Mixtape

OK, this time I promise, new show pretty soon.

In the interim here is a special mixtape I made last week for the mixtape swap at a gig I went to (Pic 'n' Mixx, Pocketbooks headlining). Good show and hopefully a good mix, so download it here.

It's mostly indiepop but with a couple of curveballs in there too.

Sounds Just Like a Foreign Movie

Cameras in the Sky

Yeah, we haven't had a show for ages now (a combination of the studio being down, me being busy etc). But rest assured there will be a good one (well...) coming up soon.

In the meantime, here's a band I've been listening to a lot recently, Prolapse:


A band from Leicester from about ten years ago, somehow including a very Scots singer (maybe ranter would be a better term). They come off like a mix between the Fall and Stereolab. A horribly twisted motorik version of indiepop. It works though. A lot of their songs have an interesting contrast between the stream-of-conciousness type stuff and some actual singing from a female vocalist, maybe sort of reminiscent of the earlier MBV stuff but with more grounded guitars.



I really like this one, more sedate musically but the free word association is pretty interesting.

You can get their albums on Amazon for about a quid each, I'd say "The Italian Flag" is the best (the tracks I've posted are all from that since there's not much else on the internet).

Since we last did a show I also went to see A Silver Mount Zion at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Good as usual, mostly stuff from the new album but with 1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound, God Bless Our Dead Marines and Microphones in the Trees (given some of Efrim's recent blog posts, perhaps a comment on the ubiquity of CCTV in the UK). Microphones is probably my favourite SMZ song I think, fantastic propulsive bassline and some room for lovely violin improvisation at the end. SMZ (or whatever variation of the name they're currently trading on) seem to spend an inordinately long time tuning between songs, and Efrim asks the crowd to make any points they might want to air: predictably, the first shout was to "Bring back Godspeed!", to which he replied: "You fucking bring back Godspeed. It's easy, just four chords and a long runway."
Worth seeing next time they're over.

From the new one:


I never realised how much of that was played on the violin before seeing them.

Anyway, there you go. Be careful when searching for "Prolapse" on YouTube.

Show 07/03/2010

Friends, sad news. Due to technical issues, last week's show is lost forever. It has vanished into the empty (internet) radio waves.

We may never know what really went on that day, but here's one (unconfirmed) suggestion:

Wilco - Handshake Drugs [Kicking Television version]
American Football - Never Meant
Shellac - Song of the Minerals
Pavement - Gold Soundz
Richard Thompson - Calvary Cross
Crash and Britany - Nora's a Mirror
Teenage Fanclub - Verisimilitude
Rocket From the Tombs - Ain't It Fun
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Art Brut - DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
Sparklehorse - Cow

RIP Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, a truly exceptional songwriter.

Show 28/02/2010

Sorry it's taken so long to put this show up! There'll be a new one probably tomorrow. Soon anyway.

This was our 60th ever show.

mp3

Broken Family Band - Mother O' Jesus
Absentee - Something to Bang
Loose Fur - Laminated Cat
Arab Strap - Stink
AA Bondy - Witness Blues [Daytrotter Session]
Sebadoh - Perverted World
Quasi - Sea Shanty
Lucksmiths - The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
Retribution Gospel Choir - Kids
The Band - King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Tall Dwarfs - Think Small
Silver Jews - Federal Dust
Neutral Milk Hotel - Where You'll Find Me Now
Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - Goodbye Sweet Dreams

Show 21/02/2010

This week's show:

mp3

Playlist:
Belle & Sebastian - Mayfly
Gliss - Sleep
Wive - Come Join the Sea
Mission of Burma - Einstein's Day
Shrag - Forty Five 45s
Fugazi - Cashout
Dylan - Idiot Wind [original version]
Hefner - May God Protect Your Home
lift to Experience - Falling From Cloud 9
Galaxie 500 - Pictures
long Fin Killie - Godiva
The Velvet Underground - After Hours

Have fun! New show tomorrow.

Show 07/02/2010

This weeks show has 20% extra snap, crackle and pop, and comes in glorious mono. Also a noise track (Temperatures) which prompted our most scathing email ever:

"Does this sound like music to you? Cos it doesn't to me, the wires in your brain must be crossed or sumfin. Were you dropped on your head as a child? Or possibly a rugby injury from teenage years?"

So yeah, you might want to skip that one if your feedback tolerance isn't very high.

mp3

Playlist:
Guided By Voices - Hardcore UFOs
Sparklehorse - Weird Sisters
Dananananaykroyd - No Wage
Spare Snare - Strange and Silent Staircase
Mobile Unit - We Live in Our Own World, But It's OK They Know Us Here
The Tyde - Look Back in Anger
Giddy Motors - Magmanic
The Moles - Saint Jack
Shellac - My Black Ass
Number One Cup - Smile, It's Sugar
Temperatures - Kakorr
Saloon - Shoot the Singer
Charlene - Blackout

See you next time.

Show 31/01/2010

Join me and this week's guest, Toby, as we play records, overanalyse our favourite bands and plumb new depths of technical incompetence.

mp3

Iggy & the Stooges - Search & Destroy
Beach House - Zebra
Tall Dwarfs - Highrise
Allo, Darlin' - The Polaroid Song
Japandroids - Rockers East Vancouver
Fanfarlo - You are One of the Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us
Stars - My Favourite Book
Bardo Pond - Rumination
Magnolia Electric Company - Oh Grace
Black Eyes - Commencement
Daniel Johnston - The Beatles
life Without Buildings - Envoys
The Research - The Hard Times
Besnard lakes - Albatross
The Bishops - I Can't Stand It Any More
Skill 7 Stamina 12 - Ijsman
Wake the President - Miss Tierney
Wilco - Theologians
Tunng - Bullets
Okkervil River - Happy Hearts
Tindersticks - Patchwork