Fish – Credo

I read an interview with Fish in the Sun (no, I don’t buy the Sun, honest, someone scanned it and uploaded it to a Fish fans’ Yahoo group) where he was talking about the break-up of his relationship with a tidy young piece he was going to marry. Apparently one of the issues between them was starting a family. All credit to the guy for not being ashamed to admit in a national paper that “she was desperate you know but I couldn’t have any… that was after picking up a virus in Egypt which attacked my baws”. A typically Scottish way of viewing one of life’s setbacks!

Fish’s solo material has been a bit of a mix really. When it’s good it’s very very good, and when it’s bad it’s still okay. Except for his album of cover versions, Songs From The Mirror, which is… erm… bad. Shockingly bad.

This track’s off his second solo record way back in 1991. When we dragged my mate Steve (who’s more a fan of gay 80s pop than anything you’d find in my CD rack) along kicking and screaming to a Fish gig last year, he ended up singing along with this. I’m sure you will too.

Fish – Credo

There’s a new album coming out in a month or two which from the rough edits posted on MySpace sounds pretty promising. If you can’t wait for it come out pay Fish’s website a visit now and stock up on his older material.

Frank Black – Two Spaces

I was reading a post on Song, By Toad about the Manic Street Preachers, and how that blogger first heard them on the listening post at a record store. That got me thinking about a similar experience I had with Frank Black’s self-titled solo album – I was a student in Aberdeen at the time and the Virgin store had not long opened there, complete with listening posts. The Pixies weren’t really on my radar other than being a band that got played a lot in the student union so I didn’t make the connection until much later, it was the album cover that caught my attention. over the years I’ve gotten interested in a lot of music purely because the cover art intrigued me (with varying degrees of success… “In The Court Of The Crimson King” by King Crimson is at the opposite end of the spectrum, it has a fantastic cover but I absolutely detest the music!) – and this is one of the things I’ll miss if downloads ever become the sole medium for music to be sold. Anyway, here’s what did it for me that day:

Not knowing what to expect I put the headphones on and hit play, and was blown away. I listened through about half of the album there and then before I got self-conscious about hogging the facility – not long enough to get to what ended up being my favourite track, Two Spaces, which I finally got to hear on the top deck of the number 20 bus going back to my flat.

Frank Black – Two Spaces

I hadn’t listened to this in years until the other night, and I was very pleased to find out that this album has stood the test of time, it sounds as good to me now as it did standing in Virgin Records back in 1994. And it has successfully defeated the forces of inflation! On Amazon it’s available for about half the price I paid for it back then so click here to add it to your collection.

Opeth – Death Whispered A Lullaby

Swedish death-metallers-turned-balladeers Opeth are a phenomenal band, one who are at ease with such a variety of styles that if you were to hear two tracks by them at random you might not have a clue they were by the same band.

This one’s a favourite of mine, the vocals are outstanding. Instead of using cigars as his vocal warm-up like I do, yer man Mikael Åkerfeldt gets himself in the groove with a bit of full-on cookie monster grunting.

Opeth – Death Whispered A Lullaby

Oh, and did I mention that this track was co-written and produced by the genius that is Steven Wilson? No? I have now.

Buy the album this was taken from, Damnation here, and as an extra Brucie bonus their live DVD Lamentations here.

Frost* – No Me, No You

Another belter off the album of 2006. This one’s more of a straight-out rocker than the previous track I posted (Hyperventilate) but still has plenty of fiddly widdly touches to put a shit-eating grin on my face.

Work is underway on the second Frost* album… I can’t wait! Jem Godfrey is also working on another project with The Boy Edwards and John Mitchell amongst others under the name “The Accidental”, which also promises to be a stonker. In fact it’s almost guaranteed – quality in, quality out after all!

Frost* – No Me, No You

Buy buy buy buy buy!

Birdie Silence

Apologies for the lack of activity recently. It wasn’t purely down to sheer laziness, this time I’ve got someone to blame. MediaMax, who I host my music files with, went through an upgrade (felt like a downgrade to me, but never mind) and I lost the ability to upload new files in that time. The upgrade was partly to make uploads and downloads quicker, but actually resulted in it taking three and a half weeks to upload that Bob Seger track I just posted. Which is slower than usual.

Anyway we’re back in action now, and I have some goodies for you! Watch this space!!!

Bob Seger – Old Time Rock & Roll

A perennial karaoke favourite of mine – it gives me an excuse to chomp on a coupla fat cigars as a “vocal warm-up” – although it’s a bit hit and miss. Sometimes I bring the house down, other times I empty it.

Ol’ Bob is one of those singers who everyone seemed to listen to in the car when they were a kid, and I was no different. I think we had “Hollywood Nights” on a C90 copied from my uncle Bryce.

You wanna hear it, don’tcha? Here it is!

Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits is available here, no car stereo should be without it.