Tagged: joes

Ever the creative chap 'Rut' is the latest offering from Joe, the producer who brought us the paradoxically relentless yet addictive 'Claptrap'. Sparse yet ultimately fulfilling, sparing chord hits punctuate a flowing percussive rhythm like expertly placed raisins in a particularly delicious muesli. Ok, I paused for a second to see if that made any sense and to be honest, I don't really understand the analogy myself. I'm just eating muesli as I type and figured I may as well include it. The raisins are nice. No one gives muesli radio play anyway, it's [...]

Joe writes: Wayne was the guitarist in the MC5. Wild America is from the nineties, when he was signed to Epitaph Records. I'm not sure why I was reminded of it but it is a great tune with real bite. It's not on YouTube or iTunes but it is on MySpace which is something to be said for MySpace I suppose.

Joe writes: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blue isn't one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs, or wasn't until I heard Nina's restrained version of it. It's my new favourite Dylan cover and one of my two favourite Nina Simone tracks. Here's my other Nina favourite, Little Girl Blue, which borrows from Good King Wenceslas: and while I'm on the subject of classic tracks that borrow from Christmas carols, here's Joni Mitchell's River with its debt to Jingle Bells:

Joe writes: Nice performance of my favourite track of the moment

Joe writes: While looking through old possessions in my mum's house, I came across these Bran Van 3000 beer mats which reminded me about their awesome but odd debut single Drinking In LA. Odd because there's a DJ talking over the intro about giving away Bran Van 3000 tickets. Awesome because it's such a tune, with that fabulously loose groove, a singalong chorus to rival Tubthumping, and a lyric which captures the mindset of wasting time getting drunk when you could be getting famous. Bran Van 3000 are Canadian and they're still touring apparently but the rest of their career [...]

Joe writes: For years I've been racking my brains trying to remember which American indie record from the '90s inspired MGMT so much. Of course it was this.

Joe writes: This is one of my favourite Euro dance tracks. I love the build up to the vocal (which doesn't come in until 1.17). I love how simple the lyric is; they were right to resist the temptation to write any more. Basically it's perfect. I once experienced a big moment when Judge Jules played this at El Divino in Ibiza. Judge Jules is now an entertainment lawyer. I wonder what DJ Jurgen and the rest of Alice Deejay are doing now? Wikipedia suggests Jurgen might still be a [...]

Joe writes: NME declared Prince's Parade as the album of 1986 , back before they were obsessed with white indie rock. Years later I borrowed it from my local library, copied it on to cassette and remember being moved to tears by Sometimes It Snows In April as I walked home from school along Cemetery Road. It might have been April, it might have been snowing, probably not though. Prince has an army of lawyers keeping his music off YouTube so here it is on Spotify:

If you were waiting for Joe to follow up on his 2011 release, The Good, The Bad, The Sexy, then wait no more. The urban contemporary mainstay is back with [...]

Joe writes: I didn't go to SXSW this year but I did download a couple of compilations of bands playing the event and felt I wasn't missing much until I heard Song For Zula. Then I saw it on Xfm's playlist, then in Spotify's "most viral" chart, then I discovered it was on Grey's Anatomy, all in the past 24 hours. What a beautiful piece of music, with echoes of Bette Midler's The Rose, Streets Of Philadelphia, and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

• Phosphorescent - Song For Zula (Official Audio)

Joe writes: Love this new single from Fryars - better than anything Tame Impala have done.

Joe writes: When I hear Bruno Mars on the radio I'm impressed and annoyed in equal measure. Impressed because time after time he writes a hit song with a good old-fashioned melody and lyrical concept. Annoyed because I think why aren't more people doing this? I'm not sure Bruno would have been a world-beating artist any time before 1990, but in the current era, he's streets ahead of the rest.

Joe writes: I just spent a long flight listening to Bob Dylan and reading Rolling Stone's Special Collectors Edition of 40 years of Dylan interviews. They also asked a panel of Dylan experts to create a list of his 100 greatest songs. The top ten is here . Like A Rolling Stone is no. 1 - fair enough. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall is a rather surprising no. 2. As well as being one of my favourite albums of all-time, Blood On The Tracks is surely the best Dylan album from beginning to end, and nine [...]

Joe writes: My dad bought The Band's 1993 album Jericho at the time of release. This was its highlight and the first time I'd heard this gloriously simple song, recorded by Harry Belafonte but made famous by Don Williams. Country Boy was a posthumous inclusion on The Band's album - Richard Manuel who performs it had committed suicide in 1986. I learnt from Wikipedia that the song was co-written by Fred Hellerman of The Weavers who was credited under the alias Fred Brooks because he'd been blacklisted in the McCarthy era.

Joe writes: I have been planning a new series where I post lesser-known original versions or demos of classic songs. Then I heard Atomic Kitten singing Whole Again on TV last night in the reunion programme The Big Reunion. Also appearing are the likes of Honeyz and Liberty X. Records like End Of The Line and A Little Bit More really haven't stood the test of time, but Whole Again undoubtedly has. The song was originally written by Andy McCluskey of OMD, and Stu Kershaw. Bill Padley and Jem Godfrey then did "additional production and mix" which, on this occasion, [...]

Joe writes: Fresh pop production from Sweden

El músico catalán Joe Crepúsculo dio a conocer el track  Mi Fabrica de Baile . Este nuevo single se desprende de su último álbum titulado Baile de Magos,  que será editado en marzo de 2013. Baile de Magos será el sexto album de Joe  Crepúsculo  y será editado el 20 de marzo de este año por el sello español Mushroom Pillow . El disco fue compuesto y grabado [...]

El barcelonés Joël Iriarte, alias Joe Crepúsculo, presenta "Mi fábrica de baile", el primer sencillo de su próximo álbum titulado Baile de magos . El cantautor español actualmente residente en Mallorca se ha influenciado por las bondades de la isla, para firmar un track diseñado para la pista de baile. Iriarte el año pasado publicó El caldero y su nuevo Baile de magos estará disponible desde el 30 de marzo nuevamente en el sello Mushroom Pillow. Articulos relacionados: Mira "Viva los [...]

Joe writes: I only recently heard Azonto for the first time and I'm really surprised that it hasn't crossed over yet. Maybe this summer. It's basically the Afrobeat Agadoo. Fuse ODG is a British Ghanaian rapper and I assume the beat is Ghanaian.

Joe writes: Back in the era where major labels decided what was going to be big and, mostly, made it so, her single Oh Romeo was one of the anointed ones that didn't quite deliver (in the UK anyway, where it reached the fateful chart position of no. 41), which is surprising as it's a great pop song and something of a forerunner of Taylor Swift. It's closing line is "I would not die for you".