music like dirt

MP3’s, ipod’s, music blogs, myspace… they’ve all changed the way we listen to and discover new music. From the moment I first set the ipod to shuffle I’ve barely listened to an album from beginning to end. Hundreds of music blogs offer me untold MP3 riches every day. The problem used to be how can I afford all the music I want, now its how do I find the time to listen to all the music I can get.
Does it cheapen music? Was it better when you waited weeks for a release then rushed home to play it from start to finish? Or is it simply a wonderful thing that there’s now no limit to the different styles and quantity of music you can experience… except of course the hours in the day, and actually having a life away from the PC? I would answer the question but… I’ve got 50 blog MP3’s, another couple of dozen from emusic, a few itunes, a CD, and some vinyl to listen to before I go out!

The podcast (and vodcast) is another addition to my already overloaded audio world. Radio shows, mixes, current affairs… whatever you like there’s a podcast to suit your tastes. Click subscribe, and whenever a new programme is made it automatically secretes itself as if by magic on your MP3 player or computer. Its fantastic to be sat on the tube idly flicking through the ipod, only to discover an essential new mix or radio show has popped up for my listening pleasure.

Here are just a few that I try and find the time to enjoy. Please leave a comment with some more suggestions. Any musical style, comedy, whatever… which podcasts rock your world?

The subscribe links should work with itunes… if you’re not yet a slave to apple inc I’m sure there are other alternatives just as good.

First up there are no less than three Ninjatune related podcasts worth subscribing to. Coldcut’s legendary Solid Steel radio show has introduced me to more new music than anyone or anything in my life, and almost 20 years on it remains essential listening. If Im honest its no where near as good as it was when Coldcut presented it every week, but it still offers the broadest beats in london the world, and the podcast first hour of the weekly 2hr show should be at the top of your podcast list. Coldcut also have their own podcast which is irregular but throws up some great mixes, and live sets. Lastly Ninjatune’s sister Hip Hop imprint Big Dada has just launched its own podcast, kicking off with a special Ty hosted special… so if you like Ty or Roots Manuva you’ll love Dada.

[SUBSCRIBE] Solid Steel
[SUBSCRIBE] Coldcut
[SUBSCRIBE] Big Dada

Coldcut are not the only production heavyweights to offer their own podcasts, they’re all at it. Diplo’s Mad Descent World Wide Radio is a monthly slice of goodness too tasty to refuse, while Erol Alkan has a similarly eclectic podcast which you’d be a fool not to grab.
Mark Ronson’s weekly Authentic Shit show is a mixed blessing, it offers the finest music heavily laced with exclusive productions recently including Lily Allen’s US only “Smile” remix, and a sneak preview of an amazing funk/Dapkings style cover of the Smith’s “Stop Me If You’ve heard This Before” from Mark’s next LP. The only downside is you have to listen to Ronson’s painful ghetto fabulous, how street am I, how many times can I swear banter. Think Harry Enfields Tory Boy mimicking what Boris Johnson would sound like doing an impression of Tim Westwood. You can’t argue with the quality of music though, and my brain has somehow developed a Ronson filter rendering him magically inaudible.

[SUBSCRIBE] Diplo Mad Descent World Wide Radio
[SUBSCRIBE] Erol Alkan Monthly mixes
[SUBSCRIBE] Mark Ronson Authentic Shit radio

Indiefeed are one of the longest running podcast providers, with a mission to provide a new track almost every day from brand new independent artists. I subscribe to their Hip-Hop podcast, which turns up unheard gems on a regular basis. While looking for a link for this post I discovered they offer separate podcasts for Electronica, Blues, and Indie! Most podcasts tend to be longer form (30mins etc), but the delight of Indiefeed is its only one track every time so if you don’t like it just press skip.

Lostinyourinbox introduced me to the wonderful world of the “Contrast” podcast… she’ll also hopefully be doing a “Listen To This” very soon too. The simple but effective idea of Contrast is to come up with a theme each week, and then let people contribute one track based on that theme along with a brief introduction. Each edition can contain anything from The Jesus & The Marychain to Ella Fitzgerald. Past themes include political songs, tracks I love by acts I don’t, album openers, and may more. At the very least subscribe, but why not go one better and contribute next time?

[SUBSCRIBE] Contrast Podcast

And still my ever lengthening list of Podcasts grows:

[SUBSCRIBE] Billy Bragg - A musiclikedirt favourite and new member of the podcast world. Bragg is currently in the middle of a series of Podcasts telling the story of his career, taking in Thatcherism, the Miners, New Labour & Red Wedge along the way.
[SUBSCRIBE] Jarvcast - Always one to do something different Jarvis Cocker’s podcast offers Jarv reading a featured book each episode. So far we’ve had everything from JD Sallinger, Icelandic folk tales to Hans Christian Anderson.

[SUBSCRIBE] Rapnews.co.uk - Another superb UK hip hop podcast. Brand new tracks from the cream of the UK, including the fantastic and exclusive “You Must Learn” featuring the definitely not British KRS-One.

[SUBSCRIBE] Adam & Joe - The weekly highlights of their X-fm show featuring jaffa cake addiction, remakes of Robbie’s Rudebox, and musings on if its ok for Bob Dylan to have the hots for Alicia Keys. Theyve also just started a seperate Coke sponsored unsigned new music podcast. [SUBSCRIBE]

Coke FACT: Fanta was invented when the Nazi’s ran out of Coca Cola syrup. Coke had to come up with something to satisfy the Third Reichs’ need for fizzy sugar water based drinks, and Fanta was born.

Finally as you’d expect the BBC offers podcasts on everything from uk hip-hop to the latest Newsnight.

[SUBSCRIBE] From Our Own Correspondent - A BBC institution offering insights, opinion, and fascinating snapshots of life from the BBC’s foreign correspondents around the world.
[SUBSCRIBE] Today Programme - daily grillings direct to your MP3 player
[SUBSCRIBE] Wake Up To Wogan - Join Terry’s TOG’s with this weekly highlights compilation
[SUBSCRIBE] The Now Show - Radio 4’s current affairs comedy show.
[SUBSCRIBE] Question Time Vodcast - Dimbleby’s joined by the usual politicians plus a random musician or comedian to get the “kids” watching.
[SUBSCRIBE] Newsnight - Video best of Paxo.
[SUBSCRIBE] Ten O’clock news highlights - A weekly vodcast of the best stories from the 10.

At the moment the BBC’s musical podcast output is limited by rights disputes. Record companies simply don’t want listeners getting their grubby mitts on digital copies of the vast range of music the Beeb plays.
Over on the BBC’s new black music station 1xtra, Ras Kwame’s Homegrown is the exception to this, offering 100% new UK urban, R&B, Rap, Black… (call it what you will…) music every week. Its a brilliant showcase for new unheard UK music. Radio 1 also has a best of unsigned acts podcast that I keep meaning to listen to.

[SUBSCRIBE] 1xtra Homegrown - Ras Kwame brings 100% new UK hip-hop and R&B.
[SUBSCRIBE] Russell Brand - serial shagger and Amy Winehouse look-alike rambles at length.
[SUBSCRIBE] Radio 1 Best of Unsigned

So what have I missed? Which podcast’s couldn’t you live without?

Fellow blogger “Sweeping The Nation” is currently running a feature where every day this month a different guest picks a track they think everyone needs to hear. The selections so far have been suitably eclectic, and I’ve reposted an extended version of mine below. For the other 30 check out Sweeping The Nation.

On Monday the 13th of December 1971 in a studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Esther Phillips recorded a cover version that almost 35 years later remains one of the finest songs ever committed to tape.
Cover versions are much maligned, too often tossed out as a cheap B-side or worse still what’s commonly known as the ‘Jo Whiley‘: dictionary definition “ironic, wacky and always unbearable cover, often of an R&B track performed by insipid indie guitar group (see entry for The Kooks)”. Thankfully “Home Is Where The Hatred” is a world away from this.

Gil Scott Heron’s original is itself something of a classic, so it was not a song to take on lightly. Esther however was a formidable woman and produced a performance of such remarkable intensity and beauty that, in my opinion at least, it outstrips the original.

Starting out with the name Little Esther, Phillips made her recording debut at the tender age of 14, and experienced more highs and lows in her life than most. She was chronically addicted to heroin within a few years of her debut, an addiction which restricted her output in the fifties. After almost dropping out of music altogether, she made a comeback in 1962 when her version of the country standard “Release Me” became a hit (yes, the Englebert Humperdinck one). Almost immediately her record label went bankrupt.

By this point she was no longer Little Esther, if myth be believed the surname was picked up when passing a Phillips gas station. She continued to battle drug and personal problems in the 60’s, but for all the lows there were some highs. Signing for Atlantic, an inspired 1965 cover of “And I Love Her” (re-titled with a Him) caught the attention of the Beatles, who brought Phillips over to the UK to appear on a special edition of the BBC’s Ready, Steady, Go.

“Home is Where The Hatred Is” was recorded for another new label - the fledgling Kudo - and after yet another spell in rehab. The lyrics lay out a stark tale of the destruction wrought by a lifetime of addiction, a fairly daring subject for an addict (Esther) to tackle, and she later admitted that it was the hardest lyric she’d ever performed.

“Stand as far away from me as you can, and ask me why
Hang on to your rosary beads… close your eyes to watch me die“

But what a performance! Phillips, who has one of the classic expressive soul voices (part Nina Simone, but also fully her own), drew on what was by now a sixteen year battle with drug abuse to put that emotion in every line and syllable. At times her voice seems close to breaking while at others she sounds fiercely defiant.

And it’s not just the vocal performance that makes this one of the most painfully beautiful records ever made. Kudu regarded the signing of Esther as a huge privilege and as such drafted in the finest backing musicians they could assemble. Nowadays people rarely bother to record with real string sections due to cost and the ready availability of fairly decent keyboard versions, but here the strings take the breath away. There are about ten seconds which when I first heard the record (on Coldcut’s seminal Solid Steel radio show) sent shivers down my spine and caused me to rewind and repeat, rewind and repeat, rewind and repeat. As Esther sings “home is where I live inside, my white powder dreams” the strings reply in dramatic defiant fashion, but then as she continues “home was once an empty vacuum, that’s filled now… with my silent screams” they almost scream for her. If I had to pick my all time favourite ten seconds of music this would probably be it. I can’t actually describe how good it is.

The track is best listened to with headphones, or with decent speakers to appreciate the mix which somehow allows every instrument a tiny part of the sound spectrum that is theirs alone. Stereo rarely get used like this any more either, so you get the delicious alto sax of Hank Crawford in the left ear while a trumpet comes in on the right. The arrangement was done by Pee Wee Ellis and the fantastic drums by James Brown’s stickman Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie. From the backing singers and keyboards to the guitars, its like a who’s who of the finest musicians of the era. Nominated for a Grammy in 1972, the album lost out to the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted And Black“. Aretha promptly gave the Grammy to Phillips saying “From A Whisper To A Scream” quite simply deserved it more.

As a student I remember stumbling across a vinyl copy for a ridiculous amount of money in a now long defunct Kentish Town record shop. These were after all the days when some albums were pretty hard to find, or at least harder than typing an artist’s name into Soulseek and then ten minutes later possessing everything they’ve ever recorded. Thankfully in the 1990s the track became more widely available as part of the Blaxploitation compilations and on a fantastic best of the Kudu years CD. If you don’t already own the album or any of these compilations, a tenner will never be better spent.

Delete this MP3 (or record it at a higher quality), chuck everyone out of the house, draw the curtains, turn off the lights and sit in the middle of the speakers and soak up the majesty of this recording. Wonderful!

MP3:

Esther Phillips - “Home Is Where The Hatred Is (MP3)”

Gil Scott Heron - “Home Is Where The Hatred Is (MP3)” - The original version. Is this better than Esther’s version… its close.
Esther Phillips - “Home Is Where The Hatred Is (Paul Nice mix) (MP3)” - From a nice, in fact Paul Nice mix tape.
Anita Lane - “Home Is Where The Hatred Is (MP3)” - cover by Australian singer songwriter. Not sure about this one.
Kanye West feat. Common - “My Way Home (MP3)” - Kanye & Common pick Gil’s pocket with fine results

Buy:

Esther Phillips - “Home Is Where The Hatred Is: The Kudu Years 1971 - 1977″ - Amazon / HMV

Watch:

Esther Phillips - “Just Say Goodbye (YouTube)” - Esther in a fetching cardy

Esther Phillips - “What a Difference a Day Makes (YouTube)” - She is D.I.S.C.O

Much loved and hyped by this blog, and a million others Beirut were due to play their first ever headlining London gig last sunday. Sadly at the last moment an announcement was made:

“the attendant stress of organizing and traveling with a full-blown, 12-person orkestar took its toll. Having put all of his energy into each and every performance, Zach was briefly hospitalized with extreme exhaustion.”

To say I was disappointed is an understatement, especially give the universally glowing reviews given to their support slot a few days previously. The Luminaire did point out that it was only Zach that would be missing, and that the rest of the band would join with support A Hawk & A Hacksaw, but losing your lead singer, main trumpet player, and band leader is pretty much losing the whole band. Get Well soon Zach.

Beirut - “Postcards From Italy (MP3)“

Beirut - “Elephant Gun (MP3)“

Disappointment aside I did at least manage a personal first… sleeping in for a gig. After a week of the hell that is night shift I decided to have a few hours pre-show shut-eye only to wake up half an hour before I was supposed to be there (apologies to those left waiting!).

Thankfully I arrived in time for the hastily drafted in Kid Harpoon, who claimed he’d been chuffed to be asked down to see the band, but a little surprised when a phone call later that became “actually can you perform tonight too?” His surprise was our gain as he won over a crowd busy having a collective sulk over Beirut’s no show.

Pretty melodies combined with a voice that shifted between mellowness, and anger before surprising us all with a falsetto he may have acquired when Justin Hawkins checked in to rehab. The tender “Childish Dreaming” was the standout track, although the line “Why are there white boys shedding blood on the news?” had me checking my ticket to see I hadnt stumbled into a Skrewdriver gig in my sleepy haze. As the song finished he quickly backtracked explaining that he’d got the lyrics mixed up and that it the line should have been “Why are there children shedding blood on the news?”… that was the racist version he joked.

An excellent cover of Leonard Cohen’s “First We Take Manhattan” closed his short set, leaving me eager to hear more.

Kid Harpoon - “First We Take Manhattan (MP3)“

Kid Harpoon - “Childish Dreaming (MP3)“

I was going to post the original Leonard Cohen “First We Take Manhattan” but after downloading I absolutely hated it (terrible production). So until I’ve time to better educate myself in the ways of Leonard here’s a another cracking cover of one of his songs:

Antony & The Johnsons - “The Guests (Live in Sevilla) (MP3)“

And so to the now headlining A Hawk & A Hacksaw (AHAAH), how could they possibly recreate their complex Balkan folk sound live with only Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost on stage? The answer appeared to be by strapping all the instruments to Jeremy’s body! From head to toe he’s a one man band, starting with a hat covered in bells, an accordion, a stick strapped to his knee for cowbell bashing, and a selection of drums for his feet… oh and he sings too. Heather backed him up with strings, and vocals.

Its difficult to tell sometimes where AHAAH end and where Beirut begin, they share members as well as that gypsy influence in their sound. AHAAH tend towards more instrumentals, although the anti-war chant of “Portlandtown” was excellent. The numbers and noise levels were further swelled when most of Beirut joined the pair on stage for the remaining set, and two encores.

“we’re a band of the people… so we’re going to end playing in the people“

With that they spread out into the crowd, leaving just two members on stage. The grinning faces in the audience as the the band cajoled them into singing along were in contrast to the glum ones before the gig started. AHAAH almost made us forget what we’d missed out on… well almost… ultimately the disappointment of not seeing Beirut couldn’t fail to overshadow and slightly sour this otherwise fine show.

A Hawk & A Hacksaw - “Portlandtown (MP3)“

Read: Three Pink Monkeys provide the in depth review I’ve been too busy to do. Essential.
Drowned in Sound gave the night 9 out of 10.

Back in Blighty after an all too short week in NYC. I came, I saw, I ate my own body weight in Popeye Chicken and Peanut Butter.
As this is supposed to be a music blog I usually try to steer clear of the “Today I went shopping, here’s an MP3 of the Pet Shop Boys “S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G” type posts. Sadly I haven’t listened to any new music for over a week now, so shamelessly its time for “Last Week I went to NYC, here’s an MP3 of the Pet Shop Boys “New York City Boys“

MP3: Beastie Boys - “An Open Letter to New York City” (MP3)

Amateur Night at the Apollo

Fantastic stuff, and the unexpected highlight of the trip. Wednesday’s Amateur night has been a fixture at the legendary venue since 1934, with everyone from Billie Holiday to Alicia Keys braving the raucous crowd. I spent most of the day undecided over whether to go, but an hour before the curtain raised I took a punt on it being a good night, and handed over my 24 dollars.
The atmosphere was superb with the locals out in force and a smattering of wide eyed tourists. Ray Chew and his house band started by well and truly warming up the venue. He bantered and took the mickey out of the crowd, sang, pitted the women against the men, and plucked unfortunates from the audience for a entertaining dance off. The band laid down a beat, and on Ray’s count 6 contestants had to shake their rump with as much funk as they could summon. A 12 year old girl, and a 50 year old bloke were impressive, others less so, but the winner was a granny who must have been 60+ but suddenly on the beat of a drum morphed into Beyonce. The crowd not for the last time were on their feet hollering as she… well I believe the terminology is “well and truly worked her booty”.

Next up Capone, comedian and main host of the night took over with the amateurs waiting nervously in the wings. From the off he slayed the audience, instantly putting down any hecklers with a razor sharp wit. Over the course of the evening more than a dozen amateur acts rubbed the lucky tree stump fearful of both the audience and a ruthless mocking from Capone (this is after all a venue that booed Luther Vandross off 4 times).
The performers ranged from rappers, dance troupes, pianists, diva’s, and acapella vocalists giving plenty of variety and material for the crowd and Capone to get their teeth into. At the slightest sign of weakness booing would quickly swell, sometimes countered by cheering from more appreciative parts of the crowd, while on stage the performer desperately tried to hold it together amid the noise. Should the boo’s get too loud a siren would start up and out swirled another Apollo institution “The Executioner” C.P Lacey dressed perhaps as a policeman ready to arrest, or a cleaner whirling on broom in hand ready to sweep the “rubbish” off the stage.
An unfortunate rapper who was the wrong side of 30 (maybe 40) was yanked off stage and mercilessly mocked by Capone for having his shirt open at his age, questioning exactly how old you had to be before you gave up and took a factory job. Another hapless loser had his own song reworked and reworded in a brilliant parody. The audience were probably as important as the acts, friends and family of the performers were on their feet yelling encouragement often incurring the good natured wrath of Capone. A church group were labelled as gangster Christians, while Hispanic and in particular an African family were impersonated (I’m not sure a white comedian would have gotten away with some of the voice impressions).

At the end of evening those that made it through in one piece were put before the crowd one by one, and a noise meter judged the winner according to how much noise was made for each one. I shouted myself horse for the singer who ended up third, with the winner a very lanky white lady who performed an admittedly cracking version of a Whitney tune. A massive dance troop roared on by half their church in the crowd scooped second place.

Quite simply the best 24 dollars I spent in America. If you visit get down to Harlem.

Listen to a facinating BBC 1xtra documentary on Amateur night at the Apollo here.

MP3: James Brown - “I’ll Go Crazy (Live @ The Apollo)” (MP3)

Hush Hip Hop tours

If my trip had been Tennessee rather than NYC, I’d have visited country music haunts and Dollyworld, so while in New York - birth place of hip hop it seemed only natural to explore a little bit of musical heritage. On the recommendation of a friend and fellow 30 something honkey old school hip hop anorak I took a “Legends of Hip Hop Hush tour” of Harlem. I’d wanted to do the 4 hour Saturday bus tour of the Bronx, Manhattan and Harlem, but unfortunately it finished a bit to close to the time of my flight home to risk it.
In common with the longer tour the 2 hour Harlem walk features a tour guide who was actively involved in early hip hop. Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush brothers, DJ Red Alert and the man credited with inventing Hip Hop Kool Herc are all regular guides on the tour. Its luck of the draw who you get, and so careering to the New York Museum 10 minutes late for the start of the tour I met Rahiem of Funky Four plus one, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five fame who was in the process of phoning us in as a no show.

Rahiem turned out to be a friendly, and engaging guide even if his love and first hand knowledge of hip hop was occasionally sidetracked by his equal admiration for the female form. “Damn look at that girl”, “Whooah oh my god” he’d exclaim as he watched or stopped to chat to a shapely local. You only need to look at his hilariously bootilicious Myspace friend list to see he dedicates as much time to the ladies as he does to hip hop history, but as he pleaded in his defence “I’m sorry, what can I say I’m a single man”.

The short tour is slightly handicapped by the fact that hip hop started in the Bronx, but Harlem is still home to much from 30 plus years of hip hop heritage. The tour begins in the museum and an exhibition of black fashion from the 60’s through MC Hammer to the current stars. After that we move on to a school playground where kids are playing tag football against a back drop of the Graffiti Hall of Fame, which unfortunately had been vandalised. Each year the leading lights in the graffiti world such as the Tats Krew repaint the schoolyard walls. As we meander through the streets of Harlem, Rahiem recounts tales of the early years from video shoots, Kool Herc’s 1973 groundbreaking party to explaining how early block parties were powered by tapping the street lamps. Moving up past Bill Clinton offices - jokingly referred to the first president of Black America - to Bobby’s Happy House record store, owned by Bobby Robinson of Enjoy Records. As Rahiem explained how import Bobby had been to him, showing faith and releasing his first record, unbeknownst to him a white haired Robinson appeared with shopping trolley shooing one of the tour out of his way so he could enter the shop.
Just up the road there’s Malcolm X’s mosque, and a Conway store (a bit like Primark) formally the Harlem World club, that gave birth and a name to the areas hip-hop and r&b scene. Like all musical tours, this is more than just an explanation of the particular genre, its also a history of immigration, poverty, race, and religion.

All that remained were a few cheesy hip hop posed photos with Rahiem, and he was on his way, leaving me to look forward to taking the full tour next time i’m in NYC.

MP3:

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - “Superappin’” (MP3)

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - “Streets Of New York (MP3)“

Ellis Island

More than just an excuse to post my favourite Ellis Island Soundsystem remix (off their classic debut album) Ellis Island was a fascinating and surprisingly moving trip. Sailing past the Statue of Liberty its impossible not to imagine the emotions of millions of immigrants for whom it was the first sight of a new land they were to make their home. A free tour by an engaging Ranger eloquently gave an impression of what it must have been like in the grand hall where processing took place. Displays of the possessions of some of the immigrants, and recordings of some that actually made the journey made for an afternoon that should really have been a day to properly take in all there was to see.

MP3: Ellis Island Soundsystem - “Ocean Spray (Ellis Island Soundsystem remix) (MP3)“

I didn’t make it to the Dakota Building or the Strawberry Fields memorial, but on getting back I dug out this odd track from someone who scanned the radio stations on the night he was killed. An interesting listen that takes me back to when as a child I went through to my parents bedroom to find my mum in floods of tears at the news.

MP3: “New York Radio scan the night Lennon died (MP3)”

Matson Jones - “New York City Fuck Off (MP3)”

Failed to see a single gig while I was there despite New York hosting the CMJ Music festival all week. Those kind people at Apple did however give me a card for 100 free downloads of CMJ artists. Now if only I could work out how to get a US itunes account?!?!