Cynical Music

I rarely feel compelled to spit abuse at any artist. It can so easily come off sounding like jealousy or sour grapes. I used to dabble in music myself. But that isn’t it.

I don’t want what Mumford & Sons (the case in point here) have managed to accrue. Its the way that they seem to have coldly calculated their image; that of a working class, salt-of-the-earth, wagon-hopping troupe of bards, with timeless tales to tell. All construct. Heavy on the bullsh*t. All about waiting, and hoping, and beating their fists on their chests to say… NOTHING. They’re pulling it off too. Millions have been sucked in to the spell. And what do they actually produce? Gigantic, repetitive, empty musical statements. Empty cans making the most noise. Cynicism in music is one of the things that really gets my back up, and these so-called dandy fops absolutely reek off it. I don’t mean writing about cynical emotions – thats important, and its got its place. What I mean is that Mumford & Sons stink of affectation, and it kinda disgusts me. If I’d spent my life as a jobbing folk musician I’d be really pissed at the way these guys use their faux folk music (bells… check, banjo… check, stomping feet… check) as a tool to swindle hard earned cash out of kids pocket. I hope the antique shop they probably pretend to write their music in goes out of business.

As I touched on before, I rarely get vitriolic online. Its all too common, and largely pointless. I mean, who gives a flying f_ck about my blog. Mumford & Sons ubiquity made me do it. Watching a band in Brussels one night, a friend nailed it when he leaned to me and said "I don’t believe them". There’s loads of bands I don’t particularly like… but its the ones that aren’t honestly invested in their art that I have a problem with.

Domain switch

I’m in the process of switching this site back to the basic address of www.gordonbeveridge.blogspot.co.uk at which time my portfolio site will become www.gordonbeveridge.com. These things are boring, but important! Plus, messing around with DNS settings gives me the kind of sweats that only a bomb disposal team could relate to.

‘Hundreds Of Ways’ – Palace Ballet

'Hundreds Of Ways' is the final recording you will hear from Palace Ballet. Although we never officially split the band up, you can interpret our two year hiatus as more or less the same thing. We cut it in the same sessions as 'Gabriel' and 'City of Lights' (5th/6th November 2009), with Marshall Craigmyle behind the desk at Old Mill Studios. Personally, this is my favourite song that we ever finished. Is it because we all sang on this song? It’s probably the other Gordon’s guitar on the bridge. Perhaps its because I didn’t initiate the song in the beginning? Scobie had some beautiful guitar lines and voicings that I built chords and a melody around. As a band we worked on the arrangement for months. It probably took about a year of re-writes until I was happy with the words. I think we nailed the music in a single take, which was a hard thing for our fussy little band to do (there’s usually the feeling that you can go one better). I was gonna go back and re-cut the main vocal, but the dust settled on the whole Palace Ballet experience. If you have 'Gabriel' and 'City Of Lights' already, then download this and stick them together. They belong together.

Listen to 'Hundreds of Ways'

I guess if I’m sticking this up, then here’s…
'Gabriel'
'City of Lights'

Prosite

So, I’ve nearly put the finishing touches on bringing my portfolio site. Enough to preview it, at least. The platform I’m using – Behance’s Prosite – is not without its frustrations, but the site DOES lend itself to a decent degree of customisation.

Portfolio

I’ve finally completed a long-overdue update of my portfolio. Now the big part is done, I’m going to need a few more weeks until I can cover all platforms. Also, stripped back my Behance account to make way for a huge update, at which point I’m considering switching to Behance’s ProSite. Seems like a really solid, versatile and affordable platform to rely on for my primary site. I’m on it! Anyway, its good to be feeling on top of what can feel like an insurmountable project. I’d let the moss grow all over my folio. Also, glad to get this out of the way before next month’s Coachella adventure. Come to think of it, there must be design studios in Palm Springs? So, in the meantime here are some samples. Watch this space. Yes… this time I mean it.

Dookielele

I’ll hold off on the serious site updates a bit more. Here’s something entirely different. A few weeks ago I had a bit of a nostalgia trip with Green Day’s 'Dookie'. When I was 15 years old I knew the album inside-out and thought these were the best songs in the universe. That opinion may have changed slightly over time, but when I chucked the CD back on I was struck by how simple yet powerful the songs still are. I decided to strip them right back and see what they would sound like if I just bashed them out on the ukelele and sang along. I think they work.

I’ve only had time to stick down five of the old favourite tunes. If anyone out there digs this, give me a shout and I’ll perhaps get around to completing the album someday in the near future. Enjoy:
Burnout
Welcome To Paradise
She
Coming Clean
Emenius Sleepus
Download all of 'Dookielele' here

Finally…

…got round to executing this idea. A hand-stamp business card design to represent my recent "re-brand". Found the recycled card on Etsy, and Custom Stamps online built the stamp for me. Awwww… now I want a letterpress one.

The Fleet

I’ve just finished this logo design for new Scottish band, The Fleet.

Progress

Photography. I’m doing a lot of it right now. Photographing work, past and present, freelance, agency… and I’m getting there.






I designed some of the projects shown above at Traffic Design Consultants

Baby Jane song 'Look Up'

A few months ago, I rediscovered some old recordings of a great band from Glasgow. Their name was Baby Jane, they sadly aren’t around anymore. I think their myspace still stands (no music on it though). They were a truly great band, fronted by a most gifted songwriter. In light of this, I decided to record my own scuzzy version of their song 'Look Up' which as far as I know was written by their lead singer JB Nelson. Wherever the rhythm monster Mr Fisher is in the cosmos… I hope he appreciates this. Enjoy.

Listen to 'Look Up'

Dot Com

I am now transmitting from www.gordonbeveridge.com …although my understanding of Domain Management is so dreadful that I’m expecting some teething problems as I get to grips with it. Now that I have a nice shiny new URL, I’m going to spend the next few weeks getting the site looking a bit more filled out with my work.

Soul Train Poster

Federation of the Disco Pimp would appear to have me on the payroll these days. This is the poster I’ve just created for their Easter Sunday show at The Admiral with Ray Harris and The Fusion Experience. A pleasure, once again, to work with the funkiest freaks in town. Oh, and I’m contractually obliged to say that Craig Charles (BBC 6Music) is their new biggest fan.

FOTDP Tees

This tee design (and its counterpart 'black' tee) are currently under production and will be available at future FOTDP shows. I’m pretty psyched about these and am definitely gonna get my hands on one.

Federation Of The Disco Pimp – Collected Works

Friends and funksters FOTDP have brought their EP and recent single together for what is gonna be a total treat to anyone who picks up a copy at their upcoming shows. I’m also in the process of designing some tees and a webpage for them. Keep ’em peeled.

New music for your earholes

Well it’s true I’ve been off and on with music over the last years. So many projects in the air, that I’ve run out of hands and time. But I’m committed to pulling my most coherent works of recent times over the finish line, in an all-new body of work which I hope will be an appropriate progression from 2009’s 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. Here is a sample of some future sonic treats in the shape of two tracks:

1. Jazzzeppelin
2. Three Years

UPDATE: I think I have settled on the perfect title. Queue drumroll… My next collection of songs will be (probably) titled 'The Hidden Pleasures Of Worry'. I’ve not checked to see whether or not this is already a hit album’s title that I should probably know about. It does, quite succinctly, sum up just about everything that I’ve written about over the last decade.

Park Circus Photography

MOME – Stereo, Dec 2010

FOTDP – 'Gimme Some Light'

Design and artwork for the forthcoming second release from Federation Of The Disco Pimp. Coming to a sweaty funk club near you.

Astro Productions logo

A new logo for wedding videography company, Astro Productions.

Traffic Prints

These are the first two of a series of prints planned for our office at Traffic where we explore the various connotations of the word Traffic ('Air' traffic and 'Road' traffic being the case in point here). The royalty free images were sourced online and from old books and illustrations. The final digital prints measured about one metre wide.