Cathedrals of Sound - What's it all about?

Having passed the 160 posts which is about 150 more than I thought I'd manage. I thought I'd take a pause for breath.

To try and make inspiration easier to come by I've kept to a few on running themes. Some of these have had the legs and some have started with good intentions but became a bit more sporadic as the ideas dried up. I did think that people who have stumbled across the blog recently might not have a clue as to the point of some of the posts so I thought it might be time for a bit of a recap (not helped by the fact that it is a bit hap hazard in how I label stuff)

So here it is

Miracle Mile Monday - does what it says on the tin , every Monday I post a track from the band The Miracle Mile,. This is just because I think their music is good enough for more people to hear (scrap that it is far too good for more people not to hear it) and hopefully go out an buy. I post 4 tracks from each album and am about to hit the home straight and already panicking that I need to think of a new Monday theme

Bigger than the Beatles - these are about bands that should have been massive but because of bad luck , cruel twists of fates or maybe because I'm deluded they were never as successful as they should have been

God Like Genius - Posts about individuals that in terms of music are just pure genius. I might not like everything they've done, they may be eccentrically inconsistent in terms of output and quality but more often than not they stand way above most other stuff that is around

Life of Live - A walk through my life of gigs with a post about every concert I've been to

Cult of the b Side - some band's b sides are better than a lot of other band's a sides

Strange Covers - cover versions as cover versions should be in that they offer something a bit different to the original

A year in Books - a mini review of every book I read during the year. Early rule of less than 100 words has slipped a bit recently, but hey rules are made to be bent a little.

Why I Love Country Music - although I don't own much if any pure country music a lot of bands I like have produced tracks with a bit of a country flavour

Never better than the first time - one of those that has run out of steam a bit , posts about bands who somehow never quite catch the magic of their debut lp again

My Indie Past - reading some great blogs has got me to rediscover my love for old 80s/90s indie bands, some disappeared after a few releases , some persevered and some underwent a metamorphosis and struck gold.

Singular Sounds - Having put all my records on my pc the anal male in me got interested in why for some artists I only had one track , so this is a walk through the alphabet with one such band for each letter

Say Something - I'm a bit too obsessed with lyrics for my own good, these are posts of songs with great words

.

And then more often than not i just post a track I like. I normally keep tracks posted for 2/3 months but I'm a bit disorganised in taking them down so you may be lucky with older posts.

Anyway if you are new to the blog then I hope that makes sense and if you have been around a while then apologies for the recap. Whoeveer uoi are I hope you like what you read and please feel free to leave commenst (it makes my day honestly especially if you recommend something to listen to /read) either agreeing or pointing out I'm talking out my arse (in a nice way)

Any suggestions for themes more than welcome!

miracle mile monday part 24

The final track from the Glow lp is "An Average Sadness. In Trevor's diary notes he writes

"I think most would crave a vivid life but ultimately settling for the golden mean. Those who don't suffer the extremes of human experience"

This is reflected in the songs lyric:

I will be there in the darkness
And I will be there in the light
But I won't be part of the madness
Oh for an average sadness

Musicwise this track seems to have its home in the deep south , you could almost hear it on the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack

An Average Sadness - Miracle Mile

Next week sees the start of 4 tracks from the latest Miracle mile lp so 4 more weeks and I'll need a new theme for a monday!

As a reminder you can listen to a sample of the 15 tracks of the Glow as well as buy it for a princely sum of £10 here

Lazy Sunday - Mcintoshross

Lazy Sunday and top of the shuffle pile is the title track from the lp by husband and wife team Ricky Ross and Lorraine Mcintosh. Avoiding the bombast that can creep into their band's work, they've quietly gone and made an lp of effective Scottish Americana (if such a thing exists). I like it because it is perfect music to read the Sunday papers to (of how it used to be in that distant land and time before kids)

The Great Lakes - McintoshRoss

You can buy the lp here

Competition Time - The Pearlfishers

Giveaway time! In doing a bit of sorting out I've found out that I liked this cd so much that for some reason I bought it twice! Rather than some Victor Kiam trait, it is more part of the perils of buying a lot of cds on pre order and then forgetting about them. The upside means that I keep getting nice surprises in the post, the downside is that occasionally this can happen.

So rather than flog it on ebay I thought I do a thankyou for sticking with me as I try this blogging thing. Based on readers, if you enter you'll have about a 1 in 150 chance of winning, based on comment writers it would probably be about 1 in 4 ( not bad odds).

If you like Scottish pop with a hint of Brian Wilson in there then this cd is worth having.

I've posted about the band and a track from the lp previously here

To enter - all you have to do is drop me a line to cathedralsofsound@hotmail.com

I'll leave it a couple of weeks and then in true Swap shop stylee I'll get a celebrity (well okay my little boy) to pull out the winning name.

Up With the Larks - The Pearlfishers

Strange Covers - Aztec Camera

I used to have one of those irrational dislikes for Cyndi Lauper, all based on the first time that hse appeared on Top of the Pops for some reason they did a quick interview after the song and she sounded like a hyper active child overdosing on helium. She seemed like the living version of that awful sign you'd sometimes see in a takeaway "you don't have to be mad to work here...." In my long coat from Oxfam all this calculated wackiness just wasn't on.

Anyway I cant deny despite the "zany" persona she has recorded 2 fantastic tunes in "Time after Time" and "True Colours". A while back I posted a cover of the first track and to complete the set here is a version of the second.

True Colours - Aztec Camera

Looking Forward

I was trying to think of records I'm looking forward to in 2010. As i get older I guess i get more and more out of touch in terms of what is coming out when.

One lp i am looking forward to is the debut by Oxford band Stornoway. Their first single Zorbing was one of the best things I heard last year when it popped up on a compilation cd someone at work gave me.

They are one of the bands picked by the BBC as the "Sound of 2010" which I hope doesn't become too much of a millstone. They've played Later with Jools Holland, Glastonbury and Tate Modern, not bad for band with just two singles to their name

They sound a bit like a mix between Fleet Foxes and early James, but that doesn't really do them justice. It does have a bit of a pop folk feel with strings , trumpet etc layered on top of the usual guitar , bass, drums

Zorbing - Stornoway

I'm not sure when the lp will be out , what it will be called or even if it exists but if the other tracks are half as good as their debut single then it will be one of the best of the year

Lying in your attic
I can feel the static
The storm has broken, Heavens open
So electrifying, Oh I'm nearly flying
Lost my heart between the sheets of lightning

Their Myspace page is here which has a few more tracks to listen to

Miracle Mile monday part 23

The Third track form "Glow" sees the big radio friendly song but the chiming guitars and sing along chorus hides a the seed of of the feeling of an "increasing desire to be anywhere but here"

"But oh my love what have you done
Trading your hope for a place inthe sun"

Baby's in the House - Miracle Mile

Lazy Sunday - The Sundays

A random shuffle I promise! Top of the pile suitably are the Sundays and a track called "I Kicked a Boy". What I like about it , well the same as I like about every Sundays track, a guitar line that Johnny Marr would have been proud of writing and a vocal that makes you instantly fall in love with the singer.

I Kicked a Boy - The Sundays

Singular Sounds L - Lanterns

A lot of the Scottish bands i like have this love affair with the USA and bands like Steely Dan. Nowadays lots of the best bands sing in their natural accent rather than something born in the mid atlantic. It seems ridiculous now the press that the Proclaimers got just for singing as they talk. I don't think there is much wrong with either approach after all people have been singing in false accents as far back as Elvis, but somehow I don't think bands such s Belle and Sebastian or Wake the president or Butcher Boy would be half as good if they sang as if they came from Santa Barbara

The Lanterns I can only describe based purely on this track as it is the only one I have as a Scottish Saint Etienne

I don't know much about the band beyond the fact that they were a trio and released one lp Luminate yer Head which you can find here .

Confusingly on one website they are described as an artistic project rather than a band (which all sounds a tad pompous)

This is one of those great pop singles that got away and apart from the initial "ravey" synth sound has dated really well and is as freash as when I first heard it

High Rise Town - The Lanterns

"There's gotta be more"

My indie past - The Hit Parade

The Hit Parade are a proper indie band! Three friends who all have other jobs but have been making music together for 20 years , were at one time on Sarah Records (home of all things twee), play jangly guitars , have lovelorn lyrics, slightly off key vocals and they even have a cult following in Japan.

Having got their first 2 lps I used to trawl the internet for more info but with a name like "the Hit Parade" and lps with titles like "With Love from the Hit Parade" and "More Pop songs" there was never much for Google to go on and you would end up searching through 1000s of unrelated entries.

After a break of over 10 years there was a flurry of action , a new website appeared and a new lp, called as it only could be called "The Return of the Hit Parade". The sounds remained the same although the songs were broader in lyrical range. The first 2 lps seemed to entirely focus on the on off relationship the singer had with the girl of his dreams.

I've posted a song by them before and you can find that here

For this post there are 3 tracks , two from the 1st lp (which should have just been titled "I want my ex Girlfriend Back") the first of these " See you in Havana" with guest vocals by queen of indie Cath Carroll and the third from their most recent.

See You in Havana

Sun in My Eyes

"The things that I love
The reasons I cry"


Ode to a Footballer's Wife





The lps are difficult to track down, not helped by the fact that a number seemed to be overseas releases only. even the band's website has them listed as sold out The latest lp "The Return of the Hit Parade" can be found here





Their website is pretty basic to say the least but it does have details of all their releases and can be found here





If anyone has links to the lps "The Sound of the Hit Parade" or "Light Music" then please let me know

A Year in Books 10 - The Half Brother

The first book I've read in 2010 and already a front runner for the best book I'm going to read. A bit like the quote "like Prefab Sprout" in a music review seems to result in me buying a copy. The same can be said with any book review that is described as being in the style of John Irving. I've been bitterly disappointed many a time, but with the period between Irving's fiction getting longer and his later work a bit more patchy I still keep giving it a go.

This Norwegian book could almost have been written from a "how to write an Irvingesque novel" manual. Having said that whilst elements of the plot and the story telling technique do remind me a bit of Hotel New Hampshire the writing has a style all of it's own.

Washed up scriptwriter Barnum looks back on his life in an eccentric extended family in Oslo and in particular his relationship with his half brother Fred. The plot takes in 4 generations and as with Irving the tone mixes comedy and tragedy, the funnier the passage the bigger the tragedy awaiting with all the main characters having fatal flaws and a great capacity to simply mess things up. Over the course of the 700 or so pages we're exposed to rape, suicide, illness, alcoholism and death by discus. However the writing is so skilled that the themes of love friendship and family means that you can't help but be continually uplifted by these flawed characters.

If I were to have one criticism then the novel loses it sway a bit with the modern day Barnum, but only (again as with Irving's Owen Meany) as the young Barnum is so well drawn.

Christensen manages to somehow make the extraordinary seem ordinary ie you never lose your sense of belief in what happens to the family and keeps you gripped to the very end.

So I'll repeat the review I read. "If you like John Irving then give this a go"

You can buy the Half Brother here

Miracle mile monday - part 22

The second track from "Glow" is "What Katie did Next" which again has some great brass (giving it a late 60s radio 2 feel - and I mean that as a compliment strange as it sounds) and one of the band's best choruses. In the diary Trevor writes :

"I like the idea of writing quickly; shortening the time between the thought, the notion and then writing of it. The hope is to make it honest and direct. The danger is that it might come out sloppy or half arsed"

Sloppy and half arsed is not something I think you could ever accuse these songs as being

What Katie Did Next - The Miracle Mile

Lazy Sunday - The Blue Nile

Another lazy sunday and top of the shuffle pile this week is a track by the Blue Nile from their 3rd lp "Peace at Last". Not the best thing they've done by a long way, and I think the lyric is a bit weak although it sounds a lot better in the context of the lp as a whole, but the there is some nice guitar sounds and not the best thing for the blue nile is still streets ahead of most other bands. On current progress we should be looking forward to a new lp in 2025.

Sentimental Man - The Blue Nile

god like genius - Thoms Dolby

When you think of Thomas Dolby most people will probably think of an annoying mad professor persona releasing 2 annoying synth pop songs one featuring Dr Magnus Pyke (one of those voices from your childhood) "She Blinded me with Science" and one that was written for Michael Jackson who turned it down "Hyperactive".

Some people on the other hand will remember that he produced Prefab Sprout's 2 best lps "Steve McQueen" and "Jordon the Comeback"

If genius is a small step from madness then I think Thomas Dolby fits the bill. The madness side is when he thinks he is George Clinton and decides he's "got the funk". The third lp "Aliens Ate My Buick" is the biggest offender.

However, the genius bit is that he can produce the most beautiful atmospheric music going. My first memory of Thomas Dolby is singing "Windpower" whilst twirling a lighted flexible tube above his head. This was on Wogan's chat song and to say Wogan was a tad perplexed is an understatement.

The first track posted is from the same lp as "Windpower" and i first heard it on Annie Nightingale's sunday night request show and it was this that made me think that there must be mor eto explore beyond "Science"

The second track is the title track from the second lp "The Flat Earth" and I think the best thing he has done. The song gradually builds layer upon layer, including what sounds like a sample of rigging from a sailing ship. The backing vocals fit perfectly

The third track is "Fieldwork" and according the the sleeve notes

I had met Ryuchi Sakamoto when his wife sang on Radio Silence a few years earlier. He had recorded the backing track with Steve Jansen, the drummer from the band Japan,. iIcame up with the melody and some lyrics whilst sitting in a car wash in Shepherd's Bush. I sent a rough mix and he loved it. We lived thousands of miles apart but arranged to meet halfway to record the vocal. On the arranged date we each checked into the New York Hilton. But we were under assumed names, and quickly realised we had no way of contacting each other"

This isn't the first time that Thomas Dolby has had problems with Sakamoto. From the sleeve notes to the track "Radio Silence"

"she bought her husband along, whom i mistakenly thought she introduced as "luigi". I referred to him several times by that name until i heard him play piano then put two and two together"

Cloudburst on Shingle Street - Thomas Dolby

The Flat Earth - Thomas Dolby

Fieldwork - Thomas Dolby and Ryuichi Sakamoto

He is in the process of recording his first new material for ages (in his recording studio which is a converted lifeboat! - see below). I really recommend his blog which you can find here it is a fascinating read both in terms of touring/recording but also in terms of his new technology, entertainment and design.

You can buy Thomas Dolby's lps ("The Golden age of Wireless" and "The Flat Earth" are the ones to get and they have just been reissued with extra tacks on and great sleeve notes from Dolby) here

Life of Live - Icicle Works

The Icicle Works were one of those bands that when I was at poly seemed to be continually touring and would come round to Leeds every couple of terms or so. The second time I saw them they were at their peak. They had released "If you Want to Defeat Your Enemy" lp which along with the first single "Understanding Jane" had seen them with a bit of a revival with good reviews and an almost hit . If you read Ian McNabb's great autobiography "Merseybeast", almost.... could be the story of his musical life.



Live they were at the top of their game, and able to produce a sound that made the recorded tracks on the lp seem a bit light weight by comparison. The track I've posted is the 3rd or 4th single from the lp and live was an anthem that felt like a wall of sound.

Political songs can often when heard out of context seem either full of self importance smugness or can seem trite and simplistic. "Up Here in the North of England" treads the tightrope better than most and is one of Ian Mcnabb's best lyrics full of quotable lines that captures a bit of times

Up Here in the North of England - Icicle Works

Travelling overseas I was accosted by a student
Who asked me where I came from, she was pretty
Children don't put smack in your veins
Lennon cut his teeth here
And the party-pooping left wing
Wouldn't play the Tories game
We're always in the market for an off-beat love affair
With a foreign delegation condescending for a share
Of a pressure cooker spouting steam
That threatens to unload
With a power so formidable
The Russian bear is in the woods somewhere

Television comedians united in approval
The drama that confronts you with real people in real times
I'm only in a band because I failed my own audition
You have to see somebody suffer other than yourself
Right now we're in a jam
We'll call you back when we get straight
'Cos Townsend's coming 'round
He understands, he won't be late
There's lots of food for thought
But not a great deal on our plate
The southerners don't like us
Who can blame 'em seems we're always in the spotlight

We're always in the market for an off-beat love affair
Heseltine came up now trees are sprouting everywhere
McDonalds finally found us and we're folklore in Turin
We used to pull the ships in
Now we're goin' down
Look at the state we're in

Every now and then you catch a band live when they are at the peak of their powers, releasing their best music and when they hit the stage the energy is infectious, and when the 2 hours are up you just know that they will be good again but maybe not quite this good - this for me was one of those times