Happy New Year, Popular Music!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Hope you all had a happy Christmas and hope the music you choose to play today wishes you another great year of making memories..

Last year was pretty basic, on the blog front. My tags were either Hole or Nirvana... this may continue for the rest of the new year!

I am buying more into music that isn's the grunge era, and just the day before yesterday, I remarkably bought a CD from HMV that was actually produced in 2010!! A remarkable fate for me, and my close friends would even let out a shriek of surprise.

No Age's "Something Inbetween" is produced by Sub Pop and was the band was hopefully helped by Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe inviting them on his show and stating them as a "fine band". They were good, so I bought the album. That's how it should go! No downloading necessary, just make the effort, and for me definitely I feel that that is SO much more rewarding!

It's a great album, and I had a great year, plagued by the same music, always influencing me.

My Grunge Box is the epitomy of my obsession, and I hope it never dies anyway...

But now I move onto a new obsession: the music of the O.C.

The O.C. is, of course, A brilliant pinnacle of California dreamy drama, where there's loads of rich kids that somehow have more problems than you. But the commercial impact of this show were amazing; although it ended nearly 4 years ago now with Season 4, the producers brought out multiple "mixes" of music with the music featured on various episodes, depending on what series you were looking at. Mix 2 and Volume 2 were from the first series (which I successfully finished a week ago; known to be the best season, that was a full 20 hours of my life I spent watching that- time spent well, for me!) and these include some best music moments and the songs I favour at the moment. Thanks to these compilation discs, my iPod will now have more variety. Songs like South's "Paint The Silence", the Killers' "Smile Like You Mean It" and obviously the theme tune "California" by Phantom Planet are all, with the exception of The Killers, songs from pretty obscure bands. This is VERY CLEVER. The musical director of the show really knows her stuff, and by putting these previously unknown mainstream acts there's lots in it for her (You can tell I've been reading a book with a guide to the music industry and record labels, huh?) It fits the situation, makes the show look even more gorgeous than it already is, and it also means bands like Death Cab are known. Death Cab For Cutie practically made themselves on the use of their songs in Season 1.

So the main resolution for this year is new music. My music library is rapidly expanding, so your should too. Maybe just impulse buy an album because you're curious? Link bands with other bands you already like. It's the only way you can start on the million of unheard music in the USA alone.

Happy New Music!

P.S. Will post pics of the ever famous "Grunge Box" soon, or you can access them on Twitpic from my twitter shown on the top of the page on the left hand side :)

^ Mix 2 features the greats like The Killers, Death Cab For Cutie and a great cover of "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Jem, orginally from that of Paul McCartney. Enjoy!

Soundtrack to my Summer

Me on the left there with my buddy Raccoon, where you can find a link to her blog on my blog.. this was at a Hayseed Dixie gig and it just reminds me of the start of a very.. musical summer.

This may be a post a month later than originally planned.

Okay, nothing's planned anymore.
It seems that this writing regulary is escaping me with everything I've been doing this summer (and that's EXCLUDING the stuff I still have on my to do list; write a full arrangement for next week; get out and spend that HMV voucher instead of deliberating over a wide selection of albums for about 2 months; and broaden my musical horizons instead of continually listening to Hole, which, although they don't get boring, I am listening to Live Through This an average of twice a day, which could be seriously damaging to my health. (Effects- I can't sing without roaring and my guitar hates me for playing "Softer, Softest" one too many times.))

But yes, what I'm trying to say is I need to write a blog post about the music I have discovered this summer.

I believed that this summer (which weather-wise, started off good) would reflecting that, would be a long, restful and boring event with an Avi Buffalo soundtrack.

But; I went down a different path after I couldn't pluck up the courage to buy another artist that nobody my age actually has a clue about. (I think my boyfriend is getting rather annoyed at this

usual music town trip; I walk into HMV, I look for totally obscure artist, waste his time, moan to him when HMV don't stock it, stamp my feet, and then walk out of the shop in a huff before he can find the new Pendulum album. Yeah, I don't know how he puts up with me... )

But instead of reviewing a new album, which I really should do more, I couldn't get the album so I couldn't do the review.

But instead... another age-old discovery, in the name of the Screaming Trees.

Sweet Oblivion was on my birthday list and the other day, it just so happened to fund some pop theory essay writing that was particulary difficult and I had to get through.

The album on a whole is like sea waves... some songs like 'Nearly Lost You' are so huge they sweep you away and before you realise, and then dump you again after the song is finished.

Another veteran group of the 'Seattle Sound' scene, I believe this group is so effortless and the musicality sweeps out of them. With the traditional instruments and traditional style of that time and era, with the long hair and the look, it just makes me fall in love again and again with an era I have never witnessed, but yet that I still can empathize with.

But then, Mark Lanegan's voice comes sweeping at you like a hurricane above these waves. I believe his voice is the definition of ear sex. The deepness of his voice throws any song, but this is a pitch that you just can't stop loving, throughout the whole album.

Dollar Bill is a slow reminiscence song, full of eerie sentimentality.

More or Less is a painfully good one for driving, with it's seattle guitars and regular drumbeat, and a soaring climax of grunge...

Shadow of the Season is a tribal percussion journey of Lanegan waves.

Most of all, these songs all tell stories with their individual riffs and a great instrumental refrain of "It's sweet oblivion.....". Because it is.

Other songs that have made my summer complete and existing (some have also been quite special to me) :

Hole- Hit So Hard/Boys On The Radio/Best Sunday Dress (alternation between the three)

Oasis- Live Forever (voted by Q readers this year as the best song ever written- I think that's too far, but positively Oasis' best effort. My favourite from them.)

The Runaways- just anything.

Jenny and Johnny- Scissor Runner (a perfect teenage love song)

L7- Pretend That's We're Dead/Shitlist

The Maccabees- Toothpaste Kisses

Love Summer. Love the ultimate summer playlist that everyone compiles sub-conciously. It's personal, and that's what makes it so good.

Farewell summer, but now for the autumnal delights of the music world, like the Mercury Music awards!

Until Next Summer,

riotgrrllivesx