UK based indie/unsigned music. Good Music Is Infinite.
Good Music Is Infinite
An Ourobouros is an ancient Greek symbol of a snake biting its own tail that symbolises infinity. The idea is that there is infinite good music out there that people should hear and I intend to play some of that music.
If anyone is interested in downloading the music I made a few years ago then click on this link:
So here we are with the last numbered podcast of the year. Not so much 'wine' as recent episodes (thank you Pete...), but it's still what you've come to expect from this here fine podcast.
I've slightly changed my recording methods this week so hopefully the links will be a bit clearer from now on. Let me know if there's any noticeable change.
For the next three weeks there will be Christmas/New Year party mixes in the feed. These will be in a different format. No introductions and no links, just 16 tracks from my archive mixed together followed by me telling you what you've just been listening to. That way if you did want to use them as background for a party you don't have me wittering on as well. Each mix will have a different flavour. The first straight ahead dance, the second chill-out and the third industrial.
My 'Best of the Year' podcasts will be out in the first week of January. One featuring my top 10 tracks of the year and another featuring my top 10 videos of the Year. The Joy Formidable are definitely in...
Only two videos this week, but The Scenic's one is kinda cool.
Back in the saddle and back ranting. Only a little over the hour though.
Having just had a quick look on The Pirate Bay there are at least 5 different cracks of Football Manager 2009. It is 8 days since the game has been released. This only proves my point that piracy protection does not work and only serves to punish honest people by making them go through a ridiculous number of hoops to play the game.
The Sega customer service leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair to them when the enquiry was made they were quick to respond, but not having a running customer service line on the day of release and not giving out clear instructions are both unforgivable.
I made a small error with the URL's for The Opposite Of Faith. Both the URL's are oppositeoffaith not THEoppositeoffaith.
Since I recorded the show I've had a quick look at SellaBand and it's pretty good. Fans of the artists have an opportunity to buy $10 shares to help bands record their record. Once the band has $50,000, SellaBand matches them up with professional A&R and studios and they record the album. The profits are then split between the 'shareholders', the band and SellaBand. It seems unacheivable to get that much money, but apparently 24 artists have done it. All in all it's a really good business model.
Not much on the video front, but the Zox effort is really good. A simple, but mad, idea effectively pulled off. Not a massive budget, but a really nice video. The Ghost Of A Stranger video is really weird. It seems to be a fan video of a guitarist put through a very large pixel filter.
I recorded this show last Wednesday before I decided to stop doing NaPodPoMo. Since I always intended on putting this show in my personal feed I'm going to release it now.
It's ironic that the same episode I talk about Michael Moore's film 'Sicko' is the same one I have to edit out my sneezes from. It's about 12 hours after I recorded and I'm feeling much worse. I hope it's a little better before I have to record again on Monday.
Remember you can hear an alternate version of the Savage Lucy track 'Bright Light Amusements' in the episode of Made in the UK that's going to be in this feed tomorrow. I was always intending on putting this episode of MIUK in my personal feed, it's just a happy coincidence that it gives you an opportunity to hear the alternate versions of the same track.
I'm not sure if I explained Made in the UK properly so here goes. MIUK is a collaberative podcast co-ordinated by Rowley Cutler from Dark Compass. A group of British podcasters send two track submissions from British artists to Rowley and he puts them together into 6 track shows that go out every Sunday. As it happens the submission I recorded a couple of weeks ago with a special intro has the original version of the Savage Lucy track. I've played one of izzie's submissions in my own show as well.
Good selection of videos, but as I mentioned on the show only one is posted on YouTube. Really weird. The video for 'This Nightmare' is excellent and worth all that waiting time.
It took me a very long time to record this show. The first link was finally completed on the third attempt. I eventually finished at 6:15 this morning.
It's great to be able to play Rieser and Anemo on the same show. Seriously it's these two bands who are most responsible for me starting to produce this podcast.
Not a great selection of videos this week. The two live performances are so dark they're barely worth it, but I committed to giving you any video that was available. The Dragonette video is excellent and I really didn't do it justice by describing it. You're just going to have to see it for yourself.
Since I went on three seperate rants on this show I'm rather surprised that the final running time was 'only' 1:11.10.
Some clarification is needed since as usual I did all the talking on the show off the top of my head from memory.
It was the 1998 Tour de France that had all the drug scandals. Eventual winner Marco Pantani was never officially convicted for drug taking, because what he almost certainly took, EPO, could not be detected at the time. His blood tests leave little doubt that he was guilty though, it could just never be definitively proved. The man who finished second Jan Ullrich was also forced to retire after being named in an anti-drug investigation. He also was never officially convicted. In 2004 Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in Rimini from Cocaine poisoning.
Don't get me wrong RCRD LBL is a great site, it's just very frustrating to use for podcasters. No doubt I will be namechecking Explosions In The Sky in the future, so if you want to know what I'm talking about download Welcome, Ghosts from RCRD LBL yourself. It comes from their last EP All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone.
After I recorded the Sharon Little link I realised that the track I had in my sound mixing software (called REAPER by the way, an excellent audio editing package) ended rather abruptly. The file I had was corrupt and re-downloading it didn't work either. I eventually downloaded the track again from a different (LEGAL) source. Not only was it a badly designed PR campaign they weren't even giving out usable content.
One thing I meant to mention, but the ranting got in the way, was Zander Bleck. You may remember he was the artist I played last week with what I described as homoerotic publicity photos. Jen seemed to appreciate his charms as well. I had a message from Zander on myspace saying he would probably tone the photos down. This was surprising on two fronts, Firstly that he was so good natured about it and secondly that he actually listened to the show. I produce this podcast on the assumption that none of the artists will actually listen to it, because it's been my experience that they don't. I always tell the bands they've been played and if I get a response at all it's usually just 'thanks'. It's nice to get messages from bands who have definitely heard the show. I also got an e-mail from Search The House regarding the whole Slurpee/Kennewick story. Very cool.
Almost a full list of videos for this week. Just like the Koh video from last week, for some reason the Broken Day Machine video has only the second half of the song. Weird...
A couple of these tracks wouldn't pass muster in a club, but I'm never going to be a dance music podcaster and I'd never claim to be. Still it's good to let loose and play some heavier electronica music once in a while.
Only one video this week and it's not even on YouTube.
Whatever the podcasters involved say, they were criticising me and my methods. The phraseology of their comparisons made it clear that they were against my standpoint and their own was the correct one. No matter how much they deny it, the sentiment was clear.
Nice selection of videos this week. For some reason the performance by Koh only features the second half of the track and the Boy Crisis video is a weird hybrid of home movie and proper video. It's a typical 'shaky-cam' performance video, but they have re-edited it with the production version of the track. Oddly effective. The Kara Sea's video is also oddly effective. Atmospheric and the very definition of home-made.
The thing about blanket statements is they are always wrong. This is why I always say I don't like the vast majority of acoustic music. In any genre there is going to be some tracks that grab your attention. Here are 4 acoustic flavoured tracks that I like.
Sorry if this episode is a little rushed and incoherent, but I was determined to get it finished even though the puppies were going mental. If you missed any important details about the bands you can always follow the links below.
50% hit rate for a 4-track episode isn't bad. The Urusen one is nicely atmospheric.
Even though I played a 9 1/2 minute track It was still under an hour. I guess I was just too depressed to talk too much.
I seriously considered just not doing the podcast this week, but I've got too much music lined up to take a week off. It's just as well I recorded the mid-week show for last week early, or you'd have had two 'depressive casts' in a row.
Not bad videos this week. The Pin-Up Girls video was actually directed by the singer and he did a pretty good job. Redvers Downs did a very good parody of 'Go With The Flow' by QOTSA.
When you are doing a podcast there are certain bands you fall in love with. No matter how much you'd like to believe that each band you play has an equal place in your heart, some bands are always going to be favourites. Here are four of my all-time favourite bands, with new material I haven't played before.
My favourite track of last year was 'Vultures' by Dead World Leaders and my favourite album was 'The Well Dressed Thief' by Rieser. Here we have new tracks by both bands as well as more tracks by GK & The Renegades, who I played first on a podcast (to the best of my knowledge) and The Chiara L's who I have spread throughout the podosphere.
I cannot say enough how much I love these 4 bands.
Only one video this episode, but it's a good one. Nicely tongue-in-cheek and another masterclass in cheap video making.
I was rather surprised that I got the show in well under an hour this week. I guess I used up all my talking on HN 130. (I'm going to keep on plugging that until you go and listen to it!)
Big thanks to Shawno And Jen for inviting me onto their show. It was a lot of fun and let's hope we can do it again sometime.
For those Trans-Atlantic listeners, it's probably a good idea to explain the UEFA Cup. It's a football (or if you're a heathen, soccer) competition for clubs all over Europe. It's the second-tier European competition and the two ways you can get into it are finishing behind the elite in your domestic league or getting knocked out of the more important European Champions League. For example Everton finished 5th in the English League and Standard Liege who beat them were champions of Belgium who then got knocked out of the Champions League. We bought their best player and they still beat us convincingly.
Pretty cool selection of videos this week, and also a lot of them. The Ravens Court are typically over-the-top and All Crazy & Live Sex Act are Lo-Fi in the best possible way.
Once again my playlist has got insanely long so for the next 4 weeks there will be an extra mini show in the feed on a Wednesday. Each one will have a theme and this episode has 4 tracks from the '25' compilation released by netlabel af-music. You can download the whole compilation FOR FREE here.
Don't forget to listen to the next episode of Hyper Nonsense. I will be a guest on the show this week. I'll be phoning into HN 130.
Given that the four tracks for this podcast come from a netlabel I'm rather surprised that I found a video for this episode. It's only a live performance, but it's cool that I found one at all.
Given that I had a big rant about myspace and a big moan about my lack of a job and the Chicago Bears, I'm rather surprised this episode only clocked in at 1:06.
As a matter of fact after I recorded this show there was a blog posted by Tom, the founder of myspace, which apparently makes my rant redundant. Supposedly the free downloads will be coming back once the new software is sorted out. However he didn't say how long this would take or how smooth it would be. Given that they seem to have completely rebuilt the music aspects of myspace I'm not hopeful it will be smooth. My points about the new Myspace Music service being too little too late stands and the screwing over of all those bands who do want free downloads available on myspace while the change over is ongoing is unforgivable.
I love that Dennis Green clip I started the show with. In 2006 the Arizona Cardinals lost a 20 point lead in under 20 minutes to Da Bears and in the post game press conference the soft-spoken Green completely lost it. Here's the clip. The British equivalent is Kevin Keegan. In 1996 his Newcastle United team was so close to winning the title from Manchester United, but a late season collapse meant that Man Utd won the Premier League title. Just before the end of the season Keegan lost it in a post-game interview with Sky Sports. Here's that clip.
Quite nice selection of videos this week. The Four Trips Ahead video is very good, but it's hardly art. I always search for the best live performance when there's no 'produced' video, and it just so happened that the clip with the best A/V quality for Delta Spirit was the one where they're performing in a record store car park. Seriously, how cool is it that you have a gig in a car park. Since I've recorded the show I've checked and the store is in Encinitas, California. It's in San Diego county, so I was nearly right.
Despite almost nothing happening this week I still managed to make the podcast over an hour long. I just can't stop talking sometimes.
On the other hand because I haven't had a lot else to do, I've been beavering away at a special project that you'll be able to see the fruits of sometime in mid December. Do you ever have an idea and you just have to do it right then, even if it's far too early to be doing it?
To see the 'battle' between Orange Tim and myself on the Hyper Nonsense comment page then head over there now. Some of it's quite funny. Some of it's just pathetic. While you're over there why not subscribe to the podcast itself. You won't regret it.
Pretty good selection of videos this week. 5 videos out of 8 tracks is a good average for me. They're all promo videos as well rather than live performances captured on dodgy camcorders and phones.
Very long show this week. I really must stop talking for so long about subjects that no-one else cares about.
Speaking of which, this picture is of Edvald Boasson Hagen, who I mentioned on the show. His victory on the stage of the Tour of Britain into Stoke was one of the best finishes of any cycle race I've ever seen. He pipped a rider named Giario Ermeti literally on the line. Ermeti had been leading on his own for about 20km from the finish and never saw Hagen until he was beaten by him. If the finishing line had been two inches closer then Ermeti would have won. This guy is going to go far, and in the near future he's going to be a legitimate contender for the Tour de France.
Once again big congratultions to Elbow for winning the Mercury Music Prize for their latest album 'The Seldom Seen Kid'. Here's the video for Red I promised. This is the track I played a snippet from on the podcast and comes from Elbow's 2001 debut album 'Asleep At The Back'.
Just before I started writing this blog I received a comment from my previous show written by Jen from the Hyper Nonsense show. She's an Illinois native and obviously appreciates a fellow Bears fan. The reason I support the Bears is that my uncle used to work for the World Bank and was posted all over the world in his career. This means my cousins were born in Chicago and when I first got interested in American Football it was obvious to support the Chicago team. As it happens I'm writing this wearing my Rex Grossman jersey. Fans will know just how pathetic that is.
Nice selection of videos this week. The novel approach to producing a cheap video by Alkari and the one-take effort by Passenger are particularly good.
Managed to keep it WELL under the hour mark this week. Anxiousness about 9 little squeaking critters probably had something to do with it.
I also want credit for not making any '69' jokes in this episode.
Bugger I've just made one.
RCRD LBL is a fantastic site with some seriously mainstream acts available as completely free and legal mp3's. It must be said that quite a lot of these free tracks are remixes. It seems to be a common strategy for big labels trying to shoulder their way into our little corner of the internets. Their thought seems to be 'oh it's only a remix, we can shove that out for free'. This attitude greatly misunderstands the current market for music. Podcasters like me have found quality bands out there who are more than happy to release their catalogues for free download. Releasing a remix to drum up enthusiasm just doesn't cut it. These remixes (if they're done right) usually don't bear any relationship to the track they're based on. It's also discrediting the hard work of the remixers. Labels should realise that releasing free music doesn't always mean less sales.
Rather remarkably this episode went under the hour mark. With the long 'catching-up' section at the beginning of the show and two small puppy related interruptions I was sure I would go over.
Speaking of puppies, no doubt you will have noticed the picture I have posted of our dog Izzie and her 9 new arrivals (Bradley the escape artist is far left). I'm sure you'll agree that they are all very cute. Try recording a podcast when you have to look over your shoulder every few minutes to check no-one is getting crushed.
Last time the podcast got interrupted by Izzie I promised a picture, and now thanks to a new digital camera I can finally provide one for you. Given this modern, hi-tech age it's rather remarkable that this is the first time there's been a digital camera in the house.
I feel I must apologize to my international listeners for my borderline jingoistic celebration of the British Olympic cycling team. I am a big sports fan and my two particular passions are cycling and American football. Seeing Britain do well at the Olympics at a sport I love so much made me prouder than I can possibly say. I realise that not all my listeners are British, but I hope you will forgive a little national pride.
Pretty good collection of videos this week. Partly thanks to the fact that Ariel Cyber PR also posts videos on their service. As mentioned on the show The Crash Moderns' video is a lot of fun.
So here we are with the last numbered podcast of the year. Not so much 'wine' as recent episodes (thank you Pete...), but it's still what you've come to expect from this here fine podcast.
I've slightly changed my recording methods this week so hopefully the links will be a bit clearer from now on. Let me know if there's any noticeable change.
For the next three weeks there will be Christmas/New Year party mixes in the feed. These will be in a different format. No introductions and no links, just 16 tracks from my archive mixed together followed by me telling you what you've just been listening to. That way if you did want to use them as background for a party you don't have me wittering on as well. Each mix will have a different flavour. The first straight ahead dance, the second chill-out and the third industrial.
My 'Best of the Year' podcasts will be out in the first week of January. One featuring my top 10 tracks of the year and another featuring my top 10 videos of the Year. The Joy Formidable are definitely in...
Only two videos this week, but The Scenic's one is kinda cool.
Back in the saddle and back ranting. Only a little over the hour though.
Having just had a quick look on The Pirate Bay there are at least 5 different cracks of Football Manager 2009. It is 8 days since the game has been released. This only proves my point that piracy protection does not work and only serves to punish honest people by making them go through a ridiculous number of hoops to play the game.
The Sega customer service leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair to them when the enquiry was made they were quick to respond, but not having a running customer service line on the day of release and not giving out clear instructions are both unforgivable.
I made a small error with the URL's for The Opposite Of Faith. Both the URL's are oppositeoffaith not THEoppositeoffaith.
Since I recorded the show I've had a quick look at SellaBand and it's pretty good. Fans of the artists have an opportunity to buy $10 shares to help bands record their record. Once the band has $50,000, SellaBand matches them up with professional A&R and studios and they record the album. The profits are then split between the 'shareholders', the band and SellaBand. It seems unacheivable to get that much money, but apparently 24 artists have done it. All in all it's a really good business model.
Not much on the video front, but the Zox effort is really good. A simple, but mad, idea effectively pulled off. Not a massive budget, but a really nice video. The Ghost Of A Stranger video is really weird. It seems to be a fan video of a guitarist put through a very large pixel filter.
I recorded this show last Wednesday before I decided to stop doing NaPodPoMo. Since I always intended on putting this show in my personal feed I'm going to release it now.
It's ironic that the same episode I talk about Michael Moore's film 'Sicko' is the same one I have to edit out my sneezes from. It's about 12 hours after I recorded and I'm feeling much worse. I hope it's a little better before I have to record again on Monday.
Remember you can hear an alternate version of the Savage Lucy track 'Bright Light Amusements' in the episode of Made in the UK that's going to be in this feed tomorrow. I was always intending on putting this episode of MIUK in my personal feed, it's just a happy coincidence that it gives you an opportunity to hear the alternate versions of the same track.
I'm not sure if I explained Made in the UK properly so here goes. MIUK is a collaberative podcast co-ordinated by Rowley Cutler from Dark Compass. A group of British podcasters send two track submissions from British artists to Rowley and he puts them together into 6 track shows that go out every Sunday. As it happens the submission I recorded a couple of weeks ago with a special intro has the original version of the Savage Lucy track. I've played one of izzie's submissions in my own show as well.
Good selection of videos, but as I mentioned on the show only one is posted on YouTube. Really weird. The video for 'This Nightmare' is excellent and worth all that waiting time.
It took me a very long time to record this show. The first link was finally completed on the third attempt. I eventually finished at 6:15 this morning.
It's great to be able to play Rieser and Anemo on the same show. Seriously it's these two bands who are most responsible for me starting to produce this podcast.
Not a great selection of videos this week. The two live performances are so dark they're barely worth it, but I committed to giving you any video that was available. The Dragonette video is excellent and I really didn't do it justice by describing it. You're just going to have to see it for yourself.
Since I went on three seperate rants on this show I'm rather surprised that the final running time was 'only' 1:11.10.
Some clarification is needed since as usual I did all the talking on the show off the top of my head from memory.
It was the 1998 Tour de France that had all the drug scandals. Eventual winner Marco Pantani was never officially convicted for drug taking, because what he almost certainly took, EPO, could not be detected at the time. His blood tests leave little doubt that he was guilty though, it could just never be definitively proved. The man who finished second Jan Ullrich was also forced to retire after being named in an anti-drug investigation. He also was never officially convicted. In 2004 Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in Rimini from Cocaine poisoning.
Don't get me wrong RCRD LBL is a great site, it's just very frustrating to use for podcasters. No doubt I will be namechecking Explosions In The Sky in the future, so if you want to know what I'm talking about download Welcome, Ghosts from RCRD LBL yourself. It comes from their last EP All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone.
After I recorded the Sharon Little link I realised that the track I had in my sound mixing software (called REAPER by the way, an excellent audio editing package) ended rather abruptly. The file I had was corrupt and re-downloading it didn't work either. I eventually downloaded the track again from a different (LEGAL) source. Not only was it a badly designed PR campaign they weren't even giving out usable content.
One thing I meant to mention, but the ranting got in the way, was Zander Bleck. You may remember he was the artist I played last week with what I described as homoerotic publicity photos. Jen seemed to appreciate his charms as well. I had a message from Zander on myspace saying he would probably tone the photos down. This was surprising on two fronts, Firstly that he was so good natured about it and secondly that he actually listened to the show. I produce this podcast on the assumption that none of the artists will actually listen to it, because it's been my experience that they don't. I always tell the bands they've been played and if I get a response at all it's usually just 'thanks'. It's nice to get messages from bands who have definitely heard the show. I also got an e-mail from Search The House regarding the whole Slurpee/Kennewick story. Very cool.
Almost a full list of videos for this week. Just like the Koh video from last week, for some reason the Broken Day Machine video has only the second half of the song. Weird...
A couple of these tracks wouldn't pass muster in a club, but I'm never going to be a dance music podcaster and I'd never claim to be. Still it's good to let loose and play some heavier electronica music once in a while.
Only one video this week and it's not even on YouTube.
Whatever the podcasters involved say, they were criticising me and my methods. The phraseology of their comparisons made it clear that they were against my standpoint and their own was the correct one. No matter how much they deny it, the sentiment was clear.
Nice selection of videos this week. For some reason the performance by Koh only features the second half of the track and the Boy Crisis video is a weird hybrid of home movie and proper video. It's a typical 'shaky-cam' performance video, but they have re-edited it with the production version of the track. Oddly effective. The Kara Sea's video is also oddly effective. Atmospheric and the very definition of home-made.
The thing about blanket statements is they are always wrong. This is why I always say I don't like the vast majority of acoustic music. In any genre there is going to be some tracks that grab your attention. Here are 4 acoustic flavoured tracks that I like.
Sorry if this episode is a little rushed and incoherent, but I was determined to get it finished even though the puppies were going mental. If you missed any important details about the bands you can always follow the links below.
50% hit rate for a 4-track episode isn't bad. The Urusen one is nicely atmospheric.
Even though I played a 9 1/2 minute track It was still under an hour. I guess I was just too depressed to talk too much.
I seriously considered just not doing the podcast this week, but I've got too much music lined up to take a week off. It's just as well I recorded the mid-week show for last week early, or you'd have had two 'depressive casts' in a row.
Not bad videos this week. The Pin-Up Girls video was actually directed by the singer and he did a pretty good job. Redvers Downs did a very good parody of 'Go With The Flow' by QOTSA.
When you are doing a podcast there are certain bands you fall in love with. No matter how much you'd like to believe that each band you play has an equal place in your heart, some bands are always going to be favourites. Here are four of my all-time favourite bands, with new material I haven't played before.
My favourite track of last year was 'Vultures' by Dead World Leaders and my favourite album was 'The Well Dressed Thief' by Rieser. Here we have new tracks by both bands as well as more tracks by GK & The Renegades, who I played first on a podcast (to the best of my knowledge) and The Chiara L's who I have spread throughout the podosphere.
I cannot say enough how much I love these 4 bands.
Only one video this episode, but it's a good one. Nicely tongue-in-cheek and another masterclass in cheap video making.
I was rather surprised that I got the show in well under an hour this week. I guess I used up all my talking on HN 130. (I'm going to keep on plugging that until you go and listen to it!)
Big thanks to Shawno And Jen for inviting me onto their show. It was a lot of fun and let's hope we can do it again sometime.
For those Trans-Atlantic listeners, it's probably a good idea to explain the UEFA Cup. It's a football (or if you're a heathen, soccer) competition for clubs all over Europe. It's the second-tier European competition and the two ways you can get into it are finishing behind the elite in your domestic league or getting knocked out of the more important European Champions League. For example Everton finished 5th in the English League and Standard Liege who beat them were champions of Belgium who then got knocked out of the Champions League. We bought their best player and they still beat us convincingly.
Pretty cool selection of videos this week, and also a lot of them. The Ravens Court are typically over-the-top and All Crazy & Live Sex Act are Lo-Fi in the best possible way.
Once again my playlist has got insanely long so for the next 4 weeks there will be an extra mini show in the feed on a Wednesday. Each one will have a theme and this episode has 4 tracks from the '25' compilation released by netlabel af-music. You can download the whole compilation FOR FREE here.
Don't forget to listen to the next episode of Hyper Nonsense. I will be a guest on the show this week. I'll be phoning into HN 130.
Given that the four tracks for this podcast come from a netlabel I'm rather surprised that I found a video for this episode. It's only a live performance, but it's cool that I found one at all.
Given that I had a big rant about myspace and a big moan about my lack of a job and the Chicago Bears, I'm rather surprised this episode only clocked in at 1:06.
As a matter of fact after I recorded this show there was a blog posted by Tom, the founder of myspace, which apparently makes my rant redundant. Supposedly the free downloads will be coming back once the new software is sorted out. However he didn't say how long this would take or how smooth it would be. Given that they seem to have completely rebuilt the music aspects of myspace I'm not hopeful it will be smooth. My points about the new Myspace Music service being too little too late stands and the screwing over of all those bands who do want free downloads available on myspace while the change over is ongoing is unforgivable.
I love that Dennis Green clip I started the show with. In 2006 the Arizona Cardinals lost a 20 point lead in under 20 minutes to Da Bears and in the post game press conference the soft-spoken Green completely lost it. Here's the clip. The British equivalent is Kevin Keegan. In 1996 his Newcastle United team was so close to winning the title from Manchester United, but a late season collapse meant that Man Utd won the Premier League title. Just before the end of the season Keegan lost it in a post-game interview with Sky Sports. Here's that clip.
Quite nice selection of videos this week. The Four Trips Ahead video is very good, but it's hardly art. I always search for the best live performance when there's no 'produced' video, and it just so happened that the clip with the best A/V quality for Delta Spirit was the one where they're performing in a record store car park. Seriously, how cool is it that you have a gig in a car park. Since I've recorded the show I've checked and the store is in Encinitas, California. It's in San Diego county, so I was nearly right.
Despite almost nothing happening this week I still managed to make the podcast over an hour long. I just can't stop talking sometimes.
On the other hand because I haven't had a lot else to do, I've been beavering away at a special project that you'll be able to see the fruits of sometime in mid December. Do you ever have an idea and you just have to do it right then, even if it's far too early to be doing it?
To see the 'battle' between Orange Tim and myself on the Hyper Nonsense comment page then head over there now. Some of it's quite funny. Some of it's just pathetic. While you're over there why not subscribe to the podcast itself. You won't regret it.
Pretty good selection of videos this week. 5 videos out of 8 tracks is a good average for me. They're all promo videos as well rather than live performances captured on dodgy camcorders and phones.
Very long show this week. I really must stop talking for so long about subjects that no-one else cares about.
Speaking of which, this picture is of Edvald Boasson Hagen, who I mentioned on the show. His victory on the stage of the Tour of Britain into Stoke was one of the best finishes of any cycle race I've ever seen. He pipped a rider named Giario Ermeti literally on the line. Ermeti had been leading on his own for about 20km from the finish and never saw Hagen until he was beaten by him. If the finishing line had been two inches closer then Ermeti would have won. This guy is going to go far, and in the near future he's going to be a legitimate contender for the Tour de France.
Once again big congratultions to Elbow for winning the Mercury Music Prize for their latest album 'The Seldom Seen Kid'. Here's the video for Red I promised. This is the track I played a snippet from on the podcast and comes from Elbow's 2001 debut album 'Asleep At The Back'.
Just before I started writing this blog I received a comment from my previous show written by Jen from the Hyper Nonsense show. She's an Illinois native and obviously appreciates a fellow Bears fan. The reason I support the Bears is that my uncle used to work for the World Bank and was posted all over the world in his career. This means my cousins were born in Chicago and when I first got interested in American Football it was obvious to support the Chicago team. As it happens I'm writing this wearing my Rex Grossman jersey. Fans will know just how pathetic that is.
Nice selection of videos this week. The novel approach to producing a cheap video by Alkari and the one-take effort by Passenger are particularly good.
Managed to keep it WELL under the hour mark this week. Anxiousness about 9 little squeaking critters probably had something to do with it.
I also want credit for not making any '69' jokes in this episode.
Bugger I've just made one.
RCRD LBL is a fantastic site with some seriously mainstream acts available as completely free and legal mp3's. It must be said that quite a lot of these free tracks are remixes. It seems to be a common strategy for big labels trying to shoulder their way into our little corner of the internets. Their thought seems to be 'oh it's only a remix, we can shove that out for free'. This attitude greatly misunderstands the current market for music. Podcasters like me have found quality bands out there who are more than happy to release their catalogues for free download. Releasing a remix to drum up enthusiasm just doesn't cut it. These remixes (if they're done right) usually don't bear any relationship to the track they're based on. It's also discrediting the hard work of the remixers. Labels should realise that releasing free music doesn't always mean less sales.
Rather remarkably this episode went under the hour mark. With the long 'catching-up' section at the beginning of the show and two small puppy related interruptions I was sure I would go over.
Speaking of puppies, no doubt you will have noticed the picture I have posted of our dog Izzie and her 9 new arrivals (Bradley the escape artist is far left). I'm sure you'll agree that they are all very cute. Try recording a podcast when you have to look over your shoulder every few minutes to check no-one is getting crushed.
Last time the podcast got interrupted by Izzie I promised a picture, and now thanks to a new digital camera I can finally provide one for you. Given this modern, hi-tech age it's rather remarkable that this is the first time there's been a digital camera in the house.
I feel I must apologize to my international listeners for my borderline jingoistic celebration of the British Olympic cycling team. I am a big sports fan and my two particular passions are cycling and American football. Seeing Britain do well at the Olympics at a sport I love so much made me prouder than I can possibly say. I realise that not all my listeners are British, but I hope you will forgive a little national pride.
Pretty good collection of videos this week. Partly thanks to the fact that Ariel Cyber PR also posts videos on their service. As mentioned on the show The Crash Moderns' video is a lot of fun.
In the 18 months or so since
I've been doing this podcast, this is probably the one I'm most proud of. It's pretty
heavyweight with some big political ideas. Hopefully it's also got some really
quality music as well.
The British National Party,
Nationalism in general and Nick Griffin are dangerous things and need to be
fought at every turn. A small part of this fight is the Love Music, Hate
Racism campaign and the compilation album that this podcast is dedicated to
raises money for this organization. You can find the album at Repeat Records and it costs a measly £3 including P&P.
Since I don't use a script anymore
and rarely use notes, sometimes the links on the podcast can be a little
rambling. In this case I think it's worth writing down here the main points of
my argument in a coherent and measured form.
1.We should never
forget that the BNP was formed from the Neo-Nazi National Front. No matter how
slickly presented and plausible they now are this party are racist scum.
2.Both the Nazis in
Germany and the Bolsheviks in Russia were minority parties who were discounted
until they took power. The BNP have 'prepared' for an eventuality like this in
the UK.
3.Nick Griffin
describes Islam as an 'innately fanatical' religion. This is like saying
Christianity is innately fanatical. All religions have extremes on both ends
and the only difference with Islam is that the extremely conservative have a
massive budget.
4.Nick Griffin seems
to genuinely believe that he can stop Islamic extremism by simply making them
go home. Even if this concept was achievable it would not work. Forcibly
removing people from their home country is going to create more extremism. We'd
only be proving their argument for them.
5.It is my belief
that there are many philosophies that work perfectly in theory, but human
nature makes them impossible to implement in the real world. Communism is one
and Salafism
is another. The idea of Salafist thought is to go back to the Islam that was
practised in the first three generations after the prophet Muhammad. It's
fundamentalism in the truest sense of the word and I don't think it's a theory
that is bad. Unfortunately the way it has come to be practised, mainly thanks
to the Saudi Arabian oil fields, is to whip up hysteria about the undue
influence that the western world has on the Islamic one. Salafism is a
dangerous philosophy, but it is not dangerous simply because it is Islamic, it
is dangerous because of the way its followers have chosen to implement its
tenets.
I hope all that is a little
clearer than my links in the podcast. In general I don't think politics should
enter into the music world, but there are exceptions to every rule and the
fight against Nazism is one of those rules.
Videos are not really the
point of this podcast, but I'm not going to break with tradition so here are
the videos I've found.
Only just over the hour mark. Note to self, less angry ranting about war movies next time...
A happy week for me. Podcasted bands getting TV exposure, friends getting nominated for awards and the chance that I will finally get myself a job.
Also lots of success in the Olympics, especially in my beloved cycling. By the time you read this Great Britain will probably have a ton load more than the two golds and a silver we currently have.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that Atlantic Wave Radio is back. I had only just started listening to it when it went 'off-air' so I'm really pleased to see it back.
Veery close to the hour mark on a show I was convinced I'd go well over on. I'm getting better.
Quite coincidentally both me and Pete Cogle at PC Podcast started our shows this week with exactly the same track. I suppose it's appropriate since Pete originally introduced me to Dead World Leaders and it was him who made me aware of the new material after I saw he'd submitted some to AMPed.
There's a new cable music channel starting in the UK and they asked people to create a themed 10 track video playlist for possible inclusion on the channel. Here's my effort on the theme of 'Cheap Videos':
OK Go - Here It Goes Again Take 4 people, 8 treadmills and a sister who's a choreographer and you have an internet phenomena. Since I was one of the few people who actually bought OK Go's FIRST album I was very happy for them.
Radiohead - No Surprises As I mentioned last week I don't really like the majority of Radiohead's music, but they always produce good videos. The little smile Thom gives as the water drains is priceless.
Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life Put a couch in a coffee shop, ask people (mainly couples) to listen to the track and film their reactions. Amazingly simple, amazingly effective. I particularly like the reaction to the 'lottery' line. No matter how many times I see this video it still makes me smile.
Seagull Strange - Love's Sick Disease The one truly 'unknown' band I included in the list. It's a very similar video to 'My Year In Lists' by Los Campesinos!, but I plumped for this one because it fits the song better. Basically it's just the whole band lip-syncing to the track. It's sounds crap, it isn't.
Fatboy Slim - Praise You Fatboy Slim is one of my favourite artists and Spike Jonze is one of my favourite directors, but having said that I've never really liked this video. However it is very well known and fits in perfectly with the theme.
Digitalism - Pogo I debated with myself a long time before finally including this one. I absolutely love it, but I would lay money it's the most expensive video in this list. I'm not really sure it qualifies as 'cheap', but it's so good and aesthetically it fits.
Moby - Bodyrock The legend about this video (and I'm not sure if it's true) is that the director had a concept for the video, but as soon as Moby saw these audition tapes he insisted that they be released as the video. Not a bad idea.
The Black Ghosts - Repetition Kills You Having the lyrics printed on baseball caps is a new variation on an old theme, and it's pulled off really well in this video. It's also a video where everyone is clearly having a lot of fun.
Elle S'Appelle - Little Flame Take various round-shaped household objects and a camcorder and make a video. The pinnacle of home-made videos and absolute proof that cheap doesn't mean bad.
Feeder - Just A Day Why did no-one do this before? The lucky fact that this track had already been a B-Side before it was a single meant that they could get the fans to make their video for them. The imagination of some submissions and the exuberance of others makes this a classic video. Not just for cheap videos, but for videos full stop.
Now that we've got through the playlist done for 4Music it's time for this weeks Podcast video playlist.
See what happens when I don't rant at anything. The show comes in at well under the hour mark. A job well done.
The quote I made in the show when describing hip-hop music and which provides the title for this episode is actually a song lyric. It's a song that pretty much agrees with my stance on hip-hop and I'd be interested to see if anyone recognises it. Answers on a postcard please (or at least a blogpage).
One thing I neglected to mention in the show is that I received an e-mail this week from a listener I'd never heard from before. His name's Gustav Bertha and despite the name he's actually Scottish (although he lives in Switzerland). He's a musician and podcaster so have a listen to his Way Past Bedtime Radio Show. He was complimentary about my show and agrees that it's weird that listeners never seem to get in touch, but having said that the important thing is that the band names get mentioned and enter the minds of the listeners. After all that's what it's all about.
Really, really nice selection of videos this week. Both in quantitiy and quality. Usually I'm lucky if there's one decent piece of work in the collection, but this week there are at least three. As mentioned on the show, the Innerpartysystem is absolutely fantastic and is an early entry for my top 10 VidCast. The Hot Tramps video is a little weird as it's actually a dance routine that uses the track. It's the video that is linked on their myspace site so it's 'sanctioned' and is probably as close as we're going to get to an official video so I added it to the play list.
Bit late this week. Sorry about that, but I've only just got access to the family computer. Also went over the hour mark for the first time in about a month, but I just had too much ranting. I can't help myself.
Have a look at the full list of nominations for the Mercury Music Prize. As usual there's a mix of successful albums from the upper echelons of the charts, some underground stuff that just needs exposure and the token folk and jazz contenders. I still think Hold On Now Youngster by Los Campesinos! was cruelly overlooked.
Nice collection of videos this week. The Black Ghosts' one is very clever and a lot of fun and the Five A.M. one is star studded and has a powerful message. Unfortunately it's not for the song I actually played on the podcast, but it's such a good piece of work I'm bending my rules for this week. Seabird are working on an official video for their track, but it's not ready yet so for the time being here's a live performance.
Just squeaked under the hour mark this week. I was sure I would go over with all the ranting and wheedling there was in this episode.
I debated with myself whether to put the explicit tag on this show. My rule is that I put the tag on if there is audible swearing in any of the tracks. At the end of the day I thought it would be hypocritical of me to put the tag on. If it offends you I apologize (and grow up).
A quite nice bit of trivia for this show is we have two duos who are couples. I believe in both cases they might be married as well. Quite sweet, or at least sweeter than I usually am.
Let the comments roll in...
Nice selection and variety of videos this week. The Donora video was made by a project called Post Secret, which seems to be one of those places you can send anonymous confessions. It's very well put together and very effective. The Stampead video is very good as well. I'm not generally a fan of 'slideshow' videos. They never seem to quite work and are usually just lazy. This one however is very cool. Lots of interesting images that are edited together very well and fit the song perfectly. It's an almost subliminal experience.
Ooops! Released a little bit late this week. I actually forgot it was Wednesday. The perils of being unemployed.
Despite the late release I hope you enjoy this final midweek show. It's a bit of a weak theme, but the songs hang together rather well I think.
We have a story with the videos this week. In the show I mentioned an extraordinary video that was made unofficially for The Joy Formidable's track. It featured video of various people of both genders masturbating. This was not something sleazy (OK, maybe a little) it was only shot from the shoulders up and you never saw as much as an exposed breast. It was a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit arousing and a little bit brilliant. Between my recording the show and writing this blog, those killjoys at YouTube have removed the video for violating policy. In my opinion it did not violate anything and they were stupid for removing it. The band are not going to make a stand because they now have an official video which is not controversial in the slightest. The new video is a very fine piece of work, but not nearly as memorable as the unofficial one. I just wish I could link to both versions.
A tiny bit hysterical in this weeks show. I recorded considerably later than I usually do after not having much sleep. Computer failure meant I didn't have as much preperation time as I would have liked either.
This is probably the reason that I made several stumbles this week including potentially insulting my trans-atlantic colleague Jen. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
And talking about insulting people, the spectre of the GK & The Renegades 'controversy' reared it's head this week. Trust me Jack it's not a big deal.
Going to be continuing with MIUK for the next few shows including izzie Voodoo making her debut as a host tomorrow. Rather enjoying it and Rowley seems to think I did a good job. I don't really care how many people listen (although you should all be subscribed of course), but I don't want to spoil the good work that Rowley's done over the past 6 months or so.
Pretty good selection of videos this week. Both in quantity and quality. The Come On Gang! one is only a teaser for the video which is being made now, but it promises good things to come.
A global musical trip of epic proportions! Or just an excuse to play music from exotic corners of the world. You decide...
It occured to me after I'd finished putting this show together that it's rather surprising that there are no acts sourced from Jamendo. Whenever a band on a podcast comes from an unusual country, particularly continental Europe, 9 times out of 10 the podcaster got it from Jamendo. I managed to put together a 4 track show with a global span and never went to the Jamendo well once. I'm oddly proud of myself.
75% success rate on the video front this week. The Hedtrip one is very clever and rather cool.
With all my gushing about VQS and the sad demise of AIMP I was sure I would go over the hour mark for this show. I don't know what's been going on recently, but I'm consistently managing my ideal length of less than an hour.
One thing I forgot to mention on the show is that izzie Voodoo kindly played my promo on the last episode of her show. Unlike me she doesn't play a lot of promos, so that was really cool. She also sent me a very nice e-mail regarding the review of her album I wrote. I was worried she wasn't going to like it, but shes put the whole thing on her website. Even the mildly critical stuff I wrote.
Podcasting can be time consuming so it's unfortunately rather common for shows to stop broadcast. At least Dan told us that the latest episode of American Indie Music Podcast would be the last one. Thanks for the great music and I hope you manage to come back Dan.
The great thing about podcasting is also one of the worst things. Every week I put out a music programme. I am a complete amateur with absolutely no background in music and a competent background in technology. It is a great thing that someone like me can send music all around the world and I have verifiable listeners in the US, Sweden and Australia. We are living in a golden age where access to music can be universal. This is also a bad thing in a way. I am one person with no staff to deal with. Each week I can play exactly what I want and I do. I am imposing my personal music taste on my listeners with no checks and balances. My deep seated aversions to R & B, Jazz and the vast majority of Acoustic music can come through without any interference. But this also means that when I find a track I like in one of those genres I can mix up my policy and play it. The Ruben Angel track is really not something I thought I would have played and I have another track lined up for a few weeks that is a much heavier Hip Hop influenced track. It's my musical taste, it's weird and I can send it out worldwide very easily. Ohhh The Power!!!!!
Not many videos. The Femtastic one is very interesting as the whole thing's been rotoscoped. For those who don't know, rotoscoping is a process where each individual frame of a piece of film gets painted over to create animation. At least that's how it used to work. In this modern, digital age it's probably not nearly as time consuming as that. However it's done nowadays, it's an effective and interesting visual style. If you search on YouTube you can find the 'before' video so you can see what it looked like before it was painted over.
The second of my planned four mid-week extra episodes. This time the theme is bands I've played in the past who've recently sent me new music.
A couple of clarifications from the links in the show:
The Slants backgrounds are Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Filipino. They also have a token caucasian.
Since I recorded the show The Ropes have made another track available on their myspace. It's the title track from their forthcoming album 'What They Do For Fun'. So at time of writing you can get four lovely mp3's for absolutely nothing.
As with last weeks show, there's not much on the video front and with only two videos I'm not going to put the video player on the myspace page. Here are the links though.
Well under the hour mark this week. I was sure I was going to go over and am now rather pleased with myself.
As promised on the show, here are the statistics for where my artists come from. This is a countdown of artists not number of plays. For instance I've played Los Campesinos! and Echolounge several times but Wales only gets one mark for each artist. The list makes fairly interesting reading. At least for me...
CITY
1. London 40 Artists
2. New York 22 Artists
3. Los Angeles 18 Artists
4. Bristol 16 Artists
5. Manchester 9 Artists
=6. Bath, Glasgow 8 Artists
8. Montreal 7 Artists
=9. Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Sheffield, Stockholm 6 Artists
REGION
1. London 40 Artists
2. California 36 Artists
3. New York State 24 Artists
4. Yorkshire 18 Artists
5. Bristol 16 Artists
6. Somerset 14 Artists
7. Manchester 9 Artists
=8. Oregon, Texas, Glasgow 8 Artists
COUNTRY
1. England 158 Artists
2. USA 146 Artists
3. Canada 22 Artists
4. Scotland 17 Artists
5. Australia 11 Artists
6. Sweden 10 Artists
7. Germany 6 Artists
=8. France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Wales 3 Artists
Putting this list together has made me realise two things. I've been doing this a pretty long time if that's the amount of bands I've played and also the diversity of countries I've had music from. Those not on the list include Brazil, Faroe Islands, Thailand & South Africa.
It was a fun exercise for me and I hope it's marginally interesting for my listeners. To answer Gabor Kovac's question, if I cheat slightly and include British Columbia in Canada to 'The Pacific Northwest' then 6.6% of my artists come from that region.
With the vaguely interesting statistics out of the way a quick reminder to check out the PCP2 Industrial show that I inspired and co-hosted with Pete Cogle and Rowley Cutler. It was a lot of fun to do and the show turned out rather well, with a nice diversity of styles.
Slim pickings this week for the videos, but the JDSY one is delightfully quirky.
In an effort to clear the backlog of music I have stored up to play I have decided to release this shorter mid-week episode of my podcast. When you have 6 weeks worth of music to play it's starting to get a little ridiculous.
The theme for this extra show is Wonderland Records, a really cool independent label from Sweden. Back in February Sebastian Hess, who runs the label, e-mailed me out of the blue with a link to download loads of promotional mp3's from his labels roster. I liked what I heard and played tracks by Markovic and Emmon on Episode #39. A couple of weeks ago Sebastian e-mailed me again saying he's updated the promotional download page if I wanted a listen. I of course said yes and here are 4 more tracks from the label.
For a short show it's a fairly high hit rate on the video front, 50%. Since there's only two videos I wont be putting the player on the myspace page. Just follow the links below or here's a link to the YouTube playlist.
I was absolutely convinced I would go over the hour mark with this show considering the audio I recorded at the PodCrawl, but for the first time in about a month I was well under. Just after I recorded the show I received an e-mail from my friend Tim asking me keep the length down. He's aiming for 35-40 minutes, but at this stage I think under an hour is the most achievable target. We take our victories when we can.
It was great to use the audio I recorded at the PodCrawl last week. Even at this stage it brought back good memories. Here's to the next one. Edinburgh/Liverpool/Birmingham/Manchester (Delete when we work it out) here we come!
I've got so much music stored up to play at the moment that I'm probably going to put a mid-week bonus episode in the feed this week. Look out for that on Wednesday.
Nice selection of videos this week. The NIN one is unofficial but very funny. It's probably as official as we're going to get so I had no hesitation in putting it in the playlist. The Brad Sucks video is also unofficial, but very cool.
In yet another example of podcast time-twisting, this episode was recorded before I went on the PodCrawl on Friday, but I'm writing this on Saturday after the event. It was a lot of fun, but slightly strange as I hadn't slept for about 30 hours by the end of it. Recording was done, but my iPods battery was drained after nearly an hour. I haven't actually listened to what was recorded yet, I haven't been brave enough. You'll probably get some of that recorded material in next weeks show.
Note to self: don't record in the late afternoon when the dog thinks she should be taken for her walk. When I leant forward towards the mic to record the first link for this show Izzie, my 16 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, decided it would be fun to jump up behind me in the chair. This is one of her favourite positions so I thought nothing more of it. Half way through the recording of that link she decided to start furiously licking my neck. This is one of her methods to tell me that it's REALLY walkie-time. During the second link she then started whining loudly right next to me. I was planning on posting a picture of my admittedly very cute dog, but I don't have any digital photos and I didn't have time to take one. Fortunately Izzie Voodoo wasn't as much hassle...
Because of the long time that it takes between my getting a song to play and it actually getting on the play list I've got used to other podcasters beating me to playing particular tracks. Oddly this happened three times in this particular show.
It was a great experience to go and see Rosalita and Ejectorseat live here in Bath last week. Unfortunately the recording of the interviews didn't go so well with the mic cutting out seemingly at random. Very frustrating, but there's enough of the interviews left to make some kind of sense. It was a delicate editing job to make it hang together, but I think I managed OK.
One thing that probably needs to be explained is that the Moles venue here in Bath is actually underground. It's built into an old wine cellar on the side of a hill. This means that the entrance to the venue is on road level, while the pavement is on a higher level above the entrance. Where the interviews were conducted was on this higher pavement level so we were on top of the venue.
Looking forward to the second 'PodCrawl' where a bunch of us degenerate podcasting types are going to meet up in London and have some serious networking time (i.e. some serious drinking time). On the off chance that I have some listeners in the London area who want to join us then we are meeting in the Montague Pyke pub on Charing Cross Road at Noon on the 13th June. I'm intending on recording some of our 'discussions' so at some point there'll probably be recordings shoved at random into my show.
Bit sparse on the video front this week, but as mentioned in the interview the Ejectorseat one is particularly fine. As I've said many, many times in the past you don't need an astronomical budget to come up with an effective video. In this case all you need is five band members, five video cameras and five locations. Very simple, very cool.
I realised that a lot of my links were getting very long, but to go well over the hour mark for the second straight week was surprising. Note to self, less talking. (And a prize for anyone who recognizes that last quote).
Mainly because of my excessive talking I have made a slight change to the way I edit my show together. I consider myself a purist and have always been reluctant to talk over the beginnings and the ends of tracks. My philosophy has always been to play the track as the artist intended and not to spoil it by talking over it. The necessity of making this show as short as possible has made me reconsider. I think it still sounds pretty good. Since I was making that change I also decided to make another one and this is the first 'regular' show that has a title other than the number.
A couple of errata regarding the link for City Breathing. Of course I mispoke and the band they remind me of is Explosions In The Sky. They are a really fine instrumental indie band who I have loved since they did the soundtrack to a great American Football movie called Friday Night Lights. (By the way Friday Night Lights the book by Buzz Bissinger is a fine read even if you don't like American Football). Have a listen to Explosions In The Sky at their website. The other mistake I made about City Breathing is that their CD's are available for between $5 and $12 it's their T-Shirts that are available for between $8 and $15. Even better value!
So close to a complete video playlist this week. Electrocute let me down at the last minute. Oh well, the quest continues...
It seems I really had a lot of extra stuff to talk about as I've gone well over the hour mark for the first time on an 8 track show. Note to self, stop talking...
The main reason for this loquacity is the fact that I had two different sets of e-mail correspondence this week. It's a rare enough occurence when I get one e-mail in a week that relates to my show, so to get several from two different people was a nice change.
A welcome to the new de facto leader of the Association of Music Podcasting the venerable Mr. Pete Cogle. Let's hope that our new boss can bring AMP into the fore-front of the podcasting community where it belongs.
And please remember that this show has the explicit tag and is most definitely not work-safe. Just look at the last track title.
New music source for this week with all music coming from MusicSUBMIT.com. Not entirely happy with having to pay for podplay, but at the end of the day the more new music I hear the more new music I can send into your ears.
A plot has been hatched this week to plug Made In The UK on an upcoming episode of AMPed. A little bit ethically dubious to plug a non-AMP anthology show on the AMP anthology show, but that's what Rowley from Dark Compass is planning to do, so there's going to be a lot of cross-over on those two shows over the next few weeks.
Nice selection of videos this week, with three different but equally good videos. The zwish one is home-made and very funny, Otto's Daughter has some impressive production values and fits the song well and Fans Of Jimmy Century is very tongue-in-cheek and ridiculously got banned by AOL videos for excessive sexual content. Make up your own mind and click the links below.
Another bit of nostalgia this week with all the tracks by artists who have previously appeared on the show.
The main reasoning behind this is all the lovely CD's I've been receiving through the post to review. Those lovely blokes at The Haiku not only sent me their debut CD but they also put me down as one of only 8 people given an acknowledgement in their sleeve notes. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
One of my favourite bands, The Madisons, have split up but Aaron their lead singer is back with a new solo project. It's great to see that even when bands come to an end the music continues. What's even better is that it's some bloody good music.
Also remember to look at the Noize Makes Enemies webzine where all the reviews I've been writing are located.
Only one video this week. Sometimes it just happens that way.
Sorry for the slightly late release this week. It's been a frustrating day of trying to get the damn show uploaded. It should be OK now and be available for your listening pleasure.
Despite my 10 minute rant at the beginning of the show I still came out at under the hour mark. I'm a little bit surprised at that.
Since I mentioned the excellent cover art for the Karmella's Game album 'The Art Of Distraction' I thought I may as well add it to this blog.
Remember to look for the reviews I did for Of The I, Venus Verse and O Titus! on the Noize Makes Enemies webzine. Hopefully more reviews coming this week.
Another case of quality over quantity this week. The Nada Surf and Mexicolas videos are both excellent. The Karmella's Game video I found is a live performance that contains a short interview at the start.
10 tracks on this special episode, but I deliberately tried to cut down on the talk so I rather surprisingly brought it in under the hour mark.
50 Episodes isn't that big a deal, but it is a deal and I felt like celebrating. I hope you appreciate this trip down memory lane, especially if you are a new listener and didn't hear these tracks first time round.
The one 'new' track on this episode is a brand new mix of 'Between Being & Ego' by Of The I. I played the original mix of the track in the early days, but the band have re-recorded it for their forthcoming album and sent me a copy. Good timing for this special show. I've written a review of the album sampler they sent me and I submitted it yesterday to the Noize Makes Enemies webzine along with another couple of reviews. I'm not in charge of these things, but I'll guess they'll be online by the end of the week.
A couple of new videos since I originally played these tracks, including an animated video for 'Between Being & Ego' that's absolutely brilliant.
About 5 years ago I got a demo of a program called eJay that let's you create your own dance music. This week I came across the CD of the tracks I made and decided I might as well put out a special podcast featuring them all. Talk about a vanity project...
Anyway since the demo software I had ran out after 30 Days that's what I've called the 'EP' and since my online moniker has been Ourobouros 54 forever I present to you 30 Days by Ourobouros 54.
Here are some explanations for the tracks:
1. Infinity
I wanted to do a down-tempo ambient style track and this is what came out. Since the Ourobouros is a symbol of infinity that seemed a good title.
2. The Zeppo
My all time favourite TV program is Buffy The Vampire Slayer and my all time favourite quote was Xander's line that I used in the track. I found a wav of the line and used it to create this track. The title comes from one of my favourite episodes of the show that focuses on Xander.
3. Concussed Duckling
I wanted to create a weird track and the flute sample fitted the bill perfectly. The title comes from a Terry Pratchett line: 'He had all the self-awareness of a concussed duckling'. It's one of the funniest lines I've ever read and it fitted a funny sounding track.
4. Roc Stars
eJay gets some well known artists to provide samples for their software and one of them for the edition I had was Cut La Roc. I was already a big fan of his as he was on Skint Records and I had a lot of his tracks from Skint compilations. I challenged myself to create a track that only used Cut La Roc samples and this is the result.
5. Playboy
I wanted to create a trippy, down tempo track and was looking for inspiration. At the time I was a fan of WWE wrestling, and one of the female performers was named Torrie Wilson. Her entrance music was pretty good and had the feel I was looking for. This is my attempt at re-creating her music using the available samples. Since she'd recently posed for Playboy at the time I did it I had my title.
6. Tajiri
As I said above I was a WWE fan at the time and my favourite wrestler was a Japanese guy named Yoshihiro Tajiri. He inspired me to create a Japanese sounding track and this is the result.
If for some unknown reason you want to own these tracks you can download it from this link.
For some reason the original file I uploaded for this episode got cut off. It took me 6 attempts before the full file got uploaded. No idea what was going on, but the repost should have the full episode. The file should be 48 minutes 53 seconds long.
Not much to say this week, so back well under the 50 minute mark.
A hugely welcome return to the show for Rieser, who were one of the very first bands I contacted to play on the podcast over a year ago. They were one of those unsigned bands that I was always playing to my friends until one of them just said 'why not do your own podcast'. They were very agreeable to being played on my show and sent me a preview of their absolutely fantastic 'The Well Dressed Thief' album. It was one of my favourite albums of last year and is well worth your time to go and download. I wrote a review of it for Podcast User Magazine and it's actually been quoted in their press release for the Rockstar Single. It makes me feel all fuzzy that I'm contributing in a small way to the success of such a fantastic band. If you want to listen to the full Rockstar single you can find it on Ourobouros Podcast #36, AMPed #111 or Made In The UK #2. You can also watch the Video.
Also go and have a listen to Zoon Van Snook's remix of 'Nude' by Radiohead on his myspace site. All the remixes that have been done can be found at radioheadremix.com. Whether you like Radiohead or, like me, find them pretentious and irrelevant you have to admire the innovation of making it so easy for people to do remixes of their song.
It's going to be Show #50 next week and I have something planned. It's a minor milestone, so only a minor celebration, but it is going to be an extended show. That's all I'm saying for now, but a heavy hint of what type of show it's going to be was given on Episode #46.
Not a great deal on the video front this week as far as 'proper' videos goes, but I did manage to find quite a few live videos.
My theory that I might have room to squeeze in another Los Campesinos! track because 'My Year In Lists' was so short proved to be a little optimistic. For the first time on a 'regular' podcast I went over the hour mark. Oh well any excuse to play more LC!
On this weeks show we have a couple of acts that I have been wanting to play for a loooong time, a mini local music special section, a couple of 'trashy' tracks and purely coincidentally on the same episode that I play Los Campesinos! a band that really reminded me of them.
It was my turn to host AMPed this week so you can check out Episode #122 on Monday featuring my dulcet tones.
If you hurry you can pick up The Whip's album 'X Marks Destination' for £4.74 from the New Artists Showcase promotion on iTunes. With any luck you can pick up 'Hold On Now Youngster' by Los Campesinos! on the same promotion. It was listed, but for some inexplicable reason not only has it been taken off the promotion, the whole album has been removed from iTunes. I have no idea what's going on there. The promotion ends on 15th April.
It's weird how things work out. I haven't actually checked, but it could well be that we have the longest track title and the longest band name in the same show.
Assuming that the Black Kids record label Almost Gold doesn't object it's probably going to be a situation where I play a track one week and it's high up in the top 40 the next week. Footage from the 'Later...' show I mentioned is on YouTube already. Those bands move fast.
On this weeks show a lot of music from Yorkshire, mainly thanks to Penny Broadhurst and her excellent Instant Classic Podcast, a track taken from a CD I received through the post (something that doesn't happen very often) and some funk/electronica/rock that sounds bloody brilliant.
I feel some explanation is required for the madness at the beginning of the show. I've been listening to this new podcast called Hyper Nonsense which is not a music podcast, but rather the hosts Shawno & Jen from San Luis Obispo, California discussing weird stuff and chatting. It's been a while since I have listened to one of these types of show since the last one I subscribed to broke up rather acrimoniously and it's very entertaining. Last week they recorded a promo for their show and said they would welcome a promo trade. I thought what the hell and recorded one myself. Well I'm afraid I got a bit carried away and it ended up being slightly insane. Anyway it exists now and if any other podcasters want to play my promo on their show then drop me a line.
It's another case of quality over quantity on the video front this week. Only three for you, but they are all fine pieces of work. The Minus The Bear video in particular is very funny. You can also hear the differences in the Black Kids' track between the demo version and the single version before you go out and buy it on Monday (hint, hint).
Having talked about when I first started doing my 'Weird Track Of The Week' on the show, I got curious. I had a quick listen to my archive and it appears that the first time I used the phrase 'Weird Track Of The Week' was on Episode #25, but I'd been deliberately putting strange tracks on the end of the show for some time before then. The last 'Non-Weird' track to end the show was on Episode #19. It seems I over-estimated when I thought it was Episode #16 or #17.
All of that doesn't matter at all, but since I mentioned it on the show I thought I may as well clarify.
Also mentioned on the show was the first time I played Murder Of Lilies on the podcast. They kicked off Episode #4 with a great track called 'Elector', which will make a re-appearance on the show in a few weeks. That's all I'm saying for now...
On this weeks show we have two acts I've played before, one act whose name sounds like a band I've played before and the first time I've ever really liked a true Drum & Bass track.
Not much on the video front this week, but there are lots of live videos to make up for it. As usual it's quality over quantity with the promo videos. The YACHT one is great.
Next week a lot of tracks sourced from one of the new podcasts I've been listening to, including one of my tracks of the year so far that I'm amazed I got permission to play.
See you next time and remember the Gallagher brothers spew horrendous music.
Another fine selection of music for you this week as well as more over-use of the word interesting.
We have two 'bands' that are actually just one bloke from New Jersey and have very different styles, the final selection from one of my favourite local bands and some French weirdness provided by Mr. Cogle.
Only one video this week, but it's a cool example of the live videos you can find on YouTube. The band have some serious problems with the PA, but fortunately the girl holding the camera knows the song to the extent that she knows when the handclaps come in.
Since I've stopped using scripts my three favourite words 'on-air' seem to be interesting, basically and umm. Interesting...
Some unbelievably mainstream music for this episode and a big shout out to the good people at Wichita and Domino for embracing the concept of promotion through podcasting.
Mentioned in the show are two fantastic bands on the Domino roster who I absolutely love, but unfortunately aren't podsafe as of yet. Check out Psapp and !!! (Chk Chk Chk). Also have a look at the superb video for Psapp's track Hi and !!!'s latest album Myth Takes.
Since it's mostly 'Major' labels this week there are a lot of quality videos for this show. There's also a video for The Getaway Team that was recorded by Rowley at the PodFest gig I mentioned in the show.
Not a lot of extra stuff to talk about this week, so we're back to pretty much just playing the music. Really that's what it's all about anyway isn't it?
One thing I forgot to mention in the show is that I first heard the excellent She & Him on The Phill(er) Podcast. An excellent indie show that has a similar musical style to me.
Back to normal this week, well, as normal as it gets around here anyway.
Yet again I've managed to get a track to play that I never thought I would get. It's fantastic that so many rising stars of indie music are OK with podcasting now, and Elle S'Appelle have joined that elite club. There's been some REALLY big bands added to the Podsafe Music Network recently and I will be having a fangasm over the next few weeks. It'll take a while to get to the big stuff since at the moment I've got so much music stored up that the next 4 shows have been set.
I've been told that those incredibly nice Haiku boys have included me in the sleeve notes of their debut album Fan The Flames. A little milestone in the history of this podcast achieved!
To get the full story of The Slants laudable decision to turn down the chance of a 'Million Dollar' recording deal read the blog here. Those insidious people at Bodog Music only seem to have started this competition in order to take advantage of desperate and foolhardy musicians. Fortunately The Slants were brave and smart enough to get out while the going was good. Good luck to them.
Small selection of videos this week, but the Elle S'Appelle one is exactly the kind of video I like. Inventive, arresting and made for pennies. It boggles the mind that record companies are willing to spend tens of thousands of pounds on insipid high-production-value videos, when with a little imagination and various round objects you can come up with a clever video like this one.
I now have to do absolutely nothing for the show until Friday. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I have so many shows planned into the future.
Happy Birthday To ME! A full year of podcasting is in the books and it's been a bumpy ride sometimes. I've had a lot of fun and also made a lot of friends as can be seen by the amount of congratulatory messages I received from other podcasters. I had so many it's a really long show this week, but so what! I'm celebrating. Go along to any of the other podcasts linked in the show notes and you'll find a lot of good music in a wide range of musical styles.
Another reason to celebrate is today is the official release of the Los Campesinos! album. I've been waiting for this to come out for well over a year and I'm now desperately working out if I've got enough spare cash to actually get it. Speaking of new albums, as mentioned on the show The Haiku's full length debut 'Fan The Flames' is out as well. So much good music, so little money...
A surprising amount of videos this week, including a couple of efforts that weren't available the first time I played the tracks.
A rather long winded opening this week. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I was trying to explain the psychology of podcasters and it just got a little out of hand. That probably explains more about my psychology than anything else really.
A really nice selection of music this week from England, Wales, France, The US, Canada and Australia. All over the bloody shop really. It's all kicked off with one of my favourite finds since I've started doing this podcast.
There's still time to send in suggestions and intros for my anniversary show next week. I've had a load of suggestions already and the show is going to be really long. It can always be longer! Any input can be sent to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com.
Not a great deal on the video front this week, but The Bastard Fairies video is really, really good.
I'm being very good about releasing these shows on time recently. I'm rather pleased with myself.
Kicked off the show this week with a couple of tracks I was delighted to bring to you and didn't think I'd be able to. Unfortunately Mr. Clitheroe of Suffolk 'n' Cool beat me to the punch with the one I was most excited about. Ah well that's podcasting. I'm not bitter. Not really.
Also mentioned on this weeks show are a couple of new podcasts by members of the Podcrawl Collective. When we all met up a couple of weeks ago for Pete Cogle's 200th show there were 6 podcasts between the 5 of us and now there are two more for the group. Paul 'The Saint/The Grumbler' Snelling was corrupted by the rest of us and has started his first music podcast called Music And Mumblings and Rowley Cutler has just started his third show, Dark Compass Metal Show. As you might have guessed that last one deals with all things metal. At time of writing both of them are two episodes old and are worth your time checking out.
Another reminder that it's my first anniversary show in two weeks and I still need suggestions from my listeners as to what I should play. I've had a few in already, but I can always do with more. Send in your suggestions and any links you feel like recording to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com.
Nice full selection of videos for this week. Almost a full selection with only Sixtrak letting the side down. It's made up for by two different videos for the Blood Red Shoes track. They originally released it as a single in 2006 with the old video, but the band have now re-recorded the track and released a new video in preparation for their album release in April. See which video you prefer. I like the old one personally. It's also interesting seeing the subtle differences between the two different recordings.
Another fine collection of independent music for you this week. Tracks from Canada, New Zealand, The US and The UK including an acoustic interlude, which is something I don't do very often.
Please let me know what tracks you want me to play on the 1st Anniversary show in two weeks. Any suggestions can be sent to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com and if you want to record your own intro for your selection, then send those along as well.
A very long episode this week, mainly because of the full scale Dark Compass style rant about Glamour For Better and Ear Candy Music at the start of the show and the interesting and tragic tale of Solomon Linda and The Lion Sleeps Tonight at the end of the show. I never intended to make it run nearly an hour, but I think it was well worth it on both counts.
The lead up to my first anniversary show begins now! At the end of February I will have been doing this show for a year and to celebrate I am planning to put together a show where my listeners can select their favourite tracks from my show and if they like they can record a link for said track that will be played on the show. Get thinking about what tracks you would like me to play and then send me an e-mail and maybe a link to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com.
Another week of slim pickings on the video front this week. One that only got made because of the awful Resident Evil Extinction film, has a huge budget and looks pretty crap, and one that was made for absolutely nothing and is ingenious.
After I released this last episode of my podcast I contacted all the bands to tell them that the episode I played them in was online and to thank them for letting me play their music.
Glamour For Better got back in touch with me saying that they never gave me permission, despite the fact I had the e-mails to prove it. Then the record label, Ear Candy Music, got involved and insisted that I remove the track from the podcast. This is doubly irritating considering that Ear Candy were complicit in previously allowing the same track to be available as a free download for an extended period.
This is a ridiculous situation where record labels and even artists still don't appreciate the benefits of podcasting, but I have followed their wishes and removed the offending track.
The edition of Episode #36 now available for download does not contain the offending track.
The podcast after the drunken trip to London before. After a Tuesday afternoon having a 'wail' of a time celebrating Pete Cogle's 200th show I'm back having only just recovered from the cold I caught after getting soaked on the way to London. A great time was had by all and you can hear what got recorded on PCP #200 released on Wednesday.
A quick note on this weeks artists. A couple of days ago when I last checked on the websites of the acts I was going to play act 6 was using his real name of Michael Trac'e. After I recorded the show I was shifting my top friends about on myspace and now he is using the name Tragic Soul. Just in case there's any confusion.
A small delay in releasing the first show of the new year, for which I apologise. With Christmas, my birthday on Saturday and my latest gig this past Wednesday it's been a busy couple of weeks.
Speaking of my gig it was a brilliant night with two great bands. The bar staff at the venue said it was the best gig they'd seen in a while. Yet again it was only two bands since I had a band pull out on me at the very last minute. You expect some problems when you start promoting gigs, but to have a bands pull out of every gig except the first one is ridiculous. Even for the first gig the bottom band on the bill showed up 20 minutes after they were supposed to be on stage. That was the quickest sound check I've seen in my life. For last months gig I had a total of 5 bands pull out on me, one on the day and they only managed to tell me after they were supposed to arrive. Stress is not the word. It will be the last gig I am promoting for a while, but hopefully when I return the stressful part will have been over.
I'm off to London tomorrow for a 'podcrawl' with some of my podcasting friends, which I'm really looking forward to. A lot of beer will be drunk, a lot of talk will be recorded and hopefully we'll all be coherent. This will either be a fantastic idea or the worst thing British podcasting has ever produced. We'll have to wait and see.
Pretty good video selection this week. The Gay Blades' video is something to behold.
I very rarely listen to the radio. Nowadays most of the music I hear is either played on podcasts or is on MTV2. For this reason I have a strong affinity for music videos and have produced a YouTube playlist for every episode of my podcast.
This has left me with a collection of videos, and it seemed sensible to attempt a video podcast of my favourites of the year.
My criteria for selection are basically for the video to have a strong central idea and for it to fit the song.
This is a humorous puppet video that uses the old Michel Gondry technique of each element of the song having its own visual cue. I know that sounds incredibly pretentious, but all you need to know is that it's very funny. David's expression at the end pretty much sums it up.
2: Fear Of Flying – Three's A Crowd (Band have changed their name to White Lies)
Played Episode #5
Director: James Appleton
When I said at the top of these notes that the video should fit the song, I couldn't have thought of a more appropriate video than this one. The song involves a battle of wills between a man and his girlfriend's pet cat, so you can imagine where this story driven video ends up. The bits at the end where the girlfriend shows some distinctly feline characteristics are very odd.
When this track originally came out, the band had a difficult time persuading people that this was not an anti-war song. After seeing this video it's easy to understand why. The primary coloured battlefield animation is at times priceless. It's probably safe to say that the video is anti-war even if the song isn't.
When the chorus for a song goes 'I hate racism, I love orgasms' it's difficult to imagine a video that could possibly fit the song. A puppet bobbing his head along to the music before tripping out after watching too much TV shouldn't work. It really, really does.
There was no way that this video wasn't going to make the final list as this is the music video I was in. The band only lives about 20 miles up the road from me, and when they sent out a myspace message asking for extras I went along. I'm the one with the big no. 54 on my shirt. Even if I wasn't in it, this would probably have made the list anyway. The idea of a mass protest march fits the song perfectly and when the fun of it all is brought down by a list of wars that British forces have fought in, it becomes thought provoking too.
This is a perfect example of a really simple idea defeating the obvious lack of budget. When the lyrics of a song talk about the problems of trying to grow up, having the uninterested protagonist of the video being chased by scantily clad women seems to work perfectly. When record companies can spend millions on a video that ends up looking like crap, this is the kind of thing they should be considering.
There's only one way to describe this video. Absolutely bloody mental. The brightly coloured animation of empty shirts with clown heads and animal headed mummies beating each other up is certainly one of the most interesting visual experiences of the last year. I really worry for the sanity of the director.
With The Manic Street Preachers becoming more MOR with every passing year, the mantle of politically aware British rock has passed to a new generation of bands. Harrisons are one of these bands and this dystopian vision of a future Sheffield is a great place to start. The visuals have been heavily influenced by the film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 and compliment the song perfectly. You have to admire the bands commitment to the video concept in the final scenes.
Another example of what can be achieved with imagination and a camcorder. I have managed to avoid programmes like The X Factor and Pop Idol, but the bloody things are so entrenched in the popular conscience that even I can see what a good spoof this is. I am slightly concerned with how comfortable Johnny from the band seems to be in drag though...
Stop motion animation using humans can be a very effective tool in the film-makers arsenal. When it's done right it can be spectacular and this is an example of it being done right. The dark, foreboding stage with the haunted dancer all alone starts us off and when the band members appear, briefly, in the black background the doom-laden feeling is enhanced.
Well the 'Best Of' podcast is now out featuring my 10 favourite tracks from the 10 months I've been producing this show. It's a nice collection of songs, with some rock, some punk, some electronica, some humourous acoustic and of course a very weird track to close the show.
I'm not going to put up video links for this episode like I usually do. If you want to look back in the archives Elizabeth, Jupiter One, Planetakis and ddd all have a video available for their track. The reason I'm not going to produce an official list is that I will be releasing a video podcast featuring my favourite videos of the year within the next few days. It's a completely different playlist with 10 more great songs combined with 10 great videos.
A quick announcement that it's my turn to host AMPed again this week, so look out for that this coming Monday.
It's also my next live gig on Wednesday and it's looking like it might be the last for a while. Details on the next 'proper' podcast episode.
Hope you all had a happy and safe holiday period, and here's to a great 2008.
Another late release this week. I think at this stage I should just stop aiming for a Sunday release and just release them when they're ready.
A bit of an American Football theme for the start of this episode. I know it's weird, but it just happened this way. We also have a welcome return for some Wichita artists and one of my favourite bands of the year. Also a weird track of the week that's, well, weird.
Also mentioned in this episode is a very important opportunity for one of the bands I played last week and really, really like. Dominic Castillo & The Rock Savants recently told me that they have made it into the last 10 of an online competition that will get them a 60 second slot during the Superbowl (worth about $3 million dollars) and a contract with the fantastic Interscope records. Obviously this is a huge opportunity for the band and I think they truly deserve it. This round of voting ends on December 31st and you can vote once a day here.
Also remember to check out Made In The UK. Contributions from me, Dark Compass and PC Podcast. The first episode is out now and the second one is scheduled to be released on December 23rd. Go have a listen as it really is the best UK independent music provided by the best UK podcasters (and me).
For the first time ever I've managed to find a video for all the tracks on the show. Admittedly a couple of them are live performances and one of them is a bit ropey. I'm claiming it as a victory though. Here they are:
It's the last show of the year next week, but don't expect any seasonal music. I don't go in for that kind of thing. Bah Humbug!
The first show of the new year will be a review of 2007. I'm also planning on putting out a video podcast featuring the best videos of the year. Do you think I'll include the video I was in?
Yet again it's a very late release the week of my gig. Because yet again I had a band pull out on me at the very last minute. Try as I might I couldn't get a replacement, so the gig will only have two acts appearing.
On the good news front I am starting a new project. My friend Rowley Cutler from Dark Compass is creating a new podcast called Made In The UK and he has asked me to be a co-host on the show along with some other UK podcasters. The first episode is scheduled to be released some time this week with a contribution from yours truly. When it's online I'll let you know.
In the 18 months or so since
I've been doing this podcast, this is probably the one I'm most proud of. It's pretty
heavyweight with some big political ideas. Hopefully it's also got some really
quality music as well.
The British National Party,
Nationalism in general and Nick Griffin are dangerous things and need to be
fought at every turn. A small part of this fight is the Love Music, Hate
Racism campaign and the compilation album that this podcast is dedicated to
raises money for this organization. You can find the album at Repeat Records and it costs a measly £3 including P&P.
Since I don't use a script anymore
and rarely use notes, sometimes the links on the podcast can be a little
rambling. In this case I think it's worth writing down here the main points of
my argument in a coherent and measured form.
1.We should never
forget that the BNP was formed from the Neo-Nazi National Front. No matter how
slickly presented and plausible they now are this party are racist scum.
2.Both the Nazis in
Germany and the Bolsheviks in Russia were minority parties who were discounted
until they took power. The BNP have 'prepared' for an eventuality like this in
the UK.
3.Nick Griffin
describes Islam as an 'innately fanatical' religion. This is like saying
Christianity is innately fanatical. All religions have extremes on both ends
and the only difference with Islam is that the extremely conservative have a
massive budget.
4.Nick Griffin seems
to genuinely believe that he can stop Islamic extremism by simply making them
go home. Even if this concept was achievable it would not work. Forcibly
removing people from their home country is going to create more extremism. We'd
only be proving their argument for them.
5.It is my belief
that there are many philosophies that work perfectly in theory, but human
nature makes them impossible to implement in the real world. Communism is one
and Salafism
is another. The idea of Salafist thought is to go back to the Islam that was
practised in the first three generations after the prophet Muhammad. It's
fundamentalism in the truest sense of the word and I don't think it's a theory
that is bad. Unfortunately the way it has come to be practised, mainly thanks
to the Saudi Arabian oil fields, is to whip up hysteria about the undue
influence that the western world has on the Islamic one. Salafism is a
dangerous philosophy, but it is not dangerous simply because it is Islamic, it
is dangerous because of the way its followers have chosen to implement its
tenets.
I hope all that is a little
clearer than my links in the podcast. In general I don't think politics should
enter into the music world, but there are exceptions to every rule and the
fight against Nazism is one of those rules.
Videos are not really the
point of this podcast, but I'm not going to break with tradition so here are
the videos I've found.
Only just over the hour mark. Note to self, less angry ranting about war movies next time...
A happy week for me. Podcasted bands getting TV exposure, friends getting nominated for awards and the chance that I will finally get myself a job.
Also lots of success in the Olympics, especially in my beloved cycling. By the time you read this Great Britain will probably have a ton load more than the two golds and a silver we currently have.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that Atlantic Wave Radio is back. I had only just started listening to it when it went 'off-air' so I'm really pleased to see it back.
Veery close to the hour mark on a show I was convinced I'd go well over on. I'm getting better.
Quite coincidentally both me and Pete Cogle at PC Podcast started our shows this week with exactly the same track. I suppose it's appropriate since Pete originally introduced me to Dead World Leaders and it was him who made me aware of the new material after I saw he'd submitted some to AMPed.
There's a new cable music channel starting in the UK and they asked people to create a themed 10 track video playlist for possible inclusion on the channel. Here's my effort on the theme of 'Cheap Videos':
OK Go - Here It Goes Again Take 4 people, 8 treadmills and a sister who's a choreographer and you have an internet phenomena. Since I was one of the few people who actually bought OK Go's FIRST album I was very happy for them.
Radiohead - No Surprises As I mentioned last week I don't really like the majority of Radiohead's music, but they always produce good videos. The little smile Thom gives as the water drains is priceless.
Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life Put a couch in a coffee shop, ask people (mainly couples) to listen to the track and film their reactions. Amazingly simple, amazingly effective. I particularly like the reaction to the 'lottery' line. No matter how many times I see this video it still makes me smile.
Seagull Strange - Love's Sick Disease The one truly 'unknown' band I included in the list. It's a very similar video to 'My Year In Lists' by Los Campesinos!, but I plumped for this one because it fits the song better. Basically it's just the whole band lip-syncing to the track. It's sounds crap, it isn't.
Fatboy Slim - Praise You Fatboy Slim is one of my favourite artists and Spike Jonze is one of my favourite directors, but having said that I've never really liked this video. However it is very well known and fits in perfectly with the theme.
Digitalism - Pogo I debated with myself a long time before finally including this one. I absolutely love it, but I would lay money it's the most expensive video in this list. I'm not really sure it qualifies as 'cheap', but it's so good and aesthetically it fits.
Moby - Bodyrock The legend about this video (and I'm not sure if it's true) is that the director had a concept for the video, but as soon as Moby saw these audition tapes he insisted that they be released as the video. Not a bad idea.
The Black Ghosts - Repetition Kills You Having the lyrics printed on baseball caps is a new variation on an old theme, and it's pulled off really well in this video. It's also a video where everyone is clearly having a lot of fun.
Elle S'Appelle - Little Flame Take various round-shaped household objects and a camcorder and make a video. The pinnacle of home-made videos and absolute proof that cheap doesn't mean bad.
Feeder - Just A Day Why did no-one do this before? The lucky fact that this track had already been a B-Side before it was a single meant that they could get the fans to make their video for them. The imagination of some submissions and the exuberance of others makes this a classic video. Not just for cheap videos, but for videos full stop.
Now that we've got through the playlist done for 4Music it's time for this weeks Podcast video playlist.
See what happens when I don't rant at anything. The show comes in at well under the hour mark. A job well done.
The quote I made in the show when describing hip-hop music and which provides the title for this episode is actually a song lyric. It's a song that pretty much agrees with my stance on hip-hop and I'd be interested to see if anyone recognises it. Answers on a postcard please (or at least a blogpage).
One thing I neglected to mention in the show is that I received an e-mail this week from a listener I'd never heard from before. His name's Gustav Bertha and despite the name he's actually Scottish (although he lives in Switzerland). He's a musician and podcaster so have a listen to his Way Past Bedtime Radio Show. He was complimentary about my show and agrees that it's weird that listeners never seem to get in touch, but having said that the important thing is that the band names get mentioned and enter the minds of the listeners. After all that's what it's all about.
Really, really nice selection of videos this week. Both in quantitiy and quality. Usually I'm lucky if there's one decent piece of work in the collection, but this week there are at least three. As mentioned on the show, the Innerpartysystem is absolutely fantastic and is an early entry for my top 10 VidCast. The Hot Tramps video is a little weird as it's actually a dance routine that uses the track. It's the video that is linked on their myspace site so it's 'sanctioned' and is probably as close as we're going to get to an official video so I added it to the play list.
Bit late this week. Sorry about that, but I've only just got access to the family computer. Also went over the hour mark for the first time in about a month, but I just had too much ranting. I can't help myself.
Have a look at the full list of nominations for the Mercury Music Prize. As usual there's a mix of successful albums from the upper echelons of the charts, some underground stuff that just needs exposure and the token folk and jazz contenders. I still think Hold On Now Youngster by Los Campesinos! was cruelly overlooked.
Nice collection of videos this week. The Black Ghosts' one is very clever and a lot of fun and the Five A.M. one is star studded and has a powerful message. Unfortunately it's not for the song I actually played on the podcast, but it's such a good piece of work I'm bending my rules for this week. Seabird are working on an official video for their track, but it's not ready yet so for the time being here's a live performance.
Just squeaked under the hour mark this week. I was sure I would go over with all the ranting and wheedling there was in this episode.
I debated with myself whether to put the explicit tag on this show. My rule is that I put the tag on if there is audible swearing in any of the tracks. At the end of the day I thought it would be hypocritical of me to put the tag on. If it offends you I apologize (and grow up).
A quite nice bit of trivia for this show is we have two duos who are couples. I believe in both cases they might be married as well. Quite sweet, or at least sweeter than I usually am.
Let the comments roll in...
Nice selection and variety of videos this week. The Donora video was made by a project called Post Secret, which seems to be one of those places you can send anonymous confessions. It's very well put together and very effective. The Stampead video is very good as well. I'm not generally a fan of 'slideshow' videos. They never seem to quite work and are usually just lazy. This one however is very cool. Lots of interesting images that are edited together very well and fit the song perfectly. It's an almost subliminal experience.
Ooops! Released a little bit late this week. I actually forgot it was Wednesday. The perils of being unemployed.
Despite the late release I hope you enjoy this final midweek show. It's a bit of a weak theme, but the songs hang together rather well I think.
We have a story with the videos this week. In the show I mentioned an extraordinary video that was made unofficially for The Joy Formidable's track. It featured video of various people of both genders masturbating. This was not something sleazy (OK, maybe a little) it was only shot from the shoulders up and you never saw as much as an exposed breast. It was a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit arousing and a little bit brilliant. Between my recording the show and writing this blog, those killjoys at YouTube have removed the video for violating policy. In my opinion it did not violate anything and they were stupid for removing it. The band are not going to make a stand because they now have an official video which is not controversial in the slightest. The new video is a very fine piece of work, but not nearly as memorable as the unofficial one. I just wish I could link to both versions.
A tiny bit hysterical in this weeks show. I recorded considerably later than I usually do after not having much sleep. Computer failure meant I didn't have as much preperation time as I would have liked either.
This is probably the reason that I made several stumbles this week including potentially insulting my trans-atlantic colleague Jen. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
And talking about insulting people, the spectre of the GK & The Renegades 'controversy' reared it's head this week. Trust me Jack it's not a big deal.
Going to be continuing with MIUK for the next few shows including izzie Voodoo making her debut as a host tomorrow. Rather enjoying it and Rowley seems to think I did a good job. I don't really care how many people listen (although you should all be subscribed of course), but I don't want to spoil the good work that Rowley's done over the past 6 months or so.
Pretty good selection of videos this week. Both in quantity and quality. The Come On Gang! one is only a teaser for the video which is being made now, but it promises good things to come.
A global musical trip of epic proportions! Or just an excuse to play music from exotic corners of the world. You decide...
It occured to me after I'd finished putting this show together that it's rather surprising that there are no acts sourced from Jamendo. Whenever a band on a podcast comes from an unusual country, particularly continental Europe, 9 times out of 10 the podcaster got it from Jamendo. I managed to put together a 4 track show with a global span and never went to the Jamendo well once. I'm oddly proud of myself.
75% success rate on the video front this week. The Hedtrip one is very clever and rather cool.
With all my gushing about VQS and the sad demise of AIMP I was sure I would go over the hour mark for this show. I don't know what's been going on recently, but I'm consistently managing my ideal length of less than an hour.
One thing I forgot to mention on the show is that izzie Voodoo kindly played my promo on the last episode of her show. Unlike me she doesn't play a lot of promos, so that was really cool. She also sent me a very nice e-mail regarding the review of her album I wrote. I was worried she wasn't going to like it, but shes put the whole thing on her website. Even the mildly critical stuff I wrote.
Podcasting can be time consuming so it's unfortunately rather common for shows to stop broadcast. At least Dan told us that the latest episode of American Indie Music Podcast would be the last one. Thanks for the great music and I hope you manage to come back Dan.
The great thing about podcasting is also one of the worst things. Every week I put out a music programme. I am a complete amateur with absolutely no background in music and a competent background in technology. It is a great thing that someone like me can send music all around the world and I have verifiable listeners in the US, Sweden and Australia. We are living in a golden age where access to music can be universal. This is also a bad thing in a way. I am one person with no staff to deal with. Each week I can play exactly what I want and I do. I am imposing my personal music taste on my listeners with no checks and balances. My deep seated aversions to R & B, Jazz and the vast majority of Acoustic music can come through without any interference. But this also means that when I find a track I like in one of those genres I can mix up my policy and play it. The Ruben Angel track is really not something I thought I would have played and I have another track lined up for a few weeks that is a much heavier Hip Hop influenced track. It's my musical taste, it's weird and I can send it out worldwide very easily. Ohhh The Power!!!!!
Not many videos. The Femtastic one is very interesting as the whole thing's been rotoscoped. For those who don't know, rotoscoping is a process where each individual frame of a piece of film gets painted over to create animation. At least that's how it used to work. In this modern, digital age it's probably not nearly as time consuming as that. However it's done nowadays, it's an effective and interesting visual style. If you search on YouTube you can find the 'before' video so you can see what it looked like before it was painted over.
The second of my planned four mid-week extra episodes. This time the theme is bands I've played in the past who've recently sent me new music.
A couple of clarifications from the links in the show:
The Slants backgrounds are Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Filipino. They also have a token caucasian.
Since I recorded the show The Ropes have made another track available on their myspace. It's the title track from their forthcoming album 'What They Do For Fun'. So at time of writing you can get four lovely mp3's for absolutely nothing.
As with last weeks show, there's not much on the video front and with only two videos I'm not going to put the video player on the myspace page. Here are the links though.
Well under the hour mark this week. I was sure I was going to go over and am now rather pleased with myself.
As promised on the show, here are the statistics for where my artists come from. This is a countdown of artists not number of plays. For instance I've played Los Campesinos! and Echolounge several times but Wales only gets one mark for each artist. The list makes fairly interesting reading. At least for me...
CITY
1. London 40 Artists
2. New York 22 Artists
3. Los Angeles 18 Artists
4. Bristol 16 Artists
5. Manchester 9 Artists
=6. Bath, Glasgow 8 Artists
8. Montreal 7 Artists
=9. Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Sheffield, Stockholm 6 Artists
REGION
1. London 40 Artists
2. California 36 Artists
3. New York State 24 Artists
4. Yorkshire 18 Artists
5. Bristol 16 Artists
6. Somerset 14 Artists
7. Manchester 9 Artists
=8. Oregon, Texas, Glasgow 8 Artists
COUNTRY
1. England 158 Artists
2. USA 146 Artists
3. Canada 22 Artists
4. Scotland 17 Artists
5. Australia 11 Artists
6. Sweden 10 Artists
7. Germany 6 Artists
=8. France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Wales 3 Artists
Putting this list together has made me realise two things. I've been doing this a pretty long time if that's the amount of bands I've played and also the diversity of countries I've had music from. Those not on the list include Brazil, Faroe Islands, Thailand & South Africa.
It was a fun exercise for me and I hope it's marginally interesting for my listeners. To answer Gabor Kovac's question, if I cheat slightly and include British Columbia in Canada to 'The Pacific Northwest' then 6.6% of my artists come from that region.
With the vaguely interesting statistics out of the way a quick reminder to check out the PCP2 Industrial show that I inspired and co-hosted with Pete Cogle and Rowley Cutler. It was a lot of fun to do and the show turned out rather well, with a nice diversity of styles.
Slim pickings this week for the videos, but the JDSY one is delightfully quirky.
In an effort to clear the backlog of music I have stored up to play I have decided to release this shorter mid-week episode of my podcast. When you have 6 weeks worth of music to play it's starting to get a little ridiculous.
The theme for this extra show is Wonderland Records, a really cool independent label from Sweden. Back in February Sebastian Hess, who runs the label, e-mailed me out of the blue with a link to download loads of promotional mp3's from his labels roster. I liked what I heard and played tracks by Markovic and Emmon on Episode #39. A couple of weeks ago Sebastian e-mailed me again saying he's updated the promotional download page if I wanted a listen. I of course said yes and here are 4 more tracks from the label.
For a short show it's a fairly high hit rate on the video front, 50%. Since there's only two videos I wont be putting the player on the myspace page. Just follow the links below or here's a link to the YouTube playlist.
I was absolutely convinced I would go over the hour mark with this show considering the audio I recorded at the PodCrawl, but for the first time in about a month I was well under. Just after I recorded the show I received an e-mail from my friend Tim asking me keep the length down. He's aiming for 35-40 minutes, but at this stage I think under an hour is the most achievable target. We take our victories when we can.
It was great to use the audio I recorded at the PodCrawl last week. Even at this stage it brought back good memories. Here's to the next one. Edinburgh/Liverpool/Birmingham/Manchester (Delete when we work it out) here we come!
I've got so much music stored up to play at the moment that I'm probably going to put a mid-week bonus episode in the feed this week. Look out for that on Wednesday.
Nice selection of videos this week. The NIN one is unofficial but very funny. It's probably as official as we're going to get so I had no hesitation in putting it in the playlist. The Brad Sucks video is also unofficial, but very cool.
In yet another example of podcast time-twisting, this episode was recorded before I went on the PodCrawl on Friday, but I'm writing this on Saturday after the event. It was a lot of fun, but slightly strange as I hadn't slept for about 30 hours by the end of it. Recording was done, but my iPods battery was drained after nearly an hour. I haven't actually listened to what was recorded yet, I haven't been brave enough. You'll probably get some of that recorded material in next weeks show.
Note to self: don't record in the late afternoon when the dog thinks she should be taken for her walk. When I leant forward towards the mic to record the first link for this show Izzie, my 16 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, decided it would be fun to jump up behind me in the chair. This is one of her favourite positions so I thought nothing more of it. Half way through the recording of that link she decided to start furiously licking my neck. This is one of her methods to tell me that it's REALLY walkie-time. During the second link she then started whining loudly right next to me. I was planning on posting a picture of my admittedly very cute dog, but I don't have any digital photos and I didn't have time to take one. Fortunately Izzie Voodoo wasn't as much hassle...
Because of the long time that it takes between my getting a song to play and it actually getting on the play list I've got used to other podcasters beating me to playing particular tracks. Oddly this happened three times in this particular show.
It was a great experience to go and see Rosalita and Ejectorseat live here in Bath last week. Unfortunately the recording of the interviews didn't go so well with the mic cutting out seemingly at random. Very frustrating, but there's enough of the interviews left to make some kind of sense. It was a delicate editing job to make it hang together, but I think I managed OK.
One thing that probably needs to be explained is that the Moles venue here in Bath is actually underground. It's built into an old wine cellar on the side of a hill. This means that the entrance to the venue is on road level, while the pavement is on a higher level above the entrance. Where the interviews were conducted was on this higher pavement level so we were on top of the venue.
Looking forward to the second 'PodCrawl' where a bunch of us degenerate podcasting types are going to meet up in London and have some serious networking time (i.e. some serious drinking time). On the off chance that I have some listeners in the London area who want to join us then we are meeting in the Montague Pyke pub on Charing Cross Road at Noon on the 13th June. I'm intending on recording some of our 'discussions' so at some point there'll probably be recordings shoved at random into my show.
Bit sparse on the video front this week, but as mentioned in the interview the Ejectorseat one is particularly fine. As I've said many, many times in the past you don't need an astronomical budget to come up with an effective video. In this case all you need is five band members, five video cameras and five locations. Very simple, very cool.
I realised that a lot of my links were getting very long, but to go well over the hour mark for the second straight week was surprising. Note to self, less talking. (And a prize for anyone who recognizes that last quote).
Mainly because of my excessive talking I have made a slight change to the way I edit my show together. I consider myself a purist and have always been reluctant to talk over the beginnings and the ends of tracks. My philosophy has always been to play the track as the artist intended and not to spoil it by talking over it. The necessity of making this show as short as possible has made me reconsider. I think it still sounds pretty good. Since I was making that change I also decided to make another one and this is the first 'regular' show that has a title other than the number.
A couple of errata regarding the link for City Breathing. Of course I mispoke and the band they remind me of is Explosions In The Sky. They are a really fine instrumental indie band who I have loved since they did the soundtrack to a great American Football movie called Friday Night Lights. (By the way Friday Night Lights the book by Buzz Bissinger is a fine read even if you don't like American Football). Have a listen to Explosions In The Sky at their website. The other mistake I made about City Breathing is that their CD's are available for between $5 and $12 it's their T-Shirts that are available for between $8 and $15. Even better value!
So close to a complete video playlist this week. Electrocute let me down at the last minute. Oh well, the quest continues...
It seems I really had a lot of extra stuff to talk about as I've gone well over the hour mark for the first time on an 8 track show. Note to self, stop talking...
The main reason for this loquacity is the fact that I had two different sets of e-mail correspondence this week. It's a rare enough occurence when I get one e-mail in a week that relates to my show, so to get several from two different people was a nice change.
A welcome to the new de facto leader of the Association of Music Podcasting the venerable Mr. Pete Cogle. Let's hope that our new boss can bring AMP into the fore-front of the podcasting community where it belongs.
And please remember that this show has the explicit tag and is most definitely not work-safe. Just look at the last track title.
New music source for this week with all music coming from MusicSUBMIT.com. Not entirely happy with having to pay for podplay, but at the end of the day the more new music I hear the more new music I can send into your ears.
A plot has been hatched this week to plug Made In The UK on an upcoming episode of AMPed. A little bit ethically dubious to plug a non-AMP anthology show on the AMP anthology show, but that's what Rowley from Dark Compass is planning to do, so there's going to be a lot of cross-over on those two shows over the next few weeks.
Nice selection of videos this week, with three different but equally good videos. The zwish one is home-made and very funny, Otto's Daughter has some impressive production values and fits the song well and Fans Of Jimmy Century is very tongue-in-cheek and ridiculously got banned by AOL videos for excessive sexual content. Make up your own mind and click the links below.
Another bit of nostalgia this week with all the tracks by artists who have previously appeared on the show.
The main reasoning behind this is all the lovely CD's I've been receiving through the post to review. Those lovely blokes at The Haiku not only sent me their debut CD but they also put me down as one of only 8 people given an acknowledgement in their sleeve notes. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
One of my favourite bands, The Madisons, have split up but Aaron their lead singer is back with a new solo project. It's great to see that even when bands come to an end the music continues. What's even better is that it's some bloody good music.
Also remember to look at the Noize Makes Enemies webzine where all the reviews I've been writing are located.
Only one video this week. Sometimes it just happens that way.
Sorry for the slightly late release this week. It's been a frustrating day of trying to get the damn show uploaded. It should be OK now and be available for your listening pleasure.
Despite my 10 minute rant at the beginning of the show I still came out at under the hour mark. I'm a little bit surprised at that.
Since I mentioned the excellent cover art for the Karmella's Game album 'The Art Of Distraction' I thought I may as well add it to this blog.
Remember to look for the reviews I did for Of The I, Venus Verse and O Titus! on the Noize Makes Enemies webzine. Hopefully more reviews coming this week.
Another case of quality over quantity this week. The Nada Surf and Mexicolas videos are both excellent. The Karmella's Game video I found is a live performance that contains a short interview at the start.
10 tracks on this special episode, but I deliberately tried to cut down on the talk so I rather surprisingly brought it in under the hour mark.
50 Episodes isn't that big a deal, but it is a deal and I felt like celebrating. I hope you appreciate this trip down memory lane, especially if you are a new listener and didn't hear these tracks first time round.
The one 'new' track on this episode is a brand new mix of 'Between Being & Ego' by Of The I. I played the original mix of the track in the early days, but the band have re-recorded it for their forthcoming album and sent me a copy. Good timing for this special show. I've written a review of the album sampler they sent me and I submitted it yesterday to the Noize Makes Enemies webzine along with another couple of reviews. I'm not in charge of these things, but I'll guess they'll be online by the end of the week.
A couple of new videos since I originally played these tracks, including an animated video for 'Between Being & Ego' that's absolutely brilliant.
About 5 years ago I got a demo of a program called eJay that let's you create your own dance music. This week I came across the CD of the tracks I made and decided I might as well put out a special podcast featuring them all. Talk about a vanity project...
Anyway since the demo software I had ran out after 30 Days that's what I've called the 'EP' and since my online moniker has been Ourobouros 54 forever I present to you 30 Days by Ourobouros 54.
Here are some explanations for the tracks:
1. Infinity
I wanted to do a down-tempo ambient style track and this is what came out. Since the Ourobouros is a symbol of infinity that seemed a good title.
2. The Zeppo
My all time favourite TV program is Buffy The Vampire Slayer and my all time favourite quote was Xander's line that I used in the track. I found a wav of the line and used it to create this track. The title comes from one of my favourite episodes of the show that focuses on Xander.
3. Concussed Duckling
I wanted to create a weird track and the flute sample fitted the bill perfectly. The title comes from a Terry Pratchett line: 'He had all the self-awareness of a concussed duckling'. It's one of the funniest lines I've ever read and it fitted a funny sounding track.
4. Roc Stars
eJay gets some well known artists to provide samples for their software and one of them for the edition I had was Cut La Roc. I was already a big fan of his as he was on Skint Records and I had a lot of his tracks from Skint compilations. I challenged myself to create a track that only used Cut La Roc samples and this is the result.
5. Playboy
I wanted to create a trippy, down tempo track and was looking for inspiration. At the time I was a fan of WWE wrestling, and one of the female performers was named Torrie Wilson. Her entrance music was pretty good and had the feel I was looking for. This is my attempt at re-creating her music using the available samples. Since she'd recently posed for Playboy at the time I did it I had my title.
6. Tajiri
As I said above I was a WWE fan at the time and my favourite wrestler was a Japanese guy named Yoshihiro Tajiri. He inspired me to create a Japanese sounding track and this is the result.
If for some unknown reason you want to own these tracks you can download it from this link.
For some reason the original file I uploaded for this episode got cut off. It took me 6 attempts before the full file got uploaded. No idea what was going on, but the repost should have the full episode. The file should be 48 minutes 53 seconds long.
Not much to say this week, so back well under the 50 minute mark.
A hugely welcome return to the show for Rieser, who were one of the very first bands I contacted to play on the podcast over a year ago. They were one of those unsigned bands that I was always playing to my friends until one of them just said 'why not do your own podcast'. They were very agreeable to being played on my show and sent me a preview of their absolutely fantastic 'The Well Dressed Thief' album. It was one of my favourite albums of last year and is well worth your time to go and download. I wrote a review of it for Podcast User Magazine and it's actually been quoted in their press release for the Rockstar Single. It makes me feel all fuzzy that I'm contributing in a small way to the success of such a fantastic band. If you want to listen to the full Rockstar single you can find it on Ourobouros Podcast #36, AMPed #111 or Made In The UK #2. You can also watch the Video.
Also go and have a listen to Zoon Van Snook's remix of 'Nude' by Radiohead on his myspace site. All the remixes that have been done can be found at radioheadremix.com. Whether you like Radiohead or, like me, find them pretentious and irrelevant you have to admire the innovation of making it so easy for people to do remixes of their song.
It's going to be Show #50 next week and I have something planned. It's a minor milestone, so only a minor celebration, but it is going to be an extended show. That's all I'm saying for now, but a heavy hint of what type of show it's going to be was given on Episode #46.
Not a great deal on the video front this week as far as 'proper' videos goes, but I did manage to find quite a few live videos.
My theory that I might have room to squeeze in another Los Campesinos! track because 'My Year In Lists' was so short proved to be a little optimistic. For the first time on a 'regular' podcast I went over the hour mark. Oh well any excuse to play more LC!
On this weeks show we have a couple of acts that I have been wanting to play for a loooong time, a mini local music special section, a couple of 'trashy' tracks and purely coincidentally on the same episode that I play Los Campesinos! a band that really reminded me of them.
It was my turn to host AMPed this week so you can check out Episode #122 on Monday featuring my dulcet tones.
If you hurry you can pick up The Whip's album 'X Marks Destination' for £4.74 from the New Artists Showcase promotion on iTunes. With any luck you can pick up 'Hold On Now Youngster' by Los Campesinos! on the same promotion. It was listed, but for some inexplicable reason not only has it been taken off the promotion, the whole album has been removed from iTunes. I have no idea what's going on there. The promotion ends on 15th April.
It's weird how things work out. I haven't actually checked, but it could well be that we have the longest track title and the longest band name in the same show.
Assuming that the Black Kids record label Almost Gold doesn't object it's probably going to be a situation where I play a track one week and it's high up in the top 40 the next week. Footage from the 'Later...' show I mentioned is on YouTube already. Those bands move fast.
On this weeks show a lot of music from Yorkshire, mainly thanks to Penny Broadhurst and her excellent Instant Classic Podcast, a track taken from a CD I received through the post (something that doesn't happen very often) and some funk/electronica/rock that sounds bloody brilliant.
I feel some explanation is required for the madness at the beginning of the show. I've been listening to this new podcast called Hyper Nonsense which is not a music podcast, but rather the hosts Shawno & Jen from San Luis Obispo, California discussing weird stuff and chatting. It's been a while since I have listened to one of these types of show since the last one I subscribed to broke up rather acrimoniously and it's very entertaining. Last week they recorded a promo for their show and said they would welcome a promo trade. I thought what the hell and recorded one myself. Well I'm afraid I got a bit carried away and it ended up being slightly insane. Anyway it exists now and if any other podcasters want to play my promo on their show then drop me a line.
It's another case of quality over quantity on the video front this week. Only three for you, but they are all fine pieces of work. The Minus The Bear video in particular is very funny. You can also hear the differences in the Black Kids' track between the demo version and the single version before you go out and buy it on Monday (hint, hint).
Having talked about when I first started doing my 'Weird Track Of The Week' on the show, I got curious. I had a quick listen to my archive and it appears that the first time I used the phrase 'Weird Track Of The Week' was on Episode #25, but I'd been deliberately putting strange tracks on the end of the show for some time before then. The last 'Non-Weird' track to end the show was on Episode #19. It seems I over-estimated when I thought it was Episode #16 or #17.
All of that doesn't matter at all, but since I mentioned it on the show I thought I may as well clarify.
Also mentioned on the show was the first time I played Murder Of Lilies on the podcast. They kicked off Episode #4 with a great track called 'Elector', which will make a re-appearance on the show in a few weeks. That's all I'm saying for now...
On this weeks show we have two acts I've played before, one act whose name sounds like a band I've played before and the first time I've ever really liked a true Drum & Bass track.
Not much on the video front this week, but there are lots of live videos to make up for it. As usual it's quality over quantity with the promo videos. The YACHT one is great.
Next week a lot of tracks sourced from one of the new podcasts I've been listening to, including one of my tracks of the year so far that I'm amazed I got permission to play.
See you next time and remember the Gallagher brothers spew horrendous music.
Another fine selection of music for you this week as well as more over-use of the word interesting.
We have two 'bands' that are actually just one bloke from New Jersey and have very different styles, the final selection from one of my favourite local bands and some French weirdness provided by Mr. Cogle.
Only one video this week, but it's a cool example of the live videos you can find on YouTube. The band have some serious problems with the PA, but fortunately the girl holding the camera knows the song to the extent that she knows when the handclaps come in.
Since I've stopped using scripts my three favourite words 'on-air' seem to be interesting, basically and umm. Interesting...
Some unbelievably mainstream music for this episode and a big shout out to the good people at Wichita and Domino for embracing the concept of promotion through podcasting.
Mentioned in the show are two fantastic bands on the Domino roster who I absolutely love, but unfortunately aren't podsafe as of yet. Check out Psapp and !!! (Chk Chk Chk). Also have a look at the superb video for Psapp's track Hi and !!!'s latest album Myth Takes.
Since it's mostly 'Major' labels this week there are a lot of quality videos for this show. There's also a video for The Getaway Team that was recorded by Rowley at the PodFest gig I mentioned in the show.
Not a lot of extra stuff to talk about this week, so we're back to pretty much just playing the music. Really that's what it's all about anyway isn't it?
One thing I forgot to mention in the show is that I first heard the excellent She & Him on The Phill(er) Podcast. An excellent indie show that has a similar musical style to me.
Back to normal this week, well, as normal as it gets around here anyway.
Yet again I've managed to get a track to play that I never thought I would get. It's fantastic that so many rising stars of indie music are OK with podcasting now, and Elle S'Appelle have joined that elite club. There's been some REALLY big bands added to the Podsafe Music Network recently and I will be having a fangasm over the next few weeks. It'll take a while to get to the big stuff since at the moment I've got so much music stored up that the next 4 shows have been set.
I've been told that those incredibly nice Haiku boys have included me in the sleeve notes of their debut album Fan The Flames. A little milestone in the history of this podcast achieved!
To get the full story of The Slants laudable decision to turn down the chance of a 'Million Dollar' recording deal read the blog here. Those insidious people at Bodog Music only seem to have started this competition in order to take advantage of desperate and foolhardy musicians. Fortunately The Slants were brave and smart enough to get out while the going was good. Good luck to them.
Small selection of videos this week, but the Elle S'Appelle one is exactly the kind of video I like. Inventive, arresting and made for pennies. It boggles the mind that record companies are willing to spend tens of thousands of pounds on insipid high-production-value videos, when with a little imagination and various round objects you can come up with a clever video like this one.
I now have to do absolutely nothing for the show until Friday. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I have so many shows planned into the future.
Happy Birthday To ME! A full year of podcasting is in the books and it's been a bumpy ride sometimes. I've had a lot of fun and also made a lot of friends as can be seen by the amount of congratulatory messages I received from other podcasters. I had so many it's a really long show this week, but so what! I'm celebrating. Go along to any of the other podcasts linked in the show notes and you'll find a lot of good music in a wide range of musical styles.
Another reason to celebrate is today is the official release of the Los Campesinos! album. I've been waiting for this to come out for well over a year and I'm now desperately working out if I've got enough spare cash to actually get it. Speaking of new albums, as mentioned on the show The Haiku's full length debut 'Fan The Flames' is out as well. So much good music, so little money...
A surprising amount of videos this week, including a couple of efforts that weren't available the first time I played the tracks.
A rather long winded opening this week. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I was trying to explain the psychology of podcasters and it just got a little out of hand. That probably explains more about my psychology than anything else really.
A really nice selection of music this week from England, Wales, France, The US, Canada and Australia. All over the bloody shop really. It's all kicked off with one of my favourite finds since I've started doing this podcast.
There's still time to send in suggestions and intros for my anniversary show next week. I've had a load of suggestions already and the show is going to be really long. It can always be longer! Any input can be sent to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com.
Not a great deal on the video front this week, but The Bastard Fairies video is really, really good.
I'm being very good about releasing these shows on time recently. I'm rather pleased with myself.
Kicked off the show this week with a couple of tracks I was delighted to bring to you and didn't think I'd be able to. Unfortunately Mr. Clitheroe of Suffolk 'n' Cool beat me to the punch with the one I was most excited about. Ah well that's podcasting. I'm not bitter. Not really.
Also mentioned on this weeks show are a couple of new podcasts by members of the Podcrawl Collective. When we all met up a couple of weeks ago for Pete Cogle's 200th show there were 6 podcasts between the 5 of us and now there are two more for the group. Paul 'The Saint/The Grumbler' Snelling was corrupted by the rest of us and has started his first music podcast called Music And Mumblings and Rowley Cutler has just started his third show, Dark Compass Metal Show. As you might have guessed that last one deals with all things metal. At time of writing both of them are two episodes old and are worth your time checking out.
Another reminder that it's my first anniversary show in two weeks and I still need suggestions from my listeners as to what I should play. I've had a few in already, but I can always do with more. Send in your suggestions and any links you feel like recording to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com.
Nice full selection of videos for this week. Almost a full selection with only Sixtrak letting the side down. It's made up for by two different videos for the Blood Red Shoes track. They originally released it as a single in 2006 with the old video, but the band have now re-recorded the track and released a new video in preparation for their album release in April. See which video you prefer. I like the old one personally. It's also interesting seeing the subtle differences between the two different recordings.
Another fine collection of independent music for you this week. Tracks from Canada, New Zealand, The US and The UK including an acoustic interlude, which is something I don't do very often.
Please let me know what tracks you want me to play on the 1st Anniversary show in two weeks. Any suggestions can be sent to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com and if you want to record your own intro for your selection, then send those along as well.
A very long episode this week, mainly because of the full scale Dark Compass style rant about Glamour For Better and Ear Candy Music at the start of the show and the interesting and tragic tale of Solomon Linda and The Lion Sleeps Tonight at the end of the show. I never intended to make it run nearly an hour, but I think it was well worth it on both counts.
The lead up to my first anniversary show begins now! At the end of February I will have been doing this show for a year and to celebrate I am planning to put together a show where my listeners can select their favourite tracks from my show and if they like they can record a link for said track that will be played on the show. Get thinking about what tracks you would like me to play and then send me an e-mail and maybe a link to ourobouros.podcast@googlemail.com.
Another week of slim pickings on the video front this week. One that only got made because of the awful Resident Evil Extinction film, has a huge budget and looks pretty crap, and one that was made for absolutely nothing and is ingenious.
After I released this last episode of my podcast I contacted all the bands to tell them that the episode I played them in was online and to thank them for letting me play their music.
Glamour For Better got back in touch with me saying that they never gave me permission, despite the fact I had the e-mails to prove it. Then the record label, Ear Candy Music, got involved and insisted that I remove the track from the podcast. This is doubly irritating considering that Ear Candy were complicit in previously allowing the same track to be available as a free download for an extended period.
This is a ridiculous situation where record labels and even artists still don't appreciate the benefits of podcasting, but I have followed their wishes and removed the offending track.
The edition of Episode #36 now available for download does not contain the offending track.
The podcast after the drunken trip to London before. After a Tuesday afternoon having a 'wail' of a time celebrating Pete Cogle's 200th show I'm back having only just recovered from the cold I caught after getting soaked on the way to London. A great time was had by all and you can hear what got recorded on PCP #200 released on Wednesday.
A quick note on this weeks artists. A couple of days ago when I last checked on the websites of the acts I was going to play act 6 was using his real name of Michael Trac'e. After I recorded the show I was shifting my top friends about on myspace and now he is using the name Tragic Soul. Just in case there's any confusion.
A small delay in releasing the first show of the new year, for which I apologise. With Christmas, my birthday on Saturday and my latest gig this past Wednesday it's been a busy couple of weeks.
Speaking of my gig it was a brilliant night with two great bands. The bar staff at the venue said it was the best gig they'd seen in a while. Yet again it was only two bands since I had a band pull out on me at the very last minute. You expect some problems when you start promoting gigs, but to have a bands pull out of every gig except the first one is ridiculous. Even for the first gig the bottom band on the bill showed up 20 minutes after they were supposed to be on stage. That was the quickest sound check I've seen in my life. For last months gig I had a total of 5 bands pull out on me, one on the day and they only managed to tell me after they were supposed to arrive. Stress is not the word. It will be the last gig I am promoting for a while, but hopefully when I return the stressful part will have been over.
I'm off to London tomorrow for a 'podcrawl' with some of my podcasting friends, which I'm really looking forward to. A lot of beer will be drunk, a lot of talk will be recorded and hopefully we'll all be coherent. This will either be a fantastic idea or the worst thing British podcasting has ever produced. We'll have to wait and see.
Pretty good video selection this week. The Gay Blades' video is something to behold.
I very rarely listen to the radio. Nowadays most of the music I hear is either played on podcasts or is on MTV2. For this reason I have a strong affinity for music videos and have produced a YouTube playlist for every episode of my podcast.
This has left me with a collection of videos, and it seemed sensible to attempt a video podcast of my favourites of the year.
My criteria for selection are basically for the video to have a strong central idea and for it to fit the song.
This is a humorous puppet video that uses the old Michel Gondry technique of each element of the song having its own visual cue. I know that sounds incredibly pretentious, but all you need to know is that it's very funny. David's expression at the end pretty much sums it up.
2: Fear Of Flying – Three's A Crowd (Band have changed their name to White Lies)
Played Episode #5
Director: James Appleton
When I said at the top of these notes that the video should fit the song, I couldn't have thought of a more appropriate video than this one. The song involves a battle of wills between a man and his girlfriend's pet cat, so you can imagine where this story driven video ends up. The bits at the end where the girlfriend shows some distinctly feline characteristics are very odd.
When this track originally came out, the band had a difficult time persuading people that this was not an anti-war song. After seeing this video it's easy to understand why. The primary coloured battlefield animation is at times priceless. It's probably safe to say that the video is anti-war even if the song isn't.
When the chorus for a song goes 'I hate racism, I love orgasms' it's difficult to imagine a video that could possibly fit the song. A puppet bobbing his head along to the music before tripping out after watching too much TV shouldn't work. It really, really does.
There was no way that this video wasn't going to make the final list as this is the music video I was in. The band only lives about 20 miles up the road from me, and when they sent out a myspace message asking for extras I went along. I'm the one with the big no. 54 on my shirt. Even if I wasn't in it, this would probably have made the list anyway. The idea of a mass protest march fits the song perfectly and when the fun of it all is brought down by a list of wars that British forces have fought in, it becomes thought provoking too.
This is a perfect example of a really simple idea defeating the obvious lack of budget. When the lyrics of a song talk about the problems of trying to grow up, having the uninterested protagonist of the video being chased by scantily clad women seems to work perfectly. When record companies can spend millions on a video that ends up looking like crap, this is the kind of thing they should be considering.
There's only one way to describe this video. Absolutely bloody mental. The brightly coloured animation of empty shirts with clown heads and animal headed mummies beating each other up is certainly one of the most interesting visual experiences of the last year. I really worry for the sanity of the director.
With The Manic Street Preachers becoming more MOR with every passing year, the mantle of politically aware British rock has passed to a new generation of bands. Harrisons are one of these bands and this dystopian vision of a future Sheffield is a great place to start. The visuals have been heavily influenced by the film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 and compliment the song perfectly. You have to admire the bands commitment to the video concept in the final scenes.
Another example of what can be achieved with imagination and a camcorder. I have managed to avoid programmes like The X Factor and Pop Idol, but the bloody things are so entrenched in the popular conscience that even I can see what a good spoof this is. I am slightly concerned with how comfortable Johnny from the band seems to be in drag though...
Stop motion animation using humans can be a very effective tool in the film-makers arsenal. When it's done right it can be spectacular and this is an example of it being done right. The dark, foreboding stage with the haunted dancer all alone starts us off and when the band members appear, briefly, in the black background the doom-laden feeling is enhanced.
Well the 'Best Of' podcast is now out featuring my 10 favourite tracks from the 10 months I've been producing this show. It's a nice collection of songs, with some rock, some punk, some electronica, some humourous acoustic and of course a very weird track to close the show.
I'm not going to put up video links for this episode like I usually do. If you want to look back in the archives Elizabeth, Jupiter One, Planetakis and ddd all have a video available for their track. The reason I'm not going to produce an official list is that I will be releasing a video podcast featuring my favourite videos of the year within the next few days. It's a completely different playlist with 10 more great songs combined with 10 great videos.
A quick announcement that it's my turn to host AMPed again this week, so look out for that this coming Monday.
It's also my next live gig on Wednesday and it's looking like it might be the last for a while. Details on the next 'proper' podcast episode.
Hope you all had a happy and safe holiday period, and here's to a great 2008.
Another late release this week. I think at this stage I should just stop aiming for a Sunday release and just release them when they're ready.
A bit of an American Football theme for the start of this episode. I know it's weird, but it just happened this way. We also have a welcome return for some Wichita artists and one of my favourite bands of the year. Also a weird track of the week that's, well, weird.
Also mentioned in this episode is a very important opportunity for one of the bands I played last week and really, really like. Dominic Castillo & The Rock Savants recently told me that they have made it into the last 10 of an online competition that will get them a 60 second slot during the Superbowl (worth about $3 million dollars) and a contract with the fantastic Interscope records. Obviously this is a huge opportunity for the band and I think they truly deserve it. This round of voting ends on December 31st and you can vote once a day here.
Also remember to check out Made In The UK. Contributions from me, Dark Compass and PC Podcast. The first episode is out now and the second one is scheduled to be released on December 23rd. Go have a listen as it really is the best UK independent music provided by the best UK podcasters (and me).
For the first time ever I've managed to find a video for all the tracks on the show. Admittedly a couple of them are live performances and one of them is a bit ropey. I'm claiming it as a victory though. Here they are:
It's the last show of the year next week, but don't expect any seasonal music. I don't go in for that kind of thing. Bah Humbug!
The first show of the new year will be a review of 2007. I'm also planning on putting out a video podcast featuring the best videos of the year. Do you think I'll include the video I was in?
Yet again it's a very late release the week of my gig. Because yet again I had a band pull out on me at the very last minute. Try as I might I couldn't get a replacement, so the gig will only have two acts appearing.
On the good news front I am starting a new project. My friend Rowley Cutler from Dark Compass is creating a new podcast called Made In The UK and he has asked me to be a co-host on the show along with some other UK podcasters. The first episode is scheduled to be released some time this week with a contribution from yours truly. When it's online I'll let you know.
Very long show this week. I really must stop talking for so long about subjects that no-one else cares about.
Rather remarkably this episode went under the hour mark. With the long 'catching-up' section at the beginning of the show and two small puppy related interruptions I was sure I would go over.
