#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - 9 and 10

Today I completed my #TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 and the last two I posted were "Another Day on Earth" by Brian Eno and "What Came From Fire" by Sound of Guns so I did manage to just include albums for this Century / Millenium.

As I have said your natural propensity is to go back to your teenage years and choose albums from when your musical opinion was being formed, so I did try and and limit my choices to lstuff from the last 19 years (although originally I wanted to do it from from the last ten years but the Carbon/Silicon album was from the last decade but still within this millenium.

The Brian Eno album struck me with the killer opening song "This" which is just based on a rhythm built by repeating the word "This". The rest of the album is just as good but that is a fine example of a killer opener and was his first song based album in about ten years.

I saw Sound of Guns at The Hoults Yard festival with my daughter Kirsty in Byker many years back, which was great but under advertised. There were a lot of great bands on but Sound of Guns weren't one I knew or had even heard of. They are used on a base jumping video  by Turbolenza  so I will include that video which features the songs "Sometimes" and "Alcatraz" plus a love video of "This" .

Enjoy your Tuesday.

#AprilSongs #16 Groovy Tuesday

First time I hears The Smithereens it was a compilation and the song was "Behind The Wall of Sleep" which is fairly dark haunting American country rock with Lovecraftian overtones to the title, so today I am going for their excellent "Groovy Tuesday" which is just more of their excellent sound , brooding and not taking any prisoners.

The Smithereens are a band I've never seen but if they come back into my vicinity I will definitely make an effort. I do have an anthology in my collection, but it's one of those things having a large collection , it's seldom you accidentally come across new music because you usually buy an ablum for a particular reason.

It used to be great when you would get the loss leader samplers such as "Nice Enough To Eat" or "All Good Clean Fun" which meant you could get new music for little investment , then that would hook you to buy more.

I now need to do a post about samplers don't I ?

Have a great Tuesday.

#AprilSongs #15 Monday Night

The #AprilSongs is sort of a bit of a chore but I am determined to complete it and it has made me revisit and discover music in my collection live today's selection "Monday Night" by The Golden Palominos from their eponymous album.

The Golden Palominos are (or were ) a fluid inventive and adventurous musical collective led by drummer Anton Fier  with a core set of musicians featuring Bill Laswell and Nicky Skopelitis, but among their guests were Michael Stipe, John Lydon and Fred Frith, as well as many others.

I first got into them when I bought "A Dead Horse" probably on the basis of a John Peel play or NME review or both, and was blown away by the way it was both incredibly polished but so far away from the rock norm while also being very close to it, with stunningly clear production.

I am now wondering whether to treat myself to a vinyl copy, because my record player sounds so good, but I can also listen to it on the walk to work or from my network, so maybe that is just another thing that I don't need to buy, but we shall see.

So it's Monday morning and time to drag myself out to work.

Have a good one everyone.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - 7 and 8 and The Record Store Day 2019 Aftermath

This is just a short post to record numbers 7 and 8 in the #TenAlbumsInTenDays sequence adn they are:

• Tempest by Bob Dylan
• Have One on Me by Joanna Newsome

Both these albums contain a lot of long songs and the Joanna Newsome one is a three CD set. I first heard Joanna Newsome on the soundtrack to the excellent New York Blackout Orange advert ("THis Side if The Blue" from "Milk Eyed Mender") which you can watch here this was when the company that became EE had consistently excellent adverts , unlike the populist Kevin Bacon rubbish the continually push these days. Joanna Newsome's instrument of choice is the harp, and I think she is the only  harpist I listen to apart from Alan Stivell.

The Bob Dylan album is was his best with the thirteen minute title track about the sinking of the Titanic, but it is full of seven and eight minute stories that keep you riveted throughout the album.

For Record Store Day 2019 I picked up a Carter USM 12" single "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" and Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" on vinyl as well as an amazing tea towel from Powder Butterfly , check out the website to see some amazing stuff.

So now it's time for bed as it's Monday tomorrow.

#AprilSongs #14 Sunday Girl

I know it's absolutely obvious but my mind and brain has told me to follow Billy Bragg's "The Saturday Boy" with Blondie's "Sunday Girl" from their most successful and well known album "Parallel Lines".

When I was searching for options I came across The Sunday Girl a make up blog which may or may not pique your interest, but few other "Sunday Girl" songs. I need two more Sunday songs and "Sunday Girl" was not on my original list but it just means I have more choice for my final two songs in the coming weeks.

I first got into Blondie when I heard "X-Offender" from their debut album and bought the single on the Private Stock label. I followed that up with a 12" single of "Denis" when "Plastic Letters" came out and sold the pair for £50 to a collector a couple of years later., and bout the two albums for maybe six quid as I was into the music rather than the objects.

When "Parallel Lines" came out I loved Bob Fripp's guitar work on "Fade Away and Radiate" as this marked out Blondie as being more adventurous than your average band, but "Heart of Glass" (which I still like) really marked the direction they were going to take.

I only saw Blondie live once, at The King Georges Hall in Blackburn with Television in support, and absolutely great night, and great to see Blondie still producing music and playing live.

It's 2:30 AM on a Sunday morning, I wasn't intending to write this now, but it is done, so I can go back to bed now.

#AprilSongs #13 The Saturday Boy

Well it's day 13 of the #AprilSongs sequence. It's funny that 13 is considered unlucky like seeing a single magpie or a lot of other thing. Things like this used to bother me, especially 13 , single magpies and a few other things, then I started thinking how silly it was , and if I'd been brought up to believe these were good things then that is how my mind would see it. After all 13 is a "baker's dozen" where they throw in an extra item in case one is not up to scratch, so it's a definite win for you. If I see a single magpie it's a good thing, no reason , apart from magpies can look impressive in flight with their black and white colouring, so now seeing a single magpie gives me a little lift and if I see more then that's a plus, although I am aware they can be annoying bullies, but I prefer to search for the positives.

So back to the #AprilSongs sequence on Record Store Day and I have gone for Billy Bragg's "The Saturday Boy". I loved Billy Bragg's minimal instrumental style although his voice grated a bit at first, but like Bob Dylan I loved the songs and grew to like the voice. He is not everyone's cup of tea, but is now an intelligent elder statement of music involved in so many musical areas it's very impressive.

Coincidentally I was watching a documentary about Skiffle on BBC4 last night which you can catch on iplayer here for the next month and he was pointing out the similarities between the skiffle movement and the punk movement, both a do-it-yourself reaction to the mainstream and the main Skiffle man was Lonnie Donegan. That was followed by a program on Chas and Dave (here for a month) who also played with Lonnie Donegan as well.

You can always find connections, but some times the connections jump out at you. Have a great Record Store Day and the weather is looking very good. I will take some photos while I am out today and probably nip to Snackwallah for one of their excellent curries.

Coincidentally ... A Book

I'm currently reading "The White Wolf's Son" the third in a vaguely Elric trilogy by Michael Moorcock following on from "The Dreamthief's Daughter" and "The Skrayling Tree" (he does like an indefinite article does Mr Moorcock). I've seen this book described as both the worst and the best he has written and while it is in my opinion neither it is certainly enjoyable in the first fifty or so pages.

The amazing thing is that it is set in North Yorkshire, Ingleton to be precise but close to Settle and Ingleborough which both feature in the book, and it also mentions the Beatles playing Preston. Now firstly there is the coincidence of it featuring somewhere I have recently holidayed and the place I was born , but tonight I was watching a documentary about Chas and Dave and when Chas Hodges was in The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore) the supported the Beatles in Preston (I saw it on a gig poster) so that is another coincidence.

Of course if I hadn't been reading the book I would probably not have made the connection, but just another example of things falling together to create another coincidence.