Posts Tagged ‘Muse’

Muse has the naughts covered

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

"With my plug in babaayyyyy!"

When trying to decide what single track gave the most powerful effect to the most amount of listeners, you’ve got a plethora of challenges waiting for you. Music is so incredibly diverse with range that to simplify it as “What is the best song ever?” would be doing music injustice.

When I first heard ‘Plug In Baby’ from Brit band Muse, I was already amazed at the power of Origin of Symmetry. ‘New Born’ and ‘Bliss’ were both such memorable tracks the moment I heard them, but it wasn’t until the build-up of Plug In Baby that I fell in love with Muse.

My brother had just handed me the album not thirty minutes before demanding I listen to it, and knowing his skills at picking out pure gold, I listened.

And boy, did I listen. And it seems I wasn’t the only one, because that track was named ‘Greatest Riff of the Past Decade’ by Total Guitar magazine, which is an incredibly hard achievement to decide considering nowadays all we seem to hear are hybrid versions of the classic rock tunes of yesteryear.

Muse were honoured six years ago for the same song by getting number 13 for ‘Greatest Riffs of All Time’, but it was noted that the best of the ‘00s was Plug In Baby.

We’ve got a huge range of Muse’s discography at CD WOW, and if you’ve never heard any more than ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ or ‘I Belong To You’ (stupid Twilight), I highly recommend you pick these guys’ albums.

Click here to grab ‘em all.

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The eclipse of a broken muse

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Meyer's new rendition of the poster on her wall.

Souls! What’s their price on the market these days?

Muse’s bassist Chris Wolstenholme was on BBC Newsbeat recently, talking about their contributions to the Twilight series.

On every movie so far, the band has contributed their songs to the soundtrack, and their latest addition ‘Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)’ for the third film Eclipse was written specifically for it.

Stephenie Meyer has credited the British band on numerous occasions as a great inspiration on her writing of the Twilight series in the acknowledgments, such as “…thank you to the talented musicians who inspire me, particularly the band Muse – there are emotions, scenes, and plot threads in this novel that were born from Muse songs and would not exist without their genius.”

Then for the third film: “…I am in your debt, rock gods of Muse, for yet another inspiring album. Thank you for continuing to create my favorite writing music.”

And for the sweet cherry on top, in the final book Breaking Dawn: “And thanks also to my favourite band, the very aptly named Muse, for providing a saga’s worth of inspiration.”

So we see that Meyer has a lot of thanks for Matt Bellamy (in fact, looking at it now…Bella’s awfully close to Bellamy…). With so much adoration for their music, Wolstenholme had this to say about making it into the US market: “It’s very difficult in America…Nothing is national. You have to take every opportunity you get over there, and sometimes you have to sell your soul.”

Matt Bellamy had a different approach to it last month saying: “…of course it doesn’t matter we have gained fans because of Twilight and that might seem to be uncool. That doesn’t bother me at all…It’s great to be involved and it’s so much fun. I like the movies a lot. They’re really good and we hope to continue with this and do another song.”

Looks like a conflict of interest here. Maybe Chris is jealous that Stephenie likes Matt more. What do you think?

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00′s: Is it the ‘naughts’ or the ‘oh oh’s?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

I can’t help but think I’m forgetting something…

You know that moment when the countdown starts December 31st in the year ****, and you stand there contemplating the year that passed, and remember all the good times, and the bad?

I’m having that exact moment, but like the rest of you, I’m having a hard time remembering a whole decade. You see, we’re moving on to a new decade next year. No longer will be be stressing about how to pronounce “0o’s”, but instead it’ll be the “tens”. Or maybe it’ll be the “one ohs”. I don’t know, feels like the new iPod will somehow jump on that wagon.

UK’s NME magazine have published their ‘Top 100 Best Albums of the Decade’ list. We’ve thrown together the albums listed into a handy hitlist.

The top 100 albums between 2000 and 2009…it’s hard to think about that, because most of the time we’re reminiscing about the old days when music used to be good. A lot of the time there are just homages to the past, but nothing relatively ‘new’.

Regardless, I’ve put together a list of my own. It’s essentially my way of going “Hey, you may have thought of 100 of the decade’s best albums, but you forgot numbers 101 to 110″.

My Top 10 of Albums That Didn’t Make It Into NME’s ‘Top 100 Best Albums of the Decade List’ list:

    Daft Punk - Discovery

    Daft Punk - Discovery

  1. Daft Punk – Discovery (2001)
  2. Muse – Origin of Symmetry (2001)
  3. Beck – The Information (2006)
  4. Tool – 10,000 Days (2007)
  5. Daft Punk – Alive (2007)
  6. Mother Mother – O My Heart (2008)
  7. The Presets – Apocalypso (2008)
  8. System of a Down – Toxicity (2001)
  9. Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
  10. Wolfmother – Wolfmother (2005)

What, expecting something else? Well then indulge me, because my brain’s struggling to remember the classics. Leave a comment and tell me all about your faves. I’ll do a mini-summary on why each of those albums defined the double 0′s.

Oh…I’ve never heard it being called that. Too late to claim it? It IS still 2009…

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Wii are aMused by Ritz

Friday, October 30th, 2009

So it’s Friday, huh? You may or may not have realised this, but I have. Typical, always trailing behind Thursday. But I’m not one to complain! There’s plenty to do for the weekend, but I’ve come prepared. I’ll finally get to use my Nintendo Wii again:

Wii Sit

I have a feeling I can bump the difficulty setting up to ‘La-Z-Boy’.

A lot of the great musicians have done their part to give the one-fingered salute to those TV shows who ask their guests to mime. You’ve got to hand it to Muse for not only taking action, but…just watch:

I want to leave you this weekend with a homage to one of the great comedians that, like most, died in his prime.

Mitch Hedberg had an erratic way of telling his jokes. Most of them were one-liners, but with his delivery they worked perfectly. Watching him at first you might think he suffered from Parkinsons, but it turns out he was absolutely petrified about performing on stage. For someone with such a great sense of humour, it was a shock to hear of his fears, which unfortunately led to his demise.
He may have only been on the comedy circuit for a short while, but I’m glad there’s still a bit of material out there to watch:

“When you buy a box of Ritz crackers, on the back of the box, they have all these suggestions as to what to put on top of the Ritz. “Try it with turkey and cheese. Try it with peanut butter.” But I like crackers man, that’s why I bought it, ’cause I like crackers! I don’t see a suggestion to put a Ritz on top of a Ritz. I didn’t buy them because they’re little edible plates! You’ve got no faith in the product itself.” – Mitch Hedberg

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Parlotones @ The Cooler in Bristol

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

The_parlotones_radio_controlled_rob I saw the "Parlotones" at The Cooler in Bristol last week. I was fresh off the plane, well maybe not so fresh actually, and made my way down to the venue.
Waiting patiently for my first Parlotones experience, having only heard a couple of their tracks prior to the gig I was not totally sure what to expect but had liked what I had already heard.

From the first track ‘Louder Than Bombs’ I knew this was a band that I would like, reminding me very much of ‘Bush‘, and some ‘Coldplay‘ and ‘Snow Patrol‘. This is indie head-nodding driving your car fast down a country lane in the summer rock at it’s best.
The Parlotones have been going from strength to strength in their home country of South Africa since they were formed in 1998, and are used to playing to sell out arena shows back at home, but far from viewing a small club crowd in Bristol as a chore the band threw themselves into the performance. Tracks like "Rock, Paper Scissors", "Here Comes The Man", "Dragonflies and Astronauts" and "Beautiful" are all potential singles.
I was speaking to a guy called Dan after the show, he had been speaking to the band and they were talking about playing with Razorlight. Must have been great to support them said Dan, actually they were supporting us was the jovial reply! And I can see why!

I have already ordered my copy of the album. Get yours too before everybody is talking about them and be snug when you can say, "Oh, The Parlotones, I picked up on them absolutely ages ago".
You can take a listen to some of the tracks on their MySpace page. But beware, I still have "Louder Than Bombs" on a very high rotation in my head four days after the gig!

Must put a word in for one of their support bands as well… ‘Puzzlebox‘ are a bit like ‘Muse‘ and ‘Alice In Chains‘ (just my opinion). You may have heard of them as "Haze", a name change just occurred. These guys have some great rock tunes, clever construction and good solid guitar playing, a great young band and one to watch for the future my friends!
Here is a great post, containing an interview with Kahn Morbee (Vocals and Guitar) from the Chiz.

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Live In Concert Is Just A (Rolling) Stones Throw Away

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

A recently started new phenomenon is that of the "go to a gig at the cinema" experience. The live music scene is booming and some of our bigger artists and promoters are using modern technology to bring the live event to ever more people.
Take_that_beautiful_world_liveIn January Radiohead announced an intimate gig for 200 people in London, but not to fear, if you could not get down to London and queue in the freezing rain for hours on the off chance that you would get in… you could watch the whole performance in real time via their radiohead.tv website.
Recently The Kills have launched their new album "Midnight Boom" with a series of gigs at cinemas, and last year Take That had live showings of their tour "Beautiful World" at Vue cinemas across the country.
Muse, Genesis and Kylie have all jumped on the same bandwagon, and fair play to them, tickets are ever harder to get hold of, and if you live in the sticks a cinema might be an easier and cheaper option to see your favourite bands.
No more the sticky floors, or muddy fields, but a nice comfortable cinema seat with coke and popcorn on tap, now what could be wrong with that?

Rolling_stones_shine_a_light And now, Martin Scorsese is responsible for another must see addition to the Music Concert category.
"Shine A Light" stars the Rolling Stones, a career spanning documentary this film is however predominantly a record of two shows in New York, shot over two nights at the intimate, for them, Beacon Theatre.
The film shows all but two of the numbers played on those two nights and has some songs never before played live, some stunning guests, and cut with old documentary footage to tell the story is nothing short of a masterpiece.
The Stones have decided to make the film premier the biggest in UK cinema history. On Wednesday, April 2nd it will be broadcast live from Leicester Square to 100 theatres across the UK.
Tickets are just £12.50 each, and with that you get a special edition Tour Tee Shirt! Bargain! For a short pre-view and to book your tickets use this link.
The double CD Soundtrack "Shine A Light" is available now for pre-order from your favourite guys at CD WOW!

Jimi_hendrix_film_2 This is of course just a new twist on a very old tale, cinemas have been showing popular music for many a long year, some of the films were documentary style, like the fabulous "Jimi Hendrix".
Some featured pop stars of their day, I guess the Beatles would be the most famous with films like "Help" and so the list goes on.
Then there was the actual live music films, but of course these came out after the even. None of this simultaneous broadcast business!
The greatest ever festivals fall into this category… "Woodstock" was captured on film and shown in cinemas with multi split screen angles, "The Concert For Bangladesh" filmed over two shows at Madison Square Gardens, "Stop Making Sense" featured Talking Heads and said to be the greatest concert film to date when it first came out, and the fantastic "The Last Waltz" a film by Martin Scorsese about "The Band".

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Mars Volta @ Brixton Academy

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Mars_voltaI went to see the Mars Volta at the Brixton Academy on Friday. With no support band they took to the stage at 8:45 and played a continuous set which finished just before 11:00.
That alone is quite remarkable, but even more so when you consider that they only played 10 songs.

Mars Volta were formed from a side project of the American post Hardcore rock band "At The Drive In" in 2001. Check out their back catalogue.
If you are not aware of their work I will try and describe them for you, long pause while searching for comparisons… how about progressive-latin-jazz-funk-psychedelic-Rock? With sometimes Robert Plant-esq vocals, Led Zeppelin era. That’s probably nowhere near but I honestly can not think of another band like them…

Mars_volta_bedlam_in_goliathWith a history of concept style albums their new release "The Bedlam In Goliath" is no exception, and featured heavily in their set, although, and in fairness to them, they played tracks from all four studio albums to date. A wild, often improvised, musically accomplished set with no less than eight musicians on stage, they lived up to their reputation as one of today’s most exciting live acts.

The only criticism that I have is that they did not play my favourite track, The Widow from Frances The Mute but to cheer myself up I managed to find it on YouTube… and here ya go!

For those of you that like stats here is the set list:

1. Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) – from Deloused in the Comatorium
2. Viscera Eyes – from Amputechture
3. Wax Simulacra – from The Bedlam in Goliath
4. Goliath – from The Bedlam in Goliath
5. Tetragrammaton -  from Amputechture
6. Ouroborous – from The Bedlam in Goliath
7. Agadez – from The Bedlam in Goliath
8. Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus – from Frances the Mute
9. Aberinkula – from The Bedlam in Goliath
10. Drunkship of Lanterns – from Deloused in the Comatorium

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New Release CD’s Monday 17th March

Monday, March 17th, 2008

HAARP or “High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project” is “a scientific endeavour aimed at studying the properties and behaviour of the ionosphere”, in some respected circles it has also been seen as a possible weapon of mass destruction… if you love conspiracy theories check it out!
However in this instance it is the new album from Muse the justly deserved winners of this years NME “Best Live Act” award.

Muse_the_haarp_tour_live_from_wemblMUSE – The Haarp Tour : Live From Wembley (CD+DVD)
The new Live album, H.A.A.R.P. comes in two different packages, standard edition and deluxe edition. Both are a CD & DVD combination but the deluxe box set comes with a set of three postcards and features additional backstage footage and some other fancy stuff!
The album and film were recorded at their two massive Wembley Stadium shows on the 16th and 17th of June last year. They were the second headline act to appear at the new stadium and it is a fantastic spectacle featuring some of their best known tracks.
From the opening number “Knights Of Cydonia” through “Supermassive Black Hole”,”Starlight”, “Newborn” and finishing with the great “Take A Bow”… this album has it all.
If you were at the show on 16th you might remember the support band Biffy Clyro, who played some songs from their great album “Puzzle”.

Now in my experience you are either a lover of live albums, or you can take them or leave them, probably only buying those from your very favourite bands, I fall in to the first category and have “live” albums by bands that I have no other CD’s by, Seether “One Cold Night” is a great album. But this is not the case with Muse, I have several of their albums and have already ordered my copy of “H.A.A.R.P.” however if you fall into the second category consider this, they did not win the NME award for nothing… Take a look at this taster from You Tube.
If you like Muse, you will love this album, also for fans of Elbow, the Stereophonics, We are Scientists (review below) and even Mars Volta…
I like this blog from Adrian Barnes

We_are_scientists_brain_thrust_mast WE ARE SCIENTISTS – Brain Thrust Mastery
This is their third? (Debate please…) major label release which also comes in two versions, standard edition and the special edition digi-pak which comes with a bonus CD – "Live From Union Chapel", recorded in London on 23rd November 2007 as part of the ‘Little Noise Sessions’ in aid of Mencap.
Now you know what I was saying about live CD’s above? Yep, this one will be winging its way towards my collection very soon! I was lucky enough to go to the Snow Patrol Little Noise Sessions gig, awesome!

Anyway, onward and upwards, this is a great album of what could be "indie rock" classics from the American alternate rockers. Keith Murray and Chris Cain have sprinkled this with their usual wry sense of humour, the question is, is this going to be the release that brings them to the spotlight that they surely deserve?
The album includes the track “After Hours” which was released as the first single, with its really mad video it reached number 15 in the UK singles Chart, can the album beat those heady heights? Only you can make it happen…
For fans of Franz Ferdinand, Kooks, One Night Only, Panic At The Disco and, guess what? Yep Muse.
Here is a great blog post from Stereogum. Why not buy both special edition versions from CD WOW? I did…

Not your bag? Then why not check out our full list of New Release CD’s and Pre-Release CD’s on CD WOW! Cheers for now!

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