As rare as a solar eclipse, some new music from a former member of XTC just dropped. Link in first comment.

Not sure if this is a sign of more to come (his last “resurgence” fizzled our pretty quickly) or just a one off, but nether the less a cause for celebration for XTC obsessives.

Posting this for no other reason than its a brilliant clip from last nights Nick Cave concert in Brighton.

Always loved this song (and the album it came from) and this live version certainly does it justice…

Post your recent brilliant clips as you wish….

This just popped up – a live stream of Van Morrison at this years Montreux Jazz Festival.

It was streamed a few hours ago (as I post this) and is still available. Hopefully will still be up by the time you read this. Link in first comment.

p.s. there’s also a stream of James Taylor.

Just saw that Rhino are releasing standalone versions of the BluRay discs that were in the recent Yes box sets – Yes Album, Fragile and Close To The Edge.

These have the recent Steven Wilson Atmos mixes and updated 5.1 mixes, along with stereo (also updated ?) and instrumentals.

They have them on the SDE shop at £25 each or as a bundle for £69.

https://www.thesdeshop.com/products/yes-3-x-blu-ray-bundle-the-yes-album-fragile-close-to-the-edge

She may not be our usual listening (although I will still defend the Like A Prayer album and The Immaculate Collection still gets a spin every now and again), but she is almost certainly a cultural icon and has been around as long as a lot of us.

When I was younger, the expectation of a female artist that was approaching 70, would very much be Easy Listening, appearances on Val Doonican etc etc. The new long form video that has just been released by Madonna is kinda like that…… – lasers firing from crotches – check – raunchiness in a male toilet (with Richard E Grant, Benny Cummerbund….) – check – Kate Moss and references to cocaine – check

I like it.

And who would like to see the Muppets covering “Song 2″….. ?

This post will probably fall on deaf ears (especially after all the recent hearing related threads), but I continue on my mission to sing the praises of the Japanese group “Mono”…

With all the crap in the world right now, what you need is this gloriously uplifting track “Gerbera” – the second track released from their forthcoming album “Snowdrop”

Video in (probably the only) comment on this thread 😉

I know that many of you were sat there thinking “wouldn’t it be great if TTB did a medley of Sly & The Family Stone tracks…….”

Well by the magic of the internet, it just so happens that your wishes have been granted,

Love them or loath them, adverts have always been a part of ours lives.

This YouTube ad from Yorkshire Tea popped up on my feed today and it’s superb. Yes, it’s not an ad on the telly or hosted by Pearl & Dean, but it’s still brilliant.

So, from your Ridley Scott early masterpieces to the Nescafe love story, what are the ads that you remember (surely a sign of a good ad) as brilliant…..

For the second day in a row, its a post of a new track that caught my eye – this time a new Bond theme from none other then Lana Del Ray (with help from David Arnold).

Its for an upcoming video game not a movie, but its still a Bond theme and its rather fabulous.

Video in comments.

New track from Massive Attack featuring Tom Waits.

Looks like its new material – sign of more to come ?

I like it.

Back at the end of 2024, Radiohead frontman did a series of solo concerts in Australia, NZ and Asia (I don’t think if was ever done back in Blighty).

We went to the Singapore leg and I reviewed it back at the time (see link). A very very good concert.

Anyway, the concert movie of the Sydney Opera House show has just been posted officially on YouTube. No idea of how long it will be up for, so grab it while you can. Link in the comments.

https://theafterword.co.uk/thom-yorke-solo/

Cancels his concert as it’s too noisy outside and he didn’t get enough sleep.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp32kd13w34o

One of the all time greats of blues has just popped up on NPRs Tiny Desk Concerts. Well worth 20 minutes of your time.

Not bad going for someone that’s pushing 90 years old !

I still love the fact that he played acoustic guitar on Muddy Waters ” Folk Singer” – one of my all time favourite albums.

Youtube in first comment

Quick question for the experts / headphone gurus on here (@fentonsteve, @pencilsqueezer)….

I use a Fiio M11 with their FH7 IEMs, which has up to now been pretty damn good. However, playing it recently, the sound appeal “off” – difficult to describe but it’s almost like it’s being played from a hifi in a cavernous room. The sound is still very clear and okay in soft acoustic passages, but once the rest of the band kicks in, it just sounds wrong – it’s almost like a lack of bass, but more than that (told you it was difficult to describe). I have changed the filters in the IEMs, changed the earbuds etc etc, all to no avail.

I hooked up my Sennheiser HD650s to it and they sound fine, so it must be an issue with the FH7 – have o just dropped them too many times and buggered them ? Any ideas ?

In the recent AW year end poll, one of the high ranking albums that was new to me was the Geese / “Getting Killed” album.

Anyway, it was duly investigated (and pleased to say resulted in a purchase). However, one thing that kept popping up in my trawls through YouTube was the singular variant of the Anserinae family – Goose (which surprisingly appears to have more members than the plural variant)

Another American group, that appear on initial inspection to be along the lines of Phish/ Grateful Dead- I.e. very much a “jam” band with lots of live material out there.

That said, they do a rather splendid cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, and Pink Floyd’s “Pigs” (two song choices that immediately endear me to them).

They do have some studio albums, but as said a lot of live stuff – any ideas where to go……

Not the end of the world I know, but a couple of “annoyances” on the website access have started to crop up over the past week or so….

– I keep getting logged out – even if I click the “remember me” box before I enter login details. This seems to happen every two or three days,

– previously on posts with unread comments, the post would be highlighted in blue and when read it would turn to a white background. These days, they are remaining blue after I read the comments and stay that way even if I refresh the page, if I close the website and go back, all is good – I,e, there seems to be a delay in the update.

Both of these are happing on both my iPad and MacBook. Anyone else seeing this ?

Obviously one of the big TV events of the Christmas / New Year period.

So did you watch and did the ending meet / exceed expectations or completely disappoint?

As I am aware that many may not have watched yet, I won’t go into any details or even offer a review in this opening post, other than to say it was better than I expected – especially given some of the early episodes in this season were a bit weak.

Further (brief) input in the comments so we can keep this spoiler free for those who still want to watch…..

Brilliant……

https://shop.pinkfloyd.com/products/wish-you-were-here-sculpted-candle

Listening to this weeks Rockenteurs podcast featuring Mani from The Stone Roses, made me go back and watch this from the Shane Meadows film of their reunion – “Fools Gold” from Heaton Park, Manchester (see video in comments).

When they were on form, they were sublime. The drumming of Reni must be up there with some of the best – or is at that the combination of him and Mani just works for so well ? Some pretty nifty guitar from John Squire also. (I still think Ian Brown is a bit of a prat though).

The rockonteurs is worth a listen also.

There’s a new kid in town for all the hipsters out there. From a Rhino email…..

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I’m sure many of you are aware of Held By Trees who openly wear their Talk Talk influences (if you are not – go and listen – they are fabulous).

Anyway in their Bandcamp Friday update yesterday, there was the following comment….

“Some other news, but from the camp of one of our ‘parent’ influences. Charlie Hollis confirmed on the phone that he and Lee Harris have remastered Talk Talk’s seminal 1988 masterpiece, Spirit of Eden as a half-speed master at Metropolis mastering a few months ago. According to Charlie, the new master of the album is ‘the best thing’ he’s ‘ever heard’. At the moment, the record label, Warner, are banking the remaster for release at an undetermined time, but presumably around it’s 40th anniversary in 2028, like their half-speed remaster of It’s My Life which was done last year.”

Sounds promising

It must be a few months since I’ve posted about the Japanese post rock band MONO, so I humbly seek your forgiveness. I know that many eagerly check every morning for an update from me about them….

Anyway, they have a new live album / blu ray out in October which is the Tokyo leg of their recent tour with an orchestra, I saw the Singapore show and art was superb. A new video of the track Oath has just been released – see comments.

Oh, and I see they are on tour in the UK at the end of Oct / early Nov.

https://www.monoofjapan.com/tour.php

One of those tracks that I have always adored is “As I Lay Me Down” by Sophie B Hawkins. She’s not necessarily one of my “favourite artists” (although I have a couple of albums), but there is something about this particular track that strikes a chord. It always gets put on any playlist, is on all my portable devices etc etc

Anyway, Ms Hawkins has just released “Whaler Re-emerging” which as you may have guessed is a re recording of some of the 1994 album Whaler, and I’m really liking the new version of “As I Lay Me Down” – compare and contrast in the comments…..

This re imagining of old albums seems to be becoming more popular these days. I know sometimes its the artist re gaining control of the music, but maybe it’s that they have run dry of creative juices and need to put something out?

So which ones have worked ? Which improve (or at least give a fresh take on) the original ? Should they just be left alone ?