James Bell Central

Month: November 2016

  • ‘Tom of Bedlam’ on new Shakespeare album

    ‘Tom of Bedlam’ on new Shakespeare album

    So, waaaaaay back in April I played a few gigs as part of a celebration of 400 years of Shakespeare being consistently dead. I also recorded a song for an upcoming album. Here is the press releasey stuff from the folks at Autolycus Records:

    The Food of Love project album will be officially released December 2016: a collection of songs mentioned or referenced in Shakespeare’s plays, composed during or before the Bard’s lifetime. Featured artists include Stornoway, Dead Rat orchestra, Alastair Roberts, Brickwork Lizards, Flights of Helios and many more.

    (more…)

  • Ben Champion

    Ben Champion

    Ben Champion is one of the many very talented performers I’ve met through Oxford’s Catweazle Club. Comedian, musician, veteran of the Edinburgh Festival amongst other things.

    And his songs are catchy as fuck. And I’ve got to the stage where I know huge chunks of them off by heart, and I tend to sing them to myself a little bit too loudly in public places.

    This YouTube video of a sort of filthy Elton John pastiche is particularly good for that, I find. I highly recommend singing ‘Dildo carrot’ to yourself with gusto in the supermarket queue.

    Current Favourite Track:

  • Eulogize This: Johannes Vermeer

    And his paintings lived happily ever after – Vermeer and ‘the Serene’

    Was the original title.

    But the Eulogize This team politely asked if they could shorten it, in recognition of the fact that I have cheekily made the titles longer each time. If they hadn’t nipped this in the bud it might have been a paragraph.

    On an unrelated point, don’t the paintings look beeeeaaaautiful in this article?

    http://www.eulogizethis.com/vermeer/

  • ‘Chopsticks’ by Liz Phair

    ‘Chopsticks’ by Liz Phair

    It was 4am and the light was grey. Like it always is in paperbacks.

    Oh there just aren’t enough words to describe how much I love this song.

    In a strange way I think it’s one of the most melancholy songs I’ve ever heard. Even the great Elliot Smith didn’t manage sadness in quite this way.

    Current favourite aspect:
    It’s this magnificent trumpeting of sexual bravado.  And then it ends with this fantastic line that completely undercuts it.  It is the dictionary definition of loneliness in just over 2 minutes.

    And available to buy here:

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/whip-smart/id724446333#

     

  • From The Vaults: ‘Cracking’ (Suzanne Vega cover)

    From The Vaults: ‘Cracking’ (Suzanne Vega cover)

    Following on from last month’s Suzanne Vega post: my own version of the first song on her first album. I still maintain that

    It’s a one time thing. It just happens. A lot.

    … is one of the great opening lines of a recording career.

    If you like very low res video footage and motion-sickness-inducing shaky-cam (and you do, or why else would you be here?) then this is for you.

    The song and video were recorded in the winter of 2009, as I was gearing up to embark on the dumbest romantic car crash of my life. You know how they say it’s better to regret something that you have done than something that you haven’t? Yeah? Well, it isn’t.

  • Thunk

    Thunk

    Don’t think I’ve recommended a YouTube channel yet. I’ve been watching quite a few recently. They’re a whole new interesting thing, I find, and there are so many people making really well-researched, punchy short films that tell you fascinating things about the world.

    This is by a guy called Josh Pelton – for more info on him have a look at this interview. He mentions in the first episode that he doesn’t know anyone that he can discuss his passion, philosophy, in depth with. So he decided to create a YouTube channel to start the conversation going.

    Be warned, though, he puns like his life depends on it.

    Current Favourite Episode:

    The one above, on problem-solving.