In ‘94, I was 13 going on 14, and I was into Oasis. I’d just come out of my grunge period - Soundgarden had gone, Nirvana were all but over and, hard as it seems to imagine at the time, Oasis were the most hardbody outfit out. They spat, sneered, and swaggered their way into my affections with one hot 12″ called Supersonic, and I was hooked. For an album and two albums worth of B-Sides they were awesome, but they peaked with the Whatever interim-single, and it’s been downhill ever since.
But my interest was piqued by an article on Stereogum about some new Oasis demos that have leaked into Youtube. Hell, I thought, maybe, after a decade of shit, they’ve got that ole magic back.
The songs are I Wanna Live A Dream (In My Record Machine), Stop The Clocks, and Nothin’ On Me. Nothin’ On Me is definitely the worst, and also bears the distinction of being the only one sung by Liam. Now, Liam still has a much better voice than Noel (even as cartoonish as it has become), so it is kind of mean and selfish and lame of Noel to keep the (relatively) better songs for himself. Like Kanye with his beats. Give some of them shits to Method Man, fool!
Anyway. Those other two are both winsome Noely ballads. They’re better than most of the winsome Noely ballads I’ve heard over the past decade of not liking Oasis that much, but they’re hardly Talk Tonight or The Masterplan. Best of the pair is Stop The Clocks, which improves significantly on repeated listen, and is notable for its uncharacteristic dabbles in existentialism. “What if I’m already dead?” beseeches Noel, “how would I know?”
Stream: Oasis - Stop The Clocks (Demo)
Stream: Oasis - Talk Tonight
Back in the early nineties, Oasis were banging out a single and three awesome B-sides every three months. It could be argued that they went shit around the time that hectic pace let up. Perhaps with that in mind, after a sample-bullshit-hampered ‘07, ‘08 is proving to be a productive year for our pal Marvin.
Hot on the heels of Superhero comes That One Time EP, out in June. Explains Marv’s manager Tego:
“It’s an EP of 6 songs for the summer months. A street summer, a young summer, an Ibiza summer, a cold summer, a London summer. We’re basically looking at an EP every 2 months now. Singles are dead. We want to put out proper releases every time we drop.”
Track two of said collection is a joint called Boyspot. This track caught me completely off guard - I was so not expecting some ish like this from Marvin right now! It’s some really ill d ‘n’ b inspired post-grime sickness from producer Jack Nimble, all sub bass, stuttering hi hats and off key high-end snare slaps, with a frantic rap from Marvin about the ills of wastemen. “That zone you’re in, that’s a Boyzone,” notes Marvin, doing his best Newman and Baddiel impression, “that life you live that’s a Westlife.” Say word!
Marvin’s getting mad conceptual on his new shit, and for Jack - suddenly free of samples and emboldened with a new outlook on production following the lessons learned making Marvin’s album - the future is wide open. Hype shit ahead!
Stream: Marvin - Boyspot
Finally, some sexy new shit from Blueprint. Props to Silent Bob69 who put me onto this dude a month back via the comments section (what did we do before that shit?). The kid is definitely interesting, creative, and most importantly, dope. His new EP, which you can get for free here, and on CD here, features BP rapping over collages of music made from Funkadelic songs. Blueprint explains:
“I started making beats out of as much of their music as I could and putting lyrics to them, some stuff i wrote on the spot, other stuff was ideas that I had played with before but never finished. I had the record pretty much done for a couple of years but I felt like I didn’t have any audio of them speaking that really explained what they were about, so I put it on hold until I could find some interviews. Once i found them i finished it up, and here it is.”
Musically, this stuff smashes like Hulk. It’s especially refreshing that dude avoided the obvious loops and sounds - he’s gone for a lot of the more raw, rock and psyche infused stuff. Lyrically he is totally taking the piss out of all your favourite rappers for the most part. “It’s quite ironic what I say these days / you got an oversized hat but you workin’ with a peabrain,” he spits on Dont’ Make Me Laugh. “Cats that never seen a turntable got the nerve to make a record and call it Go DJ.” Owch!
Narstie is some kind of a comedy genius. But I think the Narstie/Shizzio double act has legs like Kim BAssinger. D’you see the bit where Shiz scratches his head on some total Laurel And Hardy shit? I’m so pitching a show to MTV.
Yes indeed.
So. Help me out here. I am kind of bummed out about how crappy youtube makes everything look. I’ve tried various methods of youtube maximation when rendering, but to no avail. Should I be trying one of these other things, like Kyte or whatever its called? Anyone know anything?
EDIT:
OK, so I tried a few things, to little success, then I found a good one: blip.tv. Check that shit out and compare it to the Youtube. Much better right?
Quick one: my pal Marvin, who used to be called Marvin The Martian and now isn’t, has a new website and a single out this week.
The website is a blog called Devil In The Distance, which is the name of his album, and is being updated pleasingly regularly with things of interest, like news stories about weed smoking old ladies and videos of Example doing stand up (actually really funny!).
The single is called Superhero - you might have heard it on one of the podcasts. It’s grayte!
Cop Example doing standup and the Superhero video after the jump…
Boy oh boy friends, this bank holiday did me in. Checked in on the creamy and glittery Pydos In Spydos video shoot on Saturday afternoon. An exceedingly drunken wedding on Saturday night. Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday (I did a very poor impression of a grumpy uncle), video shoot on Monday.
‘Another video shoot?’ I hear you cry. Yes indeed. We got the team together to shoot a merry movie for the lush Back In The Day remix from Thieving. This shit is gonna be fun to edit!
Photos below. Cheers Tego for these! Well shot!
L - R: Shizzio, Akira The Don, Big Narstie, Marvin, Pixel, Jack Nimble.
The problem with doing videos with Marvin is you have to look at his batty all day.
We are an angelic choir of angles.
Marvin is nice usually but sometimes he goes a bit Liam Gallagher.
Narstie entertaining us with tales of sneaky pillow wiping.
I am sticking my head back on here, after it fell off from laughing at Narstie’s pillow wiping story.
Due to popular demand (whoo! I get to say “due to popular demand!”) I have made the acapellas for the Thieving mixtape available to download.
A few are missing as I haven’t got the files anymore. So! The Thieving Acapellas tracklisting:
1. Thieving
2. Click Clack Blam ft. Pixel
3. Thanks For All The AIDS ft. The Women
4. BOOM! (Smash Stuff) ft Why Lout?
5. Werewolves!
6. Back In The Day (Remix) ft. Jack Nimble, Narstie, Marvin & Shizzio
7. The Music Of The Spheres ft. Mary Turner
8. Dear Baby (Cut You In The Face)
9. Oobie Doo ft. Mary Turner & Marvin
10. Jesus!
11. Gitmo ft. Narstie
12. Giro
13. Riot Going On ft Dego Brown
14. Now Then
15. Tomorrow ft Madison
16. Oh! (What A Glorious Thing) ft Bashy
17. To The Tongue Tied ft Mary Turner
17 Potential Bootleg Smashes! Whoee! Yours for £4.50. Awesome.
L - R: Marvin, Example, Jack Nimble, AK DonovanIndeed! The weekly onslaught continues. It is over a month now since I quit fags, and over a month since I started doing a podcast every week. Are the two linked? Who knows? All I know is DONCAST 7 is live!
iTunes people should go here. The feed with which you subscribe to the podcast is here-AH!.
With music from Marvin ft. ATD & Example, Leonard Cohen, Rick Ross, Lou Gramm, The Teenagers, Lupe Fiasco, Aidan John Moffat and MORE! Like The Pydos In Spydos remix of Thieving! That sort of more! PLUS! Listen inside for first details on the Giro video competition! We’re taking it back to The Drinking Song days, if you remember those.
If you wanna hear the remix of Marvin’s Superhero without me talking on it, go here. If you wanna hear Jack Nimble and Marvin’s remix of Thieving without me talking on, go here. In other news my old mate Marty from Miami has written and directed his very own movie film! Check the trailer here, it looks pretty fuckin smart you know.
OK! Don Studios IV is set up, the internet is working, and THIEVING IS OUT NOW ON CD, MP3 and T Shirt!
Preorderers will (mostly, stupid Canadian post) know this already. They all agree it is great! How great? Just listen to this song called GIRO!
Ace huh? Yes indeed. Zef and I are making a video for that. ANYWAY! Thieving has 21 songs on it, and they’re all GRAYTE. Either brand new, or new versions of older songs, the tracklisting goes a little suttink like this:
1. Thieving
2. Click Clack Blam ft. Pixel
3. Thanks For All The AIDS ft. The Women
4. BOOM! (Remix) ft. Lethal Bizzle & Narstie
5. Werewolves!
6. Back In The Day (Remix) ft. Jack Nimble, Narstie, Marvin & Shizzio
7. The Music Of The Spheres ft. Mary Turner
8. Can’t Go To Sleep
9. Dear Baby (Cut You In The Face)
10. Oobie Doo ft. Mary Turner & Marvin
11. Unlearning
12. Jesus!
13. Gitmo ft. Narstie
14. Giro
15. Riot Going On ft Dego Brown
16. Now Then
17. Tomorrow ft Madison
18. The Tree
19. Oh! (What A Glorious Thing) ft Bashy
20. To The Tongue Tied ft Mary Turner
21. Y R U So Layzee
Laffs! Sobs! Special guest stars aplenty! Yes indeed. You can get it on luxury 4 page booklet full colour doolah CD for £5 plus postage, or on CD Quality 320kbps MP3 for £4.75, no postage.
MP3 bundle comes with printable artwork and a bonus track called MOVING! Whoo!
You can a T shirt for £15 plus postage. OR a CD and a T shirt for £17 plus postage (wow, DISCOUNT!) or an MP3 and T shirt for £16.50 plus postage (EVEN MORE WOW DISCOUNT!)
We take all major credit and debit cards, via Paypal which does not require a Paypal account and we ship WORLDWIDE! (Even Canada, although their postal system is a little slow)
Quick one: my pal Marvin, who used to be called Marvin The Martian and now isn’t, has a new website and a single out this week.
