Song For A Festival

The festival season has kicked off. I have no interest in going to any as I don’t want to camp and don’t fancy watching a band in a muddy field while the rain is pouring down. But I did tune into some of Glastonbury and will do when Reading is on on the TV. One of the TV ‘highlights’ last year was Guns N’ Roses with a band of 'all boxes ticked for the cliché rock star look' and Axl Rose’s painful performance of November Rain. It was hilarious.
So anyway, a song for a festival… Chillout Tent is one of the stand out songs from The Hold Steady’s breakthrough album (well a breakthrough of sorts) Boys And Girls In America. It’s a song about going to a festival taking too much drugs and hooking up with someone in the tent where you get medical attention. I guess that happened a few times at Glastonbury last weekend.

The Sleepy Jackson - Lovers

Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun has had more commercial success Empire of the Sun than he ever did with The Sleepy Jackson, so a third Sleepy Jackson album might not come anytime soon. Their first album Lovers from 2003 is maybe one of my favourite of the last decade. Well its in the top twenty or so. Its an eclectic mix to say the least. Psychedelic, alt-country, 80s synth pop all mixed in along side one another.
When I saw them play a set in Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street they looked like a mixed up band too. The guitarist had a cut down sleeved Guns N’ Roses t-shirt, shades on and was pulling rock star poses, the rhythm section seemed like a couple of surfer dudes that Steele dragged from a beach in western Australia and Luke Steele himself had the looked like a new romantic crossed with Robert Smith. Still whatever, they sounded great.

Download The Sleepy Jackson - Miniskirt mp3 from here.

Great Cover #6 Drive-By Truckers - People Who Died

For the last show stopping encore of a Drive-By Truckers show Patterson Hood will often downs his guitar, grip the mic tight in hand and frantically spit out the first verse of the Jim Caroll song People Who Died - 'Teddy sniffing glue he was 12 years old, fell from the roof on East Two-nine. Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug, on 26 reds and a bottle of wine. Bobby got leukaemia 14 years old., he looked like 65 when he died. He was a friend of mine.'
The band then come in on the chorus, and the song charges along with more verses about friends who’ve died, choruses that get louder and louder and duelling guitar solos. It speeds up and up until it crashes down into a heap. Then just as you think its about to end it goes back into it at an even faster speed. They’re never released a studio version of the song, though it does appear on their early live album Alabama Ass Woopin', and there’s a much better version on their live DVD at The 40 Watt Club which captures it well.

As does this version on Youtube



Get a pretty good live version of the Drive-By Truckers playing People Who Died from here.

Going back To Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

Recently I heard Ryan Adam’s 2000 debut solo album Heartbreaker for the first time in maybe two or three years. Rediscovering a really good album all over again is so satisfying. Heartbreaker was my first introduction to Adams as I didn’t know his previous band Whiskeytown, but I soon did and became a fan.
Then his second album Gold soon followed and although not as good as the debut it was still decent (if patchy). Then their was an album held back by his record company. Then came Demolition and soon after Rock & Roll, neither of which I was taken with. Adams seemed to want to release every song he wrote. I would read interviews where he would state that he’d just finished his second song that day. It was quantity over quantity and like many I was loosing interest in his work. It didn’t help that I saw two really bad live shows by him.
The first was at the Sheppard’s Bush Empire where there was a two minute gap between each song as him and his band fumbled around, tuning up and just not getting on with it.
Then I saw him at the Brixton Academy. He came on late and mumbled for a bit while his band sorted their gear out. He drunkenly rambled between songs, the set was sloppy and the crowd became restless.
Still there’s always that great debut, and on the strength of that I might go and check out some of his later work to see if it matches up to Heartbreaker.

Download Ryan Adams - My Winding Wheel mp3 from here.

Top 3 Neil Young Albums

Do I like Neil Young? Yes. Do I like all, or almost all of his work? No, of course not. Surely even the biggest Neil Young fan doesn’t. Still listening to Fork In The Road or This Note’s For You? In-fact for every good album there are almost as many stinkers. But because of the good albums you can overlook the stinkers because, well he’s Neil Young and he does what he wants to do in his own erratic way.
So Here are my top 3 Neil Young albums:

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Young’s second and the first with Crazy Horse. Only seven songs on it, four of them of decent country-folk but the focal points are the opener Cinnamon Girl and the two long songs that are Cowgirl In The Sand and Down By The River with there improvised jamming. I never get tired of Neil Young’s lead and Danny Whitten’s rhythm guitar interplay on Down By The River.

On The Beach
Tonight’s The Night is often cited as one of his best not just out of the so called ‘doom trilogy’ but out of everything. It’s alright but for me On The Beach is much better. It’s mainly a downbeat album in minor keys, like the excellent title track that has the lyric - ‘I need a crowd of people but I can’t face them day to day.’

Ragged Glory
After a long run of dud albums in the 80s Young gets back with Crazy Horse, cranks up the volume and in 1990 released this loud rocking album. Yes this is an electric guitar record with Young thrashing out solos on his trusty black Gibson and Crazy Horse Doing their minimalist backing band thing, but there are great songs there with loads of catchy choruses.
It’s the album from Neil Young that I play the most.

Great Cover #5 East Hastings

There are so many crap cover songs on Youtube, some by bands in a rehearsal room, some by well known bands (like the Red Hot Chili Peppers doing Subterranean Homesick Blues) or someone in their bedroom with an acoustic guitar. But I came across a very good acoustic guitar in bedroom recording of a Godspeed You Black Emperor song called East Hastings. Its from a Japanese guy that for some reason has a scarf wrapped all around his head and is wearing short shorts. He does a great job of taking such an epic song and scaling it down to a basic acoustic guitar arrangement.

Hüsker Dü - Remastered, Reunion, If Only

Hüsker Dü is on heavy rotation at the moment, and what I’ve noticed is that if any band really needs their back catalogue to be remastered then its Hüsker Dü. Zen Arcade is such a good album but the drums sometimes sound as if they were recorded by one cheep microphone at the other end of the room, the guitar sound is so thin and the bass low in the mix. I can imagine is sounding better on vinyl but it needs a brighter sound on the CD and maybe a remix. Their later albums on a major record label sound better but when I have my ipod on shuffle and something from Candy Apple Grey or Warehouse: Songs and Stories pops up its considerably lower volume than whatever was playing before it.
Hüsker Dü are also the one band that I would like to see on a reunion tour, every other band that broke up ages ago seems to be doing it so why shouldn't they cash in? From what I've read it sounds like Brett Hart and Bob Mould still can’t stand the sight of one another so I don't see a reunion or a remastering of their back catologue happening anytime soon.

Download or preview Husker Du - Pink Turns To Blue mp3 from here.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Ramble Tamble

Sometime around the early to mid part of the last decade I got a copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s greatest hits. The only song I thought that I knew by them was the bouncy one about the end of the world coming called Bad Moon Rising. But when playing it I was surprised just how many more songs I recognised from films or a pub jukebox.
After a few listens of the greatest hits collection it wasn’t enough, so I went the whole way and bought the box-set that contains every song they ever did and a bunch of live recordings. It was money well spent.
The bulk of their work is punchy three minute bar band chugging rock &roll. A perfect soundtrack to drink a beer to. But there’s also a few songs with extended jams that stretch out to seven minutes or so. Like Ramble Tamble that’s filled with memorable riffs, tempo changes and an instrumental part that builds and builds until it breaks down and goes back into the original riff. For me it’s a hidden classic.

Download or preview Creedence Clearwater Revival - Ramble Tamble mp3 from here.

The Devil Has The Best Tunes

There are many songs about the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub or whatever you want to call the big bad red guy with horns. There’s gospel songs about keeping the Devil at bay and loads of old blues songs like Robert Johnson’s Me And The Devil Blues. To Black Sabbath and other hard rock and metal bands. Then there’s death metal that usually celebrates Satanism to Norwegian black metal which took the joke, well let’s say too far.
My favourite song (for today at least) about the dark side is called Living In Sin by the now sadly defunct The Broken Family Band. It’s about falling in love with a Satanist, something we’ve all done right? Well maybe not.
“You’re a devil woman, your heart is black but your body drives me crazy.
You’re a sick satanic lady, you’re full of hate and I just love that.”

Download or preview The Broken Family Band - Living In Sin from here.

Otis Gibbs - Get Me Out Of Detroit

Otis Gibbs is a county/folk songwriter from Indiana. The first time that I was ever aware of him was when I saw him playing at What’s Cookin’ in Leytonstone. I only caught the last three or four songs but I heard enough to make me by his album Granpa Walked A Picket Line. As the title suggests Gibbs is somewhat of a politically left leaning activist. In the vain of Billy Bragg (who he’s toured with) and Steve Earle.
One of favourite songs of his is Get Me Out of Detroit from the album One Day Our Whispers. As the title suggests it’s not a homage to The Motor City but about a shity time there, getting stopped and stripped searched by the police, being bored stiff in a hotel room and wanting to get the hell out of the place.



Download Otis Gibbs - Get Me Out of Detroit from here.

The Deep Dark Woods - Hang Me, Oh Hang Me

About three years ago a bloke I used to work with suggested that I check out a Canadian band called The Deep Dark Woods. I said that I would do but only did so very half heartedly by means of looking at a few scratchy live recordings of gigs on Youtube. I couldn’t tell much from them so I put listening to the band properly on the back burner, and there they stayed up until a few days ago. Now I wish that I'd checked them out properly when they were first suggested them to me. I downloaded the album Hang Me, Oh Hang Me and after only one listen it struck a chord with me and I’ve subsequently ordered their other two albums from Amazon.
With a name like The Deep Dark Woods they can only be an alt-country type band, and they are. There’s some country rock sounding stuff and some darker slower material. To me they sound like The Black Heart Procession covering a Drive-By Truckers song, or vice versa.

Download or preview The Deep Dark Woods - They Won't Last Long mp3 from here.

Searching For Wrong Eyed Jesus Soundtrack

If you haven’t see the documentary film Searching For Wrong Eyed Jesus then I strongly recommend that you track it down. The title is taken from an album from alt.country songwriter Jim White. The film stars White as he takes a road trip through the American bible belt. Along the way there's churches, prison's, scrap yards, coal mines, one street towns, dive bars and some stunning musical performances. Like David Eugene Edwards in the woods playing Wayfaring Stranger on a banjo. Johnny Dowd playing on a rusty car and in a barber shop. The Handsome Family playing on the porch of a house built on a swamp, banjo player Lee Sexton with spittoon by feet doing a rendition of Rye Whisky and Jim White playing in a near empty Diner.
Then there’s an excellent version of a song called The Last Kind Words by the female blues singer Geeshie Wiley that David Johanson and Larry Saltzan bash out in a motel room. I never realised what a great voice Johanson has until I heard him in the film.
If you can't get hold of the film then try to get hold of the soundtrack.

The Stone Roses Best Album

When the long awaited Stone Roses second album The Second Coming finally came out in 1994 it got some mixed reviews. The general consensus then and now is that it failed to live up to the big expectations. But I really do prefer The Second Coming to the self titled first album. Recently I mentioned this to a mate of mine in the pub and he thought I was just trying to be a contrarian. He loves the first album and truly dislikes the second one. “It’s A John Squire wank fest,” he said. Well yes, it seems like that compared to the indie-dance Madchester sound of the previous one but the groves are still there. Like on one of The Stone Roses less celebrated song Daybreak. Yeah it’s got Squire riffing all over it but it also has a tight danceable groove that’s textbook Stone Roses, plus a brilliant outro that goes into double time overdrive. A truly underrated song.

Download or preview The Stone Roses - Daybreak from here

Sonic Youth Top 3

If you’re a big Sonic Youth fan -one that has every album, who has seen them numerous times, who may know the strange guitar tunings of their songs - and you ask them what their top three Sonic Youth albums are then I doubt that many would have Dirty up there. Why? Well because it’s the most successful one, when they were on a major label and a MTV staple.
Sonic Youth obsessive’s can be a contrarian lot and would be more likely to say they prefer the debut record Confusion Is Sex or Bad Moon Rising - which apart from the song Death Valley 69 is a plain awful mess.
Sure Dirty is a more commercial sounding that previous albums, but as short and poppy the lead off track 100% is, the intro is fifteen seconds of noise made by a drumstick sliding on the guitar strings which continues all the way through.
So for the record, my top three is:
1 Dirty
2 Daydream Nation
3 Sister

Great Cover #4, It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

In 2002 Uncut Magazine had an edition with two different cover pictures of Bob Dylan. One had Vol 1 of a Bob Dylan cover songs CD and the other had Vol 2. I bought both of them, so Uncut got value from me that month.

The stand out track for me is a version of It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) recorded by Syracuse New York’s Anti-Folk pioneer Hamell On Trial. A hard song to take on but a song perfect one for Hamell as he spits out the lyrics and furiously strums his battered old Gibson acoustic guitar at breakneck speed. So much so that it ends in just under four minutes, where as the original is seven and a half minutes long. Also the themes of commercialism, consumerism with political overtones suits Hamell On Trial to a tee.

Bob Dylan’s songs have been covered so many times over the years. From the whimsical folk of Peter, Paul and Mary to the heavy rock of Guns N’ Roses but none sound anything quite like this acoustic attack of It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding).







Download an mp3 of Hamell On Trial - It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)from here.

Tom Waits, Not A Follower Of Fashion

The 80s were a period when two of my favourite recording solo artists went to shit. Bob Dylan began the decade with the second of his religious albums Saved and prolifically churned out rubbish until 1989 when he came back into some sort of form with a few good songs on Oh Mercy. Neil Young also had a few good songs on Freedom that was released in 1989 but the rest of the decade was awful.
So many other people lost it, I mean just look at David Bowie and Mick Jagger doing Dancing In The Street. Actually don’t, its painful.
But who out of the elder statesmen of rock didn’t loose it? I only have two Lou Reed albums from the decade but both The Blue Mask and New York are really good. Shame about that mullet though.
Tom Waits certainly never lost it in the 80s. He found a new sound and direction with the album Swordfishtrombones. Whereas others around him were following the fashion and going for the over produced synth big reverb snare drum sound, the percussion on Waits records sometimes sounded as if it was played on stuff found in a junkyard. Along with instruments that he could have picked up in a charity shop.
Tom waits has had the odd mediocre album but he's never had a bad period of albums, and they don’t sound dated. Maybe because he's never followed trends. In his music or his clothes.

Download or preview an mp3 of Tom Waits - Down, Down, Down from here.

Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe

Nobody buys CD singles anymore, it all about downloads. Nobody cares who’s top of the singles charts anyway, that’s why Top Of The Pops isn’t on TV anymore. The CD single was confirmed dead the moment that Woolworths stopped selling them. Now Woolworths is dead.
Anyway, yesterday I but on a CD single from the Swedish band Whale. I hadn’t played in years and wasn’t expecting it to date well. But I was wrong.
The song Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe came out in 1995 and was an ‘MTV hit’ as they used to say back then. That was when MTV was only one channel and actually played music videos. With its goofy but instantly catchy chorus it felt like it was always only going to be a one hit wonder (maybe that’s why I only have the single and not the album) and it was. A couple or so years later I learnt from a Swedish friend of mine that the band was always meant to be a bit of a joke as it was formed by a well known Swedish comedian called Henrik Schyffert.
I don’t think that makes Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe a novelty comedy song though, as its so much better than that.



Download an mp3 of Whale - Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe from here.

Beastie Boys Pick Up Instruments

After two years on the shelf due to Adam Yauch (aka MCA) having cancer, the Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2 is now out. As long as listening to it I’m sure that many fans of theirs have been diving into their back catalogue again. I’ve certainly been doing so, and been paying special attention to 1992’s Check Your Head. It’s the album where Ad-Rock picked up a guitar, MCA strapped on a bass, Mike D took a seat behind the drum kit and Money Mark came in to play keyboard. They play raw funk grooves and hardcore punk rock which somehow fits in well alongside the hip hop tunes. Though they might be blagging it somewhat, the instrumental songs really stand up well, like Pow which features the only drum solo on any record ever that I look forward to.

Just Enough Jazz For Me Thanks

I think that most people who are into music have read a magazine with an 'essential must hear before you die' type album list, gone out and bought something on it and in hindsight wish they hadn’t. I’ve done it with Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Blue Train by John Coltrane. Both of which I turned off half the way through and then gave another go a few days later and has never been played since. I tried to get into jazz and failed as I just found the squawking trumpet irritating and the songs indistinguishable from one another. Philistine you might say, but sorry both albums left me stone cold. Maybe one day I will try again but for now I will give jazz music a miss thanks.
I may not be into pure jazz but I do like a jazz feel to music. Like the instrumental music that the Memphis three piece The City Champs play. With the use of drums, guitar and an organ they pull out a soul, jazz and funk vibe. The song Drippy perfectly illustrates this and is one of the stand out tracks from their latest album The Set Up.

Download or preview an mp3 of The City Champs - Drippy from here.

Moon Duo, Psychedelic Rock Down To Basics

At the moment I’m going through a psychedelic Krautrock phase, which means that I can’t get enough of Wooden Shjips and their main man Ripley Johnson’s other band Moon Duo. Usually when someone does a side project they make music that isn’t the sort of stuff that they would play in their day job band. But with Moon Duo there’s still the echo and delay effect vocals and guitar solos. Still the solid simple drumbeat, though with a drum machine. But instead of the repetitive baselines there’s a repetitive organ melody or a drone or both together.
Like The White Stripes early recordings both of Moon Duo’s albums Escape and Mazes sound as if they could have been knocked out over a weekend or two. That’s not a criticism, its part of their charm.



Download or preview Moon Duo - Motorcycle, I love you mp3 from here