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!)

The Listening Club - 30th June 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing well and good. Still nicely baking here in Amsterdam, and hoping the dryness holds out past next weekend, when we'll be doing our own tent-in-a-field-with-music-and-booze thang. Speaking of which, looks like Glastobury has been going off quite nicely, even though the headliners this year are not really in alignment with my own tastes, there's still been plenty on the live streams to keep us entertained over the weekend, especially Idles on Friday and Lizzo yesterday, which makes us doubly happy as we're seeing her on Tuesday (in a much smaller venue, natch).

Last week in these here environs, @brainspiritus was in the chair, serving up the very Bronze-friendly sounds of Die Happy's 2002 album "Beautiful Morning", which brought out some strong opinions, to say the least. Big thanks to them for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @faberfedor, who has this to say by way of introduction...

"I've got a short list of LC selections so my selection critieria is if it fits the times, season, etc. My first selection would have fit well with the season; it being a hot summer with a holiday coming up, the music might be heard at a block party.  Unfortunately prepping the files proved a bit daunting; I need to do a deep dive to figure out how to change some of the m4v tags, if you know what I mean.

The atmosphere for this album, and where I first heard it... 30 years ago?! is a house party after the sun has gone down, filled with drugs, alcohol, and mainstream and counter-culture people all of which, nowadays, would be considered mainstream. I like the album for the sonic textures, lyric topics and the fact that these guys are probably doofuses IRL.

<ChefJohn> Enjoy! </ChefJohn>"

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


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

The Listening Club - 23rd June 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Feeling better here in Amsterdam, partially as my back is recovering (not a slipped disc as first suspected, which is really good news, but still something I'd rather not have to deal with), and also finally we have some decent weather, and the first festival of the summer to attend, which brought lots of joy, and fine sets from African Headcharge, Joy Orbison and Laraaji amongst many others.

Speaking of ye festivals, providing my body holds together, we'll be away in a couple of weekend's time at Down The Rabbit Hole, so as usual, looking for a volunteer to run things here on Sunday 7th July in my absence, so let me know if you feel like helping out, thanks!

Last week, @akx was in the chair, going widescreen quite literally with his pick of The Cinematic Orchestra's "To Believe", which fared pretty well. Thanks to Aarni for the selection, and for sailing the frisb over to @brainspiritus, who's right here with tonight's intro...

"Happy Sunday from sunny Kiel, where the 125th Kieler Woche sailing regatta/music festival has just kicked off.

It's been a rough couple of weeks at work for me, so I hope you will indulge me in a trip to the past while I ignore the uncertainties of the future. Tonight's mystery album is a 2002 release by a band that was a bit of a two-hit wonder here in Germany around that time (even though they continue to release and tour to this day).

At that time, I had just about started university, and had the kind of priorities that people in that situation might have, i.e. finding approval and, I admit, lust, in other people's eyes may have been important to me in other ways than it is now. Alas, my salad days were not without their share of slugs (whose ever were?), and this is where this album fits in nicely, with its sense of juvenile righteousness that becomes so infuriatingly incomprehensible to people of a more sedate age.

It was also an interesting time technologically, because no longer was there the fine motor control and short-term memory needed for dialling a number from a phonebook on a rotary dial telephone, and smartphones that would need very carefully enunciated voice commands were still a thing of the far future, so it was far too easy to make drunken phone calls after listening to this album one too many times.

#drinkingclub: red wine, cheap, with the last sip reserved for blotting out that phone number on that cocktail napkin. Do not drink the lighter fluid you're using to burn those photos. And don't make that phone call.

As for my usual suspicions: I think it's fair to say there will be no surprise metal guitars in this one."

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


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

The Listening Club - 16th June 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine, at least finer than me, as I'm currently horizontally confined to the sofa dealing with a slipped disc. Ouch and a half, and hoping I can recuperate in time for some festival visits in the near future... feel free to wish me well!

Last week chez #LC it was myself, getting all folky on your collective bods with a pick of Norma Waterson & Eliza Carthy's "Anchor", which went down very well indeed, I'm happy to report. Following that, the frisb was sailed across to @akx, who took time out from his busy schedule to send across this for tonight...

"As mentioned last Sunday, if you were keeping track, I'm submitting this one in absentia, since I'll be off to exotic Lahti (also called the Chicago of Finland, and not in a good way) for the weekend as one of the organizers of Desucon, arguably the finest convention on anime and Japanese culture in Finland... anyway, to the point!

This was one of those albums I knew was gonna be great the moment I heard the first single release off it (track #2), and the moment I got my paws on the full album, I knew it belonged on the #listeningclub shortlist. As such, you may have heard (some of) it already, and at the very least I wouldn't be surprised if you'd heard one of the ensemble's earlier albums. (They're all damn good.)

Oh, and this is one of those guest-vocalist sort of albums, so don't get too attached to one voice.

Anyway -- looking forward to what you think!

(As for #drinkingclub, I suggest a good wine or an elegant cocktail or several. A good whisk(e)y or bourbon wouldn't go amiss either, but maybe do skip the cheap lager for this if you can.)"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the ol' Hear This stream is below:


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