Liars - Scarecrows On A Killer Slant

Over the last couple of days my mind has been preoccupied by worry of what a newly elected Conservative government (albeit with as a coalition) might mean for our country. The thought of this political party in charge has me fearful, especially when I look back at their sustained record of social inequity and intolerance.

Those two issues are at the forefront of Liars “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant”. Taken from the bands new album Sisterworld the track is powered by its creepy tone and metronomic rhetoric that makes this listener feel ill at ease.

The song leads off with the band asking “Why’d you pass the bum on the street?” and “Why’d shoot the man with the gun?” The answers to both are returned as an emphatic “Cos he bothered you” it’s disconcerting and uncomfortable to think that more parts our society could digress into this territory.

Then the band strikes with the songs Coup de grâce. Starting as a whisper and ending as a scream they utter “We should take the creeps out at night, Drag them incomplete by their ears, We should nail their thoughts to the wall, Stand them in the street with a gun, AND THEN KILL THEM ALL!” like the inner mantra of a government who’d like nothing more than for everyone to agree with their views.

The song then begins to tick along to its conclusion, but not before it musters one last question that I'm sure rattles around the heads of those now in government.

“How can they be saved from the way they live every day?”

Maybe those with the power in Westminster should ask it of themselves.

Scarecrows on a Killer Slant.mp3

Joanna Newsom - Cosmia

Last night at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank I was part of especially lucky group of people that got to see Joanna Newsom perform. I’ve seen her play once before at the Royal Albert Hall and both times she and her cohorts have been incredible.

For the uninitiated Joanna Newsom music forms the culmination of some very unfashionable components that make a whole quite unlike any other artist that I know of. To start she plays a rather unwieldy (but elegant) harp, which is the focal instrument on most of her songs. These songs are often massive in length, the title track from her new album “Have One On Me” clocks in at huge 11 minutes long. Then throw in that her voice sounds a bit Lisa Simpsonish, but with more tone and depth. Then you can understand why she isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

But for those of us who “get” her music she is almost without peer. Her songs whilst long never drag and leave you wishing you could see the world with the same beauty and myth as her lyrics describe.

I’ve decided to link my favorite of Joanna’s songs “Cosmia” taken from her second album Ys. I’ve been listening to this regularly since its release in 2006 and I still can’t get enough. If that’s not a mark of a truly great song, I don’t know what is.

Cosmia.mp3

Frank Turner - Thatcher F**ked The Kids

As people across the nation are currently voting on which idiot should be allowed to govern us, I thought I’d take the opportunity to tie my anti Tory colours to the mast. You’ve probably heard the spoof common people track doing the rounds on You Tube, but this effort from the always amazing Frank Turner beats them all hands down.

Thatcher F**ked the kids was probably the first Frank Turner song that I fell in love with. Once I had heard this sung in unison in an overfull tent at the Reading festival I was completely hooked.

Frank is currently on tour at various places around the world and I would whole heartily recommend you go to see him play if you get the chance

Thatcher F**ked The Kids.mp3