Welcome To The North

This will be my last post for a few days because as of tomorrow i’m off to Newcastle for the weekend. I’m due back in Glasgow at sometime on the Sunday night and then i’m off to see Maybeshewill play at Stereo this Monday night. So i’ve got a busy few days ahead.

I was due to go see Crocodiles play this Saturday in The Captains Rest. I bought my ticket ages ago, way before the Newcastle trip had been arranged. Obviously i won’t be able to make it now but fortunately i managed to find a taker for it. Chris is going in my place, he knows a few other folk going along anyway so he won’t have to do what i usually do when i go to The Captains Rest and stand on his lonesome! Seriously, out of the last 5 gigs i’ve went to in The Captains Rest i’ve had to go to 4 on my own! The only time i’ve had company there in the last few months was when Luisa came to see Wild Nothing play there with me. Wild Nothing co-incidentally are playing @ The Arches real soon. My ticket’s already sorted.

Anyway as i said Chris has taken my Crocodiles ticket. I’ve asked him to gimme a review of it and i might stick it up here. All depends on how drunk he gets!

Here’s some Crocodiles and Wild Nothing to get your teeth into….

When i come back from Newcastle on Sunday night it’ll be straight to bed so i’m fully fit and not tired for the Monday and the Maybeshewill gig. If their gig is even as half as good as the last time they played here in June (at The Admiral Bar) then it will be an amazing night.

Looks like i’ll be going to see Maybeshewill on my own as well. I’ve asked a few folk but so far there are no certainties. Even my flat mate can’t make it along cos he’s going to see Hurts play on Monday night. I hate when good gigs clash. I’d love to see Hurts live again but when it comes down to it my loyalties lie firmly in Maybeshewill’s camp. The gig venues aren’t far apart so i suppose at the very least we can grab a few pre and post gig drinks together. Fingers crossed i find a Maybeshewill gig companion though.

I’ll be back posting on Tuesday. I’ve got a lot of new music i want you to hear and a few cool ideas for posts and new sections i plan on introducing next month. I’ve also been meaning to get a review of the excellent new acoustic EP by Ex-Libra’s up. Cut(s) was released at the beginning of the month. It’s mind blowingly haunting. Full review will follow sometime next week.

I’ve posted this video before but i could watch and listen over and over and over and over………

Take it easy

S.I.T Wolf  X

Undercover With The Deftones

Two weeks ago i bought my ticket for the Deftones. They’re playing the Glasgow Academy on the 12th of November. I’ve seen them every time they have visited these shores since around 2002. If they’ve played Glasgow i’ve been there. Obviously it’s been a while since their last visit here. One of the main reasons being the serious car accident involving bassist Chi Cheng in November 2008. If you would like to know the full story or even donate money to help the stricken bassist then go on over to oneloveforchi.

Deftones returned to our ears with a new album in May this year and after having a good few months of listening to it i’m ready to hear it live. I’m sure they’ll play the majority of the album but they’ll also play some oldies which i’m really looking forward to. I love hearing the likes of “Around The Fur” and “My Own Summer” live, they still sound fresh after all these years.

But the point of this post was to get some Deftones cover tracks up. Deftones have recorded a massive variety of covers since their formation in 1988. They’ve tackled everything from new romantic pop (Duran Duran) through to thrash metal (Slayer) amd everything and anything else inbetween. I’ve got most of them on my hard-drive.

Here’s a few personal favourites….

MP3: Deftones – Jealous Guy (John Lennon cover)

MP3: Deftones – Drive (The Cars cover)

MP3: Deftones – Wax and Wane (Cocteau Twins cover)

MP3: Deftones – The Chauffer (Duran Duran cover)

MP3: Deftones – Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths cover)

There’s a whole bundle of live covers on YouTube, my two favourites though have always been these two…

Here’s the original versions on MP3 if anybody wants to download them.

MP3: Weezer – Say It Ain’t So

MP3: The Cure – If Only Tonight We Could Sleep

The band have been the subject of many a cover themselves by lots of different artists and styles. One of the most intriguing is the String Quartet version of “RX Queen”. I have a lot of the String Quartet tribute albums and CD’s lying around, they’re mostly compilations i’ve made including covers of my favourite bands. I’ll do a post on the String Quartet sometime in the near future.

I’m really looking forward to their Glasgow show.

S.I.T Wolf  X

Live @ Eclecticity 2010 Parts 3 and 4

So finally, finally, eventually, at last i get to post the remaining two parts of the Live @ Eclecticity set.

No explaining is needed really, they just carry on from parts 1 and 2 respectively. You may notice that part 4 is more “popularly orientated”. Basically i decided to end the set with some versions of songs that pretty much everyone will know and then finished the set off with my favourite end of the night songs courtesy of “Splittr” and “Dirty South”. The official set ended after “Phazing” but there’s a 30 or so second gap where i thanked the audience etc and then explained why i was playing the next two tracks. The two tracks in question were of course a tribute to the recently deceased Charlie Haddon of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool. I let them play as i was exiting “the stage”.

So here goes…

Tracklisting (Part 3)

1. Nixon – 2012
2. Hot Pink Delorean – Fake Warp To Bloody Mars
3. Pictureplane – Goth Star
4. HEALTH – USA Boys
5. Hostage – Loft In Bass
6. Moulinex and Xinobi – Discotexas Theme
7. Laconic – Compact It
8. Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand
9. LOL Boys -123
10. Swedish House Mafia – One
11. Felix Da Housecat – Oops!
12. Disco Trash Music – Floorkiller
13. Valerna – Snakes
14. These New Puritans/Salem – Hologram
15. Jape – Floating
16. Lady Gaga/OoOoOo – Poker Face
17. Grasscut – Muppet
18. Matty G – My 808
19. DJ SS – We Came To Entertain

DOWNLOAD: Right click and save as SIT WOLF @ Eclecticity 2010 Part 3

Tracklisting (Part 4)

1. DJ SS – We Came To Entertain
2. Lust – Disco Is Dead
3. Pixies – Where Is My Mind? (Bassnectar Version)
4. Toxic Leon – Sex On Fire
5. QOTSA/Chemical Brothers – Sick Beats
6. QOTSA/Chemical Brothers – Do It Again With You
7. Britney Spears – Slave 4 U
8. UNKLE feat Lupe Fiasco – Runaway
9. Blink 182/Kylie Minogue – Adams Lovers Song
10. Breakbeat Heartbeat – Feeling This
11. Katy Perry/Snoop Dogg/Mr Hudson/Kanye West – SuperCali
12. Splittr – All Alone
13. Dirty South feat Rudy – Phazing
———————————————–
14. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – Dance The Way I Feel
15. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool _ Jacksons Last Stand

DOWNLOAD: Right click and save as SIT WOLF @ Eclecticity 2010 Part 4

Apologies for the wait. I hope you will find it worth it!

S.I.T Wolf  X

The Blues Are Easy To Play But Hard To Feel

When i was away in Dundee i missed the chance to post about one of my favourite guitarists of all time. Saturday just passed (the 18th) marked the 40th anniversary of the death of the one and only Jimi Hendrix.

I’ve loved Jimi Hendrix since i was a little boy, yes, i fell in love with the sounds of Hendrix around aged 8. The first time i heard a millisecond of that wah wah pedal being squeezed out from “Voodoo Child” i was hooked. Posters of the blues legend adorned the door and walls of my room as a child and into my late teens. I still have books, DVDs, CD albums, posters, magazines, t-shirts, VHS (remember them?!) of Hendrix. Some are safely stored away for keeps and some are out for show on my shelves. Jimi Hendrix along with Josh Homme was one of the first people who made me want to pick up a guitar and then i’d spend hours on my own in my bedroom listening to albums back to back and learning tracks by ear. One of the first Hendrix riffs i learned on guitar was Purple Haze and along with “Voodoo Child” it remains one of my favourites of his.

Trying to pick some tracks to post on here was genuinely hard. I love pretty much every track he’s ever recorded. But i’ve narrowed it down to 5 and a live video.

MP3: Jimi Hendrix – Angel

MP3: Jimi Hendrix – If 6 Was 9

MP3: Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze

MP3: Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

MP3: Jimi Hendrix – Manic Depression

Ok, fuck it, one more video! This is my favourite live version of “Voodoo Child”.

S.I.T Wolf  X

Weakened Weekend Warriors

Sorry about the lack of posting over the weekend. I was away visiting my friend Keane in Dundee. I hadn’t seen him for what felt like months (in reality it was just over a month) so we spent the whole weekend catching up and going on a massive pub crawl of Dundee. When i arrived on the Friday i was greeted by Keane and his girlfriend at the bus station and then swiftly moved on to the pub then back to Keanes flat where we enjoyed the relaxation of some very smooth joints, a nearby 24 our bakery and some old classics on Spotify. On the Saturday it was just the two of us (his girlfriend was meeting a friend and staying in to watch the X-Factor) so we basically went back to what we used to do in Glasgow when we’re 18 (was that really 7 years ago?). Yep, we revisited our youth and went out to watch the early football game at half 12, played some pool, spent/lost a couple of quid in William Hills, watched all the rest of the football results come in and cursed our luck, had some food, pumped a tenner into the jukebox and simultaneously jived on the spot while propping up the bar until the small hours of the morning and then somehow managed to make a 20 minute walk back to the flat last about 2 hours! The Sunday was spent munching hangover food and then returning to the pub for a curer, a nice cold Kopparberg or two. Then it was a bus journey home for me and my iPod. I left for Dundee early on Friday afternoon and only got home to Glasgow pretty late last night so i’m still a bit tired just now, especially since i have a full week of 12 hour shifts to look forward to in work 😦

Tickety Boo’s was the pub that we frequented the most over the 3 days. It was definitely my favourite haunt of the weekend.

Dundee was a bit of a wild/blurry weekend but one that i enjoyed immensely……..even if my wallet and bank account hate me now. I’ll basically be under a self imposed house arrest until pay day now which isn’t a bad thing i suppose as it means i can get posting on here and download some new music as well. I haven’t downloaded/bought/discovered any new albums in like a week. That’s a long time for me.

MP3: Weekend – Coma Summer

MP3: Arab Strap – The First Big Weekend

On the bus journey home i finally managed to get a chance to listen to an album i got a fortnight or so ago. The album in question is “All We Grow” by S.Carey. Maybe better known as the drummer from Bon Iver to most people but not for long if he keeps providing gems like this wonderful debut.  I can guarantee it’s gonna be in my end of year “Best of” list.

MP3: S.Carey – We Fell

Also, any excuse to get Bon Iver into the post……….

I absolutely adore this track. It was the second ever song i heard by Bon Iver back in late 2007 (after Skinny Love) and it’s always had a special place in my ears. The fact that my late friend Ruari covered it a few years back gives it that extra special emotional link when i listen to it.

MP3:  Bon Iver – Flume

S.I.T Wolf  X

How To Soak Up The Sex And Drugs At An Angels Disko (There’s No Such Thing)

Another six mix…

MP3: Houses – Soak It Up

MP3: The War On Drugs – Coming Through


MP3: Nosaj Thing – Coat Of Arms


MP3: How To Destroy Angels – Parasite


MP3: The Vaselines – Sex With An X


VIDEO: T.Raumschmiere – Rabaukendisko

Delayed Dreams

I mentioned a while back that i was using a little custom playlist to help me get to sleep at night.

Here’s a few select tracks from said playlist…

MP3: Cotton Jones – Somehow Keep It Going

MP3: recoveryUnit – Naming The Causeway

MP3: Panda Bear – Ponytail

MP3: Zero 7 – In The Waiting Line

MP3: Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy Jr

MP3: Fleet Foxes – Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

I created these tracks under my Fragile X pseudonym about a year or so ago for a short film a friend was doing for her University course. I now also use them to help get me to sleep. It’s just me and my guitar. They’re merely a short 3 or 4 minutes of noodling with the amp down low. Helps me relax though and puts me on the road to slumberland.

MP3: Fragile X – Summer ’05

MP3: Fragile X – Tree Road

S.I.T Wolf  X

Your Monthly Video Dose: September 2010

Via Audio – Modern Day Saint

Soulsavers feat Mark Lanegan – Revival

Apparat – Arcadia

Ratatat – Mirando

You Can’t Eat The Word Food – Soap Opera King

S.I.T Wolf X

Live @ Eclecticity 2010 Parts 1 and 2

So tonight i can finally get round to uploading my set from Eclecticity last month. I blame Chris for taking so long! Although to be fair he has done a really good job of converting the set and keeping the audio quality at a good level (it’s around 260 kbps). Before anyone gets the wrong idea and thinks this is actually the live gig audio, it’s not. It hasn’t been a miked up recording and caught audience noise, buzzing bass and crackly beats and all the other crap that comes along with it. No, what he done was simply record my set through Traktor while i was playing . So it’s a perfect, clear and audible version. Anyone who uses Traktor will know that it only deals in wav files when it comes to the recording function so these files have been converted to MP3 and Chris has very kindly chopped what was a 4 hour set into 1 hour or so sections. This will allow me to burn them onto discs and also make downloads easier.

Tracklisting (Part 1)

1. Queens of the Stone Age – Someone’s In The Wolf
2. Japanese Popstars featuring John Spencer – Destroy
3. HTRK – Disco
4. The Question?
5. Teki Latex – Dinosaurs With Guns
6. G-Tronic – Suckerpunch
7. TKNK – Tank
8. Refused – New Noise
9. Missil – Get Busted
10. Dgtl Monkey – In The Middle
11. Designer Drugs – Drop Down
12. Cyberpunkers – OMG
13. Mix Hell – Highly Explicit
14. The Mastertrons – Gardaland Is Destroyed
15. Audionite – Blank Volume
16. Buy Now – Body Crash
17. Dirty Disco Youth – Minds…Off
18. Night Kids – Gurgle 2.o
19. Polen – Funk You
20. Felix Da Housecat – Kick Drum

DOWNLOAD: Right click and save as SIT WOLF @ Eclecticity 2010 Part 1

Tracklisting (Part 2)

1. Felix Da Housecat – Kick Drum
2. The Subs – Mitsubitchi
3. Moderat feat Busdriver – Beatswaysick
4. EdiT feat The Grouch – Artsy
5. Bloody Beetroots feat The Cool Kids – Awesome
6. Kissed With A Noise feat Young Buck – Watuppp
7. Congorock – Babylon
8. Micro Prophets – Steel Your Soul
9. Mighty Fools – Amsterdam
10. Boemklatsch – Bonafied
11. The Party Squad – Pull Up
12. Modeselektor – Dancing Box
13. Boreta – Bubblin’ In The Cut
14. Black Holes – War Drums
15. EdiT – Battling Go-Go Yubari In Downtown LA
16. Mike Posner – Cooler Than Me
17. Dublicker
18. The Qemists – Dem Na Like Me
19. Nixon – 2012

DOWNLOAD: Right click and save as SIT WOLF @ Eclecticity 2010 Part 2

Parts 3 and 4 will go up next weekend.

S.I.T Wolf  X

THE MONDAY LIST #21: Cassette Culture

Advances in technology and new ways of musical distribution, mainly the internet/file sharing, have led to a steady decline in the use of cassettes in recording (home or studio) and more so the act of selling your music on cassette.

So imagine my joy when Civil Civic made their EP “1” available in tape format earlier this year. I didn’t order mine till August and thus i missed out on getting one of the coloured versions but i did manage to get my hands on the EP ….just. Two days after i ordered mine, i got an email saying that they had just sold out! But thankfully i got one of the last numbers of these limited edition beauties. It’s hardly been off since. I love the sound of a cassette and Civil Civic’s music sounds just that little bit scuzzier when it’s blasting out of a tape deck.

This particular track is off the Run Overdrive/Fuck Youth split they released in July.

MP3: Civil Civic – Fuck Youth

Civil Civic may be helping to keep cassette culture alive but they’re not alone in their love of the of the amazing musical rectangles.

Cassette Culture
———————-
MP3’s

1. The Kills – Tape Song
2. Memory Tapes – Pink Stones
3. Fujiya and Miyagi – Cassettesingle
4. Cassettes Won’t Listen – Freeze And Explode
5. Tape Deck Mountain – On My Honor
6. Andrew Thomas – Blue Cassette
7. Tapes N Tapes – The Dirty Dirty
8. Brand New – Mix Tape
9. Tape Deck Bros – Science Fiction
10. Cassette Club – 4 Me (Bestrack Remix)

BONUS Track:

This Elliott Smith b-side was released on a compilation called “Air Check Cassette”.

MP3: Elliott Smith – See You Later

Dayve Hawk aka Memory Tapes seems to be a huge cassette fan. His current alias is a mash up of his two previous recording monikers “Memory Cassette” and “Weird Tapes”.

Glasgow’s West End has a pretty cool little pub called Radio. The walls are adorned with tapes, boomboxes and vinyl. It’s one of the coolest little hang out places in the area. It’s been my favourite haunt of the last month or so, even pushing The Captains Rest into second place. They have a mass collection of all sorts of music on cassette ranging from early punk singles right through to the Street Fighter soundtrack. They also make the best Southern Comfort with ginger beer in town. I also love the very cool little table football game they have but i won’t go into too much detail as i don’t want to embarrass Gustav……………….Ok, you twisted my arm, i’ll go into detail. I beat him 9-1, 8-2, 10-0 and 9-1 again all in the space of about 5 minutes. Although to be fair i am pretty fucking good at it 🙂

Remember the days when having a tape player in your car was cool?  Now it’s all sub-woofers and bluetooth connections. What next? Spotify direct to your car dashboard? (If you’re listening Spotify guys then i came up with that idea first! So if it happens, gimme a cut.)

Don’t get me wrong, i’m by no means a technophobe  but i do love my retro music stuff. I have a happy medium though because in all honesty i do love my iPod as well. I’d kinda be lost without it.

S.I.T Wolf  X