Week In Music April 24th-May 1st

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. 

New Quicksand song, 'Inversion', that I'm digging

The Quietus ran a Pet Shop Boys 'Beyond The Hits' piece and I contributed a blurb about 'Nightlife', a tune I've always loved. 

And also it was rad to see Yoko Ono tweet Bobby from The Quietus' review of the Plastic Ono Band boxset. The songs he mentions at the end are lovely. 

After reading the review, I put on her 1973 'Approximately Infinite Universe' double album. Excellent stuff. 

2020 - Year in Music

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.

Hedvig Mollestad Trio · All Them Witches

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. 

Happy New Year all!

Week In Music August 10-16th

I watched that 2005 Piccadilly Jim film which caused me to start the Piccadilly Jim audiobook which in turn got David Devant & His Spirit Wife's 'Gentleman Jim' stuck in my head for much of the early part of the week. Wodehouse and Letterkenny have been the things getting me through this pandemic, I can't recommend them enough. And Jonathan Cecil's readings of Wodehouse's books are absolutely wonderful. The perfect proper British voice to portray such high comedy. 

Watched that Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90) documentary. Very good. Took me back to my late teenage years. Had a discussion over on Facebook about everyone's favourite Fugazi record. Mine's Margin Walker, with Repeater a close second. There were some votes for The Argument which I'd never really given a proper listen to. So I did. It's very good and 'Nightshop' stood out. 

I've loved that Embrace record since I first heard it back in 1993. I remember people calling it emo, and being confused years later when something called 'emo' had blown up but didn't really sound like Embrace. Also confusing was that British band Embrace coming along later on. 

Superexciting this week I interviewed Steve Kilbey of The Church for my Etcetera ETC With Young Southpaw podcast. He's recorded a new album which he wrote in one week back in the spring. It's called 11 Women and is really good. 'Josephine', which you can hear the studio version of at the end of the podcast, is one of my songs of the year. It's one of those timeless tunes, it sounds so familiar but yet you can't quite place it, as someone said to him, "like it's always been there". We had an excellent conversation dealing mostly with the magic and mystery of songs. Video of the interview will be on YouTube soon. Here's a version of 'Josephine' from one of his Monday evening IG shows

I watched Autoluminescent, the Rowland S. Howard documentary the other night. Loved it. Gave me a whole new appreciation for the man and the artist. Reminded me that it seems every time I walked into the Rough Trade shop on Talbot Road in London since 1999, I'd see a copy of his Teenage Snuff Film cd. I miss walking in there and seeing that. And of course 'Shivers' has been stuck in my head since, I even recorded a version today that's now on FB and IG. Such a classic. It would take more time than I've got now to go into how that song has been with me throughout the years. I remember covering it at Jacques in Boston at an early rock stone show. Here's the Young Charlatans, the original version I believe. I was also psyched to find their demos are up for free download at Rowland's site. 

And 'Autoluminescent', what a tune!

Also, 'Shut Me Down' is gorgeous

Saw the awesome band name Illuminati Hotties and had to check them out. Digging the album. This tune is great, super catchy

Been digging this Suzi Analogue EP and saw on Twitter that today's her birthday so I listened again

Bought the Flashback Records compilation earlier this year and listening to Samuel Barton's 'We Painted Our Faces And Gave False Names' from it today I was blown away. It's SO. FREAKING. LOVELY. Ever since I was a teenager there's always been a place in my mind that music like this takes me to. A twilight rocky ledge over a misty sea that seems like the end of the world both in time and place. Joy Division's 'Atmosphere' would take me there, The Cure's 'Plainsong'. I love this