New Zealanders Charcoal Burners do one for the NASA flight director Gene Kranz, also known as 'White Flight'.
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Songs About People # 892 Gene Kranz
New Zealanders Charcoal Burners do one for the NASA flight director Gene Kranz, also known as 'White Flight'.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,996 KOKOKO!
Charged! Now this is genuinely exciting. One of the best and certainly most original African records you're likely to hear all year. Kinshasa, Congo collective KOKOKO! and their debut album Fongola, just out. From the off it summons up a fantastic kinetic energy, rooted in African traditions as you'd expect, but plugging into something else too which is what really grabbed my attention. The whole thing has a fabulous electro driven momentum.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Belle & Sebastian - Sister Bhudda
Absolute classic new song from Belle & Sebastian. Nostalgic in the best possible way and wedded to an absolutely gorgeous melody, I think this is utterly wonderful. The first offering from their soundtrack to Days of the Bagnold Summer due in the autumn.
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Mark Mulcahy - The Gus
Way back in the mid-Eighties I was really taken by the early records of American band Miracle Legion, particularly their debut EP The Backyard. They existed clearly within the shadow of R.E.M. an apparent and immediate formative influence, but did good things with it, churning out a bunch of evocative and memorable songs.
Since then, lead singer Mark Mulcahy the band's lead singer, has put out a number of solo albums of note. The Gus, his new record is just the latest. It's all languid thoughtfulness, both lyrically and musically, songs and sentiments most obviously grounded in the tradition of Dylan and Van Morrison and Mulcahy's own not inconsiderable ouevre.
Songs stop and start, stop and start, a middle aged man considering the universe. There's no lack of melody here, always one of Mulcahy's gifts and no lack of understated poetry either. He knows how to take note of the small random things that life throws at us, listen to Later for the Box, the fourth song on here for how we make our way through the small inventory of tasks that life lays before us and how they offer us the opportunity to detect the remarkable in the mundane. The divine in the detail. His glass is clearly half full.
The singer songwriter offers plenty of scope for the short story writer, (see the Neutrals review I wrote a couple of days back), and Mulcahy is a master of the form now decades into his career. There's nothing overweening here, his work never tips into the overblown. He's something of a skilled tightrope walker. Musically he isn't a million miles from artists I don't care for who work in a similar medium, but who operate in broader strokes and play to the back of the venue; Eddie Vedder, Counting Crows and Hothouse Flowers came to my mind. Mulcahy by contrast seems more intent to speak to those most immediately in front of him in the first few rows.
The Gus is unlikely to pull up any trees commercially but should find a ready and appreciative audience among the constituency that Mulcahy has established for himself. I definitely count myself among that number. It's another fine record to add to the pile of fine records he's put out over the years. We should treasure artists like this.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,994 Hot Chip
Hot Chip have been putting out records for years now and are not about to re-invent their own particular wheel. Their latest, A Bathfull of Ecstasy, is wholly faithful to the template they've established over time.
So it's light bubbly indie dance music that sounds good on 6 Music on afternoon radio, not likely to make it onto anyone's Desert Island Discs list but also equally implausible as anybody's Room 101 trauma. I like it. Quite.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Song(s) of the Day # 1,993 Trash Kit
When I started this blog over six years ago and told a friend about it his reply was to paraphrase: ' Oh one of those. That people start writing and then stop...' Rather than acting as a discouragement his comment served as a spur. I became committed to this. Shortly afterwards I started this particular series which obliged me to write at least one post on a daily basis and as a result actively seek out new music rather than just chronicling the records I already had in my collection, as I'd originally intended, most of which I'd bought way back in the Eighties.
This has led to me becoming one of those people who trawl the music press and Rough Trade website for new releases meaning that I'm aware of exciting new ones like this, Horizon the new record by British indie three piece Trash Kit in advance. In short, I've become an anorak, and it's something I'm very pleased to be, although I don't own the particular item of clothing as it means that I don't fall back on the old stand by for people of my age that music ain't what it used to be back in the day.
Because this is a brilliant response to that essential falsehood, a quite thrilling album and an example of what our age continues to throw up on a weekly basis. Artists who find a way of fusing inspirations from range of sources from the past into enervating new forms. The three women in Trash Kit have played in and contributed to a number of projects as seems to be the way these days; Bas Jan, Bamboo, Sacred Paws and shopping all appear on their CVs, and while all of these bands are well worthy of exploration, this album immediately stands out from anything any of them have done before. It's a remarkably inventive and fluid album.
The immediately apparent sources of inspiration seem clear; lilting Afro Pop, (Thomas Mapfumo is someone the band have mentioned in interview), and the squat commune ethos of late Seventies and early Eighties Punk and Post Punk. The Slits, The Raincoats, Delta 5, Au Pairs, Scritti Politti and Orange Juice. But despite drawing on these increasingly remote starting points Trash Kit are to be commended in every respect, as far from coming across as an an act of archeology, Horizon is from start to finish, invigorating fresh.
Trash Kit have already received deserved plaudits for their labours by being awarded album of the month status in the latest edition of Uncut Magazine, a status generally reserved for artists with a rather higher profile. It's good to see this happening in days where musicians working on this particular seam don't necessarily get the recognition they deserve. With luck this will see this fine record reach out beyond the band's immediate constituency to find a broader, appreciative audience.
I listened through to Horizon right the way through on the morning of its release and it had an insistent, coherent flow. Surely one of the best records that will be released from the catch all Indie umbrella category all year. Last year we had the Orielles, the year before that Girl Ray. This year it seems reasonable to suggest that Trash Kit's name seems set to be carved on the cup.
Friday, July 5, 2019
Songs About People # 890 Florence Nightingale
From the latest album by Henry Jamison which is a sufficiently good record for me to return to on here. In the meantime, here's one for Florence.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,992 Neutrals
My favourite new band, Part blah, blah, blah.. Yes, I know I say this a lot, but Bay Area trio Neutrals are quite definitely my favourite new band this week. And one of the reasons for that, apart from their obvious musical charms. are the fact that they are truly a Bay Area band with a difference.
And that difference is that singer and main songwriter Alan McNaughton actually hails from Lanarkshire, Glasgow and, as the band's debut album Kebab Disco readily attests, you can take the boy out of Lanarkshire and move him to San Francisco but you cannot take Lanarkshire...oh you do the rest.
Kebab Disco is something of a concept, but trust me, it's not likely to be a concept album that you've heard before. Because it's a DIY Punk / New Wave concept in the best traditions of Television Personalities, Wire, Wreckless Eric, Patrick Fitzgerald, The Jam and Billy Bragg. With the added attraction of Scottish accents.
The concept in question is McNaughton's own story. So what we get is tales of smalltown Scottish life in the early Nineties moving on to McNaughton's shift across the pond after meeting his future wife at Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut where he goes on to document San Francisco's growing corporatisation and remaining an indie punk as you experience middle age.
The man has a short story writer's eye for detail. Each song is a self-contained capsule of time and place, the journey from youth to experience. I could document it in greater detail but the tale is all told in this interview with The Sunderland Echo and by the record itself. Just splendid!
The concept in question is McNaughton's own story. So what we get is tales of smalltown Scottish life in the early Nineties moving on to McNaughton's shift across the pond after meeting his future wife at Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut where he goes on to document San Francisco's growing corporatisation and remaining an indie punk as you experience middle age.
The man has a short story writer's eye for detail. Each song is a self-contained capsule of time and place, the journey from youth to experience. I could document it in greater detail but the tale is all told in this interview with The Sunderland Echo and by the record itself. Just splendid!
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 402 Magazine
Rosie's, my local for the best part of the last ten years, is closed for refurbishment for at least the next six weeks. This leaves a confirmed regular like myself in a bit of a dilemma. I'll go out less but I've moved my local temporarily to The Newcastle Arms which is right next door to Rosie's. Part of its attraction is that it got the old jukebox when Rosie's inadvisably decided to update their's to a much shoddier version a few months back. This, and Magazine's Secondhand Daylight, the album it's on, have recently appeared upon it.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,991 Horse Jumper of Love
Boston's Horse Jumper of Love locate the soft spot between Nirvana and Sebadoh on their second album, So Divine, just out. Appropriate really, as like these two, they're a three piece band, and as Robert Forster so rightly surmised the trio, when they get it right 'can be the purest form of rock n roll expression'.
Horse Jumper of Love 'get it right' on a regular basis on So Divine. They use various explorations of Pixies and Nirvana's fast / slow gambit to set up advantageous positions for themselves on the chessboard of Retro Alt.
That's not to imply that they're formulaic, because this is a neat record and they're a cool, inventive band. Here are four strong arguments in support of the case for the defence.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Songs Heard on the Radio # 319 Tap Tap
Nice. Just short of three minutes. From Thomas Sanders, once of Peter & the Pirates, now in Teleman. Here are Tap Tap, another of his side-projects and a few years back.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,990 Mega Bog
A salutary lesson in life is that it's well worth constructing your own myth. It's not as if anyone else is going to bother. One of the best musical representations of this idea I've heard recently is Dolphine, the latest album from Mega Bog. One of the most arresting records I've heard for a long while and though it's not always easy to hear what Erin Elizabeth Birgy, the artist behind the moniker is getting at, it's delightfully easy to fall under the spell that she casts here.
A low- fi but broad canvas reflection on death and loss, Dolphine walks the line between surreality and accessibility. Birgy moulds her sound from indie touchstones and mainstream favourites, reminding me at points of Suzanne Vega, Laurie Anderson, Joanna Newsom. Sufjan Stevens, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Joni Mitchell and more while always maintaining a voice and vision that is actually quite clearly her own.
There is a more-ish quality to the record that is a delightful characteristic for an album to give when you're listening to it for the first time. It suggests a gift that's going to keep giving, So many of the artists who have captured my interest musically in recent years have been women; Regina Spector, Cat Power, Weyes Blood, Courtney Barnett, US Girls, Aldous Harding, Sharon Van Etten, Cate le Bon, Shana Cleveland. Frankly the list goes on and on. And Mega Bog slots in there nicely with a peculiar warm sensibility that's subtle and distinct from all of them.
I'm not sure just yet how much Dolphine is going to creep up on me in the coming months and how high it's going to feature when I come to compile my close of year list of favourite records. I suspect I'm going to keep on edging it up the Spotify playlist I'm using to prepare for that and it will end up flying pretty high. Despite it's occasionally murky preoccupations it's a record that offers warm consolation to all those of us who have ever been left behind by one that they love that we are never quite alone and that there is always plenty more to live for and much left to learn and relish. It's always great to get that sensation from a record and Dolphine does that for me.
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Songs About People # 887 Peter Buck
From A Rainy Night in Georgia to an achetypical Georgian musician. Buck was actually born in Berkely, California but his family moved to Georgia when he was still young and he's deeply associated with the Athens music scene which flowered there in the early Eighties. I don't have many musical heroes but he is certainly one.
Song of the Day # 1,989 Remington Super 60
Wonderfully evocative song from Norwegian stalwarts Remington Super 60 to set July underway.
Monday, July 1, 2019
Songs About People # 886 Tetuzi Akiyama
75 Dollar Bill doff caps on their new album to Japanese multi-instrumentalist Tetuzi Akiyama.
Song of the Day # 1,988 Defranco Family
One of the many songs name-dropped in the opening section of Reservoir Dogs.
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Songs About People # 885 John Cusack
Not entirely sure why Flower Crown have this reaction to John Cusack.
Song of the Day # 1,987 Snoop Doggy Dog
I was in Izmir, Turkey for a few weeks twenty five years ago for a job which didn't work out for one reason or another. It wasn't for me anyhow so that's probably a good thing. But one good memory is being in a taxi in the heat if midsummer with this song blaring out full volume.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Song(s) of the Day # 1,986 Outer Spaces
Cara Beth Satalino, (who essentially is Outer Spaces), is back with Gazing Globe, her second album. An Athens, Georgia based artist, her work is thoughtful and melodic, pitched somewhere between mid-period R.E.M. and Stevie Nicks fronted Fleetwood Mac and the record is an altogether snug, easy alternative ride.
The essence of what this is about is neatly contained in the two opening tracks I See Your Face and The Truck. If you're not convinced then that you want to stay aboard for the rest of the trip after these then you probably won't be.
Gazing Globe is not always intent on quickening the pulse although it has moments when it does. Mostly this is crafted, elegant, finely tuned stuff. Not an album to shift the world off its axis, but if we were to listen to the kind of music that the likes of Trotsky advocated all the time we'd end up with more than a few headaches. Gazing Globe is something a good doctor would prescribe for the moments that you've got one.
Friday, June 28, 2019
Jane Weaver - Loops in the Secret Society
Jane Weaver has put out two of the best albums of recent years in The Silver Globe and Modern Kosmology. Now she's back with a slightly novel concept. Loops in the Secret Society is a 're-imagined journey through these records. As an idea I wasn't sure about it when I first heard of it, but of course it's a great album too.
I won't write about it at length as a friend of mine has already written a definitive review here. Enough to say that Weaver is a quite particular talent and whatever she chooses to do next should be well worth hearing.
Songs About People # 884 Michael Aspel
British children's TV icon of the Seventies gets silly but heartfelt Punk Indie tribute.
Covers # 107 Miriam Makeba
Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth, often covered, but rarely better than here.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,985 JoBoxers
A snapshot from the early Eighties UK Pop scene from one who lived through it. JoBoxers, probably all but forgotten, except for those who were actually in JoBoxers or for whom they were the band. And the world is sufficiently diverse and nuanced that there surely must be some who fall into the latter category.
JoBoxers time in the sun lasted for a few seasons and three singles and an album really. 1983 was the year and music here was shifting from Punk and New Wave to sounds of a more Thatcherite hue. The band were made up of Subway Sect cohorts who had tired of Vic Godard's inability to get his act together and get into the actual charts.
In order to help them do so, they recruited American singer Dig Wayne who changed his name to Buzz and together they churned out three hit singles and an album over the course of the calendar year. They all still sound good to me.
Essentially their sound was an amalgam of Kevin, Vic and Paul. Rowland, Godard and Weller. Oh and Sixties Soul of course. The Early Eighties had a musical seam that was very much in thrall to this kind of thing. JoBoxers had clearly seen On the Waterfront, (the look, the song Johnny Friendly, open and shut case frankly), but it had been a good enough image and sound for Dexys Mk 1 another admitted inspiration.
And it all had sufficient legs to get JoBoxers two Top Ten hits, a further Top Forty one and a Smash Hits cover during the year. It also saw them into the US Top Forty with Just Got Lucky their best song. When 1983 was over so were they essentially but they carried on until '85 before giving up the ghost.
I'm listening to their debut album Like Gangbusters now, and it's good. Full of the jaunty blue eyed soul, R&B and a tinge of Jazz, with roving funky bass that was characteristic of a lot of the best contemporary radio pop music of the time. The band are having a ball and are better musicians than they might have appeared to be on the surface.
So what is remembered of JoBoxers now. Very little probably. They are a throwaway repeated line in a Stewart Lee comedy sketch. Their one song on Spotify, Just Got Lucky, is only there because it features on the 40 Year Old Virgin soundtrack. Judging by Like Gangbusters they deserve more.
They're precise and sleek and never commit the sins of self indulgence that was characteristic of so many of those with similar record collections throughout the Eighties. They're never Blue Rondo, Curiosity Killed the Cat or Then Jericho. As for Thompson Twins, frankly they blow them out of the water. I'll be keeping an eye out for second hand copies of this in charity shops from now on,
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