The track “Above The Clouds Of Pompeii” by Bears Den (see comments) popped up on my YouTube feed and posting here just because it’s rather lovely.

It’s from their debut album “Islands” which was released in 2014 and has its inevitable 10yr anniversary due imminently.

That said, a band that don’t get enough discussion and well worth investing your time on (in my humble opinion)

Received an email from Bandcamp this morning regarding a new release from @twang….

It looks like it’s a 20th anniversary remaster / reissue, but without any marbles.

So, @twang – time to blow your trumpet (I know you play guitar) and tell us all about it……

https://jonathanroberts.bandcamp.com/album/fast-loose?from=fanpub_fb

New song from the legend that is Steve Cropper (see first comment). Album due next month.

I’m liking.

I was just watching a clip on You Tube of the Joe Bonamassa live at the Hollywood Bowl with orchestra. Whilst I like a lot of Bonamassa stuff and he is undoubtably a superb guitarist, I often find his live performances a little too sterile (i.e. too much like the studio album) and so this at leasts adds a new dimension.

Anyway, whilst watching I was thinking it would be great to see this live, but the economics of touring the world with an orchestra are probably not feasible. However, thinking further – would I be right to assume that with any “… and orchestra” concerts, the actual orchestrations would be worked our for each instrument and they would follow the score without needing to really know the actual song. As such, does that mean that any concert with orchestra could in theory just turn up in any city, employ the local symphony orchestra for a couple of nights and bob’s your uncle…. ?

New two part documentary based on the book by Stephen Witt.

Enjoyable documentary that pretty much follows the book (which I read a few years ago) – it gives a good insight into how file sharing started, how a employee of a CD manufacturing plant in the Deep South helped it along and most notable how clueless the record companies were in how to address (sue your customers – good plan!).

Not sure what service it’s being shown on in the UK (but I guess in the true spirit of the program you can always find on the eel market).

Article from the Guardian about it……

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jun/11/how-music-got-free-docuseries-paramount

No I haven’t acquired a stutter…. There is actually a new song and forthcoming album from Matt Johnson.

Album “Ensoulment” out in September. First song in comments.

Sometimes you come across a write up for a new album release that, even though you have never heard of, you just have to go and explore…….

Bill Fisher / How To Think Like A Billionaire

“Imagine Kate Bush and Tori Amos wrote a yacht doom album satirising the edgelord-tech-billionaire-worship generation, recorded by Peter Gabriel and Michael McDonald in the early 80s using an industry prerelease unit of the late 90s Yamaha PSR-8000 synthesiser, several heavily distorted guitars, and a baby grand”

Its on Bandcamp (and YouTube)

Not content with just releasing a superb new album, One Deep River, the guitar legend that is Mark Knopfler has just released a 4 track EP, The Boy, of “extra” tracks he had kicking around. There’s an official video (see first comment) of one of the tracks “All Comers”, which for me is up there as one of his best – a simple joyous track.

I know it may be staged, but the video comes across as a bunch of shit hot musicians simply enjoying making music. That opening guitar is instantly recognisable as MK……

For all you Blue Nile fans out there – new pressings on vinyl for all 4albums……

https://thebluenile.tmstor.es/?utm_campaign=The%20Blue%20Nile%202024%20Vinyl%20Reissues&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mailjet

Whilst Gary gives you world leaders as rock stars, who would like to see characters from Trumpton embracing the world of pop ?

In the spirit of my previous posts on new stuff, and the fact that the Japanese group Mono are one of my favourites, here is the newly released title track from their forthcoming album (out 14th June)….

Video in first comment.

And yes, I know that I keep banging on about Mono and that everyone promptly ignores me, but I don;t care. I like them,

Okay – I know that this charity single got a bit of a kicking when it was previewed on here a few months ago, but anyway….

They have just released the “official video” on YouTube that’s basically an animation that shows who is playing during the song. Some are obvious, but some surprised me. Whether or not you agree with charity singles, like Mark Knopfler, etc etc, its still a fun exercise to to a spot the various guitarists on here.

But, even better,,,,,,,

At 5:45 (right after Duane Eddy) who should pop up – none other than “Twang”

@twang – having a couple of your albums, I know you are pretty good, but I must say, I’m impressed you managed to get this gig 😉

Video in first comment.

A completely new artist to me (and I did a quick search on here and found no mention, so probably new to a lot of folks).

American singer, songwriter and keyboard player that is heavily influenced by classic New Orleans artists (Dr John, Allen Toussaint) that has been going for around 5 years now (as a solo artist). Came across his album “Francis Comes Alive” (guess what that was inspired by) at the weekend and it’s superb.

As its someone that’s new to me, I did some quick research and he has a couple of studio albums and an EP out – reviews have described him as “Francis captures a sound that’s somewhere between Elton John and Little Feat” and “lovers of Dr. John, Leon Russell, and The Meters will immediately feel at home amid Francis’ fat-bottomed, bluesy bangers”, Guest musicians on the second studio album include Derek Trucks on slide guitar. You get the idea.

There’s a bunch of clips from this live show on YouTube – I’ll post the opening track in the comments, Actually the whole concert movie is up on YouTube.

After watching the video of Make Me Smile the other day, my YouTube feed was populated with a few old classic music videos which I duly watched.

Being a teenager in the early 80s, I guess I grew up in the “golden age” of music videos – MTV had just started, there were the “event” videos like Thriller, Undercover of the Night, etc etc (I still recall watching the being premiered on The Tube).

Even though YouTube is the perfect platform for music videos, it seems they are not as important as they used to be – there seems to be an abundance of “lyric videos” and not the big event productions – is this simply due to the fact there are so many, its no longer a medium that stands out ?

So, what are the all time greatest music videos (my choice in the comments) and are there any recent ones that have impressed ?

I know that it’s not really funny, but this news story made me laugh….

A student in Taiwan tried to cheat multiple insurance companies by claiming he had suffered from severe frostbite whilst out on a scooter ride by immersing his legs in dry ice for 10 hours which resulted in him having to have both amputated. Surely a contender for the Darwin Awards (although I think it has to result in death to be eligible for those).

The upside I guess is that Xi Jin Ping will read this and give up on plans to invade Taiwan if that’s the level of intelligence…….

Any better contenders for most stupid thing this week……

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5114699

Following up from my multiple award winning thread from a month or so ago, and to show that I can follow the mods instructions bu posting videos in the comments, I bring you more new stuff…..

More new tracks that have struck a chord and you think others may like….

Kamasi Washington / Prologue – taster track from the new album due in May, a fine piece of sax from the modern jazz supremo. This one grabbed me on first listen and I’m looking forward to the album

Slash featuring Brian Johnson / Killing Floor – guitar legend plays an old Howlin Wold track with Brian Johnson on vocals and Steven Tyler on harmonica… what’s not to like ? A taster from a new album of blues covers due also in May.

Couple of questions for the Mods on the status menus over to the right…..

i) In the Most Commented (Last 7 Days) section, for the past week or so it has stated “Sorry, No data so far.”

ii) In the Most Viewed This Month section, whilst most seem to be recent popular threads there are a couple of anomalies – the AA Gill / Brexit one and the Danny Baker one. Both are from a few years ago and neither have a significant amount of new comments recently, so how come they are in the most viewed this past month ?

I know these are very much first world problems, but I have nothing better to do.

Back at the beginning of the year, Junior posted that we should be doing more to review / highlight new music that we have been “grooving” to.

In the spirit of that post, I offer you a couple of tracks that are currently “floating my boat” as they say. Videos will be in the first comment (per the latest Mod directive).

Mark Knopfler / Ahead Of The Game – immediately recognisable as Mark Knopfler, nothing groundbreaking, no change of direction – just straight ahead standard MK material, But… for some reason , this track has coimpletyt lodged itself in my brain and I find myself humming away to it over and over. Looking forward to the album.

Elbow / Lover’s Leap – another lead single this time from the much maligned (unfairly in my opinion) Elbow. Loving the horns, seems a bit of a departure from standard Elbow but looking positive for the new album. I’ll post the Graham Norton appearance video (always nicer to see live than a lyric video)

So what new is “floating your boat” ?

For all you vinyl fans out there, the BBC are auctioning some of their surplus vinyl…

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/details/a219c-the-bbc-collection—sale-one/?au=149

The Black Keys have just released the video for the lead single from their forthcoming album, in which they use footage from an old 1960s film,

The lead male actor is obvious, but for all you oldies out there, who’s that girl ? (I know the answer is in the comments of the original YouTube video, but see if you can get without cheating……). And what’s here connection to some of the biggest rock behemoths……?

Oh, and in my humble opinion (which may be wrong, but I don’t think so), it’s a great track.

So it’s the week between Christmas and New Year and you are all in that post Xmas torpor (judging by the lack of posts on here). Stuffed with nut roast, turkey twizzlers and half way through that bottle of single malt, what you all need is some Japanese Post Rock……

A recent “Fender Sessions” release featuring one of my favourite groups, Mono, doing a couple of tracks – “Kanata” and their epic “Ashes In The Snow” (from about 10min in)……

And for those interested they have just released their Annual Christmas Day EP (Heaven Vol 2) on Bandcamp.

Enjoy

The “hardest working man in music” has just dropped a Christmas song, but with lyrics done by AI.

From the description… “Challenged by a friend last week on why I’d never done a Christmas song, I protested it wasn’t really me, and besides I didn’t think I had it in me to write suitably Christmassy lyrics. “No problem”, he said, “we’ll get ChatGPT to do it for you!”, upon which he instructed the AI to generate Christmas lyrics in the style of Steven Wilson. Which it proceeded to do so. By the yard, in fact, I was shocked at how instantaneous and easy it was to guide it (“don’t actually mention Christmas” we said to it, “make it feel more lonely”…etc)

I’m still not entirely sure what I think about AI, the knee-jerk reaction is to consider it a threat to a musician like me, but it’s clearly not going away, so this is my experiment to try embracing it and using it as a tool in the creative process. And of course also to have some fun doing something I would never normally have thought about doing, the archetypal seasonal song. December Skies is the result, swiftly recorded » Continue Reading.

In celebration of the 60th anniversary (although for a Time Lord is an anniversary relevant ?) the BBC have put many of the “classic” period Dr Who episodes on iPlayer along with the more recent reboot and the various spin off series. Not all episodes are there – many are still lost and some are caught up in licensing issues, but it’s a pretty impressive collection.

I’m sure many of us on here grew up with the classic period Dr Who and all have our memories and favourites. I guess is one of those programs that ingrained in our culture.

I was born in 1967 and so just about remember Jon Pertwee – I have memories of “The Green Death” (which I cannot remember anything about, just that I watched it and its name has stuck). However, I guess I was really a Tom Baker man.

With regards to the reboot, I’ll go with David Tennant as the best Dr (with Blink being the best ever episode)

So, favourite Dr Who, favourite episodes, which ones from the classic are worth revisiting, looking forward to the new series?….. etc etc

Two of the 90s greatest “power pop” albums – Bellybutton and Spilt Milk by Jellyfish – have just been remastered and reissued on vinyl and as hi-resolution downloads (and onto streaming platforms I believe).

No extra tracks, just a new mastering.

Two of my favourite albums that still get played regularly and rightly mentioned on the artists leaving us gagging for me thread.

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/jellyfish-spilt-milk-bellybutton-vinyl-reissues/

This is fabulous……

(and yes I am aware that no Pink Floyd was involved in the writing or playing of this, so this thread will die a death)