A few good times in my life
A few days ago the re-release of The Poems 2006 album Young Americans arrived at my place exactly when JC featured them on his series of Saturday's Scottish Song. The Poems were another band from Glasgow that made great pop songs. I like them because of their folk inspired songs and the beautyful voice of Kerry Polwart. The best music to cure me from a bad cold I have since a few days
There are bands you can trust to their sound for years. One of those are Bardo Pond, a psychedelic rock band from Philadelphia in 1991. Their earliest root lay with avant-garde noisemakers and New York's no wave movement. During the years they developed their sound into space rock but added their Hawkwind inspired sound with early krautrock like Amon Düül and experimental giants like My Bloody Valentine and Spaceman 3. Since 2000 they've released a numerically titled series of improvisation sessions in addition to their studio albums. Before is from their album Volume 1 and this song could be played on every live show by Mogwai.
Bardo Pond - Before
A few days ago I posted the first song from the forthcoming album by Michael Head and that made my decision easy to play some other albums by him. So I came back to Shack's in 2003 released album ...Here's Tom With The Weather. Shack was the band after he packed up with The fabulous Pale Fountains. He is one of those singer/songwriter that can make a great song by a simple one and this is shown on this album in a very good way. Echorich commented my post with the words possibly in UK, greatest songwriter and there is nothing more to say.
Shack - As Long As I Got You
Shack - Meant To Be
During the years he turned more and more into New Orleans sound where he found his musical home. Blues music with swampy roots became his trademark. I saw him several times live and the last concert was close to his death in 2009. He was stamped by pancreatic cancer and walked on stage with a walking stick to sit on a barstool smoking lots of cigarettes during the gig. But I was impressed about his phsysical presence during the concert. He played a lot of songs from his musical career in a wise I never heard before and after. With his passing 13 years ago we lost one of the greatest underrated artists.
Kismet is a synonym for a lot assigned to man by God, which he cannot escape but it is also the title of a new song by Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band. The first one he released from his forthcoming album Dear Scott that will be released end of May this year. Michael Head is one of those artists I follow during the last decades whatever he do or with the bands he was playing. From the start with The Pale Fountains over to legendary Shack and The Strand it seems he found his aim with The Red Elastic Band. With every band he was able to release great and timeless songs, well arranged and ones that never go out of fashion. I expect nothing groundbreaking by him - just another album of a couple of songs that I enjoy coming back from time to time.
In 1992 Ride released their first album Nowhere not knowing that they made their masterpiece. It was an album that stamped a genre. After this release shoegaze was in every ones mouth. I never could get firm with this genre because it had a somber mood in it's name. For me Ride wrote some of the best songs in the early 90's- Of course their songs are introspective but they all have a positive attitude. The main figure behind Ride was Andy Bell who formed this formidable band in 1988 in Oxford. Listening to their songs after a longer time again you can see the beauty in their songs. And also you can hear a lot of influences of post-punk era. Howling guitars, psychedelic moments, claiming bass-lines and the vocal harmonies by Andy Bell and Mark Gardener are the floor of great songs. If you need a few albums from this era - Nowhere should be one of them.
Ride - Vapour Trail
Ride - Paralysed
The late grunge shaman Mark Lanegan would have liked King Hannah's dark and world-weary gothic Americana music. Hannah Merrick, the songwriter of Liverpool's King Hannah reminds me of Hope Sandoval the voice of Mazzy Star a band that was featured almost 20 years ago for their introspective reduced blues sound. Hannah is the one who brings back the slow and reduced sound to nowadays music. It is of course not new or groundbreaking but a kind of music you can listen to and drift away.
Foolish Caesar could a have been appeared on any album by Bristol trip-hop album decades ago. A Well-Made Woman is one of those dark-noir blues songs a lot of band would die for. Their new album I Am Not Sorry, I Just Being Me is a dark beauty and one of those releases that can stand the time and probably will appear in several year's end list.
