Moving!

The Boy Wonder has set me up with a new account for Partly Porpoise. He assures me it’ll be better…

http://partlyporpoise.wordpress.com/

It was a pleasure meeting you. What's your name?

I’m turning into an irritable old bugger…

I’m breaking my recent gig fast next weekend by making a trip over to Bristol and catching the venerable, if barking, reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry, his first gigs in this country for a good few years (seven I think).

So I thought I’d put together a little mix of some my favourite tracks by the old nutter and had started work on this. But then having mentioned it to some of the cronies I stand next to at The Home of Rugby, it became clear that everybody has their own Upsetter favourites, and that as his output is just massive, we all knew albums that the others didn’t.

So, anyway, I’m thinking I’ll use the iTunes Genius function to throw up a few random Upsetter gems.

And that’s when it all went pear-shaped…

I won’t go into details, suffice to say a combination of a new computer, lost passwords and bloody iTunes made it all very frustrating… The air was blue…

Anyway, here’s a fairly random Upsetter Lucky Seven, which ideally will introduce you to seven new (and appropriately goofy) insights into the mind of a fine old Jamaican eccentric.

Hold of Death (title track of a 1993 album)

The Dragon Enters (from Kung Fu Meets the Dragon)

Django Shoots First (a single I think, I have it on Bashment)

Santa Clause (from Repentance)

Having a Party (from Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered

Black Bat (No idea where from originally, but I have it on an album called Original bass)

Noah Sugar Pan (from Heart of the Congos)

Upsetter Lucky Seven

Here’s a video of an interview the man did in Austen, which made me chuckle…

Of course, as more than one person has pointed out to me, the whole gig could go very wrong …

Scream blue murder 'cause you need something for the pain...

Dunno why this post has taken so long to put together (apart from the obvious, that is…)

One of the people that occasionally pops into this eminent organ is a feller who calls himself Devoted Hooligan, and has a damn good blog himself. He recently posted a link to an album called Fandom & Faction which featured local bands and singers. As he is based in Bristol, not a million miles from the old city, and as it featured a couple of artists I’ve seen (including dear old Men Diamler), I thought I’d give it a go. There’s some good stuff on it.

Babel

Including this band of groovy folkers...

Babel are five musicians from the Bristol area, who contribute a track called Pearl St Raga to Fandom & Faction. I see the word “Raga” and I think of Davy Graham straight away, a comparison which is over-flattering but gets you to the right area, if you know what I mean. It’s a track which has violins and a vaguely Indian feel to it, as you’d expect, but, driven on by a busy drummer, rhythm guitars and liberal amounts of clapping, it also really swings.

Pearl St Raga - Babel

Pearl St Raga is taken from a mini album from 2007 and there is another album released since, called Crooked Timber , both of which are available from Emusic, here, and which I’ll download in the near future. The last release from them seems to be in 2008, but they’re still gigging, as this review from February of this year confirms. I imagine it would be a good evening…

In the meantime, here’s a rather nice video of “Made Your Bed” from YouTube.

There are a few other videos available too, including one for Pearl St Raga, which I can recommend.

Once had a heart, could not be told...

Here’s some mouth-watering news…

Will Sheff of Okkervil River has coaxed some material out of notorious acid-casualty and genuine legend, Roky Erickson, and a bona-fide album is due to be released in the next couple of weeks in the US (another couple of months for us Brits, I’m afraid). Apparently the record features new stuff and some archive songs recorded in Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. We’re going to hear a fair bit about this in the next month or so…



Wow…

Didn't mean to disappoint you

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

And, yes, I know my behaviour’s been abominable, simply intolerable – I just breeze back in here without so much as a by your leave. (I don’t call, I don’t write…).

But, hey ho, you knew that about me when you first got involved, right?

Anyway…

Erland & the Carnival

(File this one under “Not breaking any new ground”, to use a Coleser-ian device…)

When you know people have been banging on about a band for a while, it’s easy to feel like you’ve missed your chance, that the ship has sailed, and that you didn’t really want to catch it anyway.

Well, everywhere I turn people seem to be raving about Erland & the Carnival, to the extent that a Mercury nomination seems inevitable… What with a number of other “difficulties” (for instance, there’s some sort of Blur / Verve connection that I can’t be bothered to investigate…), I’ve been putting off any investigation at all.

Anyway, turns out they’re rather good…



(With apologies to Mr Ashby, why do I never listen?)

The younger, cooler member of the family has just drifted in, and when I tried to suggest he might like this, instantly replied

“Sounds boring…”

No telling some people, eh?

Honey, take a run down to the beach!

Did something very old school Partly Porpoise this evening. Haven’t done it for ages…

Long time readers of this Blog may remember how I used to go about finding new music by muddying my hands in the waters of Myspace. A pretty good yield it used to afford me too, for a while. For some reason though, Myspace changed the way they do things, and suddenly no downloads available anymore.

Anyway, I just thought I’d have a look…

The Drums

The Drums are a New York based band, who (if the stories are to be believed) decided to make a conscious move away from synths etc towards guitar-driven pop, without actually being able to play guitars. I like the story, so I’m choosing to be believe it.

Turns out the results are rather fun, lots of sixties harmonies, jingly guitars, bouncy bass lines and jaunty whistling. A winning formula.

Watch this:



You can download five (moderately) different versions of “Surfing” from here, including the “straight” version, but I thought I’d host one of the remixes.

This is the Nothing but the Girl mix:

Surfing

Not enough whistling in music theses days…

Ooh, we could dance and be free!

Well, I’ve gone and joined that Twitter thingie.

Not entirely sure what I’m doing yet, but if the only fruit it yields is the exciting news that there’s a new Ted Leo album out – today in fact - well that’s something…

No videos or freebies yet, (and although, his site claims that you can stream the album on his Myspace, that’s not up yet), so we’ll have to go for something old to celebrate…



I think I’m ready for a new album from the Pharmacists – the last one passed me by…

Oh, and as you’re asking, it’s @Sweeny99… And yes it would be a pleasure to have you following me.

You’ve got a rabbit in your hat! You’ve got a few tricks up your sleeve!

My blogging chum and I are becoming increasingly infatuated by the ever-enjoyable Classic Albums Podcast – basic format: two fellers talk about records they lent to each other. A simple format but a winning one, that I wish I’d thought of myself – although I doubt my ability to carry it off in such an affable and urbane fashion. I look forward to each new edition and am gradually working my way through the back catalogue.

One of the ideas Gary and Steven have got me thinking about is the idea of a record having space - quieter moments in which ideas can grow and take hold. I like the notion that the listener needs the occasional pause in proceedings in order to gather his thoughts – a metaphorical parting of clutter as he picks his way across the room and onto the bed.

The Soft Pack

Anyway, I’ve just bought myself the eponymous first album from California’s The Soft Pack, and I’m afraid Gary and Steven would be disappointed. Basically, there’s no space, none at all, not a second to catch your breath at all. Ten bursts of punchy, Garage Punky, sixties fun (there’s even what sounds like a Farfisa organ, God’s choice of keyboard, I feel) and all of it delivered with bursts of youthful energy and exclamation. It’s catchy, exhilarating stuff that you’ll either love or find utterly empty-headed. Or maybe both.

Here!



And there!



Bought the record at the height of Ofsted fever, during the week (and yes, as your asking, it was fine, thank you), but now in the lavish post-Ofsted position of being able to read magazines and browse cool websites at my leisure, I find that pretty much everyone’s (Everyone) all over this already.

Honestly, bees round a honey pot…

Any good Green Man ligger will be well aware that Welsh music (or indeed music in Welsh) has become really rather cool over the last few years, with folk such as Gruff Rhys, Euros Childs, Richard James and Cate le Bon making terrific records that are usually acoustic and distinctively Welsh, all of which are firm favourites of this Blog.

I’ve got something different for you here but definitely of a similar ilk…

Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree

Moving swiftly on from another … shocking… name, (thankfully there’s no sign of people with skye in their hair or stars in their brows…), the Magickal Folk are some sort of collective of musicians travelling the British Isles making recordings in traditional settings, previously only available on long sold-out CDRs. Deserted Village records have now re-packaged and released a couple of these together with some other songs as “The Soup and the Shilling”.

They are beautiful recordings, sung in English, French and Gaelic, and supplemented lavishly by strings (plucked and bowed), pipes and gorgous backing vocals. I rather like all this clever, linguistic dabbling around – it adds a certain outlandishness to a recording and avoids the tricky business of making an old lyric sound fresh. The result is a bunch of quirky, moss-covered folk songs that are not a long way from some of the early Gorky’s records.

Deserted Village profess to know nothing about these Magickal Folk, claiming that they find the recordings in a hollowed out tree stump (I believe them...), and I’m quite happy for this to remain the case – a little unfamiliarity does us no harm.

We do have a few samples made available, however, by the good people at Deserted Village.

Is Iomaidh Coiscéim Fada

Le Bon Marain

Bewitching stuff…

If it's not for ever, just know I love you now

In a futile (and I suspect, unsuccessful) attempt to convince the outside world that I do indeed have my finger resolutely on the pulse of modern music, I do try to keep up with a few choice labels. To be honest, it would probably be fairer to say that one or two labels do stick with sending me emails, in the hope that every now and again I might be stirred into action.

One of these labels is Loose Music, who have quite an impressive roster these days but maintain an appealingly homemade feel to their operation. Over Christmas I bought the well-regarded The Duke & The Spirit album Nothing Gold Can Say, but I have to say it hasn’t really worked for me, and has drifted to the pile of albums that I really should give another listen (never a good sign).

Danny & the Champions of the World

Not to be deterred, however, I’ve just today bought the new Danny & the Champions of the World record, Streets of our Time, and am enjoying a much lighter country sound which works very nicely.

Danny is apparently the former front man of Grand Drive, and so has some considerable pedigree already. I don’t really know a whole lot about Grand Drive but I probably need to investigate their catalogue further.

I’m not keen on defining a band’s sound by referring to another band (very lazy) but it’s hard not to talk about this record without thinking Springsteen, the Byrds, Neil Young or Dylan. To be fair, however, the influences go back a lot further too, sounding very old-timey, with banjo to the fore (I do love a banjo, me).

Anyway, I was scratching around YouTube looking for a video to play, but the only video up that refers to the new album was this one. It’s not an official video and not really a video at all, just a series of photographs, by a bloke called Tony-Ray Jones. Now, I’m not going to claim I knew who Tony-Ray Jones was, (a trip here soon sorted that out) but the photographs chosen by YouTuber Victoory (who seems to have a rather a nice line in this sort of video) are gorgeous and fit the feel of the title track from the album very nicely.



Loose Music and Danny and the Champions of the World don’t seem to have much up in the way of freebies or even videos to watch but what they do have is this Spotify playlist which is made up of tracks that obviously inspired the record (sure enough, we have Dylan, Neil Young, the Byrds etc).

The younger, cooler member of the family has been telling me to take advantage of Spotify playlists for a while now, and I am reluctantly forced to agree with the young hopper…

I’d go blind to save you…

Despite my best intentions, I am beginning to get a little animated by the prospect of going to Green Man again this year. If you remember, I’d pretty much sworn off buying a ticket ever again after two successive wash outs, until my friend and fellow Kingsholm crony Martin had come up with a late ticket last summer. The rest is history, as they say…

This year, Green Man have already ensnared me with the news that the magnificent Beirut have been persuaded to come over. Now, this was also announced a couple of years ago, mind, only for Zach Condon to pull out at a fairly late stage; so I’m still a little wary at this stage… (Even so, Alastair Roberts is also appearing…)

Cate le Bon

It became something of a standing joke last year that everywhere we turned we seemed to come across Cate le Bon on stage – coming on for a guest spot with Richard James here, performing a few songs for Will Hodgkinson there. I don’t think we even caught here actual set. (I’m sure she performed with Gruff Rhys a previous year as well…)

Anyway, there is now an album from Cate le Bon, Me Oh My, which came out at the end of last year, but which I have only just picked up from Emusic. It’s really rather a charming record that I’m enjoying greatly at the moment. She has a dark, beautiful voice and a slightly melodramatic delivery that gives her songs something of a jarring edge.

And now, it seems that those clever buggers at Green Man have sent her out with her bewitching ways as a sort of advanced guard, heading a mini Green Man tour that will be snagging further unsuspecting and weak-willed punters around the country.



Be on your guard, people!

You must leave here and not come here again, for my husband has made his return

“Gothic” is a funny word, isn’t it?

This being a music Blog (of a fashion), the word will be inextricably mired in a Batcave / Alien Sex Fiend sort of a morass. Visions of lip-stick smeared ninnies singing in grotesquely deep voices spring to mind.

A queasy thought, you'll agree.

If, however, this was one of the myriad of Victorian literature Blogs that clutter up the Internet, a completely different state of affairs would start to unfold. Cruel and sadistic masters, mad women in attics, improbably murky monasteries, providing shelter to defenceless travellers, perhaps. Hardly pleasant, but much more interesting…

So in the unfortunate event of my using the word “gothic” in the course of the next few lines, well, you’ll know where I’m coming from.

The Phantom Carriage

(Actually, quite how I’m supposed to write about a band taking their name from a seminal Swedish horror film, without using the G-word is a little further than my threadbare skills will take me.)

Phantom Carriage is the gloomy vehicle of two blokes calling themselves Mike Seed and Empire State Human, producing dark experimental pieces. I like a bit of eeriness every now and again and this is certainly scary music. Ghostly folk tunes are swamped in tape effects and crackly distortions, producing genuinely creepy music.

Truth be told, I’m still giving their newest album, Skull Exposed To March Rain, (now there’s Gothica for you) its early listens and there are some elements of the record I’m still not really sure about. But right now, right here, I fancy a bit of a chill wind…

The record has been released by Spoilt Victorian Child records, and is completely free to download, here, at SVC or here at the Phantom Carriage’s own site. There’s even a second previous record available, again free, again at both sites. Such startling generosity is only to be applauded I feel.

Here’s a couple of tracks to whet your appetite…

Hawthorn Tree

A Brackish Spirit

Now pick up your lamp and tiptoe downstairs, I’m sure I heard something…

Did you stay down wind? Yes, sir!

(I’ll save you the bleating on about having no time, yada, yada, yada..)

No new music at the moment, just some old stuff I missed at the time…

Open the bottle and let the wine breathe

Ofsted prowls with murderous intent on the doorstep of our beleaguered establishment, causing adults who probably should know better to careen hysterically about the place.

It’s all a bit hairy really – I hope they come soon…

Alasdair Roberts

Am currently very keen on this album from Scottish folk singer, Alasdair Roberts. Clearly a kindred spirit with Will Oldham, he manages to fill out some classic (or classic-sounding) old songs with a little light and shade – just enough to make it a little more edgy.

Just looking around the Internet, I came across this superbly pretentious article and interview which made me laugh aloud. Didn’t understand a word of it!

No downloads around at the moment, but a trip to YouTube yields a few good shows and a rather fine collection of Andy Goldsworthy videos set to the tune of a Roberts’ song.

I’ve linked to this show, however, mainly because, having spent a day on school work, I slipped my wearisome bonds and got along to it in person.

A very pleasant evening that I’m glad to return to.

He might stay, but he will leave in the morning

Rather too many lists and bootlegs of recent. Let’s get back to basics…

Pants Yell!

A truly awful band name (surely, the worst…), but one to listen out for, nonetheless...

Pants Yell! (I’m sure the exclamation mark is vital) hail from Boston and are a three-piece writing genuine pop songs, with lovely brittle guitar lines that skitter around energetically.

I’ve just downloaded what is their fourth album out on Slumberland, Received Pronunciation, and am still giving it its first listen, so I can’t really speak with any authority. What I can say about it is that there’s a real hum about the record that for me could go either way – a huge grower or a hasty dismissal. Obviously I’m hoping for the former, but right now I’m not too fussed which way it’s going to go. I’m living in the moment (and thoroughly enjoying it).

I rather like what Slumberland have written about them. Have a listen…



Slumberland are one of those labels that have a very cool roster of bands (Cause Co-Motion!, Crystal Stilts, Pains of Being Pure at Heart) and we may well be hearing more from them on these pages. In the meantime, the good folk over there are giving away a track from the record “Cold Hands” which you can snag here, but there are another couple of Pants Yell! tracks available on the Asaurus site too, here.

I will also be giving a listen to the third album, Alison Statton, intriguingly named after the singer from bedroom luminaries of my youth, the Young Marble Giants. Endearingly, Popfrenzy, (another of their old labels) have a short clip of Ms Statton herself giving a luke-warm endorsement of the band and apparently asking for them to send her a copy of the record.

Love it…

There are one or two very patient punters out there!

Mr Hooligan has pointed out (with commendable restraint) that the Chinese White link I posted a couple of days is still not working.

For once this is not down to my oft-referred to cack-handedness - I've actually tagged this correctly this time - but all the fileden links seem to have crashed. I have no idea why.

So anyway, here's a .RAR file fo all four songs, which people can snag until I get my (ahem) shit together...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/jwitgnmlw22/Robin Hitchcock Green Man '09.rar

Even kissed you once or twice...

Very sad news...

Every step I take, I think my feet are getting older

Some feller calling himself Devotional Hooligan has left a comment on an old post of mine about Green Man. Apparently the Robin Hitchcock recordings I made have gone down, and Mr Hooligan has asked for a re-up (I’ve got to stop watching quite so much of the Wire).

Couldn’t be happier to oblige, mate, and what’s more I found another recording, taken at the same event, of Mr Hitchcock singing Robin Williamson’s Chinese White.

Enjoy.

I Can Hear the Grass Grow

Bike

River Man

Chinese White

The words “breath” and “bated” spring to mind as I continue to post my best of lists. As I said the other day, my record buying habits are such that whether an album is new or not rarely enters into my thinking. In fact I’m very often unaware of a release date until I get round to preparing these sort of lists. Some of the records I’ve been most excited about in 2009 are already a few years old. I’m a little slow.

So this first list runs down some of the nearly new records I’ve really enjoyed this year:

Seven Nearly New Classics of 2009

Coles Corner – Richard Hawley
Love, Ire & Song – Frank Turner
For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver
This Nation’s Saving Grace – The Fall
Snow Tyres – Unbunny
Lost Wisdom - Mount Eerie , Julie Doiron , Fred Squire
The Wailing Souls at Channel One – Wailing Souls

Some of these I’m embarrassed to have only just cottoned onto, some I feel that I’m arriving at fashionably late after all the fuss has died down. They’re all great records that have enriched my life this year.

Seven Records You Should Probably Buy
(Even though I haven’t…)

The Hazards of Love – The Decemberists

(actually, I have just bought this, not much liking it so far…)

Real Estate – Real Estate (ditto)

Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective

(I just know this is going to be too difficult for me, and it’ll end up being flung across the room)

Tarot Sport – Fuck Buttons

Psychic Spasms – Neon Indian

Fever Ray – Fever Ray (highly recommended by Mr Cole)

Bitte Orca – The Dirty Projectors (even more highly recommended by the aforementioned Blogger)

And finally...

The Seven Best Records of 2009

But, anyway, what can you do? You can’t get them all can you?

Actually, once I got round to checking out which records were new and which weren't, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much quality music has been released this year. Honourable mentions go to the Volcano Choir, the Antlers, Califone, Vic Chesnutt, You Can Be a Wesley, Euros Childs, the Leisure Society, the Phantom Band, Art Brut, the Lemonheads and Sin Fang Bous, who all produced good records that I’ve enjoyed listening to, but sorry fellers, no cigar…

So here we go, no particular order, I love them all

Veckatimest – Grizzly Bear
Two lovely performances - at Green Man and in Bristol – certainly enhanced this record for me, but even without that, how can you fail to be entranced by those harmonies and complex arrangements?
Dory

The Liberty of Norton Folgate – Madness
I’ve always been keen on Madness and their ability to write a decent pop song, and it’s particularly gratifying to see older gentlemen writing mature songs.
Idiot Child

Album– Girls
“Weedy”, “adenoidal” and “morbid” are all phrases that flash through the mind when you hear this. Their performance at the Cooler confirmed everything, (rather reassuringly so in fact) and added “Hunky Dory” to the list…
Lust for Life

The xx – The xx
The xx are another band who crept under my creaking radar system this year and another band who produced an eponymous classic for me. Right now I can’t get it off the iPhone…
Heart Skipped a Beat

The Crying Light – Antony and the Johnsons
Another record that benefited dramatically from my seeing it performed. It’s that voice again, obviously, but also his ability to write aching, moving songs that makes him continue to stand out.
Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground

Hometowns – the Rural Alberta Advantage
Great songs and a punchy restless approach made this record a cut above all the other Americana-style releases of the year. Basically, a jumpy, beaty record pushed on by the busiest drummer of the year.
Don’t Haunt This Place

Survival – Forest Fires
Another American record, sounding a lot like the Let It Bleed era Stones and embellished by yukes and other old tyme instruments. Some ugly awkward lyrics as well. Fascinating stuff.
Echoes Coming

In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s – Let’s Wrestle
And speaking of ugly awkward stuff, my last record makes a virtue of a Seeds-ish lack of virtuosity. An eager, wholehearted record that owes something to Art Brut and which actually pushes Eddie Argos off my list. It’s a funny old world, eh?
I Won’t Lie to You

Eight you say? Ah c’mon, who’s counting?

Happy New Year.

Like I said, I’m getting a bit of a taste for this list-writing mullarkey. So this next one is concerned with what was a characteristic of the year for me – live music. Basically, it’s been a stonking year for live music in the West Country, the best I can remember for a good while.

Six Cracking Gigs of 2009

(in chronological order)

David Byrne, Colston Hall, March
A wonderful, winning return from a man who had passed from my consciousness many years ago. Memorable for the choreography as much as the music

Anthony & the Johnsons, Colston Hall, May
Reminded me why I was so impressed by their previous album and made me go and listen to the new album a bit more closely. A remarkable performance.

Bon Iver, Green Man, August
Not having really listened to the album properly, wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy his set. I needn’t have worried, an atmospheric and moving performance, all pulled off with genuine humility. With hindsight, my highlight of a great festival. I actually have a recording of the set, and I can’t understand why I never posted it. I’ll remedy this ASAP.

Frank Turner, the Anson Rooms, October
One of those events that grew and grew in my mind as the days followed on from the gig. From being a complete Turner novice at the start of the month, I felt like a veteran by the end of it. Probably the warmest gig I have ever been to but it didn’t stop Frank putting a helluva a session.

The Fall, Jesters, November
A belated rite of passage for me really, and by all accounts up there with some of their better performances. “A glorious racket”.

Lou Rhodes, Thekla, November
What started out as a bit of an away day in the big (well, medium) smoke, turned into a breath-taking gathering in the company of the ex Lamb singer. A very special feel to the evening altogether.

Primal Scream, The Guildhall, December
Overcoming the Guildhall’s dodgy electrics and any tendency towards a spreading waistline, as skinny and as white as ever, Bobby Gillespie remains textbook rock’n’roll. Another rattling evening.

And one other…

Roky Erickson, Green Man, August
Alright, he wasn’t very good - pretty turgid blues rock, if truth be told. But… there he was a mythological figure from another time (another planet really) on stage before us. And he did You’re Gonna Miss Me – if only I’d brought my electric jug with me...