Musings on the byways of popular culture
by 5 Comments
Anything new from Daniel (Silver Seas) Tashian is always a joy, so it was lovely to get some new music from his project, Skyline Motel, in my inbox. A new EP, 5 tracks of Country-flavoured songs with Sarah Buxton, Ian Fitchuk and Kate York. Add them to their original EP, back in 2014, and the first single (Champagne Makes Me Cry) and you have an album’s worth of solid gold sunshine.
It’s all on Spotify.
by 25 Comments
Where I live, practically everyone is wearing a face mask when outside. When I go to my local supermarket I’m pretty much the only person not wearing one and I even attract disapproving looks from the other shoppers (even more so than usual, I mean). But I’m reading so many conflicting articles (and have seen many conflicting videos) on the subject. Here in Italy, as in some other countries, experts such as doctors and virologists are largely saying that everyone should wear one outside their home, whereas the WHO advise against them (as do important health organisations in UK and America, including the NHS). It has even been argued that they can do more harm than good: – They cause people to touch their faces more. – People will wear them for much longer than a few minutes for which they are designed, so they become damp inside and are therefore an ideal place for viruses to land and breed. – There is a risk they can be shared, especially by children. – There is a risk they are not disposed of properly, resulting in viruses being spread further. – And there is a risk that they distract people from » Continue Reading.
by 11 Comments
It may be the end of the world as we know it, but that doesn’t stop Michael Stipe posting a beautiful new song demo to keep us going……. according to the YouTube post this is the first take – he’s still got it.
by 3 Comments
Terry Cox was unwell, hence a geometrical conundrum for this, the first Pentangle reunion.
by 118 Comments
Don’t all rush at once girls. To the left of my head are a series of pictures; a snap i took of Frank Zappa at a concert in 1979; some “blotter art” (don’t ask), a still from the 70’s movie “the Triple Echo”; snaps of my childen and my father; a bookcase with bukes; and my skull replica. Music collection and many other books and filing cabinets cunningly concealed.
by 19 Comments
I was chatting to my wife (who is from the US, and very concerned about her elderly mother in California) last night about the hopelessly inadequate response of the US federal government to the coronavirus crisis, and how it puts a big nail in the coffin of the ‘deep state’ narrative pedalled by Trump and his sycophants. After all, what kind of deep state – with its labyrinthine network of intelligence agencies and vast powers of international surveillance – misses an open goal like this? What, exactly, is a deep state for, if not to catch a crisis like the one currently unfolding?
Of course, the UK and other European countries also seem to have overlooked the seriousness of this threat, even though it’s been months in the making. But Trump’s the one who’s been obsessed with this deep state nonsense. Seems that he’s finding – to his cost – that the deep state cannot function on its own. It needs a figurehead, a competent head chef in the kitchen to keep everything cooking. And shallow frying just won’t do.
by 12 Comments
This might raise a smile if you have twelve minutes to spare.
by 5 Comments
Yes some reality is coming to Cummings.
by 16 Comments
My 9 year old son just asked “Can we learn about The Beatles?”
Happy days to follow and all classed as home learning!
Hows your lockdown going? I find myself designated a key worker, with my wife expected to her job as normal at home, and with two children under six going mad.
So life as normal but with trapped children. Joy Division never sounded more chipper.
Hows you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bkcPS3GHQY
For the benefit of those who enjoy Amanda Anne’s music, and as a potential introduction for those who don’t know her, she’s doing a live stream this evening. It’s directed at her European audience as she apparently did one last week which was normal-is time for US audiences, but early hours for this side of the Atlantic. So to make up for that she’s starting at 2:00 EST, which is 7:00 BST. Here’s the confirmation: Amanda Anne Platt’s live stream notification We will be tuning in. I hope you do too.
by 3 Comments
So I am in iso with Mrs Wells post NZ trip. See WOMAD review. Ingrid is going back to the family on weekend but due to me being in multiple risk categories( if only my lotto numbers lined up like this) I am gunna hang back.
So here is the thing. We don’t have internet in the family retreat. To date I am using Ingrid’s phone as the wi fi connection and me as the base station for the broadcasting.
Question. Can I chromecast to the Tv using my mobile phone only ?
by 6 Comments
Organisers said the safety of festival-goers, artists, staff and crew was their “top priority” and the event had become “too difficult to plan, prepare and deliver”.
Anyone who has already booked tickets will be given the choice of a refund or the chance to hold onto their tickets for the 2021 festival.
by 8 Comments
The recordings are on Spotify, Band Camp and CD. Presumably others streaming services too.
by 17 Comments
Venue:
New Plymouth Botanical Gardens, North Island, New Zealand
Date: 13/03/2020
New Zealand is the first country of size to herald in the new year.This year it may have been the last country to host a music festival before the “great shutdown”.
Womad ,as most will know, is a world music festival started by Peter Gabriel et al to promote musics from around the world. I have attended the festival in Adelaide – Womadelaide, reasonably regularly for many years. The last coule were very hot,crowded and with the foot traffic and heat, very dusty. For an asthmatic like me I had had enough. The Womad caravan continues on to NZ after Adelaide so this year a group of us decided to make the trip “across the ditch” take in the festival and tour the north island as well. Things were getting tight, with the virus hitting the northern hemisphere but down here it was the relative calm before the storm. So off we go! First impressions- what a beautiful lush park and as we turn into the first staging area there is the perfectly formed Mt Taranaki- overlooking proceedings.It is very hilly, unlike the flat grasslands of Adelaide, which » Continue Reading.
The Stones & Dylan 1998 and a very enthusiastic crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYIntKBGgaA
by 1 Comment
As part of “stay at home” I’ve recorded a bunch of new tunes in the last couple of weeks. Quarantunes Volume 1 is now available, for FREE, on Bandcamp. Take care of yourselves.
https://tomrafferty1.bandcamp.com/album/quarantunes-volume-1
by 131 Comments
Paul Simon – Paul Simon. Sounds like it was made by a man stuck in his apartment ruminating on his life. Beautiful and engrossing.
Burial – Burial. Dark and dystopian. Without words, the night streets are strangely empty.
Miles Davis – In A Silent Way. A calm before the storm.
Sister Sledge – We Are Family. The kitchen disco needs the finest disco album ever made.
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours. Some nostalgia for the entire household to enjoy.
Sigur Rós – Agætis Byrjun. A soundtrack for when the Earth splits asunder.
Grace Jones – Hurricane Dub. We all need some of Grace’s ferocity, but maybe not a full-throated vocal album. Plus, we all need some Dub.
David Bowie – Blackstar. If you haven’t listened to it for a while, I dare you to go back and contemplate mortality with possibly the greatest Pop star that ever lived.
Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté – In The Heart Of The Moon. At times like this, something flawlessly exquisite, makes us feel better about mankind.
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme. No better spiritual accompaniment for our journey to the far side.
The Exciting Wilson Picket. Pure, unadulterated, sweat-inducing dance music.
Shabaka » Continue Reading.
Roberta Flack’s first LP is getting the 50th Anniversary treatment on its, erm, 51st Anniversary. Great forward planning!
Neither the Mojo or Uncut reviews make it completely clear what is on offer, or the price, a common occurrence in those magazines unfortunately, but the obligatory vinly is pictured with 2 CDs and, yes, it appears that the obligatory vinly and 2 CDs is what you get.
I find the ways of the Record Industry increasingly bizarre, but wouldn’t it be better to release said product on the obligatory vinly OR compact disc rather than the obligatory vinly AND compact disc.
Yet another “no sale,” I’m afraid. I don’t know how they keep finding different ways to not sell me records, but they do.
by 7 Comments
As well as new Bob and new Weller there’s an album out this week from someone under 60 that I’d not really cottoned onto. Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa is just fantastic: contemporary pop, some solid singing (one track recalling a certain Amy W) and a disco beat under it all. Built to last, and totally 2020. Ten tracks, not a bad one on there. Perfect for the enforced home kitchen and cooking regime.
by 4 Comments
Hitchin Folk Club has basically had anyone who is anyone in the folk world on their stage over the years, and the always impeccable sound, mixed by Kieron, has also been recorded. He is opening up this treasure trove (with artist approval) so that you can buy live sets for a fiver and he will send the money direct to the artist and send you the audio. It’s delightfully folky and a bit hand made which I like even more. See communiqué below and fill your boots!
HITCHIN FOLKUS DOWNLOAD A CONCERT FOR £5 Hi Folks Times are certainly hard for all of us now, with the self-employed probably facing more uncertainly than most. With all venues now shut down all the wonderful singers who have entertained us for so long have had their income cut to nothing at a stroke. It has struck us that there may be a little we can do to help. Since the late 80’s I have been recording concerts at Hitchin Folk Club, originally on cassette, then mini disc, next digital recorder and now directly onto iPad. If we were to offer whole concerts to download for £5 it could take a meal » Continue Reading.
by 2 Comments
What does it sound like?:
Marillion return to their debut album for the next in their series of deluxe reissues, which follows the now established ‘Tull format’ with a book sized package containing 4 cds plus a bluray together with an extensive and comprehensive booklet. The original album has been remixed, as have the tracks from their first single, the Market Square Heroes ep, and these are accompanied by an unreleased live show from December 1982. I still like this album a lot overall, although some pieces do feel somewhat ‘of their time’ now. It’s very much the sound of a band in the fledgling phase of their career and still wearing their prog influences proudly on their sleeve. The second disc includes the lengthy Grendel, a song regarded by many as the Holy Grail of the band’s early material, but one which, I have to confess, I never really got – it always sounded like a poor man’s Suppers Ready to me. I much prefer pieces like the title track, Three Boats Down From The Candy and Garden Party myself. I was a little surprised to find the demos included on the previous reissue of the album were » Continue Reading.
by 18 Comments
Upper-secondary kids all over Scandinavia and the rest of Europe are currently carrying out their courses as distance learning from home.
I take my hats off to all the teachers who, almost overnight, have had to make the transition from classroom teaching to on-line learning. Our own @Declan in Germany is one of them. And let’s not forget all the kids whose school life has been so violently disrupted and who have had to struggle to adapt to the new situation. Studying from home when the whole family are locked in together is not optimal.
Mercifully, it is not all doom and gloom. I rang a friend during the week and could hear his daughter, who is studying music, singing away as she did choir practice on line. And my pal in Turku, just sent me this uplifting clip of the Vaskivuori Upper Secondary School (Virtual) Chamber Choir!
More power to these Finnish choristers and all the singers and other musicians who are still making music. It is possible to live la vida lockdown without going loco!
Is there ny other on-line music making we should know about?
