This was recorded at Studio 2 (where The Beatles recorded most of their stuff) in Abbey Road on July 28, 2005. I’ve seen it before but just came across it again on the YouTube and I don’t think I’ve seen/heard such a high quality version before. It’s a pretty nice one for Paul McCartney fans:

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard came out in September of 2005.

You’ve almost definitely already heard this sad news but I felt it should be included on this site as I have been a big fan of The Beastie Boys for many years (and even if you are not a fan you have to admit they left their mark with their unique approach.)

Adam Yauch (MCA) of The Beastie Boys has passed away at the age of 47 after a three year battle with cancer.

I’ll let the announcement on The Beastie Boys website takeover from here.

Radlands is Mystery Jets’ new album. It is the fourth effort of the London indie-pop group, and it shows a real, and favourable, change of direction for the band. Their rather shallow light-hearted pop is gone, and a more mature American country feel sits in its place. Despite the marked difference in sound between Radlands and Serotonin the band’s distinctive ability to write catchy melodies remains and there are tracks, like Greatest Hits, which are bound to become classics among fans.

The album progresses with a warm and satisfying collection of songs which are all linked together by their care-free Americana sounds. Although every cynical music fan will be suspicious of Mystery Jets attempts to pass off as a blues and Nashville influenced group when they are essentially a bunch of youthful British poppers, they need not worry: the MJs don’t half get it right.

Read the rest

Remember when you were a kid and you went to the family reunion and your favorite uncle you got to see only once a year said something really funny about your mum and you laughed so hard, Pepsi came out of your nose, and now all these years later, you’re grown up and you now realise that he wasn’t really all that funny after all? Well, this post has absolutely nothing to do with that topic. If this is what you were expecting to read about, you’ll have to go to Ellen‘s site. This is a music blog, though I’m not going to be spending a lot of time on music.

I just moved. It was in the same building but all the same, Mrs. A and I still had to pack stuff (Oh the stuff we have accumulated!) and unpack it in the new place. And here’s a fact that science hasn’t been able to explain. It doesn’t matter how much bigger your new place is, all the stuff you took out of the smaller place won’t fit into the spacious new spread. I’m not sure why. It must be along the same reasons that explain wire hangers mysteriously multiplying or day time TV.

However, we are settling in fairly quickly and smoothly.

My "Office". Where I strum on my guitar and play games...

(Oh look! A music reference!)

I know that most of you don’t really care what I’ve been up to. “Why are you wasting our precious time with this tedious story you jackass?” Well fine! Go read another article.    Here’s    a nice one about a 10 year old album that I only discovered now!

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Well! After their regular schedule of Cavern and other club appearances, The Beatles, still waiting for that elusive record contract and subsequent fame, headed of for their third trip to Hamburg and their first of three residencies at the Star Club. The big desirable place to play. The building is now torn down. Another landmark obliterated from History, although the spot is marked where it was.

The Archway Through To The Club Location

The Very Same Archway Today

I think now they got to fly over and stay in an actual hotel with beds and sheets!

The Beatles concentrating hard on their nice hotel beds, April '62

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Yeeaaahhhhh!!!!! Aaaahhhhhhhgggh!!

OK! Here’s what happened today. I’m the nicest guy in the world (ever!) and I take my wife to the hairdresser and politely sit and wait for her while I enjoy music on my iPod. The room that we’re usually in is playing the TV rather than the standard issue generic psuedo-R&B/Hip Hop/rave/dance/luvvy duvvy technicolour yawn inducing piddle that today passes as culture for the modern moron idiot.

So we instead get to enjoy the lowest common denominator cultural enema produced nonsense that today passes as good and educational T.V. (Totally Vapid…) While I’m listening to “cool” music, I get to watch the Karshadians contribute to the ever increasing pile of doo doo “reality shows” about people that are somehow supposed to be an inspiration to us lesser humans (if we’re even that), so that we can aspire to greater levels of insipid high mediocrity (as an art form), whereas if the sleeping masses ever discovered just how lame all these star studded celebrities actually are and realise that they’ve actually just been wasting their precious time, they (the masses) would murder them in their sleep.

But today, I got to see some actual music content on Much Music (our equivalent of MTV). And I was totally inspired to come to you with my unwanted opinion today about what I saw, (besides Nickleback). Read the rest

Just something fun I found out about on Google Earth, if you type into the search bar “Salford Lad’s Club,” zoom in and enable
3D buildings: you will see standing outside a pixelated image of Morissey, lead singer of The Smiths.

A fun little something for the music lover!

Just in case you haven’t heard of The Smiths they were an 80s British indie rock band with a truly iconic sound. Morrissey’s vocals, soaring and emotional, are perfectly suited to the subtle and melancholic lyrics, well complimented by melodic and unique guitar lines by the incredible Johnny Marr. They are a truly ground breaking band, Read the rest

Beatles go to Manchester and play for BBC for the first time.

Since Brian Epstein had signed on to manage The Beatles, they were actually in a position to “get somewhere”. They got that audition/recording session with  DECCA  on Jan 1 and by Feb. sometime, they finally found out they were refused by the label for the famous given reason of guitar groups being on their way out etc, etc…(Incidentally, Pete Best was the last to find out about that a week after the others on the flimsy excuse that they didn’t want to ‘bum him out‘) Whatever.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that Ringo made his first appearance with The Beatles in Feb as well. Also in Feb, Brian sent off a letter to Polydor in Germany to be released from their contract with them and Tony Sheridan, and that on June 30, The Beatles would cease to be Polydor artists. But more on that in  April. Read the rest

Not much to say. Davy Jones, the “cute” one of the pre-fab four, passed away early this morning of an apparent heart attack. If you don’t know anything about The Monkees, it was a cheap cash-in TV show designed to channel Hard Day’s Night into a weekly teeny-bopper series. It started off as a show but it became real very soon. They hit the road in early ’67 to prove to the world that they were a real band. And dammit, they were!

I was a Monkees fan before I had even heard of The Beatles and those songs are just as important to me as any of them!

The Long Hard Battle to prove they were real. Singer/Actor? or Actor/Singer?

It makes no difference. Let this tune and performance wash over you and try to capture the time period as you imagine it in your mind.

David Thomas Jones, Dec 30, 1945 – Feb 29, 2012

Radiohead began their King of Limbs tour yesterday, and I have to say am I rather excited, not least because I’m lucky enough to be going to see them in Italy in July, but because as a Brit I am very proud of them. To still be producing such brilliant records and touring is without a doubt a real achievement. Especially seeing as their material is, in my opinion, so faultless time and time again.

The tour began yesterday in Miami and will be covering four continents. The band are playing extensive US and European dates, including major festivals, like Optimus Alive, and Bilbao BBK, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Fuji Rock Festival. The band is also heading off to Asia, and has just announced dates down under. It is going to be an exciting and truly global journey for the Abingdon five piece.

They are yet to announce any UK venues, but they say they will indeed be returning to their homeland, though not to play any concerts out of doors, or at festivals. It is for this reason I have chosen to go to Europe to experience their material, in an atmospheric piazza in Bologna.

The tour focuses mainly on King of Limbs material, as well as much of In Rainbows, and looks set to be brilliant. Read the rest