winstons music

It has been a while since I did a post about what I am listening to at Winston’s towers. A big thanks to the guys that suggested the Orville peck album after my records of the year. First of is a female lead punk, the post-punk band I caught this a couple of times on BBC six music I usually capture a bit of Marc Riley’s show his shows last year brought me a lot of new music. Anyway, the band called Porridge radio the four members of the band were all involved in bands in and around Brighton this is the lead single from there second album sweet it has a hint of something and I just can’t put my finger on it at the mo. But it is a great mix of slow then fast music with a singer with an engaging voice and clever line in lyrics.

 

Then I went back with the release of the 30th anniversary of the Pale saints Debut Album. Which I have brought on a double vinyl rerelease of the Leeds based shoegazing group they were never big stars but for me, this album was on I played and played as I an 18-year-old and staying in the East Neuk of fife at my gran’s on my walkman as I had the original album on tape I was always and still am a fan of Vaughn Oliver’s artwork for $ad like Factory’s peter Savile made 4ad records stand out. He sadly passed away earlier this year. This is a wonderful mix of a sonic wall of guitars and those mumbling shoegazing vocals. still haunting and evokes memories of a summer many years ago which is what some of the best music does, isn’t it.

Then another lead single from a forthcoming album and it is off to Destroyers new album I have been a fan of this Candian group for a few years now they have a unique singer in Dan Bejar and this has again a stream of consciousness set of lyrics he said were evoked by Korean horror films80’s movies like Pretty in pink and the five-hour version of Until the end of the world (Wim Wender woefully underrated world road movie) I have yet see this version I have the three version. Crimson tide is a song that just draws you in like a lot of his music.

Lastly another bit of nostalgia I love our flea market I think I have mentioned the books I get from there but there is a couple of record stall selling vinyl which I have been looking and getting some records to fill a number of gaps I had in the past well as I can afford when I see 40 or 50 pounds for some lps I think it isn’t worth it so it is smaller leftfield choice I pick this week was the third album from the Irish band Microdisney I was always a fan of The main singer Cathal Coughlan second band Fatima Mansions well I decided it was time to listen to his first band again I did have the tapes of a couple of other albums by them in the day on tape but I have long since got rid of most if not all my tapes there is a same political conviction behind the lyrics. One of the greatly missed bands of the eighties.

What new and old has been on your stereo or phone this new year? What reissues have you brought recently?

 

 

 

Winstonsdads top ten albums of the year

 

I have made a playlist of my top ten albums of the year

1. The national -I am easy to find – I loved their early albums. This is great and the track I picked mentions REM
2. Deliluh – Beneath the floors – these Toronto noiseniks remind me in places of the late great slint, a chance finds from listening to Marc Riley. on radio five.
3. FONTAINES DC- Dogrel any band that mentions James Joyce in a lyric always piques my interest
4. Black Midi -Schlagenheim – They nearly missed the list after a weird interview in the recent Marc Riley session but these are leftfield and unique.
5. Murder Capital- When I have fears another Irish punk band these are slower and darker than FONTAINES DC more like an irish Joy divison for the 21st century.
6. Nick Cave and the bad seeds- Ghostteen his best record for years there is a deep sorrow at its heart.
7. Robert Forester-Inferno a lot about aging in this album by the former Go-betweens singer
8. Leonard Cohen- Thanks for the dance Cohen record these songs in the weeks before he did and his son arranged them they are laments and here in my choice a more political song in Puppets
9. Purple Mountains- Purple Mountains heavy songs full of sadness even more so given that David Berman the former silver Jews singer and the man behind Purple Mountains took his own life weeks after this came out makes these songs even more heartbreaking to listen too.
10. Richard Dawson – 2020 the folk singer electronic crossover that is Dawson is unique almost baroque in places so a song about Jogging sounds like it is from Tudor times but with 21st-century issues.

Honorable mentions for Idles, Lloyd cole Sturgill Simpson just missed the list. A year that I discovered so great new bands mainly via 6 music. What has rocked your world this year?

 

Bye Bye Mark E

It must have been kismet years ago when as a young teen I discovered John Peel on the radio many an hour listening to him lead me many ways in my music taste but the biggest of them and the longest lasting was The fall a band of the ever-changing group of musicians backing up the brilliant Mark E Smith. The band named after a translated novel would happen to be one of my favourite bands. From the NME interview with Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan and Mark talking about the world and their music. Peel doing something that seemed unheard of at the time playing a full album over two nights when Shiftwork came out a high point for the band really. Over the years I have bought or listen on spotify to the latest records from the Band even the complete peel sessions when it first came out with the 24 sessions he record with Peel more than anyone. So when the sad news hit us that Mark has passed tonight leaves the world a little poorer in a world of people trying to get by we need a few more mark as the voice of the disfranchised, the non-iphones smart phone people, the football fans, the northerners, the man in the pub because there won’t be another Mark and that is sad.

 

My top ten albums 2017

I’m at work the today and tomorrow so I wrote this as a short post about my albums of the years

There is a Spotify playlist Here in no order are the ten Albums

1. Goths by The mountain goats- I have been a fan of this band for about 15 years since there album on 4ad. A quirky album here remembering the goth bands of the eighties this track is about the sisters of mercy lead singer going back to his hometown.
2. A crow looked at me by Mount eerie – A new band to me I was touched as this is a lament to his late wife and has some of the most touching lyrics I have ever heard.
3. Pure comedy by Father John Misty – This album has been one of my all time favourites especially this 13 minute dig at the music industry and moving to la to be in a band. He may be a bit outspoken in real life but I liked this album a lot.
4. Salutations – Conor Oberst – another favourite the former Bright eyes singer came back with the songs from the album ruminations with a band this time, both albums show how these songs can be fragile and full on at the same time.
5. I tell a fly Benjamin Clementine – a mad second album about migration aliens and just surreal lyrics the man with the most distinctive voice of recent years made a personal rather than a commercial second album and it is utterly brilliant.
6. New facts emerge – The Fall I always been a fan, thanks to my early years listening to John Peel. Mark E Smith carries on making great records after nearly forty years in the business.
7. Together at last by Jeff Tweedy – He revisits some of his old songs it is more than twenty years since I brought Being there his second Wilco album. Great see him putting an acoustic turn on his songs.
8. Hitchhiker- Neil Young – done in one night in 1976. He then sat on it until this year. Neil’s voice is at his best soul searching and tender in places.
9. Mount the air by The Unthanks – I have been a fan for a while, but when the track Magpie was used on The detectorist, I had downloaded this album again The magpie is a real earworm.
10. At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem – Diamanda Galas I been a fan of her since my college years her voice is disturbing and eerie. This was her first album in ten years this and a new studio album.

I suppose the only theme is these aren’t happy songs, but more ones that make you think.

 

Sunday Trio two old favourites and New country

As ever time has caught up with me tonight and I hadn’t time for a review so its back to old sunday trio and three music treats from this week

First up is Mark Kozelek sing Onward which he sang on the soundtrack to youth , i was busy listening to him this week where in his album with Jesu last year he talks about make the song for the film and flying over to europe to perform it for the film .Yes it is getting a bit often I mention Mark but he is one of the best singers around .

I read an interview some on had tweet this week with Tanita Tikaram and I decide to download her debut album Ancient heart on spotify there was a beauty to her voice in that debut album a naive style that she never quite captures after but its been nice revisiting the past .Now after two oldies a new artist .

Now is Aaron Lee Tasjan a great country singer twisting traditional country sound with a new twist on it his latest album is very good .

Sunday trio a finn, a dive and some rag and bone

Well this week sees two old favourites back –

First up is the first track from the new Album from Craig Finn from his fourth solo album he is also the leader singer of the Hold steady . His solo stuff is more searching than his groups out put almost like him playing with genre he is a natural storyteller a modern Springsteen.

Then I have Simon from insidebooks to thank for this it is the return of shoegazing great Slowdive with ride also reforming last year a revival of shoegazing scene is on its way I think .Maybe if My bloody valentine can take less than 22 year between albums we could have a scene come back!

I usually hate chart music but I saw this guy on Jools over the new year and his voice has echoes of classic blues and this song is one that just is a classic earworm I tell you once you hear it, you have it in that ear all day.

Sunday Trio Old favourites some new

 

NI haven’t done a music post for a while . Well spotify give you a list of your hundred most played song so here I start with a trio of videos from that list .

 

Now I am a later comer to Fleetwood Mac later stuff , I was a fan of the Peter Green era piece but wasn’t till I heard this early last year and this one song really got in my head hence being in the top 100 .

Float on is a cover by one of my all time favourite singers Mark Kozelek of one of my favourite band Modest Mouse and their hit Float on .

From one new to me to classic to a song I have listen to maybe a thousand times over the years Hothouse flowers Debut album People is such a vibrant record still now 29 years on and this is my favourite song on that album one which has been on my players since I had them.

What was on you list for the year ?

Bowies 20 most played 21st cebtury tracks and my favourite track of recent times

“Hi Stu

In honour of David Bowie’s life, PPL, the music licencing company, have pulled together data on his most played tracks of the 21st Century.”

I got this email earlier from the people at PPL and decide to share the list I wouldn’t usually but I am a huge bowie fan and was gutted by todays news.

Most Played David Bowie Tracks of the 21st Century

Aggregated using exclusive UK airplay data from music licensing company PPL

 

To commemorate the life and works of David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), music licensing company PPL has released an official chart of the Most Played David Bowie Tracks of the 21st Century.

 

Aggregated using PPL’s exclusive UK airplay data, the chart collates those Bowie tracks which have been played in public and broadcast on TV and radio since the year 2000.

 

Let’s Dance, David Bowie’s 1983 release, produced by Nile Rogers, tops the chart. Timeless classics also features in the top twenty  PPL Most Played David Bowie Tracks of the 21st Century chart include, Under Pressure (Bowie’s hit duet with British rock band Queen) at number two, and Starman (the inaugural story of persona Ziggy Stardust), at number three.

 

David Bowie’s top 20 most played tracks span three decades of recordings with the earliest, Space Oddity, released in 1969, appearing in the chart at number seven, and Absolute Beginners, released in 1986, at number 19.

Over the course of the 21st Century, David Bowie received over 360 million seconds of radio and TV airplay in the UK.

 

PPL Most Played David Bowie Tracks of the 21st Century:

 

1. Let’s Dance, David Bowie

2. Under Pressure, David Bowie and Queen

3. Starman, David Bowie

4. Ashes to Ashes, David Bowie

5. Rebel Rebel, David Bowie

6. Space Oddity, David Bowie

7. Life on Mars?, David Bowie

8. Changes, David Bowie

9. The Jean Genie, David Bowie

10. China Girl, David Bowie

11. Heroes, David Bowie

12. Modern Love, David Bowie

13. Young Americans, David Bowie

14. Golden Years, David Bowie

15. Sound and Vision, David Bowie

16. Fashion, David Bowie

17. Sorrow, David Bowie

18. Dancing in the Street, David Bowie and Mick Jagger

19. Absolute Beginners, David Bowie

20. Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie

 

To find out more about PPL visit: www.ppluk.com

The list is much as you would expect I for one can sing every song by heart virtually from the list. But as promised, my favourite track of recent years was title track to the “The next day album ” .Have you a favourite on the list or not

Kendrick Lamarr Who and don’t forget the fall

Well it is that time of year when the Uk music Magazines run the end of year lists, I have always been a huge fan of these list. I use it to see how my dwindle current taste is doing but also maybe to find a gem that has been missed from the last year and when the same record came second in both Mojo and Uncut and it was one I maybe didn’t grasp me in the reviews earlier in the year, so off to Spotify to listen and it was the opposite to earlier in the week when Benjamin Clementine won the Mercury prize ( I first mentioned him the week the winning album his debut album came out ) , this is the other side the how did that pass me by . The album is To pimp a butterfly by Kendrick Lamarr I ‘ve always had a liking for rap and hip hop from the early days of it hitting the uk in the early 80’s so this is a mix of what I love best of the genre clever lyrics, poltics , spoken word and jazz .

But missing the lists was The fall now I didn’t listen to John Peel as much as I did when I was teen in those last year, but at the time we didn’t know it was going to be the end. But I did worry for his favourite bands like The fall as he was the main person to play Mark E smiths unique brand of  Mancunian rock is a mix of Punk, Poetry, ladism, Drink and ever changing band members, So this year saw well Album 31 from the studio Sub Lingual Tablet is classic fall what more can you say. If you not heard Mark E smith go have a listen with a back catalogue of 60 plus albums there is a whole journey awaiting you.

Whats playing at winston’s towers

First thing I’ve been listening  to is the new album by  canadian band Destroyer Poison season , they’ve been around a while and this is a brooding album maybe a sign of what happens when you are left to grow as a band not in the mainstream treadmill of producing what is expected .To me It like everything from the 70’s that was good chucked in a bag with a bit of Jazz and you’ve something very cool and unique .The other track I have been listening to is a taster from the long awaited new album by Robert Forester the former Go betweens sing hasn’t had an album out in seven years when he had the evangelist out an album which at the time I played to death seven years ago it was on a loop on my old ipod , so I’m pleased he is back with maybe a more country sound than then but still that voice  .Let me imagine you is a taster of his new album due out this week .I’ve also been listen to Ali Farka Toure old albums via spotify .

What you been listening too ?