Just Good Music

So if you haven’t yet discovered The Decemberists – stop what you are doing – and put that error in your life to right – NOW.

JG – friend and lurker on this blog (not yet a contributor) … alerted me to them – and in public forum Mr G – I doff my hat – EXCELLENT. Your best recommendation ever – bar NONE !!

I am still trying to put them into a category box (as you do) – and the following came to mind … any band from the Irish stable that tells the stories and sings great songs with great music and words telling a story … and then I came up with Blur – except they are nothing like them – but there are reminisces of Modern World Is Rubbish – and then I thought of Snow Patrol (see Irish reference earlier) then into the 60s/70s electric folk scene in england – Lindisfarne, Fairport Convention … but the sound is much more today – and and and ..

So I looked at All Music and the ‘similar artists’ – and only ever heard of about 5 on the list – though one of them Rilo Kiley has links back to Niko Case – so time to sit up Jim …

On the Irish / English Folk front – Horslips came to mind – true stunners in their time – IMHO, their best one was The Tain – which is interesting – because guess what – The Decemberists have a 5 track EP called The Tain – based on the self same Irish saga.

Listen – make your own judgement.

And to remind you of Snow Patrol, who sit as one of my current ‘great songs’ bands.

Finally, been going back into some of the old catalogue – thank-you ~ JB (another lurker who doesn’t post), and rediscovered this one : Dave Greenslade – Pentateuch of the Cosmogony.

At the time it was one of my favorites – and does stand the test of time reasonably well – though the overall sound is a little typically electronic – that I don’t think a modern production would deliver the same result.

BUT

Mr Greenslade is also important as one of the driving forces of Colloseum – and again – if you have never heard The Valentyne Suite – you can watch a video here put your life to right now!

One final note that I never knew. Phil Collins is one of the percussionists on Pentateuch. The album dates to ’79 – and is an example of Phil’s moonlighting. If you recall in early Genesis days, he was a kind of a Stephen Wilson of his time (but on Drums). Genesis had a pretty solid output in those days – but in parallel he performed with and lead a band called Brand X – moved into a solo vocal space – and did session drumming … pretty prolific output – even if he lost his way eventually.

That’s it – enjoy!