| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9274 Registered: 05-2005 |
Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela - Jabulani (Rejoice, Here Comes Tony). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxPpDAv3 ZQI RIP Tony Allen, now they’re both gone. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 629 Registered: 08-2005 |
Happy May Day, people! I'm going out to bring the government down (or go for a bike ride...). | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9275 Registered: 05-2005 |
Do both, Simon. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1731 Registered: 10-2006 |
Eric's Trip - Behind the garage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyIYwoHE R6A | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 630 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Passions – I'm in Love With a German Film Star. A magnificent, unique slice of 1981, the year I did my A Levels and went to university. Ever feel old?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXCOy7nD yoU | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9276 Registered: 05-2005 |
An amazing song, Simon. I only found out a few years ago that their singer/guitarist/pianist/songwriter Barbara Gogan is Irish. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9280 Registered: 05-2005 |
BMX Bandits - Serious Drugs (Other Mix). The version with Duglas Stewart on vocals. The versions with Joe McAlinden and Norman Blake singing are also brilliant. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1732 Registered: 10-2006 |
The Go! Team - Junior Kickstart Best ever imaginary theme to a TV buddy cop show from the 70s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jrp3K3I oDo | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 632 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Stranglers – Golden Brown In honour of keyboard player Dave Greenfield who's just died. I was due to see them this year but I'm guessing that may be the end of the band. They've been great live even without Hugh Cornwell. There's also a fantastic mariachi version of Golden Brown by Mariachi Mexteca featuring Hugh Cornwell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy8Y3R4d Xyc | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9281 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stuart, thank you for reminding me of that Go! Team son. Simon, thank you for alerting me to the existence of that mariachi take on Golden Brown, which I’m playing right now. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9282 Registered: 05-2005 |
Go! Team song, of course, not son. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9283 Registered: 05-2005 |
Song of the day: Blake Mills - Summer All Over. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1994 Registered: 08-2006 |
Jamie Wagner - Do I Have It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjyUC8p 88U&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1TL1agh3 fUH7H2QPw-SPGg1vZDCsCVAJcpWIEqLVCgcwicb2 qydH1zbww My old pal Jamie - a talented musician and recording engineer - is making good use of his sequester. This is great fun, IMO. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1346 Registered: 04-2005 |
Joe Newman - Mo-lasses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swcgipSl 69M A Count Basie Orchestra trumpeter, this track is from his aptly named 1961 release "Good'n'Groovy" | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 633 Registered: 08-2005 |
In honour of Florian Schneider, whose death was announced today: Kraftwerk – The Model We all (I guess) know the original version but the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have a fantastic take on it in their fifth lockdown video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRzAkF-F I5o They also do the best version ever of Wheatus's Teenage Dirtbag. Should live music ever return, I'd recommend them highly. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9286 Registered: 05-2005 |
I’ve loved Kraftwerk since The Model was an unexpectedly huge hit in Ireland and the UK in the early 80s. RIP Florian. I’m listening to the CMJ New Music compilation of April 98. I only dug it out for one song, but the whole thing, so far, is fantastic. Bands I’d forgotten ever existed - I’d never have imagined a band called Bogmen could make a great song - alongside a few still making music 22 years later, eg Radiohead. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9287 Registered: 05-2005 |
Song of the day is Confederate Cheerio Call by Richard Davies. I’d love for him to do another solo record. One day, I suppose. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 634 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Sound – Winning, a cracking live version on YouTube from 1982, around the time I saw them at my university's Hall of Residence, playing a free gig in K Block, or was it Z Block? It was all so very long ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmF8xuS yoA | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1734 Registered: 10-2006 |
Erica Buettner -True Love and Water Just heard with half an ear this morning from the radio, but the half that heard it was very happy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR8AwBTb atc | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1735 Registered: 10-2006 |
The Kinks - Victoria Hmmm, Paul McC was on form when he wrote this snappy number, I thought, must be from a solo album I've never heard. But no, it's Ray D instead, sounding very unlike himself surely. Still snappy though. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4376 Registered: 03-2005 |
Stuart, here's one of those moments when the age difference kicks in. Before he zeroed in with laser focus on California country rock my oldest brother had fairly catholic tastes in pop music. That formed the original basis for my own musical tastes. One of the records he had which enjoyed a lot of rotation at my hands was the U.S. label Reprise' "Kinks Greatest Hits." Seven of the twelve songs on "Greatest Hits" were definite Top 40 hits in California's San Francisco Bay Area where we lived at the time. They enjoyed one more massive hit after the release of that compilation: "Sunny Afternoon." Then silence. We never heard "Dead End Street" or "Waterloo Sunset" or "Wonderboy" or anything from "Village Green Preservation Society" though at least some critics wrote nice things about that. And then there was "Victoria." It was the Kinks' first bona fide hit in California after a three year drought, a little looser sounding than the older hits perhaps but Dave Davies' crunchy guitar jangle was unmistakeable in the chorus and the vaudeville/music hall feel of the song itself felt just right after the long-remembered "Sunny Afternoon." It was a fine contribution to the 1960s' last hurrah that also included the Stones' "Honky Tonk Women," the Beatles' "Get Back" and "Come Together," Dylan's surprising "Lay Lady Lay," the Monkees' most serious and artistic hit "Listen to the Band" and Diana Ross' elegiac farewell with the Supremes, "Someday We'll Be Together." Yep, still snappy. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 635 Registered: 08-2005 |
Vashti Bunyan - Where I Like to Stand Just lovely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-XOB-D7 nrI | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1736 Registered: 10-2006 |
Paul McCartney - Another Day Well, having ballsed up mistaking Ray for Paul, here's the lad himself with the sort of gorgeous thing that had posh critics in the 60s calling him the heir to Schubert. It also sounds Kinksian in a way through the main tune though there are then certain melodic flourishes I don't think RD has ever been capable of, brilliant as he is, and the sharper lyricist. Imagine if the two codgers got together now with a couple of acoustic guitars. That might be fun. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4377 Registered: 03-2005 |
Stuart, I wouldn't sell Ray short on melody. I'd say it was more a matter of intention. Try this one from a couple years before "Victoria": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRzA12_z d8M | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1737 Registered: 10-2006 |
Oh no, not to sell him short at all, he has a gift for a tune as strong as anyone's. I think McCartney might have more strings to his bow in how he develops his melodies though, the changes he puts them through, his ability to switch up into another segment that other artists might have made use of for a whole new song. But it's just an impression, not a conviction. I really have to go back and listen to a lot more Kinks. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4378 Registered: 03-2005 |
Well, McCartney was definitely a fan of crooner music whereas Davies was much more a rocker. Because of that difference you may be right but I generally found McCartney's music unsurprising, whereas Davies could combine melody and underlying chord progressions in ways that sounded revelatory to my ears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj_weYHB -To I realize it's unfair to start talking about things other than melody, but Davies' songs always seemed to me to be more organically evocative of the place that spawned him. McCartney's seemed more generically international. It's Ray's music (and that of people influenced by him such as Paul Weller) that played in my head on many of my shoe leather slogs through London outside Zone 1. It's not just the lyrics; it's the very Edwardian English musical tradition that shines through in his music, by obvious intention oftentimes but I believe also subliminally in unlikely musical contexts. Recent political events have perhaps cast a shadow on this but for the distant observe it's clear as can be. One of the reasons I've raved like a crazy person about L. A. Salami is his unmistakable musical homage not only to Dylan but to Ray Davies. It's the Ray Daviesesque aspect of many C86 groups that makes me so keen on them. Thank you for bringing him up on this thread. It's good to occasionally revisit an old hero and remeasure the length of his shadow. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9291 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, I love reading your treatises on music. You would have made a great music writer if the law hadn’t stolen your heart and soul. Song of the day is 8 Pictures. Rummaging in the garage I found a tape of 1978-1990. What a joy. I shouldn’t have boxed it away there in the first place. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4379 Registered: 03-2005 |
Ack! The law sure as hell never stole my heart I hope! I'm afraid my soul is a lost cause. But thank you Pádraig. The problem for me is that it tends to take a while for the metaphorical dust to settle in my mind about a particular musician. I would have been hard pressed to write decent new album reviews. I used to entertain myself writing elaborate Amazon reviews. I think the last of them was a defense of Normie Rowe after he was slated by somebody clearly not very knowledgeable. There was a lovely period in the early/mid 70s when I buried myself in the 60s music of Ray Davies. It was so much more satisfying to romp through the odds and ends found on the excellent 2-LP compilation "Kinks Kronikles" and the relatively seldom heard innards of the Kinks' individual albums than to bother with the latest corporate Album Oriented Rock so often produced by former session musicians palming themselves off as new young artists. But typically for me I bailed out of the Kinks after "Lola versus the Powerman." Most 60s artists ran out of creative steam by the beginning of the 70s but I expect careful culling can still yield many gems from that later period of the band. After all, "Come Dancing" was a sweet song and I should have revisited the group then, but I'd moved on to an entirely new generation of music. Just don't ask me to listen to the execrable but aptly titled "Give the People What They Want." It's inevitable that some of my heroes will squabble. I remember reporting to this Board about a passage in the Triffids' bio book ("Save What You Can," a great read) in which David McComb explained to a friend his lack of enthusiasm for Ray Davies' music, saying that it lacked "mystery." As I recall Andrew Kerr responded with something along the lines of "I knew there was a reason I don't like David McComb." I accept the conflict as a fundamental one, of the Aussie simultaneously looking beyond his immediate environment and into his own confused interior for inspiration and the Englishman satisfied with the wealth of material right outside his window. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 148 Registered: 05-2005 |
David Tattersall - Faded Wave Pictures T Shirt. Available from his bandcamp page or listen to it on Marc Riley’s show of 11th if you can. I find it almost impossible to keep up with The Wave Pictures as they release so much. For me, they’re probably been Britain’s best band since Broadcast ceased following the death of Trish Keenan. Apparently, The Wave Picture are supposed to be in hiatus while Tattersall does another album with his side project The Surfing Magazines. Their first album passed me by. I presume the band’s name is a reference to the not-very-good Go-Betweens song. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9293 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, I remember you posting that quote from David McComb and Andrew’s response. I can’t recall if I responded at the time, but I will now. It’s an annoying, pretentious statement from McComb. It shows zero understanding of Davies’s phenomenal lyrical and melodic talents. And its greatest crime, to me, is it suggests that McComb, who grew up in a big house in a very wealthy family, was being an utter snob about Davies who grew up in a working class family of eight children. I still love McComb’s music - an earthquake couldn’t shake that - but he seems to have lacked an understanding of how privileged his background was. Maybe that privilege ultimately did not bring him happiness, but it was there. I have that book. One day I must read it. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1348 Registered: 04-2005 |
Hi Randy, Sure that was me ? I really don't have any strong feelings for the Triffids or David McComb either way. OK "Wide Open Road" is brilliant. Maybe I was having a bad day ? As for the Kinks I confess to having one double album of hits ("The Kinks File") and it is 100% wonderful, but somehow I've never felt the need to go any further. My song of the day...love a bit of lush orchestration Other Lives - Sound of Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmERlW4O 794 | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4380 Registered: 03-2005 |
My memory could easily be off-track after all these years Andrew. Now curious, I just tried doing a site search but couldn't find it. I do need to lose the habit of relying on my memory which definitely isn't as keen as it was; in this case I could have simply written "somebody on the Board . . . ." That Other Lives track is stylish. Padraig, I hope McComb's comment wasn't a product of the different social classes he and Davies came from. I interpreted it to express a young artist's fixation on what he wants to achieve which he didn't see in Davies' work. Well, "mystery" wasn't Ray Davies' thing, at least not during the 1964 to 1970 period that I'm familiar with. McComb relied heavily on fantasy in his writing; Davies on observation. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 149 Registered: 05-2005 |
The search function on this site is pretty hopeless. Speaking of David McComb, I remember reading that he was a rugby league fan which buys him a lot of forgiveness from me. I can’t find any reference to which club now. A Melbourne club rather than Perth, perhaps? My unread Triffids book is Vagabond Holes with its chapter by R Forster. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1739 Registered: 10-2006 |
Sugar- If I can't change your mind This morning's radio choice. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1740 Registered: 10-2006 |
François de Roubaix - Dernier Domicile Connu Browsing for a DVD version of this Lino Ventura noir from the 70s, I gave a listen to the theme music… haha, who knew that Robbie got there first? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ2FURhZ gy8 | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4383 Registered: 03-2005 |
Coincidenza, Stuart! A piece by Sonny Rollins addresses this in today's New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/opini on/sonny-rollins-art.html | ||
| Andreas Severins Member Username: Andreas_severins Post Number: 484 Registered: 11-2007 |
Jetstream Pony - It's Fine This is the opening track of their wonderful debut album. Vinyl sold out immediately (they repressed some), cds available thru their bandcamp site ( 8 remaining at the moment): https://jetstreampony.bandcamp.com/album /jetstream-pony Have the digital copy for a week now - Highly recommended | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 495 Registered: 05-2005 |
One less… | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4384 Registered: 03-2005 |
Six remaining copies of the CD now. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1274 Registered: 03-2007 |
Down to five. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9297 Registered: 05-2005 |
Girls Names - Zero Triptych. Irish krautrock at its finest (not that there is a lot of competition in the Irish krautrock stakes). iTunes tells me it's one year, one day and 23 hours since I last played it. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9298 Registered: 05-2005 |
Headless Chickens - Cruise Control | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1743 Registered: 10-2006 |
Doves - Here it comes Still haven't got round to unpacking the album collection, but this is another cool tune, much earlier than Kingdom of Rust, with a soulful groove I really wasn't expecting. Love the organ. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 636 Registered: 08-2005 |
In honour of the appalling state of British politics today (in the UK we are living in a post-truth society), I am going for a double bill of Lies by The Thompson Twins and Durham Town by Roger Whittaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuv4f-Am KE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9XcuN5h Zwk | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9302 Registered: 05-2005 |
Teenage Fanclub - I Heard You Looking | ||
| Andreas Severins Member Username: Andreas_severins Post Number: 487 Registered: 11-2007 |
Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing A good start in the day  | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9305 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Wild Swans - Young Manhood | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9307 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jetstream Pony - It's Fine... Thirty years on, it's time for a shoegaze/indie pop revival. https://jetstreampony.bandcamp.com/album /jetstream-pony | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4391 Registered: 03-2005 |
I've raved about Finnish group Cats On Fire before. After they got nowhere commercially notwithstanding three albums of tuneful songs chockful of clever wordy English lyrics, singer/songwriter Mattias Björkas regrouped in a new Finnish language outfit Vasas Flora Och Fauna, now with a female member to spell him on vocal duties. Perhaps still trying to be noticed by somebody somewhere, Vasas Flora Och Fauna recorded an album in German which by the luck of the draw is the first of their records I've gotten. It kicks off with this terrific homage to Finland's classic pop band. So my song of the day is Leevi & the Leavings, performed im Deutsch by Vasas Flora och Fauna. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPAEVG4c NSM | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9309 Registered: 05-2005 |
Swans, Pony, Cats. Any more animal-themed posts for this thread? | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1275 Registered: 03-2007 |
Mr. Fox - The Gypsy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X99c9lKU xv0 | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1276 Registered: 03-2007 |
Leevi And The Leavings - Rin Tin Tin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_NQNjLV pFI | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9311 Registered: 05-2005 |
Good call, Hugh. Chris Joss - Re-Volt. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1746 Registered: 10-2006 |
Elastica - Waking up Doing some expressive arm dancing over the breakfast table to this one, hoping it was some cool new band to investigate, haha, wrong again. Sounding great though. |