Meet Me Tonight In Atlantic City

On a day when Serbia & Montenegro are knocked out of the World Cup after a 6-0 loss to  Argentina, I decide to write a new blog entry. You may have noticed that the first part and the second part of that sentence had no relevance to one another but it meant that I could provide you with an interesting fact and introduce this entry in an altogether sleek and stylish manner so I think it was worth it. In other news, you might want to go take a look at R. Kelly's 'Trapped In The Closet' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapped_In_The_Closet) - acknowledgements to Omid and Megan for making me aware of this rather excellent 'musical soap'. Also, stunning band The Bleedin' Fiddles, headed by Martyn Jones, alongside guitar player, Ben Gager, have set-up a MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/bleedinfiddles)  where you can hear a fine selection of tracks and send the boys messages, making your undying adoration clear.


As I can't think of anything else to write, I'll provide you with yet another interesting fact. The original German word for shower, "Brausebad" was withdrawn from the German dictionary following the Second World War. During the war, the word "Brausebad" had appeared on the gas chambers in the concentration camps throughout Germany. Following the conclusion of World War 2, Germany felt that continuing to use the word would have negative connotations and would only serve as a reminder of their war crimes of past. Consequently, Germany added the French word for shower to their dictionary and, over time, made it look a bit more German. Well, there you have it. Assuming you didn't know that and assuming this serves as a fair representation of every day, you really do learn something new every day.

This really is a shamefully short entry but I can't think of anything else to write. If I do, I'll add it. Now you have something to look forward to.

Especially in Michigan

Ladies and gentlemen, lions and tigers; welcome to the brand new, refurbished, and generally sexier, "Hung, Drawn & Quoted'. I'm actually going to start using this a bit more often now. Thank Omid for my return. His very flashy new blog/website inspired me to get back to my own blog. (If you want to see the forementioned flashy blog,use the link on the left). The text under the blog title has been altered to the lyrics from an Ed Harcourt song, from his new, and excellent, album, "The Beautiful Lie". (Link at the bottom of the page).

So, let's get down to business, so to speak; pressing matters at the moment. Primarily, writing blogs as to draw my attention away from the fact that I should be revising for my exams. However, we'll ignore that and move on...to football. The World Cup, thus far, has been quite entertaining. I've made sure to see at least a half of every match played so far. All the major teams have looked fairly crappy and I can only hope that England play better against Trinidad & Tobago tomorrow. I expect we will since Sven only seems to use those defensive tactics we saw last Saturday against the South American teams. If we do start improving, there's no reason why we shouldn't go all the way. France are one of the worst teams I've seen so far. They were woeful; on a par with Iran. Aside from the actual football, certain people, I feel, are complaining far too much *coughomidcough* and I think these certain people should stop moaning and be grateful that it's not cricket. Now, that would be something to moan about.

I'd also like to mention how god-damned annoying legal music downloads are. We're encouraged to download legally instead of illegally to fund the artist and the horrifically rich record companies. Being the kind-hearted people we are, we sometimes oblige the requests of the forementioned parties and download music legally. Having taken the time to enter your card deatils, to register at the website - solely so the website can fill your inbox with spam - and to look through several websites to find the cheapest option, you are finally allowed to download the one song you began this whole elongated, fruitless journey for.

The speed at which the song downloads leads you to believe that every other person in the world; from starving African to rich footballer is downloading this very same song simultaneously with yourself. After a considerable amount of time however, the song is downloaded and is there, waiting to be played, on your desktop. "Thank fuck for that" you sigh to yourself, as you tenderly double-click the icon. It comes up on the Winamp screen but you can't hear anything. And then the song title scrolls along, revealing that Winamp is searching for the copyright or something similar. A moment of worry passes and then a small Winamp-esque screen appears. "This looks promising" you foolishly think. Moments later, the Winamp screen finishes loading and reveals that the page could not be found.

By this time, utterly pissed off, you began to wish you hadn't done the 'proper' thing and had just downloaded the bastard song illegally. Determined to get value for money however, you strive on. Winamp doesn't work, so you try WMP. A similar process occurs. This time the WMP-esque screen loads and allows for you to enter the user name and password you hastily made up in order to register at the site; a user name and password you have long since forgotten for a site you didn't want to register for in the first place.

Swearing never to download a song legally ever again, you open your inbox and slowly wade through the spam which the site has managed to send you within the first half hour of registering, drawing upon what little hope you have left that they did send you an email with your details on it. Following much wading, you eventually find your details, enter them on the appropriate screen and wait. The box disappears, your computer begins to groan as if your running Doom 3 with graphics at their best and every other program you have running begins to stop responding. Now, you're worried. Alas, the computer recovers and finally, music starts coming from your speakers. "This is the end of my legally downloaded music problems" you foolishly think, assuming you do think quite so plainly and in short, simple sentences.

After enjoying the song, you feel, after all the trouble you went through, you should listen to it again. Little do you realise that the same computer-crashing effects will happen every time you try to play the file. A little annoyed, you decide that you'll just put it on your MP3 player. Once the MP3 player is connected, you drag the file into its folder, stick the earphones in and skip to the track. It doesn't play. Smashing the keyboard over your head and wishing you were dead, you try to work out why. Eventually, you discover that you have to put the file onto your MP3 player by using WMP which will put the file on combined with the appropriate files to make it run.

After WMP repeatedly crashes as you try to get to the MP3 device screen, you decide that you'll just stick the song on a CD. You open Nero, drag the song in, hit burn and it tells you that the song is copy protected and cannot be burned. Deciding that as you've paid for it, there's no reason why you can't download it from the likes of Soulseek or Limewire. You search for it, find it, download it and it plays.

The point of this over-long lump of text is that if we're really expected to download music legally, the facilities provided to do so will have to be geatly improved. The simple solution for albums is just to buy the CD, but when it comes to b-sides, I'd rather not have to buy every format of a single, just to get the different b-sides.

The new Muse album is out at the start of July. I hope it's considerably better than Absolution which took shit to whole new levels of shitness. Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry were good though. However, I don't think it will come anywhere close to the quality of Ed Harcourt's new album which you should proceed to buy directly after you've finished reading this. Well, das ist alles.

Good night.

Chumbawamba - WYSIWYG

Album Review 18.1.06

Chumbawamba – WYSIWYG (2000)

Everyone knows Chumbawamba. You may not think you do, but you do know Chumbawamba. “I get knocked down, but I get up again” have forever been immortalised by the song’s unexpected chart success and several months of overexposure to discos and the like. “Tubthumper” and the single “Tubthumping” were Chumbawamba’s first chart success. Kept off top spot by Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind”, Chumbawamba could finally use their new-found fame to make their anarchist ideas heard. “Tubthumper” was all about the striking dockworkers and the government’s lack of care towards them which ultimately lead to John Prescott being doused in a bucket of water by Chumbawamba member, Danbert Nobacon during the 1998 Brit Awards. All this however is beside the point. The intention only to present the idea that “What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)” had a lot to live up to.

How then, does a band go about consolidating its fame? Keeping things the same, right? If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. “Tubthumper” was a pop album with catchy lyrics, 4 minute-long songs on a traditional 12-track album. “WYSIWYG” was not. “WYSIWYG” sounds very much like the band gathered in a studio, and simply played whatever came to mind during the 50 minutes the 22-track album lasts for. Following this, the samples and effects were added, the tracks were split up before it was sent off to EMI for publishing.

And yet, despite this, the album is utterly enjoyable. On average, the songs must be about a minute and a half long. It does not, however, sound like you’re listening to an album of short samples. Each song is well-structured, with a strong tune and decent lyrics. Not only this, but each song flows into the next, meaning the music is continuously changing without cease, there are no moments when you feel bored waiting for a song to burst into life because it never dies.

The lyrics have not lost their meaning either. The views of the band are still portrayed and, should you not understand the meanings through the song or its title, the comprehensive liner notes will explain all.

For those more interested in the music, be contented by the witty “I’m With Stupid”, the funky “Pass It Along”, and the thoughtful “Celebration, Florida”. It may take time for the album to grow on you, but once it does, you’ll see that there isn’t a weak song in sight and that’s not bad considering there are 22 of them.

Clearly, despite all this, “WYSIWYG” wasn’t the success that many had hoped for and many had long since forgotten about 1997’s “Tubthumper”. Consequently, the following year – in 2001 – Chumbawamba split with EMI. Followed by albums “Readymades” and “Un”, “WYSIWYG” is very much the forgotten Chumbawamba album. An album however, that will hold long-lasting appeal to its fans for its wide range of styles.      

Music (Not In My Name), Apparently

I’m writing this in Microsoft Word, using the plug-in downloaded from the Blogger website so, if it all goes horrifically wrong, blame the plug-in or, and indeed preferably, Microsoft because, let’s face it, no-one likes Microsoft.

So, in my first post I claimed that every post in my blog would consist of writings on a single topic. Well, I’m carrying that on I suppose, but not like in my last post. I don’t want to do too many preachy posts because that’ll become uninteresting to most readers and myself so this one is just going to be of general interest.

Let me tell you a little story about music. A long time ago when I was but a child my taste in music was very much restricted. In all honesty, I wasn’t particularly interested in music and it was the tastes of others that ultimately dictated my taste in music. Indeed, this went on for such a time that it came to the point where I felt I must deny interest in any music without the approval of my brother first. And naturally, anything my younger sister claimed she like, I immediately looked down upon with disdain.

To this day, I have no idea why. Looking back at it, I can only think that I thought the was some kind of law; or a set of rules which I must follow in order to like the right kind of music and clearly my brother, being older, had more experience with these rules than I did. Pop music was never to be liked because it…well…was pop music and you shouldn’t conform.

Indeed, it has only been in the last few years that I have really developed my own musical taste with my own likes and dislikes. I first began to develop my own tastes when I began to buy CDs, whilst previously I had lived off blank tapes my sister had recorded for me and my brother’s CDs I heard in the car.

Placebo and The Smashing Pumpkins were two of the first bands that came out of this new-found independence: two of my favourite bands to this day. It was me in fact, that introduced Placebo’s ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ to my brother.

It was undoubtedly however, my computer which truly helped define my music taste. The ability to download any song or album I wanted meant music became an interest. Things like Pandora (www.pandora.com) and Last.FM (www.last.fm) gave me recommendations on music similar to my current tastes whilst I could take advantage of offers on Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk) to buy albums I’d always wanted to hear. An interest in music meant I liked discussing music with friends, exchanging recommendations amongst ourselves.

After a friend introduced me to The Pogues, my brother introduced me to a similar-sounding Irish band, Flogging Molly. From there, I went on to find Dropkick Murphys and Gaelic Storm. I found Nick Drake – who is absolutely stunning – on my own. That’s not to say my taste in music is completely uninfluenced by my brother’s taste. If he introduces me to something I like, I certainly don’t ignore him. He brought me Alabama 3, Chumbawamba and Flogging Molly – the latter two , according to Last.FM are my current two favourite bands. Even my younger sister introduced me to the Kaiser Chiefs.

“Enough already! Is there a point to this story?” I hear you ask. Well, yes actually. I want people to learn from my mistakes. It’s not about liking specific genres and rejecting any music from any other genres. It’s about finding music that sounds good to you. You can’t lose much from being open-minded but you can gain everything. This all sounds a bit gay I know but you get the point, right? You can start by listening to some of the artists I mentioned in this post. It’ll do you good.

Now, back to the coursework…

The iPod Generation

The iPod: the symbol of modern culture; the ever-pervading image that is the Western World of today.

That's right. The "nothing special" MP3 player has overcharged its way into the pocket of so many. So how has Apple got away with this complete dominance on the MP3 market?

$287 million is the answer. That's how much Apple have spent on advertising in the last year. An amount somewhat humbling to the $100 million spent by rivals Creative. Money well spent certainly. After all, everyone's seen it; everyone can always identify it as the iPod advert: The black silhouette, over the brightly coloured background, holding the white iPod.

And it's not just effective advertising that win the iPod its popularity, Apple have U2 on their side; they have Eminem. Bono and Eminem: two of the most famous, and most successful musical artists in the world. If anyone does, they know what they're talking about, right?

Well, no actually. Bono's alliegance to Apple and their iPod, you may have noticed, was aptly around the same time as the release of the U2 album, "How To Dismantle An Atom Bomb". The advertisment featuring Bono, also featured the new single "Vertigo". And this advert reached television screens across the world. This was no accident; Bono used this business oppertunity to not only make some extra money through Apple, but to attract publicity to the new U2 album.

The situation with Eminem is very different. Having never endorsed the MP3 player, he took Apple to court after "Lose Yourself" appeared in an ad in 2003. Not only did Eminem then look to be paid an estimated $10 million in compensation but also wanted an additional $300,000 to give Apple the rights to use another of his tracks in a new advert. Doesn't sound to me like a fan of the iPod.

Regardless, Apple's advertising campaign has made the iPod the most popular MP3 player in the world. And who said money can't buy you love?


This is all well and good then, but does the iPod deserve to be the World's number one MP3 player? Does it offer such capabilities that its popularity is deserved?

Well, let's take a look at prices. Creative Zen Touch 20GB can be purchased from 'Ebuyer' for around £120. The iPod Nano 2GB (yes, that's 18GB less) costs £117 (yes, that's £3 less). The iPod 4th gen 30GB iPod is around £170. The iPod is not priced quite so highly then though there is still room for improvement, certainly with the over-rated Nano.

As far as capability goes, the iPod hs nothing special. It's only noticeable difference is its MP4 compatability, meaning it can play videos. So, if you happen to have a collection of videos on your computer, which not only do you feel necessary to carry around with you, but you also enjoy to watch on a tiny screen and are fortunately saved in MP4 format, then the iPod is the MP3 player for you. At least, it is when comparing it to the Creative Zen Touch. Clearly, there're many more MP3 players out there.

Other than that, the iPod is a generally unimpressive MP3 player. It has a battery life of approximately 12 hours, half of the 24 hours the Zen lasts for. Unlike the iRiver MP3 players, it only supports MP3 and AAC file types. As far as software is concerned, you're only choice is to use the memory-consuming iTunes, whilst Nomad Explorer provides simple and effective file transfer for the Zen. Despite the endless complaints to Apple about how easily the iPod Nano becomes scratched, the standard iPods still come without a case.

Few would say they didn't like its appearance, but can you really make up for performance with looks? It's an MP3 player not a new hairstyle.

In summary the answer is no; the iPod's popularity is not deserved.

Introducing The Band

My first "blogger" post. Fortunately coinciding with the time I should be using to complete my Biology coursework. Previous blogs - such as my "MSN Space" - basically just recalled details of my own recent past events. A bit pretentious really. The blogs that are written here then will be somewhat more focused; each post having a single theme which is discussed throughout. By doing so, my blog may become a encyclopedia of sorts; broadening its appeal and allowing me to express views on all number of things.

Anyway, this is little more than an introduction so I'll leave it at that.