Saturday, May 31, 2025
What I Did Last Night - Lael Neale at the Cumberland Arms
'Feel it closing in. The fear of whom I call..Day in day out..Day in day out..Day in day out..Day in day out..Day in day out....'.Joy Divison Digital
'When the day is done. Down to earth then sets the sun.' Nick Drake Day is Done
There are differnt ways of dealing with days. The Joy Division intensity thing. The Nick Drake way resignation, bucolic poetry and Stoic acceptance. Neither story ended happily. But the music. The essence, the lessons in life remain .
I had a decidedly weird day yesterday. Morning was technology purgatory. I lost my phone. It's somewhere in my flat still. It drove me slightly crackers for a few hours. I'll spare you the grisly details of my moodshifts.
We're all so beholden to technology these days. Let's face it it's our master. I grew up in a world where people talked and there was no expectation of instant gratification and the subsequent emotional rollercoaster we're expected to ride. Of rage, distress, lust, error, elation and occasionally, very occasionally love and harmony., Peace. We're masters of technology it's there to serve us. Frankly you wouldn't know it. The way things are heading.
'Put down your phone, relax and float downstream...'
I taught two good classes. That was the best thing about my day. First with D**** . A fabulous, wise and articulate woman who should be running the company she works for but would prefer to focus her governing energies on motherhood and partnership. On being a decent person. I fed in some language when I could. A few sentences to tweak her automation in terms of her register.
I appreciate these one to one sessions with D****. I learn more than I teach. The best lessons. Consider that your CELTA Certificate. Your PGCE. Go armed with that knowledge and you might make a decent fist of teaching. It's a great thing to do. It's not about the teacher is the fitst thing you need to process and activate.
My second class was early in the afternoon with young students from various disciplines at The University of Cologne. German, Turkish, Spanish, Polish. All bright and bushy tailed. Keen as mustard. Just lacking the rigour sometimes to bash their ideas into sentences, paragraphs and on from there to PHDs and such like. I do my best to arm them for these endeavours. I always like teaching this group
In between classes I go to the Vodaphone outlet in the mall. I dislike these rituals. I just want a phone that works . I hate the bother But I have an interesting encounter this morning with the guy behind the desk . With an affable thirty something with a fine mane of hair and an engaging manner. He's working his way from the inside out it turns out. I suspect his heart is not in what he does for a living. We chat about the modern condition. The need for instant gratification.
It's clear to me that the modern smartphone is the greatest enemy to calm and stress free living. I could og on and on and on We all live with the contradictions. This guy is selling a new one to me and I am struggling to follow the stream of tech related information he is speedily rolling out to me so I can get my new phone up and running when I get home.
To cut a long story I didn't lose my mind. I assembled my phone, fed in the updates, charged it up and checked out Alma Thomas, who the affable musician Vodaphone guy had suggested as the antidote to all modern evils.. He's also a musician. So we'd talked about Jazz. Miles, Ella and Nina. Television and The Cars. Bono. Hmm. We agreed on Bono. I don't mean Sonny Bono.
I forget what else .we talked about. But it was one of those conversations that you wish you'd recorded to dismantle, disect and reassemble later. In return for Alma Thomas I gave him Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers. He'd never heard of either. The gap in younger people's knowledge confuses me sometimes..
Anyway my day like Nick's is almost done. A slight moment of dreadful chill and horror seizes me when I spot a circular email from a middle manager which starts 'I''m reaching out' sent out to all the teachers at the school I work with. No thanks I don't really want you to 'reach out to me' thanks. I have enough on my plate. I imagine plenty of others do too.
Do people have no idea. Do they actually think they are good at their jobs. That this is what middle managers imagine they should do to justify their positions . To denigrate, insult, patronise and demotivate hard working professionals who possibly have more experience and qualifications than they have, There are no words sometimes..
Anyway I'm off . It's early evening. Ir's sunny. Sllghtly balmy . Like many older people I'm beginning to overdress. The Quayside 'looks so medieval. It seems to flap like little pages.' I'm sorry I always go back to those lines. That idea that life can seem so realised that you almost feel like you're participating in a comic strip. You feel so alive. A lot of people are already drunk and reeling. It happens a lot in Newcastle. Particularly on Friday nights coming to the end of May.
I'm quickly through Ousebourn find myself mounting the grassy stone stairwell towards The Cumberland Arms. I always get a great sense of anticipation as I do this. Invariably I have great nights at The Cumberland Arms. Lael Neale the elfin Californian is playing tonight. It's another of Walter's Wandering Oak bills. Walter never fails.
The front garden of The Arms is heaving with happy youths and happy adults. The queue to the bar stretches out of the front door. I get served in time. I really shouldn't have worn this jacket. I spot Walter in the back bar where the fiddlers are warming up for their evening session. I try to chat to him but he's busy. Eventually I get his attention.
Should I get a ticket Walter? He's sold out! Oh well . I turn to go. But not before saying how good Lael Neale is and what a treat of an evening everyone is in for . There is a debonair, immaculately turned iout man in framed in the doorway behind Walter. Like a character out of an episode of Mr Benn.
I get to the doorway of the Cumberland Arms. Walter calls my name and I turn back. The debonair man steps firward and speaks. He's an American. Polite tones. Gentle manner. A gentleman frankly. He says, 'Well would you like to attend as our guest.' I'm taken aback for a moment. Then thank him profusely and pump his hand. Walter says he'll make a note of it. I turn back into the garden with my cider. The evening's working out.
I'm feeling good. It's a bit close. It's closer upstairs in a sold out venue. I skip the first act. They're not to my liking. Slighfly boastful and the music not really to my taste. When I go up again the debonair American is sorting out his stage. I spot Chris from Prancy Dog in the opposite side of the stage. I go across to chat to him.
Chris, like Walter is fundamental to the Newcastle Independent scene. They both put on and have put on great shows at venues like The Cluny, The Cumberland Arms, The Lubber Fiend and anywhere else that will have.them.
Chris in short is an enthusiast and music lover and a very friendly man. We chat about his forthcoming trip to Japan. Gigs that are coming up. Gigs we have seen. This is the bond that people develop before these gigs ignite. You know you're with 'your people'
The debonair young man is warmed up and kicks off and immediately sets the night on fire. Thanks Jim. It's a good comparison. Both with Entrance who the young man is and with Lael Neale who he supports on stage later.
He starts to howl and weep into the night. The passion and intensity is immediate. This is the Story of the Blues and we're not taking Liverpool Pete Wylie. Chris and I agree it's something else. He says 'has anyone been to Baltimore' and there are a few muttered assents,
Baltimore must be some city. Randy Newman, Nina Simone, Diner, John Walters, The Wire, The Colts. Now you can add Entrance to that list. I'm going to look into his work .. He's played with the greats. Well Sonic Youth and Pavement anyhow. Check out his Wikipedia page for more details. Then check out his back catalogue for the finest American underbelly thrill imaginable.
Twenty mnutes more and Lael will headline. Chris and I chat some more. I'm getting tired. I wish I had a chair. What with the Tech rollercoaster this mirning I'm fading fast. It's very close in here. But actually that's the perfect atmospheric condition for what's coming next.
Lael is a slim small woman but she has presence. She's California. Slightly spooky and poised. My mind starts reeling when she and the debonair man kick off. He on keyboards, she on keyboards of her own..Occasional guitar. Like a Grand Canyon Suicide, Space Lady, Nancy and Lee, Mazzy Star, The Doors. Lael Neale and Guy Blakeslee, (for the debonair man is he). California Indie's King and Queen.
Chris and I both are standing there with our jaws dropped like dumbstruck types who possibly wanna be sedated.. Or do peyote ! I think of Lost in Music because this is how I feel .True enchantment and bliss. I don't see out the set but I make a point of shaking Guys hand before I make my way to the exit. Some gig. Some day !
.. .
. . .
Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 12 Justin Hayward & Justin Hodge
Justin Hayward specialised un a certain romantic, corporate wetness. This is from Supersonic . An idd TV Music show which summed up 1975 incredibly well.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 492 Girls - Album
Old School New School. Television Personalities meet Bug Star. Briken hearts. Jangling chirds. Perfect.
Song of the Day # 4,108 Alan Sparhawk
Alan Sparhawk soldiers on. Like a man heading up a steep mountain slope.. Low behund him. The mountain plateaus and peaks ahead. I had a bath and listened to Trampled With Turtles on a bright Saturday morning at the end if May as I approach 60.
He's an inspirational bloke. The music he's associated with has generally been sparse and flinty. minimal. Determined. Spawn of the Velvet Underground stable.
Trampled With Turtles sounds like a new begininng rather than a full stop. An end of career footnote. He rarely fails.
Fifteen years ago I saw him wuth a good friend. With Low. With his life partner. At an All Tommorrow's Parties festival. The musical friend of my lifetime. He was talking about Syria. Shaking his head.
Now Syria is everywhere. Everywhere you look. So perhaps it's best not to look. Better to listen. Trampled With Turtles is a briliant sunrise.
Friday, May 30, 2025
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,563 Tubeway Army - Replicas
Are Friends Electric. Me I Disconnect From You. The whole spooky Replicas thung. It cast a spell on a fourteen year old mind.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 493 Kelly Joe Phelps - Sky Like a Broken Clock
'a smoky blues catalogie of dark, downbeat and olique narratives.'
Song of the Day # 4,107 Foxwarren
Keep it simple. 2. A sweeping, diverse and frequently lovely album from Canadian quintet Foxwarren. They feature Andy Shauf . Boundaries between genres and songs are freqyently blurred. It jumps around a bit occasionally but generally it's assured , playful and really quite appealing,
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,564 Weyes Blood - After The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
'Sitting at this party. Wondering if anyone knows me. Really sees who I am. Oh it's been so long since I've felt known.'
Weyes Blood is back again with her new album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Finally. With more songs of ultimate heartbreak on a fascinating follow up to her fantastic 2019 album Titanic Rising. Her breakthrough record.
A lot has happened in the world since then. You don't need me to tell you. This record will. In great if elusive detail. Weyes Blood is a funny one. On the surface her songs are comforting confectionaries. Sugar coated portals back to a more innocent time and most obviously those fabulous Carpenters records that some of us grew up with in the early Seventies. Me for instance.
But this is deceptive. I always get the sense of much more going on here. Post millennial unease. And in this perhaps the Carpenters are the key. They were hardly the happiest campers, even at the time of their gargantuan commercial peak. Watch the biopics. Their's was a story of intense, unbearable pain. Let's face it. You can hear that in the songs themselves. And they and the great MOR wave that soundtracked the early Seventies were a antidepressant gloss over one of the greatest crisis points of American history. Vietnam, Watergate, the Sixties dream gone.
And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, like Titanic Rising is not a straightforward record, But I do find it a fascinating one, and one I'll certainly return to on a regular basis over the coming weeks and months. It's the last late contender for my album chart for 2022 which is currently creeping down its late thirties. I'm not quite sure where it will end up but it will certainly feature.
The songs of And in the Darkness are precisely that. Locked in dreams that yearn for consummation but seem doomed never to achieve them. On the surface, songs of the greatest love but ultimately songs of great loss. Fairy Tales.
Whether you relate to them may well depend on how you felt about Titanic Rising. You're hardly likely to embrace this if you didn't relate to that. And in the Darkness is ploughing a similar furrow and you may not think the songs are up to scratch this time.
As for me, she's got me once again. I think she's a fascinating and incredibly talented artist. Not quite like anyone operating on the Pop market right now. Buy it for Christmas as a gift for the Carpenters loving family member in your life. Particularly if they're not aware of her work. But keep the receipt, just in case.
*For more insight into this fascinating record, please go to this excellent review.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 494 Lady Tron - 604
Named for a Roxy Music song. Their debut from 2001.. Glittering Electro Dancefloor rhythms. Cool as ****.
Song of the Day # 4,106 James Taylor
How do you change as you get older? With luck you mellow and find your still centre. Your heart. I find that happening to me increasingly as I approach 60. When I was about 17 I went to college. My sixth form college was at the end of a long road in Twickenham. I walked down it towards classes in English, History and Politics. Constructing myself I now realise.
I was virginal and innocent. I didn't know anything about the world and very little about women. The street to the college was long and straight. Beautiful young women walked up and down. In the morning and the late afternoon. Long coats. Straight hair. Some incredible beauties. Mysterious. And deeply lovely. The young women of South West London. Or at least my part of it.
I built up a friendship with one of them. A true sensitive beauty. Hungarian blood. Artistic temperament. She's since become an artist. And done alright for herself. I went round to her house. Just off Kew Green one sunny day. She served me fig rolls and tea in the kitchen. We chatted with her lovely mother and charming sister. Her dad came into the kitchen.A f riendly, affable man. He'd left Humgary after 1956. Married the true sensitive beauty's mother and settled down in Kew for blissful family life.The true sensitive beauty played me Howard Jones and talked about how much she liked him. I enjoyed the fig rolls.Howard Jones not quite so much.
Later there was an embarassing everning when I met her in Twickenham on a Saturday evening. We went for some drinks. Then I walked her back to the train. As she got into the compartment, (those old carriages where you could lean out of the window). I asked her if I could kiss her. She said I could. She proffered her cheek towards me. But I misunderstood and went to kiss her lips. She was embarrassed. Ducked away. The train shot off. She called me up a couple of days later. Said I like you but....
It didn't matter at the time. There are always more straight haired dark eyed beauties to fall in love with when you're 17. Our friendship endured and blossomed. She started going out with one of my friends. Told me how she liked James Taylor. Played me, perhaps gave me Gorilla , I don't remember I didn't think much more of James Taylor than I did of Howard Jones at the time. I thought it was bland.
I like James Taylor now. I listened to Sweet Baby James last night. It's sweet and soft and bruised. but wise. Like a Georgia Peach
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners # 17 John ' Rhino ' Edwards- One of Those Things
Played bass for Dexys. Then bass for Status Quo.
101 Essential Rock Records # 69 James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
Raylor's second album, his breakthrough record, is both an evocative document of its time and an ageless artifactwhose sentiments have no sell by date.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 217 Fairport Convention - Fairport Convention
Am incredibly interesting and enjoyable listen. Not just because it's Fairport Convention when they seemed to want to be Jefferson Airplane or The Byrds almost as much as they wished to become Fairport Convention. Incredibly evocative of the first hundred and fifty pages of David Mitchell's Utopia Avenue. And certainly gives you a better idea if what itfelt like to be jobbing musician i London in 1967 and 1968 than listening to Sgt Pepper will.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,564 Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis
This seems to be the day when any number of records that stray of the prescribed path show up like London double deckers. Mark Hollis understood space. He was the Ghoerge Hagi of Eighties music.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 495 Broadcast And The Focus Group - Investigate Witch Cults of the Video Age
Now that's some title for an album. And some recird tto listen to on a sunny Wednesday album in May.Windows thrown wide open. I get the impression that Broadcast, Stereolab, Pram and the whole Hauntolology movement which they were all associated with to a degree will continue to flourish and prosper in terms of unfluence and repute. These are records that dare to dream.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,105 Lael Neale
Enchantment. I like Enchantment. Magic. Spells. Mystery. Music and records which take you out of yourself. Into yourself. That remind you that theworld is a vast and infinite space. Not just yje oe you find yourself bound by.
Lael Neale is someone who loses herself in the rapture . Speaks in tongues. Skips across the meadow. Latest album Altogether Stranger picks up from 2023's spectral Star Eaters and dances cross the heavens like a Woodstock refuge.
Velvet Underground, Mazzt Star and Space Lady came to mind. She's playing on a hill near me on Friday. In Lael's words 'I might be late but I'll be there.'.. See her on the astral plane.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
101 Essential Rock Records # 68 The Move - Shazam
a unique assemblage of styles that holds its shape together.
Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 8 The Kinks
Probably not a singe that many are familiar with. Very spaced out and 1975. But frankly rather charming,
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 496 Amiina - Kurr
This rundown is an excellent way to chart a century that it's almost impossible to define or contain, Take # 496. An utterly charming Icelandic album from Sigyr Rois string quartet. You won't hear anything else like it this week. Put it on , lie down on your sofa and drift off on your sofa,
Song(s) of the Day # 4,104 Robert Forster
Robert Forster, (once of the Go Betweens), has a new record out. It is called Strawberries.. It is the record of an older statesman behaving as an older statesman and writing and performing songs of minimal grace and easy humour.
The songs talk about football games and strawberries. Eating breakfast on trains. On crying and how this is a good thing to do. Forster is backed by a minimal band and comes across as nothing so much as an Australian Jonathan Richman.
I'm gettung older myself and experiencing how life changes you and your needs. That you want simpler pleasures. Trains. Shared meals. Holding hands. Making love in a hotel room.
The songs are touching. They made me emotional . Forster is a master of such arts. He has been plotting and executing such graceful small explosions for the best part if fifty years now. Age suits him.
Monday, May 26, 2025
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 218 The Strokes - Room On Fire
In the academic year 2003 -04 I found myself in Budapest. I'd had a couple of incredible years in Katowice where I'd learned everything I needed to know about my chosen profession and lived as intensely emotionally as you could possibly want to. Experienced every possible twist and turn of the rollercoaster ride. And drunk one hell of a lot of beer !
Katowice 2001-03. The two years of my life where I learned most. With my colleagues. Who worked hard, played hard. Drank a lot, And fell into beds together at every opportunity. Well, it was something to do. It was rarely dull. An EFL boot camp where people went from planning to teaching to input sessions. Then to bars and nightclubs and then back to bed. Our own or each others. And up the next day to start the merry cycle all over again.
I didn't consider myself particularly attractive but I did as well as anyone else during my time there. . People seemed to be eating life up as if it was a plate of pierogi washed down by Okocim or Zwiec, Mad Dog shots. It didn't seem to even occur to any of us 'not to drink' Ever !
Then one Sunday morning in my second year I woke up with a beautiful young Polish woman in my arms. She was nice. Actually incredibly nice. Pretty. Still slightly drunk as was I. A bit confused. A bit conflicted. I got the sense in the next few weeks that she was being pulled in many directions, But she was very, very attractive. In all kinds of ways. And spectacular company. We spent as much of the next few weeks together as we could.My life had changed but I didn't actually realise it at the time, .
I went to Budapest in the Autumn, I was still excited about the Polish woman.. There was a connection between us, Sometimes it's difficult to understand when you know you have a connection but aren't sure what it is, That you just like being together,,
I listened to The Strokes a lot over these years, They seemed to be eating life too, In New York. And on the touring circuit . On magazines. On the radio. In music magazines. They reminded me of the music I'd fallen in love with fifteen years before. Television, Pere Ubu, Velvet Underground. But they had an energy and vigour that was of the moment.
My friend arrived to see me in Budapest just before Christmas, I met her at a Central Station. It felt like I was spending Christmas with the blond Anna Karenina. The strangest feeling. She had a large suitcase on wheels, We hauled it across the broad Budapest thoroughfares to the splendid flat a friend had let us stay in over the festive period.
It was a golden period for both of us, Ten days? A moment outside life almost. Which we will both treasure forever. We explored Budapest together. Parks and castles. Bars. Parties with friends. The Opera. A disco in the Budapest Metro.In the early hours of the morning,
Or just sitting in the flat. Listening to music together.Not The Strokes. Life on Mars? That was the song. We played it. Again and again. She's was a great person for listening to music with.Then she took a train back to Germany. And I got on with my life.
Now twenty years in we're back in contact, Unexpectantly. She's got married and divorced in the interim. To the wrong man. I knew it at the time , But it wasn't my place to say. Everybody has the right to make their own mistakes,.
She seems happy.She has two beautiful daughters, I'm glad. That makes me happy too. I send her a song every day. We tell each other about our days. It seems like a great arrangement and understanding, This won't stop. Sometimes you don't need to put something into words. In fact it may be better not to, I'll send her a Strokes song one day. Meet Me In the Bathroom? You Talk Way Too Much? .. ..
101 Essential Rock Records # 67 Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day -
Vashti Bunyan took a circuitous route to cult stardon not unlike her contemporary Nick Drake.
Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 7 Moonrider
If it feels like 1975, it probably is 1975.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,566 Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
Blood on the tracks. And relationships. A beautifu album about endurance. And survival. Strangely, the secod Richard Thompson album featured today.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 497 Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior
Song(s) of the Day # 4,103 Death & Vanilla
It was still Sunday afternoon in Newcastle. The city centre had a pall of eerie calm . There was a football match, an important one, playing at the stadium down the road from me. But frankly, I've had enough of football for reasons I won't bother you with.
I turned on my television set and put on Whistle I'll Come to you, the latest album by Malmo's finest Death & Vanilla. Not much happened for forty five minutes. But it happened xtremely moodily. I think it's called Hauntology if you want a label. I'm happy with excellent, hypnotic, spacy drone. .
Sunday, May 25, 2025
Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners # 16 Andy Hamilton - Let's Make This Precious
Tenor sax man. Tells the story of the Bowie gig in Paris. Supporting Bowie. Rowland goes into a rant in between songs about how Bryan Ferry is infinitely better than the headliner..Bowie is sitting on a speaker stand watching the set. The band are escorted off the site..
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 498 Steely Dan - Two Against Nature
I hd a very good friend who got rather alarmingly obsessed with Steely Dan a year or so ago. The whole incident rather scared me. I'm sure this is excellent but I can't face listening to this.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,567 Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
In 1995 there was Brit Pop. There was Oasis. There was Blur. There was Elastica. And Teenage Fanclub. A purer. More modest and frankly more prepossessing vision. The sound of guitars, Harmonies.The sund of love.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,102 Slow Motion Cowboys
Ways of establishing equilibrium Part .... Throw your windows open to the afternoon. Sit yourself down in front of your desk. Get yourself a glass of water to drink. Put your TV set on. Your musics on the TV set these days haven't you heard. Listen to something that Mojo or Uncut Magazine are recommending. They know what they're talking about. Today Wolf of St Elmo by Slow Motion Cowboys.
First of all - poetry. This is a record informed by poetry in terms of it rhythms and intentions. Slow Motion Cowboys is an evocative band name. It's up there. Cowboy Junkies, Neon milk Hitel Silver Jews. Grandaddy. That's the tradition Wolf of St Elmo slots into. Cleawater Swimmers from last year comes to mind too.
Anyway it's a fluid, beautiful record. The second of my weekend after Stereolab's Instant Holograms on Metal Film. The pace is easy, the times are gentle. Gram is somehwere tapping a toe. It's a record about passing through the delta, keeping the breaks off and s,iing at straingers. All in all an excellent album.
Saturday, May 24, 2025
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 499 School Of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
A key nu-gaze yext apparently. Certainly a rather wonderful album. I had an interesting School Of Seven Bells live experience a few years later. It was at the end of an ATP festival weekend which I attended with a few friends. I didn't know two of them at all. Nice guys but prty people certainly. They they hoovered up any number of nartcotics over the course of the weekend.
On the last evening one of them gave me a rather large slab of dope which I swallowed. It hit me just as School Of Seven Bells hit the stage. The gig was one of the most utterly blissful sets of music I have ever experienced. I felt like I was experiencing the second coming of, I didn't kow what. My journey back to Newcastle was not as enjoyable as the set.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 219 Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
There are records to play first thing in the morning. Ones that sound great as we come towards midday. Ones to play as the sun sets Some records sound good any time you want to play them. This record is one of those.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,568 John Prine - John Prine
An album and an artist I'm not familiar with. From way back when the world was yoing. 1971. Slightly hokey songer songwriter stuff from a man sat on a haybail . John Prine has passed recently I realise his reputation but this is a little but too in its space for me...I will listen to Gram as my bath runs.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,101 Wishbone Zoe
The sun's rising in the Newcastle sky. It's a Saturday morning and I have a playlist of songs, of albumss to listen to. All seems right with the world. But first I have Blue Distances by Wishbone Zoe to listen to.
Zosia Kochanski, for Wishbone Zoe is she, is a multimedia artistant. Blue Distances sees her mind and muse wander where it needs to go. It's a gentle place where 'Reclusive' rhymes with 'Massachusetts'
Anither fishy for a captain's dishy from Starbuck's AKA Darren Jones. Best fruend of It Starts With a Birthstone/ Another good one Darren.
Friday, May 23, 2025
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 220 The Roches - The Roches
The Roches has a grace and space, a serenity that's not quite like any other album I can think of. A sweetness. Charm. An innoence. But a deceptive steel. And wordliness too. Listen to The Married Men. It didn't sell many copies. But I imagine that most of those who have the album treasure it. Deeply.
500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 500 Gorillaz - Demon Days
To try to plot The 500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's seems an odd exercise to me . It seems to be a period that is almost Post Meaning. So how do you possibly evaluate one record against another. The cover of Uncuts' s magazine for this has Bob Dylan on the cover. An indication that it seems to be an era that searches in the past and a false and illusory coheremce for direction and pattern. Still, there are lots of great records here for me to discover and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn's alternative universe and id or ego seems an interesting place to start.
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,569 Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Music offers me escape and clarity. Perfect Genius is one of the most interesting post millennial artists for me. His music is wrought with sadness but seeks the light and love. 2020's Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is as good a place as any to start.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,100 Stereolab
It's Friday morning. The sun has risen in the heavens. My lesson is planned. My powerpoint sent. My bath is run. I am free for two hours. I can sit at my desk, don my headphones and listen to the new Stereolab album Instant Holograms on Metal Film.
I lost track with the Pop narrative somewhat after 2000 but from 1980 to 2000 I was properly engaged with it . It's difficult when you're listening to CDs. My band of the Eighties was clearly R.E.M. I've written no end about them on here. In the Nineties there was Grunge, there was Hip Hop there was Brit Pop, there was any amount of music that I craved and devoured, but if asked what music from those years meant most to me .I'd probably opt for albums from the Trip Hop artists. Most notably Massive Attack. And I'd listen to Stereolab.
Like Kraftwerk before them Stereolab seem to plot a course to the future. An alternative way of looking at life that is not just the next round of football fixtures, soap operas and nonsensical conspiracy theory, surveillance and control. Stereolab always map alternative ways of organising societies, ways of considering and doing things, organisimg as a collective and sub collectives.
Nothing has changed on Instant Holograms on Metal Film,It's a linear and sciemtifically realised vision that's as beautifully realised as a room of Escher drawings. An Ursula Le Guin novel a movie classic like Silent Runnings or an impeccably planned meal or adventure weekend. An escape into thinking.
The clinical daring of Stereolab reamains astonishing. Their records continue to be plotted workouts that take the listener to another geometric space. Read the excellent review and interview in the current Uncut Magazine for a more detailed narrative and discussion of its plotlines. For me as six o'clock beckons, the record is more than enough. This will soundtrack my day. And many days ahead.
Thursday, May 22, 2025
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 220 Nirvana - Nevermind
So Thirty Three years after it was released what is there to say sbout Nevermind. I'm listening to it as my jacket potatoes warm in my oven on a clear and beautiful evening in Newcastle. My windows are thrown open.. First of all it just makes me feel good. It's a fine Rock & Roll album whuch was iucredibly needed and earth shattering at the time and remains staggeringly innovative and energising regardless of the familiarity of the songs.
It's not upsetting to listen to now. It's a raw and thrilling ride. The best voice . The best drummer. . Lyrics that still surpise and make you smile. Cobain is long gone now and really you'd have to listen to In Utero to get the sense that this is a band undergoing harrowing ecperiences and flirting with the void. This is just an incredubly pop savvy howl through the emotions that so many of us go through at a certain point in our youths immaculately produced and packaged. No winder it made such an impact. Ir's still immediately apparent what a spectacular event this is. I'll get out my jacket potaties and play In Utero while I eat them.. Another incredible fairground ride. .Night to Nevermind's Day,
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 221 Blondie - Eat To The Beat
There are an increasing number of terms I have problems inderstanding fully when it comes to describing music and artists. 'A singles band' high among them. Blondie, Dexys, The Fall, Squeeze, The Stranglers. All excellent bands. The Only Ones? 'One hit Wonders?!? There's another one Another Girl Another Planet It wasn't actually even a hit? We all need boxes to put things in !
Blondie, Dexys, The Fall, Squeeze, The Stranglers. All excellent singles and albums artists. You would be hard pressed if you listened to Eat To The Beat to guess which were the singles. Every song on here could and pershaps should have been a single. Blondie were on top of the world and it muct have felt ecstatic
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 1 Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
I love Kate but I ddin't care for much of this. The productuin most of all. So We've reached the end of this list. You'll be delighted to know, another countdown starts tomorrow. Tell your friends !
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,570 Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
'the world has gone mad today...'
A serene and lovely start to the day. A reminder of a vanished world.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,099 Okinawa 1976
'The sun glows over the turquoise waters, a warm breeze carries the scent of salt and freedom. You're cruising along the coast, the ocean breeze tangling your hair as the sound of smooth Japanese funk flows through the radio. The golden era of groove and city pop is alive in every note.'
That's the descrption pf the YouTube sleevenotes to thos record. From an album called Okinawa 1976 Discovering the Groovy Sounds of 1970's Japanese Funk. That's the script of the I wonder whether this is AI generated. The music sounds like you're in a lift going to the top flight of a modern coraporate monstrosity or on the deck of a cruise shipin the South East pacific seas.. I lasted a couple of songs and then went upstairs to get dressed. But it provoked some thought.
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Song(s) of the Day # 4,098 Lido Pimenta
Lido Pimenta, the Peruvuan starlet comes up trumps again. Five years on from her Grammy Nominated album Miss Colombia, she's back with La Belleza.
Regal and ostentatious, this is one to throw open your windows and blast out into the street. Sensational stuff.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners # 14 Roger Huckle - All In All
The third man in The Emerald Express. Was renamed Roger MacDuff for the Too Rye Aye sessions.. Didn't play much on the road with the band. Now works in classical music .There is talk of an orchestral take on Dexys but thinks he'll probably drop Kevin a line first.
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 222 Joni Mitchell - For The Roses
I like listening to music. Particularly at this time of year . As the sun shines outside my window.May becomes June. It's a lovely day in Newcastle. I'm listening to For The Roses by Joni Mitchell. It's a dappled record. Lots of twists and narrative turns. Melody and a range of moods discussing the human condition. Swooping and diving but eventually coming to the surface and gulping in fresh air. One to return to.
I'm not one for comparisons and I try to .avoid them in my writing on here. I don't like to compare For The Roses with Joni's other records. I like them too. Have done since I was a teenager and my ears and heart opened to the rich resonance of life. Records were my primary educators, along with books and films. I've found with life that they only ripen.
Joni has a great way. With words. With emotions. Sometimes she's slightly elusive for my tastes.But artists have every right to protect themselves. I wouldn't compare her with Dylan or Cohen. Or Laura Nyro. Or Patti Smith. Or Miles Davis. They all have their moments. They're all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.
The vinyl version of For The Roses has an inner sleeve. With the lyrics for the listene to consume and reflect upon on their sofasas the records spin. 'She's a mama lion' protective if her cubs. A picture of Joni in a rock. Classical illusions. Vulnerability. Strength. 'She'd sure like to see you some time...;
250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 223 Glady's Knight & The Pips - Knight Time is the Right Time
Gladys Knight had three Pips. Luck lady. The dipped and swerved and sighed and cooed. They worked hard. They had routines.Meanwhile Gladys stood tall up front. Robert Forster is very good on this band. He has a new record out on Friday
Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,572 Wolf Parade - Apologies to The Queen Mary
Candada has an interesting musical tradition. Wolf Parade made this album Apologies to The Queen Mary in 2005. It bristles and shines. It has spark.
500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 3 Joy Division - Closer
'Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders.'
I listened to Joy Division much more than I did to Alexander O'Neal in the Eighties. It seemed much closer to my own journey at the time. It was about the fight. The struggle. The attempt to find a way towards the light.
I prefer to listen to Unknown Pleasures than Closer which often feels too painful and harrowing given what came next. I have the album on vinyl but I'm listening to it on headphones now. . It's a testament of resolve. Of confusion and pain, Isolation. In the words of one of one of the songs on here but also the sound of four young men coming together to create a lasting statement. Larger than the sum of their parts, A slab. A monument. A work of art. In the words of another of its songs. The Eternal.
A third song title. The albums closer, Decades. Decades later the record bridges a chasm. The inexplicable. The great passage of life. The wonder and fear of what comes next, The Unknown. It reminds me of The Doors. Of Velvet Underground. Two of Ian Curtis' great totems. Along with Iggy, Bowie, Roxy. Now it reminds me of them most of all. .
But as with all great artistic statements, Closer, like the rest of Joy Division's.small and fascinating body of work picks up the torch and carries it forward. Inward perhaps. I'm always slightly puzzled when I hear bands that are clearly influenced by Joy Division. There's nothing wrong with inspiration. I'm puzzled by mere replication. For me Joy Division' songs were the ultimate expression of a certain anguish. Great art wants to inspire. But most of all to be listened to. Do different.
Song(s) of the Day # 4,097 Alexander O'Neal
In the Eighties. When I came of age musically and as a person, there were a lot if strong black Soul men. .Alexander O'Neal among them. His most prominent song was Criticize. It was a great song to dance to. The lyrics remain interesting.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners # 13 Steve Brennan - Old
Second fiddle in The Emerald Express. Intensely committed and struggled with self esteem and depression issues.The Dexy's alumni often have a particular hungry and almost haunted quality.
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