Review: The Feelgood Depression

First an apology for my lack of post on Wednesday as advertised as I have been unwell this week.


The Feelgood Depression is a new and upcoming band based in Stoke on Trent right her ein the united Kingdom. As with many bands just starting out they are striving to increase their fanbase and plug their music out to all those who may be interested. It is very difficult these days for news bands to get the proverbial ball rolling. Some believe that the utilisation of websites such as Mysapce, Twitter and Facebook would actually make this easier but I believe it instead to be the opposite.

The Feelgood Depression is a modern combination of Rock and Grunge lead by the vocals of Deborah Crellin and Tracy Smith featuring the lead guitar skills of James Smith, Kenneth Nelson on Bass, Dan Steele on drums and Dan Dale on keyboard and synthesiser.

Their E.P album is called Rockstar and features four tracks. The first track, also called Rockstar opens with an immediately catchy guitar rift which then breaks into vocals part way in telling the classic story of Rockstars doing what they do best, rocking!

Track two, The Flowers are Dead (a title which actually made me go "Awwwh :(" before even starting the track) starts slower than the previous track with a synthesiser start flowing into a soft beat and guitar. This track has a much more sad theme on which we taken on a journey discussing the sadness of being forgotten, whether this is supposed to be forgotten because of death or other reasons I believe is left for the listener to decide depending on what they related to better. The vocals explore that little glimmer of hope that we all have that we would not be forgotten and that someone from our lives, someone we love, still remember.

The third, track titled "The One" jumps back to a more catchy and faster paced opening which reminds me of the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Feeder (For some reason?), and continues into a lovely fast paced "Hum" song, by which a song which after listening to it you find yourself humming the melody for the rest of the afternoon.

And finally the fourth track "Help Me Out" moves back again into a slightly softer beginning but jumps and morphs into a faster grunge track discussing the inevitable feelings of low self worth and yearning for the appreciation of others.

With each track I enjoyed this band more and more and highly recommend you give them a listen and check out their lives shows:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Feelgood-Depression/127179797362002 Give them a big old LIKE

https://twitter.com/FeelgoodDepress FOLLOW and see where it leads you!

Next week I will finally post about this large subject I have been building up to, if there are any topics you wish me to discuss on this blog, or if you have a band or there is a band you want me to review then please e-mail me on paul.rawcliffe1@gmail.com and let me know!


DFTBA

Misc

Okay so I had been avoiding doing a blog post because the one I was planning is very deep and sensitive and had been on my mind a lot recently.

However two things have cropped up lately so I'm inserting this in-between my planned post which I will do next week. On that note since my posting has been, erratic to say the least, I am going to choose a day in the week to do a consistent post, not sure when yet.

I want to talk about the recent plans to make busking without a license an arrest able offence in Liverpool and the 'discovery' of the Higgs Boson.

First of all I am unclear on the facts for both of these stories, but my intention is to examine the hypothetical ideas.

Buskers, as you may or may not know, is what we call those people you often find in city centres playing music in the street for tips. First of all I HATE the stereotype that these people are all homeless beggars. Nonsense, most are very talented musicians and are part of bands etc. Busking is a good way for new musicians to become known and also just to liven up an otherwise dull and ugly urban setting, why would people not want their lives brightened with music?

Secondly these people are clearly not beggars, you can tell just by checking out the instruments and equipment most have.

Anyway off my tangent.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/keep-spontaneous-street-performance-alive

It is my understanding that there are already generally license requirements for busking publicly and I suppose the more I think about it I do understand why this makes sense.

The trouble, as this article is suggesting, is it is restricting who can busk far too much, part of the point of busking is to give new musicians experience, not just to cherry pick the very best, that’s basically signing a musician, and yet with no perks of such a thing.

Street performing is a delight of the modern world and yet local authorities do not seem to want it.

Why?

I have tried to work out what it is that restrictive councils don't like about them. For a start do people forget Liverpool got European Capital of Culture in 2008, something our Council made a very big deal about.

I doubt completely that our skilled street buskers did not in any way contribute to this title, and how do we reward them? More limitations.

Now anyone who has read my University Dissertation (which none of you have, so I'm not sure why I've said that, would anyone like me to post it?) would know that I do actually believe in limitation on things like information. I do not believe in freedom of speech and I certainly do not believe in the freedom of information and that blasted Wikileaks.

However that restriction is based on the idea of public and national safety being the bigger priority.

Unless I am grossly misinformed busking is at worst an irritation to people who don't understand it and then at best a passion for those who enjoy it. On balance I do not see how busking is a threat to the public and therefore should not be so tightly regulated.

The excuse of " These measures will greatly enhance Liverpool's ability to attract the very best buskers and will add a new dimension to the visitors experience...Buskers themselves will benefit from a better regulated process...retailers and shoppers will be delighted the city has finally made this leap."

Is completely insane! How on earth are buskers going to benefit unless they are already the top of their game? Yes we want to attract the best buskers, but why should we reject the ones not as good, is this fair? Should people of all abilities not be able to express their art?

Furious.

Right second topic. Apparently CERN has discovered a particle that fits with their model for the Boson. This is very exciting news for the science world:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/4/3136527/higgs-boson-discovery-cern-announcement

First of let me clarify that the Higgs Boson does not disprove God or any of this nonsense (I personally believe it adds more reason for believing but I'm not going into that), it is called the God Particle which people think mean it is a substitute for God. Well first of all the Media gave it this name not scientists and secondly all they meant is it is such an exciting discovery it would be like discovering proof of God, it is that amazing a particle. That particular phrase is a poor choice of words and causes far more arguments than it should.

It should be clarified that it is NOT certain that this is the Boson yet, what is certain is that it is a new particle. The more we learn about the way the universe works the better, the more advancements we can make and the better life can be improved. Now we can also start manipulating the universe, which is a handy thing to do!

Anyway my next post will be the one I had scheduled and it links in some ways to this post, I'll aim for Wednesday of next week. I also intend of doing Teaser Tuesdays so keep an eye open for those posts too.

DFTBA

The latest tax scandel

As many of you may well be aware Jimmy Carr, Gary Barlow and several other indivudals have been highlighted as using dodgey accounting methods to avoid tax.

Basically what they have been doing is loaning their money to external banks and have then been having them loan it back to them.

The Prime Minister is of course "Disappointed" and a big fuss is being made.

Now then, yes I do believe that what these people are doing is unethical, I hate tax avoidance especially since it seems to be the rich who manage it.

However, it has also been made perfectly clear that what they are doing is not illegal.

On this grounds I think it is actually the Government who are being very sneaky and are trying to take some scandel pressure of themselves by making a big deal out of this and making out as though Carr etc are the scum of the earth.

The realistic fact is that they have found a loophole in the system and have exploited it. We all would if we had the chance frankly. The Government has to take half of the blame because the fact is what they are doing is still legal.

If it was made illegal THEN they would have grounds to seriously kick off about it. The recent expenses scandel within the Government was more of an issue because certain things were being claimed illegally.

It's like if you leave an evelope full of money on a bench for five me and come back suprised to find it has vanished. You cannot simply blame the criminal for stealing it because it was half your own stupid fault for putting it there and not assuming it was going to be taken.

If there is a loophole in the system then people are going to exploit it, yes they are sneaky A Holes for taking advantage but if the loophole was not there in the first place it couldn't be taken advanatge of.

If the taxman has a problem with what these people have done they they need to change legislation to make such accounting illegal (which to be honest I think they should with all of these sneaky way s rich people avoid taxes), the poorest get taxed the most... because thats logical.

By the way I'm working on a very gloomy post for my next one, so be warned it's deep. You may want to avoid it.

DFTBA

Love

Okay I have been meaning to write this post for a while now but have had a bizzare combination of writer's block and a severe lack of motivation.

I have talked a little about Love before but it is such a complicated subject that I felt deserved exploring again. Love can only really be described in one word: Complicated.

First of all I get extremely fed up by people who imply that Love is some kind of mystical or even magical thing bordering on supernatural. It really isn't, it is just an emotion like all the others. Scientifically speaking it is just a chemical reaction and I think evolution can really acommodate for it's existence.

Love is important for our survival as a species, it encourages us to reproduce and to stick together as a community and it (supposedly) encourages couples to stick together to raise the offspring. Now obviously people are going to say that I'm under selling love or putting it down to a purely science explaination and that there is more to it than that.

Well i'm sorry but I'm not convinced it is anything more than that, it is just the strongest and most complex feeling we have so people get ansey and defensive over it.

I also think that love is an umbrella term, a little like the way 'mammels' is and there is a large number of variations and sub groups within that one category.

I tend to put it down into 4 broad areas: Family, Friends, Lust and Romance.

Family and Friends are closely connected as is Lust and Romance.

Now I love my family, as I'm sure most people do. What is interesting is that many people 'love' members of their family without actually liking them. Some people hate members of their family but still say they love them.

Now to me this is either a case of they don't really love that family member and can't admit it because it is considered a horrific taboo to not love your family, or alternatively it means love is not as simple as liking and disliking, even disconnected from that.

I think love for a family is a community based feeling and possibly even companisionship based feeling. So we have developed this strong attachment to people we have been made to spend lots of time with it to encourage sticking together. If you think about it the first community you'll meet when you are born is your family so it makes sense for them and you to feel a strong attachment so you all benefit from an addition to the herd.

Lust is pretty clear cut, strong sexual attraction based on instinctive criteria due to the selfish gene and the life instinct to reproduce (for the sake of nothing more but to carry on reproducing I may add which I see as completly stupid but thats another story)

Romance and Friendship Love is where things get very complicated. I half agree and half disagree with the idea that friendships start very subconciously on lust level. I agree that this can be the case certainly, and as you realise you cannot persue that person on a romantic level for whatever reason you settle for friendship. There are however other options I think. I often end up friends with people simply because they are there, I have to engage with them on a regular basis and they becomes friends simply because I have gottne used to their presence. This connects again with this community instinct and how groups and herds generally up our survival chances so naturally we befriend those close to us to encourage ourselves to protect them and for them to protect us.

Finally romance. Romance is a nusince and is frankly the thorn in my life. I also believe that romance is split into three kinda of love and not just the obvious to.

Romance never progresses from Lust to ful romanic love. There is some kind of middle bit where it is deeper than lust but not quite full on love. This tends to be the problematic part because people assume this is the proper love and get married or whatever but then it fizzles away before reaching the full love.

I would say I have been in full romantic love about three possibly four times. I have also lusted after many women too. What I am less sure about is whether my number of times of being in full love is more than my rough guess because that middle love can sometimes feel so intense that it is easily mistaken for real love.

The way I try and judge it is by how quickly that feeling disipates after the inevitable disaster. So whether that be rejection or breaking up, many times it has not taken long for the feelings to vanish but on these three (maybe four) occasions there is still a slight flare within me. Now the other trouble here is that even after the rejection or break up you may still be in contact with those individuals in some way, so what we must ask ourselves is: would the feelings dissipate quickly if we had no contact with them or is it actually full love.

Unfortuntly this tends to mean you can never be sure your in full love until after the relationship has fallen apart or you have been stepped on mericlessly. Which is really pessimistic. Now I don't here mean couples that have been together for years. There comes a point where you just know, but I'm refering to before you get to that stage and your still in that flowerly giggly stage where it is is middle love or full love.

Just to repeat, love is extremely complicated, it's great, it hurts and it isnt even anything physicial. Brilliant

DFTBA

Review of Flaming June

Okay so I did cover this band briefly on Friday's 'Folklore' but my readers and listeners are generally two different audiences so I wanted to do a more detailed blog post as well.

As you all may know in the last year I have really gotten into the Folk scene and for the past four years I have realised that media and journalism is the area I want to go into. So lately I have decided it would probably make some kind of sense to merge these two interests.

There is a website called Bright Young Folk which looks at the latest on the folk scene and this gave me the idea to mix up my blog posts of philosophy and ethics to some Folk reviews as well.

So I was surfing myspace and came across Flaming June who describe themselves as a mix mash of Folk, Indie and Alternative which I'll admit at first made me skeptical. However I quickly played the first track of their EP "Nerves of Steel" and was delighted with it!

I quickly got in touch for a CD (which has lovely artwork as it happens, my boss commented on that straight away) and I would also point out that it was a pleasure to correspond with Louise Hamilton (The singer and songwriter for the band), sometimes bands give you can get snappy little responses which make you feel there isn't actually a desire to talk to you, but definatly not with Flaming June.

"Nerves of Steel" quickly got five stars on my media player along with "The Insane Ex-Girlfriend Parade" and "You Do Moody So Well" with "I Know What It's Like" and "The Boy I Knew Before I Met You" getting four stars (ONLY because they were a tad slower paced and that is not my thing, the songs are equally as amazing).

I think/hope Flaming June will continue to produce great music for years to come. What I do know is I'll be one of the first ordering their CDs for as long as they make them!

If you want to find out more then please follow these links:

Twitter: @flamingjuneuk
Facebook: /flamingjuneuk
Myspace: /flamingjuneuk

and their website: http://www.flamingjune.co.uk/

DFTBA

Gay Marriage

Okay so the topic of Gay Marriage is still pretty buzzing throughout the internet and what sort of blogger would I be if I did not enter this debate.

Well actually I would be a sensible one. That’s right I will not enter the Gay Marriage debate and let me try and explain why:

It will not make the slightest bit of difference.

The last time I was particularly vocal about an issue was the construction of a Muslin centre a few blocks away from Ground Zero and all entering that debate (using the term debate lightly) caused me was one massive headache.

I found a lot during my time running ‘The That’s Debatable Show’ that as soon as you find one of these big topics forming around you the best thing to do is to get out.

First of all let me clarify here that it is not because I do not find the topic important. The problem is expressing one’s opinion (particularly on the internet) leads to is other people shooting you down with a rapid fire machine gun just for the sake of it.

All you end up with is flaring emotions and a lot of very annoyed people and no further to progress either way.

People will rarely change what they believe in. You can always tell those who will because they will have an actual debate with you rather than a mudslinging match. Only people with the legal power to change laws such as the one on gay Marriage need to have the debate.

You may then say well Politicians will go with public opinion. That’s true but as always with these debates the public is then split down the middle, all the time, this means politicians are forced to play their end as they can never make everyone happy.

I feel sorry for Politicians. I wouldn’t even want to imagine how difficult it is to run a country, especially when every decision you make will annoy half of the population.

The other reason I refuse to enter the Gay Marriage debate or any similar ones such as immigration is because of what I like to call ‘Taboo Syndrome’.

Here is an example:

Four men are walking through a supermarket and one drops his mobile phone. A child picks it up and hands it to his Mother, she asks the child which man dropped the phone. The Child says:

“The Black man”

That child then gets grounded for being racist.

It seems to me now that because things such as Racism and Homophobia are such sore points and such social taboos that if you make a logical yet negative decision against a certain minority in the population people leap all over you and rip you to shreds for being Racist or whatever.

This is extremely irritating. Now this is not to say that when someone is blatantly being Racist that they should not be yelled at. They should. However it is perfectly feasible that certain negative decisions may be made against a minority on logical grounds and not because of an emotive response to that group.

It can be as ridiculously for suing tanning companies for not making fake tan for black people.

So my point here is that people cannot freely reason why they do not agree with Gay Marriage because people immediately shoot venom at them and call them Homophobic, even what that is not the point.

People are using Racism and Homophobia as trump cards to avoid having a logical debate and when it happens it infuriates me. So I just distance myself from the whole sorry affair.

I want to point out here that I am not saying that this is the case in every argument, but it is fairly frequent.

I can almost imagine the thought process being like this “This guy just disagreed with me, me must hate Homosexuals!”. No this is not necessarily the case.

For example. One friend of mine disagrees with gay Marriage because of definition issues, not even issues of Homosexuality or anything like that.

He says that the legal definition of Marriage is the union between a Man and a Woman. So therefore to him unless they change the definition of Marriage legally, there can never be Gay Marriage.

He is not making an emotive comment about homosexuals, yet people would immediately use the trump card simply because they heard “Disagree with Gay Marriage”.

And that my friends is why I am fed up with debates and these big world issues. Until people stop being ignorant or start using their brains (or a topic that I really care about comes up) I will not be getting involved.

DFTBA

Belshazzar's Feast Review

First a reflection on the A-Z of April.

Well I failed! I did not manage to post every single day. In my defence I spent an entire weekend with no internet access, my personal computer decided to block Blogspot (I’m still having difficulty resolving this), all of my work computers block Blogspot and then when I finally found a computer that would use it… it simply decided not to work.

At this point I got annoyed and gave up.

Despite this, I am extremely glad I took part, with being relatively new to blogging I felt it helped me to improve and formulate ideas much better than I would have done previous. Thankyou to everyone who has started to follow me and left me comments during this time, I hope will continue to engage with my future posts.

Since my A-Z was pretty heavy I’ve decided for my first post since April should be a review.

As my regular readers (Hah!) should know, I have recently become quite a big fan of Folk music. One such band I have gotten into is Belshazzar’s Feast which consists of Paul Sartin on Oboe, Violin, Whistle and vocals and Paul Hutchinson on the Accordion.

I got into this band through Bellowhead which is my favourite group. They released an album called “Umbrellowhead” which was a compilation of various tracks from the different groups and artists who merged to form Bellowhead.

One such track was Ronda La Turkey by Belshazzar’s Feast. When I heard this track I instantly enjoyed it and decided to explore the other music they had. At first I was surprised, as their other music was not quite as fast paced as the track I had heard, but I still found their music to be to my taste.

I quickly tracked down their albums, finding some songs were hit and miss and others were soon to become staple favourites.

I listened to the second CD on their Food of Love album (taken from a live show) and quite enjoyed the banter and engagement that the duo had.

I began searching around for live shows of Bellowhead, Faustus (another band which Paul Sartin performs with) and other folk groups and ended up e-mailing Belshazzar’s Feast booking agent (Using my Radio e-mail address which often gets me free discs or interviews muhahaha) and found out the closest they were to Liverpool was across the Mersey in Birkenhead.

At first I would not have been able to make the date, but thankfully my schedule cleared and I quickly reserved tickets.

Upon arrival I was surprised to find the band performing in a small church hall for a local Folk Club. This of course is simply my own ignorance as since they were well known to me I expected them to be very popular in the Folk community (They are but I mean as in much bigger sold out venues).

At first I was curious as to how this would play out but I was very pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of the entire gig. Both members of the band have an excellent rapport both which each other and their audience. Playful banter and audience participation ensured everyone enjoyed themselves.

They performed tunes such as the Primus Hornpipe, Eine Kleine Natchmusik and Widows shall have Husbands. I managed to record them doing Thresherman:

I ended up asking to have a photograph with the duo, which seemed to take them back a little? (Maybe I imagined that, but they did seem a tad surprised) They did of course make a joke… “Paul is that your hand…” which made me chuckle and really emphasised the friendship between the two (uh that was an extremely soppy sentence.)

The performance was fantastic and I whole heartedly say that they are at their best when performing live.

If you ever get a chance to see Belshazzar’s Feast then I strongly recommend you go!

Be sure to check them out on

http://www.belshazzarsfeast.co.uk and also check out

http://www.brightyoungfolk.com

Also be sure to add them on Twitter and Facebook!

DFTBA