last night an mp3 saved my wife

2006-06-28T23:39:00.000+01:00

2006-06-15T13:17:00.000+01:00

check out MINORS

2006-05-16T02:15:00.000+01:00

Your account "random radio" currently has an outstanding balance due of $-23.31.

Account: random radio (Account ID: xxxxxx)
Status: active

2006-05-08T11:54:00.000+01:00

Pete Seeger - Little Boxes.mp3

Been contemplating my life with a bottle of Asbach tonight. Hence this choice...

There's been an incredible amount written about this song over the last 40 years. (Google it in and see for yourself). All I know is, that along with the sight of clowns and ventriloquist dummies, I was frightened to fucking death as a kid when I heard it.

2006-05-04T21:12:00.000+01:00

Phoenix - Sometimes In The Fall.mp3

2006-04-27T13:00:00.000+01:00

Marmalade - Reflections Of My Life.mp3

My first musical memory of the ‘sensational’ seventies – other than trying to play my 1969 Christmas present of a three bob Woolworths mouth-organ along to ‘Two Little Boys’ - is this track from Scotland’s finest pop outfit – Marmalade.

I like this track. It sums up how I feel just now. Yeah, I know it’s a bit formulaic – and you can blame songwriters Dean Ford and Junior Campbell for that. (Junior went on to pen the theme from Thomas The Tank Engine, so I tug my forelock toward his PRS cheques). By the way, if you think the name Marmalade is shite, well just be aware that they changed it from Dean Ford & The Gaylords!

Any breakfast comestible puns re my other fave bands such as The Jam and Bread should be slid into the well lubricated ‘Comments’ box before you steal away into the night.

Fond regards to all who still enter ‘The Wife’.

2006-04-26T12:17:00.000+01:00

Michael Hedges - Arial Boundaries.wma
Michael Hedges - Spare Change.wma

BOB DUSKIS (former head of A&R at Windham Hill) I remember we were in Philadelphia on a Windham Hill tour staying in the same hotel as the rock band GTR, which featured Steve Hackett from Genesis and Steve Howe, one of Michael’s heroes, from Yes. We’re in the elevator, and Steve Howe gets on with one of his roadies. Hedges says to him, "Hey, you know what I have in this case? I have a Dyer harp guitar." Howe says, "Yeah? I’d love to check it out." So we get out of the elevator. Howe has no idea who Hedges is. Hedges pulls out the guitar, and suddenly he knows he has the opportunity to play for one of his guitar heroes.

So he begins to play, and Howe’s jaw just hits the ground. He stands and watches him for a minute. Then Michael gives him a cassette of Aerial Boundaries. As he is walking away, we overhear Howe say to his roadie, "That guy was fucking unbelievable!" Michael was walking on air the rest of the day. read more...

2006-04-20T01:08:00.000+01:00

Bernard Purdie - Hap'nin.mp3

2006-03-29T23:15:00.000+01:00

visit billy bangs in his new home

2006-03-29T14:29:00.000+01:00

Alberta Cross - The Devils All You Ever Had.mp3
what's the story?

2006-03-28T01:56:00.000+01:00

?	chet carter.mp3 the mill song.mp3 pablo the bullfighter.mp3

2006-03-24T00:38:00.000Z

Hot Chip - Boy From School.mp3

OK, so i bow to those commenters who mentioned that the wife may someday return... at the time i scoffed as i snapped my reigns and galloped towards the horizon in a cloud of dust...
but it seems i can no longer quel the temptation to litter the interweb with spelling mistakes.. how ya doin devilfish?, i am sticking this track up for you... it's friday, 'member our elongated lunches in various horsforth boozers? i'm sure this track would have been one of those moments where we would start the weekend at about 1:15 in my office with sweets from the shop after a couple of jars.
...., we come strutting in the back door on the balls of our feet, nod to the boys who work near the door, keep on strutting, wisecrack from the office manager, smiles are genuine. then crank up the volume, get the sand wedge out... it's a good excuse to have the music loud if we are practicing the noble art of chipping in the content department..
aahh. here come's a couple of friendly faces,, putting tournamnt?

"we try but we didn't have long, we try but we don't belong..."

2006-03-22T01:26:00.000Z

Ray Davies - Is There Life After Breakfast.mp3

2006-03-16T11:41:00.000Z

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Eighteen Is Over The Hill.mp3

2006-03-13T09:43:00.000Z

Shawn Harris - Colour Of Your Eyes.mp3
Shawn Harris - Today's A Day.mp3
Shawn Harris - I'll Cry Out.mp3

about the album

2006-02-27T10:49:00.000Z

You Say Party! We Say Die - The Gap.mp3

2006-02-10T11:38:00.000Z

Hot Chip - A-B-C.mp3

2006-02-02T21:30:00.000Z

George Harrison - Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You).mp3

2006-01-27T01:30:00.000Z

The Books - Lemon Of Pink.mp3
The Books - Lemon Of Pink Pt.2.mp3
The Books - There Is No There.mp3

buy lemon of pink

visit THE BOOKS

2005-11-16T00:35:00.000Z

The Wife Has Left The Building...

To all of our faithful visitors and cherished readers, a big thank you for being part of the party. It wouldn't have been, well, anything without you.

Last Night An Mp3 Saved My Wife was started as an interesting distraction for 3 co-workers who were more interested in music than their regular office work somewhere in Leeds, UK.
It started at 9am one morning after one of us discovered the joy of mp3 blogs late one night.

After a few months a few more had joined the ranks of contributors from their own remote zones, and the random radio DJs got more random.

That office is closing it's doors and shutting down this week, and despite talk of irregularly random postings it seems so is LNAMp3SMW.

Although there won't be any new posts appearing here, it still stands as a catalogue of tunes that somebody somewhere once called a favourite for a day, and is worth delving into for inspiration for those who didn't travel with us for a year. Unfortunately you will have to fire up whatever file sharing means you have and source the tracks for yourselves now that all is silent. But the initial idea remains... if you come across something that you like, you can still "click to buy" or follow links to artists or other places of interest. (click on the images on the Friday posts for the uninitiated).

Like the punk bands who recorded one single then split up, we bid you farewell after a very enjoyable year of posts. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

And last but by no means least... to all you bloggers that continue to open up and share your love of music with those who care,, good on ya and long may you keep up the good work.

Love and Respect from all at The Wife.

2005-10-14T00:58:00.000+01:00

~~Michael Hurley - I Paint A Design.mp3~~

Crunching my way through golden leaves that carpet the ground it all comes flooding back... the wife! I used to be married? I haven't seen her in so long, I wonder how she is doing, maybe I will call her tonight? Will she even remember me? Maybe she's found another lover, one more attentive than I, so easily distracted...

The truth is I haven't been listening to as much music as usual, recent events have demanded all my attention (reasons to follow).
Sometimes it happens. Some mornings you can look at your music collection and want to listen to everything, all at the same time and everything you play needs to be turned up that little bit higher "are the neighbours out at work?".
Other times a vast collection offers not one inspiration. The fire and passion of all these creations before you just seem tired as your eyes flick from spine to spine...

I even got to a point where I couldn't even be bothered to wire up the old mp3 player on my daily rounds. My car is a huge speaker on wheels into which I climb and watch the world wizz past as I travel. The sights that roll by may be familiar, but the soundtrack is ever changing, always casting new light on my surroundings.
But recently my soundtrack has been of other car horns, the local louts shouting obscenities at each other across the road, and the stutters and coughs of the decrepit engine.

Michael Hurley may have only just fallen off the homepage but when I have been listening to music recently it has usually been Hurley or Loudon Wainwright III (as well as other new releases that you already know - or download elsewhere). Between them they must have released over 30 albums, and both of these characters have managed to write compelling music across 3 decades.

The last Michael Hurley post (mp3's still available) was from an earlier album, I Paint A Design is taken from Watertower, which is from the 80s, it's one of his more professional in-a-studio recordings. His voice is in great form throughout, as is the songwriting... a good starting point for the uninitiated.

2005-10-04T14:03:00.000+01:00

~~Broadcast - Arc Of A Journey.mp3~~

Broadcast, Ocean Rooms, Brighton, Thurs 29th Sept

The room was square but the cats were hip
Cosy not pokey my initial impression
The sound sadly sub aquatic
And we were bad tripping the lightshow not so fantastic
But from out of the hubbub
Without fanfaronade
Came a beep and a buzz
And a garage guitar fuzz
With a deadpanoramic sweep
The cast of lysergic librarians
Got their heads down,
For some no nonsense mindful boogie
Their digital dexterity
Sent us into cerebral heaven
An intensely truly mental instrumental
Got heads nodding
Knobs were twiddled
Chins were stroked
The ‘lab were evoked
They were kraftwerking the room
Taking us down the autobahn that is the A259
To Camber Sands for a party tomorrow
Trish Keenan was the siren calling us to shore
She was the silver machine
Sighing and sensuous
Swelling and swaying and swooning
Whilst the beat, beat, beat, beat, beating
Got us avant-guardian berliner modernes into a lather
Cozy not Bonham my initial impression
Axelrod not Axl Rose my second
Tender buttons were indeed being pressed
We could not fail to be impressed
The forced abandonment of concepts
Such as subtlety and delicacy
Notwithstanding
The cast were ebullient and enchanting
We delighted instead in the pulsating rhythms
Of the high tech, high tensile, lo-fi
Radiophonic workshop waves washing over us
The wry warped smiles were infectious
We were intoxicated and hooked
A fringe act the mainstream overlooked
Well, this is a public service announcement
Tune in, turn on
And take Broadcast to the nation
Today

Billy Bangs
Jazzing and rocking but not jazz-rocking

2005-09-30T12:18:00.000+01:00

De Fish: ~~The Kinks - Dead End Street.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr J: ~~Mew - Special.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Ultra Vivid Scene - Mercy Seat.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~The Alan Price Set - Simon Smith And His Amazing Dancing Bear.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Loudon Wainwright III - Guru (live).mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-09-29T10:49:00.000+01:00

RAY DAVIES, YORK GRAND OPERA HOUSE, SUNDAY 25 SEP 2005

Have you had that feeling when there is simply nowhere on earth you would rather be than where you are at that moment? That happened to me on Sunday night. Young Devilfish and I went to York Grand Opera House to see the first night of the UK tour with the one and only RAY DAVIES and his band.

Given the well documented trials and tribulations that Ray has been through over the past year or two, this was such a tremendously triumphant return. I’m not one for exaggeration (and he is a musical idol), but this was one of the finest concerts I have ever witnessed in my life. And, just as important, Ray fuckin’ loved every minute of it too!

Most of the 2 hours 15 minutes was magical old stuff. This was sprinkled with newer work including his first EP for his new label (V2 Records) released on Monday. ‘The Tourist’ has 4 tracks which are a taster from his first proper solo studio album ‘Other People's Lives’ which is scheduled for release early next year.

This long-in-the-works EP comprises: ‘The Tourist’, – which talks about how deprivation, degeneration and despair is never far away from any Tourists - supping G&T's in their nearby 5 star hotels singing ‘La Vida Loca!. There's also the pathos of ‘Yours Truly, Confused N10’, recorded originally with Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra in 2002, a remixed version of ‘London Song’ and the track 'Storyteller' - both from Davies's wonderful ‘Storyteller’ album collection of acoustic tracks and spoken dialogue.

~~Ray Davies - London Song.mp3~~

Ray waxed lyrical between his songs - including how (40-something years ago now) The Kinks were turned down by every record Company in Britain. They were considered ‘too bluesy’, told that Ray’s vocals were too ‘nasally’ (much to his hilarity now, as he pinches his nose), and that Dave Davies’s guitar sounded “like a dog barking!” The slashing of the ‘little green amp’ for that famous “3rd single” – ‘You Really Got Me’ – was of course, the big breakthrough. “I think we were the original DIY rock 'n' roll band. With the greatest respect to The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, The Kinks made it by being a ragamuffin outfit.”

It seemed clear that whilst on stage, Ray’s brother Dave was very much in the forefront of Ray’s mind ... (You’ll recall that both Davies brothers suffered much misfortune last year. In January, Ray was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who had snatched the purse of his companion in the French Quarter of New Orleans. In June, Dave suffered a stroke in an elevator at the offices of the BBC where he had been promoting his latest solo album. He was hospitalised and released in late August).

Ironically, Dave's stroke has resulted in a brotherly reconcilliation. He is living with Ray and working closely with his elder brother to regain his guitar skills. It seems that the two brothers are in relatively good relationship - something considered abnormal for 2 decades. "I'm spending lots of time with Dave," said Ray. "I'm coaching him along as best I can to re-learn the guitar. Actually, we're getting along better than ever. As soon as he can play guitar again, then it's back to the old hatred," he added, laughing, "It's the only thing that lasts." Apparently, when Dave's stroke occurred last year, the two siblings were seriously considering a reunion to coincide with the 40th anniversary of their first number 1 hit ("You Really Got Me"). However, they still have a year in front because of Ray's tight touring schedule behind his new album and the on-going recovery of his brother.

~~The Kinks - Days.mp3~~

----- This from Monday’s 'York Evening Press' .. Dedicated followers of Ray Davies filled the Grand Opera House at York last night and witnessed something quite sensational. It was the first gig of his latest UK tour and this inspired icon of British popular music brought the house down. This was not a case of simply churning out the old hits from the sixties for the locals to gently foot tap along to. Ray was not going to let anyone get away with that.
These were his songs, each one carefully crafted, each one fiercely believed in, and each one delivered with an energy and passion that many present day bands less than half his age cannot come close to. He is possibly the greatest singer songwriter this county has produced, influencing many from the likes of The Who to The Jam, and eclipsing others, including McCartney. In short, his catalogue is quite phenomenal.
Davies's music has attitude, humour, and an edge that cannot be ignored, and this is especially prevalent in his latest work which is eminently worth listening to.
Clearly up for the night and on top form, the engaging Mr Davies confirmed his credentials with an awesome performance. Unique can be applied without hesitation to this timeless talent. ------

Anyway, I can't recall the exact setlist order – he didn’t stick to one anyway - but the night included: .. I'm Not Like Everybody Else, The Hard Way, ‘Til The End Of The Day, Where Have All The Good Times Gone?, Yours Truly Confused N10, The Tourist, London Song, Stand Up Comic, 20th Century Man, Set Me Free, Tired Of Waiting, Autumn Almanac, Dead End Street, Sunny Afternoon, Village Green, Picture Book, Animal Farm, Oklahoma USA, I Go To Sleep, David Watts, Lola, All Day And All Of The Night, Days, Waterloo Sunset and You Really Got Me.

~~The Kinks - I Go To Sleep (demo).mp3~~

Between songs, Ray mentioned how so many of his old forgotten tunes seem to be appearing on adverts these days – often without his knowledge. “Picture Book has become known as the ‘Hewlett Packard song”! He went on saying how he’d seen an ad for French railways recently, and swore he thought he knew the background music. His publisher wasn’t aware, but Ray persisted and then remembered that it was a song he wrote about love when he was 19. He then played the most haunting delicate version of ‘I Go To Sleep’ with the band. It was just breathtaking. (Perhaps he’d forgotten that ex-wife Chrissie Hynde had had a hit with it with The Pretenders?) He then played hit after hit - with the odd forgotten lyric! (He made a joke about it being a night to tell people “you were there the night Ray Davies forgot the words to ‘Sunny Afternoon.” ("It must be my dementia!" he quipped).

As it was all so top drawer, it’s hard to pick highlights, but here’s a few; … Days (“for Kirsty MacColl’) left me with a quivering bottom lip, David Watts (he just sprung it on the band) was incredible - esp for me, the old Jam fan!, Autumn Almanac (“An interesting ditty full of chord changes, and the only top 5 hit about gardening”), Lola (prefaced by his hilarious tales of his beloved New Orleans (“where the music will play again”)), Waterloo Sunset (After the line, “as long as I gaze at Waterloo Sunset, I am in Paradise”, Ray looked up at the adoring crowd in this old English Victorian Theatre, nodded and said, “And I am in Paradise.” Gulp!). Sunny Afternoon (“sing up loud with the ‘Sha La Laas’ folks”). Village Green (“from an album that bombed - but that’s a true cult thing; everyone loves it but nobody bought it!”).
And so it went on. It was a privilege to witness.

From the CD Storyteller ....

~~Ray Davies - Writing The Song (dialogue).mp3~~
~~Ray Davies - The 3rd Single (dialogue).mp3~~
~~Ray Davies - You Really Got Me.mp3~~

He was absolutely on top form; fit as a flea and bouncing around the place. He was clearly simply glad to be alive and on stage again. It winds me up so much when I watch something like the Brit Awards and see Duran Duran getting a fuckin’ ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. I mean … I ask you? Give Ray Davies a Knighthood and have done with it! The man is a songwriting genius. And he possesses that other key sign of a great fellow ….. someone who you’d really like to have a beer with!

2005-09-28T11:46:00.000+01:00

~~King Kurt - Banana Banana.mp3~~

Fancy a frug? Well comb your pubes into a quiff and join me! This catchy tune will have you leaping about with your trouser legs rolled up to your knees and running around with your underpants on your head. Top banana!

2005-09-27T14:54:00.000+01:00

~~Art Brut - TOTP (live).mp3~~

Art Brut, Concorde 2, Brighton, Thurs 22nd September

Are you ready Art Brut?
This is Eddie Argos cataloguing the rise and fall of popular culture
Picking at the bones like a Skinner street vulture
Knowingly knowing but never kowtowing
Most definitely, defiantly an indie pedant
This charming chap this
Evening chronicle-ah this
Clumsily charismatic extra-cultural conversationalist
This Lord Peter whimsical renegade confessionalist
Sporting this years’ must have accessory
Which is quite frankly quite unnecessary
Right across his top lip
Un/cool and ultra hip
An open waist shirt
And a smarty pants quip
He wears the biggest heart on the biggest sleeves
Off the cuff anecdotes and reveries
A cabal heavy sweater with a tight knit band
Taking us off to the promised land
With drummer erect; a tumescent feat
With fingers in the air and tongues in their cheek
Dubuffet desperadoes provide the backdrop
Marginal Mekons with their brutish beat bop
And if any question why TOTP died
Tell them it was because the Rezillos lied
Not everyone’s on; at least not Art Brut
What a criminal record, it's a point that’s moot
But now it’s all falling randomly into place
Eddie and his hot rods occupy a space
Twixt a grotesque turn and this nation’s saving grace
They formed a band
Can’t sing or stay in time
They formed a band
Being an outsider is not a crime
And this I can say without a shadow of a doubt
Art Brut make me want to rock out
Art Brut make me want to rock out
Art Brut make me want to rock out!

Billy Bangs
Bang Bang bangin’ on

2005-09-26T10:15:00.000+01:00

~~Boards Of Canada - '84 Pontiac Dream.mp3~~

A few years ago, not long after moving into our new (old) house, Mrs Le Riff was overturning the neglected flower beds in the garden when she unearthed an old toy that had been lost for a couple of decades or more.
It was a small dumper truck, metal and heavy, the likes of which you just couldn't find in the aisles of a vast hanger sized Toy-R-Us these days.
The paint was corroded, the windows misted up and scratched over the years spent as an obstacle for the meandering earth worms.
As I cleaned it up to present to little Le Riff I felt a wave of melancholy wash over me.
Was it to do with the thoughts of a distant child, now a man, who had once lost something precious? Was it because of my own toys that I had once cherished that I no longer owned or knew of their whereabouts? Or perhaps this object out of time was a reminder to me that as a child you looked at the world in constant amazement with your imagination wide open and keen, something that becomes progressively harder to do in adult life? Something that is all too easily lost...

Whatever, that emotion is one that Boards Of Canada still seem intent on tapping into with the release of their third album The Campfire Headphase from which '84 Pontiac Dream is taken.

The music made by Boards Of Canada often sounds weather beaten and decayed. Distant analogue sounds from a time less compliacted that have been damaged as they were somehow plucked from the past and presented to us anew. "Plucked" being an appropriate word as BOC's Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin have expanded their sonic pallet to include guitars this time around.

Memories that come drifting back like a familiar smell that you haven't smelt for years.
Memories of watching Me And You with a sticky glass bottle of Lucozade covered in crinkly orange plastic coating at the side of my blankets-on-the-sofa bed (the word duvet still hadn't entered the english language at this point). Educational TV programs floating across the room to me in a flu-ridden altered state as the doctor arrived to place his cold stethoscope (and even colder hands) on my hairless chest, and all the time me imagining my school mates sliding on compacted ice across the snow covered winter playground...

2005-09-24T14:18:00.000+01:00

Clone: ~~Shellac - Prayer To God.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Blackalicious - Make You Feel That Way.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Viking Moses - Sandstorms.mp3~~ [hear more]
DVD: ~~Purple Hearts - Millions Like Us.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Steve Earle - I Feel Fine.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~The Connells - 74-75.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-09-21T15:24:00.000+01:00

~~Yellow Stripe Nine - One Look (Its Love).mp3~~

Yellow Stripe Nine formed in Leeds in January of 2002. They quickly became a riveting live act and were named the best unsigned band of 2002 by Leeds Student Radio. The release of the 'Look Sharp' demo at the beginning of 2003 was awarded a rare 4.5 out of 5 by the notoriously hard-to-please LeedsMusicScene.com and was described as displaying "an emotional intensity and passion far too much ignored in modern pop music". In July 2003, the band finished recording their second demo album 1 White Horse.

Off of the new forth coming album One Look is another explosive mixture of rampant contagious pop drama all intoxicating and affectionately packed in to a three minute opretta, dry cured with the very finest essences drawn from influences such as the Sparks and ABC and shamelessly substantiated by a steely eyed beach party twanging groove that is so vampishly cool.

It's all interesting stuff and its always good to hear the local talent breaking through on the Yorkshire scene, we have some pretty cool bands coming through at the moment with the likes of the 'Artic Monkeys' and 'The Rise' to name but a few. These are exciting times up here in the the North for the music scene at the moment and that's a fact.

I'm not sure the album has been released as of yet, however you can find out more about Yellow Stripe Nine and listen to more of their tracks here or find out more about Leeds Music Scene here.

2005-09-19T21:41:00.000+01:00

~~The Fire Engines - Get Up And Use Me.mp3~~

Fire Engines, ICA, London, Sat 17th Sept

We were one nation under a groove
For this secret Scottish treasure trove
With a cry of “there’s no bass drum pedal!”
They stuttered, then revved, got spazfunkadelical
Oh use me, use me, use me!
We got up, Henderson got down
Crouched on knees playing the most simply, sublime solos
We were discord dancing around our manbags
Henderson veered from laconic, ironic, enigmatic
To squalling, balling, mesmeric, messianic
I’ve always been quite partial to a small scotch in hoops
And by the end of the intro-instrumental I was hooked
Fired up forty somethings and franzy dan fashionistas
Got frenzied to the frantic, fantastic, funk furore
It was a masterclassical recital
Quite utterly vital
Josef was invoked not once but twice
It was special K class it was knice
A dedication to Edwyn Collins unsettled for a moment
But it was for a new beginning; not a denouement
They never did shed their candy skin
Still anti and awkward and resolute
Seminal yet never the easiest of listens
But how this big gold dream still glistens
What brief mischievery brilliantly done
We counted them down
Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one
And then there were none
No encore
Gone
And all that remained for some time was a grin
Thank you and good night
We were the Fire Engines...

Billy Bangs
Addressing his postcard to the nation

2005-09-16T13:04:00.000+01:00

DVD: ~~Big Sound Authority - This House (Is Where Your Love Stands).mp3~~
Iggy: ~~Super Furry Animals - Smokin'.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Terry Reid - Dean.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Sly And The Family Stone - Spaced Cowboy.mp3~~ [buy it]
The Dr: ~~Jackson Browne - Fountain Of Sorrow.mp3~~ [buy it]
Clone: ~~Black Sabbath - Supernaut.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-09-15T14:50:00.000+01:00

~~Michael Hurley - Sweedeedee.mp3~~

"The werewolf was a gentleman who was a helpful influence. He showed me that there were others,who would never fit in. It seemed that once that snout and facial hair and pointed ears appeared, there wasn't really a realistic chance that the guy would ever be able to have a lovely wife and a good home." read more...

So you like the facts? Here's some...

Michael Hurley (aka Elwood Snock, Doc Snock, Hi Fi Snock, the Horrible Horrible Pearly Snock Man or simply The Snock) drew his first picture aged 4. It was a fox. He couldn't write so he asked someone to write the title on the paper for him... "Fierce The Fox".

Years later he started playing guitar cos he "just liked the looks of it".

In the early days before he used to drive a dark green 70's Chevy van with a 4" by 8" wooden beam for a bumper, he would hitch-hike from place to place, living off stolen apples with his traveling companion Rube the Card (aka Robin Remailly).
In fact Hurley's first recording contract came about after hitching with his guitar in hand. He was picked up by Fred Ramsey Jr. who recorded a 3 song demo and played it to Moses Asch at Folkways.

His debut, First Songs was released on Folkways in 1964.
You can listen to previews here, or you can buy the re-issue on CD which now goes by the name of Blueberry Wine, and is replete with artwork created by Hurley. The reissue now looks how Hurley had initially intended.
It was recorded on the same microphone and tape machine used for Leadbelly's Last Sessions.

His second album, Armchair Boogie [1971] was recorded in Hurley's bedroom.
Rube the Card plays some fiddle on album opener Werewolf.
He recorded many versions of Werewolf, but the one on Armchair Boogie is considered to be one of the best.
One time, Rube shot Michael with a .38.
Luckily the bullet only lodged between his skull and his skin.
That was before Rube got caught in a big heist and they put him away for about 10 years.

One of Hurley's many jobs was as an eight track repair man.
He was one of the best eight-track tape repairmen in Richmond.

Michael's fluttering falsetto yodel will often morph into a wolf-like howl.
He has also been known to caw like an old black crow, or scream like a fire engine's siren. Another of his vocal specialties is his a fine impression of a muted trumpet, as heard on Armchair Boogie's closing track...

~~Michael Hurley - Penguins.mp3~~

Unfortunately I haven't got a link for you to buy Armchair Boogie, as it is one of those gems that is still waiting patiently for a re-release on CD. In these situations I always stick the album in my Soulseek folder, so fire it up and see if you can find me, you won't be sorry...

Want a second opinion?

2005-09-14T16:33:00.000+01:00

~~Terry Reid - Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace.mp3~~

Download
Sit Back
Enjoy
Then buy the album.

2005-09-13T15:23:00.000+01:00

~~Gene Pitney - I'm Gonna Be Strong.mp3~~

Bigger in Rotherham than Rockville, and with a distinctive voice soaring like a kestral over the Quantocks is the eternal Gene Pitney. As popular as he became in his home country, Pitney has always been a more successful artist in the UK. Perhaps this had something to do with his early 60's publicist - Andrew Loog Oldham - who was doing the same for the Rolling Stones.

By the way, it always makes me laugh that 60's Britain loved pop songs about place names such as Tulsa, San Jose, Amarillo, Phoenix and the like. Most record-buying Brits had not left their own town, let alone their own shores. Few had a vague idea where Spain was - let alone America. Perhaps TV had heightened the baby-boomer's sense of escapism, romance, and exotic American adventure. "Indiana wants me" sang the Yorkshire coal miner on his descent to the centre of the earth.

This typically ambitious 1964 outing found Gene Pitney blending rock drama and pop smoothness with great success. 'I'm Gonna Be Strong' is an especially worthwhile entry in the Pitney canon because it's a typically intense Pitney heartbreak ballad that builds from quiet anguish to a dramatic declaration of self-reliance over a lush yet punchy instrumental backing. Oh yes siree! Other memorable tracks on the 'I'm Gonna Be Strong' album include: "Lips Were Redder On You," a lovelorn track penned by our favourite much-missed oddball pop auteur - Joe Meek. Hit single "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday" was an operatic pop ballad full of low brass and descending piano runs that was penned by stable-mates Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. Pitney shook the maracas on the Stones' recording of Buddy Holly's 'Not Fade Away', and tinkled piano in the background of other well-known songs. Mr Pitney had 16 top forty songs in the USA from 1961 to 1968, but had 40 such songs in the UK, all the way up to 1974.

The Cincinatti Kid became a 'chicken in a basket' cabaret merchant through much the 70s and 80s. (The purple velvet jacket, frilly-fronted shirt and polyester kipper tie took a pounding amidst the smoke-filled Variety Clubs of Britain). It famously took him no less than 28 years before the elusive UK No1 single came along - the re-working of 'Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart' with a theatrical Marc Almond in '89.

The track featured here has been much covered over the years - perhaps most notably by Cyndi Lauper on her 90s album '12 Deadly Cyns ..' (She had earlier performed it with her band Blue Angel).

All these facts get a bit dull. ... Maybe I should go back to writing about social commentary or 'my first blow- job' and stuff?

Enjoy the song!

2005-09-12T10:04:00.000+01:00

~~The Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis.mp3~~

The Mystery Jets, The Engine Room, Brighton, Thursday 8th Sept

We’re going underground
One hundred leagues under the sea
We’re back in the vaults
It’s one hundred degrees
This is fug in hell
This is melting walls where chaos is king
No sussex squares tonight
With subterranean sauna sic blues
Talking heads but no chattering classes
We’re beyond the fringe
Pots and pans and the kitchen sink
Crash and bang and ring
Wide eyed and open mouthed
We’re caught in the jet stream
The cylinders are clicking
It’s zoo time in this nocturnal house
The punfortunate purple prose of cairo
Doesn’t help the pigeon-holing pundit
Unconventional, eccentric, epileptic
It’s a symphony for the devil
The silver surfer is hard to discount
A bankroller who never hurt nobody
He knows home is where the hearth is
Where his rifled record collection is rearranged
You can’t fool me blaine.
I’ve read the little red book
Yes, Love, love me do
Turn up with a clue
The electric shock treatment is taking effect
It’s oh! So current
Amp fiddlers on the hoof
It’s a microcosmic rough ride
And here come the jets
Like a bat out of hell
Someone gets in their way
Someone don’t feel so well
A discordant discourse
Progressively rocking
Down a road to nowhere
You wanna take that ride?

Billy Bangs
Trying to solve the mystery

2005-09-09T14:25:00.000+01:00

De Fish: - ~~Firstborn - The Mood Club.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Hayzi Fantayzee - John Wayne Is Big Leggy.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Dr John - Right Place, Wrong Time.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Ramona Cordova - One Day Someday.mp3~~ [download more]
DVD: ~~David Lee Roth - Just A Gigolo.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-09-08T15:32:00.000+01:00

~~Thomas Truax - Escape From The Orphanage.mp3~~

Thomas Truax - Oddball, Visionary, A one man antifolk machine are just a few of the names attributed to the Jazz experimentalist. Call him what you will but one thing you can't deny is his desire to create and explore all the boundaries and beyond, also known as the mad scientist because he even invents his own instruments like The Cadillac Beatspinner Wheel and The Hornicator which he uses to create his own unique musical experience. Another interesting fact is that he claims to be one of the illegitimate sons of Screamin Jay Hawkins which I suppose could be true just due to the fact that Hawkins had so many. Truax is also famous for his animation as I think used to be a graphic designer and worked on programs like celebrity death match, a truly well rounded individual indeed.

With vocals that are a strange menage a trois of Roger Waters, Dr Feelgood and Nick Cave that are all blended together with a new wave, laid back, Jazz undertone. When mixed together in the right quantity this creates quite an intriguing cocktail that at first can taste a bit sour, however by the time you have reached the bottom of the glass you cant stop yourself ordering a second as the initial bitter after taste disappears. You can buy the albums from here.

2005-09-06T00:24:00.000+01:00

~~Cat Stevens - Remember The Days Of The Old Schoolyard.mp3~~

That 1st day at school feeling? ...

It was early September 1966. England had just won the World Cup. We all lived in a Yellow Submarine. We'd had more than one Sunny Afternoon with The Kinks that summer. The industrial landscape was grey and the streets cobbled, but for me, the skies had been blue and our cheeks had been rosy since time began. My father resembled an Irish James Dean and my mother was a double for Petula Clark. I was Robin to my brother's Batman. He was a cowboy and I was an Indian (tied to a tree). We sat in a tin bath in front of the fire. I believed him when he told me that Eleanor Rigby had just moved in next door to the sweet-shop.

The schoolyard. Aged 4. Short pants. Tarmac, trepidation and snot. I remember the obligatory boy with the white patch of sticking plaster over one eye. His hideous black-framed NHS spectacles sat upon his lop-sided ears. My new shoes were rubbing already. The older kids in the corner mischievously sang that summer's bizarre novelty hit, "There Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haa!" Mum had cut my hair around a basin and I had a lop-sided fringe. I smelled of camomile lotion following the recent spotty Chicken Pox affair. 2 lemon bon-bons gathered lint in my pocket.

The teachers looked about 55; looking back, they were probably 27. 'Maybe they'll teach me how to become a real Thunderbird?' (I had imagination - what more would I need in life?) And the girls. Lots of girls. Mostly pig-tailed, missing their front teeth and ugly as sin; but one or 2 were pretty. Handstands against the wall with knickers on display. It was all too much! I'd never considered that girls existed before. I had football, a dog and a tortoise - girls had never been necessary.

The bell clanged. This was it. ''You're a big boy now. These are the best days of your life''. (Had I known about God then, I'd have asked him to help me). I desparately wanted to cry when my mother said goodbye. That wretched stomach through a mangle feeling. She spat on a handkerchief and wiped my grubby face one last time and she was gone. I noticed a pile of freshly steaming sick was being covered by a man with a shovel and a bucket of sawdust. Some boys were still sobbing into their mothers' aprons. My bottom lip wobbled precariously - but I must've somehow realised that future playground pecking order and classroom kudos could not be gained by wailing like a 'puff'. Besides, I'd previously learnt how to be 'mummy's brave soldier' when TV's Andy Pandy show ended, and the heart-wrenching signature tune had played .. ''Time to go home, time to go home .. Andy is waving goodbye''.

On that very first morning I remember learning 2 important things. Lesson 1: 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands'. Lesson 2: Don't sit next to the boy who's shit himself.

2005-09-05T12:36:00.000+01:00

~~David Byrne - Glass, Concrete and Stone.mp3~~

Soft is the voice that lulls you into a sentimental humour. In that comfortable room, an ache where a song should be. You stare into the mid-distance and find the past. Bleak moments swell with regret. You sit and wonder over a roadmap. The first thing that seems to come to hand.
(click here to buy from Amazon UK)

2005-09-02T10:58:00.000+01:00

Dr Johnny: ~~Jonathan Richman - Down In Bermuda.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Dr Dog - Dutchman Falls.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~Love Affair - Rainbow Valley.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~The Specials - Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think).mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~MC Pitman - What's The Point.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-09-01T15:57:00.000+01:00

~~The Dead 60's - Control This.mp3~~

The Dead 60s, Concorde 2, Brighton, Tuesday 30th August

Liverpool calling to the faraway towns.
Now that war is declared and battle come down.
Liverpool calling to the underworld.
Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls.
Liverpool calling, now don't look at us.
All that phoney Clashmania has bitten the dust.
Liverpool calling to the imitation zone.
Forget it, brother, an' go it alone.
Dub-ska, ker-pop and ker plunk.
Games were better in the 70s, punk.
We're on Slogan's Run.
But don't worry:
Matt McManamon - shoutist - has a self-assurance policy.
Tons of swaggertude.
And self taut ferocity.
He is king of the leer.
But I want to cut the cordelia.
Take me out outtakes from Sandinista.
[Oh but that's just utter slander mister!]
Trojan horse dubplates.
Not so magnificent spinning templates.
Crashing down around our pork pie hats.
You are now entering the state of the bleeding obvious.
So please listen bleeding carefully:
Bleeding hearts on bleeding sleeves.
Bleeding noses on bleeding speed.
Bleeding power chords and bleeding poses.
Do you bleeding well want some?
Oh please! Oh pur-lease!
The Dead 60s; should we be grateful?
Should I stay or should I go?
Well get this:
Bangs calling, yeah, I was there, too.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
Bangs calling at the top of the dial.
After all this, won't you give me a smile?

I never felt so indisposed...

Billy Bangs
Cutting the crap

2005-08-31T11:10:00.000+01:00

~~Ryuichi Sakamoto-Riot In Lagos.wma~~

Perhaps most famous in this country for 'Forbidden Colours' (apparently the default-choice for lazy BBC music researchers whenever they're asked to find something Japanesey) Ryuichi has recorded over three decades worth of material.

Through his work with the Y.M.O. (Yellow Magic Orchestra) and his consecutive solo career, his appearance in 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence' (alongside David Bowie) and collaborations with the likes of Youssou N'Dour and Arto Lindsey, he's established himself as a highly credible and versatile artist, being an especially sought after soundtrack composer.

He's also one of the very few who've experimented with Japanese traditional music and gotten away with it, commercially. There's a whole world of goodies in the Sakamoto canon...

But today, let's bleep along to Riot in Lagos, probably the most important Japanese dance record of all time. Surfacing in 1980, it was way ahead of the pack....abstract beats, electro fartbubbles and tweaked-out weirdness...it's been claimed by some as a kind of ancestor to Techno.

See what you make of it...me and the missus find it's ideal music for doing robotics to, in the pissing rain in front of Curry's

2005-08-30T23:00:00.000+01:00

The Wife was sleeping yesterday (it was a public holiday in the UK, and I seem to be coping a lot better with the IAD these days!), but you knows we loves you, and just to show it we gots three tracks for you today... in case you missed us.

One of the most popular social networking sites MySpace launched MySpace Music sometime last year which gave anyone with a PC and a microphone the ability to make their own homepage (complete with streaming mp3's, photo's, live dates and blogs) in minutes.
By January 2005 300,000 bands/musicians had signed up and were streaming their music to the world.

Clicking on MySpace search page and searching by "Influences" or "Sounds Like" categories can turn up some interesting results. Here's some of the good stuff that I discovered. If you like what you hear and want to hear more, then click on each image to visit the artists MySpace page, where you can stream 4 tracks, check gig dates or even say hello...

~~Hazel Jane - Come Down.mp3~~

Hazey Jane is a solo artist from Edinburgh, Scotland and music is her lifeblood. Bored of disciplined music teaching methods she taught herself guitar at 15, but only began to write songs when she discovered alternate tunings. Since she has uprooted to London and has been detuning her guitar and writing songs largely because of the reverence she felt for Nick Drake, who also provided her with her stage name. Because of Dundee band 'The Hazey Janes' she is sometimes known as Hazey Jane II, or I, but there are no hard feelings between the two. Hazey Jane likes to play the wine glasses from time to time and even the fiddle, but mainly she just plays guitar and sings... She is now also in a band with the talented and attractive mimi yeah where no acoustic guitars are allowed, but that is another tale for another time...

~~Diamond Caverns - Zodiac (With Red Hunter).mp3~~

This year the wildly bearded David Bryant released two CD-R releases as part of the Celebrate Magic Hands collective imprint. Under the moniker Diamond Caverns, the first record was titled Little Song and the second was dubbed Orange. Diamond Caverns is, orignally, a famous Kentucky natural cavern spot which includes Mammoth Cavern and others. Now a popular tourist trap, the caverns can be explored by anyone insterested in spelunking there way though the wonder beneath the earth. Bryant, who resides in Austin, taps into the caverns of Kentucky singing very southern influenced folk tunes... read more

~~Billy Bates - Beauty Crawls.mp3~~

Billy says...

Wouldn't like to bore you all with a one in 6 billion variations of life..... Willing to work with other musicians with similar interests especially a good percussion player ^^.., so do contact me if interested. CHEERS......... Tunes that have been uploaded are still to be finnished as you probably noticed.

Influences: Mostly people that can improvise...this is most important to me, some examples.... Allan HoldsWorth, Bjork, John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Kaushiki Chakrabarty, Jeff Buckley, John McLaughlin, Bela Bartok, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Faiz Ali Faiz, Frank Zappa, Scott Henderson, ect ect...

2005-08-26T14:30:00.000+01:00

Griff: ~~Dick Hyman - The Minatour.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Bootsy Collins & Bernie Worrell - When Bernie Speaks.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~The Byrds - Moog Raga.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~The Doors - Strange Days.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-08-25T10:51:00.000+01:00

~~Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down.mp3~~
(aka Scummy aka Scummy Man)

arctic monkeys, komedia, brighton, wednesday 24th aug 2005

Cards are straight on the table.
Jokers and aces and knaves and scoundrels.
Ducking and diving.
Screwing and skiving.
You gotta pick a pocket or two.
Girl you know it’s true.
Headlights are on and the rabid rabbits are hopping.
Switched on and bopping.
Coz we’re on the streets of Rotherham nah.
The north rises again.
And we’re pulled along by the collar of our polo shirt.
Perrys are already a set to love up.
And boy do we love.
The droog alex.
Cajoler, ringmaster, straight talker, doe eyed bambi.
I spotted acne.
But he took it on the chin.
Despite the ridiculously low stage he was head and shoulders above the rest.
And despite the ridiculously youthful demeanour he was coming on a like a seasoned pro, you know?
Swaggering confidence and attitude.
He knew when to say sorry and when to be rude.
Mellifluous melees and moshing melanges.
But these weren’t the good old days.
[Though that’s where the roots were.]
A special soundclash jammin’ in the name of a northern libertine.
What?
This was surreal komedia.
A club that couldn’t cope.
With such devotion and emotion.
We looked good on the dancefloor.
The john cooper snap crackle and pop of a monkey man on top.
A nefarious lot.
They came, they stole, they conquered.
But the panic stricken security were the killjoy division.
Unable to cope with the waves.
They crashed about in the mayhem.
But we were waving not drowning.
We were singing.
We were winning.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Billy Bangs
Putting down the handbook

2005-08-24T14:39:00.000+01:00

~~Time Machine - Mind In A Spin.mp3~~

Well I am back from my birthday celebrations still feeling the aches and pains from the weekend once you get to my age it takes a little longer to recover. I have been having a few weird dreams lately that I'm trying hard to understand like the other night I dreamt that their was a pandemic of athlete's foot that had spread across the country and I was the only one with clean feet. Last night I dreamt that was strangling a poisonous chicken to death that kept trying to peck my legs and inject me with it's venomous tongue, I was quite sad once it had taken its last breath I could see a tear rolling down its cheek. If anyone knows what these dreams mean please let me know.

After Iggy's choice last Friday and the talk of breakdance 2 I thought it was time to get some hip-hop back on the wife as it seems like a long time since we put out some classic old skool type beats, I for one have been missing em. After dusting through my archives I found this little gem tucked away neatly between The Beatnuts and Prince Paul that I had almost forgotten about Time Machine - Slow Your Roll all the way back from 2003. So to get rid of all the rain clouds we have here at the moment I've turned up the bass and slammed on the treble dusted off the record sleeve and cut some vinyl, it's got a real citrus flavour (whatever that means) with some kicked back dreamy beats that just let you melt away in to your own dimension.

I'm still recovering from the weekend so I'm off home now to enjoy a nice cuppa tea and a scintillating night watching soul destroying TV and a bit of Judge Judy before I crawl in to my bed around 9pm tonight talk about rock n roll or what. Enjoy the pleasures of time machine yourself and buy the album here.

2005-08-23T16:27:00.000+01:00

~~Caribou - Lord Leopard.mp3~~

This has probably been blogged elsewhere, (a quick search on Todum showed up lots of Brahminy Kites from the beginning of the month) but it's not like us at the Wife to care about that kind of thing. I suppose a lot of you will already have The Milk of Human Kindness album, and if you do then i hope that you will support me in turning a few others on to it's charms who haven't yet climbed on board.

OK,, so a bit of history? I haven't done me research (sorry for hastily cobbled together post, but things are a bit rushed and, you still want the tunes right?).. Caribou is Dan Snaith formerly of Manitoba. Shit, this has all been said already by people better equipped than me... in fact there's a link on the Leaf label site that pulls all the Caribou info together onto one blog.

This little tune is 1:30 of sublime funky beats with a looping piano and a few sitars for good measure,, it's a little like DJ Shadow,, erm what else,.. it's too short? Just play it on repeat three times. I'm loosing altitude here..

I don't know if you can still get tickets for the gig at the London Scala with Animal Collective on 25th October still? I'd love to be there, but it's too far from sunny Leeds.
No matter! Caribou are playing the Brudenell up here which is small, with a high stage and cheap beer. That'll do nicely.

2005-08-22T14:30:00.000+01:00

Things have been getting real quiet round The Wife's HQ recently...
what with Iggy moving house (waiting to get reconnected),
DVD outa town/country (nice to see him finding his way to an internet cafe and leaving a suite of comments! the comments wouldn't be the same without you old boy),
The Dr OD-ing on his own supply and going awol on a month long Hunter S Thomson style white knuckle binge...
I've been lost in a vast acoustic world of unkown artists that hide their talents in the MySpace directory (might post some stuff this week),
and today De Fish is absent as he embarks on his yearly marathon booze session to celebrate 30 years since he arrived on this crazy rock we call planet Earth.
it's 2:10 pm now, so no doubt he is well on the way to oblivion!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY dude! This ones for you...

~~Chase The Devil - Max Romero.mp3~~

Lucifer son of the morning, I'm gonna chase you out of earth. Sampled by the prodigy "Outta Space" Max Romero's Chase The Devil is a real dandelion mash of uplifting lyrics with bouncing reggae beats. If any record has ever made you want to down a bottle of rum and dance like a possessed dwarf with your mum it's this one. Max's seaside vocals blend astonishingly well with the chilled out smooth beat, sending a warm glow through your entire body more fulfilling than ready-break the original get up and go.

(this track is featured on this compilation from juno records)

originally posted by Devilfish

2005-08-19T11:19:00.000+01:00

Iggy: ~~Doug E Fresh And The Get Fresh Crew - La Di Da Di.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Don Lennon - Lenny Kravitz And Lisbon.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Handbags At Dawn - I'm The Fuckin' Geezer.mp3~~ [more mp3s]
De Fish: ~~Ronald Dyson - Aquarius.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~Eddie And The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-08-18T16:25:00.000+01:00

~~Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck.mp3~~

Back in the 90s when I was listening to stuff like the Bridewell Taxis and The Stone Roses me and a few mates set out to find this indie club in bradford called 1 in 12 we had never been before but we was assured that it would be a top night. After walking around the streets for the best part of 2hrs we made it to the front doors gasping for a pint of yorkshires finest when we were confronted by 2 bouncers on the doors, the first thing I noticed was these wasn't your average indie club or any other club type bouncers these were 2 most gargantuan fellows I had ever clasped eyes on. On top of their physique, they sported a most menacing look that I just wasn't used to and on top of this they weren't suited and booted they had 12ft mohicans and piercings that I didn't even know there were places.

After paying our entrance fee it suddenly became apparent it wasn't indie night at all but punk night, it also became immediately apparent that we were in a very sticky situation infact it was the stickiest situation since Sticky the Stick Insect got stuck on a sticky bun. After the staring had stopped and the music started playing again and we had eventually been served at the bar I started to relax then after a couple more I even thought about joining in on the dancefloor, that's when it all went wrong.

I was really getting in to it jumping around jumping in to people arms of kimbo then crunch, I looked down and like a popped balloon I see this snarling dribbling buffoon launching his fists straight for my head luckily I was quick enough to duck underneath the oncoming rocket propelled fist, however, unfortunately my friend was not. He got smacked clean in the jaw and the blood splattered everywhere like a scene from a Tarantino movie, I stepped in and managed to calm this brute down. It turned out during the chaos this poor unfortunate chap had somebody jump on his head whilst he was calmly taking a nap in the middle of a punk dancefloor filled with angry geezers wearing docs, astonishing.

At first he refused to let anyone leave but after 30 mins of gentle persuasion and pleading from myself he calmed down and even bought us all a drink for our troubles. This menacing delinquent turned in to one of the most friendly honourable chaps I had the pleasure to meet, it just goes to show you should never judge a book by it's cover.

That night was the first time I had heard the dead kennedys and the first time I had really listened to any punk music apart from bands like The Clash, The Undertones and alike. So when I first heard of Nouvelle Vague and heard that they had done cover versions of tracks like Too Drunk To Fuck and Love Will Tear Us Apart I reserved my judgment until I had a chance to listen and was pleasantly surprised. Click to buy.

2005-08-17T16:29:00.000+01:00

~~Patti Smith - Piss Factory.mp3~~

patti smith, brighton dome. tuesday 16th august 2005

she is five foot six going on seven foot.
she is joey ramone.
she is punching above her weight effortlessly.
she is shamanic street preacher.
she strides on, kicks in and we’re straight down the piss factory.
no ceremony. no quarter.
no music and it’s loud as fuck.
Smith incants.
it’s straight in your face.
it’s up your nose.
we can smell it.
it’s breathtakingly away beautiful.
drink it in.
soak it up.
fits and starts and farts and spits.
Smith gobbles you up chews you madly then spits you out.
bitch, whore, mother, lover.
she's calling the shots.
there’s a tv in the corner.
next to a full size elvis.
he was once the king.
he fell from gracelands.
28 years ago to the day.
and that’s when I fell in love.
with this Smith who is a giant.
her fragile frame fills the dome.
she’s at home.
but there’s no turning down the lights.
it’s an aural atmosphere we’re wrapped up in here.
his bobness secreted up her not inconsiderable sleeve.
how does that feel?
she’s on a roll.
we are rocked.
if she called in her debts she’d be filthy rich.
so many IOUs.
but now she wanna tells us how it’s gonna be
she is she and not fade away.
a wild horses finale segueing into gloria
hosanna! we cried. tears of joy.
for the boy.
who looked at patti and
here I go.
and I don't know why.
I spin so ceaselessly.
could it be she's taking over me?
some strange music draws me in.
makes me come on like some heroin.

oh god I fell for you…

billy bangs
dancing barefoot

2005-08-16T13:00:00.000+01:00

~~Prefab Sprout - Ghost Town Blues.mp3~~

Think I'll Pack It in and buy a VW,
Take It Down To Newquay....

Day 2 back at work- the post Cornwall holiday blues is lifting a little despite all the reminders of sun, surf and freedom as I drive in my sandy car to work. Bodyboards leaned up against the landlocked Leeds house cellar wall, straw hats that are probably gonna hang on the coat stand until next year and the sunburn that passes for a suntan on my pasty Irish skin still there, tho fading fast...

Forget all that guff about Jumping Frogs, that first Prefab album [Swoon] is great (or should that be "The Sprouts" as Emma Welles refers to them in her liner notes?). The second one [Steve McQueen] is good too although already a lot of the quirks had been ironed out. From where I was standing they seemed to get progressively more conservative throughout the 80's.. as I became less and less interested.

It was Dr Johnny that got me back on track by playing me Paddy McAloon's I Trawl The Megahertz last year. He happened to have a copy of Steve McQueen with him at the time and I had one of those experiences where you listen to an old favourite that you lost along the way and you are surprised to find that you still know every lyric and idiosyncrasy... right then I knew I had to get hold of Swoon again as it was always my favourite.

By coincidence a few days later I was visiting Clone4231 in Tyne And Wear. Whilst ambling round the North Shields metro Sunday morning market I noticed a cardboard box that had "Records £1" scribbled on the front... What do I see sitting in there, but a pristine gatefold copy of Swoon which I immediately snapped up.

Paddy McAloon has said that he hates it. He mentioned that he wished to withdraw all copies of Swoon, and re-record the whole thing. It's true that the production is not as "professional" as the other PS albums but for me that only adds to it's charms. If he ever did try to redo it I am sure it would lose all of it's quirks, and I would never swap my gatefold vinyl copy for any Swoon updated CD.

Here's a bonus track about Chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer for those who can be bothered to read the blurb and get down this far...

~~Prefab Sprout - Cue Fanfare.mp3~~

"some obsessions take me back... the sweet sweet songs that cloud your eyes..."

2005-08-15T16:00:00.000+01:00

~~Python Lee Jackson - in a broken dream.mp3~~

The second Charity Shop 7 this week is one that you come across quite frequently as it was a UK hit in 1972. (~~I have got 2 copies- if anyone wants to pay the postage they can have the other- email~~).
In 1968 John Peel signed Australian band Python Lee Jackson to his Dandelion label. He booked some studio time and asked Rod Stewart to come down to the studio to record some guide vocals to "show 'em how it's done." When Peel didn't release the track because Dave Bentley (PLJ's singer and songwriter) didn't actually record a proper vocal, session producer Miki Dallon bought the tapes from Peel.
Dallon then released it on his own label Youngblood in 1970 but it didn't sell, but by '72 Rod was a star (with 4 solo albums and 3 Faces albums behind him) and this re-release managed to reach #3 in the UK charts. By all accounts Rod was not best pleased at this "guide vocal" being put out there without his consent, but then many have claimed it to be one of his finest moments.

There are 2 other tracks that Rod recorded vocals on from that 1968 session. There is a version of the Temptation's Cloud Nine that was on the b-side of the initial 1970 single (but renamed Doin' Fine), and a track called The Blues that ended up on Python Lee Jackson's album In A Broken Dream pic.
(click here to buy Best Of Youngblood Records or here for a Best Of Rod Stewart from Amazon UK)

2005-08-12T00:02:00.000+01:00

DVD: ~~Dandy Livingstone - Suzanne Beware Of The Devil.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Kraftwerk - Showroom Dummies.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Phoenix - Funky Squaredance.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Boz Scaggs - Miss Sun.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Booker T & The MG's - Soul Limbo.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-08-11T13:37:00.000+01:00

~~Public Enemy - You're Gonna Get yours~~

So my first gig was around 88 or maybe 89 I was 13 at the time and heavily into the whole hip - hop scene listening to Run DMC, NWA, De La Soul and of course Public Enemy. It was the same old teenage story about anarchy, angst and total contempt towards authority. It could of been the 70s as teenagers are the same whatever the generation then we look back and say it wasn't like that in my day but actually it probably was, just packaged in different music, different clothes and different times.

I heard P.E was coming to town so I begged my mum for a week to buy me the tickets at first she insisted that she had to come too, I was desperate, I didn't know what to do! Imagine meeting Flav and Chuck back stage"Yo Flav digged the show you were slick man and oh Yeah Bouy this my mum" no I don't think so. I thought of how I could stop her I needed a cunning plan hmmm...... I could get big Dave to get rid of her the yeah that would work he would too for a packet of fags....umm no too dramatic. What about bumping her at the top of the stairs whilst she is doing the cleaning....umm no she will definitely suspect and then ban me from going altogether.........umm I need something more cunning, discreet then like a bolt of lighting in a flash the miracle I had been waiting for had arrived, she changed her mind just like that I could not believe it, this had never happened before in the history of the entire universe HOW! Oh thank you jeesus, praise the lord, hallelujah cinders you will go to the ball.

She agreed to let me go with that nice lad who lives up the street as long as you are with him you wont get in any trouble and I will pick up at 10 outside the venue don't be late you know what your fathers like, he doesn't like waiting....Yes Mother don't worry I said.

We get the 7.00 bus (because it was summer and still light at night so I was allowed to travel down without my chaperone) arguing to be let on for half price as we were under 13, strangely later at the bar we were trying to argue our case for being 18 but we lost on both accounts. I was wearing my new purple bottoms 22inch flares equipped with double draw string, pants back then the wider they were the cooler you were, mine covered my entire trainers coooool.

It was packed and I couldn't see a thing all I could here was some noise but where was it coming from? "Quick over there" my nice friend from up the street shouted. He pointed to a ledge at the back which we quickly sprang on to, "look its Flav" I cried we could now see everything from our new position. I could see these colossal speakers the biggest things I had ever seen in my life they must of been about 30ft high no joke. The next thing I saw was Flav on top of the speakers with his giant clock arournd his neck (no I said clock) I was sure with the vibrations and the weight of the clock he was heading for the infirmary, however he managed to hold out to the end now that's an achievement in itself if you ask me.

The star of the show though had to be Chuck himself he had an incredible presence and the way that he commands the stage is just awesome this wasn't just some performer up there this was a true artist at work, a visionary with something important to say and I new even then I had just witnessed something fantastic, the revolution was about to begin, Bring the noise.
Buy here.

2005-08-10T17:24:00.000+01:00

~~The Undertones - Get Over You.mp3~~

On the first gig thread ...
In or around 1978, from the mire of terrorism, '1 in 10' unemployment, and (worst of all) 'big haired rock' rose Northern Ireland's finest bog men. Just like me back then, The Undertones knew little and cared even less. They were innocent, straightforward and unpretentious - yet brimming with energy and the unadulterated passion of youth. I was 16. I liked beer, chocolate and girls.

Derry's Undertones were called 'Ireland's 1st punks"- but I never saw them as punks. They just looked like me and my mates; unfashionably normal, non-confrontational, skinny and needle-sharp. I saw them at my first ever gig in '78 and I was simply more hooked than before.

And now, the best part of 30 fuckin' years later, whenever I get to thinking 'how on earth did I get this jaded?' I stick on an Undertones album.

Blah .. blah .. blah ... - paralysis by analysis. I suspect this Blog's average reader age is about 25. You probably glaze over when you see some old gipper bangin' on about a time before you were born? Does anyone relate to this stuff? I notice the comment boxes are also drying up; which either suggests we are moribund, you're all on holiday, or just all-blogged out. (I'm told 1 new Blog starts every second!) Is this overkill - as there seems to be a fair bit of 'blog depression' about?

Anyway, with The Undertones, it was all about the songs. I mean, it's not difficult - just crank up the volume, smile, leap around and listen!
Click me to buy.

2005-08-09T15:00:00.000+01:00

~~The Wedding Present - Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft.mp3~~

As we're banging on about first gigs here at the 'wife this week, let me take you back to the murky days of 1988...a time when 'indie' ruled the world...or so it seemed in the sixth-form smoker's room.

I'd been listening to this band from Leeds who some reckoned were gonna be the next Smiths, and it seemed plausible enough to us at the time...after all, they were Northern and working class, played guitars, had nostalgic record sleeves, and crucially, the singer had a great big chin. Actually, he looked a bit like Fred Flintstone, but that couldn't hurt, right?

And it turned out that they were playing my town! No-one played my town! The only venue was the Coatham Bowl, a place famous for formerly hosting National Darts Championships, where the likes of Jocky Wilson and Ewic Bwistow battled like dinosaurs on mountainpeaks, the lager was torrential, and the commentary waxed hysterical...

I secured the tickets, and played the Weddoes non-stop on my C-90...it was my first gig, and I was crackling with anticipation....Which songs would they play? Would we be able to see them properly? Would I be able to get served? Would my girlfriend swoon at his massive chin, and become a groupy, breaking my heart as they slashed and burned across the rock n roll wilderness? I hoped not, but maybe I could at least sell my story to the NME...

The Weddoes never quite became the next Smiths, but they did some wonderful and unexpected things...including recording a mini-album of punked-up Ukranian folk songs, working with Steve Albini, and releasing a single every month for (was it...?) two years.
Listening to them again, I'm reminded of how fresh and vital they were...maybe their return is imminent? Are they still around? Hope so...If not, I'll always have George Best to remind me

And the gig? It was fan-fookin-tastic! I got served real beer! Gedgey and the lads fairly shredded their fingers with their frantic cheese-grater guitar style, the kids went beserk and we all screamed for more. Get the fuck in!

My first bite of the cherry...In a matter of months another top-drawer act was to rock the Coatham...I snapped tickets up immediately...bring it on, Voice of the Beehive!

2005-08-08T11:30:00.000+01:00

~~Public Image Ltd - Home.mp3~~

At the tender age of 15 i bought my first tickets to go see a band play live, Public Image Limited at the Apollo in Manchester on the 17th May 1986.

As we approached the venue in the back of my parents car (they were willing to let us go to the gig, on the condition that they dropped us off and picked us up... Ardwick Green is not the kind of place that parents would be happy about letting their naive children go wandering round after dark!) my initial fears that we were going to get turned away for being under age were quickly being replaced by the more pressing fear that we were gonna get our heads kicked in by the hoards of hoary old punks who were all making their way to the venue on foot.

As we got close to the venue I was looking out of the windows wide eyed at 10" superglued mohicans worn by angry looking 30 year old men covered in piercings. To me it felt like i was being dropped off in a scene from Escape From New York! I didn't even own a pair of DM's, and although had probably scribbled the anarchy sign on the back of my maths excercise book i was a world away from getting an Anarchy symbol tattooed on my face!

As we walked up to the entrance past the touts, i was "bricking it". I can't remember if we had any trouble at the door but we must have got in OK as next thing i can clearly remember is the rush of excitement as John Lydon comes striding out on to the stage wearing a huge black wraparound cape that covered him from head to toe. (This was his only defence against all the greenies that were being "flegged" in his direction!)

~~As we started the third paragraph with "as we"~~ With the house lights down we were safe in our stalls, about half way back. Apart from the excitement brought on by hearing music louder than i ever had before i think the main emotion was one of "I can't believe that that's Johnny Rotten right there in front of me!!!!" What a buzz. Half way through the set, i had relaxed a little and was screaming "ANGER IS AN ENERGY" along with everybody else,, and by the end i was standing on the seat in disbelief as Johnny and his band of LA sessioners played Pretty Vacant and Anarchy In The UK to close the set. It didn't matter to me that Jah Wobble wasn't on bass or that Bill Laswell wasn't doing the front of house... back then i wouldn't have recognised Bill Laswell if he had walked into my bedroom and pressed the "SuperBass" button on my Aiwa walkman.

Within a week i had bought every PIL release on cassette and had put up my poster that i bought outside the gig in the middle of my bedroom wall.I think i started buying NME at that time and always went straight for the gig listings.. i had found a new religion, one that stayed with me until this day.

(postscript- actually none of the session musicians were part of the touring band in 1986. A new band was put together to tour the Album album... thanks for reading reading.)

2005-08-05T23:45:00.000+01:00

DVD: ~~Yellow Dog - One More Night.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Bentley Rhythm Ace - Bentleys Gonna Sort You Out.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Glenn Campbell - Wichita Lineman.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Karen Dalton - Sweet Substitute.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~John Mellencamp - Jack And Diane.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-08-04T10:00:00.000+01:00

~~Maximo Park - The Coast Is Always Changing.mp3~~

Maximo park, market tavern, hove 19 july 2005

In a torrent of tumult smith side-parted the waves.
He was on the crest and the cusp.
We looked into the future.
Heads held aloft and looking left field.
Keyboardist extolling us to play our cards right.
Always “higher!”, “higher!”
He was jumped up.
We were too.
Hairstyles picked with a fine toothcomb.
But we waded through mud.
Shame! I hollered at the soundist.
Smith’s prose deserved better than this.
The horrors of a hometown.
No place to have your heart rent asunder.
But we went halfers on the billingham.
He had to leave somehow before they ran him out of town.
We felt the pain, felt the shame, apportioned no blame.
Smith played in the bemusement arcade.
Black suit, red shoes, blue heart.
A bitter shanty and two sea shandies were the order of the night.
Don’t. Ask. Me. Ask me. Ask me.
The toppermost beckoned.
A minor seventh seduced us.
We lost our heeds, we were all over the shop.
For a b-side encore?
Provincial sophistry still won hands down though but.
We were up.
All night.
Extolling the virtues of the outsider.
Smith left his mark...
Click To Buy.

2005-08-03T10:37:00.000+01:00

~~Robert Plant - Song To The Siren.mp3~~

Siren - A sea nymph whose singing lured sailors to destruction on the rocks, well according to greek mythology anyway. I have always held a strange attraction for dangerous women well when I say dangerous I don't mean in a serial killer or bunny boiler kinda way, more like mysterious edgy dark type of thing like they are holding a secret but your not quite sure what. I've always been getting involved with woman I shouldn't even in school like the time my English teacher..........erm well that's another story.

Song To The Siren was originally recorded by This Mortal Coil in 1984 but only reached number 66 in the charts over here, Im not sure if it was successful anywhere else. Despite its lack of popularity it has been covered by every man and his dog ranging from hard house classics by Lost Witness to rock ballards like Robert Plant's version. Plant manages to transform the original from a classy still poetic tearjerker into a full on emotional rollercoaster full of love, hope, despair and rejection all portrayed through his array of vocal talent.

When I first heard Song To The Siren I was going through some difficulty with one of my ex's(well when I say difficulty I mean she called me a cheating lying bastard and that I should never contact her again). May I just say that her accusations were totally unjustified and I had never cheated and I think she was just using this as an excuse to dump me and still keep the moral high ground.

So I was feeling very emotional sitting in my room a bottle of Jim Beam in one hand and a razorblade in the other...you know how it goes then to top it all off on the radio after a splurge of the typical love songs (you know the ones that always seem to be playing during any break up) up pops this one.... Song To The Siren the icing on the cake. A song about declaring your undying love to someone only to have them fling it right back in your face whilst jumping up and down, over and over again on your heart until it splatters and drains until there is nothing left and getting endless joy from doing so in the process, I think I was on suicide watch for a week after that. It was also the only time I have ever wept after listening to a song although that's probably more to do with my state of mind than anything else. Click here to buy.

2005-08-02T14:42:00.000+01:00

~~Gregory Abbott - Shake You Down.mp3~~

Driving through the southern counties of England last weekend, I was fiddling with the FM radio tuning knob as you do - drifting from local station to local station - when I came across a new one on me ... "Radio Smooth". The music was smooth, the adverts were smooth and the DJ's were smarm-dripping velvety vocal-chord merchants who doubled up as Disney voice-over men. (And with such sincerity too). I listened through the melange of nice, warm, sweet songs. Feeling 'Mmm Mmm'; it was like pissing in the swimming pool. Sweeter than a baby possum dipped in golden syrup.

Anyway, I got to thinking that I never seem to post any smooth music on this 'ere blog. It invariably seems to be edgy stuff from me. Or stuff that's rougher than a bear's arse. Loud or gruff, or full of funny (peculiar and ha-ha) angular statements. Could this say something about me? I mean, my old compatriot London Lee at No 1 Songs In Heaven effortlessly posts songs that are smoother than a bucket of snake shit drizzled in finest Tuscan olive oil. How come such smoothness doesn't come naturally to me? I mean, it wasn't as if I was abused as a child; I was always in bed by the time my Dad came home from the pub. I like to think I'm a well-rounded individual. (I also received adequate counselling following the incident with the chicken).

Well, I've found a bona fide smooth one for you! A US male vocalist called Gregory Abbott. Hang on a minute while I Google him in ... http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/abbott_gregory/bio.jhtml seems to encapsulate the fellow quite nicely. I do like the idea that he coined the term "Groove Ballad". I mean how fuckin' smooth is that? Not only that (but much like meself), "Gregory is a favourite with the ladies for his sophisticated demeanor and intelligent green eyes". It also says here that "Shake You Down" went to number one on the Billboard pop, R&B and dance singles charts, and was the number three Pop Song of the Year in the magazine's year-end review of 1986. The platinum single became the fastest song in the history of BMI to reach one million airplays, and won BMI's Pop Song of the Year award as the most performed song.

Well, there you go. The evidence is as clear as a bulldog's testes; ... I think it's smooth - and so did loads of other folk! Consequently, by definition, ipso facto, I must be 1 smooth mutha ... with soulful strength and intensity too! I'm happy now - I feel like King Kong on 'Free Banana Night'.

Next week, I'll mostly be posting The Slits. Also if you would like to purchase some more of this old smoothie click here.

2005-08-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

~~Rudimentary Peni - Blissful Myth.mp3~~
~~Rudimentary Peni - Flesh Crucifix.mp3~~

1985. Age: 14. First day of a new term at boarding school involved two events without fail. The bad,,, handing over the majority of my newly aquired spending money to pay off last terms poker debts. And the good,,, my "music friends" and i sharing our holiday musical finds.

When Tommo handed me his vinyl copy of Death Church, i knew from the mad glint in his eye that he had been looking forward to seeing my reaction since the day he had first discovered it in his local second hand record shop.
Tommo was a dangerous character at the best of times, many others feared him, but the fact that we used to listen to Never Mind The Bollocks full blast on the common room hi-fi whilst pogoing and throwing chairs around meant that i had a bond with him. He would never direct his twisted psychotic tendencies towards me.

When i looked at the sleeve i instantly knew why HE had bought it. Deranged pen and ink drawings of starving christ's, skeletal popes, "animal carcasses" and "shit coffins!". I was 14 years old and at that point the most dangerous music i had ever heard was Orgasm Addict on my Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady cassette.

I don't think i paid much attention to the lyrics at the time, -though could it be coincidence that it took me about 12 years to propose to my ~~girlfriend~~ fiance?- i just loved the fact that the sound of the record was like something from another world. Here i was in a catholic public school, singing in the choir at sunday mass but all the while thinking about practicing my electric guitar along to The Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Clash,, and now The Rudes, instead of doing my homework- or prep as it was called back then.

I didn't know who Nick Blinko was, or that he was struggling with mental illness, suffering from delusions that he was "Pope Adrian 37th"... all this sensational info i discovered this week after doing the obligatory blogger google thang. But it didn't matter. Like DVD says, here at the wife we are interested in the music that mattered to us along the way. Fuck the facts,, just listen up.
Are you all enjoying our new found personal approach?

I bumped into Tommo a few years after we had escaped the confines of the British public school system. He was living in a house with a front door without any locks or keys. You just booted the front door to gain entry. We talked for an hour or two whilst consuming the entire contents of his fridge... a huge bowl of vodka jelly. after which he smashed an acousic guitar on his head, then gave me a lift into town. That was 1991. I haven't seen him since. You can click here to buy the album.

2005-07-29T12:02:00.000+01:00

DVD: ~~The Vapors - News At Ten.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Orange Juice - Rip It Up.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~The Little Flames - Skinny Bones (live).mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Rilo Kiley - August.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Warren G And Nate Dogg - Regulate.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-07-28T11:48:00.000+01:00

~~Clor - Stuck In A Tight Spot.mp3~~

Above Audio, brighton, wed 27th july.

Just back.
Suffering post traumatic clor disorder.
Body still jerking and juddering.
Shooting off at tangents.
They were all there:
Flaming lips.
Devo.
Zappa.
Television.
Arcade fire.
And yes, even yes, jon anderson trilling and shrilling.
Swilled around like a fine wine.
Shot out sideways.
Got down to the we don’t want a hit single vibes.
Down on jollity farm.
Uneasy listening for the iOdd generation.
We are jazz rockist.
Fretting up and down.
Hunched shoulders.
Fingers akimbo.
Keyboardist working on checkout at lidl.
You got a nectar card?
He was scanning.
We were spazzing.
Shoes speak volumes.
Sneakers I espied.
But aye, there be a power pop chorus rearing it’s photogenic heed.
Short and suite.
A treat.
Clor, clor, clor.
How do you like it?
How do you like it?
Clor, clor, clor.

Billy bangs
Over and out.

2005-07-27T11:09:00.000+01:00

~~Thievery Corporation (feat. Perry Farrell) - Revolution Solution.mp3~~

There's a non-specific genre of music, a kind of easy-listening that's seemingly become so bland and inoffensive it can slither it's way into high street boutiques, designer boozers and thirty-something dinner parties...bizarrely at odds with how 'urban,' sexual and edgy it once set out to be...

Reflect on Tricky and his darkest of materials, consider how he's unwittingly soundtracked a thousand dinner party conversations about birkenstocks and farmer's markets...accompanied by a robust Chilean Pinot Noir and a drizzle of truffle oil...and perhaps a 'naughty' spliff in the kitchen.

Or, dig (if you will) the picture of a 'hip' urban bar, an industrial themed place in a newly gentrified plot of town, all cocktails and banquettes, a cigar room and... Hark! Isn't that Goldfrapp's latest clot of crispy tissues?

Casting my mind back about a decade and there I was working in a bargain bookshop....the manager was off (having liposuction of the head) so I blissfully took control of the shop stereo...off goes 'We're Pan-piping Xmas' and on comes the first Portishead album. Hard to believe how 'out there' it once was...I'd just had a 'naughty' spliff in the stock room and was bumbling merrily around stacking shelves, feeling all Gen-X and subversive, as Ms Gibbons emoted like a sick harpy over those underwater beats...thinking "this'll freak the punters out, but care not I, for I am the pompous postgrad student in jobslum nirvana"...and up comes this old wifey of about 70 asking where she can get the 'canny' music that's playing? Curses, foiled again!

Could it be that the underground has become the mainstream? Or that the ascent of irony-boosted easy-listening has elevated the inoffensive to the hip? Or do bars, shops and restaurants simply need subdued but cool background music and there's nowt wrong with that? Or are all of the named artists just great 'cause they have the gift for melody and commercial suss that is the basic prerequisite of pop success? Or has Patrick Bateman morphed into Nathan Barley? So why do I still like it all? Is just that I'm getting old? And shouldn't I have written this crap about eight years ago when it may have still been relevant?

Affirmative to all of the above, gentle reader...and while I'm at it, may I commend to you the latest Thievery Corporation platter...off the wonderful 'The Cosmic Game' soundtrack to buying the missus a handbag. Can't help loving it...as international a blend of sounds as you're likely to get on one album...Cape Verdean singers and Indian percussionists ply their trade alongside big name guests like The Flaming Lips and David Byrne, all contributing to the multicultural din. That's Perry Farrell in there too...he's talking about a revolution, you know...

Mmmm....is this veal organic?

2005-07-26T10:10:00.000+01:00

~~Long John Baldry - Let The Heartaches Begin.mp3~~

An undeniably important figure in the history of British popular music, the folk, jazz and blues singer "Long John" Baldry passed away last weekend (aged 64) in Vancouver General Hospital, Canada.

Born John William Baldry, 'Long John' ( he was 6' 7") inspired Eric Clapton to play the blues and famously spotted a young Rod Stewart busking outside a London tube station and took him under his wing. Baldry started his career playing folk and jazz in the 1950s and became one of London's most respected music figures. He went on to become one of the founding fathers of British Rock 'n' Roll in the 1960s and appeared at The Cavern in Liverpool, becoming friends with Paul MacCartney.

Baldry was invited to perform on the Beatles' internationally televised special "Around the Beatles" in 1964, along with P J Proby and Cilla Black. He performed with influential British bands Blues Incorporated, and Cyril Davies' R&B All Stars in the 60s. Later, he fronted the Hoochie Coochie Men - who included Rod Stewart - who later joined Baldry in Steam Packet, also featuring keyboardist Brian Auger and singer Julie Driscoll. He went solo after a brief period with Bluesology, which featured Elton John on keyboards. (Indeed a young Reg Dwight took the name 'John' along with Elton (Dean) to come up with stage name Elton John).

Long John's only Number 1 in the UK - 'Let The Heartaches Begin' - is featured here. Written by the all-conquering Macaulay and McLeod, it was a massive orchestrated balled that had fierce competition for the top spot back in 1967. Although looking back now (as an old cynic) it can easily be considered as gloopy and of it's time, it was amongst the first ever vinyl given to me as a young child. It quickly helped me realise the intense emotion that could be poured into a 3 minute pop record.

After emigrating to Canada in the early 1980s he recorded for EMI Music, and since 1991 recorded five albums for Stony Plain Records in Edmonton, Alberta. The label is set to re-release Baldry's Warner Bros. albums, It Ain't Easy and Everything Stops for Tea, in the autumn. Perhaps that might be brought forward now? Since the early '90s, he was also known in Canada for his extensive voice work in commercials. He received a Grammy nomination in '98 for his work with Disney and old pal Elton John. Just to prove there's life after pop stardom, he also narrated on Winnie The Pooh recordings for Disney and was the voice for Robotnik on the popular Sonic The Hedgehog computer game.

More tributes can be found at http://www.johnbaldry.com/

2005-07-25T11:54:00.000+01:00

~~Public Enemy - She Watch Channel Zero.mp3~~

Following the vibe of Devilfish’s Disposable Heroes post this is another song that seems even more fitting today, in a world of reality TV shows where people-watching has moved on from the scripted soap to the horror of programmes such as Big Brother, where cable telly is a norm in most households and having only four channels seems cheap and laughable. From the very fine album It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back this catchy tune samples the crazed guitar lick from Slayer’s “Angel of Death” from their very fine album Reign in Blood

If the buzzing guitars and static aren’t enough to conjure up images of the minions of darkness beaming evil messages through the airwaves, then Chuck D and Flavor Flav’s lyrics hammer the point home. A nation of mindless zombies glued to their sets escaping the day to day reality into the glitz of TV land. Every day, every week, chewing their food to veg away hours of their lives watching the pap that drones on into the wee small hours, living the dream in their heads. “You’re blind, baby…”
(Click here to buy from AmazonUK)

2005-07-22T14:50:00.000+01:00

DVD: ~~Fats Domino - Be My Guest.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Sly And Robbie - Boops.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Johnny Cash - Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord).mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Disposable Heores Of Hiphoprisy - Television The Drug Of The Nation.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~David Shrigley - Don'ts.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-07-21T17:00:00.000+01:00

~~Luke Temple - Old New York.mp3~~

It's nearly a year since i posted Luke Temple's Make Right With You. I first heard it at Pitchfork's mp3s page last year, and immediately tracked down the EP from which it came. And was glad i did. But of course my insatiable appetite demanded more and the album was still not out for months and months.
The advance mp3 of a forthcoming album track, Old New York, on Millpond Records site only made things worse, as it was the best track i had heard yet by Mr Temple.

Then at some point earlier this year another mp3 Someone, Somewhere showed up on Luke's Millpond page and i had yet another reason to want the album. I was growing more impatient all the while, especially as the charms of all the tracks i had heard to date were not fading, but were becoming constant companions who i would introduce to anybody who would listen.

I don't really know what's taken me so long to get around to posting a track of the album. Maybe hearing the tracks one at a time over a few months sort of ruined that first listening experience a little. Remember the old days when you used to have to go and buy the thing before you could hear any of it! That first virgin listen doesn't come around so much what with more and more labels (or blogs) offering a freebie or two to get you hooked...
Over the last couple of months the dust has settled and i would recommend the album to anybody, especially if you like that early Paul Simon voice that Luke does so well...

Now i am waiting to see if he will make his way across to the UK for a few shows at some point.

There are currently 4 tracks from the album up at Millpond...
Private Shipwreck (4.98 mb)
To All My Good Friends, Goodbye (7.69 mb)
Someone, Somewhere (3.2mb)
Make Right With You (4.47mb)

(click here to buy from Millpond)

2005-07-20T11:18:00.000+01:00

~~Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day And John Coltrane.mp3~~

Woah!... If you are checking back to see if you're gonna get another installment of reckless poisernal information overload i regret to tell you that i ain't goin there, alls i'm sayin is that i was a late starter due to a youth spent in preposterous victorian segregated schooling, and when the moment eventually came my way, it was more of a Napalm Death - you suffer.mp3 "lets get this over with" type thing than a sensuous Marvin soundtracked marathon.

... so in an attempt to please those punters who just hoover up the mp3 goodies, and must be fairly fuckin' bemused by old Hazel and Roxytits (especially if they haven't been reading as the wife gradually morphs into the readers pages of Razzle), here's one of the greats.

Have any of you's seen Gil Scott-Heron live?

My mate who first introduced me to Gil has had tickets a couple of times to see him in the 90's. But apparently he didn't use to turn up that frequently. My mate didn't mind that much 'cos his band do their thing anyway and he tells me his fans accept that when you buy your ticket, you are only buying a possibility of seeing him and they were still good nights.

I ripped this track from 1990's Glory compilation which is fantastic for those looking for a way of getting to know Gil's recordings. Unfortunately it doesn't have any tracks from the early poetry and percussion album Small Talk At 125th & Lenox. I think the earliest track on there is probably the essential The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (the Pieces Of A Man version with the band, which is also where Lady Day... originally came from). You already know that version right? With a groove supplied by Ron Carter on bass and Bernard Purdie on drums.
When Bernard Purdie was playing on a session he would set up a couple of screens on either side of his kit in the studio. On one was written "you gone done it" and on the other "you hired the hitmaker!"
There are 26 tracks on there taking you right up to the early '80's and they have ALL got something to offer. Do yourself a favour and click here to buy it, you won't regret it.

2005-07-19T15:57:00.000+01:00

~~Roxette - It Must Have Been Love.mp3~~

Following from DVD yesterday I thought I would tell of sexual encounter of a dirty kind. One of my first girlfriends was one of those Tom Boy types infact she looked a bit like roxette only a bit meaner and she was a brunette too, I think I only started seeing her for protection as she used to be pretty good at kickboxing and most of the Boys were scared of her nevermind the girls.

We had been courting (dating for our american counterparts) for about 3 months when suddenly
the moment had come we were left alone in the house without any parents and guaranteed not to be disturbed for at least several hours. I remember thinking to myself go on son you can do it afterall this is what you have been waiting for the holy grail, the golden fleece, a chance to drink from the furry cup, it was the time for me to become a man.

I started planning my strategy, how should I make my move? should I play it cool.....then wham WHAT THE...bash I looked up to notice I had been pinned to the floor,I was being attacked by a wild beast all I can remember is seeing these huge breasts hurtling towards my face. Then before I could take a breath they were upon me like Mike Tysons fist pounding my mouth whilst I gasped and struggled for air, first I was struck by the left then the right, left, right, left, left, I was taking one hell of a beating.

After surviving the first round I was in a bit of daze however I didn't have much time to reflect as I was soon battling for survival a second time, before I could say Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt my pants had long dissapeard and by now she had my full attention if you know what I mean "wink wink" anyway I knew if I was gonna survive I would have to take charge. I fought my way to the top just to find myself being pinned for the second time, by now I new I had lost and decided to give in and let her have her evil way it will all be over soon I kept telling myself and I was right I wont go in to anymore details but just to let you know that girl could of sucked a tennis ball through a hosepipe. The first thing I remember afterwards was the song playing on the radio and the first line I heard was It Must Have Been Love, but its over now, its all that I wanted now I lost it somehow.

Its funny how that sort of thing happens and the lyrics could not have been more meaningful to me at the time, it's like when you finish a relationship and every song on the radio seems to be about breakups and love. If it dosen't kill you it will make you stronger is what my old pa used to say to me when I was a kid, I never really knew what he meant until that time. Click to Buy.

2005-07-18T13:30:00.000+01:00

~~Hazel O'Connor - Will You?.mp3~~

As you know very well by now, here at 'Last Night ..' we fell off the rock snob pedestal a long long time ago. A song has to mean something to us; and it's a bonus if it's any good!

And so to the song I recall whilst enjoying my first ... blow-job!

I was fairly young and desperately naive recipient. (You know the one about thinking cunnilingus was an Irish airline, well to me, fellatio was a type of Italian pizza).

At the time, it didn't matter much to me that the slightly odd Hazel O'Connor couldn't sing very well. I did know however, that opportunity was knocking and I couldn't look a gift horse (or moose) in the mouth, or .. 'just politely .. say goodnight'.

The saxaphone solo in this is particularly apt. It's unfortunate that it lasted far longer than I did.
So, get your thinking caps on dear reader - I want you to play this at home. As music is the back-drop to our lives, tell us which song re-opens your Oh What A Night sluices? It could be your first (pardon the pun) full blown sexual experience, or drunken knee-trembler, or (if you're a little more shy, your first kiss. (On the bell-end or otherwise)).
Pulp, Bobby Goldsboro, The Sutherland Bros, and The Four Seasons all recall the first time - how about you? Go on, life's too short.

Let your mind wander back. Do you smile or wince at the memory? What was the soundtrack as you leapt from the wardrobe or fumbled in the shadows? Leave a deposit in the comments box.

Meanwhile, buy some Hazel O'Connor here

2005-07-15T14:40:00.000+01:00

Griff: ~~Burning Pilot - You Can't Kid A Kidder.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Doobie Brothers - For Someone Special.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Thomas Dolby - Hyperactive.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~BB King - The Thrill Is Gone.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~The Levellers - Fifteen Years.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-07-14T14:25:00.000+01:00

~~The Servant - Biro.mp3~~

Taken from the "with the invisible" mini album, from 2001. Dan Black has been writing great songs for years now, but the fame and fortune that many who knew him predicted would just fall into his lap, still hasn't materialised.The name of the band is taken from the classic british flick of the same name, and on this track it makes sense why. Whilst sat at his office desk, with phone on his ear, Dan fantasizes about smashing his bosses head in with a rock ("i shut that cock up, with a rock, non stop in his face"). It's funny, claustrophobic, and desperate all at once.(click here to buy from amazon UK)

2005-07-13T13:56:00.000+01:00

~~Horace Silver - Song For My Father.mp3~~

Take a good look at the gent in the picture...none other than John Tavares Silver, the 'Father' the song's dedicated to...check the hat, cigar, tie; conclude that if dictionaries had pictures you'd find him right there, under 'dapper.'

Old John Boy hails from the Cape Verde Islands, and had a bit of a pedigree himself, playing violin and guitar at the parties that must have exposed Junior to all kinds of music...helping to set him on his way to becoming one of the all time great jazz pianists. Find out more about Horace Silver here.

According to Horace, this tune has a flavour of these childhood days, which is why he dedicated it to his dad. It also has "...the authentic bossa nova beat. Not just the monotonous tick-tick-tick,tick-tick, the way it's usually done..."

Not knowing an authentic bossa nova beat from a casio-tone one, I'll have to take his word on that...but one thing I do know is that this track's just got something I keep going back too, as does the album which is a bona fide classic. Get it here, and really start enjoying the summer...

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Steely Dan...

2005-07-12T11:01:00.000+01:00

Devendra Banhart - At The Hop.mp3

From being homeless on the streets of San Fransico going from squat to squat and supporting himself through busking on the street corners to well on his way to mega stardom. Devendra has found himself the talk of the town with his sixties style pyschadelic folk and mesmorising song writing ability he is set for the top. With comparisons made to people like Cat Stevens and alike he truly deserves all the hype and accolades attributed to him. It's refeshing to hear a new sound and I for one is digging it, the new album cripple crow will be released in september and you can check out a few of the tracks here in the meantime you can gorge yourself on this his previous album Nino Rojo at young god records.

This album is a perfect accompaniment for chilling out on a summers evening in the garden with a few friends sipping the odd glass of pimms enjoying the social banter and winding down after a hard day at the office. Devendra is currently on tour are here are some of the venues you can catch him at, I already have my tickets I'll see you there.

2005-07-08T13:38:00.000+01:00

Iggy: ~~Shane MacGowan and The Popes - That Woman's Got Me Drinking.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~Limmie And The Family Cookin' - You Can Do Magic.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Babyshambles Fuck Forever.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~The Smiths - Well I Wonder.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~The Clash - Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-07-07T14:59:00.000+01:00

As we are UK-based, we feel that we must comment on the horrific atrocities carried out today in London. Our hearts reach out to the families (in particular the children) and friends of the innocent people killed and maimed as they simply went about their daily business. We have the strength to get through this.

Glenn Jones - One Jack Rose (That I Mean).mp3

2005-07-06T16:21:00.000+01:00

~~Clifford T Ward - Home Thoughts From Abroad.mp3~~

Here's a fellow I think you should know about. Musicians that have raved about Clifford T. Ward's unique talent include: Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Tim Rice, and the like. And yet he remains largely under-rated. Well I'm no musician and I don't know much, but I knows what I like!

Born in Worcestershire, England, singer-songwriter Clifford T. Ward studied literature and this track - "Home Thoughts From Abroad" - re-interprets the Browning poem - substituting Browning’s gentle romanticism for monochrome 1970s British domesticity. As a boy, I found the song spellbinding - and still do today. His enduring storytelling is simple yet complex, aching yet jaunty, sad yet joyful. Much like his life.

In '62 Ward formed a beat band - Cliff Ward and The Cruisers. Popular in Birmingham they were also on demand at American Army bases in France and during a long spell abroad Ward wrote 'Home Thoughts ..'. He had married his childhood sweetheart and with 2 children, money was tight. As Ward recalls: ..'The other men were able to pocket their money and have nights out in Paris. I would mail my money to my wife to help pay the rent and feed the kids'.

The song is from the album of the same name released on the Charisma label in April 1973. One of the other tremendous tracks released from that album - ‘Gaye’ reached 8 in the UK singles chart. (The string arrangement tears you up). Sadly, he became an enigmatic one-hit hero, yet continued to write and record (with a certain peace and purity), but ironically reluctant to travel far from home, he made fewer and fewer performances. In 1984 he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and despite the frustration of his growing disability he continued to write and record at his home studio. He released his last album 'Julia and Other Stories' in 1994. "I'm like a bat" he said at the time, "I function best at night, but I had to make some of it on all fours!" Clifford T Ward died of pneumonia at Christmas 2001.

There are a quite a few albums to check out. The compilation 'Gaye And Other Stories' is highly rated and can be bought here. There are some cracking tribute sites on the net too.

So, all you thrusting indie/punky/hip-hoppin crazee mothers, if there's still room for carefully crafted lyrics and beautiful melody in your life then - homesick or not - find 3 minutes of complete peace and quiet ... and listen.

2005-07-05T10:40:00.000+01:00

~~G. G. Allin - No Rules.mp3~~

This article in the LA Times the other day got me thinking a lot about the "unwritten rules of blogging".

For any mp3 blogger there are maybe one or two golden rules that can't be broken, like posting whole albums for instance.
There are obvious reasons for this that are more to do with self preservation rather than blogger ethics. If you posted the whole Bloc Party album then you are probably gonna get yourself one of those cease and desist orders. And i imagine that we would all think "Rightly so".

Another rule states that you can't blog what other people have already blogged. What? Even if it has been taken down from the original site? What's the logic behind that (other than blogger egotism)?
If you post a track by a particular artist, whether you heard it first from another blog or were the first to unearth a hidden gem, aren't you helping the artist to find a wider audience? Supposedly the reason that many claim that they do this every day.
I know for sure from the e-mails that i receive from artists submitting their music for consideration that i have never come across an e-mail stating "i was going to ask you to support me and my music, but IndieKid at MusicBlog already mentioned me, so please don't promote me in any way, thank you".
Although if you do re-blog it would be polite to credit the source with a link.

Another rule that i think i can safetly say all of us at "the wife" reject is that of only posting unheard of rarities.
Andre Wiesmayr of Bumrocks may take a cynical view of this populist approach, claiming that "There's no reason for half of these sites to exist.." but we say "NO!" to elitist blog snobbery of the "my records are rarer than your records" type. Don't get me wrong, i love erm.. Bumrocks (on a daily basis) but if you don't want to read someone spouting off about how much they love Nirvana then it's easy... don't click on them. There is plenty of room for everyone out here, and people sharing their listening habits (whatever they may be) has got to be a good thing, hasn't it?
An interesting point to add here is that it's the tracks that you would imagine everybody might already know that clock the biggest downloads from our server, which tells you something about what people choose to click on.
And anyway, in these times of faster and faster connections why can't we listen to tunes that we have loved but maybe haven't played for a while... like a radio show with a quality playlist rather than an obscuro music lesson.

Anyway, i always thought the best thing about mp3 blogs is that there are NO RULES, there's room for everybody to do it... however they want to.

2005-07-04T14:48:00.000+01:00

~~Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit(Tricky Remix).mp3~~

Southern trees bare a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.These poignant words were written in the late 30's by liberal, Jewish, New York educator Abel Meeropol (under the name of Lewis Allan) as a song to protest one of the worst examples of human behavior - the lynch mob. In 1939, singer Billy Holiday recorded these words in what would become her signature piece until the end of her all-too-brief life. With strange fruit it could be argued that billie holiday was the first protest singer of modern times, the song is a deep and powerful interpretation of these dark and tragic stains on humanity. Never has a song been sung with such passion and ease that makes even the most dim-witted hick able to grasp the meaning.

Tricky has managed somehow to add an extra darkness that excenuates the true horror of the bodies swinging in the trees in what surely must be one of the most brutal times in the history of mankind which is really saying something when you take everything into consideration. Everytime I listen to this track I get a cold shiver that shoots through my body as the lyrics combine with the coldness and honesty of Billie's voice that burns mental images in to your soul and makes you wear them like a scar. To buy this track please click along with many others then you can click here.

2005-07-01T10:58:00.000+01:00

Iggy: ~~Tricky - evolution revolution love.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~The Young Knives - Working Hands.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Adam Green - Jessica.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~The Jam - Just Who Is The 5 O Clock Hero?.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~Janice Ian - At Seventeen.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-06-30T11:34:00.000+01:00

~~Samuel Purdey - Lucky Radio.mp3~~

Looking back on the summer of '96 I don't remember much. Late nights and late (liquid) lunches. A few games of pool then on to the darts. Heady days indeed!

Then one day a small package dropped through the letter-box. Before my music journo flatmate (to whom it was addressed) could get to it I ripped it open to see what delight had been brought our way this time. The new Spacehog single perhaps, or Kula Shakers latest peace offering?
Or maybe, just maybe, something we'd never heard of, something unbelievable.

I slipped the CD out of the envelope, and yes, it was something new; a band yet to be discovered by the music bis masses. The words Samuel Purdey jumped off the cover in great swirly seventies type. It looked beautiful.

We opened the CD player and flung the first Bluetones album across the room, chucked in the Purdey CD and pressed play.
Wow! What the hell! It was perfect.

Instantly we were transported. Driving down the Malibu highway in a Mustang convertible, the wind ruffling through our beards. It was 1973 and we were on our way to see our favorite band Steely Dan play the Hollywood bowl. The chicks were giggling away on the back seat but we were transfixed by Silky Pete on S.O.F.T. fm.
"That was Lucky Radio by new boys Samuel Purdey. Next up, The Doobies."

Suddenly we were back in London.
"What happened?" I said.
"I don't know, but I've got a feeling it's gonna be a great summer."
"I think your right."
"Fancy a game of darts?"
"You bet."
(click here to buy from NetSoundsMusic)

2005-06-29T12:01:00.000+01:00

~~Linda Perhacs - Chimacum Rain.mp3~~

"I'm spacing out, I'm seeing silences between leaves..."

I saw Antony And The Johnsons last night at the Academy 3 in Manchester. It was an intimate experience (admittedly shared with about 250 others). The way that Antony talked openly to the audience, sometimes mid song, made the show feel like a private audience with Antony at his home.
One particularly surreal moment was when he refused to play the next song unless we booed him. When the audience obliged, he coyly pretended to be horrified. Of course the boos and hisses quickly turned into double applause...

This morning i find myself looking for more intimate musical pleasures which leads me to Linda Perhacs. This is the opening track from Linda Perhacs great ~~lost~~ found album Parallelograms [1970].
After Parallelograms was released Linda disappeared for a couple of decades. The album was re-issued in her absence but the quality was poor since it was remastered from a vinyl pressing. Luckily though Linda re-appeared recently with the original studio master tapes and Parallelograms is now available in all it's glory replete with bonus tracks and demos.

Linda has been into the studio again this year to re-record the track Parallelograms...

"All these years I have known that we did not yet have the necessary equipment or the technology musically to do “Parallelograms” to it’s full extent. This spring, 2005, Ron Shore (www.musiccomposer.com) of LA helped me to realize this dream by using today’s equipment to re- do this title song. It is amazing!!! And, it is finally what I saw interiorly years ago when I created this piece. I do hope to release this cut very soon. Ron is a genius and this new “Parallelograms 2005” using today’s equipment and surround sound has sounds that are really both wild and wonderful! And, they are exactly the sounds I originally envisioned years before this equipment was available. The middle part of “Parallelograms 2005” really goes out into the universe and you go with it as the sound creates circles and semi circles and parallel sounds all around you- it is kind of a journey in the ethereal and the beautiful; sometimes a bit eerie, yes, but it has harmony and a soft ethereal quality that leads you out with a cadence of rhythmic guitars and voicings. It was always meant to be a composition of multi- dimensional sound, color and forms and light. (Earphones are a MUST!)
Soon, I hope to complete a Visual Journey to go with it via DVD---"

I was undecided about whether to post the title track, but i couldn't resist the Chimacum Rain, because of the multitracked "rains" that come pouring over each other in the chorus'... Exquisite!
(click here to buy Parallelograms from AmazonUK)

2005-06-28T17:25:00.000+01:00

~~Billy Fury - Wondrous Place.mp3~~

The £44,000 bronze statue of Billy Fury, a project conceived by Peter and Lynda Keller, and achieved by six years of fund-raising by the Sound Of Fury fan club, was unveiled in the Museum of Liverpool Life on Easter Saturday, 19th April 2003. It was the magical, vulnerable quality that Billys voice projected which convinced impresario Larry Parnes to put the young Liverpudlian deckhand on stage the same night he gatecrashed a dressing room audition in 1958 and forced Marty Wilde (who's guitarist believe it or not was none other than Liverpool legend Jimmy Tarbuck) to listen to his song. So impressed was Parnes that he swiftly plucked Billy from his job on the Mersey tugboats, Billy (real name Ronald Wycherley) became a bequiffed figure in pink suits and silk shirts. It was something that austere post-war Britain had seen only in grainy images from America, where Fury went on to hobnob with the likes of Elvis. Buy this true rock 'n' rollers best tracks right here.

2005-06-27T14:14:00.000+01:00

~~Monty Python - Every Sperm Is Sacred.mp3~~

From the 1983 film 'The Meaning Of Life'. Available from all good tobacconists and also here.

2005-06-24T12:28:00.000+01:00

Griff: ~~The Rakes - Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep).mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Kyu Sakamoto - Sukiyaki.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Hall And Oats - Las Vegas Turnaround.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Babe Instinct - Disco Babes From Outer space.mp3~~ [buy it]
DVD: ~~Stiff Little Fingers - Silver Lining.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-06-23T16:15:00.000+01:00

~~Jackson C. Frank - blues run the game.mp3~~

For a brief moment in the mid 60’s some people thought, what with the current british rock'n'roll boom starring the beatles and the stones as joint headline acts, that the folk singer-songwriter scene was next in line for world domination.
Many of the leading folk scenestars looked up to Jackson C Frank as one of their best performers. He had recently arrived from New York, funded by an $100,500 insurance payout from a school fire that left his body covered with burns and scars when he was 11 years old (he was lucky! 18 of his classmates died).

He was introduced to Paul Simon who asked to record his debut album (~~pictured~~) which was a triumph. Things couldn’t get better, he was driving round town in his Aston Martin - without the bumper sticker that read “my other car is an Bently” (even though it was), but due to the sudden pressures of stardom he developed severe stage-fright (he had recorded all the songs on his debut album in three hours, hidden from view behind studio sound screens).
When the money eventually ran out in ’66 he had become seized with writers bloc and he left a half recorded follow up and headed back to Woodstock.

By ’67 Led Zeppelin and the Who were igniting audiences with the pleasures of electric rock music and the ambitions of the acoustic folk movement fell on deaf ears as even Dylan “sold out” by plugging in his Stratocaster!
However, more profound disasters followed JCF in Woodstock, including divorce, the death of an infant son, and alleged schizophrenia (which Jackson claimed was post traumatic stress).
Blues Run The Game seems to hint at what lay in store with the repeating refrain… “wherever I have gone, the blues have run the game”. At one point he sings “somewhere down the line, I’ll wake up older, and I’ll just stop all my trying”. He ended up homeless on the streets of New York.
He wrote this Blues Run The Game on the crossing from America before his glory days, but listening in retrospect to his wavering voice accompanied by only his gently picking style it sounds chilling.
Read his story in his own words…
Read his story in his friends words…
Read liner notes written by Jackson for the 1978 re-issue.
(click >here to buy Jackson C. Frank from amazon)

2005-06-22T11:30:00.000+01:00

~~Mystery Jets - Zoo Time.mp3~~

Monday morning sees the release of the Mystery Jets second single, On My Feet, on Good & Evil (producer Paul Epworth's new label). If you haven't heard them yet, here's their glorious debut Zoo Time to get you up to speed.

It starts (like the gigs) with a chant of "zoo time, zoo time, zoo time, zoo time..." followed by a 3 minute "intro" comprising of several musical sections that include singer/percussionist Blaine playing homemade pots and pans percussion, more "zoo time, zoo time..." chants, some Jean Michel Jarre type Germanic synth wig outs, and a few bars of what sounds like Yes' "Heart of The Sunrise" (you know, the track that's playing when Gallo walks into the strip bar at the end of Buffalo 66)... When the vocal does eventually come in, after about 3 minutes.. it doesn't hang around for long, it disappears again at about 3 minutes 20 secs. Well, if you will spend your formative years listening to King Crimson and the Floyd.

But the best bit is that it's a riot of creative ideas throughout which is never pompous, and always fun. I mean, even the band can't scream "zoo time, zoo time..." too many times without bursting into hysterics. It's addictive stuff, it's enough to keep you permanently logged on to the forum until the band announce their next free party in their Bedouin Tent down Eel Pie Island way. See ya there...

You can grab a few other Mystery Jets mp3's here, (as well as reading an extensive interview with the band.)

ps. Could this be the first ever review not to mention that Blaine's dad Henry plays guitar?... Oh, fuck!
(click here to buy On My Feet from Amazon UK)

2005-06-21T14:14:00.000+01:00

~~Keith West - Excerpt From A Teenage Opera.mp3~~

Curiouser and curiouser. You can't say we don't bring you a diverse assortment!

What's your first musical memory? This song is one of mine.
In the summer of '67, up my cobbled street - lodged between The Beatles, Tremeloes, curly white hair, short pants and grazed knees - came this oddity.

And, if ever there was an example of a multi-talented, versatile musician being known for just 1 song - then it must be Dagenham's Keith West. For a decade wef 1965, this guy had more fingers in more pies throughout music's grocery store than I have ... er, metaphors!

Perhaps to be best remembered for this song (better known as 'Grocer Jack') is a questionable badge of honour. Kids loved it's pop purity - and so must the many others who helped to make it reach No 2 in the then booming UK charts.

The song has a simple tale - but with many a salutory lesson! Old Grocer Jack, the door-to-door delivery man, hasn't missed a day's work for decades. But, when he doesn't show up one morning ... well ...

I know, I know ... most of you young bloggees were still swimming warm and safe within dad's scrotum back in the 60s. But I wonder, has anyone out there heard this song before? Or do you recall singing along to it? Was it a hit in the US?

Keith West deserved far more commercial success. His pedigree progressed through Mod Soul, R&B, pop/rock psychedelia and West Coast harmonies. He was lead vocalist and tunesmith with bands The In Crowd, Tomorrow (pictured), and Moonrider. You could do worse than seek out his Groups & Sessions Compilation album from here.

2005-06-20T14:05:00.000+01:00

~~Tex Ritter - Rye Whiskey.mp3~~

The most well-versed western singer of any of Hollywood’s singing cowboys was Tex Ritter. Born Woodward Maurice Ritter in Panola County, Texas (the same county where Jim Reeves was born), Ritter was raised with a deep love of western music. When he entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922 he met J. Frank Dobie, Oscar J. Fox, and John Lomax—three of the most noted authorities on cowboy songs, who added further to his knowledge of western music. While studying law in college Ritter had his own weekly radio program, singing cowboy songs. on KPRC in Houston.

In 1933 he released Rye Whiskey, I don't know why but it seems that from the begining of time that drinking whiskey and singing songs go hand in hand, when I try to drink whiskey and sing songs I just get pissed throw up and pass out. Ritter's' Rye Whiskey is a classic boozed up binge of a song that combines his unique dry humour and poignant wit. First he gets you laughing at the old drunk who seems to be getting along merrily with his life and enjoying his love hate relationship he has with the bottle, then you slowly realise that he has lost control of his life and starts slipping further and further in to the clutches of that damn whiskey and then song finishes with the lyrics: Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, you're no friend to me. You killed my poor daddy, God damn you, try me.
You can feel the bitterness and agonising pain that is trapped deep inside as he almost wills himself to suffer the same fate as he fails to break the chain. Try buying an introduction to Tex from here.

2005-06-17T11:05:00.000+01:00

DVD: ~~Ian Dury - my old man.mp3~~ [buy it]
De Fish: ~~Felix Da Housecat - what she wants.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Heart - crazy on you.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~The Durutti Column - jazz.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Fat Larry's Band - zoom.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-06-16T12:53:00.000+01:00

~~Ash Ra Tempel - Bring Me Up.mp3~~

Before creating his Balearic masterwork E2-E4 Manuel Gottsching was the leader of krautrock brain twisters Ash Ra Tempel. A group so far out they thought it would be a good idea to lock themselves in a studio with acid godhead Timothy Leary and a catering service that only served lemonade spiked with LSD.

The album 'Seven Up' proved it was not a good idea. A turned on, tuned out Leary dribbling nonsense into a mike over Ash Ra's fucked up backing sounds great on the first listen, but soon makes you want to run to mommy and cry yourself to sleep.

luckily Gottsching escaped the clutches of the Dr. and recruited the beautiful and little more down to earth Rosi, for the blissed out Ash Ra classic 'Starring Rosi'. A folk/funk delight that gave Manuel a chance to let his wah wah swing free.
It's the last track on the lp 'Bring Me Up', that really makes you wanna pack your bags and set sail to a forgotten isle and watch the sun go down whilst sipping a lemon ice special (Dr T's recipe). Enjoy!
(click here to buy Starring Rosi from AmazonUK)

2005-06-15T11:27:00.000+01:00

~~The Smiths - These Things Take Time.wma~~

"Oh, the alcoholic afternoons...."

Hard to know where to begin with this one...for me this song carries such weight, completely drenched as it is in hormone and memories; stale paperbacks and hair gel, fevery flus and tangerine peelings, teenage sex and cups of tea, that any further attempt to explain its personal significance would bore you all lachrymose.

We all have our (often polarised) opinions on The Smiths and their worth...obviously I'm rather partial to them...and as far as the lyrics are concerned, I think I'll always have a softer spot for the earlier 'Bedsit Romantic' period Morrissey, before the glands of self-parody and archness began to throb...and though Johnny just got better and better, soon to take the music into glorious saturated technicolour and beyond (before sailing off the edge of the world), there's something refreshingly energetic and on-the-nail about the first clutch of offerings.

Those familiar with the song will probably know what I'm talking about...but this version may well be new to you, plucked from the aborted Troy Tate sessions of the first album....notable for an intro that has just a little more attack than what finally surfaced on the indispensible Hatful of Hollow.

Those not yet 'sat in the room' are just a click away from enlightenment.

Drum roll, please...

2005-06-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

~~Squeeze - Some Fantastic Place.mp3~~

Ah, good old reliable Squeeze. These boys were many things over the years, but I guess it was their unpretentious lyrics I was first drawn to. And the baton-carrying for those gritty 'kitchen sink' dramas that first emerged in the smog of late 50s Britain. Squeeze spoke of 'sunlight on the lino' and - after drinking too much - I could relate to that. Yet, they weren't so much young men looking back in anger, as witty, charming, bloke-round-the-corner songsmiths reflecting upon domestic realism. But then, I s'pose it can be hard to touch the stars from Deptford!

The pop and the pathos within tunes such as 'Up The Junction', 'Vanity Fair', 'Cool For Cats' and 'King George St' painted pictures as clear as Dickens's London to me. Perhaps the reason they never had a No1, was that they didn't have an 'image'. Well fuck that ... they had the songs.
Looking back, we shouldn't take Squeeze for granted just because we grew up with them. They had their share of personal battles - as we all do - but like a pair of old slippers, they felt comfortable, warm, inviting and intimate. Even when the old soles came off, they were glued back down and re-formed!

This track, 1993's 'Some Fantastic Place' speaks for itself - and we can find our own personal references within. Written following the tragic death of the lady who had brought Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford together in the first place, it has a fascinating arrangement - given the poignancy of the lyrics. As a loving tribute and a celebration of a life, it does a mighty fine job. Nowhere as well known as 'Tempted', 'Labelled With Love' or 'Black Coffee In Bed' this song (from the album of the same name) came no less than 15 years after the debut single 'Take Me I'm Yours'. Reaching a lowly No 73 in the UK charts, 'Some Fantastic Place' is a sophisticated hidden gem and proved that Tilbrook and Difford had not lost the all-important knack of placing pictures in our minds.

Re-acquaint yourself at the well-tendered www.squeezefan.com , or rekindle the warm feeling and click here to buy from AmazonUK. Have a listen and don't forget to comment before clicking to another blog and discarding us like a spent, used tissue.

2005-06-10T10:55:00.000+01:00

De Fish: ~~Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London.mp3~~ [buy it]
DvD: ~~The Casuals - Jesamine.mp3~~ [buy it]
Iggy: ~~Julian Cope - Out Of My Mindf On Dope And Speed.mp3~~ [buy it]
Dr Johnny: ~~Lloyd Cole And The Commotions - are you ready to be heartbroken?.mp3~~ [buy it]
Griff: ~~Tunng - Beautiful And Light.mp3~~ [buy it]

2005-06-09T11:54:00.000+01:00

~~Ken Stringfellow - The Lovers Hymn.mp3~~

Former posies frontman and an incredibly talented artist but hasn't quite made it through to the mainstream as a solo artist just yet, however he is no relation to Peter so that must be of some consolation for Ken. His voice is both entrancing and gallant, glistening when the song needs it and adding a raw edge when the song needs some grit to shake things up. From the mainly acoustic guitar and vocals of "One Morning" to the pensiveness dance of "Find Yourself Alone," through the spring of "Uniforms," Ken really captures the essence of pop and stamps his name all over it.

The more you listen to the album the more you feel it sinking through your skin before you become completely saturated by it and before you know it you have played it five or six times on the trott. Being an old romantic as I am I have chosen this song as the showpiece, it is beautifully written and makes you believe that true love is still outhere. After you get beyond the throwing up you find this is a great love love song that has a warming subtlety attached. Click here to purchase your copy of the album.

2005-06-08T11:13:00.000+01:00

~~Guevara's Ghost - antitank.mp3~~

One of the pleasures of being an mp3 blogger are the unsolicited e-mails that appear in your in-box containing links to mp3's. They usually start with a paragraph of flattery about your "amazing" blog, but all too often the mp3's turn out to be a real let down. However, when The Raging Family sent us this link to their latest album, the "Black Hole Transmission", most of us at Last Night.. had downloaded and were listening on repeat by the end of the day.

The Raging Family have got a great attitude to sharing music, with hundreds of mp3's available on their site. Whole albums, mash up albums, DJ sets and collaborations... with the instructions "If you like what you hear, blog it, email it, blast it on the radio, burn copies for your friends, this is what the ott's is all about!".
In our usual sluggish way, we didn't get round to blogging the Black Holes before others put it out there first, but if you still haven't heard it yet then you should check it out here.

Today's track is a project called "Guevara's Ghost", and features The Raging Family's Cosmos Corbin producing "one of the west coast’s premier touring tango groups, Mood Area 52."
The mix of hip-hop beats and traditional tango music is unlike anything else in my music collection, and comes repleat with it's own brand new Genre ID3 tag "Ghetto Accordian".

2005-06-07T12:22:00.000+01:00

~~Michael Nesmith - Tengo Amore.mp3~~

Could you tell someone you like their hat without bringing your hand to your head? No! It would be like telling someone you like the Monkees without pointing to the Mike Nesmith statue in the corner of your room. Everyone knows it's there but no-one mentions it.
It may be considered weird to have an unhealthy obsession with Nesmith but sometimes it's just what the doctor ordered.

Having come through The Monkees acid faze with some brain cells left, Michael Nesmith decided to turn his hand to some good ol' country rock, (or should I say, help invent it). Okay, Grams' Burritos had got there first but Nesmith and his wonderfully titled First National Band weren't far behind.

As with most things Michael Nesmith got involved with it was a great success (although not commercially this time). The band made two great albums, Magnetic South, and Loose Salute (where this song comes from).

From Country rock he went on to be one of the pioneers of music TV (cheers for that Mike) and into film production and writing.
Without Mike Nesmith we wouldn't have had many things, and without this track we wouldn't have had a hit from a certain '80's bedsit fave (any guesses? - tune in Friday for the answer).
(click here to buy from AmazonUK)