Heavy Repetition (Vol. 3)/2014: The Ominous Quarterly Review

The idea to this third instalment of Heavy Rep is pretty basic I’ll be honest but as we come to the end of the first quarter of 2014 it seems fairly relevant. Indeed, this post pretty much focusses on the year so far, 2014.

Its been a bit of a weird one so far for me to be honest. I’ve already found myself experiencing some rather sky-scraping highs and a few sunken lows that have gone on to leave me currently floating somewhere in-between.

It started on a high, I joined a well established band I genuinely thought were class and seemed to have hopped onto a mighty metaphorical train going somewhere great fast. Sadly though, t’was not meant to be and the band decided to call it a day. Currently me and a couple members of the band are working on a new project so all is definitely not lost, it was just a hard halt to the refreshing optimism I had for the former project. However Im sure the new stuff with this new project and another band I hope to be helping out on guitar will occupy my more creative side, as well as my personal aim to be writing more of my own material.

Workwise, things could be far worse but also feel a little stale. I’ve recently upped my hours which has left me feeling far more comfortable financially and my coworkers are some really nice people I’m glad to be in a team with. Personally though, I feel a little drained. Its a pretty hands on job in some respects, not too physically demanding, but enough to have you aching for rest before midnight. You get some astonishingly odd customers too, some I feel I could do without seeing regularly.

In a nutshell, the mishmash of positives and negatives have me feeling a little lost. Im not sure where my life is going really and seeing others living comfortable lives gets a bit frustrating. Then again, I desperately don’t want to feel like I have wasted these important years because I should be living it up and taking silly chances while I can! More than anything though, I don’t want to be a failure to myself or my loved ones and family. Sometimes I worry I won’t ever do enough to make either proud.

If theres two things that have been a constant rock for me though its been the people in my life (close friends, workmates, bandmates, family and most of all, my endlessly supportive girlfriend) and music. Indeed this year so far has already produced some quality listening material that has soundtracked the constant array of bus journeys I seem to find myself on.

So, after all that yammering on, how about some of 2014’s best tunes and albums…

Morgan Delt – Yes, California’s own Kevin Parker released an album. No, seriously, the comparison is an obvious one to make but Delt deserves a great deal of credit for his own merits. His brand of retro-futuristic psychedelic hermit pop on his self titled debut album is rather glorious to be honest and in some ways, a lot more exploratory than the work of his Australian doppelgänger.  Second track Barbarian Kings is a particularly enjoyable song, eerily menacing in verses that explode into a richly textured chorus with some floyd-esque vocal harmonies. Not everyones cup of tea I’m sure but certainly a golden chalice to myself.

Heavy Repetition (Vol. 2)

Yes, Volume 2, not week 2, I dropped the ball there I’m afraid! Nevertheless, here it is, the second instalment of Heavy Repetition, the feature where I yammer on about what music I’ve been listening to recently, new, old or anywhere in-between. Bit of a theme with the majority of songs I’m sure you’ll notice. Indeed I’ve been having a bit of a obsession with a particular group of Australian musicians and their friends (anyone who knows me will know, this happens a lot… ahem), mainly due to the fact me, m’lady and some friends are off to see Tame Impala this summer and my metaphorical underwear has been in quite a state since acquiring the tickets. So excuse me, let me indulge myself a little with this one.

AAA Aardvark Getdown Services – This one is a little strange perhaps, theres no particular song to reference purely because nobody knows what they are yet! The band being the latest project of Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker with friends Cam Avery (of Tame & Pond), Ben Witt and Cam Parkin. Indeed the video below is a live set recorded form Chevron Festival Gardens in Perth (AU), worth watching in entirety for some really interesting psychedelic dance pop (Personal favourite song can be witnessed at 14:28).

Do It Yourself… (A Modern Musician’s Gift/Curse)

Two electric guitars, a drum kit, a synthesizer, a bass guitar and an acoustic guitar, all covered in dust.

The modern musician is both gifted and cursed. Technology makes it incredibly easy to write songs, with the endless computer programs and apps, you more or less have a studio at your fingertips. Whats such a curse about that you may wonder? Well for me, its the fact that all the simplicity involved in writing songs is gone. Instead of working alone with a guitar and figuring out the parts by ear, your computer makes that part effortless. You can write a full song structure in half an hour. What comes next is the hard part, adding layers to make it sound great. Some people find it easy, but for someone who feels a bit stuck in an uncreative rut, its more than difficult.

Indeed, as someone who describes themselves as an all-round musician, I don’t ever really seem to play much anymore. Hours and hours were spent in my teenage years, slaving over all of these instruments, gritting my teeth as blisters began to cover my hands. I got pretty good, at all of them to be honest. Drums, my first love, came so naturally it was scary and guitar, took a while but soon had me nailing Johnny Marr and Peter Buck riffs. I wrote songs all the time. Then it all went silent.

Having recently joined a band on drums, I’ve felt my creative juices opening up a little more, giving me the itch to make all kinds of songs. The thing is, with all the options available thanks to multiple instruments and computer programs, I don’t have a clue where to start.

Obviously the capabilities aren’t endless, I’m not going to some Radioheading-Flaming-Lipper any time soon but my options are quite wide. This doesn’t really help when you listen to a lot of music, as I do, because the many different sounds get pretty stuck in your head often influencing songs in a direction you perhaps didn’t want them to take. Last year I rewrote the same song over and over, once shoegaze sounding, the next 60s psychedelia influenced until it ended up in a massive noisy Sabbathy mess. None of the versions sounded particularly good, and I realised recently listening back, it was because I was trying to make it into something it quite clearly wasn’t.

Therefore, I vow to take a simpler approach with my songwriting and I’ve compiled a few constructive objectives for myself in case I lose the spark again:

• Finish the bloody song on what you started it on before adding anything else doofus (IMPORTANT).
• If it sounds good stripped down and adding things doesn’t work, keep it stripped down.
• Dont pigeonhole yourself into one genre (something I am very guilty of).
• Have some fun with it! You love playing, don’t spoil it by getting serious.
• Let other people listen/give opinions.
• Get other musicians involved, hit record and make some noise.
• Stop telling yourself everything you write is garbage! Its not (that much).

To add a little more substance to this brain fart of a post I thought I’d add some of my favourite DIY/lo-fi/stripped production songs (both simple and complicated) in a playlist that I hope to draw some influence from in the coming weeks. Wish me luck.

P.S. Thanks to those of you who have liked the Male Feminist post, its really refreshing to know people are in agreement!

“But You’re Not A Girl…” (The Trials & Tribulations Of Male Feminism)

If theres one thing I can tell you about male feminism, its that its rarely understood. In a world where the ‘F word’ is that of much controversy within a woman’s world alone, its an even stranger case when being male. Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, if you did not know, I do (and have done so for some years) consider myself a feminist.

Yes, I know, thats a bit unusual. I’ve known that for a while and have encountered some rather bewildered (and often worrying) responses to my declaration.

First of all, guys who for whatever reason seem to think that the concept of male feminism is impossible. Yes, I am aware I am not female and no, I am not gay (not that it would make any difference if I was, I mean think about it genius). I just believe that everyone should be given an equal stead in life, regardless of skin colour, heritage, wealth, sexuality or indeed gender. That latter part is literally what being a feminist is about.

Not that it is just guys who challenge my opinion, I’ve often had comments from girls who seem to think I use feminism to provoke attention. In many cases I have been accused of lying so girls will want to sleep with me when in fact I would be safe to say it has altered many girls’ judgement of me. Thankfully my rather rad girlfriend is a feminist and the talks we have had regarding feminism have served to only make our relationship stronger in knowing we support and agree with one another.

There are then those of both gender who say I can support feminism but I can’t be a feminist because I am not a woman. I disagree, in my opinion as long as someone has an invested interest in a cause they are free to join it as they please.

Anyway, my point here isn’t that being a male feminist is hard, its complicated sure, but not that hard. Any grief that comes my way I have learnt to brush off as straight up ignorance and as a white male with a long term girlfriend and a job, I am far from suffering. My point is, why does is it have to be such a weird thing?

A few months ago I admitted to a rather blokey friend of mine that I was a feminist and did not always feel comfortable about the way many men talk about women in casual ‘banter’. I am not a prude by any means (I admittedly often enjoy laughing at others, male or female) but in particular, when a ‘joke’ puts a woman in a vulnerable or derogatory light, I won’t laugh and its often noticed.

Anyway this friend of mine, whilst seemingly understanding, obviously did not agree with me and made a remark suggesting I was somehow less of a man. I can tell you now, I am a man, I am just not a lad.

Indeed the stigma of not being a lad is difficult in male dominated culture, especially in Britain. In a time in which my generation find themselves encouraged to act like idiots, proving their ‘manliness’ with drink, sport and namely sex, often ending in the hideous mistreatment of girls, I find myself quite disgusted. I know, I am not the only male who thinks like this, but I am the only man I know to call themselves a feminist. Why??

There is a grim stain across the popular habits of my generation; full of sexism, racism, homophobia and general prejudice that just ends up being tolerated as innocent ‘banter’. In terms of sexism, lad culture continues to make a mockery of women purely relating to the expectations set by a misogynistic world. As long as this kind of behaviour continues, the basic human freedoms of getting jobs, having opinions, as well as more trivial acts of wearing what you like and walking down the street are tarnished.

I believe in feminism just as I believe in racial and sexual equality, and the more people who take the time to support equality vocally the better. Woman or man, if you believe in equal opportunity, you need to show it and support the cause without worry. For the guys in particular, as tempting as it may be to join in with banter, if you know its wrong, take pride in your reason and don’t laugh, you know you’re smarter than that. Theres no need to be ashamed when you’re doing whats right. Don’t be a lad, be a man.

If you fancy reading more about male views on feminism take a look at this Guardian article here, a truly insightful piece from another likeminded believer of equality that actually influenced the writing of this post: gu.com/p/3mea4/tw

(A tiny apology for the lack of posts, will try and write more!)

Heavy Repetition (Week 1)

I know, I know, I did say I was gonna write about everything and not just music and yes, I intend to! Even so, I remain an avid and somewhat obsessive listener of music and writing about and sharing the music I love is something I certainly didn’t do enough on previous blog efforts.

So, introducing, Heavy Repetition, a weekly feature in which I talk about music that has been wondering through the foothills of my brain for whatever reason. I have chosen not to limit myself to any particular kind of music or release date, this is purely whatever I have been listening to recently, though in this weeks case, the reasons have all been relevant to this week.

Just three short picks this week, but enjoy :

God Damn – Heavy Money

So some brilliant news this week has been somewhat local to me. Black Country powerhouse duo God Damn have signed a record deal with One Little Indian records! For music fans in and around Birmingham, this is massive news for a band who’ve had a couple years of extreme highs (releasing a full albums worth of material) to devastating lows (now part-time guitarist Dave Copson suffering life threatening injuries from a road accident). There couldn’t be a more deserving group in the Midlands, not only for their determination and hard graft, but for the top-notch grunge tinged stoner rock these guys produce. Taken from their EP of the same name, Heavy Money is a rollocking track of thundering drum fills of beast Ash Weaver, cavernous guitar riffs and howling vocals from beardy frontman Thom Edward that shall definitely remain a staple in their back catalogue for years to come. Playing at The Sunflower in Birmingham with Wytches on the 27th of this month, if you’re in town, be there.

Slowdive – Machine Gun

Yes yes yes, shoegazers across the globe celebrated this week as 90s dream pop legends Slowdive announced their long awaited reunion on Tuesday of this week. After the 19 year silence that followed their final album Pygmalion, the noise making quintet took to twitter to announce shows in Barcelona (Primavera 2014) and London this year, whilst hinting at the possibility of recording  more material in the near future. As any fan of the band will tell you, the bands second album Souvlaki is considered a masterpiece of it’s genre with tracks like Alison, Souvlaki Space Station and Here She Comes becoming classics. Its the second track Machine Gun however that has always been a fond favourite of mine, with a mesmerisingly vast landscape of dreamy guitars, echoing drums, swirling noise and glorious harmonies from the formidable singing duo Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead. Its one of those songs that could simultaneously soundtrack the most euphoric or quiet moments in life whether heavily intoxicated or silently sober. Welcome back Slowdive, its been too long.

David Bowie – Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

If theres two things my dad and I have in common, its a love for great films and David Bowie. Last weekend, we sat down to watch the Quetin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds, a blood fuelled romp based in Nazi occupied France in the 1940s. One of my favourite films, I had been pestering my dad to watch it, especially since he had introduced me earlier in life to the Tarantino classics Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Needless to say, he loved it and a welcoming surprise was the inclusion of David Bowie on the stellar soundtrack. Indeed as the poignant scene where revenge seeking Jewish girl Shosanna Dreyfus prepares to (SPOILER ALERT) burn down a cinema containing the Nazi high command, sees Bowie screaming the significant line “And I’ll be putting out fire, with gasoline”. The silent nod of approval my dad gave at this moment says it all, classic.

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New Beginnings (Welcome To Shame Chamber)

Hello thar,

Whether you’re a friend, acquaintance or somebody who has happened to stumble across this site, welcome! This is Shame Chamber, a personal blog I have decided to start for my own sad sheer pleasure, in which I will be writing about… well… whatever.

First things first, let me introduce myself for anyone who may not know me. My name is Huw Woodward, I’m a 22 year old fella living in the West Midlands of England. In terms of an actual profession, I am a Customer Service Team Member at a tool store. In terms of my self professed profession, I consider myself a musician and writer. Whilst yet to see a single penny from either role, I adore playing/performing music and writing articles from music reviews to opinionated features to the point where I want to carry on with both, regardless of income.

The musician part has been recently fulfilled with myself taking the role of drummer in a band (more info to come on that in future), however after quitting a music website I had been writing for (as well as my current music blog the-go-slow.blogspot.com growing a bit stale), I felt I needed a new writing outlet and furthermore, one that had no limitations on what I could post on a site like wordpress, where artistic levity is far more encouraged. Thus, Shame Chamber is born.

Anyways, I’m sure you all get the gist of how this blog will work… yeah, pretty randomly. I do aim to post fairly regularly and encourage any comments or opinions from any readers, whether its a thumbs up of agreement or a snarling retort to something you don’t see fit. Thats pretty much all there is to say at this point so read on and enjoy or don’t and piss off.

(Btw if anybody is wondering about the name, its a Kurt Vile song I took a particular liking to, I probably won’t be posting any shameful self deprecating stories… much.)

HW