borborygmus 2010

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!

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.

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Flags of our Glasto

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

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

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

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!

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

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...

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?

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

borborygmus 2008

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

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

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

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!