Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
TUESDAY BLUES! Counting Crows - Mrs Potters Lullaby
Counting Crows - Mrs Potters Lullaby (1999)
Some songs have the uncanny knack of putting a smile on my grumpy chops, this is one of them. It features on This Desert Life and is supposedly written about the actress Monica Potter, of whom singer Adam Duritz became "inspired" when seeing in a Movie - probably means fancied.
I'll always have a soft spot for Counting Crows in my life, from my early 20's where I'd have drunken sing-a-longs to August and Everything After, to Rock Star stories of friends who met Adam, and seeing them live a number of times in the last decade - The best of which was seeing them in Bristol Academy, a fairly small venue, which allowed the audience to witness a flawless performance that brought a tear to the eye....
More Tuesday Blues here
Some songs have the uncanny knack of putting a smile on my grumpy chops, this is one of them. It features on This Desert Life and is supposedly written about the actress Monica Potter, of whom singer Adam Duritz became "inspired" when seeing in a Movie - probably means fancied.
I'll always have a soft spot for Counting Crows in my life, from my early 20's where I'd have drunken sing-a-longs to August and Everything After, to Rock Star stories of friends who met Adam, and seeing them live a number of times in the last decade - The best of which was seeing them in Bristol Academy, a fairly small venue, which allowed the audience to witness a flawless performance that brought a tear to the eye....
More Tuesday Blues here
Sunday, October 23, 2011
WORLD MUSIC CORNER - Boubacar Traoré - 'Mali Denhou' and Ayub Ogada - 'Dicholo'
Here are a couple of soulful beauties. Just let the music do the talking!
Boubacar Traoré - 'Mali Denhou'
There's definitely something in their chips in Mali, as it seems to produce a never ending plethora of musical talent. Malian veteran, Boubacar Traoré is no different, incorporating a heady melange of the Mississippi Delta with music from his local region creating a distinct blend of the 'Mali Blues'. Lucky for me, I found this on a sampler and I just love the feel of it, the simple guitar and harmonica accompaniment...Just one of those gems you probably wouldn't normally come across.
 |
| Boubacar Traoré...too many chips! |
Ayub Ogada - 'Dicholo'
This track really wants to make you move and in my case, despite good intentions, very badly. I first heard this in the film the Constant Gardener and I just had to get it. I love the syncopation of the rhythm with his voice and the harmonious female singers, it's a great sound so synonymous with African music. Ayub Ogada has recorded for Peter Gabriel's label, Real World and has also collaborated with the Afro Celts Soundsytem. Born in Mombasa, Kenya and he's a damn site better than the hotel lobby band that used to do a Casio keyboard cover of 'I Just Called to Say I Love You', when I went on holiday all those years ago. But who knows maybe that's where I saw him when he was cutting his teeth.
 |
| No I won't do any Stevie Wonder |
TRACKS OF THE WEEK - 23/10/2011
Four tracks that warmed our loins this week. Do you have any for us?
Shell Hunter:-
Gotye - 'Somebody I Used To Know (Ft. Kimbra)' (2011)
The cold is rolling in and I had to scrape the frost off my car for the first time this week. Driving into work at stupid o'clock in the morning in the pitch black has been made slightly more bearable by the few tracks that have stood out for me this week. My better half recommended I listen to this track and it wasn't his usual taste of "obscure American guitar bands", so I gave it a whirl. It has totally grown on me after a couple of listens and is perfect for those quiet, self contemplative drives along the M3 in what seems the middle of the night. Gotye sounds a bit like Peter Gabriel when he gets going and I like the way Kimbra's voice starts off sweet and nice but builds in anger. I'm glad I wasn't involved in this obviously hurtful breakup. Goyte has just released his third album, Making Mirrors and has 2 London dates in his tour next week, but are already sold out! Bummer!
SFW:-
Andrew Bird - Night Sky (2011)
Andrew Bird is an artist who I haven't really given the attention that he merits, which is odd as I've got a few tracks of his previously which I really like, but just haven't purchased - I'll be rectifying this ASAP! This song features on the OST for the movie "Norman" (looks a bit happy).
 |
| ooh, Andrew Bird has the horn. |
Old Pa's Corner:-
June Tabor & Oysterband - 'Love will tear us Apart' (2011)
Thanks Flycasual for pointing me in the direction of this new album by June Tabor & Oysterband called 'Ragged Glory', not only is it an outstanding album and includes a 'Dylan Cover' (7 Curses) but the Rendition of 'Love will Tear us Apart' is nothing short of brilliant. It captures the desolation and desperation of Curtis's heartfelt lyrics. I have never really liked any of the many covers of this song, none seemed to be able to do it justice but this certainly does and I for one will be listening to it 'again' and 'again'.
Flycasual:-
Friends - 'His Girl' (2011)
Ooh that's a naughty bass line I thought when I first heard this track! A great Hip Hop feel to it too which also reminded me of those Punk/Funk bands like Tom Tom Club, ESG and Delta 5. But the clincher for me is the bell sound that reminds me of my newsagents where I used to live and going in, buying my Monster Munch (pickled onion), a Crunchie and a copy of Razzle. Anyway this is a top tune from the Brooklyn 5 piece about giving your boyfriend some space (go girl) and not a bad retro style video showing off some super 8 skills (which includes skateboard footage..ooh yeah!).
Saturday, October 22, 2011
SATURDAY NIGHT JUKEBOX! - Hot Chip - 'One Life Stand'
Hot Chip - 'One Life Stand' (2010)
I was really looking forward to my favourite Geek dance group as the support act for the great LCD Soundsystem's last performance. If someone said to me "You'll look back at this evening and laugh" at the time it was happening, I know I'd return it with a face of thunder and probably a jab to their kidney.
This is the epic tale of the journey of the century and the biggest disappointment ever! The meticulous plan was for Flycasual and I to get to London, tube it to Finchley Station, walk the 15 minutes to check in at the Holiday Inn Express in Golders Green to dump our stuff, then make our way to meet London Scouser at Wood Green Tube Station. None of us had been to Alexandra Palace before and nothing prepared us for what was to come. Having completed what we thought was "the hard part" of the journey, we treated ourselves to a can each when we got to the hotel as we'd already been on the road for 2 hours. We thought we'd get the reception to order a taxi as we were running a bit late and according to google map it was a 7 minute cab ride as the crow flies. I should have known we were doomed when the cab rolled up and it was a Mercedes. Too late to opt out we got in and asked how much....£19?! We didn't have enough so called London Scouser to meet us with cash at Wood Green. The journey ended up taking the best part of 35 minutes because of severe roadworks and it was rush hour. London Scouser was a shivering angry mess when we arrived as it was a freezing November evening. He could have been waiting in a nice warm pub for us which was taunting him from across the road. While the three of us argued about whose fault it was, I thought, we're nearly there now, lets' just check out where to go on google map. I found the Alexandra Palace and we followed the little dot for about 20 minutes. It really didn't look right when we made another turning into what looked like a housing estate. I double checked the map with the postcode this time and it turned out Alexandra Palace was also the name of a council estate not far from the actual venue! Feeling rather foolish, we did a 180 and followed the steep incline towards the Ally-Pally.
 |
| Dressed appropriately for an evening of queuing |
Finally the huge imposing building was in sight, so we joined the queue and took in the fantastic view of London at night from the top of the hill. The queue didn't seem to be moving much and we discovered it wrapped around the building on 3 sides! We were getting very close to the end of our tether and this was not helping. We should've been on our 3rd drink by now! Three quarters of an hour later and we still couldn't see the doors to the venue. Then I heard it, from the other side of the building's thick brick walls, One Life Stand, my favourite song from their new album was playing. Hot Chip had already began and I was nowhere near to getting in, cold, angry and sober! We had already discussed the possibility of blowing the gig off but the guilt of coming that far and not seeing it through was tough. Once in, we noticed there were enormous queues to get to the bar. The bar only accepted tokens which were only available to buy from another area and there were massive queues for them too! Absolutely mortified, there was no way we were going to enjoy the evening in the dark mood we were all in so we left. Couldn't even use the toilets on the way out as they were at the end of an extremely long queue!
Outside, we noticed there were several double decker buses which had been provided by the organisers to ferry people to and from the station. Why had we not been told! We gave our tickets to a couple of fans who thought they could buy tickets on the door so at least we made some body's night! We stomped into the first pub we saw and began to drown our sorrows. It was already 9 o'clock and we hadn't eaten so went to order a burger each. "Sorry we stop doing food at 9" replied bar staff and that was the catalyst to get absolutely blotto! We made our way back to the hotel and found a dingy little pub that decided to have a lock in! Every cloud and all that!
 |
| Geek or Chic? |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)