Dirty Three – Ends of the Earth (1998)

Perfect Australian post-rock; instrumental genius from the wonderful “Ocean Songs” LP.

Piano, guitar and understated percussion.

A classic example of less being more.

The soundtrack to Barnaby’s birth.

The Hold Steady – Sequestered in Memphis (2008)

Just a relentlessly wonderful track.

Setting the standards only ever later achieved by Gaslight Anthem, the Hold Steady are just perfect 21st century punk rock.

The fact that I still have more hair than the singer is a source of cheap satisfaction for someone with the merest fingerhold on credibility ….

Live in the studio, CD version then live on Jools Holland. Every version is stupendous!

In barlight, she looked alright

In daylight, she looked desperate

……

Subpoenaed in Texas

Sequestered in Memphis

Grinderswitch – Pickin’ The Blues (1975)

For people of a certain age, this piece of music was the gateway to another world – the theme tune to the John Peel Show of the late 1970s.

As the decadence of modern living relentlessly squeezes quality and originality out of the life blood of civilisation, sit back and enjoy this. It will never happen again. See you at the barricades between life and death.

As John Cooper Clarke observed: “this is the way the world will end; not with a bang but with a Wimpy”

Brakes – Heard About Your Band (2005)

Classic 21st century punk rock.

Got this track on a Rough Trade “Counter Culture” compilation of 2005; loved it immediately. All over in 82 seconds, just love the lyrics which I quote in full

I heard about your band
I couldn’t help it, you were screaming in my ear
Coked up arsehole
Waiting for Liars
You shared a cab with Karen O
Oh oh, oh oh oh
You’re talking hyper bollocks
You’re talking salaries
Oh yeah, you work in insurance
30k, O.T.E
You met Electrelane
Ay ay, ay ay ay
You know the girl from Sleater Kinney
You said you couldn’t understand
Why it was that she continued to play
When she was only earning 10 grand, P.A.
You know a lot of people in the industry
Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo
I heard about your band
WHATEVER DUDE!

Poetry.

Donovan – Wear Your Love Like Heaven (1967)

Holidays continue under the blazing, 20 degree, heat of a Cambridgeshire summer ….. pass the factor 50 and a Pina Colada please.

Today, I have been mostly listening to Donovan. Not sure I had every realised how consistently good he was. The clear influence on bands like Belle and Sebastian is clear but some of the music is also reminiscent of that which accompanied John Cooper Clarke’s seminal LPs of the late 1970s. No, really.

But, I couldn’t look further than this.

“Wear Your Love Like Heaven” is 2 and a half minutes of pop perfection from the “A Gift from a Flower to the Garden” LP of 1967.  Just wish it was twice as long.

 

Jenny Owen Youngs – “F*ck Was I” (2007)

Just a wonderful track from Jenny Owen Youngs.

A universally relevant lyric applicable to innumerable circumstances in life.

Nice cello as well. And it’s a waltz!

C-Bank – One More Shot (1982)

How did I end up here? In the early 1980s once again ….

Wonderful early electro classic providing a missing link from Chic/Moroder to Trax/DJ International house heaven.

This is completely peerless stuff…. The 12″ Club Mix then the 7″ version!

C.J. Bolland – Camargue (1992)

Quiet night and just remembered this song and had to hear it.

Perfect techno/trance from R&S Records in 1992.

It is pretty difficult to overstate how good this is – the synths just build and build.

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On? (1971)

I’ve always found Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” LP to be a tad on the woolly side. Lovely stuff, but effectively 35 minutes of rather gorgeous handwringing.

However, following the events of recent nights, I’ve started to appreciate the merits of headscratching.

What’s going on?

Original cut from the LP.

Magazine – A Song From Under the Floorboards (1980)

Magazine were formed by Howard Devoto after he left the original line up of the Buzzcocks in early 1977 (for the Devoto fronted Buzzcocks classic “Boredom”, check here).

The band released four intermittently great LPs between 1978 and 1981 and two killer singles. Their first “Shot by Both Sides” will get an airing in due course but this was always my favourite track of theirs. Taken from their third LP “The Correct Use of Soap”

Apparently, it’s a three verse distillation of Dostoyevsky’s “Notes From Underground” …. great bassline as well.

I am angry, I am ill, and I’m as ugly as sin
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking
I know the meaning of life, it doesn’t help me a bit
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it

The original vinyl version and then the Peel Session …