Friday, November 23, 2012

Has Obama got soul?


Based On A True Story
I have no idea if President Obama has listened to or even heard of Fat Freddy's Drop. Why would he? They are a 7 piece dub/reggae/soul group from Wellington, NZ.

Cooking dinner and sipping a Jim Beam it stuck me that should he decide to do so, listening to their song "Hope" as he sat in the Oval Office could quite possibly make the world a better place.

Time for a second drink and some more deep thinking...
Fat Freddys Drop
A new generation 
And a brand new age 

I wanna fall like rain 
On burning pages 


Rise from the ashes 

Like a phoenix sun 
Learning to flow 
Searching for love 


You know that I can't get enough of 

Get enough of that hope

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Siouxsie & The Banshees

Siouxsie Sioux, and her band The Banshees were on reasonably high rotate on my turntable back in the early 80s. As I've mentioned earlier my tastes have tended to be more male singer/guitar/bass/drums orientated.  Siouxsie spoke to my softer side. At least I still had the guitar/bass/drums part of the equation.

I found some of their studio albums  a tad patchy like they were straining to fill them up. Fortunately they had an awesome live album with "A Kiss In The Dreamhouse" recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. Big, bold and orchestral. Fab.


Like a lot of my music from the dark old days of the 80s I haven't revisited it too often. The main reason for this is that some of it hasn't lasted well, dating a bit over the years. I winced slightly listening to "Hong Kong Garden" and was a tad puzzled at what I really saw in "Peek-A-Boo". It was a bit arty for me. My ears relaxed and I smiled once "Melt" came on followed by "Happy House". Maybe it was the drummer Budgie's rolling drums I liked all along... give these two tracks a listen at least.

You are the melting men
You are the situation
There is no time to breathe
And yet one single breath
Leads to an insatiable desire
Of suicide...in sex

So many blazing orchids

Burning in your throat
Making you choke
Making you sigh
Sigh in tiny deaths

So Melt!

My lover, melt!
She said melt!
My lover, melt! 


Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Jesus and Mary Chain


It's been a while since this crew slipped out of my speakers. More than a while actually, years, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's music for boys and I live in a house of ladies. To be honest though, in a house full of girls I am rediscovering this via headphones...

This blend of dark, fuzzbox filled feedback can be a bit challenging for most girls. But give it a listen. "Just Like Honey" is a beautiful track from their first album Psycho Candy and probably the song of theirs that drew me in initially. I'd never heard that much distortion mixed with such mellow voice before.

These guys can carry some of the blame for my hairstyle in the 80s, for sure.

I see that in the decades since I really took note of these lads they've slipped out a couple of albums I didn't know about. I'm going to have to look them up...
www.hypersmash.com