The Rapture - Out of the Races and Onto The Tracks

I hardly ever listen to an album from The Rapture from start to finish. Some bands you only need a couple of songs from them and that’s it. Well The Rapture are one of these bands, I should give them more of a listen really but I have a feeling that they won’t sound any better that their song Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks.
There’s a line that’s repeated in this song that goes ‘Punishment in higher places’ I’ve just looked up the lyrics for this as I could never make out any of the words.
I used to think the words were something like ‘Paul loves shrimp in funny places.’



Follow link to download The Rapture - Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks from Box.net

Let's Say We Did - Follow Me Down

Following a handful of self released ep’s, the Stockholm based quintet Let’s Say We Did released their self titled debut album at the back end of last year.
On their ep’s the band were finding their feet somewhat but on the album it shows that the hours spent perfecting their melodic scuzzed up indie pop has paid off.
This album has the potential to be a word of mouth grower this year. And if not then I’m sure the next album will.



Follow link to Box.com to download Let’s Say We Did - Straight Back To You

The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait

A mate of mine used to drive around in his van with a collection of three tapes that he used to play over and over. One was a collection of Minutemen and Firehose songs, one a collection of old country and bluegrass classics and the other a bootleg of a live Replacements show from the mid 80s that he said he was at (he’s a good few years older than me and used to live in Minneapolis). The Replacements had a reputation for their drunken ram shackled live shows, and the performance on the tape was no different. Though the sheer energy of the band still burst through the primitive speaker system.
That was my first introduction to The Replacements and it was enough for me to here some more from them. Glad I did.
Here’s the original more stripped back version of Can’t Hardly Wait that came out on the Tim reissue.

Follow link to download The Replacements - Can’t Hardly Wait (Tim version)

Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane Great Cover #12

The Cowboy Junkies have recorded many covers throughout their career, and they interoperate the songs as good as any band out there. Whether its a Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen ,Flying Burrito Brothers or an old blues or traditional song they always take it and mould it to their own laid back Americana sound with ease.
The first song that I heard from the Cowboy Junkies was a slowed down cover of The Velvet Underground’s Sweet Jane. Its from the album The Trinity Sessions but I heard it on some compilation of songs from films that Quinton Tarantino has been involved in (it appeared in Natural Born Killers, Tarantino wrote the screen play).
There’s also a great live version that I got from some other compilation that’s more up tempo and has a long intro with a piano solo and guitar feedback. I must try to find that CD the next time I go back to my folks, I thinks its in the garage somewhere.

Super Furry Animals - The International Language Of Screaming

There was a period in the nineties when bands from the United Kingdom would often sing “Na na na na” or “La la la la" instead of a verse with proper words. Maybe they couldn’t think of anything else to write. Maybe they intentional used it for that sing along poppy indie effect so it would help them get a slot on TFI Friday, get play listed on Radio 1, sell a few records and then blow all their money doing cocaine in Camden pubs.
I’m thinking of crap Brit-Pop bands like Shed Seven and The Bluetones, na na na na, fuck off.
The Welsh band Super Furry Animals are a band that sometimes did a few la la la’s, like on their song The International Language of Screaming. But they can get away with it because there's a lot more interesting stuff that’s going on in their music. And its one of the best song titles I know.

The Doors - The Changeling

The other day I was listening to an NPR podcast that had some bloke talking about a new book he’s wrote about The Doors. Do we really need another book, magazine article or film about Jim Morison and The Doors?
Of course not, but anyway, the guy was saying how their music was made in a time of (and therefore reflected) political uncertainty and fear. Such as Vietnam protests, assassinations, cult murders…
Yeah like there has never been any history or dramatic events before the late sixties or after.
Its easy to give bands and rock stars more gravitas than necessary. Like Dylan-olagists that believe the worlds answers are hidden in his lyrics.
Though the bloke on NPR was correct in saying that The Doors made some great songs and also some bad ones. Their strongest album for me is defiantly their last one L.A. Woman that all good songs.

Follow link to download The Doors - The Changeling from Box.com

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded

Even though they formed and released an album before most of the other well known punk rock bands, Australia’s The Saints get overlooked as one of the genre’s formative bands. They are still going (albeit through many line up changes) but the only alum that I would recommend is the 1977 debut (I’m) Stranded which features the excellent song on the same name.
I made the mistake of buying a three CD box set of some of their later stuff which has a smoother mid tempo pop-rock sound. I’ve only heard it a couple of times.
What I want to listen to is the early up-tempo raw buzz saw guitar type stuff that’s like the Australian Ramones.



Follow link to download The Saints - (I’m) Stranded

Jim White - Christmas Day

“Amazing grace, how sweet the
smile upon the face I never thought I'd see you again...especially here in this Greyhound station...on Christmas Day...in 1998.”

Its that happy time off year, right? Yeah but what is the worst thing about Christmas? Well the shopping for presents is a bit of a headache. So are the Christmas songs. I don’t mean the Christmas carols I mean the same songs that get churned out every year. You know the ones. There’s no escape from them.
Shopping for presents in a crowded shopping centre that has the heating on fall blast and the same songs played over and over in every shop. That’s the worst part of Christmas.
But a seasonal song that I will be playing is the Jim White’s Christmas Day. Its not the most festive of songs festive songs and I certainly wouldn’t like to be stuck at a bus stop on Christmas day, but one of the great things about it is that there isn’t a sleigh bell to be heard anywhere.

Great Cover #11 The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting 'Round To Die

“Now I'm out of prison, I got me a friend at last. He don't steal or cheat or drink or lie. His name's codeine, he's the nicest thing I've seen. Together we're gonna wait around and die."

Waiting ‘Round To Die is of course the classic Townes Van Vandt song about a man that goes from place to place to escape his troubles and finds some more on the way. It’s a stand out classic that many artists have covered. And the best cover of the song that I’ve heard has to be from The Be Good Tanyas which appeared on their second album Chinatown.
Okay so it may not come close to the version that Townes Van Vandt performs on the documentary Heartworn Highways [which is even better than the recorded version] but that could never happen.



Follow link to download: The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting 'Round To Die

Cam Butler - I Surrender

Cam Butler is an Australian guitarist and composer who’s music I’ve just began getting into. From what I’ve heard of the guitar work it atmospheric, dark and melodic. Though I’ve not yet heard much of the string stuff yet (the next album that’s soon to be released has been recorded with a23 piece string orchestra) the song that I first heard from him and made me want to hear some more is a song called I Surrender that has a big band jazz feel to it. It sounds like a piece of John Barry music and really wouldn’t sound out of place alongside those big classic James Bond theme tunes.



Follow the link to download Cam Butler - I Surrender

Adam's House Cat - Town Burned Down

Adam’s House Cat was the band that Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley played in before they went on to perform the Drive-By Truckers.
They recorded one album that never saw the light of day. This week I’ve managed to get hold of a download of the album Town Burned Down, its ragged and raw cow punk and the sound is a bit thin but its still a good listen.
They last song it an acoustic version of the song Nine Bullets that’s on the Drive-By Truckers second album Pizza Deliverance and is still a live favourite.

Follow this link to download: Adam’s House Cat - Nine Bullets

Lost Children Net Label

A great place to find some really good post-rock, experimental, ambient, drone, electronic, math-rock type stuff is from the Lost Children Net Label. And it’s a place where you can download the music for free as they care more about good music being heard than making a profit (and anyway do any record labels make much of a profit nowadays?).
There is over seventy albums available so if you don’t know where to start then I would suggest starting at The Silent Ballet compilations from which I’ve found many things to get further into such as French Teen Idol, Amberhaze, Orange Crush and Ben Frost to name a few.

Dirty Beaches - Badlands

Dirty Beaches is the guise that that Taiwanese born Zhang Hungtai goes under. Earlier on this year the official debut album Badlands was released on Zoo Records. I’ve recently came across it and its been on heavy rotation. Its minimalist and lo-fi and dare I say that there is even a Goth feel to it.
This song Sweet 17 is what first grabbed my attention, it sounds like Nick Cave collaborating with Suicide that’s been recorded on Guided By Voices 4-track.



Follow link to download: Dirty Beaches - Sweet 17

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Cracking Up

The Jesus & Mary Chain just might well be one of my favourite bands (as in somewhere in the top twenty) without me ever noticing that they are. I won’t listen to them for months and months and then I can here one song and will have to dig through every album they made.
For me they didn’t do much wrong, whether it be the squawking feedback of Psychocandy, which still sounds as abrasive all these years later, or the clean sounding Stoned & Dethroned.
This time I’ve been giving some more attention to their final album Munki. Its not their but still has some cracking songs on it. Like Cracking up which was one of the best singles of 1998.



Click on link to download: The Jesus & Mary Chain - Cracking Up

Spoon - Crap Name Great Band

To name your band after a piece of cutlery is not the best idea. Has it got drug connotations what with cooking up on a spoon? No idea. But anyway, crap name but a great band.
I first become aware of the band some time around the beginning of the last decade when I heard bought the album Kill The Moonlight after hearing a song of theirs on some compilation CD. And nowadays I seem to take them for granted as they’re so consistently good.
No matter how many instruments are in the mix there’s always so much room in their songs, and a groove too. Like on this song from the album Gimme Fiction called I Turn My Camera On.

Click on here to download: Spoon - I Turn My Camera On.

Tom Waits - Blood Money

What with the new Tom Waits album out I like many are in a in a Tom Waits world. The new album is of course very good indeed but I’ve also been going through his back catalogue (something that I do about once a year).
For the moment I can’t get enough of Blood Money. Its Waits at his ram shackled best. With song titles such as Misery Is the River of the World, Everything Goes to Hell, God's Away on Business, Knife Chase and Starving in the Belly of a Whale you get the picture.

Oasis - (It’s Good) To Be Free

So on the first week of release Noel Gallagher and his Flying Birds perched on the top of the album charts. I have no idea what the album is like as I have no interest in it whatsoever. Maybe he’s actually put some real effort into the album. If he has then its about time as he’s been cruising on autopilot for years. Oasis finished a couple of years ago but the foot was off the gas long before that.
They never came anywhere close to their debut Defiantly Maybe. What about the second album What’s The Story Morning Glory? Give over, it had a few good songs but it doesn’t compare.
The second best Oasis album is The Masterplan which is a collection of early b-sides. The b-sides are better than anything on the third album Be Here Now. Which is when they really went off the boil.
My favourite song has to be (It’s Good) To Be Free which just edges over the Liam and Noel duet Acquiesce.

Lou Reed With Metallica

So this blog is mainly about songs that I like, but after tuning into Later With Jools Holland the on Tuesday night I feel as if I just have to write about something that I really don’t like. And that’s Lou Reed playing with Mettalica.
For the record I really love a lot of Lou Reed’s solo albums as well as all four Velvet Underground albums. As for Metallica, well there was a period in my teenage tears when I thought they were a great band but that’s about it.
I’ve not heard all of the album but what I have heard is sounds pretty ropey, but I didn’t think that it would be as bad as what I heard the other night on Later With Jools Holland.
The first song sounded as if they were all playing a completely different song that they all started at different times. Fucking awful.
Then at the end the play The Velvet Underground song White Light/White Heat. Fucking awful don’t come close.

Richmond Fontaine - The High Country

Knowing that it would be a concept album I was a bit apprehensive about the latest album from Alt-country legends (in my eyes they are anyway) Richmond Fontaine. Singer songwriter Willy Vlautin is also a novelist and mixing that with the songs I wasn’t so sure about. Yes his songs are in themselves short story’s about drunks down on their luck but a whole album with a story continuation might just be a bit too straight on the nose.
And on first listen of The High Country it was, but only because of some spoken word pieces that have some of the worst acting that I’ve ever heard. The rest of the album has some good spoken word and quiet instrumental songs as well as some rocking ones where the band are in top form.
The album is growing on my with each listen. Especially now that I always skip the two bad spoken word songs.

Great Cover #10 M. Ward - Rave On

Rave on is a song that wasn’t written by Buddy Holly but his recording made it as good as his. With good reason.
M. Ward recorded the song on his brilliant 2009 album Hold Time. His version is more laid back and has a nice riff on the acoustic guitar but it’s the overall sound that he gets that makes it a great cover version. It sounds fresh but also retains some of that old time recording feel that M. Ward is an avid student of.

Download: M. Ward - Rave On