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Merge Records cumple 20 años y para celebrarlo publica "Score! 20 Years Of Merge Records: The Covers!". En ella, una veintena de grupos que no son de Merge versionan otros tantos artistas de la historia del sello. La mayoría son grupos indies-alternativos de USA versioneando a grupos indies alternativos de USA (y un par de Nueva Zelanda), como era de esperar. Pero hay dos canciones que se apartan del tópico inherente a Merge: Por un lado, Laura Cantrell hace una versión muy bonita de Lambchop (me gusta más que la original) y Tracey Thorn nos cuenta desde su blog en myspace su contribución:
"Here is some new music at last - it's the cover of Yeah! Oh Yeah! by The Magnetic Fields, which I recorded last summer with Jens Lekman for the 20th anniversary compilation put out by Merge Records. Over the last 20 years Merge (based in North Carolina) have put out records by some of our favourite indie artists, from Arcade Fire, through M Ward and the Magnetic Fields, to East River Pipe and American Music Club. I was flattered to be asked to take part and, as you know, I need little persuasion to raid the Stephen Merritt songbook. Though I was very tempted to cover East River Pipe's gorgeous song Druglife, which opens with the memorable line, "Hey! Where's my pills? They were sittin' on the windowsill". Anyway, I haven't heard the whole Merge compilation yet (there is one on its way to me apparently..) but I nevertheless recommend you to check it out. And as for my album, yep, the recording is finished, and the mixing about to begin, so with any luck I will soon be able to put some of that new stuff up here too. More soon, xx
Lawrence conversation post Go Kart Mozart Glasgow May 13th show at the ABC
Intro: So I left after the second Saint Etienne song and ran into Terry Miles and the drummer (Gary?) in the lobby. I told them that I had traveled from California for this show so they were kind enough to take me backstage to meet Lawrence. We spoke a little bit and I was invited to meet them back at their hotel after the show. ------------------------------------------ Highlights of my conversation with Lawrence at the Malmaison Hotel after the Glasgow May 13th show at the ABC (in no particular order).
-Lawrence lived in a homeless shelter for two years after losing his flat in London. He lived a few months with Peter Astor of the Weather Prophets
-We spoke about the Luke Haines book “Bad Vibes” which Lawrence is reading. He feels that he got off easy by what Luke wrote about him. He and Luke have never met to date.
-The film “Lawrence of Belgravia” will not be finished till about October 2009 or so. There are over 40 hours of footage (I believe) and there are plans to film the May 2009 Go Kart Mozart London show. The showing in London a few months ago was only the partially completed film.
-The guitarist on this tour (name escapes me) is the bass player for the Buzzcocks and The Sex Pistol’s roadie/personal assistant. Funny enough he is really a guitar player more than a bass player.
-The up coming Go Kart Mozart album will contain the recorded but never officially released songs “Robot Voice” and “Men Look at Women”
-Lawrence has lost contact with Maurice Deebank but has heard that he works in a factory and has been recently involved in an accident (possibly lost limbs but none of this is confirmed). Lawrence is trying to get his contact information to get in touch with him.
-Terry Miles and Martin Duffy are cousins. He also told me the story of “Summer Smash”. He gave Lawrence the music and sang do-doots where he felt the vocals should be Leaving Lawrence to write the lyrics. When it came time to record the song Lawrence left the do-doots on the chorus which were really meant to be a placeholder of sorts.
-The drummer tonight was a session drummer that was brought on at the last moment. Lawrence had originally had a 21 year old girl which when it came time to tour she couldn’t.
-Lawrence doesn’t think much of the Felt tribute album that came out a few years back.
-Lawrence was not happy with the Denim Jools Holland show in the early 90’s. The producers wanted him to shorten the songs. The girl on the show and who appears in the Denim “Middle of the road” video is a friend’s girlfriend. She was wearing his clear raincoat with the silver stripes on the Jools Holland show.
-Lawrence doesn’t see too much cinema but he gave reviews to the films “Thirteen” and the Maggie Gylenhaal film “Sherry Baby”
-Lawrence spoke about the Cherry Music receiving award ceremony for the Pillows and Prayers” compilation.
Por cierto, en el mismo foro se da cuenta de que Manic Street Preachers han editado en la versión japonesa de su nuevo lp, una versión de "Primitive Painters" de Felt (que no me gusta nada...) y la han colgado aquí: http://rapidshare.com/files/237602790/Primitive_Painters.mp3
Ayer estuve oyendo Flor de Pasión y me gustaron mucho estas dos canciones. THE BOOTIQUES son un grupo femenino entre cuyos componentes está Christine Costello (hija de Abbott y Costello) y está canción "Did Your Get Your Fun" fue producida ni más ni menos que por Curt Boettcher, que además intento grabar más cosas con ellas que al final quedaron inéditas (November 10, 1967—Sessions with The Bootiques: Stephen J. McParland’s wonderful series of Gary Usher biographies (titled The California Sound: An Insider’s Story) contains many nuggets of info. One such is the AFM union sheet for this recording session for The Bootiques. Boettcher already produced their single “Did You Get Your Fun / Mr. Man of the World” (Date 1513) in 1966, so these must’ve been for follow-up singles).
La canción se puede encontrar en el volumen 5 de "Where The Girls Are", los famosos recopilatorios de Ace Records sobre Girl Groups.
También estrenó el nuevo single de The Lodger para el club del single de Elefant: "I think I need you” será el quinto 7” de su carrera: “Nos dimos cuenta de que nunca habíamos editado un single “lento” antes, así que decidimos que era el momento de rectificarlo” y ahí llega en forma de rectificación ese precioso medio tiempo que es “I think I need you” y sus fantásticos y cristalinos arreglos de guitarra. Y para los que disfrutan de los LODGER mas forofos de THE SMITHS, “I can’t stop” es una de esas canciones que pedirías de rodillas al DJ para que te alegrara una noche de sábado. “This is good fortune” tiene uno de esos estribillos que necesitas rememorar cada mañana, antes de subirte al autobús que te lleva a la monotonía diaria, para tener un poco de sol cada día, mientras que “That guy” es, como ellos mismos reconocen, la canción más corta que han escrito en toda su carrera, un crescendo explosivo que apenas requiere de poco más de un minuto para explotar.
En la web de Elefant se puede incluso ver el vídeo clip (poco glamouroso, por cierto)
Is there a specific song by another artist you wish you had written?
Renée: I’m very fascinated by the song White Mice by The Mo-Dettes - to me it is the perfect song, there isn't one thing I would change about it. Perfect to sing along to as well!
Este single lo produjo Alan Horne junto a Malcom Ross y lo editó el sello Rational. Leo en You Heart Out 7 que Douglas MacIntyre (ahora en Creeping Bent) escribió de ellos en el libreto de la recopilación "Endless Soul" de Josef K (Marina Records) y los calificó como "Post-punk existencial teenage angst pop group", ni más ni menos. La canción la tengo en el recopilatorio "Ave Marina"
Ayer estuve en Soriano y aproveché para ojear revistas. Me llamó la atención que un miembro de The Doves en Q Magazine enseñaba sus discos favoritos y uno de ellos era este single que publicó Factory Benelux. La canción se puede encontrar también en el lp "Circuses and Bread" y es una bonita oda a un amor imposible.
All I wanted was your time / All you ever gave me was tomorrow /All I wanted was your time /All you ever gave me was tomorrow / [chorus]And tomorrow never comesTomorrow never comesTomorrow never comesTomorrow never comesTomorrow never comes
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart? Northern Portrait? Yes, I'm excited about those debut albums this year. But nothing beats my excitement for this: Liechtenstein's Survival strategies in a modern world. The CD will be out at Fraction Discs at the end of this month. To make things even better, the album will also be released as a 10", together with Slumberland Records. All 9 songs are brand new and previously unreleased. You can download Roses in the park below, but don't forget to listen to All at once, the album's opener, on the band's myspace.New to Liechtenstein? Read my interview with the band here.Liechtenstein websiteLiechtenstein myspaceFraction DiscsSlumberland Records
(from All that ever mattered blog)
THE LEGENDS
OVER AND OVERCD-LAB118
The single "Seconds away" was described as 'The noisiest pop single to ever come out of Sweden' when it was released this winter and created a huge buzz worldwide - staying at no.1 at Elbo.ws for nearly three weeks! "Over and over" is a brilliantly modern mix of white noise, 60’s girls pop, indie, ambient and krautrock.The album includes contribution from Club 8's Karolina Komstedt, The Mary Onettes' Philip Ekström, Tralala's Liane Moccia and more
Ultimamente me estoy aficionando a ver otro tipo de TV en la franja horaria de 22 horas a 23,30 con los informativos nocturnos (la noche en 24 horas), el debate/la entrevista en cnn + o en un informativo cultural de canal 33 llamado Anima (http://blogs.ccrtvi.com/anima.php). Lo presenta la chica del ya extinto Silenci y un compañero y en los últimos días he visto a Jorge Herralde (Anagrama), un interesante reportaje sobre Tintín o a un grupo indie catalán llamado Sedaios . Siempre me he preguntado porque nadie hacía un informativo cultural y veo que por fin alguien lo hace... Así entre estos programas, voy haciendo zapping y se me pasa la hora y media bastante rápida.
Pd: el grupo del que hablo -sedaios- regala aquí su lp de debut en mp3: http://gandulagandula.blogspot.com/2009/04/descarrega-sedaios-resolen-problemes.html la versión de pago es un lp en vinilo (no hay cd)
1) Jeff Barrett (el capo de Heavenly Records) escribe sobre Rob Gretton, el que fuera manager de New Order y cuenta como llegó a ser publicista de éstos. Impagable su presentación ante Rob Gretton: "I had long hair. Shoulder length, curly, red hair (in my mind Tim Buckley, in reality Robert Plant) Worn with red selvedge Levi’s, ‘engineer’ boots and vintage American check shirts. (My point here being that it was a look. Maybe a crap one but it was deliberate). I walked up to the door, maybe a little nervous by now, and rang the bell. The door opened and it was Rob. He looked at me – stared at me in fact – pushed his glasses up and declared “Fuckin’ ‘ell they’ve sent me a hippy”." )
de http://caughtbytheriver.net/2009/05/remembering-rob-gretton/
2) Alan McGee escribe de forma entusiasta sobre Dan Tracey de Tv Personalities (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/may/05/dan-treacy-creation-records)
3) Gail Chickfactor escribe de forma NADA entusiasta sobre Dan Tracey de Tv Personalities (http://www.chickfactor.com/2009/05/creationism.html)
4) Jon Savage comenta un reciente libro sobre la música disco (http://caughtbytheriver.net/2009/05/vince-aletti-the-disco-files/)
5) Unpopular habla sobre la reedición de The Vaselines (http://unpopular.typepad.com/unpopular/2009/05/the-day-he-was-a-horse.html) y sobre la extraña obsesión del grupo por los equinos
How come your songs had so many equine motifs? E: I was a horse for one day after a day trip to the Isle of Millport. It’s all in the song, ‘The Day I Was a Horse’. F: Eugene liked to shag horses.
y 6) jumped pantry boy habla sobre Biff Bang Pow!, The Claim y sobre su antiguo zine (1987)Pont Plant Pantry
