Life's all pain. Pain, gloom and misery

well, if you are uncomfortable with themes such as abandonment, addiction, deceit, sexual obsession, betrayal, disease, infanticide and death; you may find little amusement in my 2006 hit parade. Typical example - The Cruel Mother, by Alasdair Roberts. Came out last year, but I'm trying to get away with it as it's been one of my LPs of 2006.

But don't despair - shoe-horned into the fag end of the cd is a jolly Shuttleworth track to make sure we finish with a smile.

Well it's 1969 OK

compiling a cd of more than a dozen bona fide great records has not been easy this year.

Consider the same task in 1969 - the headache then would be which tracks to leave out. I spent a few minutes this morning setting upa 1969 playlist on iTunes, and here's what my end of year best of might have looked like - when I was one year old...

(I picked 1969 pretty much at random, because that was the year the King crimson album in the below post was released).

1. The Stooges - 1969
2. MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
3. Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown
4. Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
5. Pinball Wizard - The Who
6. I Want To Take You Higher - Sly and the Family Stone
7. Nick Drake - Day Is Done
8. Flying Burrito Brothers - Hot Burrito #1
9. Buzzin' Fly - Tim Buckley
10. Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Cleawater Revival
11. Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones
12. Come Together - Beatles
13. Son of a Preacher man - Dusty Springfield
14. Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan
15. Matty Groves - Fairport Convention
16. Live Injection - The Upsetters
17. San Quentin - Johnny Cash
18. Moonlight on Vermont - Capt Beefheart


and we could go on...it's a long list of classic records across loads of genres, even with below par LPs by Dylan and the Beatles, both of which seem like stone classics compared to 2006 releases.
it also gives a lie to the notion that the '60's were done and dusted by '69 - everyone was either dead or on smack, 'they're selling hippy wigs in Woolworths' etc. but by the above evidence it was a bleedin vintage year, the like of which will never be seen again.

The Prog doctor will see you now

A strange evening, I've been listening to a lot of dodgy old prog rock. On a whim, I downloaded In The Court Of The Crimson King - I don't think I have ever heard it all the way through, although Ady used to have it on vinyl, and I remember '21st Century Schizoid Man', which is a tremendous track, and probably worthy of inclusion in that track one side one list from the other week.

Now I think about it, Ady's vinyl version was a double LP, with Larks' Tongues In Aspic, and one of the LPs seemed to be a random Status Quo album, which found its way there by mistake. I don't think I'm making this up...

Anyway, ITCOTCK is a really good record. The lyrics are bobbins, but the guitar playing is terrific.

Come Out To Show Them

ok, this is a quick one...the last track randomly selected for me before retiring tonight turns out to be Come Out, by Steve Reich. This is a tape loop, a recording which Reich made in 1966, the details of which are here.
It's one of the oddest things I have ever heard, (on headphones it is almost hypnotic - a voice saying 'come out to show them' repeatedly, at different speeds, going in and out of phase, echoing over itself, coherent then incoherent, yes it sounds wanky if you describe it in words, but try listening to it) according to iTunes, it is categorized as 'pop'. This record is as far removed from pop as it is possible to get...

Why Dont'cha Do Me Right?

Growing tired of mucking about with the 'best of 2006' shenanigans, tonight I let iTunes sort itself out with what it ominously calls 'party shuffle'. It's a randomizer situation, although what kind of party would rock to the sounds which it has thrown me in the last half hour, I struggle to imagine.

First off, breaking the ice, we had Neonlicht by Kraftwerk...followed by Stray Cat Blues, maybe my favourite ever Stones track. A startlingly filthy record, hard to imagine Razorlight coming close to this kind of decadence. And when did bleeding Razorlight get to be a number one selling group anyway??

Next up, two Zappa tunes, guranteed to get any party swinging, Why Dont'cha Do Me Right? from Absolutely Free, and Watermelon In Easter Hay, from Joe's Garage. Then, two records I have no memory of bunging into iTunes at all - some strange trumpet thing called Greek Triangle which I would be in no hurry to encounter again, and a great tune called Story Of My Life, by Unrelated Segments.

I could go on, but I think my original point was that sometimes it's easy to get stuck in a rut of listening to the same stuff, neglecting the darker recesses of the record collection...
When was the last time you played The first Velvet Underground LP? I bet it was ages ago, because like me you thought you had heard it so much that it had been absorbed into your DNA and there was no need to ever bother actually playing it ever again...I blew the dust off it the other day, and it was just as great as ever.

other good stuff unearthed tonight included tracks by Schoolly D, William Burroughs, Jelly Roll Morton, the Pogues, Boards Of Canada, Aphex Tin, Richard Hawley, and the Colorblind James Experience. Randomizing is the way forward...in fact I might randomize my 2006 comilation, which might be interesting. Or more likely, shit.

My Face Is Finished, My Body's Gone

This here is the new stuff from Nick Cave, and what seems to be most of his band from the 'solo' shows of earlier this year. Looks like they will have an LP in the New Year, and some gigs hopefully.

Far be it from me to draw anyone's attention to a car advert, but here's one soundtracked by the Mighty Fall Gruppe, with Blindness 'their finest song to date' in the words of John Shuttleworth. Speaking of whom, I have been trying to get hold of an mp3 version of 'I Can't Go back To Savoury Now' for my end of the year CD, sadly without success...

Badger Watch

if you have five minutes to spare...
this is very funny.

The Unfortunate Death of The Lords

I've put the call out for this year's 'best of' CDRs, since we seem to be coming up to the end of 2006 with very little left to be released of interest, save the Tom Waits triple which is due later this month, and the Jarvis Cocker LP, which sounds interesting.

13 folks have signed up so far, which will make some work for me with the posting and copying etc, but it's always interesting to see what tracks people have chosen. I keep tinkering with my final list, adding and extracting tunes which I can't quite decide on. One constant from the day I heard it is by Lords - 'The Unfortunate Death of The Lords' from the LP of earlier this year, 'This Ain't A Hate Thing, It's a Love Thing'. And they are from Nottingham! See! It's not all Paper Lace and KWS round here y'know...

Am sorely tempted to include a track from the Ginger LP of earlier this year, partly because he still writes great pop metal anthems, and partly because it will annoy people who will hear it sat in the middle of the predominantly acoustic and sensitive singer songwriterly choices which are likely to abound in the the final selection.

The only other really rowdy LP which I think may make my final cut is the Archie Bronson Outfit, but there's Primal Scream and Secret Machines in there too. Aside from that, things look very stark and acoustic compared to previous years, and I guess that may be an effect of the Green Man festival...