Category Archives: Flower Power

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Ear Candy – Break My Heart

candy_heart

Ok, so you’ve all been good sports and suffered through my Stones lists, rock lists, garage noise, rock / punk heavy A-list, axe wank list, etc. So i thought that as you were all probably dreading my week for the Spill Game, i’d put up something a bit different. Some of you may remember that i have a not-so-secret hankering for a pretty pop tune. So in honor of VD (i was supposed to be next week, but i switched off with DsD), i did a list of some pretty ear candy instead of the usual ear-splitting stuff. You know the drill – toss one or all, or keep as you see fit.

Will that do?

(Look, there are going to be guitars. There just are. It comes with the turf. But they’re gorgeous Byrds-y, Las-y, melodic, reverby, distorty, feedbacky, groovy, and even maybe some acoustic-y. Maybe a bit of saminess at the beginning of the list, but how can you complain when it’s this easy on the ears. Huh? I do promise that there’s nothing like Jimmy Page taking a dump on a Telecaster.)

Happy VD to all!

Update Required To Play MediaUpdate your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

(Did this the new player way because a) it cut down on buffering problems, and b) makes it easier to find a specific song.)

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AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…

You might recall that last week I had some problems trying to load some photos here, I’d followed the instructions to the T but only about a half of my file folder would load, about 4 out of 8 or 9. It didn’t make any sense since all the photos were close to identical in size and resolution. So I’ve been poking at it ever since and today I had a flash of inspiration and it seems to work. My ‘inspiration’ was to select a group of photos from an iPhoto file and click on the email icon at the bottom, I emailed them all to myself. iPhoto compresses, converts and resizes all photos regardless of initial size or resolution. From the received email I put all the photos in a folder and dropped that onto the ‘drop files here’ in the media library upload. I chose a large group to test the limits of WP. This isn’t the photo post that I had in mind last week, I chose these because I have lots of gardening pictures and it’a subject that most people can relate to, but I must tell you that I don’t try to remember names, latin or otherwise so I may not be able to identify plants beyond ‘the red flower’ or some such.
With photos WP gives us the option of a slideshow or a gallery display, I chose gallery. I’m still not totally clear on all the picture editing options and this isn’t exactly how I’d like it to be but it’s fairly close and I’ll keep working at it, WP doesn’t make it easy to go back and make changes, plus there must be a way to add narration and/or music. [as I sit here staring at this I think I now see how to resolve those issues] If this works I’ll do another and try to include audio as I proceed, so, this isn’t a real post, more like another work in progress but it’s getting there. Maybe with all my new found wisdom I’ll have another go at the one from last week that gave me all the trouble.

To activate it, a SINGLE click on the first image.

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Black Lips

It sure does warm my heart to hear some young whippersnapper college garage punkers that have done their Stones homework. They don’t have to fake the southern accents either. Here’s a little mini sampler.

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Songs About Gardens: B-List


Songs About Gardens: B-List

The B-list provides an opportunity to compile a list free of the constraints and pressures of the A-List.  To give a hearing to some tunes of choice without the limits of  PC or taste.  So i was a bit piqued to find my choices and list were less varied, less offensive,  and more user-friendly that i had hoped for.  (I used a bigger shoehorn too!)  Almost too damn pretty of a list.  I think Wyngatecarpenter may have put his finger on it – “Clearly this subject brings out a softer side in some of my favourite artists.“  Slim pickings this week for hard rock, metal, punk, thrash, grunge, and hardcore hip-hop.  On the upside – a banner week for 60′s grooviness, earthy blues, psychedelia, folk, culture, goth, indie/alt and J-pop. Continue reading →

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It’s magic, man!

BEATLES ALERT: This post was prepared in a factory that handles Beatles music. If you suffer from Beatles allergy, look away now.

Many of you will remember the contributions of magicman, and he is missed on RR by many of us. Some of you will be aware that he is a renowned film and TV actor, based in Brighton, and that he is also a leading light and prime mover in the Brighton Beach Boys, a tribute band. They have been going for ten years, and for the last five of them, have staged an annual award winning Brighton Festival event, Pet Sounds versus Sgt. Pepper. This involves them playing both albums in their entirety, to a packed church in Kemptown.

Given the studio-complexity of both albums, they enlist the help of the Psychedelic Love Orchestra, to provide string and wind back up.

I love Brighton Festival, and took the opportunity to see magicman in action, and enjoy a brief chat with him about RR/spill, Dorian, African and black American music, and the pleasure he gets from being in the Brighton Beach Boys. In an ensemble 15 strong, he is the only one who is not a professional musician, but you wouldn’t know it from his dexterity on sax, keyboards and vocals. I enjoyed meeting and chatting to him,

I have to admit that this is not normally the sort of thing I go to – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tribute band before, and I’m not into nostalgia, with so much great music in the here and now. I felt a bit like my gran going to see Vera Lynn do wartime songs when the war was a distant memory. But having said that, I enjoyed the evening immensely in a guilty pleasures sort of way, and the band do a great job. And the audience was drawn from all age groups, not just wrinklies like me!

Here’s a few clips I took at the gig for your delectation (magicman is the one in the hat, and then hatless for ‘Within you, without you’). Given that the venue was a church, we start fittingly with ‘God only knows’. The second youtube is a short vid from LatestTV, with magicman talking about the band.

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ALTERNATE BOB.


Bob will be 70 this week, he’s catching up on me.
Some time ago I toyed with the idea of a post here that was based on the question of ‘who’s the greatest contributor to pop music of the 20th century’, when I posed the question to my wife she instantly said ‘Bob Marley’ and I had to agree with her but Dylan also came strongly to mind. I’ve enjoyed his music right from the start though I did miss out on some of his middle period. I titled this piece ‘Alternate Bob’ because the music playlist is comprised of alternate takes of some of his best known songs. I didn’t keep track of the titles as I assembled them so let it come as a surprise.
Question: If Dylan is not the ‘greatest contributor, who is and second, what’s the best song Dylan ever wrote.
Don’t miss the article by Stephen Moss on page one today and also scan the comments.
Happy Birthday Bob.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/19/bob-dylan-at-70

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It is grey, damp, melancholy, let’s think of better times ahead

There isn’t really a theme to this particular playlist, except perhaps that all the tracks I’ve chosen have a certain quality that reflects my state of mind at the moment.

There is a kind of otherworldliness about many of these, tinged with maybe a dash of melancholy, distance or maybe detachment from the day-to-day dullness of grey, dismal February.

I’ve tried to make the playlist a kind of voyage, starting out with a dash of experimentation that flows into Jerry Garcia’s achingly beautiful “The Wheel”, via some old and new psychedelia, a dash of a Fripp and Travis soundscape, a leavening of classically lovely female singing and finally coming home again, via post-rock, to a place of aching beauty again.

The photograph that heads up this playlist is one of my own. It is the Château de Sercy in the southern part of Burgundy, just north of Cluny. I have no particular reason to post it, except that it is a lovely place and the sky is blue in the picture.

We all need a bit of blue in our skies at this time of year. I think that February is the worst month of the year, but hopefully this playlist ends on an fairly uplifting and optimistic note and leads the way to a happy 2011 for all of us ‘Spillers and our loved ones.

Anyway, now for the music;

1. Jerry Garcia – The Wheel
2. Moby Grape – Looper
3. Mazzy Star – Look Down From The Bridge
4. Warpaint – Warpaint
5. Robert Fripp and Theo Travis – Moonchild
6. It’s A Beautiful Day – Bombay Calling
7. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Black Mountain
8. Sandy Denny – I’m A Dreamer
9. Mogwai – Like Herod
10. Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun

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QUICKSILVER


Given the enthusiastic response to Amylee’s Nicky appreciation society and the several mentions of Quicksilver this might be an appropriate spot to consolidate all the aging hippies hereabouts, to that end I’ve digitized one cut from QMS’s finest album. Unfortunately by the time Nicky joined the group they were in terminal decline, blame Dino for that, but their Happy Trails album from 1968 was QMS at their finest. The cut I’ve chosen is to me the highlight of the album, it’s ‘Calvary’, it closes side two. This is definitely headphone music, so put ‘em on, sit back for about 10 minutes and enjoy; it’s fabulous!

Here’s the album’s review from Spotty.
qms

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Bringing Back The Sun

So, Christmas is over, the weather is cold and wet, what do we have to look forward to now?

Oh yes! Of course, we can look forward to the return of the Sun and hot days and long balmy Summer evenings.

Anyway, to banish those Winter blues, here is some Sun-themed music to cheer everyone up.

01 Yes – Heart of the sunrise
02 Its A Beautiful Day – Hot summer day
03 David Gilmour – Fat old sun
04 Primal Scream – Higher than the sun
05 Bob Weir – Walk in the sunshine
06 The Flaming Lips – It’s summertime
07 Cocteau Twins – Frou-frou foxes in midsummer fires
08 Bjork – Sun in my mouth
09 Love – Bummer in the summer
10 Kate Bush – Sunset
11 Dead Can Dance – Black sun
12 Jimi Hendrix – Long hot summer night

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I’ll kiss you.. you’re Beautiful.. 5 years

On Recollection De Rosa
[Audio http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/07%20On%20Recollection.mp3%5D

Time for a beer .. cheers to one and all RR oddities.. for 5 full and fantastic years of quality music .. I’ve found some beauties in times past due to you lot.. but sod that .. my collection of music is considerable more tasteful than yours.. here’s a mixtape, sticking on the straight and narrow like an elephant on a giant jelly:
[Audio http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/11%20The%20Art%20of%20the%20High%20Five.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/13%20Natalie%27s%20Party.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/01%20Francesca%27s%20Party.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/Peter%20Von%20Poehl_Going%20To%20Where%20The%20Tea%20Trees%20Are_12_The%20Bell%20Tolls%20Five.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/06%20Anniversary.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/02%20Birthday.mp3%5D1 The Art of the High Five The All New Adventures of Us
2 Natalie’s Party Shack
3 Francesca’s Party Baxter Dury
4 The Bell Tolls Five Peter Von Poehl
5 Anniversary The Cure
6 Birthday The Jesus & Mary Chain

[Audio http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/St.%20Vincent_Actor_10_The%20Party.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/Candy%20Bars%20-%20The%20Birthday%20Song.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/08%20We%20Are%20All%20Accelerated%20Readers.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/11%20No%20Return.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/17%20celebrate.mp3,http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1075113/FIVE%20RR/04%20Celebrate.mp3%5D
1 The Party St. Vincent
2 The Birthday Song Candy Bars
3 We Are All Accelerated Readers Los Campesinos!
4 No Return Brakes
5 celebrate Miles
6 Celebrate Tony Allen

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Happy Birthday SaneShane


More to follow (if we find the Scarlet Blimpernell), but me & Claire wanted you to have something to wake up to on the BIG day. Happy Birthday from Steen & Shoey.

**edit** Happy Birthday Shane! Here’s a wee something that us ‘Spillers put together for you! Have a good one! Blimpy**

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SPRING IS HERE

This is just another test, though a bit more ambitious than my last efforts. Since I’d succeeded with Maki’s and Tin’s help in getting both an image and a tune up, I thought I’d try for a slide show. Irises are in full bloom right now and will be for another month, these are some from my garden and of course the vocal is by Ella, though she seems a bit slow to start. I was overcautious re. the image sizes, I could have made them larger so they’d fill the space.

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