Cover #14 Wooden Shjips - Vampire Blues

Yes another Neil Young cover. Its something about the mans songs that lend them so well to be interpreted by others. And Wooden Shjips interoperate the song Vampire Blues in the only way they know how. It is hardly recognisable from the Neil Young original that’s on the On The Beach album. Though that’s a good thing because in truth the original is not too good. A lazy plodding blues arrangement with Young singing “I’m a vampire baby, sucking blood from the earth” over and over. Wooden Shjips speed it up and add their usual scuzz distortion to it.



Follow link to download Wooden Shjips - Vampire Blues from Box.net

Roll The Dice - In Dust

An album that’s been on heavy rotation for the past month or so is In Dust by the Stockholm duo Roll The Dice.
I don’t have a favourite album of 2011 because I’ve not heard all the albums from the year that I want to. Such as the new Black Keys album which I will get I will get very soon. But if I was made to write a list of what I heard in 2011 then In Dust would be right up there as a top contender.
Its electronic with a warm analogue sound, and although it has driving hypnotic rhythms there isn’t a beat in sight. Instead they rely on the sturdy bass lines and piano. That and synths underpinning and thickening out the dark and moody sound.

Follow link to download Roll The Dice - See You Monday from Box.com

Elbow - Cast Of Thousands

The last Elbow album Build A Rocket Boys! didn’t make it onto any end of year lists that I came across. Sure there were many great albums released last year that never came anywhere near a list but after the success of The Seldom Seen Kid the follow up was an anticipated realise.
For me I was hoping that after finding success and acclaim they might go into the studio and make a real interesting record like Asleep In The Back or Cast of Thousands. But I had a feeling that they would walk down the middle of the road to keep the new fans happy with a couple of epic uplifting songs that will be played over sporting montages.
And that’s what they did but with the bland button on the mixing desk turned on full.
I watched their Glastonbury performance on the TV and it was painfully bland. Plus does Guy Garvey have to have a laugh and joke with the audience between every song? Get the fuck on with it!
I’m being hard on them because I know they’re capable of great work. And for me their best is their second album Cast of Thousands.

Bjork - Joga

Bjork's last album Biophilia wasn’t the best work that she’s ever done. Yes it was a conceptual project that had a downloadable application that you can make music with. Or something like that, I’m not quite sure. That’s all fine, but the songs never really matched the grand scale of the project. And the main instrument is one that goes plink plonk all the way through.
What said Bjork has done some fine stuff and I’m sure she will in the future. Lately I’ve been listening a lot to her forth album Homogenic. The album has a great sound with a mix of electronic beats and strings, but it’s the fine song writing that makes it work. I used to think that Debut was the best Bjork album but I’ve now come around to thinking that it’s Homogenic.

Follow link to download Bjork - Joga from box.com

The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun

Where is Pete Docherty? Is he on or off the smack? I don’t know, he’s not tabloid hot property anymore and his troubles don’t get much attention. It got boring way before it was old news.
Anyway, I saw him play a solo gig once, I wasn't there to see him, a mate of mine's band was on before him. It was at the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel and the place was full of wannabe Pete Docherty cunts.
His performance was awful. He mumbled every word and played the guitar like he'd only recently picked it up.
Never been much of a Libertines fan either. They’re one of them bands that I’ve no intention of listening to a whole album of theirs again, but saying that I really like a few of their singles.
Like the song Don’t Look Back Into The Sun.



Follow link to download The Libertines - Don’t Look Back Into The Sun from box.net

Marl Lanegan - Blues Funeral

I was thinking, when is Mark Lanegan going to stop pissing about being a voice for hire and get on with doing another solo record? Yes I like a lot of the work that he’s put his voice to. The three albums with Isobel Campbell were pretty good. The song Revival with the Soulsavers was truly great but the rest of the album wasn’t. The stuff with Greg Dulli had its moments. There’s other stuff that’s all fine too, but none of it is as good as the Mark Lanegan Band 2004 album Bubblegum.
Then I hear that a new album called Blues Funeral has just been released. So I ordered it straight away and its not let me down. There’s more of an electronic syth feel that’s a world away from his early solo albums like Whisky For The Holy Ghost. But don’t let that put you off. I’m still pretty fresh to it so I can’t say if I will be listening to it as much in years to come as I still am with Bubblegum. But it certainly has song songs that are as good as anything he’s put his name to.



Follow link to download The Mark Lanegan Band - The Gravedigger's Song from box.com

The Black Keys

If your looking for a up to date music news then this isn’t really the blog for you. You won’t find a sneak preview of the latest Vampire Weekend release here. I mean look, I’m posting a blog about The Black Keys album El Camino that came out at the back end of last year.
I only got around to listening to it a couple of weeks ago. I new it would be good, it was like I was saving the last piece of bacon on the plate.
Enough with the crap metaphors.
So if you haven’t heard it what’s it like? Fucking great. Is it better than Brothers? I think it may well be. Tell me more. No there’s no need to just get it.

Follow link to download The Black Keys - Dead And Gone from box.com

Mountain Man

First things first, the Mountain Man are none of the sort. They are three girls. You might already know that as their debut album Made The Harbor came out in 2010, but I’ve only just become aware of them.
The album is short songs of stripped down folk with three part harmonies.
Now when I mean striped down I don’t mean like the first Bon Iver album where he recorded the base of the album in the woods then put overdubs on it (why bring Bon Iver into it? Well he’s riled me somewhat, liked the first album but his last effort was plain awful).
With just Vocals and acoustic guitar Made The Harbor is proper stripped down and has the sound production of a field recording that gives it a haunted feel. Quality stuff.



Follow link to download Mountain Man - Animal Tracks from Box.com

The Jawhawks - A Buyers Guide

The Jawhawks are touring Europe in march, its their first time over here in? I have no idea. But it’s a long time as Mark Olsen and Gary Louris only got the band back together the other year. But what a band. If you’re new to The Jayhawks but don’t know where to start then here is a quick buyers guide

All of their albums are good, with the exception of Smile which is the last album before the comeback. Don’t buy it, its rubbish. Nothing wrong with a band looking for a new direction but I don’t want an early nineties Manchester drumbeat and wah wah pedal funk to be anywhere near The Jayhawks.

Tomorrow the Green Grass is a great record and a must have. But Hollywood Town Hall is better than great. Country rock with harmonies catchy choruses and loads of melodic fuzz guitar solos. It’s a masterpiece.



Follow link to download The Jawhawks - Waiting For The Sun from box.com

Cover #13 Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Only Love Can Break Your Heart is probably the most well known song from the dance indie pop band Saint Etienne. That might not be true but it is for me anyway. To tell the truth I don’t know any other song from them. I’m sure that I’ve heard some more of their stuff on a duke box in a pub or in an indie club back in the nineties or even on the radio. But if I recognised the song then I wouldn’t know that it was Saint Etienne.
So why am I posting a blog about them if I don’t know their music? Well because I do know the Neil Young song Only Love Can Break Your Heart and the great cover that Saint Etienne do of it. Musically radically different from the country/folk original but still keeping the same melody.
Maybe it is time I divulged into Saint Etienne’s back catalogued a bit.



Follow link to download: Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Rapture Riders

I’m not a big fan of mash ups. You know take one song and mix it with another song that has the same tempo and preferably the same key and create some kind of fusion. Sometimes when I hear one I might think that it was an interesting novelty but have no interest in listening to it again. But usually I’m left thinking ‘what was the point of that?’
There are a few exceptions and one is the mash-up done by Go Home Productions of The Doors song Riders on the Storm and Rapture by Blondie.
Works really well, even though it has that terrible Debora Harry rap that sounded dated a week after it came out.

The December Sound

I first become aware of The December Sound from a free sampler download compilation by Dead Bees Records. Though most of the songs were pretty good, their song Painkiller was the stand out track for me. On the strength of that I purchased one of their albums called The Silver Album which is a strong outing from start to finish. Its psychedelic shoegaze indie rock with a mechanical feel to it and is worth a listen, if that’s your kind of thing.

Follow this link to download The December Sound - Painkiller

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.