nessymon.com

Blog

  • Garbage’s Shirley Manson goes nuts on Twitter – at me!

    Garbage’s Shirley Manson goes nuts on Twitter – at me!

    GarbagebannerFirst off, if I find that the official Garbage twitter account was hacked tonight, I will retract this. But, as it stands here’s what happened.

    I have loved Garbage for a hell of a long time. I have every album of theirs and being honest, I’ve always said if I had a band, I’d want them to sound like Garbage. I love their music and they would usually be a first port of call on my iPod.

    What happened tonight was definitely one of the weirdest things ever to happen to me on Twitter. I saw Conor Furlong, a fellow Garbage fan reply to the official Garbage account on twitter. He had replied to this tweet.

    Now, to me as to Conor, this tweet was extremely strange and disrespectful to fans who had paid their money. Going to gigs and buying merchandise is an expensive business. This was a sold out show and it seems the crowd weren’t entirely into the set for whatever reasons. Shirley signs off the tweet with an ‘x’ and saying that the band still love their fans but I find really hard to understand why anyone would alienate or criticize their fans, especially when saying something about a gig they’ve just played. Conor replied:

    I replied to both with the word ‘sad’. Sad for a couple of reasons. Sad that despite a sell out gig and having the opportunity to play in front of people for a living, adoration seems to be something that Shirley (as it was her tweeting), still wants. Reason number two, just because Twitter is online, in a virtual world, doesn’t mean that your words have no consequences. They do, unless you have a protected account, every word is there for the whole world to see.

    Of course, I replied with ‘Darling, you’re not my type’ and presumed that it would end like that. Naturally as soon as that tirade of abuse starting coming in my direction, I thought, sure, this has to go on the blog or maybe chat about it on the radio. So called ‘celebs’ having off days on Twitter seems to be the norm at the moment as Jenny Johnson felt the wrath of Chris Brown this weekend. He subsequently deleted his Twitter account.

    Then Conor received this:

    At this point, I genuinely started wondering if the person behind these words was OK, friends on twitter, yes, including people I do actually know in real life, who happen to know myself and Conor could see what was happening and they too were told where to go.. Yes, I’m putting it mildly. Here’s one example.

    Conor asked for an apology and he more abuse.

    When you get verified on Twitter, you get a little tick beside your name, so that account does belong to Garbage and the ‘S x’ indicates that this was Shirley Manson. I’ve been following their tour on Twitter and Facebook and have been disappointed that I didn’t get to see the band this year. They haven’t played in Ireland and just being finished college and looking for a job, means I haven’t had the money to go see them in Europe. This outburst has genuinely made me question/think about a couple of things. Why do record or PR companies not give musicians online media training, or do they? If not they definitely should.

    The second is the reason why we all fell in love with music in the first place and retain some sort of an emotional connection with a particular artist, band or even song. We spend our money going to see them live or buying their records. It was this emotional connection with Garbage that spearheaded the annoyance I felt when I read Shirley’s first tweet. While trying to say you still loved your fans, in less than 140 characters, you alienated and possibly lost fans. With this my estimation of my favourite band, didn’t drop, it just died.

  • Embers: Hollow Cage (Video)

    Embers: Hollow Cage (Video)

    Embers
    Here’s what I know about Embers, they’re from Manchester. They sold out of their debut single on vinyl at the weekend and they’ve just unleashed a track of quite epic proportions upon us. This is seven minutes and thirty five seconds of pure bliss. If they keep on producing stuff like this, they will be shaping up to be serious contenders in 2013.

    This track is definitely getting played on 2XM this Wednesday. Here is Hollow Cage.

    Embers – Hollow Cage from Embers on Vimeo.

    Thanks to Linn for pointing me in the right direction.

  • The 1975: Sex EP – Review

    The 1975: Sex EP – Review

    1975banner
    Manchester’s 1975 haven’t wasted any time in getting the follow up to the Facedown EP which was released in August. Facedown featured previous Tune of the Week track The City. While The City was instantly accessible the rest of the EP seemed minimal atmospheric and deliberate as if the band did not want to get them pigeonholed on the basis of the lead track.

    ‘Intro/Set 3’ starts with layered vocals against a synth sampled atmospheric backdrop. There are still elements of how the ‘Facedown EP’ progressed but here they have taken the production a step further sampling and looping vocals. The atmospheric feeling continues in ‘Undo’, with it’s breathy vocals and effected drum pattern giving off an urban vibe. There’s a whole lot more to The 1975 than their radio play suggests and it’s interesting to see how the two sides of the one band exist together. Both varieties are good and memorable, it’s just like they have two different styles.

    Although the band have been together for about ten years, the members are still in their very early twenties and this just could be them evolving as they record. The title track ‘Sex’, has garnered radio play across these Isles and it’s not surprising why. It’s and uptempo radio friendly track with grungey guitars, telling of the exploits of encounters in ‘the back of my van’ and repeats the line ‘She’s got a Boyfriend anyway’. Yeah, we know the drill you dawg! Expect to hear this at your local indie disco this weekend.

    The EP finishes with ‘You’, another track where the 1975 are in rock band mode. The track builds from vocals, drum beat and guitar hook and plateaus, leaving you waiting and hanging for the major kick. This track is about sex too as our leader singer says “It’s not my fault if I’ve fcuked everyone here’. The track rhythm changes and builds yet again to reveal a musical rock crescendo with guitars drums, strings and vocals combining. Then comes the blankness, yes at 26 minutes and 10 seconds, ‘You’ obviously is home to a ‘secret track’, ‘Milk’. This track could be filed next to ‘Sex’, it has nineties feel to it and where the vocals on ‘Sex’ seem more urgent, here the vocals are very reverb washed, reminiscent of the early days of britpop.

    This is an enjoyable journey through the musical magpies of Manchester, this is only an EP though, I’m not saying they’ll go post dubstep on an album but I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store.

    As a side note: I’m looking forward to seeing how they can pull this off live and take all influences and put them into a full coherent set. Won’t have long to wait, they’re playing:

    December 11th – Academy 2, Dublin
    December 12th – Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast

    Tickets are available now at ticketmaster.ie


    Listen on Deezer for the secret track Milk

  • Tune of the Week 23/11/2012: A Song for Lily-Mae

    Tune of the Week 23/11/2012: A Song for Lily-Mae

    ASongforLilyMaeIf there’s only song, not even an album, one song you need to buy this week, make it this one. Looking at the video, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen such a great turn out of Irish musicians, bands and singers come together for a cause that was truly worthy.

    LilyMaeElton John’s Tiny Dancer was recording by the group for Lily-Mae Morrisson from Claregalway who suffers from Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. It’s an aggressive cancer of the nervous system. It’s not nice and it’s heartbreaking when you see that it’s a four year old kid who is going through this.

    Over 300 people have come together and include some well known faces, Paddy Casey, Declan O’Rourke, Mary Black, Mundy, Tom Dunne and and some good ole friends of this parish, Storyfold, Arrow in the Sky and Preachers Son. What does the group want from this ‘We want to create as much noise as possible for Lily-Mae by getting Tiny Dancer to the Christmas Number One spot, thereby raising awareness of the disease and funds to help with Lily-Mae’s care and with Neuroblastoma research.’

    You just know if Sir Elton is giving his backing, it’s a good thing. You can find out more on Facebook and is available from iTunes. Do the right thing.