Waves crashing, pagan symbolism, drug reference, spiritual redeemer, or maybe just a horse. If you look back over rock and dance music's history there's a fine tradition of the old white horse appearing out of the mist. A loaded metaphor in so many ways. A shame then that perhaps the greatest horse song, The Byrds' Chestnut Mare doesn't feature a white horse! No mind, for our purposes we're sticking with the white ones. The LP cover above is XTC's English Settlement. It seemed to sum up the mystical vibe of at least some of the tracks in this list. Until the next white horse comes along, feast your eyes on the playlist. Saddle up and let's ride!
Seems like quite some time since the end of the Cold War. The world continues to open up in so many ways. Been thinking about the Cold War a lot recently since watching "The Lives Of Others", so thought I'd put together a video playlist of some of the most memorable tracks inspired by that era.
Click over the jump for my Cold War video playlist
It's been a while since my last post as I've been catching up on some soul-refreshing reading. After reading the Bill Drummond piece on damsons in the new "On Nature" book brought to us by the good folks at Caught By The River (click here for more details), I've decided to compile a new video playlist.
Click over the jump for my "fruits in rock" video playlist.
2nd album from Danny Wilson's South London indie-country collective.
This album arrived at my house as I was suffering from an extremely debilitating chest infection. I'd been laid up in bed for the best part of a week. Couldn't face much reading, or food so had spent most of my time coughing and ruminating on life's twists and turns. A strange week of introspection. This album seemed to arrive at just the right time, forcing from me the easy tears of a convalescent. It's themes of family and friendship striking a deep chord.
The photo on the sleeve shows a close up of a pair of road-weary trainers placed on railway tracks that stretch off into the hazy distance. It's a clue to the reflective lyrical themes that lie within these 9 songs. Danny Wilson takes a mid-life stock take, looking back at distance travelled, while keeping a hopeful eye on the journey still to come.
Opening track “Henry The Van” laments the breakdown of a tour bus but is really about fanning the dying embers of youthful passions and ambitions. It comes drenched in gorgeous CS&N style harmonies courtesy of Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou.
“Lose These Rags” is a community empowering anthem Springsteen might have written had he grown in Wandsworth rather than New Jersey.
Recurring references to familial love, community, ageing and nature, most notably rivers and birds, continue throughout the record. Strong autobiographical song writing and an assured English country sound makes this a very rewarding listen.
Here's a clip of the band playing an impromptu version of "Restless Feet".
Here's a video playlist for y'all. This could have been so much longer but I kept nodding off while trawling through clips of The Corrs. Please add some suggestions for additions in the comments box, I may add them to the list. I'm gonna dedicate this to my brothers, you drive me up the wall sometimes but I love you to bits. Enjoy!
Scouse-psych folk-rock opus gets the unplugged treatment.
It would be easy to see this album as a cynical cash in, milking the goodwill towards last year's classic album for maximum financial return, while giving little in return.
Although missing the character and bite of the original versions, this is a master-class in melody and a better insight into James Skelly's vague yet meaningful lyrics.
The 12 songs from the original album (plus new instrumental “Dreamland”) are stripped of the Forever Changes style baroque folk flourishes, and re-worked with no percussion, and heavy on vocal harmony and 12-string jangle. Recorded in one session the album is not without its imperfections, but that's part of its demo-ish charm.
Not essential, but an absorbing stopgap from a band at the top of their game.
I happened to hear this track last night by Bill Callahan. It's featured on a CD that was given away with Mojo magazine a couple of years ago. The compilation is entitled New Harvest and features the hip and happening of American songwriters and bands. This track by Bill Callahan is taken from his album "Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle". It stopped me in my tracks somewhat. It just reminded me of something I'd heard long ago that was buried deep within my psyche. Took me a while to figure out what but I think I may have dug deep enough to find it.
Compare and contrast with the theme tune from '70s craft-based children's TV classic Fingerbobs.
NB. This post is not meant to be derogatory to either Bill Callahan or Fingerbobs but does make for an interesting juxtaposition I think.
Take a look at your record or CD collection, or at the mp3's on your player. Chances are the vast majority of tunes are by white westerners, usually male to boot. Certainly the case for my own collection, I'm afraid to say. This CD compilation, released in 2009 goes some way to rectifying this embarrassing fact.
Like Britain, Japan is an island nation with a complex, sometimes suspicious interaction with the rest of the world. Just over a couple of centuries ago no foreigner was allowed to enter the country and all foreign trade was conducted via a man-made gated island at the port of Nagasaki. (For an insight into this era I recommend reading David Mitchell's excellent novel "The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet").
Japan also has an amazing track record of hardiness and re-invention after suffering devastating horror and destruction, both natural and by mankind. Think of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, along with devastation caused by the recent tsunami. Japan may currently be suffering and greiving but the new Japan that emerges from this most recent disaster will certainly be a country worthy of our respect and admiration.
It was released on the Ace Record label and was compiled by girl-group expert Sheila Burgel, who also wrote the fantastically imformed sleeve notes. It's worth checking out Sheila's wonderful website dedicated to all things girl pop. www.chachacharming.com
Here's the first track from the CD, Jun Mayuzumi's "Black Room"...
I recently treated myself to an Amazon Kindle.One of the more interesting and unique e-books I've read on it has to be this 60's memoir from Colin Betts. A bright but rebellious teenager, Betts' interest in the the burgeoning counter-culture is piqued by regularly seeing The Rolling Stones rip it up at his local night-spot. In true Beat style, (not Beatnik, there is a difference as explained in the book), Betts drops out of formal education and takes to the road, living hand to mouth with money earned from busking and the odd trick turned.
Shortly he manages to blag his way into a job as a roadie for The Stones on one of their early UK tours. There follows spells busking in the south of France with the then unknown Nick Drake, globetrotting exploits as a drug runner, and fascinating first hand descriptions of the scale and intensity of the Paris riots of May 1968.
The second part of the book (Shininglight) is a play based on the time Colin spent in Aix-en-Provence with Nick Drake.
The book comes with a recommendation from none other than Joe Boyd. If you've ever enjoyed reading Joe's own book White Bicycles - Making Music In The 1960's, or Howard Marks' Mr. Nice then this book is for you.
For more information about Colin Betts' Frozenlight/Shininglight go to www.colinbetts.com
Being in an unsigned band is for the most part a plateau of mundane experience punctuated by occasional highs and lows. The highs may include the kudos of playing the odd festival in the summer or getting some late night national radio play. The lows are when it costs more to get the van through its MOT than the amount you originally paid for it. Or somebody leaves and you have to replace them, losing any amount of momentum the band may have had. The mundane part is lumping gear around, organising practices, booking gigs and burning cdr's which you can't even give away.
There seems to be a limited set of experiences that all band share, signed or unsigned. Ask any gigging musician and they're bound to have tales of dodgy promoters, late night trips up or down the A1, playing to the proverbial 2 men and a dog in sticky floored venues. And that's just the good stuff!
One of the more ridiculous band experiences is that of local band rivalry. The music scene in general is a small gene-pool, any local scene even more so. These bands are all scratting round for the same gigs, may have to support bands they think should be supporting them. The first reaction to any other band's good fortune is to think that that should have been us. etc etc etc. I'll bet good money that even someone as successful and popular as Paul McCartney still bristles with resentment towards some also-ran Merseybeat combo. Perhaps that's human nature, I dunno.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is that it gives me an excuse to show a clip from one of the greatest rock films ever - "Slade in Flame", where Noddy Holder, singer with The Undertakers gets locked in a coffin by their local rivals. The fashions may change but the song remains the same....
