Les Crêpes et les Galettes
5th January 2025
3rd January 2025
Downloading & replaying is discontinued. However, tracks played on Friday evening were:
Beach Riot - Meltdown
WitchDoktors - Before the War
Bedouine - One of These Days
Gramatik feat. Eric Krasno - Torture
The Marias - Real Life
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond Vs Hermes House Band
Ann Wilson & Tripsitter - This Is Now
Charli XCX feat. Billie Eilish - Guess
The Datsuns - MF From Hell
Twenty One Pilots x Stromae x Pomme [MASHUP] - Ma Meilleure Redecorate
Crumbs - Dear Deirdre
Holiday Ghosts - Today's Headlines
Bonny Light Horseman - Tumblin Down
Big Time Rush - Only One
Armia - Na Ulice
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Silver Strings
Andra Day - Where Do We Go
1st January 2025
Sleep Apnea
27th December 2024
Downloading & replaying is discontinued. However, tracks played on Friday evening were:
Kissin' Dynamite - My Monster
Gene Clark - Back Street Mirror
Sahra Halgan - Sharaf (keep the culture alive)
Plastic Bertrand - Ça Plane Pour Moi
Micheline Allaire - We Will Make Love (French Version)
Still Corners - The Dream
Laura Cox (Live at Pol'and'Rock Festival) - Going Down (See "Titus writes" below)
God Colony & Roy - Loss Is Not Infinite
Elton Motello - Jet Boy Jet Girl
Julia Jacklin - Someday
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Greentea Peng - Hu Man
Cheekyboy - Chemical Drummer Boy (Chemical Bros. v. Johnny Cash & Neil Young v. 50 Cent)
Parsnip - Papier Mâché
Shannon & The Clams - Golden Brown
23rd December 2024
Titus writes:
This is my final blog of 2024, as I shall be away
for New Year, and I have chosen a pioneer of the guitar on the
internet, Laura Cox, to write about. Laura has led the way for many
young guitarists, is a multi instrumentalist and is now at the
forefront of the current landscape of guitarists in France and
beyond. “France?” I hear you say, “With a name like Laura Cox?”. Let
me explain......Laura was born in France on 24 November 1990 to an
English father and a French mother. She first started playing the
guitar at the age of 14, using a cheap classical guitar that her aunt
gave to her, and her first electric guitar was a Squier Showmaster. At
the age of 16, she started her own channel on a well known site that
displays videos & music, and this built her a large audience. By
2008 she was not only posting cover versions and guitar solos, but also
uploading self penned music. Until she was able to turn professional,
she worked in a recording studio and a guitar shop.
Following
her online success of gaining several million views, she formed her
own rock band in Paris, giving her first hand experience of playing to a
live audience. Laura has used a variety of guitars, such as Gibson
Les Paul, Fender Telecaster and Fender Stratocaster. The Laura Cox
Band released its first studio album ‘Hard Blues Shot’ in 2017, and
followed this up with ‘Burning Bright’ in 2019. Laura chose to release
the third album, ‘Head Above Water, a year or so ago, in just her
name. She chose to re-invent herself, and recorded the album at the
World famous ICP Studios in Brussels. You will hear on this, that she
plays precision guitar, blending traditional rock with blue grass with
astonishing ease. She illustrates that she is a more than competent
guitarist and that she is a driving force in a new generation of rock
guitarists. For her third studio album and from then onstage, she
chose not to play as joint guitarist with Mathieu Albiac, and instead
utilised a keyboard player.
For
the ‘Head Above Water’ album, Laura chose not to work with the band in
her native France, and holed up in Portugal by herself, to write and
demo the record’s 11 tracks. You can hear how she shines as a
multi-instrumentalist, exploring outside her comfort zone, and
integrates her banjo playing with the aid of lap steel into a few
songs. She apparently wanted the end result of the third album to be
less heavy than the first two albums, with a decided ‘Southern’, blue
grass and country influence.
She
is unusual in that when she writes, she produces the guitar riff
first, and then adds other instrumentation, at the same time deciding
what type of vocals the track should have. All in all Laura has worked
hard to become an accomplished guitarist and vocalist in what is still a
very competitive sector within the rock music industry. Some would
argue that it is an extremely male-dominated sector. If you have never
heard of her, then please give her a listen – I think you’ll be
pleasantly surprised when you hear her perform her own material and
cover versions. Undoubtedly music journalists have proclaimed that
she is heavily influenced by X, Y, and Z guitarists, but I reckon it’s
pretty cool, in the track I’ve asked Lex to play, (as one commentator
put it) to hear of a French musician, singing in English at the
Pol’and’Rock Festival. It not only proves that music is a universal
language, but also in simpler terms, that Laura Cox rocks! The track is
‘Going Down’ and can be found here. I wish you all a peaceful New Year and hope that 2025 is kind to you.
20th December 2024
Downloading & replaying is discontinued. However, tracks played on Friday evening were:
Laurice & Grudge - I'm Gonna Smash Your Face In
Malka - When You’re Here
Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers - Freezing This Christmas (Parody)
Måneskin - Baby Said
Glen Hansard & Lisa O'Neill - Fairytale of New York (at Shane MacGowan's Funeral)
Johnny Reggae - Don't Get Your Knickers In A Twist
The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun
Troy Redfern - Van Helsing
St. Christopher - Burnout
Shygirl ft. Yseult - F*Me
Cosmit - Hard Love
Jose Feliciano x Van Halen [Mashup] - Ain't Talkin' 'bout Feliz Navidad
Marika Hackman - Driving Under Stars
FUZZRIDER - Dusk Till Dawn
AC/DC x Brenda Lee [Mashup] - Dirty Deeds Around the Christmas Tree
Thatchers Snatchers - Fcuk The Casualties
Sabrina Carpenter - Buy Me Presents
Kacey Musgraves - The Architect
15th December 2024
Titus writes:
Rather than do my usual blog, where I tell you
about a band or artist, I thought I’d do a review of the various blogs
& happenings in 2024. Remember, you can check all blogs and
playlists out by going to the archive section on www.wtfisthis.ovh (or use the search box, bottom right).
I
started the year telling you about a band that I really feel strongly
about – in a nutshell I cannot understand why the Would Be’s never had
any commercial success. To me, like The Undertones were to Peely, they
were the perfect pop band, and whist they never ventured into any
obtuse genre, they just played pop brilliantly. I still play their
records and always will – in fact not a lot of people know that I shall
have the words ‘My radio sounds different in the dark’ embossed on my
tombstone. I also wrote about the late, indefinable eccentric that
was Ivor Cutler, and I was happy that this had good feedback
from IRC (judging by the log). Young Ivor wrote some bizarre
stuff, that John Peel once referred to as “An assault on the reason”.
As the Winter drew slowly to a close, I wrote about 70 Gwen
Party, Skimmer, Biosphere, Aphex Twin, and Doctor John
Cooper-Clark......the man who described his own appearance on ‘Desert
Island Discs’ as “All the finality of a suicide note, without actually
topping yourself”. We looked at the career of The Fall, plus the Sex
Clark Five, and the raucous punk band that are The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It
was pleasing to read another blog – this time on Northern Soul – by
Paul Mason.
Many
people have said to me over the years that I am privileged to have
been at the first ever Glastonbury Festival. They are right – the
music was magnificent, but please let me reiterate what I said in my
blog, that there were few other pleasantries about the event. It was
uncomfortable, not particularly well organised, had dreadful sanitary
facilities, and a very limited choice of food. However we did enjoy a
glass of Worthy Farm milk, as part of the admission fee of £1. Fast
forward to 2024, and contrary to most thoughts in 1970, this is now
perhaps the most Internationally known festival, and nowadays, tickets
are sold online, selling out in a matter of minutes. This year, I
thought PJ Harvey put in an exceptional performance, and the Vaccines
played an explosive session on the Woodsies stage. Predictably the
headline acts were Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Shania Twain, and Seasick
Steve. Talking of Dua Lipa, many of her adoring fans sat through Polly
Jean’s set, in order to ‘reserve’ their place when their heroin
eventually took to the same stage. They surely must have wondered what
on earth they had come to, listening to tracks from ‘Let England Shake’
and ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’ !!!!
By
this time we were well into the festivals season, both at home and
abroad, and most festival goers really enjoy the open air and the
feeling of togetherness & happiness. I’m sure there are far less
crimes committed at festivals than in some cities. I won’t painstakingly
go through each festival, as there are so many. Increasingly popular
are the extended sets that DJ’s perform such as at “Tomorrowland”,
where top DJ’s like Charlotte de Witte play sets in excess of five
hours to a participative audience. There is nearly always a fantastic
light show and high energy dancing – oh how I wish I was young again!
I
talked of favourable comments via the I.R.C. and these were well
received when Lex “handed over the reins” to Anne & I in the Summer
and we chose the playlist of some memorable tunes we have enjoyed. I
also did a blog on the duo Underworld, which also received good
feedback. I’ve tried to cover all genres where I believe there is a
hidden talent , such as in reggae, country music, African music
(particularly soukous). I’m often asked which is my favourite and the
truth is anything that’s good to my ageing ears. Of all the blogs I
have compiled this year, I enjoyed an Autumn offering I did, of the new
band The Last Dinner Party most. Apart from the fact that ALL members
of this band can really play, they have a lead singer in Abi, who is a genuine show person with great stage presence.
I
think the track title of the year must go to Katina, with ‘Don’t stick
stickers on my paper knickers’ – and Lex played this track way back in
March. Bands / artists to look out for in 2025? I’d say The Last
Dinner Party, The Castellows, Wet Leg, Japanese Breakfast and Pom Pom
Squad to name but 5. Album of the year? Well, it’s officially classed
as an EP, but The Last Dinner Party’s ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ gets my vote
every time. I’m sure many of you have different views – whatever they
are, I respect them.
I
have asked Lex to play something rather different this week. It’s
seasonal in that it’s about Christmas, and it’s a song that The Pogues
very narrowly missed out on, by not achieving the coveted ‘Christmas No.
1’ way back in 1987.(It reached No. 2, missing out to the Pet Shop
Boys’ ‘Always on my mind’). This was when Christmas number one’s
weren’t arguably so predictable as they are today. I refer of course
to ‘Fairy Tale of New York’, but this is a different version, performed
by Glen Hansard, Lisa O’Neill and the remaining Pogues, at the funeral
of Shane McGowan, held at St Mary’s of the Rosary Church, Nenagh,
County Tipperary. It can be found here - all the very best for the Festive Season.