Home Furnishings

It’s a Bank Holiday (again) here in the UK, so (and again, with apologies to those who do have to work today) there’s no need for the usual New Mood on Monday post today.

Instead: a while ago, I briefly had a series on here called Art (I say brief: 2 posts in total is probably beyond brief) where I talked about some of the various pop culture references which adorn my walls – predominantly, but not exclusively, prints of album covers I love.

Since I’ve moved home though, I found the need to buy something my old flat never had – a doormat. But I didn’t want just any old doormat – I wanted something which fitted in with the pop culture feel of the stuff that covered the rest of the house. ‘I have pop culture references on the walls, so why not the floor too?’, I reasoned to nobody but myself. (Regular readers will be aware that pop culture is not just limited to the walls in my pad, for I own a pair of these, courtesy of my brother. I bought him a Sisters of Mercy clock for Christmas, but there’s not a song about that, so it’s not nearly as clever.)

So the search began, but nothing I found fitted the criteria, all too bland, or too “nice” and a bit too welcoming. No, I wanted a doormat which reflected my personality and, more specifically, my love of music.

And then I stumbled upon a place who do bespoke doormats; just send them what you wanted to have printed on it, and they would oblige, stamping your design on to the bristly little dog-dirt wiping bugger.

But now, faced with this blank canvas, I had to decide what should decorate this otherwise bland household item.

At first, I toyed with the idea of having the blog’s DJing Elvis logo on it, but wasn’t convinced a picture would come out so well on such a canvas, so I rejected that idea.

Words, that was what was needed. Something to replace the “Welcome” one normally finds on such things.

My next thought was to get one with the word “Binky” written on it, in reference to this tune, from (arguably) R.E.M.’s last if-not-great-then-at-least-pretty-good album:

R.E.M. -Binky The Doormat

Knowing how much I love R.E.M., you’ll be surprised to learn I rejected this idea too.

Instead, I plumped for a reference to this old skool banger:

Kicks Like A Mule – The Bouncer (Original Mix)

And here’s the frankly ruddy marvellous cover from Klaxons – 2007’s Mercury prize winning, next big thing (and promptly never heard of again) – which, if I’m totally honest, I prefer to the original:

Klaxons – The Bouncer

All of which means that in the unlikely event that anyone ever visits, this is what they will see when I open the door (with apostrophes in the right place):

Yes, you’re right: I am cool, aren’t I?

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

I was beginning to think this mix was jinxed.

I’ll explain, with some back story.

Firstly, I wanted to do a mix unlike the Not Christmas one, which I thought strayed a bit too far into the territories of cheese or chart music. Whilst it served a purpose, it wasn’t really indicative of the sort of tunes which usually feature here.

This one, though is a corker, even if I do say so myself.

Regular readers may recall that way back in the late 1980s, I started DJ’ing at college because I was fed up with being able to guess what song the indie DJs would play next. So imagine my annoyance when my own brother told me that on a previous mix he’d been able to predict my next choice a couple of times. Grrr.

But this mix has proved to be such a pain to complete; when I came to do it today, it tells me that some of the tunes have been played 22 times, which gives you an idea of how many times I’ve tried to get this one right. Pretty much once a week, since Christmas.

What’s gone wrong all those times? Well, on more than one occasion professional pride kicked in: I’ve messed up a mix between tunes, so have elected to start again.

On more than one occasion, preoccupied with playing Solitaire or Candy Crush just to have something to do whilst recording the mix, there’s a sudden, irretrievable silence where the next record should be. Oops!

Once I forgot to stop recording until an hour later, and, triumphant at how the mixes had worked out, I couldn’t understand why the mix lasted over 5 hours, until I listened to it.

The other problem is booze. More than once, I’ve taken drink to such an extent that I’ve forgotten I was doing a mix until the silence after one record has finished hits home and startled me awake.

Last weekend, I got to the third record from the end, and suddenly woke up to silence and realised I’d messed up again. That’s not an indictment of the standard of the mix, by the way, more an example of how drunk I’d gotten.

Even last night, when I finally nailed it, it was my second attempt of the night, having got through most of the mix when I had a drink-spillage event, which I thought I’d sorted, until, four records from the end, suddenly the sound cut out whilst the tunes kept playing and I had no idea if it was still recording the sound or the sound of silence.

Anyway, we’ve got here, and this has been a real pain, so if you could take a listen, that would be great.

I will confess that I have broken the golden rule of not featuring the same act more than once in this mix; this wasn’t intentional, but as the various run-throughs progressed, I simply forgot said acts already appeared as “featuring” acts. One is deliberate. Sue me (Please don’t).

Time for the usual disclaimer: any glitches, skips or jumps are down to the software or the uploading/downloading process, and nothing to do with my limited mixing skills.

Oh, and the usual “effing and jeffing” warning applies; it seems I’m incapable of doing a mix which doesn’t include more than the occasional swear.

I’m not posting a link to download here, other than the one to Soundcloud, where you can either download or stream it.

I couldn’t be bothered with the last ones, but I’ve done it this time: you’ll see a list of all the acts featured in this mix at the bottom of the page, so you can check whether this one’s likely to be your cup of tea before going to the hassle of actually listening to it. If you’re particularly short of things to do, you can try to guess which song I’ve picked by which artist. There’s fun.

But by way of a description: pretty much all life is here, from indie rock to 60s California hippy-shtick, some Old Skool dance classics, some hip-hop and some soul classics via some Northern Soul belters via some TV show theme tunes (sort of); there’s some hoary old rock and some psychobilly, and a couple of tracks which should have featured in a New post by now, but the bands in question played the 6Music festival last weekend so you’ll probably know them intimately by now. And, of course, there’s The Fall.

Easy on the cheese this time, there’s even some poetry so we can all pretend we’re intellectual. You’ll have chance to dance, sit and recover for a few moments, before getting back on it again.

Available for a limited time (i.e. until I do the next one), you can download or stream this on Soundcloud here:

Friday Night Music Club (Volume 4)

I hope you have as much fun listening to this as much as I had putting it together. And I found it utterly frustrating, so you’d better.

Oh, and it ain’t over ’til the fat bloke sings.

More soon.