Lightnin' Hopkins

I love this man

Hamza El Din...

I'm adoring this right NOW

...troubled water...

Svjata Vatra...

Saw these guys last night....monster of a gig...

Mykonos...

Samizdat #3: Mixtape (Side B)

MIX TAPE (SIDE B)

"It's pretty easy to do a reggae cover of a song I reckon. It doesn't take too much imagination to strum a guitar on the 2nd and 4th beats and put on a shitty Jamaican accent and pretend you're free-spirited and that you're cool with dirty hair. What takes balls is doing a reggae cover of a song and doing the original some justice, kicking some Rastafari pride into that mofo and taking it to town.
When pressed with the task of coming up with half-a-dozen or so good reggae covers, I found it difficult, to tell you the truth. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of reggae and most of its manifestations, but a good deal of reggae cover versions just don't cut the grade. Firstly, the original song has to be able to stand up to the abuse put to it by reggae's sometimes foolhardy ways and then the cover version has to bring something new to the table, something unique.
The reggae cover is a fickle creature, it can produce amazing results (reggae made me enjoy a John Denver song) but can also fall to the dank depths of yuck (UB40's 'Can't Help Falling In Love'). My co-editor and I were in a band once which recorded a reggae version of a traditional Latvian folk song; we certainly thought we were being pretty cool, but I'd recommend you listen to these instead. -MM"

The Tennors - Weather Report (cover of Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Only Living Boy in New York')




Jackie Opel - You Send Me (Sam Cooke)




Easy Star All-Stars - Exit Music (For a Film) (feat. Sugar Min-not) (Radiohead)




Toots and the Maytals - Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver)




The Mighty Diamonds - Lay Lady Lay (Bob Dylan)




Tony Tribe - Red, Red Wine (Neil Diamond)




Blood Sisters - Ring My Bell (Anita Ward)




Easy Star All-Stars - Money (Pink Floyd)

Samizdat #3: Mixtape (Side A)

This is from the last (third) issue of our zine. My co-editor and I each came up with one side of a mix tape, his was folk-metal themed, and mine was reggae covers. Enjoy.

MIX TAPE (SIDE A)

"Making a mix tape of folk-metal is harder than I thought. Since the genre boomed in the 1990s, the folk music larder of almost every country has been ravaged by metal bands who were sick of hitting power chords and trying to come up with meaningful lyrics. Despite the stereotype, however, there is still a bunch of folk-metal bands throughout the world comprised of seriously talented musicians who are very much aware of their respective musical and cultural histories.
The following list could have stretched on and on, but I’ve tried to give you a small sample of bands who play some amazing music and a broad taste of the genre. It includes distorted pan pipes from Peru, lap-harps played like metal guitars from Latvia, pirate metal sea shanties from Scotland, hurdy-gurdys, mandolins, drums, flutes, bag-pipes, melodic harmonies and death growl battle screams.
Whilst I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of metal, there is something that definitely draws me to many of these songs. Perhaps it’s because lots of the melodies and instruments from which the songs are created have stood the test of time. In some cases, they’re songs that in one form or another have been played for many hundreds of years. So... revolutionary twist or sacrilegious rubbish? Look up some of these tracks on YouTube (they might not be at your local mu-sic shop!) and decide for yourself. - KS"

Heidevolk (Netherlands) - Het Gelders Volkslied




Ch’aska (Peru) - Nymph Of The Lake




Korpiklaani (Finland) - Tuli Kokko




Equilibrium (Germany) - Blut Im Auge




Månegarm (Sweden) — Hemfärd




Metsatöll (Estonia) — Ma Laulaks Seda Luguda




Eluveitie (Switzerland) - Uis Elveti




Alestorm (Scotland) — Keelhauled




Skyforger (Latvia) - Migla Migla, Rasa Rasa

Graceland...

I was listening to the Graceland album last night on repeat...that's all

Megafaun...

Yeah, he's good...

Calgary...

First single....waiting for the album.

The Necks for a Friday...

Jazz trio, The Necks, are superb. Here's their eighth album, Aether, in its entirety, which is one hour-long track. Put it on in the background as you read the paper, make dinner, or just nap in a sun-beam.

Homeless...

This will always turn my sad tears into happy tears...

Saturday morning...

The first song is a favourite Russian folk song of mine, the first time I heard it was by the male vocal group 'Peresvet'; I've posted their version below. The second song in the first video is also magnificently melancholic. I only wish I had a good-enough command of Russian to understand what they are singing about.

searching...

I feel like going for a long drive, how about you?

Very interesting things to be doing with the air...

I've been enamoured with Tom Waits and his music and his poetry for a while now. I think the moment I was hooked was listening to the following song:

Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight,

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the marquees weren't weeping, they went stark-raving mad,
And the cabbies were the only ones that really had it made
And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill,
And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill
And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins,
And the raconteurs and roustabouts said "Buddy, come on in, 'cause
'Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp
Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight"

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the burglar alarm's been disconnected,
And the newsmen start to rattle
And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle
And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment
And the furniture is bargains galore
But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor
And what a hot rain on Forty-Second Street,
And now the umbrellas ain't got a chance
And the newsboy's a lunatic with stains on his pants, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And no one's gone over to close his eyes
And there's a racing form in his pocket,
Circled "Blue Boots" in the third
And the cashier at the clothing store didn't say a word
As the siren tears the night in half, and someone lost his wallet
Well, a surveillance of assailance, it that's what you want to call it
And the whores hike up their skirts and fish for drug-store prophylactics
With their mouths cut just like razor blades and their eyes are like stilettos
And her radiator's steaming and her teeth are in a wreck, and nah,
She won't let you kiss her, but what the hell do you expect?
And the Gypsies are tragic and if you want to buy perfume,
Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June, but
But Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And his headstone's a gumball machine,
No more chewing gum or baseball cards or overcoats or dreams
Someone's hosing down the sidewalk, and he's only in his teens, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And a fistful of dollars can't change that,
And someone copped his watch fob, and someone got his ring
And the newsboy got his porkpie Stetson hat
And the tuberculosis old men at the Nelson wheeze and cough
And someone will head south until this whole thing cools off, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight, yeah,
Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight,
And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the marquees weren't weeping, they went stark-raving mad,
And the cabbies were the only ones that really had it made
And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill,
And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill
And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins,
And the raconteurs and roustabouts said "Buddy, come on in, 'cause
'Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp
Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight"

And nobody flinched down by the arcade
And the burglar alarm's been disconnected,
And the newsmen start to rattle
And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle
And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment
And the furniture is bargains galore
But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor
And what a hot rain on Forty-Second Street,
And now the umbrellas ain't got a chance
And the newsboy's a lunatic with stains on his pants, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And no one's gone over to close his eyes
And there's a racing form in his pocket,
Circled "Blue Boots" in the third
And the cashier at the clothing store didn't say a word
As the siren tears the night in half, and someone lost his wallet
Well, a surveillance of assailance, it that's what you want to call it
And the whores hike up their skirts and fish for drug-store prophylactics
With their mouths cut just like razor blades and their eyes are like stilettos
And her radiator's steaming and her teeth are in a wreck, and nah,
She won't let you kiss her, but what the hell do you expect?
And the Gypsies are tragic and if you want to buy perfume,
Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June, but
But Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And his headstone's a gumball machine,
No more chewing gum or baseball cards or overcoats or dreams
Someone's hosing down the sidewalk, and he's only in his teens, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

And a fistful of dollars can't change that,
And someone copped his watch fob, and someone got his ring
And the newsboy got his porkpie Stetson hat
And the tuberculosis old men at the Nelson wheeze and cough
And someone will head south until this whole thing cools off, 'cause
'Cause Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight, yeah,
Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight

Waits, in his acceptance speech, mentioned an inspirational moment in his childhood involving a Lightnin' Hopkins gig...Hopkins happened to open my eyes a little too, but I won't get into that great blues-master here, another time I think ;)

It's not dark yet (but it's getting there)...

ooh...and there's this one too

People are crazy and times are strange

I discovered this song after listening to the soundtrack for the film 'Wonderboys'. The soundtrack is top-notch, check it out.

The only living boy in Riga

In my dreams last night there were two girls, each playing a guitar, performing for me a rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Only Living Boy in New York'. It's one of those songs which sounds so melancholy but is so sublime at the same time that it makes you smile. This quality has to some extent been transferred over into this lovely rock steady cover:

Tommy McLennan

I discovered Tommy McLennan today. I love his powerful hoarse voice... kinda like Howlin' Wolf with less volume and more hoarseness.