The Ice Inside Your Soul

I discovered this song back in January, thanks to Christina Grimmie:

And now it’s finally made it’s way to the UK.

I’m not sure what it is about her music, but I couldn’t wait for the UK release, so I imported her album Lovestrong. from the US where it came out a couple of weeks ago…

So I don’t need to buy it again, but I’d say it’s significantly better than anything currently in the iTunes Top 10 Singles (sorry Saturdays, but Notorious is rubbish). I notice that Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is in the Top 10 Albums, which I assume is thanks to last week’s Glee, so perhaps Rachel’s performance of Jar of Hearts at the Prom on this week’s episode will help?

[[UPDATE: The (decent, but inferior) Glee Cast version of Jar of Hearts is currently at No. 38 on the iTunes chart, while the original is all the way down at No. 57. Please fix this British public. Thanks.]]

Here’s Christina’s 2nd single, which lyrics-wise reminds me of Phil Wickham’s song Home:

And rather than bore you with more and more posts about Christina Perri, I’ll squeeze a couple more of her best videos into this one:

(insert more interesting title than ‘A-Z of Music @ the Start of 2010′ here)

I thought it might be interesting to document my music taste at the start of 2010 and see how different it is by the end. (I did say might be interesting… it might not)

So, 1 song for every letter of the alphabet to represent my musical taste at the start of 2010 (to make it easier, the letter could be the first letter of the song title, artist, or album title)…

A – Angels & Airwaves – The Adventure

B – Bublé, Michael – Haven’t Met You Yet

C – Cash, Johnny – In My Life

D – Dreams – Fleetwood Mac (I like this more after hearing the story behind it)

E – The Empyrean – John Frusciante – Song to the Siren

F – Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra (Pete Allen Jazz Band concerts with fish & chips included are what all concerts should be like)

G – Gramercy Arms – Looking at the Sun (first heard this on Chuck)

H – Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s (played and attempted to sing along to this A LOT)

I – I’m Taking You With Me – Relient K

J – Jason Mraz – Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat)

K – Kings of Leon – Beneath The Surface (shame about the A-side to this song)

L – Lille – Lisa Hannigan

M – McFly – That Girl (again, played & sung along A LOT. sorry housemates.)

N – Now You’re Gone – Basshunter – Angel In The Night (just heard this a couple of days ago for the first time in ages)

O – Oopsy Daisy – Chipmunk (don’t know why I like this, but it’s had quite a few listens)

P – Paramore – My Hero

Q – Queen – Save Me

R – Röyksopp – What Else Is There? (classic Alphabet Soup)

S – Swift, Taylor – Hey Stephen (I may have had green hair, but Taylor thinks I look like an angel )

T – This Is Your Life – The Killers

U – Undisclosed Desires – Muse

V – Venice Queen – Red Hot Chili Peppers (I watched the Slane Castle DVD many many times before I realised the point of the intro to this song)

W – Weezer – (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To

X – You Me At Six – The Consequence (There’s an x in their name, that’ll have to do.)

Y – You Really Got Me – The Kinks (hearing this as someone’s ringtone reminded me what a great song it is)

Z – Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! – Hellogoodbye – Baby, It’s Fact

That’s a fair amount of time I probably should have spent revising, and if you’ve got this far, the same probably goes for you… unless you don’t have exams coming up. You probably still could have spent your time better though.

Can You Feel It?

Setlists

This was originally supposed to be just a response to a comment on another blog, but it turned into bit of an essay so I decided to turn it into a post in it’s own right.

Basically, the question is: Should bands play their hits at every gig?

I’m going to see Muse for the 2nd time on Friday, and would be quite happy to hear all of The Resistance and not hear Time Is Running Out, Feeling Good, New Born & Knights of Cydonia.

But maybe this would not be fair on new fans who want to hear their most famous songs.

I saw them before (for the 1st time) at Wembley Stadium, they played 9 songs off of Black Holes, plus everything you would expect them to play (I think), except Bliss. I kind of consider myself relatively new to Muse, having discovered them at the Time Is Running Out stage, meaning songs like Bliss are actually from before my time. But by the time I got round to going to a gig I had listened to their previous stuff and decided that my favourite songs weren’t necessarily the famous ones, and Time Is Running Out has become one of my least favoured, alongside Feeling Good.

I think the idea that bands should always play their hits definitely applies to festival sets, but when they’re doing a headline tour for an album, I expect the set to be dominated by new stuff.

Having said that, I would always expect any band to play some hits, and with Arctic Monkeys only on album #3, I am surprised they would leave out Scummy; while Muse, having been around a bit longer, have a few more hits, and I think can better afford to leave out some of their famous ones. I can’t really comment on Radiohead because I don’t know what they’re famous for. I know The Bends is my favourite of their albums, but I bought it (followed by all the others) based on a recommendation without having heard any of the songs before.

Personally I wouldn’t spend around £60 (that’s a Muse ticket plus train fare) to see a band if I only knew a couple of songs. If people can afford to do that, fair play to them, they’re probably used to getting what they want.

Probably more relevant is my first trip to see Red Hot Chili Peppers when I was a relatively new fan (at the time I owned By The Way, What Hits!? and Greatest Hits), I would have been disappointed on that occasion if they hadn’t played By The Way, The Zephyr Song, Can’t Stop, Under the Bridge & Give It Away. But then, that was the Greatest Hits tour, so it would’ve been a bit stupid of them not to play the popular ones. I would’ve loved pretty much any of the songs from By The Way, which was the first ever album by anyone that I bought, Venice Queen is still one of my all time favourite songs. (My memory’s not good enough to remember an entire set from 5 years ago, I looked it up here. I still find it pretty cool that I was at the gigs where RHCP’s Live in Hyde Park and Muse’s HAARP were recorded, and I saw James Brown live.)

When I saw them on the Stadium Arcadium tour I was actually a bit disappointed they only played 5 of the 28 songs from the new album.

Both times I would’ve loved to see a Flea trumpet solo (having spent 10 years of my school life learning to play the Cornet), and songs like Higher Ground, Knock Me Down and Taste The Pain. They have quite a large back catalogue though, so I’m prepared for the unlikeliness of my ideal setlist actually occurring.

I imagine I will go and see them again when they return (apparently they’re starting work on a new album in the next couple of weeks). Hopefully I’ll finally get to see a Trumpet solo, maybe Funky Monks, Higher Ground… Funny Face would be awesome. Meanwhile I would not be at all disappointed if they didn’t play Dani California, Under The Bridge or Give It Away, but then again, they mix up their songs with extended jams or by incorporating other songs into intros, so hearing the same songs need not be boring.

I wouldn’t want to hear too many covers at a gig, and a Nick Cave song wouldn’t have meant anything to me, but I do think it’s interesting to find out who a band is influenced by, and I’ve discovered a lot of great songs via Chili Peppers covers, from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Ramones, Stevie Wonder, Looking Glass, David Bowie, The Meters, Bob Dylan, Sly & The Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel, Sweet, Cat Stevens, The Chantels, The Shangri-Las, Del Shannon, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, The Chirelles, The Beach Boys, George Clinton, Funkadelic, Iggy & The Stooges, Parliament, Jackson 5, Hank Williams, Fugazi, .45 Grave.