Podshambles 40: Snake Oil (Season Finale)

Podshambles 40: Snake Oil (Season Finale) is now OUT! Here’s what to expect:

The Podifications have been made and the results are simply flabberCasting. That’s right – it’s the end of Podshambles Season 2.

Look at how far we’ve all come – it’s actually rather astounding that we’re still here/not dead. So what better way to celebrate than an ENORMOUS Podshambles Special?

Laurie and Paddy are joined in this Podquest by soon-to-be movie star James Utechin and already-super-rad Zac Cole for a good ol’ fashioned game of Snake Oil.

We really hope you enjoy this extra-fantastic episode. Thank you all so much for your continued support of the podcast and YouTube channel.

Bring your RainbowPhone and start banging your UrgeDrum. Once more unto the breach my friends – it’s Podshambles 40.

Click here to listen on Acast, or just listen using the thumbnail below!

Alternatively you can click here to download on iTunes/subscribe/check out the back catalog/my lovely lady lumps.

Aren’t friends brilliant?

Big love,

Paddy & Laurie & James & Zac XXXX

Podshambles 39: Big Wang Theory

Have a Podspoon of Castor oil and get involved – the Agents of Shamble are back from their travels and have a brand new dollop of ear fun for you.

Paddy had a run in with some of his heroes, Laurie had a roast, and we discover why 41 is the new 27.

Stock up on supplies, raise the drawbridge and brace yourself for impact. It sounds confusing because it is – it’s Podshambles.

Click here to listen on Acast, or just listen using the thumbnail below!

Alternatively you can click here to download on iTunes/subscribe/check out the back catalog/I believe in a thing called love.

Happy Valentines and so on – hooray.

Big love,

Paddy & Laurie XX

Shambletracks: Grace Petrie says Farewell To Welfare.

Hello everybody.

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.

Shambletracks: Once I heard this great song by Pearl Jam.

Good day Sirs and Madams (?) – I trust the winter has not been too harsh on the crop yield? The Viscount sent word of troubles in the north, I do so hope young Timothy recovers from consumption before too long!

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

Hello all – Paddy again. I’m just so predictable.

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 TENCRAZY) 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.

Big Love,

Paddy XX

Shambletracks: Those Hot 8 Brass Band boys sure do know how to Sexual Healing.

Hello, and as ever, hurrah.

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 NOT smile. 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.

Have a wonderful Thursday.

LOVE,

Zac.

XXXX

[Editor’s note: Paddy is rad lololololol]

Shambletracks: Taj Mahal makes it clear that you Ain’t Gwine To Whistle Dixie.

HELLO. I’m here again. I being Paddy. Paddy being Paddy from the Podshambles.

How are you? GREAT, GOOD TO HEAR IT. I am also well – I’ve just finished doing a prerecord for Shoreditch Radio on Ella Woods’ show ‘Ella Plays What’ which has been super awesome. It was a Valentine’s Day special and I even got to choose some songs (for your information I chose Love In The Afternoon by The Martin Harley Band and No Children by The Mountain Goats – both classics). Do give it a listen on Shoreditch Radio this Friday at MIDDAY.

Anywho, I’ve chosen something a little different today. It’s an eight-and-a-half minute instrumental (I know, right?) in the form of Ain’t Gwine To Whistle Dixie by Taj Mahal. Point number one: I have been listening to this song for twenty years, and doing a quick google revealed to me that it isn’t in fact called ‘Ain’t Got To Whistle‘ – the name I have been referring to it by for literally 83.3333% of my life – which is a massive embarrassment. Point number two: it is gorgeous.

I was primarily brought up on blues music. My Dad plays the blues better than anyone I have ever met, and so the dulcet tones of old America used to ring throughout my childhood home every single day – and it was magnificent. My father is one of those guys that can just play music. Hand him an instrument and he will ace it: double-bass, jazz piano, trombone, erhu – you name it. He fucking rules. He’s in his mid-sixties and is still taking music lessons every week to ‘make sure he keeps his eye in’, and regularly plays with his bands ‘Lady & The Gents’, ‘The Coffin Dodgers’ and ‘Trains’. Thus it was only natural that myself and my siblings all learnt music from a very young age, all going on to forge careers in the industry. The one thing we can all agree on it that blues was the instigator – and it was all thanks to Dad.

I’m sure I’ll cover a fair bit of the music he introduced us to in the coming months, but the song that instantly springs to mind is this one. Perhaps it’s because it’s a long piece with no vocals, and therefore provides some kind of backing track to the vast majority of my earliest memories. Maybe it’s just because it is rad. Either way – here it is.

If you haven’t listened to Taj Mahal yet – DO IT NOW. Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (his real name) is a musical mastermind and a bloody hero to boot. Have a dig through his discography and you’ll find he has played with literally everyone under the sun (odds are you have heard him before on one song or another) and quite rightly so. Check out The Best Of Taj Mahal for an idea of his style.

I hope you enjoy the mellow tune from my youth ‘Ain’t Gwine To Whistle Dixie’.

You’re welcome.

Big love,

Paddy XX

Shambletracks: TV On The Radio are always on my TV and my Radio.

So I forgot that Laurie is technically on holiday this weekend and I was meant to do all the Shambletracks. Erm. Woops. But I’m here now so it’s totally fine, and boy oh boy woah check it out wham bam thank you ma’am have I got a treat for you sonny Jimbo. It’s here, it’s now – it’s TV On The Radio.

Ever since I emerged from my bio-egg as a tumbling cub (/happy-go-lucky scamp) I have been filled with a yearning – an insatiable thirst for something to wow me. I frolicked for years, heading from port to port (not sailing, just tumbling) trying to find a seemingly unobtainable high. It never came.

UNTIL ONE DAY.

I was stood outside The Star (a sleepy pub just off Cowley Road in Oxford), having one final pint with my brother Walter before I boarded the bus to move to London. I was scared as I had lived in Oxford my entire life and the prospect of moving to the big smoke was in equal measure tantalising and petrifying. You know when you’re sort of unsure about whatever you are about to do, and as a result you end up making your current task last as long as possible to try and procrastinate your way to not having to face the inevitable? I was doing that. I’d been nursing the Guinness for a good 45 minutes when my brother approached.

“I have something for you, you know, to listen to on the bus.” He grinned and handed me a mix CD, and suddenly everything was fine. You see Walter always accents big moments in my life by making me mix CDs. He gave me one every Christmas as I grew up, every exam period, every birthday, every failed relationship and every major accomplishment. The mixes were always there, helping me on my way, and they were always fucking sensational.

I remember this one so, so clearly. I listened to it all the way to my new flat and I fell in love with every single band on there. It had some storming tracks on it (Sin (Live) by Nine Inch Nails, It Fit When I Was A Kid by Liars, Televators by The Mars Volta, Last Nite Of The Proms by Youthmovies – and many more gamechangers) but one in particular stood out for me: Love Dog by TV On The Radio. It genuinely made me smile, and suddenly everything was going to be okay. Sometimes songs resonate in that very special way – this was one of those times.

Love Dog is a restrained, heartfelt and honest song, with perfect harmonies and haunting strings pulling it all together. It draws inspiration from Persian poet Rūmī’s ‘Love Dogs‘ (the final lines of which read “There are love dogs, no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one of them.”) and manages to become a topic for debate in its true meaning – the main question being is it about falling in love with partner, or is it about finding God. Give it a listen and draw your own conclusions – I truly love this song.

I know this has been a bit of a serious one, but hey I spend so much time dicking about it’s actually quite nice to show a different side of things sometimes. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Without further ado, I present TV On The Radio‘s ‘Love Dog‘ from the album ‘Dear Science‘.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfUv6r3iVOw

That’s it from me today – I think the Hamburglar/Corporal #coolmoves/Magic Magic Johnson/CrumpetKing1000 (Laurie) will be back tomorrow!

Big love,

Paddy XX

Shambletracks: The Staunton Lick rejuvenates your faith in happiness.

hello it is paddy i am 24 and one month old and i like songs.

That’s how I would start if I had my way – but I don’t. So I’ll begin like this:

Hello! It’s me again (me being paddy who is 24 and one month old and likes songs). Perfect.

I hope you are all well – apologies for the delay on this instalment of Shambletracks – last night I ended up going out to buy chicken and then sort of…didn’t make it home? It’s just one of those things isn’t it. You guys know. We ALL know. I ended up discussing the best party build for Dragon Age Inquisition (#coolmovesdragonwhatsup) and then watching the film Heathers – a film that I was promised was good, and ended up sort of destroying my faith in cinema. It was a long night, but don’t worry friends – I made it out alive.

Today I have chosen The Staunton Lick by Lemon Jelly. I was going to go with something horrendously depressing, but decided to try and cheer up and revisit my favourite British TV show of all time. That show is Spaced, and this song is the music in the final scene. Spaced basically changed everything for me. It got me interested in comedy, which is now my job, and gave me a whole new slant on how to construct humour. Spaced was everything I had ever wanted, and I still cry every single time this gorgeous song bleeds in the background of that fateful finale. If you haven’t seen it, go and watch all of Spaced right this minute. You can burn through it in a day, and you will never regret it – I promise.

The song itself is simplicity at it’s finest. Built using the most basic of chords and melodies, gradually building and stripping into a tune that will a. get stuck in your head, b. force a grin onto that surly face of yours, and c. make you admit that you’re scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders who will immobilise human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese.

Laurie, Zac and I sometimes put this on in the flat when we need to remember everything is going to be totally fine. You should too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBLWDF2nfP8

That’s it from me – have a drink. Go on. I fucking dare you. I’m going to have a drink. Drinks drinks drinks.

Big love,

Paddy XX

Shambletracks: Oh wow – it’s The Martin Harley Band. OH WOW, OH WOW.

I, Paddy, have returned from the fields of battle and I bring word of the ‘monkeys riding dogs in order to herd goats’ uprising – basically, stuff is not looking good. Some of the chimps even have tiny lassos and novelty hats. I cannot begin to describe the destruction I have witnessed (though I did just begin to describe it – I think what I’m trying to say is I am now going to stop trying to describe the destruction I have witnessed as I’ve really backed myself into a corner here with a joke which is fine at best and relies heavily on the ‘monkeys riding dogs chasing goats’ google search I did earlier).

Anyways, hello. I’m here – isn’t that lovely? Over the past few days you have been lucky enough to experience two people who are really, REALLY good at writing writing really, REALLY good things about the good realities of good, REAL music (fuck me – that was even difficult to write down, let alone say out loud). NOW YOU HAVE ME. SUCKS TO BE YOU, DICKHEAD.

The Shambletrack I have chosen today is ‘Love In The Afternoon‘ by The Martin Harley Band and there are many reasons behind this – such is the nature of choosing things. The main reason is ‘these guys are shitting brilliant‘.

I was introduced to TMHB (The Martin Harley Band)…(I’ve just noticed that it really defeats the point of giving an acronym if you then have to explain it immediately afterwards…and then further defeats it by going on for like 42 words explaining the situation you now find yourself in) ANYWAY me and TMHB (see before OH SHUT UP PADDY) go way back. I was introduced to the band by Shamblefriend and genuine friend James Utechin back in 2007ish. Now I know what you’re all thinking – “Paddy, is that the same James Utechin who played Young Remus Lupin in the flashback scenes of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yet due to the editing of the full movie only actually ended up in it for two-thirds of a second?” YES IT IS GOD WOULD YOU STOP GOING ON ABOUT IT ALREADY? Christ alive. Anyways, James is one of my heroes and has an impeccable music taste (as long as you like music that is either balls-to-the-wall rock’n’blues, hairspray-fuelled glam-metal, or anything happy that manages to rhyme words such as ‘drinking’ and ‘thinking’, ‘smoking’ and ‘choking’ or perhaps even ‘whiskey’ and ‘frisky’).

Long story long, The Martin Harley Band were his discovery, and I am so indebted to him for the gift he gave me from that day on. The band manages to combine genuine virtuosity, fist-stomping rhythms and brilliant lyricism – wrapping it up in some ol’ timey blues motifs to boot. They’re everything I want in a feel good band (although their more restrained, slightly sadder stuff is equally excellent) and to top it all off they really know how to put on a show.

I don’t think there’s a huge amount I can say about the song itself – the video has about 40 seconds of pre-cursor setup (which I do love) but when the guitar kicks in you know you are about to have a fantastic time. The main merit for me would be it proves they are a band that cares as much about rhythm and feel as they do about fancy footwork and solos – and being a rhythm guitarist myself I have so much time for that.

So make sure you have a drink in your hand and a partner to smile with – and throw on this tune. Not recommended for people with bad ankles as you will, I repeat will, tap your foot.

All my love,

Paddy XX

p.s. expect a return to coherent sentence structure and viable use of the English language upon Laurie’s return to Shambletracks tomorrow.