In My Earz

So, I've been thinking about posting a little more regularly and letting people know more about what music has kept me ticking over the past few days. No better way to do this than with a little run down of my recent listening while revising;

The Decemberists - EVERYTHING! Including YouTube vids!



Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge (esp. Dry Lips)

Fugazi - Live in Irving Plaza

Sunny Day Real Estate - LP2 (both courtesy of Zen and the art...)

Smashing Pumpkins - Bodies!!

The guitar riff is so good with that constant rythmn, took my ever wise Dad to point it out but now I'm hooked!

Carling Festival 2007: Leeds (Part 1)

My first festival experience, beautiful weather, amazing friends and a brilliant selection of bands. Maybe I was blessed this weekend, but Leeds 2007 was just about perfect and here is my review of the weekend, musically and a little more.

Thursday was the day of arrival, and as we dragged our bags through the camp the size of the whole thing dawned on me. Have to say I was pretty impressed when we managed to get a beaut of a camping spot, right near a security tower in loads of space and in a place, that was dead easy to find. Downside was being in the "Orange funfair camp" which meant close proximity to an array of rides pumping out a mix of the star wars theme tune and chart house until the early morning, aka half past 4 or even later! We learnt to live with this and all was well after the first night. At risk of using too many private jokes and going on, I think I'll try and leave the social/friend commentary here and concentrate on the music...at least until Sunday night!

After a poor nights sleep, we arose early for the music on Friday only to be caught in the one logistical nightmare of the weekend, a massive bottleneck of people around the main entrance which meant being stuck for an hour and a half, and missing any acts before half one. My first show of the weekend then, was Billy Talent. They were much better than I expected and musically very sound although those vocals did grate on me a little bit. Still, a fun show and good way to start. After that The Used came on the main stage, and after a couple of songs I decided to leave with a couple friends and sample some of the other music. Unfortunately I stumbled across a pretty poor attempt at lad rock, named The Sunshine Underground and decided to return to the main for the rest of The Used and a chill in the sun. Bert McCracken made an early claim for most annoying frontman of the weekend with constant whining about parents, school, money etc so we all had a good laugh about that.
Next on were Funeral For A Friend, a band I liked very much a while ago, so I watched with a few friends, reminiscing in the sun, and ended up having a great time. By the end of the set I had restored alot of respect for this band and had my first good sing-a-long to tracks like "Juneau" and "She Drove Me To Daytime Television". Hunger kicked in, so I moved on again to grab some lovely Mexican (my favourite all weekend!) and have a listen to the Cold War Kids. I didn't hear the whole set, but they sounded better than when I saw them a couple months ago, and my friend Rick, who watched the whole set, was really impressed, again saying they had improved since the last time.
To the lock up next for some punk and a chance to catch the highly regarded Against Me! who had a huge VIP crowd watching including members of Billy Talent. I haven't heard much of this folk/punk outfit but they put on a really tight live show, which seemed very geared to those loyal fans. Something that was nice to see, even as a casual punter. Next up were the massively hyped Gallows, from London, bringing their blend of hardcore and classic brit-rock/punk to a full crowd. Energy levels were through the roof and despite annoying me a little, I can give credit to the band for thoroughly pleasing their fans, and winning some new ones. Special credit goes to the two guitarists for performing some epic Hendrix style, through each others legs maneuvers.
After this I had chance to buy some food, a lovely warm jacket (for a fiver!) and prepare for the main event, at least it was for myself. Slightly late, but completely captivating, The Smashing Pumpkins played a set, which took in new and old and seemed to please everyone who hadn't buggered off to see the Klaxons! Summed up best in one word, mesmerizing, the set seemed to span about an 1hr 45mins, actually longer than billed and included loads of hits like the big two "Tonight, Tonight" and an acoustic "1979". Starting with "United States" they bravely set out their stall, with grandeur and faultless musicianship. Some people decided to boo them during this opener, and pronounce Billy as a "bald twat", but they didn't really seem to understand the song at all so never mind. With the rest of the set its really a case of where do you start! Personal highlight for me was "Stand Inside My Love" but even that is at a stretch as the set worked as a single entity, pretty much perfectly. Chamberlain had his moments of glory and received a chant of appreciation during "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" which was clearly special. As for the new members, I thought all three were excellent throughout with Reyes having the spotlight on "Hummer" and Schroeder shredding throughout! Also, it must be said..."you probably would the bassist". On that rather coarse low note, it's time for me to continue catching up on sleep so i'll move onto Saturday tomorrow!

Set List
'United States'
'Tonight, Tonight'
'Tarantula'
'Starz'
'Hummer'
'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'
'Glass And The Ghost Children'
'1979'
'To Sheila'
'Today'
'Stand Inside Your Love'
'Superchrist'
'Doomsday Clock'
'Disarm'
'Heavy Metal Machine'

Shame Video by Ingmar Bergman

With the excitement building for Leeds festival the Smashing Pumpkins have been high on my listening agenda and tonight I found this cracker of a mini video for the song "Shame" my favourite from Adore, and a very poignant track.

Enjoy!

Smashing Pumpkins - Gish (1991)

After my furore into the world of Paramore I think it's time
we returned to something a little more classic and here it is, with the Smashing Pumpkins legendary debut.
Like many I'm sure, I got into the SP through the Rotten Apples greatest hits and while that kept me satisfied long enough, after a while I had to dig back into the catalogue and Gish was the first studio album I checked out. From the first seconds of "I Am One" with its pounding drums, and ringing chord I was pretty certain that I'd be paid back for my interest. The next two tracks represented more familiar ground, as they were included on Rotten Apples, but the haunting feedback at the end of "Rhinoceros" leads you into the rest of the album perfectly. Of course, the guitar work from Iha and, in particular, Corgan is breathtaking as well, not just your standard solos. "Bury Me" and "Tristessa" follow the same vain, just brilliant rock tracks with abit of groove as well, courtesy of D'arcy and Chamberlain. However, around these songs, there are a collection of beautiful slower tracks of which my favourite would have to be "Crush",

"And this feeling shivers down your spine
Love comes in colors I can't deny
All that matters is love, love, your love "

As a whole this is just a top album where every track plays its part and for me, even though this was recorded 16 years ago, it still sounds fresh today.

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Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist (2007)

As one of my favourite bands I had to up this as some point and make some conclusion on it. On first listen I was happy with the album, but saw it as just an okay hard rock album and not necessarily anything more. Of course, as we all know, one brief listen is rarely enough to judge and with time this has grown on me and probably will continue to. In comparison to the other Smashing Pumpkins releases this doesn't have the same groundbreaking sound as previous, but this is a new era with no Pixies, no Nirvana and the rest and therefore how "groundbreaking" it is, should really be put into context. The fact is, there are alot of really poor rock bands out there at the moment that would have probably never made it in the early 90's and against them, Zeitgeist really kicks some ass.
Songwriting is strong, I can imagine "That's the Way" and "Starz" being sung whole heartily at festivals this summer, and Chamberlain still commands his kit like he always did. The first half of the album, in particular, thunders through at terrific pace with "Doomsday Clock" setting the agenda. My main criticism would be that after "United States" the album doesn't seem to be quite up to par with the first half however, that track mentioned is a true rock epic, possibly level with "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans" and its refreshing to hear that Corgan can still produce those magical moments. In conclusion, this isn't Siamese Dream or Gish, but what we do have is a good rock album which shows us how some bands just have "it" and others, polluting our charts at the moment, just don't.

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