Judee Sill - Jesus was a crossmaker (live at BBC)

This is a lesser heard (I was going to say ‘rare’ but is anything ‘rare’ these days?) version of Judee’s timeless classic. Just her and a guitar.

5pm

Anna Ternheim - To be Gone

10am

RIAA and EMI - All Your Music Are Belong To Us

9am

Is there any gist of truth in Alicia Keys’ claims? The fact of the matter is that although it might be difficult to think in those terms, it remains a fact however that there was a certain degree of negligence in pursuing those responsible for the murders of Tupac and Notorious B:I:G. There have never been any arrests or explicit investigation to any of the murders

2pm

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled “by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.

2pm

Marillion - Heart of Lothian

When you’ve spent as much time as I have casually implying that your musical taste is nothing less than the ne plus ultra of Western Civilisation. When you sadly shake your head at a friends misguided CD purchase and pedantically correct them on the most piddling of arcane pop trivia. When you can remember all the guitarists from The Byrds but forget a girlfriend’s birthday then having a Marillion album in your collection is akin to dating a German Supermodel and being caught by a photographer in a car park at night with a transvestite hooker.

It must have been around 1984, when Marillion’s second album Fugazi was being released, that I was introduced to them. Who exactly introduced me to them has been lost (thankfully) in the mists of time. The Pariah would only deny it now anyway, no doubt pointing a shaky finger of accusation in my direction. I’m sure I’d seen them on TOTP for “Garden Party”. You weren’t likely to forget lead singer Fish’s faux Vietnam-meets-Peter Gabriel style war paint . That plus the fact their Mark Wilkinson extravagant gate-fold sleeves would not have been missed during my weekly trip to Wishaw’s Round Sounds record shop means that I must have been vaguely aware of them before that.

And for about 4 years there was an intensive infatuation with them. I went to the gigs, wore the t-shirts (my favourite being the one bearing the “assassing” image (see above) which I left in a Glasgow hotel room after a science fiction convention. Marillion and sci-fi – and I couldn’t figure out how I couldn’t meet girls!) and got into heated arguments with people who thought they were hippy crap.

Their last album with original singer Fish, “Clutching at Straws”, passed me by. It lacked the immediate hooks of the near perfect “Misplaced Childhood” and, at the time, an entire album concerned with the pitfalls and horrors of alcoholism just didn’t hit home with an 18 year old and so we parted company. Revisiting their back catalogue today I’m surprised how much I still love it.

Tellingly I struggled to find a song of Marillion’s that fitted under Tumblr’s 10M limit. They weren’t lumped in with the prog-rock fraternity for nothing. Sprawling epics, poetry laden concept albums and endurance testing run-times (‘Grendel’ clocks in just under 18 glorious minutes) were all present and correct. It made for odd entries in the top 40 for singles like “Garden Party” and “Punch and Judy” which still sound unlike anything else that has ever troubled the charts.

So as much as I’d like to just post achingly cool mash-ups from the Hood Internet or obscure US post punk acts from the 80’s I wouldn’t be telling the whole truth. There will no Stalinist airbrushing on this blog. Anyway, it’s too late – I only went and forgot to switch off my bloody Last.Fm scrobbler. The truth is quite literally out there.

3pm

girls talk - bounce that

Girls Talk make mash-up tracks for people with ADD. Your frontal lobe has  only just registered one sample before another is ruthlessly thrust into the mix for consideration. This is not so much mash-up music but more someone rapping over a pub quiz “guess the intros” round.

11am