BBC Sessions - Loudon Wainwright III

BBCSessions
Originally uploaded by 50pbloke.

Not that I've ever had a baby in the house but listening to Be Careful, There's a Baby in the House I'm certain it has the ring of truth to it. A ring common to all these brilliant songs.

I haven't written a song for several years now - since Slinky split in 1996 - but listening to this collection, I'm inspired to have another bash. I love his choice of subject matter: it's small stuff, tiny vignettes, lots of humour, honesty, self-depreciation and humanity. Sunday Times is about reading a newspaper. What a great idea. His performances are no-flab, unfussy and lean.

LW3 was another discovery via my trawling through John Peel's archives. It's been growing on me since I got it on eBay recently. I'd only ever heard him on Peel, so I thought this album would be a good place to start.

Unfortunately we missed him when he played in London this week. Here's Adam Sweeting's five-star review in the Guardian. Apparantly LW3 dedicated A Father and a Son to Peel.

Loaded Knife gig - future

We're DJing at The Windmill on Brixton Hill on Thursday 12th May with live bands ROC, whose new single Princess is single of the week on Tom Robinson's show on BBC 6 Music, Fighting Cocks and Slang. Also DJing are Founding Mothers.

Misery Train - Suicide

suicide
Originally uploaded by 50pbloke.

Loaded Knife DJed at the Foundry on Saturday evening and this was favourably received. I like it when people come up and ask what record I'm playing, and this was the subject of one such inquiry (the other was Jungle Rock by Hank Mizell). The inquirer said she'd never heard anything like it.

What I love about this track (and the 2002 album American Supreme it came from) is that it sounds like vintage '77 Suicide, but the use of noughties technology means it sounds modern too. I think this is as good as anything Vega and Rev have done. A dreamy, hypnotic, ice-cold repetitive riff laced with Vega's rockabilly existential grunts.

There Must Be Thousands - The Quads

The Quads - There Must Be Thousands
Originally uploaded by cheapskate.

When John Peel died last October, like many other people, I immediately wished I'd listened to his show more. As a way of filling a small part of the huge gap Peely left, I've been scouring the newspaper archives for old interviews - his words are so precisely chosen, and so often hilarious, that you can almost hear his familiar gruff voice. My worryingly obsessive research has also been a rich source of obscure records.

In this 2001 article for the Guardian Peel names There Must Be Thousands as one of his all-time favourites along with Don French's Lonely Saturday Night and No More Ghettos in America by Stanley Wilson (sic - it's Winston. I blame the Guardian subeditors). Big Bear records says it was Peel's favourite single of the 1970s.

The single itself, which I procured on eBay, is a exhuberant chunk of mod-ish punk. I always loved it on Gene Vincent's Be Bop A Lula when you can hear the 16-year-old drummer screaming - apparantly so his mum would be able to hear him on the record. The Quads have that same overexcited glee to be making a big noise in front of an audience. I also love it that it appears to be a live recording. It makes you want to have been there.

Never Say Never - Romeo Void

1981 hasn't been as fashionable since - well, 1981, so Never Say Never really does sound like it could have been recorded yesterday. Post-punk blocks of Franz Ferdinand-ish guitars, an X-Ray Spex style tinny saxophone solo, and shouty vocals: Romeo Void's singer Deborah Lyall sounds a bit like Justine Frischmann, but in a good way. Produced by Ric Ocasek (no, me neither) from the Cars, according to Wikipedia.

This was quite possibly big in the US at the time - Romeo Void hailed from California - but I'd never heard of it (and believe me, I read every word of NME in 1981) until 50p Bloke's lovely girlfriend heard it on a web radio station.

Daft Punk Is Playing In My House - LCD Soundsystem

sfc_lcd_DaftPunkIsPlaying
Originally uploaded by cheapskate.

I got the album, and it's my favourite of 2005 so far (though 50p Bloke buys far more ancient records than contemporary ones). But this, their current single, is the standout. I love the idea, I love the execution. From the yelp at the top of the record, I was hooked. Its moronic riff is right up there with the Louie Louies of this world (The Kingsmen's Louie Louie is my favourite record ever, incidentally).

Spinning Rock Boogie - Hank C Burnette

hankcburnettePIX
Originally uploaded by cheapskate.

I'd never heard of this, but I got it at Greenwich Market on an scratched-up album called Rockabilly Dynamite. It's a raw rockabilly instrumental, with insane changes in tempo and some very, very strange double-tracked guitar playing. Hank C Burnette turns out to be Swedish. Apparantly it got into the UK top 10 in 1976, but I have no idea if it was recorded in the 70s. It sounds like it could be authentically 50s.