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!

Excuses of the Month.

Okay, letmme get this straight: Courtney Love is not my bitch.

And since I haven't the energy lately to say much or do much because of school starting up again, this is not going to be a really inspiring post, as you can guess by the first sentence.

She's not my bitch; but yet I love her very much. Yes, she's mad, but that's what makes her so interesting. I would say that certain people are not open to honesty as much as others, and that I believe, is one of the many things wrong with this world. She's TOO honest sometimes. But doesn't honesty make brilliant music? Think about it; the best hits and records have been the ones that people can empathise with. From the Beatles and people wanting a pop revolution to Love's era shout-along 'music' that didn't actually have much skill or technicality to it; music is what you make of it, and if they have lyrics that reflect what you're going through in a particular time of life, then so be it. And Hole is one of the few bands I think actually has originality to its bitter core. It takes chord transitions that shouldn't work, simplicity and tantrums to the extreme, all the while making it actually sound good.

And yes, I also realise that maybe, my ears are different, and Courtney Love's Screams and Growls together maybe don't sound as brilliant as they do to me.

I will not make this into a rant post, but I think that every blog post makes me more and more certain with my writing style.

And makes me more and more certain on the level of Weird I possess.

Or a new disease I call : "riotgrrrl syndrome"

Cure me now, I'm addicted!

riotgrrrllives|x

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

Riot Grrl and warming up the winter months...

Today I am writing in light of a very beautiful purchase.
Beautiful may be the wrong word to use, but we'll see.

12 years on, I still must stress the importance of a particular album that is in my "Top 5" list of albums. It may be a tad influenced and biased by my own opinion, but on that alone, no one should undermine the beauty of this one album I bought earlier in the week. It is severely underrated.

The 3rd album from the Olympia Rock veterans, and the centre of the"Riot Grrl" movement came after a 4 year break .This band does have some serious issues involving line-ups; The members change again and again, maybe due to one particular member who is publicly known to have a string of issues.

But... This album is proof that writing can change considerably into an artist/band's career, and if you take one influence away, the final product can differ slightly four years later. It is a large "up yours" to all the doubters.

Have you guessed yet?


After Hole's 2nd album was rumoured to be filled with much of the writings of Kurt Cobain himself, people doubted that Hole (Courtney Love, mainly) could actually write an album that would sell. Courtney obviously wanted help with the band's 2nd album, because she desperately wanted to compete in the same category as her Husband's reinvention of Rock, and development of Alternative music.



But,in 1998, Hole came along again, and produced Celebrity Skin, obviously without the late Cobain and his rumoured influence.
...And so the story goes. It seems that, actually, Hole can make beautiful music themselves (Eric Erlandson's quite simply genius composing skills, and Courtney love's ability to write thoughtful lyrics herself, without her husband.)

Album's highlights have to be the sentimental qualities and deep lyrics of Malibu, the very sensitive tones (and whopping chord sequences, it must be said) of Dying, and Summery feelings of Boys On The Radio, which just sounds like it is meant for the pop charts.

It's a different Hole, yes. But a deeper, sensitive and actually quite thoughtful Hole, too.



Give it a try. It's made for the summery days that will be here soon. (:

Avaliable in all good music stores.

Peace, Love, Empathy (oh, and Grrl) x