Request

Does anybody have any of Amanda Brown's work as film music composer ("Son of a Lion", ""Sidney Nolan"...)? And would like to share...?
Thanks.

The Go-Betweens: Tallulah (The Expanded Edition)

I know how poorly this album is usually considered, and by the Go-Betweens too, as anyone can see by reading the Forster-McLennan interview on their whole career in the 80's @ the Go Betweens' Archive page, where Forster, talking about "Tallulah", says: "...we were sort of cursed. We had the engineer that we were using on Liberty Belle, Dicky Preston, and working with Dicky was good. We then went on to the next one and we were put into this horrible studio–..." and then "And so Dickey didn't do a good job I think on Tallulah, so it had to be rescued and remixing a little but which always sounds horrible ...". But I also completely agree with him when he says: "...Tallulah really could have been the big, dark masterpiece, and I don't know, we didn't… really…hit it. But it's good."
Yeah, that's really true, I mean, look at some of the songs in the album: there is Someone else's wife ("It's a fine line between love and despair/Do you know the times I've waited on your stair?"), The house that Jack Kerouac built ("With friends like these; you're damned as well/Keep me away from her"), Hope then strife ("Never gonna be the one /Who said you were the one /Who liked the lonesome life"), and then there's the whole (and one-of-a-kind type of song in the GoBes' canon) intense The Clarke sisters.
But yes: the production of "Tallulah" brings out the worst of the eighties' music: it's almost hard to listen to this version of Right here (when compared to the oh-so-much-better live rendition of it)... Plus there is Cut it out, possibly the worst Go-Betweens' song ever.
And that's one of the reasons why I have uploaded the bonus disc too: the demos of Right here and I just get caught out do give more justice to Forster's and McLennan's songwriting skill. Moreover the B-side When people are dead is a beautiful gem.
One more thing: this two-discs edition of "Tallulah" got out of print...why?

Tallullah (Disc 1)
Tallullah (Disc 2)

New Frightened Rabbit Video

Frightened Rabbit on Wiki

My Favourite Show on TV

Official Site @ FOX
On Wikipedia

Steeleye Span: Ten Man Mop or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again

It's no surprise that I adore english folk-rock (or electric folk), and I'm particularly fond of the "Fairport family" (Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda Thompson, Fotheringay...). But I had never put my heart and soul into listening to the other major british folk-rock ensemble, i.e. Steeleye Span and Pentanle. My bad, of course. Anyway, although I still have some problems listening to Pentangle (because of Jacqui McShee's voice mainly...but I dig Bert Jansch's solo repertoire), I am now starting to love Steeleye Span too.
And the album I love the most (at least until now) is their third, this "Ten Man Mop or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again": I think everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) should try and listen at least to When I was on horseback and Gosser Wassail. The work of Martin Carthy on this two songs is simply incredible (the Gosser Wassail lick does sound like new-wave to me...)

Unfortunately I haven't found any video on youtube with Gosser Wassail. But I found When I was on horseback:

Ten Man Mop...

Warren Zevon: Stand In The Fire

I'm going through a Warren Zevon phase (again). So, I've decided to post this strong live album from the seventies with many of his early careers' classics (Excitable boy, Muhammad radio, Werewolves of London...).
It's also a quite good point to start your own Zevonesque mania (and this is the new 2007 edition with 4 bonus tracks)

By the way: there is plenty of Zevon's gigs @ the Internet Music Archive.

And here is some good advertisment of "Stand In The Fire" by David Letterman:

Stand In The Fire

Thom Yorke: Open the floodgates

What can I say? I absolutely love this new song...

Townes Van Zandt: Live at the Old Quarter (Disc 1 & 2)

I bumped into a Townes Van Zandt's music only recently, but I was immediately hypnotized by it: rarely had I heard songs so intense and a songwriting apparently so simple and yet so deep, the typical example being Van Zandt's most famous song, Pancho and Lefty (the cover version by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983 reached #1 in the Country Chart), which after you first listen to it, it may not sound a first rate number, but then later, it slowly grows on you (and gets huge).
TVZ has recorded a vast number of (excellent) LP's, but I have just purchased this one, the "Live at the Old Quarter", which I particularly love because of the sparse arrangement: only Van Zandt singing and playing his acoustic guitar.
What more? This one has TVZ's best songs from the first part of his career, and also some blues numbers that he loved (i.e. Chaffeur's blues and Cocaine blues in the second disc). If you like his music go search for more. My advice is (but I'm not into his whole carerr yet, so I'm not such a good or impartial judge of it, I suppose) go buy "Our Mother the Mountain"(too).

Live at the Old Quarter (Disc 1)
Live at the Old Quarter (Disc 2)