Lisa Knight's Blog, page 13
June 23, 2015
POETRY: HONEY… THAT DRUNK MAN JUST TOLD OUR DOG TO ‘FUCK OFF!’ BY PAUL TRISTRAM
“Really, which one?”
“The Rottweiler.”
“No silly, I mean which drunk man…this is Swansea?”
“Oh, that one over there with all those prison tattoos,
the carpet-burn on his forehead, walking with a stutter
and talking with a limp, arguing with those pigeons,
with a cloth ‘Welsh Bitter’ beermat sewn on his jeans.
You really can’t miss him sweetheart!”
“Oh yes we can, come on around this way,
and keep an eye on that damn dog next time,
bloody thing’s going to get us all in trouble one day!”
Written by Paul Tristram
Available to buy via Lulu
June 22, 2015
MUSIC BLOG: DIG THE NEW BREED – MONDAY 22ND JUNE 2015
A Yawn Worth Yelling – Start Somewhere
Winter – Someone Like You
Mould – Easy Kill
Adia Victoria – Howlin’ Shame
June 21, 2015
STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: ONE KID’S LUNCH – THERE’S MORE
You can listen to this artist on Soundclick
One Kid’s Lunch specialises in ‘goofy Christian rock’, and their name comes from a Biblical quotation, John 6:9. That quote concerning the feeding of the 5,000 with two loaves and five fishes (i.e., one kid’s lunch). Way more information than you could possibly need but it’s always nice to get a back story, especially when you are dealing with such subjects. Having listened to “There’s More” a few times, there is waaay more to One Kid’s Lunch than that tired old cliche ‘Christian rock’. It also shows that showing and testifying to your faith can often be funny, heartwarming and good for your whole well being.
If I weren’t already convinced of the tightness and punchiness of the musical backing track, the vocals and lyrics would have sealed the deal. Those lyrics are priceless but funnily, only in context with the music. I glanced at them while downloading the track at the beginning of the month, and they didn’t really register. In the track, though, they make perfect sense. There’s a wry, humorous feel to the vocals that helps to give the track that warmth I was describing earlier. In the second verse, this really comes together to plaster a wry grin to your face whether you like it or not.
Come on, listen to this…. ‘When I get my little halo, Well done, faithful couch potato!’ The music backing is pretty much textbook rock, convincingly delivered. It’s the deft and twisting arrangement that really pins itself in your mind; this is an artist who doesn’t believe in the aba school of songwriting. It’s always going to be a difficult task to write about something as intensely personal as your religious views, and OKL surmount that splendidly with good humour and a fine rocking tune. There’s also a pop sensibility to it that makes me think of 10CC in their prime. The most important thing of all though is that this is a pure slice of musical fun that would win anyone’s heart, regardless of race, creed or colour. That, I contend, is a much finer thing to do.
Power Pop with a message.
MUSIC BLOG: DIG THE NEW BREED: SUNDAY 21ST JUNE 2015
Vant – Parasite
Baby In Vain – Muscles
Institute – Cheerlessness
The Castillians – You & Me
June 20, 2015
IMAGINALIS NEWS: SATURDAY 20TH JUNE 2015
Erik Hofstatter’s story, The Deep End, will feature on the Manor House show in July
Manor House is a part of the Project iRadio network featuring shows such as The Horror Show with horror author Brian Keene, Three Guys With A Beard with horror authors Jonathan Maberry, Christopher Golden and James A Golden, The Armcast Podcast with horror author Armand Rosamilia and many more.
Want to know more? Visit his website: The Cimmerian Writings of Erik Hofstatter
David-John Tyrer has had three poems published on the Staxtes website
DJ Tyrer is the person behind Atlantean Publishing, was placed second in the 2015 Data Dump Award for Genre Poetry, and has been widely published in anthologies and magazines in the UK, USA and elsewhere, including Dialect Poetry (Palores Publishing), issues of Cyaegha, Carillon, The Pen, Scifaikuest, Tigershark and Anthology 29, and online on Staxtes English Wednesdays, Poetry Bulawayo, Poetry Pacific, Siren’s Call and The Muse, as well as releasing several chapbooks, including the critically acclaimed Our Story. Forthcoming poetry is slated to appear in the anthologies Beyond The Cosmic Veil and Mightier Than The Sword from Horrified Press. DJ Tyrer’s website is at http://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/
Faded Pages by DJ Tyrer
The actor manqué reads aloud
From the faded pages of a play
Pages that are yellowed and frail
Flaking at his clumsy touch
Just as his mind flashes away as he reads
Fading into thoughtless oblivion
The Shrew Canoe by Paul Tristram
It was hidden
in some foliage
at the left-hand side
of their escape tunnel.
It had so far
been kept
unemployed.
Yet,
Like an unfired gun…
Read more on the Poems & Poetry blog
MUSIC BLOG: DIG THE NEW BREED – SATURDAY 20TH JUNE 2015
Elevant – Implode In Slow Motion
Sjowgren – Seventeen
Jessie Jones – Sugar Coated
Powers – Loved by you
STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: JAYMZ LEE SHAW – WOKE UP THIS MORNING
You can listen to this artist on MP3UNSIGNED
It never ceases to amaze me what a musically fertile country Canada is, and especially for a certain kind of rock music too. The reason I got started on this – one of my favourite subjects – is because I believe Jaymz Lee Shaw is from that country. There is a strain of acoustic rock that Canadians have taken to in their droves and – as if to prove the point – Jaymz delivers exactly what I would have expected; a bright, breezy song with bags of appeal. However, you’ll find its growth is a bit stunted. At one minute and ten seconds, this will barely wet your musical whistle and, cunningly enough, makes you wish there were more of it…
Mmmmmm.
I found a lot to like in Older (April 2006) and because of a comment Jaymz had made paid particular attention to the vocals that I found very listenable in an early Pink Floyd-ish way. If I liked what he did on Older, then it’s a given that I would like Woke Up This Morning despite its relative length. If there was any question about his singing on Older, his performance on this track seals the deal. It’s tuneful, pleasing and fits the track like one of milady’s gloves. So, no more of this ‘reluctant’ singer stuff OK? You can do it, and this track proves it.
I’ve got to like Starting Over, Cameron Pierce and others over on Soundclick, who also make this kind of material and Woke Up This Morning could fit among them with nary a twitch. If I were Jaymz, I’d take that as a high compliment indeed as he would see if he heard them. I have a personal liking for acoustic rock vocal tracks, and that would account for my own tastes in this affair and I guess the rest of you will just have to make up your own minds. Whatever it is, if we could get another couple of minutes of a track like this I would be very interested in hearing it.
A melodic, tuneful tiny tot.
June 19, 2015
STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: MELV – DON’T WANT TO LOSE
You can listen to this artist on Soundclick
Melv is a familiar name to many SC regulars and has long been a special favourite amongst the reviewers – this one included – and rightly so. He says on his webpage that his music is for fans of Muse, Coldplay, Keane and a million others, but I disagree. I think he’s miles better than that. There is a strain of English rock music that throws up true originals; David Bowie & Queen are just two examples I have compared him to. In both style and arrangement/songwriting skills, Melv echoes the best of these two artists and somehow makes a Melv-shaped space for himself. And very cosy it is too.
Usually.
The one element that I feel has dogged this artist’s work is in the way it comes out sounding. melv knows this conversation by heart by now so let’s not start nailing that cross just yet. I have nothing but admiration for this guy’s ability to make songs work on an epic scale, and that is down to his knack of nailing down that classic rock nous. Songs like this can only really live and breathe performed in an open air stadium in front of thousands of people; anthemic, detailed novels of life, love and the pursuit of happiness. The kind of song that reaches out and touches people, and that IMHO is what makes Melv so special. Take Don’t Want To Lose for example, a great song in the Melv tradition and believe me this would be scorching if it also had what the artists mentioned above had; a Roy Thomas Baker (or equivalent) production.
This mix of Don’t Want To Lose doesn’t really work for me, at least not as soon as the bass kicks in. It takes up a huge chunk of the right speaker and sounds as boomy as a boomy thing. It also steps over the heavenly choir (yes there is one…see…) and does detract from the power going on right there. In all other respects, this is a great rock song delivered with power and commitment even if you do have to work at pretending a widescreen arena-rock mix is happening as well. Melv is a young man who has remained consistently meticulous at delivering quality music, which can only bode well for his future. In the meantime, this will do but puh-leeze can we have another mix of this with the bass fixed?
Recommended (for the song and arrangement).
June 18, 2015
STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: SILVERTRAIN – GOOD PEOPLE
You can listen to this artist on Soundclick
So there I was last Saturday night propping up the bar over at Songplanet for the Saturday Night Rocks show (Germinate good times, come on, dun dun dun dun) giving it the verbals with me mates (as you do) and John from Silvertrain bent my ear. They are – finally – about to go into a real live studio and record some new tracks for us… Hey hey. “Not before time,” I say, as I wrap the naughty boy on the knuckles, “laziest buncha gits known to man, you and whatsisname….” I got to say I think John and Ritchie (oh yeah, that’s his name) have milked the success of the tracks off their One To Blame CD with expertise. With the emphasis being on the tease of course. Listen to any n dozen of Soundclick stations or the DJ streams from sites such as Songplanet and Indiehitz and sooner or later up pops a Silvertrain standard.
But that was soooo then, and this is soooooo now… Waddup??
I think the thing that will please many people that call John a friend – especially from this track – is how much he has accomplished in a short time. I feel like I have reviewed John’s entire catalog and even maybe a couple his Mum wrote, so I’ve seen him come from a very rough, nervous start to where he is with this track. We have had endless discussions about recording, especially on the computer because it’s the whole ‘going into a studio’ thing that has held Silvertrain back since those heady days of 2003/4. His early acoustic tracks were fair enough, given the circumstances and it looks like the discussions we had about how to go about it have taken root. Good People is the closest thing I can think of that deserves the title ‘a Silvertrain’ track, and the great thing about it is this is all John. Ritchie still has to finish his bits.
I’m not sure how this was recorded but full marks to John on coming this close, from a production standpoint, this sounds great. It’s also a fully realised track; drums (kinda, sorta), backing vocals and a noticeable sense of confidence in vocal delivery. Again, I’ve probably written reams of stuff about John’s singing style but by God, he’s captured it on this track. It is, of course, still lacking in certain departments (Ritchie, a punchier drum track, frills) but it still contains essential ingredients such as a good arrangement and easy accessibility. All the hallmarks of classic Silvertrain even. Tell ya what guys, why don’t you work on this one a little more and I think this will be good to go as it is and spend the studio money getting legless down the pub. You know it makes sense.
Recommended (after all, it is still a demo)
POETRY: SOMEDAY SOON I’LL SOBER UP AND THEN YOU’LL BE FUCKED BY PAUL TRISTRAM
I’ll run rings around your nonsense
while cutting straight to the chase
and need no one on my side but me.
Leave the gossip and slander up to you,
that’s cowards work where I come from.
I’ve already tried to be honourable
and offered ‘Pistols At Dawn’
but you declined with snivelling excuses
preferring ‘Knives In Backs’ at midnight.
My mistake, trying to bring respect,
upright honesty and a sense of fair play
into dealings with a two-faced rat.
I’ll let you squirm in your ugly jealousy
the only decent thing in this is my restraint,
besides, you are merely advertising
my Brilliance…finger pointing like a bore.
Written by Paul Tristram
Available to buy via Lulu
