Music glue: Sam Lee and the Gilly Boys

I have been lucky enough to catch Sam Lee at Secret Garden Party a couple of years in a row.  As anyone who's been will know, you don't really go to SGP for the music, as much as the experience, so I always just try to keep my ears open for anything wonderful.  And wonderful he is.  I reserve the right to romantically embellish this tale in my imagination, because he travels the lands learning traditional old folk songs and ensuring they are recorded and so do not die out.

In my head, he may be wearing tights and a doublet and carrying a lute.  In reality he was wearing very tight, white shorts and kneeling on the front of the stage.  It's a testimony to the purity of his voice that my friends and I were able to cease ogling/giggling long enough to listen to the most beautiful and most traditional folk I've heard in a long, long while.  

His first album, 'Ground Of Its Own', is out now and you should buy it for sure.

"This music is the glue of the world Mark. It's what holds it all together. Without this, life would be meaningless."

Eddie, 'Empire Records'

Music Glue: There Will Be Fireworks, Midfield Maestro

There Will Be Fireworks are one of those hidden gems it's so satisfying to stumble upon.  They all have careers in addition to their music, so they take their time to create each album.  As a result what they do release is quality stuff.

'Midfield Maestro' is one of those slow build, goosebump raising crescendo songs I love so much.  Raw, raw, heartbreaking emotion. Perfect.

Music Glue: The narcissism mix

For Katy's and lovers of Kate's and Katie's only. Actually, there's some gems in here... go ahead, all (opens in Spotify).

What Katie Said - The Matches

Katy Song - Red House Painters

Kate - Ben Folds Five

Katy - The Boy Who Trapped The Sun

If U C Kate - McFly

What Katie Did - The Libertines

Katie Cruel - Karen Duncan

Katie W - Fenix TX

Katie - Kelly Jones

Come Home Katie - The Heartbreaks

Katherine Kiss Me - Franz Ferdinand

Music Glue: 'On The Road' Travelling Mixtape

Trembling Hands - Explosions In The Sky

I Built Myself A Metal Bird - A Silver Mt Zion

No Cars Go - Arcade Fire

Mountains - Biffy Clyro

If You Run - The Boxer Rebellion

One Fast Move Or I'm Gone - Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard

Dead City - The Twilight Sad

Eyes Open - Taylor Swift

Swim Until You Can't See Land - Frightened Rabbit

Crystal - Stevie Nicks

Getaway - Jonquil

Open the mix in Spotify. Then hit the road, Bilbo style. On and on.

"This music is the glue of the world Mark. It's what holds it all together. Without this, life would be meaningless."

Eddie, 'Empire Records'

Timesuck Sunday: Recommended reading for feminist boys

Researching my post on street harassment I dug up a lot of anger-inducing, but informative pieces on a variety of 'women's issues that are really men's problems' (new fav phrase).

Consider your consciences' raised:

Just wanting to read your book is apparently not acceptable on public transport if a man wants to chat.

The situation is so depressingly messed up, because harassment is so commonplace that women who don't experience it feel like they aren't even considered women.

A handy debunking of the common bullshit arguments surrounding legal consent.

An analysis of two empirical studies showing acquaintance rape is the biggest problem and that large numbers of such rapes are committed by repeat offenders. Why 'bros before hos' is a dangerous attitude to have.

Why we need to stop concern trolling victims and focus our attention on the people at fault. Hint: Not the victims.

Recommended reading for boys:

What we should teach all young men about sex and consent and generally being the kind of guy girls want to sleep with, as they head off to university

How to and what to bear in mind when approaching an unknown woman in public.

Street harassment from a decent man's perspective, plus a pledge to do something about it.

An incredibly comprehensive and easily comprehensible Rape Culture 101.


Just to cheer us all up:

homeless men rescue a 15 year old girl from a terrifying sexual offender.

'If you feel attacked by feminism, it's probably a counter-attack' Mixes For Friends' excellent downloadable mixtape.

Music glue: The Bronze Medal

"I won't see home till Spring..."

God I love these boys and their beautiful music.  Plus I am having a teeny homesick, or rather people-sick, or rather one particular, special, love-of-my-life person-sick moment and this captures it better than I can.

The lyrics read like poetry:

Furrows

It’s in my belly it’s in my bones

It’s not my corner, not my cove

But with fain, you calm, you wove

It’s in my belly it’s in my bones

Though, I won’t see home till spring

- 

I found my footing, I caw, I’ve sewn

Was sapped all sullen, won’t let love grow

Though with pace you sore, you rose

Alar our branches, unbend our bows

Nor find faucet, nor to flee

- 

And I can hardly hold my seem shut to the sound of lurid sea

Comfort in the furrows, warn into the soil, thawing under autumn trees

-

Came loose from doubts recurring culls

With fern and copper woven groves, all remove and bare to load

And I held you nude in our rapt fold

Just to sleep with home to hold

Music Glue: Sufjan Stevens

Chicago has beaches.  It really is the perfect city.  And obviously, while swimming in Lake Michigan, I naturally hummed this to myself.   

Not sure I'd try to swim across it though, you can't see the other side.

This is a beautiful live recording, by the way.  Thinking of Sufjan  live always makes me smile, since I can't help but remember one of the best things my friend Jess has ever sighed post show, "I want to have his little star-people babies..."

We all do. 

Music Glue: the Get Up Kids

Watching the sunset over the mountains yesterday I had one of those "nothing gold can stay" moments. Which naturally enough to my mind had me thinking of 'The Outsiders', the book in which that poem's central tenet becomes the farewell, "Stay gold, Pony boy" and on to the thusly named great early emo tune here.

In one of those great moments of internet synthesis Vice's Big Night Out went emo and I learned the above makes me "an ageing weekend revivalist" (true).  But to cheer me up Fashion Grunge blog had The Outsiders as inspiration for Menswear Monday.  Swoon.

"This music is the glue of the world...

...It's what holds it all together. Without this, life would be meaningless." Eddie, 'Empire Records' 

A big part of learning to love my life again was music, specifically new music, at least new to me.  Before I'd always deferred to my brother, or cooler friends when it came to discovering new things.  Now I've learned to trust my own ears.  There's a longer story for another day, but for now this will be a weekly post of the most interesting/exciting/beautiful thing to hit my ear drums in the preceding seven days.





This week it's Brother and Bones, a big, bluesy rawk 5-piece that blasted my hangover into submission at twothousandtreesfestival last weekend.  2000 Trees is a festival by music lovers, for music lovers and I always find several of what will become my favourite bands there every year, so it's high praise indeed to state that these guys came out top of my discovery list.  They had two drummers. Two drummers! Love.  Plus look at them; definitely not a hardship is it?