I finally gave up on boxstr…

So boxstr isn’t working for me since I have upgraded .. these may be playable.. it has saved you all from an 18 track CD-R full of tunes….. I’m especially pleased about being on theme for tracks 1/2/3/6/ and 8 my Hot Chip for this week.

(Broken Social Scene) Kevin Drew- Lucky ones
DJ Medhi-Lucky Boy
Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra-Lady Luck
The Teenages- Wheel of Fortune
Cass McCombs-Windfall
Veda Hille-LuckLucky
Ed Harcourt-All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed
Hot Chip- Bad Luck

Every time (ie both times) I have used this feature the heat rises in my chest, the palms get sticky, the throat swells. But I think I have once again managed to actually upload two of my favourite lucky things which appear to be either a) unknown to the cognoscenti (for that is what you are RR team) or b) so rabidly unpopular as to be not worthy of comment (with hon exceptions). So for the (hopefully) uninitiated here are the very lucky Todd Rundgren whose talent has backfired upon him so many times, lucky because he can play every instrument (and frequently does) – backfired – because he gets bored easily I guess. “Lucky Guy” is from his last true pop album (he’s on heavy Rock right now) Hermit Of Mink Hollow (which is in Woodstock NY btw) in 1978. It’s a beautifully simple song. Merle Haggard is a country n western singer from Bakersfield, California who actually spent some time in prison (unlike my favourite twerp Johnny Cash) and who has the most sublime voice, warm, deep and thrilling. He saw LEfty Frizzell live early in life and was inspired to sing for a living – and this song may have been written by LEfty – haven’t been able to check. It’s fantastic. Enjoy !!

Nice picture of Clive Owen with a white shirt and dicky bow in ‘Croupier’ rather than of Christopher Walken with a white shirt accessorised with his brains in ‘The Deer Hunter’ because in this lucky seven selection, there’s a general acceptance that your luck may be bad or good, but there’s always another spin of the wheel to come.
First of all, we have Willie Dixon, fortunate with his songwriting gifts but as one of the most ripped-off musicians in history, not so lucky in business. Comp him a cocktail but don’t ask him to choose where to place your chips. The Sylvers aren’t old enough to go to a casino and, some would say, not old enough to know so much about love but Bebo’s helping them with the latter and fake online IDs are getting them a fix of the former. Swamp Dogg’s perpetually on his way out the door to find out where someone put the sunshine, but that loose slot machine near the exit just keeps convincing him that it’s worth another shot. Frank Sinatra would tell him it isn’t, but he part-owns the casino so he just pats him on the back and goes off to see a show…
In the showtune section, we have Liza Minelli, charmingly oblivious to the advance of Nazism, pinning all her hopes on a noncommittal English bisexual; Marlon Brando is hoping to roll a seven but in this list he only makes six; the coveted No.7 goes to Stanley Holloway and his mates.

I Ain’t Superstitious
Roulette Wheel Of Love
Buzzard Luck
Cycles
Sally Bowles
Skye Masterson
Alfred Doolittle Esq.

After the controversy of the slasher fillums and the lack of thespian quality in most of them , I decided it was time to seek out a meatier role(oops bad choice of words)which would best suit me talents : LUCKILY I knew abloke who knew a bloke who knew a bloke and quite by CHANCE , I landed a role in what was to be another groundbreaking fillum , which brought some great lines but still its fair share of blood ‘n k’llings. Question is , what’s the fillum and what’s the line it spawned uttered daily by wannabe gremlinfcs?

A very eclectic mix this week.. so I’ll give some pointers.

Feeling lucky, post-punk? Try The Clean, above, with Anything could happen..

Those indie freaks among you whose rabbit’s feet tap more for pessimistic vocals and jangly guitars need listen no further than the Verlaines’ Lucky in my dreams, track one below..

If, on the other hand, you find your pot of gold at the end of a chillout drum & bass rainbow, you might want to x-step forward to track two, taken from a very reasonably priced compilation, back in the days when I used to consider that sort of thing a lucky charm.

Have no fear, jazz fan(s), I have not deserted you.. you are fortunate enough to be able to choose between two (2!!) versions of Lucky to be me, as sung by Irene Kral (medleyed with another Bernstein track, Some other time), or performed solo by Bill Evans.

Fans of R&B, hip-hop, or soul should skip directly to 24 carat black’s ’73 Stax recording, Ghetto: Misfortune’s wealth.

..and then, thank your lucky stars.

(Player removed)

It’s funny stuff, luck: we speak of something as ‘lucky’ when it’s really no such thing. For instance, I feel really lucky at the moment because I’ve got the afternoon off: but that’s got nothing to do with luck – it’s because I worked a 12-hour day on Tuesday, and I chose to take this afternoon as lieu time. Similarly, I think I’m lucky because I’ve got a new iPod which is four times the capacity of my old (full) one – but again, I go to work, they give me money and I choose how to spend it.

I think I’m moving closer to real luck when I contemplate my two grandsons. That’s Ellis up above, aged 5 weeks or so. But then it gets all mixed up again. For instance, it was a matter of luck that they’re boys not girls, but is that good luck or bad luck? Neither, in our case; though that might not be so for some families. My daughter and her partner are knocking on a bit to be first parents, so they might be said to have been lucky that Naomi could conceive at all…and so on. See what I’m getting at? It’s not as simple as you think at first…

The Lucky One – Alison Krauss (ElDerino’s recommendation)
Hard Luck Stories – Richard and Linda Thompson
Lucky Town – Bruce Springsteen
Taoist Tale – Maggie Holland
One More Dollar – Gillian Welch
Lucky Stars – Mary Gauthier

Mystery Quiz Track

A great talent, a true bon viveur and a very sad loss.

Long overdue posting of an impromptu mini-social
in London in early Jan, with (L-R) tincanman, ejaydee,
garethi, mnemonic, and (not pictured because we didn’t
think of a picture in time) d33pf1x.

Skye (screen name: Tinpuppy)

So, this was one of my first major film roles and though many thought at the time it was a prosthetic head, in fact I did actually bite and sever a real zombie’s head! I never took to the taste though and after several more low-budget horror-slash-slash fillums, I decided to switch to romantic leads (more of those in the future).
Any guesses on this gruesome scene ? Fillum? Year? Tasty morcel or spewy mouthful?
Nice to be back and hope all Spillers are grooving nicely into the Year of the Ox.
Kung hei fa choi!

The CD player in our car is broken, and this causes me to listen to the radio. Fortunately, we have a few college stations in the area that play great varieties of music, sometimes awful, but you never know. I realized how much the ‘Spill has impacted me, because as I would hear new music, I would wonder which ‘Spillster would like it. I thought it might be fun to post a sample of what I heard, and I could see this being an ongoing series, and encourage others to participate as well.

The BPA–Toe Jam ft. David Byrne and DIzzee Rascall (and an amusing video)

Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp–Les Matin des Noire

MF Doom
MF DOOM–Mugwort

Ten minutes or so of floorboards creaking with submerged childhood memories; the tormented wails of abandoned lovers blending into the frequency at which the banshees broadcast their nightly howls; spirits up from the graves and marching towards the freedom denied them in life; and people walking over their own grave.

No, not the optics down the Barley Mow, the ghosts of our ancestors looking after us as we sleep. This is a beautiful song from a beautiful band – Osibisa. I commend it to your spirits…

Since no one has commented on VNV Nation – Beloved (good, bad or otherwise), I’ll assume it’s because it is too rare to find and stick it on here. At least I think I will – first attempt at boxtsr after moving over from the other one.

The Slow Club
Roots Manuva
Sole
Radical Face
Soulsavers
FOG
Electric President
Stars
Wolfgang Press

Louis Armstrong–Skeleton in the Closet
Burning Spear–The Ghost
Budos Band–Ghost Walk
Decemberists–Eli, the Barrow Boy
Decemberists–Yankee Bayonet
Decemberists–Leslie Ann Levine
M. Ward–One Life Away
Regina Spektor–Ghost of Corporate Future
Tom Waits–Back in the Good Old World
Tom Waits–Good Old World (waltz)
Arab Strap–Haunt Me
Lupe Fiasco–The Cool
Raveonettes–Attack of the Ghost Riders
White Stripes–Walking with a Ghost