Cabras De La Montaña

You'll have to do without me for a week, as I'm off to the city of cities to celebrate my umpteenth birthday in style. Noticed just in time the Mountain Goats will be playing Sala Apolo there this Saturday, so that was a no-brainer of course. Tickets in the bag. Been a fan of John Darnielle's work more or less since he started out, but I saw him perform only once so far, back in '95 at the legendary lofi festival Fast Forward in Nijmegen, Holland. From that gig, here's a rare outing of Going To Palestine.

Mountain Goats - Going To Palestine (live Nijmegen '95)

Transcedental Love

Although I still swear by John Darnielle in lo-fi mode - dude, I bought their tapes on Shrimper and Car In Car Disco way back when - I can see that higher budgets and cleaner recordings are the way forward for the mighty Mountain Goats. The songs remain gorgeous, and that's what counts in the end, right? Check out a sample from new offering Transcedental Youth for proof.

Mountain Goats - White Cedar

"I remember Lima, I remember the good life..." Ok, for old lo-fi times sake already:

Mountain Goats - Sendero Luminoso Verdadero

Another recent release that really managed to tickled my fancy - and that's no easy feat - is Matthew E. White's Big Inner. Adventurous with a groove. Big? Could become huge.

Matthew E. White - Big Love

For fine snotty vocals and sharp garage guitars, turn to the Electric Healing Sound, all the way from Tijuana, Mexico. Way to go, cholo punks!

The Electric Healing Sound - Victory

And since I'll be away from my desk for a couple of days, I'll leave you marooned awhile with a golden oldie by those postpunk supremos of Wire. Ciao!

Wire - Marooned

Wandering Stars

"Do you know where you belong? And is your star sign ever wrong?"

Presenting a stellar ten pack to wish upon.

Teenage Fanclub - Star Sign MP3

Portishead - Wandering Star MP3

Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars MP3

Thinking Fellers Local Union 282 - Star Trek MP3

Roky Erickson - Starry Eyes MP3

Echo & The Bunnymen - Stars Are Stars MP3

Gordon Jackson - My Ship. My Star MP3

Mountain Goats - New Star Song MP3

Tall Dwarfs - Starry Eyed & Wooly Brained MP3

Sun Ra - Twin Stars Of Thence MP3

Smooth Spgt

Today we congregate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that landmark lofi label from Upland, California called Shrimper Records. It brought us the Mountain Goats, Diskothi-Q, Refrigerator, Sentridoh and many more interesting pioneers with low budgets but musical ideas aplenty. Congrats guys, good to see you´re still in business, and thanks for a lot of fine tunage over the years.

To mark the occasion, Dennis Callaci and co decided to put out a tribute to one of the finest bands in their stable, the obscure Wckr Spgt - which should be pronounced as Wacker Spaggot if I´m correctly informed. Smooth Sounds is a tribute with a twist though: the chosen artists don´t perform songs the Spgt already put to wax in the past, but rather play the ´future hits´ of the band. With 36 songs spread out over two discs, this obviously becomes a bit of a mixed bag, but the highlights - feel free to check out a couple below - are not to not be missed. As the Bingos sing: "It´s like a secret promise, eventually you will follow through..."

Alan Smithee - Kurt Cobain Will Have His Revenge On The City Of Los Angeles MP3

Bingo Trappers - Cause And Effect MP3

Mountain Goats - Predator Eyes MP3

Orange Ball Of Love

Looking forward to an - understatement alert - interesting World Cup final between Holland and Spain in Jo´burg this Sunday, here´s a rather orange colored soundtrack of sorts to get you in the mood. Good luck guys. Let the ´sun become an orange ball of fire´.

Mountain Goats - Orange Ball Of Love MP3

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange MP3

Guided By Voices - Marchers In Orange MP3

From D. To The Duke

Here´s a little collection of odes from one musician to another, with just the name of the artist making up the title of the song. Which means Song To Woody, I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives and the like are out for now. I´ve omitted Debbie Harry by Family Fodder as I posted that one a few weeks ago already, and there´s no Alex Chilton by the Mats either as almost everybody and their dog had a sad reason to feature that beauty recently. Know any others? Leave a comment purleeze...

Uncle Tupelo - D. Boon MP3

The Posies - Grant Hart MP3

Memphis Minnie - Ma Rainey MP3

R.E.M. - Lightnin´ Hopkins MP3

Gutterball - Lester Young MP3

Teenage Fanclub - Gene Clark MP3

Half Japanese - Patti Smith MP3

Mountain Goats - Duke Ellington MP3

The Good Book

I´ve got a confession to make: I´m studying a part of the bible at the moment. Don´t be afraid; I haven´t been born again. Far from it. Only last week I forcefully expelled some stubborn evangelists from my doorstep. But hey, they didn´t bring the gospel according to Robert Crumb.

When Crumb is on the ball, I´m always game. And in his version of the Book Of Genesis, which just happens to be an already interesting collection of stories in the first place, his drawings are as marvellous as ever. His vivid depictions of the life and times of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and all their kin really enrich the reading experience.

I had expected Crumb´s God to slightly resemble his famous Mr. Natural character, but except for the long flowing beard he doesn´t. Crumb shows a lot of respect for and stays close to the original texts of the first bible book and never comes across anywhere as even remotely blasphemous. He permits himself only one small liberty: all the women pictured, Eve included, are ´comely in features´. Which means they have these big butts and nipples sticking out that the icon of underground comics has always been famous for...

Repent and buy this book forthwith, readers. And lest I forget, here´s a fitting biblical six pack soundtrack of sorts for all you sinners out there.

Bogus Ben Covington - Adam And Eve In The Garden MP3

Sly & The Revolutionaries - Genesis 1:11 MP3

Johnny Cash - God´s Gonna Cut You Down MP3

Monster Magnet - Spine Of God MP3

Bingo Trappers - God´s Biographer MP3

Mountain Goats - Genesis 3:23 MP3

One Bird, Two Lists

If Americana, alt-country or whatever you may call it is your thing, do head over to the Bird List, where thirty of the ´web´s leading aficionados of twanglike music´ picked the best albums of the year. I participated as well, but my list didn´t make much of an impact on the final outcome I guess. Oh well. Maybe I´m just not twang enough.

For the record, here´s my personal top 15 of 2009 as submitted to the Bird List´s totally cool politburo. On the whole, I wasn´t too impressed with what I heard this year to be honest. Quite a few great songs, but not too many consistently great albums. Cool with me though, as that gave me the time to discover tons of amazing older stuff to keep me busy. More about that in a later post.

For The Sake Of The Song´s fave albums of 2009:

1. Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
2. Bonnie Prince Billy & The Picket Line - Funtown Comedown
3. Bob Dylan- Together Through Life
4. Son Volt - American Central Dust
5. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - s/t
6. Molina & Johnson - s/t
7. Espers - III
8. Port O´Brien - Threadbare
9. King Creosote - Flick The Vs
10. Drive-By Truckers - The Fine Print
11. Iron & Wine - Around The Well
12. Simon Joyner - Out Into The Snow
13. Bowerbirds - Upper Air
14. The Western States - Bye And Bye
15. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

Which brings us to the moment you´ve all been waiting for: today´s soundtrack, featuring a few choice cuts from my personal hitlist.

Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2 MP3

Molina & Johnson - Twenty Cycles To The Ground MP3

Espers - Caroline MP3

Drive-By Truckers - George Jones Talkin´ Cell Phone Blues MP3

The Western States - The Water Remembers My Face MP3

Faits Divers

No that´s not a new supergroup, it´s just French for odds and ends. Would make a good band name though... but anyway. Here´s a collection of assorted sounds that kept me busy over the last few weeks. Featuring amongst others the return of a former Joy Division and New Order stalwart, the post Pop Group postpunk-funk of Rip Rig & Panic, and some more happy Len.

First up is Bernard Sumner´s new band, named after a pretty good movie starring Harvel Keitel. Got this one in the mail and didn´t expect a lot of it to be honest, but Sink Or Swim proved to be a pleasant surprise. Hit!

Bad Lieutenant - Sink Or Swim MP3

Rip Rig & Panic rose from the ashes of The Pop Group, and featured wonderwoman Neneh Cherry on vocals. An impressive avant-garde funk ensemble, they had a way with wonderful song titles, and are now sadly forgotten. Their highly original ´81 debut God didn´t even get a cd release yet. And that´s just plain ridiculous.

Rip Rig & Panic - Those Eskimo Women Speak Frankly MP3

Rip Rig & Panic - Constant Drudgery Is Harmful To Soul, Spirit & Health MP3

Another postpunk gem I just can´t stop playing is I, Bloodbrother Be (£4,000 Love Letter) by the Shockheaded Peters. A dark and jazzy gay anthem that even caused a bit of a scandal back in the early eighties, my sweeties...

Shockheaded Peters - I, Bloodbrother Be (£4,000 Love Letter) MP3

Some dear friends of mine surprised me with a cd called La Cantina by Mexican/American singer Lila Downs recently, and I quite like her postmodern take on traditional Mexican fare. And hey, is that the mighty Flaco Jimenez on accordeon here? Yup. What´s more, he even wrote the song.

Lila Downs - Tu Recuerdo Y Yo MP3

Have also been on a total Bowie trip over the last few months. Used to be a huge fan, but can´t say I´ve given the Thin White Duke much thought over the last couple of decennia, probably because he never released an even half-decent album since Scary Monsters came out in ´80. His classic stuff still stands though, as I was glad to find out. Here he covers Jaques Brel. And he does that very well.

David Bowie - My Death MP3

As a Mountain Goats fan from stage one, I usually prefer their early lofi stuff to the more polished recent output. But the newly released The Life Of The World To Come has me converted. I repent, Mr. Darnielle, I repent. A masterpiece.

Mountain Goats - Matthew 25:21 MP3

Let´s end this mixed bag with the song I liked most from Leonard Cohen´s recent Barcelona concert. "I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get? Hank Williams hasn´t answered yet... But I hear him coughing all night long, a hundred floors above me in the tower of song..."

Leonard Cohen - Tower Of Song MP3

Grab this bag!

Friday means grab bag time in this neck of the woods. So here we go again with six great songs that caught my ear this week. Got some early punk, some pubrock, and some neo-country from Nashville. Also there´s room for roots reggae, an oldie from the Mountain Goats and Mr. Johnny Cash... What else could you possibly need?

Let´s start with Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Hell was one of the visionaries of New York´s CBGB´s scene. He played in the first line-ups of the Heartbreakers and Television, invented the ripped t-shirt look along the way and made a name for himself with the classic album Blank Generation. "And when I want to write a song that says it all at once..." That´s the late great Robert Quine on guitar btw. You can find it on the Time compilation (Matador records).

Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Time MP3

Here´s a brand new song for you. Spiritual Family Reunion have just released an album called Goodbye Ceremony on Tract Records, a label to watch. They operate out of Nashville, have former Calexico and Silver Jews members among them, and I think Coral Reef sounds mighty fine.

Spiritual Family Reunion - Coral Reef MP3

I´ve been a fan of the Mountain Goats ever since they released Beautiful Rat Sunset way back when on the wonderful Shrimper label. For my money head-Goat John Darnielle is among the most original songwriters working today. The new album Heretic Pride hasn´t reached me yet, so we´ll make do with an oldie. There Will Always Be An Ireland is from the Jack & Faye ep, which never came out as the label that was supposed to release it went belly-up just a little too soon. Shame.

Mountain Goats - There Will Always be An Ireland MP3

Roots reggae time. Max Romeo is best known for his Lee Perry produced War In A Babylon album, but he released many more amazing sides in the seventies. Check out Valley Of Jehosaphat/Version for example, from the excellent compilation Open The Iron Gate (Blood & Fire). Red hot indeed.

Max Romeo - Valley Of Jehosaphat/Version MP3

Dr. Feelgood was the archetypical pubrock band. They set any venue on fire in ten minutes flat with their no-nonsense mentality. Milk and alcohol: a great diet. You can find it on the Singles - The U.A. Years compilation. This one´s dedicated to my brother in law by the way, who has seen them live more times than I´d like to count.

Dr. Feelgood - Milk And Alcohol MP3

And last but not least here´s Mr. Johnny Cash. Need I say more? "For on the wall there appeared a hand..." He´s best when biblical. From the extremely nicely priced but excellent 3 cd box Walking The Line, The Legendary Sun Recordings (Union Square).

Johnny Cash - Belshazzar MP3