unpopular

So that was an Unpopular 2012 then...

This post originally held links to all of the lovely mixes pictured above. If you missed out, you missed out on all of these.

Summer Feel

Malcolm - Aberfeldy (from the 'Somewhere to Jump from' album. on Soundcloud)
Kevin Currie - Spaghetti Anywhere (from 'Arrochar' on Bandcamp)
Your Sympathy - Devon Williams (from 'the line of best fit'. On Soundcloud)
You Don't Want to Live Like That - The Art Museums (from the 'Dancing' EP for Slumberland and on Bandcamp)
Time Is Right - The Feelies (from 'Here Before' )
I Wanna Be With You - The Sneetches (covering them Raspberries on YouTube)
Pop Song - David Kilgour (from 'Left By Soft' )
Kelvin British Summertime - Lenzie Moss (on Bandcamp)
The Memory Of Wounds - Edinburgh School For The Deaf (on Bubblegum records and live on YouTube)
Poppy White - The Jasmine Minks (on Oatcake records and on YouTube)
På randen - Testbild! (from the 'Barrikad' album on Bandcamp)
No Pressure - Secret Cities (YouTube)
Summer Feel - Phantom Power (from 'FUCK.' on Bandcamp)
Colour of a man (PSB organic mix) - The Hidden Cameras (on Soundcloud)
The Corner - Chairs Missing (from 'When Now EP' on Bandcamp)
Happy As Can Be - Cut Off Your Hands (free from their record label)
What Am I Going To Do - Pop Art Toasters (from the Pop Art Toasters EP. Kinda hard to find now...)
Lake Abe - Family Cactus (from 'Spirit Lights' on Bandcamp)
Dunedin from the Bay - Robert Scott (from 'Songs Of Otago's Past' at Buy Dunedin Music)
Good Morning People - David Kilgour (from 'Solstice' compilation)

Unceremonious Splendour

Thunder... Thunder and... lightning... Pause. Crash.

Last night, over to the west, drifting out in the early hours. Brampford Speke church tower silhouetted in the flashes. Every time now, for a handful of decades, every time I hear thunder these lines tease my head. “One drop of rain on the back of my hand...” It was Verlaine at first of course but in my heart it is always Langley... breaking, breaking...  Chris Roberts described the thrill best. Something about “ravishing green fingers playing hoopla with halos” and dancing on throats. Well quite.

The sweetest thing about love is how it re-configures itself, re-invents itself, winks in the darkening evening light and says ‘remember this?’ You fall into yourself and its arms. It’s not as though you had forgotten, just that you hadn’t necessarily remembered.

Blink the sleep from your lips and kiss the morning. Dance on the treetops. The world might well be fucked, but you, you’ve got this. Tie a knot in your teardrops.

Silver Rays - Animals That Swim (you'll find it on iTunes) 
It Hurts Me Too - My Teenage Stride (Bandcamp)
They Don't Know - Kirsty MacColl (you don't have this already?! Buy the Best Of on Amazon )
Gruesome Castle - Wild Nothing (Soundcloud)
Plastic Flowers - The Wake (from the Here Comes Everybody and Singles reissue on LTM)
What a Pleasure - Beach Fossils (Soundcloud)
Strange Girl - duplodeck (Bandcamp)
Unceremonious Splendour - Sleuth (Bandcamp)
Punk Means Cuddle - Tsunami (find it on the World Tour and Other Destinations set)
Little Surprise - The Wave Pictures (Soundcloud)
Words Fail Me (Acoustic) - Chris T-T (you'll find it on iTunes)
For My Mother - Let's Wrestle (from new album 'Nursing Home' which you can pre-order now from Amazon)
Teenager - Apache Dropout (Bandcamp)
Lawrence - Girls Names (from the 'Dead To Me' set on Slumberland)
Fields and Fields - Family Cactus (Bandcamp)
High School Lover - Oregon Bike Trails (Bandcamp)
Doppelganger - Freezepop (free from their site)
Ready To Go Steady - The Go! Team (YouTube it, dude)
On A Breeze - Ghost Wave (a blog has it here...)
Breaking In My Heart - The Blue Aeroplanes (one version is on the old vinyl edition of 'friendloverplane' and another is on the 'Warhol's 15' CD compilation, both out of print. Go and dig around, see what you can find...)

Flying into the sun

So here is my easter gift to you, dearest readers. It may not be made of chocolate, but it is filled with delicious treats. Lot's of the music is free, or at least the price of a swedger, so follow the links and support the groups. Send them your love. Tell them I sent you. Not that it will mean anything to them, but what the heck... The next installment is already under construction and will likely feature the likes of Let's Wrestle, Wave Pictures, Chris T-T, Wild Nothing, Go! Team, Duplodeck and the utterly brilliant Sleuth. 

There Will Never Be Another Night Like Tonight - The Arctic Flow (Bandcamp)
A Summer's Night Lullaby - Inverness (Bandcamp)
By the Sea - Summer Fiction (Bandcamp)
Flying Into the Sun - Crystal Stilts (YouTube)
Down The Discotheque - Sarandon (buy it on Amazon!)
Do The Dance - Sarandon (buy it on Amazon!)
Don't Look at Me (I Don't Like It) - The Lovely Eggs (YouTube)
All We Wanna Do - Two Wounded Birds (YouTube)
I will never hold your hand - Tiger Tape (Bandcamp)
The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade - The Joy Formidable (from A Balloon Called Moaning)
The Beat Of Our Own Blood - Jeniferever (Soundcloud)
Cleaning Out The Rooms - British Sea Power (youTube)
The Flooded Room - French Curves (Soundcloud)
There's Something About Mary - The Hit Parade (Soundcloud)
Recalling - The Proper Ornaments (Bandcamp)
For Jacob with Malaria - Boca Chica (Eardrums Pop)

Everyone Feels That Way Sometimes

Rattle My Cage - The Primitives (Amazon MP3 )
Lego - Ok (soundcloud)
Impressions of a City Morning - Brown Recluse (Soundcloud)
Trances - Mariage Blanc (Bandcamp)
Travelers - Arches (mediafire)
Georgia - Yuck (soundcloud)
Tokyo - California Wives (soundcloud)
Time to Dance - The Shoes (soundcloud)
Soul Handsome - Kuhrye-oo (soundcloud)
Everyone Feels That Way Sometimes - Computer Magic (band site)
Marshall Meadows - People Of Water (Amazon MP3 )
The Fall Of Great Britain - Factory Star (occultation label)
Alexander Hamilton - Howth (bandcamp)
Cold Weather Sunshine - Morning Teleportation (Amazon MP3 )
Small Garden Wedding - The Haints of Dean Hall (Bandcamp)
Bunhill Fields - Amor de Dias (Soundcloud)
The Millionaire - Ex Cops (Soundcloud)

It's My Heart And I Want You To Break It

Raise a glass, a shout, a finger. Head deeper underground, even if only in your mind. Spot the connections, make the hops, skips and jumps. This is how it goes: the songs that brighten the days and nights; the words that smother your dreams in imaginary kisses; the swords that pierce your heart. A last glance over the shoulder then disappearing in crowds of metropolitan isolation. Music for the lost couple.

Chandeliers - Dream Cop (spotify)
Stuck in my Id - Reptar (band site)
If You Want It - TV Girl (Bandcamp)
Don’t Make Plans - Ducktails (YouTube)
Cashmere Paisley Polyester - Fingers of the Sun (Bandcamp)
Someone is Waiting - I Was A King (spotify)
Throw Me From the Bridge of Flowers - Hands and Knees (Bandcamp)
I Wanna Do It - Sonny & The Sunsets (Soundcloud)
Ghost Lover - Las Robertas (spotify)
Suitcase - Standard Fare (spotify)
Our Scrapbook - Tompot Blenny (Bandcamp)
GreenThingsMovingThroughtheWaterOnLand - Orchard Thief (Bandcamp)
WHALE - Yellow Ostrich (Bandcamp)
On a Ride - Dignan Porch (spotify)
Bones - Young Circles (Bandcamp)
Sunsetter - Ghost Wave (Bandcamp)
Boulevards In Blume (Galaxies Version) - A U N T I E (CorporateRecords)
Ghosts (Spirit Come In) - Michael Parallax (Bandcamp)

(Nothing to do but) Get High In The Afternoon

End of February and here’s a blend of blistered, blurred and blissed out guitars, beats and electronic glitches for you. Personal highlights would be the the Loveless lovers’ space rock of Young Prisms, Alien Pimp and Spatial’s subterranean techno and the glorious Pop electro smooch of Living Rooms and especially Icky Blossoms, whose aptly titled ‘Perfect Visions’ gives title to the mix. Not forgetting of course the salacious sludge rock of Fungi Girls and Girls Names: shifty, bedsit noisy Pop whose aim in life is surely to soundtrack a moment of mixtape romance and then to be be gone (and hence remembered) forever. Mission accomplished.

Haller Lake - The Cave Singers
I Want To Be Around You - Jonny
Stay Awake - Young Prisms
I Did It Sober - Idiot Glee
Ungirthed - Purity Ring
Another Sunny Day In Barcelona - Alien Pimp
100319 - Spatial
You're A Mirage - Living Rooms
Perfect Vision - Icky Blossoms
Sleepless City - Punches
Belong - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Pacifica Nostalgia - Fungi Girls
Tear Me Down - Girls Names
Meet Me In the City - The Babies
Youth Is Wasted On The Young - Chain And The Gang

Boredom so loud.

Kiss For Fun

February already, so just in time for that mid-month day of romantic commercial overkill (sorry, of course I meant ‘celebration’) here’s a mix of some of my month’s listening so far. Lots to love, I'm sure you'll agree. Don't forget to follow the trails and investigate/support the acts that make your knees tremble.

Attention - BLOW!
Kill Them - Tiger Bones
Edita V - Balkans
Teachers - Surf City
Up Past The Nursery - Suuns
Bruises - Minks
Gotta Get Along - New Shouts
The Kingdom - Bank Heist
Equestrian (Flosstradamus Remix) - U.S. Royalty
Found Out - Caribou
The High Life - Matt Longo
Theme From New Fun - The European
Under The Silver Stars Of Love - Slow Down Tallahassee
God Save the Runaways - The Secret History
Kiss For Fun - New Shouts
Climbing Walls - Strange Talk
Lovesick (Once Again) - The Hundred In The Hands
Quitting You Is Harder Than Candy (featuring Liz Enthusiasm) - Eiscafe

Jelly Babies

How I Saved My Life

Ballad Of Fuck All - Malcolm Middleton
Happytown - East River Pipe
Flying On The Ground - The Sneetches
Giddy and Gay - The High Llamas
You Take The Gold - Beachwood Sparks
Everyone's Song - Plans & Apologies
I Didn't Know The World Would Last This Long - John Hartford
How I Saved My Life - The Secret History
We Can't Be Friends (lost inner ear mix) - Black Tambourine
Beatnik - Comet Gain
Shake the Shackles - Crystal Stilts
The Witch - Clinic
fob.com - Prolapse
Don't Fall - The Chameleons
How Much Older Will We Grow - Mars Bonfire
Let Our Hopes Run Our Dreams - Rain
My Finest Hour - The Sundays
Life's Parade - Jan & Lorraine
The Pearl - Judee Sill
Don't Be Upset - Jeffrey Lewis

she shook a black tambourine... 

Those days, those nights

So what has filled your January listening list? If it is anything like mine then it will have been peppered with songs from records that you have been catching up with from 2010. All those records you missed that someone said you ought to check out. Some of them you even like.

I had good intentions for January. Don’t we always? I was going to take a stance against all those blogs who post track after track but never actually tell you much about the music aside from some biographical details that honestly you couldn’t give a fuck about. I mean, does anyone remember words? Does anyone remember what it’s like to read poetry about music? I mean, sure, it’s frustrating to read that music is like ochre kissed fields in a darkening January twilight only to discover that it’s actually just another bleary, easy cash in on the current trend (in other words it just sounds like a weak Best Coast or Wild Nothing copycat). But it’s better than just coming to that conclusion from simply clicking on an embedded music file, no? No? Just me then?

The irony of course is that my own January listening mix is shared here without any words about the music at all and is filled with many songs culled from those very kinds of blogs.

So I’m a hypocrite. Deal with it.

I Know I Fucked Up - Darren Hayman & Elizabeth Morris
Not Today - White Wishes
Weathervane - Early to Bed
Homework - Big Deal
Yarrow - WOJCIK
Jigsaw Falling Out Of Place - Zoo Kid
U & Eye - Chaim
Cover The Walls (Dreamtrak Diamond Sound) - Internet Forever
Running Up That Hill - Bank Heist
Hole In Your Heart - Secret Shine
Those Days, Those Nights - The Notes
Freakscene - Insect Guide
You Girls Smoke Cigarettes? - No Joy
Dirty Boots - Sex Beet
Romantic Girl - Bare Wires
Kudzu Girlfriend - Standard Fare
The Accidental - Modern Rivals
Buffalo - The Deloreans
Golden Age - Beat Radio
Last Train To Clarkston - Bubblegum Lemonade

Download the mix here. Usual rules of engagement apply: If you like something, buy the damn records (unless it’s free anyway, in which case send the artists your love and devotion) and spread the word.