I'm killing time ... to keep YOU happy!

Dear friends,

I have some time to kill time before my Grinderman - CD arrives (don't know yet whether it's the fault of the sender or of the post, but I will find out on Monday ... and someone will have to suffer then, that's for sure!), from which I will of course just love to post something here. So here are some tunes I haven't heard for quite a while, perhaps you will like them, who knows ....:

For the current edition of the Contrast Podcast we had to find something to accompany stories of ours about 'our brush with fame'. Only yesterday - after already having sent away my contribution - I thought to myself, I also could have sent in this track, a 7" on Fire records from 1989, and most wonderful as well, I would think:


The Television Personalities - 'Salvador Dali's Garden Party' (mp3)

This one has nothing to do with fame whatsoever, alas the opposite is true for this combo: in my eyes they're were greviously underrated. I say 'were', because I have no idea if they still exist or whether they have released anything else but this 7" in 2000 on V2 Music. Either way, even if they did nothing else, with this recording they have achieved much more in their lives than I will ever achieve in mine. Adorable, as you will be able to tell right now:

Mo Ho Bish O Pi - 'Hear The Air' (mp3)

My wife just called me from the other room, where she's searching for some cool downloadable tunes, in fact Radiohead she's after. I can't cope with them, never could, but anyway: her search brought her to The Vinyl Villain - blog (purely coincidental, believe it or not!). Now, this showed me that the world of the internet isn't really that big, is it? J.C., mastermind behind the Vinyl Villain - and the only Scottish inhabitant with an understandable accent - contributed some Orange Juice the other day for the Contrast Podcast, so I thought why not play you this one:

The Wedding Present - 'Felicity' (mp3)

Taken from one of those Peel Session 12" on Strange Fruit Records, recorded and (first) broadcasted in 1986.

[and for those of you too young to know: the starting line refers to the fact that Orange Juice's James Kirk wrote the song in 1982. (also on the vocals with Orange Juice, by the way, was Edwyn Collins: now this is a name you really should know, right?) And who acted as James Kirk in Star Trek? Correct: William Shatner, so there you are ...]



Also from Scotland are these people: Ballboy. There is nothing much to say about them, perhaps apart from the fact that they are the fucking best thing since sliced bread. If you don't owe at least one of their records, your life is somewhat incomplete. Don't worry too much about which one to buy, they're all superb. This of course doesn't make it easier for me to choose a specific track to post here, but I think I go for this one from their 2003 'The Sash My Father Wore & Other Stories' - CD on SL Records:


Ballboy - 'Born In The USA' (mp3)

And although I don't care a great deal for Springsteen, here's another one of his songs (and, so is the one by Ballboy, another contender for my Top 10 of 'Covers Which Are Better Than The Originals'), this time by Electrelane, also done in 2003:

Electrelane - 'I'm On Fire' (mp3)

Thinking of it, this 'Covers Top 10' really is something I should do here in it's entirety one of these days. In it would be also this one, of course, originally done by The Strokes, recorded in 2003 and covered here by a band which means as much to me as Ballboy do:


Detroit Cobras - 'Last Nite' (mp3)

I hope, dear folks, this week's selection was enjoyable to you and I hope I didn't bore you too much: perhaps you have found something you've not heard before. If this is the case, I'm more than happy.

Leave comments/take care/goodnight, all the best:

Dirk