The Listening Club - 26th May 2013

Greetings to you all.

Hope all is fine in your corners of the universe. Amsterdam still hasn't shaken off the spring shower shackles, but is revealing some rather clever natural quirks, as the hundreds of elm trees around the city dispose of their seedy blossoms, leading to dry white "snow" falling pretty much everywhere you go (the locals call it "Iepensneeuw"). It's very pretty, although unfortunately also rather dusty - not something for hay-fever sufferers, for sure...

A small apology is in order also, due to the slow failure of "Old" Tweetdeck, which I've been using, quite a few of the retweets on the twitter account over the last couple of weeks have failed to show up, I've only just noticed. Apologies for the missing information, and to @faberfedor and @monkeytypes who didn't get their info retweeted post-playback. I've settled on using Yoono as a replacement for now, although it's nowhere near as good as OTD. We'll see how we get on...

So yeah, as mentioned above, @monkeytypes was in the hot seat last week, and delivered a fine plateful of distorted emotions courtesy of Sebadoh's "Bubble & Scrape", which despite it's gravitas, was greatly enjoyed by most of the LC mahoosive. Thanks to him for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee to @akx, who is here with the intro...

"Blurb, you say..? Well. This was actually a very spontaneous
choice, and more or less an album I happily re-discovered this week. I realized I'd had it since 2002, and when I re-listened to it just now, I could still remember most of the lyrics. Strange how that works. Anyway... The band (collective?) itself is considered something of a one-hit wonder, so I figure the esteemed members of the Listening Club may not be aware that there's (this much) more to the band than a song about imbibing alcoholic beverages in a Californian city. Also, I'm terrible at writing these blurbs."

Okaydoke! Direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles) is here.

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow@listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm BST/EST (GMT+1)!

The Listening Club - 19th May 2013

Hello hello,

Slightly late posting, after having spent the afternoon sipping wine and listening to oddball 80s cover bands in the Vondelpark (Level 42 a specialty it seems...), back to recharge supplies and post this..!

So last week @faberfedor sent us right down under with his pick of Redgum's "Caught In The Act", a primer of Australian socia-political mores for all of us for sure, and pretty fair dinkum it was too. Many thanks to him for the pick, and for thrusting @monkeytypes into the hot seat this week. And here he is...

"I really don't want to bring you down but tonight's opening track is probably one of the most downbeat, sorrowful offerings we've had to date. I lost count of the number of times I listened to it while going through a bad break-up years ago (that and Madder Rose's 'Car Song'). In fact, heartbreak is a theme than runs throughout the album, with it making the top 10 of an NME 'Top 30 Heartbreak albums' list. This is no late night, whisky and Gaulloises, Leonard Cohen-style maudlin introspection though. This is lo-fi regret - drinks, drugs and defiance alongside low key lament. There are times when it simply soars.

While this is the band's 4th album, in my opinion, it's still their best, benefiting from being the first they recorded fully in the studio. There's added complexity to their previous work with some great song writing and arrangements. It was very nearly my first ever Listening Club choice, abandoned only after discovering I'd lost the CD, which somehow seems appropriate.

So tissues, alcohol and narcotics at the ready. And if you tune in, I  promise there'll be a happy ending."

Dropbox direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles) is here.

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow@listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm BST/EST (GMT+1)!

The Listening Club - 11th May 2013

Hey y'all,

Spring showers here in the 'Dam, so I'm resisting pressing my nose up against the window and instead getting on with some admin and book-keeping. Yeah, one of those days, but with fine super-shuffle for company (currently going from The Cure's "The Walk" to Strafe's "Set It Off"), even tallying my accounts doesn't seem so dull. Simple pleasures, eh? (he says pouring a cheeky lunchtime glass of red...)

Speaking of simple music pleasures, predictable link alert, hemhem... last week in this very locale, @JayeSoFine sent us spiralling back into the tuneful early 90s with Ultra Vivid Scene's "Joy 1967-1991". Many thanks to Jaye for the pick, and for sending the LC frisbee back across the Atlantic to @FaberFedor, who's here with the intro...

"(As I typed out the date in this folder name I thought "Is it November already?!")

It was the Mid-80s. I was hanging out in the Physics lab with my friend/instructor. Our friend Mojo walked in and said "My husband and I picked this up on our latest trip to Australia.  You have got to hear this." She popped in a cassette tape and pushed play. First song was okay. Second song was great! There were other gems on that tape as well. That tape went into heavy rotation in the lab.

Thus began my little group's decades long obsession with a little-known Australian folk band. 

This live album, according to Wikipedia, is the height of their career. It is easily my favorite.  I especially like the long-winded story during the title track (a folk music tradition). If you don't know much about Australia, you'll still like the story and other references made throughout the album. If you do know a thing or two about Oz (Ayer's Rock, Ned Kelly, etc.) you'll _really_ enjoy it.

See ya' in the club!"

Strewth! Dropbox direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles) is here.

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow@listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm BST/EST (GMT+1)!

Listening Club - 5th May 2013

Salutations to you all,

Hope all is fine in your existences. Here, Amsterdam is making merry, following Queen's Day and the Coronation on Tuesday (drunk mobs with DJs and soundsystems on boats - how did they survive before CDJs were invented? and furthermore, Andre Rieu? The smuggest man on the planet or what?) which was exceedingly good fun indeed, it's now Remembrance / Liberation weekend, which yesterday meant 2 minutes silence at 8pm (yep, on a Saturday night) and today, loads of mini festivals and outdoor markets to celebrate Liberation. So guess where I'm off after I finish typing this...

Back in time, quite lidderaly, last Sunday saw @samsmitter throw a curveball at the mob in the shape of the NME 80s tape compilation of 70s Punk "Pogo-A-Gogo", causing spittle to be sprayed far and wide across the LC corner of Twitter (sorry, can't bring myself to type "T******verse"). Many thanks to him for the pick, and pulling in @jayesofine to get back on the mound for this week's selection. Heeeeere's Jaye...

"Snub TV circa 1989 was the year and program that introduced me to this band and the time my obsession started.

This artist only made 3 albums but every one of them is utterly amazing. The first album is one man, his guitar, beat box and a selection of downers. The third is like T-Rex having a fight with Led Zeppelin whilst on heroin. Tonight, though, we’ll be listening to his second album… …the ‘POP’ album.

I was lucky enough to see him live on his only European tour to support this album. The songs from it were twisted and covered in layers of feedback and distortion surpassing all the noise/shoe gazer bands that were coming through at that time. I was blown away and a fan for life.

I could gush about the amazing record sleeves, the underlying sleaziness of his work and the amazing video with a rock goddess who guests with him on this album but I’m trying to keep it short. I’ll probably just gush all over that Twitter instead. I really hope you enjoy this album as much as I have over the past 23 years."

Rah! Dropbox direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles) is here.

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow@listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm BST/EST (GMT+1)!