Me and Frank, Frank and Me

When is Frank Turner going to realise his dream and team up with me to make a Christmas song everyone loves? As one of my favourite song writers and a true gent he could at least give it an effort. It beats ‘Rage Against The Machine For Christmas Number One’ any day. What is that crap anyway? I honestly think it would be worse if Rage made Number One. Where’s everyone’s festive cheer gone? Whatever song makes it, makes it for one reason: it is downloaded the most. If you’re going to pay for it, of course you enjoy it. No one is forcing you to buy anything or listen to Radio 1, so stop making a drama out of nothing and put ‘Killing In The Name Of' back on your headphones.

This time around I’m going to have a little chat about a folk/ex-punk artist I love, Frank Turner. I feel he’s been forgotten a little bit with the recent influx of female electro pop folk artists. I feel for you, man. I think of him as a great songwriter, one that we can all honestly relate to. He sings songs about his friends, getting drunk, feeling old, politics, travelling the world and one of life’s great mysteries, women.

He’s one of the hardest working artists in the industry today, having toured for years at time, even attempting to play 24 gigs in 24 hours at one point. He has been a bit of a support and small venue act for most of his career, a regular at Reading and Leeds but recently sold out the Shepherds Bush Empire on the final day of his British tour. Anyone who has been to a Frank Turner gig will understand how much of a friendly vibe the crowd has. He’s now touring the US and Europe before returning to London for a gig on December 19^th and touring again in spring ‘10. Phew, tires me out just writing about it. Take a look for yourself

This is why you shouldn’t steal his music off the internet, download it from iTunes, or better than that buy the CDs and get sing-along booklets, not that you’ll need them. I’ll give you a little preview of some of his best though. Shhhh.

The Ballard of Me and my Friends

The Real Damage

I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous

The Road (Radio 1 Live Lounge)

Here’s to Frank, one of us and a truly great live act.

We came, We’re sore, ‘cause we daggered

For those of you who have never heard about Major Lazer, it’s actually a collaborative project between two DJ/producers, Diplo and Switch. Major Lazer is the animated character that fronts the album ‘Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do’. According to his press release, he fought as a commando in the secret zombie war of 1984, where he lost his arm, and replaced it with a frickin’ huge lazer cannon. Cool, I know. He fights zombies and various monsters, parties hard and has that height of future technology, a rocket powered hover board. So, pretty much my life then.

Aside from this great B-movie story the ‘Guns Don’t Kill People…’ album is worth a purchase. Catchy songs, ranging for your classic reggae tracks to hard dub inspired synth-dance. Anyways I love it, here’s some videos for you to snack on - some of which are directed by Eric Wareheim of ‘Tim and Eric: Awesome Show, Great Job!’ fame… trippy.

Hold The Line


Pon De Floor - Major Lazer



Keep It Goin' Louder

Major Lazer MySpace Music Videos

I was lucky enough to catch Major Lazer @ Digital in Brighton on a very messy Thursday night. Even though the big man himself didn’t make a ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ style entrance, they’re a great live act. Check ‘em out on the tinterweb if you need convincing, I’m still too hungover from Brighton to explain. It’s that good.

Couple of links to remixes of the great ‘pon de floor’ and the new single ‘Keep it going louder’

Pon de floor (Ex Carter remix)

Keep it goin louder (so shifty 1961 ska remix) - love this mix

Keep it goin louder (Diplo remix)

Click and follow the link to get your Dagga' on!!

Disclaimer: Daggering is a dance move. It can cause serious injury. Always dagger with a partner.

Christmas Time, Camel Toe and Wine

Ok, so my first attempt to blog has been seen as ‘cute’. That’s fine with me, I guess. I set myself a few rules when I started, one of which was write about things I like, and not bitch. Other rules include:

Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they’ve become popular.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.

Thou shalt not worship Pop Idols or follow Lost Prophets.

Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements, and never will be. (to be removed come thursday)

So please don’t judge this blog by Danny Glover

In case you don’t get what the hell I’m going on about, listen to the song/watch the video

Classic. Good news from the boys, Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip are touring this march, I myself look forward to seeing them in KOKO on the 23rd.

It has also been pointed out that beastie boys should be spelt with capital letters. They’ll get their capitals when they stop making bloody instrumental albums. Seriously though, I hope Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch makes a full recovery. I grow my beard like a billy goat in your honour, MCA.

So the first of December has come aknockin’ and I can officially begin to feel festive. I can start opening my eyes when the Coca-Cola advert comes on. I can stop changing the radio when Christmas songs are playing and I can finally let that midget out of my kitchen cupboard, he’s got work to do.

To kick off the festive cheer we’ll have a listen to a song I actually bought recently (shocking I know). It’s bluegrass, country and folking great! Sorry.

I look forward to blogging about the rest of the album soon. Mumford & Sons have only been around for a mere 2 years, this being their first studio album produced by the same guy who produced the Maccabees last album. This single, Winter Wind, is due out soon. Please people, lets make something like this number one this Christmas, not the pile of wank x factor constantly discharges.

They are also touring in March… I’m starting to see a pattern. March could be expensive