Friday

the way the world looks from up here


Turners Graffiti
was all up the walls
over pavement and
right up the stalls

NOAH AND THE WHALE

The First Days Of Spring

Noah And The Whale follow up their upbeat twee indie debut Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down with a darker twist in the bands story. The First Days Of Spring is a heartbreak album, markedly different from their previous material, creating a new chapter full of tremulous strings and soaring choirs.
With a Album like The First Days Of Spring it is nearly impossible to start without a little bit of history. Laura Marling, of Mercury Music Prize Nomination fame, was once a member of Noah And The Whale, and Charlie Fink (Noah And The Whale’s frontman) was her boyfriend. Fink produced her debut Alas, I Cannot Swim and then, shortly before Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down was finished, she left him. This may seem like an idle piece of trivia, but this story seems to be the backbone of all Noah And The Whales music. Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down is full of love songs, upbeat and cheerful, if slightly over zealous on the cheesy pop whistling and cute boy/girl harmonies. These were what could be called the ‘Marling years’.

The First Days Of Spring is the antidote to this. Conceived in a world of Bon Iver, Sigur Ros and Belle and Sebastian it is sombre and sullen, full of swelling orchestral moments and more than its fair share of reverb filled Sigur Ros violin parts. The song titles give away the abiding feeling of the album before the disc even enters the player. ‘I Have Nothing’ and ‘My Broken Heart’ set the scene a little too clearly. The ‘Without Marling years’ are definitely upon us.

My immediate impression was that it was all a bit heavy. The appeal of Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down was in its unbound optimism, its sense of love, freedom, youth and well…more love. I got the feeling that the whole thing could simply not work at all, that the Ellen Page and Michael Cera characters of this world would choose this moment to walk away from Noah And The Whale. The First Days Of Spring takes a few listens to truly sink in and anyone who makes that step will not budge from Fink and the boys. The grandeur of the album may, at first, seem a bit naff, but like Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down its appeal draws on its own naffness but in a completely genuine way. Fink seems prepared to sing whatever he feels whether or not it has been said a thousand times before. Noah And The Whale have kept something youthful and almost naïve alive in their music even though their world of love and happiness seems to have been smashed against the rocks. What’s more ‘Blue Skies’ is a stand out single and one earmarked to become a new ‘5 Years Time’ for the broken hearted.

One thing that cannot be denied is that Noah And The Whale have sidestepped critics to produce something fresh and thought provoking and I’m sure I can hear a small and somewhat heartbroken cheer from their corner as their ‘twee’ tag is dropped for good.

Sunday

BOOM! BOOM! New Sounds


I had a few days using cubase and a few instruments a little while back and had some interesting results. my little brother is a bit of music tech student and he says that a lot of it is out of time and slightly wrong and he can hear what i'm trying to do. i'm hoping to get him to help me but i'm not sure if he will. if everything goes to plan i shall try and release a 4 or 5 track free download EP before i go back to uni. that would be so good! my new moniker is SKELLINGTEN FAMBILLY. what do you think? If you read this must comment on it. just say CRAP! if you think so. joe

Wednesday

A Reply To A Different Person

I’m sorry I can’t reply.
I simply cannot be truthful; I will hold something back,
That will make me feel like a liar; foolish.
I will say the wrong things, read the wrong things,
You see,
The truth is
I still love you
And I cannot tell anyone.

It breaks me down every time I even admit it to myself

Thursday


Been making some sounds again alongside writing poetry. I like making music but I fear I am not very good at it. Technically my music skills seem to be ok, but i realy can't sing and this fact often makes my songs unlistenable. see what you hear, have a listen...
http://www.myspace.com/mrjbones

Wednesday

SEASHORE

Run through the sand dunes; to watch
The sea crash and draw,
Pummelling the wet salty pebbles.

At distance, each wave decisive,
Puppeteered by a waning master; who lilts
With beautiful menace,
Behind the soft curtain of the clouds.

Each rasping breath rounds the stone in a clatter,
Of ice cold foam; that draws under,
Bubbling and refreshed.

Tuesday

LOVE IS BETTER THAN CHRISTMAS

We don’t like Christmas; because
It has become a festival of consumerism.

The rich kids get the best presents; because
They pay Father Christmas more.

Seeing the family is pointless; because
We don’t like them and they don’t like us.

Let’s go out and walk in the frost,
I’ll kiss you and you can kiss me; because
Love is better than Christmas,
And we can have it everyday.

J. Bones

Sunday

HOT HAIR PHOTOGRAPHY POSTED

had HAIR cut.
hairdresser talked about PHOTOGRAPHY.
I was really HOT under the hair cutting robe.
12 year old FILM cost £10 and two weeks at Jessops.
will keep you POSTED on that one.
BLACK shirt from primark.
I hate PRIMARK.
black SHOES from tk maxx.
£16
you can't put numbers in CAPITOLS.
SHAME that.
and the fact that two glasses of CHAMPAGNE went all over the shirt within 10 minutes of starting work in it.
also managed to BURN myself on a tea light.
the TITLE of this post sounds like the subjects of some of my less vulgar spam emails.
i hate SPAM emails

J Bones

Postenious



I went painting in the forest the other day. I took two camera's: canon digital and Chinon CG-5. I pointed the digital through the viewfinder on the Chinon. This is what happened. By the way, I'd like to mention in passing that I am an angry person. yes, I'm very angry.

Problem sorted

More pictures keep on appearing on the highlights, so I found a solution: Remove Friend.

Tuesday

Camera and the Giant Golf Ball





So, yesterday I took my brother to a band practice near Ludlow and instead of coming all the way home between drop off and pick up I thought I'd explore Ludlow and the surrounding area. First I went into ludlow town and went around all the charity shops finding old records. I ended up with, The Cure Boys Don't Cry, Wings band on the run and Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells. I Then Chanced upon a man selling old camera's on a market stall. I talked to him for about a hour and eventually bought a camera. This is the camera. its a Chinon CG-5





Still having hours to spare I drove up to Clee hill. A strange outcrop of rock, much quarryed and worn. The road goes nearly to the top. I stopped at the end of the road and walked the rest taking pictures of the old quarry buildings with my new camera. Once ontop I was confronted with this Giant Golf ball and a dead sheep. The film I took the pictures on is 12 years out of date, but if the pictures come out, i'll post them here!

J Bones x

Sunday

Mr & Mrs Compost



I heard, by chance, a sampler of Bibio's forthcoming album and although I had not even heard of Bibio until about a fortnight ago I became very excited. It sounds quite brilliant. Hear it here if you like interesting electronic, sampled and lo-fi sounds http://www.myspace.com/mrbibio

Musical Explorations And Being Lost

it seems, at the moment, music is a forefront thought for me

I lie

it always is.

I get very absorbed in sound and often think like a musical explorer, I love finding music that is hidden, obscure. The natural world, scientific, and increasingly psychological is seemingly overexplored. But Artistic produce, diverse as it is, becomes almost indefinite. The internet facilitates the exploration of this on gigantuan proportions. Personally, music becomes a magic realm, free to plunge into and so willing to be heard.

Take Me, In The Manner You Made Me

oh goodness, oh elephant grace, oh terminally tired tea maid!

I can't stop thinking about this blog, and what I thunk is that I'm going to be really honest with it and say things that I can't on myspace because 320 people may be subject.

oh fecking monsters, here I go. you know what I hate at the moment? well its facebook highlights. you know why? well its because everytime I go on there, the highlights seem to be pictures of my ex-girlfriend and my replacement. his name is Chris and according to her, he's just like me, only better. yippee. he has a long droopy face and big brown eyes. sometimes I want to be him.

J Bones x

The More I Try the more vain&uninterestingitallbecomes



I hesitate in posting this because it is rather self indulgent, but i thought, what the hell. this is the kind of musical experiment I conduct to keep something of myself alive when I'm bored, set to some random summer footage of myself doing what i do.

J Bones x

not because, but because of...

"Oh Clara, Now you're gone, I don't know where to start, you lit up every corner of my heart"

I seem to have spent a dayful of hours using my fingers only to type and my eyes only to pry on pixels. what a waste of useless nailbiting time. I can't help but listen to Alan Pownall over and over.