What are you listening to right now?

[invisible Pole]

Paul Heaton's new single, Mermaids And Slaves.
Love it.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Ignore anyone who says this isn't as good as her debut, I think it's better still. A real grower for me. Her voice is fantastic from start to finish, worth getting just to appreciate that. Can't wait to see her in Cambridge in Oct. Third time she's played. Missed her at the recet folk festival, but first gig was stand up, and this is sit down. Ain't complaining as I'm in 5th row. It's looking like a great autumn for gigs, all without having to leave town.

[BlueChair]

So f-ing good

[Who Shot Sam?]

I need to get that one. I liked her debut a lot.

[BlueChair]

I'm just amazed I haven't caught on earlier. I'd heard the name floated around, particularly in our T Bone Burnett thread, but only recently decided to finally give her a listen. It looks like she also does a lot of great covers in her concerts... many of them available on YouTube... "Creep" by Radiohead, "I've Just Seen A Face" by The Beatles, "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, "Madman Across The Water" by Elton John, to name a few.



"Creep"

[Otis Westinghouse]

It's great to come back to a classic you played to death and then couldn't listen to for quite a while. I've been listening to the bootleg of the NY Town Hall show we attended two years ago this month, and it's very wonderful, and so had to go back to the full record. No indication of what Sufjan's been up to of late anywhere, at least in terms of full new LPs, but I live in hope. Can he top Illinoise?

Here's the endlessly haunting John Wayne Gacy Jnr from the above-mentioned Town Hall show, Sufjan resplendant in wings. I love the coda at the end of this which isn't on the studio recording.

[Otis Westinghouse]

http://hypem.com/track/121678

This one's for Moody! She sent me Sublime's 'What I Got' as part of her CD comp (and yes, Moodster, I will post more at some point, just keeping you waiting!), and I was immediately struck by the Lady Madonna basis to it, which led me to this.

[blooch]

At the moment ive got into Shane Macgowan again. Been listening to The Snake album which i recently bought which is cracking and also Crock Of Gold which i dug out of my cupboard today. I like a bit of irish music now we have the onset of Autumn. Now wheres that Van morrison album he done with the Chieftains?

[Otis Westinghouse]

'Oh won't you stay, stay a while with your own ones?'

[mood swung]

wow. as god is my witness, I never heard Lady Madonna there.


I just lack imagination, it's a fact.

[Otis Westinghouse]

What I was wondering, and couldn't easily find on a quick google search was whether there's a credit to the original or whether Macca has a court case, not that he needs any more. When is a borrow a steal?

[mood swung]

the whole thing's stolen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_I_Got

[verbal gymnastics]

The Best Of Blur - Blur

[ReadyToHearTheWorst]

What I was wondering, and couldn't easily find on a quick google search was whether there's a credit to the original or whether Macca has a court case, not that he needs any more. When is a borrow a steal?

Well, legend has it that Macca got it from Humphrey Lyttleton's
Bad Penny Blues so he'd be v. mean to chase other stealers.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice track, but pretty tenuous, I'd say.

[migdd]

Harps and Angels by Randy Newman. It's the best album I've heard so far this year by quite a distance.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Jamal's playing on this album in particular was a big influence on Miles Davis.

[BlueChair]

Listening to songs from this on her MySpace page. Outstanding stuff.

[verbal gymnastics]

Get Happy!! - the 50 track reissue.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I've loved 'Ready for the Floor' since I first heard it. The Duffy cover is OK, but you can't beat the original. Hear both here:
http://hypem.com/search/ready%20for%20the%20floor/1/

I played parts of the LP on a transatlantic flight in July and as some of it is very gentle, couldn't pick up its qualities too well with all that noise around me, but now I've heard it properly, I'm hugely impressed. Influenced by all the right people from the world of electonica/white boys do disco/synths + plantive vocals (Kraftwerk, Human League, New Order, Pet Shop Boys and many others) but with a lovely originality to them. There are several 'quiet, emotional ones', all wonderful, not least the title track which is very affecting: 'We were made in the dark'. Clearly a great band, would like to hear their first too.

[mood swung]

Between phone calls, I dumped a bunch of stuff into my Realplayer thingamabob and hit shuffle.

so far

EC - Don't Get Above Your Raisin'
Bob Marley - Stir It Up
The Wallflowers - Josephine

[Who Shot Sam?]

[mood swung]

Mighty Like a Rose, for the first time in, like, forever.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Fleet Foxes doing Blue Ridge Mountains on Letterman. If you haven't checked them out yet, this is worth looking at. If it doesn't impress you in some way, I don't understand your taste! It's the moment when an already great song becomes an incredible song when they step it up and bring in the heavenly harmonies. As someone says here, one of those bands who are possibly better live than recorded:

[Otis Westinghouse]

Time to revisit the first two ELbows to get me in the mood for their Cambridge tour-opening gig. There's been lots of celebration of their Mercury triumph and they have been suitably jubilant. I think this tour will have a hugely celebratory feel to it, and predict the gig will be one of my most memorable ones. both these LPs are sublime, and I was transported to the outer heavens listening to the rasied-neckhair double-act of 'Switching Off' and 'Not A Job' from Cast of Thousands whilst walking the dog. John Cale chose the former song on his Desert Island Discs, which makes me admire him immensely.