I trust everyone had a good New Year, didn`t drink too much & are ready to hit the ground running in 2007. I must be getting past it (Thirty-nine this Friday hint! hint!), saw the new year in on the sofa, afew beers & watching Jools Holland on TV ... Must get out more!!! ... Good show though. This brings me to the first piece of vinyl played on my turntable this year , Blodwyn Pigs - Ahead Rings Out, it was more like a drunken fumble than a complex listening decision & still sounds good even spinning around [...]
Like many films `The Acid House` doesn`t live up to it`s hardback original. Irvine Welsh`s three stories influenced by a bad acid trip, rumbles along with the Scottish slang that has always confused the rest of the world. The winning ingredient for me, a s in `Trainspotting` is a wonderfully diverse [...]
The 2003 album `Hoxton Popstars` still visits my CD player enough not to make it back to it`s jewel case, in between storage I call it. If you like acoustic jazz/soul with a hint of a Latin feel, Victor Davies comes well recommended & without the big sell. The 2006 release of `Hear The Sound` continued this distinctive formula , you can really tell Victor is in complete control of his musical output & the ethos of `quality not quantity` seems to be working (Owning the record label must help somewhat). I`ve only found one forthcoming show [...]
Merry Christmas & A Healthy New Year.
"Crisis" the UK homeless charity has this morning benefited from a tidy sum of £16,500,00. Pink Floyd nicely donated two signed 6ft standing giant eyeballs which feature on the band`s live DVD `Pulse` to auction on Ebay. These are one of three pairs that have been signed by the band & art director Storm Thorgerson , certainly a strange piece of rock memorabilia , I`d be very interested to find out what the winning bidder from London plans to do with these. Listen/Download..... [...]
As we know, the faster Internet connection speeds we can achieve now has pushed the growth of online media to amazing levels. YouTube , My Space & MSN have joined countless other user interactive sites to stretch the limit or draw the line regarding copyrighted material. Yesterday the current owner of Wolfgang`s Vault has joined that ever growing club of websites to be sued . Personally I think if the site didn`t sell memorabilia such as T`shirts , posters & tickets the legal side would be less defined & the commercial argument wiped out (what do I [...]
Some people like to rescue animals , they might set up a refuge or shelter for abandoned wildlife such as Hedgehogs, Puppies or Canaries. This Year , please spare a thought for our Italian `pressed mild steel` friend the`Lambretta`. They don`t eat alot or chew up your furniture so why not make some room for a loyal friend. I will be accepting donations in all currencies. Listen/Download..... The Who : Pinball Wizard (Demo)
I would bet there`s no-one who doesn`t recognise the first three chords of Teenage Kicks , the song that would catapult The Undertones from underground New Wave to mainstream Top Of The Pops in afew short weeks. A personal favourite of the late John Peel & one of Northern Irelands best musical exports. With singer Feargal Sharkey leaving the band for solo projects in 1983 (he`s now chairman of `The Live Music Forum`) & other members soon following , the bands career was finished alot sooner than expected. After a long break The Undertones reformed in 1999 (without Mr [...]
I`ve played bass off & on for over twenty years now, still not that good. Never serious enough to practice every day. I came across this clip of a T.M. Stevens Video or "instructional film" as he puts it, originally taken from his website, I wonder if he`s like this in real life, not sure how to take him really.. Obliviously a hugely talented individual & completely bonkers . A very successful artist in his own right, played with top musicians including James Brown, Joe Cocker & Tina Turner ...Now available for Internet e-sessions & music production.
I have thought long and hard regarding the posting of seasonal tunes on this page (well 5 minutes at least) & the fact that 75% of my favourite blogs have a bucket load of this Christmas cheer , I don`t think my input is at all needed. Every year the listening options get stranger & more obscure to say the least , I don`t want to hear System Of A Down doing White Christmas or even Napalm Death belting out Jingle Bells. As 2006 draws [...]
Australian rock trio Wolfmother must be dead happ y today . The single "Woman" is up for a nomination in the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category of the Grammy`s early next year. Not something you should shake stick at , is it. Great year all round really , top selling album & electric sold out shows . Other artists up for nomination in this category are Nine Inch Nails, Tool , System Of A Down & Buckcherry. Grammy`s are being held on Sunday in Los Angeles , Febuary 11th , which going [...]
So many quality bands from Manchester failed to achieve commercial success during the early nineties , the UK was awash with indie/dance influenced outfits, all eager for chart recognition & the financial benefits this could bring. The New Fast Automatic Daffodils or later known as New FADS seemed a perfect combination , powerful lyrics coupled with the infectious dance feel with which bands like Primal Scream & The Happy Mondays done so well. Formed in 1988 by Justin Crawford (Bass) , Dolan Hewison (Guitar) , Perry Saunders (Drums) with singer Andy Spearpoint answering an ad in the paper [...]
To anyone who is a regular visitor to these pages will hopefully have noticed the dramatic tidy up & the mass termination of completely useless webpage widgets. I have overcome this evil addiction & with weekly counselling should start living a normal life again. Pages are loading faster (surprise ! surprise !) , information is easier to read & the general layout is more pleasing to the eye. The moral of this story is "Widgets" .. The`re not big & the`re not clever. The music world , to my [...]
I do hope Rick Buckler is out on the town tonight celebrating his 51st birthday. I`ve never met the man in person but out of all three members of The Jam he has always came across as Mr dependable , the sort of bloke you could rely on. I can`t imagine how him & Bruce Foxton felt when Mr Weller announced The Jam were to split , that`s a little chat i would have loved to have heard . With Weller only playing a handful of old material during his live shows , i think Rick Buckler`s [...]
I like musicians to uphold the rock ethic , be slightly eccentric & ultimately try to change the way you think . If we were lead to believe , Julian Cope has probably consumed more acid than a Norwegian pine forest , played more protest gigs than Billy Bragg / The Levellers put together & been top of Mother Earth`s Christmas card list for the last ten years. . Musically not entirely consistent with each release , lots of high points , some unfair reviews & [...]
File hosting is great when it`s working , very pointless when slow & unreachable . Sorry the mp3 links are not doing the necessary but Streamload/Mediamax are doing maintenance , which apparently means corrupting or deleting files , sooooo glad i didn`t subscribe for this service. I would love to say there was a complicated reason for posting the two tracks below , maybe the`re somehow related to great piece of topical news today or responsible for uproar among the masses ...... Nah ! , only trying out another file host , Good tunes though. Listen / Download [...]
Not that we need any more excuses to spend cash this time of the year , David Gilmour is kindly releasing a nice 3 track EP of two Syd Barrett penned songs , a fitting tribute , I think. The first "Arnold Layne" featuring David Bowie on vocals. The track was lifted from the Royal Albert Hall shows with Bowie doing a series of guest spots , Richard Wright helps out on the second version of Arnold Layne while track three "Dark Globe" (The Madcap Laughs LP) shows Gilmour`s acoustic side. Strangely available [...]
Theres always been a huge interest in all things Italian whether it be clothes , classic scooters or even food. So the idea of Italian melodic punk rock some what intrigued me. Next Point , a big sounding band from a small town in Trento have developed their alternative rock sound over the last couple of years , playing several gigs around the Primiero Valley & recently recording their very impressive demo album "Maxima 30". [...]
I`m going all soulful today , Two foot tapping , smack you in the face soul classics. The amazing thing about this genre is the huge volume produced during the sixties & seventies , rock outfits could take months producing records while soul artists & their pool of session musicians regularly recorded bucket loads of quality material. The Just Brothers were Jim my & Frank Bryant from Detroit , even though the record wasn`t a [...]
I`ve always been intrigued with youth culture , during my teens i was a mod , rode a scooter & wrote a fanzine dedicated to the scene i loved . I understand the idea of punks, skinheads, rockers , rude boys , goths & grunge etc and realise young people do need a sense of belonging but over the last year the term "Emo" seems to be used in most sentence's relating to almost anything.. Try typing in "Emo" on Ebay UK , 10,427 entries , bloody [...]
MOJOPHENIA
Monday Music – 28 May 2012
Bison - Quill
