2:54: 2:54

My friend Aidan (who's in the band Chasing Melfina as well as a new project I hope to inform about more soon) just successfully turned me onto 2:54's 2:54. Solid song writing, well recorded. I detect Fleetwood Mac's Rumours in its more subdued moments, some classic Smashing Pumpkins here and there, and strident bass lines somewhat reminiscent of 80s Hardcore albeit with a lighter touch and more subdued tempos.

Update

This is just a brief update covering some changes made to the overall structure of the blog. Mainly to content management. You will now see on the right a list of labels which in time I hope will do a good job of categorizing the posts. There's also some links to friends' projects. Hopefully there will be more collaboration on those fronts soon.

There are also some new pages: my editorial policy of sorts, which I felt the need to draw up because I'm trying to get some more contributors on board, and my page for submissions as I feel the need to get some submissions in to grow the coverage and add in some serendipity to the enterprise.

Review: Bob Mould plays Copper Blue, live at the Shepherds Bush Empire with support from Cloud Nothings

Of all the Alternative Rock stories of the 1980s which followed the cresting Nirvana into the early 90s, it is perhaps that of Bob Mould which has, at least on this side of the pond, struggled to be told. Bob Mould rose to prominence in the seminal Hüsker Dü. That band had a rock ‘n’ roll rivalry with fellow Minneapolis band, The Replacements. Much of their material was released on SST, the independent label of Black Flag’s Gregg Ginn. They influenced both Pixies and My Bloody Valentine, to name but two acts, and they were responsible along with groups like REM for appropriating a certain 1960s pop jangle for the wider Alternative Rock scene. This trend matured in the 1990s and is well epitomised in albums like Teenage Fanclub’s Grand Prix and the first album of Mould’s second group, Sugar: Copper Blue. British bands like Yuck and Gross Magic, and indeed the night's support act Cloud Nothings, owe an awful lot to the roughing work done by Mould and his contemporaries in the 1980s and the perfected models they left in the 1990s.

More after the jump.

Cloud Forest

I Thought I would write a brief shout-out to the people at Taylors of Harrogate for what is currently my favourite blend of coffee prepared with moka pot. It's going to be fueling a piece I've got on the go--I saw Bob Mould last night!

My Bloody Valentine: Gender Theory and Cyberpunk

I was originally writing this as part of the second instalment of the My Bloody Valentine: EPs 1988-91 review but decided it would make sense to spin it out as it is more of an artistic profile than a part of the track by track review. I decided I wanted to break away from the dynamics of gender and sex for a moment when describing My Bloody Valentine, because despite the theory often sounding reasonable it just does not seem pertinent half the time. This came up in conversation yesterday when I was watching footage of one of Primal Scream's Screamadelica gigs. For all the rock'n'roll clichés, gender seemed the last thing worth discussing. Certainly not from the standpoint of diagnosing patriarchal societies or something like that. Reading this blog post about Oneohtrix Point Never inspired me a little. More after the jump.

Review: My Bloody Valentine – EP’s 1988-1991 (Part Two)

This is the second part of my review which talks about tracks from the Tremolo EP and various rarities.

Review: My Bloody Valentine -- EPs 1988-1991 (Part One)

Standing at around an hour and forty minutes. I thought that I would split my piece about this collection into two. This the first part gives a track by track account of most of the collection with some brief discussion of the implications of the remastering. In the second half I'm focusing more on evaluating the whole deal and passing a verdict.

Rhapsodising after the jump.