Rollerskate Skinny - Speed to my Side (mp3)

"Nobody ever told me that this sort of thing could come alive"

One of the most incredible songs of the Nineties.

Rollerskate Skinny, from Dublin, released two albums, 1993's Shoulder Voices and 1996's Horsedrawn Wishes and then burnt out, but they are still spoken of in hushed, awed tones. Well, amongst me and my friends at least.

"Speed to my Side" is the high point of Horsedrawn Wishes; an achievement that recalls The Beatles tripped-out experiments (say, "Tomorrow Never Knows") and was released to bewildered critical acclaim before The Flaming Lips' similarly fantastical and innovative"Zaireeka"/"Soft Bulletin" albums. The band took a melodic song (which could probably be played on an acoustic guitar and still sound completely wondrous) and blasted it in a million different directions. Fried it sideways for seven minutes.

I'm not surprised they split up afterwards...I'm not sure many groups could handle the pressures of recording and mixing this stuff for months on end, only for the general public to respond with utter indifference. Fuckin' Oasis can sell 25 million albums and Rollerskate Skinny sell a few thousand...for god sake.

mp3 - hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?1yymydnl1io

Don't Worry Baby

I've had this Beach Boys song for years, and have even been privileged enough to have seen Brian Wilson perform it live, but it has only truly hit me this week. Like a ton of golden bricks. The scales have fallen from my eyes etc. It is a beautiful little tune with chord and key changes that should make everyone with a few red blood cells go dizzy for a coupla minutes. The video version below is by a guy with a Supermario obsession called Keopaxe. Playing a ukelele.

Apologies for my lack of uploading the last week. I've been too busy listening to this song.

Beach Boys mp3 - hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?bj290zw2ohi

MBV - Sugar (mp3)

The second in an occasional series of My Bloody Valentine rarities here at TSM, "Sugar" is an outtake from the Glider ep sessions. Its only official appearance was on a free cd given away with French magazine "Les Inrockuptibles" in 1991. It is up there with their best work from this period.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?625gvxtzt9h

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (new album)

Just on my first listen now - this fresh leak isn't out til September. First impressions - excellent. I have always been impressed with the consistently high level of Sam Beam's songwriting, and the bar doesn't look like dropping any time soon. He is obviously enjoying having decent budgets to work with lately as well. The Iron & Wine sound is drifting further and further from the "whispering the vocals so as not to wake the kids" days - there's all sorts of percussion, instrumentation and the odd flash of studio wizardry on display here. Sounds really good. I'll definitely play it again, Sam.

Sorry.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?5gxdpslhldz

(m4a files)

Faust - V (The lost album)

This was recorded by Faust in 1975, at a time when their label, Virgin, were actively trying to get rid of them. These tracks appeared on a promo tape, but that was as far as the project went. Stuck with the bill for recordings and living expenses the band crumbled, and disappeared from view until the 1990's - when they realised they had thousands of new fans.

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/13441381/V.zip

The Only Ones - "Another Girl, Another Planet" (mp3)

If you don't possess this song already, and pass up the chance to download it here, I'm dialling 1-800- ROCKPOLICE. You think I can't see what's on your computer?

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?djv9hcme0lm

Olivier Messiaen - Oraison (1937) (mp3)

Written for the early electronic instrument, the Ondes Martenot (above), Olivier Messiaen's "Oriason" is a beautifully mellow and plaintive piece of music. The Ondes Martenot is a close relation of the theremin, and like the theremin was frequently used (and abused) on sci-fi film and tv soundtracks throughout the 40's, 50's and 60's, but also gained a foothold in many "serious" orchestras. I first heard "Oriason" on the box set "Ohm;The Early Gurus of Electronic Music", as recorded by Ensemble d'Ondes de Montreal.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?9hw0vm9wxxe

Buy

Video Kosmiche

My connection is not allowing me to upload albums at the moment, so I shall point you towards a couple of clips until we ride out the turbulence.



Holy Karoli! Can play "Deadlock" on German tv.




Vitamin C. Jaki Liebtzeit. I always loved the fact that "Liebtzeit" means "free time" in German. Jackie Freetime.



Amon Duul II play "Soap Shop Rock" live in 1970. The drummer, Peter Leopold, is the star of this video/song. He died in November of last year. The hammered head on Renate Kraup in this is worth a look by itself!



Faust jam in their base, Wumme, 1971.

The Human Expression - Optical Sound (mp3)

A true buried treasure from 1967, from the little-known band that turned down "Born to be Wild" for what they deemed its poor lyrics. "Optical Sound", which I discovered on the Nuggets boxset, is fantastic psych though, the band weirding it up with intermittent shards of distortion, reverb, and echo while the singer spins a morning-after yarn with a difference.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?duxtz1ywyd1

buy Nuggets

Witthuser & Westrup - Trips und Traume (1971)

Psychedelik folk from longhaired, moustachioed Richard Brautigan lookalikes squatting in a deserted farmhouse deep in the Black Forest. Well, that's how I imagine them at least. Bernd Witthuser and Walter Westrup were supposedly known as "the cosmic buskers" by their fans, and it's easy to imagine them blitzed out of their skulls round a campfire playing these tunes to kids half their age. At times, they sound like they're attempting to write the soundtrack for a particularly surreal, even slightly menacing childrens cartoon.

The duo bring xylophone, flute and zither in over their more trad acoustic guitars, but at its core it is still very much folk music. Just really good folk that doesn't bore you to death. The one song with English lyrics (a close cousin of the "Don't Bogart that Joint, My Friend" song from Easy Rider) refers to feeling "LSD in your knees, uh yeah"! I wish I could understand the others...no-one does the hippy schtick quite like the Germans, it has to be said.

I don't think our friends Bernd and Walter took themselves too seriously. They were probably just ageing folksters riding the acid bandwagon and the saucer-eyed frauleins that came with it, but with tunes like "Laßt uns auf die Reise gehn" (no, I don't have a breeze what it's about), who cares? Immerse yourself in their weirdity.

Buy this artifact

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?ebmydwlfij6

Trumans Water - Spasm Smash Xxxoxox Ox and Ass

Trumans Water - Spasm Smash Xxxoxox Ox and Ass

One of my first proper indie gigs was Trumans Water in the Baggot Inn in 1993, not long after this album came out. Absolute madness. I remember sitting about six feet from the guitarist's amp, my trousers flapping with every jagged strum. Looking at my friend to see if he was as shocked as I was. Maybe they fucked up my ears that night, because I don't think I've ever heard a louder band since. Their stuff is off-kilter screaming and blasts of bizarro noise, like Beefheart as played by ninjas. I had never heard anything remotely like it at that point. Even now, I struggle to compare them to anything else. Polvo's crunchiest riffs maybe. John Peel was so taken with these loopers from San Diego that he played their debut album "Of Thick Tum" the whole way through one night..they were something else, check 'em out.

hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/ce6e8r

Buy from as little as $1.86

Slowdive

It's that time of year again...I'm going through my annual Slowdive phase. You have to hand it to them - there aren't many bands of schoolkids who made the impact Slowdive did with their first releases.

These are their first three eps (all Melody Maker Singles of the Week), released on Creation between November 1990 and June 1991. Unfortunately for them, grunge kicked in soon after the release of their debut album ("Just For A Day") and the shoegaze/dreampop movement was quickly forgotten. Listening back to this early material, it's apparent Slowdive's music has aged far better than the vast majority of grunge acts or any of their "post-Isn't Anything/pre-Loveless" contemporaries like Chapterhouse, Lush or Ride. They had sweeter vocals and melodies, bigger guitar sounds if they went the noisy route, they were well-versed in the art of restraint (see the 8-minute "Avalyn II") and were simply more dreamlike than any other "dreampop" outfit.

They plugged away til 1995, releasing two fine, but completely overlooked albums in "Souvlaki" and "Pygmalion"(which featured experiments in dub and ambient), before morphing into the more alt-country Mojave 3. Core members/singers Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell have both released solo albums on 4AD in recent years. These eps though, to me, are the high point of their output.

Slowdive ep (CRE 093) November 1990 - hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?f5mxuyiz8xi

Morningrise ep (CRE 098) February 1991 - hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/bc3m8j

Holding Our Breath ep (CRE 122) June 1991 - hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/qj9yj3

Buy the reissue of "Just For A Day" which includes these three eps and a Peel Session on a bonus cd.


Also, here's an example of their later work; "Alison" from Souvlaki. Underneath the drones and FX, Slowdive's best songs are beautifully constructed and timeless.

Slint - King's Approach (new song) - Amsterdam 21/5/2007

Well, about time...Slint's first all-new piece of music since 1991. They have been playing this ten-minute piece entitled "King's Approach" as an encore at their last few shows - this version was recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on May 21. It lurches into a Neu!-style jam halfway through. See what you make of it.

REUPPED 1 DECEMBER 2007 - hXXp://www.mediafire.com/?cfbl4rwe2bn

The Terribles

Since first appearing in the summer of 2006 with their debut ep "Mistake; Do Over", The Terribles have emerged as one of a small handful of Irish bands that have what it takes to do well internationally. Based around the core duo of Neassa Doherty and Ian McNulty, with live and studio assistance from various others, their sound bears traces of Sparklehorse, The Breeders (maybe), Grandaddy and MBV, but is already quite distinctive. Not content with the usual "indie" instrumentation, the ep features cello, brass and cut-up drum patterns backing up Neassa's soft vocals and plucked guitar.

A split 7'' with Dublin melancholic/electronic duo The Hollows is in the pipeline (on The Terribles' own Poltergeist label), and will be available during the summer. Rumour has it they're currently attracting attention from US music industry types, so hopefully over the rest of '07 their profile will rocket/mushroom/explode. Explode like a rocket on mushrooms.

Check out their Myspace

Mp3 @ 320 kbs - "Those Songs" -hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?bts35bm2zyx

Ligeti - Lux Aeterna

Gyorgy Ligeti - “Lux Aeterna”

(for 16-voice a capella mixed chorus; Chor des Norddeutschen, Helmut Franz, director. Recorded 1968)

This is one of the most amazing pieces of music in existence. Well, at least of those that I have come across in my journey to the spoiled metropolis. I’m sure there are many others, equally fantastic, imprinted digitally on those old-fashioned shiny discs that lie untouched for months upstairs in your local doomed record shop. Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna” should be found on the Classical shelves of your local emporium. If there was a “Cosmic” department it would surely take pride of place there.

I wouldn’t have this mp3 to pass on to you if it wasn’t for the late Stanley Kubrick.

On one of my regular visits to his estate outside London, during which we would play backgammon, smoke Cuban cigars and discuss my various upcoming cameos in “Eyes Wide Shut” (I played a sailor, amongst others), he gave me a present of a Ligeti cd featuring “Lux Aeterna”.

Stan had used the piece brilliantly in “2001; A Space Odyssey”. I had never been able to track down the soundtrack (Kubrick was aware of my plight) so I was delighted to eventually get my hands on this stunning masterpiece. I went home to my rooms on Baker St, lit incense and candles, then turned out the lights. Pressing play, I was apprehensive…could it be as great as I remembered?

It was. It is impossible, however, to describe its glacial majesty adequately. “Lux Aeterna” starts gradually, beginning with a soft “lo” by one female voice, then the other fifteen appear at intervals, like spectres rising in twos and threes and hovering over the Marie Celeste. From there on, I’ll let you discover the joys of the piece yourself. Suffice to say, if I ever have a near-death experience and feel myself being "called towards the light", I hope this is what it sounds like. In this world, however, it is best listened to in complete darkness.

I miss Kubrick.

A weird bastard at the best of times, but he looked after his mates.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?9bd1ts1ixpl (mp3 @ 320)

Bonus - A Clockwork Orange OST - hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=OUFYNDGM

The Radio Dept

The Radio Dept have a load of mp3's available for download on their site, here.

I might write more when I straighten up!




But I probably won't.

SRC - SRC (self-titled) (1968)

SRC – SRC (1968)

Herein is some of the greatest lost American psych you will ever lose your ego to. Why did I never hear of these drudes until 2007? I have the great FM Shades to thank for this discovery. I’m hearing the influence of Barrett’s Pink Floyd, The Zombies and the hallucinogenic Summer of ’67 in the melodies, song structures, instrumentation, vocals and lyrics. So far, so good (at least they’re borrowing from the best) – but what sets this band apart from at least 93% of the whimsical Psychedelia you come across is the biting, squealing tone of the trippily-named Gary Quackenbush’s lead guitar pouring out of the right channel.

The man is gifted. He soars and swoops over the band like a fighter pilot. I can only compare him to Michael Karoli of Can, another who could play piercingly high up the fretboard for entire songs, without it ever getting on your nerves. Like Neil Young on top form, what he plays is always right. It’s the way lead guitar should be played - economically, and with as much sustain as possible. Maybe Karoli and Young were listening to him, who knows?

Fortunately, he has some fine, fine songs to express himself over. Opener “Black Sheep” is like The Byrds on seriously bad medicine. ”Daystar” aims for the cosmos, a driving astral exploration that Syd would have been proud of.

It's a shame the band never got anywhere, bar a few supports to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and The Stooges in their hometown, Detroit. They all had taken the mad risk of dropping out of college in those scary 'Nam-drafting days to give their music a real go an' all...ah well, at least they had a great album to show for it.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?3gy2eold9cy

Silver Jews - Trains Across The Sea (live)

“In twenty-seven years, I’ve drunk fifty thousand beers/ And they just wash against me like the sea into a pier.”

From the Silver Jews first concert, in the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia on the 3^rd of October, 2006. The song originally appeared on the “Starlite Walker” album, a ragged bag o’ playful, melodic tunes which was released in 1994 and featured Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich of Pavement. Head Joo and main songwriter David Berman had a strong aversion to playing live, so the band (which never had a settled line-up anyway) never appeared publicly except once or twice at friends’ parties. In 2006, after releasing the fifth Silver Jews album “Tanglewood Numbers”, and cleaning himself up from years of drug-addled debauchery, Berman decided to take to the road, with his wife Cassie on bass and Bob Nastonovich filling the roles of road manager and percussionist.

In an interview, he revealed the reason he had never played live before was that he couldn’t remember his words, and sure enough he took to the stage for his first gig assisted by a book of his lyrics. “Trains Across The Sea” is as hesitant as you’d expect from a band playing its first gig – Bob drops his Mo Tucker-style beat here and there – but instead of detracting from the song, the fragility adds to its wonder.

Songs like this make life worth living - just to be in a position to hear, appreciate and sing along to lines like "half-hours on Earth/ What are they worth?/ I dunno"....I’m sure it was a momentous night for the fans squeezed into the small club.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?cclmprzm3xd

Buy Joos Product

My Bloody Valentine - Map Ref. 41N 93W (Wire cover)

This is a great fuzzy version of one of Wire's catchiest tunes. I don't know when it was recorded, but it came out on the Wire tribute album "Whore" in 1996. I ache to hear more MBV, be it mould-encrusted tapes from 1990 or fresh Shields solo work. Hopefully this'll be new to some of you...

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?2vu19snc9nx

Buy

Mercury Rev - Car Wash Hair

Epic in scale but totally lighthearted in tone, "Car Wash Hair" (1991) is sooo simple...one softly strummed guitar plays the chords, a couple of others scratch their way through a series of trebly lines that complement the song perfectly. The lyrics - "cos if i'm not in the band don't mean I'm square, and if I am ,well then I don't care" - are slacker gold. With this song, you can see the profound influence Jonathan Donahue wielded as a writer during his spell in The Flaming Lips (1988-1991). If you have heard Mercury Rev and don't like them, I still urge you to check this song out - it's the best thing they've ever done.




mp3 @ 320 kbs - - hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/oz6e9j

Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis (1998)

Seven years after Talk Talk's last album (it would seem), 1991's amazing "Laughing Stock", Mark Hollis picked up right where he left off with this mesmerising solo debut. A team of a dozen collaborators is used over the course of its 47 minutes, but they never intrude on the stark, lean atmosphere Hollis generates with the dominant components of voice and guitar. Even moreso than "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughing Stock", in these sessions Hollis oversaw a (beautifully recorded) process that let each facet of the sound be revealed completely. In addition to the instruments, creaking chairs, puffs of breath, plectrums, and foot movements can all be heard. Listen to it on headphones and you are there with them, a studio ghost. The music is mournful and haunting, woodwind and percussion sparingly but devasatingly used. There is very little information available on what Hollis has been up to in the intervening nine years, but hopefully he's preparing a follow-up. Few can combine elements of minimalist jazz, folk, ambient and rock music like him. It doesn't even sound like it should work, but Hollis pulls it off here.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?5mezdbtld0d (mp3's @ 192)

I highly recommend buying this album if you are interested in recording. Link