I Taught Myself How to Grow Old

The Saints are Coming

2011-04-22T20:45:00.000+01:00

I am not a great fan of the pod shuffle. I usually have an idea of what might suit me on the 30 minutes to work. Hangover, cold, heat, stress, hunger, whatever it is, it is not taken into consideration by the pod. The pod offering up some 13 minute drone rock on a bright summer morning is not what I'm after. Despite this, the pod came up absolute trumps the other morning by offering up the original The Saints are Coming by The Skids. It's a remarkably accomplished song.

Stuart Adamson, who went on to form Big Country, would have been only 20 when they released it. Singer Richard Jobson went on to form the rubbish Armoury Show and released all sorts of spoken and written words, went on the telly then made films. It's hard to see how Jobson plus members of Magazine could have failed, but it wasn't great. Magazine, in parts, were.

The Skids got back together again in 2007 to commemorate their 30th anniversary and as a tribute to Stuart Adamson who took his own life in 2001, aged only 43. Here's another tribute from an admirer.

For the T in the Park 2007 gig the reformed Skids were joined by Bruce Watson of Big Country. The Scotsman had this to say of the performance

"This is a sad day - it's closure - but a great day, too," he said, flashing his big letterbox grin for the last time. Jobson often says the band in their heyday never got the credit they deserved. Well, let the records show that yesterday The Skids were brilliant. Betrothed and divine, in fact"

I tend to agree. Judge for yourself.

Song Challenge - A Song that Reminds me of Playing 78's in my Grandparents Front Room

2011-04-22T16:53:00.000+01:00

Song Challenge - A Song that Reminds me of a CD I Lost

2011-03-30T01:22:00.000+01:00

Don't let the haircut put you off (his, not mine). An odd video for a majestic song. I fear that Wikipedia might be doing harm to their legacy as when I put 'Walker Brothers' into the search to check the year the song was released it told me "Walker Brothers is a series of pancake houses in the Chicago area". 1966 by the way. My CD resides with an ex girlfriend, although I guess it may not have survived.

Song Challenge - A Song that Reminds me of Birmingham Powerhouse sometime in the Mid 80's

2011-03-30T01:09:00.000+01:00

As part of an irregular series based on the Facebook Song Challenge here is A Song that Reminds me of Birmingham Powerhouse sometime in the Mid 80's. The Powerhouse was just off one of the inner ringroads as I remember. Plastic glasses and sticky carpets, and a balcony. We seemed to go every week and it was always full of goths. It was the time of goths. The Mission ruled the world, or seemed to. Looking back it seems like we saw The Pogues every other week.

Song Challenge - A Song from my Childhood and Black Lace's Worst

2011-03-17T16:44:00.001Z

Peter, my once prolific now sporadic co-blogging cohort is undertaking some kind of 30 day song challenge in Facebook. This entails him posting links to songs that meet a certain daily criteria, as detailed below. Today was day 12 and he treated us to 'a song from a band you hate', which happened to be Angel of Harlem by U2. He went on to point out that he considered this to be their best song, but still considered "their best compares closely to Black Lace's worst"

As a lover of lists, pointless blogging that nobody reads and music, this 30 Day Challenge strikes me as genius. However, I'm changing the rules to suit myself and will be introducing categories such as 'A Song that makes me think of the venue Birmingham Powerhouse sometime in the mid 80's' and others such as 'A Song that sounds great when you are a bit pissed but doesn't when you are sober" etc

In the meantime, and while we wait for Day 15 of Peter's challenge (Staffordian Jangle Punk Boy by The Tenatious No Eff Pip Collective), I shall provide my own answer to Day 29; a song from my childhood.

Peter's Challenge
day 01 - your favorite song
day 02 - your least favorite song
day 03 - a song that makes you happy
day 04 - a song that makes you sad
day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone
day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere
day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event
day 08 - a song that you know all the words to
day 09 - a song that you can dance to
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep
day 11 - a song from your favorite band
day 12 - a song from a band you hate
day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure
day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love
day 15 - a song that describes you
day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate
day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio
day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
day 19 - a song from your favorite album
day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry
day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad
day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument
day 27 - a song that you wish you could play
day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty
day 29 - a song from your childhood
day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

Grammys 2011 - Go Gospel

2011-03-17T15:55:00.000Z

Did you know there is a category at The Grammy's for Hawaiian Music Album? Or Comedy Album? Did you know that the word 'Gospel' appears in 7 different categories? Just in case you missed out on the gong for Contemporary R&B Gospel Album you could have a pop at Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album.

Here are a couple of the winners from the 2011 Grammys, ignoring the Lady Gagas and Iron Maidens of this world. If you would like to read more about the winners and losers click here

Gospel Song Winner 'It's What I Do' Kirk Whalum

Winner Rock or Rap Gospel Album, Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot

Dead Men Walking

2011-01-27T23:27:00.000Z

Dead Men Walking have been dragging their broken and battered selves throughout the UK on and off since the early 00's. With a rotating line up they somehow manage to re-invent a couple of classics from each of their various heydays without looking sad in any way. The songs stand the test of time, and even though they might be a bit puffy around the jaw and mid-riff the delivery is classy. These are people who have been there and done that and the experience shines through. A supergroup is Kirk Brandon, Mike Peters and Pete Wylie, not Blind Faith or ELP. Throw in Captain Sensible and Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats and you have a Christ that is a Supergroup supergroup. I haven't even mentioned Billy Duffy ......

and one of the finest songs ever written about Thatcherism.....or possibly just ever written.

Sister Rosetta

2011-01-19T17:16:00.000Z

All roads lead to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, or at least they seem to at the moment. Just before Christmas a friend sent me a link to a baizarre video of a woman playing a guitar on Chorlton railway station in Manchester, in 1963. Then, lo and begold, BBC4 decide to show a documentary entitled The Godmother of Rock n' Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe. According to the BBC "In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy". Her career spanned several decades and saw her performing with Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman, rock and roll stars in the 50' and blues artists in the 60's. Living Blues say "she was the first major gospel singer to tour Europe" and although she suffered a stroke while on tour in 1970 her speech was impaired but her singing wasn't. Apparently she was Johnny Cash's favourite singer, and it's easy to see why.

CW Stoneking

2011-01-18T17:15:00.000Z

C.W. Stoneking does not sound like a white Australian. Not when he sings, anyway. Brought up in the Aboriginal community of Pupanya this, according to a comment beneath one of his videos on YouTube, explains how he talks. It doesn't really explain how someone in his late 30's can sing like someone from the late 30's. Somehow he manages to stay out of the cheap retro feel and conjure up something of 'genuine conviction rather than cheap parody' (Uncut).

In an interview with Australian independent music website Soulshine he declared his influences to be "old work songs, old gospel music, jazz, early Caribbean Calypso music out of the 20s and 30s" but went on to say that the inspiration for Jungle Blues actually came from a 50 Cent tune.

Best of 2010

2010-12-30T08:59:00.002Z

The blog may have been quiet but as its the end of year it is time to roll out my top 3 albums of the year.
I am listening to a lot of music of late but its been difficult getting the time to write about it all, end of year and a moments reflection on what has made up the best album means that I need to find the time.
This time last year it was all about Hockey, NOFX and Mumford and Sons. They were floating my boat. The three albums that I thought were the best of the year, you are going to have to be lenient here, they were all released towards the end of 2009 if this were The Grammy’s we wouldn’t have a problem, it isn’t though so we may have.

OK on to the music. The third best album of the year for me was the Mercury prize winning debut by The XX. I think my wife heard a track and knew it was up my street, like Glasvegas and current squeeze, Mona they have a specific sound that seems to be swimming away from whatever the current crop of indie sounds like. The XX’s album doesn’t have big production, or massively clear vocals, but it supplied clarity from the start.
I loved The XX and when I went from car commute to train commute and heard it for the first time on my iPod I bombarded my wife with texts telling her that THIS was the future of pop music. She had heard it all before and reminded me of my past crimes.
Crimes schmimes. This album is an essential album from this year, perfect songwriting, lovely sparse production that makes you at times have to crane an ear to pick up just what the singer is saying and it won the Mercury Music prize, and anything is better than Paul fucking Weller.

Crystalised by The XX

My second favourite album of the year was also nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, and this was also released towards the end of 2009, Biffy Clyro’s fifth studio album, Only Revolutions.
As I write this a Biffy Clyro song sits at number one in the singles chart, their original is at number 25, they are headlining a major festival next year and in Only Revolutions they have a platinum selling album. 2010, well it has been a good year for Biffy Clyro and the overnight success has only took 10 years.
So Only Revolutions, a magnificent polished album that moved away, for me at least, from the confused sound of Puzzle, to return more towards the sound they produced on Vertigo of Bliss, but a more professional developed and finer version.
Many of Horror, the song X factor winner Matt Cardle is cuurently sitting pretty with is one of many stand out tracks on this album and if tomorrows pop idols were looking to cover any of them they could take their pick of the exquisite God and Satan, Mountains or Bubbles.
So many stand out tracks on this album and any song could be a single. We had the pleasure of seeing them twice this year at an enormous festival and a tiny club and both times it was fantastic and to hear the songs that make up this album was a joy and a pleasure.

God and Satan by Biffy Clyro

My favourite album of the year though is the fantastic Revolution by Miranda Lambert. Its an album that just keeps getting played and played. I have to say pretty much solidly for the past 6 months I have listened to nothing but mainstream country music. Brad Paisley without a doubt has been my favourite artist of this year, the album though goes to Miranda.
This isn’t some obscure album though, this is a huge selling album in the states and every track tells you why, clever, funny, beautiful, some tugging at the heartstrings, some kicking you in the balls. Miranda Lambert isn’t Taylor Swift, she is Taylor Swifts crazy aunt.
The stand out track for me on the album is the US country number 1, The House That Built Me. A stunning stunning single, and with Dead Flowers, Airstream Song and Virginia Bluebell she continues in a similar vein musically if not lyrically.

The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert

Miranda Lambert gets down and dirty when she needs to on songs like Somewhere Trouble Don't Go, but she is a girl that likes to keep the mood light, from Only Prettier, to the cover of Time to Get a Gun.
Lambert is the main songwriter but she gets a little help on this album from Blake Shelton her fiancé, Julie Miller, Ashley Monroe and Natalie Hemby. The most surprising addition to the album and least country song on this album is her version of John Prine’s That's the Way That The World Goes 'Round. A song that Lambert definitely makes her own.
All in all, easily my favourite album of the year and one that you really need to hear.

Thats The Way The World Goes Round by Miranda Lambert

The Creepshow Live at Moho Live, Manchester

2010-12-17T11:55:00.001Z

Kev it seems lords it up with the Chilean glitterati at Massive Attack gigs, over priced, it certainly seems by all accounts. Me, I have been to very few gigs this year, Leeds Festival, Biffy Clyro in Vegas and Neil Diamond. Last week saw an additional band added to that very small list and that was Canadian Psychobilly band The Creepshow and the Manchester date on their current European tour.
I haven’t been to Manchester to see a band since around 2000 and that band was Hefner. I heard gunshot that night, so ten years between gigs would be about right. In the meantime Manchester made itself easy on the eye, put in trams and made me feel that it was safe to walk the street without someone looking like a member of N-Dubz trying to mug me.
Our hotel was conveniently next door to the venue therefore limiting the chances of mugging even more.
So we took the short walk to Moho Live, a smallish venue near Afflecks Palace, small but really quite nice, not the cavernous room we last saw The Creepshow at The Asylum in Birmingham. Link to that review is over on the right there. Moho Live is more in keeping as a venue for the type of bands that play there.
The bar was a little pricey, not the average wage costing that Kev had at “Trip hop pioneers Massive Attack”, more that average wage of a paperboy. £6 a double tequila and coke. I tried singles and it was then that I realised that the measures my good lady wife serve at home are more generous than the 1 6th of a gill served in Manchester. Enough drink talk though.
When we walked in a three piece band were playing, Hyperjax. Vocalist/guitarist, vocalist/upright bass and a drummer. Playing punk infused rockabilly, erring at times towards very very early Billy Childish. They were it has to be said, excellent. They were energetic, raw and I suspect, if I knew what it meant, visceral. They were marvellous, a good mixture of original material and I think the odd cover. Their biography tells me that they have been doing this some time and in all likelihood I think we will be returning to Manchester in the New Year to see them supporting European Psychobilly band, Mad Sin. I liked Hyperjax a lot and their place on this bill was definitely welcome.
That brings me neatly to second support band, the London band Buster Shuffle. Buster Shuffle were only on this bill by virtue of them having a stand up bass. Their cockernee knees up love a duck chas n dave madness sound was extremely grating. They sound like a band that would be first on in a tent at Glastonbury and was as far removed from the other bands on this bill as you could get. Just thinking back to their set makes me swear massively. Jamie Cullum seemed like Black Flag in comparison.
We had to consume a lot more tequila to get over the shock of that performance. One T-shirt purchase later and finding a vantage point for the sub 5ft members of the party, The Creepshow came on and (excuse the expression) ripped Moho Live a new arsehole.
The Creepshow have just recently released their third album, They All Fall Down on Hellcat records, the follow up to Run For Your Life and Sell Your Soul. The latter album has had a more punk leaning but still maintains its Psychobilly roots.
Their set was raced through at pace drawing from all three albums but definitely highlighting the new fantastic material, notable favourite for me is Hellbound. Certainly a contender for a single. But the breadth of material from Rue Morgue Radio, to Hellbound, Cherry Hill, Zombies Ate Her Brain, You'll Come Crawlin and all points inbetween.
Vocal duties on the whole carried out by the petite Sarah Blackwood but ably assisted by Sickboy and The Reverend McGinty.
A really excellent night on the whole playing to an audience made up of punks, psychobilly and rockabilly people and everyone was into The Creepshow, a far cry from the Birmingham gig.
Towards the end Reverend McGinty made a comment about the Birmingham gig and we spoke about it at the end of the night, we both agreed Birmingham’s The Asylum is a shit venue, but Moho Live is definitely worth a visit to the north.
As for The Creepshow, excellent, really excellent.

Cherry Hill by The Creepshow

Massive Attack, Santiago, Chile, November 18th 2010

2010-11-19T19:53:00.000Z

For the first time in a long time I actually got to see some live music yesterday. A couple of free tickets saw me trundle along to a large concrete shed that calls itself Espacio Riesco. It’s one of those inhuman structures favoured the world over by artists too big for a city centre theatre abut not big enough for a stadium. It suited the headline band for cold detachment, but more of that later.

After donkeys years of gig going in the UK I am well used to overpaying for a drink at a venue, but 2000 pesos for a tin of beer? Even at the annual fondas (celebrating Chilean independence in a field with several thousand other people) they only have enough nerve to charge you 1000 pesos. I guess this should be understandable as ticket prices for this gig were far and away above the pockets of an average Chilean worker. I suppose you might argue that the working class in the UK might also not be attending such events, but the class divide in Chile rules supreme.

Our freebie ticket should have cost us 26.400 pesos (£34.50). For this we were fenced off halfway back. In order to secure an anywhere near decent view of proceedings it would have cost us 36.000 pesos (£50). To put this into perspective, the minimum wage is 172.000 pesos. The moneyed folk who coughed up £76 got to sit up on a scaffolding platform on what looked like seating borrowed from an airport departure gate. They had their own bar and didn’t have to wait to pay for overpriced beverages.

The relatively large space reserved for the mixing desks and fat blokes in combat shorts employed to twiddle knobs in the dark, was placed squarely in the middle of the cheap seats. This meant that when this area filled with hangers-on prior to Massive Attack taking the stage, a large majority of those behind now couldn’t see a thing. Calls for these people (who had the benefit of standing on flight cases) to move to the side or sit down were ignored.

Martina Topley Bird was first up (she has the same haircut as Arsenal defensive midfielder Alexandre Song). Initially I worried for her, wondering how a half empty concrete box full of disinterested, posh, Massive Attack fans might take to her quirkiness. I needn’t have worried. Despite a slow start she soon won the audience over, particularly with her use of the KT Tunstall schtick of singing a bit then looping it back to be used as backing vocals. She has a fine, sometimes childlike voice, and although the songs sometimes don’t immediately grab you, her voice certainly does. She made a brave stab at introducing songs in Spanish and the crowd loved her all the more for it. In fact, the crowd was so appreciative at some points during the evening that I did begin to wonder if they had ever heard music before. “What is this noise you make by pushing air out of your open mouth while simultaneously striking that stringed object?”

Topley Bird finished her set with a howl of feedback, which was quickly turned down by one of the view-obscuring knob-twiddlers, lest it cause one of the wealthy punters on the orange chairs to choke on their 800 pesos mouthful of cerveza.

Thievery Corporation were up next. They initially struck me as having Jeff Lynne and Frank Zappa as their horn section. The bass player looked like he wouldn’t be out of place in a metal band and the guitarist/sitar player was a chubby little fella in combats. Behind them were two others on a raised platform (it’s the kind of band that need those blokes at the back with headphones who sometimes raise their hands in the air), a percussionist and a variety of singers. It was all a bit Transglobal Underground for me, and although they did seem to play a longer set than Springsteen on Red Bull (available for about 4 quid on the night), which really sagged in the middle, they did have some great moments. A double act of rastas (wearing hats that I haven’t seen since It Aint Alf Hot Mum) prowled the stage relentlessly, although the highlight for me was the performance of a tall, thin lady who came on intermittently and sang in what sounded like Portuguese, although could have been something else. With the Metallica reject pounding away on the bass, and the chubby fella chink chink ing the reggie riffs, she sashayed around in a giant hat that looked like it had been designed for a plant to grow up.

Finally, and after a brief interlude where a couple of posh kids threatened to slit the throat of a 4 ft security guard (presumably with a razor sharp platinum card), Massive Attack took the stage. I had been primed for a tremendous entrance, but they just ambled on. There was a bit of dry ice, although not even enough to fill the back of a transit van. I can say this from experience, having once filled a transit van with dry ice. As a backdrop they had an electronic board that was not unlike something you might have seen on an Open University TV program on computers in about 1982, presented by someone who looked like the bass player out of Thievery Corporation. The crowd lapped up whatever it was they played first, Horace Andy came on for the second, and by the third we had made our way to the exit. The babysitter knocks off at 1am you see.

Birmingham, so much to answer for.

2010-10-14T10:54:00.002+01:00

Kev tasked me with writing something about music from Birmingham. I however wanted to shoe horn the phrase "celebrity lezzas" into this post to capitalise on popbitchs claims and drive traffic here, lets hope this cynical stab works, back to the blog... Since my last post and now I have been to Leeds Festival (attempted to write something approaching a review, it was too big a task so in a nutshell, The Walkmen, The King Blues, NOFX and Biffy Clyro were all fantastic, The Drums, not so). I also have been to Las Vegas and celebrated my 40th birthday, seeing Biffy Clyro in a small club whilst I was there. None of these however are related in the slightest to Birmingham.

Birmingham and it surrounds famously spawned the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Slade. Slade weren’t though. Slade were Black Country and in Noddy’s case, Walsall. Zeppelin were in a loose way and Sabbath definitely were, but lets not be picky here. Lets not linger on the most famous sons, lets move away from Aston and West Brom and dip our toe into the murky waters of Birmingham Canal, like a Cliff Richard driven speedboat from Take Me High.

Cliff paid homage to God’s City in his 1973 film Take Me High, his last film and as I write Sir Cliff celebrates his 70th birthday. In Take Me High like the dead horse he has been flogging since Daddy’s Home so he sells the locals the Brum burger. Alliteration it seems were key or it may have been a totally different story and ended up being a Lincoln Burger. Take Me High is a pretty good film if my memory serves me well. I think Channel 4 were doing one of those seasons where rock stars give that acting lark a stab and therefore trotted out the excellent That’ll Be The Day, Slade In Flame and Take Me High. I suspect this all predated Spice World.

Take Me High

Cliff aside the city that gave us Fuzzbox also gave us The Nightingales, Robert Lloyd lead singer and constant of The Nightengales is a Cannock lad, but lets not let geography get in the way after all if that was the case we may have to stop PWEI, The Wonderstuff and Neds Atomic Dustbin being claimed as sons of the second city.
Robert Lloyd from the ashes of The Nightingales formed the utterly fantastic but massively overlooked New Four Seasons, I briefly loved this band as a spotty teen. John Peel played a track that I recorded late one night and I think I wore that tape out. At the time I hadn’t heard or heard of The Nightingales and I didn’t really care. Andy Lloyd of that self same band, Wikipedia tells me he is a member of Birmingham mainstays, Little Red Schoolhouse. Little Red Schoolhouse I can pin down as a band that have been going at least 20 years, if Wikipedia is to be believed as I saw them once in the Sir Colin Campbell pub in Coventry, supporting a Telford based band. Little Red Schoolhouse were I am sure excellent, banks mild has clouded my memory of their performance and the name of the Telford band that supported them. I think it was the band that later became PTR. Halcyon days.

Something Nice by Robert Lloyd and The New Four Seasons

Another son of Birmingham and a band that had a lasting impression on me was the band Mighty Mighty. I bought their album, Sharks at the back end of the 80’s. (I have a memory of being in Birmingham Virgin Megastore queing up to buy Sharks and seeing Miles Hunt in front of me clutching a copy of eight legged groove machine on the day of its release. This may not actually have happened). The purchase of Sharks and importantly an address to write to Mighty Mighty on the back meant I had a clear opportunity within the price of a cheap day return to stalk a band. I need to make this clear, I didn’t. Moseley wasn’t on a train route. Sharks though contained so many great great songs, Law, Maisonnette and the superb, Biddy Baxter. You really should listen to the latter (not that it can be found on Youtube). You really should listen to Law as well, its what the term, “stomping bassline” was created for.

Law by Mighty Mighty

Lawrence, (slaps head remembering the name of the Telford band who supported Little Red Schoolhouse) Lawrence who was Felt, who was Denim, who was Go Kart Mozart was from Birmingham and now it seems, again according to Wikipedia, resides in a place I pass by twice a day, Water Orton. Go Kart Mozart release records on Lawrences own label, West Midlands Records. The sound of young Brum. (I added that). Felt, Lawrences first notable incarnation were signed to Creation and first came to my attention from the super cheap Creation compilation and soundtrack for the live shows, Doing It For The Kids. I own 2 copies of this 1988 album, both jump in different places. Felt perform in my opinion their best track in Ballad Of The Band. An excellent track it is too, Lawrence didn’t really better it.

Ballad Of The Band by Felt

Materially speaking Lawrence went on to form Denim after Felt’s dissolution. Denim had more of a glam rock edge, but a lot of bands were doing that then. Their impact on me was a single single. My loss is Water Ortons gain.

Middle Of The Road by Denim

Finally we can’t leave Birmingham without mentioning one of the citys best sons, not Musical Youth, Duran Duran, the Moody Blues or wizard, not The Twang, The Editors, The Streets or Ocean Colour Scene. Dexy’s are the best export the city has produced and undo all that UB40, the aforementioned OCS and The Twang have subjected me to.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners formed within the B postcode and the mish mash of sounds that make up their albums reflected their home city. I dont care much for Come On Eileen, not to say it isn’t one of the greatest pop songs ever written. My favourite is a twelve minute soul screamer found on Don’t Stand Me Down. This Is What She’s Like is as paranoid as it gets. Rowland is a very honest man to allow this to go on any album and at over 12 minutes, you may tire a little. You shouldn’t though as it takes you places that a full LP will take you, like NOFX’s Decline, its more a sum of its parts. Dexy’s finest hour not bettered in my opinion until the reformation song and anger inducing track, Manhood. I think I once had a brief conversation with my co-blogger about this track once and he swore.

Disappointingly not the full version.

This is What She’s Like by Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

Manhood by Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Birmingham, the home of Napalm Death, the home of The Beat, but also thankfully the home of Novak. Novak really deserve their own article.

Rapunzel by Novak

AC/DC - The Covers

2010-09-30T20:18:00.000+01:00

This actually started out as a post on Mark Kozelek and The Red House Painters but, after hearing his version of AC/DC's If You Want Blood it just blossomed into a whole piece on covers. Having squirmed my way through too many bad rock versions, pub bands and fuzzy upper-lipped teens on out of tune guitars on YouTube, I decided to introduce the winners in each of my self-imposed categories. So, the categories for AC/DC covers are

The Quality Cover
The Bemusing Why-Did-They-Do-It Children's Cover
The That's Not Bad but I Wouldn't Admit it Cover
The Bluegrass Cover
The Elvis Cover
The Toe-Curling, Butt -Tightening, Embarrassed to Even Watch, Dad-at-a-Disco Cover
Those Crazy Foreigners Cover

The Quality Cover is the one mentioned in the opening sentence, Mark Kozelek.

On to The Bemusing Why-Did-They-Do-It Children's Cover by The Wiggles (who probably get more airtime in our house than AC/DC themselves).

The That's Not Bad but I Wouldn't Admit it Cover. Keep your eye out for the decent fiddle player also on backing vocals.

They are probably too obvious to even include here but I couldn't really fail to mention the kings of the bluegrass metal covers circuit - Hayseed Dixie, not only a tremendous play on words, but also a tremendous play on words. That makes them clear winners in The Bluegrass Cover category.

On we rock to The Elvis Cover, a personal favourite.

I feel like our reader (not a typo) deserves an explanation here. It's not often that a music video can induce in the viewer a feeling of wanting the world to open up and swallow them. This video makes you feel like a rubber-necker straining to see the accident. It arouses the feelings you have when faced with the spectacle of something so horrible that you are gripped by some unexplained fascination, unable to avert your horrified gaze - it's the Toe-Curling, Butt -Tightening, Embarrassed to Even Watch, Dad-at-a-Disco Cover, so without further ado, ladies and gents, here's Sealion Dion for your ultimate pleasure.

So, to wrap up we've got the Those Crazy Foreigners Cover, which, even though they might be crazy and they are definitely foreigners, is a lovely bit of film. Judging from another clip on TouYoub they might be called Vopli Vidopliassova.

1987 - A Year in Music

2010-09-30T18:58:00.000+01:00

It seems like my choices for the best of 1987 are split fairly evenly between the things I was actually listening to at the time, and that year's offerings I would come to discover later in life. Two 'later' discoveries, Tom Waits and Los Lobos, are still around. Los Lobos particularly have had a long and varied career, and continue to put out good records. Tom Waits, an acquired taste, tends to bounce from borderline genius to borderline unlistenable. Scratch that, just unlistenable.

Echo and the Bunnymen were one of those mainstream 'alternative' bands I was so keen to like in the late to mid 80's. They didn't really float my boat in the way that The Cult did, but they scratched a certain itch. 'Love Removal Machine' on the other hand, blew my head off. I bought it on a Saturday afternoon in Birmingham and couldn't wait to get home and play it. It doesn't seem to have completely stood the test of time with my taste buds that well, if that makes sense, but hats off to even calling a song Love Removal Machine. It was quite so apparent to me at the time quite how much Ian Asbury wanted to be Jim Morrison.

The final track, listed on YouTube as 'Bono-Sweet Fire of Love', is actually from the first Robbie Robertson (of The Band) solo album, notable for the appearance of Peter Gabriel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko, Maria McKee and others. Daniel Lanois was the dots that joined it all together. The album spawned the hit 'Somewhere Down the Crazy River'.

Dead Funny Men with Beards

2010-09-24T18:49:00.000+01:00

When reviewing the Archie Bronson Outfit for The Times Peter Paphides described the sound they produce as 'driving blues rock played with punk abandon by men with beards'. You can't really question the punk abandon or the beards, although the blues rock is open to debate. I don't know why I like it but I do.

In the comments on Youtube below this video (where they get compared to Talking Heads), which admittedly isn't a great place to look for incisive critique, someone said

"Interpretative gymnastics and swamp flavoured indie: together at last"

......which is as good a reason as any for liking them.

Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera - The Bad Shepherds

2010-09-16T18:23:00.001+01:00

It must be rather annoying for him to be repeatedly refered to as Comedian Adrian Edmondson (my friend Steve is similarly aggrieved by his beloved team being refered to as Roy Keane's Ipswich) particularly now that he has branched out into music and somehow managed to fuse two of his great loves - punk and new wave music with 'traditional' instruments, and put together The Bad Shepherds. The story goes that, after a good session in the pub Mr. Edmondson wandered into an instrument shop, and pissed, bought a mandolin. Nort long after he found himself playing London Calling on it, and the idea of 'punk songs with a celtic feel' was born. The name of the album is 'Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera', which, to quote the Shepherds' website

means

'One, Two, Three, Four' in an ancient Cumbrian dialect used almost exclusively by shepherds. Had the Ramones been Cumbrian shepherds, it's what they would have shouted as the intro to every song...'

.....an inspired choice for an album title, I think you'd agree.

They have an interesting backstory and a decent album name, but is it any good? Judge for yourself.

I Fought the Law

I wasn't entirely convinced by that, although when I listened to the album on the way to work this morning I was impressed. The arrangements are excellent, and there wasn't a single time I thought that the meeting of the styles jarred at all. In fact, they seem to actively compliment each other. The blend of traditional songs with Edmondson's favourite punk pop classics work a treat. A good example of this would be the Humours of Tullah/Teenage Kicks/Whisky in the Jar/The Merry Blacksmith combo.

Teenage Kicks

Glen Hansard, The Frames, Once, Marketa Irglova and The Swell Season

2010-09-15T19:38:00.000+01:00

It seems odd that Ireland's Glen Hansard has only popped up once on the blog. For someone who has ploughed his own honest furrow since about 1991, with the spectacularly underrated The Frames, and more recently with the Once soundtrack and The Swell Season, I'm not sure he gets the praise that 20 years of decent/excellent/outstanding music should merit. From the streets of Dublin, busking, to supporting Dylan, here is Glen Hansard, who I think seems like a very genuine bloke who you might have a pint with, interviewed in 2007.

Outspan Foster is a name that probably haunts Hansard as it is the name of the character he played in the 1991 Commitments film. He has said many times that he regrets taking the part, although with an oscar in his pocket from his song Falling Slowly in 2008 his regrets may have eased somewhat.

The Frames first album Another Love Song came out in '91 and, I must admit, it passed me by. I honestly think the songs are swamped on it, although Masquerade, one of the two singles taken from it, is probably my favourite.

It took the band till '95 to put out another album, the excellent Fitzcarraldo, named after the Werner Herzog film of the same name (there were singles and an EP inbetween). The album, in my view, contains two songs that are so good, that if Hansard had never done anything else ever again then he could have dined out on the quality of Revelate and Red Chord for the rest of his days. The best version of Red Chord I've ever heard is an acoustic version from a radio show, which I used to have on cassette, which somehow got lost in the multiple moves back and forward between England and Chile over the last few years. To my complete joy, someone put it on YouTube, and I was the 457th person to watch it.

On the same above mentioned radio show there was a great version of the Candi Staton discotastic classic Young Hearts Run Free, and as it happens, The Swell Season have recorded it and it's available as a free download from Levi's (don't ask me why Levi's). Click here for more information.
Revelate has been featured on the blog already (click here for the post Albums of the Noughties)

On we go to Dance the Devil from 1999 and this time I'm going with Pavement Tune, the live version of which I once saw sounds completely different.

Again, on this album, there is a song worthy of any other, Star Star.

On to 2001 and the album voted Best Irish Album Released between 1999 and 2009 by the CLUAS website (lending an ear to the Irish music scene) - For the Birds. Things seemed to fall into place for this album. It's an album of maturity, confidence and quality songs. As the CLUAS reviewer puts it "a record whose bones were honest". Steve Albini produced part of it. Pitchfork called the album "a unique and enjoyable album". The stand out songs for me are Lay Me Down and What Happens When the Heart Just Stops, which the Swell Season (Hansard's latest incarnation with Marketa Irglova) revisited later.

A year later, 2002, saw The Frames follow up For the Birds with their first live album, Breadcrumb Trail, notable for the inclusion of a certain Marketa Irglova. The album was recorded in the Czech Republic and came out on the bands own label. Allmusic gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Another live album, Set List follwed in 2002, a much stronger set, recorded over four nights in Dublin in front of an adoring crowd. Hansard has some good chat between the songs and, in true Frames fashion, one song may well include bits of other songs you might recognise. Listen out for a bit of Bob Marley or Johnny Cash during this album.
Here are two knocked into one from Set List.

Burn the Maps came out on the excellent anti label (Mavis Staples, Neko Case, Tom Waits) in 2004 and gave the band their first number one album in Ireland. Yet again, although not to my surprise, they conjured up a good album that included a top drawer song in the shape of the bitter, twisted, angry Fake.

Read an interview with Glen Hansard from 2005 by clicking here.http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/als/_glen_hansard_interview_the_frames.html

It's from this point on that it all gets a bit confusing, a bit Hollywood, and pretty damn successful. In 2006 Hansard appeared in the indie film Once, written and directed by John Carney, one time bass player with The Frames during the early 90's. The film, shot for about $160.000 tells the story of a thirty-something Dublin busker, played by Glen Hansard. Most of the music was written by Hansard and Irglova, with some of it having already featured in different versions on The Frames The Cost album as well as the debut cd by Hansard and Irglova as The Swell Season.

In an interview with Pitchfork in 2008 Hansard said this

"We put this record out first as the Swell Season because honestly we didn't think John's film would get released. Honestly. We weren't depending on any company to back us. We made the thing for nothing. It didn't look great or sound great, and the film hasn't changed. It still doesn't look great or sound great! [laughs] Obviously, what we've learned and are beginning to accept is that it has something. A lot of people have gone to see it, and talked about it, which is wonderful. But when John originally suggested we put it out as the Once soundtrack, I was like, dude, the film's not even going to come out! I'm just putting these songs out because I don't want them lying around. We put out The Swell Season, and The Swell Season sold 300 copies. I couldn't believe it. In Ireland, even the Frames records sell ten, 15,000 copies. Which is a respectable number of records for a band doing it themselves. We were very happy with that. But I couldn't believe that this record I put out with Mar, that I was really proud of, only sold 300. Then six months or a year later it gets re-released as the Once record. Four days ago I just heard that it went gold over here. That's half a million fucking records! That's insane! That is fucking insane. And all we did was change the cover [laughs].

By 2007 the film had been accepted into the Sundance film festival (after initially being rejected), and the original plan of just showing it around Ireland, with a few songs after the movie, had to be re-thought. The song Falling Slowly began to get attention and was nominated for an Academy Award (that's an Oscar, dummy) for Best Original Song. Here they are performing it on David Letterman.

So, off they went to the Oscars in 2008 and only went and won it. Here's a bit on the film.

Irglova was famously drowned out by the orchestra just as she leant forward to say her thank yous after being presented with an Oscar. Following the break she was asked by John Stewart to come back out on stage for her moment of glory. Click here to see what happened.

Much was made of the chemistry between the two in the movie. Given the fact that Hansard said this "I had been falling in love with her for a long time, but I kept telling myself she's just a kid" it wasn't a surprise it came through on film.

Following the release of the Once soundtrack The Swell Season have gone from strength to strength, touring to great reviews, backed up by Frames musicians in the band.

Post Hollywood and with 20 years of The Frames under his belt here's a nice vid to finish with, Hansard and Irglova interviewed while on their US tour, 2009.

Without Chew

2010-09-02T18:18:00.000+01:00

There's an excellent article by the consistently good Alexis Petridis in The Guardian today, discussing the new album by Hurts. After reading that they like to sing 'Without chew ....' along with these words

'Their videos resemble a Guinness World Records attempt to cram as many Thatcher-era visual cliches into three minutes of film as possible: you watch the trenchcoat-clad figures trudging through snowy Mitteleuropean cities and women in black cocktail dresses and fascinators throwing meaningful shapes by swimming pools, and you are gripped by the certainty that Max Headroom is about to appear and start walking like an Egyptian'

I was intrigued and wanted to find out more. Why would anybody in their right mind want to replicate the sound of Climie Fisher, Go West or Johnny Hates Jazz? Their website opens with a photo so styled, so consciously self-aware, that the more I looked at it the more I was convinced that only seconds later they would both burst into guffaws and say something like 'Oh I'm bostin for a piss, me'. It does, in fact, look like a pisstake, or perhaps a perfume advert parody from a sketch show. Either that or the Marks & Spencer advert for suits worn by England players during the World Cup in South Africa.

England Substitutes

Hurts

Could they be any more 'synth-pop duo'?

Jole Blon

2010-09-01T20:43:00.000+01:00

Although Jole Blon sounds like an expensive (probably overpriced) new signing by a Premiership football team (probably Spurs) - Jole Blon Sent Off on Debut - for example, it's actually a song. Gold Star Records of Houston, Texas, launched many careers, among them Freddy Fender, George Jones and Lightnin Hopkins. Gold Star's first big hit was Jole Blon, by Harry Choates way back in 1946. Up popped Jole Blon in my inbox today with a link to a real oddity - Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly and King Curtis together in 1958. It's an 'unclassifiable' (as mail sender Tom put it), genre-hopping song.

White Lies vs Alan Bennett

2010-08-24T20:51:00.002+01:00

I'm not really sure what I man when I say that Harry McVeigh of White Lies has an 80's voice. I mean he doesn't sound anything like John Farnham or either of Mel or Kim. Is it an easy comparison to make if I mention Joy Division? They claim to be more influenced by Talking Heads, although that influence is hardly evident. Maybe they will go on to make awful Brazilian compilations. Other influences include Secret Machines, who, surely, are the closest to Led Zep Bonhamesque battering you are likely to find. Peter finds White Lies 'a bit too polished' and I know what he means, although they have a nice turn of phrase at times. That makes them sound like Alan Bennett, which I am sure is not the effect they were looking for. I can imagine Alan saying 'He said my heart is faint, and left him crying next to the chapel steps, oh and these biscuits are a bit dry'.

The Best Score Writers in the Industry

2010-08-24T12:37:00.004+01:00

In the ongoing series of guest posts, here is one from one of the guys over at My Dog Ate My Blog.

Often, the praise for a great film goes directly to the director. If you think of the classics, though, most have something in common: great, iconic music. The score of a film can create suspense, drama, or be just plain catchy. Here are ten of the top film score writers whose music you definitely know, even if you don't know their name.
1. John Williams: Williams has scored some of the most iconic American films, such as Jaws, Home Alone, E.T., and The Star Wars Saga.

Why he's great: Whether or not you realize it, Williams compositions are most likely lodged into your pop culture subconscious.
Have a listen: Star Wars Medley

2. Bernard Hermann: Hermann is known for teaming up with Alfred Hitchcock to score his most suspenseful films, including Psycho, Vertigo, and North by Northwest.

Why he's great: Hermann's creativity transformed and modernized music for thrillers and suspenseful movies.
Have a listen: Psycho theme

3. Max Steiner: Called "the father of film music," Steiner was one of the first to compose music for motion pictures His list of films reads as a list of American classics: Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, and Little Women are some of his best known.

Why he's great: When Steiner first arrived in America in 1914, he had only a few dollars to his name. He worked as a musician for 15 years before scoring films.
Have a listen: Gone With the Wind- "Tara's Theme"

4. Elmer Bernstein: Bernstein rose to fame by scoring classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Ten Commandments, and The Man with the Golden Arm. Later on, he took a chance by scoring National Lampoon's Animal House, which sparked a second wave of his career scoring comedies.

Why he's great: Bernstein was not afraid of attempting all types of film, and thus, we have some of the best comedy scores in history, including Ghostbusters and Airplane!
Have a listen: Airplane! Medley

5. Jerry Goldsmith: Goldsmith composed for many films, but most were action filled: Rambo:First Blood, Chinatown, and Basic Instinct are some of his most notable scores.

Why he's great: Goldsmith experimented with lots of strange instruments not usually found in film scores, like schofar, pizzicati, and steel drums.
Have a listen: Star Trek: The Motion Picture theme

6. Henry Mancini: After his first year at Julliard, Mancini was drafted into the army to serve in WWII. After he was discharged, he went on to score many memorable TV shows and movies, like Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther, and The Party.

Why he's great: Mancini found time to do a little bit of everything; he recorded his own albums (over 90 of them!), voice acted, and even made an appearance on Frasier.
Have a listen: The Pink Panther theme

7. Lalo Schifrin: This Argentine composer has written the music for many classic action films. Cool Hand Luke and Enter the Dragon are among his most famous, and he scored the music for the long running Mission: Impossible TV series.

Why he's great: Schifrin founded his own record label, Aleph Records, and his work has been sampled on famous hip-hop records.
Have a listen: Mission:Impossible theme

8. James Horner: If you want drama, you want James Horner's scores. You can hear his intensity in Braveheart, Apollo 13, The Perfect Storm, and Avatar.

Why he's great: Horner popularized the use of electronic music in musical scores.
Have a listen: Avatar- "Becoming One of the People"

9. John Barry: This English composer's family was in the film business, sparking his interest in movies. He went on to write the soundtracks for eleven James Bond flicks.

Why he's great: Barry might be great, but he's also failed: he took a chance and wrote the music for two Broadway disasters, The Little Prince and the Aviator and Lolita, My Love.
Have a listen: Dr. No

10. Maurice Jarre: Jarre's scores are modern classics. He won three academy awards for Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, and A Passage to India.

Why he's great: Jarre has had three hits on the U.K. singles chart.
Have a listen: Lawrence of Arabia theme

Joy Henry is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on accredited online colleges for Guide to Online Schools.

John Wayne

2010-08-20T13:19:00.005+01:00

I have had a long conversation with a friend today on the subject of film stars of old and how they don’t make them like they used to. No Jimmy Stewart's, no Yul Bryner's, no Garbo, no Betty Davies and no Errol Flynn. How John Wayne and his films possibly couldn’t be made in this day and age. The Quiet Man, easily one of the greatest films ever made, would not have got past the script stage I will wager.
What does this have to do with music Peter? I am coming to that. John Wayne, that glorious all American god of epic proportions, thats who I am celebrating today in song, verse and lyric.

John Wayne was born with a girls name, like Sue I guess you learn to either fight or get beaten. John Wayne oozed masculinity and maybe that's why. I don't know. Seemingly he also had very VERY Conservative politics. Unapologetic concerning his views on race and homosexuals, today he would be laughed at. As he said in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, "Don't apologize—it's a sign of weakness."

John Wayne died in 1979 and his death at least in our household was every bit as important as John Lennon or Marty Robbins and time and again I find myself going back to True Grit or The Cowboys.

In 1982, Hardcore Punk band MDC released their debut album, Millions of Dead Cops, on it was the track John Wayne Was A Nazi.

John Wayne Was A Nazi by MDC

Its not an opinion they were alone in sharing and this release had some influence on Mike Burkett of NOFX and the song and the band get a mention on their song 13 Stitches from War On Errorism.

“The next time I went to the whiskey,
It was DOA with millions of Dead Cops.
The latter band played faster than I could believe,
But the Songs sounded the same and kinda sucked.
'Cept John Wayne was a nazi,
And Joey Shithead was a drunk.
Then John Macias beat some hippie to a pulp,
Cuz Having long hair was a mistake.”
- 13 Stitches by NOFX

13 Stitches by NOFX

1982 at least in song was the year that John Wayne was getting name checked as Haysi Fantayzee released their debut single “John Wayne is Big Leggy.” Naivety saw me thinking this was a rude song but no, again its a critique of Waynes apparent racism. 1982 and the kids are pissed off. Maybe True Grit was repeated a little too often.

John Wayne Is Big Leggy by Haysi Fantayzee

"Any man who'd make an X-rated movie ought to have to take his daughter to see it." John Wayne.

In 1973 The Duke released an album in the shadow of Watergate entitled, America, Why I Love Her. Its an odd spoken word album, but hell you have to love the mans unbridled patriotism. As someone that loves Johnny Cash’s Ragged Old Flag, its another at times that sounds like “Barts People” but as it’s John Wayne, criticise it? The hell I will.

America, Why I Love Her by John Wayne.

Billy Idol celebrated Marion Morrison in his song John Wayne and stepped back from the name calling, Billy wanted to feel like John Wayne, cos John Wayne was brave. Psst Billy, he was playing a character.

John Wayne by Billy Idol

Celebrated in song, loved and hated in equal measures John Wayne was a childhood icon as important as Evel Knievel or The animal Kwackers. The only difference with that is The Animal Kwackers never said;

“I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.... The academic community has developed certain tests that determine whether the blacks are sufficiently equipped scholastically.... I don't feel guilty about the fact that five or ten generations ago these people were slaves. Now I'm not condoning slavery. It's just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and can't play football like the rest of us.”

Sometimes John Wayne was a bit of an idiot.

Oooooff Malibu

2010-08-16T22:24:00.000+01:00

So, Peter, west midland wanderer (that's not him above, that's John Shuttleworth), has returned to warm confines of I Taught Myself How to Grow Old. We almost withered away without him, as I sat, shivering through the Chilean winter, staring at my earthquake rattled (and cracked walls), listening only to Barney songs with my 2 year old. Peter had clearly transfered from the Ford Fiesta (and the alphabetised listening schedule) to the regional railways as his Facebook updates told of tense exchanges with railway employees on wind-blown platforms. Welcome back Peter, with a Smiths bashing ode.

My listening habits have been listless, dull and uninspiring through the winter. Old favourites failed to warm my bones. The ipod has been filled with spoken word for the commute lately, or, more often than not, episodes of The Shuttleworths BBC Radio 4 program. Ken Worthington's misadventures, Plonker's baby and Joan Chitty have entertained me more than most other things, and of course John's musical creations are deserving of high praise indeed. With these words ringing in your ears, witness the man himself. I wonder if his insights carry into other cultures. I fear that the ex sweet factory security operative (Rotheram area), also known as John Le Shuttle, has not broken international markets quite yet.

The genius of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

2010-08-05T14:08:00.000+01:00

Morrissey was a hero to most but he don’t mean shit to me. Chuck D said that. Its on an unreleased song though, you won’t have heard it, its dead rare.

Although I can take or leave the North Western divas flouncing and utterly high opinion of himself, he has always been around and featured in some way throughout my life, if it wasn’t friends that in the normal run of things would be described as resolutely heterosexual only to turn into Monty Pythons camp soldiers at the merest mention of him, if it wasn’t them it was girlfriends, girlfriends and a wife that would have and would dump me given the word by the bequiffed one. For me he was just there, he did that music but it was all a bit, merely OK.

One song though has been a constant companion over the years, its a song that was was and is omnipresent, that separated the boys from the men in The smiths canon of work and still haunts me today.

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.

At some point in the mid eighties a friend played me Hatful of Hollow, I say played, he played it at me, he made me listen to it and I guess if it was released now with a title such as The Smiths Greatest Hits Volume 1, no one would deny that wasn’t so, If it is your thing its possibly one of if not the greatest albums ever made. Wikipedia informs me that in 2000 it was considered to be the 44th of all time. Wowsers, THATS good. Mid eighties me though kept looking at his watch and muttering under his breath. Till the end that is, then coming in all different, all beautiful, all gorgeous and utterly different was Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want. In all its sub 2 minute lovliness.

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths

The song saunters in, gives the briefest of hello’s and then buggers off again with nary a bye nor leave, it is, to quote John Peel, short to the point of abruptness. It was long enough to sear an impression though, and the impression was indelibly seared. So much so that I made it my next move to hurry back for The A Team and forget about the song for a year or two.

Fast forward to Christmas 1985 and Barry Norman is giving us his run down of the films of the year, usual twaddle, foreign language I will be bound but at the end he dangles a carrot of what is to come in 1986, as the credits roll he plays the Twist and Shout scene from the fantastic Ferris Buellers Day Off. A film that I had to see, and did see as soon as Shrewsbury’s cinema was ready to show it. I adored that film and then during a scene at a museum, perhaps at the point where Sloane realises that she loves Ferris, then the sound of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want their instrumental version fills the scene, but at the hands of The Dream Academy. Time has shown me that Life In A Northern Town is a great song, but what they put into The Smiths track was sublime, beautiful and perfection between soundtrack and scene. I had to buy that. I still own that 7” and if grooves could talk it would tell you that it was and possibly is my most played 7”, either that or Wig Wam Bam by The Sweet (what can I say I worked at Butlins for 7 years, it was a popular party dance tune).

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Dream Academy.

Time moves on and with time comes compilation tapes, the maker and the receiver. The thing with compilation tapes, mixtapes is that that little bit at the end of track 13 or 14 needs filling or you have either half a song or a minute or two of nothing. There is only one song that is happy to fit that and that is Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, be it The Smiths version, The Dream Academy’s version, Deftones version or of late OK Go’s version or the fantastic Decemberists and their version. Covered by many, end of side two mixtape for all.

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by She and Him.

These days it has popped up on the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack in two guises, the faultless original and the magnificent cover performed by Zooey Deschanel and M Ward as She and Him. The song is always there, always about, ubiquitous and it needs to be. For all of the dross Morrissey and The Smiths have produced over the years, his flirtations and mistakes, Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want remains perfect.

The Prodogal Returns

2010-08-04T13:08:00.000+01:00

If you access this site via RSS, and who doesn’t you may have seen a number of older posts drop in today. Soz, I was merely pruning the spam we have been subject to. Its like some sort of obtrusive weed, unless you get rid of it all, it attracts others.

Derek Sivers aside I have been extremely quiet of late, the commute went from car to train and instead of CD’s I have been catching up on my literature, if you call a disappointing Mark Radcliffe book literature. Seriously, avoid Northern Sky, as much as I love the man, its a stinker.

The inability to get beyond The Drums and The XX albums has meant little other music has permeated my universe, but blimey what fine fine albums they are. A friend asked me to don't believe the hype with regards The Drums, its difficult when it’s so solid.

I will make more attempts as the year wears on to contribute more and possibly even get back to listening to the remainder of my CD collection, the avoidance of Dylan and the live album procured for me one Christmas is looking less and less likely.

The Prodigal Returns by Byrdie Green.

Byrdie Green was Dhar Braxtons mum, she was also a vocalist of extraordinary quality, actually that might be over egging the pudding. She was pretty good as blues tinged soul gospel vocalists go. The track above is from 1968, and I think it must be Johnny Hammond on organ, Byrdie Green gave it all up to raise her two daughters, the aforementioned Dhar Braxton wento on to have the odd hit in her own name before Byrdie returned to performing later in life.
Sadly Byrdie Green died in 2008 following a bout of emphysema.

Derek Sivers

2010-08-03T12:23:00.000+01:00

You probably won’t have heard of Derek Sivers. He was a pretty successful music retailer. In a world of music retail where we could have been selling shoes, Derek Sivers definitely didn’t sell shoes. I like Derek Sivers.

In 1997 to sell his own music Sivers set up a site called CD Baby, it did the job and other artists though hey I wonder if you could sell my CD’s. With this Sivers instilled some rules, and ethos,

• The musician will be paid every week
• The musician will get the full name and address of everyone who purchases their music (unless they opt out)
• The musician will never be removed from the system for not selling enough
• The site will never accept advertising or paid-placement

Fair enough, and you know CD Baby flourished, I myself have bought CD’s from them and their rates, for artists mean that the artist isn’t being gouged. I like CD Baby, I liked them a lot for their confirmation emails, here is one...

“Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, October 19th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...”

Then 2008 Derek Sivers thought time to give it all up. He put CD Baby into a charitable trust and then when it was sold that the trust got a pretty hefty wedge. Derek Sivers the intelligent man that he is, if he had sold it and contributed that money to that charitable trust then of course the IRS would have took a pretty fair old percentage of that. Giving to the charity first made for sound charity sense. Derek explains it all here http://sivers.org/trust

Derek’s site has his blog, articles and resources for musicians, he lives life comfortably but not extravagantly. His site is definitely worth a visit. http://sivers.org/

Alan Lomax Archive

2010-07-27T19:29:00.000+01:00

I noticed in the Independent today there is an article on how the Alan Lomax archive is starting to filter through on to YouTube. For the uninitiated Lomax was a great collector of folk, blues, country, and other world music. He travelled across the US in the 30's and 40's, recording artists, and then moved on to Europe in the 50's. If you have ever listened to Moby's Play album then you will have heard Alan Lomax samples. The American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress acquired the Lomax collection in 2004. He was the first to record Leadbelly and Muddy Waters, and also recorded people such as Jelly Roll Morton and Woody Guthrie.

Between 1978 and 1985 he also travelled through the south and southwest of the US, recording for PBS. It is some of this footage that you can now find on a special channel on YouTube.

Phosphorescent

2010-07-17T20:36:00.013+01:00

After a long lay off, largely due to work, kids, the World Cup and so on, here we are again, back up and running. I think Phosphorescent is a great place to start, as, that, or he, or them, has been on the pod for a week or two - the 2009 To Willie album of Willie Nelson covers. Phosphorescent seem to be more or less Mathew Houck, and the Willie album is the 4th album under the name. He's opened for Bon Iver along the way, and I think he is actually now performing with Willie Nelson, so full circle for him.

To add a little balance here's Waylon Jennings with his take on it.

We Don't Need No Education

2010-05-25T19:35:00.001+01:00

This sent in by our Edukashun Correspondent - Neil K

What is it with song writers and use of proper English? Alright, so Pink Floyd's example from the blog title was obviously done on purpose, but there are some really horrendous examples of bad grammar that just jump out and scream at you when you first hear them, and on every God damn listen since. Obviously, no one can spell anymore (Sk8ter Boi, Slave 4 U) – but that is different as it goes unnoticed when you hear the song. Having jolting grammar in sentences however, can really ruin an otherwise good song (or make a turd even more steaming). Or maybe it’s just me? (maybe it is just you Mr K!).

Sometimes it’s obviously been done to help make a rhyming couplet – but really – that’s no excuse. If you can’t make it fit, don’t force it with a sledgehammer and assume people won’t notice. Think of a different couplet!! Get out a Thesaurus. The #1 below is a recent one that led me to think of compiling a top 5. The Rolling Stones double negative on “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” is just outside the top 5 – so bring on the worst examples…

1. Sugarbabes - Get Sexy
“When I'm drivin' in my car, or I'm standin' at the bar,
It don't matter where I are, they say "hey sexy!"”

2. The Police - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic

“Every little thing she does is magic

Everything she do just turns me on”

Especially bad when said lyricist was allegedly a teacher - not English I presume, eh, Sting? P.E. or woodwork most likely I’d wager.

3. Bryan Adams - Run to You

“She say's her love for me would never die

But that'd change if she ever finds out about you and I”

Sorry, Bryan, but you and I both know that it’s supposed to be “you and me”. And don’t pretend you’re French Canadian so it’s not your first language…

4. Chemical Brothers & Noel Gallagher, “Let Forever Be”

“How does it feel like, to wake up in the sun.

How does it feel like, to shine on everyone.
How does it feel like, to let forever be.
How does it feel like, to spend a little lifetime sitting in the gutter.”

Noel, Noel, Noel…how does it feel like, to piss on Blake and Keats? Or are you pretending and being ironic (in an Alanis Morrisette – not really ironic at all type of way)?

5. The Doors - Light My Fire

“If they say I never loved you, you know they are a liar.”

Poetic licence with the Queens English, Jim? Or were you trying out Bowies lyric writing technique of cutting up words from newspapers and picking words randomly out - only it came out scarily normal?

U Turns

2010-04-15T14:29:00.000+01:00

This sent in by our sometimes electro-pop correspondent (he lives in a shoe you know) Neil K

It’s big to admit your wrong, particularly after being so vocally anti something that it’s seen as a real back down. It’s happened to me on a few occasions musically, where early output from a band makes me take an instant (often illogical) dislike of them, and laugh loudly in the face of anyone that claims to like them. What? You’re that naïve you buy THAT!? … Sometimes it’s not so much the music but the personalities, or maybe inappropriate levels of press adulation or success, or because I’ve been told I’d like them because they’re like band “x” that I’ve been know to champion. Anyway, however it starts - 99.9% of the time it remains that way – but sometimes – just sometimes - something happens (usually hearing a particular song or a full album) where said band get rewarded with a reappraisal – or maybe they just raise their game and they really were crap. Either way, something happens where I see them in a different light and I think “you know what, on their day, they’re actually pretty damn good, and the world is a better place for their noise after all…”.

So, what examples of this phenomenon can I recall?

Feeder – What? The band that did that annoying Buck Rogers (“it’s got a cd player –player – player” indeed) that the Radio overplayed – and still plays now? The joke Welsh rockers with the Japanese Adam Clayton? This was until I heard a work colleagues (you remember ‘Pete’ don’t you Kevin T? – came in Our Price and stood there staring at you?) copy of Echo Park – and in particular the glorious “Turn”. That song got stuck on repeat play for many a day after that. Since then, I’ve discovered other highlights such as Tender, Feeling A Moment, Purple and the gloriously souring Silent Cry. A band that can rock but also do subtle and heartfelt. One of those bands where you look at the lyrics and think it’s a bit clichéd – but when your hear the delivery by Grant – you feel it. They really do regret and loss incredibly eloquently. One band I’m still hoping to get chance to see live one day.

Green Day – What? Those cartoon punks? Fronted by the Cliff Richard of Punk? Following the Punk A-Z handbook. Piercings? Check. Bright hair? Check. Throwing TVs out of Window? Check. Rich boys acting poor? You betcha. Sooooo rock ‘n’ roll… Until I heard “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”- the ultimate ode to taking comfort in solitude. Perfect meld of melancholy and melody. One of those moments where the words and music and mood and image just works together to produce something stellar. Holiday was alright too, and American Idiot was just the right side of a joke song. That said, the 20th Century bollocks CD (do you mean 21st Century? - Kevin T) was a big let down and they’re close to going back in my bad books.

The Smashing Pumpkins – What? Baldy screacher looking like someone from the Adams Family? “Tonight…” Who’s dragging their nails down a black bored?! Arrggghh!?!?!??! Be quiet – let me just listen to the music. Until I heard Ava Adore CD – where thankfully Billy Corgan's singing is generally more restrained and thus more bearable. I still can only take one album at a time before my ears start bleeding, but I can recognise the beauty in the melodies and hear the words without the barbed wire delivery. He also wrote Hole's only good song (and I thus hold him responsible for keeping the despicable Courtney Love in the public eye for so long). Songwriter for hire however is probably a good direction for him to take - let a singer sing it.

Beastie Boys – Fight For Your Right To Party indeed. You may have gathered - joke songs I don’t like. Punk I wasn’t keen on at that time. I wanted my pop stars to leave me in awe, not make me think I could do what they did but better. I thought and hoped these guys would disappear within 15 minutes. They didn’t. They actually developed their sound and went on to produce gems such as Sabotage and Intergalactic Planetary. And they’re still going – so much for 15 minutes.

I’m still waiting for the Billy Brag reassessment mind you, I’m beginning to think it will never happen...
Anyone out there with similar cases?

Random Play

2010-04-13T14:43:00.000+01:00

This sent in by Jack T.

Ain’t Random Play Great.

In on my own, whack the ‘puter onto iTunes, random play. Here are the first five out. You gotta like something!

1. Aretha Franklin. ‘Think’.
Y’all know that scene from the ‘Blues Brothers’. ‘Four Fried Chickens and a Coke for Jake and Elwoods ‘ Dry White Toast.’ If you have never seen it, here is a clip. Listen for ‘Duck’ Dunns’ base line.

2. Ringo Starr. ‘I Wanna Be Santa Claus’
Not quite sure how this got into my iTunes library. You can find it on YouTube but this is funnier.

3. Marc Cohn. ‘Miles Away’
Love it in spite of the occasional change of octave. Hell, if Johnny Cash can get away with that who am I to complain?

4. The Chieftains and the Chinese Ensemble. ‘Full of Joy’
I can’t find the version I have which actually has a Chinese Ensemble on stage and live with an introduction in Chinese. Either the audience were all Chinese speakers or they had an applause prompt for the introduction. Any Chinese speakers out there know the live version and can chip in with a translation?
Here’s another version.

5. Bonnie Raitt. ‘Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About’
Another of Kevin Ts introductions. Top of his favourites list is Bonnie Raitt with John Prine singing ‘Angel From Montgomery’ which is great. This one is good as well. The chorus brings me out in goosepimples.

False Perceptions

2010-04-13T14:14:00.001+01:00

This sent in by our non-electro pop correspondent - Neil K

Just to play up to the label of Mr Electro Pop - I admit I bought my first Strangelove CD 50% for the bands name - which is a Depeche Mode single (the other 50% having heard Time For The Rest Of Your Life on Mark Goodiers’ radio show in the mid ‘90s while at my digs at Stafford Uni). You will no doubt be pleased to hear that this one features no electro or pop. Just Radio 1 friendly blasphemy. Guitars. And some brooding teenage angst.

I owned all three albums from this Bristol based band (who were championed by Suede having supported Bret and co); the first two are highly recommended – the second, Love And Other Demons in particular is very strong. Anyway, my mind was drawn back to seeing this band in a small venue in Stoke (curiously I recall only one of the two people I went with). Anyway, the general gist of this posting is how your self made perceptions can be so way off the mark (yes, this means you Mr T with your “Mr Electro Pop” labelling!). My only knowledge of Strangelove at the time had been from playing their first two albums – and seeing some moody black and white photos in NME. I don’t believe I’d seen a video of them (until today) – viva la You Tube. Having three guitarists (not including bass) meant the album is very layered and textured, with lots of intertwining guitar lines, that take a few listens with headphones to make them all out. The first two albums also had more downbeat songs than up tempo attempts at singles, with lush strings on a couple (such as the glorious Sway).

Back to my point. All of this evidence led me to believe that the lead singer, Patrick Duff, would be a shy, poetic type – probably hiding behind the microphone with the occasional whispered “thank you” when the lager started to kick in and his confidence levels were up. What I wasn’t expecting, was a gothic Johnny Rotten on speed – said Mr Duff jumping on tables, spitting, generally being aggressive and insulting the audience. The rest of the band were more like I was expecting from an indie rock outfit circa 1995, so I guess it’s fair to say that the singer certainly made for a memorable evening as it was this that led me to write about them. When they split up not long after, two of the guys joined the equally good Witness. I had my own theories that the band must have been so irritated by sharing a tour bus with the lunatic Duff that they could take no more. Maybe. Maybe not. Thinking about it - the fact that Witness played on Jools Hollands show probably makes it more likely the latter – they obviously didn’t mind sharing the stage with annoying pr*cks (click here for a revealing Guardian piece on the troubled Duff).

Anyway, here are the band in their prime with the video for “Time For The Rest Of Your Life” – a video where it seems they dragged 7 people off the street – gave them a camcorder and told them to film them in the dark.

And I’ve just found what Patrick looks like now (just checking he was still alive) – and it appears he is (just) – although it looks like he may be living rough. Perhaps in a tent. On a recently vacated Wolverhampton roundabout. Buy this mans new CD – I’ve not heard it so can’t vouch for it’s quality – but it looks like he needs the pennies and he has “form” as 1/6 of a great band.

Missing Piece

2010-04-12T14:57:00.000+01:00

This sent in by our Electro Pop correspondent - Neil K

I'm pretty damn sure that Depeche Mode do nothing positive for Kevin, and I suspect, having read Petes' entertaining driving alphabet reviews, that they wont be appearing in the soon to be started 'D's'. With the call for outsiders to contribute, what an opportune moment then for plugging the UKs most successful group (in terms of consecutive top 40 singles ever - or something like that).

For me, the Depeche Mode pinnacle was the double whammy of Violator (their biggest commercial success) followed perversely by Songs of Faith and Devotion, where they reinvented their sound. The Yin and Yang of the band. The clean, processed electro pop edges of Violator. The one with Brit Awards single of the year, Enjoy The Silence and Personal Jesus. Followed four event filled (i.e. drug/overdose filled in the case of singer Dave Gahan) years later with the dirtier, more organic follow up, Songs of Faith and Devotion. The one with songs you probably can't remember - I Feel You - Walking In My Shoes. For those who know very little of the band history - this is the one where singer Dave ditched the short spikey hair cut, opting for long grunge style.

So, aside from getting dm on the Blog index - what led to making this my first posting topic (and last - unless you are ready for why Duran Duran are a really underrated band?)...? Well...I made my once every few month visit to www.depechemode.com last week (which used to be hourly visit - how times have changed!) and I had a lot of feelings Flood (Depeche Mode producer of two aforementioned albums pun intended) through me. The thing all fans had dreamed but never thought would happen had happened, albeit briefly, and it had totally gone under my radar for two months. Alan Wilder, the producer/musician ex member who shaped the DM sound and then left shortly after SoFaD some 15 years ago, citing that he was doing all the work for no recognition, had rejoined the band on stage for a special performance.

Oh. My. God.

The classic line up had reunited, played "Somebody" (double A-side with the fantastic Blasphemous Rumours), hugged each other, before Alan walked off stage to the same rapturous screams and applause his shocking arrival had brought. This is almost like John and George suddenly returning to Earth for a final Beatles shot. OK, that's pushing it, maybe more like the Gallagher brothers kissing and making up in fifteen years time. Why wasn't this bigger news? NME.com made no mention (not that they ever cared about dm other than making fun of Martins dress sense). The 10 o-clock news made no mention - must have been a news heavy day. Probably Madonna was in Malawi. So....now they're at least talking, Alan no doubt got a live appearance buzz he's not had for years (his Recoil solo project has not played live (until later this month)...and not sold in numbers...so...perhaps....just perhaps...the four of them will return to the studio to produce masterpiece #3? If so, would it be what Godfather 3 was to 1 and 2? 15 years too late and with nothing new to say, a pale echo of past greatness? Or would it finally bring back that missing puzzle piece that has been lacking in the bands output since his departure?

The Proverbial

2010-03-26T11:32:00.000Z

This sent in by our Manchester correspondent Bob D.

I worked with a lad from Salford. Die hard City fan. Built like the proverbial. Knew about four words and they all ended with 'off'. Broken nose, shaved head - you get the impression. He brought in some CD's to work one day and played Orpheus Lyre by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Absolutely brilliant. I went out and bought the CD Abbatoir Blues and its been one of my favourite albums since. When we put our CD's in a folder it's the only one where I kept the cover. Its simple, poetic, emotional and so far away from what I expected.

Do I Have Time For This? A Contributor's Guide to, err, Contributing

2010-03-25T18:52:00.007Z

Do I Have Time For This? (or ‘A Plea From Kevin T’)

Can I help out with a few bits and pieces for I Taught Myself How to Grow Old?

Of course. It’s a good blog. I’ve enjoyed reading about artists I knew and learning something about the (many, many) ones I had never heard of.

But have I the time?

One idea I had was to write about the music my two boys, Kevin T and bro Niall T, had introduced me to over the years dragging me out of the 60’s (and 50’s) and into the 21st Century, music wise. The working title is “Babes and Sucklings”.

God ordains strength (or music) out of the mouth of babes and sucklings’ (Psalms 8:2.)

So far, so good. First topic, Status Quo (you had to go and choose Quo?! - Kevin T)

My first bit of memory refreshing research quickly taught me that I knew practically sod all about Quo apart from the songs on the ’12 Gold Bars’ album and a few others. An hour and a half later I knew a hell of a lot more. However, working out what to put in and what to leave out seemed to be a fine subject for a post grad research fellowship. (Ph.D. (Cantab):(Quo) has a nice ring to it. Well, at least it is in Latin.

OK, park that one, different tack. Write about a single track, both song and artist new to me. That can’t be too hard can it? Can it?

Too bloody right it can.

This afternoon I started a piece about ‘The Promised Land’, a great song by Chuck Berry, well performed by Johnny Allan.

I may still do that piece. I am now well qualified.

After three hours, I know where and when the song was written, its significance in the hierarchy of socio-cultural Americana, when it was first recorded, all the words, who has covered it and when and the life stories of Chuck and Johnny. (I feel I now know them so well that first names are appropriate). If pushed, I can also probably furnish the biographical details of the tea lady at Chess Studios in 1964.

So:

Lesson 1:
DO NOT under any circumstances start a piece by researching the subject on the Internet.

Lesson 2:
Knock out a piece from memory and learn from the comments on the blog from those who know more.

That’s me from now on. And ‘cos this is a music blog here is one of my faves.

OK, I spotted Dave Edmunds, Graham Parker and Steve Cropper.

Anybody know the horns, the keyboard player and the two drummers? Maybe I will look on the Internet?

Bugger. Here we go again!

Written by Jack T (father of Kevin T)

Where's the Quo? - Kevin T

Alex Chilton

2010-03-25T12:26:00.001Z

According to Alan McGee, who is a bit of a tit at times but seems to be reasonably well intentioned, the songwriting partnership of Big Star's Alex Chilton and Chris Bell was 'as iconic as that of Lennon and McCartney'. That's quite a statement (until you remember 'It's for You' sung by Cilla Black). Alex Chilton died earlier this month at the age of 59. During those 59 years he managed to be a teen star (with the Box Tops), heroin addict, be a member of the highly influential Big Star, punk icon, a tree-trimmer and a washer -upper. Writing about his death the BBC called him 'Rock's Unsung Hero' and went on to quote Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream with saying 'September Gurls is an incredible single. It's as good as The Byrds or The Beatles' (The Bangles covered it also).

This is the End, Beautiful Friend (not really)

2010-03-24T11:49:00.001Z

So, the good ship I Taught Myself How to Grow Old has hit a sand bank, run adrift, been caught in choppy waters (not sure how much longer I can keep this up) or possibly been re-assigned to do the Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire run. A bit like the Titanic orchestra we're going to keep playing till, er, well, till we stop. Co-blogger Peter, who has kept the whole thing afloat for quite a while has succumbed to, in his words, a 'fickle mistress'. He might mean his allotment but then again he might mean a fickle mistress, or possibly one on the other. So, the call for help went out yesterday ............

Dear All,

As you might know I co-contribute to a Music blog (with a chap called Peter) I Taught Myself How to Grow Old. It's amateurish, lacks focus and even our wives don't read it. Somewhat surprisingly we have a dedicated following of 6 and our latest viewing figures tell us that we get about 700 hits a month. This sometimes goes up if we are very topical (and could go up more if we were tropical).

http://itaughtmyselfhowtogrowold.blogspot.com/

Anyway, due to a combination of factors related to ageing in-laws, allotments, new jobs, football fixtures, earthquake damage and 18 month-olds (not in that order) Peter and I are a bit pressed for time. We are opening up the doors for guest writers and regular contributors.

Now, on the face of it this might not interest you, as you have a taxing job, kids, 2 dogs, hobbies, a life. But how much richer would your life be if you were able to free that frustrated writer buried deep down in your pile of ironing? The occasional scribble is very therapeutic, gives you an excuse to listen to music and gets you out of the washing up/walking the dog/making the bed/talking to your long-term partner - "I've just got to finish this piece for the website luv ...........deadline ......six readers you know"

Why not have a bash? What have you got to lose? Want to try? We only have one rule which is no Queen. Apart from that the music has been pretty varied. Have a look for yourself.

Go on, have a go!

Kevin

Who could resist? Well, as it turns out, most people. I had two replies, one from my Dad and one from Diamond Davey O, King of Wellington, market legend, bass player supreme, all-round good egg. Dave said

Kev, I was with you all the way till you said 'no queen'.

> I was particulary interested in writing an article on queen and

> artists who have written songs about the band.

> I was thinking along the lines of 'Hair like Brian May blues' by Half

> Man Half Biscuit

> Oh well some things are clearly not meant to be.

> Dave

So, in order to accommodate Dave's request we have backtracked on the NO Queen rule and opened the floodgates. Sadly I couldn't find a video for the song, although I am happy to replace May's hair with Davies' eyes. I hope this will do. Surprisingly it is the first time we have featured the Birkenhead Biscuits.

This one's for Dave.

Best of the C's

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000Z

jThat then is the end of the C’s all CD albums I own, it’s not, I have a fair old selection downstairs but it will be some time before I see them so as far as the C’s are concerned. Richard Dunn.

It was nothing like the slog the B’s were, the most of a single artist that I encountered was JC, by the way his new album is utterly marvellous, very much a down beat album, beautiful and his voice is quite controlled. Where was I, oh yes, just Cash really and The Cramps but what of the best, what were the best C’s?

Orange Blossom special by Johnny Cash

Whilst we have Johnny Cash in mind, it was a close run thing between his compilation God and his album, Orange Blossom Special, in the end without a pause it was Orange Blossom Special. Admittedly of late I have been giving more play to Ride This Train but of all the Cash albums I poured words over, Orange Blossom special hit all the right notes, perfectly, and completely.

Was it the best C? I am still writing, ease up there a second.

Of the best C’s we also had two Clash albums, two perfect in every way easily ten out of tens in The Clash and London Calling. Genre defining and at the same time not tied to a genre, something special this way comes in both albums.

Career Opportunities by The Clash

And then there is Gene Clarks White Light, and that for my money was the best C. An album that I come back to time and time again and improves with every listen. All the C 10’s were great in their own way and any other day I may well have put Camera Obscura’s Lets Get Out Of This Country, but no, today it is Gene Clark that is the best C.

This is where I would post a video of a track but it seems all of Gene Clarks White Light tracks aren’t embeddable.

Exit Planet Dust

2010-03-15T20:14:00.003Z

There are fewer things I dislike more than dance music made for white boys that that like bands that play guitars. I do, I really dislike them, The Prodigy, Pendulum etc. Very few things, well maybe Muse, Muse and dance music made for white boys that like bands that play guitars, well them and the storyline in Corrie that allows a grandfather to abduct a child and have custody based on chuff all. That and the Daily Mail. Mostly the dance music thing though.
Todays commute CD, the last C, the end of a relatively short journey through the third letter of the alphabet, the last C is The Chemical Brothers debut, Exit Planet Dust.
Exit Planet Dust refers to their original moniker The Dust Brothers, a tribute to the US production duo of the same name. EZ Mike and King Gizmo, responsible for the production of the greatest and best album ever committed to digital media, the self titled debut Tenascious D.
This isn't EZ Mike and King Gizmo, this is the post lawsuit threatening Lank Ginger and Dull Bloke, The Chemical Brothers, purveyors of the finest dance music made for white boys that like bands that play guitars.
I listened to it once on the way in, in the spring sunshine, rolling through the Staffordshire A roads, it wore heavy on me, it wore very heavy on me, its repetitive beats, essentially lyricless, it was just that little bit out of step with how I was feeling.
Roll on to the afternoon journey home and I decide to give the motorway ago, my mood was bouyant and I was a little more awake. Crank up my tinny car strereo up to 11 and by crikey its a good album, its definitely a mood album and the mood was served hugely by it, from the one that says "brothers gonna work it out" you know, Leave Home, that one. Through to Song to the siren, the Dead Can Dance sampling track, up through to the rather splendid One Too Many Mornings, the Tim Burgess featuring Life Is Sweet and finally ending with the gorgeous voice of Beth Orton on Alive Alone.
Really a splendid album in the right mood, in the wrong mood it is background music to me swearing at BMW drivers. So on the way to work 1 out of 10, on the way home, 8 out of 10, lets call it an 8.

One Too Many Mornings by The Chemical Brothers

Magic and Medicine

2010-03-13T06:56:00.002Z

Friday and penultimate C was the second album by cheeky bin dippers The Coral. You may recall I was not a fan of their debut and like the debut this album is my wifes, she suggested that I didn't have to listen to it and I said that breaks the rules.
I did listen to though, Magic And Medicine, and you know what, it wasn't half bad. Yes it still went for that "druggy bollocks" sound, but not as much as their self titled effort.
At times they even have stabs at proper songs, Pass it on and Bill McCai, sound quite pleasant, as does Don't Think You're The First. They almost blow it towards the end when they approach noodley on Confessions of ADDD, but even that isn't massively offensive. I must be getting old.
On the whole it was a middling album that performed much better than expected and that alone should garner a 10, but that is ridiculous, this is The Coral after all, its the coral and they still fall into that retro scouse sound that was hugely popular, and tiresome at the time, and that deserves nothing more than 4 out of 10.

Don't Think You're The First by The Coral

The Best Of Johnny Cash

2010-03-13T06:39:00.003Z

The Best Of Johnny Cash that was Thursday on the way to work CD, This is the last of my Johnny Cash discs and as I am a mere spit away from the end of the C's, this is unlikely to change unless a visit to HMV beckons.
This is a mid nineties release on Columbia and of all the Cash CD's that I have, its the worst of an excellent bunch. Do not get me wrong it is still superb but in the scheme of Cash, its the worst.
The Columbia years produced some marvellous work, some absolute greats, but this album seems to have rerecorded versions, live versions and odd selections. I like Jackson, but why would you put an alternate version of Jackson on a best of? Orange Blossom Special is one of my favourite Cash songs, but is it considered a best of track?
Strange.
Its still good for the strange reasons, it closes with Ballad Of Ira Hayes, a fantastic song, a little dark in its tone, but still great. Thats the thing with Cash, he can have a best of, he has earned that and he has the material to do it, you should look to see how many best of's and G.Hits that have been released bearing his name, he must have some kind of record, no pun intended. Anyway, busy week, Cash's label drops a point for this, 9 out of 10.

The Ballad of Ira Hayes by Johnny Cash

Parachutes

2010-03-11T09:10:00.001Z

Ah. Coldplay. Coldplay, Coldplay, Coldplay. Why so sad Coldplay. Why such tunes of earnest melancholy? Your debut album Parachutes soundtracked my commute yesterday it was a bit of a slog to be honest. You made me sad at Stafford and the fog of miserablism did not lift until the end of track 10 when you released me from your grip. What happened Coldplay, you used to be such nice boys, not pencilling slogans on your hand, telling me stuff about fair trade and world debt, you used to smile, you used to be on Fierce Panda, then you started naming your kids after fruit (how is young boysenberry?) and sticking plasters on your fingers.
Your debut does contain two highlights though, that Yellow eh? Me and the wife loved that I think we probably still do, and then there is that bassline on sparks, thats lovely. Other than that a pile of steaming shit. 1 out of 10.

Sparks by Coldplay

The Clash

2010-03-09T15:06:00.001Z

A bona fide classic today in the self titled Clash debut, The Clash.

I say this undramatically but what a stunning album, even if it was a dreadful album 2 songs part way through are the best two back to back songs bar none, name two songs on an album that follow each other that are better than White Riot and White Man In Hammersmith Palais. As I wheeled through Staffordshire in the Spring sunshine with each and every track I wanted to wind down the window, attract the attention of the BMW driver to my right and say this is fucking ace this is. I didn’t but by god I hammered away at my steering wheel bongos.
You know already if this is a good album, its not an obscure oddity, this is musical revolution (with guitars) from the opening Who strokes to the closing dig at Charles Shaar Murray, its not a good, great or excellent album it is ground breaking, a head of its time, undated and rare. Its a classic in every sense of the word and if there is a hole in your CD, tape or vinyl collection where this should be, I am not disappointed, I pity you.
This album takes music to a better place, it kicks open the doors and says here you go try some of this, yes sir you can still boogie, but the beat was a little different.
I saw Joe Strummer and his band The Mescaleros perform White Man In Hammersmith Palais before he died, my wife thinks it was one of the happiest I have ever been in my life. She wasn’t wrong.
The album is just wonderful, no low point, no filler, nothing out of place, nothing bad. 10 out of 10, and if you went back to all the other 10 out of 10’s they would be 9’s compared to this. Stunning.

White Man In Hammersmith Palais by The Clash

Devised Without A Plan

2010-03-08T13:53:00.001Z

Monday morning and a new CD for my journey between Stafford and Birmingham. Today it was the turn of US punk band, Covington and their 2005 CD Devised Without A Plan.
I don’t know anything about this band and couldn’t recall the title so it took 5 minutes of searching to try and find this out. I came by the CD as I had ordered a Punktastic compilation and Paul the guy at Punktastic put this in with the CD. Was it good of him?
Well if Good Riddance and Jawbox are your kind of thing then this would be very good of him as that is where Covington take their lead from. Jawbox I can take or leave but Good Riddance always made me smile. Covington take the shoutier elements of Good Riddances sound and kind of produce their own thing. Its not to say this is original but as 3 piece punk outfits go, it’s better than most.
The downside is that its a speedy 8 tracks long and I could have done with a little more to form a more solid opinion. 8 tracks and I think its pretty good, 10 tracks and it could be excellent or not so good. Either way I think I need to look further into Covington and see if they contributed anything else to this world or if they have long since faded. 6 out of 10.
No video seems to exist for Covington on Youtube so you cant sample them.

Alec Ounsworth Demos

2010-03-07T07:33:00.006Z

Fridays commute CD was a CD of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah demoes, downloaded from Alec Ounsworths Flash Python site a few years back. These demos were also the ones that were suggested to me and in the end made me fall in love with the band.
The unfortunate thing with these tracks is that I dont know what they are called, well some of them I don't, and I don't think they are available to download anymore, so it may be a bit pointless doing this review, that said, I did listen to it and I do have an opinion on it.

The tracks that made up a portion of their debut are of course fantastic, that album was a ten out of ten for me and rightly so, and these tracks, Over and Over Again, Details Of The War ( a radically different version, but still amazing), Is This Love and In This Home On Ice are perhaps the best on that album, you could see from those why I would want to investigate the band more.

Outside of those tracks, a solo version, just Alec, a guitar and a drum machine and synth, of Underwater that appeared on Some Loud Thunder, I loved that track for so long and it was the stand out track on the bands second album.

The other tracks I don't think appear anywhere else, either on the Alec Ounsworth solo album, Mo Beauty or on the Flashy Python album, Skin and Bones. Thats a pity that some of these songs may never see the light of day, notably Cecil Stick With The Story, a favourite of mine that deserves a release in its own right and not some obscure MP3 passed around fans.

All in all though this collection is a joy, enjoyable and played multiple times in the Staffordshire sun. 8 out of 10.

Dee oh Dee by Alec Ounsworth

Greatest

2010-03-04T09:01:00.000Z

After the shocking music from the previous couple of days, its nice to come back, momentarily to Johnny Cash and the album recorded for Sun, Greatest.
Johnny was the Greatest and thats what this refers to, its not a greatest hits, although of course the quality that Johnny produced through all periods was great.
This is an album that was released in 1959 after Johnny had left Sun and this reissue is notable for many things, but the most notable and memorable is the scratchy track recorded at KWEM a radio station, Rock and Roll Ruby, its extremely rare and a joy to listen to, Cash sounds different on this recording, but still as the album suggests, the greatest.
Present on this recording are a few of my favourites in Katy Too, Get Rhythm and Luther Played the Boogie. Its quite telling that I favour the Cash penned tracks over other solid songs. Admittedly Hey Good Lookin and Johnny’s version makes me want to investigate Hank Williams a little more.
All in all as ever, a fantastic Johnny Cash album, he should have celebrated his birthday last week, he would have been 78, therefore 71 when he died. My wife pointed out that is far too young in this day and age. 10 out of 10.

Rock and Roll Ruby by Johnny Cash

Golden Cleaners

2010-03-04T08:47:00.000Z

I first became aware of The Cleaners From Venus via the book, Lost In Music by Giles Smith. Its a book that recounts Smiths time in bands and notably The Cleaners From Venus. Initially I thought it was a work of fiction, the band a fictitious group. Obviously as I worked at a record shop (we could be selling shoes!) I had to look as to if The Cleaners From Venus were real. They were and this collection, Golden Cleaners was bought to see what they were like.
I played it once, and if you count yesterdays commute twice.

This collection covers a period loosely referred to as New Wave, and the impression that I got is that Martin Newall, the main songwriter in The Cleaners From Venus and now poet, cum musician, cum author, certainly at the time of writing these songs is a talentless hack that had his albums released on cassette as no one really would take a punt on the expense of vinyl.

Lyrically the man is shocking, 6 form poetry that has a stab at humour but comes out sounding like that irritating boy at school that used to quote The Young Ones ad nauseum. None more so than on Illya Kuryakin Looked at Me, a pitiful song that tries to create a Syd Barrettesque story but sounds like a Flight Of The Conchords comedy tune, if Flight Of The Conchords were trying to do a cure influenced Syd Barrett cover, this is what it would sound like.

It does however display a certain charm in places, Newall stops being the rock star he wants to be and puts some effort into lyrics and it comes good, but his ego takes over most of the songs. Its OK to have a little ego, when the work justifies it, but one, two maybe three reasonable tracks on a best of collection is a dreadful ratio.

So Golden Cleaners, because of Illya Kuryakin Looked at Me, Johnny The Moondog Is Dead and other crimes. 2 out of 10.

Armistice Day by The Cleaners From Venus

See Through This And Leave

2010-03-02T14:00:00.000Z

Its light in the mornings these days, which is pleasant, there was a light frost and a bright sun, heading through Shugborough it was difficult not to slow down and take it all in. Actually the reason for slowing down was due to some bloody lorry driver crawling along at 25 miles per hour taking in natures glory, either that or captivated by the hilarity of Chris Moyles.
I digress. My musical accompaniment wasn’t the hapless lard boy, the money grabbing leech that head BBC honcho would rather have polluting the airwaves over 6 Music. No it wasn’t him, it was The Cooper Temple Clause and their debut album See Through This And Leave.
I am not in a mood because of the feckless Phil Dowd, this is my wifes CD, I despaired when I bought her this and the follow up for Christmas, but it was an easy win, a band she liked 2 cd’s out = 2 gifts. Phil Dowd, he is off my Christmas list though.
OK so what of this? It is a shocking pile of manure that has no equal. Its quite perplexing how this pitiful weak pub band got signed in the first place, let alone keep up the charade for 3 albums.
They take all of the worst aspects of band I detest and roll them into a dung infested musical meringue. Oasis, Kasabian, Muse. Appalling stuff.
Maybe if there was a tune there it would have made all the difference and would have lightened my mood a little to the point that I wouldn’t have given the finger to the driver of a Merc near Rugeley Power Station, but no this tuneless dirge meant that a frown was ever present and the only thing again stopping me lobbing it out of a window was the knowledge it is my wifes CD and I want my tea tonight, it may not be forthcoming if I said “Dear, your Cooper Temple Clause CD is currently rolling down a hill between Rugeley and Lichfield can I have 5 fishfingers please.”
As it stands, it’s the worst C so far. Tuneless, noodly, lad rock, derivative, bad vocals, bad playing. Awful. See Through This And Leave 0 out of 10.

Biggest Bluest HiFi

2010-03-01T15:45:00.003Z

Wembley was a pleasant enough experience, but less said about the result the better. Prior to that though I had a commute and a CD to accompany that commute, it was the debut album by Scots band Camera Obscura, Biggest Bluest HiFi.
Its a cracker of an album but not the strongest that tey have produced, a band possibly that have got stronger and stronger on every release (time will tell as their latest album is to be played yet), certainly the two albums that followed this made me love the band more and more.
Stand out tracks are Happy New Year and the song that introduced the band to me, Eighties Fan. Spectorish in sound, gorgeous and utterly beautiful, this is what the band showed from the outset and that is how they carried on.
This is a really short write up for the album, its a very good album, but time has dictated that I havent been able to get any time to write this since Friday and can only hurry a few lines out now.
Incidentally there is a line in Happy New Year, "I'm softer than my face would suggest", that used to be a title of a blog I did. I am.
Biggest Bluest Hifi, 7 out of 10. Can I add that every time I give something 7 or review something badly and give it a 6 I think back to the early reviews and notably Ant Hardings music and am aware that one of those was a 6, now that things have settled a bit and I know what a 6 is, Ant is way better than 6. Camera Obscura, 7.

Happy New Year by Camera Obscura

Aston Villa

2010-02-27T07:46:00.003Z

If you read this blog with any regularity you may know that I am an Aston Villa supporter and this weekend am off to Wembley for the Carling Cup final against Man United. A big deal for me, and it seems other supporters who have took it upon themselves to record tribute songs celebrating the final.
This one it seems is based on the Black Eye Peas song, I Got A Feeling.

Colin Davies, who put that song together is an ardent Villa supporter and has put together numerous songs and videos celebrating the team. It's kind of catchy.

The next one is The Ultimate Villa Song, and at times it sounds like Sham 69, not a good thing.

The Ultimate Villa Song (Murfee Mix)

A song I heard on Radio WM though is Althea and Rays Aston Villa and to be frank it is fucking shocking. You have to listen to it, Man United, they get Status Quo to write songs about them, we get this shite.

Enjoy.

Aston Villa Carling Cup Rap by Althea and Ray.

The Side Project

2010-02-26T12:56:00.003Z

One of the joys of Leeds Festival last year wasn’t seeing youngsters running riot in some rock n roll Lord of The Flies, but instead it was seeing The Bronx’s side project band, Mariachi El Bronx. Great songwriting served up in a beautiful mariachi style that was neither novelty nor comedy. I really can not recommend their album enough.

I Would Die 4 U by Mariachi El Bronx

Side Projects are that way of letting off steam, for some its an escape from your regular bandmates before you kill them (Blink 182’s four examples in Angels and Airwaves, Boxcar Racer, The Transplants and Plus 44) or a way of getting a different sound out there (McCartney’s The Fireman). Sometimes it’s secret (Green Day’s Foxboro Hot Tubs), Sometimes not so secret, (Homme, Jones and Grohl’s Them Crooked Vultures).

There Is by Boxcar Racer

The side project is as old as time, from Robert Johnson standing at the crossroads want to collaborate with Lucifer on a blues side project as he felt the confines of his usual krautrock band was stifling him. It’s not that well documented in all honesty.

The side project for some is a release take Alexis On Fire man at the back, Dallas Green, Dallas Green in his side project guise makes me very happy with his songs, Alexis On fire, not so much. Dallas, from Canadia records under the name of City and Colour (Dallas Green, geddit?) Alexis On Fire, shouty!!!!! City and Colour not shouty, lovely, fluffy, keep your wifes hair out of the way whilst she throws up, helpful. Alexis On Fire shouty!!!!!!!

The Girl by City and Colour

Clapton was the master of the side project, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Derek and the Dominoes and Blind Faith, but thats the tipping point of when a Side Project becomes a supergroup, The Clap loved the supergroup.

Comin Home by Delaney, Bonnie and Friends

Of course there are times when the side project eclipses the main project. Further Seems Forever turned into a shit sub par Christian emo band when Chris Carrabba went off and did Dashboard Confessional, never to return due to their shit sub parChristian emo leanings, that and Dashboard Confessional being a whole heap more popular.

Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional

Another notable main act eclipsing side project is Broken Social Scene, the side project of another from Canadia Do Make Say Think, Do Make Say Think are the undisputed champions of the pushing their members out to the projects, Lullabye Arkestra, Gesundheit, Z'howndz, Microgroove, Sphyr, Years and The Happiness Project all being side projects and most of them are the side project of main noodler in Do Make Say Think, Ohad Benchetrit.

7/4 Shoreline by Broken Social Scene

Give em' Enough Rope Review

2010-02-25T14:43:00.001Z

John Mellor, Michael Jones, Nicholas Headon and Paul Gustave Simonon were todays commute music makers, or The Clash to me and you and their second album, Give Em Enough Rope.
The Clash are the greatest Rock n Roll band on the planet (after Tenacious D) and this their second album confirmed it for most. Universally liked by critics and fans alike it is an album that has stood the test of time. I think its OK, not that great and maybe my 4th favourite Clash album.
You see its got filler on it, and The Clash should not do filler on a single album, there isn’t any filler on double albums so why is there on a single? This filler is fair though and the good tracks are great, but where is the Career opportunities though, or the White Man in Hammersmith? Possibly still Hammersmith’s Palais.
It does have Tommy Gun, it does have Safe European Home and more but somehow these left me unfulfilled, The Clash are one of my very favourite bands, and I guess this isn’t Cut The Crap, thank heavens for that, but it’s just not right. 6 out of 10.

Stay Free by The Clash

Take Dis Review

2010-02-24T12:07:00.002Z

If this was 1994 and this was the Shropshire Star you would be reading now that Peter of Donnington’s favourite albums were Dolittle by Pixies, If This Is Rock And Roll I Want My Old Job Back by The Saw Doctors and Take Dis By Credit To The Nation. This is 2010, I now live in Stafford and this isn’t the Shropshire Star.
Those albums are what a 24 year old me though were unsurpassed in modern music, I suspect Bandwagonesque was also part of that list. I still like all of those albums by the way, just perhaps not as fervently at 39 as I did at 24.
That brings us neatly to todays commute disc, Take Dis by Credit To The Nation. UK hip hop act fronted by MC Fusion, or as his mum calls him, Matty Hanson.
Walsall is famous for many things, its market is the punchline to a joke involving the lead singer of A-ha, Noddy from Slade used to roam the Beechdale, as did Martin Degville of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the current Mrs D’s formative years were also spent there, as was MC Fusion from Credit To The Nation. Wikipedia also tells me that Boy George spent some time in Walsall, I find that hard to believe.
Enough of the history lesson, to here, and now and the CD.

I still like it it has to be said, its still a good album as far as UK hip hop goes. Mainly political in its themes, be them rascism, sexism, police brutality or the government. Fusion was politicised if memory serves working with the likes of Chumbawamba and possibly Blaggers ITA, that feeling and those artists at that time would always show up in the words of any left leaning youth.

Hanson at times struggle to hide his anger, on lines like “the fucker named Major” you feel his anger, more so at the time, these days, you think oh John Major (father of whom came from Walsall). Some times though he mocks, on Honey, the target is Shabba Ranks. Yes the targets haven’t dated well, but the sentiment still means the same.

The most memorable track was the Nirvana sampling Call It What You Want, This was the record that bought CTTN to the attention of most of Britain, it is a great song, but as they try to iterate a lot on the CD, they are more than a sample, Hanson stresses this and it is the case, this album is more than a sample, but in the book of life, after Godzilla has looked sheepish whilst they try to find him, Matty Hanson will unfortunately say, you know, the one that samples Smells Like Teen Spirit.

For me it’s a track that is the weakest on the album, there is better. These days Hanson is back recording under the name Credit To The Nation and is going to be playing dates in 2010, this is a very good thing, this album, the follow up and the album being recorded as we speak need to be heard. So Take Dis, 8 out of 10.

Sowing The Seeds Of Hatred by Credit To The Nation

NB. Matty Hanson is from Wednesbury, my wife has informed me, this is NOT Walsall.

White Light Review

2010-02-23T16:17:00.000Z

So today we come to Gene Clark and White Light. Of all the albums in all the world that I have heard this is one of my favourite ever. My heart did a little leap this morning when I pulled it from the shelf, that BMW cutting me up just past Rugeley was not going to dampen my spirit one iota.
Its an alt country album in the best traditions of Gram Parsons, Neil Young and Clarks former home, The Byrds, it however does beat the living shit out of any of them, it beats them, stamps on their fingers, flicks them the V’s and says check that out, thats how to do an album, and just as this album is about to slam the door on a crying simpering Parsons, it looks back over it’s should and declares that you can stick you Flying Burrito Brothers up your arse.
It’s a good album.
My daughter, my idle baby girl (21) this week played me a Ryan Adams track and a flying Burrito Brothers track, it caught me off guard it has to be said, they were quite good, thats not what caught me off guard, the off guard catching was down to my dyed in the wool indie/rock/pop girl branched out beyond her comfort zone and played me a couple of tracks that I had never heard, but liked whole heartedly. Neither here nor there though as I know that Adams or FBB’s could produce a track that comes close to anything on this album, I have stated elsewhere on this blog that I do believe that they should make children listen to this album in schools.

“OK class, get out your ipods and turn to White Light, the seminal alt country album by former Byrd Gene Clark”

He even makes Stand By Me sound good on here, this version of the album, and I didn’t think that was possible (Stand by me being one of the few songs that regardless of the cover, it always sounds bad, yes I have heard that version before you say Lennon).

The Virgin is a song of astonishing quality, but its more than one track, For a Spanish Guitar its just consistent more than any other album I am likely to hear this entire year or beyond for that matter...maybe....another favourite is in the D’s.

Yes I may be looking at this through rose coloured specs, on the whole alt country is not my thing, but when its this good the genre isn’t important and its the songwriting that shines though. Clark on the whole is the lead songwriter and it is his songs that are the most fragile and at times plaintive and imploring. When he takes up someone like Dylans words its easier for him to pull down a mask, and that seems to be what he does. This is not a bad thing, or a criticism, it allows his focus to be on his playing and not conveying his innermost thoughts.

So an album that is perfect, faultless and completely without a flaw. It has to be 10 out of 10.

With Tomorrow by Gene Clark

Murder Ballads

2010-02-22T09:15:00.002Z

Monday, the mood was high after Aston Villas hammering of Burnley, and I was given a car sticker. Nothing not nothing was going to spoil that mood. Ah. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ Murder Ballads. Curses.
I am a bit hit and miss when it comes to Nick Cave, in Deanna, The Ship Song and The Mercy Seat he has been responsible for some of my favourite songs, but by Christ the man is overly dramatic. He really does create these tales that at first glance seem humourless. Then as Murder Ballads progress I start to really enjoy it, yes I would make some changes, no Minogue for me, I am part of the 1% in the country that really can not stand her, she is an irritation and none more so on this. Her weedy voice is the only downside of the Dylan cover, Death Is Not The End.
The highlight is the variation of Stagger Lee, I love Stagger Lee, I love it in most of its variations and this version does not disappoint.

So he walked through the rain and he walked through the mud
Till he came to a place called The Bucket Of Blood
Stagger Lee
He said "Mr Motherfucker, you know who I am"
The barkeeper said, "No, and I don't give a good goddamn"
To Stagger Lee
He said, "Well bartender, it's plain to see
I'm that bad motherfucker called Stagger Lee"

Superb song on a very good album, the journey in this morning was a little congested, but this album kept me going. 8 out of 10.

Stagger Lee by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Edit. That Nick Cave review is a little shortlived, it was hurried, apologies. A little more about the album, its a death frenzy of an album, full of murder and death, barring the last song, when various stars take turns to tell us death is not the end, its like a big finale on the muppet show really as Kylie, Shane Mcgowan and such like are wheeled out to give us a verse, I kind of expected John Denver and Roger Moore to also sing a line, as it goes though they must have been busy.
PJ Harvey appears on an earlier track, Henry Lee and she gives us her best Nick Cave impression, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had sang “I’m down here for your soul”. She didn’t.
This really is his most collaborative effort, as well as PJ Harvey, Kylie, McGowan, we have the various Bad Seeds, Terry Edwards, Katherine Blake out of Miranda Sex Garden, James Johnston from Gallon drunk and Roland S Howard. There are a lot lot more on this album. No Bono, but its only a matter time.

The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977-86

2010-02-22T08:55:00.000Z

It took me hours to get home on Thursday night and the only company was Cornershop, I chose to sit in gridlock on the M6 in silence, the only voice was my own cursing myself for going the Motorway home and not sticking to the A roads.
Friday it was not Cornershop though, its Elvis Costello and The Attractions and their 1994 compilation, The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977-86. Its quite specific that, pre beard?
I have a lot of Elvis Costello singles, possibly more than any other artist, all 7 inches and none bought by me, I don’t know how I got them but I have them, I only own one Elvis Costello album though and this is it. I think someone gave it to me, I don’t recall buying it. Maybe they took pity on me not having any Costello on CD.
Its of course excellent, in parts. Its classic in parts, its extremely well known, in parts. The parts that aren’t in parts are pretty good as well, you can hear him contemplating growing a beard though. “What would it take for McCartney to work with me? A BEARD!!!!!!!” “Hi is Pavarotti there? Yes, yes I have a beard” Costellos beard period isn’t really represented here. We have his clean shaven period and that takes in Radio Radio, Allison, I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, Olivers Army, one of my all time favourite songs in his version of Shipbuilding (Favourite being the Wyatt version), you get the idea, as the name suggests, its his very best from 77 to 86.
I like it a lot to be honest and think its possibly worth at the very least a 7, maybe an 8. Yes it is not as great when he gets to his stubble phase around 85 or 86, and even now you feel like saying yes Elvis, but what have you done lately? The reply would almost certainly be “Been on The One Show mate, what have you done?” Listened to Cornershop mate. 8 out of 10.

Alison by Elvis Costello

Tin Pan Alley

2010-02-18T12:40:00.000Z

I fear this may well be a post that my co-blogging, punk loving, country twanging, Ford fiesta driving, software testing co-blogger Peter will label as 'educational'. Being poorly educated myself, and in the business of educating poorly, I shall attempt to inform little, make spelling mistakes and riddle the thing with historical inaccuracies.

So, to New York and Tin Pan Alley, allegedly so called as the cacophony of noise created by so many music publishing houses being lumped together created a noise not unlike the sound of pans being hit.. The Bowery Boys are a couple of camp sounding podcasters who produce highly entertaining podcasts on New York history. They are free and regularly get me to work and back, transporting me from the sweaty hell hole of the Santiago metro to Pennsylvania Station, the slum of the Five Points or this week Tin Pan Alley (actually from December of last year).

Geographically speaking Tin Pan Alley doesn't actually exist. It was an area on West 28th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, which is now part of the Flatiron district. What we are talking about is the birth of the sheet music business, and songwriters and publishers touting their wares to artists as a way of spreading and popularising their songs. Of course, at the time, music was live. You had no way of listening in another way, so in order to make their money the publishing companies produced sheet music (often sold in department stores). Aspiring songwriters would try and sell their songs to the houses, who would probably pay them off with a one-off fee, or if they were any good they would employ them on contract to knock out song after song. Big stars would often be simply given a good song, as when they embarked on a tour they might spread its popularity across the nation and lead to a million copies of the sheet music being sold.

The Tin Pan Alley heydey was really about 1885 to 1910, when the companies started to move out of the district, although wireless and movies then came along, then records, and finally rock n'roll kicked it to death. This era produced many songs still recognised and played today (Take me Out to the Ball Game, for example), as well as host of well known song writing names - George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fats Waller, Cole Porter and Scott Joplin. You can read more of the history here or see how the place is threatened with re-development here.

So, here we go with the tunes. The brothers Gibb with Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band (he also wrote White Christmas).

Here are the moptops with a version of the Yellen & Ager song Aint She Sweet.

And finally, everyones favourite mobster with the Donaldson & Whiting My Blue Heaven.

When I Was Born For The 7th Time Review

2010-02-18T12:00:00.001Z

When I Was Born For The 7th Time was the CD for my commute, the 1997 album by Cornershop. A break through album to use the modern term as this was the album that contained by far their most well known song in Brimful Of Asha, the tribute to Asha Bhosle, and to playback singers in general.
The album is hit and miss on the whole, the full and proper songs with lyrics and melody are perfect, but as I have mentioned previously, Cornershop do these little interludes mainly made up of beats and and odd bursts of sitar etc. This falls flat for me, I like songs and the tracks that I consider “songs” make up a pretty good album.
We have the original un fatboy slimmed version of Brimful of Asha, a slightly slower pace to it and less reliant on loops, not to say I like the fatter version, I have the single, its a great, great pop record, think about this for a second, that was 13 years ago!! Also we have the marvellous, Sleep On The Left Side, Good Shit, Candyman, Funky Days Are Back Again, a fair to middling version of Norwegian Wood and my favourite track on the album, Good to Be on the Road Back Home, which features Paula Frazer.
The songs with lyrics are so good it does make up for the other songs but as someone that hates all of these interlude things on records, I never understand how they come to be released? What’s the benefit, as an artist it’s not really getting something worthwhile out, it doesn’t release your tortured soul or even give fans something they are desperate for, its merely a cynical album filler. What good, what purpose, what benefit to listener and artist is 3 minutes of drum loop with recorded effect and bongo over the top? At the record company meeting who was it that piped up, THAT has to go on the album? I don’t know, I don’t understand I don’t think, but I do know 13 years later I can buy the MP3’s I want and not feel cheated at the end of it by buying into Cornershops. musical masturbation. 5 out of 10.

Sleep On The Left Side by Cornershop

August and Everything After Review

2010-02-17T11:39:00.001Z

Lets imagine a Rom-com, late 90’s Rom-com. To paint this picture completely lets put Meg Ryan as the female lead and maybe Hanks or some such as the male lead. Follows the standard rom com pattern, polar opposites dislike each other at first, through a series of events become close only for the female lead to break it all off due to an innocuous comment early on in the flick or a misunderstanding, finally the male lead will make some heartfelt plea to win the heart of the female, all interspersed with various montages.
Todays CD soundtracks all of that, today I was commuting to the sound of Counting Crows and their debut, August and Everything After. This album not only soundtracks the fictional rom-com’s opening titles, the montages, the break up, the thoughtful reflection following the break up, the punch the air in delight reconciling and the end credits, but also the opening, the getting together montage and all the bastard rom com clichés inbetween.
Counting Crows were made for rom com soundtracks and although the songs are ok, I can’t help picturing montages, segues and credits. This distracts me as I know that Perfect Blue Buildings is alright a song and not the incidental music in a date scene, but that unfortunately is what comes through.
Its not a bad album though it just conjures up clear images due to its use and sound, it sounds like late 90’s rom com soundtrack music. I think its fair to give it 4 out of 10, it has a few ok songs and its better than the follow up, less Meg Ryan on that though.

Perfect Blue Buildings by Counting Crows

Underachievers Please Try Harder Review

2010-02-16T08:37:00.000Z

Claire Nazir was back on GMTV today, I like Claire Nazir. I could tell that it is going to be a good day. So after the musical equivalent of a chinese burn that was Converge yesterday, today we have the musical equivalent of the other side of the pillow in Camera Obscura and their second album, Underachievers Please Try Harder.
I have been off of the indie for some time, I may have mentioned its cyclic, every 5 years or so I despair at just how dull, or po faced, or bad that there indie music is and I go looking for something else, Kev has played witness to my dance phase and along the ways there has been hip hop, metal and this time its been listening to old music, but new to me. Recently though I have been slowly coming back to the fold and enjoying new music again and this brings me to this album, not new, but 5 months ago I may have not thought it quite as excellent as it is.
Its not indie though, broadly yes I suspect thats the way to describe the band, but this album is more aligned, with Phil Spector, with Patience and Prudence, with Leonard Cohen on at least one song.
Camera Obscura better their debut on this album and hint at the strength of material that they produced on their third album, on suspended from class singer Traceyanne Campbell advises us that she doesn’t know her elbow from her arse, but in such a way that she could be telling us that she has just saved a kitten. It’s cute but not cutesy.
Teenager and Keep It Clean were released as singles but you suspect any of the tracks could have made it out into the wild. Its a fantastic collection of great pop songs that made me wish my journey was a few extra miles and the album a little longer. 9 out of 10

Suspended From Class by Camera Obscura.

Jane Doe Review

2010-02-15T08:12:00.000Z

My commute CD album trek has took a bit of a rest, for many reasons, but today it started back up with a vengeance. In case you don’t know I am listening to all of my CD albums in turn, alphabetically and then I review them here.
The reason why I have had a month off from this is I needed a break from my own CD’s, I needed to catch up on a few podcasts, work was getting busy and primarily I am a coward.
Today’s CD was the 2001 album, Jane Doe by Converge, a Massachusetts hardcore/metal band, and to be frank it is potentially the worst album you will ever hear. Ever hear if you are stupid enough to hand over your money for it.

I was.

It’s absolutely dire and I really can’t think of any reason why I would buy it, and it was bought, believe me, from my own pocket money was spent, not downloaded illegally, or a copy from a friend, this is a bona fide purchased album.

So what does it sound like, it sounds like all of the scary thoughts I had as a child, chopped up, scrambled, screamed over and put back into my head via nail gun. If you had an infinite amount of time and an infinite amount of monkeys, with instruments, this cacophony would be the very first thing they produced. It would then be discarded in the hope of something that resembled a tune.

It’s that post hardcore sound that I maybe liked during the early 2000’s, that can be the only excuse, but whereas acts like Poison The Well and Cave In had some tunes and tried to inject a little melody, these guys can’t even do that.

So the cowardice? I saw this CD was next, I kind of guessed how I would feel about it and for a month I went into the spare room, sometimes I got to the spine of the CD, but for a month I shook my head, I knew it was the musical version of the film Anguish and I was in no mood to listen to it. It is done now and I am sure nought but fluffiness and jollity are ahead. So Converge, Jane Doe. Jane Doh! More like 0 out of 10.

The Evangenitals' Juli Crockett Interview

2010-02-13T09:26:00.004Z

Some time back I wrote on the glory of the band that is The Evangenitals, they truly are a band that continually impress, and bring me musical joy. With the release of their last mini album and UK tour it is the start of something good, great? More and more The Evangenitals are playing live and seem to have settled on an almost permanent and stellar line up. Singer, songwriter and head honcho of The Evangenitals, Juli Crockett took time out to answer a few questions and elaborate on the past, present and future.

You have just released a new EP, as someone that is aware of those songs in various forms, it struck me as a record of band that are really very confident in what they are doing. How is the feeling in The Evangenitals at the moment? Confident?

I don't know if "confidence" is a natural state or feeling for an artist, but we are certainly feeling adventurous! We have a VERY loving, fun, and respectful dynamic in the band, and I think that is helping us to discover new willingness to take greater risk. Pretty much it's a love fest at the moment, and we're having a really good time.

The whole journey of this band has been a truly wild ride. Lisa Dee and I started the project over 6 years ago, and over that time there have been a LOT of amazing players that have been in the band at one time or another. Just like finding your audience, I think it has taken us a long time to find our "band"... and it's a continual process. Simply to survive as a band, it's been important for us to be very adaptable and fluid, with an extended family of musicians who can fill in for whatever opportunities arise.

In the past few years, the "core" of the group has really started to congeal with a feeling bordering on permanence. After myself and Lisa Dee, lead guitarist Henry Bermudez has been with us the longest, followed by ferocious fiddler Andrea Baker. Having these two in the band is a continual source of humbling gratitude for me. They are simply amazing musicians, wonderful people, and truly contribute so much to the arrangements, sound, vibe, spirit, everything of the band. Accordionist Ari DeSano (whom I like to call Saint Squeezebox) is a radiating faucet of joy and holds the 5th slot of seniority in the gang. These folks are all on the new album, and I am in love with the instrumentation. Since the recording, our rhythm section has completely changed. Drummer David Hurlin moved back to Fairfield, Iowa and bassist Keith Lubow sallied forth to pursue other aspirations (he's a great photographer).

Henry Bermudez.

Our latest additions: bassist Laurie Es and drummer Kristy McInnis, are pretty much their own comedy team. It wasn't a conscious plan to get a female bassist and drummer, making the band now 6 WOMEN and ONE MAN. We like to say that Henry Bermudez is the only man "man enough" for the Evangenitals.

This EP, Mini album, album, call it what you like, what does it represent?

Part of the mission of this album was to truly capture what the Evangenitals actually sound like. So many people have said that our past albums are great, but the REAL Evangenitals experience is the LIVE experience. I think this is true... there's nothing like seeing us live, and you truly "get" the band, concept, mojo, magic, whatever-it-is about us when you do see us live... however, we really wanted to create an album that captured some of that feeling, the dynamics and range of our material, and was also radio-friendly. And awesome. A really high quality recording.... which is why we did the album with Tracy Chisholm at Del Boca Vista, because he is amazing.

So Sweet by The Evangenitals.

Lisa and I were really hands on with the recording and mixing process for this one, and we really worked on things until we got the feeling that we wanted. The whole band was amazing, supporting each other in the studio, chiming in on suggestions, and solutions would come from all directions. I remember that every single member of the band had their moment of providing the key suggestion for something that wasn't quite feeling right at some point during the process. It was a really great recording experience, and it's wonderful to work in an atmosphere so free of ego, where we are all committed to the overall sound, and the band as a whole. Tracy was great at not letting us settle for "close enough" and really following through until we got just the right feeling. I'm so happy with the final result!

The EP is a sort of glorified Demo for us; we went in intended to lay a bunch of songs down, and maybe 4 would come out good... but they ALL came out great. This EP is kinda like our calling card to the world. It's the first album that we're really trying to get out to radio & press, and so far the response has been incredible.

Tracy/DelBocaVista

You recently took you’re The Evangenitals experience to the UK, how did those live shows go? Did the British crowd react similarly to your US fanbase?

The trip to the UK was simply amazing. A transformative, bold, inspirational journey, both for ourselves and for those who supported us in this wild idea. We agreed to go with absolutely no idea how on earth we would pull it off, and the simple fact that we did it was so spiritually edifying... it still blows my mind. The live shows in the UK were off the hook. The audiences were so responsive and enthusiastic, it truly blew our minds. And people actually tip! And dance! Very different from the standard LA audience.

Did any particular songs go down better than others?

Fuck 'em All seemed to be an international success, hitting a chord with every audience we played it for. They LOVED the hillbilly barn-burners like Bad Town, Gasoline, and Sergio. Everyone seems to love the Vagina Song. Even the slow grooves, like Quee Queg, had magical effects on crowds. And the klezmer-punk version of The Hole that we do live never fails to set a room on fire. We are eager to get back over there ASAP and do a proper tour of the whole area. Our shows in London (What's Cooking at the Sheep Walk), Glasgow (13th Note) and all over Edinburgh (Voodoo Room, Forest Cafe, Bongo Club) were all totally positive experiences, and every venue wants us back.

Beyond our music and the crowds, we also got to play with some truly incredible Scottish bands, such as Scunner and Steph MacCleod -- whose drummer, Simon Walker, we borrowed for all of our Scotland gigs! We so fell in love with Steph's music and Scunner, we'd love to tour the whole friggin' globe with those two! And Simon was an utter champ. He fit in so well with the group that I completely forgot he was new and would forget to tell him which song we were playing next. He is a great drummer, and a great guy. We miss him.

(Simon is playing with us in this video, from the Forest Cafe gig: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=146576592055&subj=650132055)

The drummer we played with in London, Daniel Hurst, was also incredible. We literally met him at sound check, rehearsed a few tunes, and he totally killed it at the show. You can see some video of that gig on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=130184461695&subj=650132055

Scunner
Steph Macleod
Simon Walker

Whilst in the UK you also performed your play, Dawn of Quixote: Chapter The First, at the Edinburgh Festival. You have had quite a varied career already, but do you see this element of your writing separate to The Evangenitals or do you see all of your creative elements all playing a role in a bigger picture?

I'm standing by for the great convergence. I think it's on the horizon. In rehearsals we talk about the "Evangenitals Stage Show" which is the big-budget, stadium scale, circus/mega-church vision in my mind that someday I'm going to "direct" and it'll all come together in a blinding singularity of The Event... puppets, light shows, aerial rigging, the works... we really need to collaborate with Cirque de Soliel or something...

There are a lot of projects in the works that will blur the lines a bit more between the "theater" projects and the "band" stuff. We are getting closer to actually recording our Moby Dick album, which could very well end up having a stage show attached to it. I have also just begun talks with an amazing Cuban actress, Marissa Chibas, about creating a major collaborative theater piece that I would direct & the Evangenitals would do a full-on concept album for. We're also very involved with The 1 Second Film project, and will be recording a mini-album for that, and plotting another cross-country tour (the follow-up for our Road to Oprah tour) in 2011.

The 1 Second Film
Road to Oprah Tour

We don't really have a grand plan as a band, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing... we are very open to all sorts of adventures, and just try to follow our hearts and interests. Everyone in the band is in other bands, and has other projects and interests, and that is something that we greatly encourage. I think it makes the group more interesting, and more creatively fulfilled. I've seen so many people get burned out and frustrated with a band (or any creative pursuit) when it is ALL that they are investing in/counting on, and it is not fulfilling ALL of their needs. Each person has to be self-supporting and take care of their own creative juice. Then when we come together, it's like a pot luck... everyone bringing their latest passions and discoveries, and we get to play and share. That's the ideal. Creating from the overflow and joy of BEING, not out of desperation, lack, or need.

Going back to the new album, you have a beautiful track on the album called Home, it really hints at a longing to be “somewhere else but here”, is that what you were trying to convey or is it more about the security of the home?

Home was written as a sort of joke, because I have moved so much in my lifetime that there wasn't really any place that I identified as "Home"... I was born in Alabama and have lived in Florida, Bermuda, South Carolina, North Carolina, New York, Guatemala, and Los Angeles. In the 12 years now that I've lived in Los Angeles, I've moved over 20 times within this giant city.

Home by The Evangenitals.

To give some context to the creation of that tune, here's some backstory:

Many of the oldest Evangenitals songs I wrote with an ex boyfriend (writer Gordon Torncello) many, many years ago with no intention of ever playing them in public. Gordon and I met in New York at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. At the time, he was a filmmaker and I was a theater director and we were taking guitar (him) and upright bass (me) lessons from the same guy -- amazing jazz musician John Brandt. We were both painfully shy people, and just wrote silly songs for our own amusement. We started "Home" while living in a old piercing parlor storefront in Los Feliz underneath a sex toy company that I was working at (Stockroom.com). When we moved out to LA, we moved in with his family. He was from here, 6 generations of family here, childhood friends, toys, baby blankets, etc... and I didn't have anything. I felt like a total nomad, which I like. The song was written out of a longing to emulate that kind of feeling, combined with a joy for being such a wanderer. The cool part about the tune, for me, is that the feeling of HOME exists within the song itself. It's not a place, it's a feeling, and I can take that feeling anywhere. Every time I perform the song, I absolutely feel like I have that kind of Home, a place you've never left and never want to leave.

When the Evangenitals did The 1 Second Film's Road to Oprah tour a couple years ago, we playing "Home" in every single town we visited. Very soon, the new 1 Second Film site is going to be launching and director Nirvan Mullick is going to debut the epic Home VIDEO -- which features us playing home for everyone from his grandmother to Albert Maysles, and everywhere from the Grand Canyon to the Lincoln Monument to the High School where my mom teaches in Florida. It's a real heart warming. I'm so excited for it to go live!

Whats next in the world of Juli Crockett?

Good gracious... I'm not sure, but I'm really excited! Over the Christmas holidays I decided to take a break from the Johnny Cash tribute band I'd been "June Carter-ing" for over the past couple years (Cash'd Out). I was super grateful for the experience and opportunity to tour extensively with that band, however, I feel like I need to give my full attention to my own original creative projects at this time. The Evangenitals are ripe and I wanna give the band the time and focus that it needs! There's some amazing energy in the air and the little voice inside keeps whispering "the time is NOW!" so I have to heed the call.

I've got some major theater projects on the horizon as well: adapting the Gertrude Stein novel "Brewsie & Willie" for director Travis Preston & the Poor Dog Group in LA, and writing a piece on Nijinsky for director DJ Mendel and composer DBR at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York. With the launch of the new 1 Second Film site, I'm going to be much more involved with that project again (plotting tours and promotional events), and I'm also involved with an amazing non-profit called "Laughter for a Change" which teaches improv comedy to communities that could really use a good laugh. The Evangenitals are working the West Coast in the coming months, with mini-tours from San Fran to San Diego. It's a full life, and a dang good one! :-)

The Evangenitals have a huge online presence and your first port of call should be the official site. http://www.evangenitals.com/

Eastenders Music Connections

2010-02-12T07:59:00.002Z

Eastenders eh, its musical fruits possibly outweigh any of the other soaps, yes Morrissey may have appeared on the Brookside spin off, South, yes Richard Fleishman may have appeared on and won Soapstar Superstar, but for musical high points and low points, cockernee soap, Eastenders is the master.

Morrissey glumming it up on South.

You knew from the off that their stall was set out when cafe working crusty Rod, rocked up wearing a Neds Atomic Dustbin t-shirt, somehow the likelihood of Ena Sharples sporting a They Might Be Giants hoodie was nil. Rod incidentally was played by Christopher McHallem, who was in the post punk band The Transmitters, notable for Tim Whelan and Hamilton Lee, who formed Furniture and later, Transglobal Underground.

In those Rod years the cast had valiant attempts at pop stardom with Nick Berry anthem for the underdog, Every Loser Wins, the female Brian May, Anita Dobson warbling some made up words to the theme tune in Anyone Can Fall In Love, the ending notes weren’t dum-dum-du-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum!!!

Every Loser Wins by Nick Berry

From that early period we managed to believe that Kelvin and Sharon and Ian Beale could actually be popstars in The Banned, well Britain it seemed believed them and Something Out Of Nothing was rather incredulously, a hit.

Something Outta Nothing by Letitia Dean and Paul Medford

The Fowlers have a deep vein of musicality running through their permanently frown ridden lives, Pauline, matriarch and chief misery was the vocalist on the 1960’s number one with Mike Sarne, Come Outside, she ended up on the cutting room floor when she appeared in a Beatles film though. Arthur Fowler and his embezzling ways merely attracted the attention of north eastern chancers who took it upon them to name themselves Freearfa, you see what they did there.

Come Outside by Mike Sarne and Wendy Richard

Pete Beale, cheeky chappie that ran the fruit and veg stall he had a stab at the charts, 1986, and he releases dreadful football record “Can’t get a ticket (for the world cup), he also appeared as a bouncer in the shit film , The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, two crimes that are ultimately forgiveable.
Move forward a few years and Corrie have Quo gracing their cobbles, and a young Davey Jones of the Monkees may have pressed the flesh in Weatherfield in the 60’s, but Eastenders bought a bona fide popstar to the square in Martin Kemp in the 90’s, Steve Owen was a club owner and the only man for the job would be ex Spandau Ballet man and carpet and furniture salesman Martin Kemp. He didn’t sing much, but he was a dab hand with an ornamental ashtray.

Martin Kemp

Lets talk briefly about cameo appearances, Robbie Williams, now that is brief, Robbie Williams graced our screens for 2 seconds on a phone many years ago, he may have uttered “was gahin on”?
Manchester based indie band Pullover once tried to put across just how hacked off they were by telling us that they felt “as miserable as shell off eastenders”. Eastender is rather depressing, but the sunshine was bought into proceedings momentarily by the release of The Eastenders Singalong album, a musical highlight of 1985, and guaranteed to have a right old lahndan knees up.
As we come up to more modern times, feisty blonde vixens Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell have both had their brushes with music, in young Roxy, AKA, Samantha Janus AKA Samantha Womack, she was our 1991 Eurovision entry with a message to your heart, it got 47 points, not bad really.
As for Roxy, my favourite of them Mitchell girls, her uncle is Alan Sugar by the way, but Roxy, well Rita Simons, she was in a girlband, Girls@Play, who amongst other delights covered Mel and Kim’s Respectable.

Airhead by Girls@Play

Finally we have Preeya Kalidas, she who plays Amira, although not charty and all that, she was in the dreadful Lloyd Webber musical, Bombay Dreams and performed on its most famous track Shakalaka Baby, you know that?

Thats Eastenders then, currently celebrating its 25th year of depressing the nation. I prefer Corrie.

Unthank You Very Much

2010-02-09T19:46:00.000Z

It seems that Peter, my prolific co-blogger has gone awol, or possibly doo-lally, or maybe even down the garden with the pixies (in the spare bedroom with the Pixies 1st album is probably more likely). The last time he went this quiet was when he got a 3 week job on an oilrig filling up the vending machines. It could well be that as we speak he is being hoisted somewhere above the freezing north sea, clutching a box of kit-kats.

I'm on the path to knowledge today, with a new word - 'Unthank'. Imagine a friend gives you a gift, lets say a plant. You thank your friend for said plant. Three days later the plant has attracted a swarm of deadly insects that have invaded your home and killed the cat. You might wish to 'unthank' your friend for the plant.

Before becoming The Unthanks, and I have no idea how grateful they are when receiving gifts (they did win Folk album of the year once and were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2008) this outfit were known as Rachel Unthank and The Winterset. It rather put me off that when I looked 'em up on 'net there were Paul Morley quotes everywhere on them (him of 'a right dick' fame), but I persevered and found them to be everything that Morley appears not to be - talented, understated, engaging, enigmatic, and so on.

Tres Hombres & a Ford Fiesta in a Snow Bank

2010-02-01T17:29:00.000Z

I fear for my co-blogger's health. It's been over a week since we heard from him and I have mental images of a Ford Fiesta being stuck in a hard-to-spot-from-the-road snow bank, somewhere in the west midlands. Peter, having been stuck in his car for days, wrapped in pages of the Birmingham A-Z for warmth (Villa ground marked in yellow highlighter and the Bull Ring fashioned into a hat) has eaten his way through part of his leather steering wheel cover and has been tapping out John Bonham rhythms on the glass in an effort to attract attention. Let's hope Peter is home soon.

Have you seen that sitcom Two and a Half Men? Just the other day daft loser brother Alan said ".........VH1, or whatever the kids are watching these days......" and I thought 'I really should have a look at VH1, it is probably aimed at 40 something couch spuds like me. And, it did come to pass that I did look at it, and it was rubbish. The only thing I could just about stomach was 15 minutes of ZZ Top on a show called Storytellers. I guess to most people ZZ Top are ZZ Who? these days, although they first started touring in 1970, and have had the same line-up since day one. Their massive success in the early 80's came with their 8th or 9th album, which you wouldn't see these days. When you look at this clip from 1980 it's hard to believe they went on to be such stars of the MTV generation, or whatever the kids were watching in those days .........

I Swear...

2010-01-22T16:16:00.002Z

Accusations of Tourettes have been flying around this blog of late. I try to limit my expletives to the occasional bloody, due to the knowledge that parents may be reading, however Coldplay made me utter the C word, as Kev pointed out, twice.

Here is a little snippet from everyhit.com

The Super Furry Animals 1996 hit "The Man Don't Give A..." contained 49 expletives; a record for a Top 40 single. The most for a solo hit is 33 in Eamon's 2004 track "F**k It (I Don't Want You Back)." This single also holds the record for most expletives in a chart-topper. The 'award' for most profanities in a hit by a female artist goes to Frankee whose 2004 number 1 "F.U.R.B. (F U Right Back)" (an answer song to Eamon's) contained 22 swear words.

Swearing. Swearing on record, the first time I heard actual swearing wasn’t on any punk single, I quite frankly didn’t know what frigging was, even if there was fuck all else to do, I heard swearing on record rather late in life, in my mid teens I heard Billy Idol effing and blinding on the b-side to Rebel Yell, Do Not Stand In The Shadows. I felt like a rebel listening to it.

Do Not Stand In The Shadows by Billy Idol

The previously referred The Man Don’t Give A Fuck, really does go all out in the swear stakes, ridiculously catchy and if memory serves me, which it rarely does, initially released as a limited edition, available for a week then deleted. The cover feature Cardiff player Robin Friday, Friday truly did not give a fuck, as perhaps this quote off his Wikipedia page testifies.

“Whilst playing against Mark Lawrenson for Cardiff against Brighton on the 31 October 1977, Friday became agitated by the future BBC pundit. He kicked Lawrenson in the face and received a red card before defecating in Lawrenson's kit bag”.

The Man Don’t Give A Fuck by Super Furry Animals

Lets not dwell on football though, back to the swearing. Some years ago I had the misfortune of seeing the band Minty in concert, when the balding mechanic off of the Eastenders didn’t take the stage and a bunch of that London art rockers did, I knew then it was going to get messy. Minty went on to be one of my wife’s favourite bands and during their career they produced a fiercely sweary track in Useless Man. The balding mechanic off of the Eastenders didn’t.
Useless Man unless I did a compilation for you between 96 and 2001 (it had a long shelf life) you are unlikely to have heard it, it really does set a new standard in recorded swearery, The Beatles may have exclaimed bloody! On I Am The Walrus, but that’s Sunday School compared to this.

“Boot lickin, piss drinkin, fingerfriggin, tit tweakin,
love bitin, arse lickin, shit stabbin, mother fuckin,
spunk lovin, ball bustin, cock suckin, fist fuckin,
lipsmackin, thirst quenchin, cool livin, ever givin
USELESS MAN"

What can I say, although sweary it did have a good beat.

Useless Man by Minty

These days though its common place to have the odd expletive in a song, you can spot them a mile off, the ever faithful bleep has been dispensed with, they just dip the sound or a radio edit loops a different word.

Glee, the current invader of the pop charts look to chart this week with Kanye West’s Gold Digger, a great song, truly magnificent and loved universally in our house, some say for its take on Ray Charles, some say its for his fly lyrics, but on the whole its because we love the swearing.

Gold Digger by Kanye West

“If you fuckin' with this girl then you betta' be paid
You know why
Take too much to touch her
From what I heard she got a baby by Busta
My best friend say she used to fuck with Usher
I don't care what none of y'all say I still love her”

Wisely the Fox produced serial Glee chose not to go into the girls dalliances wit’ Usher and Buster, sorry Busta.

Gold Digger by Glee Cast

Mary Prankster, Baltimore singer and songwriter now retired from performing and living in New York could and has shown the big boys how to do it. Too numerous to list all her potty mouth moments, such as Tits and Whiskey (“fuck the rhythm and lets break out the tits and whiskey cos that shows we’re anarchists”) Piss Off, Mercyfuck, you get the idea of that.
Tits and Whiskey is perhaps the only song in existence that rhymes Fuck Me with Rubber Ducky.

“Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me
I am Ernie’s rubber ducky
Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me
Let’s break out the tits and whiskey”

Mercyfuck by Mary Prankster

2 Live Crew, NWA, Eminem, I suspect even Vanilla Ice dropped the F-Bomb when the need presented itself, from Gwen Stefani telling us this shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s, to Lennon telling us we are all fucking crazy as far as he could see. From bands such as Fuck, The Shits and Anal Cunt, Swearing, big AND clever.

Down and Out.

2010-01-21T15:07:00.000Z

It seems that Peter has turned into a Stafford based Barry Norman/Roger Ebert type today (albeit with mild Tourettes), and that we have transmorgified into a film related blogorama in full IMAX surround sound 3D with popcorn and nachos and an organ player that pops up from the floor at the start of the show. Who am I to question our new direction? Next week I believe we're reviewing the 50 Best Manbags.

The closest I personally have ever come to the evil dead was a game at Birmingham City in the 80's, and as horror is not my favoured genre I shall turn my attention to what I like to call 'the down and out on the way back up'. Think Rocky, think Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler (think Mickey Rourke in real life), think Liverpool FC at the moment, you get my drift. One last shot at the big time before the inevitable crash and burn.

Jeff Bridges, who I like tremendously as an actor (how else would I like him?) has just bagged himself a Golden Globe for his portrayal as Bad Blake, a fifty-something year old alcoholic country singer-songwriter, in the movie Crazy Heart. The character is apparently based on a combination of real life characters, Waylon Jennings, the effortlessly cool Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard. T-Bone Burnett (him of Krauss & Plant production fame, Walk the Line soundtrack, Oh Brother soundtrack, and on and on) wrote the music and the whole thing is based on Thomas Cobb's novel. 'The Weary Kind' also won best original song. The soundtrack sounds well worth investigating, as it has Billy Joe Shaver, Lightnin' Hopkins and The Louvin Brothers, although I did also notice the words 'Performed by Colin Farrell', which gives cause for concern.

Evil Dead

2010-01-21T11:36:00.001Z

I am one of those people that consider the film, The Evil Dead to be amongst the upper 10% of the best films ever made. I also believe its sequel, Evil Dead 2, to be amongst the top 5 best films ever made. I think it was these films that made me realise that Horror films were my friend and not something that made the 70’s version of me check behind the bathroom door every time I went in there.
Evil Deads impact on music is marginal to say the least, but it has had an impact of sorts.

The original films roots sprang from the Super 8 amateur production that was Within The Woods, a 30 minute film that has never had a commercial release due to the fact that Sam Raimi, Campbell et als disregard to copyright in relation to the music they used. Time was short, so any old music was put on the thing. It may have been fine in the 70’s as effectively a commercial to raise cash for the bigger picture, but in these days of DVD extras, it is the most glaring omission of all Evil Dead DVD’s.

Bruce Campbell, the trilogy’s star in Ash was not a crooner, the boy has the chin but not the pipes, and his musical contribution is in purely tribute form. MC Lars, comedy rap punk pours that tribute out in “Do The Bruce Campbell”.

“Get on the floor and do the Bruce Campbell
Get on the mic wax a chump like a candle
Four MC's we're more than you can handle
Protect your neck and do the Bruce Campbell”

It isn’t it has to be said the greatest song in the world, and it isn’t particularly about Bruce Campbell or specifically Evil Dead, its more a song about the horror genre. It’s a bit shit.

Do The Bruce Campbell by MC Lars.

Musically that’s not where Evil Dead connections end, In 2004 a production opened in Canada called Evil Dead: the Musical. George Reinblatt based his story and lyrics on the original film and it is quite an oddity, obviously a comedy, but perhaps as odd as Spiderman: The Musical. I will come to that connection shortly. But with regards, Evil Dead: The Musical, it seems that Raimi and Campbell will just about endorse anything.

What The Fuck Was That from Evil Dead: The Musical

Evil Dead’s director, wunderkind Sam Raimi, has had a long and mostly auspicious career, as well as a long relationship and friendship with Bruce Campbell, responsible for Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, and also The Spiderman franchise and Drag Me To Hell. I like Sam Raimi. Sam Raimi though is responsible for the most cringeworthy moment in film, musically speaking or otherwise though and that is the dance scene in Spiderman 3, where Peter Parker dances in a nightclub, Sam Raimi, Director of Evil Dead, what the hell were you thinking.

Spiderman 3, really? Really!

I am unsure as to how much of a hand Raimi has had in Spiderman: The Musical, currently in production with music provided by Bono and The Edge. Lord help us, lets hope none.

Finally we come to the third film in the trilogy, Army of Darkness, Medieval Dead if you will. Cohort of Tim Burton, Danny Elfman initially started soundtracking this film, but it seems that common sense prevailed and regular Raimi collaborator, Joseph LoDuca was thankfully pulled in to score the film. Thank Christ for that, I couldn't think of anything more tedious than Danny Elfmans musical theatre nonsense. You can hear LoDucas work on the current US show Leverage, that and the He Man movie. But what maybe the more surprising id that Loduca occasionally performs live with his wife, Lucy Lawless, or Xena as she is more widely known.

Hallelujah by Joseph LoDuca and Lucy Lawless

It should be noted that Army of Darkness also features Bridget Fonda, who is married to former Oingo Boingo man, Danny fucking Elfman.

Libertines reform?

2010-01-18T14:27:00.001Z

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with The Libertines, admittedly they haven't produced anything that I found disagreeable. I just don't like the band though, I don't like their image, the members, their videos, anything at all outside of their music. Like the bastards they are, they produce some pretty good songs.
Today I see a report that they are due to reform in 2011, but hold on a cotton picking minute before you rush out to source tickets for this fictional date in the distant future as you will see almost from the moment they split up this fictional reformation has been mooted with alarming regularity.

OK, so December 2004, Libertines dissolve, Doherty, the drug addled buffoon was more intent on the crack than the craic and he was in the paper more than a battered cod. Dirty Pretty Things was a little bit away, so when do we see the first green shoots of reforming? A mere 18 months later talking in The Scotsman Carl Barat said,

"I like to think I left it on ice. We're obviously busy with other things, but I like it when I see Pete as long as it's not really public," Barat told the Scotsman.

"By the very nature of my and Pete's relationship, we could be back on stage before you know it."

Before we know it? OK so maybe he was a little premature, let's keep our gobs shut Carl till we have something a little more concrete.

10 months later and what do you know Barat is at it again, this time he is talking to XFM,

"We're doing different things, but at some point I'd be happy to work with Pete. Our relationship hasn't really faded away."

Fair do's Barat, its implicit not explicit, you would like to work with him. I would like to have Drew Barrymore bring me breakfast in bed whilst the missus was on an extended visit abroad, you get me Barat? We all want something. Lesson learnt Barat?

A couple of months later and what do you know, Glastonbury 2007 and bingo it looks like the Libertines are going to put their differences aside according to Digital Spy.

Pete Doherty and Carl Barat are reportedly to reunite The Libertines for Glastonbury festival's Acoustic Stage.

Excellent, I suspect that will be that blabbermouth Barat who gave them that juicy vignette?

A source told Mirror: "The lads have been talking about it for months.

"Although they've both got their own bands now, neither has had anything like the acclaim The Libertines had.

Did it happen then? No even with months of preparation or as sources like to call it "talking" they still didn't pull it off. OK, these bands just get my hopes up, that's it isn't it? Won't fall for that again, no sirree Bob.

12 months later of course we do have another rumour that The Libertines are reforming, this time for Glaston... what the devil. Stop it source.

The Sun reported that not only were they going to be playing the festival, they had actually already been working together.

According to The Sun,

the duo have been writing music together and want to road-test their material at the festival.

The lying shits. 2008 and still no Libertines reformation, let's just draw a line under this misinformation shall we.

No, it seems that source has been running his, or her, mouth off again.

a source told The Mirror that Barat will need assurances that Doherty is serious about the reunion, saying: "Carl thinks it might work, but he needs to be 100% sure Pete won't let him down again before he signs up".

A word to the wise Mirror pay no heed to source, he chats a lot of shit.

Doherty however tells the truth, how about 2 million to reform, yep, he said that, this time in February 2009, the NME lapped up this codswallop, they also bought a handful of magic beans.

"We had some ridiculous offers to headline Reading and stuff. Like £2 million to headline this festival, £1 million to headline that festival and I said, Why don't we just do it? Let's get the old band back together".

Then the crack wore off and I found that I had soiled myself and was alone in the middle of a Bavarian forest. He may have added that bit whilst the tape wasn't running.

Later in the same month though that 1 or 2 million carrot seems to add some impetus to the reformation as he is abso-bloody-lutely certain it's going to happen, again in the NME.

"There's probably another on the way, there's an amazing Babyshambles record on the way and The Libertines is going to happen in the next couple of years, by hook or crook."

At which point the NME journalist coughed into his hand and the word bollocks was audible.

The Libertines version of Aziz Ibrahim, went one better in April 2009 and removed the cough telling 6 Music.

"I bet it will happen but I don't think it will be anytime soon."

I bet a black man will be President of the USA one day but not anytime so...oh...OK.

2009 was a very busy year fro rumours of a reformation, no rumours of Glastonbury though, which was strange, maybe source was sacked? In July Doherty finally set a date, in The Times no less. Excellent!

"I think we're gonna make a record, and tour. Get The Libertines to take it to the next step, next stage. Next year."

Next Step, Next Stage, Next Year. All you need is Simply The Best playing in the background and you have a full blown sales conference.

So 2010 is the year that The Libertines are to reform, the time is now!! He even backs this up in an NME interview.

"It's going to happen, you know. I spoke to John Hassall, he's well up for it. Powell said he would."

No Barat then, OK. He will come round, that was August, that's almost a full year until he is needed, learn a few lines, sorry words, bad turn of phrase. We are still close to the illusive reformation though.

It seems today that Barat like an errant plumber has changed the date, 2010, nah mate, need to order a part, I am booked, fully booked mate, how does 2011 grab yer? best I can do.

"It's not definite-definite. I can say 2011, but it's hard to plan The Libertines until next Tuesday," he told the Evening Standard. "But 2011 is where there's room for that to happen. So if everything is all right, then, yeah, it would be glorious to get on the old jacket and venture forth, into the known."

So it looks like the glorious return of The Libertines is due not definitely definitely 2011, but possibly 2010. Don't bank on it though.

Fandom

2010-01-18T13:45:00.000Z

Should it come as any surprise that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unelected but leader of Iran, is a Chris de Burgh fan? What is it about that news that makes it non-revelatory? It's equally as non-revelatory as finding out that Robert Mugabe is a Cliff Richard fan. This one can be explained by the relentless do anything it takes approach to cling on to fading but hopeless power and success approach taken by both. How about Gaddafi and Clapton? That one is less obvious, but all the others are explained by clicking the links above. Gaddafi Jnr is a Beyonce fan.

We like to appeal to all, so this one is for the Colonel.

Come back next week for news on which biscuits are the chosen snack of UN peacekeeping officials.

My Shameful Novelty Record Past

2010-01-17T19:07:00.000Z

Its a fine line between comedy and genius. My Ding a ling, comedy. Johnny B. Goode, genius. Maxwells Silver Hammer, comedy, Blackbird, genius. Killing In The Name, comedy...well you get the idea of that.
I have a checkered history with the comedic, the novelty, the rather embarrassing side of recorded music, we all have, haven't we?
I have close friends that owned, or indeed own Chalk Dust by The Brat, this friend buries this part of his life deep down when professing his love for Morrissey. We have all shameful pasts.
My first dalliance with novelty pop was Keith Michell and his tale of Captain Beaky, as a 9 year old this was incendiary stuff that the big kids wouldn't, or couldn't understand. Maybe they were more preoccupied with The Ramones who in January 1980 were just a few places lower than Michell on that weeks hit parade. I adored Captain Beaky, it was hilarious but also it had pathos, that cursed Hissing Sid. Oddly Captain Beaky and His Band had an effect on more than just me, someone has dedicated a website to them st www.captainbeaky.com

Captain Beaky and His Bandy by Keith Michell

From Capatain Beaky, perhaps the shame of that sent my novelty record passions underground for a number of years, during 1987 when my indie leanings were coming more and more to the fore. You would think I would have some form of quality control, no, it will become apparent that I had no quality control. I bought a single that haunts me to this day, I bought a single by The Firm. I know what you are thinking, Peter that is nothing to be ashamed of, Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, thats something to be proud of. No, not that The Firm, OK, OK, perhaps the NAZ fronted Hip Hop supergroup, Dr Dre produced that joint, be proud Peter, thats the mother flipping H bomb. No. No. No. The Firm single I bought was the follow up to Arthur Daley, He's Alright, that didnt float my boat, I found that rather pedestrian, the follow up though, that made me part with my 75p at Our Price, that was Star Trekkin. Peter what were you bloody thinking. I have no idea. At least I didnt record a parody of a novelty record, some one did though, someone and I want to say DLT or Steve Wright parodied it in 1987, but as a kind of Beastie Boys act and the track was Start Wreckin. You see what they did there.

Star Trekkin by The Firm

You would think that would be the end of it all, I was entering adulthood, my music taste was getting more and more discerning, 2 stinkers in a lifetime of record buying, thats not so bad. Let me be frank, those two exmaples are just two that I have elaborated on, add to that list World Cup Willie by Lonnie Donegan, I wasnt even born in 66!!!!, The Streak by Ray Stevens and D.I.V.O.R.C.E by Billy Connolly, to name but a few. Its a curse, trust me it is.
So fast forward to 1998, I am in my late twenties, indier than thou, and for some inexplicable reason Isaac Hayes' Chocolate Salty Balls from South Park seemed like the most hilarious thing ever recorded. That should have been it, that should have been the end of it and I should have laughed and then pulled on my duffle coat and went off to buy a fanzine. No. Common sense didnt prevail and for some reason last over time I owned a CD single of Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls. I blame it on Eric Cartmans take on Styx's Come Sail Away that graced the B-Side, that could be the only reason.

Come Sail Away by Eric Cartman

So thats an insight into my novelty record buying, add to all of that Ghostbusters, Captain Sensibles One Christmas Catalogue and Donald Where's Your Trousers. Enough though I have to pop out and buy Hale and Pace's The Stonk.

Marissa Nadler

2010-01-17T06:50:00.004Z

We had a paella night last night, as the name suggests we had a paella. Paella night is more than that though, Paella night involves wine, lots of wine and music, lots of music. A paella, the making of is a long process so we listen to music whilst its forming.
Anyway, rather randomly I put on a track, Ghosts and Lovers by Marissa Nadler. I had never heard of or indeed heard Marissa Nadler, she has had 4 albums out and not one appeared on my radar.

No Surprises by Marissa Nadler

Her style is kind of odd, difficult to compare it to anyone, kind of cocteau twins, folky, certainly "ethereal". That sounds great??? No?

Ghosts and Lovers by Marissa Nadler.

Ghosts and Lovers is from her last album, 2009's Little Hell released on Kermodo Records, home of Langhorne Slim and dont let this put you off, the intro reminds me of a Metallica song, but it is nothing like a Metallica song. I may have to look more into this girl, but for now I thought you might like to hear Ghosts and Lovers, her cover of the Radiohead song, No Surprises and Heart Paper Lover also from Little Hells. Its all quite stunning.

Heart Paper Lover by Marissa Nadler.

Wanna Meet Henry?

2010-01-14T15:33:00.000Z

Hello People, or should that be Hello Peter, co-blogger supremo and realistically the only other person to read this. Forgive me Peter for I have sinned. It has been many weeks since my last post. Yes, I know, even our wives don't read it, but guilt engulfs me. You have been keeping our collective blogging end up, not easy to do given the freezing conditions in the UK and also finding a Coldplay cd in your Ford Fiesta. You are a brave soldier, but worry ye not, for I am back - bigger, fatter, stronger, balder. It is I, Kevin T. No, I'm Spartacus. No, I'm Spartacus.

I'm sure you're thinking 'He has come back to write about the sad news that Teddy Pendergrass has died', but no, Peter, I have not. What has rocked me out of my vegetative state is a rather good article in The Independent by Spencer Leigh (I am presuming it is the radio presenter Spencer Leigh) about Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent's UK tour. You can read even more about Mr Vincent here, or Mr. Cochran here. My 'Wanna Meet Henry?' post title will make sense if you read the article.

So, here's Gene Vincent prior to his UK black leather persona....

A nice 7 min Eddie C vid

By the way, if you like those, check out this!

Recovering The Satellites

2010-01-13T15:37:00.001Z

Time is a bit of a luxury at the moment and you will notice as the reviews get ever more swifter. Todays commute CD was the Counting Crows album, Recovering The Satellites.
I was given this and another Counting Crows album by someone that didn’t like the band very much, the other album I quite like, this one, not so much. It’s a bit dull you see, its long, samey, American easy listening rock. It has I am sure soundtracked a romantic scene in Friends or some Meg Ryan romantic comedy. Today it soundtracked me going past junction 6 on the M6. No Meg Ryan, and no comedy.
Like Kev work is ramping up a bit and so the commute CD element of this blog is going to take a break for a few weeks, I have podcasts to listen to. Counting Crows in a nutshell then, 3 out of 10. Must try harder.

A Long December by Counting Crows

International Velvet - Review

2010-01-12T16:04:00.002Z

Some Cooper Temple Clause is what is should have been yesterday, it should have been but as it is one of those protected CD’s meant that it wasn’t and couldn’t be played in the car. Makes no odds to me, never liked them anyway, it’s one of my wifes CD’it may have been great but I suspect it wasn’t.
Today though I didn’t retreat to the arms of Chris Evans, (admittedly I did dip back in at the end of todays CD and was rewarded with Journey at ear splitting volumes. Top stuff.)
Todays CD was Catatonia’s International Velvet. This is a CD I need to split in two, I will remove for the purposes of this review, at least initially, Mulder and Scully and Road Rage. They are removed.
This CD was absolutely marvellous, beautiful vocals off Cerys, lyrically very enjoyable, lilting, lifting and a seriously great record that has stood the test of time. My Selfish Gene in particular appealed to my liking of lyrical wordplay, and then on Game On and Strange Glue we are treated to two singles high points from the bands career. I Am The Mob still sounds excellent and I was singing away at the top of my lungs whilst stuck in traffic outside of Lichfield, an excellent album. Truly excellent. 9 out of 10.

Then I come to Mulder and Scully and Road Rage. Lord when you take me, when my days are ended and my past crimes are totted up against my good name, you weigh up the good against the bad and find that the other place can have me, the music that will be playing will be Mulder and Scully and Road Rage on the flipping loop. I detest these songs, made all the more galling is that Mrs D, who owns this album, also owns those singles. I need a new wife. 2 dropped for these songs therefore International Velvet. 7 out of 10.

My Selfish Gene by Catatonia

Way Beyond Blue - Review

2010-01-07T19:53:00.004Z

Catatonias debut was the sound of a small car cutting through the West Midlands snow. Before Im a celeberity, before she sold her story to the tabloids, before she welshified her voice by 500% on Mulder and Scully.
Its a blooming good album, one that I havent played in something like 10 years, why would I anyway, like most of the non Cash C's this is one of my wife's, she had a thing for the Welsh, as will become apparent when we hit the G's.
Anyway coming back to the disc, its nice, its lovely in parts, the oh shit I'm pregnant You've Got A Lot To Answer For, the possibly not about a lost cat, Lost Cat and the mighty fine and Catatonia at their most sweetest, Sweet Catatonia.
There is more stuff on this album, the dreaded secret track, I bloody hate hidden tracks, it is forgivable though. 7 out of 10.

You've Got A Lot To Answer For by Catatonia

A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Review

2010-01-06T21:01:00.003Z

I am sat here waiting for the secret life of the dog on BBC2, they promise its going to be excellent and Darren Hayman reckons his dog Beullah is the double of the intelligent dog who features. I think Darren Hayman is doing that thing that parents do when they think their kid is actually not as smart as they really are. I am waffling, to the commute CD.
I beleive everything has a tipping point, and none more so than toast. Toast is only good for spreading butter on 15-20 seconds after the toaster has spewed the toast. There is a 15-20 second window to get the butter on the hot bread ad after that, well it just aint nice, thats the tipping point. Its a bit like that scene in interview with a vampire when short cult nutter Tom Cruise drinks from the dead lady, its too late Tom, the toast has cooled!
Coldplays tipping point was the day they performed Yellow acoustically on Jo Whileys show, it had yet to be released, a platinum selling career was but a dream away and to put it in the words of my wife, Chris Martin was yet to turn into a Bono emulating cunt. Apologies for the C word.
Todays album is a Rush Of Blood To The Head and Martin is a cunt and I have not got the first clue as to how or why we own this album, yes I like The Scientist as I am a romantic that cries at eastenders, I will cry at anything, The Scientist video being an example. That track aside, I am lost as to why this pretentious mind numbing bollocks has made it into our CD's.
The dogs are on 1 out of 10 as I still like The Scientist.

The Scientist by Coldplay

Bad Music For Bad People - Review

2010-01-05T16:23:00.003Z

It was a snowless Stafford on the way into work and deep snow on the way back. The soundtrack both was the cynical IRS cash in album that was The Cramps' Bad Music For Bad People.
Musically its a great album, it is however reminiscent of the two Cramps albums I have sampled thus far on the commute, most notably Off The Bone from last week. Yes there are differences but not major differences and its similarities are the most attractive, and you know I wouldnt mind a few different ornaments on the mantlepiece.

What we do see here is Goo Goo Muck, Human Fly and She Said, yes all very good but as I said familiar. I Can't Hardly Stand It, Uranium Rock and Save It, again, faultless but we had these tracks only last week. Garbage Man, New Kind Of Kick and Love Me, you get the picture, all of these so far were on Off The Bone.

One solitary song wasnt on Off The Bone, TV Set, a good song, but if I had known this I may have bought my wife a different Cramps album, for The Cramps, 10, for IRS, -10 therefore 0 out of 10. Bad label.

TV Set by The Cramps

Recurring Dream, The Best Of Crowded House - Review

2010-01-04T14:23:00.001Z

Happy New Year. Some jokers on the M6 caused an accident this morning, resulting in gridlock on the minor roads that lead to Birmingham. That’s where you would have found me for 2 hours this morning, listening to Recurring Dream, The Best Of Crowded House. Re-read that last sentence, now re-read it without doing Alan Partridges voice.
When this album was released in around 1996 the resultant TV campaign went along the lines of “you know more Crowded House songs than you think you do”, a valid point, they may have also said, “you fell for the tut that The Beautiful South put out, why not this”
I must confess I didn’t buy this, my dwarfish sidekick, Little Ern, she had a number of Crowded House albums, on tape, but that’s it, unless I am proved wrong over the next few weeks, this compilation is one that was copied for us and you know it aint half bad. I know more Crowded House songs than I thought I did.
It takes you through the singles up to 1996 and on the whole they are very good, some of them suffer from over play, in particular Weather With You, it always seems to be the soundtrack of choice when local news does a weather based montage.
The down points of this album, and I cant explain why it sounds like this to my ears. Years ago when I worked at Butlins during Easter the site would be took over for a religious festival called Spring Harvest, born agains a-worshipping and enjoying the holy spirit. Now the night time at these things were fuelled by Christian rock bands, and the audience used to sway, hands aloft, head cocked to one side awaiting the rapture. When I listen to some Crowded House, they remind me of those Christian rock bands.
I don’t think I need to tell you too much about this album, its Crowded House, its fairly pleasant, on the whole good, during a few songs its actually great, and on Fall At Your Feet they hit perfection, 6 out of 10.

Fall At Your Feet by Crowded House

Off The Bone - Review

2009-12-31T12:17:00.000Z

The antidote to Eva Cassidy is perhaps The Cramps and their 1983 compilation Off The Bone. Wikipedia tells me that Sounds said of it, “a hell-fire cocktail of gutter riffing and chattering Rockabilly voodoo strum into which is dropped an electric sugar cube of psychedelic power”.

A bit of a mouthful and probably sums it up better than I could. As far as morning commutes go, due to it being Christmas and all I thought I would sample the motorway as opposed to my normal route of taking in Staffordshire A roads. The M6 was relatively deserted and Lux Interior was spewing forth his hell fire cocktail on the stereo, the day could only get worse.

As I said this is a compilation and it’s a compilation at times of their finest work, you have Interior doing his best Peggy Lee impression on Fever and his worst Ricky Nelson impression on Lonesome Town.

As well as standards such as Surfin Bird, they inject their own standards and classics into proceedings. This compilation gives us Human Fly, part of their debut release Gravest Hits. The other tracks on Gravest Hits are all represented here, as are a number of tracks from Psychedelic Jungle, the most famous being Goo Goo Muck.

All in all it’s a good strong compilation, that lifted the mood from yesterday, actually the mood for the last few CD’s has been resolutely downbeat and I hope this is the shape of Cramps to come.
8 out of 10.

Human Fly by The Cramps.

Songbird - Review

2009-12-30T08:39:00.002Z

I had a break from my CD albums over the Christmas period, it has re-commenced now though and I wonder as I write this, do I go with a revisionist version or the truth?
You see the revisionist version would say that today’s CD, Songbird by Eva Cassidy was an ill informed gift, or even an album that I bought in the 90’s as I was aware of the Washington DC underground music scene. That’s the revisionist version of events.
What actually happened was I heard a song of hers, lets say for arguments sake it was fields of gold, in 2001 and I bought the CD. I will be blunt with you here, my wife actually muttered the words, “I fucking despair”, she may have followed this up with her palm going to her forehead. She despaired OK.

You see I hate Sting, I hate that smug look he presents, I hate the work he did with The Police, his solo rubbish, this medieval nonsense that is on TV over the Christmas period, I hate him, his wife and possibly all the Stinglets that him and the obnoxious Trudy Styler have produced. Now if I hate him so much, and his music, I reiterate, I hate the man and his music, but if I hate him so much why did I buy this disc purely off the back of that song?

Mind mojo.

Purely and simply, mind mojo. Someone, possibly Terry Wogan, Terry Wogan in cahoots with the spirit of Eva Cassidy and in all likelihood Sting performed mind mojo and this mind mojo made me skip past Rock/Pop in me local virgin and settle upon Easy Listening, it was further mind mojo that made me pick up Songbird and pay £10 or a figure in the region of, and further more, the final bit of mind mojo made me play it. Bastard Wogan and his mind mojo.

So what of the album? God its sentimental, yes she died, and you cant speak ill of the dead, and I wont, that much. Really though would this collection of covers have made it out of the small clubs of Washington DC with the X Factor style story attached? They aren’t even good covers. They are light jazz covers designed to tug at heart strings. If you lean in close, and turn the volume up you can hear the chink of glasses and the distant cry of scampi for table 13.

She delivers the previously discussed Fields of Gold, but also Songbird and Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Beautiful songs that they are it all seems a little too, whats the word? Poignant? A false sense of poignancy?

Anyway, none of this is Cassidys fault, her physical being didn’t enter in to this pact with Wogan and his mind mojo so I really should be too critical for the recorded output. That all said I may give this to my mum, she would like it. 3 out of 10.

People Get Ready by Eva Cassidy