What are you listening to? (V)Music

[Populuxe]

Crash Test Dummies - Superman’s Song

 

[UKMikey]

I can't find a digital copy of Genius Of America so I've got a physical copy on the way.

 

[Chris30]

Kenny Rogers- Lady

 

[TexRex]

Freedy Johnston - Earn Enough for Us


Easily the best track on the XTC tribute record and possibly the best XTC cover? Crash Test Dummies (heh) did such a good job with "Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" that it's really close, and a lot of that closeness may be down to my appreciation for Freedy Johnston in general.

Freedy Johnston - Evie's Tears


Freedy Johnston - Evie's Garden


Freedy Johnston - Gone to See the Fire


He also recently covered Warren Zevon. Boy, that's bold. It's not as good as I want it to be? To be fair, much of Enjoy Every Sandwich (the Warren Zevon tribute record) doesn't do it for me either. Warren isn't sacred but he's about as close to it as anyone gets for me.

Freedy Johnston - Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

 

[Chris30]

Vicki Lawrence- The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia

 

[Darla Starch]

 

[UKMikey]

With five top ten singles (at least here in the UK) Nightflight To Venus is arguably the Thriller of kitschy 70s Eurodisco.

 

[brksonance]

Thru The Vibe (2 on 1 Mix) - Omni Trio

Intelligent D&B classic Grateful for GTA introducing me to this genre

 

[UKMikey]

👍 XTC and Magazine both high on my list.

I haven't started Magazine yet but I like The Buzzcocks, Banshees and Visage's first album and am familiar with "Shot By Both Sides" so I'm looking forward to this.

As far as XTC goes I've listened from Drums And Wires up to the end of The Big Express and am about to listen to Oranges & Lemons. I bought this on cassette in 1989 on the strength of lead single "Mayor Of Simpleton" and remember only liking five or so tracks, so let's see whether Steven Wilson can open my ears to the rest.

"Mayor" is a perfect pop record for me, perhaps Andy Partridge's masterpiece (although "Wrapped In Grey" from the follow up album Nonsuch just entered the chat). Its dense harmonies are offset by a transcendent Colin Moulding bassline full of ascending and descending scales and village church bell carillon-style verse melodies to underscore the village metaphor.

Partridge writes a very clever lyric about being stupid, balancing sparkling wit and clever wordplay - which belie the song character's claim of unintelligence - with an undisguised and heartfelt affection for the person he's singing to. "If depth of feeling is a currency / Then I'm the man who grew the money tree" is perhaps my favourite line of his even if he went on to become "The Man Who Murdered Love" on a future album.

 

[TexRex]

(although "Wrapped In Grey" from the follow up album Nonsuch just entered the chat)

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous tune. I'd known but could never get into XTC before Nonsuch but it got me to go back and look at the previous stuff again and I fell in love.

"Wrapped In Grey" is probably tops for me but "Ballet for a Rainy Day" and its accompanying "1000 Umbrellas" on Skylarking aren't far behind.

 

[UKMikey]

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous tune. I'd known but could never get into XTC before Nonsuch but it got me to go back and look at the previous stuff again and I fell in love.

"Wrapped In Grey" is probably tops for me but "Ballet for a Rainy Day" and its accompanying "1000 Umbrellas" on Skylarking aren't far behind.

I messed up and still have Skylarking and The Dukes Of Stratosfear Stratosphear to play before I reach Oranges & Lemons. I only intended to listen to a few of their albums but I'm gonna slog it out until at least Apple Venus Volume 1.

 

[TexRex]

I messed up and still have Skylarking and The Dukes Of Stratosfear to play before I reach Oranges & Lemons. I only intended to listen to a few of their albums but I'm gonna slog it out until at least Apple Venus Volume 1.

It isn't XTC (well Dukes isn't either, in name anyway), but Andy did Planet England with Robyn Hitchcock and it's fun.

 

[ScottPuss20]

 

[UKMikey]

It isn't XTC (well Dukes isn't either, in name anyway), but Andy did Planet England with Robyn Hitchcock and it's fun.

I found one in Chico, California. The guy's gonna send it to me. The tax and shipping are twice as much as the disc costs... ouch

 

[TexRex]

XTC guitarist Dave Gregory with Tin Spirits.

Tin Spirits - Garden State


Tin Spirits - Back in NYC

Still my favorite "Back in NYC" (shock-gasp even over the original) is Kevin Gilbert on the Genesis tribute record, with Mike Keneally and Nick D'Virgilio.

Kevin Gilbert - Back in NYC


God damn, Nick is one hell of a drummer.

(Here I am butchering Mike and Nick's names. To be fair I know someone with the last name Kennealy so it's not crazy that I'd spell it that way.)

 

[Chris30]

Dua Lipa- Levitating

 

[TexRex]

Welp, apparently I'm going to be binging Kevin Gilbert again.

Talk about contrast.

No Reasons Given - Frame by Frame


Kevin Gilbert - When You Give Your Love to Me


One of my all-time favorite lyrics:

I'm sick of hearing about sadness. I'm sick of violent crime. I'm sick of angry, militant, lesbian feminists. I'm sick of imperfect rhyme.

 

[Chris30]

James Brown- I Feel Good

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Classics of Love - What a Shame

 

[UKMikey]

Brook Benton & Dinah Washington - A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around And Fall In Love). Later covered by Welsh duo Shakin' Stevens & Bonnie Tyler.

 

[UKMikey]

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Thanks @TexRex

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[Touring Mars]

I made a Hipgnosis playlist on Spotify - including one song each from a selection of albums with album covers by Hipgnosis - and it is quite amazing how many songs are in my current/recent playlist history.

Here's a 5-track primer that covers the main artists in question:

-

Pink Floyd - Sheep ('Animals', 1977)



-

Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill ('Peter Gabriel ('Car')', 1977)



-

Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand ('Presence', 1976)



-

Yes - Wondrous Stories ('Going For The One', 1977)



-

10cc - The Wall Street Shuffle ('Sheet Music', 1973)



-

​

 

[Jezza819]

 

[UKMikey]

Don't think I've heard Kreator's Enemy Of God for a couple of decades... time to give it a spin.

 

[Populuxe]

After ten years in storage, I finally have all 6000 of my CDs again. Grabbing at random, the first thing I pull out of a box is A Week or Two in the Real World. It’s a compilation of songs produced during a two week period in England in the summer of 1994. Peter Gabriel, who ran the Realworld record label invited musicians, singers, songwriters, artists, dancers, and many more from around the world to collaborate. The whole album is amazing, but here’s a couple that stand out.

Van Morrison with the Holmes Brothers - That’s Where it’s At


Karl Wallinger - Politics

 

[Sonygamer455]

Big Smo - Kickin' It In Tennessee.

 

[UKMikey]

 

[Cap'n Jack]

IDLES - I’m Scum

 

[TexRex]

Welp, apparently I'm going to be binging Kevin Gilbert again.

Giraffe - The Last Thing On Your Mind


I'm running out of KG stuff I haven't posted which is readily available online. Here's something KG-adjacent. It's a cover of a song which he'd written and recorded but needed some polishing for posthumous release (on the compilation Nuts) by a long-time collaborator who'd been involved in that polishing.

Nick D'Virgilio - Childhood's End


Nick played drums for the Giraffe performance of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in its entirety at ProgFest in 1994. The only original Giraffe members there were Kevin Gilbert and guitarist Stan Cotey, and they were joined by Nick and keyboardist Dave Kerzner.

Genesis comes up a lot around Gilbert and collaborators, and Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett even performed on these tracks from Kerzner's debut solo release New World. Nick D'Virgilio also played drums on the record.

Dave Kerzner - Stranded


Dave Kerzner - Redemption

 

[Populuxe]

In 1997, Paul Thomas Anderson took a break from directing "Boogie Nights" to shoot a wild music video in the longest hallway in North America.

It features the great Philip Seymour Hoffman (twice).

Michael Penn - Try