Thoughts from the Bus Stop

Nickel Creek: Toxic

Nickel Creek performing 'Toxic' (venue unknown)

Because I love bluegrass, and I love pop. Because I love unusual cover versions. Because I heard Nickel Creek's performance of Britney Spears' Toxic on Radio 2's coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival yesterday and I'd love to go there one year. Because unfortunately the word 'toxic' has sprung to mind too many times today.

Tindersticks: Bathtime

Video for Bathtime by Tindersticks

I listed to Tindersticks' Bathtime for the first time in ages last night. I was going through old favourites and I'd already found my single of Can We Start Again? (from the Simple Pleasures album, which is always a joy. Then I remembered how I fell for Tindersticks...

"There’s a city filth that lingers
All over my naked hands
Deep into the weave of the clothes I wear

And every step brings another
Every hour adds some more
Till I’m on the other side leaning on your door

Are the taps running, darling?
Is the air thick with steam?
Can I find some place to cry these tears of shame?"

I know Stuart Staples' voice is an acquired taste (yes, he can sound like Vic Reeves' mumbling pub singer to the uninitiated), but for me it mainly has the effect of making me sigh, go giddy and dissolve into a big puddle, Amelié-style.

It was all Mark Radcliffe's doing, of course. Again. I think Tindersticks were his most frequent session guests during his time at Radio 1, doing the wonderful Graveyard Shift show with Marc Riley. (I still remember the 'Dickon's arse' episode with great fondness.) I'd never been particularly grabbed by the music, though.

But I bought the Curtains album and was overwhelmed - particularly by Let's Pretend and (Tonight) Are You Trying To Fall In Love Again? - lush, sexy, melancholic yearning of the most delicious kind - perfect if you've had a glass of red and fancy a good wallow.

NME, 14 July 06: Tindersticks join 'Don't Look Back' season
Pitchfork: Review - Leaving Songs by Stuart A. Staples
Amazon.co.uk: Leaving Songs, Stuart A. Staples Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04, Stuart A. Staples

The Pipettes: Pull Shapes

Video for Pull Shapes by The Pipettes

I like to disco
And I like to rock n' roll
I like to hip hop
And we can do it all, just don't let the music stop
Pull shapes
I lead with my left hand
I stomp with my right foot
And I just have to freak out
Coz I just want to move, don't care what the song's about

Dance with me pretty boy tonight
Dance with me and we'll be alright
There's a whole floor before us, just for you and me
So follow my lead and we'll 1, 2, 3
Pull shapes!

Is there a drum beat?
And is the bass sweet?
Well, then the rhythm is complete
So get up on the floor, it's time for you to move your feet

I can't get the new Pipettes' single, Pull Shapes, out of my head. Ooh, I'm a sucker for fizzy girl-group pop with shiny orchestration and handclaps. And I can dance to it. I want to be a Pipette! (I do suit pencil skirts and often wear polka dots...)

To my shame I've only just become aware of The Pipettes' existence (even though two of them are from Brighton). I got into the single after hearing it a few times on Mark Radcliffe's Radio 2 show.

The video (above) is great - it's a remake of a scene from Russ Meyer's cult film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The album, We Are The Pipettes, is out on 17 July.

MySpace: The Pipettes
Pitchfork: Track Review - The Pipettes: Pull Shapes
Skatterbrain: The Pipettes Cover 'I Think We're Alone Now'
AMP: A brief history of the polka dot, from C19th England to Brighton's Pipettes
BBC, 15/03/05: Joining the dots with Brighton's hottest new prospect
Telegraph, 24/06/2006: Top of the Spots
Entertainmentwise: Review: The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
The Joplin Globe: Jeremiah Tucker: Girl-group sound resurges
Music Like Dirt: We are the Pipettes fans, and we are squashed
Music-News: The Pipettes (interview)
Drowned In Sound: Chaser shots and polka dots: on the p*ss with The Pipettes

New Music: Your Help Is Needed!

I need to enlist the help of regular readers (yes, all three of you). I really want to get into some new music - everything I've bought lately has been old stuff and I'm ready to discover someone new and fall hopelessly in (L.O.V.E.) love.

I'm after some alt-country (non-depressive stuff) or bluegrass or jangly pop or intelligent-and-witty-but-not-too-worthy singer-songwriter or something I can dance to. Long-term musical loves include Laura Cantrell, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Teenage Fanclub, The Divine Comedy (the first four albums - BEFORE they went all Radiohead on us), Crowded House/Neil Finn, Kirsty MacColl, Orange Juice, Kenickie, Terry Hall, Motown and Kylie.

There are a few albums I'm considering - mainly cos I've heard one song from each that I like - not always a guarantee the rest of the record will hit the spot. There's the new Teddy Thompson album, Separate Ways. I liked Everybody Move It - very dry.

Then possibly the Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins album, Rabbit Fur Coat - Mark Radcliffe's been playing You Are What You Love, plus I hear there's a cover of The Travelling Wilburys' Handle With Care, which I've always had a soft spot for.

On the pop side of things, I LOVE Chewing Gum by Annie so I'm wondering if I'd like the rest of the Anniemal album. Other than Chewing Gum I've only heard Heartbeat, which is OK but doesn't work for me as much - which may mean it's the Richard X touch which gets me and I should buy Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol.1. Ooh, and I love the Feist cover of the Bee Gees' Inside And Out - anyone got an opinion on Let It Die?

And for some funny, clever daftness, there's always Power Words For Better Living by the ever entertaining David Devant & His Spirit Wife. I can only afford one or two and I don't want to buy a dud - advice and recommendations please!

Start Wearing Purple

The first time I heard Gogol Bordello's Start Wearing Purple, on the Mark Radcliffe show the other week, I thought it was awful (and a little scary... a bit 'You're MY wife now!'). The second time he played it, it started to grow on me. By yesterday night, when they were in session on the show, I'd completely fallen for it.

"Start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish, I promise
It's just a matter of time

I met you when you were a twenty, and I was twenty
But thought that some years from now
A purple little little lady will be perfect
For dirty old and useless clown

I know it all from Diogenis to Foucault
From Lozgechkin to Paspartu
I ja kljanus obostzav dva paltza
Schto muziko poshla ot Zzukov Mu!

Party!

So Fio-Fio-Fioletta! Etta! Va-va-va-vaja dama ti moja!
Eh podayte nam karetu, votetu, i mi poedem k ebenjam!

So yeah, start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish, I promise
It's just a matter of time

To me it sounds like David Devant & His Spirit Wife (their lead singers do bear an uncanny resemblance to each other) - or the Pogues (if they were Ukrainian gypsy punks from New York). Singer Eugene Hutz explained the song's origins to Mark Radcliffe:

It's one of the very few songs I wrote for a girl. I just moved in with my girlfriend in New York. We had a neighbour: an old woman who was always dressed in purple head to toe. She was clearly bonkers. So whenever my girlfriend and I had an argument and she would start screaming at me, I would say: you might as well start wearing purple now."

I love it. It's funny, sinister, exuberant and gets the blood racing... "La-la la-la laaaaaaaaaaa!"

BBC News: Ukraine gypsy punk on world stage

Can Neil Finn save the day?

If you happen to be listening to Radio 2 on Saturday lunchtime, don't miss The Flight Of The Conchords - improvised comedy starring Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, and narrated by Rob Brydon:

"Over six weeks, New Zealand's fourth most popular folk parody band attempt to crack the UK's lucrative novelty music scene with songs such as 'Frodo, don't wear the ring'. Despite the fact The Conchords did appear in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (do an internet search of the word 'Figwit' if you would like proof) this song was not featured on the original soundtrack, partly explaining why the band left New Zealand in the first place."

Best bit so far? When the band call Neil Finn to ask if Jemaine should or should not engage in a three-way with their only two fans...

Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now

Comic performers Mitch Benn and the Distractions gently extract the michael with their new single Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now. Click here to see the video.

Whitetown: Your Woman

Video for Your Woman by Whitetown

I completely fell for White Town's 'Your Woman' when Mark Radcliffe started playing it on his Graveyard Shift show on Radio 1 in 1996. So I was gobsmacked to walk into my local caff the other day and hear a cover version playing. Here's what White Town's Jyoti has to say about it: Tyler James Covers 'Your Woman'.

Manchester Online: Tyler James - Your Woman
BBC Derby: The White Town revival starts here!
Music-News.com: 'Your Woman' was buried for a reason

The Down-The-Pan Daleks

Coinciding neatly with the first episode of the new Doctor Who, I've found a transcript in an old teenage notebook of one of the brilliant Dalek sketches which were on the Steve Wright In The Afternoon show when he was still on Radio 1 in the 1980's:

(Loud Dalek voices): WE ARE THE DALEKS!!!
Dalek 1: No we're not, no we're not - we're just innocent, God-fearing citizens...la, la, laaa...
Dalek 2 (suspiciously): What have you done?
D1: You know the gas man was coming to read the meter?
D2: Ye-eess...
D1: I forgot, and he... he startled me.
D2: Which one did he look like then?
D1: He was a bit Tom Baker-ish. He's in pieces on the floor. I think he's dead.
D2: As a rule, when one is in pieces one IS dead. You HAVE to get over this irritational paranoia that everyone is Doctor Who! The milkman has his head zapped clean off, because he was a little on the Patrick Troughton-ish side. The lollipop lady, heaven knows why, reminded you of Jon Pertwee and the poll tax collector ended up a steaming pile of goo on the doorstep!
D1: I just felt like nuking him...
D2: It's got to stop!
(Door opens)
D1: Aaagh! Peter Davison!!
(ZAAAAAAAPPPPP!!!)
D2: Er - no - Jehovah's Witnesses...
D1: Oh, nice one!
(Both) LEAVE IT.

"You do something to me that I can’t explain..."

There's this lovely, lovely bloke. He's quietly handsome with a really warm personality and a gorgeous smile. He's sweet and funny and modest and down to earth and he's even a Christian. And he keeps playing me my favourite records without knowing they're my favourites, which really floors me.

Last week, totally unprompted, he played me Thinking of You by The Colourfield. This week it was Islands in the Stream followed by Juxtaposed With U. But he's got a girlfriend.

Oh, Dermot O'Leary... I think I love you.

Futureheads: Hounds of Love

Video for The Hounds of Love by The Futureheads

How fantastic is The Futureheads' cover of Kate Bush's The Hounds of Love?! Beautiful Northern pronunciation too - 'luv' and 'luving'. (They're Sunderlanders, like Kenickie.) And the video's great. Oh-o-o-oh-ohhh!

The real Kate Bush is due to reappear soon with a new album, hopefully before Mark Radcliffe runs out of cardboard for his Bushometer (counting how many days since Kate Bush hasn't returned Mark's request to visit the show)...

Hundreds attend John Peel's funeral

Hundreds attend John Peel's funeral

So hard to beat...

My favourite DJ Mark Radcliffe speaks about his friendship with the great John Peel: 'I thought the world of him'.

In a way, Radcliffe was (still is) my 'Peel' - the DJ who got me into music and kept me into it, constantly widening my tastes. I loved Peel too though - the way he could be warm and gruff at the same time, the way he talked about his wife and family with such affection (I hear he wore a ring in the shape of a pig - his nickname for his wife Sheila), and of course the music - full of surprises (pleasant and unpleasant!). Peel was the one who got me into Laura Cantrell, for which I am very, very grateful. It's difficult to accept that he's not there anymore.

The most touching bit of the tribute show on Saturday night was Phill Jupitus, tugging at his hair and blinking away tears as he spoke. I rarely cry at the telly but I did shed a tear for Phill, for John. Channel 4 are repeating Peel's excellent Sound of the Suburbs series, from a few years back, and there's a lovingly-assembled unofficial website - The John Peel Session Archive. You may also like to play the John Peel Sweet Eating Game - perhaps at the wrong speed...

Hey la, hey la, my boyfriend's back!

I can barely contain my joy at Mark Radcliffe's return to the Graveyard Shift. The first night he was back on I listened to most of the hour-and-a-half on my feet, jigging about and giggling... high as a kite! I love this man, so much - his musical taste and sense of humour suit me down to the ground. While he was on daytime Radio 1 I couldn't listen to him, but now he's followed me to Radio 2 I can immerse myself in good music once again. I used to be so into music, to the point of anorakdom - heck, there was even a fanzine - but now I look at NME or Dotmusic and I haven't a clue who most of the bands are. So hopefully this means I can get into some new stuff - which hasn't happened for years. STOP PRESS: It's happened already! My colleague and I were 'listening again' to the Monday night show, and a second listen to Charlotte 'Ash' Hatherley's new single, Kim Wilde. And I'll go to the foot of our stairs: turns out it's a free download, complete with CD artwork! Get yours HERE.

Mark and Lard leave Radio 1

I'm quite emotional about Mark and Lard leaving Radio 1 - only because it means they're not doing a show together any more. Really it's my gain - I haven't been able to listen to them while they've been on in the afternoon, except on the odd day off. Mark will be back in June, with a night-time show on Radio 2. It'll be lovely having him back on nights. I will miss Lard though.

Lads, if you only knew how many nights you sustained me through coursework deadlines, how you comforted me as I worked till 4am, covered in glue, ink and bit of fabric. You got me into so many of my favourite bands - Divine Comedy, Tindersticks, Kenickie, Gorky's, Belle & Sebastian - you cost me a bluddy fortune!

You got me funny looks from strangers every time I waved at the Palace of Glittering Delights as I passed on the bus going down Oxford Road...

Best bang a tune on.

BBC: Bowie in tribute to Mark and Lard
BBC Manchester: Mark and Lard's Last Radio Show

Caught By The Fuzz

Video for Caught By The Fuzz by Supergrass, c/o YouTube

Yeaaaaaaahhhhh! Mark and Lard played 'Caught By The Fuzz' this afternoon - it was so good to hear it again - and fittingly, I'm now off for a weekend in Oxford.

Radio 4A

Yesterday I switched on the shower radio during my bath and found myself enjoying a surprisingly great programme of ska, cajun and South African music... but with no idea of what station I was listening to. Then the DJ came on and thanked me for listening to Radio 4A - hey, the local pirate station, clear as a bell in my bathroom!

One trip to the shops later and I'm back at my (communal) front door, pulling a yellow docket out of the letterbox. 'Receipt for seizure', it said. 'Transmitter - Radio 4A, found in loft.' So, one of my new neighbours is one transmitter lighter and the shower radio is back spewing out AOR and ads for double glazing... shame.

Laura Cantrell: Poor Side of Town

Do yourself a favour - go to the (fantastic) Diesel Only website and download Laura Cantrell's cover of Johnny Rivers' Poor Side of Town. How does she make the line 'Do-do-do-wa-ah...shooby-dooby...' so darn heartrending? I love this woman. Having fallen head over heels for her album Not The Tremblin' Kind (buy it from Shoeshine), I got to see her live in June - and...wow. While you're at Diesel Only, be sure to check out the Amy Allison tracks too - her voice is an acquired taste, but it sure works for me.