Video of the day! - "Subspecies"

I haven't had a lot of time lately to follow links around the depths of you tube and vimeo so I haven't found much to post up. I sort of got sent a link to this video, but it's cool as and well worth a watch.



Sick! I've posted vidoes from this guy before. This is from Daisuke Takahashi's "Subspecies." All copyrights and credit to him and StudioSk4.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Video of the day! Summer Camp - 'Down'

This is a cracking video and a nice catchy song too. I really like the surreal humour and the still/moving image idea is a really cool, simple effect too. I wish I'd thought of it. There's more Summer Camp at the Moshi Moshi Records website, just click the link.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Video of the day! Lovvers - Human Hair

I'm drunk, I love this song, but where have my Lovvers gone? Hopefully recording new stuff?

Video of the day! Com Truise - Brokendate

Classy video!

Video of the day! Radiohead on Saturday Night Live - 'Staircase'

Dear blog reading team,

I'm still a massive Radiohead fan. They're the best band I've ever seen live TWICE (them and Hot Snakes, also twice) and I think this video for me is a good example of them still being awesome. Yes, as individuals they're about as cool as a half eaten packet of ready salted crisps, but as a group I still find them mesmerising especially when they're playing live music with great beats and subtle melodies like this. The last album may not have been great Radiohead, but compared to everyone else's music it's great music. I can't wait for the live dates next year. Hopefully I'll get to catch them again.

Here's the vid.



PEACE ON EARTH!

Lt Meat

Blogs of The Day - The Devil Has The Best Tuna and Song By Toad

Hi folks,

I have two great new music blogs for you today (I mean blogs about new music not new blogs about music, just to be clear). The first is The Devil Has The Best Tuna featuring this week in 'The Devils Round Up - September 11th' a nice little complimentary mention of the Girl Muscle's track 'Talk Like An American'. Receiving a compliment off of the Devil himself is a good way to start a Saturday morning! There's loads of previews and reviews of new music on here and in my eye's the Devil really has a good taste! In his words.....

"The Devil is dedicated to unearthing unknown, unheard, unseen, unheralded, unfamiliar or down right unbelievable bands old or new that have not yet hit the radars of the British public"

....and I'd like to thank the Devil for spending his time doing it. I suggest just diving into the Devil's blog and checking out what's being featured. There's regular posts all the time, some with specific musical themes or little features on new bands/new material. I've found loads of new Sound Cloud artists to follow and had a fair whack of new listeners myself since being featured on the blog.

The second blog to check out is Song By Toad. Again it's a new music blog with daily (if not more frequent) posts featuring new bands, new music, featured videos and (I think a very useful part of the blog) features on music industry discussions, aimed I think at helping out independent musicians and small labels. The main author of the blog Matthew writes quite a lot more than the Devil on each subject, especially the music industry features which tend to be very useful, such as this discussion on 'filter bubbles'.

It's great to have someone not just trawling the internet for new music to expose, but also keeping an eye out for music industry information and discussions that new musicians, bands or small labels would normally know very little about. The sad thing about trying to make a living off music in whatever format is that at some point you have to enter into the wider 'music industry'. Whether it's as a solo DIY musician or as an accomplished band receiving offers from big labels to sign up and get their music widely released, it will no doubt help to be armed with some knowledge of the industry. Especially about how music can be digitally distributed and marketed as we are now squarely sat in the digital age of everything.

I'm slowly getting addicted to new music blogs. I'm both excited by them, as I'm finding new music all the time, and slightly saddened by them having to exist (remember when you would meet up every week, hang out, possibly get drunk and talk about new bands with your mates? "Hey dude, have you heard that band Fingerbastard?" "No, what are they like?" "Fucking awesome! They sound like the Dead Kennedys and Blur put together, I'll tape you their album"). When I was younger I had certain old friends that were basically walking new music blogs, it was nice catching up with them and trading new bands to listen to (or arguing about why the bands they like suck). Sadly I think the internet has locked the new generation of these types of music enthusiasts away from the real world and condemned them to blog to unknown readers over the internet. I hope it's rewarding work, I feel it should be rewarded in some way. Maybe an annual music blog author appreciation party? Maybe not.....

To The Devil Has The Best Tuna and Song By Toad I offer my thanks! I hope that anyone reading his might take a digital hop over and check out these blogs from time to time.

Over and out

Lt Meat

Video of the day! Battles (feat. Gary Numan) 'My Machines'

Hello pop-pickers!

I have no idea how they've done it, but Battles have managed to make avant garde and experimental rock music mainstream. Their music is all over TV, in adverts, over the top of documentaries and probably in Hollyoaks (at the beggining when they have the guest directors in for the shit intros with the text messages that pop up on the screens with sad or weird songs over the top whilst the cast are waking up in bed from the previous episode's dramatic conclusion..........no?...........you know Hollyoaks, it's by the creator of Grange Hill.....................Phil Fuckin' Redmond!!!!!!.......it's on Channel 4...................................Flynn is my favourite TV character EVA! lolmegz).

Anyway they also make awesome videos. I've bloged, yes bloged not blogged, their last video for 'Ice Cream' on here a few months ago. This video is better and Gary Numan is in it. I only just realised why Gary Numan spels (yes, spels) his name Numan and not Newman. It's spelt (yes, spelt) like Human, suggesting Gary Numan feels that he is not a human, but a new(er) version of a human, perhaps a more evolved human than us mere non-electro based carbon life forms. Maybe Gary is not human, but from outer space and his choice of stage name is ironic and a rather tongue-in-cheek choice from the reckless invader. I'll get to the point, WHO CARES? not me.

Here's the video, it's very good.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA they're so fucking avant garde that they won't give me (an soley garde-based musician) permission to show their video to you. Search for it on Vimeo...................whatever. Battles suck anyway.

Over and out

Lt MeAt (yes, MeAt)

Video and Blog of the Day!

First, the video. 'The Stroller' by Jaill.


Next the blog. The Miniature Music Press. Save it in your favourites if you like alternative music and live anywhere near Cardiff. Plus they were the first blog to get back to me after my exhausting email mega send off. More blogs to follow in the coming days!

Back to Jaill (did you get it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA back to jail?), I heard them on a free Sub Pop Records compilation 'Digital Bang' that's available on AMAZON BY CLICKING THIS LINK it was free, but now it's £7.99 (well if you will snooze you will lose.................or will you? that saying makes no sense, snoozing is my favourite past time.............but then I am a loser). Still there's 22 or so tracks mainly all of a very good quality so have a think about it, or just buy the Jaill album for less. I'm ranting again.

Over and out.

Lt Meat 

Online music blogs are your bands best friend!

Well (deep inhale),

This weekend I've been shamelessly spamming the good people of the music blogging world with links to my new Girl Muscle tracks. I've been kindly asking the numerous blog and online magazine editors to spare a few minutes of their time to have a listen to my new songs in the hope that they like them and then decide to spread the word about my music to their readers and online communities.

In the process of searching the vast array of online music blogs, (mostly looking for indie/garage rock/lo-fi type blogs) and in the true spirit of a lazy time waster, I've been often easily sidetracked by how good some of the content on these blogs is. I don't just mean the quality of writing, but also the quality of new music being shared to the readers. I've heard a load of new bands I really like and I've now subscribed to a load of blogs through various means (such as Tumblr/Blogger/Facebook or direct email subscription in some cases) as finding new music that actually interests me is becoming incresingly very hard, even as a now avid 6 Music listener.

I've had a rant about this before, in the context of the loss of My Space as a great and simple promotional tool for bands, musicians and alternative music fans alike. I really do feel that the alternative music scene (comprising a great many genres such as indie rock, punk, hardcore, lo-fi, garage rock, noise and any non-commercial based or DIY music) has fallen apart and the once stable DIY infrastructure that existed to allow certain bands decent gigging routes and access to potential fans is now spread so thinly across the world wide web that knowing where or even how to start spamming (marketing for want of a better term) your new music is increasingly becoming a daunting, frustrating and time consuming task.

It would be very easy if all bands could get record deals and let the marketing department of whatever records handle the magazine and TV advertising, music video promotion, arrange T4 interviews and just generally throw money at making your new music sell. That's not going to be the case though, as not all bands are good enough or popular enough to warrant someone else spending any money on them unless they think they'll get it all back.............plus a large profit. Business is after all business.

So, in the initial stages of being a new musician or being in a new band and trying to get some form of coverage to get more fans, more gig offers, maybe sell a few demos and generally let people know you exist, where do you go? Well you still go to My Space, in most cases, as it's still free and kind of useful (although only bands seem to use it nowadays, all of your potential new fans are more spread out or locked away on Facebook). There are also a myriad of other sites that will allow you to host and stream mp3s with the two major sites being Sound Cloud and Bandcamp (Tunecore is also quite useful in terms of getting music into iTunes and Amazon Mp3 etc.). I like both sites for different reasons, I'll keep it brief below as I'm wandering off subject.

Sound Cloud lets you share tracks across the internet fairly easily, it generally loads quickly and has a few linking and sharing options (a bit like You Tube for music). Bad points with Sound Cloud are that it's hard to search for any other musicians and bands that you may like to find, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can search for bands from a particular location for instance (which was great on the old My Space as meeting other local bands online really helps with getting gigs booked). There are groups you can join for specific music genres or local music communities, but I find they aren't great at generating many new listens and they don't let you do much interacting with other group members. Connecting to other people by using Sound Cloud is still really up to you to figure out. Bandcamp is similar to Sound Cloud but to me seems less useful than Sound Cloud in terms of helping you to connect to new people, but it does allow you to sell music and receive payment through pay pal, which is nice.

So, why am I thinking that online music blogs are so important? I'm not 100% sure that they are yet, that remains to be seen. My logic is that providing that you have some online content, on Sound Cloud or Bandcamp for example, you'll need someone else out in the wider world to give you some coverage before other people will start listening to the music you have online. I generally find that I like to know the opinions of other possibly slightly obsessive alternative music fans before I check out a new band on Sound Cloud. If a band contacts me directly telling me how awesome and original they are, then I'm not really going to believe it (of course most people would have to say good things about their own creative outpourings, a stranger can disagree). Plus, there's a good chance I would never find out about some of the bands and musicians being mentioned on online blogs as they haven't quite got popular enough to get radio plays on 6 Music (which is where I find out most new music that I like).

I think it helps that a lot of the blogs and online magazines are run by self-confessed music obsessives. Not all of the blogs are as DIY and alternative as others, some feature artists I would almost call 'pop', but most have new band reviews or new music showcases that sat alongside the new Lana Del Ray video would make you look pretty important and worth listening to (I'm not singling Lana Del Ray out as her music isn't too bad, she just seems to be very well groomed for a supposedly DIY musician who lived on a trailer park for the last few years, I'm probably wrong but 100,000,000 You Tube hits seems a little suspicious for her first single). It also helps that the authors and editors really know their stuff, albeit within a certain niche in some cases, if you do get a mention on one of these blogs there's a good chance your music will be compared to or reviewed alongside other good new (or old) bands that you may never have heard of, which starts getting you some connections and maybe some fan crossover. A lot of the blogs are fairly easy to get contact details for and are very open to emails and submissions of new music. I think I emailed about 25-30 blogs and magazines yesterday so I'll wait and see if I get any responses or mentions.

I think providing the music obsessive blogging communities keep working hard and shouting about new music then there's hope for some kind of new alternative infrastructure to materialise. It seems that some blog authors have already made steps into managing small record companies and promoting local gigs. I hope this trend of alternative music blogger to real world alternative music industry promoter continues as in my eyes obsessive alternative music fans tend to make the most fun and decent gig promoters and tend to run the cooler labels, which makes sense I guess as it's called the music industry.

Online blogs! I salute you! Please feel free to salute me back once in a while.

Keep your eyes peeled I'll be chucking links up to online blogs I like as I get to grips with a few of them over the coming weeks. Here's a link right now to A New Band A Day (ANBAD) check out the Black Polygons preview a little bit down the page, I really like their music and I've downloaded it as it's free on bandcamp (see! it works!).

Over and out,

Lt Meat

Video of the day! Girl Muscle - 'Your Boyfriend'

Доброе утро, comrades!

OK so this is a video I've made for my old band, out of old copyright free public information movies. It's a essentially a no budget music video I cut together for my band Girl Muscle. It was half made out of boredom and half out of being frustrated at having no budget to make music videos with.

All of the footage used was downloaded from archive.org (which is a great website that I keep returning to when I've not got much else to do other than watch loads of old movies and public information films). All of the footage is free to use under creative commons licences, so if you fancy cutting something similar then get over to the website and get downloading.

The quality isn't great, but I'm not one for much quality control if I'm truthful, I'd rather get some of this music out into the wider world than wait until someone pays me to do it (which isn't likely in this day and free downloading age).

The song is available to download at girlmuscle.bandcamp.com



Thank you for reading this far!

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Girl Muscle EP

Girl Muscle by Lt Meat

I'm cleaning out my hardrive

Dear squadron,

I haven't posted much to this lately and I've been on a hardrive space freeing up mission this morning and found loads of old photos and cool stuff that I thought had been lost years ago. I'll probably start posting random photos and videos up as I get through the numerous old folders I've just found.

So, here's a random image I just found on my old hardrive. It's of Randy 'Biscuit' Turner of the Texas Biscuit Bombs and legend texan p(f)unk rockers the Big Boys. I played guitar in a punk band a few years ago called Four Letter Word. I was lucky to be playing in the band when we toured with the Texas Biscuit Bombs for two weeks across the UK. All of the Texans in the band were true gentlemen, in very different individual ways, and I remember them all fondly. Especially Biscuit, who sadly passed away on 18th August 2005. I think this photo is a video still from a gig we played in my hometown of Newport, South Wales in TJs.

It's doubly sad that the owner of TJs, and longtime champion of great local music in Newport, John Siccolo passed away in March 2010 and the club has not been open since. To both Randy 'Biscuit' Turner and John Siccolo I say 'farewell and thanks for everything' I've taken influence from you both and the world is a lesser place place without you! Especially the world of alternative music.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Video of the day! Lakai - Rick Howard Ad.

I bloody love Lakai!!!!!!! Especially their adverts............and has Grim has some of their lovely shoes in Freestyle at the moment I might just get me a pair.

Newport Skatepark & Video of the day! 'Life Splicing No. 004: Nick Boserio'

This guy's style is reeeeeeeal nice and makes this little section stand out from all the other squeaky clean web edits out there. The accompanying track is pretty cool too.



PS If you live anywhere in South Wales/Newport area and skateboard/BMX/inline or use skateparks for whatever reason, you should sign this petition to help the users of Newport skate park. It's being demolished to make way for a football training academy at some point in the near future. The Council have kept it rather quiet too not telling the community of users until recently. There's been problems with this park from day one and personally I'm not sad to hear it's going. I am sad at the thought of going back to being the only town/city anywhere without a good, free to access outdoor skate park. Hopefully the Council will listen to the users of the park and get a new one built before this park is destroyed. Apparently around £200,000 was spent on this only a few years ago (mostly grant money I think), as a Council tax payer I'm not happy with that amount of money being wasted to make way for a 'proper' sports facility and I hope we get a decent concrete park built somewhere else. Perhaps it can even right some of the wrongs of the existing skate park if it's done well by a reputable company (with Newport Council in charge? bollocks).

Here's the link so get signing http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SNSPN/petition.html

You stay classy! and thanks for dropping by!

Lt Meat

Video of the day! Guillaume Mocquin - Get Busy Living - Element Skateboards Europe

OH MY COD!

It's not often I get blown away by skateboarding video sections anymore. Mainly because I'm shit and it's so out of my league now that I just can't relate. The skating in this section is way out of my league, but it's too good to not grab me by my balls and make me want to hit up some form of concrete transition! Which I can't because I have no skills and my ankle brace hasn't turned up yet. Plus it's a nice short to the point section.


SIIIIIIIIICK!!! Enjoy.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Video of the day! The Hidden Cameras - 'Golden Streams'

Simply beautiful! It's a lovely song about pissing too.

Video of the day! Es footwear - 'Be A Manwolf Today!'

This video is damn awesome! There are rumours flying around the internet that Es footwear may have disappeared (gone bust???). It's probably not true, but if it is then this is a rather excellent swansong (as long as it wasn't forking out on the budget for this that sent them under). I want to be a Manwolf now................or at least a MAN at some point if I ever grow up.



Skateboarding is fucking awesome! Sadly, I'm not awesome at skateboarding.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

PS I have a new (old) single on it's way to iTunes so keep posted for more on that soon.

Video of the day! Is Tropical - The Greeks

This is such a simple premise, but an amazing video!



Man I wish it was acceptable for adults to play war in the street.....................................without actually joining the army.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Two short films from Vimeo!

I've just watched this short film.



It's really well made and I like the surreal kind of feel it's got, I really got drawn in to this little short, it's actually builds up quite a lot of tension towards the end. Very well done to the filmakers!

The next short is one I keep coming back to over and over. I really enjoy this short, the whole piece fits together extremely well and I especially love the music. check out the making of video on Vimeo too, I couldn't believe the amount of work that went into this short film, it paid off though. I'd love to be able to produce this level of work one day.......



Amazing stuff!!!! Vimeo is full of awesome short films and music videos. Check out the 'staff picks' from time to time if you're ever bored and online.

Over and out

Lt Meat

Being old and still skateboarding.

Dear Comrades,

I'm normally pretty bad at skateboarding, I film alot now rather than actually skating as it's a good excuse for me not to skate and (hopefully) it benefits some of the younger guys who are pretty bloody good on their boards by showing them to you, the people of the entire world.

Yesterday however, powered with a half day from work and a mild wine based hangover I managed to have a decent roll around and even did some tricks I haven't tried for a while. A bunch of the Freestyle Team Riders and friends/associates hit up the future wastelands of the post apocalypse in our time machine. Kill City roider Jake Collins borrowed my camera and shot some nice photos and got some good lines down on film to boot. Jake has just been promoted onto the full Kill City UK Team! Congratulations Jake!!!! Also hot news is that Tom Bailey beat Nikki Chappell in an epic game of skate at the wastelands. Bailey is now the wastelands champ, until someone stabs him................or beats his krooked ass in a game of skate.

I still didn't manage to put many tricks down myself, but had fun trying and took a few nice slams. I think the self-harming aspect of being a skateboarding is keeping me going at the moment, it might seem perverse, but I like to fall off and as Neil Blender put it, a slam is itself a trick and should be praised as such, thanks Neil. I enjoy a good slam as long as I don't get any serious injuries in the process! Check out some of Jakes snaps below. The video footage is going into my huge Freestyle video vault, so you can all wait for the finished video to see the gnar in realtime!!!!!

Tom Bailey tail block on homemade concrete.

Errrrr, me doing an ollie.

Jake Collins himself!

Nikki Chappell tre flip down the gap.

Nikki Chappell solid hardflip skills!

I love this spot!!!! and you aren't allowed to skate it. Unless you make friends with Kyle, which won't happen because Kyle is too cool to need any more friends.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Emerson Green 'Jamie Clapp Memorial Skatepark' - Bristol

Word to y'all shredders out there!

Today, me, Phil Hackett and Nikki Chappell took an early motorised jaunt over the Severn bridge to the new 'Jamie Clapp Memorial Skatepark' in Emersons Green, South Gloucestershire (near Bristol). It's about half an hours drive from Newport just off the M32, head left straight off the M32 onto the ringroad and follow that road (over a few roundabouts) until you get to the Emersons Green Retail Park (where Sainburys is), the skatepark is situated right by Boots.

Nikki on the flat bar with a cheeky smith.

The weather forecast was rain at 11am. We got to the park about half ten and at 11 it absolutely chucked it down for about 5 mins of the heaviest rain shower I've experienced for a long time (why is the weather forecast only right when it's for bad weather?). Honesty butt they were like tuppences falling from the sky. The park was soaked.

Rain stops play.

Not defeated we popped into Sainbury's cafe for a cooked breakfast, half an hour later the park was dry again, SWEET!!!!

Black coffee, two sugars for energy.

Full english................errrrr we were in England.

Nikki managed to throw all of the tricks down in the edit below in about half an hour, before another torrential rain shower stopped play for the day. I liked the park, it fairly close, the local guys were nice and the street layout is super good fun. I did an ollie down the steps. SAFE! The music in the video is Man or Astroman? 'Engines of Difference' off the album Eeviac (that is if you tube don't disable the sound like they always do)



Over and out.

Lt Meat

This was due to take place today!!!!

Unfortunately the day has to be postponed as some of the works to the skatepark haven't yet been formerly signed off, which sucks. Although on a selfish note I'm currently skint, with no fuel in my car, so getting there and back was going to be difficult............and sober. Still, I'm now even more hyped for this day when it's rescheduled!!!!!!!!! Once I know when it is I'll forward the details on to all five of you loyal followers!!!

In the meantime check out some teasers from the exist video below. All shot and edited by the very talented John Fisher. John is one of these annoying types of guys that has an effortless natural talent, both as a filmmaker and as a skateboarder, he also has good hair. Don't get me wrong, I imagine John works bloody hard to get his videos (and no doubt the full Exist video) looking and sounding pretty damn professional and I believe he's now working in the film and tv industry, I'm just jealous............and bald.............and crap at skateboarding.................and I have no concept of quality control.

John, I salute you, I salute Rick and I salute all of the Exist team, individually and as a skateboard gang for your awesome videos! Keep up the good work, I can't wait to get to see the full video once the premiere is rescheduled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also salute the Freestyle team, for no specific reason.









See what I mean? Raw talent..........................and he has good hair.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Video of the decade!!!!!!

GWAR are damn AWESOME! They are playing in the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd on Tuesday 14th June 2011 with the other rather awesome band Clutch. I'd like to go who's with me?



Only GWAR could beat Jesus at basketball.

Respect.

Lt Meat

Sunday, boring Sunday.

Sundays are really boring.

Unless there's dry weather and a GNARLY session goes down on my skateboard, in some far away land where people are nice and beer is cheap, which just doesn't happen anymore as my body has lost the GNAR power, people in the UK are generally disgusting and beer is moderately priced (but not cheap).

Today is Sunday, I have been mostly rendering videos as it's raining outside and I've got a hard drive full of raw video footage that needs a home. Sounds like fun? No, it isn't. Rendering is the process of creating a single, finished movie file by exporting a, broadly speaking, completed edit from your editing software time-line, after you are happy that the editing process has allowed the piece to take coherent shape and is now ready to be thrust upon the savage and critical world of the internet.

Rendering is probably one of the most important parts of the internet video editing process. It's when you find out if you video is shit or not. It also takes hours to complete, and if the video does turn out to be pants of the soiled variety, or you've spelt the title wrong, or the sound has inexplicably drifted out of sync with the pictures, then you're back to square one and you have to render again. I've buggered the video I'm currently working on four times today, uploaded it to the internet and had to pull it to get yet another mistake corrected. I am literally watching my life ebb away via the means of the render bar. I'm glad I don't edit videos for a living...........................actually I wish I did, I work for the Council and they don't pay me much and those Tories in Whitehall are after my job.

Here's the last video I managed to render without any major problems cropping up, it also has a bespoke Lt Meat soundtrack, enjoy it!!!!! It's free, I don't get paid for this shit............................yet



Over and out.

Lt Meat.

PS. I've also been listening to a lot of The New Pornographers lately, here's a good 'un from 2002.

Video of the day! Battles - Ice Cream

Damn!!!!! This is hot stuff. I wish to make music videos like this.

Video of the day! Frank Black!

This is probably the best quality version of this video on You Tube! An excellent Frank Black song Headache from his second solo album 'Teenager of The Year'. I wish I was a fat party animal like Frank!!!!!

Over and out

Lt Meat

Video of the day!

Sparrow and the Workshop - Snake In The Grass. One of the band members is a Welshman, you get three guesses.



Over and out.

Lt Meat.

New music, new TV? New art?

Dear comrades,

I've some quality free art for you to check out......................and it is art because I've said it is. First the amazing and quite simple new video from Low for the first track off their new album C'Mon, it's called Try To Sleep. I've spammed about this album loads lately, but I'm still really into it so I'll be spamming some more, no doubt.

Secondly it's TV art (is that possible? yes but it's a rare phenomena nowadays). I'm thoroughly into the new BBC 2 drama The Shadow Line, there's not been a well made British drama (or any other genre program for that matter) that's captured my attention for a long time. Probably not since the Red Riding adaptations were screened on Channel 4 a few years back. This Is England was very good, but I sort of knew that would be and that was well advertised and not really anything glowingly new.  

The Shadow Line was just on my TV a few weeks ago when I was sat motionless on my sofa and couldn't find the remote. Somehow I got sucked in during the first scene which was tonally a very dark opening scene for a new show, with it's muted dialogue and really intriguing characters it's quickly become the only TV programme I'm currently making efforts to keep up with on UK TV. Based on the trailer I wouldn't have bothered watching it, as it's lumped in with a 'BBC Drama' trailer with other tripe BBC dramas such as the awful Luther (which really should be quite good, but has instead somehow turned Idris Elba into a terrible actor, perhaps he should have stayed on the other side of the Atlantic, let's hope Dominic West doesn't tread a similar path) and Torchwood (the sexually excitable older brother of the now pants Doctor Who).  

The Shadow Line beats these other 'flagship' dramas hands down in my opinion, it's dark, tense, intelligent, very well executed with a great ensemble cast of class UK actors and has an epic theme song (see below 'Pause' by the rather great Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo). I can't wait for episode 4, on Thursday at 9pm on BBC 2. I'll save my raving about it for future weeks as every week it's getting more tense.

PAUSE by emilybarker

Over and out.

Lt Meat. 

White Denim - I Start To Run

I'm starting to like this band. This video is awesome, I wish I had access to a desert.....................or some dessert.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

My new single, free download alert!

Burn The Tourist by Lt Meat

Listen to it here, download it for free from SoundCloud for a limited period! Then buy it in iTunes or Amazon...........

Thanks

Lt Meat

White Denim - Drugs

Hey kids,

Check out this new song from the band White Denim. They're cool.


Drugs are also cool, you should take them and watch this video, over and over again.

OR not. It's a cool video though and I like the song, whatever it means.......

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Kurt Vile.........isn't

Well I've spent most of the day re-editing a friends music video after deciding that the rough cut was balls. Editing film is an enjoyable, but frustrating, pastime. Especially as it involves drinking buckets full of coffee and spending hours in a dark room rendering off clips in between cutting the finished piece together. In between the lengthy rendering sessions I've been mostly monging out to this guy..............


Kurt isn't vile he's lovely to listen to, get his album it's super good and mighty relaxing AYEEEEEE like audio red wine.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

This is currently my life....

Watching my est. remain time count down to zero...........


And drinking far too much coffee.

www.steakrecords.com
www.YouTube.com/ltmeat

Speedo is a legend!!!!!!!

Here's some more of John Reis (Speedo) giving some awesome advice about bowling and chatting about his most recent band The Night Marchers. John is one of my favourite musicians, he's a huge influence on my guitar playing and a huge influence on most of the music I make. I'm also fortunate to have met him when my old band Punk Action Shotgun supported Hot Snakes in TJs, Newport. John and Gar who are interviewed here were both in Hot Snakes and were super nice guys and made that gig one of the highlights of my musical life!

And here's some Night Marchers performing live......


I can't wait for more Speedo!

Over and Out.

Lt Meat

And here's me stealing the mic at the last Hot Snakes gig in London!

More from the recent gig.

Here's a cover of Rocket From The Crypt that I like to try and play if a gig is going well. It's full of mistakes and I sing the wrong lyrics...............I don't think Speedo would mind, it's rock n roll.



Over and out.

Lt Meat

PS Here's the original performed live on US TV. I love RFTC!

Some gig footage from last night

It turned out better than it should have so I've chucked some songs from the recent gig up on You Tube here's one to wet your appetite (for self destruction).



Over and Out

Lt Meat

Gig preview from The Joy Collective for Ten Feet Tall tomorrow night.

Check out a gig preview at The Joy Collective's website for my show tomorrow with the Daniel Higgs Trio and Ratatosk just click on the link above.

Nice one!

Lt Meat

I hope my kids are born with some raw natural talent.........

.....like these two young men, having to try hard sucks I wouldn't wish that on anyone. This is a cool section, I'm not so into the music so my tip is to turn the sound down and listen to a song that you like, it'll fit guaranteed.

Enjoy!

Lt Meat

I miss my sandwich

Dear food,

This was easily the best sandwich I've ever made and also had the joy of eating. The Steak Records Bacon and Egg Club Sandwich.


Recipe:

Bacon
Egg
Club
Sandwich

Over and out

Lt Meat

Gig on Monday 25th April with The Keys and Two Cow Garage!

I'm really excited about this gig now I've been listening to The Keys loads! Monday 25th April in Le Pub, £6 door entry for four bands on Bank Holiday Monday!!! Why not drink all afternoon and then come out to this gig, I think it'll be good.

Hope to see you there!

Lt Meat

Two new demos

Both new demos recorded today only they're both very different. I'm not really sure what I've been up to so far today to come up with this stuff (other than editing a music video I shot for the band Kutosis.............or I suppose, finding excuses to not edit Kutosis' music video, but to drink loads of coffee).

Maybe it's just the caffeine..............
  Eric Stoltz (demo) by Lt Meat

or maybe not.....
First Winter's Snow (demo) by Lt Meat

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Upcoming gigs

Dear Bloggers,

I have two gigs coming up that I'm pretty excited to say I'm playing. First is Le Pub, Newport on Monday 25th April (bank holiday Monday) supporting Two Cow Garage, here's the flyer:

And the second gig is supporting the Daniel Higgs Trio in Ten Feet Tall, Cardiff on Thursday 28th April. I'm really excited about both gigs, especially getting the chance to play on the bill with Daniel Higgs.  One of the best live performances I've ever witnessed was Daniel's band Lungfish in TJs, Newport (around 10? years ago), he's a powerful performer. He currently plays banjo based folk songs backed up by piano/accordion and drums. Here's the excellent flyer for this gig, designed by Chris Summerlin:

Both gigs are £6 entry, I hope to see some of you there! fingers crossed I may have a new single to give away on used cdr if I can get it finished and mixed in time.

Over and out.

Lt Meat.

Papercuts - Fading Parade

Greetings fellow music appreciators!

I've been on a bit of a Subpop bothering mission lately. Not only am I currently listening to the new Low Album - C'Mon , but I've also been listening the crap out of Papercuts' recent album Fading Parade.

This is the first song off Fading Parade entitled 'Do You Really Wanna Know?'


It's rare that I get into an album as a whole, I normally lose interest and pick on a few of the tracks that stand out above the general mire of album fillers. Fading Parade is however genuinely an accomplished collection of songs, with no fillers, that have become ingrained in my brain over the last few weeks. Any track off the album could be released as a single, as they're all brilliantly written.

I guess you could say it's quite a melancholic album, but that's what I'm into at the moment so I'm diggin' the vibe, loads. I think they do sound a bit like Beach House, but I wasn't that taken by the last Beach House album Teen Dreams, it got rave reviews from the usual indie rock judging suspects, but it didn't really sink in with me. I much preferred their first album Devotion. Perhaps I'll give Teen Dreams another try one day.................I think we'd all like to give our teen dreams another try one day..........................................................or just listen to Papercuts instead.

I'm off.

Lt Meat

GOLF - Kitty Litta

Whilst checking out the music videos from a recent BUG I found this little gem. It almost made me want to join a golf club........................almost. This song is excellent.

Lt Meat.

Great Odin's Raven!!!!! I like dogs............and I like skateboarding, but which is best?

Errrrrrrrrrr both I guess, there's no need to fight over it. This edit's crazy!

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Cowabunga dudes!

Phil Hackett - Allt-Yr-Yn Campus


www.steakrecords.com
www.YouTube.com/ltmeat

John Cardiel - Beefcore (featuring Lt Meat)

John Cardiel (Featuring Lt Meat) by Beefcore

I forgot how good this track, and Beefy himself is. The track was dedicated to John Cardiel after he tragically broke his back and was near enough paralysed from the waste down. John has made a legendary recovery and has even got back on his board..............

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Piano Composition

Piano Movement No.01 by Lt Meat

I was supposed to be recording some of my new country album today, but instead (as usual) I've been distracted and I've been playing piano for the last few hours instead. I can't really play piano, but I'm quite pleased with this live recording from earlier on. It was mostly improvised with some vague ideas of the chords from another song. I hope you like it.

I'm currently trying to get some old instrumental compositions spruced up to feature in a free library music index on a new section of Steak Records there's a lot of my old instrumentals on Sound Cloud if you're curious to have a listen or you just like instrumental music.

Over and out.

Lt Meat 

New Low Album 'C'Mon' Hitting Shelves very soon!

Low - Especially Me by subpop

I love this song, it's been on repeat in my mind since it appeared on Sound Cloud two weeks ago. I've heard the new Low album on an exclusive (but not really exclusive) album stream off 'The Guardian' website. It is immense, it sounds vast and limitless and to me, at least, seems to fit with these troubling and turbulent times. I've pre-ordered it, I haven't pre-ordered anything other than food items in restaurants/sandwich emporiums for the last ten years.

Pre-ordering is shit...................but sometimes it feels good.

Over and out.

Lt Meat

Dan Sartain's New Album!!!!!!?

Yes!



Dan Sartain, a young punk rock singer songwriter from Birmningham, Alabama, USA releases his new album 'Legacy of Hospitality' on One Little Indian records April 23rd and plays a gig in Bristol, Thekla on the 26th April. I shall be buying his album at that gig.

The artwork also looks very cool and suspiciously like a certain Rick Froberg's work. Rick is in the band Obits who've also just released a new album on Subpop. It's super good you kids should check it out.

I play a live cover of Dan's song 'The World Is Gonna Break Your Little Heart' from his second album 'Join Dan Sartain'. I'm a fan of his work and steal quite a lot of ideas from his records, so I'm really looking forward to this new release! Hopefully I can crib enough stuff to get my own album finished by summer.

I also play a gig on 25th April in Le Pub, Newport, when I'll be perfuming my Dan Sartain cover along with some of my own songs for your audible pleasures. It'd be nice to see you all there!

Over and out

Lt Meat

Mobile photo test

Lt Meat and his black dog getting inspired by the fresh country air in South Wales.

Actually, I was just out with Grim and Buster, we had a walk in the woods and a quality roast dinner a few Sundays ago.



Nice.

Lt Meat.

Location:Stow Park Cir,Gaer,United Kingdom

Greetings!

Follow THIS LINK to download Episode 01 of the Hungover Radio Podcast. Featuring music by The Jesus Lizard, White Rabbits, Radiohead, The National, Dan Sartain, Group Love, Enon, Brainiac, Melvins, Obits and lots more indie and alternative rock! Also check out My Old Blog! for demos of my own songs and links to music and films that I like or inspire me! I've defected to a Blogger account as of today!

Over and out.

Lt Meat