After a gap of 18 months, Sombrero Fallout is alive and kicking.
As I mentioned in the podcast, I’m very grateful to a couple of people in particular who pushed me over the edge. Maybe that’s not quite the right expression - who inspired me to pick up my trusty Audio-Technica microphone and to return to the recording studio, aka our kitchen table, viz Michael Justin and Isabel Dupey. But others also.
The 2010s have not necessarily been Sombrero Fallout’s favourite musical decade. However each brings its own magic, myth, mirth and mystery. It’s hard to find a discernible pattern in the choices here, but perhaps that is the pattern from now on: the postmodern world, the mosaic of fragmentation.
Plenty of bangin’ songs though. One great thing about living in Melbourne is the opportunity to see all the Northern Hemisphere bands as they pass through, escaping their winter. I’ve seen most of these artists in the last decade. And an additional pleasure has been seeing my own children embark on their own alternative musical journeys over these ten years.
(I’m a bit rusty and forgot to name check the last artist on the podcast itself: it’s Richard Dawson from his album ‘2020’ and ‘Two Halves’).
Barry Davies, the football commentator, for whom every match was a moral confrontation, once exclaimed: “Look at his face! Just look at his face!”. That after a striker had reeled away in delight having belted the ball into the old onion bag. I imagine you’ll be running around the guest bedroom hollering, “Listen to this! Just listen to this!” in about an hour’s time.
Tracklist:
20. Ready to start, Arcade Fire
19. Intro, The xx
18. R U mine?, The Arctic Monkeys
17. Troublemaker, Camera Obscura
16. Bloodbuzz Ohio, The National
15. Death with dignity, Sufjan Stevens
14. A private understanding, Protomartyr
13. Venice bitch, Lana del Rey
12. Mars, Caribou
11. Two halves, Richard Dawson