SIGUR ROS - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 2008

I'd seen a lot of people I know getting all googly eyed over Sigur Rós but I just didn't get it at the time. I listened to a little of the music but it didn't grab me like I expected...expected only because so many others were into SR, I thought I must have been missing something. After a couple of years I found a rare Icelandic pressing of the CD Von in a Goodwill thrift store (I still wonder who must have dumped it there) and then it happened - I became what I never thought I would become - the owner of a Sigur Rós CD. Icelandic no less! While Von is definitely more ambient and experimental than the current release, I can't help but like this too. Sometimes I can hear a little Mercury Rev in Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - roughly translated in English means "We play endlessly with a buzz in our ears."

And here's a little goodie from the Sigur Rós website about a competition for the Goobledigook single:

gobbledigook competition
6 September 2008

sigur rós have set up a gobbledigook remix competition on youtube. they’ve provided an instrumental mp3 of gobbledigook and the icelandic and english lyrics for you to use in the remix in any way you please. the “most gratifying” entry as judged by the band will receive a signed copy of the deluxe edition of með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. head over here for all the details on the competition.


1 Gobbledigook (3:05)
2 Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur (4:05)
3 Góðan Daginn (5:15)
4 Við Spilum Endalaust (3:33)
5 Festival (9:24)
6 Suð í Eyrum (4:56)
7 Ára Bátur (8:57)
8 Illgresi (4:13)
9 Fljótavík (3:49)
10 Straumnes (2:01)
11 All Alright (6:21)

Hver maður er borinn frjáls

SPACEHEADS self titled CD 1995

Spaceheads is one of the most unusual and original bands to hit the music scene of the 1990's. Seriously. The quirky trumpet and rat a tat tat of the drums mesh together surprisingly well. You definitely won't hear anything like this anywhere else but on a Spaceheads CD. Andy Diagram's trumpet is played through electronics (whammy harmonizer pedal and echo machine loops) and somehow he manages to sing in between blasts of brass. You won't hear a bass player on this record and there is no need for one - you'll hear why. Onstage they have no need for fancy hype like go-go girls dancing inside cages. You'll just need to expect unbridled weirdness that only Spaceheads could master!

" The Spaceheads are among the most compelling projects of the past decade, naturally bringing together several different vital elements of the underground music zeitgeist in a remarkably organic, refreshingly original, and completely addictive fashion. The collaboration features trumpeter Andy Diagram, a onetime member of the classic British psych-pop ensemble James who also records with ex-Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas as 2 Pale Boys, and percussionist Richard Harrison, who has worked with everyone from God Is My Co-Pilot to Graham Massey (of 808 State) to Stereolab. They formed their partnership while playing in a noisy new wave/post-punk band called Dislocation Dance during the '80s. Following this, the duo formed a band called The Honkies which featured the two of them plus a pair of sax players and which recorded intermittently before burning out in the mid '90s. Then in 1989 Diagram and Harrison started recording alone as Spaceheads.
Diagram's echo-looped trumpet is the comet darting across the hot star-flecked night sky, while a wash of skittering techno sounds creeps below. Spaceheads tunes are funky and deep, they're dangerous and tense, they're spacey and cosmic, and they're peaceful and meditative, all at once. " Jesse Ashlock on Epitonic.com

Down In Outer Space  

DASTAN TRIO Journey To Persia 2003

Dastan Trio's release, Journey To Persia, is simply incredible. I've been privileged to listen to many Persian artists' CDs, but I'd have to say this is the best one I've heard. The music is absolutely beautiful and addicting.
It's also interesting to hear and experience the parallels between this music and Spanish flamenco compositions. The Tar is a wonderful instrument that has a soul and a heart and you can hear the emotion in each vibration of its strings. At times, I could swear it actually has a voice and is singing.
"Founded in 1991, "the almighty Dastan is perhaps the most forward-thinking group of its kind, re-establishing a repertoire of Persian classical music while using its fundamentals of melodic, rhythmic and dynamic variation to develop new forms and combined sonorities. The ensemble's structured improvisations are performed by several of the very best of the contemporary Persian musicians including Hamid Motebassem on Tar and Setar, Hossein Behroozi-Nia on barbat, and Pejman Hadadi on tombak" (John Payne, LA Weekly)

Thanks to We Love Music blog for this.

Track Listing
1. Prelude to Dastgah-E Mahur
2. Seven-Beat Rhythm
3. Gousheh Daad
4. Gousheh Khosravani
5. Gousheh Neyriz and Shekasteh
6. Modulation to Maqaam-E Afshari
7. Shirazi Song
8. Shurideh
9. Modulation to Dastgah-E Homayoon
10. Midnight Sun
11. Finale in Dastagh-E Mahur

Journey To Persia

ELMORE JAMES King of the Slide Guitar box set 1994

King of the Slide Guitar was released as a box set which included 3 CDs and a gorgeous and informative booklet filled with photos and stories about Elmore James. It's long out of print and there are plenty of goodies here including Dust My Broom.

Dust Elmore's Broom

TALKIN TRASH Lookey Dookey 1956 - 1964

Oh Lawdy! It's been a long long time since I heard these gems released by Crypt Records, a record label that is still going strong today! About 10 years ago when I was slaving away at a record store grudgingly selling NOFX and Pennywise CDs and being asked which Pennywise CD was the best one (I'd just pick the one with the prettiest cover), I got hooked like heroin to most anything that Crypt Records released, especially the compilations of rare old R&B that was greasy, sleazy and damned sinful! Grab you a slab o' ribs and some cornbread and turn this up loud! It's lip smackin' greasy good music that'll stick to your ribs!

1. Bunker Hill: The Girl Can't Dance
2. Guitar Crusher: The Monkey
3. Rex Garvin: Oh Yeah!
4. Continentals: Don't Do It Baby
5. King Coleman: Lookey Dookey
6. L.C. McKinley: Nit Wit
7. Louis Jones: Rock 'N' Roll Bells
8. Premiers: Run Along Baby
9. Sammy Fitzhugh: Sadie Mae
10. Nightriders: Lookin' For My Baby
11. Bobby Louis: Fire Of Love
12. Bobby Long & His Satellites: Mojo Workout
13. Big Jay Mercer: Bermudas
14. Olympics: Talkin' Trash
15. Pigmeat Markham: Your Wire's Been Tapped
16. King Coleman: Alley Rat
17. Evelyn Freeman: Didn't In Rain
18. Mr. Wiggles: Homeboy
19. Morine & The Zercons: Let A Woman Through
20. John Tee: Roll Dem Bones
21. Reverend Lofton & His Holy Travellers: Look To Jesus
22. Morine & The Zercons: Show Me Where It's At
23. Melvin Smith: Ugly George
24. Claude Cloud: Hobo
25. Rudy Ray Moore: Step It Up And Go
26. The Royal Jokers: You Tickle Me Baby
27. McKinley Mitchell: Rock Everybody Rock
28. Wailin Bill Dell: You Gotta Be Loose
29. Little Cameron: She's Leaving
30. Volcanoes: Oh Oh Mojo
31. Portuguese Joe: Teenage Riot
32. Bill Johnson: You Better Dig It
33. Billy Lamont: Hear Me Now
34. Emmet Lord: Women


Your Wire's Been Tapped