purplerabbits

I have borrowed a USB turntable and have successfully imported not one but two singles and cleaned up the noise a bit. Tomorrow we try to master albums and splitting them into tracks...


P.S. If you have offered me mp3s and it's not too much trouble I still want them, cos this is going to be slooow...

OMG Squee! EleventyOne!

I found the Gee Mr Tracy album - the one I thought was the rarest in my LPs which I'd never get ever!

Cool as a whole hill full of beans.

Here they are playing...



And here with Alexei Sayle


Ask, and you shall receive...

For the first time have paid money for an album that I could have had for free, rather than, say, the other way round. I wouldn't have done it for Radiohead since, a) they are already relatively well-off and b) musically they've been kinda sucking more recently. In fact I still haven't got round to downloading that album.

But I just paid the very modest requested $5 for Mr Saul William's "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust", coincidentally produced with the rather fine Mr Trent Reznor. It's really jolly good.

Of course it helps that the dollar is worth paper at the moment...

Come to think of it the other reason I didn't like the Radiohead method was that they didn't recommend a price. I found Saul William's approach a lot simpler - plus he's been an anti-DRM campaigner for a while.

You can listen to a few tracks on Saul William's MySpace, and then buy it at Niggytardust.com if you feel so inclined...

I note that many of the usual suspects haven't touched my music poll from yesterday - I hope you're OK. I, too, am finding it harder to chose as we get nearer the ever present now, but go on, plump for something!

[Poll #826544]

Here is the best songs of my life poll Part the Second. If you haven't already, go fill in Part the First from 1966 to 1976 - don't worry you don't need a suggestion for every single year...

[Poll #824693]

And now, for your delectation and amusement, here is a music poll.

I shall be doing four of these (yes, count them, four, for I am indeed that old) and later ones may be more suitable for, for instance, duranorak, although I can assure you that I will not, under any circumstances, be playing Kajagoogoo at my party.

However let us start in the sixties and seventies, when I was little and didn't know shit. Tell me good songs, preferably songs people will have heard of, but stuff that's a bit edgy amd ahead of its time is good.

Help me write the soundtrack of my life. And at the end of the week we may have a vote-off of the whole lot, or at least of those that I can actually stand, if I can be bothered.

[Poll #823888]

If you need any help there are some year end charts here - http://www.radio1.gr/archive/kentriki.htm

Music is the most beautiful thing in the world. Because it can activate the bits of my brain that feel all the other things of beauty and it can do it at any time.

And The Cat Empire's Misere is almost religious. In fact it's anti-religion religious and I now feel the urge to collect some other such songs into a play list. Such as Yello's Domingo. Hmm. And No God, No Religion, and The Gates to the Garden. Are there any other candidates? There's a JAmes song but I can't remember which one so I have to listen to them all again. Which I can bear.

Other good things include new red hair, getting round to cleaning and making soup, and actually getting consulted about some stuff at work. Also doing Beltane stuffs and having ideas about events later in the year.

Also Prefab Sprout's Electric Guitars is happy and sweet and charming and I am not ashamed. (Actually I've already started a playlist called 'Poptastic Shame', which is where I think it belongs...)

I must go to bed now before I make of a idiot of myself :-)

I backdated this so it won't get in the way - I'll cross them out as I get them... Comments are screened cos this is a public post.

Music I want - Asterisks mean I really want it a lot...

Albums
*Carter USM: Worry Bomb
*Carter USM: Starry Eyed And Bollock Naked (A Collection Of B-Sides)
Elvis Costello: *Armed Forces
Elvis Costello: Get Happy!
Elvis Costello: Taking Liberties
Elvis Costello: Almost Blue
Elvis Costello: This year's model
Eurythmics: Touch
Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (album)
Green Jelly: Cereal Killer
**James: One Man Clapping (yes, yes, I know I'd be lucky...)
James: Wah Wah

*Scarce: Dead Sexy
*Suzanne Vega: Days of Open Hand
Transvision Vamp: Pop Art
Waterboys: A Pagan Place
The Young Gods - eponymous

And I need some Nirvana - a best of would do...

Tracks
**Anything at all by Gee Mr Tracy but especially You Make My House Shine
Howard Jones: Automaton
Nik Kershaw: Human Racing
Red Guitars: Fact
* Suzanne Vega: Tombstone
* Suzanne Vega: My Favourite Plum

Any other tracks with 'Candy' in the title except the ones below

I have:
Anthony and the Johnsons - Candy Says (cover)
Aqua - Lollipop [Candyman]
Ash - Candy
Black Metal Box - I want Candy (cover)
Bow Wow Wow - I want Candy (cover)
Cibo Matto - Candy Man
Curve - Cotton Candy
The Dambuilders - Candy Guts
Elvis Costello - So Like Candy
Jesus & Mary Chain Psycho Candy and Some Candy Talking
Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy
Morphine - Candy
Pop Will Eat Itself - Candydiosis
The Presidents Of The United States Of America - Candy and Candy Cigarette
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Candyman
Slick Shoes - Candy (Mandy Moore cover)
Sonic Youth - Black Candy (is this a cover?)
The Strangeloves - I want Candy
Velvet Underground - Candy Says

The meme is:

* Take the bands from my list that you have seen play live, and post them in your own LJ.
* Add more bands that you've seen until you have 30.

List from zotz. Inherited bands italicised. New bands not.

1. Billy Bragg
   
2. Screaming Banshee Aircrew
   
3. The Young Gods
   
4. The International Werewolf Conspiracy
   
5. Elvis Costello
   
6. Patti Smith
   
7. PWEI
   
8. The Boomtown Rats
   
9. Biffy Clyro
   
10. Single Bass
    
11. The Dickies
    
12. Laurie Anderson
    
13. Marillion - twice, to my very great shame
    
14. Tanita Tikaram
    
15. Suzanne Vega
    
16. Michelle Shocked
    
17. Squeeze
    
18. UK Subs
    
19. The Sugarcubes
    
20. Uresei Yatsura
    
21. The Dream Disciples
    
22. Gin Goblins
    
23. Tom Robinson
    
24. Je$us Loves Amerika
    
25. Spiritualized
    
26. Carter USM
    
27. Shellac
    
28. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
    
29. Blocovomit
    
30. The Wonderstuff
    

I am feeling quite cheery today in spite of being forced to go to Glasgow. Elvis Costello rocked out on Monday, playing for two and a half hours non-stop. He played much of The Delivery Man, which I cannot afford to but yet but really really want, and he played Alison! Possibly because he was in Scotland, but anyway...

I really dislike the Usher Hall, though, especially for a sit down gig, especially attending alone. Their coffee mings and they didn't let us into our seats until half an hour after the doors open time (there are no seats outside the hall). In spite of this the man got people standing up and clapping and dancing down the front, this last by saying "I dreamt I was in the Usher Hall and it was full of Glaswegians who couldn't dance". Other amusing witticisms including a long ramble about George Harrison's second guitar, which wasn't stolen in any way (and also seemed to be suffering from lousy feedback).

And with all the jumping up and down there was no doubt that at fifty the man still has immense energy (more than me, for sure). And I have decided that if a gentleman is receding from the front and has a widows peak he may keep his hair as long as he likes as long as he doesn't start to sport a Francis Rossi ponytail. Just so you know.

And last night was drumming, which is getting better and better. I played agogo bells and did a brief stint on shaker (which I am glad to see that everyone hates), and then gravitated toward my favourite Number Three Surdo, which was hard but actually very rewarding, and I can now carry it with no pain.

Drumming is obviously working at some level. I now hear drum patterns in music I'm listening to, and at the gig I was clapping in a more complicated rhythm and not getting it wrong. Yay!