Kevin Coyne with Jon Langford & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - One Day In Chicago

First spied in 1974 on the Whistle Test with his guitar on his lap moaning and yelling, fretting the chords with his thumb Kevin caused a stir at my school on a par with Alvin Stardust’s dramatic TOTP debut. Apart from a slew of great Reggae albums, Kevin’s Millionaires And Teddy Bears and Babble were the only thing worth nicking out of the Virgin Records press office when we were briefly label-mates back in 1979. John Lydon once confessed to pilfering from his arsenal of crazed squawks and wails and my pal John Hyatt unashamedly channeled Kevin for The Three Johns. In 1990 The Mekons covered his song Having A Party, a unsubtle stab at Virgin’s owner (reportedly a huge Coyne fan to this day) that mirrored our sorry situation on A&M at the time. One night at the Duchess Of York in Leeds I handed him a copy and he looked a bit baffled.
For a man who turned down the job as Jim Morrison’s replacement in The Doors, was billed as the English Beefheart and refused to write lyrics for Tubular Bells, Kevin Coyne spent a remarkably long, yet fruitful, time in the rock wilderness. Brutally neglected in Britain and never even on the radar in the USA he made his home in Southern Germany where he found love and respect and created wonderful artwork, books and albums that are out there just waiting to be discovered.

Advance ticket sales were so bad for his last Chicago show I had to beg, bribe and threaten people to turn up. Kevin was charming, rude and hilarious, vogue-ing for the crowd like some mad medieval friar while ad-libbing whole songs with masterful ease and precision. The crowd was amazed (Kevin was amazing) and I got phone calls & e-mails for days from grateful friends I’d bullied into coming. Paul Morley predicted a Kevin Coyne revival earlier this year but maybe in death he’s still too willful, wild and cantankerous for your average conservative rock fan. (Jon Langford)

Kevin Coyne with Jon Langford & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - One Day In Chicago

1. Monkeyheart

2. Britischer Cowboy

3. Over Land And Sea

4. Money Like Water

5. Way Of The World

6. Happy Island Girl

7. Scene Of The Crime

8. She's Not There

9. You You You

10. Angel

11. Saviour

12. Blame It On The Night

13. Fat Girl

14. Money Like Water

15. Karate King

myspace
website
KEVIN COYNE BOOKS
I Want My Crown:buy

The Pindrop Band - Live in Concert 2002

Bristol based band draw on a wide range of folk, jazz and world musics, the Pindrop Band are a group of musicans who love acoustic music and like to perform without the aid of huge amplification systems. The emphasis in on delicate arrangements, harmonies and purity of sound. Much of their material is self-penned (with the odd quirky cover), and features a vast array of instruments including guitars, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, harp, fiddle, accordion, charango, whistles, harmonium, autoharp, double bass and percussion.The Pindrop band will wrap around you like a warm breeze on a lazy afternoon.

The Pindrop Band - Live in Concert 2002

		Rebel Prince
		Sailor Sailor
		C'est l'uke
		All The Tea In China
		No Mermaid
		All Around The Sun
		Carousel
		Now That My Eyes
		Fly Like A Bird
		Harvest Moon
		Cup Half Empty
		Don't Lose No Sleep

myspace
website
pindrop club

Ceramic Hobs - PSYCHIATRIC UNDERGROUND

Blackpool avant-punk noiseniks have been active from the mid-eighties onwards. The band started in the summer of 1985. Had gone insane by 1988 and by that we mean exile from society, pathologised and sectioned. They continued to release cassette only albums and diy 7''s of their Fall-style rockabilly, dub cow-punk & lo-fi dronescapes through out the late 80s/90s

PSYCHIATRIC UNDERGROUND was released in late 1998 by four labels: Landlord, Mental Guru, Pumf and Smith Research, in two slightly different sleeves . . the result of many recording sessions (with Neil Campbell,Richard Youngs and others) during 1996 and 1997 that were scheduled for release as two separate vinyl LPs by two underground labels. When this didn't happen it was decided to create a 70-minute CD of this inspired lysergic material. Allied to the Mad Pride movement of 'survivors of the mental health system', these 'Suppliers of Scotch Mist' are now up to their fourth full album PSYCHIATRIC UNDERGROUND (1998), STRAIGHT OUTTA RAMPTON (2001), SHERGAR IS HOME SAFE AND WELL (2004) and AL AL WHO (2007) & many other releases on tiny labels worldwide. . The Hobs are working on an album entitled OZ OZ ALICE, to be released in 2010

Ceramic Hobs - PSYCHIATRIC UNDERGROUND

1 Vigil
2 Self-fulfilling prophecy
3 Atomic clock
4 Amplified sorrow
5 Meeting the summertime
6 Hospital detective
7 This sore and blackpool legacy (germ mix)
8 These dead things
9 Pirate night for Karen Morgan
10 Hey lads hey
11 Dick Wittington, turn back (expose your eyes mix)
12 Mr vicar
13 Say goodbye to the president
14 robin blood
15 Crash and burn
16 Irreversible liver failure
17 Used goods/damaged goods
18 Winterbottom speaks
19 Love letters read like suicide notes
20 Long black limousine
21 Tomorrow
22 Total disarmament by June 1st 1983
23 Castrol gtx
24 Mr Vicar fills his heas with rock
25 Take fever puffs
26 Parrot night for captain Morgan
27 Psychiatric underground
28 Low alcowipe

interview:

myspace
website
pumf records

back soon

The Klezmatics - Jews With Horns

The Klezmatics take one of the wildest approaches to klezmer, the traditional dance music of the Eastern European Jews. Although their music is heavily influenced by the recordings of Abe Ellstein and Dave Tarras in the 1940s and 1950s, their lyrics comment on a wide variety of political and social issues and have led the group to be labeled the planet's radical Jewish roots band.

The original members of the Klezmatics Dave Lindsay (bass), Rob Chavez (clarinet), Alicia Svigals (fiddle) were recruited through an ad in the Village Voice in 1985. Trumpet player Frank London of the Klezmer Conservatory Band joined the group soon afterward. Within a few weeks, the band was expanded with the addition of Lorin Sklamberg (vocals, accordion), Margot Leverett (clarinet), and David Licht (drums).

The Klezmatics - Jews With Horns

1. Man in a Hat

2. Fisherlid

3. Khsidim Tants

4. Simkhes-Toyre

5. Romanian Fantasy

6. Bulgars/The Kiss

7. Nign

8. Honga

9. In Kamf

10. Doyna

11. Freyt Aykh, Yidlekh

12. KKale-Bazetsn

13. Heyser Tartar-Tants

14. Es Vilt Zikh Mir Zen

15. Overture website

Mohammed M'rabet (& Paul Bowles) - The Storyteller & The Fisherman (Sub Rosa) 1990

I was first introduced to the work of Mohammed Mrabet through the work of his translator and friend for the past twenty five years. American x-patriate writer Paul Bowles. Through Bowles translations Mrabet has written eleven books, both short stories and novels. The autobiography Look and Move On recounts Mrabet's first impressions of the US, encounter's with the law in Tangier and his unusual story of the events that led to his meeting and marrying his wife Zohra, a powerful woman who has stood by him for so many years. I have spent the better part of the first half of 1990 in Morocco recording Mrabet and Paul for this collection, one of Paul's writing, and one of trance music of the Jilala and Gnaoua, two Sufi brotherhoods that inhabit North Africa and for the most part Morocco.
While I was in Tangier, Mohammed took me in to his family and looked after me. The hours spent in his sala with Aicha and Khadija, his daughters, were a dream come true. After voraciously reading through Marriage With Papers, The Lemon, M'Hashish, Love With A Few Hairs, and all the others I was consumed by this Moroccan storyteller. His writing pulls you in with such an understanding of life, of knowledge of the streets, the reader is captive and mesmerized, in awe of the strength and brutality of the work.

Mrabet ran away from home when he was 12 years old. Like so many Moroccan boys he was not up to the strict discipline and rigid lifestyle set down by his father Hamed. This led to a life in the streets. When he was about 14, while trying to buy some wine, Mrabet was questioned by a Police Inspector (alcohol is forbidden for Moslems). With the fight that ensued (Mrabet practically sliced the man's ear off) Mrabet was forced to flee Tangier and for a time lived in the caves at Cap Spartel. There with food brought to him by friends, he was able to survive by catching both fish and the "contraband" of liquor, cigarettes and other "Back Market" items that washed ashore. Pirates and smugglers have worked the coastline of Morocco since the time of the Phoenicians.

As he grew older, he returned to Tangier and began a life in the bars and cafes, a life that almost killed him. It was here that he began telling stories to amuse his friends. Storytelling was a tradition passed down through the Mrabet family, from Mrabet's grandfather, Mehend, to his son, and from Mrabet's father to him. Mohammed says his grandfather was the best. The love for Mehend goes deep.It was about this time that Mohammed met Jane Bowles and they became fast friends. Jane being more of an extrovert liked to go out at night, while Paul busied himself with writing and the translating work of authors such as Mohamed Choukri, Jean Paul Sartre, and Frederico Garcia Lorca. It was the perfect arrangement for a woman out alone, in Tangier in the 5o's. After a time, Jane introduced Mohammed to Paul. The three became inseparable and enjoyed happy times traveling about the county. One evening when Mrabet came to visit, he found Paul translating a story by Larbi Layachi and asked him what he was doing. When Paul explained, Mrabet put on an indignant face (there was a hatred between Laychi and Mrabet for years) and left. The following day Mrabet returned saying he would like to tell a story and for Paul to record and translate it. So began his Storytelling "professionally". He began painting much the same way. After seeing some art at Bowles house he felt he "could do it better" went home, returned a few days later, with the first of many pieces not unlike the ones contained herewith.
Now sit back and listen to the tales heard by William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and all of the others who have made Tangier their home at one point, and Mohammed their friend. The art of the storyteller is slowly dying in this modern world. For awhile, here, we can forget all of that and return to the golden days of Moroccan culture. Let the words not be lost
Mohammed M'rabet - The Storyteller & The Fisherman

1. The Cheikh Idriss Ben Mohammed (Recorded On Radio Tangier)
2. Mohammed M'Rabet Self Introduction And Story Titles Of Stories He Told In Darija
3. Maimouna
4. The Sea In The Street
5. The Fisherman And The Young Man
6. The Ants
7. The Doctor From The Chemel
8. Street Sounds And Music From The Jemaa El Fna, Marrakech
9. The Young Man Who Lived Alone
10. The Rhoula
11. The Muezzin
12. Street Sounds And Music Of Mohamed Abdel Wahab
13. Baraka
14.Street Sounds And Music From The Jemaa El Fna, Marrakech
BIOGRAPHY
Mohammed Mrabet's Fiction of Alienation
buy here
Paul Bowles in Exile
By Jay McInerney

Jasmine Minks - Popartglory

They were proud, Mod, fiercely anti-Capitalist, full of taut guitar riffs and political invective, a magical mix of melody and aggression, purpose and doubt, Rickenbackers and one of those see-through guitars Tom Verlaine used, mixing the belligerent and meditative, making the connections between the post-punk invention of the Blue Orchids and Josef K and the garage primitivism of the Seeds and Standells. One of the first bands signed to Alan McGee's Creation label, Popartglory was their debut album for his Poptones label in 2001 which still sounds as fresh,explosive, visceral and poetic.

Jasmine Minks - Popartglory

1. Popartglory

2. 3b48

3. Soul Children

4. Daddy Dog

5. Freefall

6. Midnight And I

7. Bloored Ocr

8. Running Ahead

9. On A Saturday

10. Ken's Korubo

11. Keepin' Hold Of You

12. Angel

13. 2001 A Mink Odyssey

14. Red Sky

interview
oatcake records

Manyfingers - S/T

Manyfingers (aka multi-instrumentalist Chris Cole) emerged out of the shady and mysterious Bristol scene that spawned the likes of Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone, Third Eye Foundation and Amp. Previously best known as Third Eye Foundation luminary Matt Elliott´s right hand man, cellist and drinking buddy, Cole has also been a sometime member of legendary pastoralists Movietone as well as being the current drummer of the excellent post rock band Soeza.

Don´t expect Manyfingers to hide behind the security of a lap top either. Live shows are life affirming and unpredictable as Cole darts about the stage like a rabbit in the headlights layering up drums and keyboards, plucking at guitars, blowing trumpets, fiddling nervously with effects pedals. The result is mesmerising, you can´t take your eyes off him for a minute as he frenetically builds up wave upon wave of sound. This is what stands Chris Cole apart from his peers. His self-titled debut album was released MOTEER RECORDS in 2004.

Manyfingers - S/T

n A Dead Man's Shoes
Ballybane
Something For Someone I Forgot To Tell
Interlude
Elise
A Room To Breathe In
Grace In Rain

myspace
website