Radiohead live at Reading

Apologies in advance for such a short post. I'm sure most of you have seen the video of Radiohead playing Creep and National Anthem live at Reading. Anyway, here's the download.

Creep/National Anthem by Radiohead, live at Reading Festival 2009.

Covers for Sunday

So, no more posts this week than last after all. Still, I'm sure you've all managed to recover from the disappointment by now.

Here are your six covers for today. We've had a few cover versions of Neil Young songs since I started Covers for Sunday, so this week we're leading off with Neil Young's cover from Glastonbury earlier this year.

A Day In The Life by Neil Young (originally by The Beatles)

Like A Rolling Stone by Jimi Hendrix (originally by Bob Dylan)

Diamonds Are Forever by Arctic Monkeys (originally by Shirley Bassey)

Rappers Delight by Dan The Automater (originally by The Sugarhill Gang)

Owner Of A Lonely Heart by Grizzly Bear (originally by Yes)

Just Dance by Maximo Park (originally by Lady Gaga)

A bit of Gomez is good for the soul

A couple of days ago I was looking through youtube fore something by Miles Davis. Instead I came across one of my favourite videos:



It'd been ages since I'd listened to any Gomez, but they've been on heavy rotation since. Gomez are a band I first really got into when I went to university, nearly ten years ago now. I was going to talk more about them, but now I feel old, so you'll just have to listen to these mp3s instead.

How We Operate from the album How We Operate

We Haven't Turned Around from the album Liquid Skin.

Revolutionary Kind (live)

Albums can be bought from the band's website here.

Covers for Sunday

Here we are again. It's Sunday and I'm posting 6 covers. It's been a quiet week for the blog. There's Monday's post with loads (well, six) of Radiohead mp3s, but that's been it. I also had my first post deleted this week. Hopefully there'll be more posts this week, and no posts removed.

Anyway, here are this weeks covers. Enjoy.

Tell Me Why by Radiohead (originally by Neil Young)

There She Goes by The Wombats (originally by The La's)

Careless Whisper by Ben Folds featuring Rufus Wainright (originally by Wham)

Chelsea Girls by Elliott Smith (originally by Nico)

Gone Til November by Doves (originally by Wyclef Jean)

Oh Comely by Brand New (originally by Neutral Milk Hotel)

Radiohead, no Wall of Ice

As you're probably aware there had been speculation following the leak of the song These Are My Twisted Words that Radiohead would be releasing an EP called Wall of Ice on Monday, August 17th. I'm not going to go into the whole ins and outs of why people thought this, if you really want to know check out rawkblog which has a good explanation of what happened and is the newest addition to my blog list.

Personally I didn't give the rumour too much thought. Maybe it's because I'm such a cynical person but I didn't expect a new EP, and I was rather pleased with the two new Radiohead tracks, These Are My Twisted Words and Harry Patch (In memory of).

So there's no disappointment for me that the EP hasn't arrived. I know Radiohead fans who are disappointed though, which is understandble. If you're one of those (and even if you're not) I hope you enjoy the tracks below, 3 Radiohead songs remixed and 3 live versions. Think of it as a post non-release let down survival kit.

The Gloaming (DJ Shadow Remix)

Everything In Its Wrong Place (Me & This Army Remix)

Creep (Fitter Happier remix)

Nude - Live

Bid Ideas - Live in Dublin 2004

Scatterbrain - Live

As well as buying Harry Patch (In memory of) you can also download These Are My Twisted Words from w.a.s.t.e. now.

Covers for Sunday

Normally I don't actually choose the songs that I'm going to feature until an hour or so before I post them. I might have a couple of songs picked out that I want to share with whoever happens to read this, but more often it's a case of spending Sunday afternoon listening to a playlist full of covers and seeing what sticks out.

That hasn't been the case this week. I've had four of the covers sorted for most of the week, and then I decided that the cover of Idioteque would be included yesterday and this morning Nobody Does It Better popped into my head and the six tracks were all chosen. I hope you enjoy them all.

All My Friends by John Cale (originally by LCD Soundsystem)

I Kissed A Girl by Travis (originally by Kate Parry)

Can't Get You Out Of My Head by The Flaming Lips (originally by Kylie Minogue)

I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Amy Millan (originally by Death Cab For Cutie)

Idioteque by Calico Horse (originally by Radiohead)

Nobody Does It Better by Radiohead (originally by Carly Simon)

New Radiohead

Short post, nothing really exciting/interesting/worthwhile to say.

However, here's a brand new Radiohead song:

These Are My Twisted Words

Enjoy.

There's also another new (well, a couple of days old) Radiohead song called Harry Patch (In memory of). You can download it here for £1.

All proceeds go to the Royal British Legion. The Royal British Legion is a charity to support current and ex servicemen and women and their families. Harry Patch died 25th of July aged 111. He was the last person alive to have fought in the trenches on the western front during World War One.

Anyway, enjoy the songs. You can listen to a sample of Harry Patch (In memory of) at the above link as well.

Covers For Sunday

It's Sunday again, here are your covers. There's a tendency when I do these posts to choose covers that are folk versions, or at the least acoustic versions. I don't know exactly why, but most of the covers I have seem to fall into that category. I don't know if that's representative of other peoples' collections or not. I don't mean to imply there's anything wrong with folk covers, there isn't. If you like them you should check out Cover Lay Down from my blog list on the side.

So anyway to avoid having all acoustic cover versions I've included Black Kids, who are quite far away from folk. I hope you enjoy all the tracks.

All Apologies by Ben Gibbard (originally by Nirvana)

Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover by Black Kids (originally by Sophie B. Hawkins)

Creep by Damien Rice (originally by Radiohead)

You Know I'm No Good by On Film (originally by Amy Winehouse)

Theologians by Donavon Frankenreiter (originally by Wilco)

My Favourite Bands - The Velvet Underground part 3

This post was just going to be about The Velvet Underground's live recordings but I forgot to include the promised post break up releases. So they're in this post as well as the live recordings.

The first 3 Velvet Underground albums were released by Verve. However Verve wasn't making money and The Velvet Underground albums weren't big sellers. They were released from theircontract and signed with Atlantic where they released Loaded.

However, tracks had been recorded for a 4th album with Verve. The recordings were, of course, lost and eventually rediscovered. They were released over two albums, VU in 1985 and Another View in 1986.




Of these VU is by far the stronger. Of the 10 songs on the album 6 of them were released on Lou Reed's solo albums. This album is a great mix of ballads and heavier rock songs. Different from Loaded, this still has the same sort of balance, The Velvets were heading this way for their 4th album anyway.

Sample mp3s:

I Can't Stand It

Foggy Notion

Temptation Inside Your Heart

Buy the album here.




Another View is weaker in comparison and it's much more an album for completists. That's not to say it's in any way bad, but it's ok rather than great. Highlights are We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together and an early version of Rock And Roll.

Sample mp3s:

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together

Coney Island Steeplechase


Buy the album here.

Now, onto the live albums.




1969: Velvet Underground Live. I consider this a double album, even though it's released on two seperate discs. When it was first released on vinyl it was a double album, and that's good enough for me.

The album is made up of gigs recorded over clubs sound systems at two seperate venues, one in Dallas and one in San Francisco. What's immediatley notable is the sheer energy that comes through on the songs, out and out aggresion in some places. As always it's easy to view the Velvet Underground as Lou Reed's band before he went solo but the full band is on form here. Reed and Morrison complement each other perfectly, Mo Tucker's drumming is sublime and even the much maligned Doug Yule shows his ability. Basically the band out and out rocks.

Highlights of the album are What Goes On, New Age, (with an almost completley different set of lyrics than the version on Loaded) and Heroin from Volume 1 and Ocean, Pale Blue Eyes, Heroin (again) and I Can't Stand It from Volume 2.

As always below are some sample tracks but bear in mind that, as with any live album, it's best to hear it in full.

Lisa Says (Volume One)

New Age (Volume One)

Heroin (Volume Two)

Over You (Volume Two)

I Can't Stand It (Volume Two)

Buy Volume 1 here and Volume 2 here.




Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: The Quine Tapes

Despite what the title of this album suggests there is no volume 2. This was released in 2001, so I think it's fair to say there won't be a volume 2 now.

It's a 3 disc set and the recordings on it come from gigs The Velvets did in two clubs in San Francisco during November and December 1969 as well as one track from a gig in St. Louis. The recordings were made with the bands consent by Robert Quine. Quine would later tour with Reed and play guitar on his album The Blue Mask.

During 1969 The Velvets toured extensively, the normally quoted figue is 70+ gigs, and this album is a comprehensive look at just how well the band was playing at that time. From the sametime span as the above 1969: Velvet Underground Live this album is more of the same and I think a more essential purchase. If you're only going to buy one live Velvets album get this one. As well as all the tracks you'd expect the album contains songs from the first album that were played live less often.

Here's 3 sample mp3s, one from each disc:

Some Kinda Love (This track contains the lyric 'Between Thought and Expression')

Venus In Furs

Rock And Roll

Buy the album here.

Which brings us to the last live album and the end of my posts on The Velvet Underground.




Live At Max's Kansas City is reputed to be the last ever concert The Velvets ever played. The audio quality is acceptable for a bootleg but not great, there's a lot of audience chatter, Mo Tucker is pregnant and Billy Yule fills in on drums and really it's an album best bought by fans. It's by no means for completists only though. Listening to the album it seems obvious how weary Lou Reed has become with it all. His introduction to and vocals on Sunday Morning are the best example of that.

Buy the album here.

The album contains both sets they did. White Light/White Heat is from the first set, Sunday Morning and Lonesome Cowboy Bill from the second set. Lonesome Cowboy Bill was actually played in both sets. The mp3 below is, as mentioned, from the second set. It was the last song played at their last gig so it seemed an appropriate place to finish. I hope you've enjoyed these posts and most importantly the music.

White Light/White Heat

Sunday Morning

Lonesome Cowboy Bill.

Covers for Sunday

I'm totally getting the hang of this posting on Sunday deal.

Anyway, the usual six covers for you today. A couple of weeks ago I posted Rufus Wainwright covering Somewhere Over The Rainbow. It's been the most popular mp3 I've posted, so there's another one of his covers included in this post. The Boy Least Likely To is included for the second time as well. The rest are all first time appearances.

Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright (originally by Leonard Cohen)

You're The One That I Want by The Boy Least Likely To (originally by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John)

Zombie by Jay Brannan (originally by The Cranberries)

Such Great Heights by Iron and Wine (originally by The Postal Service)

Two-Headed Boy by The Mountain Goats (originally by Neutral Milk Hotel)

the final cover is here at the request of my wife. It's an entertaining cover, but it's here because it makes her think of a girl we both know.

Baby's Got Back by Jonathan Coulton (originally by Sir Mix A Lot)

I hope you enjoy them all.

Some stuff I threw together

because I realised I hadn't posted anything since Covers for Sunday last week, and I want something posting before Covers for Sunday tomorrow.

Luckily I've had 3 songs I've been meaning to put in the blog for a while, so here we go.

Firstly, Say Please by Monsters of Folk.

Monsters of folk is Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis. That should really be all you need to know to go here and get all the songs.

For some reason I can't really get into My Morning Jacket. I don't dislike it, but I tend to find I'm skipping onto the next thing on my playlist. However, I'm a big fan of Jim James' solo folk music. I first came across it when I got a bootleg of him, M Ward and Conor Orberst. So when I heard rumours the three of them would be making a folk supergroup I wzas pretty pleased. Having heard 'Firstly Say Please' it's fair to say my expectations have been met.

As a bonus Jim James, under the name Yim Yames, recently released a 6 track EP of George Harrison covers. You can buy the digital download from his website and/or pre-order the CD and vinyl, which are released on August 4th. Here's a sample track from the EP Behind That Locked Door.

Next is I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers. The first post I ever made on this blog had an Avett Brothers mp3. Check that out, and then listen to this. It's on an EP and a single, both are orderable here.

Lastly, Boy 1904 by Jónsi & Alex. The theme of this blog has been, although I didn't plan it, songs that don't sound how you may expect them to sound. The Monsters of Folk and Yim Yames songs don't sound like My Morning Jacket and the Avett Brothers EP sounds different to most of their previous work. The same is true here. You may expect Jónsi & Alex to sound like Sigur Rós, but they don't. It's lovely, delicate music, so much so that it almost makes Sigur Rós sound kinda course by comparison. Almost. You can listen to the full album and buy it here.

That's it, see you tomorrow for more covers.