Author Archives: Albert

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About Albert

Presenter of Eclectic Mainline on BCB 106.6FM, bassist in Wilful Missing, solo musician under the name Our Albert, and photographer.

The Gun Club album competition

After recent competitions to win albums by The Flaming Lips, Andrew Bird, The Low Anthem and The Twilight Sad, this week we are giving away three re-issues of albums by The Gun Club: Miami, The Las Vegas Story and Death Party.

The Gun Club - Miami

The Gun Club - Miami

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is email us with the answer to this simple question:

The Gun Club albums we are giving away are called Miami, The Las Vegas Story, and Death Party.  Which country are Las Vegas and Miami in?

Email your answers to studio [at] bcbradio.co.uk by midnight on Sunday 6th December.  The winner will be drawn next Wednesday in my show, between 8 and 9pm.

Eclectic Mainline 25th November 2009

Well now, this is my third item here in less than 24 hours.  Anyone would think I had nothing else to do. But after my rant of yesterday afternoon, and the Low Anthem competition I offered out last night, this is a more straight forward affair, being as it is a list of tunes I played in yesterday’s show:

The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die (Liam H Re-Amped version)
Soulsavers – Unbalanced Pieces
BlakRoc – Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)
Alela Diane & Alina Hardin – Crying Wolf
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Interventions –
Kap Bambino – Batcaves (Jackson remix)
We Were Promised Jetpacks – Ships With Holes Will Sink
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Interventions – Sets The Blaze
The Low Anthem – To The Ghosts Who Write History Books
Architecture In Helsinki – In Case We Die (DJ Mehdi remix)
Peter Von Poehl – Lost In Space
Slow Club – All alone on Christmas
Tricky vs South Rakkas Crew – C’Mon Baby
Husky Rescue – First Call (Mets‰ Kutsuu)
Holly Miranda – Forest Green On Forest Green

The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die (Liam H Re-Amped version)
Soulsavers – Unbalanced Pieces
BlakRoc – Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)
Alela Diane & Alina Hardin – Crying Wolf
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Interventions – Sets The Blaze
Kap Bambino – Batcaves (Jackson remix)
We Were Promised Jetpacks – Ships With Holes Will Sink
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Interventions – Sets The Blaze
The Low Anthem – To The Ghosts Who Write History Books
Architecture In Helsinki – In Case We Die (DJ Mehdi remix)
Peter Von Poehl – Lost In Space
Slow Club – All alone on Christmas
Tricky vs South Rakkas Crew – C’Mon Baby
Husky Rescue – First Call (Metsa Kutsuu)
Holly Miranda – Forest Green On Forest Green

The Low Anthem album competition

After recent competitions to win albums by The Flaming Lips, Andrew Bird and The Twilight Sad, this week we are giving away this year’s album by The Low Anthem, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is email us with the answer to this simple question:

“Charlie” Darwin’s real first name was not Charlie.  What was Mr Darwin’s actual first name? And no, it’s not a trick question!

Email your answers to studio [at] bcbradio.co.uk by midnight on Sunday 29th November.  The winner will be drawn next Wednesday in my show, between 8 and 9pm.

A bit of a rant

I’m afraid the target of my vitriol is…NME.

The legendary Chuck Berry

The 'legendary' Chuck Berry

A couple of weeks ago NME announced their Top 100 albums of the decade list. It caused me to raise a “Really..?!  Er…if you say so” eyebrow, but didn’t stir as much emotion in me as it did with Phil Cope, who perspicaciously observed that there list was rather too white.

Since then two other things have happened in NME world that have indeed stirred me to feel  more than a little annoyed.

Last week a news item on nme.com announced that “legendary blues guitarist” Chuck Berry had postponing his tour.  “Legendary f***ing blues guitarist” thought I?!!!  How ignorant is that?!  The man pretty much defined rock and roll, writing and performing some of the genre’s greatest songs, and influencing a whole bunch of white kids, including 4 from Liverpool, to write songs of their own.  Calling him a “legendary blues guitarist” is like calling Kurt Cobain a “legendary heavy metal guitarist” – and I’m sure the uber-cool NME would never be so silly as to do that.  I actually put a comment on their website saying something similar, but they didn’t publish it.

Now, today NME have declared their 100 favourite tunes of the decade.  Number 1 is Beyonce.  “Be-f***ng-yonce..?!” thought I?  Is she not just a symptom of the decline of American RnB into of artists completely detached from their listeners, and music devoid of meaning?  Has this not just become the genre of IFMITYWEB (I’m Far More Important Than You Will Ever Be)?  Maybe I’m missing something though, as several of my friends have today said that Crazy In Love is a good tune.  I tried listening to it on Spotify but 2 minutes is all I could bear.

At least NME have redressed some of the racial balance after their top albums list.  But really, I mean 15-20 years ago I used to respect the NME for bringing me news and views of what was happening left-of-centre, and quite frankly I’m shocked at just how far NME has moved from this to a more populist stance.  I know, even 10 or 20 years ago NME were a bit of a trend chaser, but it has just got silly now.

I’ve not read the NME properly for years.  I just use their website for a decent source of music news.  Can anyone suggest another good source of music news so I can leave them well behind me?

Eclectic Mainline 18th November 2009

I must say, that Jon Hopkins collaboration with Tunng and some ping pong balls is pretty fine.  I think this was one of my favourite shows for quite a while.  This is what I played:

James Yorkston & The Big Eyes Family Players – Mary Connaught & James O’Donnell
Polly Scattergood – Unforgiving Arms
The Explorer’s Collective – Bangers and Mash
Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land
Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern – Out Of My League
Jon Hopkins (with Tunng) – Seven Gulps Of Air
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Interventions – Wild Roses
Good Shoes – Under Control
Emily Loizeau – Sister
Andrew Bird – Effigy
Betty & The Werewolves – David Cassidy (from Rough Trade Shops Indiepop 09 compilation)
David Cronenberg’s Wife – Desperate Little Man
Sparrow And The Workshop – Swam Like Sharks
Brakes – Worry about it Later
Laura Gibson – Sweet Deception

And don’t forget, this week you can win the new album by Andrew Bird here on BCB.

Andrew Bird album competition

After recently giving away the new albums by The Flaming Lips and The Twilight Sad, here at BCB we are now giving away Noble Beast, the new album by Andrew Bird. We have given you the chance to win in my Eclectic Mainline show.  Now you can also enter the competition here on Untitled Noise…read on!

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is email us with the answer to this simple question:

How many legs does a bird have?
(by that I mean a normal bird, everyday bird, not one of those pigeons you see wandering around with one missing)

Email your answers to studio [at] bcbradio.co.uk by midnight on Sunday 22nd November.  The winner will be drawn next Wednesday in my show, between 8 and 9pm.

Eclectic Mainline 11th November 2009

It’s not every day that I get to announce a piece of music called Coral Larvae – Arabesque for Flatworms but today I had that pleasure.   Forgive my brevity, but this is the full list of last night’s show:

Trashcan Sinatras – People
We Fell To Eearth – Deaf
Alela Diane – Tatted Lace
Soulsavers – Unbalanced Pieces
Animal Collective – Brother Sport
Brakes – Worry about it later
Internet Forever – Cover The Walls
Life On Earth BBC TV series – Coral Larvae – Arabesque for Flatworms
Japandroids – Young Hearts Spark Fire
Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM
Grizzly Bear – Fix It
Archie Bronson Outfit – Rituals
The Antlers – Two
Fool’s Gold – Surprise Hotel

3 days: 3 gigs; 1 session

DAY 1 – GRIZZLY BEAR & ST VINCENT @ LEEDS MET STUDENTS UNION

St Vincent at Leeds Met

St Vincent at Leeds Met Students Union

Drowned in Sound absolutely adore St Vincent, and having seen a clip of her in soundcheck on said website a few weeks ago I was intrigued to learn that her support slot on the Grizzly Bear tour was solo. Apart from supplementary guitar on one song by Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen, it was just Annie Clark, a looping pedal, and some sequenced backing. I must say I was surprised by how diverse she could be within those limitations. As Sam commented to me after The Strangers, she somehow managed to go seamlessly from 40s jazz guitar to an onslaught reminiscent of Joe Satriani in just 30 seconds. Songs such as Save Me From What I Want worked really well with her looping backing vocals along with herself, and during the more frenetic passages of Marrow she had the appearance of a manikin suffering a seizure. Her cover of The Beatles’ Dig A Pony was a pleasant surprise too. I was very impressed, and would like to know how these songs come across with a full band.

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