borborygmus

borborygmus 2010

2011-02-06T17:23:00.005Z

It's the annual (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) borborygmus track list - songs from record albums released in 2010. This should give a pretty good overview of what I've enjoyed this year. The list length and style is derived from a CD I make each year for a select list of recipients (mostly people who ask). This year, selection, production and despatch were delayed, mostly due to 'flu. Apologies to all our subscribers.

1. Ready to Start
Arcade Fire from The Suburbs
2. Rambling Man
Laura Marling from I Speak Because I Can
3. New York Girls
Bellowhead from Hedonism
4. Slow
Rumer from Seasons of My Soul
5. More Than a Lover
The Coral from Butterfly House
6. Northern Skies
I Am Kloot from Sky at Night
7. Stay Lucky
The Gaslight Anthem from American Slang
8. The Wild Hunt
The Tallest Man on Earth from The Wild Hunt
9. Angel Dance
Robert Plant from Band of Joy
10. The End of the Movie
Stornaway from Beachcomber's Windowsill
11. Ain't Good Enough For You
Bruce Springsteen from The Promise
12. Wide Eyes
Local Natives from Gorilla Manor
13. I Don't Really Mind
Tame Impala from InnerSpeaker
14. You Won't Let Me Down Again
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan from Hawk
15. Heaven's On Fire
The Radio Dept. from Clinging to a Scheme
16. Drag the Lake Charlie
Drive-By Truckers from The Big To-Do
17. Green Eyed Boy
Rachelle Van Zanten from Where Your Garden Grows
18. Ghost of Woody Guthrie
Chatham County Line from Wildwood
19. The Blackest Lily
Corinne Bailey Rae from The Sea
20. What's In It For
Avi Buffalo from Avi Buffalo
21. Jet
Paul McCartney & Wings from Band on the Run

Arcade Fire are a class act, and I would love to see them live again; the problem is, they've got so big. Laura Marling's song was my track of the year in our family's annual Christmas Dinner run down. Bellowhead are a folk big band, touted as "with the exception of The Who, surely the best live band in the country" (The Independent). Folk music, but in its most eclectic, holistic, all-encompassing breadth. Folk with fiddles, concertinas, mandolins, pipes, whistles... and a four piece brass section. If there is one thing which defines Bellowhead as a live act, is that they are going to have a freakin' great time, and so will you.

Rumer - the Karen Carpenter of today. Despite the MOR nature of this record, the quality is outstanding. She writes the stuff, too. The Coral release was a late find - great retro psychedelic British pop. The I Am Kloot record was one of the Mercury Music Prize nominees this year (along with Laura Marling and Corinne Bailey Rae on this list).

There is no getting away from the Broooce influence on the Gaslight Anthem, and perhaps their 2008 debut was a better record, but I love the energy here. The Tallest Man on Earth is a chirpy Swede who delivers folk Americana-type music which is rarely slow nor quiet nor brooding. Robert Plant seems to do his best work with genius partners; in this case it's Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin helping him to deliver an atmospheric record.

Stornaway - Oxford band, folky and a bit quirky. Springsteen's The Promise collects 21 unreleased songs written (and mostly) recorded between 1976 and 1978, before the Darkness on the Edge of Town LP. And it's great stuff, considering it was all rejected the first time around! Local Natives are the first of several bands discovered at Glastonbury last summer; the record grew on me in the subsequent months.

Tame Impala - psych-pop that's so sonically past-tense, it could have been recorded when Edward Heath was Prime Minister. An inherently incongruous pairing, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan provide grit and soul. The Radio Dept. contribute yet another example of the psychedelic meme which seems to pervade this year's list - the LP being one of the best examples of all the things that help make Swedish pop so magical.

The DBT's have appeared on this list four times. 'Nuff said. Rachelle Van Zanten is a endearing, funny Canadian young lady - who also plays blistering slide guitar. Also great live this year were Chatham County Line; contemporary, vital bluegrass. In concert, they deliver these delightful harmonies gathered around a single microphone.

The gorgeous, delightful Corinne Bailey Rae was superb at Glastonbury. Her LP is a fine collection of neo-soul, poignant but enigmatic following the death of her husband. Another Glastonbury find are Avi Buffalo; cute band, led by a very young Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg. A talent to watch. Finally, 1974's top-selling studio album in the UK was by Paul McCartney & Wings. Keeping with tradition, this track from the 2010 re-release of Band on the Run is my guilty pleasure.

New Kindle out now!

2010-07-29T09:39:00.002+01:00

I've never been an Apple fan - no real need to. PC, Blackberry... I even started with a.n.other's MP3 player before getting an iPod.

But the purchase of an iPad did alter all that. The "app" is a real game-changer, and I am just waiting for iPhone 4.1 to come out in the autumn (we suspect) for the Apple wave to consume me further.

The other thing the iPad did for me was expose me to the electronic book. Whilst the iTunes book store is rumoured to be hugely successful, you can also run Amazon's Kindle software on the iPad, and have instant access to the USA Kindle bookstore. And THAT is bounteous and often inexpensive.

So, if reading books on a mchine is OK, acceptable, convenient, cheap, available, lightweight... the new Kindle at £109 is a complete no-brainer.

This blog has moved

2010-04-27T17:26:00.001+01:00

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Flags of our Glasto

2010-02-06T13:05:00.004Z

I haven't quite made my decision on the great Glastonbury flags debate, but I agree it's an issue - and not a simple one, oh no. It seems to me that a complex rule set should be brought in to make everyone's Glastonbury Pyramid Stage experience safer and more enjoyable - especially mine.

The over-numerous high-pole flags and banners should probably be restricted:

1) Unless I find them useful for navigation purposes. I need to be found in the heaving maelstrom by a simple text message to friends and family: pyramid stage rhs under inflatable giraffe and left of che guevara is enough to pinpoint my location almost exactly.

2) When they block my view of the band. Obviously.

3) When they are about sport. I have nothing against Premier League football clubs, Formula One racing teams or the Chipping Sodbury Tiddlywink 3rd XV - but I don't want to be distracted by these irrelevant enthusiasms when I am grooving to Bruce Springsteen.

4) Unless the are funny. Golf Sale This Way works. I Love Sausages doesn't.

5) If it takes an Iwo Jima-like multi-person effort to erect and guy ropes to keep it up, it's too big.

6) Peace, Love, Smiley Faces - I accept a smattering these can help with the vibe. Some refugee from Sid's mutant toy collection in Toy Story on a stick won't.

Of course, once you start banning flags, what next? How much should they legislate? A Glastonbury rulebook:

Rule 13c: Audience members may only sit on fellow audience member's shoulders if i) female and ii) willing to remove T shirt and and wave over head like demented rodeo rider for one short interval on each shoulder-mounting instance.

borborygmus 2009

2010-01-10T16:39:00.003Z

Well, it's that time again - it's the annual (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) borborygmus track list - songs from record albums released in 2009 (or from 2008 which did not hit my radar until 2009). This should give a pretty good overview of what I've enjoyed this year. The list length and style is derived from a CD I make each year for a select list of recipients (mostly people who ask).

1. Sweet Disposition
The Temper Trap from Conditions
2. Beating the Bounds
Jon Boden from Songs From The Floodplain
3. To Ohio
The Low Anthem from Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
4. Daniel
Bat For Lashes from Two Suns
5. Ambulance Man
The Felice Brothers from Yonder is the Clock
6. Bluish
Animal Collective from Merriweather Post Pavilion
7. Summer Morning Rain
The Duke & The King from Nothing Gold Can Stay
8. This Tornado Loves You
Neko Case from Middle Cyclone
9. Secret Door
Arctic Monkeys from Humbug
10. Midnight at the Movies
Justin Townes Earle from Midnight at the Movies
11. The Testimony of Patience Kershaw
The Unthanks from Here's The Tender Coming
12. Two Weeks
Grizzly Bear from Veckatimest
13. Little Lion Man
Mumford & Sons from Sigh No More
14. Look into the Light
Graham Coxon from The Spinning Top
15. Seven-Mile Island
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit from Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
16. Open Up Your Door
Richard Hawley from Truelove's Gutter
17. You Never Know
Wilco from Wilco (the album)
18. One Horse Down
Baskery from Fall Among Thieves
19. Swooping Molly
Martin Simpson from True Stories
20. A Rose for Emily
The Zombies from Odessey and Oracle

I am still an album buyer, rather than a downloader of single tracks. So these are indicative of favourite albums, rather than just individual songs. I try and pick tracks which are both well-liked, and also representative of the band - or even just the catchy song. Certain things restrict choice; sometimes tracks are too long to fit on the CD, for example.

I bought nine of these albums on CD, the rest are legal downloads. I saw eight of these acts live during the year.

We saw The Temper Trap at Glastonbury, and were reasonably impressed. Their record has become a family favourite, and this track a great start to the compilation. I wrote about Jon Boden on the previous post; choosing one song from him was tough. The Low Anthem's CD is a lot more diverse than this track suggests. They are a group of three multi-instrumentalists.

Bat for Lashes are reminiscent of Kate Bush, which is no bad thing. Second appearance for fabulous The Felice Brothers, whose gig in London was awesome, despite a crap venue. Surprising elements of urban music in their Americana set. The Animal Collective album was critically acclaimed, and though not as accessible as some, is an interesting listen.

The Duke & The King comprises one of the Felice siblings, gone to try pastures anew. Another great record from Neko Case, such an accomplished singer and songwriter. Every year we love what Alex Turner is doing - the Arctic Monkeys record was a development on from the first two, and they did a storming gig in Birmingham for us this autumn.

Justin Townes Earle is the son of long term fave Steve Earle. Steve released an album of Townes van Zandt covers this year, which I thought was just OK, but Justin (whose middle name reveals his father's devotion) put out a very good record of mostly original stuff, giving his Dad a run for his money (this year, at any rate). The darling Unthank sisters have a unique take of British folk music, with exquisite harmonies. This song is based on the testimony of Patience to a government enquiry in 1842 into children working in coal mines. Grizzly Bear are fine in a year without Fleet Foxes.

Mumford & Sons have a punk-folk sensibility with great vocals. The guitarist with Blur, Graham Coxon's solo record was inspired by Bert Jansch, and shows his hitherto unknown acoustic styles. Jason Isbell and his band made a fine southern rock record; I still expect bigger things from him.

Sheffield star Richard Hawley brings his dulcet tones to another excellent record, vying with Coles Corner. Wilco's CD was a bit poppier this year, but not disappointing for all that. Baskery: I had to have this! We saw them at Glastonbury - three Swedish sisters playing stand-up bass, guitar and slide-fuzz-banjo whilst hitting a bass drum foot pedal at the same time, and all singing super harmonies. Oh, and they are blonde and beautiful.

The Martin Simpson track is a bit of a space filler - I crammed in this delightful instrumental because I could, and he's a much better guitarist than singer. Finally, the re-issue of the year is by The Zombies - the title of which bears the original mis-spelling!

Favourite record

2010-01-08T18:21:00.002Z

The annual compilation has been delayed by adverse weather conditions. But I thought I'd make a point about my favourite album in 2009.

Jon Boden is an English folk musician and multi-instrumentalist. Prior to this year I knew him primarily as the leader of Bellowhead, a fantastic "big-band" folk collective who are worth seeing live at any opportunity. I knew he was teamed with John Spiers, but did not really know the duo's music.

The 2009 Cambridge Folk Festival was dominated for me by four performances from Boden - Bellowhead, of course, and a support to Martin Simpson. Supporting his solo album, Songs from the Floodplain, he also had a set with his band the The Remnant Kings, and finally a gripping solo set on Saturday morning (which inspired me to buy a concertina - a step too far!).

The album is a beautifully profound and dramatic record that has all the makings of a future classic. The songs all refer to a post-apocalyptic Britain, in a sort of concept-album way. Throughout, Boden's voice has an endearing fragility, which works particularly well well accompanied by just a simple concertina.

2009 playlist

2010-01-01T13:56:00.003Z

According to last.fm, I'm into folk, oldies, rock and indie, including:
Steve Earle, The Felice Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Neko Case, U2, Wilco, R.E.M., Jon Boden, Neil Young, The Who, Arctic Monkeys, Richmond Fontaine, Martin Simpson, Drive-By Truckers, Sir Edward Elgar, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Christy Moore, Ryan Adams, Cara Dillon, Fleet Foxes, Johnny Cash, Radiohead, Kate Rusby, Frank Sinatra, Calexico, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, The Beatles, Grizzly Bear, Stiff Little Fingers, Justin Townes Earle, Karine Polwart, Jay Farrar, Whiskeytown, The Handsome Family, Altan, The Jayhawks, Michael Jackson, Eliza Carthy, Johann Sebastian Bach, Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, J.J. Cale, Bat for Lashes, Uncle Tupelo, Elton John, John Martyn, Graham Coxon, Kathryn Williams & Neill MacColl.

Check out my music taste: www.last.fm/user/borborygmus

An update on the Nigeria scam e-mails!

2009-10-30T19:16:00.005Z

This e-mail just received - really.

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
TREASURY AND MINISTER FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE, LONDON,UNITED KINGDOM.

Our ref: ATM/13470/IDR
Your ref:...Date: 30/10/2009

IMMEDIATE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION

I am The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP,Prime Minister British Government. This letter is to officially inform you that (ATM Card Number 048000101775550) has been accredited with your favor. Your Personal Identification Number is 477.The VISA Card Value is £2,000,000.00(Two Million, Great British Pounds Sterling).

This office will send to you an Visa/ATM CARD that you will use to withdraw your funds in any ATM MACHINE CENTER or Visa card outlet in the world with a maximum of £5000 GBP daily.Further more,You will be required to re-confirm the following information to enable; The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, begin in processing of your VISA CARD.

(1)Full names: (2)Address: (3)Country: (4)Nationality:
(5)Phone #: (6)Age: (7)Occupation: (8) Zip Code

Forward all your details to:
-------------------------------------------------------
The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Email: alis_darl10@8.am
-------------------------------------------------------

TAKE NOTICE: That you are warned to stop further communications with any other person(s) or office(s) different from the staff of the State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to avoid hitches in receiving your payment.

Regards,

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister

What I spent July reading

2009-08-31T14:08:00.002+01:00

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Buffett is a fascinating man - obviously very intelligent, but eccentric and socially inadequate. This huge, detailed book is an "authorised" biography which begins in childhood and brings us almost completely up to date. Not an investment guide, nor a hagiography, the book gives us a close insight into the life of the world's richest man. Overlong, but hugely enjoyable.

Paperback comes out next week.

It's the little things which make a home...

2009-06-06T13:43:00.003+01:00

Avid music festival goer, I still demand my creature comforts. Whatever the allure of the music, I will only attend if I can be assured that my 3S requirements are met. I need a warm, dry and comfortable place to sleep, a daily hot shower, and somewhere relatively private, pleasant and secure in order to... ah... sh... read a magazine and contemplate the day.

In cases where a luxury caravan, say, was not available, The Brown Corporation have released a potential solution for one's festival movements. I have no connection with the company, have never tested it, but from the heart of my bottom, I recommend it.

An iTunes killer?

2009-01-18T17:38:00.002Z

amazon.co.uk have recently started their mp3 download service - DRM-free and cheaper than iTunes. Worth checking out.

borborygmus 2008

2009-01-05T21:10:00.010Z

If there's anything which will rouse this sleepy blog, it's the annual (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) borborygmus track list - songs from record albums released in 2008 (or from 2007 which did not hit my radar until 2008). This should give a pretty good overview of what I've enjoyed this year; some of my long-suffering friends and acquaintances get a fully realised CD.

1. Meeting Place
The Last Shadow Puppets from The Age of the Understatement
2. Great Expectations
The Gaslight Anthem from The '59 Sound
3. Mykonos
Fleet Foxes from the Sun Giant EP
4. The Opening Act
Drive-By Truckers from Brighter Than Creation's Dark
5. Oxford Comma
Vampire Weekend from Vampire Weekend
6. Sing
Glen Campbell from Meet Glen Campbell
7. Rivers Run
Karine Polwart from This Earthly Spell
8. Constructive Summer
The Hold Steady from Stay Positive
9. Rosalie
Eliza Carthy from Dreams of Breathing Underwater
10. Supernatural Superserious
R.E.M. from Accelerate
11. Chasing Pavements
Adele from 19
12. We'll Get By
Gary Louris from Vagabonds
13. Frankie's Gun!
The Felice Brothers from The Felice Brothers
14. Domestico
Peter Bruntnell from Peter and the Murder of Crows
15. Kids
MGMT from Oracular Spectacular
16. Solomon Browne
Seth Lakeman from Poor Man's Heaven
17. re:stacks
Bon Iver from For Emma, Forever Ago
18. River Song
Dennis Wilson from Pacific Ocean Blue
19. Fareweel Regality
Rachel Unthank & the Winterset from The Bairns

Twelve of these were hardcopy CDs I bought, the balance downloads from eMusic.com. I saw nine of these acts live during the year.

Super-talented monkey Alex Turner makes the list for the third year in a row, this time with The Last Shadow Puppets and a record of an almost 60's pastiche of orchestral pop which is also right up to date. The Gaslight Anthem are new, punk-Springsteen - I have a ticket to see them next month. Fleet Foxes pushed all the right critics' buttons and were a huge success this year; this track actually comes from their EP, not the eponymous album. The EP was released first, but recorded after the LP - both are excellent.

The DBT's are old favourites and a superb live band (they toured in the USA in 2008 in tandem with The Hold Steady, which had to have been fantastic and shattering). The 2008 record was quite a mixed bag, with a more eclectic range of song styles, and although they lost interesting songwriter Jason Isbell, it holds up well. Vampire Weekend are a fresh New York band playing "Upper West Side Soweto". Following a path blazed by Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell put out a hugely enjoyable CD of covers, including this version of Sing which knocks spots off the original. Listen out for some of the arrangements which are reminiscent of the glory days of Campbell with the Jimmy Webb songbook. Glen sings and plays guitar belying his age.

Karine Polwart is an artist new to me this year, but became a firm favourite with her warm but sometimes hard-hitting Scottish folk. I saw her at the Cambridge Folk Festival. It was a positive year for The Hold Steady - a co-headlining tour with the Drive-by's and a good follow-up record to the brilliant Boys And Girls In America. A busy year for Eliza Carthy, arguably the leading English folk artist playing today. Dreams of Breathing Underwater is a wildly catholic original recording. It didn't quite work out live when I saw her this summer, although she was charmingly and bumptiously pregnant. Eliza was also part of The Imagined Village, folk-fusion which almost made it onto the list, albeit a 2007 release.

Arguably, a return to form for R.E.M.. To me, Adele is the best of the "new Dusty"s thrown up in the last year or two, robust and natural. Gary Louris is the erstwhile leader of the (now defunct?) Jayhawks, and this solo record displays obvious similarities to their latter days. Louris also released a CD with Mark Olson, another original Jayhawk, re-united after over 10 years.

The Felice Brothers have a fun, raw Americana which steeps into their music and their stories. I saw Peter Bruntnell at a small, solo gig - he was patently a good songwriter. The record shows another side, however - pop and psychedelia. New York has thrown up lots of great bands in the last year or so; MGMT another good example. There are three or four brilliant electronica pop songs on the album; Kids was a highlight of their set at Glastonbury, with thousands of uplifted ravers leaving the Park Stage post-gig singing the riff - doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-do-do-doo doo doo.

A couple of chances to see hunky fiddler Seth Lakeman this year - he is popular and exuberant live. I don't think this year's CD is as strong as Freedom Fields, but it has attracted a wider audience. The most listened to album this year was by Bon Iver, recorded solo in a remote snow-bound cabin in the woods, fueled by the deer he hunted and broken relationships. Perhaps thought of as the least talented Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson proves his chops with Pacific Ocean Blue. Originally released in 1977, this "lost classic" was re-issued in 2008 combined with Bambu and other unreleased material. Dennis' ravaged voice oozes soul and raw emotion.

Finally, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset bring us to a classic northern English folk close - simple, beautiful harmonies. Fareweel!

I'm afraid it bought a tear to my eye

2008-11-06T09:54:00.002Z

Whenever you are feeling gloriously moved by a globally recognised achievement, count on The Onion to make it all better: Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress.

Places & times I really wished I'd been

2008-10-05T13:18:00.003+01:00

An article in the Sunday Times this morning about Annie Leibovitz contained this picture - wish I'd been on that porch too.

Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash with autoharp, Rosanne Cash with guitar

Barbed Wire Love

2008-04-15T18:25:00.002+01:00

Last year, Stiff Little Fingers celebrated their 30th anniversary. Part of that was touring and playing their first album live, in its entirety - the enduring and influential Inflammable Material. I vividly remember its release in 1979 (I have a white label vinyl copy somewhere) and I was lucky enough to see the tour last year.

One of the songs on that album is the "doo-wop surf pastiche" Barbed Wire Love, which isn't typical of the record (c.f. Alternative Ulster and Suspect Device for that), but which... er... struck a chord, and is still a sing-a-long live.

See check out this a capella version, and note the official thumbs up in the comments section on YouTube!

borborygmus 2007

2008-01-13T15:17:00.000Z

I now present the eerily ever more popular annual borborygmus track list. The rules are that tracks are chosen from releases in 2007, or releases from 2006 which did not hit my radar until 2007. 11 of the 17 tracks are from CDs I bought, eight are from albums I downloaded (legally!).

1. No Cars Go
Arcade Fire from Neon Bible
2. Paper Doll
Rosie Thomas from These Friends of Mine
3. Fluorescent Adolescent
Arctic Monkeys from Favourite Worst Nightmare
4. Trapeze
Patty Griffin from Children Running Through
5. Impossible Germany
Wilco from Sky Blue Sky
6. Tennessee Blues
Steve Earle from Washington Square Serenade
7. Never Any Good
Martin Simpson from Prodigal Son
8. Dress Blues
Jason Isbell from Sirens of the Ditch
9. Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Bruce Springsteen from Magic
10. Start A War
The National from Boxer
11. Please Read The Letter
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss from Raising Sand
12. Wait for the Summer
Yeasayer from All Hour Cymbals
13. Gotta Keep Walking
Willy Mason from If the Ocean Gets Rough
14. House Of Cards
Radiohead from In Rainbows
15. Spirit Road
Neil Young Chrome Dreams II
16. Den sodeste vals
Haugaard & Höirup from Gaestebud/Feast
17. Take Pills
Panda Bear from Person Pitch

Arcade Fire won me over this year; their first album was well feted, although passed me by. But in mud up to my ankles and in a sardine crowd, in a rousing performance at Glastonbury this summer, they completely won me over. Rosie Thomas was a chance discovery on eMusic.com, an extremely well-produced record featuring Sufjan Stevens, amongst others. Sheffield lads Arctic Monkeys spurn the difficult second album syndrome with, by golly, a record almost effortlessly better than their first release.

Patty Griffin continues a stream of excellent singer/songwriter fare; she should be far more popular. After the occasional aural challenge of 2004's A Ghost is Born, Wilco produced a slightly more accessible record, which still holds its own in the quality of their output. Anyone who sees my last.fm profile will know what I think about Steve Earle - this year's release is influenced by a move to New York City.

Martin Simpson was this year's discovery at the Cambridge Folk Festival. A guitar virtuoso (he is impressive just tuning up), he has a deep grasp of folk/Americana, and can write a decent song, as this paean to his father shows. We Drive By Truckers fans were shocked to hear of Jason Isbell's departure from the band, but glad to see his first release on his own. Suffice to say that he is a developing solo artist, but the song included here ranks alongside the greatest anti-war protest songs of the modern era, and which I first saw Jason perform solo at a DBT gig. Bruce Springsteen re-unites with the E Street Band, and there's no better reason than that to give his latest a listen.

The National have a subtle style which just creeps up on you. You would have given short shrift to the idea of a Led Zeppelin/bluegrass hybrid, but Robert Plant & Alison Krauss have made one the best-reviewed albums of the year, and this track is my favourite of 2007. "The music of Brooklyn's Yeasayer is a genre-bending journey into pop, druggy rock, Middle Eastern and African musics, folk, and dub." And this new band also have excellent harmonies.

At the very beginning of the year, I earmarked the opening track of Willy Mason's LP for this list, and 12 months later, it's still here. Radiohead hit the headlines with their online release, asking the punters to pay what they wanted to for the download. The brouhaha should not take away from what I feel is their best record since OK Computer. Gnarly Neil Young gets back to his greatest ragged rock style, with a superb record, best played loud and featuring an 18 minute track of grungy guitar and horns.

Haugaard & Höirup are a Danish fiddle and guitar folk duo - one of my most serene moments of 2007 was noon on a Sunday, sitting on a blanket, drinking Guinness and listening to them. Finally, Panda Bear - Beach Boys harmonies will a modern, indie-rock sensibility.

Interesting to see that, even though I bought more records by download than physical CDs this year, the list has a majority of actual plastic. Also for the first time this year, I am distributing mp3 versions of my borborygmus 2007 cd, knowing that a lot of people just immediately rip it to a computer anyway.

Bubbling under: 2007 releases from Peter Case, Josh Rouse, Kate Rusby, Chuck Prophet, KT Tunstall, Ryan Adams, Okkervil River, Rufus Wainwright, Richmond Fontaine, Bright Eyes

Disappointing: Eagles, Klaxons

It tells a story

2007-12-23T16:26:00.000Z

Is she really going out with him?
- Leader of the Pack, The Shangri-Las, 1964

Without getting all smoking-jacket literati about it, I’ve been thinking about the spoken word on records.

The excuse of a new, bigger iPod leads me to ripping some older CDs, and so I’ve been listening to Stevie Wonder, amongst others. In the middle of Living For The City, off of the Innervisions record, comes this spoken play-let – the young innocent from the sticks arrives in New York city, only to fall prey to naivety and racism. As he gets tossed into a jail cell, the cop calls him “nigger”; it’s pretty strong stuff in 2007, and very edgy in 1973, when it was edited out in radio airplay.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
- Ernest Hemmingway

A full narrative - could you get much shorter? Hemmingway possibly wrote this short, short story for a wager, but also purports it to be his best work. Willy Vlautin, singer/songwriter of much-loved alt.country band Richmond Fontaine, peppers their brilliant Post to Wire record with a series of small, tight spoken-word vignettes called Postcards – messages from Walter to Pete, which in three pedal-steel backed tracks of less than a minute tell a detailed fall from grace story. Vlautin’s writing (he is also a novelist) has been compared to Raymond Carver, another author who is known for his sparse prose.

Which brings me to Charles Bukowski, not just because he is another exponent, but because he is the subject of a recent record by Tom Russell. Russell is a great songwriter (Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, Suzy Bogguss), albeit a mediocre singer himself. He is also exceptionally well connected, and can include Bukowski amongst his correspondents. Hotwalker: Charles Bukowski & A Ballad for Gone America is more of a radio show than a music record; with songs and spoken word it combines reportage and collage to describe the USA of Kerouac & Guthrie, poets & piss artists, circuses and shenanigans in a deservedly reverential way.

My son Tom has made friends with young Sheffield band, Weekend at Bukowski’s, of whom much are expected. Whilst preferring the name they first thought of (Breakfast at Bukowski’s – so much more irony), I hope they tell great stories.

The Devil's Right Hand

2007-10-26T18:32:00.001+01:00

I almost met Steve Earle, once.

It was in the Acoustic Tent at Glastonbury in 2005 - he had wowed us Friday evening, headlining that same tent in solo mode, and earlier that day we had caught Allison Moorer's set. When she came on to duet with him, we learned that they were engaged, and she would become wife number six... or is it seven, it's not easy to recall, since he married one twice, and anyway, it mostly happened when he was inebriated, i.e. incessantly between the ages of 14 and 40.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon, the festival winding down and the mud depleting any remaining energy, I went to see Patty Griffin in the same Acoustic Tent. She was marvellous, but unusually poorly attended. It seemed like the crowd consisted of just me... and Steve and Allison. He was pretty rock n' roll, with shirtsleeves rolled up right over his biceps, and his wallet attached to his jeans with a long robust chain, enough to deter anyone from trying to pinch either. And they were standing right next to me.

As Patty finished her set, I brayed for an encore and was just about to give Steve a friendly nudge (I figured that he would agree with me that he, Allison and Patty were all pretty damn fine at this singer/songwriter stuff), when I turned to see them walking off hand-in-hand towards backstage. Missed my chance.

I just finished reading Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle by Lauren St John, and that missed chance weighs more heavily.

If Steve Earle weren't a living, breathing person, he'd be a character in a blues song -- a raucous ballad about a gifted rebel who drank too much, lost most of his women in a blizzard of crack and cocaine addiction, and always came out on the wrong side of the law. Somewhere in the midst of all this, he also managed to weld rock to country, the Beatles to Springsteen, and bluegrass to punk, establishing himself among the most thoroughly original and politically astute musicians of his generation. Granted unrestricted access to Steve and his family and friends, Lauren St John has given us a sometimes shocking, often moving, and completely unvarnished biography of one of America's most talismanic sons.

You can tell that St John worked for The Sunday Times and also writes biographies of professional golfers - I'm not sure that amongst the wild and hoary epithets I have for Steve Earle's life, him being hit for six would figure. Nevertheless, she does a great job. Ironically, I now like Steve the person less, but respect his music more.

Which leads me to introduce the first of a series of Axiomatic Things I've Learned At Gigs (ATILAGs):

There is no live music set which cannot be improved by a guest appearance from Steve Earle.

viz. Sharon Shannon, Allison Moorer and The Waterboys at this summer's Cambridge Folk Festival, where a hirsute Steve made another Friday night for me.

When lost for something to talk about, bring up the weather

2007-09-01T10:04:00.001+01:00

Met Office spokesman John Hammond said Oxfordshire had endured the worst summer on record.

There was 298.8mm of rainfall by the end of July and the nearest comparable figure to that was in 1960 when 266.3mm was recorded. Oxfordshire is normally one of the drier counties and this kind of rainfall only occurs every 200 years. Most of the rain fell in July, but the west of the county was considerably harder hit than the east with precipitation in Brize Norton recorded at 27.6mm on July 19 - but 100.2mm on July 20.

Yes, all too obvious to us in the rural north of the county - flooded house, trees falling down in the garden, and the money pit that is our swimming pool sliding towards primordial soup with disinterest.

The bit which made me laugh was the coda:

Mr Hammond said the forecast for September would be drier by comparison.

It would be so tempting to append to the quote "he added, matter-of-factly, or ...insipidly, drolly, or even acerbically... anything but ...dryly."

Petition - please sign

2007-08-25T11:43:00.000+01:00

I received this e-mail from a good friend - reading it made me angry. His son has CF and has just turned 18 years old.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to remove NHS prescription charges for adult sufferers of Cystic Fibrosis. Before being elected to power in 1997, this government made a commitment to remove prescription charges for adult sufferers of the genetic condition Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is an incurable genetically transmitted condition which often results in death in childhood or early adulthood and is the only illness of its type where sufferers have to pay for prescriptions for life saving day to day treatments. To date this government has yet to uphold it's pledge of over 10 years ago.

Please click here to sign the petition.

Overheard at the Cambridge Folk Festival

2007-08-01T21:45:00.000+01:00

How about a sea shanty? Actually, how about a disco sea shanty? We found it in the Oxford Book of Disco Sea Shanties.
   - Bellowhead intro

You people at the very back - did you enjoy Nanci Griffith... from a distance?
   - Opening remarks from Shooglenifty, the final act on Sunday night, following the incomparable Nanci, who did sing mostly crowd-pleasing hits

Only people who think they are cool don't like "Imagine".
   - Irate fellow punter to me, after he overheard my remarking that I was disappointed in Joan Baez' selection of closing song (IMHO, Lennon in trite, dreary mood). Joan did score the most cool points earlier, however, with a goose-pimple inducing version of Tom Waites' Day After Tomorrow.

The sumbitch wasn't plugged into the motherf@cker.
   - Steve Earle explaining temporary mandolin technical amplification hitch. Gee, these musicians do have some unique jargon, don't they?

Massive nights

2007-07-25T10:11:00.000+01:00

One of my work colleagues just asked me about The Hold Steady, who are playing a warm up gig in late August before some festival headline slots.

The Hold Steady are an absolutely fabulous live band - saw them at Glastonbury where they ripped the tent roof off, and in Portsmouth a few weeks later, where this somewhat abashed nearly-50-year-old clambered to the front and revelled at the feet of the band like the teenager still trapped somewhere within the portly folds.

This is a pretty good review of a live gig. And here is a video:

A rock band, some well-noted Springsteen elements, with a slightly punk-ier aesthetic.

I suggest you move fast, as they are likely to sell out gigs very quickly at the moment. I also suggest you move fast because there is a feeling that The Hold Steady are just on the cusp - either they are peaking and will never be this good again, or they will be massive.

We had some massive nights
We got the songs just right

A long long way

2007-04-24T19:12:00.000+01:00

Yes, it surely was. But it would be worth it.

The occasional what have you read lately? opener would be met with an un-returnable passing shot. Knowing that a brief pre-adolescent fling with a Classics Illustrated comic would no longer sum up the experience.

Last year, I determined to read, for the first time, some Charles Dickens.

Unfathomably, I chose the longest, most concrete building block-like kilo-pager, Bleak House. I started it in almost ideal conditions, a short spring break in Barcelona - sadly, a mite too short to finish it, and it got abandoned when real life kicked in again. When it came time to pick it up once more in an effort to finish it before the year was out, I realised that the 400 pages I had already read six months before had completely vanished from memory. I read them again. So I did finish it, and it was good - box ticked.

Reading Bleak House sort of overwhelmed the rest of the year, not necessarily in literary quality, but certainly in shear bulk. There were other memorable moments, book-wise, but not many.

Luckily, just coming in under the wire was A Long Long Way, by Sebastian Barry. It is the story of a young Dubliner caught up with fighting with the British Army in WWI, at the same time dealing the Easter Uprising back home. Colm Toibin:

This is Sebastian Barry's song of innocence and experience composed with poetic grace and eye, both unflinching and tender, for savage detail and moments of pure beauty. It is also an astonishing display of Barry's gift for creating a memorable character, whom he has written, indelibly, back into a history which continues to haunt us.

Magnificently descriptive and brutal about war, it is also a brilliant evocation of an innocent trying to come to terms with the complicated politics of the Irish question. The book is powerfully sad - I kept hearing the anti-war songs of Eric Bogle whilst reading it.

Best book I read in 2006, by a long, long way.

In the lottery, we got a caravan with a burly chassis

2007-04-02T09:32:00.000+01:00

Tense moments indeed, as we logged on yesterday morning at 9am to get our Glastonbury tickets, in the select company of about 250,000 other online souls. Friend Jim, legendary gig-goer and now a hero yet again, managed to get our allocation at about 10am. Cheers all round! 135,000 were sold in less than two hours, from the 400,000 who had pre-registered.

Chris immediately booked our caravan. I trust we will get our usual slot in the cardigan and slippers corner.

Now, who can give me an accurate weather forecast for Shepton Mallet in 12 weeks time? That's when Shirley Bassey will be amongst this year's acts.

Hey, get this Hey Ya

2007-03-01T21:25:00.001Z

Undeniably, Hey Ya by Outkast has been one of the singles of the last few years. But please have a look at this cover by Mat Weddle. Absolutely genre busting. The scary thing is the end - the guy is in pieces, but where is the rapturous applause?

The title is titles

2007-01-24T10:21:00.000Z

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Earl Peter the Potential of Burton-le-Coggles
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

James Brown RIP

2007-01-16T17:48:00.000Z

Mixing it up

2007-01-14T14:22:00.000Z

Thank you to Chris - in a riposte to a copy of the borborygmus 2006 CD, he sent me one in return.

It includes a couple of live recordings from this year's Cambridge Folk Festival - one being Emmylou Harris singing Boulder to Birmingham. For that alone, it's a treasure.

When I foist these CDs into the hands of oft-bemused friends, I have no high hopes that through such evangelism they will fine tune their quite varied musical tastes to my, somewhat superior, ones. But it would be gratifying if they discovered somebody new and went out and bought a record on the back of it. On that basis, I have ordered Roddy Woomble's CD from Amazon.

I still cannot get into critics' darling Joanna Newsom, whose Ys is being raved about. Harp and wailing nu-folk. Igor Stravinsky's Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end is apt.

Music: borborygmus 2006

2007-01-01T16:35:00.000Z

This is the annual (2004, 2005) borborygmus track list. As before, tracks are chosen from releases in 2006, or releases from 2005 which did not hit my radar until 2006.

1. Hummalong
The Drams from Jubilee Dive
2. Star Witness
Neko Case from Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
3. A Woman Like You
Bert Jansch from The Black Swan
4. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Arctic Monkeys from Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
5. Change
KT Tunstall from KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza
6. Cruel
Calexico from Garden Ruin
7. Head Home
Midlake from The Trials Of Van Occupanther
8. I Will Not Wear The Willow
Karen Matheson from Downriver
9. Easy on Yourself
Drive-By Truckers from A Blessing and a Curse
10. Like the 309
Johnny Cash from American V - A Hundred Highways
11. Massive Night
The Hold Steady from Boys And Girls In America
12. Jersey Clowns
Josh Rouse from Subtitulo
13. Delirious Love (Wilson)
Neil Diamond (with Brian Wilson) from 12 Songs
14. January Man
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset from Cruel Sister
15. Steady As She Goes
The Raconteurs from Broken Boy Soldiers
16. Black Cadillac
Rosanne Cash from Black Cadillac
17. King and Country
Seth Lakeman from Freedom Fields
18. I Should Get Up
Teddy Thompson from Separate Ways
19. Drop Me Down
Tres Chicas from Bloom, Red & the Ordinary Girl
20. Do It Again
Nada Surf from The Weight Is a Gift

A really enjoyable year, musically. The highlight for me must be finally seeing Emmylou Harris at the Cambridge Folk Festival, although that was not the only marvellous thing about the weekend. The borborygmus tracks of the year are influenced from that experience, as well as other gigs.

The Drams (ex-Slobberbone people with a rep) were fantastic at a recent Railway gig, and rounded off a year of sweaty US crunching guitar bands at various venues (e.g. Bottle Rockets, Cracker). Neko Case's album was probably the year's favorite overall - wonderful voice, great songs and evocative production. In the first of a series of incestuous cross fertilisations in this list, members of Calexico feature on the record, amongst others. Swooned at one of her London gigs as well. Bert Jansch just keeps doing the same guitar thing in a superior way, but is fortunate to have been caught up in the general folk revival. The title track was also very good, but too long to fit on my compilation CD.

The Arctic Monkeys made a best-selling, ubiquitous record with a repulsive sleeve - but it was still a damn fine album. One of the many where I struggled to decide on the representative track, so you get the big hit. KT Tunstall made what seems like an interim record between huge chart hits, recorded in a few days in a remote Scottish sitting room - accoustic and cute. Calexico go from mariachi to pop sensibilities.

Midlake took a bit of getting into. I should have immediately loved it, as it was billed as a CS&N-style blend of Laurel Canyon influences - but I also found it a bit prog. It worked eventually. Karen Matheson is the singer with Capercaillie, seen at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Her solo record is sung almost completely in Gaelic. The Drive-By Truckers are, simply, the best rock band in America today. I think this latest record to be a tad weaker than The Dirty South, but then that was a masterpiece. Another fantastic live gig this year.

Johnny Cash - a poignant tune from his last(?) record, said to be the last song he ever wrote. The year's ultimate issue of Uncut magazine gave The Hold Steady's release five stars. I had to agree after just one listen, in spite of, or maybe because of, the heavy sprinkles of early Springsteen throughout. Josh Rouse gave us the lead-off track last year, but I was less impressed with his album this year. However, this track just popped up on my mp3 player in the last few days, and I had to reassess the whole Subtitulo.

Neil Diamond, like Johnny Cash, produced by Rick Rubin - could Rubin effect the same sort of resurgence as he did for Cash? Probably not, but I have always liked Diamond's voice and he was a magnificent songwriter. This version of the song features Beach Boy Brian as a guest. In a quite small but heaving tent in Cambridge, we saw Rachel Unthank & The Winterset give a charming set of really quite traditional northern English folk music. The Raconteurs are this year's supergroup, featuring Jack White of The White Stripes.

You can hear Johnny calling to his daughter Rosanne Cash at the beginning of this powerful song. She sings: It was a black cadillac drove you away... one of us gets to go to heaven, one of us has to stay here in hell. Seth Lakeman must be my discovery of the year - in contrast to Rachel, contemporary folk music from south west England, brimming with local historical references. His set at Cambridge featured the happiest percussionist I have ever witnessed. Also saw Teddy Thompson at the Folk Festival, who has a better voice than his father, Richard - but judging by the latter's stunning set in the same tent that same weekend, has some catching up to do in the guitar department. Still, a excellent album.

Americana from Tres Chicas, one of whom is Caitlin Cary (formerly of Whiskeytown and also in last year's list in a different guise). Finally, had to sneak in Nada Surf, which was really released last year, but I only found just recently. Do It Again. OK!

Liked but did not make the list: Love (the Beatles mash-up), Centro-Matic, Cracker, Dixie Chicks.

Not sure about: Bottle Rockets, Damien Rice, Cat Power, Howe Gelb.

Completely barmy: Joanna Newsom!

Turkey?

2006-11-26T14:59:00.000Z

We don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving here in our house in Oxfordshire, England - not through any special laziness, but it would not be simple. It is a normal working and school day here, and more importantly, so is the next one, a Friday. It coincides with a plethora of family birthdays in the preceding and following weeks, so we have already had whatever excuses we needed for get-togethers. With two kids away at University, these are a challenge. The longer and more languid Christmas break in a few short weeks beckons, when turkey is again the featured dish on Christmas Day. In effect, Thanksgiving is rather superfluous.

But Norman Rockwell's Freedom From Want, a 1943 Saturday Evening Post cover can still inspire some pangs of longing for a special kind of Americana.

This picture is one of the Four Freedoms series inspired by a January 1941 speech by Franklin Roosevelt:

In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look
forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

Plus c'est la meme chose, plus ça change. Thanksgiving weekends too, hopefully. Trust you had a great one.

What was the question again?

2006-10-30T09:01:00.000Z

Question 4 from this morning's times2 QUIZ:

What anatomical sound does the word borborygmus describe?

Obscurity blurred with credibility.

The evidence is irrefutable, m'lud

2006-10-29T11:00:00.000Z

I finally got around to watching my recorded BBC FOUR coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival last week, after BBC FOUR finally got around to showing it over two nights.

To my somewhat childish (and, I think, endearing) delight, I was clearly captured by the camera.

It was during Seth Lakeman's set.

No, not these guys, just after...

There I am!

Then I remembered that Chris had text'ed me to say that he had spotted us in Julien Temple's Glastonbury film. I had watched the DVD before, with no success, but TV stardom gave me renewed vigor, and last night I found us at about minute 8 of the film.

It was during a morning set from Tinariwen.

No, not this bloke.

Here we are! Chris in white T shirt on the left, me in hat.

Some notes are in order:
1) I am wearing the same sad shirt in both scenes (once under a sweatshirt). This is now my lucky media shirt, which I will wear at any camera-ridden music event, as long as it's summer-y.
2) Obviously, still pictures do not adequately portray the rather splendid and maniacal dancing with which I am indulging myself and my groove thang... well, in both scenes I am bobbing a bit.
3) Seth Lakeman was hugely enjoyable, and I rushed home and bought two records by him. Tinariwen were hugely enjoyable, and I wouldn't care if I never heard them again. It's a festival thing, go figure.

At last, a jolly good read

2006-10-15T13:54:00.000+01:00

After quite a few years where I could easily point to really great books for those "best of the year" lists (The Time Traveler's Wife, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Vernon God Little), 2006 has been mostly barren. I suspect that the publishing world hasn't dropped the quality ball, slippery as it may be - I just haven't picked up the right tome.

This book is not the chosen one either, just a really good thriller, such as I have not read since, oh, The Long Firm.

Bangkok 8 - take the style of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, transport from New Jesey to Bangkok, make funnier, sexier and more gritty, and toss in some Buddhism. A gripping thriller, with wry views on the Thai character, sex industry and police corruption. Not a great ending, unfortunately, but enthralling all the same.

Analog rules!

2006-09-04T13:46:00.002+01:00

borborygmus compilation released on latest media format:

Not really...

Bring back gentle slang

2006-08-31T10:09:00.000+01:00

A day or so ago, I am sure I heard on the radio that someone had made a bish of something, and it rang some extremely rusty and dusty bells. Yes, we did used to use this word when I was young, although I haven't heard it for years.

Don't quibble. You've made a frightful bish and you're about as much use as a radio-active suet pudding.

From some Jennings book or other, by Anthony Buckeridge.

The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form defines the word with:

You have ordered your favourite dish,
Lemon eels (and six snails, if you wish),
But your waiter unveils
Melon peels and six nails.
If he's British, he's just made a bish.

How much more elegant but equally satisfying than, say, cock-up?

Isn't it ironic?

2006-08-04T14:02:00.000+01:00

I heard an interview on the wireless this week (Radio 5 Live) with Allen Carr. Allen has just been diagnosed with lung cancer, which appears to be terminal in a short time.

Allen Carr is the giving up smoking guru, who has sold zillions of books. He gave up his 100-a-day habit, and has since spent his time and career helping others do the same.

He stopped me smoking.

It was in the mid-80's, before he was very famous. I was failing to give up, despite living with an asthmatic wife and a newborn baby. I made an appointment to see him at his nondescript terrace house in Raynes Park, London. The fee was not insubstantial (about 6 months worth of the bad habit, if I recall correctly).

I walked out of his living room about 2 hours later. He predicted that I would leave my smoking paraphernalia behind - I did. I have not smoked since. Not even a craving. I never even dream about it. I don't really know how he did it - some hypnosis was involved.

Obviously, it was some of the best money I have ever spent.

The irony is, despite decades of not smoking, lung cancer will finally take him. One terrible aspect to all this is that, having given up himself, he spent many hours in smoke-filled rooms helping other people give up.

On the radio, he sounded sanguine and fulfilled. I don't know if he will be seen as a great man. He was to me, for an hour or two in a sitting room in south west London twenty years ago.

Free Seth track download

2006-06-25T13:29:00.000+01:00

The run up to the Cambridge Folk Festival has included an e-mail from the organisers:

As we head towards the Cambridge Folk Festival 2006 we are pleased to welcome back Mercury Music Prize nominee Seth Lakeman, one of the artists who created a huge stir at the festival in 2005, playing to a packed out club tent on the Sunday night with tracks from his self released second album Kitty Jay. In anticipation of his two sets at the Festival this year the E-card below includes a free download of Setting Of The Sun taken from Seth's stunning new album Freedom Fields (due in July 2006).

I think you can avail yourself by going to www.sethlakeman.co.uk/settingofthesun. I did. Nice.

Think, not rant... then rant some more

2006-05-20T15:43:00.000+01:00

I'll admit to a large smirk when hearing that the reviews for The Da Vinci Code movie have not been good. The huge sales of the book, and the surrounding fuss, have just been so undeserved. I am afraid, like a Grumpy Old Man, I have been known to rant about this, offended that I am.

I suppose it would have been better if the Christian church (of which I am not a practicing member) had stood up for itself a bit better. One view has it that this current turmoil is trivial and transient - leave it a few years and it will go away. True, hopefully.

Nevertheless, it was great to receive a very interesting article from a friend (poor chap, had been on the receiving end of one of my rants), where the response is just not pompous in any way:

I think a lot of people have read the book, not just as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized Christian religion. We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church. Why would so many people be disappointed to find that Brown's version of Jesus has been largely discredited as fanciful and inaccurate, leaving only the church's conventional version? Is it possible that, even though Brown's fictional version misleads in many ways, it at least serves to open up the possibility that the church's conventional version of Jesus may not do him justice?

For all the flaws of Brown's book, I think what he's doing is suggesting that the dominant religious institutions have created their own caricature of Jesus. And I think people have a sense that that's true. It's my honest feeling that anyone trying to share their faith in America today has to realize that the Religious Right has polluted the air. The name "Jesus" and the word "Christianity" are associated with something judgmental, hostile, hypocritical, angry, negative, defensive, anti-homosexual, etc. Many of our churches, even though they feel they represent the truth, actually are upholding something that's distorted and false.

I also think that the whole issue of male domination is huge and that Brown's suggestion that the real Jesus was not as misogynist or anti-woman as the Christian religion often has been is very attractive. Brown's book is about exposing hypocrisy and cover-up in organized religion, and it is exposing organized religion's grasping for power. Again, there's something in that that people resonate with in the age of pedophilia scandals, televangelists, and religious political alliances. As a follower of Jesus I resonate with their concerns as well.

You can read the entire piece from Brian McLaren here. A free registration is required.

Oh, we're going to Cambridge... folk, that is

2006-05-16T17:19:00.000+01:00

Thanks to the heroic efforts of friend and gig-goer par excellence, Jim, I have got a ticket to the Cambridge Folk Festival this year. Glastonbury has the year off, but I am just as excited by the prospect of Cambridge, albeit in a different way.

I am glad that I won't have frittered my life away without seeing Emmylou Harris live. Other acts by whom I own recordings (and will therefore anticipate with some certainty) include The Chieftains, Richard Thompson, Capercaillie, Nickel Creek, Cara Dillon, Tift Merritt & The Broken Family Band.

Others have been heavily touted by various friends: Amadou & Mariam (world), Mozaik (Donal Lunny!), Bettye LaVette (soul, fer goodness sake), and a trio of singer/songwriters: Seth Lakeman, Teddy Thompson & Tom Russell. The latter's album Hotwalker - Charles Bukowski and a Ballad for Gone America is a recent favorite of a renowned professional musician of my acquaintance, who was so moved by its prowess that he wrote a fan letter.

And, inevitably, there will be a band who is not listed here, who I probably have never heard of, who will steal the show.

Lyrically speaking

2006-04-14T14:10:00.000+01:00

EvilLyrics is a fun lyrics search tool which works in conjunction with iTunes, MusicMatch Jukebox, Winamp and the like. As you play the track, the lyrics pop up automatically in a separate window. It can display a karaoke-like sing-a-long box, as long as someone has submitted the timings. It's not faultless of course, but says it searches over 15,000,000 lyrics.

So, go download it, and listen to those early REM tracks.

Rigid Digits

2006-03-22T21:23:00.000Z

We saw the enduringly popular and timeless beat combo Stiff Little Fingers last night. It's nearly 30 years since we first caught Jake Burns and the band in the same location (Cambridge), although this time not at the cavernous Corn Exchange. It was good to see original bassist Ali McMordie back in the team.

In return for a fine gig, I will plug Jake's solo album, released in the UK next week!

Rubbing it in

2006-03-15T17:03:00.000Z

With all the brouhaha in the courts at the moment, it is worth recalling the original review of The Da Vinci Code by Peter Millar of The Times:

This is without doubt, the silliest, most inaccurate, ill-informed, stereotype-driven, cloth-eared, cardboard-cutout-populated piece of pulp fiction that I have read. And that’s saying something.

It would be bad enough that Brown has gone into New Age overdrive by trying to draw together the Grail, Mary Magdalene, the Knights Templar, the Priory of Sion, Rosicrucianism, Fibonacci numbers, the Isis cult and the Age of Aquarius. But he’s done it so sloppily.

Wish I'd said that.

Gram story

2006-03-05T16:07:00.000Z

An excellent BBC Radio program about another one of my personal demi-gods, Gram Parsons, can be listened to here.

Don't you love the way Bob Harris pronounces the word "record"? Rekkid!

Scripted by Sid Griffin, veteran of The Long Ryders - you can download Sid's latest rekkid from eMusic. I hear that Sid's definitive Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel TV documentary may be released on DVD this year.

Sounds great, looks...

2006-02-12T13:55:00.000Z

I'm not dashing off every week to buy number one rock albums, because a) I am obviously past it, and b) theoretically quite anti-social:

Popular music gets that way because we're social animals who follow the leads of influential people and/or the crowd, liking what others like because they like it.

Read more here.

However, I am certainly glad I bought the Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, because, simply, it's a great record and deserves its success.

Where I'm going to show my old fart tendencies is in proclaiming the cover (and particularly the CD face) to be disgusting. Hey guys, I am sure you are trying to be a bit rebellious and all grown up here, but you have almost ruined a great musical experience for me.

And no, I'm not putting a facsimile of that offending cover here - buy the CD, and see for yourself. Instead, here is something which I expect will offend someone, but at least it's pleasant.

Forget Arctic Monkeys: web's crazy for the Quo

2006-02-09T13:42:00.000Z

Not only hugely successful, but enduringly so - Status Quo are an internet music fan's favourite, according to this piece from The Guardian:

Forget Arctic Monkeys: web's crazy for the Quo from Guardian Unlimited: Technology

I have a colleague who, until recently, had only ever seen one band in concert, and that was Quo. But he'd seen them many times. He is also a biker, and a liking Francis, Rick and the boys appears to be a prerequisite in that fraternity. How that hooks in to Quo being Big on the Net, I don't know. Unless the Quo website recently had a special offer for leathers.

The Norfolk Bushes

2006-01-16T17:46:00.000Z

Nigel reports: We discovered this on the way back from one of several pubs on my brother's stag night!

They get everywhere, but not often quite so honest about their endeavours!

Simple

2006-01-16T10:21:00.000Z

Become a member of CD WOW! and you will get a £1.00 off voucher, enabling you to get the latest chart CDs for ONLY £7.75 delivered. You can also use your voucher to purchase any DVD or game.

Click here

Music: borborygmus 2005

2006-01-04T20:57:00.000Z

In keeping with tradition, I present the borborygmus track list for 2005!

1. Winter In The Hamptons
Josh Rouse from Nashville
2. Something Less Than Something More
Caitlin Cary/Thad Cockrell from Begonias
3. Oxygen
Willy Mason from Where the Humans Eat
4. The One You Love
Rufus Wainwright from Want Two
5. Black Road
Richmond Fontaine from The Fitzgerald
6. Devils & Dust
Bruce Springsteen from Devils & Dust
7. Secret Meeting
The National from Alligator
8. I Burn Today
Frank Black from Honeycomb
9. Trains
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals from Jacksonville City Nights
10. Bloody Mother F***ing A**hole
Martha Wainwright from Martha Wainwright
11. How to be Invisible
Kate Bush from Aerial
12. Lua
Bright Eyes from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
13. Sometimes
Abigail Washburn from Song of the Traveling Daughter
14. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
Sufjan Stevens from Illinoise
15. He Lays in the Reins
Iron & Wine/Calexico from In the Reins
16. Top of the World
Patty Griffin from Impossible Dream
17. Sing Me Spanish Techno
The New Pornographers from Twin Cinema
18. When in Rome
Nickel Creek from Why Should the Fire Die?
19. Good Hearted Man
Tift Merritt from Tambourine
20. Dusk: A Peach in the Orchard
Eels from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

As before, tracks chosen from releases in 2005, or releases from 2004 which did not hit my radar until 2005.

When I first started thinking about this year's selection, I predicted a difficult choice from a shallow year. Turns out I was completely wrong. I probably bought about 50 albums this year. Not that this was profligate spending; I discovered e-music.com, and a chap who was selling a bunch of stuff on e-bay which fit my taste. Amazon and CD-WOW! finished me off, but overall I spent modestly.

So, to the justification for this year's list.

Nashville was probably my favourite album of the year (as predicted?). Pop music, but with alt country sensibilities and huge strong melodic content. Caitlin Cary was in the sublime Whiskeytown with Ryan Adams. Here, she successfully takes on the Emmylou to Thad Cockrell's Gram in a country record. Willy Mason was delightfully li-fi and basic.

Ah, the boy Rufus, my discovery in the first half of the year. It all started with seeing him play I Don't Know What It Is (from Want One) on some TV program. Strong songs! Slightly too OTT in concert, but endearingly so. Richmond Fontaine followed up last years triumph Post to Wire with a low key record which might have been a Willy Vlautin solo effort until you listen closely. Springsteen can do no wrong, really. I wanted to finish off this compilation with the 30th anniversary edition of Born to Run, but no room.

Alligator was a grower. I heard this Frank Black track on a couple of magazine cover discs, and fell for it. Yes, it's that man from alt rawk band The Pixies, this time with sessioneers Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham et al. Ryan Adams released three albums this year, one a double. Probably would have made one helluva special record if you took the best tracks from all three.

The boy's sister Martha, turns out wonderful debut record, was delicious in concert, and writes profanity-laden paean to her father. Kate Bush reappears, sings about the number PI and sex disguised as a washing machine. Bright Eyes's Conor Oberst is obviously extremely talented, but released one too many records in 2005. Still, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was a firm favorite early in the year.

Abigail Washburn was someone I stumbled over - voice, banjo and Chinese overtones. Sufjan (how do you pronounce that?) produced this year's sit down and listen record, like last year's SMiLE. Quite brilliant, but not casually. I have liked Calexico, and I have liked Iron & Wine - found out I liked them both together too.

Patty Griffin - you may know this song as covered by the Dixie Chicks. Criminally underrated songwriter and singer, broad palette. Memorably great set at Glastonbury, seemingly attended only by me, Steve Earle and Steve's new fiance. I was turned on to the New Pornographers because it was a suggested gig, so I bought the record as research. Turns out the record was brilliant, the gig so-so. Third record from Nickel Creek sees them moving on from Alison Krauss production to a new kind of contemporary, progressive bluegrass.

Tift Merritt - country soul. Final track is a snippet from the Eels album, a double 33 tracker of eclectic beautiful music which I have not had time to fully appreciate yet. Chosen because it was short enough to fit, and features an autoharp (which, let's face it, needs more credibility than just me playing one).

Finally, some that didn't make it: I tried, I tried really hard, but just did not get the Arcade Fire's Funeral, the critics' darling. Neil Young's Prairie Wind was supposedly this year's Harvest - next year Neil, try this year's Zuma, please. Also didn't have room for pop bands Rilo Kiley and the Magic Numbers, although they were good. Older records discovered this year include Beth Orton's Trailer Park, Jimmy Webb's Archive and Big Star.

Half Man... well, just Half Man, apparently

2006-01-04T20:33:00.000Z

Business friend Chris gently chides me - I have referred to Glastonbury in the diminutive.

Chris quotes me Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics:

...you call Glastonbury 'Glasto'
You'd like to go there one day
When they put up the gun towers
To keep the hippies away.
December sees Kitzbuhel
Clad in Lowe Alpine
Your children are painfully soulless...

From CORGI Registered Friends, Achtung Bono, 2005.

Chris: Sorry. It's just I've never met someone who's been the target of HMHB's invective before :-)

I take this completely on the chin - at my age (nearly fifty), it has enough padding to take it. Not because I go skiing in the winter, but because I go to Glastonbury towing a modestly luxurious caravan. A few creature comforts are imperative, especially with the mud of the last few years. Nothing like a cup of tea and a bit of a lie down in the afternoons between sorties. Once, I went to Reading Festival, and stayed in a hotel...

Funnily enough, in the middle of many of the large "Glasto" camping fields, there are large towers with lights which are permanently manned - presumably for security rather than voyeurism.

Must look into Half Man Half Biscuit.

Daddy, where you a geek when you were little?

2005-11-22T17:55:00.000Z

So asked my youngest daughter last week. Despite pretty damning photographic evidence from my childhood, I would probably deny this - and I'm certainly not one anymore... I think. I don't even own a beanie, and I can't find my pocket protector (useful though it was when in multi-pen mode).

The Guardian Unlimited's Technology blog has compiled the best geek novels written in English since 1932:

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

I have read 12 out of these 20 (maybe 13; did I read all the Wyndhams?). Well, I think that's inconclusive, surely. Of those, about 10 were read twenty or more years ago. That points to was geek, but grew out of it.

Should I, would I have a crack at any these days? The Orwell and the Huxley are worth a second shot. I have never read any graphic novels, so Watchmen is tempting. Iain M Banks is much better when he writes without the "M", I've always thought.

I've never even heard of Neal Stephenson. Hah! I am out of the geek loop! Then again, I do have my own blog... so the jury's still out on the geek stuff.

Download, and be damned, darnit

2005-10-26T18:45:00.000+01:00

I have not, until just now, joined the download revolution. There are numerous reasons - some practical, some political, some emotional, some downright illogical.

In a nutshell:

When I buy music, I need the tactile gratification of something in my hands, even if it is just a CD with text I can hardly read

I resent all this DRM stuff. I want to be able to play the mp3 on whatever computer or portable device I want. After all, I paid for it

There is something in perusing the CD collection in search of the next play, looking at the titles and covers, which you cannot get from a list on a computer screen. This is just like buying books from the shelves of a bookshop - amazon cannot fully replace this browsing

If you download, you don't get lyrics, production credits, photographs, and the band's inane dedications

If you don't like it, you can't resell it on e-bay

Despite this, I think I have found a downloading home, and whilst it will not stop me buying CDs, I have started down the slippery slope of a totally virtual music collection.

eMusic.com has no DRM on their mp3s. The downloads are pretty inexpensive - 40 tracks per month for 10 dollars, which works out about 15 British pence each.

Most importantly, then have a lot of stuff I like. At these rates, they seem to have done deals with minor or small labels only. So you can't get Coldplay's latest tosh. My first downloads were Arcade Fire, Roger McGuinn and the Pernice Brothers. These complete albums were free in the joining up deal. I am considering Big Star, Bloc Party and Eels.

There's lots of fancy coding going on behind the scenes as well - so there are recommendations based on your purchases, reviews, etc.

Yeah, they've got me.

Katrina and the waves...

2005-09-12T18:10:00.000+01:00

A week ago Sunday I went to a gig by the Drive By Truckers in Birmingham (excellent, by the way). That week, they were probably the last band for some time to play at Tipitina's in New Orleans.

In tribute, they played a lovely cover of Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927:

What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor crackers land."

CHORUS

How to sing the Blues

2005-08-10T17:40:00.000+01:00

HOW TO SING THE BLUES
by Lame Mango Washington (attributed to Blind Limey Crawford)

I've seen this before, but it was just e-mailed to me and made me smile(again).

1. Most Blues begin, Woke up this morning.

2. I got a good woman is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something nasty in the next line, like I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town.

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes ... sort of.

Got a good woman - with the meanest face in town.
Got teeth like Hillary Clinton - and she weigh 500 pound.

4. The Blues are not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch; ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft an' motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, adulthood means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just depression. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cuz you skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg cuz an alligator be chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. highway
b. jailhouse
c. empty bed
d. bottom of a whiskey glass

Bad places:
a. Ashrams
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. golf courses

11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old ethnic person and you slept in it.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?

Yes, if:
a. you're older than dirt
b. you're blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisfied

No, if:
a. you have all your teeth
b. you were once blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a retirement plan or trust fund

13. Blues is not a matter of colour. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.

14. If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. wine
b. whiskey or bourbon
c. muddy water
d. black coffee

The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. mixed drinks
b. kosher wine
c. Snapple
d. sparkling water

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or getting liposuction.

16. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling

17. Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie

18. Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia, Auburn and Rainbow can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19. Make your own Blues name (starter kit):
a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.)
c. last name of US President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)

For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. Well, maybe not Kiwi.

20. I don't care how tragic your life is - if you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues. You best destroy it. Maybe your big woman just done sat on it. I don't care, just get rid of it.

The marketing power of blogging hic?

2005-07-26T11:40:00.000+01:00

Very irreverent marketing blog gapingvoid.com made an irresistible offer a while back - free wine. Sure, I fell for it. And you're too late.

Well the darn bottle showed up this morning (detoured from my house to my office by DHL). I have not had a chance to try it yet - will have that pleasure this evening, most likely, but such an endeavor deserves a blog mention. After all, that was the point, wasn't it?

Read about it at the Stormhoek wine blog, where freshness matters.

Down home and down here

2005-07-24T12:14:00.000+01:00

A few days back from a second gig from Richmond Fontaine at the Railway in Winchester. The first was last September - we'd soaked up the Post to Wire album after it was willingly foisted on us by Uncut magazine. The concert was memorable for its intimacy (we were pretty much on the low stage with Willy and Co), and a great performance. I'd love to say that there were many converts to the Richmonds that night, but the venue is so small that there weren't that many people there, albeit it was packed.

A repeat experience July 14, with some new material from The Fitzgerald in a warm up to the Guildford festival. I stood in exactly the same place - could have picked up Willy's guitar pick and handed it back to him if he dropped it. Another great gig, with a storming start, a slightly off middle and a brilliant end which overran by some half hour as the band were summoned back to the stage after thinking it was all over. I am now almost reluctant to see Richmond Fontaine in a bigger venue, for fear of losing the feeling that they were playing to some mates in someone's front room.

These are part of a series of gigs organised under the SXSC banner. Oliver and Richard indulge their own concert-going passions by organising their own gigs, the theme being somewhat alt-country. They seem to be regularly selling out the back room at The Railway. Oliver exhorts people to "keep telling people about our shows", but I'm not going to, as I want to make sure I can get a ticket.

The Wilson Genius

2005-07-19T18:16:00.000+01:00

In an e-mail just after Glastonbury, best mate Chris (he and I went to Glasto together) declared his conversion to raving Beach Boys fan.

Another friend writes:

An addle-witted autistic savant singing out of tune in front of his own covers band didn't quite cut it for me on TV, maybe you had to be there. I wish he'd just left us the records to remember him by.

From a purely mechanical point of view, it was probably irrelevant that Brian was there in person or not - he added little to the performance (although there were some falsettos which could only have come from him). Yes, it's sad, he was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. You get the feeling that every performance, the Wondermints turn on the power switch, shove in a floppy and boot him up.

But he wrote and arranged every single note of what was an awesome performance. Emotionally, the fact that he was there was huge. It's the difference from being a tribute band (Illegal Eagles, Whole Lotta Led, Bjorn Again, anyone?) to being Brian Wilson and his band. Rock God personified.... on the stage. He had already done enough to earn all the plaudits the crowd could give him, and they did. The Wondermints are amazingly good at the material, respectful but not sycophantic. I counted 8 layer harmonies. The lead guitarist had a Carl Wilson badge on his guitar strap - nice touch.

Go and see Beethoven's 9th played by the Berlin Philharmonic. Stonkin'. Then put Herbert von Karajan in front - bloody hell. Then put Beethoven himself at a piano centre stage, noodling. You betcha.

The girl in front of us crying through "God Only Knows", the dudes on surf boards on the shoulders of the crowd and one of the legendary bastions of ornery Chris credo crumbling to dust in front of my eyes. Ah, f*ck it, you had to have been there.

Ryan - the good news and the bad news

2005-06-28T19:59:00.000+01:00

1) Ryan Adams didn't show at Glasto - "ear infection", apparently. This was a major disappointment.

2) Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary announce that they will reform Whiskeytown and record another album. Fact?

One of the best goddamned Rock and Roll bands you'll ever see

2005-06-14T09:38:00.000+01:00

"Rock 'n' roll means well, but it can't help tellin' young boys lies." - Mike Cooley, Drive By Truckers

Music & books

2005-05-24T13:33:00.000+01:00

Pitchfork's summer reading list - something for all the family!

My eye was especially caught by The Rock Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Rockological Knowledge:

Since you're reading this website, chances are you're already a Rock Snob. Or you're intimately familiar with the habits of "the sort of pop connoisseur for whom the actual enjoyment of music is but a side dish to the accumulation of arcane knowledge about it." And you probably think you don't need no stinkin' Rock Snob's Dictionary, written by a couple of middle-aged white guy Vanity Fair staffers, to list Every Important Artist Ever and to tell you why Nick Drake and Sun Ra are important.

But oh, you do. You really do.

Ryan for Glasto

2005-04-27T13:30:00.000+01:00

Apparently, Ryan Adams has confirmed a short UK tour to coincide with his appearance at Glastonbury in June. As NME.COM revealed, the singer-songwriter will play at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in support of his forthcoming double album Cold Roses, out on May 2.

I went through quite a big Ryan phase when he first went solo; inspired by one of the best records ever made, Strangers Almanac by his former band, Whiskeytown. I just realised that I haven't listened to one of his records for quite some time, so I wonder if I've gone off him. Was it his self-indulgence, or mine?

Still, I think he has been pretty influential. Kathleen Edwards, from Paste magazine (February/March 2005 issue):

"What changed everything for me about Whiskeytown was the songs and that the songs were just so full of imagery without being these run-on songs - there was a start and a finish. And there wasn't all this fluff in there to get to one line." ((...)) Her Whiskeytown epiphany led to the cycle of songs that would become Failer.

I'll be at Glastonbury again this year, and I'll certainly catch his set.

Art is not a loaf of bread - maybe

2005-04-27T13:17:00.000+01:00

Remember when I talked about Why Wilco is the future of music?

A subsequent live event, Art is Not a Loaf of Bread, occurred this month. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and professor Lawrence Lessig talked about music, remixing, artistic freedom and the law. Listen to it on the link.

Expletive included

2005-04-24T17:54:00.000+01:00

I am finding it dificult to buy a record which doesn't include the F word in the lyrics. And I'm not buying urban rap stuff. Martha Wainwright's eponymous debut, Bright Eyes, even Kathleen Edwards' Back to Me. Not that I'm a friggin' prude or anything, it's just becoming so common that it's starting to lose it's effectiveness. What are we going to use when we want to really explete?

This day in music

2005-04-20T13:45:00.000+01:00

What was the number one song on your birthday? Or maybe another important day on your life? Click here.

The UK pop charts began in 1952 & the US charts in 1955. If you were born before these dates, try your life's theme song which is the No 1 on your 18th birthday.

My results:
Birthday - Diana by Paul Anka
18th - Hold Me Close by David Essex
21st - Summer Nights by John Travolta & Olivia Newton John
40th - Candle In The Wind '97/Something About The Way You Look Tonight by Elton John

Dear me, that's so uninspiring.

Wedding day - Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Now there's irony!

A periodical imbalance

2005-04-10T14:47:00.000+01:00

Something's gone wrong with my monthly music magazine deliveries. No doubt due to some competitive marketing wheeze, my copies of Uncut and Mojo are arriving by post in the same week, within a couple of days of each other. This has led to some serious congestion.

If I recall correctly, they used to be spaced about a fortnight apart; the latest issue of one arrived just as the last minor record review of the other was read one last time and the issue replaced in the periodical pile in the porcelain throne room.

Mojo was initially released as a grown-ups' music magazine, in contrast to the market defining Q - aimed at the 50 Quid Bloke. Q, in keeping with the often red top front page, has deteriorated to a scandal sheet. Mojo continues to plough a more mature, if occasionally rather dry, furrow.

Uncut certainly leads the field, and not just because it covers music genres which are usually within my tastes. The standard of journalism is very high (Chris Roberts, Stephen Dalton, Barney Hoskyns spring to mind - there are others). There is excellent coverage of movies and DVDs too. Moreover, Uncut is one of the few magazines I have found which offers readable, unsnobby reviews of contemporary fiction.

Honorable mention also goes to Paste magazine, which comes from the States every couple of months. It has a very different style, not neccessarily transatlantic, which I am just getting into. Recent issues have had a CD and a DVD - I'm not sure that this is a good thing.

Mind you, last month it blotted its copybook by arriving in the same 3 day period as Uncut and Mojo. Too much of a good thing...

Besterberg

2005-03-29T12:02:00.000+01:00

Paul Westerberg's post-Replacements career will be the subject of the upcoming compilation Besterberg. Due May 17 via Rhino, the 20-track set covers the artist's three major-label albums for Sire/Reprise and Capitol, his two more recent full-lengths for indie outfit Vagrant and one song from his Grandpaboy alter-ego.

This is good news for any of you who have missed Westerberg's solo career to date; check it out. His album Folker was a borborygmus pick of 2004.

Local art springing from the woodwork

2005-03-22T13:35:00.000Z

For some reason, I started thinking about our local visual arts festival this morning, so I googled up the website and put the three weeks of Oxfordshire Artweeks into my diary; this year it's 14 May to 5 June.

The first Oxfordshire Artweeks took place in 1981. The idea of artists inviting the public into their homes and studios proved so successful that it has been replicated all over the UK. Oxfordshire Artweeks is now the largest open studio festival of visual art in the country.

A free guide is available from shops,libraries, art galleries, museums and hotels around Oxfordshire. In the guide you will find locations and opening hours of hundreds of artists' studios; some of these are expansive and impressive, some are small back bedrooms. The quality of work does vary, but then, beauty is in the eye... etc.

Well I know what I like.

The magic of Artweeks has been both the ability to interface direct with the artists in their studios, and to acquire work at modest prices. We have a mission to make a purchase every year.

She was only a coalminer's daughter, but...

2005-03-12T07:39:00.000Z

A snippet from Billboard:

Veteran country artist Loretta Lynn will be honored with the Johnny Cash Visionary Award April 11 during the 2005 CMT Music Awards. Originally titled the Video Visionary Award, it was renamed last year in honor of Cash, who received the second such accolade in 2003. It has also been bestowed upon the Dixie Chicks (2002) and Reba McEntire (2004).

In first round nominations, Lynn is also up for the female video of the year award for "Miss Being Mrs." and collaborative video of the year with Jack White for "Portland Oregon." The latter also netted a nomination for director Sophie Muller. First round voting for the awards ends today (March 10) on CMT.com. Final nominations will be announced on Wednesday and voted on by fans through the site.

A borborygmus pick of 2004, I strongly recommend that you pick up a copy of Van Lear Rose. If you are not into country music, tell yourself that it was produced by Jack of The White Stripes, so it can't possibly be country. Enjoy.

Old time and bluegrass music loss

2005-03-07T10:56:00.000Z

Following a struggle with liver cancer, Joe Carter, 78, passed away Wednesday, March 2, 2005, shortly before 5 p.m. One of three children born to A.P. and Sara Carter, Joe was a beloved personality and performer at the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia.

He and his sister Janette spent most of their lives in the southwest corner of Virginia, where their parents and Maybelle Addington Carter formed the world-famous Carter Family trio that began recording in 1927.

Are you tired of paying speeding fines?

2005-03-03T18:34:00.000Z

1) Tie these balloons to your car

2) Drive as fast as your car will go

3) All other cars will get out of your way

4) Tell the police you thought they were real

Click here to see!

I was in your band, Madge

2005-03-02T18:59:00.000Z

From the BBC

Rock guitarists Eric Clapton, Brian May and Jimmy Page were among musicians greeted by the Queen at a reception to honour British musical talent. When the Queen asked "what do you do?", Queen guitarist May said that he had performed on the roof of Buckingham Palace at the Golden Jubilee concert.

"Oh! That was you, was it?" the monarch replied, before asking Clapton how long he had been playing the guitar.

Never get your Queens confused - which one tied her mother down?

Come on my Son Volt

2005-02-24T01:03:00.000Z

Rolling Stone magazine reports:

As Jay Farrar readies a new Son Volt album with a fresh cast of characters, he is taking a moment to look back, helping to compile a Rhino Records anthology for release May 24th. Alongside the band's classic album cuts, the two-CD set features demos and rarities. "I was thinking about artists I like, whether it's Bob Dylan or R.L. Burnside, and all the unreleased stuff they've put out there," Farrar says, "and it motivated me to dig through the vault a bit."

Fonts of rock

2005-02-21T23:57:00.000Z

Need to make up a facsimile of an AC/DC album sleeve or a Megadeath poster? Well, half your worries are over. Here on this RockRage page are a whole bunch of music fonts.

Physical Graffiti with style!

Why Wilco is the future of music

2005-02-14T18:50:00.000Z

Oh, I'm already convinced. But you might read an article from the February issue of Wired magazine.

Lawrence Lessig says:

Great things happen when a band and its audience find harmony.

Lessig interviews Jeff Tweedy, and discusses Wilco's recent success, despite the record company canning them. It's all down to the internet, and a new paradigm:

"Music," he explained, "is different" from other intellectual property. Not Karl Marx different - this isn't latent communism. But neither is it just "a piece of plastic or a loaf of bread." The artist controls just part of the music-making process; the audience adds the rest. Fans' imagination makes it real. Their participation makes it live. "We are just troubadours," Tweedy told me. "The audience is our collaborator. We should be encouraging their collaboration, not treating them like thieves."

Also, it does help that they have made an extraordinarily good record in A Ghost is Born.

Barbershop conversation

2005-02-10T08:49:00.000Z

I tried a new hairdresser yesterday - my usual chap was not available for weeks, the hair in my eyes was becoming a hazard, and the general look was probably inappropriate for someone nearly fifty.

This guy plays good, soothing music, which is great for someone who does not like to get their hair cut. Instead of some loud techno which leaves fingernail impressions in the palms of your hands, he was playing the soundtrack to Thicker than Water by Jack Johnson.

"But the customers really like Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos," he said.

In the old days, barbers gave you sensational stock market tips and sold you a pack of prophylactics on the way out the door.

What did Santa bring you, sonny?

2005-02-08T19:01:00.000Z

I finally made up my mind what to buy with my Christmas amazon gift voucher (thanks, Mom & Dad!), 'cos you want to spend on records you really want. This is not to be squandered on some throw-aways you only listen to once, ya know.

Haven't really had a chance to listen intently yet, so no reviews, no packdrill, just saying that I've got 'em.

Tambourine by Tift Merritt
I really liked her Bramble Rose record from a couple of years ago. This has more soul, more trumpets, and sounds like Sheryl Crow probably wants to sound like.

Vultures Await by Will Johnson
Solo record from Centro-matic leader; I was turned on to Centro-Matic by friend and drummer Paul. This is obviously, er..., him without the band.

I'm Wide Awake It's Morning by Bright Eyes
Has been huge in the USA indie markets. So far, its claim to fame is that it has been banned from general public playing in the house, due to language and some gritty images. It joins Post to Wire from Richmond Fontaine in that; not necessarily a bad thing, then.

Want One by Rufus Wainwright
In sharp contrast, widely liked. I saw a video clip of him playing I Don't Know What It Is (track 2), and was intrigued by really strong sense of melody.

CD-WOW!

2005-02-02T18:18:00.000Z

Obviously there's lots of places to buy inexpensive music - even the supermarkets have some pretty good deals from time to time.

On the net, one place I've used consistently is CD-WOW. They sent me an e-mail today saying that all chart cds have been slashed in price and are now £8.75, delivered to your door.

CD-WOW ship from the Far East, but I've always had exceptional service, with product arriving in a few days; worth checking out, even if the range is not as esoteric as one might always want.

Turns out to be a formula, Tom

2005-01-30T18:32:00.000Z

Whilst lurgied the other week, I re-read Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full; two rather fat tomes – felt like I was sharing my sick-bed with a couple of cinder blocks. They were easy-reading and not terribly challenging, which was the point, and I suppose a preparation for reading his new novel, I am Charlotte Simmons, sometime this year.

Reading them back-to-back, the similarities became very obvious. The multi-stranded structure from Bonfire is replicated in A Man, and why not, Tom? The first one got rave reviews, didn’t it? It’s over ten years between their publications, no-one will remember much from the first novel. We’ll relocate to Atlanta, of course, so we can exercise some of our Southern Gentleman sensibilities. We’ll remake our Wall Street Banker (Master of the Universe) into property developer (rather redneck), and knock a few more edges off; they both turn out different in the end anyway. We’ll centre the plot on racist goings on, which worked out OK in NYC, and we’ll use the same template for a larger-than-life black reverend who tries to take advantage of the situation in a pretty dubious way. Wives are honest and worthy; mistresses are younger and more alluring. A few of the less attractive sidekicks get their comeuppance. Frankly, it is writing to a template.

And whilst Bonfire got the better reviews, I actually preferred A Man in Full. It was funnier, and the style reflected the good ol’ boy pace, unlike the tougher, gritty urban milieu of the former.

I trust that Charlotte Simmons will have broken out of the formula.

A perfect 10

2005-01-29T08:30:00.000Z

Cruised to the Americana-UK site this morning, to find a 10 out of 10 review for Josh Rouse's new album, Nashville.

Josh Rouse leaves Nashville but records the record of his life just before he does.

I have got one Josh Rouse record, Dressed Up Like Nebraska, which was fine... but not earthshaking enough to make me rush out any buy any more. I eschewed the highly rated 1972 from a year or so ago.

Still, I don't recall many perfect reviews on the Americana-UK site (and you gotta extend some respect, because their two top records of 2004 are the same as mine), so I'll probably have a crack at this one - it's released next month.

It's in the damn DNA

2005-01-27T13:41:00.000Z

US President George W. Bush is descended from Norman nobleman Richard de la Clare, known as "Strongbow," who led the invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, Irish genealogists said.

Does that mean he is genetically predisposed to invade countries starting with "Ir"?

Following on

2005-01-20T11:29:00.000Z

I prefer to describe myself as a "contemporary anthropological interactive observer" because it has just the right amount of flair. Besides... "stalker" is such an ugly word.

Consumption be done about it? Of cough!

2005-01-19T15:19:00.000Z

I have had an atrocious lurgy since Sunday. Amidst this enforced R&R, I have learnt of a scientific marvel. Cough medicine is the stickiest substance known to man (although I do not discount the possibility that small children could come up with something stickier if set the challenge).

The pharmaceutical companies must have a helluva time when making it, because, sharing the pain, they feel compelled to sell this stuff to us in a “guaranteed-to-drip” bottle. No matter how diligent you are when pouring out cough mixture into one of those ludicrous plastic dosing spoons, it will drip down the side of the bottle. Speed is irrelevant, and you can apply all the wrist snaps and bottle flourishes with which a master sommelier keeps the cabernet drip off the white tablecloth, to no avail. It will drool and it will drip down the side of the bottle.

And the drip will not be removed. Try and wipe that bottle clean. Wipe that bottle until the label comes off in shreds. You can guarantee that when you pick up the cough medicine bottle for your next dose, it will be sticky. Yep, on your fingers, fly-paper sticky. Not only that, but every other container which is in any sort of proximity to it, in the medicine cabinet or drugs drawer, will also be sticky. This is contagious sticky. And it’s cumulative – every dose from that bottle inevitably adds to the stickiness.

In fact, the stuff isn’t that sticky in the gluey sense of the word. Sure, it is sticky enough to adhere the bottle into its own cardboard box; ripping off the box in sections is always a prelude to the second or third dose from that bottle, in my experience. And sticky enough to gum your fingers to the bottle, and then your fingers to the next five things you pick up. But it probably won’t take over from tar in the “tar and feathering” game either.

However, it must be the stickiest thing known to man when you add in the tenacity factor. Because it just does not give up. The Duracell Bunny has nothing on this stuff. It's like magma. Years later, when any ordinary substance would have dried up or melted away, the cough syrup drips on the outside of the bottle will still be sticky.

A scientific marvel indeed, just itching to find a practical and useful application. If only it stopped you coughing.

Music: borborygmus 2004

2005-01-16T14:01:00.000Z

In a High Fidelity moment, I made a compilation CD of the best tracks of 2004. In the old days, as in the book, one made compilation tapes. I can't recall how many tracks you could get on a C90, but with a CD, I was able to cram on 19 tracks.

Surf's Up
Brian Wilson from SMiLE

Hey Girl
Delays from Faded Seaside Glamour

Each Coming Night
Iron & Wine from Our Endless Numbered Days

Leaving New York
REM from Around the Sun

Portland Oregon
Loretta Lynn from Van Lear Rose

Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
U2 from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Home to Houston
Steve Earle from The Revolution Starts... Now

Other Side of the World
KT Tunstall from Eye to the Telescope

Post to Wire
Richmond Fontaine from Post to Wire

Goodbye Is All We Have
Alison Krauss & Union Station from Lonely Runs Both Ways

Forever My Friend
Ray LaMontagne from Trouble

Section 12: Hold Me Now
The Polyphonic Spree from Together We're Heavy

Handshake Drugs
Wilco from A Ghost Is Born

Mona Lisa
Grant Lee Phillips from Virginia Creeper

Amie
Damien Rice from O

As Far As I Know
Paul Westerberg from Folker

The Day John Henry Died
Drive-By Truckers from The Dirty South

Steve McQueen
Lambchop from Aw C'Mon/No You C'Mon

London Calling
The Clash from London Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition

I lied about the "best tracks of 2004" - some come from records released in 2003, but, probably because they were at the end of the year, didn't appear on my radar until 2004. Therefore, they couldn't have been on my "best tracks of 2003" compilation, and so I've rescued them from a potential inter-year purgatory. And if I was really pedantic, I'd probably just pick all the tracks from Post to Wire and A Ghost is Born, and call them the best.

Just a few notes to justify the list. I am sure that if Brian Wilson released SMiLE in the late 60's, it would have been an even worse commercial failure than Pet Sounds - was the pop world ready for this? It's been one of the few albums which I have made time to just sit and listen to - not in the car, not writing or working, just sitting on the sofa, musing at the CD sleeve and hearing the music. With a theme of early Americana, it is a delightful work. I wonder how many people have made the comparison with the likes of, say, Aaron Copland (Billy the Kid)? And harmonies to die for.

The Delays have been the soundtrack to many of my gym sessions this year; uplifting and bouncy. Pity there were not enough gym sessions... Iron & Wine is modern folk music, laid back and relaxing. REM made a slightly disappointing record by their standards, and U2 did the reverse. Loretta Lynn, 70 year old country music icon, was produced by the Red Stripes' Jack White, and they made a sprightly and strong recording.

Demi-god Steve Earle's 2004 album was probably not a good as the preceding Jerusalem, but the man cannot do much wrong. KT Tunstall is the star of my music TV moment of the year, an appearance on Later... with Jools Holland, where she performed Black Horse & The Cherry Tree. She built the song up layer by layer with just voice, guitar and tambourine, effectively multi-tracking the whole thing... live.

Richmond Fontaine are the discovery of the year - thanks, Uncut magazine. Alison Krauss... yes, bluegrass, but what a voice. Ray LaMontagne is a grower. The Polyphonic Spree and the Drive-By Truckers are both here as a result of a sampler CD from Paste magazine.

Wilco were the first and best band we saw at Glastonbury this year; they also produced a great and challenging album. Prog-country? Grant Lee Phillips is accomplished. Damien Rice soaring (missed him at Glastonbury, too muddy). The Replacements passed me by at the time (or I passed them by...), but I discovered the solo Paul Westerberg this year. The Stereo/Mono set from 2002 is actually my favourite, but since I had to get him into the list, Folker will do. Lambchop soundtrack. The Clash are... 'nuff said.

Fancy dress? Gott im Himmel!

2005-01-14T07:05:00.000Z

In the morning, Radio 4 is our tipple. I was awoken at 6am this morning by a very posh voice - Fergie, Duchess of York. She explained that, despite losing a lot of weight (and earning a lot of dosh) with Weight Watchers, she still had a big arse.... and his name was Harry, her nephew.

I think that's what she said; it was early and I was half asleep.

Rather uncomfortable - Yahoo!

2005-01-13T14:29:00.000Z

Got into the office this morning to find that my 'net homepage not functioning. I have a customised "My Yahoo!" page which doles up the latest news, exchange rates, the odd cartoon, etc.

I also have all my most-used links on it... which is where the trouble started. Didn't really need the news, but I had to get to some webpages in order to function. The handy links (Yahoo calls them Bookmarks) weren't there, and I have, typically, no obvious backup of the links (like in Favourites..duh).

It is all back up now, and I did survive, but it was another uncomfortable experience, like when your e-mail doesn't work, or, horrors, 'net access fails altogether. Isn't is stupid to rely on a third party to store something on the 'net for you, especially if you need it 24/7?

Which I suppose puts all of us who use Hotmail or Gmail as the primary e-mail service in the same bin.

Welcome!

2005-01-12T19:25:00.000Z

This is just a test. I'm interested in this blog idea; it may be an easy way to share stuff.