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Monday 26 November 2012

26 November 2012

Usual guff, but this time with guest Matt in the studio with us

The Beatles - Taxman
John: George didn't want to pay his taxes back in 1966. Dangerously close to jumping the shark there, you class warriors.

Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full
John: Yeah, which we'd rather be too. Some early hip-hop there from 1987, a time when there was no such thing as too many samples.
Carolyn: Yes, like 'we've got all these bits, let's shove another one in'

The Divine Comedy - Complete Banker
John: From the 2010 album Bang Goes The Knighthood. I think I've thumped that tub enough now.
Carolyn: Yes dear, shall we move on?

Cover Version Corner
Royal Festival Orchestra/The Cats - Swan Lake
John: The Royal Festival Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake - well, a bit of it - and a ska'd up version which is great for when the sun's out, roof down on the car and the volume up.

The Shins - Simple Song
John: From the current album Port Of Morrow. They are from Albuquerque.

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
John: In what is becoming a feature where we make everyone feel old, that's off Blue Lines which is 21 years old.
Carolyn: It can't be. I refuse to accept time has passed so quickly.
John: This show is becoming like a musical Logan's Run. 'I'm still young!'

Groove Armada - Paper Romance
John: They have a new single out, Pull Up, but this is from a couple of years ago off the album Black Light.

Adam Green and Binki Shapiro - Here I Am
John: Out now, that's off the album also called Adam Green and Binki Shapiro and jolly pleasant it is too.
Carolyn: Binki?

Professor Kliq - Moth Returns
John: Chicago artist Mike Else performs as Professor Kliq - with a K and a Q.

One Degree Of Separation
The Smiths - I Want The One I Can't Have
Morrissey - You're The One For Me, Fatty
John: Not exactly going for a massive leap here. These are Matt's choices. Any reason behind picking those tracks?
Matt: I still think he's among the best live artists around today and they're two really good tunes.
John: First the Smiths from Meat Is Murder back in 1985 and the second from Your Arsenal in 1992.

Steve Mason - Lost and Found
John: The ex-Beta Band man, that's off Boys Outside which came out in 2010.

The Primitives - Crash
John: Another one to make us feel old, that's from 1988. Two minutes, bosh, done, perfect.
Carolyn: I was looking for that the other day. And now we have it. That's not the single version though is it?
John: No, that was a recording from an Andy Kershaw session.



White Denim - Street Joy
John: From Austin, Texas, that's off last year's album D. As in the letter D.
Carolyn: White Denim had to be from Texas.

Ty Segall - Thank God For Sinners
John: From San Francisco, that's off the album Twins which is out now.
Carolyn: Lots of old stuff tonight, but finish on something new.

Here's your YouTube playlist.

Monday 19 November 2012

19 November 2012

Maximo Park - The National Health
John: From the album of the same name that came out earlier this year

Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty
John: From Leeds, that was them railing against a previous age of austerity and worth another listen now.
Carolyn: Am I detecting a theme?
John: A little bit. A lot of things got me angry in the week.

Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling
John: But here's a solution to all the problems - just go bowling
Carolyn: With your knees?
John: Yes, last time I went, I was laid up for a week.

Cover Version Corner
Edith Piaf - Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
Half Man Half Biscuit featuring Margi Clarke - No Regrets
John: Unmistakably Edith Piaf first, then the greatest band in the world singing it in English. Can't believe it's taken me so long to play them.
Carolyn: Yes, I know you like them.
John: They are the greatest band in the world. That's a non-album track from 1991.


Paws - Sore Tummy
John: This has been doing the rounds for a bit and I've finally got my hands on it. It's their first single from the album Cokefloat which is out about now.

Belly - Feed The Tree
John: From back in 1993, off their debut album Star. They kind of got lost in that glut of 1990s, female-fronted indie bands like Elastica, Sleeper and Echobelly, but worth digging out.
Carolyn: Is she singing 'take your hat off' or 'take your head off'?

DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World
John: From his debut album Endtroducing, which I discovered isn't easy to say out loud.

Toy - Make It Mine
John: We've played these a few times before, including the ten-minute epic Kopter. This is a little more laid back, but also off their debut album which is also called Toy.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)
John: A US/NZ project based in Portland, Oregon. This is off their forthcoming second album, II, which is out in February.
Carolyn: So we're bang up to date then?
John: And our next track is from 1987...
Carolyn: Ah.

One Degree Of Separation
Echo And The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar
The KLF - 3am Eternal
John: The KLF with a rave classic from the early '90s, one of Bill Drummond's many and varied projects. Your link here is that Echo and the Bunnymen released their early stuff on Drummond's label, Zoo, which he ran with Dave Balfe. That was Lips Like Sugar from their fifth album, called Echo And The Bunnymen. They did four thinking up original names and then got to five and phoned it in. Pfft.

Friends - Va Fan Gör Du
John: Bright, poppy, short. They're from Brooklyn and I like that 1970s hand-clap vibe.
Carolyn: Yeah, it has a sort of playground feel.
John: The title, I believe, is Swedish for 'what the hell do you want?'

Tegan and Sara - I'm Not Your Hero
John: Identical twin sisters from Calgary, that's off the album Heart Throb which is out in January. I like that a lot - it reminds me of something, but I can't think what.
Carolyn: It does sound familiar.
John: I'll just have to listen to it more, which wouldn't be a chore as I really like it.

Cheatahs - The Swan
John: From their debut EP, Sans, which was out last month.

Here's your YouTube playlist.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Forward planning

I know I've previously said we don't have themes as such on the show, even if we did play a bunch of eight/nine-minuters a few weeks back, but...

It can't have escaped your notice that it's getting dark early. Indeed, there are only six broadcasting weeks to christmas. Now, on christmas morning last year, I did a sort of Twitter playlist-type thing with all sorts of not-so-common christmas records and for our last show before this year's festivities I'm planning on reprising that and extending it (and replacing those records unsuitable for broadcast like Splodgenessabounds' 'Bollocks To Christmas').
The staples will be in there - All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit, 2000 Miles, The Grinch Song - but if you've got any suggestions, stick them in the comments or tweet me or Carolyn.

In planning next week's show, I seem to have a bunch of records with brackets (in the title). Is it possible to make an hour show - including the usual format ideas - solely of records with brackets (in the title)? I suspect it might be and I'm now determined to prove it. So again, any suggestions for that, let us know.

I think they call this crowdsourcing...

Monday 12 November 2012

12 November 2012

Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy Nowadays
John: Start with a cheery one, why not?

Vessels - The Sky Was Pink
Carolyn: Didn't like that at all. Five minutes I'm not getting back.
John: From Leeds, that's available on a free download
Carolyn: So they can't even sell it?
John: Yeah, you've made your point. Split the room has that

Opossom - Blue Meanies
John: Opossom is Kody Nielson from Auckland. Got a bit of a Beck feel to it.

Dinosaur Jr - Pierce The Morning Rain
John: You can't mistake them for anyone else. The new single from the album I Bet On Sky

Cover Version Corner
Louis Armstrong/Joey Ramone - What A Wonderful World
Carolyn: Two totally different interpretations, which is what this is about
John: The Joey Ramone one was from 2002, released posthumously after his untimely death in 2001. Armstrong from 1968 from the album also titled What A Wonderful World

Melt Yourself Down - We Are Enough
John: Alt jazz, it says here. Not sure what that means, but that's got a killer bassline. A 6-piece band with a couple of saxophones, that was released a couple of weeks ago.

Roosevelt - Sea
John: From Cologne. We're having another cosmopolitan show

Caribou - Odessa
John: Speaking of cosmopolitan, Caribou is Daniel Smith from Ontario. That's off the album Swim from 2010

One Degree Of Separation
Blur - There's No Other Way
Graham Coxon - Freakin' Out
John: Coxon left Blur and released a few albums. That track is off Happiness In Magazines from 2004. But they all got back together for the lucrative reunion this year. 21 years ago, that's when There's No Other Way was released.
Carolyn: Is this another one you put in just to make me feel old?

Dutch Uncles - Fester
John: Played these before. They're from Stockport and that's out from the album Out Of Touch With The Wild that's released in January



The Horrors - I Can See Through You
John: From Southend, that was off last year's album Skying

The Invisible - Generational
John: From the album Rispah which came out in July

And here's your YouTube playlist.

Monday 5 November 2012

5 November 2012

Back after a week off and we start with a public service announcement...

Public Service Broadcasting - Everest
John: The new one from this intriguing project, this is out next Monday.
Carolyn: We've had them before. They've basically ripped it from Charley Says...



Rhye - The Fall
John: Details on these are sketchy. They're LA-based, but European in origin and that's all I've got on them.
Carolyn: How enigmatic

Cover Version Corner
Marvin Gaye/The Slits - Heard It Through The Grapevine
Carolyn: This is what Cover Version Corner is about - where they're completely different.
John: Well that is what we're trying to do here. The Slits, their debut single from 1979 from the album Cut and, of course, Marvin Gaye from 1969 off the album of the same name.

Two Door Cinema Club - Sun
John: The new single from these, out on the 23rd of this month.
Carolyn: Another one we've had before. It's good, that.

Elbow - Whisper Grass
John: From the new album Dead In The Boot, designed (it says here) to be listened to as an album.
Carolyn: Rather than piecemeal, as is the modern way with downloading individual tracks.

Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
John: With Nina Persson from The Cardigans on guest vocals. From the 2007 album Send Away The Tigers, but we play that because it's 20 years since their debut with Generation Terrorists.
Carolyn: I feel old.
John: There's loads of things like that. It's 20 years since Reservoir Dogs, for instance.
Carolyn: I think when it's 20 years since Pulp Fiction, I'll really feel old as it's the first film we went to see together.

Lianne La Havas - Forget
John: From her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough? which, scandalously, didn't win the Mercury Prize. Neither did our favourite, Django Django, or the sentimental option of Richard Hawley. Instead, it was the one album on the list I didn't like.
Carolyn: You were not happy about that. But, Alt-J, Leeds University, bit of a local connection?
John: I just don't like it. I realise I might be in a minority, but that's what makes the world go round.

One Degree Of Separation
Wedding Present - Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk
The Ukrainians - Cherez Richku, Cherez Hai
Carolyn: Well I wasn't expecting that. Normally, the two records in this section are quite similar... Go on then, what is it?
John: Two Leeds bands. First, the Wedding Present, from their seventh album El Rey out in 2008. That was followed by The Ukrainians, a modernised Ukrainian folk band formed by Weddoes guitarist Peter Solowka as he tried to get in touch with his Ukrainian roots. The title means 'across the river, through the wood' and is from the album also called The Ukrainians.

El Perro Del Mar - Hold Off The Dawn
John: Back to Scandinavian singers here. El Perro del Mar - Sea Dog, I suppose - the name under which Sarah Assbring performs. She's from Gothenburg which is...
Carolyn: ...somewhere I've been. Lovely city. The people are really friendly.

Motorama - To The South
John: To Russia now. It's a cosmopolitan show tonight. These are from Rostov-on-Don and that's all I've got on these.

Dark Horses - Alone
John: And to finish, the new one from their debut album Black Music which was released last Monday. So much more I wanted to put in tonight - maybe next week.

Here's your YouTube playlist.