Posts
Francis Tabary
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Monday, 8 February 2010
Friday, 5 February 2010
Record Tripping
A brilliant and addictive game - click here.
n.b. you can only play this if you have a mouse with a scroll-wheel.
n.b. you can only play this if you have a mouse with a scroll-wheel.
Secret castle
He should be allowed to keep it for his sheer tenacity, if nothing else.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Top Gear - Rover 200
It's quite an amusing spoof, but it's the (possibly deliberately) terrible editing that makes this hilarious.
05/02/10 - Nineties Mixtape
Welcome to the JuicyPips mixtape!
Unless you’re a tedious robot, music will have been one of the most important things in your life when you were a teenager. I was lucky enough to have lived my formative music years in the mid- to late-nineties, a period commonly accepted to be one of the best three eras ever to be a teenager (the others being the mid-sixties and late-seventies). Below, for your nostalgic delectation, is my nineties hitlist: the songs that made my teen years. They were all very special to me. Maybe some of them were to you too…
(I was going to do a top ten but it was impossible to narrow down, and I got a bit carried away.)
Ash – Petrol
Ash were an incredible live band in the nineties and, while 1977 is their best LP, the tracks from the Trailer EP provided their fiercest live thrills. Petrol was always my favourite.
Nirvana – About A Girl
The younger kids were obsessed with Nevermind, but it was still all about Bleach for us. Whenever a school band were allowed to play in assembly, they’d always play About A Girl. Everyone knew it off by heart.
Smashing Pumpkins – Fuck You (An Ode to No-One)
Mellon Collie was one of those wow albums – so much to love. Everyone knows Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Tonight Tonight and 1979, but if you want the perfect aural representation of teenage angst, this was the best track on the album by far.
Oasis – Acquiesce
The b-side that should’ve been an a-side. Every second of this song is killer. Kids today don’t appreciate just how good Oasis were in the good ol’ days.
(Try singing the chorus, it’s surprisingly hard…)
The Charlatans - Bullet Comes
We were a bit too late for the baggy/Madchester thing, so whilst we loved the likes of The Only One I Know and Weirdo, it was their eponymous fourth album, a little more swaggering, that really did it for us. The best track on the album was Toothache, but I can’t find it on YouTube so I’ve gone for the second best, Bullet Comes.
Blur – Popscene
One of the best songs ever written, and that’s a fact. Leisure was the first LP I ever bought, and I’ve been a little obsessed with Blur ever since. ’92 single Popscene (actually released when I was 10, but hey) was their finest moment.
Longpigs – She Said
Their first album, The Sun is Often Out, is one of those rare albums where every single track is excellent. She Said was the song that everyone loved in particular.
Mansun – She Makes My Nose Bleed
For about a year, Mansun were my absolute favourite band – I still have every album, single and EP they ever released (on every format and from various countries). She Makes My Nose Bleed is pure Mansun perfection.
The Bluetones – Time & Again
Their debut album was just incredible, and this is the best track on it. You can listen to it over and over again, that riff never gets tired.
The Offspring – Self Esteem
Quality shouting. Smash was one of those albums that everybody owned, and Self Esteem was the track that always got a massive cheer when it came on the pub jukebox. An epic anthem of disenchantment.
Spacehog – In The Meantime
This is one of those songs that you know, even if you don’t know it. If you know what I mean. I could listen to the album, Resident Alien, for hours on end. In fact, I did.
Elastica – Connection
Much underrated band, Elastica. Their first album is an essential nineties indie linchpin. Connection is a particular highlight because, well, it’s awesome - it’s one of the songs I’d always put on my teenage mixtapes.
Foo Fighters – I’ll Stick Around
…because we were all very angry with Courtney. And teenagers love to scream things like ‘I don’t owe you anything!’.
Kula Shaker – Hey Dude
It’s easy to dismiss Kula Shaker as a novelty band if you’ve only heard Tattva and Govinda, but they were genuinely good. And Hey Dude is just a phenomenal track.
The Presidents of the United States of America – Lump
Everyone my age fucking loves this. And with very good reason.
Reef – Naked
Another song that always found its way onto my teenage mixtapes. Their first album, Replenish, was packed full of genius like this, but Naked just has one of the best riffs of all time. Unbelievably good.
Garbage – Queer
It’s just so filthy all the way through. Shirley Manson does strange and irresistible things to impressionable teenage minds.
Idlewild – Everyone Says You’re So Fragile
They’ve recently started to become the Scottish REM (which is fine), but in the early days they created some excellently spiky punk. They were one of my favourite live bands, particularly when they cranked out stuff like this.
Supergrass – Lenny
You can’t beat a bit of early Supergrass. Lenny was yet another track that would generally pop up on a teenage mixtape – it’s just so cool.
Guns N’ Roses – Buick Makane (Big Dumb Sex)
I was such a massive GN’R fan when I was a kid. The Spaghetti Incident covers album is generally written off by the purists as an irrelevance, but Buick Makane was a track I loved to play very loudly to annoy my parents (along with Down on the Farm, Attitude and I Don’t Care About You). And any song that repeatedly screams ‘fuck you!’ has to be a winner.
Rancid – Maxwell Murder
C’mon, tell me you’ve ever heard a better bass solo than that!
As well as being an amazing song, Maxwell Murder is only a minute-ish long, so it was great for filling in the little gap on the end of a mixtape.
Placebo – Nancy Boy
This blew my mind when I saw it on Top of the Pops when I was fifteen. It’s just so compellingly bizarre.
60ft Dolls – Alison’s Room
Another band I became slightly obsessed with, collecting all of their singles and rarities. This song’s brilliant, plus it's from the rare and unreleased second album, so it's doubly special.
Menswe@r – Stardust
Everyone hated Menswe@r, but I really liked them. Stardust is particularly good, and they were superb songsmiths in general… I never really understood why everyone disliked them so much.
(And they used the @ symbol before it was cool.)
Terrorvision – Some People Say
One of my all-time favourite bands, and this is my favourite of their songs.
Perfect teenage shouty chorus: ‘Do you think I care? Do you think I care?’. Reminds me of sitting round a campfire, all cidered-up.
The Seahorses – Love is the Law
Proof to a concerned generation that there was life in John Squire yet. Most of the Seahorses’ stuff was pretty disappointing, but Love is the Law (particularly the solo) reminded us of the Roses.
Green Day – Stuart and the Ave.
I loved Green Day (still do), and it’s really hard to pick one track. This one’s from the Insomniac album, which I loved because everyone sort of forgot them after Dookie, so this album felt like mine and mine alone. And it rocked like a bastard.
The Wildhearts – Sick of Drugs
One of my favouritest bands ever. The Fishing for Luckies album came out in 1994 and I’ve been listening to it very regularly ever since. Sick of Drugs is, in the vernacular of today’s youth, a tuuuuuuuuuuuuune. It made me a very happy boy.
Manic Street Preachers – Archives of Pain
You can’t be a troubled angsty youth without loving the Manics. And love them I did. The Holy Bible was my favourite album (really, really dark), and Archives of Pain was my favourite track from it because a) it made me feel clever and b) the guitar solo is killer.
Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution
Ten is the big Pearl Jam album (Alive, Jeremy, Even Flow etc), but we were lucky enough to observe Pearl Jam evolve in real time, the zenith of which came with Do the Evolution in ’98. Massive song. Incredible video too.
Stereophonics – Looks Like Chaplin
A song best enjoyed live. They may have become a bit wishy-washy of late, but when they were all youthful and exuberant, they were a fucking awesome live outfit.
I’ve missed out so many bands, but this could go on forever…
Hope this brought back some happy memories for some of you – it certainly has for me.
Unless you’re a tedious robot, music will have been one of the most important things in your life when you were a teenager. I was lucky enough to have lived my formative music years in the mid- to late-nineties, a period commonly accepted to be one of the best three eras ever to be a teenager (the others being the mid-sixties and late-seventies). Below, for your nostalgic delectation, is my nineties hitlist: the songs that made my teen years. They were all very special to me. Maybe some of them were to you too…
(I was going to do a top ten but it was impossible to narrow down, and I got a bit carried away.)
Ash – Petrol
Ash were an incredible live band in the nineties and, while 1977 is their best LP, the tracks from the Trailer EP provided their fiercest live thrills. Petrol was always my favourite.
Nirvana – About A Girl
The younger kids were obsessed with Nevermind, but it was still all about Bleach for us. Whenever a school band were allowed to play in assembly, they’d always play About A Girl. Everyone knew it off by heart.
Smashing Pumpkins – Fuck You (An Ode to No-One)
Mellon Collie was one of those wow albums – so much to love. Everyone knows Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Tonight Tonight and 1979, but if you want the perfect aural representation of teenage angst, this was the best track on the album by far.
Oasis – Acquiesce
The b-side that should’ve been an a-side. Every second of this song is killer. Kids today don’t appreciate just how good Oasis were in the good ol’ days.
(Try singing the chorus, it’s surprisingly hard…)
The Charlatans - Bullet Comes
We were a bit too late for the baggy/Madchester thing, so whilst we loved the likes of The Only One I Know and Weirdo, it was their eponymous fourth album, a little more swaggering, that really did it for us. The best track on the album was Toothache, but I can’t find it on YouTube so I’ve gone for the second best, Bullet Comes.
Blur – Popscene
One of the best songs ever written, and that’s a fact. Leisure was the first LP I ever bought, and I’ve been a little obsessed with Blur ever since. ’92 single Popscene (actually released when I was 10, but hey) was their finest moment.
Longpigs – She Said
Their first album, The Sun is Often Out, is one of those rare albums where every single track is excellent. She Said was the song that everyone loved in particular.
Mansun – She Makes My Nose Bleed
For about a year, Mansun were my absolute favourite band – I still have every album, single and EP they ever released (on every format and from various countries). She Makes My Nose Bleed is pure Mansun perfection.
The Bluetones – Time & Again
Their debut album was just incredible, and this is the best track on it. You can listen to it over and over again, that riff never gets tired.
The Offspring – Self Esteem
Quality shouting. Smash was one of those albums that everybody owned, and Self Esteem was the track that always got a massive cheer when it came on the pub jukebox. An epic anthem of disenchantment.
Spacehog – In The Meantime
This is one of those songs that you know, even if you don’t know it. If you know what I mean. I could listen to the album, Resident Alien, for hours on end. In fact, I did.
Elastica – Connection
Much underrated band, Elastica. Their first album is an essential nineties indie linchpin. Connection is a particular highlight because, well, it’s awesome - it’s one of the songs I’d always put on my teenage mixtapes.
Foo Fighters – I’ll Stick Around
…because we were all very angry with Courtney. And teenagers love to scream things like ‘I don’t owe you anything!’.
Kula Shaker – Hey Dude
It’s easy to dismiss Kula Shaker as a novelty band if you’ve only heard Tattva and Govinda, but they were genuinely good. And Hey Dude is just a phenomenal track.
The Presidents of the United States of America – Lump
Everyone my age fucking loves this. And with very good reason.
Reef – Naked
Another song that always found its way onto my teenage mixtapes. Their first album, Replenish, was packed full of genius like this, but Naked just has one of the best riffs of all time. Unbelievably good.
Garbage – Queer
It’s just so filthy all the way through. Shirley Manson does strange and irresistible things to impressionable teenage minds.
Idlewild – Everyone Says You’re So Fragile
They’ve recently started to become the Scottish REM (which is fine), but in the early days they created some excellently spiky punk. They were one of my favourite live bands, particularly when they cranked out stuff like this.
Supergrass – Lenny
You can’t beat a bit of early Supergrass. Lenny was yet another track that would generally pop up on a teenage mixtape – it’s just so cool.
Guns N’ Roses – Buick Makane (Big Dumb Sex)
I was such a massive GN’R fan when I was a kid. The Spaghetti Incident covers album is generally written off by the purists as an irrelevance, but Buick Makane was a track I loved to play very loudly to annoy my parents (along with Down on the Farm, Attitude and I Don’t Care About You). And any song that repeatedly screams ‘fuck you!’ has to be a winner.
Rancid – Maxwell Murder
C’mon, tell me you’ve ever heard a better bass solo than that!
As well as being an amazing song, Maxwell Murder is only a minute-ish long, so it was great for filling in the little gap on the end of a mixtape.
Placebo – Nancy Boy
This blew my mind when I saw it on Top of the Pops when I was fifteen. It’s just so compellingly bizarre.
60ft Dolls – Alison’s Room
Another band I became slightly obsessed with, collecting all of their singles and rarities. This song’s brilliant, plus it's from the rare and unreleased second album, so it's doubly special.
Menswe@r – Stardust
Everyone hated Menswe@r, but I really liked them. Stardust is particularly good, and they were superb songsmiths in general… I never really understood why everyone disliked them so much.
(And they used the @ symbol before it was cool.)
Terrorvision – Some People Say
One of my all-time favourite bands, and this is my favourite of their songs.
Perfect teenage shouty chorus: ‘Do you think I care? Do you think I care?’. Reminds me of sitting round a campfire, all cidered-up.
The Seahorses – Love is the Law
Proof to a concerned generation that there was life in John Squire yet. Most of the Seahorses’ stuff was pretty disappointing, but Love is the Law (particularly the solo) reminded us of the Roses.
Green Day – Stuart and the Ave.
I loved Green Day (still do), and it’s really hard to pick one track. This one’s from the Insomniac album, which I loved because everyone sort of forgot them after Dookie, so this album felt like mine and mine alone. And it rocked like a bastard.
The Wildhearts – Sick of Drugs
One of my favouritest bands ever. The Fishing for Luckies album came out in 1994 and I’ve been listening to it very regularly ever since. Sick of Drugs is, in the vernacular of today’s youth, a tuuuuuuuuuuuuune. It made me a very happy boy.
Manic Street Preachers – Archives of Pain
You can’t be a troubled angsty youth without loving the Manics. And love them I did. The Holy Bible was my favourite album (really, really dark), and Archives of Pain was my favourite track from it because a) it made me feel clever and b) the guitar solo is killer.
Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution
Ten is the big Pearl Jam album (Alive, Jeremy, Even Flow etc), but we were lucky enough to observe Pearl Jam evolve in real time, the zenith of which came with Do the Evolution in ’98. Massive song. Incredible video too.
Stereophonics – Looks Like Chaplin
A song best enjoyed live. They may have become a bit wishy-washy of late, but when they were all youthful and exuberant, they were a fucking awesome live outfit.
I’ve missed out so many bands, but this could go on forever…
Hope this brought back some happy memories for some of you – it certainly has for me.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Augmented (hyper)reality
Click the four little arrows for fullscreen.
Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.
Friday, 29 January 2010
The Nether Regions
Local papers are shit, that goes without saying. The Nether Regions is a superb blog that collates the best (well, worst) bits in one place, with some gloriously sardonic commentary. Click here.
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