Episode 160 - Songs for Europe, or Sombr-Euro Fallout: The Return

Every four years the European Championships of football come round. It started out as four teams in the ‘60s, then slowly escalated to 8 in the last century. This year there’s 20 teams. It’s either a cynical money-spinning jamboree or a chance to get to know the Georgian midfield better. Hang on, are Georgia even in Europe?

It's easy in fact to be cynical, not just at Christmas, but at any tournament organised by UEFA or FIFA. However I happened to wake in the middle of the night (European sport is no friend to a Melburnian’s sleep patterns) and, mainly because it was the only match live, watched the whole of Georgia vs Turkey. Brilliant end-to-end game and a cacophonous wall of support for both sides from the entire stadium. Does this all feed into a dark, political nationalism, I hear you ask? A bit, maybe. But it was incredible fun.

Some lovely songs in this episode. Start at the end with a song clearly written in the raw shock of the Brexit referendum result in 2017. Although the singer must know he can still eat croissants and read Rilke, it just feels like those two activities will never be the same again. A lovely downbeat, heartfelt reaction.

On his new and overtly political album Funeral for Justice, Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moktar meanwhile lets his solos become the sound of his fury when his Tamasheq lyrics aren’t enough. On the track featured here, Oh France, his subject is the former colonial power’s relationship with Niger, whose uranium comprises almost its entire export product, but whose government sees virtually none of the profit. Instead, France still controls most of the country’s supply, using the minerals to power a third of its domestic electricity, while almost 90 percent of Nigerian citizens are left without access to power. And though France finally relinquished all military bases in Niger following a 2023 military coup, many of its mines remain active to this day, leaking radon into the water supply of surrounding towns.

Football, politics, music. Don’t fret, it’s not all political nor about football at all, really. There’s still songs about the Norwegian summer, the Swedish winter and a Welsh song about a Spanish dance troupe.

Tracklist:

Amsterdam, Scott Walker

Ibiza rocks, Ace Bushy Striptease

Stockholm syndrome, Yo La Tengo

Spanish dance troupe, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci

Oh France, Mdou Mocktar

Iceland moss, Sudan Archives

Concrete over water, Jockstrap

Transit, Fennesz (feat David Sylvian)

Oslo in the summertime, Of Montreal

Paris is gone, Radio Free Alice

Geneva strangemod, Glyders

The cold Swedish winter, Jens Lekman

I am European, Gavin Osborn, The Comment Section

Episode 159 - Songs For, Songs Against ... and simply "Songs"

I’d completed this episode and was quietly content with having a good, tight lineup involving songs called “Song” when I was gripped with the terrible thought that I’d repeated myself. On checking the track record however, I was pleased to discover that previously I’d done an episode more focused on tributes, odes and homages which is scarcely the same thing. My mind is holding together! Rejoice at that news! I could stand for President and not forget my own name!

One theme of this episode is not going for the obvious choice.

The Cure emerged from the ‘80s with the curious distinction of having pivoted not once, not twice, but three times. Ramshackle indie kids, Joy Division wannabes, gimmicky pop act and then with 1989’s Disintegration a Gothic masterpiece. Love Song is the more famous “Song” off it but Plainsong sets the tone for the entire album, as becomes typical, waiting a full two minutes before the singing kicks in.

Everyone knows In The Aeroplane, Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, but less familiar to many is their debut album On Avery Island. Song Against Sex does seem to deliver what it says. Who knows what goes on inside Jeff Mangum’s mind - and we’re all the richer for many of his outpourings - but it’s fair to say he has at best a difficult relationship with intimacy.

You might not expect The Four Tops to appear, but it’s good to mix things up. It’s The Same Old Song was anecdotally conceived, written, recorded and released by Berry Gordy within twenty-four hours. It also comes as the culmination over the end credits of one of my favourite films, Blood Simple. Nor do we play a lot of emo - but good to hear from Everyone Asked About You.

Cello Song by Nick Drake? Cello Song by Fontaines DC. That’s how you do a cover. Unrecognisable for the first two or three minutes (and very little, if any, cello, as it happens). Another innovative cover is one of the most covered of all tunes, Song to the Siren, this time by James Yorkston and this time without his Athletes.

Beautiful song called Beautiful Song by Horsegirl. A couple of lovely reggae interjections by Scientist, surprisingly making their debut, and Israel Vibration; final track is the not especially folky Folk Song by the much missed Sundays.

Song2 by Blur? Good Song by Blur. Space Song by Beach House? Rough Song by Beach House. Ship Song by Nick Cave? Song for Jesse by Nick Cave. Expect the unexpected.

So, still got all my marbles for now. Enjoy the episode.

Tracklist:-

Plainsong, The Cure

Song against sex, Neutral Milk Hotel

It’s the same old song, The Four Tops

Cello song, Fontaines DC

Song for Chris, Everyone Asked About You

Beautiful song, Horsegirl

Good song, Blur

Drum song, Scientist

The same song, Israel Vibration

Song for Jesse, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

Song to the siren, James Yorkston

Rough song, Beach House

Folk song, The Sundays

Episode 158 - Family Life

We did a Brothers And Sisters episode about seven years ago, so here’s a companion piece about families. I had a lovely birthday with my family a few days before recording this episode and was minded to construct this setlist.

Sometimes there’s a track I really like but it’s off-brand for SF. Such is the case with Family Life by The Blue Nile. I had another listen to it to see if a point could be stretched, but decided it’s probably just the wrong side of the fence, coming as it does from one of the more mainstream later BN albums. I did once play Downtown Lights by the band, again from about seven years ago, on the Glasgow episode. Still, good track and worth a listen.

A lot of new artists on the episode. Generally I like mixing things up with the new and the relatively familiar. There are a handful of bands that have featured multiple times – I’m sure you know which they are. Sometimes I’m left with a dilemma of choosing a great track from a band I love when it’s on-message, but also one I’ve played fairly often quite recently. Or a kinda 7/10 track from a debutant outfit. With a slightly heavy heart, I tend to opt for the latter option. Part of the problem with a really prolific and excellent band - ahem, The Fall – is there might be up to 500 tracks to choose from in the band’s repertoire. So something somewhere will be on-theme.

This selection has an international flavour. In addition to the usually suspect countries, there are representations from The Organ (Canada), Pip Blom (Amsterdam), The Venopian Solitude (Malaysia), Nico (Germany), and, ahem the French Drops.

And behold the family tree you can construct from this episode: grandmother, father, mother, wife, husband, brother, sister, half sister, little sister, daughter, son, family tortoise.

Finally, a very touching tribute from Pinko Fowler, an SF listener, former guest host, and good friend of Steve Albini, the tribute subject in the previous episode. Thanks, Pinko, much appreciated, and you really summed up your old pal beautifully. 

Tracklist:-

Look at little sister, The Sonics

Brother, The Organ

Daddy issues, Pip Blom

Husbands, Savages

Mother nature and father man-made, The Venopian Solitude

Gary Ashby, Dry Cleaning

Half sister, Emma Kupa

Little sister, Nico

My brother, the racist, Steven Adams, The French Drops

My dad’s black polo, T Shirt Weather

Steve Albini Tribute, Pinko Fowler

Young wife, Julie Byrne

Should have known better, Sufjan Stevens

A better son/a better daughter, Rilo Kiley

Episode 157 - A Tribute to Steve Albini

As most readers of this will know, Steve Albini, the legendary frontman behind Shellac and Big Black and “audio engineer’ (he preferred that title over “producer”) died recently.

I was a little intimidated by Steve’s relentlessly abrasive music and some of his commentary around the records he produced for quite a few years. It was only when I was interviewing Pinko Fowler for an episode of this podcast a few years ago that I got an insight into what a warm, generous guy he actually was. I’m hoping Pinko records a few of his thoughts about Steve for the next episode, which I will include.

Meanwhile here’s a lovely, personal tribute to him which i’ve uploaded from the people at the Legacy website: -

“Steve Albini entered this world on July 22nd, 1962 in Pasadena, CA. He left it by a heart attack May 7th, 2024. He leaves behind a grieving family and many friends and peers; this obituary will try to give the world an idea of the man we're missing. He was the youngest of three by Frank (at the time a grad student at Caltech) and Gina--high school sweethearts from the hardscrabble town of Madera, CA.

Steve played clarinet in grade school. Starting in high school in Missoula, MT, he gravitated toward the emerging punk rock genre, teaching himself the bass to play for the band Just Ducky. This obsession with music led to playing guitar and forming the band Big Black while he attended Northwestern University studying journalism. His journalistic career also started in high school, writing record and concert reviews for the Hellgate Lance. These writings led to his first death threat. He would go on to write essays for various fanzines and music publications, including one called The Problem With Music detailing how musicians benefited very little from the business practices of the recording industry. Go read it. It's epic.

Steve was fearless, willing to speak up about what he cared about and unconcerned about who took offense. This behavior did not always serve his commercial interests, but it gave him a reputation as a man of integrity who could not be bought or bullied in an industry that did a lot of both. Following Big Black he formed the band Rapeman (named after a Japanese comic book and intended to be provocative, but a name he later regretted), and the band Shellac. Starting with his own bands and those of friends, he began to record as a sound engineer. This activity led to a studio in his home in Chicago, which eventually grew into Electrical Audio, a converted commercial building he turned into his dream studio. You can read about all the bands and projects he's been associated with elsewhere; he's not hard to find on the internet. It's a long and storied list.

In 1996 he and his girlfriend (later wife) Heather Whinna began a simple project to help Chicago area families in need. They picked up letters that the post office collected from kids writing to Santa. The requests were for basic necessities, and they were moved to organize friends to donate what they could. They spent every Christmas thereafter delivering gifts to change the lives of the poorest of the poor. This effort grew into an annual 24 hour fundraiser at Second City, which is now a charity known as Letters to Santa, part of Poverty Alleviation Charities in Chicago. All that activity is public, but Steve and Heather are responsible for countless other acts of private generosity. Without going into that list (you know who you are!) your stereotype of a punk rock musician probably doesn't include the beloved uncle who barbecued for the weddings of his nieces and nephews.

The devoted husband who stayed up late to cook for his wife. The studio owner who listed his cats as staff and went deep into debt to keep that staff employed during the pandemic. Host of many stray humans in need of a bed, a meal, a refuge from the cruelties of life. Steve tended to obsess about various projects, master them, and move on. Among these were model rocketry, photography (he worked for a time retouching photos for an ad agency), cooking (he published a food blog, mariobatalivoice, for a time based on the meals he prepared for Heather), woodworking (he made some of the furnishings for the house he and Heather lived in), and of course poker.

Steve won two bracelets at the World Series of Poker and hosted a regular game at his home. Steve was also generous with his time, willing to talk to anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps as a musician or recording engineer. He gave lectures around the world and sat for many interviews, often patiently fielding the same questions but always with a thoughtful answer. His studio hosted many light-hearted but highly technical videos on the science and technology of sound recording and hosted numerous interns looking to learn his craft.

His family is drawing some comfort from the worldwide outpouring of support and affectionate remembrances. We're glad we got to share him with you, and we urge you to go do something generous in his memory.

Steve is survived by his wife of 16 years, Heather Whinna; his mother, Gina; his brother Marty; sister Mona Goldbar; and numerous nieces and nephews who urge you to make a lot of noise in his honor.”

A life incredibly well lived.

Tracklist:-

50ft queenie, P J Harvey

To hell with good intentions, McClusky

Drunk, Silkworm

Birds, Electrelane

Bad penny, Big Black

Doe, The Breeders

Unsolved child murder, The Auteurs

Rotterdam, The Wedding Present

Dinosaur Act, Low

Dumb, Nirvana

Bone Machine, Pixies

Squirrel song, Shellac

Stay useless, Cloud Nothings

All your life, Nina Nastassia

Brute choir, Palace Brothers

I break horses, Smog

Episode 156 - Pedal Steel Special

I saw Xandy Chelmis recently perform on pedal steel guitar for both MJ Lenderman and Wednesday. Once you’re sitting down and up front in a band, you can’t indulge in any theatrics, so you’re there for what you play, pure and simple. His contribution was essential for both bands. Maybe some enterprising individual will invent the equivalent of a keytar, so the pedal steel player can roam the stage. That’s a niche opportunity, however.

It must be a tough decision to dedicate yourself to the pedal steel. Not many bands need them, it’s expensive to buy and it’s hard to master. Not only that, you have to use both hands, both legs and both knees. Speaking as someone who finds coordinating four limbs too hard when drumming, it sounds monstrously difficult.

Pedal steel was originally a Hawaiian instrument and then found its way into country music. Probably the most high-profile performer who’s not strictly country to have made use of the instrument is Neil Young. His pedal steel guitarist was Ben Keith, who also performed over the years with Todd Rundgren, the other members of CSN&Y, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Ringo Starr, if more orthodox country is your thing.

It's good though to hear some more alternative bands experiment with a pedal steel. Some clearly love country music anyway, such as the Lemonheads, but others like Mogwai and Kara Jackson, to take two very different examples, flirted with the instrument to great effect on tracks like ‘Acid Food’ and ‘Brain’. It’s harder to find pacier songs with a pedal steel for fairly obvious reasons, but I have included the Hot Rod Circuit song which shows it can be done.

Look out for the lovely Loveless cover at the end.

Tracklist:

Memory of lunch, North Americans

Just be simple, Songs: Ohia

Be my angel, Mazzy Star

Father to a sister of thought, Pavement

TLC Cagematch, M J Lenderman

Stateside, Hot Rod Circuit

We’re going to make it in a man’s world, Camera Obscura

Right side of my neck, Faye Webster

Hannah and Gabi, Lemonheads

Country song, Joy Again

How can you live if you can’t love, how can you if you do, Wednesday

Heart of darkness, Sparklehorse

Brain, Kara Jackson

Patience wearing thin, Ducks Ltd

Acid food, Mogwai

When you sleep, Japancakes

Episode 155 - Female Bass Players

There’s always a slight suspicion that the bass player in the band wants to be the guitarist. When Paul McCartney first saw The Quarrymen at the Woolton Church Fete and eventually joined his band, there was no way he was going to usurp John as the guitarist. And his young pal George Harrison was adept on lead guitar. So, reluctantly, Paul picked up the bass. And got very good at it.

One of the greatest ever bass players is a woman: Carol Kaye. You may never have heard of her. She became the most in-demand session bass player in the 60s and 70s and plays bass on Pet Sounds and Wichita Lineman. Here’s some other artists she played with: Ray Charles, Bobby Womack, Cher, Dusty Springfield, The Supremes, The Temptations, Buffalo Springfield, Frank Black, Love, The Mothers of Invention, Simon and Garfunkel, The O’Jays, Neil Young, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Frank Sinatra, The Crystals, The Righteous Brothers.

Do female bass players have a different approach? I’m not sure you can divide it by gender – this episode is more a celebration of great bass players who so happen to be female and shining a light on them. What one can say, however, is that in the past they may have felt a little like second class citizens within the band and that includes Talking Heads, Pixies and Sonic Youth, despite Tina Weymouth and the two Kims Deal and Gordon being a major element in defining those bands’ sounds.

I hope, when one considers more recent bands, that such power dynamics have dwindled in significance, but maybe it still lingers here and there.. Sneaks, the first artist, is entirely a bassist-singer project and elsewhere artists such as Emma Kupa in Standard Fare are effectively band leader. On funk bands such as Bush Tetras and ESG, it would be impossible to imagine the bands without the bass calling the shots - and they happen to be all-female projects anyway. In bands such as Superchunk the bass is more a valued team member, but pull their weight nonetheless.

Hope, as ever, you enjoy the selections.

Tracklist:

Tough luck, Sneaks

Snakey, Wombo

Philadelphia, Standard Fare

Too much money, Automatic

So sick, Unrest

Driveway to driveway, Superchunk

You can’t be funky, Bush Tetras

Moody, ESG

Had ten dollaz, Cherry Glazerr

Easier said, Sunflower Bean

Hold me up (thank you), Khruangbin

Tame, Pixies

The empty page, Sonic Youth

Listening wind, Talking Heads

Episode 154 - Fame, Fame, Fatal Fame

An episode about the darker side of fame, one way and another.

Let me introduce you to a few new friends on this edition of the podcast.

Scott Walker was an American-British singer-songwriter and record producer, known for his somewhat histrionic emotive voice An unorthodox stylistic path took him from being a teen pop icon in the 1960s to an avant-garde musician from the 1980s to his death. Championed by Julian Cope, he released an album called ‘The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker’. The Guardian once commented: “Imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen.”

Folly Group are a “rising East London chaos collective”. I’ve noticed quite a few of the newer singers have this drunken slurring approach to their singing now. Model/Actriz and Isaac, the ex-lead singer of Black Country New Road, come to mind. Is Ian McCulloch to blame/thank?

Pat at Rocksteady Records had J Dilla’s Donuts on his wall when I was in there last week and it reminded me to tweezer ‘Workinonit’ into this episode. It is sampled from the fantastic ‘The worst band in the world’ by 10cc (not “60s soulsters, Them” as it says in the uncorrected Pitchfork review).

The Popguns formed in 1989 and have periodically returned over the years. According to themselves, they “ran out of steam in 1996, then in 2012, due to faintly audible popular demand regrouped … and show no sign of going away”. I like their style.

According to Wikipedia, Hop Along began as an acoustic freak folk solo project known as Hop Along, Queen Ansleis in 2004. While their original ID might have performed better in a search engine, I do feel that was a heavy price to pay for such a cumbersome name and fully endorse the switch.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples have my favourite title of the episode: ‘Too late for an early grave’. They are essentially Glenn Donaldson. He’s also collaborated with Loren Chasse, Steven R and others in such projects as Thuja, The Skygreen Leopards, The Blithe Sons, and Flying Canyon as well as his solo projects. In addition, he’s a prolific collage artist and photographer. A life well lived.

Then there’s Prince, making his debut, He must have wondered if his time would ever come.

We welcome some old friends of the podcast as well.

Setlist:

Jackie, Scott Walker

Fewer closer friends, Folly Group

Workinonit, J Dilla

Revolution blues, Neil Young

The best ever death metal band in Denton, The Mountain Goats

Caesar, The Popguns

Lord Lucan is missing, Black Box Recorder

Dead pop stars, Altered Images

Tibetan pop stars, Hop Along

Too late for an early grave, The Reds, Pinks and Purples

Fan club, The Damned

Diamonds, fur coat, champagne, Suicide

All the critics love u in New York, Prince

Antarctica starts here, John Cale

Dress up in you, Belle and Sebastian

Episode 153 - Tiring, Sleeping, Dreaming

I recently watched the USA for Africa documentary about the recording process on ‘We Are The World’. It’s called ‘The Greatest Night In Pop’ and well worth watching, if only to boggle at some of the decision making as to who made the cut. Where, for example, are Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, The Byrds, the Beach Boys and The Eagles? Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt? Who thought Cyndi Lauper was a better idea than Madonna? Why didn’t Prince show up (possibly because Bob Geldof, singer with the Boomtown Rats, had called him a ‘creep’. Bob was great at saving lives in Africa, which kinda trumps everything else, but always had a misplaced perception of his own place in the musical canon, I’ve always felt.) As for the people who are in the room, well, there must have been a moment in time when James Ingram and Jeffrey Osborne were first on the teamsheet, but I can’t remember it.

There is, by the way, a very poignant moment when we see Bob Dylan, the Bob Dylan, really struggling and wondering what he’s doing there. Essentially Bob can barely sing anyway, he was at something of a cultural low point in his career mid-80s, and he had a solo verse to deliver. He’s got imposter syndrome! It reminded me of the time in my gap year when I realised I’d been hired as essentially a social experiment by IBM to see if an arts student could code computers. (Answer: They can’t, or at least I couldn’t.) I was surrounded all day every day by smirking nerds joking about COBOL programming glitches. I felt like Bob must have felt that night. Anyway, Stevie Wonder comes over and shows him how to sing it by imitating Bob Dylan. It’s incredible and very moving to see Bob wreathed in smiles as the penny drops.

The reason I bring all this up is because they start work on the song at 11pm after taxiing from some awards ceremony most of them have attended. And they don’t finish till 8am. A lot of them are tired anyway after they’ve completed a big tour, while others are midway through one. Bruce Springsteen’s voice has all but gone. As the night goes on, even for these night-time titans, energy flags and, just like normal humans, we see them slumped in corners, suppressing huge yawns, longing for sleep. We see the adrenalin almost visibly leaving the body of the producer Quincy Jones at the end.

So, here’s an episode about tiring, sleeping and dreaming. It’s not quite true that none of the artists in the room that night has ever appeared on the podcast. Diana Ross was once chosen by our interviewee Tara Emeleye Needham for her excellent song, ‘Reflections’. But that’s it. No Kenny Loggins. No Huey Lewis.  No Al Jarreau. And what’s Al Jarreau doing there? (The short answer to that is - drinking too much.)

Setlist:

Dreamsickle, Wombo

Dreams tonite, Alvvays

Dreaming, Allo Darlin’

Nocturnal creatures, Moreish Idols

Fell asleep with a vision, Spirit of the Beehive

Daydreaming, Massive Attack

I’m a dream fighting out of a man, Luke de-Sciscio

Sleep, forever, Madder Rose

Dreams, Sebadoh

Tired, Beabadoobee

The dreaming moon, The Magnetic Fields

Singing in my sleep, The Chills

I’m so tired, Fugazi

Night of the worm moon, Shana Cleveland

Sleep, Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions

Episode 152 - The Enduring Legacy of The Kinks

For much of the sixties, The Kinks would perhaps have been ranked fourth after The Beatles, the Stones and The Who in channeling the spirit of the times. That’s because they didn’t channel the spirit of the times. Ray Davies stood defiantly outside trends. But instead he was assembling a body of work that ultimately has proved the most influential from England in the 60s.

What is that legacy exactly?

First, they were not afraid to dwell on the past, to talk about the old times, to be backward looking in that most progressive of decades. As the tower blocks went up and the old districts got gentrified, someone up in north London was pointing out that a way of life was disappearing:

We are the skyscraper condemnation affiliates

God save Tudor houses, antique tables, and billiards

Preserving the old ways from being abused

Protecting the new ways for me and for you

What more can we do?

Second, Ray Davies legitimised singing in an English accent. He sang about English life, almost exclusively and its class system as well. Sunny Afternoon, Waterloo Sunset, Autumn Almanac, The Village Green Preservation Society. Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn of Blur fairly obviously followed suit, but then there’s Mick Jones of The Clash, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys and Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks. And that’s before we get to Mark E Smith and Luke Haines of The Auteurs, but also female vocalists such as Allison Statton of Young Marble Giants and Sarah Nixey of Black Box Recorder.

As we’ve observed on the Proto-Punk episode previously, The Kinks weren’t like everybody else. More chaotic than the Stones, closer to the heart of everyday life in England than the Beatles, more musically innovative than The Who. They were the original nonconformists, not afraid to sing of homosexuality or introduce Indian elements to their music. Bad boys too, for what that’s worth, as a trail of destruction to hotel rooms and relationships with wives and girlfriends can attest.

Finally, it’s often said that The Kinks invented heavy metal with You Really Got Me. Dave Davies, who wrote the riff, disputes this. But he does acknowledge the first use of “power chords”. The invention of power pop is hardly a shabby legacy, as the music of Buzzcocks on this episode amply demonstrates.

Tracklist:

Waterloo sunset, The Kinks

Quarry, Wednesday

Do you remember Walter?, The Kinks

Hackensack, The Fountains of Wayne

See my friends, The Kinks

The 15th, Wire

Days, The Kinks

Let’s save Tony Orlando’s House, Yo La Tengo

All day and all of the night, The Kinks

What do I get? Buzzcocks

Set me free, The Kinks

Certainty, Temples

Starstruck, The Kinks

Starstruck, The Auteurs

Autumn almanac, The Kinks

Sunday Sunday, Blur

Episode 151 - Money: Too much or not enough

I once read that what really separates humans from other species is not so much their enhanced communication skills, but rather the collective ability to believe in things which are fictional. That might sound like an odd claim, but there is some truth in it. And the biggest fiction of all is money. After all, there are some states that manage to get by without religion, but the only people left who don’t believe in money are some scattered tribespeople in the Amazon and sub-Saharan Africa.

Considering its importance to everyone, there aren’t that many songs about money, but there are a few. Perhaps the most ironic song ever was not Alanis Morrisette’s, but the 7/4 classic ‘Money’ by Pink Floyd. In a case of – what, nominative determinism, perhaps - the song’s commercial success produced an unseemly litigious battle over its revenue streams.

Obviously that doesn’t feature here. ‘Bankrobber’ by The Clash came closer, as did another song about a mercenary job, ‘Bounty Hunter’ by Barrington Levy. But we do have a dub track from King Tubby and reggae from Horace Andy. Quite a widespread of genres in fact, from early electronica (Cabaret Voltaire) via Argentine post-punk (Las Kellies) through to a countrified ballad (Gillian Welch).

‘Everything is free’ by the latter artist does seem remarkably prescient for 2001. It is increasingly difficult for any but the biggest artists to make the fiction that is money out of music. I hear that contracts now include a cut of the merchandising for the record company. Basically, you either have to be a legacy act, have a well-paid day job or be a trustafarian.

Still and all, great music continues to be made and half the list is from the last couple of years. The humans continue to find a way.

Setlist:

Cashout, Fugazi

Dream job, Yard Act

Private banking, Private Banking

Modern job, Sprints

Nationalsville, The Toads

Everything is free, Gillian Welch

Money dub, King Tubby

Spend, spend, spend, The Slits

Funny money, Las Kellies

Hard rock potato, The Cool Greenhouse

Burning sky, The Jam

Money worries, Blood

Kneel to the boss, Cabaret Voltaire

Money money, Horace Andy