Amazing!
Great soundtrack to your day.
In case you haven’t stumbled upon this page in the labyrinthine mess that the BBC’s web presence has (again) become, here’s a 3 hour playlist of songs used in the THIS TOWN series, and a fine list it is too.
/as you were
Ain’t There One Damn Song To Make Me Break Down And Cry?
The Piano TV show returns next week and I’m reminded of Lucy’s showstopping performance of Chopin’s Opus Number Nine. I find the piano is the instrument I emotionally connect with the most. I was in pieces within seconds.
Is there anything that has a similar effect on you?
HMV Big Sale now even BIGGER!
Just noticed on the HMV site that the big sale has had the discount increased to 50% . Now they’re talking, I wouldn’t hang around though, it does state limited time only.
Another list! Pitchfork’s 150 Best Albums Of The Nineties
All I will say is, in no universe, parallel or otherwise, is Hole’s “Live Through This” a better album than Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”
N.I.R R.I.P
There hadn’t been any proper new episodes for several months. And while I was pondering that the other day, I did wonder what the lads could possibly do next.
So while I’m sad I won’t hear their friendly Irish brogue any more talking in such entertaining fashion about the BEETLES (their pronunciation), I respect their decision, for whatever reason…
Lads, if you’re still around these parts, we’d love to hear from you
Bob Hell RIP
Obituary
Showed us the way by inventing the Talk Box so beloved by Peter Frampton and his fans and pioneering the now ubiquitous guinormous onstage sound systems
An In Between Comp Wordle Thread
This will do until 1st May
It’s Uncanny…
…are they, by any chance, related?
Regards Ena B Maxwell.
RIP Dickey Betts
One of the great melodic players.
ATM – coax or optical?
Quick survey, before @fentonsteve comes along with the physics of signal transfer – and the answer!
All other things being equal: and considering a CD transport with both optical and coaxial outputs, into a decent DAC with both optical and coaxial inputs; and good quality optical and coaxial cables of the same (short) length; which will give the best sound, theoretically (ie, I know you’re supposed to use your ears to decide)?
Thanks.
The Handsome Family – any fans here?
No posts about them on search.
While I know very little about them – the odd song on Ucunt and Mojo cover CDs – they’re playing at Dublin’s 400-seat Linerty Theatre in two weeks so I thought what the heck, I’ll go.
Got their most recent album and will give it a listen over the next couple of weeks
So any HF aficionados in these here parts?
Review – A Tiny Quiz For The Ages
With due deference to fitterstoke, whose idea this is – what’s the magazine, the band, and the album?
“ … an amazing group. Each of them highly competent and talented musicians, yet music is only secondary to what they are doing. They are violently anti-commercial in their stance and approach, and yet the finished product is highly commercial … they have not attempted to make any big changes in direction but have refined and enriched their previous efforts …”
I don’t see youse bums getting far with this, so clues, in the form of further extracts from the review, will be forthcoming. Or not.
James Hatfield gives Lemmy the finger
A tribute its subject would surely have loved
Mono : new track / album
In the spirit of my previous posts on new stuff, and the fact that the Japanese group Mono are one of my favourites, here is the newly released title track from their forthcoming album (out 14th June)….
Video in first comment.
And yes, I know that I keep banging on about Mono and that everyone promptly ignores me, but I don;t care. I like them,
Cock Sparrer – time for a reappraisal?
Someone from this crew has recently joined the reformed Cockney Rejects. This is their new single. Do any of us have ‘previous’ with the ‘Sparrer?
Imagine… Pet Shop Boys: Then and Now
Really enjoyed this last night. Great insight into a band who don’t usually ‘do this kind of thing’. Neil also features on the Word In Your Ear podcast, over two parts – talking with Mark and David about their Smash Hit days. Again, well worth a listen.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001yblg/imagine-202324-pet-shop-boys-then-and-now
Split Ends
This short weekly series began yesterday afternoon. I didn’t hear episode one (Dr Feelgood) due to a work meeting… and I forgot.
“With the help of music professionals, singer-songwriter Kitty Perrin looks at the reasons why some bands split while others continue.”
Ep. 1: Dr Feelgood Ep. 2: Liberty X Ep. 3: The Fall
Which makes me wonder: which Fall lineup is she going to cover, or is she going to squeeze quotes from all 987 ex-Fall members into 30 minutes?
Let It Be again
Let It Be (the original fillum, with MAL-enhanced audio) is finally coming to Disney+, five years after it was first promised.
https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-beatles-let-it-be-film-confirmed-for-disney/
This
Just this. (See below)
The wrong place at the wrong time
I have just seen some footage of Blur at the Coachella festival in the States. They are performing Boys and Girls and we can see that Damon is looking stroppy and fed up. No one is singing along or dancing. He points the microphone to the crowd at the chorus – silence. He says from the stage “we are never coming here again, so you might as well enjoy it!”. He stares and shakes his head rather than sing, while the band chugs along. It’s a difficult watch.
It brought to my mind an experience in Woking back in the mid-80s. It was a “Search for a Star!” local talent show at the Council hall. It was actually more entertaining than it sounds. It takes guts to perform live and no-one gave the performers a hard time. Until this one act came on. The single most ridiculous performer I think I have ever seen. He was a small, rat-like young man of about 20 with a porcelain-white, hairless torso framed by an unbuttoned ruffled pink shirt. His shiny red satin trousers sported a golden belt buckle that was the size of a child’s head. He came on to “It’s not » Continue Reading.
More Holidays About Buildings and Food
I’ve just returned from a three week holiday in South East Asia. I’ve grown up with a taste for travel, even working in the industry for a while, and it had been a while since I’d visited a country new to me, but this trip really refreshed my taste buds. Of course, that was true both figuratively and literally. When I travel, one of the first things I’m interested in is the local cuisine. I’m an inquisitive traveller; I seek out the points of difference, the individuality and character of a place, and food is an obvious starting point. Another thing that I pick up on immediately, telling me that I’m in new territory, is the birdsong. They speak in tongues them birds, and their chatter is as foreign as the local lingo. My favourite way of visiting a country is on a pushbike, as I did on this trip. You move slow enough to hear the ambient sounds, to be able to stop and check whatever that was that you caught out of the corner of your eye; yet fast enough for the scenery to keep changing. Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t go to countries planning to pick up on » Continue Reading.
NME Review – a Tiny Quiz for the ages
I wasn’t planning to post another of these so soon – but I came across this quote and, frankly, couldn’t resist. Since the previous quote was so short and open-ended, this verbose verbiage (sic) should be a piece of cake – so I’m expecting a winner this time around!
Here’s an extract from a review published in the NME. No clues: no year, no journalist name – and I’ve redacted some giveaway words.
Which album do you think is being reviewed?
“(…) have reduced themselves, or extended themselves, to selling bittersweet fantasies and seductive happy endings, making music where the nostalgic tendencies are impossibly correct, the modern moments ironically obvious and the moods delicately (remotely) controlled.”
Lana Consummated
I finally got to finish my date with Lana Del Rey in the early hours of this morning. After the plug was pulled early on our Glastonbury tryst it seemed the chance was gone. But, in contrast with that rendezvous, her performance at this year’s Coachella festival had her punctual, smiling and giggling with her guests Jon Batiste and Billie Eilish. And, not only are the Coachella performances streamed on YouTube, they are repeated again during, what we people living on the civilised side of the world (I.e. not California), call “the day”. So, as I write a repeat of Lana’s performance is imminent. The same is true of the other stages too, all this weekend, and then, bizarrely, the same acts do the same thing again in the same order next week (unless you’re Frank Ocean). Anyway, I thought some of you might like a “heads up” The link to the main stage is in the comments…
One Key Policy That Would Get The Great British Populace Off Their Fat Arses And Out To The Polling Station To Vote For YOU
Your keynote policy – the platform on which your campaign is to be built. What is it, then?
Here’s mine – a surefire vote-getter:
A vote for Saucecraft means a return to between-the-wars seasonal weather standards. A crisp, frosty winter with deep, clean snow at Christmas. A soft, delicate spring refreshed by sparkling rainfall, and an endless summer with clouds of butterflies, lapsing into a golden autumn scented by bonfires.