New Waves.. Peace - 'Follow Baby'

Well, 'not-so-new' would be more appropriate, seeing as the band first released this song sometime last year, but with the run up to Peace's debut album, In Love (pre-order it guys, you know that it's gonna be great!) getting ever shorter, it seems somewhat apt to remind interweb denizens what sparked people's curiosity in the first place.

'Follow Baby' is being re-released almost a year from its original release date, having had a bit of a brush up - cleaner vocals are apparent - however, it doesn't really seem to warrant much of the altering that its been subject to at all. As before, there's some niggling facet of the song that makes you feel like you've heard it before (you have, but I'm not talking about last April!). The flow of the lyrics recalls 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', especially in the original version, whilst the music itself brings to mind The Horrors' 'Do You Remember' at certain points, however, I find myself in a total state of 'not caring!', as 'Follow Baby' is such a great song in its own right that having their influences so obviously displayed doesn't matter at all.

It is easily Peace's 'heaviest' song, with grungy guitars and a somewhat whiny vocal before the jubilant chorus swoops in with all its glittering glory, with lyrics so repetitively simple that they swirl around your cranium, Looney Tunes style. Personally, I still prefer the original version, but if this cleaner version gets Peace more mainstream recognition - which it no doubt will - they will blow up the year of 2013 in a more extravagant way than any music busybody could have predicted.

'Follow Baby' is released March 24th.

http://peaceforeverever.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/peaceforeverever
https://soundcloud.com/p-e-a-c-e

Flashback Friday.. Nirvana - 'Come As You Are'

Again, lack of posts. Apologies, I've just been trying to blitz my workload before Christmas, because I do not want to be attempting to do it in that yummy few days between Christmas itself and New Year.

Currently, I can hear the One Direction/Ed Sheeran amalgamation, 'Little Things' coming through the adjoining wall to my neighbours house. Let's fight this!

Earlier this week, on the 12/12/12 fundraiser concert to raise money to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy, it was revealed that a certain Paul McCartney was to join Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and man for hire, Pat Smear in order to perform under what was being dubbed a 'Nirvana reuinion'. I admit, when I first read about this I found it hilarious had my reservations, as the mental concoction of a McCartney fronted Nirvana playing what would have most likely been 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was more than amusing, especially with McCartney's voice being a weak shadow of what it once was, wobble and all. Fortunately, they didn't play a Nirvana song, but instead attacked a new song entitled 'Cut Me Some Slack', and it far surpassed my expectations, as did McCartney's voice, which surprisingly held out (watch below)! Under this guise, I'd be intrigued to hear more, although if they do continue it would only seem right to drop the 'Nirvana' tag.

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All this got me thinking about classic Nirvana songs, and whilst my favourite Nirvana song is probably 'Breed' today's post is going to be about 'Come As You Are'.  

The follow up single to their breakthrough song, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Come As You Are' is far more moody. The swampy sounding main riff uncannily resembling that within the song 'Eighties' by industrial punk/metal band Killing Joke, and taken from their album Night Time, which contained some of their most well known songs such as 'Love Like Blood' (their own breakthrough hit), 'Europe' and the aforementioned track. The track also famously contains the line 'And I swear that I don't have a gun' which, post Cobain's suicide, carries an unsavoury sense of irony.

Wonder Woman of the Week.. Kathleen Hanna!

Welcome to my new weekly Sunday feature - Wonder Woman of the Week! As previously mentioned in my organisation post, this will be a weekly feature where I choose a woman who inspires me (or has been heavily featured for whatever reason in that week) and discuss them and say what exactly makes them so brill! 


So who should my first woman be.... hmm... how about riot grrrl feminist, Kathleen Hanna!

Founder of riot grrrl band, Bikini Kill, and later electroclash outifit, Le Tigre, Hanna has been a poignant and outspoken feminist voice since the early 1990's. 


She first became interested in feminism when her mother, a housewife, took her to a feminist rally where Gloria Steinham spoke when she was aged nine, which left a lasting impression. She later studied photography at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, also working as a stripper to support herself. Her exhibits at this time dealt with issues such as sexism and AIDS, although her work was taken down before public viewing by school administrators in the name of censorship, prompting her to create an independent feminist art gallery called Reko Muse. She also did spoken word sexism and domestic violence and volunteered for a domestic abuse organisation.


Bikini Kill was named after a fanzine that members Hanna, Kathi Wilcox, Tobi Vail and Billy Karren created as a response to sexism in the punk rock scene, with the band later writing songs involving such ideals. They released a cassette, EP, split LP with Huggy Bear and two albums - Pussy Whipped and Reject All American before splitting and creating side projects (eg. The Frumpies - minus Hanna, with the addition of Molly Neuman of Bratmobile).


Post Bikini Kill, Hanna started a solo project called Julie Ruin, experimenting with New Wave sounds before later starting political outfit, Le Tigre, who released three albums before becoming inactive.


As someone who is frequently aggravated by sexist comments for sexist comments sake (my guy friends will find themselves quickly shot down), as well as believing in equality, Hanna is certainly an inspiration for me, with herself and her contemporaries challenging a whole scene with their feminist ideals and championing a message that reached new generations across the world. Even now, it continues due to the accessibility of the internet.


Her music is highly catchy, and definitely worth a listen whether you agree with her message or not. 'Decaptacon' by Le Tigre, for example, could easily be the soundtrack to my life, because I am yet to get bored of it! Her image also influences me time and again, as she always looks very put together in with her retro updo's and red lipstick, and wearing prints, tartans. In her Bikini Kill days, she was known to dress as a school girl. Hanna also evidently influenced her friend, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, famously writing 'Kurt smells like teen spirit' on a wall and subsequently inspiring the name of the perhaps the most iconic Nirvana song!


Anyways, check some of the vids below, and I'm pretty sure we have a well deserving first Wonder Woman of the Week.

Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl

Le Tigre - Decaptacon

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Hanna
http://www.kathleenhanna.com/

An eventful week!

Soo, the past week seems to have been pretty intense and busy on my front! My final English Language exam (100% for this module, waiting on results - fingers crossed), followed by pretty much completing my first year of university deadlines as well as my Nonna's birthday on the Wednesday (I got her some nice flowers and pretty silk scarf from River Island picturing a Japanese woman in traditional dress, which I can't find a picture of anywhere!). Saw my cousin's end of year dance performance on the Friday (v.good!) before going to my Nonna's birthday meal on Saturday, as well as seeing Irish comedian, Dara O'Briain do his Craic Dealer show at the Wolves Civic on the Sunday; it was a brilliant night!

Dara was a natural at making something funny out of what the audience provided him with (some contributions were pretty diabolical), I'll defintely be seeing him again the next time around and would recommend everyone else do so too!

Monday was spent practising for our first gig and waiting for my Orange amp to arrive (Crush 100BXT Bass), which cut it pretty fine by arriving at about 6 o'clock at night after I'd been waiting on it for approximately 2 and a half weeks!

The gig was on the Tuesday night, as mentioned in the previous post! I have to say, I have never been more nervous for anything in my entire life! Not even when I started uni did I experience nerves such as this! Restlessness, shakes, shallow breathing, I was a wreck! We played five songs, a cover of Yuck's 'Get Away' (vid below) followed by an original song, 'Forgot Me Too' (also below), a cover of Nirvana's 'About A Girl' (again provided below), then followed by two more original songs, 'Sleepwalker' and 'Don't Follow Me'.

The gig went better than I'd thought it would; I didn't drop any plecs on the floor to hunt for mid song! - and even though I myself know that I made a few minor mistakes, the audience didn't notice, and we received a lot of positive feedback which was pleasing!

After that, the week has been pretty quiet. Myself and some friends travelled to Birmingham for a day's shopping in the sun (it's been spectacularly hot this week!), where we mooched through some vintage shops such as COW, where I bought a khaki vest/blouse which I'll probably post about soon!

It's been pretty relaxed since then! I've spent some time drawing, writing, watching Eurovison,The Matrix and Lord of the Rings and trying to teach myself some chords on my old acoustic (I'm the "bass player") which is another challenge that I've set myself. Apart from that, I'll most likely be clearing out my wardrobe in order to sell some of my clothes and other possessions on eBay. I doubt this week will be as eventful as the past week or so, but I'll try my best to make it so!

Til next time :)