The XX
Look it! We went to a gig last night!
I recommend the Long Island Iced Teas
Spotify Playlist
The $9.99 a month Spotify Pro subscription is without a doubt one of the best things I throw dollars at. The Guardian iPad app’s a close second. Anyroad, let’s see how easy it is to embed a playlist in WordPress… This one’s a work in progress I’ve dubbed ‘Pop-U-Like‘:
15 Albums that’ll always stick with you
Joe off of Flickr passed on a meme on the facebooks:
15 Albums in 15 Minutes
The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.
And I reckon it qualifies for a reason to update this here blog I used to write. I took 5 minutes to come up with the list- I’m just fleshing it out a bit here. There are many more that have since occurred but rules is rules.
Metallica – Metallica
This came out when I was 16 and it has everything a young lad with a nascent interest in guitar could ask for. I’d been into Metallica for a while, but this was the first album of theirs where every track was unskippable. I can still play along with most of it. Not the lead parts mind…
Appetite for Destruction – Guns’n’Roses
It was the style at the time.
The Levellers – Levellin’ the Land
Reminds me of festivals, campfires and endless summers in deepest, darkest Somerset.
Portishead – Dummy
1st year at university. Ubiquitous but brilliant. Nothing like it has been produced since.
Manu Chao – Clandestino
Other than Santana’s collaboration album, Supernatural. This was our year in Seville’s soundtrack.
Black Box Recorder – England Made Me
Love the guitar, tunes and especially the lyrics of all these. Brutal it is, but I love how it simultaneously celebrates and rubbishes its subject matter. Sarah Nixey’s got a fine voice on her too.
Shakira – Pies Descalzos
I get all kinds of crap for liking Shakira. But face it, she’s a thousand times better than Kylie. And her gig in Guadalajara three years was one of the best I’ve been to. There. Argument settled.
The Smiths – Best of Vol. 2
The first Smiths album I bought (1992). And it’s an excellent primer…
The Velvet Underground- Velvet Underground & Nico
Paranoia, sado-masochism and violas never sounded so good.
REM – Automatic for the People
Choose any track off this one, any of em. Gold.
The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
Still my favourite Cure album. I’m all about the minimalist production.
Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
Jamaica? Nah, she went by herself.
Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Best album of the noughties for my money.
Molotov – ¿Dónde jugarán las niñas?
Spanglish soundtrack to Guadalajara 1998.
Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Soundtrack to too many places to name. Perfect for any occasion from Christmas cooking tortilla española with me little sis to the first trip to see Drsita in Amherst… Fine, fine album.
Last night midomi saved my life
Well not literally.
6 weeks since my last post eh? That’s got to be some kind of new record. Sorry about that, I’m sure you found other ways to spend your time though. It was probably good for you to take that break. What did you do? Learnt a new language? A musical instrument? The harpsichord eh? Good on ya. Upload a cover of something baroque to YouTube would you. Thanks!
I nipped over to the UK and Eire for a few weeks just to check in on everyone and have a fine old time. We’ve been back in Brunswick, Maine, Top Right of ‘Merica, Last stop before Canada, for nigh on two weeks now. It’s still cold and that snow that fell last week is not going anywhere. I’ve taken up ice-skating and am working on describing graceful figures such as 1 and 0 in the ice.
There’s a song I’ve been trying to find for almost a decade now I think it was on one of David Byrne’s compilations. It’s a Brazilian duet so I could only sing it phonetically. I think it’s about arrows. Probably. Anyroad, usually if you want to find a song on the internets you usually just google a few words from it + “lyrics”, but if you don’t know how to spell them, you’re stuck. Same with instrumental pieces (like this one). So I thought I’d try www.midomi.com. You hum it for 10 seconds, then it searches its database for songs that match, and lo and behold, first time it found what countless hours of googling couldn’t. I’ve been listening to this over and over. It’ll warm you up when you’re in the negative celsius.
It wouldn’t be a proper post without an Atticus update. He’s almost back to his usual self after 3 weeks on the mean streets of Harpswell, ME. We’ve nursed him back to health after a nasty bout of kennel cough, and some new toys. His favourite is a squeaky hedgehog thing. DON’T try and take it away from him.
Back soon. Abrazos
From Monument to Masses
We went out! Yeah, it doesn’t happen often, because of the canine logistics involved, but yesterday the stars aligned and one of DrSita’s long-lost friends from Downey was playing a gig in Portland and we managed to get our act together and go and see them. Of course, we arrived late and missed their set but it was the thought that counts… after loading their van we went for a few pints and I heard lots about what people I don’t know are doing now. But they were a well friendly bunch. Right now I’m listening to a few of their tracks and they’re a an interesting proposal. Well-produced, generally instrumental, varied time signatured digital-rock with overarching political themes… A bit Muse-ish but without the vocals. Fair play to ’em so.
Have a picture from Atticus’ walk yesterday, it’s a fair sample of what 99% of Portland looks like right now.
Cannon Beach Photos
Gorgeous it is. And a lot cooler than the triple digit temps in our house…
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To keep their little heads from falling in the snow
No news is good news. Here’s a nice christmassy video from a song that caught my fancy. It’s by Fleet Foxes…
Martha and the Muffins- Echo Beach
Gabriela Cilmi revived this song for me, but the Martha and the Muffins’ original has the edge, despite featuring a sax solo.
I think this might be the next song I do a badly-sung acoustic cover of on YouTube.
La Flaca has 32,500 views now… and apparently being told “tio eres el puto crak” is a good thing in Spain. Those crazy iberians…
Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex – Audacious cover
Mixin’ it up, two track acoustic guitar of Rachel Stevens’s (ex S Club 7) Sweet Dreams my L.A. Ex made with Audacity and my 22 quid guitar from Corte Ingles, Seville: