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Not Enough Hours In The Day
The start of a new month means the music mags are out which is mostly a good thing. Uncut have a feature on 'The Sound of Young Scotland' or the infamous Postcard records who released the early singles by Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens and Aztec Camera. Early Orange Juice especially is a thing of joy and wonder and something to cling to as I await some better news of Edwyn Collins' condition in hospital. They really were a brilliant band not afraid to assimilate say, Al Green or funk into their ramshackle whiteboy guitar pop. They could be so camp with it as well, which Edwyn admits they played up just to annoy the hard nosed punks in the audience which is pretty punk in itself. You could see why they would be annoyed by Collins who in one publicity picture is wearing knee length red shorts and who stood on stage singing 'Ye gawds I'm simply thrilled honey'. Life affirming.
The new music mags also mean new album anticipation which I haven't had in a while. I've bought very few new records this year so far with the last two being Rhino's compilations in the Nuggets series compiling obscure psych and sunshine pop. Glancing at Uncut and Mojo has got me considering Rufus Wainwright's 'Want Two', Arcade Fire's 'Funeral', Brendan Benson's 'Alternative To Love', Edan's 'Beauty and The Beat', Antony and The Johnsons 'I Am A Bird Now' and even 'Guilty Pleasures Rides Again' a double disc of songs you shouldn't admit to liking(including Chas 'n' Dave!). The sort of stuff that Radio 2 used to play and you'd hear in the car on holiday. Even considering Doves new one and I don't even like them that much. Must just have been in the mood for some new music last night but some or all of these I shall no doubt pick up at some stage.
It's not as though I haven't got lots of new things to listen to. Been on a downloading frenzy at least compared to normal. This netted a disc of Nick Drake demos and outtakes, a pretty succesful mash up of The Beatles Revolver, Bob Dylan appearing on a radio show in 1962 complete with interview and live in the studio songs (fascinating stuff especially when I'm reading his 'Chronicles Vol. 1'), Damon Albarn's Democrazy (which includes a demo of part of the new Gorillaz track Dirty Harry), Dylan and Johnny Cash in the studio together in 1969 when Dylan's was singing in a voice almost unrecognisable from how he had sang in the previous years and indeed after, a whole bunch of Jon Brion demos and unreleased tracks, Nellie McKay live at the Aldrich Museum 130804 which is excellent although the person who put it up has cut the between song banter which is unfortunate as I suspect this is probably an important part of one of her shows. Also got a recording of The Tears in Oxford (The Tears being the new band formed by Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler) which I was very eager to hear especially given my love for the early singles and first album by Suede. Sadly the sound quality isn't much cop and I don't want to judge them on the basis of a dodgy bootleg (which may just mean they were rubbish but as I said I'm going to give them a fair chance and wait till I hear some proper studio stuff). Oh yeah, add to the list a bunch of Franz Ferdinand demos, radio sessions and unreleased stuff including a cover of Pulp's Mis-shapes recorded for Radio 1 and a few new songs.
Finally (I think), Fiona Apple's record company Sony won't release her new record. Her last one 'When The Pawn...' comes highly recommended. Great songs, great voice and Jon Brion's production and keyboards all over it. 'Fast As You Can'was on especially frequent rotation when it came out. The new one has been in the can for some time but for whatever reason her label won't put it out. It would be nice to report that the 5 tracks I have from this unreleased album are fantastic, as good as anything on the last one and that it is an enormous injustice that it's not been released but on one listen they're not that hot, being melodically uninspiring (update: as I'm writing this I've just acquired the rest of the record so we'll see what it's like all together) That was only on one listen though. It still seems unfair to shackle an artist like that. No doubt they won't let her go to another company and she's not going to be able to record anything else until this comes out even if she wanted to. There seems to be a bit of an internet campaign building up around this so we may have another Wilco situation although whether she'll achieve what they did in getting a subsidiary of the same parent company to buy the record meaning that the record company basically paid for the record twice remains to be seen.
-Deep breath-
In addition to this I also got a bunch of stuff from someone at work - British Sea Power's new record Open Season which I quite enjoyed, Skinnyman's Council Estate Of Mind, about 30 Wesley Willis tracks who obviously knew his animals managing to not only write the stone cold classic 'Suck A Camel's Dick' but also the follow up 'Suck a Bactrian Camel's Dick'. Every song ends with 'Rock Over London, Rock On Chicago' followed by an advertising phrase eg 'Polaroid, see what develops'. It has to be said though that listening to music made by the mentally ill can be an uncomfortable pasttime.
Finally, and I think this really is finally I got some Richard Thompson live things, a gig for Radio Wales and a fine recording of one of his '1000 Years Of Popular Music' shows where he covers everything from songs in latin from the 13th Century up to Prince's 'Kiss', Abba's 'Money Money Money' and Britney Spears' 'Oops! I Did It Again'. Most unexpected but really quite fine. Look for the song Dear Janet available on his website for an example of a previously unexpected (by me at least) bawdy sense of humour.
So as you can see, not really anything new to listen to so I really have to consider buying all those albums.
(Yeah, I know I should have put more links through this post but it's boring and I can't be bothered. You know where google is and if you can't find something then you can ask)
10:26 | 1 Comments, | permanent link
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