Saturday 25 July 2009

Iz Prve Ruke


Clearly a massive fan of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, Tonics has a blog here that'll get anyone with similar tastes salivating.
Chock full of goodies, he's got a seemingly endless list of bootlegs from all of the above, along with other major players of the same ilk whilst also, on occasion, throwing in another sound from somewhere out of left field (The Exploited anybody?).
If you like your music primarily from the rock/folk stable and you want to find some high quality boots you haven't got, or if you just want a rummage to see what Tonics has thrown into the mix on a whim, check him out.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Weld (1991)



Forget "No Sleep Til Hammersmith"; dump "Live In Leeds"; shove your "Live & Dangerous". To these ears this is the best live rock album ever released.

From the opening bars of Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) to the closing of Roll Another Number (For The Road) Young and The Horse crunch through the numbers, predominantly from the "Rust Never Sleeps"/"Live Rust" albums but with additional Young classics such as Cortez The Killer and Cinnamon Girl as well as Young's treatment of Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind, all delivered with an intensity and sound that makes your hair stand on end.

Throughout you can almost feel the static in the air and the stupendous production and sound quality really make you feel like you're there. This is the ultimate electric guitar record.

Clocking in at a couple of hours it's a long listen but well worth it. Be blown away.

www.neilyoung.com

Sunday 5 July 2009

what i like (The House Of Fun)



JP likes, in (it seems) no particular order, ska, reggae, punk, balearic beats, dance music and skinhead girls.

What you'll like is the VAST collection of stuff he's got on his blog, stuff that covers all of the above and more.

There's loads of hard to find compilations on there, from that below to the Street Sounds hip-hop collections of the late 80s. Very much worth your while checking his site for an eclectic mix of tunes.

whatilike-jp.blogspot.com/20 Of Another Kind

V/A - 20 Of Another Kind (1979)



In 1979 I was 12. I'd had my first record player for my 11th birthday and my record collection was thinner than Victoria Beckham, consisting mostly of Blondie and Showaddywaddy (anyone under 40, look it up).

My cousin, John, was 4 years older and a punk and his records were a revelation to me. He introduced me to The Damned (see later post) but he also had this which, having taped it off him (again, kids, look up "tapes"), I played to death.

20 Of Another Kind became my punk primer and I went on to buy albums by every one of the bands on this album (with the exception of Belgian novelty act Plastic Bertrand - the horrors in that sentance "Belgian"+"novelty act"), informing my musical choices for the next 10 years at least.

I can categorically say that this is the album that got me into music and you need it. Trust me.

Tracklist:

Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi ; The Jam - In The City; The Skids - Sweet Suburbia; Otway And Barratt - Beware Of The Flowers; Sham 69 - Borstal Breakout; The Cure - Killing An Arab; Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device; The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes; Generation X - Ready Steady Go; 999 - Homicide; The Stranglers - No More Heroes; The Boys - The First Time; Patrik Fitzgerald - Irrelevant Battles; Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United; The Jolt - No Excuses; Otway And Barratt - Really Free; The Heartbreakers - Born Too Loose; 999 - Emergency; The Lurkers - I'm On Heat; The Jam - 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street.

P.S. Clearly home taping didn't kill music - nor will blogging.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showaddywaddy

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Bertrand