It Starts With a Birthstone...
'Memory is what we are. Your very soul and your very reason to be alive are tied up in memory.'
Thursday, October 17, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 217 The Gun Club - Miami
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,778 King Crimson - Starless & Bible Black
King Crimson for muchof the time is far too fussy for my tastes. This seems to be a band that are fed by urgent, spectrum impulses.With this 1974 record I found myself wanting to listen to something else five minutes in. I perservered toother tracks and other vistas, more to my tastes opened. But this was all rather 'curate's egg' for me..Rather too inclined to showing off.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 69 Varsity - Souvenirs
Chicago's Varsity have been round the block a few times. Playing the circuit and putting out records for over a decade now, becoming the Windy City's 'leading indie pop band' according to their Bandcamp page. No mean claim.
I'm not even going to dispute it. I'm in a liaidback mood these days. Varsity have a lean and measured sound. You'll find them in Alvvays, 10. Maniacs and Fleetwood Mac's neighbourhood.. Latest record Souvenirs is a measured and confident record that wins you over within a couple of minutes and maintains good relations from thereon.
Not a startling album but a very likeable on. It's worth perservering if you make an early assumption that this is going to be rather generic. They know how to vary their serve and there are some interesting song structures and interesting twists and turns as the record progressed which def
Song(s) of the Day # 3,888 Cast Of Thousands
The latest tip from Darren Jones for It Starts and an instant winner.. Third House, the latest album from Austin Texas quintet, Cast Of Thousands's a sparky and rebarbative reconstructed New Wave guitar and farfisa organ driven record,
This is a Rock & Roll record that knows its ? & The Mysterons, Modern Lovers. Swimming Pool Q and Flying Nun. It has a real sense of those cusp emotions and feelings that I associate with the late teen and early twenties rites of passage emotions and experiences.
Whether Cast Of Thousands have actually tapped into these actual sources us actually neither here nor there.Cast Of Thousands feeds on these needs. Wonderful record. Cheers once more Darren.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 218 The Lilac Time - Paradise Eyes
Stephen Duffy decide he didn't particularly want to be in Duran Duran. He decided he'd rather focus his energies on jangling, bucolic folk music instead. Sensible fellow. Excellent record with more poetry in most songs than Simon managed in thrty years,
Song(s) of the Day # 3,887 Inga McDaniel
A 63 year old Grandma living on the Northeast side of Indianopolis. Delving into R&B, Funk and Spiritual Soul on latest album Double Mug,
This is a strange record. And certainly not one that sounds like it was made by a 63 year old Grandma living on the Northeast side of Indianopolis. It's sparky, incredibly varied and very eclectic. Give it a spin.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 70 Loma - How Will I Live Without You
How Will I Live Without You A quite outstanding new album from Loma a trio on Sub Pop Records A record which I started listening to yesterday evening and was idly taken by initially and then began to draw me in completely as it ran its course until I was deeply taken by the time I did and promptly put it on again.
I'm indebted to Raymond Gorman, guitarist of That Petrol Emotion and a friend on Social Media for guiding me this way. The record's a slow burner but draw's you in like Ariadnne's thread tugging you towards the solution of a dilemma with every passing moment..
Loma are a thrieepiece with an intense gift of the kind that fans of Portishead. Radiohead and Broadcast might appreciate. Their songs have an intense stillness and poise that make How Will I Live Without You a deeply affecting ride. Turn off your mind. Relax..
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 219 The Fall - Perverted By Language
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,780 Caribou - Our Love
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 71 Mercury Rev - Born Horses
Mercury Rev's Born Horses. A late career classc from a band of American dreamers. They're a band I have been able to take and leave at times but here they've truly pulled out a plum.
Poetic, dreaming and I would say Beatnik at heart. It makes a strong case for being bohemian and becoming a muician rather than letting your heart and soul be isphoned away by getting a dull nine to five and marrying the wrong person at 18.
This gets an astonihingly low 4.5 from Pitchfork, which to the likes of me recommends Born Horses even higher. Snotty, priggish dullards.I think this is a wonderful album.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,886 Gut Health
Always searching for something. Gut Health's Stiletto should more than do the trick as we make our way into Tuesday morning and my 8.15 with Dussledorf Insurance people.
This is a record that pretty much ahow its stripes, sensibility and intentions on Side One Track one. Urgent, unreconstructed Post Punk pop of the kind Girls At Their Best, The Modettes and Pylon specialised in way back in the day.
This is really just preicated on fun first. Hypnotic Dance Punk from Naarm , Melbourne. They're certainly haveing all the fun down there those guys.
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Monday, October 14, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 220 Au Pairs - Playing With a Different Sex
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,781 Paul Weller - Wild Wood
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 72 Seafarers - Another State
London's Seafarers are story tellers and I'm always eager to endorse that basic guiding principle. Latest album Another State is a dreamers paradise.
The A Pessimst is Never Disappointed website, always an invaluable point of reference, listed the finest monebts of Florence & The Machi8ne and Elbow as signposts. I'm happy to go with that.
The songs here take flight, which is all you can ask from music. Like that moment when a large plane leaves the runway and is airborn. Floating on banks of clouds. That happ
Song(s) of the Day # 3,885 Current Joys
Hey I don't mind a bit of introverted Rock earnestness. R.E.M.. as this blog attests were one of my formative and enduring joys.. They could be earnest. And weren't ashamed to be so.
Cirrent Joys work this seam on current album East My Love. They owe as much to Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam and all those other studious Rock students as Michael and the lads.
This is rather lacking in the playfullness that made me love R.E.M. so. I'll dock a point for undue gravity and write should smile more on the termly report. But iverall, great start to the week.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 221 Keith Richard - Talk Is Cheap
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,782 Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 73 Fred Thomas - Window In The Rhythm
Good to travel. Good to be home. Odysseus. Someone like that. Waking up in Newcastle after a big adventure in Sicily. Home from the sea.
And listening to Window In The Rhythm by Fred Thomas. An American somgwriter, producer and general audio alchemist Fred Thomas. A philosopher.
This is neat and lovingly assembled. It observes the world and crafts its reponse. A good soundtrack to watching the sun rise in the Newcastle heavens.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,884 J W Francis
This will do. A good tempered and jolly album called SUNSHINE from a cuddly ball of facial hear and positive intention from the American road. Just what the doctor ordered.
J W Francis is just what the doctor ordered as the actual sun starts its so climb in the Newcastle heavens as October works its way towards its second phase.Songs called things like Turtleneck Weather
This is good time twiddly guitar and vibes. Make ot one of your vitamin intakes this morning. Not world changing but highly likeable.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 222 Keijo Haino - Watashi Dake
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,783 Buzzcocks - Another Music In Another Kitchen
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 74 Horse Jumper of Love - Disaster Trick
HEY EVERYBODY! THERE'S A GREAT NEW HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE ALBUM OUT ! IT'S CALLED DISASTER TRICK !!! The wotld gives an incoherent shrug. Refuses to spin off it's axis. Life goes on.
But it's made It Starts With a Birthstone's day. I've just given it a listen and I think it's great. The guys who sat in the middle of class huddled in a chat and no one really notice. The Post Grunge guys. Buffalo Tom and Sebadoh's sulky nephews. Not as if Uncle Buffalo Tom and Auntie Sebadoh weren't sulky enough anyhow !
Boston Ma. half glass empty guys in ragged, hole ridden sweaters. They've been doing this for years and albums. I never tire of their schtick. It has Slowcore DNA and is distinctly Grunge lite. But they have good hearts and a way with melancholic melody I'm sure those who settle down with these guts won't regret it for a moment.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,883 Famous
The ludicrously hyperbolic nature of Spotify bios is an ongoing source of frustration for me when trying to write about recotds I come across.
London outfit Famous's latest Party Album is a case in point. An album on engaging youthful introversion and noise. I quite like it.
But going to their bio in search of or basic biographical information is a fool's'errand. It's all total gibberish. Oh well. The record's worth a spin even if the overriddung impression is confusion. .
Friday, October 11, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 223 Microdisney - 39 Minutes
A repost for this:
'(Cathal) Coughlan is that rare, arguably unique beast: a truly gifted satirist, plying his art in a rock'n'roll band.' Andrew Mueller
He's a contrary character, that's for sure. As Mueller writes of him: ( Coughlan ) 'has eluded the recognition that has long been his due with a cunning blend of intransigence, bloody-mindedness, ill luck , an uncanny instinct for making the music at the wrong time, a perhaps unhelpful surfeit of intelligence and a rarefied sense of mischief often mistake for gratuitous belligerence.' I'd concur but add a small caveat. His true achilles heel was his failure to ever nail down the real killer tune which would take him from his existence as a cult hero to being a genuine chart contender. I'd say the same about his foil in Microdisney, Sean O'Hagen who went on to make loads of really great music with Stereolab and High Llamas, ( his own project), without ever grazing the significant areas of the char either. Probably also on account that neither of them ever cared overmuch.
39 Minutes is a perfectly acceptable record without ever threatening to be a great one to my ears. Mueller rates it so highly largely because of the sour cynicism of its lyrics which he suggests holds a pulse to the corrupt tenor of the times it was made during the late Eighties. I'm insufficiently able to decode more cryptically acute lyrics so I'm unfit to judge. The comparison with Costello holds up again. Compare 39 Minutes with Armed Forces for example. Which record has the cleverer set of lyrics. Hard to judge. Which has the better tunes? Armed Forces, hands down. Anyhow I'd take the one Microdisney album I do own, The Clock Comes Down the Stairs,over this. My couple of listens hasn't inspired me to go back very often in future
So, to Fatima Mansions and a truly horrible album cover. They were the project Coughlan moved onto when Microdisney folded and he and O'Hagen parted directions. He chose at this point to shift towards a sound that reflected the generally unrelenting bile of his lyrics. I never really went for it apart from a couple of songs and I'm gritting my teeth as I listen it to this while writing. It verges on hardcore. The kind of thing Black Flag used to specialise in. Regardless of its lyrical merits, I doubt I'll get through it. I can't multitask and type and think while listening. I don't have the slightest urge to take up stage diving any moment soon.
That's probably because this is certainly not my kind of music as a cursory glance down this blog will vouch. I just find it mindless. I much prefer the Scott Walker records in Coughlan's collection to the Anthrax ones that this suggests he may have nestled alongside them. I just want it to stop. I've posted the quietest song on the record because I wouldn't want to inflict the pain I've experienced on others. Inevitably this turns into a thrash interspersed with the quieter bits. Seriously, don't bother.
As with 39 Minutes and Microdisney, this was Fatima Mansions last throw of the dice. It flopped both critically and commercially and judging by my personal listening terror deserved to. I will agree with Mueller's judgement that Coughlan is a definite if misdirected talent. Read his article if you can track it down. It's an object lesson in how to write music criticism. Meanwhile Fatima Mansions, R.I.P. but don't reform.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,784 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 75 dog eyes - holy friends
There are records that I immediately think of as Juno Culture as soon as I hear them.A couple of gloopy teenagers sat out on the porch strumming acoustic guitars like Juno and Paulie Bleeker in that movie. Staring into each others eyes and sharing orange tic tacs between kisses. Listening to Belle & Sebastian and Velvet Underground albums together.
That's a conforting film and records that remind me of its sensibility are immediately comforting albums which I find myself clinging to. Like Linus and his blanket. Juno soundtrack for this year seems to be dog eyes holy friends.
It seems to tick all the requisite checklist boxes with astonishing efficiency given that a stand out quality of albums such as these is lazy DNA. The songs here though are alert and keen even if they also project that contended snug lethargy.
dog eyes are David Leach and Hally Firstman. He sports a sloppy moustache. She has cute plaits. Nancy & Lee for millenial kids. These songs won't change your world so much as confirm to you that you have great taste. It's a new shade of fun !
Song(s) of the Day # 3,882 Hard Quartet
Towards the weekend and the fitness centre with Hard Quartet's eponymous album a fluid, uncompromisng alternative guitar album that makes me glad to be alive.
An Indie sypergroup of sorts. Featuring Stephen Malkmus once of Pavement, Silver Jews and The Jicks most obviously and prominently but also Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Jim White (Dirty Three) and Emmet Kelly (Ty Segall)..
This is fluid, literate joyous melodicism. A love of the past, Psychedelic San Francisco, Wire, Mission of Burma, Sonic Youth, Kraiutrock, Flying Nun and errm Pavement, If I'm being churlish perhaps a mute linger than it absolutely needs to be. A couple of tracks could be pruned.
But there's much to enjoy here. These guys know what theyre doing and love what they're doing. Middle aged comfortably heeled guys revelling in the company of other guys.
A tour has been set up and it prioritises Cult appeal. Hey this is Malkmus who is inevitably the most prominent player here. Hey, his talent is undeniable. Key American cities. A date at the Electric Camden with pricey tickets then a run of daes in Australia.
I'll content myself with the record which ticks a lot of my own pleasure principles bozes. This is stellar stuff from people who know exactly what they're doing. .
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Naima Bock - Below A Massive Dark Land
Some people are prone to say that the best Rock music has already been made.Frankly I think it's preposterous idea. Just as the idea that the old days were the best. Nostalgia's not whar it used to be.
I think it's pretty easy to look around and find music that compares with anything in the canon. Look ar Syfjan. Look at Kamasi Washington. Listen to the latest Mercury Rev or Grandaddy albums. They're music with the scope and grace of Van Morrison, David Bowie, The Band or Miles Davis records.
They just draw on different sensibilities and modes of expression. They're every bit as much works of art as what came before them. Is there any need to say one is beter than another.This seems a strange way to appreciate good work
Listen to the new Naima Bock album Below A Massive Dark Land. It's very good work.I'm very taken by Naima. This is her second album. Her frst Giant Palm was an enormous favourite of mine when it came out
I've been listening to Below A Massive Dark Land on a daily basis this week. I went into RPM Records, a go to refuge from the travails of the modern world on Monday and Rich and Craig, the record shop guys who know were listening to it. It even got Craig's approval and that's saying something. Rich doesn't approve of much that didn't come out in 1967.
Parts of Below A Massive Dark Land sound like it might have come out n 1972. Echoes of Van Morrison, John Martyn and Richard Thompson. But this isn't retro. It's the joys of music refracted through a post millenial lens.
Naima has a lovely voice and a lovely soul. She's playing at The Cumberland Arms in November. I'll pop down and see her. Last time we metwe talked about Joni. I wonder what we'll talk about this time.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,785 The Kinks - Kinks
The Kinks at their rawest in their infant days. Their are some Spinal Tap moments frankly. The hit singles that broke them You Really Got Me and All Day & All of The Night.. Elsewhere they#re nascent. In the act of becoming.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 224 The Cars - Heartbeat City
The Cars had their moments. At their best they were excellent, sightly leftfield, chart fodder. But by 1984's Heartbeat City their best was largely behnid them. Whereas their early albums had been Television that got played on AOR radio - and frankly who could complain about that, Heartbeat City was largely affected weirdness for the Pretty In Pink High School generation.
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 76 Einsturzende Neubauten - Rampen
I've become an enormous Germanophile of late. The last month and a bit to be precise. Though I suspect I always have been at heart. Big changes in my life and I've decided I like changes. They're good for me. I've broken away from the icy grip of 'the man' and am considering myself as semi-retired from now on. I'm intent on enjoying my life from this point. That's what it's there for anyhow isn't it?
So instead of dragging myself into an unhappy office, I've been teaching German business people online. Digging into the culture again, brushing up my German, learning about the way of and attitudes to life. I think there's much to embrace, relish and admire. So we come to the new Einsturzende Neubauten record. Rampen (apm; alien pop music).
It's a perfect soundtrack for this moment for me and encapsulates everything I've always loved about teutonic culture with a wry restraint that resists the maniacal self destruct button. Blixa Bargeld and his boys have matured nicely over the years. Still in black, no longer so intent on raising messy hell and waking the neighbours. But the Faustian pact was made many moons ago and they remain bound by the same prnciples. This is a disquieting but nuanced listen. Perfect for my Monday morning as I wait for my online workshop with young Leipzig bankers.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,881 John Roseboro
Bossa Nova corner. Not a general It Starts With obsession but this is a neat record. John Roseboro's Fools tends your inner soul. And as any Fule Noesm the inner soul requires tending.
Roseboro works out of Brooklyn, one of the workd capitals of New Bohemianism. In the words of the Bandcamp page the record 'subverts traditional conventions on what alternative music is. Disposing of tored chord progressions, kitschy themes and larping emo aesthetics.' Somebody's swallowed a dictionary.
Still I'm happy to endorse the principle. I like manifetoes. And this is a rather lovely record. Thanks againt Darren Jone for tending to the Captain's Table. I'm off to listen to Sade.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,786 Paul Weller - Stanley Road
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 225 The Go Betweens - Tallulah
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 77 Night Beds - Mountain Radio
A Rocky Mountain reared dreamer now based in Nashville, Tennessee. Winston Yellen's lastest record Mountain Radio is a joy from the off. It seems to concern itself mostly with the creation of beauty and awe. I'm not about to complain about that.
It's a lovely record, right the way through. Yellen comes across a better adjusted hick cousin to Mark Kozalek's urban toiler. This is a much more contented listen than Kozalek's remarkable but deeply troubled records.
There's something of Bon Iver's late career poetic ennui to Mountain Radio too. This is a very American record in essence. A gorgeous one. Lost in the stars.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,880 Ada Lea
Toronto artist Ada Lea releases a new a EP notes. Amiable and atmospheric electro emotionality. These sound like sountracks to a long night drive over darkened landscapes. Worth a punt.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 226 Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Stations
It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 78 Oso Oso - life till bones
Lethargic, slightly depressed but trying to put a bright face on it Indie Rock from Jade Lilitri out of Long Beach, New York. New album life till bones boasts a terrific sleeve. As if the Ray Harryhausen skeletons have decamped from Jason & the Argonauts screen and are rockin' American suburbia.
The record is cool. Geeky Strokes. I went to Oso Oso Radio on Spotify in search of further comparison points but didn't find many. I just found plenty more interesting leads.
Anyhow life till bones is loads of fun. The kind of slacker American indie that's all over my It Starts With a Birthstone 200 countown as we come towards my Top hundred. I'm increasing realising that along with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, this is uncreasingly one of my favourite things.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,787 Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega