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Played live acoustically at the ceremony:

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Bob Dylan - Make You Feel My Love
The Beatles - Real Love


Reception background music:

Adele - Make You Feel My Love
The Beatles - Something, Oh! Darling, Blackbird, Revolution 1, I've Just Seen A Face, Girl, In My Life, The Ballad Of John And Yoko, Real Love
Calexico - Two Silver Trees, Quattro (World Drifts In)
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
The Church - Under The Milky Way
Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
The Cure - Close To Me
DeVotchKa - Along The Way, New World
Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife
Feist - The Water, Past In Present, 1234
The Go-Betweens - Streets Of Your Town
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Over The Rainbow
Jenny Lewis - Pretty Bird
Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists!!, Melt Your Heart, Handle With Care
Joan as Police Woman - Real Life, Eternal Flame, The Ride, Flushed Chest, Anyone, Holiday, To Be Loved, To Be Lonely, Start Of My Heart
Little Birdy - Into My Arms
Little Red - So Long
Lucinda Williams - Lake Charles
Massive Attack - Teardrop
Mazzy Star - Bells Ring (Acoustic Version), Fade Into You
Midlake - Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard aka Erol Alkan & Richard Norris Remix)
Neko Case - Deep Red Bells, Tightly, Look For Me (I'll Be Around), Stinging Velvet, I Wish I Was The Moon, Star Witness, Hold On Hold On, That Teenage Feeling, Lion's Jaws, Maybe Sparrow, This Tornado Loves You, Vengeance Is Sleeping, Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth, Middle Cyclone, Magpie To The Morning, The Pharaohs
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - A Teenager In Love
The Panics - Don't Fight It, This Day Last Year
Phoenix - Too Young
Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
Rand and Holland - It's Alright
Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining
Ryan Adams - Two
Sade - No Ordinary Love
She & Him - I Should Have Known Better
Sia - Breathe Me (Four Tet Remix)
The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
The Smiths - This Charming Man
The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut
Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
The Watson Twins - Just Like Heaven
Wilco - I'll Fight


I had to cut the first pick of songs down from over 10 hours of music to 5 hours, it sucked cause there so many songs i wanted to sneak in but there was no point, so i just picked the more well known/more appropriate stuff and leaned towards more of the fun side.

Artists i had to cut:

The Beach Boys
Bernard Fanning
Bob Dylan
Bob Evans
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
The Cat Empire
Empire of the Sun
Gillian Welch
Gipsy Kings
The Handsome Family
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Imelda May
Jeff Buckley
Justin Townes Earle
Kate Miller-Heidke
Led Zeppelin
Merle Haggard
Metric
MGMT
Patsy Cline
Patterson Hood
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Roy Orbison
Tift Merritt
Willie Nelson

As we reach the midpoint of the year, I've been putting together a brief survey of some of my musical picks of 2009. It's a pretty loose assortment of tracks, sequenced in a way that appeals to me rather than as a way of expressing any overall preference.

In case anybody's interested, here's what I wound up with. A 20-track compilation that could be tentatively titled "Year of the accordion", I guess.

Mike Park - Rise Up
The Hold Steady - Ask Her For Adderall
Justin Townes Earle - Midnight At The Movies
Roy Bailey - Anna Mae
Nightingales - I Am Grimaldi
Son Volt - Dynamite
The Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin
Clutch - Freakonomics
Neil Young - Johnny Magic
The Broken Family Band - St. Albans
Condo Fucks - Dog Meat
Dinosaur Jr. - Pieces
Isis - Hall of the Dead
The Thermals - When I Died
Brakes - Why Tell The Truth (When It's Easier To Lie)
Mastodon - Divinations
The Handsome Family - Wild Wood
Noisettes - Don't Upset the Rhythm
Wilco - Wilco (the Song)
Bill Callahan - Faith/Void

Apocalyptic is a word which sits well with the Handsome Family. The haunting traditional melodies of their songs are overlaid with words about loneliness, death and decay, in which birds (particularly birds), paper cups and urban desolation come to symbolise the transience and fragility of human existence and the ultimate victory of nature. And there has been something slightly apocolyptic about both times I have seen the band play in Leeds.
The first time was back in 2000(?) at Maguires on New York Street. A lorry driver's strike had caused a fuel shortage and for a very strange period of around 48 hours, it seemed as if the country might be on the verge of collapse.
This time, political turbulence was provided by the MP's expenses scandal and the air of apocalypse augmented by the kind of thunderstorm which brings premature night and sees the sky torn in two by mile-long streaks of lightning.

The big difference betwen the two shows was the number of attendees. Back in the day, the Family was little known in this (or probably any) country and barely twenty souls were there to watch them..Today, it seems, they are huge and the excellent Brudenell struggles to accommodate their throng of enthusiasts. So dense is the crowd, in fact, that my partner and I listen to the first half of Liz green's set whilst watching rain water evaporate off the back of a fat man's Tshirt.

As interesting as this is, it is something of a shame, because, when we finally tear ourselves away from the spectacle and force our way front of the crowd, Liz Green turns out to have been well worth the bruises we sustained in getting there. She's kind of gawky looking, an effect she achieves, in part, by wearing a plaid dress with a white, buttoned collar and, in part ,by everything else about her. She plays little jerky songs, which she accompanies with folky, finger-picking guitar and which she sings in a warbly, slightly nasal, yet strangely powerful voice. She ought, by rights, to be about 90 years old and to have grown up in the coal-mining part of Kentucky with an idiot brother called Deak. She also has a shadow theatre ("I have shadows. They haunt me.") and her CDs come in little cloth bags which she may well have sewn herself. She's quirky. In a good way. You never saw the like of her, I can vouch for that.

Rennie ( the female half of the Handsome Family) must be one of my favourite people in the whole world. I used to be on the band's mailing list and, when I wrote to her, she always wrote something funny back. She's honest, modest and, well, just plain nice, in a way which rehabilitates the word and makes it something noble. Her gentle banter with husband Brett (a charming, lurching bear of a man with a fantastically mournful voice) and her wry and surreal asides create an instant intimacy with the audience which transcends the setting (i've seen her do it at Manchester University and I'm confident she could bring life even to the dreaded Faversham). She sings harmonies, plays autoharp, bass and melodica and OK, so I fancy her, that's not a crime, surely?

Tonight, any way, the band are on cracking form. Their sound is bossted by an additional guitarist and a drummer and they seem to have grown in confidence musically, giving an extra bit of verve and swing to old favourites such as "Weightless" and "So much Wine". The set is dominated by songs from their new album "Honey Moon", which on this evidence, is even better than its predecessors and Brett is particularly clumsy, sweaty and beaming and the rain and collapsing government and credit crunch and global warming all seem like good things in a sad and poignant and cosily shambolic way. A member of the audience had earlier requested a song whose name I forget about saying goodbye to all of the animals you have accidentally killed in amusing ways and this is an excellent choice and the final encore is "Don't be Scared" which is my favourite HF song.

Excellent.

The Handsome FamilyLiz Green

My 30,000 track was....
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - I Had a Dream, Joe

As of 05.09.09:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. The Handsome Family
04. Rufus Wainwright
05. Neko Case
06. They Might Be Giants
07. Tom Waits
08. Sufjan Stevens
09. Elliott Brood
10. 16 Horsepower

Top ten tracks
01. Elliott Brood - President 35
02. The Handsome Family - The Woman Downstairs
03. The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall
04. Songs:Ohia - The Old Black Hen
05. Jay Munly - Big Black Bull Comes Like a Caesar
06. ALEX FULLER - Mr. Handsome Shapes
07. DeVotchKa - Head Honcho
08. 16 Horsepower - Hutterite Mile
09. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
10. Antony and the Johnsons - River of Sorrow

Top ten albums
01. Elliott Brood - Ambassador
02. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
03. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks
04. The Decemberists - Picaresque
05. The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder
06. Pine Hill Haints - Ghost Dance
07. The Decemberists - Her Majesty
08. 16 Horsepower - Folklore
09. Toadies - Rubberneck
10. Black Kali Ma - You Ride the Pony I'll Be the Bunny

Top ten tracks demonstrating increasing popularity amongst Jessichaosi, aged 27 to 27
01. Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve
02. Sophe Lux - Lou Salome
03. Pine Hill Haints - Cuckoo Bird
04. Neko Case - This Tornado Loves You
05. Sophe Lux - Lonely Girl
06. Sophe Lux - Target Market
07. Pine Hill Haints - Catfish Angels
08. Teddy Thompson - Can't Sing Straight
09. Lavender Diamond - Oh No
10. Lavender Diamond - Side Of The Lord

Boah, der Frühling hat echt langen Atem diesen April, wo ist denn das berümte April-Wetter? Nicht, dass wir's vermissen würden, aber da wird uns ja Angst und Bange mit Blick auf den Mai. Aber lassen wir das und widmen uns lieber unserem kleinen wöchentlichen Update.

Viel Spaß ;)

REVIEWS:

Scott Matthew - There Is An Ocean That Divides And With My Longing I Can Charge It With A Voltage Thats So Violent To Cross It Could Mean Death - KLICK
The Handsome Family - Honey Moon - KLICK
The Veils - Sun Gangs - KLICK
Super Furry Animals - Dark Days / Light Years - KLICK
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career - KLICK
The Virgins - The Virgins - KLICK

LIVE:

James Yuill - live in Osnabrück KLICK
Dear Reader - live in Köln KLICK
Dartz - live in Lüdenscheid KLICK

INTERVIEWS:

James Yuill - KLICK
Dear Reader - KLICK
Langstreckenläufer - KLICK

NEWS:

Metric verschenken Song KLICK
Ólafur Arnalds - verschenkt Songs KLICK
Jarvis Cocker - verschenkt Song KLICK
Sonic Youth - verschenken Song KLICK

Das alles und natürlich wie immer noch viel mehr bei bei >>WhiteTapes

http://velourscarpetsforlovers.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/the-handsome-family-honey-moon-carrot-top-2009/

The Handsome Family Honey Moon

I worry. Are these lists getting predictable? And is that necessarily a bad thing? Wouldn't it be bizarre to have ten completely new artists on each new list? That's not taste, that's just diversity for its own sake. Nonetheless, I'm running out of things to say about the Ramones.

The fact that this project is not a snapshot but a trajectory might just save it; I am counting on having new things to talk about as I proceed. But yeah--this thing is still impossible to imagine finishing. I'm only going to do it as long as it's fun--otherwise I'm Sergeant Major, marching up and down the square:



Counting the intro piece, this is the 19th of these silly little lists. Only 200-odd silly little lists left to go! At this glacial pace, that means I'll be finished sometime early in the 2020s, by which time music will be obsolete. Also, lists will be horribly unfashionable. Especially ranked lists, with their authoritarian and anti-inclusive bias against the vast array of things that aren't on the list. Good God, what a minefield. I have probably already caused someone offense merely by broaching the topic. My insensitivity knows no bounds.

NOTE: Index is coming soon.

The Top Ten Songs at 3:29

1) Gardening at Night--R.E.M.
Stipe’s holy haunted altar-boy falsetto floats over Buck’s sunny jangle; the benefit of the mumbly vocals and oblique lyrics is to reap the rewards of sounding earnest without having to actually commit to being earnest about something in particular.

2) Tiger Mountain Peasant Song--Fleet Foxes
My primary reservation about Fleet Foxes, the thing that keeps me from loving them unconditionally, is their too-heavy reliance on 70s soft folk influences: they feel too sanitized. But this one is a quiet fire, the softness just barely containing a despair that threatens to burst the song's construction. A strong traditional verse/chorus gives way to coda that implodes the lyrical abstractions to reveal an intensely personal confession: “Jesse, I don’t know what I have done. I’m turning myself into a demon.”

3) Regenisraen--Game Theory
Here is some Christmas music I can really get behind. The lyrics only barely mention Christmas, but it has a beautifully melancholic wintry feel, the choral harmonies evoking a spiritual awe like a more existential "O Holy Night." Let's get this in the Christmas music rotation!

4) Memories Can't Wait--Talking Heads
Indicator of high album quality: often when a random song from Fear of Music comes up in a mix, I think “This is surely the best song on this record.” This hallucinatory yawp suggests an acid trip that won’t end, or perhaps the world of a catatonic, or simply someone so traumatized that he is unable to stop reliving what he has already experienced, which is unsettlingly close to normal and universal human experience.

5) When We're Dead And Gone--The Moaners
I love musical collisions, such as this sweaty old slide and harmonica electric blues topped with a sweet girl group melody about death.

6) No More Heroes--The Stranglers
In answer to the question, well, Bono came along, and the world lived in peace and harmony under his benevolent rule.

7) Down in the Valley of Hollow Logs--The Handsome Family
A thematic/stylistic collision here, as the dissonance of a science fiction apocalypse merges with a stately murder ballad. Two lovers laying in the grass poetically profess their love for each other, then commit suicide in anticipation of what seems to be a nuclear holocaust. It begs the question of what meaning a suicide pact has when death is already imminent and certain; I suppose it’s about volition, and the idea that insane romantic gestures actually make sense under those conditions.

8) Amelia--Cocteau Twins
Regardless of what Liz Fraser may actually be singing about, for me the Cocteau Twins have always been primarily about sex, or at least its romantic abstraction. All those trills and lush orchestration, y'know? Yes, actual sex is a bit dirtier and gruntier, but this is what it sounds like when the endorphins throw a gauzy tent over all that mammal lust.

9) Nothing Is True--The Jim Carroll Band
Jim Carroll’s junkie poetry thinks it’s cooler and smarter than it actually is, but his band’s lean twin-guitar attack is cool enough, borrowing Television’s tough melodicism and playing it faster.

10) She's a Sensation--Ramones
The Ramones at their most pop-friendly, which is pretty friendly indeed. Such a shame radio did not agree at the time.

The Most Annoying Song at 3:29

Only a Pawn in Their Game--Bob Dylan
This lame explanation of why poor whites don’t share a “class consciousness” with their brothers is the nadir of hippie philosophy, espousing the dangerous idea that individuals are not responsible for their actions. It posits governors and law enforcement as puppet masters, but didn’t they grow up in the same culture? How do they deserve blame if these other folks can’t think for themselves? When you defend “pawns” with this paternalistic, patronizing bullshit, you rob them of their volition and humanity. Boo.

Now you can march up and down the square with me, unless there's something else you'd rather be doing. Off with you, then.

Wed 18 Mar – SXSW Music Conference and Festival
Click the linked day-by-day posts for reviews of each of the bands:

Day 1 - Wednesday :
J. Tillman, Yoni Wolf of Why?, Themselves, The Handsome Family, Jucifer, Katzenjammer, The Weird Weeds, Dosh, Viva Voce

Day 2 - Thursday :
Justin Townes Earle, Department of Eagles, Mi Ami, Golden Triangle, All the Saints, Tori Amos, Little Boots, Datarock

Day 3 - Friday :
Dressy Bessy, Old James, Ruby Isle, Telepathe, Handsome Furs, Tombs, The Rosebuds, Kittens Ablaze

Day 4 - Saturday :
Katzenjammer, UME, Mouse House, Follow That Bird, The Bird and the Bee

Top 5 Shows:
5: The Rosebuds
4: Ruby Isle
3: Katzenjammer
2: Jucifer
1: Kittens Ablaze