Ali's Space: Music

David Ford: New York

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:52:24 GMT

But all these good ideas, they never come to all that much I know.
So raise a glass to liberty, and let it go.

Stumbled across this rare track the other day (from a limited edition CD he gave out at some gigs a few years ago) - it's quite a cool song.

David Ford - Go To Hell's Kitchen

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:37:50 GMT

My absolute favourite artist of all time, David Ford, has recorded a live version of his recent(ish) single, Go To Hell, in a kitchen in New York beginning with kitchen utensils and a looping system... Genuis. Gutted I missed his last tour.

He's on tour in the states at the moment.

David Ford: I'm Alright Now

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:07:37 GMT

The tide came in and nearly buried us here,
But we saw things like they wouldn’t believe.
You hear a lot of stories about love and romance
But I swear nothing quite like you and me.

And every scar sits like a marker.
Every line on the face is a small souvenir.
Of all the places be they good or be they bad,
That we stopped into on the journey to here.

Find more videos like this on Independiente

David Ford's just announced he's releasing "I'm Alright Now" as his third single from his second album, "Songs For The Road" in January. I love this song. It was one of just two songs that I hadn't already heard him perform live before the album came out, and it's amazing.

Off to see him live at his Milk and Cookies charity gig later in the month. These gigs are amazing.

Decimate Video (Part 3)

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:37:24 GMT

Why anybody needs three music videos for one song is beyond me, but anyway, this is the "T-Shirt" version, and my favourite (although, they seem to be promoting the song more so with the "bundle" version).

(Keep an eye on the weird guy to the left)

Gutted I couldn't get tickets to the Glee Club gig tonight, but got a proposal to write now anyway.

Decimate Video (Part 2)

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:02:35 GMT

Ok, so there's a second video for Decimate... Slightly more in keeping with the usual style...

That one's called "Bundle" - the other one, "Cowboy Legs", is here.

David Ford: Decimate

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:08:40 GMT

Continuing David Ford's obsession with weird music videos, I've just caught Decimate, which is released today in digital form.

Erm.......

Not entirely sure what to make of it really.... Sort of reminds me of the (funnier) Wannadies video for Little By Little...

Anyway, Decimate is a great song, so go get it.

Just remembered how much I like that Wannadies song too.

Slightly annoying is that there aren't any tickets left for the David Ford Birmingham concert tomorrow night.... May go up there and try my luck on the door instead....

Oh, and for the (better) David Ford music videos, they are all here.

Pat Monahan - Last Of Seven

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:43:40 GMT

The sound of the train I could have been on,
Reminds me that the last one's gone.
With you, it's always midnight.
Are you blind. Can't you see me standing here waiting in line. For you.
Are you mine, not just when you want to be, all of the time. Are you.

Pat Monahan, the guy that fronts Train, has released a solo album whilst the band is on hiatus and it's rather good. The music video for the debut single (Her Eyes) is below.

Anyway, it may just win Elite status (basically this means that the actual physical CD has the privilege of living in my car, rather than just copying it to my MP3 player and hitting shuffle) - it's an amazing album.

The last Train album was a bit of a disappointment for me (although the first song, "All I Ever Wanted", is one of my favourite songs ever), but this album is soulful, is lyrically clever and reminds me of Train's first couple of albums, which is no bad thing.

The stand out track for me, at the minute, is Always Midnight. The first single, Her Eyes, is another stand out. It's obviously the "written for radio" track - it's catchy but lyrically a bit simpler than the rest of the album.

Anyway, if you get a chance, grab this album. I don't think it has a US release date, but you can get it imported from Amazon. It's good. It's the kind of album that makes me want to pick up the guitar again.

Pat's Homepage
Pat's MySpace

David Ford - Decimate

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:50:17 GMT

The new single from David Ford, Decimate, is out next month (still trying to figure out what gig I'm going to make it too) - anyway, it's on the BBC Radio2 play list now, and also on his MySpace (along with his cover of "There is a Light").

Definitely going to get to the London gig, if I can't get to any others.

The new album, Songs For The Road, is out in physical form in October (15th) but you can get it now in a non-physical form (as in, downloadable) from I-Tunes, Napster and the rest of them, including 7 Digital. I know I keep plugging this guy, but I can't rate him highly enough.

James Blunt (Vs. Britney)

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:54:34 GMT

I'll be slaughtered for saying this, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to James Blunt's new album. Shameful I know, but he is one of the best songwriters we have in the UK. If he wasn't so famous and over exposed, everybody would be pointing him out as the next great thing. Oh, hang on, everybody did, and then they turned on him for being overplayed.

Regardless, I couldn't help but laugh at the following review of his new album:

This handsome artifact consists of a single thin plastic disc which fits, with beautiful precision, into a transparent plastic container. The container opens up to reveal not only the disc but an attractive and informative booklet full of useful and easy to read information about the disc. The unit as a whole is a convenient size and shape for storage on a shelf or other similar arrangement. Overall this is a very smart piece of kit that I can thoroughly recommend, however a word of caution - under no circumstances attempt to listen to it.

Regardless, at least James Blunt's comeback is going slightly better than poor old Britney's - am I the only one that thinks she looks like a bit of a hooker?

Cartel: Lose It

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 19:59:19 GMT

One of my favourite bands from last year, Cartel, is back with their new album (the self-titled "Cartel"). It doesn't seem to be available from any of the UK download services yet, but you can import it from Amazon.

Their first album, Chroma, was one I discovered last year and featured some amazing songs - Burn This City being the stand-out track. If you like bands like Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional, or even some of the old Blink material, then you'll like this.

This is the first single from the new album:

Pat Monahan

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:52:28 GMT

Just discovered that another of my favourite bands is spawning a solo album. Train, who are most famous for their song Drops Of Jupiter (but have recorded four albums worth of fantastic material), have taken a bit of time out before their next album.

In the meantime, Pat Monahan, the lead singer, has been working on a solo album which is due out in just a few weeks from now.

"Her Eyes" is the first single, which is receiving airplay in the US, and is to be followed by "Last of Seven" which is the album, on September 18th.

This guy has a fantastic voice, and his songwriting skills are amazing. If you get a chance, download "All I Ever Wanted" and "When I Look to the Sky" - oh, and "Drops of Jupiter" which everybody seems to know, but nobody seems to know who it's by (video below).

A whole load of Train's videos are here. Pat's web site is here (with a clip from "Her Eyes").

Mark Greaney

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:33:36 GMT

Well Easyworld has produced David Ford, The Calling has bred Alex Band and now another of my favourite bands from a few years back has spawned a solo effort.

JJ72, who had a little bit of chart success years ago with Oxygen and October Swimmer, has given metaphorical birth to Mark Greany. JJ72 split up after they finished their third album which - a year after it being finished - the record company still hadn't released. It's a shame, I heard the new album (it was due to be called "On") and it was amazing.

Anyway, Mark's in the studio working on some solo work - his MySpace is here. There's a couple of solo songs up there to listen to, along with "Radio" which, if I remember, was due to be the next JJ72 single but will apparently make it onto his solo album.

Mark Greaney comes from a place called Meadow of the Bull in Dublin City, Ireland. He formed a band when he was 16, it was called JJ72. He wrote the songs, sang and played guitars and pianos, not all at once. This band released hit singles from two albums between 2000-2003, the albums went on to sell in excess of 650,000 copies. During these years JJ72 toured many beautiful and not so beautiful places around the world. JJ72 toured alone and sometimes with others, such as Coldplay and U2. The band split in 2006 and Mark decided that it was time to embark upon the second leg of his journey as a musician and songwriter, he picked up his violin and then remembered why he had put it down in the first place, so he spent some time making plans about making plans and then wrote some new songs on his dusty piano. He wrote, and continues to write, songs about the golden apples of the sun and the silver apples of the moon......and dust, and house spiders. He will record his debut solo album this year and will play his new songs and some of his older songs live.

Head on over to Mark Greaney's MySpace. This guy wrote some amazing songs.

Alex Band in the Bratz Movie?

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:48:46 GMT

Another artist that I really like is Alex Band. He used to be in The Calling, where he recorded one of my all time favourite CDs, Camino Palmero (which featured their hit "Wherever You Will Go").

Anyway, he's been working on a bunch of solo stuff which sounds great - I ripped some songs from his MySpace for my Mexico trip earlier in the year. Some of his new material from his forthcoming debut album is on his website. Anyway, for some bizarre reason, he's written a song for the Bratz movie soundtrack.

As much as I'm going to absolutely hate this movie (out of principal of good taste), there's some damn good songs from some actual credible artists in this movie - Lifehouse, Dropping Daylight and Matt White are in there (along with Black Eyed Peas) once you get past the crap.

Could somebody please buy me the soundtrack so I don't have to admit to buying it? It'll be our little secret.

David Ford: Songs for the Road (Released very early)

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 10:28:19 GMT

David Ford's new album, Songs for the Road, is up for download today (from ITunes, Napster, MSN Music, etc as well as from Independiente themselves) well ahead of its October 15th CD release.

I've downloaded it already this morning and it's absolutely amazing. Go To Hell has already been released as a (limited edition) single. Decimate will probably be next, as it's rather a decent pop song, reminds me of his Easyworld material. The songs are definitely a lot more instant this time around but lyrically as poignant as before.

Most of the songs have been knocking around in one form or another through demos and live performances (in fact, I think there's only one song on there that I've not heard in full before - I'm Alright Now) but they've all been changed somewhat for the album (Go To Hell, Decimate and Train have the biggest makeovers). In most cases, the production is welcome. Thankfully, my favourite song, "Song for the Road", has been left alone and not really produced at all.

In my opinion, it's one of the best songs ever written. You can hear it stripped down from the Janice Long session here. It's beautiful.

So you can keep your belief in whatever
And I'll wear my cynicism like a tattoo
And while poets try to engineer definitions of love
You know that all I can think of is you
And I just can’t wait to see you on Sunday
Far from the traffic and the smoke and the noise
But for this evening I will play back every message that you sent
So I can sleep to the sound of your voice
Now I don’t lightly use words like forever
But I will love you ‘til the end of today
And in the morning when i remember everything that you are
Well I know I’ll fall for you over again

Another beautiful song is "..And So You Fell", a sequel of sorts to "If You Only Knew" from the first album (which, for me, was the weakest song on the first album) - it's the closing song on this album and it's beautiful, and a nice way to finish after the heavy and political rant that is Requium.

I'm Alright Now is the most human song on the album.

The tide came in and nearly buried us here
But we saw things like they wouldn’t believe
You hear a lot of stories about love and romance
But I swear nothing quite like you and me
And every scar sits like a marker
Every line on the face is a small souvenir
Of all the places be they good or be they bad
That we stopped into on the journey to here

The whole album alternates between human 'stories' of love and failure (Train, I'm Alright Now, Song for the Road) and the three minute catchy songs (Go To Hell, Decimate, Nobody).

Anyway, get this album. You can listen to samples of all the songs on David's web site. I'm hoping to make it up to London on Wednesday for a small gig he's doing in Soho.

Off on a random road trip today - this album is going straight in the car.

David Ford: Go To Hell (Out now)

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:59:16 GMT

David Ford is my favorite artist of all time. Formerly, he was Easyworld before embarking on a solo career with his debut album early last year. His second album is due out in October (a preview of a few of his songs are on his MySpace), and this is the first single from it (digital download only - no CD this time - and limited edition 7"), which was released on Monday.

Anyway, it's a cool little song. The new album seems a lot more 'epic' than his last one. Most of the songs on it are ones he's been touring with for the last two years, so it's nice to hear them produced differently for the album. Here's the live version:

Live Earth - Aftermath

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:18:15 GMT

The Live Earth gig yesterday was amazing.

We arrived at Wembley literally as Genesis played their first note.

The line up was fantastic - I usually avoid 'festivals' in favour of smaller gigs as there's usually only one or two bands that I am interested in, but yesterday's gig was packed full of bands I like.

I'd been looking forward to seeing The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane, Snow Patrol and The Foo Fighters, all if which were amazing, playing their biggest hits.

Surprisingly, there were a lot of special guest hosts (totally unbilled until they walked out onto the stage). Hosting the day was Chris Moyles - who I love - and Russell Brand - who I both love and hate depending on what he's hosting, but he was very enjoyable to watch and managed to get across the message behind the day with no patronisation and some genuinely funny material about the side effects of global warming which would involve the polar ice caps melting, the polar bears coming to London and taking our jobs.

Also present, introducing acts, were Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Geri Halliwell, Ioan Gruffudd, Ricky Gervais, Alan Carr, David Tennant and Thandie Newton. Thandie was the surprise highlight of the day - all she had to do was introduce the live satellite link to Al Gore in Washington DC, but Al was delayed, leaving Thandie stuck on stage ("This has been my life goal to be stood on stage at Wembley, watched by two billion people with absolutely nothing to say") to ad lib and be eventually rescued by prerecorded messages after she told a knock knock joke about Londoner and horses.... Or something. Bless her.

The surprise acts for me (in that I didn't expect to enjoy them but I did) was Black Eyed Peas and also relative unknowns (when measured up against the other acts), Paolo Nutini (I'll be downloading his album later) and Terra Naomi.

Madonna closed the show with an unbelievable set, and the song she wrote for Live Earth, Hey You.

Stunning also was plunging Wembley into near complete darkness to highlight the cause.

Anyway, a fantastic gig, with a really good message. All the facts are on the official site, and with 2 billion people watching the Live Earth gigs worldwide, hopefully the message will make a difference. I doubt anybody would want to lose out on a job because a polar bear got there first. Finally, why Al Gore isn't president of the United States, I'll never know.

Also, of note, kudos to the sponsors for not even advertising their services or products once within the stadium. And secondly, hats of to the 60 or so film makers that provided some really engaging short films to get the message across without the cause coming across as a "If you give just 50p a month" trip. The message was to provoke people into making a change and with some truly class films, including satanic humour, they did a great job. Some of them are here.

Links:
Wembley Photos (BBC)
Reporters Log (BBC)
Live Earth Website including concert replays (MSN)

Live Earth Wembley

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:07:54 GMT

Jo bought me tickets to Live Earth and Wembley for my birthday which is next week, so on the way there now. Can't wait. There's loads of great bands playing - Keane, Snow Patrol, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Should be great! At Redding Services, running late as per usual.

David Ford: Go To Hell (Music Video)

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:47:51 GMT

David Ford's new single, Go To Hell, gets it's release in a few weeks time, and his new music video is up today.

Another beautiful song that's come along way since I saw him perform this live. The music video is typical David Ford ("I Don't Care What You Call Me" was shot in one take and basically had a queue of people slapping him across the face in a car park, whilst "State of the Union" featured him playing the entire song live and in one take using a loop box). Anyway, worth a watch.

Just found the 'live in one take' video for State of the Union - he really does play every instrument on this track in this video.

Was really hoping to catch him live again in a week or two, but doesn't look likely to happen at the moment.