Best bits of 2010, part 1 - Music

I've started this early this year, with a category that I don't have much to say in really.

We went to one stand-out gig this year - the Barenaked Ladies in Bristol. They were awesome and it was a privelige to be present when a bunch of very talented people were having fun making music and wanted you to join in. That's always the best kind of gig, really.

At the gig we also discovered Canadian singer/songwriter Joel Plaskett. We bought his album and have listened to it many times since. I would like to collect his other stuff but as it's only available in Canada, I've put off buying up the back catalogue for the moment.

We saw Terrorvision on one of their sporadic returns to the gigging scene. They were very good, although replacing the legendary Shutty meant they weren't the 'Vision of old.

Album-wise, there hasn't been much really that I was particularly convinced by. Crossfire by Brandon Flowers was fairly good. I enjoyed it. Have to admit I think the description of it as 'Killers Lite' just about summed it up.

The new Florence & the Machine album that she promised at the disappointing Cooper's Field gig back in the summer still hasn't materialised. Meanwhile a second special edition of 'Lungs' has been released with some remixes on. The bonus material on the first special edition was fairly low quality. I'm beginning to wonder if Florence is going to be a one-album success. Hopefully not.

Which leaves us with 'Everyone Wants to be on TV' by Scouting for Girls, which is okay, but probably earns my vote for best album by default because there wasn't much else out there.

Confuzzled by nomenclature

I’ve been ripping quite a lot of music onto my computer at work recently. When I do, I offer my colleagues in “The Sardine Tin” (the nickname for our new office) the option of having a listen. When I offered round the Barenaked Ladies greatest hits, my friend Neil took me up on it, saying: “I quite like Barenaked Ladies.” At which point another guy who hadn’t really been listening, said “What?”

The comedy potential in the name saw another interesting exchange at home. We were heading out somewhere and Cathy was trying to decide which CD to bring along. “Would you like some Barenaked Ladies in the car?” she asked. Ah, if only…

It’s a similar problem I have when I tell people that “I love Scouting for Girls.” It makes me sound like a proper perv. Apparently when they chose the name they were parodying a book called Scouting for Boys, which sounds much worse to me. Surely they’d have picked up the double meaning there? Unless they did it deliberately in which case their claims of innocence are complete lies.

But the all-time worst band nomenclature resulted in Cathy once telling me: “I want to get Laid by James.”

Hoo boy.

++UPDATE++
Cathy has informed me that what she actually said was "How embarrasing would it be to go into a shop and say 'I want to get Laid by James'?"

As usual I obviously wasn't listening properly...

Nooooo, not the CIA!

Cardiff's International Arena is the suckiest worst gig venue ever. It has the atmosphere of a morgue... in the arctic. I think it's been designed to suck the life out of music and stifle even the best bands with negative acoustics. It was obviously thrown together by a committee of music-hating architects whose sole criteria in designing the place was to produce the WORST VENUE FOR LIVE MUSIC IN THE WORLD. Although the fact they acheived this feat probably accords them more competency than they actually had.

I often compare the CIA to the Newport Centre, which is a leisure centre. You walk in past a swimming pool. And yet, the gigs I've seen there have been fantastic (Delirious?, Counting Crows and Terrorvision). But the gigs I've seen at the CIA - an allegedly purpose-built concert venue - have felt like you're at a gig in a leisure centre. And the bands I've seen include Counting Crows on a different occasion, so it's a fair comparison between gigs. Either the Crows suddenly became woeful, or it's the venue's fault.

So it's fair to say I hate the CIA as a venue. It's drab, devoid of atmosphere, and kills live music stone cold dead. I would rather travel to a different city entirely to see a band play. So when I heard Scouting for Girls are going to play the CIA in November my initial reaction was 'Nooooo!' Then I noticed they're playing the Civic in Wolverhampton on a Saturday. Even with diesel currently costing more per litre than red wine, it'll be worth the extra expense. At least the gig experience won't be ruined by an abhorrent, soul-destroying venue.

Scouting for Girls - live in Bristol

Yesterday was the last day of Christmas - it's official. Cathy cashed in her Christmas presents of tickets to see SfG and took me with her as her date (hurrah!).

The band themselves were simply awesome, despite this being the first gig for a while as the singer had just recovered from laryngitis. He got the audience to sing the high notes, which we obliged willingly. Quite simply, it was one of the best live gigs I've been to in a long while.

They also had two very good warm up bands. Go Audio, who's videos are on Virgin Music on Demand, if you have that, and Clocks. I plan to check out their albums sometime soon. (There's free tracks to listen to on the Clocks page.)

After a late one in Bristol last night, I was cream crackered today. I woke up and had a choice - a shower and a shave or twenty extra minutes in bed. I figured I don't care that much about my workmates, so I was bogging today.

Name checking

Further to yesterday's post about their genius song lyric, Scouting for Girls' latest single is called Elvis Ain't Dead, which got me thinking about songs that namecheck other bands or artists.

Ironically Scouting for Girls are in direct competition with Living Colour, who released a track called Elvis is Dead back in the 90s. REM claimed "Andy's goofing on Elvis, hey baby" on Man on the Moon, and Counting Crows sang "she wants to meet a boy who looks like Elvis" on Round Here.

In fact the Crows are notable namecheckers. Two other examples spring to mind: "I wanna be Bob Dylan" (Mr Jones) and "Got Ben Folds on the radio" (Monkey). Then there's Snow Patrol urging a girl to "put Sufjan Stevens on" (Hands Open), and Bowling for Soup namechecking Nirvana, Blondie, U2, Madonna and probably loads more in 1985.

When it comes to names in titles, 'Roll Over Beethoven' springs to mind (originally By Chuck Berry but made famous by The Beatles), while currently I'm loving The Wombats tune 'Let's Dance to Joy Division'. And of course there's the classic Ballad of Tom Jones by Space & Cerys Matthews.

There's probably loads more if I really thought about it - any ideas?

Contender for best lyric ever

The Scouting for Girls album is excellent, and in 'The Mountains of Navaho', they have surely coined one of the best song lyrics ever...

"I'll never be a guy like He-Man
And I'll never be a girl like She-Ra
I'm a lonely beast like baaaaaaaaaaaaattle caaaaaaaaaaaat!"

Genius!