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

William Elliot Whitmore

Midnight

And the bluebird can sing but the crow’s got the soul
and I’m a dog among kings with no self-control
and the only thing left’s to try to live
these things on my back no one could forgive

Hell Or High Water 

Smoke um if you got um.

Drink your glasses to the bottom.

And toast me on another year.

Another year of hope.

Another year of holding on.

For you drinkers by day who are bastards by dawn.

And I hope I will see you soon.

And I'll be home come hell or high water.

And I know I will see you soon.

And I’m a dog among kings with no self-control

And the only thing left’s to try to live

These things on my back no one could forgive.

Sometimes I like to think that if Tom Waits and Sea-sick Steve procreated a child and made Screaming Jay-Hawkins the godfather then the result would be none other than William Elliot Whitemore.

The 32 year old from Lee County, Iowa disguised behind the voice of someone much older and unhealthier is one of my favorite singer songwriters around at the moment. My sister introduced me to him when she used to cover one of his accapella songs he opens his ‘Hymns For The Hopeless’ album with. After that I was hooked.


www.williamelliottwhitmore.com

The Felice Brothers

Whiskey In My Whiskey

I put some whiskey into my whiskey

I put some heartbreak into my heart

I put my boots on that ole dance floor

I put three rounds Lord, in my 44

Murder By Mistletoe 

A murder by mistletoe
Drunks in the falling snow
She left him by the night arcade
And turned his heart into a spade
He turned that lovely blue eyed Jane
To a homicide on Campbell Lane
Hearing the sirens croon
In a familiar room
Laying with last year's love
High as the moon above

Three brothers and their friends from New York making raggedy gypsy folk. Great Songs, combining the charming harmonica and sometimes questionable singing style that Dylan created mixed with modern American Folk and country guitar and drums with a honky-tonk piano thrown in for good measure.

The Felice Brothers just take the ‘family band’ thing to a whole new level.

http://www.thefelicebrothers.com

Gallows

Misery

Misery fucking loves me 

and I love her so

She is the cold embrace of no escape 

when I'm left alone

Misery fucking loves me 

and I love her too

She is the dying breath of nothing left 

that I've become accustomed to

London is The Reason

We are the rats and we run this town
We are the black plague bearing down
We have no fear, and we have no pity
We hate you, we hate this city

Every mistake you ever made
the bodies you thought would never need graves
They pave the gutters of London town
until the streets become a feeding ground

Last time I was in North Carolina visiting some old friends, all of who are avid Hardcore and Metal fans, I was asked my opinion on who was spear heading the UK Hardcore scene at present. Without hesitation I answered Gallows, simply because both albums Gallows have released since their formation in 2005 have spewed all the energy, aggression and attitude that a decent Hardcore record requires. 

Frank Carter, the short feisty red-head from Watford, has found a way to be elegantly brutal with his lyrics about love, pain and going out. 

Villagers

Twenty-seven Strangers

The bus was late

And forced us all to congregate

Twenty-seven strangers

Made to stand and wait

The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)

But you knew this is all I need

 no more or no less

Your highness I bow to thee 

and to thee this I confess

I was lost in a forest 

but now I'm a believer

So you'd be my master 

and I'll be your fever

I personally really do not like The Barclycard Mercury Music Prize. It gets under my skin. I think the fact a small group of 'Industry professionals' get to decide what gets titled as 'ALBUM OF THE YEAR' is a bit unfair. 

Think about how many fantastic albums were released this year.

The Xx's debut album in my opinion is not one. 

'Bad awkward Disco music' is the best description of this years winner I have come across in conversation so far. 

However, I'll eat part of my hat as the Barclycard Mercury Music Prize did introduce me to Villagers who I have not stopped listening to since. A fantastic debut album filled with lyrical poetry and simply beautiful structure and melody combinations. 

So yeah, don't let the nomination for The Barclycard Mercury Music Prize put you off, this album is brilliant and these two songs are just a taster for this young talented song writers brilliance. 

Plus its sponsored by a bank. What kind of music prize is sponsored by a bank?

Banks suck.

http://www.myspace.com/villagers