The Listening Club - 26th November 2023

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Another soggy week in Amsterdam, although as wind is now coming from the north, temps are finally dropping and a ton of leaves are readying themselves to fall overnight in that "suddenly it became winter" mode that the Netherlands does so well (prediction: next Thursday). Meanwhile we dodge the drops and scurry out to cheer ourselves after a thoroughly depressing Dutch election result by consuming the nearby Meredith Monk retrospective exhibition in the Oudekerk (ace), visiting the nearest toko to stock up on noodles & snacks and sinking a couple of delicious dark Autumn beers in a welcoming nearby bar. Because needs must.

Last Sunday saw @Saucer in the chair,. spooking the gathered ensemble with his pick of "Ballads Of Seduction, Fertility And Ritual Slaughter", a 2023 reworking / tribute to the soundtrack of "The Wicker Man" (the 1973 version, natch). Thanks to him for the pick, and for also picking up the #vortex reigns because...

Yep, end of the month already, and this time the assembled decided on a #HealingVortex, so here's the collected healing wisdom of you all, lovingly merged by that very same @Saucer:

Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 19th November 2023

Hey folks,

@kleptones back again after another action packed Le Guess Who weekend away. Still feel priviliged that one of the finest music festivals in these lands is a 30 minute train ride from chez klep, even if its popularity is now threatening to place it out of reach to folks travelling from afar due to spiralling flight & accomodation costs. Plus ca change, though...

#Vortex alert - yep, it's that time again... suggestions on the hashtag perlease!

Last Sunday @Saucer was minding things here, thanks to him for helping out, and thanks to @SimonLandmine for his pick of Temple Of The Dog's sole album from 1991, which I'm sure got the assembled crowd-surfing in a virtual manner. Thanks to Simon for the pick and for whacking the frisb straight across to the very same @saucer, who defly swaps hats and writes this by way of introduction to tonight's selection...

"Here’s a relatively recent take on a relatively distant piece of art, tinged with the more distant aesthetic of Dada. 

Looking forward to our collective glimmers of recognition as the set proceeds. (Resist the natural urge to spill & spoil!) I hope there's something here for everyone.

Snack club? Something you'd pick to munch on at the end of the world. 

Drinking club? Something you'd want to imbibe at the end of the world. 

Optimism club? Hmmmm. They say that after the end of the world there's always a new world."

Aye then. Download's here, stream's below:

Hope to see you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 12th November 2023

Greetings, LC folk,

It me, @saucer, in today for @kleptones who’s away on assignment (aka at a music fest). Hope you’re all doing great!

Out here in Boulder it’s a lovely, chilly Fall day. The bears are starting to think about finding cozy places to hibernate… but for now they’re still seeking out and cramming in as many snacks as they can find (aka my typical modus operandi) to get ready for their winter sleep. 

Last Sunday in LC land, @EastVanHalen and her kitten Gracie treated the assembled to a weirdo nostalgia album as she described it, namely the lo-fi Alien Lanes by Dayton Ohio 4th-grade teacher Robert Pollard and his Guided By Voices merry makers. I’ve been a longtime fan of the band but had never heard that particular album, and very much enjoyed its waggishness along with you all.

This evening we welcome the frisbo-clutching @SimonLandmine onto the stage… Let’s hear what he has in store for us…

“As usual, I was suffering considerable indecision looking at my increasingly-misnamed shortlist, and nearly picked a completely different album (partly due to recently watching a short YouTube video about how it fitted into the band's oeuvre). That one might still show up another time. However, I then thought of this one, and on listening through, realised I was more in the mood for it. Hope that you all are, too.

“Some of you may know this one, and others might recognise the voices. This album came about because of a loss, but gave those involved a way to process their grief, and ended up becoming rather well renowned for the combination of artists - two of whom were already known for the band that they were in, although would go on to greater fame, and the rest of the lineup, with the guest vocalist, would soon become a new band in their own right, who also made quite the impact a little later with an award-winning multi-platinum album. Notably, the single from this album was the first recorded release to feature vocals by that as-yet-unknown guest vocalist.

“This one got good reviews, but failed to chart ... until a year later, when the artists involved had got considerable mainstream attention, and the record company realised what they had with this, and re-released it and pushed the single and video, since when this album has also gone platinum.

“Hope that you enjoy it - it's a favourite of mine when I'm in the right mood, although obviously not as unknown as some pickaas for LC. No bloody clue what the #DrinkingClub suggestion would be, though, but it should possibly be wrapped in a paper bag while being drunk on a bench.”

Alrighty then! Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight (9 pm central Europe, 3 pm Eastern, noon Pacific) and talk to you on Mastodon with the #listeningClub hashtag.

The Listening Club - 5th November 2023

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. November already? Jeebs. Still mostly pouring down here, which, combined with some still-higher-temperatures-than-usual is making the surroundings seem pretty damn green and soggy, like overdone spinach. Still, hoping for a few gaps in the downpours to allow us to scoot dryly from venue to venue during Le Guess Who next weekend, we shall see. In my absence, it will be the right honerable @saucer who will be stepping up here and doing the do, major thanks to him for helping out!

Last Sunday, as u kno, twas vortex time, and that resulted in a #KittensForPeaceVortex aka #GivePeaceAfffnChanceVortex which certainly brought out all the appropriate moods and then some. Thanks to everyone who chipped in a tune or two, and double plus thanks to @akx for splicing and dicing the results.

Back to regular programming, it's @EastVanHalen who's got the frisbes, or is it her kitten Gracie? Let's find out...

"Seeing as how Gracie and I are co-hosting this week, and seeing as how Gracie is as hockey-obsessed as I am (kitten, television, pucks, faaaaascination), I thought I’d bookend my previous Nomeansno selection with one of their alter ego acts, The Hanson Brothers, and their 1992 hockey-themed album “Gross Misconduct.” It was not to be. Do I have a copy? I thought I did, but no. Could I get one? Maybe, if I had realized before Saturday that my copy was missing. Andt all my stalwart punk rawk download blogs came up short.

So I’ve totally pivoted, for no discernible reason, to this weirdo nostalgia album. Weirdo for me, anyhow - who the fuck would think that I’d have unreservedly loved some eight (?) track nonsense recorded in a basement by a bunch of drunken Dayton schoolteachers? But I did, and I probably still do - haven’t had it out for a spin in a few years, we’ll have to see how it fares today. They have a weirdish rep and some weird fans - “I’m not going down to the floor, it’s too…drunk bro,” insisted the nice lady I met in the record label’s box the last time I saw them play - but I thought that the people from Brazil who passed around the mixed drinks they’d smuggled in in half-flattened 2-litre soda bottles were pretty awesome, so I smuggled them into the afterparty."

Right then, download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.