Blog: The Riverboat Captain

News this week that one of my old haunts is set to feel the merciless punch of the wrecking ball - The Cobbler's Thumb, in Brighton, is finally to be demolished after years of structural neglect. The old girl will be knocked down before she falls down, though for a while in the early noughties, it seemed likely it would be the other way around. It became one of those pubs where everyone knew your name (or at the very least, alcohol-fuddled, tried to remember it) and a place in its heyday that always felt welcoming and snug. [...]

I've got one or two articles in the pipeline but while I'm working on that, I'm posting some good stuff on Facebook. To help me get back in the saddle on this blog, let’s have a competition, and the closing date is May 31st. Here's what you should do: 1) Like The Riverboat Captain on Facebook . Feel free to Share this competition with your Facebook Friends. If you prefer, follow me on Twitter , and Tweet this competition. If you already like the Facebook page or [...]

Away. And now I've got a little bit of what this fellow has.. it'll clear soon.

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Hey, welcome back to the blog. It's been a while. As you can see I changed the appearance, which should now be a little more iPad and mobile friendly - hopefully it works pretty much the same way however you look at it. Other changes: this is, right now, a distillation of the old blog, so below you will be able to find just twenty nine of the previous posts (the good stuff, if you like) and there'll never be a better time to scroll back and look at all twenty nine - my early  musical influences , those [...]

The always excellent Graham Reid over at Elsewhere posted a brilliant track from the vaults  -  Vacuum Cleaner by Londoners Tintern Abbey , a minor classic on the Deram label. So what could I do but whip the Nuggets II box off the shelf and submerge myself in the more obscure sounds of the mid-sixties..  and once again it struck me (and I should really know by now) that The Marmalade 's I See The Rain is a work of staggering pop genius, their third 45 and described by none other than [...]

A quick roundup of some ear-grabbing recent downloads.. Perth rockers Pond make an early claim for Album Title Of The Year with their new release Beard, Wives, Denim - stream it in its entirety over at The Hype Machine . Liking this glam-rock-y psychedelia very much: Pond features a couple of the guys from Tame Impala  and their  Innerspeaker was one of my top picks for 2010. Download Fantastic Explosion Of Time and Mystery  if you want something to stick in your iPod. [...]

A quick roundup of some ear-grabbing recent downloads.. Perth rockers Pond make an early claim for Album Title Of The Year with their new release Beard, Wives, Denim - stream it in its entirety over at The Hype Machine . Liking this glam-rock-y psychedelia very much: Pond features a couple of the guys from Tame Impala  and their  Innerspeaker was one of my top picks for 2010. Download Fantastic Explosion Of Time and Mystery  if you want something to stick in your iPod. [...]

..in the best possible way. This weekend I spent a short while whipping through my assemblage of digital music on several different devices and .. cleansing it.  So much of it just didn't deserve to exist. Opening stanza after opening stanza of perfectly ordinary stuff, completely ignorable. So I killed it. It's less than landfill. Right now, I haven't a care about the torrent of dreck foisted upon us in the name of indie because I can just take it or leave it. It's not moving me either way, and that's bad [...]

.. and nigh on 40 years since his original recordings were made, Drag City puts out his album on vinyl and download. OK, that's the much abridged version. There is also the long and intriguing story but to trim that down a little for you, premier Maori guitar and sitar exponent Jerebine left New Zealand for London at the tail end of the swinging 60s in thrall to the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Steve Winwood. Notably, he played some bass in the Jeff Beck Group, but more importantly laid down a collection of [...]

• Doug Jerebine - Ashes and Matches

One of the greatest pop songs played by one of the greatest modern American bands fronted by the Jesus of Cool himself, Nick Lowe. Brings a tear to the eye, don't it? Find it on the new Wilco iTunes Sessions album . Out now, pop pickers. Lest we forget, here's Nick with Billy, Dave and Terry the first time around .

Best thing I've heard in a long time. Bronson says it all in the closing paragraph of his review . Album coming soon. Find the Alabama Shakes EP here .

Best thing I've heard in a long time. Bronson says it all in the closing paragraph of his review . Album coming soon. Find the Alabama Shakes EP here .

..it looks like fun. Part 2 here .

Listening to new music in January is a struggle. The old year is gone and the temptation to sample anything and everything in the rush to be instantly impressed is too great.. inevitably a whole host of new releases fall flat. So we were fortunate to have an early 2012 visit from one of the finest guitar pop bands stalking the planet in the Dum Dum Girls , who summarily delivered a concise set of jangling sonic gems at the Kings Arms on Friday, and kickstarted my new year listening. Now, my love for the Girls has [...]

If you're missing a tune or two for tonight's NYE rave up, here's something to get the solitary party groovers mixing and moving. Cut Copy (the Aussie Duran Duran de nos jours ) had a frighteningly large amount of success this year with the electro-poppy Zonoscope . Meh. Go figure. But wait. Enter legendary DJ Andrew Weatherall, who did what he does best to the rambling overextended Sun God (from the abovementioned album). Nine minutes of perfectly produced bubbling blissed out Madchester (Madcunian?) groove. Download it courtesy of [...]

My Famous Five Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys It says a lot to me about my life. Lovely - watch Yuck - Yuck A big fizzy scuzzball of fun. Play loud - watch [...]

• Bon Iver - Holocene

Nashville songstress Caitlin Rose teamed up with Keegan DeWitt and made a touching gentle ditty with more than a few sharp barbs embedded in its snow-covered aural landscape. "You never come home for Christmas, and maybe it's better that way." Ouch! Download it free from RCRDLBL.com . Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys can always be relied upon for a warped outlook on life, and with seasonal song titles like 'Post Apocalypse Christmas' on his upcoming EP release, he certainly delivers. Stream it below, and buy it on his web [...]

Part 4 - Pure gold, and what might be described as Northern Soul's biggest ever 'find', Frank Wilson's Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) was originally released on Motown's subsidiary label Soul in 1965. Frank wanted to concentrate on producing, and Motown boss Berry Gordy would certainly have had him do that. The vocal line isn't quite as strong as you'd expect if Smokey or Marvin had cut the tune. Consequently the vast majority of the 250 demo discs were destroyed. There may be as many as five in existence, and if the unthinkable [...]

Part 3 - The daddy of all Northern Soul clubs was Wigan Casino, though, as this fine article by Chris Hunt says , it may not have been the coolest or the most innovative. If you wanted to dance, however, it was the place to go. And when you'd wrung yourself out on an all-nighter, the day was breaking, and it was finally time to go home, the crowd would always be treated to a signature ending from the DJ.. songs that became known as the 'three before eight': Jimmy Radcliffe’s Long After Tonight Is [...]