I know i missed out on posting the monthly “Six Mix” in March so i’ve decided to treat you to a TWELVE DELVE in April. 10 tracks and 2 vids, here we go….
UNKLE recently released the album “Where Did The Night Fall”. I managed to score a pre-release copy some months ago and on first listen i was disappointed. But unsurprisingly like every other UNKLE album it grew on me. I’ve loved UNKLE, James Lavelle in particular, for years now (my early teens) but every time there’s a new album i always feel let down until about 3 or 4 listens. That’s usually the stage where i go “wait, this is actually fucking brilliant”. Each new listen providing different sounds and conjuring up new images. It seems i’ll never learn to appreciate Mr Lavelle’s talents first time round. Some collaborators from the last album, the critically acclaimed War Stories, joined in again on the newie. The returning guests included Joel Cadbury, Gavin Clark and the frustratingly inactive yet genius Autolux. But what caught my eye more than anything was a guest appearance from Mark Lanegan. If he lends his smoke tangled, gravelly, tortured voice to anything then i’m definitely in.
The first track “officially” released was a teaser in the form of “Natural Selection”. A number featuring the Black Angels. But the song that caught my attention most on the album was “Follow Me Down”. I’d never heard of Sleepy Sun until that track. Rachel Fannan comes across like a slightly more laid back version of Bjork. Her vocals sound like a mixture of frustration and freedom mixed together, if that makes sense.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to stick up two remixes of “Follow Me Down” that i’ve been wanting to post for a while now and seeing as i don’t have much time (i never seem to have much time at all recently) tonight i’ll get straight to the point.
The first remix is courtesy of The Golden Filter. I first heard these guys a few summers ago and the track “Solid Gold” was a mainstay on my iPod for months. It reminds me of a catwalk fashion show for some reason, check it out if you haven’t already heard it and i guarantee you’ll think you’re in Milan watching models glide by but enough day dreaming back to their remix of UNKLE. Their remix certainly gives the original a bit more oomph and elevates the track to a level and style that would be passable in a nightclub. Albeit an indie nightclub.
His version is a slighty more abstract remix, slowing the tempo slightly before bringing it back up and highlighting and making full use of the many vocal elements that are maybe not as evident as they should be on the original.
Here’s the original…
Just as a little extra and seeing as it’s a briliant track in it’s own right here’s a classic from Greg Dulli and Twilight Singers….who just happen to be regular collaborators with a certain Mr Lanegan also. See it’s all relevant and related! It’s not really, i just wanted to post this track. I love it. I love the chords, the voice, the emptiness of it. I love playing it on guitar and sometimes i even love ATTEMPTING to sing it.
More posts at the weekend. For once i have an absolutely diary free weekend. No plans, no nights out, no visitors. Just me, some weed, the drinks cabinet, the newly freshened up iPod and my laptop. Perfect.
Apologies for the complete lack of attention i’ve being giving to the blog recently. I’ve had a fairly busy and eventful couple of weeks since i last posted. I’ve been to 4 gigs and also took a road trip to Aberdeen for a few days. I’ve put in a lot of overtime at work. I’ve helped my sister move house. I’ve gained a nice PA System. Oh and i’ve slept a lot. Exciting stuff or what?
Ok let’s see….my last post was on the 22nd February so lets begin the update from the 23rd.
23rd February
God Is An Astronaut @ Oran Mor
This gig was definitely one of the haziest i’ve ever been to. And i don’t just mean because of the smoke machines and lighting. Me and Simon somehow managed to work our way through an astronomical amount of our bag of weed. We didn’t touch one drop of alcohol all night. It was just weed, water, weed, water, weed. You get the picture. Some would maybe think that getting that stoned before and during a gig would maybe hinder or lessen the experience. Which is more than likely true in quite a few cases. But not God Is An Astronaut. It brings a whole new dimension to their music. I felt like i could almost see the music. Weird, yes? But i tend to find that with a lot of post-rock and instrumental bands. That type of music is one that heightens my aural and visual senses. It gives me visions, makes me see things, mainly colours but other things too. Just random stuff that i couldn’t describe. Not because i don’t want to but i simply don’t know how to. The band also had a screen behind them so that would have added to the visual side of things. Butterfly Explosion provided the support for God Is An Astronaut and they were the perfect build up. Two bands i’ve wanted to see live for years and here they both were together. Couldn’t ask for much more really.
Also, as a bonus (because i feel guilty about the lack of posting) here are some tracks by a few other bands i’ve really enjoyed seeing whilst under the influence of Dr Greenthumb.
This was all set to be a strange night and if truth be told, one that i was a bit nervous/sceptical about. The Grand Ole Opry you see is a Western Themed venue. See for yourself….http://www.glasgowsgrandoleopry.co.uk/
It’s more famous for it’s live country music that takes centre stage every weekend. There are also “shootouts” (not real one’s of course…i hope) and Cowboy and Indian theme nights. And there’s no bar…..oh no, there’s a saloon instead. Nice. So as you can imagine i found it very strange yet somehow appealing that an electronic instrumental band such as Errors would choose such a venue. Could it work?
Yes it could and it did. It was a brilliant gig. One that will stay in the memory for a long time. The crowd were full of nice cheery faces, a mixture of the bearded muso types and trendy indie types and their girlfriends. The only gripe i would have was the amount of time it took to get served a drink. The venue has probably never been so busy before and you could almost see the panic written across the faces of the staff. You could see that the barmaids, sorry, Saloon staff (Saloonettes?) were every but as bemused by us as we were by them. The staff is made up of mainly people that are about 50+ so it was surprising to see them cheerily bop along to the Errors chimes and beats. The new song “Rumour In Africa” seemed a favourite. It was the fourth time i’d seen Errors and they seem to be progressing at an almost perfect rate. Each album or EP becoming more expansive and complex than the previous. As the band themselves said in a recent interview it’s hard to keep making instrumental music that remains interesting and not dull. I know from experience that that is very true but they just happen make it look so easy and effortless. After the gig me and Gustav got a free taxi back to the city centre. We spotted a taxi driver stuck in a rut, well a big puddle to be more precise and decided to help him out in his hour of need. He repayed us with a fare-less journey. Nice man. We then proceeded to enter a club in Glasgow, those few hours however are a blur of strange coloured shots and plastic pint glasses.
Another great gig at the most reliable venue in Scotland. I don’t think i’ve ever left King Tuts disappointed. Ok, maybe once when my ex girlfriend happened to spill her blackcurrant and cider all over my freshly bought brand new Oceansize t-shirt but that’s all in the past. I’m over the t-shirt heartache.
The Japandroids seem to be getting a taste for this whole live headlining show malarky. They oozed charisma and charm on stage and had the crowd eating out the palms of their hands. They have anthems in waiting coming out of those amps and they’re finally just starting to truly embrace it. There was a lot of foot stomping from band and crowd alike. A lot of sweat (for once, not from me, i stayed up back this time). A lot of beer. And a lot of banter and sing-a-longs. The songs were making the crowd happy and in return the crowd’s reactions were making the Japandroids happy. Afterwards i took the option of a train home and a reasonably early night (1am) as i was up early the next morning.
The sole reason i decided to head home after the Japandroids gig and not join my friends at a club was because i had to get up early to help my sister and her family move house. In hindsight i should probably just have stayed in the night before. I had no idea how much stuff they had in that little flat of theirs! I was anticipating beds, some furniture, a dozen or so bags of random stuff, tvs etc. The usual really. What we (me, Symey, Graham and my dad) were faced with was box upon box of things. Really heavy things. I have a lot of DVDs and CDs but my collection pales into comparison with Garys (my brother in law). He’s been collecting vinyl, cassettes, CDs, VHS, DVDs, boxsets, and all other sorts of memorabilia since his pre-teen days. He’s now coming up for 28. So work that out. That’s right, about 22 years worth of stuff squeezed into about fifty million boxes. And that was just for starters. That was before we started on the really heavy stuff. And that’s just what it was just stuff. I asked Lisa what was in these heavy boxes and bags. Her reply? “Just stuff“. “What kind of stuff?” i asked. “I have the right to know what i’m lugging up and down stairs all day!” Once more the reply came, “I told you John, it’s just stuff, so just get lifting!” That was me told. So after all the “stuff” was out the way it was the turn of the sofa and wardrobes. Followed closely by the beds and baby cot. We started the moving at 10am and were finished by 4pm. That’s a fine shift if you ask me. Especially when you consider the amount of stuff to be moved and also the “sensitive” mood i was in. A hard days work followed by a night in bed and The IT Crowd Boxset. Why do i find Jen from the IT Crowd so attractive? There’s just something about her. It might be the whole ordinary girl from next door look and her sense of humour.
Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the passing of a very dear friend of mine, Ruari McCarthy. He is greatly missed by many and left a huge gap in the lives of a lot of people. Fortunately for us he also left a huge impression and many happy memories.
I had planned to do this post last night but i had to be through in Stirling for 9pm and was rushing about after work, which reminds me, i’ll do a post on Sunday about how last nights DJ set at D.U.S.K went. I’m just not exactly in the mood for talking bout things like that tonight.
Ruari passed away on the 29th of October last year, he was just 3 weeks short of his 25th birthday. He had suffered from epilepsy and asthma from an early age and took frequent aggressive attacks from both. He always had the courage and strength to overcome these attacks, unfortunately on the night he died it was a combination of both illnesses that proved overwhelming.
Ruari was one of the most genuinely nice people you could ever wish to meet. I could go into a whole description about him and how much of a brilliant, caring person he was but to be honest i’d find it too hard to locate the words to use to describe him. I first met him in December 2006, we were introduced through a mutual friend and before you know it, by January of the following year myself and Chris had convinced him to join a music project we had (Racecar Kayak). Ruari was so much more talented at music than i first thought. I remember the first jamming session we had i had thought to myself “this guy is useless he can’t even keep in key with us”. How wrong was i?! Ruari had a unique and hidden talent that only his girlfriend Aiobfan knew about. His voice. Racecar Kayak was myself and Aiobfan on guitar, Chris on drums and Ruari on bass. We played post rock instrumental stuff, there was no singing, so little did we know what was lurking in that voice box of his. It wasn’t until summer 2007 when i went and seen him at an open mic night in Nice N Sleazys that i heard him singing for the first time. He had done two of his own songs and yes, i was impressed, really impressed, but it wasn’t until he did covers of “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” by Jeff Buckley, “Here Comes Your Man” by The Pixies and “Glorious” by Andreas Johnson and made them his own that i thought “WOW”. I was in the midst of something special. He could go from high to baritone to whisper to scream to heartbroken to ecstatic and back again. But his voice was something that he rarely shared and like me he preferred playing instrumental music. There was a reason i liked just playing music though and not singing so much……….i can’t sing! Ruari’s decision however baffled me. Here was a guy with a truly unique voice who chose only to use it occasionally. I had tried to convince him to add vocals to a few of the Racecar Kayak demos but to no avail. We did however record a few tracks together. Sadly only two have seen the light of day. A cover we did with shared vocals and guitar of “So Real” by Jeff Buckley made a brief appearance on YouTube and an acoustic take of “Stay, I Missed You” was recorded as a birthday present for his fiancee Aiobfan in 2008 with Ruari singing and me on guitar duties.
I could go on forever with stories about Ruari and say how much i miss him and how much i miss trying to decipher his Southern Ireland accent but i won’t. Instead i’ll just say that it’s been a hard year since he died but myself and his friends and family have kept out hearts warm by reminiscing about good times we shared with him and telling stories about his Irish humour. Because of his health conditions Ruari didn’t drink much, he didn’t need to he was as fun loving and honest and open as they come but when he did drink he morphed into a stand up comedian! You couldn’t shut him and his filthy tongue up. But we all loved it that way and i wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
I’m going to post a few videos of some songs as a tribute…
The first one explains itself…
UNKLE – Heaven
Where’s the Seraphim?
Where’s the money that we made?
Where’s the open gate?
Where’s the fortune that we saved?
Heaven’s here for you and me
With every falling curl
Heaven’s here for you and me
We gained ourselves the world
Hit the Motorway
I can take it all at speed
I got everything
I got everything you need
Heaven’s here for me and you
Scattered out with pearls
Heaven’s here for me and you
We gained ourselves the world
Where’s the warrior of light?
The gates of solid gold?
Paranoia, in a fight
With dreams that never fold
Heaven’s here for me and you
Scattered out with pearls
Heaven’s here for me and you
We gained ourselves the world
Heaven’s here for me and you
We gave ourselves away..
The second video is of a song that Ruari and Aiobfan shared a mutual love for, there wasn’t much they agreed on musically!
Lighthouse Family – High
The third is a video of a band that Ruari and i discovered together by accident at a random gig one rainy night in October 2007…..the song’s called “For Jonathan” and The Album Leaf had recorded the song specifically for a family that had just lost their son. I can’t think of a better way to descibe this song than heartfelt and so i’m going to call it “For Ruari” this one time and dedicate it to him.
The Album Leaf – For Ruari
And lastly, as my own tribute to Ruari i’ve recorded a version of one his favourite songs. The last gig he ever played was in June last year at Nice N Sleazys and he played this song, i have the live recording of it from that night but for personal reasons i’m choosing not to post it. There’s only a dozen people at most who have heard it and it’s likely to stay that way cos it breaks my heart to hear it. I feel likes it the last memory i have of him and would like to keep it my own.
But anyway, here’s my version of it. I’m sorry for the quality of recording and excess noise, it was done in two 10 minute takes. I happen to be really nervous when singing and hold the microphone to close to my mouth, it’s a comfort thing but unfortunately it creates a buzzing sound. I recorded it guitar and vocal first and then tracked another vocal over the top of it. I feel more comfortable having my voice twice in songs i record, it makes me feel like i’m singing along with somebody else. Probably sounds weird to some i know but it’s the only way i can feel comfortable.
I know i’ve not exactly got the best voice but please don’t think of it as me trying to do a cover of a Bon Iver song, just listen to it for what it is, a tribute to a lost friend.
cronaím thú Ruari
S.I.T Wolf X
ps. i had planned to post a photo of Ruari but after consulting Aiobfan decided it’d be best not too.
Apologies for the late weekend mixtape but i’ve been a busy boy. As many of you will know, this Wednesday past happened to be the 9/9/09. I was going to make a special mixtape up on the Wednesday to commemorate this once in a lifetime date. Well, my lifetime anyway, unless i somehow live till September 2109. Anyways, i couldn’t get round to making the mix up on the Wednesday due to more important matters, ie. getting drunk and watching the Scotland vs Holland game round the local watering hole. So i thought to myself “i’ll make it on the Thursday”….but i was too hungover. Friday? Went and seen a friends band playing in Stereo (i’ll post some stuff soon). Saturday? Couldn’t. It’s a long story.
But!……… But! Today i finally got the time to make it. The theme of the mix takes on a 999/Accident & Emergency vibe, so bands and songs that were included had to have that kinda slant to their name. Things along the lines of Police, Ambulance, Criminals, Fire, Accidents etc. Hope you enjoy!
Axe A Dent and Emerge and See Mixtape Tracklisting
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1. Patrick Wolf – Accident and Emergency
2. Dead Kennedys – Police Truck
3. Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name Of
4. Blood Brothers – Ambulance vs Ambulance
5. Crystal Castles vs Health – Crimewave
6. Mew – Small Ambulance
7. Twilight Singers – There’s Been An Accident
8. Damien Rice – 9 Crimes
999. Thieves Like Us – Drugs In My Body
10. Queens Of The Stone Age – Thats A Killer Scene You’ve Got There, Man..
11. UNKLE – Doctor Who Theme Tune
12. Freezepop – Pop Music Is Not A Crime
13. The Police – so Lonely
14. Lobsterdust – Put On The Red Light (Police vs Coldplay)
15. The Killers – Mr Brightside
16. Maybeshewill – We Called For An Ambulance But A Fire Engine Came
17. Ambulance Ltd – Yoga Means Union
18. The Prodigy – Firestarter (Empirion Remix)
19. Goldfrapp – A & E (Gui Boratto Remix)
The Found Fun, Lost Weekend mitxtape was something i decided to put together early yesterday morning. All the songs were chosen on the spot, i had no certain tracks or anything that i was gonna work off of they way that i usually do. I just wanted to make a soundtrack that we could stick on back home after The Bloody Beetroots gig last night (one of the top 3 gigs i’ve been to, easily, but more about that soon). So i started off the mix with a bit of humour then straight into one of my own remixes and then from there onwards just some wonky, glitchy, digital dance music followed by some fast rapping infused songs and then onto a kinda chillout section at the end.
Found Fun, Lost Weekend Tracklist
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1. Midfield General feat. Fielding – Midfielding
2. Dolby Anol – Puppies (Someones In The Wolf Remix)
3. UNKLE – Restless (DJ Edjotronic and Busy P Remix)
4. Trash Yourself – Die
5. TMVR – Bowie In The Bronx
6. Dirty Disco Youth – The Kids Want Maximal
7. Pance Party – Fun Factory
8. Bloody Beetroots feat Steve Aoki – Warp 1.9
9. Black Holes – War Drums
10. Modeselektor feat TTC – Dancing Box
11. MSTRKRFT feat E40 – Click Click (Someones In The Wolf Edit)
12. Pendulum – Tarantula
13. The Qemists feat Mike Patton – Lost Weekend
14. The Subs – Music Is The New Religion
15. Shadow Dancer – Landlines
16. Freeland feat Brody Dalle – Borderline
17. Trentemoller feat Anne Trolle – Moan
18. Bat For Lashes vs Delerium – Pearls Silence
19. Moderat – A New Error
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Someones In The Wolf 