Dead Rabbit, Outer Hebrides 2006

Return to Summerisle for a musical Wicker sequel (one probably making more sense than Wicker Man II - yes it exists, yes it was written by Tony Shaffer, yes it was bonkers. Being molested by tree gods and throwing people off cliffs with eagles attached to them? Anyone?).

This time returning to focus on the contemporary possible inspirations for the Wicker Man soundtrack, and some later music I think has been influenced by either the soundtrack or the related music of that time, music that contains the same love for early music or combines the same mixture of acid/psychedelic/freak folk mixed with a more uneasy dread or pagan longing.

Unlike the last show a lot of high conjecture (it might all have been Carport Convention and Inedible String Band for all I know! :-P) so I throw in speech and music from the original film as well as some amazing modern day covers.

I forgot to say these sources of information and inspiration:

1. The Music of the Wicker Man - brilliant article and the last show heavily leant on (ie stole) this information - hope you don't mind!
2. Inside the Wicker Man: How Not to Make a Cult Classic (excellent book - most 'interviews', 'documentaries', 'new information' and 'shocking exposes' are seemingly this book reheated/nicked - it's a good read despite having heard a lot of the info from elsewhere, not the books fault as this seems to be the source for all of that)
3. Wiki Man (lol)
4. Gary Carpenter - Setting the Score - interesting info especially about the Trunk release, although in fairness I have to link their response and without the Trunk release being successful there would be no other versions or anything to kvetch about. Also I think the legalities of performance fees are now very different from 1973.
5. Burnt Offerings - Cult of the Wicker Man
6. Wicker Man Enigma - both on the DVD
7. A Darker Shade of Pagan - Wicker Man posts

Phew I think that's all! You probably can't hear it in the shows with all the umming and erring, but I did an uncommon amount of research on this one.

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).

 

he now wears cuckold's horns, and they're growing full, pushing through the soil

Outer Hebrides, 2006

Get out your apples, pipes and fairisle jumpers, it's a trip back to the 1970's folk and a return to Summerisle - the Wicker Man⁺ awaits...This part is about the older influences to the amazing soundtrack by Paul Giovanni - English, Irish and Scottish songs dating back upto 800 years - to the start of recorded music itself.

Where'd they find virgins nowadays?

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).

 

My collage contains elements from Leandroid, superk8nyc, kumar303, and bertwerk via Creative Commons derivative works license off Flickr

Yes after 4 years in the wilderness, the Aural pOddities show is BACK! Aren't you lucky...after the last very POP show this is as unpop as it gets, including the mad, bad, sad, and just plain irritating avant-retard latest in car-crash audio.

You'll feel like you've been in an audio trainwreck and will rush to your Kylie CDs for relief after this, but it's worth reminding yourselves there's a strange world out there, and people make and made music and audio like this...and the stranger sadistic thing, I really enjoy it all :-D

With thanks (blame?) to WFMU's Beware of the Blog, 365 Days Project, Hotrod's Run for Cover, Cool and Strange Music Magazine , Lux and Ivy's Favorites and many more.

Play LOUD to all your enemies!

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).

POP^{# in more than one sense - this is the Crimes Against Pop set Kirk and myself played last weekend, mixed in with some of our other choices and the rough (well +20%!) 1 hour set we'd planned. * indicates tracks we played at CAP. POP you can't STOP (107Mb, 112Mins)}

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).

^{RANT starts now: # This was a nightmare of a podcast - from a POPping soundcard - now have a shiny Native Instruments Audio 4 DJ which although not POP-less is far better sounding than my old troublesome firewire M-Audio Audiophile....still got nasty digital hum though. I then re-recorded the whole set - only to have my laptop crash and the whole Hi-MD disc to corrupt on final transfer, losing the lot (Sony's stupid DRM and encryption is the reason why; no wonder MD as a format bombed - here is an explanation why by the wonderful Quiet American, who I know from modulator days - hi!) so when I upgrade I'm going solid state memory card recorder I think. Love MiniDisc and it's highly tolerant auto gain recording, hate it's stupid DRM...}

(image created in part by Data Bending – like Circuit Bending or Data Moshing but taking the data of an image file and hacking it about to create interesting errors ;-)

Time to let the machines run the show, so this is DJ Charles IV (my iPod) choosing the playlist for this show, with a little Blue Peter style help from me, but it’s mostly his choices, I’m just tagging along for the ride!

He’ll be making the tea next.

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).

A long summer show reflecting the long uninterrupted periods of sunshine we’re getting in the UK, *cough* NOT.

So here’s another podcast for a schizophrenic summer that can’t make it’s mind up between sunshine, rain, and cloudy on an hourly basis. I also talk about hynagogic pop, a term from the Wire (I know I know, but at least it’s not chillwave or shitgaze which ARE officially the worst genre names ever) about a certain type of woozy blissed out electronic/experimental guitar music (thanks eve!) – although listeners of Vini Reilly and Pat Metheny might debate the newness of this!

Oh and a cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

• El Guincho – Antillas
• Simon And Garfunkel – A Hazy Shade Of Winter
• Tennors – Weather Report
• Dubmatix – London Calling (Album Version) [feat. Don Letts & Dan Donovan] (from Shatter the Hotel benefitting Strummerville
• B.o.B – The Kids (feat. Janelle Monae)
• Instamatic – Nothin’ Crazy (B.O.B ft Bruno Mars vs Gnarls Barkley)
• Balkan Beat Box – War Again
• LCD Soundsystem – You Wanted a Hit (Keljet Remix)
• Scissor Sisters – Invisible Light (Siriusmo Remix)
• Buraka Som Sistema – Buffalo Stance
• DJ not-I – Burst Your Own Way
• Yeasayer – Ambling Alp
• Inyang Henshaw – Esonta
• Balkan Beat Box – Balcumbia
• lobsterdust – Knock Out Eileen (L L Cool J vs. Dexy’s Midnight Runners)
• U-Roy – I Can’t Love Another
• Broken Bells – Vaporize
• Mark McGuire – A Pocket Full Of Rain
• Yeasayer – I Remember
• Emeralds – Candy Shoppe
• 5th Dimension – Love’s Lines, Angles, and Rhymes
• Matt Elliott – The Mess We Made
• Dusty Springfield – I Found My Way
• Mark McGuire – The Marfa Lights
• Alva Noto – Xerrox Soma
• Broken Bells – Trap Doors
• White Rainbow – Major Spillage
• Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme – Black Hole Sun

London Bridge Is Broken down, Dance over my Lady Lee. London Bridge Is Broken down With a gay Lady. Take a key and lock her up, Lock her up, Lock her up. Build it up with silver and gold, My fair lady. Gold and silver I have none, I have none, I have none. Silver, and Gold Will be stolen away, Stone so strong will last so long, Last so long, Last so long. Second part of the now 3-part London series, a darker, rainier and less sunshiney (just like the real thing!) podcast with riots, a LUL FU, protests, politics, searches, killings and anarchy. So just another day in the city, then! As before, thanks to The London Nobody Sings, Bob Levingbird, Ian Fondue and anyone I've forgotten for their suggestions/posts.

• Professor Bumble's Magic Machine - London Bridge Is Falling Down
• George Mitchell Singers - Swinging London
• Wendy James - London's Brilliant
• Blur - London Loves
• Gene - To The City
• Bitter Springs - Moving to the City
• Mike Proctor - Mr. Commuter
• Ian Dury - Busdrivers Prayer
• Big Audio Dynamite - Harrow Road
• XTC - Towers of London
• Linton Kwesi Johnson - Di Great Insohreckshan
• Blak Twang - Real Estate
• Demon Boyz - Law Abiding Citizen
• Ivor Cutler - British Museum
• Linton Kwesi Johnson - Reggae Fi Peach
• Smiley Culture - Cockney Translation
• The King Blues - Let's Hang The Landlord
• Bevis Frond - South Hampstead Rain
• Spike Milligan - Wormwood Scrubs Tango
• Saint Etienne - Side Streets
• The Real Tuesday Weld - London
• The Real Tuesday Weld - I Loved London

And another podcast slips out - what's gotten into me?

To honour 10 years in the Old Smoke I've a two-part podcast for you about London - first one is full of those songs about moving to the Emeraldine city, and visiting Buckingham Palais and going down on Alice, doing the Lambeth Stalk and having a rather (too much of a?) good time, down at the Old Bull and Bush Ye Olde Weatherspoons.

Nah actually we take the sideroutes that only the locals know and the London tunes Nobody Sings (not only a reference to this great documentary, but also a great blog I owe a lot to for these shows, as well as the Wikipedia entry for London songs, and James O'Malley aka @Psythor and his London Musical Map) - take a journey to the musical parts of the Metropolis.

No umbrellas, bedknobs, broomsticks or psychotic nannies or chimney sweeps needed...(66Mb, 85Mins)

P.S. Forgot to say the Peter Sellers is for my dad...he loves that track :-)

• Rolf Harris - London Town
• Lord Kitchener - London Is The Place For Me
• Man Like Me - London Town (feat. JME) (Bass Line House Vocal Remix)
• Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - The Only Living Boy in New Cross
• Dynamo City - One Night In Hackney
• Beverley - Where The Good Times Are
• Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Last Night In Soho
• Saint Etienne - London Belongs To Me (Richard X Remix from FoxBase Beta)
• The Clientele - Losing Haringey
• Magna Carta - Parliament Hill
• John and Beverley Martyn Primrose Hill
• Belle and Sebastian - Mornington Crescent
• Peter Sellers - Balham, Gateway to the South
• Saint Etienne - Girl VIII (Richard X Remix from FoxBase Beta)
• David Devant and His Spirit Wife - Pimlico
• Pulp - 59 Lyndhurst Grove