30 Days Of Music Day 5 - A Song That Reminds Me Of Someone

Again, a list of LOADS of songs comes to mind - so many friendships have their own soundtrack, so many encounters have a theme tune. It's tough to pick just one from the list to single out for posting here... 

OK, let's go for what is now possibly the most evocative piece of music I know of - the music that was playing when our son, (@baby_flapjack) was born - The Soundtrack to Lars And The Real Girl by David Torn. I'd already been listening to it pretty much non-stop in the run-up to him being born, as it's a really beautiful collection of tunes, but it was in the playlist for the Delivery room and happened to be playing when the little guy came out into the world. So now, it's that, whenever we hear it. We still listen to it a lot, and it never fails to move us. Look it up on Spotify to hear the whole thing, or just buy it from Amazon MP3. 

Oh, and see the film, it's brilliant. 

30 Days Of Music, Day 4 - A Song That Makes Me Sad.

wow, there are LOADS of songs that make me sad. Sadness is just one of those things that songwriting was made to express. Far more effectively than unbridled joy, in fact (contrast how often it's the case that someone's best album is their divorce album, vs. the smugness of most songs about having kids... 'Isn't She Lovely' being the awesome exception that proves the rule...) 

The song I've chosen though, is one that's utterly devastatingly sad, wrapped up as a fairly trad pop breakup ballad. Rosie Thomas' version isn't the first one I heard - Tommy Sims, one of the co-authors of it, did it on his exceptional (and completely unknown) album Peace And Love (here it is on Spotify), but that's not on Youtube, or anywhere else embeddable that I can find... 

So here's Rosie's version of It Don't Matter To The Sun, that I heard a few years later... Still just as heartbreaking. It's a break-up song that instead of claiming that the entire world is about to collapse, undoes that metaphor and uses the parallels with the world not giving a shit to contrast the person's own pain. Genius songwriting, and possibly inadvisable to listen to if you're still raw from a recent break-up. Srsly. 

30 Days Of Music, Day 3 - A Song That Makes Me Happy.

Lots of music makes me happy. Hearing musicians play the music they love makes me very happy. Listening to my own music makes me happy, and grateful, thankful, etc... 

So I picked a song that makes me feel almost euphoric, for a whole host of reasons. 

I've said quite a few times that, along with Tony Benn and Miriam Margoyles, Billy Bragg is one of a handful of people who make me feel proud to be English - he represents our tradition of dissent that goes back hundreds of years, he's an honest mess of contradictions, an exceptional guitar player (the missing link between Bob Dylan and Joey Santiago) and has written endless songs that make me very happy indeed. I was even happier when he started talking balls about music and the internet - I love it when my heroes prove themselves flawed - but happier still when he modified his stance and started making lots of sense again, in opposition to the Digital Economy Act. A marvellous man. 

So 'Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards' sums up everything that's great about him - fab guitar hook, positivity and cynicism side-by-side, and about 80% of the lyrics in the song are things I'd be happy to wear on a T-shirt. The world is a better place because Billy Bragg is making music in it. Long may he continue. 

(as a footnote, one of the fun things he does with this song is update it periodically (and spontaneously) - click here for a version from Henry Rollins' TV show in the US.  

30 Days Of Music, Day 2 - My Least Favourite Song

These days I don't really have least favourite music. I don't get any pleasure out of hating music. I've got really good at filtering out bad music, and actually very rarely hear anything I don't like (there's a whole other blog post in that!) I'm far more likely to be disappointed by music than hate it - when someone makes a record that should've been full of promise but turns out to have been hijacked by whatever... 

 
So here's a song that when it came out sent me into utterly irrational insane rage whenever I heard it - I was 8 or 9, and I would scream at people for even singing it. Proper mental. 
 
It still sounds like risible shit today, but I'm not shouting while listening to this on youtube. Just giggling at the load of old toss that used to get to number one... :) 
 

30 Days of Music - Day 1 (Your Favourite Song)

Inspired by Hugh Garry (@huey) I'm going to have a bash at this over the next month. It's a meme that asks you to post a song on a different theme each day. Here's Hugh's post about it, 

and here's the list: 

day 01 - your favorite song
day 02 - your least favorite song
day 03 - a song that makes you happy
day 04 - a song that makes you sad
day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone
day 06 - a song that reminds of you of somewhere
day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event
day 08 - a song that you know all the words to
day 09 - a song that you can dance to
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep 
day 11 - a song from your favorite band 
day 12 - a song from a band you hate 
day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure 
day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love 
day 15 - a song that describes you 
day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate 
day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio 
day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio 
day 19 - a song from your favorite album 
day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry 
day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy 
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad 
day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding 
day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral 
day 25 - a song that makes you laugh 
day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument
day 27 - a song that you wish you could play 
day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty 
day 29 - a song from your childhood
day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

So, for day 1, My Favourite Song... That's a tough one. [this is take two, having already scrapped a description of a piece that I think I'll use in a later category...]

Right, got it - I love everything about this song - the lyrics, the vocal delivery, the groove... even the production is perfect... KD Lang's phrasing is outstanding... love it love it love it - enjoy. 

Emily And The Woods on Folk Radio UK

This is really lovely - I've known Emily for years, since she was a lil' kid, so it's great to hear her emerging as such a fab songwriting talent.

Her dad (and keyboardist/guitarist/bassist) is Patrick Wood out of Lawson/Dodds/Wood. 

Here's her session from folkradio.co.uk - it's really lovely 

The Fish Police - Pre-release Promo On Bandcamp.

Yesterday, Andrew Dubber (@Dubber) and I spent the day at The Albany In Deptford with the amazing people from Heart N Soul, talking about the music of The Fish Police - a band that formed through their artist training/mentoring work, and now have an album of amazing, bizarre, unique hip-hop that's currently being recorded/mixed/mastered. 

They were thinking towards a fairly traditional 'put it out on CD, get reviews and airplay, sell lots of CDs' approach, but we were there to talk about the potential of the social web to get people talking about, sharing and enjoying the music, without the need for big media mediators. The Fish Police's music is however, astonishingly media-friendly. Dean, the front man and creative heart of the band, has a whole alternative world of manga cartoons, club nights and food, with each song being a snapshot view into this world. 
Their website is www.thefishpolice.com and you can watch their promo vid below, then listen to 3 fab tracks, sneak previews from the album: 
here's the choonz: 

Peter Murray - Ants And Angels

This is an exciting new addition to Bandcamp - Peter Murray is someone I knew for a long time as an outstanding bassist before I ever discovered he could sing and write songs as well. 

Then he brought out this album, and I was stunned that he'd done it all himself (with other musicians, but no label support or anything) - proof that skills ingenuity and time are more important than massive amounts of cash when trying to make amazing records. 

It's a really great power-pop singer/songwriter record. Like middle-era XTC, or a more interesting version of the Rembrandts. Great tunes, strong grooves, weird lyrics. Who could ask for more. 

And it's $5 Canadian. Which is about £3. So get it, cos it's awesome. 

Calamateur Vs Steve Lawson in lovely Hi-Res

I'm so glad this is now out on Bandcamp. Another collaboration that I'm deeply proud of. 

This is an album of songs, strange electronica and lots of bass playing that doesn't sound like bass playing. 

We had a whole load of fun making it, and I hope you enjoy it - it's a few years old now, but still sounds fab to me! 

Please have a listen, here or on the bandcamp page, and if you like it download it, paying whatever you like for it :) 

Sunday Music Round-Up

We're having a lovely mellow do-nothing Sunday here, just lazing around and listening to music. So here's a few suggestions. 

Firstly, we hugely enjoyed watching Kira Small and Bryan Beller's house concert from our friend Tracy Apps' house in Milwaukee last night. 

It's archived at http://livingroomsessions.com/ - so brilliant. If you enjoy it, you can donate via the chip-in account. Go on, we did, and it was well worth it. :) 

Then there's my new tune with Mike Outram - we reached 500 plays on the last one, and as promised, uploaded another. This time I've written a timed commentary, with each one popping up as you listen, so you have some idea of what's going on. We love it. Hope you do too. :) 

And lastly, there's Alex Bowron - he's just been booked to open for me at an amazing gig in a bookshop in Hythe, near Southampton, on March 30th. Here's his myspace page. He's very good - 

Hope you enjoy those. Have a mellow Sunday. :)