Karl Witney gets off the Megabus from Leeds to The Steel City and wanders off in search of the sound of Sheffield. Inevitably he ponders The Human League, Heaven 17 and Cabaret Voltaire. Pulp. Less so Def Leppard. The spell cast by A Clockwork Orange which is echoed in Sheffield's grim urbn landscape.
A 1989 album on 4AD from Kitchens of Distinction a London threepiece that Melody Maker championed fror a while. Love is Hell is a fragile curiosity worthy of forty minutes of your time. Pained, introverted vocals and a jangling, delicate sound.
A lovely film about a painful subject. A sountrack that dreams from people who know how to dream ,
Not for the first, and I imagine not for the last on here, I'm grateful for Darren Jones, my first mate on here, for coming up with a whole list of recommendations for my listening at a moment when I was running dry of inspiration.,
Song of the Day is a inportant feature of this blog to me and I like to devote it for the most part to new releases. Given the way that the internet has broken open things for the avid listener, there is no end of listening choices for the avid and engaged listener now. It's just a matter of keeping an eye open for the delicacies an training the prow of your boat in on them.
This morning Virgo by Band Warmer out of Kingsport, Tennessee.They tell us there that 'We make Music.' They do indeed. It's worthy of notice. Impossibly young according to Darren. Immpossibly smart according to a listen of Virgo.
I'm running across any number of intriguing Bedroom Indie records coming out of smalltown America this year. The heartlands and High Schools still dream,
This is a delightful, introverted, essentially romantic album album. Guitars and sighing. Heartfelt vocals and playing. Charming record. Thanks Darren. Onwards. To breakfast and the working day..
' She was the still point of the turning world.
' Is there anything better than Kirsten Dunst. I doubt it somehow.
On to Leeds. A book that accumulates resonance with every chapter. Here we get a discussion of Consumer Fetsihism and an exploratuin of the streets of Leeds.A city built for shopping. Comaparison with the boulevards of Paris. The inevitable Pop subject matter is The Gang Of Four, one of the finest bands that the city and indeed Punk and Post Punk produced.Middle Class Marxist students. Among the finest kind of students there are. Two of them from Sevenoaks. Karl Whitney also broadens his discussion to include The Brudenell Social Club, Scritti Politti, Soft Cell, Victorianism and more. The chapter made me want to visit Leeds and explore for myself.
Gothenberg Indie sextet Agent Bla (Aget Blue), are an immediate sensitive, lush proposition that paint their pictures using the broadest brushstrokes.Stab! which appears to be their second album, and their first since 2017 doesn't hold back from being windswept and highly emotive, wearing its heart on the sleeve from the off.
This seemed to fit into a romantic Scandinavian tradition. I found myself thinking,'who does that remind me of?' Utimately this doesnt matter because I really enjoyed my morning ride. This is heartfelt, passionate stuff..
To Newcastle. A fascinating, ever changing city. Still. The place where I live..Karl Whitney focuses his attention on Nik Cohn, originally from Derry. He relocated to Newcastle at the age of 15 in 1961 with his parents and fashioned himself into perhaps the first Modern Rock Journalist. Newwcastle was a otugh Industrial city then, a reuytation that has persisted unfairly as times have changed. For Cohn pop provided 'an escape from rationality'. This is a fantastic chapter which I would direct anybody interested in finding out more about the Newcastle music scene towards and particularly its explosion in the Sixties. Fasinating portraits of the clubs, The Animals and Bryan Ferry.
Almost a comic Spinal Tap version of a 'Beat Group Combo' at this stage. They're not the Kinks we know and love just yet until their songwriting and Englishness flourishes. This is nevertheless a thrilling and incredibly 'Punk' way to start. .
Bad Bad Hats. Bad, bad name. Good, good band. Solid eponymous album. A duo essentially out of Miinneapolis, Minnesota.
I confess I thoyght of Sheryl Crow. More than once. This kind of thought bothers me less as I get older. This is a sunny album with daisies on the front cover. There are worse ways to spend half an hour.
I'm losing my edge. I missed one. Folk stalwart Sam Lee's Bernard Butler produced fourth album songdreamer which featured as Mojo's Album of the Month a couple of issues back.
In fact I've missed this time twice. Sam played the Newcastle Sage about a month back. I planned to go but lost track of the time. Who knows where the time goes. As someone sang once.
Anyway, songdreamer's a small classic in the great mode.Lee is a fifty three year old wuth a rustic folky voice. In the words of Mojo the record ' melds yoga pants era Bill Callahan pondering, the twittering rhapsodies of Kate Bush's Aerial and Incredible String Band cosmic wonder.'
It does indeed. It's full of reverence for wild places and what they can teach us. It's a record with appreciation for space and time. Folk was not something I really considered listening to when I was young. Now it seems increasingly centre stage in Rock & Roll circles. And Why not? It's about time frankly. Roll over Post Punkers. And tell Ian Curtis the news.
I don't know this record. Or didn't until this morning. I listened to it in preference to Match of the Day. Westerberg is a songwriter. And a poet. One of those fuelled by alcohol and dependency to it. Written in his basement in Minneapolis. The glass largely seems half empty. You're never quite sure with this guy. A wonderful set of songs.
A journey on the part of the author. The kind of book I like. He takes us to the great Post Industrial cities of Britain using the music each city produced as the common denominator. Starting with Manchester. The birthplace of the Industrail Revolution.What does a city sound like?
Karl Whitney takes a serious, research formed apprach. In contrast with the likes of Stuart Maconie, who is knowledgeabe but whose central aim is to entertain. Whitney wants to inform just as much. It would be logical to post Joy Division, New Order, Smiths or Buzzcocks ger. I'll go with Graham Goulding instead. One of the great Manachester songsmiths,
I try not to get too engaged with the order of these lists. I'm getting older and am trying to adjust to the fact that these things are just opinions that reflect editorial decision making and commmitee consensus.
It still surprises me that this extraotdinary and pivotal album from my youth ranks in the low four hundreds of this particular exercise. I listened to it at five this morning wondering initially whether it was just too brash and adenoidal for such an early hour. I was gripped. There's no record like it.
The highest ranking Sun Ra record on here. It's Sun Ra. From 1978. It's an hour and a half long. I decided to listen to the whole thing. Sun Ra and his followers and fellow musicuans occupy a special place. They are not from this planet. That is an important basuc principle to set off from. Once you've accepted that basuc premise you'll be fine.
A much hyped Leeds band that have risen quickly through the ranks and are playing the sizeable Boiler Shop venue, close to me soon in support of their debut album This Could Be Texas.
Generally, I'm suspicious of the kind of hype a band like this draw. I haven't been impressed by the likes of Black Midi, and Black Country New Road that have emerged to waves of adulation and rave reviews in recent years..
There's also the dreaded sobriquet 'Post Punk' which is applied to any young British band that step up onstage with guitars, drum and bass and a trendy haircut these days. It's laziness frankly. Both from the press and also often on part of the bands themselves. It's high time to move on.
But hold on a moment because This Could Be Texas is a deft and sinuous record.It talks eloquently and with genuine craft and warmth about a world where there is an intolerance to difference. The world we live in frankly and does so by being engaged, different and not resorting to anger. I was moved and engaged,
It doesn't sound like the bands of my youth. There are no traces of The Fall, Gang of Four or Joy Division. This is a record you need to listen to again and get to know on its own terms .
With a singular frontwoman in Lily Fountaine and a deft guitarist in Lewis Whiting they seem immediately as ones to watch. I can't quite work out why this is riding the wave it clearly is right now but it's credit to the band and the audience that are attaching themselves to it that it is. This seems a record to return to and get to know in the coming months and one that will reward this effort.
Madness were a Singles Band. No shame in that. It was an incredibly competitive era and they parked themselves in the Top Ten for four years or more.Some feat. And the records were consistently fantastic. Treasure troves.
This felt like a significant Hip Hip release at the time. I wonder whether it remains so, more than 25 years after its release. Mos Def was and remains something of a Rap Rennaissance man. With broader horizons that the usual guns and hoes fare. This remains and extraordinary record brimming with consciousness.
For me Foo Fighters are really all about the fabulous eponymous first album. The one where Dave Grohl channelled his enormous and overpowering grief at the loss of Kurt and produced a fabulous set of emotive and posutive alt rick / pop songs that I still love to go back to.
For some reason I did buy this one when oy came out in 2002. I was in Katowice, Poland so it probably came from Empik. The store in town for CDs and Music magazines. Where I got Mojo . I listened to quite a bit and it still sounds good. If you need to have monster behemoth's it helps to have good guys like Dave Grohl at the helm.
Once again a Sporify bio that can't be bear in telling you where a fabulous band and wonderful record are coming from. ' Drawing influences from bans such as Guided By Voices, The Clean, Wire, Superchunk, Bevis Frond and the expansive Elephant 6 Collective, the band weaves a wide net of surrealistic lyrical narrative.'
That's where I come from. So I'll be having that. Upside Down World by Mythical Motors is actually a record that lives up to the highest billing. It's a record that skips along like an eight year old in shorts across a sunlit meadow on the first day of Spring.
Out of Chattanooga Tennessee, it couldn't get any better. A child's drawing on the cover. A crayon rendered of a fried egg sun, a spaceship or comet racing across blue heavens. A record that makes you glad to be alive. Fourteen songs. Less than half an hour. It's a rush...
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Glen Donaldson, the bearded, wooly hatted middle aged man behing the The Reds Pinks & Purples wheel is developing some brand. A memory lane experience particularly for those who earned their stripes in the mid to late Eighties and fastened their fortunes to C-86 Indie values.
Those days are long gone, but you wouldn't know it if you keep your eyes on the latest alternative releases and particualrly the San Francisco Indie scene where Donaldson holds court. If you're going to San Francisco. Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. And chelsea boots, and shake a tambourine while you're at it
Meanwhile Reds Pinks & Purples have become a production line. A conveyor belt. Every six months or so another album drops off the line. Pretty similar to the one that came before and the one that's coming up. Wistful melodies, Smiths song titles, jangling guitars, wistful vocals.Perfect for types who think change is overrated. The latest is called Unwishing Well. And it's about dreaming your life away. There are worse things to do.
A revelation. There have rarely been anything quite like the 3 first Beta Band EPs. They feed on the inpiration of early Beck more than anything. But largely it's their own thing and they made a wonderful contrast with a lot of the meat and potaties Rock being served up elsewhere at the time.
More from Unknown Mortal Orchestra. This comes from the latest album V. Captain James Cook is a divisive figure. He explored and charted thousands of miles of unexplored territory. In the words of Wikipedia 'He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage and am abilir ro lead men in adverse conditions.' He remains contriversial for his treatment and violent encounters with indigenous peoples.
Kiwi Ruban Nielsin and a project I'm not familiar with. This goes back to 2013.It's freaky stuff. This makes a genuine and refreshing resolution to explore new Independent teritory. Sometimes it almost defies description. Great record that constantly surprises and strikes off in new directions.
'A shady lane. Everybody wants one.'
Do you want a shady lane? Everybody wants one.The shadiest and most alluring lane I can direct you towards right now is Move To The Trees the latest album by Winter McQunn.
Winter McQuinn ? No me neither. But it's just the kind of nom de guerre you want for a record like this. With a sleeve like the one it has. With an animated image of Mr McQuinn in an autumn sweater. Crouched under a blanket. A cat on keyboards and a guitar with hands.
Just what the doctor ordered. Another stellar artist from Melbourne, Australia. Another wonderful album to soundtrack your Friday breakfast.
McQuinn has a track record. Formerly in Sunfruits and Jade Imagine. He keeps things simple. These are songs awash with birdsing and dappled sunlight.
The record itself. Midway between a slightly happier Elliott and some early Seventies troubadour. Take your pick Move To The Trees sprouts peaches. A lovely record.
Marta Del Grandi will play in in Newcastle in a couple of weeks. I suspect I'll need to be there.
About grief and loss. Not a million miles from XX. Support from Jessie Ware and Anna Calvi. A little insipid and slinky dancefloor for my tastses but should have some takers.Grows with the play.
An album that meant a lot to me in 1999 and still does twenty five years later. I don't give a fig what the hipsters say. Although I'm quite aware that I can come across as a full on Hipster Snob in other contexts.Hey, I'm a hypocrite. Sue me...
Travis, and this record in particular did and still do something to me. Well written songs, winsome melodies well-judged lyrics and most of all sincerity. Four friends playing together. Travis had their moment in the sun in 1999. It was the lull before the millenium. I still feel a tug emotionally when I hear Drifwood and Turn. Even Why Does It Always Rain On Me doesn't pall completely. Even though you've hear it so many times. Travis were Belle & Sebastian for the masses. I can't see why this is a bad thing..
The Prisoners were a Cult taste throughout the Eighties. In their dream still in 1964. That Manfred Man/ Georgie Fame organ sound. Monochrome / Mod clothing and shhades. Probably best experienced in the flesh than on record.
I didn't go into my Listening journey with Primus' Sailing The Seas of Cheese with an entirely open and happy mindset. I saw Zappa mentioned in their Spotify bio and Zappa mostly puts my teeth on edge. Precious. Geeky and generally a stranger to tunes to help the medicine go down. I was told once that I didn't understand music if I didn't like Zappa. I didn't reply.
Primus are quite good company despite the general worrying initial signals they give off.Wackiness. Metal Funk. When they veer more towards Devo than Mothers of Invention I quite enjoyed some of this.
Toronto's Wine Lips strike me as an uncomplicated bunch.You know pretty much all you need to know from thirty seconds of their latest album Super Mega Ultra. You're told right from the off that you're on a ride.
The ride proceeds for the next half hour. Twelve songs of full throttle Punk abandon. Black Lips perhaps the mmost pertinent reference point, You feel like you're there with them. Sweaty basement venue. Baseball caps worn at an angle. Stagediving. Vocals that sound ike the lead singer had just had a sharp oyake of breath from a helium tank.
The whole funfair experience that Dictators, Ramones, Pere Ubu and DEVO and the lie kick started in '75. It never gets tired, or old frankly. The pace never lags. Beat on the brat...
My first listen to the latest Vampire Weekend album Only God Was Above Us, on the Friday it came out was underwhelming to say the least. I know they're a band that produces music that is layered and deserve repeat plays before you make a judgement. But overall I'd say they're a band that has lost something with the departure of key member Rostam Batmanglij in 2016.
There is certainly stuff on here that's notable and impressive. I always found them an impressive band that could exercise your brain cells and tug on your heartstrings. Cerebral but also emotional in the manner of a great Fitzgerald short story Ezra Koenig and the other two cannot be discounted.It's a bit of a curate's egg though this one. Some tracks pass by without making an impression while elsewhere things are more interesting and you feel that would warrant and repay further investigation.
So I decided I'd listen to Only God Was Above Us five times before making a judgement. Vampire Weekend are a band that have always dealt with the poignancy of the moment in the passage of the Post Millenial age. Koenig has the writer's eye. He knows his Fitzgerald and his Bellow. I suspect his Cheever, Salinger and his Jay McInerney too.
There is plenty here to divert those who have been prone to the bands well heeled vision previously. I miss Rostam personally. I sispect he's involved here to some degree but I don't think the band are quite what they were in the days of his full engagement, particularly their magisterial and defontive third album Vampires of the City. Ultimately Only God Was Above Us was a little too formulaic for my tastes.
P.S. The more I listen to this, the more I suspect I mght be wrong. It may need fifteen plays..
Still Corners are an ethereal Folk couple that sertve up reminders of the late Sixties and early Seventies European movie house experience. They've been plying their craft for fifteen years now and work off their own Wrecking Lights Label.
Latest album Dream Talk sets out a set of wistful, melodic Folk Pop songs. They touch on cliche occasionally but the record has its moments. I'd give it seven.
Hey. Another band from Melbourne. Just what the world needs. This lot are somewhat MOR and easy going but typically offbeat and quirky outfit, appropriate for the part of the world they hail from. In Cahoots draws from the well of leftfield pop that Courtney Barnett most notably started to draw on ten or more years back.Amother fab set of funfare rides.
The Flaming Lips pulled themselves together in 1999 and sqieezed out a visionary Psychedelic masterpiece that is not articularly my cup of tea but proved to be many others.
