Monthly Archives: December 2009

When it comes to the nineties revival…I hope these guys are first in the queue

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saint-etienne

I’m not quite sure where or when…but even though they continue to make great records to this day, Saint Etienne no longer seem to get the due that they deserve. Like the title says, when the nineties revival comes, it would be nice to think that they get their deserved recognition, over and above the likes of the Gallagher brothers, Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder.

The first track here was a single -which made it onto Top Of The Pops and features vocals from tin Burgess of The Charlatans (Charlatans Uk for anyone from North America). I know next to nothing about the second track; any info gratefully received etc..

Saint Etienne -‘I Was Born On Christmas Day.’ mp3

Saint Etienne -’21st Century Christmas.’ mp3

And if you don’t already own Foxbase Alpha, So Tough and Sound Of Water…do something about it.

This kinda fits the mood

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tom-waits-2

Just come back from an awesome Broken Records show at Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh.

Support acts were Jesus H. Foxx and Withered hand, neither of whom I had seen before. I will post a review tomorrow, but in the meantime, this played over the P.A. as we left, so as I was looking for a reason to post it, here goes!

Tom Waits -‘Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis.’ mp3

(Am hoping that this is one Rod Stewart did not choose to cover)

No, this is a Christmas song

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joni-mitchell-blue

I have just been reading a fascinating, well-argued piece about why ‘River’ by Joni Mitchell, from her album Blue is not a Christmas song. It can be found over here at Oliver di Place blog.

I’m impressed by the argument -but i think you can have Christmas songs where things are sad and people break up. And it should go without saying that this song is better than either ‘Lonely this Christmas’ by Mud or ‘A Winter’s Tale’ by David Essex.

Of course, there are songs associated with Christmas that aren’t really remotely Christmassy it’s just that they reference cold weather (which I appreciate, probably only makes sense in the northern hemisphere) or they have bells on them.

Mind you, I’ve been playing Blue quite a lot of late – ‘the colour of my room and my mood’ as another female singer once sang, so here it is.

Joni Mitchell -‘River.’ mp3

A Christmas heart-breaker

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darlene-love

I don’t know what the consensus is these days on Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift To You – is he now as vilified as Gary Glitter? I don’t believe so, though I offer no defence for his actions. Whatever the man may have been like, there was some great music and that famous ‘Wall Of Sound.’

One of the best known songs from A Christmas Gift To You is ‘Christmas (Baby Plase Come Home),’ as performed by darlene Love.This has been covered on numerous occasions, some of them almost as old as the original, which is now 46 years old.
Darlene Love is still performing live. Another song recorded in 1992 ‘All Alone On Christmas’ turned up on the soundtrack to both Home Alone 2 and Love, Actually. She is due to be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame next year. About time.

So here are her original, and some notable covers:

Darlene Love -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

U2 -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

Arab Strap -‘Xmas (Baby please Come Home).’ mp3

Death Cab For Cutie -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

Slow Club -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

Just Like Christmas

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lowpub1cropa

Low’s Christmas album is now ten years old, and has certainly become widely loved in that time; deservedly so. There is probably an argument for saying that ‘Just Like Christmas’ may be one of their best known songs.

To that end, there are several covers that are doing the rounds. Snow Patrol and Aberdeen City’s covers have been circulating for a few years; but Kill It Kid’s version is new this year, as a free download.

See what you make of these. Then go and buy Christmas, and indeed, pretty much as much of the Low back catalogue as you can get your hands on. I haven’t heard the Kill It Kid album yet…but I’d like to…

Low -‘Just Like Christmas.’ mp3

Snow Patrol -‘Just Like Christmas.’ mp3

Aberdeen City -‘Just Like Christmas.’ mp3

Kill It Kid -‘Just Like Christmas.’ mp3

RIP Jake

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jake-the-cat

This is Jake, one of the two 17 Seconds Towers cats. Yesterday, he died suddenly, aged three and a half, hence a lack of postings here yesterday.

RIP boy, you were awesome, and sorry I ever grumbled about you trying to eat my iPod headphones. May you find many mice to catch, whereever you may be…

There are apparently people out there who don’t like cats -presumably the same people who think it’s okay to bully colleagues, think that global warming is a Marxist Myth, and think Celine Dion is a really great artist.

In honour of you, Jake, The Sugarcubes.

The Sugarcubes -‘Cat [Icelandic].’ mp3

Oh, and obviously, the Cure:

Normal service will be resumed here shortly.

Album Review: Do Make Say Think

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do-make-say-think

Do Make Say Think -‘Other Truths’ (Constellation)

This is the Canadian band’s sixth album. Comprising four tracks simply entitled ‘Do,’ ‘Make,’ ‘Say’ and (you guessed it) ‘Think,’ they refuse to compromise and make an album that is directly on their terms, and yet excites and is enjoyable to listen to, rather than being an album that you feel you have to respect, even if you can’t bear to listen to it.

If I were going to speak in genres (!) then I might consider DMST to be ‘post-rock’ in the sense that they are not interested here in dealing with verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle 8 etc.. but instead start following a line of enquiry which they may break off from, but then return to at a later point in the piece. There’s hints of jazz here, and -dare I say it – prog?And yet at the same time, they seem to have just as much in common with the spirit and attitude of Fugazi as say, Tortoise.

Four tracks, three of them over ten minutes long…on paper this might sound a forbidding proposition, and yet, the reality is that DMST are an astonishingly easy band to love. Cast aside your prejudices and be prepared to be impressed.

****

The entire album can be streamed at their Myspace

That Great Christmas Sound

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raveonettes

The Raveonettes’ most recent album In And Out Of Control is amongst the finest things they done this decade.

However, they are also responsible for providing one of the decade’s other great Christmas songs from a Danish band ( the other being Mew, obviously), ‘The Christmas Song.’ This was the b-side of their 2003 7″ ‘Heartbreak Stroll.’

It is awesome. As is the album -please check it out.

The Raveonettes -‘The Christmas Song.’ mp3

…’cos sometimes people fall out at Christmas

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the-hives-cyndi-lauper

One of the things about Christmas records is that it does seem to take forever for some stuff to become regarded as perenial. Now, the Pogues’ ‘Fairytale Of new York’ became a hot pretty quickly, but with stuff being put out every year, it seems to take a while for it to take hold. The Killers have done several and these seem to have made absolutely no impact on the charts so far as I can tell. ‘A great Big Sled’ was fantastic -and it featured the Goddess, Toni Halliday, of Curve fame and of course, ‘Original’ with Leftfield.

Yet this week’s Top 75 -done entirely on sales, remember – shows that Mariah Carey is back again with ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ at no.51 and ‘Fairytale Of New York’ is at no.58. The likelihood of these climbing into the Top 40 is pretty much a foregone conclusion. To be fair, whilst I normally can’t stand Mariah Carey, her track is OK, and the Pogues track is probably my favourite Christmas track. Why haven’t I posted it here? Because that would be pretty obvious, frankly!

I only found out about today’s track by chance -and I don’t recall hearing it on the radio last year. But it’s great; and one of the best things either party has been involved in for a little while. Trying to find out how exactly this duet came about it seems that…well, The Hives like Cyndi Lauper’s first album [She’s So Unusual ] and they asked her.

Anyway, see what you think…

The Hives & Cyndi Lauper -‘A Christmas Duel.’ mp3

17 seconds’ Festive Fifty 2009

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peter-parker

…so here it is.

1. Peter Parker ‘Swallow the Rocket.’ *Video*
2. The Big Pink ‘Velvet.’ *Video*
3. Mono ‘Everlasting Light.’
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘Zero.’ *Video*
5. Telefon Tel Aviv ‘The Birds.’
6. The Very Best featuring Ezra Koenig ‘Warm Heart Of Africa.’
7. St. Vincent ‘Actor Out Of Work.’
8. The Gothenburg Address ‘A Lesser Coming Home.’
9. Animal Collective ‘Summertime Clothes.’
10. Broken Records ‘Nearly Home.’
11. Sonic Youth ‘Sacred Trickster.’
12. Super Furry Animals ‘Inaugural Trams.’
13. The Horrors ‘Who Can Say.’
14. The Phantom Band ‘Folksong Oblivion.’
15. Bon Iver ‘Blood Bank.’
16. Franz Ferdinand ‘No You Girls.’
17. Horace Andy/Ashley Beedle ‘Babylon You Lose.’
18. Unicorn Kid ‘Lion Hat.’
19. Luke Haines ’21st Century Man.’ *video*
20. The Horrors ‘Sea Within A Sea.’
21. The Very Best featuring M.I.A. ‘Rain Dance.’
22. TV21 ‘Forever 22.’
23. Speech Debelle featuring Wiley ‘Better Days.’
24. White ‘Build A Link’
25. White Heath ‘Election Day’
26. Six Organs Of Admittance ‘Ursa Minor’
27. 1990s ‘The Box.’
28. Animal Collective ‘My Girls.’
29. The Big Pink ‘Dominos’
30. Broken Records ‘Until The Earth Begins To Part.’ *Video*
31. Frightened Rabbit ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land.’ *Video*
32. Fuck Buttons ‘The Lisbon Maru.’
33. Meursault ‘Nothing Broke.’
34. Future Of the Left ‘The Hope That House Built.’
35. Girls ‘Lust for Life’ *video*
36. Jesus H. Foxx ‘Trying To Be Good.’
37. King Creosote ‘No-one Had It Better.’
38. Meursault ‘Red Candle Bulb.’
39. Mitchell Museum ‘Tiger Heartbeat.’
40. Mos Def ‘Casa Bey.’
41. Morrissey ‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull.’
42. Jay-Z featuring kanye West and Rihanna ‘Run This Town.’
43. Paper Planes ‘Doris Day.’ *Video*
44. Joy Orbison ‘Hyph Mngo.’
45. Little Boots ‘Stuck On Repeat.’
46. Yo La Tengo ‘Periodically Double Or Triple.’
47. Darren Hayman & the Secondary Modern ‘Our Favourite Motorway.’
48. Jarvis Cocker ‘Angela.’
49. Cuddly Shark ‘Bowl Of Cherries.’
50. Le Reno Amps ‘Outlaws.’

Some mp3 links and video links here -if you can’t find a link, go and buy it!

Feedback welcome, as ever…watch the disagreements pour in!