Monthly Archives: April 2008

Album Review: Jesse Malin

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Jesse Malin -‘On Your Sleeve.’ (One Little Indian)

Oh dear God. Listening to this album from start to finish has seemed like a waste of an evening.

I should be honest: I don’t have a problem with covers albums per se, and as someone who posts a fair amount of covers nor should I. Hell, I even like Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Through The Looking Glass album.

There isn’t anything wrong with Malin’s voice which is pleasant enough, aiming as it does for Ryan Adams but sounding like the poor man’s David Gray. The songs he has selected here include utter classics that I enjoy in their original form, though if you are going to cover the likes of Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On the Wildside’, The Clash’s ‘Gates Of the West,’ and Paul Simon’s ‘Me and Julio Down By the School Yard’ you need to do them justice, and you need to rework them. Instead, the end result feels bland and unexciting.

This album would be fine if he were playing live in a bar performing covers, where you’d probably sing along and think how great he was. But as an artist who’s already released several albums, this feels like an utter waste of time.

**

Jesse Malin’s website

Presenting…Dom DeLuca

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More amazing music which turned up in my inbox.

A couple of days ago I got a second email from Dom DeLuca. I had received an email from him a little while ago, which had joined the pile of stuff to be reviewed (a slight case of ‘be careful what you wish for,’ I think. I used to dream of getting sent stuff, now it seems every day another CD, CD-R or mp3 turns up and it takes me ages to deal with it). His second email spurred me into action, and i’m glad i did, because I think these three tracks are absolutely gorgeous.

Dom DeLuca seems to be filed under folk. He is based in Toronto, Canada and his album is available on iTunes and emusic in the UK, though I couldn’t find a listing at Amazon.

See what you make of these…

Dom DeLuca -‘Birds Of Worry.’ mp3

Dom DeLuca -‘It’s A Sad, Sad Day.’ mp3

Dom DeLuca -‘Toronto.’ mp3

Make friends with Dom at Myspace then buy the album if you like these.

Ed

The Sisters Of Mercy

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Continuing with ripping stuff from the vinyl to complete those Peel playlists. The first two made the Festive Fifty in 1983.

Many thanks to Bynar who provided the second two tracks here.

The Sisters Of Mercy -‘Alice.’ mp3

The Sisters Of Mercy -‘Temple Of Love.’ mp3

The Sisters of Mercy – ‘Jolene.’ mp3 (Dolly Parton cover)

The Sisters of Mercy -Emma(1984 Peel session).’ mp3 (Hot Chocolate cover)

Will post a wants list soon…

Edx

Presenting…Santogold

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There is a real buzz building about Santi White, better known as Santogold, and it’s utterly, utterly deserved.

Tracks are starting to zoom around the net, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of her album. According to her MySpace:

” Santogold is a survivor of a half-century worth of living along musical evolution’s most cutting edges. The only live act that can boast of having out-aged Barbara Bush, having outlived Mr. Miyagi and out-styled Liberace, Santogold is here with future flavor.

Already receiving weighty club rotation and airplay in urban Afghanistan and downtown Beirut, Santogold is the first act of the century to boast a post-war following on the International Space Station Mir. Following a live performance broadcast from three thousand miles off the Cape of Good Hope last June, inmates at Leavenworth Penitentiary received Santogold with a celebratory confetti parade. Just another first for the modern super group that knows no bound.”

Whether this is exaggerated or not (read the above again and make your own mind up), not only does it make great copy, but her songs are just fantastic. As cool as Kelis, sassy as Beyonce, as innovative as M.I.A, (all favourites round this blog)?

You better believe it.

Santogold -‘L.E.S. Artistes.’ mp3

Santogold -‘My Superman.’ mp3

Santogold’s debut album will be released in the UK on May 12 (lucky Americans get it two weeks previously). On this evidence, it will be taking up permanent residence in a stereo or mp3 player near you shortly thereafter.

…and finally

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I’ve done four posts here today. Still, I did say I was going to try and catch up with everything.

Amongst the pleas I have made for stuff have been a couple of cover versions by the Sisters of Mercy (singer Andrew Eldritch above) of things I had heard over the years, so many thanks to both Simon and Bynar who sent me this:

The Sisters Of Mercy -‘He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.’ mp3

Bless you all…

Presenting…Red Light Company

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Red Light Company are a five piece act from London. Their three track demo arrived in my inbox today, and as a break from marking (and posting yet more old stuff here) I gave it a listen.

And then I played one of the songs again.

Look, I know the Arcade Fire are kinda becoming a sacred cow that bloggers love (and I do like them, it’s just that bloggers seem to keep going on about them)…but I really do reckon these guys might be the British answer.

Melodies that worm your way into your brain after only a listen, more atmosphere than bands have had for years…and ‘With Lights Out’ is soon to be a single.

I can’t say you heard them here first, ‘cos that wouldn’t be true…

Red Light Company -‘With Lights Out.’ mp3

and give these demos a listen:

Red Light Company demos (zip file).

Red Light Company Myspace

Still Keeping It Peel

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Bizarre confession time…

Like many bloggers (and indeed many non-bloggers), I own an iPod. And like many iPod owning folks, the concept of the Playlist on it has replaced the idea of making compilation tapes for yourself. Face it, takes less time, can be changed, not constrained by the time limitations, though ‘Nanny In Manhattan’ by the Lilys was a song that completed many side ones of C90s because it was very short.

No, the confession is that I’m currently in the process of assembling Playlists for all of John Peel’s Festive Fifties from 1976 to 2004.

Hell, I never said I was cool. But I’m not the only the devotee of Peel out there. It’s time consuming, but fun listening back to it all, as they gradually grow.

Much of it I have on CD and therefore on the iPod. But I’m now utilising the wedding gift of the USB turntable that Mrs. 17 Seconds and I got last year to start filling some of those gaps. Quite a few don’t seem to be on either iTunes or emusic either…

…So why not share some of those songs with you?

Their debut single from 1985, and the first of many entries they would have, from one of the years the festive Fifty was more than fifty songs long.

That Petrol Emotion -‘Keen.’ mp3(1985 Festive Fifty no.70)

Question for people with too much time on their hands; In the 1984 Festive Fifty, two three track singles had all of their tracks in the Festive Fift. One was the Cocteau Twins ‘The Spangle Maker’ -most famous track ‘Pearly Dewdrops’ drops (and I’m posting the other two tracks here)….but what was the other?

Cocteau Twins -‘The Spangle Maker.’ mp3 (1984 Festive Fifty no.4)

Cocteau Twins -‘Pepper-tree.’ mp3 (1984 Festive Fifty no.49)

Finally, the Soup Dragons, like a fair few other bands, had entries in the Festive Fifty only when they weren’t commercially successive. IMHO, this is a hundred times better than their cover of ‘I’m Free.’

Soup Dragons -‘Hang Ten!’ (1986 Festive Fifty no.17)

Finally, if you need more Festive Fifty fixes, try Fades In Slowly and Teenage Kicks

Oh, and to anyone who’s sent me music and wonders why I haven’t commented on it…please hold on, I’ll get there in time!

Album Review: Box Social

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Box Social -‘Get Going’ (No Karma).

Although this album was released in September last year, it’s profile seems to have been quite low so far. I was sent a couple of mp3s a month or so ago which I liked, posted and have now been sent the entire album to review.

Having played this several times and considered it, I have to conclude that it’s fun, if not lifechanging. ‘Big T,’ one of the mp3s I previously posted, is probably the standout track. In some ways, the Box Social are rather like an old-fashioned rock band, to these ears it’s more reminiscent of say Weezer or Vampire Weekend (if the latter had spent more time listening to emo-type stuff rather than Paul Simon’s Graceland). Whether or not the band are ’emo’ or not is a question that you might be better asking a fourteen year old than a thirty one year old… but you get my drift. Songs to sing along with, punch the air to, rather than listening to when in despair.

On positive reflection, though, it’s a summery kind of indie rock album, and could yet prove itself to be a sleeper hit.

***1/2

The Box Social -‘Big T.’

An undiscovered scots’ treasure

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The lady in the photo above is one Frances McKee, perhaps best known to a genration of indie fans as the lady who was in the Vaselines (Kurt Cobain’s favourite band etc..etc..).

Having posted on the Vaselines a couple of weeks back, I thought I’d post a couple of songs by her band from the early part of the decade, Suckle. These two tracks appeared on compilations on the seminal Chemikal Underground label, which may well be your best place of sourcing them to buy, gievn that they are not on either iTunes or emusic in the UK.

By the way, I knew Kurt Cobain loved their music, but I hadn’t realised that his and Courtney Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was named after her.

Suckle – ‘To Be King.’ mp3

Suckle -‘Saturn.’ mp3

Frances McKee’s Myspace

Some Covers For Saturday Part VI

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Just as it says on the tin…

Was never into boy bands of the nineties, just represented everything I couldn’t stand then or now…so what was it about this tune?

Wedding Present – Back For Good.’ mp3 (Take That cover, obviously)

The Breeders cover of The Who’s So Sad About Us may well have been a dig at the fact that the Pixies (this was 1992) were about to call it a day for a decade, as it were.

The Breeders -‘So Sad About Us.’ mp3 (The Who cover)

I’m not sure where I picked up this mp3, but it’s a Pavement song done by Cat Power. Hooray!

Cat Power -‘We Dance.’ mp3(Pavement cover)

The Pet Shop Boys are geniuses. Carter USM knew this too:

Carter USM -‘Rent.’ mp3 (Pet Shop Boys cover)

Is the original artist or the cover the guiltier pleasure here? Discuss…Oh, and if anyone can send me the cover of Hot Chocolate’s Emma done by The Sisters Of Mercy (yes, you DID read that correctly), the address is on the top right hand side of this blog).

Cud -‘You Sexy Thing.’ mp3 (Hot Chocolate cover)

And finally, something completely different…

Grace Jones -‘La Vie En Rose.’ mp3 (Edith Piaf cover) (and yes, that’s Grace Jones at the top)

See you tomorrow…

UPDATE: thanks to all the readers who sent me the Sisters of Mercy’s cover of Emma, especially Craig who sent it to be three times. Here it is:

Sisters Of Mercy -‘Emma.’ mp3(Hot Chocolate cover)

…and in the unlikely event that anyone can help with sourcing a copy of the Sisters of Mercy playing ‘He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands’ (someone I knew had this years ago on a cassette, supposedly from the 1987 Glastonbury festival but I could have misunderstood that) please let me know.