I’m a bit late on this it seems, but whatever, I’m excited about it! Mike Patton did an interview at the beginning of the year & mentioned a new Lovage album! I thought their first album was just a one off. Here is what he said:
The music is done. Dan [The Automator] has written all the music, but we don’t know when we’ll be able to track all the vocals. So, I would think that at some point next year, when schedules free up, we’ll track this thing, and have the laborious adventure of finding a home for it. Maybe I’ll put it out, maybe we’ll go somewhere else; I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do with it. But, I would think at some point next year a new Lovage record would hit people’s ears.
[credit: StarPulse]
I really hope that Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields is involved again, though. There seems to be some doubt that she will be. It would be a shame if she isn’t, Patton & Charles are two of my favourite vocalists, & her voice suited the sleazy songs so well! She seemed quite uncomfortable singing the songs live though (I saw some on YouTube) so maybe that’s why she wouldn’t do it again. Who knows.
I’d recommend Lovage to anyone who loves: Mike Patton, Elysian Fields, sex, sleazy (but funny) songs, trip-hop, electronic… or all of the above! I just wish I could get the first album (’Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By’) for a decent price somewhere - Amazon used/new is around £30!
I realise that a lot of news sites have written about this & it’s been a popular article on BBC News today, but it made me giggle so I had to write about it too.
Apparently, a Monk who lives in a small friary in the Milan hinterland is the lead vocalist in a metal band called Fratello Metallo. He’s 62 years old & got into metal when he attended a Metallica concert 15 years ago. The band have just released their second album, called ‘Mysteri’. You can read more about him & the band here.
Kings of Leon are touring again in December! They are one of the best bands I’ve seen live & I had an amazing time at the concert last year. Should I see them again for the third time in a year & a half?!
I’ve been listening to this song a lot tonight. I hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but it really struck me tonight. I love the video for it as well.
I’ve been reading a book called Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas, which is basically a collection of interviews with female bands/artists from the 1990s & their relationship with music. Included in the book is Courtney Love of Hole, Nina Gordon & Louise Post of Veruca Salt, Björk, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Huggy Bear, Liz Phair, Tanya Donnelly of Belly & others I can’t remember off the top of my head. Most of the bands/artists featured in the book I already liked or had listened to at some point. However, one interview intrigued me & made me seek her band out on Last.FM. The interview was with Sonya Aurora Madan of Echobelly. I had never heard of them before, despite them apparently being fairly popular in Britain during the Britpop craze. I guess around that time I was still young & listening to boy/girlbands. Anyway, I gave them a listen & really like them - I can’t get ‘Great Things’ out of my head! I went hunting for a CD & found an eighteen track ‘Best Of’ on Play.com for £2.99. Bargain. Definitely a band you should check out if you’re into female fronted indie/britpop - you can stream a lot of their songs on their Last.FM page.
I’m itching to go to a gig… the last (complete) one I went to was in January! I did go to see Breed 77 not so long ago, but I was ill right before their set & had to leave early :( it’s been way too long since I’ve been to a great gig. There is some good stuff coming up next term though! I’m hoping to go to some shows. I’d absolutely love to see Opeth again, but I think the only way that would happen is if I go on my own. The two bands that I’m likely to see are Feeder (Mike has expressed an interest in that one) & Apocalyptica. I’m not a huge fan of Feeder, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them. Other bands I wouldn’t mind seeing are Millencolin & Less Than Jake, but I wouldn’t be upset if I missed them. There’s also Bryan Adams… my brother wants to come up to see that show, but I doubt either of us could afford it! £45 per ticket is very steep! I want to start seeing more local bands, but I’m not sure how busy I’m going to be in my third year. I just need to go gigging!
[edit] I completely forgot that Orange Goblin are touring again in October, I’d like to see them again & Mike really enjoyed seeing them last year, so that’s another possibility! [/edit]
Eek, it’s been a while since I last posted! For the last month I’ve had some problems with my iPod & had to completely wipe it… I was living on about 200 tracks until I left Uni. Not good! Since I’ve been home I’ve been trying to sift through my music collection & fill it back up again. I don’t even think I’m a quarter of the way through yet haha, but I strangely enjoy doing it, so it’s not so bad.
So, what have I been listening to since I last posted? Well, I’m about to buy the new Offspring album… admittedly I downloaded it first to test drive it, since I wasn’t quite convinced the whole thing would live up to Hammerhead. I was proved wrong! It’s typically Offspring & nothing new, but it’s a great summer album! Highlights are the first five tracks (Half-Truism, Trust in You, You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid, Hammerhead & A Lot Like Me [which is much slower - kinda like Offspring meets Coldplay - but possibly my favourite on the album]) & Stuff Is Messed Up, which has the biting social commentary I’ve always loved from them. The only track I’d say I’m not that fond of is Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?. It’s a sad song & perhaps something that needed to be written about, but I don’t think it really flows with the album. Anyway, all in all, it is a great album & I’ve listened to it way too much these last few weeks!
Before leaving Uni, Mike & I had pretty much been hooked on listening to Fu Manchu & Monster Magnet. Their albums, California Crossing & Powertrip respectively, are awesome to listen to when it’s sunny. Mike bought Fu Manchu’s most recent album, We Must Obey, just before we left. Although it is not quite the easy listening album that California Crossing is, I like the doomy elements to it.
Now that my iPod is getting sorted, hopefully there will be more entries!
I love searching through charity shops to find cheap music. There is the most amazing Oxfam Music & Book Shop near where I live, & there is always something I want to buy in there! Just the other day I managed to find Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, Performance and Cocktails by Stereophonics & Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt for under £7 all together! Bargain. Mike also found Smash by The Offspring for 99p. The music section in charity shops is always worth a look, even though you might have to sift through countless terrible compilation albums & boyband CDs before you find anything decent to buy!
A week or so ago I was browsing through my Last.FM recommendations & saw Sirenia on the list. I had downloaded a couple of tracks from their second album, An Elixr for Existence, & quite liked them, particularly ‘Lithium and a Lover’. I hadn’t, however, given their debut album a try. I saw that the whole album was streamable & decided to give it a listen. I was absolutely blown away by first track, ‘Meridian’ & was captivated from then on. The whole album I would describe as heavy, dark atmospheric & beautiful.
I’m a sucker for beauty & the beast vocals (Morten Veland can growl as well as he writes songs & Fabienne Gondamin was a good choice for female vocals) & with an added clean male vocalist the songs sound amazing. I am also a sucker for violins, piano & choirs mixed with metal - they sound great on this album! Some of the album oddly reminds me of the alien sounds in Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, particularly on ‘On the Wane’ & ‘In a Manica’… maybe that’s just me! The album is strong all the way through & ends with the sad & haunting ‘In Sumerian Haze’ which I could listen to over & over again, the violin sounds amazing on it. A great end to arguably the best gothic metal album there is.
The whole album is a masterpiece, I don’t know how else to describe. All I can say is listen to it & listen to it loudly! You can stream the whole album for free on Last.FM.
London-based cult band, Die So Fluid, have been around since 2001. They are back three years after their debut album, Spawn of Dysfunction, and (in my opinion) better than ever! I had the pleasure of seeing them live supporting hard rock band My Ruin in January. I liked their debut album a lot already, but their performance won me over completely. I was blown away by the power of the trio live and even more impressed by Grog’s (vocalist/bassist) voice. This woman can sing, scream and soar! It sounds amazing recorded and nothing at all is lost live. It is passionate and powerful, which is a refreshing change compared to what many other female fronted bands have to offer.
Their long-awaited second album, Not Everybody Gets a Happy Ending, was released in February of this year. The album is very diverse and the sound difficult to pin down. They cite their influences as ‘ranging from The Deftones and Black Sabbath to Siouxsie Sioux and Hole’ and you can definitely hear all of those different influences in the record, making it a very interesting listen!
The album kicks off with ‘Gang of One’, teasing with a light intro before hitting you full in the face with heavy guitars, ten seconds in. This song seems to follow on from the first album, as does second track ‘Test Confessional’, which is no bad thing by any means. The rest of the album has elements of goth, rock, metal and also some punk/rockabilly thrown in, particularly on the track ‘Something to Say’. The album is strangely catchy but lyrically dark, with tracks such as ‘Existential Baby’, ‘Happy Hallowe’en’ and ‘Vorvolaka’. It is certainly not what you’d expect from a vocalist/bassist who has toured with Mel C and Kelly Osbourne!
I think it is a fantastic album and they have really developed their sound in the last few years. Many have commented that their sound is unoriginal and nothing new, but I honestly haven’t heard any other band do it better.
The site is not going to strive to be up to date or be giving you the latest music news, it will just be a music diary of sorts. Somewhere I can document my musical findings, review music & gigs, & hopefully help others discover some great music on the way.
