Sunday, April 12, 2015

Song of the Week #344

Finally....AC/DC have announced Australian tour dates for the end of 2015. Personally, I can't wait. I haven't seen them live since the "Stiff Upper Lip" tour. If you think you'd like to come to the Sydney show then talk to me before tickets go on sale on April 20th. Angus and I will hopefully be heading there on a rock and roll pilgrimage!

AC/DC - Are You Ready? - https://youtu.be/CIhylLW4Fcs

Discovering a "new" band that I actually want to listen to is a treat. Bishop Allen is such a band. They're not really new as they have releases dating back over 10 years but they are new to me. I've heard a couple of tracks from their 2014 LP "Lights Out" and I'll organise a physical copy of the album soon. If you like The Cars or Crowded House then this band might be something worth a listen

Bishop Allen - Why I Had To Go - https://youtu.be/rizk4RaJTdY

I find myself drawn more and more to what genre classifiers might call alt-country. That's pretty much country music without the yee-haw element. Looking back through our music collection the indicators of this progression have been there for a while. 15 years ago this next band was recommended to me. Blue Rodeo are Canadian and, "The Days In Between", the album I have, has remained a firm favourite. 

Blue Rodeo - Begging You To Let Me In - https://youtu.be/B5Pfzpkhq6I

King Creosote is the stage name of singer/songwriter Kenny Anderson. He's from Fife in Scotland which is where my Mum comes from too. I was attracted to his music as a result of his album cover which is an old beach postcard with the title, "From Scotland With Love". Anderson is another vocalist who isn't afraid to sing in his own accent and that's something I always like. People from Scotland don't have Nashville accents.

King Creosote - For One Night Only - https://youtu.be/FG-PBM7BmMQ

Did you read about Don McLean selling the original lyrics for American Pie? I'm sure he didn't really need the US$1.2m but good luck to him anyway. This is very much a song of my childhood. The vinyl LP which my parents had was played a lot and I'm sure we could all sing most of the lyrics for every song. Just quietly I've got that LP here and playing it is something that always makes me feel good. I always wondered if KISS had been influenced by the album cover...

Don McLean - Everybody Loves Me - https://youtu.be/XG6SCDUiFZs

After last week's episode, DJ UncleSam asked me if I'd consider sharing the week's songs via a Spotify playlist. The reason was that the YouTube app on an iDevice doesn't play in the background so he couldn't read my nonsense and listen at the same time. That sounded like a fair request. Spotify is an interesting beast and you can have as much free music as you could ever want. If you're using a computer to listen then you can choose individual songs and playlists. If you're using the iDevice app however you get random "suggested" songs popping up and you can only listen to a playlist in a random order. But for $12 a month (and less if you know a current subscriber) there's a lot of mileage in it. The link for most of this week's tunes as a playlist is at the end. Not all bands allow their music on various streaming services for a variety of reasons. 

One band that I did use Spotify to catch up on were another Scottish fave of mine, Del Amitri. I was unaware that they had released a live album recently and it sounds really good. You'll need to use the Spotify link for a listen as I can't find any of the new release on YouTube. In case you're ideologically opposed to Spotify or can't be bothered clicking the link at the bottom then here's a cracker of a Del Amitri song...

Del Amitri - Be My Downfall - https://youtu.be/GwASZpIHKLY

Last night I saw a band play an interesting cover of Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes". It's a good song and the version played was a lot of fun. The Graceland album always brings me back to this song and I hope you'll take the time to have a good listen to it. I started learning the lyrics recently (it's not hard). This version is from the "Invictus" movie soundtrack and I'm using it as it has the words for you but for a real treat look for the one from the Ipi Ntombi soundtrack.


Have a great week folks. Rock on.

Rob

"...maybe Vader someday later no he's just a small fry..." - Weird Al Yankovic, The Saga Begins, 1999.

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