5 of the Best - Nate Dogg

In the wake of Nate's death, here's 5 of the best songs he graced...

Warren G & Nate Dogg - Regulate: "Reeeeguuuulaaatoorrs". Maybe his most famous song and a hip-hop staple. Using a sample from I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near), the two pair Warren's calm rapping with Nate's ultra-cool vocals.


Regulate

Nate Dogg - I Need A Bitch: Any song that opens with "I need me a bitch/with some big old thighs" is a winner.

213 - Groupie Love: Snoop, Nate and Warren wax lyrical about their need for some sex with a groupie, very funny.

Eminem feat. Nate Dogg - 'Til I Collapse: Set against We Will Rock You drums, Eminem lets loose with a ferocious rap in the verses while Nate provides the perfect foil in the choruses. Great track.


'Til I Collapse

2Pac feat. Nate Dogg - All About You: Here Nate lets us know about a girl he sees on every video shoot going, and he's not happy about it!

R.I.P. Nate Dogg

Obituary - R.I.P. Nate Dogg

Nate Dogg is dead. Long live G-Funk.

Reports this morning are that 41 year old hip-hop legend Nate Dogg has passed away. Nate was one of hip-hop's most charismatic and distinctive voices throughout the '90s and '00s and will be sorely missed.


Nate Dogg

He scored big with hits such as Regulate (with Warren G) and Groupie Love (with 213) and was well known for his smooth, soulful baritone.

Nate was best known for his collaborative work with the likes of 2Pac, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Warren G and always brought a fresh slant to any song he worked on.

Thoughts are with his family.

Nate Dogg - R.I.P.

Great Songs: The Beatles - In My Life

I've often thought that when George Harrison was writing When We Was Fab with Jeff Lynne, he must have had In My Life rattling around in his head. To me, no other song manages to capture those brilliant days of '62 - '66 Beatledom quite like this track. Before Yoko, before the squabbles, arguably before they'd made their best run of albums, The Beatles made this song, which can be found on 1965's Rubber Soul.


Rubber Soul

The simplicity of it is certainly a huge factor in its overall beauty. George Harrison's oh so simple guitar refrain just has all of that down. Nostalgic, melancholic, powerful. The instrumental bridge was actually all of George Martin's work, having realised he couldn't play the part at the song's tempo, Martin recorded it at half-tempo (which leads to it being one octave lower) and simply sped it up, leading to that harpsichord-like timbral sound.

The lyric is Lennon looking back over his childhood in Liverpool after being told to do so by Kenneth Allsop (journalist). Without pointing out any specific part of Liverpool, Lennon manages to lead you into the city through rather more vague terms.


In My Life

This song makes me think of Liverpool. It makes me think of The Beatles 'when they was fab'. It sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it. Any song which can provoke that kind of transcendental, emotional, irrational response can only be labelled as great.

Obviously The Beatles have many great songs and it's always a hard question to answer ("what's your favourite Beatles song?") but this does rank very highly on the list. So high in fact that Mojo mag named it the greatest song of all time in 2000.

Unsigned Call From Over Hadrian’s Wall: Act 1 - Male Pattern Band

Today marks the start of a weekly post in which I fill you in about a new unsigned band from... Scotland (hence over Hadrian's Wall). Hope you enjoy it!

If you are in anyway a fan of the output of late ‘80s/early ‘90s Seattle label Sub Pop then read on! Glasgow's Male Pattern Band have the kind of lo-fi sensibility coupled with catchy hooks which could easily have been released through that label. Their recording ethos seems quite simple; hit ‘em with one take of distorted guitar, semi-pissed-off vocal, dry as hell drums and barely audible bass. The verses lull, the choruses scream and one gets the feeling this rabble spend half their time necking Glasgow's finest malt (or Buckfast) and the other half trying to convey the kind of sonic message that the likes of Yuck are having quite a bit of success with right now.

The band’s self confessed stance is “junkyard pop” (incidentally the name of their self-released 2010 EP) and one listen to the tracks Wilt and Raining (from that disc) leaves one with little argument against this summarisation.


The Junkyard Pop EP Artwork - Lo-fi visual art

Having had a couple of notable support slots for the likes of The Vaccines and The Smith Westerns, it seems MPB may be causing a bit of a stir in that easiest of arenas to do so: the indie underground and you can see why as this group do have some catchy tunes. It feels, as you listen to the rather crude recordings, that if they are produced in just a slightly more polished fashion, the kind of praise and success currently being eaten up by the aforementioned Yuck may be bestowed upon them as well.

As it is, MPB conjure up nostalgic memories of some of America’s greatest alternative and garage rock groups. Cable Cloth, also from The Junkyard Pop EP, has the slow-burning, heroin-chic glamour of The Velvet Underground, Pouring is a hybrid of Strokes-cool and The Stooges mayhem and The Last Supper has a Sonic Youth appeal juxtaposed with the ramshackle of The Libertines (British, I know).


The Male Pattern Band - Live!

Glasgow may not have the glamorous musical history of London, New York or New Orleans, but Male Pattern Band could be emerging at just the right time to change all that. Lo-fi is on the up again, maybe as a reaction to the last few years of silkily produced synth-pop and soul revivalism, and these young men (guitarist/singer/songwriter Chris Mcrory, bassist Craig Nock and drummer Gareth Wilson) could ride on the crest of this wave. They could, however, fall underneath its weight as so many of those late ‘80s/early ‘90s types did.

Email the band at: contact@malepatternband.com Check out their website where you can download the EP for free at: www.malepatternband.com

5 of the Best - Storms

I offer my deepest sympathies to all those affected by the Japan Tsunami and with that in mind offer 5 songs with natural disatsters, floods, storms, earthquakes and whatever else in the title, theme or lyric.

Bob Dylan - Hurricane: In Bob Dylan's rather extensive and brilliant back catalogue one can find many highlights. This number is certainly one. Written about the plight of boxer Ruben 'Hurricane' Carter the song tackles the issue of '60s racism like maybe no other.


Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's Gonna' Fall: Another Dylan classic from his superb Freewheelin' album.

The Doors - Riders on the Storm: Jim Morrison's eerie, haunting vocal leaves one with the proverbial brown stuff in the boxers and that riff! Undeniably beautiful, yet undeniably disgusting.

Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks: The sheer force of Led Zeppelin's cover of Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie's blues belter is instant from pressing play. Led Zep manage to capture the true force of a storm in one song. It is the sonic representation of natural disaster.


Led Zeppelin

T-Bone Walker - Stormy Monday Blues: Another blues classic which quite literally scares the life out of me every time I hear it!

The Gospel's Little Brother

Just a quick post to say that I have set up another blog with some of my academic work on it, I kind of nicked the idea from my mate Ryan who's got his own academic blog at thealbatrossreivew.blogspot.com, check that out as well, it's very good. My academic blog can be found at lukeclohertyacademic.blogspot.com. Hope it is to your liking!

What I'm Into Recently

A quick glance through previous posts may well let you know about certain artists I like. Coverage of The Clash, Beatles, Eminem, The Smiths and MGMT was rife in the old regime... and may still feature heavily in the new one. This blog, however, as it is kicking off again needs to feature some other shit. So, here's a quick list of 3 acts I've got into heavily recently (one of them rather belatedly so).

1. Bibio - Warp Records in general have caught my interest recently. Having known about Warp for years as being a kind of weird, leftfield Electronica label and through admiration of Aphex Twin (probably the label's most well known artist) I can't believe it's only really been in the last year that I've developed any kind of further interest in the label. Anyway, Bibio is a relatively new artist on their roster whose 2009 debut Ambivalence Avenue is absolutely brilliant. Use of 'real noise', samples and distorting acoustic guitar parts give the record a really fresh, exciting feel. Check him out!


Bibio

2. Boards of Canada - BOC are another Warp act, but one which was around in the 1990s, rather than now. They heavily influenced Radiohead during the OK Computer and (especially) Kid A sessions and also influenced the abovementioned Bibio greatly. Fantastic.

3. Vieux Farka Toure - Son of world-famous Mali blues man Ali, Vieux is very promising. His 2009 album release Fondo showcases his fine guitar playing and emotive vocals and works really well as a whole piece. Fafa is the stand-out track so far in his canon but you just feel with Vieux that so much more is to come.


Vieux Farka Toure