Chaka can. Chaka can. Chaka can.
It’s ch this week.
This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… The Pearlfishers
A few years ago, I spent a whole year posting a different song by a Scottish band or artist every day on Facebook.
The resulting 365 song playlist was heavily biased in favour of the sort of Indie Pop that I love listening to with plenty of contributions from bands such as Orange Juice, Belle & Sebastian, The Cocteau Twins, Trashcan Sinatras, Teenage Fanclub, The Blue Nile, Aztec Camera et al. Along the way, followers suggested songs and artists to include and I gained a few new acts to explore.
Curiously, nobody mentioned one particular band that I, at the time, had never heard of. I can only imagine that they had also never heard of them because otherwise there’s really no excuse for it. The band in question are the subject of this week’s blog and I have no idea how I had managed to avoid them for so long…
If I asked some sophisticated AI software to invent the perfect (Scottish) Indie Pop band, a band that I would love, I think that it would come up with The Pearlfishers.
Since discovering them in October 2022 – just 31 years after their debut release! – I have spent a lot of time catching up. The band are about to release their 11th album and I have no doubt that it will be up to the standards of the previous ten.
Chief songwriter, David Scott, has clearly spent a lot of time listening to bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Steely Dan as well as many of the more contemporary artists that I listed above. It’s pure melodic indie pop and I won’t have a word said against it!
Enjoy…
Earworms 6 May 2024
Good evening and welcome to your selection of songs about bridges of one sort or another.
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an.mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be the circus, or anything closely connected with it, and worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 12 May.
Many thanks to all contributors, hope you’ve had a good Bank Holiday if you’re in the UK. Keep calm, and carry on!
Fairport Convention – Bridge Over the River Ash – severin and Suzi: severin: It’s a “trad – arranged band” tune but I don’t know much more about it than that. There is a River Ash in Surrey and one in Hertfordshire. Many others too, I shouldn’t wonder. Suzi: Dave Swarbrick and his fiddle with a lively instrumental from the Angel Delight album.
Bruce Springsteen – Erie Canal – DebbyM: I absolutely love the Seeger Sessions. Low bridge, everybody down!
Replacements – Skyway – tincanman: Skyways are elevated covered walkways between buildings, a prominent feature downtown in wintery Minneapolis where Paul Westerberg grew up.
The Pogues – Misty Morning, Albert Bridge – Suzi: Separated from his beloved, he dreams of meeting her on London’s Albert Bridge, where one day they’ll be reunited.
Karat – Über Sieben Brücken Musst du Gehen – DebbyM: One of the biggest hits in the history of German pop music, this song has been covered by just about everyone. This is the original version by Karat, an East German (DDR) band.
Pink Floyd – Burning Bridges – severin: From the Obscured By Clouds album, i.e. the Soundtrack from the Barbet Schroeder film, La Vallee. The music in this one was composed by Richard Wright. Roger Waters’ lyric sounds like it’s about leaving a marriage; breaking a gold ring and all that.
Mike Curb Congregation – Burning Bridges – shoegazer: From Kelly’s Heroes.
Antonio Aguilar – El Puente Roto – Fintan28: “The Broken Bridge” They fell in love upon the bridge. Now she’s there with another. Que lastima! And what’s Cinco de Mayo without Mariachi?
Cure – Subway Song – severin: A song with a jump scare. Plenty of films use this “lone person (usually a woman) in subway feeling anxious” trope.
Wax – Bridge To Your Heart – DebbyM: As soon as I read this week’s theme, I got this earworm stuck in my head.
Lucinda Williams – 2 Kool 2B 4gotten – Fintan28: Featuring the Lake Charles Bridge upon which Lucinda tells her lover where to get off.
Esperanza Spalding – Ponta De Areia – Fintan28: Milton Nascimento song lamenting the passing of the link between Bahia & Minas. In the interest of “progress” the Brazilian Junta did away with the railway linking the 2 states so people without cars would be encouraged to drive, Esperanza does a lovely job here.
Sleater-Kinney – Jumpers – tincanman: The distance between the Golden Gate Bridge and the blue sea below gives you four seconds to hope your last hope and fear your last fear.
Main Playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube playlist, blurbs below:
Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Under the Bridge – LongTallSilly: I haven’t listened to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers for a while. Brought back memories of Welsh beaches as I’d picked up the CD on the way out (I’d not packed any CDs in the car!) So listened to it a lot when not on the water.
Jesse Colin Young – Ridgetop – AliM: First heard this song today, how serendipitous is that? JCY was a founding member of the Youngbloods. The song amused me because it made me think of LTS; also Americans can not pronounce ‘squirrel’. And he mentions the Golden Gate Bridge.
Simon and Garfunkel – 59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin’ Groovy) – MaggieB: The weather’s good and it’s a bank holiday: Groovy !
Robin Trower – Bridge of Sighs – AliM: Why so unforgiving and why so cold? Been a long time crossing Bridge of Sighs / Cold wind blows… From the eponymous album (1974).
Got any words beginning with tr?
This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… runo plum
One of the benficial outcomes of the whole pandemic/lockdown thing was arguably the blow that it delivered to the role of middle-aged white men in the process that decides what music gets released and what doesn’t.
For the past seventy years or so, A&R men have been telling us what we should be listening to (which has – surprise, surprise! – more-often-than-not, turned out to be music that middle-aged white men are traditionally expected to like – i.e. guitar-based rock music – ‘cock rock’, if you will…) but with the advent of new technologies and relatively easy access to mass markets for anyone with the means to upload a video to YouTube, practically anyone can now get their music heard. And COVID-19 certainly played its part in all this.
And guess what? Young women, writing music about things that matter to young women can now get heard. To me (admittedly, a middle-aged white man), this comes as a refreshing change. I’ve long been fed up with the all-pervading, male imposed culture of rock music, but nowadays there’s no shortage of top quality, melodic music, mostly made by women; music with interesting lyrics about the experiences of real people; music made by people who have a different view on life; music that’s about as far away from traditional in-your-face, macho, rawk-n-rowl as you can get.
I know this is over-simplifying matters and there’s still a long way to go before we finally rid ourselves of the idea that there’s a virtue in music being loud and abbrasive and that gentle, melodic pop music is somehow a lesser art form. The Patriarchy is very much still out there, kicking back…
Phoebe Bridgers summed it up perfectly in her boygenius song, Letter To An Old Poet:
You said my music is mellow,
Maybe I’m just exhausted…
To this week’s artist then…
Indie-folk singer-songwriter runo plum is someone I know very little about. She’s been making music (or at least releasing it) since 2021, with a string of singles and EPs released since then, the latest, softer, released this year. There was also an EP, 2022’s mountain songs, released in collaboration with producer and singer-songwriter, Philip Brooks.
She definitely couldn’t be accused of being a publicity seeker. Her ‘about’ page on Spotify currently reads:
❤
And there’s virtually nothing about her online – no official website that I’m aware of and no Wikipedia page – and most of what I know about her is based on a short piece on the Seventh Avenue website. The following extract ties in neatly with what I said above:
… amidst the quietude of the pandemic, runo began immersing herself in the world of music production. She spent the year transforming as an artist and writing music more than ever. That year she wrote two EPs, piano songs, etc and earlier from ‘20, which she only released to Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
At the beginning of 2021, runo began sharing videos of her songs on social media. She gathered a small but dedicated audience, eager to experience the music on streaming platforms. Responding to their requests, yin to yang made its debut on Spotify, marking the beginning of a musical journey. Since then, she has independently released a variety of songs and projects, including a 6-track EP titled jupiter and a joint EP mountain songs with Philip Brooks.
It’s fair to say that very few middle-aged white A&R men were involved in this story but somehow, despite their absence, runo has managed to attract 364,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and her most listened to song, yin and yang, has achieved more than 4 million listens.
Perhaps, I don’t need to know any more. Maybe I should just content myself with listening to runo’s beautiful, mellow, melodic, floaty music.
I thoroughly recommend that you do the same…
Pushing my luck here
Seeing as no EOTWQ magically appeared, we’re a post down this week. So I thought I’d grab the opportunity for some blatant advertising. If you’re not happy about this, please ignore this post.
This is me and the kids painting the town red at the first gig, here in Hamburg, of Philine Sonny’s headline tour. The band’s been playing a lot of support gigs lately, even in the occasional stadium (!) for bands that I’ve never heard of (Provinz? Giant Rooks? It’s not just me, then?) TheBoyWonder a.k.a. Sam, seen here on the right, plays guitar and does some singing along, but Philine writes the songs. She is also producer, does all the artwork for her CDs, you get the idea. She’s won just about every Newcomer of the Year award going over here, which I’ve probably mentioned before, and is very excited about having her own tour.
The audience in Hamburg was a good mix, lots of young people but at least a dozen even older than I am. Everyone enjoyed the band’s energy and at the very least nodded their heads in time. Lots of people danced!
Singer-songwriter Lucy Clearwater is playing support. If you enjoy the kind of music Sev often chooses, then you’re going to love her. She was a lot smoother live than in this recording. Or do I mean mellow? Why not go along and find out for yourself!
They’re playing next Wednesday, May 8th at The Social in Portland Street, London.
They’re playing Sunday May 12th at Louisiana in Bristol.
Tickets cost something like £10 or £12. Send your sons/daughters/flatmates! Go along yourself for a decent evening out! Need a speedy present for your favourite godchild? Get them a ticket!
I was hoping to make the Bristol gig myself, but lack of a valid passport has thwarted my plans. If you do make it to one of the gigs, please say Hello to Sam and he can buy you a drink on my behalf. (I’ll reimburse him, promise!)
P.S. They’re also playing at the Great Escape in Brighton (on the Friday).
Earworms 29 April 2024
Good evening, and welcome to your dramatic choice of music referencing the sonnets and characters from Shakespeare. “If music be the food of love, play on!” (Twelfth Night).
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be bridges – viaducts, aqueducts, flyovers, links, spans, musical bridges, reparations. Even the one over troubled water, if you can’t think of anything else. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 5 May.
Many thanks to all contributors – “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none”. (All’s Well That Ends Well).
Hossam Ramzy – Cleopatra – glassarfemptee: The late Egyptian musician Hossam Ramzy was the original “Sultan of Swing”, wiki tells me. Here he is rocking the casbah.
Vanessa Williams – Sister Moon – severin: Vanessa sings Sting who briefly (mis) quotes Sonnet no 130 “My Mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun”. But Shakespeare’s sonnet is not the romantic item that this song turns out to be. You wouldn’t thank a lover who sung or recited the original words to you.
The Duke Ellington Orchestra – Such Sweet Thunder – Fintan28: The Duke and Billy Strayhorn channelled their mutual fondness for the Bard into a whole album in 1957. This is the title track and references Hippolyta in A Midsummer’s Night Dream. “I never heard / So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.” Yeah. William could swing.
Lou Reed – Romeo Had Juliette – shoegazer: A west-side story.
Milk’n Blues featuring Zé Rodrigo – Mercy – DebbyM: Brazilian cover band discovered on YouTube. From The Merchant of Venice: ‘The quality of mercy is not strained…’
Loudon Wainwright III – Prince Hal’s Dirge (Live) – severin: Like my previous LW3 contribution this is the live version from a live album recorded for radio broadcast. I used to have much better renditions of both songs on a cassette tape recorded from a John Peel session but can’t find it now and couldn’t send it in anyway. Prince Hal appears in Henry IV parts one and two.
Grateful Dead – Althea – Chris7572: This literary mash-up from Robert Hunter references Ophelia directly and quotes phrases from the play but the protagonist definitely has the tortured, lost soul of Hamlet.
Dire Straits – Romeo And Juliet – Fintan28: I love everything about this song. The guitar is exquisite, The timing impeccable. And its sense of the theatrical sublime. But mostly I love Juliet calling out “Hey, la, my boyfriend’s back”. Lovely.
Michael and the Messengers – Romeo and Juliet – glassarfemptee: Sixties band Michael and the Messengers sing “Our love’s gonna be written down in history, just like Romeo and Juliet”.
Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses – DebbyM: Ulysses is part of the Grecian camp in Troilus & Cressida (I looked it up!) Disraeli Gears is one of my favourite albums ever and I don’t know why I haven’t listened to it lately.
Original Broadway Cast of Hair – What A Piece Of Work Is Man – Fintan28: Employing Hamlet in the Anti Vietnam War movement was an easy stretch.
Nico – Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie) – severin: “Kind and calm, Julius lies, for Octavian to prevail”. I’m sure he didn’t choose to lay down his life out of kindness to the next guy in line, but I suppose the bit about being calm was accurate at that point.
Cécile McLorin Salvant – Ghost Song – DebbyM: I’ll take any excuse to listen to this singer. There are plenty of ghosts in Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cymbeline, Richard III, shall I stop there?), so here we go. I was lucky enough to attend a recent Cécile McLorin Salvant concert, where she was performing a sort of jazz opera called Ogresse and it was hauntingly beautiful (see what I did there?)
Bella Hardy – Sleeping Beauty – Suzi: The reference comes right at the end of the song, quoting a famous line spoken by Lady Macbeth.
Natalie Merchant – Ophelia – DebbyM: Any excuse to shoehorn Natalie Merchant in!
Barclay James Harvest – Lady Macbeth – glassarfemptee: “Something wicked this way comes”, sing Barclay James Harvest on this track from ‘Welcome To The Show’ (1990).
Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon – Sigh No More – DebbyM: From the original soundtrack of Much Ado About Nothing, Joss Whedon’s keeping things in the family (this is his brother and sister-in-law).
The Sonnets & Cara Dillon – Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? – tincanman: In about 2012 Northern Ireland folkie Cara Dillon gathered some friends to put Shakespeare’s Sonnets to music, with a twist. The arrangements are modern but are played solely on period instruments borrowed from museums and private collections.
Main playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube playlist, blurbs below:
Babes In Toyland – Fair Is Foul & Foul Is Fair – MaggieB: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.🧙🧙🧙🧹
Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls – LongTallSilly: I couldn’t ignore Bottom, a great comic character who stumbles about the Dream.
Van Morrison – For Mr Thomas – LongTallSilly: And Sir John Falstaff makes an appearance here. No doubt the worse for drink!
Elbow – The Bones of You – LongTallSilly: Great track by Elbow, who of course appears in Measure for Measure!
Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine – LongTallSilly: Obviously what brought the subject to mind. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of my favourite plays.
Lindisfarne – Lady Eleanor – AliM: Eleanor, the Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI part 2, ends up being banished for consulting a witch about the future. Seems a bit harsh in the days of crystals and Mystic Meg.
Roy Harper – Francesca – AliM: Francisca is a nun in Measure for Measure – well, it’s close enough for me.
Katzenjammer – Lady Grey – AliM: In Henry VI part 3, Lady Grey marries Edward after the death of her husband, and later becomes Queen. But of course it’s not that straightforward. (Pinched from severin).
Joni Mitchell – Michael from Mountains – AliM: Sir Michael is a rebel in Henry IV part 1.
Jethro Tull – Moths – AliM: Moth is a fairy of Titania’s court, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Dave Evans – Lady Portia – AliM: Portia is a powerful heiress in The Merchant of Venice. She also dresses up as a (male) lawyer and wins her case against Shylock which is where “The quality of mercy is not strained…” comes in, as mentioned by DebbyM. Lady Portia is also the name of Dave Evans’ cat.
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This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… Camera Obscura
For many music fans, the late, great John Peel was all about gritty, angry, northern bands like The Fall, or obscure, industrial European outfits like Einsturzende Neubauten. It’s all a bit angular; a bit in-your-face; a bit too ‘male’ perhaps…
But there was another side to everyone’s favourite DJ; Peel was a sucker for whimsical, melodic pop and no band exemplified this more than Scotland’s Camera Obscura. At the time of his death, they were arguably his favourite band, having played at his birthday bash, just a few weeks before his untimely demise.
The band were formed in Glasgow in 1996 by Belle & Sebastian’s biggest fan, Traceyanne Campbell and after releasing their debut album in 2001, Camera Obscura went on to release four more over the next 12 years, to ever-increasing critical acclaim.
Then, in 2015, tragedy struck when keyboardist Carey Lander succumbed to the bone cancer that she’d been suffering from for many years and the band, understandably, went into a lengthy hiatus.
There was a partial re-emergence in 2018 when Campbell released an album in collaboration with Danny Coughlan (produced by Edwyn Collins, no less!) but it all went quiet again after that.
Until now. A new album was announced in January 2024 and it’s due out in a few weeks’ time. Three tracks have been released so far which all sound every bit as good as you’d expect. And better still, I’m going to see them live for the first time next week.
It hasn’t been easy to whittle down 28 years of magnificence into a 7-track playlist – I had to leave out several tracks that I would have loved to include – but hopefully it will serve as a decent introduction to the unenlightened amongst you!
Enjoy…
Eyeworms: Give us a word that starts with ‘w’
Wonder which words we’ll winnow
End of the Week Quiz
A clock , just in case you were wondering
- Sorry, I’m a bit late. This is not unusal, I have quite poor time keeping, which has resulted in several embarrassing / funny situations. I once arrived for a funeral just after it had finished – I’d like to think the departed person would have understood. Once as a student I arrived for a tutorial to be greeted with a heavily ironic “Well this is excellent” from the tutor who then encouraged to sit in a comfy armchair and “start as you mean to go on”. The tutorial wrapped up 10 minutes later. I was bemused until a fellow student explained I’d arrived an hour and 10 minutes late, not just 10 minutes as I’d thought . Possibly even more embarassing though was when I arrived for a lecture thinking again I was slightly late but then didn’t recognise anyone in the lecture and the penny dropped , I was in fact a day early. So , how is your timekeeping , and has it ever resulted in funny or embarrassing moments?
- I’ll put this one bluntly – Do you think you’re normal? My timekeeping issus would appear to be down to my dyspraxia. In recent years there has been much greater awareness of neurodiversity and also mental health conditions. A backlash is of course underway with certain leading Tories talking about overdiagnosis. My personal theory is that there is no one who is normal , and those who are convinced they are seem to be a seething mass of neuroses just under the surface. But no judgement here! If you feel you are normal then feel free to say so. If you aren’t , how do you differ from the norm?
- One thing that is often deemed “normal” is patriotism. Here in England we have just had St Georges Day which is increasingly becoming a curious occasion. I don’t remember it ever being a big deal growing up , but then the far right started loudly complaining that we “weren’t allowed” to celebrate it and now that it is much more prominent they have used it as an opportunity to kick off in order to try to prove that they still “aren’t allowed” to celebrate. Personally I’ve never considered myself patriotic, although on the other hand I’m about as English as you get in terms of culture, sense of humour , temperement etc and don’t feel at home anywhere else. I don’t feel the need to wave a flag though, although I’m happy to let others do that if they want. So, do you think of yourself as patriotic (wherever you are from ), and if so what does that mean?
- This week I went to a very uncomfortable work meeting , although I won’t elaborate for confidentiality. It reminded me though that I’ve been in many awkward or otherwise painful work meetings in my life. One sticks on my head which was at a hostel I used to work at. We worked shifts and I was due to leave at 4pm to start a long weekend off. It was the monthly team meeting and my colleague who was coming on for the overnight shift had arrived armed with a 20 point agenda. .Each point dragged on and on and descended into arguments. At one point I noticed two seperate debates had developed , neither of which were anything to do with work, one of which was a heated debate about Marcus Garvey. I nipped to the kitchen for half an hour for a bite to eat and no one had even noticed I’d gone. Eventually it got to 7.30pm and we were only on point 3 so I just got up to leave, to a frosty “Where are you going?” I pointed out I’d finished worked 2 and a half hours ago and walked out. So, have you had any particularly bad work meetings? Any experiences you want to share?
- It was Record Store Day the other day. I’m guessing we are all familiar with the idea. Record Store Day – yay or nay?
Earworms 22 April 2024
Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs that remind you of something, someone, or somewhere. A wide topic, perhaps, but one that demonstrates how evocative music can be.
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be songs referencing Shakespearean characters, sonnets or plays, as suggested by LongTallSilly. To make it easier, here is a link to an A-Z list of Shakespearean characters; first names will do. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 28 April.
Many thanks to all contributors – keep calm, and carry on!
Hot Butter – Popcorn – glassarfemptee: My first foray to Europe was with my wife to be, when we stayed in a mosquito ridden campsite in Amsterdam. We took the bus to get there as we were penurious students. This infectious track kept coming up on the bus radio: sorry to inflict it on you.
The In-Crowd – Mango Walk – UncleBen: The song that makes me think of my daughter. We have our own special dance for it. My son leaves the room if he hears it come on.
Illinois Speed Press – Hard Luck Story – glassarfemptee: I spent almost a year in the States in ’68, and had an amazing time travelling the length and breadth by Greyhound, in search of music. I saw a zillion bands, but one memory that stands out was a sunny afternoon in Orange County listening to the short-lived Illinois Speed Press.
John Farnham – You’re The Voice – severin: This song reminds me of sitting in a Taverna on the Greek island of Kefalonia in the evening sunshine eating dolmades and drinking Robola wine (probably) while a Greek language version of it played on the local radio station. I knew that I knew the song but I didn’t ask anyone what it was at the time. When I got home my repeated requests to identify the song that went “Whoa a oh a oooh” resulted in little more than blank looks and increasing irritation. I’m still not sure who recorded the Greek version.
Murray Head – Say It Ain’t So Joe – DebbyM: Immediately transports me back to France, 1983. I worked on a campsite in the Vendée, where Nick from Luton ran the bar, was general handyman and listened to this song on his portable cassette recorder All. The. Time.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Falling Down Slow – Fintan28: The something – in this case snow. Big fluffy flakes that take their time meandering to the ground. Helps to have a fire and a window to look out of. Apologies for the pops.
Jeffrey Martin – There Is A Treasure – tincanman: This is from last year’s rather quite good Thank God We Left The Garden. John Prine died three years earlier. Or did he?
John Sebastian – She’s A Lady – Fintan28: The someone – John Sebastian had a talent for getting away with sappy sentiment. Not played often but the same green eyes revisit each occasion.
Lou Reed – Goodnight Ladies – severin: When you were younger, did you ever go out with someone who you still sometimes think about wistfully, decades later? Even though you have had many other relationships since and they are probably happily married and living many miles away? Or is that just me? Well anyway, she loved this song and would ask for it to be played at parties.
The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset – Suzi: So, it’s 1967, I’m in London, up there on a day trip from Portsmouth, I’ve been shopping at Biba, and I love this song. So naturally I go and stand somewhere where I can look across the river to see Waterloo Station. Didn’t see Terry and Julie, to my knowledge, although who knows.
Queen – Keep Yourself Alive – tincanman: We’re all more learned now, but we never outgrow what we heard when we first clicked with music. Early teens me heard this when records were still mostly mono. Crossing guitars and drums between sides was, thesaurus.dot.com tells me, precipitousness.
All Saints – Black Coffee – UncleBen: The song that makes me think of my son. When he was very little, he would go to sleep on my shoulder while I jogged up and down very gently to this song, which – despite its title – turned out to have highly soporific qualities.
Mr. Acker Bilt – Stranger On The Shore – Mr. Acker Bilt – Fintan28: The somewhere – Laughton’s Hot Springs. Sadly it’s been closed for years but there was a time when it was the finest spot to be. Olympic diving platform. Huge naturally heated pool. Sundaes made from Chism ice cream at poolside. And a pretty decent sound system. A gawky 13 year old could be lost in things his future might hold as he gazed on a couple in swimsuits dancing to this. Takes me back instantly.
Main playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube Playlist, blurbs below:
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit – LongTallSilly: In the ’90s we used to play this just before arriving at whatever rock face we were climbing that day. It started us in the right frame of mind for some epic routes, especially in Snowdonia on the slate!
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced – MaggieB: The first time I heard the album was on holiday in Angelsey, so in my mind Yns Mon is forever associated with Jimi’s music.
Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters Theme Song – Suzi: A bit random, perhaps, but hearing this always takes me back to Javea in Spain, and a fiesta. Loads of firecrackers going off, to earsplitting effect, this song being played, and everybody dancing and singing along. I watched the film again on TV recently, very silly, and don’t think it has stood the test of time, but the song’s still irresistible and fun.
King Crimson – Book of Saturday – AliM: Reminds me of my teenage self, lying in bed and listening to Radio Caroline late at night. They used to play this track followed by “Exiles”, the next one on the album (Larks Tongues in Aspic). I can’t find a video of the two together, but “Exiles” is coming up next.
King Crimson – Exiles – AliM: See above. Reader, I bought the album, and never looked back.
Eyeworms: Give us a word that starts with ‘ay’
I’ve got my ay on you folks
This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… Lunar Vacation
Canada has given us Alvvays; New Zealand, The Beths, and Australia, Middle Kids. And when it comes to female-led indie-power pop bands from the USA, we need look no further than Atlanta, Georgia-based, five piece, Lunar Vacation.
Formed at High School in 2016 by Grace ‘Gep’ Reparsky and Maggie Geeslin, Lunar Vacation have hardly been prolific in the studio, releasing just a handful of EPS, one album and a number of singles – so far. To be fair, they spend most of their time on the road, putting in the hard yards and honing their sound in a vibrant live environment. Most notably, Lunar Vacation have opened for The Beths on a number of occassions and it’s not difficult to understand why they get on so well – musically and attitude-wise, they’re very much out of the same stable.
I first became aware of them about five years ago thanks to a nudge from the remarkably effective Spotify algorithm which correctly worked out that if I liked Alvvays and The Beths I was probably going to like Lunar Vacation.
It’s melodic, guitar-driven power pop and it’s 100% the sort of music that I love.
I can’t really sum it up any better than this line from a review of their 2022 debut LP, Inside Every Fig Is A Dead Wasp: ‘sweet, bubbly indie-pop goodness.’ Now that’s what I like!
Enjoy…
Grateful Undead?
Not on the new album unfortunately. Interested in what fans of the original ensemble make of it?
End of the Week Quiz
1. This is Edward. He’s 87 years old and, as you can see, somewhat the worse for wear. He was my mum’s teddy bear and then my teddy bear. Some 27 years ago, I tried to get my daughter to carry on the family tradition, but by then she had attached herself to a duck called Dorothy. Did you have a favourite soft toy (or other toy) as a child?
2. A few weeks ago, I had a Viennese Whirl for the first time in about 40 years, and – like the narrator of Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’ involuntarily recalling an episode from his youth after tasting a madeleine dipped in tea – I was magically transported back to my 1970s childhood. What food or drink evokes the most vivid memories of your childhood?
3. I got rather improbably lost in Richmond Park last weekend. I thought I knew the area fairly well, but – trying to meet up with friends at a particular meeting spot and with no network coverage on my phone – I spent a wildly frustrating half hour or so in what felt increasingly like a Bermuda triangle. When have you got hopelessly or unexpectedly lost? How was your experience on a scale from joyfully liberating to maddeningly disastrous?
4. I am cursed by a phobia of seaweed. For many decades, my family laughed this off, but a few years ago my daughter (bless her) decided to take it seriously and devised a therapeutic programme to help me at least partially overcome the curse. Do you have any phobias or irrational fears?
5. You get to form your very own supergroup from musicians dead or alive. Let’s say one singer and a maximum of four other musicians. No two people from the same group in real life. The more unlikely (but effective) the combination, the better. For bonus points, what would you call your supergroup?
Earworms 15 April 2024
Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about round things. Yes, I’ve finally got a round tuit (collective sigh…)
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be songs that remind you of something, somewhere or someone. Anecdotes welcome. I think DebbyM suggested this topic but I may have embroidered it, anyway, suggestions for topics are always welcome. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 21 April.
Many thanks to all contributors – keep calm and carry on!
Ellison – Cars, Thieves and Carousels – DebbyM: A recently-formed duo from Norway who charmed me at the Reeperbahn Festival last September.
Joni Mitchell – The Circle Game – Suzi: One of her most beautiful songs. ‘The seasons they go round and round…we’re captive on the carousel of time.’
Pentangle – Will The Circle Be Unbroken – DebbyM and Severin: Debby: Yes, there are a zillion versions of this song, but this is my favourite. It was the first track (if my memory serves me well) on a Transatlantic sampler which was one of the first ever LPs I owned as a kid and kickstarted my lifelong love affair with a certain type of music. Severin: Folk/Jazz with a hint of blues. For years I hummed the theme song of Take Three Girls with no idea who it was by. A 1970s BBC “In Concert” programme, where they also played this song, set me right.
Eilen Jewell – Silver Wheels and Wings – glassarfemptee: From Eilen Jewell’s latest album ‘Get behind the wheel’. She’s now touring, and coming to Europe this summer, but not to the bit that flounced off leaving a trail of hurdles for musicians on tour.
The String-A-Longs – Wheels – Fintan28: Yeah this basically light fluff and only the title ties it to the topic. Still it’s earworminess can’t be denied. Somehow it popped into my head and I was a goofy 11 year old again. In true earworm tradition I now pass it on.
Yes – Roundabout – tincanman: Used to play air keyboards to this in high school. Still might be known to.
Les Fleur de Lys – Circles – glassarfemptee: A sixties nugget from Southampton’s Les Fleur De Lys.
Everything But The Girl – Mirrorball – glassarfemptee: EBTG are back in the saddle with the album ‘Fuse’. Here’s an oldie.
Lady Nade – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road – Severin: Nade covers Lucinda Williams. I like both versions.
Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings – Red Clay Halo – tincanman: Halos are round. We know that because Beyonce told us they are they are they are.
Bellowhead – Fakenham Fair – Suzi: ‘So swing around, the merry-go-round/ Give the wheel of fortune a whirl.’ Bellowhead’s music conjures up the fairground’s carousel so vividly that you almost feel that you’re there.
Little Feat – Spanish Moon – Fintan28: OK, So it’s probably a dive bar but somehow it got it’s name from that skyward round orb right. Just love this groove so in it goes.
Israel Vibration – Ball of Fire – Uncleben: The Israel Vibration song was my first thought.
Janis Joplin – Ball And Chain (live) – Severin: One of her best songs, and there are quite a few. They put this extended live version on her Greatest Hits album.
Deep Purple – Fireball – Uncleben: I also remembered one of my favourite Deep Purple songs from my teenage years – which begins with the sound of an air conditioner unit that the band originally claimed was a type of synthesizer.
M.Byrd – Morning Sun – DebbyM: Full transparency: TheBoyWonder plays with this band.
Joe Pug – The Sharpest Crown – tincanman: We’ll assume it was a round crown. Joe was a ‘next Dylan’ who seems not to have wanted that crown.
Jerry Jeff Walker – Wheel – Fintan28: Life is a wheel, isn’t it. Goes round and round only to come back to where it started. I can only describe Jerry Jeff as being joyously melancholy on this one. It’s a favourite & if I’ve posted it before … well it’s worth another round.
Main playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube Playlist, blurbs below:
Pink Floyd – Echoes – LongTallSilly: “No one flies around the sun” is my excuse for this great Floyd song, plus a curiosity as to whether you could fit a 23 minute song in? (Length is not important – Ed.)
Pink Floyd – Have a Cigar – MaggieB: Records are round , this one is about making records, and the music industry at the time, which so disgusted Floyd (Roger Waters in particular).
Mitski – Circle – AliM: I have been listening to Toffeeboy’s playlist this week and I rather like this song from Mitski.
Ruth Etting – Button Up Your Overcoat – AliM: Buttons are usually round. Though not exclusively. Anyway, it’s good advice. Wear your flannel underwear when you climb a tree.
Beethoven – Rage Over A Lost Penny – MaggieB: I’ve just remembered this. 😄
Frank Zappa – The Adventures of Greggery Peccary – LongTallSilly: Ah Greggery, what a wonderful wild swine, though I think I want to be a henchman! “they decide to park their / Steaming vehicles in a circular / Pseudo-wagon train formation… And have a love-in! / Under the influence of a fantastic / Amount of trendy chemical amusement / Aid, they proceed to perform lewd / Acts, rip each other off for small / Personal possessions, and dance / With depraved abandon in the vicinity / Of a six-foot pile of /transistor radios / Each one tuned to a different station…” Why invent the calendar? Zappa at his most philosoftical?
Eyeworms: Give us a word that starts with ‘d’
Who’s your daddy this week?
This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… Mitski
Mitski, then…
The subject of the fourteenth episode of this blog has proved, if the reaction to my daily posts on my Facebook account is anything to go by, to be by far the least engaging so far. The silence has been deafening.
Which begs the question, ‘why?’
She’s definitely hard to define. Her music doesn’t fit into any neat pigeon holes and it’s not instantly accessible. She’s a singer/songwriter with broadly ‘indie’ sensibilities but her music swings wildly from mainstream pop to angst-ridden shoutyness. There are elements of Florence & The Machine and Kate Bush, and perhaps a touch of Lady Gaga, with occasional nods in the direction of Taylor Swift. She unapologetically makes music the way that she wants it to be made and, much like Swift, appears to have complete creative control over her output and the way that it’s presented to the world.
This might sound contradictory but she’s incredibly popular for someone that most people have never heard of! 35 million monthly listeners on Spotify (her most popular song, My Love Mine All Mine, has nearly 850 million Spotify plays!) places her, if not quite in the Premier League, certainly competing for promotion from the Championship – so I’m somewhat suprised by the underwhelming response to what I’ve been posting.
Personally, I feel that what the world needs is more artists like Mitski. I love what she does and I’m eagerly looking forward to whatever she comes up with next.
Meanwhile, enjoy…
End Of The Week Quiz
1. After having my kitchen renewed last summer I looked for something to put on the new walls…. and ended up buying several original pieces of art for different walls in the house, including one in my living room that had been bare for years. What is on your living room wall? Flying ducks, photos, posters, a stag’s head, a priceless Picasso or nothing?
2. Last week’s Aliquestions identified that some superstitions are maybe just habits. So, are you a creature of habit? When not controlled by work or other outside influences, do you follow the same routines or is every day a magical road of discovery? OCD sufferers need not respond.
3. Everybody needs good neighbours, so the song goes. I have been fairly lucky with neighbours in the past: most have been friendly and, in some cases, outright helpful. I’m on at least nodding terms with everyone in my current street apart from the nasties immediately next door, who are permanently angry at the world and appear to believe I’m to blame. Have you ever lived next door to note-worthily bad – or good – people?
4. An old codger asks: Headphones used to be devices for listening to stuff without disturbing family/housemates yet now, it seems, they are fashion items that insulate people from everyone in the street. Do you carry your personal soundtrack with you everywhere or do you endure the sound of traffic, birds and other humans instead?
5. Laughter is, of course, the best medicine. What or who is most likely to crack you up? A particular comedian, a classic sitcom, a film, a cartoon, a cat video, the bloke down the pub or even naked schadenfreude?
This is currently the penultimate EOTWQ, with uncleben scheduled for next week. Ali’s original idea to resurrect it has definitely been a success and, if anyone still wants a go, either speak up and I’ll schedule it or just do it when you have the urge! It can be a sporadic feature rather than an unbroken chain of posts.
Earworms 8 April 2024
Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about anything to do with Blue. And a warm welcome back to Magicman, who has popped in this week.
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be round things. Coins, buttons, records, plates, planets, wheels, marbles, tennis balls, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel… or something. Anything round will do. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 14 April.
Many thanks to all contributors – keep calm and carry on!
Half Man Half Biscuit – Blue Badge Abuser – severin: People in the UK with certain disabilities affecting mobility can apply for a Blue Badge which entitles you to various rights, including using reserved parking spaces. The narrator here is a rotten cheat.
Blue Lu Barker – Trombone Man Blues – tincanman: Ali asked for safe-for-work ‘blue’ songs, and that’s exactly how Louisa Barker got her nickname. I’ll never listen to trombone music with a straight face again.
Dorothy Moore – Misty Blue – severin: Just a beautiful classic song with an astonishing singer.
Alela Diane – Age Old Blue – Suzi: ‘The sea beneath the cliff/ Is the blue in my mother’s eyes/ That came from the blue in her mother’s eyes/ Thrown on down the line.’ Her family had ‘worked the field/ On borrowed land above the ocean.’ That’s where she feels that she belongs, rather than on those ‘higher hills…where water is captive to the well.’
I Am Kloot – Deep Blue Sea – DebbyM: An early Festive ‘Spill choice, this is one of my all-time goosebumps songs. Also, Little’Un can sing along to it!
Grateful Dead – Stella Blue – Chris7572: In this 1973 concert the band takes a minute to adjust after Truckin’ but then they contrive to deliver a version of gossamer delicacy that floats in air. There’s nothing you can hold for very long…
Wynton Marsalis Septet – Joe Cool’s Blues – Fintan28: One of the great ways to shirk off the blues is to dance. And the Snoopy Dance can’t miss as Wynton & friends share.
Artie Shaw – Pastel Blue – Suzi: Discovered Artie via RR. I have a few recordings of his with ‘blue’ in the title – Blue Skies, Rhapsody in Blue, My Blue Heaven. Maybe this one is a little less familiar? Not sure, but it really shows off his amazing skill on the clarinet.
Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band – Blue Runner – tincanman: What is a runner and does it come in any other colours? Who cares – it’s zydeco time.
Carl Perkins – Boppin’ The Blues – Fintan28: If you’re feeling the need for miracles just Bop them blues. Even Grandpa’s got the feeling. “Oh, the old boy done got rhythm and blues / And he threw them crutches down / Grandma he ain’t triflin’ / Well, the old boy’s rhythm bound”.
Randy Newman – Miami – Magicman: Here’s Randy Newman winging Miami. He has a way with words, and is slyly funny or just outright funny very often, “best dope in the world – and it’s free !”
Bright Eyes – True Blue – shoegazer: Quite a few blue items in this one.
The Murder Capital – Green and Blue – glassarfemptee: Irish band The Murder Capital give you two colours for the price of one. From their dark 2019 album ‘When I have fears’.
Patricia Kaas – Mademoiselle Chante Le Blues – DebbyM: A huge hit from the late ’80s.
Madeleine Peyroux – Blue Alert – severin: Like a red alert. Except that it’s the warning signs you get about an emotionally shattering love affair.
Little Walter – Blues With A Feeling – Fintan28: Nothing as glorious as a fine blues harp and Little Walter has it going on.
Alli Neumann – Blue – DebbyM: Some contemporary German pop music for you.
Bohren and Der Club of Gore – Patchouli Blue – glassarfemptee: I have tickets to a Bohren gig later in the year. Here’s the title track from their last album.
Jeffrey Martin – Sad Blue Eyes – tincanman: Few write about sorrow with such elegance.
Lana Del Rey – Blue Jeans – glassarfemptee: There are lots of ‘blue jeans’ songs, but this one from Lana Del Rey is too good to miss.
Main Playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube Playlist, blurbs below:
George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue – MaggieB: Simply because I like it 🙂
Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour – Plus Bleu Que Le Bleu De Tes Yeux – Suzi: Aznavour, who wrote the song, duets with Piaf’s ghost (apparently!) Both no longer with us now. Très charmante!
The Rolling Stones – I Got The Blues – MaggieB: I’ve not got the blues right now but will have if this wind keeps on blowing the way it has for the last three days.
Chickn – Shifting Time Blues / Akhedia – AliM: From their brilliant 2016 album, “Chickn”. “I met her underwater / In the deepest secret sea / She took me for a ride / She had something to hide / It’s the shifting time blues…” OK, not the most exciting lyrics, but the band are from Greece, writing in English. I certainly couldn’t write a song in Greek. Probably not in English, either.
Eyeworms: Give us a word that starts with ‘ow’
Took a few friendly punches for last week’s French eyeworms. Ow.
This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… The High Llamas
The High Llamas then…
When, Microdisney, the 1980s second-most undeservedly unsuccessful band folded in 1988 (I’m rating The Go-Betweens as #1 on that particular list) a beautiful song-writing partnership came to an end. They may not quite be up there with Rogers & Hammerstein, Lennon & McCarthy, Goffin & King et al. but the unlikely combination of Sean O’Hagan’s Beach Boys-esque pop sensibilities with Cathal Coughlan’s angry, gritty, nihilism produced something quite magical.
Over the course of four albums released between 1984 and 1988 and after moving to London in 1983, the duo from Cork blossomed into one of the most exciting and literate bands on the 80s Indie scene. Championed by John Peel (who described one of their early releases, Helicopter of the Holy Ghost as the greatest B-side he had ever heard) Microdisney were always full of promise.
In addition to the four albums, Microdisney recorded 6 Peel Sessions, released a number of EPs and singles and put out a compliation of early singles and rarities, originally released under the title, We Hate You South African Bastards, but later released under the slightly less attention-grabbing title, Love Your Enemies.
During their five years in London the duo morphed into a ‘proper’ band with the addition of Jon Fell (bass) and Tom Fenner (drums). They also moved from indie obscurity to a deal with Rough Trade Records, and then to the verge of mainstream pop success via a deal with Virgin Records. The breakthrough never came but the almost inevitable breakup did…
Sean and Cathal went their own ways; Cathal Coughlan formed the in-your-face Fatima Mansions while Sean O’Hagan was able to follow his Brian Wilson inspired pop dreams through the medium of The High Llamas.
And 32 years after the release of the first High Llamas album, Sean O’Hagan has just released the 11th. It’s generating a lot of indie media interest and BBC Radio 6 airplay but I can’t see it troubling the charts. O’Hagan ploughs his own furrow and makes music exactly how he wants to. He’s not afraid to experiment (he was, for a short while in the early 1990s, a member of avant garde popsters, Stereolab, and it’s not hard to see how he fitted in there) and the new album, Hey Panda, sees him using an auto-tune effect on some of his vocals – not something you’d expect to hear from a white, male, middle class, 65-year old singer with a solid indie pedigree!
I’ve chosen seven High Llamas tracks covering the whole of the band’s 32-years’ output – I say ‘band’ but it’s effectively Sean O’Hagan’s solo project and it always has been. Two of the tracks feature notable vocal contributions from Laetitia Sadier and the late Mary Hansen of Stereolab fame (Cookie Bay) and from Rae Morris (Sisters Friends).
Enjoy…
End of the Week Quiz 2 April 2024
Greetings all. I’m a bit stumped for original questions this week. But that never stopped me.
- What and why would you like to be named, if you weren’t named whatever you’re named now? Do you see yourself as a Florence? A Lawrence? A Mike? A Moira? Or are you happy as you are?
- Superstitions. Do you have any? Or are they just a load of baloney?
- Potatoes, or pasta?
- Aged P, or Aged Parent, was a brilliantly observed and comic character in Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’. Do you have any favourite memorable characters from books, films, or comics?
- What is your idea of a perfect day?
Have fun, I will probably think of some much better questions tomorrow.
Earworms 1 April 2024
Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about sleep and dreaming.
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be blue(s)– the colour, the emotion, the butterfly, blue remembered hills, music, rowing clubs or anything slightly dodgy or erotic which is publishable. Worms should reach me by close of play of Sunday 7 April.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the Easter break, if you had one. Keep calm and carry on!
Billie Eilish – Bury A Friend – tincanman: Where do we go when we sleep, Billie asks, and Issa López had the same question listening to the song over and over while she wrote the eerie True Detective Season 4. I’ll say no more.
Clock DVA – 4 Hours – shoegazer: Adi having a bit of a nightmare.
Tangerine Dream – The Big Sleep In Search of Hades – severin: Band and song title on topic. An instrumental of course but it does conjure up a dream like landscape.
Hannes Wader – Dat Du Min Leevsten Büst – DebbyM: The granddaddy of German folk singing in Plattdütsch (Come over and knock on my door when my father and my mother are asleep).
Olivia Chaney – Bogeyman – severin: “Why is the bad dream back under my bed? I’m afraid of the dark in childhood sweat”. I know the feeling. Two songs, two weeks in a row from the same new album. You want to buy it now, don’t you?
The Decemberists – Sleepless – glassarfemptee: Toffeeboy has been reminding us recently of the genius of The Decemberists as we await their new album. Here’s a cracker from the ‘Dark is the Night’ charity album.
The Cranberries – Dreams – Fintan28: If I could somehow arrange to dance to this as I pass on that would be a dream. I just revel in this. Absolutely captures the illusory, otherworldly state love can conjure. Love it.
Allison Russell – Snake Life – tincanman: From last year’s The Returner, an album about finding ways to become whole after trauma (she was sexually assaulted by her stepdad). She used to dream to escape, she writes; now she wields words to weave a world where every child is safe and loved.
k d lang – A Sleep With No Dreaming – glassarfemptee: Alt-country singer k d lang is now “semi retired’. This is from 2011’s ‘Sing it Loud’.
Kathy Heideman – Sleep A Million Years – glassarfemptee: Kathy Heideman only released one album, in 1976 (it’s been re-released since). Here’s her carpe diem song.
Jaques Brel – La Ville S’Endormait – Suzi: Gorgeously atmospheric accompaniment to Brel’s song. ‘The city fell asleep, I forget the name.’
Mary Coughlan – Sleep On It – severin: From her House of Ill Repute album. Where the songs about beds aren’t generally about sleeping.
The Beatles – I’m Only Sleeping – Suzi: Waking up but really just wanting to go back to sleep.
Peter Blegvad – Bee Dream – Uncleben: No idea what this is about, but I rather identify with the sentiment in the opening lines: “Each of us has in our soul a portion of eagle, a portion of mole – one soars in the sunlight, one snores in a hole”.
Roy Orbison – Dream Baby ( How Long Must I Dream) Live – Fintan28: The Black & White Roy Orbison Special was a dream collection of Music Industry stars gathered to revel, sing, play with and in general have a damn fine time with Roy Orbison & that marvellous voice. No one had more fun than Bruce Springsteen. When Roy & the assemblage whisper the refrain almost to a stop his joyous shout brings everyone winging back to the business at hand. Dreams!
The Everly Brothers – All I Have To Do Is Dream – Fintan28: 66 years on and the moment I hear that first shimmering, reverb laden chord The Brothers stop me in my tracks and I pause to breathe this in. To me it’s just a perfect pop song.
The Decemberists – Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect – Uncleben: My favourite Decemberists song, and apparently one of Colin Meloy’s too.
Blondie – Dreaming – Suzi: Dreaming is free….another lovely one from Blondie.
Main playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube Playlist, blurbs below:
Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac – The Green Manalishi – LongTallSilly: A proper dream from the proper Fleetwood Mac, complete with Peter Green!
Fleetwood Mac – Dreams – LongTallSilly: Still confused as to why they think “thunder only happens when it’s raining” but a decent song from the fluffier version of Fleetwood Mac.
Van Halen – Dreams – MaggieB: This one was suggested by my daughter. Good choice kid.
The Mamas and The Papas – Dream a Little Dream of Me – AliM: There are many wonderful versions of this song, and I picked this one.
Kate Bush – And Dream of Sheep – AliM: I’m not a huge fan of Kate Bush, but I do like sheep, and this is so evocative of craving the safety and oblivion of sleep with the warmth and intoxicating scent of peaceful animals. Or perhaps it’s just me.
This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… The Decemberists
I first became aware of The Decemberists thanks to the Readers Recommend blog and I quickly fell in love with them. I need to find out who I have to thank for introducing me to them…
I have to admit that I find Colin Meloy’s voice ever so slightly irritating at times – a bit too forced, a bit too ‘olde worlde folksie’ but that small caveat aside, I would definitely rate them as one of my favourite bands. It’s partly the occassional forays into early-70s Prog Rock (think Jethro Tull, think Genesis) and it’s partly the band’s penchant for a good tune (always played with gusto!), but mostly it’s the lyrics. Colin Meloy is to my mind the greatest songwriting storyteller out there.
Whether he’s telling the tale of the unfortunate loss of his friend’s bicycle (Apology Song) or relating the epic story behind The Mariner’s Revenge Song, he’s a master of the genre. The clever wordplay in a song like Yankee Bayonet, the sinister anti-hero in the song cycle that makes up the Hazards Of Love, the simple childhood tale of sporting inadequacy in The Sporting Life – Meloy makes it all seem effortless.
There’s a new album out later this year and I’m very excited to be seeing them live for the first time in August.
Picking out seven songs from a back catalogue stretching back 22 years was never going to be easy but I hope I’ve done it justice.
Enjoy…
The 'Spill 