Some demos of new Oasis songs have been leaked. These songs may be included on their 2008 album which has not been titled (at least not official) and is due for rlease in September.

Hear the demos below:

“Stop The Clocks”

This sounds like a pretty simple demo, the final version will likely be much different. “Stop The Clocks” has been around for awhile as Noel Gallagher first mentioned it over five years ago.

“I Wanna Live A Dream (In A Record Machine)”

This is another early demo sounding recording, particularly because Noel Gallagher has said that the recorded version is “about 10 minutes long and it’s big, psychedelic, loads of guitar solos, but it’s good though, the lyrics are good.”

“Nothing On Me”

This sounds more like a proper recording than a demo. It’s a heavy rocker with Liam Gallagher on lead vocals.

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Oasis is one of the bands that hipsters and indie kids most love to hate. In fact I’m sure my fellow blog contributers here quite hate them, or at best they may be indifferent.

In the ’90s they were one of my favorite bands. And no this is not a story about how I hate them now and I’ve “outgrown” them. I do still like them. Although I do not listen to them as much as I used to and overall I find their music a bit too safe and formulaic for my tastes these days. That being said, I think they do what they do as well as anyone and I do think Liam Gallagher is one of the best singers in rock history. The Oasis swagger is something that put a lot of people off. To me it’s a welcome respite from all of the bashful indie rock of the last 20 years.

Anyway, this little article is an overview of the albums Oasis has released to date.

Definitely Maybe (1994)

Their debut album is in many ways still their best. It’s their most alive, most vital album. It’s the one I would recommend to anyone who is curious to what all of the fuss was about in the mid ’90s. It’s their only album (so far) where Liam sings lead on every cut and I think it’s a stronger album for that. Noel Gallagher is a decent enough singer but Liam’s voice has a certain quality to it that really makes the songs sound special.

Another thing that makes the album stand out in their catalog is the lack of ballads. The only ballad on the album is the final track “Married With Children.” But even that track is not the sort of “heartfelt” ballad that would fill their next album, it’s more of the sarcastic smart ass variety.

The album contains most of their heaviest rock songs like “Columbia” & “Bring It On Down.” It includes some of their greatest anthems like “Live Forever” & “Slide Away” and some of their coolest rockers like “Supersonic” & “Cigarettes & Alcohol.”

(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

Definitely Maybe was their rock n roll masterpiece and they followed it up with Morning Glory? which was their pop masterpiece. Which one you like more will depend on your tastes more than the quality of the albums as I think they are probably equally good. The album includes their biggest worldwide hit “Wonderwall” along with the Noel sung ballad “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and their psychedelic epic “Champagne Supernova.” A couple of my favorite tracks on the album are “Cast No Shadow” & “Some Might Say.”

Be Here Now (1997)

Overblown overproduced coke fueled wall of sound album where all of the songs are two or three minutes too long and have about 25 tracks of guitar on them. For all of these apparent faults I still think it’s a great album. In some ways it’s a great album because of the excesses.

There’s been very few rock albums in the last 30 years that have anywhere near the bombastic level of attitude that you can hear in this album. This was a band that really believed they were the greatest in the world. Although they weren’t actually (Radiohead was) that attitude is something that adds to my enjoyment of the album rather than detracts. The absolute no apologies attitude of the album, the no concern that the songs are all ridiculously too long, that they all have way too many overdubs, that it’s just all completely over the top. There’s no apologies for that and to me the album has aged very well because of that. In a lot of ways it’s my favorite Oasis album now.

It opens with “D’You Know What I Mean?” which I think is one of their greatest songs and definitely their greatest opener (although I’m sure many will disagree with me about that.) I love the absolutely huge sound of this song. The giant guitar solos, the backwards vocals, the layers of weird sounds, the strings, the nearly 8 minute running time. This is a song that makes no bones about wanting to kick your face in. Whether it achieves this goal or not is of course a matter of opinion but the ballsoutness of the attempt is enough to endear me.

Even the album’s ballads seem to be amped up. “Stand By Me” and “Don’t Go Away” are Oasis’ version of power ballads and I prefer them greatly to their 80s counterparts. Sure they may have been more effective if they had been recorded in a more a subdued fashion, but then they wouldn’t have fit in with the rest of the album, now would they? You need the big strings and the big guitar solos otherwise it wouldn’t be a proper Be Here Now track.

One of my favorite tracks is the Noel sung “Magic Pie” particularly because of the absolutely huge “ahhh ahhh ahhh” finish to it. It’s one of the most psychedelic moments in all of Oasis’ catalog. Another favorite of mine is “Fade In-Out” which has a strange sort of demented country & western sound to it and doesn’t really sound like any other Oasis song. It also features Johnny Depp on slide guitar (yes, really.)

The album also includes the most ridiculously over the top Oasis song to date “All Around The World.” All 9 minutes and 20 seconds of it. If you think it sounds like an a telephone commercial that’s because it is now.

The was a huge amount of anticipation for this album after the huge worldwide success of Morning Glory? and it was the last album Oasis recorded where you could really hear the full on swagger in the recording. The bad reception that many had of the album seemed to hurt their confidence moving forward.

The video for “All Around The World” is below (this is the single version and is only 7 minutes long.)

Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (2000)

This is Oasis’ most purposefully psychedelic album to date and considering my love for psychedelic music that should make it my favorite of theirs and I do like it a lot more than most do and I do think it is underrated. But that being said Oasis doesn’t do psychedelic as well as they do straight ahead rock & pop. They just aren’t experimental enough with song structure to make songs that really tweak the mind properly.

But that being said there are some very cool tracks on this album which are quite a lovely trip. The instrumental opener “Fuckin’ In The Bushes” sounds like Led Zeppelin + techno. Pretty cool. “Who Feels Love,” “Gas Panic!,” & “Roll It Over” are the three tracks I most highly recommend from the album. In fact I think if they could have made a whole album with the feeling of the four tracks I’ve mentioned it would have been quite awesome. But some of the other tracks just don’t really mesh with it very well and seem to be a bit uninspired in retrospect, particularly the Noel sung ballads and the rockers “I Can See A Liar” and “Put Yer Money Where Your Mouth Is.” Liam’s songwriting debut “Little James” isn’t one of their better tracks either.

Live version of “Gas Panic!” from 2000 (from the live album/video Familiar To Mililons)

Heathen Chemistry (2002)

This is easily Oasis’ low point (to date) in my opinion. It’s a very uninspired album whose best songs may have actually been written by Liam (that definitely tells you something.) The only songs that stand out for me are the opener “Hindu Times” which has a cool Indian sounding riff and sounds a bit like a Definitely Maybe throw back, and the Liam penned “Songbird” and “Born on a Different Cloud.” Noel’s ballads are a low point on this album particularly “Little by Little” which is one of my least favorite Oasis songs ever. “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” is an effective song but just sounds too “by the numbers” for me to get into, it’s just too cheesy. It’s featured on the soundtrack to the movie Butterfly Effect. In fact the only Noel sung song that I can stand (and there are four total) is “She Is Love” which has a bit of an old Oasis acoustic b-side sound to it (they released a lot of songs sort of like this in the ’90s as b-sides. Some of them can be hard on the b-side collection The Masterplan.)

Don’t Believe the Truth (2005)

Their most recent album to date was their “comeback” album and it’s quite a good one. For the first time it sounds like Gem Archer and Andy Bell are true members of the band and their contributions are among the highlights. In fact Noel Gallagher who used to write all of Oasis’ songs (he wrote every song on their first three albums) only wrote 5 of the 11 tracks on the album.

Liam Gallagher’s contributions (particularly “Love Like A Bomb” & “God Thinks I’m Abel”) are great as well and he appears to be growing into an excellent songwriter.

But I think Noel wrote the best song on the album, “Let There Be Love.” To me it sounds like an instant classic. It’s one of those songs where I don’t understand why it wasn’t a worldwide hit. Liam sings the verses/chorus and Noel sings the bridge. It’s one of the few times Oasis has managed to be understated with their production and it works brilliantly. It’s like some missing Simon & Garfunkel classic. Like Oasis’ version of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”

An earlier version of the song was heard as a bootleg in 2000 called “It’s A Crime.”

Noel’s “The Importance Of Being Idle” & “Part Of The Queue” showcased a more mature and experimental side to his songwriting.

Overall while the album doesn’t quite reach the brilliance of their ’90s output it was a great return to form after the very disappointing Heathen Chemistry and it does make me excited to hear their next album which is supposed to come out sometime this year. No title or release date has been announced as of yet.

The video for “The Importance of Being Idle” is quite groovy as well. Watch/listen below:

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We all know about the new Beck record, right? 10 songs, each song roughly three minutes…what is this middle-aged man trying to attempt? Is he attempting Sunshine Pop in the 21st century, you know, like The Turtles or something? Beck and sex don’t go together, as he works best while being cryptic or pretending to be poor, or better yet…both! The new record that I alluded to earlier might very well feature Cat Power, gee, who cares? Anyhow, man, “Midnite Vultures” was the last important Beck album. I sincerely mean what I say, despite the fact that your collective grandmothers are gay. Seriously, why release some bizarre Funk album featuring Prince heroics and astounding production values, but I guess this is what happens when Beck produces himself…he gets a might bit indulgent all up in my business.

I am afraid that it is not all good, as Beck by no means has a falsetto worthy of Gene Ween or that gent from The Stylistics. And it is a record that worked best in a live setting, for that is what Beck still successfully remains; a showman, and NOT a recording artist. The lyrical content is too precise in terms of sexual relations and still a bit vague in places but it is the music that sets the mood…and this is unfortunately near entirely a genre exercise. What makes this record important then, is just how audacious it was upon release in 1999, and unlike any other commercial release of the time period…I truly admire just how unimportant and un-serious the whole affair is, making the official follow-up to “Odelay” the joke of the century, and that takes guts and just a dash of musical vision.

If one looks ahead to “Sea Change”, which is a confessional singer/songwriter album from a man who is the exact opposite of straight forward in nearly all regards, another problem with that record is just how badly over-produced it is, when the message could have been brought across far more clear on simple 4-track tape. What I am getting to then are failed records, and because they happen to be made by Beck, are naturally overrated. “Guero” and “The Information” spell similar problems, and while I am not dismissing these albums, I am declaring them wholly unimportant; now and forever. Now then, “Midnite Vultures” highlights contain “Nicotine & Gravy”, which is very much musically satisfying and damn tasty to boot. Some critics have called “Hollywood Freaks” a hipster joke, long before the term hipster became commonplace for pasty white kids who dug the newest thing, think The Arcade Fire followed by Vampire Weekend, and you’ll get the point real fucking horror show, baby fart. But yeah, “Hollywood Freaks” is the Hip-Hop of imagination and I am frightened that the song actually exists in the first place (HE MY NUN!). “Get Real Paid” is from outer-space, it’s real creepy and robotic, something from a Funky dystopian future realm of some sort.

Got any “Midnite Vultures” favorites, or is your period late…and are you gay or straight?

“Nicotine & Gravy”

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I recall losing my virginity the year this album came out in 1993, I was only forty-three years of age and all was right with the world. On “In Utero”, it is a situation where the pleasant young chaps in Nirvana wanted to totally back away from the finely tuned production work of the landmark snob-anthem known as “Nevermind”, so that they could dip into their penchant for bizarre gutter-noise, and who can blame them? Other than two nerds somewhere in Olympia, Washington; who somehow believe “Bleach” to be their most terrific effort, all us true Nirvana hos understand wholeheartedly that “In Utero” is quite obviously where it is indeed at, as the case might be. And keep in mind, “Incesticide” does not officially count as an album and neither does their unplugged appearance, so just chill, okay? And the live album is just that, jerk.

Let’s examine the track list, shall we now?

Serve the Servants: This song is pretty weak, talking about regret problems with ones daddy and a chug-a-lug chorus that sounds like something out of the original Children of the Corn film. Needless to say, this is one of the more crumb-bum tracks on the record. Sorry, Kurt; but this tune is for the birds.

Scentless Apprentice: Thanks to the much needed help of the far more talented Dave Grohl, this track really comes to life and Cobain’s grumblings totally dig into your skull and make a great big poop. It’s an exhilarating jam that is not soon forgotten, and is done a wonderful deal of justice in the studio thanks in part to a smug demonic creature by the name of Albini, since this track really cut one hell of a rug in a live setting as well.

Let’s stop examining the track list, shall we now?

…Now face it, this album has some filler, and Krist is a bit of a tall looking dork-ass. Some stuff is just plain bad, like that Frances Farmer song, you know? And “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” has got to be one of the most lame song titles ever, almost worthy of some Billy Corgan nonsense…and for claiming that he (Kurt) was a songwriter of merit and great cultural value, “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” certainly claims otherwise to be the case. But don’t get me wrong, “Milk It” is a nice little nervous breakdown nightmare scenario and “Tourette’s” is just plain fun, as Saint Kurt made nonsensical screaming into a true musical art form, using his voice as a sort of makeshift distortion pedal, not dissimilar to the Boredoms in this regard, a band that Nirvana no doubt dug…yes?

Finally, saving the worst for last with “All Apologies”…what a mess, right? I can’t stand this track, as it makes clear that Kurt was no Lennon, or no Lenin for that matter. Face it, the dude was still young with a head full of drugs and one hell of a tummy ache, he had a long way to go before reaching ballad-like heights worthy of John from The Beatles, and that’s just the way it is. Far be it from me to say that “In Utero” is bad, because as mentioned…it is Nirvana’s best record, but had Kurt lived long enough to lose some of his blonde-haired cool and become rather an impressive let down like Beck, I do believe there would have been more to admire, not only in this record, but in the whole of the Nirvana discography, baby.

Your thoughts, flannel face? This ain’t some Yo La Tengo shit.

“Scentless Apprentice” Live

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“Norwegian Wood” is the second track from The Beatles 1965 album Rubber Soul.

It was their first song that made use of a sitar. Sitar, which is an Indian instrument that George Harrison had become fascinated with in ‘65, would also be featured on 1966’s Revolver and 1967’s Sgt. Pepper. The song has a mature sound & lyrical theme with poetic lyrics which depict a male/female relationship in a more mature way than their previous lyrics had. It’s a far cry from the songs that were hits for The Beatles in 1964. In fact considering that The Beatles had just burst onto the scene in American in 1964 with songs like “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” the overall feeling of “Norwegian Wood” is really quite a remarkable advance forward in such a short amount of time.

As with many of the Beatles earliest stereo mixes, the stereo mix is quite strange by today’s standards. The extreme stereo separation is particularly noticeable while listening to the song on headphones. The lead vocals are in the right ear and the sitar and bass in the left ear. There seem to be two different acoustic guitars, one that is being rhythmically strummed in the right and another that is being gently picked & strummed on the left. Interestingly the only thing that seems to be mixed more towards the center (although it’s still mostly towards the right) is Paul McCartney’s harmony vocal.

The song has no drums or percussion, all of the rhythm being generated by the guitars & bass.

Listen to “Norwegian Wood” below:

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Hello! Today we have a two-for-one going folks, just like a Patty Deutsch special-guest-appearance on Match Game! Firstly, let’s look at Sebadoh’s “Skull”, shall we now? Far be it from me to enjoy the music of Sebadoh, Dinosaur JR, or even Folk Implosion for that matter…but regardless yo, “Skull” is one awesome little reflective Folk-Rocking crusty jam. I am for certain that Lou Barlow is an extremely mean individual, but this particular song is one of the most kindly of friends an individual could ever hope to meet in this lifetime, and quite probably the next as well. It is almost Jangle Pop, if you will, and Lou’s half-assed English accent is really a nice touch, might I add. Perfect Pop structure as well, as it is over in under the three minute mark, the sort of song one could conceivably hear in a Pepsi commercial. And certainly, very much far and away from the annoying joke that was “Ocean”.

“Shoe Salesman” by the original Alice Cooper Group line-up, long before Alice went solo and started to golf more often, could easily be a Sebadoh jam in the vein of “Skull”, as there’s this sort of fake sentiment and vague detached vocal approach, that is yet perfectly melodic as well. What perhaps makes “Shoe Salesman” the superior cut are the pleasant little Jazz-Rock tendencies that it dips into, I’m talking about a real toe-tapping number right here, friends. And here we go again with the perfect Pop structure in terms of song length, as it is just under three minutes as well. I would say that both cuts have a vague sort of lyrical content that could have multiple meanings, making each song, if one wishes it to be, an educational experience. And for a chap like Alice Cooper, it is nice to know that he did have the ability to be rather musically diverse before it became purely a gimmick with the dead babies and whatnot…

Do any of you filthy cum sluts agree? Bye now!

This Tom Waits press conference is unlike any I have seen before:

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Trent Reznor released the new NIN album The Slip on Monday. I’ve only listened through it a couple of times so far but my favorite track at this point is “Lights In The Sky.”

It sounds a bit like “1 Ghosts” as far as mood goes. Without the heavy distortion that’s on the piano in that track. The song consists of Reznor’s whispered vocal over a simple & clean piano with the faintest ambient sounds entering at about half way through the song. It’s a very minimalist track and I think the simple & clean arrangement works really well.

One of my favorite things about the song is how it melts into the following instrumental track “Corona Radiata.” It’s a perfect follow-up mood wise. It takes the lyrical ideas of “Lights In The Sky” and morphs them into an intriguing ambient sound scape.

Listen to “Lights In The Sky”

MBV tour dates have been announced:

06-20 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-21 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-22 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-23 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-24 London, England - The Roundhouse
06-28 Manchester, England - Apollo
06-29 Manchester, England - Apollo
07-02 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland
07-03 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland
07-03-06 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-09 Paris, France - Zenith
07-17-20 Benicàssim, Spain - Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
07-25 Naeba, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-08 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
09-05 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival
09-19-21 Monticello, NY - Kutshers Country Club (ATP New York)
09-22 New York, NY - Roseland
09-23 New York, NY - Roseland
09-25 Toronto, Ontario - Ricoh
09-27 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
09-30 San Francisco, CA - The Concourse
10-01 Los Angeles, CA - Santa Monica Civic
10-02 Los Angeles, CA - Santa Monica Civic

—

This tour announcement leads me to this question:

Does this new activity mean there’s a chance they will finally record a follow-up to 1991’s Loveless?

Probably not.

Listen to “To Here Knows When” from Loveless below:

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This is a pretty incredible video. It was created by director Alex Rutterford who said the idea for the video came to him during an LSD trip. It features abstract objects which are synchronized to the sounds of the track “Gantz Graf” by Autechre. There’s a visual counterpart to every sound in the song.

“Gantz Graf” was released by Autechre on a three track EP by the same name in 2002.

I included the Daily Motion version of the video here as they have much higher sound quality than do YouTube videos, I’m going to try and make a point of doing that in the future as this is a site about music after all. YouTube videos have really crap sound and they are mixed down to mono.

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