Music for Anoraks: On A Rope

Seconds out, round two. My second compilation, On A Rope, is now out in the wilds.

Music for Anoraks: A Thousand Long Things

My debut Son of Music Club compilation, Hora, Sem Bon!, has done the rounds and, like the faithful collie at the end of every Lassie film I can think of, come back to me. As the members have, where applicable, passed judgement I can let slip the track-listing.

It was simply a selection of stuff I'd been listening to; so no concept or anally retentive obscurism like the last time around, honest guv...

01 'Any Minute Now' by Soulwax
Despite what Q (and a lot of the rest of the music press) thought, I really enjoyed Any Minute Now as an album. It's not Much Against Eveyone's Advice Part 2, which is kind of the point. Anyway, it was bloody difficult to pick just one tune to represent it. NY Excuse might have been a tad obvious, E Talking was 'the one' right up until the last minute, then the second track just snuck on in there for my opener.

02 'Robot' by The Futureheads
Again, it was hard to pick just the one track. I didn't want to go for anything too obvious, I think I failed in that respect. Then again, who cares? It's a top tune and deserves to be played as loud as possible.

03 'Such Great Heights' by The Postal Service
When I'm sat at my desk at work I often plug myself into the internet and tune Windows Media Player (yes, I know) into WOXY.com. A friend hooked me into this great radio station awhile ago and, since listening, I've found I've had to ration my enjoyment as it has a detrimental effect on my bank account (all those lovely obscure CDs I have to order). The Postal Service is just one of many many bands that I discovered courtesy of WOXY.

04 'Mushaboom' by Feist
And so is this wee gem, a slice of French-Canadian indie that is mesmerising in its quirkiness. The rest of the album is a cracker too.

05 'Disco Infiltrator' by LCD Soundsystem
It was either this or Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (waaaay to obvious). Is it just me or does he sound like Mark E Smith?

06 'Rejected Burger King radio ad' by Ween
It's short, it's mad, it's Ween. This was a freebie download on their website and I just couldn't stop playing it. Yup, they're a bit bonkers are Ween.

07 'Bucky Done Gone' by M.I.A.
Another tune "as heard on WOXY"; I heard it and immediately wondered what the hell it was. I really like it but, having read the reviews on the forum, I think I'm alone in my opinion.

08 'It's For You' by The Wedding Present
The Boy Gedge is back, and he's done good with a cracking album full of angst-ridden-guitar-jangling-indie-pop.

09 '24' by Jem
Them would've been too obivous; most of the rest of the album, though good, is a bit too light and fluffy.

10 'Lonely As Can Be' by The Concretes
The album this comes from is such a lovely thing to listen to. I urge anyone who reads this inane banter to immediately buy it (that's if you haven't already).

11 'Lost In The Plot' by The Dears
I saw these live recently, pretty much on the strength of the one track (this one) available from their website and a mate's enthusing of the album. If you read reviews on the web then they'll say how excellent The Dears are live (in their homeland of Canada they've released a live CD already). Obviously I must be missing something as I really didn't think they were all that live. Conversely, the CD is as good as they say and this is one of my favourite tracks on it. Weird.

12 'Nowhere Again' by Secret Machines
Prog is back, believe it.

13 'Obsession' by Animotion
I'm really enjoying this vogue for the 80s, especially the CD boxsets featuring all the excellent 12" singles I bought (only to later sell when skint). OK, so this probably isn't the best 12" of the 80s, nor the most representative of what I was listening to, but it's a bloody good tune all the same.

14 'The Good That Won't Come Out' by Rilo Kiley
And I finished up with the opening track of the Rilo's sophomore release, an album I played near constantly when I was lucky enough to get my grubby mitts on it (all hail the internet and its many fine record shops). Of course, it's now available in Blighty, natch.

The name of the compilation, "Hora, sem bon!", is (according to my old Manga magazines) Japanese for "Look, a thousand long things!". What that has to do with the price of cheese is anyone's guess. Still, that's one down; I can start on my next one now.

Mike Peters @ The Wedgewood Rooms 11/04/05

The Alarm are generally regarded as the band that were a bit like U2 but not as good nor as successful. Excellent live but never able to reproduce that sound on record, hampered by band in-fighting, let-down by record company machinations and, as Mike Peters mentions on his website, not helped by being welsh. They had it all against them, despite teaching Bono how to play Knocking On Heaven's Door.

These days Mike Peters keeps the flame of The Alarm alive by selling his wares direct from his website to a dedicated fan-base. The current acoustic tour is to plug an 8 DVD compilation of live performances from the Alarm-based festival he runs annually in Wales. These 'Gatherings' started small but now sell out.

Unfortunately it became clear from updates to the Wedgewood Rooms website that this gig wasn't going to be anywhere near sold out. When it says there's 'unreserved seating' it implies so few tickets have been sold that tables will be unfolded to fill up space. The additional "no support" tag didn't help any either.

Thus it was with a slight downbeat "oh well, there's a bar" air that we found ourselves in the Wedge on a murky Monday night. And yes, there were tables filling the venue, but they were all full. The candles gave the proceedings an intimate feel whilst on-stage a video screen showed snippets of previous Gathering concerts as a warm-up. So far, so good.

When Mike Peters appeared on-stage, looking slightly nervous and with spikier hair than he had any right to own, he informed us that it was to be a gig of two halves, with a short interval. This explained the lack of support act.

The first set was taken up with a sprinkling of more recent songs, with only the odd old tune in between. Also, as this was an 'interactive' tour, the songs had been chosen by visitors to his website. Mike dedicated these but, it must be said, seemed rather uncomfortable doing so. He only really came alive between tunes when recalling a rock'n'roll anecdote; for instance explaining how When The Ravens Left The Tower was inspired by The Alarm's bass player, self-medicated to the gills, watching nothing but a tourist TV loop in a hotel room for a weekend.

The evening's first half wrapped up nicely with The Stand. During the interval we were treated to more Gathering footage, including the classic 68 Guns. We also met some Alarm "groupies", one of whom had come all the way from Bedford just to see her hero. And she'd dragged her mates along as well, which was nice.

In the second set a now slightly more relaxed Mr Peters rolled out the old favourites. Rain In The Summertime sounds so much better live than on record (where it suffered from 80's over-production). It also helped that the crowd had raided the bar in the interval so we all were freer and easier when it came to singing along. Things moved up a gear with the raucous Absolute Reality, after which came the bizarre appearance of a Prince cover.

Then it was into the final stretch with Rescue Me, Spirit Of '76 and 68 Guns (which, to be honest, I didn't think he'd play, it having been part of the interval entertainment). There was a brief respite from the singalongs with the mournful Walk Forever By My Side, then everyone joined in with Blaze Of Glory to draw the evening to a close. Well, nearly to a close.

After singing his guts out for two hours he was out of the stage door and into the crowd for much taking of photos and signing of autographs. And there, forever by his side, were the Bedford ladies. Rock'n'Roll eh?

Mercury Rev @ Southampton Guildhall 13/03/05

Any review of a gig at Southampton Guildhall (aka The Bucket) must acknowledge the venue's appalling acoustics; the ceiling is too high and the room is too long, giving a strange echoey effect to the sound. Some bands can just about cope with this, relying on either a decent sound engineer or a packed venue to change the sound for the better. Unfortunately for Mercury Rev, the venue was less than half full and the jury was still out on the sound engineer.

When I arrived the support act, The Duke Spirit, were gamely trying to enthuse the crowd. They had some success but, despite being less than 20' away from me, it sounded as though they were playing at the far end of a long tunnel. This didn't fill me with confidence for the main event so I strolled into the deserted bar for a cold Grolsch.

Mercury Rev's entrance to the stage was heralded by someone playing around with the dimmer switch, the lights above dying then flickering back into life almost in time with the engineer's warm-up tape. Finally the lights went out properly and the band strolled onstage, Jonathan emerging last from the wings, looking other-worldly and receiving more applause than the rest of the band put together.

One polite greeting later, delivered in a voice not quite as squeaky as that of his singing, and the band kicked off the proceedings. First up was the new single, Secret For A Song, which is also the first track on the new album, The Secret Migration.

A few bars in and it was clear that Mercury Rev were playing at the far end of the same tunnel as The Duke Spirit had just occupied (maybe the engineer was rewinding his tape, or he was getting spanked for playing with the light switch). This was a real shame, and perhaps next time they tour a smaller, more intimate venue for their fare can be found. Even the Mayflower would be better than The Bucket.

I'd read a review prior to this gig that the set on the current tour is made up mostly of new material. I was slightly perturbed by this as I didn't have the new CD but I needn't have worried. The new stuff holds up well to the classics and, perhaps because I wasn't as familiar with the material, I found myself being drawn in to their psychedelic world (OK, and the Grolsch was helping).

For a large venue it had all the makings of an intimate gig; in an ideal world someone would have been selling velvet cushions for us to lounge upon as we soaked up the strangeness. Instead I had to rely on a wall to lean on, handy for the bar (only one of which was open, and half of that was closed down midway through the set due to lack of business).

A problem some bands have with larger venues is the size of the stage: it's big, wide across and high (The Bucket is a prime example of this). Some bands use strobes to expand their presence, others invest in pyrotechnics. Mercury Rev, not exactly the most animated of bands (the lights on Grasshopper's keyboard moved more than he did) splurged on films to accompany their tunes. This worked well, up to a point.

The movies fitted the music, the occasional promo video was even re-used, with shots of CGI cell structures and the countryside slotting in well. The only problem I had was the quotes sprinkled liberally throughout. These jolted me out of my listening experience, appearing to be at odds with the songs and, in all honesty, making them try to look far too clever for their trousers. Still, tucked away at the back of my brain somewhere are some ancient sanskrit thoughts which may one day come in handy (though I doubt it).

You may at this point be thinking that I didn't like the gig. You'd be wrong. Mercury Rev were awesome (though that doesn't make for a gripping review, unless you're a gnarly dude). The old material (and one track was VERY old indeed) fitted in well with the new, showing that whilst the band has matured they've not deviated too far from their wistful and psychedelic path.

All in all a fine evening, though I just wish they'd have played somewhere slightly smaller (and closer, so I wouldn't have had to leave right at the end and miss the second encore). Anyway, for an alternate take on the gig, here's what the Daily Echo had to say:

ANYONE not familiar with atmospheric art-rockers Mercury Rev may have doubts over live performances of music best suited to soundtracks. But those fears immediately disappeared against a backdrop of huge video projections and a dazzling light show. The result was a night of powerful tracks played against a montage of images ranging from the surreal to the sublime.

The band, originally formed in the late 1980s, took the audience on a journey through sunsets and stars as they played tracks from their new album The Secret Migration. Despite the often cliched use of dolphins and spacedust on screen, the atmosphere never lulled as they wisely picked up the pace two-thirds of the way through with new song In The Wilderness.

Thanking their audience for coming out on a Sunday, and giving a superb second encore with a repeat, light-enhanced performance of The Dark Is Rising, Mercury Rev are probably best seen on the day of rest, and will no doubt be welcomed back to the Guildhall with open arms.

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

Music for Anoraks: Hora, sem bon!

OK chaps, I've pieced together my first Son of Music Club offering, Hora, Sem Bon! Iit's 14 tracks of goodness (well, 13 plus a weird thing) and it's headed Andy's way first.

Who we are and how we came to be..

Once upon a time there was a group of guys who worked for the same company. They all liked music, loved it, all different kinds and flavours. One day, over a beer, they came up with the idea for the Music Club. The plan was that each of them, in turn, would punt round a CD of what they'd been listening to for the others to enjoy.

All concerned thought this was a lovely super smashing idea, and they all set about making compilations of what they'd been listening to. Witty names were thought up, covers were laboured over, record collections were plundered. Soon enough a raft of CDs were meandering through the internal post, arriving on people's desks, sometimes battered by the journey.

Sadly though, the wheels soon started to come off this charming enterprise; CDs went missing in the internal post, or remained static on certain member's desks. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the reaction the compilations could cause when listened to often incurred the umbrage of their creators.

It's a given that no-one likes their taste insulted, or even questioned, and a flurry of emails usually followed. No-one had time to read the spam; people soon got bored of their inboxes filling up with more than the usual rubbish. Coupled to that was the increasing obscurity of the compilations (I've got to put my hand up on that one) and the speed at which they were appearing.

Like a badly run brewery tour, the Music Club soon collapsed. No tears were shed, and it had a good send-off. It was a good idea though. And good ideas often need a second (or third) chance in order to work. And we'd learnt from our mistakes, so we'd not repeat them.

So, after a goodly time, the idea was raised again. This time though, there'd be rules. And regulations. No more would CDs linger long on desks unlistened, or disappear on their journey, or arrive all at once. Most of all, there would be no spam and no "spitting of the dummy" when people passed comment. Thus the Son of Music Club was born.

Now, you may wonder why we don't have a proper MP3 blog, or some such. That'd ruin the mystery (and we're lazy). We don't know what's on the CDs when they land on our desks, hence we (ahem) 'listen without prejudice' (for the first few bars anyway). Will this grand enterprise succeed? Who knows. Will we end up buying more music anyway? Most definitely.