The Life Pursuit

Before I subject you all to recent holiday purchases here is one from a haul from the charity shops of St Andrews following a pre-holiday visit to nearby Crail.

The Life Pursuit from 2006 is the 7th (of ten) studio albums by twee Scottish indie band Belle and Sebastian.
It joins If You're Feeling Sinister and Dear Catastrophe Waitress on the shelves together with the EP 3..6..9.. Seconds of Light.
While maybe not as good as the other two above it is perfectly pleasant reaching number 8 in the UK album charts and acquiring silver status.
After a couple of listens I prefer the two tracks below to the three singles from the album namely Funny Little Frog, The Blues Are Still Blue and White Collar Boy. Probably just me being contrary again.

Belle and Sebastian -Another Sunny Day

Belle and Sebastian - Sukie in the Graveyard

Untypical Girl

Back from two weeks far from the maddening crowd. Hopefully relaxed and ready to foist some more music on you poor souls.

My holiday reading during my first week was Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys the 2014 autobiography of Viv Albertine. And what a great read it is.
As you would expect her time as a member of Punk group The Slits features heavily as does her relationship with Mick Jones and her friendships with Sid Vicious and Johnny Thunders.
Equally interesting is her life after her time in the Slits came to an end when she was beset by health problems and an ultimately unhappy  marriage.
She is nothing if not a survivor and after years in the musical wilderness she commenced a solo career leading to the release of her debut solo album The Vermilion Border in 2012.
If you haven't already read her book I would urge you to track it down.

The Slits - Typical Girls

The Slits - I Heard it Through the Grapevine

Viv Albertine - Confessions of a MILF

State of the Union - North Carolina

George writes:

The state capital of North Carolina is named after Sir Walter Raleigh. It took the Raleigh part, not the Walter part. And by the way, there is no city or town anywhere in the USA called Walter.

North Carolina is famous for one thing and one thing only: the Orville Brothers’ first flight. Despite what some sites on the Web are trying to tell me, it is famous for nothing else. Such is the extent of barrel-scrapingness several people ramble on about barbecues. For some reason, the fact that one of only twelve people to have walked on the moon, Charles Duke, does not seem very noteworthy, to the extent that one website calls him Charlie Brown.

Reasons to avoid North Carolina: (1) it grows more sweet potatoes than any other state

First song, by Townes Van Zandt, and after my research I am convinced that the Greensboro of the title is the Greensboro of North Carolina. This involved listening to a podcast of an interview Raleigh-born singer Tift Merritt.

Townes Van Zandt - Greensboro woman

I know someone who has a story about his friend assaulting Townes Van Zandt……….

The Avett Brothers have a song about the state capital. And the Sonic Youth have a song that is connected to a small city in North Carolina, referencing the shooting of a bookstore owner. There are other Chapel Hills, of course, in the USA, and in England, for example, but on checking the lyrics and even more extensive research, the song is definitely about the Chapel Hill in today’s state.

Reasons to go to North Carolina (specifically Durham): (1) The birthplace of Clyde McPhatter

                                                     

A second relevant track, a lo-fi track by The ORanges Band

The ORanges Band - North Carolina

Reasons to avoid North Carolina (2). Cape Fear is in North Carolina. You’ve seen the film (and/or the remake), there’s some seriously deranged happenings there.

And the state frog, pictured below, is the Pine Barrens Tree Frog. It is very small (25-75cm) and does not live in trees. It is the winner in today’s Frog Of The Day competition.

                                                    

That’s North Carolina. Sorry it’s a bit flat but I could not get inspired but it.

CC writes

More on the alleged assault on TVZ

I'm surprised that George neglected to inform you that North Carolina is the Cigarette State

Robbie Fulks - Cigarette State

This October

The final monthly instalment from Julie London's Calendar Girl album - or is it?


You may recall that this series started in November last year  given it was one of the September/October holiday purchases.
Given that we are currently on holiday again at the moment it seems appropriate for the series to conclude now.
Julie is wearing traditional Halloween attire I see. As an aside, Halloween appears to be much more of a thing with our American friends than on this side of the Pond. Here a few kids go out guising and that's about it. Annoyingly Trick or Treat now appears to have entered into the vernacular.

This October is a song written by her husband Bobby Troup and is according to the sleeve notes  a bouncy effort which would have made Larry Hart (who he? -Ed) proud

I hope that some of you have enjoyed this indulgence or maybe even parts of it. I suspect that only Alyson and perhaps Brian have made it to the bitter end.

Julie London - This October

State of the Union - Idaho

George writes:

This week, a song will feature that you all know. This one:

B52s - Private Idaho

This state is famous for potatoes. Thirty percent of all potatoes grown in the USA are grown in Idaho I thought that Iowa was famous for that reason. I was wrong. Again. It is also the place for gems, 72 different ones are found in Idaho.

Potatoes: unsurprisingly there is an Idaho Potato Museum. It has a cafe, and all  the many potato-based delights would surely be a huge favourite in Scotland. Cakes made from potatoes! Tatties AND sugar, what, people of Scotland, is there not to like? It’s a cupcake, made from mashed potatoes, supplied by Paisley Bakeries, Blackfoot. You can have vanilla or chocolate potato cupcakes. That place called Blackfoot in Idaho: it  is unlikely that it was the inspiration for hairy and dungaree-wearing Brummies Blackfoot Sue, in case you were wondering.

In 2017, the total USA potato crop was 442 million hundredweght. In the USA a hundredweight is 100lbs (in the UK it is the much more logical 112 pounds ie a multiple of 14 pounds, which equals one stone - that is why the USA version is not logical).  That is 19 730 000 tons of potatoes, and thus 5 919 00 tons were produced in Idaho. 

A lot of potatoes, maybe, but per head less than the countries of the EU. Which I find surprising. 

The deepest canyon in the entire USA is in Idaho, at 7 993 feet deep. Thus Hell’s Canyon is way more deep than the piffling 6 000 feet deep Grand Canyon. 

Time for a track, form an album I bought on Bandcamp. Bought for totally spurious reasons, such as (a) daft song titles, (b) there are 104 tracks (yes, 104),(c) I think no musical instruments were used for any of the tracks, and (d) it looks like this album is the result of a mid-life crisis, released when Joe was 50 years old. (some people just pack in working at 50 and move to a country where they can’t speak the language). It is an  idiotic and yet endearing collection, so far, (listening to Larry, You’re Freaking Me Out), and almost certainly destined to be ejected by my partner from the car CD player on our next long journey. WAIT! Track 35 features, I think, some sort of instrumentation. Not this one though:

Joe Evett - Boise

Not many famous people from Idaho. Sarah Palin (boo!) and Lana Turner (of the original The Postman Always Rings Twice).

Twin Falls is a city in Idaho, named because the Snake River had at one time two adjacent waterfalls. After dam construction there are no longer twin falls. A group called Ben Folds Five do a song called Twin Falls. Well, it’s a cover version, the original is by Built To Spill, and it is whiningly, cloyingly annoying. You are all welcome to discover the charms of this song courtesy of the video-sharing website.Similarly the Ron Pope song of the same name.

So that’s Idaho, where in the city of Pocatello a person may not be seen in public without a smile on their face. Did I mention you get lots of potatoes in Idaho?

Another next week.

CC writes.

Americana singer Josh Ritter is from Moscow, Idaho

Josh Ritter - Idaho

Vintage Country Vinyl - Jerry Reed

This is the 11th and final post in the latest iteration of this series.
All 11 albums were purchased as a job lot a couple of months ago from my local charity shop for the grand total of a tenner.
None of the previous 10 have been startingly brilliant but they have all been reasonably acceptable with Hawkshaw Hawkins, Ferlin Husky and the second George Jones album being the pick of the bunch.


The final album by Jerry Reed (Greatest Hits (A loose use of the term))  however is an absolute shocker and will not be a keeper. Probably karma for me inadvertently declaring that I had 10 albums to pay for when I actually had 11.


Jerry Reed Hubbard was a country singer and actor possibly best known for Guitar Man subsequently covered by Elvis Pressley.
He featured as an animated actor in The New Scooby Doo Movies and as a slightly animated actor  in Smokey and the Bandit where he sang the theme tune East Bound and Down.Being a close pal of Burt Reynolds helped.
Unfortunately the only good thing about his song She Got the Goldmine ( I Got the Shaft) is the title


There have since been two further vintage country vinyl purchases and there are others kicking about which have yet to feature so look out for a third series in due course.


Jerry Reed - Promises

Jerry Reed - East Bound and Down






We are now away on holiday for two weeks. Due to time pressures and my (hopefully temporary) inability to share songs stored on my new laptop there will be nothing to see during our break with the exception of a couple of scheduled posts.

State of the Union - Nevada

George writes:
Yes, it’s a Vivid Dancer Damselfly, the official state insect of Nevada.

Las Vegas is in Nevada. It is ca. 270 miles from the major Californian city of Los Angeles. Reno is also in Nevada, and is ca. 220 miles from San Francisco, and only 130 miles from Sacramento (state capital of California). Is it only  a coincidence that these two major gambling cities are as close as they can be to major populations in the neighbouring state of California?

There will be none of the following, either too obvious, simply not good, or both:

Cocteau Twins, Elvis Presley, INXS, Tony Christie, but you can have the german-language version of that one:

Roberto Blanco is a schlager singer, which I think is the german version of the cheesy pop music in Portugal called pimba.

 And the first good song will be about Reno, by “new country” band Southern Pacific, I hear shades of Little Feat in this:

Southern Pacific - Reno bound

More on Reno: there’s a song by Mimi and Richard Fariña called Reno Nevada. Mimi has a quite well known sister, Joan. Joan Baez. Their mother was Scottish. 

More on Reno: there’s a Bruce Springsteen song called Reno, which is listenable.

Las Vegas. Charisma Carpenter is from Las Vegas. I recognised the name, she was Cordelia in Buffy The Vampire Slayer (of which I have watched every single episode, and did so whilst in a long-term relationship, let me tell you that!). 

(Thelma Catherine Ryan, born in Ely, Nevada. She was very famous in the late 60s early 70s. She was……..?)

I almost listened to a whole Billy Joel song for today’s piece, I lasted for 53 seconds of Stop In Nevada. Then I stopped. And here’s a 1981 song by Nico, with that instantly recognisable droning vocal you either love or hate. It has a Gang Of Four post-punk feel to it, minus angry male shouty vocal:

Nico - Vegas

The official state artefact is the Tule Duck Decoy. This is not as crap as it might sound. In 1924 archeologists discovered a pile of artefacts that thankfully had not destroyed by miners during the latters’ work, amongst which were 2 000 year-old duck decoys made of reed. 

The miners were not mining gold or silver but bat shit, 250 tons of it.

That’s Nevada, where it is against state law to make public intoxication on offense.

And strangely enough, given its association with gambling, Nevada has no state lottery.

Another one next week

CC writes;
From his brilliant 1990 album Jonathan Goes Country here is Mr Richman

Jonathan Richman - Reno