RawkBlog http://blog.rawkstar.net Our views on all things music Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:51:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en Mercury Prize winner 2008 - Elbow! http://blog.rawkstar.net/2008/09/09/mercury-prize-winner-2008-elbow/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2008/09/09/mercury-prize-winner-2008-elbow/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:43:15 +0000 Bob http://blog.rawkstar.net/?p=52 Yes, that’s right, Elbow won the Mercury Prize 2008 with their fantastic album “The Seldom Seen kid”.

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Excellent!

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2008/09/09/mercury-prize-winner-2008-elbow/feed/ 2007, Dave’s Best Of http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/12/22/2007-daves-best-of/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/12/22/2007-daves-best-of/#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:59:43 +0000 Dave http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/12/22/2007-daves-best-of/ As 2007 draws to a close I thought it would be a nice idea to take a look back at some of my favourite albums from the past 12 months.

Musically 2007 has been quite a good year with new albums from the likes of Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, The Shins and Interpol we have also seen the rise of some new stars like Kate Nash.

So, here are my top ten albums of 2007 in no particular order.

  1. Interpol – Our Love to Admire
  2. Kate Nash – Made of Bricks
  3. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
  4. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
  5. Okkervil River – The Stage Names
  6. Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover
  7. The Broken Family Band – Hello Love
  8. iLiKETRAiNS – Elegies to Lessons Learned
  9. Emmy The Great – My Bad EP
  10. Rilo Kiley – Under the Blacklight

I hear Lily Allen is working on a new album for 2008, which might not be total ass and I’d quite like to hear something from The Boy Least Likely To because they seem to have gone into hiding.

With Take That and the Spice Girls reforming I’m eager to see who else will reform, me and Andreas were talking about B*Witched a couple of days ago and I feel a B*Witched reunion tour should definitely be on the cards.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/12/22/2007-daves-best-of/feed/ iLiKETRAiNS on 6Music http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/iliketrains-on-6music/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/iliketrains-on-6music/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:12:47 +0000 Rall http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/iliketrains-on-6music/ I didn’t think this was really worth a news post, so I’ll put it here! iLiKETRAiNS will be playing a couple of songs live on Thursday’s Gideon Coe show on 6Music. You’ll be able to listen again online for a week after it airs, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/gideon_coe/. You can also listen again to last Friday’s (or maybe it was Thursday’s…) session by the English Travelling Wilburys, it was CLASS.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/iliketrains-on-6music/feed/ Whole albums for £0.01?! http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/whole-albums-for-001/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/whole-albums-for-001/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:45:35 +0000 Rall http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/whole-albums-for-001/ I haven’t pre-ordered the download of the new Radiohead album yet - although I would be prepared to pay the bargain basement price of £5 for it I’m going to save up and buy the CD-download-2xvinyl-book-artwork £40 version. I am tempted to order the download version for 1p just to see what happens - if I was them, I’d give people what they paid for so if they only send people 3 seconds worth of music, I would find that quite funny.

Of course if they charge me a £5 credit card handling fee I shall write a strongly worded letter to Mr. York and his band of un-merry men to complain.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/10/01/whole-albums-for-001/feed/ Hard-Fi = Dumbasses http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/12/hard-fi-dumbasses/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/12/hard-fi-dumbasses/#comments Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:32:11 +0000 Rall http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/12/hard-fi-dumbasses/ Now I know it’s been around a little while in the ‘music press’ but now I’ve actually seen it in a shop, Hard-Fi’s new ‘non’ artwork is even more retarded than it sounds.

They appear to have decided that artwork = pictures, and have claimed to be not interested in that arty stuff, (or ‘We don’t need some airbrushed band shot just because it might be expected. Fuck that. This is about the music.‘ to be precise), so now their… well their cover art just says ‘NO COVER ART’.

I almost hope that it’s them being ironic, but I don’t think Hard-Fi have a collection of brain cells expansive enough to waste on irony.

Surely if they did have half a brain and really wanted to ‘break the rules‘ they should have avoided it all together and not had a cover at all (I’d like to note here that if you [mistakenly, who'd buy it voluntarily?] buy the album from HMV, you can get limited edition slip cover!), in fact why not go the whole hog and just cell the CD without a case at all. At least that way I’d have no wasteful packing from my new set of mug coasters.

Idiots.

DISCLAIMER: This post represents the opinion of the author and not facts based on any kind of intelligence tests that may or may not have been performed on the afore mentioned band or its members. Please don’t sue me, I may have the brains, but you have the money.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/12/hard-fi-dumbasses/feed/ Mercury Prize 2007 - And the winner is… http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/04/mercury-prize-2007-and-the-winner-is/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/04/mercury-prize-2007-and-the-winner-is/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:24:52 +0000 Bob http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/04/mercury-prize-2007-and-the-winner-is/ The Klaxons - WHY?! Better than the tripe that won it last year? Not much… They decided to wreck the podium when collecting their award, you think they’d know how a microphone works…i.e. don’t put it right in your mouth!!

The Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future

I was hoping for Bat For Lashes, which is one of my favourite albums of 2007. Saying that, I’m always weary of the bands I like winning the prize due to ‘the curse‘ and all… so lets hope The Klaxons aren’t affected by it…

Bat For Lashes - Fur And Gold

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/09/04/mercury-prize-2007-and-the-winner-is/feed/ yourcodenameis:milo split up! http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/22/yourcodenameismilo-split-up/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/22/yourcodenameismilo-split-up/#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:45:54 +0000 Bob http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/22/yourcodenameismilo-split-up/ Another good band have split up!

Yourcodenameis:milo last night announced they’re to split up after a 5 year and 4 album career. Read on for a statement from the band…

The following message was posted on their forum:-

YOURCODENAMEIS:MILO R.I.P

To All..

After 5 years and 4 wicked cool records, we have decided to put yourcodenameis:milo on an indefinite hiatus.

We are all exceptionally proud of all we have achieved as a band, but feel it is time to move on and explore new paths both musical and non musical.

We are eternally grateful to everyone who supported us through it all, came to the shows, bought the records…plus all the bands we played with and the people we met along the way.

We hope it meant as much to you as it did to us.

cheers for being there.

Justin, Paul, Adam, Ross, Shaun.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/22/yourcodenameismilo-split-up/feed/ I lived on the moon http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/13/i-lived-on-the-moon/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/13/i-lived-on-the-moon/#comments Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:50:27 +0000 Bob http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/13/i-lived-on-the-moon/ Another one of these very hyped internet songs is ‘I lived on the Moon’ by a relatively unknown French band called ‘Kwoon’, but don’t let the French part put you off!. It’s getting a lot of attention mainly due to the amazing animated video created to go along with it. However, the song itself is worthy of attention with influences being cited as Sigur Ros and Explosions In The Sky to name but a few.

You can download a higher quality version of the video over on Yanim.net.

The hype behind it reminds me of the JCB song by Nizlopi who have now all but disappeared!

Check out Kwoon on MySpace and over at their official website.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/08/13/i-lived-on-the-moon/feed/ Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - In an elevator! http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/05/13/arcade-fire-neon-bible-in-an-elevator/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/05/13/arcade-fire-neon-bible-in-an-elevator/#comments Sun, 13 May 2007 19:21:46 +0000 Bob http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/05/13/arcade-fire-neon-bible-in-an-elevator/ I recently came across this video of the Arcade Fire playing the title track from the Neon bible album in an elevator. Very cool.

Check out the rawkstar review of the album.

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/05/13/arcade-fire-neon-bible-in-an-elevator/feed/ I hate April the 1st http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/04/01/i-hate-april-the-1st/ http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/04/01/i-hate-april-the-1st/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:11:14 +0000 Bob http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/04/01/i-hate-april-the-1st/ I really should avoid going on the internet on April the 1st. What’s true and what’s not?

First up, a bunch of Muse fansites have teamed up and said they’ve all received a letter from warner music telling them to close and remove lyrics/tabs/the word muse from their domain names etc. (I’m ashamed to admit I fell for this one…).

Secondly NME.com had a news item about a certain band being the first to announce a gig in space, yep… you guessed it Muse again! I never fell for this one…

Finally, good old Google announced Google TiSP. Free internet for everyone, a little installation needed.

So far that’s all I’ve spotted so far, I’ve only been online for about 10 minutes though. Don’t worry, there wont be any cheap tricks from Rawkstar this year (mainly because I forgot about it and couldn’t think of anything…).

]]> http://blog.rawkstar.net/2007/04/01/i-hate-april-the-1st/feed/