Negramaro - Mentre Tutto Scorre

It's been quite a while since I wrote a post. I said some goodbyes, packed some stuff, quite awkward but sold our good ol' car. Since some of you may know my computer is dead and I'm using my brothers old laptop which I've kept for emergency situations like this.

I haven't listened new stuff except what I have in my iPod, yesterday I decided to use the 30 song credit which Last.fm gave me (damn you Last.fm). I've typed "Italian" and started listening. The second track Last.fm played was Negramaro's "Mentre Tutto Scorre". I was very impressed by the song and Last.fm couldn't offer me better stuff since track 9 which was Toto Cutugno's classic "L'italiano". I've done some search and found out that these guys were quite famous in Italy. I listened to "Solo3min" which was also great.

Today I decided to write a post about their third studio album; Mentre Tutto Scorre. The album brought the band country-wide fame and "Best Italian Act" award at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards. The title song was their first single and the fourth single of the album "Nuvole e Lenzuola" was selected for "Guitar Hero: World Tour" video game. Their music is best described as Alternative Rock, which stands for; somewhere between pop and rock, yet worth listening. Giuliano Sangiorgi is a very talented singer, he has a very characteristic voice, his vocal range is very wide and he can switch between high and low very quickly.

Believe it or not, I haven't listened the album completely yet (now I'm at track 9) but I am very very fascinated. Maybe because it's Italian and I don't understand anything except a few words but I always believe that music is more than just words. I can say that this is the first and so far the best Italian album I've heard. These guys know how to make good music and I'm quite happy perché I have a favourite Italian band before I leave.

Les Paul (1915 - ∞)

A few days ago, as I was checking TV before breakfast I saw a shocking line saying "American Guitar Virtuoso Les Paul Dies at 94". It was kind of inevitable, nearly no one lives 94 years but what shook me was something much more interesting.

I was sitting with my family by the poolside when I saw a friend of mine coming. We started to chat about music and stuff. He plays double bass for my former university's orchestra and has a little recording studio on his own. We went to his place, we played stuff with his bass and guitar (which was a Les Paul replica), we watched various videos on youtube, discussing which guitar player is better. We watched Joe Pass, Zakk Wylde and many others and finally it came to Les Paul, I showed him this video and we were both amazed by this incredible man. Then I went home to sleep, and learned that he died when I woke up.

Les Paul was not just a Jazz/Blues guitarist, he was the most talented inventor the music industry has ever seen. Most notably, he invented solid body electric guitar and multi-track recording. The techniques he used was way ahead of his time. He recorded many hit songs in the 50's with his ex-wife Mary Ford, and with other legendary musicians including Chet Atkins. Most importantly, he was the inspiration to almost everything we hear today. When he had that famous traffic accident, he asked the doctors to bring his guitar, and the docs fixed his broken elbow according to his picking position.

When he was 93 last year, he was still playing at Iridium Jazz Club in New York on mondays. He was one of the few artists I wanted to hear live. I knew my dream was kind of impossible. He lived a very good life and with things he left behind, he'll live in our hearts forever. 

The Red Special

It's not a Gibson, it's not a Fender, in fact it doesn't even have a brand. What we have here is the most unique guitar of rock music history.

Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen built this legendary instrument with his father, they used what they had in the house so it's basicly a built-your-guitar-at-home! They used woods from an 18th century fireplace for the body. May stated that he has two wormholes at the neck. The inlay buttons were his moms nacre buttons. The tremolo system was taken from an old motorbike. Because May is a physicist, he knows a lot about electricity and he has done all the wiring, he bought three single coil Burns pick-ups and wired them in series instead of paralels. Which resulted more bass and less treble, also when all pick-ups are active, the output is triple. He installed on/off switches for all three pick-ups which is not something common in three pick-up guitars.

Despite it's features, the Red Special also has a unique tone which is impossible to replicate. When you listen to a Queen cover, you know there's something wrong but you can't tell what it is. Let me tell you, it's the Red Special, no guitar(ist) can match it's tone or Brian May's technique. Brian May built this guitar in 1963 and used it to record all Queen albums. Today he still uses this 46 year old guitar along with it's replicas which makes it one of the longest active guitars of all time.

If you have enough money, you can have a replica of the Red Special. Brian May founded his own guitar company called Brian May Guitars (wow what a creative name) and reproduces this important instrument for Queen fans. Do I want one? I'm not so sure, even if they had a lefty model, this guitar is meant and built to be played by Brian May.

Thank god! We're not hearing you anymore Top 10

Today I decided to post a list of musicians who we are not hearing from. They've either ended their musical careers or no one cares about them anymore. One thing they have in common is they make our world a better place to live.

10 - t.A.T.u

They were cute russian girls, what made them popular was not their music but their sexual preferences. They were holding hands and kissing on every performance, I think the world needed something like that at the moment. Then one of them got pregnant somehow and bla bla. Even if they're doing something at the moment no one really cares anymore. "All the Things She Said" was not a bad song but was nothing special. Ten years from now no one will remember them.

9 - Vanilla Ice

I don't really remember what this guy was up to, he stole a sample from Queen's "Under Pressure" and released something like "Ice Ice Baby". The song was absolutely rubbish for any Queen fan, and people who liked the song liked the sample. The only good thing about him was something he hasn't done. It was Jim Carrey's epic dance performance on SNL.

8 - Eamon

I have to admit I kind of liked his song "Fuck It! (Don't Want You Back)". But when I think about it now I ask myself; Do we need him now? The answer is absolutely no! He was just another one hit wonder, he filled a huge gap with this song, he's done his service to the community and then disappeared. Akon & Snoop Dogg released "I Wanna Fuck You" but it was no way near. Thank you Eamon, you've done a great job and destroyed yourself.

7 - Backstreet Boys

I think these guys were offended because no one showed them the meaning of being lonely. It was literally impossible to understand the meaning of being lonely when you are a 5-piece boy band. I think even they didn't like their music, they were only in it for the money. It's not only the thing about Backstreet Boys, we also got rid of Westlife, N'Sync and Blue. In total, they sum like 15 or 20 men and the only thing left from this group is Justin Timberlake. He fills the gap of boy bands individually and as long as he's around I don't think world needs another boy band.

6 - Spice Girls

This is sort of the same story with the Backstreet Boys but Spice Girls were much more dangerous. The world has been through a lot in the last century, the WWI, the WWII and the Spice Girls but we're safe now. If David Beckham has played a tiny little bit part of their break up I thank him a million times. You're not only a great football player, you're also the man who saved the world.

5 - Aqua

I'm a barbie-girl, in the barbie-world.

Life in plastic, It's fantastic!

Yes it was fantastic, no one understood what hit them. Aqua, you are responsible for the brain damage you caused on millions of people and I also think you are the reason of the economical crisis.

4 - Alphaville

There was nothing wrong with Alphaville's music. In fact they released a few classic hits including "Big in Japan", "Forever Young" and "Sounds Like a Melody" but it is very obvious that you don't belong to this world. What you did was great but it was just a phase. When we find life forms in another corner of the universe we may need you. We may send you to that galaxy and maybe they would understand your music. With their clothes, keyboards and that stupid smoke machine they tried to make the music of the future. So here we are, at the future and what you have done doesn't seem to be the music of now and I don't think we'll come across anything like you in the following 50 years.

3 - 50 Cent

I don't wanna talk much about him, ('cos maybe he'll find and kill me) he didn't make a single contribution to the music industry and he isn't around since he was crushed into pieces by Kanye West. The world has enough gangsta rappers, we didn't see you around in a while and I don't think we want to.

2 - Amy Winehouse

Her first and probably the last album was not bad, I listened to it for like a month then I got bored. And presumably she got bored too so she started to do other things. I don't even know wheter she's dead or alive. What she is trying is to die and become a legend but no one told her that you don't get the legend status with only one album. I think you should've gone to rehab when they told you so. I honestly don't think that would make any difference but there was a tiny possibility for us to have a proper musician.

1 - Las Ketchup

These three spanish girls were probably the worst musicians world has ever came across. None of them looked beautiful and their song "Asere Je!" sounded like shit. I still don't know how but it become an instant hit. Then I guess people realised and said; OMG we created a monster! They somehow disappeared and the world is a much better to live now. I still get scared when I remember them, sometimes I see nightmares of them being popular again. Thank god we're not hearing you anymore.

Florence + the Machine - Lungs

It's been quite a while since I have posted an album review, and I decided I should do one. Lungs is the debut album of english soul & indie artist Florence Welch. The spelling is a bit of a confusion, iTunes Store and Amazon.com refer to as "Florence + the Machine" while Last.fm and Wikipedia credit as "Florence and the Machine". Anyway, it seems the spelling of their name is the least of problems.

Florence was making music with her friend Isabelle Summers, they called each other "Florence Robot" and "Isabella Machine". Then she switched the name to "Florence + the Machine", judging by the name it seems like a band but this is her recording name, the Machine is a group of artists who provide backing music for her.

The album contains some good songs and some very good songs. Very good songs catch you at a few listens, remaining songs are at so-so level. There is no doubt that Welch is a magnificent singer, she has a very strong voice. Throughout the album, she doesn't make a single mistake in terms of singing, but seems like the Machine isn't working very well. It's her fault though, you can feel that Florence Welch is the boss of this thing. I think she didn't set her genre in her head yet. Some songs have the proper indie rock sound with great guitar riffs some have lots of strings and no guitars at all. It feels like this album was not produced by a single producer and in fact it really is. Florence knows music and it feels like she's been doing it for a while. I believe this is a compilation of her previous works. 46 minutes is not very long but she kept all the good songs for the first half and you get bored after a while. "Howl" I think is the best of the album and one of the best songs I've heard this year, "Girl With One Eye" is epic, "Kiss With a Fist" has a lot of joy and fun but all these songs were not brought together properly. All songs are individually good but it is very hard to follow. The only binding force is Florence's extraordinary voice but after a while you start to think this is a best-of album of the artist and each song represent different eras of her career.

In conclusion, this is an album with some very good songs performed by a very talented artist but the problem is it doesn't feel like an album at all. I think Florence needs to decide which way she will go in her career, and she has to do some mending to the machine. If Florence Welch takes my advise (I don't see any good reason why she should) she has the capacity to be an all time classic.

New Earphones

I went for a little 3-day holiday and now I'm back for more. I also have a new pair of earbuds. My DealExtreme orders have arrived, including these cheap in-ear earphones. I've had a 54 km bike trip today with these new ones.

For those of you who don't know about DealExtreme, it's a Hong-Kong based web site. It sells China made technology gadgets, they're very low quality but most of the time they do the job. Prices are at "you gotta be joking" level and they ship them free worldwide. Buy a keychain for $ 0.79 and you have it delivered to your door all the way from Hong-Kong without any shipping cost. It's quite safe, it accepts only PayPal.

I think I made quite an advert about the site and now it's time for the earphones. I got them for $ 4.38, it may sound cheap (in fact it is) but it's one of the expensive ones on the site. I read some good reviews and some bad, I decided to give it a try. This is my 4th cheap earphone, previous 2 were also from DealExtreme. I had a pair of fake iPod earphones and a pair of iPod style in-ear earphones. They were both rubbish, and worth $ 3.86 combined, I kept one for back-up and gave other as a gift.

I usually can't get along with in-ears, this one is no exception. Again the middle size pads didn't fit my ears and again the right (I think my right ear canal is wider) one feels a little bit loose. I needed something like this because my Sennheiser earbuds are useless in public transport. This one has better noise isolation, it's not perfect but what you expect from an in-ear. The thing I like about this one is it has more (except Sennheisers, Shures and Koss') treble than the other in-ears on the market, the bass is more balanced, it doesn't blow your ears but doesn't sound very good either. One let down of this thing, and the biggest is it's mids. The mids are terrible and spoils all the fun.

They maybe a good choice for an average music listener but for me it just isn't. I have to admit they sound better than Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone's bundle in-ears and most Sony's or Philips'. Some earphones sound better in time but I don't think I'll like these. Not because they sound bad, I just don't like in-ears, and probably will never do.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

When you have a brother who is seven-year older, you listen to some unusual stuff. While my class-mates were interested in stupid pop songs of the era, I was listening to Pink Floyd, Queen, Nirvana and of course Metallica. I was 8 or 9 years old when I first heard Metallica and loved their music since. Death Magnetic is their 9th studio album and the best among last few.

They had problems with Jason Newsted for a long time, he was a decent bass player but his parts were either cut out or volumed down during mastering. I think James didn't liked this guy at all and Jason stormed off. They recorded the dreadful St. Anger without a bassist, with producer Bob Rock in charge of the instrument. Metallica did not produce a proper album since the legendary self-titled black album. They "Load"ed, they failed, they "Re-Load"ed, they failed again. They screamed their "St. Anger" and the fans were quite sure, a legend has come to an end. They signed Robert Trujillo as the bassist which did not cheer the fans either. Most people believed they were becoming their own tribute band.

James Hetfield and his friends did a proper job this time, they decided to work with Rick Rubin as the producer. He produced Slayer and Audioslave albums before, and he knows the recipe. James was in charge of the band since day one, he pushed himself to the edge this time. His vocals are perfect, riffs are catchy. Lars destroyed the drum kit into pieces. His drums were also good in "St. Anger" but there was nothing else to back him up. I think the drums in this album are at "... And Justice for All" level. Kirk is a bit of a let down of this album, he has a few good solos but instead of going for melodic solos like in the past, he fell in love with the wah pedal. Rob has done a great job with the bass. This is the first album that we hear proper bass since "Master of Puppets". Here's a video released before the album, shows Rob's skills with an acoustic guitar during one of recording sessions.

This is their longest "proper" studio album, it's 74 minutes long and the shortest song is the last one "My Apocalypse" at 5:01. Metallica usually had long songs, "...And Justice for All" had 9 songs, "Master of Puppets" had only 8. This one has 10 songs and despite a few, they are very good ones. "The Day That Never Comes" was released as the first single before the album which I think was a perfect choise. It's a song with proper Metallica sound and changing tempo, which is something we haven't heard from them in the last decade. James has perfect melodic vocals in "Broken, Beat & Scarred" and my favourite "All Nightmare Long". We also have a new unforgiven in this album the "Unforgiven III". I wonder how much unforgivens they have in store for us. It has a piano intro, it's 7:46 long and has a rather slow tempo. This time we don't have "What I've felt, what I've known" lyrics, in fact it doesn't even resemble the first two unforgivens. The album overall has a complete sound. It's seems long but it isn't. You get easily involved with it and never get bored after all, we all missed them so much.

I believe this is the album that all Metallica fans were waiting for since '91. All the world knows they are not super talented musicians. What made them popular was their ability to compose melodic songs. They don't need to prove themselves. They are already legends and I think with this album they realized what they should do. Write good, melodic songs.