Black Lips

Take My Heart

Take my heart to unknown

To the dark all alone

Stake my heart make it groan

To embark on it's own

On it's own

Take my nerves to a bliss

Make them swerve into abyss

Stake my nerves make them hiss

Take 'em apart to a carcass

Veni Vidi Vici

Cause I came I saw

I conquered all

All ya'll

People look towards Mecca's way

Sistine Cahpel people pray

It don't matter what you do

Holy World War will come for you

Black Lips have been my most recent obsession. I had heard their sinlge ‘Bad Kids’ through the film 500 Days Of Summer (a sappy, sappy film) and loved it but never investigated them despite encouragement from two of my house mates last year. When I decided to fully give them a try I was pleasantly surprised, I have never really been into the whole fuzzy rock n roll flower punk thing but I can safely say that Black Lips have converted the non believer.

The warmth of the fat reverb and slightly out of tune guitars compliments the screeching vocals of all four members who contribute their individual tones to an over all sound most likely to be heard on a return voyage of an old sailing ship full of drunk mad men. With innocent lyrics about religion and partying they make for fantastic listening anyday of the week. 


www.black-lips.com

Tom Waits

Romeo Is Bleeding

And they all jump when they hear the sirens
but romeo just laughs and says
all the racket in the world

ain't never gonna save that coppers ass
he'll never see another summertime for
gunnin' down my brother
and leavin' him like a dog beneath a car
without his knife

and romeo says hey man gimme a cigarette
and they all hurry for their pack
and Frankie lights it for him and pats him on the back
and throws bottle at a milk truck
and as it breaks he grabs his nuts
and they all know they could be just like romeo
if they only had the guts

The piano has been drinking (Not Me)

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut,
and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's 
out of cigarettes

and the balcony is on the make

As the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler cream-puff Casper milk toast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office 
is drooling,

and the bar stools 
are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking 
not me

This has probably been my hardest entry so far. Its so difficult to narrow the poetic genious of Tom Waits into two choices to be displayed when every song is so well crafted and cleverly depicts the simplest day to day struggles as a journey through the pain of Waits’ life. Again I can thank my father for this, showing me his ‘Heart attack and Vine’ CD and telling me straight up he believed him to be a poet and “one of the best lyricists of our time”

I can safely say I listen to Tom Waits every day, even if its just one song I’ll belt it out in my gravely impression just wishing one day I will be able to think of something so witty and original.


www.tomwaits.com

Emmylou Harris

Gold

You looked so high and low for heaven,
I tried so hard to show the way.
But though I flew on wings of angels,
My feet were always made of clay.
I could come trailing clouds of glory,
But you saw nothing to behold.
No matter how bright I glittered, baby
I could never be gold.

Bobbies Gone

Beneath her clothes her heart is breaking
Spends her mornings making lines
Though her pain is real and aching
All she owns are borrowed lines

The mirror gives back no reflection
Of shadow she will not see
It understands she needs protection
Of what she swears she has to be

Travelling up to Mersey Side to see my fathers side of the family when I was a young lad was always a nice trip. We got to see lots of nice bits of north Wales, and lots of the Peak District. A good 5 hour round trip that we did a few times a year, so we would se it in different conditions, the same landscapes through different seasons. Every time the soundtrack to the trip would be with out a doubt, Mary Black or Emmylou Harris. As I got older I didn’t listen to her as much sadly, but was pleasantly reminded of her beautiful voice when I got Bright Eye’s ‘I’m Wide Awake Its Morning album where she sings backing on ‘Landlocked Blues’. All of a sudden these memories of epic car journeys came rushing back and I could enjoy listening to her through an older wiser ear. One of Emmylou Harris’ greatest qualities is being able to make a song her own. Her covers are always so fantastic personal that you find it hard to comprehend its not her own. She puts true belief into each performance.

Megafaun

 

The Fade

A coffee stain, dried and faint, covers up the day
I want a picture that I found
in the attic on the ground, of your old place
it's black and white, and in this light
it's hard to tell
if the glasses on your face, were the same ones
on the day they buried you

The Longest Day

sun gave to moon said
"sleep now restless one, cause I ain't never seen a night
that didn't have a dawn"
spring brought rain
summer brought the fall
fox said goodbye to their homes
almost been a year
my love for you has grown
and this weathered photograph, is all I have to show

My girlfriend introduced me to Megafaun in the spring, my girl lives in New York so I very rarely get to see her, long distance is tough, but we get through it.  She sent me ‘The Longest Day’ at a time when the distance was really getting to me and all I wanted was to be with her. It fit my mood and states of mind perfectly so obviously I was hooked from the get go. I bought their album and haven’t looked back since. I love every song on the album for its raw simple magnificence. One of the best things about Megafaun is trying to introduce new people to them as they are always very sceptical of the name, for instance my good friend Darren though I was about to show him a Swedish death metal band.

They do a fantastic live ersion of ‘Worried mind’ with Bon Ivor in a cemetery.

(see youtube link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0fXWSnbi5E

http://www.megafaun.com/

A Perfect Circle

Fiddle and The Drum

And so I ask you please
Can I help you find the peace and the star
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist

And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum

Counting bodies like sheep To the rhythm of the war drums

Don't fret precious I'm here.
Step away from the window.
Go back to sleep
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils
See, they don't give a fuck about you, like I do.

Counting bodies like sheep
To the rhythm of the war drums.

Another band Im glad my sister forced me to listen to. eMOTIVE  has a fantastic production quality to it, drums and vocals are so nicly mixed in this album its one you can listen to on repeat VERY loudly!

The album is definitely enhanced by their version of John Lennons ‘Imagine’ which they have completely made their own, minor and gritty and provocative.

Although it is definitely worth checking all the albums out eMOTIVE is certainly the best place to start.

Powerful vocals with wonderful melodies.

http://www.aperfectcircle.com/

Fleet Foxes

White Winter Hymnal

With scarves of red tied ’round their throats
to keep their little heads
from fallin’ in the snow
And I turned ’round and there you go
And, Michael, you would fall
and turn the white snow red as strawberries
in the summertime

Blue Ridge Mountains

My brother where do you intend to go tonight?
I heard that you missed your connecting flight

To the blue ridge mountains, over near Tennessee
You're ever welcome with me any time you like
Let's drive to the country side, leave behind some green-eyed look-a-likes
So no one gets worried, no.

My house mate Thomas last year introduced me to Fleet Foxes, At first it was a case of just keeping ‘White Winter Hymnal’ on repeat, not wanting to listen to anything else they had created just incase it ruined it for me. I tend to do that with a lot of music, I don’t like to risk being put off a band if I like at least definitely their single.However, I am very glad I gambled and decided to listen to the rets of the album because it is truly wonderful. Great harmonies, fantastic songs. I think if you are in any doubt, their ‘Blogotheque, Take Away show’ of ‘Sun Giant’ and ‘Blue Ridge Mountains will definitely have you smitten.

http://www.blogotheque.net/Fleet-Foxes,4532

http://www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes

Norma Jean

Mephis Will be Laid To Waste

A bracelet made of gold and scarlet
thread around her wrist.

And everything was wrong so we
sang sentimental songs.

Oh how seldom we belong but
how elegant our kiss.

And we painted crooked lies but we
danced in perfect time to a love so much refined, we
know not what it is until like a dullen wine we pour
into a grief we know before but it's never quite like this.

Never quite like this.

The End of All Things Will Be Televised

Your day will come
Turn the page, embrace your
Comforting company
The sun beats down on your
Comforting company
Everything is burning because
Tonight the south is on fire!
The south is on fire.
Creation waits in eager expectation.

Anxious.

Patient.
Heaven will pause.

I am excited to write this entry because its time to write about the band that itroduced me to a whole new world of music and culture that I still imbrace and support today. Being a 13 year old in mid Wales, before my family owned a computor of our own and having to get most of my alternative musical knowledge from the weekly Kerrang, it was hard to listen to anything other than Korn or Slipknot. My sister returned from a school exchange to North Carolina with ‘Bless The Martyr and Kiss The Child’ in her Cd Wallet which was Norma Jean’s first major release. She played me a song named ‘The Shotgun Message’ and from that moment forward I was hooked. I finally new there was noise being created in a time signature I couldn’t comprehend and a young adolescent man screaming poetry and questions in a way I had never heard before. Even with line up changes Norma Jean still take the ‘Noisecore’ genre they helped shape to new hights today. Now with five LP’s released on Solid State, Tooth and Nail they definitly hold carry the torch for the group of bands that carry the ‘Chirstian Rock’ label.

www.normajeannoise.com