Let There Be Rock

24 year old harp playing singer songwriter geniuses are one thing, but when there's some rocking that needs to be done, AC/DC take some beating.

sawdust and diamonds

there's been a lot of slavering from the broadsheet music journos over this LP by Joanna Newsom.
It's all deserved, it's a fantastic record. Very long, wordy songs, trilled by a startlingly peculiar voice which is just the right side of horrendous tweeness. I'm not describing it very well - again, but it's one of the best lps I've picked up this year.
Which I probably wouldn't have done had Alex and Anna not picked tracks from it on their own 'best of' cds...

things have changed

I've been walking forty miles of bad road
If the bible is right, the world will explode
I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much

You can't win with a losing hand
People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

Lend me ten pounds, I'll buy you a drink

The Pogues were in Nottingham last night, and I went with Graham. They were terrific, even in a crappy old shed like the Nottm Arena, which is hardly a patch on the Brixton Academy (St Patricks Day 1988) for atmosphere. Most of the band are now bald and trim and teetotal, apparently, and perhaps as a consequence they play fantastically. MacGowan is still a wreck, but (largely) comprehensible for most of the time. At one stage he had to be reminded which tune was next, but with a few trips off stage for a refreshing light ale, he was relatively sprightly.

The setlist on this 'reunion' tour is full of old stuff from the first three albums, including tracks from Red Roses For Me which I have never heard live before, alongside favourites like Body of an American, Bottle of Smoke, and the Sickbed of Cúchulainn. There was a lachrymose version of Fairytale of New York to end with, resulting in Mr Ward getting a thorough dousing of fake snow, and some concerned enquiries in the pub after the gig...

You add it up, it brings you down

very much enjoying the 2006 discs which have come in so far. loads of stuff I would never have heard, or even heard of .

for instance: Peter Bjorn and John, 15 minutes of strangely compelling drone rock from some guys called Om, the new LP by Six Organs of Admittance, CSS, Tuung, Grizzly Bear, and the best track title so far this year - 'our operators are masturbating' by Dr Octagon.

the Grauniad has compiled a chart of charts from the mags and websites, finding Hot Chip to be the LP of the year. Not had a single track from it yet on the compilations...but I liked the sound of the Burial album, might take a punt on it in Selectadisc tomorrow.

best of all though - 'One Track Lover', by Dr Lucien Sanchez

I've only got three bullets and there's four of Motley Crue

...thus spake Nigel Blackwell

Rough Trade shop albums of the year, of which I have only a few.

I score better with the Mojo top 50, which I guess tells us rather a lot about which particular record buying demographic I fall into...ie a tired old middle class white man.

This album sounds great, it's cropping up in a lot of the end of the year lists, and it's the first one that I have thought 'bugger, I wish I'd put that on my cd'. I have downloaded it, but I'll swing by Selectadisc tomorrow.

meanwhile, Q has got the Killer's LP listed as the 5th best album released this year...it's one of the most hatefully shallow and soulless records I've ever heard.

That Midlake LP is growing on me, slightly.

No Depression In Heaven

This is a great compilation. I don't need Bobby Gillespie to tell me how great the Carter Family are (or rather, were), but there are some fantastic records on these two cds - from dodgy homemade punk to sparse trad folk, to NY coffee shop blues, avant garde noise wankery, C86 jangling, and many other sub genres too elitist and high falutin' to go into here. Three tracks in, and the Rezillos 'I Can't Stand My Baby', bumps up to 'Xerox' by Adam and the Ants...when he was cool, before the girls got hold of him...and then one of the tracks that kicked off hip hop.

it was a pretty good year

a few 2006 cds are in , and already I'm thinking 'Bugger. Mine is going to look very tame compared to this lot'.
Running the whole gamut of white boys with electric guitars to white boys with acoustic guitars, and back again, my selection suddenly feels rather shit. oh well it's too late now, and discovering great new tunes is the whole point I guess.

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...

Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground

Currently enjoying a lot of pre-war country blues; guys like Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake, the Reverend Gary Davis, Bukka White, and most of all, Blind Willie Johnson, on a terrific LP called Praise God I'm Satisfied.



It's been suggested that the terrors which Robert Johnson sang about - hellhounds, devils, stones in his passway, judgement day; are all forewarned in the apocalyptic gospelizing of Blind Willie Johnson, who recorded between 1927 - 1930.

Here is a man palpably aware of divine redemption; song titles like 'I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole', and 'Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed' hint at a man well of aware of his own fragile mortality.

Blind Willie's most famous recording is 'Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground' (adapted by Ry Cooder as the theme for Paris Texas). A wordless description of Christ's plight on the cross, this piece was included on the batch of recordings sent out on the Voyager 1 mission into space in 1977, presumably designed to allow possible alien life forms to get a feel for humanity via the medium of music.

Other music included a couple of pieces by Bach and Beethoven , some Native American chants, Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven, Chuck Berry, and various other supposedly representative examples of earthly music. It's hard to imagine what impression an alien life form might make of the human race on hearing 'Dark Was the Night'...but there are few more starkly affecting representations of the human condition in any art form, by anyone.

Side One, Track One

Bored on a Monday night, I have listed a fairly random slection of classic opening album tracks, (none of which, I think, feature in the same list in High Fidelity). Fatuous commentary occasionally included.

1. Irk The Purists - Half Man Half Biscuit

from the tremendous Trouble over Bridgwater LP, and a rallying cry to anyone whose record collection includes 'Husker Du, Captain Beefheart, ELO, Chris de Burgh, Sun Ra, Del Amitri ,John Coltrane'

2. Get Ready For Love - Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues...a statement of intent for an album if ever there was one. Almost had to choose 'Papa Won't Leave You Henry' from Henry's Dream.

3. Back In Black - AC/DC

Had to be a good start to the first LP recorded without Bon Scott...

4. The Concept - Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque including a special mention for Status Quo...

5. Misunderstood - Wilco - Being There.

Racked and ragged start to a beautiful track which starts an album when Jeff Tweedy 'still loved rock n roll'.

6. Rocks Off - Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street

Now, this is the best track one side one tune ever put on plastic, filthy guitars, rowdy horns, rude lyrics, and lots of ridiculous Jagger growling and hooting... 'the sunshine bores the daylights out of me..'

7. New Day Rising - Husker Du

From the LP of the same name, teeth grinding guitar shredding, as Husker Du started to mutate from hardcore into more melodic song writing.

8. Prayer To God - Shellac - 1000 Hurts

'Him, just fuckin' kill him'. Steve Albini has had some good album opening tracks, the problem being that the LPs often deteriorate as they go on...Jordan Minnsota from Atomizer is scary, and The Model from Songs About Fucking is even more bleak and cold than the Kraftwerk original.

9. Return of The Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel

sorry, just realised that this one is in the book...

10. Gloria - Patti Smith - Horses

My second favourite opening track after the Stones. Dunno what Van the Man makes of it though...

11. I Feel Alright - Steve Earle

From the first LP he recorded more or less clean, with songs written when he was more or less clean. Most junkies go on to make dull records after they clean up, but Steve Earle made many terrific LPs, quickly too, after quitting heroin and crack.

12. Close Your Eyes - Micah P Hinson - Gospel of Progress

the best debut LP from anyone anywhere for ages.

13. If I Should Fall From Grace With God - The Pogues

A bloody exciting album, and I am a lucky bastard to have seen them live around this time, though even by the following LP MacGowan had pissed on his own parade.

14. Station Approach - Elbow - Leaders of The Free World

if only the rest of the LP was as good.

15. Holidays in The Sun - Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

The sound of a hundred multi-layered guitars...I wonder if Steve Jones had anything to do with this whatsover.

16. Big Exit - PJ Harvey - Stories from The City, Stories From The Sea

Took me a while to get into this LP, but it's probably her best. She's so patchy, I wish she would just rock out more often.

17. Astronomy Domine - Pink Floyd - Piper At The Gates of Dawn

As Peel would say, this one fades in. Sgt Pepper can bollocks, this was the real English psychedelia.

18. I Wanna Be Adored - Stone Roses

over rated LP, but the best tracks are still thrilling.

19. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones

The only song on this list which I have played on stage (anyone with a bass guitar and 5 mins to spare can learn this song). hey ho! let's go!

20. The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths

increasingly rare combination of brilliant guitar playing with brilliant lyric writing. And only yesterday, the Observer was comparing the Libertines to the Smiths - it makes me weep...

Tramp the Dirt Down

There's a dubious list on the bbc website of the most popular songs chosen for funerals. Apparently, this is the top 10:

1. Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt

2. Angels - Robbie Williams

3. I've Had the Time of My Life - Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley

4. Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

5. Pie Jesu - Requiem

6. Candle in the Wind - Elton John

7. With or Without You - U2

8. Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

9. Every Breath You Take - The Police

10. Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers

According to a spokesman from whichever agency compiles this crap,

"The top 20 really shows how far we have come in terms of saying goodbye. Gone are the dirges of yore, instead we are seeing contemporary music that is easier to relate to."

What bollocks. The dirges of yore may be behind us, but what a relief that we have plenty of contemporary dirges from deadbeats like James Blunt, to provide cheap second hand sentiment as the curtains close on the casket.

Personally, I would prefer Ace of Spades, to give procedings a more lively tempo.

One Vile Fucking Task After Another

Since the year is winding up very quickly, I guess it's time to wonder what might be featuring on this year's Best Of the year CDR...

these are some of the folks fighting for a place on my coveted final 15:

Primal Scream, Belle and Sebastian, Bert Jansch (great new LP out last week), Mogwai, Lords, Secret Machines, Richard Hawley, The Archie Bronson Outfit, Micah P Hinson, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Mozzer, Arctic Monkeys, and Bob Dylan...and Jake Thackray. (via a cheeky reissue, the only one on the list)

well that's how things stand tonight, things may change by the year end, as they usually do.

I got the porkchops, she got the pie

There's a new Bob Dylan album at large, and would you believe it, it's the number one LP in the US. It's the first time that the old croaker has managed this since the heady days of Desire, 30 years ago... Even more surpising...maybe..is that the LP is terrific; full of fire and brimstone bar-room R&B, and crooning country swing tunes which could have been recorded forty or fifty years ago. The lyrics are tremendous, and show an often overlooked sense of humour:

"I've been to St Herman's church, said my religious vows I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows"
Never mind the cows - who the hell was St Herman??

No one can touch Dylan - he has an ever-changing set list on a never-ending tour, when plenty of his contemporaries would have been happy to slope off to Vegas and play the nostalgia card til they dropped dead.

He's keeping his art real, alive, and valid; making great records, and writing a fascinating and beautifully written autobiography.
Rock music is 50 years old, it's practitioners are at a pensionable age. Dylan shows how it's possible to keep doing this stuff with vigour and integrity, and dignity. If only he would have a word with Mick Jagger...

Down By Black Waterside

Listening to a lot of Bert Jansch at the moment, bought two LPs in Selectadisc this morning and am wondering what took me so long to get hold of any of his stuff...

nice clip here of him playing 'Black Waterside', which was ripped off completely by Jimmy Page on the first Zeppelin album, as 'Black Mountainside'.

I think Bert attempted, briefly, to get Zep to cough up some royalties for the liberty of stealing his arrangement, but since the song is traditional, he came out with nothing (that didn't stop Jimmy Page crediting it to himself on Led Zep 1).
In fact Jansch was taught the song by Anne Briggs, who had in turn learned it from someone else, so it all gets a bit confused. It's definitely Bert Jansch's arrangement which features on the Zep album though...and it's not the only example of them pinching tunes and claiming to have written them - they settled out of court with Willie Dixon over 'Whole Lotta Love'.

Your iPod shuffle hates you

Graham's idea, compare the random music thrown at you by iTunes...what are the first ten tracks it wants you to hear? In my experience, they are rarely what I am actually in the mood for, but here goes - Graham's first:

iPod or iTunes on shuffle - what are the first 10 tracks you get? No cheating.

Handel : Sanctus, Mass in C
Richard Thompson: The Wrong Heartbeat
Pink Floyd: The Fletcher Memorial Home
Bob & Marcia : Young Gifted and Black
Amadou & Mariam : M'Bife
Spanish Harlem: Ben E King
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros : X Ray Style
The White Stripes : The Denial Twist
Pixies : Debaser:
Transglobal Underground : Ali Mullah

And here's mine:

CCKMP - Steve Earle - one of my favourite Earle tunes...

Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb - still sounds fresh to me, not dated

Let it Out - The Hombres - never heard this track before, it's on the Nuggets box set

Pavement Saw - Big Black - easy listening as ever

Gary and Melissa - King Missile - Jim used to have the LP, and no doubt still has

Tulip - John Fahey - skipped, rather dull

Silly Woman - Bert Jansch - more of that psyche folk gubbins

Another Brick In The Wall (part one) - Pink Floyd - the only band on mine and Graham's list!

The King of Bring - Malcolm Middleton - he was very miserable indeed at Green Man

The Busy Girl Buys Beauty - Billy Bragg - good old Mr Bragg

Turn up, tune out, drop off

I have spent the last two weekends sitting in a field in the rain, drinking beer and eating an assortment of fried food.

Let me explain - I have been attending music festivals...specifically, the Summer Sundae in Leicester, and the Green Man in Wales.

Leicester was actually very good, highlights for me were Richard Hawley (attached picture, taken by Jim), Elbow, Isobel Campbell, Brakes, Tuung, and against my expectation, the Proclaimers. Final day headliners were Belle and Sebastian, which initially seemed a bit risky to me, and I expected twee bollocks in bucketloads, but not a bit of it...they were very dancey and lively, and they were a great finale. There some great discoveries on the smaller stages too, especially Hayley Hutchinson and Truckstop Honeymoon.

Green Man is I guess a folk festival, but in the less traditional sense - more 'acoustic' than 'folk'. What does this mean...well, there are less songs about bringing in the sheaves, and more about being buried alive or turned into a hare.

The antecedants of this kind of stuff are people like Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band, and Vashti Bunyan. Current leading lights in this new 'acid folk' scene, if indeed there exists such a thing, are acts like Tuung, Espers, Eighteenth Day of May, Hawk and a Hacksaw. Occasionally, an act who is more trad than psyche (eg Alasdair Roberts) gets lumped in with the acid folk stuff, and it gets confusing...To paraphrase Ady, psychedelic folk is what happens when folk musicians abandon real ale for LSD.



So...we had three days of music in a beautiful setting in the Brecon Beacons, in the pissing rain. To be honest, a lot of the music left me rather cold, if not actually irritated; the headliners were especially uninspiring (Donovan! I mean - Donovan! He was actually far worse than even I expected, truly dismal). There were some definite highlights though, Teddy Thompson (a bit trad for this event, one suspects, but we enjoyed him), Micah P Hinson, Bert Jansch, Alasdair Roberts...and a few others. I would definitely go back, even if the bill was a bit thin the atmosphere was incredibly relaxed and friendly and the food and beer were great. I had a shower at 8am on the Saturday, and being a bit leaky brained I left my fleece hanging up in the changing rooms. Realising this 12 hours later, I went back and it was hanging on the same hook were I left it...it was that kind of festival...

I Was In The House When The House Burned Down

A few tracks which have clocked up on random selection tonight, suiting a late night Saturday last beer in the fridge kind of mood:

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) - Marvin Gaye...by far the best track off What's Going On, in my opinion

Peaches En Regalia - Frank Zappa...unclassifiable instrumental greatness from the man Frank, it was the play out music after Richard Thompson last week, which seemed strangely fitting.

Janet vs Jane and Johnny - The Fall...understated mysterious Smith crooning over repetitive guitar figure which builds menacingly...

Don't Give Me No Lip Child - Dave Berry...now, this is a stone classic, and one of the few tracks to appear on a Mojo cover disc recently which has been worth the price of admission, on a 'roots of the sex pistols' type compilation. Sneering, nasty, mod-ish RnB.

Shuffering and Shmiling pt2 - Fela Kuti..hypnotic repetitive beats from the man Mr Kuti...'I want you all to take your minds out of any musical contraption...' I could listen to this all night.

Up Above My Head - Alabama 3...audacious interpretation of the old Sister Rosetta Tharpe standard, 'you left your virus in my daughter's playstation, but you ain't got your hooks in me' fantastic stuff.

Station Approach - Elbow...this track typifies the slow burn style of Elbow, it builds and builds until it breaks into the kind of heart-bursting epic which Coldplay can only dream of. Ahem, in my view.

Original Blackboard Dub - Lee Perry... 'Calling the meek and the humble,welcome to Blackboard Jungle...'

Monkey Man - Rolling Stones...a highlight of Let It Bleed...often unjustly overlooked, in my opinion...

Bad Boy Boogie - AC/DC...dirty guitars and filthy Bon Scott lyrics

Woe Is Uh Me Bop - Captain Beefheart... still unavailable on CD, from Lick My Decals Off Baby. David Lynch must surely have seen this promo as a young man, before making Eraserhead. It will fuck with your head.

Guilty Pleasures

Q magazine has run a poll of records which we shouldn't like, but can't help adoring. Here's their top 10:

1. ELO - Livin' Thing

2. Boston - More Than A Feeling

3. S Club 7 - Don't Stop Movin'

4. 10cc - I'm Not In Love

5. Gary Glitter - Rock'n'Roll Part 2

6. Foreigner - Cold As Ice

7. Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

8. Status Quo - Whatever You Want

9. Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

10. Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

This puts me in mind of Ady's confession on Boxing Day last year, after a heavy Christmas Day's indulgence: 'we got up on Boxing Day with no memory of getting home, and there was an ELO record on the turntable'.

To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of any of these records, apart from Boston's 'More Than A Feeling', which is a pub jukebox classic, and always made Ady feel as though he could play pool like Paul Newman - I'm not sure why.

here's a few of my personal guilty pleasures:

Teardrops - Womack and Womack
Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie
Saturday Night - Whigfield
Hotel California - The Eagles (I love the Eagles, never been brave enough to buy any of their LPs)
Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Mickey - Toni Basil - one of the greatest pop singles EVER





and doubtless many more which I have supressed from my active memory.

50 Albums that changed the world

The reliably egregious Observer music monthly has gone listy again, and for once my blood isn't boiling...

I'm with Graham on this:

"For once, one of those list thingies that didn't have me swearing or throwing the publication to the floor. OK, I can think of a few omissions - Psychocandy for one - but this mostly had me nodding sagely. Which is how one should spend a Sunday afternoon. "

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1821230,00.html

I would pick Revolver over Sgt Pepper - maybe, but at least they have got the right Dylan LP for once.

Oh to be in England.

The passing of Syd Barrett sent me back to songs which could only have come out of England, or at least, the British Isles.

Barrett was one of the first people to avoid singing in some kind of quasi American mid Atlantic accent - I doubt that it even occurred to him to do so. This affectation was adopted by David Bowie and many others.

Those songs on Piper At The Gates of Dawn (before his mental state got the better of him) are impossibly English, and for me are far more 'psychedelic' than anything on Sgt Pepper (which was being recorded in the studio next door at the same time).

Syd Barrett's earlier songs had a childhood whimsy about them which stopped just short of being irritatingly twee (except maybe for Bike, with the mouse called Gerald, who hasn't got a house but he's a good mouse). It comes out of Lewis Carrol, and (obviously) The Wind In The Willows, and a weird old Arcadian dreaminess which sounds like nothing else in rock.

As he got more and more ill, the songs become increasingly hard to listen to, and I can't take much of the solo albums at all, they are just too deranged and broken.

Anyway, all this set me off on a playlist of quintessentially English tunes, sung by English voices and far removed from the American R&B which kicked things off in the first place. Hence we have the Only Ones, with Peter Perrett singing ever so nicely about heroin again, and Ian Dury, Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, the Kinks, Small Faces, Shack, Bert Jansch, Fairport Convention, Linda Thompson, etc...

more suggestions are welcome!

Run to the hills children, the end is Nigh

More evidence of the creeping death of civilization and all that's good and pure and true:

There's a new Vodaphone advert doing the rounds on TV at the moment, featuring the Only Ones' 'Another Girl, Another Planet'. This has depressed me greatly...whenever a wonderful record is stuck on some grubby advert it is another reason to be miserable .

Ady pointed out the irony of this song, which is blatantly about heroin, being used to advertise a cell phone network. As he says, 'chatting is not at the top of your priorities when you are on heroin'.

Dance, critters! When I say dance!

Two of the best gigs I have ever been to were at the Adelphi club in Hull, featuring the Colorblind James Experience. These guys turned up on the Peel show, with their most 'famous' song, Considering a Move To Memphis (the full and glorious lyrics to which are found here.)

Colorblind James hisself was a heavy set gentleman who played vibes and sang, there was also guitar, bass, drums and horns - they were a kind of rootsy polka dance band, self proclaimed 'rowdy dancehall jive'. And they were unbelievable on both nights...this must have been in 1988 or 1989. At the second night, after the band shambled back for another encore I was shouting for a track called, 'Hey Bernadette', and they actually played it...the only time to this day that this has happened to me.

You're so beautiful, but you gotta die someday

Last weekend I was cooking, and I prepared myself a CD of short, loud, punkish songs to keep me on my toes while I was titting around with filo pastry and assorted other accoutrements of middle class foody-ism.

In amongst the Buzzcocks, Ramones, Big Black and Husker Du, I included a tune by Big Joe Turner called 'Roll 'Em Pete', which is just a fantastic rockin' boogie woogie barrelhouse blues...belted out by Joe, accompanied by his trusty sidekick Pete Johnson on the old Joanna. It rocks like a bastard, and Big Joe clearly gets so carried away by the whole thing (and, one suspects, he may have had two or three gin and juices during the session), that he sort of loses himself half way through the track, and when Pete's belting piano section tails out, all he is capable of is growling 'yes yes, yes yes, I KNOW! Well... Alright then!' over and over again. Pure rock n roll...

Kick it for me James!

This old town is filled with sin,
It'll swallow you in
If you've got some money to burn.
Take it home right away,
You've got three years to pay
But Satan is waiting his turn

And now it's time for a grim German football song

The internet is a marvellous thing, it really is.

This evening I have been listening to an mp3 of John Peel, filling in for Jakki Brambles on lunchtime Radio One in 1993. The great man started the show with 'Lost in Music' - not the Sister Sledge version, oh no, but The Fall...'of course that's the b-side of the new single 'Why Are People Grudgeful' says Peel. The typical Jakki Brambles listener stares at the radio and prays that the next tune will be Simply Red. Sadly for them, it's Jimi Hendrix, from a Peel session in 1967, a cracking version of the Beatles' 'Day Tripper'.

This is followed by 10 minutes of German happy hardcore, giving way to George Michael, and you can hear the sighs of relief up and down the land.

Peel then announces the daily 'PJ Harvey slot', at which point '50 ft Queenie' crashes in, sounding twice as loud as anything else on the programme. By now, a few disgruntled faxes are beginning to appear, one of which apparently reads 'John Peel, please stop'.

No chance of that however, as dancehall reggae seques into old time piano blues, German oom pah, more hardcore bleeping and whooshing, and the occasional foray into the Radio One playlist (seems very odd to hear Peel announcing Jamiroquai and Madonna...)

We shall never see his like again.

Death Disco

So farewell then , TOTP... I remember when pre-sainthood Bob Geldof ripped up pictures of Olivia Newton John and John Travolta when Rat Trap finally made it to number 1 in 1978...and various other memorable appearances, which escape me now.

Graham sent this link, which must have startled the more conservative viewers in 1979...

Then was America, we went there

poster for a recent Fall show in Los Angeles, which took my fancy...

Get Pissed, Destroy

Where to begin, where to begin...

The new national number one record, the nation's favourite, is called 'I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in my Hair)' by Sandi Thom, the lyrics of which go something like this:

Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In 77 and 69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late to a world that doesn’t care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

I'm struggling to keep a grip on my sanity / temper here. On how many levels does this record offend me?

On the advice of Graham, I recently watched the Don Letts film 'Punk:Attitude', which was very entertaining and included a quote from James Chance of the Contortions: 'Originally, 'punk' meant a guy in prison who got fucked up the ass...and that's still what it means to people in prison'.

Are you going to tell that to Sandi Thom...or shall I?

Pop Will Eat Itself

Yet more 'Best Album Ever' poll arguments...

According to NME readers (I used to count myself an NME reader, after the Kerrang years, before the Mojo years...) the best album of all time is Definitely Maybe by Oasis. Other predictable candidates in the top 20 are Radiohead, the Stone Roses, The Smiths, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles.

Whilst it's in no way my choice for best album, I would rather a loud guitar record was voted top than some whiny Radiohead dribble, or the patchy and over-praised Stone Roses, which often comes top in these kinds of polls.

Oasis had their faults, which became more and more unavoidable as they got more famous and the cocaine kicked in, but there are some great tunes on Definitely Maybe, and it served as a vivid antidote to more critically lauded 'britpop' bands like Blur and Suede; bands which wore equally retro influences on their sleeves, Ray Davies and David Bowie in particular.

The 'Beatles rip-off' accusations chucked at Oasis were often valid, but they were equally in thrall to the Sex Pistols, T Rex, Slade, Stone Roses, etc. The piled up guitars which crash in at the start of Definitely Maybe could have been swept off the studio floor from the Never Mind The Bollocks sessions...and let's not forget that the Pistols had their own musical antecedants in The Who, Small Faces, Stooges, NY Dolls, Alice Cooper and more.

Originality in rock music these days is hard to find, and when it does show up, it's rarely going to set the charts on fire. Noel Gallagher was never slow to talk about the bands that went before him and influenced his songwriting -the copyright lawyers at Creation were often kept pretty busy- and his lyrics were usually terribly banal, but none of that stops me from enjoying Definitely Maybe for what it is, a cranked up guitar party record.

The older guys really got it all worked out

I watched 'Gimme Shelter' last night, terrific film, and one of the few chances to see footage of Gram Parsons.

Here's another, of the Flying Burrito Brothers titting around on a boat, singing 'Older Guys', with Gram wearing a foul check jacket and a very ill-advised hat.

And while we're at it, 'Sticky Fingers' is a blinding album...and the intro to 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' is bleedin' marvellous! after the first dirty, ragged guitar line, a cry of 'yeah!' is heard in the background, Jagger presumably...

'Yeah, you got satin shoes
Yeah, you got plastic boots
Y'all got cocaine eyes
Yeah, you got speed-freak jive'

Jagger just about gets away with that 'Y'all'...

Charlie's good tonight, inee?

Blind Man, Have Mercy On Me

Farewell to this land's cheerless marshes

Iggy, Bowie and Lou at play, sometime in the 70's, after a few shandies. This picture has graced the wall of Clive's front room for a few years now - and a mighty fine addition to the decor it was too.

Sadly, Clive's tenure in at Norman Towers has come to an end - this weekend he moves out for good, and he bequeathes this charming print to whoever wants to claim it, most likely Shuggie or Sherwood Dave...there comes a time in a young man's life when wall-sized prints of decadent rock stars in their cups just don't cut it with the ladies, and sadly we have reached such a time...

Coles Corner - Richard Hawley

This is a terrific record, a real slow burner which just gets better and better with each listen.

I had it on the ipod on the train home from Newark last night - I was full of wine, it was raining, it was late, it really suited the mood.

I was listening to it again on the way home from work tonight, and the final track segued brilliantly into Robert Johnson's Come On In My Kitchen..

Living After Midnight

Hey Girls!

Apparently, according to someone I used to work with and who now 'works' at Q Magazine, women are buying more music these days than men.

50 Quid Bloke has been superceded by the kind of switched on modern gal who is downloading music on mp3, or mp-she, if you will...and quelle horreur :

'For the first time, more women are reading are reading metal magazine Kerrang! than men'

Now, this I find particularly surprising...in a previous life I was an avid Kerrang reader; in fact I bought the first issue (and the following 70 or so) which featured Angus Young on the front cover, and the likes of Rose Tattoo, ZZ Top (who barely anyone in the UK had heard of then) and Rainbow within it's glossy pages. That's Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - not Bungle, George and Zippy...

In the olden days, Kerrang would regularly feature metal bands in photo spreads with nude ladies, in a distinctly un-PC context. One memorable issue had a centrepread with Rob Halford of Judas Priest with the current Penthouse Pet of the Year - (whose name was Cheryl, if I remember correctly...)
Rob Halford is gay - very gay. Looking back now at all the leather straps and caps and so on, it seems odd that we never suspected this at the time, but I guess photo shoots with Penthouse Pets served to perpetuate the 'Metal's Not Gay' myth...

I guess Kerrang has left such diversions behind, and there are no more pictures of Motorhead desporting with top heavy groupies on a garage forecourt in Wrexham (which I remember well from one woeful issue).

The Years Roll By Like Sweet Little Days

Everyone's favourite raddled ex-junkie grandad, Sir Keith Richards is out of hospital following brain surgery. The report quotes his publicist using the word 'cockamamie', which is just lovely. This word should be used more often, in my admittedly rather stupid opinion.

Went to see Black Mountain last week at the Rescue Rooms, not many folks there, and most of those were hairy blokes. Good gig though, sludgey riffs abounding.

The NME has published a reader's list of their favourite 'rock heroes'...the list is so depressingly crap that I don't know where to begin... Suffice to say that being either dead or addicted to heroin seems to make the grade with kids these days.

Having said that, many of my 'rock heroes', have been known to ride the white horse to Smackfordshire on occasion...there's Keith of course, Dylan, Gram Parsons, Pete Townsend, the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Tim Buckley, Alabama 3, Dee Dee Ramone, and not forgetting everyone's favourite sociopath - 'whoops where's my trousers' GG Allin.

Who's Matt Bellamy anyway?


Top 20 Rock Heroes
1 Kurt Cobain
2 Pete Doherty
3 Morrissey
4 Liam Gallagher
5 Carl Barat
6 Thom Yorke
7 Noel Gallagher
8 David Bowie
9 Ian Brown
10 Ian Curtis
11 Richey Edwards
12 Jack White
13 Joe Strummer
14 Matt Bellamy
15 Axl Rose
16 Bob Dylan
17 Julian Casablancas
18 John Lennon
19 Elliott Smith
20 Alex Kapranos

Blues Like Showers Of Rain

Favourite Albums of the last 12 years

First off, the word is 'favourite', not 'best'...that's just my distinction.

Mojo magazine celebrated it's recent 12th birthday issue with a run down of writer's top Mojo 100 Modern Classics; LPs released during the magazine's lifetime, ie since 1994. The full line up is at the foot of this post.

Some debate has ensued amongst the Cider readership about the merits of the included records, and those which might have been in the 100 but were overlooked.
These are a few of the albums preferred by us middle class guitar playing white boy fans:

Graham:

Eliza Carthy & the Kings of Calicutt
Lambchop – Nixon (can’t believe that wasn’t in the list)
Steve Earle – El Corazon
Alabama 3 – Exile on Coldharbour Lane
Buena Vista Social Club

Andy P:

Alabama 3 - Exile....& Power in the Blood

Leftfield - Leftism
Nick Lowe - Dig My Mood
Paul Weller - Wild Wood

Mr Love Pants.

Road To Rouen.

You Are The Quarry (most important to have him back)

Tinariwen.

R.L.Burnside

Alex:

Suede - Dog Man Star

Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis

Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin

Radiohead - personally I like Amnesiac.....really!

The Verve - Northern Soul

Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass - Passages (would put this in the top 5 if it was a wee bit younger!)

The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps,

Me:

Alabama 3 - Exile On Coldharbour Lane

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs

Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

Nick Lowe - The Convincer

Johnny Cash - Solitary Man

Steve Earle - I Feel Alright

Leftfield - Leftism

1. Jeff Buckley – Grace
2. Johnny Cash – American Recordings
3. Radiohead – Ok Computer
4. Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind
5. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
6. The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
7. Radiohead – Kid A
8. The White Stripes – Elephant
9. Nirvana – Mtv Unplugged In New York
10. Beck – Odelay
11. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – The Boatmans Call
12. Spritualized – Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space
13. Nirvana – In Utero
14. Massive Attack – Mezzanine
15. Bob Dylan – Love And Theft
16. Radiohead – The Bends
17. Johnny Cash – American III – Solitary Man
18. Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix
19. Dj Shadow – Endtroducing
20. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See Darkness
21. Tom Waits – Mule Variations
22. Outcast – Speakerboxx/The Love Inside
23. Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club
24. Elliott Smith – Either/Or
25. P.J. Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
26. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
27. Air - Moon Safari
28. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
29. Madonna – Ray Of Light
30. Mercury Rev – Deserters Songs
31. Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On Gravel Road
32. Beck – Mutations
33. The Strokes – Is This It
34. Soloman Burke – Don’t Give Up On Me
35. Portishead – Dummy
36. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
37. Brian Wilson – Smile
38. Belle & Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister
39. Pulp – Different Class
40. P.J. Harvey – To Bring You My Love
41. Elvis Costello And The Imposters – The Delivery Man
42. Jimmy Page & Robert Plant – No Quarter – Unledded
43. Antonym And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now
44. Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World
45. Kate Bush – Aerial
46. Supergrass – In It For The Money
47. Queens Of The Stonage – Rated R
48. Bruce Springsteen – Devils And Dust
49. Gillian Welch – Time (The Reinventor)
50. Blur – Blur
51. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
52. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
53. Bjork – Post
54. Bastie Boys – Ill Communication
55. The Beta Band – The 3 Ep’s
56. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
57. The Libertines – Up The Bracket
58. R.E.M – New Adventures In Hi-Fi
59. Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
60. Arcade Fire – Funeral
61. Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory
62. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang
63. Morrissey – Vauxhall And I
64. Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
65. Primal Scream – Xtrmntr
66. Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Sleeps With Angels
67. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
68. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Orange
69. Aimee Mann – Lost In Space
70. Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjan
71. Al Green – I Can’t Stop
72. Blur – Parklife
73. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues – The Lyre Of Orpheus
74. Nora Jones – Come Away With Me
75. The Verve – A Northern Soul
76. Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost Of Tom Joad
77. Tricky – Maxinquaye
78. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers Lp
79. Tinariwen – The Radio Tisdas Sessions
80. Guide By Voices – Bee Thousand
81. Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible
82. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
83. The Prodigy – Songs For The Jilted Generation
84. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
85. Salif Keita – Moffou
86. Paul Weller – Stanley Road
87. The Jayhawks – Sound Of Lies
88. R.L. Burnside – A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey
89. Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Californiacation
90. Maria Mckee – Life Is Sweet
91. Boards Of Canada – Music Has The Right To Children
92. Manu Chao – Clandestine
93. System Of A Down – Toxicity
94. Michael Head And The Strands – The Magical World Of The Strands
95. Rufus Wainwright – Poses
96. Underworld – Second Toughest In The Infants
97. D’angelo – Brown Sugar
98. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
99. Sizzla – Black Woman And Child
100. Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head

The Decline of Civilization, part 58

A poll by dreary music channel VH1 has revealed that the nation's favourite pop lyrics are by U2, from their song 'One'. I like the Johnny Cash version of this record, which is rather less pious than the original.

I dunno, but I would have hoped that there was room for some Dylan in the list. Apparently the Pogues were in there somewhere, so that's some consolation. One would also hope that Ray Davies, Jarvis Cocker, Pete Townsend, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and many others would be there too. Not bleeding Coldplay.

Sometimes a light don't shine

[At the police station I was told ‘Prison? or rehabilitation?’
I said it really didn’t matter, so I chose the latter
And after 47 days with electrodes in my head, I was nearly dead
Then they said I was fine
So I went outside, within five minutes contemplated another taxi ride,
back to the place where I used to score before.
I guess rehabilitation goes walking out the door]

Even the most casual visitor to this blog will assume that I have a passing affection for
Alabama 3.

I have all the albums, which I never tire of hearing. I have seen them 4 or 5 times live, some of those gigs being among the best I have ever seen. I buy the new records on the day of release, which I can't say about anyone else. I spend wasted hours searching eBay for deleted 12 inch singles, and I exchange dodgy bootlegs with similarly afflicted friends.

Sign of a great record - it will bear repeated listening over many years and will still seem fresh on the 100th play. This is the measure of Exile on Coldharbour Lane, and if you don't already own this record, then have a word with yourself.

Mr D Wayne Love:

When you woke up this morning, everything was gone.
By half past ten your head was going ding-dong
ringing like a bell from your head down to your toes,
like some voice trying to tell you there was something you should know.
Last night you was flying but today you're so low
Ain't it times like these that make you wonder if you'll ever know
the meaning of things as they appear to the others;
wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.
Don't you wish you didn't function, wish you didn't think
beyond the next paycheck and the next little drink?
Well you do, so make up your mind to go on
'cos when you woke up this morning everything you had was gone.

Alone, Jealous and Stoned

I've been neglecting this blog for a while, but I've been busy, out and about at various gigs.

Last Monday was Ginger and the Sonic Circus, him out of the Wildhearts, with a 9 piece band playing his solo double LP. Old style rawk n roll with a country twang ...they were v good. Then a couple of days after that it was Seth Lakeman, who was terrific - good to see some folk at the Rescue Rooms.

Tonight it was Secret Machines - kind of Spiritualized, shoegazey drone with a motorik krauty beat - fantastic. Still loads of pricks sending two page text messages to their friends, oblivious to the happenings on stage.

Anway, there are more gigs in Nottm at the moment and coming up than I can ever remember...it's been at least one a week for a while now. Coming up - Jim Reid, Shack, Teddy Thompson, Black Mountain, the Lords, and dahn the smoke Pharoah Sanders, for some original avant garde jazz skronking...and Primal Scream in Wolves in a couple of weeks...

strange things happening every day

Listening to lots of the good Sister recently, she knocks seven bells out of that geetar.

those who have served

farewell Ivor Cutler, Ali Farka Toure, and The Reverend Charlie Jackson - all in the same week.

I once went to see Ali Farka Toure at the Old Vic in Nottingham, on a double bill with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with a girlfriend whose dad insisted she was home by 11.

I knew I was in for a disappointing evening when AFT came on stage a little after 10, giving me a mere 20 mins or so to enjoy his desert blues before having to turn tail for the suburbs.

Baby, Let Me Lay It On You

Off out tonight to see a blues slide guitar player, called Charlie Parr. Nothing too unusual about that, I have been going out to see blues slide guitar players for the last 20 years. This guy was playing at the Social in Nottingham, a venue which caters predominantly for the younger hipster crowd, more used to modern indie rock stylings, as opposed to pre-war delta blues.

So, the venue was a third full, of people younger than me nodding and bopping away to this bearded geezer doing his best to recreate the sounds of Mississippi Fred McDowell and Blind Willie McTell, amongst others. Couldn't help but feel that if this character had been booked at the Running Horse, there would have been perhaps an equivalent number of old geezers in attendance, collectively thinking 'this boy is OK, but he's no Lightnin Hopkins'. Choice of venue makes a big difference to the fashionable credibility of the performer in question. I never went to a blues gig to meet girls, but my 19 year old self might have done quite well tonight...

Smoke Black Mountain

This is a good album for anyone who has an idle wonder about what a jam session between Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Can might sound like. After a long spell in Brian Wilson's dope tent.
Sludgey, repetitive Sabbath riffs (a good thing!) abound. The bloke in charge works at a needle exchange facility in Vancouver, and 'Black Mountain' refers to a large pile of herbally extracted recreational compounds. Not that you could tell from the stench emanating from the record...
Another recent album worth hearing, the collaboration between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, 'Ballad of Broken Seas'.



She is ex-Belle and Sebastien (no, that didn't set my pulse racing either) and he is ex-Screaming Trees most recently observed lending sinister growls to Queens of the Stone Age.
Other records whiling away my time at the moment, Eighteenth Day of May (mp3 downloads from their website), plenty of Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and John Fahey, and twenty years too late 'Your Love' by Frankie Knuckles.

Station Approach

Went to see Elbow at Rock City last Wednesday - I'm not their biggest fan but Helen is very keen, so I got us tickets. They were very good - and I enjoyed the gig, but I was pissed off by the number of people just blatantly talking over the music or dicking around on their mobile phones, sending text messages etc.
This I don't understand - when I'm at a gig, I'm watching the band, I'm not thinking of sending a bleeding text message to someone, or starting a conversation with my neighbour about tonight's episode of Eastenders.
Young people today have either a) no attention span or b) no access to the kind of bands/acts that demand 100% attention at the expense of all other waking thought...which is pretty sad to see either way you look at it.
Enough old bastard moaning...I know, I know, it was all so much better in my day...

Bob Dylan is cool - official

This startled me - the annual NME 'who's cool in rock' list has Mr Bob Dylan at number 9.

Bob's cooler than Ian Brown! And a bunch of other guys (hmmm...it's nearly all men...well done non-sexist NME) I've never heard of!

1. (New) Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys)
2. (New) Liam Gallagher (Oasis)
3. (New) Kanye West
4. (New) Antony (Antony and The Johnsons)
5. (9) Brandon Flowers (The Killers)
6. (17) Devendra Banhart
7. (=1) Pete Doherty (Babyshambles)
8. (New) Jemina Pearl (Be Your Own Pet)
9. (New) Bob Dylan
10. (=1) Carl Barat (Dirty Pretty Things)
11. (New) Ian Brown
12. (New) Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz)
13. (New) Ryan Jarman (The Cribs)
14. (New) Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)
15. (New) Ninja (Go! Team)
16. (New) Paul Epworth
17. (New) Billie Jo (Green Day)
18. (New) Tom Atkin (The Paddingtons)
19. (New) Henry Harrison (The Mystery Jets)
20. (New) Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance)

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore

The Helster and I met for a drink after work yesterday, and as so often happens, she accused me - harshly but accurately - of being a 'deaf bastard'. (a congenital wax problem that I suffer with nobility and great patience).
I responded, inevitably, with 'What?'.
I received a punch in the ribs and 'That joke isn't funny anymore' from the Helster. I proceeded to say that there could be a song in this, I felt strange compulsion to grow a quiff and stuff daffodils down my trousers, wear a big hearing aid, and claim to be celibate whilst in fact being as gay as a tree. (ie to be Morrissey).
So, anyway we arrive at Langtry's for a beer, and what song is playing as we sit down? 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' by the Smiths...

Gigs a go go

A couple of gigs last week, of the sit down variety...for a welcome change for my tired old bones. There's only so much beer spillage and toe treading and general shoving around at places like Rock City that one can put up with.
Anyway, Monday was John Cale at de Montfort Hall; only about half full but a good night out. He kicked off with Venus In Furs, and was backed a band of lads who must have been a third of his age.
Better still was Nick Cave at the Conert Hall in Nottm - in the middle of the front row...which was exciting. I was worried that it would be a very sedate evening of gentle piano balladry, but from the off it was rowdy and clattering, a fantastic night. Terrific versions of The Mercy Seat and Abattoir Blues amongst others, and I got to shake the great man's hand. Shame about that moustache though...

Zen Arcade

Went to see Bob Mould last night, at the Rescue Rooms. He was much better than I expected; since it was billed as 'an acoustic evening' I was afraid it might be a bit intense and po faced, but it seems that these days Bob has come to terms with his Husker Du past, and happily straps on an Stratocaster to blast away through 'Celebrated Summer' etc.

There was a great moment when he stopped the show to berate a twit in the crowd who was talking loudly to his mate, with his back to the stage. Fat Bob (who is actually rather trim these days) asked this fool how much he had paid for his ticket, and since he was preferring to have a loud conversation during the previous song, would he rather have his money back? The bloke said no, and apparently shut up for the rest of the gig. Bob's blog is here, and includes a good story about being let through without a work visa at Heathrow by an immigration officer who was a lifelong Husker Du fan.

The Brakes

Now this lot are great - 16 tracks on an album that lasts 29 minutes...and covers of tunes by Johnny Cash and the Jesus and Mary Chain...

Rough Trade

This year's Rough Trade compilation is out on the 24 January...pre order on their website, and receive a free 4 track EP.

Their top 100 albums of 2005 are listed here.

Hex Enduction Hour

There are twelve people in the world
The rest are paste

GROTESQUE (AFTER THE GRAMME)

Wireless enthusiast intercepts government secret radio band and
uncovers secrets and scandals of deceitful type proportions.

Aghast goes next door to his neighbor, secretly excited, as
aforementioned was a hunter whom radio enthusiast wanted
friendship and favor of.

A new face in hell

Nearly a new face in hell!

A muscular, thick-skinned, slit-eyed neighbor is at the table
poisoned just thirty seconds before by parties who knew of
wireless operator's forthcoming revelation.

A new face in hell!

A prickly line of sweat covers enthusiast's forehead as the
realization hits him that the same government him and his now
dead neighbor voted for and backed and talked of on cream porches
have tricked him into their war against the people who enthusiast
and dead hunter would have wished torture on. A servant of
government walks in and arrests wireless fan in
kitchen for murder of his neighbor

A new face in hell!

I stole away and cried

Willie Nelson does a nice version of Dylan's 'He Was A Friend Of Mine' on the closing credits to Brokeback Mountain...

Maximo Park

What have the monthly music mags got against this group? One of the best albums of the year, nominated for the Mercury music award, constantly on MTV2 - and the grown ups mags completely overlooked it in their end of year summaries, often in preference to pish like Hard Fi.

The NME stuck A Certain Trigger somewhere in their top 20, elsewhere it was totally ignored. The risible Observer music monthly (hardly a teenybobber periodical) showed up the oversight when they ran a 'reader's best of' alongside their own top 100 - readers voted Maximo Park 14th best of the year, whilst it was nowhere to be seen in the writers list.

You know what though, if REM had released Reckoning this year it would have beaten everything. A pity they didn't quit ten years ago, the later albums are so leaden compared to this.

I work in hotel, all gilt and flash.

Well, the CDR best of the year compilations are pretty much all in, apart from a few stragglers. Looks like Arcade Fire and Gorillaz were the top albums of the year, there were 5 different tracks picked from each one. Other favourites were The Fall, White Stripes (albeit the same track chosen 4 different times - My Doorbell), Arctic Monkeys, LCD Soundsystem, Chemical Brothers, Elbow, The Tears, amongst others.

In the sales I picked up the Children of Nuggets box set, a compilation of the (very) loosely defined 'second psychedelic era'. What this means is a bunch of songs from 1976 - 1994, featuring jangly guitar bands with paisley shirts and pointy shoes. Apart from that, I've been listening to Reckoning by REM (every single track of which could well belong on the Nuggets box set), Achtung Bono by Half Man Half Biscuit, and Quadrophenia by the Who.

In the Kingdom of the Bland...

...James Blunt is King.

Well, according to Mr HMV anyway, who has done his usual trawl of the end of the year 'best of' lists from the mags and papers, compiled a 'best of the best ofs' list, and compared it to the top ten best selling records of the year. Here's how they rank:

Critics Top 10

1 The Arcade Fire: Funeral
2 Gorillaz: Demon Days
3 Kanye West: Late Registration
4 Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise
5 Elbow: Leaders of the Free World
6 Antony & The Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now
7 The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan
8 Franz Ferdinand: You Could Have It So Much Better
9 Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
10 MIA: Arular

Top Selling Albums of 2005:

1 James Blunt: Back to Bedlam
2 Coldplay: X & Y
3 Robbie Williams: Intensive Care
4 Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
5 Westlife: Face to Face
6 Gorillaz: Demon Days
7 KT Tunstall: Eye to the Telescope
8 Eminem: Curtain Call - The Hits
9 Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway
10 Katie Melua: Piece by Piece

For my own two pence, I think the critics have been over generous to Franz Ferdinand and the White Stripes, who seem to become more toothless with each release. Overlooked LP of the year is A Certain Trigger by Maximo Park, which has had the most play in this house - or maybe it's just the only one that me and the Helster can agree on. The Elbow LP is great, and we are hoping to see them at Rock City in the new year. And who is Kelly Clarkson anyway??

Miss Otis Regrets

Neu!

I downloaded this LP, the first album by Neu! about a year ago, and have listened to it on and off without paying it much attention beyond the opening track Hallogallo. I've played it all the way throught twice tonight, and it's bloody fantastic. Much of what is passed off as Krautrock is very very tiresome, but Neu are out on their own. Must have been great to see them live.

elsewhere, the mags are trotting out yet more best of 2005 music lists, and it seems to be a toss up in the main between Anthony and The Johnson, Gorillaz, and Arcade Fire. I've tried with Anthony, but I just don't get it, I've heard a lot of the Gorillaz LP on the 2005 cdrs, likewise Arcade Fire, sounding good.

A few tracks sticking out for me which I had missed this year so far but which have turned up on the cds from Graham and Jim - 'I Burn Today' from Frank Black's solo LP, and 'The Well' from the Smog album. will have to pick up both records in the new year when I have some spare cash.

The Heavy Heavy Monster Sound

Went to see Madness on Monday night, at Rock City. Part of the 25th anniversary of the country's stickiest shit hole, apparently.

They were tremendous, it was bedlam, and they did all the old stuff. Not many bands had a better run of singles, and they weren't all Baggy Trousers jolly-ups either - loads of Madness songs are very dark and bleak, which is of course fine by me.

The sax player, name escapes me, climbed to the top of the PA , but down his horn, and made as if he was about to leap into a suddenly wary crowd. There's no way he's going to jump, no way - oh look - he's jumped. I thought he would have broken his spine and taken out a few aging mods with him, but no, apparently he was fairly unscathed, and eventually reappeared on stage more or less intact.

'You Call Glastonbury 'Glasto'...

...you'd like to go there one day.
When they've put up the gun towers
to keep the hippies away'.

Anyway - that's off the new Half Man Half Bisuit lp, Achtung Bono. Still doing it for me, 20 years on.

Those best of the year lists are starting to pop up in the mags, and a depressing quantity of them are dribbling hyperbole all over the Magic Numbers. Grown men reduced to tears at gigs, well crafted tunesmithery etc etc. Over-rated bland out toss I'm afraid.