On the twenty-fifth of November, 1974 the world lost one of its most beautiful song writers and lyricists. It was a very sad day but the saddest thing of all was that he had been so little known. Nick Drakes’ life had only been twenty-six years long but he had recorded three incredible studio albums.
Nick found life to be a very painful experience and he chose to leave it by overdosing on amitriptyline. He had led a troubled life (more…)
In 1979 a little-known band, who had previously been playing under the name of ‘Warsaw’, released, ‘Unknown Pleasures’. ‘Joy Division’ had been born and their new record was gaining a lot of interest from fans and music critics. It was the end of the Punk era and people wanted a new sound and ‘Unknown pleasures’ delivered it.
Joy Division had all the destructive energy of Punk but they also had a great deal of introspection in their music. This was (more…)
In 1975 Pink Floyd unleashed what is arguably their greatest record. ‘Wish You Were Here’ was their seventh studio album and it was in such high demand at the time of its release that EMI could not get enough copies sent out to music stores. It turned out to be Pink Floyds fastest selling album ever.
Many Floyd devotees will stand by the belief that, 1973’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is their greatest work. Undeniably, ‘Dark Side’ is a (more…)
If you enjoy intelligent pop music then check out the self-titled debut album by Miike Snow. You may have even heard one or two of their songs without knowing it. The album’s first track is an extremely catchy reggaesque number that has a slight whiff of The Police about it. Inevitably, it has already been used as a background on a few adverts and their melancholy single, ‘Burial’ has had a good amount of airtime on several of the larger (more…)
A few years ago I had the good fortune of stumbling upon a band called Gravenhurst. It was quite by accident but they are now a firm favourite in my CD collection.
Gravenhurst are basically the vehicle of Nick Talbot. He has worked with several of the same musicians on their four albums but Talbot, most certainly, is at the helm. They cite their influences as including the likes of Simon and Garfunkel, Nick Drake, The Kinks and Husker Du. (more…)
Leonard Cohen really is an amazing guy. He has just turned 75 years old and he is still just as busy as ever.
It is good to see that the incident of him passing out on stage the other week has not stopped him from performing his live shows. Hopefully it was just a one-off.
Mr. Cohen has created some truly beautiful songs throughout his forty-odd years in the business. Sadly, a lot of people are still oblivious to his (more…)
I have just read about something called ‘automatic writing’ on this blog (bratling). It is something that I remember reading about a long time ago and I had completely forgotten it. In fact, a friend of mine had a go at doing it and said that he wrote down some really weird stuff.
The instructions on this page are very good. They tell you exactly how to do it and it is really easy to understand.
I think that I (more…)
If you were online surfing the Internet looking for flea collars for your dog, which headline would have you clicking on it first…”Flea Collars For Sale” or “Get Rid Of Those Fleas For Good With Our Proven Flea Collars”? I’m sure you would definitely have chosen the second headline, at least I know I would. That is because it gives a call to action so to speak. It draws attention and gives the surfer a reason to click on it.
Too often hip hop music is filled with predictable, somewhat negative lyrics. In turn, the whole genre gets a bad name, even if the beats are pretty decent. Fortunately, there are artists who are trying to change this trend. Akon, (or Aliune Thame), is an example as he tries to infuse the spirit of his ancestry into his music.
How does he achieve this? Well, it is definitely not with advertising his music through permission based email marketing with the (more…)
My mother was the first one to introduce me to instrumental music. But this introduction was rather strange, as my mom had no direct interest in the genre. Instead, she had a love for affirmation tapes…many of which had instrumental music on them.
Anyway, she encouraged me to sit down at one of our oak tables and listen to the ones that had affirmations for getting good grades in school. I listened and fell in love. Not only did I (more…)