Draw The Short Straw

This Week’s Albums

I’ve set myself a bit of a challenge going forwards; I want to get back into really enjoying albums, rather than listening to as much music as is humanly possible! So, I’m taking the time to choose 5 albums on a Sunday night/Monday morning that will be my ‘focus group’ for the week. Once they’re synced via Spotify, that’s it for the week!

This week’s albums are:

1. Brad Mehldau - The Art of the Trio Vol. 5: Progression
2. e.s.t Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Strange Place for Snow
3. Unrehurst & Robert Hurst - Unrehurst Vol. 1
4. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
5. Filter - The Amalgamut 

I’m looking forward to these.

(If there’s anything I should check out, please let me know! I’m always on the hunt for new music… once a week…!)

Don’t tell me I’ve got ‘a case of the Mondays’…!

Monday’s Playlist.
6 Tracks / 28mins 

I needed a kick-start today and so pulled a few songs from the archive in an attempt to give myself a little glimmer of… something!

1: Johnny Cash - ‘The Man Comes Around’
2: Sublime - ‘What I Got’
3: The Cinematic Orchestra - ‘Flite’
4: Deftones - ‘No Ordinary Love’
5: Portishead - ‘Machine Gun’
6: A Perfect Circle - ‘Judith (Renholder Remix)’

Spotifive - 07.06.10

This week’s Spotifive playlist is, again, quite a chilled-out affair. Actually, it’s verging slightly more on ‘downbeat’ than chilled-out. Maybe just ‘calm’?

It started with the Message to Bears track ‘Hope’ when I heard it last week; a new band to my Spotify. A marvelous discovery which I suggest you check out. Following that, there was (was) a wonderful Oscar Peterson Trio tune called ‘Thags’ Dance’ but it ended up removed as it was just too upbeat!

I hope you find this a decent kick start for your week. Or, failing that, a nice respite to the daily grind when things get just a little too heavy!

• Message to Bears - Hope
• The Cinematic Orchestra & Roots Manuva - All Things To All Men
• Maybeshewill - …In Another Life, When We Were Both Cats
• Fun Lovin’ Criminals - We Have All The Time In The World
• Oceansize - The Strand

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URI: Spotifive - 07.06.10

“I’m all things, to all men.
All of the women, all children.
Just say when, I’ll take you to the tardis.
Who’s the hardest?”

Spotifive - 01.06.10

I’m taking this ‘Spotifive’ posting to a once-a-week affair, hopefully to make each one that little bit better.

Today’s list was kick-started by the Elvis Costello track ‘Beyond Belief’, which I stumbled upon on my travels around the interweb (on this blog). I’d not heard it before and, as a relative newibie to Mr Costello’s work, I thought I’d include it.

• Bon Iver - ‘Blood Bank’
• Elvis Costello - ‘Beyond Belief’
• Ani DiFranco - ‘Promised Land’
• Tom Waits - ‘Trampled Rose’
• Elbow - ‘Crawling With Idiot’

Spotifive - 01.06.10 (HTTP)
Spotifive - 01.06.10 (URI)

Enjoy.

NB* If anyone can help me with setting up a decent layout/theme for this page, and also tell me how I can post things to different pages of my blog, I’d be super-greatful!

Spotifive - Thursday 27.05.10

*oh, you bastard: I just wrote a marvelous 3-paragraph missive on why it’s hard to make music work together, and the frickin’ HTML editor wiped it out. Let’s try again…*

I’ve been finding it very hard (very hard!) to put together these Spotfive lists of late; maybe it’s because I’ve exhausted my musical knowledgebase, or maybe it’s because I’m just trying to get too clever (!!!) with the selections; trying to find some deep, meaningful connection between the tracks. Same could be said for alot of things… look too deep and you’ll only find more questions!

Alternatively, it could be that - as an aspiring DJ - I’m just struggling to find music that works together!

For this list, I’ve visited names that I’ve heard in the past or that I’ve heard on the TV or in movies… With some of the songs, I’m embarassingly late to the party (30-odd years in some cases… the Velvets?) whereas some just haven’t found the right place to sit (you know, like when you get on a bus and there’s only a seat next to the guy who’s eating a McSatan and looks like he’s not had a bath for a week). I don’t think there’s any real profundity to these five musical escapes. They just hang together really well, and the vibe… bliss.

• Eels - Elizabeth On The Bathroom Floor
• Velvet Underground & Nico - Sunday Morning
• Seu Jorge - Life On Mars?
• Ben Folds - Still Fighting It
• Nouvelle Vague - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Enjoy. HTTP : Spotifive-a-day - Thursday 27/05/10
URI : spotify:user:rooftopsonfire:playlist:33B3OCW1dVmSN5VVoDpZvv

(Incidentally, if you’ve not got Spotify, just look up the tracks on YouTube or get onto iTunes. I’m going to attempt to podcast this stuff once a week now…)

Spotifive-a-day - 11.05.10 / The Drummers

Today’s playlist is very drum-centric; since gaining a bit of a spark for playing, I thought I’d pull five of my favorite drum parts together. None of it is showy for the sake of it (bar one track, which is drum-focussed) and all of the parts really compliment the songs or peices that they’re backing. I’d heartily recommend any of these artists/bands as study peices or just as kick-ass listening material:

Thrice: Image Of The Invisible (Riley Breckenridge)
- There’s a fantastic millitary-styled snare drum break coming into the last chorus; syncopated accents really pull out the vocal line. Power and finesse.

(Riley’s Tumblr: http://trawlingthegrey.tumblr.com/)

Porcupine Tree: The Sound Of Muzak (Gavin Harrison)
- Odd-time never sounded less odd… I think. GH makes the odd meters in this PT classic sound familiar and somewhat common. Listen to the transition from odd-time to common time going into the chorus.

Sting: Seven Days (Vinnie Colaiuta)
- I love 5/8. Again, it’s an odd-meter played with so little effort under a wild, weaving melody rhythm that makes the song work so well. No flash. No furrore. Just solid groove in 5!

Benny Greb: Grebfruit (Benny Greb)
- The only ‘show off’ track on the list. Despite this being from a drum-centred album, the track still maintains a solid, deep groove. From the off, the power 2s and 4s drive the song on.

Ed Thigpen Rhythm Features: Lady Bird (Ed Thigpen)
- I only recently found this album by ETRF, and felt like a complete dolt for being so late to the game. Ed’s swing is so delicate and yet somehow provides a surging undercurrent for the piano. Also, listen from around 5:44 for some staggering ‘do it with your hands’ playing! Marvelous.

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