Smash The Ukulele

On catch up I just watched the Channel 4 ‘documentary’ When Keith Allen Meets Nick Griffin. I use the quotation marks because it was a documentary in the loosest terms. Keith Allen has been doing a few of these vanity project documentary’s lately. Louis Theroux he aint.
In the programmes introduction Allen explained how the meeting had been called off as Griffin called it off at the last minute. Allen persisted, and armed with a ukulele goes to Brussels and tries to speak to him anyway. Which he does.
The first brief interview went nowhere, Allen asking easy questions familiar questions to secure a proper second interview. The second interview was pointless and a third even more so. We know Griffin is a racist twat and this told the viewer nothing more.

My main grip with the programme was Keith Allen and his ukulele. Playing it on the Euro star, in the hotel lobby, in the European parliament, while he’s intervening Griffin in his office. If the thinking was that the ukulele is a jolly fun like instrument that’s the polar opposite to Griffin then it didn’t come over like that. It just appeared pointless and annoying.
Which is how I would describe the ukulele. Sales of the instrument have risen dramatically in the last few years. They have apparently become cool (though I would say more hipster ironic cool, which makes it not cool at all) and are popping up all over the place, like on that annoying match.com TV advert which makes me want to smash the ukulele over the blokes head every time I see it.
Enough, it sounds shit. Play a guitar instead.

ITV Coverage - Waiting For Roy Keane To Snap

I don’t intend to turn this into a football orientated blog, but this week my evenings have been dominated by some great games on the TV.
But there was one thing that(almost) ruined it for me and that was the Chelsea v Napoli match. Not the game itself but the dire coverage from ITV. Its standard to berate ITV’s football coverage, but not without reason.
Since Richard Keys and Andy Gray got booted out, Sky’s coverage has drastically improved. I couldn’t stand him as a player but Gary Neville has turned out to be a decent pundit. As has Graham Souness. The Europa league coverage on Chanel 5 has improved too. Their commentary is at least balanced, unlike the partisan ‘its us against the foreign team’ line that ITV take.
“But you got to cheer on the English team haven’t you?” No, anyone that says that doesn’t understand football rivalry.
Sure ITV want the English team to go through to the next round, that’s the bigger ratings winner after all, but don’t presume that everyone watching does. When Chelsea scored the eventual winner the co-commentator Andy Townsend celebrated with a “Yes, get in there.” Then near the end of the match when Didier Drogba was diving all over the place and feigning injury he described it as ‘clever'. If a Napoli player did that it would no doubt be ‘outrageous time wasting tactics'.
Then there’s the presenter Adrian Chiles who has somehow dumbed down ITV’s coverage even more with his inane meaningless comments such as “you would presume Chelsea to be the fitter team in extra time wouldn’t you?” Chiles gave no reason why and no one in the studio responded to him. Every time he makes a comment like this or some frivolous quip Roy Keane fixes a murderous stare on him. Or maybe that’s just how Keane always looks. I just hope that one day he snaps and throws Adrian Chiles though the commentary box window.
This weekend hopefully.

Marl Lanegan - Blues Funeral

I was thinking, when is Mark Lanegan going to stop pissing about being a voice for hire and get on with doing another solo record? Yes I like a lot of the work that he’s put his voice to. The three albums with Isobel Campbell were pretty good. The song Revival with the Soulsavers was truly great but the rest of the album wasn’t. The stuff with Greg Dulli had its moments. There’s other stuff that’s all fine too, but none of it is as good as the Mark Lanegan Band 2004 album Bubblegum.
Then I hear that a new album called Blues Funeral has just been released. So I ordered it straight away and its not let me down. There’s more of an electronic syth feel that’s a world away from his early solo albums like Whisky For The Holy Ghost. But don’t let that put you off. I’m still pretty fresh to it so I can’t say if I will be listening to it as much in years to come as I still am with Bubblegum. But it certainly has song songs that are as good as anything he’s put his name to.



Follow link to download The Mark Lanegan Band - The Gravedigger's Song from box.com

The Football Fans Fickle View

Fickle, it’s a word that I don’t like. The reason being is that for some reason I don’t like the way it sounds and the way it looks. There are a few words that I don’t like for these reasons and I usually avoid using them. Fickle is a word that is often used to describe football fans.
In football the highs and lows change in no time at all. Many times in a course of a season the media and fans can claim a team to be ‘in crisis’ only for the team to put a good run of results together and all is fine again.
Take the team that I support Tottenham. So far they are having a decent season. Third in the league and still in the FA Cup. Playing some great football along the way. But in the last two games they’ve been spanked by Arsenal and Manchester United. If they turn it around in the next couple of matches then it will be considered a blip but if the bad form continues then the knee jerkers in the media, fan forums and Twitter will be out in force. And in the space of a month the opinion on the players will have gone from great to useless. I myself sometimes get drawn into such knee jerk reactions.
When Manchester United scored their third goal on Sunday my thoughts towards the manager Harry Redknapp was “I hope he does take the England job. Maybe then we will get a manager that can get the team selection right.”
More scorn was aimed at the defence, especially Kyle Walker.
“He forgets that he’s a defender. Sure its great bombing down the wing but what’s the point when you switch off at defending set pieces all the time. Bring Vederan Corluka back.” was my reaction to his poor display.
A few games back I was saying that he has become one of he best right back’s in the league.
From great to shit in the space of a couple of games. If you are a Tottenham fan then you might recognise some of these thoughts on the players.

Brad Friedel
When team wins: What a shrewd singing he’s forty something years old and as good as ever. You can’t beat experience.
When the team loses: He’s too old to play at this level anymore.

Younes Kaboul
When team wins: He’s one of the most improved players in the Premiership this season. A rock at the back.
When team loses: As much as he’s improved he still makes errors and will never be a top class centre back.

Gareth Bale
When team wins: World class. Lets just hope we can hold on to him next season.
When team loses: Overrated. A so called world class player should be able to use both feet. We should cash in on him in the summer.

Ledley King
Legend, can’t even train during the week, turns up for the match and is pure class.
When team loses: A legend but the injury’s are catching up with him now. Its time to move on with a new captain.

Michael Dawson
When team wins: The defence is so more solid with Dawson in he ream. Always puts his body on the line for the team.
When team loses: He always puts his body on the line blocking shots because he is too slow getting to the ball in the first place.

William Gallas
When team wins: He may be past his best but he’s still got it.
When team loses: Why was he wearing red boots. Fucking gooner.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto
When team wins: A maverick, one of a kind. He plays like he couldn’t care less about the game. So cool under pressure.
When team loses: He played like he didn’t care. Sometimes when under pressure you just got to hoof the ball into the stand.

Danny Rose
When team wins: Will always be remembered for that goal against the scum but he’s really turning in some good performances now.
When team loses: Will always be remembered for that goal against the scum but he just isn’t good enough.

Niko Kranjcar
When team wins: Such a cultured footballer, he would walk into most other teams.
When team loses: How about putting a tackle in once in a while.

Jermain Defoe
When team wins: The best finisher in the team. A natural goal scorer.
When team loses: Stay onside. Stay on fucking side!

Luka Modric
Best midfielder in the country. Has the best outside right foot pass in football.
When the team loses: He would rather be playing for Chelsea anyway. He’s shooting is awful.

Scott Parker
When team wins: Five million what a snip. Should have bought him years ago.
When team loses: Stop running about like a headless chicken and giving away stupid free kicks.

Aaron Lennon
When team wins: When he’s on form he will skin any left back.
When team loses: Skins the left back then puts over a rubbish cross. What’s the point.

Louis Saha
When team wins: What a free singing he is. Could’ve been one of the top strikers in the world if he hadn’t pick up all them injuries.
When team loses: Past his best. Why wasn’t Defoe picked?

Rafael van der Vaart
When team wins: World class player, if he’s fit he has to play.
When team loses: Off the pace. Will he ever be totally fit? How about getting a corner past the first man for once.

Jake Livermore
When team wins: This season he’s come of age. Great to see a local lad in the team.
When team loses: Jack of all trades master of none. Will never become a regular first team player.

Sandro
When team wins: A beast of a player, though shall not past.
When team loses: Lets face it he’s had a couple of good games and a great game against AC Milan and that’s about it. How the hell does he get into the Brazil squad?

Tom Huddlestone
When team wins: What a passer of the ball, Hoddle -esc.
When team loses: Run fat boy run.

Emmanuel Adebayor
When team wins: A proper target man, has been the difference this season.
When team loses: Fucking gooner.

Football fans fickle. Never.

The Black Keys

If your looking for a up to date music news then this isn’t really the blog for you. You won’t find a sneak preview of the latest Vampire Weekend release here. I mean look, I’m posting a blog about The Black Keys album El Camino that came out at the back end of last year.
I only got around to listening to it a couple of weeks ago. I new it would be good, it was like I was saving the last piece of bacon on the plate.
Enough with the crap metaphors.
So if you haven’t heard it what’s it like? Fucking great. Is it better than Brothers? I think it may well be. Tell me more. No there’s no need to just get it.

Follow link to download The Black Keys - Dead And Gone from box.com

Catholic Priest House Visit

I caught some of the BBC documentary Catholics. It was the first in a series and it started with priests. Due to declining numbers there are only three places left in the UK where priests do their training.
Its hardly surprising, I mean who would want to become a priest? You’re not allowed to have sex and people think that you probably mess about with alter boys.

When I was a kid my mum would sometimes drag me along to church. God it was boring (shit pun, sorry). And I really didn’t care for the priest at all. Don’t worry he didn’t tell me to touch him in a special holy place or anything, but he was one of them old hard line humourless types that droned on and on in an Irish accent that people from Cork would have trouble understanding.

When I was about nine or ten he made an unexpected visit to our house and invited himself in. My mum was not best pleased as she was in the middle of cooking dinner. He didn’t care about that as he took a seat and dug my mum out about us not always turning up for church on Sunday's. She made her excuses, like how I play football on a Sunday Mornings.
“Church is more important,” he said sharply. “you won’t get into heaven by kicking a football around a field.”
“Well we will try to go this Sunday,” my mum said in a defensive manner.
As he left he said, “Going to church is like washing behind your ears, you don’t think about doing it you just do it.”
I remember thinking at the time: I’ve never washed behind my ears in my life.

My mum was so pissed off at his visit that I never got dragged along to church again, and she soon stopped going altogether.

Mountain Man

First things first, the Mountain Man are none of the sort. They are three girls. You might already know that as their debut album Made The Harbor came out in 2010, but I’ve only just become aware of them.
The album is short songs of stripped down folk with three part harmonies.
Now when I mean striped down I don’t mean like the first Bon Iver album where he recorded the base of the album in the woods then put overdubs on it (why bring Bon Iver into it? Well he’s riled me somewhat, liked the first album but his last effort was plain awful).
With just Vocals and acoustic guitar Made The Harbor is proper stripped down and has the sound production of a field recording that gives it a haunted feel. Quality stuff.



Follow link to download Mountain Man - Animal Tracks from Box.com

The Jawhawks - A Buyers Guide

The Jawhawks are touring Europe in march, its their first time over here in? I have no idea. But it’s a long time as Mark Olsen and Gary Louris only got the band back together the other year. But what a band. If you’re new to The Jayhawks but don’t know where to start then here is a quick buyers guide

All of their albums are good, with the exception of Smile which is the last album before the comeback. Don’t buy it, its rubbish. Nothing wrong with a band looking for a new direction but I don’t want an early nineties Manchester drumbeat and wah wah pedal funk to be anywhere near The Jayhawks.

Tomorrow the Green Grass is a great record and a must have. But Hollywood Town Hall is better than great. Country rock with harmonies catchy choruses and loads of melodic fuzz guitar solos. It’s a masterpiece.



Follow link to download The Jawhawks - Waiting For The Sun from box.com

Stop The Rap

Last Friday night I watched a bit of the programme Room 101. Never knew that frank skinner was presenting it now, that shows how long since I watched the programme. Anyway, Ross Noble was on it and wanted to lock folk dancing up in the room.
If I lived in a quaint English village then I would banish it to the room without any hesitation. But thankful I’ve only seen Morris dancers in action the one time. I was about seven and even at that young age it was apparent to me that they were a bunch of dicks.
Frank Skinner wouldn’t put them into the room and then said. “you might not like folk dancing but how about this:” and then out came some girls in tight tops and short skirts doing an Irish jig. Then another girl started beat boxing and at the end some bloke runs on and starts doing crap brake dancing.
Do I like it now Frank? No! Its so much worse. Haven’t we got over the let’s make something cool by doing a rap.
I heard a discussion on the radio a little while ago about education. A teacher called up to say that a good way to teach kids maths is by making it fun and cool for them. “I call myself MC Maths and I rap the times table to them.”
That blows away the cringe meter.
There’s an episode of the Simpson’s where Homer turn his hat back to front and does a rap. Bart and Lisa beg him to stop, when he does Lisa say to Homer “Promise me that you’ll never do that again.”

Cover #13 Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Only Love Can Break Your Heart is probably the most well known song from the dance indie pop band Saint Etienne. That might not be true but it is for me anyway. To tell the truth I don’t know any other song from them. I’m sure that I’ve heard some more of their stuff on a duke box in a pub or in an indie club back in the nineties or even on the radio. But if I recognised the song then I wouldn’t know that it was Saint Etienne.
So why am I posting a blog about them if I don’t know their music? Well because I do know the Neil Young song Only Love Can Break Your Heart and the great cover that Saint Etienne do of it. Musically radically different from the country/folk original but still keeping the same melody.
Maybe it is time I divulged into Saint Etienne’s back catalogued a bit.



Follow link to download: Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Rapture Riders

I’m not a big fan of mash ups. You know take one song and mix it with another song that has the same tempo and preferably the same key and create some kind of fusion. Sometimes when I hear one I might think that it was an interesting novelty but have no interest in listening to it again. But usually I’m left thinking ‘what was the point of that?’
There are a few exceptions and one is the mash-up done by Go Home Productions of The Doors song Riders on the Storm and Rapture by Blondie.
Works really well, even though it has that terrible Debora Harry rap that sounded dated a week after it came out.

The December Sound

I first become aware of The December Sound from a free sampler download compilation by Dead Bees Records. Though most of the songs were pretty good, their song Painkiller was the stand out track for me. On the strength of that I purchased one of their albums called The Silver Album which is a strong outing from start to finish. Its psychedelic shoegaze indie rock with a mechanical feel to it and is worth a listen, if that’s your kind of thing.

Follow this link to download The December Sound - Painkiller

Casino Sabbat

I’ve never been much of a gambler. When I say not much I mean I’ve put on a couple of bets and that’s it. Put money on a horse once and it didn’t finish. Put a fiver on Gabriel Batistuta to be the top scorer in the 1998 World Cup, he did well in getting five goals, but Davor Suker banged in six. I might have bought a lottery ticket once. When traveling around America I passed through Las Vegas for a couple of days and only wandered in a casino for a few minutes.
You get the picture, its not a vice that I partake in.
Though I did visit the new casino in Westfield’s shopping centre in Stratford the other Saturday. I think that by the end of the night I worked out how to play blackjack.

From the limited time that I’ve spent in casinos I’ve noticed that they’re the biggest cultural melting pot there is. No other place compares. Old, young, black, white, Asian, all together under the same roof desperately trying to claw back some money that the house has taken from them.
And it is the only place where a you’ll find a Hasidic Jew out and about on a Saturday night. Isn’t a Saturday the Shabbat? I didn’t think they were even allowed to turn on a light switch. God apparently goes mental when that happens.
After looking at what you’re not allowed to do on the Shabbat there is no mention of gambling. Though you can’t do things like plough, gather, plant, slaughter, bake, write and extinguish a fire. That’s right, you can’t put out a fire even if property is being damaged. Only if a life is at risk.
So I guess that in Israel even firemen get the Saturday off work.

The Rapture - Out of the Races and Onto The Tracks

I hardly ever listen to an album from The Rapture from start to finish. Some bands you only need a couple of songs from them and that’s it. Well The Rapture are one of these bands, I should give them more of a listen really but I have a feeling that they won’t sound any better that their song Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks.
There’s a line that’s repeated in this song that goes ‘Punishment in higher places’ I’ve just looked up the lyrics for this as I could never make out any of the words.
I used to think the words were something like ‘Paul loves shrimp in funny places.’



Follow link to download The Rapture - Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks from Box.net

Let's Say We Did - Follow Me Down

Following a handful of self released ep’s, the Stockholm based quintet Let’s Say We Did released their self titled debut album at the back end of last year.
On their ep’s the band were finding their feet somewhat but on the album it shows that the hours spent perfecting their melodic scuzzed up indie pop has paid off.
This album has the potential to be a word of mouth grower this year. And if not then I’m sure the next album will.



Follow link to Box.com to download Let’s Say We Did - Straight Back To You

The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait

A mate of mine used to drive around in his van with a collection of three tapes that he used to play over and over. One was a collection of Minutemen and Firehose songs, one a collection of old country and bluegrass classics and the other a bootleg of a live Replacements show from the mid 80s that he said he was at (he’s a good few years older than me and used to live in Minneapolis). The Replacements had a reputation for their drunken ram shackled live shows, and the performance on the tape was no different. Though the sheer energy of the band still burst through the primitive speaker system.
That was my first introduction to The Replacements and it was enough for me to here some more from them. Glad I did.
Here’s the original more stripped back version of Can’t Hardly Wait that came out on the Tim reissue.

Follow link to download The Replacements - Can’t Hardly Wait (Tim version)

Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane Great Cover #12

The Cowboy Junkies have recorded many covers throughout their career, and they interoperate the songs as good as any band out there. Whether its a Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen ,Flying Burrito Brothers or an old blues or traditional song they always take it and mould it to their own laid back Americana sound with ease.
The first song that I heard from the Cowboy Junkies was a slowed down cover of The Velvet Underground’s Sweet Jane. Its from the album The Trinity Sessions but I heard it on some compilation of songs from films that Quinton Tarantino has been involved in (it appeared in Natural Born Killers, Tarantino wrote the screen play).
There’s also a great live version that I got from some other compilation that’s more up tempo and has a long intro with a piano solo and guitar feedback. I must try to find that CD the next time I go back to my folks, I thinks its in the garage somewhere.

When Music and Football Meet

When football and music come together its usually a very bad thing. Sometimes it can be good but that’s as rare as a Panda
I’m thinking Waddle and Hoddle singing their song Diamond Lights. Its now looked back as a funny and Chris and Glenn might have a laugh about it when its brought up in an interview on Soccer AM or Talksport but really, what the fuck was that all about?



What about Paul Gascoigne in his shell suit singing about the fog on the Tyne and sickly sausage rolls. Anyway sausage rolls are savory, not sickly at all.
Then there’s the Anfield Rap. Imagine the Liverpool team of today doing that. Would never happen. If they did then Luiz Suarez could use a racist term and claim it to be part of hip hop culture.
When it comes to football and music the mid 80s and early 90s has a lot to answer for.

As for good examples of music and football mixing there’s The Suntans of Ping’s song Give Him a Ball and a Yard of Grass. In fact for me it’s the undisputed song about football.
“Give him a ball & a yard of grass, he'll give you a move with perfect pass Give him a ball & a yard of space, he'll give you a move with godly grace.”



Then there’s film the film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait which has a camera that just follows on Zinedine Zidane playing a game for Real Madrid and has the post-rock band Mogwai doing the films score. Though its not Zidane’s finest match and its not Mogwai’s best work, the combination works really well.
I watched it post pub. Now usually when I see a film late at night after a few beers my attention span is almost non existent. But For the whole film my eyes never left the screen.

Super Furry Animals - The International Language Of Screaming

There was a period in the nineties when bands from the United Kingdom would often sing “Na na na na” or “La la la la" instead of a verse with proper words. Maybe they couldn’t think of anything else to write. Maybe they intentional used it for that sing along poppy indie effect so it would help them get a slot on TFI Friday, get play listed on Radio 1, sell a few records and then blow all their money doing cocaine in Camden pubs.
I’m thinking of crap Brit-Pop bands like Shed Seven and The Bluetones, na na na na, fuck off.
The Welsh band Super Furry Animals are a band that sometimes did a few la la la’s, like on their song The International Language of Screaming. But they can get away with it because there's a lot more interesting stuff that’s going on in their music. And its one of the best song titles I know.

Braille Porn

Well now there’s a relatively new topic to rival that and its: “If you were on Dragons Den what would your idea be?”
I’ve been asked what my idea would be a coupe f times. On the first occasion I had nothing but on the second I came up with what I thought was a pretty good idea. Braille porn.
Porn is so easily available, boot up your computer, click, click, click and its all there. Soft, medium hardcore or just plain weird porn. The choice is yours.
But if you’re blind its just you and your imagination and that’s just way too much effort. -Even more so if you’ve been blind since birth. How would you know what sex even attracts you if you’ve never seen a man or woman? Maybe it’s the smell and touch? But if so then you can’t go around smelling and touching people when you reach puberty. Its instinct I guess, but still, it must be confusing. Especially if your not sure what sex you like.

But it turns out that someone has already come up with Braille porn. Never mind.

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded

Even though they formed and released an album before most of the other well known punk rock bands, Australia’s The Saints get overlooked as one of the genre’s formative bands. They are still going (albeit through many line up changes) but the only alum that I would recommend is the 1977 debut (I’m) Stranded which features the excellent song on the same name.
I made the mistake of buying a three CD box set of some of their later stuff which has a smoother mid tempo pop-rock sound. I’ve only heard it a couple of times.
What I want to listen to is the early up-tempo raw buzz saw guitar type stuff that’s like the Australian Ramones.



Follow link to download The Saints - (I’m) Stranded

Jim White - Christmas Day

“Amazing grace, how sweet the
smile upon the face I never thought I'd see you again...especially here in this Greyhound station...on Christmas Day...in 1998.”

Its that happy time off year, right? Yeah but what is the worst thing about Christmas? Well the shopping for presents is a bit of a headache. So are the Christmas songs. I don’t mean the Christmas carols I mean the same songs that get churned out every year. You know the ones. There’s no escape from them.
Shopping for presents in a crowded shopping centre that has the heating on fall blast and the same songs played over and over in every shop. That’s the worst part of Christmas.
But a seasonal song that I will be playing is the Jim White’s Christmas Day. Its not the most festive of songs festive songs and I certainly wouldn’t like to be stuck at a bus stop on Christmas day, but one of the great things about it is that there isn’t a sleigh bell to be heard anywhere.

Premier Passions

With Steve Bruce out of the Sunderland job it looks like we have seen the last of the old school generation of football managers that retired from playing in the early nineties, went into management and failed to move with the times.
For example Sunderland gave Bruce an iPad to do tactics and statistics on, but he claimed that he didn’t do much tactics. Also he said like a badge of honour that he has email but doesn’t know how to log on.
I can’t see Bruce getting another job at a Premier League club, no more than say Brian Robson, Terry Butcher or Peter Reid.

If you don’t know who Peter Reid is, well when Diego Maradona scored that great solo goal against England in the 1986 world cup, Reid is the first player who chases after him and finally gives up as Maradona reaches the penalty area.
He was actually a very decent player in his day but his stock as a manager has gone. I’m singling him out because I’ve just watched an episode of Premier Passions on Google video. It’s a five part documentary series that follows Sunderland in the 1996-1997 season when Peter Reid was the manager. With access to the dressing room you get to see pre match and half time team talks which basically consists of “Don’t fucking hesitate out there, get fucking right in their fucking faces and don’t fucking let them fucking settle. Lets fucking get them fucking tackles in.”

I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that even the manager of my school football team gave us a more insightful team talk. And a whole lot less unnecessary swearing.

Great Cover #11 The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting 'Round To Die

“Now I'm out of prison, I got me a friend at last. He don't steal or cheat or drink or lie. His name's codeine, he's the nicest thing I've seen. Together we're gonna wait around and die."

Waiting ‘Round To Die is of course the classic Townes Van Vandt song about a man that goes from place to place to escape his troubles and finds some more on the way. It’s a stand out classic that many artists have covered. And the best cover of the song that I’ve heard has to be from The Be Good Tanyas which appeared on their second album Chinatown.
Okay so it may not come close to the version that Townes Van Vandt performs on the documentary Heartworn Highways [which is even better than the recorded version] but that could never happen.



Follow link to download: The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting 'Round To Die

Cam Butler - I Surrender

Cam Butler is an Australian guitarist and composer who’s music I’ve just began getting into. From what I’ve heard of the guitar work it atmospheric, dark and melodic. Though I’ve not yet heard much of the string stuff yet (the next album that’s soon to be released has been recorded with a23 piece string orchestra) the song that I first heard from him and made me want to hear some more is a song called I Surrender that has a big band jazz feel to it. It sounds like a piece of John Barry music and really wouldn’t sound out of place alongside those big classic James Bond theme tunes.



Follow the link to download Cam Butler - I Surrender

Adam's House Cat - Town Burned Down

Adam’s House Cat was the band that Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley played in before they went on to perform the Drive-By Truckers.
They recorded one album that never saw the light of day. This week I’ve managed to get hold of a download of the album Town Burned Down, its ragged and raw cow punk and the sound is a bit thin but its still a good listen.
They last song it an acoustic version of the song Nine Bullets that’s on the Drive-By Truckers second album Pizza Deliverance and is still a live favourite.

Follow this link to download: Adam’s House Cat - Nine Bullets

Lost Children Net Label

A great place to find some really good post-rock, experimental, ambient, drone, electronic, math-rock type stuff is from the Lost Children Net Label. And it’s a place where you can download the music for free as they care more about good music being heard than making a profit (and anyway do any record labels make much of a profit nowadays?).
There is over seventy albums available so if you don’t know where to start then I would suggest starting at The Silent Ballet compilations from which I’ve found many things to get further into such as French Teen Idol, Amberhaze, Orange Crush and Ben Frost to name a few.

Gary Speed

Gary Speed topping himself was a bit of a random one. One minute on Football Focus, few hours later he’s in the garage looking for a sturdy piece of rope.
Why did he do it? Who knows, maybe some reason will come out after a period of mourning for the family and friends he left behind. Maybe we will never know.

In the meantime tributes have been pouring in from the world of football. Rightly so, he was one of them footballers that fans respected even if you didn’t support the team he was playing for. That certainly can’t be said about Joey Barton who sent a few tweets with his condolences. But then his twitter tourettes manifested itself and he went on so say:
'Suicide is a mix of the most tragic, most selfish, most terrible (and I want to believe preventable) acts out there.'

This comment has caused a bit of a storm and Barton has refused to apologise.
And why should he? Sure I think that Barton is a dick and his reinvention of himself as the thinking mans footballer doesn’t convince me -oh but wait he’s tweeted quotes from Nietzsche don’t you know? Really, well how hard is it to type out something that someone else quoted many years ago? It isn’t his words its Nietzsche- but he’s right in saying that its tragic, terrible and yes also selfish.
Though its just as sad as someone killing themselves who has nobody close to them, when you leave a family behind then you’ve passed problems onto them.
But from what I know about deep depression is that it reaches a moment when loved ones don’t come into consideration. The only person that matters is yourself, and that person doesn’t want to go on anymore. They believe its then only way.

So yes Joey Barton has a valid point. But the timing wasn’t so great. Is my timing better? No, but them I know that my opinion won’t be in the paper the next day.

Dirty Beaches - Badlands

Dirty Beaches is the guise that that Taiwanese born Zhang Hungtai goes under. Earlier on this year the official debut album Badlands was released on Zoo Records. I’ve recently came across it and its been on heavy rotation. Its minimalist and lo-fi and dare I say that there is even a Goth feel to it.
This song Sweet 17 is what first grabbed my attention, it sounds like Nick Cave collaborating with Suicide that’s been recorded on Guided By Voices 4-track.



Follow link to download: Dirty Beaches - Sweet 17

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Cracking Up

The Jesus & Mary Chain just might well be one of my favourite bands (as in somewhere in the top twenty) without me ever noticing that they are. I won’t listen to them for months and months and then I can here one song and will have to dig through every album they made.
For me they didn’t do much wrong, whether it be the squawking feedback of Psychocandy, which still sounds as abrasive all these years later, or the clean sounding Stoned & Dethroned.
This time I’ve been giving some more attention to their final album Munki. Its not their but still has some cracking songs on it. Like Cracking up which was one of the best singles of 1998.



Click on link to download: The Jesus & Mary Chain - Cracking Up

Spoon - Crap Name Great Band

To name your band after a piece of cutlery is not the best idea. Has it got drug connotations what with cooking up on a spoon? No idea. But anyway, crap name but a great band.
I first become aware of the band some time around the beginning of the last decade when I heard bought the album Kill The Moonlight after hearing a song of theirs on some compilation CD. And nowadays I seem to take them for granted as they’re so consistently good.
No matter how many instruments are in the mix there’s always so much room in their songs, and a groove too. Like on this song from the album Gimme Fiction called I Turn My Camera On.

Click on here to download: Spoon - I Turn My Camera On.

Some Ways To Tell That A Band Is Crap Before Hearing A Note

What’s the music equivalent of the saying don’t judge a book by its cover? I guess it’s the same as its not exclusively meant for books. Stupid me.
Anyway, when I’ve been out at live music venues around London (the type of places where the bands have to get as many mates down as possible so they will be allowed to play at the venue again, and maybe make twenty quid between them) I’ve often made up my mind that the band is crap before they even play a note. And almost always they are.
You can also see a picture of a band or read an interview with them and make a judgement, for instance I new that The Darkness were a big pile of dog shit just by looking at a picture of the singer in a cat suit. And guess what, they were. Though for a while there were people who new this but still bought their records.
So here’s some ways to tell if a band is crap before even hearing a note:

The bass player straps on his bass just below his neck
Usually in funk rock, the bassist will throw in a bit of slap to show what an accomplished musician he is and will usually move his head back and fourth like a pigeon.

The Drummer has a gong
This is more likely to be seen in a prog rock documentary on BBC 4 than at the Hope & Anchor on a Tuesday night but the band in that documentary won’t be too good.

The keyboard player wears a cape
Same sort of band as the drummer with the gong.

The guitarist has an ugly pointy guitar
These guitars sometimes have a pointless handle built into the body. They were popular with hair metal bands in the mid 80s. If you see a guitar player strapping one on then he will no doubt play fiddle solos that don’t impress anyone but himself.

When asked in an interview what their new album is like they say “Its got something for everyone.”
It hasn’t, they are just widening their net and catching nothing.

Noel Gallagher says that they are his new favourite band

Don’t listen to him.

Tom Waits - Blood Money

What with the new Tom Waits album out I like many are in a in a Tom Waits world. The new album is of course very good indeed but I’ve also been going through his back catalogue (something that I do about once a year).
For the moment I can’t get enough of Blood Money. Its Waits at his ram shackled best. With song titles such as Misery Is the River of the World, Everything Goes to Hell, God's Away on Business, Knife Chase and Starving in the Belly of a Whale you get the picture.

Oasis - (It’s Good) To Be Free

So on the first week of release Noel Gallagher and his Flying Birds perched on the top of the album charts. I have no idea what the album is like as I have no interest in it whatsoever. Maybe he’s actually put some real effort into the album. If he has then its about time as he’s been cruising on autopilot for years. Oasis finished a couple of years ago but the foot was off the gas long before that.
They never came anywhere close to their debut Defiantly Maybe. What about the second album What’s The Story Morning Glory? Give over, it had a few good songs but it doesn’t compare.
The second best Oasis album is The Masterplan which is a collection of early b-sides. The b-sides are better than anything on the third album Be Here Now. Which is when they really went off the boil.
My favourite song has to be (It’s Good) To Be Free which just edges over the Liam and Noel duet Acquiesce.

Lou Reed With Metallica

So this blog is mainly about songs that I like, but after tuning into Later With Jools Holland the on Tuesday night I feel as if I just have to write about something that I really don’t like. And that’s Lou Reed playing with Mettalica.
For the record I really love a lot of Lou Reed’s solo albums as well as all four Velvet Underground albums. As for Metallica, well there was a period in my teenage tears when I thought they were a great band but that’s about it.
I’ve not heard all of the album but what I have heard is sounds pretty ropey, but I didn’t think that it would be as bad as what I heard the other night on Later With Jools Holland.
The first song sounded as if they were all playing a completely different song that they all started at different times. Fucking awful.
Then at the end the play The Velvet Underground song White Light/White Heat. Fucking awful don’t come close.

Come Dine With Me Menu

Four, maybe five years back I hardly had anything in the cupboard or fridge to eat. I wasn’t a poor student or on the dole at the time, I was just too lazy to go to the supermarket and supply’s were very low.
In this sort of situation you have to improvise. So I cooked up some pasta and added some dried herbs to it. It needed something more, so I grabbed a handful of Twiglets, crushed them up and added it to the pasta. You know, to give it that crunchy marmite taste that it was lacking. Yes I know that its not exactly authentic Italian as such but I had to make the best of what I had.
I thought nothing of it, then a mate of mine knocks on the door, so I let him in and go back to my food. He asks me what I’m eating so I tell him and he looks at me like I’ve committed the worst culinary sin know to man. “Pasta and Twiglets! Pasta and fucking Twiglets! What is wrong with you?”

So he ends up telling people and now if I say to a mate something like “I’ve got to go home and eat then I’ll be up the pub later,” the reply is usually “What are you having, pasta and Twiglits?”
So now I have a reputation as a crap cook. I’m actually alright, but sometimes I do like to fuse things together. Such as my a meal that mixes Italy and Mexican cuisine that I call pasta con carnie.
And my latest concoctions is a combination of breakfast and desert that can be eaten anytime of the day. Its basically just some desert like apple pie or chocolate cake mixed in with a bowl of cereal. I could eat it all day.
If I went on Come Dine With Me I have the main course and desert sorted. I’ve just got to work on a starter.

Richmond Fontaine - The High Country

Knowing that it would be a concept album I was a bit apprehensive about the latest album from Alt-country legends (in my eyes they are anyway) Richmond Fontaine. Singer songwriter Willy Vlautin is also a novelist and mixing that with the songs I wasn’t so sure about. Yes his songs are in themselves short story’s about drunks down on their luck but a whole album with a story continuation might just be a bit too straight on the nose.
And on first listen of The High Country it was, but only because of some spoken word pieces that have some of the worst acting that I’ve ever heard. The rest of the album has some good spoken word and quiet instrumental songs as well as some rocking ones where the band are in top form.
The album is growing on my with each listen. Especially now that I always skip the two bad spoken word songs.

Great Cover #10 M. Ward - Rave On

Rave on is a song that wasn’t written by Buddy Holly but his recording made it as good as his. With good reason.
M. Ward recorded the song on his brilliant 2009 album Hold Time. His version is more laid back and has a nice riff on the acoustic guitar but it’s the overall sound that he gets that makes it a great cover version. It sounds fresh but also retains some of that old time recording feel that M. Ward is an avid student of.

Download: M. Ward - Rave On

Spititualized - Think I'm In Love (The Chemical Brothers Remix)

The single song download has killed the CD single. The only reason that I used to buy singles was for the B-sides. Bands would usually chuck their left over’s from the recording sessions on a B-side but sometimes some interesting stuff would be on it too. Like a reworked or stripped down version of a song, or an interesting remix.
Such as the B-side to I Think I’m In Love by Spiritualized that has a remix by the Chemical Brothers. They give it their full treatment to great affect. As if they took the song stripped it back to the vocals and then pressed a button that says Block Rockin’ Beats.

Download: Spiritualized - Think I’m In Love (The Chemical Brothers Remix)

Another Ghost Story

What with it almost being Halloween I would just like to say that I’ve never seen a ghost. I’ve felt some kind of presence and been scared and then seen faces in the curtain and unknown noises. But I have an explanation for that, I was young and thought there might be a ghost in the room so my senses were heightened. There weren’t any faces in the curtain, it was my mind playing tricks on me.

Not all people come to this conclusion. There are some who claim to see ghosts regularly. The kind of people who don’t know the meaning of the word coincidence and claim to ‘be a bit psychic’.
Then there are others that are reasonably well adjusted people but have claimed to have seen a ghost. I know some of these people kind and when they explain the story they never say that it could have been a ghost, but that it defiantly was. And they get annoyed when I show scepticism. “Why would I l lie?” they say. I tell them that its not that they’re lying but that it could’ve been some other explanation. Or that maybe it’s the caretaker like in Scooby Do.

Why is it that only really old houses are supposed to be haunted? Why are there never any modern ghosts?
Because one thing that remains constant in the stories that I’ve herd is that the ghost is always dressed like it’s from the eighteenth century. Why does no-one claim to see ghosts from different periods in history?
Billions of people have died before then and billions after so why no ghosts from the 70s with long hair, dressed in flares with a big collared shirt and a tank top?

Lanterns on the Lake - Gracious Tide, Take Me Home

I don’t listen to a great deal of English bands. The reason being that there’s not many good ones. If you listen to XFM all day and are therefore into landfill indie then you’ll no doubt think otherwise. But I’m not.
There’s plenty of good music coming north of the border but I’ve not heard anything much good of late on the other side.
That is until I heard the debut album from a band on Bella Union called Lanterns on the Lake who hail from England’s most northern county Northumberland.
Gracious Tide, Take Me Home is folk music that often soars to an epic landscape.
Certainly the best album from an English band that I’ve heard this year.

Download: Lanterns on the Lake - Keep On Trying

Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel

In the area where I live there used to be an Elvis Presley themed restaurant. It was like a much more tackier Hard Rock Café where you can eat hamburger’s and fries while a Las Vegas period Elvis impersonator croons away in the corner. The place was thriving in the late 80s and early 90s but has long shut down as that sort of place is as dated as stone washed jeans and white linen suits with the sleeves rolled up.

Almost all Elvis impersonators do the fat jumpsuit period. Its easier than doing the lean sharp suited acoustic guitar swinging 50s Elvis.
In that period he was untouchable as a performer and had the songs to match. Like his first big hit Heartbreak Hotel.
Everything about the song is spot on. Elvis’ vocal range and phrasing, the double bass and brushed drums. Plus coming in at 1:22 is one of the finest guitar breaks in rock n’ roll, and it only last ten seconds. Then there’s the lyrics that are based on the suicide of a man who jumped out of a hotel window, with that and the songs haunting echo it’s kind of a Goth prototype.



Download Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel by clicking on this link.

ZXYZXY - Subclass of the Dead

I’ve mentioned the work of Greg Pappas who goes under the name ZXYZXY before. Everything he puts out is very diverse, whether it be post-rock, ambient or one song that’s a forty five minute drone.
I’ve spent some time with the latest release Subclass of the Dead (available to buy here) and each listen I get more drawn in to its multi-layered world.
And clocking in at ninety minutes it’s a big world to get drawn to and lost in.
The guitars take a back seat on this outing. Instead there’s more electronic, chillwave and some outright weird stuff that phases in and out of tune.
Every listen I find something new and its on the way to being my favourite output from ZXYZXY yet.

Download: ZXYZXY - Rainbow Dash mp3

Twitter Tourette's

True to form it took me a while to come around to the benefits of the social network phenomenon that is Twitter. I joined Myspace just as everyone was jumping ship and joining Facebook. I eventually followed them onto Facebook which I was happy to do as Myspace was and advertising board from which you would receive constant spam from. No I don’t want to see your band play tonight as I live on the other side of the world to Wellington New Zealand.

Then Twitter came along and celebrity’s were doing this thing called tweeting, which consisted of minute by minute updates about being stuck in a lift or something. So naturally I held back for a while.
Then I joined up and realised that its great to get up to date news and opinions about stuff I’m into. That and I don’t get status updates from someone that I hardly new at school about what their kid is doing.

So I’m a convert but I’ve had to have a massive cull of people who spam too much or have tweet tourettes.
So now I don’t follow any comedians. You would think they would be good to follow but it seems like they don’t have anything to do all day apart from tweet every ten minutes and self publicise. Following Ricky Gervais was the tipping point.
It should be140 characters, not 640 characters split over ten tweets.

Howlin Wolf - Smokestack Lightning

I’m keeping on with my blues trip at the moment, so here’s a classic from Howlin’ Wolf, the man with one of the best (if not the best then definitely the grittiest) voices ever put to record.
Smokestack Lighting doesn’t follow the usual blues chord structure. What it does instead is locks into a riff and stays put.
It’s a song that’s been interoperated in ways before and after Howlin’ Wolf did it. But surely none better.

Download: Howlin’ Wolf - Smokestack Lightning

Elmore James - Dust My Broom

A recent purchase from the downstairs section in hmv is a two CD collection of blues man Elmore James. To my recollection I hadn’t heard any of his work before, but its old blues music from Mississippi so of course I had a pretty good idea. Its not going to be happy hardcore is it. And at six quid its worth a go.
Well its been on heavy rotation for the last couple of weeks. It starts off with the overdriven acoustic slide of Dust My Broom (with a riff that makes a regular appearance throughout) but some songs slip into jazz and swing with the piano or saxophone leading the way.
It was six quid more than well spent. And I can’t get that riff out of my head.

Crap Lyrics From Records I Own #1

Whenever I go to visit my parents out in Essex I always have to go and have a rummage through my boxes of CDs and cassette tapes that are stored in the garage.
I always come across something that I’ve not heard in years and give it a play or take it back home to put onto my hard-drive.

On my most recent visit one of the lucky albums to be chosen was Soul Asylum’s early nineties big seller Grave Dancers Union. Back then I really loved this album and must have been played over a hundred times.
So after giving it a listen for the first time in about seventeen years does stand up to being as good as I remembered it? Well no. Its okay in places but mainly it just sounds like second rate early nineties rock.
I knew it would be as good as I remembered it after the first verse which contains one of the worst metaphors that I’ve ever heard.

‘Grandfather watches the grandfather clock, and the phone hasn't rang for so long.
And the time flies by like a vulture in the sky, suddenly he breaks into song.’

Time flies by like a vulture in the sky? Makes no sense at all. Its not clever its just thinking of words to fit around rhyming by and sky. Never in my life have I heard anyone say something like: ‘Yeah I had a really good time last night. The time just flew by. Yeah it flew by like a vulture in the sky.’

Sure a song doesn’t always need to have good lyrics or lyrics that make sense. But when its as bad as this then the chorus - which is still pretty good - still can’t quite redeem it.

Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum

For a while now Mark Lanegan has become Mr voice for hire. Queens of the Stone Age, The Twilight Singers, Soulsavers, Unkle, Isobel Campbell and various others have required his services. It seems like the only creative output that he’s done of late is with Greg Dulli under the name The Gutter Twins. Need a rich baritone growl of a voive? Then give Mark a call.
All of this work is fine but he hasn’t released a solo album since Bubblegum in 2004. Which for me is the finest piece of work that Lanegan has ever put his name to. Including The Screaming Trees.
Its so sparse and yet so dirty with deep throbbing bass lines that compliment Lanegan’s voice so well.
So come on, make another solo album will ya.



Download Mark Lanegan Band - Wedding Dress from this link.

Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan (Live)

The days of multi platinum albums are albums almost gone, but what is extinct and has been for some time is the big selling live album.
I have a few live albums but I seldom give them a listen as the studio versions of the songs are always superior. Songs that took weeks or in the studio to get right are put onto an album that is often badly recorded.

The exception is Mogwai. Who‘s live recordings are on par with the studio versions. Like on Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 which contains a mammoth eighteen minute version of Like Herod and a superior version of New Paths To Helicon Pt I.
And the version of Mogwai Fear Satan on the recent live album Special Moves is just stunning.
As good as the live recordings are, seeing Mogwai play live is something else.



Download Mogwai- Mogwai Fear Satan (live) from this link.

Quadrophenia - The Real Me

When I was in my late teens I had a VHS tape of the film Quadrophenia that I watched many times. Back then it was one of my favourite films and I used to think that the main character Jimmy was so cool. I’ve watched it recently and although I still think it’s a good film I’ve realised that Jimmy was a bit of a twat.
After watching the film I listened to the soundtrack by The Who for the first time in a few years and it sounded just as good as the last time I heard it. Its maybe the best album they did.
And one of the best tracks on the album has to be The Real Me. As good a drummer as Keith Moon was sometimes he tended to overdo it with constant drum fills and symbol crashes. On The Real Me all of that is still going on but its played around a driving rhythm and it lets John Entwistle’s bass guitar go off in a virtuoso world of its own. But to great effect.