Blog: 17 seconds

... is sleep. Well, here's three fantastic tracks. It must be thirty-somethingness, that I want to play these on a Friday night rather than going mad to someting er...faster and heavier. (I'm not that middle-aged, though, I'd rather read The Wire than many of the other music magazines more obsessed with celebrity and/or the past). Joanna Newsom -'The Book Of Right-On.' mp3 Kristin Hersh -'Your Ghost.' mp3 The [...]

Blow Monkeys -'Devil's Tavern' (Blow Monkey Music) Eighteen years after they last played together, this year sees the return of The Blow Monkeys. The four members, Neville Henry, Mick Anker, Toney Kiley and their charismatic singer the legendary Dr. Robert are back together and...it's fantastic. With reformation albums (and you can probably ask the Verve about this), there are going to be difficulties, surely? Well, no, not here. Because whatever those flies on the wall witnessed, the end result is fantastic. The band are certainly not retreading old ground, but producing fantatsic songs that genuinely can [...]

I received another email today saying that links weren't working, which was fine...except like a lot of bloggers I remove links after two weeks because I don't actually own the rights to the music I post here (I wish). Anyway, the tracks in question were from the debut Bang Bang Machine 12" single, The Geek EP so...here we go. Bang Bang Machine -'Geek Love.' mp3 Bang Bang Machine -'Flower Horse.' mp3 Bang Bang Machine -'The Fuck Machine.' mp3 [...]

Future Of the Left/Fighting With Fire/Black Alley Screens Captain's Rest, Glasgow, August 15 A night of three three pieces. First on the bill are Black Alley Screens who sound as loud as...and grab me pretty damn quickly. I've always thought three pieces seemed to have something, and these guys, who look almost young enough to be in my classroom, are fantastic. With songs like 'Goodbye Youth Hello Proof' I have decided by the third song that I'd sign them if I could. They are partly in the Arctic Monkeys/Libertines mould, but on their [...]

Thanks to good ol' Gav nudging me, I thought I'd post that cover of The Postal Service's 'We Will Become Silhouettes' done by The Shins. The Shins -'We Will Become Silhouettes.' mp3 It's a bit busy here, what with so many reviews to get up here, the record company making progress, the day job starting again this week....but be patient, all will be rewarded. ...so why not Bonnie 'Prince' Billy doing 'Puff The Magic Dragon?' Bonnie 'Prince' Billy -'Puff The Magic Dragon.' mp3

This post is due thanks to one of my readers Adam, who had promised to send me some covers in response to the one I had put up of 'Love Vigilantes' being done by Laura Cantrell. So... first up, Voxtrot and Hungry Lucy's very different takes on 'the aforementioned 'Love Vigilantes': Voxtrot -'Love Vigilantes.' mp3 Hungry Lucy -'Love Vigilantes.' mp3 He also sent me Jenny Lewis doing a live version of the Postal Service's 'Such Great Heights', so I will post that, and just [...]

As long-term readers will know, I have long championed the genius that is Glasvegas . Back in January, I conducted a phone interview with singer James Allan , five months before the NME put them on the cover. I already knew they were great, but it's been fantastic to see so many people waking up to this, for Columbia to sign the band, and to see fourth single 'Geraldine' get to no.16 in the charts. I've got friends into the band, and I also wrote this piece , linking their song 'Daddy's Gone' [...]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I was trying to track down something that a) Peel had played in 1995 and b) Peel had read out my request on air to see if anyone could identify it. It had the chorus 'Wembley, Wembley, he's the famous Michael Nyman and he's going to Wembley.' It transpires it was Cathal Coughlan of Microdisney and Fatima Mansions and comic Sean Hughes. Thanks to eyevocal and everyone else who helped me locate this. The track was this: Bubonique -'The Pianna.' mp3 [...]

This is actually my 600th post, and I thought I would post this, the one and only Peel session by The Breeders. The Breeders have been described as one of the most promising and frustrating bands to emerge in the last twenty years. They have prodcued some excellent stuff, but for what started as a 'Supergroup' (in the seventies sense of the word, where a band was formed out of a lot of people who were already in bands as a side project, see Crosby Stiils Nash & Young etc..) they soon started to become the main concern. [...]

The Cave Singers - 'Invitation Songs' (Matador) OK, so it was released last year in the US, came out here earlier this year in Britain, but of the 100+ albums I have heard this year* the Cave Singers' debut is an astounding record that is in the top ten this year. The band is Pete Quirk on vocals, guitar, melodica and harmonica; Derek Fudesco on guitar and bass pedals and Marty Lund on drums and guitar. In previous musical lives, Quirk was in Seattle post-punk group Hint Hint, Lund was in Cobra High, and Fudesco was [...]

17 Seconds is deeply sorry to hear of the death of Isaac Hayes at 65. He was famous as a musician, actor and humanitarian. He laid much of the pioneering groundwork for music, and his influence can be felt on Soul, Funk, Disco, Hip-Hop and House. Born on August 20, 1942 in Covington, Tennessee, he was raised by his grandparents after the early death of his parents. In the sixties he worked for Stax Records as a as a session player and songwriter. Amongst the songs he wrote included 'Soul Man' and 'Hold On I'm Coming' [...]

Tonight's post is courtesy of not one but two 17 Seconds readers. Bernd, thank you for supplying the picture above of Alex Taylor and the cover of motorcycle Boy doing the Velvet underground's Run Run Run' and the Shop Assistants doing 'Respectable' and yet again, Tom, for supplying the two tracks by One Note Jam. Unless anyone has any info to the contrary, this was the very final record she made, in early 1991, as One Note Jam, who Motorcycle Boy became, split after this, in 1992. I would love to knwo what she's up to know. In fact, if [...]

Well, finally I have done a 17 Seconds MySpace . If you want to be my friend on it, the link is right here . And it also explains a crazy idea I've had today, and am developing with my friend Laurent. Will it get anywhere? Another crazy idea -or something that's the next natural step? Only time will tell... ...But you won't have a clue what I'm on about, unless you investigate , will you? The Fall -'Edinburgh Man.' mp3

For the second post in a row, I am completely indebted to Tom over at Indie mp3 for providing me with the mp3s to make this post. Motorcycle Boy came together of members of Meat Whiplash and Alex Taylor, lead singer of The Shop Assistants, a band I have banged on about repeatedly on here. The line-up of Motorcycle Boy was: Alex Taylor (vocals), Michael Kerr (guitar), Eddy Connoly (bass) Paul McDermott (drums) and David 'Scottie' Scott (guitar). Their first single was released by Rough Trade, then they signed to Chrysalis. They [...]

The Shop Assistants do seem to generate a lot of interest when I post them here, as indeed they should. I took a friend round Edinburgh today for record shopping, and he bought both the Shop Assistants 12" singles I posted at the end of last week (see! Blogs help people buy music, not prevent it). Then I got home to discover that Tom who writes this fantastic Shop Assistants page that is essential if you're at all into the band had sent me both tracks from the flexi disc that came with the Box Set [...]

John Peel with Laura Cantrell, one of his favourite people Sometimes, there are some cover versions that completely revisit the original to such an extent it completely rewrites the song almost. One of those is 'Love Vigilantes' by New Order, originally on their Lowlife album, and covered this year by Laura Cantrell on her latest album Trains And Boats And Planes . Eighties electro-indie goes new country? Don't knock it 'til you've heard it... New Order -'Love Vigilantes.' mp3 Laura Cantrell -'Love Vigilantes.' [...]

Jaguar Love -'Take me To The Sea.' (Matador) Jaguar Love are the three piece formed from the ashes of two of Alternative music's favourites early noughties favourites, Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Whilst there are echoes of those bands, this is something new on its' own, which should see them This album has been played several times since Matador sent it to me, and like all the best albums, each time I play it, I hear something new. Initially, it sounds like a very exciting noise, perhaps like the Mars Volta (themselves formed from [...]

Yazoo -'In Your Room.' (Mute) 1982, Britain. Bloody hell. Despite the fact that the country was politically in a horrendous place, going to war (in part of the world that Britain had forgotten about until it suited the ruling Conservative party to go to war over it and cover up just how despised leader Margaret Thatcher had been at that point), an opposition party that was shooting itself in the foot, the Cold War still stretching on, America no better either... at least Britain had something exciting going on musically. I was only five for much of it, [...]

The five-piece above are America's Woven. They are responsible for making some seriously weird and wondeful stuff that seems to be getting press and bloggers alike frothing with excitement. This is down to the heady mix of electronics and rock which has been getting excited comparisons to those who have gone before. They have been described as Massive Attack and Squarepusher writing pop songs, and similarities with shoegazing and trip-hop. More than one review has mentioned it in tones of awe and compared their forthcoming album with that alternative highlight, Radiohead's Kid A . Woven were previously [...]

A third great scottish band (there is no order to this, neither alphabetical nor greatness, just how highly I rate them). Belle and Sebastian first entered my world in 1996 when a friend at university leant me their second album If You're Feeling Sinister . Their debut, Tigermilk, had already been released earlier that year and was already as rare as hens' teeth. One of my proudest claims to fame is going round to one of the band's flats for a cup of herbal tea, and actualy managing to play it cool. One of my [...]