LIST 53 - 15/10/10

It's confirmed - the brand new releases from Trembling Blue Stars, namely an album and two EPs, will be the last.

With that ends 15 years' worth of, for the greater part, Bob Wratten soundtracking his own life with disarming, emotionally laid-bare candour and erudition under the TBS moniker, and at the same time him unwittingly putting to music those lives of mine and doubtless many others worldwide. The likes of Never Loved You More, Farewell to Forever, It's Easier to Smile and Dark Eyes, in particular, are almost painfully redolent of past, present and in all likelihood future chapters of my personal history.

As such, it's safe to assume that "All Our Tomorrows", included below and replete with something close to an official video from Elefant Records, will not be the only song from TBS's final batch to feature in these annals in the short term.

1995, the year TBS formed, was also the year Tindersticks released their favourite song of mine, the eight-minute deadpan narrative "My Sister", included here alongside a track from this year's album for 4AD. Grass Widow and Trash Kit, meanwhile, are included to cheer me up a bit, having managed to miss them play a gig literally a minute's walk from my office a couple of weeks ago owing to sheer volume of work. Unlucky!


RADAR BROTHERS – Horses Warriors (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfNHpG4U2E

MAPS – It Will Find You (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEpkouuK6n4

FALK UND DIE WIESE – Complicated (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXw1G3_mrRY

KIRSTY HAWKSHAW & ULRICH SCHNAUSS – Dreaming of Now (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifFw-JaF1gY

ST CHRISTOPHER – As Good as Married (1996)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oMcE-7WYak

SPC ECO – Like It Is (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUn_m6EcSDc

TINDERSTICKS – Black Smoke (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9G6idC9Fjg

TINDERSTICKS – My Sister (1995)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sFw3kxpX1w

TRICKY – Murder Weapon (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3fd4nE8OCI

MAGNETIC FIELDS – California Girls (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2EQxrGU7Yc

LOW SEA – Berlin (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mFyePCdzlQ

THE WEEK THAT WAS – Scratch the Surface (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gowBExbkFZk

TREMBLING BLUE STARS – All Our Tomorrows (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI1b4IwNiVU

MOSTAR SEVDAH REUNION – Gondže ružo (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt6FDBElmbg

GRASS WIDOW – Fried Egg (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cveys2XSWM

TRASH KIT – Bugsy (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXBlOG17vs

FSK – Euro-Trash Girl (1996)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCIp56qFB2Q

LIST 52 - 08/10/10 ("Remember this problem? The German language...")

...Thus began both the FSK album "The Sound Of Music" and the splendid German language music compilation "Wo ist Zuhause, Mama - Perlen Deutschsprachiger Popmusik" 18 and 15 years ago respectively. When I first started considering this week's list, it seemed too good a phrase not to recycle!

So, yes, herewith 20 tracks from German language performers (the presence of the likes of the astonishing Austrian punk-folk duo Attwenger prevents it from being considered a list of German performers), singing more or less all auf Deutsch. "More or less" because, ironically give the opening, the FSK track included contains more than a smattering of English!

It's all in context, though, and the track, "I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsch", will be remembered very fondly by those of you who were mid-1980s devotees of the John Peel Festive 50. The clip I've found of the track does indeed include the great man before and after, briefly.

Inevitably there were things I found myself leaving out in trying to straddle over three decades' worth of highlights even without pinching any of the sort of stuff a million Neue Deutsche Welle or Darkwave compilations already cover and cover rather better (that's a thought: wonder if Zillo is still going?); and I don't doubt there'll be another list of this nature in 2011 to accommodate the overspill.

In the meantime, and in the words of Nina Hagen in the closing track, "Ich wünsche Ihnen einen recht guten Empfang"...


TOCOTRONIC – Aber hier leben, nein danke (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu_EXn9Kfkw

SUPERPUNK – Das Feuerwork ist Vorbei (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlxOagUeHiQ

WIR SIND HELDEN – Guten Tag (2003)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt8qY5KY9dQ

ATTWENGER – Rahm (1992)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUFwmdm5hjM

ELEMENT ART – Die Eistänzerin (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5V5QDgMPAU

SAMBA – Aus den Kolonien (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kB932Vcx8g

BARBARA MORGENSTERN – Der Augenblick (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIjlnhotzH4

1000 ROBOTA – Er sagt (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPedlXWbbnA

DER ELEGANTE REST – Hardcore (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba_7Y0UMNN0

SLUT & JULI ZEH – Wächterhauscollage (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsS2g4yAPGA

DIE ÄRZTE - Junge (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2VnPOIBVt0 (censored)

DIE ÄRZTE – Westerland (1988)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sUh5I6kx1w

DIRK DARMSTÄDTER & BERND BEGEMANN – So geht das jede Nacht (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DZ0LoZmAjY

FSK – I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsch (1986)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTO5Hwu9PmQ

OSTZONENSUPPENWŰRFELMACHENKREBS - Respekt vor dem eigenen Hau (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izp9L3G1wbg

SPILLSBURY – Sturzflug (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZhMUzGTpgk

LYDIA DAHER – Flüchtige Bürger (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drUC2NV_PDw

DIE GOLDENEN ZITRONEN – Das bisschen Totschlag (1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Hxq-PFOlc

PETER HEPPNER – Alleinesein (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOYXxZXJS18

NINA HAGEN – TV-Glotzer (White Punks on Dope) (1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfPQB-mtQDY

LIST 51 - 01/10/10

Another standard, as opposed to themed, List this week, but at the same time two contributions could fall under a loose theme of courageous returns. Laetitia Sadier's solo album, out on September 27th, was at least partly recorded in the aftermath of her sister's suicide - the opening track addresses that tragedy with both unflinching honesty and quiet dignity, and is included here.

Edwyn Collins, meanwhile, has of course had his own trials in recent years, but emerging from the other side of these is "Losing Sleep", technically the second album released since his two brain haemorrhages in 2005 but the first entirely conceived and completed this side of them. The title track leaves little to the imagination regarding his comparatively reduced state nowadays, but at the same time of mawkish self-pity there is none.

I'm minded to include the Go-Betweens' "Right Here" this week, incidentally, after hearing The Peterboroughs' brave reading of it on accordion, uke, banjo and glockenspiel at the Nottingham Indiepop Weekender six days ago. It was, alas, the Leeds quartet's farewell gig, so unless on the fly recordings exist anywhere I wouldn't know where to direct you to a recording of it with any degree of confidence. My apologies!



LAETITIA SADIER – One Million Year Trip (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxWnA7rcsoE

OOIOO – SOL (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fiHyEA6t30

THE PIPETTES – Call Me (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHRNGxYRiUg

AUTOROTATION – Everything is Everything (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2jZpEu1mJ0

BEST COAST – Boyfriend (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWvCv6uZsU

THE GO-BETWEENS – Right Here (1987)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqtTd_0oFU4

JAMES YUILL – First in Line (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu9Ag_qz1vI

FLOYD THE PHENOMENAL CAT-TROPHY – Name Mention Attention (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC-JtaHb5q8

TEAM GHOST – Colors in Time (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4e2NsQT5Ss

EDWYN COLLINS – Losing Sleep (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwQh1OoYfIE

EDWYN COLLINS – Don’t Shilly Shally (1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oS082HqfVE

LAU vs KARINE POLWART – The January Man (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W--Q47cNb8o

BONDE DE ROLE - Solto O Frango (2007)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgb6FxuaPQA

SHRAG – Rabbit Kids (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rXs9O2Tq90

DEINE LAKAIEN – Gone (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IXFjlege_0

BROADCAST AND THE FOCUS GROUP – I See, So I See So (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlVaRcNf9nc

BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES – David Cassidy (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRFoNwddrxQ

GYPSY AND THE CAT – Time to Wander (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuelwnVTNYc

ROBERT WYATT – Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’ (1980)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pylc5jiGy8

THE SCHOOL – Is He Really Coming Home? (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5zlSyHAHjo

ATLAS SOUND ft LAETITIA SADIER – Quick Canal (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C79Q7MV4Fgo

LIST 50 - 24/09/10

So there it is, the first single off the new Belle & Sebastian long-player, complete with top-name actress talent and that. Hasn't grabbed me as the strongest song of those I've heard so far by any means; and with guitar acts almost universally failing to grab any sort of toehold in the hit parade nowadays, I will be looking at its progress upon its imminent release with interest rather than the usual hope and expectation.

Elsewhere, several of the acts turning out at this weekend's Nottingham Indiepop festie get an airing, as does the newest Tunng release as vaunted last week. The OMD comeback album is anything but a total triumph (not surprising given its origin as mostly re-imagined session / lost tracks), but part one of the title track has rightly piqued its share of radio interest and is featured here alongside something all of 30 years its senior from the same source.

The Orb's "Loving You" is a song with a story, having existed in its original form commercially for not much time at all before Minnie Riperton's legal team stomped on the then duo of Alex Paterson and Jimmy (KLF) Cauty. Even all this time later, it's still probably my favourite piece of work from the band in any of its many guises.

Oh, apparently this is the fiftieth That Music List. Compiling them has been a lot of fun so far - hours of my life I'll neither get nor want back! ;-)



BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – Write about Love (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ7ZYSNrn-Y

TUNNG – Hustle (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oFf6Rg7ICM

MILKY WIMPSHAKE – Lemonade (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOax5f0xbuE

CHROMEO – Don’t Turn the Lights on (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP7mxcvGejQ

THE ORB – Loving You (Bucket and Spade Mix) (1989)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyK6_oqLg5k

THE SUNNY STREET – Insull (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geTPTcgv3Lg

OMD – History of Modern Part 1 (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DV5mBT4rPk

OMD – Messages (1980)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SlWPQGMCfQ

DARREN HAYMAN AND THE SECONDARY MODERN – Two Tree Island (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc-LFy0XhAk

OI VA VOI – Waiting (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEMYmOD9zns

HOLY F*CK – Red Lights (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AE_WBB97MU

BETTY AND THE WEREWOLVES – Euston Station (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PfxLPtf-s4

THE VASELINES – Sex with an X (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXc_IHcodpk

BJORK – Declare Independence (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igOWR_-BXJU

DAVID GEDGE & THE BBC BIG BAND – Brassneck (live at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 29th April 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTW1X4A1bY4

COCOROSIE – Lemonade (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu3EcAHdHlE&ob=av2e

POPGUNS – Still A World Away (1991)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSmFdg5VGks

PETE GREEN – Subterranean Moseley Blues (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR4fCgvSG90

LIST 49 - 17/09/10

Back once more, with the first upload to this list so far of anything from Belle and Sebastian's long-awaited "Write About Love" album. I don't think it disappoints - quite the opposite. Whether the remainder of the album entirely stacks up I have yet to discover, though.

It's not the only new produce I'm delighted to include after years of waiting. Neither Stars nor Blonde Redhead have exactly galloped to follow up their previous efforts, but the wait has been worth it in both instances. I'm advised the latter can thank Fever Ray's producer for some creative input this time round - certainly sounds like it if so, and definitely not unwelcome.

Midnight Juggernauts, Connan (still Mockasin but minus the Mockasins, if that makes sense) and Chromeo are other welcome returnees, whilst the appearance of Tunng's "Bullets" this week serves as a prelude for the inclusion of a new track by them / him next.

Oh, and apparently some people out there are still making what the late John Peel christened "bastard pop", so I've finished with some of that this time.



THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART – Come Saturday (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjYFSyVF1Ks

PENGUIN PRISON – The Worse It Gets (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP1FwjsEivI

THREATMANTICS – Wedi Marw (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcAeL3vIl-I

SUN KIL MOON – Third and Seneca (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMrYmEJXfY0

AKALA – XXL (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVp2ZHfUjSE

TUNNG – Bullets (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI1NgFYJCN4

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS – Vital Signs (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc8Osb5zYm4

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – I Didn’t See It Coming (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UeFaayyw3o

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – The Stars of Track and Field (1996)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgohBw0hL-k

J DILLA – Sycamore (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOugOqlBs4

MALAJUBE – Luna (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uLwvbtZYL8

CONNAN MOCKASIN – It’s Choade My Dear (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkNwuY2JUHQ

GABRIELLES WISH – Go See the Doctor (1997)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMPd21FaoKA

BLONDE REDHEAD – Here Sometimes (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuaPdFGxNUQ

CHROMEO – Night By Night (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppNC0uAaCv0

PETE GREEN – The Ballad of Phil Jevons (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULUcOfcC27w

STARS – Fixed (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jdZdVmEuk

WOODPIGEON – My Denial in Argyle (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN4LSJt4rMc

FELT – The Day the Rain Came Down (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puoGwPo9Kgc

DJ LOBSTERDUST – Knock Out Eileen (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejuMfZdkM2o

LIST 48 - 10/09/10

A few favourites from a while back return with new produce in this list (though in some cases it's been out a few weeks and I've just missed it. Oops). The New Pornographers' "Sing Me Spanish Techno" is still one of the Youtube clips I return to the most, with both song and video guaranteed to make me smile. "Crash Years" is reassuringly up to par, and features lead vocals this time from what I presume must be Neko Case rather than Carl Newman, unless the latter has had an accident recently.

Teki Latex's contribution owes more than a little to Kraftwerk, likewise the Pipettes to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's first solo album, but don't let that damn either with faint praise, as pale facsimiles they are not. Cath Carroll, who - frighteningly for those of us who remember her as the fresh-faced singer / guitarist with C86 act Miaow - turned 50 earlier this year, gets the then and now treatment, whilst the terrifically named Mike Baker The Bike Maker offers up old school perv hiphop over some footage of Russ Meyer's notorious Return to the Valley of the Dolls. Oh, don't pull a face - it's not like I've uploaded The Human Centipede without warning you...

All this and I still haven't mentioned the triumphant return of James Yuill with another contender for my favourite single of the year (as "No Pins Allowed" had been in 2008), or that set-closers Elliot Jack play at the Midlands Art Centre at the Yardbird Jazz Club in Birmingham this Saturday, September 11th at 6pm. That endorsement for their innovative, warm-hearted electronica would have stood even if I hadn't worked with their bassist for two years way back when...


ARCADE FIRE – Ready to Start (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dJxEUS0FZQ

TEKI LATEX – Dinosaurs with Guns (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWl-Kryr0dk

PSAPP – I Want That (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSmc7o2EN_g

DAVID HB DRAKE – Food of our Fathers (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxlZojERaxs

BRIAN – Understand (1992)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AntYewyaVcs

THE PIPETTES – Stop the Music (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg_ri_vHuUo

AIRIEL – Thinktank (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jP_JdJKBxM

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – Crash Years (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KZANuDcRO4

JAMES YUILL – On Your Own (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgFseMoI9DM

CATH CARROLL – It All Looks Good on You (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMMZZr1zY4s

CATH CARROLL – Moves Like You (1991)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6nZHK-NwYs

DATAROCK – The Pretender (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mVPsCqSRAg&ob=av2n

THE DENTISTS – I Had an Excellent Dream (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRBY41OuIvE

THE FLYERS & MIKE SONAR – Signalica (Original Mix) (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZJ_q86ilj4

JANINA ANGEL BATH – Life Everlasting Flowers part one (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31B4ZqAxhU8

PLASTICINES - Loser (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yAh7ytW3Wc&ob=av2n

MIKE BAKER THE BIKE MAKER – La La La (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOEgSFdhUu4

SHE & HIM – Thieves (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB6fsQ87q1U

ELLIOT JACK – Go Home To The People That You Love (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_LG_O36c68

LIST 47 - 03/09/10

I'm always willing to be surprised by an act I've never hitherto thought much of, and MGMT's splendid piece of chamber pop is probably the latest case in point - far more interesting and better executed to my mind than anything on the "Time to Pretend" album, though the comparatively modest sales of both single and parent album suggest this isn't the more widely held view. Bah.

Elsewhere this week, there's an Eels here and now feature, with the newer track evidently coming from the first of two albums slated for 2010. The Rodolfo Halffter composition marks a first foray into comptemporary South American classical music for this site, and similarly I don't think we've had too many Field Mice-influenced solo projects from Finland prior to Matador Jose!

Finally, and inexcusably overdue, for which apologies, I've given over the last few minutes to Frank Sidebottom by way of a tribute to his earthly keeper Chris Sievey, who as you'll know lost his battle with cancer this summer. Although mostly catching Chris's output in the Freshies retrospectively, I do remember hearing the first Radio Timperley Frank ever did on the James H Reeve show for Piccadilly Radio (I don't know if this was the first one ever) on the evening of broadcast. There's a near-complete set of all his Oink! cartoons in the other room, too.

To this undefatigable, eternally youthful, relentlessly optimistic comic creation I wish a fond farewell, and say thank you for the memories.


MGMT – It’s Working (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sCw8-mIEoM

LAURA VEIRS – July Flame (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLilpPtY2JU

TULLYCRAFT – Twee (2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7PN3YTzuYM&p=49AEC181E3F2B52B

HEALTH – USA Boys (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIbjjzXr1KA

BARBATUQUES – Barbapapa’s Groove (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q4aj_te-dw&p=C7C115AAC3766AA0

PILOT CLOUD – The Swell (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppk9Lfgqw1c

MATADOR JOSE – I Sure Will Miss You (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43JLgpcldA

EELS – Spectacular Girl (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjbYBHhCC0&p=98813F72939E9CFD

EELS – Novocaine for the Soul (1996)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2yy141q8HQ&ob=av3e

THE FAUNS – Understand (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNhJSq881js&p=4EBAF0F3A48C1119

SPAGHETTI ANYWHERE – Incredible Hulk (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4bbzKAMkDY

RODOLFO HALFFTER / CUARTETO REVUELTAS – Tiento No. 5 (1973 / 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs_mU_fphrY

THE PRESETS – This Boy’s in Love (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKwnc7QpUt0

THE BLANCHE HUDSON WEEKEND – Grip of Fear (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KRCDd7t7XU

TO MY BOY – Antarctica (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ieZMZR3dc

HEAVENLY – P.U.N.K. Girl (1993)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jxPoJNfM4s

PATRICK WOLF – Bluebells (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89yEOAapoMc

CLEM SNIDE – Walmart Parking Lot (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu4TnsAuVlw

BEIRUT – No Dice (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M1YsGKgHXc

FRANK SIDEBOTTOM – Mr Custard (Channel M Test Card Version) (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3VbrEetg18

FRANK SIDEBOTTOM – Mull of Timperley (1987)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka75vhSh49o