Hugh Masekela - Don't Go Lose It Baby

The South African jazz musician, trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and singer Hugh Masekela is a versatile guy, a fact this 1984 pop classic goes a way to prove. "Don't Go Lose It Baby" was an international hit single, lifted from the album Techno Bush - great title, by the way. It's a funky and very catchy pop song, with Masekela's signature trumpet sound over a light techno beat, some 80's style synths, South African chanting and even a rap break. To some this may sound a bit dated, to me it still sounds fresh! I love this song!

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New edition of Uncut in shops soon

The October edition of Uncut is out in UK shops now, elsewhere soon-ish. This time around the retro-oriented rock mag has put Marc Bolan of T.Rex on the cover, and the cover-mounted CD features music that "made Bolan boogie", including Roy Orbison, Dale Hawkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Also in this issue: Nick Mason gives you his Pink Floyd guide, album by album with Peter Gabriel, stories and interviews with Wilco, Ry Cooder, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Jeff Bridges and more, and the making of Tom Robinson Band's "Glad To Be Gay".

For more information, go here.

Listen to Ry Cooder's new album in its entirety

Ry Cooder's brand new album Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down is just a few days away, and now you can stream it in its entirety. The 14 song album is described as a "protest album for the Internet age", and tackles what Cooder sees as "the death of news stories in favour of content - shallow, context-less sound bites that fail to capture the complexity of world events, to convey texture or impart a sense of consequence". It sounds brilliant too, drawing upon his wide range of musical influences - from several tex-mex styles, to blues, rock and jugband music.

Go here to listen.

The Montclairs - I Need You More Than Ever

I don't know much about The Montclairs. It was a 70's St. Louis soul group who recorded the fantastic single "I Need You More Than Ever", a real feelgood kind of song, highly infectious. They recorded their first single in 1969 and disbanded in 1975, and they only released one album, 1972's Dreamin' Out Of Season.

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Clyde McPhatter - Lover Please

Clyde McPhatter was both a member of Billy Ward & The Dominoes (1950-53) and The Drifters (1953-54), but also a successful solo artist. He recorded "Lover Please", a song written by country artist Billy Swan, in 1962, and it sounds simply awesome, a bit like "Iko Iko". The saxophone break at 00:56 is amazing, and the song itself is not more than two minutes long. You don't need more when it's as good as this!

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Florence And The Machine - What The Water Gave Me

What should we call this then? Gospel rock? Florence And The Machine's brand new single, "What The Water Gave Me" from their forthcoming second album to be released in November, is a full-blown, bombastic rock/gospel explosion, a song that to me sounds like a giant leap forward from the band's 2009 debut album Lungs. It's got a massive sound, a great melody and is fronted by Florence Welch, a highly confident singer who knows the capabilities of her own voice. It reminds me a bit of Sisters Of Mercy at their most pompous, and if you're in doubt, that was meant as a compliment.

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OK Go - Muppet Show Theme Song

Care for a big old laugh? American rock band OK Go is the opening act on the new Muppet Show tribute album out this week called Muppets: The Green Album, with their version of the Muppet theme. The version in itself may be so-so, but the video is absolutely hilarious featuring all our favourite muppets and the band members. Among the other acts on the album are Weezer & Hayley Williams, My Morning Jacket, Sondre Lerche and The Fray.

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Paul Kelly And The Coloured Girls - Adelaide

Australian Paul Kelly and his band The Coloured Girls (named from the Lou Reed song "Walk On The Wild Side") released the double LP Gossip in 1987, featuring both new songs, and re-recorded tracks from the previous album Post. "Adelaide" is one of these, a wonderful pop song in the vein of bands like The Church and The Go-Betweens. Classic!

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Everything But The Girl - We Walk The Same Line

I play a LOT of Everything But The Girl these days. Tracey Thorn's voice is among the most beautiful to ever grace the world of pop music, and her and partner Ben Watt's compositions are of the same ilk. "We Walk The Same Line" is culled from the album Amplified Heart (1994), which is the one that spawned "Missing", the song that DJ Todd Terry remixed and turned into a monster hit. This song however, is a more traditional EBTG song, written by Tracey alone, and it's the perfect song for when you're down. Someone's usually there to pick you up, even if it's hard to believe when life is at its worst. These are a very comforting four minutes for anyone who's sad, and the song is really, truly pretty.

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Come to Tom Waits' not very private listening party

Finally, here's the announcement Tom Waits promised to post in his website a week ago. In an almost four minute long clip Waits plays bits of new music and rants about the evils of internet, jokingly. You also get the artwork and full track list for the Bad As Me album due in October.

Go to the "listening party".

Listen to "Bad As Me".

New edition of Q featuring Kasabian and more

Kasabian grace the cover of the October edition of Q magazine, in UK shops now. Elsewhere in the magazine you can read about what the staff consider to be the most exciting acts on earth at the moment (they're all British), a tribute to Amy Winehouse, a big interview with Pearl Jam and more. Check out the cover and more of the contents here.

Brand new Tom Waits single - listen to Bad As Me here!

Finally, a new Tom Waits single, "Bad As Me". More information to follow as soon as I get it, but go here to listen to this great song.

Ashford & Simpson - Solid

R.I.P. Nick Ashford who died yesterday at 70. Part of legendary songwriting husband and wife-team Ashford & Simpson, he's responsible for several hits for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell like "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "You're All I Need To Get By", "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing", and also songs for Diana Ross, Gladys Knight & The Pips and other Motown acts as well as loads of others. Ashford and wife Valerie Simpson also had a successful recording career, and they're probably best known for "Solid" (or "Solid (As A Rock)" as it's often referred to), their big 1984 hit single.

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The Clovers - Love Potion No. 9

R.I..P Jerry Lieber who died yesterday at 78. With songwriting partner Mike Stoller, he wrote songs for numerous artists. Most famous of all their compositions are "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog", both big hits for one Elvis Presley that you may have heard of, and "Stand By Me", written with Ben. E. King. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. The Clovers' big 1959 hit "Love Potion No. 9" is another of many classics written by the pair.

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New issue of Mojo Magazine

The October edition of Mojo Magazine is in the UK shops now and features Pink Floyd as cover stars - for the umpteenth time. The reason this time is the reissue program of the band's entire recorded output. To complement the releases the magazine's editors have compiled a CD where current bands re-imagine the albums Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here. To read about the contents besides the cover story, have a look here.

The next True Blood soundtrack due soon

The third True Blood soundtrack will be released on September 6th and as on the previous two it shows that the music is a lot more exciting in the HBO series than the series itself. The track list includes Neko Case and Nick Cave's fabulous version of the old Zombies classic "She's Not There", as well as Karen Elson's new take on Donovan's "Season Of The Witch" featuring Donovan himself. Other exciting things are the PJ Harvey and Gordon Gane collaboration "Hitting The Ground", and Gary Louris and Jakon Dylan's "Gonna Be A Darkness". Check out the full track list here.

Listen to new Tinariwen album in its entirety here

The forthcoming Tassili album by Tuareg group Tinariwen is now available for streaming its entirety. The band's hypnotic desert blues is as captivating as ever, and on the new album to be released on August 30th, they are aided by members of TV On The Radio, Wilco's guitar player Nels Cline and the horn section of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

Listen to the album here.

Real Ones & Razika - Ingen kommer unna politikken (Complainte Pour Ste-Catherine)

Norwegian bands Real Ones and Razika from Bergen have joined forces to record a Norwegian version of Kate & Anna McGarrigle's 1975 classic "Complainte Pour Ste-Catherine", written by Anna and the sister duo's French language lyricist Philippe Tatartcheff. The lyrics to this Norwegian version is based upon the Swedish language version by Marie Bergman, and recorded by local producer Matias Telle in Pelikan Studio. It sounds absolutely wonderful, by the way!

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John Anderson - Straight Tequila Night

This December 1991 single from country singer John Anderson reached number one on Billboard's country chart upon its release and may be his best-known song. It was written by Debbie Hupp and Kent Robbins and appeared on Anderson's Seminole Wind album. It's a classic country song in every way, with the narrator giving advice to a guy in a bar about not trying to hit on a girl when she drinks tequila as it will remind her of her ex and she's not up for that. Great melody too!

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Chris Isaak goes Beyond The Sun on new album

"Beyond The Sun" is the title of Chris Isaak's forthcoming (mostly) covers album, with his interpretations of songs by Sun Studios artists such as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and other greats. Isaak's also written a couple of songs that fits into the concept. In an interview with Billboard the singer claims this music is in his DNA. Isaak and his band recorded at least 40 songs for the project, and there will be released a 14-song standard set as well as a two-disc deluxe edition that will feature an additional 11 tracks. Click here to read an interview with Chris Isaak and listen to samples of seven songs. They sound fantastic!

Everything But The Girl - I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love

Sorry to everyone for my little holiday absence, but now we're home. The blog is back in action but only for a few days I'm afraid as on Thursday there's another trip out in the world, work-related this time.

Never mind that right now. Instead you should listen to Everything But The Girl's wonderful 1993 composition "I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love", a new track that appeared on their compilation album Home Movies and a few weeks later as the title track on an EP. It didn't chart very well, but there you go. The world can be an unjust place sometimes. The song has a familiar theme. Many, myself included, have experienced what Tracey Thorn sings about here in her mesmerizing voice. Sometimes love just happens to drop by. Have a nice Sunday, everyone!

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Kings Of Convenience - Mrs. Cold

The Norwegian duo Kings Of Convenience, consisting of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, excel in acoustic pop music, a kind of balladry that instantly conjures the sound of summer. "Mrs. Cold" is from their latest album, 2009's wonderful Declaration Of Dependence (they have great album titles) and is no exception to the rule. The summery images in the music video shot in a small French village doesn't hurt either. This is a very, very sweet song, and I love it dearly!

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Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

One of Ultravox' best singles, "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" was taken from the not so great album Lament in 1984. They had one more album in them which wasn't very good either, 1986's U-Vox. Nevertheless, "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" has one of the band's most intoxicating melodies ever and could have fit perfectly onto their classic 1982 album Quartet. That's how good it is. Also, the music video is quite good, very much of its time, with its fear of a nuclear disaster. We see singer Midge Ure storming home to his wife before the power plant explodes and the image of a home movie showing the little family begins to melt from the heat. Game over!

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Madness - We Are London

Looters and rioters in London and elsewhere in the UK would be adviced to listen to Madness' "We Are London" from their latest album, The Liberty Of Norton Folgate (2009). Here are the lyrics in full, further down a link to the song.

From Regent's Park mosque on to Baker Street
Down to the Cross where all the pipes smoke neat
To Somers Town where some things never stop
The Roundhouse, the Marathon bar in Camden Lock

You can make it your own hell or heaven
Live as you please
Can we make it if we all live together
As one big family

Down to Chinatown for duck and rice
Along old Compton Street the boys are nice
On Carnaby you can still get the threads
If you wanna be a mod, a punk, a ted, or a suede head

You can make it your own hell or heaven
Live as you please
Can we make it if we all live together
As one big family

We are London
London talking
We are London
London walking

In all the night clubs, strip joints and the bars
From it's poorest paid to it's highest stars
The poets, plumbers, painters, spreads and sparks
From it's inner city to it's furthest parts

You can make it your own hell or heaven
Live as you please
Can we make it if we all live together
As one big family

We are London
London talking
We are London
London walking



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