Exciting week with two of the best bands - Fightmilk & Desperate Journalist - releasing new music.
The new Fightmilk record, Contender, is killer. Great tunes that both rock and are very catchy, good lyrics too. My current favourite is 'Maybe'. Gorgeous. And the way it builds throughout the song to such a sumptuous juggernaut at the end is wonderful
Desperate Journalist are back with a great new tune and video, 'Personality Girlfriend'. I really dig the mood of this one, the minor slow romp of the verses, and especially when Jo goes high with the vocal, smoothly flowing into a chorus where the light of a major key makes for cool shadows
David Shah's new Zeitklein project has released a nice new tune, 'Skydivers'
My favourite Facebook group is The Go-Betweens one and someone mentioned there's a Triffids 'Great Australian Albums' documentary for Born Sandy Devotional so I hopped on that right away.
'Spanish Blue' is in it, well before the album, but what a good single.
And then of course 'Wide Open Road' is one of the best songs ever written. Great performance of it here
And the Church cover of it is fantastic
Still making my way through Colin Harper's excellent John McLaughlin bio Bathed In Lightning. A good compilation of John's pre-Miles 60s recordings here
And finally I was playing quadruple solitaire with the family last night and I put on Burt Bacharach's '20th Century Masters' compilation for us to listen to, not realizing these are instrumental versions of the hits. But OMG, the version of 'Don't Make Me Over' is FANTASTIC. Especially the 'accept me for what I am' part. Intense.
Happy Mother's Day, all! I'll keep this short as I'm spending time with mine.
A song I absolutely love that my mom used to play all the time when I was growing up and that I've been listening to a lot the past few days. Sly & The Family Stone's 'Everybody Is A Star'
What else has been in my headphones this week. A lot of Yoko Ono. Exploring more of her work. 1995' 'Rising' album with IMA is incredible. Lots of stylistic territory explored and two gorgeous tunes in 'Goodbye, My Love' and 'Revelations'. The 'Yes, I'm A Witch' remix/collaboration record is really great too and the version of 'Revelations' with Cat Power is very moving
I've also been slowly making my way through Colin Harper's excellent 'Bathed In Lightning' book about John McLaughlin, and so much more. Incredibly dense history, that 200 pages in has provided much detail on the 60s session scene in London. There's many curios to stop and look up along the way. Including John & Duffy Power's take on 'God Bless The Child'
And this amazing performance of 'Cherokee' on the Tonight Show in 1984
It was pouring earlier this week and sitting by the window watching the drops fall it was pleasant to be reminded of Terri Rae's 'It's Raining'. One day I'll find her whole record
And I had a fantastic conversation with Fightmilk for an upcoming episode of the ETC podcast, out May 17th. Their new record, 'Contender', is out before that on the 14th and oh boy, are you in for a treat! They've expanded their palette and taken things up a couple notches. Killer tunes, especially this one. And a great video by Jono Ganz. 'Overbite':
That's all for now. I'm thinking of turning this blog into an email newsletter. Let me know what you think about that idea
A sad week this week as I woke up on Wednesday to the news that Anita Lane had died. I'd had her & Barry Adamson's excellent version of 'These Boots Are Made For Walking' stuck in my head for the previous week, perhaps with good reason.
I was reminiscing about how in 1998 on my fateful trip to Europe where that stranger told me that Nick Cave owned a bar in Berlin, setting in motion that epic adventure, I was reading Ian Johnston's 'Bad Seed' biography and Anita seemed like such both a powerful muse and creator in her own right. And then at the end of that trip I went to London and found her 'The World's A Girl' EP, her and Nick's version of 'Je T'aime...' introducing me to the world of Serge Gainsbourg. And those Gainsbourg covers she did with Mick Harvey! Their version of 'Overseas Telegram' is my definition of gorgeous.
I quickly sought out her 'Dirty Pearl' album and then a couple years later, I was going to Canada with my band Lifestyle to play some gigs and I picked up the newly released 'Sex O'Clock' at a record shop in Buffalo, NY. We were fascinated by it. Mute is reissuing that record later this year and I was hoping to speak with Anita about it for the ETC podcast. I spent a lot of time on Twitter looking at all the lovely tributes to her and it was great to see that so many people knew of her and what a powerful force she was.
It was one such tweet that introduced me to the work of Penelope Trappes. Her new song 'Fur & Feather' is lovely.
Also on Twitter was introduced to the catchy spacey electronic sounds of wor_kspace.
And the lush dreampop of Phantom Handshakes, whose album cover for their new 'No More Summer Songs' was nice enough to inspire me to listen and I really enjoyed it.
I seem to find out about a lot of music through Twitter these days. Not a bad thing. And it was the same for the new illuminati hotties song 'MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA'. Sarah really knows how to write an energetic pop song
And speaking of energetic pop, last weekend I watched 'Josie & The Pussycats' again on my birthday and that soundtrack is so good. I really like the countdown from six in the chorus '3 Small Words'.
And I wouldn't have thought it possible to love Charly Bliss any more than I do, but reading this The Fader oral history of the film, I found out that CB covered the entire soundtrack for Halloween a couple years ago.
Guided By Voices are back with a new album, 'Earth Man Blues', which Rolling Stone called their best since 'Alien Lanes'. That's a mighty call, but after one listen there are some good tunes on there. I'm particularly fond of 'How Can A Plumb Be Perfected?'
Anton Barbeau is back with a cool video for his ace new wavey 'Across The Drama Pond'. If you don't know Anton's work, I highly recommend checking it out. Especially if you like Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope, XTC, or just really good pop music. He's an American English eccentric.
I kept hearing Sonny & Cher's 'The Beat Goes On' last week and then Telex covered it.
There were five songs that really blew me away this year. I'm not going to do a Top 5 or any Top list, ranking them doesn't really mean anything as they all really hit me in that wonderfully incomparable way a song should.
Carla J. Easton's - 'Never Knew You' - a glorious POP tune and a great video, complete with fancy gowns and animal head masks. Carla's album Weirdo is my POP album of the year.
Steve Kilbey's 'Josephine' is gorgeous and I've loved hearing it ever since it debuted during his Monday evening Instagram sessions. Lovely lyrics, and the feeling is enormous. There's some great stuff on the 11 Women album.
Sam Barton's 'We painted our faces and gave false names', wow, this blew me away the first time I heard it on the Flashback Records compilation, later released on Sam's Acid Apple Satin Walls album. It reminded me of that next level that music took me to as a teenager when you realize just how important all this is. A wonderful track that I listened to over and over many a time this year.
Illuminati Hotties' 'Freequent Letdown'. First off, best band name I've heard in years. And this tune is just so joyous and catchy. Top pop.
AC/DC's 'Through The Mists Of Time'. A great timeless rock song. This also blew me away the first time I heard the album. My childhood best friend messaged me reminding me that they were putting out a new one and he absolutely loves the whole record, saying how it was such a great thing to have happen this year of all years. While the rest of it just sounds like latter day AC/DC to me, 'Through The Mists Of Time' really stands out. I found myself putting it on a few days after I gave the album a listen, and then just kept coming back to it, until eventually it found its way on the stereo almost every time I had music playing. I love it. It's my favourite thing they've done with Brian Johnson since 'Thunderstruck', and ranks up there with my favourites of the second incarnation of the band. My affection for this tune had me listening to them a lot more, realizing that Powerage definitely ranks in my Top 5 Albums of All-Time, and I then watched all the documentaries available about them in less than a week.
La Roux's 'Automatic Driver' deserves an honourable mention as I've listened to this tune a ton and it's just the type of pop song I love.
Two tunes that definitely deserve a mention as I listened to them a ton and love them, despite them only being currently listenable on YouTube are Jordan Benik's, now going under the name Trading Queens.
And High On Stress' 'Work Release'. If you like The Replacements...
I discovered a bunch of great artists this year. High On Stress being a big one. As well as Anton Barbeau, Hedvig Mollestad, and Emma Tricca.
Mr. Barbeau has many a fine tune, usually in the English eccentric meets his California homeland style, but it was this one that he wrote for and dueted with Allyson Seconds on that has been on my stereo the most.
All of Hedvig Mollestad's records are worth checking out though it is her 2013 album with her trio, All Of Them Witches, that I put on the most, always accompanied by a big 'YES!' at its awesomeness.
I don't remember how I first heard Emma Tricca, but I'm so glad I did. This tune is pure loveliness.
As for older songs and artists I discovered this year, a French Instagram friend hipped me to the beauty of Nino Ferrer's 'Le Sud'.
Mat Colegate posted Judee Sill's 'The Kiss' on FB one night which lead me down an extraordinary rabbithole, with 'Jesus Was A Cross Maker' coming to the fore as my fave.
Ms. Sill reminds me a bit of Dory Previn, who I love and was listening to a lot especially at the beginning of the year when I was driving out to California. Her 'Going Home' I believe is my song for 2020, even though it was a year I wasn't really sure what I could consider 'home'.
I have another Album of the Year - A Love Supreme Electric. Henry Kaiser, John Hanrahan, Mike Watt, Wayne Peet, and Vinny Golia. I fell in love with this from its opening notes. It is what it says, an electric version of Coltrane's A Love Supreme and Meditations. The music is ENORMOUS and really takes you very far indeed.
It was my pleasure to talk to a lot of the artists mentioned above on the Etcetera ETC With Young Southpaw podcast - Henry Kaiser, Steve Kilbey, Anton Barbeau, Nick from High On Stress, Hedvig Mollestad, and Carla J. Easton. As well as a bunch of other great guests like Greg Proops from 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', Mat Osman from Suede, Mark Monnone from The Lucksmiths, author John Higgs, and many others. You can listen to those here.
Maybe I'll get around to posting about all the books I read and films I watched this year in another post. But it's worth noting that P. G. Wodehouse audiobooks and Letterkenny really kept me going this year.
Anton Barbeau added me on Twitter this week and his bio reads ""File in the buried treasure bin alongside XTC, Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope and The Bevis Frond." - Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times". So of course I gave him a listen. And yeah, those comparisons are spot on! Really digging his new record 'Manbird'. And always nice to have a back catalogue to go through.
I also found out that Dean Garcia from Curve, who I loved, has a ton of solo stuff out, releasing a SPC ECO ("Space Echo") EP a month this year. His daughter, Rose, is on vocals. This song is lovely.
I interviewed Amelia Fletcher & Rob Pursey for my ETC podcast about the new Heavenly compilation coming out in December and a couple of their new projects (they have so many) - Swansea Sound and The Drift. Although we didn't get a chance to talk about them, their post-Heavenly band Marine Research has been stuck in my head the most this week. The album 'Sounds From The Gulf Stream' is such a great pop record, in my Top 25 of All-Time. And the single is great as well, I love those b-sides. From the album it's been 'Venn Diagram' that's been stuck in my head all week.
And of course the 'Parallel Horizontal' single is just brilliant.
I finally finished watching the 1974 Zero Mostel & Gene Wilder Film, Rhinocerus. Based on the Ionesco play. I had started it in 2018 one night when I was too tired but had kept it marked to come back to. Enjoyed it, not too absurd but well done. Galt MacDermot's score is really good. I especially like the second half of the main theme, when it goes to the major key.
I've been reading Kim "Howard" Johnson's wonderful 'Monty Pynthon's Tunisian Holiday', the Python biographer's diaries from the film set of Life Of Brian. Very much enjoying it. I love Python. One of the turning points of my life was watching the sketch with "It's spelled 'Luxury Yacht' but it's pronounced 'ThroatWarblerMangrove'." 13 year old me just thought that was the greatest thing, a wonderful sense of imagination and silliness. I'm always really happy when Python comes back into my life and I've been watching the documentaries on Netflix that I haven't seen - The Meaning Of Live and The Meaning Of Monty Python. Also watched Eric Idle's What About Dick? Which is wonderfully anarchic. A play in the form of a radio play that had almost no rehearsal and was only performed 4 times. The cast is stellar, great energy, and Eddie Izzard is especially brilliant, very impressive. And I want Billy Connolly's awesome suit from it.
I finished listening to Momus' autobiography, Niche: A Memoir In Pastiche. In which he 'channels' 217 dead artists to tell his life story. It was very well done. And I loved hearing favourites of mine like J.P. Donleavy talking about Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex, or Witold Gombrowicz mentioning The Sex Pistols, The Beatles, and David Bowie.
Moving on to my next audiobook, I just started Wodehouse's 'Galahad At Blandings'. Felt the need for some Wodehouse as he and 'Letterkenny' have really been the things keeping me laughing this year.
Speaking of 'Wodehouse', 'Archer' Season 11 is a return to form.
Also watched the Killing Joke documentary, 'The Death & Resurrection Show'. It was 2.5 hours long but when I was finished, I didn't see how it could possibly have been any shorter. Very interesting. Heavy on the occult stuff, but what a long career they've had. ConcertArchives.org reminds me that 26 years ago today, on October 26th 1994, I saw them for the first and only time, at Axis in Boston, MA, on the 'Pandemonium' tour. At one point Jaz said 'we've been millionaires on wine & cheese'. That stuck in my head for some reason.
Last night after a busy weekend getting the two podcasts together, I watched The Addams Family and Addams Family Values back to back. It was just the thing.
This week mostly Middle Blue's 'Leany Lean' has been stuck in my head. Very catchy. I love groove-based yet melodic music like this. Digging their Love Chordsalbum
I learned that Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs released a solo album in 2006 and what I've heard from it is lovely.
Uncle Tupelo's 'Gun' was stuck in my head for a while. I was reminiscing about seeing them open up for Teenage Fanclub in March 1992 at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT. What a great show. This has always been my favourite Uncle Tupelo tune
I've heard the new Louis Philippe album coming out in December and it is gorgeous pop.
Reading-wise, I grabbad Yann &Schwartz's 'Atom Agency' today and enjoyed it very much. Loved the artwork, evoking 1949 France in the style of the 60s masters.
Finished watching 'The Bureau' on Friday night. Oh man is this show great. I binged all 5 seasons in like a month. And perhaps it was The Day Today sketch, thankfully put out of my mind around season three, that had me watch 'The Trip To Greece' last night. Also caught up with Archer season 11 and it's been really funny. After the first two episodes it got back up to classic period Archer
