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I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah

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You’ve heard the song, now read the novel!

I am currently reading Willy Vlautin’s excellent novel: Don’t skip out on me. It starts in the small town of Tonapah in Nevada where a young ranch hand, Hector, is planning a future life as a boxer. 100 Pages in and I realise that it is a continuation of the ideas that Willy had when he wrote a song of the same name for his band Richmond Fontaine.

I knew that he had a dual career as both a songwriter and a novelist What interests me is that he does not keep his two careers neatly separated. He started by writing a song but realised that there was a far longer tale to be told here and let one genre spill over into the other.

Vlautin is one of those talented people, like Sweden’s Love Antell (thanks Locust!), who can balance two careers. He is successful as both a songwriter and a novelist

Any other examples of works of art that started in one medium and ended up in another?

» Continue Reading.

Not so many Valkyrie down at the chip shop

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A shiny necklace of perfect pop pearls is adorning the Afterword on a current thread. Said thread asks us about how important pop music and that wisest of scribes, The Venerable Tiggs, points out that it is at times of uncertainty and bewilderment like these, that we really need pop music.

I have nothing against Mozart, Brahms, Liszt or Wagner. But did Tristan and Isolde ever have to sign on? Do the Valkyrie fly down to their local chip pie for a fish supper?

Chuck Berry, Ray Davies, Jarvis Cocker, Half ManHalf Bisuit, and other great songwriters of rock and pop push the envelope about what you can sing about in a pop song.

This is a thread to honor them.

Your examples please of songs by these pioneers of the popular song.

Too graphic marinaters need not apply!

Last Picture Show’s down the drive-in..

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I was doing the ironing at 6.00 am first morning, prior to the school run. when, for no particular reason, i started to sing Virginia Plain. Roxy Music’s first single is a perennial favourite, so why not?

Bryan was certainly firing on all cylinders with his cinematic references in the lyrics. Flying down to Rio, Whatever happened to Baby Jane and Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show from 1971. Who remembers that fine film today? (It featured a young Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges and was rather good).

Anyway, I would like to hear about any other songs which refer to movies. Interpret that as broadly as you like. It might be name dropping of a film title or could be something more obscure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tFF2oB4n6M

Do a Barack! Tell us about your favourite films of the year!

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What do ex-President Obama and my pal DuCool have in common?

Well, along with being dapper style icons, they both enjoy producing a list of their favourites of the year. Barack has just published his on Facebook.

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As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a…

Posted by Barack Obama on Friday, 28 December 2018

Here are his favourite films of the past year:

Annihilation, Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Blindspotting, Burning, The Death of Stalin, Eighth Grade, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace, Minding the Gap, The Rider, Roma, Shoplifters, Support the Girls, Won’t You Be My Neighbor

I was very pleased to see he enjoyed Debra Graniks Leave no trace, which was one of my faves.

So what about you…

I have no doubt that the Trumpster is sitting in the White House at this very moment, listing the films he enjoyed most.

» Continue Reading.

Great Uncle Bulgaria meets Beelezebub. The hills are alive with….Satanic Haystacks playing xylophones.

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As a youngling. I cowered behind the sofa when the daleks first appeared.

If I was four years old today, I would be having some very scary dreams if I saw this video of the remarkable Seidä Pass. They look like rogue Wombles who are tired with clearing up litter in Wimbledon and have embraced the Dark Arts,

Badly overweight, Satanist sheep-like beings from the Tyrol get disturbingly overexcited on their xylophones! It is sinister, spooky and altogether rather wonderful.

If the Sheep of Satan are not in the Dr Who 2018 Xmas Special, they damn well ought to be.

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

Arthouse with a capital F!

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Hivemind, oh Hivemind! Please, help save my cinematic bacon! I would like to know about the best indie/arthouse films you have seen in recent months.

Next week the committee for our local film club meets to decide on next term’s films. And I would like to come up with a few decent suggestions. So, I would appreciate the opportunity to pick your magnificent brains. What are the most memorable, emjoyable films you have seen during the past 12 months?

The last time I asked this question, “Call me by your name” was mentioned. I made sure we selected it and it went down a treat when we showed it as the first film this term.

I dislike the term arthouse cinema. It sounds so bloody pretentious. And I don’t like “quality film” either.

Bio Reflexen, the local cinema, where we have our screenings and where I am a volunteer, tries to show something for everybody. And we manage very well. Here are a few of our recent screenings that got a big thumbs up from me.

Leave no trace – Debra Granik, USA From the director of Winter’s Bone. A beautifully restrained, subtle, understated portrait of a father » Continue Reading.

“A big blue wobbly thing that mermaids live in”.

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In reply to “Desperate of Tigtown”, who is searching for a good Xmas present for his better half, I suggested that a DVD of a good comedy film or TV series is never wrong. And then I remembered how fiendishly difficult it is to find something that you can be 100% sure another person will find amusing.

Take Mrs KFD and me. When she is crying her eyes out I am sitting there baffled and unamused. Or vice versa. Part of this may be a language or a cultural thing in our case. But then again we both think that Robert Gustavsson, officially “Sweden’s funniest man”, is just not very amusing.

So when we do find something that we both enjoy it is a minor miracle. As to finding something that will also make our surly 15 year old son laugh, that just is not going to happen.

And then we discovered Friday Night Dinner.

And laughed and laughed and laughed.

An extremely ridiculous, extremely Jewish, family sitcom set in North London would not have been an obvious choice for a programme that would unite us in laughter. However the script and the comic timing of the cast are » Continue Reading.

Copulating skeletons or chaps with taches?

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That wag, Sir Thomas Beecham, once described the harpsichord as sounding like “two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm. ”

When I mentioned this, our resident wag, Moose the Mooche commented: “For most of the good burghers of the AW, the harpsichord can only signify the gothic chamber pop of the late 1960s, usually played by chaps sporting multicoloured shirts and bloody great ‘taches.”

A new genre for me! I know nothing about either gothic chamber pop. Or, for that fact, the love live of skeletons.

If anyone would care to enlighten men on either topic, I would be most grateful. Here are Rasputina whose chamber pop is decidedly gothic.

Sir Thomas was famed for his words of wisdom.

“Try everything once, except folk dancing and incest.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsF2whuzIM

Old man you too gurdy gurdy. You jus a flash it round the worldie

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Knowing that I was binge listening to hurdy gurdy music (as one does), a friend sent me a copy of a fine painting by French Baroque painter, Georges de la Tour(1593 – 1652): The Blind Hurdy Gurdy Player. Georges was fascinated by these travelling musicians and painted several hurdy players. In his time they would often perform with a dancing dog! You don’t see that on the X Factor.

The Prado’s programme notes are excellent. They tell a lot about the skills of the artists and the society in which he lived.

Anyway it got me thinking that it would be enjoyable to hear about your favourite depictions of musicians on paper, in stone, on canvas, papyrus etc.

No time restrictions: feel free to go all the way back to Ancient Egypt or tell us about a piece of graffiti painted today.

And the broader the different media we harvest, the better.

Images from comics, for example would be very welcome. Can any of the Marvel superheroes play a musical instrument or sing? Not that I know of. But I am sure the Bash St Kids had music lessons. And if Dennis the Menace could not play anything, I » Continue Reading.

A large helping of elegant, flamboyant, Italian welly

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A year ago, DuCool persuaded me to join him for a trip to Uppsala to see Italian Baroque ensemble, Il Giardino Armonico. A new name for me and they were a revelation. Fizzing with joie de vivre and virtuosity. Most striking was their tall, gangly, charismatic leader, Giovanni Antonini, who strutted the stage with all the swagger of a major league rock star and dazzled the audience with his technical skill. Talk about giving it some welly!

Here comes the surprising bit. What instrument did he play? A recorder, in fact a range of different recorders. There I was thinking that this was an instrument that you only learnt at primary school. Perfect for those first faltering steps in music making and then to be left behind you. Not so for Giovanni, nor recent discovery Danish recorder player, Clara Guldberg Ravn.

I was reminded of him last week when Cheshire Cat encouraged us to visit the village of Audlem, to listen to bagpipes and hurdy gurdy and hit the dancefloor for some schottischer. I started to google and found a whole herd of hurdy gurdyists. So many excellent musicians who have carved out a career on this esoteric instrument. » Continue Reading.

The West Coast Jazz Sounds of Jan Johansson (1931 – 1968)

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A sad anniversary.

It was 50 years ago today that the great Swedish jazz pianist, composer and arranger, Jan Johansson, died in a car crash on his way to a gig in Jönköping.

His magnificent Jazz på Svenska, (just him and bassist Georg Riedel reworking Swedish folk songs), is the best-selling Swedish jazz record of all time. And quite rightly so.

I just discovered that he is buried in Skogskyrkogården which is 10 minutes walk away for me. Maybe I will go down and pay him and Greta Garbo my respects later today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLl2ajfN03Q&t=1099sVideo can’t be loaded: Jan Johanson – Västkustjazz 1961 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLl2ajfN03Q&t=1099s)

For the bon viveurs among you…

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Knowing that the contributors to this site have a burning culinary interest, I felt it only right to share this ad for Ching’s Szechuan Chutney.

It reminds me of DuCool’s tales of eating in the curry houses of Rusholme.

Vindaloo, Tindaloo, Xindaloo… and after that came the dishes which would only be served to those with a doctor’s certificate.

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

Are Scottish trainspotters always “getting off at Haymarket”?

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In front of Stockholm’s rather grand Konserthus is Haymarket Square. During the sunnier months it is the location for a colourful fruit, veg and flowers market. The season is coming to an end , but on Saturday there were impressive displays of pumpkins and chanterelle mushrooms.

I mentioned this to a friend who lives in Edinburgh, and she commented that the Scottish capital also has a Haymarket. (Back in the days of horse travel, I suppose many cities did.)

Anyway, there is station there which gave rise to a popular slang expression. It’s the final one before Waverley, so if you get off there, you don’t go the whole way. “Getting off at Haymarket” therefore means to practice coitus interruptus.

A wonderful turn of phrase which I will endeavour to use.

Liverpudlians have their own version:”getting off at Edge Hill.”

Anybody else been delighted recently by discovering a new piece of colourful slang?

Slang expressions involving place names or geographical locations would be interesting to hear.

View post on imgur.com

Gimme gimme gimme a plan after midnight

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I had difficulty believing my eyes when I walked in on the SVT evening news yesterday evening and saw Prime Minister May doing a little dance to one of ABBA’s greatest hits. To say I cringed, does not do justice to my enormous embarrassment.

And to make matters worse, she took the wrong tune. With all the double-dealing, disloyalty and deviousness going on in the back alleys and dark bars of Birmingham, she would have been far better served by Magazine’s Shot by both sides or, perhaps even better, this magnificent floorfiller from the O Jays.

Unless of course, you have any other better ideas…..

The last thing we want to see is bopping politicians, but if Putin, Corbyn, Merkel, Boris etc are to hit the dancefloor, which particular bangers would serve them best?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6h1BV7FZqs

Le Tig! Cest chic!

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I’ve just read Tiggerlion’s joyously uplifting review of Nile Rodgers’s gig at Castlefield Bowl, Manchester. Sounds like it was a corker. And by a wonderfully serendipitous bit of timing, it occurred on the Tigster’s 60th birthday

Are we on the AW going to let that major event pass unnoticed? No, we are not!

I have never met Tigger and probably never will. Unless of course the Fasching Jazz Club in Stockholm puts on something a little exclusive. It may yet happen!

And Ducool and I will offer you a very warm welcome, if you decide to come over, Tigger.

But if I do get to meet him, I will be bloody surprised if we don’t get on very well. Few contributors on this site have been so wonderfully eclectic, supportive to new contributors and enthusiastic about the music they feel strongly about.

Tigger! I love you and want to have your kittens!

A big Tiggerlion birthday is worthy of a celebration. So please post something that he will enjoy or something that he introduced us/you to.

A tribe that does not celebrate its members who are Justified and Ancient, is not worth belonging to!

I will kick off » Continue Reading.

Musical moonlighting! Should composers diversify or are they simply Baching up the wrong tree?

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Composer, Kerry Andrew, is a lass with many different musical hats. At the weekend, Tiggerlion introduced us to her by posting a review of Keld, her fine new album as You are Wolf. This is Kerry as an avant-folk singer, with a repertoire comprising old songs and her own compositions. Tuneful, mysterious, evocative. Very moreish it is too.

I was fascinated to learn more about her.

Singer, radio DJ, journalist. novelist, composer: I was particularly interested to hear some of the stuff she had written for choirs. She works a lot with schoolkids, with some thrilling results.Those works must be great fun to sing. Just listen to her “Who we are” performed at the Royal Albert Hall. Invigorating!

A slight detour, but I can’t help but be reminded of David Bedford back in the early 70s. Primarily an avant-garde composer, he got called in to arrange some strings for Kevin Ayers and ended up playing in the band, The Whole World, alongside Lol Coxhill and Mike Oldfield. He went on to work more with both of them. Oldfield must have been a useful contact and Lol was a wonderful bloke. Bedford also did a lot of music for kids and » Continue Reading.

“Bedrocks” 2: Labelled with Love

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I really enjoyed that recent genre bedrock thread. So, here’s a sequel.

I’d like some suggestions for tracks that encapsulate the essence of your favourite record labels. All sizes, all musical genres welcome! Everything from vast multinationals to some geezer in Baton Rouge doing eccentric stuff in his bedroom.

Back in the day I was delighted when I discovered a label whose artists hit the spot for me: Island, Tamla Motown, Factory, Ze, Stiff, Stax, Blue Note, Two Tone, Chrysalis ….. And I continue to find new favourites today: Soul Jazz, Crammed Discs, ECM, Honest Jon’s, Luaka Bop, Asphalt Tango, Drag City, Rough Trade…….

For some of you, making a note of the label a new discovery is on is second nature. I usually don’t often notice, unless it’s drawn to my attention.

Do younger listeners, who may never even see the physical product, know or even care about which record label has released a track? The clever labels make very good use of You Tube and social media.

Talking of which, I just got a mail from Real World informing me that the excellent Spiro have a new album out. Excellent! Let’s kick off with them. A » Continue Reading.

Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?

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God rest ye merry Afterword Gentlemen and Ladies! A very Merry Xmas to you all!

Yuletide is traditionally a time when you can overdo it a little. I’ve been working on a little Xmas playlist for our long drive down to Öland. You may find one or two of your favourite artists on it….

It features among others…

The Wurzles, Thomas Tallis, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, The Disappointment Choir, Bob Dylan, Big Big Train, Lord Nelson, Johnnie Allen, Wiley, Shonen Knife, Slade, Davitt Sigerson, Butterbeans and Susie, The Mermen, Caetano Veloso, Odd Nordstuga, Poly Styrene, Paul Simon, The Magnetic Fields, Jerry Garcia, The Lancashire Hotpots, The Ramones, Rajaton, John Fahey, Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler, Clarence Carter, Pentatonix, Ella Fitzgerald, Ivete Sangalo, The Waitresses, Kate Rusby, Machel Montano, The Retrospective Soundtrack Players, Sissel, Jo-el Sonnier, The Unthanks, John Kirkpatick, The Handsome Family, The Wombles, Sofia Karlsson, Half Man Half Biscuit, Bob Rivers, Maddie Prior, Lisa Ono, James Brown, Saint Etienne, Claudette et ti Pierre, Hello Saferide, Miles Davis, Aaron Neville, Steeleye Span, Chuck Berry, Run-D.M.C., Cesaria Evora, Bugge Wesseltoft, Harry Belafonte, The Tractors, Aimee Mann, Mabel Scott, Yellowman, John Prine, Wizzard, Mary Gauthier, Georg Wadenius, Maria Bethania, Coleman Hawkins, » Continue Reading.

A dollop of frosty, Nordic, pagan magic, oozing with starboys, gingerbread men and flaming blondes

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Those with a taste for sparse, restrained, melodic Nordic jazz, with a smidgeon of seasonal flavour, may enjoy the new release by Bröderna Johansson: Stilla Jul. (It’s on Spotify). Traditional Swedish Xmas favourites with just piano and double bass played by Anders and Jens Johansson, two metal musicians who are more commonly seen in the heavy company of the likes of AW favourite, Yngve Malmsteen. They are the sons of the late, very great jazz pianist, Jan Johansson, who died tragically young in a car crash in 1968. Their dad would have certainly enjoyed their new album where they breathe new life into his gentle legacy rather than indulging in high volume noodling.

It is Santa Lucia here today in Sweden and you can’t move for small children dressed as Lucias, elves, gingerbread men and starboys. What a very odd affair it is too. A strange mixture of pagan Midwinter celebration, beauty contest and Ku Klux Klan rally. I love it!

A Lucia procession is best experienced outdoors early in the morning in several inches of snow. I celebrated once indoors at the Finance Ministry: gourmet biccies and top notch glögg but I missed the shiver of frosty, Asgardian magic.

» Continue Reading.

Your favourite films from 2017? Neglected cinematic gems particularly welcome.

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I’d be very keen to hear about the new films that you enjoyed most during 2017. I’m particularly interested in the “smaller” films: the ones without a large advertising budget. But I am equally enthusiastic to hear about anything else that floated your cinematic boat.

I have an ulterior motive. I’ve become involved in the Film Club at our local cinema and tomorrow evening we are going to meet to decide the spring programme. So. your favourite film of the year might be turning up at a Stockholm, suburban cinema in the next few months…

Off the top of my head, my favourites of the year include Baby Driver, Sami Blood, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Aquarius, The Other Side of Hope, La pazza gioa, Patterson and Paddington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zln78CcFkA

Leaves nothing to the imagination!

by 85 Comments

As a self-proclaimed Pollyanna-in-Residence on this site, I’m putting on my best Mary Poppins bonnet for this thread. Today I am a nursery school teacher with a very enjoyable activity for you all. I want you all to cut and paste and then show your work to the rest of the class.

Anyone stumbling across the Afterword might find some of it a bit baffling. But that would be like listening to an episode of the Archers or watching an episode of The Wire in isolation. There are stories, jokes, conflicts, sagas that go back a long way. And bits and bobs that one knows about contributors that make their comments so much more interesting and so much more moving. The beauty of it all is that the more you read and the more you get to “know” the people here, the more enjoyable it becomes.

Every week I read stuff here that makes me intrigued, fascinated, amused, angry or perplexed. Comments and Youtube clips that make me want to listen to more, dance, rethink things, visit Australia, arrange a clandestine meeting with a transvestite Bolivian fortune teller…You all know how it is!

Here’s one of them. A small » Continue Reading.

Moose Music: toetapping birthday tunes for the shy retiring King of the Forest!

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It’s Moose the Mooche’s birthday!! Happy Birthday!

Whenever an AW thread gets floppy, limp and flaccid, we can always rely on his sparkling wit and repartee to ensure that it has a happy ending.

So now let’s brighten up his day with a few appropriately Moosey tracks.

I’ll kick off with some 1980s Estonian soul from Velly Joonas. I suspect you may be able to do better….

I was just talking to my colleague who had lost his mobile phone while cycling to work.

“The zip came undone and it just slipped out without me noticing.”

A line of defence that would never work in a court of law.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfwHuDCC7Xw&list=PLura_hWFeR3iS7FzEqwuxCbwEz1bUzNWW

Newsflash: ECM catalogue now available on Spotify

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A major change in policy for that magnificent Teutonic flagship of jazz, folk and ambient music.

In future their releases will be available on Spotify and other streaming services. I can understand their resistance but am glad they have changed their mind.

https://www.ecmrecords.com/news

To celebrate, here is a live track from the magnificent Anouar Brahem.

Which ECM artists will you now be giving a listen to?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zU5WU_d7fsM

Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo: a mixtape for an imaginary roadtrip

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That Garota from Ipanema casts a long shadow. The global success of Astrud Gilberto in the 60s has been a hard act for other Brazilian singers to follow. But now Sao Paulo singer, Céu, is starting to make quite a name for herself internationally thanks to some extent through a shrewd sponsorship deal with Starbucks. Do not let that put you off! She is no flunky of Big Coffee simply producing bossa lite as background music for latte lovers.

Last Friday I saw her live at the Fasching jazz club. It was sold out and every Brazilian in town seemed to be there. A wonderfully charismatic singer who mixes rock, reggae, Bossa nova and electronica into something that is very much her own. Charisma is her middle name.

After the gig I started to read a little more about Céu and her home city. When I did a grand tour of Brazil back in the 80s with the aid of a Varig airpass, I did not include Sao Paulo. A big industrial city: why waste time there? To be fair, I would feel sorry for anywhere competing with the sensual beauties of Rio. It must be like being Ingrid Bergman’s » Continue Reading.