Quickly this morning, a bunch of new things we’ve been playing, as the February and March promos start arriving. A lot of comps, it seems, and a couple I don’t like at all.
I’ve not been hugely interested in much of the end-of-the-decade stuff that’s been appearing over the past few weeks, but this piece by Simon Reynolds at the Guardian is worth a read.
More 2010 goodness this week, kicking off with the fierce new jams from Voice Of The Seven Woods, newly renamed. A glut of stoner spacerock here, actually, with the new White Hills album and a real find, Carlton Melton (thanks, Simon), who record in a geodesic dome in Mendocino County.
After a slight lull last week, another clutch of good new 2010 things here, overshadowed slightly by the news at the Durtro website that Bill Fay’s new album – and featuring his first released recordings from the past three decades, more or less – is just about ready to go.
After last week’s goldrush, a few more choice new arrivals in Playlist 42, not least the superb new Animal Collective, which I’ve been expressly forbidden to write about ‘til next week.
First off this week, a quick reminder that we’ve just announced Tinariwen as the winner of our annual Uncut Music Award. I’ve started posting transcripts of the judges’ discussions on the Uncut Music Award blog, beginning with their opinions on Tinariwen and Animal Collective. Kings of Leon, Bob Dylan, Wilco, The Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear and The Low Anthem will be coming up over the next week or so.
Back from a week away, then, to discover that a few records have managed to limp through – at least digitally – in the face of the postal strike. Prominent here I guess are that rarity, something promised by Neil Young that actually turns up, and Them Crooked Vultures, with Josh Homme playing Alpha Male with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl.
“Uncut never ceases to find ways to analyze music by dumping on anything American,” notes a correspondent on the still-entertaining Bob Dylan Christmas thread, which isn’t one of the more typical criticisms we hear levelled at the magazine. He also accuses me of using the word “Americana” “as if it’s a swear”. Wow.
I can’t pretend that we’ve been playing the Bob Dylan album that much, but a bit of interesting Dylan news did surface this week; that a previously unreleased song from the “Bringing It All Back Home” sessions called “California” is set to appear, with characteristic weirdness, on something entitled “NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack – Vol. 2”.
