The Listening Club - 26th July 2015

Hey everyone,

Hope you're doing fine - Slow going here in Amsterdam, as a wave of supremely grotty rainstorms batter the lowlands into submission, meanwhile a set of titanic-sized hangovers sit around the house following a highly experimental evening of gin & tonic making. Ouch and oh dear...

Last week in #lc land, @tibieryo was back in the saddle, and pulled one right out of left field with Yamantaka//Sonic Titan's stomping album "YT/ST" (available from Bandcamp here!). Many thanks to Joe for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee across to @thejayarr for next week's pick...

But first, tis #vortex time!, which after a little discussion, allow us to dim the lights for a #lastdancevortex... or is it more of a #lasttunevortex ? Either way, it's the end of the night in club #lc, over and over again... join us to find out what exactly that entails.

Direct download is here, and the mixcloud is here.

See you at 8pm! BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 19th July 2015

Greetings,

Happy Sunday Y'all - Hope you're doing good. Pleased to have the new homestead finally ready for guests here in Amsterdam this weekend, with My Own Mum being the inaugural guest, we'll see if we can tempt her with a little bit of #lc action later... Speaking of which, it's #vortex time again next week: I seem to recall a flurry of possible suggestions for themes over the past couple of weeks, so we'll have a chat about it tonight and decide then, yeh?

Last week @AndersHanson was in the chair, and took, I think, maybe the most daring #lc pick one can take, selecting something by his favourite band Delays, namely their debut album from 2004, "Faded Seaside Glamour" which seemed to go down rather well, I'm sure much to his relief. Many thanks to Anders for going for it, and for flipping back the baton to @tibieryo, who is right here with this week's intro...

"I heard about this band when they were longlisted for the Polaris Prize. I read the band name, and I thought "That's the stupidest fucking band name I have ever read."

I googled them out of sheer morbid curiosity and found their Bandcamp. Their genre was a 27-word paragraph. And I thought, "that is the most useless, pretentious, and self-consciously 'arty' thing I have ever read, and it's dumb."

Figuring it was a Sunday morning and I felt like going further down the rabbit hole cos I had nothing else to do, I pressed play on the first song on their first album. Within minutes, I had a new favourite band.

I make a habit of saying that there has been no progressive, innovative, or "new" music with a guitar as a lead voice since 1980. And very frequently, I have my head up my ass about something.

Here are a band, an album, and a genre of music I had my head up my ass about. The only downside is that their fans don't know how to pogo."

Okidoke. Direct download is here, and, if the gods are willing, come the hour, the mixcloud will still be here.

The Listening Club - 12th July 2015

Hey there,

Good to see you, hope the season is proving complementary to your fine selves and needs. Life goes on here in A-dam sensibly today, tidying, sorting and setting up the spare room for impending family and friends visits, after a rather delicious Friday drinking @nessiest's mighty fine melon & raspberry daiquiris in the sun whilst watching drunk Dutchies negotiate the watery highways, and a rather mellow Saturday dealing with the related hangover thereof. All par very much for the course, as you'd expect. Yay summer!

Back on planet #LC, @eastvanhalen was in the chair last week and hit quite an impressive home run with a collection of Mandrill's finest work, "Fencewalk: The Anthology". Many thanks to her for the pick and for sending the frisbee back across the atlantic to @AndersHanson, who is right here with this week's pre-match...

"Finally I've done it! This band has been on my shortlist other times I've made a Listening Club pick but either it just didn't feel the right time or I couldn't decide which album to pick. Finally I’ve gone with it.

This is without doubt my favourite band. I discovered them ten years ago when they released their first single and I've just loved everything about them. I love that I was living just five miles from where they grew up at the time I heard their first single. I love the title and the imagery of this album's artwork. I love that they've underachieved commercially even though you often hear their songs on TV. I love their floppy blonde haired pop cuteness yet also indy edge. I love that their lead singer talked about his depression at the time I was going through the same thing. And love that someone I fell in love with at the time this album came out was coincidentally also one of their small number of fans. Of course, I also love their catchy songs and their relaxed melodies but that should be obvious.

There’s so many other great songs of theirs I wish I could play, but in the end I went with their first album which is how I first discovered them and at last year's tenth anniversary tour they simply played it from beginning to end at each gig. Enjoy!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and, in shallah, come the hour, the mixcloud will still be here.

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)!

The Listening Club - 5th July 2015

Greetings all,

@kleptones back again after traditional Glastonbury hoo-ha with @nessiest and @emmaprice - as usual much fun and unsanitary insanity in the fields, too many highlights to mention but as usual wishing I could clone myself a hundredfold to take it all in - there's just waay too much to do... I know, first world problem deluxe.

Back on planet #lc, @jimmccauley and @holette teamed up to help this year's #livevortex which sounded mighty fine indeed - thanks to all who chipped in a tune or two. Way back on the other side of the fence, @eastvanhalen was found to be "with frisbee", and here she is...

"Hey everybody:

As is traditional, I threw out all the entries I had in the hopper, judging them too angsty/shouty/proggy for the lush and gorgeous summer we're having here in Vancouver.

Instead, here is a band I only first heard about a week ago. It's a disc from an anthology (!), with the songs dating mainly from the mid 1970s. The tracks run from booty-shaking R&B to salsa to balladeering in a way that, to me, has a real New York City feel. This is music for sun and hot pavement and drinks on the fire escape and sweaty dancing. Get something cold to drink and enjoy."

Righty ho! Direct download is here, and if we're feeling lucky, the mixcloud might well still be here...

Hope to see you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)