk anyway?)

Ben Marwood - image 'borrowed' from the BBC Berkshire website

The other weekend I went to see Ben Marwood and Oxygen Thief playing at The Victoria in Swindon. It was a fun night and we ended up chatting with Ben and Barry (Oxygen Thief), to discover that they are both lovely as well as fantastically talented – but anyway, that’s not the point.

The point is that Ben Marwood has a shiny new album out and when I went to buy said album (I know, how current and trendy am I?!), the website described him as an ‘anti-folk singer-songwriter’.

Anti-folk? What the ****??!

Ok, I know that human nature is to define oneself against something. Punk is a fairly easy to bring to mind example: the music, the fashion and the attitude were (still are?) all to be what the mainstream wasn’t; to differentiate from the ‘normal’ ideology and to belong to a group of like-minded people. But that’s kind of what folk already is – it is the music of the people. It comes from people like you or me singing about the normal concerns of normal people.

Admittedly, the ‘folk tradition’ conjures up thoughts of more traditional songs, but to label anyone’s music as anti-folk is to miss the point, I think. I know that the definition of folk as a genre has changed, it has become more of a ‘sound’ these days. But still, to be ‘anti’ something, you must be against it, and how can you be against the music of the people when you are, in fact, a person making music?

It is very easy to jump on the label band wagon of anti-folk, post-rock or nu-metal (arrg, that one always annoyed me – it was never really new nor really metal…*), but maybe we should think just a little bit harder before we tag a name on things…

Or maybe we could just enjoy the music for what it is without getting bogged down in ye olde genre argument.

I will finish with a quote from Mr Frank Turner, who has eloquently said in the booklet of his recent Rock and Roll EP what my little rant here has tried to express:

“So when I am asked to pick a genre tag to describe the music I make, I hesitate. But I shouldn’t. I could call it punk, or folk, or rock & roll. But to me personally it’s all of these things: together they represent a continuity, different faces of the same idea. And that idea is that music is something simple that brings us together, makes us more than the sum of our parts and tells us something inexpressible about the human condition. It might only be something as simple and as small as rock and roll, but it might yet save us all. Or just sound really, really cool.”

See – what he said!

*I just want to clarify, I like some nu-metal  – it’s just the name that annoys the hell out of me! Especially as some idiot decided to spell it nu. Give me strength! You’ve shortend a three-letter word, dip-s**t!