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Friday, July 28, 2006
Yes, it was my first day of cycling to work, and let me tell you in extreme temperatures such as today, i certainly lost some weight through an unhealthy amount of sweat. When i arrived at the meeting my face was so red it looked like someone had painted it! :O I'm not a natural sweater, i tend to gently perspire, so this was a new experience for me!! At least i looked bleeding gorgeous in new red helmet...
Anyhoo, while i was peddling for "joy" around the slightly grim city of Coventry (it's certainly no Birmingham) a lovely acoustic version of Chasing Cars popped onto my mp3 player. I didn't even realise I had this in a different version, but it is certainly my favourite track from Snow Patrol's Eyes Open cd... It's got a great laid back feel about it and is perfect listening for a summers day... anyone who watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale knows what a powerful song this can be :) Love. It.
MP3: Snow Patrol - chasing cars (acoustic)
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Its far too hot to anything today except have darren eat ice cream off my body. Plus I am too mortified that a work colleague felt the need to share that their inner bottom was sweating. WTF is an inner bottom anyway??? So here are some links and it will be back to normal tomorrow :) Possibly...
Now I am delighted as the next person that McFly are number one, and its true i love those crazy scamps, but i have no desire to see them nekkid. Ever. Heavens preserve us all...
Jess of Into The Groove and Dirrrty Pop (she has one more R than Christina Aguilera) has a marvo new film appreciation blog. Check it out here...
Nelly Furtado is getting Stripped in August...
Rooster's new cd Circles and Satellites was conspicuously absent from stores on its release date today... you can buy it on iTunes for a mere £5.99. Worth it for their exhilarating Good To Be Here from Stormbreaker
If you like the Popjustice site, make sure you check out The Hotstuff Files. Oh and Fetch Me Some Music will appeal to fans of oxygen chunks too - and the guy is only 16!
Deborah Gibson and Jordan Knight have the third most added single at AC Radio this week. I'm just sad its not one of Deb's self penned epic ballads...
I'm not the only person to miss this show!
Monday, July 24, 2006
Well folks, i got more traffic than ever before on the site today and its possibly because of the three tracks posted in the post below this one. I got a bit scared and removed them now, but there are plenty of other places on the web you can get them.
The tracks seem to have generated discussion all over the internet. Be sure to check out people's opinions of the tracks at the links below. Most love the killers and scissters and are bewildered by Robbie...
Killers - J'ason loves it; Static have it!
Scissters - J'ason loves this too; it has Jessica's stamp of approval; the oc find it totally awesome; Homo Eclectic isn't sure... but my old kentucky blog find it disco wacky pants fantastic!
Robbie - Dan has a hilariously brilliant write up of it (love how he describes my blog!); and my fave find of the week Hotstuff Files are starting to warm to it. Good for you boys...
Also today:
Went to see Stormbreaker - based on a book which was actually out six years ago but i just read on holiday... Loved the film, thought it was brilliant and I am now obsessed with all things Alex Rider. It's no harry potter but its certainly a blast of fresh air...Not sure about the ridiculously good looking Alex Pettyfers new do though...
Am loving the fact that XO is now hooked on Paolo Nutini. He is right though, the title track to the album These Streets is a work of beauty...
And yay to the fact that a new Artemis Fowl book is out in just a weeks time :)
And double yay to the new promo shots for Prison Break. Despite the totally ridick ending for season one, i can't wait for season 2...
Sunday, July 23, 2006
First off, there was the very heartbreaking tv interview with Cat Deeley. Then today, kylie sold out 6 dates at Wembley Arena in just an hour, ensuring that over 60,000 people will ring in the new year with her. I am so thrilled with kylie's recovery and wish her all the best for the future - i can only hope and suspect that a new single will precede the tour and claim the Christmas number one slot in December...
from the "before the zapping blogspot" vaults, here is my review of the Showgirl tour, which remains the very best concert I ever went to...
Kylie Minogue ~ The Showgirl Tour 2005 Birmingham NEC ~ April 15th
I just got back from La Minogue concert and wanted to get down some of my thoughts before they fade from my mind This was so much more than a concert ~ from the moment the lights went up on the elaborate stage set i knew it was gonna be something special. Although i did feel a twinge of sadness thinking i wish i could see Deb doing this now... but anyway...
there was so much going on on the stage that it was a little bit like the start of Moulin Rouge. You have to go with it or get completely confused. Each set of songs was done as an act on its own ~ each with its own theme and costumes. The lighting was great, the dancers fantastic and the video screen at the back of the stage flashed every image conceivable from Kylies 20 year career...
here are some of the thoughts most prominent in my mind before i post the set list...
~ On a night like this was turned into an incredibly pretty piano ballad before a thumping bass line came in...
~ Kylie sang her little heard duet with the Pet Shop Boys In Denial kicking off an actually quite poignant gay husband trilogy of songs...
~ the NAKED male dancers in the shower at the start of red blooded woman ...
~Kylie in the moon singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow as it descended to the stage. I knew she was a moonchild at heart...
~ The Locomotion being the most brilliant song of the night when it was turned into a sleazy jazz romp that wouldn't have been out of place in Chicago....
~ My fave Kylie song Your Disco Needs You finishing off the show (pre encore) and it being so exuberant and joyous that i thought i would burst ...
~ A second encore where the audience sang the male part of Especially For You and the camera turning onto the audience so you can see yourself singing ...
Set List
Act One:ShowGirl ~ or Showgirl Kylie as i liked to call it
~Better the devil you know
~ In Your Eyes~ Giving You Up
~ On A Night Like This
Act Two:SmileyKylie ~ or Acid House Kylie as i liked to call it
~Shocked (with bits of Do You Dare inserted in!)
~ What Do I Have To Do
~ Spinning Around
Act Three:Denial ~ Or Gay Husband Kylie as i liked to call it
~In Denial
~ Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquois
~ Confide In Me(play these songs together at home and its like a mini musical. Was really brilliant )
Act Four:What Kylie Wants Kylie Gets ~ Or Gym Bunny Kylie as i liked to call it
~Red Blooded Woman (with bits of Where the Wild Roses grow inserted in!)
~ Slow
~ Please Stay
Act Five:Dreams ~ Or Moonchild Kylie as i liked to call it
~Somewhere Over The Rainbow
~ Come Into My World (ballad style)
~ Chocoloate
~ I believe in You
~ Dreams
Act Six:Kylesque ~ Or Downright Dirty and Lovin It Kylie as i liked to call it
~Hand On Your Heart
~ The Locomotion (she needs to record this song in this dirty jazzy style!) (mp3) (rightclick)
~ I Should Be So Lucky (brillo dance routine)
~ Your Disco Needs You
Encore1:Minx In Space ~ Or SpaceCamp Kylie as i liked to call it
~Put Yourself In My Place
~ Can't Get You Out Of My Head
Encore2:One of the Girls ~ or Casual Kylie as i liked to call it
~Especially For You
~ Love At First Sight
Friday, July 21, 2006
I was just talking to poster girl today about BBMak and then Popjustice go ahead and mention them in their weekly newsletter. How weird. BBMak were a band that were truly unappreciated in their time...I truly loved both of BBMaks albums. They played all their own instruments, wrote great power pop songs and had the looks and voices to back it up. Why they weren't 2000 times huger than they were continues to baffle me to do this day. Their second album with tracks like Staring Into Space and Get You Through The Night remains a modern day pop classic. Sadly my love for them didn't translate into chart success and the band soon split up :(
MP3: Staring Into Space (right click)
MP3: Get You Through The Night (right click)
They also contributed a song to some Disney soundtrack (Treasure Planet? Oh Disney!) which was also a corker of a song and really, Rooster would have been much better off doing something like this instead of their piss poor Bon Jovi rip off, 33 placing, Home...Rip BBMak. I still loves ya!
MP3: Always Know Where You Are (right click)
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Its all over the web and the newspapers today that Robbie Williams has bottled out of a chart showdown with Justin Timberlake...
The prince of pop (oh dear) has delayed his new album release - called 1974 - so it won't go head-to-head with Justin's latest, FutureSex: Love Sounds. Both cds were due out on Sept 11th, but now Robbie has held his back until the beginning of October...
It's a surprise move by Robbie as rumour has it, it's his best and most experimental album to date. Its got to be better than Intensive Care, which I have to admit has slowly grown on me, but is still no classic...
1974 will be preceded by a single called Rudebox in September followed by Lovelight - a ballad that will come out just in time for the Christmas charts. He apparently has also recorded two rap-style tracks called The 80s and The 90s about his days in Take That... and I read here that there is a pet shop boys collab called She's Madonna and a cover of the Robert Friend track We Are The Pet Shop Boys. Plus i remember reading that the album will also contain a cover of Stephen Duffy's Kiss Me and Human League's Louise...
With Pet Shop Boys production and great sounding tracks (though the proof of the pudding, etc) i think its a shame that Robbie is backing off from a chart throwdown with Justin (who you know i love all of a sudden...)... September is going to be a GREAT month for new music :)
Monday, July 17, 2006
we hate everyone we meet...
This post over at XO's little home got me a little bit worried about my 2nd fave new act of the year, The Upper Room, who haven't updated their website since their debut album peaked at number 50 back in May... 
Luckily, the record company haven't abandoned the boys and they are currently filming the video for the next single Never Come Back which is hopefully out on August 21st - the day after I will have seen them live at the V Festival...
MP3: Never Come Back (right click)
I have to say I was rooting for the elegant and gorgeous Portrait as the next single, which I think is almost a summation of the themes on their album about small town life, love and loss ~ the lyrics sing of how a seemingly perfect existence can actually be utterly stifling and demoralising... check out this totally heartbreaking acoustic version
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Cast your mind back to 1997... i was, erm, younger than I am now. And really starting - thanks to my trip to summer camp back in 1996 - to discover the joys of live music. So that's how I discovered the brilliant but short lived band Symposium...
A friend of mine from university was somehow related distantly to one of the band and so we went to see them at this tiny little bar where they played six songs to a tiny crowd. I'm not sure what it was about that night, but it was a great gig and they gave it their all as if there were thousands of people out there. Plus the lyrics to one of the songs really resonated with me at the time and the band just strolled off stage after and started chatting to people. I told the singer I loved the lyrics to one day at a time ("i don't care what you say/fuck you and your stupid ways") and he said something like 'yeah mate, i can tell you've been fucked over by a bloke or two'!! Lovely. Great night though with my friend Louise who sadly I hardly see anymore...
I randomly came across two symposium songs today that happen to be two of my favourites. They are just great catchy guitar anthems that never got the exposure they deserved and certainly deserve a bigger audience than they ever got...
Thursday, July 13, 2006
First Things Dursley...
Harry will return to the Dursleys on Privet drive as he promised Dumbledore. Of Aunt Petunia, the mom's supposedly nonmagical sister, JK mentioned to Judy and Richard that there was more to her than meets the eye...
Horcrux of the issue...
Before a final showdown with Voldemort, harry must find and destroy as many as four Horcruxes, objects in which the Dark Lord has already hidden parts of his soul (2 others have already been neutralised). One Horcrux which Dumbledore and harry were searching for in THBP was swiped by someone with initials RAB - possibly Regulus Black, late brother of Harry's godfather Sirius (in OOTP, harry and co found a heavy locket that none of them could open in the black mansion...)
Hogwarts and all...
With the headmaster murdered by a teacher - talk about bad PR - there's some doubt the school will re-open for Harry's final year. HArry claims he won't be back regardless. But JK has said there will be a new defence against the dark arts teacher which implies that classes will resume. Plus, Voldemort might seek the gryffindor sword that Dumbledore said is safely hidden there?
Dead as a Dumbledore nail...
The late headmaster had a long tie to phoenixes (he owned one called Fawkes) suggesting the possibility of a return - perhaps to tell harry the "thrilling" story he never shared in THBP of how he grabbed the ring Horcrux. Dumbledore's portrait was last seen "slumbering"...
While I am waiting for book 7 and the 5th movie, I will content myself with the not quite as brilliant but quite exhilarating Alex Rider teen spy books... can't wait for the movie...
you're never too young to die!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Up until today, I so thought the place to be for todays chart acts doing random covers was either Stripped or Radio One's Live Lounge. (click here to download Lily Allen cover the kooks. Now thats an mp3 worth having!) But no longer, for The Extra Venue has launched on dotmusic.com...
First up is The Feeling!! How bloody marvy is that? Cos I like the feeling and all...
they have done a pretty decent cover of Muse's Time Is Running Out and you can't help but realise how great they must have been when they were a covers band in Switzerland. This fits in nicely when you are listening to Strange or the melancholy Kettles On from their great debut album.
Check out the extra venue website to see the video as well as acoustic performances of Sewn and the still amazing Fill My Little World...
MP3: Our Time Is Running Out (med quality)
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone sang Blondie's Heart of Glass in close harmony 1940's Andrews Sisters style? no? Me neither, but then i came across the Puppini Sisters...
There are a lot of slightly off-kilter acts out there, but the Puppinis are in a class of their own. Gorgeous voices, beautifully in time and putch perfect, their debut album (out end of July) features wonderful versions of the kind of songs you'd expect to hear (boogie woogie bugle boy, mr sandman) mixed perfectly with modern classics in a similar style.
These are inevitably the ones most likely to get them some attention and you will probably love them or hate them. I happen to find them a breath of fresh air, which along with the stylistically different Lily Allen and Pipettes, I am really appreciating this summer.
Heart of Glass was made for the transformation and there is finally a remake of I Will Survive that I can stomach (yes Diana Ross i'm still getting over acid reflux from your version...). Their version of Panic by the Smiths doesn't quite work, possibly because it sounds far too upbeat, but the cover of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is a wild and crazy as Kate would want it to be. Check the links below to hear various songs on their myspace site and to check out the theatre page of their own website.
Link: Puppini sisters myspace site
Link: Puppini sisters homepage
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