The limitations of a single CD’s worth of my favourite songs of the year inevitably mean that many of the tracks I really loved just miss out and this fills me with guilt.
This Bubbling Under playlist hopefully puts things right.
By that I mean, here’s the latest Kicker of Elves playlist:
The Playlist
The original mix I made also contained these three crackers that are not on yer spotify:
As always, we would urge you to seek out the songs you like and buy the physicality to support the artists.
Kicker of Elves and Chorizo Garbanzo continue to chew the fat and pick a dirty dozen of tracks that represent the best of their musical decades.
The physicality
Kicker’s choices came from these records (and one other):
Chorizo’s choices came from here:
For our selections from the year just gone, check out these little beauties:
https://trustthewizards.com/2019/12/27/podcast-89-kickers-best-of-2019/
https://trustthewizards.com/2020/01/04/podcast-90-chorizos-best-of-2019/
Like buses, you wait ages for a podcast and then 2 come along at once.
But that’s where the similarity between buses and our podcasts ends.
Unless that is you know of a bus packed full of quality tunes and mildly amusing chat.
Yes it’s the second of our end of year podcasts. This time around it’s Chorizo Garbanzo choosing his favourite songs of 2019 and discussing some of the 3 billion gigs he’s been to this year.
All aboard for episode 90. Please hold on, this bus is about to move.
Tracklisting for this podcast: (includes weblinks, if you like the music you’ve heard please support the artists & buy it like we did)
Related posts:
I’ve already done a summary of the gigs I went to in 2019. You can find that in Part 1 right here.
Hear lots of this music on my “best of the year” podcast coming to this site very soon.
Top 10 Favourite Albums of the Year
Favourite concept album of the year
The rest of my Top 30 albums of the year (in no particular order)
Favourite compilation album
Favourite EP
Keep Walking EP by Sports Team (2nd year in a row that Sports Team have made my favourite EP of the year!)
Runner-up: Town Centre EP by Squid
Favourite EP that I’m playing on!
2005 by pinkandblue
Favourite films
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs & The Ritual (both Netflix)
Favourite films with the Junior Chorizos
Like many people we’ve watched / re-watched loads of Marvel films in the run-up to the release of Avengers Endgame.
My favourites have been Thor, Thor Ragnarok, Captain Marvel & Guardians of the Galaxy. Endgame itself was of course fantastic too.
Favourite TV series
Re:Mind
Also enjoyed the documentaries Life Animated & The Dawn Wall (all Netflix)
Favourite podcast
I’ve loved Joni Mitchell’s early 70s albums since first hearing them as a teenager but I’ve never known much about her as a person. This impeccably researched podcast series told the story of her life and music in a fascinating way, using interview clips with Joni herself and all the other key players in her story. And what a story it is, even before she starts making music Joni has already had a more eventful life than most!
Great to hear the backstory behind so many of the songs I love as well as inspiring me to buy and fall in love with some of her later albums, Turbulent Indigo in particular.
Other recommended music podcast: The C86 Show
Other non-music podcasts: The Horror of Dolores Roach, Tunnel 29, Party Games
Favourite music book
I’m Not With The Band by Sylvia Patterson
Great to read an autobiography by a music journalist that is so full of enthusiasm for the job and so free of pretension and self-aggrandisement.
Runner-up: Anarchy in the Year Zero by Clinton Heylin. Extremely detailed and forensic rundown of the early days of punk.
Favourite non-music books
The Quarry & Transition, both by Iain Banks
I know these are both a few years old but I only got around to reading them this year. Transition is a bizarre trippy story with multiple narrators and timelines. The Quarry is much more straight-forward and is centred around 2 fantastically written main characters, a dysfunctional father and son.
It’s made me want to go back and fill in the gaps of all the other Banks books I didn’t read.
Related articles:
Most years I manage to get to around 20 gigs. This year I’ve more than doubled that ending up on 42, a number that’ll please any Douglas Adams or Mozart fans reading this. Actually it’s even more than that because I’ve not included any of the bands I’ve seen sharing the bill at my band’s gigs.
It’s been great fun and I’ve enjoyed them all so it seemed pretty pointless to try and rank them. Instead I’ll just list them in chronological order with a selection of not particularly good photos.
Just found this video on my phone. @sleafordmods doing "Stick In A Five And Go" at their Chester gig last April. pic.twitter.com/zpuKGVuFCz
— Trust the Wizards (@trustthewizards) January 3, 2020
"6 minutes of guitar solo mixed with existential despair"#ManicStreetPreachers Motorcycle Emptiness live at @O2RitzManc pic.twitter.com/a14YWJFEU4
— Trust the Wizards (@trustthewizards) May 20, 2019
Sacred Paws @ YES, Manchester
Graham Parker @ The Live Rooms, Chester (December 2019)
Exactly half the gigs (21) were in Manchester or Salford. There were 7 in Chester (not bad for a city that doesn’t have much of a gig scene) and 6 in Liverpool. The closure of the much-missed Central Station in Wrexham meant that I saw only 2 gigs in Wales this year.
Hello and thanks to all friends who’ve attended these gigs with me: Mrs Garbanzo, Kicker of Elves, Texas Paul, Matt, Rebel Rikkit, Tom a.k.a. Daysleeper, Jules, Glenys, Big Rick, Jeff, Pompey Mike, Comedy Paul, Kevin, Linda, The Lancashire Toreador, Tom W, Mr Fingers, Simon B, Nigel, Leslie, Ed, Jono, Susie, Jo K, Jo D & Jean-Paul.
Sorry to say that one of those friends sadly passed on before the year was through so this one goes out to her.
Related articles:
In 2019, I saw my favourite band play live for the first time in 20 years. The next day I met my musical hero in a record shop and then saw my favourite band play live for the first time in 24 hours. The rest of my musical year was pretty not bad either: I got to see the best Scottish band ever play just down the road, met another musical legend and bought far too many records than could ever really be justified.
dougside
From these records, I have narrowed it down to a CD’s worth (plus a couple of extras) to play to my fellow wizard Chorizo Garbanzo and at some point test him on his knowledge of musical punctuation – SPOILER: he does quite admirably.
You can listen to the whole shebang right here:
Alternatively, you can just imagine the whole thing with, no doubt, improved witty chat between songs by reading through the tracklist here:
Physicality
What all the cool kids are listening to…
If you enjoyed this podcast, watch out for a quick sharp follow up with Chorizo’s Best of 2019 soon upon us, and if you didn’t enjoy this one, you’ll be relieved to know the next one is much better.
Lists of more of my favourite stuff from 2019 can be found here:
https://trustthewizards.com/2019/12/20/kicker-of-elves-favourite-things-from-2019/
As is becoming tradition, let’s start with my favourite SONG OF THE YEAR (a full run down of all my favourite songs can be heard on one of our end of the year podcasts – the Kicker one). There perhaps isn’t a more suitable song for these uncertain times nor one quite as timely in quoting the late Bob Crow: “”Spit on your own and you can’t do anything, but if we all spit together we can drown the bastards.”
Thank you for still being here, Comet Gain.
Top 30 Albums
1 Guided By Voices – Sweating The Plague
2 Comet Gain – Fireraisers, Forever!
3 Richard Dawson – 2020
4 Kneeling In Piss – Tour De Force
5 Guided By Voices – Zeppelin Over China
6 Lankum – The Livelong Day
7 Fontaines D.C. – Dogrel
8 Von Hayes – Moderate Rock
9 Honey Radar – Ruby Puff Of Dust
10 David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights – Bobbie’s A Girl
11 Babybird – Photosynthesis
12 Guided By Voices – Warp And Woof
13 Tropical Fuck Storm – Braindrops
14 The Gotobeds – Debt Begins At 30
15 Robert Forster – Inferno
16 Bill Callahan – Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest
17 Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains
18 Aldous Harding – Designer
19 Lewsberg – Lewsberg
20 Smug Brothers – Attic Harvest
21 Craven Faults – Springhead Works / Nunroyd Works
22 Unhappy Fly – Unhappy Fly
23 Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage – Bad Wiring
24 Mekons – Deserted
25 The Delines – The Imperial
26 Alice Hubble – Polarlichter
27 Negativland – True False
28 The World Of Dust – Samsarax
29 75 Dollar Bill – I Was Real
30 Kitchen Cynics – Things We Pretend To Do
… and making up a top 50 albums, all of which you should own, are, in alphabetical order, 20 more:
Bitw – Bitw; Christian Fitness – You Are The Ambulance; Clinic – Wheeltappers And Shunters; Edwyn Collins – Badbea; Doubting Thomas Cruise Control – Incredible Mileage; Dust From 1000 Yrs – Born To Itch; Liam Hayes – Mirage Garage; Darren Hayman – 12 Astronauts; Steve Ignorant’s Slice Of Life – Don’t Turn Away; Joseph Airport – Diorama Pt. 2; Simon Joyner – Pocket Moon; Leafcutter John – Yes! Come Parade With Us; Mark Mulcahy – The Gus; Neutrals – Kebab Disco; Petersburg – Show; Possible Humans – Everybody Split; Smug Brothers – All Blur And Spark; Western Edges – Prowess; Faye Webster – Atlanta Millionaires Club; James Yorkston – The Route To The Harmonium
Top 10 Compilations
1 Lodger Doll Three – A Tribute To Guided By Voices and Bee Thousand (Almost Halloween Time Records)
2 Electrical Language – Independent British Synth Pop 78 -84 (Cherry Red)
3 Popcorn Lung: A Polytechnic Youth Collection
4 iNDEX06 (DiN)
5 The Moon And Back – One Small Step For Global Pop (WIAIWYA)
6 Outro Tempo II: Electronic and Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1984-1996 (Music From Memory)
7 The Watchers (A Year In The Country)
8 Positive Times Infinity: An Emotional Response Compilation
9 Electronic Sound Bulletin F
10 WitchMix (Burning Witches)
Top 10 EPs
1 Robyn Hitchcock / Andy Partridge – Planet England
2 Guided By Voices – Umlaut Over The Özone
3 Guided By Voices – 1901 Acid Rock
4 Lou Barlow – Over You
5 Fontaines D.C – Darklands Versions
6 Craven Faults – Lowfold Reworks
7 The Ocean Party – Nothing Grows
8 The Declining Winter – Return To Branch
9 Mzylkypop – Mzylkypop Presents Xzyles
10 Billordo – Yo Nunca Me Rendi
Top 10 Reissues / Re-pressings / Remixes / Not Strictly Speaking New Stuff
1 The Go-Betweens – G Stands For Go-Betweens: Anthology – Volume 2
2 Peter Jefferies – Last Ticket Home
3 Babybird – Happy Stupid Nothing
4 The Replacements – Dead Man’s Pop
5 Benjamin Shaw – Exciting Opportunities: A Collection of Singles and Sadness
6 The Springfields – Singles 1986 – 1991
7 Jim Shepard – Heavy Action
8 Jim Sullivan – If The Evening Were Dawn
9 The The – See Without Being Seen
10 The Delines – Scenic Sessions
Top 6 Live Albums
1 The Go-Betweens – Fountains Of Youth
2 Babybird – Live In Sheffield
3 Benjamin Shaw – Live At Donaufestival
4 The Necks – Live In Berlin
5 Neil Young & Stray Gators – Tuscaloosa
6 Hood – Live – 23 Avril 1995, Paris
Top 6 Gigs
1 Guided By Voices – Village Underground, London, 6 June
My favourite song by my favourite band. You can see what it means to me at 1’48”. Filmed by Nige Nudds.
2 Guided By Voices – Village Underground, London, 5 June
3 Robert Forster – Band On The Wall, Manchester, 16 May
4 Spare Snare – 81 Renshaw, Liverpool, 11 January
5 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, 9 July
6 The Delines/Those Pretty Wrongs – St Philip’s, Salford, 7 November
The Robert Pollard Annual Output Roundup
Not the most prolific year in Uncle Bob’s recording life, but, my god, the quality was high. Three stellar Guided By Voices albums (one a double) – all of which made my top 12 albums of the year. We also had 2 EPs – the tracks from which would later appear on Warp & Woof, and a third Cash Rivers & The Sinners album: Loose Shoes – this one supposedly a bootleg. There was also a Robert Pollard EP release: (Dislodge) The Immortal Orangemen, which accompanied the latest volume of Pollard art work in Eat 15, and a 7″ single of Heavy Like The World, which featured a non-LP B-side. In the wider GbVworld, we had a single from Eyelids: It’s About To Go Down featuring Chris Slusarenko, with the promise of a new album to come in 2020. Todd Tobias released his second album with Pat Moonchy called Atmosfere and had a book released detailing his involvement in Circus Devils. Doug Gillard also somehow found time to play on the debut album from Nicole Yun, the lead singer from Eternal Summers: Paper Suits, and a cover of Paul McCartney’s Backwards Traveller put out on Neil Hamburger‘s Still Dwelling album. He probably did loads of other stuff too, but as with much to do with GbV, it’s almost impossible to keep the fuck up.
Top 6 Music Related Books (Read This Year)
1 The Greatest Living Englishman – Martin Newell
2 A Fabulous Creation: How The LP Saved Our Lives – David Hepworth
3 Art Sex Music – Cosey Fanni Tutti
4 Have A Bleedin Guess – Paul Hanley
5 Circus Devils: See You Inside – Todd Tobias
6 Sleevenotes – David Gedge
Top 5 Music Films Seen (But Not Necessarily Released) This Year
1 Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
2 Marianne And Leonard – Words Of Love (Leonard Cohen)
3 The Wedding Present – Something Left Behind
4 Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story
5 The Curse Of The Chills
The Stephen Jones One Man Domination Of Record Shelf Space Award
Babybird – Photosynthesis / Dead / Not Pop / Black Ghost/Union Jack Ghost / Cigarette Candle / I Was Born Again / Toothpaste For The Soul / Jesus Loves You – The Christmas Album
Babybird – Happy Stupid Nothing / The B-Sides / Babybird 95-19 / The Self-Destructive Pleasures Of An Ex-Maniac / King Of Nothing: Extras / Live In Sheffield / Deranged Visual Delight
Arthritis Kid – I Am Not A Monster
Apple Android – Apple Android 2
Musical Discovery Of The Year
Alex Mussawir: Kneeling In Piss and his previous band, Future Nuns
Thanks to the legendary Bela Koe-Krompecher for the initial recommendation.
http://www.kneelinginpiss.com/
New Musical Source Of The Year
Home Assembly Music
Last year, I only owned one CD on this label, the Official World Cup Theme 2010 by The Declining Winter. This year, I have added:
Northener – I Am On Your Side, Yuri Lugovsky – S/T, Insecto – Post Edit De Un Cromosoma, Peptalk – Islet, A New Line (Related) – Our Lady Of Perpetual Fucking Succour, The Big Eyes Family Players – Oh!, Bracken – High Passes, Mahatma X – A Mobtown Suite Vol. 1, Fieldhead – We’ve All Been Swimming, Malk – Death From A Love, The Declining Winter – Belmont Slope, Northener – End Of The Holiday
And I still haven’t yet managed to catch up with the 2019 releases.
Favourite Music Related Moment (Outside of Everything Above)
On the record buying front, 2 of the albums pictured above – both the Kitchen Cynics and Joseph Airport – came with unique covers, both of which I love. I also now own my first 8” record – again thanks to Alan Cynic.
I was really exited to meet Jody Stephens this year and he is, as everyone who has met him knows, a wonderfully humble and generous human being.
But, in 2019, not only did I get to see Guided By Voices again, twice, I finally managed to meet Robert Pollard. In a record shop. In a fucking record shop. Robert Pollard. I can die happy now, which might just be as well as the end of the world feels very nigh indeed.
Please help support all the wonderful musicians mentioned in the lists above by searching out their records, CDs, tapes and downloads and BUYING THEM!!!
Steve Lamacq has been asking listeners to his 6Music show for their choices for favourite album of 1989. I’ve been really enjoying hearing lots of music from that year on his show so I think I must be pretty much his target audience for that kind of question!
In 1989 I was 18 and working at The HMV Shop. I passed my driving test which meant all of a sudden it was much easier to travel to gigs in Brighton / Portsmouth / Southampton / London etc. My first Glastonbury festival was also in 1989 (hear all about that on our most recent podcast)
If the Mercury Prize was held in 1989, which of these albums would you choose to win The Silvery Music Prize, and why?
📻 @steve_lamacq weekdays from 4pm. pic.twitter.com/C0XQd3H3Hj
— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) September 17, 2019
I’ve made a list of my own 25 favourite albums from that year. Not many surprises here for anyone that knows me! 24 of these are albums that I bought and loved at the time. Number 18 on the list is one that I’ve discovered and fallen in love with far more recently.
I’ve chosen a favourite song from each of these albums for the Spotify playlist at the bottom of the page.
25. Lincoln – They Might Be Giants
24. Avalon Sunset – Van Morrison
23. More Songs About Love And Hate – The Godfathers
22. Cosmic Thing – The B52s
21. Maria McKee – Maria McKee
20. Hope And Despair – Edwyn Collins
19. Earthquake Weather – Joe Strummer
18. The Enraged Will Inherit The Earth – McCarthy
17. Moss Side Story – Barry Adamson
16. This Time Around – Green On Red
15. Spike – Elvis Costello
14. Kite – Kirsty MacColl
13. Raw Like Sushi – Neneh Cherry
12. Indigo Girls – Indigo Girls
11. Disintegration – The Cure
10. Rei Momo – David Byrne
9. Here Today Tomorrow Next Week – The Sugarcubes
8. Love Is Hell – Kitchens of Distinction
7. Blind Man’s Zoo – 10,000 Maniacs
6. Don’t Stop The Night – Momus
5. The Sensual World – Kate Bush
4. Bizarro – The Wedding Present
3. Technique – New Order
2. Me & A Monkey On The Moon – Felt
1. Doolittle – Pixies
I saw 8 of those bands on tour supporting these albums
5 of the albums I chose are also on Steve Lamacq’s list of 12 (Neneh Cherry, New Order, The Cure, Kate Bush, Pixies)
Lancaster’s finest pan-galactic garage rockers Three Dimensional Tanx have got a new video out and we are most honoured to premiere it on our website.
Have a watch of it here then read our interview with video director Luke Woolley below.
CG: How did you get the job of making the video?
LW: I just asked them! I’m one of those people that still buys magazines like Mojo and Uncut. I stumbled across a review for 3D Tanx latest album so I bought that and asked them if I could make the video. I struck lucky as Richard was kind enough to reply and allow it to happen. He also donated his acting skills, although you may not have seen him as the band were in disguise as tortilla people, and in another clip, he was in a wig.
CG: What equipment did you use?
I am ashamed to say I’ve had to resort to my phone with the last couple I have made. My camera broke and I need some funds for some new kit. But in all fairness, its a decent camera and a good size, for fitting into the sets that I couldnt have done with my old camera (RIP). Also a lot of the videos i have been making are on a shoestring budget and luckily I have an 18 month son, so I robbed his toys for this particular video.
CG: Why did you choose that song?
Mainly down to the title,I came up with a sci fi idea based on a “chemical cubicle” (which I am now obliged to spell as “cubical” because I believe Spacey liked it that way and I can see why.)
I just pictured another galaxy within that cubical and they needed to bait Spacey into joining them in their astral plane.
CG: What are you favourite music videos?
A tricky one, earliest one that stuck in my mind would have been Sledgehammer. That video is a classic with the stop motion around Mr Gabriel’s Head and how long it must have taken. Michel Gondry’s videos are always great to watch, (e.g. Daft Punk, White Stripes). Also the Aphex Twin videos by Chris Cunningham. Recently I would have to say Tongues by Joywave was a great music video. That was by Daniels, who made the film Swiss Army Man.
I like seeing what directors interpretations of songs are. I imagine its nice for the band to see what other people see in their music too.
TTW: What would be your dream video project?
I’m just chuffed I have managed to make the ones I have so far! Especially because I’ve been making videos for the music that I like, so that definitely helps with the creative process. I have been lucky to make one for Jeffrey Lewis earlier this year, which was a bit of a dream project, as I have been a fan of his since the early 00’s. That should be out soon hopefully and I’m also making another one for him. I think I would have to say a video for Gruff Rhys, Pixies or Eels would be a bit of a dream job. Or The Kinks if they ever decide to chuck out a new album. But I reckon I’d need more of a budget for the old fellas. I think Ty Segall is great too. He would be good to work with as his music is quite varied between albums. But as long as I can keep making them, then I’m happy.
TTW: 3D Tanx have a lot of space travel in their lyrics. Do you think there’s life on other planets?
Definitely. I still think we are all aliens pissing off the natives to this earth; the trees, hence them going underground and working on something with their wee tentacle arms.
TTW: What do you think alien lifeforms look like?
I reckon they will look like slices of bread with different races being granary, white, sourdough etc.
CG: The sport of cricket. Is it any good or is it a load of bollocks?
I’m afraid cricket is bollocks. But genius, as its the best hobby man has invented, as you can just piss about in a field for hours and no one seems to care. I need to take up cricket.
Lots more of this kind of thing on Luke’s YouTube channel.
Also check out our interview with Three Dimensional Tanx here.
In the run-up to this year’s Glastonbury, it dawned on me that it was the 30th anniversary of my first ever visit to that festival. So I got together with a couple of my mates that went with me in 1989 to reminisce about the music, the experience and inevitably the toilets.
Thanks to my old pals Mr Fingers and Neil Neil Orange Peel for their help with this.
Full lineup shown here, click for full-size version.
Related posts:
In May our festival-loving wizard Chorizo Garbanzo went to Focus Wales and Dot To Dot.
Click below to hear him talking about that and playing songs by some of the bands he enjoyed.
Here are some not very good photos he took:
Band websites,
Buy their music! Go to their gigs!
Some more of our live review podcasts:
Some of our previous podcasts where we’ve played The Lovely Eggs:
As we start to put foolish things behind us (bye, football season that dared us to hope) and focus on what really matters (hello, cricket World Cup), it’s time for a quick catch up on the sorts of things our Kicker has had going through his head (apart from a real love for a 63 year old man, who might be about to break his heart).*
oh, the joys of summer
By that we mean, here’s the latest Kicker of Elves playlist:
The Playlist
As always, we would urge you to seek out the songs you like and buy the physicality to support the artists.
One of our favourite albums of 2018 has just been released on vinyl. “A Compulsion For Propulsion” by Three Dimensional Tanx is fast, psychedelic, melodic and a bit weird. All the things we love about great pop music really.
The Lancaster band are Sean (bass), Loz (drums), Spacey (vocals, organ, synths) and Richard (guitar, piano, synths) and those last two kindly took the time to answer some of our questions.
Listen to the album while you read the interview and then buy it when you’re done!
What was the first music you heard that made you want to play in a band?
Spacey: Usual cliched stuff – Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray, Modern Lovers, Stooges.
Richard: I used to watch Top of the Pops religiously as a child and leapt about ripping my school shirt open. I suppose the indie scene of the 90s was where I came of age, but I’d say the Velvet Underground, Stooges, the Doors and Love were the big ones for me at aged 15.
What was the first instrument you learnt to play? Did you have lessons or teach yourself?
Spacey: Piano in early teens but didn’t stick with it, hated piano practice more than homework.
Richard: Guitar – had lessons for a couple of years as a child – absolutely hated them. The teacher would play a classical piece, and I’d learn it by ear, pretend to read the music and find my way around. Had no interest in it whatsoever. I hated practising so much – I gave up and put the guitar in the loft, vowing never to play it again! A couple of years later, I got it back out of the loft and taught myself. Still teaching myself now, but it’s much easier these days thanks to YouTube etc.
For the new album, how fully formed were the songs and arrangements before you went in the studio? It sounds very “live”
Richard: A real mixture. A few had been gigged, and we had them in the bag really. Some were nearly there, then came together in the studio, A lot just need the vocals finalising.
Spacey: ‘Dwam’ was basically a jam with some overdubs.
Richard: The four of us all played live. We did 1-3 takes of each song, and used the best one. Vocals were added separately. Apart from vocals, most songs don’t have any overdubs at all – it’s just how we are
You worked with a different producer, Alan Gregson who’s got a lot of great Cornershop records on his CV. How was that?
Richard: I also play in Pill Fangs, and we’d recorded our first album with Alan. He was great to work with – really quick, open-minded and a good laugh. Importantly, we could record live and raw. So I knew he’d be great for 3D Tanx. On the first session we had with him, we recorded 9 songs in 5 hours. And the first 2 hours was just setting stuff up!
What items of food or drink were the most essential for re-fuelling during the recording of the album?
Spacey: Coffee (speaking personally)
Richard: Alan kept the coffee pot fully charged. Few beers, nothing too giddy. Possibly a different answer from Loz!
The retro keyboard sounds on all your records are phenomenally good. What kind of keyboards are you using?
Spacey: Philips Philicorda, Korg MicroKorg XL, beat-up old Casio.
Richard: On ‘His Latest Apparatus’ and ‘Racing Car #9’ I added acoustic upright piano, MicroKorg, Korg Monologue, and cheap early ’80s Yamaha and Casio analog synths.
Why the long delay between the CD / download release and the vinyl?
Spacey: Money!
Richard: Everything takes ages. Lots of prosaic reasons. For a start, vinyl is more expensive and harder to manufacture than CDs. All the artwork had to re-done…everything takes longer than you think.
What’s the meaning of the song title “Dwam”?
Richard: It’s a Scottish term meaning being relaxed/in a state of reverie, like in that blissful bit just before you fall to sleep.
There’s a backwards talking bit in that song which I listened to backwards and heard “the human race is in disgrace” Are there any other hidden messages on the album?
Spacey: Ha! I can’t fully remember – some was just the main lyrics spoken, then flipped around…”the human race is in disgrace” was one bit.
Where would you prefer people buy the album from?
Richard: From our Bandcamp page. Also, the LP can be bought direct from Sunstone Records. Other shops stocking us include Action Records, Probe Records, Dig Vinyl, Norman Records and Hey Day. Also Shiny Beast if you’re reading this in mainland Europe.
“Pink Spaceship” from your previous album is one of a handful of songs that has been played twice on our podcast! (Podcast 66 and Podcast 70)
There’s mentions of stars, satellites, galaxies and interplanetary beings on the new album. If there is life on other planets what form do you think it might take?
Richard: I like to think there might be life out there where idiots don’t make all the major decisions.
Imagine that humans have just made contact with alien life forms for the first time. You are given the job of choosing some human ambassadors from our planet to send to meet them in a pink spaceship. Who do you choose and why? You can also send an animal too if you like. But only one because I just made up a rule that says that.
Richard: Wow, is there anyone up to the task?! Possibly Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Caroline Lucas. If there was any chance they’d be sent into space and be lost up there, then Trump, May & Putin! No animals, they can’t say no.
Spacey: Our drummer is usually on another planet, he can meet ’em…with his cat Jasper.
Lancaster seems to have quite a lively music scene with several bands we love here at Trust the Wizards (yourselves, The Thyme Machine, Lovely Eggs, Mr Ben & The Bens) How much of that is because of the Lancaster Music co-op and what other factors are responsible?
Richard: There are loads of bands from our neck of the woods – maybe not your cup of tea, but bands like Massive Wagons and Eliminator who’re both signed and tour all over the place are from the Lancaster area. The one’s you’ve mentioned, plus Khamoon, TV Face, Stuart Anthony (who collaborates with Tim Buckley’s lyricist)
Also “the best songwriter you’ve never heard of” (Record Collector) Dan Haywood (New Hawks, Pill Fangs). [TTW: we’ve been listening to Pill Fangs recently and he’s right, they are brilliant!]
The Co-op definitely helps foster that talent, there’s also plenty of bands in their houses, garages, More Music (in Morecambe) and so on. The Northwest seems to generate a lot of bands – maybe out of frustration, desperation, anger?!
If you could magic yourself into any band past or present who would you choose and why?
Spacey: Ha! I think it’d be an experience being part of the Screamers.
Richard: Maybe to be play bass in the brief 5-piece incarnation of the Stooges – see Iggy in his prime, lock in with Rock Action on drums and witness Ron Asheton and James Williamson both on guitar. That would be pretty cool.
We will have a real cool time tonight!
And if you could magically recruit any other musician alive or dead and add them to the existing 3D Tanx lineup who would you choose and why?
Spacey: Lora Logic on sax and gurgleburps.
Richard: Hmmmm…maybe get Pharoah Sanders to play sax with us…or Ken Irwin from C.A, Quintet to play trumpet.
We’re coming to see you at The Castle Hotel in Manchester on 19th July. Where else can people see you live?
Richard: Check out our website for gig updates, we’re playing locally, plus psych festivals in Wales and Derbyshire, something in Leeds…
You’re in a caff ordering breakfast. You can have toast and your choice of tea or coffee. Then you’re allowed 4 more items. Go.
Spacey: 4 more coffees.
Richard: Coffee. Orange juice, beans, mushrooms, Quorn sausage.
Breakfast of Champions
Cricket. Is it any good or is it just bollocks?
Spacey: Not sure I have an opinion on the subject
Richard: I don’t like cricket…it’s bollocks.
Other interviews we’ve done:
Next week sees the release of the latest extraordinary album from Quiet Marauder. It’s a science fiction concept album about the discovery of a rip in the space time continuum. In Kent. It has 30 tracks and is narrated by the always wonderful Mathias Kom from The Burning Hell.
Hear songs from the album and various other hazy cosmic jive in our exclusive interview with Simon Read.
Listen on Soundcloud below or right-click this to download.
We strongly encourage you to buy Quiet Marauder’s music from Bubblewrap Collective website. Tour dates can be found on the same page. We’ll be going to the Manchester gig in June so see you at the bar.
Related articles:
As Liverpool v Bayern Munich ground to a goalless stalemate, the real entertainment was going on across town at Jacaranda Phase One. Chorizo Garbanzo walked through the storm with his held high to hear the sweet silver songs of Art Brut.
Listen below or download this to hear what he made of it all.
Here’s the podcast on Soundcloud.
Here are some of our photos.
Related posts:
It’s taken me a while to love Beak. Being a huge Portishead fan, I’d really wanted to like them. So I’d listened to their earlier albums but couldn’t really get into them. I remember hearing one particular track that just sounded like an old school dial up modem.
Last summer when the third album came out, I heard them play an amazing session on Marc Riley’s show and all of a sudden I was hooked. I’ve probably listened to that CD more than any other over the last 6 months.
But before we get to them let me tell you about Usé, one of the most unusual support acts I’ve seen in 30+ years of gig-going.
I was right at the very front as we waited for the support act to come on so I got a good look at the set up. A minimal drum kit and lots of cymbals at the very front of the stage. That’s promising. It’s not going to be yer standard run-of-the-mill guitar band or even worse some bloke with just an acoustic guitar. A battered looking electric guitar laid horizontally on a keyboard stand. Curiouser and curiouser.
The poster advertised a different support act. Maybe Wiegedood is German for “weird dude”?
Then Usé enters the arena, presses something on his laptop to get some weird beats and discordant noise going, walks purposefully up to the front of the stage, hits the guitar strings with the drumsticks a couple of times before sitting down on the stage. Why’s he sitting down? To take off his trousers of course. Didn’t see that coming did you?
This naturally begs the question if he needed to take his trousers off right at the very start, why didn’t he take them off before he got onstage? I guess the only logical answer to that is because the removal of the trousers must be part of the show. And what a show it is.
Usé live at Gorilla Manchester February 2019
Now sporting a grubby pair of thermal long johns and a Disney t-shirt, our hero proceeds to knock 7 shades of shit out of the drumkit. Blimey, he’s a really good drummer. There’s a lot of drone and a lot of repetitive beats and it all sounds pretty fantastic. We’re a very long way from the acceptable background music for dinner parties that the first Portishead album briefly became in the mid 90s. There’s singing going on here too. I think it might be French but we can’t really hear any of it above the general glorious racket of it all.
Usé’s album Selflic. Buy it from http://www.bornbadrecords.net/releases/bb107-use-selflic/
Then about 4 songs in, an old-fashioned slow chanson style number starts up. The t-shirt is removed but wait a minute, what’s going on here? He’s getting down from the stage to walk around amongst us lucky few down the front. This could be interesting.
Next he’s affectionately tousling the hair of people in the crowd. He’s hitting himself hard in the chest with the mike. He’s drooling saliva onto his own nipple and then rubbing it in suggestively. He seems quite intense. People aren’t quite sure whether to laugh or slowly back away.
Any relief the audience might have felt when he eventually went back up on the stage was short-lived because he then put his hand inside the long johns and wobbled his cock about until its semi-tumescent state was all too unpleasantly obvious through the flimsy material.
Then he mimed wanking off the mike cord and aggressively fellated the mike. He’s still singing the croony number by the way.
All of this reminded me of seeing The Cramps as a teenager. I was right down the front and I talked how equally exhilarating and terrifying this was way back on podcast number 8. Parts of Usé’s act echoed Lux Interior’s. As an audience you weren’t quite sure if he wanted to fuck you or kill you. Possilbly both and not necessarily in that order!
Lux Interior
Full marks to Usé for the vigorous performance of that croony one but it has to be said that the actual song was crap. Thankfully he soon got back to shouting incomprehensibly and whacking the fuck out of the drums and the guitar with the drumsticks.
But not just with the drumsticks, oh no. He’s taken Roger Daltrey’s trick of swinging the mike around in a big loop to the next level. As it swung downwards he bashed the cymbals with it. In time as well! Your move Roger.
Next thing you know there was a song that sounded like Front 242 remixing the Inspector Gadget theme. Another one with a weird lop-sided beat-skipping time signature (that was my favourite! check it out in the video below) Then he was kicking and stamping on the guitar until suddenly Jacko’s “Billie Jean” started playing and our hero strutted proudly off the stage. In his underwear.
Later during their set, Beak joked that taking “the maddest fucking Frenchman we could find” out on tour was their response to Brexit. He may well be a few baguettes short of a boulangerie but there’s no doubt that anyone who saw Usé is not going to forget it. A committed performance from a performer who should possibly be committed.
Beak kicked off their set with the same 2 tracks that start the most recent album. First the proggy instrumental “The Brazilian” followed by the Neu!-like “Brean Down.” As they finished that, drummer Geoff Barrow joked with the crowd that they “can all fuck off now we’ve played the hit.”
Throughout the gig both Barrow and bassist Billy Fuller were very funny and self-deprecating between the songs which was an unexpected bonus. I particularly enjoyed Fuller asking if there were any Man United fans in and then taunting them about Bristol City beating them in the League Cup last season. Also Barrow’s comment about the number of bald men in tonight’s audience: “It looks like a boiled egg convention out there!”
But really it was all about the music. Around half of the songs were from the new album. The relentless triplet bassline of the aptly named “RSI” was fantastic. But my favourite song of the evening was “When We Fall.” This starts softly with beautiful dual vocal and a repetitive guitar figure. Imagine if Robert Wyatt and Nick Drake harmonised together. But then the end section where the drums kick in, the synth starts playing this alternating pattern and the song takes off into another realm like Stereolab mixed with Love’s “Forever Changes”
They thanked the crowd for their reaction after that song finished and said usually that song doesn’t go down well at all which was quite surprising.
Barrow then told us he really didn’t want to play the next song “Broken Window” because he said it sounds like “test card music.” OK so maybe it does contain a few Jarre-fuls of retro keyboard sounds but I like them. And anyway the melodic bass riff is irresistible and reminds me of the “Get Carter” theme music.
They finished up with another instrumental “Blagdon Lake” whose tom-tom dominated rhythm and ominous repetition harked back The Cure’s “Pornography” and Stephen Morris’ brilliant drumming in Joy Division and early New Order. Very appropriate seeing as I walked down Tony Wilson Way to get to the car park after the gig.
You can and should buy Beak’s music from their Bandcamp page.
Also try and catch them on one of these upcoming tour dates.
Here’s a Spotify playlist of what they played.
Related posts:
Last week I went to see The Wave Pictures at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester. That was my 4th time seeing them at that venue and overall my 8th time seeing them in 3 and a bit years.
Why do I keep going back? One big reason is that no gig is ever the same. At last week’s gig they played a whole load of songs I’ve never heard them play live before. The setlist included songs from 2004’s CD-R release “The Hawaiian Open Mic Night” right up to their brilliant new album “Look Inside Your Heart.” Along the way they played some of my all-time favourites like “Frogs Sing Loudly In The Ditches” and “Just Like A Drummer” before finishing the night with a crowd singalong to “Never Go Home Again.”
As well as the ever-changing sets there is the bandmembers themselves who just seem to get better and better. Singer / guitarist David directs operations with an impromptu shout of “bass solo” or “drum solo” and his compadres Jonny and Franic just conjure up a stunning solo on the spot.
At Indietracks last summer, I got talking to another Wave Pictures fanatic called Tom, the creator of a great fanzine called Back of the Gig. One issue is dedicated to his favourite similes in Wave Pictures lyrics. I really enjoyed reading that so I said that in response I would write a blog post of the 10 favourite Wave Pictures guitar solos. It was too difficult to narrow it down to 10 so I’ve ended up with 30.
To make the task easier I’ve only included electric guitar solos so nothing from the acoustic albums here. Plus I’ve only considered the studio versions so no radio session tracks or live versions off YouTube. That’s a pity in some ways because there are some blisteringly great solos on some of those. For example, the original version of “Sleepy Eye” doesn’t have a particularly interesting guitar solo but when it’s played live, well just see for yourself.
We tweeted this list a couple of weeks ago with the snappy hashtag #Top30WavePicturesGuitarSolos
Anyhow let’s get on with it shall we, here’s my top 30.
30. Give Me A Second Chance
Appears on: Long Black Cars (2012)
Key: Am
29. The Fire Alarm
Appears on: Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon (2015)
Key: Am
28. Newcastle Rain
Appears on: Bamboo Diner In The Rain (2012)
Key: Em
27. Sea On The Full Moon
Appears on: Catching Light: The Songs of Andre Herman Dune (2006)
Key: F#m
26. Before This Day
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: G
25. Epping Forest
Appears on: Beer In The Breakers (2011)
Key: Bm
24. Now You Are Pregnant
Appears on: Jonny Huddersfield Helm Sings (2010)
Key: A
23. Never Go Home Again
Appears on: Long Black Cars (2012)
Key: G
22. Little Surprise
Appears on: Beer In The Breakers (2011)
Key: D
21. Cinnamon Baby
Appears on: Sweetheart EP (2010)
Key: F#m
(not available on Bandcamp)
20. Sinister Purpose
Appears on: Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon (2015)
Key: Em
19. Stay Here and Take Care of the Chickens
Appears on: Long Black Cars (2012)
Key: Dm
18. Panama Hat
Appears on: Bamboo Diner in the Rain (2016)
Key: Em (ish)
17. Eskimo Kiss
Appears on: Long Black Cars (2012)
Key: Dm
16. Kittens
Appears on: Sweetheart EP (2010)
Key: Gm
(not available on Bandcamp)
15. Roosevelt Sykes
Appears on: Look Inside Your Heart (2018)
Key: G
14. The Ropes
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: Gm
13. Pale Thin Lips
Appears on: Beer In The Breakers (2011)
Key: D
12. The Running Man
Appears on: Bamboo Diner In The Rain (2016)
Key: Em
11. The Yellow Roses
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: Em
10. Goodbye Spiderman
Appears on: Look Inside My Heart (2018)
Key: G
9. Coconut Tree
Appears on: Helen (2014)
Key: G
(not available on Bandcamp)
8. Red Cloud Road (Part 2)
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: G
7. Seagulls
Appears on: Long Black Cars (2012)
Key: G
6. Better To Have Loved
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: Dm
5. Orange Juice
Appears on: Orange Juice by Stanley Brinks & The Wave Pictures (2014)
Key: A
4. Walk The Back Stairs Quiet
Appears on: Beer In The Breakers (2011)
Key: Em
3. All My Friends
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: Dm
2. Instant Coffee Baby
Appears on: Instant Coffee Baby (2008)
Key: C
1. Lisbon
Appears on: City Forgiveness (2013)
Key: G
Here’s a live version from 2016.
Bonus track: Tiny Craters In The Sand
(my favourite Franic Rozycki bass solo)
Appears on: If You Leave It Alone (2009)
Key: Em
Watch this space, I might put a bar chart here. That’ll get you rushing back I’m sure.
Left to right: Jonny Helm (drums), David Tattersall (guitar), Franic Rozycki (bass)
Buy The Wave Pictures music and go to see them live. They will knock yer socks off!
They’re playing Koko in London next week and more tour dates in March.
Click here for the details.
Related posts:
On my first playlist of the year, I wanted to round up a bunch of songs that I really liked from 2018, but that I couldn’t squeeze into my Best of 2018 podcast.
the future looks bright
Some of these can be heard on Spotify…
and some of them can’t…
This is the order I think they work best in…
There’s something extraordinary going on in Lincolnshire next month.
Four musicians are heading to a remote cottage to record an album. They are going to record, produce and release a song every 2 hours on the hour. All the songs will be deleted forever at 9 a.m. on the Monday morning.
The disposable heroes behind this ingenious project are John MOuse and his long-time collaborator P.Pearce. These are the same pair responsible for one of 2018’s most idiosyncratic and intriguing albums “Replica Figures” [check out our review]
Initially MOuse challenged Pearce to record an album in a weekend, only for Pearce to add in some additional rules “in response to the disposability and instant gratification we now expect as music consumers.”
When asked how much prior preparation was being done, MOuse told Trust the Wizards “I am writing a bunch of stories to use lyrics from, and I know that Phil is putting together some drum sequences and synth lines as guides that we may then use or just scrap.”
The 4 musicians will be alone in the house except for Rhiannon Davies and Julie Prance who will be filming, taking photos and streaming stuff live alongside creating artwork for each song.
Other than that MOuse explains “we will be armed with nothing more than the bones of previous working relationships and the crisp winter Fens air.”
It all takes place the weekend of 16th/17th February and you can follow this wonderfully creative project using the links below.
John MOuse is also playing live supporting one of our favourite bands The Wave Pictures in Bristol on 29th January.
This weekend sees a little bit of 40 Watt Club, Athens GA coming to The Harlequin Theatre, Northwich Cheshire. Tribute band Stipe are playing a hometown gig. Tickets sold out weeks ago and I’m going with my mate Tom a.k.a Daysleeper.
Last weekend over a few drinks Tom and I talked about the passion we have for the band and discussed what songs we’d most like to hear Stipe play. Trying to narrow it down to 20 songs each was like pushing an elephant up the stairs so we ended up with 32 songs each.
My fellow wizard Kicker also loves a bit of listmaking so I got him involved as well.
We’re gonna DJ with these.
| Tom a.k.a. Daysleeper | Kicker of Elves | Chorizo Garbanzo |
| 5 songs chosen by all 3 of us World Leader Pretend Fall On Me Perfect Circle It’s The End Of The World Losing My Religion |
||
| Can’t Get There From Here Country Feedback Driver 8 |
Can’t Get There From Here Country Feedback Driver 8 |
|
| Electrolite Daysleeper I Believe At My Most Beautiful The Great Beyond The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite Near Wild Heaven Everybody Hurts |
Electrolite Daysleeper I Believe At My Most Beautiful The Great Beyond The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite Near Wild Heaven Everybody Hurts |
|
| Hairshirt These Days So. Central Rain Talk About The Passion Exhuming McCarthy Sitting Still Orange Crush Cuyahoga |
Hairshirt These Days So. Central Rain Talk About The Passion Exhuming McCarthy Sitting Still Orange Crush Cuyahoga |
|
| Find the River Nightswimming I’ll Take The Rain Half A World Away What’s The Frequency Kenneth? All The Way To Reno Strange Currencies Man On The Moon So Fast So Numb Shiny Happy People Ignoreland Imitation of Life Tongue Let Me In Stand |
The One I Love King Of Birds Superman Radio Free Europe (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville Turn You Inside-Out Finest Worksong Catapult Oddfellows Local 151 Wolves, Lower Carnival Of Sorts (Box Car) Crazy (Pylon cover) Begin The Begin Gardening At Night Pilgrimage Swan Swan H |
Leaving New York Pretty Persuasion Belong Lightnin’ Hopkins Laughing You Are The Everything Disturbance At The Heron House Texarkana Fretless Leave Get Up |
What was that you said? Have you got this information in a Venn diagram? Well, since you ask. Click to see full-size version.
It has been said that we wizards are the ones who put the anal into analysis so we won’t go into too much detail on what the results of this survey show but here are a few headlines:
Let us know what you think of our selections. Vote in our poll to tell us which of those is your favourite of the 5 songs that were chosen by all 3 of us.
Stipe are playing loads of gigs all over the UK in 2019, tour dates right here.
Meanwhile remind yourself of just how brilliant R.E.M. were with this playlist of all the songs we’ve chosen.
Here’s podcast 86, our 2nd and final end of year round-up for 2018. Chorizo Garbanzo has selected 25 tracks featuring musicians from Finland, Israel, USA, France, Uruguay and St Neots!
Download here or have a listen below.
Related articles:
A selection of CDs I’ve bought this year
Coming soon to this very website, podcast number 85 featuring lots of my favourite songs released in 2018. In the meantime have some of this!
Favourite Albums of the Year – The Top 10
Another 20 favourite albums (in no particular order)
Arrhythmia by Stuart A. Staples
Megadoze by R. Seiliog
The Deconstruction by Eels
Look Now by Elvis Costello
A Compulsion for Propulsion by Three Dimensional Tanx
It’s Hard To Be Happy When You’re Head Is Full of Sin by Equinox
Fire Behind The Curtain by Adam Stafford [read our review]
Endless Scroll by Bodega
This is Eggland by The Lovely Eggs
Stop Start by Liines
Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman
A Long Engagement by Nickodemus
The Official Body by Shopping
No-One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your F**king Hedge Cut by Half Man Half Biscuit
Adverts by Peter Harris
Roadrunners by Eureka California
Sounds by Spare Snare
Sleepers Wake by Percy [read our review]
Replica Figures by John MOuse [read our review]
Silver Dollar Moment by The Orielles
Look Inside Your Heart by The Wave Pictures
Favourite EP
Winter Nets EP by Sports Team
Runner-ups:
EP C by Gabe Knox
Take Me All Over The World by The Yearning
Stick in a Five and Go by Sleaford Mods
Squirrel Away the Summer by Charmpit
Huw Stephens Session by The Wedding Present
Collapse EP by Aphex Twin
Festival fever!
I went to 2 festivals this year and both were brilliant.
In May, I went to the Manchester leg of the Dot 2 Dot festival. 1 day, 150 bands, 20 venues across the city. I think I saw about 10 bands.
Highlights were Kyle Craft, Sports Team and Dude York.
Then in July I went to Indietracks in Ripley, Derbyshire.
Highlights: Melenas, Sacred Paws, The Lovely Eggs, Anna Burch, French Boutik, Wolf Girl.
Favourite gigs of the year
Instead of trying choose favourites and put them in some kind of arbitrary order, here’s a chronological list of all the gigs I went to in 2018. I loved every one of them!
The Wedding Present @ The Leadmill, Sheffield (3rd February)
The Wind Up Birds @ The Old Town House, Warrington (9th February)
The Wave Pictures @ Telford’s Warehouse, Chester (8th March)
Jeffrey Lewis @ Leaf, Liverpool (4th April)
Manic Street Preachers @ Venue Cymru Llandudno (1st May)
The 99 Degree, Circus Wolves, Paper Buoys @ The Gladstone Club, Northwich (18th May) [review here]
Billordo @ Cherry Dance, Brescia, Italy (30th May)
Ty Segall Band @ Gorilla, Manchester (5th June)
The Wave Pictures @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester (17th June)
Bodega @ Birkenhead Library (8th July)
Lost Horizons @ Old Granada Studios, Manchester (21st July) [watch gig here]
The Wedding Present @ The Live Rooms, Chester (23rd July)
The Burning Hell @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (2nd August)
Grotbags + Crumbs + Cowtown @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (5th August)
Electric Six @ The Live Rooms, Chester (6th September)
Peach Fuzz + The Vryll Society @ Soup Kitchen (16th October)
Ash + Death By Unga Bunga @ O2 Ritz, Manchester (23rd October)
Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip @ Pyramid Centre, Warrington (2nd November)
Jah 9 @ Band on the Wall, Manchester (20th November)
Of Arrowe Hill @ Dublin Castle, Camden, London (24th November)
Favourite films
Mandy (bizarre trippy horror film with Nicolas Cage and an amazing soundtrack, definitely not a date movie!)
Ghost Stories (brilliantly written and performed and as it says on the poster the best British horror for years.)
Didn’t come out this year but I also really liked Burn Burn Burn (2015).
Favourite films with Chorizo Jnr
Wreck It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet
new version of The Grinch
Favourite TV series
Godless
Also enjoyed American Vandal series 2 and documentaries Wiener, Tower and Atari Game Over (all Netflix)
Favourite podcasts
Serial (series 3, the best series yet)
Favourite music book
Cured by Lol Tolhurst
I read a lot of musician biographies but this one really stood out. The book is especially good at portraying the friendship between Lol and Robert Smith which starts on the first day of school. Unlike many biographies, there is a lot of interesting detail about the making of the records and the thinking behind various changes in sound that the band went through. Lol comes across as a thoroughly likeable bloke and after he leaves the band and falls out with Smith you find yourself desperately rooting for a happy ending.
Favourite non-music book
Classic Scrapes by James Acaster
Also really enjoyed his trilogy of stand-up shows Repertoire
Related articles:
An unexpected (and, frankly, unwanted) guest kick-starts this podcast by unceremoniously interrupting Kicker’s filthy secret and encouraging him to play his favourite songs of the year.
As well as an aural smorgasbord of delight, we also get to hear one of Chorizo’s best ever musical anecdotes, and there’s a quiz! Yes, a quiz!!
sing along everyone
You can tune in by clicking on the thing below this sentence for a full 90 minutes (plus extra time) of end to end action.
Alternatively, you can just imagine the whole thing with, no doubt, improved witty chat between songs by reading through the tracklist here:
Physicality
What all the cool kids are wearing…
What all the cool kids are listening to…
If you enjoyed this podcast, watch out for a quick sharp follow up with Chorizo’s Best of 2018 soon upon us, and if you didn’t enjoy this one, you’ll be relieved to know the next one is much better.
Guided By Voices released two 7″ EPs in November 2018, the second of these being the rather brilliantly entitled 100 Dougs.
more mr gillards than you can shake a stick at
This release meant that Robert Pollard has, at time of writing, released one hundred* 7″ records under various band names, starting with 1993’s The Grand Hour EP.
10 x 10 is…
Should Uncle Bob wish to put together a companion piece to last year’s coffee-table book of 100 album covers (front and back) – as discussed here – this, with a bit of imagination, is what it might look like:
The 100:
A playlist with (most of) the songs from the 100 releases
* I made the executive decision not to include split singles other than those that only feature Robert Pollard-led bands e.g. Cruise/Nightwalker – the other fifteen 7″ records released, but not included in the video are:
split the difference
Some of them can be heard here, on what I reckon is a pretty neat little playlist (featuring as it does at least two of my all-time favourite GBV songs):
Many thanks, as always, to the indispensable Guided By Voices Database and my favourite vinyl pushers at (Long Live) Rockathon.
Please post your favourite A-side and B-side combination below. How about this to start?
I Am A Scientist b/w Real
A quick run down of all the things that most pleased me over the last 12 months (excluding a certain 63 year old Argentinian).
Starting with my favourite SONG OF THE YEAR (a full run down of all my favourite songs can be heard on a forthcoming podcast), and congratulations to Benjamin Shaw, whose mood may well be very slightly lightened with news of this great honour. Or not.
Top 25 Albums
1 Guided By Voices – Space Gun
a modern day classic
2 Spare Snare – ‘Sounds’
so good I bought it seven times
3 The Ocean Party – The Oddfellows’ Hall
a fitting tribute to the sadly departed Zac Denton
4 Benjamin Shaw – Megadead
the sound of man picking seeds from his skull
5 The Coke Dares – Fake Lake
jam-packed with hits
6 The Breeders – All Nerve
7 RVG – A Quality Of Mercy
8 Interrobang‽ – Interrobang‽
9 The Monochrome Set – Maiseworld
10 The Goon Sax – We’re Not Talking
11 Astral Swans – Strange Prison
12 Half Man Half Biscuit – No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut
13 The Astounds – Get Alright With The Astounds
14 The Moles — Code Word
15 The Gentleman Losers – Permanently Midnight
16 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
17 Cash Rivers & The Sinners – Do Not Try To Adjust Your Set, I Am The Vertical & Horizontal
18 Schizo Fun Addict – El Shoegaze Bossa Nova
19 Rick Rude – Verb For Dreaming
20 Concretism – For Concrete And Country
21 Trace Mountains – Partner To Lean On
22 Bas Jan – Yes I Jan
23 JD Meatyard – The Batchain Pullers
24 Dust From 1000 Yrs – A Sweet Thing Turns Sour
25 of Arrowe Hill – Domestic Espionage
… and making up a top 50 albums, all of which you should own, are, in alphabetical order, 25 more:
The Advisory Circle – Ways of Seeing, Amen Dunes – Freedom, Babybird – You And Me Is Wrong / Selfies Inside The Coffin / Happy Face/Sad Face, The Charlemagnes – Three Chords And A Half-Truth, The Chills – Snow Bound, The Cleaners From Venus – Life In A Time Machine, The Declining Winter – Belmont Slope, epic45 – Through Broken Summer, Eureka California – Roadrunners , Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals – Tunguska Tydfil, Hello Whirled – Tear The Night Apart , Kristin Hersh – Possible Dust Clouds, Holy Tunics – Butter Dish, Les Big Byrd – Iran Iraq IKEA, Simon Love – “Sincerely, S. Love x”, The Lovely Eggs – Eggland , Low – Double Negative , The Lucid Dream – Actualisation, Madensuyu – Current, Ben Mason – Dogs N Yaaa, Mudhoney – Digital Garbage, Mythical Motors – Elevated Levels, Von Hayes – You Vape?, Wreckless Eric – Construction Time And Demolition, Yo La Tengo – There’s A Riot Going On
Best Compilations
1 Sarah Artists Compilation (Emotional Response)
2 The Bedroom Tapes (Minimal Wave)
3 The Beginning Of The End: The Existential Psychodrama In Country Music (1956-1974) (The Iron Mountain Analogue Research Facility)
4 Communion (Burning Witches Records)
5 Space Is The Plaice (Pussyfoot Records)
Top EPs
1 Wurld Series – Stately and Befrothed
2 The Ocean Party – I.B.O. EP
3 Guided By Voices – Winecork Stonehenge / 100 Dougs
4 Roger Gerressen – Yauch EP
5 Thee Mightees – Let’s Look At Thee Mightees
Top 5 Reissues / Re-pressings / Not Strictly Speaking New Stuff
1 Boyracer – Fling Yr Bonnet Over The Windmill
2 The Monochrome Set – 1979-1985: Complete Recordings
3 This Kind Of Punishment – This Kind Of Punishment / A Beard Of Bees
4 Robert Storey – Come Up And Hear My Etchings
5 Even As We Speak – Feral Pop Frenzy
Top Live Albums
1 Babybird – The St. Pancras Old Church Live Album
2 Guided By Voices – Ogre’s Trumpet
3 Mount Eerie – (after)
The Robert Pollard Annual Output Roundup
The remarkable and indispensable Guided By Voices Database (15 years old this year!!) details a dozen releases from the Pollard camp in 2018 with two albums (one a phenomenal double) from the Cash Rivers & The Sinners alter-ego: Blue Balls Lincoln and Do Not Try To Adjust Your Set I Am The Vertical And The Horizontal. There were three Guided By Voices singles: See My Field, That’s Good, and You Own The Night , two further EPs: Winecork Stonehenge and 100 Dougs and, two full LPs – Space Gun and the double live album Ogre’s Trumpet. The database lists Todd Tobias‘s Massabu Evening Entertainments, but he also released the album Amialluma with Chloë March and the self-titled Moonchy & Tobias with, er, Moonchy. Meanwhile Doug Gillard was all over the Neko Case album Hell-On, Tobin Sprout snuck out a digital only release of the song Supersonic Chairman, and Chris Slusarenko’s band, Eyelids, released their third LP, Maybe More. Robert Pollard also helpfully typed up a release schedule for next year that already includes a double LP, two single LPs, two more EPs, and a range of reissues. So that’s good.
The Bobby Pop Award For Prolificacy
Remarkably , we have the same top three as in 2017 and I have honestly lost count of the number of songs I now have squirrelled away from these artists.
2. Stephen Jones: 212 (+43) = 255 (Arthritis Kid, Babybird, Wayz2Die, Apple Android, Stephen Jones)
3. Robert Pollard: 125 + (25) = 150 (Cash Rivers & The Sinners, Guided By Voices)
Top 5 Music Related Books (Read This Year)
1 Closer You Are: The Story Of Robert Pollard & Guided By Voices – Matthew Cutter
2 It’s Lovely To Be Here: The Touring Diaries Of A Scottish Gent – James Yorkston
3 Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & The The – Neil Fraser
4 Popkiss: The Life & Afterlife Of Sarah Records – Michael White
5 A Novel for Lazy Readers – An Antidote to the Headache of BBC Radio 4 – David R Edwards
Top Musical Film
The Slits – Here To Be Heard
Musical Discovery Of The Year
Dust From 1000 Years
Top 10 Gigs
1 Spare Snare – Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 18th August
2 Babybird – Deaf Institute, Manchester, 17 May & Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 30 November
3 They Might Be Giants – O2 Academy, Manchester, 4 October
4 Even As We Speak & Boyracer – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 21 July
5 Euroheedfest 8 – Stag’s Head Hoxton, London, 7 April
6 The Flight Of The Conchords – Echo Arena, Liverpool, 25 June
7 Jeffrey Lewis & JD Meatyard – The Leaf, Liverpool, 4 April
8 Chuck Prophet & Stephanie Finch – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 20 September
9 Belle & Sebastian – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 19 March
10 Shonen Knife – Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 21 April
In a very pleasing development I attended five of my top ten gigs with my son (not to mention a number of Leeds United home matches). Good lad, Kicker Jr.
New Musical Source Of The Year
46-30 Podcast – James Yorkston & Stephen Marshall (Triassic Tusk Records)
Musical Quote Of The Year
Never mind quotes, I’m in a proper musician’s video….
Favourite Music Related Moment (Outside of Everything Above)
Playing the Papernut Cambridge – Outstairs Instairs LP side A from the centre out. Every time it makes me smile.
