For Folk's Sake » Belle & Sebastian

Brian’s Mixtape #40: New York, New York

Brian — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:39:42 +0000

Brian’s recently gotten to thinking about how much of the music he loves is about the cities, suburbs and plains of the U S of A. He was going to do you a playlist about the whole darn country, but realised that that was biting off more than he could chew (which isn’t much – look at that beak). He’s decided to tackle the task city by city, instead. Wise owl.

Even after narrowing it down to the Big Apple, Brian struggled to keep the playlist to its proper length, so this week he brings you a feature-length compilation, complete with interval (during which he orders you to pop out for ice cream – if your boss won’t let you, RESIGN).

Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Leonard Cohen – Chelsea Hotel #2
2. Rufus Wainwright – 11:11
3. Suzanne Vega – New York is a Woman
4. The Mountain Goats – Lovecraft in Brooklyn
5. Jeffrey Lewis – The East River
6. Ella Fitzgerald – Manhattan
7. Bright Eyes – Train Under Water
8. New York Dolls – Subway Train
9. Vampire Weekend – A-Punk
10. Regina Spektor – Summer in the CityTom Waits – Coney Island Baby
11. Sufjan Stevens – The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
12. Kings of Convenience – Little Kids
13. Magnetic Fields – The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
14. Le Tigre – My My Metrocard

Intermission – The Carpenters

16. Stephen Fretwell – New York
17. Bishop Allen – The Chinatown Bus
18. The Wallflowers – 6th Avenue Heartache
19. Rufus Wainwright – Poses
20. Simon & Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy in New York
21. Interpol – NYC
22. The New Pornographers – Myriad Harbour
23. Stephen Malkmus – Vanessa from Queens
24. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago
25. Neva Dinova – Brooklyn
26. Belle and Sebastian – Piazza, New York Catcher
27. PJ Harvey – The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore
28. Thea Gilmore – Dance in New York
29. Nicole Atkins – Brooklyn’s on Fire
30. Jeffrey Lewis – The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song

And here’s the link to the whole dealio on Spotify: Brian’s Mixtape #40: New York, New York

Spotify is now freeeee. You can download it here for access to tons and tons of music. FFS has just splashed out for Spotify Premium and sadly admits that you really do notice the difference in sound quality. Vandross and Jackson are a pair of filthy liars.

Brian’s Mixtape #35: Leave the Animals Out of It

Brian — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:35:10 +0000

Following a delectable week of Joni Mitchell, Brian’s allowed his hippy side out of the oak tree for a pad around the forest floor. Now, don’t get Brian wrong: he’s not about to give up his beloved dormouse suppers. He has been thinking a lot about lentil-munching, Haribo-avoiding vegetarians a lot over the weekend, and for that reason he began to notice some interesting messages in many of his favourite songs.

Some are rather subtle, others (Morrissey, we’re looking at you) not so subtle, but all the songs in his playlist this week are in some way related to taking care of the animals, and not eating them. No need to follow the moral imperative though – Brian certainly isn’t – just enjoy the fact that, on top of sharing a theme, they’re all pucker songs.

1. Herman Dune – Pet Rabbit
2. God Help the Girl – Musician, Please Take Heed
3. The Smiths – Meat is Murder
4. Jeffrey Lewis – Life
5. The Beach Boys – Vegetables
6. Anton Barbeau – Quorn Fingers
7. Belle and Sebastian – Meat & Potatoes
8. Of Montreal – Vegan in Furs
9. The Pernice Brothers – Cruelty to Animals
10. Butcher Boy – React or Die
11. Willy Mason – Where the Humans Eat
12. Efterklang – Prey and Predator

Click the link for the Spotify playlist: Brian’s Mixtape #35: Leave the Animals Out of it

Spotify has finally heard Brian’s pleas for a free service and launched Spotify Open, which is rather lucky as the kind folk who’ve been donating their Spotify invites to you readers seem to be running out a bit now. Download Spotify Open.

Brian’s been making these playlists for as long as he can remember. If you’d like to catch up on his previous efforts, take a look at our mixtape section.

Brian’s Mixtape #25: Hello, Sunshine

Brian — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:15:39 +0000

Every discerning folk fan’s foul of choice, Brian Wilson II, is pleased to announce that spring has most definitely sprung. He’s spent most of the morning being dragged around a meadow by a fresh-born lamb in whose fleece his talons became most unfortunately entangled, and yet his pleasure in the changing of the seasons remains unassuaged.

For that reason, this week’s playlist is quite the joy-fest. If you’ve just been dumped/fired/treated rather rudely by the young man who made your afternoon coffee, this’ll perk you up. Either that or the unbounded exuberance that spring inspires in Brian’ll annoy you so much you’ll want to stick daffodil stalks in your eyes.

Let’s hope for the former. Here’s the tracklisting, with the Spotify link below. Happy spring!

Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring
Monsters of Folk – Dear God (Sincerely M. O. F.)
Belle and Sebastian – Another Sunny Day
Adam Green – Bathing Birds
The Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream
Erland and the Carnival – One Morning Fair
Efterklang – Natural Tune
Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
Emmy the Great – The Easter Parade
Fairport Convention – Chelsea Morning
Giant Cloud – Rainbows
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard – Bugs & Flowers
Eels – Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues

Link: Brian’s Mixtape #25: Hello, Sunshine.

If you’ve not got yourself registered on Spotify have a look at their website to learn more. And, if you need an invite (so you can use Spotify for free) let uncle Brian know in the comments section below and he will bestow one on you.

Have a flap around our mixtape section to find Brian’s previous efforts.

Brian’s mixtape #24: Because We Want To

Brian — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:03:54 +0000

Readers, we’re a little worried. After his absence a couple of weeks ago, Brian’s been acting a bit strangely. He used to be such a lovely tidy, polite owl but now Brian’s stomping about like a petulant teenager, his roost is an absolute shambles and he’s taken to shouting “boring” whenever he loses interest in a conversation. Frankly, it’s alarming.

We think you’ll be able to see the change in Brian in this week’s mix. It’s thematically rather messy, and he’s chosen to call it “Because We Want To”. He’s stopped short of including Billie Piper’s 1998 atrocity of the same name though, thank goodness.

Despite Brian’s waywardness, he’s certainly not lost his wonderful taste in music. Every tune is a gem. FFS is going to be listening to this for a long time to come.

Stars – Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
Eels – Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)
Regina Spektor – Fidelity
Amadou & Mariam – Mouna
Joni Mitchell – Night In The City
Field Music – Them That Do Nothing
Belle and Sebastian – Roy Walker
Alela Diane – The Pirate’s Gospel
Band – Up On Cripple Creek
Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run The Game

And here it is in all its rebellious glory on Spotify (which Brian says should be renamed Spotif-awesome – he’s not good with puns…) Brian’s Mixtape #24: Because We Want To

Have a flap around our mixtape section to find Brian’s previous efforts.

Brian’s Mixtape #21: An Education

Brian — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:53:09 +0000

Although his primary love is, obviously, all forms of beautiful music, Brian’s a bird with more than one string to his bow. He likes nothing better than curling up in his nest on a grey winter’s day with a good book. He’s not fussy – fiction, non fiction, myth, legend or Modernist tome. He’s read them all.

That’s why this week, he’s bringing you a mixtape with a difference. Each of the songs in Mixtape #21 is either about or inspired by a novel, play or story Brian has enjoyed in recent years. He’s even gone so far as to make you all an accompanying reading list, which comes as highly recommended as the music.

Enjoy broadening the ol’ brain boxes…

Noah and the Whale – Jocasta (Sophocles - Oedipus Rex)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Lyre of Orpheus (Pindar – Pythian Odes)
David Cronenberg’s Wife – A Bad Feeling about Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina)
Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights)
The Smiths – Cemetry Gates (John Keats – Complete Works and W.B.Yeats – Complete Works).
The Low Anthem – Charlie Darwin (Charles Darwin – Origin of Species)
The Divine Comedy – Our Mutual Friend (Oscar Wilde – Our Mutual Friend)
Laura Marling – Your Only Doll (Sigmund Freud – Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria)
Belle and Sebastian – Marx and Engels (Marx and Engels – The Communist Manifesto)
Emmy the Great – First Love (Samuel Beckett – First Love)
Klaxons – Gravity’s Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon – Gravity’s Rainbow)

Here’s the Spotify Link: Brian’s Mixtape #21: An Education

Have a snoop around our mixtape section to find Brian’s previous efforts.

For Folk's Sake » Belle & Sebastian

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