Gregorian - So Sad

Way back in 1991, So Sad was a pop song that mixed Gregorian chants with pop sounds and vocals in the vein of Enigma(the man behind the band, Frank Peterson, was previously a member of Enigma). Enigma's Sadeness part 1 and the songs that followed are memorable for 2 things - the Gregorian chanting and also they were some of the first successful pop tracks that were written on DAWs - digital audio workshops - software for arranging loops and samples on a computer. Novelty back in the early nineties, DAWs have become the standard for music production in the millennium.

Ever wonder what the latin chanters are saying? Well here is a transcript -

Gloria in Excelsis Deo x3

Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
suscipe deprecationem nostram

Qui sedes ad dexteram patris, miserere nobis
Gratias agimus tibi,
propter magnum gloriam tuum

Jesu Christu... Amen x3

The Pixies and music videos

The best pop band in the world that never was. The Pixies are huge full stop. Their influence has been acknowledged by many far and wide. Why is it then that hardly anybody knows their name let alone their music?

Personally I believe it's because the Pixies have never wanted mainstream success. Where other bands bent over backwards to get a chance at hitting it big, the Pixies thumbed their noses at the music distribution industry and kept on walking. One example of band's incredible moxy that always sticks in my mind is their refusal to play along with MTV. Just like that artist that gave the big finger to Google, the Pixies gave the big finger to MTV by refusing to lip-sync to one of their songs in order to make a music video. To this day, you'll be hard pressed to find a music video to a Pixie's song.


At one point, the Pixie's song "Velouria" was finding success on the UK pop charts and upon breaking into the top 40, the band was offered some air time on Top of the Pops but a stipulation for bands playing live on the show from the BBC was that they must have a video to include with their track. The Pixies threw together a 23 second video of them running down a quarry towards a video camera with the clip ending just as the band members reached the camera. The video was then stretched to fit the length of the song producing a slow motion clip that went for over 3 minutes.

To me, this is some of the charm that keeps Pixies songs on constant rotation on my ipod. Rare enough to find a band with the scope and calibre of the Pixies but also one with a similar degree of heart and sense of humour? Death to the Pixies!

Let's sign this post off with one of the Pixies better known songs - "Where is my Mind?"

Big Country - In a Big Country

"In a big country" is the song Scottish New Wave band Big Country has been best remembered for. Pretty unique for a pop song in that the band famously emulated bagpipes and other traditional Scottish sounds with electric guitars and the help of certain effects pedals (specifically the M-129 Pitch Transposer made by MXR). This track came off the album "The Crossing", Big Country's first studio album. The single was released in 1983 and soon became a hit in the UK, crossing the Atlantic later that year and becoming a hit in North America too.

An interesting point about the album "The Crossing" which may be of interest to vinyl hunters is that it came in a range of three colours - Red, Green and Blue. I'm not quite sure what the significance of the colours are but I do know that the track listings for the three different versions are exactly the same.

The Invisible Cities Streaming live this Wednesday 15th of July

Perennial Indie Pop favourites, The Invisible Cities will be streaming video and audio of a live performance from their website - www.theinvisiblecities.com starting at 8pm Pacific Time. The performance can be caught at the above site as the webcast will be kept on a loop for those people who can't watch the performance live. Swing by the site and check it out!

Sour - 日々の音色(Hibinoneiro)

I've never heard of this band before now but this clip is an awesome piece of eye candy that's too good to pass up sharing on the blog. Apparently it's all been put together from a bunch of fan submitted webcam videos. The result is a fantastic trip through various peoples' bedrooms and personalities.

Check it out!

Hop over to Sour's official site here.

Lily Allen - The Fear

I've been putting off listening to Lily Allen for so long, all the airplay she was getting on commercial radio stations immediately painted her with a big red X. Now that the hype is over and I'm listening to her tracks from a neutral viewpoint again, I find I'm liking it and it's not half bad. There's nothing here earth shatteringly innovative and her casual use of the F word is just a tad bit pretentious but overall "The Fear" is a track that I can groove to. I find the acoustic guitar segueing into some gentle beats and lush eighties synths on "the Fear" a nice introduction to a fun and not so serious song. I think Lily comfortably straddles the line between acoustic and analogue and does a good job repackaging it for the digital generation. Now, if only commercial radio stations didn't hammer the same songs until people start bleeding from the ears every time they hear a Lily Allen song, there would be an actual chance that somebody over the age of 14 might like it. Shame though, but it's not half a bad song if you give it a chance.

Check out more of Lily's tracks at her Myspace page.

July Link Round Up

Here's another bunch of links I didn't have the time nor inclination to do a full write up about but were too interesting not to put on the blog. So here they are.

First up is an article from the Sydney Morning Herald about the resurgence of vinyl. Click here to read it.

Next is an article about the top 20 most collectible LPs according to Record Collector. Click here to read it.

Here is EMI's Youtube channel with a lot of their 80s backlog of music videos online and available for viewing with high quality sound. Click here to watch some.

And here are the best and worst covers according to the music section of The Independent. Click here to read the list. And yes, Avril Lavigne is on the worst covers ever list but not for the cover I posted about earlier this month.

Moonman - Galaxia

Who would have thought just 4 chords would sound so good. Apart from the warmth of those synth pads, it's really the progression of this trance classic that holds this track together. The first time this track got wide recognition was when it was included as the last track of Nick Warren's Global Underground 3 - Live in Prague, it wasn't long after that it became a much sought after track and a trance classic. Moonman, is of course Dutch Trance legend Ferry Corsten better known by some as System F and one half of Gouryella.

The Beatles - Yesterday and Today

Not your typical Beatles album cover huh? If you think the image of the fab four wearing butcher's overalls and covered in raw meat and baby doll parts is disturbing now, think of the effect it had when it was released by Capitol Records in June 1966. The Beatles had been darlings of both the media and public since their inception and this record cover marked the first time the band faced real criticism.

Capitol Records were appalled by the avalanche of negative press and swiftly recalled all the records. Initially the records became landfill but when Capitol realised the extent of money to be lost, they changed their minds and printed off a sticker featuring some hastily put together album art to be placed over the original album cover. The demand for this record in it's original state soared and is still highly coveted today. How in demand are these? Perfect copies are valued at 40,000 US dollars and up.

In the end, the album ended up being the only Beatles record to lose money for Capitol rather thank make it. George Harrison had this to say about the album cover "Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naive and dumb; and that was one of them".

Read more about this album over at Wikipedia.