To celebrate the end of the week here's a jaunty little blues number from Charles Brown taken from a CD (what else?) that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. If you like your blues you'll I reckon love this track but the whole album's well worth a spin, especially the tracks featuring none other than the Night Tripper himself, Dr John.
PS: Good luck to all those who'll be queuing up for Record Store Day releases overnight. I hope you get what you want. Have a quick flick through the CD racks when you're there though, you might bag a bargain or six.
If I posted every video about the CD revival that keeps popping up on a daily...perhaps even hourly...basis now I'd probably break the internet. So I'll limit myself to a few of the best and this one takes a more nostalgic/counter cultural (yes, really, CDs are counter culture now...it's official) look at the reasons why more and more people are going 'back to the future'. This dude makes a lot of sense but be warned, if you haven't yet fallen for CDs charms there's a fair chance you will after watching this vid.
I'm currently reading Digby Fairweather's hugely entertaining account of accompanying George Melly on his last few tours and album sessions and was amazed to read that Van Morrison popped along to lend his vocals to a couple of tracks on George's last album. He didn't ask for a penny though (despite having to travel to the studio and stay overnight in a hotel) and even took out the whole band for a slap up meal afterwards. What a Van-tastic thing to do eh?
Picked up another great haul of CDs over the weekend including a mint (appropriately enough) copy of the Wondermints' debut album, cleverly entitled Wondermints. If you're a lover of 60s/80s tinged power pop it's a must have, with echoes of The Beatles and Beach Boys and their spiritual offspring The La's and Stone Roses, all whipped up to create a much underrated modern classic. Whilst their own career hasn't yet scaled the dizzy heights it should have they went on to become Brian Wilson's backing band, so I'm guessing they're...ahem...all minted now.
This cheerful little ditty's a track of two halves. The first bit's a little folky and then, at around 4 minutes 30 seconds, it starts to rock harder than granite. One to play loud when the neighbours are out...unless you don't like your neighbours...in which case, crack on.
Yet another festival bites the dust. This time it’s a local
one to us, Let’s Rock Exeter, which has been held at Powderham Castle for the
past decade or so. We’d been to the last seven and saw some great acts but the
last couple of years it was clear that the organisers were struggling. Fewer
bands, higher ticket prices, outrageous prices at the bar (which also went
cashless…a bit of a problem for me as I only use cash) and far too much ‘filler’…a
two-hour DJ ‘battle’ ain’t entertainment in my book…and ever more stupid rules
about what you could bring in to the site, all took the shine off the day. With
independent venues all struggling to survive too the future of the live music
scene looks pretty dire right now, unless you’re Taylor Swift and her ilk who’ll no doubt carry
on playing bigger and bigger stadiums until, eventually, the whole of
Manchester will just be one bloody massive arena. What’s the cause of it all?
Rising costs, endless spools of red tape, a lack of enough truly great new bands, far too
many ‘channels’ diluting the audience (meaning that fewer people get to know
about the acts that really matter, think back to when there were just a few TV and
radio stations, even your gran will have known who Joy Division were…maybe)
and, quite possibly, a growing number of people who simply can’t be bothered to
get off their wobbly arses to go to anything anymore. What’s the answer? There
isn’t one. Get out and watch stuff while you still can, otherwise before long most
of what’s left of the live music scene will be as dead as variety theatre. What’s
that I hear you say? Exactly.
PS: Just a final thought. How do The Levellers make
Beautiful Days viable every year? No sponsorship, no corporate bullshit, proper
cider at £5.50 a pint, decent bands, clean(ish) toilets…and you can take your
own food and booze in too. Surprise, surprise, it sells out every year as well.
Other festival organisers take note.
Picked up some Blues CDs at the weekend, gave one of them a spin last night and this track hit the spot, despite (or maybe because of) being a mere 85 years old. As the very informative booklet pointed out, the guitar solo sounds pretty modern for such a vintage track...Buddy brilliant.
