I totally missed the Pedro The Lion boat and it’s only now, three years since they sang their last and went their separate ways, that I find myself eagerly sampling every track that I can get my hands on.
It was ‘Bad Diary Days’ that especially caught my interest, from the 1995 release It’s Hard To Find A Friend. The first few times I heard it I didn’t pay too much attention to the lyrics and just enjoyed the melody, but I think the lines that finally made me sit up and take notice were these ones:
a pair of ticket stubs in her desk
a movie I’ve never seen
I probably shouldn’t ask, it sounds so accusing
and on further listens
she just has a funny way of loving me
Insecurity, infedelity, a relationship unravelling at the seams… the best songs are always about pain and heartache and suffering, are they not?
I’ve always thought Langhorne Slim was a fantastic name for a performer, but I’ve never gotten around to checking him out until every man and his dog started posting the seriously gorgeous ‘I Love You, But Goodbye’, the first song from his upcoming release Be Set Free, out September 29.
This is the kind of post that I write when I’m feeling jaded and downtrodden and mind-numbingly lethargic. A short post about a track I know well, that requires little research, and keeps the blog ticking over until I find my brain and spark and inspiration again.
This song brought unexpected tears to my eyes just a few short hours ago as I drove along a dark country road. There’s something about the strings and the fluttery flutey bits that never fails to move me.
You don’t keep me company,
You all turn out wrong,
If you are my daughters, if you are my sons,
I can only hold you inside for so long,
O song, did I lead you on?
If you are my love, well love what’s wrong?
You don’t keep me company for near enough long,
I can’t feel or touch you, or hold you for long,
O song, are you leading me on?
Friends come in time, and then they are gone,
I know what it’s like to be floating along
Without a warm body to heap your cares on,
O on and into the night.
For I have been bad now for twenty years long,
For centuries you have been pure and strong,
If you thought me a good place to stay you were wrong,
O song, did I lead you on?
A quick trawl of my inbox netted a couple of good finds this morning.
Quite often the promotional band descriptions I get sent sound more like a bad wine label or a dodgy real estate guide than something that’s supposed to inspire me to check out the music. The promotional gab for Switzerland’s The Loops reads a cocktail of the wild wild 60ies, boozed-up beatpoetry and eccentric postrock. As band descriptions go that’s not too shabby, and while I’m not sure whether it’s an accurate description (I don’t know what sober beatpoetry sounds like, let alone beatpoetry performed when under the influence) it doesn’t matter because it was enough to hook me, and I was not disappointed. I’ve even been provided with three tracks that I can share with you, and each one is fantastic.
‘Lalala’ opens with a very catchy riff and Claudio Landolt’s scratchy vocals give it a deep bluesy feel, a vibe which continues with the hazy gradual climb of ‘No Title’. ‘She Don’t Love Me’ features simple chord changes, well timed back up vocals and a nice mid-song guitar solo. Good stuff.
The Loops are Claudio Landolt (vocals/guitar), Mathias Kilga (percussion), Gianni Palumbo (guitar), Reto Leutwyler (drums) and Stefan Nievergelt (bass) and you can find out more about their upcoming album But The Birds (out Aug 28) at their myspace.
Greenland Is Melting is a bluegrass/folk/punk trio from Florida USA and ‘From City To Town’ off the soon to be released Our Hearts Are Gold, Our Grass Is Blue is a twangy banjo number complete with some nice fiddle work. Fun stuff.
Greenland Is Melting are Karl Seltzer, Will Dueease and Shaun Pereira and you can hear more at their myspace.
I awoke this morning to the news that the Aussie batting side had collapsed overnight, all out for 160. Our media blames ‘a dodgy pitch’ and seems strangely reluctant to acknowledge England’s blistering bowling attack.
With England 3/58 at stumps on Day 2 and up by 230 runs, it looks like another 50 or so will be enough to secure an untouchable lead.
As I write this England are 1/24 and it’s good see the Aussies are off to a nice start. Shane Warne is as informative as ever, treating us to so-called special comments like “Don’t you think Trott looks like Vince Vaughn from ‘Wedding Crashers’? He looks exactly like him!’”
No Shane, he doesn’t.
Another pearl of wisdom from the fourth test went something like this:
“It’s interesting to watch the body language of the Australians out in the field…they’re being a lot more verbal out there now.”
Twat.
I’ll be stoked if the Aussies win of course but even if we do I reckon Ponting will still find something to sook about, that’s all he seems to do these days. Hopefully the rain will hold off and we’ll have a proper competitive match on our hands.
I can’t find an mp3 of this Sherbet track from the 70′s so you’ll have to make do with this classic video instead. Nice hair Daryl!
Her trawlin’ days are long gone – Blakeney, England
Smansmith has apologised for his recent lack of posting with a comprehensive covers post. No need to apologise S, every now and then we’re forced to deal with our real lives, but gosh darn it, don’t you wish sometimes they’d leave us the hell alone so we were free to wallow in our introverted antisocial online existence?!
Tart had a good ol’ rant last week about Ticketmaster and the US economy or some such nonsense – I don’t really have any idea what she was going on about actually, I was too busy checking out the placating picture of the white singlet wearing Johnny Depp to pay too much attention.
I don’t know a lot about 90′s Britpop to be honest, mainly because I was a kid in the 90′s, but for those of you who’d like to tiptoe back down memory lane, or for those of you who are just as ignorant as I am, head over to Muzzle Of Bees to check out Cool Britannia: The Birth & Death of Britpop In The 90s.
Captains Dead posted a live Prince gig from 1981 last week. Not being an expert on Prince, I don’t recognise a single one of these songs…but then I wasn’t even born then so that might have something to do with it.
Are you tired of these digs yet, those of you whose age is slightly greater than my own 26 years?
I’m sorry. I’m sitting on the deck as I write this and it’s 21 degrees here today – I even got sunburnt on the weekend (yes it was warm, but I also have red hair, pale skin and, clearly, a monumental lack of self-preservation). This week has been the first time all winter I’ve been warm without the aid of a heater or a hot water bottle or a 5 kilometre jog or a shirtload of whiskey. I think all this sun has gone to my head.
This week was so busy that I had hardly any time to listen to anything properly, including three recent album purchases. Hopefully in the next week or so I might have a chance to review The Antler’s Hospice, Other Lives self-titled offering and the new record from Perth’s Little Birdy. Until then, you’ll need to make do with these snippets that I should’ve shared earlier in the week.
I’ve been meaning to check out local Melbourne act Little Red for a little while now, ever since I heard ‘Coca Cola’ played on Triple J on the way home from school one wintry afternoon. The retro summer sounds warmed me up no end (although cranking the heater up full bore may have also had something to do with it). I love the handclaps and the group singalong at the end. Fun stuff.
I first came across the homespun tunes of Adam Balbo at Song By Toad and this bitterly sarcastic track has been both cracking me up and making me feel this weird kinda wistfulness, all in the space of one and a half minutes.
It was this time last year that I first heard of Brooklyn’s Motel Motel self-professed purveyors of ‘schwag rock’. The love affair continues with the release of new song ‘Cowboy’. Check it out below.
You don’t have to trawl the blogs for long to see that Roadside Graves have been picking up loads of praise for their latest release My Son’s Home. The couple of tracks I’ve heard around the traps have really been doing it for me lately and I can’t help making the odd Felice Brothers comparison every now and then, especially when listening to ‘Ruby’. Husky vocals, tinkling piano, tempo changes and a violin fadeout makes this track a standout for me, and opening track ‘Far And Wide’, with it’s train-like beginning, catchy melody and vocal harmonies always leaves me wanting more – enough to make me think another visit to Amazon this week will be in order. Dammit.
Roadside Graves are on the road in the US for the next couple of months – see their myspace for details.
