Theme Thursday - Turn

Struggling to submit something from my vintage postcard collection to Theme Thursday, this week I dipped into my CD collection instead to find a suitable offering for the theme. This is probably not may favourite Byrds album (that honour would probably go to Younger Than Yesterday or perhaps The Notorious Byrd Brothers) but this is still a great album.

The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!

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Bert Jansch - Birthday Blues / Rosemary Lane

As I mention in my In Search of Space blog, I have managed to track sown some of the great music covered in the Rob Young's excellent book, Electric Eden. Of the ones I've listened to the most I would have to say that Bert Jansch is probably hitting the spot the most at he moment. I was fortunate enough to pick up a compilation featuring 2 albums on 1 CD. The albums are 'Birthday Blues' from 1968, and 'Rosemary Lane' from 1971. Being recorded 3 years apart I did not at first think they were an obvious pairing, the earlier one being more bluesy and featuring exclusively Jansch written songs, the latter being more folk oriented and featuring several traditional ballads.

A few listens later however, they do seem to fit together quite well and show perhaps a natural progression towards a more folk style. Standout tracks would have to be 'A Woman Like You' and 'Birthday Blues'.

In second place in my latest listening treats is my first venture into the music of The Incredible String Band, and their album 'Wee Tam'. For some reason I had always previously considered these lot as some sort of eccentric, novelty band (not sure why) but this album is a masterpiece, blending folk and psychedelic sounds.

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Getting back to my folk and psychedelic roots

Another month has flown by and I've yet again not updated this blog. I have of course been 'musically active' but just not found the time to blog about it. Probably the biggest influence on my musical listenings over the past few weeks has been an excellent book by Rob Young called 'Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music'. From this I've 'discovered' fantastic artists such as Vashti Bunyan, and increased my awareness of groups like The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Donovan. Whilst these are all British bands, when typing these into lastfm I not only heard more British bands of the same ilk, but also groups like Country Joe and the Fish who up until now I'd never really given much attention before. So, my musical journey continues by once again going backwards. It does concern me slightly that there are some great new bands that I should be listening to, but for now my feet are staying firmly in the folk and psychedelic past.

Henry Cow

The upside of lastfm is that I can discover new music daily ... the downside is that I have nowhere near enough time to listen to it all. Recent discoveries include a genre of music completely new to me called Zeuhl (basically late 60's/early 70's French avant garde), Art Zoyd, Henry Cow, Egg, and Giles, Giles and Fripp. I was very pleased to discover the latter as I knew Robert Fripp had been in a band before King Crimson but had never heard any of the material. So this album is definitely one to track down, and also the King Crimson back catalogue, which I have only on vinyl and haven't listened to for years ... so a bit of a prog rock/avant garde revival coming to an iPod near me soon.

By way of contrast I've also been re-discovering US indie/lo-fi material recently, particularly Matthew Sweet, Preston School of Industry, Tobin Sprout, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Some of these bands are new to me whereas others are those I listened to at the time but had long forgotten.

And having had my apetite for live music reignited when I saw The Damned a few weeks ago, I'm off to see Public Image later this month, and also Billy Bragg and the Doves.

The Damned, gig review, Bristol, 21st May 2010

After an absolutely mad few weeks at work, I had been looking forward to this gig for ages. What's more it was at the start of a 2 week holiday, which made it even sweeter.

We arrived at the venue about half way the support act, Ed Tenpole, of Tenpole Tudor fame. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by Ed, who delivered a raw, belting set consisting of one man, a beaten up guitar, and lots of echo.

And so on to the main course ... the Damned. The last time I saw the Damned was way back in 1984, also at Bristol, so it was with some uncertainty that I entered into this. However, needless to say they did not disappoint. With just Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian left from the original line up, the newer additions to the group were more than up to the job.

They kicked-off with Fan Club from their 1977 debut album, Damned, Damned, Damned. An appropriate opener as the venue was certainly not full. Next up was Disco Man from their 1981, Friday 13th EP. Next on the list was I Just Can't be Happy Today from Machine Gun Etiquette.

I can remember most of the tracks after the first 3, but not the order. The list includes Love Song, Neverland, Eloise, New Rose, Neat Neat Neat, Stretcher Case Baby (which they denied stealing from the Sweet), Lovely, Jet Boy Jet Girl (which was a real treat), Thanks for the Night, and of course ending the show with Smash It Up, parts 1 and 2.

Throughout the show we were treated to various words of wisdom by the Captain who, amongst other things, informed us that the keyboard played used to be in the UK Subs, that Dave Vanian's leather gloves made him look like Alvin Stardust, that the success of Happy Talk had allowed him to live the champagne lifestyle for 3 weeks, and that he was now almost deaf following their recent stint supporting Motorhead.

Overall a great night out, even though it finished at 10pm, but at least there was time to get back to bed and my horlicks before midnight.

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What to wear to the Damned

I first saw The Damned was way back in 1984 in Bristol. Next week I'm going to see them again in Bristol, which I'll do a write-up of some time over the next couple of weeks. The first time I saw them I knew exactly what to wear as I had my 'uniform' of black jeans, black Dr Martin boots, black leather jacket, some old punk t-shirt or another, and spiked hair. Not unsurprisingly most of those clothes are long gone, as is some of the hair, although I do think I still have a pair of old DM's kicking around somewhere. So, what do I wear? Actually I'm considerably less worried about what I look like today, but it does amuse me to think how important it was to me at the time, how my parents didn't understand why I wanted to look "deliberately scruffy", and why couldn't I be like that nice lad down the road.

The Damned are one of the bands whose material I still have mainly on vinyl, although I do think I have a compilation CD somewhere as well. I'll have to dig them all out over the next couple of evenings to get myself back in the mood. I'm particularly looking forward to listening to the Machine Gun Etiquette album again as that was always one of my favourites.

I have no idea what to expect at the gig ... perhaps still a smattering of anarchy, chaos and destruction ... but not too late past my bed time please.

Sebadoh, Lou Barlow

The great things about internet music sites is that I can just type in the name of a band (or several bands) or a genre tag that I feel like listening to and it will serve back to me the sort of music that I'm in the mood for. Much of it is recognisable. Some that I still listen to on a regular basis, and some that I've not heard for years, and some that I've never heard before.

One of today's selections was Sebadoh. I think I first heard Sebadoh on the John Peel show back in the early 1990's. I have most of the albums from around that period, but I also recall they did am amazing Peel session which I've never been able to find anywhere.

I was fortunate enough to get to see Sebadoh once. It was at the Glastonbury Festival, again some time in the early 1990's, at around the time they released their excellent Bubble and Scrape album. They were playing on one of the smaller stages and attracted a modest crowd. I recall Lou Barlow not being too impressed with the sound quality and suggesting to the crowd that they come and see Sebadoh somewhere better. He then quickly qualified that by stating that Glastonbury was cool, but that their performance would perhaps be better elsewhere. I thought it was just fine though.

I was of course aware that Sebadoh had spawned several side projects, solo outings and various other collaborations, but had no idea of just how many albums they had made between them all.

Over the years I have amassed far too many records and CDs for my own good. Now that we've entered the digital age I have uploaded the majority to iTunes. My CDs and records for sale can be found on my web site.