Category Archives: music

cherry bomb on the wrong rock show

Posted on by

Episode 128 of The Wrong Rock Show, originally broadcast on 15 October 2012 on Bush Radio 89.5FM, Cape Town, South Africa. Listen HERE.

The Wrong Rock Show is “a musical journey beyond the limitations of the mainstream to a place where vintage rock ‘n’ roll can rub shoulders with anarchic post-rock”. Created in April 2010, it broadcasts Monday evenings 10PM – 00AM (GMT+02) on Cape Town’s Bush Radio 89.5FM. It is streamed live at www.bushradio.co.za and shows are uploaded as cloudcasts at Mixcloud. The show is hosted by Greg ‘the Hammer’ Donnelly, Botha Kruger, Danie Marais, Henrik Gustafsson and alternating co-hosts, all of whom bring to the show their unique tastes and personal takes on what makes good, wrong rock music. I co-hosted with Botha Kruger this past Monday evening.

TRACK LIST – 15 October 2012

  1. Beat Girl – John Barry
  2. Manically Panicky – The Great Apes
  3. Turnstile Blues – Autolux
  4. The Only – Lykke Li
  5. The Night – Morphine
  6. Johnny – Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences
  7. (Ghost) Riders In The Sky – Starlite Wranglers
  8. City Of Refuge – The Black League
  9. Bending Albert’s Law – Karin Park
  10. In The Same Room – Julia Holter
  11. Show Me The Face – Chinawoman
  12. Heart Full Of Soul – The Yardbirds
  13. A Little Lost – Nat Baldwin
  14. Dancing In The Dark – Tegan And Sara
  15. Praise Be Man – Russian Circles
  16. May The Bridges You Burn Light The Way – Strage
  17. Speed – Moon Duo
  18. Jump Sturdy – Dr John
  19. Grinnin’ In Your Face – The Vespers
  20. 3, 6, 9 – Cat Power
  21. Wetboy Elegy – The Akabane Vulgars On Strong Bypass
  22. Ahab –  Skabengas
  23. Ramblin’ – Murder By Death
  24. Weightless Again – Cerys Matthews
  25. This Is How We Walk On The Moon – Arthur Russell
  26. Ill Fated Lovers Go Time Tripping – Bongwater
  27. She’s In Parties – Bauhaus
  28. Avatar – Swans

Listen HERE.
Duration: 2 hours
Hosts: Botha Kruger and Cherry Bomb
Follow The Wrong Rock Show on Facebook or Twitter.

north korean children play stupendously creepy music

Posted on by

I found this North Korean children’s ensemble performance disturbing yet also fascinating… Maybe it’s due to my Western bias towards self-determination, but the regimented – no, automated – nature of this; the youngness of the children; their forced smiles, really upset me to watch. Everything is rote, down to the last tilt of the head. It also makes me wonder how much “childhood” they have – how heavy this weighs on their tiny shoulders… Or do they even feel it as oppressive at all? Maybe if you grow up where play (of the spontaneous sort) is not on the cultural menu, you never yearn for it, never feel alienation or exploitation?

Thanks Justin Allart for passing this on.

hoagy carmichael – stardust (original vocal version)

Posted on by

On October 31, 1927, Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals recorded Carmichael’s composition “Stardust” at the Gennett Records studio in Richmond, Indiana. Hoagy’s “pals,” Emil Seidel and His Orchestra, agreed to record the medium-tempo instrumental in between their Sunday evening and Monday matinee performances in Indianapolis, seventy miles away.

In 1928 Carmichael again recorded “Stardust,” this time with lyrics he had written, but Gennett rejected it because the instrumental had sold so poorly. The following year, at Mills Music, Mitchell Parish was asked to set lyrics to coworker Carmichael’s song. The result was the 1929 publication date of “Star Dust” with the music and lyrics we know today. The Mills publication changed the title slightly to “Star Dust” from “Stardust” as it was originally spelled.

This information taken from JazzStandards.com.

django reinhardt – stardust (1935)

Posted on by

Django Reinhardt recorded “Stardust” in 1935.

Stardust, 2/3/35, OLA 349-1 ,”Fremeaux FA 302, JSP 344, Conifer CDHD 230, EMI Jazz Time 790560-2″,” – Paris – Coleman Hawkins (ts), Stephane Grappelly (p), Django Reinhardt (g), Eugene d’Hellemmes (b), Maurice Chaillou (d).”

Chord chart:

| F69/// | F69/// | Fm7/// | Bb7/// | C6/// | A7/// | Dm/ A7/ | Dm/// |
| G7/ F#7/ | G7/// | C6/// | C6/// | D7/// | D7/// | G7/ F#7/ | G7/ G7+/ |
| F69/// | F69/// | Fm7/// | Bb7/// | C6/// | A7/// | Dm/ A7/ | Dm/// |
| Fm7/// | Bb7/// | C6/// | A7/// | Dm7/// | G7b9/// | C69/ Fm7/ | C69/// :||

daughter – youth

Posted on by

Thank you to Stella Star for sending me this.

Shadows settle on the place that you left
Our minds are troubled by the emptiness
Destroy the middle, it’s a waste of time
From the perfect start to the finish line

And if you’re still breathing, you’re the lucky ones
‘Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs
Setting fire to our insides for fun
Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong
The lovers that went wrong

We are the reckless
We are the wild youth
Chasing visions of our futures
One day we’ll reveal the truth
That one will die before he gets there
And if you’re still bleeding, you’re the lucky ones
‘Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone
We’re setting fire to our insides for fun
Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home
It was a flood that wrecked this

And you caused it

Well I’ve lost it all, I’m just a silhouette
A lifeless face that you’ll soon forget
My eyes are damp from the words you left
Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest

And if you’re in love, then you are the lucky one
‘Cause most of us are bitter over someone
Setting fire to our insides for fun
To distract our hearts from ever missing them
But I’m forever missing him

And you caused it

rabindranath tagore in conversation with albert einstein

Posted on by

AUGUST 19, 1930

TAGORE: I was discussing with Dr. Mendel today the new mathematical discoveries which tell us that in the realm of infinitesimal atoms chance has its play; the drama of existence is not absolutely predestined in character.

EINSTEIN: The facts that make science tend toward this view do not say good-bye to causality.

TAGORE: Maybe not, yet it appears that the idea of causality is not in the elements, but that some other force builds up with them an organized universe.

EINSTEIN: One tries to understand in the higher plane how the order is. The order is there, where the big elements combine and guide existence, but in the minute elements this order is not perceptible.

TAGORE: Thus duality is in the depths of existence, the contradiction of free impulse and the directive will which works upon it and evolves an orderly scheme of things.

EINSTEIN: Modern physics would not say they are contradictory. Clouds look as one from a distance, but if you see them nearby, they show themselves as disorderly drops of water.

TAGORE: I find a parallel in human psychology. Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellious, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?

EINSTEIN: Even the elements are not without statistical order; elements of radium will always maintain their specific order, now and ever onward, just as they have done all along. There is, then, a statistical order in the elements.

TAGORE: Otherwise, the drama of existence would be too desultory. It is the constant harmony of chance and determination which makes it eternally new and living.

EINSTEIN: I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.
Continue reading →

big black – l dopa

Posted on by

In memory of Gerdte Terblanche, who left us seven years ago today. Miss your rotten smile!

I got a sickness sweet as a love note
I got a headache like a pillow
Called me Daisy, called me Daisy, called me Daisy, that one
Called me Daisy
I am a sweetheart
I am a prom queen
I am some puppies
What, Daisy?
What, Daisy?
Are we here now?
I am a horror
This is an old one
What, Daisy?
L Dopa fixed me, all right

from Big Black’s 1987 album, Songs About Fucking.

smog – a river ain’t too much to love

Posted on by

The first two tracks from A River Ain’t Too Much To Love (Domino Records, 2005):

Palimpsest

Winter weather is not my soul
But the biding for spring…

Say Valley Maker

With the grace of a corpse
In a riptide
I let go
And I slide slide slide
Downriver
With an empty case by my side
An empty case
That’s my crime

And I sing
To keep from cursing
Yes I sing
To keep from cursing

River Oh
River End
River Oh
River End
River Go
River Bend

Take me through the sweet valley
Where your heart blooms
Take me through the sweet valley
Where your heart is covered in dew
And when the river dries
Will you bury me in wood?
Where the river dries
Will you bury me in stone?

Oh I never really realized
Death is what it meant
To make it on my own

Because there is no love
Where there is no obstacle
And there is no love
Where there is no bramble
There is no love
On the hacked away plateau
And there is no love
In the unerring
And there is no love
On the one true path

Oh I cantered out here
Now I’m galloping back

So bury me in wood
And I will splinter
Bury me in stone
And I will quake
Bury me in water
And I will geyser
Bury me in fire
And I’m gonna phoenix
I’m gonna phoenix

leonard cohen – avalanche

Posted on by

From Songs Of Love And Hate (1971).

Well I stepped into an avalanche,
It covered up my soul;
When I am not this hunchback that you see,
I sleep beneath the golden hill.
You who wish to conquer pain,
You must learn, learn to serve me well.You strike my side by accident
As you go down for your gold.
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
Is neither starved nor cold;
He does not ask for your company,
Not at the centre, the centre of the world.

When I am on a pedestal,
You did not raise me there.
Your laws do not compel me
To kneel grotesque and bare.
I myself am the pedestal
For this ugly hump at which you stare.

You who wish to conquer pain,
You must learn what makes me kind;
The crumbs of love that you offer me,
They’re the crumbs I’ve left behind.
Your pain is no credential here,
It’s just the shadow, shadow of my wound.

I have begun to long for you,
I who have no greed;
I have begun to ask for you,
I who have no need.
You say you’ve gone away from me,
But I can feel you when you breathe.

Do not dress in those rags for me,
I know you are not poor;
Don’t love me quite so fiercely now
When you know that you are not sure,
It is your turn, beloved,
It is your flesh that I wear.

Avalanche lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC