Down On The Farm

"The cows bawl, the pigs bawl, the horses bawl, too..." Over lunch yesterday, my 8 year old daughter told me that she wanted to live on a farm when she would finally be all grown up. Far from the madding crowd, surrounded by nature and with all kinds of animals to tend to. For some reason, this totally made my day.

Little Feat - Down On The Farm MP3

The Kinks - Animal Farm MP3

The Bently Boys - Down On Penny´s Farm MP3

The Carolina Tar Heels - Got The Farm Land Blues MP3

Gary Higgins - Down On The Farm MP3

Lenny Tonight

Going to see a true legend in concert tonight. Leonard Cohen´s in town and we´ve got tickets, 12th row centre stage no less. Added bonus: it´s happy Len´s 75th birthday. Got quite a scare this weekend when it was reported that Cohen had fainted because of food poisoning during last Friday´s Valencia gig, but apparently all is right again. Just a bad prawn or mussel in his paella... Guess it´s going to be an intense evening. Groomed my goatee already... now where´s that black turtleneck sweater?

To celebrate all this, here´s some wonderful live Lenny from back in the days. Chelsea Hotel #2 and Story Of Isaak were recorded at the famous Olympia Theatre in Paris in 1976. Avalanche and Joan Of Arc (a fine duet with Julie Christensen) stem from a show at the Congresshalle in Zurich in 1993. "I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best, I can't keep track of each fallen robin..."

Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel #2 (live Paris ´76) MP3

Leonard Cohen - Story Of Isaak (live Paris ´76) MP3

Leonard Cohen - Avalanche (live Zurich ´93) MP3

Leonard Cohen - Joan Of Arc (live Zurich ´93) MP3

Two From Frederick

"Trouble, you can´t fool me, I see you behind that tree..." I wrote a piece about Ry Cooder´s fine cover version of Trouble, You Can´t Fool Me on the Groover´s Paradise blog recently. Check it out, it´s still up. Had to admit I´d never heard the original by an Alabama soulman called Frederick Knight, who recorded it as Trouble for the mighty Stax label back in the early seventies. But I finally managed to track down a copy and it´s easy to see why Cooder picked it. Man, that choppy guitar is funky.

And maybe even better is another Frederick Knight song I found while I was at it. You´re probably familiar with I´ve Been Lonely For So Long because of Mick Jagger´s interpretation on his solo album Wandering Spirit from ´93. Knight´s version is the real deal though. "Just can´t seem to get ahead in life, nothin´ I do ever turns out right, won´t somebody help me please..." They sure don´t come any sadder than this one.

Frederick Knight - Trouble MP3

Frederick Knight - I´ve Been Lonely For So Long MP3

Married Man´s A Fool

"Ever since you walked right in, the circle's been complete,

I've said goodbye to haunted rooms and faces in the street,
To the courtyard of the jester which is hidden from the sun,
I love you more than ever and I haven't yet begun..."

Thanks for that, Bob, could not have said it any better myself. As it happens to be my - umpteenth - wedding anniversary today, here´s a tenpack of songs about that weird phenomenon called marriage. Married man may be a fool, Ry, and granted Tom, I do indeed have to ask permission when I want to go out fishin´, but that´s cool with me.

"And I could never let you go, no matter what goes on,

'Cause I love you more than ever now that the past is gone..."

Ry Cooder - Married Man´s A Fool MP3

Bob Dylan - Wedding Song MP3

Tom Waits - Better Off Without A Wife MP3

George Jones & Tammy Wynette - Golden Ring MP3

David Bowie - Be My Wife MP3

Blind Willie Reynolds - Married Man Blues MP3

Freda Payne - Band Of Gold MP3

Jimi Hendrix Experience - 51st Anniversary MP3

Replacements - You´re Getting Married MP3

Moby Grape - Gypsy Wedding MP3

Enthusiastic And Likable

Back from my hols, but not really full of inspiration yet to be honest. Still in a laidback, beach bum kinda mood, you know how it is. But I can´t resist to draw your attention to some very interesting reading material in today´s edition of British newspaper The Observer. In a piece called The Thrill Of It All, novelist and music lover Nick Hornby stands up for music bloggers everywhere. Take notice, The Man, as the Arsenal-crazy writer of High Fidelity and About A Boy presents some serious arguments in favour of the likes of us...

An excerpt: "It took me longer than it should have done to work out that the internet is one giant independent record shop – thousands and thousands of cute little independent record shops, anyway – and they don't actually charge you for the music they stock. The MP3 blogs that stretch for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see, down that stretch of the net that isn't reserved for pornography, are staffed by enthusiastic and likable young men and women who absolutely don't want to rip the artists off: they are always careful to post links to iTunes and Amazon, and the songs they put on their sites are for sampling purposes only. (...) It works for me. I listen, and then I buy what I like, because owning music is still important to me". Right on bro! Read the full article here.

As a soundtrack to all this, here´s some stuff that might just be up mr. Hornby´s alley. Or yours for that matter. Featuring something old (the mighty Sonny Rollins), something new (a fresh ditty by the David Wax Museum), something borrowed (a crazy cover by Japrockers the Golden Cups), something blue (´Jesus, this is Iggy...´). And Brian Ferry & co of course. Oh, the thrill of it all...

Sonny Rollins Quartet - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World MP3

The David Wax Museum - Jalopy Heart MP3

Golden Cups - Hey Joe MP3

Iggy Pop - Turn Blue MP3

Roxy Music - The Thrill Of It All MP3

R&R Time

"Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum,

The sun is out and I want some..."

That´s right pop kids, the summertime blues ends here. It´s about time for some Rest & Recreation, and I aim to be king of the surf for a while. So we´ll be heading south soon, for even better climes than we´ve got here. Got over 8000 songs with me on the iPod, all killer no filler, so the Rock & Roll bit is well taken care of, too. Hope to be back all inspired in a couple of weeks. Hasta luego!

Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues MP3

Trashmen - King Of The Surf MP3

Ramones - Rockaway Beach MP3

Thieves Of Fire

Yes, and here we go again. Another summer tenpack, this time featuring nothing but British postpunk from the late seventies and early eighties. Arguably one of the most interesting periods in the history of pop music, as creativity was running rampant and boundaries were few.

Fall head honcho Mark E. Smith tells it like it is, with a nod to the summer of love:

"Stuck peanuts in my hair, and all the leaves are brown...

I'll be part of the music scene, envy of the choosy set, part of the music scare..."

Instant hits all of them, albeit in a parallel - and better - world. If you like what you hear and haven´t read it yet, head over to your local bookshoppe and pick up Rip It Up And Start Again by Simon Reynolds, a most inspiring standardwork on the postpunk genre.

The Fall - Music Scene MP3

Magazine - Back To Nature MP3

Cabaret Voltaire - Do The Mussolini (Headkick) MP3

Slits - Instant Hit MP3

The Pop Group - Thief Of Fire MP3

A Certain Ratio - Choir MP3

Young Marble Giants - Wurlitzer Jukebox MP3

Gang Of Four - Armalite Rifle MP3

Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business MP3

Basement 5 - Heavy Traffic MP3

Absent Slide

Think of Duane Allman and the first thing that comes to mind is slide guitar, right? Probably followed by motorcycle crash and huge sideburns, but that´s beside the point here. Funny thing is, that famous slide is absent on the only song that ole Skydog ever wrote himself: Little Martha. An acoustic ode to an extramarital girlfriend who was actually called Dixie, it´s a deceivingly simple instrumental. And a timeless miniature.

Duane Allman - Little Martha MP3

Garageland Dreams

In yet another summer tenpack episode, we´ll be going all out on a wild sixties garage punk and psychedelica trip. Better get ready for an overload of razor sharp organ riffs, down and dirty fuzz guitars, snotty vocals, over the top psychedelic madness & teenage angst plus a whole lot of garage attitude. Hey, there´s so much amazing stuff in this vein out there that I could easily fill twenty sixpacks for you. And maybe I just will... someday.

All this amazing stuff stems from albums and sometimes even series of albums with illustrious names like Pebbles, Boulders, Back From The Grave, Highs In The Mid Sixties, Ear Piercing Punk, Hang It Out To Dry and Acid Dreams. Do yourselves a favour and hunt these down if you like the ten more or less obscure garage bands from sixties garageland below. Be sure to have some peanut butter ready, watch out for that green slime, and say hi to Gloria Melvin for me.

The Renegades- Thirteen Women MP3

White Light - William MP3

Kommotions - Little Black Egg MP3

The Ju-Ju´s - You Treat Me Bad MP3

Daybreakers - Psychedelic Siren MP3

The Belles - Melvin MP3

The Outlaws - Don´t Tread On Me MP3

Green Slime - Green Slime MP3

Avengers - Be A Caveman MP3

The One Way Streets - We All Love Peanut Butter MP3

Johnny Foreigner

Read in the paper today that the country of Latvia is totally sick of having its capital Riga invaded by young British tourists on a cheap and boozy rampage. Which made me think of comedian - and one time Factory Records cohort - John Dowie´s rather weird little ditty from ´77. Uz veselibu!

John Dowie - British Tourist MP3

Upper Air

This summer tenpack edition is all about cool new music I recently stumbled upon. Some I found on other music blogs, some I actually bought. In record stores. Ain´t that something this day and age, pop kids.

Most of these tracks were released over the last couple of weeks, while others will come out very soon. A few acts featured here are rather well known, while others have either been working under the radar a bit or are brand new hopefuls, waiting for a bit of fame (what´s my name) to come their way. Please check ´em all out and if you like what you hear, buy their albums at your local record store. If it´s still in business, that is.

Son Volt - Roll On MP3

Simon Joyner - The Drunken Boat MP3

Roadside Graves - Far And Wide MP3

Bingo Trappers - Stranded On A Short Break MP3

Spiral Stairs - Maltese T MP3

Jack Oblivian - Against The Wall MP3

Bowerbirds - Beneath Your Tree MP3

Greg Weeks - Lay Low MP3

Frankel - Anonimity Is The New Fame MP3

Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band MP3