Heartbroken. RIP Lou Reed.

Just saw a very upsetting tweet while I was scrolling twitter casually.
Legendary musician, Lou Reed died aged 71.
I've been a big fan of him and this news is very sad. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

CHANGE. SIGN THIS PETITION.

So it's a typical Sunday for me, I'm scrolling through tumblr looking around at different pictures until I see one which makes me so mad that I feel I need to promote the disgusting nature of it.

 This is the picture of a halloween costume.
This halloween costume promotes eating disorders in a positive, fun, 'Lets go as skinny people for halloween way' when in fact anorexia is a life ruining disease.So the mental patient halloween outfit was wrong, the jimmy savile one was just fucked up but seriously there is an Anna Rexia one is taken it to a whole new level. Not that those costume weren't as bad as this one but at least they were taken down and removed, that's what needs to happen to this!

SIGN THIS PETITION TO GET IT REMOVE!!!
http://www.change.org/petitions/halloweenparty13-com-stop-marketing-and-producing-anna-rexia-costume?share_id=HWSPZWmgHK&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

http://www.change.org/petitions/halloweenparty13-com-stop-marketing-and-producing-anna-rexia-costume?share_id=HWSPZWmgHK&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

I know this isn't like my normal posts but I feel it should be exposed, so share this and sign this petition!

Random thought

After reading the latest issue of NME, I found a really great quote which I feel sums up my generations and how we react to music.

NME did a feature on the young British artists in music, 'Young Britannia 2013' and inside this feature there was a sub topic on youth culture.

Sam Fryer from Palma Violets said in this sub topic on the subject 'We're the kids that want to get up onstage, we're the kids that want to stagedive, we're the kids who want to break stuff.' I really feel this is a perfect way to explain my generation and how they react to music, gigs and how music and youth go together.

Morrissey autobiography

So if you haven't heard already, the elusive reclusive the smiths lead singer has written down his life story which contains parts of his childhood and career. 

I've only read a few pages and I'm already addicted. It's hilarious and well written.  I'm pretty sure I'll have it finished in a few days! 

Nme this week

Late afternoon reading

Wolf turns to Lion

So I missed yesterdays 'Cover Sunday' so I thought I'd do it today and I've found a cover I really love.
Wolf Alice covers Katy Perry's pop hit 'Roar' at the legendary Dean St Studios.

I really like this cover because it's basically unrecognizable from the original. 
Lead singer Ellie Rowsell brings her different alternative sound to the track, making it sound more folk rock than top hit 40 pop. Not that Katy Perry's version isn't a guilty pleasure, I prefer this cover!
You can listen to the cover here!

Wolf Alice are on tour at the moment, and i'd recommend to see them! To get tickets and check the date check here.

Banks goes to work

After listening to Azealia Banks remix of Britney Spears comeback track 'Work Bitch' it's pretty clear it's going to be a hit. Maybe as big or bigger than the original song...



The 212 rapper made announcement via her official Twitter page, telling fans she will drop the track tomorrow morning (October 11). I just listened to the remix and it really shows Banks's talent. I've been a fan of hers since 212 and the Fantasea Mixtape but this is something else and in my opinion it's 100% better than the original song (soz Brit). I feel that Azealia is being nothing but herself and bringing her talent forward in this remix but in the original song, Spears sounds a bit like a Nicki Minaj, she should follow Banks and use her natural talent!

Either way the remix is great and you can listen to it here!

Last month Banks announced that after a series of setbacks, her album Broke With Expensive Taste will finally drop in January next year.

Another photo of me...

Happy birthday Thom!

Seeing as it's Radiohead's lead singer Thom Yorke birthday today, I thought i'd do a little list of the legendary quotes from the man himself.
 

















'My songs are my kids. Some of them stay with me, some others I have to send out, out to the war. It might sound stupid and it might even sound naive, but that's just the way it is.'

                                                         

                                        

'And I know I'm paranoid and neurotic, I've made a career out of it.'

Pixies Queen

So last month, the American alternative rock band Pixies released an EP for the first time in 22 years. First single 'Indie Cindy' came from the EP and now they have released 'Andro Queen'. The video is different and has great cinematography, director and filmaker Ondi Timoner's has made a group of people wear animals masks and throughout the video appears a pretty daydreaming girl. It's probably a good idea to mention that the actual members of the band don't look anything like the band members.... so first Kim leaves and now the band has been replaced by tigers... interesting move!



On the subject of Kim leaving, it looks like frontman Black Francis has spoken up, saying it was 'an awkward moment' when the bassist decided to quit. He contiuned to say  'We were at a little coffee shop near the studio, Kim walked in at some point and said "I'm flying home tomorrow. She quit the band. We didn't hug or shake hand or anything. Joey (Santiago, guitarist) and I just stood up and said "ok". Then we had to get out of there, so we immediately went to a bar. I had to move from coffee to alcohol.' It seems the  lose of their band member hit them hard but they've appeared to bounce back and played their first UK gig at Camden Roundhouse last month (so jealous of anyone who went to that).
The band are also set to play a few larger UK and Irish shows this November at Dublin's Olympia on November 18, Manchester Apollo on November 21, Glasgow's Barrowland on November 22 and London's Hammersmith Apollo on November 24 and 25.

Cover Sunday

So on Sundays from now on, i'll be posting covers of songs for your entertainment.


To get started we have a cover of The 1975 tune 'Chocolate' by the Poughkeepsie, NY Against The Current. They bring a free new sound to the song and really make it their own.
Give it a listen here!


The second cover i've really enjoyed is the Ava Luna cover of the summer smash 'I Love It' by Icona Pop.
I LOVE this cover, it's so different to the original that you'd think it was her own song, her unique voice brings a kooky post punk vibe to the pop song.
You can listen here!

So this is me...

My top 4 songs of the week

 1. Best Coast- I Don't Know How.
Best Coast are one of the coolest bands out there, I've been a fan of them for a long time.Bethany Cosentino has described Best Coast’s forthcoming EP Fade Away as “kind of like if you took Crazy For You and The Only Place and created a baby out of them,” splitting the difference between the former’s lo-fi production and the latter’s hi-fi sheen. I'm generally so excited for this EP which comes out 22nd of October.

2. Lorde- Royals
I am OBSESSED with this girl. She is young, talented and relatable. This song is a hit and has a really fresh sound to it. I also like her deep voice because i can actually sing to her songs... in my deep voice.. yeah this singer is going to get bigger and bigger, i have a feeling that 2014 will be her year.

 3. Swim Deep- Honey
I've been missing Reading festival and summer and being free, warm and not waking up at 5 o clock in the morning so i've been listening to my summer song by the band i was most looking forward to seeing, Swim Deep. This band are really cool and are really great live, their performance was fab, only problem was the shitty crowd but even those boring hipster couldn't spoil the show for me.

 4. Arctic Monkeys- Do I Wanna Know?
This is a great song to listen to on the train, full of sleepy people who are off to work. It's Presley meets indie rock, it's sultry and a track i've had on repeat for weeks now.

Miley hits back at Sinead

Miley Cyrus has responded to Sinead O' Connor's open letter with a few comeback tweets.

Cyrus responded to the open letter a picture with the caption 'Before Amanda Bynes.... There was...'


She also tweeted 'Sinead. I don't have time to write you an open letter cause Im hosting & performing on SNL this week...So if youd like to meet up and talk lemme know in your next letter. :)'
It looks pretty clear that her cameo on SNL will involve Sinead O' Connor and taking the mick completely.

 Miley also tweeted that photo which appears to be a mock of the event when O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope.
Clearly, Miley is pissed off at the things the Irish singer wrote in her letter, which is fair enough, there is always two sides to every story and someone's feelings will always get hurt but in my opinion, Miley's attack was incredibly ignorant, rude and just continues the stereotypes of mental illness. I think it's unfair to attack someone with mental illness, would Miley have done the same if Sinead had a broken leg?
Personally, I think Sinead didn't write this letter to be intentionally horrible but the media has made it out to be something it's not.
But after these tweets were sent, Sinead wrote another open letter. 

"You have posted today tweets of mine which are two years old, which were posted by me when I was unwell and seeking help so as to make them look like they are recent" she wrote. "In doing so you mock myself and Amanda Bynes for having suffered with mental health issues and for having sought help".

Continuing, the Irish artist added: "It is most unbecoming of you to respond in such a fashion to someone who expressed care for you".

It's also pretty clear that Miley won't say sorry for her tweets as quoted in her documentary which aired last night; "I love that you never apologized for who you were. It's something I had to learn. ... I'm sick of feeling as if I owe someone an apology for being who I am."

Nothing compares to a piece of good old advice

Sinead O' Connor, Irish singer turn advice giver?

That's how it looks like, giving advice to Miley Cyrus on her recent actions. Rumour has it that Cyrus's had the inspiration for the 'Wrecking Ball' from O' Connor's video 'Nothing compares to you', so clearly Miley looks up to Sinead which sparked this advice and open letter.

"I am happy to hear I am somewhat of a role model for you and I hope that because of that you will pay close attention to what I am telling you, I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos...It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it's the music business or yourself doing the pimping."

'Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, Please, in future, say no when you are asked to prostitute yourself."

"It is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent…Whether we like it or not, us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women…The message you keep sending is that it's somehow cool to be prostituted.. it's so not cool Miley... it's dangerous."

Wonder how Miley will respond or if she'll take the advice. Personally, i hope she does. She has talent and i think her new image is shadowing that, pushing it to the side and making people forget what she does, SINGS! Not twerks or swinging around on a wrecking ball, let's hope she goes back to her old ways.

My friend Laura Stothard is an amazing artist and has created my new icon!
Check out her work on her twitter here and her instagram!

British post punk goes for a ride

When you thought that no one could ever cover Lana Del Rey and have the same passion and emotions that she has, well the White Lies have come along and done that and produced an amazing cover of her hit 'Ride'.

What i love about this cover is the distinctiveness of the lead singer Harry McVeigh voice and how he managed to keep the Del Rey vibe without losing his unique sound. "First and foremost, 'Ride' has stood out as a thoroughly evocative and accomplished piece of songwriting against a lot less inventive contemporary efforts," says bassist Charles Cave, adding, "It's written using the Lydian mode which, consciously or not, is an unusual harmonic palette to draw on for pop music in 2013! That kind of thing gives us boys a real kick and tickle, so we were drawn to it from the get-go.

I've been a big fan of White Lies for a long time, and their live performances are always on point, and this cover really shows off their talent. I can say with no hesitation that i'll be listening to this cover on repeat.

EDM.... BITCH!

So looks like Aaron Paul's most well known character Jesse Pinkman is on a new dance track by Tom Neville and Zen Freeman. 

His catchphrase 'Bitch' appears on the new record 'Dance Bitch'.

While on the topic of Breaking Bad and music, the music supervisor Thomas Golubic told Rolling Stone that the song 'Baby Blue' was 'the right song for the closing of the finale, i thought it was an odd little love song.'

Safe to say i'm still pretty heartbroken by the ending of breaking bad.

Blooming from bloom fm

I've loved researching and finding new music since i can remember and normally it's just me reading articles or searching the in depth  archives of youtube.

However, all that has been made easier by the brilliant new app Bloom.fm. Bloom.fm gives you a 22 million track library, hundreds of free streaming radio station and plays all the music onto your phone. It's great because on the app it has all different types of genres and brilliant new artists. It's basically great if you want to discover new music, you can create playlist and listen to them on your phone whenever ,where ever!

I recommend it to everyone so if you have an iphone or android then go get it! It will keep your ears busy.

Sky is out!

It's official, Sky Ferreira has dropped out the Vampire Weekend tour due to illness.
Ferreria took to facebook to tell fans her reasons for not being able to continue with the tour...

"Due an illness affecting my vocal chords, my doctor has prescribed several days of total vocal rest. Sadly, the timing will force me to miss this week's shows with Vampire Weekend. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused for the band and fans. I'm doing my best to re-join the tour as soon I'm 100%."

However, don't be disappointed, Sky is scheduled to perfom with boyfriend Zachary Cole Smith at an Elliott Smith tribute show later this month.

Let's hope things are on the rise for Ferreira after the arrest!

Bowie = Bookworm?

100 favourite books of David Bowie will appear in Ontario, Canada.

'David Bowie... is' exhibition recently opened at the Art Gallery with curator Geoffrey Marsh and will run until the 27th of November.

The exhibition exposes the bookworm Bowie is, according to Marsh, David was a 'voracious reader', claiming he reads a book a day. The list of favourite books includes works of authors such as Don DeLillo, Christopher Hitchens and Tom Stoppard and classics titles such as 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and 'In Cold Blood'.

The full list reads as follows:

The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby, 2008

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, 2007

The Coast of Utopia (trilogy), Tom Stoppard, 2007

Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, Jon Savage, 2007

Fingersmith, Sarah Waters, 2002

The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, 2001

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler, 1997

A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924, Orlando Figes, 1997

The Insult, Rupert Thomson, 1996

Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon, 1995

The Bird Artist, Howard Norman, 1994

Kafka Was The Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, Anatole Broyard, 1993

Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective, Arthur C. Danto, 1992

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia, 1990

David Bomberg, Richard Cork, 1988

Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Peter Guralnick, 1986

The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin, 1986

Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd, 1985

Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music, Gerri Hirshey, 1984

Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter, 1984

Money, Martin Amis, 1984

White Noise, Don DeLillo, 1984

Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes, 1984

The Life and Times of Little Richard, Charles White, 1984

A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn, 1980

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, 1980

Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 1980

Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler, 1980

Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess, 1980

Raw (a ‘graphix magazine’) 1980-91

Viz (magazine) 1979 –

The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels, 1979

Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz, 1978

In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan, 1978

Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, ed. Malcolm Cowley, 1977

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, 1976

Tales of Beatnik Glory, Ed Saunders, 1975

Mystery Train, Greil Marcus, 1975

Selected Poems, Frank O’Hara, 1974

Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, 1972

In Bluebeard’s Castle : Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner, 1971

Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky, 1971

The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillete, 1970

The Quest For Christa T, Christa Wolf, 1968

Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn, 1968

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967

Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg, 1967

Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr. , 1966

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1965

City of Night, John Rechy, 1965

Herzog, Saul Bellow, 1964

Puckoon, Spike Milligan, 1963

The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford, 1963

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963

The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, 1963

A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 1962

Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell, 1962

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 1961

Private Eye (magazine) 1961 –

On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding, 1961

Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage, 1961

Strange People, Frank Edwards, 1961

The Divided Self, R. D. Laing, 1960

All The Emperor’s Horses, David Kidd,1960

Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse, 1959

The Leopard, Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, 1958

On The Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957

The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard, 1957

Room at the Top, John Braine, 1957

A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno, 1956

The Outsider, Colin Wilson, 1956

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 1949

The Street, Ann Petry, 1946

Black Boy, Richard Wright, 1945