Sorry people...

But the downloads from this site are down, and won't be up for ages. Don't bother trying until I give you the heads up. Sorry about that! And a new post is coming I promise.




At some stage.

Orphan boy...

Right then, it's been a while since I've posted, but I've been busy and haven't had great internet access... Well, yeah, it's no excuse but whatever. Good news in that ripway have doubled my bandwidth limit, so I haven't had any trouble recently. Anyway, the band today isn't strictly foreign BUT some people consider Lincolnshire another country and frankly I want to give these guys a shout for two reasons:

1. They come from Grimsby, and I went to school there for a while and, as much as it pains me to say this, I've grown to like the place and support the football team.
2. They're actually pretty good and have signed an album deal.

Who are these elusive musicians then? Orphan Boy, the band that sounds strangely similar to The Libertines and takes influences from all over the place. They've got some funny songs, some that are more serious in an Arctic Monkeys sort of way (British social scene... Binges). One their site they say they sound like "Nancy Sinatra being raped by the Gang Of Four". Um, yeah, sure guys, calm down! The first of their songs which I'm going to present is "The Great British Sitcom". This is where you're supposed to feel a warmth rising inside you as you realise that you are going to listen to a band which has been frightfully ignored for quite long and yet has the talent and ability to do very well indeed (as do many others out there). Of course they're not The new Beetles but they certainly are nice enough to pass the time. Ah yes, the song. Now, the beginning is worryingly similar to Fallout Boy's "Dance" with the drums starting the beat but never fear, for the fashionably rough-sounding guitar soon kicks in and immediately any doubt about the origins of this song soon fades away: oh yes, this is from "the North", that foreign land to so many Southerners. I particularly like the bass, and there are moments where I think to myself "hoi! This is The Fall!" but that can only be a good thing.

Orphan Boy - The Great British Sitcom

The band's first gig was actually with Clash-man Mick Jones, and the band's name actually comes from one of the members (Smiffy) playing on his lonesome, therefore being the Orphan Boy. Somewhere along the line it stuck though, and that was that. Anyway, "Got Plenty" is the song you'll hear immediately if you go on their site, which means I can assume that this is their "hit". To be honest, it's not the best tune in the world, especially the almost forced guitar solos. And yet, there is a nice feel to it nonetheless. Then again, this is a live recording and I can't promise that this'd sound anything like it on a CD. The 300 records they're selling have pretty-much sold out I believe, even though it hasn't even been released yet. They are minor legends in Grimsby so it doesn't surprise me one bit!

Orphan Boy - Got Plenty

Ask a member of the band what the songs are all about, and you're answer will be "Lovers and loudmouths, hooligans and humanoids, digital boys and digital girls, creepy old men lurking around in graveyards and tracksuit wearing tricksters flogging vouchers at the pawn-shop. Stuff like that. Not just characters, but stories, emotions, opinions, rants and roams off the beaten track, where the lyrics aren't signposted and the words run pretty and untame. Keep it cryptic and you'll do fine. But never rhyme baby with maybe." What the Hell does that mean? Well, apart from the words of wisdom at the end (which Oasis really should follow)he's telling us that Orphan Boy is an honest band that doesn't go around singing about stuff it has never experienced or at least seen. I'm sure you could think of numerous other bands that do for me though...

And now comes "Birthday", one of their slower songs, just to show that they can do something else as well. I love this song, it's got a very nice ballad-feel to it and coming from a band like theirs, that's quite rare. Add to that the fact that he plays the harmonica in it, and you've just got an ace song. Not much else to say about that really, this is going into my "all-time classics" folder (well, it would if I had one). It's your birthday todaaaaaaay

Orphan Boy - Birthday

Have a good'un and please, if they ever break through, buy their album. You won't be disappointed!

'Tis a perfect day!

Wow. Never thought I'd do it, never thought it'd arrive, but I made it. I am now, officially, finished with school for ever. So, with such an occasion, comes celebratory music right? Surely, for such an event, happy music is required. And this, of course, is what I give you. I'm in an exceptionally good mood today (this has nothing to do with going down the pub straight after my exam at 11am and irritating our headmaster intensely by going to lunch with a slightly edited school uniform, we understand each other), so what I'll start with is "The Saints". They're from Oz, as are in fact the other band showcased today, "Jet". Everybody knows Jet really, but The Saints aren't quite as famous yet, if they ever will be.

EDIT: If the downloads don't work, give it an hour for Ripway to calm down and come back.

The Saints were around in the late seventies to very late eighties - their only two singles coming in 1989 (according to Wiki anyway). What's the song then? Well, if you've ever heard of The Saints you'll know that "This perfect Day" is a bloody good track. Whilst that never made into the tracks, it somehow made its way into my collection, so it can't be completely unknown, since as much as I'd like to pretend that I know bands no one else does that simply isn't the case. The track then. Well, basically, it seems to sum up what punk around their time was about: not particularly catchy, dirty and a fairly simply beat. The voice is in a typically teenage vein of a kid pretending to be older and tougher than he actually is (much like many other bands out there), but for some reason it seems adequate for today. Well, I say "some reason" when I mean rebellion, standing up to authority and generally misbehaving. Not that that's what we're doing, quite the contrary - haven't done anything particularly awful in the eyes of the school law. Anyway, The Saints come from Brisbane and actually formed in 1972, but things only really kicked off once they moved to Britain in 1977. Apparently though, they never quite broke into the market and in fact EMI had so little trust in them that they didn't make enough copies of their single to sell, and never did, meaning they never entered the charts until 1989. Actually, I say that, but that's complete crap, as I've just noticed. In fact, the only track that made it quite well was what I'm about the give to you, "This Perfect Day", which got to number 34 in the charts in 1977. So I'm sorry, royally screwed up that one. Oops. Anyway, what am I blabbering on about, have a good listen:

The Saints - This Perfect Day

Now then, Jet, they've made it big already. With their debut album in 2003, they did pretty damned well: 2.5 million copies sold around the world already. They come from Melbourne, and sound like they would have been absolutely awesome a small-time band. Loud, active, and it gets your ass moving. There's nothing to do but howl along when it's playing in a pub or club. In fact, the video for "Cold Hard Bitch" (which you're not getting) is filmed in a pub. It is literally just that: music for alcohol, although also enjoyable without the stuff obviously. They aren't particularly special with their singles, but this is their best: "Are You Gonna Be My Girl". You're probably going to hate me for getting this earworm back into your brain, but let's face the truth, eh? It's ace, and you shouldn't have to care about the fact that it was in almost every advert of 2003/04. The beat and guitar riffs are, like I said, designed to get you moving. And my oh my, can they do it. And one day, I'll remember what it is it reminds me of so freightfully (any clues from the 10 regular readers?), and tell you, and you'll go "aaaah, of course!" Anyway, enjoy, I can't really be bothered to write more right now and I'm sure most people just come for the tracks anyway :(

Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl

And, as Jeff Buckley must have said when he finished school: Halleluja.

When I was a child... I was a Jedi?

Don't fret, this is not a tribute to Star Wars-inspired music. As such. This is actually a part of one of my favourite ever songs: "Song For a Jedi", by Dionysos. This is just quite simply a brilliant song. Dionysos generally make very good music, but unfortunately I only own the one track, although of course radioblog has it all available on streaming. "So who in God's name are Dionysos?" I hear you ask. Well, according to my bestest friend in France, they are the best live band in France right now. Oh. That good eh? This song is really old, and I never imagined them being anything more than a one hit wonder really. I knew they had other stuff, but the best Live band? Wow. Must fit that into my plans one day! For those who aren't in the know (and I certainly wasn't), Dionysos is actually the Greek god of wine and excess.

So what's this song I keep raving on about then? All you know is that it's about a bleedin' Jedi. Well, let's look at the first couple of lines shall we (in English):

When I was child
I was a Jedi
So nervous
That when it rained
Often I'd electrocute myself
And I met a girl in fairy form
So nervous
That when she scratched (my back)
My skin turned itself
Into a pyrography

Ho-hum. I'm sure an analysis of his brain would yield interesting results, for this is just brilliant. Of course, that's just the first couple of lines, so it goes on a bit more about electrocution when they kiss, for example. Either way, it was a superbly popular tune when it first came out, and what we like to call an earworm. It will not leave, no matter what you do, which whilst at times infuriating is mostly OK, since it keeps the other tosh around out as well. As an example of how popular it was, the single went gold, which means it sold somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 copies. That's a lot of CDs - as you might know.

Anyway, I shan't keep you waiting much longer for this utter beaut:

Dionysos - Song For A Jedi

I thought long and hard about what track to put up next. Truth is, I'm running out of good songs. But then, I struck gold whilst looking through my collection: a song by Etienne Daho. Ah, good old Etienne Daho. He's been around for too long, he has. 1981 is when he essentially started his music career, but he's still around now! Either way, this song was released in 2003, and although not massively popular it still made the charts and everything. The song, called "If", is not in English, but is actually just as if (no pun intended) someone here called a song "ive" - most words of the song is basically are list of words finishing with "if", all of them loosely related in some way or other, e.g. "too massive/abusive" and so on. I'm impressed with how many he found to be honest. I'm not sure who he sings with, which is irritating because I know I knew this once (UPDATE: Turns out it's Charlotte Gainsbourg, don't know anything else she did).

What I like about this song is that every single line rhymes. Sometimes they use words that don't end with "If" - but only in the middle of a line. Somehow, you almost get hypnotised by the tune and I can't see why no one else seems to have tried to do this. It's really great to relax to, as it doesn't veer too far away from the basic beat, apart from the odd little electronic sound.

Etienne Daho - If

I know there seems to be an overload of French music right now, but as soon as Brazavil gets less busy he wants to introduce you to some superb stuff from further out - Serbia, amongst other places, so watch this space!

I've only put on two songs today because I don't want my bandwidth to be put under too much strain again, I'll see how it works with these two. Maybe if it calms down a bit OR I find a better, cheaper place there'll be more again.

Bandwidth overload!

I would have made a post containing MP3s today had it not been for my bandwidth being busted last night by some nutter - I've got to wait till it calms down 24 hours so that MP3s aren't locked anymore. Encouraging as it is, I'm not willing to pay more either :p

See yous all tomorrow!