Amazingly, it is PJ Harvey’s 40th birthday today.
The woman is a goddess, has made too many brilliant albums to count, though my favourite is probably To Bring You My Love…and it was her endorsement of Captain Beefheart that led to me really getting into him, along with John Peel (obviously).
I’m posting this – I was there -and it was bloody awesome. I’d heard this on Peel (natch) a few months previously – but this was a moment.
From Glastonbury 1995…
…as well as the awesome debut single:
Many thanks to John for this post on X-Lion Tamer over at Your Moment Of Zen and also for this write-up from Jim at Aye Tunes. It goes without saying but please, please, please visit these pages. They deserve it!
Also, many thanks to Vic Galloway for playing X-Lion Tamer on his show on Radio Scotland last Monday. See the tracklisting here and listen to the show!
And, as always, check us out on myspace and Last FM. Hopefully as soon as we can sort it out, there will be a Spotify page as well…
Utterly depressed by the news this evening. With the threat of a Tory government becoming not only a nightmare but a possible reality, do we really need this?
And what about British Airways?
Billy, we need you more than ever.
Billy Bragg -‘There Is Power In A Union.’ mp3
And just in case people need a reminder of how bad things got…
Twilight Sad -‘Forget the Night Ahead.’ (Fat Cat)
In 2007, when the Twilight Sad released their debut album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, they were the talk of Scotland. Here was an epic sounding band, whose marriage of the epic sadness of Mogwai and Arab Strap were wowing us all. They became a cool name to drop – deservedly -and the night I saw them on the same bill, sandwiched between the then unsigned Broken Records and headliners Idlewild just made perfect sense. A couple of EPs cum compilations later (The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road and Here It never Snowed, Afterwards It Did) they unleash their sophomore release.
…sigh. See, thing is, it is a really good album. It’s got some great songs on it – the opening brace of ‘Reflection Of the Television’ and first single ‘I Became A Prostitute’ is really impressive. It’s just…no matter how many times I’ve played this album, half a dozen plus listens later, I’m forced to admit the uncomfortable truth to myself: It is a good album, just not a great one.
Second albums are traditionally difficult things. And when your first album, almost always written before you’ve been signed, has been a kick up the backside to an industry that fifty years in, is still always in danger of getting smug and self-satisfied, that momentum needs to keep going. The problem is that bands frequently never get enough time to do their second album. It’s a good companion piece to their debut – and if I hadn’t heard their debut, I’d probably be blown away. But the reality is, music isn’t made in a vacuum, nor is it consumed in one.
So, good work guys, but the third album needs to be really, really special.
***1/2
Forget the Night Ahead is out now on Fat Cat.
The Twilight Sad website/The Twilight Sad myspace
Twilight sad -‘Reflection Of The Television.’ mp3
Yup…as mentioned before, today sees the release of Chris Bradley‘s debut single for the label ‘Bored Little Rosie’/’The Man I Love.’ This is the fifth single we have put out as a label within a year. Why it to a while to arrive on iTunes UK yet is a mystery and annoyance; however it is also available on both eMusic and HMV.com, amongst others. It’s also great looking at a page like this or this and realising that 17 Seconds Records is alive, we exist.
Chris will be playing live in London this Thursday as support to Dr. Robert (yes, the frontman of Blow Monkeys fame) at Water Rats in King’s Cross. He will be on stage from 7-7:30 PM. If you’re in the London area, come along.
Meanwhile, X-Lion Tamer plays at the Bongo Club on Friday night at 23:00 (so yes, there is time to see both the Mudhoney/Vaselines gig and then head over to see him).
Blueflint/Emily Scott
The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, September 30.
So…there I am. I’m driving through Edinburgh at night with my friends Jared and Ken, the latter the bass player from Aberfeldy. Unusually for us these days, Radio 1 is on. Even more unusually, David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ comes on. It sounds amazing. In a scene like something from Wayne’s World Ken insists we wind the windows down, cold as it is, crank the music up and sing at the top of our voices. ‘Tremble like a …FLOWERRRR!’ It’s the end to a rather fantastic night…
…rewind to a few hours earlier…
Emily Scott cuts an unusual figure on the stage. Armed with her double bass and accompanied by guitarist Damon Thompson she opens with ‘Watching Them’ the opening cut on her debut album, Longshore Drift. Currently promoting her new album abcdefg, she has a gorgeous voice that makes you want to investigate her music more. I’ve been enjoying her debut and will definitely be checking out her latest release.
Tonight is the official album launch for Blueflint’s album High Bright Morning, at the official scottish launch, as the morning after the gig they are heading down to London for the English launch, with Aberfeldy bassist Ken MacIntosh in tow. The album is simply stunning and will be sitting very near the top of my albums of the year list when December comes around. The album contains a gorgeous mix of folk and bluegrass, with the banjo duo of Deborah Arnott and Clare-Louise Neilson demonstarting why their reputation has been growing so much in Scotland and further afield.
Live the songs work just as well, and they open with ‘Skittin’ Skattin’ ‘ This is quite an upbeat track from the album – which also contains the ‘High Bright morning’ story about being lowered into the grave and ‘What Lies beneath’ based on a William Faulkner tale. But whether it’s murder ballads or lovesongs (and are the two always separate?), there’s a real genuine warmth that comes from these songs played live. There’s also a fantastic song called ‘P.45’ not on the album which is about revenge.
The band are deservedly called on for an encore and it’s only fair to particularly single out the stunning fiddle playing of roddy neilson which punctuates the whole evening. But important contributions come from Hugh Kelly on double bass, Andy Pennycook on harmonica, Gavin Taylor on slide guitar. As we head out into the night, the warmth takes over even as the night draw in and even as a teetotaller, I’m drunk and high on the atmosphere.
The car, David Bowie and loud singing beckon.
Which is where we came in…
High Bright Morning is released on October 5.
These three tracks are given away free on their webpage.
Blueflint webpage/Blueflint myspace
Blueflint -‘Takes More Than a Little Time.’ mp3
Blueflint -‘High bright Morning.’ mp3
Blueflint -‘Skippin’ Skattin.’ mp3
Yup, absolutely nothing to do with me, but this amazing poster is the work of Matt Gillies, who is the bass player in The Dirty Cuts. With the release of Chris Bradley’s single on Monday, ”Bored little Rosie’/’The Man I Love’ which is 17SEC7, this is 17SEC8.
Lovin’ it!
And looking forward to the night in question…
Also, many thanks to Dirk for this wonderful post over at Sexy Loser.
A few weeks ago I posted the title track from the new Cinematics album Love and Terror.
Well, Love and Terror will be out next week, and on the strength of this new track I’ve been sent to post, which I belive is also a single, it’s going to be another slice of classy scots indie. And…it sounds nothing like the previous track I posted, which is good, in the sense of showing there is more than one side to the band. Hopefully this album will elevate the band to the heights I believe they are capable of. I haven’t heard the album in its’ entirety yet, but this bodes very well:
The Cinematics -‘New Mexico (single mix).’ mp3 [NB Right click]
And just in case you missed it…
The Cinematics -‘Love and Terror.’ mp3 [NB Left click]
The Cinematics website/The cinematics myspace
As always, let me know what you think…
Celtic Soul would, I suppose, bring to mind the likes of Van Morrison, Dexy’s Midnight Runners (maybe Deacon Blue if I was feeling very generous)…but what about the Pogues?
The song that the Pogues are unquestionably best known for is, of course ‘F**ryt*l* *f N*W Y*rk’ which comes out every year, a festive favourite for the Post-punk generations and those that followed. In 1987 it reached no.2, capitalising on what had already been a pretty successful year chartwise for the Pogues, who had enjoyed their first ever Top Ten Hit earlier in 1987 with their collaboration with The Dubliners on ‘The Irish Rover.’
So…was there a Christmas no.1 contender from the Pogues twelve months later…? Well, yes…and no. ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah’ is certainly not a Christmassy sounding song, which might, partly, explain the reason it only reached no.43. It does have a lot of brass on it, and yet bares no relation to that year’s earlier hit ‘Fiesta.’ If the Pogues had wanted another tearjerker song, i suppose they could have issued another single off the fantastic If I Should Fall From Grace With God LP, ‘Thousands Are Sailing.’ But perhaps two Christmas singles in a row dealing with the Irish diaspora (well, sorta) might have been a bit much.
This track wasn’t on the next Pogues album, Peace and Love*
Anyway, this is an excellent track, so enjoy!
The Pogues -‘Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.’ mp3
BONUS!!
Another Pogues single that wasn’t included on an official Pogues studio album had been the 1986 no.42 (ouch!) single ‘Haunted.’ This song was notable for several reasons:
a) It isn’t Shane MacGowan singing but Cait O’Riordan, who had also sung lead on the track ‘A Man you Don’t Meet Every Day (on their peerless Rum, Sodomy and the Lash LP
b) It came out on MCA, not their usual company Stiff
c) It was on the soundtrack to the film Sid & Nancy.
d) It was the last single that O’Riordan did with the band, as she left to marry Elvis Costello.
Several years later, MacGowan did record a version of ‘Haunted’ when he had ‘split’ from the Pogues, recorded with Sinead O’Connor:
Shane MacGowan & Sinead O’Connor -‘Haunted.’ mp3
*It was included on the re-issue, but the first Pogues album it appeared on was the compilation The Best Of The Rest Of the Pogues in 1992.