I will post a blog soon.

I have compiled a Top 10 albums of 2010. I might have to type it down on this screen sometime soon.

Sunday Club.

I think I’m going to blog. Yeah, might as well have a little blog. Funny weekend. All ended well in the end and nicely rounded off by sunday club. I love sunday club…never fails to entertain. We gained a new fad this week. Pete came up with his band crawl idea which consists of going pub to pub playing songs. From that came the joy of Band Based Pub Puns or BBPP as i have just decided it shall be called (I will run this by the rest of council soon enough). So far we have such classic as the following:

- The Simply Red Lion

- The Graham Coxon Plough

- The Royal Oakenfold

- The Queens Of The Stone Age

- The Royal Static Exchange

- The Al Greengate

- The New Found Glory Inn

- The WheatusChef

- The Four Toppos

- The Littentree

- The Halfway Housemartins

- The Hot Waterside Music

All good fun. Almost as good as the time we came up with really distastful one line jokes such as “George Best has one last drink”,  “Michael Barrymore has a party” and “John Terry meets Wayne Bridge’s missus” etc. You get the idea! It needs a facebook note to add more ideas. When sick minds unite it can trail off and stop concentrating because there has been a pizza placed in front of me. Chomp.

Goodnight.

How to spend a day off.

The first sentence is always the hardest isn’t it? There we go, got around that problem in typically nifty fashion. Where now then? A rundown of my lovely day off work. A time to be cherished at the best of times. What am I doing with it you ask? Currently I am enjoying the delight that is watching 1994/1995 footage of Manchester United vs Coventry City and wondering how I remember it when I was a mere 9 years old at the time. In fact, the entire reason it has stayed on this long was because I wanted to see if I was correct in thinking Andy Cole celebrated his winning goal by doing ‘ choo-choo’ kind of thing with his mouth whilst running off celebrating. Thankfully I was correct and am now left thoroughly satisfied with my work and memory.

Other things on my mind today:

- Should I spend some of my £8 that I have for the rest of the day on some tea or allow myself a little extra beer money for the standard Thursday night trip to the local watering hole? I have spent/wasted a good few minutes on my internet banking today in the hope my wage miraclously appeared in my account early. Sadly this has not materialised. Damn.

- Is it too early (5pm) to have one of the beers at home? It isn’t even all the way away in the fridge but already next to me. I think I’m going to do it.

- Why have the last 2 thoughts centred around beer?

- Should I get a pen and paper and write a new song down? Do people still write songs on paper now? It’s been awhile, there is a fair chance I am miles behind.

I think I’m done now.

Brand New – At The Bottom (Single)

“Some men die under the mountain just looking for gold, some die looking for a hand to hold.”

Once again Brand New have taken their sweet time between albums in a similar fashion to the three year wait between 2003′s ‘Deja Entendu’ and 2006′s ‘The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me’. Despite frontman Jesse Lacey promising a much quicker turnaround this time we are here in 2009 anticipating the September 22nd release of the bands latest outing ‘Daisy’.

There has been a taster of the record for Uk fans on the recent tour with Kevin Devine and Moneen as they showcased two new album tracks in the form of the raucous ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Bought a Bride’. Both signal a heavy and noisy direction for the album.Lead off single ‘At The Bottom’ is not too disimilar in that respect drawing interesting comparisons to Nirvana and Modest Mouse mostly due to the ‘In Utero’ style guitar work and the slight drawl of Lacey’s voice apparent in the verses. The lyrical theme is by no means original (seemingly about longing for love) but as ever Jesse Lacey manages to provide lyrics that delve a little deeper than most as well as providing a typically catchy chorus. This isn’t to say the song is overly poppy. In fact the middle 8 consists mostly of feedback and crashing drums with not much evidence of a melody before working its way back into the addictive chorus.

Whilst not an obvious single ‘At the Bottom’ does provide a great taster for a hugely anticipated album that will serve to at least tide ever eager Brand New fans until September 22nd.

8/10

Thrice – Beggars

“True progress means matching the world to the vision in our heads, we always change the vision instead.”

You could be forgiven for thinking your eyes are decieving you when you are about to read a review of Orange County favourites Thrice’s latest album a full 3 months before it’s official release. Unfortunately for the band and record label, Vagrant Records, their follow up to the ambitious Alchemy Index leaked onto the internet mixed and mastered and ready for consumption albeit with a message that ‘you are listening to a Vagrant Records advanced promotional stream’ over the top of each song. Whilst this is unexpected it is no longer surprising as labels continue to struggle keeping albums under wraps until their release date. The leak has led to an early digital release of Beggars on August 11th with the physical release coming a month later in addition to last week’s Myspace stream of the album in its entirety. The one positive? We get the album early rather than having to wait another 3 months even though it would definitely have been worth the wait.

Suffice to say Beggars doesn’t disappoint and further cements Thrice’s position as the master of all trades. After the hugely eclectic offering that was The Alchemy Index I was unsure what to expect from the next full length. A return to the heavier past? A bigger step in the electronic and atomospheric direction? Maybe even more acoustic based efforts? In truth Beggars has most in common with the stylings of both their Air and Water discs, it is by no means a heavy album but it doesn’t lack in energy. That energy is present right from the word go with the lead single ‘All the World is Mad’, a song featured on the latest Guitar Hero as a taster for the Thrice faithful. Like a lot of tracks on the album it carried by an energetic groove provided by the rythem section siblings Riley and Ed Breckenridge before bursting into a typically rousing Thrice chorus. Next up is ‘The Weight’, a song about commitment and the fickleness of love that works in much the same way as the previous song with them both being just about as heavy as the album gets other than ‘Talking Through Glass’ towards to the end of the disc. From here on in the mood is more sombre starting with stand out track ‘Circles’. Sounding not unlike a mix between Radiohead and themselves on ‘Atlantic’ from their 2005 effort Vheissu the song is beautifully mellow with Dustin Kensrue’s vocals sounding as impressive as ever further showcasing his extraordinary ability to capture the mood of any song be it aggressive or mellow. After this comes ‘Doublespeak’, again carried by the Breckenridge brothers in addition to some neat piano work by the multitalented guitarist Teppei Teranishi (who also produced the album) before building into a heavier jerky chorus.

The middle of the album sees a slight return to the raw  and edgier styling of the opening tracks as ‘In Exile’, a Pedro the Lion-esque track that marchs its way through before bursting into a energetic and epic conclusion, and ‘At The Last’ provide brief moments of raucousness. True to form the guys don’t let the album stumble to a conclusion. Whilst the latter half of the album is mostly downbeat it provides more of its highlights with ‘Wood and Wire’ rivaling ‘Circles’ for beauty and atomosphere topped of by more light keyboard work by Teranishi and layered vocals from frontman Kensrue. Beggars ends with its title track, a song that while slow features some of the more aggressive and pained vocals with Kensrue’s voice being at it’s rawest as the album nears its conclusion with a song that would bring anyone with overly apparent ideas of self importance right back down to earth.

It isn’t hard to imagine that this album is set to polarise opinions of the band amongst fans of their previous work because of its mellower direction and lack of heavier riffs that Thrice were once famed for but this should not put anyone off trying it out. It gets better with each listen and hits home with just how well they manage to pull off whichever musical styling they fancy trying. Let the excitement commence for they’re about to head next…

8/10