Today I am posting a great album from a Scottish band Aztec Camera released in the early eighties. This record I have discovered after listing the song “Walk out the winter”. There is indeed a beautiful compilation with the same name that contains many beautiful songs of the eighties. I listen to this record quite frequently as I get always good vibrations. I recommend it to anyone. It is a jewel, creation of a Scottish young man!
John Driscoll, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#564 in the Series) is Aztec Camera, High Land, Hard Rain
This was the first record from Roddy Frame. Roddy, then 19, wrote and produced all 13 songs. A few of the songs were even written a few years before that tender age.
His work on the acoustic guitar is most impressive. This is evident right from the opening track, that being the very catchy “Oblivious.” It was actually the only popular song on the album, at least State side. Roddy’s thoughtful lyrics are accompanied by his underappreciated voice. He’s also backed by a chorus of background singers. His sense of humor is always quite evident live. When I saw him years back, he complained that that the chorus “cost him a bloody quid,” and that he could have hired the “hum along audience” from Cabaret Metro for much cheaper.
The second track comes back with equal appeal and sound. “Walk out to Winter” has as much pop appeal as it does promise. “The Bugle Sounds the Horn” is a beautifully written track that again uses the acoustic guitar in the lead and shows off some serious skills, though strumming and not picking it this time.
The next two numbers pushed Melody Maker’s Paul Lester to say about Frame, “He celebrates the romance of pain and the pain of romance.”
“We Could Send Letters” promises the hope of long distance romance kept alive and “Pillar to Post” promises love that lasts forever.
“Release” and “Lost Outside the Tunnel” are somewhat forgettable, they‘re followed by “Back on Board” which is an instant classic that showed songwriting maturity well beyond the years of a teenager. The chorus, which again gets taken over by a choir, is the kind that sticks in your head in a good, not gooey way. The start of the next song bumps up against its end, and is a sweet ballad where Frame lets his Scottish accent out not accidentally.
This is where the original release ended, but subsequent releases included three songs that Frame had recorded in years earlier. “Haywire” sounds slightly off key by design, “Orchid Girl” is yet another lovely love song, and “Queens Tattoos” takes on an almost rockabilly sound, the kind that is fun to play at the pub with a pint in front of you.
High Land, Hard Rain was an extremely solid debut that offered much promise for such a young and talented musician. It is filled with guitar hooks of the acoustic kind and his voice is more sweet and soulful than new wave.
Aztec Camera were far more popular in the U.K. than here in Chicago. The only song that many may be familiar with could be “Oblivious.” If you fall in that category, I say check out the rest of this gem of a record. It’s well-crafted and multi layered, and may get you to the point where you find yourself playing it over and over again. I know I still do!
High Land, Hard Rain was produced by John Brand and Bernie Clarke.
No nena tu te equivocas
yo no te conoci en la playayaya
no nos fuimos juntos a comer paella
y nunca pasaste una noche en mi hotel
no soy el primo de chade defesia
no tengo parche en la puerta
no te has bañado con migo
en la pisina de mi chanel
yo no me llamo javier
no,si,no,que si,noooo
no,si,no no no no no no no
nunca te pedi
un duro en la calle
tu no me presentaste
a tus padres
no me invitaste a tu casa
ni a dormir ni a comer
yo no me llamo javier
deja ya de joder
yo no me llamo javier
sueltame mujer
yo no me llamo javier
hola como etas
que niño tan bonito
¿como?
que es mio
que yo soy el padre
pero eso como va a ser
si yo soy impotente
yo no me llamo javier
no te quiero volver a ver
deja ya de joder
yo no me llamo javier
sueltame mujer yo no me llamo javier
yo no me llamo javier
deja ya de joder
yo no me llamo javier
sueltame mujer
yo no me llamo javier
He aquí un artículo que leí recientemente sobre lo que realmente esta sucediendo en la transformación de nuestra sociedad en cuanto hábitos y costumbres se refiere. La industria que todos sabemos quienes son, lleva muy bien sus planes para que la gente simplemente deje de cocinar y así seguir maniobrando el control de la poblacion mientras las sartenes se llenen de polvo y los huertos de malas hierbas..algunos ya saben de que hablo verdad? Cuán dificil es comer bien hoy en día en algunos sitios más que en otros. En cualquier caso, no hay que irse lejos para ver esta tendencia y ver que casda vez hay mas gente con problemas de salud..una verdadera lástima. Más vale que nos cuidemos un poco más y que no nos dejemos que nos saquen de las cocinas..hoy mismo, ahora mismo voy a cocinar un curry con una coliflor, zanahoria y un poco de pollo que he comprado en el mercado..
nos muestra como se lleva a cabo la lucha alimentaria en diferentes partes del mundo. Más vale que seamos conscientes de estas cosas que nos afectan a todos, si realemnte queremos hacer un mundo mejor..
"Para los de arriba hablar de comida es una pérdida de tiempo. Y se comprende, porque ya han comido” (Bertolt Brecht)
Salgan de sus cocinas!!
El mundo culinario parece que se pone de moda
en televisión. En los últimos años ha habido un boom en toda Europa de reallity
relacionados con la cocina, programas que se llevan las mejores audiencias e
invaden las conversaciones entre amigos y familiares. Esta tendencia pudiera
llevarnos a pensar que nunca había habido tanto interés social por la cocina
doméstica y una preocupación real por alimentarnos de manera sana y cercana
FoodStuffPhoto.
Pero la realidad que gobierna nuestros platos
es bien distinta. Vivimos un cambio vertiginoso en nuestra manera de
alimentarnos inducido por la industria alimentaria. Hace años que vemos
desaparecer ante nuestros ojos la alimentación tradicional cocinada en casa,
como si se tratara de un destinoinexorable de esta sociedad del siglo XXI, para dar paso a la comida
rápida y precocinada, tendencias que impone la industria alimentaria. Así que
nuestras neveras se llenan de alimentos industriales, comida preparada,
alimentos funcionales o alicamentos, destruyendo el equilibrio de nuestra
dieta, con un aumento evidente de azúcares y grasas.
Pero lo grave está por llegar. El caso es que,
para que el gran negocio alimentario funcione y se perpetúe,la industria necesita ir un paso más allá y
expulsarnos físicamente de la cocina. A esta estrategia los
norteamericanosla llaman deskilling,
incapacitarnos para cocinar. Así que volvemos a aquello de “No pierdas el
tiempo en cocinar”. Podemos comprobar como la publidad nos va sistemáticamente
enviando este mensaje, y parece que es efectivo, así en en España hay estudios
que determinan queel 67% de los jóvenes
se excede en el consumo de comida preparada.
Erosionar nuestra capacidad decocinar es perder control sobre nuestra
alimentación y nos convierte a nosotros
y a nuestros hijos en dependientes absolutos de la gran industria . Si no se lo
cree, pregúntese cuanto tiempo pasa viendo programas de cocina y cuánto tiempo
realmente cocinando. En Gran Bretaña hay estudios que afirman que no más de 40
minutos a la semana.
Once again
I have selected one of these records I always keep with myself anywhere I go I
always bring it with me. Just in case I have to feel cool! I mean, I am in the
mood that something good is going to happen and I am going to make it well,
well! Spoon like many other bands I love, I have discovered in the morning show
of John Richards at KEXP Seattle!
Spoon is a
great band a prolific band and according to the reviewer they have good stuff. And
still I have to discover because I have hardly had listened to this record.. Zeth
Lundy brigs us his review of the record “Ga ga ga ga ga” from the website Popmatters
Spoon,
perhaps the greatest American band of the ‘00s, is a dissident in the studio,
for its record-making methodology is counterintuitive to the common practices
of its 21st-century peers.It nips and
tucks the places that others would normally bulk up, disassembles the
structural conceits that are prone to sky-high ostentation, and is an
unorthodox decision-maker when it comes to arrangements.Take, for example, “The Underdog”, the
catchiest song and first single from the band’s sixth LP, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.It’s a dazzling little pop nugget, one that
manages stylistic allusions to both Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the
Schoolyard” and the Beatles’ “Got to Get You into My Life”, but its arrangement
is streamlined and subversive: pieces of the mix drop out when least expected
and big-music build-ups turn out to be nothing more than strategic teases;
we’re often left to contend with nothing more than a sprinkling of metallic
percussion, peppy horns, and/or acoustic guitar strums.A less tactful band would have stumbled upon
the song’s hook and shot it straight to the stars, cocooned in layers of
unnecessary sound, and you could hardly blame them for it—pop songs this hot
practically scream for the wall-of-sound treatment.But in refusing to go the obvious route,
Spoon fashions a fresh perspective on an otherwise familiar undertaking.
Fresh and
familiar is a consistent hallmark of the Austin band, and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga proves
to be no exception.It crackles with
Revolver pragmatism and Motown propulsion, and is populated with copious
amounts of tambourine and handclaps—the most convivial of all pop-music
touchstones and instrumentation.Unlike
2005’s Gimme Fiction, which was helmed primarily by Spoon’s core duo of Britt
Daniel and Jim Eno, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga employs the rest of the band’s touring
lineup: keyboardist Eric Harvey and former Get Up Kids/White Whale bassist Rob
Pope, who replaces longtime member Josh Zarbo.As a result, the album is the most groove-oriented effort since 2001’s
Girls Can Tell, an efficient rhythm machine with a sinuous palate.The grooves run the stylistic gamut, from
hard rockers (the standoffish “Don’t Make Me a Target”, which recycles the
descending-riff ferocity of Kill the Moonlight‘s “The Way We Get By”, and the
galloping, scrunched-note jam “Finer Feelings”), to Detroit strut (“You Got Yr.
Cherry Bomb”), the minimalist pulse of Reichian repetition (“The Ghost of You
Lingers”), bubbly bass-driven dance fodder (“Don’t You Evah”, a cover of an
unreleased song by the NYC band the Natural History), and skinny-tied
aggression (“Eddie’s Ragga”).
The legroom
in Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga‘s mixes allows the grooves to really take off without the
burden of excessive baggage.The
reliance on bass in “Don’t You Evah” and drums and percussion in “Finer
Feelings” preempts the need for a dominant guitar (so often a rock-music norm);
when guitar is added to both songs, it serves to blossom the established
momentum.“Eddie’s Ragga”, on the other
hand, boasts big steely electric guitar stabs throughout, yet they’re relegated
to one channel and intermittently soaked in reverb.Where that song manufactures movement from
the residue of echoes, “The Underdog” (the album’s one song produced by Jon
Brion; usual suspect Mike McCarthy helmed the other nine tracks) builds from
more skeletal remains and achieves almost aerodynamic liftoff.Eno’s drum sound, tremendously boxy in “Don’t
Make Me a Target” and skin-tight for the closing track “Black Like Me”, is
perhaps the most vital aspect of each track’s animation, even if Daniel’s voice
is the band’s more idiosyncratic attribute.
While
Daniel may have a limited vocal range, he possesses a sandpapery rock ‘n’ roll
voice, as well as a ruthless predisposition to amputate consonants.He’s loyal to the feel of the words and the
malleable sounds they make (in his hands, “defective heart” becomes
“defecti-hah”, a fragment of sentiment mashed into a cluster of sensation);
often, his word choice and delivery is more provocative than the topics he
sings about.In “Rhthm & Soul”, a
minor-key strummer with a razor-blade groove, Daniel strings together a litany
of abrupt verse-pieces with a shared cadence: “Tract houses / Square couches /
Short legs and square shoulders / Pot holders / Egg and soldiers / Y’ tank
rollers / You all know this”.It’s all
phonetic bravado, a spate of concrete images that serve as variations on
sympathetic meter and pronunciation.He
keeps a loathsome figure at arm’s length in “Don’t Make Me a Target”, while
tongue-twisting descriptive passages into barbed insults: “Clubs and sticks and
bats and balls / For nuclear dicks with their dialect drawls”. And “My Little
Japanese Cigarette Case”, tightly wound and circularly built, subsists of one
tidy mantra, “Bring me my Japanese cigarette case / Bring a mirror to my face /
Let all my memories be gone”, repeated between bouts of finicky
instrumentation, which include koto and flamenco guitar.In this particular case, the reductive lyrics
and simple melody contrast the more exotic ambitions of the arrangement.
The handful
of purposely misspelled song titles (“Rhthm & Soul”, “You Got Yr. Cherry
Bomb”, “Don’t You Evah”) only reinforce Spoon’s championing of rebellious
diction.(Ditto for the seemingly absurd
album title, which is in fact a reference to the throbbing eighth notes cycling
through “The Ghost of You Lingers”.)It’s
the mark of a band in love with the sound of things, with the precision in
miniature of its timepiece-like structural knack and the rock ‘n’ roll cool
that slouches informally across the calibrated clockwork.Or, as Daniel sings in “The Underdog”, “I
wanna forget how convention fits / But can I get out from under it?”Spoon is clearly acquainted with convention,
but there’s plenty on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga to suggest that the band harbors its most
intimate operational relelationships outside the norm.
Charlatans and their "telling stories", They were bands that I really like how they sounded when I discovered and I am never tired of listening over and over..The more I listen to Charlatans, the more I like them, old stuff is great, new stuff is also great. They are simply great artists! Nice stories from a band of Manchester! Oh, yeah!
The review of the record I have taken from www.ultimate-guitar.com.
The
Charlatans have always been one of those bands who really should have been
bigger than they are. It's a shame that a lot of people have only heard a
couple of songs by them as they really are a fantastic and extremely versatile
band. Tellin' Stories has a very Britpop sound to it, not suprising as it was
released in 1997, just as britpop was coming to an end. Songs like North
Country Boy and the standout track How High are incredibly catchy. With No
Shoes is another track which will catch the listeners attention. Keyboardist
Rob Collins was killed during the making of Tellin Stories so his sound is
missing from some tracks that was so evident in previous Charlatans albums.
As said before,
Rob Collins died during the recording of this album. As a result, the rest of
the band wrote a song called Rob's Theme in his memory. The rest of the album
has very good lyrics but its the sound that is the main reason why this album
sold so well. Tim Burgess is perhaps one of Britain's best singers and one of
the most underated. His voice is so versatile and he sounds on top form in
Tellin Stories. Examples where he's in top form come in songs like How High,
With No Shoes and One To Another.
For me
this is perhaps my favourite Charlatans album and many other people would
agree. Its fantastic and there is hardly a bad track on this album. For me With
No Shoes, North Country Boy and How High are the standout tracks but there are
more. It got to number 1 in the charts when it was released and I can see why,
it is fantastic. If you love catchy britpop tunes that are relatively straight
forward then this album is definetly for you!
Sunday, 6 October 2013
what the fuck is going on with the colour of the letters...there is no way to modify them. I am going to sleep..tomorrow i will give it a try.
This is my
contribution to the blog today! This summer I fell in love with an old classic
band, I tried again the flavor of the sixties..and I found something amazing,
something that made me feel just great. The Byrds! I knew already some songs
from them but never had the chance to listen the whole record from them. They
have such a beautiful psychedelic sound I just feel cool when I listen to
them.. Great music and great people. I was very pleased this summer to talk
about them with my friends Toni and Civi! Toni buying records of the Byrds,
incredible! Anyway…here you are the Byrds and the 5th dimension!
I have
taken the review of this record from a blogger: Psychodelichar in his blog
the60sound.
The Byrds
were a popular American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964.
They are considered one of the most important and influential bands of the
1960s.
Their music
bridged the gap between the socially and spiritually conscious folk music of
Bob Dylan and the complex pop of The Beatles. Throughout their career they
helped forge such subgenres as folk rock, raga rock, psychedelic rock, jangle
pop, and – on their 1968 classic Sweetheart Of The Rodeo –country rock inviting
Gram Parsons on rhythm guitar. The original lineup consisted of Chris Hillman,
David Crosby, Michael Clarke, Jim (Roger) McGuinn and Gene Clark. After several
line-up changes (with lead singer/guitarist McGuinn as the only consistent
member), they broke up in 1973.
The Byrds
from left
to right : David Crosby (guitar, back vocals), Chris Hillman (bass guitar),
Roger McGuinn (lead vocals, banjo, moog), Michael Clarke (drums), Gene Clark
(guitar, harp, tambourine, back vocals)
My words :
When someone mention the Byrds, first thought that come to my mind are these :
Beatlesque folky rock with elements of psychedelic rock that ruled the 60s with
evergreen hits; the group that covered Bob Dylan the most, but also : brilliant
group that captured flowy feel of careless 60s during heydays of psychedelia.
This album is their introduction to psychedelic rock and is the one of best
albums to start if you're into this kind of rock. First tune is mellow "5D
(Fifth Dimension)" with translucent feel; some speculated it's about
feeling high while on drugs, but there's some science in it, too :) It's also
their intro to country style they'll later adopt. "Wild Mountain
Thyme" is their way of seeing folk rock - vocals singing harmonies with
jangly guitar that speaks out "The Byrds" with it's tone. "Mr.
Spaceman" is rock n roll story about alien abduction, it's really fun to
listen, because most of people are afraid of alien, but here - the Byrds are
begging aliens to take them on a trip. Awesome. "I See You" has strong
the-60s-LA-sound - you can clearly hear where Strawberry Alarm Clock picked up
their influence. "What's Happening ! !" is Crosby's song that started
asking insoluble questions. Song explores oriental culture, adopting raga rock
into their opus. "I Come and Stand at Every Door" is song adaptation
of Nazim Kihmet's poem Kız Çocuğu (The Little Girl) - anti-war song about ghost
of a young kid (I hope I understand it right?) that died in Hiroshima during
atomic bombing. "Eight Miles High" is their most-known song from this
album and it's a truly masterpiece of psychedelic rock. Droning intro pours
into a wild-running guitar solo that ends with beautiful harmonies singing
chorus. I love how they use their vocals as one instrument, bending and shaping
path of the song.
"Hey
Joe (Where You Gonna Go)" is covered rock classic by Billy Roberts that's
already been covered by numerous bands including Love and Jimi Hendrix
Experience. Its good version, but can't stand a chance next to Hendrix's. Next
one is psychedelic instrumental "Captain Soul" that grew out from
studio jamming to Lee Dorsey's "Get Out My Life,Woman" , but I've got
to add that this sounds like a homage to Booker T & MG's, really nice and
refreshing. "John Riley" is cover of a traditional song, but however
this tune didn't seemed so special to me. Nice intro riff, but except that
there's nothing exciting. "2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song)" is
just a cheery tune with repeating refrain and background sounds ofairplanes, nothing really special. This
album would feel much better if it isn't so much pop-oriented (no longer songs
than 3:38). However, there's some bonus tracks (the best one is "I Know
You Rider") to keep you occupied when you finish the album. This is one of
the most essential psychedelic albums before Summer of Love and I recommend
this to you if you're into 60s psychedelic rock-pop bands like Jefferson
Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Strawberry Alarm Rock and others. Peace
