Around this time last week I received another piece of bad news music wise. This Et Al split up, due to irreconcilable differences within the band if I remember correctly. It seemed more personal than musical, which at least makes more sense. Still it was very disturbing news, This Et Al are very, very good. Not only are they very good, but they had just released an excellent EP in The Figure Eight EP and were talking about a forthcoming album. One can only assume any forthcoming album would have been awesome as both their debut and the more recent EP were impeccable. Still I guess there is nothing you can do but celebrate the good music they did make and move on.
Fortunately I managed to catch This Et Al live, once. This was at the Leeds ¡Forward, Russia! gig before FR went off to record Life Processes. I would’ve been genuinely annoyed had I never caught them live, because they were excellent even as a support act. The Loveliest Alarm, already transfixing on record, was amazing live. In The Loveliest Alarm and Cabin Hum This Et Al conjured two of the most beautiful songs in recent times, while the rest of their debut was largely brutal (in a good way), The Figure Eight EP showed more offerings from the delicate side of the band. Hopefully these loose ends will be followed up in any forthcoming new projects.
Coming off the back of Shut Your Eyes And You’ll Burst Into Flames splitting up I can’t help but feel a large hole is starting to develop in my favourite music. Two excellent bands and the very good I Was A Cub Scout as well, not one of them will be producing any more music. I guess it’s at times like this you can be thankful that so much new music, from so many new bands, comes along every year.
Anyway, for now enjoy some This Et Al. There is some talk of a b-sides and rarities CD, hopefully that will come to fruition.
I was just walking down a corridor and heard a sound that took me back. Coming out of one of the rooms on the corridor were the somehow harsh, yet soft strains of a dot matrix printer. It’s probably incredibly sad, but this made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Yes, I am that much of a geek.
I wonder why on earth anybody round here had a dot matrix printer they were still using though?
That will be all.
Yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix was a truly excellent race. Coming off the back of an exciting race in Monaco, it was hard to believe that Canada could match up but it more than managed to. The race had a fairly sedate start, though the track conditions were certainly giving all of the drivers a run for their money. Particularly the hairpin which had been breaking up during qualifying, meaning a protective resin had to be applied to the tarmac before the race. During the early laps, and indeed the whole race, drivers could be seen getting into huge slides coming out of the hairpin. It truly was a fascinating sight and we have to be thankful that traction control is no longer around to handle these situations for the drivers. Anyway, as I was saying, the race had a fairly sedate pace until Sutil managed to spin bringing out the safety car. This saw all of the leaders coming into the pitlane, once the pitlane had been opened, with Hamilton spending more time in his pitbox than both Raikkonen and Kubica meaning he was coming out behind the pair of drivers. Raikkonen and Kubica both spotted the red light at the end of the pitlane and accordingly came to a stop. Hamilton, and it has to be said Rosberg too, failed to see the red light. Hamilton ran straight into the back of Raikkonen immediately ending both their races, Rosberg slid straight into the back of Hamilton straight after.
So why is Raikkonen my hero you ask? The way in which he dealt with this cruel blow was amazing. Instead of getting angry, he just tapped Hamilton on the shoulder and pointed at him; before walking off. That you could see Hamilton cringing under his overalls and through his helmet probably tells you how embarrassed he felt about the situation. What of Kubica then? He was merely inches away while this incident took place, indeed it is miraculous that neither Hamilton nor Rosberg chose the BMW to slide into the back of. Kubica patiently waited for the green light and got back on with his race.
And what a race it was. Initially his BMW team-mate Heidfeld was instructed to let Kubica through, the only sensible choice given the different strategies the two drivers were on. Kubica was still stuck behind a number of slower cars however and had to wait for his opportunity to put the hammer down. He did this successfully, pulling out enough of a lead to re-join the race in front of his team-mate and continue onwards to the chequered flag. It was a thoroughly deserved race win for the pole, both his first and the team’s. Heidfeld was clearly upset, indeed I suspect he thinks he was asked to give up his race win by the team and it would surely have been a deserved race win whichever of the BMW drivers had got it. I hope Heidfeld’s first win is not long coming now.
Finally it is also hard to ignore the performance of David Coulthard, who managed to come through from 13th on the grid to take 3rd place in his Red Bull. Coulthard has had a tough year and it’s hard not to feel pleased for him. Additionally Felipe Massa deserves a mention for his obscene overtaking maneuver on Kovalainen and Barichello at the hairpin. Best overtake of the day by quite a long margin.
So, Shut Your Eyes And You’ll Burst Into Flames have split up. Honestly this was quite upsetting for me; I had been hoping for an album from them this year. Being truly honest I had hoped for an album from them last year, so the realisation that they would never release an album was not a pleasant one. This is afterall the band whose b-side I Will Meditate And Then I Will Destroy You won my award for song of the year in 2006. A fact made all the more astonishing when you consider that 2006 featured the release of ¡Forward, Russia!’s debut album.
Still, it’s best not to dwell on the downsides I guess. Really I should be happy they existed at all. There will be other projects from band members, that much has been confirmed, and there has been talk of the last few songs they recorded being released. This includes Airwolf, which is currently available to listen to on their myspace page. It’s a rather good song and you can also find I Will Meditate And I Will Destroy You there, if you are curious. There area few other top notch songs there and I will be continuing to listen to them and the other songs of theirs I have for quite some time to come. I’ll also be wearing my SYEAYBIF t-shirt, which will probably generate even more strange looks than before.
To an excellent band, I hope to hear more from members of SYEAYBIF in years to come.