Category Archives: Reviews

66 with a Bullet

Bullet

Now that the internet has rendered music from most of the world available in the time it tales Nick Clegg to renege on an election promise, it seems almost quaint to remember that the zeitgeist used to have a bike.
The indefinable spirit of the age used to pop up all over the world and each musical advance was complete with a map reference.

Whether it was Manchester in the late eighties, Berlin in the mid seventies or Liverpool in the early sixties geographical locations were synonymous with the music that was made there, and never was this more pronounced than in Nashville, Tennessee, which is indelibly linked in popular culture with country music.

In contrast to the examples above, country music didn’t begin in Nashville, but it was here that the music that had originated in Appalachian bluegrass and hardened into the gritty honky tonk of Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzel had the beer stains hosed off it’s Stetson and cleaned up it’s act.

In the process it became, and still is, the most successful genre of music in the world.

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Selection Box Shows 157 & 158

Two more shows for you to place wrap your side-head flaps of aural-catcher flesh around. One day I will catch up to the present day. And then I will probably self-destruct.

Courtesy of this lovely Soundcloud player you can listen to these shows again for a limited period (probably about the length of time it will take for Newcastle United’s owners to stop laughing). Sadly due to copyright and such blah the show cannot be made available as a downloadable file.

Selection Box Show 157 by PatrickSelectionBoxDJ

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Selection Box Show 150

The featured track for this show is the first single from the new album by Liverpool’s surgically-masked noiseniks Clinic.

Now on their 6th album, this track demonstrates a rarer toe tip into a rather lovely lilting dreamy sound for which the band are not often noted. Thankfully, the full thrust of the album, entitled Bubblegum, doesn’t entirely dismiss the minor key guitar howls and Philips Philicorda keyboard wibbles. They say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It’s nice to tinker though, eh. Ruddy marvellous.

Courtesy of this lovely Soundcloud player you can listen to this show again for a limited period (probably about the length of time it would take for a hedgehog to consume an entire wheelbarrow of slugs). Sadly due to copyright and such blah the show cannot be made available as a downloadable file.

Selection Box Show 150 by PatrickSelectionBoxDJ

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Twee(t) Blog – the Buffet Triumverate Visit Butlins for Bowlie

So the Buffet Belles had a fabulous time at All Tomorrow’s Parties’ Bowlie 2, curated by Belle and Sebastian; but we are far too busy to write up a proper blog – so here are our tweets from the event instead.

(And please tune in for our next show on New Year’s Day at 5pm, and listen out for a buffet special over the holiday period!)

Field Music at ATP, pic by EmmaBob3

Field Music at ATP, pic by EmmaBob3

BUFFET TWEE(T) LOG:

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Selection Box Show 149

Hmmm, I keep saying that I am trying to catch up on playlists, but “catching up” surely requires me to provide more of these blogs than I’m recording shows. I am currently on a ratio of just about 1:1, which really won’t do if I am going to get up to date.

This week’s featured record from the show is Edwyn Collins‘ return single Losing Sleep, which was released in September and comes from the album of the same title. It would have been difficult to be overly-critical of any record at this stage by Collins – arguably best known for his work in the marvellous Orange Juice and the mid-90s hit A Girl Like You – coming as it does after a long illness. In February 2005 Collins was interviewed on BBC 6Music and complained of feeling a little unwell. Within a couple of days he was admitted to ITU at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, That Fancy London, with a major cerebral hemorrhage. A second hemorrhage followed soon after. The illness left him with a weakness on the right side of his brain and a devastating problem with his speech, which has resulted in a prolonged period of neurological rehabilitation. Recent radio appearances have revealed that Collins’ speech is still not yet 100%, but thankfully the ability to write great pop songs is still in evidence. Any track from Edwyn Collins after this time would have been a triumph. That the record is a triumph purely in musical terms is all the more remarkable.

Courtesy of this lovely Soundcloud player you can listen to this show again for a limited period (probably about the length of time it would take to fill an entire 2 litre bottle with spit, were you to do one flob into it every day). Sadly due to copyright and such blah the show cannot be made available as a downloadable file. Continue reading

Selection Box Show 148

…The catch-up continues, and seen as this particular show was the Leeds Festival review, which has been covered in some extensive detail here, here and here I dare say we can rush this one through fairly quickly without much guilt.

Courtesy of this lovely Soundcloud player you can listen to this show again for a limited period (probably about the length of time it would take to fashion a bust of the head of Skeletor out of mashed up walnut cake). Sadly due to copyright and such blah the show cannot be made available as a downloadable file.

Selection Box Show 148 by PatrickSelection_Box

Us glamourous press types get our own enclave with its own bar and enough room to swing a cat.  Oh yes.

Us glamourous press types get our own enclave with its own bar and enough room to swing a cat. Oh yes.

Selection Box Show 148

Transmitted 06/9/2010

1. Jack Montgomery – Dearly Beloved
from: Ultimate Northern Soul (various artists)

Interview with Biz from Kassius

2. Champion Jack Dupree – Shake Baby Shake
from: The Birth of Rock N Roll (various artists)

3. The Walkmen – I’m Never Bored
from: Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone

Interview with Dave & Jaff from The Futureheads

4. The Futureheads – Park Inn
from: Nul Book Standard EP

5. Caribou – Odessa
from: Swim

Interview with Andy & Kelcey from Local Natives

6. Local Natives – Sun Hands
from: Gorilla Manor

7. British Sea Power – Remember Me
from: The Decline of British Sea Power

Patrick Thornton presents Selection Box every Monday at Midnight.

Post- CONSTELLATIONS musings on festivals

I was 15 when I attended my first festival – U2 at Milton Keynes Bowl, with support from The Ramones, REM, Spear of Destiny and Billy Bragg (who performed at pretty much every festival in the mid to late 1980s). Bono was less pompous then, I was in love with Larry Mullen Jnr, and I’d never seen 50,000 people in one space before – it was quite a big deal for little teenage me. I also got hideously sun-burned and learned my first festival lesson – sun-block.

I haven’t been to that many festivals since, as I decided I actually don’t enjoy them that much. I’ll get excited by a line-up, pay a huge sum of money for maybe three or four bands, then feel disappointed because I can’t see a thing, the sound quality is rubbish, and there are too many drunk people invading my personal space. I’ve often come away from a festival saying “(insert band) were great, but I’d love to see them properly…”

Then I had my first All Tomorrow’s Parties experience. No tents. No portaloos. No sun-block. Amazing bands, decent stages and sound quality – a festival that gives you a proper, intimate gig experience for each band you choose to see. And do you know what else I like? Seats. Standing around all day takes it’s toll, and I am officially middle aged, you know.

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Constellations – a review of 140 characters

I was only at @cnstlltns from 6pm last night but this is what I made of it
Monday 15th November 10:10

I think #Liars did a new song at @cnstlltns. It was ace
Sunday 14th November, 18:53

Until @localnatives said so at @cnstlltns I didn’t know Warning Sign was a Talking Heads cover. Their harmonies are spot on live.
Sunday 14th November, 19:02

The percussive multitasking of @localnatives was as impressive as their harmonies at @cnstlltns
Sunday 14th November, 19:29

A lesson from @cnstlltns : try to stage dive while @lessavyfav are playing & u might end up getting… A foot massage
Sunday 14th November, 20:55

Sorry @loscampesinos but I couldn’t drag myself away from @lessavyfav at @cnstlltns but delighted u were allowed overtime so I cd see u too!
Sunday 14th November, 21:17

Les Savy Fav
Les Savy Fav, photographed by Hannah Cordingley

What I saw of @FourTet & @bssmusic (Broken Social Scene) tonight at @cnstlltns left me wanting more. Wish I cd have seen full set by both
Sunday 14th November, 22:42

I missed @sleighbells at @cnstlltns to catch train. Jen Fox of @bcbradio saw them & says: “they were good…prefer the heavier shouty stuff”
Sunday 14th November, 23:27

The above are all Tweets from @djalbertfreeman

Selection Box Show 146

If time is a concept then in recent months my grasp and understanding of it appears to have faltered significantly because I don’t seem to be in possession of sufficient to do the things I need / want to do.  This has left me ludicrously behind on updating you on Selection Box playlists.

I don’t like to just pop on and bang up a list, though.  It’s a bit impersonal and I prefer to give you a bit of bread for the aural soup as it were.  But how to do this with the necessity for haste?

Well, thunked I, how’s about a paragraph or two on one of the tracks played on the show as a sort of “featured record  spot?  There’s a question mark there but it was rhetorical, as I’m going to do it anyway. Continue reading

The BCB Sessions

Well hello there! I know, I’m rubbish. Like some dodgy ex that comes crawling back with a paltry offering…and a feeble apology. So here I am with the latest playlists (worth waiting for I’m sure). And I’m not helped this morning because I’m being distracted by some wierd, slowed down, gentle guitar love-in version of Live and Let Die. OK, so you’ve heard the excuses but where are the goods I hear you cry?

Well this is what we played on Wed 20 Oct:

Sparrow and the Workshop in session! This band are ace – top tunes and lovely, lovely people.

School of Seven Bells – Heart is strange
Still Flyin – Stay wild, tokelau
Magic Kids – Hey boy
PVT – Window
Sparrow & the Workshop (BCB Session) – Devil song
Yann Tiersen – Palestine
Blonde Redhead – Here sometimes
KORT – Picking wild mountain berries
Dirty projectors – As I went out one morning
Sparrow & the workshop (BCB Session) – Just what I needed
SBTRKT – Look at stars
synthetic phonics – got my lovin
Peppermint Lounge – African orange. (Two lads in Leeds who mash it up, playing tunes that cut across genres & make you happy) http://www.myspace.com/thepeppermintlounge
Declining Winter ( Epic 45 Remix) (Pudsey’s Fourth best band – not sure who’s top trumping them but their live performances are intense and brilliant) http://www.myspace.com/thedecliningwinter
Sparrow & the workshop (BCB Session) – Medal around your neck

And on Wed 13 Oct:

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