Amazing birds

Last night me and Scott (gramatically tha should be Scott and I) decided that we should work on the free give-away CD's for Thursday's gig. We'd left it a bit late and time was running short. We had this great idea of putting two tracks on there and then recording a track in a couple of hours - just a random jam.

While we were writing the tune we thought it would be a good idea to grab some random samples from the TV so we did a bit of channel hopping and stumbled upon a David Attenborough programme on UKHistory. We ended up getting totally side-tracked for about an hour because this is some of the stuff that was on there. Totally amazing...







...as you can imagine, we didn't get much work done.

Homeless person

I was in Boscombe with Lisa yesterday during my lunch break and on the way to the high street from the car park I saw a homeless guy begging. I'm not a person that looks down on these people or anything - in fact I'm quite the opposite. If I'm not skint myself and I happen to have some spare change I don't mind every now and again giving them a few bob. But this guy was taking the piss - he was sat there looking all convincingly dirty with ripped up clothes and a little cardboard sign saying please help.... but he was using the hands free headset on his mobile phone!!!! What the fuck?!? It wasn't a cheap one either it was a proper new one.

Have I missed something here? Have the government started handing out free mobile phones to the homeless in order for them to be able to help themselves find accomodation or jobs? I very much doubt it. But then it got me thinking, what if his mobile was a contract phone - you need to have an address and bank account to be able to have one.

Lisa said that she heard on the news the other day that some homeless people in London can make up to £200 per day!

Fuckin' cheek! That's all my faith in homeless people gone. That prick has ruined it for all homeless-kind as far as my contribution is concerned.

Heroes

So, Heroes fever is now rampant on this side of the pond. The TV series on BBC2 is currently at episode 10 or 11 I think!? I would know but as I got so addicted to the show at about episode 6 I've now got 2 DVDs with all 23 episodes of series 1 from a friend at work. I couldn't wait a whole week to see what happens next, and there was a possibility that I could miss an episode bacause of our album recording, and I wasn't about to let that happen. Don't worry, TV people and copyright execs, I will eventually buy them on official DVD as soon as they're available in the UK but right now my thirst needs quenching more regularly than the weekly drip feed we're currently being subjected to. Besides, I think this is one of the best examples of why piracy and copying is good for the product at hand. Sure, officially it should be frowned upon but even the actors and the writers themselves have been seen on TV saying something along the lines of "I shouldn't support it but it's done the show so much good."

The programme has actually already run it's series here in the UK on the Sci-Fi channel. But, as not everyone has the Sci-Fi channel, not everyone got to see it. Also, Sci-Fi channel is known for showing mostly real bad tv shows with terrible story-lines and laughable special effects (if there are any). I'm sure their ratings will go up at the end of September, though, as they're scheduled to be showing series 2 of Heroes almost parallel to it's US showing. This is my other main purpose of getting my mitts on the whole of series 1 - so I can catch up in time for the airing of series 2.
...although I will have to wait week for week when that starts so in a way I'm just delaying the inevitable.

In the meantime, if you haven't seen it yet you are a fool. You don't have to be a science fiction nerd of comic book geek to like it as it's mainly character driven and it's soooo real. The BBC had Heroes catch up weekend starting from last Saturday night - showing all episodes back to back from 9pm. (hmmm, maybe I shoulda posted this a few days earlier so that you would've had enough warning! Oh well)
Give it a go, believe me you will be hooked too!

Battles new video - Tonto

Battles are an odd band. When JB first introduced me to them I wasn't sure how to take them. Upon listening to my first Battles track, enthused by JB, I was really getting into the style of music. Amazingly geeky jazz-like riffs with an clanky-indie edge played with mathematical precision. But when the munchkin style electronically processed vocals came in I felt a bit put out. I even laughed. But through time and exposure it actually becomes quite charming and I've actually grown to really like this band. I really respect their talent.

A quick rummage on YouTube reveals a handful of live clips and one thing that blow my mind was occassionally two of the three guitarists take one hand away from the guitar to play a keyboard - yet are still playing the same guitar riff. All this without dropping a beat. Also, I loved the fact that they have their guitars strapped so high that it's almost around their neck. Speaking of high instruments, the drummer has his crash cymbol six feet high!!

Here's a new video for their latest single 'Tonto', Enjoy.

Lee's musical knowledge expands...

We had band practice last night and Lee mentioned he'd bought three new albums by Maps, Klaxons and Mogwai. Excellent and well informed choices. What was interesting was how much he paid for them. Before Klaxons won the Mercury Prize Award their album could be found in Sainsburys for 3 quid... now they've won, the album's been marked up to £15!!!! Also, Maps' album was available for £6 and now that's been bumped up to £12 cos of a Mercury nomination. Hmmm, not fair me thinks... but then I guess record companies have to make money on the music they distribute somehow.



Maps - It Will Find You


Klaxons - Magik


Mogwai - Hunted By A Freak