As usual for the guys our lovely editor sends my way, I knew absolutely nothing about East-Ra before I started this review, and perhaps this is for the best. Certainly, it frees any ideas of pretension or previous successes or failures give you a path to listen and concentrate on the music. I’m going to say right now, this album, Substitute 3, is incredible. I’m shocked, with my sort of tastes, that I haven’t heard of these guys. In fact, not very many people have, which is a shock.The fact this is true saddens me. The top indie reviewing sites like Pitchfork should be shouting their names from the rooftops. Anyway, it turns out they’re from Croatia. Who knew!

This album is low-fi noise rock at it’s absolute best. In no particular order, here’s a rundown of a few of the tracks. Your Highness sounds like Nina Simone invented psychedelia ten years earlier then it actually came up, by way of the roots blues music that I absolutely adore. Another one, St. George Went To India, feels like we’re in a weird Berlin-Era Bowie by way of the The Doors. This is as sinister as an early-Cave song, and twice as trippy. The bird calls and the Indian-flavoured guitar screech around you as the chants of the band create a claustrophobic, jungle-filled space. The music is trance-like, strange, and worrying. Shizmu & Hitis is a journey back in to the sonic jungle that the band inhabits, and very faint elements of electro subtly undertone this track. Suddenly the music switches to freaked-out jazz in Apocalypse Party, breaking free of the jungle for a minute or two. The whole album manages to walk the dangerous tightrope of musical similarity, making the sound recognizable enough to blend in to a full, working album, and making it different enough for the music to stay fresh and interesting throughout. However, the most effecting track, for me, was the last.

This track, incidentally the last, deserves a whole paragraph. A welcome and weird ‘relief’ from the rest of the albums relentless experimental journey, Spring In To Relief is eery and ethereal. It’s the Fleet Foxes first album, this Anglophilic folk-psychedelia, with Syd Barrett tacked on. It’s entrancing, it’s almost-indecipherable lyrics leave you floating in the music, with no anchor or haven. As a half-snatched lyric says, ‘Got some time to float in space’. This haziness, voices hitting crescendos and descending again, repeated chants of ‘hazy, hazy’, and ‘shivers’ sum up this song. It’s a space-odyssey, or, to quote David Bowie, a space-oddity, but it’s moving. It connects with something, guttural chants and noises create an almost spiritual feeling, discordance and harmony swell together in a captivating way. Beeps and blips come and go through a wall of reverb and echo. It flowed through me and left me feeling strange and a bit shaken, especially the descent in to overpowering noise at the end. Whatever it is, it’s without a doubt the centre-piece of the album, and perhaps a minor masterpiece too.

It’s clear East-Ra have a mastery over their sound. This album is like a throwback, to use a cliche, to when an album was an album, and crafted so that themes flowed through the music, songs connected and felt interrelated, an overall feeling was achieved through-out. A feeling is definitely achieved here. It’s an unsettling, enthralling and weirdly beautiful affair. It really does feel like a journey through a thick jungle, strange noises and glimpses of ancient ruins permeate the experience. The music infusions and inspirations I think I can feel here are The Doors’ strange psychedelic mysticism, deep-seated root blues music, not to mention jazz. I get Syd Barrett vibes, and a touch of Nick Drake as well. However, this is not to belittle the achievement of sculpting a strange and unique album, but recognizing that East-Ra have managed to incorporate a whole world of music and style and influence and bring them together in a brilliant album, tinged with the benefits of the Balkan and Slavic influences of Croatian folk music. Though I feel like I say this in most of my writing, as I usually take on the very obscure bands here at Muzika, these guys need to be bigger. Not to mention their music is free to download.

East-Ra Substitute 3 album, which was released in 2011. and their previous two albums Sutra (2009) and Cold Summer (2008) can all be downloaded for free from their website http://osa-media.blogspot.com/

 Author’s note: I am aware I have reached new levels of pretension.

Hello and welcome to 2012. Thank you for following this blog; I’d like to make this really simple for you and me. Are you the type of person who doesn’t really bother what music is being played anytime of your life? If yes, most probably you never bought an original music record, let alone looking for new music that fits your brainwaves, or being picky on playing the right music that suites your moods. Then you can be classified as part of Johnny and the generic public; i.e. you are no better than the cattle crowd who is good only at voting for the best celebrity hairstyle, or be the first to know who has been dating Jennifer Aniston. I don’t want to offend you in any way, but the truth hurts. You can stop reading this blog post now and navigate away through the internet to some celebrity gossip blog. It would be a waste of bandwidth and electricity if you continue, and a waste of your time. Well, it’s not that your time is really worth something, is it?

Still reading? Hope it is not out of curiosity but because you are into music. There is a reason why you are the chosen one; because you are the one who can understand what I am talking about in this blog post. Also, The EP I’ll be reviewing in this blog post is not for the masses. At the end of last year, going into this year, I had a great festive and holiday season where (obviously) excessiveness was the rule of the day, especially when it is about alcohol. Touching back reality, you realize how much was wasted over ten or fifteen days of festive season, and being in love with mother earth, you start thinking green in more than usual mode. Being in this green mood and browsing through my email, a specific artist name attracted me; Solar Witcher.

As much as his name is green, so is his music. It puts you in a shade of blue and green world, where nature and ocean meet, and people dance naked. We are talking about electronic lounge-type of music here, music to chillax, and to help you get all philosophical, depending on your surroundings. I am not really the philosophical type of person, but from time to time everyone needs to sit down and think what they are up to. Sometimes even some good or bad experience in life puts you in an all philosophical mood, and so does music. I am sure that when you listen to some specific tracks, they remind you of something, be it good or bad. No need to be shy, from time to time everyone gets a little bit philosophical; just check out what happens at funerals! At each funeral, everyone is as good as an ancient Greek philosopher, philosophising about the life of he or she who passed away. The instrumental music Solar Witcher presents us with in this debut EP ‘Shades of Orange’ is amazing and relaxing; dreamy electronica and ambient gem with bright, yet soothing melodies that infiltrate your brain atoms and excite those electrons which are going round in circles around the atom’s nucleus.

Over the last four years I’ve written well over hundred music reviews, but I couldn’t have explained the music in this ‘Shades of Orange’ debut EP better than Solar Witcher himself. Even though I really enjoyed this EP, I was in a little bit of a dilemma; what should I write? So I sent an email to Solar Witcher and he replied with the following:

“Shades of Orange” EP is centred around one day story. Every track snapshots emotions that emerge as the day unwinds. My favourite movies were a great source of inspiration for me. Some of the tracks were made with absolutely different framework in mind – I wrote a tune about being high on painkillers after surgery and it eventually became “Sleepover”; “Touching Water” image appeared in my head, however, when I was actually swimming in the rain.

Definitely couldn’t have said it any better. Even though the above is coming out of the creator’s own mouth, this is not twentieth century marketing; full of lies, gimmicks and China merch. This is the real thing. Check it out for yourself on Solar Witcher’s own bandcamp page, where you can stream and download the EP for free; such a good man he is! Enjoy it while sitting on the sofa in a room with faded lights, and a glass of Tuscan white wine. If instead you feel like watching a music video, you can also see Solar Witcher’s own work by adapting scenes from the film ‘Lost in Translation’ as a music video for his own track ‘Touching Water’.

Music always played a major role in my life and most of the time, it was even more important than anyone else around me. Good? Bad? Who knows what’s good or not, all I know is that I still made it. Being so much into music for most of my life, I frequently get asked which is my favourite genre, favourite artist or band, album or song. It’s quite difficult to tell. Even though I’ve been following a very wide variety of music genres all this time, it’s impossible to say which my favourite is. I mean what defines a music genre? Some songs and albums are easy to determine under which genre to shelve them, but some not.

Music comes around in different noises, colours and sounds. While browsing through my endless list of unread emails, a macabre cover attracted my attention. An innocent looking girl with an axe in her hands, human remains underneath her, a hand from a death body holding her leg and the title, DECOMPOSE. So I clicked to expand the rest of the email and read more. Wonder of wonders! Contrary to what many believe, marketing still works in the music industry. Lady Gaga definitely answered that question a couple of times; she excels more in marketing than in music in my opinion. Decompose is a musical project between two solo artists:

Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack; a post-ambient, new wave, electrofunk, IDM-core solo artist from Denton, Texas. Thought Texas is more about Cowboys and cows, well that’s what the media portrays at least.

A Problem like Maria; a twee, pop, folk, R&B, hip hop, trip hop, experimental, electronic and dark solo artist from Metro Manila, Philippines. Phew, that was a list of genres!

A good mix of all of the above genres seems to produce an eight track EP called Decompose, which was released on the thirty first of October 2011. The EP is the soundtrack of a love story set during the zombie apocalypse, which is fashionably timed, considering we are in 2012, the apocalypse year. During this EP, we follow a heroine called Panic, as she fights and finds her way through the undead-infested city and back into the arms of the love of her life. Sounds kind of stereo type, doesn’t it? Not the music though; a very good mix of electronica, trip hop, gorgeous female vocals and amazing artwork.

The EP starts with a very dark and heavy ambient / industrial Roman Empire style sound, with quick bassy flat beat which is swiftly pushed into the background and a fast trip hop like beat and female vocals takes over. In th first track ‘Her Name Was Panic’ I also really like the short beat breaks with distorted and rotting piano melodies. An engaged telephone tone is the start of ‘Light A Fire’, the EP’s second track. A less fast beat, but more sophisticated accompanies a less panicked vocals; sublime, especially the bass beats. ‘Regret’ is like a quicky; industrial and distorted, yet still with a good end result. With computer like sounds, and anxious vocals, this track is a perfect introduction to the following instrumental track ‘Standstill’. Imagine a kind of transformation song, with sounds almost coming from underground, ready to develop into something more but they never do develop; stuck in the middle of an abyss. A simple sad melody is the perfect match for these sounds. And as the EP’s story is that of a love story, after the panic comes the dream and sense of achievement. And that’s what ‘Starting Tonight’ is all about; a dreamy like song you would want to listen when you’re finally relaxed and achieved the unachievable; time to reflect. The EP’s last track, which is also the title track feels like decomposing. Very dark, dreary but with lots of hope. It’s a good mixture of everything, if you know what I mean. The last two tracks are remixes of ‘Standstill’, the instrumental track; worth checking them out as well. So in this case, back to the first original question, what music genre should this album be shelved under?

Apart from the excellent music, one must also note that this album is the result of three months of online work. It is a very short time to create and produce something of this calibre. Also, online; people who do not meet face to face and sit down to discuss music and their ideas. Isn’t that fascinating!?!?!? The concept, melodies and lyrics of the album are all ‘A Problem Like Maria’ work while instrumentation, arrangements and perfect production were all done by ‘Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack’. My one and only let down from this collaborative project? Choose shorter stage names please…

Download the EP including artwork for FREE from http://decompose.bandcamp.com/

For more information about about the artists, please visit Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack Soundcloud page or A Problem Like Maria Soundcloud page.

And the Giraffe, a band we reviewed last October just got in touch with us to update us on a new video they recorded for their song Underground Love from the EP Something For Someone. I am impressed; a well produced video, and a video with a proper story worth watching till the end. It feels good supporting such projects, considering the video production and story is of high quality, yet it was recorded just as a hobby by “some young guys”.

The video was shot in Los Angeles, California on a very low budget; only to cover the cost of food and parking when the guys travelled to different locations. It was shot with the help of Harrison Sanborn over the course of about 2 or 3 days. So, indulge yourself, and click on play below.

As a band of three, their sound is big. Beecher’s Fault emit raw emotion with their hooks, and their thought provoking messages are beautifully shared to listeners via Ben’s vocals and their delicately constructed lyrics. For a music sampler, this self titled EP impresses. Beecher’s Fault have enough backbone to make it, with a music business that is now overflowing with room for talented new musicians that have something new to offer.
Opening track ‘Liars’ is infectiously catchy; out of the five tracks the most promising for a single release. Its subject seems to be centered on the attitude many people have to today’s capitalist western world – going through each day living the life we are expected and predicted to with no real spontaneity. Ben from the band was quoted in saying that “new ideas are becoming less and less common in pop, and we’d really like to change that”. Lyrics such as those in ‘Liars’ exemplify this perfectly, and with a theme as strong as this on the first track off the EP they give much hope for the rest.

‘Fine by Me’ is a gentle and relaxed addition to the EP; a love song with only the high, soft guitar chords used and weighty keys that give the song great emotion and depth – an easy listen that will have you switching it to repeat. ‘Rearranged’ is less complex and deep, yet straight forward and triumphant. “And today somebody’s leaving America/And today is a little bit strange/But today is just tomorrow rearranged.” The keys on ‘Leftover People’ are also a powerful implement in their search for originality. It has a jazzy vibe, only achieved through the talent of Ken on keys.

They have already notched up a lengthy list of shows in America, and their feedback has been pretty positive. ‘Fine by Me’ reminded me of an early David Gray with his meaningful lyrics and soothing vocals, and opener ‘Liars’ has a strong vocal sounding of British indie band Everything Everything, with Ben showing off his impressive falsetto. However apart from these small similarities, I found it relatively hard to fit this band into one style as an influence. They have something new bands long to achieve to get noticed and succeed, their sound is original. It seems to me their debut EP is a definite promising start.

Click here to access Beecher’s Fault official website. To listen to their EP online, go to their ReverbNation page.

Well they’re calling it an ‘EP’, but it’s really a gift wrapped ‘big-bow-on-top-and-it-sparkles-so-you-forget-what-we-did’ apology cake, prepared and delivered straight to the fans from the Metallica ovens. After the DIABOLICAL excuse for an album that was the Lou Reed collaboration ‘Lulu’, we all felt a bit betrayed and abused. Metallica have never been one to bow to any public demand, or any semblance of peer pressure, but I think when the feedback from Lulu was GLOBALLY hated, even drummer Lars ‘My favourite band are the Arctic Monkeys’ Ulrich thought maybe they’d put a foot wrong with the core fanbase. Thus it was that potential ‘maybe’ that birthed the ‘Beyond Magnetic EP’, a collection of four unreleased bonus tracks from Death Magnetic’s recording session. I don’t think I was the only fan craving ANYTHING the band could put out, just to make sure they did care about us, just a little. Like an injection of the purest nitrous oxide to the critically ravaged Metallica machine, they are instantly back in top reputable form on this EP.

I’m more than happy to report that even though these tracks are in their raw unpolished form, all four of these are brilliant additions to Metallica’s already very varied discography.
The songs are all ‘unfinished’ in a way, as they were never used on the final album. So expect longer running times and an ‘everything-including-the-kitchen-sink’ mentality in terms of seeing what felt good to include at the time. In saying that, there’s only 4 songs, so let’s break ‘em down shall we?

1. Hate Train – This is the track that a lot of the fans immediately recognised as the one that fronted the majority of the bands backstage videos from the last couple of years. Opening extremely strongly with Metallica’s signature onslaught of thick meaty power chords backed solidly by Lars’ drumming, it feeds nicely into Kirk Hammett’s instantly recognisable wah tone. His lightning fast first solo then proceeds to rip your face clean off with no apologies. This is how it’s done. The song has a great groove throughout, with a cool dynamic chorus showing Hetfield’s range as a vocalist. Actually it’s worth noting he’s on top form throughout this EP, his voice sounding better than ever! Also on stellar form is Kirk ‘The Ripper’ Hammett. The main solo is fantastically frenetic but retains a great sense of rhythm, flying all over the higher end of the fretboard. Business as usual for Kirkster, but add in some neat whammy bar tricks and a mid-solo duel breakdown with Hetfield, and it rounds this performance off nicely.

2. Just A Bullet Away – Another stellar track that finds its footing after a rather strange intro. What you’ll find about these songs is that Load era ‘Tallica is much more notable, these songs are a great meld of the two Metallica eras both thrash and bluesy hard rock. Bullet has a brilliant chin nodding feel, but also has a great mid-tempo stomping pace to keep things moving. There is also a FANTASTIC mid-section where the song stops completely, only for an acoustic bridge to build up. Overlay with a brilliantly harmonised melodic piece over the top and you have, for me, the best bit on the entire EP. It’s immediately captivating, and a stellar piece of musicianship.

3. Hell And Back – One of the most memorable of the four, this is the perfect example of the groovy, cigar-chompin’ Tallica from the 90′s mixed in with the heavier tone they developed on Death Magnetic, but combined to great effect. The chorus is brilliantly memorable; the lyrics are typically genius Hetfield, dealing with addiction and alcoholism along with the comfort the bottom of the bottle offers the lonely soul. “When she starts her calling/I feel my darkness growing from within/I become two, we become one/Unbridled, unequal, unholy, undone”. Top it off with a nice solo from Kirk that extends through the closing moments of the song, and this can’t help but stay etched in your memory.

4. Rebel of Babylon – The most experimental of the 4 tunes. A slow opener with a much heavier focus on Hetfield and his lyrics, however this very quickly gives way to one of the fastest riffs I’ve heard on a Metallica record since Damage Inc. or Dyers Eve. Yeah we’re talkin’ THAT level of eyeball-melting guitar abuse. This final track carries a fantastic pace throughout the verses, but changes up for the chorus. I’ve already mentioned Hetfield’s vocals, but it’s here that he truly excels. Remember that bit just before the solo in Unforgiven III where he broke straight through the Ozone layer and slapped the moon across the face? Well he returns to that awesome level of cosmic kickassery when singing a part of the chorus, and it.is.GLORIOUS.

So there you have it, a quality set of songs throughout. Check it out if you were a fan of Death Magnetic’s core sound and fancy a little bit more, or if you were in need of some soothing balm for the burning irritation Lou Reed’s vocals left in the back of your brain.
Amazing performance from Hetfield, cool solos from Kirk, Lars’ drumming is even on top form, and Trujillo is holding his own as always. Aside from one naff lyric in Just A Bullet Away (you’ll know when you hear it) this is great effort. All is most definitely forgiven!

9/10

Cheers,
S.T \m/

2012, the apocalypse year, should be a promising year for Muzikablog.com music blog.

It’s 2012, the apocalypse year. Please start panicking, shouting, kill each other just for the sake of killing each other, take each others lands and  claim it’s yours before an earthquake or tsunami takes it away, and act like there is no tomorrow. Wait… isn’t the world already in that state? Hasn’t it been like this since the last, couple of centuries?

Here I am, sitting down on the sofa in front of the fireplace and sipping down a scotch with a throw on me, a piece of paper and a pen. That’s the way to write a New Year editorial note for a music blog. Wrong! It’s freezing, cannot afford to switch on the central heating. Just having a cup of tea, and using the laptop fan as a heater. Even my dog is complaining that the flat is cold; hence he tucks himself under my feet.

Let’s be a little bit more realistic. After the festive season parties and kerfuffle, starting a new year everyone feels a little bit more philosophical, and I couldn’t feel less. It’s been almost three years since I started this blog and couldn’t be happier with the progress. While three years ago I struggled to find a band to interview, nowadays my mailbox is over flooded with unread emails from bands asking to be interviewed or have their music reviewed. On this journey I’ve also picked up several guest reviewers, some of whom seem that they are here to stay. Some people might have noticed that we’ve placed a PayPal donate button, hence we couldn’t but expect sarcastic and offending comments, which to be honest, I find funny.

We do this as a hobby during our free time, instead of going to beaches and date sexy hot chicks. We never asked anything from the bands. Sometimes we ask for a hard copy of the album we are reviewing, which we always like to collect to add to our collection of original records. The only reason why we did the donate button, is not to force anyone to pay. If you like reading reviews on this blog and you’re an avid follower and would like to discover more new music and bands, support us by donating any amount you’d like. If your band, somehow benefitted from this blog thanks to a review, interview or mention, feel free to donate what you think it was worth. We don’t even make enough money to pay for the hosting, let alone making profits.

2011 was a great year were I discovered and got in touch with some great bands, such as the Italian trio Shootin’ Stars, British and heavy Vallenfyre, fuzzy Francobollo, the solo project Afterlife Parade and many others. We’ve also received some good news, such as the Black Sabbath Reunion, and some unfortunately news, such as the loss of one of the greatest artists of this century, Amy Winehouse.

I expect 2012 to be even more promising than 2011. Definitely we will get in touch with several other new bands and discover new talents. New music will never stop amusing us, so keep on submitting your work to contact@muzikablog.com. We would like to hear from you. While at it, I’d also like to mention that as always, we are always looking for guest reviewers. We’d like to cover much more music genres, so drop us an email on editor@muzikablog.com if you think you can help us and review music, interview bands or cover some music news.

Let’s sit down and start writing then; have to get rid of the email overflow somehow. Stay in touch and Like the Facebook Muzikablog page to keep in touch or follow the Muzikablog Tweets.

Top ten albums for 2011

Bon Iver – Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago was such a brilliant work of music I figured his next album would be a sad or heroic attempt to recapture it. Thank God he got himself a band and reinvented his sound. This album doesn’t try to touch For Emma, and is made much stronger by that. It’s a wonderful piece of sonic beauty, and proves just how versatile and skilled Justin Vernon is at creating beauty. And I never got the uproar around Beth/Rest, it’s a great track.

Destroyer – Kaputt

This album is so chilled out. I can’t help loving it. Also it name-drops New Order. And has horns and saxophones in it. And deals with the question ‘what’s left for America?’ whilst raising more questions in the same vein. It’s not even a parody of those overly-smooth faux-jazz albums, this rises above that and becomes something much more powerful. Dan Bejar’s dark and wryly witty lyrics and relaxed delivery seal the deal for me here. This is a great album, listen to it.

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

I really didn’t want to like this album. I saw them in early 2010 or thereabouts (I can’t actually remember) and they really bored me. Subsequently, so did their first album. I was all set to hate on this one, when I discovered it was actually very much to my liking. It’s mature, questioning, intelligent, and actually very good. Luscious harmonies intertwine with melody and instrumentation to create great folky soundscapes, and Robin Pecknold seems to be going through a very early, laid-back midlife crisis, questioning who he is and why. It may be hard to get in to, but it’s worth it.

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

The first time I heard Let England Shake, incidentally the day it was released, I loved it. I’ve always thought that PJ was a great artist. But she’s managed to take the mantle of the anti-war movements and create something very English and very relevant, even though it’s mostly about the first World War. It’s a piece of art, this album, and is a guideline to the craft of songwriting. Harvey’s voice is hauntingly beautiful, and the England she evokes is as defiant as it is sad. This album certainly deserved to win the Mercury prize.

Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What

I love Paul Simon’s work, and I also loved Surprise, so I was very relieved when it was as good as I thought it would be. Interestingly, it seems to be missing form many of the ‘best of’ lists I’ve read in the past few days, and I don’t really know why. Simon hasn’t lost that beautiful soft voice of his, and his guitar-playing is as understated as it is virtuosic. Lyrically, Simon’s words verge further and further in to free-association poetry. It’s more often than not beautiful and moving.

Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

One of my good friends forced Radiohead on me a long time ago, and I’ve always resented the intrusion until now. This is, interestingly, my favourite Radiohead album. I absolutely adore Tom Yorke’s dubstep (I’m talking Burial and Mala here) influenced musings with the synthesizer, and his alien vocals flowing over the top. It’s an absorbing piece of work. I also like it’s length, clocking at 37 minutes it’s relatively short for a Radiohead album. It’s an album that breaks in to new territory for the band, even though one critic attacked it for being ‘to similar to In Rainbows’. I don’t know what he’s talking about, but there we go. New territory is what Radiohead do best.

Slam Dunk – The Shivers

This album is criminally underrated and unknown. For me, this album is the perfect mix of anarchic lo-fi grunge, and a life-affirming vitality that is incredibly catchy and stirring. This album really grabs you from start to finish, and at the end of the journey it’s a rather cathartic experience. Most of the time this album feels like the band are making it up as they go along. It was a very early release, but it’s a really great one.

Tom Waits – Bad As Me

I love Tom Waits. He’s probably second only to Bob Dylan on the songwriting front for me. I’d loved Real Gone, and was very interested to see what he was going to do next. Typically, he ditched the production-less sound of his last album of recent material for a sleek, sexy and fast moving collection of great tracks. Every one of these songs could have been a single, and every single one is great. Waits continues to be modern, fascinating and very good to listen to.

Tinariwen – Tassili

The rhythms of this album are so primal that I can’t help be entranced by them. Tuareg melodies, I have discovered, tend to be simple, moving and beautiful. Not to mention they’re great guitarists. This album has to be listened to, in order to properly enjoy it, but I would happily say that I regard Tinariwen as incredible. Don’t discard this album as ‘world music’ and put it to the back of the mind. World music it certainly is, universally applicable in any language.

tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

Man, this is a weird album. Laced with reggae and borderline hip-hop beats, Merrill Garbus lets loose her phenomenally unique voice over a flowing and powerful album. With a ukelele. What’s not to love? In all seriousness, she’s really hit something with this album. It’s not lo-fi, but it kind of feels it. It’s not funk, but it kind of feels it. It’s not novelty, but it kind of feels it. It is, however, great. It’s funny, too.

When you grow up as a rocker, you’ll learn that rockers love to head bang, and also love everything that is noisy and loud. The louder, the harder, the better! In this blog post you will find ten Christmas rock songs which made history, well at least some of them. Dedicated to all those who don’t want to listen to Mariah Carey or some other horny and money making machine moaning about Christmas. We want it loud, wild and great! Please note that the below tracks are in no particular orders, or better, they are in a random order. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all  of your out there!

Slade – Merry Christmas Everybody

Released in 1973 by English rock band Slade, Merry Christmas Everybody is one hell of head banging song. The song was recorded during Slade’s east coast US tour at the Record Plant in New York. It took five days to finish, but the band disliked the first completed version. It ended up being rerecorded, with the corridor outside used to record the chorus, as it provided an appropriate echo.

Eagles – Please Come Home for Christmas

This song was originally released in 1960 by the American blues singler and pianist Charles Brown. In 1978 the rock band Eagles gave it a shot and released this song as a single. A very quiet mellow track, and is a perfect fit to enjoy a glass of Blue Label Johnny Walker while snowing outside.

Wizzard – I wish it could be Christmas everyday

Released in 1973 by English glam rock band Wizzard, I wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday remained nine consecutive weeks in the UK singles chart, only to be beaten by Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody. As downloads as well as physical sales became eligible for the weekly Top 75 as from January 2007, and it was one of several Christmas oldies to chart again in November and December 2007.

Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas

One of the most influential Christmas songs, Do they know it’s Christmas was written by Bob Geldof (who doesn’t know this guy) and Midge Ure, a Scottish guitarist, keyboard player and song player, mostly known as Ultravox’s frontman. Released in 1984 to raise money for the relief of the 1983 – 1985 famine in Ethiopia, the song raised many millions of pounds and became the biggest-selling single in UK singles chart history, only to be passed by Elton John’s Candle in the Wind. Band Aid consisted of:
Adam Clayton, Bono (U2)
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Bob Geldof, Simon Crowe, Pete Briquette, Johnny Fingers (The Boomtown Rats)
Steve Norman, Tony Hadley, Martin Kemp(Spandau Ballet)
Midge Ure, Chris Cross, John Keeble, Gary Kemp (Ultravox)
John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran)
Paul Young
Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware (Heaven 17)
Marilyn Keren Woodward, Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama)
Jody Watley (Shalamar)
Paul Weller (The Style Council)
James “J.T.” Taylor (Kool & the Gang)
George Michael (Wham!)
Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt (Status Quo)
Robert ‘Kool’ Bell, Dennis J. T. Thomas (Kool & the Gang)
Jon Moss, Boy George (Culture Club)
Sting (The Police)
David Bowie
Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
Paul McCartney
Stuart Adamson, Bruce Watson, Tony Butler, Mark Brzezicki (Big Country)

Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime

It doesn’t exactly happen every day that an alternative rock band such as Smashing Pumpkins releases a Christmas song, but here it is for you to enjoy. The song still delivers the Smashing Pumpkins spirit, with Billy Corgan unique vocals, yet it is a “jolly” Christmas song. Enjoy

U2 – Christmas (Baby please come home)

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is a Christmas holiday song originally sung by Darlene Love and included in a 1963 Christmas compilation album released from Philles Records. In December 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” first on its list of The Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs, saying that “nobody can match Love’s emotion and sheer vocal power.” And for you, below is the rock version of this song from the most famous Irish rock band, U2.

The Ramones – Merry Christmas (I don’t want to fight tonight)

What about a punk Christmas song? Yes you’ve heard well. The Ramones, an American 70′s punk band even tried to give it a shot at a Christmas song and managed. Although the song is not so popular with the generic Christmas public, it’s a head banging Christmas song.

John Lennon and Yoko – Happy Xmas (War is over)

I am sure John Lennon needs no introduction. If you’re reading this blog post and you don’t know who is John Lennon, I suggest you stop reading it now, and go to the nearest record shop and buy some The Beatles records. Don’t order from any online store, snail post is really slow in Christmas. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was released in 1971 as a single with the Harlem Community Choir. The song reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Orignally it was a protest song about the cruel Vietnam War, but has become a Christmas standard, appearing on several Christmas albums and compilations. It was also voted the ninth favourite Christmas song in a poll by music channel VH1. The song was re-released in the UK on 20 December 1980, shortly after John Lennon’s murder on 8 December, and peaked at number 2 in the chart battle for the Christmas number one.

The Darkness – Christmas Time (Don’t let the bells end)

Another head banging Christmas song by the flamboyant British glam rock band The Darkness. The song was released in 2003 and according to bookmakers it was the favourite song to reach number one in the official UK singles chart. Though in Christmas of 2003 it was beaten by relative unknown artists who covered Tears for Fears’ Mad World. Indeed, it is a mad world!

Queen – Thank God it is Christmas

Last but not least, one of the most famous British rock bands Queen, also gave it a shot at Christmas and released Thank God it’s Christmas. The song was written by Queen’s guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor and unfortunately it only reached number 21 in the UK singles chart. The song was never released on any Queen studio album, but was included in Queen’s Greatest Hits 3. No official music video was recorded for this track, hampering its future use on music television stations, hence it is a lesser known Christmas single.

There was confusion with fans as to what had happened to Coldplay frontman’s usual polite demeanour after his repeated foul language at the M.E.N arena on their second date of their 2011 Mylo Xyloto tour. On numerous occasions Martin reacted to his paranoia of the band being, quote, “a shit Radiohead”, by using the ‘f’ word in nearly all of his crowd involvement whenever he wasn’t one hundred per cent happy with a note, a guitar – “this guitar is fucking dreadful”, to which he proceeded to slide it across the stage and demand another from a roadie, or even the placement of his guitar pick. However, he did prove he hadn’t forgotten his well-mannered up bringing with his traditional gracious crowd participation, slowing down into the final two lines of ‘Violet Hill’ and thanking the crowd “for being so patient”. Could this just be due to his energetic and psyched up spirits towards the new tour? Perhaps, it is only the second date after all. Surely he can be forgiven for the odd swear word when performing to a lively crowd of 18,000 fans at a sold out M.E.N.

The band opened with an energetic crowd pleaser, well, one of many, from their fifth studio album, to which saw 18,000 tiny luminous coloured lights erupt in-synch to ‘Hurts like Heaven’, thanks to the radio-controlled wristbands fans were handed on arrival. I am confident to say that I struggled to hold back a tear of emotion just at how incredibly beautiful the sights and sounds appeared to me. And I remain sure that I wasn’t the only one amongst fans, as screams echoed over Johnny Buckley’s final piercing guitar melody of the song.

The opening three songs provided the fans their monies worth within just the first twenty minutes, as did Martin and Buckley’s chemistry on tracks like ‘Lost!’ and ‘God Put a Smile Upon Your Face’. Martin slightly overshadowed the rhythm section of the band giving Buckley praise on a number of occasions, with Will and Guy receiving zilch. They do however have a close bond both in and out of the band, which was made clear through their interaction on stage.

In true Coldplay tradition, Martin continued his obsession with relating a little music legacy to the location of the gig by dedicating ‘Till Kingdom Come’ to The Stone Roses. “That’s such great news isn’t it?” said Martin, and if the crowd weren’t electrified enough already, this topped it.

The strong set list of a mammoth 19 perfectly chosen songs made this tour their best yet for me. An appearance of ‘X&Y’s ‘What If’ and ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’’s  ‘Daylight’ was a pleasant surprise for fans of their older material; Daylight hadn’t been heard since their 2003 tour. An odd step some would say by a band that have proved they don’t need their older tracks to please crowds, now that they are labelled the ‘biggest band in the world’ by critics and fans alike.

A combination of the stage production, and the atmosphere it created proved for an unforgettable experience for thousands of fans. It is very hard not to admit that it would appear they have earned the biggest band in the world title after this gig.