I’ve been on my sickbed today (don’t worry, nothing serious, just a bit fluey) so I dragged the portable turntable into the living room and have been listening to a few things I haven’t listened to in a while.
I was just taking in a Fatcat Records compilation double album (“Across Uneven Terrain – 1997-1999″) and thinking how great it was (erm…if you like experimental minimalist electronica) and then I realised just how few COMPILATION albums I own. It’s probably less than ten and I only listen to a few of them regularly. I suppose it’s all linked with my fear of ‘shuffle’ and the pleasure I get from the arc of a well put together album, but I can’t help thinking that I’m missing out on something.
Shane mentioned the 50 Years of African Independence mammoth comp. recently, which I’ve been delving into with what I can find online, and I know there are the classics like Nuggets and C86 (which Blimpy Spilled a couple of years ago), but would love some more recommendations for decent comps to get my teeth into.
*NOT ‘Greatest Hits’ albums and not self-compiled mixtapes (although they usually are the best!).
Well, it’s not every day I post a selection of my drawers on the ‘Spill. Plenty more where these came from – annoyingly you can’t really fill to the back of the drawers because if you pull them out too far they fall on your foot.
You know the drill by now – 11 pieces of music, which one will you cast to the wind? This week they are all instrumental, which makes it slightly harder, I think. Stop trying to read the titles on those cassettes, and get cracking!
Again, sorry if I’m slow to respond to comments, young’un is poorly so I’m dipping into the ‘Spill when I can. Keeps me sane (?). Continue reading →
Before I begin, I’d like to take a moment to comment on the RR discussion thread I started a few days ago. I think a post-deadline discussion of RR’s future on the blog is an excellent idea, and hopefully it’ll generate some discussion. Now, on with the show…
Greetings earwormers, on this wonderful Monday morning – of course it’s wonderful, it’s my birthday – “17 in Kilmarnock (never gonna be there again)” – thanks, Eddi. This week, we have five cover versions and some Herefordshire Americana. Thanks to all our contributors, and keep them wriggling to earworm@tincanland.
Apologies if I’m slow to respond to comments, young’un is in and out of hospital at the mo so I’m dipping into the ‘Spill when I can.
Joel Frederiksen – Northern Sky
Normally I would run a mile from ‘crossover’ but these fellas’ voices are melted-chocolatey-gorgeous. Classical musicians covering The Holy Nick Drake? On an album interspersing Renaissance music with Nick Drake songs it works surprisingly well. – DebbyM
Eddi Reader – Never Going Back Again (Queen of Scots)
I’ve nominated this more than once on the mothership. I think it’s brilliant; Eddi relates her move south to England and manages to work in a Fleetwood Mac song both as subject and as part of the narrative. It sounds nice, too. – Zala
Jim Moray – Big Love
I am rather fond of the unexpected cover version. I’m also rather fond of slightly unconventional folk artistes. I think this covers both bases. – Zala
Kathryn Williams – In A Broken Dream
Elegantly spare cover of the 1972 Python Lee Jackson/Rod Stewart classic. I like the original, but I like this too. – Ali
Misers – I Got A Woman
The Misers and I are now big friends so, in case you like them too, here’s a country-tinged one from the new album that’s been going round in my head quite a lot lately. Can a Herefordshire boy sing Americana? You betcha. – tfd
Communards – Don’t Leave Me This Way (Harold Melvin cover)
Jimmy Somerville gets short shrift for his falsetto and to some this cover is a sacrilege, but you’re dancing and singing along aren’t you? – tincanman
Partly because it’s more or less the only song I could think of that’s on topic, but as I thought of it quite early on you may have missed the link to the rather amusing video, and partly to celebrate the start of Trwbador‘s album launch tour, which began in Carmarthen last night…
Herbaliser – Worldwide Connected
Brian Eno – Bottomliners
Data – Global Information
Gnarls Barkley – Online
Quarion – I Found You On Facebook
Oh No Ono – Internet Warrior
Robert Palmer – I Dream Of Wires
Early Years – All Ones And Zeros
Jim Noir – Computer Song
Peter Broderick – It Starts Hear
Damon & Naomi – Information Age
JD Meatyard – Myspace Star
King Creosote – Spystick
Mountain Goats – Surrounded
This has been totally fun for me – I love a playlist I have to work at – and I completely understand how it doesn’t connect for others .. I hope there’s some tracks to entertain in here.
There’s more bleep freak tunes than I’d normal put on the’spill (I haven’t gone overboard – I could have just swapped the playlist with tracks made using 8-bit sounds really annoying the hell out of people who like traditional instruments)…
I’ve included a good smattering of different genres to even it out, not too sure about the musicians colours, as I don’t have a Pantone chart set up for the artist skin tones.
Most tracks are bang on – internet themed – others are subtle – but I believe the lines about the internet are pertinent and important to my feelings for the song.
There’s not a single track that I think are ‘not up to scratch’ with my normal nominating (personal) taste. In fact, tracks 22-61 are all sadly left out because I do try not to bore everyone on here.
I hope there is something to entertain and it’s not a whole: abort – retry – fail. Continue reading →
A little more 90′s Spanish female fronted indie from the maki archives. This week we’re with the rebellious strawberries or Los Fresones Rebeldes. The girliest and probably most fun of the bands I’ve posted recently. This is pop music. Nothing more or less than that. I love them to bits. It’s the sort of messy, we’re having fun and you can have it with us too attitude that I like most about this group.
I’ve never written a post for The Spill before. Isn’t that shocking? So I thought it was about time I made amends and started chucking the odd thing on over here, as it’s nice to break loose from the RR confines when time permits and do something about what is lighting my fire currently. As I’m still getting used to the vagaries of WordPress, I thought I would just throw something out and use it to work out how to do the techie bits; so hoping to work those out whilst writing this but hopefully still say something interesting…. Continue reading →
If you google the name Antonio Forcione, the phrase that pops up instantly is ‘the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar’. Having seen him last night in concert at Manchester’s Band On The Wall, I find that description wanting. He has Jimi’s technical skill and imagination but his style of playing is, to my ears and eyes, more akin to a mix of John Martyn, Paco de Lucia and Stanley Clarke. At any rate, it’s quite astonishingly inventive and beautiful. This is the tune he played for his final encore last night, and it gives a flavour of the wonderful music he makes.
It’s all instrumental and contains much improvisation, but there’s always an underlying tune or two and some joyfully-syncopated rhythms to latch on to as his spider-fingers weave their webs. As a guitarist now forced to re-evaluate his own pitiful attempts at playing, I find what he does quite breathtaking. As a listener, I hope you do too.
He seems to play anywhere, with anyone (last night he had a percussionist and acoustic bass guitar player with him), and is not above doing covers of pop songs. His current concert schedule is here.
So, there’s been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about issues with RR: nesting, the treatment of gurus, moderating issues, mess-ups by the editorial staff, etc. Fuel is boycotting the Graun, and this morning on Facebook amylee threatened to follow him. I promised I’d do a ‘Spill post on it this afternoon. Well, ‘this afternoon’ has become this evening and I’m in a rush to go out, so here goes…
Okay, you asked for it – or at least AIP did: a random literary post. I’m horribly busy at the moment, trying to finish writing a book by the end of March, which explains why I haven’t been around much and won’t have time to post much until that’s out of the way – but today has been reasonably productive (not with the book, but I’ve drafted part of a German job application, and worked through a load of other stuff), and so I can afford half an hour to respond to his plea for more randomness. I very much enjoyed the discussion of his post on fantasy literature, and so thought I’d take a cue from the references there to hard-boiled crime fiction and the like…
Thanks to DaddyPig for bringing this to my attention. CiF commenter “Kale” has come up with an add-on for Guardian comments that can be used to view the comments in different ways. You may find it useful if the nesting is doing your head in.
i’ve been playing with it for a few minutes and it looks useful. Here are some screen shots.
This option allows us to see the comments, still using the nested form, but collapsing the nests. Easier on the eye. The blog is more manageable and you can open up individual nests if you want to.
If you click on the blue + sign (top right – under the options) you get the view that we are becoming used to. All the nests are open. You can collapse individual nests if you want to.
Finally you can choose to view the comments by time stamp (in chronological order). This would be my preferred option if everyone were using the add-on. But they aren’t yet and as a result the comments don’t make much sense because the Guardian doesn’t time stamp replies and it’s hard to work out who people are replying to. If you use the add on, when you reply the comment contains a link to the original comment you have replied to – much like they used to in the olden days. If you look at my second comment in this screen shot you will see that it links to DaddyPig’s comment about the add-ons.
Kudos to Kale for this and thanks to DP for bringing it to my attention.
Echo & The Bunnymen – Going Up
Seam – Get Higher
Thee More Shallows – Proud Turkeys
Working For A Nuclear Free City – Rocket
Eels – Climbing To The Moon [Jon Brion Rmx]
Elbow – Weather To Fly
Hildur Gudnadóttir – Ascent
Joy Division – Insight
Harry Beckett – Rise & Shine
Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth
Soundcarriers – Rise And Fall
Beloved – Up, Up and Away
Shriekback – Everything That Rises Must Converge
Underworld – Push Upstairs
Shelley & Devoto – Can You See Me Shining?
Flobots – Rise
Phew…. this was far more difficult than it had any right to be! I definitely over-thought everything and seemed to have ended up with a totally different list than I had planned.
I envisioned a cool, eclectic, hop, skip and jump through my record collection, touching down on a variety of genres from a range of eras. But when I started pulling records off the shelf, I got all distracted and sidetracked and my 11 track list turned into a 30 track one, with a heavy bias towards abrasive breakcore!
Out went the jazz, Finnish electronica and Nigerian psychedelic organ and in came the powerpop and Lebanese bozok! None of my usual roll-call of favourites made it either. No Liars. No Clinic. No Nirvana. No Anaal Nathrakh. No Not Not Fun, No…..oh you get the idea. I think it’s more of a mixtape than 11 stand alone tracks, but anyway, here’s what I ended up with…Oh…and I decided to go chronological, no one has done that yet have they?!
So, after last week’s rather heavy topic, here’s the post I had initially intended to do in Week Two…
I recently reread two books I last read in my mid teens, Magician and A Darkness at Sethanon (both by Raymond E. Feist). They are respectively the first and third books in Feist’s bestselling Riftwar Saga, the trilogy that launched his Riftwar Cycle of 20-odd high fantasy novels, which will conclude with the publication of Jimmy and the Crawler and Magician’s End this year.
Well, its all female vocal for you this week. Sorry, Beth.
One of the good things about being worm-mother (vermater?) is that I would probably have dismissed this week (I’m not mad about female vocal either), but having listened to the tracks several times and tried to get a good playlist together, I can tell you there is some cracking music here. Enjoy!
Thanks to all, and remember to send your wormy contributions to earworm@tincanland.com.
Barbra Streisand – I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today
This is for those straight people who don’t understand the appeal of the Babs. It’s from her new album Release Me, and as always, she’s magical. (btw “tin can at my feet/think I’ll kick it down the street”… not a good idea) – tincanman
Esperanza Spalding – Radio Song
Can’t believe that I forgot this album was released in 2012, and so missed the opportunity to stuff the ballot boxes at the end of the year. This is fantastic in so many ways: the catchy tune, the vocals, the amazing bass, the heroic reclamation of the word “grooving” – Abahachi
Jazmine Sullivan – Good Enough
There’s so many offal “R&B” singers out there, but this one is the real biz. Like many an earworm, this is a great self-affirming anthem you can belt out when no one is around. – tincanman
Laing – Ich bin morgens immer müde
The surprise winner of Prof. Hachi’s beloved Bundesvision Song Contest… OK, it technically ‘only’ came second to a Big Name Act, but it’s been a massive hit. I defy you to keep all toes, fingers and hips motionless when this hits your ears. DebbyM
Love Psychedelico – Shadow Behind
This was the theme track to the really great and exciting detective series “Absolute Zero” But it is also a typical Love Psychedelico track with a mixture of Japanese and English lyrics so actually no one understands it ! ! ! But somehow I love the part where the singer (Kumi) sings “And I say to myself that I’m not afraid of love” If only it was true ! ! ! – Sakura
Yanawaraba – Aoi Takara
Yanawaraba are two young ladies from Ishigaki Island, nearer to Taiwan than Tokyo. The influence of Okinawan music is plain to hear, one of them plays the traditional sanshin, in most of their stuff and particularly in this lovely song about ‘Blue treasure’. – Pairubu
Popping a few more cds into i-tunes, I must have reached the twee indie section of my collection. I like this a lot. You may or may not, but here it is. There’s a nice back story to this one: Mai Meneses, the vocalist, was unceremoniously kicked out at the end of the first program of the first series of Operación Triunfo (a sort of Spanish X Factor) and told in no uncertain terms not to give up the day job. When she released this, her first album, most of her erstwhile peers had been long forgotten.
Do you ever get those WTF moments that just make you stop for a second and marvel at the diverse and interconnected world we are lucky enough to live in?
Don’t you just love living in a world where a 7 year old kid in Finland can start recording music on his dad’s iPhone in “Finnish, English and Gibberish”, get it released on CD, played on the radio by a DJ in New York, whose show is downloaded by an Englishman in Japan, who then Spills it to the world on a UK-based website to listen to on their computers or generic MP3 devices wherever they may be?!
It’s So Romantic Mr P ! ! ! Ummm. . . what did you say Ms S ? ? ?
She Says:
This week we want to share some cool tunes with you ! ! ! There is so much more to the Korean music scene than just Gangham Style and K-pop and in this post we want to share some of the Korean Indie bands we have been listening to recently. It is cool, relaxed and chilled post this week, but we hope you will like it!!!
He Says:
So it’s not just Gangnam Style after all ! I confess that I know little about Korea and even less about it’s music scene. I have, however, tracked down some fine music over the last couple of years and thought you might like to hear what’s going down in downtown Seoul. No K-pop this time, just good old “indie” stuff that’s full of charm.
A trawl through the morning – a brief musical respite as the sun shines – and a slow descent towards the arms of Morpheus and beyond.
My last attempt at this was a personal miscellany. This is a thematic concept or “hastily assembled bunch of stuff about mornings or nights” to use the technical term.
You probably know most of the songs. It could have been any number of others. These just happened to be on my iTunes rather than vinyl or cassette tape. I’m actually quite surprised at how folkie it turned out in the end.
So anyway. You’re only allowed to shoot one of them. The others get to live another day. And night. And you have to kiss them.
nb – it has become de riguer to provide a commentary with your list of tracks. I break this new tradition with a careless laugh (too bloody lazy innit?).
When I started this series I said that I would write about whatever took my fancy each week. That wasn’t entirely true. By the time I had my first post finished, I had planned out my topics for the following two weeks. By the time week two rolled around, however, the universe (or rather that accretion of atoms collectively known as Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III) interfered in this best-laid of plans. I briefly considered continuing the schedule as if there had been no interruption (i.e., post week two’s topic this week) but a series of coincidences have encouraged me to do the original week three topic in week three and leave the week two topic until next week (assuming nothing else happens along the way!)
Greetings, ear pickers! Not ‘arf! (Those of you who’ve never heard of Alan Freeman can skip that bit). Well, a fantastic bunch of worms this week, right up my street, so I hope you enjoy them too. And keep them coming to earworm@tincanland.com. Sorry if anyone has been waiting a while, I will try and keep up.
Puncture – Mucky Pup
A real old style worm here. This was played a lot in places like the Marquee and Vortex in 1977. The fine “Angela Rippon” ending was, I think, crucial in its popularity and shows an aspect of early punk that is often ignored by later commentators. It was damned “funny”. – Pairubu
Bobby Bland – Don’t Cry No More
I fell in love with Bobby’s voice after hearing his goose-bumply unequivocally best ever version of St James Infirmary. Here’s a sweet-soulful, grizzly-growlful, bouncy-blues boogie I often enjoy shuffling across the kitchen lino to, with Stan as dancing partner; it’s amazing what nifty footwork you can pull off, dodging a crazy mutt trying to bite yer feet. – wilemena
Dead Exs – All Over You
My favourite new band of 2012, the Dead Exs (http://thedeadexs.com ) know rock and roll needs to be kept unkempt. And muddy ( http://bit.ly/Wcnsod ), if possible. If Dan Auerbach wasn’t so busy telling other bands what to do, this is what the Black Keys might be. – tincanman
Swamp Cabbage – Jesus Tone
I’ve been doing a bit of a Carole this year and scarcely listened to any music (apart from at work). This was my summer earworm 2012 and made me think of DsD – debbym
Besnard Lakes – Devastation
Ambitious, sweeping epic music from the Montreal-based husband & wife indie rockers. No, no, no, not Arcade Fire: the OTHER Montreal-based etc., etc. The wife, Olga Goreas, is the one crunching out the powerchords, husband Jace Lasek is the one fond of Beach Boys-style harmonies. – DarceysDad
Blanck Mass – Sundowner
Tangerine Dream de nos jours but with an undercurrent of darkness, used to striking effect in the Olympics opening ceremony. My earworms have been getting strangely positive feedback in recent months; this should polarise opinion more successfully. – Abahachi
a few tracks from the youtube playlist in easier listening format:
1 If I Should Die Tonight Brakes
2 My Kingdom For A Horse Frank Turner
3 Human Racing St. Vincent
4 Act III, Scene 2 (Shakespeare) Saul Williams
5 Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone The Walkmen
6 Some Tragedy The Good Life
7 The Bottom Line Big Audio Dynamite
8 Looking For The Perfect Beat (12″ Vocal Version) Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force
Stranglers – No More Heroes
Built To Spill – Made-Up Dreams
Primus – Tragedy’s A’ Comin’
Echobelly – Father, Ruler, King, Computer
Raymen – Blue Romeo
Asian Dub Foundation – Ease Up Caesar
Herman Dune – Shakespeare and North Hoyne
Radical Face – A Pound of Flesh
Stranglers – Pawsher
Love Spirals Downwards – Love’s Labour’s Lost
Laurie Anderson – Blue Lagoon
Dalek I Love You – We’re All Actors
Orbital – Nothing Left [Much Ado About Nothing Left]
Squarepusher – Iambic 9 Poetry
DJ Food – Dark Lady
Keith LeBlanc – Comedy Of Errors
She Says:
