Inside Nokia Music

A Stitch In Time by The Smashing Pumpkins

The next instalment from the epic forthcoming Teargarden By Kaleidyscope has landed sooner than expected with the release of A Stitch In Time - hopefully this is a sign that the project may begin to progress a little quicker.

It seems that on my previous post I may have been mistaken about something. Clues are beginning to show and suggest the “album” will be 11 x 4 track EP’s and not 4 x 11 track EP’s as I originally thought (yes, I know that doesn’t constitute an EP). But there are still a few things that suggest I was right in the first place.

A Quote from Billy’s Blog

“The story of the album is based on ‘The Fool’s Journey’, as signified in the progress of the Tarot. It is my intention to approach this by breaking down the journey of our life here into four phases as made by these different characters; the Child, the Fool, the Skeptic, and the Mystic.”

I think I’m sticking to my guns on 4 “EP’s”!

Can’t say I think much of the track just yet, but I usually have to chew food and allow it to tantalise both the sweet and the sour sides before I can say anything with wholehearted honesty.

All 3 tracks so far have been pretty tame, but the smart money’s on the “fool” and the “sceptic” chapters bringing the thunder!!!

I’ll be posting on the entire progression of this project.

Smashing Pumpkins albums are available to download from The Nokia Music Store - if you’ve got ‘Comes With Music’ get them for free!

I don’t half bang on about them Arctic Monkeys do I!?… but how can I not when they’re one of the few bands on the scene these days that without fail, spoil us with a wealth of b-sides on every single they release.

True to form, they’re doing it again with the release of third Humbug single and album opener My Propeller. As with the release of Humbug’s previous 2 singles, they’re only set for release on 10″ & 7″ vinyl through Oxfam in the physical realm. Thankfully the 2 previous singles and their b-sides made their way onto Nokia Music Store, so I should expect the same for those of us who’ve completely expended our holiday allowance,  taking days off to successfully track these elusive beauties down.

…and in other news…

With the horrific lull between the release of Favourite Worst Nightmare and Humbug, and consolation for this only coming from frontman Alex Turner’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets, it’s come as a welcome surprise that the band have dropped the word that they intend to begin recording album number 4 in the near future, possibly reunited with Humbug producer and finger-in-all-pies man Josh Homme.

My Propellor is released on the 22nd March.

Loads more Arctic Monkeys music available to download from the Nokia Music Store - if you’re a  ‘Comes With Music’ subscriber, it’s completely free!

If the second album is generally acknowledged to be a band’s tricky proving-point, then what of the third? If you’re lucky then like the third act of a play it would move towards resolving much of the heartache and trauma expressed in the second, reviewing lessons learned and hoping for better in the future.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks

The Winter of Mixed Drinks from Scottish indie folk Frightened Rabbit manages to portray this excellently. Whilst its critically acclaimed predecessor, The Midnight Organ Fight (well there’ve certainly been worse euphemisms for sex) wallowed, even reveled in the still-raw emotion of a recent breakup and its subsequent flailing rebounds (“You twist and whisper the wrong name, I don’t care nor do my ears” – The Twist) their third release gains some ground in moving on from the experience.

Luckily the album feels no less personal and sincere than Organ Fight despite Hutchinson (Scott; writer, lead vocals + rhythm guitar) describing it as this time, semi-fictional. The brutally frank lyrics and all too-familiar emotions however are far from fictitious.

The going is sometimes rough, images of death and lonely desperation rear their heads throughout the album; but this time the voice is more wry, on the outside looking in at the feelings (“When all you need’s a coffin and your Sunday best, to smarten up the end” – Things).

Leading single Swim Until You Can’t See Land rolls and tinkles like the lyrical waves and shoreline that describe someone (let’s be honest, probably Hutchinson) distancing himself from a heartbreak and its deliverer.  (“Let’s call me a Baptist, call this the drowning of the past. She’s there on the shoreline throwing stones at my back.” – Swim Until You Can’t See Land)

The progression of the album is faltering, it loops and returns to an earlier refrain (Man/Bag of Sand) and time is given to instrumental meandering. As it approaches the midpoint it sees our narrator wishing to shortcut this difficult rite of passage (“If this is the prime of life, I wish I could skip the blasted youth, skip the youth it’s aging me too much” – Skip The Youth). But slowly, despite the set-backs and self-doubt some acceptance is gained. The momentum is helped by Hutchinson (Grant; drummer, brother to Scott) using his drumming to drive on the songs when guitars and vocals drift and fade with almost militaristic beats.

This third record also sees the addition of a fifth band member, Gordon Skeene on keyboard.  Whilst it enriches the sound adding a choral, airy sound (see: Foot Shooter; the track most likely to be referred to as ‘epic’ and ‘the one that gets them noticed’) die hard Rabbit fans won’t be complaining of the band over-complicating things. No lilies being gilded here; they won’t be going all Snow Patrol any time soon.

Things turn around though somewhere after the current single, Nothing Like You’s almost gloating accomplishment of having finally pulled someone that although not particularly special has the vital quality of being nothing like the person who so badly wounded him. In the last couple of tracks our protagonist’s outlook brightens as the tunes become more affirmative (“Though the corners are lit the dark can return with the flick of a switch. It hasn’t turned on me yet, yet” – Not Miserable).

Deluxe edition bonus tracks Fun Stuff and Learned Your Name provide a great little epilogue to the main album that may leave you questioning whether all is so neatly finished and resolved…(“And I’m quite all right, I get by just fine; I’m not depressed, not most of the time. It’s just the fun stuff is much less fun without you.” – Fun Stuff)

Frightened Rabbit – Nothing Like You (Alternate Video) – Fatcat Records

More Frightened Rabbit videos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/frabbitTV

Frightened Rabbit are currently touring, more information can be found at: http://www.myspace.com/frightenedrabbit

Download Frightened Rabbit on the Nokia Music Store. If you have a ‘Comes With Music’ Subscription you can download as much as you want for free!

Back again, flying the Muse flag high on the insidenokiamusic blog as usual, this time it’s all about the third single Resistance from the massively successful 5th album The Resistance.

I’m far more excited about the release of a new single this time around because, unlike first single Uprising with it’s solitary b-side that circulated several months before it’s release, and second single Undisclosed Desires which didn’t have any at all, Resistance has answered my prayers and will feature 2 new songs, as well as the obligatory radio edit and a remix by Tiesto.

the first new track is a cover of Prague by Mega City Four. The second is again a cover, this time of Popcorn by Hot Butter, a track I believe the band live debuted during their highly acclaimed homecoming double-nighter “A Seaside Rendezvous” a week or so before the release of The Resistance. It’s a song I doubt any other rock band could cover and still keep their credibility intact, but the swirling synths are right up Muse’s alley. Sadly this track only appears to be available on a limited edition 7″ single exclusive to the band’s official website.

The entire Muse catalogue is available to download from the Nokia Music Store and is completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers. Resistance is released this coming Monday 22nd February.

Breakups are a bummer no? Any way I was discussing the new Beach House record Teen Dream with the gf. “Used to Be” was in the background and she noted that the new album sounds “more epic” than their previous works. I nodded in agreement. We sat in silence listening to the song fade out and then we made out… then we broke up, then we made out again… then I woke up naked 2 days later laying next to her on a bed made of cotton candy while black rose petals fell from the skies… I dunno either but… dang, WHAT A RECORD. Happy frickin Valentine’s Day. Meh…

Beach House – Better Times

Just in case you, dear reader, are not as cool as me and have no idea who the hell Yeasayer are I will sum them up quickly for you: an experimental, eclectic Brooklyn based trio who chuck out a variety of pop, rock, world, folk, dub in one genre merging delicious assault on your ear canal.
And they’re really very trendy, look:

Trendies? Moi? - Back in the four-piece days

The follow up to 2007’s phenomenal All Hour Cymbals, Odd Blood dropped on Monday and I was very, very excited about this. Imagine my horror then, when the first track made me want to do a little sick in my mouth. It’s horrible, just horrible. I don’t get or appreciate tracks that have 1. Annoying vocals 2. Don’t ‘go anywhere’ 3. Just annoy the hell out me the whole way through. I persevered though, kept the vom down, and went on to track two. And thank goodness I did! ‘Ambling Amp’ – the first single from the album – is lush; with a retro 80’s feel and some tasty afro/electro beats and falsetto loops.

The stand out song at the moment for me (bound to change with every fluctuation in my mood) is ‘O.N.E’, a song with so many layers – almost Caribbean at the core – that is bound to cheer up anyone faced with a gloomy, grey February day.

Brief descriptions of other tracks highlight the true eclectic breadth of this album; the synthy romantic ‘I Remember’ could well be the theme tune of some trippy 70s kids show, ‘Strange Reunions’ contains some dubby sitars; then there’s the head bopping hecticness of ‘Rome’ and the poppy ‘Mondegreen’ complete with a hip hand clap or two.

Overall, despite the oddball weirdness expected from Yeasayer, the sound of this album is much cleaner and therefore more accessible than it’s highly acclaimed predecessor. Together with clear, easy lyrics which compliment the complexity of the arrangements and timings going on in the background, the poppy vibe and danceability factor throughout leads me to give Odd Blood a huge thumbs up. There’s definitely something on here for everyone so why not go have a listen and see what you think.

UK gig listings in case it turns out you love them as much as I do are as follows:

16th Feb @ O2 Academy Birmingham
17th Feb @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
20th Feb @ Speakeasy, Belfast
21st Feb @ Manchester University
22nd Feb @ The Faversham, Leeds
23rd Feb @ Heaven, London
25th Feb @ Thekla, Bristol
26th Feb @ Brighton Digital
26th May @ KOKO, London

The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s are back today with Skeletons, the third single from one of 2009’s most blogged about albums, It’s Blitz!

Taking a different direction from the dance heavy feel of the first 2 singles, Skeletons is a return to their sweeter, softer sound. The singles b-side is the acoustic version of the song that featured on the Deluxe Edition of It’s Blitz!

Here’s the official music video, and if you haven’t seen the promotional shorts for the release of It’s Blitz!, they’re linked at the end as related videos and are worth a watch.

Skeletons as well as It’s Blitz! Deluxe Edition which features both tracks is available to download from the Nokia Music Store and is completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

Shortly after posting about Polysics in my most anticipated albums of 2009, the band put out a newsletter stating that Keyboard player Kayo would be leaving to “experience life outside the band”. The decision was apparently made a long time ago as it was stated in the newsletter that “Kayo made it a basic policy to not leave the band haphazardly. Even after the decision to graduate was made, she still participated in the recording of two albums as well as many live performances, some which took place abroad”.

Kayo, in my opinion, and that of several other fans I’m sure, is an integral dynamic of the band’s live performances. Standing still for most of the performance, she get’s the biggest response from the audience as the kooky one responsible for all the robotic vocoder gibberish and the sporadic pom-pom shaking outbursts.

Kayo “graduates” from Polysics following the show at the Budokan to take place on March 14, 2010, If you have a chance to catch them before this tragic and emotional day, do not hesitate as the band are understandably going on hiatus and I fear will never be the same again.

I Couldn’t find any crazy pom-pom footage, but here’s a Polysics performance that will give you glimpse into what we’re about to lose.

You’ll be sorely missed, Kayo Polysics.

Polysics are available to download from the Nokia Music Store and is completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

Muse fans at Big Day Out 2010 in Sydney and Melbourne we’re treated to a cover of AC/DC’s Back In Black with and incredible Brian Johnson impersonation by Jet’s Nick Cester. According to Muse drummer Dom Howard in this video, AC/DC have never even played the Big Day Out, which in my opinion is a sad state of affairs for Australia’s greatest ever Rock band.

Muse and Jet are available to download from the Nokia Music Store and are completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

As an adolescent of the nineties, my musical taste is very much rooted in the bands from this era and so it came as a nice surprise today to learn that The Cranberries reunited and began touring again in November 2009 after a one-off unofficial reunion gig in January 2009 to celebrate singer Dolores O’Riordan “becoming an Honorary Patron of University Philosophical Society (Trinity College, Dublin)” according to wikipedia. A tour of North America and Europe will feature some of their classics, material from O’Riordans two solo albums Are You Listening? and No Baggage as well as some new compositions… It would seem as though we can expect a new album sometime in the near future.

The Cranberries and Delores O’Riordan are available to download from the Nokia Music Store and are completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.