Tracklist: 01: Rodrigo Leão – O Rapaz da Montanha 02: Alex Fernet – The Nightdrive 03: Brian Bilston and the Catenary Wires – Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You 04: Jeanines – What’s Lost 05: City Mall – Sapphire 06: Laufey – Tough Luck 07: Lightheaded – Same Drop 08: Miguel Mouta – Café feat Lika 09: Tinariwen (+IO:I) – Sastanàqqàm 10: noiserv – 20 . 05 . A self-conversation is too loud for an empty room 11: Real Estate – Pink Sky 12: Retimbrar – Só Ouve o Brado da Terra (by José Afonso) 13: Robert Forster – Strawberries 14: Roland Decembre – Fais-moi tout oublie 15: Tamara Qaddoumi – River In The Darkness 16: The Bug Club – Appropriate Emotions 17: Dirty Projectors – Through the Long and Lonely Night 18: Victor Torpedo & The Pop Kids – Friends
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 79 – The of Roots and Happy Sounds edition airs Monday 19th, 3-4pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
There are 18 songs raging from roots based ones – Rodrigo Leão, Miguel Mouta, Tinariwen, Retimbrar – to gentle, happy pop – Brian Bilston and the Catenary Wires, Lightheaded, Robert Forster and others – along with some dancefloor shades, Alex Fernet, and a dash or rock-‘n’-roll, Victor Torpedo & The Pop Kids.
It’s my usual “at first glance, it doesn’t seem to make sense, but it does” mix. 🙂 It’s a happy, vibrant show, with a wide diversity of geographies and sounds. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Tracklist: 01: Rodrigo Leão – O Rapaz da Montanha 02: Alex Fernet – The Nightdrive 03: Brian Bilston and the Catenary Wires – Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You 04: Jeanines – What’s Lost 05: City Mall – Sapphire 06: Laufey – Tough Luck 07: Lightheaded – Same Drop 08: Miguel Mouta – Café feat Lika 09: Tinariwen (+IO:I) – Sastanàqqàm 10: noiserv – 20 . 05 . A self-conversation is too loud for an empty room 11: Real Estate – Pink Sky 12: Retimbrar – Só Ouve o Brado da Terra (by José Afonso) 13: Robert Forster – Strawberries 14: Roland Decembre – Fais-moi tout oublie 15: Tamara Qaddoumi – River In The Darkness 16: The Bug Club – Appropriate Emotions 17: The Dirty Projectors – Through the Long and Lonely Night 18: Victor Torpedo & The Pop Kids – Friends
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights #5 – The Poetry edition repeats tomorrow, Monday 21st, 3-4pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
Tracklist: 01 – Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis – Ode to a Nightingale (Keats poem) 02 – Suede – Heroine (Byron She Walks in beauty 1st lines) 03 – The Cranberries – Yeats Grave 04 – Amália Rodrigues – Barco Negro (David Mourão-Ferreira poem) 05 – Secos Molhados – Não não digas nada (Fernando Pessoa poem) 06 – Annie Lennox – Live With Me And Be My Love (Christopher Marlowe poem) 07 – The Waterboys – Stolen Child (Yeats poem) 08 – Bob Dylan – On the Road Again (Bob Dylan poem) 09 – Radio Bukowski – The Genius of The Crowd (Charles Bukowski poem) 10 – Carla Bruni – If You Were Coming In The Fall (Emily Dickinson poem) 11 – Rufus Wainwright – When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes (William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29th) 12 – Fagner – Fanatismo (Florbela Espanca poem) 13 – Ralph Schuckett and Richard Butler – Alabama song (Bertolt Brecht poem, Kurt Weill music) 14 – Patti Smith – Changing of the Guards (Bob Dylan cover and poem) 15 – Phil Ochs – The Bell (Edgar Allan Poe poem) 16 – Quilapayun – Complainte de Pablo Neruda 17 – The Smiths – Cemetery Gates (Keats, Yeats, Wilde came to play)
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 78 – The Debuts & More edition The Debuts & More edition.is now available for listening on mixcloud. Amazing Songs & Other Delights airs every other Monday on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
Tracklist: 01: Agrupamento Musical Os Tais – Liga Pra Mim 02: Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles – Stranger 03: Beirut -Guericke’s Unicorn 04: Bill Fox – Terminal Way 05: Butler, Blake & Grant – The 90s 06: Calvin Harris – Smoke The Pain Away 07: Courting – After You 08: Flávio Torres – Vamos 09: Màiri Morrison and Alasdair Roberts – The Bonny House of Airlie 10: Mark Fry – Not On The Radar 11: Mister Romantic – Dream 12: Model/Actriz – Doves 13: Oh Bobby – Sweet Peace 14: Reb Fountain – He Commands You To Jump Into The Sea 15: Sex Beat – This Machine Kills No One 16: The Hard Quartet – Lies (Something You Can Do) 17: The Ophelias – Salome 18 Tunde Adebimpe – God Knows 19: Trey Calloway – The Ballad of Righteous and Wrong
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 78 – The Debuts & More edition airs Monday, 7th, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com(or on the app).
How many times will I write debut album is anyone’s guess. Other than debut album, collaborations, a couple of super groups (oh mine! are the 70s back?… ) and nineteen songs can be found on this edition of Amazing Songs & Other Delights. Scots abound too. Can you slop them all?
The musical genres are varied, at times in the same song. Folk, folk adjacent, dance music, americana, indie noise, hip-hop, romantic music, gentle pop, and some other flavours. Agrupamento Musical Os Tais’s Liga Pra Mim and Calvin Harris’ Smoke The Pain Away are examples of musical cross pollination.
Agrupamento Musical Os Tais are rappers Mike El Nite and the duo João Não & Lil Noon. Agrupamento Musical Os Tais is one of those things that to fully grasp you may need to be Portuguese and aware of our bandas de baile (electric ball bands that played, and still play, local clubs, associations, our equivalent of workers men’s clubs, fetes, carnivals and the likes). Liga Pra Mim is from their debut album Dance, Romance. Dance, Romance has shades of everything, from pimba (wikipedia is your friend), to kizomba, through hip-hop, house, a dash of pop, all wrapped in deliberated tacky elegance.
Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles is Alan Sparhawk of Low and bluegrass-folk band Trampled by Turtles.
The 90s is the third single by super group Butler, Blake & Grant. Super group being a bit of a joke. No stadium tours and 20 gear trucks, or Spinal Tap drama in sight. Butler, Blake & Grant are musician, songwriter and producer Bernard Butler, Norman Blake, of Teenage Fanclub, and James Grant of Love and Money fame. Their debut album has just come out. The 90s is sung and written by Bernard.
Sweet Peace was written by me and Bill Rivers for my 3rd anniversary 3rd anniversary show and is now on Swim the Universe the new Oh Bobby (Bill Rivers & Simon Hayward) album.
Mister Romantic is actor John C. Reilly musical alter-ego. Dream, a romantic, 1920s vibe song, is the first single from debut album What’s Not To Love?
Scottish singer and musician Alasdair Roberts teamed up with another Scot, Scottish Gaelic singer Màiri Morrison to sing The Bonny House of Airlie, a traditional Scottish ballad of the XVII century. As is traditional in these sort of ballads The Bonny House of Airlie tells a tragic real story, the burning of the castle of the Earl of Airlie castle and the murder of his family.
Lies is a song by The Hard Quartet, another super group, formed by Stephen Malkmus, of Pavement, Matt Sweeney of Superwolf, Emmett Kelly and Jim White.
God Knows by Tunde Adebimpe, of T.V. On The Radio, and Trey Calloway’s The Ballad of Righteous close the show. The Ballad of Righteous is a classic americana tradition storytelling song.
Tracklist: 01: Agrupamento Musical Os Tais – Liga Pra Mim 02: Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles – Stranger 03: Beirut -Guericke’s Unicorn 04: Bill Fox – Terminal Way 05: Butler, Blake & Grant – The 90s 06: Calvin Harris – Smoke The Pain Away 07: Courting – After You 08: Flávio Torres – Vamos 09: Màiri Morrison and Alasdair Roberts The Bonny House of Airlie 10: Mark Fry – Not On The Radar 11: Mister Romantic – Dream 12: Model/Actriz – Doves 13: Oh Bobby – Sweet Peace 14: Reb Fountain – He Commands You To Jump Into The Sea 15: Sex Beat – This Machine Kills No One 16: The Hard Quartet – Lies (Something You Can Do) 17: The Ophelias – Salome 18 Tunde Adebimpe – God Knows 19: Trey Calloway – The Ballad of Righteous and Wrong
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 77 – The Spring is Here edition airs Monday 24th, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
It’s Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. I bring you eighteen songs that, to me, have a Spring vibe.
Tracklist: 01: The Learning Station – Spring Is Here 02: Bill Callahan – Spring 03: Elis Regina & Tom Jobim – Águas de Março 04: Everything But The Girl – I Don’t Want To Talk About It 05: Glazyhaze – Not Tonight 06: Henry Silence – Gamble 07: Jonathan Richman – Springtime in New York 08: M.Ward – Here Comes The Sun Again 09: Manic Street Preachers – Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head 10: Morcheeba – I Am The Spring 11: Now – In Pathécolor 12: Pale Blue Eyes – Travel Day 13: Rufus Wainwright – Rebel Prince 14: Saint Etienne – Spring 15: Stereolab – Pop Quiz 16: The Beach Boys – Be Still (2001 remastered) 17: The Gentle Spring – Sugartown 18: The Bunch – The Locomotion
My radio programme Amazing Songs & Other Delights #70 – The True Love Edition has a repeat Monday 24, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).You can read about the programme here.
Tracklist: 01: Jane’s Addiction – True Love 02: A 90s new man called Stan – Sushi feat. Adamski 03: Anthony Moore – Earthbound Misfit 04: Black Toska – Three Silver Nails 05: Cosmic Room 99 – E Corp 06: Fernando Triste – Escuro 07: Franz Ferdinand – Audacious 08: Good Sad Happy – Shaded Tree 09: Jonas – Bato À Porta 10: Kingbird – There Were Things That Needed Forgiven 11: Laurie Anderson – Road to Mandalay 12: Primal Scream – Love Insurrection 13: Terry Gross – Sales Pitch 14: The Heavy Heavy – Feel 15: Tindersticks – Always a Stranger 16: Virgem Suta – Amor Ao Avesso 17: Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You In The End
It is World Radio Day and my Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 76 – The New, Found, Remembered edition can now be listened to on mixcloud.
The title is self-explanatory. This programme is a mix of new songs, songs I chanced upon from different songs, some new, some not, and songs I remembered. It’s also another case of one thing leads to another. As a whole the 19 songs from various decades, with emphasis on very recent ones. More about the show here.
Tracklist: 01 – Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt – Orchestra 02 – Alpine Subs – Rely On Me 03 – Attawalpa – Always The Girls 04 – Berkley – Gram Theft Parsons 05 – Born Folk – Seize the Day 06 – Crazy Horse – I Don’t Want to Talk About It 07 – Electric Man – New Wave 08 – Epic Soundtracks feat Robert Wyatt – Jellybabies 09 – Hamish Hawk – Juliet as Epithet 10 – Jude Alderson – Rent Boy 11 – Julian Shah-Tayler – Sufferation 12 – Julien Baker & Torres – Sylvia 13 – Little Barrie & Malcom Catto – Zero Sun 14 – Marlon Williams – Aua Atu Rā 15 – OMIRI – Pé com Pé 16 – The Durutti Column – Love No More 17 – The Gentle Spring – Looking Back At The World 18 – Tunng – Didn’t Know Why 19 – Vanarin – Memories
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 76 – The New, Found, Remembered edition airs Monday 10, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
The title is self-explanatory. This programme is a mix of new songs, songs I chanced upon from different songs, some new, some not, and songs I remembered.
It’s also another case of one thing leads to another. As a whole the 19 songs from various decades, with emphasis on very recent ones, on Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 76 – The New, Found, Remembered edition form a fresh, engaging, beautiful programme.
A friend posted about Robert Wyatt’s 80th birthday, Epic Soundtracks song Jellybabies with Wyatt singing flashed in mind.
Berkley’s Gram Theft Parsons is one of those songs that tell a story, a narrative style often absent in recent songs. Gram Theft Parsons is the story of the final months of Gram Parsons life, told with no sugar coating.
Crazy Horse are better know as Neil Young backing band. I Don’t Want to Talk About It is from their self titled debut album, released in 1971. I Don’t Want to Talk About It was written by Danny Whitten and would become a hit for Rod Stewart and Everything but the Girl. Ry Cooder plays pedal steel guitar and slide guitar on Crazy Horse’s original that is produced by Jack Nitzsche.
Marlon Williams’ Aua Atu Rā is the first single from Te Whare Tīwekaweka Williams first album in Māori language. OMIRI’s Pé com Pé mixes of Portuguese traditional music and dance music, resulting in an attractive, strange song.
Love No More comes from The Durutti Column 1989 album Vini Reilly, re-released last year on Record Store Day. Durutti Column Vini Reilly re-released is one of my records of 2024.
Rent Boy, a song by Jude Alderson is from the 1986 documentary Andy The Furniture Maker, about Andrew Marshall, part of the documentary series Six of Hearts, directed by Paul Oremland. I learned of the documentary by reading an article on The Guardian. I liked the documentary and loved the song.
Tracklist: 01 – Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt – Orchestra 02 – Alpine Subs – Rely On Me 03 – Attawalpa – Always The Girls 04 – Berkley – Gram Theft Parsons 05 – Born Folk – Seize the Day 06 – Crazy Horse – I Don’t Want to Talk About It 07 – Electric Man – New Wave 08 – Epic Soundtracks feat Robert Wyatt – Jellybabies 09 – Hamish Hawk – Juliet as Epithet 10 – Jude Alderson – Rent Boy 11 – Julian Shah-Tayler – Sufferation 12 – Julien Baker & Torres – Sylvia 13 – Little Barrie & Malcom Catto – Zero Sun 14 – Marlon Williams – Aua Atu Rā 15 – OMIRI – Pé com Pé 16 – The Durutti Column – Love No More 17 – The Gentle Spring – Looking Back At The World 18 – Tunng – Didn’t Know Why 19 – Vanarin – Memories
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 75 – The A New Season Begins edition is now available for listen on mixcloud.
As the name says it’s the start of a new season of shows, as well as an edition filled with new music. You can read more about this show here.
Tracklist: 01 – Rialto – No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive 02 – Edwyn Collins – Knowledge 03 – Tom Gunn Nash – Grown 04 – Chioke – Life Could Be This Way 05 – Manic Street Preachers – People Ruin Paintings 06 – Sam Amidon – Golden Willow Tree 07 – Bob Mould – Here We Go Crazy 08 – Edith Frost – Hold On 09 – Andy Bell feat. Dot Allison and Michael Rother – I’m in Love… 10 – The Velveteers – Bound In Leather 11 – Hayden Thorpe – Doom Orchid 12 – The Twist Connection – Concentrate 13 – Um Corpo Estranho – Canção da Paciência 14 – The Jesus Lizard – Westside 15 – Ray – Man On Fire 16 – Sehore – Vals 17 – Leatherette – Itchy 18 – Butler, Blake & Grant – Bring An End
Mondo Bizarre Magazine 