Instant Music Genius

Pink Floyd - Live 8

sw — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 08:58:00 +0000

One of the highpoints of live 8 London was Pink Floyd, in fact there weren't many other high points as far as I can see. People seem to be raving over Paul McCartneys opener but I thought it was crap. Hey ho, get the Pink Floyd set here as a good quality audio file.

Pink Floyd - Live 8

Mercury Rev

sw — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 16:17:00 +0000

Becoming a very occassional blog which is not what I had in mind when I started it, anyway have picked up on Mercury Rev. Some bands pass you by and then you catch up with them and they are one. Some decent links around thoough including an excellent live radio set from France available here.

A nose around various Rapidshare type directories throws up the following:

Mercury Rev - Goddess On A Highway EP thingy

http://rapidshare.de/files/2923354/goddess.zip.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2923293/Goddess_On_A_Hiway.zip.html

Mercury Rev-YrselfisSteam 6-7-8

http://rapidshare.de/files/2923053/678mrev.rar.html

None of these links has been tested as I bought a selection of CDs (aren't I good and so is the music!) so please, if you use the links they are just for sampling purposes only.

Elysian Fields - Links

sw — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 17:06:00 +0000

And a record two posts on one day... Another web find, although I am sure there are those who paicked them up elsewhere, are Elysian Fields - a laidback kind of music. Found the firstr track at MP34U which you may be familar with. A good place to find new artists as well as more established groups.

The track highlighted there was Shooting Stars although the link is off their site.

Have also come across a website pretty much devoted to Elysian Fields as well which links in one of those strange ways with the Mercury Rev post below as the directory here links to tracks recorded from the same French radio programme (the Black sessions on France Inter FM). Obviously there is more of interest in the master directory.

Amazon links to Elysian Fields here

Cream - Royal Albert Hall

sw — Sat, 21 May 2005 13:24:00 +0000

Long time no post, been off an travelling around a bit which meant that the tickets for the Cream reunion that took me two hours to acquire had to go to someone else - Tragic!. Anyway have found an MP3 post of the May 5th Concert. Not the best quality (i.e not off the sound board) but not the worst either. Get it here:

Cream - Live, Royal Albert Hall

Jean Michel Jarre - MP3

sw — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:55:00 +0000

Yep my musical tastes bounce around all over the place, JMJ is a case in point and this must be the only blog to list 999 with JMJ! This site has a large selection of live JMJ bootlegs, in the main they are pants! Several are recorded with walkmans and the crowd talking is of more interest than the music, however the Acropolis Concert from 2001 is good quality and may be an audio feed or possibly ripped from a TV broadcast of this show. Anyway -

Todays ITunes oddities - MP3

sw — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 15:47:00 +0000

The advantage or disadvantage of having a vast ITunes library (over 15,000 tracks (and yes Mr Copyright Lawyer they are all legal - I bought and still have all of the CDs and vinyl ) is that it spits out tracks that you had forgotten about, hadn't noticed or just previously ignored, more often than not album tracks that have been buried for years. So here is a couple of tracks that moved from 2 stars (my bog standard rating) to 4 stars when I heard them this week. As usual posted for seven days only.

The first track is a world / african music work out of the Bill Withers standard (No 280 in the Rolling Stone all time top 500) the second is a trance track based around the Korgis track "Everybodys Got to Learn Some Time" as syrupy heap of mire from the early eighties.

999 - MP3

sw — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:24:00 +0000

Back in '79 or so there were lots of quasi punk band knocking around among them 999, who had a well known logo featuring a raffle ticket. I had pretty much forgotten about them until I picked up a reissue of a couple of albums. They are a bit hit and miss but do contain some reasonable stuff. Try I'm Alive and buy the album :

The Action - MP3

sw — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:04:00 +0000

Way back when the Stones, The Who, The Small Faces and the Beatles were making headway plenty of other bands were working the pubs and clubs. Some were, arguably better but got nowhere, some got a record deal and still didn't get far. The Action were one of those bands and widely considered as the Mods Mod band. Formed in 1963, the group signed to AIR Records, owned by Beatle producer George Martin. Most original records are lost in the mists now although there was a compilation in '81 called the Ultimate Action. More recently a similar CD has been issued - Action Packed.

One of my all time favourite bands, try them...

Come On, Come With Me - The Action - MP3 (link gone)

Action Packed - The album available here

Paul Weller - MP3

sw — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 20:51:00 +0000

Went to see the modfather last week at Brighton and was pretty blown away, having seen him perform pretty regulalry over the years from The Jam, through The Style Council and PW Movement this was the best I've seen him.

Just a reminder of how good The Jam were here -

Man in the Cornershop - The Jam (Live)

More Ray Lamontagne - MP3

sw — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 20:44:00 +0000

Still think that Trouble is on eof the best albums of 2005, although in a different style the Madelaine Peyroux album is running it close. Jealous of all those who got to Londons Scala last week for Rays gig, so to make up we've tracked down an "album" of demos.

Introducing Ray Lamontagne

DJ Spanker v Keane - MP3

sw — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 07:55:00 +0000

Heres a fine example of why remixers should in many cases be shot. Take a perfectly reasonable and inoffensive Keane track - we might as well be strangers - and try and improve it by chopping it up and sticking some electronic bass behind it. It does work in a few cases but this? I think it's 5hit! Make your own mind up.

DJ Spanker v Keane - We Might As Well Be Strangers

Bloc Party - MP3

sw — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 13:42:00 +0000

Just got the Bloc Party album and it is as good as the reviews say it is, one of the Albums of the year so far. Great guitar based music - see how many references you can spot through the album. Link here to a track thats not on the album but still worth a listen.

Little Thoughts - Bloc Party

Joan Baez - MP3 Link

sw — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 13:38:00 +0000

Quick link here to download page for one of the more recent Joan Baez tracks, consistently good and with a performing histoty most singers would kill for...

In My Time of Need - Joan Baez

Laurie Anserson - MP3

sw — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 10:12:00 +0000

Had sort of forgotten about Laurie Anderson till I found these and reminded myself how irritating O Superman is, quite how it got number 1 in the UK I'm not sure. Listening to it again though it is quite an interesting exercise and certainly better than a lot of the drivel that was around in 1982 and as fas as I know the only song that manages to get the "petro-chemical" into the lyrics. Listen to it here:

Prince - MP3 Page

sw — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:03:00 +0000

Prince? Bit hit and miss as far as I am concerned, all that precious stuff about painting a symbol on his face and refusing to record, who the hell did he think he was? Came out of it when the money ran out though... a page here of live recordings which will no doubt interest somebody.

Prince - Live

Traffic - MP3 Link

sw — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:12:00 +0000

Page to hear Traffics Greatest Hits, poignant with the recent sad loss of Jim Capaldi. Saw Stevie Windwood play last year and the man still has it. Enjoy these

Greatest Hits - Traffic

X Ray Spex - MP3 Link

sw — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:15:00 +0000

Couple of classic live numbers from X Ray Spex, and their wild lead singer Poly Styrene. Just the thing to take you back to the heady days of 1978... Oh Bondage.... is especially good.

Ray Lamontagne - MP3

sw — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:58:00 +0000

Just discovered the Ray Lamontagne album Trouble. A quick scoot around found these MP3s of three live tracks from a radio station session.

Personally I think that Trouble is an absolutely class track.

Nine Below Zero - RM Download

sw — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:13:00 +0000

Have followed the career of Nine Below Zero for at least 25 years, including all the various other units when they split up. Great "Canvey Island" R'n'B enjoyed most in the backroom of a pub or in a decent small club. Had a little scoot around for downloads and found this on the BBC site of all places. I know real media can be a pain in the 4rse but save it as an RAM pop it through wavepad ( a free download) and save as an MP3.

Money or the Man - Nine Below Zero

Lemon Jelly - MP3 link

sw — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 11:44:00 +0000

The new albums pretty good, but I still like this track.

The Staunton Lick - Lemon Jelly

Kate York - MP3

sw — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 09:25:00 +0000

Somebody else I don't know much about, kind of singer / songwriter / americana / folky stuff. S0unds a lot better than I describe it thought.

All Dressed In You - Kate York

I found this on Paste Music which has a good selection of folk and country MP3 downloads including a good half dozen from Kate Rusby. You do have to give an email address to get to the download area but I know from experience that they do not fill your inbox.

Ella Guru - Streaming Link

sw — Sun, 16 Jan 2005 16:48:00 +0000

Something fairly new that we like, pretty laid back kind of electronic stuff just right for a late night chill out. Web page has streaming tracks from their first and only album. Click title above to link through.

Chicken Tikka Masala - MP3 Link

sw — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:00:00 +0000

Now for something a bit different - that dodgy music playing when you're out for a ruby (for those non Londoners that'll be ruby as in Ruby Murray - Curry) here's some. An entire directory of Indian pop music. Not my choice but hey it takes all sorts. While you're there check out some of the other directories as there is some decent stuff lurking here.

Indian Music

Japan - Live 1981 - MP3 Bloglink

sw — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:36:00 +0000

Link through to one of our favourite audio blogs - "blogalive" - could never get on with Japan myself but my wife though they were great. In fact so great that she was in the front row of the gig that these recordings come from and she still remembers it now... And from a time when the Labatts Apollo was correctly named, somehow for those of us of a certain age we still think of it as the Hammersmith Odeon.

Japan - Live, Hammersmith Odeon, 1981

Tracks

Quiet Life
Alien
My New Career

Nikki Sudden - MP3

sw — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:18:00 +0000

The official Nikki Sudden website has some nice MP3 & WMA downloads, also some real audio but I've never got these to work.

Nikki Sudden Website

A couple of track links to try:

Also available from the NS website is a neat Lemonheads download of a Nikki Sudden track they covered, link below:

Pin Your Heart - Lemonheads