Get Off My Foot

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner If...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:41:54 +0000

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner

If these 2 don’t ring a bell, go to YouTube and type in ‘2000-Year-Old Man’. You can thank me later.

pictureplaces: punkrockbetty: gaypornandpopsongs: apinchofbell...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:38:01 +0000

punkrockbetty:

gaypornandpopsongs:

apinchofbelladona:

lacarpa:

Music icons illustration by Renato Cunha! Go get inspired here

These are amazing!

WOW

Adele, Amy, Gwen, and Lily… GIVE ME!!!!

these are great!

No doubt about it, these are very impressive.

dftsoys: Surreal, charming, non-religious ramble about...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:36:13 +0000

dftsoys:

Surreal, charming, non-religious ramble about insomnia, bumble bees and Anna Ford from Steve Race, before the Thames TV closedown in 1982. Uploaded by putthetellyon1.

Courtesy of DFTSOYS & Putthetellyon1, another reason why in-vision continuity is so sadly missed. And it’s a goodnight from Steve Race, Philip Elsmore & Barbra Streisand, and it’s a goodnight from me. Goodnight! xx

Hello to all seasonal fun-sharers. Despite my attempt at a...

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 23:57:21 +0000

Hello to all seasonal fun-sharers. Despite my attempt at a Hallowe’en-themed playlist being greeted with a response on a par with that of flatulence in an elevator, it hasn’t put me off attempting a similar endeavour with a collation of some of the best of the many Christmas records I’ve heard & bought over the last few years.

That should probably be clarified a little further; due in no small part to the much-missed presence of Mark Lamarr’s annual Radio 2 broadcasts on 25th December, I possess a collection of seasonal tunes that is as huge as it is pointless; honestly, the amount of music I have that is good for approximately a few weeks out of every year is downright embarrassing if viewed with any kind of critical acuity. But it doesn’t faze me - not a bit, and I love sharing it as much as I love hearing all the best stuff every year, as well as the occasional thrill of hearing the odd newie that’s worthy of addition to that particular slagheap.

As is probably obvious, I’ve purposely avoided the most ubiquitous culprits we all hear this time every year; not that life is not improved immeasurably by the likes of the Phil Spector Christmas Gift to You, Slade, Wizzard et al, but there’s a good deal more that’s lesser spotted for no reason other than people don’t often get the chance to hear it, so that’s my primary objective with this here selection.

So, it’s now up to you. If there’s any tune you feel is especially conspicuous by its absence, tell me via Facebook or Tumblr, or just add it to the list yourself, and I shall adjust, cut, shuffle etc, accordingly. (It of course needs such treatment at present, but that’s because I’ve yet to finalise it all. Hopefully by then it’ll be a nice round 100.)

So - happy listening, and don’t be a stranger! All the compliments of the season. :) x

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: John Belushi, Muddy Waters,...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 00:39:22 +0000

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

John Belushi, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter and Dan Aykroyd

Great show, man.

nick67: littlebootsblog: Lesson of the day Hey Adam, Spot the...

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:48:52 +0000

nick67:

littlebootsblog:

Lesson of the day

Hey Adam, Spot the influence ? I’m not even going to think about the new track names…

You know what, I don’t ‘spot the influence’? I’m just feeling the same way all the other commentators on here do about her being the world’s best teacher!

Hello there folks. As it’s the time of year for ghosts,...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Hello there folks. As it’s the time of year for ghosts, spooks and generally things that go bump in the night, I’m attempting to compile a playlist of suitably spine-shivering tunes to accompany any Hallowe’en-themed hi-jinks that may be forthcoming this Wednesday. And that’s where you come in - any suggestions you have to add to the 56 I’ve knocked together up ‘til now will be most gratefully received. Just send them in as comments on Facebook or Tumblr, or, if you’re feeling super-confident, just add them to the list straight away. Don’t worry too much about what’s here at the moment: I’m well aware it’s all a bit dishevelled and all over the place currently; once I’ve got all the suggestions in, I’ll shuffle it & programme it so that it all flows as well as such endeavours should. Thank you, all children of the night! Oh, and by the way - for anyone without Spotify, I’ll try & do a YouTube equivalent at some point over the next few days, alright? As you were.

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: Gene Kelly and Fred...

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 02:09:34 +0100

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire

Just to prove that these guys really *could* dance on air…

electraheart: ♡ I C A N N E V E R G O H O M E A N Y M O...

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 07:03:38 +0100

electraheart:

♡ I C A N N E V E R G O H O M E A N Y M O R E ♡

Now I thought highly of her anyway (though the new album is rumoured to be something of a curate’s egg - I’ve not heard it yet), but this has shot my respect for her into the stratosphere. Plus it gives me the opportunity to shove a video at you. I swear to you, if you’ve not heard this song before, then steady yourselves. Click the photo…

Pop music sadder than it used to be? A new study says yes. - Slate

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:36:16 +0100

Pop music sadder than it used to be? A new study says yes. - Slate:

Another interesting pop-related piece. Anyone with any thoughts, express them as you so wish.

Little Boots has a new single out but we’re not sure if it’s a ‘proper’ single or just a song that’s knocking around - Popjustice

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:47:18 +0100

Little Boots has a new single out but we’re not sure if it’s a ‘proper’ single or just a song that’s knocking around - Popjustice:

Some interesting stuff here, in among the usual gaggery. Does anyone in these parts have any thoughts about where Hesketh’s stuff will be positioned in the marketplace, or is this merely overly pseudy media nonsense that should be ignored in favour of how good the music is? Do tell.

Clouds from the Black Mirror This may be of interest to anyone...

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 04:04:23 +0100

Clouds from the Black Mirror

This may be of interest to anyone who, like me, loves using YouTube to look at the changing faces of television presentation in the UK.

Commercial TV in the 1980s - from whence these clips derive - was divided across 16 regional stations in the UK, all operating under the ITV banner overall, and all taking in programmes from across the country, with a core of those based in London, whose franchises were Thames from Monday to Thursday, and London Weekend Television from… well, you work it out.

My local was HTV Wales, the Welsh branch of Harlech Television, started in 1968 (there was also an HTV West, covering Bristol and the immediate Welsh borderlands).

The main thing you’ll notice if all this is new to you is what, to me, was the key to the whole broadcast structure in those days, and that is: the human face of the continuity announcer, a now sadly-missed element to the delivery of television programmes in the digital era. Having a human being in a tiny Presentation Studio, cueing up the day’s viewing for you while maintaining an air of friendly enigmatism, really did add to the whole experience, as did the plus of a bit of home-stamped regional identity (you can trust us - we’re local!).

So, then, a short peal of the bits & pieces that came in-between the shows, together with a few snippets of the shows themselves. The clips come from 1981, 85 & 88, and your announcers are, in order: Margaret Pritchard, dealing womanfully with a breakdown in transmission, Dilwyn Young Jones, struggling with a time-check, Terry Dyddgen-Jones (who apparently went on to produce Coronation Street for a time), showing off his bi-lingual skills (important in Wales, let’s not forget), and lastly the never-less-than-smooth Arfon Haines Davies.

Your ITN newsreaders were Alastair Burnett & Carol Barnes. Oh, and by the way: that music that accompanies the 2nd bulletin really was the theme to the early-evening bulletin for a few years. Andrew Marshall & David Renwick once wrote some exquisite parody lyrics to it, but were barred from using them on their classic Radio 4 series, The Burkiss Way.

Yes it's Number Ones!

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 02:21:24 +0100

Yes it's Number Ones!:

So that I don’t have nothing to do of a Saturday night, here for your entertainment, delectation & approval is a response to a Guardian piece from this Friday, examining 53 of the best, most representative & most-loved records to chart at No. 1 in the UK Singles listings.

This one I’ve slapped together is a bit broader, taking in chart stats from the earliest US sources available (see here for fuller details of such things), and is an attempt to reflect on the records that proved to be most popular in a given market at a given time.

Of the tunes, the first 2 predate any official chart, but seem to have outsold the competition around in their respective periods (sheet music sales tended to be easier to track then, but again, see the above link for further explanations), no. 3 topped Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues charts in 1948, and indicates what would soon begin to seep into pop generally, 4 demonstrates 5 billion different things that would affect the music industry as a whole, and sold more than a few million copies into the bargain, 5 & 8 were Billboard Country No. 1s, but are just as much pop records as they are anything else, 6 topped black & white charts in the States without affecting record-buyers in this country too much (at least, not until 1987, after it had been featured in a commercial, and thus managed to make it to No. 2), 7 made the top of most charts internationally, as it surely would have done had it been produced in 1935, 95 or 2015, 9… well, 9 doesn’t exactly fit much of the rest of this pattern, but when dance records score big, they score very big (viz, the Charleston, the Twist, Disco Inferno, Put a Donk on It, etc), and 10 was the first song to top the British charts on digital download sales alone. It remained at No. 1 for 9 weeks.

I’m not gonna attempt any kind of psycho-social analysis of global mindsets on the basis of these; what I do find interesting, seeing and hearing these songs again, is how the general process as regards the writing & performing doesn’t seem to have changed all that much. Sure, there are big technological factors coming into play every now & then, but the mixture we as industrial Westerners have come to love is as pretty well-defined now as it was more than a century ago. You’ve got ballads, you’ve got dance songs, you’ve got sad, you’ve got happy, you’ve got fast, you’ve got slow, and just about any other points in the spectrum in-between.

Anywho, enjoy, and as always, the choice is yours: either listen to them all in one go, or have a click on each one individually below.

Paul Whiteman Orch: Whispering, 1920

Bing Crosby: The Shadow Waltz, 1933

Amos Milburn: Chicken Shack Boogie, 1948

Les Paul & Mary Ford: How High the Moon, 1951

Don Gibson: Oh Lonesome Me, 1958

Percy Sledge: When a Man Loves a Woman, 1966

The 4 Seasons: December 1963 (Oh What a Night), 1975

Rosanne Cash: I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me, 1985

The Prodigy: Firestarter, 1996

Gnarls Barkley: Crazy, 2006

A Fistful of Nuggets

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 03:26:28 +0100

A Fistful of Nuggets:

Seeing as it’s been rather a long time since the last YouTube-playlist-y piece on here, what better excuse could I have than to celebrate an anniversary; in this case, 40 years since the original release, by Elektra, of the double-album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-68.

Compiled and annotated by then-rock critic and later Patti Smith Group bassist & collaborator Lenny Kaye, the album contained 27 examples of records that, though at the time recent, had been more-or-less completely forgotten about, or still more ignored, by most rock & pop fans. The styles & sounds contained within the grooves can & have been described in many ways: punk rock, primitive fuzz, folk-rock, horn rock, psychedelic dementia, protest rock, but the one that seems to have stuck most ineluctably is ‘garage rock’.

Largely produced by young teenage or college-age groups intent on presenting their own take on the all-conquering ‘British invasion’ acts that based their approach on bastardised & cannibalised versions of American rhythm & blues material (the Rolling Stones, Them & the Pretty Things all being key points of reference), the music proved to be a major discovery to those who’d assumed the U.S. pop scene in the latter part of the 60s was - beyond the U.K. bands - the preserve of Motown, sing-a-long bubblegum anthems and Californian longhairs. (Indeed, it’s worth noting that all but 5 of the 27 songs made at least some impression on the Billboard listings of the time.)

The snottily aggressive two- & three-chord stomps, sitting alongside trendy exploitation pieces based around the wonder drug of the age, LSD, made for a potent and heady cocktail, and within 4 years, the album had been reissued by Seymour Stein’s Sire label, coincidentally around the same time as the debut release by a band of scruffy-looking street toughs from Long Island, allegedly brothers but who cares - the Ramones.

And that proved to be the album’s initial musical influence; so many young musicians on both sides of the Atlantic went gaga for this stuff, and before long, it was being cited as a benchmark for all the bands keen on replicating the stance, the style, the attitude, of the likes of the Standells, the Blues Magoos, the Chocolate Watch Band and the 13th Floor Elevators. As importantly, the record kicked the doors wide-open for dozens more enthusiasts & collectors to wade in & re-issue, even if only semi-legally, their own favourite curiosities & treasures, and series the likes of Pebbles, Rubble and Back from the Grave all swelled out into the offing, eagerly gobbled up by hungry converts of all ages.

In 1998, Rhino Records paid the album its ultimate compliment: taking the original compilation, and adding a further 91 songs to make a 4-CD box-set that is, and looks likely to remain, the ultimate introduction to a fascinating, enthralling & utterly fabulous sound.

If I’ve managed to convey a little of the excitement that this music generates, then this has not been a total waste of time, at least. But of course, the only way to really experience music is to hear it - so: the usual drill. Click on the title above to link through to a YouTube playlist of 5 favourite tracks from the original album, or if you prefer, have a look & listen to each song individually. If the sounds are new to you, and do their job properly, then pretty soon you should be scurrying off to Amazon, iTunes or Spotify to ferret out some more. And oh, how I envy you on your voyage of discovery!

The Electric Prunes: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), 1966

The Standells: Dirty Water, 1966

The Remains: Don’t Look Back, 1966

The Magicians: An Invitation to Cry, 1965

The Count 5: Psychotic Reaction, 1966

Hello. This is a record about a priapic Red Indian. Needless to...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:14:11 +0100

Hello. This is a record about a priapic Red Indian. Needless to say, you will like it. Thank you.

LITTLE BOOTS: intro magazine party

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:31:14 +0000

LITTLE BOOTS: intro magazine party:

brianroastbeef:

littlebootsblog:

had an AMAZING time playing in Berlin and Cologne this weekend… it was our first shows with the full live band of 2012 with lots of new songs and equipment so was a bit scary but went brilliantly and felt soooooooo good to be playing again can’t believe how much i’ve missed it, its like a drug…

Can’t wait for all of this to be brought to the USA!

I like the sound of the plotting - World Domination Hesketh Style can’t actually be any worse than what’s in place right now…

A little of what we in the UK now no longer have. DAMN YOU,...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:46:28 +0000

A little of what we in the UK now no longer have. DAMN YOU, MORE4!

staff:

Awesome. This happened last night. :)

Thanks for putting this together, Frankie!
You have an amazing collection of Jon Stewart GIFs.

And thank you, Daily Show!!

rickyorr: Still one of my favourite live pictures I have ever...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 03:05:06 +0000

rickyorr:

Still one of my favourite live pictures I have ever taken. @littleboots at the Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton x

A professional couldn’t have taken a better shot. Wow!

Ladies of Pleasure

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:13:11 +0000

Ladies of Pleasure:

The above is a link to an entry on a particularly good blog I stumbled across the other day, which I’m sharing here before I forget about it. It considers the new & forthcoming material by Florence & the Machine and Little Boots, and does so in a wonderfully thoughtful way - the whole blog is full of cogently reasoned, intelligent writing such as this and is definitely worth a look.

As regards the Hesketh song, which opens the gates & clears the rest of the new material for take-off, I think I share the author’s concerns; my main worry is that the feel of the album would appear to be of similarly diamond-hard, dancefloor-geared stuff as the track, and whether this means all the manifold wonders of the first record may be submerged in a welter of dime-a-dozen, cut-and-shuffled trance & dance beats that adorn all too many other records.

Whatever - it’s certainly not gonna stop me from buying & listening to the record, probably over & over, so who can tell? She has yet to prove a disappointment in any of her musical achievements, so here’s hoping it’ll be me that’s left looking foolish for worrying: believe me, I’ve had plenty of practice.

‘Nuff. Said: rickyorr: The Sarah Jane Adventures -...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:48:39 +0000

‘Nuff. Said:

rickyorr:

The Sarah Jane Adventures - Finally decided to bite the bullet and watch all 6 episodes of the final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. So sad to think Lis was only diagnosed with cancer at the end of February and was dead by April. Not many actresses can charm one generation of children then 30 years later do it again. She is missed by fans the world over. RIP <3 x