Nat Johnson

My favourite song at the moment is by the solo singer-songwriter Nat Johnson:

I was delighted to discover her music recently by way of a surprise gig, with live violin along with acoustic guitar and her wonderful, reflective vocals. Really moving music - something so powerful in the quiet. I also really appreciate singers who are natural and gentle in their singing. I can't wait to investigate more of her music, and hopefully more gigs some time too - I think the Union Chapel in London on a summery Saturday afternoon would be just perfect.

Whole host of stuff to listen to by Nat on her official website.

Lou Reed Lou Reed

Luke Haines's tribute in song to Lou Reed is great for lacking in sentiment (lyrics), and just inducing a smile instead:

https://soundcloud.com/luke_haines/lou-reed-lou-reed

My own tribute to Lou Reed:

(a sketch of Lou, representing him in the era when he auditioned for the part of Timothy Lumsden in the sitcom Sorry - here he is with an old dish of lasagne from his mum, the caption being 'Oh Mother! I'm only eating this lasagne before it starts walking to the Post Office to draw out its pension. Which is long overdue, I might add!')

The Beauty of Earls Court (set to be demolished)

Earls Court features in a song by the revered Robyn Hitchcock - the lyrics, more than a decade old, seem to have been strangely prescient:

It opens with the couplet: 

Money makes the world go wrong

So what, who cares?

It goes onto sing sweetly of 'the Beauty of Earls Court', which is 'like the canyons of New York (but not as filthy or cool)'.

But then - given the possible future fate of Earls Court - comes a real gut-punch of a line and sentiment:

I've got to find another home

I've got to find another home

It's pure coincidence, but just carries such huge resonance in the circumstances.

Earls Court not only faces loss of its large, grand, beautiful, original art deco exhibition centre/concert venue - but the loss of community and housing with such huge impact.

This is about displacement of people, above all.

To get up to speed with the campaign, please read on here

Save Earls Court campaign has been going strong with support of affected residents, and you can follow their plans on the official website: http://www.saveearlscourt.com/

From the campaign site:

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham has approved the demolition of the world famous iconic, art deco Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre. 

The Earl’s Court Area Action Group believes that decision is wrong. It is now campaigning to save an asset that is of vital importance to the capital's economy. Together, Earl’s Court’s twin exhibition halls provide West London's largest exhibition/ conference space and concert venue. Despite assurances, it transpires no tangible replacement facilities will replace a loss, which economically and culturally defines the area. 

Additionally, against the majority wish of its residents, a community’s perfectly adequate homes will be demolished in the name of a hungry developer’s bottom-line profit. This is ill-conceived scheme pushed through at the expense of the area's economic and cultural well-being and needs to be halted.

The Earl’s Court Area Action Group urges you to sign its petition to Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government asking that he calls in the applications due to the conflict of interest for Boris Johnson in his capacity of Mayor and head of TfL, which owns a substantial part of the development site.

SAVE EARLS COURT PETITION HERE

Punk's Penetration

Don't Dictate by Penetration is one of the great punk anthems/singles. I've just started investigating the band's albums, and I wonder why they aren't a more widely/wildly acclaimed band. It's one of my bugbears that endless punk programmes get made about the Sex Pistols and maybe they'll throw in a bit about The Clash, Buzzcocks, et al. But female punk bands rarely get a sidenote mention (hardly even The Slits or X-Ray Spex), let alone the celebration in such ways. I want to see documentaries and books and DVDs and front covers and art exhibitions - surely we can all do the same old tired old punk bingo by now and we need so many more of the other bands of the time to come out of the cracks of history? Crucially, female bands to get that spotlight at last?

There must be so many untold stories. The mediateque at the BFI in London has a superb documentary on Huddersfield punks, including some of the experiences of female fans of the time. There's that whole wealth of non-London punk that needs proverbially writing into history, too.

A couple of full length albums up on Youtube,by Penetration, and they're truly excellent:

Came across an interesting interview piece on Penetration over at Eccentric Sleevenotes, including about their split and then much later reformation (and in fact, the band are touring a bit in a few months).

There is also an interview with Viv Albertine on the same site, which is worth a read. I'm greatly looking forward to Viv Albertine's forthcoming autobiography, and her solo stuff in recent years is pretty damn ace too.

New Brian Jonestown Massacre album

It'll sound heaps better when the physical album is spinning on my stereo, but for now the new Brian Jonestown Massacre album being previewed online sounds like something to get really excited about. The last album, Aufheben was an ace return to form, and Revelation keeps on in that pounding drum style (which I really welcome), with a mixture of dance music rhythms, tuneful guitar lines on an array of pedals, and sounds of strings and horns thrown in, and some interesting vocals. Hints of Strung Out in Heaven might be creeping in, as there's so much pure, 60s  pop melody - well, there so often is, but it's the pedals and style, sometimes stripped back too. There're wacked-out sounding vocal treatments, as well, so it's on a similar trippy vibe to the previous album, with some songs quite a lot slower. All in all, sounding really rich and great.

The preview is over at this Vimeo link here.

Bring it on!

Current listening: Taffy and Hufdis Huld

Just discovered a squally guitar band from Tokyo called Taffy on Club AC30 label.

Quite a different-sounding, nice cover of a Cure song here:

Had a nice Saturday morning moment when I ran down the stairs eager for post and my Hafdis Huld album was actually there waiting for me - good to start the morning with a new album. I really recommend her first album Dirty Paper Cup, which is from 2006 - not sure how she passed me by until recent years, but I am hooked currently. Lots of pure and sweet vocal melodies over gently pretty guitar pop, with folk inspiration and some interesting percussive instruments. This album has involvement from the folk artist Boo Hewerdine (who also worked with Roddy Woomble when he did his solo work). Surprised to see some of the songs on Hafdis' album are co-written by Chris Gentry - nothing online or in the sleevenotes to suggest it is he from Menswear, but I can only guess it is and that it's perhaps because her former band Gus Gus were around at the same time as them.

Some more from Hafdis Huld as she's so wonderful:

Hafdis Huld

Listening to lots of Hafdis Huld, an Icelandic solo singer. Mainly gently acoustic, tuneful, twinkly-pretty songs. First discovered a few years ago when I received a stash of CD singles for reviewing for a music website - namely, a song sung in Icelandic about Spiderman (Kongula, which has a fun video of a spidey-suited man larking about, unable to scale a tree).

Lately, I feel like pretending I'm in Nordic climes in order to brace wintry times. This video by Hafdis helps:

Hometown Hero is another great song, with the chiming keys and electro beat in the mix:

There's a real playfulness and sweetness to Hafdis's music. I regret not getting to see her live last year in a café round King's Cross way. It was a gig put on by another site I used to write for, Glasswerk.

Hafdis seems to play cute for cameras but it seems like she has a genuine and fun sense of child-like wonder at times regardless too. This video involves her chasing down elves on a patch of wild land in Iceland, tempting them with blueberries, and talking about them dreamily. I like a pop singer who isn't afraid to be heart-on-sleeve silly and fun.

She's also sung some more serious sounding folk stuff in her native tongue, which is up on Youtube too. I think I must buy some of her albums soon, as she's had a few by now.

http://www.hafdishuld.com/