Four Track Demo #1

So here it is the first of many Four Track Demos that will grace the blog. These will feature some of the artists that have been discussed on the blog in recent days.

Featured on this mixtape are:

1. Royal Republic: We Are The Royal
2. Foo Fighters: White Limo
3. Cage The Elephant: Indy Kidz
4. Danko Jones: I Think Bad Thoughts

If you like any of these artists then please buy their material and support them.

Click this link to take you to the demo.

Blog Recording 1.mp3 - 12.14 MB
(warning this link will take you away from The Four Track Demo)

Till next time

A right Royal knee's up

So this Friday sees Wills and Kate finally tie the knot in the first royal wedding of the 21st century, so why not listen to a royal inspired band to get you in the mood.

So here are Royal Republic fresh from Sweden with their first album We Are The Royal.

Right off the bat this band hit you with their brand of high velocity, hard hitting, in your face punk-rock. Opening track We Are The Royal hits you with a riff that shakes the earth and makes you want to get up and move. But I don't know if Wills would be happy about them "coming to take the crown" and proclaiming they are "the new kings."

The album continues on in much the same way but sometimes the songs sound very similar to each other. But, is this a bad thing?

Not in my eyes. Their infectious tunes and tongue-in-cheek humour will get any crowd dancing.

Album Highlights: We Are The Royal, Tommy Gun, Good To Be Bad

Danko Jones

Right, Danko Jones, where do I start.

Well their a Canadian rock band that make some of the best riff-heavy, balls-to-the-wall rock 'n' roll that I have ever heard. Perfect drinking music that makes you feel totally invincible.

They formed in 1996 in Toronto, Ontario and I only found them a couple of months ago. How I lived my life without Danko Jones before I don't know.

To accompany their latest album, Below the Belt, they have created a trilogy of videos with an interlinking storyline, featuring Elijah Wood, Lemmy and Selma Blair.

I'm not gonna type anymore as I don't know if I can do them justice in words. So below are the videos, so turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy the show.

Up first Danko Jones: Full of Regret

Next Danko Jones: Had Enough

And finally Danko Jones: I Think Bad Thoughts

Till next time...

It's your birthday and Cage The Elephant have a present for you

Alright I know this album has been out for a while, but as I've only just got round to starting the blog I will re-visit what I feel is one of the best albums released so far this year.

Cage The Elephant's second album, Thank You, Happy Birthday, was released in January of this year and features the Bowling Green, Kentucky boys taking a slightly different approach from their self-titled debut LP.

Stepping away from the Beck inspired sound of the first album they now sound more like the bastard child of Sonic Youth, Pixies and Nirvana, heavier, grungier and weirder (if that's possible for Matthew Shultz, lead singer and ex-methadone addict).

The heavy, Indy Kidz, is all about a kid trying to be something that he's not, getting the right shoes and haircut to fit in at school, but being influenced to make these decisions by what he sees on television. Shultz's lyrical social commentary is on-point with lines such as "I don't watch TV cause it's just a box of lies. It makes me want to stick a tooth pick in my mind" and "I've got these pictures keep on rolling around my head. I want to hang them on the wall above my bed."

Mixed into the heavier side of the album are a few radio friendly tracks as well. Grungy Shake me down is currently getting heavy airplay here in the UK but has unfortunately only reached number 55 in the singles chart. It's a classic grunge quiet-verse, loud-chorus affair but a great piece of music nonetheless, Kurt Cobain would have been proud to write such a great pop song.


Overall it's a great album, anyone that is a fan of Pixies, Nirvana or Sonic Youth should be in their element here. Also as its been out for a while you can probably pick it up on the cheap online somewhere.

I will leave you with the previously mentioned Indy Kidz, hope you enjoy.

Till next time readers!

Wasting Light, Shining Bright?

What’s the best way to make a chart topping record? Book a multi-million dollar recording studio with all the latest technical wizardry and a hotshot producer or kit out a garage with analogue tape-to-tape recording equipment and hire a producer you haven’t worked with for 20 years?

Well Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters decided on the latter, Grohl’s garage may not be like the one attached to your average two-up-two-down, it’s more like an aircraft hangar, and the producer is none other than Butch Vig, who Grohl last worked with on the eponymous Nevermind by Nirvana.

The Foo Fighters seventh album, Wasting Light, is a breath of fresh air and a new beginning for the ex-Nirvana man’s main project. After a brief stint last year with rock super-group Them Crooked Vultures, along with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Grohl has returned with new vigour and a fresh direction. 

Butch Vig has stripped down the production and made the Foo’s shine as bright as they ever have, producing some of their finest moments since 1997’s The Colour and the Shape (and without Pro Tools in sight). A guest appearence from Krist Noveselic on I Should Have Known and Pat Smear (ex-Nirvana tour guitarist) re-joining the band for the album make this somewhat of a Nirvana reunion album.

 

The usual Foo’s stadium rock anthems are still here, the first single Rope being a prime example, but added to the mix are a much broader blend of songs than usually seen on a Foo Fighters album. Songs like Dear Rosemary and Arlandria may lower the tempo but certainly not the intensity or power of the tracks on show and even provide the album with some of its highlight moments.

White Limo is a blast-from-Grohl’s-past when he played with D.C. hardcore band Scream in the early 90’s, this three-and-a-half minute track is full of ferocity, aggression and face melting riffs from start to finish and showcases the immense variety that is on offer in Wasting Light.

The lyrical content is some of the most soul bearing featured on any Foo Fighters album. The penultimate track I Should Have Known is a heart-rending song about the passing of Grohl's childhood friend Jimmy from a drug overdose a few years back. 

With Grohl's experience of losing friends to drugs (Kurt Cobain if you didn't already know) he is still unable to forgive his friend for what he's done. Although the song clearly shows that Grohl is grieving he cannot forgive you yet and probably feels he should have intervened before it was too late.

This record is certainly a new direction for Grohl and the boys and if it’s going to sound like this then the new direction is going to be a very enjoyable ride.

Album Highlights: Dear Rosemary, Rope, Burning Bridges. But to be honest this is all killer, no filler and is amazing for beginning to end. My album of 2011 so far.

Welcome to the Four Track Demo

Hello, welcome, bonjour, guten tag or whichever greeting is used in your native tongue.

This is the Four Track Demo, a blog about music which will feature reviews of albums new and old, general news from the music world and anything else that takes my fancy.

I'm a 26-year-old journalism student from Cornwall who has his eye on breaking into the music journalism industry. I have started this blog to showcase not only my writing ability but also great new music, old gems that you may have missed and anything else that is worth commenting on in the music biz.

I listen to most types of music so this should be quite a varied menagerie of content for you to browse. I will also be putting up mixtapes using my limited abilities with Traktor to let you hear the music that I'm blogging about.

I hope you enjoy what I've got to say and that you will keep coming back to The Four Track Demo for your fix about the latest ad greatest music that has graced our planet.

Keep tuned readers.