Stevie Wonder
February 7, 2010
After hearing that Michael Eavis has basically confirmed Stevie Wonder as one of the headliners for Glastonbury this year, I thought I would give Songs In The Key of Life another spin. Everybody has heard the classics like Very Superstitious and I Just Called To Say I Love You, but songs like Part Time Lover, I Wish and Sir Duke, while instant hallmarks of classic motown and soul, aren’t as recognised by our generation. This is especially true when Very Superstitious gets played in the disco room in the club over the previously mentioned tunes.
Well, that’s a bit of a lie. Our generation will have heard them, but not in their original form. Many of Stevie’s songs have been sampled one way or another by current artists. See if you recognise the main beat and riff of this song -
You hear that? Will Smith sampled this, as well as the rhythm for the chorus, for his song Will2K. While I totally adore Will2K, this song is where it all came from.
What about this one:
Dont think many people will realise that the Coolio’s Gangster’s Paradise sampled the above song.
The day I hear I Wish or Sir Duke in the disco room in TigerTiger is the day I die. Now that I’ve said that, they’ll probably play it on Monday. Here’s hoping.
Jamie T Review
February 3, 2010
Fans have been waiting for this gig with baited breath after cockney singer/songwriter Jamie T was forced to reschedule this date from October. Four months have passed since then and it seems that Jamie T’s voice is now better than ever.
Support act Chester P seems like a jack of all genres, master of none. He raps over a selection of generic beats and gets all manner of friends on stage to play acoustic ballads and straightforward rock songs. The highlight of the set was a dubstep remix of Pharoahe Monch’s classic ‘Simon Says’.
Jamie T says that it is best to start gigs with lots of energy, and he does just that. Everybody is jumping up and down as soon as the first string is plucked on his guitar and the gig seems like a one and a half hour sing-a-long from the crowd more than a Jamie T set. Highlights include If You’ve Got The Money, Chaka Demus and Sticks and Stones. The intense heat in the venue, especially towards the end, didn’t put off the masses from singing their hearts out. Jamie T is welcome back in Southampton anytime.
Stylo
January 21, 2010
I fucking love Gorillaz. There I said it.
On the surface, they are a cartoon band who have made a few commercially successful singles like Feel Good Inc, Clint Eastwood and 19-2000. However once you look past (the frankly awesome) singles, they have an incredible wealth of variety and depth to their albums. Rock The House, November Has Come, All Alone, O Green World…a mix of hip-hop, intelligent pop, dark doomy bass and catchy choruses which will stay in your head for weeks. Their new single Stylo, taken from their upcoming album, Plastic Beach, is no exception.
Gorillaz – Stylo (ft. Mos Def and Bobby Womack)
Incredible. Damon Albarn = absolute genius.
BTBAM Poster
January 19, 2010
Whole Lotta Led Review
January 16, 2010
I’ve started to review gigs for the Portsmouth News again and here is my first one of the new year – the fantastic Whole Lotta Led.
The remaining members of Led Zeppelin all have their own side projects now. However, their live legacy will live on forever through tribute band Whole Lotta Led.
Tonight is a special show for the tribute act as they perform two sets – one full of Zeppelin hits like Kashmir, Black Dog and the infamous Stairway to Heaven and the other is the bonafide classic ‘Led Zeppelin II’ played in full.
Every single note is spot on tonight as the band rip through ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘Achilles Last Stand’ with ease in their first set. It would be unfair to criticise lead singer Lee Addison for not having the vocal range of the late 60’s/early 70’s Robert Plant as that seems impossible to emulate. However, he absolutely nails Plant’s eccentricity and stage presence. He rightly says that “every track is a winner” about the album Led Zeppelin II and they perform a magnificent rendition of ‘The Lemon Song’.
I genuinely feel sorry for those who, as Jack Black says, have never “got the Led out.” If there is a better way to spend your Friday night than with a few beers and Whole Lotta Led, then I don’t want to know.
Attack Attack…Attack!
January 12, 2010
An absolutely hilarious and spot on parody of the musical abortion that is Attack Attack – Stick Stickly. You have to give them a round of applause simply because of the great lengths they went to to take the piss out of them. Unused car park, the lighting, the filming, the clothes and hair…magical.
Cynic
January 11, 2010
Below, in the review of Ihsahn – After, I mentioned how some of parts of that album nodded in the direction of Cynic. Some, almost all of you, won’t know who Cynic are. I sure as hell didn’t until a few years ago. Now, they are probably one of my favourite bands of all time.
I remember asking a friend on MSN to send me some music as the boredom of sitting around the house listening to the same music over and over was making me consider how to tie a solid noose (okay an exagerration, but it highlights just how desperately in need I was of something new to listen to). He wings over Cynic – Veil of Maya and I press play.
“What the fuck is this shit,” I said to myself.
Some robot soundalike motherfucker (whom I imagined was wearing some sort of Daft Punk costume at the time) starts warbling over some heavy shredding. I switch it off immediately and go back whatever I was listening to at the time. At this point in my life, I never really listened to heavy metal or any particularly heavy music. Before this happened, I remember putting on Thrice – The Artist In The Ambulance on my hi-fi and just being horrified at what started playing. Safe to say, I’m a bit more musically aware now than I was (still don’t listen to Thrice though). But anyway, I listened to the beginning of Veil of Maya, pressed the stop button and never went back to it.
Time passed, and my ears became more and more aware to various strands and subcategories of rock and heavy metal. Bands came and went, yet this mp3 of Veil of Maya was still on my hard drive. A particularly dull Summer’s day ignited a spark in the back of my brain telling me to go back to this song. I was cynical (har har) about going back to it because of my reaction upon the first listen.
Something suddenly clicked. Like pieces of a jigsaw finally fitting together to reveal the full picture. It all just….worked. The celestial vocals, the otherworldly nature and harmonisation of the guitars, the deathly screams/growls/whatever…everything just seemed to work perfectly. I went on from listening to Veil of Maya to acquiring the whole album, Focus.
I also went and did some background research on the band while Focus played in the background and noticed that this was their only release. I couldn’t believe it – a band who created something this masterful only limited themselves to an 8 tracks on an album released in 1993. I was only 4 years old when they released Focus, I started listening to it at 17/18, and they still hadn’t released anything within that period. Thanks to Cynic, I craved other progressive tech-death – Atheist (who actually preceded Cynic with their magnificent album Unquestionable Presence) became a firm favourite, but Cynic – Focus always had a place in my heart as the very best.
Then came the reunion and new album. Fuck.
Fuck.
I couldn’t believe it. A band that I had grown to love and had almost zero chance of reforming and making new material….had reformed. And made new material. The exciteometer had hit critical levels. Defcon 1. Code red. Awwwww here goes. But what if the new material wasn’t that good? What if they took a steaming dump over the legacy that was Focus? I wouldn’t want Cynic to be that band that made an album which is looked upon as one of the pioneering tech-death albums and also made a piece of shit 15 years later.
Luckily, ‘Traced in Air is absolutely incredible. Sure, it’s not as heavy as Focus was, but perhaps making a carbon copy wasn’t the way to go. They had already hit the dizzy heights of ‘one of the most influential albums of all time’, so perhaps evolving rather than making Focus 2 was the right choice. Cynic has always been about progression, so standing still and making music from the past just didn’t seem to be an option. The vocoder vocals are still there, the death growls are present and the intricate harmonies and dizzying bass fills are all accounted and checked for. It just seemed different.
There are loads of critics who put Traced in Air in their Top Ten of 2008 lists and rated it very highly – 9.5 from Terrorizer, 5/5 from Sputnikmusic, 9/10 from blabbermouth.
I can only hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do and that it gets them to tour more often. They are currently on a wanktasticly good tour with Between the Buried and Me, The Devin Townsend Project and Scale The Summit in the US. Fingers crossed that something similar is brought here to the UK.
2,500 visitors!
December 30, 2009
The big 2,500 has been reached. Cheers guys, a great way to bring me into the new year. Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas. 2010 will be an even bigger year for LBEMD so please keep looking and I’m going to try and get lots more interviews and do lots more album reviews. To celebrate, I’ve made a cheeky banner. You can post it anywhere you like, on forums, on your myspace, whatever:
All the best,
Ash









