Dead Meadow – The Nothing They Need. Another great album from DM. Not sure how they manage to be entirely generic (stoner psych) yet always sound unmistakeably like themselves. Wonderful track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB5HI9tQdu4
Drinks – Hippo Lite. Second album from Cate Le Bon side project. On the one hand, it’s compellingly detached from the mores of modern music (in fact, it sounds almost exactly like a piece of avant indie/post punk circa 1981). On the other, it’s a bit patience-testing in places. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lRyLTosUGE
Ethan Gold – Live Undead Bedroom Closet Covers. Another choice cut from the closet of doom, The Knife’s ‘Forest Families’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xwo_XiDVKs (better than the original!)
Simply Saucer – Cyborgs Revisited. Never given this a proper listen before, more fool me. Yes, it sounds a LOT like VU, but the spirit of Hawkwind and the Stooges is also in there, and it’s just really urgent and vital. Liking it a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwXdwVg2Reo
Chrome – Alien Soundtracks / Half Machine Lip Moves. Carrying on with the theme of scuzz rock riffs with sci-fi overtones, gave these two, err, classics a listen. Bloody odd, but fab, sounds like the inside of JG Ballard’s head circa The Atrocity Exhibition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXDGDoqwlLY
Modulo 1000 – Não Fale Com Paredes. Space/downer rock oddity from Brazil 1972 – definitely not Tropicana… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H1PEwKIIAo
The Bridge – Overdrive Rock/Jazz-Party. Library album given a re-release. Does what it says on the tin, though to be honest, I wasn’t concentrating that much, as at the time I was trying to keep the car from rear-ending other road users in the snow.
Listen With Father:
PJ Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. In a way, Peej is an obvious choice for the girls’ musical education/indoctrination, but her themes can be a bit… adult. And I like her without being completely wild about a lot of her stuff. I hadn’t listened to this in ages, and I know she’s disowned it a bit herself, but this is as good an intro as any I guess (though Is This Desire? remains my favourite). Girl 1 liked, girl 2 ambivalent.
The Vinyl Countdown – C:
Kevin Coyne – Millionaires And Teddy Bears. So, when I was talking about The Beyond being the only musical artist to have ever come out of Derby, I was obviously forgetting it was the birthplace of Mr Coyne too (plus Peter Hammill lived there as a teenager). It’s kind of hard to describe why KC is so great, because on paper, he’s just another blues-influenced singer songwriter, yet he’s so much more than that… An incredible voice, an interestingly minimal approach to songwriting and arrangements, and a gritty, funny and genuinely humane take on the world. MATB came out in 1979, and while Coyne’s the type of artist whose records are always indelibly their own, it’s interesting how he’s absorbed what was in the air at the time… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YZo3cH_zK4
Live:
Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band – Café Oto, Hackney. Wow. This was one of those fantastically intimate gigs where the band are right there in front of you, and the sheer skill and verve of their playing just blows you away. Definitely a band who really come to life on the stage, how ever good the records are. A lot gutsier than I expected too. Their FB page describes them as ‘cock rock raga’, which is pretty perfect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRwWgV_GHik
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