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Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009

WHM054: Britpopcast2: Space

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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

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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