18 March 2014

Back once again, this week with a slightly Scandinavian feel. Let's crack on.

The Fall - The War Against Intelligence
The first Fall track I ever heard and been a fan ever since. From the 1991 album 'Shift-Work'.

Liars - Mess On A Mission
Love this so much. So much going on there. From the new album 'Mess' which is out next Monday.

Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightnin'
Because why not. Chester Burnett was his name and this is off his debut album from back in 1959 called 'Moanin' In The Moonlight'. Lots of apostrophes...

Cover Version Corner
New Order/Flunk - Blue Monday
Flunk are from Oslo and that's off their 2002 album 'For Sleepyheads Only'. Before that, they don't need an introduction. So I won't give them one. The Flunk version is one of those that I heard in the pub and identified by the wonder of Shazam. Ain't modern technology wonderful?

Todd Terje - Delorean Dynamite
Staying in Norway, Terje Olsen is from Mjøndalen. He's released plenty of stuff, but his first long-player is due out in April. 'It's Album Time'. Great name.

Lust For Youth - Another Day
To Sweden now and Hannes Norvide's Lust For Youth. This is one of those I've had hanging around for ages and now finally got chance to play. It came out on the album 'Perfect View' last summer.

One Degree of Separation
Underworld - Dark And Long
Propellerheads - Take California
First, from 1994, a terrific track from Underworld, followed by one from four years later by Propellerheads. The link is in the album titles. 'dubnobasswithmyheadman' is the Underworld one - a brilliant piece of work, still - and the Propellerheads with 'decksanddrumsandrockandroll'.

Silkken Laumann - Giving You Up
Fast becoming one of my favourite contemporary bands, I've played quite a few tracks from the album 'Not Forever Enough'. Because it's great.

Boards Of Canada - Happy Cycling
If I want to relax, this is my go to record. It's just great the way it develops. It was a bonus track on 'Music Has The Right To Children' from 1998 and I will never tire of it.

No show next week - blame Middlesbrough for that - so back in a fortnight.
In the meantime, here's that on YouTube:


And Soundcloud:


See you in two weeks

8 July 2013

Another Monday, another week to get kicked off.

Nothankyou - Know Yourself
John: I've barely been able to tear myself away from this since I first heard it. This is a collaboration between Tom Vek and Dirty Projectors vocalist Olga Bell and it's flipping brilliant. This is out on a double-A side single released on August 5.

Hookworms - Radio Tokyo
John: We like these. From Leeds, this is off their album 'Pearl Mystic' and is probably the most accessible record on there.
Carolyn: What - in terms of length?
John: Yes and less... experimental.

Owiny Sigoma Band - Harpoon Land
John: Another band we've had before, taking London beats and Kenyan traditions. Short and sweet, that's off 'Power Punch' which came out in April.
Carolyn: It sounds like it should be older than a couple of months ago. Stuff I like normally turns out to be 20 years old and more.


Cover Version Corner
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band/The Black Keys - Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
John: I've been threatening to play Beefheart for ages, and finally I have. That's a relatively easy way in to his oeuvre, before it all went a bit skew-whiff with Trout Mask Replica. That's off the 1972 album 'Clear Spot'. Then the Black Keys version which is remarkable for sounding more Beefheart than Beefheart did and is off a split single with the Flaming Lips from 2009.

Pinkunoizu - Moped
John: New stuff from Denmark. That's off an album called 'Drop' which is out next month.

Toy - She's Out Of My Head
John: We like these and we've not played them for a while. This isn't off their critically acclaimed album 'Toy', rather a B-side to the single version of My Heart Skips A Beat which we've also played. Really like that.

Disclosure - Stimulation
John: A proper foot-stomping, old-school floor-filler. These are big and, for me, won Glastonbury. That's the third track we've played off their hit album 'Settle'.

Boards Of Canada - New Seeds
John: I'm a big fan of these and a new album is something to savour. Dark, moody, brooding, cinematic... The album is 'Tomorrow's Harvest' and came out last month.

Hot Chip - Dark And Stormy
John: New stuff from these, which is always fun. Hopefully a new album to follow shortly.

One Degree Of Separation
The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray
Lemon Jelly - Space Walk
John: Not a tricky link this week. If life gives you lemons, play Lemon Jelly - that's what I reckon. That's off 2002's 'Lost Horizons' album and features astronaut Ed White on 1965's Gemini 4 mission which is one of the more unique samples you'll find. Before that, Evan Dando and the Lemonheads off the 1992 album of the same name.
Carolyn: Given it was an easy link today, is next week's going to be one of your obscure ones?
John: I don't know yet.

Young Rising Sons - I Want It All
John: I like Twitter. It allows me to share the stuff I play each week and also allows people to recommend stuff to me. Which these did. They're from New Jersey, have an album called 'Highway Town' out now and available for free download. Very commercial, that, in a Black Keys style.
Carolyn: By commercial do you just mean that I like it?
John: It has mass appeal is all. I just hope they appreciate we don't have a wide listenership and I'm not a massively influential player in the music industry.

Inspiral Carpets - Directing Traffik
John: Unmistakeable. That's off their 1990 debut album 'Life' and is probably my favourite of all their stuff.
Carolyn: 1990... I feel old.
John: Still going strong and making new stuff. More power to their collective elbow.

The Horrors - I Can See Through You
John: From Southend, this is a couple of years old now, off 2011's 'Skying'.


And that's your lot for this week. That's all packaged up for you in a neat YouTube playlist except the Hookworms track which is over here.

8 April 2013

Back after the Easter break, and John's bang on the bonce, with some Monday night bangers.

Dan Le Sac - Four Thousand Thumbnails
John: One of our favourites with a treat for his fans on his recent birthday. Once this hit 4000 views on YouTube, he gave it away as a free download. Which was nice.


Mat Zo and Porter Robinson - Easy
John: In a proper late '90s/early 2000s club style, that's proper banging.
Carolyn: Listeners should note that when we had this on in the car yesterday, John was throwing some serious shapes. Good job we were in a massive queue.
John: That's Matan Zohar from London and Porter Robinson from North Carolina and it's out now.

Visuals - Levitation
John: From Brooklyn, that's Marshall Ryan and Andrew Fox. It's got a real Joy Division-y feel to it, certainly in the bass and the guitars. It's available as a pay-what-you-like download from their bandcamp site.

Cover Version Corner
Rolling Stones/Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
John: Devo, very much of the burgeoning MTV scene, had a very visual element to their work. That's from the 1977 EP 'Be Stiff'. The Stones, of course, need no introduction. We play them as they've been in the news lately with concerts in Hyde Park - not free, £300 this time - and headlining Glastonbury. That's from 1965.

Vitalic - Fade Away
John: Vitalic is Frenchman Pascal Arbez. That's off the album 'Rave Age' which came out last December. It sounds like a number of things, none of which I can place.

Tomorrow's World - Drive
John: Keeping it French, this is Jean-Benoit Dunkel - him out of Air - and Lou Hayter. We've played them before, but this is the second track from the album 'Tomorrow's World' which is out today. And yes they are named after the TV show.

Spectrals - Milky Way
John: Someone else we've had before, this is Louis Smith from Heckmondwike, now firmly part of the Leeds scene. It's off the forthcoming long-player 'Sob Story' and is very jaunty indeed.
Carolyn: Always good to play local stuff. We do a lot from all over the world, which is great, but also good not to forget those closer to home.

One Degree Of Separation
Boards Of Canada - roygbiv
Public Service Broadcasting - roygbiv
John: We've been championing PSB like few others. 'Inform, Educate, Entertain' is out next month and I can't wait to get hold of it.
Carolyn: We like them.
John: Before that, a track we have played before, a 1998 10" single which I adore. The link is the title. Nothing else.

Menace Beach - Drop Outs
John: Back to Leeds now for some lo-fi goodness. It's out on a limited release on Rough Trade records.

Tricky - Nothing's Changed
John: New from the Bristol trip-hop veteran, from the forthcoming album 'False Idols' which is out next month. You can grab this as a free download from his website.

Serafina Steer - Disco Compilation
John: Not enough harp on this show. This is off the album 'The Moths Are Real' which is out about now, I think.
Carolyn: A bit bass-heavy isn't it?
John: No such thing as too much bass.

And here's a website-only bonus, apropos of nothing:


Here's all that wrapped up in a YouTube playlist for you, minus the Visuals track which isn't on there.

3 December 2012

Packed the box for tonight and didn't get anywhere near playing it all.

Mystery Jets - Saviour (The Hale Bop)
John: New one from these off the album Radlands which was out earlier this year

Boards of Canada - Dawn Chorus
John: Seeing as the Bank of England is about to be run by a Canadian
Carolyn: Didn't like that at all
John: Ten years old, off 2002's Geogaddi

Foals - Inhaler
John: New one from these off Holy Fire which comes out in February. Bit of a harder edge to previous stuff.

Cover Version Corner
Paul Revere and the Raiders/Modern Rocketry - (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
John: There are dozens of covers of this. We could have chosen the Sex Pistols, Minor Threat, Johnny Thunders, The Farm... Instead, we went for Modern Rocketry's 12" mix on the basis this is supposed to show two totally different interpretations. That was from 1983, Paul Revere from 1966.

Tame Impala - Mind Mischief
John: New from these off the album Lonerism
Carolyn: Really like that. We've had a few from these before haven't we?
John: We have. One of the albums of the year

The Damned - New Rose
John: Their debut single from 1976. They played Leeds last week and stormed it.

Delphic - Baiya
John: It went a bit '80s in the middle there.
Carolyn: It started a bit '80s and stayed there. Not that there's anything wrong with that
John: That's off the album Collections which comes out in January

Majestyy - The Notion
John: With two Ys, that's available as a free download from their Soundcloud page

One Degree of Separation
Martin Rossiter - Drop Anchor
Gene - Haunted By You
John: The Gene track is from 1995 and their debut album Olympian. They were notable for being a bit Smiths-esque
Carolyn: A bit? Very.
John: Martin Rossiter took a long sabbatical and is back with this single which is off the album The Defenestration Of St Martin which came out last week and is a sublime piece of song writing

Nathan Fake - Paean
John: Off the album Steam Days, that's out sort of now-ish. I think

Seasick Steve - Don't Know Why She Loves Me But She Do
John: Love that. If that hasn't got your foot tapping, something's wrong.
Carolyn: Mine was going
John: He's 71 (to the best of anyone's knowledge) is Steven Gene Wold and makes a lot of his own instruments. I've seen him play a single-string contraption, guitars made from hubcaps, cigar boxes... That's off last year's album Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks


Miike Snow - Paddling Out
John: With two Is
Caarolyyn: I'm going to start spelling my name with two As and two Ys
John: Miike Snow is Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg from Stockholm and that's from 2010's album Happy To You

Bonus website extras:
Stuff in the box we didn't get round to playing on a time/total disorganisation basis...

Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool
Fuckpony - Real Love Is Forever
Stereolab - French Disko
Underworld - Scribble
Justice - DVNO
The Specials - Enjoy Yourself
"I'm Terry and I'm going to enjoy myself first"

And here's your YouTube playlist.

17 September 2012

Orbital - Where Is It Going?
John: How good is that?

Band Of Horses - Knock Knock

The Pond - The River

Django Django - Default
Macabees - Pelican
John: Both of these bands were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize this week and we'll have two more later

Simian Mobile Disco feat Beth Ditto - Cruel Intentions

Kele - Tenderoni



Cover Version Corner
Simon and Garfunkel/The Lemonheads - Mrs Robinson
John: Simon and Garfunkel's version from which film?
Carolyn: The Graduate
John: And The Lemonheads?
Carolyn: Not a clue
John: Wayne's World 2
Carolyn: Only you would know enough to care

Los Saicos - El Enterrio de los Gatos
John: There's a new documentary out that says punk didn't start in mid-'70s New York, but Lima a good ten years earlier and this band at the forefront. The title means 'the burial of the cats' and I do think you can see blues moving in a direction towards what we know as punk

Grizzly Bear - Yet Again

M83 - Reunion

Julian Cope - If You Loved Me At All
John: Possibly my second-favourite artist/band/whatever
Carolyn: You want me to ask who your favourite is don't you
John: You know who that is surely
Carolyn: Half Man Half Biscuit

Richard Hawley - Seek It
Field Music - Who'll Pay The Bills
John: Two more Mercury nominees. The others are: Ben Howard, Roller Trio, Sam Lee, Plan B, Alt-J, Jessie Ware, Michael Kiwanuka and Lianne La Havas
Carolyn: Who do you want to win?
John: It'd be nice if it was Richard Hawley, but Django Django is probably my favourite. Not Alt-J will be acceptable

Boards Of Canada - Roygbiv

Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood

And your YouTube playlist is here.