Happy Halloween! Here are five songs that have always creeped me out. I share them in the hope they do the same for you. Luckily, they are all also AWESOME :)
5. Legs - PJ HARVEY
A murderess's lament to her dismembered lover's corpse. "Did I tell you you're divine? Did I tell you when you were alive?...Got to ease my aching head. No other way, cut off your legs" - Lovely stuff.
4. Goddamn You, Jim - FELICE BROTHERS
Dead children, ghosts, burials, haunted parents, suicide attempts and farming the prairies. As moving, stark and atmospheric as anything you will see in film. If this doesn't send a shiver down your spine or a push a single tear from your eye, you are probably one of the undead.
3. The Fable of the Brown Ape - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
A farmer goes into a barn and sees one of his cows suckling a serpent and a chained up ape going batshit insane in the corner. So far, so Nick Cave. The really creepy thing about this song, is that Cave claims that it is about Blixa, his Bad Seeds bandmate. Weird kind of song to write about your friend don't you think? Freud would have had a field day. Or he'd have just given up altogether.
2. Tenderness of Wolves - COIL
Coil at their very best, which in their case means at their shit-yer-pants-scariest. Every track on this album is a three minute horror, but this particular song comes with added crying baby. Put it on, loud, when you answer the door to Trick or Treaters.
1. What's He Building? - TOM WAITS
Scariest song of all time. Waits reminds us that the scariest possibilities are always inside our own head. Or he really did live next door to Ed Gein for a while...
Monday 31 October 2011
Thursday 20 October 2011
Uni made us podcasty!
Amy and I talk about the biggest news story of the last twenty four hours, and I make a prick of myself by using the tautology "Killed Dead". And no, it's not about who you think...
Thursday 6 October 2011
Underated Classics: The Top Ten Albums You SHOULD Have Heard.
There are many reasons why some albums slip into the ether. Usually because they are shit. Here are a few that aren't.
1. Mississippi Charles Bevel - Meet Mississippi Charles Bevel
If I could tell you anything about this man, I would, but so underrated is this gem that the poor fella doesn't even have a wikipedia page. I assume his name was Charles, I assume he was from Mississippi but I couldn't tell you much more than that. What I can tell you is that his 1973 album, Meet Mississippi Charles Bevel is a cracker. Less raw screaming blues than you'd expect from anyone with the name "Mississippi", this underrated classic sways between smooth soul sounds and slide guitars, creating a distinctive mix of country and soul, straying quite a way north of the delta. The lyrics are emotive, wise and fun and delivered in Bevel's sleek, lazy drawl. A beauty.
FOR FANS OF - B.B. King, Marvin Gaye
2. The Shortwave Set - Debt Collection
British band The Shortwave Set's debut album, Debt Collection, was released to a flurry of critical acclaim with many high profile music publications and DJ's championing it. The sales told a different story and must have left music journalists wondering if they were in the wrong business and contemplating taking up butchery or fair trade hat-making. The Shortwave Set supported some pretty big artists such as Goldfrapp, Rilo Kiley, Gnarles Barkley and Danger Mouse but Debt Collection was still gathering dust at the bottom of bargain bins up and down the country's shops. But I bought it. And I bloody loved it. It's contemporary pop music at it's absolute bonkers best and the use of samples has yet to be rivalled in the boundaries of the indie-pop genre (they use anything and everything to full effect - even Millican & Nesbitt and Engelbert Humperdinck are on there. Seriously.) Melodic and innovative, you are likely to hear ukuleles, guitars, organs, clattering laptop generated noise and percussion played on anything from a typewriter or a badger's head (ok, I made that bit up - point is, it's a weird mix of instrumentation that leaves listeners no clue as to what is actually a sample and what is well, a potential badger's head.)
FOR FANS OF:- The Beta Band, Spiritulized
3. Robert Randolph and The Family Band - Live at The Wetlands
In 2002, while everyone was busy hailing New York band The Strokes as the saviours of Rock n Roll and claiming their scruffy hair and tight jeans and jacket combo made them "look like they were from outer space" (which, incidentally, I never quite grasped. Plenty at my school, me included had a similar look, but maybe that's just what poverty and debased standards of hygiene do to you) a very real resurgence of Rock n Roll in it's most raw, bluesy form was taking place elsewhere in New York. Live at the Wetlands is the first release from Robert Randolph and The Family Band and an introduction to the front man who is possibly one of the greatest guitarists alive. Furious pedal steel playing is accompanied by gospel style vocals creating one of the most joyful rackets around. More recent albums have been steadier sellers, suggesting that Randolph and Co. may yet become a household name, but this album is their first and best.
FOR FANS OF:- Muddy Waters, Allman Brothers
NB I couldn't actually find live footage from the Wetlands. The above video is a track from Live at The Wetlands, recorded in Texas at a later date. It's a blinding performance, so get your shades on.
4. Johnny Dangerously - You, Me and The Alarm Clock
Johnny Dangerously is an alias used by John Bramwell of I Am Kloot in 1990 when he released this 'mini album'. I Am Kloot are often called 'Manchester's Best Kept Secret' and could have easily had a place on the list too although none of their recording strike me as much as this barely there recording. Just a Northern accent and a guitar, You, Me and The Alarm Clock is six delicate, despairing and at times, desperately funny songs that assert Bramwell as one of the most evocative and affecting lyricists in Britain. Bramwell's vivid vernacular creates imagery at once highly romanticised and mundane and despite I Am Kloot's recent acclaim (They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2010, but were "too skint to put a bet on" themselves) it still seems a shame that more people aren't listening.
FOR FANS OF :- Elbow, The Smiths
5. Kevin Coyne - Marjory Razorblade
A patronage from John Peel, acclaim from John Lydon and being The Door's first choice to replace Jim Morrisson have all done little to propel Kevin Coyne's legacy into mainstream consciousness. He's fleeting success in the early 70's mean he is someone my Mum has heard of, but none of my mates down the pub recognise when I download his tracks onto the various jukeboxes of Blackburn (which I do with alarming regularity) This 1973 release is a mix of comedy and tragedy typical of blues music but his tortured vocal delivery and insistence on rough edges over the more polished guitar sounds typical of 70's blues rock, give him a punk rock edge. He screams in a voice decidedly English, and rather than mimic the "I-was-born-with-nothing-and-i'll-die-with-nothing-unless-they-take-that-away-too" lyrics of American blues, concentrates on the tea drinking habits of croquet playing 'Eastbourne Ladies'. He is, in my opinion, the only veritable English Bluesman. In his youth, Coyne worked with the mentally ill in Preston, Lancashire and the injustices faced by those marginalised by psychiatric illness was a theme that he often muses on in his lyrics. The spoken word tracks on this album scream at the listener in affected English accents that demand to be listened to. Which you can do now :)
FOR FANS OF:- Seasick Steve, Bob Dylan
6. Electrelane - Rock it to The Moon
Sometimes creepy, sometimes pretty, always interesting. Electrelane's atmospheric instrumental début has long been a favourite of mine. Reviews of this album were largely positive at the time of release but somehow the four girls from Brighton's sound didn't transform into the token of eligibility for the hipster generation as happened with Godspeed! You Black Emporer, who take a similar approach to song writing. Some people argue that that is simply because they are not as good, but I disagree. Different? yes. Less engaging? not by a elongated keyboard solo.
7. Karen Dalton - In My Own Time
Part of the Greenwich Village folk scene that nurtured the talents of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez et. al Karen Dalton failed to make a huge name for herself in her own right. Her whiskey-soaked voice always sounds strained and as if singing was stripping her vocal chords raw - not exactly pop chart fodder. Bob Dylan said "she had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed" and it is alleged she is the subject of Bob Dylan and The Band's "Katie's Been Gone". Thing is, singing really was painful for Dalton - she found the process of recording music highly embarrassing and much of her recordings only exist at all because people tricked her into performing while she played. The results are albums, mostly recorded in one take, that jostle with a live album quality, rife with authentic imperfections and genuine emotion. She covers blues and folk classics with equal integrity and left a legacy that has to be heard to be believed. Dalton suffered with alcoholism and drug abuse and died, reportedly penniless and homeless, after a long battle with AIDS.
FOR FANS OF : - Fleet Foxes, Bert Jansch
8. The Silver Jews - The Natural Bridge
The second Silver Jews album saw more favourable reviews than their first effort, Starlite Walker but hasn't gained the cult status of their third album, American Water, despite being, to my mind, the finest example of the eccentric poetic brilliance of David Berman's. His low voice wraps around lyrics that are observant, surreal and honest, creating a eerie distance between himself and the scenes that his music conjures. Unsympathetic heroes are everywhere and nowhere, and the album creates a reflection of the human condition in all it's beautiful and dull glory.
FOR FANS OF : - Pavement, Palace Bros.
9. Al Stewart - Past, Present and Future.
Al Stewart is best known for his 1975 album and single 'Year of The Cat', but he is by no means a one hit wonder. He's had a successful and varied career that neither started or ended with that album. His best work is the over-looked 1973 album Past, Present and Future which saw Al Stewart move away from earnest pop-folk songs to concentrate on creating characters and historic figures against a backdrop of multi-layered instrumentation. There's still a prog-folk (and don't be put off by that term, it's not as wizards and stonehengey as it sounds. Nearly, but in a good way) edge to this album that was lost in Year of The Cat in favour of a highly polished pop sheen and that is what makes this THE Al Stewart album to own and the greatest thing about is it that it never sounds like anyone else. Seriously. If you don't have room for it, throw out Year of The Cat and buy this instead.
FOR FANS OF :- Zombies/Colin Blunstone, Richard Thompson, John Lennon/The Beatles
10. Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
For my last choice, I was in a quandary. Go for something new and obscure? A classic that you think hasn't had enough recognition? I whittled it down to Flying Burrito Brothers, Company Flow and Mark Kostelik's acoustic covers of ACDC songs. And then, remembered this! The reason that this Country and Western classic from 1959 bumped off countless other albums that could have appeared on this list, is because I AM CHANGING THE WORLD! Well, not really. But for too long have music fans been made to feel that admitting they appreciate the old western myth spinning that occurs in true country and western classics is about the same as admitting that you once let the neighbours dog lick peanut butter off your private parts ie, you should be institutionalised. Or worse, people may accuse you of not being a 'proper' music lover. But if you like something, you like it and there should be no room for snobbery in matters of taste. Country music is and has been a huge influence to popular music from Neil Young to Ryan Adams. Listening to Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is to be transported to another time. You can practically hear saloon doors swinging and feel the grit kicked up from the hooves of galloping horses hit you in the eye. Robbins wrote most of the songs that appear on Gunfighter... and if you cannot appreciate the genre, you must (I implore you!) appreciate his knack for story telling - the outlaws and bar wenches, gunfights and hangmen come to life in epic narratives and minute details. How anyone can think that this isn't pure musical joy is something I can never and never want to understand. Get your spurs on and treat yourself to a strut around the prairies of your imagination. Let Marty be your guide. It's good for you.
So, what have I missed? Let me know which albums you think have been overlooked for too long. You too can CHANGE THE WORLD!
1. Mississippi Charles Bevel - Meet Mississippi Charles Bevel
If I could tell you anything about this man, I would, but so underrated is this gem that the poor fella doesn't even have a wikipedia page. I assume his name was Charles, I assume he was from Mississippi but I couldn't tell you much more than that. What I can tell you is that his 1973 album, Meet Mississippi Charles Bevel is a cracker. Less raw screaming blues than you'd expect from anyone with the name "Mississippi", this underrated classic sways between smooth soul sounds and slide guitars, creating a distinctive mix of country and soul, straying quite a way north of the delta. The lyrics are emotive, wise and fun and delivered in Bevel's sleek, lazy drawl. A beauty.
FOR FANS OF - B.B. King, Marvin Gaye
2. The Shortwave Set - Debt Collection
British band The Shortwave Set's debut album, Debt Collection, was released to a flurry of critical acclaim with many high profile music publications and DJ's championing it. The sales told a different story and must have left music journalists wondering if they were in the wrong business and contemplating taking up butchery or fair trade hat-making. The Shortwave Set supported some pretty big artists such as Goldfrapp, Rilo Kiley, Gnarles Barkley and Danger Mouse but Debt Collection was still gathering dust at the bottom of bargain bins up and down the country's shops. But I bought it. And I bloody loved it. It's contemporary pop music at it's absolute bonkers best and the use of samples has yet to be rivalled in the boundaries of the indie-pop genre (they use anything and everything to full effect - even Millican & Nesbitt and Engelbert Humperdinck are on there. Seriously.) Melodic and innovative, you are likely to hear ukuleles, guitars, organs, clattering laptop generated noise and percussion played on anything from a typewriter or a badger's head (ok, I made that bit up - point is, it's a weird mix of instrumentation that leaves listeners no clue as to what is actually a sample and what is well, a potential badger's head.)
FOR FANS OF:- The Beta Band, Spiritulized
3. Robert Randolph and The Family Band - Live at The Wetlands
In 2002, while everyone was busy hailing New York band The Strokes as the saviours of Rock n Roll and claiming their scruffy hair and tight jeans and jacket combo made them "look like they were from outer space" (which, incidentally, I never quite grasped. Plenty at my school, me included had a similar look, but maybe that's just what poverty and debased standards of hygiene do to you) a very real resurgence of Rock n Roll in it's most raw, bluesy form was taking place elsewhere in New York. Live at the Wetlands is the first release from Robert Randolph and The Family Band and an introduction to the front man who is possibly one of the greatest guitarists alive. Furious pedal steel playing is accompanied by gospel style vocals creating one of the most joyful rackets around. More recent albums have been steadier sellers, suggesting that Randolph and Co. may yet become a household name, but this album is their first and best.
FOR FANS OF:- Muddy Waters, Allman Brothers
NB I couldn't actually find live footage from the Wetlands. The above video is a track from Live at The Wetlands, recorded in Texas at a later date. It's a blinding performance, so get your shades on.
4. Johnny Dangerously - You, Me and The Alarm Clock
Johnny Dangerously is an alias used by John Bramwell of I Am Kloot in 1990 when he released this 'mini album'. I Am Kloot are often called 'Manchester's Best Kept Secret' and could have easily had a place on the list too although none of their recording strike me as much as this barely there recording. Just a Northern accent and a guitar, You, Me and The Alarm Clock is six delicate, despairing and at times, desperately funny songs that assert Bramwell as one of the most evocative and affecting lyricists in Britain. Bramwell's vivid vernacular creates imagery at once highly romanticised and mundane and despite I Am Kloot's recent acclaim (They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2010, but were "too skint to put a bet on" themselves) it still seems a shame that more people aren't listening.
FOR FANS OF :- Elbow, The Smiths
5. Kevin Coyne - Marjory Razorblade
A patronage from John Peel, acclaim from John Lydon and being The Door's first choice to replace Jim Morrisson have all done little to propel Kevin Coyne's legacy into mainstream consciousness. He's fleeting success in the early 70's mean he is someone my Mum has heard of, but none of my mates down the pub recognise when I download his tracks onto the various jukeboxes of Blackburn (which I do with alarming regularity) This 1973 release is a mix of comedy and tragedy typical of blues music but his tortured vocal delivery and insistence on rough edges over the more polished guitar sounds typical of 70's blues rock, give him a punk rock edge. He screams in a voice decidedly English, and rather than mimic the "I-was-born-with-nothing-and-i'll-die-with-nothing-unless-they-take-that-away-too" lyrics of American blues, concentrates on the tea drinking habits of croquet playing 'Eastbourne Ladies'. He is, in my opinion, the only veritable English Bluesman. In his youth, Coyne worked with the mentally ill in Preston, Lancashire and the injustices faced by those marginalised by psychiatric illness was a theme that he often muses on in his lyrics. The spoken word tracks on this album scream at the listener in affected English accents that demand to be listened to. Which you can do now :)
FOR FANS OF:- Seasick Steve, Bob Dylan
6. Electrelane - Rock it to The Moon
Sometimes creepy, sometimes pretty, always interesting. Electrelane's atmospheric instrumental début has long been a favourite of mine. Reviews of this album were largely positive at the time of release but somehow the four girls from Brighton's sound didn't transform into the token of eligibility for the hipster generation as happened with Godspeed! You Black Emporer, who take a similar approach to song writing. Some people argue that that is simply because they are not as good, but I disagree. Different? yes. Less engaging? not by a elongated keyboard solo.
7. Karen Dalton - In My Own Time
Part of the Greenwich Village folk scene that nurtured the talents of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez et. al Karen Dalton failed to make a huge name for herself in her own right. Her whiskey-soaked voice always sounds strained and as if singing was stripping her vocal chords raw - not exactly pop chart fodder. Bob Dylan said "she had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed" and it is alleged she is the subject of Bob Dylan and The Band's "Katie's Been Gone". Thing is, singing really was painful for Dalton - she found the process of recording music highly embarrassing and much of her recordings only exist at all because people tricked her into performing while she played. The results are albums, mostly recorded in one take, that jostle with a live album quality, rife with authentic imperfections and genuine emotion. She covers blues and folk classics with equal integrity and left a legacy that has to be heard to be believed. Dalton suffered with alcoholism and drug abuse and died, reportedly penniless and homeless, after a long battle with AIDS.
FOR FANS OF : - Fleet Foxes, Bert Jansch
8. The Silver Jews - The Natural Bridge
The second Silver Jews album saw more favourable reviews than their first effort, Starlite Walker but hasn't gained the cult status of their third album, American Water, despite being, to my mind, the finest example of the eccentric poetic brilliance of David Berman's. His low voice wraps around lyrics that are observant, surreal and honest, creating a eerie distance between himself and the scenes that his music conjures. Unsympathetic heroes are everywhere and nowhere, and the album creates a reflection of the human condition in all it's beautiful and dull glory.
FOR FANS OF : - Pavement, Palace Bros.
9. Al Stewart - Past, Present and Future.
Al Stewart is best known for his 1975 album and single 'Year of The Cat', but he is by no means a one hit wonder. He's had a successful and varied career that neither started or ended with that album. His best work is the over-looked 1973 album Past, Present and Future which saw Al Stewart move away from earnest pop-folk songs to concentrate on creating characters and historic figures against a backdrop of multi-layered instrumentation. There's still a prog-folk (and don't be put off by that term, it's not as wizards and stonehengey as it sounds. Nearly, but in a good way) edge to this album that was lost in Year of The Cat in favour of a highly polished pop sheen and that is what makes this THE Al Stewart album to own and the greatest thing about is it that it never sounds like anyone else. Seriously. If you don't have room for it, throw out Year of The Cat and buy this instead.
FOR FANS OF :- Zombies/Colin Blunstone, Richard Thompson, John Lennon/The Beatles
10. Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
For my last choice, I was in a quandary. Go for something new and obscure? A classic that you think hasn't had enough recognition? I whittled it down to Flying Burrito Brothers, Company Flow and Mark Kostelik's acoustic covers of ACDC songs. And then, remembered this! The reason that this Country and Western classic from 1959 bumped off countless other albums that could have appeared on this list, is because I AM CHANGING THE WORLD! Well, not really. But for too long have music fans been made to feel that admitting they appreciate the old western myth spinning that occurs in true country and western classics is about the same as admitting that you once let the neighbours dog lick peanut butter off your private parts ie, you should be institutionalised. Or worse, people may accuse you of not being a 'proper' music lover. But if you like something, you like it and there should be no room for snobbery in matters of taste. Country music is and has been a huge influence to popular music from Neil Young to Ryan Adams. Listening to Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is to be transported to another time. You can practically hear saloon doors swinging and feel the grit kicked up from the hooves of galloping horses hit you in the eye. Robbins wrote most of the songs that appear on Gunfighter... and if you cannot appreciate the genre, you must (I implore you!) appreciate his knack for story telling - the outlaws and bar wenches, gunfights and hangmen come to life in epic narratives and minute details. How anyone can think that this isn't pure musical joy is something I can never and never want to understand. Get your spurs on and treat yourself to a strut around the prairies of your imagination. Let Marty be your guide. It's good for you.
So, what have I missed? Let me know which albums you think have been overlooked for too long. You too can CHANGE THE WORLD!
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