Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 20th May 2022. Possibly more music than you can a stick at...over to...

Piers -

"Wotcha folks...It is so nice to welcome some new blood! Sorry to be late with my welcome but the last couple of weeks I have been far too close to the stop press deadline. But any way..... Hi Kevin !

And thanks to you all for providing such a great start to Saturday! (and all the other days!)

Since I bought a copy of Mike Heron's book of British Fiddle tunes I have been rehearsing some new and unexpected melodies with my mate Fred, who actually plays a lot of fiddle. Not that any of them come from the book, but somehow it inspired us and got us looking for new material! Fred has has turned up some splendid tunes too.

This evening we went down the pub and I sat banging out chords on my guitar whilst Fred fiddled on my Left and Titch fiddled on my right it was heavenly!

Which means that it has been bit of a folkie week for me this week.... I have a great fondness for ¾ time at the moment and the slower the better!"

Alan -

"Sticking with the last couple of weeks theme, here's three disparate tracks from Seattle's Sub Pop label. Famously the 'home' label of Nirvana and other 90's 'grunge' outfits, the label has proved to be a veritable treasure trove of music both old and new. Their 'singles club' is full of rare and/or exclusive tracks and they continue to unearth genuinely interesting artists, including two of the three I've selected for this week. The third may well be known to the 'old 'uns' amongst RPM's members (especially Anto!!)."

Talking to Fog by Iron and Wine (Taken from 'Weed Garden' mini album released August 2018) - "Mini album/EP, you payz yer money.................. Sam (Bean) has used the format on several occasions since his excellent 2002 debut, 'The creek drank the cradle'. The twenty years since then have seen him release an astounding 26 EP's, live, studio and 'archive' albums. Even a rabid fan would struggle to keep up with that rate of releases. 'Weed Garden' is, to my mind, a return to his earlier, more introverted material but it still has time to include the folk/funk fun of 'Last of your rock and roll heroes' and his sorrowful peon to his hometown with 'Waves of Galveston', following the floods of 2017. 'Talking to the fog' is that rare Bean beast, a song that is (almost) about happiness but Sam seems to step sideways from commiting wholly to the apparent life of bliss with this final couplet: "Where the wind is our direction and the waves say "come along". Where the faces of our family and friends go on and on. But it's hard to find." "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD1xNTPk4tc

Brotherhood Of The Harvest by Comets on Fire (from Blue Cathedral' CD released 27th July 2004) - "Sitting at almost the opposite end of the Pacific Coastal highway to Seattle ( the spiritual home to 'grunge') is Santa Cruz, from whence sprang perhaps the noisiest band to emerge in the early 2000's. Two early, very loud albums surfaced in 2001 and 2004 (one for Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label) which saw Sub Pop sign the band and place them on tours supporting Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jnr and Mudhoney and release the mighty, and extremely noisy 'Blue Cathedral' album (check out Week 14, 2021 for additional proof!). There was just one further album in 2006 before the band went into 'extended hiatus' which saw the members pursuing various solo/group careers. However, in 2012 the band reconvened under the Six Organs of Admittance banner for a new album but, whilst lead guitarist Ben Chasny insisted the band had not broken up, there has only been one further live performance at 2013's All Tomorrow's Parties at Camber Sands. Here the band possibly show their love of early 'Syd' era Floyd with the freeform noise intro giving way to one of the bands most 'spacey' interludes..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQt348QOauI

Wouldn't It Be Nice (vocals only) by Beach Boys ( 7" EP released 4th June 1996) - "Bearing all the hallmarks of their famed Singles Club (folded over sleeve, a black bar on the cover picture), Sub Pop were contacted by Capitol at the time of the proposed release of the Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds Sessions' box set and asked if they would like to release three of the tracks on a 7"er. There were a couple of reasons for the approach; Capitol were aware that several staffers at Sub Pop were known to be Beach Boys fans and, secondly, they were also one of the few labels issuing 7" singles at that time, such was the burgeoning popularity of CD's, downloads, IPods etc. Just 15000 were pressed up but, despite that limited run, the disc is still relatively easy to pick up nowadays. For some reason Capitol then decided to pull the box set from the release schedule and it would be a further twelve months or so before it was eventually released. Now accepted as one of the finest albums ever released, at the time Pet Sounds caused friction both internally within the band and also between Brian Wilson and Capitol. And it wasn't just various band members and Capitol execs who had problems with a Beach Boys album which had virtually no mention of sun, surf or cars. The Who frontman Pete Townshend told Melody Maker that the album was "too remote" and "written for a feminine audience ... sympathetic to Brian Wilson's personal problems." Townshend explained, "You've just got to listen to the words, like 'I'm searching for places where new things can be found but people just put me down". It seems that Brian has left the Beach Boys to be a record producer". This from someone who, even at that time, was recording 'home' demo's of Who songs which were, in themselves, almost complete in every detail!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPN53PHDwe4

"Nice to see a mention for Mann/Hug's 'Sweet Baby Jane'. A slightly fuller overview of Mann/Hugg's 'advertising jingles' can be found on Week 8 2020, along with the top side's 'Ski (Full of fitness theme)' outing ('SBJ' is actually the b-side). Like Tony's, my copy does not have the picture bag and when it comes to the Michelin, Maxwell House and Jolita Nylons discs, I've never seen any of 'em!! As for 'Why should we not'...... I'm very jealousTony!!!! Unfortunately I only have it on the spiffing 'Soul of Mann' compilation and it's just about the only Jones era single I don't possess. Copies seem to go for around £15 or so and, incidentally, it was pencilled in for release in the USA under the title 'Blue Brave' on Prestige in 1964 but there were only demo's pressed up and no full release was granted.

Interesting choice of books too from Phil (I have read a couple of them) and, for my sins, I've just finished rereading 'Lord of the Rings', a book I've probably read every year since I first heard about it in an interview with the Beatles in Time magazine in 1966 (I think). Pretty sad I know but, importantly, I really enjoy reading it and I still discover passages I had overlooked/not realised the relevance of every time I read it. Next up it's 'Mojo Talkin'' by Sheffield's finest,Tony Beesley, an excellent look at 'mod' and its 'spin offs' through the ages.

A really good week's selections again this week, thanks everyone, and I hope the fans of Joe Bonamassa caught him on the now almost irrelevant (IMHO) 'Later....' (me? I tuned in to Sky Arts for 2 and a half hours of '74 era Grateful Dead. Great stuff!!!!)

Stay safe."

Philip -

"I'm continuing to read Mr. Stanley's tome, mentioned last week (slower than might be expected but I'm reading three books at once which is fairly normal for me, the other two being an American crime novel and Bob Mortimer's autobiography). He writes very well, with some striking turns of phrase and thought-provoking links between eras.

For example, pop music is "the commodification of music on an industrial scale." There's no arguing with that, although that fact has unfortunately led many to see "folk" and "pop" as oppositional, and even to regard "commercial" as "bad" and "uncommercial" as "good." (Hello one ex-brother-in-law and assorted ex-work colleagues). After all, Motown in the '60s might have had an assembly-line approach to their output but their quality control was second-to-none, while on the other hand much arty-farty "uncommercial" stuff is damn near unlistenable.

He also refers to record company classifications such as "race" and "hillbilly" as "cultural Jim Crow."

And how about this, on "Old Man River:" "It's the opposite of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come:" "(it) said nothing, just silently paid witness, and life just kept rolling along. Civil rights marches would have to wait."

So I thought I'd start this week by offering a comparison between these two songs."

"Best wishes to everyone."

Kevin -

"Hi folks. Hopefully this finds everyone well. Some fantastic tunes last week on RPM, I can’t wait to hear what I’ll be introduced to this weekend."

"Over and out."

Jean -

"My school friend Beryl is visiting this weekend. You may remember she came to RPM a couple of times? I think she suffered Anto’s Punk Mystery Album! So, the theme has to be friendship this week. Happy listening folks."

Jayne -

"With all good wishes to RPMers near and far and thanks for your tracks. Here are three of the tunes that have crossed my earspace this week."

Tony -

"Here's my 3 for the week, having successfully swapped broadband provider just in time. Best wishes to all."

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope all is good with you guys. Here’s my 3..."

John -

"Hi Everyone, I trust you are all fit and well. Here are my three songs from the past week..."

Nina -

"Here's my 3, folks. Take care all."

Tim -

"This week's listening included 3 live gigs..."

'Til Next Time...