Nick Cave: Nature Boy Video

The Go-Betweens: Live @ Rocking Horse Records, 05-01-2005

As I promised here's another Go-Betweens' bottleg, in this case a showcase performed in Brisbane to launch their 2005 album "Oceans Apart" (and, among the boots that I haven't posted yet I chose this because I see that very few people voted for OA as their fave LP in our poll...which kind of suprised me since it is considered by many one of their best ones).

The band here is Robert and Grant only, playing acoustic. Splendid rendition of "The mountains near Dellray".

(I wasn't sure wheter this the picture was taken @ Rocking Horse's or not, but Robert in the comments says it was, so thanks robert)

Tracklist:

01. (introduction)
02. Finding You
03. Boundary Rider
04. Here Comes The City
05. Surfing Magazines
06. Cattle And Cane
07. Spring Rain
08. The Mountains Near Dellray
09. Magic In Here
10. (outro)

Live Rocking Horse 2005

Steve Wynn: Manhattan Fault Line - Video

Steve Wynn. One of my heroes. This is from the forthcoming "Crossing Dragon Bridge". By chance, does anyone have it?

Next: more Go-Betweeens' stuff.

Shirley & Dolly Collins: Love, Death & The Lady

In these last days I have tried to dig into british (and irish) folk music. I've been a Fairport Convention/Sandy Denny/Richard Thompson for a long time and I've decided to search for more (and then comes to mind a great song by the Who, The seeker, with its character -the seeker, of course- who is alway looking for another band, for more music), when I accidentally stumbled into a little italian manual on that. That's how I discovered Shirley Collins. Her first release dates back to 1955 (a compilation called "Folksong Today"), and then her carreer flourished, also thanks to the collaboration with her sister Dolly, that went on until 1995 when she passed away.
In order to be clear: in Shirley Collins rock is sometimes present (she also was -Fairport Convention/Albion Band man- Ashley Hutchings' wife) but what is always close to her heart is folk. Be it british or american (as a young woman she travelled trough the USA to study american folk roots, and later on she worked with Alan Lomax, who produced her second LP).
I can't say I'm no expert on Collins, yet "Love, death and the lady" struck me, it actually almost hit me like a truck: her voice may not be as beautiful as Denny's (it sure isn't), but how it cuts into my brain, into my heart...there is so much gloom in "Love, death...", much pain, and lots and lots of dark ballads (wouldn't Nick Cave like them? I guess he would). And there are no fillers (we're talking 13 songs plus 4 bonus tracks here).
Take a good breath and jump.

PS
Some may know Shirley Collins through Decemberists' Colin Meloy's fine "Colin sings Shirley Collins EP".

For more on Shirley Collins check out Wiki.

Love, Death & The Lady

Perturbazione: Agosto

A beautiful italian song (year 2004) from Perturbazione.
For those who don't speak italian the first line goes: "August is the coldest month of the year".

Robert Forster: The Evangelist

Ok, I couldn't resist. The thing is: songsfordirtylovers posted it some days ago, but I don't like its version so much (there is some annoying noise, some kind of buzz, at the beginning of each song), so I realised that my version (although it's only @ 160 k) sounds a bit better to me (at least it has no buzz).
So, I know it may sound weird when we're talking about mp3's, but I like listening to my music fine, meaning that the quality should be quite good. That's also the reason why I use pretty good headphones with my iPod, and -more important of all-when I find the music meaningful I always hit the record shop for the CD (mp3's are no way nearly as good as CDs, and I can't see why I should spend money for some 128k -i.e. very low quality- itunes stuff).

Of course I'm totally missing the point here. Which is: "The Evangelist"is very good. I used to have some difficulties listening to RF's solo albums in the past, but I slowly got used to them, and I learned to love them (although never as much as GB's albums, and I also tend to prefer McLennan's solo output), in particular "Danger in the past" (I still think the title-track is one of the best thing he's ever done -isn't it creepy? And isn't it incredible to hear something like that from Forster? I can't imagine any other song of his resembling it).
But "The Evangelist" struck me. It is -yes, it is- a logical follow-up to the last 3 GB's LP's, but not quite: it doesn't set its goals as high as "Oceans apart" (which, to me, was a great promise for what was going to come and, alas, it never will: more rock-oriented Go-Betweens, working much more like a true rock band than in the previous two albums. Somehow the wait was over: GB's were not only Forster & McLennan but a real live-kicking band. Maybe different from the 80's line-up -be it a 3 or 4 or 5 people line-up- yet you could see it was the work of more than 2 people that came together for the album), but it is an excellent Robert Forster album. Maybe his best. And those three songs written by McLennan may make the difference: I can't say yet if Demon Days is one of his best songs, as Forster says, but it kills me indeed.

So definetely Grant is very present here. His words, his music, and references to him are easily detectable by fans: the 3 chords-sequence in Let your light in, babe and Robert's numerous hommages to his partner are nearly all over the album (the -moving, intense, heartbreaking- goodbye to a lost friend in the closing From ghost town, the words of It aint' easy...).
I'd probably better stop now or I could go on and on talking about "The Evangelist". That's how I love it, I suppose.

PS
I inserted the lyrics in the mp3's too.

The Evangelist

Robert Forster's Lyrics

For all Robert Forster fans: you can find the lirics to the new songs @ the man's own official website. (And you may also find some more stuff from RF in some link around here...).

Cat Power: Live KCRW 2008

I'm a big KCRW-Morning Becomes Eclectic fan. I have podcasts and every now and then I check their site for new radio showcases.
And Cat Power is one of my fave artists of these last years: I L-O-V-E-D "The greatest" and I'm starting to dig into their latest, "Jukebox". That's why I was so glad to see her doing a showase @ MBE, also because there is a songs that, I presume, didn't make it for "Jukebox": Percy Sledge's Dark end of the streets. I only wish now I could lay my hands on her version of CCR's Fortunate son. That'd be something. Does anyone here have it?
By the way, if you want to listen/watch this Cat Power's showcase go to KCRW's site or, and if you want it on your iPod, PC, or whatever I've ripped it so that you can download it down here.

PS The picture was taken by my girlfriend last year. Too dark, I know.

Cat - KCRW 2008