No special theme for tonight's show - just great ska, dub & reggae all the way! Played some of the newer music I've heard & enjoyed recently plus tons of old faves.
When I hear a pretentious wine poser sniffing their plonk & saying 'I'm getting oak, vanilla & hints of Gaviscon' I wonder if I'm missing something; all I could ever smell was wine. Besides, when was wine for analysing & not just for drinking? Sniffing the stuff & pontificating is missing the point, some things are just better being ingested & enjoyed. The Girobabies new album is one such thing. Sniffing wine, all I get is wine - listening to Bus Stop Apocalypse, all I get is The Girobabies. There may be hints of other bands in there but if you listen with the intention to analyse the influences & make comparisons you're missing the point.
This isn't an album to listen to when you're in love with the world & haven't a care. It probably isn't one for the car stereo, unless you feel your driving could do with a harder, more aggressive edge to it. This is music for the days when the lies & deceit of politicians have you mad as hell, when the garbage being spewed from your telly is making you wretch, when working for some faceless pricks with no souls has you reaching for the scotch, when the pretentious wine sniffers of this world makes you want to punch someone.
It's not often you listen to an album first time & know exactly where it fits in with the rest of your music; this has gone straight in next to Joy Division & Killing Joke on the playlist reserved for those dark moods that need feeding & that I don't want to get lifted out of. It's fair to say this won't get played as often as some albums, but when I'm in the right mood for Bus Stop Apocalypse it'll be played loud and repeatedly. Recommended - have a listen for yourself.
Tonight's show seemed to go down well, I certainly enjoyed it! But then I'd enjoy sitting playing tunes for 2 hours even if nobody else was listening. Played an hour of ska covers - categorically proving that anything can be improved by ska - even a Phil Collins song can sound good with the application of ska! Also played some cracking new tunes; huge thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions & to the bands who sent me tunes to play. Enough waffle, here's the list:
Bombskare - Mean Mr Mustard / Polythene Pam (The Beatles)
The Beat - Can't Get Used To Losing You (Andy Williams)
Thanks to all who listened in. If you missed it you can get the podcast or stream it on the SFR mixlr page. Please check out some of the links - there's some cracking new ska out there & these bands deserve to be heard. Any tips of other bands you'd like to hear on SFR gratefully received as always. Cheers, Rich
I've been asked to put the play-lists for my radio shows up on here with links to the tunes & bands that I've played. I'll attempt to do this as soon after a show as I can but am not making any promises!
This is the playlist for my show on New Year's Eve, a sort of best of 2011 / seasonal music mash-up:
Let me know if any of the links don't work. If you fancy a tune playing on my show you can tweet me: @Zeng1nTepe or just leave a comment below. Cheers, Rich
Just a short post with a clip of Dickie Pride performing Slippin' n Slidin' on Oh Boy! from 1959. Not the type of music I usually blog about but what a performer! He crams a hell of a lot into this minute & a half version of one of his few hits. Dickie Pride's story is a heart-breaking & sobering tale of talent unfulfilled and a life cut tragically short. He was part of Larry Parnes' stable of rock 'n' rollers and an early example of the music industry chewing up and spitting out a sensitive soul whose talent outmatched his ability to endure. There is a very good blog post on the Black Cat Rockabilly site which I'd recommend but I'll just leave this post here with this wonderful clip:
One of the delights of having my humble little radio show is that I have listeners who share my love of finding and sharing new music with others. That's how I got to know about Stop Press! and The Begbies. I owe a huge debt of thanks to Bezzy & to Terry for putting me on to these two bands. They're new, fresh, distinctive and fun. What more could you ask for? Both released singles / EP's just before Christmas & I snapped them both up. I recommend you do the same - bands making music like this are the perfect antidote to the bland, manufactured rubbish that dominates mainstream radio, TV & the tabloids. I've played both bands on SFR and they always go down really well. These are people making music for the love of it & they deserve all the airplay, tweeting, blogging & listening they can get! Don't just take my word for it, have a listen & enjoy!
So, thank you Terry & Bezzy and long may the tips keep coming!
Well, yes. I am bothered, but I'm not entirely sure why so I'm going to try to reason it out. What's bothering me is my instinctive reaction to finding out that a band who make pretty bloody good music are Christians. Why should that bother me? I saw a post on Facebook saying that the band Five Iron Frenzy were back together. I'd never heard of them so didn't know they'd split, but my attention was caught by a comment on the post by a musician I follow on FB & Twitter. He mentioned one of the band's tracks so I thought I'd look it up. Here it is:
Good tune, decent bass line & some brass; usually something I'd like & I did when I heard it. In fact I've just played it again & enjoyed it. So I had a little search for other tunes from them and in the process came across references to their faith. Suddenly I wasn't so keen. But why? Why should it matter what their faith is? I like to think of myself as a tolerant person & although I'd never broadcast what my own faith (or lack of) is, I have no problem with anyone else's beliefs. I also strongly believe music can and should have a political edge to it. I wrote an earlier post lamenting the lack of social or political commentary in today's popular music. So why should a band making music that proclaims their faith be any different? Surely a political ideology that you feel strongly about is no different than a religious belief. So am I truly the tolerant individual I thought I was? I despise racism and bigotry of any kind, yet found myself instinctively wanting to dislike a band because they were described as a 'Christian ska band', in much the same way I instinctively hate scum like Skrewdriver and their hate-filled neo-nazi fans.
Five Iron Frenzy's wiki page states that they typically 'refrained from using their set as a platform to preach to the crowds'. The band's own website isn't overtly Christian and the imagery they employ certainly doesn't strike me as particularly Christian. I had a look at their lyrics and although they do reference their faith they certainly aren't 'in your face' about it. They address social issues & injustices too, again something I'd usually applaud. So why am I so bothered by them? To be honest I don't know. I like their sound. I'm no fan of Christian music generally; I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of 'Christian' bands are simply not good enough to make an impression in the mainstream market so proclaim themselves Christian because they know Christian music fans will overlook their shortcomings and buy their records anyway. I'm certainly not accusing Five Iron Frenzy of this, whether their faith is genuine or not is none of my business & they're accomplished enough musically.
Unfortunately I haven't come up with any answers as to why I didn't want to like them. If I played them on my SFR show I'm fairly sure nobody would switch off in disgust. It's troubled me enough to prompt this post, which hasn't helped me work it out in the slightest! Any ideas?
Postscript: I did play the tune on my show. The devil didn't steal my soul but similarly the sky didn't open to reveal the Rapture. Not sure why I had such an issue with it; I think each-to-their-own might be the best policy. Nobody complained. However... had I played this I think I may well have had a few adverse comments (do at least try not to laugh):
