Jem's Music blog does just what it says on the tin - it's all about music. Stuff he's listening to, bands he's seen, bands you ought to see and listen to, and anything else he wants to talk about - all music related.
Vancouver's 'No Sinner', fronted by Colleen Rennison release their debut album on January 20 on Provogue. Absolutely one to watch out for in 2014; 'Boo Hoo Hoo' is the title track and totally my Christmas theme toon this year. Brilliant!
[Useless fact of the day - 'No Sinner' is 'Rennison' in reverse]
Thursday evening - 19 December 2013 and Brighton's North Laine Brewery was packed. Lots of people in various states of sobriety (or not) and us. Set the scene well for a raucous evening hosted by the ever lively Dr Bluegrass and the Illbilly Eight (or 'four' to be be fair). Not that reduced numbers made any difference. For tonight was for dancing (inside and out), frivolity and merriment. Sam Salter's banjo, Tom Bailey's rhythm guitar, Tom Clarke's double bass, Bryony Devitt's violin and all four's dulcet vocals combined to leave a very receptive audience shouting for more. Not to disappoint the band led an impromptu Seasonal outside encore with 'The Fairytale of New York'. Excellent stuff.
What Brighton's Prince Albert lacks in size, it more than makes up for in ambience; a Mok gig there is always going to be a cracker - and the Christmas Party gig on 13.12.13 was absolutely no exception. Admirably supported by the multi-talented Sounds of Harlowe, Mok stormed their way through a blistering setlist which started as it meant to continue. 'I knew it' kicked things off. Past classics like 'Hey' and 'Monstaz' followed, the recent single 'Rufio', the subliminal 'Dave' and, as if the evening needed any improvement, the thaumaturgic 'Dragon' to finish. Mok smashed it. Roll on 2014 for more of the same.
Find out just how good Mok are by checking out 'Mokmusic-1' on Soundcloud.
I'm not even going to attempt to find the words to try and describe how good this gig was other than it was by far the best £35 I've spent in a very long time.
Headlining at Brighton's 'The Haunt' on 14 September, Mok were on finest form, taking the almost full house through a barnstorming one hour set which left everyone wanting more. For me, the highlight was the mid-set mash-up featuring kick-lines from the likes of The Prodigy and Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' - bought tears to my eyes, it did! New songs 'On the run', 'Slow motion' and 'Massage Baby?' combined with old faves like 'Rufio' and 'Dragon' builds Mok's repertoire to formiddable levels. Rockon Mokrok. More of the same please!
I have at last rescued my turntable from the loft so that I can re-discover some of my vinyl gems. Most of the discs need a really good dust-off, but the pleasure of that crackle and pop is an audio joy. Co-incidentally I find that two of my good friends have recently done the same. Something of a vinyl revival going on here!
One of my first digitisations is this rarity - '2 Faced' from No Dice. Released in 1979, it was the band's second album. Nine tracks of R&B brilliance, particularly 'Come Dancing' and 'If you had nothing'. 'Come Dancing' is up there in my top fifty tracks of all time.
Unfortnately though, the album was trashed by the music press at the time which was a death knoll for the band. There would be no follow-up and no digital pressings. No Dice folded a couple of years later.
This matters naught to me of course - '2 faced' remains a brilliant album - excellent on vinyl but now, thanks to my CD recorder, digitised to CD and MP3.
Took a trip to Leigh-on-Sea on 29 August to see some good friends. Whilst there, Richard Baxter took me to the Lee Brilleaux bench - a proud moment indeed. Earlier - whilst having lunch in Old Leigh, Wilco Johnson walked by. All in all - a bit of a 'feelgood' day!
This is the cover of a CD compilation I put together for a Swiss gentleman recently who had no knowledge or experience of popular music culture. Full stop! A real challenge on the track choice, but here's what I included - Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water, En Vogue : Free your mind, Stevie Wonder : Superstition, Neil Young: After the Goldrush, The Zombies: She's not there, Talking Heads: Once in a lifetime, The Beatles: She loves you, The Rolling Stones: Brown Sugar, Led Zeppelin: Whole lotta love, The Beat: Twist n Crawl, Michael Jackson: Billie Jean, Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus, Emili Sande: Clown, Blur: Parklife, Suzanne Vega: Marlene on the wall, Cat Stevens: Moonshadow, Lulu: Shout, Paulo Nutini: Pencil full of lead, David Bowie: The man who sold the world, and Free: All Right Now. A sad testament for a 30-year old, but my hope is that this will go some way to setting things right! "Where words fail, music speaks" is a quote from Hans Christian Anderson. Words failed me at the admission, so I'll just let the music speak. It's always worked for me!
OK - here's the final part of this series and the song choices for days 17 through 31.
[17] 2-TONE: The Beat's 'Twist & Crawl' [18] MOTOWN: Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' [19] GRUNGE: Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' [20] AMERICANA: Shovels & Rope's 'Hail Hail [21] BRITISH INVASION (1st wave): Rolling Stones 'Get off of my cloud' [22] CHRISTIAN ROCK: Delirious? 'My Glorious' [23] CLASSIC ROCK: Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the water' [24] SOUL: Marvin Gaye's 'I heard it through the grapevine' [25] ROCK N ROLL: Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly' [26] RAP/INDIE: Mok's 'Rufio' (released 26.3.13) [Mok Shop pic above from their merc store at the Haunt - 28.3.13] [27] FUNK/SOUL: James Brown's 'Get up offa dat thing' [28] GARAGE ROCK (1st wave): The Troggs 'Wild Thing' [29] GLAM ROCK: The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz' [30] SAMBA: Carlinhos de Cuica's 'Tia Doca' and [31] ZYDECO: Clifton Chenier's 'Louisiana Blues'
Stop press - starting on 5 April only on Facebook (and here) 'JemsMusic A-Z'. 26 songs from 26 bands over 26 letters in 26 days
Those of you following Facebook will have seen all these already from my daily posts. But, in case you missed them - here's the song choices for days two through sixteen.
[2] BLUES - Elmore James' 'Dust my broom' [3] DANCE - Underworld's 'Born Slippy' [4] JAZZ - Chris Barber's 'When the saints go marching in' [5] METAL - Iron Maiden's 'Run to the hills' [6] AOR - Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir' [7] THRASH -One Minute Silence's 'I wear my skin' (see vid above) [8] ELECTRONIC - Leftfield's 'Phat Planet [9] BLUES ROCK - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' 'All your love' [10] R&B (the original version) - Fats Domino's 'Blueberry Hill' [11] CLASSICAL - King Henry VIII's 'Greensleeves' [12] FOLK - Steelye Span's 'Thomas the Rhymer' [13] PROG ROCK - Yes' 'Yours is no disgrace' [14] PUNK - The Sex Pistols' 'Anarchy in the UK' [15] DUBSTEP - 2562's 'Walkover', and [16] FUSION - Herbie Hancock's 'Chameleon'
Part III sometime around the end of the month together with something about the theme that'll follow for April 2013.
Whether or not Ed Tudor Pole is actually related to King Henry VIII is neither here nor there - I've never really been that sure about him. However, support over, Stiff Little Fingers delivered a blistering set with two encores at Brighton's Concorde II on 8 March. The angst is still there even if with the onslaught of middle age. And the latter was a predominant feature of the very appreciative audience - punks one and all even 35 years on! Excellent stuff.
So here it is then - the new JemsMusic theme for March - 31 songs covering 31 genres over 31 days. There's loads to choose from so here's what's in store between now and the end of the month.
Rock - Blues - Dance - Jazz - Metal - AOR - Thrash - Electronic - Blues Rock - R&B - Classical - Folk - Prog - Punk - Dubstep - Fusion - 2 tone - Acoustic - Alternative rock - Americana - British Invasion - Christian - Classic Rock - Soul - Rock n Roll - Funk - Garage Rock - Rap/Indie - Glam Rock - Samba - Zydeco.
And to kick things off, the very excellent 'Rock Bottom' from UFO (1975). More song choices later in the month. Enjoy.
Ok, here's the final instalment of the 20 albums you've probably never heard of with the lowdown on days 15 through 20.
Day 15: Pale Face Baby from Dogbreath. Now disbanded but hailed from Stockholm. Released just the one superlative album in 2009. Footage above is the sole survivor from YouTube.
Day 16: The self titled Mina Tindle from 2012. We saw Mina supporting Camille on her last tour of the UK. Her debut album is out on Sauvage Records.
Day 17: Up from System 7 is the band's 10th studio album. This electronic dance band is fronted by Steve Hillage (ex Gong/The Orb).
Day 18: Memento Mori from The Bastard Fairies. Formed in LA in 2005 and falling loosely into the anti-folk genre, their debut album was self-released on the band's website as a means of 'spreading the word'.
Day 19: Little Notes from Tiny Ruins. This is the project of Bristol born, New Zealand raised singer/songwriter Hollie Fulbrook based in Wellington, NZ. Little Notes is her debut album released in December 2010 on Australia's Spunk Records.
Day 20: We are the tide from Blind Pilot. American indie-folk band from Oregan. Signed to Expunged Records, We are the tide was released in 2011
And there endeth the lesson.
New theme starts tomorrow - the Jems Music 'genre' songs. 31 genres, 31 songs, 31 days. More about this later.
Throughout February, JemsMusic is hosting a music challenge - 20 albums you've probably never heard of. Parts I & II gave you a bit more detail about days 1-7; here's a little more about the choices for days 8 through 14.
Day 8: Castletalk from Screaming Females. Formed in 2002 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the band built on the zeitgeist of America's punk and indie underground.
Day 9: Old Time Speaker by Bronze Radio Return. Formed in Hartford, Conneticut by singer/songwriter Chris Henderson after he attended the Hartt school of music. The band released a self-titled EP in March 2008 followed by 'Old Time Speaker' in Spring 2009
Day 10: Of Ghosts and Travellers from Bender. Bluesrock failsafe released on the Dooload.de label in April 2012
Day 11: Never a Cold Shoulder by Knock Kneed Sally. The band's website - www.knockkneedsally.com describes the band as party blues and butt movin entertainment. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, this is the band's first album released in 2009.
Day 12: The house that dirt built from The Heavy. Formed in Bath in 2007 the band are currently signed to Counter/Ninja tunes. Loosely described as 'neo-soul', 'The house that dirt built' is the band's second album released in 2009.
Day 13: Said I would by 72Blues. The second studio album from this Canadian band. Signed to the Toronto based 'Never Again' records. 'Said I would' was released in October 2006.
Day 14: Night Talk by Black Rain. Formed in Bologna, Italy in 2002. Black Rain's solid bluesrock is well captured on their debut album released on Street Symphonies Records in November 2012.
In Part IV (sometime around the end of February) you'll get more on days 15 through 20. As well as something about the JemsMusic challenge for March 2013.
On 9 February JemsMusic started a new challenge - the top 20 albums you've probably never heard of. Those of you following this on Facebook will have seen the first 9 choices now - but here's a little more about selections 2-7.
Day 2: 'In the pit of the stomach' from We were promised jetpacks - hailing from Glasgow, We were promised jetpacks signed to Fat Cat Records in 2008. They released their first album following a successful supporting tour with Frightened Rabbits in 2009. In the pit of the stomach is their second offering from 2011.
Day 3: 'Conventions' from Ugly Purple Sweater - the band started as an acoustic duo playing house shows in Washington DC. They toured the west coast of the USA in 2009 and released their first album. 'Conventions' is their second, released in November 2011. If you want a sample, their latest EP - the DCUSA Ep - was released on 13 January 2013.
Day 4: 'Foreign Land' from A lion named roar - A five-piece band led by Chris Jackson and Tyler Anderson from Louisville, Kentucky.
Day 5: 'Bulletride' from Big Balls Cowgirl - garage rock band from Meppen, Germany, fronted by Katharina on vocals and signed to Timezone Records. Bulletride was released in 2012.
Day 6: An Experimental salute to Led Zep IV - was released by the unsigned 'Experimentalists' in 2009. Hailing from Murphys, California, the band make all their music in a spare bedroom. This caught my eye on www.emusic.com as it somehow manages to trash the original whilst retaining a very listenable quality at the same time.
Day 7: 'Showtime at the Apocalypse' from The Jones - Funk Metal rendering released on the Orchard label in 2000. Search out the final track on the album 'Whatthefunkisitallabout' for a taster!
In Part III of this mini-series, I'll take you through my choices for days 8-14 and covering February 16-22.
Hello Pop Pickers and welcome to the new Jem's Music series for 2013 - '20 albums you've probably never heard of'. Starting today (9 February) and running through to the end of the month - and in no particular order of preference - here's a selection of 20 obscurities which you'd do well to dig out and download.
To start things off we have Eastern Belgium's best kept secret '14weeks' and the opening track from their October 2012 album 'Past Present Now'.
As promised at the end of January, here are my song choices for days 21 through 30.
21: A song I listen to when I am happy - two for today; "I believe" from Johnny Lang & the Fisk Jubilee singers or "Last of the sunshine days" from Mountain
22: A song from my teenage years - "Four Sticks" from Led Zeppelin.
23: The last song I listened to was (on 2nd Feb) "Where are we now" from David Bowie
24: A song to play at my funeral will be "In my time of dying" from Led Zeppelin
25: A song that reminds me of winter is Lindisfarne's "Winter Song"
26: A song I wish I could play on an instrument is the Hot Tuna version of "Hesitation Blues" from the Jefferson Airplane album 'Flightlog'
27: The earliest song I can remember from my childhood is "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" from the Beatles
28: The most romantic song is "Cuz I luv you" from Slade (1971)
29: The song that defines me and my soulmate is Patti Smith's "Because the Night" from the 1978 album 'Easter', and
30: The song most likely to reduce me to a quivering wreck is Cry of Love's version of "I ain't superstitious".
And I leave you with Hot Tuna's 'Hesitation Blues'
Ok - here's part III and my song choices for days 11 through 20. You'll have to read Part II for the song challenge themes for these.
11: Boogie with Stu (Led Zeppelin)
12: What'd I say (Ray Charles)
13: You raise me up (Josh Groban)
14: Don't give up on us (David Soul) - actually this is a total lie. Of the top ten worst songs of all time in terms of cackness - this scores a A* in my book. It is truely awful.
15: Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
16: Arrested for driving while blind (ZZ Top)
17: Con-bleeding-fused-dot-bleeding-com
18: Murder (Mok)
19: Take me to Chicago (Dave Hole), and
20: In the summertime (Derek Sherinian version)
The themes for days 21 through 30 are a song...
21: ...I listen to when I am happy
22: ...from my teenage years
23: ...(the last one I listened to)
24: ...to play at my funeral
25: ...that reminds me of winter
26: ...I wish I could play on an instrument
27: ...(the earliest) I can remember from my childhood
28: ...that's the most romantic
29: ...that defines me and my soulmate, and
30: ...that is most likely to reduce me to a quivering wreck.
Tap into Part IV for my choices. Meantime, here's a taster from day 21.
I'm currently at day 10 of the 30-day song challenge I'm posting on Facebook. Not much of a challenge if truth be told - there are so many songs I could choose from. But it's fun finding a match to each day and giving a reason why.
You've seen my first four choices, so here are the next six:
'Holly' by Republica
'Eyesight to the blind' from Aerosmith
'Black Flute' from Leftfield
'From your favourite sky' by I am Kloot
'Nutbush City Limits' by Ike & Tina Turner (although the Pearl version's better), and
'8-ball' by Underworld
And here's the challenge for days 11 through 20 - a song...
11. ...from my favourite band
12. ...from the year I was born
13. ...that's a guilty pleasure
14. ...that no-one would expect me to love
15. ...that describes me
16. ...to drive to
17. ...I hear often on the radio
18. ...I would like to hear often on the radio
19. ...from my favourite album
20. ...that reminds me of summer
In part III of this mini-series you'll find out what my choices for days 11 through 20 were, and what the challenge headings are for days 21 through 30.
Prompted by a Facebook page I've liked, I've just started something called 'The 30 day song challange'. You can choose any 30-day period you want but must then post a new song consecutively for each of the 30 days using the specified nomenclature. Here's that for the first 10 days:
your favourite song
your least favourite song
a song that makes you happy
a song that makes you sad
a song that reminds you of someone
a song that reminds you of somewhere
a song that reminds you of a certain event
a song that you know all the words to
a song that you can dance to, and
a song that makes you fall asleep
The first four I've chosen are - Bullfrog Blues (from Rory Gallagher's 1974 album 'The story so far), anything by Justin Beiber (because he is a boil on the bottom of the music industry), Paulo Nutini's 'Pencil full of lead' and 'The death of JP Lenior' by John Mayall.
I'll let you know about the next 10 sometime around 21st January.
