It's a double dollop of Podrophenia for your listening ears.
The October edition - with guest Ted Groves playing tunes from his fantasticus debut album World of My Own. There's more newbie music with Billy Reeves latest single Golden Days, The Island from Vix20 and Ali Heath Alarm Goes Off.. between our musical lucky dips, there's a Pod Quiz - Paint shade or Eno instrumental...
Load up and listen hereabouts
And the September edish - with a mystery quiz. Can you crack either theme by the tune clues...??
Behold as a Podrophonic double drop lands in your 2022 lap
Sickness: illness is the theme of the January playlist, wherein we prescribe new tunes alongside old faves and buried treasures. Dig in and dose up here . Or wherever you get your podcasts
Health: Piley, Lord Hastings and m'self bring you a robust bundle and of heart-pounding sounds from 2021. Listenable here (or wherever you get your etc.....)
Recorded live from Southend, just down the road a'piece from the Olympic mountain biking venue (waddya mean - there aren't any mountains in Essex), our Greco/Roman games inspired podcast comes loaded with events such as: worst sporting incidents you've seen (discover what face-planting is), medal winning burps and sporting look-a-likes.
Piley and I, along with some new and regular Podrophenia contributors also have a a run out on picture disc values - and we've a drop in from Fi Jacobs for a Railway Round Up.
All this and 12 tracks of Olympian tunes including Little Richard, the Beastie Boys, Big Boss Man and Morten Valence
We didn't get to the Bronx, but Battery Park, yes - on our last full day in New York, passing through on route to the Staten Island Ferry for a sail-by sighting of the Statue of Liberty.
So what was New York like? Everything we'd hoped for at twice the scale. An all-absorbing, truly incredible metropolis - a clean, friendly and super-safe city (we were strolling around the back streets at 11 pm, riding the subways and mooching Central Park as dusk turned to dark – and felt perfectly fine and unrattled). Instantly familiar from films, TV (and comics) we were immediately installed, settled and at home from the first footsteps into Fifth Avenue.
At last: the lengthy wait since Record Breakers is over
So what sights were seen - Harlem and Spanish Harlem (by night), Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, New York Public Library, the Dakota Building, Central Park, the Chelsea Hotel, the Flat Iron building, West Village, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Times Square, Union Square, Washington Square, Brooklyn (both DUMBO and Williamsburg by way of two visits), a panoramic spread from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building (with 25 miles visibility).
86 floors straight down
And take note any future trip-takers some of the finest views to be had came from: the East River Ferry and its skyline commuter cruise - followed by the hair-tingling walk back across Brooklyn Bridge, the High Line and its newly-landscaped elevated railway aspect and finally gliding/hovering across East River riding the Roosevelt Island Tramway.
Roosevelt Island Tramway (as seen in Spider-Man 1) - yes we did brave a ride
For eats Sarge’s Deli is the place to park up (where I had my first Reuben) and my recommendation for a chow down – 24 hour service, on the premises prepared meats and home-made corn beef without any of the rush and bustle of Carnegie Deli or the NY's higher profile eateries - and is almost exclusively non-touristy. For shops J J’s Hat Centre will fit all your get ahead needs.
I've never returned from any holiday - anywhere! unable to shake off the sparkle of a visit like our trip to New York.
Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building
Central Park and city
If you do get the chance to go - jump at it! I'm already prepping a tick-list for round two... while listening to New York's finest jazz station WBGO, which has given jazz a new and panoramic extra dimension after hearing it soundtracking the city of hootin'-tootin' cabs, steaming manholes and endlessly stretching skyscrapers
Looking south Brooklyn on the left and New Jersey on the right - Flat Iron in the middle
Should you fancy a squint at the full set of New York Pics have a peep hereabouts.
Only a couple of trips to record shops: Rebel Rebel in Greenwich Village where a Fania comp and Joe Batann were bagged, and Earwax in Brooklyn for DJ Shadow and Sharon Jones...
I hadn’t planned to start a run of football posts - just chip in with a couple to capture the rush and buzz of the World Cup kick off. But now I'm semi-obsessed with it, weighing up the heavy-hitters and competive form, working out possible options and placings. Even the vuvuzelas ongoing drone has begun to sound hypnotically exotic. If you’re up on events you may want to skip the next bit. If you’re not up on events.
England have to win tonight (Algeria) and next Wednesday (Slovenia)
Finishing second place in their group (C) simply won’t do. Second place means meeting Germany in the next round. That’s us pitched against a great white shark of a squad - prowling and playing a sharp, sleek and lethal form of football.
Forget the soft soap, stoicism and stiff upper lips. If England can gun it and go, hitting their fixtures with the sweaty energy of the MC5, we could breeze it to the next rounds.
Shortly after their 1980s chart ram-raid and debut album, the Beastie Boys dropped off my musical radar (me being into long hair, leather jackets and all things R.O.C.K at the time). Until - via the digitally doomed channel UK Play's heavy rotation but limited library of approx' twelve music vids (Kylie, Beastie Boys and Fatboy Slim etc...), I eventually picked up on the Beasties brilliant promos for 'Body Movin''(Fatboy remix), 'Three MC's and One DJ' and ''Intergalatic''.
The Beastie Boys are one of a handful of bands almost fully formed for their own Hanna-Barbera style musical cartoon series ( see also - The Damned, the Spice Girls and Motorhead) with their fizzingly inventive vids, triple wallop wordplay and stealthy scrapbooking of obscure samples (dropping The Sweet's "She thinks she's the passionate one" into 'Hey Ladies' being a double rap whammy). And if that grab bag of goodies wasn't enough the Beastie Boys sneakily leak acappela tracks into the public domain almost endorsing the idea of mashups and bootleg remixes - you'll find three of my personal faves below.
Alan Hawkshaw's 'Beat Me'til I'm Blue' bolted on to 'Alive'..
I'm a terror for a bootleg remix - especially if it's based round The Beatles, Beastie Boys or both. There's something about these home made hybrids, and bits of bastard pop that's never lost the gloss for me. Finding shiny new booties fresh out of the box is a rare treat. Luckily there's two full free albums worth over at - Gather Round Children.
'For the Beasties in the Burroughs, For the Beatles in Britain' - Booties featuring The Beach Boys, Beck, The Editors, The Supremes
'Good News For People Who Love to Get Krunk' - The voices of Outkast over the music of Modest Mouse.
Every time an unexpected winner, a long lost favourite or previously unheard nugget shuffles it’s way into play on my mp3 player. I log it in the blog. This time its;
I don’t mind the ol’ booty remixes. I know they’re about as dated as Teddy Boys now, but a couple of years ago bootleg remixers and bedroom techies were as A list as Banksy. Constantly ram raiding radio shows with their remixes, or spraying new mashup masterpieces all over the internet.
This piece of oddbod pop was put together by DJBC, whose Beastles project (Beastie Boys Vs Beatles based booties) ran for two albums, both of which are currently out of circulation.
Luckily I managed to grab them while they were up, along with far too many megabytes of other rare mashup mp3’s.
*Has moment of quite smugness*
I may start logging some of these on the blog under the title “It’s All Too Bootyful” - ouch! Perhaps not.
Any alt.suggestions would be welcome. A prize of both DJBC albums to the winner
The big boss of bootleg remixers was Mark Vidler aka Go Home Productions . GHP did the legendary Madonna Sex Pistols - Ray Of Gob smashup which led to comissions from Bowie and Franz Ferdinad
Tomorrow he releases a free 5 year retrospective of the best, rare and unreleased remixes "This Was Pop (2002-2007)". It includes some of these benchmark booties
Ray Of Gob Paperback Believer Shannon Stone Work It Out With A Foxy Lady
It's available via the Go Home Productions website, but may not be on line for long, so grab it while you can
