Here’s the original Alternate video for Slowdive’s “Alison”

P.S. I mentioned on my last post about the latest Legends album being released on May 6th. Well, I messed up again and it’s actually being released here in the U.S on June 16th. May 6th was the released date for all the other cool countries I guess.  Sorry for the confusion.

I’m really ashamed to even mention this, but I finally got Neil Halstead’s second solo album, Oh! Mighty Engine. I know, some fan you are Archa, you damn charlatan. Why the long wait? I can’t give you a real good answer to that. Yes, I could of downloaded it from Itunes or Amazon, but when it comes to my favorite bands I will always by the CD. I just like having the actual CD in my hands to look at. Another reason is that on Itunes the album isn’t DRM free and I really hate that. I was actually surprised when the album was released eons ago that it wasn’t on Itunes Plus. I just don’t know why new albums aren’t automatically put on Itunes Plus, but that’s a whole other story.

I’m definitely enjoying the album. It’s a good progression from Sleeping On Roads. The album is overall soft and quiet like. You just can’t help to think that you should be lying under a blue sky with puffy clouds on a big field somewhere and to add to that, drinking some lemonade.  His comparison with Nick Drake from many of the professional music critics are accurate. Neil’s a great singer/songwriter and I’m glad that I was able to meet him when he was touring with Mojave 3. He’s a nice guy and was very approachable.

Some songs that I first took noticed was Paint A Face, Oh! Mighty Engine, Elevenses, and Queen Bee. There are of course  other noticeable songs on the album worth looking at. So if you’re into soft, warm, quiet, folk like music, this album has your name on it.

Oh, I also finally got The Cure’s 4:13 Dream as well. More on that later…

So this weekend I was on Malory’s website and noticed the same info about their upcoming album. I’m kind of sick in the head and tend to check all my favorite band websites to see if anything is coming up. Me being curious and slightly impatient (my wife can argue about the slightly part), I decided to send an email to Malory to see if I can get a response about their new album.

In the email I said the normal cliche type of things you would send to a cool band without trying to sound too obsessive or fanatical like and I really wasn’t expecting a reply. Monday morning came by and I was looking to see if I got a comment on any of my posts. I actually got one! But what made it so special was that I got a reply back from Dani. Here’s the reply:

hi archa,
many thanks for your lines. I hope to read from you soon. I think we publishing our new cd in the next year, in the spring time.
lovely greetings dani/malory

I thought it was a really cool for her to reply and I have to give major kudos to that. You see people not everybody in bands are standoffish and aloof. Only the bad ones are. Well, I guess we’re going to have to wait for Spring to see if there’s a new album and I hope they tour out here in California. I just don’t know what I’m going to do untill then. Hmmm…I wonder if Rachel Goswell or Neil Halstead would reply to me? Okay I know, too obsessive.

This past weekend reminded me why I love the winter months coming up ahead; however, here in California there’s not really a true winter season. To me winter is just a reminder of those calendars in elementary school with the image of the snowman and leaves being swirled up with a bunch of lines symbolizing the cold wind. So, when there’s an actual day of dark overcast skies, a touch of sprinkles and a cool breeze, I tend to enjoy it more.

There’s always been certain songs that I listen to through the years that reminded me of winter, or I should say a California winter. So What I’ve done is made a playlist of songs that reminded me of cool winter bliss. I decided to use the Yahoo Music Player instead of the usual links to the Apple ITunes store. I searched around for a music plugin for Word Press, but couldn’t find one that I trusted and have heard of. I did some research and the Yahoo Music Player was suppose to be real easy to use and it actually really was. I wanted you, the listeners, to experience more than just the 30 second clip of music. Those measly tidbits is not a good representation of what I’m trying to get across here.  Just make sure that you have your javascript turned on and you should be good to go. You can either click on the play arrows, or on the music player that will show up on the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy the playlist titled Cloudy Days.

• Plainsong – The Cure
• But Not Tonight – Depeche Mode
• Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Marychain
• Atmosphere – Joy Division
• Primal – Slowdive
• Sarah – Mojave 3
• This River Will Never Run Dry – Moose
• Sometimes – My Bloody Valentine
• Ballerina Out of Control – The Ocean Blue
• The Process – Saint Etienne
• Here’s Where the Story Ends
• Vapour Trail – Trespassers William
• Catch The Breeze – Slowdive
• Blue Moon Revisited – The Cowboy Junkies
• Flowers in December – Mazzy Star
• Kinky Love – Pale Saints
• Asleep – The Smiths