Thursday, January 21, 2010

New at the Spill: The weekly S&M playlist

The S&M (Spill & Music) Playlist concept is based on the F&M (Film & Music) Playlist in Fwiday Gwardians, in which half a dozen of their music writers share an earworm.

Might be obscure, might be cool, might be any genre, might be something old, something new, something borrowed or blue.

Here's the first S&M Playlist, from a call for submissions here earlier today. If you've got one for next week, email it with a sentence or two of narrative to rr@tincanland.com. Ideas for the series name are welcome too.


Ewan MacColl - The Shoals of Herring
I first heard this years ago while watching a TV programme about trawler fishing. I was still at home with my parents, and I hadn't a clue who sang the song, so I guess I must have been quite young. I never forgot the song, the chorus stuck in my head - it's really evocative (although I have no connections with trawler fishermen, as far as I know). Years later I saw an Ewan MacColl CD in a shop and it had this track on it. I bought the CD on the strength of the track, and I still love it. It ain't trendy, it's not a love song - it's just a great tune, well sung and does what it says on the tin.
- Ali Munday

Neko Case - Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
I've been falling in love with Neko Case recently - even before I discovered what she looks like. This is her beautiful and poignant cover of Tom Waits' "Christmas Card from a H00ker in Minneapolis".
- barbryn

Everclear - Bad Connection
There's not much reason to buy later model Everclear records; as much as I love the band, after awhile even I had heard enough about Art Alexakis' childhood in a broken home. One of his bids to keep the band current despite lineup changes and the limited scope was an album of covers called The Vegas Years. Mostly unispired, there was however this Yaz/Yazoo gem.
- Tin

Salif Keita - Here
I thought of this, from an album I hadn't played for some time and then last week I started playing it again because the G. nominated it as one of the 10 best of the decade. It's Salif Keita's album Moffou and the song is 'Here', lovely gentle song with a great backup chorus.
- goneforeign

Paolo Nutini - Candy
I 'discovered' this last year via the radio as well as hearing a couple of other songs from the Sunny Side Up album. When I got some money in lieu of a Christmas present from my parents (Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm 46 and I'm still relying on money from my parents to go down the shops and treat myself). This is one of the better tracks on a great album.
- gordon immel

Sun Ra - 'Blackman/Love in Outer Space'
from the Space Is The Place (Original Soundtrack) inspired by steenbecks MLK post I re-visited 'Blackman...' insane and brilliant... just a fantastic drumming groove.. enjoy.
- Shane

62 comments:

tincanman said...

sorry gremlin & lambi. Didn't get yours at all gremlin, and yours just as I was posting lambi. First week snafus this end.
Your first up next week though!

Abahachi said...

Cool. Once I actually have a moment for myself, will send something in - and get on with the post for ToffeeBoy's series, and the podcast I promised months ago...

gordonimmel said...

Er, is it just me [yes, probably, it usually is - Ed.] but I'm not hearing anything. I can usually play these links on here. What whirly gizmo do I need to hear this one?

Don't all rush to respond at once, I'm off to bed. It's not as if there's anything to stay up for tonight......

Mnemonic said...

Mine's jumping straight to Detlef Thingy as well but I have been able to download it.

zag said...

Not working for me either, but hey, it's been one of those weeks.

The app loads up but appears to be empty - the pause button doesn't change to play - indicating there is no content to play.

You need your IT guy to check it out. I do not work in IT, honest . . . well, I wish I didn't this week.

z

tincanman said...

I'm getting same as you guys - it downloads and plays fine. I'm working on the playing from here part. (Songs are dropped too)

tincanman said...

Nope. I'm using a thing called MP3 album maker for the first time. Its a free open source thingee that joins up the 6 MP3s into one file easy peasy. Works fine downloaded, but won't play in the browser.
Will have to do for now lol. I'll add it to the wish list for future weeks.

saneshane said...

tin
if you keep fiddling with things you know they are going to break.

where do you find these things?
(is all your music on mediamonkey - with stats and info to boggle the mind?)
I can't even work out how to retrieve my music from the external memory thingy!

OH, by the way.. a lovely odd mixture of music in the first S+M earworm.

ejaydee said...

That was quick, I thought I had a bit more time, I'll chip in for the next one.

steenbeck said...

Rats, I uploaded mine after this post was already up. What a MO-RON!

The A-list is up, but I haven't seen a new topic yet...

Will it be fluffy bunnies, or fluffy kittens?

DarceysKnackeredDad said...

Evening all.

Disappointed to not trouble the scorers on Unsettling, but I can't find any other mothership update. Anyone seen anything?

steenbeck said...

Nope. I think it was very late last week, too.

steenbeck said...

Hey, Gordonimmel, my brother likes Paolo Nutini and keeps telling me to check him out. My brother and his girlfriend saw him in NYC, and apparently he's potentially a fine-looking heartthrob, but he makes himself hideous when he sings. Or so my brother told me. I'm looking forward to a listen.

Mnemonic said...

Nothing yet and so, to the clattering of toys falling out of the pram, I'm going to bed.

DsD said...

Hmmpff! I'll give it another few minutes, but I can't keep my eyes open ....

Noodsy said...

It was late last week, but not this late.

I feel like a disapproving parent waiting up for a tardy adolescent child.

DzzzzzD said...

Nope. Can't stay awake a minute longer. 'Night all.

May1366 said...

Cut-off point reached and passed, I'm afraid - hope to catch you all in the morning.

It'll appear now.

May1366 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
steenbeck said...

Strange. Usually when it's this late you at least get the topic. Oh well, probably better this way, no 'Spill lists transferred to the mothership. to great uproar. Ah well. Good night, all, see you tomorrow afternoon.

ejaydee said...

It's not looking good...

lambretinha said...

Whoever has kidnapped the GU techie in charge of uploading the blog, could s/he please stop buggering off? I mean, it's 2 AM here!

Williamsbach said...

Test for comments. Jesus wept, this site is getting too difficult to work with...

Williamsbach said...

Any propellerheads on here know of a way that we can send an official 'buke to PaulMac and the techies, countersigned by all of us? Maybe I'm being a bit precious, but, honestly, the performance of this site over the last few weeks has been shocking. I'm really getting p***ed off with it, and I'm normally a very calm person.

lambretinha said...

I think there's a contact email in the blog somewhere, William. PaulMac seems like a nice bloke to me, but it doesn't looks like anybody in the GU crew is losing any sleep about RR, which is a bit strange to me, but hew, what do I know? Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but these are the sort of things that make people lose interest in what is, otherwise, a great idea.

Shoey said...

Am going to boycott this week as a futile protest. You can never find a working link to the thing from the main Guardian site & the bastard never goes up on time. What would happen if someone "forgot" to print the paper? Boycott may last until The Guardian shows the RR community a little more respect.

If a topic, goes up, & I can find it, there will be a 'Spill list. Feel free to copy this over to the Mothership if you want to help my lost cause. But I'm done over there for now.

Luke-sensei said...

I finally get a few minutes to RR and it's not there!...nearly 6 hours late....is this a record?

sonofwebcore said...

Well, I've shouted 'Hey Techies' on several blogs, then reported myself for going off topic so that I could tell them about the RR failure. They've deleted my comments and sent all further comments of mine to the moderators. So they know the score. I could be in trouble over this.

gordonimmel said...

See, I told you (upthread) that there was nothing to stay up for last night!

Now, if only I can learn to use such predictive powers on the Lottery........

bishbosh said...

WAAAAAH! What's going on? Anyone seen a 'paper' paper to see if the column mentions a new topic?

tincanman said...

oh my god, what a mad mad idea!
Physically go to the shop, buy a paper and see whats inside it? Have I got the concept right? You modern fool - what do you think people did in the old days? You know, before shops?

(I go in about an hour, so will report back here if no one else has first)

bishbosh said...

You're absolutely right, tin. What was I thinking? That would involve clothes and legs and things.

sonofwebcore said...

I've got the supposed topic. What a bunch of arseholes. They've got the technology to intercept my Hey Techie comments but they can't get their act together to activate the blog. To reactivate a well-worn cliche; they couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery.

tincanman said...

Hah! I was just about to reply to bishbosh that what we need is an old person to tell us how they used to look up the blog topic back in the old pre-internet days, and along comes webcore.

DarceysDad said...

So come on, someone with a paper: 'Spill the beans ...

bishbosh said...

Ooh I dunno, DsD. I can see a re-run of Catchergate if we're not careful...

tincanman said...

Thats sad - no blog so you get stuck in watching reruns of .... oh, I see.

I get my paper on the school run in anhour. Anyone need anything while I'm out? Milk? Bread? Shoe liners?

DarceysDad said...

Shouldn't be really. Everyone with a good ol'fashioned pulp&ink copy is now mentally compiling their lists anyway.

richardrj will complain, but then, what's new?!

bishbosh said...

Go on then Webbie, gis' a clue. Is it a good one? Say it's "Kittens with wings"!

tincanman said...

OH OH OH - guess what the paper's about today?
Come on, guess

tincanman said...

OK, fine I'll tell you....
it's about £1 same as every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHAA HAHAHAHA

treefrogdemon said...

Yay, I got RT on the A-list!

sonofwebcore said...

I might go for a train ride today. So what the hell, TINCANMAN tells me I should go public with the topic, so for a laugh I'll give the intials of the topic . . . H F.

sonofwebcore said...

Intials?

tincanman said...

So there's no confusion, webcore bought the paper and has the topic. He emailed me and I advised him to post it

gordonimmel said...

High Fives?

Hate & Fear?

Holy F*ck!?

bean spiller said...

Historical figures

tincanman said...

Dibs on the last slice of Pi

sonofwebcore said...

Bean spiller, I was doubled up at Gordon's Guesses. No lists from me. End of.

richardrj said...

@DarceysDad: I don't always complain, you know.

On the basis that if you can't beat them, you join them... if the topic is historical figures, I nominate "Nostradamus" by Al Stewart, an epic and rolling journey through history, prophecy and myth.

Abahachi said...

Interesting to note that the web version of this week's column doesn't include any mention of this week's theme.

I should probably sit this one out anyway, given my professional interest and considering how carried away I got when we did 'songs about history'... Instead - leaving aside that work stuff that I supposedly ought to be doing - I should perhaps focus on the fact that I now have yet another 'Spill obligation: on top of the 'You may not realise that I like this' one for the TB series, and the next Radio Abahachi, I now have my score of A-lists, and so should sort out a post about that.

DarceysDad said...

I know, richard, but you can't be surprised that you were first to mind!

;o)

Anyway, Historical Figures, huh?

Hmmm. A couple of DBT songs spring immediately to mind.

DarceysDad said...

Has anyone emailed PaulMac directly?

Abahachi said...

No, scrub last comment, I can't count: now on 19 rather than 20. Nilpferd, on the other hand, now owes us a post...

Carole said...

I'll definitely try and get a tune to you for next week.

Nice idea.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't dream of it. In fact, our robots are currently tracing your computer so that we can report you to the proper authorities. Besides, it's rubbish, and handing over yet more money to the Cameron juggernaut will be severely punished after the revolution.

Anonymous said...

Obviously I'm not the same Anonymous as the previous illegal file-sharing one.

Anonymous said...

Neither am I.

Anonymous said...

Hey, who is this? I'm anonymous, you're not. Stop it. Now.

Anonymous said...

Well, if you have to ask who am, that suggests that I AM anonymous, no?

Anonymous said...

I thought Kevin Costner was great in it, not sure the Native American make-up was very authentic.

tincanman said...

Big thanks for the Neko barbyrn. I've always liked this song to begin with, but I find Tom Waits hard to listen to. Someone else giving it a go and keeping it true is appreciated.