London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony! [A Music Bloggery Point of View]

1:34 am Angie 1 Comments

Now I don't usually blog about things that aren't really to do with music, but the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony had tributes to amazing things such as the National Health Service, the digital age, and music. now you've got to have music! The tribute was led by some dancers in some quite 'original' outfits and as the music played in the background and the music videos of various different artists were shown on the screen behind, it was showing the music of the different eras. For example, you had music spanning from the 60's straight to the present age. Songs such as 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'My Generation' and 'Tainted Love' were among some of the great chart-toppers. When the present age had arrived, the artist Dizzee Rascal popped up on stage and began to be clearly miming the lyrics to his hit song 'Bonkers'. Not something that really excited me, but the crowd seemed to be amused. However, the Queen did not. Have a look at the image above. While this great spectacle is going around her, she seems to be checking her nails!


The Opening Ceremony had performances from Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, and even the frontman for the popular indie band Two Door Cinema Club, Alex Trimble. (right) who performed a good song really well! Overall, music was quite a big focus of the ceremony, as they had quite a long tribute for it and the digital age together.

The beginning of the ceremony was filled with a brief history of England, showing how the country turned from marshland to an industrial country and from there, how the war changed everything and a moment of silence was held. I found it quite interesting, however there was too many little things going on at once and not one big overall 'wow' factor that I found was at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. It forced too much history on the viewer and not enough entertainment. After this, there was a small tribute to children's literature with many characters coming to life such as Voldemort and Mary Poppins which was pleasantly surprising to see.

Overall, the whole thing was a pretty quaint spectacle, but it had something lacking, some sort of 'wow' factor, to make them stand out, rather than fireworks. We've seen fireworks a squillion times, please give up something new! Now have a look at this video of Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean at the Olympics! A great little clip.

Watch Out, It's Coming This Way! [Version Six!]

7:27 am Angie 0 Comments

I have two great songs from two pretty cool indie bands that have released this week. Firstly, the indie pop group 'The xx' announced that they're releasing their long awaited second studio album, 'Coexist' on 10th September 2012. They've released a new single 'Angels' in aid of this, and it has already got over a million views in four days. The band formed in 2008, and their debut album 'xx' was received with great praise.

 A few days ago, The xx wrote on their Facebook page to all their fans:

"It's been a long time since we've played you anything new. This song is called 'Angels', it is the first single from our new album, 'Coexist'. We've been playing this song live recently, so it feels good to share with you the version we've been working on for so long. We hope you like it. The xx."

When listening to the song I thought that perhaps it was coming off as a little pretentious? I mean, The xx have always had this kind of simple tone, but the tone seems a little too Nirvana-like for me. The songs on the previous album had the same sort of tone, but some of the songs were slightly more upbeat. Also, the fact that the music video for the single is the sea just moving around seems a bit pointless to me and trying to make something small into a great piece of art that has this deep meaning to it. Check out the video and let us know what you think!

[New Music Alert!] - Two Door Cinema Club - Sleep Alone

12:29 pm Angie 0 Comments

Two Door Cinema club have released a single for their long awaited second album 'Beacon' that's set for release September 3rd 2012. The band have made this new single 'Sleep Alone' available for free download on the band's website for a mere 24 hours, so you better hurry up and download it! Here's the link for the website if you need it: http://twodoorcinemaclub.com/. Here's to hoping you make it in time!

The single sounds to me almost like a sequel to a song on the previous album. What I mean by this is that bands usually experiment with different sounds and ideas, and it sounds like to me that they've stuck for the safe option and gone with what they know. Don't get me wrong, the song does sound good, it just sounds familiar to the songs on the previous album and could have more distinction. Make sure you have a look at the lyric video below, and we'll keep you updated on when the official music video releases, here on Music Bloggery!