It’s finally here then, the full and complete lineup of this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Full of countless big names and even more obscurities that will probably put on a much better show. So here is Music On The Mind’s official verdict of the Glastonbury lineup – yay!
Thursday
Not really much going on on the Thursday, but three stages are open which seem to be showcased a few good artists. Sub-headlining the Queen’s Head Stage are Metronomy who are a great example of what an indie band with a melodica can do. Having seen them live once before, I can recommend catching them again. Sadly the rest of the stage seems a little unknown to me, with the exception of Maximo Park. The boys from Newcastle were announced last week as the official openers of the Queen’s Head Stage and are guaranteed to put on a great show. Read the rest of this entry »
It was announced today that Download Festival will be being broadcast online live over the Download weekend. The festival takes place between the 12th and 14th of June and features such big names as Faith No More, Slipknot, Def Leppard, Marilyn Manson and The Prodigy.
The footage to be streamed via the Download website though is only from the main stage, not the other three stages which are featuring some cracking bands over the weekend. This in itself is an annoyance as I’m not too fussed over the majority of main stage acts this year, but the other stages are packed with some of the newest and best talent in the industry today; The Ghost Of A Thousand, Blackhole and Pulled Apart By Horses to name a few. Read the rest of this entry »
Blink 182 made their second of two running appearances on America’s Jay Leno show last night, which saw the newly reformed pop-punks blast out their breakthrough track All The Small Things. This should have been Blink’s chance to show the world that they’re back and ready to party like they did all those years ago…this however isn’t the case. The music in itself is exactly how it’s always been – happy and tinged with a slight element of punk – however Tom DeLonge’s voice leaves much to be desired.
Obviously his brief jaunt into the emo-tastic egofest of Angels & Airwaves didn’t do much for his previous life of Blink, but it seems to have affected his voice massively. It sounds as though he’s trying to supress a large whine down the microphone about girls and emotions, rather than having sex with animals for which Blink 182 are often remembered.
Personally I’m hoping that Blink manage to pull it off live, despite now being much older. Both Mark and Travis seemed to be in the moment, but Tom might take a bit of time to adjust. Blink isn’t a one man band like Angels & Airwaves, it’s just three guys having a laugh and singing about the random times when growing up.
Can three guys in their thirties still ‘wow’ you with tales of their first dates and growing up?
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It was announced last week that the joint project of Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and David Lynch would not be released due to the threat of legal action from EMI (Danger Mouse’s current label). However despite this effective banning of the album it has reportedly been leaked online 2 months before it’s scheduled release date.
The album entitled Dark Night Of The Soul contains guest appearances from Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop and Frank Black has appeared on numerous websites including USA’s National Public Radio. Although the album isn’t available to download, it can be listened to in its entirety for free. Check it out here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585
It is currently unknown whether the album will remain available to listen for the forseeable future. Currently though Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse are planning to release a blank CD-R with a label stating For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will’. It will be accompanied by a book though by David Lynch.
This is somewhat of a rebellion by artists toward their respective labels. It seems that artists on separate cannot collaborate on an album for fear of being sued, which is slightly pathetic. I’m sure a deal could be forged which allowed EMI to get a certain percentage of the sales, or possibly they could not take anything as it isn’t really anything to do with them. Just because Danger Mouse is their ‘property’, I highly doubt they had any involvement in the recording process or the production at all. If Dark Night Of The Soul is eventually released it will undoubtedbly be successful, it has been surrounded by hype since its first mention years ago. Personally I hope it is released and EMI just accept it.
In the run up to Eminem’s next album release ‘Relapse’, his 1996 debut LP has been released online for free! It has been uploaded by Eminem’s protegé 50 Cent on his website This Is 50.
The rare album was released in 1996 through Web Entertainment and was limited to 1000 copies cassettes and 100 vinyls. According to Eminem’s autobiography ‘The Way I Am’ only 70 copies were actually shifted – the album nowadays fetches around £100 on eBay.
‘Infinite’ is much more laid back the following album, the infamous ‘Slim Shady LP’ which rocketed Eminem to superstardom. It features various hip hop artists including Thyme, Kon Artist and Eye Kyu.
The term singer/songwriter is thrown around so much these days it’s hard to tell any old solo musician apart, particularly those comprising of a man and his guitar. Stuart Newman though has tried to alter this cliché of the singer/songwriter by not sounding like a cheap imitation of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly or Newton Faulkner but instead using as many techniques as possible to break away from these artists.
The main similarity to any band/artist for Stuart Newman has to be Eels. As soon as the opening track ’51st State’ begins with the acoustic guitar and eerie vocals that seem to have been churned through a mixing desk there is an instant comparison, which isn’t a bad thing – on the other hand there is a slight similarity to Leonard Cohen which isn’t as ‘cool’.
The music in itself is very much alternative, none of the songs follow the same structure or style, instead each one tries to be unique in its own way in order to be remembered. Which is one of the flaws with the album, remembrance. The album is far too short, Newman manages to cram 14 songs into half an hour which seems like the whole thing was a bit rushed.
Out of the 14 tracks in this half hour there are a handful of quite charming and interesting songs. ‘Gotta Work’ and ‘Cry Wolf’ showcase Newman’s vocal ability and guitar skills incredibly; also props are in order for mentioning Bill Hicks in the chorus to ‘Oscar’. His tribute to Nirvana is very much tongue-in-cheek and is more of a dodgy Kurt Cobain impression than a song, which is a little saddening as it could be so much more.
The album on a whole though is definitely worth a listen, even just to kill half an hour with something different. The alternative and overall chilled out aspect of the album can leave you either in the mood to listen to Susan’s House or just leave you slightly bemused. For those people who love those ‘one man and his guitar’ artists, check Stuart Newman out. You just might like him.
Back when Spotify began it was seen by many as another rival to We7 and LastFM, but now it’s trying to challenge the online music titans of iTunes.
Spotify has been rumoured to be extending its current £9.99 ad-free service to also include unlimited music downloads which can be stored on your hard drive. Currently music can only be streamed in a ‘radio’ style.
The premise of paying a subscription fee for mp3s could pose a threat to iTunes, which currently charges 79p for each song. A charge of 79p equates to 12 songs for £9.48, whereas Spotify will allow unlimited music downloads for 51p more.
However Spotify does not have the extensive library that iTunes boasts, although it is growing day-by-day. Were Spotify’s library to increase to the full extent of iTunes then we could see the online music market change dramatically. Although Apple will more than likely combat Spotify somehow, the whole idea of online music is still in its early stages and no-one knows exactly what the best course of action is in terms of customer satisfaction and artist’s being paid.
Mike Skinner has been giving away free music for a while now via his Twitter account, some of which has been better than others. His latest song though He’s Behind You, He’s Got Swine Flu is by far my favourite yet. The lyrics are both random and amusing simultaneously, as well as corresponding to the rather apt video.
Clips taken from old horror films using gratuitous amounts of gore and blood splattery, really encapsulate what the radical press say could happen if all the information were true – but this isn’t a rant about the press.
Painting an almost apocalyptic outcome of swine flu, Skinner’s lyrics range from symptoms to basically describing what’s happening in the video. The chorus is fairly catchy, but not something you’d want to be seen singing aloud for fear of looking slightly odd.
Chris Martin and his gang are set to release a live album later this month, for free! Yet another milestone in the ongoing battle of artists vs labels vs fans vs money. It is often argued by many that music should be free, and Coldplay are here to deliver the goods, albeit a half-arsed live album. Live albums are never usually that good and rarely reach the number of sales as studio albums.
The live album though is set for release via their website on May 15 but hard copies are available for every fan that attends a Coldplay show for the rest of the Viva La Vida tour, slightly annoying for those fans who attended the previous shows on the tour though isn’t it?
The album will be entitled ‘LeftRightLeftRightLeft’, and the tracklisting is as follows:
1. Glass of Water
2. 42
3. Clocks
4. Strawberry Swing
5. The Hardest Part/Postcards From Far Away
6. Viva La Vida
7. Death Will Never Conquer
8. Fix You
9. Death And All His Friends
If you’re planning to attend one of the UK shows on the tour then be sure to pick up a copy, it’s much more exciting to own a CD than a folder on a hard drive.
Posted by Luke Morton 
Music On The Mind 