This was a good week. Paul Heaton released a new album: Paul Heaton Presents… The 8th and it’s an absolute belter. I’ve been a fan of his since the beginning, through the Housemartins to the Beautiful South and into his solo career. I got to see him at King Tut’s last year and it was phenomenal! Anyway, the new album is like nothing he’s ever done before. It’s a concept album with a story running through it, a story which, unless you’re made of stone, will give you goosebumps at the end. Brilliant!
Nick Harper next. He’s another artist I’ve been a fan of since the beginning. I saw him a few times at Roy Harper gigs (Nick’s dad, in case you were wondering!), but it wasn’t until I moved to Arran that I got to see him playing solo. I’m very happy to be able to say that he’s coming back this year, to the same venue! I cannot wait!
And on to Jonathan Coulton. What a busy music week this has been! Of course I’d Jonathan Coulton. What self-respecting nerd hasn’t? But it had never quite clicked. I had Thing-a-Week 1 but never really listened to it more than once through. Then came The Incomparable podcast, episode 98.
We tackle the works of Jonathan Coulton as our Geek Music Appreciation series continues. Join guest host Lex Friedman as he and our panelists build a JoCo playlist and discuss why Coulton has so much geek appeal. But just because Lex is guest-hosting doesn’t mean that Jason Snell won’t make a dramatic appearance at the end, so keep listening!
I spent the weekend listening to JoCo, after creating a Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned on the podcast: JoCo incomparable playlist and spent that Sunday morning learning to play You Ruined Everything. In fact, serendipity intervened in that when Merlin Mann posted a link on his Tumblr to a video of JoCo playing that song.
It’s the first new song I’ve learned in a long time and it was a whole lot of fun. I’m inspired to learn a couple more for my next gig. Not many Arran residents will be familiar with his woe I would guess!
And Merlin is to thank also for the introduction to Peter Holsapple & Chris Starney. I’d never heard of them until he posted an audio clip on his Tumblr:
I will definitely be following this band / these artists some more!
It’s interesting to note that last.fm is now listing TV shows and movies that I watch on the AppleTV. I finally finished Season 1 of the Wire and it finally started to reel me in. I only persevered because so many respectful people said I should, but it ain’t no House!
