Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Song(s) of the Day # 2,024 The Vapour Trails
Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve. Aberdeen's Vapour Trails do just that from the opening notes of their latest album See You in the Next World. They venerate the early Byrds and what this trip will be is a skip through the chiming fields of their records up to and including Younger Than Yesterday. I'm certainly not complaining.
If glimpses of latterday influences peek out, Paisley Underground, Stone Roses, Ride, even Oasis when they were good, The Byrds are the obviously apparent common denominator. The band don't bother to disguise their love for the band and the record is all the better for it, a pure distillation of everything that was wonderful about them in their first years.
So many artists, particularly indie ones, have committed pure larceny from this band over the last thirty years that it's refreshing to see someone so nakedly honest over their love of McGuinn, Crosby, Hillman and the Clark(es). See You in the Next World is a lysergic banquet. Watch the Byrdies!
Monday, August 5, 2019
Song of the Day # 2,023 Mount Sharp
Mount Sharp are a Brooklyn based trio who have been around for a while now. This is new from them and is called Apostate. I don't know if its the forerunner of an album and frankly that doesn't matter. This stands perfectly well on its own two feet. The song is enchanting and it has a promo to match. Just the singer singing the song. A burst of pure emotion. Hints of the The Chills, The Feelies, The Shins, The Mantles. You know, good stuff. Outstanding.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Mick Trouble - It's the Mick Trouble LP
Mick Trouble is an American living in the here and now. But don't go telling him that because you'll only burst his bubble. Because in his mind he's a Londoner and is putting out his first album in 1981. To prove it he's put Margaret Thatcher on the album cover. The Falklands War is about to start.
It's difficult to know how exactly to take this conceit but the record itself is very good. Trouble has certainly learned his lines. Every song is a perfect replication of its chosen time and place. Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Television Personalities and assorted bands from the late Seventies Mod Revival jostle for attention. It's the Mick Trouble LP, has twelve songs and none of them misses a beat.
Song of the Day # 2,022 Jemma Freeman & the Cosmic Something
Label mates of Jeremy Tuplin on the oddly named Trapped Animals Records.This is odd too. Schooled in Bowie and Bolan ad sounding as a result a bit like early Suede, nit shows no lack of leftfield vigour.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Songs About People # 912 Violet Gibson
Irish woman who attempted to assassinate Benito Mussolini in 1926 and spent the rest of her days in a sanatorium. Here Irish singer songwriter Lisa O'Neill explains why she wrote a song about her then sings the song.
Song(s) of the Day # 2,021 The Harmaleighs
Songs for depressives, but strangely reassuring ones. She Won't Make Sense, the second album from Nashville based duo is a set of ten nicely judged indie songs that move between slow and fast reminding that we're none of us alone.
Friday, August 2, 2019
Song(s) of the Day # 2,020 Native Harrow
Far out! Devin Tuel, for Native Harrow is essentially she, inhabits a strange space. One essentially where it is still the years from 1969 to 1971 and always will be. If that is not a good idea in your book then this will probably not be for you, but I imagine David Hepworth, for whom I'm currently running a series focused on the third of those years, would fully approve.
There she is, Old Devon, in her flowery hippie frock all flared sleeves and pastoral patterns. She certainly knows what she likes. Happier Now, her third album, barely misses a beat. Pure Joni meets Melanie, it would be ridiculous if it wasn't so well done, her voice is sure and thick, the songs are great and the musical setting quite immaculate.
This is not a new idea. The Strokes after all, almost twenty years back now, wanted you to believe this was 1976 again and we'd all received a special invite back to CBGB's for a lock in. Mick Trouble currently is an American who thinks he's a cockney geezer putting out a Wreckless Eric or Television Personalities record in 1981.
Devin Tuel pulls off her particular conceit as well as either. Happier Now taken on its own terms is a quite gorgeous record, probably the new album of note to listen to on the first weekend of August.
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Spinning Coin
Scottish band Spinning Coin have been out of sight for a while since their splendid run of singles and equally fine debut LP Permo, a couple of years back. This is a remarkable return. Quite different from anything they've done before, immersed it seems in the glorious 'wow' of the Sixties. Should be very interesting to watch where they go next.
Songs About People # 911 Bridget Riley
From the recently released compilation of Television Personalities singles for Bridget Riley the Op Art painter. Still among us at 88.
Robert Forster
A remarkable photo of Robert Forster just posted on his Facebook page. The text, written by the man himself, explains why it's so special:
'Greetings from Brisbane with the Australian band tour now over. The last dates were MONA in Hobart last Friday, and The Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne on Saturday night. Both shows were incredible, and I know my enthusiasm for this tour and the European tour of April/May has been strong, but not every tour goes well and not every show is a pleasure - which is what has happened this time. I have had great bands and tour managers on both tours, and I have been very happy with all of the 29 band shows over the last months. To those who took the opportunity to come along, I thank you.
Now to something else. In my last post, I spoke of the hope of providing a surprise - well it has happened, in the form of a photograph of myself. I know you are thinking - does Robert Forster's vanity know no limits; but like the shot I posted of myself kneeling by Keats's grave back in April, I believe this shot is of value. Let me explain.
After performing at the Caravan Club in Melbourne on July 7 a few weeks ago, a person by the name of David Lederer showed me a photograph on his phone of myself on stage with The Go-Betweens at the Central Club in Melbourne in 1987. There I was with blonde hair (I can be dated by my hairstyles in the Eighties) in a Birthday Party t-shirt playing the bands Ovation acoustic guitar. It was wonderful to see, through the years though, i have been shown a few photographs of myself on stage from this period. But there was a twist.
David told me that this photograph on his phone was from a reel of film he had recently found and had developed. He had taken all the photographs on the reel - except this one - this was taken by Grant McLennan. Mid performance, mid song, Grant had taken the camera off David and photographed me. I am looking at Grant. It is the only shot i know he ever took of me, and here was David telling me the story with the photograph 32 years later. I asked David for a copy and he gave it to me at the Esplanade Hotel on Saturday night. Thank you David so much.
Warm Regards
The blonde guy from 1987.'
Song of the Day # 2,019 Les Milous
Not French apparently, despite the band name, but a pretty much one man operation Swedish outfit. This distils the essence of Postcard Records pretty much in three minutes.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Songs About People # 910 Indira Gandhi
As this is, at least partially, India day on here, here's one for Indira.
Song(s) of the Day # 2,018 Sarathy Korwar
A record described as 'sublime' by the Rough Trade homepage who also made it their album of the word. Sublime is a good word for this, More Arriving, the new one from Sarathy Korwar. All in all it's quite some record, a bubbling melting pot cauldron of sound and ideas. Vibrant, rhythmical, eclectic, furious and immersive.
Sarathy Korwar is pretty much the definition of a globalised culture musician. Born in the States, raised in India, now living in London. His More Arriving, (and what a title that is),is a broad, expansive album that pretty much sweeps away the vast majority of albums released in 2019 in terms of both ambition and achievement.
In Can't Get There From Here, from R.E.M.'s third album Fables of the Reconstruction, Michael Stipe sang about 'the earth of seven continents going round and round'. Along with the aforementioned adjective 'sublime' this is the best description of this record I can come up with. More Arriving is positively seething with energy. With life, death, the ebb and flow of existence. Never mind quite remarkable words and music.
There are records that focus on the intimate and personal. This isn't one of them. It's out on the streets and pushing its way through the teeming marketplace from the off with its opening track, appropriately Mumbai. From there it never lets up and is fabulously musically and lyrically diverse. all kinds of Indian music, Jazz, (particularly Coltrane), Hip Hop, Ragga and more are stirred up gleefully into the mix. The tone is defiant and celebratory, dancing up a storm of global colour and culture.
I've heard and written about all manner of great music in the seven months of this calendar year thus far. More Arriving is the best record I've heard up to now and it will take something really special to best it by December. Something of an instant classic!
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Songs Heard on the Radio # 320 Modern Nature
Wonderful, Can-inspired stuff from Modern Nature ahead of their debut album which should be something to hear.
Songs About People # 909 Louis Leakey
A song for Kenyan paleoanthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leakey from Rice Cultivation Society's only album, 2010's Leaves Again.
Song of the Day # 2,017 Bonniesongs
Ethereal Australian singer-songwriter. This comes from her forthcoming debut album.
Monday, July 29, 2019
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 408 Primal Scream
One of the first and best things Primal Scream ever did.
Songs About People # 908 Hank Marvin
A first taste on here for the wonderful 'It's the Mick Trouble LP'. Full review coming shortly.
Song of the Day # 2,015 Mdou Moctar
Another fine contemporary example of the Tuareg sound that's been getting such deserved broader appreciation recently.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Song of the Day # 2,014 Contini
Contini is a modern Italian artist, but she sounds oddly and pleasingly old school here. From her latest album Continentale.
Friday, July 26, 2019
R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It
This, and many other similar pictures that I'm posting, is the work of Todd Alcott, a very fine graphic designer who specialises in Pop Culture of this kind. You can find more of his work here.
Song of the Day # 2,013 Carnivorous Plant Society
More from Dunedin, New Zealand's fabulous Carnivorous Plant Society. Something of a Krautrock, Cosmic Jazz Antipodean marvel. This is new from them and finds them working with Tiny Ruins.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Wilco - Love is Everywhere
Wilco are back with another fine song that sounds like Wilco naturally. The album Ode to Joy follows in October.
Songs About People # 906 Joyce Carol Oates
The Lawrence Arms have quite unnecessary go at Joyce Carol Oates.
Song(s) of the Day # 2,012 Jeremy Tuplin
Now this is really something. Jeremy Tuplin, a man who seems to be some parts Jake Thackray and some parts Jarvis Cocker and makes of it a fabulous composite of arch, reflective thought in Pink Mirror, his wonderful second album of earlier this year.
Not everything comes off but most of it does and when he gets it right, he really gets it right. A concoction of eccentric ambition, that tips its hat to great, mostly English artists of the late Sixties and early Seventies as well as literary ones such as Firbank and Isherwood from a previous age. Tuplin twists new shapes and breathes fresh life that's remarkably contemporary into these inspirations.
On Bad Lover this comes across as Kevin Ayers fronting Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine in their Neon Boys period. Elsewhere Bowie, Ferry, Eno and Barrett haunt proceedings but always in a very good way. Louche and wry by turn, there's an enormous amount to enjoy and admire here.
Lyrically alive and musically ambitious, Pink Mirror has plenty of antecendents, but does them all proud, forging a lounge lizard identity for Tuplin, an aesthete skin he inhabits utterly. There aren't many new musicians emerging nowadays with such fully formed sheer personality as this. Marvellous record.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
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