Juan And Only

Idaho

2012-02-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

Lee Dorsey - "Get Out Of My Life, Woman"

Marcia Griffiths - "Mark My Word"

Sleepy Golden Storm

2012-02-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

Kris Kristofferson - "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)"

Peggy Lee - "Where Or When"

High Priestess

2012-02-13T11:42:00.001-08:00

Active Child - "High Priestess"

Beach House - "Master of None"

I Hear A Timpani

2012-02-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

Jamie xx & Yasmin - "Touch Me"

Guest Post: Galen Disston, Pickwick

2012-02-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

Sound your plastic party trumpets: Today Galen Disston from Seattle based band Pickwick curates my first ever Guest Post.

Pickwick record in a basement using vintage equipment and release on vinyl 45s, adding richness to a sound which already is just the type I like: exuberant and aching. So tap your tambourines, shake your shakers and be sure to sway along to the reverb... John.

Randy Newman - "Last Night I Had A Dream (Single Version)"

We all have been collectively astonished by this version. We all love Sail Away and Nilsson Sings Newman but whatever, this song is the king of our world right now. It is so fierce in the Project Runway sense; vocal delay, guitars with claws, such an amazing band. Even the countrified breakdown is dreamy enough to covet. This song is what we want to be. (From Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968).

Ty Segall - "You Make The Sun Fry"

Holy God, this guy is a fire like Lee Scratch Perry. Insanely hooky, heavy in the spaciest sense. And this melody will live on forever. (From Goodbye Bread).

Radiation City - "Find It Of Use"

Female fronted Bossa Nova Grizzly Bear from Portland. This upcoming EP will RULE ALL. (From The Hands That Take You).

Sun Ra - "Space Is The Place"

Recommended to us by Damien Jurado, I listed this song as the last thing I want to hear before I die. Because it will ease the transition into the afterlife. (From Space Is The Place).

(Galen Disston sings in Pickwick. There are five other members. I featured one of their tracks last year. You can buy their music direct from their bandcamp and, if you live West Coast, you should go see them live.)

Fairytale In The Supermarket

2012-02-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

Faith Evans - "Jealous"

Arthur Alexander - "The Girl That Radiates That Charm"

Turn That Mutha Out

2012-02-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

Barbara Mason - "Another Man (Short Version)"

You Can Never Hold Back Spring

2012-02-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

The Pilgrim Travelers - "Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow"

Judy Collins - "I Think It's Going To Rain Today"

Goodbye To Berlin

2012-02-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

Linda Scott - "I've Told Every Little Star"

The Night Will Go On

2012-01-19T06:18:00.000-08:00

Ngifuna Wena

2012-01-14T12:54:00.001-08:00

Happy Saturday Night

Bujo Mujo - "Ngifuna Wena (DJ Teakay Remix)"

L BOOGIE

2012-01-10T12:22:00.001-08:00

I AM GOING ALL THE WAY TO BERLIN TO SEE MS. LAURYN HILL THIS MONTH.

Skyway Motel

2012-01-09T08:08:00.001-08:00

The Walker Brothers - "Stay With Me Baby"

Still from "Alice in the Cities" by Wim Wenders, in which Sibylle Baier plays "a woman".

House Party

2012-01-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

James Brown - "Please Please Please"

Janis Joplin - "Maybe"

Get Warm à l'Intérieur

2012-01-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

Edwin Starr - "Stop Her On Sight (SOS)"

PS: I've added a tag for soul.

Es Una Diosa

2012-01-04T02:16:00.001-08:00

Laura Nyro - "Desiree"

Laura Nyro - "Gonna Take A Miracle"

Como Tu Luz, Como Tu Voz, Y Como Tu Amor

2012-01-03T07:03:00.001-08:00

Simon Diaz - "Luna De Marguerita"

The Kingston Trio - "El Matador"

No Scrub

2012-01-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

Open Late

2012-01-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

Teengirl Fantasy - "Cheaters (John Talabots Classic Vocal Refix)"

Aaliyah - "Got To Give It Up"

Another still from Paris is Burning. Props to Josie for the Teengirl Fantasy song.

Reel-'em-in

2012-01-02T12:43:00.000-08:00

Souza

2012-01-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

Germano Rocha - "Os Meus Olhos"

Césaria Évora - "Desilusão Dum Amdjer"

Family Affair

2011-12-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

Prince - "How Come You Don't Call Me"

Sly & The Family Stone - "If You Want Me To Stay"

Merry And Bright Days

2011-12-25T16:57:00.001-08:00

Annette Hanshaw - "Mean to Me"

Annette Hanshaw - "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling"

DHAK DHAK I'M BACK

2011-12-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

The Sapphires - "Gotta Have Your Love"

Pickwick - "Staged Names"

GOT TO KEEP YOU INTO MY LIFE

2011-10-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

Ajaa Ajaa!

2011-10-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

This time next week I will be in Mumbai. Hopefully in a trippy disco scenario. I'll be away and without laptop for two months so if anybody wants to (please) take over Juan & Only, let me know as soon as possible.

Chew Bubblegum / Talk Fast

2011-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

King Khan & The Shrines - "Shivers Down My Spine"

The Stooges - "Scene Of The Crime"

Postcard from Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

2011-10-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

A M M A N

Mohamed Hamaki - "Ahla Haga Feeki"

Photograph was taken earlier this month in Central Amman. The song was the soundtrack to tearing down desert highways, windows open, music pounding, an evil eye swinging from the rear view mirror. In the middle of nowhere there were sofas, hollow buildings and pylons. In the night, fairy lights illuminated coffee shacks and balconies.

BO HABIBI, NISHTAGEA: Reykjavik/Damascus

2011-10-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Heads Up

2011-10-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

Transcript

Bitches Came Over, Yeah We Threw A Party

2011-10-04T14:44:00.001-07:00

Ton Steine Scherben - "Schritt Für Schritt Ins Paradies"

Graduate

2011-10-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Jamaican school kids freestyling.

White City Blues

2011-10-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

T E L A V I V

Back.

Tomer Yosef - "Little Man"

Los Mirlos - "La Misma Viana"

En El Verano

2011-09-10T08:14:00.001-07:00

B A R C E L O N A

Been on holiday.

Cities Aviv - "Meet Me On Montrose (For Ex-Lovers Only)"

Aaliyah - "Don't Worry"

THE NIGHT THE NIGHT

2011-09-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Respect Your Youth

2011-09-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Billy Bragg - "The Saturday Boy"

Excuse Me, You're a Hell of a Guy

2011-09-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

Prince - "If I Was Your Girlfriend"

Image from WU LYF.

Love Yourself

2011-09-01T03:59:00.000-07:00

BOOM BAP

2011-08-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

Butch Queen First Time in Drags at a Ball

2011-08-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Della Humphrey - "Don't Make The Good Girls Go Bad"

C O M M A N D E E R

2011-08-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for someone to keep Juan & Only running when I go rambling around Israel next month. Do what you will: free reign and low expectations guaranteed. Email me should the spirit move you.

Zarzuela de Domingo

2011-08-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

Grup Gavina - "Canta y No Llores"

Willie Nelson - "Hello Walls"

Red and Gold

2011-08-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

Peggy Seeger - "When I Was Single"

Leonard Cohen - "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy"

Thanks Said the Gramophone / Image: my village church.

RE-EDUCATION

2011-08-17T04:44:00.001-07:00

Shouldn't have left you / Without a strong rhyme to step to

2011-08-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

Lexxus & Mr. Vegas - "Taxi Fare"

Jimmy

2011-08-07T02:12:00.001-07:00

The Chantels - "I Can't Take It"

Breath of Life, Kiss of Death

2011-08-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Tony Bennett - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

Nana Mouskouri - "Over and Over"

Tangos

2011-08-02T12:24:00.001-07:00

Estrella Morente - "Pepico's Tangos"

Estrella Morente - "Tangos Del Chavico"

Jennifer Aniston's Love Life Vibe

2011-07-31T03:35:00.001-07:00

Liberation Group - "Namibia"

Bonny & Skitter - "Lumumbo"

Homeland Hymm

2011-07-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Trailer to The Miner's Hymm - archival film footage of County Durham colliery culture to a soundtrack composed by Johann Johannsson (song from trailer is: "The Cause of Labour is the Hope of the World").

Lacrimosa

2011-07-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Roman Rewakowicz - "Preisner: Life: Lacrimosa: Day Of Tears"

First photo is mine, taken in Montreal.

Marcel, Ann & Coley

2011-07-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ben Sollee - "A Change Is Gonna Come"

Photo by Ryan McGinley.

REGGAY ANTHEM

2011-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Cher - "Believe (Declaration Remix)"

Torpid Turmoil

2011-07-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Daníel Bjarnason - "Bow To String: Sorrow Conquers Joy"

Hit Me Like A Ray Of Sun

2011-07-16T03:52:00.000-07:00

Kat DeLuna & Elephant Man - "Whine Up"

Sizzla - "Hot, Sexy and Clean"

OFFICIAL HOLIDAY SONG 2011

2011-07-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

P O R T U G A L

Mario - "Let Me Love You"

Back from Portugal; did not live off the fatta the lan' as planned, rather we subsisted off cheese sandwiches and this song.

I took the above pictures.

Down By The Riverside

2011-06-24T14:52:00.001-07:00

JULY MIX

Download

Since no buggar would contribute while I go live off the fatta the lan' in Portugal, I made a mix for the interlude. You can download it here and pretend your under thundery summer skies, or swaying poplars, or an antebellum verandah. NB: it's better than last year's (which you can also download here). Tracklist after the jump. Pass it around.

Tracklist.

1. Andrew Warrts & The Gospel Storytellers - "Peter and John Gospel Rap"

2. Myron & E with The Soul Investigators - "Cold Game"

3. Abner Jay - "Depression"

4. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - "How Long (Ticklah Remix)"

5. Irma Thomas - "Two Winters Long"

6. Little Ann - "Deep Shadows"

7. Crumb Brothers - "Seat In The Kingdom"

8. Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens - "What Have You Done?"

9. Brother Willie Blue - "I'm Pressing On"

10. Penny and The Quarters - "You And Me"

Tales of Southern Rivers

2011-06-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Joe Ely - "She Never Spoke Spanish To Me"

Weather's High

2011-06-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

Spanky Wilson - "Sunshine of Your Love"

Snooks Eaglin - "Down By The Riverside"

Drawing Room Ballad

2011-06-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Dory Previn - "The Lady With The Braid (Live at Carnegie Hall)"

Thanks Said the Gramophone. Image is Interior: The Orange Blind by Francis CB Cadell. Have horror visions I will end up looking like the subject.

Poble Sec

2011-06-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

R A D I O

C O R N U C O P I A

My best pal Josie has embarked on a new project, Radio Cornucopia - a weekly mixtape broadcast out of Barcelona. This week's gives me flashbacks to long, light nights spent hanging out in Poble Sec, vermouth behind my eyes and sunburn stinging my neck. It's early days (it started today), but it's already my favourite thing and will be posted here each time it appears. Incidentally, the photograph is taken by my other best pal / Barcelona beauty, Poppy BC.

PLAY IT LOUD FOR YOUR BARRIO

Lost Splendour

2011-06-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hildur Guðnadóttir - "Opaque"

Sigur Rós & Steindór Andersen - "A Ferd Til Breidafjardar"

Read 'Lost Splendour' by Prince Felix Youssoupoff online. Image from Sverrir Thor (again).

Sunday Stream

2011-06-12T08:36:00.001-07:00

For those who didn't know: Bon Iver's new album, Bon Iver, is streaming on The Guardian. Click here to listen. Sure is beautiful.

C O N T R I B U T E

2011-06-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for someone to keep Juan & Only running when I go rambling around Portugal next month. Do what you will: free reign and low expectations guaranteed. Email me should the spirit move you.

FEVER IN MY BODY, FEVER IN MY SOUL

2011-06-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

Alton Ellis - "Dance Crasher"

Desmond Dekker - "Get Up Edina"

San Francisco

2011-06-09T14:44:00.001-07:00

off salty sea cliffs

we saw a killer whale

it had no head, just face-on-body

Terra Estrangeira

2011-06-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

Lole y Manuel - "Tu Mira"

True Romance III

2011-06-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Black - "Wonderful Life"

Daniel Lavoie - "Ils S'aiment"

Part I / Part II

Cocksucker Blues

2011-06-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Rolling Stones - "Cocksucker Blues"

Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin

2011-06-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin - "Sanctus"

Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin - "Benedictus"

Disclaimer: I'm running out of space, apparently, so I imagine I may have to start deleting the oldest songs soon. Before I do, you should listen to this.

Through Strength, I Found Love

2011-05-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

John Holt - "You'll Never Find"

Photos: Richard Mosse

Kwazulu

2011-05-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

Miriam Makeba - "Kwazulu (In The Land Of The Zulus)"

Since I Found You

2011-05-29T04:39:00.001-07:00

The Avalanches - "Since I Left You"

I watched a TV show about sharks once. If you tickle them between their eyes they will immediately fall into a deep and stupid trance and you can spin them on your finger like a basketball. Some human beings can achieve a similar state of deep meditation by filling their ears with the sound of singing whales or Gregorian monks chanting. But these ambiences always seem too incongruous with my surroundings to be able to take effect on me - the sound of insects rubbing their legs together in my bedroom makes me paranoid. If ever I am in need of a musically induced trance, the best compromise I can make is to put in my headphones and play The Avalanches. The effect is what I think it must be like to satisfy a drug addiction (or to be tickled between the eyes if you were a shark): every cell of my body shakes with contented gratitude and applause before they slump into languid hypnosis.

I missed the boat on lots of music in my early teens, so eager was I to jump on the bandwagon. Grunge set sail before I'd even checked in. Garage was one ship, I was another and we passed in the night. I do, however, remember making a very conscious decision not to board the dance music boat (I had taken an overnight ferry from Hull to Amsterdam once and that's exactly what I thought the dance music boat would be like - eurotrashy and bile inducing). But, for my thirteenth birthday I was given The Avalanches' first album, Since I Left You. It was out of keeping among the other CDs I got that year, yet the only one I have kept. It was like nothing I had heard before and, in fact, I'm not even sure if it could even be classed as the dance music I had thought it was upon opening my present (officially its electronica, but potayto potarto).

The album hasn't always had the stupefying effect it does today, it certainly used to make me want to dance. Not like the dancing you would think to find on the dance music boat though; no girls gyrating in slow-mo with sweaty hair, no boys aping Usher. The Avalanches is pirouettes and leaps and waltzing with thin air, the dancing you do when no one is watching. At the height of my infatuation, I had to stop myself listening to it while I was in motion. I would find my steps choreographing themselves to the beat and end up walking in time to the music, sort of like when epic music is pumped into theme parks and you can't help but swan around all tall and noble as if you're on an adventure.

I say that the album was unlike anything I'd heard before but there will always be something familiar when you listen to it, for it's solely made up from 3 500 samples. From Prince Paul to The Osmonds, from Saïan Supa Crew to John Waters and from soca to opera, Since I Left You is a seamless mosaic of forgotten vinyls that have been given another life. There isn't any particular relationship between the samples, except that they have been chosen and layered carefully so that, when seen all at once, they produce a kaleidoscopic image, an ever changing soundscape that is at once unpredictable and yet always recognizable. The vocals always sound under-the-surface and there is just enough static to make the record sound dusty, as if your hi-fi has turned into a transmitter and you're intercepting snippets from some far-away party happening twenty years ago. Unlike most other albums, whereupon tracks follow each other like chapters of a book or beads on a necklace, Since I Left You seems only to have a track-list to conform. Each track segues from one to the next so that the album can be viewed as just one patchwork body of music, a whole - which makes it almost impossible to listen to just one song.

Over the past ten years it has very slowly, unexpectedly but decidedly, become one of my favorite albums ever (consider this my ode). There have since been countless times when I have laid back in the sun/on a bus/all over the world, closed my eyes and with the opening "Welcome to paradise" sample, been launched into a daydream of horses, flutes, discos, fairgrounds and seagulls (not being florid, these are all sampled). The Avalanches offers the same escapism as listening to the Beach Boys does; their music comes from somewhere you know is infinitely more sunny and idyllic than where you are. Details of a second album have been sparse and shrouded in speculation for years, and so you can imagine my anticipation after reading in a recent press release that the production is now finished, the new samples are being cleared of copyright and that... "it's so fuckin' party you will die."

Aguante

2011-05-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

Lloyd Banks feat. Avant - "Karma"

One more chip off a broken heart.

2011-05-27T14:03:00.001-07:00

Julianna Barwick - "Vow"

William Basinski - "Disintergration Loops 1.1"

William Basinski thanks to Said The Gramophone at some point in life. Image from Sverrir Thor.

Days Of Heaven

2011-05-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

Bob Dylan - "Going, Going, Gone"

Still from Days Of Heaven, one of my favourite films.

Meek's Cutoff

2011-05-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

True Romance II

2011-05-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Bonnie Raitt - "Nick Of Time"

Part I / Part III

Sick O' 'Phants

2011-05-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Penny and The Quarters - "You and Me"

True Romance I

2011-05-17T15:00:00.001-07:00

Ricky Lee Jones - "Young Blood"

Part II / Part III

WITHOUT YOU I'M NOTHING

2011-05-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

Passages of Prophecy.

2011-05-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

Patti Smith - "You Light Up My Life (Live)"

U.S. 90

2011-05-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Emmylou Harris - "All My Tears (Be Washed Away)"

Molly Sweeney - "Florida"

Photo is "U.S. 90, En Route to Del Rio, Texas" by Robert Frank; Molly Sweeney via Said The Gramophone.

A Laying On Of Hands

2011-05-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Nina Simone - "Just Say I Love Him"

Photo by Jacob Holdt.

Cowboy in Sweden

2011-05-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

Lee Hazlewood & Nina Lizell - "Vem Kan Segla"

Limpopo Is Burning

2011-05-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Chefchaouen Rooftop Anthems

2011-05-09T05:10:00.001-07:00

Clint Eastwood & General Saint - "Sweet Sweet Matilda"

David Zé - "Undenge Uami"

Hugh Mundell - "Jacqueline"

Photo by William Greiner.

Chemical Nights, Las Vegas

2011-05-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

The British Expeditionary Force - "Commotion"

Spacemen 3 - "So Hot (Wash Away All Of My Tears)"

Bella Donna

2011-05-07T01:41:00.000-07:00

Oil painting in motion: must be watched.

Young, Ready, Hot, Heavy

2011-05-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Omarion - "O"

Young Gunz feat. Rell - "No Better Love"

Photos taken by John Humble.

Version

2011-05-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Tales Of Granada

2011-05-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

Colin Blunstone - "Andorra"

Dire Straits - "Sultans of Swing"

The beautiful photographs are taken by my exiled Patron Saint, Poppy Beale Collins. The songs are for her too.

Cuando, Cuando, Cuando

2011-05-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Lola Beltran - "Las Mañanitas"

Eight Dollar Nights

2011-05-02T09:17:00.001-07:00

Philip Glass - "Violin Concerto Movement 1"

Philip Glass - "Violin Concerto Movement 2"

Philip Glass - "Violin Concerto Movement 3"

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU BABE! YEAH, IT'S REALLY WINDY! WHAT'S THAT? HANG ON BABE, MY DRESS IS BLOWING UP.

2011-04-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

LORD HA'MERCY

2011-04-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Top Cat - "Love Mi Ses"

Fair Winds Blow

2011-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

Joan Baez - "Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Live)"

Well I Got This Guitar And I Learned How To Make It Talk...

2011-04-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

This is my current escapism: it makes me want to do a sultry dance with Audrey Horne.

Grasshoppers and Junebugs and Magnolias

2011-04-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

Paul Robeson - "Every Time I Feel The Spirit"

Sundown Lullabies

2011-04-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

Kenny Roberts - "Sweet Little Cherokee"

Brenda Lee - "I Wonder"