Exit Music

Well, this is it.

The final entry of this little experiment.

I do hope that you’ve enjoyed my daily nuggets of controlled lunacy over the past month, and that you’ve found some new music to fill your lives with.

The aim of this blog was to showcase how much good music there is available on the internet, in the past 28 days only a extremely small sample of what's available has been presented to you, now it's your job to continue! Spread wide and forage, my friends!

Highlights from this blog for myself personally have been Panda Kopanda, Melodica Melody and Me, Grammatics, and Take a Worm for a Walk Week (even if just for the name).

Let me know what you’ve liked, disliked, loved or loathed from my Myspace minings! Just leave a comment!

I have definitely enjoyed writing for this blog; it has opened my eyes to writing for an audience (your lovely selves, of course) and has allowed me to write with a different approach to the usual essay-and-assignment routine.

Any further posts will have to be in a separate blog as this URL states 28 bands in 28 days, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it eh?

So for the final time, I bid you goodnight!

Dark Captain Light Captain

All abooaaaard!

You there! Climb the rigging! Scrub the poop-deck! Get the rum! Now where's my parrot...

The reason for all this (slightly stereotypical) nautical-talk is because today’s review-blog is ‘Dark Captain Light Captain’, I know that hasn’t got a great deal to do with the beginning, but a guy’s got to have an intro, right?!

We see a smidge of electronic music creep into this blog again as HMS Myspace Music Adventure leaves port for its final voyage into the vast ocean of Myspace, to bring back one more haul of audio goodies.

Enough with the sailing metaphors already, the electronic music that I mentioned in just the last sentence rises effortlessly from the Myspace music player, skipping towards you hand in hand with guitars and percussion with such grace that at first you think it might even be the mythological mermaids of old sailor’s tales, darn it, I’ve gone and done it again!

The vocals aren’t the most characteristic thing in the mix, being just over a whisper, but without it there would definitely be something missing, showing that you don’t always need a screaming lunatic as a front man to make an impression.

For this I wholly recommend Dark Captain Light Captain, so gather your crew, raise anchor, and set sail for their profile!

URL: www.myspace.com/darkcaptain

Part Chimp

The date is the 28th of April, is it not?

I said this blog would last 28 days, did I not?

This is the 28th day, but I have only given you 26 bands, so I am stopping here?

I AM NOT.

That’s right, you lucky creatures, you have the luxury of two further band posts (including today), so that this blog fulfils its criteria set out by yours truly, because I’m such a nice guy!

‘Part Chimp’ are today’s focus, and anyone who thought I was all about gently-gently music can go and...well...do something I probably shouldn’t write on here (for those of you with more sensitive imaginations).

Fuzzy, greasy and loud are Part Chimps agenda, reminding the listener of the heavier sounds of Yourcodenameis:milo, Death From Above 1979 (remember them?) and The Abominable Iron Sloth, who just weren’t long around for long enough in my opinion.

Anyway, back to the Part Chimp boys, everything pretty much has a scuzzy layer of distortion on it, just to let you know that they mean business. Real business. As in you’d be scared what they would do to you if you admitted that you kinda liked that Cheryl Cole single...

If sonic destruction is your cuppa, go on, give Part Chimp a try!

URL: www.myspace.com/partchimp

The Holiday Plan

So far this blog has seen some new bands, and some side projects (well, one) through its short but glorious lifetime.

But today, to keep you on your toes, I am going to throw you a steaming great curveball of a post.

A band that split up a few years ago, who hardly anyone seemed to know, and have got back together! (Pretty clever eh?)

‘The Holiday Plan’ are a bit of a pet band of mine to be fair, I adored them when they were together back in the good old days (well, 2004), and I would feel a bit bad if I didn’t share them with the rest of you now that you’ve got a second chance to enjoy them!

It’s some British rock again I’m afraid (what can I say? I’m a sucker for it!), four fellas making music that doesn’t let up, the perfect remedy if you’re feeling a bit dusty and those cobwebs need blowing away! Or in my case, for a good old dose of nostalgia...

Nostalgia?!

NOSTALGIA?!

Why would I want to revisit the past when I have all the music I need here in the present? Well, you don’t usually find a band this special (in my opinion) very often, the closest thing I’ve found these days are The Maccabees, and I freakin’ love them too!

URL: www.myspace.com/theholidayplan

Elizabeth and the Catapult

La la la, la la la, la la la, la la, la.

That’s what pop’s all about isn’t it? Singing along, even if you know little or none of the words, having a dance and wearing a great big Cheshire-cat smile plastered across your mug.

I think that’s the idea anyway, I think, and it seems to work for me, so to this formula I shall so stubbornly stick!

Three people (or rather, one person and an object) who seem to agree with me are ‘Elizabeth and the Catapult’. Now I know you’re going to unleash on me a torrent of "OH THEY’VE JUST COPIED FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE & MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS", but as you’ll find out if you pay even a fleeting visit to their profile, they ain’t!

The musical result is a charming blend of sugar-pop and grown up themes, with instrumentation ranging from soaring strings to ragtime piano, every song’s a bit different from the last, but contain hooks that grab your memory and just won’t let go .

That may not seem like much of a feat, but creating songs that attach themselves to you like toilet paper to a shoe (that’s a good thing in this sense, by the way), without the use of that darn autotune business is something I believe should be treasured!

Now sing along, dance, and grin like you mean it!

URL: www.myspace.com/elizabethandthecatapult

Bread and Jam

Now I like a good sandwich as much as the next person, maybe even more than the next person, but bread and jam is possibly the way in which most of us start our love affair with the bread-and-filling snack.

As we grow, our palette starts to change, but there’s still the child inside screaming out for bread and jam each time you buy the most sophisticated sandwich you can find in Marks & Spencer.

Fear not! Now that inner voice can be appeased by the tunes of ‘Bread and Jam’ (not literally, obviously, the sound of spreading jam would grow tedious after a while).

Although the lyrics of the poppy outfit may seem to be of the same usual ‘observations’ of modern society that every band and their mates seem to be doing, but the backing music is so optimistic and smile-inducing you can’t help but nod your head like an idiot after a few bars.

Now, the music, if Jamie T and The Libertines teamed up and decided to make a pop/reggae/rock band, however ridiculous that may sound, is how I’m choosing to describe Bread and Jam.



Now in this blog we have Beans on Toast and Bread and Jam, what’s next? Jacket potato? (I spy a challenge...)

URL: www.myspace.com/breadandjammusic

Ideogram

Another soft one today guys.

‘Ideogram’ graces the prestigious wall of blogs on this fine Saturday evening, and it’s definitely music for the weekend.

When I mention ‘music for the weekend’, I don’t mean the tripe that’s forced onto us from the Top 40, or the latest Kaiser Chiefs single. (Give me SOME credit please!)

I mean relaxing music that you feel you can only take the time to appreciate on the weekend, when your mind is free from obnoxious thoughts of paperwork and deadlines.

You’ve spent a hard week working or studying, you need a treat or two, go on, you deserve it, so grab yourself a bag of sweets (or a glass of wine if we’re feeling sophisticated) and sit down for a listen to Ideogram.


Influences that I can pick from what’s on the Myspace music player are; Damien Rice, Regina Spektor and Radiohead in the louder sections. (You think they wouldn’t mix well? Have a listen!)

It’s mostly acoustic guitar/piano based music that’s produced with sweeping atmospherics that, well, sweep you away! Before you know it you’re floating away on a raft of relaxation with the water tickling at your toes and the music filling your ears.

There, I’ve done my ‘sensible’ review bit; now catch the raft before it leaves shore!

URL: www.myspace,com/franohanlon