The Listening Club - 18th December 2022

Hey folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Last regular #LC of 2022 tonight, which has turned out to be a little more tumultuous a year than most of us would have liked, I'd say. We return on Sunday 8th January with the customary #festivevortex, which requires one of two of your favourite tunes of 2022 to be sent this way (dropbox details to follow), so get your thinking caps on...

All that remains for me is to wish you all a highly enjoyable holiday season, whatever you decide to get up to, and to thank you for sticking around here to participate in our sessions this year (and especially to @saucer, @akx and @JimMcCauley for #vortex work), it's really been a lot of fun, and it would not be the same without you, natch.

Last Sunday it was m'self @kleptones in the chair, blending past and present with Nancy Mounir's "Nozhet El Nofous", which I'm pleased to report went down pretty good with the assembled. All that remained was to flip the frisb over to @woj, who has this to say about tonight's pick...

"The end of the year approaches and all that comes with it: holidays, the longest night of the year (or the shortest as the case may be), and, of course, year-end lists. As a result, this past week, I've been going back and forth between picking something festive, picking something from my favo(u)rite albums of 2022, and picking something off someone else's best-of-2022 list. After the requisite hemming and hawing, settled on the third option as (1) one person's festive is another person's depressive and (2) I still haven't listened to everything that came out in 2022 that I've been meaning to listen to so don't really know what my faves of the year are yet. Plus, having done this sort of pick before, it's actually pretty fun to do!So, after trawling through a few non-corporate magazines and blogs lists, I selected this album purely based on the blurb that this particular blogger wrote to describe it. Except to spot-check the audio, I've not listened to it and don't even know if I like it, nevermind if it is actually good or not! But I hope it is because the description is promising:

"It seems like each year you can count on just a small handful of incredible albums by artists you've never heard of before to emerge, seemingly from out of nowhere (actually it's usually Canada), vivid and fully formed, familiar and warm, destined to become lifelong favorites. The stunning debut full-length from Toronto's [REDACTED] is officially one of those rare gems for 2022. It's one of the most beautiful and affecting things you'll hear this year, as [REDACTED] imbues these timeless, heartbreakingly poignant songs with a graceful levity that only enhances the record's entrancing emotional pull."

I think it might have been the, "actually it's usually Canada," which tipped the scales for me.

So, sit back and ring out 2022's Listening Club with a mystery album that's a mystery to us all! I'll be listening along in a car somewhere between Newark and New Haven so won't be chatty today but will check in after I get home for sure..."

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

See you at 8pm GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 11th December 2022

Hey folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Pretty chilly now here in Amsterdam, although staying very dry, so we're not quite into the slippery slidey zone, although the Dutch are all cleaning and sharpening their skates in anticipation, as is the custom at times like this...

Last Sunday we had @EmmaPrice in the chair, throwing a mighty beatdown in the shape of PVA's debut album "Blush", which got the assembled grooving quite happily indeed. Thanks to Emma for the pick and for throwing the frisb over to me, @kleptones, so I guess it's time I went all italic for the intro....

"...and there we go. 

Tonight's pick was nearly something else, but then I looked at the running time and realised it was more of an EP than an album, so I went with this instead, even though it turns out this is not much over half an hour either, so there you go. It's still potent stuff.

Can't really say much that won't give it away, suffice to say that this artist was playing this year's Le Guess Who (is he banging on about that again? yes he is...) but scheduling clashes meant that we didn't get to see them, and now, having caught up with this album post-festival, I'm regretting that decision seriously. So it goes. 

This may be a short album, but it's quite a deep one, so make yourselves comfortable, open a bottle of something full-bodied, and dive in.

Hope you enjoy!"

Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 4th December 2022

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Sudden drop in temps meaning a cold but clear week here in Amsterdam, which alongside the early festive street and house decorations has resulted in a very seasonal vibe. Despite the chill, it's been a good couple of weeks gig activity (forgot to mention last week in the platform-change hoo-ha), taking in Stereolab, The Cure and (most recently on Friday) HackeDePicciotto (Alexander Hacke from Einsturzende Neubauten and his wife Danielle de Picciotto), all excellent, and a solid end to the autumn gig season. Hooray for live music!

Speaking of seasons, it's worth noting this year is one of those in which both Xmas Day and New Years Day fall on a Sunday, so as we did in 2016, #LC will be closed for those two weeks, returning for the traditional end-of-year best-of #festivevortex on 8th January 2023.

Last Sunday we were celebrating our new home with a #HellophantVortex, which covered a considerable number of bases of elephantine greeting - and three folks picked the same tune, which I'm pretty sure has never happened before - many thanks to everyone for chipping tunes, and to @saucer for the fine work collecting and collating.

Looking back to regular programming we find @EmmaPrice holding the frisb with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"Greetings all,

Tis a privilege to open up the musical offerings in our new home. Unlike many previous offerings I knew I was picking this album the moment I caught the frisbaton. It's not an album I know well myself yet as it is brand spanking new, but I have been listening to this artist quite a lot this year after I stumbled across them as a support act in the company of a fellow #listeningclubber. An apt reminder that Listening Club has been responsible for new discoveries, new friendships and an awful lot of fun & puns.

So, raise your glasses as we toast the Frisbaton's safe arrival - To our new home, and to all of you.

If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen making cocktails strong enough to strip the paint off a tank."

Okaydoke. Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 27th November 2022

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Well, that was quite a move. I think we've done okay, most people seem to have come along, which is great, no idea about the lurkers because, well, they're lurkers, but we shall see. As I mentioned last week, if you haven't moved and you need help, please reach out on DMs and help will be provided!

Last week we bid farewll to our old zone, with @brainspiritus proviuding the soundtrack in the shape of Sa-Roc's "The Sharecropper's Daughter", which delighted pretty much everyone I'd say. Thanks extended for the pick, and for sailing the frisbee across the great platform divide to @EmmaPrice@universeodon.com, who has an extra week to ponder because...

Yep, end of the month means #vortex time, and possibly the most appropriate time to move platforms, as now we can have a #HellophantVortex (thanks @akx for the name) - Tunes have been gathered and assembled by @saucer, wonderful person that he is, so let's have it...

Download is here and the stream is below:

Hope to see you at 8pm GMT for playback.

The Listening Club - 20th November 2022

Greetings folks, hope you're all doing good.

<oldmanvoice>Well, that de-evolved quickly, didn't it? I really don't know what to say other than "oh dear". After ten (fuckin') years sittin' on the same corner, watching the world collapse around you doesn't quite have the same allure it used to, does it, sonny?...</oldmanvoice>

So... here's the deal. I'm personally done with Twitter. I have no desire to grab the popcorn and watch a daily dose of infinite-dumpster-fire, or my friends reactions to it. Also any future pay-to-play tweet-promotion stuff that surely *will* occur there will very probably impact our #LC real-time conversational abilities, which are already flaky at busy times, as u well kno. (Yes, the situation may change, but for now, it sucks, and the outlook is not good, is it?)

So... imho, we should be grateful we *can* go elsewhere. Mastodon seems good, takes a little bit of getting used to, but basically does what we need, without the dumpster-fire and hashtag spam - for now anyway. I can see that most of our regular folks have set up and followed us over there, (one or two haven't - please give it a go and feel free to let me know if you need any help setting it up), so I propose we move to Mastodon 100% from next Sunday for (maybe) a "Hi Hello How Are You" vortex. Please let me know what you think. 

(NB If the majority of folks wish to stay on twitter that is fine, but I'm sorry to say I will not be willing to administer the account, someone(s) else will have to take that on. And I have no desire to run both simultaneously either - again someone else is welcome to do it, but I don't want to!)

Anyways, last Sunday I was away having a fucking amazing time at LGW, whilst @JimMcCauley was kindly sorting things out here, presenting @corin_ja and his fine pick of Half Man Half Biscuit's 2008 opus "CSI: Ambleside", which presumably charmed and confused in equal measures, as is their wont. Thanks to Corin for the pick, and for the flip of the frisb across to @brainspiritus, who is right here with tonight's intro...

"Happy Sunday, folks!

Over here on the Baltic Sea, we're seeing the first snow of the season this weekend, even if it's currently gone back to "nasty sludge". I hope you are wrapped in thermally-appropriate clothing, enjoying the foods of the December season that have been in supermarkets for months now.

Today's album… I stumbled upon this artist when they had a guest appearance on a podcast and decided to give their latest album (from 2020) a go, and first got stuck on the occasionally almost "arabesque" weaving of melodies, and the excellent delivery, which gets only better after hearing it a couple of times, when all the double-entendres start to hit. (It seems to be a sort of catch-up album, because some of the music videos are a couple of years older than that.)

I can see how this is probably not going to be for everybody, because it's … not doing the usual melodic structure thing much? Also, this is a person with a lot of anger and struggle in their life, so it's a bit sweary and aggressive. (Trigger warning: contextualized variations of N-words, I'm sure there's the F-word in there, Abuse of various kinds.)

This has songs that hit you in the feels, and songs that hit you in the _other_ feels, the entire range from airhorn to ballad. I don't know about cowbells though, and you know I can't spoil surprise metal guitars.

Drink: Gosh, I guess a couple of molotovs?"

Okaydoke. Download's here (right-click, save as), stream's below:

See you 8pm GMT, I hope.

The Listening Club – 13th November 2022

Afternoon all! @JimMcCauley at your service while @kleptones is off at Le Guess Who. I was just about to do a spot of ironing before lunch, before heading off to this afternoon's Railway Children rehearsal, when I suddenly remembered that there was something else I needed to do, and this is it. Bit of close one, what? Anyway, hope you're all feeling reasonably splendid; I have lots on but having an excellent time with it, and I may or may not join you this evening, depending on how I'm doing after a four-hour rehearsal.

Last week we had @faberfedor at the controls with his pick of Johnny Cash's career-reviving American Recordings, the first in his series of albums with Rick Rubin, and while nobody was remotely surprised by the reveal, it all seems to have gone down very nicely indeed with the assembled. So thanks to Faber for the pick, and for flicking the frisbaton at @corin_ja, who will see you now.

"Thanks to @faberfedor for the frisbaton from last week after a superb selection.

"This is also kinda folk music (well, what isn't - as Louis Armstrong said, "ain't never heard a horse sing"), but of a particularly English variety. A favourite of John Peel's this lot, and they've been going for almost 40 years, which is pretty terrifying considering their early albums were teenage singalong fodder for me & my mates.

"I guess this will be a very marmite selection. Not everyone is going to like or get this. I hope those that do appreciate the strength of the melodies as well as the wit of the lyrics. We shall see.

"#DrinkingClub probably a pint of bitter or fizzy lager. Maybe a snakebite or a cider'n'black. Packet of crisps and ten B&H. You get the idea."

Wicked. Download's here or stream away below.

Maybe see you at 8PM; if I don't, have a good one!

The Listening Club - 6th November 2022

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good, and if you're in the UK, hope you're dealing okay with your Bonfire Night Hangover / Glastonbury Ticket Sale Failure. Bit of a double-bill that one, for sure.

I wanted to take a minute to say something about the changes at Twitter - Although #LC is unaffected at the moment, there is a possibility things may change in the future that may make us not want to continue on the platform - we all have our limits. As Jim pointed out the other day, losing Tweetdeck and / or access to Latest Tweets would be tough (and make doing this nigh-on impossible), and for me personally, if a certain orange-faced c*** is allowed back, I would not be able to continue, sorry - As I said, we all have our limits, I'd be interested in knowing yours, so we can reach a consensus for the time being ("time being" being something that does seems to be changing rapidly, I admit). I know some folks have signed up on Mastodon, and I encourage those that haven't to do so also, or bookmark this URL for future use!: https://joinmastodon.org/

Next Sunday I am away at Le Guess Who filling my ears with fine music, so if anyone is able to run things here, please let me know.

Last Sunday, as was end-of-the-month time, a #timevortex was had, as collated and mixed by @akx, and a mighty fine time was had by all! Thanks to Aarni for the assemblage, and everyone who chipped in a track or two. Looking back, we see @faberfedor waving across the water with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"A man and his guitar. It doesn't get much more minimalist than that. 

For an album with such a simple premise, this album had an outsized effect: it gave the finger to The Powers That Be, introduced the singer to a new generation and re-cemented his reputation as an American master.

Not bad for someone who swore he'd never make another album.

It's going to be a quiet night. So turn down the lights, grab some mountain dew -- and I don't mean the sugar water -- and relax into the evening."

Okay, download's here, stream's below:

See you 8pm GMT tonight.