One of the really exciting things about owning cds and listening to music and having opinions on everything is that it results in some fun *ahem* "discussions" at 2am with strangers at parties.
The debate I got into last night was about music videos, and I think worth continuing on to today's post.
When asked "name your favourite video...you have 10 seconds", my two aquaintances put forward "Just" by Radiohead and "November Rain" by Guns n Roses. I, in a fit of bad memory, announced that the video for Svefn-G-Englar (Sigur Ros) was the greatest. I meant Saeglopur (also Sigur Ros) although the Svefn clip is pretty fantastic. In fact, all of Sigur Ros' videos are rather awesome (.

So what is it that makes a great clip? Not necessarily a message - that can just make it a bit wanky and lame. But perhaps ambiguity. Interesting visuals. Beauty. Something that conveys the message of the song without distracting us too much from the music.
For an example of the latter, check out Yves Klein Blue "Polka" - the lyrics are about drugs, and the video is a bit drugged out and early 70s film and hazy. It's fantastic.

Do you remember the first time?

First posts are always strange. Trying to promote what this blog is going to be about, trying to talk about yourself in a funny, endearing kind of way, all with the subtext of cool and READ ME!

So. Um. Hi.

This blog, written by me and JoshWithGuitar, is about music. It's about our love for music and our attempts to share this with the world at large.
It's going to be part music blog, part gig review, part whatever-else-I-feel-like.

And for the first music post, I'm going to recommend a couple of bands that everyone should know about. I haven't quite yet figured out how to post mp3s for your listening pleasure so click the links for their myspace pages.



1) Amplifier. (Look up)
I love these guys. It's kind of like what would happen if the 70's psychadelic rock went through a heavy prog phase with a little bit of shoegazer (the closest comparison would be Oceansize - close friends with and a big influence on the band I think, and another group you should hear if you haven't already). They opened for Opeth one tour. Don't think it's all growls and unintelligble vocals, though. Heavy guitars, some wall-of-sound stuff, and really interesting riffs. They are currently working on their third album, called The Octopus. From the teaser (on youtube), it looks like it's going to be as exciting as their self-titled debut, and the follow up Insider. Get on it.

2) The Dodos
I'm sure if you're the sort of person to be taking the time out to read a music blog then you have probably already heard of the Dodos. An accoustic guitarist experimenting with delay and loop stations meets a metal drummer experimenting with rhythm. I read somewhere (a comment written by someone rather grumpy) that they sound like a watered down version of Animal Collective. Not true. Sure, they are similar, but because it's accoustic it keeps its innocent happy sound. Hype Machine decided that their album, the cutely misspelled Visiter, was the 20th best album release of 2008. I saw them live at Falls Festival, and it was probably the most joyous set I witnessed. Be happy!

Over and out.