its been a bit, and i really need to try and get more artists for this “feature” but, not surprisingly, i am really bad at following up with folks. this edition of “tell me something…” features london’s the tailors and their front man, adam killip. their upcoming release for trash aesthetics is due out 11.30 and they have decided to call it, come dig me up. i have spent the better part of a couple months with said record, and its probably the growiest record of the year. i absolutely understand growiest is not a word, but will still use it. im not saying its record of the year, but its a damn fine record that really doesnt get into your brains until about the tenth listen. of course, your results may vary from mine, but this is a record that is worth spending some time with and getting to know. if you dig teenage fanclub, the shins, big star definitely give em a listen, and even if ya dont, still do….

you can purchase come dig me up via trash aesthetics

come dig me up

adam’s tell me something sounds like something i may have been through a couple times in my life…..

Tell Me Something – Dumped In ‘98

When I was 17 I went out with a girl called Emily for about six weeks who lived in a village nearby. She had a car, liked smoking and wore black roll-necks. It was the 90s and I felt this was the wardrobe of a sophisticated older woman (she was nearly 19). We went to college after the summer in different cities, and a letter came to my halls. It should have been no surprise to read the words “let’s face it things aren’t really working out”, but my young ego was traumatised and I set about wallowing.

My advisor on stuff like this – and my guide in the creation of a rulebook on “how to not be a dick” – was my mother’s baby brother, Uncle Harry. I called him most days over the next few weeks. I can’t really remember what we talked about, but I think mostly we laughed about our shortcomings with girls. He told me about cool stuff he and his friends were doing, and about his cat. He kept saying he was going to send me something to cheer me up, but a few months passed, I stopped thinking about Emily and started seeing a girl who lived upstairs.

One day, a package arrived – Inside was a D90 cassette with “Dumped In ‘98″ written on the spine. There was no tracklisting, and no note with the tape, but I knew who’d sent it and I had a feeling it was going to be good.

A
Cracklin Water – OP8
Out On The Weekend – Neil Young
Still Crazy After All These Years – Paul Simon
Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma – Melanie Safka
Jesus Is On The Mainline – Ry Cooder
Birds & Ships – Natalie Merchant
Someone Else’s Song – Wilco
I’m Important In Your life – Jonathan Richman
Love Hurts – Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris

B
Darkness On The Edge Of Town – Bruce Springsteen
Lady-Oh – Neil Diamond
Bring It On Home To Me (Live) – Ted Hawkins
I’m Your Toy – Elvis Costello
Shiver – Giant Sand
Soldier and the Queen – Suzanne Vega
Waltzing Matilda – Tom Waits
Watermelon In Easter Hay – Frank Zappa

This was all news to me. I put 36 Chambers and Illmatic to one side and soaked it up. The mixtape conjured characters and scenes that made me feel more euphoric and ecstatically blue than I ever had before.
Apart from maybe when I heard Puff The Magic Dragon or Old Brown Dog by Ralph McTell as a kid.

It lead me to most of the music I love now, and with my own songs, I think I’m often trying to translate some of the sensations I got hearing this stuff for the first time – to go to the same places. When I next spoke to Harry he wouldn’t tell me who the songs were by – this was for me to fathom – but he asked what I thought of it. I told him I loved it, and l played it endlessly.

“What does your new lady friend make of it”, he asked me.
“Well…she likes the songs, but she thinks they’re about that other girl”
Harry laughed.
“Well tell her not to worry – there’s another one on the way – a double album this time”
“What’s it called?”
“Humped in ‘99″

“i love it when a plan comes together,” is what john “hannibal” smith used to proclaim when one of his half-baked schemes actually came to fruition and with the motley crue he was working with im surprised anything ever got accomplished. thats right, i am talking about a tv show from the 80’s! but that one tv show would be known as the a-team. what does the a-team or mr hannibal have to do with this post? really nothing, but kinda something.

friends of captains dead, song by toad and its webmaster/label head matthew and bride jetted out to portland, or. sometime in the recent past and hooked up with a few folks that would lead to a split 12″ of two pretty awesome bands. during their trip to portland, they hit up the pickathon festival – a fest i have been wanting to hit up since its inception. they ended up hanging out with matt from the portland based, bladen county records and the two bands, which is how this split 12″ featuring the builders and the butchers and loch lomond came to be. i know its very sketchy, but thats where i was going with that a-team reference. you know, the whole people coming together, making plans, and actually following through on these plans. yeah, i know. i aint gonna lie, im pretty jealous of mr matthew and his accomplishment, cause this split is all kinds of awesome. if i didnt get it for free, full disclosure, i would definitely pony up and pay the 8 pounds, 10 bucks?, for it. its being lovingly pressed on vinyl, but with the purchase of said vinyl, they’re throwing in a cd-r, for those sans turntable.

purchase it here and the cover was done and colored by mr. toad himself, which im sure was a freakin pain in the arse.

vampire lake – the builders and the butchers
field report – loch lomond

very excited to hear the remainder of the roadside graves’ hear ya session that is going live tomorrow, but in the mean time here is “ruby” from said session.

honestly, i can barely pronounce their name. im guessing its something like ambassador but with a “s” in front of it? the band is sambassadeur hails from somewhere that isnt probably within a few thousand miles of my zip code of 70115. if i was a bit more educated, i may be able to place their accents, but alas im pretty dumb. although, judging by their label’s, labrador, .se domain, i am guessing that they may be swedish. no matter, cause i really, really like this song from their upcoming record, european. if you’re a fan of the go betweens and belle and sebastian you should/will dig these folks.

days

so, how many people make a collective? i get quite a few emails stating that so and so is a musical collective, but always wondered how many folks actually make up a true collective. i would say that to be a true collective it would have to be made up by more than 8 members, or maybe 10. is lambchop a collective cause they have like 22 members or are they just a band? trivial, i know. anyway, nevada city, california’s golden shoulders which is lead by adam kline is a musical collective, or at least the press release would lead me to believe they are. they’ve been together in one form or another since 2001, and they released their 3rd full length record, get reasonable, all the way back in may. dig the song, havent heard the record, but the song is pretty great. check it out….

mountain