Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

King – Belly [#656]

So I heard Tanya Donelly play on some compilation CD I had, can’t remember what one it was, and thought to myself: “Hey, here’s a singer with a distinctive sound, I’d like to know more”.

I jumped on the next 86 bus into Liverpool City Centre, marched down Church Street and entered the palace of musical wonder that was HMV. I then flicked through the CD racks for D. No Donelly. Did the same for T incase some div had misfiled. No Tanya Donelly. Repeated this in Virgin and any other record store I could find. Nada.

During the Great Internet Download Free for All, I’d scour the listings on Usenet for Donelly and also come up with nothing. Then, a passing comment with someone, I forget who, asked if I had tried B for Belly. Belly? I asked. Yes Belly! What, Belly, the band from the early to mid 90s who did Feed the Tree and was somehow linked to 4AD records? Yes, they said, the very same.

I hadn’t. I had no idea that Tanya Donelly was part, if not lead singer with Belly. Punched Belly into my Usenet browser and Blam! There was Belly. I listened to a few tracks, decided I liked a few tracks, continued to listen to those few tracks and never beyond the album itself.

Sad that.

This is what stealing music did to my generation. We became super saturated with media and it stopped us absorbing the true sound. Moreover, streaming music and CDs killed the beating heart, the album. The ease of just playing the tracks we liked instead of sitting through the whole thing to get to the track we liked – that became the using a spoon to eat your roast potatoes of music.

Amazon

Apple Music

Youtube

Advertisement
Comments Off on King – Belly [#656]

Keynsham – Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band [#652]

Keynsham….Tell me more about Keynsham

Having had the band’s infamous I’m the Urban Spaceman as a 7″ single since I was a Frisco Disco owning child, the Best of and Cornology since CD days and being fortunate enough to see the surviving band members perform at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in the noughties, in the it made sense to obtain the band’s re-released-re-mastered original albums which I did via Apple Music.

Keynsham was the band’s fourth album, arriving long after Gorrilla, Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse and Tadpoles, and stylistically it shows. While the humour and quirkiness of the earlier albums are still evident, there is a certain maturity and definate shift toward a more contemporary sound akin to the Beatles and similar acts in some songs.

The album contains a number of my favourite Bonzo songs and often has me singing along. Particular favourites include: Mr Slater’s Parrot, Busted and semi biographical The Bride Stripped Bare (by the Batchelors).

Listen on Apple Music

Listen on Amazon Music

Listen on Google Music if you must

Surrender your privacy and be damned via Spotify

Comments Off on Keynsham – Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band [#652]

In Rainbows – Radiohead [#624]

Never really been a big fan of Radiohead, Creep and Paranoid Android were my limit. They were always one of those bands people told me that  I “should like”. Like it was some edict from above. “You should like Radiohead”.

I didn’t.

Despite having their “Best Of” I still really don’t get the whole Radiohead thing. Maybe it’s one of those “You had to be there” kind of things. I was there though, I just didn’t pay attention.

In Rainbows was the first pay as you feel album I bought. I paid £1 for it purely because I wanted Nude which was also £1 and I’m such a stiggler for a bargain. Though to be fair, I only wanted Nude because of this video.

 

SaveSave

Comments Off on In Rainbows – Radiohead [#624]

If It Was You – Tegan & Sara #605

 

Tegan_and_Sara_-_If_It_Was_You_cover.jpg

If It Was You – Tegan & Sara

 

Possibly one of the best films ever released in the last 40 odd years, in my opinion, is Brian De Palma’s extravagant semi-musical tour de force Phantom of the Paradise. What, you might ask, does this 1970’s “blockfluster” have to do with a Canadian duo of thirty-somethings? Well…quite frankly this….

The split screen sequence of de Palma’s film stuck with me for such a long time that it also influenced some of the films I made at university (check them out on my Vimeo page). I love how it’s choreographed and edited. I love how the use of two cameras to show two distinct stories adds interest and innovation as well as allowing the viewer to experience often unseen detail on each watch. Genius.

So when I saw Tegan & Sara’s video for their song I Hear Voices and how it has loads of subtle nods to Phantom of the Paradise, I fell in love with the song and simply had to get the album. Unfortunately, while I’m still very moved and enamoured with the track, the other songs on the album still don’t grab me, but I keep the album “just in case” and because I “should like them”.

If It Was You is the third album by the band, released in 2002. It does have sounds similar to other angry chicks with guitars from the same era, kind of like evolved from Belly or Throwing Muses with maybe a bit of Courtney Love chucked in.

Comments Off on If It Was You – Tegan & Sara #605

How We Quit the Forest – Rasputina #596

How_We_Quit_the_ForestIn the early noughties, while the rest of the internet and Guardian supplement cultured Gen-Xers were going wild for the likes of Amanda Palmer, the Dresden Dolls and the Decemberists, I was trying to be a proto-hipster by bigging up the likes of Rasputina.

Sadly, Melora and co didn’t quite make the mainstream as Palmer did but hey, that’s not the point, the point being to make memorable expressive opine music that lasts regardless of when in time it is heard.

This album contains the first track I’d ever heard by Rasputina, Olde Headboard, and is a prime example of why album sales in the post-internet age depreciated with audience consumption methods.

Comments Off on How We Quit the Forest – Rasputina #596

House of Love – House of Love [#593]

The_House_of_Love_(1988).jpgLike most teenagers, I was fortunate enough to be Bez to my old school friend, Mike’s band Jean Pierre O Malley & the Gieger-Muller Tubes. I attended most practice sessions (mostly on the promise of a few pints of beer afterwards) and I accepted that they would do cover versions of songs I didn’t really know.

We did a set of two songs, the Stones’ Paint it Black and the more obscure Christine by the House of Love. We had a slight standing ovation (three people, mostly groupies) and a huge round of applause from all those present. The band then split un-acrimoniously but the strains of Christine resonated around my head for several years after.

Then, one evening, during the Great Internet Download Free-for-All of the mid-noughties I saw that the album House of Love was available for me to download. I immediately put Christine on and relived that night of proto-fame at the Bishop Eton Parish Centre Youth Talent Show 1992.

I have to say though, we were better.

Comments Off on House of Love – House of Love [#593]

Guitar Legends – Various Artists [#563]

Guitar Legends The guitar. Some would say it is a crucial instrument in modern music. “Without guitar” they might say, “All you have is some bloke singing with drums and a keyboard.” Which is true, but as we have already heard with the likes of Morphine and Matt Howden, the guitar is merely a tool in the production of great music. However, one cannot ignore the guitar completely, especially when presented with a compilation such as today’s album.

This two disc 41 song Capital Gold compilation features some interesting choices. It starts off quite promising with songs by Queen, Derek & the Dominos (guess which song), Rainbow and even Motorhead. But by the mid-way point it drifts into a sort of smokey late eighties blues nightclub (the proper sort where you go to listen to live music and smoke not to get pissed and/or laid) where Skynrd, Frampton, Santana and Lee Hooker have been placed on the bill with later guest appearances by John Lodge & Justin Hayward, Nick Drake and the Shadows.

If, for some reason, you’ve been living in a guitar free world and you’re interested in finding out what can be done with the instrument, I suppose this is a good way to find out.

Comments Off on Guitar Legends – Various Artists [#563]

Gish – Smashing Pumpkins [#524]

GIsh - Smashing PumpkinsOnce, while talking about the amazing film Lost Highway and its soundtrack with a former acquaintance, the conversation went like this:

Me: – I love the soundtrack, especially the David Bowie intro and I’ve already gone and bought a Rammstien CD off that new “interweb” thingy.

FA:- Really? Well I really liked Eye by the Smashing Pumpkins

Me:- Yeah? Me too. Over all it’s a good soundtrack

FA:- Well if you like the Pumpkins, you should get Gish. I rate it. You should like it 

Regular readers will know how I feel about being told that I “should” like something. But this is one of those rare occasions where I did actually like some of their songs. Not all of them but some. Again, given limitless time to listen to music I probably would have developed a taste for them. Sadly real world pressures meant diminishing time to devote required attention to new music and the changing way we consume music (focussing on individual tracks rather than whole albums) meant eventually the Pumpkins slipped by me.

Comments Off on Gish – Smashing Pumpkins [#524]

%d bloggers like this: