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A quick burst* of something uplifting

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A few days ago I re-watched the first Pitch Perfect movie in the company of my teenage niece, and was reminded just how great the audition montage scene is. A celebration of pure pop, this cover of Kelly Clarkson’s Since You Been Gone is skillfull, funny, cheesy of course, but mainly uplifting – just the thing for a drizzly Wednesday.

Feel free to post something uplifting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNV6UtkYPU4

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Christmas Giveaway 2015

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It’s that time of year again, and Car Boot Vinyl Diaries (i.e. me) is giving away a vinyl copy of a most wonderful seasonal rekkid – the parptastic Tijuana Christmas by the Torero Band. Enter here, chums: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/2015-christmas-giveaway.html Tell your friends! And your enemies! Parp!

Silly things you’ve done in the name of music

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The lure of sex can make us do irrational things, drugs can certainly cause silly behaviour – but what about rock ‘n’ roll? A couple of days ago I went to the trouble of finding the AARP (American Association of Retired People) CD version of Bob Dylan’s most recent album Shadows In The Night – the one given away on the front of a magazine – from a seller in the US, purely because it would fit nice and neatly inside the BobBox, alongside the rest of the catalogue. With shipping I paid around twice as much as the jewel case version would have cost on amazon (about ten quid instead of five).

Please make me feel better/help to normalise my behaviour by telling us: what silly, irrational or downright nerdy things have you done in the name of music?

Adele at the BBC

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Did anyone watch this last night? As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, her music, although admirable, isn’t my cup of tea, but this mixture of live performances, an interview with Graham Norton, plus a couple of pre-recorded skits made for great Friday night telly. She came across as warm, down to earth, modest and very funny, which I suppose we already knew, but it was nice to see it confirmed. Best of all was this sketch, where with the help of makeup and latex she posed as Adele-wannabe ‘Jenny’ and joined half a dozen others to audition as a tribute act.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHXjxWaQs9o

Cheesy Dylan covers

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I heard this “Soft, Safe & Sanitized” version of LARS by The Living Voices earlier today. It’s both terrible and brilliant at the same time. What other corny, cheesy or downright weird Dylan cover versions do you know of?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjk7ivL3l5Q

Vinyl room service

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Staying overnight in That London? Don’t feel like going out or watching porn? One hotel is now offering a vinyl room service menu, ‘handpicked’ by Annie Mac and Lauren Laverne. Annie’s list of “vinyls” (yuk) is pretty good actually, although sadly you’ll be brought a Crosley carver to play them on.

I wonder how much they charge for this?

http://www.wlondon.co.uk/en/vinyl-collection http://www.wlondon.co.uk/en/vinyl-collection

Music-buying ban

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That’s it. After ordering a Charlie Rich CD last night (Complete Smash Sessions, mmm, tasty) that I don’t even have time to listen to, what with birthday presents, upcoming pre-orders, boot sale records, etc. etc., I hereby BAN myself from buying ANY more music for at least the rest of the year (excepting the last few car boots of the season, of course). The remainder of that Dylan Complete Albums box set won’t listen to itself.

That’s it, THAT’S IT!

*bites fist*

Psychedelic Britannia

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Friday 23rd October, 10pm on BBC4:

“Documentary exploring the rise and fall of the most visionary period in British music history. Five kaleidoscopic years between 1965 and 1970 when a handful of dreamers re-imagined pop music.

When a generation of British R&B bands discovered LSD, conventions were questioned. From out of the bohemian underground and into the pop mainstream, the psychedelic era produced some of the most ground-breaking music ever made, pioneered by young improvising bands like Soft Machine and Pink Floyd, then quickly taken to the charts by the likes of the Beatles, Procol Harum, the Small Faces and the Moody Blues even while being reimagined in the country by bucolic, folk-based artists like the Incredible String Band and Vashti Bunyan.

The film is narrated by Nigel Planer with contributions and freshly-shot performances from artists who lived and breathed the psych revolution – Paul McCartney, Ginger Baker, Robert Wyatt, Roy Wood, the Zombies, Mike Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Joe Boyd, Gary Brooker, Arthur Brown, Kenney Jones, Barry Miles, the Pretty Things and the Moody Blues.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06jp24b

Johnny Concheroo’s Amazing Album-Spotting Thread

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Johnny Concheroo’s gift for identifying albums by just their spines is pretty impressive, and he’s not the only nerd, I mean talented album-spotter here I’m sure (I’m looking at you, JQW). So, with no cheating by enlarging on one of those fancy iPad things, here’s a shelf for Johnny and whoever else wants to have a stab at some spine-squinting. Go nuts!

ATM: Atlantic soul promo album

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Does anyone know anything about this record that I picked up at a car boot sale today for £1? I thought it was just a common Atlantic soul compilation, but the songs are all introduced – and interrupted – by the American DJ Emperor Rosko, and what I thought was a promo sticker is in fact printed on the sleeve. There’s no cat. no., and the latest song on there is 1971. The sleeve says it was printed in the UK and there’s a credit to Kinney Record Group. Google and Discogs have zero on this, which is unusual. Anybody?