Toy

I just picked up the new EP by Toy called "Half Baked Alaska" (Smalltown Supersound 2007). On it you'll find "Welcome To Cedars Lodge" and "High In The Cedars" (High Llamas Remix by Sean O'Hagan). You also get 4 tracks from a concert held in Logen in Bergen (December 2006), when the duo Toy had grown to 11 organ players! Yes, I was there (in an audience of 40-50 people), and you may hear me whistle between the songs (live and evil!). Listening to this music makes me smile, and imagine toys and Merry Go Rounds. Try them out on MySpace.

The worst singers in the world!

The music magazine Word (or a blog on their web site) ranked the worst vocalists in the world! In the discussion around this list a snotty fellow claims that Robert Wyatt sings like a dying sheep, and that he is unlistenable! And some people don't want censorship on the net! Caravan's vocalist Pye Hastings is unlucky, and gained a place on the list:
1st= Supertramp, both of 'em
3rd Al Stewart
4th Joan Baez
5th Pye Hastings
6th Lee Jackson
7th Jimmy Pursey
8th Chris Cornell
9th Ray Thomas and last (and most definitely least!!)
10th Chris Farlowe, who has ruined more than most, thinking, most poignantly, of Colosseum......"
Wyatt a dying sheep!

Shuffle!

I have learned to love the shuffle function on my I-Pod. Last Saturday's walk in the snow, ended up with this anti-formatted "radio" program (and a good walk it was):
Wayne Shorter: Twelve more bars to go
Arctic Monkeys: Fake tales of San Francisco
Sufjan Stevens: Redford
The Who: Silas Stingy
Shining: In the kingdom of kitsch
Coco Rosie: Animals
Captain Beefheart: Gimme dat harp boy
Malcolm Middleton: Fight like the night
John Cale: Tell me why
Robert Wyatt: Just a bit
Low Frequency In Stereo: Bahamas (great Norwegian band)
Charles Lloyd: Bis
Ivor Cutler: Steady job
Sharon Jones: 100 days, 100 nights
Robert Wyatt: The united states of amnesia
Manna: Herren Jahova (Norwegian reggae)
John Coltrane: Every time we say goodbye
Grateful Dead: US Blues
Charles Lloyd: Oh Karim
Hild Sofie Tafjord: Kama

Splatterfolk

Let's have some Folk info again now, starting off with poor Richard Thompson singing "Now that I am dead", live and alone in 1992. Record Companies still sell more albums after some artists die, don't they? This song was on French Frith Kaiser Thompson's record "Invisible Means" (1990). And please, buy a lot of Richard Thompson records while he's alive (and long may he live!).
In the Norwegian magazine Ballade I found a piece on a band called Thinguma*jigSaw. Their genre is "splatterfolk", no less. Check them out on MySpace if you dare. They are touring UK these days.
A long interview with Rachel Unthank, who gave us a fantastic cover of Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song" in 2007, may be found on the blog "Salut! Live" (I'll link to this blog from now on).

Ahasverus

Mapsadaisical pointed me towards Swedish Ahasverus. The CD "Foundation" is full of dark, spooky ambient music. If you are living on the edge, this is a perfect soundtrack. If your days are too long and boring, this album will make them exciting. Only 100 copies made so far.

Enrico Rava

Playing around with LP covers.

Bragg, rhubarb and Wyatt

I am really looking forward to Billy Bragg's "Mr. Love and Justice", out on Cooking Vinyl 3 March. On his website he tells how he met Robert Wyatt over some fresh rhubarb, and that obviously resulted in sweet music. "I hadn't seen him since Red Wedge (the 1986 Labour Party youth vote initiative)," says Bragg. "He found me some rhubarb and then came along to the recording session and sang beautiful vocals to the chorus of 'I Keep Faith' – it was like angels singing!" The record will also be made as a deluxe solo album. Billy Bragg is touring Europe and UK to promote the album.