Doolittle 20th Anniversary Concerts Announced

I spoke a few weeks ago about the 20th Anniversary of Pixies’ Doolittle. It seems that the band themselves are going to be playing the album and associated B-sides during October in Europe, according to the NME. I am hoping for a nice NIA date on the 5th but that may be wishful thinking. Either way tickets go on sale at 9am on the 3rd of July, they will be available on eBay at around 9.03am



Silver by Pixies

Home Taping ISN'T Killing Music

Read how home taping (downloading actually) isn't killing music by clicking here.

Fathers and Mothers and Sons and Daughters

I was watching Live at Abbey Road last night on Sony, and was delighted to see Martha Wainwright and Teddy Thompson. Of course, Martha is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle (and brother of Rufus), and Teddy is the son of Richard and Linda Thompson. So, I thought I'd do a post on musical offspring, and wouldyoubelieveit, there am I loking at the Independent on Sunday this morning, and they've got a little piece on The 20 Best Rockstar Offspring.

The Independent left out poor old Teddy, in favour of people like Sting's son, Sean Lennon, and Lilly bloody Allen, which seems poor journalism to me if you think Keith Allen meets all the criteria of 'Rockstar'.

So, to make up for Teddy's ommission, and more, it's family friendly Sunday.

The 50 Greatest Songs In The World Ever Part...oh you get the gist

Kev is right about the lists, I make them all the time, if not physically then mentally. I am drawn to lists often skirting over the rest of a written word to the list. Lists are good. H Allen Smith said “The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for lists.” H Allen knew his stuff.
Yesterday I gave you the 54 songs I felt were the best ever written, they were at least to me in 2001. Today in 2009 the songs that would still make it into a top 50 are below, with songs that I believe are the best ever written padding the list out. Sadly Mo-ho-bish-opi didn’t make the cut.



Nobody Love You When You're Down And Out by John Lennon

These did.

The Next Episode by Dr Dre
Don’t Falter by Mint Royale Featuring Lauren Laverne
Being Boring by The Pet Shop Boys
Come On My Selector by Squarepusher
Jerusalem by Billy Bragg
Back together by Babybird
Here I Go Again by Country Joe and The Fish
Gentle on my Mind by Dean Martin
Teenage Kicks by The Undertones
Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
The Killing Of Georgie Parts 1 and 2 by Rod Stewart
I Am I Said by Neil Diamond
The King Of Carrot Flowers Parts 2 and 3 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Since You Been Gone By Rainbow
It’s Lulu by The Boo Radleys
Heroin by The Velvet Underground
He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
No Distance Left To Run by Blur
Stood On Gold by Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
Yasmin The Light by Explosions In The Sky
Someone To Watch Over Me by Frank Sinatra
Frank Mills by Hair OST
Everything’s Falling Apart by Hefner
Where is my Mind by Pixies
Nobody Loves You When You Are Down And Out by John Lennon
I Do by Weezer
My Man A Sweet Man by Millie Jackson



One Man Guy by Rufus Wainwright

These are the new entries.


Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
Disney girls by The Beach Boys
Little Democracies by Darren Hayman
Heartbreaker by The Rolling Stones
One Man Guy by Rufus Wainwright
Since You Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson
Takes Her Place by Mary Prankster
The Far Side Banks Of Jordan by Johnny Cash
The Beast In Me by Johnny Cash
Scavenger Type by NOFX
Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown) by Tenacious D
Queequeg by The Evangenitals
Off you by The Breeders
The Snake by Al Wilson
Down by the Seaside by Led Zeppelin
Tongue by Antony Harding
Books About UFO’s by Husker Du
About You Now by The Sugarbabes
At the Chime of a City Clock by Nick Drake
What Do I Do Now by Sleeper
Avant Garde Music by Ballboy
This Is Just A Modern Rock Song by Belle And Sebastian



What Do I Do Now By Sleeper

Nothing from this year, or last by the look of it, so that’s my new updated 50, must get them onto CD for the car.

Big Mouth Strikes Again

Not The Smiths, Billy Bragg. Yes, another Billy Bragg album, I haven’t counted how many Billy Bragg albums I have but I think I have a comparable number of Johnny Cash albums, I would suggest reading something else until late 2009.
Todays offering between Stafford and Coleshill is a 1992 bootleg, Big Mouth Strikes Again. Recorded in Europe, that’s all I get but from the references I am assuming somewhere in the UK.
It’s a very good recording as Bootlegs go, from the sound desk I imagine, its got a really long cover of Groove Is In The Heart. 7 out of 10. Can you tell my heart isn’t in this one.

Later that day....

That was all to rather brief, I must say that this album is my favourite bootleg of Billy’s or indeed anyone. The mix of songs is perfect and at the time when I bought it, I think it was from a stall at Glastonbury Festival, it was at a time when Billy wasn’t touring too much.
On the first track, You Woke Up My Neighbourhood it sounds as if the tape is running a little slow, only a fraction and only for a short while but slow none the less.
The backing band is Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians, well, an Egyptian plus various other Bragg compadres. Lorraine Bowen, and possibly Cara Tivey who was Blurs ivory tinkler during their Parklife period. Wiggy also puts in an appearance, all in all it is the best BB bootleg I have, the low score reflects my tiredness at having to revisit so many Bragg albums, when I really don’t want to.

Top 50 Greatest Songs in the World Ever Vol.II

I know it, Peter knows it, and we feel no shame. We are list-makers. We make lists. My name is Kevin and I am a list-maker. If you Google 'People who make lists' one of the results is on a business website called Hello My Name is Scott. Scott lists 43 Reasons to Make Lists For Everything, my favourite of which is

'Listing sifts through the bullshit. It gives people the guts, the meat, the good stuff, the essence and the cliff notes of your idea. Which is good, because most readers don’t have time (or care) to read anything else'.

Of course, we'd be happy to have readers of any kind, whether they read our lists or not. Hell, we'd encourage stalkers.

Anyway, Peter's 2001 list was a ragbag of both mainstream and leftfield indieness talent, made more interesting by surprise choices like Millie Jackson, and a lack of Journey. I realised when tapping in mine that there is almost nothing new, very little from the last five or even ten years, which doesn't mean that there is a lack of good music these days, it just means I haven't heard it. Songs sometimes take years to percolate in your head, or ferment. Some go mouldy and you have to discard them (often causing excessive earwax, so I'm told). It's rare, in my case anyway, for a song to go instantly shooting into the subconscious top 50 and stay there. I sat down and wrote this list off the top of my head easily, although if you asked me tomorrow it would probably have the same artists but different songs. It's odd how very little I listened to that was contemporary at the time, didn't make the cut.

So here they are in no particular order.

1. Angel from Montgomery - Bonnie Raitt & John Prine
2. I'm in a Dancing Mood - Delroy Wilson
3. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
4. Mama - Jarabe de Palo
5. Whole Lotta Rosie (Live) - AC/DC
6. Dr. Feelgood - Aretha Franklin
7. Buenos Hermanos - Ibrahim Ferrrer
8. Tupelo Honey - Wayne Toups
9. Viking - Los Lobos
10. Once in her Lifetime - Spear of Destiny
11. The Patriot Game (Live) - The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
12. The Weight - The Band
13. You Better Not Look Down - BB. King
14. It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Puressence
15. Old Man - Neil Young
16. Train Kept a Rollin' - Aerosmith
17. Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones
18. Liquidator - Harry J. Allstars
19. Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On (live) - Jerry Lee Lewis
20. House Rent Boogie - John Lee Hooker
21. Tell Mama - Etta James
22. Rags to Riches - Tony Bennet
23. Dancefloors - My Morning Jacket
24. My Morning Song - The Black Crowes
25. Substitute - The Who
26. A Quick One While He's Away - The Who
27. 5.15 - The Who
28. Sunny Sailor Boy - Luka Bloom
29. Pick a Bale of Cotton - Leadbelly
30. Cancion Mixteca - Ry Cooder, David Lindley, Harry Dean Stanton

31. Right About Now - Ron Sexsmith

32. City of Chicago - Christy Moore

33. Don't Want to Know - John Martyn

34. Pretty Thing - Bo Diddley
35. I am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses

36. Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen

37. Rankin Full Stop - The Beat

38. Shame and Scandal - Peter Tosh

39. Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals
40. Shelter - Ray LaMontagne

41. See a Little Light - Bob Mould

42. Here We Kum - Molotov

43. New Rose - The Damned

44. I Want to Take you Higher - Sly & The Family Stone

45. 537 C.U.B.A. - Orishas

46. I Hung My Head - Johnny Cash

47. Milk Cow Blues - Elvis Presley

48. Invalid Litter Department - At the Drive In

49. Mumbai Theme Tune - A.R. Rahman

50. No Regrets - Walker Brothers

The Greatest songs In The world Ever....in 2001

A respite this morning, it should have been a self made Ballboy compilation called New Balls Please but my CD player didn’t want me to listen to it. Instead I have referred in the past to a triple CD set I made myself of my favourite songs ever. The discs were compiled in 2001 and looking back now it is rather evident. Some of those songs no longer feature in my favourite ever, some artists have different songs which I adore more than others. There are 54 songs in total, listed below, in 2001 those songs were my very favourite, tomorrow I will update the list to reflect my tastes now, but for now, you get a list.


Born Slippy by Underworld
The Next Episode by Dr Dre
Don’t Falter by Mint Royale Featuring Lauren Laverne
Being Boring by The Pet Shop Boys
Come On My Selector by Squarepusher
Television, The Drug Of The Nation by disposable Heroes of Hiphoprasy
Whole Lotta Love by James Taylor Quartet
Jerusalem by Billy Bragg
Back together by Babybird
Convenience by Bob
Cannonball by The Breeders
Take The Skinheads Bowling by Campervan Beethoven
Here I Go Again by Country Joe and The Fish
Rich and Strange by Cud
Gentle on my Mind by Dean Martin
All You Need Is Love by Elvis Costello
Yesterday Once More by The Carpenters
Where Is My Mind by Pixies
Teenage Kicks by The Undertones
Touch Me I’m Sick by Mudhoney
Mr E’s Beautiful Blues by Eels
New Tricks by Mary Prankster
The Man Who Loved Beer by Lambchop
This Is What She’s Like by Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
Say It Ain’t So by Julianna Hatfield
Name (For Nameless Things) by Mo-ho-bish-opi
The Killing Of Georgie Parts 1 and 2 by Rod Stewart
I Am I Said by Neil Diamond
The King Of Carrot Flowers Parts 2 and 3 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Since You Been Gone By Rainbow
Homophobic Asshole by The Senseless Things
The Flaming Lips by Spearmint
It’s Lulu by The Boo Radleys
Heavenly Pop Hit by The Chills
Heroin by The Velvet Underground
Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys
He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
No Distance Left To Run by Blur
Stood On Gold by Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
Yasmin The Light by Explosions In The Sky
Someone To Watch Over Me by Frank Sinatra
Frank Mills by Hair OST
Everything’s Falling Apart by Hefner
Superman by Cinerama
Wild Horses by The Sundays
Nobody Loves You When You Are Down And Out by John Lennon
I Do by Weezer
Since I Left You by The Avalanches
Autobahn by Kraftwerk
Ladyfingers by Luscious Jackson
My Man A Sweet Man by Millie Jackson

Standing in the Shadow of Motown - The Funk Brothers

My follow up piece to Peter's Chuck Berry post was going to be on another Berry, Berry Gordy, but he's already been up and at 'em with another, yes another Braggist post. You get the feeling he's got enough Bragg to drive to Scotland and back, let alone his commute twice a day. Anyway, I'm struggling on with my Motown post, seeing as I watched the Standing in the Shadow of Motown documentary yesterday, and found myself enjoying ..................... Joan Osbourne!

I'm not a big Motown fan, as I'm sure I've heard all the big hits a billion times. But, this docu focused on the loose collective called the Funk Brothers, effectively the inhouse band that the label used on hundreds of their recordings. Just to put it into perspective, they played on more number one records than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys combined.

I'm sure the purists hate to hear other people singing the classics, but I enjoyed the structure of the film as it cuts back and forth from a live Funk Brothers show with guest vocalists, to interviews with members of the band, and also mentions what was going on in society at the time. Marvin Gaye was desperate to have Funk Brother James Jamerson play bass on What's Going On, went out and found him in a bar, but the guy was so pissed that he couldn't sit on a stool in the studio so had to play lying on his back on the floor. It was still good enough and made it on to the record.

If you'd asked me to sit down and watch a concert featuring Gerald Levert (nasty smooth modern R n' B) and Joan Osbourne (her of 'What if God was one of us' pop fame) I would have fled from the room lobbing excuses as I went, but the live concert from film is great. Joan Osbourne has a great, forceful, full sounding voice, and Levert had (died in 2006) a beautiful soul voice. Chaka Khan is there too, along with Ben Harper and Bootsy Collins. All manage to add something to a tune you've heard a million times over, and of course they are backed by the best.

Reaching To the Converted

For commute purposes todays music was the 1999 album by Billy Bragg, yes, Billy Bragg, Reaching To the Converted. Effectively a B-Sides compilation.
Yes, I will be glad when the B’s are over too, I have the knowledge that I still have a lot of Bragg still to go through and I have hardly touched on Bjork, I will definitely be having a week off from the alphabetic journey through my CD’s next week.
So back to this, what is different on this album, well there is a ghastly previously unreleased version of Greetings To The New Brunette that has that Johnny Marr sound all over it, bloody horrible, that’s what happens when you give Marr free reign. There are also Ry Cooder tracks, Annie McGarrigle tracks and Smiths tracks, all excellent, I mean all of the tracks are excellent. Aside of the ones messed about with.
This also contains Billys version (with Marr) of Walk Away Renee, I must admit you will be hard pressed to find a better document of young love, the sister song to Saturday Boy and the last line sums up precisely the fickle nature of teenage love. “She cut her hair and I stopped loving her”. Genius.
So how are Billy locks on this album, I should do a plus minus convoluted process where I take the first track and deduct or add points for every song I like or dislike and see what it spits out…12 by the look of it, but no, the whole album, including the odd falsetto on Ontario, Quebec and Me, the accidental number one in she’s Leaving Home, all of this points to a better than average 7, but for Marr doing that Greetings to the New Brunette, then that’s 2 off for a start, the Red Stars version of Accident Waiting to Happen, that’s another one off, It’s a cynical disc marketed at the people that are likely to own the majority of songs already. Walk Away Renee would get ten though. 4 out of 10



Walk Away Renee by Billy Bragg Featuring Badly Drawn Boy

The Best Of Chuck Berry

The Best Of Chuck Berry today, Disc one on the way to work, Disc two on the way home. The Best of is not a misnomer, Chuck Berry really had some greats.
Chuck Berry is one of three artists that I want to see before they, or indeed I, but hopefully they, die. Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard being the other two, the true pioneers of Rock and Roll.
This greatest hits album is of course brilliant, maybe not through out but the bits that are good are exceptional, and the exceptional of the exceptional are amongst some of the greatest songs ever recorded, Johnny B Goode, Maybelline, Roll Over Beethoven, Sweet Little 16, Sweet Little Rock and Roller and Rock and Roll Music, and that’s just a few, once you start thinking about Berrys great songs the list goes on an and on.
There are some criticisms though, No Particular Place To Go is a great song, the imitations of that formula Berry did following that release are good, but just that, imitations, and at 40 tracks you hear the imitations of Maybelline and Johnny B Goode. This is forgivable though, to hear Berry hollering Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, to hear his guitar, to hear Johnnie Johnsons piano, to listen to these songs and appreciate how important they were then and the importance they have on what I listen to now. These aren’t museum pieces though, they rock with the best of them. Berrys Brown Eyed Handsome Man is far more believable than Buddy Hollys, you believe the stories, the indescretions, the scrapes with the law. So with all that its difficult to score, if this 40 track album was 10 tracks long it would easily be a ten out of ten, if it was 20 tracks long it would be a ten out of ten, 30 tracks and it might be nine out of ten, but at 40 tracks long its 8 out of 10.



Maybelline by Chuck Berry

Last Train to .......................

Peter made the mistake of not ordering the interesting version of 'Last Train to Memphis' and then struggled through the book, only to be saved by one bread roll too many (see below). My ex house mate Dan used to regularly take the last tube from central London (the vomit comet) back to our flat in Bounds Green, but excessive pintage, crossed with an ability to sleep standing up, often saw him over shoot his required stop, and end up at the end of the line. He then, rather bashfully, cast about for other sheepish looking travellers who also reeked of beer and fags, and they shared a taxi back in the direction from whence they came.

There is no song called 'Last Train Past Bounds Green and Back Again', although there is 'Last Train to London' by E.L.O.,made more interesting by cross ferilisation with the Beastie Boys. I have my suspiscions that if you look at E.L.O. really closely in this video it is actually the Scissor Sisters with fake facial hair.

Last Train to Memphis

And lo, it came to pass that 11 months did set like the sun, and verily it was decreed that Peter would finally turn the last page on the biggest chore of a book that he had ever read. I finished it, I finally finished Last Train To Memphis by Peter Guralnick.
This was such a slog, not due to the quality of the writing or the facts presented in it, I am sure that Peter Guralnick is an excellent writer and it is Elvis Presley after all. The issue lies unfortunately in the fact that between his birth and 1958, outside of his music, Elvis was just plain dull.
I didn’t expect thrills of Gun’s N’ Roses proportions, but across 578 pages I wanted a little more than Elvis bought his momma a Cadillac, Elvis travelled by train to Texas, Elvis recorded Teddy Bear. Even the recording process isn’t detailed that much, I mean even the million dollar quartet gets only a few pages, the single greatest recording session ever committed to tape is dealt with in less than 20 pages, maybe even less than 10.
The book just never held my attention unfortunately, and that is why I couldn’t read more than 3 or 4 pages at a time, and without being too graphic, if I hadn’t eaten too much bread this weekend it may have been another few weeks before it was finished. Thank heavens for mild wheat intolerances eh!
It does deliver facts though, exhaustively it delivers facts, if you need to know who Elvis had as a companion on any particular day it gives you those facts, you want to know anything else, you are screwed.
I was going to read the second volume, Careless Love after this, I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. Not if I want to lose another 11 months of my life.

Frank Black and the Catholics

The eponymous Frank Black and the Catholics today, the 1998 album released on Spinart. Listening to this made me think of the conversation that must have happened between Frank Black and Kim Deal prior to the reformation of the Pixies.

Frank Black: Hi Kim Waassssuuuuppp!
Kim Deal: (Sigh) Hi Charles.
FB: Watcha doin?
KD: You know, just chillin.
FB: Watcha mean, chillin?
KD: You know, just hanging out.
FB: Just you?
KD: (Sigh) No Charles, not just me.
FB: Is Albini there? I bet Albini is there. Is Albini there?
KD: (Muffled receiver) He is asking if you are here!!!
Steve Albini: (In the background) Tell him no, say it’s a dog, say its you and a dog, tell him its some chien andaluscian shit, seriously Kim, you say I’m here you get Pete Waterman engineering the next record, I swear to god.
KD: No Charles, it’s a dog, a Spanish dog.
FB: I love Spanish dogs, you know there is this movie right, and its called un chien..
KD: (cutting him off) Charles, did you call for something?
FB: Oh yeah, erm, I was just watching Oprah and I started wondering if you had you heard any of my albums?
KD: Oh yeah, course, I have heard them all…..
FB: Really? I mean that’s really good, real real good. Whats your favourite?
KD: Oh you know, they are all great it’s difficult to choose a favourite….
FB: But which one is the best????
KD: You know, the, erm, the one with the songs on them, you know, the shouty one???
FB: The shouty one?
KD: The shouty one!
FB: Kim, you know when we split you got Albini.
KD: Uh-huh.
FB: And I got the dude that did the Superbad soundtrack.
KD: Uh-huh.
FB: (Serious tone) So tell me Kim Deal WHICH album do you consider to be the Shouty one.
KD: (muffled) He is asking me which album of his I like best!!!!!!
SA: (in the background) Tell him The Frank Black and The Thingies one
KD: The what and the who???
SA: I saw it today in Best Buy, its like a yellow sleeve
KD: (To FB) The one with the yellow sleeve?
SA: It was real cheap.
KD: (To FB) The real cheap one with the yellow sleeve?
SA: It was next to the second Ugly Kid Joe album, hey I bought that Ugly Kid Joe album, do you want to hear it?
KD: (To FB) The real cheap one with the yellow sleeve next to the second Ugly Kid Joe album!
FB: And your favourite song on that album?
KD: Oh you know, the one about the Mojave?
FB: Sorry?
KD: Or whores?
FB: what?
KD: spaceships?
FB: You haven’t heard a single thing I have done since the Pixies have you?
KD: Do I need to?
FB: *Click*

2 out of 10.



All My Ghosts by Frank Black

No Pop, No Style, Strictly Roots

No Pop, No Style, Strictly Roots. Billy Braggs official Bootleg from 1995 was todays music to drive to. A recording of his 1993 set at The Phoenix Festival. I will start to repeat myself soon regarding Billy, I do have a lot of stuff by him and more than one bootleg, I can only apologise, I can only say so many times that Greetings To The New Brunette is excellent. So I will try to avoid talking about the tracks too much on this bootleg.
This album highlights material from around the time of don’t Try This At Home, that album and the singles B-sides, notably Sulk and Quebec, Ontario and Me. Billy also throws out a near perfect version of weddings, Parties Anythings’s Ship In My Harbour, perhaps a highlight of the album. One song that I hadn’t come across before and unsure if it surfaced anywhere else was MBH, cant recall it being on a b-side or on any other album.
Billy’s banter with the crowd is evident and it was one of the things that made me fall in love with him as a performer, admittedly now in 2009 it seems a little corny at times, particularly when he crow bars “gags” into songs, this was an element that I loved when I was younger.
So as a live bootleg its of a good quality, the songs are pretty good, the only let down is the patter, and so it’s a 7 out of 10 for Billy.



Sexuality by Billy Bragg

Sunrise Sunset A Bright Eyes Compendium

The predicted Billy Bragg spell didn’t really materialise and this morning it was instead Sunrise Sunset A Bright Eyes Compendium. A very well made compilation of Bright Eyes songs someone, forgotten, made me in around 2001.
I first became aware of Bright Eyes when the Virgin Megastore in which I worked stocked the split single Bright eyes did with Her Space Holiday in 2000. Virgin stocked about 5 copies of this and I could get in the car now and drive to where 3 of them copies are. Admittedly work might wonder where I was and it would be a drain on the petrol purely to prove a point. None the less. That single was fantastic and on my way to the next B album this morning I flicked past it.
This album as I said was done for me but someone long forgotten as an exchange for a Hefner disc I did for them, the sleeve is professionally printed and it was, even more than the split single, the catalyst for my love of Conor Oberst, in a purely platonic heterosexual way.
The compilation takes tracks from the albums prior to and including Fevers and Mirrors, with tracks from the odd EP thrown in for good measure. The Fevers and Mirrors tracks are the strongest, with the odd exception, drawing on The Calendar Hung Itself, Something Vague, Sunrise Sunset and The Center of The world, but the real joy is a track from Every Day and Every Night EP, and that track is A Perfect Sonnet. A song that has been known to reduce a grown man to tears and THE track that cemented my love of the band. The only reason I don’t give this compilation a ten is that it is a compilation, nothing more. The songs are strong enough as the mix draws on the best elements of Obersts Bright Eyes work prior to 2001. Stunning. 9 out of 10.



A Perfect Sonnet by Bright Eyes