Today's song was originally released in 1969 as the B-side of Fleetwood Mac's single 'Man of the World' and covered in 1978 by the nearly forgotten Scotish punk and new wave band The Rezillos. I think the song should be featured again because it is still awesome.
It's just another lazy day on the beach after we had a spontanous party yesterday. Nothing more to do than to reed some novels I wanted to read since several weeks or to hang around with the staff of my favourite beachbar. They told me a few more words in their language so that I am not only used to look out for someone who is able to speak English. It is 3 p.m. and I decided to have another beer while I write this post. Fantastic to sit here in the shade getting cooled by a refreshing breeze from the sea watching the blue and green water and listening to the sound of the waves. That is what I call recreation and it will get me the power to manage the things that Ihave to do in the next n´months.
Today's song comes from The Singing Loins another underrated band from the 90s. But our old hero Billy Childish had more than one ear for them. If you want to know how they sound - here's a short excerpt from their homepage:
The Loins' song
writing was steeped in the British & European traditions of Punk, Folk, Music
Hall, Character, Chorus, Cabaret, Melodrama & Buffoonery. Singing
tales of underdogs, suicides, circus freaks, the bereaved, frustrated and
heart-broken, the washed up and mentally ill. Ever enduring
outsiders, it’s likely they were the world’s longest serving, truly
amateur, original musical group. They were certainly the fucking best. Now the history lesson....Brod and Arf started The Loins as a raw, stripped down acoustic duo
in 1990 and soon had Medway legend Billy Childish in their corner. He
recorded their first two albums live in his bathroom onto a mono Revox tape
machine and released them on his Hangman label. These savage rarities are
now swapping hands for big dollars on EBay and are often quoted as major
influences by young purveyors of punk/folk. After a couple more self-released
albums and a great album with Billy Childish called ‘At The Bridge’ they
split in 1999. After a 6 year lay-off they shook hands and returned in 2005
with a triumphant comeback album, ‘Songs To Hear Before You Die’, and the
same year were joined by Rob Shepherd, who played junk shop banjo and
mandolin on their 2007 album, ’The Drowned Man Resuscitator’. Johnny Bass
then joined the party on 2009's 'Unravelling
England', 2011's 'Stuff' and 2012's '...here on earth'.
These days are very less tourists at this place. Season will continue for another 3 or 4 weeks and then it willbe over. Some people bought praperty in Mirissa and one of them are French. Really nice people and a little freaked out as well. Yesterday we celebrated the last evening for Anna, because she leaves today back to France with a good dinner and some Arrack. This morning we met at our local beach bar for breakfast. While there wasn't any other gues around I took the chance to play some dub reggea to comfort our breakfast. And soon the bar filled up with some locals and tourists.
This song is a cover from one of the best New Wave band from the US: Martha and the Muffins.
If you wonder why I didn't post throughout the last days it is easy: I took two weeks off to get a clear mind again and sort my thoughts - too much happend the last weeks. So I took the chance to go to Sri Lanka again because I was invited to a wedding. I would like to present a local rockabilly band but I didn't found a band here in Sri Lanka playing this kind of music. So enjoy this 2:00 minutes of instrumental rockabilly instead. I don't know anything about this band exept the were on a very good compilation of instrumental rockabilly called 'Killer Rhythms & Red Hot Cars'.
Steely Dan were always a band I liked very much all over the years and all over the music that I was in at these years. Praise hymns were sung about this group enough, so I want to give you a song from one of their best records Aja, which has everything that made them famous. A great melody, superb guitars and the voice of Donald Fagen all together perfectly arranged.
Twanging Tuesday is back after a short break with a track from Ricky Nelson. Not only that he made some great records he was also seen in movies (mostly western movies I think). Believe what you say has everything a rockabilly tune should have.
Back in the late 70s when punk started my local record dealer recommended me a classic blues record. I thought by myself what the hell is he doing. I started to explore new music and he showed me George Thorogood?? When he has put on then the record and I have heard the first tones I was inspired all of a suddenly. Never heard this songs with such a power and enthusiasm. The next word I spoke was 'This record is mine'. If Mark Knopfler is called the Sultan of Swing I will call George Thorogood the Satan of Slide.
In view of the fact that we had undertaken no bigger trip last year we started this year with another trip to India. This time we wanted to explore the north or Rajastahn or maybe known as the land of the kings. Located in the north-east of India it is famous for its palaces and the great Thar Dessert. We knew that there less infrastructure in this part of India so we hired in Mumbai a taxi driver to take us for a 18 day round trip. And after all it was the best election we could make. Fixing a price a day that included everything made it easy to calculate and we didn't have to watch out a taxi driver any day. We told him about what kind of lodgings we expect and he picked out everything fine. Of course we knew that he get commission to bring us to this lodgings. It was a very easy way to travel through this country, sitting in the back of the old Amassador cars with no air-condition. It was fantastic to visit all the forts and palaces in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Udaipur. We were highly impressed by Pushkar, a small town with a small holy lake for the Hindus. Once a year hundreds of traders assemble in this town around to sell their camels. It's impressive to see thousands of camels often painted and ready to sell. We had great fun walking through this crowd, sitting down to some traders drinking tea and smoking some cigarettes. Another experience will also remain to us always in recollection. It is when we spent one night in the desert. We arranged that someone took us out in the dunes in the very late afternoon just before sundown. These were two impressions which remain unforgettable: The absolute silence and the cold at night. How glad we were when a boy came next morning to bring us a hot cup of tea.
The records impressed me also this year:
The Arcade Fire - Funeral: Fine Indie Rock from Canada
Tocotronic - Pure Vernunft darf niemals sterben: Another great record from one of Germany's best band
Hard-Fi - Stars on CCTV: Sounds like back in the late 70s
The White Stripes - Get behind me Satan: Maybe their masterpiece
Element of Crime - Mittelpunkt der Welt: Another great German record
LCD Soundsystem - same: Great track galore
Marcus Miller - Silver Rain: Perfect fusion sound
The Dead 60s - same: Perfect combination of punk, ska, dub and reggae
Paul Weller - As is now: Another great record of the modfather
Wolfmother - same: The return of Black Sabbath
Some of this years songs that stood the test of time:
Just a short look into the cinema in 2005:
Brokeback Mountain: The other side of western
Capote: Seymoure Hoffmann at his best
Walk the Line: Fantastic biopic about the life of Johnny Cash
Sin City: Sensational
Fever Pitch: Fantastic novel - great movie
Some notes from the rest of the world
Another stampede during a religious pilgrimage kills more than 250 people in India // ETA is bombing in Madrid again // North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons // Pope John Paul II dies // You Tube is launched // Massive rain in Mumbai, India with nearly 40 inches in 24 hours // Bloody civil war in Chad is starting
Von Spatzen und Tauben, Dächern und Händen (From sparrows and pigeons, roofs and hands) is a real top album. There is nothing in it to turn. "After you and how many of your friends" the measuring pole was extremely high. Kettcar has done justice to the expectations. Nevertheless, according to my personal opinion this album is even better than the predecessor. It begins with the song Deiche (dykes) a powerful song with great guitars and the magnificent sentence 'Only becaus one has got used to it, is not brilliant normal' and furthermore there are wonderful songs which act from the truthfulness of the love like of mentioning 48 Stunden (48 hours), Balu und Nacht (night).
Kettcar have packed me like for a long time nobody more. I keep this album for the best German-speaking album for many years has found accomodation. To handle their kind with the German has completely inspired me. They tell these small magic stories are able to grow in the head to novels where own cinema runs off, go down in the demimonde between dream and reality. Simply great!
No weak point can be discovered. This album develops a magic them is fantastic. Musically you sum up everything, the beat comes if he must come, the piano puts accents where to one more accent is absent, the guitars bring everything home like it must be a gigantic praise, smaller fine guitar rock pop in the best best way Dirk Darmstaedter used to do it. Kettcar simply didn't do anything wrong on this record.
I think a lot of you people out there are waiting for my daily post. So please don't be too sad when I am not able to do this right now. There are too many things that has to be done and I don't find the time to write some posts.
Today I want to introduce a German band that made Hip Hop with German lyrics famous. It was back in the very late 80s when me and my mate went to the local youth club to see a brand new German Rap band live. We decided to go there because of some good reviews about their gigs in some underground newspaper. Astonished that there were only 50 people around we what will happen. Then four guys entered the stage and did an awesome concert. Not really sure if we should believe or not - rapping in German works very well. If this early concert didn't represent their later abilities we knew that they could be something great. It was one of my first concerts ever a band used to have a DJ working on the turntables. In this time they combined fantastic samples with a steady beat and some kind of rock music. A short time later they entered the charts with their first hit single Die da, a story about a girl that has only time for her boyfriend one day a week (the other days she's out with other boyfriends). Most of their later records reached high numbers in the charts. Their abilities of playing unplugged was shown by MTV when they filmed an appearance live in a cave in northern Germany.
Enjoy and have a good weekend, wherever you may stay
It's another week ahead all you out there. But I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel. Just seven working days and I'll be off for two weeks in Sri Lanka. Can't say if it fits me the way it should but I look forward to 14 days relaxing with friends and family. So keep on keeping on what ever you do and what ever you expect. I am with you all.
Another sunny Sunday with a clear blue sky in Southern Germany. Nothing planed so we decided to go to a wellness lounge a few towns away. Sitting inside the hot cabin sweating out the whole stuff makes me feel so well. While I sit there sweating I can think about nearly everything and often I get out with a clearer mind. There were some decisions to make these days and so I hope I get something done. Todays track is from a British DJ team that made a couple of very good records all over the years. I like this great bass line and the way they produced this songs.
This year we had the chance to go to Hawaii but we missed it. Christianes sister married there and we were invited. But for several reasons we couldn't take the chance. First one was that I changed my job in my office to become a risk controller in the bank and we changed on a new operating system were I was hardly integrated just at the day of her marriage. The second one was that Christiane started a new job at the time of wedding as well. So we decided not to travel for a few days around the world and sent our best wishes to them. In fact of our busy working we took just a few weeks to go to Mallorca in early summer. The weather wasn't that bad but every time we started a little journey into the hillside it started to rain. So we spent a lot of time in the local pubs to watch the UEFA EURO with some British guys. All in all a year with no very big highlights but a year of relaxed going on.
Some records that made fun this year.
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand: Great Indie-rock from Glasgow
Interpol - Antics: Indie-Rock as well from over the Atlantic ocean
Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Loves Bad News: Fantastic music in the tradition of Pavement, Pixies and Meat Puppets
Morrissey - You are the Quarry:
Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days: Just good songs
Melissa Auf der Maur - Auf der Maur: Mostly overseen rock album
Velvet Revolver - Contraband: One of the best hard rock records of the decade
Four Tet - Late Night Tales: Fantastic remixes
Some songs from this year that are worth to be played again:
And that's what we've been seeing in the movies:
The Aviator: Great Scorsese movie about Howard Hughes
Million Dollar Baby: Another good drama from Clint Eastwood
Ray: Great biopic about the life of Ray Charles
The Motorcycle Diaries: Good to see the young Che Guerva riding
Head-On: Very emotional drama about the life of Turks and Germans
Hellboy: It's a cute little devil
Shaun of the Dead: Zombies could be funny
Let's take a little look what happended in the world:
251 pilgrims were killed by a Hajj stampede in Mina // Rebellion in Haiti and Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president // Terrorist bombing in the Madrid railways kills 191 people // The start of banning smoke in working places, pubs and bars starts with laws in Ireland // North Korea bans mobile phones // Greece wins the UEFA-EURO in Portugal (what a shame, that defense can win against playing forward) // Armed robbers steal Edward Munchs the Scream in Oslo.
What one must hold of Morrissey, the cover already betrays: there Morrissey poses as a tastefully dressed dandy with machine gun – he embodies exactly this ambivalence also in excellent manner. You are the quarry connects demanding, melodic and minor-heavy guitar-rock/pop with political lyrics, to big gestures and a pinch Morrissey like megalomania: He sings "I have forgiven Jesus", and this points in which class he sees himself and to whom he has to prove here something else. In addition this striking and warm voice – this carefully produced and on no account stale album completely gets by without gap fountain pen and stands out anyway from the mass product in rock and pop, but why also the "old people" should leave the field without a fight to the "boys"? Maybe also, therefore, the machine gun, or he has reloaded only for his critics? My favorite:„ Also it is for ridge of the way to them“ – subversively about weapons.
It was in 1968 as an Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay founded a group in Cologne which had a lasting influence on the following generations of musicians. Both had their musical education by the avantgarde musician Karlheinz Stockhausen who learned them thinking in new forms. Originally they took up the thought of the free jazz and tried to create about improvisations a new sound. The fact that they should immediately create a landmark in the history of music with her first album was not to be seen. You can describe their music as a mixture of Krautrock and Psychedelic. The whole story of Can could be seen here. I was introduced to their music in the early 70s by an older friend. When I first listened to their song I was very confused, because this kind of music I didn't used to hear. But the more I listened to their music the more I learned about the structure of the songs. Can was one of the first bands that combined constantly recurring beats with improvisations of a subject like one it knows from the jazz area. Their musical legacy was inspiration for so many different kind of bands like Joy Division, The Fall, PIL and many other bands from the punk and new wave era and bands like Talking Heads, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses as well.
Not much time right now for longer posts. So here's some cowpunk from the early 80s. It's from Rank and File, with the great guitar played by Alejandro Escovedo (what a name!).
Another tune from the great Gene Vincent that makes me satisfy. Sometimes I could hear his songs in a row and sometimes they are out of my mind. Race with the devil is one of the songs that should be played more in the times when it was released. Enjoy the song and have a good time.
It was a sad day for my favorite team in the Bundesliga. We have a good team with very good players but they don't get their feet on the ground. It's a discussion rising about the the team manager right now. And I think it's not talking about the manager it's about the mental situation about the players. Anyway it's not the end and if we go the second league we'll have to go. If it get's real then I'll watch them games on Monday.
Yesterday was one of those days I had one drink too much and now I fight against my headache. But I think that we all have to stand these situations after having a good evening. This classic from Kris Kristofferson is a live collaboration with the guitarist and singer Steve Earl.
The worries we made about what happened two years ago vanished in normal life. We used to live like nothing happened before and stored it in another file. So me and Christiane decided to take our next step an buy an apartment closer to the main city of our little town. We prepared everything for the move and the day before it should take place Christiane got a lighted appendix. So we had to do the move without her advices and finished it in time. Later this year we started for a longer trip to Thailand. Also a place I haven't been before. We did it close to our trip to India and traveled the country from north to south in local buses or trains. This yourney might be the reason why I am so addicted to South East Asia. Not only the people that are most friendly and helpful it is also the scenery, vegetation and meals. And these countries makes it easy to me to recreate and load up my battery. What else do you need sometimes more than sitting with a cold beer and a lovely woman by your side at pretty beach watching the sundown?
Another year with very good records:
Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood: 4 brothers bring us back classic rock
The White Stripes - Elephant: It's the record I noticed them
Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress: Another album with great songs
The Rapture - Echoes: Dance punk at it's best
Calexico - Feast of Wire: Their next one on high level
Ben Harper - Diamonds on the Inside: Fantastic songs
The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love: Simply great
Warren Zevon - The Wind: See my words below
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore: His legacy
Sons and Daughters - Love the Cup: Superb Scottish music
And songs as well:
And as ever - some remarkable movies:
Mystic River: Great story and a fantastic Sean Penn
Monster: Charlize Theron shows us the darkest sides
Cold Mountain: Wonderful western according to the novel
Love Actually: One of the every years christmas movies
Bend it like Beckham: Nice story about women and football
Once Upon a Time in Mexico: Classic drama
Kill Bill 1.: The revenge of the bride
What happened in the world and was necessary to recall:
Another African Drama: The war in Dafur begins // Global protest against the Iraq war // The Indonesian military starts a operation in the Aceh province // A lot of east European countries join the European Union // The Concorde makes his last commercial flight // Saddam Hussein is captured at the end of the year.
Once more it was hard to decide which record I should feature on this series. The record that touched me most emotional was Warren Zevon's The Wind. Not because it was his last one. He recorded it while he was sick of lung cancer and he told us in his words to say good bye. I'll feature this record in another series these days. So let's go to todays record. It is probably one of the best debut albums in the last decade. British Sea Power brought us back the spirit of Post Punk, New Wave and Independent Rock. Based on the best of Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and early Pixies they give us a full load of wonderful guitars. Most songs has catchy rhythms and the singer fits to all the songs. Beneath songs with heavy leading guitars shines the febrile hymn The Lately that ends in organized chaos.
The list of German musicians that could be measured as a real superstar is not very long. One of them is for sure Marius Müller-Westernhagen. He started his career in the late 70s as an actor. As a side project he started at the same time singing. His early records were more inspired by French chansons and the tradition of German songwriter. Mostly intimate stories about his life but sung with his very own voice. His first records were totally commercial flops. His career started as he played an West German underdog located in the central Germany. Always without money trying to make his dream as a truck driver real. And this image he transported on his first successful record Mit Pfefferminz bin ich dein Prinz. Songs like the title track and Dicke had a big airplay and you could them hear in many pubs. He kept this image for the rest of his career although everyone knew that he was a millionaire. His music is not spectacular: It's that old and simple Rhythm and Blues thing played with high class session musicians and arranged perfectly. He got famous with his ballads which hit the spirit of the time. Nevertheless, it's good to hear something from him time by time.
