The Church - Xmas
Nick Lowe - I Was Born in Bethlehem
The Primitives - You Trashed My Christmas
Oldfolks Home - Christmas at the Oldfolks Home
Cocteau Twins - Frosty the Snowman
JP Hoe - HOE HOE HOE HOLIDAY SONGS
Sky Ferreira - Omanko
Kate Bush - December Will Be Magic Again
Rusty and Savanna - Stocking Stuffers
XTC - Thanks for Christmas
Payola$ - Christmas is Coming
Frank Turner and Butch Walker - Merry Christmas You XXXX
Nick Lowe celebrated another birthday yesterday. Did you know his middle name is Drain? Me neither. Anyway, didn't want to pass up a chance to remind you of how much great work he's done.
Sensitive Man
So It Goes
Rockpile - So It Goes (Live)
Rockpile - When I Write the Book
Roller Show
Allison
Cruel to be Kind - Nick Lowe with Daryl Hall and T-Bone Wolk
The British Olympic Organizers contacted me about a do-over for the closing ceremonies, something about the music not being "Great British-y" enough. I said I would do it only if I could get artists from all over the UK. Of course, the budget has been blown, and they have only given me 20 minutes to come up with new stuff, so here it is.
John Lydon/Johnny Rotten is going to pop out of a cake. Not a fake cake, either, but real one, made by the British version of the Cake Boss. But that's only if the remaining members of the Sex Pistols will join him. If not, he will come out of some kind of pudding and just do a Public Image Ltd. tune.
Ian Hunter will parachute in. 'Cause he's cool like that.
Echo and the Bunnymen will magically appear to ener the stage rowing a smallish boat.
Buzzcocks are going to be catapulted through a giant heart.
Robyn Hitchcock is going to be spewed out of the mouth of giant frog or giant spider, he hasn't decided yet.
The Darkness will flicker out of the Olympic Flame itself. The Olympic Organizers wanted Queen, but Mercury is dead - we can't just play video or have a bloody hologram, right?
Happy Mondays will find their way one by one out from a giant Kangol hat.
The Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies are going to walk in arm-in-arm on a cloud.
Judas Priest will roll in on skateboards. They may perfomr with the London Symphony Orchestra.
The Waterboys will ride in on garishly-festooned elephants.
Nick Lowe gets to play whatever he wants and enter the stage however he wants. He's frickin' Nick Lowe.
Billy Bragg will be carried by men in expensive suits.
There are a few more artists we are working on, they will have to wait for another post one we finalize them. Who do you think is a must-have?
If you've been following this blog for awhile, you may have noticed I love Wilco. You might also have noticed I love Nick Lowe. So what happens when those two do a little bit of collaboration? Wilco's iTunes Session includes a new version of Cruel to be Kind with the man himself. My head exploded. I put it back together with crazy glue, and now I want to do it to you.
Wilco's iTunes Session:
1. Dawned On Me (iTunes Session)
2. Born Alone (iTunes Session)
3. I Might (iTunes Session)
4. Black Moon (iTunes Session)
5. Whole Love (iTunes Session)
6. War On War (iTunes Session)
7. Passenger Side (iTunes Session)
8. Cruel to Be Kind (feat. Nick Lowe!!!!!)
While you're at it check out their newest albums, they are the bee's knees, no?
HEY! If you've made it this far, feel free to leave a comment. What's your fave collaboration? Your dream get-together? Your nightmare mix-up?
Wilco is selling pre-orders for their new record The Whole Love, giving away Custom Wilco bicycles and whatnot in order to promote the new long-player. The best promotional tool I've come across is the new song I Might, nice fuzzy guitar, some xylophone, confident vocals from Tweedy and an upbeat feeling all around. B-side is the Nick Lowe cover, since Wilco is now on their own label. Taken from my favourite Nick Lowe Era, it's a fine tune, and both of these Wilco songs are getting me pretty excited for the new release.
As mentioned last post, Nick Lowe is one of those rare breed of rock 'n' roll guys who are growing old with some dignity. Although he wrote some of the best songs of the last 35 years or so, he doesn't write quite as much as he used to, sometimes preferring to interpret other's work. Maybe if you can afford to not worry too much about the extra bit of income from your own songwriting, if you can tame your ego, you can escape looking desperate in search of a hit. Lowe's not hitting the iTunes best-sellers on a regular basis, but he's carved out his own niche, and he's already made his pop/rock hits. From his last album, At My Age, here's I trained Her to Love Me.
One more from the last album, both of these tracks exemplify the mellow turn Lowe's recent work has taken. Lowe's label Yep Roc uses descriptive turns of phrase such as "croon", "soul-soaked country pop", and "refined", and I'd say they're spot on.
One of my favourite albums of all time, Lowe's Labour of Lust, was finally reissued recently. Give a listen to these tracks from the album, feel free to ignore the videos, some of them make no sense at all (don't ask me what's up with Endless Grey Ribbon, I haven't a clue).
I also stumbled upon a 12-part series called Born Fighters from 1979 chronicling Rockpile, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds at al, as they document their work after they weren't allowed to use the Name Rockpile. It's all on YouTube, with links listed under info (click "show more")to the next section.
Just found out that Robert Plant is going to be gracing Scruffy's town. Should we go? I think he may be making the best music of his career. The last one with Krauss was superb, but the new one is even better, though I can't stand the cover art. And he's doing it by doing his versions of others' songs - he only has one co-write (with Buddy Miller) on the newest album, and the one before he redid himself (and Jimmy Page) with Please Read the Letter. Plant has said words to the effect of when he goes to write, it's unsatisfying. That kind of admission reminds me of another of rock's elder statesmen, Nick Lowe, who says why work your butt off to write new songs when there are great ones out there that need singing? Both Lowe and Plant are aging kinda gracefully, which is tough to do in the entertainment industry and almost impossible in pop. Plant seems to be doing fine not covering Lowe, but Low, who allowed the Former Zep frontman to cover two songs (Monkey and Silver Rider) that stand amongst the best things he's ever committed to tape. Or ones and zeros. Next post? Why, Nick Lowe, I think.
For your holiday pleasure, Robyn Hitchcock has made a whack of covers available for streaming on his website. A bunch of Bowie songs (recorded live at the annual Medecins sans Frontieres benefit show, Changes is my favorite Bowie cover ever), Bill Monroe's Blue Moon of Kentucky featuring Nick Lowe, and much more. None of the tracks below are included in Hitchcock's stream, it's just a weird hodgepodge of old and new Hitchcock and Lowe, old Bowie (because there IS no new Bowie), or some amusing covers, because I'm still in a giving mood.
The song below translates as The Sound of Breaking Glass (from the original Swedish). It doesn't sound like a cover of the Nick Lowe tune, so I don't know what it is, I'm hoping one of you can enlighten me.
You can always tell fellow music obsessed types by the music they listen to themselves. Ted Leo clearly loves music, as evidenced by the gargantuan amount of cover songs he's unleashed upon us fellow music geeks. You Ain't No Picasso has amassed a startling collection of covers you can snatch up here. How did he know I love Nick Lowe? How did he guess my fascination with Split Enz? Has Mr. Leo been spying on me and my current fixation with The Replacements? Maybe not, but if he starts doing Son Volt, Hardship Post, and Robyn Hitchcock or the Soft Boys, I'm gonna get worried. Here's a sprinkling, download them all and much, much more at YANP.
So It Goes (Nick Lowe)
Six Months in a Leaky Boat (Split Enz)- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Can't Hardly Wait (The Replacements)
I'm Looking Through You (The Beatles)
Joey (Concrete Blonde)
Outdoor Miner (Wire)
The Onion's A/V. Club are putting 25 video cover versions out there, and Ted Leo did the first. Tears for Fears? The other covers sure look interesting, with Scruffy favourites like R.E.M., Guided By Voices, and Pavement all making the cut.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists have a new record out called The Brutalist Bricks. Here's a couple from that one.
Okay folks, for your Valentine's pleasure, here's a short list of favourites's I've been listening to for the past year. Almost all of them are available for free download at Stereogum - coool, huh? Just go to their mp3 downloads page, view by artist, and scroll down to the artist you want.
Blitzen Trapper - Furr - A mix of Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and indie folk/alt country would not be the thing I would expect to love - but I do.
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Counting Crows - 1492 - I know, I know,Counting Crows! The band's been slagged beofre, especially Adam Duritz - his voice on their live album was hilarious. However, this song is not wimpy music fopr coffeeshops, but a noisy barrage of welcome oddity. Including Duritz taking a self-deprecating jab at himself: "I'm a Russian Jew American/Impersonating African Jamaican".
Friendly Foes – Not free on Stereogum, but free on rcrdlbl.com, this noisy pop band will give you good music. All short tunes full of piss, vinegar and melody. Free. Full Moon Morning is a great tune, as is Get Yr Shit Together.
The Broken West – Perfect Games & Auctioneer. I couldn't just pick one song from this band, they are my new favourites hands down. ___________________________________________________________________________________
Old 97’s - Ride - Taken from their fine album Blame it On Gravity.
Rowdymen – Rode Hard (and put away wet)- Still unreleased, this country gem sounds like Yoakam, Springsteen, and Steve Earle got drunk and then got lost and left a tune in the back of a taxi for a former rockabilly hero to resurrect. Will it come out this year? Ask Jason "Axl" Allen.
Western States – The Road is Dark as the Night - Okay, this isn't officially out until sometime in the near future, but you can hear a couple of new one's from our cosmic Canadian purveyors at their MySpace page. Full review to follow nearer to release date.
mp3s will be posted for a limited time and are for promotional purposes only. If you like it, buy the albums, go to the shows, buy the t-shirts - support the artist so they can keep on keepin' on. Artists - if you would like an mp3 or video removed, please contact me directly at chrisyakchart@hotmail.com.
If you've got something Scruffy should hear, same email. Snail mail is cool too.
Scruffy the Yak 34 Allenby Cres Winnipeg Mb R2C 3J4
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