a general one this shall be, sounding like that lil green cunt yoda. my mum questioned my dislike of sci-fi but why i liked men in black [as it was on yesterday]. the sly old hag had me against the ropes! i do hate [probably to strong a word, but i shall use it anyway] most sci-fi films but men in black and men in black II [starring the almighty black-white man, mj] are great films. well, they are entertaining and good.
as for other sci-fi, i dunno. it's not like i have a bad education in the field but it must be the fact that the words sci-fi and geek are inextricably linked. and rightly so. i have seen all of the star wars films [i'm pretty sure] and can only remember enjoying the fight scene between yoda and christopher lee in one of them. the rest is babble, the editing is generally bad-i mean swipes in a non-ironic way? i may be missing the point of series of films such as star wars, lord of the rings and the latest indiana jones [which had a shit loada shit twists]
i just don't really enjoy fantasy, except from pixar films. except for cars, i have seen them all. but this is my only real allowance for fantasy. i have an interest in documentary films and real-life tales [like fargo] and there is something so entertaining about tales at least set in this world. as i write i am watching road to perdition with characters called john rooney and michael sullivan, not jabba the hutt and r2-d2. end of moaning about space operas [not even my term, wiki's]
politics now, this is easy. the bnp were on tv and some members of all political parties were outraged to see an elected official on tv. what a bastard. in all seriousness though, the man is a racist tosser who should be allowed to say whatever he wants. the only way of limiting him should be the education of the masses, and not the effortless double standards of the most read tabloids in the country. here.
lovely stuff. a brief break for marmite on toast snack, the change of clocks has made even hungrier than usual.
a return 12 minutes later, slightly less hungry.
children are amazing, and i realised this through an odd happening. i just walked downstairs and saw the large rubbish bin [we have one exactly the same design but much smaller-for compostable rubbish] and for some bizarre reason i wondered if that is what it's like for a child to see the smaller bin. i know i am not normal.
when getting the bus to work, there is a mum who always get the same bus on a thursday and she has a buggy with a small girl in and a small boy on 'reins' [they aren't reins really but i don't know the correct terms for how you control a child. other than smashing them in the face :P] and as they were getting off the bus, the small boy noticed that his mum's coat had got caught in the folding seat. his mum was trying to maneouvre the buggy in a small space and while this was going on, the boy tried to pull his mum's coat out, but bless him he didn't have the strength. his mum walked the buggy off and thus pulled her coat free, but she tried to hurry the small boy as she thought that he had been arsing about. it was a really simple act but i just loved the fact that she'd never really know that her son was trying to do something for her.
i shall return back to the timewaster letters, which were, to my very pleasant surprise, in the medway library system.
keep it rockin'
Monday 26 October 2009
Friday 23 October 2009
p to the r to the o ducers and that
i have a mystery follower, how exciting :)
i shall endeavour to make as many sweeping statements in this little blog as possible. i shall be discussing the importance of music producers, and the reason that this came about was a discussion with the man who really helped to introduce me to the rolling stones.
no not martin scorsese, as his film 'the departed' was the actual reason i started listening to the best band that this country has ever produced. arguments against my view will be carefully ignored :)
but my scumbag college cambridge [incumbent] friend and i were discussing the merits of their 1968-1972 run of albums and how they are held up to be the best albums that the band made. the albums [beginning with beggars banquet in '68] were also the first of the stones' albums to get a us/uk release of the same material, as previously tracklistings had been rehashed out of singles etc. but the run of:
beggars banquet-1968
let it bleed-1969
sticky fingers-1971
exile on mainstreet-1972
is generally considered to be when they were at their best, at least studio wise. i would have to agree, but i believe that a massive factor in this success was the introduction of jimmy miller into the producers chair. before bb [as it'll be henceforth be known], the stones had their manager behind the desk andrew loog oldham and he helped to give them a specific sound. however after the sgt peppers-esque misguided album 'their satanic....', they really got one fuck of an album down. also at this point brian jones was in the arduous process of leaving the band he created, as he was just too fucked up on hard drugs and fit womens.
but tracklisting of bb is still classic lp format of utter tunes to begin each side of the disc and a number of tunes that are there [album tracks as they are known as] to be there. however the two stand out songs are complemented by almost certainly the finest sounding acoustic guitars that i've heard, as half the tracks [if not more] are based around a strummed acoustic and just sound fucking good.
then let it bleed [read previous post on this mother of an album] is halfway between bb and sticky fingers which foregrounds the electric guitar much more. sticky fingers is another album which stands out as being awesome, the single from it again are almost certainly the highlight. until, this is, you reach the last track. it has everything, moonlight mile has made it into the blog title for a reason... the use of orchestral sounds is bloody great as the song winds down [not sure if it really does when strings come in, nevermind!]
i know a few tracks from exile, but i don't know them well enough to write on them.
but anyway, it is almost certainly no coincidence that the songwriting/in studio performance/production on these albums is unparalleled elsewhere in their back catalogue.
another example of the importance of the role of the producer is the ramones. tommy ramone, the band manager/original drummer/producer can be heard all over their early work. their studio albums:
ramones-1976
leave home-1977
rocket to russia-1977
road to ruin-1978
were all co-produced by the weird looking lil man [it's true, google him. that's why i love the ramones though-the bastard beach boys as i call them] and the choice of producer for the 1980 album was inspired. as their first 4 albums are almost certainly their best and delivered well, recorded cheaply and in short periods of time, rough and ready but still awesome. but they never really got big from them so phil spector was brought for the 1980's end of the century. tommy ramone gave up being ramoens drummer in before road to ruin, and it shows that there was little bad blood as he was still integral to the band.
however the 1980 album was flawed as phil spector asked for hundreds of takes and went mental holding the band at gun point and just taking so much money, you can see how the album sounds off compared to their previous 4 outings. it's not even the songs, i heard their live album before end of the century and couldn't place the age of the songs-but the album has too much on it. in my opinion, it is just west coast surf pop crossed with spector wall of sound motown and lacks a rough and ready edge that is the ramones.
being rough and ready is essential to punk music, and i am currently reading up on the libertines, and wider-the other work of peter doherty. i love mick jones and the clash, but what the libertines needed was someone to tell them what to do. their first album is tight and well produced, with their pair of stand alone singles being produced by bernie butler of suede. however i feel that i can draw a strong comparison between the 04 eponymous libertines album and babyshambles' down in albion. both are produced by mick jones, and their is no control. in my opinion the quality of the songs [overall] on the libertines is greater than on down in albion and this helps the libertines album to still sound good enough to be worked into an album. seeing as though the band were fucking themselves up and breaking up, this is obviously reflected in a number of the album's track.
down in albion seems to have two or three songs where the production budget was spent [singles namely] and the rest of the tracks were a case of through ill judged lack of control, you can almost heart the crack pipes and syringes on the album. albion is an exceptional song and is correctly produced, and for me it is this song that really stands out as being brilliant. this shows that mick jones can produce [the clash's latter back catalogue too], but babyshambles weren't as good as the libertines' productions as carl barat was missing and kate moss 'helped out' doherty. he is not an idiot, just trusting and too kind.
as a brief aside, i love the kills and kate moss is going out with jamie hince. the kills are only two people and moss wants in, i hope that this doesn't happen as the odd relationship between hotel and vv makes the band fucking amazing and flying below radar. the best.
if you want a producer that can make things happen, stephen street is the man. he produced 07's 'shotter's nation' and you can hear his strong hand in the album, it is a complete album with full sounds and even though the songs on the album aren't all amazing there are a few that are at least very good. the track french dog blues is a personal favourite and it is with the help of street that it does sound good. the songs may still not be exceptional but they all sound good, something markedly different from the previous album.
doherty's solo album was also street produced, and is also full sounding and the introduction of a little man called graham coxon helps the album to sound like an artistic piece. the songs are higgledy-piggledy [not written as an album, more a compilation] and aren't really a contrived act. there is no, back from the dead and further moss/barat/critic baiting that is present in doherty's other works. in fact street apparently said to doherty to fuck off being a drug mess or he'd walk. necessary :)
i shall briefly touch on radiohead too, as my favourite album of their discography is still 95's the bends. it was produced by john leckie who produced the stone roses' fuck off debut. incredible sounding album that is, and the bends suffers from the same incredible audio-gasm-ness [spicing up my words with nonsense haha]. the bends is also the most obvious album to reflect the importance of the pixies on the band, the bends is still a guitar based album. after the bends, the keyboard and samplers became increasingly more prevalent in their sound. i don't dislike this sound. i actually feel that radiohead are the most consistent band around today, and nigel godrich is one hell of an amazing producer and i would kill a number of people to be able to work with him. but there is such an amazing charm to the bends that still grabs me by the ball and makes me yearn for more.
a final example is the beatles. a band that would have been nothing without george martin, the proof is let it be. phil spector tries to work a few tracks into nothing and is widely described as the worst beatles album. epstein and martin were key to the success of the beatles, with martin pulling together 3 egotistical tits and george harrison and their works to create great albums.
i feel sorry for phil spector as the two cited examples of his productions are weak. ah well in jail for murder, nevermind.
this is quite a beast :)
also magical/mystical blog reader should reveal themselves :)
a plan. the monorchids, thoughts?
keep it rockin'
i shall endeavour to make as many sweeping statements in this little blog as possible. i shall be discussing the importance of music producers, and the reason that this came about was a discussion with the man who really helped to introduce me to the rolling stones.
no not martin scorsese, as his film 'the departed' was the actual reason i started listening to the best band that this country has ever produced. arguments against my view will be carefully ignored :)
but my scumbag college cambridge [incumbent] friend and i were discussing the merits of their 1968-1972 run of albums and how they are held up to be the best albums that the band made. the albums [beginning with beggars banquet in '68] were also the first of the stones' albums to get a us/uk release of the same material, as previously tracklistings had been rehashed out of singles etc. but the run of:
beggars banquet-1968
let it bleed-1969
sticky fingers-1971
exile on mainstreet-1972
is generally considered to be when they were at their best, at least studio wise. i would have to agree, but i believe that a massive factor in this success was the introduction of jimmy miller into the producers chair. before bb [as it'll be henceforth be known], the stones had their manager behind the desk andrew loog oldham and he helped to give them a specific sound. however after the sgt peppers-esque misguided album 'their satanic....', they really got one fuck of an album down. also at this point brian jones was in the arduous process of leaving the band he created, as he was just too fucked up on hard drugs and fit womens.
but tracklisting of bb is still classic lp format of utter tunes to begin each side of the disc and a number of tunes that are there [album tracks as they are known as] to be there. however the two stand out songs are complemented by almost certainly the finest sounding acoustic guitars that i've heard, as half the tracks [if not more] are based around a strummed acoustic and just sound fucking good.
then let it bleed [read previous post on this mother of an album] is halfway between bb and sticky fingers which foregrounds the electric guitar much more. sticky fingers is another album which stands out as being awesome, the single from it again are almost certainly the highlight. until, this is, you reach the last track. it has everything, moonlight mile has made it into the blog title for a reason... the use of orchestral sounds is bloody great as the song winds down [not sure if it really does when strings come in, nevermind!]
i know a few tracks from exile, but i don't know them well enough to write on them.
but anyway, it is almost certainly no coincidence that the songwriting/in studio performance/production on these albums is unparalleled elsewhere in their back catalogue.
another example of the importance of the role of the producer is the ramones. tommy ramone, the band manager/original drummer/producer can be heard all over their early work. their studio albums:
ramones-1976
leave home-1977
rocket to russia-1977
road to ruin-1978
were all co-produced by the weird looking lil man [it's true, google him. that's why i love the ramones though-the bastard beach boys as i call them] and the choice of producer for the 1980 album was inspired. as their first 4 albums are almost certainly their best and delivered well, recorded cheaply and in short periods of time, rough and ready but still awesome. but they never really got big from them so phil spector was brought for the 1980's end of the century. tommy ramone gave up being ramoens drummer in before road to ruin, and it shows that there was little bad blood as he was still integral to the band.
however the 1980 album was flawed as phil spector asked for hundreds of takes and went mental holding the band at gun point and just taking so much money, you can see how the album sounds off compared to their previous 4 outings. it's not even the songs, i heard their live album before end of the century and couldn't place the age of the songs-but the album has too much on it. in my opinion, it is just west coast surf pop crossed with spector wall of sound motown and lacks a rough and ready edge that is the ramones.
being rough and ready is essential to punk music, and i am currently reading up on the libertines, and wider-the other work of peter doherty. i love mick jones and the clash, but what the libertines needed was someone to tell them what to do. their first album is tight and well produced, with their pair of stand alone singles being produced by bernie butler of suede. however i feel that i can draw a strong comparison between the 04 eponymous libertines album and babyshambles' down in albion. both are produced by mick jones, and their is no control. in my opinion the quality of the songs [overall] on the libertines is greater than on down in albion and this helps the libertines album to still sound good enough to be worked into an album. seeing as though the band were fucking themselves up and breaking up, this is obviously reflected in a number of the album's track.
down in albion seems to have two or three songs where the production budget was spent [singles namely] and the rest of the tracks were a case of through ill judged lack of control, you can almost heart the crack pipes and syringes on the album. albion is an exceptional song and is correctly produced, and for me it is this song that really stands out as being brilliant. this shows that mick jones can produce [the clash's latter back catalogue too], but babyshambles weren't as good as the libertines' productions as carl barat was missing and kate moss 'helped out' doherty. he is not an idiot, just trusting and too kind.
as a brief aside, i love the kills and kate moss is going out with jamie hince. the kills are only two people and moss wants in, i hope that this doesn't happen as the odd relationship between hotel and vv makes the band fucking amazing and flying below radar. the best.
if you want a producer that can make things happen, stephen street is the man. he produced 07's 'shotter's nation' and you can hear his strong hand in the album, it is a complete album with full sounds and even though the songs on the album aren't all amazing there are a few that are at least very good. the track french dog blues is a personal favourite and it is with the help of street that it does sound good. the songs may still not be exceptional but they all sound good, something markedly different from the previous album.
doherty's solo album was also street produced, and is also full sounding and the introduction of a little man called graham coxon helps the album to sound like an artistic piece. the songs are higgledy-piggledy [not written as an album, more a compilation] and aren't really a contrived act. there is no, back from the dead and further moss/barat/critic baiting that is present in doherty's other works. in fact street apparently said to doherty to fuck off being a drug mess or he'd walk. necessary :)
i shall briefly touch on radiohead too, as my favourite album of their discography is still 95's the bends. it was produced by john leckie who produced the stone roses' fuck off debut. incredible sounding album that is, and the bends suffers from the same incredible audio-gasm-ness [spicing up my words with nonsense haha]. the bends is also the most obvious album to reflect the importance of the pixies on the band, the bends is still a guitar based album. after the bends, the keyboard and samplers became increasingly more prevalent in their sound. i don't dislike this sound. i actually feel that radiohead are the most consistent band around today, and nigel godrich is one hell of an amazing producer and i would kill a number of people to be able to work with him. but there is such an amazing charm to the bends that still grabs me by the ball and makes me yearn for more.
a final example is the beatles. a band that would have been nothing without george martin, the proof is let it be. phil spector tries to work a few tracks into nothing and is widely described as the worst beatles album. epstein and martin were key to the success of the beatles, with martin pulling together 3 egotistical tits and george harrison and their works to create great albums.
i feel sorry for phil spector as the two cited examples of his productions are weak. ah well in jail for murder, nevermind.
this is quite a beast :)
also magical/mystical blog reader should reveal themselves :)
a plan. the monorchids, thoughts?
keep it rockin'
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