I - know you're married but i've got feelings too, martha wainwright (2008)

daughter of loudon wainwright iii and younger sister of rufus, martha was surely always destined to be something of a musical genius. i own her first two releases (this and 2005's self-titled album) and was thrilled to see that the quebec native has also recently released "sans fusils, ni souliers, a paris" a tribute to edith piaf, recorded live in paris. i look forward to hearing it; what a lovely combination that will be.

this particular album is my ultimate catharsis album, so it was perfect timing for this morning after a couple of very stressful, grumpy, frustrated and ultimately sad days. it starts with martha's haunting, portentous voice. no matter what this woman was singing she could make it sound achingly beautiful. combine that with her desperately emotional lyrics ("you got a girlfriend and i can only talk about her / for so very long / then the mind turns into my heart and whispers / into the dark cave that i've been wrong / my heart was made / for bleeding all over you / and i know you're married but i've got feelings too / and i still love you"..... yea, you get the picture, somewhere along the line it seems someone done gone and smashed poor martha's heart...) it's topped off by well-written, wistful and complementary music - the forlorn cello, wailing electric guitars (contributed, in this instance, by the who's pete townshend) and there you have an album of pure beautiful anguish.

far from a couple of "obviously sad" tracks, it's am entire album chock full of poignant despair. martha, like her brother and father, is an excellent songwriter, using her medium to tell a meaningful story, full of depth and texture. this is the kind of album that grabs you inside and kind of twists things around a bit. it's wrenching and agonising and breathtakingly emotional - but at the same time it contains elements of optimism. "you cheated me" is a jaunty, almost pop song, with fresh-sounding acoustic guitar, mischevious lyrics, and notes of genuine cheekiness.  but martha's often cheerful melodies and striking vocal harmonies bring a lighter note to the album. and for all of the insecurity that comes through in some of the songs, martha clearly also displays strength - not just vocally, but intellectually and creatively. plus she does an exceptional cover of pink floyd's "see emily play".

as a listener, it's totally and completely self-indulgent - the kind of album you listen to when you need to a release and then almost feel a bit silly for getting so emotionally involved in it. i normally feel better after six or seven tracks. this morning i listened to the whole album, then repeated the first two songs.

H - heavenly pop hits, the chills (1995)

both born in dunedin in the '80s, the chills and i grew up together. or, more like, i grew up with them. because of this, they hold a special place in my heart and always have. may i one day have the privilege of seeing them live....

the chills grew out of the post-punk era, one of a number of bands in dunedin embracing the unconventional nature of punk, but growing those elements into a more mature, more technically talented sound. someone who can frame it much better than me, wade ronald churton in 'have you checked the children' (a book i read religiously as a teenager and which i thoroughly recommend to anyone with an interest in the new zealand punk and post-punk scene of the late-70s and early 80s) writes: "at a time when the echoes of punk were fading in a haze of violence and mutation elsewhere, in dunedin the ethics of punk and the character of the city had produced a fertile pool of musicians and songwriters which had ignored fleeting trends. in time, the fermentation in isolation of the city's punk-influenced alternative music would go on to produce a genuinely rich and influential indigenous new zealand movement."

...and so was born the dunedin sound. you can shun the dunedin sound all you want, but the point stands that dunedin is and long has been an incubator for talent, for creating music that doesn't conform to a particular trend, and that sounds different to that created in bigger centres. but I digress.

there was a time were the chills - and especially 'heavenly pop hit' were my happy place. so familiar, so all-encompassing and perfect, full of heart and soul, and the best intentions. like the warm hug of a best friend really. this is an album full of classics - kaleidoskope world, i love my leather jacket, pink frost, wet blanket, doledrums, never never go, to name but a few of my many, many favourites - that never fails to buoy my spirits. maybe it's a dunedin thing, maybe it's a familiarity thing, but listening to the chills is like coming home.

G - the gulag orkestar, beirut (2006)

it's taken me three days to get around to blogging about this album, because i'm still not entirely sure how i feel about it. unconventionally, i've listened to it in addition to other albums for the past 3 mornings in a row, trying to come to terms with what it delivers and how i receive it.

on morning one, i wasn't convinced by it. i distinctly recalled the notion that it was very similar to my first reaction to david byrne (now one of my favourites) i knew it was technically clever, but i just didn't get it. i thought it was a bit obvious - it reminded me of some bad movie soundtrack where our intrepid protagonist ventures into deep mysterious places of the unknown, totally condescending the listener or fictional viewer("look, we're in the east... they do things different here"). in fairness, i was in a pretty foul mood that morning of the first listen.

subsequent listens - and more considered thought - have revealed a different side. the comparison to david byrne is unavoidable to me, right down to the extent that i think zach condon's voice actually sounds very similar to byrne's in parts. but also in the "borrowing" from world music. beirut do it more obviously, but also in a more comprehensive, unified way. the album is fuelled by clear eastern european influences dominated by horns, jangly polka, wicked accordians, and eccentric strummed instruments (any number of them....) i think perhaps my initial feeling of being patronised was based on the fact that i really adore eastern europe and the balkans - areas that this album inextricably links itself to - and it seemed a bit of a "once over lightly" on an area so full of cultural, historical and musical depth.

that said, it's full of great, slightly eccentric sounds, and is a really good listen. like sufjan stevens, and david byrne before him, it's a slightly strange sound, but an intelligent one that has really grown on me.

F - the fame, lady gaga (2008)

f seems to be a popular letter - too many artists to choose from about a month ago, and ohhh so many albums to choose from this morning. i might even repeat f again tomorrow, since there are so many little treasures of musical goodness just sitting in there. but this morning, there was really only one choice: gaga's "the fame." oh yea, i went there, and i went there good.

once again, i confess being a latecomer to gaga fandom. i remember the exact moment i realised i loved gaga: sweating in a club in the middle of port moresby with my best friend (i don't think this was the kind of field work the ethnomusicologist had in mind, but there ya go.) you know an artist has transcended all kinds of boundaries when you hear 'pokerface' in the middle of papua new guinea.

i appreciate lady gaga not necessarily for her music - which can claim partial responsibility for my reintroduction to the world of pop, no small feat - but also for who she is(n't). clearly, lady gaga is an image, a character, a figure, as much as a singer. various articles rage as to the authenticity of lady gaga as both a musician and a personality. i confess not having enough of a background in pop to really refute some of the claims made e.g. gaga "stealing" from madonna, but it seems to me that musicians are always influenced by a range of sources - and to my mind gaga has used various influences to create a sound of her own. i'm satisfied enough that lady gaga really can sing (witness the stripped back vocals at the start of "again again"), and that she writes (yep) good songs. a quick look at any of her videos will confirm that she can dance, and reviews indicate epic live shows. so yea, musically i'm satisfied.

i'm more interested in the debate on gaga's personality, and i guess from a quasi-feminist perspective.

there can be little doubt camille paglia is correct in saying "lady gaga is a manufactured personality" but surely paglia must work harder than that to prove that a manufactured personality is a bad thing in and of itself. i fail to see a distinction between gaga and, for example, bart simpson, another icon who embodies a certain set of characteristics (albeit with much more limited reach). essentially, gaga is a character like any other, she just has greater reach, and unlike other (human) celebrities, appears to remain constantly in character (witness 'paparazzi'). i don't really see the issue with this. but what further infuriates me about paglia's attack on lady gaga is the argument that gaga isn't sexy, and therefore she can not be a generational icon: and this coming from a so-called feminist. what bollocks. to me the refreshing thing about lady gaga's boundary-pushing is precisely that: she's a bit off the wall, a bit weird looking, and yea, not what we'd traditionally define as sexy. but wait, maybe that's precisely why so many people identify with her. as alex needham argues in response to paglia, part of gaga's iconic appeal is that she's not selling sex - she's selling kookiness. and, well.... music.

so yes, paglia is quite right that gaga is a construct, but i fail to see what's wrong with that. i like the perfect irony of "the fame" as an album critiquing the ease with which anyone can achieve fame, but the fact that no one really cares who the artist stefanie whatsherface is, they know the character lady gaga. the anonomity that the individual playing the character of lady gaga somehow seems to retain in the face of international superstardom like we have never seen before fascinates and astounds me.

in the end, i'm not really saying anything new here, and all i can really come up with is "so what"? gaga is a construct that people, for whatever reason, identify with. and perhaps my experience of seeing her being adored in png really says something: the fact that lady gaga ranked seventh on forbes' list of one hundred most powerful women - rated for their ability to influence - illustrates just how global her reach is.

plus, she's got a good voice and makes music that makes me smile.

E - the el dorado e.p, anji sami (2006) and employment, kaiser chiefs (2005)

the el dorado e.p. is one of my favourites. i'm a committed sami fan (both of anji's solo work, and with her sisters as a trio). this softly country-tinged e.p. features jaunty drums, wistful slide guitar, clever, heartfelt lyrics and that haunting, distinctive anji sami voice. secretly my favourite of the sisters, anji has a knack for well-composed, intelligent songs with real emotion to boot.

i was surprised (and frankly, a little bit cross) to read a review critiquing this album as "fragile" - i see it as nothing of the sort. i know it's naughty to do so, but compared to hannah howes' offerings on 'candy', the el dorado e.p is streets ahead in confidence, in song structure, and in identity as an artist. and it's a debut e.p. it's by no means perfect - in fact part of the beauty of the e.p. is the honesty in its flaws (such as a slightly out of time guitar strum at the beginning of one of the songs), but it showcases sami's intelligent songwriting, clever use of harmonies, and rich voice.

i am one of the fifteen people desperately awaiting the sami sisters' debut album and my only complaint with anji is that she's not exactly what we might call prolific. the upside of that is that she creates beautiful, clever music; music to be taken seriously.

i first encountered kaiser chiefs in late 2005 / early 2006, during that excellent winter of british-style indie pop. think kaiser chiefs, hard-fi, franz ferdinand (in the 'you could have it so much better' era, such a good
album), and yes, the killers circa hot fuss. i was living in europe and that indie britpop style underwent a total revolution that winter - we used to go to particular bars every wednesday and thursday for their "indie nights", we wore skinny jeans and chucks, we listened to morrissey, and yea, we were totally too cool for school. but it was 2006, and we rocked it.

i still listen to employment occasionally. "every day i love you less and less" is a great song for running - it's got a great beat and harsh motivating lyrics. when i was student president i (oh so wittily) had the deliciously chav-ish "i predict a riot" as my cellphone ringtone - and i still can't quite hear the beginning of that song without immediately putting myself in media-mode. the album maintains the effusive energy of its opening two tracks throughout, and the exuberance is contagious. it's a high-energy album, and takes a lot of energy to listen to as well - something that worked out well for me on a monday morning walk to work, but that sometimes makes it difficult to maintain an interest right throughout the album.

D - dear catastophe waitress, belle and sebastian (2003)

i was a latecomer to belle and sebastian fandom, by virtue of the appearance of 'piazza, new york catcher' on the juno soundtrack. at face value an airy, cheerful song, with a restrained and delicate lyrical treatment on questions of love and confusion, the song attracted me. belle and sebastian seem to have a knack for taking sometimes complex, clever lyrics and making them fit. like almost everything about the juno soundtrack (perhaps the source of a separate entry at some later stage) the quirkiness of the song attracted me and more listening was clearly needed; the rest, as they say, is history, and i became a belle and sebastian convert.

this album combines aspects of twee '70s rock n roll (embodied in the upbeat, sugary sweet "if she wants me"), with idiosyncratic, cacophonic orchestral elements (such as throughout the title track). i like belle and sebastian's traditionally unconventional approach (can something be traditional and unconventional? i mean that traditionally b&s are unconventional) although i think this album is one of their more accessible. it's whimsical, unfalteringly happy (even when dealing with complex questions lyrically), and because of that one reviewer rates it as "the belle and sebastian album for people who never really liked belle and sebastian".

although i confess not having been a die-hard fan since their establishment, i do think our above reviewer is taking too hardline a viewpoint. i own two other b&s albums: the band's first album, the stripped-back, almost melancholic "tigermilk" (1996) and 2006's much more commercial effort, "the life pursuit". and i like these variants on the belle and sebastian sound as much as "dear catastophe waitress". to co-opt a b&s lyric ('you don't send me') "i'm a little bored" with reviewers who argue that a band's albums all need to sound the same. belle and sebastian have done what i think many bands struggle to do - matured, refined, and developed musically, while retaining their own unique sound. perhaps much of this can be credited to stuart murdoch's consistently charming voice and captivatingly complex lyrics. either way, i think it's interesting that 'juno' also features 'expectations' from "tigermilk" and the two tie together seamlessly.

i'm happy to stand behind dear catastrophe waitress as a refreshing little album, bubblegum and all. and i do really like belle and sebastian. so there.

they just don't write songs like this anymore

C - candy, hannah howes (2009)

hannah howes has a breathy, soulful voice, but this album failed to connect with me.  i like the jazzy, folky notes to her songs, but she lost me at "no surprises" and she didn't win me back. i am so over the reggae upstrum "new zealand sound" sound (although i feel this is a rant best reserved for a stand-alone post where i can really let rip) and i think it does hannah's clever voice lyrics a disservice.

oh my god it's love!

my brother in london just sent me this recommendation - mumford and sons. i love them already. give me more give me more give me more!

B - blood on the tracks, bob dylan (1975)

there was a time when i wouldn't travel without two essential items: a copy of paulo coelho's 'the alchemist' and my well-worn cd of 'blood on the tracks'. admittedly i was then a dreadlocked student, revelling in wandering about the place, and it's fair to say some of my tastes have changed since then. but the major point really is that i can credit this album, and dylan himself, with my introduction to and love of folk music.

ranked 16 on rolling stone's five hundred greatest albums of all time, this is one of dylan's finest pieces of work and still a joy to listen to.

it seems one of the major criticisms of this album is that it's too same-y, with many of the songs in the same key. but i think part of the reason it makes such a great album to travel with, though, is that the album itself is a journey, and a story of heartache and of fate. on closer inspection the lyrics of opening track 'tangled up in blue' are deeply sad, covering a non-chronological account of a failed relationship. conventional wisdom appears to be that, despite dylan's denial of this point, the song (and indeed the entire album) reference his own break up with wife sara. interesting allusion to romeo and juliet ("i lived them on montague street") in the song as well.

despite this apparent angst, i've always found it a soothing, crooning kind of album. it's contemplative, easy to listen to, makes excellent use of the banjo, and is full of clever, well-structured songs that hold the listener's interest. one of the many things i like about this album is the little surprises i continue to find in it. i've owned it for about ten years now and i listen to it often, yet there's always something new in the songs to pop out and surprise me.

although by all accounts it's a sad album, i've always found it rather cathartic, hopeful and redemptive.

how good is this song?!

A - almost famous soundtrack, various artists (2000)

two days ago we were casually discussing the greatest soundtracks of all time, and my immediate reaction was to name 'almost famous'. ok, granted, i'm not much of a movie buff, so my soundtrack experience isn't all that broad, but this grammy award-winning soundtrack has to be up there for masterfully traversing the music of the late sixites and seventies. and not the hits - the truly great music of the era. my copy of this cd is so well-loved that it's almost worn out, and full of skips scratches and glitches. but that somehow adds to the authenticity and i love it just the same.

 

it will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that this movie is one of my all-time favourites. i love this movie not because i identify with fifteen-year-old william miller (i don't really); more accurately, because i adore penny lane and her band-aides. and yes, to an extent i identify with them.  this is a movie about music lovers, for music lovers, and that's obvious in its soundtrack (which had a budget of $3.5 million, more than double the standard budget). it's semi-autobiographical, chonicling director cameron crowe's varied adventures with bands of the era, and the soundtrack reflects that - led zepp, lynyrd skynyrd, the allman brothers' band: all bands that crowe toured with, which also dominate the soundtrack. elton john's 'tiny dancer' was surely re-popularised by the iconic 'bus scene', immediately following the equally iconic "i am a golden god" scene (another nod to led zepp) . 

 

part of what i love about this soundtrack is the tracks included by fictional band "stillwater". frankly, penny was onto a good thing, and i couldn't help but fall a little in love with guitarist russell hammond in watching the film. even more so, i fell a little (more!) for billy cruddup in learning that the actors learnt the instruments, and played the songs themselves. a babe and a musician.... whoar!  in another lovely little twist, pearl jam guitarist (and possible musical genuis) mike mccready wrote the stillwater guitar track, and some of william's experiences with stillwater allude to crowe's own experiences with pearl jam. 

 

full of throwbacks to classic bands like led zepp, buddy holly, neil young, fleetwood mac, hendrix, and oh so many more, the almost famous soundtrack comprises about fifty iconic songs of the era. the album couldn't include all of them, and my only complaint is that it didn't include dr hook's "the cover of the rolling stone" - a crucial point in the movie and a wonderful song to boot. that point notwithstanding, this is one of my favourite ever albums: i dare you to put it on and not fall back in love with rock n'f*n' roll.

Z - the zutons, various

the zutons are the only 'z' artist i have on my ipod. they are there as part of bbc radio 1's "live lounge" compilation (vol 3, ) , in which bands do acoustic covers of their own or others' songs. the compilation is the source of some of my favourite quirky takes on various songs. the zutons' contribution to this particular album is a cover of christina aguilera's 'beautiful'. the original in itself is pretty cheesey, and i sort of expected a tongue-in-cheek version of it. there's something about male vocalists covering female originals which i kinda enjoy - the same live lounge album has a great cover of katy perry's 'i kissed a girl' by mcfly which fits this bill. the zutons' cover is good, although perhaps not as impertinent as i had hoped for. it was enough to make me want to hear a bit more of the zutons, though, enlisted the help of my beautiful assistant, myspace.

myspace led my nicely to 'valerie' - a song which on first listen i really enjoyed; funky guitars, rough man-vox, a nice take on what i thought was amy winehouse's song. i must've been in "cute zutons covers of female songstresses" mode, because little did i know, it turns out the zutons' version is actually the original (2006) and winehouse covered them... for a radio one live lounge session. full circle and all. to be honest i think the richness of her voice does it more justice, but i do really like the zutons' version.

either way, two good things have come out of today:

one: i thoroughly recommend this live lounge album, and i've been inspired to find myself volumes one, two and four.

two: i enjoyed album / compilation listening so much that i've now decided to go from a - z in albums. i may be getting lazy with weekend blogging, but i'm not ready to give up on this experiment just yet.

Y - yvonne elliman, i don't know how to love him (single), from andrew lloyd webber gold: the definitive hits collection (2001)

ummmm. it's fair to say this was the only artist on my ipod beginning with 'y'. i considered cheating and pretending that i had cat stevens' stuff listed as yusuf islam, but i don't, so instead i've elected to see the fun side of things and indulge myself in a lengthy discourse about  just how much i love show tunes.

if the popularity of 'glee' has taught us one thing, it's not some moralistic tale about being nice to geeky kids.  it's more important than that: glee has taught us how many of us deep down are show tune addicts. admit it, just as much as you love hearing gaga done by a bunch of nerdy high school kids you also love hearing them do tunes from les mis. and, while it may have taken rachel berry and co to illustrate just how many of us secretly love that shit, i have always embraced my intense enjoyment of show tunes.

i think my mother is responsible for this. i was an '80s kid, and grew up at a time when 'cats', 'starlight express' and the quintessentially lloyd-webber ''the phantom of the opera' were enjoying the height of their popularity. i recall mum having a double cassette tape (oh yes!) of the phantom of the opera, and playing it, well... regularly. as kids we saw productions of 'cats' and 'jesus christ superstar' by the dunedin operatic society - i loved that music then, and i unashamedly love it now. my love of show tunes is shared by a close friend and former flatmate, who sees it as utterly appropriate to include "mr mistoffelees", "any dream will do" and "the phantom" itself on a playlist for a party. in fact i'm convinced it is this friend who is responsible for the presence of these songs on my ipod.... many a happy hour has been spent youtubing cats on broadway with my flatmates and cackling with, well, glee, at how excellent the tunes are. you might argue that i need to get out more; i'd just laugh and suggest you need more show tune glory in your life.

and let us not limit our enjoyment of show tunes to sir andrew himself, oh no! i do recall once (okay maybe more than once) being wooed by a boy who sat down at a piano and began to play the entire score of 'chicago'. there was also a time where i believe the same boy pulled out the big guns with 'les mis'.  i used to belong to a facebook group entitled "and WHY can't my life be a musical?!"... perhaps these brief glory days of drunken show tune slurring were the closest i'm going to get. but given my propensity to sing and dance (both badly) at the drop of a hat, well..... watch this space.

tomorrow is 'z' day and rather than go off on some tangential rant i might see if i can arrange a guest post...

X - the xx, various and self-titled (2009)

unsurprisingly (or perhaps not?) i don't have any artists beginning with 'x' on my ipod, but a helpful heads up from a friend in the u.k. had alerted me to the existence of 'the xx'. another, new zealand-based, friend had also recently recommended them so that's, like, international hype, right? so i waited until 'x day' and gave them a go.

cue: rookie error. for some unfathomable reason i went to youtube rather than myspace - i.e. tracks listed by just anyone, not necessarily selected by the artist themselves as the best showcase of their sound. the first song i stumbled across was a cover of florence and the machine's 'you've got the love' - i dutifully clicked on it and hated. every. bit. of. it.  i think florence is just wonderful - it's ambitious in the extreme to try to cover her, especially when she's still enjoying huge popularity - and this was not a good cover. bland, repetitive, dull, and with none of that joie de vivre that comes through in the original. if the youtube comments are anything to go by, debate rages as to whether the strong female voice that comes in halfway through the song is a sample of florence herself, or just someone who sounds really, really like her -- either way, it was an island in a sea of nothingness - the best bit of the song by miles, although that's not saying much.

so it wasn't a good start between myself and 'the xx' but we persevered and i'm glad we did. in a world of "indie pop" - that truly amorphous genre that really could cover just about anything - 'the xx' produce a different take on pop. the keys are subtle, and do not dominate the sound in an obvious way like so many indie-synth-pop-insert-a-genre-here bands these days. early in my listen, the ethnomusicologist chipped in with his usual, ahem, considered critique </end sarcasm> calling them "scene and boring".... i thought perhaps he'd only heard their florence cover.

at first listen, it's a refreshingly unfussy approach - a kind of restrained sophistication that sets them apart from many of their more "obvious" contemporaries. the florence example highlights to me that they're not vocally strong, but the breathy, almost moody vocals seem to work in the context of their broader, understated sound. they're modest and minimalist, the kind of music i'd listen to over a dinner party with friends, but not the kind of music i'd dance around my lounge to on a saturday night. or even choose to listen to of a weekday morning. perhaps that is damning them with faint praise, but i don't necessarily mean it that way. the subtle sound obviously appeals to a broad audience, which might explain why they've featured in all number of tv shows - gossip girl, east enders, grey's anatomy, law & order, cold case, and even bbc and nbc news.

but while the difference in their sound is refreshing, i worry that in being so inoffensive they might have played it a bit safe - i don't get the feeling any risks are being taken here, and the fact that the songs almost uniformly take on the same mood is evidence of this. similarly, i was disappointed to note that the song that really made my ears perk up - the song that was going to be my proof of diversity in this exercise in restraint - "teardrops", with its interesting opening riff, is itself also a cover. boo. in fact, the longer i listen, the more it aggrieves me to admit i tend to agree with the ethnomusicologist. i wouldn't say they're "boring", but they are certainly same-y.

so, this is a long post for a reason: i still haven't quite figured out how i feel about them. if i had to sum up: i'll always have got off on the wrong foot with them by virtue of the awful cover. i like their minimalism, but think it will wear thin. i look forward to hearing more from them - i'd like to see them prove they're capable of mixing it up with something a bit more diverse.  possibly more damning than my dinner party comment is the fact that i would happily recommend this album to my mother, and i suspect that may be its enduring destiny: a brief flirtation in the spotlight, before longterm population of the cd racks of middle-aged hipsters the world over.

W - weezer, weezer (the blue album) (1994)

this was an album that received much bashing (as in, was played a lot, not heavily criticised) in my latter years of high school. iconic in so many ways, this debut album launched weezer into mainstream success. the album - and i think the band in general - is best summed by by 'allmusic' in its 5-star review: "what makes the band so enjoyable is their charming geekiness..." they're most traditionally listed as playing alt-rock or even sometimes pop-punk, but really they just play pop - and they do it in a refreshing, amusing, disarmingly cheeky kind of way.

the videos for two of the major singles on this album ('buddy holly', 'undone (the sweater song)') were both directed by spike jonze. and, although it doesn't appear on the blue album (coming instead on the later green album), i've included another jonze treasure below - the video for 'island in the sun'. there are puppies! and kittens! and lion cubs! and flying monkeys! and a baby grizzly bear! and a grown up big daddy grizzly bear!....and rivers cuomo, who is also adorable.

V - violent femmes, violent femmes deluxe edition (2002)

after briefly considering the veils and deeming them slightly too downbeat for a monday morning, i made one of the best decisions i've made in a long time - to play the violent femmes self-titled compliation, deluxe edition. released in 2002, this is an excellent album containing any number of hits, as well as rare demos, live / accoustic versions, and other delicious treats for the ears.

i unashamedly love the violent femmes; one of my enduring favourites, and their live show in dunedin in 2005 would definitely be in the top five gigs i've had the fortune to attend. famously discovered while busking on a street corner, they're wickedly impressive musicians, who play a fast and loose show. i managed to get myself in front of the security barrier, and was treated to a very jammy set and definitely one for the fans - i love that they slipped that pub-crowd anthem 'blister in the sun' right in the middle of their set, not giving it prominence and instead encoring with some of their more obscure material. they're a spontaneous band that is perfectly happy to just jam and have a good time - i recall them jamming one of their better known songs (i want to say 'kiss off'?) for about 20 minutes, just having a laugh. they also all switch around through an impressive array of instruments up to and including some kind of awesome one-stringed bass on a stick, that i'd never seen before nor seen one since. they make an awful lot of noise for three middle-aged men, and, of course, as their website attests "all three of them singing their hearts out for the entire show". bloody good stuff and one of my favourite nights ever.

i'm particularly enjoying offbeat versions of well-known songs at the moment. i'm rediscovering some excellent live bowie tracks, and radio 1 (of the u.k, not dunedin, variety) live lounge has produced some stunners too. in the same vein, it's refreshing to hear the likes of 'blister in the sun' in a rare, raw demo form, rather than the generic hit that it became. i admit a bit of a grudge with the song because the violent femmes have done soooooo much better stuff but everyone only seems to know that single - but hearing it in that slightly more unique form is enough to make me enjoy it all over again. similarly there are superb demo versions of 'kiss off', 'add it up' (the ultimate teen angst song) 'please do not go' and 'prove my love', among others - a great new way to rejuvenate your interest in old classic songs. my only complaint about this album would be that it doesn't contain the 1981 single 'i held her in my arms' - a raucous, gorgeous song, and quite possibly my favourite violent femmes song of all time. below gordon gano rocks it with the new pornographers. great combination.

U - the unicorns, tuff ghost (single, 2003), urge overkill, girl you'll be a woman soon (single, 1994) and WILCO

unusually, i have no full albums by artists beginning with 'u' - can anyone recommend any? i discharged my duty to the project this morning by listening to the two singles i have by 'u' artists. and i did it sulkily - i really don't like the unicorns, and i don't actually know why i have this song on my ipod. i find it a bit whiny and depressing. but to give it its due, when i gave it a critical listen this morning i spose there was some interesting synth bits happening in there, and it's not as bad as i'd built it up to be in my mind.

urge overkill's 'girl you'll be a woman soon' - what to say? to be honest i'd quite like to listen to some of urge overkill's stuff that hasn't been, y'know, overkilled, on the pulp fiction soundtrack... apparently they've opened for both nirvana and pearl jam, so they can't be too shabby. and yet i only know them for one song (a cover no less) that they did for a soundtrack. naughty me.

having discharged my 'u' duties, i was blissfully free to pick whatever band i wanted for a sunny friday morning. because i knew it would be highly contrary to the spirit of my muscial adventure to listen to wilco on 'w' day, but also because it's been twenty-something days without them and i'm starting to get the shakes from wilco-withdrawals, i put on wilco's 'kicking television: live in chicago' album. jeff tweedy is honestly my hero, and the live in chicago album is a fabulous set-list. 'heavy metal drummer'  is far from their best song, but it is one of my favourites so i've added some links to it here. i tried to find a decent live clip of it and was disappointed because the only one i could find was this one where tweedy looks to be (very uncharacteristically) just going through the motions. most unlike tweedy with his usual excellent crowd interaction, vibrant voice and guitars, and high energy performances. the night i saw wilco live was a truly awesome 'life-moment' - you know those moments that you kind of hope will happen and then they do and they're awesome? yea, it was one of them. in a total departure from my usual form, i did not fall in love with a drummer that night, nor even a lead guitarist. in a world first for me, i fell in love with a bassist. john stirrat is seriously talented - combining with glen kotche to form a tight and hard working rhythm section, but also chipping in with his superb backing vocals vocals. combined with keys player / multi-instrumentalist pat sansone, stirrat also formed the autumn defense another superb indie-folk duo that i highly recommend.

and just while i'm struggling to hold it all together with all of the musical goodness in the world, check out this most spectacular combination of loveliness: wilco feat. feist: