Category: choons

stuff I hear

  • skiffle is fun

    I’m listening to “Skiffle – The Best Of”, and it’s interesting to see what pre-rock British artists did with folk, gospel and trad jazz tunes on the cusp of the 1960s.

    It clearly came out of the Trad boom (to which my father is still very much attached) – not just because folks like Barber and Colyer played both styles – but there are weird echoes of rockabilly. In a way, it was a short-lived answer to the US “folk scare” of the time.

    Some of it’s quite quaint and dated now. The faux American accents, untrained by constant US TV exposure are hilarious, hovering somewhere between New Orleans and Brooklyn. Lonnie Donegan’s is especially funny – “this man, he was thoisty” he sings in “Being Me A Little Water, Sylvie”.

  • 2007 contenders

    I’m going to play the blogger’s best of the year game differently this year, but I need to keep the rules roughly the same so that I am (for once) on the same planet. I’m going to choose ten best albums, but they’re what I discovered in 2007, not just those released in 2007.

    So these are my contenders:

    • A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble — A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble
    • Air — Pocket Symphony
    • Akron/Family — Love Is Simple
    • Akron/Family — Meek Warrior (2006)
    • Animal Collective — Strawberry Jam
    • Architecture In Helsinki — Places Like This
    • Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan — Pullhair Rubeye
    • Bees — Octopus
    • Beirut — The Flying Club Cup
    • Black Lips — Good Bad Not Evil
    • Bonnie Russell and the Russell Family — Mountain Dulcimer Galax Style (1995)
    • Bright Eyes — Cassadaga
    • Caribou — Andorra
    • Cathy Fink — Banjo Talkin’
    • Colleen — The Golden Morning Breaks (2005)
    • Dan Jones and The Squids — Totally Human
    • Devendra Banhart — Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
    • Dock Boggs — His Folkways Years (1963-1968) (1998)
    • Donovan — Barabajagal (1969)
    • Donovan — Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968)
    • Donovan — Mellow Yellow (1967)
    • Donovan — Sunshine Superman (1966)
    • Enoch Kent — I’m a Rover (2006)
    • Erynn Marshall & Chris Coole — Meet Me In The Music
    • Feist — The Reminder
    • Fountains of Wayne — Traffic and Weather
    • Fred Spek’s Camp Combo — Rock Paper Scissors (2006)
    • Grinderman — Grinderman
    • Hamish Imlach — Cod Liver Oil & Orange Juice (2006)
    • Howe Gelb — ‘Sno Angel Like You (2006)
    • Ideal Free Distribution — Ideal Free Distribution
    • Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones — The Resurrection of Spiders in the Moonlight
    • Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter — Like Love, Lust, & The Open Halls of the Soul
    • Joanna Newsom — Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP
    • John Fahey — The Best Of John Fahey Vol. 2 1964-1983 (2004)
    • Johnny Cash — American I & II
    • Judee Sill — Judee Sill (2006)
    • Ken Reaume — Four Horses
    • Kevin Drew — Spirit If…
    • Kilby Snow — Kilby Snow: Country Songs and Tunes with Autoharp
    • Kimberley Rew — Ridgeway (2006)
    • Marissa Nadler — Songs III: Bird On The Water
    • Michael Hurley — First Songs (1964)
    • Mimi & Richard Fariña — Vanguard Visionaries – Mimi & Richard Fariña
    • Monica Grabin — Continental Village
    • Neil Young — Harvest (1972)
    • Of Montreal — Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
    • Okkervil River — The Stage Names
    • Old Man Luedecke — Hinterland (2006)
    • Otha Turner — Everybody Hollerin’ Goat (1998)
    • Panda Bear — Person Pitch
    • Po’ Girl — Home to You
    • Porter Wagoner — Wagonmaster
    • Radiohead — In Rainbows
    • Ragged But Right — Down Harmony Road
    • Robert Force & Albert d’Ossché — Tiger Dreams
    • Sons of the Never Wrong — Nuthatch Suite (2005)
    • Stew — Guest Host (2000)
    • The Aliens — Astronomy For Dogs
    • The Apples in Stereo — New Magnetic Wonder
    • The Arcade Fire — Neon Bible
    • The Besnard Lakes — The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
    • The Carter Family — The Carter Family 1927-1934 (2001)
    • The Foggy Hogtown Boys — Pigtown Fling
    • The Harvey Girls — The Wild Farewell (2005)
    • The High Water Marks — Polar
    • The Houseplants — Livingroom
    • The Hylozoists — La Fin du Monde (2006)
    • The Icicles — Arrivals & Departures
    • The Ladybug Transistor — Can’t Wait Another Day
    • The Negro Problem — Post Minstrel Syndrome (2002)
    • The Polyphonic Spree — The Fragile Army
    • The Soft Machine — The Soft Machine (1968)
    • The Unicorns — Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? (2003)
    • They Might Be Giants — The Else
    • Tiger Lillies (with Kronos Quartet) — The Gorey End (2003)
    • Uncle Dave Macon — Classic Sides
    • Various Artists — Skiffle – The Best Of (2006)
    • Various Artists — The Old Time Banjo Festival
    • Vashti Bunyan — Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind
    • Wendy Arrowsmith — Now Then…?
    • Wilco — Sky Blue Sky
    • Willie Nelson — Red Headed Stranger (1975)

    (Before you freak out at the number of CDs I bought, I do subscribe to emusic, so a bunch of these were MP3 only.)

  • Robyn Hitchcock Live at The Mod Club on 2007-11-14

    Internet Archive: Details: Robyn Hitchcock Live at The Mod Club on 2007-11-14

    Set 1: 81′ 28″

    Balloon Man
    Autumn Is Your Last Chance
    Uncorrected Personality Traits
    Olé! Tarantula
    Only The Stones Remain
    I’m Only You
    I Something You
    Glass Hotel
    Cynthia Mask
    No, I Don’t Remember Guildford
    Alright, Yeah
    Full Moon In My Soul
    Swirling
    Creeped Out
    Queen Of Eyes
    Are You Experienced?
    You & Oblivion

    Set 2: 21′ 24″

    Visions of Johanna
    (A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs
    Adventure Rocket Ship

  • four horses

    I really think that Ken Reaume‘s Four Horses could be my best album of the year. It’s been on repeat play all day.

    And yes, he does work in Penguin Music.

  • AlternativeBanjo – Banjo Tabs

    AlternativeBanjo has tabs for all your indie faves.

  • the antidote to autotune

    We saw The Wailin’ Jennies at Hugh’s Room last night. As ever, their harmonies were beautiful, but what amazed me was their one piece in unison. They were so close that it didn’t just seem to be the one breath, but as one heartbeat. Wonderful stuff.

  • oh and i went to high school with him too

    now this is a live music photoblog: rahimlive.

  • as tents

    Whoa, the Camp Combo rocked Mitzi’s Sister – in fact, they are still rocking it, as I had to head back home.

    Nichol brought his enormous Leslie speaker which added to the ‘jazzeh’ sound of the evening. It was worth lugging it down.

    Update: Fred Spek was kind enough to let me post the recording online:
    Fred Spek’s Camp Combo – Mitzi’s Sister, Toronto – 2007-10-16 (early set).

  • sound of a brand new world

    I’m liking In Rainbows. But sick of folks kvetching about the perfectly adequate bit rate.
    Thinking of torrenting flacs made from the mp3s under the guise of a perfect bootleg. Would look forward to the musos banging on about the much improved fidelity. Losers.
    But that would be too much work. Mustn’t betray the expectations of society on my generation.

  • Mr Dolby — eww!

    I’m a big fan of Thomas Dolby, and I don’t even mind admitting that it was one of his songs that initially got me thinking about what to do with my life (“… etch out a future of your own design”, and all that) . I got Thomas’s Live in Chicago DVD, and was a bit shocked by the visuals he used for wind power:

    still from Thomas Dolby “Live in Chicago” DVD

    Those are some old wind turbines. This would be a bit like going for some modern computer imagery, and plunking for a picture of a VIC-20.

    still from Thomas Dolby “Live in Chicago” DVD

    I mean, eww – those blades are filthy!

  • Ken

    I just heard some music by Ken Reaume – and I need to hear a lot more.

  • there is no enemy

    I finally got to see Thomas Dolby play live last night. A real brass section (the Jazz Mafia Horns) really added to Thomas’s all-electronic sound. Good show!

  • wee hairy beasties

    We saw The Aliens at Lee’s Palace last night. Shame the place was only half full (have people really forgotten about The Beta Band?), but it was a great show. They’re really high-energy live. Gordon has big hair!

  • most 70s book cover ever

    Floaty-haired woman motif? Check
    Happy couple riding a horse? Check
    Elaborate, possibly ill-advised, used of perspective? Check
    Fashions suggesting high polyester content? Check

    Friends, I give you Mel Bay‘s Fun With The Dulcimer:

    Mel Bay - Fun With The Dulcimer

  • now then?

    wendy arrowsmith - now then? - cd cover

    My sister has released her first CD, Now Then? I think you’d like it. I do.

  • a serious omission

    Yeah, so I got to age 38 before I ever heard Neil Young’s Harvest. Sue me. And all because Nichol is teaching me The Needle & The Damage Done on guitar.

    And I can add Old Man to my list of “Songs I thought were recent originals, but are in fact old covers”. Thought it was a Wailin’ Jennies original (I know, I should read liner notes). I thought the same of Disguises (original: The Who; cover: Of Montreal) and Waterloo Sunset (original: The Kinks; cover: Robyn Hitchcock).

  • those are no murder ballads, son

    I was hoping to like Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads a lot more than I do. He treated the standards as if saying, “wow, lookit me, I’m real bad!”.

    What gives real murder ballads their impact is the gentle, matter-of-fact delivery: listen to Henry Lee on Harry Smith and they might as well be singing a lullaby. Cave murders them with zero subtlety. Doesn’t help that he has tiny squeakerette Kylie (pr. Minog-YEW) on the crew.

  • Just don’t call me a damsel, okay?

    dulcimer

    I bought an Appalachian dulcimer yesterday. It’s beautifully made by Peter Cox of Waubaushene, Ontario. The top is a slab of old pine that was originally a rafter in an old farmhouse.
    Despite its initial unusual appearance (played on the lap, modal frets, four strings – two of which are in unison – tuned ddAD), it’s extremely hard to make an unpleasant noise with one. Part of its charm is that it’s very quiet (so only those nearby are annoyed – and since Catherine‘s away …), but you can also pick out simple tunes easily. Less than a day after getting it, I’d picked out a recognizable version Speed of Things, my favourite-ever Robyn Hitchcock song.

    Peter recommended the book In Search of the Wild Dulcimer, which I’ve discovered is available online from the author’s site.

  • easily amused

    I’m in Cambridge, at the Mill Race Folk Festival. The weather’s great, it’s a good event (just saw Enoch Kent [!]), but what’s really holding my attention are a number of big fish with orange tails rootling about on the riverbed of the Grand. They’re leaving pleasing silt trails.