Song of the day: #26 Deaf School – "What a Way to End It All"

Remembered this tune after a recent conversation with Pip, and it's a bit of a cracker. Much more rinky-dink and ukulele-based than i remember, but this actually fits really well. Turns out the song's about someone unconvincingly threatening to kill himself, and his hesitance to actually go through with it is nicely reflected in the tune's refusal to ape Len Cohen or Tindersticks or bloody Morrissey or whoever; in fact, the bouncy music-hall energy and the knowing backing vocals repeating the title phrase seem to reinforce the would-be suicide's reluctance.



This crappy bluescreen video represents the best quality sound version of the song on YouTube, unfortunately.

Deaf School are often called the second-most important band in Liverpool's history (after possibly the most overrated band in music's history), credited with basically rejuvenating the entire city's music scene in the mid-70s during its post-Merseybeat drought. Another cool thing about them is that guitarist "Cliff Hanger" is actually Clive Langer, who went on to be an much-in-demand producer (for the likes of Dexy's, Madness, Morrissey¹ etc.) and also wrote the music for legitimately one of my favourite ever songs, "Shipbuilding", with Elvis Costello.

¹ Christ, twice in one post. What a state of affairs.

LJB February mix: Loudly let the trumpets bray

Here's the standard issue LJB monthly mix (not to be confused with the other extra-curricular mix we did this month!) For once, it actually looked like it would be released in the same month it's named after, which i was rather pleased by, but zshare and my internet connection decided against it. We can but dream.

Anyway, this month's theme is the classy world of the trumpet solo. All the songs feature either a set-piece trumpet solo, or merely a trumpet being played on its own, at some point. Originally there wasn't going to be a lot of jazz in the mix (mainly because you could easily put together an entire mix featuring just great jazz trumpet solos) but a few excellent representative pieces made the cut. The main focus, traditional verse-chorus-verse pop songs with trumpet solos, and a couple of trumpet-led instrumentals, make up the rest.

Thanks for track suggestions: Daniel, Emilie, Vix.

1. Ennio Morricone – "Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo" (main title theme) (trumpet: Manny Klein)
2. Ornette Coleman – "Tomorrow Is the Question!" (trumpet: Don Cherry)
3. They Might Be Giants – "Your Racist Friend" (trumpet: Charlie Spalvida)
4. Dead Kennedys – "MTV Get off the Air" (trumpet: John Leib)
5. NOFX – "Eat the Meek (dub mix)" (trumpet: El Hefe)
6. Arab Strap – "The Night Before the Funeral" (trumpet: Alan Wylie)
7. Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle – "This One's from the Heart" (trumpet: Jack Sheldon)
8. Cake – "Italian Leather Sofa" (trumpet: Vince Di Fiore)
9. Neutral Milk Hotel – "The Fool" (trumpet: Scott Spillane)
10. Oliver Nelson – "Stolen Moments" (trumpet: Freddie Hubbard)
11. Smog – "The Morning Paper" (trumpet: Thymme Jones)
12. John Coltrane – "Blue Train"¹ (trumpet: Lee Morgan)
13. Manic Street Preachers – "Horses Under Starlight" (trumpet: Sean Moore)
14. Louis Armstrong – "A Kiss to Build A Dream On" (trumpet: well, Louis Armstrong)
15. Donald Byrd – "Sister Love" (trumpet: Donald Byrd)
16. Elvis Costello – "Shipbuilding" (trumpet: Chet Baker)
17. The Weakerthans – "Bigfoot!" (trumpet: Michael Barth)

[LISTEN/DOWNLOAD]

Otherwise:

[January][Valentine's Day bonus]

¹ For some reason, this one just will not upload. Odd.

LJB January mix: Songs i Sing at Work

This is what i'm laughably calling my January mix, despite it being already ten days into the following month. But hey! In my defence, it's been hectic, and then i was away for a week from the end of January, but believe it or not, the mix was made in advance. i just failed to upload it, for whatever reason.

Anyway, i have started working in the office of a cheese factory (don't laugh, fuckers). We don't have a radio and i assume i'm not allowed to listen to music off my phone either, so here is a brief selection of songs i have been amusing myself in singing (or rapping, or sometimes drumming) along to. As a result, it's a bit more song-based than normal, as having to entertain yourself musically in an office doesn't allow for much jazz or wistful ambient soundscapery or drum programming (although Kraftwerk make the cut, as always).

i asked Tjinder Singh if there were written lyrics to "7:20 a.m. Jullander Shere" (or any of the other non-English songs), as otherwise i have to sing along in kind of ridiculous munged approximation of what they sound like. He replied thus:

so yeh: cheers to Tjinder, for inspiring me to come up with some implausible cod-Punjabi of my own.

Next month's mix will be dedicated to the mighty art of the trumpet solo. If you've anything you wanna hear on there, leave me a comment on here or hit me up on the Twitter.

1. The Weakerthans – "Watermark"
2. Sleater-Kinney – "One More Hour"
3. J Dilla – "Reality Check" feat. Black Thought
4. The Wildhearts – "Woah Shit, You Got Through"
5. The Flaming Lips – "Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)"
6. Kraftwerk – "Autobahn"
7. Aesop Rock – "Dark Heart News" feat. Rob Sonic
8. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – "Oliver's Army"
9. Rufus Wainwright – "Gay Messiah"
10. Tori Amos – "Hey Jupiter"
11. El-P – "T.O.J."
12. The Rolling Stones – "You Can't Always Get What You Want"¹
13. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – "Candle Mambo"
14. Cornershop – "7:20 a.m. Jullander Shere"

[DOWNLOAD]

[no others yet cuz it's only February...]

¹ Wow, this section of the mix just got extremely lovelorn. Honestly didn't notice that at the time. Happy Valentine's everyone