Manchester’s Finest

A lot of people associate Manchester music with the smiths and oasis and all of the bands that came out around the madchester era, after the sad death of bee gee robin gibb last week I wanted to but a bit of focus on another great massively successful worldwide band.

The Bee Gees grew up in Chorlton, Manchester and are the most successful songwriters to every have been part of the city. As Brian wilson says in his induction speech for them at the rock n roll hall of fame they were masters of 3 part harmonies and amazing writers of matching great melodies with music.

See below

The story behind the Rip It Up e.p.

After the release of the rip it up e.p. last week here’s a longer than usual blog giving you an insight into how the e.p. was made. Have a listen to the tracks above then hopefully the words below will give a background story to the songs.

At the start of 2011 I found myself in the situation where financially, musically and time-wise recording the new e.p. on my own was the best option.

The first step was to build a home studio and then learn how to use it as quickly as possible. This is where “Hey Mud” comes from really, I was just learning how to record the drums, then the riff came pretty much straight away so I turned it into a full instrumental.

Around the same time and after seeing the band wolfpeople live I knew I needed to get a fuzz pedal to improve and expand my guitar sound.
After learning how to solder and how to repair my guitar amps, I went about upgrading and modifying my guitar amps myself and this sound along with the big muff can be heard all over the e.p.

Next up was “Tinny Timmy”, it’s a pretty different song in terms of the spoken verses to anything i’ve done before, the main influence for that was nick cave and grinderman which really seemed to fit the feel of g minor chord the song was built on.

One of the musical reasons for recording this e.p. myself was to get “So Cal” right. After being into the studio before and it not turning out as well as it should have it was really important to get the right feel and flow to the song. Again it turned out that the big muff and guitar sound for the riff became the real focus of the song as originally intended.

Tracking for the last few tracks “I Need You Alone” and “Rip It Up” was now going well with a pencilled in release date of october.
The freedom of being able to experiment with different string and orchestra sounds for “I Need You Alone” at home was another benefit of recording this way. Now with just vocals to do and a solo left on those tracks I went on holiday to finish them when I got back at the end of September.

With a couple of weeks left to get it all finished for an end of October release, I then though I caught a cold in the middle of starting to record the last few vocal sessions.
I delayed recording for a week, then I had to delay again the next week and the next week.

To cut a long story short after several trips to the doctors and blood tests over several weeks it turned out I had a viral infection similar to glandular fever.

The nightmare with a viral infection is it can’t beat treated so October, November and December had to be scrapped in terms of getting any recording done and turned out to be worrying, frustrating months wondering when I would ever be able to sing again.

Over Christmas after days on end of sleeping I turned the corner and was slowly able to get back into it.

After a such a long lay off of around four months I remixed a couple of tracks to polish everthing up and finished off a little Christmas song I had.

Probably the most different song on the e.p. is “I Need You Alone” one day this song will get re-recorded with real strings and a brass section but hopefully the cinematic feel still comes across.

So the last song written and recorded was “Rip It Up” which really is a straight out garage rock ‘n’ roll tune which seemed to be a great title fit for the whole e.p.

Now after all the months of delays it’s out there for you to listen to, download for free or buy.

Hope you enjoy it, head over to http://www.hey-bulldog.com/ to get hold of it.

Cheers
rob
x

you don’t miss your water

In the beginning you really loved me
But I was blind and I could not see
But when you left me, oh, how I cried
You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry

I was a playboy, I could not be true
I couldn’t believe I really loved you
But when you left me, oh, how I cried
You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry

In the beginning you really loved me
But I was blind and I could not see
But when you left me, oh, how I cried
You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry
You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry

Here’s some slightly alt americana country for you. The byrds album sweetheart of the rodeo is a must for anybody and a great collection of country heartbreak songs.

Not at their most country but here’s a great mmj track!

Here’s the country girl loving genius himself neil young the guy keeps making great music today.

If you missed it lat week here’s the 2nd track “I Need You Alone” from the rip it up e.p. out on april 2nd you can download it now for free from our website www.hey-bulldog.com

Kinky

Possibly one of the most underrated bands of all-time if you take a look at their whole catalogue of songs there are so many kink classics out there here’s a few you may or may not know including the Dave Davies gem “strangers”

The Kinks – Shangri La Lyrics

Now that you’ve found your paradise
This is your Kingdom to command
You can go outside and polish your car
Or sit by the fire in your Shangri-la
Here is your reward for working so hard
Gone are the lavatories in the back yard
Gone are the days when you dreamed of that car
You just want to sit in your Shangri-la

Put on your slippers and sit by the fire
You’ve reached your top and you just can’t get any higher
You’re in your place and you know where you are
In your Shangri-la
Sit back in your old rocking chair
You need not worry, you need not care
You can’t go anywhere
Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la

The little man who gets the train
Got a mortgage hanging over his head
But he’s too scared to complain
‘Cos he’s conditioned that way
Time goes by and he pays off his debts
Got a TV set and a radio
For seven shillings a week
Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la

And all the houses in the street have got a name
‘Cos all the houses in the street they look the same
Same chimney pots, same little cars, same window panes
The neighbors call to tell you things that you should know
They say their lines, they drink their tea, and then they go
They tell your business in another Shangri-la
The gas bills and the water rates, and payments on the car
Too scared to think about how insecure you are
Life ain’t so happy in your little Shangri-la
Shangri-la, Shangri-la la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

Put on your slippers and sit by the fire
You’ve reached your top and you just can’t get any higher
You’re in your place and you know where you are
In your Shangri-la
Sit back in your old rocking chair
You need not worry, you need not care
You can’t go anywhere
Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la, Shangri-la

Love it to daft….

Happy new year everybody.

I’ve found the secret in getting better is to just sleep, sleep and sleep so its been great to get back to doing some vocals again.

In the meantime here’s a great hidden gem of an album by alice cooper called “love it to death” if you don’t know it it comes highly recommended.

I’m not usually one for music without any guitars in but I’ve been truly inspired by the amazing daft punk soundtrack for the Tron : Legacy film.

Make sure you TURN IT UP LOUD!

Surf’s up lonely boy

After getting the excellent beach boys smile session and the new black keys album for Christmas here’s a couple of gems from each band.

Brian wilson is a complete genius anybody who thinks the beach boys are just surfing safari needs to check out these 2 tracks

The black keys are one of the few bands who have grown steadily and slowly over the past 7/8 years. Ive included photos i took of them back in 2003 when performing to around 200-300 people when they play manchester next month they have two shows to 2000-3000 people a night.

The way they brought in danger mouse to produce attack & release (that and thickfreakness are still the best albums) was a great step forward in developing thier sound but as you can hear from the latest single they have stayed pretty close to thier roots as well.

PS. There’s just 2 days left to get your FREE download of Xmas Time (again) from http://www.hey-bulldog.com

love me while you can……

After watching the martin scorsese film living in the material this weekend here’s some of george’s best bits.

( G. Harrison )
Love you to and Within you without you

Each day just goes so fast
I turn around – it’s past
You don’t get time to hang a sign on me

Love me while you can
Before I’m a dead old man

A lifetime is so short
A new one can’t be bought
But what you’ve got means such a lot to me

Make love all day long
Make love singing songs

There’s people standing round
Who screw you in the ground
They’ll fill you in with all their sins you’ll see

I’ll make love to you
If you want me to

We were talking
about the space between us all
and people who hide themselves
behind a wall of illusion
never glimpse the truth
then it’s far too late
when they pass away

We were talking
about the love we all could share
When we find it
to try our best to hold it there
with our love, with our love
we could save the world
if they only knew

Try to realize it’s all within yourself
no one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small
and life flows on within you and without you

We were talking
about the love that’s gone so cold
and the people who gain the world
and lose their soul
They don’t know, they can’t see
Are you one of them

When you’ve seen beyond yourself
then you may find
peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come
when you see we’re all one
and life flows on within you and without you

This track features eric clapton

After being blown away by My Morning Jacket last weeked here’s jim james and his version of long long long.