The Listening Club - 25th February 2024

'Lo there folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Bit of a non-week here in Amsterdam, the usual blend of grey and wet, although the sun made a rare appearence today, there's a few flowers poking out of the ground here and there, and the wood pigeons are nesting in the bush over the way, so here's hoping these signs indicate an early spring for a change...

Last Sunday @holette was in the chair delivering Elliot Smith's posthumous final album "From A Basement On The Hill", which met the approval of the assembled quite whole heartedly, and deservedly so, imho. Thanks to Sarah for the pick, and for sailing the frisb acxross to @woj, who has a little extra time to ponder because...

Yep, end of the month means vortex time, and this time the conversation drifted over to a #NeverEverVortex - Ideas never used, artists never picked, for whatever reason, here's an opportunity to give them a moment in the sun. However you've interpreted it, it's here, mixed into a froth by @akx...

Download's here: gdrive or direct, stream's below:

See you at 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 18th February 2024

Salutations folks.

@kleptones here, back from faraway lands (which were very welcoming and enjoyable indeed, thanks for asking), and now suffering the traditional jetlag-enhanced "back-to-work" discombobulations. Huge thanks to @emmaprice and @saucer for keeping the ball rolling in my absence, very much appreciated. Also the calendar tells me it's going to be an end-of-the-month-sunday next week, so get your #vortex ideas out and we'll shake them all about later today...

Last Sunday (it says here), @aqidraco was in the chair sending out a solid classic (for me, anyways) in the shape of Talk Talk's "Spirit Of Eden" from back in 1988, which went down rather well, so it seemed. Thanks to Aqi for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @holette, who's here with tonight's intro....

"I don't really feel like saying too much about this album before you listen. 

Some of you will know about it and I hope it will be a chance to revisit the music and songwriting. It's an album I know really well but had somehow dropped off my playlist for years. It's been an absolute joy discovering it all over again. 

Drinking club recommendation: Two shots of happy, one shot of sad."

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

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 11th February 2024

Hey it’s @Saucer again filling in for @Kleptones for one more week as we head into Saint Valentines Day. Not much to report from Boulder, as I gratefully suffer the aftermath of a vaccination… and kind of drift in and out of capacity to press keys on the keyboard in a nonrandom order. b;lnasdh

Last week @Erimichkea treated us to the third LP from Minneapolis band Poliça, United Crushers. A dreamy listen that evoked lots of near recognitions among the assembled. 

(In parallel, some controversy broke out regarding which Groundhog Day mascot rules. And yet… after some hot contention, not sure whether Punxsutawney Phil, Flatiron Freddy, or someone else came out on top….)

Which brings us (?) to this week’s pick, enabled by a deft, last-minute frisbaton snag by @aqidrago, here now with her intro…

“I really wanted to share and listen with you all together to this album on Sunday, May the 14, 2023. But then another album jumped ahead in line and took its spot. So, here we are 8 months later. You probably know a number of their famous songs. This album is more, well, experimental. It is an album, I only discovered through Mastodon and I keep coming back to it.

“As choice of beverage, I dare you to try something new, something experimental, outside of your usual choice of beverages and invite you to join me on this soundscape escape.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Aside from the typical commercial cards, chocolates, and flowers, why not do something non-commercial for your loved ones. Paint a picture, write a poem, sing a song… make a mixtape. 🥰”

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

See you 20:00 GMT tonight!  (That’s noon Pacific, 15:00 Eastern, 21:00 Central Europe)

The Listening Club - 4th February 2024

Hey LC fam, 

It’s @Saucer here filling in this week & next for @Kleptones on the old blog front. As I write you, it’s a mix of freezing rain, snow, and fog in Boulder. And apart from needing to go out and do some errands in a few… this is very much my kind of weather (not only happy when it rains, I promise). Poor birds, though! They were just getting accustomed to the sun & relative warmth and now everything’s covered in wet, heavy snow.

But speaking of warmth and winter… big thanks to @EmmaPrice for handling the LC duties last week for our winter/summer/Camus vortex… with a record-setting name suggested by @Vinomadic that reminded me of album titles by Spacemen 3 or Keiji Haino/Sumac: In the Depths of Winter, I Finally Learned that Within Me There Lay an Invincible Summer. What a vortex title. Big thanks to each of you who sent in such excellent tunes. Was an honor and a pleasure to sort and stich.

Just before our Camus vortex, @iamwahl had flipped that ol’ frisbee to @Erimichkea, and here she is now with her intro to tonight’s selection: 

"I hadn’t listened to this full album in a few years, and I found it again while searching for something to contribute to last week’s vortex playlist.  The title of the first track would have fit the theme nicely, but after listening to the whole album again, I decided to save it for my selection this week.  It’s a music genre that I don’t listen to a lot, but I’ve always enjoyed the singer’s vocals. The band has several other albums before and after this one, but this is the one I keep coming back to."

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

See you 20:00 GMT tonight!  (That’s noon Pacific, 15:00 Eastern, 21:00 Central Europe)

The Listening Club - 28th January 2024

@emmaprice here once again with the renegade master coming live from Amsterdam. As promised in last week's #listeningclub I shall be going on a hipster baiting Soapbar mission during my soujourn here.

Speaking of last week @iamwahl was in the chair and treated us to Don't Call Me Buckwheat by Garland Jeffreys which seemed to go down rather well with the assembled throng.  

The Frisbaton was deftly caught by @erimichkea who has another week to ponder their choice as tonight we're delving into the world of Albert Camus with our 'In the Depths of Winter, I Finally Learned that Within Me There Lay an Invincible Summer' Vortex. As always huge thanks to @saucer for compiling and creating tonight's #Vortex

#ITDOWIFLTWMTLAIS #nowthatswhatIcallahashtag

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

The Listening Club - 21st January 2024

Greetings fellow lovers of the tune. @emmaprice here sitting in for our tunemeister while he's off to sunnier climes. Last week I was in the hotseat and treated you all to Funke & The Two Tone Baby and his 2023 release Reacclimate which seemed to go down rather well.

The frisbaton was deftly caught by @iamwahl who is here with this introduction

While this isn’t my most favourite album by this artist, like every other of their albums I possess, it remains in the stack of recordings I regularly return to for repeated listens. There was a break in their career and, I must confess, I lost contact with them when there was nothing forthcoming for many years. Partly as a result of this, I didn’t discover this album until well after its initial release (yes, it was another thrift-store find), which in turn was more than a decade after the most recent of this artist’s recordings that I had originally fallen in love with. This may not be the most recognizable of this performer’s output (although in some locations it may be) but it is representative of the breadth of their creativity and articulate voice. This is personal. There is an angry bite here, that delivers a mouthful of sweetness. As Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution”—come on down to the barricades, raise your fist, and swivel those hips….

As it is (for some) #DryJanuary I’ll leave #DrinkingClub up to each participant’s whims…

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

The Listening Club - 14th January 2024

Hey folks, 

Hope you're all doing good - Pretty standard grey / wet here, with a little touch of clear / cold occasionally, but we're pretty much bedded into winter, which seems like a perfect time to head off to a different part of the world or two, which is what we're about to do - first decent trip away for a good few years, thanks to pandemics and other real world concerns, so we're seriously looking forward to it. Major thanks to @EmmaPrice & @Saucer who have offered to take over management here whilst we're away - never know though, we might be tuning in from a distance if we get a chance, will have to wait and see... either way, see you in a month or so!

Last Sunday, we marked the changing of the years in customary #LC style with the 2023 #FestiveVortex, 33 slices of super-varied sounds, the mixing of which always causes no end of furrowed brows for me, so thanks for the post-playback props, it's always very much appreciated!

Looking back into '23, we see the aforementioned @EmmaPrice was left holding the frisbee, so over to her for the first #LC intro of '24...

"Evening all, hope 2024 is treating you well so far.

You know when you start getting to know someone better and realise you've found a musical sibling who reacts in the same way you do to the music that's within your soul. Someone who reminds you why you love a certain track or the way someone makes a guitar sing. It opens the door to the very heart of who you are and what's important in your world. I've had that experience recently and it's intoxicatingly glorious. My first gig with this person was this artist in an intimate London venue late last year and it was one of my gigs of the year. I've not done the final tally yet but my band count for last year is 150+ so you can understand why I'm so excited to share tonight's artist with you.

When the frisbaton landed I instantly knew I was picking this album. It was such a refreshing change to not have pickers angst/doing the whole shortlisting process.

This artist was a Boomtown Festival discovery thanks to a late night chat backstage with someone I met in a mosh pit due to his most excellent band shirt. Once I'd recovered from going to bed at 10am on the final day I started listening to this artists work and was immediately hooked. This album came out in October and has been on pretty constant rotation for me since. Only reason I didn't put a track into the best of 2023 vortex was not spoilering tonight.

Drinking Club is something yellow - White wine/beer/cider all count by my reckoning :)"

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

See you 20:00 GMT tonight!