What's New 7

After a ridiculously long period of not blogging, writing  or doing anything productive bar working my day job I've bought myself a desk, a new laptop and a new swivel chair (it reclines too) with the hope that in 2024 I'll get back to what I enjoy doing and that's bringing you reviews of all new movies, podcasts, albums, books and whatever gigs I can get myself too! I thought I'd start off with a quick What's New feature, basically letting you know the kind of stuff I'm watching and listening to at the moment. As always emails are open to new bands or guys just trying to start out with pods who need a bit of promoting. I look forward to hearing from you! 



 ALBUM: 

Blur - The Ballad of Darren

I'm one of these guys that tends to really latch onto a album months, sometimes years after it's release. For instance this record was put out in July and only now I'm properly getting into it and giving it the time it deserves. Being a mega Oasis fan in my teens Blur were always a bit "meh" you could only like one or the other right? And my vote was firmly in the Oasis camp but as I've got older and started my own musician journey I've formed a new found respect for Blur and especially Damon Albarn who I think is not only a great frontman but a really talented musician in his own right. 

The record itself is full of surprises with my favourites being Barbaric and first single The Narcissist which looks and sounds amazing live (sadly only seen through YouTube) I'm 99% sure this album will be in my top ten of the year, where it ranks I'm currently undecided as it stands but for now I'm just enjoy what may be the last album we get from Blur    


LIVE:

The Streets - Ally Pally 16/11/23

I'm always trying to catch artist live that I've not seen before and many a time that means taking a bit of a gamble with ones who I perhaps haven't listened to much recently or ones where I might only like one record but for me the experience of live music is the excitement of the show and nine times out of ten I come away thinking I'm so glad I went to that gig! For me The Streets are a band I haven't really listened to since my early teens but when the opportunity came to watch them live I jumped at the chance as Ally Pally is a fantastic venue for live music plus this is a band that helped form my early musical views. 

As explained not really being up to date with the bands recent material I was happy to kick back take in Mike Skinners ever poetical lyrics and admire the production. Most of the older stuff was met with cheers and rave reviews from the crowd which Skinner lapped up, stage diving probably four or five times throughout the gig. If you can get away with it, do it I say but for me the real treats where saved for the encore with Dry Your Eyes and Blinded By The Lights two songs that I've always loved and optimises the quality of this band with both being at completely different ends of the musical spectrum. 

PODCAST:

So Wizard Podcast

I watch a lot of movies (not as many as these guys) but I watch more then your average Joe and one thing I love to do is try and find a podcast that reviews the movie I've just watched and see what they think about it. I've got a couple I use for this and one of them is So Wizard Podcast, the self proclaimed nerds of podcasting! Fronted by Joey, Markellus and Aubrey (unless it's a horror movie) the guys have notched up nearly 500 episodes and really do invest their time and efforts into not only making the pod cool and fun to listen too but with YouTube videos and merch that I believe Markellus creates so check out their website at  So Wizard Podcast Staff - Meet the Staff - So Wizard Podcast

Running at normally less then a hour each week the guys review a current movie or tv show. They aren't restricted by genre so you'll find anything from this years Barbie to Talk To Me on there and the first 15/20 minutes will be spoiler free until Joey drops the drop. With well argued points and no fear to let us know if they thought something was shit you'll get honest reviews and fair ratings from this fun, easy listening podcast. 

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