Listening Club - 22nd April 2012

Good day to you all,

Yes indeed, the world has rotated another 1/52th already (okay, slightly less than that, pedants), bringing you back here to this blog once more, ready to see what mysterious delights await...

But first, as is the custom in these here parts, I must extend the thanks of us all to @monkeytypes for last week's excellent choice of Sparklehorse's debut album, "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" (yes, I did cut and paste that). A bit of a classic, and one that got pretty much all of you in it's spell, although some sad moments followed as those less knowledgeable about the band caught up on their history. A much missed talent indeed.

(respectful pause)

Anyhoo, @monkeytypes has passed the (recently polished) LC baton across to @tiberyo for this weeks choice, so over to him for the intro:

"When I was younger, I was friends with a guy--let's call him Steve. Steve was a pretty cool guy. He was a bit more into drugs than I was and he seemed really mentally scarred in a number of ways, but he was a good guy to have around and everybody liked him.

Now, Steve and I were good friends. But Steve had a really cool older sister--let's call her Olivia. Olivia was everything I was attracted to at that moment. And she and I started hanging out. We'd go out to movies, get high together (only once or twice), swap records and call each other. We eventually became better friends than me and Steve. Shame, but that's how life works.

Olivia would go on to university a year before I did, in a city far away. We stopped texting around January of her first year. We're still friends on Facebook, cos that's how the 21st century works, apparently.

Anyway, the first time we swapped CDs from our collection, she nearly stapled one into my hand. She was absolutely certain I would love it like only she did of her entire social circle. When I got home and listened to it for the first time, it was a revelation. It was absolutely fantastic from start to finish, and I subsequently sought out every release by that band after that album.

The album we're listening to this week isn't that first record. It's the record after the record after it. But it's also damned good, and I hope you like it."

Direct download here (via Mediafire), or streaming option here (via Mixcloud).

Kick-off, as always, is 8pm BST (GMT+1), search #listeningclub and follow @listeningclub to see what's going on... see you then!