Oh look – a new one. ‘Podshambles 34: The Quaxon’ is out now!
Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho / It’s off to pod we cast / We’ll keep on shambling all day /long / Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho Heigh-Ho Heigh-Ho.
It’s a real honky-tonk this week in Shambalala as Paddy undergoes rigorous psychological profiling, Laurie unleashes his new theme tune and Flagon uncovers the secrets of the Orville Memorial Duck Sanctuary.
Keep your powder dry and your hats jaunty – this Turpin just got dicked.
You can listen to it on Acast by clicking below, or alternatively you can download it from iTunes by following this link: Podshambles on iTunes!
That’s all from us, so it’s goodbye from us and goodbye from us.
NEW EPISODE KLAXON. It’s all gone a bit fantastical this week at Shambleville U.S.A (Pod-ulation: Cast) as Paddy & Laurie take a weekend away together to – you guessed it – play Dungeons & Dragons.
There will be dogs. There will be hangovers. There will be Two-Handed Bearded Axes of Gnoll-Slaying +1. You better get your D20s out as this podcast is about to get critical.
This also marks the start of us being AS REGULAR AS A BOWEL MOVEMENT/fortnightly wank. We will be releasing an episode every two weeks, with you late Tuesday Night/Early Wednesday. Everything is kicking off.
You can listen to it on Acast by clicking below, or alternatively you can download it from iTunes by following this link: Podshambles on iTunes!
Totally forgot to post this on the website – a new episode is now out! Sound the shamble-horns and alert the village elders – there’s a fangorious pod-beast on the loose and it’s coming right for us.
Under its fleshy jowls this week: Paddy and Laurie put the Twitter phenomenon that is #100HappyDays to task, share some heartwarming tales of childhood vandalism before catching up with Flagon the Dwarf, Barbossa the Pirate King and Oliver, the other one, in another exciting, unplanned episode of CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE.
The iTunes link is: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/podshambles/id626090689?mt=2
OR listen to it below, through the medium of Acast. They’re rad.
Send in your thoughts, suggestions and geese pictures to podshambles@gmail.com
You can also follow our gubbins on youtube here: www.youtube.com/ThisIsAShambles
Sorry for the short notice, brave Shambleers sent from the year 3000, but we are going to be live streamingcoverage of E3 (The Electronic Entertainment Expo) with the wonderful folk at Ginx TVall of tomorrow night!
We’re due to be presenting a segment covering the Sony conference panel, where the Playstation daddios are poised to reveal info about the next Uncharted game, God of War 4 or even the Last Guardian are expected to be teased, flirted and flashed very briefly from behind a dark curtain. It’s on at 4am until 5am on Tuesday morning, which we think you’ll agree is the BEST POSSIBLE TIME TO BE ON.
We’ll also crop up at various other junctures whenever any of the other hosts get too tired or too embroiled in the latest Hello Kitty Online Adventure updates (which are pretty exciting).
You can join us on the live stream at ginx.tv or via Twitch at twitch.tv/ginxtv from 8pm on Monday – we’ll also be tweeting throughout. Let us know if you’re watching!
Hello, brave Shambleers! How fare you?
Oh?
Well I thought she was getting better?
Oh. I see. the tentacles.
No, no, please, send my best! Just don’t mention her…
Yeah, the beak.
Well I’m sure it is de rigeur in Paris but frankly…
OK, OK. Yup. Extra trill. OK. Bye!
We’ve not been back for a while, admittedly, because we’ve been busy working away at the YOOTYOOBZ for a while! We’ve got lots of treats for you, if you’re interested…
First, our series of ‘A Goodnight Shambles’ – quick sessions where we talk utter bollocks and cursorily paying attention to a game – is up, wherein we play Hearthstone. REVEL as we talk about Paddy’s purple nips, among other treats.
Second, we’ve got some choice highlights from the podcast in the form of CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE! By popular demand – well, Nigel and his rabid dog down the pub made a passing comment about it so we thought we would. We’ve already made it up to the ADVENTURE TRAIN, with more episodes shortly to follow.
And, finally, our playthrough of SUNLESS SEA continues, with crabs coming out of our arse and Liam Welton, developer at Failbetter Games, keeping us in check. We’ve had a little break but will be returning with more SOON.
That’s all for now, do SUBSCRIBE TO THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE if you feel so generously inclined to do so. Also, do email, tweet or carve messages into your flesh if you a) like what we’re doing b) don’t like what we’re doing c) would like to propose some sort of excellent business plan centered around high duck fashion to us.
Well ahoy, avast, and away we go, Shamble Cadets! Welcome to the good ship ‘YouTube Videos’!
Yeah, can you actually believe it? We’ve actually gone and made a bona fide video with a video game in and us talking over the top and keeping vaguely on topic! Wowee! Our first outing is with the fantastic Sunless Sea, a HP Lovecraft-fuellled roguelike seafaring adventure game, heavy on the storytelling and atmosphere. We had an absolutely brilliant time.
Our maiden Shambles voyage is with Liam Welton, all-round good guy and one of the lead developers on Sunless Sea. He helped us out when we inevitably got into problems with the mouse, our own ability to breathe and actually being able to survive the first half-hour of playing, for which we are eternally grateful.
Check out the first part here and, remember, check back every Tuesday and Friday for more Shamble-vids (Shambeos? Shamble Cinema? whatever).
It’s been a while. I know I usually say that in jest because it generally hasn’t been a while, but today I mean it. I very rarely mean things, or do I? We may never know.
So as you may have gathered from smatterings of tweets, facebook posts and Laurie’s tear-jerking (genuinely) LCD Soundsystem ‘All My Friends‘ Shambletrack – I am now in America. New York City to be precise, and I will be remaining here for the time being. Of course this has thrown a comically-sized socket-wrench into the purely metaphorical cogs of Podshambles (yeah that’s right guys – we have metaphorical cogs. Metaphorical cogs powered by FRIENDSHIP) but never fear – I’m to an extent back on the radar. It took me a good week to get used to residing out here, and I’m still very much adjusting to the intricacies of Stateside life – for instance everyone thinking I’m adorable because of my voice, the absence of soft drinks that won’t instantly kill you, or having to order ‘a pack of Marlboro Reds’ as opposed to ‘twenty Marlboro Reds’ – a conundrum which ended up with me accidentally being handed 400 hundred cigarettes by a cashier who thought I was either mental or trying to kill myself.
BUT THAT’S LIFE GUYS.
I’ve found a spare half an hour, so here we go. I was going to do something loosely based on New York City but I feel like I’ll be doing a few of those whilst I’m out here and I don’t want to just aimlessly throw something at you guys because it conveniently has the words ‘New York’ embedded in the lyrics somewhere. So I’ve chosen a song that actually means something to me.
I was asked in an interview today (that’s right – I do interviews because I am super cool) what my favourite political song was, and the answer was so blindingly obvious. Farewell To Welfare by Grace Petrie is a stand-out masterclass in just how effective and meaningful political and satirical music can be. I first gigged with Grace about three years ago and she blew me away. Her songs have so much heart and honesty that it brings a tear to the eye, and she is politically dead on – hitting points such as anti-LGBT discrimination, the victimisation of the working people and the attitudes of the husks currently running our UK government.
This goes out to everyone who gives a shit about our country and the people who live in it. Grace you are an absolute star.
Thanks for reading everyone – I’ll be back to usual soon, just need to get over some culture shock/sugar poisoning/getting hit by a big yellow taxi whilst ‘jaywalking‘ (?). You can buy the music of Grace Petrie (and more with her band ‘The Benefits Culture’) buy clicking HERE.
Big, big love and HEY IF YOU’RE IN NEW YORK GIVE ME A CALL ON 555-PADDY-NEW-YORK-PHONE-.com. I think that’s it?
Paddy XX
p.s Oh my God I actually just saw a TV advert for meow mix. I’ve wanted to see what all the fuss is about for years. Now I know. The cat even said ‘I want chicken I want liver Meow Mix Meow Mix please deliver’. IT WAS AMAZING. #meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow.
For God’s sake, though, don’t mention arses in front of Tony. You know how he gets, with the piles cushions, his chart of the ‘gliterarsi’, the soft, velour touch of his fingers as they waft over your shapely cheeks… I’m already a-quiver, Dorothy, just don’t bring it up.
Oh? You won’t stay? But I was about to put the LCD Soundsystem on?
LCD Soundsystem, then, aka James Murphy and His Merrie Bande of Electro-Pirates, Funk-Merchants and All-About Musical Jamboree. They’re a funky, punky, pop-upstart outfit who until very recently made all of New York City their bleeping, blorking playground. On record, though, almost everything is sung, struck or stuck together by Murphy himself. What a guy.
In 2011, and after releasing three wonderful albums, Murphy announced that LCD Soundsystem would be permanently turning off the stereo, but not before a globe-spanning tour that would culminate in one mega-gig at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Yours truly, the lucky bugger, managed to see the farewell show with Hot Chip in Cardiff, and it was fucking beautiful, as was having Murphy and co DJ immediately afterwards and being able to shout my compliments directly into his sweaty face.
The Madison Square Garden gig has gone down in folklore as being one of the most emotionally charged and affecting shows you might have been to. There’s an amazing film of it called Shut Up and Play The Hits – made by Pulse films, who also did the great Blur at Hyde Park documentary – that compares it to ‘the best funeral ever’, which is pretty apt. Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, aka Troy of Troy and Abed, even showed up in the crowd.
‘All My Friends’ comes at one of the best moments in the show. It’s a song about growing old and trying to piece together a night out together with the old gang, and though everything’s a bit rusty, and you’ve got kids waiting at home or a job in the morning, they still manage to have a life-changing evening. ‘Though when we’re running out of the drugs/And the conversation’s winding away/I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision/For another five years of life‘, Murphy croons.
It is, also, dedicated to young Paddyshambles, who’s fucking off to America after tomorrow’s Shambletrack. I think the song is quite a comforting reminder that, no matter what changes in the weeks, months or even years you’re away from your mates or from home, nothing really changes. The same people matter, the same things really matter, and even if your Podshamble partner comes back with a new accent, haircut and outrageous shoes, he’s still pretty great.
NB: The live version is pretty much perfect too and is found here.
I can’t believe I have gone this long without approaching Pearl Jam as a Shambletrack. Pearl Jam are one of my all time favourite bands and I think I was struggling with choosing one song to play you. I mean, I love every song they have ever written so picking one seems like an underhanded betrayal of all the other ditties they jigwhistle. So I’ve decided to go with the first Pearl Jam song I ever heard – Once. This was the opening song of their debut album ‘Ten‘, released August 1991, and thus is the reason I heard it first. I was given the album by my first guitar teacher when I was ten (WEIRD HUH? TEN AND TEN – CRAZY) and I worshipped it through the medium of walkman monopolisation. If you’re not a Pearl Jam fan – I totally understand. Eddie Vedder, like many grunge frontmen, has one of those distinctive marmite voices (see: Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Elmo) – there’s no middle ground on opinions of him. I personally and clearly love it. Half of the time you have no idea what he’s saying, and the other half of the time you just assume it’s something excellent. HE’S AMAZING. I now have every Pearl Jam record and will never ever grow tired of them. I urge you to do the same.
PJ (abbreviated because AND WHAT) really have it all. They can be heavy as a sack of hammers (see: Even Flow), soft as a rhythmic pillow (see: Better Man) or just mad as a bag of spiders (see: the drunkest ever cover of Baba O’Riley). This is grunge music at it’s absolute zenith – may it continue to reign supreme.
Enjoy – kicks in after about 40 seconds of weird atmospheric beauty.
That’s all from me today – bit of a short one but then again so are some crusted pies, concise jokes, and the inhabitants or Ironforge.
Today I have a challenge for you all, one that will test your mettle to its very limit and reveal your true nature – you will be forced to look into your soul and, with wide eyed acceptance, confront who you really are. That’s right guys, Shambletracks just got heavy.
Thursday’s trial by musical fire – listen to today’s track and DO NOTsmile. Don’t jig, bump, sway or bounce – especially no bouncing.
I am going to make a prediction; you will fail. And that’s OK, completing today’s dastardly and outrageously difficult challenge would sound alarm bells for even the coldest amongst us.
So, what is this song; this unimaginably happy melody, this oasis of sound in a cold grey Thursday desert, this Bill Murray of a tune. Well, let me introduce you to Hot 8 Brass Band’s cover of Sexual Healing, originally, of course, by Marvin Gaye.
When it comes to this song I am completely bias, so I could be overestimating how happy it will make all of you lovely people, but for me this tune stirs up wonderful memories of my last birthday. When my friends gathered on a warm July evening to treat me to a Dirty Burger and a trip to see Chef – it sounds low key and could even sound dull, but it was a great Wednesday evening. This song capped it all off – being used in the film to add a bit of shine to one of the film’s many many happy moments (it really is an incredibly easy watch, good food, good tunes and almost no drama to speak of).
There is really very little left to say about today’s Shambletrack; because I am pushed for time but also because that’s it, it’s simply a happy song, and a great cover of a classic, just let the cool brass sounds wash over you and enjoy.
So good luck with today’s challenge, and let us at Podshambles/Shambletracks know how you get on.
