X were a LA. punk band, and an excellent one, formed in 1977 and "Los Angeles" is their cult debut abum (and one of the '77 punk milestones).Johnny hit and run Paulene - Video
X @ wiki
Lou Reed @ Wiki
Low @ Wiki
A title, by the way? Date with IKEA. 'Nuff said.
In fact in a few months "Harvest" will come out, but many songs from "Time fades away" and "On the beach" are already in his live repertoire by that day, and it just blows my mind to think of this man that, in a bunch of weeks, composed songs as Journey through the past, A man needs a maid, Needle and the damage done, Old man, See the sky about to rain...and he chats through them as though they were just some more songs.
Anyway, this was Fairport Convention's 4th long playing release and, as hard as it appeared to be, it topped also their previously LP, "Unhalfbricking", and it made history for Sandy Denny's perfect vocal performance and its combination of tradionals mostly and self-penned songs (or new suits for traditional songs, with new lyrics for instance)."If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
Listen to KV's interview in 2006 @ BBC Radio 4
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Here I am, back with the first Nick Castro's album. About his last -"Come into our house"- much has been said, but I do prefer his first: a bit more free-form, while the last dug too much into the great british folk-rock artists' repertoire, like Fairport Convention's (and Wendy Watson is no Sandy Denny). Which I love, but the fact is that he just can't keep up with them if he plays their same game. That's why I like this album so much: there's more non-british music (i.e. indian and psych stuff) and more room for trance-like tracks or atmospheric songs in general in it (like No sweeter thing, that reminds me more of Sid Barrett's Pink Floyd than Denny's FC). Listen also to the beninning of Winter's song: isn't it like a gamelan ensemble playing?
Last week I've been at a Julie's Haircut's concert and, as always, it has been a hell of a gig: it is kind of hard for me to explain how great they are to people who have never seen them live, because when they are on the road they are the best at what they do (and what they do, by the way, is an extremely exciting live act, based mainly on loose versions of songs from their last album, "After dark, my sweet", which got recorded in only one week on a very improv mood, and with the help of ex Spacemen 3 Sonic Boom).
Now another shoegazing band, Breathless, that probably not many people know of. Nevermind that "Three times and waving"is indeed a very good album, even better to me because its cons are its pros: in fact "Three times.." may sound like a bit of a blur, not completely on focus, but I'd state that this is its fascination, i.e. having so many things in it, unlike many other shoegazing bands that often looked like My Bloody Velentine cover bands Breathless may have less of an impact but more intriguing nuances. Moreover Dominic Appleton has a voice that I find slightly similar to Interpol's Paul Banks (which is good, me being a fan and all).
A short record today: The Retribution Gospel Choir are Andy Sparhawk (Low's singer and composer) side project (he obvously plays guitar, while Eric Pollard is on drums and Eric Pollard is on bass, who also plays in Low) that he sometimes takes on tour with his main band.
The Pop Group was a great agit prop band, whose roots (if such term can be used for a new wave group) are in so many musical styles and approaches: jazz, world music, funk and (of course) punk. The quality of this album is a good reason to post it on my blog, but another good reason why is that The Pop Group had a strong bond with The Slits, with whom they were buddies and that they probably influenced (both their first LP's covers were overtly about their interest on primitivism, and moreover both were produced by Dennis Bowell, the biggest name in producing raggae at the end if the 70's in the UK).
"The Raincoats - S/t" is The Raincoats' first album, published in 1979, by this bunch of women who made history as one of the best bands of the british new wave: their sound is raw but still pop, and their voices can be both similar to John Lydon's and sometimes, oddly, beautiful (as in the second track No side to fall in, a great example of how to make a post punk song out of...violins and sixties choirs).
Iggy Pop is, without any doubt, one of the most important and influential rock musicians (even though I could easily live these days without "musicians" as, say, Peaches...), and the reason why I have decided to upload "The Idiot"is...well, because it is a wonderful album, also thanks to David Bowie's production (he was in great shape back in 1977: he was just in the middle of his Berlin-period, i.e. the last, and maybe only, time he did something ahead of everybody else), and because I think I am going to post some weird stuff in the future days, probably new-wave or some electrinica, I'll see. That's why such a "classic"LP.
Karen Dalton had her fifteen minutes of (posthumous) fame in 2004 when Bob Dylan spent very fine words for her work in Chronicles Vol.1, but unfortunately she never was that lucky in life: after releasing this incredible first album in 1969 and another one in 1971 ("In my own time") she went through a lot of hard times, mostly drugs and alcohol issues, only to die -probably- as homeless in 1993.
I am not even sure that I really like his solo so much..but nonetheless he is one of the most important musicians of the last 15 years (with his Radiohead), so here is this japanese EP, "Spitting Feathers", which is a more electronic counterpart to last year's "The Eraser".
Big time for re-posts: this time is Grizzly Bear's second album. The fact is that last time around the tenth and final track was missing, so now I have re-uploaded the whole album.
Many people asked me to re-post it, so here it comes: The Go-Betweens' so-called Botany Sessions, i.e. what could have been their 7th album, if they had not split (but fortunately only to come back in great shape 10 years later).
Jens Lekman comes from Sweden, a land that has given us many brilliant pop artists (one of my favourites is Sondre Lerche, last album apart) and Lekman is definetely one of them: Oh You're So Silent Jens is not a proper LP but a collection of EPs instead and, maybe also because of this, OYRSSL is such a heterogenic and fascinating record, being so rich, having so many influences in it...but let's say that the names of people as Stephin Merrit's Magnetic Fields or Belle and Sebastian (but with a certain Burt Bacharach feel) often come to mind listening to him: soft balladry (with some almost-kitsch arrangements here and there) with great tunes.
