Who Do You Think You Are - Cordell S

This is Cordell S on Halloween. I'm pretty sure he does Halloween better than you. Say hi!

In only two weeks, Wednesday has become my favourite day of the week. Why? Because I get to read about your musical opinions! "What's the go?" you ask. Each week, we send out some music related questions to one of our Facebook likers so we can take a look at someone else's perspectives on the music they like, don't like... and beyond. Look, I'm not really sure what 'beyond' is, but is sounds dramatic. Deal with it. Today we're talking to Cordell S and he's provided us with some fantastic answers about his favourite gigs, who he'd have on his dream festival line-up, his favourite music videos and more! Enjoy your read and don't forget, you could be next!

CORDELL S.

Q. What's your favourite gig or festival experience?

Cordell: Atari Teenage Riot played what was the Chelsea, in the Valley in Brisbane, sometime in the late 90s. I went to see another band called Sound Surgery, a local Brisbane band and I went on a whim not knowing that they were just the support act for Atari Teenage Riot. Sound Surgery were alright, but ATR were incredible, awesome, amazing, one of those life changing moments literally, you know, where your eyes are opened up, you didn’t know something like this existed before then. At the time, I didn’t know music could sound like that. It was noisy, sweaty, aggressive, and loud. There was a moment where the lead singer Hanin Elias, smashed her own mouth with the microphone, by accident, then, bleeding from her lip, wiped her face and rubbed the blood all over a bald guy’s head in the front row. He was so excited about it; he loved every minute of it. I seem to remember the colour blue, the whole show was blue, all the lighting, the strobe effects, it was all black lights and blue. The other gig I loved was seeing Jane's Addiction at Splendour In the Grass last year. We had rushed from Regina Spektor to try and catch some of Jane's, but managed to see the whole thing. Just as we arrived at the front, the curtains fell and there were Jane's and some girls, suspended from fish hooks through their backs, swinging above the stage. Although the crowd was disappointingly small it was fun, energetic and everybody who wanted to be there was there, no posers, no hanger-ons, just pure Jane's Addiction fans loving every minute of it.


Q. What is one of your favourite music videos and why?

Cordell: This is a really hard question because there’s a lot of videos I love and a lot of directors of music clips I love. I love Aphex Twins' ‘Window Licker’ and ‘Come To Daddy’ because they’re creepy. I love Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller’ because it was so cutting edge at the time. I love the live edit version of Daft Punk’s ‘Harder Faster Better Stronger’ because of the energy it portrays. I like a lot of Gorillaz clips because I like the artist Jamie Hewlett’s animation style. I remember loving Smoke City's ‘Underwater Love’ when I first saw it because it was the first time I’d seen ‘bullet time’ filming in use, before The Matrix, which used it so much, was released. Anything Chris Cunningham has directed is brilliant so that includes many artists; Radiohead, Bjork, Madonna, The Horrors. Michel Gondry is another director I love, so many clips he’s directed are awesome; The Vines, Radiohead, Beck, The White Stripes, Daft Punk but I’m going to choose The Chemical Brothers, ‘Star Guitar’ as one of my very favourites. Every beat in the song matches a part of the clip, it’s so well put together and once you realise every movement in the clip matches a beat of the song you can watch it over and over and still get something new from it. Awesome.

Q. What's the first album you ever bought?


Cordell: Music for me wasn’t always something you bought, it was something you shared. When you couldn’t afford it, if you liked something, someone you knew would give you a copy of it. The first album I actually remember physically buying was the Pixies' Trompe Le Monde, which was their last album before they broke up, until they got back together again more recently. It doesn’t have many crowd favourites on it, but I really liked it. Having recently got my first turntable, the first actual album I bought, as in, an actual big black record with a groove, played with a needle was The Black Keys' El Camino. I really like that too.

Q. Who would you have play at your dream festival?

Cordell: I’ve never seen them before, so I’d love to see Madness. They’d definitely play. They’d be the old school headliner. I’d like a time machine to transport the Sex Pistols from back in the day. Daft Punk definitely and they’d headline the dance stage. Fitz and the Tantrums were great at Splendour last year, so I’ll have them play. Mariachi El Bronx get a 3 o’clock gig and the Horrors just after that. I’ve never seen the Black Keys, so they can have the dusk timeslot. I’d give M.I.A. a spot, about 6-ish so that after that I’d have time to grab a hot dog and a beer before Sleigh Bells, they’d be fun. KRS-one will get a spot, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs need a stage and Screamin Jay Hawkins, he could have an early timeslot, but would have to be in a smokey closed off dark tent, he wouldn’t be right in full daylight. Garbage, they can be on the bill, especially since they need to promote their new album. Nirvana, let’s take them as well, give Kurt another chance. Amongst all of that, I’d put someone like Justin Beiber (....or insert boring pop star here) on the other stages in between all my picks so my favourite acts wouldn’t clash and I’d get to see everyone I loved, all day.

Q. What music are you listening to at the moment?

Cordell: Lately, a lot of northern soul, so that’s Motown and Motown inspired music from the late 60’s that weren’t well known in the U.S., but were picked up by British mods. People like Gloria Jones, The Cordells (of course I have to like them), Jason Knight, Father’s Angels, The Trammps; people no one has really heard of but they’re awesome. Madness is a constant, always a standby in my collection. From this century, lately I’ve been listening to Sleigh Bells, but most recently Sweet Sour from Band Of Skulls, they’re great, I'm really liking them right now.


Thanks so much to Cordell for your incredible answers... and a massive thanks to Cordell as well for all the hard work he put into creating our shiny new logo! Now, all I'm going to say is, I would definitely be going to Cordell-fest, should it happen. What about you?