A to Z - can we get there

This post will be updated, hopefully on a weekly basis, for what hopefully will be the next 26 weeks.
An overuse of hopefully already some might say, but I have the confidence that we can get there - at which stage I guess I should explain what it is I hope to achieve and why.

As the cunning title hints towards, it is an alphabet based challenge, and that is also why we have 26 weeks to get through it - and in theory I should have been introduced to roughly 52 new albums as well.
What started out as a quick conversation on Twitter with @bwfcdom83 and @dompaczko about an obscure album turned into a plan between the three of us to share and introduce each other to a new album each week.
With my tendency towards order and clarity we decided, one album a week from each of us to the other two, and we would use the alphabet as the only determining factor in choice.

So, starting with bands whose name starts with A and moving up to Z one week at a time. Simple other "rules" such as it is the surname of a solo artist, the "The" in front of a band name is to be ignored, and not to pick anything blindingly obvious. So the first week we avoided Abba, but I am sure we will get a ZZ Top album in 25 weeks!

We have had no discussion on what happens if someone already has the album recommended yet, and it will be interesting to see if that happens during the months ahead, or if we will all pick the most obscure bands that we have heard of to gain extra points. (There aren't actually points, but you get the drift)

I will add links to the bands websites / myspace pages for all the bands I can, and probably a few Youtube videos as we go on as well. The comments within the blog are my opinions of the albums so at some stage I am sure I will dislike something that is sent me, but that is the joy of discovering new music, if it all sounded the same we may as well all just watch the X factor and be done with it.

Week 1 - The letter A

SpursSimon - My offering was a Croatian folk band that I had been told about by someone else on twitter. The band Afion and the album Cudni Svati. While clearly not in English language, the vocals have a haunting quality to them, on occasion quite disturbing. A really different sound, but has the folk drive all the way through it, veering into almost a Prog Rock area on some tracks - don't let that out you off though, it is a great album.

BWFCDom - Dom took advantage of the surname rule in the first week, with Craig Armstrong and the album As If To Nothing. I won't pretend I wasn't surprised when I heard Bono's voice on one of the tracks, but also pleased to see collaborations with Evan Dando among others. An album full of orchestral movements, with a good mix of electronica thrown in for good measure. On it's second play now, nothing bad to say from me.

DomPaczko - The album Labor Days by Aesop Rock (obviously an American group as the U in Labour is missing...) Apart from the American spelling, a great album from Dom to kick off the alphabet. A Hip-Hop masterclass with some quality rolling tunes and intelligent rapping from start to finish, my favourite track being the quite excellent No Regrets.

So, while this is our little bit of fun and musical sharing, you can benefit from our combined wisdom and check out all the bands coming up as well.
You may find something you like, or you may think that the three of us have the worst taste in music you have ever come across.

I am ready to send my B off, so the next post from me will be when I have listened to the other 2 offerings brought to me by the magic of the internet and the second letter of the alphabet.

Alphabet - Part 2. The Last 13

If I haven't said it to you yet, Happy New Year to you all. Depending on your conspiracy theory of choice we have limited time left, so it is back to work and back to business.

Thanks so much to all who have contacted and asked when the #A2Z music blog was returning, and the good news is that we will be starting on the letter N this week, and posting the offerings next week and then normal weekly service will be resumed for thirteen weeks.
Same format, same idea, an album by a band or artist that is picked alphabetically so for N it means either the artists surname or the band name needs to start with an N. Therefore Nina Simone wouldn't fit this week, but Napalm Death would. Quite why those two jump out at me on a Wednesday I don't know.

Anyway, apart from that good news, there is more!
If you want to be a contributor you can as always add comments to the blog after it is up, or you can get in touch before hand and get your choice listed in the main blog, with your reasons as to why we should all have this in our music collections.
There is no sorcery or magic behind this, just get in touch with me either by twitter or email me at
simon.l.jones at talk21.com  (You will need to change at to @ and take the spaces out....)
There will be one guest slot open for each letter, and it will be first come first served, and some have already been bagsied, so O and S are already gone as I write this.

So, if you have an album that you think has been missed by the world, or is a new release, or just your favourite band, get in touch and let the few hundred who read this each day know all about it.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Simon, Dom & Dom

B

Week 2, and sticking to the traditional alphabet that I learned at school we found ourselves in the land of the letter B.
Anyone who knows me that my instant choice here, and would fit well, would be Billy Bragg, but based on the very loose set of rules we are using that wouldn't be an allowable choice as I am pretty sure that both the Dom's would be fully aware of Billy and his body of work so while I am sure I have recordings that they wouldn't have, it wouldn't be new for them. But do you see how I managed to get him in here anyway, so if you don't know his stuff, have a look and listen at some!!

The choices of the other guys came through while I was still deciding on mine as I knew I wanted to go a bit more raucous this time but couldn't make my mind up. So in the order I listened to them the offerings this week under B for you to go and try out are as follows.

BWFCDom - First one in the queue and I looked at the album name and was intrigued and a little concerned - it was a release by a band called The Bad Shepherds and the album is Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera! Doms note that he sent is here:
Quite frankly, this is a bit of fun. A few punk songs in a folk style. Not all of them work but there is enough to hold sway over a record. They are better in the live arena but the record shows that Ade Edmondson can do more than be Vyvian or Eddie! I would recommend going to see them live if you get the chance. As I said, a whole lot of fun.

As you will see, Ade Edmondson in a different role. Some of the tracks are excellent, Down In The Tubestation At Midnight and Up The Junction really stood out for me, nothing bad on the album at all, and impossible not to tap along to.

DomPaczko - I read the write up from Dom on this one first and then had no idea what to expect:
I discovered this group online as they have been using the 'Radiohead' model of putting albums online in return for a donation since 2004. I just really wanted to pick something that I knew neither of the guys would have heard before-it's one hell of a twee album but I like it.
From the band Billie Vision and the Dancers the album selected was I Used To Wander These Streets. Right up my street this one, really enjoyed it all from the start, not sure I would use the term "twee" but I see where Dom is coming from with this one. From the link there are their albums to download on a "pay as much as you like" and after listening to one, I will pay for the others now - I suggest you do the same.

SpursSimon - After deciding I wanted a lively addition for the guys, I decided to jump straight in with an album from the genre the NME decided to call Riot Grrrl in the early 90s as Brit Pop started to get back to punky roots. The record Pussy Whipped by Bikini Kill being a great example of this time in music.
Not one for the faint hearted and if you are offended by women using every swear you can think of, and some you may not think of, this is not for you. However, if you like it with guitars and attitude this should be in your collection. This is a band that were above Nirvana on festival bills, not for long, but it was good while it lasted.

So ends the letter B.
During the week I got a few tweets and messages - 2 people recommending Bauhaus and  also British Sea Power and Belle & Sebastian. To be honest, I don't think you will go far wrong with them either.
Sunday morning, I am now going to flick through some records and CDs and pick a C and look forward to getting two more coming my way.

Please feel free to add suggestions under each of the weeks / letters with a little reason why we should listen - if you are in a band or just like music, we all need recommendations!

C

Week 3 of the #A2Z challenge and there is no let up in the enthusiasm or quality of what is coming through. I also like the fact that the letter C is the third letter and worth 3 points in scrabble - little things like that make my day sometimes.

We are getting quite a few recommendations over twitter as well, you can also leave them as comments under the relevant weeks letter posting so that everyone reading can pick up as many new bands and albums as possible - if you are going to leave a recommendation, give at least a short line or two as to why people should give it a go, it could make the difference in someone giving it a go.

So into the meat of this weeks offerings, and to keep equality in order (yes I do have mild OCD) it is Dom's turn to be top of the list.

DomPaczko - His album of choice this week was Night Timing by Coconut Records, and I will let him detail why in his own words -
Coconut Records is actually just one man - the actor Jason Schwartzman. He wrote and played pretty much everything on the album which shifts from one style to the next with ease.I discovered this album after finding a website title "Actors whose bands don't suck" and seeing as I like his films I figured I would love his music. The distribution on this was relatively small - so small in fact, Jason sent the first few hundred copies out with random Polaroid photos he took. As far as I understand he was actually sending these out himself - and mine took weeks to arrive.

Again I went for finding something that I know you guys wouldn't have heard before. The stand out tracks are 'West Coast' which manages to have a catchy verse AND chorus while 'Nighttiming' drifts towards a disco beat.

Jason also drafts in a very famous acting friend for backing vocals on tracks 1 & 4 (and I believe 8 also) - although I shall reveal who it is at the end of the week.

I have to say that sums it up, although quite how you end up on a website like that I am not entirely sure - but I have listened to it straight through three times, so there is obviously something there. And if it will help you to listen to it, the mystery guest is Kirsten Dunst.

SpursSimon - So after questioning Dom's way of finding music literally a paragraph ago, the reason for my choice this week also has an obscure tale to it. The album Big Picture by the group Cotton Mather.
For our second Wedding Anniversary, which is cotton, I wanted to get something a little more imaginative than a tablecloth, so put the thinking cap on. One of my favourite, and now deceased, authors was Ed McBain, who wrote mainly about detectives in the USA, set in one precinct in a fictional town. One of the detectives is called Cotton Hawes, whose father had named him after an US Preacher called Cotton Mather. So when I googled to find out where I could buy a book about Cotton Mather, what popped up was a band of the same name - so I bought their album instead of a religious book about 18th Century Puritanism.
If you like the Beatles, this is one for you. Great melody's throughout, and apparently they toured with Oasis when Oasis were still good as well, but don't let that put you off.

BWFCDom - The final offering this week is the record Every Day by The Cinematic Orchestra. As with all the offerings I listened first, and thought I recognised at least one of the tracks and voices, so when I got Dom's notes I was pleasantly surprised.
I remember hearing this when I worked for MVC and thinking it was an extremely cool album. It became one of my uni faves in 2003. I'm a big fan of Roots Manuva, so his inclusion on the album was a big draw. Turns out the rest is pretty damn good to. Very jazzy but equally electronic and relaxed. You can get lost in it.I was right it was Roots Manuva, and the track was from the film Kidulthood (which was filmed in the estate where my office is now based). Dom is right that it does drag you in, and there are some fantastic tunes on here.

Some of the other offerings we had in this week included Nick Cave, my other choice was the wonderful Cooper Temple Clause and my favourite from @substandardnerd on twitter was Neko Case - so here is a taste of that choice, I will be purchasing some more from this back catalogue.

So, add your comments and choices below - there are already a few hundred reading this each week, so pass the links around and in just under 6 months we should have a pretty damned big new collection. The Damned, to easy for a D really isn't it.
See you next week.

D

Week four into the challenge, and from some of the initial feedback from the other main participants it appears that the letter D has been kind to us and good albums and listening for all this week. For me it was probably the hardest choice so far, are there actually more bands that start with D than other letters?

So while there is no promise that this blog will add any form of vitamins to your daily needs, or bring the sun out, the hope remains that you find some new music that you enjoy. On to this weeks offerings under the strict code of the alphabet and no other rules or genre definitions, and as usual we each have no idea what the other two are going to throw in, so always a nervous wait to see what comes and what the views are on my choices.
With little further ado:

SpursSimon - This weeks choice from me was an album I have had for a long while from Scottish band The Delgados - Peleton.

I would have heard them on John Peel in the late 90s, and as I was quite into cycling at the time the name probably stuck in my head that little bit more so that during the weekly trip to the shops this would have jumped out at me from the racks. A band that had little commercial success which I still do not understand, but were quite a sizable "indie" band of their time. There is a folkish element to some of the tracks, but the guitars are never far away, I am sure the NME at the time would have tried to put them in the shoegazing genre but would have been wrong. If you are going to listen to a couple of tracks on Spotify or whatever I would say start with the opening Everything Goes Around The Water and the wonderful Pull The Wires From The Wall. I would say that if you hear those you will get the album (which I looked and you can get the CD on Amazon for less than a quid)

BWFCDom - Doms choice this week was a good one for me, as it was from a band that I had often meant to get some music from and always ended up getting something else, the album Expansion Team from Dilated Peoples.

A really good hip hop group that seem to have slipped off the radar. They had their most commercial success with this album and you can see why. Worst Comes To Worst is a real catchy track. Also, other tunes likes Proper Propaganda grab your attention. Like a lot of bands I listen to, I like to see them live. After seeing Dilated Peoples live, their stock rose with me. I remember it very well! The summer of 2004. I'd just watch Greece beat France in Euro 2004 and then it was upstairs to Manchester Academy 3 for an excellent performance by the band. It was extremely hot but they created such an atmosphere that it still lives on as one of my favourite gigs I have attended.

I was really impressed with this, it fits into the style of Hip Hop that I enjoy and can easily pop on at anytime, well, as with most Rap and Hip Hop not actually anytime - my mum wouldn't particularly enjoy it in the car.

DomPaczko - When I saw the band name I knew this would be good, as the Dead 60's was one of my final choices as a D for this week. But instead of a clash, it was a different album, that I didn't have, the excellent Time To Take Sides, and I will Dom describe it here.

My choice this week is The Dead 60s - which is perhaps a band you already know....but I have picked their 2nd album which never got a UK release (was actually released in France only - where I imported a copy from)
The Dead 60s were known for being a ska/clash-esq rock band from Liverpool. They signed to the Deltasonic label which also housed The Coral & The Zutons. Their first album (called The Dead 60s) harked back to another era and contained some great tracks. The band amassed a reasonable following through a vigorous touring schedule but never got the exposure of their other label mates.
 A follow up album was recorded and I actually attended a one-off gig they did in Nottingham to preview new material and prepare for a Christmas show in Liverpool, it was by far the lowest audience figure I have ever seen for a signed band - I counted around 50 people...I commented to Anna on the way home that there is no way this band will continue without a significant push from their record label...this push never came and frustrated the band called it a day after waiting 6 months for the album to be released in the UK
The sad thing was that is album is a lot better than their début - they had clearly learnt their craft over the two years since its release and put together what I thought was a very accomplished collection of songs. There is a sense of maturity about the album.

Although there are some personal stand out tracks (1,2,3 & 6) but it is clear it was never going to be a commercial success hence why the necessary backing from their label never came. When you look at the clout bands like The Coral had, The Dead 60s were clearly towards the lower end of Deltasonic's priorities. Although it was never announced I would guess that Deltasonic didn't feel the album would do well and hence refused to give it a UK release.
I guess I find this album quite sad.. the band eventually split over this album and a very good UK band ,who were writing some really good songs came to a very premature end...if only their label had a little bit more faith they could of done a lot more.
And that's why I have put in for my D option

Now if that doesn't make you want to check it out, I have no idea what will. And I can strongly recommend their first eponymous album as well.

So there we go, D is done and dusted.
Other honourable mentions would be Dead Kennedys (whose name I never even thought was offensive until my dad pointed out that he never wanted to see it in the house again). The hugely under-rated Dandy Warhols and also Dexys Midnight Runners would also be some bands to look back at.