Category: music

WLP

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I’m not putting this on here for the reasons you might already be thinking of. I did hear it on the radio yesterday, and that was definitely for those reasons, but I’m steering clear of all that stuff on here (at least for the moment).

It is a great song – one of my favourites by REM – and deserves to be highlighted, regardless of the current global political machinations.

And this is albeit that the band themselves volunteered it as an anti-Trump song last year in yet another move which didn’t destroy him.

This is a longer live version, complete with a really young Michael Stipe (hey, it was filmed in 1989!), plenty of stick and chair action and a cinematic video. It takes a while to get going.

Be patient. Trust me.

Magnificent (she says)

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Actually, Magnificent (I say). The first track from Elbow’s forthcoming new album has Guy Garvey’s soothing, uncomplicated voice running over a backdrop of dramatic strings and comes packaged with a suitably triumphant video:

It’s my new favourite tune, with thought provoking lyrics reminding us the powerful innocence and promise of childhood:

And there she stands
Throwing both her arms around the world
The world that doesn’t even know
How much it needs this little girl

It’s all gonna be magnificent, she says
It’s all gonna be magnificent…

and brings with it huge anticipation for the new album Little Frictions, due for release in early February.

Gorgeous.

Shoegazing is back

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Is shoegaze back? I was an unashamed shoegazer in my former existence. One of the laziest forms of indie music, shoegaze fitted perfectly with the laziest (ha!) few years of my life at University. Think My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Ride, Gene, Slowdive, Pale Saints, The Boo Radleys.

Oh wow.

And now, think Toy, whose third album, Clear Shot has given us the wonderful Another Dimension:

I could listen to this all day. In fact, since I bought the album, I can, and I probably will. Playing shoegaze in a lab is fraught with inherent danger (floppy hair in the Bunsen burner being the greatest hazard), so I’ll likely have to leave the full experience to some other time, but considering that this is a brand new track, I find myself amazed that the memories it is kicking up seem almost tangible.

Rolling Stone

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Lying in the cool of the cottage, the sun beating down outside, the turquoise blue of the ocean out of the window, and this playing on my 1995 JVC hi-fi:

The perfect soundtrack. This morning’s spring tide gave us some remarkable rockpooling opportunities, but with a few days more here before we can back to the hullabaloo of city life, there’s no reason to rush to get anything much done. And so, the lazing and the music continue.

Nearly forgot (twice)

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One of those days where time just slips by so easily. Visitors, an afternoon chilling in the sun before an evening braai. It’s all good, until you remember that you need to write a blog post.

I hadn’t quite forgotten, honestly. In fact, I was just settling down in front of the fire, under impractical, romantic lantern light, with my first brandy this week (I haven’t been 100%) to pop some words onto the site when the huge beetle hit the back of my neck. And in the shock of that, I did almost forget that you readers deserve some verbiage.

So this is it. I’m sitting in front of a cosy, if now slightly past it, braai fire, the sounds of the South Atlantic and a-ha’s 2010 concert in Oslo vying for my aural attention, and yes, that glass of brandy in my hand, and yes, that beetle on the back of my neck.

I’ll be honest: it’s not a bad situation.

Apart from the beetle, obviously.