Old Canon FD Lenses!

So I stumbled across this video of a very enthusiastic American chap who raved about buying dirt cheap Canon FD lenses and then, with the help of an adapter, using them on a modern day Canon EOS DSLR. As he says in the video; although these lenses are manual focus only, they are perfect for filming with a DSLR and their build quality is second to none. And to top everything off the price of these lenses is immensely low! I picked up the following from ebay, all in excellent condition:

Vivitar 28mm 2.8 FD fit - £19

Canon FD 35mm 3.5 - £20

Canon FD 50mm 1.8 - £15

The fotodiox adapter (which I'm still waiting to arrive because it's being sent from America - doh!) costs £30 and enables me to use all manner of old Canon lenses. 

The current Canon 35mm is £240 and the 28mm is £150. The 50mm 1.8 is actually pretty cheap, retailing at about £70, but it is about as rugged as a pair of paper swimming trunks. So to get 3 very good quality lenses to knock about with for under £100 is a pretty sweet deal! Cannot wait for the adapter to arrive so I can start messing around - will definitely post up some sort of filmic creation to show off what they can do. 

The King of Limbs

In Rainbows was always going to be a tough act to follow and having heard 2009's 'These Are My Twisted Words' I suppose I was worried that Radiohead's new offering was going to be a cluster of airy songs that rumbled along with no distinct melody or chorus. Click on Read More to see what I think of 'King of Limbs.'

Little Update

Air's 'Mer Du Japon' - dead simple bass and piano that builds rather pleasingly



I've listened through Radiohead's King of Limbs numerous times and have made some notes, review nearly finished but can't bring myself to listen through the album again :S Soon.. soon.

POTTOKA!

I have found my calling! The Bayonne rugby team mascot is known as Pottoka - after the 'Pottok' ponies that inhabit Bayonne. This guy was literally going nuts at the Harlequins vs Bayonne match and it just makes we wanna get in a big ol' suit and tumble around for 80 minutes. Click Read more to see some videos of the crazy mascot horsing about.

Gnarls Barkley - Reckoner

Came upon this really tight cover of one of the best songs from Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' - damn can the big man sing and damn can DangerMouse play that tambourine. Nice to see a live video taken at the Astoria, real shame that the only perfect-sized venue in London is now gone.

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of The Soul

Right so I dug up the ol' unfinished review, had a glance through it and it kinda says what I want it to say so what the heck without me tweaking it and making it all nice, so click on Read More to see the whole thang.

Having co-helmed Gorillaz' 'Demon Days' album; produced 'The Good the Bad and the Queen' as well as taking a bigger-than-producer role in his new outfit 'Broken Bells,' the well-developed 'Dark Night of The Soul' project seems only a natural progression from these previous creative outlets.

Through the legs BEAUTY!

Brilliant!



Cheers RugbyDump.com

ROME

It looks as if Danger Mouse is going to take us on another musical voyage with his latest collaborative album - Rome. DM has already worked with Daniele Luppi before on numerous projects including; Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere, Broken Bell's debut and the recent epic Dark Night of The Soul. Though Luppi acted primarily as the arranger of strings and various other orchestral accompaniments, he is now very much shoulder to shoulder with DM at the helm of this exciting new project.

Roping in the likes of Jack White and Norah Jones to lend their unique vocal talents, this album promises to be another classic to add to Danger Mouse's encyclopaedic arsenal.

They won't let me embed the SoundCloud player but click HERE to have a listen to the album sampler. I'm liking what I'm hearing, very acoustic, very western, very romantic - they've even managed to make Norah Jones sound like Morcheeba.

Rome Album Website

On the subject of Danger Mouse, I'm still yet to post up my extensive review of Dark Night of The Soul. Expect it in the next 5 days.

Wed-nes-day

A couple of tunes I've been listening to recently - a lovely Supergrass track from their 1997 album 'In It For The Money' and a Kula Shaker song from their new and frustratingly under-exposed new album.



Gotta love it from 1:35 onwards with those clunky ivories and that lovely positive refrain.



This isn't Kula Shaker's best work by any means, but it's a great little ditty that returns us to that wonderfully simple Beatles-esque world where love reins supreme.

Couple of Tunes

Randomly came across this cover of 'You Got The Love' by good ol' Crazy P. It's pretty tame until 3:14 and from then on it really kicks off



Continuing my unintentional theme of repetitive funk tunes, here's a nice lil' congregation of clavs and guitars.

The Music - RIP?

So in the last month it was announced on 'The Music's' facebook page that the band has split up because the lead singer decided he wanted to leave. It's a real shame because these incredibly young and talented guys burst onto the music scene (no pun intended, they have a stupid name) in 2002 - as debut albums go it's fantastic, a real mixture of dance-rock and psychedelica and Rob Harvey's voice is simply spectacular. Two years later they released the equally brilliant 'Welcome the North' before going on 2 year hiatus due to Rob Harvey's various drug/alcohol addictions. I thought that I'd never hear from those guys again which sucked tremendously hard because I had never got a chance to see them live. But in 2008 they re-appeared with the energetic 'Strength in Numbers' which was produced by industry heavy-weights Mark Ellis and Paul Hartnoll. It was a lot more electronic than their previous offerings but it was just so refreshing to hear some new material with Rob's voice stamped all over it.
I was lucky enough to see them live at the Camden Roundhouse and it was a tremendous gig - those guys have so much energy and the venue was quite clearly rammed full of people who adored their music. The Music really should have changed their manager eons ago because they are not nearly as big as they should be.

Anyway, fast forward another couple of years and here we are with the band split up and Rob Harvey is now apparently working with The Streets :S

Click on Read More to see a mere sprinkling of live videos that, although awesome, only go some way to highlighting the talent and character that these boys have. Oh and also to have a depressing insight into what Rob Harvey is currently wasting his vocal talent on.

Monarchy

Heard about these guys back in November of '09 when BIGSTEREO posted a demo of 'Black, the Colour of My Heart.' That song is brilliant; the thumping choral backing contrasted with the underproduced vocals, blending sinister verses with the uplifting piano-driven chorus. On the basis of that song alone I popped along to see them play the Rock&Roll tent at last year's Bestival. Having convinced a couple of friends to come along on the promise of great things we were greeted by four masked men in suits with matching see-thru guitars. Not what I expected at all, but the show was awesome and they were very well received by the modestly-sized crowd. They certainly took themselves seriously and roared through their set like absolute pros.

I'm seeing them in 4 days at the Jazz Cafe in Camden so I thought I'd dig up a review of their album that I never finished. Click Read More to have a look.

Drop Out Orchestra

Purveyors of pool-side summer funk and the brains behind the 2009 super-track Gibbon, Drop Out Orchestra are going to be a name to watch out for this summer.

Oh and keep an eye on this blog because I'll be posting up a review of Monarchy's debut album tomorrow!



Drop Out Orchestra - Winter Mix Session 2010 by Drop Out Orchestra