~Nippy Sweeties~#1: The Choir/ The Journey Men

A Trove Of Obscure Sixties Pop, Garage & Psychedelic Wibblery!

One of the best things about the 'Pebbles' series of Sixties compilations is that they are so slapdash and chaotically thrown together that they sound, at times, like mix-tapes. Levels are all over the place, tracks have been mastered complete with the clicks, pops and static from the original vinyl releases. And, like the very best mix-tapes, they sometimes throw up nice little segues, neat little one-twos where two songs, sweetly juxtaposed create a wondrous musical sucker-punch that leaves you reeling and buzzing like an infant full of sherbet.
Thus, take Pebbles Vol 2, NOT the original release but the version that comes in The Pebbles Box, one of the greatest box-sets of all time, Side 2 Tracks 3 and 4; 'It's Cold Outside' by The Choir and 'She's Sorry' by The Journey Men....pure POP Heaven, both songs mixing the thrilling with the poignant. As you'll find in a lot of these Blog-posts on obscure 60s tracks, it's baffling that neither of these songs troubled the charts on either side of the Atlantic, given that they're both better than some of the stuff that clogged up the charts then....what were the parents of our generation thinking?

Let's start with The Choir.
'It's Cold Outside' is one of my favourite 60s songs of all time. Based around a pounding drum pattern, we're suddenly swept away on blanket of shimmering Rickenbacker guitars, before a melancholy voice intones some fairly maudlin lyrics; "Well my world used to be sunny// And jokes used to be funny// But now you're gone// And everything's turned all around// Well my world used to be warm// And there never was a storm// But now you're gone// And everything's turned upside down"....the strange blend of vibrant music and downbeat lyrics makes for curious listening, and then it explodes into the chorus; "And now it's cold outside// And the rain is pouring down// And the leaves are turning brown// Can't you see?"....it really is an amazing sound, like early Beatles crossed with an American Smiths if you will. And there's a moment about three quarters of the way through when the song changes key that makes me want to punch the air with joy!!
The Choir were from Mentor in Cleveland, Ohio and started life as The Mods, dressing in Merseybeat gear and filling their sets with covers of British Invasion tracks. 'It's Cold Outside' was released in 1967 by which time they were called The Choir and had progressed to writing their own material. After they split up they joined forces with Eric Carmen to create Power-Pop legends The Raspberries. Carmen would of course go on to score with perennial mawkish guilty-pleasure 'All By Myself'. The song was released on Roulette Records in the Spring of 1967.
I once won a fairly minor quiz/competition on a 60s Garage Online Radio Station and my prize was to choose the Garage song of my choice from their vast archive to be played on the next show....I chose 'It's Cold Outside'....THAT is how much I love this song.


And no sooner than it ends, we're off with a squiggly little guitar intro and straight into the galloping Farfisa romp that is 'She's Sorry' by The Journey Men. Like The Beatles 'She Loves You' this is a conversation song in which the protagonist informs his friend that he shouldn't be so down as he's just met his estranged girlfriend and she admits she was wrong to leave him. It rattles along at a fair old whack and the vocals have just the right amount of reverb to give the song a slightly sinister edge(you could imagine The Damned covering this), and the keyboard playing is simply inspired.
I like to think of this song as a response to the previous track. The protagonist of 'It's Cold Outside' mourns the loss of his girlfriend only to have the principal figure of 'She's Sorry' reveal that everything is going to be alright and that he wasn't to blame.

Here's what we know about The Journey Men; they came from Tampa, Florida, this was their only release, on Boss Records in 1965....and that's it!! That is ALL we know. Now, the Internet, being so full of erroneous information, would have us believe that The Journey Men were a folk-trio that featured John Phillips of The Mamas And The Papas, and Scott McKenzie of 'San Francisco(Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)' fame who released three albums, but this is incorrect. They were called The Journeymen and sounded nothing like this.

Put simply then, these are two of the greatest songs in musical history and to fully appreciate them you have to hear them back-to-back and in this order.

All human life is here.

You KNOW it!!

Keep Your Mind Open!

~Gordon~

Watch me now

I have a secret. I am behind. I’ve only officially been back from vacation one day and – bam – already behind. Again. Always. I had the best intentions during my vacation. I brought DVD sets to get caught up on. I made promises to answer email. I really did have the best intentions. I was going to catch up and then be ready. But instead, I spent most of my time playing with my baby nephew, watching Masterpiece Theatre with my mom and generally laying about doing my best bump on a log impression. (Side note: Should we ever meet, ask to see it. I’m very good.)

So now, kittens, I turn to you. Since I can’t properly prioritize my entertainment consumption on my own, I turn to you to help me decide what to catch up on first. Now the email, that’s just going to be catch as catch can. (Another side note: What the fuck does that even mean? Is catch bad at catching?) But the watching, well, here I know you can help a sister out. Currently in my queue I have:

• Catching up on the start of “Pretty Little Liars.” The show started while I was on vacation and, um, I’ve already mentioned that my mom likes to watch Miss Marple, right? I can’t decide if I should give it a shot. But it’s sort of shiny and shallow, with secret girl-girl kissing. How bad could it be?
• Watching “Skins,” like any of it. I have not watched this show, even though I know Naomily is epic. I blame being in America and lazy about watching shows that are not shown regularly on my TV in America. Don’t tell Heather.
• Finishing “True Blood,” the complete second season box set. I love vampires. I love sexy vampires. I really have no idea why I haven’t found the time yet to get through this season. And, yes, I already saw last week’s big WTFityF moment of the current season. Head sufficiently spun. Ahem.
  
• Viewing the “I Can’t Think Straight”/“The World Unseen” DVDs. I won these thanks to your awesome voting prowess. They arrived earlier this month. Every time I want to pop one in to see the ridiculous hotness that is Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth, I start to feel guilty because I am so behind on (see above).
• Rewatching everything in the “Cinema Pride Collection.” Ten super-duper gay films in one box set: The Children’s Hour, La Cage Aux Folles, The Birdcage, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Bent, The Object of My Affection, Boys Don't Cry, Kissing Jessica Stein and Imagine Me & You. As we speak I am fighting off the urge to pop in “Imagine Me & You” and watch the even ridiculouser (whatever, grammar, it’s a word now) hotness that is Lena Headey and Piper Perabo for the 6,001st time. This could be why I am so behind on everything in the first place.

Oh, I also still haven’t watched the second episode of “The Real L Word.” But there’s one instance where I think I’ve prioritized just right. So, tell me what to do. What should I watch first? Go ahead, boss me around. No, not that way. You’ll have to suggest what movie we watch together and buy me dinner for that.

Acid Wash vs. Day Glo

So not to date myself (who am I kidding, I always date myself), but I certainly got a chuckle out of the news that Debbie Gibson and Tiffany were going to star – and fight – in a new SyFy film. The 80s teen pop idols will star in “Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.” No, I am not kidding. Debbie will play “a fanatical animal-rights activist who frees illegally imported exotic snakes from pet stores, sending them into the Everglades, where they grow to mega sizes. Tiffany will play an overzealous park ranger who uses dangerous methods to save endangered alligators.” In the script they get into a fight at a party which ends up in a swamp. Naturally.

Now, children of the 80s like me know that the Debbie or Tiffany question was one of the defining questions of our era. It was the Team Edward or Team Jacob of our time. The way you answered it framed you as this or that kind of person. Well, at least that’s how it played out in my head. I was all Team Debbie. Tiffany sang in malls – malls, people. But Debbie, she shook her love. Totally different.

In my adolescent mind, Debbie was much classier. But then, they both ended up posing naked in Playboy. So, I guess I just further proved the truism that preteen girls should never be arbiters of public taste.

Of course, this is a genius way to settle all real (or imagined) pop culture rivalries. Schlocky sci-fi movies should become our go-to way to once and for all settle the matter of supremacy. Angelina Jolie vs. Jennifer Aniston in “Ultra Fox vs. Mega Friend.” Rosie O’Donnell vs. Elisabeth Hasselbeck in “King Kong vs. Godzilla.” Backstreet Boys vs. *NSync in “Who Are We Kidding, We Both Suck.”

Now, time has a funny way of putting everything in perspective. And these days I think I feel a little more nostalgic for Tiffany’s cheesy 80s ballads than Debbie’s (also, she insists on being called Deborah now, which – girl, come on).”Could’ve Been” was also the first song I ever slow danced to at a school dance. To be honest, I don’t remember the boy. But I remember the girl who sang it.

Though, if I could make one small, crucial suggestion to SyFy before they start filming - please, please, please put them in Day-Glo and acid-wash jeans for their big swamp fight. This is an 80s rivalry, after all. It only seems right.

~This Elegant Chaos~#5 Hearts!Attack

'If You Were Dead' three track EP by Hearts!Attack



This is pretty much a home made affair, housed in a personally designed sleeve created with acrylic paints and boasting the legend; "This record was made from two bedrooms, in two continents, by three people", already what's not to love? The three people are Darren, Alexis and Sam, with help from Tabby from Tabbyondrums....erm, on drums!

Hearts!Attack are purveyors of a raw blend of raucous bedroom lo-fi, and title track 'If You Were Dead' sets out their agenda beautifully....think of The Raincoats, or early unpolished Sonic Youth and you're starting to get somewhere. Now imagine Bis clashing with cacophonous early grunge-punks Distorted Pony and mashing up their joint boy/girl call-and-response vocals and the picture starts becoming clearer. I often get anxious when I praise a band for their un-embellished lo-fi production, often worrying that I may be insulting them somewhat, but given that I consider 'Green Fuz' by Randy Alvey & The Green Fuz, a record that sounds like it was recorded in a bucket of sludge with a broken mic, as one of the greatest records of all time, and that I can think of nothing worse than listening to polished over-produced music like Rush, Yes or Supertramp, then I'm hoping any references to lo-fi distortion aren't seen as a negative. It's the raw, abrasiveness of Hearts!Attack's music that draws me in, but beneath the rough edges lies the true beauty....listen to that melodious keyboard pattern, or the way the girl vocals sweeten the anger of the boy vocals, and the moment at around 2mins 40 when the song slows down and an air of poignancy drapes itself over the track. It's quite wonderful.

"I heard it on the TV// You've been cheating on me" is the opening line of second track 'Mariana' where there are so many different vocal structures that it can't fail to burrow into your brain to seduce and slap you at the same time, which, like the band's name, seems to sum up their double-edged nature....the 'heart' alluding to the sweetness of love; the 'attack' to the gutpunch when it all breaks down.


And final track 'Dead Snails' captures this beautifully....like honey wrapped in nettles.



A while back I had felt I had become a little jaded with music and felt that nothing was doing it for me any more, but listening to Hearts!Attack reminds why I fell in love with music in the first place. In a world where Oasis are seen as (cough!) relevant, where Nickelback sell out stadiums , and where (groan!)The Killers and (ggrrooaann!!)Kings Of Leon are seen as the future of rock, I know what I like and I DO know about art!!
Already a contender for my favourite release of the year; if you like The Slits, Swell Maps, The Subway Sect or The Shaggs then this comes highly recommended. I personally cannot wait for further releases.

The band have a Myspace page which can be found here
as well as a page at Bandcamp which is here.

~Gordon~

That’s what friends are for

The one positive thing I can say that “The Real L Word” has done is make me miss “The L Word.” OK, not all of “The L Word” – definitely not the Death of Dana and the No Lifeguard on Duty parts. But the fun days. You know, back when they were all friends. And did silly things. And talked to one another like friends who did silly things. Like this.

Oh, Angela Robinson, please come make a lesbian TV series that has nothing to do with pumps or pants or clams or IFC. At its best, “The L Word” was about a group of friends who actually did all those things in that horrendous theme song that made our ears bleed. It was pure fiction, but could actually feel real. And sometimes, just sometimes, we even saw ourselves.

So in honor of the crazy Pride Weekend I just had (i.e. stringing coherent words together at this moment = hard), here are a few of my favorite friend moments from a show that spawned that other show that only makes me long for that first show even more.

Come back, Alice. Say funny things like “poopy-shit” and “uh-uh” and make us all want to be your best friend again.

Griff says; Wait no longer! It's a new Julandrew song!

Assuming that if you're reading this blog you're pretty much a confirmed fan of quirky indie-pop, then most of you will already be well aware of Julandrew. For those of you who aren't (where have you been for the last two years?) here's a potted biography;

Julie and Andrew met each other in October, 2006 in the driveway of where they both lived, in the musically thriving city of Somerville, Massachusetts. Without knowing what would become, they hit it off right away. They had the same musical tastes and shared their favourite bands with each other. Not long after that, they realized they were a couple and they dreamt of starting a band together. They started hanging out in that very driveway with a guitar and sang their favorite songs, sometimes creating their own.
On August 18th, 2007, they got married and moved to Austin, Texas. While Andrew was working and making just enough for the both of them, Julie stayed home and began officially writing songs. She would come up with a melody in her head, figure it out on the piano or guitar, then add lyrics to it. Andrew would come home to her new song ideas and help find the chords on the guitar. They together would arrange the whole song before recording anything.
Before they began recording, they knew that they didn't want to use the ear-candy features of the computer. They knew they wanted all the main tracks to be performed without "punching-in" to fix mistakes. They knew they wanted all the instruments to be acoustic. And, they knew they wanted real drums, so they bought a cheap, used drumset for $250.
In March 2008, they finally had two songs recorded and put them up on the internet for their friends and family to hear. The outcome was, however, not what they expected. People around the globe discovered the new songs and used them for videos, podcasts, or just simply their ipods.

They've become something of a success story on the Jamendo website and have two albums available for free download there. These are Julandrew:Sings Your Favorite Songs, which was released in May 2008 and Julandrew: Sings Your Favorite Songs II released in June 2009
What started out as a fun thing for this couple to do, has turned into a serious musical endeavor, and they are still cranking out new tunes every month, which can be freely downloaded from their website.

The reason I mention Julandrew today is not just because I seem to keep mentioning bands composed of married couples and want to make it a recurring Streetlamp feature but is instead, of course, that their latest pop nugget 'Wait Just A Little Bit Longer' has just been posted online this week. We've given it the 'Streetlamp' video treatment so that you can have a listen before heading to the Julandrew site to download the entire back catalogue. Enjoy!




Griff
xx

My Weekend Pride

I love Pride. You’d think I wouldn’t. People. Crowds. Noise. Dancing. Only traumatizing places to pee. But I love it. I love all of it. I love seeing the tacky rainbow crap. I love the non-stop thumpa-thumpa-thumpa music. I love the parade. I love, quite simply, the gays. I’ve been going to prides for more than a dozen years now. Each year is a spectacle. An event. An over the top and ridiculous sweaty carnival of queertasticness. It’s also a reminder that, even if the larger world doesn’t necessarily think the same thing, it’s good to get together with your people and just feel fucking fabulous about yourself. A gal needs to do that sometimes. We all do. So this weekend, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. Every now and then, even a misanthrope needs to dance her ass off. We’re here, we’re queer, and no one on the planet throws a better party than we do. Happy Pride, all.

Really, Ilene? Really?

Kittens, I’m back! Did you miss me? I sure missed you. But while I was gone something terrible happened. Something really, really terrible.

Did you catch “The Real L Word” on Showtime last Sunday?

Perhaps the greatest oxymoron of our time is the term “reality television.” It exists almost exclusively in a realm devoid of reality. It trades in artifice. It rejoices in the shameless. It is, of course, anything but real. So into that conceit comes “The Real L Word.” We should be trained by now to know that any show with “Real” in the title is no such thing. Be it Housewives or World, it’s an utter sham.

So then the only question left to answer is intent. Is the intent of a show to present as real a portrait of a slice of our complex humanity as possible within the false constraints of television, or is the intent to merely titillate? If you listen to Ilene Chaiken and company, the goal of TRLW is to show real lesbians. But not just any lesbians, The L Word “brand” of lesbians. A lesbian which Mama Chaiken says is defined by “aspiration and culture and popular culture and ambition and affluence in varying degrees.”

What does that mean for those of us playing at home? Well, if you watched (and I rather hope you didn’t, unlike me), you know for sure what this show is not about. This show is not about relating or reflecting. This show has no desire to enlighten or elucidate. This show only hopes to instill two of our deadliest sins in its viewers: lust and envy. Lust because, ZOMG look at these hotties having hot sex. And envy because, ZOMG don’t you wish your lives were like these hotties having the hot sex. Also, did we mention they’re more rich/attractive/successful/fashionable and all-together fuckable than you are? No? Because they totally are.

Who are these women who signed up willingly to find out what happens when lesbians stop being polite and start getting real? I have no idea. What I see is just privilege, posturing, pompousness and pleasure cruising. And then there’s Tracy, who seems oddly nice. What’s that all about? That being said, they could all have untold layers – contemplative inner lives, restless social consciousnesses. But that’s not what the lens shows us, or even wants us to see.

Now, clearly, to have expected deep social commentary from this show is to be a fool. So all we have left is the fantasy. But the show doesn’t even deliver on that. Watching vapid lives play out vapidly is just boring. Off-camera moans and on-camera strap-ons is not pleasure, the guilty kind or otherwise. Porn is at least honest in its purpose.

It is probably unfair – albeit understandable – to expect a higher social conscience from those purporting to portray queer life for the masses. The burden is indeed heavy, but the obstacles we face are still real, still painful, still very much there. Until they aren’t there the double standard will exist: Straight entertainment needs only to entertain; queer entertainment should entertain and educate.

“The Real L Word” manages to fail at both. This isn’t real. This isn’t fun. It’s just deeply shallow. It presents lesbian life as a never-ending night at the club. It asks no larger question than Gucci or Dolce & Gabbana. It thinks we’ll be awed by the “Power of the Clam.” And this, this is what Ilene Chaiken thinks we should all aspire to. These are the kinds of lesbian, the kinds of “stories” she thinks are worth telling in our community.

She is wrong. She could not be more wrong.

In the end, I just don’t care. I don’t care about these women. I don’t care about their lives. I don’t care who they sleep with. I don’t care who they don’t sleep with. I don’t care how much they spend on their wedding. I don’t care if their models aren’t hot enough. I don’t care if they shoot sunshine out of their crotches. I just don’t give a fuck, flying or otherwise.

Though I guess things could be worse. I could be forced to watch the entire series. Now that would be truly terrible.

Vacation Vixen: Julianne Moore

That face. Sweet merciful Zeus, that face.

The North Will Rise Again: a Tribute to Frank Sidebottom

It was with heavy heart that we learned yesterday of the death of Frank Sidebottom.
If you followed music in the 1980s as passionately as we did, you couldn't really avoid Frank; surreal, childlike, bizarre, indisputably Northern and encased in an oversized papier-mâché head, Frank was pretty much a 'Marmite' artist....you either loved him or you just didn't get it at all.

Emerging around 1986, Frank immediately began confounding people with his interpretations of songs by his beloved Freddie Mercury as well as covers of The Sex Pistols, The Police and David Bowie.

The main thing people wanted to know was WHO was Frank Sidebottom? Many people, picking up on the unavoidable Mancunian accent believed it to be Mark E. Smith of The Fall, but it just seemed a little too silly to be Mark. A more likely culprit was Mark's old Fall cohort Marc Riley, especially when Frank's records started appearing on Marc's In Tape Records....however, given that Marc and Frank were often seen in the same room, this was quickly dispelled. Pretty soon almost every Mancunian musician was linked to the Sidebottom persona; Pete Shelley, Howard Devoto, John Cooper Clarke, Dick Witts, Bernard Sumner, Tony Wilson, Martin Hannett, even Mozzer were all linked to the mystery of Frank's identity.

Eventually it was revealed to be Chris Sievey, former frontman of pop ironists The Freshies who released fantastic singles with outlandish titles like 'I Can't Get 'Bouncing Babies' By The Teardrop Explodes'

and almost scored a minor hit with 'I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk'.


Frank was reasonably prolific in the period 1986-89 releasing many records, mostly pastiches of classics but now containing the words 'Timperly', 'Mum' and 'Bobbins'. He was eventually joined by his ventriloquist puppet alter-ego 'Little Frank' with whom he'd often bicker furiously.


His greatest achievement was his appearance on the NME's charity Beatle's tribute 'Sgt Pepper Knew My Father' on which he performed 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite'.
Even more bizarrely, Frank's character played a major role in Irvine Welsh's twisted police novel 'Filth'.
After ceasing to make any new records, Frank turned to TV and often worked with Tony Wilson and eventually had his own TV series 'Frank Sidebottom's Fantastic Shed Show'.

In May 2010 Chris Sievey was diagnosed with lung cancer, and yesterday (21st Jun 2010) he collapsed at his home and died later.
All of Timperly is in mourning.
Cheers, Frank....it was bobbins!!

R.I.P

~Gordon~

Vacation Vixen: Queen Latifah

She bought a house with her personal trainer. So that’s what they’re calling it these days.

Griff says; Grab a pile of lo-fi!

Lo-fi is a rather inexact term, don't you think? As it defines the recording technique of the music rather than the actual genre it does admit an awfully broad spectrum of styles. This can make the search for the particular brand of lo-fi that you favour a rather exhausting one. We here at 'The Streetlamp' are here to help you out on this quest and today's tip for the enthusiastic DIY music aficionado is; "Grab yourself a pile of lo-fi!"




A Pile of Lo-fi! is a free monthly compilation series celebrating the creativity, ingenuity and resourcefulness of independent artists and features music that is hosted and supported by CLLCT.
A Pile of Lo-fi! Vol. I was released in April 2010 and featured songs by the likes of Tinyfolk and Wisdom Tooth.
Vol. II, released just one month later, featured songs by Garden on a Trampoline, One Beer Prophet and boy scouts, as well as songs from returning artists such as Accordion Boy and Dressed like Wolves.
Today, we're celebrating A Pile of Lo-fi! Vol. III, which was released on 15 June.


To give you a taster of the sort of quality you can expect on the compilations we've chosen our two favourites tracks and given them the 'Streetlamp' video treatment.
First off we have the excellent primitive pop sound of 'Blind For You' by Shalloboi, which will soon have you shimmying with it's classic I-IV-V chord structure and splashy tambourine beats:


Now we give you the dreamy 'Flashing Lights Have Ended Now' by Foxes in Fiction.



Both excellent, I'm sure you'll agree. Now go and check out more from both of these prolific and inventive artists and, of course, anything else that takes your fancy from Vol. III. And remember, for truly independent artists, every song you download and share, every tweet you retweet and every blog post you reblog, helps to ensure that the people who make the music you love will continue to make music for you to love another day.

For any musicians out there, submissions for future volumes of 'A Pile of Lo-fi!' may be sent to: apileoflofi@gmail.com
All you have to do to contribute is have a recording of one song and either attach it in an email or post it elsewhere and send a link. With advances in home recording, the definition of lo-fi is subjective, so there’s no need to think your recording is too rough or too shiny. It’s all about real folks sharing homemade music.
A Pile of Lo-fi! can also be found on myspace

Griff
xx

Vacation Vixen: Katie McGrath & Angel Coulby

Yep, I totally ’ship it. Oh, “Merlin,” now if you’d made them a couple that would be magic.

Vacation Vixen: Michelle Rodriguez

Is it bad that my first thought when I saw this was,“I wonder how many ladies have woken to find her in their kitchen?”

Vacation Vixen: Nancy McKeon

If you didn’t crush on Jo at some point in your childhood then I question your sexuality.

~This Elegant Chaos~#4 The Humms

At Streetlamp we don't just celebrate the twee and the sweet, we also love the rough and the raw, and that's exactly where The Humms debut CD EP fits in.
You may recall that the Brill Building songwriters(Goffin & King, Neil Sedaka, Lesley Gore etc) had the motto 'Don't bore us, get to the chorus!' suggesting that songs really shouldn't faff around before getting their hooks in.....well, 'Are You Dead?' took a mere one second to hook and reel me in!! The fevered WHOOP that precedes the rattling garage groove won me over immediately. If you're aware of the Pebbles collections of Sixties garage tracks then this track would fit on there easily. One of my most treasured possessions is The Pebbles Box, a box set of the first 5 volumes of Pebbles all on splattery psychedelic coloured vinyl, with revamped tracklistings and remastered sound. And rather than having it lying around like some ornament, I have played it to death. 'Are You Dead?' simply would not sound out of place on such a hallowed release. It sounds like it should be soundtracking the next Tarantino movie it's such an exciting piece of music. The chorus even skirts close to early 80s synthpoppers B-Movie and their classic 'Nowhere Girl', which I hope doesn't offend Zeke, Tyler and Bleech who comprise The Humms, but it's a favourite of mine anyway.


Second track 'Do The Graverobber' is, perhaps, for me, the weakest of the four songs here. It's still miles ahead of most stuff that's out there at the moment, it just lacks the hooks that make the other tracks so special.


No complaints with track three though, 'LSD Is EVIL' not only shakes a lysergic groove, but becomes totally deranged, almost threatening to collapse in on it's self. After a couple of fairly composed verses about taking acid the driving out into the country, Zeke loses his marbles and begins jabbering some complete hat-stand gibberish that, again, recalls those magic Pebbles records, especially Vol 3 'The Acid Gallery'(on luminous electric green vinyl!!) which was a collection of those REALLY deranged sixties recordings. Zeke's hilarious wibbling conjures up 'The Diamond Mine' by Dave Diamond & The Higher Elevation, or 'The Reality Of (Air) Fried Borsk' by The Driving Stupid, or 'Like A Dribbling Fram' by Race Marbles, or 'A Pindaric Ode' by The Sunday Funnies....and if you don't know any of these tracks, re-educate yourselves for goodness sake!! 'LSD Is EVIL' is pretty wonderful and worthy of fellow Southerner Gibby Hayes at his most demented.


Final track 'No-one Want To Be Alone On Valentines Day' sounds like The Seeds indulging in some campfire country sing-a-long and is a perfect comedown for all the madness that has gone before.





A fantastic release, and if any song is going to top 'Are You Dead?' for our favourite song of recent times it's going to have to be pretty special.

The Humms CD is available from Oddbox Records, who also have a Myspace page
And the band have their own Myspace

Vacation Vixen: Padma Lakshmi

No chefbian on “Top Chef” this season. But we’ll always have out (wow, totally Freudian typo) our mmm, Padma, mmm.

UPDATE: What the hell, Tracey mentioned raising her girlfriend's kid on the show last night. Dude, Bravo lied to me. Looks like we have a chefbian after all.

Vacation Vixen: Jessica Biel

This movie was awful. Jessica Biel in this tank top was awesome.

Vacation Vixen: Elizabeth Mitchell

It’s shots like this that makes me really wish I’d watched “Lost.”

~This Elegant Chaos~#3: Ödland

Aahh....now for something a little different!

You may think that we here at Streetlamp HQ like nothing more than the chiming Rickenbacker, the acoustic strum, and the winsome heartbroken vocal(and you'd be correct), but what we also like is musical collectives that create their own little worlds....worlds that are unique, worlds that are aesthetic, worlds that are always beautiful. Welcome, then, to the world of Ödland....
Imagine the works of M.R. James, Lewis Carroll and Heinrich Hoffmann as visualised by David Lynch or Jan Svankmajer and then scored by Gabriel Yared or Erik Satie and that may give you some kind of insight to the music of Ödland. Their music is cinematicaly visual and deeply literary that I find it difficult to try and explain it within the context of Pop or even popular music. Ödland's music creates feelings of dreams and fairytales, especially those weird and unsettling fairytales full of Struwwelpeters, Juniper Trees and Little Mooks. Nursery rhymes and the works of Lewis Carroll also feature heavily as influences but this is not music for children.

Ödland, The Queen of Hearts. from Lorenzo Papace on Vimeo

Let Ödland introduce themselves in their own inimitable style:
"Dear friends, we are Ödland. We love wind and violin, clouds and piano. We have to dream or the way may be lost. We were born in a train and we are traveling with ghosts. Our shadow will reappear, because the past is lighting us. Dear friends, welcome to our Land".

Ödland was founded by classically trained pianist Lorenzo Papace in Lyon, France. Lorenzo had worked on some short movies with actress Alizée Bingöllü, so when he started Ödland he called up her to provide the vocals. They were then joined by Léa Bingöllü on violin and Isabelle Royet-Journoud(a photographer) who created the visual stylings of the project and also adds sound affects to the music. On their most recent release, the album 'Ottocento', they were joined by Alice Tahon who played violoncello.

Ödland, The Caterpillar. from Lorenzo Papace on Vimeo.

Here again is how the collective describe themselves:
“Dear friends. We are Ödland. We hope you will like our music. There will be perhaps squeakings of teeth and some lovers among you. We are inspired by the 19th Century and what you could listen at this time. But we keep a modern spirit and we are not slaves of a particular style. Our concern is above all to meet you with shows, because our music is entirely acoustic. We hope to travel as much as possible. Take care of you. Regards.”

So far the 'band' have released on E.P., the glorious 'The Caterpillar' which was never off my MP3 player on my recent holiday, and their debut album 'Ottocento'. Both are available from Ödland's beautiful and highly individualistic website here.
Both records are ESSENTIAL purchases.
They also have a Myspace page, and a page at Last.fm where you can hear their tracks before you purchase them.

Ödland are without doubt one of my most treasured discoveries of recent times.

Welcome to Ödland....we think you'll like it here!

~Gordon~

Ödland, The well. from Lorenzo Papace on Vimeo.