Take a Trip to San Cisco

San Cisco ,a  Australian four-piece Indie Pop group who have recently been brought to fame in the UK . Their techno vibrant sound cultivated me within seconds and persuaded me to listen on and find out what other quirky songs they have created. And luckily enough I was drawn to them, and to their individual unique addition to music. They definitely have a vintage feel to them and their song,  Beach  certainly proves this as it has an 80s deep base and the  60s out of this world intoxicating vocals that send your mind into many segments of fascination. They released their first EP, Golden Revolver in 2011  and from then on have grown into an even bigger success releasing four other songs and awaiting an album to be released. For anyone with a music taste that dabbles into multiple genres like myself, I highly recommend this new exciting four piece. And even to people who normally see indie pop as another kettle of fish to their usual genre, I would still recommend these to anyone. This band in my eyes is categorized as many different styles and tickles the taste buds of all my musical needs.  So listen, enjoy, and look deeper into the sounds you may not like as you will probably find something you wouldn't think you'd like but seem to adore. 

Beau x

A Bugg You Can't Shake Off

Jake Bugg, an 18 year old from Nottingham. Influenced by Oasis, Bob Dylan  and The Beatles, he is an unmissable new star in the music industry. With rustic sounds and a voice that sounds like its from the 60's Bugg has certainly grown on us all. His sounds may not appeal to all 'music fanatics' but the songs he's written himself show a true talent in themselves aside from the way he presents them.

His quirky and unique talent hit me straight away, I was engaged with the tone style and era of his voice as he's not the typical new release you hear in our 'charty tarty top forty' every week, Bugg has blown away the music industry, even Lana Del Rey , Example and Michael Kiwanuka have had him supporting their tours.  Unlike his friends who supported the hip hop culture ,Bugg ventured away and decided to turn to Rock.He received an acoustic guitar from his Uncle when he was younger he decided to turn on his first Dylan album and practice along and if that doesn't make you fall in love with him, I don't know what will. From reading an article about his up and coming fame he was asked whether he'd enter a show such as Britains Got Talent or X Factor, the musician however described that ordeal as 'not feeling natural or genuine'. At least he's got some sense. The 18 year old even dropped out of studying Music Technology in his local college when he found some old Beatles song books in the library and decided he'd rather learn songs then go to classes. His somewhat outgoing  and confident characteristics have led him to this success and one big one at it. Nick Grimshaw has already listed his first Lightening Bolt song of the week and his first released hit of Troubled Town took to the industry a storm. The success he has gained so quickly is astonishing. I can't wait to see what else he has to offer the music industry and I hope he sticks to his deliciously new and individual sounds. 

Beau x 

 A Taste for the Older Tune..

A  stereotypical parents job is to be there to look after you, nurture you, and most of the time pay for you. But in my family and most families another job they have taken on is giving us the basis to our music taste from when we were young. From my own experience of  lying  in the back seat of the car  on the way back from numerous tedious journeys with my mum and being forced to listen to Queen over and over again on our ancient cassette player. I can say , after a while of being tortured by this , I began to like it and then found myself suggesting a favourite (Bicycle at the time, god knows why). This blog is to share and possibly get feedback on whether your parents have influenced your music taste or not and how they have made an impact on it. As well as Queen  I begun to get into David Bowie , still at only the age of around ten, how very rock and roll, and  although I  wasn't quite his number one fan as I thought 'Jean Genie' was 'Chinchilla' and bellowed it around  up until the age of 15 and when I was finally corrected , I started to actually listen to his music properly showing the influence my mum had playing it around me had.

       Even to those whose taste revolves around the latest in the charts and up to date music you are most certain to have a band you like that was influenced by a parent. Its just a fact. I like to think. A criticism of parents sharing music can be to say that they are living in the past and  their idea of no present music living up to the pop and rock legendary era they lived in. To us, we are living in our own era of developed pop and rock. This however is a load of rubbish in many ways. Of course new and important music is being created and we are experiencing something of our own that we can share. This does not mean however we can not enjoy music from the past. To this day some of my favourite artists include The Beatles , Fleetwood Mac and The Police, but also I'm a big fan of  Mumford and Sons, David Guetta and Example, showing the diversity and blend of different musical cultures. I enjoy music through the eras and I think it is important to experience and indulge yourself in music from what you hear when you are younger to when you are older and this is  to give you an opportunity to enjoying the many different genres in the future and to let you share even more music with generations to come. Music from the past is shared just as well in the present and future.




Beau x

Villagers pleasing Villagers


     Villagers are an Irish band fronted by Conor J. O'Brien. I decided to do my belated new blog on them as I think they deserve more praise. Their first an only album at present is called Becoming a Jackal and for me it was one of the most amazing albums I've ever heard. The twist and array of cultured sounds bring together eleven different and individual tracks on this album , all of which have different meanings and don't consist of the stereotypical 'samey' sound in each one. The band hit fame in Ireland quite quickly as the Irish Times named them to be in the top 10 bands Ireland has ever created, from then on they did a few festivals  here and there and then appeared on Later With Jools Holland.  Their quirky sound has not yet hit the whole of the UK with a storm, but I only give it a matter of time before they appear all over the show. Not to say they aren't popular already or it takes them being popular to succeed but they deserved credit to say the least.  The performances given by O'Brien and his fellow band members always seem to be intimate and automatically draw the listener in. I believe any negative criticism would not exist when it comes to them and I'm not just saying this because i like them myself. I even tested this on people who wouldn't usually listen to this genre or style of music and even those who didn't could not fault the beautiful voice and music of this band.  I agree with The Irish Times ,they are certainly one of Ireland's best creations to this day.

    Although this music probably doesn't appeal to some of you reading this, I still believe that they are something special. Their new album will be released by the end of this year and I would recommend it already.  Even if you're not a fan, I would listen more closely to them. Their sounds are hypnotic and beautiful.  I hope this short but sweet blog didn't just sound like me ranting and raving and i hope it makes you listen just that little bit more. Listen on. 


Beau x

 Stereo-moods that mirror

Music is all around everyone everyday and night. It is an inescapable part of our culture. In the car people listen to the radio, cds or their iPods. In almost every shop and restaurant music surrounds us. For most people music plays from their mobiles or even when people are exercising they are found engaged or attached to their iPods.  In clubs, bars, music is a vital key to the perfect atmosphere. For me it can enhance or shift any mood i am in or want to be in or find myself in and for others it can be the cause of their moods or trigger a specific moods. Stereo-moods are and have been a common factor in determining what we like within music and they are what we feel or  begin to feel when specific music is played.  But why does it happen? Research has shown and proven through music therapy experiments that music has the ability to affect both the left and right side of the brain which as a result of this music affects our moods wholly rather then most other stimuli.
 Music firstly affects our brain waves and the beat or tempo listened to has the ability to regulate upwards or downwards which has an affect on our bodily functions. The higher the tempo, the more heightened our senses become and vice versa. 


   Secondly music seems to get our breathing and heart rate beating. We all have that music that gets our hearts pumping and our blood racing.  Its no coincidence as it is a scientific fact that songs and music do have these affects on us. Alternatively you find that while listening to more mellow music and slow music you yourself start to mirror the music by mellowing and calming down. All these are the music psychology effects that songs and music have in altering and affecting out moods. Our bodies are wired in such a way that they respond and react to whatever our minds say. If the mind is happy and feeling good, the body follows suddenly, alternatively when your mood goes to the dumps and the mind is depressed our body and bodily functions will follow. We rely on music to help up with our moods. An example being when i'm happy I find myself listening to reggae Sean Paul (a guilty pleasure) to keep me and my mind in this mood. However some people find that their mood can be altered when they are feeling sad for example and their favourite song comes on the radio therefore being able to shift a persons mood and make you feel so much better.


You find yourself feeling miserable and you turn to your ipod to help you through it music can either make you feel better or mirror and comfort the mood you are already in. In affect music performs many roles in our emotions whether it being your saviour of feeling sad or your complimenting of feeling happy. In the words of  Berthold Auerbach 'music washes away from the soul and dust of everyday life'. Without music our moods would be inescapable , a Stereo-mood is ultimately a pleasure we are known to enjoy and even if you didn't know it yourself there are reasons behind them. Stereo-moods mirror. 


And on that note, lets hope you're feeling happy! If not , here's something to help.  Beau x

 

A Jubileever In British Music?

Throughout the decades , Britain has be driven by an unwavering passion for music. In the spirit of the recent jubilee it might be as well to celebrate the British music we have experienced  throughout them. From 1930's jazz to modern day dub step, music to say the least has seen its fair share of genres and styles. We've had the likes of The Beatles , The Rolling Stones, Belle and Sebastian and Queen as inspirational British bands and bands that have still dominated a lot of peoples music taste in the recent years. These bands are proof that Britain has had and has a lot of influential musicians and proof that they need celebrating! 

Vera Lynn - 1940's

Britain is notably more known for its pop music rather than its classical composers and  jazz genre but in years such as the 1930's pop was not introduced so the likes of American Jazz and swing music became increasingly popular and composers such as Benny Goodman, the 'King of the swing' were top musicians to listen to. This showed a weaker time in British music but by the time it came to the 1940's class  British acts such as Vera Lynn took over the music scene with hits such as 'We'll meet again' and 'The White Cliffs of Dover', however the  frantic American jazz music was still dominating the dance halls and war time events.  
     By the 1950's it was the beginning era of Rock and Roll , British artists like Tommy Steele and Wee Willie Harris brought  Rock 'n' Roll  to Britain and from then on in the 1960's The Beatles hit Britain like a storm, dominating the charts and peoples lives as they have produced 5 top albums and are one of the only bands in Britain ever to do so. The Beatles after over 50 years are still one of the most memorable bands in history, they produced hits such as 'Let is be' , 'Love me do' and 'Hey Jude' , just to name a few.  To say The Beatles were good in my opinion(ofcourse) would be an utter understatement , where in the world would you find a band with this success and history? I believe true British music started here, and over these last 50 or so years, other musicians have had that urge to compete with the success of The Beatles and have found it a struggle to do so.

Moving on swiftly to the 1970's , and these years brought with them the 'Glam Rock' sound with artists such as David Bowie, Elton John and George Michael as you most probably know already but their songs and music are evidence and are proof as such that British artists need celebrating. Elton John for example has written songs for musicals, composed songs, had top albums in the charts and is one of the most influential musicians I've ever known and George Michael , well you've just got to love a bit of Wham.  The evidence of their success is clear as most 1970s going on 80's music is still played now , even by the younger generation, such as myself for example,what is an Ipod without  a bit of 'Club Tropicana' on?

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

    The 1980's brought with them new strands of music. This being New Romantics, Pop, Synth Pop and Heavy Metal, this gave the 80's more of a cultured music taste with bands ranging from Iron Maiden to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and made this era specifically  more memorable and introduced the new 'Britpop' into Britain. In the 1990's , along came Oasis, a top hit British band that stormed through the 90s creating hits such as 'Shakermaker' , 'Slide Away' and 'Supersonic'. The band had a noticible presence with them and this helped with their success as people in the 90's looked for the more alternative style. Another greatly admired band of the 90's were the Spice Girls. The Spice Girls, were a phenomenally popular girl band. Every girl (or boy)now probably knows all the lyrics to at least one Spice Girls song whether they liked them or not. Their songs that arguably had no real intelligent slant were still number ones, this shows that music has changed from previous eras and that now the songs that are getting higher chart status are those people prefer to hear rather then the ones that are more of a similar genre, but that is my own opinion.
      In the recent era of British music it is hard to point out specific bands that are most influential as we see new bands derive from everywhere as it is now much easier to get noticed and famous rather then in the past where they had to go out there and play gigs all the time, now there are opportunities all over the media platforms for bands to get known so it is hard to pin point most famous British artists now. Which I think is a shame, in the future when we are going to be looking back at this current era it is going to be hard to pick out specific musicians to say 'they were the best' , however this also means that British music is progressing and we now see bands going international , spreading our music and there are so many different types of music that people have a preferential choice on. Music in Britain has been staggering and its time to celebrate the achievements of British musicians as through this long timeline of music history we have seen it develop in to something magical and something that in years to come will still be remembered. British music is by far one of the best things about Britain as a whole and I hope it is remembered in years to come. And in a true British manner I'm going to have to say the music we as a nation create and have created is definitely 'the bee's knees'


Beau x

Engelbert Humperdinck said he was going to 'channel the spirit of Elvis within his performance on Eurovision in a bid to win the contest'. In this instance i think its a case of 'return to sender'

The Eurovision song contest, an annual chance for countries to put their own individual quirky spin to European music. We've had the likes of Bucks Fizz, ABBA, and Celion Dion as winners in the past , who have been most notable in Eurovision history.
                               

     

Humperdinck and Elvis

     This year, representing us was the one and only Engelbert Humperdinck singing  'Love Will Set You Free' which for the UK was slightly left field rather than sticking to the predictable Euro-trash we have been used to with the likes of Javine and Sonia. Humperdinck  had been wearing a pendant throughout the contest, that the late 1950's star Elvis Presley had given him , reckoned to be worth up to £2million that was supposed to have brought  him luck.  Unfortunately the luck was not in Humperdinck's favour when he came second to last defeating just Norway by a few points. 

Sweden at Eurovision

Although the song was 'out going' for Eurovision it was not for us and Humperdinck to win, instead Sweden were quite the 'hoo har' for countries to vote for suggesting that the traditional political voting system of Eurovision had been put to side while voting. On the other hand Finland did have their handful of points at Swedens side.
Sweden's Loreen gave an unusual performance that was choreographed to perfection and pretty pitch perfect. The song was said to become a 'top hit in Sweden and hopefully throughout Europe'. Ha. We shall see with that one. Me, personally thought it was a shame Humperdinck didn't do better then he did, the song was well written but maybe Eurovision just isn't the place for it. In the future I think we should stick to the cheesy, over the top, quirky structure for our performances and bring back the fizz  that we once had. Lets look forward to next years! 




Beau x

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb 'requested How Deep Is Your Love for his funeral'

         
 The Bee Gees, a 1970's hit band that produced groovy number one hits 'How Deep Is Your Love' and 'Night Fever',probably two of the most well known songs in the history of 1970's music. The band consisted of twin brothers Maurice and Robin Gibb and older brother Barry. On the 12th January 2003 the band were sad to lose their first member of the band Maurice aged just 53. After his death Robin and Barry were reluctant to carry on without 'Mo' as a group and only rarely did a few concerts without him as they felt incomplete without him being there.

          

 On the 27th October 2011, Robin Gibb cancelled an appearance only minutes before hie was due to perform at the Poppy Appeal Concert in London. Later the same week however , he was seen in London and quoted as saying he felt "absolutely great". on the 20th November 2011, it was revealed that Gibb had been diagnosed with liver cancer several months earlier and on the 20th May 2012 he lost this tremendous battle, leaving just Barry Gibb as the last remaining Bee Gee. Robin Gibb was a extremely sad loss, not only did he write and perform spectacular songs along side his brothers in the 1970s he is also an inspiration to song writers all over the world as he and his brothers wrote hits for spectacular artists such as Diana Ross, Destiny's Child ,Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, the list goes on and on.  Many people took to micro blogging to pay their respects , a statement put by Song Music was ' Rest in peace.Thank you for the music'. The Bee Gees were second to Lennon and McCartney as the most successful song writers in Britain and their accomplishments have been monumental. On Robin Gibb's death bed he pulled over his son,40, and requested 'How Deep Is Your Love' to be played at his funeral as he always noted how beautiful that song was. His music will never be forgotten. 


Beau x

  

A fan of Ben Howard?

Ben Howard has smashed the music world like a storm with his brand spanking new album 'Every Kingdom' featuring songs like 'Old Pine' and 'Keep Your Head Up'. His music is clearly influenced by those of the likes of Bob Dylan, Frightened Rabbit and Damien Rice as the meaning behind his songs mirror those of most folk singers. Howard represents the folk genre within his warming ,tracks ranging from the mellow guitar and subtle violin to the twang of drums which enhance the folk vibe during the tracks. 

      But why has Howard suddenly become this huge sensation? Is it the audiences need for constant fresh faces within the music industry? Is it because he is yet another heartthrob to gaze at and people are just jumping on the Howard band wagon or is it genuinely because of the soft wonderful  music he produces? Its definitely a tough one in this case.

   In my opinion although he is a greatly talented man and produces songs according to my own personal music taste, he still lacks the unique edge to his songs and this has happened before with newcomers  like Ed Sheeran for example who become famous because of his heart warming songs but then fade out when another similar act appears. We are still welcoming Ben Howard to the charts and we shall see if he stays there and stays successful. Is there room in the music industry for Howard? Please comment your thoughts below . :) 

Beau x