Pages

Wednesday 30 October 2013

29 October 2013

Nights drawing in, so curl up with us for an hour. Some shoe-gazing in Cover Version Corner and a controversy-laden One Degree...

Cults - I Can Hardly Make You Mine
Carolyn: That reminds me of a lot of things, none of which I can think of off the top of my head.
John: Quite. Good though. Catchy, like. That's the lead track off the album 'Static' which came out last week.

Drenge - Nothing
John: We've not played these for a bit, so let's put that right. the album, 'Drenge', is a triumph and shows what you can do with an attitude, some drums and a guitar. More power to their elbow.
Carolyn: Especially the drummer.

Marmozets - Move Shake Hide
John: And now something noisy from Bingley. That's out on November 18 on Roadrunner Records.

Cover Version Corner
Ride/Trespassers William - Vapour Trail
John: Trespassers William get their unusual name from Winnie The Pooh. Something about a broken sign saying 'Trespassers Will' that Piglet says is the sign for his uncle's place and his full name is Trespassers William. Anyway, that is off the 2003 album 'Different Stars'. Before that, the original show-gazers from Oxford, Ride, from back in 1991. A record I am indebted to the man who is now my brother in-law for introducing me to. That's on an album called 'Nowhere'.

Gesaffelstein - Hate Or Glory
John: We've had this chap on before. Mike Lévy from Lyon is Gesaffelstein and this is off the album 'Aleph' which is out next Monday.

The Michael Ainsley Band - Choose your Friends Wisely
John: We played these last week and it seemed to go down well, so here's another track from the album 'Devil's In The Detail'. They're from Wakefield and I very much like the cut of their jib.


Paul McGladdery - Lush Green Leaves
John: A singer/songwriter from Oldham, he's got a lot of tunes up on Soundcloud. There's quite a variety in there and this is my pick of what I've heard. His voice has an almost Ian Curtis-y feel in places of that. Worth checking out.
Carolyn: Do they get lush green leaves in Oldham?
John: I think they all blew over this side of the hills over the weekend.


Tigercub - Mother
Carolyn: Are they supposed to sound that much like Nirvana?
John: Suffice to say that I think they draw heavily on the '90s grunge thing for inspiration. They're from Brighton and that's off their debut EP.

DJ Yoda - Chop Suey
John: Been meaning to play more of this guy's stuff for a while. He's Duncan Beiny from London and this is off last year's album, also called 'Chop Suey'. I guess it serves as something of a manifesto - take a bunch of other stuff, chop it all up and come up with something new.

One Degree of Separation
Carter USM - Bloodsport For All
The Tom Robinson Band - (Sing If You're) Glad To Be Gay
John: Tom Robinson there, from the 'Rising Free' live EP back in 1978. Before that, from 1991's excellent '30 Something' album, Carter USM. Your link is that both were banned by the BBC. Carter were banned as their song about racism and bullying in the armed forces came out around the time of the first Gulf War and Glad To Be Gay fell foul of rules about promoting homosexuality. Instead, the BBC charts played a different track off the EP, 'Don't Take No For An Answer'. I'd like to think we've moved on as a society in the last 35 years.

Mourning Birds - The Last Thing (I Need)
John: The second track we've played by these and they've still not hit four minutes of airtime. Compact and bijou, I think you call it.


The Wytches - Beehive Queen
John: I've been after playing this for ages and finally got round to it. They're from Brighton and this came out in June. They're on tour with Future Of The Left whose latest album, I'm assured, has just been dispatched in my direction.
Carolyn: So we'll be having something off that next week?
John: Highly likely.

Lou Reed - Perfect Day
John: With the sad passing of Lou Reed on Sunday, we've got to end on one of his. What a legacy he leaves behind.

Here's most of the wrapped up on YouTube. There's a fair few that aren't, but they're either linked to or embedded among the text above. You know what you're doing with a computer - you'll find it.
We're taking a break next week. Back in a fortnight.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

22 October 2013

Another Tuesday, another varied selection for you all.

The Michael Ainsley Band - Jerry Garcya Later
John: Like that a lot. From Wakefield, I only came across them a couple of weeks back.
Carolyn: I see what they've done with the title...
John: I like that a lot. Good energy to it.


Melt-Banana - Candy Gun
John: A new album from the Tokyo punksters.'Fetch' is the title and it's out next month. Bit of a long intro to that, but marvellous nonetheless. Always a treat.

Dharma Protocol ft Boy George - Coming Home
John: This came out in June, but I'm only just getting round to playing it now. It's a collaboration between Boy George and fellow Culture Club veteran Mikey Craig. Whether it's any more than just this track, I don't know.
Carolyn: It didn't immediately sound like Boy George. His voice has changed quite a lot, which I suppose is understandable.

Cover Version Corner
R Dean Taylor/The Fall - There's A Ghost In My House
John: That was The Fall's first top 40 hit, all the way back in 1987. It's on the album 'The Frenz Experiment'. Suffice to say they've had a few line-up changes since then... Before that, R Dean Taylor with a Northern Soul classic. That came out in 1966, but only became a hit after a re-release in 1974.
Carolyn: Is that an early Hallowe'en theme?
John: No. In fact I hadn't twigged that it was coming around until you said that just then. Pure coincidence.

Los Campensinos! - What Death Leaves Behind
John: A new album from these - the Cardiff collective's fifth - is out next week. 'No Blues' is the title and this is the first single taken from it.
Carolyn: Sounds exactly like your sort of thing. Lyrically intelligent and bouncy.

Toy - Join The Dots
John: It's 13 months since Toy's debut album, 'Toy', hit the shelves. It's great and we've played loads of stuff from it. Well they're not resting on any laurels. Here's the title track from the forthcoming second album, 'Join The Dots'. A long intro to this and it starts quietly, but it picks up where 'Toy' left off. Brilliant stuff.
Carolyn: I know you like them a lot, but I find them a bit hit and miss. This is just too long. You could lose a minute - maybe two - and not lose much, if anything, from the record. Not bad, but I'm not as gushing about it as you.
John: Fine then.... Be like that...

Girls In Hawaii - Misses
John: To Belgium now. This comes from an album called 'Everest' which came out last month and is jolly pleasant indeed.
Carolyn: Blissful, even. Very chilled.

Matt Berry - Medicine
John: Now you may know Matt Berry from roles in The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace or as struggling thespian Stephen Toast. But he can also bang out a tune. That's off the album 'Kill The Wolf' which is really rather good. Nothing jokey about it - it's a proper record.
Carolyn: Well I never would have put two and two together. That's really nice, that is.

One Degree of Separation
Kenny Rogers and First Edition - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Soggy Bottom Boys - Man Of Constant Sorrow
John: That was Kenny Rogers' first top 10 hit, way back in 1966.
Carolyn: Obviously the second one was from the soundtrack of 'O Brother Where Art Thou', but I'm not sure whether the first one was on a soundtrack. Are they both off either films starring George Clooney or directed by the Coen brothers?
John: Right second time. You're right about the Soggy Bottom Boys. Just Dropped In was from The Big Lebowski.
Carolyn: Oh, of course.

John Foxx and The Belbury Circle - Empty Avenues
John: Something new from ex-Ultravox man John Foxx and his latest project. This is the lead track off and EP also called 'Empty Avenues' and is wonderfully rich and textured. Lovely.


Jackson and His Computerband - Dead Living Things
John: And to finish, Parisian artist Jackson Fourgeaud. This is off his second album, 'Glow', which came out last month, a long-awaited follow-up to his 2005 debut 'Smash'. Very cinematic.

And that's all we've got time for this week. That's all wrapped up by the magic of YouTube here except the John Foxx and Michael Ainsley tracks which you can find above. Back again same time next week.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

15 October 2013

Our 50th show! And we didn't even realise. How time flies...

Wooden Shjips - These Shadows
Shjips with a J. New from these from the new album 'Back To Land' which is out on November 12. A nice, gentle entry into the show.

Factory Floor - Turn It Up
I've been after playing some stuff from the debut album by these - also called 'Factory Floor' - for a while. It's a cracking album and as I've been so lax, I'll make up for it by playing a couple of tracks from it tonight starting with this one.

Disclosure ft London Grammar - Help Me Lose My Mind
And from a very similar envelope, Disclosure. We've played a fair bit from the hit album 'Settle' which came out in May. I've been listening to this a lot this week. It's just dreamy.

Cover Version Corner
BB King ft Robert Cray/Masters In France - Playin' With My Friends
I'm told that the Masters In France version is on an IKEA advert. I don't know - I normally mute the adverts. Anyway, it's a cracking tune and completely different to BB King's blues classic. Unmistakeable guitar sounds on that, off 'Blues Summit' from 1993. He's 88, y'know.

Pinkunoizu - Tin Can Valley
To Denmark now and these purveyors of noisy... well I don't know what you'd call it. Good though, innit. That's off 'the Drop' which came out in August.

Vessels - Elliptic
New from these off an EP also called 'Elliptic' which is out on November 25. I like what these do.

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - My Terrible Friend
A little bit New Order, a little bit Cure, but also completely unique. Can't believe it's taken 50 shows to get round to playing them as I like them a lot. This is off 'Belong' which came out a couple of years ago.

The KVB - Run Away
Klaus Von Barrel lends his initials to The KVB and collaborates with Kat Day to make the magic happen. This is a forerunner to a new album due soon.

Aphrodite's Child - Four Horsemen
From 1970's seminal '666' album, which is prog-tastic. I got listening to it in the week off the back of hearing Mary Epworth do a live version of it which was fantastic. And '70s Greek prog deserves a revisit anyway.

One Degree of Separation
Deadwall - Metropolis, Of Sorts
Hookworms - Form And Function
Not an obvious link today, bar them both being from Leeds. No, it's more a description of out Friday night out at Hebden Trades Club. We went to see Hookworms and they... were... loud. Brilliant, but loud. That track, taken from the album 'Pearl Mystic', played live was just a wall of sound. Deadwall provided support and were an utter delight and total surprise. That's off an EP that came out last year called 'Four Songs', but there's an album in the offing which I will very much look forward to.

Chemical Brothers ft Flaming Lips - The Golden Path
Why not, eh? It's easy to overlook the rich body of work by the Chemical Brothers. This is from 2003. Did you know they're not really brothers?

Factory Floor - Fall Back
We'll finish with the other Factory Floor track I promised. Eight and a half minutes of pulsing, electronic rhythm. I love it. The album is a triumph and more power to their elbow.

All that's wrapped up in a YouTube playlist here and that's 50. Raise the bat to the balcony, acknowledge the polite applause and dig in and build towards the next milestone.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

8 October 2013

More goodies from musics rich tapestry.

The Evens - All These Governors
Quite apposite for the shutdown of the US government. "When things should work but don't work, that's the work of all these governors". That's from 2005 from their debut album, 'The Evens'.

Drugstore - El President
Featuring Thom Yorke on vocals, that's from the 1998 album 'White Magic For Lovers'. I play it for two reasons. One, it's a paean to Salvador Allende, the democratically elected Chilean Marxist who was overthrown in a US-backed coup just over 40 years ago and also as it's on a new 'Best Of...' album out soon.

Mourning Birds - Oh Yeh
Why take 10 minutes to say what you can fit into 105 seconds? Another one of those bands I came across via the magic of twitter. A deliberately vague 3-piece from Kent, they say, and this is their debut single.

Cover Version Corner
Faine Jade/MGMT - Introspection
That's MGMT's new single from the new album, their third, also called 'MGMT'. That came out on September 17. They've really put their stamp on it. Before that, the original from 1968's 'Introspection: A Faine Jade Recital'. A proper upstate New York hippy anthem.



The Magic of Mr Adrian Flanagan - I Don't Wanna Be Nice
It was National Poetry Day last week and of the many things was this oddity from the man behind show favourites the Eccentronic Research Council. It's a reworking of the John Cooper Clarke poem in his own, inimitable style and dates from 2009.


Silver Arm - Mind The Falcons
Another band  using social media to get out there, we have played their new single - Dead Tongues - before and it seemed to go down quite well, so I asked if there anything else they had. This is their previous single and is what I've come to expect from them.

Yuck - Middle Sea
Their debut album, 'Glow and Behold', came out on September 30 and this, the first single off it, got a lot of airplay a while ago prior to release. No reason not to play it again. Pleasingly jaunty stuff.

Daniel Avery - Drone Logic
Love that. Seven-and-a-half minutes of bliss. The debut album, also called 'Drone Logic', came out yesterday.

Atari Teenage Riot - Collapse Of History
I wasn't familiar with these until a week ago or so, but the name spiked my interest so I went to find out more. They're from Berlin and this was out last year on the album 'Is This Hyperreal?'

One Degree of Separation
Dobie Gray - Out On The Floor
Al Wilson - The Snake
On the back of Paul Mason's excellent BBC mini-documentary on the subject, it's a Northern Soul special here. All spins and drops in the studio while these are on. If you were putting together a primer on the topic, these would be up near the top of the list. First, Dobie Gray from 1975 and second Al Wilson from 1968. Glorious.

Wolf Alice - She
A London 5-piece with a debut EP, called 'Blush', coming out on November 7 and this is my pick from that record.


Gary Numan - I Am Dust
Yes, that Gary Numan. His 20th studio album is out next week and this is the lead track from it. It's called 'Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)' and he's been doing stuff like this for quite some time. Elements of past hits, but all utterly up-to-date.

Sabres Of Paradise - Wilmot
From the 1994 album 'Haunted Dance Hall'. They'd largely passed me by at the time, which is odd as this is the sort of stuff I was listening to back then. Fortunately, I still enjoy it today.

Cinematic Orchestra - Flite
Winding down into the Down Tempo show that follows, now. From back in 2002, off the album 'Every Day'. And... relax.

All that's cobbled together in a YouTube playlist here apart from the ones that aren't which are above. Back next week with more of the same.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

1 October 2013

Settling into Tuesdays now...

Future Of The Left - The Male Gaze
Probably the most important album of the year is the new one from Future Of The Left. It comes out in a couple of weeks and it's called 'How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident'. Get it.

Razmataz Lorry Excitement - Skin
New from Kev Dosdale, Newcastle producer who operates as Razmataz Lorry Excitement and here has Natasha Hawes on vocals. This is out on the 21st of this month. One that I wanted to play last week but ran out of time for.


Parquet Courts - You've Got Me Wondering Now
New from these, who we've had before and hail from Brooklyn. This is off the EP 'Tally The Things You Broke' which came out last....  no, not last month. It's October now isn't it. It came out in August.

Cover Version Corner
Velvet Underground/Toy - What Goes On
Not played any Toy for a while and this is as good a reason as any to rectify that. That was recorded in February. Before that, off the album 'The Velvet Underground' in 1969. Toy have really brought that up to date while also fitting it into their own idiom.

Bill Callahan - Expanding Dub
An interesting chap - from Maryland but spent part of his formative years in Knaresborough. His latest album is 'Dream River' and this is a dub version of the track Javelin Unlanding which features on that. Quite fabulous.

Four Tet - Parallel Jalebi
From the new album 'Beautiful Rewind'. That's Kieran Hebden's seventh studio album in his Four Tet guise.

Moodoïd - De Folie Pure
We played these Parisian funsters last week and it went down so well, we're doing it again. From the EP 'Moodoïd', that's got a lot going on in it. In a good way.

One Degree of Separation
La Femme - Sur La Planche
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip feat. Flux Pavilion - Gold Teeth
OK, this one is tenuous. Keeping the French vibe going, first we had La Femme from April's 'Psycho Tropical Berlin' album which is excellent. Second, from the forthcoming new long player from Messrs le Sac and Pip 'Repent, Replenish, Repeat' comes their second advance release. They've always got something to say that's worth listening to and some heavy beats into the bargain. Thanks to Sunday Best records for sending me a radio edit that I could actually play on the radio.
The link? Well the La Femme record does include a line 'sur la planche, dans le sac' - on the plate, in the bag. It's good enough for me.

Les Jupes - Hold Me Down
Back on a French kick - ish. Canadian, this time, from Winnipeg. This is off an EP called 'Negative Space'.

Arcade Fire - Reflektor
And sticking on a Canadian kick - honestly, it sometimes appears like I haven't just thrown this together - the new one from these, the title track from their new album which comes out on the 28th of the month.

And that'll do us for this week. All that's bundled up for you in a YouTube playlist here bar the Razmataz Lorry Excitement track which you can find above. Back again same time next week.