Collection: I finally found 808 State's Quadrastate EP!

So this week and last I ordered some things from Amazon for my birthday, but this I definitely didn't expect to find. I love 808 State, and their Quadrastate EP is one of my favourite records. Sadly, when I first heard it two years ago I tried to find a copy of it on CD and was unsuccessful. In fact at the time I wrote the briefest blog post on it HERE. I tried looking for it many times on Amazon but the only time it was issued on CD was as part of their 2008 series of remastered albums, but for some reason it's always been unavailable on Amazon despite their other albums being easily obtainable. Even on Amazon Marketplace it seemed to never be available. So last week when I saw a brand new copy of it for £4 for sale on an Amazon Marketplace seller that I hadn't used before I was so excited and ordered it immediately. It came two days ago and I was so excited, I had thought this was one CD I would never get! Now if only I can get similar luck with Joe Strummer's Earthquake Weather album...

New stuff being added to the blog

As you may or may not know I also have a collection blog were I share pictures of my own personal music collection. When I amalgamated my other various blogs together to create this main blog you're currently reading I had originally decided against the collection blog being put in with it. There's quite a lot of posts there and I know some people just have no interest in collection posts whatsoever. Not to mention theres that many posts it would be borderline spam Having said that I like having just one blog, its easier to manage and all that. So I've decided I will cease to post on that collection blog but I will start posting more collection based posts on this one. It'll only be for items that are out of print, vinyl (not that I own much vinyl) or are somewhat rare or unusual in some way. I don't think very many people would be interested if I just posted up a picture of say my standard copy of Gorillaz's Demon Days album. I'll post up items that have more unusual stories and I'll try to make one or two today. Thanks for reading!

Finally watched End of A Century!

So today I finally watched something I've been meaning to do for a few weeks - End Of The Century: The Story of The Ramones. It was a very enjoyable documentary. My investigation of The Ramones is pretty much in its infancy. I've only heard a few albums but earlier in the week I did receive my copy of their Hey Ho, Let's Go! anthology in the post because I've liked pretty much all of what I've heard so far. As I said before I really enjoyed the documentary. I probably would have liked it to focus on their music slightly more however but that's just a side issue. It was very cool how they gave themselves the stage surname Ramone to bestow a sense of unity in the group even though in actuality none of the band members were even related. It was even more interesting when it became clear that despite these attempts the band members contrasted with each other particularly Joey and Johnny. I particularly liked Joey Ramone actually. The documentary also featured one of my favourite musicians (and human beings) as an interviewee - Joe Strummer (in what must have been one of his last interviews). It also featured other key musicians of the era such as Blondie. Watching the documentary in 2013 was actually quite moving as all but one of the original members of the group (Tommy Ramone) has now died, along with Joe Strummer. End of A Century, end of an era I think. But to end on a more positive note I do really recommend this documentary, its funny in places, moving in others but always very interesting and informative!

A little favour.

Well as you can probably tell by even the faintest glimpse at this blog I don't listen to an awful lot of heavier rock music..... but I got to admit, these guys (called Blackwater) sound good. Really good actually.  And they could do with your help. They're entered into a competition which -if they secure enough votes- will see them entered for possible selection to play at the famous Download festival. Its obviously a massive opportunity for them but they need your votes to make it happen. If you could take some time to click the link below and send them a vote (you can vote daily by the way) you can help their dream a reality. Support is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Click here to vote

New Music: Daft Punk - Get Lucky (featuring Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers)

So at the moment it feels like there's only really one song that everyone is talking about: the new Daft Punk song from upcoming fourth studio album Random Access Memories, due for release in May. I love Daft Punk - one of my original favorite electronic acts since I started exploring the genre about eight years ago. I absolutely love this song too, its going to go down as one of my favorites of the year I think. I have to be honest thought: it's not a musical development on Daft Punk's part really. If you were expecting them to drastically change their sound in any way then Get Lucky would be a let down surely. Having said that its a classy piece of electro-disco which Daft Punk excel at. It's a case of why fix what's not broken really. It's very Discovery, if you love that album then I don't see why you wouldn't love Get Lucky. Its my personal favourite Daft Punk album which makes me enjoy Get Lucky an awful lot indeed. It sounds more heavily disco than electronic to me too although considering Nile Rodgers is on the track I'd expect nothing less.  Even though its very traditional Daft Punk in sound, I think it feels very fresh in comparison to a lot of electronic music (particularly the chart stuff) at the moment. I personally don't care for a lot of the very cold, clinical autouned to the heavens electronic music that dominates the chart at the moment. It's good to have a very vintage sounding track such as Get Lucky to balance it I think. Having said that, I do think that a whole album in this style would be a bit of a disappointment and too Discovery-esque (even for me) so I hope the album has a bit of variety at least. In the meantime though, I'll be enjoying Get Lucky for a good few more plays yet!

Update

Woops, its been a while since I've posted here! I've been rather busy for the last few weeks (and I turned 19 in the midst of it all to boot). I've also been getting stuck into new TV shows as of late. I've finally managed to watch Prison Break which I've sworn I would do for years. I'm loving it so far, its very addictive (even if the third season has started rather weakly for me). Music news for me has been very busy too - so much so its given me writers block. Phoenix unveiled their new album stream, as well as OMD releasing their new album. Janelle Monae also has finally announced plans for her new album (the upcoming single is getting premiered this coming Monday). An underrated band called Youngblood Hawke also are unveiling their upcoming debut album too. What got me really excited though was the new Daft Punk single which was released in full today on Itunes - I'll try and do a post on that later. In the meantime, thank you for reading my blog still and I promise to return with new posts soon!

Easter holiday viewing.

So yesterday I watched this documentary on Oasis. It chronicles the band on their Don't Believe The Truth world tour (which was in support of the album of the same name). It was a really enjoyable watch. As you could expect from anything that features either or both of the Gallagher brothers - it was a real laugh in places. I also really liked the way it was filmed too: all in black and white. When I heard it was in black and white before watching the documentary I was a little bit skeptical as to whether or not it be fitting. I shouldn't have worried though because it was really well filmed. Considering Oasis subsequently have broken up it does add an air of poignancy I guess. I love how it had been edited obviously but a lot of the footage that was shown felt very fly on the wall which I really liked. The live footage that was shown was really good too, particular Rock 'n' Roll Star (check out the outro on that!). Definitely worth a watch all in all!