Author: Tony

Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen

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From the PR: “Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers.

Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty-six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car off a cliff, in an apparent double suicide.

As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost…”

There are few reading pleasures like sitting down with a new Varg Veum novel but then there are few writers as good as Gunnar Staalesen. Since reading We Shall Inherit the Wind back in 2015 Staalesen has become one of my favourite writers and a new Varg Veum novel from Norway’s finest is always reason to get excited.

Like all good pleasures, the reading of a new Staalesen novel is something to be savoured. The problem is that it’s also so bloody good and addictive that it’s usually impossible to put down. Mirror Image builds up momentum so masterfully, places just enough hooks in each chapter and leads the reader from ‘wait, what?’ to ‘hang on, but that means…’ so compellingly that addictive isn’t the word and before you know it you’re knee deep in snow peering through a cabin window and on your way to a denouement that’ll leave your jaw open. Oh, and Mirror Image may be the most stunning of those yet.

There’s a quiet poetry in reading a novel set in 1993 that works perfectly with Varg’s style. I’ve said before that Staalesen’s lone wolf is neither a Reacher or Harry Hole, there are no explosive set pieces here nor does our hero deliver any violent kicks to the kidney that ‘would have sent a football out of the stadium.’ Instead, Veum tracks his clues determinedly, putting in the leg work and the miles as he puts the pieces together. In 1993, devoid of cell phones to ping locations from (though Varg does revel having such a then-new device) or the ability to reach someone in an instant with a text, Mirror Image moves to a different pace. It’s joyous to sense the work and miles – numerous early morning starts and ferry crossings across those fjords to islands not yet reached by bridge – involved as Veum doggedly chases the truth across a geographical distance that manages to mirror the chronological distance involved as he travels back and forth across both the country and decades to unravel the complexities of his case.

Speaking of mirroring… how about the symmetry in the events of 1957 affecting the central characters of Varg’s current case just as the events of his previous investigation affect his current life?

There’s a huge amount to enjoy in Mirror Image. From the characters – both familiar and new – to the perfectly detailed landscapes. Staalesen’s style and prose remains that of a master, succinct yet evocative with more than a crackle of charm and humour all clearly written by an author that takes delight in the form. The plot is as wonderfully crafted and multifaceted as you’d expect from a Varg Veum novel – just when you think the pieces are starting to come together Staalesen can subtly work in a new angle that brings increasing layers into play and still find a way to seamlessly bind them into one.

The only bad thing about Mirror Image is that it must draw to a close. Though that close, again, is possibly the finest ending to a Varg novel to date.

Mirror Image is the ninth Varg Veum novel in my collection (of a published nineteen with) and yet Staaelesen still manages to bring something new to the character with every instalment, ensuring that Varg remains both familiar to readers but compelling enough to want another novel straight after finishing, all the while continuing to set a high benchmark for both Nordic Noir and fiction as a whole.

My thanks, as always, to Karen at Orenda Books for my copy of Mirror Image and for all the work she’s done in championing these books in English, my bookshelf would be a poorer place without them.

Spinning Newer Things

/ Tony / 3 Comments

It’s been a while… but I thought it about time to throw up / down / about some of those new sounds I’ve been loving lately in between binging on classic Springsteen (I mean The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle has got to have finest Side B out there).

Explosions In The Sky – Ten Billion People

PHEW! After announcing ‘The End Tour’ and pulling all other content from their social feeds back in April, Explosions In The Sky triggered months of speculation as to whether such a name referred to the band calling it a day or a new album. It’s the latter, thankfully, and its announcement came with the release of their first new non-soundtrack music in seven years, ‘Ten Billion People’.

Slowdive – Skin In The Game

You wait years for a favourite band to announce a new album and then two come along at once. Slowdive announced their upcoming new Everything Is Alive back in June with new single ‘Kisses’ and have now dropped ‘Skin In The Game’ too as… well, I guess they’re not really pre-release ‘singles’ anymore just ‘tracks’ which seems somewhat cack but this a gorgeous slab of that warm wash of shoegaze loveliness Slowdive have perfected.

Sigur Ros – Gold

OK: make that three new albums from favourite bands! 2023 is shaping up very nicely – all it needs now is for Springsteen to drop a new non-karaoke album. In one of my Monday post-rock posts I dropped a Sigur Rós track and was about to make a snarky comment about how they’d promised a new album in June and yet… then the cheeky little scamps dropped a new album like *that*. Átta appeared online in mid June (physical copies will follow) and has been in my ears many a time since, it’s another gear change from Kveikur, moving away from that album’s aggressive brooding to a more rich, almost ambient slice of beautiful calm.

Picture Parlour – Norwegian Wood

I heard this on the radio a little while ago. On paper (or screen) I’d describe it as Cyndi Lauper impersonating Poison-era Alice Cooper against a string-rich backdrop akin to ‘Design For Life’ with a pretty solid guitar that eventually bursts out into a solo. Which doesn’t really sound like a good combo but yet it really works for me. I think they’re from Liverpool. This is the only thing they’ve released thus far but I’m ready for more.

The Mysterines – Begin Again

Their album Reeling was only released in 2022 but The Mysterines are already releasing new music – guess you need to keep momentum going in the days of streaming – and ‘Begin Again’ is a a slow builder that does the job nicely. The acoustic strum makes me think of an early Placebo rhythm.

Blondshell – Salad

Blondshell’s self-titled debuts is one of my favourites of the year so far and Salad is a belter.

Post-Rock Mondays: At The Movies

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It’s Monday again and I’m working from home and using a post-rock salve on the punch in the plums that first alarm beep of the week brings.

I’ve also got another take on defining a genre that – having grown so wide and varied – is as full of contradictions of such attempts as is examples: “[post-rock bands] rejected the traditional song structure of rock music, based on chorus and verses, guitar solos, and energised mood, for a more introspective, unconventional structure defined by broader sonic experimentation. In post-rock, subtle suggestions and atmospheres reign free, shaped in the form of the influences that define the band’s background.”

So far, so much chin-stroking.

A side-effect of the ‘typical’ post-rock track – starting quietly, building atmospheres and rising to crescendos – is that such tunes offer a great option for film makers. Think of your traditional classical score, a usually string-heavy arrangement that builds mood and tension, aims for emotional soft spots and can emerge from the background to reach a dramatic conclusion. Post-rock has provided just such a guitar-driven take in many a film….

This Will Destroy You – The Mighty Rio Grande

2011’s ‘Moneyball’ is – for someone who knows nothing about baseball – a surprisingly compelling film anchored by both its actors’ performances and some great pacing, helped along at one point by This Will Destroy You and a tune that also featured in films ‘Earth to Echo’ (never heard of it either) and ‘Lone Survivor’ in which Marky Mark Wahlberg leads the Funky Bunch on a treacherous hike across Afghanistan to a mostly post-rock soundtrack dominated by Explosions In The Sky.

Sigur Ros – Hoppípolla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTb8WxEW78

One of those post-rock tunes probably heard more than any other as its stirring and euphoric arrangement has graced screens for a huge range of films and documentaries from the BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’ to the serious, myth-busting ‘Eurovision: Song of Ice and Fire’ and that slasher flick about the time Matt Damon bought a zoo.

Mogwai – Autorock

Mogwai have created many a great soundtrack themselves – from the deliciously atmospheric Atomic, to scoring Les Revenants and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait – eight soundtrack albums, in fact, stacked up against their ten studio albums ‘proper’. Using a soundtrack example seems a bit of an easy push though so I’m going with ‘Autorock’ from their fitth album Mr Beast as used in the Michael Mann take on ‘Miami Vice’

Now I’m gonna call an audible and pivot for two takes on post-rock using movies as I do love a good sample in a tune…

Explosions In The Sky – Have You Passed Through This Night

65daysofstatic – Retreat! Retreat!

Springsteen on Saturdays: A Long Chat

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Ah alliteration, an alluring arrow to ideas…. as I typically only listen to Springsteen on days ending in ‘y’ the start of the weekend usually finds me enjoying a little Boss Time.

There’s a good couple of articles about Springsteen in this month’s Uncut magazine – one dealing with the events of 1973, the other following Bruce across a few stops on his current Bargain Prices Tour. One thing that struck out is that – especially given that the article must have been ok’d for publication from Springsteen’s camp – is that there’s once again mention of the recently touted ‘album-focused’ archival set: Bruce is hinting that he’s got a few unreleased albums in the vaults from the ’90s and that it’s time for a re-evaluation of a period usually considered one of his less prolific.

There are a couple of things to consider here. The first is ‘peak’ Bruce’s prolificacy – Steven Van Zandt’s comment that Springsteen always ‘had half an album’s’ worth of material ready to go was an understatement: as recent archival releases of Darkness…, The River and an examination of the variations Born In The USA went through show it was more a case that for every album he was releasing he’d written at least three times as many as saw the light of day. The vaults have been kept pretty tight since Tunnel of Love but it’s looking now like this continued for some time. The second is that, when Bruce was uncertain he’d second-guess himself – it’s why one of the anticipated elements of the ‘album-based’ project is the ‘lost’ ’90s album he recorded using programmed beats akin to ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ that’s been gathering dust in the vault due to the lukewarm reaction his previous albums had received.

Back in 2013 Bruce pointed out: “there’s a record that we recorded, mixed and didn’t put out. Bob Clearmountain mixed it, spent a lot of time on it… didn’t put it out. That was, like, ’94. And it still intrigues me. I still go back to it. There are still things on it that I really like, and I may go back to sort of say, ‘Okay, well, why…?’ Sometimes it’s timing, you know. There was a particular reason that I didn’t put out that group of music. Sometimes the timing just doesn’t feel right for that kind of record.”

By all accounts – and there were references to it in the ‘Blood Brothers’ vid that documented the awkward E-Street Band reunion Bruce, opted for the Greatest Hits album instead of releasing it – the album dealt once again with relationships between men and women. It would be his fourth such release in a row and the consensus was maybe that would be just one too many. ‘Secret Garden’ was one of those songs that was repurposed as a band song and ‘Missing’ sneaked out on the soundtrack to Sean Penn’s ‘The Crossing Guard’

Also on that list of songs originally recorded early in the ’90s was a take on The Rising‘s ‘Nothing Man’ and a song called ‘Burnin’ Train’ which arrived on 2020’s outstanding Letter To You in a much more E Street punched up form.

Looking at the lyrics – “I wanted you to heal me but instead you set me on fire” – it wouldn’t be hard to see them attached to a moodier, synth-heavy tune from that era and, as Tracks‘ ‘Leavin’ Train’ and ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ from later that decade point out, Bruce was swinging those train metaphors around in the ’90s with the same heft he once swung ‘fuelie heads’ about. Similar lyrics grace ‘Waiting On The End of the World’ (not a Sunny Day)

While Bruce would pull this one out for a try with the band in ’95 those “For one deadly love like a disease, I came to you crawling on my knees” put this in the same ‘must be from the lost album songs’ pile for me. The fact that he couldn’t get a take he was happy with with the band enough to release to me suggests that – much like Nebraska – these were songs that didn’t always work with the full band. 

Anyway, my digging around for more on Springsteen’s ’90s output meant I discovered the famous ‘Molly Meldrum’ interview was available in full. Back in ’95 Springsteen was doing the press rounds for Greatest Hits: Bruce sits in a studio and a cast of interviewers get their 15mins to ask the usual pre-cleared questions, get the standard answers, a wry throaty chuckle and out they go before the next. You know the drill. Turns out Australia’s Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum wanted more. In fact he took a swing in an effort to get an exclusive for his ’90 Minutes’ show by throwing in a wildcard at the end of his interview and just kept going.

Meldrum is clearly a fan and has plenty of knowledge – including the cut verse from ‘Glory Days’ about Springsteen Sr. – and the fact that he’s asking unique and insightful questions means Bruce is intrigued enough, and often on the back foot, to keep going even though his management team were gesturing at him to stop whenever he cast a glance their way.

So we get an unexpectedly interesting interview instead of the usual stage-managed Q&A. Meldrum wasn’t actually allowed to use anything but his original 15min of footage – Springsteen’s team were apparently furious even if the Boss seemed pretty obliging about it all. Thankfully it was 25 years or so ago so you can now see the whole thing on YouTube which, if you have the time to sit back and enjoy 90 mins of cracking interview (I know, that’s like 100 tiktoks long) I heartily recommend. Though I appear to unable to embed the thing so you’ll have to pop it open from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnWrBbt8h4k&t=768s

Walk in circles back to square one: Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

/ Tony / 3 Comments

You’ve probably seen / read / heard a chunk about this album already and with due cause. As it’s an album that I’ve spun close to daily since release – which is quite a rarity – I thought I’d add my take on the new Foo Fighters album But Here We Are.

This is a bittersweet album in many ways fuelled, as it is, by the passing of Taylor Hawkins and the non-announced passing of Dave Grohl’s mother a few months later. While grief and how we process it is a personal thing, given that the first Foo Fighters album – performed almost entirely by Grohl himself – was recorded as a way to recover from Kurt Cobain’s suicide it’s no surprise that But Here We Are is the sound of Dave Grohl processing two major life changes in one. The real surprise, though, is not just that it’s good but that it’s up there with the finest of their career.

Across their preceding career spanning over twenty five years, the Foo Fighters had dropped ten studio albums. Two of those – The Colour and The Shape and Wasting Light are close to unimpeachable. Their last few studio efforts had veered close to ‘commitment’ level releases to provide reason to venture out on another stadium-filling tour across the globe: Sonic Highways was completely ignored on their recent Essential… and while Concrete and Gold felt like a strong return, it didn’t hold up as well longer term and their 2021 ‘dance’ inspired album Medicine At Midnight felt like a slight deviation on ticking along. But Here We Are, though, manages to combine the musical diversity of The Colour and The Shape and, particularly, There Is Nothing Left To Lose with the force and tightness of Wasting Light musically and pair that with Grohl’s most direct and affectingly raw lyrics to date.

Hawkins’ passing left a vacant drum stool in the Foo Fighters. When they announced that they would be continuing as a band there was a ridiculous amount of speculation who’d be filling it. The answer, essentially, is nobody. While Josh Freese sits behind the kit on tour, this is the first album since The Colour and the Shape that features Dave Grohl’s drumming power throughout and on album standout, the ten minute belter ‘The Teacher’ (a nod Grohl’s mother) he fucking gallops along on the beat while the song moves through charged lyrics “you showed me how to breathe, never showed me how to say goodbye… try and make good with the time that’s left, counting every minute living breath by breath” before building to a wall of noise amidst a cathartic, screamed “Goodbye!” It gets to be real goose-bump stuff for me.

Yes, from opener ‘Rescued’ and its “It came in a flash, It came out of nowhere” to closer ‘Rest’ and “rest, you will be safe now” everything in between deals with the passing of those dear to us but Dave Grohl of 2023 paints in Wembley Stadium sized colours and turns it into a mass healing ritual across these ten tracks. Judging by the few shows they have under their belt since the album’s release this transfers live too as fans find solace in the process too. In anyone else’s hands a whole album dealing with this matter would be a massive downer, man, but the Foos have created an album that’s more interesting and powerful musically than anything they’ve done in the last two decades (less straight-ahead than Wasting Light).

That’s not to say they don’t still bring the power when they want to: ‘Nothing At All’ is ferocious, opener ‘Rescued’ is show-opening ready and ‘The Teacher’ thumps hard.

This is, in many ways, an album nobody wanted the Foo Fighters to have made but I’m bloody glad they did. Not only is it a fitting and powerful coming to terms with loss but it shows that they have a lot more in the tank than I thought they had and that, eleven albums in, they’re still willing to push beyond comfort zones. Essential for Foo Fighters fans, definitely worthy of investigation by the curious and likely to count as one of their best for a long time to come.

More Mondays = Post-Rock

/ Tony / 4 Comments

It’s been hotter than a bathroom used to stash boxes of top secret documents here this weekend and while today is a little cooler, the kick in the pills that is Monday is made a little more of a groaner thanks to reduced sleep.

So to ease into the week I’m soundtracking my day of working from home with some glorious slabs of post-rock.

Once again, here’s another borrowed attempt at defining the genre which you can enjoy / disregard / discredit as a witch-hunt as you see fit: “Post-rock is a style of rock music that foregoes common tropes like blues-based riffing, verse-chorus-verse song structure, flashy guitar solos, and storytelling lyrics. The typical post-rock song or post-rock album tends to feature unconventional song structure, extended instrumental passages, oblique lyrics, and influences outside of blues or classic rock.”

Here’s today’s selection:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Mladic

Some mornings you take a mellow, Kenyan coffee and savour it as the day begins. Some mornings you need to turn the espresso machine on and get a hard hit. Some mornings you can start with the melodic, some mornings you need the equivalent of Vulgar Display of Power‘s cover. Those mornings are what Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s ‘Mladic’ is for. Their 2012 comeback album (following a near-ten year hiatus ) Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is still one of my favourite albums full stop and ‘Mladic’ is just a real moment of ‘fuck this is good’ – from the sampled vocals, the middle-eastern vibe of the violin, the distorted drone-like thump and build of guitars and bass, the rise and falls, the dissonance and churning guitars and grungy power of it before breaking into an orchestral sweep still has me hooked throughout its twenty minute run time. Godspeed were one of the early pioneers of the genre and they still provide a benchmark.

Sigur Rós – Svefn-g-englar

Need a palette cleanser after that? How about something of ethereal beauty and one of the greatest tunes the genre has to offer? Pretty bold words, I know, but just as Godspeed represent one of the early trail-blazers of the genre’s heavier side, Iceland’s Sigur Rós lead the way on the melodic front and this, from their 1999 masterpiece Ágætis byrjun has been referred to as “a song of such accomplished gorgeousness that one wonders why such a tiny country as Iceland can musically outperform entire continents in just a few short minutes.”

We Lost The Sea – A Gallant Gentleman

Going for something a little more recent, We Lost The Sea hail from Sydney, Australia. That place with the bridge that Paul Hogan used to paint before arguing the merits of knives. In 2013 they lost their vocalist to suicide and the subsequent Departure Songs is a moving, soaring album of music inspired by ‘failed, yet epic and honourable individual journeys or events throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, and the progress of the human race itself’ – including ‘A Gallant Gentleman’ which makes use of a  girls school choir,’ Challenger Pt1 – Flight’ and ‘Challenger Pt2 – Swan Song’ – which has become a modern post-rock staple and is a thoroughly beautiful thing.

Lost In Kiev – Psyche

Over to France for Paris’ Lost In Kiev – I loved their second album Nuit Noire but took a little longer to warm to their next, 2019’s Persona which was daft really as it’s bloody good stuff. Adding more texture to their sound but still retaining their driving, heavy charge and love for spoken-word interludes, this time with more of a sci-fi bent than its predecessor with words that, as they put it ‘raise the question of the human nature through the artificial intelligence mask’. Post-Rock can get a little like that sometimes.

Someday our ocean will find its shore… Five from Nick Drake

/ Tony / 6 Comments

My Morning Jacket blew my head, and eardrums, off on Tuesday night. My wife and I hoped on the chuffer and caught the opening night of their UK / EU tour in the achingly glamorous Kentish Town. Two plus hours of intense and magical power (including a twenty minute ‘Dondante’) means I’ve been leaning toward a calmer soundtrack and indulging in the quiet majesty of Nick Drake’s all-too brief discography the last couple of days.

Nick Drake died at just 26. His mother, Molly, was a poet and folk musician and Nick’s love of music developed at a young age. A quiet child he was nonetheless confident and soon learnt the piano, saxophone and clarinet while his other studies suffered as a result of his love of music (how many musician’s biographies have that in similar?). He spent a chunk of time in France – studying in Provence – while pursuing both developing his guitar and smoking pot. Hey, it was the sixties after all.

When he returned to the UK he enrolled at Cambridge and was quickly got into the burgeoning folk scene, playing shows in London and Cambridge. He was signed to Island Records when he was 20 and recorded three albums Five Leaves Left (1969), Bryter Later (1971) and Pink Moon (1972). Lukewarm (at best) reception and poor sales – not assisted by his increasing reluctance to perform live. A troubled soul, his depression worsening, Drake returned to his parents house in 1974 where he died on November night following an overdose of an anti-depressant.

Years later with musicians such as Robert Smith, Peter Buck, Kate Bush and even The Black Crowes citing him as an influence, Nick Drake’s catalogue started to receive the praise and attention it so deserved. I think it appeared in a Volkswagen commercial Stateside. I think it was the late ’90s while at Uni I picked up Five Leaves Left and then very quickly thereafter his two other albums so, here, in no particular order or merit, are five of my favourite Nick Drake songs to lend a quietly majestic soundtrack to the day.

Time Has Told Me (from Five Leaves Left)

The Thoughts Of Mary Jane (from Five Leaves Left)

One of These Things First (from Bryter Later)

Things Behind The Sun (from Pink Moon)

Rider On the Wheel (from Made to Love Magic)

Mondays = Post Rock

/ Tony / 16 Comments

For the last couple of years Monday has been a locked-in work from home day for me. Aside from resolving a child care issue it also helps the start of the working week feel a little less of a kick in the nads.

It also means that along with access to good coffee, I have the opportunity to indulge in a post-rock soundtrack for my working day without the usual (‘it’s been ten minutes, how is this the same song?’ or ‘has it even started yet?’) commentary or need to stick headphones on.

For the uninitiated, the term itself came from a discussion of Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis – both bands that helped shape the genre from an early point. I’ll borrow from a couple of definitions here to explain it (dancing about architecture springs to mind at this point) as a “form of experimental rock characterised by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs” performed by a group of musicians leaning on the traditional ‘rock’ instruments / lineup: two guitars, a bass, drums, keys etc and, occasionally, vocals but applied to “nontraditional rhythms, melodies, and chord progressions.”

There’s a lot of beard-stroking.

Of the many things I love about it is the sheer scope and variety found within what can so easily be perceived as a narrow genre (with offshoots into math-rock, post-metal) and the universality of it – as occasionally pointed at in my Out of Europe series.

Anyway, without going too deep into a history or explanation of, I thought this a good moment to drop some of what I’ve been enjoying today:

Mogwai – The Sun Smells Too Loud

Mogwai, from Glasgow Scotland, are one of the titans of the genre. They got in early in ’97 and have been consistently belting out great albums (and soundtracks) since. The Hawk Is Howling is one of my favourite Mogwai albums – it’s their sixth – and recently added to my record shelves completing their discography on wax.

Explosions In The Sky – Logic of a Dream

Texans EITS are another pillar of the genre who have currently got their fans in a bit of worry: having ditched all other content on their social channels and announcing ‘The End’ Tour without any explanation as to what ‘The End’ is – curtains for the band or new album? We all hope for the latter – it’s been some time since The Wilderness – but touring and making money from music is becoming increasingly hard if your name isn’t Taylor Swift these days.

Pray for Sound – Julia

A band familiar to at least one reader – ‘Julia’ and Waves hits all the right spots.

Astodan – Sagdid

Astodan hail from Belgium. They’ve added a vocalist to their lineup recently but I’ve yet to check that out as I’m still stuck spinning their 2018 album Ameretat – few bands manage that dynamic of melodic, piano-driven calm to pulverising FUCK YES and back as brilliantly as they do across the album (or even one five minute song).

Thursday now, that’s such a crazy, lazy day…. current spins

/ Tony / 13 Comments

A whole month between posts…. this is getting pretty sporadic to say the best.

Thursday is a pretty good day really – the weekend is just a nad hair away and it’s time to load up on caffeine and hit up Mr Fyfe’s weekly quiz. It also feels like a good moment to cast an eye / ear over what I’ve been enjoying of late.

Pearl Jam – In My Tree (Live at Melbourne Park)

Record Store Day this year was a bit of a non-starter for me. I spent a couple of weeks of this last month barely able to walk thanks to severe knee pain – caused by what turned out to be something called a Baker’s Cyst* – so the notion of getting up at a dirty time of the morning and standing for hours was ruled out. Thankfully the one thing I had my eye on wasn’t this year’s big draw – seems like Pearl Jam aren’t as popular with RSD crowds as Taylor Swift or The 1975 – and I was able to wander down at a much more human time of 11am and find plenty of them left.

Give Way – the sign used in place of Yield in most places outside of the States especially Australia – is a live album that’s long been sought after. It was originally prepped for CD release as a freebie for early purchases of their ‘Single Video Theory’ but minds were changed at the last minute and 55,000 copies were ordered destroyed. Some escaped the cull and became massively valuable. Twenty five years later as part of Yield‘s anniversary (one of their finest and ranked fourth in my list way back when) and the concert – recorded March 5th in Melbourne Park – was unleashed for RSD.

A live Pearl Jam album is always worth wrapping your ears around and this one is another brilliant addition to their already strong selection – it’s a real showcase for Jack Irons’ drumming and the vibe his looser drumming style bought to the band. Sadly the run in Australia would be Jack’s last as he was battling a lot of mental health issues behind the scenes and would soon announce his decision to part ways with the band following the tour – he’d be replaced on the Yield tour by Matt Cameron, documented on Live on Two Legs.

Paul Westerberg – Mannequin Shop

My son is building up a Spotify list of his ‘favourites’ – though this is more any song that takes his fancy. We recently caught ‘Waiting for Somebody’ in the car and it made me dig out Westerberg’s 14 Songs for a spin – it’s still a solid listen but it’s the delightful take on the plastic surgery of the early ’90s that has been stuck in my head since. Much in the same way as I wonder how the writer of ‘Answering Machine’ would feel about today’s lack of real communication I’d have to wonder how Mr Westerberg would feel about the state of enhanced vanity in 2023. Unfortunately though, Paul seems to have gone to ground again.

Adé – Insomnies

I popped over the channel again this weekend past for a couple of days and have been keeping an ear to RTL2 since both to assist with the language learning and the variety of music – it seems hard to find a station here that plays as genuine a variety (though their obsession with Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran gets annoying) . Last summer I heard Adé’s ‘Tout Savoir’ a lot and, this trip, it seems that her song ‘Insomnies’ is the current radio player and another I’ve been enjoying.

Daughter – Be On Your Way

Daughter’s new album Stereo Mind Game is bloody good. Gorgeous sounds and arrangements with Elena Tonra’s vocals breathing through an album of lush shoegaze / moody indie-rock vibe.

Slowdive – When the Sun Hits

Speaking of lush shoegaze… I picked up Slowdive’s Souvlaki recently and have spent many a glorious spin lost in the warm blanket of sound it generates.

Silver Moth – The Eternal

One of those albums I hit pre-order on as soon as it was announced – Silver Moth are a band formed out of a few online conversations during the pandemic. Only members Stuart Braithwiate (of Mogwai) and his wife Elizabeth Elektra had met before they hit the studio on a remote Scottish island and recorded Black Bay in just eight days. It’s a bloody strong album – a multilayered beast of slow-burning yet immediate songs that combine its members’ shoegaze** and post-rock dynamics with two vocalists who’s vocals find a place between Kate Bush and Elizabeth Fraser.

Faith No More – Epic

Another one of those ‘hey, if you like this one, check this out’ conversations with the cub after picking up a 7″ of ‘Easy / Be Aggressive’ recently. There’s very little like this and it remains a fucking awesome tune some (gulp) thirty four years later.

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood

Texas Flood is forty years old this year, which is as little a reason as I need to have been giving this one some attention.

*whether this is something first experience by a chap called Baker or those spend their time kneading dough develop the issue I don’t know.

**third and final mention.

Out of Europe: Five From Italy

/ Tony / 3 Comments

I haven’t revisited this series for a while. Last I dipped into this theme was 2021, in fact. Thankfully I’ve since been able to return to the continent and am already booked up to do so again this summer.

The stupidity and complete cuntwomblery that is / was Brexit has made it a little tricker – bit more faff at borders – but there is hope that this will soon change as the reality of just what a fucking twat of an idea it was becomes clear and the costs of that blue passport* become clearer cause climb down after climb down…. I’ll stop before this becomes too political again. Where was I? Oh, yes, with Italy on the cards again this summer this felt like a good opportunity to pull this one out of ‘drafts,’ blow off the proverbial dust, finesse and let it loose.

Italy is one of those countries I’d longed to see and doing so in 2011 was a fantastic experience. We’ll be going back this summer and getting to show the cub some of the wonderful things the country has to offer is something that fills me with immense joy. When it comes to culture and, particularly music, Italy is a touchstone and has given so much to us.

But, if this blog doesn’t touch on the expected classical (though Vivaldi is responsible for some of my favourite pieces), discuss opera or, as sure as the Pope wears a ridiculous hat and heads a shameful organisation, won’t add a Måneskin video – what has my digging into music from the footwear-shaped country yielded?

Red Light Skyscraper – 4AM

Let’s get things started with a little post-rock – because it’s usually my way ‘in’ to a country’s music lately. One of the joys of a mostly-instrumental genre is its universality and yet there are differences to be found in the genre from country to country as well as region to region in some instances. Red Light Skyscraper (yes, a very post-rock band name) hail from Siena and lean to a more modern (concise tunes vs, say, GSYBE!’s 20 min epics) and propulsive element, with a few choice samples here and there and some solid driving beats. ‘4AM’ (I’m a sucker for a song with a time in the title) kicks pretty fucking hard once it gets going.

Ennio Morricone – Gabriel’s Oboe

When it comes to film score composers Ennio Morricone, born in Rome in 1928, was one of the very best. Not as grand in sound as John Williams, say, but nobody could create a score as evocative or moving as Ennio Morricone – whether it’s the famous stand-off in ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ or the sheer emotional heft that lived in the swell of strings throughout the score from’Once Upon A Time In America.’ For me, though, very little beats ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’.

Massimo Volume – Le nostre ore contate

These guys have been at it since 1991, save for a temporary break between 2002 – 2008. Their vocalist has a sort of poetic, spoken-word approach to vocals (Italian sounding like one of the more poetic European languages vs, say, German) against a guitar and drum-driven instrumental backdrop that’s almost like post-rock in its build ups, rhythms and structure. All bloody good things and right up my alley.

Baustelle – Charlie fa surf

Now this one I’ve really been enjoying – it’s got a brilliantly upbeat, bounce to it, I really dig the vocal harmonies and it gets bonus points for, in what seems like a made-for-radio tune, including “andate a farvi fottere” (go fuck yourself). It’s always good to learn the important phrases when trying a new language.

Hailing from the Tuscan town of Montepulciano, Baustelle describe themselves as having an “extremely peculiar blend of Italian pop tradition, British pop (Pulp, the Smiths), and French chanson… mixed with 1960s naivety and 1980s imagery.”

Manuel Agnelli – La Profondità Degli Abissi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJU7Lrai8fw

From what I’ve read there were a few big rock bands to come out of Italy during the ’90s. One of them was a group called Afterhours and this is a solo song from their singer Manuel Agnelli. ‘La Profondità Degli Abissi’ (the depth of the abyss) packs a lot into its three minutes and, even though I haven’t a clue what he’s singing about, it’s an all-out bonkers-yet-brilliant cracker and I really dig the way his vocals build up and soar off with strings.

*I had to update my passport on return from France last year and reluctantly traded in my ‘EU’ passport for the dark blue one but take great amusement from the fact that, inside, it bears greater resemblance to the EU ID cards than anything ever before