Meat Puppets
30 January 2010
Have been listening to this record alot.
Click on the cover to hear a song
If you likey
BUY IT
Bill Wyman
26 January 2010
Spent the evening in the company of Bill Wyman and his rhythm kings.
It was great. Bill looks like he does nothing, but his thumb is like the tasmanian devil. Just the thumb, mind. Georgie Fame was on Hammond and Albert Lee was amazing on lead guitar. The horns were incredible too. Bills generation of musicians were real masters of their craft. They came from the cover generation, always playing the hits of the day. They can play anything. There seemed to be alot more collaboration back then. Players would get up and play with their contemporaries and really try and rock them off the stage. My generation is slave to the click track, slave to the loop. Music has to evolve, sure, but I still feel some of the best record were captured when 4 people stood in a room and “clicked”. But that is all in the past. Lets look to the future. Lets look to solitary people in rooms making records by themselves… ummm… I’ll get my coat.
On reflection, i was thinking that fine art has moved the same way. Like musicianship, draughtsmanship is no longer a major requirement for modern art. It’s more about ideas than eye hand co-ordination. But like musicianship, draughtsmanship carries on. It’s just no longer at the coalface. Not to say that there is no room for great musicanship or draughtsmanship at the coalface, but they are more like tools now than the thing itself. Maybe it’s about tools.
On even more reflection I may have intimated that collaboration is dead… that’s not what I meant. I meant people still collaborate but 4 people playing in a room is quite rare. Travis still record like this, I feel it’s still the one of the easiest ways to get something cool. When we recorded Lovley Rita for that Radio 2 Beatles Documentary, Geoff Emerick told us he was shocked at how many of the bands couldn’t play together. Also, although that stuff I wrote about truth is right, I have deleted it just because it’s not relevant to the subject. Ahem…
Green by R.E.M. “Athens Finest”
22 January 2010
When I was 16, my english teacher, Jack McLaughlin, a great great teacher so passionate about poetry and prose, walked into a chattering classroom of teenagers and without warning, slammed his hand down on his desk “BANG!!” The ensuing silence was broken by his voice. “R.E.M. are the greatest rock band in the world.”
That was the first time I heard of R.E.M.
Some months later, my friend played some for me in his room. It sounded so different to anything I had heard. It felt like discovering a new primary colour. It sounded american. It sounded so hopeful. It sounded grown up. That voice. Who was that voice? Who was playing guitar? These drum patterns were so unique, the backing vocals were the sound of another song happening at the same time as the main song. It was the sound that Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Bill Berry and Mike Mills made together. They hailed from a place called Athens in Georgia. Athens? Cool! Here began the longest love affair I ever had with a band.
I never saw R.E.M. live. We played with them in South America recently but it was 3 of R.E.M and some other great musicians. It wasn’t R.E.M though. The day Bill Berry retired to become a gentleman farmer was the day R.E.M became something different. Michael Stipe once said something along the lines of “…a 3 legged dog is still a dog” in defence of them carrying on. However a leg is not a vital organ. They made some great songs after Berry left… Daysleeper is perfect. I remember Nigel mixed this while we were recording The Man Who and hearing it coming through the desk was WOW!
Anyways
I wrote this post while listening to “Green“
Here is a song from Green from their Live Movie, Tourfilm.
Billy Bragg
18 January 2010
Billy Bragg is a singer songwriter from the UK. Some of his songs soundtracked my time at art school. Me and my friend Eddie would jam out You Woke Up My Neighbourhood and Edds sung an amazing version of a song that escapes me just now… I just wrote to Edds asking him what it was.
Anyways Billy was in the news today.
and you can join the facebook group here
Official Bootleg CD
17 January 2010
After we finished our recent tour across America last November, I thought it would be cool to make this recording available. We recorded it over the first couple of shows in Los Angeles at Largos and sold it at the shows as an official bootleg.
You can buy it
Laura Veirs
14 January 2010
As well as Vampire Weekend Week, another great album came out.
Laura Veirs‘s July Flame. Could be her best album yet.
Run along and be a good capitalist
or
VAMPIRES
11 January 2010
This album makes me long for sunny days. It’s very good.
(It was cut by the same girl who cut Wreckorder – Emily Lazar)
BUY IT!
AMAZON DOWNLOADS ($3.99 for today)
or
Friend of ours Garth Jennings directed their video for single “Cousins”
He also came up with the idea for the video for “Driftwood”
Also
go
They are making some good stuff.
The Boys Next Door
10 January 2010
Went to see the boys next door play a couple of songs tonight. There is a music school on our street. They have a showcase show 3 times a year and so tonight was one of these shows.
I came into the show with two women playing a piano duet. It was very good. Everything else was fine although suffered from bad tuning. One of the easiest ways to sound good is to tune up as perfect as your instrument will allow. It’s something i learned when i were beginning to record in studios. After every take- tune up. The folks all played really well but the tuning let most of them down. And tuning is also a great nerve beater. It’s a productive fidget.
Anyways the boys came on rocked the tisch. They played Four Kicks by the Kings Of Leon. Their choices of songs have been very cool. Never choosing the obvious. Then I got a real surprise… they played U16 Girls… Travis’s first single on Independiente!!! It was brilliant. And of course… they were in tune.
Ahhh.
So I am home. Jet lag has passed. Clay has a temperature which is sweating out with lots of water and warm clothes. I can feel something stir at the back of my left nostril. Although viruses suck, there is relief in knowing I won’t have to sing tonight.
My Neighbours
7 January 2010
We are lucky to have brilliant neighbours. The boys next door are some of the most talented and applied kids I ever met. Brothers Carl and Nader (14 and 12). As well as making stopmotion movies of socks coming alive, and playing basketball and cookery, they are in a band. So when I got my desk installed I asked them to come and record a demo one afternoon. They chose to record a cover of Molly’s Chambers by The Kings Of Leon. None of your Sex On Fire, no no no…
They brought their pal to play drums. He was very talented too, telling me the snare wasn’t sounding quite right, the seat wasn’t right, you know… a perfectionist. So I fixed the seat and took my lucky newspaper off the snare. He nodded approval. (“That snare is older than your dad weeman”)
Anyways I worked them hard but hey were so well rehearsed, we pretty much nailed it in very few takes. Check it peeps. MOLLYSCHAMBERSBYLCN
Wild Beasts
1 January 2010
Wild Beasts have played me into the new decade. Emery gushed. They soundtracked our return from Vermont. I am in love. Here they are on Later.
Please buy their record. On Domino.
