Cage

Cage (Chris Palko) is an artist I have only found in the past couple of days, and he is everything I have looked for in an artist in recent months or for the past year if I think about it actually, everything I have been searching for. He blends guitars with spoken word, or rap I guess, and he is so wonderfully dark. I thought songs I listened to by Scroobius Pip or Immortal Technique were dark, but Cage's songs are horror stories and I love it, as I may have mentioned in a previous post I like songs which tell stories or songs that you actually listen to and have to follow and keep you drawn in, as opposed to songs that play in the background of your mind.

I realize that paragraph may have seemed a bit too much or a bit over the top as I look back over it. I sincerely hope I don't over-listen to his songs, something I have a habit of doing with everything I love - I listen to it or eat it or watch it or whatever so much that I become sick of it and a song that I used to listen to again and again time after time becomes the song I know back to front and skip over it, and sure I may come back and have a brief relapse in a few months or so, but somehow I just don't see it happening with cage.

The Old Chris Palko - sometimes too high to record anything.

Part of what appeals to me about Chris Palko so much is his personality and what he grew up with and just who he is. Personal items like that about artists have never really intrigued me as much as this before, but I suppose it is because it is so easy to access Palko's thoughts and how he describes his life. I feel almost compelled to tell you about his personality now, and although I had never heard of him last week I feel like I have known him and his songs for as long as I can remember, I know more about him now than I know about artists that I have in fact been listening to for as long as I can remember. Going back to his personality and his origins, I can't for two reasons. I feel as if I'm almost disrespecting him by talking about him in the way that I am or would do by writing about things like that, and also because there is just so much, but I will try to dumb it down so painfully that I am seriously considering hitting the backspace now. It just doesn't give him enough credit, so actually I don't think I will. Look it up on his website: www.chrispalko.com

I have said so much, more than I've said on any artist, in a shorter time I've spent writing about anything else on this blog, yet I haven't actually really talked about his music.

Cage fits into the underground hip hop genre but with his recent albums it's slightly harder to still include him there, as he has moved to a more guitar-heavy orientated background for his lyrics, which always in any song he makes, remain the focal point of the piece. He started out with his first album being very much like that of say Immortal Technique, fitting, as he says, into a black stereotype. The album is called 'Movies for the Blind' and some of his songs are so explicit and brutal, Agent Orange remains to be my favourite on the album though. That reminds me: he also took on the name Alex, after the protagonist in A Clockwork Orange having left the mental institute, and there are some definite similarities between the two. I think he says that that first album was about his childhood and how angry he was, I'm being ignorant about this and I feel bad about it because I know he deserves more credit, its not exactly along those lines, but I'm pretty sure that album came out just after he tried getting off hard drugs and started trying to turn his life around.
His later album, 'Hell's Winter', comes from the idea that he didn't have to be the person he was and he didn't have to be that white guy going for the black guy stereotype (as he says) as it just wasn't him, and this too is so dark, with Subtle art of the breakup song being perhaps the most popular song on the album.
It's no surprise that his most recent album (released 2009) 'Depart From Me' remains dark, but its not as explicit, in the words of his good friend Shia Labeouf ( at first sighting it would seem that it's Cage who latches onto Shia, but actually from the youtube videos I've seen and stuff I've read its more as if Shia makes the effort with Cage, Shia said he had been listening to Cage since he was 12). Depart From Me contains my favourite Cage song I Never Knew You which I think is one of if not the only Cage song to be made into a music video, that music video was directed by Shia Labeouf, and he has a brief appearance at the beginning.

I feel like I've missed something and that's because I probably have (his involvement in groups, main one being The Weathermen though I think he prefers producing his own music with close friends instead of collaborating with strangers for the sake of appealing to a wider audience and to sell more tracks). If this post has intrigued you, then I would strongly recommend you go to his website, he even has published the notebook he kept during his time at 'The Lodge' (mental institute) which is pretty interesting.

The five main Cage songs I like are as follows:

• Subtle Art of the Breakup Song
• Grand Ol Party Crash
• Ballad of Worms
• I Never Knew You
• Agent Orange

I will link the Spotify tracks for these songs but the video for I Never Knew You will be down below as well.

                                            
                                           
                                            
                                           

Theme Tunes - Part 2

4)
This is from Peep Show another song that along with Gone Up in Flames, is a very get-up-and-go type of song that gets you in the mood. The song is called Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger. To me, the song is about someone having a breakdown and not knowing who they are or where/if they fit in, or you could look at it from the perspective of someone trying to get a grip on a world swarming with insanity. With a deeper look into all of these songs, I am starting to see how most connect to the actual programme or series itself, and that they are in fact carefully picked to suit the programme. In a way this makes the song seem better when you are just about to watch the programme and it comes up as the theme tune, as opposed to listening to it on your iPod or whatever, you concentrate on it more that way.

5)
The next song on the list is very different to the other appearances so far, as it is a classical type piece with no lyrics. This is the theme tune to the popular series Game of Thrones. I have to say its probably the lowest ranked in terms of my musical taste, but nevertheless its been considered enough to appear on the list. I suppose the thing that stands out most about this and that has appealed to me most is the layering of the different instruments, but most importantly the overriding cello (or double-bass - apologies) providing the low looming booming throughout.

6)
Choir of Young Believers' song Hollow Talk appeared in the Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge. Again, as with many of the songs here, it's very different out of the context of the programme, and doesn't have the same sort of quality and harrowing feel as it does when you listen to it as a theme tune at the beginning. The song is definitely haunting, but I suppose that the backdrop which it is played against certainly plays a part, and then the crescendo when you come to the end of each episode almost makes you well up, its a great song if you listen to it right.
The first video is the theme version, the second, full version follows.

I believe I have now come to the end. I thought I would have more but either I was wrong or they elude me, and will probably come back just after I post this. I know I have skipped out the classics: Star Wars, Hans Zimmer etc. but these are my favourite theme songs to this date, or at least the ones that have stood out the most to me. Please do not hesitate to leave any suggestions or potential additions to the list.

Thanks.

Theme Tunes - Part 1

This post is slightly different to my normal ones in the way that I will be talking about songs I have heard on TV programmes instead of profiles on artists. These songs are often, not always, but often by relatively unknown artists yet somehow the songs themselves are pretty famous and heard of.

As I write this, I wonder how long exactly this post will be, and I think it will be too long, so I'll split it up into different posts/parts consisting of a maximum of three songs in each post.


1)
The first is a song by Paul Weller that features in the BBC series Lead Balloon, and the song is called One Way Road. I have just looked up the song, and I'm pretty surprised to discover that Oasis wrote the original and the version that features on Lead Ballon Paul Weller's cover version. Although my loyalty lies with Oasis, I must say that I prefer Weller's version - it somehow really fits in to the programme itself. Here are both versions down below.

2)
The second on the list is from the popular series Skins, and the artist is Fat Segal. He is really really unknown and I haven't been able to find him on Spotify. It seems as though the little recognition he has is all generated from the theme tune of Skins. I have found that the theme tune for each series gets worse as Skins progresses - the first theme tune was the best and since then they've gradually gone downhill. Somehow they become even more electric as they go on. This doesn't take away from the feeling you get when you first hear the music and the opening video comes on and its just a great way to get into the next forty minutes or however long each episode is without adverts - I forget. When you have watched all six series, and heard all the theme tunes for each series, there is a great feeling of nostalgia once you hear the first theme tune after a long time, I suppose that's why I appear to have been slightly biased towards it and perhaps a bit too harsh about the rest. I shall leave both the full version of the song and a compilation of each theme song of the (so far) 6 series of Skins.

3)
The next one is also from a series I'm sure many British teenagers will be familiar with - The Inbetweeners. I won't go into as much depth on this one, but I reckon along with Flagpole Sitter by Harvey Danger (that song will be on the next part of this small series of posts) its perhaps my favourite song out of all the songs on this post, and perhaps also the one I have listened to most outside of television. Its just a really good song in general, and I know that's a poor analysis and pretty unoriginal but its just a get up and go song which I like a lot. For those of you who didn't already know, it is called Gone Up in Flames by Morning Runner.

This is not the end, but merely the beginning, there will be a couple more posts like this one coming soon.

Future Posts

Although I would really prefer not to do this, and instead give my full thoughts on an artist, I think I might do it occasionally. I am referring to the situation I find myself in when I hear one song I really like by an artist that is just really good, but when I listen to their other songs they are completely different and worse. Or sometimes it might just be because they haven't got many other songs to listen to (as I have found with an artist named PolarBear, who literally has about three songs you can find on the internet).

This will not however, be a regular thing, and I will do my best to provide you with full overviews on artists. But actually I'm not sure what the reader would prefer, I know there are some who like one or two songs and aren't really interested in the artist or about them, and I know there are others who feel differently, it would help if you would let me know, and from there I can slightly adjust the layout of each post, or rather make a few concessions.

Alt-J (∆)

Alt-J are a Cambridge bred band, and although they formed in 2007, they didn't come into contact with exposure until earlier this year (2012).

∆ were properly heard by many when their album came out in around May 2012, and were almost an immediate success. So many people had heard Breezeblocks or Matilda thinking they were the first and had discovered a great new band, but now their novelty has worn off some of us. The band reminds me a bit of The xx although I know they have a different sound, I just think they are headed down the same route as The xx were. To clear it up, lots of people had heard songs like Crystalised or VCR and they were played to death by some radio stations, similar to the way that Breezeblocks and Tessellate have been played a lot. In the same way that the novelty of The xx had worn out by the release of their second album, I predict the same will happen to Alt-J, but perhaps I may be wrong, however I do not have very high expectations for their second album and don't expect it to quite live up to their first.

So far it seems as though I rather dislike Alt-J, I don't, in fact I went through a phase where I really did like them (but as I have said earlier, the novelty has sort of worn off now). What I first noticed about AlT-J was the singer's voice, unique as far as I know, and I think that's the best aspect of the band, or rather the aspect that makes them stand out from any other, I may even go as far to say that its the reason for their recent success. But when he does sing, and especially in Matilda, it just really flows and fits together so well.

Contrary to a few people, Matilda is my favourite ∆ song, but here are three of perhaps their most well known songs off the album An Awesome Wave.

Yuck

Yuck are a surprisingly good band, unlike most new bands today. They come from London and two of the members used to go to my school...

Anyway,

I really like them because like Oasis, their guitars have that rough sound that makes it seem raw and more pure, but they also have some really catchy solos. "Get Away", probably their most famous one is also my favourite they are really good considering how young they are and I think they have done well for themselves.

Please bear in mind that this was written a long time ago, and with retrospect I can see what rubbish this is (my writing, not the music), and I promise there are better things to come.

Eels

Mark Everett - the mastermind of Eels also known simply as E - has had a spectacularly sad life, but at least music comes easily for him, and appears to make the most of it. Both his parents died of cancer when he was still young and then after this, his sister committed suicide, a series of depressing events that would have a life changing effect on anyone, and maybe this reflects in the melancholic and mellow music he produces.

Some say that they jumps from "50's garage rock, roadhouse blues and swampy distortion", I just love the sad sound to all their music, and how the lyrics touch on depression, love, and sometimes glimpses of hope amongst despair.

One of my favourite songs by the Eels is 'I need some Sleep', this song sums up everything I like about the Eels, a soft tune that immediately soothes you before the lyrics kick in and then your heart turns heavy as his voice almost croaks. The lyrics suggest he has a problem so deeply inflicted on him that he can't sleep to the point where he tries 'counting sheep' but then he says 'there's one I always miss', and everyone is telling him to leave it and 'let it go' but it obviously means a lot to him if he simply can't.

Another great song is 'That look you give that Guy' another classic song by them, there's just something about these sorts of songs by them that always make me stop and suddenly become immersed in the simple, ponderful, forlorn lyrics that make me want to just cry... Anyway, if you just listen to the lyrics they really leave a mark on you. If that was too cringe worthy, then to be quite honest, this time I don't care because this band are really special.

Here are the two songs: