While have always prided myself on being open to new things, I long ago passed the point where most “new” music* holds zero appeal for me. My get-out is that I’m a firm believer that all “old” music you previously knew nothing about is effectively “new: music if you’re never heard it before.
What with the cost of trains, dinner, drinks, taxis hotel, CD/LP/T-shirt) and tickets, traveling up to gigs in Dublin from Roscommon is hellish expensive – about E400 per gigs. All of which means I can probably afford about 12 shows a year. Try to balance this out with a mix of old favorites and acts of whose music I’ve heard know very little but who get good word of mouth.
Sometimes said gigs are shit, but I’ve been very fortunate to have gone to gigs where I’ve discovered acts/artists who are now big musical faves.
Aside from Sparks (reviewed here in 2022), my best ones to date are Grant Lee Phillips who I saw on a double bill with Josh Rouse in (IIRC) 2018. While was thinking of heading back to my hotel early (had a flight first thing the next morning), I stuck around to give him a shot. Came away so impressed I now own pretty much everything he ever wrote or released solo or with his band, Grant Lee Buffalo.
Most recent example is Chuck Prophet, who I took a punt on buying a ticket to see about six months ahead of a recent trip to London. So blown away by him and his band, I’m snapping up his mostly OOP back catalogue when I see them and have even begun dealing into Green on Red.
Sure you guys have got some similar discoveries you might like to share…
* ie stuff made by acts/artists who’ve only emerged in the last 20 years or so
Big heads up for Retropath2 who kindly sent me a CDR of Balinese Dancer which has ended up costing me the best part of £300
A fine, fine album – still my favourite by Chuck and probably one of my favourites overall.
He is stunningly good. Cannot believe how I’ve been missing out on all these years. Still, making up for it now
Chuck Prophet for me too. I took a chance on Night Surfer (2014) after a Mojo review that piqued my interest. Have accumulated all his solo CDs since (new and used).
Always go to see him when he visits Glasgow and if he includes Edinburgh in the tour, I travel through to catch him there too.
The only artist T-shirt that I have ever bought from the merch table.
He also has the coolest rock star name (and it is not even a nom de plume).
I came late to the CP party too – and it was the Balinese Dancer that wooed me in. My little Land Rover truck-cab now has a CD-R copy of that album permanently in his CD drive. I can be seen (and probably heard) hollering along to the album every time I take him out for a spin. “I ate the worm from the bottle, lord…. my last taste of solid food!”
The Jayhawks backed up Maria McKee on my favourite MM album. I spotted a Jayhawks CD in a Chazza this morning. I checked the case but it was empty. Next time…
If you like that MM album then the Jayhawks are a solid bet, seek out Hollywood Town Hall or Tomorrow the Green Grass.
I discovered The Jayhawks when the old GLR station used to play them a fair bit. Really good band, although I do feel more recent albums are catchier. The Louris and Olson “duo” album is a lovely, understated acoustic gem too.
The Jayhawks/ Wilco /Replacements et al supergroup Golden Smog albums are excellent too
Seconded!
No one else seems to like ‘Smile’ but it is my fave of theirs – ‘Break in the Clouds’ gets me every time, and ‘I’m Gonna Make You Love Me’ is prime jingle jangle. The harmonies on this record are to die for.
I like it. It’s full of good stuff and also has a great cover!
Yeah. Smile was my gateway to The Jayhawks. This and Rainy Day Music are my favourites.
Good call on A Break In The Clouds. Absolutely sublime.
Thank you all. I can see this becoming an expensive avenue to meander down.
I bought Broadcasting from Home by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, just because I thought the track titles looked interesting. I was a bit bewildered by it to start with, but something kept pulling me back. This was on cassette whenever it came out (1985?) and I think this album single-handedly drew me into whole areas of music that I knew nothing about. I still love it.
The interesting titles written in the 1001 Albums book got me too scurrying to Amazon to investigate further. Yup, slight non-plussing at first, but the “Six Listens” rule applied.
I got a bit obsessed by dj mix series at one point in the 00s and to get a complete run of Journeys by DJ (probably the first legal mix cd series) ended up costing me a bit, as did most of Mixmag live. I did not pick up all the Global Underground series and several of these go for silly money for cds. Anyone got a copy of Nick Warren’s Balance series entry The Soundgarden which goes for £80 on discogs. Mix CDs are notoriously badly represented on streaming services due to the rights issues, and I can see their value rising.
I wrote a review on here after seeing Sparks despite owning none of their stuff. Twas an awakening.
The same thing – right down to knowing but not owning anything by them and writing a review on here – happened to me almost exactly three years ago.
Off to see them again in July.
Wonderful, wonderful band
They must certainly are. And yet I still haven’t got a ticket for one of their two gigs in Manchester later this year. ..Not a fan of the Apollo but I really should shake my tail feathers and do it. Who knows how much longer they’ll be touring?
Go and see them if you possibly can, Freddy.
Guaranteed you’ll regret it if you don’t.
Saw many great gigs at the Apollo in the late 70s/
early 80s so surely can’t be that bad a venue now
@jaygee
I seen some good gigs there too in the last 20-30 years. It’s just a very slight faff to get to, only one very busy pub anywhere near and I have no one to go with at the moment. I much prefer gigs with mates. I am old, I should make an effort to, you are correct. I missed their last appearance at the Bridgewater Hall and of course I regret that!
Yeah, I remember it as being surrounded by waste ground. I lived in Levenshulme for much of my time (early-79 to mid-81) in Manchester and a knew a lot of the bouncers who worked at the Apollo and Poly from the pack Horse on Stockport Road. Used to get into quite a lot of gigs at the Apollo for free. Don’t think I ever had to pay to get into the Poly.
Those were the days!
I’m not sure that this is quite what you intended in the OP – but my first encounter with Van der Graaf Generator was a punt in the dark. None of my friends at the time (or their elder siblings) had heard (or owned) anything by them. No internet. Not on the telly, seldom on the radio (and I first heard them on the radio after the fact).
So it’s all down to the music press. I recall three pieces at age 15: a paragraph about The Long Hello which started “It’s true: they really are out there (VdGG fans, that is)” suggesting a mysterious cult-like group with a small number of followers – also had a picture of Jackson wearing bizarre headgear and playing a sax and wearing another (see below) . I was primed.
Then, an interview with Hammill and the band to promote Still Life – and thirdly, the subsequent album review. The strangeness of these people and the description of the odd music pulled the trigger. I committed a significant amount of my money (at age 15) to this strange band without hearing a note of it, with no peer pressure or support (no one else seemed interested) and having seen only these three pieces in the inkies. Dear reader, they rearranged my neural networks.
Now, I’ve spent more on this band than any other over the years. Would I be so bold now? I wouldn’t have to, with Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotty, etc – I’d have been able to listen first. So, less of an adventure nowadays? Perhaps…
I too am hugely uninterested generally in any ‘new thang’ – especially if espoused by the likes of Kitty Empire in the Observer. But, I do seriously love The Lemon Twigs. (Probably because they sound like a band from 1971).
I went to see R.E.M. at Earls Court late 90s. Got there early enough to see the support band rather than having an extra pint. They were called Wilco and they were very good…