Days -

true love... Days publican “Downhill” en Shelflife en Enero/Febrero 2008... Days play an acoustic version of Downhill for Swedish Television in a forest outside Stockholm:

Days Uplugged - Downhill

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Alela Diane

Esto es el rough trade shops album of the year. Folk rural e intimista. Bonito. 

this album plays like an autobiography of everything this remarkable young woman has experienced: a place where deep woods meet winding rivers; where rural traditions are not the curiosites of bourgeois hipsters, but rather, a way of life. enchanting and endearing in equal parts, this album will endure long after this year is done

The Honeydrips - Hej Da Karolin

Es realmente preciosa. Canciones así ya no se hacen.

Una canción exclusiva de The Honeydrips con descarga gratuita:

http://www.sincerelyyours.se/yours0064.html 

YOURS0064 Hej Då KarolinMP3 by The Honeydrips

Just another lovesong.....not.

Hej då Karro! SY December 2007

Barbara Manning

Barbara Manning has a new box set reissue out, Super Scissors), which collects remastered versions of Scissors and One Perfect Green Blanket along with 24 bonus tracks and extensive liners.Aquí hay una entrevista muy divertida sobre ella donde cuenta que no encuentra trabajo sobre lo que ha estudiado (biología) y que trabaja como guarda de seguridad en un hospital. Actualmente no tiene contrato discográfico. Una pena. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2007/06/07/derk.DTL

Sólo para muy fans de Dominique A

A l'intérieur, on trouvera, réparties sur quatre disques, seize chansons sauvées des eaux, enregistrées à domicile ça et là, comme ci et comme ça, entre 1981 et 2005, assemblées, illustrées et commentées par mes soins, et héroïquement masterisées par Géraldine Capart, chez elle, rue Voncq, à Bruxelles."
Dominique A  (ver http://www.commentcertainsvivent.com/compilations/les-sons-cardinaux.html

 

Fireflies - Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Moon

Indie a la vieja usanza, gentileza de Walkoviak.

The “band” is just me. my name’s lisle. i write the songs and the words and play all the instruments and record them on my laptop and do all that kind of stuff. i had to write a bio for a class once and it said something like this: “i grew up in the tundras of new england playing classical piano and one day i moved to california to go to school and decided to start writing songs. i bought a portastudio and started recording, combining my love for lo-fi indie recordings of the 1980s and 90s with my unrefined knowledge of classical arrangement. i try to craft each song into a tiny snow-globe-sized universe you can curl up in and get lost for a little while.” addendum: i currently live in chicago where i am getting my masters. it’s cold here. i sometimes miss the sun, but i really don’t mind. trains pass by my window, and my neighbor has a dog who barks at everything. i’m not sure how this informs my music yet.  For fans of: galaxie 500, the cat’s miaow, the field mice, her space holiday, nobuo uematsu, the softies, belle and sebastian, nick drake, françoise hardy, the clientele

Robert Forster, Rough Trade Shop y el Blog Fire Escape Talking

http://fireescapetalking.blogspot.com/2007/12/robert-forster-on-rough-trade-shopping.html

Lo mejor del año para

PASTE magazine: http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/5893/review/music/signs_of_life_2007_best_music?page=2

Sólo para los más modernos 2: Lo mejor del año para Rough Trade Shops

http://www.roughtrade.com/site/content.lasso?page=top100_2007.html

Sólo para los más modernos: Lo mejor del año para Other Music

http://www.othermusic.com/2007december12update.html

¡Stephen Merritt a lo Jesus & Mary Chain!

El próximo 15 de enero saldrá a la venta el esperado nuevo trabajo de The Magnetic Fields, "Distortion". Un disco en el que, según el propio Stephin Merritt, han procurado emular el sonido de The Jesus & Mary Chain. Nuestro objetivo era sonar más Jesus & Mary Chain que los propios Jesus & Mary Chain" ha declarado el líder de la banda, Stephin Merritt, en relación a su nuevo álbum, apropiadamente titulado "Distortion. El primer single extraído del álbum será, 'California Girls'. El single saldrá a la venta en I Tunes y demás tiendas digitales el próximo 18 de diciembre. SALLY TIMMS es la gran invitada, pues la ex Mekon canta en la mitad de las canciones. John Mulvey lo revisa en la web de Uncut: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&title=magnetic_fields_distortion&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

¿Ha perdido este hombre el juicio?

Le CD/DVD Borderlive Tour 2006/2007 contient un CD regroupant des versions alternatives des titres de l'album Robots après tout enregistrées en studio dans les conditions du live. Le DVD propose, quant à lui, un documentaire de 90 minutes réalisé par Gaétan Chataigner tourné sur plus de dix concerts de la dernière tournée de KATERINE. En bonus, sont présents les clips Louxor j'adore, 100% VIP, Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit et Excuse-Moi. Más info en Ver http://www.borderlive.fr/

THE BLACK ARTS "Christmas Number One"

Madre mía ¡qué pandilla! ¡y como está el Luke Haines! Lo edita los amigos de Sergio, Fantastic Plastic (¡todavía existe el sello!)

 

THE BLACK ARTS Christmas Number One (2007 UK limited edition 2-track 7" single pressed on Festive Green Coloured Vinyl - A collaboration by Black Box Recorder & Art Brut, 'Christmas Number One' is a genuine ce lebration of Christmas with a song written by John Moore & Luke Haines, clearly influenced by Slade, Wizzard etc and there is only one person who could convey this message of good cheer, their dear pal Eddie Argos [Art Brut]; includes a exclusive b-side: 'Glam Casual' written & performed by Eddie Argos) –

 

 

We wrote it on the beach in August as the snow began to fall, A Christmas Number One could be a blessing for us all"

In an inspired meeting of minds, Black Box Recorder and Art Brut's Eddie Argos have joined forces to form The Black Arts, whose first (and perhaps only) release is set to be this year's essential Christmas single. Following in the tradition of such masters of the seasonal rocker as Wizzard and Slade, Christmas Number One once more unites sleigh bells, blazing guitars and children’s choirs for three and a half minutes of festive fun.

The song was conceived by Black Box Recorder's John Moore, who having endured an utterly appalling summer, decided that the year must end on a blissfully high note. In a rush of optimism, the idea of a Christmas Number One seemed entirely plausible. Much of the song spilled out of the ether late one Sunday evening, sounding somewhere between William Burroughs and Slade. Turned over to Luke Haines for inspection and dissection, a towering middle-section was added, and quite properly, respectful references to Britain’s former-first men of Christmas - Noddy and Roy were added. The fecund glacial goddess Sarah Nixey was alerted and asked not to give birth until her mellifluous vocal frosting could be added, then with a final sprinkling of vocal magic from Eddie Argos, the song reached pure pop perfection.

The relationship between Art Brut and Black Box Recorder began three years ago when John witnessed an hereoically pissed Art Brut playing a tiny gig in Reading, and then bonded with Eddie backstage over a dog-eared copy of Just William. The relationship then developed to the point where a musical collaboration became inevitable.

Christmas Number One will be available as a download from 3 December and as a rather fetching limited edition eco-sustainable Christmas tree green 7" from 10 December on 'Fantastic Plastic'.

According to Luke Haines: "When you're doing your last minute shopping at Woolworth's and you've heard 'Christmas Number One' for the eleventh time in a row, don't worry, it will all be over by January. The Black Arts are for Christmas, not for life'

Or are they? As Sarah Nixey reveals “ It was all over wasn’t it? I hadn’t the heart to tell them the truth.”

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

The Zombies - Into the Afterlife 2007

Maravillosa recopilación de singles post Zombies (post Odessey & Oracle) y demos y rarezas. Compiladas por Alec Palao (sí, el de los Sneetches, catedrático mayor del reino Zombie). Una joya. REEDICIÓN DEL AÑO, sin discusión. He pagado dos textos; uno de Mark A. Frumento (Cherry Hill, NJ USA), sacado de amazon.com y que según dice, lo escribió para Shindig Magazine (http://blog.shindig-magazine.com/news.php). El segundo corresponde a Alec Palao.

MARK A. FRUMENTO   

The Zombies may have one of the few catalogues in the history of 60s pop music to be treated with the full and proper respect it deserves. This comes down partially to the fact that the band themselves own the material but it's largely due to the caretaking abilities of compiler, writer and Zombies historian Alec Palao.

Alec made it easy for both super-fans and novices to collect the Zombies when he dreamed up Zombies Heaven, the 4 CD set of all of their studio recordings. There are side trips along the way with releases containing alternate mixes and rarities but owning the band's complete output is as easy as that one purchase. Now, 10 years since the release of Zombie Heaven Palao has given us one of the finest encores we could have imagined with Into the Afterlife.

Compiling 20 post-Odessey & Oracle tracks, Afterlife, like the box set before it, is another carefully compiled and well documented package. In this one collection you get the complete recorded output of Colin Blunstone's alter ego Neil MacArthur, a handful of excellent Rod Argent and Chris White demos, alternate mixes of later Zombies recordings and a few other oddities.

The proceedings kick off with the Neil MacArthur recording of She's Not There. The liner notes tell us that producer Mike Hurst coaxed Colin Blunstone away from his day job as an insurance salesman to make a return to the studio. The first number they tried together was this trippy version of the old Zombies hit. Luckily for us Blunstone stayed with Hurst for two more excellent singles, the Billy Vera penned blue-eyed soul track Don't Try to Explain, Nilsson's Without Her and the big production of 12:29 and It's Not Easy. We're also treated to a few rare MacArthur recordings including a breathy version of Stephen Stills' Hung Upside Down. The MacArthur tracks alone make this CD worth the price of admission.

Rod Argent and Chris White are represented by 6 demos, the highlights being Unhappy Girl and To Julia (for When She Smiles). Both of these demos would have fit nicely on Odessey & Oracle and are easily up to the standards of that album. Telescope (Mr. Galileo) is another fantastic number, very much in a pop psych vein. A completed studio recording of Telescope by an early incarnation of Argent is also included.

Rounding out the collection are 3 Zombies tracks, Walking in the Sun, I Know She Will and If It Don't Work Out, all remixes of tracks that appeared on Zombie Heaven. The mixes on Afterlife highlight the orchestral bits that were added as an effort to eek another hit out of the band. If anything could be considered filler on this CD it would be these tracks. More than anything the orchestrations prove to be bloated and overbearing when they are separated from the Zombies' original recordings.

Finally, we are presented with a rare live recording of the Zombies from 1966. On Going to a Go Go we get to hear just how much the band could rock in front of an audience and it's a shame more of these performances aren't available. While the not so excellent sound quality on this track breaks the mood it is among the most interesting artifacts on the CD.

Afterlife is packaged with the same quality we've come to expect Big Beat/Ace. A nice, fat booklet, filled with all the necessary details, band quotes, photos and memorabilia is housed artfully in an Odessey & Oracle part 2 cover. It may have taken 10 years to round this material up into one package but the wait was worth it. Palao and Big Beat have produced a Zombies collector's dream and one the best 60 reissues so far this year. 

 

 

 

ALEC PALAO

· "Ten years is a long time for a compilation to come to fruition, but at Ace Records we firmly believe that it is well worth the wait to do things properly. Such in the case with Into the Afterlife. I had originally planned this collection of post-Zombies odds and sods to come out shortly after the release in October 1997 of Zombie Heaven, almost as a sort of adjunctal fifth disc. Some tracks on Afterlife had in fact at one time been contenders for inclusion on the box. However, one learns that not everything in life is quite so simple, and thus it has taken the best part of a decade to gather the appropriate clearances for the contents of Afterlife. I think you will agree, though, that it has indeed been well worth the wait.
This is technically not a Zombies album, though it does contain performances by Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White, Hugh Grundy and Paul Atkinson, together and separately. In their seven years together, the St Albans quintet had gone from rags to riches to rags again, both literally and metaphorically. As 1968 dawned, with an imminent dissolution of the five friends’ partnership, it seemed that for some of the participants at least, the Zombies had been a magical but ultimately fleeting adventure. Rather, Afterlife is, essentially, what the members of the Zombies did next. It documents the relatively brief but murky period between the end of the group, and the establishment of long term music careers by its main protagonists: two years that were also highlighted by the sudden re-emergence of the Zombies brand as a major commercial force, thanks to the belated and quite unexpected American success of the final single Time Of The Season and the group’s brilliant swansong, Odessey & Oracle.
It is thus a fascinating, if fleeting chapter, that draws from three different sets of repertoire: Rod and Chris’ initial demos on the way to the formation of Argent, pop experiments that on the one hand are markedly different to what these two exemplary writers had done in the past, yet bear the classy hallmark of the Odessey songbook; the augmented Zombies material that the duo prepared for the aborted R.I.P album; and the small cache of recordings Colin made as Neil MacArthur, including his revamp of She’s Not There which charted in the spring of 1969.
Virtually everything on Afterlife has not been reissued before, and over half has never been available anywhere.
The demos provide a chance to hear fabled lost songs such as Unhappy Girl and To Julia, which were deemed inappropriate for the direction the band Argent would take, as well as the embryonic versions of much-loved tunes like She Loves The Way They Love Her. The personnel utilized for the demo sessions was a dry-run for Rod’s planned new group, including Jim Rodford on bass and Hugh Grundy on drums. We also hear a rare Chris vocal on the legendary track Mr Galileo. The enviable harmonies of messrs Argent and White are also to the fore on the orchestral mixes of vintage Zombies outtakes redressed for R.I.P., remixed so as to showcase both the overdubbed vocals and Mike Vickers’ expert string and horn arrangements.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Afterlife are the Neil MacArthur sides, which are rarely discussed even by diehard fans of Mr Blunstone. Though they were unrelated to Chris and Rod’s concurrent activities and, as Colin himself explains in the liners, it was a most uncertain period in the singer’s career, this material nevertheless features some great and overlooked performances from one of the most distinctive voices in British pop. Overseen by producer Mike Hurst, we feature all six tracks originally released on three Deram singles in 1969, including exemplary versions of Nilsson’s Without Her and Billy Vera’s Don’t Try To Explain, and Hurst’s own World Of Glass. A special bonus was the discovery in the producer’s vault of two unreleased cuts from the sessions, including Colin’s absolutely gorgeous rendering of the Buffalo Springfield’s Hung Upside Down. The arrangements are all late 60s British record-making at its classiest.
Last but not least, there are a couple of continentally-flavoured bonus cuts: the super-rare Italian language version of She’s Not There, and Going To A Go Go, as performed live by the original Zombies on French TV in late 1966.
Though it consists of live rave-ups, bare-boned demos, or ultra-commercial items aimed squarely at the charts, Into The Afterlife actually hangs together in an oddly satisfying manner, a cohesion that could be expected of few others in pop at the time. As the last Zombies single of the 60s postulated, If It Don’t Work Out: a lot of what’s here indeed did not work out, but most other artists should be so lucky as to have ephemera of this calibre to throw away.
Alec Palao

Robyn Hitchcock - I Wanna Go Backwards box set

Robyn Hitchcock has finally begun the daunting task of compiling his groundbreaking post-Soft Boys solo catalog with the I Wanna Go Backwards box set. The first of two upcoming collections, I Wanna Go Backwards includes three of his most classic albums. Hitchcock's first solo album Black Snake Diamond Role (remastered for this collection) is a private rock album featuring ex-Soft Boys, a Vibrator, a Fur and other friends. I Often Dream of Trains finds Robyn at his all-acoustic zenith with a seminal collection of kaleidoscopic, stripped down folk. Eye continues in the tradition of Trains draping Hitchcock's signature layered lyrical imagery over his most musically direct work to date. All the albums feature bonus tracks and enhanced liner notes: reminiscences (BSDR & WTMB), an excerpt from a novel in progress (Trains), and original poetry (Eye), plus previously unseen photos and Hitchcock cartoons. Additional bonus material includes While Thatcher Mauled Britain Part 1 & 2, a two-disc comprehensive look at a labyrinth of Robyn's largely unreleased solo b-sides, outtakes and home recordings. Black Snake Diamond Role and I Often Dream of Trains have been remastered for this collection.

In addition to the exclusive box set packaging, all three albums will also be simultaneously re-released individually, allowing fans to fill the gaps in their Hitchcock compendiums. Individual album versions will also feature the bonus tracks included on the box set versions as well as the enhanced liner notes. In addition to compact disc format the set will also be released in an eight-record vinyl box set version complete with original LP artwork. The combined release of the I Wanna Go Backwards box set and the individual albums that comprise it are the definitive document of a career defining period of creation for one of the worlds most eccentric and beloved singer/songwriters, a must-have for collectors and fanatics alike.

This is a limited edition LP, there will only be one pressing of I Wanna Go Backwards on vinyl. Be sure to reserve yours now! All pre-orders of this album come with a free digital version, available in your Stash on release date.

Burial: Weird Soul Music

Este es el sonido del Londres del 2007.

 

 

The council houses in London possess an aura that is easier to feel than it is to explain. I used to jog at midnight and come upon the council houses, always devoid of life from the outside, yet teeming with rotten things behind its clean façade. Every night I would return to them, both repelled and magnetized by their unnerving paradox of innocuousness and evil, letting the ghostly atmosphere of the council houses take me over in some puzzling, profound way. Whether he knows it or not, anonymous London producer Burial makes music sound like council houses feel. His eponymous debut in 2006 capitalized on the eerie sensation of London at night by taking the rhythmic patterns and instrumentation of dubstep, a chiefly British genre, and blackening the palette. The drums sounded like knives hitting steel; the record crackles evoked raindrops; the bass was so low that it seemed to operate at subsonic frequencies. Every so often, a voice would make its strangled way up the surface, crying for everyone in London who wanted out before trailing off into the unforgiving cityscape. (texto extraído de un cliente de amazon.com)

 

 

 

For those wondered what Massive Attack would sound like in 2020? This is it. Nothing sounds this next-level, dark and beautiful.

 

 

Momento radiofónico: Ellie Greenwich en el Ambigú

El Viernes me lo pasé muy bien con el monográfico que Diego A.Manrique le dedicó a  Ellie Greenwich.  Me descubrió uno de sus dos lps que grabó como cantante, el excelente “Let it be written let it be sung” (1973) en el que Ellie –cansada de oír sus canciones en voces de otros- se atrevió a cantar sus mejores composiciones. Son versiones cuasi folkpop, sin la magia de las majestuosas producciones de Spector y demás, pero suenan realmente encantadoras en su sencillez. Manrique iba comparando el “I Can Hear Music” o el “River Deep Mountain High” cantadas por Ellie con otras versiones y se puede decir que fue una hora maravillosa de programa. Para rematar el momento, me encontré este deliciosa entrevista de Sheila Cha Cha Charming a la eterna Ellie, de obligada lectura: http://www.chachacharming.com/article.php?id=26 

Nouvelle Vague & Julie Delpy - "Lalala"

From the Two Days In Paris OST, this one is a cool saucy delight. Better than any track on Nouvelle Vague's last albums... Agreed! Nouvelle Vague & Julie Delpy make a dreamy combination....I loved this, when I heard in the cinema, at the end of the movie.

Lucky Soul emisión conciertos Radio 3/ TVE2

Jueves, 22 de Noviembre
Emisión Concierto íntegro TVE/2
Lucky Soul
hora: 02:00 [madrugada]

¿volverá Costello a grabar alguna vez algún lp?

"I'm not of a mind to record anymore...  There's no point.  In terms of recorded music, 
 the pact's been broken - the personal connection between the artist and the listener.  
 MP3 has dismantled the intended shape of an album.  And then everything is leaked, 
 everything is stolen.  So I play live, it happens in the moment.  If I do a new song, 
 I might never play it again, and if you're not there  you fuckin' miss it..."
 
 - Elvis Costello, MOJO magazine (November 2007 issue)
 
 
 "I don't have much interest or burning need, if you will, to record...  
 If I had to choose between recording and concerts, I'll take the live adventure."        
 
 -- interview, creativeloafing.com
 
 
 "I'm through with making albums.  I just don't need it anymore.  What's the point of making an album 
 with the songs in a specific order, when anyone with an mp3 player can re-set the track order?  
 When I'm doing a concert, people will actually have to listen to the songs in whichever order 
 I put them.  In the future, I"ll probably just stick to performing my songs in live shows."
 
 -- from the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter