Picking anything other that “September” today would have been the wrong choice. “September” is a perfect song. The intro is iconic. The vocals, also iconic. The flourishes on the horns are flash, but perfectly measured. The bass grooves away. I love how the singing stretches a little bit in the second half of the second verse. Maurice White just kicks it up a notch. I’d love to find a version of the song where he went all Mariah Carey on it.
I think every night out should end with “September” regardless of what else was being played. It’s so happy. It’s all about love. It talks about dancing. It has nonsense lyrics so everyone can sing along. The end just drifts out in to the universe. And then the lights would come on and the night ends on a high.
You can listen to “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire here.
So I’ve got the exams and final assignments for my final year coming up in the next few weeks. It’s a time where I’ll probably listen to a lot of music, but not have a lot of time to write about it. So before I descend I figured I’d throw up an entry. It’s the start of a new series and it’s one I’ve wanted to start for a while. So “You Should Have Heard This By Now” is based on the idea that there’s tonnes of songs that I love and want to share. Some are going to be songs that everyone knows but that I feel are worth a mention and some are going to be gems that I’ve found over the years.
First up is a “What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?” by Taking Back Sunday. I didn’t go through the emo phase when it was actually a real thing. I had some sort of weird hippy thing with long hair and waistcoats. So there’s a load of bands that probably mean something different to most people than they do to me. I’ve gone back at various times and investigated different bands that I only really knew from people’s badges. This track was a little bit different. I heard it on Masters of Rock with the bizarre creature that is Bruce Dickinson back in 2006/7 on BBC something. Really weird show with a really eclectic mix of really solid tunes some of which may appear later in this series.
Anyway, this track has stuck with me more than most. It’s a really kick ass riff. I’m sure people probably find them super whiny or whatever, but I’m a whiny dude and that’s ok with me because I can filter out other people’s moanyness. I think they’ve got a cool set up of voices. It’s probably easier to enjoy if you can ignore the lyrics. It’s like they try too hard. They’re not quite at the same level of Panic at the Disco! but they’re not great, “Tacky and irrelevant/ so what?”. The word tacky is so “Mean Girls” (Mentioning “Mean Girls” makes me kooky right?). It’s also got a nifty quiet bit and then ends with more heavy heavy. It’s just a fun song that makes you want to bounce around like a fucking idiot and sing as loud as you can. It seems like there’s not a lot of “rock” songs like that around anymore but I’m probably not looking in the right places…
Ugh… Youtube.
Hit me up with songs that are similar though. You’ll have the honour of being my first commenter. heh
Do remixes count as new music? Of course. Crimson is a sound dude and this is a cool remix. I love when remixed classic songs work and this does. It’s chilled and sexy. I think one of the most important elements of a quality remix is identifying what’s good about the original. That really works in this one. I can’t remember anything about the original apart for the one lyrical hook. Honestly, what did the rest of that song sound like? Crimson takes what’s good from the original and makes a totally different song out of it. Very cool.
He also appeared recently on a really interesting international project, “Trying to Find Love in a Parallel Universe”. It’s 26 tracks from 25 artists all over the world. Have a listen to Crimson’s effort here and check out his soundcloud for cool and freeeee tunes here. I met the man himself over in DCU last week while I was helping out long time friend of Kevinisabastard.com, Matt Moynihan, with his deck-nomination on DCU FM. The boys in DCU DJ Soc are running a Boiler Room inspired event tomorrow night which should definitely be worth a look, including sets from Crimson and Back Room Beat aka Matt Moyhihan. Check out the details here.
* Had some trouble embedding the soundcloud track so I’ve stuck a link to the track in instead
The Mot showed me “Girls/Girls/Boys” by Panic! at the Disco. I had totally gone off Panic! after the first album to be honest. They did the whole “Nine in the Afternoon” thing and there’s always been that kinda theatrical, gothic thing going on. More recently there’s been a more electronic element to what they’ve been doing. This track has some of these electronic bits but I think it’s an all round better tune than anything we’ve heard from the band in a long time. They’ve always appealed to me in a lot of ways but had these flaws that totally ruined them for me. I’ve always thought they were lyrically smug and over wordy. This song and video are less overly stylised. The lyrics are still intelligent and witty but seem more mature, less teenage-poet-wannabe, shorter song titles are a good sign.
Apart from how I felt it is better than their earlier stuff, “Girls/Girls/Boys” is just generally a belter. The bass reminds me of New Young Pony Club, it kinda dances underneath the rest of the track, so I think this is one for the decent quality sound systems or headphones. Unlike other tracks from the album, they don’t mess with Brendan Urie’s voice to much which is a definite plus. He is a fantastic singer and this is probably the best I’ve heard his voice. I think the different instruments sound a bit like they’re looped tracks but, in fairness, I have been listening to the song pretty much non-stop to get in the mood to write about it. It works though. The instrument changes are all pretty subtle and the focus is on the overall song rather than any one instrument at any time.
Video is weird.Just Brendan Urie, in the nip. The dude has a much body hair as I have on my hands. It’s crazy that there’s no bullshit about it being pornographic or inappropriate like there is about all the Miley Cyrus videos. What’s going on there?
So that’s it! What d’ya think? What are you listening to? Any recommendations?
kevinisabastard 