Rock On Scotland....

Having just finished reading today's Sunday Herald article on the top 50 Scottish albums of 2012 I proceeded to Spotify to have a listen to some of them just to see if in the words of said paper's Alan Morrison "it's hard not to agree that something special is happening".

After a couple of hours listening to as many of the featured bands as time would allow I would have to agree that the music coming out of this small country of ours is every bit as good as what is happening elsewhere in music at the moment.

I would also have to agree with Alan that "Scotland is home to people who lead their musical field. For reasons mentioned at the start of December I have missed out on a lot of new music this year but will try and rectify that in 2013. To be honest a good majority of the bands listed in the Top 5o are largely unknown to me but quite a few will be investigated further in 2013.

How I managed to bypass the likes of The Unwinding Hours, We Are The Physics and Lau I do not know. However as I've always had a soft spot for a short, sharp tune  special mention must go to Chris Devotion and the Expectations' distillation of the finer moments of modern purveyors of the two and a half minute tune such as The Gaslight Anthem and The Hives.

As I will have no internet access tomorrow I would like to wish all the visitors to the site all the best for 2013 and hope to god that it is far better than the year that is thankfully almost over.

Happy New Year one and all, when it comes....

Live Is Life...

Once upon a time in  a faraway place...in fact it was just the other night we were reminiscing in the pub (as you do) about first and best gigs. You know the kind of night where you get a couple of slightly inebriated blokes of a certain age who love their music and whenever the opportunity arises they start talking bollocks about their fave tunes, albums, singers, gigs etc...

I genuinely feel blessed to have been to the amount of gigs over the years that I have. I was a relative latecomer to the gig scene, going to my first gig at the age of sixteen. I had always loved music but going to see a live band was a whole new experience. Anyways my first taste of live music was The Cramps at the ever wonderful Glasgow Barrowland. One of the best live bands ever at one of the best venues ever. It could only really go downhill from there but fortunately it didn't.

Within a few months I had seen New Order, The Wedding Present, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Stranglers and New York's finest, The Ramones. Just in case anyone was thinking that it was a role call of all that was good in music at the time suffice to say I did go and see a lot of pish also - step forward Fields Of The Nephilim, The Mission and many other equally dodgy bands...

Picking a fave in over 20 years of gig going is of course very subjective and nigh on impossible to choose. Would it be The Strokes at King Tuts, Springsteen at Hampden, Edwyn Collins return to live performance at Oran Mor, The Pixies at the QMU. Who knows really but what I do know is that I owe a big thank you to the lads who persuaded me to go to see The Cramps all those years ago for instilling in me a lifelong passion to see someone perform live no matter whether it is in a tiny backroom pub or a stadium.

And yes, like the great man Peely I will still be traipsing along to see some live music when most "normal" people have chose to grow up.

Easy Pieces...

Easy Pieces originally came out in November 1985 as the follow up to, in my opinion, one of the best debut albums of all time in Rattlesnakes. The mood is definitely more melancholy than Rattlesnakes but also contains some of his best "pop" songs in tracks like Lost Weekend. Many of the tracks are as good as those on Rattlesnakes but overall it somehow lacks the consistency of their debut offering. Tracks like Brand New Friend and Rich are amongst the best tracks Lloyd Cole has released and the album as a whole has some of his best tunes and lyrics. Something about the album reminds me of Aztec Camera's second album Knife. Not musically, just the difficulty of following up a classic album and releasing one with many great tunes but not quite matching the wonder of their debuts.

Sadly the album appears to be unavailableat the moment but if you can get hold of a copy it's well worth investigating.

It's That Time Again....

Anyone who took the time to view Spools Paradise over the last couple of years will have noticed that I have not posted anything since Feb 27th. This is neither the time or place to bore everyone with the reasons for my absence. All I will say is that my life has changed beyond all recognition due to the break up of my marriage and that I have not really had the motivation to post anything since February.

However a very dear friend persuaded me the other night to do a Best Of 2012 posting. I have probably listened to less music this year than any other year in the last 30 odd years but there have been some absolute gems that have excited me in 2012.

More so than any other year recently I have found myself reverting to the safety net of familiarity so the role call this year of my faves mostly comprises artists that I have listened to over the years who have produced some of the best work of 2012...

Dexys returned with Mick Talbot on board and produced one of the most rousing and soulful albums of the year. Most people I know either love or hate Dylan. I personally fall into the former and this year he released his 35th album and somehow managed to compress a century worth of American music into an hour or so. Patti Smith returned with Banga , an album full of honesty, optimism and that eternally stunning voice that was one of the year's delights. Weller continues to experiment, Paul Buchanan released his first solo album of contemporary late night piano ballads and Springsteen released the unofficial follow up to Born In The USA in the wonderful Wrecking Ball. As far as new albums go my fave has been Boys and Girls from Alabama Shakes. Voice of the year must go to Britany Howard. There's nothing formulaic going on on Boys & Girls despite its lack of originality. It may not be the most original album released this year with hints of Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Otis Redding, The Stones, Creedence and many others throughout but it is still a stunning, raw, emotive debut. I saw them live a few weeks back at The Barras and they were even better live where the songs really came to life and Brittany could really let rip and showcase that voice to full effect.