Keep An Open Mind - Or Else!

I have to admit to being utterly devastated by the dondless silence which has greeted my recommendation over on the all-new, all-singing, not-as-bad-as-we-all-feared mothership this morning.

Plenty of support for Delilah (for which, thanks) but not a squeak in response to my shout for McCarthy. So it's revenge time - I've asked blimpy to make some changes around here so that you are now all forced to listen to my playlists - choice has been removed from the equation.

McCarthy, I know, are not everyone's cup of tea and I'm occasionally surprised to find that they are mine. Sitting firmly in the Marxist corner of the C86 movement-that-was-never-really-a-movement, the Barking quartet (Barking Essex, not barking mad) rocked my world for a few years back in the mid-late 80s.

They were a major influence on The Manic Street Preachers (which again, I know, won't necessarily endear them to everyone in these parts) - Nicky Wire has described their debut album I Am A Wallet as "the most perfect record - a communist manifesto with tunes".

Their work is a strange mixture of rage and pop sensibilities, with large dollops of polemic thrown in for good measure. Here then, are three tracks which fully fit this week's revenge theme.

Should The Bible Be Banned?

A fictional tale of a man who's in prison for murder - his victim was his own brother who was also their father's favourite. The Home Secretary is looking into whether the bible should be banned since the story of Cain and Abel has clearly been the inspiration behind a copycat killing.

Frans Hals

I'm not quite sure what this song is about (OK, yes, I do know who Frans Hals is!) but I'm not sure what the lyrical reference to revenge is all about. I remember reading about an artist who painted a group of civic dignitaries in a less than flattering way but I didn't think it was Hals. Anyway, it's a great song and it fits the revenge theme.

Charles Windsor

This is the best of the lot (revenge-theme-wise) and was covered by The Manics - it was a b-side on their Life Becoming A Landslide EP. I often think of it as the best song that Morrissey didn't write - listen to the lyrics and you'll see what I mean:

"One, two, three, four
Charles Windsor, who's at the door?
At such an hour, who's at the door?
In the back of an old green Cortina
You're on your way to the guillotine"

Let me know what you think - remember a shrug of the shoulders, a gentle smile or a hearty vomit don't come across very well on a blog...

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Monster Mash

Nothing to do with Bobby Boris Pickett and his Crypt Kickers, I'm afraid. Just a rubbish little game to take you through the rest of Friday afternoon.....

Combine two songtitles with common words to create dreamy musical mash-ups like the ones below.

BEACH BOYS vs LAMBCHOP - Surf’s Up With People – A sound the word “lush” was invented for.

MASSIVE ATTACK vs ROLLING STONES - Unfinished Sympathy For The Devil – Funky as hell. Xylophones, congas, wooh hoohs.

ELTON JOHN VS THE GOSSIP - I’m Still Standing In The Way Of Control - None more defiant anthem of sexual freedom spanning the generations.

THE FALL VS PAVEMENT - Free Range Life – Mark E Smith forgives Malkmus and together they upset the Smashing Pumpkins.

DAVID BOWIE VS PUBLIC ENEMY - Rebel Rebel Without A Pause – Bowie meets P.E uptown for some glam rock hip hop.

Jerry Spiller The Opera

No Inspector Blakey here, not even Art Blakey, but three tracks crying out to be paraded in front of a braying crowd on Springer or Jeremy Kyle.

1] Aaron Neville in the early 60s, teamed up with Allen Toussaint at Minit Records for a series of immensely bluesy, cleverly written slices of deep soul, including this wonderfully nasty piece of work. Not exactly preparing her ideally for the lie detector test later in the show.

2] Swamp Dogg doesn't know whether to feel betrayed or horny at this classic squaring (or triangling) of the menage a trois circle (or triangle).

3] I don't care if this makes the A list. I just love it. Every member of my family loves it, and you can't say that about all the music I force upon them. The simply glorious Honey Cone come straight outta Walford with this pregnancy/shotgun wedding revenge fantasy.

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Look What They've Done To Our Blog, Ma

You're going to need an extra dash of the Macallan on your Puffed Wheat this morning - steel yourselves and check out this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/sep/05/readersrecommend5908?commentpage=1

Wha'? Spacing? Legibility? CTRL+F over 14 pages? Heads Must Roll, ideally before tomorrow...

Large Hadron Collider based Caption Competition

Fire away with your captions, please!!

**edit** I've added another Cern photo to aid the hilarity.

The Song Is The Story

Some meanderings about the idea of songs that embody moments or periods in history rather than report on them, here are a few takes on the eyewitness testimony.

Civil Rights: "Black In A White World" - The Watts Prophets
Because my iTunes seems not to allow me to convert m4a files into mp3, this one isn't in the player below so I'm hoping this link will take you to where you can find it (about four tracks down).
http://may1366.podbean.com/

World War One: "And When They Ask Us (They'll Never Believe Me)" - Oh! What A Lovely War original cast recording
A faux-eyewitness account within a work of ironical fiction, but in terms of emotional truth, it's spot-on. Of course, it's utterly a product of the hindsight with which we now view the war. But the construction of that hindsight - whether through the ritual of Remembrance Day, the establishment or adoption of monuments like the fields of white crosses used at the end of Richard Attenborough's film while this song played, or in the way the political theatre pioneered by O!WALW's original director Joan Littlewood created a language with which to revise the Empire's glorious history - is the product of still more historical moments, movements and phases.

Watergate: "Impeach The President" - The Honey Drippers
What I like about this is the innocence and immediacy of the experience it conveys. There's not a whole load of analysis going on - "Some people say that he's guilty/ Some people say give him a chance" - just a huge buzz that a constitutional Unthinkable was in the offing. The protest chant of "Impeach the President" becomes a call to party (and not the jackass or the elephant) in the Honey Drippers' hands and it reminds me of the whoosh of liberation I remember from hearing "God Save The Queen and her fascist regime" in the midst of the silver jubilee celebrations.

Liverpool 8: "Children Of The Ghetto / Stanhope Street" - The Real Thing
Not concurrent with the '81 uprising, or Toxteth Riots as the world outside the L8 postcode knows them, but (like the Watts Prophets' lament) this is a beautiful articulation of the soul of a community living in a pressure cooker. We had some discussion about Liverpool's Capital of Culture activities on the mothership blog week and one of the interesting things about living in a city busy reinventing itself is how it gussies up its history to sell to newcomers and future visitors. Well, I certainly wouldn't say The Real Thing are being airbrushed out of the city's musical legacy, but you wonder what they'd have needed to do to be ranked up there with Atomic Kitten - and that's a crime when you consider the timelessness of their big hits but also when you hear this segment of their conceptual Liverpool 8 medley.

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E is For Elbow ... and for EEEbahgum, they've dunnit!

.

Elbow win this year's Mercury Album Prize . . . bless 'em. I'm off to the fridge to get a drink and celebrate.

Yet Another List

Yet another list post to drive everyone crazy.  What I want to know is: Best album for each artiste? Tried to include some 'Spill faves & lifted some more from our last FM chart, but feel free to add to the list (as long as they have banged out a few albums). You can pass on anyone you don't know or care about, but each choice must be justified in some way (musically, lyricly, personally) otherwise this will be boring & we don't want that:

Al Green, Ballboy, Beatles, Beck, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Bruce Springsteen, Calexico, Can, David Bowie, Drive By Truckers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Elvis Costello, Fairport Convention, Genesis, John Coltrane, Johnny Cash, Jonathan Richman, Kate Bush, Leonard Cohen, Manic Street Preachers, Miles Davis, Mogwai, Mountain Goats, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Outkast, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Sigur Ros, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Sufjan Stevens, Talk Talk, Tricky, The Smiths, The Who, Tindersticks, Tom Waits.

Additions:

AC/DC, Al Kooper, Alabama 3, Bauhaus, Belle & Sebastian, Ben Folds, Billie Holiday, Billy Joel, Bjork, Black, Black Sabbath, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Burning Spear, Chemical Brothers, Cream, Culture, Death Cab For Cutie, Deep Purple, Eels, Elbow, Elton John, Flaming Lips, Gil Scott Heron, Gregory Isaacs, Hothouse Flowers, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Joni Mitchell, Kraftwerk, Lambchop, Marillion, Mark Lanegan, Mercury Rev, New Order, Nina Simone, Opeth, Paul Simon, Pixies, Porcupine Tree, Prince, Procol Harum, Quicksilver, Ray Charles, Richmond Fontaine, Rickie Lee Jones, Ryan Adams, Shack, Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, The Band, The Blue Nile, The Clash, The Cure, The Fall, The Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Throwing Muses, Toots & the Maytals, Toto, Traffic, U2, UFO, Van Morrison, White Stripes, Yo La Tengo

Latest requests:

Akira the Don, Barclay James Harvest, Beach Boys, Blue Oyster Cult, Cowboy Junkies, Neil Young, Pavement, Public Enemy, Rufus Wainwright, St Etienne, Stereophonics, Stevie Wonder, Super Furry Animals, Talking Heads

Hector Zazou (R.I.P)

IS-Hector Zazou
feat. Katiejane Garside

I was defeated, You won the war

As TreeFrogDemon notes, there are a lot of songs about battles. Here are 10 snippets from various fights, wars and skirmishes. Your country needs you to identify those responsible and the titles of their battle hymns.

As you can see there are, annoyingly, 10 random picture clues to match the songs, ranging from the slightly cryptic to the bleedin' obvious.

Go on, how could you ever refuse? You feel like you win when you lose!

1. With a mighty tongue he catches flies, And the palm of his hand incredible size, One great big eye has a focus in your direction, Now the battle is on…

2. The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath

3. And now subversion’s in the air, In the shape of flying bricks!

4. But O, did you see all the dead of Manassas, All the bellies and the bones and the bile?

5. It's demanding, to defeat those evil machines, I know she can beat them

6. The shooting and fighting of the past two weeks continued today 25 miles north-west of Saigon. I wasn't really sure what was going on

7. There's Willy Wright and his boys -one helluva noise, that's Billy's boys! With fully-fashioned mugs, that's Little John's thugs,the Barking Slugs - supersmugs!

8. You rookies haven't done enough laps around the track.You had one hot single but then your album sounds whack. Son, you bore me with your war stories

9. What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?

10. Sätt Själv känner jagsen jag mött dig Historien upprepar sig

Attn: FP

Merz is playing Strasbourg on 8 October with My Brightest Diamond (who are also well worth seeing).

Greetings from Switzerland III

In a comment to my previous post Blimpy asked: they have a wifi connection up a mountain?! Tthe swiss must be very forward thinking..

I managed to take a picture of the heart of the local wi-fi network, see above!

Historical horns Nr. 2

Time for number two in my limited series of three Miles Davis tracks..

Next up is Freedom Jazz Dance, recorded in 1966 for the album Miles Smiles, eight years after Milestones. There was a new, young band behind the trumpeter and it was pushing outwards, experimenting with rock rhythms, starting to take melodies to pieces and explore the resulting fragments, and developing an unparalleled rapport.

Bassist Ron Carter, with his immense technique, took over time-keeping duties, letting mercurial, 20 yr. old drummer Tony Williams off the leash to provide the energy and the impulses, drive the soloists and spark mood changes. Pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter were continually spurred on by Miles to "play what they didn't know"; both were innovative composers and each was forging their own career separately with Blue Note records, but Miles' strength was always that he could provoke or inspire his band members to produce their best work with him, regardless of their side projects.
The album "Miles Smiles" is a wonderfully spontaneous, joyous recording, with numerous fluffs, false starts, and fooling around, as evidenced by the numerous ad-libs and humorous remarks left on the recording by producer Teo Macero. It also contains some of the most compelling jazz ever recorded.

Freedom Jazz Dance is a reworking of a funky track written by Eddie Harris, but is given a completely different rhythmic workover to make it a lot more abstract. On top of a rolling drum intro the horns play a complex melodic line, ending in a dramatic crescendo. The tentative beginning, sounding like a false start, with Miles testing the waters before Wayne Shorter joins him, only heightens the decisiveness of the crashing chord Hancock plays at the top of the theme.
During the solos Williams switches to a loose, stuttering, ever changing backbeat, while Ron Carter subtley manipulates the pulse with a breathtaking range of phrases. But neither of them is really keeping time, despite Williams' metronomic hi-hat: instead the focus of the pulse is shifted back and forth almost telepathically between drummer, bass player and pianist. After Davis' spare, punchy solo, Wayne Shorter continues, building more coherent chains, sinously turning the melody on its head, followed by Hancock's deconstruction of the piece into almost oriental themes. Contrasting this to "Milestones" the constraints of the earlier piece become apparent; in "Freedom Jazz Dance" everything is much more intimate, while at the same time much looser than on Milestones.
Listen to Tony Williams' drumming during the horn solos; how towards the end of the solos he starts to "complete" phrases the horns hint at, and opens up space for them by tilting the emphasis of the rhythm. Miles never embraced "free" jazz, but within the apparently tight groove there's a looseness, spontaneity and reciprocity in this piece which has seldom been carried out with such virtuousity.

Freedom Jazz Dance

Otherwise, check out the (also brilliant)
Eddie Harris original

Songs about battles and suchlike

Trafalgar, by Turner

There are so many folk songs about battles...it's a bit depressing really. So I've added one about the General Strike.

1 Armadas, by Show of Hands
2 The Victory, by Steeleye Span. One of their two-songs-in-one efforts
3 Plains of Waterloo, by Kate Rusby (before she was famous) and Kathryn Roberts
4 The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, by June Tabor. It's the Battle of Gallipoli that the bloke is remembering and, although it was a pretty long battle, to me it still counts as an 'event'.
5 Battle of the Somme, by Fairport Convention
6 Bells of Rhymney, by Oysterband. Pity no-one told them how to pronounce 'Rhymney', but still. It's based on the nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons' and is about the effects of the General Strike on the coalfields of South Wales
7 Too late for donds, but here's Sandy Denny

Armadas
The Victory
Plains of Waterloo
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Battle of the Somme
Bells of Rhymney
Candle in the Wind

Revenge of the histories.

Right.. the top picture is the Berlin Wall, the first weekend that it was breached, I was studying photography and hitch hiked there. Nothing much happened...(at this Point)
By the end of the week you could put your head through that part of the wall as it had been chipped away so much.
I sat on the wall.. had my leg on the East side smashed by a guard on horseback and a machine gun pointed straight at my face.. and a quick lesson in German. "get the fuck off they are gonna open fire" sounds the same in any language.
A broken leg, two broken ankles and many twistsed limbs later (not mine) gave you the indication the East wasn't yet ready for the wall going.
It was the most amazing experience.. I took maybe 19 photos, I don't document, others have a better eye for that.. when I find them (the photos) I might do a little show.

Picture 2 is a page from '(R)EVOLUTION messiah' a graphic novel I designed around the same time.. it was very simple idea that people were fighting for ...I think.
Just the normal right to be free. These are some of the local headlines.. mostly it was just gathering to party or protest.. but those repetative beats didn't half piss off that Thatcher robot.
oh.. some songs that have a bit of history involved.. come on, I could have twistwd it even more.
Hellsongs
De Rosa
Saul Williams
The Wolfgang Press
Sage Francis
DJ Shadow
Spiral Tribe
Rational Youth
Nena

Greetings from Switzerland II

A rainy afternoon in Switzerland is an excellent time to get up to date with the happenings over here and on the 'Spill-mothership over at the Guardiam, lots of interesting stuff, definitely going to check iLIKETRAINS.....

The animal in the picture is a quite young alpine ibex (Steinbock, as it is called over here)that I met yesterday, it was enjoying a pleasant promenade with mom, dad, and three other brothers and sisters, which resulted in a lot more pictures, as they are not that afraid of people, knowing that they are the superior climbers, and probably knowing that they are living in a preservation zone, where they are not hunted by man.....

History Songs

This is historical, right?

Jean Redpath--Mary Hamilton
Carter Family--John Hardy
Mississippi John Hurt--Talking Casey Jones
Bob Dylan--Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
Dylan--Pawn in their Game
GSH--Whitey on the MOon
Mos Def--Dollar Day
Talib Kweli--The Proud
Bushonomics--Talib Kweli
American Terrorist--lupe fiasco
pharoah monch--agent orange
Nina Simone--Go Limp

Esau Mwamwaya strikes again!

'Spill favourite, and prolific fiddler of other people's songs Esau Mwamwaya is back! 

Even though we're still waiting on his debut LP, he's found time to rework Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" in his own special style. The singer from Vampire Weekend guests  on Esau's LP too,  and don't forget that "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was the first ever song to posted on The 'Spill way back in January. 

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa by Esau Mwamwaya

Yet another list!

Here's another list for you, this time it's the top 26 'Spill commenters! 

1. 991 blimpy
   
2. 960 ejaydee
   
3. 937 steenbeck
   
4. 596 frogprincess
   
5. 554 nilpferd
   
6. 511 goneforeign
   
7. 400 darceysdad
   
8. 344 treefrogdemon
   
9. 299 Toffeeboy
   
10. 235 shoey
    
11. 235 saneshane
    
12. 217 carolebristol
    
13. 204 tracyK
    
14. 198 mnemonic
    
15. 187 proudfoot
    
16. 184 glasshalfempty
    
17. 133 tonNL
    
18. 124 snadfrod
    
19. 107 anonymous
    
20. 104 abahachi
    
21. 79 scarymonster
    
22. 54 mr dna
    
23. 51 kalyr
    
24. 49 shiv
    
25. 44 tempusfugit
    
26. 37 gordonimmel
    

Don't know much about history...FP's historical playlist

I almost regret not having kept my Grace Darling story for this week as it would have fitted perfectly. But it gave rise to such a great thread that I'd like to say how much I enjoyed reading all your comments. Erudite and witty as ever...

Well we're "doing history" this week. I live in a city where two historical events took place which were to change our methods of communication forever. In 1440, Johannes Genfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (that's Gutenberg to you and me) perfected and unveiled his printing press. The mass production of books became a possibility and thousands of scribes all over Europe suddenly found themselves out of a job...That's him on the right. Awesome facial aesthetic going on there...

Much later, in 1897, Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the cathode ray tube here. This was the forerunner of the version which you still find in your domestic television set. That's if you haven't yet invested in a super dooper plasma flat screen, the kind that makes me salivate in our local FNAC. Now I have to say it looks just like the kind of glass beaker you found in your school's chemistry lab with some sort of bung in it. But, yes, this gadget allows you to watch 'The X Factor' every week. Yes you do.


Over to you: We're all scattered around the globe - we really should do a RR map of the world sometime. What historical events, battles or discoveries have you got in your area?

Lyrics to Germaine by Garolou Translated

Since the lyrics for Germaine which I provided a link for in the RR blog are in French, here is an English translation with the speakers noted. Follow along these lyrics with the song and it will make the song more meaningful knowing what they're saying.
The song again, is at http://www.imeem.com/406ci/music/eH0NHyXq/garolou_germaine/
This is a great piece of drama as well as a great piece of music - possibly my favorite song of all time.

Why I love Readers Recommend (sincerely)

I was watching 'High Fidelity' last night (I was, I confess, until recently a fan of the book, but not of this wonderful film - very foolish of me!) and it occured to me that it could be a candidate for THE unofficial Readers Recommend movie for the following reasons:

1) It runs the gammut of music like no other movie I can name - as RR tends to do also
2) It recognises that taste in music is important, but not that important and that sharing your enthusiasm with others is the best thing about loving music so much.
3) It has fun with itself in the process of that recognition

These are the very reasons I enjoy being part of The Spill and the RR experience.

Long may you run Amigos. Long may you run.

The Gayest Albums Of All Time?

There's been a wee bit of debate on The 'Spill this week about music lists, and in a timely fashion, a list has turned up. 

Out Magazine, having polled 100+ celeb folk, have come up with what they call "The 100 gayest albums of all time"

Here's the list:

100 The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
99 Joni Mitchell - For The Roses
98 Ferron - Testimony
97 Janis Ian - Between The Lines
96 Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
95 Culture Club - Kissing To Be Clever
94 Hair Original Broadway Cast - Hair
93 Sade - Lovers Rock
92 Morrissey - Viva Hate
91 Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
90 Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
89 Fifth Column - To Sir With Hate
88 Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
87 Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor
86 Madonna - Madonna
85 Nina Simone - Anthology
84 Cyndi Lauper - True Colors
83 Bette Midler - The Divine Miss M
82 Cher - Believe
81 Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah
80 Rufus Wainwright - Want One
79 T. Rex - Electric Warrior
78 Various - The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack
77 New Order - Substance
76 Ani DiFranco - Imperfectly
75 Carole King - Tapestry
74 Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
73 Various - Fame Soundtrack
72 Donna Summer - Once Upon a Time
71 Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
70 Rent Original Broadway Cast - Rent
69 Frances Faye - Caught In The Act
68 Nirvana - Nevermind
67 Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey
66 Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
65 Le Tigre - Le Tigre
64 Patti Smith - Easter
63 Björk - Debut
62 Jeff Buckley - Grace
61 Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
60 R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
59 Bronski Beat - The Age of Consent
58 Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
57 Prince - Dirty Mind
56 Team Dresch - Personal Best
55 David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
54 Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
53 Culture Club - Colour By Numbers
52 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
51 Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
50 Rufus Wainwright - Poses
49 Patti Smith - Horses
48 Cris Williamson - The Changer and the Changed
47 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
46 Madonna - Ray of Light
45 Bikini Kill - Pussy Whipped
44 Pet Shop Boys - Very
43 Prince - Purple Rain
42 ABBA - Gold
41 Melissa Etheridge - Yes I Am
40 Pet Shop Boys - Behavior
39 Laura Nyro And Labelle - Gonna Take A Miracle
38 Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
37 Blondie - Parallel Lines
36 Madonna - Erotica
35 Yaz - Upstairs At Eric's
34 Donna Summer - Bad Girls
33 The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow
32 The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
31 Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstacy
30 Diana Ross - Diana
29 Pet Shop Boys - Actually
28 Queen - The Game
27 Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
26 Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
25 k.d. lang - Ingénue
24 Sylvester - Living Proof
23 Deee-Lite - World Clique
22 The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
21 David Bowie - Hunky Dory
20 Queen - A Day at the Races
19 The B-52s - The B-52's
18 George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. I
17 Lou Reed - Transformer
16 Queen - A Night at the Opera
15 George Michael - Faith
14 Erasure - The Innocents
13 Ani DiFranco - Dilate
12 The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico
11 Various - Hedwig And The Angry Inch Soundtrack
10 Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
09 Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
08 Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
07 Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
06 The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
05 Judy Garland - Judy at Carnegie Hall
04 Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
03 Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
02 The Smiths - The Smiths
01 David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

Thoughts? 

Ancient Historians !

gordonimmel & DarceysDad discuss whether a ( leaky and ) old Yorkshire mill is a cooler mini-RR-social venue than ejaydee & steenbeck's New York City meet.

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Whilst watching our girls run themselves ragged at DarceysSis' birthday party today, we mused on some Historical Events. Apart from agreeing that Smoke On The Water should be a shoo-in this week, the only other concensus we reached was that WW3 will start on-line if Abahachi and richardrj ever find themselves on opposite sides of a definition disagreement (sorry you two!)

Unfortunately we were then distracted by the call for the kids to sit down for the party food. Screams, roars, giggles and cries of "MMUU-U-U-U-MMMM!" gave way to the contented quiet of two dozen 2to9y.o.s tucking in to chips & reformed-abbatoir-sweepings. The staff put on the CD player, and the first song my daughter thus got at her party was . . . Amy's Rehab!!!! . WTF?

Anyway, I'm actually here to post some of the songs which came to mind last night, particularly as I'm struggling to convince even myself that they are worthy of broadsheet archives.

Willard Grant Conspiracy - From A Distant Shore
Rickie Lee Jones - I Was There
Calexico - All Systems Red
Drive-By Truckers - The President's Penis Is Missing
The Sundays - Monochrome

Edit update: I've just realised I must have posted this thread as soon as I loaded the pic, but before I wrote the text & added the tunes! It was (a) accidental, and (b) exacerbated by the fact it took me three goes and an hour-plus to get Boxstr to behave - apologies everyone.

History of the World (Part 1)

In chronological order we start with 1) Stump parting the Red Sea for Moses as played by Charlton Heston 2) Laibach's odd but lovable version of Jesus Christ Superstar 3) Skipping a couple of millennia (oops), we join Clock DVA & the WWII French Resistance 4) Ultravox & a love lost in Hiroshima 5) The Stranglers reflect on the Vietnam War 6) The Smith's, at their most moving, on the impact of the Moors murders 7) Gary Clail & the Tack>head Sound System give Mrs. Thatcher some opposition 8) Mark Stewart takes issue with the 1st Gulf War as only he can 9) Thom Yorke examines the scapegoating, or worse, of David Kelly over evidence supporting the invasion of Iraq 10) Mountain Goats tie it all up for us with love. 

Charlton Heston
Jesus Christ Superstar
Resistance
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Vietnamerica
Suffer Little Children
Hard Left
Digital Justice
Harrowdown Hill
Love Love Love

iLiKETRAiNS

Discover 939764,We All Fall Down,56737,Iliketrains,105718,Elegies To Lessons Learnt,dc7c482ad6fcbb26aefc04c27b65f8d4,71f49c56fc219fa4b63e12e71d37ed60,0,379,11,1!

tuesday: the dodos were playing; the evening happened. arty bar: pints. chairs in the carpark out back, fags, heavy dub on the jukey. the pizza shop above sends down anything you want for a fiver. chuck tells me about the mud at the festival. joey and dante show up. joey's bleached her hair again. she tells me about the men at the hospital who expose themselves despite being heavily medicated. they see things too she says and often attack her. car: drive up the road. joey drives like a maniac. dante says most folk don't like being in the car with her, i can't see why. gig: there's band on stage channelling ian curtis, but he has angelic blonde curls and a well pressed check shirt. wine: dante tells me about the oven he works with. it can get really hot, hot enough to melt metal. euros childs plays on the stage; the benevolent spirit of john peel circles the ceiling. i wonder if i can still spell gorky's zygotic mynci and try and recall the EP of theirs i own. john looks down on me and smiles. i'll never forget you, he says to me. chuck tells me that zurich has a lot of good bands. fags outside on the plastic chairs, one buckles as i sit down. i manage to stay upright; the smoking masses applaud. whiskey. the dodos take the stage and batter the shit out of it. one of them smashes a rubbish bin by way of percussion. when he's not doing this he sits down and has a beer. they play mad freakouts with beautiful melodies but it's almost acoustic. the crowd dig it. i dig it. i dig how heavy it is without any distortion, like dark matter adorned with twinkling constellations.

jodi by the dodos

Truth & Reconciliation

The theme of musical heroes set in early in the Hero Worship theme and it's got me thinking about the way a "music taste" is constructed over years and how that thing, a taste in music, is actually a bogus conceit. I reckon I acquired my "music taste" at an age where everything about me was defined in opposition to what I was not or by what I aspired to be. Such a molten identity - and yet the notion of having a tangible taste that was hermetically sealed (though admission into which was possible if accompanied by a signed reference from John Peel and my elder brother) seemed wholly logical and remains hard to shift.

It's easy now to say that the punk, reggae and new wave that sparked my obsession with music, the blues and soul and jazz that came to define my musical universe, and the hip-hop that subsequently became a passion, all mingle together and with other genres as happily within me as they do on the shuffle feature of my iPod, or in conversations with the RR crowd. But if they do so, it's come after a process that, in my mind, resembles the procedures of the Truth and Reconciliation committee in post-apartheid South Africa. Below are three exhibits: Exhibit A follows on from steenbeck's Donald Byrd discussion as the most eloquent explanation of why this jazz fan came to embrace hip-hop; Exhibit B is an example of a record I would have told myself I hated when it was out, but which has always stubbornly made a play for my affections in defiance of the company it would keep there; Exhibit C is a track that isn't necessarily the greatest piece of music ever recorded, nor indeed the only song anyone should ever bother listening to, except whenever I hear it and find it impossible to deny either proposition. There could have been more exhibits - the point is that I don't think I possess a "taste in music" anymore, just that I'm made up of thousands of musical narratives like these.

Blimpy's idea of a record for each of your record-buying years brought this into focus. What, for example, would I have put for 1979 that would be closest to the truth - The Jam's version of Heatwave, say, which consciously or otherwise prepared the ground for the digging into soul history I still do thirty years later; or something by The Police, whom I know I idolised at the time (until about 1980) but who now just don't do anything for me. Was I labouring under a false consciousness at the time - like those pro-apartheid South Africans whose censored media and privileged lifestyles prevented their innate humanity from connecting with the suffering carried out in their interests? When I became immersed in jazz and resolute that the status of the music, and all Black music, was historically undermined by imperialism and institutional racism, a corollary was that certain of my past musical heroes were, if not dead to me, then in need of a sort of cultural forgiveness. The Jam, Joy Division and Blondie were waved through; The Clash too, but with songs like Train In Vain taking pride of place where Complete Control had been before; Ian Dury emerged as a figure, more relevant than before, who'd been introducing me to Acid Jazz years before Gilles Peterson thought up the term; The Pogues got the odd tune like Rainy Night In Soho through but had to leave the main body of their work behind; The Smiths' reconciliation process was one of the longer ones; U2 never made it. I'm not so hung up about any of this now but I wonder if others have put their own musical heroes through similar processes.

All we have are our narratives. Now I look back, I know there was no Damascene moment that turned me onto any of the genres of music around which most of my listening coalesces. It barely happens with individual acts - there are always odd cases where I can remember a particular name exploding into hero status through hearing them on the radio (Swamp Dogg), taking an almost random chance with one of their records (Sonny Criss) or seeing them live (Curtis Mayfield), but it's largely a combination of influence, incremental increase in affection, or freeing oneself up to admit that, whatever my 13/17/21/25-year-old self may have said about all this, I Love This Music.

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Greetings from Switzerland

Enjoying my holidays in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where (at 2600 m above sea level) I met this super furry animal, staring philosophically in the distance....

Radio Shoe 2

Back due to underwhelming demand, more stories & sounds while we wait for mothership to launch.

Bright Giant Love Balls
Life In A Scotch Sitting Room
Knee 1
The Sacred Erm
arabadabada
My Sister
HandJob
Private Birds
J_________y
Millenium Dome

Songs about Scottish Sea Mist!?!

Living on the banks of the Tay, as I do,  and not very far from the North Sea - when I moved here two and a half years ago I very soon learnt a new word:

"Haar" 

I'll let the bbc weather page explain a bit more: 

"Scotland's weather is a subject close to the heart of her inhabitants. Its variability and uniqueness sets the country aside from many other global destinations, and keeps the Scottish people not just on their toes, but weather wise.

Some of the unique weather phenomenon taking place in Scotland each year includes the effects of the Gulf Stream and Fohn Effect, as well as the notorious North Sea Haar.

On the east coast of Scotland a sea fog, known locally as Haar, often plagues the local residents and ruins what would otherwise be a fine day. It most commonly occurs between April and September, on or near the east coast or in the Northern Isles.

The warm air at the bottom of the parcel is cooled by the cold air below...
It does not usually penetrate far inland, but can filter through valleys like the Great Glen and the Central Lowlands as far as Glasgow. Haar forms when a parcel of warm air passes over the cold North Sea. The warm air at the bottom of the parcel is cooled by the cold air below, until it can no longer 'hold' the moisture that was previously contained within. Therefore, it releases some of the moisture in the form of liquid water through condensation. Add an onshore component like a wind of 5-20mph, and the cooling in the bottom of the warm parcel of air is spread upwards and generates a fog like Haar."

It's very true, many an otherwise good day can be almost ruined by a haar; the most mysterious of all cloud bullies. 

Amazingly talented Folkist musician, Fife resident, and Fence Records associate James Yorkston has written a song "When The Haar Rolls In", and named his new album after it. It's fab too. 

So then, this leads to two questions I'd like to ask youse:

1. Do any of you have any bizarre local weather phenomena? 

2. Can you think of any songs that are the only ones out there in the wide world of music to use a certain word (names and nonsense disqualified, by the way)? 

When The Haar Rolls In by James Yorkston

If you like it, please buy his records here.

POTENTIALLY OUR NEXT COMMANDER IN CHIEF!

OK, For all our friends in the UK and around the world, here's a note of reassurance in case you were worried, you may breathe freely now and sleep soundly. You like that flag, and the guy with the fag? and there's a kid with a gun over there....

Byrd Songs

Places and Spaces
All the Places
Rock Creek Park
Ghetto Thang
Where Are We Going?
Changes

I can't stop listening to this!! And there's no better way to cure a sonic addiction than to post it on the 'Spill. First up, we have my current obsession, Places and Spaces by Donald Byrd. Second, a song that samples it by another obsession, Pete Rock and CL Smooth. Followed by Rock Creek Park--Donald Byrd again, and De La Soul's song Ghetto Thang, that samples it. Finally Where are We Going, by Donald Bird, which could have fit my flute OR my trumpet list, I do believe.

Actually, this also ties in with something May1366 asked on the mothership, about whether anybody has discovered jazz because of hip hop. I still am!! Just the other week I acquired some Cannonball Adderly, thanks to Pete Rock and Nilpferd, and now I'm quite obsessed with Donald Byrd. Does anyone know anything about him? I wikied, and apparently he taught at my alma mater, so now I'm more curious than ever.

What was at Number One when you were born?

What was at Number One in the singles and album charts on the day you were born?

For me it was (single) 'Cant buy me love' and (album) 'With the Beatles'

Curious? Check it.

http://www.everyhit.com/dates/index.html

How long have you been buying records for?

Idolator came up with the idea of picking your fave record for each year that you have been alive. This sort of challenge appeals to me, but I thought I'd narrow it down to fave album for each year that I've been buying records

Sounds easy, eh? 

It's not......not when so many good albums graced one particular year. . .

I had the most trouble in the '91 - '95 bracket, and found it very hard to narrow it down; eventually plumping for the album I listened to the most at the time, and that wasn't easy either. 

I guess what I've found out is that I was most passionate about music from the age of 14 to 19, and that it's been downhill from there. 

I found 2000 a very hard year to pick a good 'un. I'm sure there must be something I've forgotten from then. Perhaps I should have consulted my record collection, rather than going from memory. ..

Here's my list:

1986 - "True Blue" - Madonna

1987 - "Darklands" - The Jesus And Mary Chain

1988 - "Surfer Rosa"  - Pixies

1989 - "Doolittle" - Pixies

1990 - "Nowhere" - Ride

1991 - "Nevermind" - Nirvana

1992 -  "It's A Shame About Ray" - Lemonheads 

1993 - "Siamese Dream" - Smashing Pumpkins 

1994 - "The Holy Bible" - Manic Street Preachers

1995 -"The Bends"  - Radiohead 

1996 - "Everything Must Go" - Manic Street Preachers

1997 -  "Mogwai Young Team" - Mogwai

1998 - " In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" - Neutral Milk Hotel

1999 - "Come On Die Young" - Mogwai

2000 - "Music" - Madonna

2001 - "White Blood Cells" - The White Stripes

2002 -  "Original Pirate Material" - The Streets

2003  - "Elephant" - The White Stripes

2004 -  "KC Rules OK" - King Creosote

2005 - "Silent Alarm" - Bloc Party

2006 - "Passover" - The Black Angels

2007 - "Person Pitch" - Panda Bear

2008 - "Sleight Of Heart" - Malcolm Middleton / "Alas I cannot Swim" - Laura Marling /  "Midnight Organ Fight" - Frightened Rabbit (the jury still has 4 months to consider his verdict, ta!!) 

Over to you guys then...

"But Mother Wants You"

Mad Professor 'black heroes'
Gary Byrd 'The Crown'
Malcolm Middleton 'Superhero Songwriters'

I didn't have time to convert these over the weekend.. I'm listening to Mad prof with Turkish band Baba Zula at the moment since my visit.. so remembered this.

The Crown was the first 12" I owned.. a 45rpm single was a big thing in 83ish.. listen out for Stevie Wonder.


Superhero Songwriters was my first thought for this.. but it didn't convert on my first post.

Aidan Smith 'song to Delia Smith'
Spearmint 'Julie Christie'
Dogs Die In Hot Cars 'Celebrity Sanctum'

These just make me smile, with cross over to the famous people topic years ago, pre 'spill.
The Stills 'Allison Krausse'
Aidan Moffat 'The Sixth Stone'

Slightly odder song subjects...
Drat and double drat.. still forgot to post
Kim Wilde 'Shane'

A Couple Of Local Heroes

1. Mentioned this in passing on the blog. New York City paying tribute to a neighbourhood hero.
2. Theme tune to the Bea Franklin sitcom - about the heroism of the eponymous heroine


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No Heroes, No Cowards

Room for a little plug here...an extract from 'No Heroes, No Cowards' by Hawtin Mundy:

"We climbed up the bank on the other side and we went a little way then we stopped and turned round and I looked across No Man's Land. There weren't a shot being fired, but it was lit up like daylight because they kept firing Very lights in the sky. When we looked across there you could see all blokes laying dead all over the place, it were lit up as clear as that. If only a artist, a well known artist could have stood there with us and painted that scene as it was then there and took it back and hung it in the Cabinet headquarters of other countries, they'd never dare declare another war if they sat and looked at that. Years later when we got old, my old darling, she always used to read from the Good Book before we went to sleep. What I can recall mainly was the little bit she used to read "As I passed through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil." I always remembered that and I used to say then, "I did pass through the valley of death and I felt no evil." Those people that I killed, deliberately killed, I didn't hate those chaps, I didn't know them, I didn't. I'm sorry and ashamed for doing it because those young chaps might have been nice young chaps with families with a couple of little kids and all that. It's awful. There's nothing brave about it, heroes and cowards, there's no such thing. I don't believe it."