Red Tin

Snow & Ice

2012-02-05T16:52:00.000Z

A wintery selection

December Duende

2011-12-15T11:47:00.002Z

Kitchen 646 menu

2011-12-15T11:45:00.002Z

Music from the Blue Pig II

2011-10-15T11:06:00.001+01:00

This is my set from the last Duende night at the Blue Pig recorded "live". I was playing vinyl through some archaic Bozac mixer of Craigs so not the usual set up for me. There's a quiet bit in the middle of Traffic's "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" where we had to turn the music down for the winner of the prize draw to be announced (it was a Dave someone, sadly not me, and as he wasn't in the club so the money is rolled over 'til next week - it must be mounting up now) - how rock 'n roll is that?

2011-08-29T18:04:00.001+01:00

I had a great time at Solfest largely thanks to the ever wonderful Dogs In Space tent.

For anyone who cares here's the track list from my Sunday afternoon Dogs In Space set:

Velvet Belly - This Mortal Coil

Woodpeckers Dream - Guru Guru

Absolutely Cuckoo - The Magnetic Fields

I Woke Up One Morning - The Rockingbirds

Peace in the valley - Alabama 3

Come To The Sabbat - Black Widow

Walking Spanish - Tom Waits

My Gal's a Jockey - Big Joe Turner

Bell Bottom Trousers - Jack Hylton & His Orchestra

Tent - The Bonzo Dog Band

Singin' In The Rain - John Martyn

Singin' In The Rain - Féloche

Whatever Lola Wants (Gotan Project Remix) - Sarah Vaughan

Countrymusicdisco45 - Jeb Loy Nichols

Bobby - Wooden Wand

Mercy Now - Mary Gauthier

The King Of Carrot Flowers Parts Two and Three - The Broken Family Band

I Don't Care If There's Cursing - Phosphorescent

Jackson - Johnny Cash/June Carter Cash

Seeds And Stems (Again) - Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen

Right On For The Darkness - Willie Wright

Strawberry Letter 23 - Shuggie Otis

Purple Haze - Johnny Jones And The King Casuals

Who Is He (And What Is He to You)(edit) - Bill Withers

Femme Fatale - Aloe Blacc

Pale Blue Eyes - Marisa Monte

Venus In Furs - Sendelica

Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground

Palaces of Montezuma - Grinderman

How To Be A Werewolf - Mogwai

Sequenced - The Field

African Drug (Four Tet remix) Bob Holroyd

Autobahn (cumbia merengue) - Señor Coconut and his Orchestra

The Perfumed Garden, Sunday morning

2011-07-17T12:55:00.001+01:00

Here's a selection of the tunes I played on Sunday morning in the Perfumed Garden tent at Beat-Herder 2011

Floral Dance

2011-05-30T17:29:00.000+01:00

A floral themed mini-mix to set the mood for the Perfumed Garden Pre Beat-Herder party at the Trades club in Hebden Bridge, this Friday June 3rd ....

It's got Fairport, M83, Animal Collective, The United States of America, Low and a couple of dodgy covers by The Lemonheads and The Fall ....
... and no Terry Wogan.

The Perfumed Garden at Beat-Herder

Music from the Blue Pig

2011-03-13T16:35:00.001Z

Here's a selection of the tunes I played at the last Duende night at the Blue Pig - all squished together in one lump - I hesitate to call it a mix as there wasn't really any mixing involved, just me trying to press the play button at the right time. It's a laid back selection of songs to ease people into the night. There are some old favourites in there as well as some new tunes ...

I'll put a track list up later for anyone who's interested.

Fuzzy Lights

2011-02-10T18:11:00.000Z

An album I forgot to mention in my half-arsed round-up of my favourites of 2010 was Twin Feathers by Fuzzy Lights. It has hints of 60s British folk mixed with post-rock style guitar drone and I've seen it described as having a subdued violence.
Anyway it's a gorgeous, haunting album - this track's a good place to start:

You can buy the album from Piccadilly Records here

William Tyler - Behold The Spirit

2011-02-08T22:56:00.002Z

William Tyler is a guitarist whose playing I know best from Lambchop but who's also played with Charlie Louvin, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Silver Jews, and Wooden Wand.
He now has a beautiful album out under his own name called Behold The Spirit.

The album mixes his guitar playing with field recordings, buzzes, hums and clicks as well as some bits of piano, strings and brass. It's a gorgeous thing and I suggest that after you've listened to this track that you go out and buy it.

Duende set list

2011-01-16T13:33:00.002Z

Thanks to Sam for the pic.

These are the tunes I played at the "Duende" night at the Blue Pig.

Intro and sound check
Rain on foliage - BBC Sound Effects
The Man Who Waters The Workers' Beer - Roy Harris with the Pump and Pluck Band
Wild Horse Of Stony Point - Black Twig Pickers
Femme Fatale - Aloe Blacc

Main set
Velvet Belly - This Mortal Coil
Lull IV; Can't Stop It Raining - Rachel Unthank & The Winterset
Muddy Water - The Seldom Scene
The Ellan Vannin Tragedy - Richard Hawley(Featuring Smoke Fairies)
The Pirate's Gospel - Alela Diane
Devil In The Details - The Broken Family Band
I Don't Care If There's Cursing - Phosphorescent
Jolene - Susanna & the Magical Orchestra
Expecting To Fly - Buffalo Springfield
Birdman: Birdman Flies! - McDonald & Giles
Singin' In The Rain - John Martyn
Horse Out In The Rain - Moby Grape
Postcards of Scarborough - Michael Chapman
Rituals - Fuzzy Lights
Half Light - Low
Rainmaker - Sparklehorse
Palaces of Montezuma - Grinderman
You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators
Return Of The Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons
Brouhaha - Vanessa And The O's
Hit the Ground Running - Smog

Odd tracks played later in the night
Hopping Down in Kent - The Albion Dance Band
Zebra - Beach House
Lucky 1 - Avey Tare
All the Pretty Little Horses - Coil
Pepper - Butthole Surfers
I Want to Be Evil - Eartha Kitt
I Need A Life (Four Tet Remix) - Born Ruffians
I'd Like That - XTC

Precipitation

2010-12-29T16:28:00.003Z

Here's the rain themed mix I've been threatening for a while...

It's just over an hour long and as usual it's an unholy mess of musical styles and it contains 3 versions of one song, but I think it hangs together. See what you think.

(Let me know if you want a track list)

My Three favourite albums of 2010 ...

2010-12-27T15:04:00.002Z

Again, I'm not saying "the best of ..." just my favourites.
First off is the obvious one - it seems to be somewhere in most of the Top 20 / 50 / 100 lists I've seen - but that's probably just because it's so good.
High Violet by The National
Matt Beringer's baritone voice just sends me and the album is peppered with gorgeous tunes to show it off at its best.
Here's "Little Faith" - any song with the lyric "we'll play nuns versus priests until somebody cries" is OK by me:

Next up is the Roky Erickson and Okkervil River collaboration "True Love Cast Out All Evil" that I've already gone on about on here. It's remained one of my favourites of the year. Here's Goodbye Sweet Dreams:

Buy it from Rough Trade

Micah P Hinson and the Pioneer Sabateurs

Last time I went to see Micah he played a lot of stuff from this album - just him and an acoustic guitar - and it demonstrated how strong the songs are. That said, What makes this album really special for me is the arrangements - strings, occasional off-kilter percussion and growling feedback guitar or echo laden bottle-neck make a great backdrop for his pained voice. At the gig he said that the album cover had caused a bit of a fuss - in the US people wanted to know why the woman had no clothes on and in the UK they wanted to know why she had a gun ....

Here's "Watchers, Tell Us Of The Night"

Buy it from Rough Trade

2010-12-25T18:53:00.001Z

Asian Jingle Bells.mp3

A Whole Bunch of Christmas Tunes

2010-12-25T09:35:00.012Z

I know it's late but I've been drinking beer and whisky and cooking (without cutting myself!), I've uploaded some christmas tunes - a bit different from the normal stuff - you can download the whole lot zipped up here -

This is they:

Child's Christmas In Wales - John Cale
Honky Tonk Christmas - Dale Watson
In the Bleak Midwinter - The Pipettes
Just Like Christmas - Low
Stone Soul Christmas - Binky Griptite
Little Drummer Boy - The Dandy Warhols
The Christmas Song - The Raveonettes
Frosty the Snowman - Leon Redbone
Jingle Bells (Dan The Automator Remix) - Dean Martin
I Hate Christmas - Sesame Street
Lucky Too - Bob Neuwirth
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Reverend Horton Heat
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Stuhr Remix) - Kay Starr
Joy To The World (Mocean Worker Remix) - Cathedral Brass
So Much Wine - The Handsome Family
The Christmas Orphan - John Shuttleworth
There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Baby, It's Cold Outside (Mulato Beat Remix) - Louis Armstrong, Velma Middleton
Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
Papa Ain't No Santa Claus (And Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree) - Butterbeans & Susie
Winter Wonderland - Moog Cookbook
All I Want For Christmas - Spike Jones & his City Slickers
Don't Shoot Me Santa - The Killers
Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) - Alan Jackson
We Dress Up Like Snowmen - The Wave Pictures
La Fille Du Pere Noel - Jacques Dutronc
Christmas in Vegas - Dale Watson

Phosphorescent

2010-12-19T14:35:00.000Z

A new discovery for me in 2010 was Matthew Houck who trades under the name Phosphorescent. I think my mate Lee over at Speakers Push Air turned me on to It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama) when he visited us on his trek North. And then I heard I Don't Care If There's Cursing on Marc Riley's Radio 6 show.
This year's Album is called "Here's To Taking It Easy" and apparently it's his 5th - so how I've missed him 'til now I don't know. There's just too much music out there - I can't keep up!

A Couple of Christmas Crackers

2010-12-19T12:46:00.004Z

When you hear Low's Just Like Christmas being used for BBC2's Christmas ad, it makes you think that maybe you aren't quite as out of step with the rest of the world as you thought you were, (until you see the declaration of the winner of "Strictly Come Dancing" makes headlines in the broadsheets that is).
Anyway, here's a couple of slightly less well known seasonal songs, maybe they'll get used on Radio 4 trailers next year ....

There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight

We Dress Up Like Snowmen

More from 2010

2010-12-19T11:35:00.003Z

A few of my old favourite artists have released new stuff this year:

For The Ghosts Within

Robert Wyatt brought out an album that mixes jazz standards and some new material. Wyatt's distinctive voice is accompanied by some beautiful string arrangements and Gilad Atzmon's alto sax and clarinet.
I'm sharing his version of What A Wonderful World here - it closes the album and is almost throw away in its simplicity so perhaps isn't the best way to represent the album, but it seemed right for the time of the year. Where Are They Now on the other hand has German rapping and its electronic swing beat reminds me of some of the Verve remix albums or the music from Belleville Rendezvous.

Invariable Heartache

Cortney Tidwell leads somewhat of a double life musically, producing some great shoe-gazy dance numbers (check out Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up and Watusii) and , as you'd expect from someone Nashville born and bred, some nice country tinged songs. Kurt Wagner's band Lambchop definitely lean towards the country side of things and have produced some sublime music over the years. Together, calling themselves "Kort", they have produced an album of country tunes from the 60s and 70s, emphasising, in their words, the songs' "the beauty and simplicity".
This is probably the most up-beat track from the album - Picking Wild Mountain Berries - but it's all good.

Long Live The Duke & The King

The Felice Brothers were one of my discoveries at the Primavera festival in Barcelona a few years ago and it was Simone Felice's showmanship that really made their live performance something special. His side project, The Duke & The King, seems to have taken over and the Felice Brothers are no more. This is the band's second album and they've really settled in to their stride. It's a great tumbling mix of country, soul, folk and 60s style rock with gorgeous C S N & Y style harmonies. Hard to pick a single track but here's Shaky with its great opening lines "Baghdad she's a mean old town / I get the feeling she don't want me around".

Not the best of 2010

2010-12-18T14:35:00.002Z

I'm not going to follow the music blogging herd and do a "Best Of 2010" list.
I did think I'd share some of my favourite stuff from 2010 though. Not a "Best of ..." by any means just a collection of music I've enjoyed over the past 12 months. In no particular order.

I'll kick off with the second Grinderman album, imaginatively called Grinderman 2. The single with the video below came out before the album and it's just brilliantly bonkers - you just knew the album was going to be good:

There's a great version called "Super Heathen Child" with Robert Fripp on guitar that's well worth seeking out. Having said all that I think my favourite track from the album is Palaces Of Montezuma

More later ....

Catalan style rabbit casserole

2010-11-28T13:18:00.006Z

(I find recipes really difficult to write so I hope this works OK - let me know if you spot any mistakes or have any suggestions for improvements)

Ingredients

1 rabbit, jointed

seasoned flour

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 carrot scrubbed, topped and tailed and roughly jobbed

1 stick of celery scrubbed and roughly chopped

1 smoked cooking chorizo chopped into 1 or 2cm chunks

1 small glass of fino sherry or glass of white wine

4 tomatoes skinned and quartered

about half a dozen juniper berries bashed about a bit

3 or 4 sprigs of thyme

Olive oil for frying.

Method

Dredge the rabbit pieces in the flour.

Gently fry the chorizo in a heavy casserole until the orange juice starts to run from it, remove from the pan and set aside and then fry the rabbit pieces until they brown and remove them from the pan and put with the chorizo.

Add a little more oil if needed and fry the vegetables, apart from the tomatoes, until they start to brown scraping the flour residue from the bottom of the pan as you go.

Add the wine/sherry to the pan, give it a good stir and then put the meat back in the pan with all the other ingredients. Add some water so everything is covered and season as necessary - the chorizo will add a salty, smoky taste so don't over do the salt.

Put it in a low oven about 150 C for 2 or 3 hours, preferably while you go down to the pub.

Bon Voyage ...

2010-11-09T12:32:00.002Z

... the piano has been drinking

*the image is a still from a short animated film by Jeff Desom

Bon Voyage 29

2010-11-04T20:21:00.000Z

Bon Voyage 28

2010-11-03T08:07:00.001Z

We're on to the drinking songs now ...

Bon Voyage 27

2010-10-26T19:58:00.000+01:00

7 Heures du Matin

Bon Voyage 26

2010-10-25T22:39:00.001+01:00