Tag: music

Elliphant

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

The A-Z of New Music brings us to the letter ‘E’. It was probably only a matter of time until we ran head long into the biggest pile of crap you could imagine, and here they are…..Elliphant.

The idea of this blog was to listen to ‘new music’. Whether it be folk, R&B, rock, acoustic, or any other of the hundreds of styles of music out there, I wanted to listen to stuff I’ve never heard before. Hence, the uninspiring ‘dance’ sound of Elliphant.

One listen to their debut single, ‘In the Jungle’, should be just about enough to make you want to rip your ears off and insert them in a blender. The track has plenty of negative points: the endless thud, thud, thud; the ridiculous use of dodgy percussion beats; the even more ridiculous lyrics, something about “basics”; I could probably go on and on and on (but I won’t).

Elliphant are from Sweden, and this exactly where they need to go back too and never return.

Elliphant, ungraded….

Today’s blog was brought to you by the letter E……

Colour Me Wednesday

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

We get to C and still seem to be stuck in the whole indie/pop vibe. Tomorrow, I promise, something a bit different. But for today’s band, a mix of indiepop, punk and ska…….Colour Me Wednesday.

Colour Me Wednesday are a London based 4-piece band who I have had trouble pigeonholing. ‘Purge Your Inner Tory’ is a great little indiepop tune that you can’t help tapping your feet to. ‘Carefree’ has a clear ska influence and ‘Unicorn in Uniform’ is again, a bit more indie, with bigger guitars and drums, or you can have a more tranquil sound with ‘Lost on the Highstreet’. Personal favourites for me: ‘Holiday From Your Life’ and ‘Purge Your Inner Tory‘. Overall, a great little band, should make for a good evening’s entertainment if you get the chance to see them live.

Colour Me Wednesday overall grade a B – like it!

Today’s blog was brought to you by the letter C….

Boy Mandeville

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

The band grabbing the ‘B’ in the A-Z of New Music, thanks to @nembow, is Boy Mandeville…..

A miserable rainy day outside has not stopped Boy Mandeville from transporting me into the summer. A great indie-pop outfit that creates a truly summer sound thanks, in part, to fantastic calypso sounds, take a listen to ‘Steel Horse’ and you’ll either be on a beach in the Caribbean or at the Notting Hill carnival (without the knives of course). Their last single, released last summer, ‘Gorilla’ is definitely worth a listen, as is ‘Killing the Work’. But my favourite, given that I’ve only been listening to them for the morning, would have to be ‘Christina’, an example of a slightly more ‘indie’ Boy Mandeville. So if you fancy listening to some afro-beat and wonky pop then Boy Mandeville should be your first stop….

Boy Mandeville overall grade a B – for me a bit too much calypso….

Today’s blog has been brought to you by the letter B…

Allo Darlin’

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

March’s project, with @davidmarples in mind, gets off to an indie pop feel – although I also like the idea they have been described as ‘twee poppers’….may I present……..Allo Darlin’….

A great start to March’s project!

Allo Darlin’ are a great little band, their self-titled album Allo Darlin’ (which I downloaded after listening to a few tracks on myspace) is packed full of fun little melodies, using ukuleles and tambourines, in a Noah and the Whale styley. ‘The Polaroid Song’ would have to be my favourite, closely followed by ‘Woody Allen’ and ‘My Heart is a Drummer’. Although some older ‘stuff’ is well worth a listen, ‘Henry Rollins Don’t Dance’ is a catchy little number.

I’ve now added them to my must see gig list. Take a look….

Allo Darlin’ overall grade A* – top of the class!

Today’s blog has been brought to you by the letter A……

 

 

March’s Project….

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

A-Z of New Music

After much deliberation March’s project has finally been decided…..’Phil’s A-Z of New Music’.

“What is Phil’s A-Z of New Music?” I hear you shout. Well after various ideas from various people: painting, swimming, model making, photography, star-gazing, to name but a few, I wanted something quite relaxing to do throughout March. And thanks to @ladymarples the decision has been made.

February was an interesting month, learning to play the ukulele was not as easy as I first thought, I didn’t seem to pick up the uke as often as I should have. Suffice to say: I’m no expert. Although if Noah and the Whale’s ukulele player suddenly dropped dead, I could probably manage to accompany them on ‘5 years time’ for at least the first 10-15 secs of the track. In a nutshell: I’m no George Formby! (although @kem27 did manage to get him confused with Norman Wisdom!).

So, March’s plan, to listen to and blog about ‘New Music’. Although when I say ‘new’ music, I actually mean ‘new’ to me. I hope to cover a range of genres, so there should be something for everyone!

If you have some some ideas of artists/bands I should listen to feel free to comment….

#janathon Day 8

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 7 Comments

Janathon Day 8

Firstly, being a teacher I normally plan lessons in my head during long runs, but since the start of janathon I have found that I am planning the daily blog!

No pictures in today’s blog – took the ipod instead. From reading other blogs (which I’m loving) it would seem that the #janathon blogs seem to be expanding all the time, we’ve moved from weather reports to #jokeathon and now we seem to be moving into music choices. Unlike Garry, who had the company of Madness today, I went for Frank Turner. That was until about 3 miles into the run when my headphones started playing up, finally finishing with a very faint noise coming out of the right side only!

Following on from a previous blog post where @runningman856 asked what I was planning to do with janathon. This got me thinking….and last night I signed up to run the Stamford St. Valentines 30k.

It was not until this morning’s run that I really began to think about it. In 2006 I completed the London Marathon so I’m not unaccustomed to doing the training and running long distances. Although, during the first week of janathon I’ve run as many miles as I did training for the marathon, I’ve done lots of 3 and 4 mile runs so far. So I’ve decided to increase mileage on a Sunday, starting today, and after seeing that @lilbee67 completed 10k this morning, I was spurred on….

Took the dog (Billy) and completed just over 6 miles around the fields of Bourne/Toft/Northorpe (2 laps). A nice run, plenty of people/dogs/horses about. The run felt pretty good. After a long run I would normally follow this with a rest day. Although, I am intent on running every day of January, so I’ll be stealing the idea of @AndyRoss75, who stole the idea from someone else, and having a go at a fast one mile.

Runners passed = none

Cyclists passed = 1

Walkers passed = loads

Horses avoided (Billy doesn’t like horses) = 3

Summary
******
Distance: 6.12mi
Time taken: 00:51:03
Average/Max Speed : 7.19/9.00 mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:08:21/00:06:39
Calories: 724

Total Janathon mileage after day 8 = 30.41 miles

Not to forget #jokeathon….

A blonde goes out for a run. She comes to a river and cannot see a bridge anywhere nearby. She spots another blonde on the opposite bank. “Yoohoo!” she shouts, “How can I get to the other side?” The second blonde looks up the river, then down the river then shouts back, “You’re already on the other side!”