4 February 2014

More of the usual for your listening pleasure.

Heavyball - Black Eye Friday
Out last Friday, this is the new one from these Nottingham lads now based out of London. Terrific stuff. More please.

Container - Glaze
This fair blew my socks off when I first heard it. Stunning stuff from Ren Schofield off the new EP 'Adhesive'.

Toy - It's Been So Long
Been a while since we played these. Off their second album 'Join The Dots', it's another winner.

Cover Version Corner
Chris Isaak/London Grammar - Wicked Game
London Grammar were last year's big thing, but largely by-passed me. She's got a hell of a voice. The original before that from 1990 and the album 'Heart-Shaped World'.

Deadwall - Eyes-White-Shut
We saw these supporting Hookworms at Hebden Trades Club and this track, off the new album 'Bukimi No Tani', really made my ears prick up. The album is great and it's out as of yesterday. The unusual name comes from a book by roboticist Masahiro Mori in which he espouses the theory that we shouldn't make robots to human-like. Presumably that's how Skynet starts.



Balthazar - Leipzig
To Belgium now. These had a lovely album out last year called 'Rats'. This is a new single, out now.

Mogwai - Remurdered
A new album, 'Rave Tapes', is out now and ticks all the Mogwai boxes.

One Degree of Separation
Half Man Half Biscuit - Paradise Lost (You're The Reason Why)
Calvin Party - 8 Days
Label-mates and regular touring compadres is your link. The venerable Probe Plus put out both of these bands and Calvin Party are regular support for HMHB. The Biscuits are playing Holmfirth in April. Bit of luck, so will Calvin Party.

Pete Seeger - Rye Whiskey
The news of Pete Seeger's death came too late for last week's show. I could have picked out anything from his back-catalogue, but this old Scottish drinking song stands out. Off the 1954 album 'Frontier Ballads'.

Eight Rounds Rapid - Talent
That's traduced a popular TV show. It's a fair point. Britain has lots of talent, but most of us don't. New single from these. I think they're ace.

Smog - In The Pines
I should probably have put this after Pete Seeger. It's another old song, done here by Bill Callahan in 2005, most famously recorded by Leadbelly back in the day. It's had various names, various lyrics, various numbers of verses, but this is lovely. Gives the impression of a stream babbling by. Off Smog's 'A River Ain't Too Much Love' album.

Pizzicato Five - Baby Love Child
To Japan, now. These are from Hokkaido and this came out in 1991 on the 'Last Year's Girl' album. It's been used in many films and TV shows; Futurama and the Adam Curtis documentary All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace for two.

TCTS - Lose Control
Tuesday night banger. Sam O'Neill from Manchester is TCTS and that's off an EP called 'These Heights'.

The Fall - Hey! Luciani
And to finish, The Fall. A song about the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I after just 33 days in office. That's from 1986 and couldn't possibly be any other band.

Here's a YouTube playlist, missing Deadwall:


And a bit less of it all on Soundcloud:

25 February 2013

Another cosmopolitan show this week, featuring a first trip to Belgium.

Primal Scream - 2013
John: Back recording after five years, there's an album due in May called 'Morelight'. That's four minutes and some, but there's a full nine minute version.
Carolyn: I'd always be wary of naming a record after a year. Limits your market somewhat.

The Jim Jones Revue - Where Da Money Go?
John: Rockabilly for a new generation, that's a slice of Americana from London. Off last year's album 'The Savage Heart'.
Carolyn: I'm not sure what it is, genre-wise. I'll have a think.

Schizo Fun Addict - Make A Stand
John: I don't know a lot about these other than they're from New York and are taking psychedelia in new directions to a new audience. I've heard about half a dozen of their records and really like it. As best I know, that's from 2005.

Cover Version Corner
Isley Jasper Isley/The Housemartins - Caravan Of Love
John: Two very different versions. Two-thirds of the Isley brothers and their brother in-law from 1985 with a very dated soul number which the Housemartins did acapella a year later. Only the second acapella record to make it to number one.
Carolyn: Flying Pickets?
John: Exactly.

Balthazar - Sinking Ships
John: I promised you Belgian and here it is. Off the album 'Rats' which is out today, so we're bang up to date.
Carolyn: It's not all waffles and beer then.

Goat - Run To Your Mama
John: To Sweden now, and these are from a town called Korpilombolo which I have no doubt pronounced badly. That's from last year's album 'World Music' and is that a bhangra type of sound I detect?
Carolyn: Yeah, a little bit. Similar cues, for sure.

Julian Cope - Trampolene
John: We've not had new stuff from Mr Cope for a while, but we can make do with a re-issue of 'Saint Julian' which this comes from. It's 25 years old and I bought it when it came out. I always was a huge fan.

Flume - Sleepless
John: Australia now, and Flume is Harley Stretten from Sydney and the album 'Flume' came out earlier this month.

John Cooper Clarke - I Don't Want To Be Nice
John: The Bard of Salford himself, seeing as you expressed a fondness for spoken word last week.
Carolyn: Well I meant tracks that involve someone speaking rather than poetry, but yeah.
John: I see. Well I'll try and find some others then. That's from 1978, a period in which he recorded a few albums of poems set to music. That one comes off 'Disguise In Love', but the recording is from an edition of The Old Grey Whistle Test.



One Degree of Separation
Death In Vegas - Aisha
Goran Bregovic - Get The Money
John: Goran Bregovic is a Bosnian musician and that track is from the soundtrack to the 1993 film Arizona Dream that starred Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway. The Death In Vegas track is from the 1999 album 'The Contino Sessions' and featured on the soundtrack to Gran Turismo 3, the computer game.
Carolyn: And the link? Not soundtracks, because that would be rubbish.
John: Both feature vocals by Iggy Pop.

Judy Street - What
John: How about a bit of Northern Soul? Originally recorded in 1968, this was a smash on the Northern Soul scene a decade later and got a re-release in 1977 and is still cracking.

King Creosote - On The Night Of The Bonfire
John: Kenny Anderson records under the name King Creosote, prolifically so. That's off the 2010 album 'That Might Be It, Darling' and he's one of those rarities that sing in their own accent. Fife, in this case.
Carolyn: Yeah, I got that.

Two Door Cinema Club - Next Year
John: I'm not sure about this. It's had plenty of airplay, but I just don't know if I like it or not.
Carolyn: I know we've had these before a couple of times. It's alright, that.
John: It's the new single from the album 'Beacon' which came out last summer. It's not bad, but is it enough to get excited about? I still can't make my mind up.

Lonnie Donegan - Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O
John: I play this for a couple of reasons. First, I like Lonnie Donegan. Second, because I hear a lot about Jake Bugg and it's my theory that he's a cheap Donegan knock-off. So why have that when you can have this?

More next week. In the meantime, here's your YouTube playlist.