Earworms 15 July 2019

This illustration is from The Make-Believe Story Book (c.1925), a present to my mum on her eighth birthday. It shows the Dewmops, whose job is to mop dew from the grass before the sunbeam fairies come to air and warm it. One morning the Dewmops discover a discarded, soggy bar of chocolate cream and end up squashed into it after an unfortunate encounter with Brekekekex Coàx, the local frog. The story has a happy ending when they discover that chocolate tastes rather nice – which is a convoluted introduction to your tasty songs about Chocolate. If you have an earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, m4a or a link to earworm@tincanland.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be works of art – paintings, sculpture, etc.etc. Many thanks to all contributors.

The 1975 – Chocolate – AliM: For ‘chocolate’, read ‘cannabis’, I think.

Lyrics Born – Chocolate Cake – tincanman: It’s a rare song that makes me hungry and horny at the same time, but LA rapper Tom Shimura’s power funk makes a mess of my apron. TMI? Sorry. As you were.

Happy Mondays – Wrote for Luck – vanwolf: Wasn’t in my itunes so as recorded straight from the vinyl – Vince Clarke remix.

Let’s Eat Grandma – Chocolate Sludge Cake – severin: After winning the battle to pick their Donnie Darko song for the Festive Spill, I feel duty bound to say that I hadn’t heard of the band until barbryn nominated “Rapunzel” for the “weird and surreal” topic in 2017 and I listed it. But they’re mine now, I tell you.

Coldcut – Chocolate Box – shoegazer: Janis Alexander doing her Sade impression.

Iggy Pop – Chocolate Drops – Ravi Raman: Optimism Mr Pop style! From his 2016 album Post Pop Depression.

Wood Brothers – Chocolate On My Tongue – tincanman: First heard this last year on Kathy Mattea’s Pretty Bird and was moved by it’s simple tenderness. The Lightnin’ Hopkins-style original is a nice reminder to make time to enjoy life’s little pleasures. You still here? Off you go and run a bath. I’ll guard the chocolate.

Spaghetti Vabune! – Chocolate Song – vanwolf: When I was made redundant c 2005 I had a spell of having a bit more free time, some of which was spent trawling various indie blogs where I found lots of delightful things, this being an example. I have no idea what they are singing about but hearing it always cheers me up, rather like eating chocolate.

Kylie Minogue – Chocolate – severin: “Melt me slowly down, like chocolate”. Well, if you insist. Sounds a bit messy though.

Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison – Chocolate Sundae – Ravi Raman: A muted start develops into an excellent track. Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan also part of the ensemble.

 

more power to your elbow!

Earworms 8 July 2019

Good morning all, and welcome to your songs about mythical beasts. Severin ponders whether elves are (mythical) beasts … well I’ve never met one, so I think they probably are, apart from Elvish Presley. Mind you, I never met him, either. Anyway, I won’t ‘drag on’ … if you have an earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, m4a or a link to earworm@tincan.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be Chocolate. Many thanks to all contributors.

Henry Mancini and his Orchestra – The Pink Panther Theme – Ravi Raman: Managed to get this zedded too. One of my all time favourites.

Sugarcubes – Dragon – severin: Well, it’s about a dragon, isn’t it? Sounds like a scary one too.

Honorable South – Beast – tincanman: First earworm that came to mind is this “foot-stompin’, truth tellin’, electric soul” Louisiana rocker. You gotta love the enthusiasm of Charm Taylor and friends, but their party-like shows didn’t translate into much in the way of record sales and they called it quits in 2013 after a crazy 6 or 7 years. (I think their bassist likes Flea.)

Monochrome Set – Fantasy Creatures – shoegazer: Bid seems to have turned a bit Scottish on this one.

Squirrel Nut Zippers – Kraken – Ravi Raman: Another kooky but great song from these guys, from the Kraken’s point of view.

Sinead Lohan – No Mermaid – AliM: I think this lovely track came from tincanman. Sinead isn’t taking any crap from anybody.

Bridie Jackson And The Arbour – Crying Beast – AliM: A dark song. Not all beasts are beasts you can name or see. Beware of the ones, the ones that come / into your home unbidden … From their 2014 album, New Skin.

Sigur Ros – Staralfur – severin: “I pull the soft covers over, close my eyes. I hide my head under the covers. A little elf stares at me. Runs towards me but doesn’t move.” That’s an (loose) English translation of part of the lyric. Something I would never have known if Uncle ben hadn’t nominated the song for a Song Bar topic along the lines of this one. I hope elves count as beasts. Apologies to all elves if they don’t.

Meet Ria Mae

Ria is a Canadian of big voice and baffling genre – and worth keeping an eye on.

I don’t listen to radio unless it’s playing in a store or doctor office, but apparently she’s been on it in a minorish way over here. She opened for Dido in Vancouver last week and I was impressed with her voice and the character in her songwriting, and live she was more rock and roll than radio. Well chosen, Dido! She has two albums and I just wish they were less faux-RnB radio style.

I thought I’d share this here because I know we have some Beth Hart fans in the house, and there’s moments when you’d swear (I wouldn’t; altar boy, me) it was her. She also writes a lot about staring down vulnerability and looking the world straight in the eye.

Here’s my faves:  Trixi is her radio sound, and a great summer belter. And, as with Beth Hart, there’s some stunning solo acoustic takes out there, such as Me & You, worth hunting for.

(Oh and Dido was great btw. Thanks for asking. So many stadium anthems they start to all merge after a while, but a good energy show and big wow on the percussion. Hope someone tells her either don’t do White Flag or get it out of the way early; the halfhearted encore is a sorry way to end.)

 

 

Summer ‘Spill – The 1960’s

Pick your three favourite songs released between Jan 1, 1960 & Dec 31, 1969.

Send mp3 or mp3 links to shoemail@cfl.rr.com.

Will bung the results in the ‘Spill jukebox sometime before the Autumnal equinox

Earworms 1 July 2019

Good evening, and what a glorious sunny evening it is here – not conducive to listening to songs about storms, but there are some excellent picks here so I hope they blow you away. If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to earworm@tincanland.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be mythical birds and beasts.

The Sinners – Hurricane Shuffle – Ravi Raman: I found this in the RR folder of my library! Apparently a band out of Sweden.

Steve’n’Seagulls – Thunderstruck – AliM: Ridiculous but enjoyable banjo cover of the AC/DC song.

James McMurtry- Hurricane Party – tincanman: I like the wistful notes of this. I think when a big storm is approaching you want to prepare yourself both physically and mentally; if there’s still stuff to stow away, this is a good time to do it.

Massive Attack and Mad Professor – Cool Monsoon (Weather Storm) – severin: Remixed by MP from the original five minute version which was just called Weather Storm. This from their collaborative No Protection album. Very filmic.

Fats Comet – Dub Storm – shoegazer: AKA Tackhead – Dub B-side of the Stormy Weather single from 1985.

Gil Scott Heron – Storm Music – Ravi Raman: Freedom’s spreading like the wings of a bird, he says. Wonder what he’ll add today. From his Reflections album.

Mumford & Sons – After the Storm – AliM: From their 2009 album Sigh No More.

Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart – When the Storm Comes – severin: Vocals – Anneli Drecker and Natacha Atlas. “Thunder rolls, at last I’m free. Let your love wash over me, let your love rain down.” Ah. Not a literal storm then.

Dido – Hurricanes – tincanman: From her latest, Still On My Mind, she asks for the strength to meet a stormy relationship face on. This is a very good album, folks.

Earworms 24 June 2019

Good afternoon, and welcome to your songs about eruptions. Actually a more difficult topic than I’d anticipated, but rescued by your ingenuity and severin’s sentimental video above. If you have an earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to: earworm@tincanland.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme, which is already well-covered but seems appropriate, is storms.

Hoodoo Gurus – Leilani – tincanman: It wasn’t love that tore them apart, it was lava. These things happen on the Pacific Ring. Sydney (where these lads erupted from in the mid-80s), isn’t quite on the ‘ring of fire’, but close enough to worry about it.

Shriekback – Go Bang! – shoegazer: Shoey is a man of few words, so I will tell you that Shriekback is a London band formed by Barry Andrews, formerly of XTC and League of Gentlemen.

Van Halen – Eruption – Ravi Raman: taken from a live show. Not much to tell about it is there?

Bjork – One Day – severin: ‘One day when you’re ready an aeroplane will curve gracefully around the volcano with the eruption that never lets you down…’ Well that needed saying if anything did.

Damien Rice – Volcano – AliM: From his debut album ‘O’ (2002), which was the year my son was born, so I listened to it a lot (very soothing). ‘Volcano’ charted in the top 30 in the same year.

Weather Report – Volcano For Hire – Ravi Raman: Another instrumental offering from me and the only one I have with ‘volcano’ in the title.

Bob Dylan – Black Diamond Bay – severin: ‘Then the volcano erupted and the lava flowed down from the mountain high above…’ OK, it’s only a part of the rather convoluted story. But it is a rather important part.

The Band – Volcano – Maggie B: Hi, Solstice greetings everyone! The Band, from their 1971 album Cahoots. ( I’m old enough to remember it being played on the radio).