Flac

Mp3

More to follow later.

In the meantime have a sample (You may need to turn up the volume a little lot)

Neil Young Documentary.

The BBC have filmed a new documentary about Shakey “Neil Young – Don’t be Denied” , which is to be shown on BBC4 on 31st October (and numerous repeats).

Rather a nice article about it in the Observer Music Monthly and a little bit more from the BBC Site.

Gamecity 3

Not being a computer game player I wouldn’t normally be concerned with this kind of geekery but this got me intrigued.

As you might be aware, this year we’re making a number of World Record attempts at the festival. The most splendid of which is a Halloween attempt on the LARGEST GATHERING OF ZOMBIES.

That’s right folks – from 2pm on Halloween you should get yourself down to the Old Market Square in Nottingham and be made up and registered as an official Zombie in time for the record attempt, which takes place at 5pm.

But that’s not enough, right?

Of course not.

*snip*

At 5pm, to mark this occasion, JONATHAN COULTON, in town for his headlining Harmonix / Halloween gig that evening will be leading the massed throng of Zombies in a Chorus of his brilliant song, “re:your brains”, accompanied by both the crowd – and a massed choir of zombie singers.

As Coulton himself remarked, “I would be crazy to say no to the option of an outdoor zombie singalong led by a city choir. That’s the whole reason I became a musician, I now realize. Sign me up.”

Now I have to confess to being slightly ignorant of this song but the attached lyric sheet in PDF and the overall idea of a massed troupe of Zombies singing got me intrigued enough to hunt it down.

This is pure genius.

(Castle Rock Brewery have brewed a Beer exclusively for Gamecity called (wait for it) “Fine Ale Fantasy”)

Alabama 3 on Tour.

The mighty Alabama 3 are doing their now customary Christmas tour. Everyone should be seeing this band play live.

Tourdates Here. (This will be covered in more detail later)

The fantastic Curtis Eller kicks off a short UK tour tonight.

From Here.

CURTIS ELLER is New York City’s angriest yodelling banjo player. He sings about pigeon racing, performing elephants and Jesus, all of which he has seen with his own eyes. He started his show-business career at the age of seven as a juggler and acrobat in the Hiller Olde Tyme Circus in Detroit, but has since turned to the banjo because that’s where the money is. His biggest musical influences are Buster Keaton, Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Eller and his band, The American Circus stubbornly perform and record in New York City. They have appeared at funerals, horse races, burlesque revues and punk rock dumps. Haunted by the ghosts of silent film and wearing a dead man’s clothes, Mr. Eller and the band have staggered their way into the hearts of audiences from London and Amsterdam to Los Angeles and Montreal. 2008 promises to see them touring extensively on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. As always, sporadic yodeling and some strong language should be expected.

Curtis is one of the most original and interesting performers I have seen in recent times and every show he performs is a truly individual experience. He is also a true gentleman and all round nice guy.

Catch him here

Check out his own brand of Americana at one of the links on this page.

I am hoping to catch him in Sheffield but at the moment I am not sure if I can make it.

Hey Negrita play the kind of blues soaked americana that you would expect to find in Texas, but with a very British perspective. They first came to my attention supporting Alabama 3 on tour in 2006 and then I caught them again at Trowbridge Village Pump Festival in the summer. They put on a great show and are really nice guys to boot. I can fully recommend catching them if you get a chance.

The support act, The Travelling Band, were equally as impressive.

Imagine if the Beach Boys had a group orgy with CSNY in Manchester and their bastard offspring formed a group, then you are coming close to the sound of The Travelling Band. Four part harmonies delivered over a variety of instruments which change hands with alarming regularity, resulting in some great songs that all have a different feel. Their forthcoming single “Only Waiting” was selected as the single of the week on Radio 2′s Radcliffe and Maconie show which surely signals bigger things to come for this impressive group of musicians.

This past weekend saw the first “Robin Hood Beer Festival” take place in the grounds of Nottingham Castle. We managed to sample some rather fine ales, (Favourite for me was Milestone Somers Wheat Beer), but I will leave it upto someone more “qualified” to comment on that side of things.

This was a new venue for a well established festival and judging by the amount of sold out beers on Saturday afternoon, it was a huge success. A few things definately need attention.

1. The layout was not great. The main tent was jam packed almost all the time and I would like to see it spread across two areas next year. (Also the smaller tents only being open in the evening meant missing a chance to sample some of the beers that I wanted to try).

2. Indoor seating needs to be increased dramatically. This wasn’t so much of an issue on the Friday as the weather was good, but the drizzle on Saturday really rammed this point home.

3. The single point for buying the beer tokens was badly situated and somewhat inadequate which led to long queues and congestion around the main entrance. More points of purchase and better positioning is needed for next year.

4. The single entrance meant long queues to simply get into the grounds (for non-members). As a wristband was needed to buy beers, it would surely be manageable to run more than one entry point.

Hopefully these issues will be looked at for next year which will make a very good event great.

Last night I watched Terry Gilliam’s “Tideland”. I really don’t know where to begin.

Like all Gilliam films it is visually stunning, has moments that will make you laugh and moments to shock you. Sadly (and maybe this is my own inadequacy) I just didn’t get it. It seemed to be going along at a pace without ever going anywhere. I suspect I could watch this film over and over again and take something new out of it every time and still end up thinking WTF?

Fitting to its name, the San Francisco quartet Enablers writes songs that are equally manipulative and encouraging to our darkest desires. The band made up of journeyman veterans of Swans, Tarnation, Nice Strong Arm and Toiling Midgets merges dramatic and flowing melodic soundscapes — of which SF Gate calls “possibly the world’s best power trio” — with the visceral spoken narratives of underground literary veteran Pete Simonelli. It’s almost as though the band’s fluid and often soothing music exists to distract our better instincts while Simonelli whispers above it all, urging and lulling us into the dark, decrepit world of his words.

From Here.

I am never very good at defining “genres” so the closest I can come is “Post Rock”, a classification I generally think of as being very pretentious. Nevertheless, the description intrigued me enough to make me look into things further.

After having a listen to a few tracks on their MySpaz and Official Site I ventured out into the world to see them play live.

Unfortunately due to bad information from the venue, I only managed to catch two songs before I was forced to leave. Even in that short space of time they impressed me enough that I would make an effort to go and see them again, should the chance arrive.

Check out the music at the links above.

I have started this mainly as a way to get myself listening to some new stuff, as I feel I am getting bored with the music scene of today.

Expect a lot of stuff about bands that you don’t know and probably don’t want to.