Seoul to Seoul

Note to downloaders: I'm out of bandwidth, so hold on until the 8th September, when it's reset.

jamesinbrasil is celebrating it's second birthday today, and I'd like to thank you for stopping by and reading, listening and commenting. It's appreciated. So now is a good time to announce that there will be some major changes going on around here soon, as I am leaving Brazil for pastures new. That's right, jamesinbrasil is dead, love live...

...jamesinseoul!

I'm off to South Korea for a year, so I will obviously change my focus towards east Asian life, and music, which will be a challenge, as I know nothing about that. But I will dig around, fear not.

Reflections on my time in Brazil will follow, but for now, let's get this pun out of the way, shall we?

Sebadoh - Soul and Fire
Thurston Moore - Ono Soul
David Bowie - Soul Love
Cee-lo Green - Soul Machine
James Brown - Soul Power
Eric B & Rakim - I Know You Got Soul
Todd Rundgren - Soul Brother
AC/DC - Soul Stripper
Blues Explosion - Soul Typecast
Eels - Souljacker Pt. 1
Joy Division - Heart and Soul
KLF - Elvis On The Radio, Steel Guitar In My Soul
Dexy's Midnight Runner's - Until I Believe In My Soul
Tim Buckley - Grief In My Soul
XTC - The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul
Armand Van Helden - I Want Your Soul (Crookers Crunk Remix)
Ghostface Killah - Soul Controller
Betty Bibbs - Pounds Of Soul
Run D.M.C. - Soul To Rock and Roll
Beck - Soul Suckin' Jerk
Desmond Dekker - Rudy Got Soul



Photo taken from here.

Underrated: Nôze

I had never heard of Nôze, until I heard this podcast. It's a live performance from this years Mutek festival, and I was really impressed with their techno meets Tom Waits meets Ricardo Villalobos meets oompah sound. Yes, it's unique, but it works, trust me.

Nôze - Love Affair (from the album How To Dance, 2006)

Listen to their new album right here:



And buy it here.

The 28th of August is the day of bankers, volunteers and poultry farming.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Seven

Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Seven

25th of August is the day of the soldiers, street sellers and people who want to become priests.

The feel good hit of the Autumn

"Hi James, this is Y.A.C.H.T. We have decided to release a new song called Summer Song, and make it exactly for your listening pleasure. It has a catchy, repetitive vocal hook, funky bass line, male/female vocals, and is eminently danceable. All your fave things. Not only that, we are going to release it on DFA, your favourite label!"

"Thanks!"

NYC

I know some people think it's lost it's magic, but to me, New York still feels like one of the most amazing places in the world. Maybe it's because I am so in love with the music that has come from the city, I can't help but think that it's the greatest city there is. Trying to choose the songs to put on this blog was impossible, but I managed. Here is my New York selection:


Public Enemy - Welcome To The Terrordome


Television - Friction


ESG - Erase You


Metro Area - Orange Alert


James Chance & The Contortions - Design To Kill


Drop The Lime - I Love NY


The John Spencer Blues Explosion - Sweat


Mantronix - King Of The Beats (Original 12" Version)


Sonic Youth - Kissability (Live in Vienna, March 29, 1989) (that's them above, honest)


Suicide - Cheree


Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Y Control


Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want


Blondie - Rip Her To Shreds (Live)


BDP - My Philosophy (Original 12" Version)


Santogold vs Diplo - Guns Of Brooklyn


Juan Maclean - Give Me Every Little Thing


Chic - Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)

Naked

So here we are, after only 20 months, at the final Talking Heads album. Now, I know it's obvious that I'm going to say this album is underrated, but I'm gonna anyway, cause it's true. I know it's not as good as the early ones, but honestly people, be fair. That hardly makes it bad does it?

Talking Heads - Sax And Violins

August 19th is international photography day.

Fortaleza

Fortaleza is beach city in the north east of Brazil. It has lovely beaches, hot weather, buggies and great shrimp, which enough for me.






















TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun (Diplo Remix)
Velvet Underground - Who Loves The Sun
Wire - Sand In My Joints

Photos taken by me, Bruna, and my Dad.

15th of August is the day of computing and single people.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Six

Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Six

11th of August is the day of the waiters, lawyers, students, television and hotel workers.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Five

Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.

Solid Gold Popular Music Five

True Stories

"I'm 6'3", and maintain a very consistent panda bear shape." - Louis Fyne

True Stories, apart from being a splendid album, is also an even better film. Directed by David Byrne and released in 1986, it profiles a small Texas town called Virgil and the collection of oddballs who live there. It doesn't have a story as such, it just drifts along towards the town's Celebration of Special-ness, a pageant where the towns folk perform various acts of varying quality.

Byrne appears as the nameless narrator, introducing us to the characters, but never really intruding on their lives, apart from when he goes to dinner with the happily married couple who haven't spoken for 15 years. The closest we get to a narrative is through Louis Fyne (played by the always excellent John Goodman), and his quest for marriage. We also meet 'the cute woman', the preacher, the woman who doesn't leave her bed, the voodoo practicioner, and 'the lying woman'. These characters were inspired by stories that Byrne read in the National Enquirer, and other tabloids.

But despite, a fairly shallow level of characterisation, they don't feel like characatures or freaks, but rather they are likable misfits, with a story that needs telling. They are people too, godammit...

And of course, there are the songs, which are tremendous, and are, with the exception of Wild Wild Life, performed by the cast. Not all of the cast versions are available yet, but below you can find two of them.

Talking Heads - Papa Legba (Pops Staples Vocal Version)

Talking Heads - Radio Head (Tito Larriva Vocal Version)

Talking Heads - Wild Wild Life (Extended Mix)

Person Louis Fyne

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And according to Roger Ebert's review here, there are 50 sets of twins in this movie. If that's not a reason to watch the film, then I don't know what is.

Buy them the cd and dvd here.

July 18th is the the day of the troubadour.

Creationism

Ah, the quandry of Creation records.

I have only just noticed that Alan McGee had been blogging for the Guardian, and the thought that passed through my mind was something along the lines of "What's the rampant self-publicist on about nowadays?" His blogs are only marginally insightful, and for the most part, rather pointless. I would imagine that this impression I have of him (and I don't think I'm alone) comes from three things: his cocky demeanour, that to be fair seems to be part of the whole svengali role that he inhabits (see Malcolm McClaren, Tony Wilson, Simon Napier Bell, et al), the fact that he discovered of Oasis and him having been the manager of The Libertines (the most overrated British band since Oasis).

For me, it was Oasis that killed Creation Records, not the massive overspend on My Bloody Valentines Loveless. After signing them, he only signed one more decent band (admittedly the fantastic Super Furry Animals). The money from Oasis could have been used to grow the label by enriching it with a diverse roster of signings, as has happened with Domino and the money from the Franz / Monkeys windfall, and to a lesser extent by Rough Trade with Arcade Fire.

Maybe Oasis made him lazy. If you can sit around surrounded pots of cash, then swan off to Downing Street, you are less likely to be found the next night trawling dingy Camden nightspots looking for the next big thing. Maybe too much success made the arrogance that is in part necessary, spiral out of control. Its amazing how he lost his ability to spot a good band (Heavy Stereo?!), especially when you consider the quality of his earlier signings for Creation.

And that's why I don't like to think about McGee as mouthy Britpop entrepreneur (even if it's true), but instead as the man who brought me some of my favourite music of the late 80's and early 90's. The albums released in that era make Creation one of the greatest record labels in the story of popular music, and that's not hyperbole. They released Screamadelica, Bandwagonesque, Loveless, Copper Blue, Fuzzy Logic, and Giant Steps. That's got to put Creation up there in the pantheon, surely?

Primal Scream - Don't Fight It, Feel It (from the album Screamadelica)

Teenage Fanclub - The Concept (from the album Bandwagonesque)

My Bloody Valentine - Soon (from the album Loveless)

Sugar - Hoover Dam (from the album Copper Blue)

Super Furry Animals - If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You (from the album Fuzzy Logic)

Boo Radleys - Lazurus (from the album Giant Steps)

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Four

Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Four

Takes 'n' Takes

On our recent trip to London, Bruna and I were lucky enough to squeeze in Adem's concert at the lovely Union Chapel. It was a happy coincidence as he is a mutual favourite of ours. Suffice to say, he was excellent in his natural setting, acoustically that is, as were we, not as religious folks but as puritans, enjoying the smoke, alcohol and div free environment.

Adem's latest album, Takes, is composed of twelve covers of his favourite songs from 1991 to 2001. It is tremendous collection, with just the right balance of old favourites (Bjork's Unravel), forgotten gems (The Breeder's Invisible Man), the obscure (Pinback's Loro), the uncool (lisa Germano's Slide) and the surprising (Aphex Twin's To Cure A Weakling Child + Boy/Girl Song). This last song is the standout, a fantastic and catchy rendition. Singalong-a-Aphex, who'd of thought it, eh?

Adem - To Cure A Weakling Child + Boy/Girl Song

The album never feels forced, you can tell that he chose these songs because he loves them, not because he wants to show off his record collection. There is nothing remotely hipster about it, which makes it fun for the rest of us.

And here, as an accompaniment, are the originals:

01 Bedside Table - Bedhead - 7” single 1992 (+the end of the day (beheaded1996))

02 Oh My Lover - PJ Harvey - Dry 1992

03 Slide - Lisa Germano - Slide 1998

04 Loro - Pinback - Pinback 1998

05 Hotellounge - dEUS - Worst Case Scenario 1994

06 To Cure A Weakling Child
Boy/Girl Song - Aphex Twin - Richard D James 1996

07 Tears Are In Your Eyes - Yo La Tengo - And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out 2000

08 Starla - Smashing Pumpkins - I am one 7” b-side 1992. (+Window Paine from Gish 1991)

09 Gamera - Tortoise - Gamera 12” 1995

10 Unravel - Björk - Homogenic 1997

11 Invisible Man - The Breeders - Last Splash 1993

12 Laser Beam - Low - Things We Lost In The Fire 2001

July 2nd is the day of firemen and hospitals