Author |
Message |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8409 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Monday, December 25, 2017 - 04:40 am: | |
Bob Dylan - Love Sick EP, which includes various live tracks. |
Pádraig_collins Unregistered guest
| Posted on Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - 03:34 am: | |
The Tape With No Name, a 1987 NME cassette with 24 country songs which fits - with a minute to spare - onto a CD-R. Still a brilliant country primer, 30 years on. https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Tape -With-No-Name/release/1204548 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre e/2017/dec/22/how-i-fell-in-love-with-co untry-music |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8411 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2017 - 11:50 pm: | |
I wonder why I ended up as an unregistered guest above? Anyway, I learned last night that a new Martin Carr album, New Shapes Of Life, was released a couple of months ago. And this morning, I'm listening to it. Sounds pretty good so far. Less poppy than his previous one, The Breaks. |
Jerry Clark
Member Username: Jerry
Post Number: 1214 Registered: 08-2004
| Posted on Friday, December 29, 2017 - 07:06 am: | |
I follow Martin Carr on Twitter and didn't know anything about that either. Let's blame algorithms. This week: Half Man Half Biscuit - Urge For Offal OST - Salvation - An '80's film with a very '80's sound. Mainly got this for the New Order tunes. Cabaret Voltaire and Arthur Baker are on there too. |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 384 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Friday, December 29, 2017 - 11:02 am: | |
Pale Lights - The Stars Seemed Brighter I like it very much, every listen makes it even better. Waiting for the vinyl to arrive... Should arrive today |
Randy adams Unregistered guest
| Posted on Friday, December 29, 2017 - 04:44 pm: | |
Sigh. I’m pretty sure my vinyl copy was pinched by the porch thieves. There’s also supposed to be a CD version released in January Andreas. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8415 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Friday, December 29, 2017 - 10:45 pm: | |
Randy, hopefully it's just delayed by the Christmas post. Half Japanese - This Could Be The Night. A deathless classic. |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 385 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Saturday, December 30, 2017 - 12:05 pm: | |
Here is a lot of some of the best german songs of 2017: Faber: Alles Gute (ok - swiss german ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCG6-DNX OZY Casper feat. Drangsal: Keine Angst https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHWG9-SO sAs Klez.e: Mauern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0TAAbsN fhk Candelilla - 39 (from the wonderful sampler Keine Bewegung 2) no good version on youtube therefor Candellial - 22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krea3XwB YX0 Isolation Berlin - Gewöhnliche Leute: (also from the wonderful sampler Keine Bewegung 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBpwXgGy zm4 Das Paradies - Goldene Zukunft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_Mv_qr uZ0 Gurr - Atemlos: (also from the sampler Keine Bewegung 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWuQoPXw 61E FRIENDS OF GAS - SELTSAM SCHÖN: (also from the sampler Keine Bewegung 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnqcMW6q Rjw and some german songs from my beloved label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten (who recently released the new Pale Lights album!! https://soundcloud.com/kleineuntergrund - Botschaft - Geschwindigkeit - Endlich Blüte - Neue Wunden - Zimt - Du kannst so leben wie Du willst Just a little extract - hope you can find something you like |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1421 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Monday, January 01, 2018 - 10:18 am: | |
Lots of good stuff on that soundcloud page, Andreas! Is it really an all-vinyl label only?? What a shame! I too am warming greatly to the Pale Lights. meanwhile... The Church - Uninvited, like the clouds After all my havers about the Church on the other thread, seemed a good idea to spend New Year’s Day actually listening to some of their stuff with more than half an ear. “Magician among the spirits” made little impression, but Uninvited really hit the spot: poppier than their usual, say fans, so fine by me. Critics said, "a bloated, beautiful, unsettling storm of a record" and “ a summation of 26 years”… odd how he sometimes sounds like Lloyd Cole, sometimes like Dave Gilmour and Floyd – the group doesn’t have that crisp sense of identity I like in a band; notwithstanding, this is indeed a stonker of an album. |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3842 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Monday, January 01, 2018 - 05:31 pm: | |
Padraig, all I needed to do was READ my emails. The order acknowledgement says the Pale Lights LP won't be shipped out to me until January 15. Whew! Seriously, packages are being snatched off doorsteps in my neighborhood all the time now. I don't have a problem with CDs because they fit through the mail slot but LPs just lean against my door invitingly. Huh, "Uninvited, like the clouds." I guess I should give it another try. I thought it was such a dud of a Church album that I could only find 2 songs worth uploading onto the computer: "She'll Come Back for You Tomorrow" and "Day 5." I don't consider myself a major Church fan but I think they had a nice renaissance around the turn of the century, with "After Everything Now This" and "Forget Yourself." My favorite albums of theirs are probably those two plus "Priest = Aura" and "Hologram of Baal" and going backward, "Seance." Their earliest albums lack musical grist. After a couple of listens they have revealed all they have to offer. They can be boiled down to a good "best of" collection and you'll be satisfied with that. The transition between that early period--of a straightforward pop group--to the much more diffuse, arty band they became later contains some really boring records. "Priest" is the great exception that lands in the middle of that arid period. I found "Uninvited" so disappointing that I dropped the Church altogether except for the great two unplugged albums. I love them both. So I don't even know what Church sound like nowadays. |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 388 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Tuesday, January 02, 2018 - 08:21 am: | |
Hi Stuart, yeah, the label is vinyl only and the vinyl is very limited and hard to get. You can get the BV's album as a self made cdr from the band: https://thebvs.bandcamp.com/album/speaki ng-from-a-distance and the Pale Lights back catalogue as a digital downlode thru: https://palelights.bandcamp.com/ They also name a cd release for their new album on Calico Cat label. You may ask Phil Surron whether and when this will be released. He is such a nice guy! |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8426 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2018 - 07:53 am: | |
The War On Drugs - side two of Lost In The Dream, followed by the Thinking Of A Place Record Store Day 2017 7" |
Hugh Nimmo
Member Username: Hugh_nimmo
Post Number: 1051 Registered: 03-2007
| Posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2018 - 10:04 am: | |
The Orbweavers - Deep Leads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWxH3Z- gww New album by the band. Available on vinyl and CD from Mistletone. |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1422 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2018 - 01:17 pm: | |
Good to know, Hugh! Ta! |
Hugh Nimmo
Member Username: Hugh_nimmo
Post Number: 1052 Registered: 03-2007
| Posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2018 - 04:28 pm: | |
Noire - Some Kind Of Blue Debut album by Sydney based duo that may appeal to some fans of The Orbweavers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0DxGynK ZYE |
Jerry Clark
Member Username: Jerry
Post Number: 1216 Registered: 08-2004
| Posted on Friday, January 05, 2018 - 07:40 am: | |
New to me this week: The Bordellos - Faves - A freebie from Bandcamp. Quite promising. Their song 'How We Love To Fail' is very similar to The Go-B's 'Something For Myself'. The Flying Burrito Brothers - Burrito Deluxe Gang Starr - Step In The Arena JAMC - Stoned & Dethroned |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 389 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Saturday, January 06, 2018 - 11:41 am: | |
Trampolene . Swansea To Hornsey Debut Album of a new, powerful and promising rock act |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 390 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Tuesday, January 09, 2018 - 10:45 am: | |
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker Deluxe |
Jerry Clark
Member Username: Jerry
Post Number: 1217 Registered: 08-2004
| Posted on Friday, January 12, 2018 - 10:56 am: | |
New to me this week: Paul Draper - Spooky Action St Etienne - Tiger Bay |
Hugh Nimmo
Member Username: Hugh_nimmo
Post Number: 1053 Registered: 03-2007
| Posted on Sunday, January 14, 2018 - 06:13 pm: | |
Po! - Ducks And Drakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQqIkoGR pyY |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 394 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Monday, January 22, 2018 - 07:15 am: | |
The Orbweavers - Deep Leads |
Hugh Nimmo
Member Username: Hugh_nimmo
Post Number: 1055 Registered: 03-2007
| Posted on Monday, January 22, 2018 - 12:05 pm: | |
Shame - Songs Of Praise |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8436 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Friday, January 26, 2018 - 02:33 am: | |
A self-curated 80 minute Fall mix (a bit influenced by this article https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/j an/25/time-travel-amphetamines-and-virgi n-trains-the-story-of-the-fall-in-20-son gs) but mine is in chronological order (at least by year, I'm sure someone will tell me a particular single came out a few months before a particular album track: 1 Rowche Rumble 2 Totally Wired 3 Repetition 4 Hip Priest 5 Prole Art Threat 6 Eat Y'self Fitter 7 C.R.E.E.P. 8 Cruisers Creek 9 Pharmacist 10 Victoria 11 Popcorn Double Feature 12 Bill Is Dead 13 High Tension Line 14 The Book Of Lies 15 Free Range 16 Glam-Racket 17 Lost In Music 18 Powder Keg 19 Touch Sensitive 20 Crop-Dust |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8440 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Friday, January 26, 2018 - 03:13 am: | |
I've just noticed that Bill Is Dead sounds really like The Go-Betweens. It could have been on 16 Lovers Lane. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8442 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 03:14 am: | |
Dan Zanes and Friends - Lead Belly, Baby! An album of Lead Belly covers, with some well chosen guests such as Billy Bragg, Aloe Blacc and Chuck D. Zanes also happens to be a very nice guy. I saw him play in Sydney about 10 years ago and spoke with him afterwards. He was delighted to hear that I'd first seen him perform in Boston in 1989. |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3852 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - 03:55 am: | |
Pale Lights -- The Stars Seemed Brighter Well, my vinyl copy was clearly stolen but once the CD version was released I ordered it and because it fits through the mail slot in my door there's no real danger from the porch thieves. I could go running around town checking the shops for my unopened vinyl copy but I doubt that I will. I'm sure I'm one of no more than ten people in the ten-million-strong Los Angeles County who has ever heard of Pale Lights so that stolen copy may take a while to shift. It's a good solid album, though if like me you have everything they've done you might be thinking Sutton needs to consider how much longer he can keep making these very specific sounding records. A person less fond of the band than myself could cavil that all their songs sound alike. Standouts for me on five listens so far are 100 Years, I Will Not Pray and Jean Bring the Flowers. Two songs on the album are carried over from the Pale Lights' last EP release. This shortfall is compensated by the inclusion of two bonus numbers for the CD release (Streamlined and The Soft City, the latter a retread from his original British band). Both good numbers. I realize that most people don't have honest to God hi fi systems any longer but the Pale Lights' records are always stubbornly compressed and truncated in terms of frequency range. On a big system they sound dreadful with too much resonance and no bottom end at all. They make me think of the nasty old RIAA masters that were first transferred over to CD in the very early days of digital before people realized that the RIAA equalization was done in order to offset peculiarities of early moving magnet cartridges. Have I bitched about this before? I think so. I'm convinced Phil Sutton is partially deaf. Or just epically stubborn about what a pop record should sound like. |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 395 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - 09:12 am: | |
Calexico - The Thread That Keeps Us For me their best record for a long time |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1429 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2018 - 04:34 pm: | |
Dominique A - Eleor Thanks to Andrew's posted video of the beautiful d'Orsay gallery version of L'ocean I went back to this album, rather ungratefully put aside after a brief listen or two, and discovered it afresh in all its crafty pop colour and texture. The first track from his new work meanwhile sounds like he's gone back to his DIY kitchen-tape basics, and didn't send me skipping round the block, but I should learn not to be so impatient. He is too skilled and intelligent an artist to underestimate. |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3853 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2018 - 05:40 am: | |
Stuart, I remember your disappointment with the album. I always figured it was because of the inevitable come-down from the previous album, "Vers les Lueurs," which I think will be regarded as one of the very best of his career if not the actual acme of his recorded output. I see "Eleor" as a record that picked up where he'd left off with "L'Horizon" and taking the electronic detour with "La Musique" and then the astonishing suite of almost chamber music that is "Vers les Lueurs." Here I am with no French and yet his tumbling cascade of words that culminate each verse in "Cap Farvel" transfix me every time. They sound like a man desperately arguing his last case. They still sounded like desperate pleading when I saw him do that song on stage. And for me there are all the neat little retro touches, like the flat-picked bass guitar so typical of mid-60s European balladic singles and the tasteful, delicate strings reminiscent of Dominique A's arrangements on Francoiz Breut's first two albums. And that's just the opener. As he gets older it's perhaps appropriate that his music becomes more elegiac. Maybe "Eleor" isn't a special high water mark like "Remue" or "Vers les Lueurs." Maybe it doesn't have anything like the abstract assemblages that he did earlier in his career, like "La Vie Rend Modeste" (from "La Memoire Neuve") or "Comment Certains Vivent" (from "Remue"). But it is a very strong and consistent album from a mature artist. Even without knowing the words, it speaks to me on a nearly spiritual level. Indeed I've been afraid to look for translations (or create them myself) for fear it may break the spell. |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1430 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Sunday, February 04, 2018 - 01:46 pm: | |
Raphaël- Caravane A skinny little album, creeping in at 34 minutes only thanks to the concluding instrumental (which owes something to Heroes, perhaps because Carlos Alomar features on guitar); on the other hand, it has no fat on it at all, and repays repeated listening. The songs are all excellent, wildly romantic, and the voice, although a few notches higher than I usually like, never tires. I only know Raphaël because of the flesh-tearing, eye-searing torch song he wrote for Zaz, Éblouie par la nuit, one of the greatest songs ever written, and this, his 3rd album, merely confirms his talent. Short, then; but utterly substantial. |
Andreas Severins
Member Username: Andreas_severins
Post Number: 399 Registered: 11-2007
| Posted on Friday, February 16, 2018 - 08:16 am: | |
The Monochrome Set - Maisieworöd fine on first listening |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8448 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - 10:31 am: | |
A best of The Blue Nile iTunes mix I made. More of a winter thing, but I'm still enjoying it in this relentless Australian summer. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8450 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 01:51 am: | |
Weezer - Pacific Daydream. This is my first time listening to it on CD, rather than mp3s through my computer or iPod. Wow, it sounds vastly better, and I really liked this album anyway. The CD is far from dead. |
Austin
Member Username: Bruegelpie
Post Number: 175 Registered: 09-2004
| Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 02:17 am: | |
Alex Cameron - Forced Witness Alex hits many of my "likes", such as: - Puts on a persona (in this case a cocky jock-type) There are far too few people inhabiting a persona in rock now! - many of his lyrics make me laugh out loud (almost every song - too many to list) Listen to a few and you will see, like from "True Lies" He is falling for .....- "this woman on the internet/Even if she’s some Nigerian guy" He seems like he is becoming a "thing" in the USA. Shows are selling out, radio play, etc. Wow do I like this album. Every song is great, particularly the "10 rules of rock and roll" terrible song slot (Forster 2nd to last song) "Marlon Brando." Not a dog - Absolute gem. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8452 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 02:37 am: | |
I'll have to check him out, Austin. Sounds interesting. I'm now listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents The Coolest Songs In The World! Vol. 1, a brilliant compilation of garage and power pop bands, mostly from the mid-00s. |
Jerry Clark
Member Username: Jerry
Post Number: 1221 Registered: 08-2004
| Posted on Friday, February 23, 2018 - 10:19 am: | |
Got a new iPod Touch for christmas with a boost of an extra 40gb of space compared to my old classic. It still works after 9 years of hefty use. Sadly the battery is unreliable, so it stays on the dock in the kitchen for cooking and cleaning time only. As a result I've been adding a lot of music. Some that fell out of favour and a lot of new stuff. Reggae and Hip Hop from my sordid past. Anyway recent and first time listens for me: The Blue Nile - Hats (Deluxe) & High Django Django - Marble Skies Kraftwerk - Tour De France (2003) Fun Boy Three - Best Of... Joyce Sims - Greatest Faust - j US t Donovan - Origins Calexico - The Thread That Keeps Us Field Music - Play |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8457 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Friday, February 23, 2018 - 11:44 am: | |
Augie March's new album, out today, Bootikins. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8459 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Monday, February 26, 2018 - 09:17 pm: | |
I've reviewed the Augie March album and, surprise, managed to get in a reference to the Go-Betweens. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/f eb/27/augie-march-bootikins-review-an-ex ceptional-rumination-on-time-passing |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8462 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2018 - 09:56 pm: | |
Augie March - Bootikins, again and again and again. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8469 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Sunday, March 04, 2018 - 12:43 pm: | |
David Byrne - American Utopia. I have not listened to his solo stuff in a very long time, but this is great and makes me wonder what I've missed in the almost three decades since I bought one of his albums. |
Austin
Member Username: Bruegelpie
Post Number: 176 Registered: 09-2004
| Posted on Sunday, March 04, 2018 - 10:44 pm: | |
Padraig, I like the Augie March album - thanks for the tip. I'm enjoying the new MGMT album. Less Pink Floyd influenced than the last two. Some very catchy songs with the usual MGMT skewed sensibility Father John Misty's "Mr. Tillman" (new single) is very, very funny. Like Alex Cameron, who I wrote about earlier, songs that make me laugh are really appealing. |
Simon Withers
Member Username: Sfwithers
Post Number: 508 Registered: 08-2005
| Posted on Friday, March 09, 2018 - 10:53 pm: | |
Husker Du (sans umlauts) - Bed of Nails |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1436 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 09:36 am: | |
Lots of French stuff to choose some birthday CDs for an old friend who has recently bought a farmhouse in Brittany to retire to, lucky thing. Mainly an excuse to go through my Gallic shelves, and good listening it is too. Great to hear Mademoiselle K’s Jouer dehors again, for instance. She really nails the pop punk sexy mf chanteuse thing on this one with a bunch of exhilarating songs. And the new Dominique A album just came out yesterday, with news of another one later this year. |
David Gagen
Member Username: David_g
Post Number: 431 Registered: 02-2007
| Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2018 - 08:48 am: | |
The Slider - T Rex |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3864 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2018 - 03:42 pm: | |
Hi David! Great to see you post again. I have been taking the Go-Betweens’ albums with me for the drive to work. I like to let old favorites mellow in the back of the mind and not listen to them for a long time because then when I hear them again for the first time in a long time, the experience is a revelation. This week it has been “Liberty Belle.” From “Spring Rain” forward this album is a joy. Finally keyboards had been gracefully absorbed into the mix. Robert was responsible for the two “hits.” Grant gave us two of my personal favorites in his entire catalog: “The Wrong Road” and “Apology Accepted.” This album perfectly balanced the GoBees’ angular and classical tendencies. People are too often drawn to the overly facile and sweet style of music. It sounds great but then it subtly begins to bore. The GoBees always stirred in odd, awkward dissonant bits to keep it fresh. There’s always something new to admire in what i’ve heard many times before. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8475 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2018 - 09:29 am: | |
Good to have you back here David. Wyvern Lingo - Wyvern Lingo. Debut album by all girl R&B/electronic Irish band. http://www.wyvernlingo.com |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1437 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 - 01:51 pm: | |
Mademoiselle K – Sous les Brulures l'Incandescence Intacte Dominique a – Toute Latitude, Édition Deluxe Dom A and Mam K arrived in the same post so got played on the same day. Dom made me feel as I did first time round with his last one, that smooth ringing voice moving stylishly through a series of pleasant but unremarkable exercises. Then of course his last grew on me, so let’s wait and see. The second CD is My Spoken Poems with Moody Percussion. There are some interesting instrumental flickers that would have been nice to hear elaborated on CD 1, but basically you have to bone up on the words for this one. Mam K instead got played three times immediately. Her dry, urchin yap of a voice is in great shape and she isn’t trying as hard as she was on Hungry Dirty Baby to push the sexy mf aspect of her image, important as that may be. The songs hit home like the ones on Jouer dehors, pop with a snappy punk energy. The first track has a kind of urgent playground chant aspect to it that is highly addictive. I’d like to see Dom get his hands a bit dirty again; elegance isn’t everything. |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3865 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 - 03:21 pm: | |
Thanks for the report Stuart. I'm still waiting for my copy of Toute Latitude. I'm not surprised that he has continued in the vein of Eleor and I agree that he'll ultimately need to return to a bit of grit. I figure a part of the problem is the reality that he has a francophone audience and can't be too esoteric with it if he wants to make a living as a musician. I didn't know there was a new Mademoiselle K record. The titles on "Hungry Dirty Baby" were such a turn-off that I never even bothered. I will probably never be as much a fan as you, since for me she's too Rolling Stones-ish fist-pumping rawk but her best recordings among her first 3 albums are definitely worth having when I am in the mood. Meanwhile, I have been slowly listening to the current and back catalog for Albin de la Simone. TROU recommended his current album. I find it pleasant and worth having in a drawing room sort of way. Then I picked up "Bungalow." Well, it has a silly ugly cover and that is truth in advertising. The record is willfully cheesy and absurd. It's kind of like Bashung's "Pizza" in a way but I don't think nearly as entertaining. It is just about the opposite of "L'un de nous," the current album. Still, very interesting, somebody who wanders around musically. I have since gotten "Je Vais Changer" and what I think is his first album, from 2003. These are easier to digest than "Bungalow." I am guessing I'll ultimately upload about half of the songs from them. I still haven't gotten his next-to-newest album. I am well familiar with my need to listen to something over a period of time before my final opinion will gel so I can't say much about De La Simone yet except that it would be great if he could record in an independent (not major label) context. |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3866 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 - 03:38 pm: | |
Just to avoid possible misunderstanding, when I say "he has a francophone audience and can't be too esoteric with it if he wants to make a living as a musician" I am NOT saying that a francophone audience is too conservative. In fact I have been impressed by the open-mindedness of the French to different types of music including that in other languages. Look at their support for the Go-Betweens and the Apartments. I wish Americans were like the French. All I meant is that there are only so many French speaking potential listeners and an artist working in that language will need to try to keep his or her appeal sufficiently broad as to maintain a large enough audience to pay the bills. If there is anything over-arching you can take away from the Go-Betweens documentary it is just how difficult it is to survive as a musician. Remember Robert Vickers' authentic concern about losing a slice of income when a fifth member was added to the band. |
Stuart Wilson
Member Username: Stuart
Post Number: 1438 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - 09:04 am: | |
Well, the Stones… I paid them little attention for many years, the nearest I came, apart from insistently, and to the huge annoyance of all present, playing Angie on the Student Union jukebox over and over again, because I fancied, and was glacially ignored by, a girl called Angie, was always having Bette Midler’s rampaging version of Beast of Burden on my mix-tapes. Then, mid-80s, maybe it was hearing Can’t always get what you want in the Big Chill, hard to remember, but I do recall marching into Virgin Oxford Street and marching out again with around six RS cassettes, possibly Beggars Banquet through to It’s only roll and roll. The guy at the counter gave a big grin: “Like the Stones, huh?” “Just getting into them.” “Greatest f***in music in the world!” Nobody in the big stores ever commented on what you bought, so it was kind of nice. I’m not much of a fist-puncher, but I do like a bit of sleazy rock guitar. |
Pádraig Collins
Member Username: Pádraig_collins
Post Number: 8478 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - 11:05 am: | |
Cathal Coughlan - Officer Material. It has been so long since I played this song I can barely remember it. Oh, but what a song. |
TROU
Member Username: Trou
Post Number: 427 Registered: 05-2005
| Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 06:19 pm: | |
Randy, Dominique A has now good media coverage here, and a good following. https://www.commentcertainsvivent.com/ne ws/dominique-a-en-une-des-inrocks In fact, the "tour de force" is that he convinced many french people who listened nearly only to brit-us-aussie bands (as him?) to look also for french music. His lyrics are real poetry and he has written some well received books. Someone asked me to go to the concert, but I think I'll wait for the second tour... For Albin, I've only the last record, that I like very much. To be clear, he said himself that he was not so proud of his early works. I'll go to see Feu!Chatterton next month. I'll report if it's worth to look for. |
Rob Brookman
Member Username: Rob_b
Post Number: 1871 Registered: 08-2006
| Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 01:53 am: | |
Amy Rigby - "The Old Guys" Recently released, her first solo album since maybe '05 is a concept album of sorts about, well, the old guys. It leads off with an imaginary email from Philip Roth to Bob Dylan on Nobel win and spins on from there with salutes to Robert Altman and her hometown, old boyfriends and dead friends. Produced by Amy's husband "Wreckless" Eric Goulden and self released, it sounds a bit homemade but the songwriting's first-class and I play it more than anything else I've bought this year. If she thinks she's one of the old guys now, she's not giving any ground. |
Randy Adams
Member Username: Randy_adams
Post Number: 3869 Registered: 03-2005
| Posted on Thursday, March 29, 2018 - 04:08 am: | |
I like the thought of a woman artist thinking of herself as one of "The Old Guys." Right now I am listening to the supremely musical Orbweavers' new album Deep Leads. For some reason, Marita Dyson is really making me think of the late lamented Trish Keenan here. I took a little while to remember to order this and then I received a sweet apologetic message about how long it was taking them to send it out, because they'd been touring. It popped through the mail slot today. |