The Listening Club - 18th August 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing fine. Still pissing down here, off and on, and probably in the UK too, which is a bugger for those attending Lowlands, Green Man or whatever festival. Sure they're making the most of it regardless, I know I would be, but I'm sitting here at home, watching Lowlands on TV (Franz Ferdinand currently) and tapping this out waiting for the rain to stop... or start again... que sera.

Last week, @holette was back in the chair getting the congregation moving with her pick of Donny Hathaway's 1970 debut album "Everything Is Everything". Caps were doffed by way of thanks and the frisbaton was sailed across to me, so...

"Didn't think I had anything in mind, so I was flicking through the collection, thinking a retro pick would be a good idea, when I noticed an old text file sitting in my documents folder titled "Listening Club picks". Inside there was one album listed. So, brushing aside the possibility that someone had hacked into my computer and left it there, let's see what past-me wanted you to hear...

There is still no feeling quite like discovering an artist and finding out they've got a nigh-on 25 year back catalogue to investigate. This is one such person, who's collaborated with a whole ton of interesting folks, and also managed to put together a stack of solo albums, of which this is the seventh. I'm very pleased to have finally made their acquaintance, hope you will be also."

Direct download is here, and the stream's below:


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

The Listening Club - 11th August 2019

Greetings,

Well, wet and windy is back in force across Europe, which is kinda sad for the Dutch, as August is traditionally holiday month here in the Netherlands, to the extent that offices are almost empty, many cafes and takeaways are closed, and public transport runs on a reduced timetable. Still, it's lovely and peaceful outside the tourist zones... even if it is grey.

Last week chez #LC, @saucer was in the chair, serving up Brazilian delights in the form of "Sem Nostalgia" by Lucas Santtana, which certainly got the braincells quizzically tingling. Thanks to him for the pick, and the surprise deflection of the Frisb back in the direction it came from, which means @holette is here again, with tonight's intro...

“I have Iggy Pop to thank for many things: Raw Power; one of the greatest live performances I’ve ever seen; a really cool T-shirt that used to fit me; and (do Iggy voice here) ‘facilitating connections’. These days he’s deliciously intimate company on Friday nights on the radio, during which time he’s introduced me to this artist. 

The voice speaks for itself. It makes me feel calm and uplifted - sadly ironic given the artist’s struggles with mental illness. There are better known tracks to explore if you like this album, but to me it’s a good place to start for the direct emotions,  melody and musicianship.”

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


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1) tonight.

The Listening Club - 4th August 2019

Greetings folks,

Yep, I'm back, after a week of rather hot holiday en France, plus a fine evening here in Amsterdam meeting up with @rougeforever and @mrhig of this parish, a cracking day yesterday bopping at Dekmantel Festival, and today a sweaty afternoon trying to hack the plants around the house back into some sort of sensible shape. So business as usual, and very grateful for all of it.

Thanks to @jimmccauley for keeping the lights on here in my absence, much appreciated, squire! And thanks also to @holette, who got the assembled bopping last Sunday with her pick of Sparks "No.1 In Heaven", and then sailed the frisb across the ocean to @saucer, who has this to say...

"Freshness and surprise are essential elements of music, and, frankly, sometimes my own taste bores me. These days I don’t have many musical friends IRL to pull me out of self-constructed ruts. 

That’s why I was so happy to meet a new musical friend... in an entirely nonmusical context... recently. They were conducting a test of something at work, and I, as a test subject, was lucky enough to get paired with them. This person is radically different from me in just about every respect you can imagine and we get along great: We’re both tickled by the disparities and also by the weird overlaps. She sent me one of her Youtube playlists and I disliked most of it, to my delight (and hers). It was fascinating to listen to.

Here and there among the entries I found points of brilliance, though, in the sense of tracks way outside the boundaries of my usual fare but nonetheless delicious and intriguing. That’s how I found the artist who made this album."

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


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 29th July 2019

Howdy-doodly-do, listening chums! @JimMcCauley at your service once more, feeling just the tiniest bit jaded after a barbecue yesterday afternoon that I didn't get away from until after midnight. I'm sure an afternoon of writing about Kickstarter projects will sort me right out, yeah?

Last week found @SimonLandmine on the decks and taking full advantage of Apollo 9 nostalgia with his pick of Public Service Broadcasting's "The Race for Space", which seemed to get everyone moonwalking nicely. So thanks to Simon for the pick and for chucking the zero-G frisbaton at @Holette, who demands your attention this very instant.

"Right Listening Clubbers, get your dancing shoes on because this Sunday, it's disco night. I know some of you are dancing queens, while others on the indie spectrum might not feel the dance floor is your natural habitat. As for those that self identify as Metalers, well you're probably just going to hate it. 

Nevertheless, influenced by watching the recent Studio 54 documentary, I present to you the soundtrack of my New York City night out fantasy sequence. 

I've recently been turned on to Arthur Russell's absorbing experiments in avant garde disco and heart stopping folk songs through a radio interview with entertaining Manchester art pop collective Whyte Horses. Both Whyte Horses and Arthur Russell (and the Wild Combination documentary about him) are well worth seeking out if you like that sort of thing. But ultimately I fancied sharing with you some glistening, high octane electronic music by one of the weirdest acts to appear on Top of the Pops and a genius producer. 

This is the original album but a recent anniversary reissue holds some interesting nuggets for comedy fans which might just gatecrash the afterparty. 

So doors open at 8pm, dress to impress and join me at the Listening Club, where not even celebrities get in for free."

Groovy. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is down there.


See you at 8! (BST!)

The Listening Club – 21st July 2019

How do, listening chums! You're stuck with me, @JimMcCauley, for the next couple of sessions while @kleptones is off doing who knows what. Home alone this weekend, so I've been using the time wisely, to wit: playing videogames, fiddling with a lightsynth that I've almost completely forgotten how to operate properly and lost the instructions for, slicing a finger on a tin and getting yelled at by an increasing senile cat. Fun times!

Let's see now, so, last week… yep, last week @wojsvenwoj stepped up and punked us all good and proper with his pick of "Cost of Living" by Providence, Rhode Island's finest, Downtown Boys, which certainly did the trick. So thanks to Woj for the pick and for launching the frisbaton at @simonlandmine, who's just popped up in my inbox with these words:

"One of the challenges of Listening Club is picking an album that is not just fondly remembered for a couple of tracks, but that works reasonably well as a piece. And, at the same time, often one where there is at least some slight variety between the tracks. Picking tonight's album resulted in considerable musing and second-guessing, and quite a lot of listening through contenders - some of which have been removed from the short-list as a result, while others (more, in fact) have been added. This album was a late addition to the field, of which I was reminded while picking one of the other possibles off my shelves.

I was introduced to this by a friend by way of one particular track, and have since picked up the rest of the artists' catalogue. I suspect that quite a few, maybe even all of you, have already heard it, and I know that some have seen the act live and are keen apostles of their work. And despite that, once I'd thought of picking it, it remained at the back of my mind while I listened to some others, and in the end, I had to succumb, having checked the github to be sure that it hadn't been offered up before. For reasons that should become clear, this is a perfect time to listen to this album.

Drinking club? Not until after you've landed safely."

Right you are, then. Direct download's here and the HearThis stream (blah blah spoilers blah blah) is literally just down there.



See you at 8PM! (BST!)

The Listening Club - 14th July 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all fine and well. We're back from the fields after a very enjoyable Rabbit Hole, plenty of fine performances, with Grace Jones, Thom Yorke & Janelle Monae scooping the medals for me. Bonus points to the oddball Dutch music/theatre group that put together three nights of (as far as I could tell) never repeating untimetabled entertainment including pastiche pop-dance groups, piss take rap, improvised kraut rock (possibly a piss take, difficult to tell with that stuff), poetry recitals-with-philip-glass-choral-backing, a guy-making-every-commercial-dance-music-style-ever-with-nothing-but-his-mouth-and-a-loop-pedal and loads more that I wasn't around to see. Still wish there was a festival over here that sold any above average beer - four days of Heineken tests my patience somewhat, but yeah, first world problems, innit. Still a great little fest.

As mentioned previously (I think), I'm away again next Sunday (21st) and the one after (28th), so if anyone feels like stepping up to the plate and helping out, please let me know, thanks!

Last week, @JimMcCauley was king of the hosts, and @ohmyliver was in the selector's chair, delivering "I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk" by Tim Presley's White Fence, which, from the looks of it, bamboozled, delighted and repulsed in quite equal measures (and listening in retrospect, I can see why). Thanks to Olli for the pick, and for listlessly flipping the frisbee across the Atlantic to @wojsvenwoj, who has this to say...

"Like most of you I imagine, I keep a running list of albums I want listen to...and since I keep misplacing those lists or writing them on pieces of paper that have other uses (bills, envelopes for bills, notes for work), I keep making new lists. 

These lists overlap often and this particular band had been on several before I finally got around to listening to their fusion of punk and activism. Had heard enough about them to know what to expect and they delivered as advertised: ferocious vocals urging all to take action over a bed of grooves, guitars, and horns. 

Settled on this album of theirs for a couple of reasons. First, it's only one they've released since the Trump administration came into power so it's rather relevant and pertinent to our times. Their previous two albums echoed the same themes and goals but that event crystallized their focus and sharpened their message. Second, at 34 and a half minutes, it's also their longest!

Fair warning: there is cussing."

Okay. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is right under this sentence.


See you at 8pm BST tonight (GMT+1).

The Listening Club – 7th July 2019

Hallo, listening chums! @JimMcCauley checking in, doing the thing while @kleptones and @nessiest are off at Down The Rabbit Hole. Lovely morning here in Bath, so here I am getting this done before heading over to Bristol for lunch with some friends; should be back in plenty of time but you never know.

Last week saw @faberfedor on the decks with Jane's Addiction's first studio album, Nothing's Shocking, which provoked a range of reactions that Perry Farrell would doubtless approve of. So thanks to Faber for the pick, and for flipping the old frisbaton thing at @ohmyliver, who is very much here now to tell you of tonight's festivities.

"This time the pick was easy.  So I’m not going to write a lengthy pub-bore style monologue about it, as is my wont. 

As soon as I listened to this album, I knew it would be my next Listening Club pick. You all might know it already, but you might not, so I'm going to take a chance.  I’d not heard of the person/band behind this before, which probably says much about how out of touch I am. But this album made me a fan. 

It came out earlier this year.  It’s a hazy low fi psych influenced downtempo album.  I was surprised to read that they had no connection to The Super Furry Animals, and are American.  At the risk of sounding like an effete wine critic, I’m getting hints of musical influences like Spacemen 3, The SFA, Syd Barret, and Harvest-era Neil Young, wrapped up in an understated low-fi ennui.

The second track is easily one of my favourite songs of this year, and the album will probably work well in the quiet of the darkening dusk of a summer Sunday evening."

Top-hole. Direct download is here and the HearThis (spoilers etc) stream is just down there.


See you at 8PM! (BST!)