For Your Ears For Your Eyes #7

Hi – It’s Dave here at Mumubl.com, welcome to our recommendation email where I give you some tips on what’s great to listen to and watch.

There’s plenty of buzz around at the moment as live music seems to really be getting back, especially as we move towards summer in the UK and there’s more outdoor events planned. One of those is Liam Gallagher playing Knebworth which gets a mention below alongside some more musical recommendations for you to listen, watch and read.

As always – tell all your friends – every little share helps

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In this edition

48 HOURS AT ROCKFIELD / THE LINE-UP / SONG MAN / 6 MUSIC / CHARLI XCX’S BEST SONG EVER / MUMUBL.COM

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48 Hours at Rockfield /C’Mon You Know

Generally I’m not a huge fan of Liam Gallagher, loved Oasis and their music and I think he’s probably underrated a bit as a singer, but often in interviews and well, just generally, he comes across as an arrogant arsehole. In the advance of his new album release and a huge gig at Knebworth there was this Sky Arts documentary “48 hours at Rockfield” showing some behind the scenes bits as him and his band and his two sons rehearse at Rockfield studios. It didn’t take much of the edge off his arrogance but I did warm to him and his cockiness watching the show, seeing him in the local pub asking after the landlords family was nice. I guess I warmed to him partly because it isn’t an act, he’s just him all the time and he would probably be great to have a pint with.

The music was good in the context of the show, less so on a listen to the album. It feels “Oasis by the numbers” which for die hard Oasis fans may be enough to enjoy it more than I did.

The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny

This podcast from DJ Shaun Keaveny is well established being rather a few episodes in, but it’s one I discovered recently after a recommendation from a friend. The concept is reasonably straightforward, the guest has a day to host their dream festival which can include any artist living or dead. The subsequent chat around that with Shaun takes in various aspects of the guests personal lives so maybe your mileage with people you’re not that interested or aware of may not be great but there’s plenty of back episodes to have a pick through.

I can’t help but agree with Ricky Gervais though that there is a certain amount of “not taking full advantage” of the concept if you include living artists in your line up.

Song Man by Will Hodgkinson

If you follow the Mumubl account on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mumubl_music/) you’ll have seen a while ago I picked up a few of Will Hodgkinson’s books to read. Song Man was the first one I picked up so I got stuck in. The story of music journalist Will Hodgkinson, having recently learnt to play guitar, trying to write and record a song. In hindsight it might have made more sense to read Guitar man first where he learns to play guitar but I’m only just picking that up now.

The book is fantastic though, at heart it’s a breakdown of the whole song writing process, a look at the different approaches taken by artists all via a series of chats and interviews Will manages to get with artists from all over the songwriting spectrum. All interspersed with Will’s own attempts to tackle the art it provides a fascinating interrogation of how songs are constructed.

6 Music

I usually manage to coincide a 5 hour drive to London and back with the release of a nice long episode of the “Fall of Civilizations” podcast. Alas this time I didn’t have one to listen to. I did spot shortly before setting off that Steve Lamacq was keeping a World Book week theme and there’d be some top recommendations on his show. So I queued it up on BBC sounds and had a listen on the way down.

6 Music is a strange one, it’s a beloved station by many but often it can seem a bit eclectic. I generally don’t spend that much time listening to radio either. The show is great though, I mean there’s a reason Lamacq is still doing this stuff, and I’ll certainly make more of an effort to tune in in future. The added bonus of catch up on BBC Sounds is skipping any tunes that don’t like as much.

Charli XCX’s Best Song Ever

One last quick shoutout for a podcast that has been mentioned here before. There aren’t many podcasts I listen to religiously and I’ll occasionally find I’ve let a few shows build up when I’ve not visited one for a while. I popped back into Charli XCX’s show with the Fatboy Slim episode – well worth checking out.

From Mumubl.com

Lots of great stories added to the site recently, artists as far ranging as Travis, The Beatles, The Strokes and Avicii – then you’ll find them at mumubl.com/posts/