noisy hearing trumpets

Joining in on the brass act.. some of my favourite metal blowers...

Cubanismo, Salsa Pilon. Booty shaker from Jesus Alemany and his band.
Max Brennan, 1300 Milliseconds of brass. Trippy big beat builds to a brass-tastic send-off.
Orchestra Harlow, Freak off. Used a fragment of this in my quiz. Extremely dirty horns. Very funky.
Fanfare Ciocarlia, Balaseanca de 8 Ore. Moldovian dance music. It helps if you've had a few Tuicăs (plum schnapps) beforehand.

Adding the much sampled Cannonball Adderley:
Walk Tall from Country Preacher, with intro by Rev. Jesse Jackson;
a fragment of the former which I'm sure forms the basis of a mid 90's hip hop track;
Hummin', from Country Preacher. There's a great Large Professor mix of this on one of those remix jazz project albums. The original is still pretty cool. Cannonball's brother Nat on cornet, Joe Zawinul on keyboards.

Some extra tracks on the RR noise theme:
DJ Krush, Jingle Jangle
Kip Hanrahan, ..something about his anger.. Brilliant, languid piece in which a neighbour's stereo system is the catalyst for a couple to explore their feelings for one another...
Minus 8, The sweetest sounds.

(Player removed)

HORNY too!

All you do is put your lips together and blow...



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Musical Connections Quiz!

If any of you are readers of the AV Club (and if not, you should be) you might have seen this already, but it was quite a fun quiz so I thought I'd engage in a bit of shameless plagiarism and post it over here (they can't complain since they took it out of a book anyway...).
I managed a fairly pathetic two fully correct and two half right - I'm expecting a much better performance from the rest of you...

What Do These Sets Of Bands Have In Common?

1. The Bee Gees, The Breeders, Nelson, The Proclaimers

2. Alphaville, Bad Company, Fine Young Cannibals, 10,000 Maniacs

3. a-ha, Duran Duran, Garbage, Paul McCartney & Wings

4. Badfinger, The Band, Joy Division, Nirvana

5. Blind Faith, Cream, Derek & The Dominoes, The Yardbirds

6. The Carpenters, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Genesis, Rare Earth

7. Belle & Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Simple Minds, Travis

8. Bad Company, Iron Maiden, Kool & the Gang, New Kids On The Block, Train

9. The Charlatans, Dinosaur Jr., Green Jelly, Suede

10. Air Supply, Steely Dan, T-Rex, The White Stripes

11. The Byrds, Destiny’s Child, ‘N Sync, The Ohio Express

12. Death Cab For Cutie, Judas Priest, Radiohead, Shakespear’s Sister

13. Five For Fighting, The Flaming Lips, The Kinks, R.E.M.

14. Frankie Goes To Hollywood, It’s A Beautiful Day, They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo

15. INXS, Jethro Tull, Magnetic Fields, My Morning Jacket

It's...name....that....SAMPLE!! Horn-y editition

Takin' it AAALLLL the way back to the 80s...

Evening all. So, me and the family Frod went on a bit of a jaunt for the last couple of weeks and it culminated in our attendance at a wedding in South Wales. It was a fabulous do - beautiful setting, lovely people, great weather, big marquee, Welshmen sculling red wine from pewter pint tankards. The lot, really. And also, of course, there was the wedding disco (mini-Frod is here shown enthusiastically and encouragingly welcoming his arrival, replete with coloured lights and - oh yes - lasers!!!), a tradition as solid and reliable as Swiss concrete.

Even before the disco arrived, a friend and I speculated that an unnecessarily large rig was a near certainty (it was), that Come on Eileen would be used early (it was), that his name would be Kev (it wasn't) and that most songs would be not so much mixed together, rather linked by a small bout of inane chatter - "Oh yeah, its Rob and Rachael's wedding, so lets keep the party going by taking it all the way back to 1976...." - in order to facilitate the changing of CD (pretty much always).

But, of course, this kind of larking was rather like shooting fish in a barrel or spotting Guardian readers at a farmer's market. Too easy. And so, as the evening wore on and the Brains' bitter took hold, an interesting theory slowly arose - namely that wedding DJing is a bloody difficult job. Very easy to get wrong (god knows, the fat get who did mine tried his best when my humble request for Superstition - I was THE GROOM, remember - was met with a blank face and a shrug) but yet incredibly hard to get right. You must cater to a vast range of tastes, after all, and can't really let the mood slip for any more than one song at a time - if at all. Slowly but surely, as we rocked the boat, danced the night away and finally did it our way, a grudging kind of respect emerged for the honest graft of the travelling cheese-peddler.

And so, I thought to myself, here's a nice little challenge for me and The 'Spill. Let's all DJ the last half hour or so of a wedding and see how it goes. Remember that EVERYONE is drunk, so keep the songs that people don't know to a minimum. Granny is up on her feet by now so doesn't want too much Gabba or Grindcore. There's a lot of palettes to appeal to, so try to keep everyone on their feet by mixing it up a little There will be some emotion in the air, so try to tug at a few heartstrings but, most importantly of all, lets see if we can find some of those songs that just make you smile, make you happy and make you want to get up and dance. NOT because they involve some gash routine, NOT because they have been done to death elsewhere but, well, maybe because you'd forgotten just how good a song it was in the first place. Oh, and because you're lashed.

To kick us off, then, here is my hastily assembled effort which, I fully accept, is far from perfect. Its probably even far from my own rubric, but what the hey. Imagine them all seamlessly mixed together with consumate skill or, if you prefer, imagine me garbling some nonsense about rocking and rolling and all getting down and boogying til dawn in all the gaps. Whichever you prefer.

Its all good.

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Horn-y Songs

Modest Mouse--Horn Intro
Fela--Funky Horn
Mandrill--Mango Meat
Talib Kweli--Africa Dream
Ethiopians--Well Red
ATCQ--Oh My God
Outkast--The Rooster
Louis Armstrong--Perdido Street Blues
Tom Waits--Anywhere I Hang My Head
Mikey Dread--Heavy Weight Sound
Belle & Sebastian--Dress Up in You
Chet Baker--My Buddy
LKJ--Di Black Petty Boooshwah Dub



I really like songs with horns in them, a while back I compiled a long list of them, and here's a brief sample. I'm defining "horn" pretty loosely--anything with a certain kind of sound I can't define. I love the way it crosses genres, so I'm guessing the rest of you could come up with some lovely horn-ed lists too, no?

Mostly Autumn, Lincoln Drill Hall, June 7th

I love the music of York's finest band so much that this was the fifth gig of the tour I've been to. Their huge epic sound references many 70s classic rock bands from Pink Floyd to Fleetwood Mac to Deep Purple, but they've far, far more than the sum of their influences.

Another new venue for me, the Drill Hall in Lincoln. It's a old Victorian building which has been very extensively refurbished a couple of years ago; standing down the front, and tiered seating down them back. The venue was nowhere near full; this is a band that really need to put as much effort into publicity as they do to their music. They deserve to be filling far larger venues than this.

This gig marked the welcome return of Jon Spence on the mixing desk, and it showed. When a band has four vocalists, two guitarists and two keyboard players, as well as the odd flute, they're very dependent on a good soundman getting both the balance and the separation right. This was probably the best sound mix I've heard so far on this tour; despite being directly in front of Bryan Josh, his guitar didn't drown out the rest of the band, Anne-Marie Helder's flute and Livvy Sparnenn's backing vocals were noticeably more prominent in the mix, which is a good thing.

With the tour nearing the end, the lineup has well and truly gelled now; new drummer Henry Bourne is possibly the best man behind the drums they've had while I've been following them, and Anne-Marie has really fitted in well on multiple instuments; seeing her really going for it on the tambourine during 'Never the Rainbow' is proof she's a very different personality than Angie Gordon, who she replaced at the beginning of the year. And as for Liam Davidson and Iain Jennings, it's great to see both of them back. Iain's Hammond organ pyrotechnics on 'Never the Rainbow' reminded us of what was missing last year. And Heather Findlay, now six months pregnant, just gets better and better on lead vocals.

The two-hour setlist is the same as the last few shows, with four songs from the new album "Glass Shadows", and also drawing heavily from "Passengers". Of the new songs, 'Unoriginal Sin' is turning into a incredibly powerful live number, Heather channelling all that anger and bitterness from the middle of last year, and is made all the stronger by mixing Anne Marie's and Livvy's harmony vocals much higher; very much the high spot of the first half of the set. 'Tearing at the Faerytale' is equally powerful and emotional live. And 'Flowers For Guns' has just got to be a single.

The oldies were equally good; I've never heard them play a bad version of 'Evergreen' and tonight's was no exception; 'Carpe Diem', one of those songs that relies heavily on the sound man getting the balance between Bryan's guitar and the vocals right, was magnificent, and 'Heroes Never Die' is finally making the hairs on back of my neck stand up again; Anne-Marie may have struggled with that flute part on the intro earlier on the tour, but tonight she nailed it.

Just two dates left on this tour now; at Leamington Spa on Thursday 12th, and Stocksbridge the following night. Catch them if you can, they're worth it. After a couple of festival dates, the band will be taking an extended break while their lead singer is on maternity leave.

Counter Surrealism

I like this week's RR challenge but by Sunday I got really quite surrealed out.

I got rather bored with looking for that metaphorical lobster handled telephone (or indeed, the lobster handled teapot/curling tongs/alarm clock or whatever. ).

So, seeing as I have been mellowing all afternoon (n.b code for drinking in the garden) my musical tastes have cheesed up considerably. I am not constructing a lovingly assembled play list one might click on (too pissed, probably, the crowd shouts) but, I'll post the kind of stuff that I love when the wine has flowed and I am so mellow I look like Salvador Dali's kitchen clock (hopefully not being menaced by ants - little 6 legged bastards!). So;

Pet Shop Boys You only tell me you love me when you're drunk Actually pretty much anything by the Pet Shop Boys (I may well be a gay man trapped inside a lesbian's body)
The Communards Don't Leave Me This Way (see above)
New Order Thieves Like Us (I used to get totally off my face to this in the mid 80s)
Electronic Getting Away With It Pet Shop Boys meets New Order - what's not to like?
Dusty Breakfast In Bed Class, nuff said
LaBelle Lady Marmalade
Earth, Wind and Fire Boogie Wonderland

See, I told you it was cheese, but, I bet when the wine flows I'd get at least one or two of you dancing.

I am quite impressed now, I typed it OK.

Surrealism- Tropicália Edition...

...is cancelled. After some research on the ultimate authority, I realised that Tropicalism is inspired by concrete poetry, which rejects "expressionism, perhaps, lyric abstraction and randomness". So instead, here are some songs where "there is no intimism or worry about the subject, the obligation is to end up with the distinction between body and concept and create a new language."

So basically the movement has very little to do with the notion of surrealism, or even absurdism, given the lyrics of the following songs, which I painfully checked last night for appropriate general nonsense. A good example of playing with language is the song Bat Macumba (the lyrics are featured in the Museum of portuguese Language in São Paulo), which works a bit like a mirror, lyrically.
1 to 4 have what I consider to be surrealistic lyrics, whereas 5 to 7 are more about the sound of the words.

09 Tropic
07 Baby.mp3
14 Baby (1968).mp3
16 Panis Et Circenses.mp3
03 Bat Macumba.mp3
11 Jimmy, Renda-se.mp3
05 Dor e dor.mp3

Within A Toaster Of His Life

Here's my first surreal playlist, which I intend to follow with a special Tropicália edition tomorrow.

Royal Jelly.mp3
Black Sheep.mp3
21 Underwater.mp3
01 Straighten Up And Fly Right.mp3
2-04 Pearly Dewdrops\' Drops.mp3
03 I Told Her On Alderaan.mp3

Blimpy's First Ever Podcast

Hey folks, here for your delectation is my first ever podcast, in which I talk about music mostly, irresponsible farmers and their mud, random itunesness, killer pets, what I've been up to for the last 3 weeks, gypsies, and much more besides.

It's in two parts, and I really hope you enjoy it. Please leave your thoughts in the comments, cheers to one and all 'Spillers!!

Blimpcast Part One
Blimpcast Part Two

Bon Iver live - hope this works

conquest of the irrational

Dali's sketch example of the paranoid critical method.. irrationality supported by precise cartesian reality... surrealism isn't chaos, it has a rational crutch- the key is the way the blobby mass is held up against all your instincts...

The Bat's North by North is a classic Flying Nun track, but I've never been able to make head nor tail of what it's about..

The blobby mass which the 3Ds create could draw you into a weird, gothic irrationality, if you're not careful..

The Chills also had a knack for unfathomable lyrics, and I have no idea what Chug's Flowers could be implying. Something about climbing up a mountain for a whole day to kill the moon, or collect some flowers. Or something.

Joyce's Samba do Joyce seems to me to make some nicely odd juxtapositions- Molly Bloom and Carmen Miranda? (You're welcome to provide a precis, EJ)

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Kid Koala- Drunk Trumpet.. classic surrealism.. the crutch of technology supporting the irrational- how can you make a record deck sound like a trumpet solo? watch this...


More Flying Nun.. The Verlaines, Bird Dog.

Mary Margaret O'Hara - Florida - surreal song & singing

image added as requested...

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Flann O'Brian-inspired surreal jazz flute song!

As promised back on the Mothership, Katie Elliott Quintet and 'Bicycles'; this is great! Now, as requested, with added picture of some bicycles.

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Festivals

I spent most of the winter visiting festival websites, researching this book. Sadly, I'm not going to be spending the summer visiting festivals - a 10-month old daughter doesn't make it easy. I think we'll try to get to a day of WOMAD, but not sure about camping. Anyway, just wondering:

- Anyone got any festival plans this year?
- Favourite festival/festival performance?
- Anyone have any experience of/tips for festival-going with babies/toddlers?

What, no dub horns?

Stars On 45

I visited my brother in Edinburgh recently. Because of my veripathetic lifestyle in the 80s/90s he is the repository of all my old vinyl. We dug some out and marvelled at how few albums we'd bought in '78-79 and how many great singles there were. Not all punk was wrapped in a plain cover and rubber stamped by the bassist's long suffering girlfriend/boyfriend as you can see here. Have a browse and see if you can name the bands, singles and the colour of the vinyl. Only joking about the last one -that's another quiz. You might find, as I did, that the plain cover you bought in a crappy Woolworth's in Plymouth was widely available with a picture cover (and probably coloured vinyl) in the Virgin records down the road, which your Gran wouldn't let you go into.
Collectors note. I took these singles to 'deletions', upstairs at the old Record and Tape exchange, Notting Hill, where they were assessed by the late great Epic Soundtracks (drummer of Swell Maps). He said they were worth bog all. But I did get a job.

'Ere we go then, 1,2,3,4...

Caption Competition- US Politics Edition!

Looks like the Steenbeck family won't have to pack just yet, it's time to say goodbye to the Hil-Rod with your suggestions for these 2 pictures from Clinton rallies.

Obama

Is he the nominee? I don't predict this will all go smoothly, but at this point it's hard not to feel hopeful.