Back To Nature

And It Stoned Me
Black Forest (Lorelei)
When The Roses Bloom Again
Cherry Blossoms
Blue Lagoon
Sketch For Dawn I
Bird Of Cuzco
Nice Weather For Ducks
And Then So Clear
Fields
Country Boy
(Nothing But) Flowers

Pants of the Week

Inspired by the recent discussion here about pants, I went shopping today and found these. No more fumbling in my pocket to turn the volume up on a favorite song or skip past one of those 'wtf was I thinking' tunes. The five buttons on the outside of the left thigh pocket on my new leather leiderhosen control my iPod.

Watch for me on public transit near you. I'll be the one yodelling too loud.

Aloha Hawaii

More Scottish Indie i'm afraid!

I used to listen to a lot of the stuff, but have been led astray into noisier and dronier American waters of late. But thanks to Blimpy's infectious enthusiasm, the old flame has been rekindled....and imagine my joy when this lovely 10" arrived in my postbox yesterday and the seemingly disparate worlds of Scottish indie and droney noise unify to form one glorious whole!

This is a collaboration between Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai and old Beardey from Arab Strap and I think it's absolutely gorgeous.

Aloha Hawaii

Swings And Roundabouts

To prove you can shoot an indie video pretty much solely in a play park, here's the Joy Formidable on seesaws:

That should keep me noise-popped up until The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart LP turns up on my doorstep. Alarmingly, they're giving away the excellent track above and all the rest of the album for free on mp3 here. 

And now, here's King Creosote mostly on some roundabouts: 

King Creosote has signed with the amazing Domino for his next LP, due April, which should be just fab. 

If anyone can think of any other videos that feature play parks, please post in the comments, or any other tenuous music links at all really. What would you like to see? Beth Ditto on a trampoline? Joy Division on those wee animals on springs? Belle and Sebastian on monkeybars? 

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

Brains for the main course and then a wee bit of perversion for afters...or at least that's how the fillums went. Gremlinfc had such a fime mop of hair for this one, which centred around a secret vice, which needed others to get success. Can't give too many clues away as it's quite an easy one this...

I've been trying to give it up, but it's one of those nights....

More Vice

Biting My Nails
Tremendous Pain
The Winker's Song (Misprint)
Glamorous Glue
Tupperware Stripper
Bales of Cocaine
Jism
The Booze And The Drugs

You don't drink, don't smoke - What do you do? FP's Vice Playlist

Chocolate, in case you're wondering. In all shapes and forms. It ranges from a simple Cadbury Fruit and Nut, to anything dark with orange zest to the humble After Eight. I just adore the stuff. There. Haven't done one of these for while but I felt compelled to this week because it's a splendid subject and covers two RR no-hopers which I'd actually like to defend here: String and Phil Collins. Must be off so enjoy. Oh and....

What's yours....?

Découvrez Adam & The Ants!

Idol Vice

Happy Valentines day to all!

Drawing Curtains
Outback Self Abuse
Sex with Strangers
Sinny Sin Sin
Punish me with Kisses
Orgy
Greetings in Braille
Beware the Nubile Miscreants
Light in Her Window
Cactus
Bad Old Man
Women tied up in Knots
Sitty Pretty
Rippin Kitten

1 Buck 65

2 Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra

3 Marianne Faithfull

4 Roots Manuva

5 The Glove

6  The Glove [Robert Smith Vocal Demo]

7 The Elected

8 Of Montreal

9 Golden Virgins

10 Pixies

11 Baby Bird

12 Bongwater

13 Brendan Benson

14    Goldenboy with Ms. Kitten

Secrets of the Gremlinfc

The thrills of the "Matrix" were unequalled for me and all that bullet-stopping is enough to wear even a toughnut like me out. So we moved on. The idea of a fillum where the character's secret vice was a major talking point in t'cinematic world seemed a great one when I saw yon script. Blimey what a schocker! So , you Spillers, the question is...what is my secret vice that I am so lovingly preparing here in me best whistle? it's a wee bit gruesome...

Ain't nobody's Business

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De La Soul--Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa
Belle And Sebastian--Lord Anthony
Back Door Man--Howlin Wolf
Ain't Nobody's Business-Mississippi John Hurt
T'Ain't Nobody's Business if I do--Bessie Smith

Something nasty in the woodshed

I think I'm on to something with this shed business. It's not just a bloke thing either - I'm sure I could use a good shed, only I have a whole house to myself so I don't really need one.

The last song is about a serial killer, and it's by my son's band the In and Outlaws. Their record will be coming out soon and I'll be happy to send one to any RR-er.

A Solitary Life - Richard Thompson
Doctor of Physick - Fairport Convention
Evangeline - Mary Gauthier
Dirty Work - Steely Dan
Devil Down In Me - the In and Outlaws

The Sweeney

Gagged & Bound
Shame
Pssyche
Come To Daddy
Dangerous Sex
Crabs
The Secret Life Of The Big Black Suit
I Like Birds
Stalker Fever
You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess
Forbidden Love

Neko Case

A new Neko Case album is coming soon, you can download her new single somewhere around here...

...and, as she is one of the most symphatic people around, she says a nice "thank you":

musicals

I feel bad saying that I hate musicals. I don't hate them all. I do like some of the kid's ones that Toffee mentioned, like Oliver & Mary Poppins, and, yes, Tincanman, I like singing in the rain. And I think Ginger Rogers is unbelievable--smart, sassy, wry, and beautiful in a way that isn't often movie star material. But I seem to like musicals either completely, insanely over-the-top, like Busby, above (the fun starts at a few minutes in). And even then I'm not sure I could watch the whole movie. Or ironical, like the movie Blackpool, below, which I liked a lot, but admittedly watched in parts on youTube, so what do I know?



What does everybody else like in a musical?

Improv Everywhere

I like improv everywhere. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's killer. We could probably plan a 'Spill-cast international action that would rule the universe. But in the meantime, here are two that I like, and you can look on the youTube channels to explore more...



I hate musicals, but I love this...

INDIE spirit

So ‘Spirit of Independence’ then?

Once upon a time when I was about 19 and finishing college I wondered what on earth to do… luckily there was a recession going on so nobody gave me a job.
I bartered designs for club nights/ t-shirts/ record-CD-tape covers and backdrops and got free entry and beer everywhere I went.. as my dad was a farmer, he’d visit once in a while a leave sacks of spuds, fruit and veg for our cold store (the corner of my room) life was good and vegetarians always wanted to share houses with me.

So what on earth has this got to do with independence I hear you all cry…
Well in those days the pubs had to shut in the afternoons- weird, but true- so between opening times and court cases (slowing down the poll tax hearings) we had to do something.
Those in bands used our pub for practise sessions and I used the tables to cut and paste magazines together.. a local fanzine was born.. it was fun and good enough to have all of its ideas stolen by the university after the first issue.

But this wasn’t good enough for me and my mate.. we wanted a proper magazine with music free with each issue (this was a time when a tape stuck on Select/ Lime Lizard/ Melody Maker was a thing of joy!) so I designed a dummy issue of ‘flux’ (not the flux magazine that is published nowadays) and sent it off to indie labels the ’world’ over.
We got a great response.. some even payed for advertising!
But the best thing was the records dropping though the door every week to review and CDs –couldn’t afford CDs- we had to steal a CD player after we got so many- the FUN.

TIP 1 for any aspiring label bosses- sending out music to magazines is still good and cheaper now days- but make sure they have published something- indie publishing is in fine health – they need to fill pages, you need publicity- it hangs about in peoples lives longer than a link on a computer screen.
Stack gives you an idea of the different magazines out there that could help:

http://www.stackmagazines.com/

now I’m not a head honcho of a magazine empire so obviously that failed, but we did still get music onto disc and into peoples lives.. because it’s all about the music right?
Right… and wrong..
Right, because that’s why you want a label and why the bands want you to push their stuff.
Wrong, because people don’t just pick up and purchase any old CD or Vinyl.

TIP 2 fund the bands music.
Get it on an advert!
Or know someone in television who will use the songs as background in their TV shows- this funds a fair few releases- doncha know
neither of these is the simplist of routes and the screams of ‘sell-out’ can be heard across the Indie nation.. so back to my old favourite: T-shirts, (luckily for me- when I’m asked to design them)


‘The kids’ will listen all day at a gig or festival and love your new signings - but wont for the most part stump up some cash- there and then- for a record or CD.. there are some good reasons for this:
1 you could lose the record.
2 you could brake it.
3 it’s a logistical nightmare if you’re lucky enough to get a snog..
(the corners are sharp, there could be an accident. If you bend down to place your purchase on the floor, you could be mistaken and go in for a kiss elsewhere. And Vinyl squeezed between breast and chest is seldom in anyone elses fantasies.

But Band T-shirts are just slipped on over what you are wearing and if you’ve got the T-shirt from the first ever gigs in limited designs the Indie snob is ever so happy.
Also badges –or buttons, to the rest of the world- cost nothing to produce and can be sold cheaply or given away.. all good.
TIP3 The next thing to do is get a venue to let you have a label night (blackmail always works for this one) – this is always fun- getting any bands organised to do anything on the same day is always fun- they will also have to sleep on your sofas and floors if they are not local to you- with cleaning cost and disastrous fly posting you WILL lose money. This is essential. If you don’t have good stories to tell, you are just a machine selling stuff…. If it all goes swimmingly, make things up.
Jarvis loved my friends’ first night, even though there was only 32 people in attendance and my dog bit a hole in the rare groove 12” the DJ was about to play.

Also get to know the local DJs (clubs/ pubs and internet radio) and bribe them to play your stables songs.. this only works if they are dropped into sets seamlessly.. your anti-folk isn’t going to sit well in an Electronic body music set and vice versa.

TIP 4 Be unique… okay, don’t b-unique, that label already exists.. just try something that suits you.
I come at this from a design direction so old style 4AD and Factory had a really strong presence or 2 tones logo: think overall- you hope to have more than one band signed, and they should be individual- but a house style in design or sound can go a long way.

TIP 5 Bloody well love the music and the designs and the late nights and the fact that you’ll have bands kipping on your sofa and you’ll have to cope with manufacturers and petulant artists and shoddy payments and it’ll all go wrong.

My son was about to be born is the reason I didn’t continue in INDIE label adventure- to and fro from Germany and out every night- wasn’t what I wanted to do.
My friends continue in their own style and even though it’s so much work.. they find it so fulfilling. (excuse the plug)

http://alison.noexperiments-production.com/index.php?id=57
*as I can not distinguish letters the correct way around -this post was started at 2 o’clock this afternoon- I will never attempt a wordy post again- pictures and music lists only.
p.s if you ever want artwork from me- make sure the lettering and sentences are correct- I cannot edit or indeed tell if they are wrong!
The Pooh Sticks
Spearmint
Jeffrey Lewis
LCD Soundsystem
Earl Zinger
Ballboy

Save comp memory for better things

Digsby is a newish 'next big cool thing' that lets you run and manage all your IM, email, and social network (including facebook, my space, etc) accounts from one easy to use application. Download, install, follow simple step by step instructions, presto - you all done. Can use for Linux, Windows and Mac.

It works great and is only a fraction of the drain on your comp that running all these things seperately does. (I've tried it out using Mrs Tin as a guinea pig cause she does all that social and chat crap, and it works great).

Oh, and it is free. It does ask if you want to install various toolbars and crap at the startr of the install, so just click DECLINE on each of those windows and it loads clean.

Cheers
Tin

30 Minutes Over Tokyo - Spirit of Independence

"Are you down with the underground?"

This is the essential question being posed for this second podcast. What is underground? Does it matter? Should we buy independent? What is independent these days anyway? What do you do when bands you like suddenly get big? Do they change? Do you?Who cares?!

All of these issues and less are tackled in no depth whatsoever in what ended up with me just playing some tunes from my favourite labels. There's the now customary cover version (my favourite ever!), underground hip-hop, more Japanese garage and a new feature, "Now and Then" which takes a look at an artist/band/label/genre and plays a tune from back in the day back to back with a more recent offering.

With a couple of epic tracks to finish Part A and start Part B, I decided to pilfer Toffeeboys idea and put a quiz in the middle. Pit your brain against the mindset of the Japanese nation and see if you can work out the wonderful world of Japanese English expressions! Plenty of 'Spill points up for grabs!

Again, all feedback and suggestions more than welcome.

30 Minutes Over Tokyo #2 Part A
Japanese English Mini Quiz
30 Minutes Over Tokyo #2 Part B

New Camera Obscura (at last!)

Here's one I've been waiting for for what seems like bloody ages - the sublime sounds of one of Glasgow's finest bands - Camera Obscura have returned at last! 

This is the title track from their new LP and is being offered as a free download on their website.

My Maudlin Career by Camera Obscura

Uplifting melancholia doesn't really get any better than this! 

Next time I say let's go some place like Bolivia...

Watch Me Go - Richard Thompson
Henry Martin - Joan Baez
Sovay - Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick
Gold Rush Brides - 10,000 Maniacs
King Henry's Conquest of France - Richard Thompson
Shades of Gray - Robert Earl Keen

Adventures in Testing

Let's see if we can make Tin'sBox work - still prefer meat as a theme of the week so just one piece of nonsense - takes about a minute in for something familiar & fooled around with that relates to this week's official theme. Don't want to rain on the parade, but not sure this will be a lasting alternative unless we show some restraint in how much is thrown into the box (we've used collectively over 75% of the free storage capacity already), getting flagged for excessive bandwidth use doesn't sound like much fun either. Thanks to Tin for coming up with this.


Put The Hammer Down

I am attempting a dropbox hotlink. Please stand back.

This is a hotlink from dropbox (I hope)

i like b-sides, for what it's worth

I've not tried this and haven't caught up with RR tunes to listen to never mind searching for even more new stuff, but some of you may have interest in this.

Web-based application i like b-sides takes a peek at your uploaded iTunes library and, based on your listening habits and collection, suggests new tracks to check out.

To use i like b-sides, browse your computer to find the XML file that contains your iTunes database—and consequently all of your music information, most frequently played songs, rated songs, etc.—zip it up and upload it on the webapp's main page. Once you've uploaded your musical fingerprint, i like b-sides analyzes your library and suggests new music that you may be unaware of, as well as songs in your collection that you may have overlooked.

The site suggests a few dozen songs at a time, with audio previews and purchase links for the iTunes store and Amazon. If the suggestions seem a bit off, you can always hit the shuffle button and get a whole new list of suggestions.

i like b-sides

A Snow Adventure!

Adventures in the snow, and one of the best OPO (anag.) songs ever written. 

Grrrr...

Boxstr is driving me crazy, so I've just posted some I already had in my files plus some youTubes. Been stupidly busy this weekend, so I don't have time to fuss with it, or listen to anybody else's...Sorry. I'll try to sort it all out tomorrow.








Black Jack Davey
Black Jack Davey
Neighborhood #2 Laika
J'ai Marie un Ouvrier
Banjo Pickin Girl

Dropbox access

As some of you may know, we are trying out a utility called Dropbox which lets us share tunes.

Most of the tunes nominated this week are available, for instance.

Dropbox is open to all Spill members, but works by invite only so you'll have to email rr@tincanland.com if you want an invite emailed back to you.

Heaven Knows Where We Are Going

We Know We Will. One of the finest hymns to life anywhere by a severely under-rated band, perhaps because few people were exposed to them, who knows. Woyaya came complete with flying elephant Roger Dean cover, so had every chance. Live they were sensational. This perfectly fits the adventure we are all on.
"It will be hard, we know
And the road will be muddy and rough
But we'll get there
Heaven knows how we will get there
We know we will"

It moves me like Nkosi sikele afrika moves me, deep in my spirit. I commend it to thee and thine, and, of course, the A-list.

Interfered with by Blimpobean.com

it's caper time...

adventure has been a tough one.. it's so easy to go down the traveling route... i'm hoping some of these are new to you lot... if anyone has any tracks sampling the Italian Job please post.. (I think 'it's caper time' got in on soundtracks)

1- Supposed to be a Gas Regular fries

2- Song About Traveling The Innocence Mission

3- The Runaways I Am Kloot

4- The Ride Of Your Life Gift Of Gab

5- going south-adrenalin mix The Wolfgang Press

6- The Escapist The Streets

7- Holiday Abroad Shack

8- Ride Into The Sun Luna

9- Any Port Non-Prophets

10-Majic Flat My Computer

11- Wicked and Weird Buck 65

12- Good Ship Celebration

(and I'm not comfortable enough with dropbox to try this on there yet!)

1 gas
2 traveling
3 runaway
4 the ride
5 going south
6 escapist
7 abroad
8 sun
9 any port
10 majic flat
11 wicked
12 good ship

Adventures og the Gremlin kind

Well, there i was back in the days , my cop show behind me and the slasher-genre fast becoming old-hat and an up-and-coming director snapped me up for another innovative fillum- and what a role it was! As you can see it was a bit dangerous though...what a lot of people don't realise is that we actually did those things in the fillum - they didn't actually have enough money for fancy effects but luckily they had loads of hard boogers like yours truly - can you spot it?

My kind of adventure

This here is a reasonable example.

Especially for Gordonimmel :)

Watch the entire audience vanish a couple of seconds in.

Dropbox update & this week's noms now in

Howdy folkeroos
If I keep our dropbox under 2 gigs, you won't have overflow problems. So I'll delete stuff roughly on a last in first out basis.

Many of this week's nominated tunes are in a folder called ...adventures. I usually collect noms in a folder for listening and then put it on my ipod as a playlist, so easy enough to upload to dropbox too. Anything you want to add, feel free.

Anyone without dropbox access, give your email addy to me or one of the others and ye shall receive an invite.

NOTE: The RR dropbox syncs with a My Dropbox folder on your PC, so ONLY COPY songs into and out of the RR dropbox.

Any problems with dropbox, tough. Only kidding, feel free to ask. Also, sharing is intended for sampling only. Please support the bands you like.

Oh and btw, anything you put in the Public folder (copies, remember) of your own Dropbox can be shared with anyone. On the dropbox web interface, right click on any file in your Public folder and get a URL (similar to boxtsr) that you can copy and post on the Spill. At least that's the way it is supposed to work. *fingers crossed for an alternative to boxstr when its being patchy.

[Rob, you are welcome to this for research purposes]

Yum

Slightly worrying, am more inspired by Shane's theme than the official one, so here's some more meaty goodness, bon appetit:
Beef
Bicarbonate Of Chicken
Tropical Hot Dog Night
Shake Hands With Beef
Swiss Colony Beef Log
Pigs
Hamburger Lady
Tape Kebab
Abattoir Blues
Forkboy
The Cannibal Hiking Disaster
Eat Beef

My New Pants

Forgive the indulgence but I want to speak for a moment, if I may, about some trousers I bought last week in a popular Swedish High Street chain of affordable fashion-mongers. They confuse me a little. You see I'm not quite whether they make me look like I'm trying to be an achingly cool young snowboarder or an aching hipped old golfer but, nevertheless, I'm really rather enjoying wearing them.

They may be a strange blue/grey tweed check type of combat pant. They may be something like trousers I used to wear when I was young enough to know better. They may be, frankly, ridiculous. I may well stop wearing them forever in about another week.

However. I can't quite think of anything else to put on at present. I want to make them fit with all my shirts, jumpers, t-shirts and shoes. I want them to be right for any occasion and I feel really rather oddly good wearing them.

And, you know, I get like that with music sometimes too. Like, for instance, at the moments I just can't stop listening to an album that was out midway through last year by The Gaslight Anthem. It sounds like the Killers doing Springsteen covers at a Jim Steinman convention. It's called The '59 Sound. And I'm hooked.

Its the only record that goes on at the moment, even though I know it probably wont last out the winter. There are other albums screaming for attention but not receiving it. I know that I shall probably never listen to it again after another week or two and yet, right now, its all that matters. This has happened to me before, of course, often with those more (cough) commercially manufactured of bands (coughFallOutBoycoughPigeonDetectivescoughsplutter), so maybe I'm just a sucker. But when it feels this good, who cares?

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So, does this ever happen to you? What bands or albums could be described as YOUR - for want of a better phrase - blue-tweed-baggy-checked-goon-pants? Do tell.

Veggie Meat ya all!

due to the trades descriptions act this post title has been changed!!!

Bongwater-chicken pussy
Brakes-spring chicken
Von Sudenfed-chicken yama
Surf City-canned food
Shout out Louds-meat is murder
Aberfeldy-vegetarian restaurant
DJ Format- ill culinary behaviour
Aesop Rock-food clothes medicine
Fini Tribe- animal farm
Ok I possibly don't own any metal.. but I thought the poll down the side needed a balanced playlist...

The Wheels @ 100 Club

The Wheels

The Skulls

The Mitch

Twistin' the night away

The "RR Massive"

                                            

Help!

Hey Spillers!

I need your help!

I have to come up with some music video ideas, and I thought I'd throw it out to you all for suggestions. I'm sure between the collective Spill brain we can come up with the best music video of all time.

Here's the demo:

The budget is pretty minimal. 

Ready, steady, GO! 

Play Me!

****edit**** still no joy on the techy front, sorry folks - it's jazzy pop though!! 

Lux Interior - by way of a tribute

I was trying to think of a suitable way to recognise the passing of the frontman of The Cramps. For me, a wonderful band - keepers of many a very important flame in popular music; trashy aesthetics, stripped down sounds, balls, energy, attitude...fun, goodness knows.

Like the Ramones, they spoke from the epicentre of somewhere very important to popular culture. In many ways, the best things about pop culture (as envisioned with a guitar slung around its neck) were brought back to life by them again and again with songs like 'Human Fly', 'People Aint No Good', and 'Can your pussy do the dog?'. If you couldn't have fun at a Cramps concert, you probably couldn’t have too much fun anywhere. And its the fun I will remember.

For this reason, my tribute to them is from a man who (for a while anyway) seemed to at least partially embody that spirit and who (I like to believe) has at least one of their records pon his iPod. The fact that this tribute was done in lego (a plastic classic) seems particularly appropriate. Hail to the Cramps!

Japanese Prog

With all this Prog and 70's rock floating around, now's a good a time as any to show how they did it in Japan.

Far East Family Band were from the mid 70's and sound like it...! I've got 2 albums of theirs and love them both.

Shoey's Album of the Month

No it's not by a collective of animals. here's a little taste:
Album of the month

RIP - Liverpool's second best DJ

.

I'm sad now. Phil Easton died. I grew up listening to The Great Easton Express, and used to take great delight in listening to Phil talk about the ace gig he'd been to the night before, as it was in the days when, chances were, I'd been there too. His "interviews" with Rick Wakeman were side-splitters; like overhearing the funniest conversations ever from the two blokes sat next to you in the pub.

*Sniff!*

All it'd take now to completely ruin my day will be a defeat for the bizarrely Keane-less Reds . . .

http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/easton/3013206/Memories

I saw the light

Alas, too late to post in this weeks RR, the ultimate feeling of luck of seeing the light, as performed by the Dutch duo Pigmeat, including some fine kazoo and "kuttepiel", a Hank Williams cover .....

Snigles

Apologies in advance here, this post is going to take up a lot of page space.

The Rhyl-Playlist/Welsh-Puns tangent over on RR got me thinking, and one of the songs I could have put on my playlist didn't appear because I couldn't actually remember the song title. That got me digging through my dusty pile of 7" vinyl, and THAT unearthed some long-lost tunes I really used to love.

Well thanks to the power of youtube, I've managed to find videos for quite a few. So apropos of ... nothing in particular, some random songs from the DsD vault:

1. Space Art - Onyx. 70's synthrock that may appeal to those not horrified by the ELP mentions this week.

2. Whitesnake - Come On. From the Snakebite EP (that also gave me my first version of Bobby Blue Bland's Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City), this one proves the Marsden/Moody version could rock.

3. One The Juggler - Passion Killer. Hasn't actually aged as well as my memory thought it had! A kind of proto-Levellers, maybe?

4. Notorious - The SWALK. One of the youtube commenters compared this to INXS; maybe, but only if you fed them on raw meat for a month or two. And be warned, a migraine-inducing video with the frequency of camera sweep and shot change.

5. Rickie Lee Jones - My Funny Valentine. I still can't find a digital version of RLJ's version of Walk Away Renée for ejaydee, so this will have to do in the meantime.

Are you being throttled?

I'm not tech savvy enough to promise the answer this gives is right, but I did get it from a very good source.

It's called glasnost, and is a web site which sends a mock torrent to and from your machine to test if your ISP is throttling torrent traffic. It takes but a few minutes to run, and you'd want to do it in prime time when the ISP is most likely to be up to tricks.

Bootprints on the lawn

I'd never seen this King Creosote video for "Bootprints" before today - it's so good! Especially Pictish Trail's barmy eyeballs, and a very naked Uncle Beesley by the sea. Fife For Life, oh yes! 

***edit**** youtube seem to be playing silly buggers, so click here instead. 

Panic Room, Swansea and Kingston

If Abahachi wonders if he'd have been better off seeing Panic Room on Saturday, I started my live music for 2009 by seeing them twice, in two completely different cities.

While Friday night's gig in Swansea was really a warm-up for the high-profile London show the next day, it also featured a one-off guest appearance from violinist Liz Prendegast, who'd played on several songs on the album "Visionary Position".

The Garage is quite a nice little venue; capacity of perhaps 200, although it was nowhere near full. Unfortunately the gig did suffer from a disappointingly high level of background chatter which was noticeable during the quiet bits. And everyone hung at the back of the room despite Anne-Marie Helder trying to persuade people to move forward.

Panic Room's set suffered badly from technical glitches, the worst of which was Anne-Marie's microphone not being switched on at the very beginning, resulting in a false start to 'Electra City'. But the band managed to rise above the gremlins, and played an entertaining and varied set lasting not far short of two hours. While they played some favourites from their debut album, such as the atmospheric epic 'Endgame' and the arabesque 'Apocalypstick', those amounted to something like a third of the set.

Some of the newer material they'd been playing at the end of last year have already become live favourites, such as the spiky guitar-driven rocker 'Go' and the industrial-sounding 'Black Noise', and they added another couple of brand new songs for their first live airing; of those '5th Amendment' was the most impressive. Anne-Marie did her customary mid-set acoustic solo spot, of which the a cappella 'Hadditfeel' was the highlight. They ended with their groove-orientated cover of Led Zeppelin's 'No Quarter', including a few bars of 'Kashmir' for good measure. When she joined them on stage, Liz's electric violin added an extra dimension to the sound, especially on the 'Apocalypstick' and 'No Quarter'. I'd love to see her accompany the band for a whole tour.

Saturday's gig at The Peel was the replacement for the show in April cancelled due to power failure, and this rescheduled gig attracted the largest crowd I've seen at a Panic Room gig to date, while I don't think they quite sold out, the place was pretty much full. Support was prog veterans Jump, who delivered a highly entertaining set; a band I'm getting to like more and more every time I see them. John Dexter Jones is a great frontman; while he looks a bit like Morrissey, he sounds more like Fish; you can certainly hear the influence of both Marillion and Fish's solo material in their sound.

Panic Room then delivered the best performance I've seen them play to date. Playing a shorter set than the previous night, they went pretty much full tilt all the way through, high energy levels, fantastically tight, and hugely appreciated by the crowd.

What I love about this band is that while they're all clearly virtuoso musicians, they always play exactly what the songs need and no more; they never descend into the sort of self-indulgent noodling that 'prog' is all-too frequently accused of. And I think the fact that I've got several of their new songs stuck in my head means they're capable of writing memorable songs that ought to appeal to mainstream audiences. And after many years as a backing singer to Rachel Jones in Karnataka and more recently to Heather Findlay in Mostly Autumn, Anne-Marie Helder more than proves she's now in the same league as either of them when it comes to fronting a band herself.

Their next gig is in Stocksbridge near Sheffield in March.

More Luck

Not sure if I'll get pilloried for this one.



But I like them, well I like their early stuff.

I couldn't find any film of the band in their heyday, unfortunately.

I saw them at the Oval cricket ground in 1972, on a bill that also included Focus, Genesis and Wishbone Ash.

Once

Apologies for being a 'Spill hog tonight but I've just watched one of the best films I've ever seen and since it's essentially a musical, I wanted to share it with all you lovers of fine music. It'll probably turn out that everyone knows it anyway but I'd never heard of it...

It's called 'Once' and it was directed by John Carney (ex-Frames bass player). It stars Glen Hansard (The Frames' vocalist and guitarist who also starred in The Commitments) and a young Czech actress called Markéta Irglová. They're both recovering from failed relationships and it's about how their mutual love of music helps them to believe in themselves and to rebuild their lives.

It really is a life affirming film and I can't recommend it enough.



Edit: Link to the official Once website.

You lucky, lucky bastards

We'll start with a classic bit of Python ...



... then move on to the Fast Show ...



... and then we'll have some music, kicking off with The Lightning Seeds and Lucky You. Ian Broudie, I have to agree with gremlinfc, rather blotted his copybook with his involvement in the 3 Lions atrocity. Having said that, the proceeds probably paid for a small extension, chez Broudie, and possibly even a garage conversion/games room. Whichever way you look at it, this is a fantastic pop song and I don't feel any need to defend my recommendation of it.

Next up we have Dean Friedman's Lucky Stars. I don't think the song is quite on topic but when has that ever stopped me? I'm still determined to get Dean Friedman on the RR A-List - let's just hope that Mr Fitzpatrick is an admirer of the whiny-voiced one. I know I am...

Track number 3 is The Strokes' Trying Your Luck. I'm not a huge fan of theirs but I played Is This It? rather a lot when it was first released and I think it stands up fairly well despite the appalling, Spinal Tap 'smell the glove' style cover - what were they thinking????

Here's one that you might not expect from me. It's Johnny Cash with That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) from American III: Solitary Man. I love the work he did with Rick Rubin - particularly this album where you can hear his voice is breaking up. He's vulnerable, but he had so much still to offer and, even though he knew he was dying, he retains a passion for the sheer joy of singing.

And then we have a lovely track by the post-Victoria Bergsman version of The Concretes. It's called If We're Lucky We Don't Get There On Time and ably demonstrates that there's still life in Sweden's finest indie poppers.

Next it's this weeks tangenital nom (courtesy of theboydaz): I present to you the one and only Go-Betweens with The Wrong Road. I'll let the song speak for itself - just listen to the lyrics for a fine example of story-telling in pop music at its very best.

And last but not least it's Ben Folds with The Luckiest. Simply gorgeous. 'Nuff said. Enjoy...

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Gilad Atzmon 31/1/09: Hope you like our new direction...

Okay, so he didn't actually say that, but...

He was brilliant, channelling Parker and Coltrane (and to my ear bits of Dexter Gordon and George Coleman) in staggering, break-neck improvisations on classic standards like I Didn't Know What Time It Was. In his previous records there was always so much else to marvel at - the sound, melding jazz with Middle Eastern influences, the writing, the overall conception - that his virtuoso playing was rather over-looked, or noted almost in passing; now, out-front in a straightahead jazz quartet playing straightahead jazz standards, it's unmistakable. And yet, if that isn't exactly damning with faint praise, it ought to be; after all, what is mere virtuosity and brilliance when one is expecting, on the basis of past performances, something extraordinary?

The new album, In Loving Memory of America is officially launched in March; I picked up a copy last night and so have listened to it only twice as yet. It's a tribute to his memories of the idea of America, from hearing Bird With Strings at the age of 17; new versions of some of the songs from that album and some of his own, with long-standing playing partners and a string quartet. It's lovely (you can hear the version of Everything Happens to Me at www.gilad.co.uk), some of the playing is fabulous, and, heaven help us, it would do very well as background music for the next drinks party. Maybe it will grow on me, maybe it will become a favourite - but for quite different reasons than those for which I love his earlier work. Those albums were instantly distinctive and unforgettable, even the bits I didn't take to at first (or ever). They were angry and passionate and dramatic and over the top; this one is tasteful and lovely and, well, nice.

What struck me most last night was his declaration that until now he's been playing a sort of 'world music' rather than jazz. At the time I thought, or hoped, that it might be a joke, but on his website he's advertising this as The Real Jazz Quartet, and stating that "Eschewing the political rhetoric, Atzmon now lets the music do the talking". Well, yes, his political outbursts at gigs could occasionally be a little toe-curling, and heaven knows he's had enough grief for them over the years, but the music made his political points far more effectively than his words, extending the language of jazz to encompass different musical traditions and introducing the freedom and adventure of jazz to those traditions. And now he wants to label that as 'world music' and start a campaign for Real Jazz?

Obviously musicians have the right to follow their muse, and to claim credit for their musical skills as well as their political stance and trendy multi-culturalism. But actually I think I do have the right to feel a bit disappointed, as we have scores if not hundreds of sax players able to produce 100mph Coltranesque improvisations on April in Paris but, at least until recently, only one Gilad Atzmon. The one bright note was that, whereas once he just quoted The Birdie Song, he now plays a full-length version - but even so, half of me wonders whether I should have taken up Kalyr's suggestion of going to see Panic Room instead.