Best Selling UK Download Ever No 2

Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon

Don't Trust Me

3OH!3 (pronouced "three-oh-three") is an American electronic music group from Boulder, Colorado. Formed in 2004, the band is named after the 303 area code, which includes Boulder as well as the Denver metropolitan area.

I had never heard of them but my granddaughter Simone says they are amazing - so I have to check then out.

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 3

over 73 million views

Stadium Giants

Official site

They don't make seven-minute doomed-teen-lover melodramas like the Kings of Leon's "Knocked Up" anymore.
Rolling Stone

The group’s name is derived from Nathan, Caleb, and Jared’s father and grandfather, both named Leon.

To date Kings of Leon have sold an estimated 28 million units worldwide of all three albums Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times, making them one of the most commercially successful new bands to hit the scene in decades.



Sex on Fire

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 4

Kings of Leon - Use Somebody

Back to the Middle

Canadian post-hardcore

Their music is characterized by turbulent and explosive dynamics with intricate guitar melodies. Consisting of five friends, they formed in late 2001 as the result of a three-band break up.

The band’s name is a sort-of homage to an adult entertainer named Alexis Fire, who claimed to be the world’s only lactating contortionist stripper. Alexisonfire’s lyrical topics range from relationship troubles to go-karting. They have two primary vocalists, screaming duties carried out by George Pettit, and singing by Dallas Green, with support from Wade MacNeil.





OK - another recommendation - I listened to heavy rock 40 years ago so I've been here and left, but has merit. I just find all the niches/names confusing - I try to ignore them anyway - just listen to all types and enjoy.

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 5

In For the Kill - La Roux



She is never out of the media at the moment.

American Alternative Rock

The band sets its music in a fictional town from the 1950s isolated from the rest of the world that's been turned upside-down with the mysterious disappearance of their most famous socialite, Adalia. The music provides an outlet for the band's views on politics, culture, and the media's obsession with celebrity status. The theme behind the band's music is in relation to the mystery of Adalia. The album artwork shows images of her and the mysteries behind her and the town of Madina Lake. It's a concept from the mind of Matthew Leone that is set to span three albums and includes a book as well as a website devoted to helping fans solve the case by uncovering "clues" hidden in the lyrics, album art, and videos.





Anyway my granddaughter said I should give them a look. Seen it, done it!

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 6

Run - Leona Lewis

Happy Birthday Boss

Some of his best live performances

Born to Run Live

A very young Bruce - The River

Bruce Springsteen - The River (1979)
Uploaded by GMRedskins. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Thunder Road


Sunny Day

Waitin' on a sunny day - bruce springsteen live 2002
Uploaded by runawaydream. - Explore more music videos.

Dancin in the dark

dancing in the dark - bruce springsteen live glastonbury
Uploaded by runawaydream. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

This Land is Your Land



Happy Birthday

Sticks N Stones

He defeated Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke to win the Best Solo Artist at the 2007 Shockwave NME Awards.He has also been nicknamed "one man Arctic Monkey". Canvas Magazine have described him as "like the bastard lovechild of Billy Bragg and Mike Skinner doing his best Joe Strummer impression"

Simone thinks he's amazing - but then he is only 23.

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 7

Hallelujah - Alexandra Burke


Jeff Buckley

Leonard Cohen

Don't leave me this way ....

Ex Communards - an excellent voice

Kiss With A Fist

I like her very much! Musically Florence and the Machine's sound is generally referred to as soul-inspired indie. Florence and The Machine's music has received praise across the British music media, especially from the BBC who played a large part in Florence and The Machine's rise to prominence by promoting her as part of BBC Introducing.This led to her playing a number of music festivals in 2008, including Glastonbury as well as Reading and Leeds and T in the Park.



Dog Days

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 8

Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis

James Brown

Soul

An Acquired Taste?

My granddaughter really thinks I should be into this singer - I'm finding it a little difficult, perhaps I need to persevere.

At Peñate's concerts, it is customary that audience members enter the stage while the song "Torn On The Platform" is performed. One such stage invasion at the Oxford Zodiac on 22 April 2007 resulted in a fan stealing Peñate's distortion pedal. After he'd realised it was missing he proclaimed, “D’you know what? Whoever’s got it…keep it! Just make sure you play a Telecaster through it and not a Gibson!”



Jack Peñate is the grandson of Mervyn Peake, author and illustrator of The Gormenghast Trilogy. His live performances are characterised by his much commented, “individualist” style of dancing where he plays guitar and dances simultaneously with a vigorous fluidity - he finds it hard to keep still.

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 9

Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol



I saw this on TV

English Electropop

As a musician Little Boots sings and plays the keyboard, piano, stylophone and a Japanese electronic instrument, called Tenori-on.
Hesketh has cited Captain Beefheart, Pink Floyd, Britney Spears, The Human League and Miley Cyrus as influences.
She takes her stage name from the film Caligula (meaning 'Little Boot' in Latin)

Best Selling UK Download Ever No 10

Rockstar - Nickelback

Sing along here


Lipsyching

Young Folks

Amazon - Young Folks

Is it me, or does Kanye West need therapy...

I'm trying to understand why you would do what Kanye West did during the MTV VMA awards. The only thing I can think to say is that I hope Mr. West gets the therapy that he needs.



But at least Beyonce has some class.

MTV Shows

The Resistance

The Times

'A rock frontman who bulk-buys Heinz beans in case of an apocalypse and whose bookshelf has at least one title by David Icke, isn’t a terribly enticing proposition on paper. But, of course, Matt Bellamy’s reluctance to brook any moderation in his world view is the very thing that makes his group so extraordinary. You needn’t spend too long in the company of Muse’s fifth album to realise as much. How the Teignmouth trio must have laughed, last time around, when critics said there was nowhere for them to go from here.'

Zane Lowe

"A beautifully recorded, strong, sweeping, fighting, uplifting, rocking, and inclusive record about love."

Play.com

"sweeping collection of songs where classical and rock influences collide but never clash" and even going so far as saying the album is "a genuine modern masterpiece".

Track Listing
1. "Uprising" – 5:04

2. "Resistance" – 5:46

3. "Undisclosed Desires" – 3:55
4. "United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)" – 5:47

5. "Guiding Light" – 4:13
6. "Unnatural Selection" – 6:54
7. "MK Ultra" – 4:06
8. "I Belong to You (+Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix)" – 5:38
9. "Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture)" – 4:18

10. "Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination)" – 3:56
11. "Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 (Redemption)" – 4:36

Definitely one to get!

The Resistance

Black Holes and Revelations

Muse's live performances are of course legendary, this album won them a Mercury Prize nomination I have this album - my mates have seen them and were astounded.

Observer Music Monthly

Entertaining and rabble-rousing, daft and deadly serious, it's a fantastic record, with almost limitless appeal.

Q Magazine

A work of dazzling scope and grandeur... It is impossible to imagine any other band making music quite like this

Track List
1. "Take a Bow" 4:35

2. "Starlight" 3:59
3. "Supermassive Black Hole" 3:29

4. "Map of the Problematique" 4:18
5. "Soldier's Poem" 2:03
6. "Invincible" 5:00
7. "Assassin" 3:31
8. "Exo-Politics" 3:53
9. "City of Delusion" 4:48
10. "Hoodoo" 3:43
11. "Knights of Cydonia" 6:06

12. "Glorious"

Amazon UK

Black Holes and Revelations

Listen

BBC Review here

When Christy Moore sings you can't help but pay attention and, as the title demands, listen. That famously smouldering voice, pungently burnished by years of wringing wit and wisdom from an versatile songbook retains its commanding presence throughout his first album since 2005.

No stranger to having accolades heaped upon a recording career spanning 40 years (including the hugely influential 70s folk group, Planxty), Moore is heard praising others for a change.

Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond, sounds as though its always been waiting to be coaxed into this forlorn, softly-sung eulogy to Syd Barrett, whilst Moore turns on the flinty anger in Duffy's Cut, spitting questions about 57 Irish navvies who mysteriously lost their lives building America's railroad in the 19th Century.

1. “Listen” – 2:48

2. “Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?” – 3:32
3. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” – 5:07

4. “The Ballad of Ruby Walsh” – 3:39
5. “China Waltz” – 3:11
6. “Barrowland” – 3:15
7. “Duffy’s Cut” – 3:30

8. “The Disappeared (Los Desaparecidos)” – 3:19
9. “Ridin’ the High Stool” – 3:04
10. “Gortatagort” – 3:42
11. “I Will” – 3:05
12. “John O’Dreams” – 3:06
13. “Rory’s Gone” – 3:39


Listen

Speech Debelle wins Mercury music prize

Speech Debelle, real name Corynne Elliot, got her pseudonym from her Jamaican grandmother. As the 26-year-old rapper from south London explains, she got a lot more from her — drive, work ethic, self-belief. Her gran’s original surname is Deeble, means “to explode with great force”. She is certainly doing that.

Debelle's album was written when she was a teenager living alone in a hostel. Asked in the post-award press conference what she would do with money she replied calmly "probably be smart and invest it."

Track lists

1. Searching

2. Key, The

3. Better Days - Speech Debelle & Micachu

4. Spinnin'

5. Go Then Bye

6. Daddy's Little Girl

7. Bad Boy

8. Wheels In Motion - Speech Debelle & Roots Manuva

9. Live And Learn

10. Working Weak

11. Buddy Love

12. Finish This Album

13. Speech Therapy

Speech Therapy

Heard this today

.. and it was sublime

Brazilian Jazz pianist

She has recorded several notable albums, including one featuring duets with Herbie Hancock. Their 1995 disc "Solos and Duets" was nominated for a Grammy in the "Jazz instrumental video" category. In 1997, American musician Bob Brookmeyer dedicated a full album to his arrangements of Eliane's compositions, backed by the Danish Jazz Orchestra and published under the name of "Impulsive!", which received another Grammy nomination as "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album" in 2001.

"Eliane is a rare talent. She is of a new generation of aggressive pianists that attack music like a lioness attacking its prey, at the same time expressing a tenderness within the core of her passion that at times has brought me to tears. She never seems to run out of inventive ideas. It was a great joy for me to join her one to one as dueling pianists bent not on competing but challenging each other to reach deep down for shapes and colors to construct a musical painting." - Herbie Hancock

Elias is the poster girl for jazz globalization. Brazilian-born, now New York-based, Elias reveals her Latin roots, her classical apprenticeship, her harmonically complex composing skills and her refreshingly contemporary keyboard chops in her performance. All this, in collaboration with Brookmeyer, makes for an outstanding session. - Jazz Times on Impulsive!

Impulsive!

Solos And Duets

Artist Store

100%

I love Beverleys voice and listen to her music if I ever feel down in the dumps



This is one of my favourite tracks of any artist


I'll be right behind you
Keep on going
In whichever way the wind is blowing
I will be there 'til the
World stops turning
Baby I will keep this fire burning

I will be your sister
I will be your brother
I will be your friend
I will be your lover
I will be your everything, yes I will, yeah
Baby I will keep this fire burning




100%

Brown Eyed Girl

I would love to see a video of her performing the song - this will have to do for the moment

Love!

Irish Rockabilly

'Imelda has shared the stage with Alison Moyet, Dionne Warwick, Bryan Ferry, Anastasia, The Supremes, Sister Sledge, Scissor Sisters, Madeleine Peyroux, Matt Bianco, Elvis Costello, Jools Holland and Elton John. She didn't actually share the stage with Costello but has reported sharing a toilet with him on one occasion. During a show with Elton John she has said she watched from over a balcony. She also spent four years as a vocalist in Mike Sanchez's seven-piece rhythm and blues band'

An excellent set on Jools Holland - so good! Johnny Got A Boom Boom and the beautiful Falling In Love Again.

Still Run

Still Run from DANTE NOU on Vimeo.

Taylor Swift Plays Madison Square Garden

Slate Magazine has a review of Taylor Swift's latest concert at Madison Square Garden. It is a good read and makes a few points about Taylor Swift that are worth reading;

• In 2008, she was the biggest-selling artist in America, with combined sales of her 2006 self-titled debut album and her 2008 release Fearless topping 3.6 million.



• This year, Fearless has moved another 1.6 million copies; its sales totals are second only to the Michael Jackson compilation Number Ones.



• Swift has released eight singles, all of which have reached the country Top 10 and the Top 40 on the pop charts.



• She's had four No. 1 country singles.



• Her latest hit, "You Belong with Me," climbs to No. 2 this week on the Billboard Hot 100.

All of which makes me want to say, "You go girl." Even though I am not in the target demographics for Taylor Swift's music, I like it. Kind of surprises me.

Fearless By Taylor Swift

Click Image For Amazon.com

Taylor Swift @Amazon.com
Taylor Swift @KK&R Music Blog
Taylor Swift @Wikipedia
Taylor Swift's MySpace Page
Taylor Swift Official Site

Lifetime Achievement

Leeds Festival 2009

One of my granddaughters has just returned from the Leeds festival. She liked the music but found there were too many drunks and druggies. She has written a review for me (I'll leave the Absolutely Rubbish and Rubbish categories blank - out of politeness)

Her opinions on the people she saw.

FRIDAY
Arctic Monkeys
Prodigy AMAZING
Maximo Park Good
Ian Brown Very Good
The Courteneers Good
Fightstar OK
Spinnerette Good
Dinosaur Pile Up

SATURDAY
Bloc Party Good
Yeah Yeah Yeahs OK
Brand New OK
Lady Sovereign OK
3OH!3 Good
La Roux OK

SUNDAY
Kings of Leon AMAZING AMAZING (Two times so)

Placebo
Deftones
Alexison Fire OK
Madina Lake OK
Jamie T AMAZING
Florence & The Machine AMAZING
Jack Penate AMAZING
Little Boots Good

The Boat That Rocked the World 3

The soundtrack excellent, the film OK.
These last three have been pure indulgence - lazy for me as well

"A Whiter Shade Of Pale" Performed by Procol Harum

"These Arms of Mine" Performed by Otis Redding

"Cleo's Mood" Performed by Jr. Walker & The All Stars


"The Happening" Performed by The Supremes

"She'd Rather Be With Me" Performed by The Turtles

"98.6" Performed by The Bystanders

"Sunny Afternoon" Performed by The Kinks


"Father and Son" Performed by Cat Stevens
,

"Nights In White Satin" Performed by The Moody Blues

"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" Performed by Dusty Springfield


"Stay with Me, Baby" Performed by Lorraine Ellison

"Hang On Sloopy" Performed by The McCoys


"This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)" Performed by The Isley Brothers

"Let's Dance" Performed by David Bowie


"So Long, Marianne" Written, Composed and Performed by Leonard Cohen
(1967)


"Let's Spend The Night Together" Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

"To Sir With Love" Sung by Lulu (1967)

"All over the world" Written, Composed and Performed by Françoise Hardy (1965)

"Won't Get Fooled Again" Written by Pete Townshend Performed by The Who


The Boat That Rocked [DVD] [2009]