Most of William Burroughs' books are pretty much unreadable, except the more autobiopgraphical stuff like Junky and Queer. His spoken word recordings are terrific though - this here is a weighty 4 cd box set of monotone croaking, every home should have one. Spare Ass Annie is also fantastic - Uncle Bill collaborating with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprosy. 'Words of advice for young people? If you do business with a religious son of a bitch, get...it...in...writing...

sunny spring day list

The man Mr Alex has some summertime recommendations for you...
he 'works from home', y'know...

Its sunny, I'm working from home and I've got the window open. Me and the rest of Sherwood have been mostly listening to:
Mark Holis (anyone else ever get into this? - it was a solo effort from the late 90s. Sparse in a good way!)
The Zombies - Odessy & Oracle
Early Verve (man called sun! ooh, that stuff was great)
Dub Side of the Moon
Mingus Ah Um
Dirtbombs vs King Kahn (Dirtbombs half only OK dispite fantastic 2 bass, 2 drummers line up they toured with last year, King Kahn stuff great: garage rock with a horn section)
Joanna Newsome (although she does indeed sound like a baby duck, and I can't decide whether it's great or awful - probably both)

Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice

sometimes, after a long and tiresome day, with a glass of red and headphones, Deep Purple really hit the spot.

Beasts In The Field

a sensitive piece about animals in song, from Dan:

Ever since the dawn of music - by which I mean popular music, I mean rock
and roll and it's descendents, not some dreadful folk music of a kind only
played now by white people with dreadlocks - songs have been written about
animals.

Elvis famously and uncharitably compared his significant other to
a "Hound Dog", the Beatles sang of our feathered friends in "And Your Bird
Can Sing", even everyone's favourite hymenopteran-named gun-toting fruitcake
got in on the act, when Adam and the Ants released "Ant Music".


So, what animals are the most popular in popular music? Cats get a number
of references: "Stray Cat Blues", "Stray Cat Strut" - there must be something
about stray cats - dogs have "Old Shep", but precious little that comes to
mind. "Martha My Dear" by the Beatles - another animal related track by the
coleopteran foursome!

Primates are not to be missed- "My old man's drunker
than a barrel full of monkeys", sang Elton John in "Saturday night's alright
for fighting". What does this mean? Are monkeys routinely kept in barrels?
Are monkeys in barrels more likely to drink than those free to roam? What
kind of barrel? A barrel of beer? No wonder the monkeys are famously roaring
drunk. The Beach Boys sang about a "Little Honda" which was "more fun than
a barrel full of monkeys". Again, the monkey / barrel theme.

The Kinks drew the whole thread together, saying "Compared to bugs and the spiders and flies,
I am an apeman", although Ray Davies does not comment as to his location
vis a vis any barrels in the vicinity, or his state of inebriation.

GG Allin, the greatest American poet of the 20th centuary, referred to animals several
times in his collective works, most memorably perhaps in "Fucking The Dog".
This is a tender reflection on the fact that all those around him have human
partners but due to his habits (including al fresco defecation, sticking
bananas up his bottom and dying of a drug overdose) and the fact that he
had perhaps the smallest documented penis in the history of the world, GG
had no such human partnerships and so must take solace in the beasts in the
field.

Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!

Courtesy of Sean - a doctor writes:

"Seen this?

Channel 4 - 100 Greatest Albums

Radiohead's number one, obviously and wrongly, and Dido's No Angel comes higher than anything by Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk, Talking Heads, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy, James Brown or Elvis Presley.

Oasis come higher than anything by The Beatles!

Madonna and Guns N'Roses come higher than Revolver or The White Album.


amazing..."

Nigel knows he's happy

Downloaded plenty of XTC over the weekend, stroppy early stuff, and late period psychedelia, both terrific. Hearing lots of echoes of them in Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs etc.

More unlikely Zappa feminist fan worship here (from the Independant, via Graham). Germaine is not the first person I would have taken as a hard core Zappa freak...

Also found the time to have a proper listen to the Rough Trade 2004 best of mentioned further down this page - £10 for the double cd in Fopp. Throbbing Gristle look like a bunch of laughs.

The meek shall inherit nothing

just follow the magic footprints...



an unexpected Zappa fan writes..

Buck 65

Well, it turns out they (or he) are Buck 65 (nice website) and there is a new CD out - a compilation I think, called 'This Right Here Is Buck 65'. And, as is usually the way with these things, I expect everyone else has already heard of them...

Hang The DJ

This will only be useful to you if you happen upon this post with 6 days of me writing it, but it's worth going here to listen online to last week's Andy Kershaw prog on radio 3. It's a compilation of his best sessions from 2004, so you get Half Man Half Biscuit, Apache Indian and the Reggae Revolution (at WOMAD this year), Kevin Coyne, some people who may or may not be called Buck 66 but were tremendous either way. And all kinds of other thrills and spills, to be sure.

And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

I don't know anything about these lads, other than they are from Texas, and they have one of the most ludicrous names in rock.
I have checked the internet for some pearls of wisdom:

Yes, it’s howlingly pretentious, but it’s also admirably distinct from the frat-boy nu-metal which currently passes for US rock. As the title track opines, “"It’'s so fucked these days, we don'’t know who to hate and who to praise".

”
Which is kind of what this blog is all about, so that's nice .

..And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is an Austin, Texas based psychedelic folk rock band originally formed sometime during the waning days of the Russian Revolution. Bringing pure fucking rock and roll to the deepest depths of your musically tormented soul.

well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

England 2 Colombia 0

Joint nomination from Graham and me...Triple CD of the best of Kirsty, decent price, much like the Nick Cave compilation the other week.

Woke up this morning, found myself dead

Chris and Lisa want you to hear the new album by junkie punk blues duo The Kills - 'No Wow'.

Good news! David Gedge has been dumped again - hence there is a decent new Wedding Present LP on the shelf - a bit like Dave...Jim recommends 'Take Fountain'. Cheer up Dave, it might never happen. Oh, it has already...

And take your fleecy jumper you won't need it anymore
It is in the car boot moving away
'Cause where you are going clothes won't help
Stay at home with TV set

Be my toy
Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C

Etiennesque French Loungecore

Mr Lex has some treats for you, and a way out of the Everything But The Girl abyss:

"And if Graham is looking for a dignified way out of Everything But The Girl mood cul-de-sac, can I recommend the new Emiliana Torrini album, Fisherman's Woman. Surprisingly good folky effort from the lady who wrote "Slow" for Kylie no less! Should fill the "tasteful backgound noodling" category for a while without straying too close to "coffee table". To be supplemented with Nouvelle Vague, which is an album of Etiennesque french loungcore covers of late 70s / early 80s faves such as Guns of Brixton, (This is not) A Love Song, and Too Drunk To Fuck. Marvo."

Mr Lex

Rough Trade

More from Graham, new RT compilation of their best stuff from last year:

"And on the subject of compilations - those good people at Rough Trade Shops have finally got around to releasing Counter Culture 2004 roughtrade.com They've been doing the same thing as us for the past 3 years, and lets face it, they listen to a heck of a lot more new & obscure music than normal people. 49 tracks for £11. 2 discs, one quiet, one loud. Includes tracks from two of my albums of the year - Jolie Holland's Escondida, and The Go! Team's Thunder, Lightning, Strike - and one of Tom's - Micah P Hinson - amongst many others. Love the Cocorosie and Candy Staton tracks. Nice unusual jewel box and very good sleevenotes too if that sort of thing matters to you."

Exile on Haddon Street

Despite a desultory response fom the OCC massive, here is the first dispatch of CDs gathering dust in my inbox. Anyone else out there who is sufficiently moved to lift a jaded finger and share their iPod playlist with us all - do it now! Go on, do it!

First up, Mr Graham Ward:

Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, Willy Mason. Also the new Queens Of The Stone Age.

Graham is interested to hear from anyone with information about a 12 Step Programme to detox himself from Everything But The Girl.

Meanwhile...in the secluded towers of the Nottingham Evening Post, Mhairi V is on the blag. This time the record company freebie is the new Nick Cave B-sides and rarities compilation, which is unsurprisingly titled 'B sides and Rarities'. Contains an old B-side with the promising title of 'Cocks ' n' Asses'. A triple CD, no less.

Since reading Head On/Repossessed, I've been dabbling with Julian Cope - a man who took to LSD like a duck to water and has emerged decades later as maniac with an irrevocably damaged taste in trousers. Luckily, he has made some terrific records along the way - get Peggy Suicide from Mr Amazon for three quid.

and that's yer lot. Bang me a mail and I'll keep this sorry parade as updated as poss...