New material from the Verve

The Thaw Session is being given away by the NME. This quarter of an hour studio jam from  newly reformed The Verve is a taster of the haunting melancholy melodies, rolling drums and etheral vocals that we can expect to come.

MP3: The Thaw Session (32MB!)

At least the sun came out

A shite weekend sports wise with England, Lewis and City all being the big losers. The party I attended to watch the rugby was at least a raucous and drunken affair, and made up, to some degree, for the lack of success by our local football and international Rugby team. After the match we listened to some tunes and had a failed attempt to download ‘In Rainbows’, I still haven’t heard it. But we did listen to some decent Adrian Sherwood stuff and chilled out ‘til late.
I felt bad on Sunday, I probably shouldn’t drink like that. I was also having feelings of doubt about Lewis’s F1 championship title race. It turned out my paranoia was proven right as only moments after the start it was basically all over for Lewis, and a few laps later a technical gremlin meant that his championship hopes were over. So not wanting to watch yet more disappointing sport I turned it off and watched Simpson’s repeats and ate some food, which was something I hadn’t really done since Friday.

Restructuring

Well its been an exciting week for me as there has been some restructuring going on at work which has meant I have been frantically compiling my CV - as a precaution. So my music-listening has been somewhat limited this week as trials and tribulations have been prevelent, I even have an unheard copy of the new PJ Harvey CD - White Chalk.  Whats wrong with me!!!

Ukuelele Orchestra of Great Britain

I was introduced to this band of ukulele brandishing cover version fiends a couple of years ago when a friend played to me their album Secret of Life. At first I thought it was a novelty act but on listening closer I realised they where actually very talented. My favourite song from that album is Otis Redding’s Hard to Handle.
So I was pleased the other day when emitting from iTunes I suddenly heard a familiar twang of Ukulele’s covering Smells like Teen Spirit and I thought ‘hey’ that’s new and I was right it was. Well at least it was to me, and that is how I discovered their 2007 album Precious Little. It contains another classic Ukulele Orchestra track, which is the cover of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer. Brilliant.

The eagerly awaited album of 2007.
Ukuleles are small and endearing. For the player, it's sometimes difficult to find the right ukulele.
Hence the title: Precious Little. It's precious and it's little.
Tracks include: Smells like teen spirit, Theme from Shaft, Bang Bang (you shot me down), Psycho Killer, and The Girl from Devizes, a possible Bebop classic. Jazz, rock, grunge, country and the unclassifiable. All played on ukuleles and nothing but.

Website: www.ukuleleorchestra.com

MP3: Psycho Killer