music like dirt

I’m away working at the “Royal Welsh Show” for a week so before I head off for this “farming extraveganza” thought I’d clear the decks with a few tracks I’ve been meaning to post for ages.

First up, Rufus Wainwright with a live cover of “Casanova In Hell” from the latest Pet Shop Boys album. As always with Rufus he makes the track sound as though he’s written it himself, and is superbly backed by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Recorded for Radio 2’s “Sold On Song” Pet Shop Boys special in early May the song imagines an ageing 18th Century lothario Giacoma Casanova suffering from impotence problems. Some suggested it refered to John Prescott but I think this is probably just amusingly co-incidental.

Rufus Wainwright - “Casanova In Hell (MP3)“

There are four more unbroadcast recordings from concert over on the Sold On Song site, including “Numb“, “You Only Tell Me You Love Me when You’re Drunk“, “After All“, and “Dreaming Of The Queen“.

Tighten Up - The Story Of Trojan Records

Another BBC Radio 2 programme that i’ve already blogged about, but its such a good documentary its worth returning to. Its no longer available for streaming, but I had the tape recorder running:

Tighten Up - The Story Of Trojan Records (Part 1) / (Part 2)

The documentary features brilliant music from the Trojan vaults, as well as great storys about the label such as how the name Trojan presented problems when trying to break the US market, and how accompanied by the tax man they used to take their unsold records to a london car park and smash them. Dont think I’ll be sharing this one for long as its a bit of a big file (apologies also for the glitch at the start of part 1).

Spank Rock

Apart from being mindblowingly good live, Spank Rock are also generously giving away one fo their singles “Rick Rubin”. You can download it from myspace by clicking here, or visit the Big Dada site to get both the MP3 and the video (and while youre there do yourself a favour and buy the album).

They are also offering accapellas galore:

“Here’s the idea… We give you free- range on the album’s accapellas. You creat a remix and send it back. The best remixes will be chosen for an upcoming release”

Get the accapellas here, get more information here, and I suppose get remixing too.

Recommended Blog:

Dilate Choonz is one of those blogs that makes you question whether its actually worth opening your mouth about music at all. In the last month alone theyve posted a good half dozen tracks that are firmly rooted at the top of my “most played” list. Soul from Ray Charles, summer reggae from Pato Banton, disco from Kerrier District, Fuckponys Chicago house, classical music inspired by Chairman Mao, and thats just scratching the surface. I could go on but I really must pack, just bookmark it now

Final Word

Richard Hawley’s wife keeps his feet firmly on the ground after his Mercury music prize nomination:

“I rang my missus and told her I was nominated - she said, “I’m cooking breakfast, what the f**k is the Mercury Prize?”

(UPDATE) I passed reviewing duties for this one to Alex who won the competition for Lily Bush Hall tickets (More pics and video from the gig at the bottom of the post). Clearly I should skip writing more often as Sundays Observer Music Monthly (23rd July) quoted musiclikedirt in their full page Lily Allen review (in a bloggers verdict box). Online version and review here:
Anyway back to Alexs review.

Lily came onstage about 9:30pm with a fanfare from her brass section – who at the very least deserve an honourable mention for their synchronised dancing all night whilst playing their instruments – wearing a puffball dress, and started off with LDN.

Most of her songs were performed interspersed with small dance moves and I think the one thing that struck me about her is the way she performed and talked as if we were friends of hers (even though she did have her sister and other friends in the crowd, and it was a small venue). In a way it endears you to her, but I wonder when she will start to get more confident and performs to the audience more.

One thing I was talking to my friend about afterward was how you could hardly hear the words to her songs. It was pretty easy for me, and other long-term fans who knew the words, but my friend has only heard a couple of Lily’s songs before this gig and could hardly hear what she was singing. And one of the great things about Lily are her lyrics, so I think the equipment let her down there.

Overall I thought she was good; it was an enjoyable night, and I think she can only get better.

I’m pretty sure everyone noticed Lily mentioning two ‘superfans’ at the front who kept screaming at every tiny thing and jumping about trying to catch her attention – my friend and I were right behind them, which made for an interesting view of the stage all night.

Set List (pic):

LDN
Window Shopper
Shame For You
Not Big
Littlest Things
Friday Night
Knock Em Out
Everything is just wonderful (Flute)
Band Intro
Smile
——–
Oh My God
Alfie

Support: Jack Penate
I didn’t really think his set was that great; apart from some genuinely exuberant dancing, his songs seemed repetitive – the kind where you start noticing and end up not really listening, instead watching the time until it’s over and paying more attention to the crowd reaction than the band. Oh I tried to like him, I really did, but any song in which the chorus consists of ‘learn your lines’ seems well, rather silly to me. Apparently Lily chose him personally to support her (discovered this from a really annoying woman-fan of his)… but really he was like a lesser Jamie T without the lyrics and shuddering beats (MLD: apparently he’s signed to XL).

Pics:

http://flickr.com/photos/musiclikedirt/sets/72157594204518335/ (my pics + a few from Rough Trade instore)

Simon Leake keeps it Trilly with pics on Myspace.

More flickr Bush Hall pics from Beenbrun and JamieNaz.

The Flash website is really annoying but some nice Bush Hall pics from Max Tollworthy here

Some excellent pics (from Helter Skelter) of the Rough Trade instore on the Lily Forum.

Video:

Lily Allen @ Rough Trade (iluvgravy cam) both YouTube - LDN / Littleist Things

Another Rough Trade vid from essexboy - download here

MP3’s:

More Mp3’s/videos/stuff on my old post about her YoYo gig.

The Daily Growl has Lily live on Radio 1 session tracks.

Lily Allen - “Oh My God (Kaiser Chiefs cover) (MP3) (more at Yeti Dont Dance)” - sounded superb live with horn section.

The Soul Brothers - “Free Soul (MP3) (The original track that No.1 “Smile” is based on)

Read:

Had the pleasure to meet The Daily Growl at the gig, and as usual he’s got an interesting take on gig and some mp3’s (if he’s not been carted off by the RIAA for sharing them!)

Last months “Listen To This” raved about the genius mashup “Earthshaker” by Brubekk. It single handily re-ignited The Daily Growls interest in hip-hop, while I declared it “100% Paul & Linda” - a comment which I swear made sense at the time.

Brubekk - “Earthshaker (MP3)”

Mr Brubekk himself - otherwise known as Jez stumbled across our rambling praise by “vain-gloriously googling the record name to read a few reviews“, and emailed to say thanks. Bizarely he expected the track to be given a pasting, and went on to give a little behind the scenes look at the making of a mash-up classic.

Unfortunately for musiclikedirts dodgy ticker he “hilariously” pretended to be a lawyer at first:

“This is a cease and desist order for heinous and repetitive copyright infringement. I am writing on behalf of many clients who have come together and asked me to represent them.”

(cue music like dirt becoming trousers full of dirt)

“No it’s not, I’m taking the piss…sorry if you nearly had a heart-attack there!“

Mashups had a bit of a boom a few years ago as cheap software allowed anyone with a PC to graft Missy Elliot accapellas over the top of Nolan Sister’s instrumentals. The end result… people got sick of crap blends. However with a little care and inspiration a few tracks actually make you wonder how the seperate elements ever existed on their own. The Brubekk track is one of those few tracks so here’s Jez with his explanation of “The Earthshaker“… I found it fascinating but maybe I’m just a complete spotter!?:

“I’ll tell you a little about the background of the track seeing as you like it. (It may make you hate it!) Basically it was me playing around at home… I have held too much regard for those who ‘do it properly’ to ever think of making anything. (I hate people who keep diaries and say they “write” too - if you know what I mean!).

One evening I was playing around with different records, for my own pleasure. I noticed “Off The Books (The Beatnuts)” and “Earthshaker (John Gregory)” were the same speed, and the 12″ of “Off The Books” has an acapella. I’ve got a DAT machine hooked up, for mixtapes, so I started recording and playing around. I then scoured the shelves for mid-tempoed 12″s with acapellas. And came across the other two (”Ya Playin’ Yaself” - Jeru The Damaga, and a track each from Snoop Dogg & Dre).

Listening to the instrumental in one headphone and the acca in the other I used my finger to get the speeds right.
With the whole thing recorded I brought the DAT to work and played around with it on slow afternoons (such as this one). The only vaguely music related software I have… is editing software called Sadie. Hence there are no swooshes, dub/ reverb effects in the record. Just straight up cut’n'paste. I cut word by word rather than line by line in most instances to satisfy the trainspotter inside, as I don’t like sloppy mash-ups myself. I also didn’t want to go to acapellaheaven.com or any of those sites to grab records I don’t even have, or know the context of.

I still never had the thought to release the record or to play it to anyone else…anyway, when it was all done I played it to a DJ friend - he liked it and asked if he could have it.

Several months later he told me the feedback was good, though the sound was ropey, and that most people assumed it was a GAMM record. With a little Dutch courage I put a copy in the post to Mad Mats in Stockholm, and several more months later it became GAMM 0033. It’s one-sided because I only had the one good idea and it is a one off. I tried to get friends to remix it, but as I had chopped the vocals to fit Earthshaker, and not run it all through a quantiser / sequencer thing like most mash up artists do, short of writing a new backing track, there is little the remixers could do.

It seems to have done alright for GAMM, and I have a copy to pass down the generations, but really it was all a bit of fun, which is why I didn’t want to put a real name to it. If I do, one day make the prog-folk-space-bass-2-step-boogie EP that I have in mind, I will definitely, definitely put my name to it. And send you a copy”.

Thanks to Jez for letting me post his email, and here’s looking forward to that prog-folk-space-bass-2-step-boogie epic!

For more Brubekk MP3 edits visit here. (Not had a chance to listen to them myself yet).

The Bam Bam Club have a few of Jez’s mixes: July Disco Inferno mix here, and April’s mix.

The Beatnuts - Off The Books (YouTube video / Realplayer stream (better quality)

Interview with John Gregory (including stuff about Earthshaker)

Buy Brubekk - “Earthshaker” here if there are any left.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the Lily competition… drum roll…

The winner is Alex who suggested something nice to look at (i love polaroids): ilovefake online magazine and the song: The Party Punch, Oh No! Oh My!

Struggled to choose one link out of many good ones, so ended up narrowing it down to a short list and then rolling a dice for the winner (all very professional!)

Congratulations Alex - Let me know where you want the tickets sent, and that you can still make it?

Here are some of the other suggestions that just missed out. Hope some of you can make it down to Lilys free instore gig on Monday at Covent Garden Rough Trade:

H suggested Lilys labelmate: “Siobhan Donaghy (who as you might recall used to be in Sugababes v1.0). She released a solo album (Revolution In Me) a few years ago and unfortunately got dropped but she’s back with new material which you can hear on her MySpace. Have a listen to Sometimes which is a great summer track!”

Lots of good animations and videos were put forward:

The Daily Growl had a fantastic one for Smiths fans - Morrissey and Marr on a bizarre day out with the Kids, (for another Smiths on Kids TV classic visit here) and also what to do in the event of terrorist attacks: http://www.endofworld.net/

Suzan put forward an end of the world flash animation http://www.endofworld.net/, and almost won the competition with a very nice picture of herself plus oddly a shot of a Scotsman in a kilt (or the other way around).

Timeon had drunk popstars at McDonalds: “go watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFMht18fmLA cracks me up everytime”.

Stevie: http://www.fat-pie.com/chavs.htm this is devvo the chav, and he’s a mentalist. Burnt face man is funny.

As for musical links, here are some of the suggestions:

Daily Growl: “This got me whistling on the way to the water cooler yesterday (stick to Young Folk - the rest are not as hot):
http://www.myspace.com/peterbjornandjohn

Timeon: “Apartment should be heard by everyone. Ive been to most of their gigs since 2004 and they never get old. check them out”.

Suzan: Here’s one of my favourite bands, I hope you like them. I’ve uploaded two songs for you http://www.zshare.net/audio/01-losers-day-parade-mp3.html

http://www.zshare.net/audio/05-people-mp3.html

Kate: “Check this guy out…His name’s Akala and he was set to support Kelis at her Hammersmith date last month (which I was meant to go to!) but unfortunately the gig was postponed/cancelled.
Anyways here’s his myspace, and this is his official website”

Magenta - Band worth checking out; http://www.myspace.com/wearethewords

Five minutes before Gogol Bordello take to the stage and I’m indulging in some idle banter with a friendly security guy down the front:

“Have you seen Gogol Bordello before then?”

Security: “No…you?”

“No, been meaning to for ages, but I’ve heard its an amazing show”

Security: “Oh you think it might be a bit lively then?”

“I think you might have a bit of a busy evening”

Spin forward twenty minutes and several leg flailing crowd surfers later, and lead singer Eugene Hutz leaps unannounced onto his shoulders. Staggering around with Hutz’s legs wrapped around his neck he’s a picture of bafflement, but the grin on his face is unmistakable. If Gogol Bordello have a calling card this is it. In the street afterwards you can pick out the people who were there by their smiles (due to the inferno like temperature you can also pick them out from the huge sweatmarks..but we’ll gloss over that.)

Hutz has the energy and stage presence of a young Iggy Pop, careering about the stage or repeatedly diving into the audience mid song. In all my visits to KoKo or Camden Palais I’ve never seen it buzzing like this. Traditionally London audiences just don’t dance until the last few numbers, but with crowd favourite “Start Wearing Purple” thrown in fairly early the place was bouncing from the off. I lasted five songs in the chaos down the front, but when I realised it wasn’t just me that was dripping with sweat but my camera too I scrambled for safety.

The idea of Ukrainian gypsy music fused with the punk of Sonic Youth may not be something that most people would think appealing, but live it makes perfect sense. Hutz is joined in this burlesque show by an accordion player, a Billy Connely look-alike on fiddle, and two crazed but very sexy female dancers who spend their time grappling with Hutz, bashing a huge drum, scrapping some-kind of percussive wash board on their back, and dancing as if their lives depended on it.

Stand still long enough and Hutz will scale you and begin singing from atop your head. Over the course of the evening he overturned the monitor stands to balance on top, walked on top of the crowd, security, and almost on my head.

Towards the end of the show a masked man emerged, stripped and began dancing center stage… Hutz of course simply climbed on his shoulders and continued singing. During an epic finale he was carried across the audience on an enormous bass drum.

If you get the chance to see Gogol Bordello, run dont walk.

Set list:

Im My Punk
Sally Never
Young Not A Crime
East Infection
Dogs
Purple
Mishto
60 Revs
Trouble Friends
Fuck Globally
Underdog World Strike
Darling
Punk Rock
Santa Marinella
Illumination
Baraforo

Pics:
My pics: Gogol Bordello @ Koko 06/07/06 flickr photoset

Littlepants also took pics of the night (plus lots of other Gogol)

Video:

Youtube videos of the gig from LondonYank here

Gogol Bordello - “Start Wearing Purple” (Mov)

Audio:

Gogol Bordello - “Start Wearing Purple” (MP3)

30 minute documentary from Radio 1 on Gogol Bordello

Time for “Sheila”, single number three from Jamie T, and the point where he follows his mate Lily into the pop charts. What better way to celebrate than with a free instore at Pure Groove Records?

Six pm however, and the sums don’t add up – one small record store divided by the large queue down Holloway Road – enough people to fill it three times over. More worryingly I appear to be at the wrong end of it.
Then without warning the queue starts to stride as one away from the shop back towards Archway tube… a collective decision to give up and go home, or could the whole thing be off… only one way to find out. A few moments later, and the queue has deposited itself outside the Archway Tavern - a pub on a traffic island - and sat on a stool ready to hold court is one Jamie T.

Resplendent in shorts and white socks, Jamie looks relaxed and confident, or as someone going by the name of Arthur Dailey on the Jamie T forum put it:

“met Jamie …before the gig, blatantly off his face. I could smell the booze but he was a proper nice guy and genuinely happy I bought his single”

Bladdered or not Jamie was on fine form. There are less agreeable ways to spend a baking hot summer evening than sat outside a north London boozer enjoying free and fantastic music from someone sure to be on many peoples best of 2006 lists (actually he was a few best of 2005’s too).

On record Jamie makes the music of a man who listens to a lot of old reggae records, a little Dizzee Rascal but just happens to play the guitar. This is Ska, HipHop, Rock and pop bouncing off each other in the grand tradition of British acts who reflect the multicultural melting pot in their music (see The Specials, Lily Allen, The Streets to name but a few). Some find his occasional bursts of Jamaican patois irritating, but there are far too many ideas and too much energy and enthusiasm in his music to worry about such things. You’ll be too busy dancing and singing along.

As this is an acoustic show there’s no dancing to be seen, but a chance to appreciate the dense lyrical tales of urban life that crown Jamie’s music. This is someone who samples passages of poet John Betjeman’s “The Cockney Amorist” on “Sheila”, and those assembled in Archway are well versed as they mimic the record interrupting the chorus with a bellowed “LONDDOOOON”.

SETLIST (thanks to seaside on the forum):

Bass Guitar
If youve got the money
So lonely was the ballad
Livin with betty
Sheila (lyrics)
Calm down dearest
Back in the game

After the gig Jamie’s happy to hang around signing records and posing for pictures with countless grinning fans. Armed with a box full of C90’s he also dished out Vol.3 of his essential “Panic Prevention” mix series, and I dispensed with taking pictures for a moment to make sure I grabbed myself a copy (Volumes 1 and 2 were very kindly posted out to anyone on his mailing list ). Jamie may be about to be a star but he doesn’t yet behave like one.

Pics:

My pics of Jamie in the sun at Puregroove’s Archway Tavern openair.

Puregroove have their own photoblog - No Jamie yet but sure pics will be up soon?

BigBird was sat right up the front and took some very nice pics: Bigbird gallery

Joel Crispie must have been sat right next to me as his pics are similar to mine: Crispie Gallery

MP3: Visit Jamie T’s site for a free download of “Do You Have The Time”

Jamie T - “So Lonely Was The Ballad”

Buy: Jamie T singles for 99p at Piccadilly Records

Video:

Four superb YouTube videos of the Archway gig by Charliedavinci - cheers - Watch here

Jamie T - “Salvador” (mov)

Turn you head on one side and watch another short video of the Archway gig below (from Puregrooves Myspace):