Blog Information Profile for successlessness
www.weheartmusic.com
Sunday, Nov 22, 2009

WHM057: Britpop Top Ten Countdown

Download this episode (69 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

b>BRITPOPCAST #4: TOP TEN BRITPOP COUNTDOWN

This is the best of the best, and as far as I'm concern, this is the best countdown ever. If you had to listen to just one of our podcast, I think this the one you have to listen to.

Going into the recording, we already knew that it would be one massive recording session that will be split into two parts. So the first part is the countdown, thirty of our favorite Britpop tunes. The second part will be uploaded next week and involves a very hard Britpop Q Magazine Quiz. Seriously, it was hard, even for seasoned veterans like ourselves.

The next show, some ideas: Britpop girl bands ? Britpop band reunions ? If those doesn't sound appealing, let me know what you'd like us to discuss. Otherwise, I can always talk hours on end about stalking Louise Wener.

As for the Britpop top list, these are our preference and not a mean to measure how important a band is to that genre. Also, obviously we all had our Pulp, Blur, and Oasis moment, but the choice in songs are interesting to note. I have always known that my top two are the Blur vs Oasis, it was the other eight that was hard to have placement. I could have easily had a top 20 or 30. Easily.

Some honorable mentions should be sent to Cast, Salad, Charlatans.

Vu

10. Gene - Sleep Well Tonight
09. Echobelly - I Can't Imagine the World Without Me
08. The Bluetones - Bluetonic
07. Shed Seven - Dolphin
06. Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie
05. Pulp - Disco 2000
04. Elastica - Stutter
03. Suede - Metal Mickey
02. Blur - Girls and Boys
01. Oasis - SupersonicSally

10. SFA - Ice Hockey Hair
09. Doves - Pounding
08. Teenage Fanclub - Sparky's Dream
07. Blur - Sunday Sunday
06. Suede - Animal Nitrate
05. The Coral - Dreaming of You
04. Ocean Colour Scene - The Day We Caught the Train

03. Dodgy - Good Enough
02. Pulp - Babies

01. Stone Roses - Fools GoldKristen

10. MSP - Motorcycle Emptiness
09. South - Keep Close

08. Pulp - Acrylic Afternoons
07. Oasis - Columbia

06. Wendys - Pulling My Fingers Off
05. Supergrass - Moving
04. Blur - This is a Low
03. Oasis - The Masterplan
02. Suede - Killing of a Flash Boy
01. Pulp - Sheffield: Sex City

If you like what you heard, and you happen to be in Sydney in early December, DJ Sal is doing her bits at britpop.com.au.

PS, stay after the song and you're in for a Buzzcocks treat.
 document.write(document.lastModified); ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 12:22 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Saturday, Oct 24, 2009

WHM056: Welsh Britpop Bands

Download this episode (49 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

BRITPOPCAST #3: WELSH BRITPOP BANDS
This show was recorded on Saturday morning at 12.30am with Sally. I was half tired and half unprepared... but lots of fun on this episode about Welsh Britpop bands.

Welsh bands we focused on: Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Catatonia, Stereophonics, and 60ft Dolls.

The second part, which is more like a post script is that Sally will be DJing Jarvis Cocker/Pulp music for an hour on December 5th in anticipation and celebration of Cocker touring in Australia around that date. Come stalk her in Sydney, more details on britpop.com.au.

Below is the interview Sal did with singer Gruff Rhys from SFA, originally pubished in Kill the Cod fanzine.

KILL THE COD INTERVIEWS GRUFF RHYS

Whilst attending a smashing concert at Newcastle Uni (25th.Feb), i managed, as well as being able to watch three of my favourite bands (Lavish, Super Furry Animals and Custard), i was able to have a chat to a Mr Gruff Rhys, the lead singer of the Super Furries. So here is the story of that night....................................................................................*sally*

What's the deal with all the Welsh bands that have been touring Australia lately?
It's really funny, you know, we used to share the same amps as Catatonia and we shared drummers, we've known members of Catatonia since I was...you know...

So you lived near them?
ah...Catatonia are from North Wales and we're from South Wales...your in bands for years playing along and it's...so surreal, you know...we'll be playing in Melbourne the same night as Catatonia and we'll probably meet up with them after...and I saw them in a pub in Cardiff before coming over...

So it's just coincidence that you, Catatonia and the Manic Street Preachers have all decided to tour Australia at the same time?
Yeah...cos Wales is a small place...you bump into everyone and you meet everyone...the music is quite different...you know? Everyone does their own thing, so no one is in competition with each other...it's great you know...to meet up in exotic locations

How do you like playing with Lavish and, tonight, Custard?
well...I haven't heard Custard and I hadn't heard Lavish until last week


How do you feel about not being the headlining band tonight (Newcastle Uni)?
That's fine...yeah...I mean we've never played in Australia before and no one's heard of us practically...you know..we sort of have just started out in Australia, so it's great to be number 1 and number 2...it's good to have an audience...I don't care about headlining...you know, I think that's secondary to the music true true...

So how did the Super Furry Animals form?
ahh...we started recording in Dafydd's house about five years ago (points to Dafydd)...this doesn't translate on tape..um..that short guy with the brown shirt..um..we had a home studio..we spent a few years writing songs and before that me and Dafydd were in a band called Ffa Coffi Pawb, Guto and Bunf were in a band, and Cian had his own band and Cian is Dafydd's brother so he used to hang out with us...and by this time me Cian and Dafydd had moved down from North Wales to Cardiff and we knew Bunt and Guto from the days in Ffa Coffi Pawb, we were all in Welsh punk rock bands you know..then we spent two years in the house writing songs and playing around and um...then we decided to start playing live...we did a few gigs and then we got together to release a single on a label called Ankst and so it's one of those freaky things...we'd played about two gigs and we sent a copy to the NME or something and we got a slot in a pub in London and about 10 journalists came to see us and wrote rave reviews...we went to London again the week after and played in another pub and there was about 40 record companies and they all wanted a piece and...it was really strange and easy and then we did an album for Creation...we've been in bands for 10 years making music and suddenly you get offered this chance to record the albums of your dreams you know..and come to places like Australia to play

Are you enjoying Australia?
Yeah...I didn't know what to expect at all and it's a good place and um...i'm looking forward to coming back...yeah I want to come back

I don't know if you've ever been asked this but...i've got a game called Actua Soccer at home..
..oh yeah...

and I notice a SFA team with you running around the field...so how did you get into that?
well...we were making a video and we didn't have many pictures and we wanted to walk into the screen and change into football players and so we got in contact with these people and they did it free for us and...but they fucked up cos..we selected a team of all our heros..um...we had..i think Che Guevara was in goal, Nelson Mandella on the wing..i think Lou Reed was in the team and...Fidel Castro and...Frank Zappa on the wing, etcetera, etcetera and the five of us...apparently they've put like..Stalin and Ghengis Khan on the team and it's horrible cos they lost the piece of paper we sent them so they put all these wankers in, you know...it's really bad...so we're all embarrassed it's still an alright game though I prefer Fifa 98

yeah...me too... What football teams do you support?
Bangor City...their in the league of Wales............ah a bug (on the ground).........yeah..i support Bangor City in the league of Wales and I support Cardiff City who are in the third division of the English league even though it's a Welsh team...um...I support Barcelona and Bilbao in the Spanish league...who do you support?

I support Arsenal and it's not just because they won the FA cup and that, I had been supporting them for years, so don't get any ideas
o.k....i know some Arsenal fans

What is your favourite telly show ever?
well...Calimero...it's like a Czech cartoon. Calimero is a little black chicken with half a shell on its head and um...I did have a photo of him (searches his pocket and wallet)...he's like the only black chicken in a family of yellow chickens and it gets translated into Welsh so we used to watch it in Welsh on Welsh TV and i've met Japanese people...it's been translated into Japanese and Italian and in Scotland it's in English with an Italian accent so Calimero's catch phrase is "It's an injustice" (in an Italian accent) and um..in Welsh it's (Welsh words-sorry ) which is "there's no flavour to life"..it's this depressed chicken..it's a cartoon for kids but, you know...Calimero...god guy..one of the greats

How do you Kill the Cod?
Are you an active fisher?

it's actually out of the Goodies
Ah yeah...i saw a band a few weeks ago and they've got Graeme Garden's son on keyboards...he's got the same smile...that's quite amazing..i don't'know if I endorse killing cod..so maybe we should let it swim..you know.
  10/24/2009 20:06:30 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 7:45 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Sunday, Oct 18, 2009

WHM055: Paul McCartney Interview by Colin Richardson

Download this episode (27 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

Please enjoy this special episode of We Heart Music Radio as Sally & I figure out the best way to handle our ever-busy schedule.

This week, we were sent a 20-minute recording of Sir Paul McCartney as he talked about his post-Wings album, McCartney II (originally called On His Own). Special thanks to Colin Richardson and HOBO - Coventry Music Magazine for putting this together.

Richardson writes:In May 1980, towards the end of my "journalist" days, I got an invite to the EMI press reception for Paul McCartney's solo album, "On his own", at Abbey Road studios. I was one of about 100 scribes from all parts of the globe and the set up was very efficient...15 or so oblong tables, each with 8 chairs and the plan was that Paul would move from table to table, spending exactly 20 minutes at each. I managed to get one of the end chairs, thus ensuring that I would be facing the star when he sat down...yes, I was that pushy! When our turn came, I opened the session with what I hoped was some humorous banter, thus getting Paul's attention for when the real questions started. It seems to have worked, since I managed to ask the majority of them....hey, all's fair in love, war and journalism! Well, take a listen...and please don't judge too harshly! I was just 'doing my job!' From the interview, it was quite interesting to hear about McCartney's Japan problem, first with his midly-offensive title, "Frozen Jap" song, and then his apology for the whole country when their tour got canceled (due to his arrest for marijuana in Tokyo circa January 1980).

It was revealed later through a BBC article, in McCartney's own words:I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass. We were about to fly to Japan and I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I'd take it with me.McCartney spent ten days in jail, then deported from the country.
Of course, these kind of stories doesn't surprise me. I mean, just look at some of the Beatles songs, like "Day Tripper", "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Still, despite the Japanese problems, McCartney II, went straight to #1 in the UK and #3 in the US charts.
 10/18/2009 19:45:38 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 8:05 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009

WHM054: Britpopcast2: Space

Download this episode (22 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

Britpopcast #2: Space

Space was a short-lived band from Liverpool. The most interesting thing about the band is that singer, Tommy sounds like he's trying to be Mexican. You can hear it in the way he rolls his "R"s.

Riding the wave of Britpop, the band found themselves with a hit song, "Female of the Species". While many of their contemporaries was singing songs about being oh-so-British and parklife, Space never really fitted in with that style of writing. Instead, they sound like they were huge film buffs, particularly of Quentin Taranino and Repo Man (1984) (they used samples from this film on several of their songs, including "Neighbourhood" and "Kill Me").

They were also a bit cheesy, you never really took Space too seriously - especially because of their undying love of Tom Jones. "The Ballad of Tom Jones" with Cerys Matthews (Catatonia), was their tribute to the man. They later recorded a song with Tom Jones for his 34th album, Reload.

They sort of broke up in 2001, and came back with their third and final album, Suburban Rock 'N' Roll, in 2004. Unfortunately, the album did terrible on the charts, and without a proper record label, they had absolutely no promotional. Without a record deal, the band finally broke up permanently in 2005.

I don't have their final album, but their first two, Spiders and Tin Planet, are fantastic. If you are looking to get an album, be on the lookout for the 2-disc US edition of Spiders. The second disc is basically the single for Female of the Species.

Posted by W♥M at 9:37 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Saturday, Sep 05, 2009

WHM053: Britpopcast1

Download this episode (59 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

This is the first of the crappy-named Britpopcast, the idea being that we'll discuss about various Britpop bands from the short-lived movement that was so inspirational to us. Sally, Kristen, and I, we all consider ourselves to be a pretty hardcore Britpop fan, owning, tracking, obsessing over various bands from that time period.

The structure I wanted to keep this: 1. The origin and definition of what Britpop was. 2. It's ultimate demise, our theories on why it went away. 3. Survivors of Britpop, bands that are still around today, including Blur, Radiohead, Oasis, etc. We ended with what song would best sum up what Britpop was. While we had a two-to-one Blur vote, I do think that Kristen's suggestion of "Common People" made a lot of sense.

While I would admit that based on repeated playing of this song, that I've gotten sick of it, it's hard to ignore that the song is a really great song. It's about meeting a rich student, and in typical Jarvis Cocker-reality/vengeful lyrics, tells the student that basically she would never understand what's it is like to be living in poverty like himself, like common people.

The song was king at the time of its release in 1995, and remain to be the band's most popular song. I'm pretty sure the song's been covered a few times, these are two popular ones: William Shatner and Libitina.

The actual show length is about 30 minutes, but I liked all the random topics, that I kept some of them in the first portion. If you like that randomness, stay after the "Common People" and you will be treated to some These Animal Men, Powder, Lush, and Salad. I'm sure none of these bands will be played at Sydney's Britpop Night, as I'm not sure enough people like them.

I'm hoping to have another Britpopcast in a month or so, let me know if you would like to join in on the discussion.

♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 4:27 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Sunday, Aug 23, 2009

WHM052: Outtakes 1

Download this episode (16 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

Sorry this week's episode is an outtakes show because I was out all all weekend. I'm finally home, chillaxing with pajamapants and going to put on Messenger 2: The Scarecrow on the television.

I am hoping to put together a semi-regular Britpop Podcast show - please send me name suggestions. I'd like to have the word 'britpop' in the title, but not necessary.

The good news is that we actually have enough material to last for a few weeks (!!), so I don't actually have to do any real work as it's all recorded and processed (I just need to copy and paste it into a 10 minute show, etc).

So, in order of appearance on the first outtakes: Ryan,
Goodnight, States, Graeme K,
Kate and Lara. Bonus: Devi.

Hopefully next week, we can bring on Raconteurs expert Christopher.
 document.write(document.lastModified); ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 8:58 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Saturday, Aug 15, 2009

WHM051: Jarvis Cocker with Sally

Download this episode (39 min)  
Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

Schnitzel lover, Sally, joins us once again to talk more Britpop! Is there a britpopcast in the future?

Talks centers around Jarvis Cocker and Pulp, Suede.

Pulp started in 1978, but did not garner fame until His N Hers in 1994, followed by the international hit album, Different Class the following year. "Common People" is perhaps Pulp's biggest, most well-known hit song. By the time This is Hardcore came out, towards the end of the Britpop era, people had become disinterested in the band (although I thought This is Hardcore is a great album).

By 2002, the band released We Love Life and ultimately broke up, however singer and songwriter, Jarvis Cocker continued on by himself. It made sense, really, he was the creative driving force since the very beginning. So far, Cocker released two solo albums, Jarvis (2006) and Further Complications (2009).

Stay tuned after the "Angela" song (which is a free download from jarviscocker.net) for some even more random thoughts: the state of music and the kids, "Sally's music shop", music magazines, and Oasis.
 document.write(document.lastModified); ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 3:22 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Monday, Aug 10, 2009

WHM050: Welcome back Ryan

Download this episode (79 min)  
Please visit our website for more information, podcast.weheartmusic.com, subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS).

Welcome back Ryan to the W♥M team. Celebrating the 50th episode of W♥M Radio, we talk talked about a few things: Gary McKinnon, an overview of the podcast, music & tech: Twitter and Spotify, what we're listening to, The White Stripes, Fruit Bats, Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", M Ward, Modest Mouse's King Rat, etc.

The show is long, split into two parts: the organized topics section and the random "just two guys talking" segment. The long run time also means extra large file size, so I had to compressed the file to just mono and at 64kps. It sounds OK to me - but if you want a higher stereo quality, send me an email and we'll have to do a file-transfer or a yousendit kind of thing. The stereo file is over 70mb, the mono file is 36mb.

Ryan compiled is a list of musicians/music-related websites on Twitter:colinmeloy,fruitbatsmusic, monstersoffolk, subpop, BBC6MusicNews, guardianmusic, rufuswainwright, theboyhimself, hypem, pitchforkmedia, IndyMusic, EOTR, Dominorecordco, portobrien, forfolkssake, realdaytrotter, asthmatickitty, easystarallstar, greenmanfest, TheWordMagazine, TheDandyWarhols, BeardedMagazine, THE_EELS, and heymanchester Since I had problems with the previous (free) audio recording software, we used a new one called Powergramo, which seems to work out just fine. I may have to pay for the "professional" version as the "basic" version is quite limited (to just recording skype to skype). If you have any good suggestions for a free Skype (usb mic) recorder, please let me know. I would prefer to not pay, but it looks like all the skype software costs money.
 document.write(document.lastModified); ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 12:34 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Monday, Aug 03, 2009

WHM049: LIO

Download this episode (11 min)  
Please visit our website for more information, podcast.weheartmusic.com, subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS).


Okay, so I'm in love with Lio, and it's somewhat frustrating to find out that she's not at all recognized/remembered in America. Today's W♥M Radio #49 episode will be about the Belgium lolita known simply as "Lio", named after a brown-haired teenage girl from the French comic book-turned-movie Barbarella.

The first song that I heard from her is "Amoureux Solitaires", which translate to something like "Alone in Love". I loved it so much, I had to find more from Lio, and quickly discovered the faster-paced and ultimately superior song "Le Banana Split". The music video to this song was ridiculous, it features a 17-year-old Lio prancing and dancing super imposed on a gigantic banana split with two mound of icecream (READ: phallic).

My favorite song "Les brunes comptent pas pour les prunes", which literally translates to "The brown ones are not plums". The correct meaning actually was translated and sung in English by Lio called "Brunettes Are No Puppets", which was released as a single to the English-speaking countries circa 1986.

Well, I wish I can un-hear "Brunettes Are No Puppets", as I think I prefered it when I didn't know what Lio was singing about. But that's just the way it goes.



If you are thinking of getting an album from Lio, since most of her records was sold in France and possibly are out of print, the second-hand market can be very expensive. Some quick check and here's some examples: the rarely seen nude cover Wandatta for $42 and her only English album Suite Sixtine priced at $39... So yes, quite expensive. I did find a "Greatest Hits" Best of Lio, album for $19, that should get you started.
vu ()
♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 3:17 AM |  3 comments  

Sunday, Jun 28, 2009

WHM048: Honey Claws II

Download this episode (12 min)  
Please visit our website for more information, podcast.weheartmusic.com, subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS).

Again, I know these are long overdue. These were recordings from SXSW.

Again: I'm not very happy with the audio quality, I was recording it using a built-in mic on the recorder. On retrospect, I should've bought along a professional mic and plug it into the input. So apology for the poor audio once again.

HONEY CLAWS
honeyclaws.com ♥ myspace.com/honeyclawsmusic

On the interview: Thomas Sahs and Jon Von Letscher

Download the original interview last year.

This year, the interview was conducted in a car, listening to their EP, Healer. At one point Tom got distracted by "the twins".


Their song of choice, "Beat Of The Wet Eve", is about being in Costa Rica. Tom showed me his stingray bite and oooh it was nasty.

I try to make it to their show that night, but the (tiny) venue was packed full of people. It looked pretty awesome and everyone was having a great time.

Currently, it looks like Jon is in Sweden.

 document.write(document.lastModified); ♥ vu ()
♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

Posted by W♥M at 2:53 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT