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Friday, February 15th, 2008

🦋 Never Let Me Go

In the interview yesterday (which features good humor and some real insight) Robyn recommends Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go as "a gently devastating book." I had not heard of the book before but now I'm thinking it looks really interesting. -- Here is an interview with Ishiguro and some readings from the book. Onto the queue it goes!

posted evening of February 15th, 2008: Respond
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Friday, February first, 2008

🦋 In concert

The two shows I downloaded last night are indeed great music; I am tentatively liking the 1996 show better than the 2008 show, which I have however not yet listened to all of.** If anyone would like a link to the 96* show files, drop me a line.

Here is the setlist:

1. DeChirico Street (from Moss Elixir)
2. Lysander (from Perspex Island)
3. Balloon Man (from Globe of Frogs)
4. Devil's Radio (from Moss Elixir)
5. Chinese Bones (from Globe of Frogs)
6. My Wife & My Dead Wife (from fegMania!)
7. Beautiful Girl (from Eye)
8. Glass Hotel (from Eye)
9. I Something You (from Storefront Hitchcock)
10. You & Oblivion (from Moss Elixir)
11. Queen Of Eyes (from Underwater Moonlight)
12. Man With A Woman's Shadow (from Moss Elixir)
13. Kingdom Of Love (from Underwater Moonlight)
14. Serpent At The Gates of Wisdom (from Respect)
15. Heliotrope (from Moss Elixir)
16. I Am Not Me (from Moss Elixir)
17. Only The Stones Remain (by the Soft Boys, I think only released as a single)

*Not that there are 96 of them, I mean they're from that year.
**After listening to more: Yes, the 96 gig is the better -- It actually adds something to the music over what is published on the albums, where the 2008 show is beautiful but not in a much different or superior way from I Often Dream of Trains.

posted evening of February first, 2008: Respond
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008

🦋 A new show and an old

Haven't downloaded any Robyn concerts for a while now; but two new tapes became available today. One is of his gig the day before yesterday at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; as soon as I read about it this morning I started fervently wishing for a tape of the show. And whaddaya know, half an hour later or so I get e-mail informing me of its availability. Quick on the heels of that message came another one, about a show from April '96 in Bilbao. Looking forward to listening to both.

Another opportunity for listening to Hitchcock: He'll be on Jools Holland's BBC show tomorrow night. Apparently I will be able to watch it on Fuse, though I'm not completely sure how that works yet.

posted evening of January 31st, 2008: Respond
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Monday, January 14th, 2008

🦋 Shining down, on the water

It's worth pointing out just how great the bonus tracks on the CD of Black Snake Dîamond Röle are. I wrote a couple of months ago about how much I like "All I Wanna Do is Fall in Love" -- "A Skull, a Suitcase, and a Long Red Bottle of Wine" and "It Was the Night" are similarly great (although "It Was the Night" seems like a lousy title to me). And there's much more! The take #2 of "I Watch the Cars" (take #1 is maybe my favorite song on the original record) is not so good however.

posted evening of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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🦋 "I don't know how likeable she was..."

I was just looking at the jacket of While Thatcher Mauled Britain and noticed a cartoon of Hitchcock's. A little bit hilarious in the context of these past few days.

posted evening of January 14th, 2008: Respond
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Friday, December 28th, 2007

🦋 Friday Random 10

1. "Oceanside", Robyn Hitchcock, Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Not produced as well as the version on Perspex Island and I think they are playing at a faster tempo.
2. "Keep on the Sunny Side", Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle be Unbroken. Can't say much about this. It is totally unironic and is Maybelle Carter's signature piece; I love it but it brings back unpleasant childhood sing-along memories.
3. "Penny Lane", Robyn Hitchcock. Lousy. I ought to take this concert off my iPod, there is no reason to keep it. The banter following the song -- "One of the things that really distinguished the '60s from the present was that they didn't have these things that say 'if you like that, try this!'" -- struck me as kind of humorous but not really up to RH banter standards.
4. "Rukus Juice Blues", Big Bill Broonzy. Awesome. Broonzy says "rookus", not "ruckus"; at first I thought he was talking about "ruby juice".
5. "Birds in Perspex", Robyn Hitchcock LCFF. Maybe my favorite RH song ever. But again, not up to the level of the album version -- this record could probably come off the iPod as well. It is impossible not to sing along with "come alive" even though I'm in public, sitting on a bench on the street.
6. "Pretty Little Dog", Critton Hollow String Band. Instrumental. Just right after #5. (from the "String Theory" compilation)
7. "This is the Last Time I'll Say Goodbye", The Sirens -- from the Apostropher's Don't Bogart That Groove compilation. I hadn't noticed before what a remarkable song this instrumental piece is. The music has a really structural feeling to it like it's building a walled passageway that you travel through -- the notes are textural elements in the structure. This has to maybe have something to do with percussion -- I've gotten the same feeling from some tracks on Perspex Island that have really strong drums.
8. "Johnny B. Goode", The Dead 2/27/77 -- this random set is trending toward songs that are totally characteristic of their performers.
9. "Mambo Dominica", David Murray Latin Big Band, from Don't Bogart That Groove. "Cute but corny" is my initial reaction. As I listen to it for a while (it is a very long song), I start to hear the horns more individually, less as part of a mass of sound, which is pleasant. This would be good music for walking.
10. "Each of her Silver Wands", Robyn Hitchcock 3/14/97 Knitting Factory. I don't know this song. It sounds like it could be pretty good but like he hasn't really written it yet at this performance. Very short.

The combination of numbers 1, 5, and 7 inspired me to listen to Perspex Island, which I had not in a while. It sure gets to me -- this is my favorite record of the year. When "Birds in Perspex" came on I had to run outside to avoid embarrassing myself by singing "come alive" in the Avery Fischer Hall lobby.

...Can I analyse the structure of "Birds in Perspex"? That is sort of what I wanted to do during my Song by Song project but I don't think it really came across. Every line of that song just really touches my heart -- the lyrics to be sure and the way they fall across the canvas of music. When Andy Metcalfe came in at the end singing "birds in perspex, come alive" it actually startled me that the person singing on the recording was not myself.

posted evening of December 28th, 2007: Respond
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Friday, November second, 2007

🦋 Friday random ten

Belle inspires me to figure out where my iPod is and listen to some random songs so I can post them here. I'm getting lots of blues and lots of Robyn tonight.

• "Alma Waltz", Mississippi Mud-Steppers
• "Singin the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)", Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
• "Broken Bed Blues", Kansas City Blues Strummers
• "Flavor of Night", Robyn Hitchcock -- this shares the quality of many of the songs on I Often Dream of Trains, where the song totally sounds like it's going to be amazing, fantastic, you can't miss its potential greatness, but somehow it doesn't quite make it.
• "Hard Way", Taj Mahal -- Janis gave me this CD in an effort to make me see how great Taj Mahal is; but I'm afraid his greatness eludes me. The instrumentals are occasionally awesome.
• "Sometimes a Blonde", Robyn Hitchcock. A solo acoustic performance at Maxwell's, in the catastrophic month of November 2004. I like this a whole lot. After the song, patter about waitress Desirée.
• "Terrapin", Robyn Hitchcock. From the second set of the April 2007 Games for May concert. With cellos!
• "I Miss You More", 13 Scotland Rd. I don't think this is my favorite song of theirs but after the long instrumental at the beginning finishes, it might be their best vehicle for Bill's voice.
• Medley of "Good Morning" and "In the Midnight Hour", by Robyn Hitchcock, who so much should not try to cover the Beatles. Oh man, this is a train wreck. What the fuck's going on Robyn? You have a really amazingly good singing voice when you're not trying to sing like John Lennon. (Though the cellos are a nice touch.)
• "Sittin' on Top of the World", Taj Mahal. Nope, still not getting it.

posted evening of November second, 2007: Respond
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Saturday, October 27th, 2007

🦋 While there's still time

My favorite thing about I Wanna Go Backwards, on first listening, may be the inclusion of "All I wanna do is fall in love" as a bonus track on Black Snake Dîamond Röle. I was not aware of that song before this afternoon but it is now one of my favorite Hitchcock songs. So I was glad to hear it -- all of that record was really nice to hear again, as was Eye (except I remembered how "Queen Elvis" kind of turned me off to that record -- but the good tracks more than make up for that). Also I was happy to see some key tracks from Eaten By Her Own Dinner on the bonus material for BSDR -- including the majestically weird "Happy the Golden Prince". ("So that's who I am!") The record of unreleased demo tapes, While Thatcher Mauled Britain (fantastic title), is going to take a few more listenings before I decide how worthwhile it is to me; most of the versions of songs I knew did not seem as good as the album versions, and I didn't listen that closely to the songs I did not know from elsewhere.

But seriously, "All I wanna do is fall in love", what a magnificent song. Other extremely good things about listening to this collection: "Executioner", and multiple versions of "Raining Twilight Coast"....also: remember how I said that "She Doesn't Exist" doesn't do bitter as well as "Positively 4th Street"? "Nowhere Girl" is not aiming for quite the same thing as "4th Street" -- but it sure is bitter, and it sure is a fantastic song.

posted evening of October 27th, 2007: Respond

Friday, October 26th, 2007

🦋 I Wanna Go Backwards

O happy day! Robyn Hitchcock's box set I Wanna Go Backwards is published and arrives on my doorstep. Looks really good -- tomorrow I am going to spend some time savoring it. There is Black Snake Dîamond Röle, his first solo record, and which was the one album of his I got to know by heart when I was a teenager -- this print also includes nearly a whole nother record's worth of extra tracks, ones I love off of Eaten by her own Dinner, and ones I have never heard of -- I Often Dream of Trains, which a lot of Hitchcock fans seem to list as their favorite record; and Eye, which I love the songs that I'm familiar with but don't really know the record as a whole. Jer told me that when Eye came out he had started getting disillusioned with Robyn and the record reminded him of why he thought Robyn was a great musician. (I wasn't really listening to new records at that time because of not having a CD player.) And, and that's not all -- rounding out the set is a double album of demo tapes from the '80's titled While Thatcher Mauled Britain. Looks like this is going to be my afternoon activity tomorrow -- I had been planning to march against the war, but this fair-weather patriot is put off by forecasts of 100% chance heavy rain.

posted evening of October 26th, 2007: Respond

Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

🦋 You know what singer Robyn Hitchcock's voice reminds me of?

Patsy Cline, is who. I would love to hear Robyn cover some of her songs, maybe especially "Heartache".

posted afternoon of September 23rd, 2007: Respond

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