Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Monday, November 19, 2018
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 342 David Bowie
Had a conversation tonight with one of Rosie's regulars about Bowie's Diamond Dogs and chose this as the song to play from it.
Courtney Barnett
In Birmingham. Courtney is two days away from Newcastle where I will see her on Wednesday night.
Songs of the Year # 37 Shame
Two young bands from South London made small splashes in the pop pond with debut albums this year, Shame and Goat Girl. Neither of them quite made my own album countdown but both had their moments. Shame also gave a performance on Later With Jules Holland that got people talking. Here it is.
Albums of the Year # 37 New Silver Girl - New Silver Girl
'The West is the best...'
Finland's New Silver Girl have an innate sense and gift for Rock and Roll. This is evidently obvious just through listening to the first three minutes of Love is Like a Goldmine, the first song on their eponymous debut album which came out a few weeks back. It's immediately clear that you are in very safe hands indeed.
This is mythic stuff. New Silver Girl is an album first and foremost that's obviously rooted in the Seventies. Think, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, America, Waters and Gilmour era Floyd, Hawkwind, Grateful Dead, Steppenwolf, New Riders of the Purple Sage. Long haired stoners. Heading out on the highway.
Then fast forward to the Nineties and a new breed of dull-eyed dreamers take on this vision and scuff it up a bit. Swervedriver, Dinosaur Jr, The Verve, Primal Scream, Spiritualised, Black Rebel Motorcycle Gang, Teenage Fanclub, (of Everything Flows), Oasis (of Columbia). These two lists should give you an idea of the medicine being mixed up in New Silver Girl's basement twenty years further on down the line.
As I suggested, this is a dream very much born in Seventies music, literature and cinema. You could imagine a New Silver Girl song popping up on the soundtrack of Almost Famous, Dazed & Confused or The Virgin Suicides. They almost seem to share musical genes with Stillwater, the fictional band from the first of these movies. Over the course of the record they capture perfectly the loping, loose feel of late teens and early twenties. Joints are surely being passed and it seems likely that we'll all need to chip in to get us a bottle of JD.
It's an altogether wonderful record and I'm delighted to have caught onto it and be able to slot it into my end of year list. Perhaps it's fitting to let the band have their own say. Here's singer Olli Happonen, (a man with a distinct Tom Petty look about him), of the band talking about how this all came to pass.
'My first contact with rock'n'roll was in Rauma, somewhere in the 1990's. Youth discos were playing europop. The streets were dead. The local ice hockey club offered a pastime for some. An old city hydroelectric plant gave shelter and a way to salvation. Dick Dale, Hellacopters, Hypnomen, Laika and the Cosmonauts and Lou Reed were the music of the older boys and girls. I followed along.
With the dawn of the new Millennium arriving the town of Raumen was left behind, but rock stayed. I moved to Helsinki, bought a guitar and after years of wandering through the rock clubs of the city I found myself sharing the stage with 4 other guys with same passion for music and life. New Silver Girl was born...'
After listening to New Silver Girl the morning I wrote this review, I listened to The End by The Doors the song from the Sixties that most obviously heralds the sensibility that New Silver Girl draws on. The segue between the two was seamless.
Song of the Day # 1,765 Adam Faith
A nice but of 'Old England'. I was brought here by a Damon Albarn selection on a radio show so cheers Damon.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 341 The Smiths
One of The Smiths most special early songs. The B Side to This Charming Man. Three minutes and four seconds. Pretty much perfection.
Songs of the Year # 38 Cass McCombs
2018 looks to become 2019 and here's Cass McCombs, always an interesting talent ahead of a new album at the beginning of next year.
Albums of the Year # 38 Blue Orchids - Righteous Harmony Fist
From October:
Martin Bramah is one of the most under-appreciated men in the whole history of Rock and Roll. As a pivotal member of The early Fall and as leader of The Blue Orchids, the band he broke away from them with Una Baines to form at the end of the Seventies, he has one of the most interesting perspectives expressed in British music over the last forty years and in their latest album Righteous Harmony Fist, he furthers and refines that vision.
The record is aptly named. It might as well be a mission statement. Bramah's way of doing things was always complimentary but contrasting from that of his former compadre and rival Mark E. Smith. Sharing the same wry, cynical take on the world but varying in terms of their tastes and musical approach, you suspect that Bramah veered towards Television while Smith preferred The Stooges. Bramah leaned towards a certain order while Smith favoured discord.
As if to underline this, Bramah deals in a more linear narrative too. Every song on Righteous Harmony Fist tells a story. About how the way the powers that be dictate how life should be lived is not the only path through the woods. About how nine to five is a cruel constraint, about how in the words of perhaps Bramah's most famous song, we are all victims of a 'bad education' and need instead to set ourselves our own curriculum.
Righteous Harmony Fist should certainly be on the reading list. As with much of Bramah's work it feels like we're experiencing a highly enjoyable but educational magic mushroom trip. Landscaped by reeling hallucinogenic melody, woozy organ, slapping drums, keening guitars. And all the time Bramah's flat but urgent vocals. In addition to the early Fall incarnation which he played in the closest reference points are probably the early Teardrop Explodes and Bunnymen. The Doors too. Oh and Seventies children's TV classic The Magic Roundabout. Bramah's best known statement is the Orchid's first album, 1982's The Greatest Hit, where he first really laid down his manifesto. This sounds to me like the best thing he's done since.
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 340 The Replacements
Another import of mine. Great to see Let It Be on the jukebox at Rosie's. Three songs went on last night. This was first.
Songs of the Year # 39 Comet Gain
Comet Gain are true Indie stalwarts going back all the way to 1992 and having put out some wonderful records along the way. Here's their offering for this year.
Albums of the Year # 39 Whyte Horses - Empty Words
Rough Trade Shop's recommendations are generally a useful barometer to direct you to something new and interesting. Their Record of the Week currently is Empty Words, the mammoth second album from Manchester's Whyte Horses and they're quite right to push it forward. Whyte Horses are the brainchild of Dom Thomas, also co-founder of the classic re-issue label Finder's Keepers. Empty Words is an enveloping, fascinating record and a huge step forward from their debut, 2016's Pop or Not.
This is music made by people with a better record collection then you have but also know how to use them in a genuinely innovative and fresh way, no mean feat in 2018. Tracks here melt into one another in the most sublime and impressive ways. Naive female vocals on top of a dreamlike symphonic production. Sixteen tracks long, but easily and perhaps best experienced at a single sitting. I've done so twice up to now and will be back for more.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,763 Keiron Phelan
The quite wonderful A Pessimist is Never Disappointed blog, listed on the right side of this page steers me in the direction of another fine record. Peace Signs by Keiron Phelan on the splendid Gare Du Nord. Like virtually everything on that label it's as deeply and distinctively English,as a dreary wet winter afternoon, spent wandering round a cobbled old town, trawling second hand shops before heading off for tea or a pint as the skies darken.
It's a record that takes its time and is all the better for that fact. Songs unwind at a languorous and relaxed pace. It's altogether very good company. As his bandcamp sites says,
'Phelan vocalising like a non-dozy Kevin Ayers with hints of both Bolanesque willfulness and Bill Fay sincerity. Imagine a confrontational Neil Hannon fronting the Incredible String Band and you're on the right protest march. Peace out.'
Friday, November 16, 2018
Songs of the Year # 40 Cafe Racer
More coming up from Chicago's Cafe Racer soon but firstly my favourite song from their splendid album Famous Dust.
Albums of the Year # 40 The Orielles - Silver Dollar Moment
From way back in February, when 2018 was young.
I found listening to The Orielles debut album Silver Dollar Moment yesterday a glorious experience. 'Yes' I kept thinking. 'Yes,' 'Yes', 'Yes'! Halifax's pride and joy, a young indie trio come out with a joyous, poppy marvel of a record to shake away the cobwebs of winter. It meanders, but that is surely a big part of its attraction as it just invites you to dive back in to discover what intrigued you so much in the first place. Indie album for the first quarter of 2018.
I found listening to The Orielles debut album Silver Dollar Moment yesterday a glorious experience. 'Yes' I kept thinking. 'Yes,' 'Yes', 'Yes'! Halifax's pride and joy, a young indie trio come out with a joyous, poppy marvel of a record to shake away the cobwebs of winter. It meanders, but that is surely a big part of its attraction as it just invites you to dive back in to discover what intrigued you so much in the first place. Indie album for the first quarter of 2018.
Song of the Day # 1,762 Spielbergs
Norway's Spielbergs have been making small splashes in the Indie Pond this year ahead of their debut album which comes out early next. Somewhere between Arcade Fire and early U2. Frenetic, turbocharged and rather promising.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Songs About People # 740 Barry Bonds
Something of a Kanye day here clearly. Here's his tribute to baseball legend Barry Bonds, also from Graduation.
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 339 Miriam Makeba
So pleased to see I've finally managed to import this, one of my favourite songs of all, onto Rosie's jukebox. I'll play it lots.
Songs of the Year # 41 Hinds
I'm not always sure about The Hinds stuff but this new one, ahead probably of a third album, hits the spot!
Albums of the Year # 41 Kikagaku Moyo - Masana Temples
Japrockers Kikagaku Moyo put out the mighty fine Masana Temples last month:
Japanese hippies Kikagaku Moyo are back with a new album Masana Temples released last week. It's more of the same of what anyone who's listened to and appreciated their previous records might expect. Psych, Folk, Kraut and Jap Rock, changing and shifting moods, in turns rocking and contemplative and pastoral.
But there's a gradual refining of their sound going on, and Masana Temples contains a number of career defining moments. The album has received a series of rather lukewarm reviews, at least the ones I've read, but I reckon it's a fine record, containing several tracks that I've returned to again and again over the past week.
Yes sure they're hippies, band photos and press releases attest to this quite blatantly, but frankly labels like this mean next to nothing in 2018. I even saw one reference to John Lydon's 'Never trust a hippie', quote in a negative review of the record. But Lydon himself was an avowed Can aficionado, and this is the band that Kikagaku Moyo take their most obvious cues from. And the influence reaps rewards.
There's also a distinctly utopian feeling to proceedings - as one might expect from hippies I suppose. That's more than welcome in this day and age. Masana Temples keeps up the good work laid down by the bands previous release and more. Never mind the knockers.
Song of the Day # 1,761 Kanye West
Kanye West is not an artist who figures strongly on my radar. Frankly I don't know his stuff very well. But anyone who bases a song on Can's masterful Sing Swan Song and makes something as good as this out of it deserves respect and further investigation, so that's what I'll do! Moss Def also involved here too. From 2007's Graduation.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Songs About People # 739 Ben Fong Torres
Ludicrous song inspired by a viewing of Almost Famous where Fong Torres appears in his early Seventies Rolling Stone guise.
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 338 Ryley Walker
Ryley Walker, a fine, if rather ego-driven musician had a good record out this year which didn't make my end of year list. This splendid song comes from a couple of years back. So much going on here.
Songs of the Year # 42 J Fernandez
Back to J Fernandez and what I'd say is the best song on Occasional Din.
Albums of the Year # 42 Yo La Tengo - There's a Riot Going On
Yo La Tengo batted out yet another fine album in March, just as you'd expect them to. Here's what I wrote:
Yo La Tengo are an American Indie institution. You just need to go to Pitchfork, the self-appointed guardians of such things to read the revered and sacred tones that they're always written about in. They form something of a holy trinity in Indie circles in this respect alongside Sonic Youth and Pavement.
And they've outlasted both of their somewhat more successful and high profiles co-tribunes. There's A Riot Going On, just out is their fifteenth album since they first emerged from Hoboken, New York, way back in 1984. And it's a peach. I'm not sufficiently well-versed with all of their back catalogue to place it with any authority among their body of work, but it's an assured and glowing object in itself, remarkable for a band in its fourth decade as a working unit.
They fit snugly of course in line in the list of alternative New York of guitar bands. Velvet Underground, Television and The Feelies most obviously and the traces of all of them are evident on There's A Riot Going On. But they're also huge fans of The Kinks and The Lovin' Spoonful and the sheer craft and loving warmth of their songwriting is there too as of course is the band's own considerable legacy. There are also moments where the trio just revel in the beauty of quiet ambient electric sound, reverberation and echo. There's an understanding of the sheer beauty of Jazz here too, very unusual considering the circles they mix in. In many ways they were always the most sensitive band of their generation. They would have made great beatniks.
You can watch them playing songs from the new record in the clip above in a gig curated by Pitchfork. Its a concert that really underlines the small homey charm of the band, something they've never allowed themselves to lose. Leader Ira Kaplan still dresses in the definitive Jonathan Richman uniform, hooped shirts, jeans, trainers. The band still play as if they're in their front room.
The fact that the album is called There's A Riot Going On, (a steal from Sly Stone's crowning moment of course), while the record itself bears closer resemblance to the Sea of Tranquility than a riot is no accident of course. There's an enormous storm going on out there in the world at the minute of course. Yo La Tengo's response is a smart one. Acknowledgement with the naming of the record, but otherwise a retreat to the beauty within. Altogether a splendid album and gift.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,760 J Fernandez
A few songs from Chicago, Arkansas musician J Fernandez's utterly charming new album Occasional Din. It's an eclectic affair, reminding me of all kinds of things from Stereolab to The Beatles while maintaining its own quirky individual voice.
As the blurb on the man's Spotify page states, 'it's a sunny jukebox for the eternal pessimist.' Unceasingly smart and melodic, Occasional Din's a lovely record to come across as November thickens.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
My New Acquisition
Last Saturday a quiet but genuine revolution occurred in terms of my ways of listening to music. I purchased the record player pictured above and it was delivered to my flat. It's a Dynatron cabinet and was probably produced in the early Seventies. It wasn't particularly cheap but considering I expect to have a relationship with it for the rest of my life, what I parted with for it is frankly peanuts.
I bought it from RPM Records in Newcastle. It's an old fashioned record shop of the best kind, run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. I've been going there ever since I arrived here ten years ago and know the two main proprietors Marek and Ritchie pretty well. Lovely guys both and the sort of people you always get involved in a great music related conversations with whenever you venture into their shop.
They delivered the cabinet early on Saturday morning and Ritchie and I hauled it up to my flat as Marek was experiencing some trouser problems, namely no belt. They set it up in the corner of my flat where there had once been an unsightly set of wires, cables and speakers with my previous sub-standard system. Having explained to me how things worked, (simple as can be), we chose a record to listen to, Up On The Roof by The Drifters, not a bad selection and they went on their way.
And since then? I've been listening to my records non-stop almost as if for the first time. The sound is so pristine, so clear and uncomplicated, frankly the way that music is meant to sound. The older the vinyl, the better it seems to sound, Jazz, old Soul and the classic Rock and Roll canon sounds best of all. I'm making my way through things day by day. It's been a revelation frankly and I look forward to getting re-acquainted with all my old loves and making some new ones. Patti Smith's Wave is a good example. I'd forgotten what a great album that is.
So how will it affect this blog? Probably not much frankly. At least on the surface. When I started writing it I intended to focus on reviewing my favourite old albums but as things developed the things I chose to write about became more related to contemporary stuff and I'm quite happy with that turn of events. Nevertheless, I'm quite delighted to be embarked on a whole new listening journey of discovery and rediscovery which will no doubt impact on what I write here in all kinds of subtle, indefinable ways.
Songs About People # 738 Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull, who has a new album out exploring all aspects of mortality which I haven't been brave enough to listen to yet. Instead you get this rather sweet tribute.
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 337 The Capitols
Number 7 hit on the Billboard Singles chart in 1967.
Albums of the Year # 43 Adrianne Lenker - abysskiss
One of the most talented songwriters in the world today, Adrianne Lenker, took some time off her day job with Big Thief and produced a lovely haunting album called abysskiss. Here's what I wrote about it in October.
Adrianne Lenker is building herself a remarkable legacy in a remarkably short time. As leader of Big Thief, the Brooklyn based four-piece, she's helped shape two of the most notable albums of the last couple of years in Masterpiece and Capacity, and now she's back again, (astonishingly soon), with a solo record abysskiss. It's one of the best records of an abundant harvest crop released for early autumn.
Appropriately it's a simpler record instrumentally than either of the Big Thief albums, the band sound cut away, with songs stripped pretty much to the bone of circling acoustic guitar, and Lenker's keening sorrowful voice.
But the songs themselves are every bit as strong as those on Masterpiece and Capacity. In many respects it's difficult to divine if Lenker is a glass half full or glass half empty type. The things she writes are consistently imbued with pain, with the knowledge of how we can mistreat and abuse each other, but at the same time they're also grained with a maternal, healing grace.
In some respects she shares some things in common with Cat Power yesterday's Song of the Day artist on here . There's a simplicity in her work and in that simplicity lies an essential, minimalist beauty. Lenker is a star in the making. Perhaps somewhere along the line she'll get some of the mainstream adulation that Chan Marshall's on the receiving end of now. She'll certainly have earned it by the time it comes along. abykiss, like its predecessors, is just magnificent.
Song of the Day # 1,759 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Something from her big album that wasn't that one about Rock and Roll.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 336 Amon Duul
The strangest things find their way onto the jukebox at Rosie's. Like this. Amon Duul II's glorious Yeti.
Songs About People # 737 Peter Laughner
The New Lou Reeds pay tribute to one of the legendary doomed souls of Rock and Roll, Peter Laughner, music journalist and pivotal member of the original Pere Ubu.
Songs of the Year # 44 Cornershop
Any year which features 'new Cornershop' is a good year in my book. Here was their offering!
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