I missed this film completely but Arvind’s been playing the soundtrack and can’t now get this song out of my head. Damnit.
Has anyone seen the movie? Any good? Arvind thought so…
Category Archives: Music
Finding similar music… if you like acoustic/rock
Last.fm is wonderful – it helps me find the types of music I like based on my previous listening and on what people I know like. But it’s not that helpful for some of the bands I’ve been listening to lately.
Urusen, friends of mine, inexplicably unsigned, don’t have a lot of associated listeners. Neither do the guys who did Once, a wonderful soundtrack my brother introduced me too. The Rushes, a band who’ve covered Waterloo Sunset (it’s beautiful, really wonderful) for French Film‘s closing credits, don’t have enough similar bands either. Powderfinger, who Tony introduced me to, do a great acoustic version of Sunsets. Most of their music is much rockier (which I like too, but doesn’t fit my bank holiday Monday mood).
So I have to resort to the old fashioned way. I have to talk to people about music, find gigs etc. Which is fine, and fun.
…but I wouldn’t mind if someone developed a social music app that didn’t just analyse the metadata of the song, but the tone, character, mood etc. of the song itself. A kind of intelligent version of the Moodlogic application I used oh-so-long ago would be nice.
Songkick – find local gigs from bands you like
I was an early tester for Songkick, a social music application that scans your musical tastes and finds you local gigs to buy tickets for. A friend introduced me to a founder of the service who invited me in, but it is now open to all.
It’s awesome. I’ve become determined to be a little less middle aged and do more fun stuff like this mid-week and so the emails recommending gigs all around London from bands I already like? Fantastic. It probably wants integration with Last.fm so it can draw on historical listening patterns rather than just what you’ve got in your database (I have a lot of crap music I really ought to delete/archive)…
That said, I haven’t got around to booking anything yet. Maybe I’ll start with the next Urusen gig in a couple of weeks…
There are very few people…
…who both think that Macgyver is awesome and love guitar.
God bless the Interwebs.
Actually impressed that the 5min.com people looked me up after I linked to Videojug in the last but one post. Good technorati monitoring and trackback tracking, guys, and actually taking the time to read my blog, find my Twitter and add me? Nice.
Inspiration for guitar practise
I need to practise more (also emphasised by having had a go on Pob’s Rickenbacker and Jazzmaster). Videojug’s guitar section beckons…
Fast guitar with Dragon Force
How does anyone manage to play guitar and drum at this pace? Moderately amused by this band… (via Pat Y).
Manic^3
I’ve been hella tired lately, so this post is not going to make any sense.
It’s been a really busy few weeks – work has been manic, the flat hunt has been, well, manic, and pretty much everything relating to my personal life has been, erm, manic. I’ve not been through a period of this intense busy-ness for a long time, but am someone finding outlets for it all and feeling surprisingly calm about it all.
Tonight, the outlet has been listening to random music, quite loud. Right now it’s Faith no more’s ‘I’m easy.’ Earlier, for no apparent reason, it was ‘Orion’, as performed both by Metallica and Rodrigo y Gabriela. Before that, for even less reason, it was Iron Maiden’s ‘Fear of the Dark.’ Before that, it was some random French music.
Sitting here, letting the music wash over me, I feel a semblance of calm.
Eels’ ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ just came on. I think there’s a danger of slipping from calm to comatose. I hit ‘b’ and Winamp obliges. Powderfinger’s ‘Since you’ve been gone’. Result. A recommendation from Tony.
It’s been a very odd evening. I haven’t sat around and let myself get completely taken by music since I was at school (when I used to do it all the time). It feels good.
Glastonbury 2007
Whoa. That was awesome. I mean, painful, smelly, muddy, challenging and really quite a lot for me to take, but also really very wonderful. Amanda’s help throughout it – from helping me with the Campcraft (not a core strength of mine, it seems, despite years of DofE experience), to her total flexibility in which music we saw – was genuinely a lifesaver and made the festival for me.
But it was wonderful for other reasons too. The music, the atmosphere – the crowds, both a boon and a curse – and the general ethic of the whole thing. Anti-social behaviour was derided as ‘not very Glastonbury,’ everyone was discussing things in terms of previous festivals, the solstice at the Stone Circle was quite special and the group of friends we were with were fantastic. I’ve already bought Damo and Matt B some Somerset Cider for their help in relocating us when our campsite flooded on the Saturday…!
Things I didn’t like: the LONG walk from carpark to campsite with heavy pack (I’m out of shape :-(), the mud, the toilets (I know they’re better than they were, but the long drops are only less gross than the portaloos, they’re still worse than everything else), the crowds, the lack of many places to sit down and rest between bands.
Bands I saw (this the important bit for me)… Mr Hudson & the Library, Mik Artistik, The Guillemots, The Fratellis, Lily Allen, Helen Boulding, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Mika, Rufus Wainwright, The Pipettes, Super Furrys (from a distance), Maximo Park (from a distance)… and probably a couple more. I persuaded Amanda to leave early on the Sunday as I wasn’t too well, so was sad to miss the Chiefs on Sunday evening, but still managed to have a wonderful time.
Photos on Flickr if you need proof ;-).
New draft of my ad needed
I’m still trying to get a band together. But the gumtree ad seems to have drawn the wrong crowd – people in the wrong genre or far too much talent for me. I think I need to translate my ad in order to make sure there is no ambiguity.
Am of average skill,
I am competent, but can’t read music, have only really played rhythm but can jam in E minor to twelve bar blues, and have never “gigged” before. Actually, technically I’ve had one gig. I’m not sure *anyone* but me and maybe one or two of the musicians involved remembers that one.
more enthusiasm, and varied taste.
It’s not difficult to have more enthusiasm than I have talent. I have limited talent. And varied taste != soul, techno, goth or dance music. Flattered that people would think that my taste and skill on guitar would extend to that range, though.
could commit to one weekly practice.
I could commit to one weekly practise. Maybe two, if everyone was at the same level of mediocrity and enthusiasm as me.
I really really want a band but feel that I need to be transparent or I’ll just confuse people. I hope that clears things up. Get in touch if you want to jam.
Glastonbury
I’m going! Yay! It’ll be my first ever festival and its very exciting!
It was a stressful few hours getting tickets, though. There was just no way to get through to the order line or the website – Chris managed to get through and get us all tickets, but who knows how. Damn, they needed some loadbalancing.