50 quid bloke

Pete very kindly suggested I go and get my hands on Ella Guru’s The First Album. He was right - it’s well worth half an hour of anybody’s time: very nice it is too.
It’s another gentle one, following on from recent discoveries: The Album Leaf and Bark Psychosis (ie put them all together in a playlist on your iPod and relax).
I’ve listened to it a few times now, and while I quite like it, there is a problem: it’s not really sticking with me. At the moment, I feel in the need of something with a little more vim and vigour, rather than the sort of thing the Observer described as bucolic. Understated is all well and good, but sometimes you just need someone to stand up and shout at you in the most obvious manner possible.
[Talking of which, I’m getting quite into the Razorlight album. I dont’ think I’ve listened to the whole thing start to finish yet, but it keeps coming up on various playlists and I’m always running over to find out what that rather catchy tune is].
As for the title of this post. Ella Guru, as I’m sure you know, is a Captain Beefheart song, and the name has also been borrowed by an artist. I’m not sure which of the three EG’s will ultimately be the most famous.

My collection of freebies grew by 33.33% this week when I received a demo in the post to add to my two promotional CDs. It’s from a guy called Jon Lawrence, and his (as in he’s part of it…) band The Wandering Step. who are based in the Preston area.
They’ve been aroudn a bit. They released a single a while back on Deltasonic (Coral/ Zutons etc), but it didn’t work out, they had some time off, and now they’re back, doing gigs and sessions for GMR.
Jon’s currently leading the double life of trying to be a rock god, with studying journalism at the University of Central Lancashire focussing on new media. If one goes well, I’ll be begging him for freebie tickets, CDs and introductions to famous people. If he takes the other route, he might well be knocking on the door at work for a job. So we have a mutual interest in being nice to each other.
He’s managed to combine his two potential careers with a blog of his own that will hopefully move on from the current traumas of being a West Ham fan stranded in the north west of england, to follow their path to stardom, global domination, and then an acromonious drug-fuelled split-up and eventually a law case that leaves them all hating each other and slagging each other off in the Sun.
Before we get there, however, what about the demo? Pretty good, really. Guitary. La’s ish (but then isn’t everything). Melodic but not too obvious. Cant’ quite think of the best way to describe it. I think I’d enjoy seeing them live, but I don’t think I’d head up to Preston for the priviledge.
The thing is, I have no idea what would happen to that demo with some decent production. I might well have heard the next big thing, but I’m far too dumb to notice.
You can find some of their music on their site.

Many, many, many years ago, I read a rave review in the Face for an album called Introduce Me To The Doctor, by Pinski Zoo. I searched all over Liverpool for it. It was nowhere. After a month or so of obsessive hunting down, I finally got my hands on a copy in Manchester. I cradled it on the train home. I put it on the stereo; and you know what? It was the biggest load of screechy, scratchy jazz nonsense I’d ever heard. (although, there’s lots of people still rave about them, so maybe I was missing something).
I’ve had the same state of frenzied expectation since ordering Is It Rolling Bob? - a reggae tribute to Bob Dylan - from Amazon about a month ago. God knows what they were doing, but it arrived a couple of days ago. The more I waited, the more excited I got.
I don’t know why, because I’m not really into reggae that much - the only album I really like is Burning Spear, Man In The Hills. But, still, it’s Bob, and the Friday Review was quite nice about it, and I’ve been slightly short of good new stuff recently.
So, was the disappointment as big as Pinski Zoo? Nowhere near. But nor was it brilliant.
I quite like Toots Hibbert’s version of Maggie’s Farm., and JC Lodge does gives a new life to Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right. It was a good idea getting Sizzla all heated up over Subterranean Homesick Blues, but the original was ragged and wonderful enough for me, really. On the whole, it feels like it’s neither great Reggae (not like I’d know), nor great Bobby D.
They’ve also tagged on a ‘Reggae Remix’ of BD singing ‘I and I’, which frankly doesn’t sound in the slightest bit reggae like and has Mark Knopfler noodling away in the background.
Still, I’m glad I’ve got it. And unlike Pinski Zoo, I’ll be listening to my favourite bits for a while.
Reggae Reviews says it’s a worth tribute
- MusicOHM says it’s not tuff enough
There’s a dub CD included as well. Which just sounds like some random reggae sounds playing with the odd bit of vocal dropped in. Makes surprisingly pleasant background music to work to.

My friend Paul is getting married in a couple of weeks. He thought it would be a good idea to take an iPod away on his honeymoon; and his wife to be very kindly agreed to buy it for him.
However, Paul has no PC at home at the moment; which obviously leaves him with a slight problem. He can get the iPod, but how can he fill it with music?
So, he calls me, and asks, very politely, if he can have all my music on his iPod as an interim measure before sorting his own stuff out. I say yes, as long as he agrees to buy the iPod through my Amazon associate link, thus earning me slightly less than £20.
He agreed, and last night he came round with his new empty 4th gen iPod in hand. It took a couple of hours to get it all working, but eventually he left with my entire music collection in his hands.
Putting the legal issues of this to one side for the moment (well, forever actually because I’ll deny it all in court) it’s weird to think that there is now a carbon copy of me out there.
There’s an episode of Friends where someone steals Monica’s credit card, and by following her spending Monica finds out that the thief is having much more fun being her than she ever has done.
This is one of my worries: that Paul actually likes my music more than I do. That he listens to all the things I’ve never quite got round to listening to. He finds old stuff that I didn’t even know I had. In other words my music actually makes him much cooler than it’s ever made me.
Then there is the problem that they listen to the wrong stuff: all the Justin Timberlake etc that’s there to keep my better half happy and they think that’s actually me.
AT the moment, however, they seem happy to have it. I’ve sent them some recommended listening. And it’s good to know that someone else might benefit from the endless hours ripping that went into that collection.
In fact, as wedding presents go, it’s considerably more exciting than dinner plates and cutlery.

I’m sort of stuck for new music at the moment. Nothing seems to be taking my fancy, and in addition to this, I’ve just taken delivery of a completely gorgeous new camera which has shifted the portion of my mind and my time that deals with ‘hobbies’ away from music to photography.
Oh, and, all things being well, I’m going to be a dad in February, which has slightly distracted me from wondering whether or not I should get the new Clinic album.
However, my main musical query at the moment is whether M Craft is ever going to make it out of the ‘credible, but barely known’ corner. His song Dragonfly is one of my favourite of the last year, I keep listening to it, and keep loving it.
It all seems to be heading in the right direction since I saw him play in the Spring: he played the Guardian tent at Glastonbury, and did some cool London gigs over the summer. I saw him interviewed in Time Out the other week (have to admit, he came across just a teeny bit pretentious). Fluxblog has posted his new single (next to Girls Aloud).
But, doubts remain…is he too winsome for his own good? Will he remain a minority taste? A new album will decide all…

With an Online Music Revolution Special report.
Not much that’s new for the ready wired, although there’s a big thing on format clashes. Something’s going to have to give. I sense there’s an absolute car crash waitng to happen in a couple of year’s time with the combination of formats and sound quality, when we all decide that we really want a lovely new (non-Apple) device…and good old 128 encoding (or whatever it is that I’ve set it up at, simply isn’t good enough). The man at the Telegraph isn’t buying an Apple Mini because of it…although he doesn’t say what he is buying instead.

If you’re a Guardian Unlimited user, you might want to fill in this questionairre about how you use (or don’t) digital music.

My second promo CD! How terribly exciting. I’ve always said in doing this blog that I want to make sure that music is something I buy and crave for (ie like a punter), rather than something I’m swamped in and have to deal with/ dismiss (ie like a hack). Still, I’m so pathetically grateful for anyone actually taking the effort to read this and then think I’m worth sending a CD to, that I feel duty bound to be as polite as possible. (this, I should add is not a covert plea for more freebies…should the novelty wear off, I’ll simply become cynical and twisted, and we wouldn’t like that, would we?).
Anyway, it comes from the Mod Lang label in Berkeley California (because, I’m like just sooooo global); although it’s by a guy who’s actually from Birmingham (as in home of Jasper Carrot and the Bull Ring, not as in Alabama). His name is Dave Kusworth accompanied by The Tenderhooks, and it’s called Like “Wonderland Avenue” In A Cold Climate.
His previous career includes TV. Eye. ; The Hawks (with Stephen Tin Tin Duffy), and most recently, The Jacobites, a partnership with Nikki Sudden.
Thanks to the wonder of Google, I can tell you that the title refers - I assume - to the book, Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugerman, manager to The Doors and Iggy Pop. It’s a tale of Sex, drugs and rock and roll in early 70s LA, and, was either made or nearly made, into a film. Which gives you a pretty good idea of their cultural reference points.
The press release proudly nods to the Faces and The Only Ones. They wear velvet jackets and shades. They have hair cuts like Ronnie Wood. You get the idea.
It’s been recommended by Mojo, which I have to say is something of a problem for me; as the last time I flicked through a copy of Mojo it did look like the in-house journal for the Royal Society of Aged Rockers; and I’d no more take a musical recommendation from Mojo than I would from Mike Smash. Still, they sent it, so I listened.
So, is it any good? You know what, it’s not bad in a sort of loloping, bottle of brandy in the hand, early 70s kind of way. I have to say, it’s a bit too straight up and down rawk-and-roll for me, but I sense I’ll grow to quite like it. Could well work in the states (where they’re based).
See, I think that whole early 70s English rock thing all looked better than it sounded. As opposed to, say Whitesnake and all that spandex rock, that sounded better than it looked. And on that epigrammatic, but fundamentally flawed theory, I’ll leave you. You can buy it direct here.

Late as ever to catch on, two things have significantly upped my use of the iPod (which, I have to say, was has primarily been used to date as a holiday jukebox).
- Audiobooks on iTMS. I never have time to read. At the same time, I often don’t want to listen to music all the time. Hence the fact that I really wish I could get Radio 4 on my iPod. Solution: buy audiobooks on the iTMS: the perfect accompaniment to travelling into work (or a sleepless night, for that matter). Useless for fiction (as you drift off and miss crucial plot points), good for factual stuff. Currently listening to The Wisdom of Crowds.
- Smart playlists. I could never really be bothered with all that hand-crafting of playlists. But, keeping a live (ie it gets updated automatically according to the rules you set) list of everything that’s been ripped within the last 30 days; or of all non-classical, non-speech music; or of all the stuff I’ve never actually listened to; or of music from my teens…suddenly it all makes sense.

Uncut this month has done a ‘Summer of Motown CD’, which is sort of all right, but also by about track 5 or 6 you start to realise that Motown also put out some right cheesy rubbish at times.
Word, however, has done what Uncut used to do very well, which is a collection of stuff from this month. Plenty of the stuff I’ve been talking about here: Adem, Mylo, Sons and Daughters, The Bees,…as well as a bit of Weller (doing Gordon Lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain, which really makes me want to learn to play it on the guitar), Nick Cave, and something by someone called Sondre Lerche, which is strangely lovely. Word wins.