It's Sorta Been A While

When I thought about making this blog in September, I had no idea just how much work high school would require. I suppose that was more than a little naive, in hindsight. I have trouble keeping up with my regular blog, let alone this one, I'm afraid, which is why posts are becoming more irregular and more straightforward. I'm going to continue, of course, but I understand that this blog a little lackluster lately.

To make up for it? Here's ten awesome songs I'm listening to obsessively at the moment.



This seems appropriate, seeing as the entire UK/indie-dubstep-pop world is waiting anxiously for the release of Katy B's album in two days. I've got to be an indie cliche and say I, too, cannot wait. Forget Claire Maguire and Anna Calvi and Niki and the Dove(as much as I love the last two), this girl is the most interesting new face in pop music this year. This song is well-produced and super super super catchy. Plus, listening to this, Katy on a Mission, and Louder, one learns that she truly is the most diverse, genre-spanning singer in music right now.



Another new drop-dead-gorgeous female pop singer with a great voice and brilliant songs to boot? oh come on, you know you love it. I love the sounds on this. She's not exactly the first to do the twinkly keyboard thing, but it works really well. Also, she has one of my favorite female singing voices...like, move over, Ms. Welch. (sorta, maybe). Listen to Sun of a Gun, too. She could sing blues almost, it's wonderful.



I guess I'm gonna be taking an unpopular stance here, but I rather like this song, and I rather like Glasvegas in general. Okay, come and attack me Coldplay fans, why don't you. I like this song a thousand times more. And they're not copying Coldplay. Okay?



I like bands where they're at the awkward border between punk-revival and post-punk revival. I suppose that doesn't make much sense...this sound, I mean, like this, this is what I'm talking about. I could kinda sing and dance to it all day long. Every single day. Yes, I love it.



Trip-hop gold, is it not?



Oh my god, these guys define musical beauty...in pop music. Oh my effing god. It's trippy but it's pop and it'a acsessible but at the same time it's not and it's bright but it's also dark and there's a harmonica. Perfect.



Not exactly news this, but of course that doesn't make it any less brilliant. Lo-fi dubstep meets these brooding almost jazzy piano chords. Best cover ever? Um, yes. Dark but gorgeous. Listen to his voice...quite normal, but wonderful at the same time. And this is coming from someone who pays almost no attention to the singing voices of musicians, so that's saying something.



In a similar vein as the jj song, this is soaring and springlike and big and beautiful and fantastic.



'Datk', as far as pop music goes I suppose, and chilling and 'gothic' and all that stuff The Good Music Journalist is supposed to describe this song as. Regardless, the combination of trip-hop synth and breathy angsty lyrics is one I'm too weak to turn my nose up at.



Might as well end with something rather more popular, something that's been moving like a musical tornado through music blogs and Tumblr at the moment. Y'know, I was becoming a little worried about the future prospects of my beloved Arctic Monkeys. after that horrific Brick by Brick song came out, and it was announced that their album would be titled 'Suck It And See', I'd pretty much given up hope. I could deal with Humbug, and I can deal with the drugs and the long hair and the California-esque bullshit, but I'd pretty much reached my limit. This song kinda reminded me how extraordinarily talented the band's frontman is--as capable of writing beauty(this, 505, all of his Last Shadow Puppets stuff) as he is mind-blowing post-punk chaos(Brianstorm, The View from the Afternoon, This House is a Circus) coupled with witty, anecdotal lyrics far and above most of his Landfill Indie contemporaries, he truly is a brilliant, brilliant musician indeed.

So, that's basically my music tastes latey. I've noticed a change in my tastes, in that they're becoming more synth-pop, more pop in general. This could very well be a bad thing. Perhaps I'm somehow betraying my music snobbery tendancies by doing this, but I genuinely think the above music is good stuff. The question's been going about the internet lately--is guitar music dead? My opinion? maybe not dead, but certainly not terribly interesting at the current time. I'm sorry, but that new Strokes single did nothing for me...and I like the Strokes! In the UK, it's all these Oasis-wannabees. Their songs are supposed to be big, but they're flat and boring and they're huge egos aren't even appealing anymore, as they are when the musician is a Gallagher. I guess there's the Wombats, if they count...and, Biffy Clyro are good, and stuff. Guitar music is appaling in these US parts. Girls like All Time Low, guys like Seether, hipsters like Vampire Weekend. Meh. That's all I can say.

There's still Warpaint and kasabian and Manchester Orchestra and the National but yknow, it's not all that amazing.

Anyway, thanks for sticking around.

Biffy Clyro in America

so. Biffy Clyro.

Once again, my beloved Biffy Clyro.

It's interesting being a Biffy fan in America. a.) My foreign accent and a nonsense band name make for some funny "Biffy the who?! conversations(as pointed out by the band on several occasions). B.)there's nothing more satisfying than the rare, oh so rare, moments when your favorite band are mentioned. and c.) One observes an enormous cultural difference.

It is a cultural chasm of a cultural difference, my friends.

simply put; America in general do not like Biffy Clyro.

Crazy talk, isn't it? But yes; it's true.

By Biffy Clyro, I mean all eras Biffy Clyro. From 57 to There's No Such thing as A Jaggy Snake to God And Satan and back. Admittedly, the debates of which era of Biffy is best have gotten a little heated and out of hand but most people can find something to their tastes in their catalogue, right? they're at the height of their game! And yet, here, Blackened Sky isn't quite Foo Fighters enough, Vertigo of Bliss is too weird, Infinity Land is too dark, Puzzle is too creative, Only Revolutions isn't catchy enough.

At the moment, I'm an Infinity Land kind of person. That perfect balance between alterna-pop, pop rock, and metal is just blissfully unique. But I'm a big fan, and I like all of them.

Biffy are--or were--pretty post-grunge, there's no getting around that. and you know, that's totally okay within reason. My biggest problem with music in this country is without a shadow of doubt, post-grunge, however. It's a big problem and it's more than I'm gonna discuss here, but Biffy are a prime example of it. Not post-grunge? Not gonna get big.

So they're not Dave Grohl. Simon Neil is trying his best! But he just can't be. there's also no straightening that hair or getting rid of those muscles. So they make good, accessible guitar music and he's not Nickelback southern-drawl rock and he's not whiny 16-year-old emo angst...they must, be, like, unique, right? They must be praised! Supported!

And yet, like so many other guitar bands from different countries, they are not. by the looks, of it, they never will be. I'm sorry america, I don't especially care anymore about your Keshas or Kings of Leon or Jay Z's. Do what you like. It sells, doesn't it? It's not all half bad, too. My problem is your guitar music. Shut up. I'm not saying you have to love Biffy Clyro like I do. But their label are pushing them and they're just not being given a chance. you've shut yourselves off. You've forgotten what anything else sounds like. And you will suffer.

If you carry this way, in 2060 you will stay be singing three-chord songs about fucking some bitch in your gritty, gruesome baritone. you'll grow your hair and never stop talking about Nirvana. You'll be on all the stations and you'll get sucked up and you'll forget what it was like when music breathed.

It's sucks that you just don't care anymore.