Another Top Five. Tom Waits this time

Here is my Tom Waits top five.

1. Hell Broke Luce.
Yeah, regrets. Just listen to this one. It is absolutely awesome. I wish I'd written it. Not only does it have a beautifully up-front beat so rare in music these days, but the words are such a beautriffic (beautifully horrific) way of spelling out the reality of war. Oh yeah, and Luce? That's not a misspelling, it's a character's name.

2. Rain Dogs.
A jolly little song about becoming a refugee. Tom Waits does a lot of stuff like this, danceable hummable tunes which for a while sound beautiful until you wonder about Waits' voice (some say he tries too hard at that, but I think he tries just enough). I've chosen this as representative of that kind of song.

3. The Piano Has Been Drinking
What can I say? It reminds me of some of the dives I've played in, and you know what? I've loved it every time and from this song, I suspect so has Tom Waits. Hallelujiah.

4. God's Away on Business.
This has a certain personal resonance for me because I sang an acapella version of this in 2010 at the Purcell Room on London' South Bank, and that was one of the major highlights of my life. A quote from this song, "Who are the ones who are left in charge? Killers, thieves and lawyers", has been a quote on my facebook profile since I joined facebook in 2009.

5. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis.
Yeah, we've all been there. Good for us. The song is about trust and illusion, and that includes self-delusion. I think it's brilliantly done.

And then there are the others it hurt to leave out - the twisted folksy nostalgia of "Innocent When You Dream", the bitterness of "Heart Attack and Vine", a straight (ish) C&W love song like "Hope I don't Fall in Love with You." There are so many and yet I don't really consider myself a fan. I've never bought a Tom Waits album, nor been to a concert... and yet I smiled when i saw him as the bartender in Book of Eli, so colour me ambiguous. I don't like everythign he does but there's a Hell of a lot I do like.

My Own Musical Career

I've been in radio silence mode for a while and told almost nothing here, which was remiss of me, so, let me see if I can righ that palpable wrong.

First of all, Vaccination finally gave up the ghost in April 2012.  For a while, we truly did feel like the best band in the world but it all ended in the New Cross Inn when I got so pissed off that I walked off stage and listened to the rest of the set from Richard and Chris (and nobody else) while trying desperately not to cry.

I'm glad to say that Richard and Chris and Luke from Vaccination are working together as The Child Wren, With Chris on vocals and accordion, they hve become something sharper, less improvisational perhaps, a kind of folk for the end times.  In May 2014, they played at the Tottenham Festival of Musical Legerdemain, which was my feeble attempt at being a musical impressario.  (Note for next time, don't try planning an event like this on your own, and if you do, try not to have intensive radiotherapy in the middle of the planning period).

With a Vaccination shaped hole in my life, I needed to fill it with something.  Early in 2013, I got together with a bunch of musicians to form The Band of Malcontents, which was a lot of fun but we never got past the rehearsal stage.  That wasn't because any of us were less than brilliant as musicians, but simply because life got in the way.

And then, in August 2013, I finally got together with Dave and John from The Pennebakers to form a new band.  I called them e-Cog Zero (after my oncologist told my doctor that I was at "Performance level ECOG Zero", meaning my cancer was no worse than when I was diagnosed).

We played our first gig in November 2013, just before I went in for Radiotherapy. We had no drummer then and that was a problem, but over the gigs we've played, we've found ourselves getting better and better.  At the abovementioned Tottenham Festival of Musical Legerdemain, Richard Winstanley of The Child Wren, played Drums and we were a lot better than we were to begin with.  Since then we've found a new drummer in the shape of Keith Sharp and since then, things have been better and better.

As a result of the 'success' of e-Cog Zero, Mike Fleming has now, sadly wound up the Swampies, which was also fun, but John and I don't have time to do both bands justice.

Feel free to get in touch via our facebook page if you want to be added to our mailing list when we start it.  We want to make this really work.

My Marc Almond top five

I've been posting these top fives as part of an exercise on a page on facebook, and suddenly realised, I've been neglecting this blog and it should be here as well, so, here's my faves from Marc.  Hope you enjoy them as much as me.

1. What Makes a Man a Man
I didn't grow up with Marc because I'd already moved from Deliverance to Cambridge before I heard of him. This song though, I knew because I'd heard Charles Aznavour (of all people) do it first. It speaks to me. My sexuality is not that of the song and yet I found myself growing up so different as to be practically an alien. It's a beautiful song and Marc does it beautifully, so very beautifully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36x3YKH7gY

2. Tainted Love
I DO like eighties synth pop, but prefer something with a real edge, and this song has that. I love it so much. So much so, that after I had buried my singing and Cabaret in a shallow grave and built a career of a faceless bureaucrat on top of it, and built a stone sacrcophagus around the remains, THIS was the song I sang in a bar in Almeria when I decided I dared to sing again. Ladies and Gentlemen, "Tainted Love".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJkbqjQvnk

3. The Bulls
Brel, I did grow up with and this song, The Bulls, was one of my favourites. Marc GETS it, he really gets it, that's why I love him so much. Sorry to post a video with just a record sleeve but I can't find a live video where you can hear Marc's voice properly. Marc and the Mambas sing "The Bulls".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXrpgG3htF8

4. Ruby Red
Back to pop but Marc does it so beautifully and bitterly. This is the darkest of dark pop songs, with a pretty beat, something to dance to if you ache for the eighties, but with Marc's voice, insidious and wicked to seep into your nightmares when you go home alone, or worse still with someone you'll nver love in the morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQP_eqbgo4Q

5. Torch
I know there are a lot of better songs Marc did, it hurts to leave out Jacky, and Marc's version of Caroline Says, and hell even some entire albums but for my last choice, I've picked a piece of eighties synth pop. Sorry to go there, but one thing that makes this song so special is the fact that it was on Top of the Pops, for fuck's sake! All those teenies and their moms and pops were watching and they did this... oh my, so magnificent. Welcome to my room Marc. I love you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heGr1sS7Bmo

The Boys from the Swamp

Don't worry, I'm still playing with Vaccination, and I left the Swampies about a year ago but I'm getting back together with them for a one off at Miranda's party in Hammersmith on Saturday. In the meantime, to mark Niall McMahon's transistion from civil servant who does music to full time musician, I got together with present and former swampies as well as Niall himself to record the following videos.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Man Of Constant Sorrow

and

Mack The Knife

Vaccination - I'm With The Others

So, time has moved on and I've been doing stuff I will show, for example, some recording of me and Richard that has me on guitar, sevral gigs, and there will be another on Wednesday at Nambucca at 596 Holloway Road N7 sadly, this has not beeen advertised except by us so please, turn up if you can if only for the sake of our credibility.

More to the point though, see our latest video, enjoy it and spread it. Let everyone else enjoy it.

Excitement

Okay, first of all, I tried to arrange for a record to be sent to my mum. I went to the logo fiasco website and tried to buy a copy but sadly, PayPal have banned my email and I can't get through to talk to a human being and get myself unbanned.

Luckily, we're playing a gig tomorrow at the Good Ship, Kilburn and with luck I should be able to buy one tomorrow as can many other people. (Well I can dream can't I... it IS a good single and could do well if more widely distributed.) I'm thinking of trying to order it from Amazon to see if that makes Amazon approach Logo Fiasco and try to order copies.

Anyway, I'm excited about the gig tomorrow. It'll give us a chance to play live, which is fun, and to gain new fans from the audience.

In other news, I've been asked by Eileen Clarke of Only Indie Radio to produce some half-hour spoken word tracks as a way to get my writing heard. I'm finding that just as exciting and hope to send her the first four installments by mid march so she can start broadcasting. So, as I'm so fond of saying.

Wish me luck!

The Product

I've just heard some recordings from the last recording session. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. There were five tracks.

Kitchen Sink Blues - with Daniel on lead vocals. The track sounds like a Lebanese Acid Jazz band being kidnapped by Hawkwind. That's a good thing.

Then came Middleman. Dan was singing at his best here, his voice by turns angry and ecstatic, which is what he does best. It's a great rocking number.

Rust Vaccination has words by yours truly. It needs work but I'm proud of it.

Then Speedbore and What Rough Beast were like nothing else we do. Between them, they are about 20 minutes long and they are perfect film music. I could see them winning us an oscar let alone a number one.

Watch this space.