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Saturday, 22 December 2012

GUEST SPOT BEST OF 2012 - 'Singing Bear'

In the essence of our blog, we asked a few friends and blogs we follow to share with us their top tracks of the year. We are always interested in what makes people musically tick and hear the stories associated with them. At the same time maybe learn a thing or to or maybe catch something we've missed. So a big thank you to you all for taking the time to contribute.

We have the mighty 'Singing Bear' from the musically eclectic blog, 'Grown Up Backwards'. He reveals about his choices that "There is not a lot I want to say about them because they are so good they speak for themselves". However, for a comprehensive round-up of Singing Bears best of 2012, just click the link above to visit his blog. Boom!

First Aid Kit - 'The Lion's Roar'

from the album The Lion's Roar

Paul Buchanan - 'After Dark'

from the album Mid Air

Lambchop - '2B2'

from the album Mr. M

See some of Singing Bears guest spots he has done for us here.....

sfw Pada 22:00 2 Komentar

Friday, 24 February 2012

GUEST SPOT # 36 - Van Morrison - 'Domino'

Close Encounters Guest Spot Singing Bear Van Morrison

It's Saturday and it's Guest Spot day....If you'd like to do a guest spot for us then please let us know. Who knows, you could start a domino effect! (hopefully)

This week we have the mighty Singing Bear, music aficionado from the Grownupbackwards blog and a story about a 'close encounter of the Van kind'.

'Crossing The Road With Van Morrison'

The man at his peak singing 'Domino'

Back in the early to mid 90's I was living in Bath and was aware that Van Morrison had a home there, too. It must be said, Van's house was somewhat more opulent than ours! You would, from time to time, hear of the odd Van sighting but, just like his reputation, he was pretty elusive. A colleague of mine did once attend a party where Van happened to show up (I've no idea why, how or where) and she told me that on being asked to sing a song Van picked up a guitar, turned his back on everyone and mumbled something vague into the corner of the room before exiting. Anyway, I expect you're wondering about my own 'Van Moment'. At this time, I was a massive fan of Van The Man (I still love his early stuff now but my interest has waned a little, I'll admit) and I often wondered what I'd say to him if we had a chance encounter. As you probably know, he's a notoriously miserable git, so not easily approachable. One day, I was a little early for work, which was a just a few streets from Mr. Morrison's residence, and I decided to nip down to the local record shop to while away a few minutes before the daily grind. Just as I approached the pedestrian crossing at the junction of The Paragon and Broad Street (anyone know Bath?) I saw a dumpy little baldy guy in denim and brown cowboy-ish boots waiting for the green man to allow us to cross. It was just me and him with no one else in sight. I sidled up close, thinking 'What shall I say? What shall I say?' In ultra quick time I considered: 'Hello Mr. Morrison, I'm a huge fan and just want to say thanks for the music', which was swiftly rejected for 'Hi Van, how're you doing? Nice day!', again rejected for just a knowing nod and a thumbs up in the hope that I'd get a smile and a 'hi' in return. The seconds ticked by as we stood side by side on the kerb, then the lights changed, it was time to cross, my mind got stuck in reverse and we both silently crossed the road together before Van disappeared into a newsagents and I just knew it would be too creepy to follow him in. All was lost., which was probably a good thing because I'm pretty sure he would have just told me to piss off.

Who are you calling dumpy, pal!?

I did see him around town a couple more times before we left Bath for the Welsh valleys; once I even sat in the same cafe as him, peeping over my copy of MOJO to see what kind of beverage a musical legend likes to partake of but I gave up on any attempt at communication. They say you should never meet your heroes but it might have been funny to be told to eff-off by the great VM.

If anybody else has had a 'close encounter' with a musician or group then let us know, we can feature it as a guest spot. Read some more here...... Close Encounters

Check out more from Singing Bear here....
or even more Guest Spots.......

sfw Pada 22:00 8 Komentar

Thursday, 15 December 2011

GUEST SPOT'S Best Of 2011 part 1

Best of 2011 Bombay Bicycle Club Emma Guest Spot Iggy Pop Laura Marling Low Peaches She Keeps Bees Singing Bear Stuart The Chapel Club The Vaccines Tom Waits Twin Shadow

We did not want this site to be all about us, we wanted people to contribute their musical experiences, favourite tunes, musical memories, legendary gigs etc and as a result we have compiled a number of excellent posts which have enhanced our site and our music collection. It's with great thanks to you guys for putting in the time and effort to write and share these experiences with us. Thanks again for contributing for the best of 2011 post too. Remember, feel free to submit any contributions at any time, they are always welcome and we enjoy them greatly.

Singing Bear:-
Singing Bear is a self confessed old school music lover who runs a blog which all of us here at TuneDr follow. Grownupbackwards is a real treasure trove of forgotten gems, classics and rarities, so go and check it out. Here are 3 of SB's best.

Low - 'Try to Sleep'
'Try To Sleep' is the opening track on Low's excellent album, C'Mon. These Minnesotan 'slow-core' merchants have been around for a while now but it's taken me until this year to really take note of their rather wonderful stripped-down sound. I love their harmonies and insistent guitar work, which, over the course of an album, can take you on a journey to places where you feel, at once, at home, if somewhat uneasy. Sometimes, life just has to get slow.

Laura Marling - 'Don't Ask Me Why'
'Don't Ask Me Why' by Laura Marling is from her beautiful album, A Creature I Don't Know. I has guilty of avoiding Ms, Marling for far too long, having been put off royally by her connections with Mumford and Sons and Noah and The Whale. Should we judge people by the company they keep? Perhaps there are times when we should look beyond that because in the case of Laura Marling, I think she out-grew that gang some time ago. So, I eventually opened my ears and heard all this fine music from one so very young. All three of her albums are very good indeed but one gets the sense of real maturity on A Creature I Don't Know, which, at times, leaves you breathless with its melodic and lyrical invention. She's going to get even better, I'm sure.

Tom Waits - 'Hell Broke Luce'
One of my all-time favourite artists came back to us this year as Tom Waits released his new album, Bad As Me. In certain respects it must be said that what you get on Bad As Me is what one would expect from old Tom - some demented howling at the moon with a little nod to his jazz-bo, beatnik past thrown in for good measure, but that's no reason for complaint: the quality of the songs is top-notch. There aren't many artists of Tom's vintage still regularly creating such vital music. It's good to have him back. There's a host of great things on Bad As Me but I've chosen 'Hell Broke Luce', which is Tom's take on the US war machine and some of its more recent activities. Wild and hard-hitting.

Stuart:-
Stuart is a man of little words and wanted the music to do the talking instead. Have a look at his Mother Love Bone post, where he takes you back to a simpler time where you caressed your records.

Bombay Bicycle Club -'What You Want'

The Vaccines - 'All In White'

Chapel Club - 'Blind'

Emma Bazeley:-
Emma Bazeley, introduced me to White Denim this year and her excellent review of a She Keeps Bees gig compelled me to investigate further.

She Keeps Bees - 'Vulture'
The drumming and compilation just get me.