Artful Dodger 'It's all about the Stragglers'

I'm back again, after taking some time off and being a bit lazy. I've been inspired by reading some wonderful blogs so here I am again. I suppose blogging is a bit like Twitter. It can take a while to 'find ones voice' and 'sometimes one can't be arsed' with it all. I'm not going to think of this as blogging, I'll pretend I'm writing a column for a really cool magazine that no one reads...

I've pulled out a couple of CDs from my stash. Artful Dodger is playing at the moment. It's been on repeat since 9.30am. Here's a little recap as to why I'm doing this little exercise. I've been listening to and buying music nearly all my life and I love love love music. However, I stopped strongly connecting new music to events and memories a few years back. The old stuff's fine, but nothing new. I'm certain that this coincided with the purchase of my first iPod. Too much music on tap, too much choice and not spending enough time listening to 1 thing. Sure, there's still the odd piece of music that I can hear that transports me straight back somewhere however I feel this is getting rarer and rarer these days with current music.

I'm revisiting every CD I own and writing about the feelings and memories it evokes. Sometimes it does nothing.

'It's All About the Stragglers' is one of those albums for me. I've had it playing now for nearly 4 hours now and I don't really get a sense of time or place from it. I know I didn't buy this, I'm sure it was from the insurance company after we were burgled. It's the only album of this genre I own. It's good though. Richly produced, clean, bright and bassy. I'm listening to it on my proper hifi in my office and it sounds quite fat and organic... Do you know what I mean?

My mate Ben called me earlier and I told him what I was listening to. He actually booked Artful Dodger a couple times to gig at his Uni a few years back.

I'm glad I pulled this out. It's definitely a HIFI cd. You need space to appreciate this kind of sound. The really annoying thing about this CD is that it has 99 tracks. 12 real ones, followed by 86 silent ones and then 1 last hidden track. What's the point? It's just annoying.

2 things you must know about this CD

1. Craig David's on it (not too annoying either)
2. It's where 're re wind when the crowd say Bo Selecta' came from

It's 10 years old you know?! Blimey, that surprised me...

Last.fm and Blip.fm and CDs and Vinyl Records

Seeing as I'm blogging in the main about the 2nd most important thing in my life I thought I commit my thoughts about Last.fm and Blip.fm to this blog.

As regular readers of this blog will know I have always been and will always be obsessed with music. From my first ever 7 inch single. (Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race - Queen, given to me by my Uncle Benny to mixing dance MP3s purchased using a Paypal account from Beatport.com on my Macbook using djay. Nearly 30 years or so of musical consumption and counting.

How I access music and the formats have changed so much over the last 30 years. Records and tapes for the first few years, CDs from the mid 80's until now and mp3s and other downloads in the past 5 years.

What I'm really excited about are free streaming sites and services like Last and Blip. I've only been on blip for the last 3 or 4 days and have found the amount of familiar and unfamiliar music on it absolutely astounding. My dj user name is jayman888, have a look at my music feed. I've even connected the Macbook to my proper hifi in my living room and the quality is pretty good.

I'm still in the early stages of using both services but so far I can see that I'd probably use blip.fm when I'm able to interact with the site constantly and I'd use last.fm when I'm working and just need a good mix of background music.

So, I've decided NOT to purchase any formats of music in 2010 and just use these sites for all my music consumption. I already have 1000's of CDs, records, tapes and mp3 taking up various amounts of space in my home, car, office, iphone and ipods. I've spent the last 30 years buying music in one form or another. This year I have decided to stop adding to the clutter...

I still listen to CD's everyday and still dig out vinyl to play on my pro-ject record deck. The quality and depth of the sound cannot be beaten. However, I'm going to have a year off adding to the shelves of CDs in my living room. My back catalogue is ample. A bit like my 'unread' paperbacks pile, but that's another story entirely...

Currently listening to Glenn Hughes – Death Of Me on blip.fm


Thanks to procphil for introducing me to blip.fm

Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen iphone ringtone creation with Garageband and then after!!!

Monday night without Flashforward is dull dull dull. Monday night WITH Flashforward is just plain dull but at least the wife and I can watch something we both want to watch. That's the problem with spending the best part of a months wages on a Sony HD big bugger that hangs from the living room wall. Neither of us wants to watch the little thing in the bedroom. ( no sniggering at the back please...)

I decided to fire-up the Macbook and create a ringtone from Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen. I have, for ages thought that it would be THE funniest thing for my iPhone to ring during a big pitch meeting at work and have the first 20 seconds of that intro playing.

'Ohhhhh, you gonna take me home tonight...Oh you gonna something something something...Ohhh you gonna blah blah....

Fat Bottom Girls You Make the Rocking World Go Round'

So, I did it, whacked it over to my iPhone and now I'm just waiting for someone to call me. I posted about this on twitter and ended up chatting to gashead and lucasblack. Both bloggers and both far better bloggers than me. I'm going to use Google Reader and 'follow' a few blogs I've come across over the past few months since I started blogging. Thanks for the advice chaps.

I got some inspiration and some confidence tonight from my twitter friends... Cheers guys.

Now, for Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race double AA side single.

I was given this single by my Uncle B in the very late 70's. I remember this because I had my own bedroom and wasn't sharing with my brother anymore which meant we had moved to the bigger house with the cellar. My Uncle was at University at the time and was like an older brother to me. I was about 7 or 8 and he was at least 18 or 19. He had a motorbike, long hair and a leather jacket. I remember having this one 7 inch single but not having a record player in my bedroom. I was obviously amazed with the sleeve but realised even at that age that if my mum saw it, I'd get told off. My dad had a music centre in the back living room so I devised a plan where I took the record out, put it in a comic and took it downstairs to play.

I've still got this record, ironically it's in my dad's stash of Vinyl. I spent years hiding it from him and then it ended up in his records. I think I may have swapped it for a Petula Clark when I finally left home.

My Uncle B finished his degree and then went on to have his own son. Whenever I see his son, how I wished it was me that gave him his first taste of Queen. I have always wanted to offer the same kind of support and 'enlightenment' to my Uncle B's son, my cousin. He's 15 now and could probably show me a thing or three...

Revisiting my huge CD collection

I have a plan. I love music and have been buying CDs since about 1985/6. My collection started with Jean Micheal Jarre 'Rendezvous' and Now That's What I Call Music 7 in the 80's and the most recent was M.A.N.D.Y '12 Great Remixes for 11 Great Artists'.

So much has changed since I started buying CDs. The first ones I bought came from Woolworths in Braintree along with some pick and mix. The more recent ones come from Amazon or Tescos. ( I feel mildly guilty about buying music from both these places. However there are no shops in my town's high street that sell CDs at a competitive price.)

What I am planning to do it revisit and relisten to each CD in my collection and write a little about the history of the CD, where I bought it, the feelings and memories it evokes and whatever else comes to mind when I'm listening to it.

I've always been obsessed with music but have realised as I have got older and more affluent the more music I own the less I actually connect with. I remember when I'd buy some thing like 'Running in the Family' by Level 42 it would have been the only CD I would have purchased for a couple of months. I played that CD constantly and knew it word for word, note for note. I don't think it's like that for me now because of the sheer volume and accessibility of music. An album would remind me of a time and place. That's what I want to capture in the blogging.

The rules are simple. The cd and case will be photographed and pic posted. The cd will be listened to either on my proper hi fi downstairs or in my office upstairs. No iPod, iPhones or mp3 or headphones. I do love technology but I want to remain pure for this blog and listen to a real CD on a proper CD player.

I've got over 600 CDs from 25 years of buying music and I plan to start blogging tomorrow.


-- Post From My iPhone