poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: May 2012
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View my complete profile. Wednesday, 23 May 2012. Sex, Satire, and Steel Panther. Steel Panther are a parody band from LA, whose fantastically accurate pastiches of overblown '80s hair metal have gained them a huge fanbase and sell-out tours in the UK and the USA. The band members are technically proficient on their respective instruments, and much of the hilarity (for me at least) comes from the stark incongruity between their excellent songwriting/musicianship and the disgusting/dumb lyrics. If the maj...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: October 2012
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View my complete profile. Wednesday, 10 October 2012. Monolake: Interview with Robert Henke. What were your inspirations for ‘Ghosts’? This was a year ago, and from then onwards I thought “ok ‘ghosts’ is the topic.” Then I started reading up on ghosts – Googling ‘ghosts’, simple stuff – reading and trying to find different angles, making notes. And whenever I made music I thought “would this track fit this topic, and if so, how? So it’s very conceptual? How did you take the album to the live platform?
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poptones: Best Tracks of 2013
http://poptonesmusings.blogspot.com/2013/12/best-tracks-of-2013.html
View my complete profile. Thursday, 26 December 2013. Best Tracks of 2013. Apparat – A Violent Sky. Arcade Fire – Reflektor. Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know? Atoms for Peace – Ingenue. The first single from Atoms’ debut album ‘Amok’, this song is unexpectedly human despite the twittering, reverb-laden beat and thick synth line, largely thanks to Thom Yorke’s restrained, almost whispered delivery. Bibio - The First Daffodils. Bill Callahan – The Sing. Boards of Canada – Nothing Is Real. The hugely influe...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: December 2013
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View my complete profile. Thursday, 26 December 2013. Best Tracks of 2013. Apparat – A Violent Sky. Arcade Fire – Reflektor. Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know? Atoms for Peace – Ingenue. The first single from Atoms’ debut album ‘Amok’, this song is unexpectedly human despite the twittering, reverb-laden beat and thick synth line, largely thanks to Thom Yorke’s restrained, almost whispered delivery. Bibio - The First Daffodils. Bill Callahan – The Sing. Boards of Canada – Nothing Is Real. The hugely influe...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: November 2013
http://poptonesmusings.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html
View my complete profile. Sunday, 24 November 2013. Late Capitalism, The National, and the Great American Novel. Psyche, with this line The National showed definitively that they were no ordinary rock band. On their next album, ‘Boxer’, released in the midst of the War on Terror, the first track ‘ Fake Empire. 8217;, is yet another reference to this: “We'll stay inside 'till somebody finds us, do whatever the TV tells us/Stay inside our rosy-minded fuzz for days.”. 8217; from ‘High Violet’ th...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: February 2012
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View my complete profile. Sunday, 5 February 2012. Thoughts on Music in 2011. I realise this is pretty depressing. Intense discussions about politics are fine, but moshing and dancing is equally necessary. It adds a higher level to social bonds and acts as deep catharsis, while also spreading joy and entertainment. As a result, perhaps what was so bleak about 2011 was the paucity of its musical and artistic offerings. There was only pain and anger, with nothing to channel it through. Beginning with a gor...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: Late Capitalism, The National, and the Great American Novel
http://poptonesmusings.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-national-and-great-american-novel.html
View my complete profile. Sunday, 24 November 2013. Late Capitalism, The National, and the Great American Novel. Psyche, with this line The National showed definitively that they were no ordinary rock band. On their next album, ‘Boxer’, released in the midst of the War on Terror, the first track ‘ Fake Empire. 8217;, is yet another reference to this: “We'll stay inside 'till somebody finds us, do whatever the TV tells us/Stay inside our rosy-minded fuzz for days.”. 8217; from ‘High Violet’ th...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: September 2011
http://poptonesmusings.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html
View my complete profile. Thursday, 1 September 2011. Interview with Craig Thompson. Craig Thompson by Alicia J. Rose. First, could you talk a bit about your new comic 'Habibi'? That’s a big question! In terms of the political themes, were you trying to consciously comment on the war on terror, or the Israel-Palestine conflict? Or was it just a wider theme of Islam in general? After finishing 'Blankets' I was sick of drawing myself and these Midwestern mundane landscapes, and I just wanted to draw someth...
poptonesmusings.blogspot.com
poptones: May 2013
http://poptonesmusings.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html
View my complete profile. Saturday, 18 May 2013. Cover Versions: Between Birdy and Andy Rehfeldt. What makes a good cover version? What is even the point of a cover version? To my surprise then, I discovered that the ‘Skinny Love’ I saw advertised was what I had feared – a cover version. The original version of ‘ Skinny Love. 8217; by Bon Iver aka Justin Vernon is a spare hymn; the open-tuned guitar sounding as raw as the lyrics which quiveringly reference the horrifying image of a “sink of blood a...