Collection: Last Week's Amazon Order and a suprise one.

Afternoon all, I'm just back from my walk. My legs felt this one moreso - which I suppose is a good thing.

Anyway, after forgetting to do so a few times, I can finally share my Amazon order from last week now that it's all here. The first CD arrived on Wednesday which was obviously Joe Strummer's birthday. Naturally, I didn't want to make any posts that were unrelated to Joe on that day. Anyway, I got the 2CD version of Atomic: The Very Best of Blondie which comes with the bonus Atomix disc (a compilation disc of remixes). There's also Mirage which is only the third Fleetwood Mac album I have on CD, Ghost In The Machine which is my first Police studio album and Bleach (Special Edition) by Nirvana. I actually have all of Nirvana's studio albums now. I'll post a picture of my burgeoning Nirvana collection soon.  This should have been my last Amazon Order for around about six weeks, but something surprising happened last night. I've been searching for Earthquake Weather by Joe Strummer for around about six months. I can even remember traipsing around a record fair back in April trying to find it. It's very rare because it's been out of print for years. Why they've never reissued it, I do not know. Anyway, last night I searched again (I check for it on a semi regular basis). To my disbelief, my favorite Amazon Marketplace seller - Zoverstocks - had received one copy of it very recently. It goes without saying that I ordered it straight away. It's just too rare of a record to pass up. I search Zoverstocks for it pretty often and they've never had a copy of it in. It could have been months before they had it again; it could have even been never. Along with The Future Is Unwritten soundtrack and the Let's Rock Again! DVD, it was something I was missing. Those two are also very easy to purchase online anyway. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty lucky right now!

Town Trip Part II: Upstairs, Downstairs

So, after picking The Killers shirt and briefly flirting with the idea of getting a Velvet Underground one (which I didn't in the end) it was time to see what records to buy. This was when my plans sort of went out the window. I wanted to get Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails. Did they have it? Not at all - in fact they had no Nine Inch Nails records whatsoever. Great.. Hm, what to buy? I checked the DVD section for Simon & Garfunkel's Central Park show - no luck. So I just went with the CD version of the concert. Decided to look for Fleetwood Mac's The Dance live album. Gone (although stupidly enough, they had put it by the till. I only found it once I had paid). What a stupid display move that was. Then I remembered I had spied Route 19 Revisited, which was a book about the making of London Calling. Was it in still in the display where I found it? Nope! So, back downstairs I went to the book section. Found it, along with two other Clash books. Joe Strummer & The Legend of The Clash and The Clash Talking to were the titles. I've been considering purchasing the latter, but I've never seen the former in town before though I knew of it. Stupidly I forgot to look inside Joe Strummer &The Legend of The Clash although it has good reviews. As for The Clash talking it was a stupidly dear price - £12 if I remember - for a rather short book that is just a compilation of quotes. I want it, but £12 just seemed excessive, I can get it online much cheaper. Anyway, back upstairs and I still wanted more records. Then I remembered I had liked Vampire Weekend's new album. They didn't have that either. Honestly I think they were in the midst of doing a display revamp or something. Then I remembered Disclosure's debut. Surprisingly I found the deluxe edition of that for a decent price, so I snapped it up. Then I spotted The Essential Paul Simon. I have Songwriter ripped to my hard-drive because I bought it for my Dad for Father's Day, but this collection had a lot of songs on it absent from Songwriter. I only have Graceland & The Rhythm of The Saints on CD myself. By this point, I had about enough money left for two postcards, and to my surprise they had a new Clash one in. Ironically, the first Clash item I ever got was a postcard from HMV. The only other one that caught my interest was the Nevermind cover. After that - I just wanted to get out. HMV can be very draining. I do love what I got (I always do), even if it was a slightly unexpected batch though!

Turning Rebellion Into Money?

It's been interesting for me these past few days, with the announcement of the In Utero boxset by Nirvana coming out on September 23rd. Interesting to compare prices and content (when the latter is announced) with The Clash's Sound System boxset. I've been following the comments on their official Facebook page to try and see what other fans think of the boxet. Truthfully, I think fans are being slightly too harsh on it, especially with the price for In Utero. Before I go any further; let's break the content down.

In Utero: Three CDs containing the original album remastered and various live material, unheard demos and the like No official track-listings have been announced yet but it's apparently set to contain over 70 tracks. There's also a DVD of their Live and Loud performance which is also going to be released standalone. The price on Amazon UK at time of writing is £108.

Sound System: 11 CDs comprising all studio albums remastered bar Cut The Crap. There's also B-sides, unreleased studio and live material and a bonus DVD. The price on Amazon at the time of writing is £94 and the price has dropped as low as £77 in the past.

As for extra merchandise type stuff, all In Utero seems to have is a poster and a thick glossy book (which does look lovely). Sound System comes with a poster, stickers, badges, a notebook, dog tags, three fanzines (one designed especially for the boxset). The CDs for In Utero seem to be packaged rather basically too, wheras Sound System has the albums in vinyl replica form (hence why five studio albums is spread over eight discs) in individual hardback books.

As for which is the more extravagant I think we can safely say that Sound System wins by a landslide. And right now it's the cheaper of the two. I love Nirvana and In Utero is an excellent album but my God, £108 for four discs is frankly ludicrous. Let's break it down another way:

Four discs at £108 comes to roughly £27. 25 a disc. And based on what's been announced, there's a two disc special edition coming and the DVD is also being released standalone. In reality, it seems so far that the boxset contains one exclusive disc. And remember the only other extras are a glossy book and a poster.

For Sound System £93 divided by 12 comes to £7.25. Not to mention that the packaging is far more extravagant, I mean it comes in a giant boombox for goodness sake!

I have to say that when you compare the two it becomes apparent that Sound System really isn't that dear. Yes, punk purists will be up in arms no doubt but as far as box-sets go it's actually pretty good value. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a young fan and as I've said before several times, things like Clash badges are a rarity in Belfast. It's also perfect for newer fans who don't have any of their albums on CD. I mean it's all The Clash most people will ever need unless you're a completist. In short - I don't think Sound System is too bad but In Utero is.

Nirvana - In Utero 20th Anniversaryannounced!

A post I was meaning to make yesterday. Plans that were quickly thwarted when I spent the night listening exclusively to Blondie and The Clash and watching videos of both on Youtube.  Anyway, remember the comment I made a few months back on here saying that September seems to be a lot quieter this year than last year for me? Well, it won't be. Chvrches, Nine Inch Nails, Goldfrapp, Arctic Monkeys, MGMT (to name a few) have new studio albums. Of course - there's also a certain Clash boxset. And now, another re-release is forthcoming. This time it's of Nirvana's final album, In Utero. It has been confirmed that the more expansive editions will contain over 70 (!) tracks. Judging by Amazon UK it will take a number of different forms: the album remastered on a singular disc, a 2-CD edition of the album and a deluxe 3CD with 1DVD. The DVD will contain the Live and Loud show from Seattle and will also be released standalone. No track-listing for the CD's has been announced but it has been confirmed it will comprise of compilation tracks, live material, B-sides and unreleased demos. Definitely expansive. I do feel that the current asking price of £108 for the deluxe edition is simply too much though. I will settle for the 2CD edition (and I'll purchase Live and Loud at a later date) - whilst I really like the album it would be my least favourite Nirvana album. With Sound System two weeks beforehand another boxset something I can't even consider. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of paying £100 for boxsets of one album (Screamadelica aside) so I probably would never have considered In Utero in boxset form anyway. Hopefully I should be able to order the 2CD edition the week it comes out though - although I have to factor in the record fair which returns September 28th and I do want to look at adding some Blondie CDs to my collection soon too. Nevertheless, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what tracks will be released!

Updates & a documentary (yet again)

Hello everyone from a substantially cooler Belfast. It's a relief really because whilst the sunshine was lovely, when you suffer from bad psorasis (as I do) heat can become very uncomfortable indeed. I've got some lovely news today - I'm recieving posters of Joy Division and The Clash as a gift! I'm so pleased about that because they've been two notable absentees on my bedroom walls. I'll need to do some redecorating once they arrive (not sure when though, next week maybe) but when I do I'll be sure to post a picture! I actually took a picture of my old wall to share on my blog but its a bit pointless sharing it now that the walls are going to be changed. No sign of my Amazon order here yet either, I'm guessing its going to arrive tomorrow.

Anyhow - what I'm sharing with you today is a documentary I watched recently. It's Sound City, which was. Rather than focusing on any one particular band, Sound City instead focuses on a studio: Sound City itself, which is located in Los Angeles. I love learning about studios, record labels and all that sort of thing, its just as key as the music itself more often than not I feel. Dave Grohl directed the movie, which is his directorial debut. The studio - active from 1969 to 2011 - hosted some of the most famous artists in the world, including Slipknot, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Nine Inch Nails amongst others. Arguably the most iconic album to be recorded at the studios though was Nevermind by Nirvana (hence Dave Grohl making the movie), which pretty much saved the studio in financially difficult times. As such there's quite a bit of talk about Nirvana (Krist Novoselic is also interviewed) so I would heartily recommend the documentary to any fellow Nirvana fans. It's an excellent documentary, my only problem was that other than Fleetwood Mac and Nirvana a lot of the bands that recorded there weren't ones of interest to me. That is just a personal thing though, it's not a reflection on the quality of the documentary itself, it is excellently made. What was very interesting though is the way it makes you reflect on the changes in the music industry since CDs were introduced, and with the advent of Pro-Tools etc. I only wish Trent Reznor was shown more because he did provide a very interesting alternative viewpoint. It was also really interesting to see the studio: it was grotty as hell yet it was exceptional at recording drum sounds, hence why it managed to secure so many top quality artists and why Dave Grohl himself feels such an affinity with the studio. It's an excellent documentary, definitely worth it if you have an interest in any of the bands featured or you consider yourself a music geek!

Sound of The Week: Albums

So, this week I've been listening to one artist overall above all else: The Velvet Underground. I first heard some tracks from The Velvet Underground & Nico a few months ago and I didn't know what to make of it. Much like Hounds of Love by Kate Bush it was a challenging listen on first play, but there was a mystique about the music that made me want to explore it further. I guess that was Lou Reed's voice initially; I've heard his Transformer album and I think its a great album. A few weeks ago my interested in Velvet Underground restarted when I heard the track Rock and Roll (I'm actually listening to it now as I type this post). It was a brilliant and addictive song and I decided to get their greatest hits; which I fortunately found last week at the record fair. I've been playing it non stop all week! With the exception of I Heard Her Call My Name I love every song on it already. My favourites being Herion, Rock and Roll, I'm Beginning To See The Light and Some Kinda Love. It's just a brilliant listen. I've managed to listen to two of their albums so far too, these being The Velvet Underground and The Velvet Underground & Nico. I've really enjoyed both so much too, I've got a strong feeling The Velvet Underground are going to become one of my all time favourite bands!

Honourable mention: I also this week finally listened to my copy of Nirvana's live album From The Muddy Banks of The Wishkah. A brilliant album and this is coming from someone who doesn't tend to listen to live albums so often. There's so much energy in the performances compiled on the CD though, absolutely brilliant and I prefer that version of Smells Like Teen Spirit to the studio version. For new albums I've heard the best one this week has to be Little Boot's brilliant second offering, called Nocturnes and scheduled for release tomorrow. Check it out electronic/synthpop fans!

In terms of re listens, I also played Madonna's Music album. This was always one of my least favourite Madonna albums... until now. I'm not even sure why it was one of my least favorite Madonna albums really. I think its because the album does have a weird schizophrenic electronic acoustic hybrid. Truth be told I'm no great lover of acoustic style material: albums in this vein tend to always be my lesser played albums of artists even if I'd consider the artist an all time favorite. That said, I love how there's a variety of electronic sounds to be heard on Music: Electropop on the title track, slightly trance sounds on Runaway Girl and triphop on What It Feels Like For A Girl. The latter two tracks in particular I have a new found love for. Its definitely becoming one of my favorite Madonna albums now!

Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World

From what I gather, Nirvana's version of The Man Who Sold The World is widely regarded as one of the finest moments of their renowned Unplugged set. It's one of my personal favorites too. It's probably my favorite actually. It's a cover version of the well known David Bowie song which was the title track from his third album. It's also one of a number of cover versions Nirvana performed in the set Honestly though I do prefer Nirvana's version, truth be told I'm a fan of David Bowie but The Man Who Sold The World is far from my favourite track of his. Anyhow the reason Nirvana covered the song I think is obvious: Kurt Cobain placed The Man Who Sold The World at number 45 (out of 50) in his list of all time favourite albums. Clearly Kurt Cobain was a fan of the song. Also, he clearly felt a deep emotional connection to the music. Just listen to his the yearning qualities his voice takes on in this track. The whole Unplugged performance has a lot of emotion.... but there's just something about The Man Who Sold The World for me. And the music is utterly beautiful, for me the arrangement here is improved on Bowie's originally. I also think Kurt Cobain's vocals sound cleaner (for lack of a better word) and I prefer that too. It's one of those songs that just knocked me for six the first time I heard it. I had liked what I heard of Nirvana and one of the first things I watched was Unplugged (thanks to recommendations). I had really enjoyed it up until that point but it was The Man Who Sold The World that finally sold me. From then on in I could say I was a Nirvana fan. Following Unplugged, the band actually introduced The Man Who Sold The World into their live set for the relatively short period from the Unplugged set to Kurt Cobain's death. The Man Who Sold The World was actually a promo CD single too, released to promote the newly released Unplugged set in 1995. It was also on the Nirvana greatest hits album too. I could envisage this song introducing a lot of younger people to David Bowie (and turning some of them into fans even). In fact I even read that David Bowie had once been approached following a concert by a young person. The young person then said to him that it was cool to see him covering Nirvana! It just shows you what a good cover version can do. Although for me, this is one of the truly great cover versions. A gorgeous rendition.

Northern Ireland's Musical History: Nirvana - Drain You (Live in Belfast)

For my first post about Northern Ireland’s musical history I’ve decided to go with this one. It’s Nirvana - one of my favourite bands - playing Kings Hall in Belfast on June 22nd, 1992. A little under two years before I was born. The whole concert exists on Youtube, much to my suprise as I don’t find Belfast bootlegs the easiest to track down, especially of older concerts. I chose Drain You though to share with you as I feel that’s an underrated song from Nevermind. The quality is actually pretty decent too its a recording from the audience but compared to some other bootlegs I’ve heard its really not bad. I wonder if a video recording of this concert exists in full. Short clips of Stay Away, Polly and Blew have been broadcast on MTV Europe and also Spanish TV. I know also a clip of the ending of the show was featured in the Irish documentary Behind The Scenes with Nirvana but I haven’t been able to find that. Anyhow, I love this little slice of history!

Nirvana - Unplugged

This is one of those legendary live sets that most people will have probably heard of, even if they're not fans of Nirvana to begin with. I was actually the same way, before I investigated Nirvana properly this was one of the few things about them that I was aware of.  Even when I was talking to my brother a few weeks ago about the performance (he's a Nirvana fan), he even said that it was in heavy rotation on the MTV channel, particularly after Kurt's death and it was one of those shows that when it was on, you almost had to watch it. After all, only the audio of the of the concert had been released at that point. I have to say that the concert is one of the most consistently brilliant live shows I've ever seen by anyone, it's simply that good.

 MTV Unplugged In New York was the first album of Nirvana's to be released posthumously after the death of lead singer Kurt Cobain. Initially in August 1994, an announcement was made that a two disc live compilation called Verse Chorus Verse would be released and would contain various different tracks from live performances from 1989-1994 and the Unplugged set in its entirety. However, given that Kurt's death was still very much fresh in the minds of surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, compiling the album proved to be too emotionally difficult. This lead to the plans being shelved a mere week after the original announcement, although on November 1st of that year, the full Unplugged set was finally released as a standalone album.

Trying to get Nirvana on Unplugged was a difficult task, as the band members showed a dislike for the way many of the artists on the show treated their sets. They felt that they would simply play through their greatest hits except in this case they would merely substitute electric guitars for acoustic ones. Whilst touring with The Meat Puppets though (two members of which join Nirvana in the Unplugged set), Kurt finally accepted. In typical Nirvana fashion though, they opted not to do things the conventional way. Their set is mainly comprised of lesser known material and cover versions - six out of the fourteen tracks in the set are covers. I think the set is all the better for it though, I mean as great as songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit are, its good to see a band showcase their lesser known material, especially because I think Nirvana are one of those bands were the lesser known material is actually superior to their known hits. Speaking of hits, the only one you will find here is Come As You Are which may put some people off listening to the album, but honestly the cover versions here are so good that it really doesn't matter.

I have to say that the first time I watched this I was instantly hooked, to the point were it's been about two months since I originally seen it and I still play at least one song from this set a day. The Man Who Sold The World, which was originally by David Bowie, is honestly one of the best cover versions I have ever heard. I think I actually prefer it to the original, although I still really like the original. Another cover version of equal merit is of Lake of Fire, which was originally by The Meat Puppets. Two members of The Meat Puppets - Cris and Curt Kirkwood - join Nirvana onstage during their rendition of this song and two other Meat Puppet covers in the set. Many of Nirvana's songs here are performed even better than their studio versions I think, particularly Come As You Are. I'm really glad they decided to choose that as the only hit they performed, as Come As You Are is my favorite Nirvana single along with Lithium and it's arrangement really suits the Unplugged style. Having said that, I don't think Lithium would suit an Unplugged style arrangement, because of the usage of dynamic shifts between the verses and the choruses. I just don't see how you could make the performance acoustic yet still convey that part of the song just as effectively as the studio version does.

Another thing that I feel I must mention is the stage design. It was Kurt's own idea that the stage be adorned with things like stargazer lilies and black candles, in his own words "Exactly like a funeral". It gives an extra layer of eeriness to an already very emotional sounding performance I think, seeing as Kurt would be dead within six months of Unplugged. One particularly potent part is in the line in Come As You Are: "And I swear that I don't have a gun". For me, the stage design coupled with Kurts poweful vocals make it simply gut wrenching to listen too. Another highlight for me is the emotional resonance that the listener feels with Kurt's voice for the duration  of the set which really adds an extra dimension to the songs. As much as I love the other Nirvana concerts I've seen because of their highly energetic atmosphere, there's a very organic and consequently timeless quality to Unplugged which makes it work as an album of music and not just a live spectacle.

I have to say that this is simply a must listen of an album if you have any interest in live music. Each song on the album is performed absolutely beautifully and it serves as a sobering reminder of what a loss to music Kurt was. It's also one of the most acclaimed albums I have ever seen on Amazon US: it has a staggering average of five (yes, five) stars out of 454 reviews. Listening to the album, its hard to say its not justified. Honestly, the only downside for me for this performance was that it it flies in whilst watching it I found. It's absolutely imperative to remember that there are no pyrotechnics or costume changes here. The performance earns the praise it does through the music and the music alone. Indeed, there are some things in life that get elevated to legendary status through hype, but every so often something gets elevated to such status simply because they deserve it on merit. This Unplugged set (and Nirvana as a whole) are most definitely the latter. I've never concluded any post with the following statement but this really does warrant it: it's quite simply perfection from beginning to end.

Nirvana - Come As You Are (Live Unplugged)

So last night I watched Nirvana's highly regarded Unplugged set as I continue to investigate their work. I have to say that it was one of the best live performances I have ever had the fortune to watch! Trying to pick my definitive highlight is very tough, I loved About A Girl, Come As You Are, The Man Who Sold The World (Bowie cover), Polly, On A Plain, Something In The Way, Plateau and Lake of Fire, the last two of which are covers by The Meat Puppets and two members of the group actually join Nirvana onstage for the performances. I know I've basically rhymed off all but five of the songs performed in their hour long set, but it really is one of the most consistently brilliant live performances you're likely to see. Anyhow, I've chosen Come As You Are as the video here purely because the song sounds absolutely beautiful in an accoustic style, and I honestly do think I prefer this to the original! Given that the original version is one of my favourite Nirvana tracks that I've heard so far (I've heard Bleach and Nevermind but only a few from In Utero however) I think that may say something. Due to the fact that I can see myself playing this even more than the original version in the long term, this may prove to be my favourite performance from Unplugged, but if you haven't already done so I really recommend you watch the full set. Its quite eerie to watch really given that the prominent flowers and candles make the stage take on a funeral service look (and Kurt would sadly be dead in a matter of months). Its also however, a beautiful performance by a band who would come to a sad end far too soon. Highly recommended!

Fascinations of the minute: Nirvana/Kurt Cobain

So lately I've been listening to Nirvana more, thanks to a recomendation of a good friend of mine. Naturally, I'm also looking more into the life and sad death of their iconic lead singer, Kurt Cobain. I have to admit, I am enjoying their music much more than I would have anticipated, I've always really liked Smells Like Teen Spirit but its become clear, even at this early stage of investigating their work that there was definitely a consistent high quality to their material, and I've enjoyed the vast majority of the songs I've heard so far much more than Smells Like Teen Spirit! . A particular example is that I've been enjoying a song of theirs called Scentless Apprentice a lot lately, which has a sound (namely the screaming really) that I usually don't enjoy listening to at all, yet I love the song for some strange reason. What has taken me aback most of all though, is Kurt Cobain himself. I've always been indifferent to both Kurt and the band, but I guess I would have expected him to be a stereotypical macho rockstar in interviews and what have you, again though that's been far from the case, and seeing various pictures and footage of him with his daughter Frances Bean, and in particular a clip were he stands up for a female member of the audience at one of Nirvana's shows shows there is many facets of his personality I clearly haven't seen. I've currently been lent a copy of their With The Lights Out boxset kindly from my brother, and hope to borrow the Heavier Than Heaven biography on Kurt and his Journals book from my brother later in the week. So far, I'm really enjoying exploring their work and if I continue to enjoy it at this level then they're going to become one of my favourite artists of all time!

Rock star roots.

I've just found out something rather interesting about Nirvana, whom I'm investigating at the minute. As it happens, it turns out that Kurt Cobain actually has roots in Northern Ireland, where I am from! As it turns out, the fifth generation of his family had the surname Cobane and lived in County Tyronne, before emigrating to Washington where Kurt himself would grow up. I can't say that I actually live near Tyronne, I live on the other side of Northern Ireland actually, in the capital city of Belfast. Having said that, some members of my family do know people that share that same Cobane name. Never the less, this is a very interesting thing for me, and its making me excited about looking into their work further and seeing if I can find out a little more about it! I've also found some really good pictures and pieces of information about their gig in the Kings Hall in Belfast in 1992 which you can visit by clicking HERE (you'll have to scroll down to get to the Belfast entry however). That site seems to be one of the most informative live chronologies of Nirvana, and one that I will definitely be making frequent visits too as I investigate their work further!