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Kindle Musical Biographies

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Those really nice Amazon folks who we all love dearly, are offering Deke Leonard’s “Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics” and “Maybe I Should’ve Stayed In Bed?” at £5.99 apiece. Both very much worth a read if you have a Kindle or similar device. I believe the paperback versions are also available again for sensible money.

They’re also offering Bob Harris’ autobiography, “Still Whispering After All These Years” (crap title, Bob), Neil Munro’s “Some People Are Crazy: The John Martyn Story” and Annie Nightingale’s autobiography “Wicked Speed” at very low Kindle prices. Are these 3 worth a read?

Something For The Weekend?

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It’s Saturday and my car battery is completely flat, but no matter. The cavalry (heavily disguised as my brother Martin) are on their way. He just needs to finish walking his daft dog, Wilson.

Meanwhile, cop a load of this, missus!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2cvNWpIEwE

What a Gorgeous Tune

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This song has been my earworm for this week, which is no bad thing at all. I’m not sure what brought it into my head but nothing else has shook it out for very long so far. That fine gentleman Danny Thompson makes jolly nice noises here too.

Yes we all know John Martyn was a belligerent drunk and a wife-beater, but he didn’t half write (and sing and play) some lovely stuff. Personally, I can recognize and condemn the appallingness of his behaviour and still appreciate the beauty of the music he made in his prime. Some cannot separate the flaws of the man from the music he made and thus feel his music is tainted. That’s fair enough.

Rather Like This Lot.

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You know how it is. You buy a CD from the merch stall out of respect (if it’s not too expensive) when someone’s performing for free. The principal songwriter of this band was noodling on guitar between acts at today’s Daylight Music free lunchtime show at the Union Chapel in that London. I’d seen him playing solo there before and had enjoyed his songs. Got the CD (called Obituaries) home and put it on just now. It’s rather good, I think. Melodic, catchy and clever. No album tracks available on YouTube at present, but this live studio rendition of an album track and a few other live tracks are up there.

Maybe you won’t like them, but I do, and I rate their album one of the best Merch purchases I’ve made.

http://laishmusic.com/

Minimal Impact: BBC Radio 4

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Caught the tail end of part one of this on my work van radio in between jobs this morning. An examination of Minimalism and it’s impact on music. Just listened to it in it’s entirety on the BBC iPlayer In Part One, “Tailfins and Burgers”. Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe of Bang On a Can and Bryce Dessner of The National talk and some definitions are given. A little snippet at the end of Arvo Part’s “Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten” has made me want to listen to it RIGHT NOW.

Part Two is entitled “Jesus’ Blood and Fluffy Clouds”. Interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xdcb7

Just thought I’d Tell You…

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I’ve now nearly finished my litre bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin, but all is not lost. I’ve got a litre of Tanqueray and plenty of tonic waiting in the wings, as it were, so things are looking up, boozewise. Especially as I prefer the Tanq to the Bomb anyway, despite the prettier bottle. Bombay Sapphire is OK, but seems lacking in something or other which Tanqueray supplies, I find.

Anybody else got anything totally trivial and inconsequential to tell us? Of course you have.

1001 Albums. Another Batch.

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There are 7 albums in this one. I’m making up for wasted time by polishing off the remaining “B”s. I’m intent on and still interested in completing this mission, but I need to buck my ideas up a bit, because I don’t want to still be slogging through it in 5 years time when nobody (including me) gives a shit anymore.

Anyway. First up is Elvis Costello’s “Brutal Youth”. I have an aversion to “That Voice”. Sorry, EC fans but I cannot get past this hurdle so I’m biased against this right from the start. The album started badly for me in that the first song was overly wordy, which is another recurring EC fault in my opinion. As it progressed I noted that there are many fine songs on this album which I would love to hear covered by artists whose voices I enjoy. He can definitely write ’em, for sure. There are a few but not too many obvious EC fillers and also a few others that fit in the “less words please” category. A redeeming feature is the scarcity of “that vibrato” that he sometimes annoyingly employs. Not for me, sorry.

“Bubble and Scrape” by Sebadoh got » Continue Reading.

The Belated Continuation of my 1001 Albums Journey

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“Boston” by Boston is quite amazing. A deservedly huge seller throughout the years, it’s a well-written, played, sung and produced masterpiece of giving the rock punter of it’s day exactly what they wanted. This is not what normally suits my unashamedly snobbish musical taste, but the copious amount of Hammondery within won me over very quickly. A classy confection.

“Boy In Da Corner” by Dizzee Rascal would have been more enjoyable to me if Mr Rascal’s diction had been a bit better. Musically it’s refreshingly different to the usual Urban-style fare, it’s just a shame I couldn’t make out what he was on about half of the time. After all, rapping is supposed to be all about the words, isn’t it?

“Bright Flight” by The Silver Jews was not to my taste at all. Uninteresting musical grunge (in the worst sense). Poorly and unconvincingly sung, incomprehensible and depressive lyrics. No thanks.

“British Steel” by Judas Priest is what Metal music is supposed to sound like, for the most part. Dynamic, loud, rifftastic with plenty of guitar crunch and squeal. The lyrics are not too dumb and Halford’s diction is clear as a bell. His vocal skills are nothing particularly special » Continue Reading.

An Unjustly Maligned Artist.

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It could be overexposure, or playing the wrong stuff at the wrong time in the cycle of perceived hipness, possibly.

Dire Straits became musical pariahs at some point and have never quite escaped that status. Perhaps they were too readily accepted and loved by the uncool bozo masses, so the hipsters, whose arses were far too smart for their ears, ditched them instantly in reaction. It might have been the headband.

When you take a proper look you can see that sartorial style apart, Mark Knopfler could not only play guitar stunningly well while making it look effortless, but he wrote cracking tunes -and- lyrics and he had a decent enough gruff voice to put them over to an audience too.

I’m of the opinion that “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the finest sad love songs ever written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OaTaEX8Kh8

Getting A Groove On.

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There are certain pieces of music that, if you have a normal person’s sense of rhythm, you can’t help moving your body to. Even if unconsciously. I was involved in a group conversation at the recent London mingle which was within earshot of the weedy little stereo that lives in the room we use. Somebody’s iPod was hooked up and War’s “Low Rider” came on. The conversation continued while everyone moved, ever so subtly, to the music. That’s what that Choon does. It’s irresistible. The one in this clip came up on random play while I was lying abed with a heavy cold, feeling sick and sorry for myself. I had to get up. Partly because I couldn’t remember what it was and urgently needed to know, but mainly because I couldn’t remain lying still while it was on.

The Return Of The Son Of 1001 Albums etc.

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Now where was I? Oh yes… “The Blueprint” by Jay-Z. For the first couple of tracks I was wondering “When’s it going to start?”. Somewhere in the next one it did start, eventually. The tempo of the entire album seems to be a sort of slow shuffle. Some nice musical ideas throughout, but basically it’s this geezer going on and on about how f***ing great he is despite the hardships and troubles of his life. A too-long (well over an hour) borefest in my opinion. I nodded off for a while about 2/3 of the way in and don’t think I missed very much. “Blunderbuss” by Jack White shows his versatility in that just about every song is different from the others. All original compositions apart from one cover, too. The playing is exemplary, the material not quite there I feel, and I’m not sure I like his voice much when he’s singing in the higher registers. A good but not great one. I don’t feel a need to own this. “Bone Machine” by Tom Waits. I was surprised to discover I didn’t have this and was unfamiliar with nearly all of it. Some pretty extreme examples of what has » Continue Reading.

What have you been up to so far this weekend?

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Saw this bunch of herberts earlier, which was a very good experience. Currently a bit annoyed that my expected parcel, that I paid extra to have delivered on a Saturday, has not arrived. Tracking on the delivery company’s website says the parcel arrived at their depot 4am this morning. No further updates. No note in my letterbox to say I’d missed the delivery, no text, email or call. Nada.

Promises, Promises

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Has anybody else been following this series of programmes on BBC Radio 4? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054zdp6 Anthropologist David Graeber explores the ways debt has shaped society over 5,000 years. Early weekday afternoons. Nine parts broadcast so far, all on the iPlayer, one more to come.

One of the most interesting things I heard, early on in the series, was that the concept of debt preceded the invention of money. Money having been invented as a means of quantifying and managing debt. Also that, contrary to received opinion, barter as a means of exchange came well after the invention of money. Currently he’s doing a pretty effective hatchet job on the IMF and the global banking industry over their pauperization of the Third World to the benefit of the West. Recommended, though it may make you depressed and/or angry.

The Dead Author I Miss The Most

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My nomination for this melancholy title has to be Iain Banks, of course. This was brought to mind by the Student bookcase thread. Surely no self-respecting student these days should be without “The Wasp Factory” or “Espedair Street” on their shelf or in their bag. Whether in his Iain or Iain M. persona his books were almost uniformly brilliant. I wasn’t overly keen on A Song Of Stone. The others were all cracking reads without exception. What a tragedy that he went so quickly, too, and left no unpublished work to ease our pain.

Mimika Mak Murtić – Balkan Space Jazz

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Venue:

The Union Chapel, Islington.

Date: 28/02/2015

One of the series of “Daylight Music” free lunchtime gigs put on by Arctic Circle on most Saturdays at the venue. They were a sixteen-piece band on this occasion (lineup seems to vary), including the composer/arranger/conductor. Two trombones, trumpet, tuba, soprano sax/flute, alto sax, two tenor saxes, baritone sax, piano/electric guitar, electronics/laptop, electric bass, drums, percussion, vocalist and conductor. These folks are probably big Sun Ra fans, judging by the sound and subject matter. They were playing selections from a forthcoming album about the future colonisation of Mars, “A Place Glowing A Brilliant Red”. Excellent dynamics, going from total floor-shaking blasts of brass to playing quietly enough to hear the percussionist playing the triangle. Funky rhythm section, well-scored brass ensemble parts and some good free-jazz-squalling wackiness when required. The female singer knows how to sing convincingly in proper-jazz style and all the brass players apart from the tuba guy and the 2nd trombonist played good-to-excellent solos during the performance. They have a previous album available (which I purchased on CD for a tenner) entitled “From Scratch to Structure”, which is a 7-movement suite about the rise of human civilisation from the invention » Continue Reading.

New Words To An Old Tune

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Earlier I was listening to a recording from Frank Zappa’s last tour in 1988, wherein he refashioned the lyrics of a medley of Beatles songs into “The Texas Motel Medley”, a satire on the American right-wing tele-evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who had just previously been caught out consorting with a prostitute in Louisiana. In this medley “Norwegian Wood” becomes “Norwegian Jim”, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” becomes “Louisiana Hooker With Herpes” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” becomes “Texas Motel”.

It struck me another set of not-so-rude but equally topical lyrics could be substituted in “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” to comment upon our upcoming UK general election. Laydeez ‘n’ gennulmen, I give you “The Tories Have Won The Election”.

Picture yourself on a zero-hours contract On minimum wage, if you’re still employed Nobody smiling except for the bankers And stinking-rich Bullingdon Boys.

The Tories have won the election. The Tories have won the election. The Tories have won the election. Oh shit!

The 1001: The Exploration Continues

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“Black Monk Time” by The Monks is an interesting aural artefact. It’s very hard to believe this was recorded in 1966. Full of the “punk” attitude that oozed out again 10 years later, it shows antecedents of both The Ramones and The Modern Lovers and some of the weirder elements of the post-hippie “freak” scene. I could hear the drone-rock experiments of early Soft Machine (We Did It Again”) and Kevin Ayers & The Whole World (“Shooting At The Moon”) and also Can etc. in Germany. Haphazard and sloppy in both playing and composition, it’s not really a keeper but certainly a must-hear slice of history.

“Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath is a landmark album in that it was the starter of a musical style that has persisted to this day. The compositions aren’t that great, and neither is the playing really. It has it’s moments and despite the sludgy sound it has moments of beauty. Not one for repeated listening but not objectionable by any means.

“Black Sabbath Vol. 4” by Black Sabbath is more of the same, for the most part, albeit with improved playing and production. The writing isn’t much better, with a few exceptions, being mostly » Continue Reading.