Givin' Gifts

Wherein the congregation is sternly reminded that it's Christmas time. Have a good one, readers. I'm gonna saddle me up my big white goose and fly south for a while. See ya in a new year.

Rev. A.W. Nix - Death May Be Your Christmas Gift

Way Out

Time for that inevitable list, mi amigos da musica. These metamodern beauties were in heavy rotation at the FTSOTS headquarters anno domini 2014. Accept no substitutes.
1. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
2. Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness Of Dancers
3. Bob Dylan & The Band - The Basement Tapes Complete
4. Bonnie Prince Billy - Singer's Grave A Sea Of Tongues
5. Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
6. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
7. Ryley Walker - All Kinds Of You
8. Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band - Intensity Ghost
9. Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems
10. Chasing Rainbows - With Henk Jonkers

Sturgill Simpson - Turtles All The Way Down
Ryley Walker - Clear The Sky
Chasing Rainbows - Without You Around

Jonestown Aloha

It never really occured to me to go and check out the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Dunno why exactly, although that rather lame bandname may very well have played a role. Recently though, a friend with good taste presented me with one of their early albums, which meant I just had to give them a try. And guess what? Their fresh take on psychedelica surprised me a great deal. Just goes to show how wrong you can be sometimes...

Brian Jonestown Massacre - What You Isn't
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Those Memories

Oh Là Là

A couple of French guys chugging along like the Velvets incarnate? Why not, mes amis de musique, why not. Rob Jo and pals deliver très bien - and very obscure - protopunk from 1975.

Rob Jo Star Band - Acid Revolution

Love Is Real

On October 20, 1979, a clearly inspired, just born again Zimmy debuted a trio of new songs in the studios of Saturday Night Live. "God don't make promises that he don't keep..."

Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody
Bob Dylan - I Believe In You
Bob Dylan - When You Gonna Wake Up

Behold The Man

Just found out that a documentary has been made about Grant Hart, with loads of footage from his Hüsker Dü  and Nova Mob days. Hope to catch it soon somewhere. In the meantime, here's our barefoot singing drummer live in '94, with just a guitar for company. Straight from the gut.

Grant Hart - Evergreen Memorial Drive
Grant Hart - Back Somewhere

Don't Look Back

Travis 'Scratchy' Wammack is hardly a household name, although the former child prodigy is a member of the Memphis Music Hall Of Fame, a one-time bandleader for Little Richard, and an extremely soulful guitar player to boot. Want proof? Easy.

Travis Wammack - Put On Your Shoes And Walk
Travis Wammack - Easy Evil

Dreamland

Leave it to mr. Waits to pose the right questions. Here's a particularly good one: "Who will put flowers on a flower's grave?"

Tom Waits - Flower's Grave

Open Road

"This is a one way trip and there's no turning back..." Peter Hammill in acoustic mode, but as intense as always. Songtitle says all about the guy really.

Peter Hammill - Driven

Two From Lisbon

A gloomy Monday morning like this one practically begs for the sound of the fado. Be warned: instant saudade's gonna get you.

João Ferreira-Rosa - Embuçado
Carlos Do Carmo - Saudade Mal Do Fado

Hey Chairman

"You know me - I'm acting dumb..." Scene ain't particularly humdrum today though. Have a nice weekend.

Buzzcocks - Boredom
Adverts - Bored Teenagers
Snatch - When I'm Bored
Destroy All Monsters - Bored
Iggy Pop - I'm Bored

Plus the obvious non-boring bonus track to make it a six pack:

Boredoms - Bocabola

Burning Embers

A shimmering delight from Sandy Denny and her Fotheringay, tiptoeing through the tulips at the so-called Dutch Woodstock: the 1970 Holland Pop Festival in Rotterdam. "Come inside before it starts to rain..."

Fotheringay - Two Weeks Last Summer (live)

Glory Glory

Want the gospel truth? Then look no further and get the exemplary When I Reach That Heavenly Shore triple disc collection. Out December 9 on the trademark-of-quality Tompkins Square label, so would make an excellent Xmas prezzie methinks.

Blind Gussie Nesbit - Pure Religion

Newly Born

All dig one of the - admittedly very few - highlights on Beck's Song Reader collection. Yup, that's Jerry Williams Junior, better known as the Dogg, bringing total destruction to your mind yet once again.

Swamp Dogg - America, Here's My Boy

Red-Eyed Rhyme

"I took myself for a strong and loving soul, 'til I found myself face down on the barroom floor..." A melancholic Jerry Jeff tackles a Michael Murphey composition, live with the Lost Gonzo Band in the outlaw country outpost of Luckenbach, Texas.

Jerry Jeff Walker - Backsliders Wine

Know What I Mean?

Been listening to quite a bit of jazz lately, and thought a hot little six pack would be just the thing for a dreary Monday like this one. So without further ado...

Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans - Who Cares?

Bud Shank - All The Things You Are
Lee Konitz - People Will Say We're In Love
Blue Mitchell - The Thing To Do
Kenny Clarke - Bohemia After Dark
Archie Shepp & Mal Waldron - Left Alone

Angelic Yells

What would a Current 93 album be without the warblings of Antony? Cue esoteric high priest David Tibet's latest offering, the piano-driven I Am The Last Of All The Field That Fell: A Channel. Here goes, my Johnsons: "The hope light in your eyes moved open the spheres and spelled 'summer dust'..."

Current 93 - Mourned Winter Then

Twisted Vines

"Once I ran from the morning sun, once I ran from the rain..." Not anymore though. Love is in the air and on the brain, see? Jim Ford always digs deep.

Jim Ford - Love On My Brain

Watching The Ride

Seen the Nick Cave documentary 20.000 Days On Earth yet? You should. Self-mythologizing never looked so good.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wide Lovely Eyes

But Of Course

A moving and hypnotizing requiem to one of the true blues greats? Check! As Fahey, the original American Primitive guitar maestro, once said about this composition himself: "He was in his quiet way, a very great man, and I deeply mourn our loss of him. So, I wrote this requiem for him, about him, but I play it the way Charley Patton would have played it, had he ever thought of such a thing, which of course he never would have..."

John Fahey - Requiem For John Hurt

Full Circle

"I almost asked you who you were..." The long-forgotten 360's hailed from Boston and came upon the scene in '91 with a pretty fine debut album called Illuminated. Is it just me, or does this sound just a tiny bit dated already?

360's - Deadpan Superstar

Piece Of Cake

Juan Moneo (1952-2013) hailed from a veritable flamenco dynasty in Jerez de la Frontera. A fine fine singer, he didn't record a lot of albums, as he preferred to perform live. I just managed to score his Luna Mora album, which comes highly recommended. Musica, maestro!

Juan Moneo "El Torta" - Carbon De Caña
Juan Moneo "El Torta" - Tengo Momentos

Givin' It All

Surprisingly found my copy of the Complete Basement Tapes in the mail yesterday. Not half bad, considering its official November 4 release date. Lo and behold indeed! Don't you weep and don't you moan, you need this treasure trove in your life pronto.

Bob Dylan & The Band - 900 Miles From My Home

Getting To Know You

"I speak English, you speak Portuguese, I drink coffee, you drink milk..." Hot psychedelic weirdness from Brazil, anno domini 1970. Never fails to get me in a good mood.

Som Imaginário - Super-God

Wasted And Spent

Since the breathtaking Benji is definitely a contender for album of the year, it's only natural that Mark Kozelek's back catalogue gets revisited, too. Here's one from April. Was he in a Girl From The North Country mood when he wrote the wistful Like The River? "I knew her back from when she was young, those days poured out faster than rounds from a gun..." Anyway, Kozelek's Sun Kil Moon - named after a Korean boxer btw - will be touring Europe in December, and I just bought myself a ticket to ride.

Sun Kil Moon - Like The River (alt. version)

Tightrope Walking

A dispatch from the shores of eternity, courtesy of the elusive Bill Fay. Simply astonishing.

Bill Fay - The Never Ending Happening

Mechanical Bull

Came across this gem on the old iPod all of a sudden, and just had to share. Cowpunk spoof supreme. "I can't help it if I was born late..."

The Vandals - Urban Struggle

Tout Puissant

Guitars like fresh mountain streams: has to be an original souvenir from the Congo. Let's hear it for le grand maître Franco and his tout puissant OK Jazz. Here he tells us that the life of a single woman sure is tough.

Franco & Son OK Jazz - C'est Dur La Vie D'Une Femme Celibataire

Love Somebody

As endorsed by Will Oldham in a cool recent list of favourite albums. Bonnie statement: "It is my firm belief that Glen Campbell could not speak to (even prior to the Alzheimer's) his insane abilities as a singer and guitar player, while Webb can and does speak excessively about his own abilities as a songwriter and producer. It is our good fortune that they encountered each other."

Glen Campbell - It's A Sin

Lost Weekend

"I got kinda lost in giving, I'm trying to get it across to you..." Presenting the six pack that got away. Enjoy the weekend, folks.

Chris Bell - I Got Kinda Lost
Eleventh Dream Day - I Could Be Lost
Come - Let's Get Lost
Meat Puppets - Lost
Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You
The Chrome Cranks - Lost Time Blues

Song For Karen

Kid Congo Powers is one cool dude. I mean, playing guitar in the Cramps, and in the Gun Club, and in the Bad Seeds? That's baaad. Stumbled upon a site called New York Night Train just now, which published an extensive oral history in 14 installments about the Kid's exploits over the years: check it out here. Fascinating stuff.
And here's a lil' snippet, about the time the Cramps were recording their mighty Psychedelic Jungle album. "For that song Don’t Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk, I remember the engineer saying, 'Karen Carpenter has the most perfect crash cymbal. I have to go to Karen Carpenter’s locker and get her crash cymbal!' And I thought that was a really good ironic choice for a song called Don’t Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk - to use Karen Carpenter’s cymbal. So that is her crash cymbal on that song." Bet you didn't know that, pop kids.

The Cramps - Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk

Climb On In

Hey Americana lovers, don't miss out on Night Surfer, the new album from former Green On Red guitarslinger Chuck Prophet. It's another good one, and yes, it rocks. Want proof? Check out the upbeat Ford Econoline, which has the Talking Heads on its car radio. Cool or what?

Chuck Prophet - Ford Econoline

In The Barrio, Pt. 3

Took this one in the Alameda barrio of wonderful Seville a couple weeks back. It's a statue honouring the legendary flamenco singer Manolo Caracol (1909-1973). Characteristic pose: singing his heart out as always.

Manolo Caracol - Tiro Piedras Por La Calle

Pieces Of Kindness

As before on Greatest Palace Music and Now Here's My Plan, our Will decided on the brand new Singer's Grave - A Sea Of Tongues to re-record a couple of songs from his back catalogue, most of them from the acclaimed Wolfroy Goes To Town (2011). Not because he was unhappy with the originals so much I guess, but rather because he recognized the potential to do something different with them. For an example, check out the two versions of We Are Unhappy - the first one quite subdued, the second much more exuberant - below and see what you think.

Bonnie Prince Billy - We Are Unhappy (Wolfroy version)
Bonnie Prince Billy - We Are Unhappy (Singer's version)

Not Half Bad

Fancy a bit of a sad story today? Here goes. "Ah, but the wind is blowing cold tonight..." Goodnight, goodnight.

Paul Siebel - Louise

Stranger Blues

Nashville calling, with a lush Lambchop oldie. "Gonna find me a fair deal in this world somewhere..." Now that's the spirit, folks.

Lambchop - I'm A Stranger Here

In The Barrio, Pt. 2

Came upon this nice plaque on my recent visit to Jerez de la Frontera, on the house in the Barrio de Santiago where the great Moraíto Chico (1956-2011) used to live. A wonderful tribute to a wonderful flamenco guitarist.

Moraíto - Buleriando

Head Up High

Let's track back to the mid-seventies with Jacob 'Killer' Miller, and the famed sessions he did with melodica-master Augustus Pablo. Cool roots, mon. And in case this magical tune sounds familiar but you don't know just why, that's probably because Pablo used it on his dub masterpiece King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown as well.

Jacob Miller - Each One Teach One

In The Barrio

Took the above pic in the barrio of San Miguel in Jerez de la Frontera recently. They sure know how to honour their greats there. And Francisca Méndez Garrido (1934-2004), better known as La Paquera, was one hell of a great flamenco singer alright. Below she pays homage to the legendary gypsy bullfighter Curro Romero.

La Paquera De Jerez - Coplas A Curro

No Choice

"A song called As I Went Out One Morning by Bob Dylan's on the cassette player: Ian told me to choose anything so I chose this John Wesley Harding tape. The mouth-organ would normally put me off, but this song's great: his voice is like the wind swerving through a weird day..." That's from David Mitchell's new novel The Bone Clocks, a truly dazzling read.

Bob Dylan - As I Went Out One Morning

Don't Get Lost

Out early October: an interesting sampler on Grönland Records, featuring two handfuls of futuristic, synth-driven tunes cooked up in the fair German city of Düsseldorf. Surprisingly, the seventies krautrock of Neu! and La Düsseldorf sits quite comfortable next to the eighties Neue Deutsche Welle of DAF and Die Krupps. Deutsche gründlichkeit guaranteed.

Harmonia & Eno - Luneburg Heath

Don't Leave

As someone very dear to me is leaving today for that huge, troubled, and still somewhat mysterious African country called the Democratic Republic of Congo, here's some authentic tunage from two of the greatest forces ever in Congolese music: Franco and Le Grand Kallé. C'est magnifique!

Franco & L'Orchestre TPOK Jazz - Tangawusi Pts. 1 & 2
Grand Kallé & L'African Jazz - Ambiance Kallé Catho

Some non-rumba bonus tracks, mes amis de la musique? Coming up pronto.

The Bongos - In The Congo
Les Valiants - Don't Wanna Leave The Congo
Pere Ubu - Heart Of Darkness

Raw Power, Too

Somehow, today seems perfect for some mid-seventies Japrock powertrio mayhem, hugely influenced by the Stooges. Try 3/3 on for size.

3/3 - Open A Window

Raw Power

If you dig Paco de Lucía's unadulterated, non-fusion early repertoire, you need to hear this fluid beauty, too. Habichuela En Rama is a bona fide classic of flamenco guitar.

Pepe Habichuela - Amanecer

All I Know

The original French poster from the twenties pictured above has been the pride of my kitchen for decades now. Bought it for next to nothing from a Parisian guy on the Boulevard Haussmann, who found a bunch of 'em bundled up in the attic when moving in to his new abode. Its motto: the strongest man on earth declares: the secret of my strength - no alcohol. Calls for a little Teenage FC methinks, so take it away, you cool Scotsmen you. Gonna be one hell of a party next week up north if that ploy for independence succeeds...

Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday

From Hell

Back with a red hot six pack that rules. Hell yeah!

The Scientists - Solid Gold Hell
Supersuckers - Hell City, Hell
Laughing Hyenas - Hell's Kitchen
Mule - I'm Hell
Drivin N Cryin - Straight To Hell
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Hell Rules

Gypsy Tailwind

Leaving for sizzling Jerez de la Frontera tomorrow to attend the annual Fiesta de la Bulería festival, so please permit me one more track of flamenco puro. One singer I will surely come face to face with this Saturday night is the fine singer Antonio Agujetas, also known as Agujetas hijo. After various problems with the law stalled his career a wee bit, he'll be making a comeback of sorts. Can't wait.

Antonio Agujetas - Romance Gitano

Rio Grande

Some more flamenco? Well, why not? Y'all need a little more duende in your lives, you know... So here are the amazing vocals of Pepe Núñez Morón, nicknamed 'El Loreño' as he hailed from the town of Lora Del Rio in Seville province. Below he salutes Francisco Montoya Egea a.k.a. 'El Nino De La Huerta', a singer from the same town who got his nickname because he used to work as a gardener before hitting the big time.

Pepe Núñez "El Loreño" - Llanto Por El Nino De La Huerta

Jive Five

Haven't heard that much exciting new tunage recently to be honest, but these babies struck me as pretty cool. Let's start off with Woods, who sound a lot more poppy all of a sudden on what is already album #8, With Light And With Love. A track like Shepherd proves they haven't lost that magic touch though. Tasty pedal steel, lads! Meanwhile up in Scotland, King Creosote composed a way interesting soundtrack to a documentary about his home country. It's titled From Scotland With Love, and I love it right back. After the demise of the mighty Black Swans, Jerry David DeCicca now goes it alone. If you like your folk real dark and moody, the resulting Understanding Land will be right up your alley. Amy and Dan from Village Of Spaces have been at it again, too. Welcome In is out on their own Turned World imprint, and if Wheels doesn't charm your socks off I don't know what will. And last but not least, let me present Alice Gerrard, a lady who's been playing folk and bluegrass for over fourty years. Her new offering Follow The Music was produced by none other than Hiss Golden Messenger's MC Taylor, which is a recommendation in itself methinks.

Woods - Shepherd
King Creosote - Cargill
Jerry David DeCicca - Before The Storm
Village Of Spaces - Wheels
Alice Gerrard - Boll Weevil

Fat Of The Land

Yesterday's big news was of course the imminent arrival of the complete Basement Tapes, as volume 11 of the ongoing Bootleg Series. Which means an amazing 138 tracks on 6 cd's of Dylan and the Band having fun in a Woodstock room back in '67: what a wealth. Out early November, so better start saving up... Open that door!

Bob Dylan & The Band - Open The Door Homer