The Listening Club - 30th June 2013

Greetings folks,

Well, finally a bit of summer worth shouting about in this bit of the world. So, before I head back out into the afternoon for beers and light debate over the quality of this year's Glastonbury showings, here's the drop for later...

First, natch, enormous thanks to all who chipped in and tuned in to last week's Summer Vortex! A splendid set of tunes was assembled and truly a splendid time was had by all, I think! Tracklisting and download are on last week's post if you missed it. "More vortexes!" (Vortecii?) seems to be the cry, so we'll be doing one a month from now on around the last week of the month. Feel free to pitch suggestions for topics and themes to the #LC massive and we'll go with the best ones!

Back to regularly scheduled programming, and @jonnydapigg is here, clutching the frisbee, to introduce this week's pick...

"When I told the wife that it was my pick again she had one suggestion, "don't make it poopy". Laura, obviously isn't a Deftones fan. So with that in mind I began scouring my collection, my mind fixating on various different breakbeat albums and mixes. I wanted something that was relevant to me now, something I'd been caning for a while. Then the Summer Vortex happened and coupled with the gig on the Friday where a man by the name of Robert Maseko had wowed everyone with his talents everything became clear. There was really only one choice. I got this album from a magical place many moons ago, you may remember these places, they were called record shops. It was either '93 or '94 and I was just really discovering the difference between good music and the shite that got played on the radio. This album (a cassette tape no less) stayed in my walkman for a summer and saying as we seem to be having some sort of summer now it's found it's way back out of the shade and is enjoying a new lease of life. Hopefully there's some fine sunsets/rises/shine for you all now and we can all join in the carnival atmosphere. 

p.s. Apologies for the one track format, as i said, i bought this on tape then borrowed the CD from a library and ripped it before i ever really knew what i was doing so have done a quick editing job on it as it was a bit quiet. plays lovely now."

There you go! Direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles, you have been warned!) 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 - 23rd June 2013

Happy midsummer, folks...

...and for one day, it actually feels like it. Despite the 21st being one of the darkest, gloomiest June days I can recall, but it's finally summer in this here hemisphere, so late night talking, smoking, drinking, listening, dancing, putting the world to rights etc. is the order of the day. Yes, I'm hungover, but hell I don't care. It was worth it. On with the show.

Last week, @JimMcCauley continued the summer curveball tradition by sending out a long-forgotten slice of 60s Beatle-esque pop, courtesy of The Aerovons' "Resurrection". Huge thanks to him for the pick, and for flipping the frisb across to @jonnydapigg, who has a bonus week to sort his choice, becauuuuuuse it's time for the #SUMMERVORTEX!

Yep, we have 14 serious live recordings here. Many, many thanks to all those who chipped in their choices. It's a monster, so get grabbing, stock up on snacks, smokes, swigs and whatever else takes your fancy, and we'll see you down the front at eight, okay?

Direct download is here, Mixcloud stream (which may well reveal the track titles, bloody amazing if it does, tonight, though, eh?) 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 - 16th June 2013

Hello hello,

Happy Sunday to you all. Regular business here, fixing my mum's hacked email account whilst chewing on some rather aged stroopwafels and sipping Brazilian coffee. I do now understand why the Dutch like wafels so much, because these things have been at the back of my cupboard for bloody ages and they still taste fine. True emergency fodder, indeed.

Don't forget next week tis the festival-themed #summervortex, all we ask of you is that you pick one Live Recording and flip it over to me for shuffling and playback next Sunday. Had a few in so far, but the more the merrier, so get your thinking caps on...

Last week yet more Summer wrongfooting occurred, as @NeilPBardhan thrust us headlong into the country / rap crossover with his pick of The Vilebillies eponymous album from 2006. Definitely split the #lc massive, but thanks to Neil for thrusting us out of the comfort zone and into areas unknown! Neil also sailed the frisbee across to the ever-nimble @JimMcCauley, and here he is...

"Right, then. Tomorrow’s Harvest is the new album from the Sandison brothers, better known as Boards of Canada. But that’s not what we’re listening to tonight.

Here’s a band that I’d never heard of until a few months ago, when I saw someone on Twitter mention that he was listening to their only album. It’s one of those great pop stories, a young band that got the chance to travel across the Atlantic amid expectations of being The Next Big Thing and record in the same studio as their heroes, but then it all went a bit wrong and they fell apart, resulting in the record company shelving the album. It remained unreleased for over 30 years, but gained something of a following in bootleg form and was finally dusted off in 2003.

It’s very much of its time, an LP of frothy, slightly psychedelic pop that wears its influences very prominently. It sails a little close to pastiche and outright impersonation at times but it’s always likeable and delivers a good few cracking tracks along the way. Given a few more years and a better run of luck, this lot could have been enormous rather than an interesting little musical footnote."

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 - 9th June 2013

Howdy folks!

Hope you're all doing fine - I'm taking a relatively quiet Sunday for a change, a week of decent weather has meant a good few evenings quaffing, and yesterday was spent in the company of most of the Netherland's rockabillies, hells angels and teddy boys and girls at Cruise Inn's annual D-Day festival. So a day off to recharge and do a little housekeeping seems in order, I reckon...

Also it's time to announce the next LC Vortex, which will happen in two week's time, on Sunday 23rd June (as close to the Summer Solstice as we can manage) - The theme this time, as suggested ages ago by @pamac66, in keeping with it being festival season and all, is live recordings - I'm tempted to offer up the chance to pick videos, the better to enhance the experience, but that places us at the mercy of YouTube, and makes more admin for me... let's discuss it tonight and reach a consensus, m'kay?

Last week @eastvanhalen continued what seems to be a Summer trend of wrong-footing the listeners by putting her power-pop preferences to one side and reaching back for Duke Ellington's "Money Jungle" session with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. A finer set of jazz hands you'd be hard pushed to shake, I'd say. Many thanks to her for the selection, and for spinning the frisb over to @NeilPBardhan for this week's choice...

"I've been mulling this as a Listening Club option since I heard what I felt was a similar album chosen by one of you LCers in 2012, an album that I always point to when non-clubmembers ask what I've discovered via LC. Then another, stranger,  selection about 2 months back reminded me of it again in the most oblique of ways. So for my sophomore selection, here's an album from 2006.

I don't know a ton about the band or their work beyond this album. I got this album from a young woman I knew who said they were local to her university in the Eastern US, and they had quite a following in that city. It's a city I've never been to, but it all just makes sense that a bunch of guys from that place at this time sound like they do. Nearly every track feels like a confluence of several genres (I don't dare name them all!). This may make the album too all-over-the-place for some listeners. That said, I think it's clear that these guys have some production talents and a sense of fun.  Some songs have clever lyrics; others, more heartfelt ones. Parts are manic, while some are laidback. 

When the opening track (that is, #2) gets moving, I always envision an amphitheater of early 20-somethings pogoing in place, a cloud of smoke or two hovering overhead.  Maybe it's because of the emotional attachment I have to hearing this album the first time, or maybe it's just foolish (are those the same thing?), but there's a part of me that fears that trying to listen to any of their other albums won't have the same feeling that this one does: cold beers (whatever's cheap & local to ya, cheers!) on a back porch, late on an August evening with some close friends."

Well, it's a June evening, but here's hoping it has the same effect! 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 - 2nd June 2013

Hi to you all,

Was just sat here pondering what I can think up by way of the preamble to the preamble this week and almost immediately a brass band starts parping and booming right outside my front door. Turns out there's a big charity run around my side of Amsterdam today (thanks to @svenahrens for the info), and a free concert up the road at the finish (and who could resist performers such as "Transmitter & Wanka" and "MC Buttslammer"), so once I get this done I'm off to score some beers and go have a look...

During the meanwhilst, last week @akx beautifully fooled the #LC massive, who, based on his previous picks, were expecting something deep and spacious - Instead Aarni threw a super-summer curveball in the shape of Bran Van 3000's "Discosis". Many thanks to him for the pick, and for sending the #LC frisbee 7500km around the world to @EastVanHalen. And here she is...

"Howdy. It's 4:30 a.m. here in Vancouver and I am just finishing the mixcloud upload, having sustained a full technological meltdown whilst trying to get this week's LC up and running. Next time it's going to be tin cans and strings, and I'll send the blurb via semaphore. So I'll keep this very short:

If you know anything about jazz then you will likely have heard this week's record. I know nothing about jazz and to me it was a revelation. I have no vocabulary to describe it, but it's so fine that it makes me want to learn how to. Even if jazz isn't your thing, stick around long enough for the second track, a ballad of such surpassing beauty that I'd happily have it be the last thing I ever hear. All this from one day in a studio in 1962, with no rehearsal. Not bad."

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)!