The answer is lots, and I will post them here. It's one of my favourite Christmas songs because it somehow manages to be upbeat and festive whilst being fundamentally downbeat and being lyrically comprised of loneliness and despair. Overlook that and enjoy its brilliant melody instead. Merry Christmas!
And finally, my own version, featured on my Charity Christmas Album, which is...oh yeah! Now available to download on a pay what you want basis from my Bandcamp page!
The first five songs on my ipod's shuffle, as of 21/12/2010:
Ben Folds - The Luckiest
The Housemartins - Sheep
Crooked Mountain, Crooked Mountain - Like Mice In The Cellar
The Replacements - Androgynous
Allison Weiss - From You To Me
So I said I'd post the first five songs on my ipod's shuffle every day but I got a bit sidetracked with recording my Christmas album and stuff. Here's ten to catch up and a promise I'll get back to daily real soon.
Johnny Flynn - Shore to Shore
Sloan - The Dogs
Roddy Woomble - If I Could Name Any Name
Explosions In The Sky - With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
The Get Up Kids - Stay Gone
Future of The Left - Wrigley Scott
Yo La Tengo - Gentle Hours
DJ Scotch Egg - Scotch Bach II
The American Analog Set - Choir Vandals
The Reversibles - Newton Told Me
Hello. I'm aware that I haven't blogged in a while and said I would blog a Christmas song every day, but I've just not had time what with working, catching up with family, recording my own Christmas album, y'know, all the usual festive fare. So apologies. I'm just going to blog when I can for the time being. Is that alright with you, O mighty blogosphere?
My Christmas album, incidentally, is nearly finished and should be done by the end of the week, at which point I'll be e-mailing everyone to donate to Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity. There'll be ten songs all in all, including two I've written in the past couple of weeks. Five are up already so check out this widget for a taste of festive cheer, sweeter than a Greggs mince pie and headier than a Marks and Spencers Christmas pudding.
So, without further ado, my top ten albums of 2010. I have put them in order but I reserve my right to change my mind later.
10. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
I've been a fan of these lovely Scottish lads for a while and was glad to see this album propel them from cult heroes to NME cover stars. I think it was largely on the strength of the single 'Swim Until You Can't See Land', their most upbeat and accessible effort to date, but this doesn't detract from what is one of the most eclectic, unpretentiously alternative rock albums of this year.
9. The Walkmen - Lisbon
This was an album that really took me by surprise, as I've always been fairly indifferent to the Walkmen. I'd listened to their previous album, 'Bows and Arrows', occasionally and enjoyed it, but never quite clicked with it. Thanks to this album, however, I'm now converted, and can't get enough. They have amazing guitar tone and some of the best use of brass in modern indie music, as well as a charming love for vintage upright pianos, which is never a bad thing.
8. The Weepies - Be My Thrill
I was introduced to the married folkie-pop duo The Weepies this summer by my girlfriend, who has an amazing talent for discovering exactly the kind of overly sentimental twee love-pop which pushes my buttons. This is a lovely album with some very tender moments and sweet, luscious harmonies. One for the softies out there.
7. Yeasayer - Odd Blood
I'd mistakenly excluded this album, thinking it had come out in late 2009 because that was when 'Ambling Alp' entered my DJ playlist at Lofi Hifi, but it did in fact come out in 2010. It's an incredibly original effort, a formidable blending of bizarre synth sounds, epic vocals and big melodies. I find it difficult to pin Yeasayer down to a style or compare them to anyone; you hear them, you know it's them, and there are very few bands you can say that of these days. Well done to them.
6. Mates of State - Crushes
These guys have been mentioned on this blog, along with The Weepies, as part of the married couple special. This is something of a wild card as it's a covers album, and these can often go either way. This one, however, works on all the right levels for such an album - great song choices, not too self-indulgent (though some would disagree on account of their young children providing backing vocals), faithful versions of the songs which still sound distinctively like Mates of State. Here's hoping they do a UK tour soon.
5. Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue
I think my love for Ben Folds is such that I'll enjoy any record he cares to guff out (although I thought this was the case with Weezer...more on that later), but this a very special and well crafted album. Hornby's lyrics, unsurprisingly, tell stories in a way that Folds always hinted he was capable of, but had perhaps never gone too deeply into. He was too busy being a snappy, sharp lyrical genius. It's a mature effort but outshines much of Folds' recent work and varies its pace and style expertly. The lead single, 'From Above' hit me hard, I think partly because I was half asleep when I heard it the first time on BBC 6Music earlier this year, but it's a stunning, thought provoking modern pop song. This animated video is ace too. I'll be seeing Ben at Hammersmith in Feb and you should be too.
4. The New Pornographers - Together
What would a year be without a stunning, punchy powerpop record? Everyone's favourite Canadian supergroup, featuring the stunning Neko Case on vocals, continue to go from strength to strength, and have produced what is possibly the album of their career, laden with upbeat hymns to alternative culture and joie de vivre. They've never sounded bigger and never been better.
3. Standard Fare - The Noyelle Beat
Johnny Foreigner have been my favourite boy/girl power trio for a long time but have nearly had their crown pinched by these cheeky newcomers. Their vocal split is well crafted, as are their songs, all of which climax in the right places and hint at emo whilst circumventing it entirely and staying cool and calm in their delivery of some incredibly telling lyrics, which become more poignant on the second, third and fourth listen. Definitely one to watch for 2011. It will be their year for sure.
2. Anamanaguchi - Scott Pilgrim: The Game OST
It's perhaps controversial to have such an album at number 2 I know, but this has been my commuting to work soundtrack for the past few months and has helped me no end, as well as being a breakthrough in modern 8 bit music and how it is perceived and used. These guys have been going for a few years now and I'm really glad that they've been granted a lot of mainstream attention through the greatest comic book series in the world. They deserve it, again because their music is totally original and they work damn hard at it. But most importantly, they have a sense of melody unparalleled by any modern instrumental group. I think it's personal to me because I grew up loving 8 bit music on my game boy and mega drive, but I think anyone can get into it, unless you believe that video games are stealing our children's brains or whatever the latest rubbish news report is saying about them.
1. Jukebox The Ghost - Everything Under The Sun
Two weeks ago I hadn't heard Jukebox The Ghost at all. I'd heard the name but wasn't really aware of their work. I was in Stockport recording a session for Pure FM with my dad and he played the song 'Hold It In' from their first album, which I thought was cool, so I checked them out when I got home and was immediately hooked. I bought both their albums and have had them on repeat ever since, especially the new record, released this year, which is a phenomenal, idiosyncratic piano-pop power-trio's explosion from boys into men. It has big, epic moments, tender moments, complex yet accessible piano lines, distinctive vocals, thoughtful lyrical content. All the components of a great pop record and more, which is why it's my personal favourite album of 2010.
So there you have it. Send me links to your own top tens so I can see if I'm on trend or just a loser with terrible taste. A couple of other mentions before I sign off:
Atrocity of the year - 'Hurley' by Weezer
I've already blogged at length about this but I just thought I'd remind everyone how rubbish it is and how silly they're being now when they have the capability to make the greatest pop-rock record of all time. Sort it out, Rivers.
Honourable mentions:
Beach House - Teen Dream
Allo, Darlin' - Allo, Darlin'
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Bad Books - Bad Books
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Beck and Metric's songs for the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Soundtrack
The Xcerts - Scatterbrain
So after yesterday's pondering I thought I'd drop in one from the band with my favourite name of all time, Half Man Half Biscuit, which has a extremely apt title. It speaks for itself, so no more introductory blather required. Here it is.
The first five songs on my ipod's shuffle, 6/12/2010:
The Boy Least Likely To - I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star
The King Blues - I Got Love
Jimmy Eat World - Half Right
Anamanaguchi - Scott Pilgrim Anthem
Ed Sheeran - Move On
Again with the slightly downbeat Christmas fare I'm afraid, but a nonetheless lovely song which hints at the true meaning of Christmas and does still evoke images of family, friendship etc and oozes compassion despite its inherent ill feeling toward the season of goodwill. Give it a listen and download Luke's albums and donate - he deserves your time and your dollar.
The first five songs on my ipod's shuffle, 5/12/2010:
New Found Glory - I Don't Wanna Know
The Walkmen - Angela Surf City
Weezer - Possibilities
Into It. Over It. - Sebadon't
Something Corporate - Bad Days
A lot of the best Christmas songs are sad ones, unfortunately, and ones which tell of loneliness or, in this case, maybe just being alone and dealing with it. This one's by a brilliant band whose singer always dresses impeccably. I promise there'll be happy ones soon.
Slow Club put out a whole EP of Christmas songs last year so they might get a repeat this month because it's all amazing (and includes a fantastic cover of the Phil Spector classic 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' which retains the soul of the original) but this song in particular is an absolute gem, as is this live performance I hadn't seen until today.
The first five songs on shuffle on my ipod, as of 3/12/2010:
The Get Up Kids - Mass Pike
The Jesus and Mary Chain - It's So Hard
Imogen Heap - Loose Ends
Biffy Clyro - Stress on the Sky
R.E.M. - Half A World Away
Now one of my earliest blogs on this page expressed my distaste at Weezer's current output and that still stands, but they are still one of the greatest bands around and this was a b-side from the Green Album era which is poignant but still somehow optimistic. Ahh. They've also covered a load of traditionals which are all on youtube if you do some digging. I've also recorded a cover of this and am currently tweaking it slightly so watch this space for that, and see my bedroom rendition below. Merry Advent!
The first five songs on shuffle on my ipod, on 02/12/2010:
Manchester Orchestra - Wolves at Night
Rivers Cuomo - Wanda (You're My Only Love)
The New Pornographers - Your Hands (Together)
Paddy Johnston & The Love Explosion - Days of Summer
Future of the Left - Fuck The Countryside Alliance
I'm going to blog a Christmas song every day from now until the magic day. Think of it as the Harmony, Counterpoint and Sarcasm Advent Calendar. First up is one I wasn't actually aware of until about ten minutes ago when it popped up on my news feed on facebook. I was aware of the Blink-182 original, of course, but I never thought of putting Mark Hoppus and Ben Folds in the same room. The result is joyous, and also bawdy. Not safe for work! Happy holidays.
I'm now going to do every shuffle as a separate thing I think. So it'll follow this format every day. The first five songs on my ipod's shuffle on 01/12/2010:
The Pixies - Hey
Winter Fires - Interlaken
The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Coin Toss
The Offspring - Change The World
Pinback - BB Tone
That's the first time any of my own music has crept in. Woops.
I had the day off today and it snowed all over London. I had some beautiful walks and remembered the warm feeling of crunching snow under my boots again. I also saw lots of dogs in great coats. Better than most of their owners' choices generally. I wonder what that says about this area? I also watched the wonderful 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', a truly timeless festive cartoon which everyone should watch. It's all on youtube I think. I wanted to watch it on the train so I bought it from itunes and was surprised to see it come with two other peanuts ones too, 'It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown' and the bizarre Snoopycentric disco fantasy, 'It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown'. This had a couple of songs in it and one was about Lucy and sounded like a sixties, female fronted Ben Folds Five. Folds should totally cover it. I have lots of video links to put up here so less natter, more matter. First up is The Walkmen covering Lindsey Buckingham's 'Holiday Road' for the wonderful AV Club, second is Matt Pond PA's 'Snow Day', which is self-explanatory, and third is the aforementioned Lucy song.
I also made some big progress with my Christmas album. There's lots more on the way soon but here is my version of 'White Christmas'. Enjoy.
Shuffles:
AFI - Silver and Cold
Owen - Note to Self
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - You Will Never Be No Good
Beastie Boys - Posse in Effect
Matt & Kim - Silver Tiles
This is going to be a short one as I'm currently mourning the loss of Wagner from the X Factor/finding out where he lives so my side-project band, The Inkstars, can grab him to join us before the major labels do. We need him. Shuffles:
The Maoists of Aix - The Sanctity of The Italian American Family
Son House - Walkin' Blues
Slow Club - There's No Good Way To Say Goodbye (Live)
Iron & Wine - Radio War
Mclusky - The World Loves Us
The Maoists of Aix! This is a project by my dad which involves mad sampling. Bother him on twitter (@goodoldMJ) to find out more.
So next week me and some friends are seeing Suede at the O2 Arena, which I'm really looking forward to. Suede definitely get forgotten occasionally in the wake of Blur, Oasis et al, but were really the bridge between The Smiths' jangly melancholy and the upbeat britpop stylings of the 90s, and as such are great. See this if you don't believe me:
Shuffles:
Saves The Day - The End
Mates of State - My Only Offer
Blink-182 - Carousel
Dent May - When You Were Mine
Death Cab For Cutie - A Diamond and A Tether
This Friday just gone my girlfriend and I went ice skating at Somerset House. It was magical. There was a pretty cheeky DJ who was playing some well chosen and nicely mixed electro, the kind of stuff which used to go down at Lofi Hifi, the night I ran last year at the Cavern in Exeter and which continues to go from strength to strength in new hands. However, after wowing me with a nice mix that went from Animal Collective's 'My Girls' into one of the more recent Hot Chip songs, he dropped the bomb and rickrolled us. Rickrolling Somerset House. What an achievement. It certainly made my evening. Shuffles:
Hot Club de Paris - My Litte Haunting
Sara Bareilles - King of Anything
Biffy Clyro - Bubbles
Imogen Heap - Kidding (Live)
Kevin Devine - Brooklyn Boy
Today I received the hard copy of my comic book, 'Small Town Heroes', back from my tutors with their comments. It was my MA Dissertation, and it got me my best mark. Their comments were very complimentary indeed and I was humbled by them, even if the second marker's comments could more or less be summed up with the phrase 'I lol'd'. So as such I thought I'd upload part two of five (so far) and put up the download links. That makes two chapters so far. Please to enjoy! Today's shuffles:
Field Mouse - Take Off
Death Cab For Cutie - Stability
Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family - Paperboats
Something Corporate - Ruthless
The Housemartins - Caravan of Love
What a great mix. Get stuck in to these free comics:
The sleigh bells came in the post today and they are amazing. I've never owned any before. I'm certain I must have picked them up (along with a fish guero and those weird bonsai cymbal things) in primary school music class at some point, but I have no recollection. It's as if I've suddenly found a guitar tone I've been listening to on record for years but never been able to recreate. Totally sweet. I recorded some samples so I can make them into a festive drum machine. The results will show soon. Sleigh bell shuffles:
Joe Hisaishi - On Board The Tiger Moth
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Mumm-Ra - Light Up This Room
Sam Isaac - Apple Tree
Idlewild - El Capitan
Today was a tough day at work but the underground was made all the more bearable by the dulcet tones of Allison Weiss. I'd had odd songs from her but only recently got her album, 'Allison Weiss Was Right All Along'. It's a marvellous indie-pop record, with highs, lows and a perfect balance between youthful, twee optimism and Morrissey-style jangling melancholy. A quick youtube search reveals a number of sweet, personal and intimate live performance videos which make me feel, briefly, like the existence of such a phenomenon is justified. Here is one such video, followed by a full band video and today's shuffles.
Shuffles:
Weezer - The Good Life
Jack's Mannequin - Rescued
Alexisonfire - We Are The Sound
Sonic Youth - Silver Rocket (Live)
A Genuine Freakshow - New Houses
Lovely selection. A Genuine Freakshow are excellent - we played a show with them earlier this year and they were brilliant. Some of the best use of strings in indie/post-rock influenced music I've seen in a long time. Their debut album, 'Oftentimes' is set for release any day now. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears pricked.
So as this is the 13th shuffle I figured what I'd do was press 'shuffle songs' and shuffle to the thirteenth song five times to see if it forms any spooky patterns. Here goes:
Say Anything - Ahh...Men
The Get Up Kids - Shorty
Henry Homesweet - Pocket Monster
Into It. Over It. - Can I Buy A V_wel?
Tegan and Sara - Alligator
Ahh...Men again. That's weird. Say Anything came up a lot in the songs in between actually. Maybe my ipod is trying to tell me I'm being too silent. Will blog about how that pans out at work after tomorrow.
Last night I caught up with some old friends at a funk and soul night where Craig Charles was DJing. He was great. Most significantly, he looked like he was enjoying himself, which can be rare among guest DJs. Hero. Now I'm trawling through synth patches and messing with waves to make cool and lovely sounds. Sunday shuffle sunday:
Incubus - Mexico
Johnny Cash - I'm So Doggone Lonesome
The Age of Rockets - Hell (Tegan & Sara cover)
Slow Club - I Was Unconscious, It Was A Dream
Max Bemis - Ahh, Men (Live @ Chain Reaction)
Good to see some covers and bootlegs creeping in. The Max Bemis one is excellent, all the best Say Anything songs performed as they were conceived. Check it out. Also, tomorrow sees the release of the new Tellison single,'Collarbone', a great return to form after their debut 'Contact! Contact!' which is one of my definitive records. Check out the video here and buy the single from Banquet Records.
I just bought some sleigh bells to use on my Christmas album. Let's hope I don't go totally nuts and use them on every song! Saturday shuffles:
Death Cab For Cutie - Stability
Loudon Wainwright III - Strange Weirdos
Diana Ross & Lionel Richie - Endless Love (Reprise)
The Boy Least Likely To - Fur Soft Fur
Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam - Staring Into Space
First time Death Cab have popped up. I think I have more tracks by them than anyone else so their probability is high. Also a nice link to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, which I watched last night - an insightful, funny and occasionally crushing film which all should see.
"True or false - an adult heron's beak is longer than a curly wurly?"
I miss Shooting Stars.
Kupek - Nothing Compares 2 U
Team Teamwork - Dr. Dre and Snoop Still D.R.E. (Getting Treasure)
Joe Hisaishi - Wandering Sophie
Bright Eyes - From A Balance Beam
Roddy Woomble - Under My Breath
Good to see Team Teamwork in there - that's from an incredible album called the Ocarina of Rhyme, which splices classic rap songs with the marvellous instrumentals from the best video game of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Pure genius.
About a month ago my lovely lady partner and I watched the brilliant, heartwarming indie flick Away We Go and since then it seems every film we've watched his featured its lead actor, John Krasinski, whether in a large role or a brief supporting one. I think he's a great actor and am always excited by his appearance on screen as such. This has lead to my girlfriend calling him 'your favourite guy'. I'm pretty sure she'll never learn his real name, and it would never be the same if she did. I am going to watch his film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men next, and am very excited about it, probably largely because it also stars Death Cab For Cutie Singer Ben Gibbard, but also because it's based on a book by David Foster Wallace, one of the coolest American Authors around and who I was once compared to. Here's the trailer, followed by today's shuffles. Happy November.
Shuffles:
The Vince Guaraldi Trio - The Christmas Song
My First Tooth - Sleet and Snow
CSS - Let's Reggae All Night
Piebald - Rich People Can Breed
The Beach Boys - 409
I only just got Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' after remembering how great it is following the purchase of a Peanuts book. I love how these things work out!
This weekend I popped in to The Royal Academy of Arts in London and wandered into a small, two-room exhibition which examined the work of modern painter Stephen Farthing, who I'd never heard of. It had some of his paintings then showed the sketches which became them. One whole wall showed Farthing's sketches of classic paintings (Hopper, Rembrandt etc) done with a number of differently coloured lines, and at the end of the wall was a collation of all of these into a tube-map like sketch in which each line was *ahem* a line and each painting was a station, with all the relevant interchanges and intersections. After doing a bit more research, it turns out he's done this sort of thing before. On his site I found his 'definition of drawing' in much the same fashion and was again blown away. I can't put my finger precisely on why but the idea of explaining abstract concepts through maps and practical functions really appeals to me. Probably because I was given The Great Bear as a present when I was quite young. Anyway, here is the 'definition of drawing', which you can also view in better quality if you click the link and go to his website (and download the PDF), which also explains a lot about his pretty impressive body of work. If you're ever in central London drop in to the RA and check it out. It's not free though, so obviously I don't want you to waste your money. There's a lot of free art galleries in London. In fact it's one of the main reasons the city is great. So get on it!
So the blog is now called 'Harmony, Counterpoint and Sarcasm' after a panel I saw today in a Peanuts strip. I bought one of those massive Peanuts books (1961-1962) and it brightened up my day no end. I couldn't find the panel on the net and our scanner is not playing ball so you'll just have to imagine it. The quote is, unsurprisingly, spoken by Lucy, leaning on Schroeder's piano, while he continues to ignore her as he will do until the end of time. Shuffles:
Mr Scruff feat. Alice Russell - Music Takes Me Up
Goodbooks - Startstop
Spoon - Take A Walk
Jenny Owen Youngs - Woodcut (The Age of Rockets Remix)
Neko Case - Favourite
Lovely mix. Good to see the Woodcut remix as that's two for the price of one.
That's what I say when I'm late at work. Hopefully one day it will be true. Shuffles:
Foo Fighters - DOA
Marmaduke Duke - Music Show
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA
Sara Bareilles - Before I Knew Better
The Shins - Red Rabbits
Bruce & Sara both owe their place on my ipod largely to my girlfriend. I forgot to mention previously that it was her that invited me to the Harry Potter premiere. Thanks for taking me with you baby. You're the greatest :)
So today I found out I passed my MA in Creative Writing with a Merit, with my highest mark being in my dissertation, which was a graphic novel (and the first time anyone in the department had done it). I feel like a winner and will get back into comics soon. I feel like a winner, and would like to thank you for reading my blog and let you know that you are capable of anything. Today's shuffles:
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
Los Campesinos! - 2007, The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)
The Popticians - Red Ken (Peel Session)
Robert Johnson - Preaching Blues
Wow. I had forgotten the Popticians existed - John Hegley's band. The greatest living poet of the English language sings. Might have to put up the mp3 of that tomorrow. Watch this space.
If you don't know yet, I have a Christmas Charity Project on the go and we've had our first donation! Massive thanks to the spectacular filmmaker Hannah Shaw-Williams for that. Click on the links to find out more and please give generously. Thanks. Big Love.
Loudon Wainwright III - Fame and Wealth
Paul Simon - American Tune
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Independent Luxury
Yo La Tengo - Little Honda
Harry and the Potters - Meet Me Under The Mistletoe
Good to see the Wizard Rock creeping in. And a Christmas tune too!
Again, sorry for the lateness, I was spending a relaxing weekend hanging out with my girlfriend and looking at the astounding art of Stephen Farthing at the Royal Academy of Art in London. Go, and be amazed. Today's shuffles:
Jimmy Eat World - Stop
Kupek - Born Beautiful
Joan of Arc - Flowers
Roddy Woomble - Every Line of A Long Moment
The Lemonheads - Confetti
A couple of years ago I spend a very cold day in fingerless gloves busking on Exeter high street. I did a few Christmas songs but mostly just did a few nice acoustic numbers over and over. I got a fair bit of cash but I reckon this was largely because of my big sign proclaiming it was for charity. Despite a ten-year-old boy's earnest proclamation that I was 'not very good' I really enjoyed it, despite the near-frostbite of the fingers. This year, I'd like to go one better and do a campaign to raise some money for Charity, to truly get in to the spirit of Christmas and give something back. As I will never be able to run a marathon, wouldn't last ten seconds in a sponsored silence and can't take part in Movember on account of already having facial hair, I've got to use what little skill I have with music to do something special to convince people to part with their pennies and give them to the sick kids. So from now until probably mid-December I'm going to record as many Christmas songs as I can until I have an album, then put it up on a pay-what-you-want basis on my bandcamp page, with all donations going to The Roald Dahl Foundation, a charity which helps to improve the quality of life of kids with long term illnesses.
Donations are open already because I figured if I start now then the campaign could gain some momentum and people could help with the process if they feel so inclined. Obviously it's okay if you want to wait until the album is finished to donate, but should you wish to help me along the way you can donate at my Just Giving page or by paying any amount at all towards the album on bandcamp. I've put the first song up, and will put each one up as I go, so that the album builds gradually. The first song is 'O Holy Night', a cover of a traditional and a fair beginning. The rest of the album, however, will be a mix of covers, traditionals and original material. If you have any suggestions for songs you think I should cover then drop a comment.
Please support in any way you can - visit the facebook or justgiving page and click 'like', tweet, invite your friends. All of these things take seconds but could change lives. But it doesn't make you a bad person if you don't. Check out the video blog - there'll be one of these, with an update and live performance, with each song. Boom!
I'm a day late on this one because I went to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) last night and didn't have time to blog. I know, I'm a bad person. The film was good - standard Potter fare (wooden acting, clumsy script, fantastic visuals, epic score), but this time much more faithful to the books than before, and as I'm a bit of a Potter nerd it satisfied me. Plus we (me and my lovely lady partner) had better seats than the X Factor contestants. I would have given mine up for Wagner, but he seemed happy.
Anyhow, today's shuffles:
Gogol Bordello - Think Locally, Fuck Globally
Magnetic Fields - Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old
Marmaduke Duke - Heartburn
Bad Books - Please Move
Wilco - Hummingbird
Once again, very eclectic and suspiciously cool. A song from High School Musical or something will crop up soon. Promise.
This is something my dad's been doing for years and I always meant to do, but never quite got round to doing. I just take my ipod, put it on shuffle and write down the first five songs which come up. Here goes.
Incubus - Love Hurts
The Hold Steady - Both Crosses
Bright Eyes - False Advertising
Billy Bragg - Ingrid Bergman
Joan of Arc - Flowers
That's pretty good for a first time. I'm sure it'll reveal some of the godawful rubbish on there in due course.
It's very easy to hate the ukulele. There's a lot of it going around on telly ads, mostly for phones and insurance and hair and the like, and it pretty much all sounds like the inimitably twee guff-pop classic 'Five Years Time' by Noah and the Whale. Incidentally, their second album, 'The First Days of Spring' was much better than their initial effort. Before this, the ukulele has been often thought of wrongly as a children's instrument or a toy, despite its Portuguese/Hawaiian origins and vibrant history. But the ukulele is an ancient and mystical instrument, so distance yourself from the whistling tweedom and be amazed at its powers as I tell you of my own love affair with the noble instrument.
I first bought a ukulele in the summer of 2008. I was between terms at university and working in a job I couldn't stand, and found myself in a music shop the day I got paid. I needed the money for books and rent and low quality booze, obviously, but was browsing anyway, and noticed the cheap Mahalo ukuleles hanging up. I recall that around the same time I had been to a gig at the Water Rats in London to see one of my now retired musical heroes, Sam Isaac, who was sharing the bill with beautiful electro-magic man James Yuill and the infuriatingly handsome Rod Thomas, both of whom I was unaware of previously. This turned about to be one of the most memorable gigs I have been to for a number of reasons. I was granted the incomparable experience of being introduced to an artists' work by seeing it live with no prior knowledge, and loving every minute of it. This is a rare and profound experience which occurs occasionally at gigs but definitely hasn't happened to me since. I was also given two in one, as James and Rod were both brilliant, as was Sam. James and Rod played alone, and Sam with just a cellist and keyboardist, a set-up which I had never seen him as before and would never see him with again.
Rod played first, and after a sweet, perfectly constructed set of synthy pop, Rod brought out his ukulele and came into the crowd, singing his then upcoming single 'Same Old Lines' unplugged, just standing in the middle of the crowd. It was a beautiful song and he had the room in the palm of his hand. I was struck immediately by the relative fragility of the ukulele compared to the guitar in such a situation, as well as its higher, sweeter register, and these thoughts have stayed with me as the reasons I love the ukulele, regularly reach for it and have just bought myself a new one. An electric one, so that I can gig with it. I can't actually remember whether this gig was before or after I bought my first uke, but for the purposes of this blog's mythology, I'll say the two were linked. It would definitely have made sense.
Rod has since started working under the moniker Bright Light Bright Light, and continues to be great. Here is the video for Same Old Lines, and the live from Balcony TV too. The video is, of course, pretty twee, but it's the right kind of twee. If it recalls childrens' television from previous decades, then that's alright. Nothing beats nostalgia.
The following year my favourite band of all time, Death Cab For Cutie, released the Open Door EP, which had a demo of a song from their most recent album, 'Talking Bird', which was just Ben Gibbard and a ukulele. It is subtly tagged on to the end of the EP, a short, sweet dessert which hints at the track it became but is its own work. This made me sure I should buy a proper ukulele (the £10 ones don't tend to stay in tune for long), so I spent a bit more and bought a better one. The same year I came second in a local battle of the bands, and I don't doubt that borrowing Rod's idea of unplugged ukulele had a lot to do with it. I sang a song about tea and writing and it made people chuckle. I actually can't remember it, which sucks, but I think it's in an old notebook somewhere. I seem to recall some people filming though, so maybe it'll turn up in fifty years' time when I snuff it, or when I'm on This Is Your Life. Maybe. Here's the 'Talking Bird' demo. A lot of people have done cool covers of it on Youtube too. They're worth flicking through if you have time to spare.
In the summer of 2009 I went to End of the Road Festival, which was brilliant. I'd been recommended Dent May by a friend by hadn't listened to him, so again I went to see him knowing very little, except that he played the ukulele. His set was brilliant, a perfect mix of fifties influence, American college themes and vaguely Hawaiian sweetness. His style was captivating, his look was intriguing and his ukulele sounded like no other. He was great, and I vowed to do more writing on the uke. Here is one of his videos.
I started my MA a few weeks later and moved in with Rob Sherman, who owned an electric tenor ukulele, which we both used to write and gig lots over the following year. I always enjoyed it as light relief from the guitar, and as a pleasantly portable instrument which always piqued people's interest. You get the odd idiot who shouts out for 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' if you play it live (incidentally, Formby played a Banjolele), but it always provides a different and individual sound. Some more examples of my favourite ukulele users are Darren Hayman, Jenny Owen Youngs, The King Blues, Jake Shimbakuro and of course, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. There are lots of others of course, but those are the ones which spring to mind. Also, the best song on the new Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly album, 'Morning Light' has a cracking ukulele part in its breakdown. The understated uke begins the climax of the song, and brings it in with dignity and punch.
To break in my new uke I decided to record a cover of one of my favourite songs, 'Thirteen' by Big Star. There are lots of cover versions of this song around, including a stunning one by Wilco, but I've never heard a ukulele-driven one. There probably is so I'm not going to say I'm the only one, but I am as far as I'm aware. You can listen to it or download it free (right click + save as) from the link below.
This weekend I also recorded volume two of my podcast with Rob Sherman and Rob Gordon, The Big Men's Book Club, where we talk about things we like. You can also listen to and download from the link below. Thanks for reading and happy November. It'll be time for winter mixtapes and eggnog latte soon!
So I spent a lot of today listening to The Weepies, having recently got their latest album, Be My Thrill. I was on the train home and was struck by how much their music is bursting with love, as sentimental as it sounds. I then remembered that they are a two-piece band and are married, and realised that two of my other favourite bands are two-piece married couples, and that this works in their favour infinitely. In all three bands the love, passion and intimacy of their marriage comes across but does not smother their music; rather, it gives it structure, narrative and weight. So I thought I'd do a little on each of them.
Mates of State are an incredible band who have only ever been a two-piece, with Kori Gardner on keyboards and Jason Hammel on drums, and, of course, both picking up the vocal duties. Their earlier albums are mostly distorted organs and schizophrenic bursts of pop bombast, but as they have progressed they have evolved, gracefully, into a mature, piano-driven indie-pop outfit with some of the most beautiful melodies this side of Mozart. The piano has crept into their sound cheekily, in songs such as 'Parachutes (Funeral Song' on their earlier albums, until it opens their most recent self-penned album, 'Get Better', a relentlessly cheerful but still reflective record. Their most recent effort is an intriguing, eclectic covers album entitled 'Crushes', which sees them branch out to include a little more guitar, and also to get their young children to sing backing vocals.
I was introduced to Low at the beginning of this year by Sittingbourne's first poet, Alex Hawkins, who recommended them partly on account of my borderline psychotic Death Cab obsession. I'd also read about them in Jeffrey Brown's graphic novel equivalent of a b-sides album, Undeleted Scenes. Low are slow and subtle, beautiful and brittle; the full impact of their beauty takes a few listens to flourish, but when it does it really hits home. Again, they're reflective, but in a more postmodern way than Mates of State. Not that their styles are really similar. 'The Plan' is one of my all-time favourite songs, and essentially just repeats the same phrase over and over, with a bit of added harmony and climax towards the end. It gets me every time. Their voices complement each other perfectly.
Essential album: 'The Curtain Hits The Cast' (1996)
I was introduced to The Weepies by my girlfriend earlier this year and was instantly captivated. They're incredibly twee and so will probably sicken you, but they both have beautiful voices and sing elegantly and sweetly about love and relationships. I'm personally pretty sentimental and uncynical when it comes to this kind of thing (although some twee is too much for me), so I realise they might seem like one of those self-consciously beautiful girl-with-voice type acts, but I can assure you they aren't, and are genuinely lovely. Maybe I just like the fact that they were both solo artists but made more beautiful music once they'd found each other. Either way, they make me smile. Search them on youtube as well as they have a lot of great videos.
The mp3s are included in the hope that, if you like what you hear, you'll by their albums. Musicians need your money, kids. Spend it on the records then stay home and listen to them instead of going out to nightclubs. Bad people go to nightclubs.
In other news I've decided that myself, Rob Sherman and Rob Gordon are going to start recording podcasts when we see each other, following on from the podcast which was made from my show on 87.7 Xpression FM earlier this year. This has been in circulation already but has now moved to its new home at my website, so click here to check out the page, or the link below to download the original podcast. We'll be doing more very soon, so watch this space.
So, with a little help from the unparalleled genius of Will Quick, my webcomic site is up. It's also titled Low Fidelity, not with confusion in mind but rather that I can have a name more than my own associated with my feeble drawings. You can visit the website here. At the moment the comics are only the ones which were previously up on my old combined comic/blog, but there are more on the way soon. The main event, however, is that you can download the first chapter of my fictional comic, Small Town Heroes, as a free e-zine. The best thing about it is you can read it on your iphone or any other smartphone, or one of those e-readers that everyone but me has on the tube.
I'm going to drop these zines gradually. There's a total of five in all, and I'm giving them away free so that people can come to know and love the Small Town Heroes universe before I try and produce something really awesome from it. Currently I'm learning how to draw properly and working bigger and working with adding colour so I can produce a proper rad update of it, but the skeleton is there, and I would love for you to read the skeleton. Have a flick through his bones.
In other news I was overjoyed to discover that London has a comics festival coming up, Comica, and I will most definitely be crashing it whenever I can. There's a whole host of amazing artists attending and rad events going down. My friend Greg, who alerted me to the event, and I are going to the opening this Thursday night at the London Print Studio. Here's the flyer.
I'm also going to shamelessly self-promote and bring some flyers. If you're reading this you already know where the site is but you won't have a super individual drawing of one of the characters from Small Town Heroes delivering a quote what Prince said about how good my comic is. So if you want one of those then come along. I'll have an A6 pad and pen and will draw for you if you like. And go to all of Comica's events. They're offering free lectures on the study of comics too. How totally amazing is that?
Today I got the new record from Bad Books and it's great. They're a super combo of Kevin Devine and the Manchester Orchestra and it's a beautiful, stirring, emotionally articulate record full of warm harmony and carefully crafted climactic points. Buy it.
OK, so we all know Weezer have been taking the piss for a long time now. I've resisted the urge to rant about it but I can't hold it in any longer since I read an article in The Guardian about an internet campaign which is offering the band $10m dollars to split up and was surprised to find myself thinking that this wasn't an entirely bad idea.
When asked the all-too-narrow question of who my all-time favourite band are, I have answered Weezer many a time. Their first two albums are still as fresh upon every listen as the first time they stopped me dead in my tracks as a teenager. The Green Album is pretty alright, Maladriot is excellent and Make Believe has a few alright tracks. The Red Album was the last album I got excited about and enjoyed of theirs; I would say the first half of the album is great and the second half is awful. However, since then they have released two albums in two years, neither of which have really had any half-decent tracks on.
This, unfortunately, is the point where I come across as one of those wankers who tries to make themselves superior by saying they 'prefer a band's earlier material' when in fact everyone knows their later material is better developed, constructed etc but more popular. I am, of course, guilty of this crime, but that's a story for another blog. My sincerest apologies for coming across as such, but with Weezer I have had my opinions reinforced by such events as this internet campaign and I now feel compared to share them.
I don't feel that all is lost for Weezer - rumours abound of a Pinkerton tour - but I do think they need to stop messing around and writing inane, vacuous songs in a hurry. Rivers Cuomo has always been a law unto himself and that is why I admire him, but he just has a bit of a weird obsession with pop culture and it's stopping him writing the poignant, blistering love songs he was born to write. Now I like Lady Gaga and MGMT, but I don't need Weezer to cover them, nor do I think the hilarious joke of them covering 'Teenage Dirtbag' is worth losing one of their own songs in a live setlist.
I'm sure they could still write a decent record if they reconnected with their roots and took some time about it. The esteemed critic, social network guru and grime superstar Jonny Rose said that if you took the best tracks from their last four albums, you'd get a brilliant album, and I agree. Now I'm off to listen to Pinkerton and cry myself to sleep. Watch this video and then you can too!
And if you want to get behind said internet campaign, go ahead. I don't think I want them to split up so I won't be giving them any of my hard-earned cash, but good on the man for alerting people to the fact that a once great band are now a bit silly.
To balance the rant, here are some awesome things.
I just finished reading the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier and it's lovely. As the cover suggests its central theme is Raina's dental treatment, but it's a brilliant portrait of growing up without too much focus on the latter, coming-of-age side of things. Rather, Raina begins and ends the autobiographical comic a child, but learns a lot along the way. And it's in beautiful colour. If you were ever a teenager, you should read it. I know some people deny that they were ever teenagers. I will find these people and their year ten photographs.
My former flatmate and purveyor of slightly unhinged literature and folk music Rob Sherman has a poetry collection out called Valve Works, and you can get it as a free ebook here. It is also illustrated by the marvelously talented Sarah Ogilvie who you should give money to to draw you baboons and such. Free ebooks are pretty much the best thing ever. You can read them on iphones and stuff. Get on it. It's some bizarrely touching and strangely resonant poetry which pervade in Valve Works, but there's all sorts available. I might not sleep tonight.
Finally, The Xcerts have a new record out, and I get the feeling it's a grower after a couple of listens. It's noisier, angrier and even more energetic than their debut, and it's great. You should buy it from Banquet Records because independent record shops are awesome. I saw them play acoustic in Banquet's shop once. That was nice.
Today is a special day, because Dan Gaynor, my new favourite Irish comics artist, has a picture which I drew up on his excellent website, Giant Eyeball. There's a big old speech bubble which is featuring guest artists, and today is me. The picture is of Joel, the protagonist of my series in development, Small Town Heroes, listening to some of his favourite records and hanging out with some spiders. And crying a bit. Maybe. I personally think he just got something in his eye, or that he's chopping onions surreptitiously beneath the frame of the drawing, but you're free to make up your own mind. The spiders won't hold your opinion against you.
Anyhow, Dan is awesome and his work is awesome, some is really atmospheric and some is downright hilarious. One of my faves is his mini series on the excellent web collection Top Shelf 2.0 and is called Ted and the Animals. Go read it, and read everything else on there too. Top Shelf have published most of the comics of Jeffrey Brown, who inspired me to start scribbling, so that automatically makes them awesome.
In other news my comic site is still under construction, I promise there will be more on that when I have a bit more time to dedicate to it. Soon. Soon.
Music wise, my new favourite boy/girl power trio are Standard Fare. Their vocal balance is perfect and they're sweet, melodic and youthful. Have a listen.
So, you might know that I had a combined blog/webcomic thing going on over at wordpress. After a bit of consideration I've decided to separate the two, and to move my blog over to here, whereas the comic will soon be taking up residence on my proper website, which is still under construction. I'm going to blog about all sorts but mostly music and comics, as I think it's about time I started blogging properly.
So here's today's music recommendation. Field Mouse is the stage name of Brooklyn's Rachel Browne, and her debut album, You Are Here, has just become free to download from her bandcamp page. Have a listen and download it here. It's dreamy, ethereal and downright lovely.
Thanks for reading and watch this space for when the webcomic goes up properly.
