Personally I think it was my promise / threat to play country music on yesterday’s blog – there’s nothing the genre likes better than some misfortune, tragedy or epic event to get it’s teeth stuck into.

NPR Music Spotlight On Country Archive

Just a word of warning ahead of tomorrow’s edition of The Joint – for most of the week I’ve been listening to NPR’s Spotlight On Country podcast series.

It’s too early to say how exactly this will affect my choice of songs in Saturday’s playlist, possibly in the form of a Merle Haggard threesome or a Waylon Jennings Sesh.

Or maybe I’ll just play George Jones‘ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” whilst quietly crying in the studio. Am I alone in thinking that one of the This Mortal Coil line-ups could do a fantastic cover version of this song, maybe as a bonus track on the forthcoming 4AD boxset?

Simian Mobile Disco have been busy. Their new Delicatessen & Delicacies singles series features food in the titles. The first two singles are Aspic/Nerve Salad and Cazu Marzu/Thousand Year Egg. Casu marzu (Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese riddled with insect larvae) could well be the world’s deadliest cheese.

OMG FTW?!? The Fall have been confirmed for Monday 13 December at The Powerstation in Auckland. See you there.

And here’s the playlist in full…

12pm – 1pm

• Soulwax – KracK
• Matthew Dear – You put a smell on me
• Black Milk feat. Royce da 5’9″ & Elzhi – Deadly medley
• Tommy Ill – Robot **NZ**
• Simian Mobile Disco – Cazu marzu
• Balam Acab – See Birds (Coyote Clean Up dub)
• Solar Bears – Photo negative living
• Royksopp – Forsaken cowboy
• Donna Regina – Perfect stranger
• K-X-P – Pockets (Annie vocal mix)

+ Download 12pm – 1pm – 77Mb mp3

1pm – 2pm

• The Fall – Man whose head expanded
• White Boy and the Average Rat Band – Sector 387
• Robyn feat. Snoop Dogg – U should know better
• Kwes – No need to run
• Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk – Chasing rainbows
• White Ring – lxc999
• Fluffy Lumbers – Harry Dolland’s
• Film School – Nothing’s mine
• Delaney Davidson – Wicked wiggler **NZ**
• WTF ?! & Dead Prez – Bigger than hip hop UK
• Thai Thanh – Bùrng sáng (Dawn)

+ Download 1pm – 2pm – 85Mb mp3

Sunday Night Safran

This one almost slipped below The Joint radar. It’s the match-up we’ve all been waiting for as Australia’s answer to Chris Morris takes on John Safran’s British mentor.

By match-up I mean invites on Sunday Night Safran as a guest, and by takes on I mean cordially interviews about his film Four Lions.

The head to head starts at about the 31 minute mark.

Download mp3

Never quite understood the appeal of Father Bob though…

Orange Juice - Coals To Newcastle

The NME reported yesterday that Domino Recordings are set to release an Orange Juice 7 disc boxset on the 8th of November, possibly due to overwhelming public demand after The Joint played the title track of Edwyn Collins’ new CD “Losing Sleep” last Saturday. Possibly.

Entitled “Coals To Newcastle”, the release will comprise their entire discography plus video footage.

I’m particularly looking forward to the latter because it will include the official promo for “What Presence?!” – which I reckon to be the best Orange Juice single and a piece of video I’ve never seen. Derek Jarman directed to boot.

Sure, you can stream it online at Muzu.tv or vh1la.com or some other off -the-beaten-track video site but NOT if you live in New Zealand. We have to put up with some dodgy VHS footage of an Old Grey Whistle Test appearance or one of those motionless YouTube tributes…

secrets - Hell is round the corner

1995 seems like such a long time ago.

That’s when Tricky released his debut album “Maxinquaye“. At the time it was released it was a dark, brooding, decaying and paranoid affair. I listened to it the other day and it has aged quite well.

The closest I have ever heard anyone get to its moodiness are the M.I.A., Burial, and Kode9 albums. Tricky is also the only artist I have ever heard cover a Public Enemy song (“Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”) and match it (and arguably surpass it).

In a way, Tricky seems like an impossible artist to cover.

But you’d be wrong. I was.

The other day I was lurking around bandcamp.com and noticed that secrets aka Fraser Austin had done a cover version of “Hell is Round the Corner”. Damn well shat myself when I discovered that it was true in spirit to the original. Must be something about the Christchurch winter that lends itself to paranoia. Or secrets is taking lots of cough syrup at the moment.

*ERRATUM: Curses. As ever I got the lyric wrong. Instead of “Seduce me, seduce me…” it should have been “Reduce me, seduce me…”. THX Hairdresser on Fire for inadvertently alerting me to my error.

And here’s the playlist in full…

12pm – 1pm

• Royksopp – The fear
• Steffen Baldo – Efe efe
• Appaloosa – Intimate
• Big Hard Excellent Fish – Imperfect list
• Secrets – Hell is round the corner (Last House On The Left edit) **NZ**
• Mount Pleasant – Zimbabwe cock fight II **NZ** (free album download)
• KXP – 18 hours (of love)
• Robyn – We dance to the beat
• These New Puritans – Hologram (Causes remix)
• Kids of 88 – San Fran **NZ**
• Shit Browne – New colours

Download 12pm – 1pm here (m4a / aac file) - Technical difficulties for the second week in a row. So, apologies, no spiffing m4a / aac formats. Scroll down to get the mp3 version instead.

1pm – 2pm

• Sexy Animals – Up the bum, no babies! **NZ**
• Salem – Asia
• Blonde Redhead – Spain
• The Jellies – Jive baby on a Saturday night
• Shawn Lee feat. The Superimposers – Fade up
• Dominique Young Unique – Blaster
• Lee “Scratch” Perry & Adrian Sherwood – Elixir of life
• E. Gold featuring Alexis – Separate our hearts (Passions Remix)
• Cours Lapin – Ma melodie
• Dum Dum Girls – Stiff little fingers
• Edwyn Collins – Losing sleep
• Shawn Lee feat. Princess Superstar – Christopher Walken on sunshine

Download 1pm – 2pm here (m4a / aac file) - Technical difficulties for the second week in a row. So, apologies, no spiffing m4a / aac formats. Scroll down to get the mp3 version instead.

Alternatively, this is the raw, unpasteurized version of the show in mp3 format. No chapters, pictures or links. Slightly less quality. Otherwise the audio content is the same as the two files above. The choice is yours…..

Technical difficulties also meant the first song on today’s show is missing from the podcast.

Download 12pm – 2pm here (mp3 file)

On the show last Saturday I was being a little bit cheeky when I described the new Mount Pleasant LP “The Flood” as being the perfect soundtrack for David Lynch’s remake of “American Psycho”.

In hindsight I don’t think I was too far wrong. This album pushes my buttons. Jonathan Phillips is sneaky like that. “The Flood” comes across as more of a sketchbook than the final, finished article and that’s why I like it.

With woozy cover versions of songs that I really hated in my childhood (Bruce Springsteen’s “On Fire”, Stevie Nicks’ “Sara”, and Phil Collins’ “Sussudio”) but now sort of like (not in an ironic way – it’s more like Stockholm Music Syndrome), lots of loud/quiet dreamy pop (“In The City”), dropouts and cutouts, glitches, snares and keyboards this is my kind of (un)easy listening.

The kicker for me is the final track on the album – a cover of Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” – one of my favourite songs of all time. I can still remember the first time I saw Dean Stockwell camply and menacingly mime the song in Blue Velvet. I was terrified and had strange dreams for weeks afterwards. It was my initiation into the weird universe of David Lynch. I have a hunch that Jonathan Phillips resides in a corner of that same universe.

And here’s the playlist in full…

12pm – 1pm

• Ulrich Schnauss and Jonas Munk – Sirocco [details here]
• Tamaryn – Mild confusion
• Teeth – See spaces
• Silver Columns – Always on (Caribou remix)
• Tono and the Finance Company – PJ Harvey is on the stereo **NZ**
• Tono and the Finance Company – No.7 blonde **NZ**
• Tono and the Finance Company – Politics will make you miserable **NZ**
• Roots Manuva – Butterfly Crab Walk (Featuring Riddla)
• Wiley – Flipping from the gut
• Lee “Scratch” Perry & Adrian Sherwood – Lucky Tarzan
• Homework - Fissa Tune

Sorry, there’s no fancy schmancy m4a versions this week. Just the mp3 below.

1pm – 2pm

• Tommy Ill – Cheap wine bender **NZ**
• Las Robertas – History is done
• The HIVs – Daddy fix me up
• Shit and Shine – Bass puppy
• Maxence Cyrin – Kids
• Razorcuts – Brighter Now
• Mount Pleasant – Sussudio **NZ**
• Mount Pleasant – Sara **NZ**
• Mount Pleasant – In dreams **NZ**
• The Sea-ders – Thanks A Lot
• Jimmy Smith – Let’s stay together [live in 1972]
• Carte Blanche – Jigga bite
• Mates Of State – Laura

Sorry, there’s no fancy schmancy m4a versions this week. Just the mp3 below.

Alternatively, this is the raw, unpasteurized version of the show in mp3 format. No chapters, pictures or links. Slightly less quality. Otherwise the audio content is the same as the two files above. The choice is yours…..

Download 12pm – 2pm here (mp3 file)

I was at Galaxy Records yesterday on the hunt for the Tono and the Finance Company 2008 EP “Love and Economics” when I discovered that Dave had the newish “Fragile Thing” EP in stock. So I bought it (#147 of 300 I’ll have you know).

Damn nice EP too. Throughout I hear faint traces of  Paul Banks, Stephen Malkmus, and Graeme Downes (… the curse of a music geek making comparisons sorry). “Tuesday Afternoon” has been getting a thrashing on RDU lately. Title track is fantastic. And “Politics Will Make You Miserable” is possibly the best Smiths song that Morrissey and Marr never wrote.

I’m not usually one for “singer/songwriters” (I honestly have real trouble hearing lyrics in music – I usually tune into the bassline) but something about Anthonie Tonnon really appeals to me. Perhaps it’s because he has balls to keep things loose and slightly rough around the edges (don’t tell him I said that last bit okay)?

Reviewers describe him as being “ironic”. Can’t stand that term myself. I prefer “witty”. At a stretch “quirky”.

Here’s the recent Cheese On Toast interview:

More info:

• tonoandthefinancecompany.bandcamp.com
• tonoandthefinancecompany.bandcamp.com/album/fragile-thing
• tonoandthefinancecompany.bandcamp.com/album/love-and-economics
• Otago Daily Times: “Tonight, Tono is himself”

As a bonus, here’s that freakish video for “Love and Economics”…

Despite all the hype it wasn’t too shocking, just a little silly in places, but really may have been “100% medically accurate”. If anything, it reminded me of all the tedious corporate team building courses I’ve been subjected to in my life. All in all, the sort of movie sorbet that everyone needs once in a while.

I was hoping for a sequel eg: “The Human Centipede 2: Sock Puppets” but today I discovered something better.

Today I saw the Sock Monkey Human Centipede on Boing Boing (the designer is Lori Muffinface):

Sock Monkey Human Centipede via Boing Boing

 Maybe more movies should be done as soft toys. It would save us all a lot of time.