No Escape

Beat it, Jacko. Move over, Charlie´s Angel of hair and boobs fame. For I just heard that the one and only Sky Saxon died yesterday. With his band The Seeds, Sky - real name Richard Marsh - recorded some of the rawest garage rock to come out the US of A during the sixties. Miss him.

The Seeds - Can´t Seem To Make You Mine MP3

The Seeds - Pushin´ Too Hard MP3

The Seeds - No Escape MP3

It Is Longing That I Feel

Better start saving up y´all, as the Soulsavers are about to release a follow-up to their impressive It´s Not How Far You Fall, It´s The Way You Land (´07) pretty soon. The British producer twosome Rich Machin and Ian Glover have once again invited former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan to sing on the bulk of their material, and that sure is good news. His voice matches perfectly with the atmospheric, moody musical landscapes the duo manages to cook up.

Bonnie Prince Billy will also be present once more, performing a Lanegan original no less, while other tracks feature Spiritualized´s Jason Pierce, Faith No More´s Mike Patton and last but not least Butthole Surfer Gibby Haines.

Here´s a fine taste of the new album, tentatively called Broken, with Lanegan doing a mighty fine piano-driven version of the Bonnie Prince Billy penned Palace Brothers´ classic You Will Miss Me When I Burn.

Soulsavers - You Will Miss Me When I Burn MP3

Palace Brothers - You Will Miss Me When I Burn MP3

The Magnificent Six

Scritti Politti´s Skank Bloc Bologna still stands out as a prime do-it-yourself wonder from those magic post-punk days. Or should that be daze?

Inspired by reggae and dub: skank.

Inspired by a neo-Marxist philosopher theorist called Gramsci, who dreamt up a theory about a ´historic bloc´ in which the downtrodden classes would revolt and put everything on its head: bloc.

And inspired by the ´77 Italian political and cultural uprising in a city more famous for its spaghetti sauce: Bologna.

"They´re working on a notion and they´re working on a hope, a Euro vision and a skanking scope..."

Scritti Politti - Skank Bloc Bologna MP3

Fresh Fruit

Enough of all that old stuff for a moment, it´s about time we played you something recent here again. Right?

Right. Western States may be a Canadian band, but their second album Bye And Bye was fittingly recorded down in Texas. The steelguitar-drenched Time To Lose is a perfect example of their melancholic sound.

Western States - Time To Lose MP3

King Creosote is the brainchild of Kenny Anderson, who comes from a big Scottish musical family. You may know his brother as Lone Pigeon. Full of inventive freakfolk, Flick The Vs comes packed in a sleeve to die for.

King Creosote - Nothing Rings True MP3

Condo Fucks is Yo La Tengo in disguise. And their album Fuckbook an hilarious collection of great covers. This one was originally written and performed by the Kinks way back when.

Condo Fucks - This Is Where I Belong MP3

The Connie Converse story is a weird one. Thirty five years after this folksinger mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth, we can finally hear her fine voice on How Sad, How Lovely. Read all about it here.

Connie Converse - One By One MP3

A Secret Understanding

"Why are you so edgy, kid, asks the man with the voice,

one thing follows another, you live and learn, you have no choice..."

Great lines that. Shot By Both Sides was was written by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley when both were still Buzzcocks, but a punk-desillusioned Devoto ran away with it after forming his own band. Packed in the rather beautiful sleeve pictured above and released in January ´78, both Shot and the sax-driven b-side My Mind Ain´t So Open sounded way punkier than the stately sound Magazine would later explore, probably just because they didn´t yet have a keyboard player at the time of recording these tracks.

The title is said to have come from an argument about politics between Devoto and his girlfriend, who remarked that he´d "end up shot by both sides". Devoto turned this remark into a classic ode to paranoia - "they must have come to a secret understanding..." - where nothing is what it seems and the victims must have been part of the conspiracy all along.

Magazine - Shot By Both Sides MP3

Magazine - My Mind Ain´t So Open MP3