Great track

I love this tune by Death in Vegas with Liam Gallagher, called Scorpio Rising.

It's funny actually, Death in Vegas have done some great music over the years, yet when I saw them perform live (many years ago, I admit) they were dull as hell. I hope their live shows have become a bit more interesting since. I assume they must have.

And Liam Gallagher, of course, is a great rock & roll vocalist and performer. But he is, without a doubt, one of the dumbest people I have ever come across. Shame really, as I always found him quite sexy. But he was (and still is, I'm sure) someone who constantly says the most stupid and rude things. The kind of person who joins a lively discussion, opens his mouth and brings everything to a dead halt. Simply because his comment was so brainless, no one knows how to follow it up. After a long silence, there will usually be an 'anyway' from someone and the discussion returns to where it left off before Liam butted in. Such a shame. Anyway, you don't have to listen to him talk, just enjoy his singing...

For those of you who understand German....

This must have been one of my last ever TV appearances before moving to Belize. The Harald Schmidt show. I always loved being on his show (I was there 3 times in less than 3 years) and was sad to hear that the show no longer exists. What does Harald Schmidt do these days? He was a great host.

Anyway, in this interview I talk about 'Popstars' and the band we formed on that show, who became the 'No Angels'. I'll blog about them in the coming weeks too.

Shopping in Mexico

It's 5.23 am and I'm the only one up so far. Just wanted to say (before we're off to Chetumal, Mexico on our shopping trip) that I have made my mind up about that Gwen Stefani track.

I like the sample of that Sound of Music track, but the song would have been much better if Gwen hadn't just sang the obvious over it (i.e. the original melody)

So, as far as I'm concerned, it's poor song writing. If she would have sung a completely different melody over it, something that had nothing to do with the Sound of Music, it would have made the whole 'joke' very subtle, where right now it isn't.

So, my verdict...6 out of 10 for that one.

Anyway, I better get my shopping bags ready : )

True to their name

Regardless of what style of music you are into, you have to go to Itunes (or where ever you purchase your music) right now and buy the 'All Angels' track 'Songbird'

I can't imagine that there is anyone out there that won't love this. It is just so beautiful and soothing. The voices are amazing!!!!

Go right now, buy it!

Actually....whilst you're out music shopping...have a listen to 'We used to vacation' by "Cold war kids' as well. That's another one that I love.

Great party tune

The Rapture, with 'Whoo!Alright, Yeah...Uh, Huh!' of the album 'Pieces of the people we love'.

I know that some of the tracks on the album where produced by Gnarls Barkley member and Gorillaz producer Danger Mouse, but am not quite sure if this was one of them.

And by the way, I love the band's bio on their website: 'Origin of the band. The Rapture. Formed in San Diego, moved to New York, slept under a bridge. More to follow...'

Well, that's indepth. A bit like this blog, really ; )




Oh and talking of Danger Mouse, I love how he went around British record stores replacing 500 copies of Paris Hilton's album 'Paris' last summer with spoofs albums with altered artwork and a 40 minute instrumental that contained various ridiculous statements by Paris.

I think that's funny. Admitting...she is an easy target, with plenty of dumb statements to choose from. Still, I'd love to hear what Mouse's version of 'Paris' sounds like.

And, I hate to admit it, but Paris' music debut actually quite surprised me. Her voice is not bad. I mean, she's totally unoriginal, with the video for 'Stars are blind' being a total re-enactment of that old Madonna video (damn, what was the name of that track again? That black and white video where she was plashing around in the sea with a mermaid boy and kept flexing her muscles...you know which one I mean?)

And when I first heard 'Stars are blind' I though it was a new Gwen Stefani track. Oops!

And, whilst we're on that subject, here's Gwen's 'Sound of Music' moment. Very weird indeed. I can't quite decide whether I like it's quirkiness or whether this is just too stupid for words. I think I'll stay on the fence until the track either grows on me or until it makes me want to pull my hairs out. I'll get back on that some day...

For what it's worth

During my time at MTV my music knowledge was pretty extensive. I took music history seriously & always kept up to date by reading the music mags and of course by watching tons of MTV. As soon as I entered any hotel room I'd switch on MTV and it played constantly in the MTV building as well.

My pursuit of music knowledge was nothing like James Hyman's obsessive compulsive thirst for fact, figures and obscure samples & I was no walking, talking 'music library' like Paul King, but still...I knew my s**t.

Then we left for Belize in 2001 and I completely stopped following what was going on. To be honest, I think that it was all too painful for me to see how everyone was still 'out there' doing their thing whilst I wasn't anymore. I mean, it was my own choice to move to the Belizean jungle, but I hadn't fully thought through what that was going to mean in reality, that it would mean the end of my career.

Anyway, after years of souls searching and deciding to make things work out here, I'm now very settled in this jungle lifestyle and feel blessed to be here every day. I am no longer envious of anyone else's life anymore & it no longer hurts to look at what's happening in the world of music.

I'm even getting to a point where I no longer feel embarrassed about my huge gap in recent music knowledge. I even think that it makes things more interesting in a way. What do I mean with that? Well, I now am an outsider looking in. I am not influenced by any hype, fad or scene that might be going on around me. I just see and hear things for what they are. I don't know what any of the recent bands or artists where up to a year or two years ago, I just witness where they are at this very moment.

And, even though I am outside looking in, I also know what things look like from the inside as I spent so much time there myself.

So, I guess it's quite a unique perspective and one that's hopefully going to result in some interesting observations and conclusions.

There has been lots going through my mind lately with regards to what I've seen and heard, I'll start sharing in the coming days...

Email from Ray Cokes!

I've been trying to get hold of Ray Cokes for ages now & am happy to report that I am finally back in contact with him. He's doing well and is promising me an update on his life to post here soon.

In the meantime, I am bugging him to start a daily vlog (video blog). Wouldn't he be brilliant at that? I'd watch it. I can just see Ray do silly stuff like this:





To see what other Vlogs are out there, check out the Vloggies Awards website & Rocketboom (just as one example of a daily vlog). I love all this stuff.

Ipod flashmobbers

This is just the funniest! I noticed the following article on the Daily Mail website:

Hundreds of flashmob clubbers dance in silence among commuters at Liverpool Street station

Hundreds of people descended on Liverpool Street station for the biggest ever turnout for the latest internet craze - mobile clubbing. Armed with MP3 players loaded with favourite tracks the "clubbers" arrived on the concourse just after 7pm last night. Students, business people and office workers danced in silence as they listened to their iPods among commuters listening to announcements about late trains.

Details of the time and venue were sent by email. The event is similar to the flash mobbing movement pioneered in New York which involved large numbers of people gathering to conduct bizarre activities.

One commuter said: "It was entertaining if strange to see all these people gyrating to their own beat. It was the Soul Train arriving at platform one."

Fantastic 'bastard pop' mashups!

You have to go check this out, this is brilliant! A site called 'Good Blimey' that features 2,747 mashup tunes (for you to listen to and even download).

Big up to James Hyman for finding this gem of a site.

Enjoy!

Moby & I

I am very confused about the new Moby video. It's for his track with Debbie Harry, called 'New York, New York'. The song itself is pleasant enough, but the video????? The reason I'm so confused it's that it's such a bad 'not funny!' video & Moby normally has a great sense of humor. I know, because Moby & I used to be very good friends. Sadly enough, we don't talk to each other these days. I think I broke his heart or just bruised his ego (to this day I'm not sure which it was). I'll go into the story in a minute, first have a look at the 'New York, New York' promo & make up your own mind...

So anyway, how/why did I break Moby's heart? Well, we used to hang out a lot. We actually made a great team, Moby and I. I stopped him from getting too uptight about things & he used to inspire me mentally-he's incredibly intelligent- and blow me away musically-he used to play my piano or sit and and play the guitar for me. We really loved hanging out together, the only problem was that he fancied me and I didn't fancy him.

Anyway, Moby got the wrong end of the stick and started hinting to people (the press included) that we were some kind of item. I had planned a trip to New York to stay with him, so I decided to let him know ahead of time what the deal was. He took it well and we both decided that I should still come to New York.

Once I got there it turned out that he was a bit peeved and had ordered his best friend Damien Loeb (an amazingly talented but struggling artist back then & a superstar painter now) to entertain me whilst he would continue his work in the studio. So during the day I would hang out in Damien's art studio/apartment and at night the three of us would hang out together. Visiting the three vegan restaurants in New York that were strict enough for Moby to eat in (yawn!) or watch crap videos like Pooh Bear in Apocalypse Now (Moby's choice of movie). After a while, Damien and I had more fun together and didn't really want to drop whatever we were doing during the day to suit King Moby.

So, to make a long story short...Damien and I started seeing each other. Moby was not too happy (obviously) and the whole thing became a bit of a mess for all of us. The relationship didn't last & I let the two best friends get on with mending their friendship.

It's a shame really. They are both such interesting characters. It would have been nice to have stayed friends with them. But there you go, love triangles are messy things to get into. I guess I should have known the trouble it would cause and never have gotten involved with Damien in the first place.

Anyway, that's all a long, long time ago. I'm just happy that life as a married woman and a mother is so much less complicated : )

So, just for old time's sake, a very melancholic live version of 'Go' from the Partyzone studio. Check out Moby and I cross-dressing in this clip too. We swapped outfits half-way through the show & continued the interview with me wearing Moby's jeans & T-shirt and Moby wearing my sparkly dress.