The Cloud Player

So, Amazon have 'quietly' released their cloud player in the U.S. The implications seem huge. Could this end the iPod era altogether?

The idea is simple, instead of using your computer's hard drive as your main store for music, you can use an online storage space. This could change music forever...


How to use cloud player with android phones. iPhone users can't use it, however. Amazon vs. Apple is on!

With the CD becoming less and less popular, the next generation of adults may well have grown up using the cloud player. As our lives become more and more virtual, with friends online, communication online, is the next thing to go the music collection?

There's a really cool article in The Independent newspaper which discusses the cloud player and its implications. Check it out at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/amazon-vs-apple-the-race-for-the-future-of-music-2256736.html.

Dude, Where's My Guitar?

I study music which means I'm shoved in the same block as many a stoned, heavy rock-obsessed, smelly loser. Meandering one's way through this lot can be quite the task sometimes, but having to listen to their conversation in the smoking area at Uni whilst trying to chuff on some of Virginia's finest plants can be even more annoying.

So yesterday, there I am minding my own, puffing away, when a couple of spotty wretches clad in hoodies with 'Tool' and 'Him' printed on them approach the NHS burdens' standing point.

Wretch 1 looks at Wretch 2 and, I shit you not, utters the words "dude, where's my guitar?" It's at this point I can barely hide my smirk. Have they never seen that dodgy stoner film with Ashton Kutcher in it, which (rather unsubtly) parodies morons just like them? It's called Dude Where's My Car?

The wretches

Fucking ridiculous I'm sure you'll agree. I stubbed out, walked off and thought to myself "I wonder if they have 'Sweet' and 'Dude' tattoos?"

What's more annoying in all this is that they went off to look for the guitar and neither of them saw how ridiculous this all was. Sorry if you happen to be a bit of a long-haired Camden Town dweller reading this and I've offended you, but that was just mental!

5 of the Best - Summer

We're experiencing something of a premature summer here in England, which, after a shitty winter, is most welcome. With that in mind, here is 5 of the Best to do with summer...

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Sun is Shining: One heavy, heavy bassline juxtaposed with seriously syncopated harmonies, the mystic air of what may well be a clarinet of some description and Marley's superb, defiant vocal. One of his best, and that is saying something.

The Fifth Dimension - Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine: One gorgeous, colourful, psychedelic track which can't fail to lift the spirits.


Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine

The Beach Boys - Surfin' U.S.A.: OK, doesn't really talk of the summer, but you wouldn't surf in the winter would you? Ok, you might, but this track is purely one for the summer.

The Beatles - Good Day Sunshine: Another one of those summery tracks that instantly makes you happy from the moment you press play.


Good Day Sunshine

Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Summertime: It's cheesy, it's a bit naff, but my god it gets you in the mood for summer.

Great Songs: Iggy Pop - The Passenger

Iggy - Looks a tad like WWE's Shawn Micheals, don't he?

One day, back sometime in the mid-70s, Ricky Gardiner (co-writer of The Passenger) had a chord progression stuck in his head and thought it was damn catchy. He ran straight to his guitar and whacked out the chords that would become one of the catchiest, most irresistible riffs in rock history. That riff was The Passenger. Iggy Pop would put a fine lyric and vocal on it and before long it was born. The pair had written a truly great song.


The Passenger

Iggy's lyric which is the embodiment of do it yourself, nomadic punk attitude may well be one of the most inspiring pieces of prose ever written. He summons up Kerouacian imagery of being out on the road driving through the city and paints the glory, the buzz and the cesspit feel of it all. Speaking of "the city's ripped backsides" and painting himself as some kind of Dean Moriarty character with "I am the passenger".

Musically, The Passenger is a pretty simple song. What Gardiner and Iggy did with the song is probably one of the hardest tricks to pull off - they took a simple harmony and vocal melody and penned an instant classic.

That it was released in 1977 just adds to the punk romanticism of a truly great song.

Unsigned Call From Over Hadrian’s Wall: Act 2 - Crow Road

If mainstream, popular indie is what you want, then that is what you get with Crow Road. In fact if it isn’t what you want that’s what you get anyway, and you get the feeling these guys make no bones about what they are.

Comparisons have been made to Vampire Weekend and The View, but this band has more in common with indie bands with loftier aspirations. Crow Road, in fact, sound a lot like a Caledonian Kings of Leon. Though it is fair to say that the band maybe don’t have the blues and country as rooted into their sound as Kings of Leon, the fact that the down-home music of America has so much in common with Celtic folk music must be pointed out. Crow Road’s folk inspired sound has all the hallmarks of KoL’s blues inspired sound. So, as it is, front man Paul Gibson’s blue note-heavy, primal scream therapy vocal timbre is extremely comparable to that of Caleb Followill. Gibson’s rather pronounced Scottishness has a similarity to Folowill’s rather pronounced Confederate State voice.


Crow Road

Musically, the band has a sound which is like nothing you’ve heard before… that is, if you’ve been set under a cave in Africa with only the sound of banging two rocks together as your sole sonic entertainment. Yes, these Glaswegians do generally stick to the tried and tested formula of a bit of jangly guitar, standard form and structure and catchy choruses. This is no bad thing, however. Crow Road have a way with a tune and if Shrivels and Peaks fails to get your toes-a-tapping then Panda Season will certainly do the job. They don’t mind showing off their softer side either, with Rebecca’s Song being a lovely little melancholic number which showcases the harsh beauty of Gibson’s voice and guitar playing against the talents of lead guitarist Jamie Turner.

Crow Road have all of the ingredients that are necessary to go on to Killer’s style indie domination. Their polished indie rock certainly has a market. Working out where they go from here is their choice and if they decide to keep up the good work and keep banging out sing-along indie, then one feels destiny has a lucrative and fame-drenched future waiting for them. Crow Road have the necessary cogs; they just have to make sure that their machine keeps chugging away.

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines - Review

4.5/5

So here they come hurtling towards us with their debut album: Britain’s new ‘it’ band, The Vaccines. One thing to note here is that nothing is really new, no new ground is covered, but it is a fine album. The Vaccines have had all the right plaudits, from BBC 6 Music to The Guardian and with What Did You… they have shown why.

The album as a whole is a reverb-heavy nod to the post-punk of Joy Division, Blondie and The Cure, but kicks off in the vein of Punk with the Ramones-style, short, sharp and shocking attitude of Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra). We then go flying into the sing-along second track (and second single release) If You Wanna where the (God is it back again?) post-punk revival kicks in.

Fifth track Wetsuit has the summer festival, anthemic appeal that The Strokes were once capable of creating and straight after that is Norgaard, which exactly halfway through reignites The Ramones’ punchy, straight-up call.


The Vaccines - So Big Right Now

Post Break-Up Sex has been playing on the radio for a while now and is probably the album’s best track and after it the album doesn’t again get as thrilling until the hidden 12th track Somebody Else’s Child, which is a truly sombre affair, but stunningly sonically and lyrically emotional.

The Vaccines may well be the band on everyone’s lips at the moment and some may moan that they’re not that exciting, but it would be difficult to argue that they don’t have a way with a tune.

Four Tet

My girlfriend has been playing a lot of Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) recently and I must say; I love it. I'm a bit behind she tells me. No shit! He's been going since 1998.

Anyway, better late than never. Hebden's work seems to often ignore the norms of form and structure and treat each piece as some kind of abstract wonder. It lends the music an art aesthetic and maybe has more to do with Shoenberg than, say, Springsteen.


Four Tet

He uses each melody almost as a sample which can be dropped out or reintroduced whenever. It really is quite thrilling stuff.

I advise anybody reading this that isn't familiar with Four Tet to check out Angel Echoes, Love Cry and Circling right away.