Christmas Posts 2012 #19

05-month-christmas-stocking

No, not son 17 Seconds, who’s a little bigger than that these days, but a very Happy Christmas from all of us here.

Enjoy these songs -and please, leave feedback!

The Fall -‘(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas.’ mp3

Sultans of Ping -‘Xmas Bubblegum Solution.’ mp3

Rilo Kiley -‘Xmas Cake.’ mp3

De Rosa -‘Under The Stairs (Xmas Reverie).’ mp3

James White -‘Xmas With Satan.’ mp3

Badly Drawn Boy -‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’

ILikeTrains -‘Last Christmas.’ mp3

Damned -‘There Ain’t No Sanity Claus.’ mp3

James Brown-‘Please Come Home For Christmas.’ mp3

XTC-‘Thanks For Christmas.’ mp3

Sonic Youth-‘Santa Doesn’t Cop Out On Dope.’ mp3

Yo La Tengo -‘It’s Christmas Time.’ mp3

17 Seconds Top 50 Albums of 2012

grimes-visions

1. Grimes ‘Visions.’
2. Bill Fay ‘Life Is People.’
3. Frank Ocean ‘Channel Orange.’
4. Trapped Mice ‘Winter Sun.’
5. Viv Albertine ‘Vermilion Border.’
6. Bobby Womack ‘The Bravest Man In The Universe.’
7. Death Grips ‘The Money Store.’
8. Jack White ‘Blunderbuss.’
9. Steve Adey ‘The Tower Of Silence.’
10. Meursault ‘Something For The Weakened.’
11. Sonic Youth ‘Smart Bar Chicago 1985.’
12. Gallops ‘Yours Sincerely, Dr. Hardcore.’
13. Twilight Sad ‘No One Can Ever Know.’
14. Django Django ‘Django Django.’
15. Cat Power ‘Sun.’
16. Spiritualized ‘Sweet Heart Sweet Light.’
17. Public Image Ltd. ‘This Is PIL.’
18. Jesus H. Foxx ‘Endless Knocking.’
19. Dead Can Dance ‘Anastasis.’
20. Snide Rhythms ‘Snide Rhythms.’
21. First Aid Kit ‘The Lion’s Roar.’
22. De La Soul’s ‘Plug 1 & 2 First Serve.’
23. RM Hubbert ‘Thirteen Lost and Found.’
24. Mark Lanegan Band ‘Blues Funeral.’
25. Liars ‘WIXIW.’
26. Cancel The Astronauts ‘Animal Love Match.’
27. Antony and the Johnsons ‘Cut The World.’
28. Cornershop ‘Urban Turban.’
29. Flying Lotus ‘Until The Quiet Comes.’
30. Scott Walker ‘Bish Bosch.’
31. Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament ‘The Violence.’
32. Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny ‘Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose.’
33. Leg ‘An Eagle To Saturn.’
34. Metz ‘Metz.’
35. Grinderman ‘Grinderman 2 RMX.’
36. Mogwai ‘A Wrenched Virile Lore.’
37. Piano Magic ‘Life Hasn’t Finished With Me Yet.’
38. Stumbleine ‘Spiderwebbed.’
39. Soap&Skin ‘Narrow.’
40. Very Best ‘MTMTMK.’
41. Laura J Martin ‘The Hangman’s Tree.’
42. Chris Devotion and the Expectations ‘Amalgamation and Capital’
43. Paul Buchanan ‘Mid Air.’
44. We Are the Physics ‘Your Friend, The Atom.’
45. Princess Chelsea ‘Lil Golden Book.’
46. The Sea & Cake ‘Runner.’
47. Easter ‘Innocence Man.’
48. Divorce ‘Divorce.’
49. Dirty Projectors ‘Swing Lo Magallan.’
50. Yusuf Azak ‘Go Native.’

This year I have heard an unbelievable amount of music. The Grimes album stood out for me, and was clear to me quite early on that it was probably going to be my album of the year, but while for the first time ever my track and album of the year are by the same artist, there’s much less overlap with the tracks of the year.

At times I have toyed with the idea of not doing a list -trying to rank the albums of the year when you have heard over 400 of them is not easy! – but this is what the list looks like. The Top Ten were definitely the strongest (er, obviously) but there’s probably not so much of a gap between no.11 and no.50.

Due to the fact that despite they are free but not meant to be rehosted (???) enjoy these, messily laid out though they doubtless appear to be…

Jesus H. Foxx -‘So Much Water.’ mp3


The Leg -‘Beat Yourself Silly.’ mp3


Cat Power -‘Ruin.’ mp3

Mogwai -‘George Square Thatcher Death Party (Justin K Broadrick remix).’ mp3

Metz -‘Headache.’ mp3

Christmas Posts 2012 #18

elastica

Was quite chuffed, as the 17 Seconds family ate tea this evening to the soundtrack of 6Music: Tom Ravenscroft (John Peel’s son, in case you are glacially slow on the uptake) started off his evening show with The Fall’s 1994 Peel session version of ‘Jingle Bell Rock.’ I remember taping that and ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ off that show back in 1994 (when the idea of mp3s seemed awfy futuristic) of a Christmas show.

That same show, Elastica did a couple of session tracks, in which they reworked a couple of traditional Christmas songs into Elastica tunes -and here they are! Yes, I have posted them in the past -they still make me smile and jump around like a mad thing.

Elastica -‘I Wanna Be A King Of Orient-Aah (Peel session).’ mp3

Elastica -‘All For Gloria (Peel session.)’ mp3

17 Seconds Festive Fifty 2012

grimes

1. Grimes ‘Genesis.’
2. King Creosote ‘Ankle Shackles.’
3. Bobby Womack ‘Please Forgive My Heart.’
4. Blur ‘Under The Westway.’
5. Burial ‘Kindred.’
6. Frank Ocean ‘Pyramids.’
7. Bat For Lashes ‘Laura.’
8. Carter Damm ‘Clowning.’
9. Cat Power ‘Ruin.’
10.Antony & the Johnsons ‘Cut The World.’
11.Miniature Dinosaurs ‘Next Of Kin.’
12.Last Battle ‘The Crunching.’
13.Twin Shadow ‘Five Seconds.’
14.Liars ‘No.1 Against The Rush.’
15.Meursault ‘Flittin’.’
16.Mark Lanegan Band ‘The Gravedigger’s Song.’
17.Withered Hand ‘It’s A Wonderful Lie.’
18.Jack White ‘Sixteen Saltines.’
19.Last Battle ‘Hope Is Gold.’
20.Aggi Doom ‘Bring Me The Head.’
21.Burial ‘The Loner.’
22.Blur ‘The Puritan.’
23.Hiva Oa ‘Badger.’
24.First Aid Kit ‘Emmylou.’
25.Miniature Dinosaurs ‘Lemonade.’
26.Frightened Rabbit ‘State Hospital.’
27.Shy & DRS featuring Sandi Thom ‘The Love Is Gone.’
28.Spiritualized ‘Hey Jane.’
29.Stanley Odd ‘Get Out Ma Headspace.’
30.Cancel The Astronauts ‘I Sold My Soul (And This Is All I Got)’
31.King Creosote ‘Doubles Underneath.’
32.Withered Hand ‘Inbetweens.’
33.Wedding Present ‘You Jane.’
34.Palma Violets ‘Best Of Friends.’
35.Plan B ‘Ill Manors.’
36.Spook School ‘Here We Go.’
37.Vaccines ‘Teenage Icon.’
38.Scott Walker ‘Epizootics!’
39.Soap&Skin ‘Wonder.’
40.Adele ‘Skyfall.’
41.Dead Can Dance ‘Children Of The Sun.’
42.Burial ‘Ashtray Wasp.’
43.RM Hubbert ‘Car Song.’
44.Flaming Lips featuring Erykah Badu ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.’
45.Jesus, Baby! ‘the Caterpillar Tango.’
46.King Creosote ‘On The Night Of The Bonfire.’
47.M.I.A. ‘Bad Girls.’
48.Cornershop ‘What Did The Hippie Have In His Bag?’
49.Spook School ‘Cameraman.’
50.Michael Kiwanuka ‘Home Again.’

Cue the usual criticisms:

Why aren’t there any women in the list?
I’m sure that Grimes, Bat For Lashes, Cat Power, M.I.A., Adele, Soap&Skin, First Aid Kit, to say nothing of the female members of Spook School, Aggi Doom and Carter Damm are intrigued that they aren’t female enough for you.

Why is it all white people with guitars?
Er, really? Michael Kiwanuka, M.I.A, Erykah Badu, Frank Ocean and Bobby Womack, amongst others might have something to say about that.

Why do you never include any Scottish artists?
See no.s 2, 8, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29-32, 36, 43, 45, 46, 49…

Why aren’t Grizzly Bear in there?
Because they don’t do anything for me. Neither do the XX, before you ask.

How dare you include Adele?
How dare you not include her? The sole thing to qualify an entry for this list is that it has come out this year. Not how cool does some fashion nazi think they are.

The hipster blogs lists don’t look anything like this.

Good.

Albums to follow soon…

Christmas Posts 2012 #17

heartbreaks

I posted Arab Strap’s version of ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) nine or ten days ago, now having been sent this as a free download (nice that some people still do this!), I thought that I would share the Heartbreaks’ version of the song with you. I heard this on 6Music over the weekend, and was rather pleased when it turned up in my inbox.

There’s not many bands that I’m aware of who come from Morecambe (or even the neighbouring Lancaster), but give this a spin, it’s a really rather fine version of the track.

The Heartbreaks, by the way, will release their new EP Hand On Heart in February.

If you like what you hear, check out more over at The Heartbreaks’ Soundcloud page.

Christmas Posts 2012 #16

scott-longmuir

This Thursday (December 20), I am putting on a gig (as part of my day job, no less, working for Library Services) at Dalkeith Arts Centre. Headlining are The Last Battle and supporting are Carter Damm. Oh, and I am DJing.

The Last Battle are shortly to release their sophomore album, but they have, as ever, been writing and recording loads, and they have this very day released a new, free EP for Christmas, which I am delighted to present for you here.

Here’s the weird and wonderful video…


I’ve featured Carter Damm before, should you need reminding about their brilliance again, here is their track ‘Clowning.’

Buy tickets for the event here

Christmas Posts 2012 #15

aberfeldy-logo

A few years back, I got a fair amount of abuse from regular readers for posting ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’ by Chris de Burgh on the blog. Fair enough if I had posted ‘The Lady In Red’ but no, people were not amused.

This I have posted before, but I love it and I will share it again. It’s Riley Briggs and Aberfeldy covering the song at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh, around 2008.

And if I still can’t find a stream of this, here’s a video of them covering ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ as made famous by Shaklin’ Stevens, at the Liquid Rooms in 2010.

Still think this would be an awesome AA-single…

Christmas Posts 2012 #14

graph-rabbit

I had never heard of Graph Rabbit until half an hour ago.

Yet again, I clicked on another unsolicited email in my inbox, ready to snap out of irritation about how I never manage to get on with anything because I’m too busy dealing with sodding emails.

And then, within about 10 seconds of this video starting, the snow was falling in the video, but actually, I was defrosting.

The Brooklyn duo Austin Donohue (guitar, vocals) and Shy Kedmi (analogue synths) released their debut album Snowblind (no, nothing to do with the Black Sabbath song) back in September. They seem to exist at a musical point where prog meets indie twee-and they’re damn good at it.

This track is very Christmassy and it’s called ‘Falling Snow.’ Please take the time to listen.

Bonus: ‘Only Fields.’

Christmas Posts 2012 #13

the-cornshed-sisters

The Cornshed Sisters are Jennie, Cath, Liz and Marie (as to whether they are really Sisters, well, to the best of my knowledge, no-one in the Sisters of Mercy was related to each other). In the spirit of Christmas, they have made a AA-single entitled A Very Cornshed Christmas, which comprises ‘Have a Good Christmas Time’ / ‘It Smells a Lot Like Christmas’.

…and all you need to do is submit your email, which is seems pretty damn reasonable when you think about it.

They are signed to Memphis Industries, who have also given us Field Music, The Pipettes and The Go! Team, amongst many others.

Enjoy…

Christmas Posts 2012 #13

aereogramme-911x329

..and from one missed Scottish and Chemikal Underground act to another.

Tonight’s contribution comes from Aereogramme, who called it a day in 2007. Iain Cook and Craig B. now record together as The Unwinding Hours, who have featured on 17 Seconds.

Aereogramme -‘Asthma Came Home For Christmas.’ mp3

Trying to get my end of year lists together, it is not proving easy…