We've all had one of those moments haven't we, that feeling when you hear a song, or see someone, or hear something.....that it just takes you back to an exact moment in your past, and your stomach just drops, where all your senses are suddenly alert and you can feel and smell and picture in your head the exact moment all over again...
I had one of those tonight, browsing on Amazon for some new DVDs, in my recommendations comes 'Kids' by Larry Clark. One of my favourite films of all time, but after lending it to the drummer in my old band, I haven't seen him or the film in years, went in to Fopp to buy a new copy to find out that it had been taken off of print so the film was no longer being made and distributed for retail. Managed to find a second hand copy on amazon tonight.
For those who haven't seen the film then I recommend you buy a used copy, if your rich then pay the £35 for the few new copies floating about. It follows one day in the life of 4 teenagers in New York one day in the early 1990s, just at the start of the AIDS crisis. I won't say too much more about it other than it really is an amazing film.
So to the song.....at the very end just as the credits come up, their comes a song by Sebadoh who were one of the original lo-fi bands of the late 80s early 90s scene in America. They were also the first act to be released on Domino Records after Sub-Pop Records licensed them to distribute the record in the UK, bit of music trivia for you. The song is very distinctive, and even 5 years later when the first chords is played, it still takes me back to the very first time I heard it at the end of the film, it was an excellent moment for me, for reasons you don't need to know.
So it has been far too long since my last post. I'm sitting in on a Saturday night, it's cold outside, I'm not feeling well (poor me) and I'm very tired, what better frame of mind to write another blog post then eh!
I had a couple of ideas for songs that I was wanting to write about seeing as it's been a while, but last night I was sitting in a bar in Glasgow waiting on a couple friends finishing who were working at the time. I was reading 'The Skinny,' free newspaper based on art/fashion/music in Scotland for those of you who aren't aware of it. In the paper there was a review for Julia Stone's debut solo LP, 'The Memory Machine.' As a huge fan of Angus and Julia Stone, I was ashamed to say that I had no idea she was releasing a solo record!
My love affair with Angus and (particularly) Julia Stone began a few years back when I heard them play on a TV show, and since then I loved them. They are a brother and sister partnership from Australia, after seeing them live they told us how they came to be musicians together. As children their parents would send them to summer camps designed for musically talented children, where they would learn about song writing and playing instruments. They would each write their songs on their own, but would teach each other how to play them, so it's almost as if their songs are backed by their sibling. This relationship comes out really nice on stage, they don't have a set list as such, and they just take turns to sing songs of their own, for example when I seen them earlier this year Julia played 3 songs in a row, so Angus piped up it was his turn to sing!
Their set was fantastic, really one of the best shows I've seen, the highlights being in the encore where they told us it was their last song, I called out for 'The Wedding Song' which is my favourite song of theirs, then someone down the front shouts for 'Paper Aeroplanes' another of their tracks. This turned into a contest as to what song people were shouting for, then Julia takes her guitar off, picks up another one, then says,
'We don't normally play this song live, but people want to hear it, this song we wrote for our friends who got married, this is 'The Wedding Song.'
I won!
Earlier in the show I was convinced Julia was looking at me as we were quite close at this point, so I smiled, she smiled back. I can die happy.
Angus and Julia Stone are playing this coming Tuesday at the Oran Mor in Glasgow, really great band to see live so I can't wait to see them again.
So the song I'm posting here is to help show my love for the beautiful Julia Stone, it comes from her solo record, of which the tracks I've heard are fantastic! This is 'My Baby.' Enjoy.
So, you know how I promised I was going to do a happier tune this time....well I'm not, depressing, sad, melancholic, call it what you will, it's the music I enjoy the most and always have done. It's no reflection on my personality or anything, it's just what I enjoy, and what comes easiest for me to write. One day I might write about a happier song.
As with every post, I always find myself with a few options on what song to post. For this one I was swaying with; David Gray's 'This Years Love' which is an oldie, but it's a track I enjoy more now than I think I ever have, Elliot Smith's 'Between the Bars' which is a song I heard for the first time a couple years back and Nick Cave's 'The Ship Song' which I fell in love with when a close friend of mine put it on around 5am at full volume after a night out and I was obsessed with the song from then on with the sheer power that Nick Cave has.
This one though is another delve into my 'favourites.' It's the song that made me fall in love with the band who I now consider to be one of my all time favourites. I was introduced to it by a girl I was seeing a long time ago in school who still remains a good friend, so I have her to thank for this!
The song itself makes me think of a scene in a movie, where there's a guy driving an open top car down a long straight road somewhere in America, with a beautiful girl next to him at sunset. I guess this image is suggested from the song title as well. The song is also on one of my favourite ever albums, from start to finish the record is flawless in my eyes, the ups and the downs. The song I'm writing about is preceded on the record by what is my favourite song on the album, and one of my favourite ever songs, I hate to be cliche about it, but it's one of those songs that has so many levels of meaning to me, from stand out times where I've listened to it to moments it's come on out the blue in certain situations and caught me by surprise, which is why I never want to write about it, there's too much I could tell that people probably don't want to know and don't need to know.
Hurry up and get to the point? Ok.
Death Cab For Cutie's 'Passenger Seat' from their 2003 record 'Transatlanticism.'
I'd say nearly everyone who reads this will know Death Cab, if not the song. To me their phenomenal. Between Death Cab and his side project The Postal Service, I rank Ben Gibbard as one of the best songwriters of the last 10-15 years., along with the likes of Thom Yorke and Jack White. He's also married to the very very beautiful Zooey Deschanel the lucky thing.
These are my opinions though. Death Cab have been around since 1997, and have enchanted fans around the world with their phenomenal records, which have the ability to move the listener from start to finish. 'Transatlanticism' to me is their strongest record, from the more up-beat tracks like 'The Sound of Settling' and 'Death of an Interior Decorator' to the slower numbers such as 'A Lack of Color' which helped launch their career when it was used in the soundtrack to 'The OC., to the epic building numbers of 'Tiny Vessels' and 'We Looked Like Giants.'
Unfortunately I have yet to see the band live. Every time they've played I've been unable to go, which is thee most upsetting thing, the fact I've had tickets on two occasions and had to shift them last minute for different reasons, perhaps I'm damned never to see them, or somethings holding me back until I do and it'll be the best live show I'll ever go to. Next time I'm sure!
So, no happy song this time like I said, but its 01.41 and I need to be up soon, so this song is perfect for sending me off to sleep reminding me of the summer when I was 17 (sounds like there's a Bryan Adams song in that sentence.) Lyrically brilliant, musically brilliant, imagery brilliant.
'Passenger Seat.' Listen, enjoy and hopefully you'll feel as I feel for this song.
Just a few weeks ago, The XX won this years Mercury Music Prize. I'll say it first, I don't get the whole XX thing. Over recent years the Mercury Prize has faced some opposition, in terms of it's credibility. I wholly agree in the celebration of good music, and particularly the celebration of 'the album,' which with modern technology and the ability to pick and choose songs to listen to, is an art form which is slowly dying, there is less emphasis on the whole piece of music, often artists are releasing a disc as a selection of songs, not a whole musical text.
I'm not saying for a second that the board in charge of the Mercury do not pick good music to shortlist, perhaps it is purely personal opinion, but I think the last few years winners were not the best out of the shortlist.
This year saw The XX beat the likes of I am Kloot's 'Sky At Night,' Villagers' 'Becoming a Jackal' and Wild Beasts' 'Two Dancers.' The year before a relatively unknown winner, Speech Debelle, won and subsequently no-one bought into it, a flop for the supposed Mercury judging panel's expertise. The year before that, Elbow's 'The Seldom Seen Kid' won. Don't get me wrong, I love Elbow and this is a fantastic album, but it beat Radiohead's 'In Rainbows.' 'In Rainbows' is not only a phenomenal album, one of their best in my views, but it also totally shook up the record industry with it's 'pay what you like' release approach. For a record to do this, I think it deserved the prize, plus it is also an phenomenal piece of music.
I could go on and on, giving opinion and thought into the shortlist, winner and overlooked albums for each year, but I won't, I just believe that this year, after last year's major flop, Simon Frith and his board of 'experts' need to be confident in their judgement, and not go on what perhaps might be believed by the public to be right, in order to save their credibility. I hope it does too, as the Mercury is a great opportunity for bands to receive publicity and boost album sales, especially in current times in the recording industry.
So to bring me to my song, 2005 seen at that time, a particularly unknown act win. British born but based in America, an issue that caused some controversy, but this time, based on the view of picking the best album, they were right to do so, the 2005 prize was awarded to the record 'I am a Bird Now' by Antony and the Johnsons.
The record was the bands second album, which after the first releases by the band was acclaimed by many well known artists, featured collaborations with the likes of Boy George, Lou Reed and Rufus Wainwright.
This genuinely is one of the most amazing records I have ever heard.
I don't want to give too much away about the band to those who don't know them that well, because I don't want any preconceived ideas or previous information to perhaps cloud opinion, thoughts or judgement, as when my friends and I discuss this band, we often come out with 'I can't believe that ......., I wouldn't have thought when listening that......' and the like.
So go listen to that record, from start to finish, no pauses, no interruptions, but if the digital age has got you by the throat, tracks 'Hope There's Someone,' 'You Are My Sister' and 'Man Is The Baby' are my favourites.
The song I post here is a cover they done for the film 'I'm Not There,' a movie about the life of Bob Dylan. A great film. It's a cover of 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' which they have totally made their own.
I promised some people who I was speaking to about the blog I wouldn't write so much, got a bit carried away. Not talked so much about the act or the song, as I think if you've not heard the band before, the music is enough.
I'll try and write about an upbeat song next time, but right now this is what I want to listen to, and those that know me will also know that 'depressing/melancholic/slow' music is my favourite to listen to, even when I'm as happy as can be.
Thankfully, I've been blessed with parents with great music taste! As a baby my dad would play his old Woodie Guthrie and Lead Belly records in 'the wee small hours' to try get me back so sleep. He's also an old folkie and has some great old records in his vinyl collection, including Bob Dylan's self-titled first album. One record he has in his collection is Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut album, which was a gift from my mum when it first came out to him which is another amazing album!
My mum also has a great music taste, and a few of years ago I asked her who her favourite band/artist were. She instantly came back with John Martyn and Joni Mitchell. Through her, I now consider these artists as some of my favourites, with Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' as one of my favourite albums, which I was given on vinyl by a close friend for my last birthday, another of my prize possessions.
Last week I bought a John Martyn biography, 'Some People Are Crazy' by John Neil Munro. After the first chapter I was hooked. Particularly as he grew up in the same area I did, lived a few streets from where I grew up and went to the same primary school as I did, which makes learning about his childhood and how he became the person he did and wrote the songs he did, all the more interesting.
When my mum told me John Martyn was one of her favourite artists, I hadn't heard him by this point. So I quickly pulled out all his old records and CDs about the house, and was hooked. His incredible, almost effortless, acoustic guitar playing, is accompanied by one of the most unusual voices I've come across. Only last night a friend and I were discussing somewhere around 5am, that sometimes when he sings, the words seem to become non-existent, and that it just becomes noise that we understand and that sounds good with the music. This becomes even more when you listen to his later recordings, in the 2000s before his death in 2009, when he was seriously ill and damaged due to long term drink and drug abuse.
John Martyn is as famous for his lifestyle as he is for his music. For nearly his whole life he was a drug addict and an alcoholic. in the 1960s John married a fellow folk singer who became a collaborator, Beverly Kutner. Their marriage ended towards the end of the 1970s, and as a result, John's drink and drug abuse spiralled downwards, and he entered a state of depression, from which he never really escaped. During this time, he wrote an album 'Grace and Danger.' It was originally held back from release by a close friend of John's who seen it too personal and too open for the public to hear. Tracks like 'Baby, Please Come Home,' 'Sweet Little Mystery' and 'Hurt In Your Heart' stand out and give a straight insight into John's emotional state at the time, and just how fragile he was.
When it came to choosing a song of his to post, there were a few. From his happier stuff such like 'May You Never' and 'Over The Hill,' to his darker moments, particularly those from 'Grace and Danger' as mentioned earlier. So I've decided to post two, both from his darker side. The first video is an interview and live version of 'Hurt In Your Heart' from 2007, two years before his death. He discusses how he wrote music as an emotional release. We also get to see that the songs still mean so much to him, and even 30 years after he wrote them, they still reduce him to tears.
The second video is my favourite John Martyn song, and possibly one of my all time favourite songs I've heard so far. The song is 'Couldn't Love You More' from his 1977 record 'One World.'
For those of you who haven't heard of John Martyn before this, then please go listen to more of him. Most of his stuff is on spotify. This song though is just incredible. Perfect for 2am when you know you should be fast asleep.
Ian Curtis' Memorial Stone, Macclesfield Cemetery.
After a couple of posts, I thought I should I would let you inside my head a little bit more, let you know the music that has the biggest effect on me. I'd say I have maybe two or three artists who I would describe as 'my favourite.' being Bon Iver, Death Cab For Cutie, and Joy Division.
Other 'favourite' artists would be, Joni Mitchell, City and Colour, John Martyn and Radiohead.
But of all of them, Joy Division stand out the most. With such a short career, only two studio albums (Unknown Pleasures and Closer) all of their work for me is outstanding. I'm also a huge fan of 'Factory Productions' as a whole and have read several books and seen various films on Factory as a whole. From the gigs they put on, the Hacienda nightclub, the odd way in which they work the catalogue numbers and of course the record label itself, the two men who started it Alan Erasmus and the late Tony Wilson, started Factory on the same idea, they wanted to spread the music they loved.
Despite both being businessmen in the record industry, they worked hard to put the music they loved out, and as a proper independent label should, they had as much band involvement as possible. To the extent that when New Order realeased 'Blue Monday' they were so keen to have the artwork and record sleeve exactly how they wanted it, that the final product of the record and sleeve infact cost more than they could sell it at, therefore despite being one of the highest selling records in UK history, Factory never made a penny off it.
I consider Joy Division's debut album 'Unknown Pleasures' to be my 'favourite' album of all time, and I was lucky enough that this May I was in Manchester for one night, and with Manchester (technically Salford) being the home of Joy Division, I had high hopes to pick myself up a copy of 'Unknown Pleasures' on vinyl. So the afternoon before we headed home, I dragged my two friends about second hand record shops in Manchester, to try find it. After 5 shops, we headed for the car, when I passed another, so I decided one last attempt. After looking in the racks, no luck, so I asked behind the counter and the guy told me they had just had a delivery and he would check. He came back with two, one an American re-release from the mid-80s, the other a UK first edition from it's release in 1979, one of only 10,000 released. I'd struck gold. After chatting to the guy running the shop for a while, he realised I was a big fan and how desperate I was to pick up a copy on vinyl, so he sold it to me for £20 as I was such a big fan, even though he could sell it to any old Manchester lad who's Dad told him about Joy Division a couple week's earlier, for around £100 if he'd wanted to. I value my copy with my life and how the record shop worker acted as one music lover to another.
I also had went to the newly opened FAC251 the night before, which is a new club opened by Peter Hook of Joy Division/New Order in Manchester, and I did hear Blue Monday '88 get played, which to me was pretty special being a Factory obsessed Glasgow boy in Manchester.
So to bring me to the song. Despite being a bit of a Joy Division geek, my 'favourite' song isn't something obscure or unusual like 'Ceremony' which was New Order's, the band the remaining members of Joy Division formed after Ian Curtis' death in 1980, first release in 1981, but infact was the last song written by Joy Division before Curtis' suicide. There does exist several recordings of Ceremony from sound-checks, live recordings and also a rehearsal.
My 'favourite' song is the one they're famous for, the one we all know....'Love Will Tear Us Apart.'
The song to me just stands out. After reading so much about the band, the company and the amazing biography of Ian Curtis written by his widow Deborah, called 'Touching from a Distance,' the lyrics to the song give a real insight into Ian's head and thinking at the time. A lot of which does not become apparent until after his death, when we can reflect on what he is saying and it is almost clear that something is seriously wrong with the writer. It will always be a song that I will never get old of hearing.
A real compliment to the song, is the amount of people who have covered it. People who share my view that this is truly an amazing song, and want to show there appreciation by having their own take on it. Some of the covers are excellent, such as the Nouvelle Vague and Jose Gonzalez, but I must admit, I really do not appreciate the Fall Out Boy cover!
The cover I love the most however, is this one, it's also the one I head most recently. It's by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, a Norwegian duo. They perform a beautiful cover of the song, and really make it their own, the magic to all good covers. It's this version I post for you. I have also posted the lyrics to have a look at. My favourite lyrics of the whole song, being the last verse. Even if you know the song, this cover is really something special.
When the routine bites hard And ambitions are low And the resentment rides high But emotions won't grow And we're changing our ways Taking different roads Then love, love will tear us apart again. Why is the bedroom so cold Turned away on your side? Is my timing that flawed Our respect run so dry? Yet there's still this appeal That we've kept through our lives Love, love will tear us apart again. Do you cry out in your sleep All my failings exposed Get a taste in my mouth As desperation takes hold Is it something so good Just can't function no more? When love, love will tear us apart again.
Many of you may have heard of The Avett Brothers, and like me debated how to pronounce 'Avett.' Amazing band, one of a wave of some of what could be considered the American 'neo-folk/country/revival' idea, along with some known artists such as Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes. However I see their latest album, 'I and Love and You' which seems to have launched our awareness of them over here which can be grouped into this category of artists.
As much as I adore 'I and Love and You,' and do think it is their strongest record, my favourite Avett Brothers song is this one, 'Colorshow' from the 'Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions' record.
What I take from the song is a mix of frustration and anger and there's definitely some love in their too. You listen to how singer Seth Avett, screams the lyrics out. From what I think he's about to bring on some change to him, telling someone that enough is enough and he's willing to hurt to get to it. My favourite line in the whole song is when he screams, 'Yeah come on, pain and all.'
Either that or he's giving something up for in order to be with the person he wants to be with. The chorus 'And I'm done, forever, It's you and me forever. Cos I'm done, forever, It's you and me forever' gives that impression.
This is one of the songs I like to crank up to 11 and belt along to when I'm feeling frustrated. It's almost liberating belting out the chorus at top voice!!
The first time this song really hit me was one sunny day, I was cycling from my house in the south side of Glasgow over to Kelvingrove park in the West End., sunglasses on, headphones up full, and when this song came on I just seemed to have endless energy to just go and go and go.
It's as I've written this, I've come to think that this song is a song of release, liberation and moving on. As the song fades out you hear Scott Avett (Seth's brother funnily enough!) screaming 'And I'm done, And I'm done....'
Truely an amazing song! Check out the record 'Colorshow' is on but also check out the latest record, 'I and Love and You' and 'The Second Gleam.'
