"So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." JFK, June 10, 1963.
The Dirtbombs new bubblegum pop tribute LP Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-Blooey!
The Strypes debut LP Snapshot
Arctic Monkeys bootleg acoustic collection Straighten The Rudder, an acoustic version of Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High, and Arctic Monkeys live on Jools
Robin Pecknold on Fallon doing Pearl Jam's Corduroy
Fuzz new LP Fuzz
Young Irish superstar bluesmen The Strypes breakthrough single You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover is going to be released on 7” vinyl on 25th Nov! You can pre-order a copy here: http://po.st/CJABVinyl
A-Side: You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover
B-Side: Saved Me (From Myself) You Keep Me Waiting
Jim James, of My Morning Jacket, has released a cool new video for his recent solo song State of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - The Blue Record (EP)
Ruban Nielson moved from New Zealand to Portland to form a trio who has recorded two albums and this EP which is streamingat The Fly over here....
The EP, featuring two covers and three acoustic versions of songs from their II album.
Hearing them singer-songwriter style casts a new light on the songs and the artist. It's as if Nielson asked us to sit in on the sessions as he developed the songs in his bedroom.
Live, on the other hand, his amazing psychedelic (electric) guitar work shines, complete with extended trippped out solos.
Here's the encore, Can cover Vitamin C (sorry for the dark picture - hardly any light there, but the audio is well worth a listen for any fans of wild guitar improv) for a show a while back at Portland's Bunk bar:
Last nite at the Crystal Ballroom London rockers The Palma Violets did a show for the local indie rock radio station 94.7, charging a mere 94 cents for promotional tickets. Even the night of the concert, tickets were available at the door for one dollar and 94 cents. The Palma Violets have had enormous success in the UK and elsewhere in the past year or so, but are barely known in the US.
That is about to change, if they continue putting on shows like last night's at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon (USA, Earth).
American readers of British music bible NME have been hearing about The Palma Violets for a long time, and they've had tremendous success in the UK this past year, touring, recording, and appearing on TV, radio, and at festivals, not to mention healthy online exposure.
They've played in the US a little and their powerful single "Best of Friends" has been getting some airplay here, but mostly, American audiences are just getting to know The Palma Violets.
Playing the official video of "Best of Friends" for a friend, he remarked they "seemed very British", and their have been countless bands that have been hugely successful, influential and popular in England that simply never caught on in America because they were "too British", for example, Oasis. And the British pop sensibility is obviously more welcoming to to underground indie psychedelic/garage rock than the US pop charts are. So it is that, aside from a few Anglophiles in certain American cities, there are many excellent British bands that never catch on in America - like The Libertines (also Pete's drug arrests putting the nix on a US visa and touring is a factor here). Even Arctic Monkeys have had to actually move to America to try to conquer it.
It remains to be seen if Palma Violets will be a British band that brakes through.
Much of the ACL Festival Weekend 2 will be webcast live (see above, hopefully).
Quite an impressive line-up including Atoms for Peace, Parquet Courts, Franz Ferdinand, Wilco, Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys, Queens of The Stone Age, and many others....
Friday, October 11th:
Channel 1:
1:30 pm – Widowspeak
2:00 pm – Courtyard Hounds
3:00 pm – Jimmy Eat World
4:00 pm – Savages
5:00 pm – Local Natives
6:00 pm – Vampire Weekend
7:30 pm – Queens of the Stone Age
8:30 pm – Muse
Channel 2:
1:30 pm – Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
2:00 pm – Wild Nothing
3:00 pm – Smith Westerns
4:00 pm – Okkervil River (partial set)
5:30 pm – Black Angels
6:00 pm – Arctic Monkeys
7:30 pm – Kaskade
8:30 pm – Depeche Mode
Saturday, October 12th:
Channel 1:
1:30 pm – Deap Vally (partial set)
2:00 pm – Walk the Moon
3:00 pm – Delta Rae
4:00 pm – Portugal. The Man
5:00 pm – Silversun Pickups
6:00 pm – Wilco
7:15 pm – Passion Pit
8:30 pm – Kings of Leon
Channel 2:
1:30 pm – Mona
2:00 pm – Dan Croll
3:00 pm – Junip
4:00 pm – Parquet Courts
5:00 pm – The Joy Formidable
7:00 pm – Kendrick Lamar
8:00 pm – The Cure
Sunday, October 13th:
Channel 1:
1:30 pm – The Mowgli’s
2:30 pm – Noah and the Whale
4:00 pm – Franz Ferdinand
5:00 pm – Toro Y Moi
6:00 pm – Eric Church
7:00 pm – Phoenix
8:30 pm – Lionel Richie
Channel 2:
1:30 pm – MS MR
3:00 pm – Paper Diamond
4:00 pm – Grouplove
5:00 pm – Dawes
6:00 pm – Divine Fits
7:00 pm – The National
8:30 pm – Atoms for Peace
Pete Doherty, of The Libertines and The Babyshambles, is superfamous in the UK and elsewhere but couldn't get arrested in America (that should be some small comfort) - IF he could only get a US visa -but he can't because he's been arrested for drugs so many times (apparently he tried to fly to New York to do a gig with Sean Lennon a while ago, but was turned away at JFK).
He is amazing. He's been in two amazing bands and done solo work, as well as acting, painting, drugging... hanging out with Kate Moss and Mac Culkin... a romantic poet in the tradition of Thomas Chatterton or Lord Byron... a bon vivant.... a brat.... a genius.... a tortured genius... a self-destructive tortured genius...
It amuses me he is so well-known in England and essentially entirely unknown in America.
Maybe that will never change, especially if he can never tour here, but Americans should give him a chance...
This was recorded at a club in Slovakia this past summer....
Arctic Monkeys doing a couple extra North American shows in December... December 2 - Vancouver, BC, Vogue Theatre December 4 - Portland, OR, Roseland December 9 - Tempe, AZ, Marquee December 11 - Tulsa, OK, Cain's December 12 - Columbia, MO, Blue Note
Phil Chevron, long-time guitarist for The Pogues, has passed away from cancer. He may be best known for having written the classic Irish diaspora song, the very poetic Thousands Are Sailing:
The island it is silent now But the ghosts still haunt the waves And the torch lights up a famished man Who fortune could not save
Did you work upon the railroad Did you rid the streets of crime Were your dollars from the white house Were they from the five and dime
Did the old songs taunt or cheer you And did they still make you cry Did you count the months and years Or did your teardrops quickly dry
Ah, no, says he, 'twas not to be On a coffin ship I came here And I never even got so far That they could change my name
Thousands are sailing Across the western ocean To a land of opportunity That some of them will never see Fortune prevailing Across the western ocean Their bellies full Their spirits free They'll break the chains of poverty And they'll dance
In manhattan's desert twilight In the death of afternoon We stepped hand in hand on broadway Like the first man on the moon
And "the blackbird" broke the silence As you whistled it so sweet And in brendan behan's footsteps I danced up and down the street
Then we said goodnight to broadway Giving it our best regards Tipped our hats to mister cohen Dear old times square's favorite bard
Then we raised a glass to JFK And a dozen more besides When I got back to my empty room I suppose I must have cried
Thousands are sailing Again across the ocean Where the hand of opportunity Draws tickets in a lottery Postcards we're mailing Of sky-blue skies and oceans From rooms the daylight never sees Where lights don't glow on christmas trees But we dance to the music And we dance
Thousands are sailing Across the western ocean Where the hand of opportunity Draws tickets in a lottery Where e'er we go, we celebrate The land that makes us refugees From fear of priests with empty plates From guilt and weeping effigies And we dance —————————————————————————————
"And we dance".... indeed, that's all we can do...
On Facebook, Billy Bragg wrote:
Sad to hear of the death aged 56 of Phil Chevron, founder of the Radiators from Space and member of the Pogues. The Radiators were label mates with my band Riff Raff on Chiswick Records in the late 70s and we did several support gigs with them at the Marquee Club in London's Wardour Street. He was a lovely guy back then and remained so all his life.
from The Irish Times....
Philip Chevron RIP
Founder member of the seminal Radiators from Space and guitarist with The Pogues
Philip Chevron, who played guitar for the Pogues, has died at the age of 56. He had been treated for head and neck cancer in 2007 and was given a clean bill of health in April 2012. A new tumour appeared in August 2012, however, and was deemed inoperable. He died on Tuesday morning.
Chevron joined the Pogues following the release of their debut album, Red Roses for Me, initially on a temporary basis. He was a full-time member by the time they recorded their second album, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. Although the Pogues' songwriting was dominated by Shane MacGowan, Chevron contributed one of the band's best-loved songs, Thousands Are Sailing.
In 1976, Chevron had founded one of Ireland's first punk bands, the Radiators from Space. Their songs were later covered by folk singers including Christy Moore and Mary Coughlan.
In a message on their website, the Pogues sent condolences to Chevron's family.
If I'm butter, if I'm butter, If I'm butter, then he's a hot knife, He makes my heart a cinemascope screen Showing the dancing bird of paradise.
If I'm butter, if I'm butter, If I'm butter, then he's a hot knife, He makes my heart a cinemascope screen Showing the dancing bird of paradise.
He excites me Must be like a genesis of rhythm I get feisty Whenever I'm with him
If I'm butter, if I'm butter, If I’m butter, then he's a hot knife, He makes my heart a cinemascope screen Showing the dancing bird of paradise.
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter. If I get a chance, I'm gonna show him that He's never gonna need another, never need another.
Arctic Monkeys
Babyshambles
Foxygen
MGMT
Parquet Courts
The Pixies
The Smith Westerns
Yuck
and Bob Dylan's "Another Self Portrait" (1969 − 1971)
The Arctic Monkeys' 5th album, Pete Doherty returns to The Babyshambles, a great new EP from Parquet Courts.... the first original Pixies music without original bass player Kim Deal... the first release of Yuck since guitarist Max took over lead vocal duties from departing Daniel... and good new stuff from The Smith Westerns, MGMT, and Foxygen....
The new Pixies, featuring a new Kim on bass.... Kim Shattuck, ex-Pandoras, ex-Muffs, is filling in for original bass player Kim Deal, who quit the band during rehearsals of new material in Wales earlier this year.
