tried to post a video over an hour ago. grr…if it’s not Blogger it’s YouTube…

watch this space…

Hmm. Not only am I trying to find enthusiasm for teaching the subject, but it seems the blogs have gone Christmas mad already.

Seriously, there are lots of wonderful posts on the subject, wit

h links to some weird and wonderful music.

Alas, due to problems with the supposedly new and improved blogger, it is

currently impossible to do links to other blogs.

Grrr… When I get this fixed, I will update this – or if anyone can leave some advice, that would be great (CTRL+SHIFT +A is not working).

Anyway, may I point you in the direction of Something Old, Something New (http:/

/somethingold-somethingnew.blogspot.com) and Pogoagogo (http://pogoagogo.blogspot.com) and Everbody cares, Everybody understands (http://everybodycares.blogspot.com) which have a lot of great stuff, that I am still trying to digest, amongst it all the new sufjan Stevens album, which consists of 5

CDs, but the bits I have heard sound great. apparently, he is well underway with the next few stages of his mission to do an album for all of his fifty states.

Hope all well with all my readers, wherever you may be…

This track has been posted all over the net, but, just in case you haven’t heard it,

you HAVE to hear The Shins‘ new track Phantom Power, which is on their new album, out in January. Along with the new Bloc Party album, it’s starting to spill onto the blogs, and it would be nice if a few more tracks could come

our way legally before the album comes out (hey, we got two from the Yo La Tengo album. Just wondering…will buy it anyway!)

The Shins -‘Phantom Power.’mp3

If you like what you hear, go to the Sandwich club, which has some cool covers by The Shins.

Oh, and

I know I posted on them a few months back, but if you really haven’t heard any other stuff by the Shins, go to the Sub Pop media page. you are in for a treat. Go buy all their albums either here or at your local independent record shop.

PS I know I haven;t posted any new photos recently, but will do once new computer bloody lets me!

Gig review: Paul Buchanan/Jane Taylor

Usher Hall, Edinburgh November 25, 2006

Different bands

emote different kinds of weather and scenarios in your head. Massive Attack emote edgy, urban paranoia (reinforced by pretty much every video from Safe From Harm onwards, bar Teardrop, obviously). Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura’s gorgeous tweeness – and I use that as a compliment – evoke childhood memories of blackb

erry picking and playing pooh sticks. And The Blue Nile? The romance and beauty of a rainy night. Particularly in Scotland, where we get a lot of these.

Edinburgh’s Usher Hall is playing host for two nights to Paul Buchanan’s ‘solo’ tour (though the merchandise stall has plenty of Blue Nile T-shirts, suggesting they are still very much a going concern). And frankly, the devotion the band inspire is amazing, given that in their twenty-year plus career they have only released four albums. Amazing, that is, until you hear them, and realise that whilst they may Stone Roses type of gaps between albums, it’s generally worth the wait (whereas when the Roses second LP eventually appeared, it took a while to admit to yourself that you were, if you were being honest, quite a little bit disappointed).

First on is Jane Taylor, who walks onto the stage armed with just her acoustic guitar. As I’ve noted here before, the solo singer-songwriter opening up for a band can really have their work cut out for them, unless they really have something special…and she does. Whilst I realise that ‘support from Johnnie Walker on Radio 2’ may cause certain people to turn off, he knew what he was onto here. This really is a smokey blues voice, an album ‘Montpelier’ released that is working it’s way along at groundroots level (remember, after all, that ‘indie’ is short for independent, rather than just being a description of a sound), and I hope reaches a wider audience. She doesn’t take herself seriously, always a risk with any musician, and that combined with
that voice and songs to match, and some great anecdotes means she deserves to make it. Anyone who lumps her in with Eva Cassidy and Norah Jones is just lazy and missing the point.

The reverence this audience have for Buchanan is

unbelievavble. Whilst the Nile have never ‘rocked out’ (quote unquote), the roar of recognition at each track as they recognise them – often from a simple drum-beat – is a sign that people wait so long for a Blue Nile album ‘cos they know it will be worth it. Opening up with ‘Over the hillside’ from 1989’s Hats, the connection with his audience is complete very quickly. Whilst their sound may evoke those rainy nights, the sheer goddamn joy of hearing them is like hot chocolate for the soul. In 1997, at a very wet and muddy Glastonbury festival, The Blue Nile pretty much bought the sun out for the first time that weekend. As he goes straight into Peace At Last, all worries

outside the hall are laid to rest.

There are still people who will get into discussions about which Nile album is better out of the first two, A Walk Across the Rooftops or Hats. My money has always been on Hats, but it’s tracks from the first album that really, really hi

t the spot tonight, like the gently experimental title track, Easter Parade and Tinseltown in the Rain. Buchanan apologises for his voice having difficulty tonight, but the crowd help him out on the chorus of the latter song, and it’s soaring. (This song is currently in the top 5 of the Jocknroll poll).

The set finishes with an astonishing take on The Downtown Lights, which could be the perfect finish – but it turns out that he has an unexpected ace up his sleeve. When he comes on for the encore, we get High, and then he finishes with Strangers In The Night, done Blue Nile style (NB the song popul

arised by Frank Sinatra, not 747 (Strangers in the Night) by Saxon. That would be wrong). And boy, is it wonderful.

The two new – untitled, as far as I can tell, songs played tonight suggest that while it may, as ever be a long wait for the next album, indeed as long as the river itself – we can wait. Few bands I have seen this year can match this for sheer emotional connection and joy.

Hi there. Hoping for a quiet(er) weekend, so finally have got around to posting again. Thanks for all the feedback on the Jocknroll – always good to know people are reading.

I may do several posts this weekend, to make up for all I’ve been missing. First of all, may I push you, nah, shove you, in the direction of The Vaselines. For those of you who haven’t encountered the Vaselines, boy are you in for a treat! Frances McKee, Eugene Kelly, James Seenan and Charlie Kelly may have made only a handful of records, but, as they say, their influence cannot be under-estimated. Brian Eno famously said that only a few people may habe brought the first Velvet Underground album, but everyone who did went and formed a band. That’s the thing was the Vaselines, they make you feel like you should go and form a band. And if you’re singing about sex in pretty well every song, then, you can’t argue with that. They were tied in with the C86 movement in retrospect, but they were kind of a bit later than that.

Their most famous fan was Kurt Cobain, who covered several of their songs; Jesus Doesn’t want Me For A Sunbeam on their MTV Unplugged album and Son Of A Gun and Molly’s Lips can be found on Incesticide. However, it would be nice to think

that the Vaselines would be remembered and treasured even if it weren’t for Seattle’s finest.

This is a fansite on myspace, where you can hear and download tracks – given that Egene and Frances are ‘friends’ I think you can consider that endorsed! But don’t forget to check out both Eugene and Frances‘s own myspace pages where you can hear what they have been up to, not forgetting Eugene‘s own website. These are people who helped ma

ke not just the scottish music scene what it is, but also impated massively on the whole ‘indie/alternative/whatever’ music scene across the world over the last twenty years. And it’s time that those people who don’t realise it woke up to it!

Buy All the Stuff And More at Amazon.

And while you’re there, go and buy all the stuff by Eugenius, Suckle, Frances and Eugene you can find. Or, go and check your local independent shop
Then let me know what you think!

It

‘s been a busy week or so. Am still alive, and so far, being thirty has been way better than I thought it mi

ght be. I went out for dinner with my better three-quarters and then she and I went to see Half-Man Half-Biscuit. I have also now sorted myself out with a new computer and so am hoping to be doing more regular updates.

What I would like to point you in the direction of is a website called Jocknroll where they are polling readers for their favourite ever scottish singles. Please go and vote. It’s certainly NOT just indie, as there have been many great scottish acts who weren’t.

I keep changing my mind about my Scottish Top Ten singles, but right now it would be:

1. The Delgados ‘ No Danger [Kids’ choir edit]
2. Franz Ferdinand ‘Darts of Pleasure EP’
3. Aberfeldy ‘Heliopolis by night’
4. Associates ‘White car in Germany’
5. Shop Assistants ‘I Don’t Want to be friends with you’
6. Belle and Sebastian ‘This is just a modern rock song’
7. Proclaimers ‘Sunshine on Leith’
8. Sons & Daughters ‘Johnny Cash’
9. Arab Strap ‘Turbulence [Bis remix]’
10. This mortal coil ‘Song to the siren.’

Mind you, even typing out that list, I realise that I haven’t included Mogwai, Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes, Teenage Fanclub, Cosmic Rough Riders,Mull Historical Society, Blue Nile, Boards of Canada, Mylo, Travis, Deacon Blue, Cocteau Twins, Josef k, The Fire Engines, Idlewil

d, Bis, Simple Minds, Eurythmics, Wet wet wet, Texas…what do you mean,

I cannot be

serious about the last four? Granted, some of them produced some…rubbish, but they also produced some gems:
Simple Minds’ first albums, up to about 1984 were fab (Belfast Child is hideous, though), Texas were gre

at until they decided to start cuddling up to Chris Evans and the Wu-Tang Clan (I Don’t want A Lover is excellent), Eurythmics produced some stunning early stuff like Sweet Dreams, and wet wet wet’s High on the happy side album has some great moments.

Love is all around was tedious by the end of it’s reign, though. Way I see it, if the Beatles were all still alive, and had never split, there would have been some hideous records from them (check the solo careers).

So go to the site, work it out and add your own list. They also want worst tracks…well, even a country with a music scene as fertile as this one can’t get it right all the time!

And please, let me know what you think. This blog continues to get quite a lot of hits, so let’s have some feedback!

So, tomorrow, I’m thirty.

Bloody hell. So much for live fast die young stay beautiful.

Anyway, after a fantastic birthday party, it would be time to

post someting bouncy, surely?

Nah, in typically pervserse mode, t

his is Public Image Ltd, on Top of the pops, oerforming ‘Death Disco’. Who would have thought that the ‘Swan Lake’ th

eme would work so well in this context? The Sex Pistols may have given the music industry a massive kick up the backside, and a well-needed one at that, but PIL’s music was genuinely far more innnovative. No wonder Malcolm McLaren couldn’t control him.

PIL Death Disco

Buy PIL on Amazon.

Though if you want a copy of the Original Metal Box album, try e-bay!

What can I say? One of the most anticipat

ed albums of the year, the Long Blondes
have released Someone to drive you home…and the release date has already happened! Doh…that’s what happens when you cannot get to the record shop first thing on a Monday cos you’re teaching. Anyway, Weekend Without Make-up is now possibly my single of the year, and these two other singles show why they have been talked up s

o much.

Weekend Without Makeup

– The Long Blondes

The Long Blondes, Separated by Motorways

The Long Blondes – Once and Never Again

Buy The Long Blondes on Amazon

The Long Blondes official website

The Long Blondes on Myspace