Katie's a sweet Thriller zombie, and Joel's a sleazy 80's Miami pornstar/coke dealer.
October 31, 2009
The Vignettes do Halloween
Katie's a sweet Thriller zombie, and Joel's a sleazy 80's Miami pornstar/coke dealer.
October 23, 2009
Wolfmother's new album translated
There's a lot of hyperbole flying around in the wake of Wolfmother's new album 'Cosmic Egg'.
After hearing the album a few times I realised there is in fact a code in the reviews, and the actual translation
goes something like this:
'Sprawling': Too long.
'Classic Rock': Plagiarism, eg NIB - Black Sabbath, Start me Up - Rolling Stones, etc.
'Psychedelic': Solos, without great technical ability or melody. Usually accompanied by pointless wailing.
'Good': Bad
'any positive adjectives': completely ordinary
The level of production on this album is extraordinary, purely because Alan Moulder is a genius (producer of NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine) but that doesn't make up for the ordinary song writing. What a waste. BOOM!
The Vignettes
After hearing the album a few times I realised there is in fact a code in the reviews, and the actual translation
goes something like this:
'Sprawling': Too long.
'Classic Rock': Plagiarism, eg NIB - Black Sabbath, Start me Up - Rolling Stones, etc.
'Psychedelic': Solos, without great technical ability or melody. Usually accompanied by pointless wailing.
'Good': Bad
'any positive adjectives': completely ordinary
The level of production on this album is extraordinary, purely because Alan Moulder is a genius (producer of NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine) but that doesn't make up for the ordinary song writing. What a waste. BOOM!
The Vignettes
October 18, 2009
Faves
Favourite guitarists of all time, according to Joel Murray.
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Jimmy Page
3. Tom Morello
4. Angus Young
5. Tommy Iommi
6. Brian May
7. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
8. Nick Zinner (despite the recent douche album 'zero', his previous guitar work blows my mind)
9. Josh Homme
10. Craig Nichols (not because he's brilliant, but because he made me want to play guitar)
Am writing new songs but haven't had the time or money to practice them. As always, I've been thinking of ways to make my guitar sound bigger. Unfortunately some of my ideas are quite expensive eg, custom guitars, more amps,etc. If anyone wants to give to the vignettes fund, feel free to go buy our new EP 'Violence Solves Everything' when it comes out next month (November). Dear god let it get us out of this awful rut. Modern music is still rubbish, especially in Aus. Our cat sleeps with her tongue out.
The Vignettes
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Jimmy Page
3. Tom Morello
4. Angus Young
5. Tommy Iommi
6. Brian May
7. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
8. Nick Zinner (despite the recent douche album 'zero', his previous guitar work blows my mind)
9. Josh Homme
10. Craig Nichols (not because he's brilliant, but because he made me want to play guitar)
Am writing new songs but haven't had the time or money to practice them. As always, I've been thinking of ways to make my guitar sound bigger. Unfortunately some of my ideas are quite expensive eg, custom guitars, more amps,etc. If anyone wants to give to the vignettes fund, feel free to go buy our new EP 'Violence Solves Everything' when it comes out next month (November). Dear god let it get us out of this awful rut. Modern music is still rubbish, especially in Aus. Our cat sleeps with her tongue out.
The Vignettes
October 11, 2009
New Flaming Lips album 'Embryonic'
I'm in love with this album. Why? It's dark, psychedelic, progressive, industrial and just all round awesome.
Another reason I'm in love with it, is the reaction from Flaming Lips fans. The last few albums from these guys have been happy, life affirming pop music. While I didn't mind them, I certainly wasn't going out of my way to be involved in it. The fans of these albums were retarded though! They acted like Wayne Coin was the second coming of jesus. I love watching their faces drop as they listen to the dark new sounds, and they realise the fantasy world where everything is one big happy love-in is gone. Brilliant.
Another reason I'm in love with it, is the reaction from Flaming Lips fans. The last few albums from these guys have been happy, life affirming pop music. While I didn't mind them, I certainly wasn't going out of my way to be involved in it. The fans of these albums were retarded though! They acted like Wayne Coin was the second coming of jesus. I love watching their faces drop as they listen to the dark new sounds, and they realise the fantasy world where everything is one big happy love-in is gone. Brilliant.
October 4, 2009
Cultural list
I've decided you can't really rate if one album is more culturally significant than another, unless one is total shit and the other is 'are you experienced'. Anyway here's my compilation of important albums of the last decade.
M.I.A. - Arular
Electro and hip hop mixed with post african rhythms. The sounds of this record definitely help define the decade with everyone from Santigold to Vampire Weekend taking influence. Producer Diplo probably had no idea he was helping shaping the sound of the next 10 years in music.
Feist - The Reminder
Soft, quirky, indie girl music. This is everywhere right now and I think it's thanks to this album, although Feist did have previous albums and a few other artists in this genre have been around longer.
It seems the softer you sing and the cuter the sounds (xylophone, bells, acoustic guitar, piano) the more popular you become. The 'Juno' and '500 days of Summer' soundtracks' are the pinnacle collections of this crap.
The Strokes - Is This It?
The Indie Garage rock revolution of the early 2000's was lead by The Strokes. They weren't the best of the group, but they were the most renowned and will definitely go down in history as 'pioneers'. I thought they were passionless wankers personally.
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
That whole indie band with clean guitars with happy vocals and drug fueled rockstar thing started here as far as I'm concerned. So many bands do it these days it's insane.
Daft Punk - Live
The revival of the robot duo was cool at first, then everyone started ripping them off, and dance music became bigger than jesus. Thanks to this, Triple J plays less rock music now than Rise FM (the all dance station).
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say, That's What I'm Not
Part of the Britpop revival with Kasabian and a few others. I guess it's more an homage than a revival.
Anyway, they're also one of the first bands to use myspace to gain popularity. Now it's a barren landscape of terrible bands with friend adding bots leaving fake comments of, 'hey, how are you? Come check out my new song I'm a douchebag'.
Anyway, that's what I reckon. It seems shoegaze is the new thing with bands like 'The Big Pink' dominating NME's hype fest. Let me know what you think champions!
The Vignettes
M.I.A. - Arular
Electro and hip hop mixed with post african rhythms. The sounds of this record definitely help define the decade with everyone from Santigold to Vampire Weekend taking influence. Producer Diplo probably had no idea he was helping shaping the sound of the next 10 years in music.
Feist - The Reminder
Soft, quirky, indie girl music. This is everywhere right now and I think it's thanks to this album, although Feist did have previous albums and a few other artists in this genre have been around longer.
It seems the softer you sing and the cuter the sounds (xylophone, bells, acoustic guitar, piano) the more popular you become. The 'Juno' and '500 days of Summer' soundtracks' are the pinnacle collections of this crap.
The Strokes - Is This It?
The Indie Garage rock revolution of the early 2000's was lead by The Strokes. They weren't the best of the group, but they were the most renowned and will definitely go down in history as 'pioneers'. I thought they were passionless wankers personally.
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
That whole indie band with clean guitars with happy vocals and drug fueled rockstar thing started here as far as I'm concerned. So many bands do it these days it's insane.
Daft Punk - Live
The revival of the robot duo was cool at first, then everyone started ripping them off, and dance music became bigger than jesus. Thanks to this, Triple J plays less rock music now than Rise FM (the all dance station).
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say, That's What I'm Not
Part of the Britpop revival with Kasabian and a few others. I guess it's more an homage than a revival.
Anyway, they're also one of the first bands to use myspace to gain popularity. Now it's a barren landscape of terrible bands with friend adding bots leaving fake comments of, 'hey, how are you? Come check out my new song I'm a douchebag'.
Anyway, that's what I reckon. It seems shoegaze is the new thing with bands like 'The Big Pink' dominating NME's hype fest. Let me know what you think champions!
The Vignettes
Pitchfork top 200 of the decade.
Don't know if you've seen this, but it's pretty full on. It's an interesting mix of musical styles throughout and their commentary on a lot of it is very good. Ultimately they decided that Radiohead's Kid A was the most important album of the decade. Personally I don't think it should have made the list at all. It's an interesting album, but all it did culturally was alienate all the casual fans who jumped on the bandwagon after Ok Computer's runaway success. They argue that the electronic nature of the album predicted trends in rock music to come, and that it defines this decade better than any other album, but I think they're just talking a load of wank to stir controversy. If a rock band makes an fairly ambient electronic album, that doesn't make it an important rock album, it makes it an ambient electronic album. Anyway, in response to this I thought I'd make a couple of lists of my own. Feel free to post your own lists below too. Ultimately this is a personal list and the next post will be a cultural one. So here we go!
No. 1 most important album in the life of Joel Murray of The Vignettes
Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
From the opening notes of this album I was hooked. A mix of angst, anger, dance and sex permeate throughout the album's entirety and to me represent a peak in modern musical history. The sound and texture of the musical production is a bizarre compilation of dance, punk and metal, while still retaining an alt-rock feel overall. Sadly, the album is a one-off and relatively underground, with the remix album garnering a lot more popularity than this ever got. Also, it didn't even get a mention in pitchfork's top 200! Bollocks I say. It's also a total shame that after DFA 1979 split, the producer and bass player got together to make MSTRKRFT, a flaming pile of camp electro balls. I had the chance to see them live back in 2004 but at the time hadn't heard of them, and turned down FREE TICKETS! I got the album the next day and almost hung myself. From what I've seen they weren't as good live as on the record, but it still would have been an experience. Anyway, to me this is musical perfection and is up there in history with Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
2. The Vines - Highly Evolved (turned me on to alt rock from nu metal and made me want to play guitar)
3. The Mars Volta - DeLoused in the Comatorium (kept me company in my depression days alone in Sydney, the only true prog rock album of the modern era)
4. Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows
5. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
7. The Hives - Your New Favourite Band
8. Future of the Left - Curses!
9. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
10. Interpol - Antics
11. Von Bondies - Pawn Shoppe Heart
12. Rob Zombie - Hillbilly Deluxe (the album I lost my virginity to)
13. Muse - Absolution (the first Muse album I ever heard, not necessarily their best but it changed my perceptions of what rock music could be)
14. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
15. Shihad - The General Electric
16. Arctic Monkeys - Your Favourite Worst Nightmare
17. Electric Six - Danger High Voltage
18. Dresden Dolls - Dresden Dolls
19. The Darkness - Permission to Land
20. The Matrix Soundtrack
No. 1 most important album in the life of Joel Murray of The Vignettes
Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
From the opening notes of this album I was hooked. A mix of angst, anger, dance and sex permeate throughout the album's entirety and to me represent a peak in modern musical history. The sound and texture of the musical production is a bizarre compilation of dance, punk and metal, while still retaining an alt-rock feel overall. Sadly, the album is a one-off and relatively underground, with the remix album garnering a lot more popularity than this ever got. Also, it didn't even get a mention in pitchfork's top 200! Bollocks I say. It's also a total shame that after DFA 1979 split, the producer and bass player got together to make MSTRKRFT, a flaming pile of camp electro balls. I had the chance to see them live back in 2004 but at the time hadn't heard of them, and turned down FREE TICKETS! I got the album the next day and almost hung myself. From what I've seen they weren't as good live as on the record, but it still would have been an experience. Anyway, to me this is musical perfection and is up there in history with Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
2. The Vines - Highly Evolved (turned me on to alt rock from nu metal and made me want to play guitar)
3. The Mars Volta - DeLoused in the Comatorium (kept me company in my depression days alone in Sydney, the only true prog rock album of the modern era)
4. Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows
5. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
7. The Hives - Your New Favourite Band
8. Future of the Left - Curses!
9. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
10. Interpol - Antics
11. Von Bondies - Pawn Shoppe Heart
12. Rob Zombie - Hillbilly Deluxe (the album I lost my virginity to)
13. Muse - Absolution (the first Muse album I ever heard, not necessarily their best but it changed my perceptions of what rock music could be)
14. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
15. Shihad - The General Electric
16. Arctic Monkeys - Your Favourite Worst Nightmare
17. Electric Six - Danger High Voltage
18. Dresden Dolls - Dresden Dolls
19. The Darkness - Permission to Land
20. The Matrix Soundtrack
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