The Listening Club - 28th May 2017

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing as well as can be expected. Here in Amstersam we're recovering from a scorching weekend, with a weather blip giving us a glorious few days, topping out at 34°C yesterday, Needless to say barbecues and cold beers have been the order of the days, along with a couple of gigs, one mighty fine one from Jim Jones and his new band The Righteous Mind, and one not so fine one from Kamixlo (backing track, wall of fog & going "wawawa" into a mic synth = must try harder). All very well and groovy.

Last week, @MrHig was in the chair, fucking with conventions and minds with his collision of Taylor Swift's "1989" and Ryan Adams' cover of the same, along with a guest appearence by Screaming Females, which caused the expected range of emotional responses. Thanks to Matt for the experience, and for flipping the frisb across the pond to @wojsvenwoj, who is right here with this week's intro...

"Even when not sitting in the captain's chair, I'm always thinking about what album to pick -- as I'm sure most of you do as well. I've ascertained from reading these little introductory vignettes that selecting favorites - artists, albums, genres -- seems to be something shied away from. I can understand that and have doen the same myself. That's not to say what I've selected previously are not albums I'm invested in or that my self-worth is tied up in your reactions to them but I've not felt like putting something I'm really attached to out there I guess. Maybe just wanted to ease into it? Who knows, really.

In any case, figured it was time to shift that paradigm (sorry) so here is the latest record by one of my favorite artists. I don't seem to have as much time for listening as I used to so even though the album has been out for a year, I'm still learning it. It has a strange pace but I think it fits the mood of where she is in her artistic life, straddling the line between writing pop music and works for theatre, as well as her personal life. And this is a fairly personal album. I hope you enjoy it."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the old HearBeSpoilers stream is below.

See you 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 21st May 2017

Morning folks,

Rather an early hour for me to be tapping this out, but providing the day's weather turns out nice, there's a pleasant day of lounging in the Vondelpark listening to oddball world music to be had, so better discharge my responsibilities and get this up and out before the beer starts to flow, eh?

Last week @RougeForever was in the chair, jigging and reeling the assembled with her pick of DeVotchKa's "How It Ends" before sailing the frisbaton across to the other side of the sofa, landing in the lap of @MrHig, who has this to say by way of introduction...

"I always said to myself that I wouldn’t be one of those Listening Clubbers that gets cheeky and breaks the rules. To the extent that there are rules. I might have made up the rules myself. In any case, I’ve only gone and done it. Sorry. I hope you’ll be able to forgive me.

What is the history of music, or of popular music? As time winds inexorably down are you one of those who believes music gets worse and worse with each new generation? That the best music is behind us and that today can’t hold a candle to the tunes of twenty or thirty years back? Is it your belief that music peaked in the decade of your birth, maybe the decade after, when you properly got into music? Or perhaps it’s a few decades back from before you were born. But not too far back, right? I mean no-one’s out here rating the thirties or fourties. Unless you’re a particular fan of Charlestons.

Does it depress you that the music of today, the chart landfill, may well be held up as a shining example of all mankind and music had to offer in a few short decades time? Is Ed Sheeran going to be considered the Dylan of his day?

I don’t think there’s anything to fear about modern day music. Even modern day pop music. Even modern day, mainstream pop music. Even CHART music. There’re gems everywhere if you look close enough.

We won’t be looking at Ed Sheeran.

It may not always be easy to tell what is going to last, what will stand the test of time. Maybe if you can look at the bare bones of a song - see a song reduced to lumps of clay and refashioned again along the same lines, but different - you can tell whether there was anything there to begin with.

Now BOGOF."

Right then. Direct download is here, and the old HearThis stream is below:


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 14th May 2017

Hey there folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Amsterdam has a case of the late April showers and (equally late) blossom "snow" clogging the streets and causing many sneezes, but inbetween those there's fun to be had as usual. Meanwhile the rest of Europe reels from the shock of Eurovision being won by a regular-looking guy standing still on a stage singing a nice song in his own language. No shooting flames, no dancing violinists, no gorillas. Whatever is the world coming to, eh?

Last week chez #LC, @101retstum was in the chair, stoking the 90s revival flames with his pick of Chumbawamba's "Swingin' With Raymond", which sent some toes tapping and others reaching for the earplugs. The kind of reaction I'm sure the band would approve of. Thanks to Gareth for the pick, and for flipping the frisb across to @RougeForever, who's here, now, yes, with this week's introduction...

"It's been a great weekend for international music and for international music lovers.  Fantastic to see how Eurovision brings us all together, absolutely unified around one key idea... the wrong song won.

This album, from 2004 (just the 13 years ago then?) contains much of the best of the European ideal - multi-lingualism, multi-culturalism and of course, a sousaphone.  There are no borders here, just beautiful music which scales the peaks of joy and plumbs the depths of despair in just under an hour.

Many of you will have heard these songs before.   A couple of years after release some of them were used on one of those cool indie films that people love as much for the score and soundtrack as the film itself.  And the title track has been used in one of those big console games.  So yeah, it's not just me that likes this. 

We saw this band play this live - and they were amazing.  This gig also featured the best shout of support from the audience ever - at one point a guy just shouted SOUSAPHONE!!!!  To this day I often feel like shouting that at bands during breaks between songs. 

Anyway, I just fancied listening to this record again, and when I came downstairs yesterday and Matt was streaming one of the songs it cemented my decision.  

Drinking recommendation?  Biere, du vin, ginebra, aperol - celebrate diversity!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 7th May 2017

Salutations folks,

Hope you're doing okay, here in Amsterdam things are ticking over nicely as the weather tries to start the gentle switch from spring to summer, the country celebrates it's annual Liberation Day allowing us to catch a free show from Bombino (great) and Alpha Blondy (bit cheesy but slick) and minds turn to planning festival fun and frolics to come (don't forget I'm away end of June for Glastonbury as per the usual)...

Last week chez #LC, @cdrose_writer was in the chair, conjuring up The Memory Band's fine "A Fair Field", which seemed to be over far too quickly for the assembled enjoyers, but welcome nonetheless. Many thanks to Chris for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @101retstum, who has this to say, by way of introduction...

"For some reason, this time when I received the frisbaton I knew almost straight away what album I wanted to share. Unfortunately it turned out I didn't own it any more. Such things are easily rectified although it was something of an eyeopener seeing how much the original pressings are going for on Amazon marketplace... but anyway I digress.

The band that we are about to hear are difficult to describe without giving away who they are. Part folk, part "other", they were unique enough at the time to catch my attention and that of a number of my friends, putting this band among the few that I saw play live in the fair city of Hull.

The album is very much a game of two halves, and intentionally so. Released well into the age of CDs, this is more of an LP where there should be a gap in the middle where you get up and turn the record over. In fact, the original pressing was a double CD, presumably to emphasis the partition and imitate this nostalgic act.

For a drinking companion you're probably going to want a strong folky cider, drunk from the bottle, along with several cigarettes if you're that way inclined."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you 8pm BST (GMT+1) for playback.