JosieJo’s Great Big pair of Tips

The JosieJo Show 4

Hello. Now you know how important music is.  I don’t need to tell you that.  Music can get into your mind, it can serve as a memory cue, it can be a companion in the harshest of times and scientists have found that it can even release feel good chemicals to change your whole mood.  I’ve heard it described as many things and one of those is that “Music is how emotions sound”.  Now I don’t know how you’re feeling right now, but for this show, as for all my shows, I’ve got two very different tracks from two very different bands.  One band is drums, guitars, bass and an in-yer-face vocal.  The other band…isn’t.

One of the wonderful side effects of loving independent music and consequentially producing this show for you is that I’ve met and befriended some of the most genuinely lovely people in my life.  Among these I can count The Big I Am.  The Big I Am are Peter MacPartland and Colin Heany a duo disregarding the rush and noise of modern life to bring you beautiful sounds that gladden the heart.  I can’t lay claim to the description “acoustic lovelyness” in reference to The Big I Am, but I honestly can’t think of a better one.  With a tenor Ukulele and a Cuatro guitar (which is how I think you pronounce it and is definitely, probably, so I’m told a guitar of the lute family)…with those instruments you can imagine a folky sound, but this Liverpool duo are much more than that.  Not only are they genuinely delightful, calm and charming, together they create an engaging tonal performance.  I’ve seen them play live on a tiny stage in a North London pub, but their uplifting, swelling sound is so much more than the sum of its parts. You can close your eyes and imagine them filling a festival stage, a stadium and even the sky above you.

With this in mind I’m going to play you the title track from their beautiful album “Collecting Skies”, but if you want to hear more of their tracks there are some available for free download on their reverbnation page and if you seek them out on Facebook you can hear over 20 tracks.  If you would like to hear more acoustic versions of their songs try the Rash Records release of the album “Better Days”, but back to the track for this show “Collecting Skies” from the album “Collecting Skies” is a really excellent way to start with The Big I Am.  It has a soulful feel that makes you want to find a hill, stand on the very top of it, to fill your lungs with a big sky, your heart with love and your life with more…well stillness really.  It is subtle and gentle whilst coaxing you to a higher plane.  Lift yourself up with the confidence, pride and gorgeous music of The Big I Am and “Collecting Skies”

https://www.facebook.com/thebigiam?ref=ts&fref=ts

“Collecting Skies” by The Big I Am.  I love that track.  It makes me want to never miss a minute of this life, well apart from sleeping; sleeping is good and the really yucky icky bits of life, I could miss those too.  As a little aside there is an exciting project from The Big I Am’s record label Rash Records which involves Peter and others called “The Musician’s Musician”.  Like minded musicians have come together to create a compilation of covers, remixes and collaborations of each others work.  This album includes a performance by The Penguin Party of the funny sunny song “You’re 24, Stop Talking About Disney, Girl” by Ian Thistlethwaite.  Go to the Rash Records homepage and get a copy for a voluntary donation to the charity Epillepsy Action.  Choose what you pay in other words.  Psst be generous it’s for a good cause.

Now wake up.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve learnt that you can love life and everyone in it whilst, at the same time, realising just how objectionable and unpleasant people can be.  The world is a great place, but it can be a bit trying and well…”GRRR….” making.  If music is really how emotions sound then this next band is probably how “Grr” sounds.  This is The St. Pierre Snake Invasion from Bristol, England and they are punk garage alternative rock to shake your bones and shout your general annoyance along to. Live, by all accounts, they are frenzied, committed and crowd surfing.  Their sound is guitars, bass, drums and growling vocals that makes absolutely no excuses for itself.  TSPSI fans (and if you are a true fan that’s what you call them) simply can’t get enough of them live.  If you want to get get up close and personal and help pass the lead singer, Damien, over the crowd then get down the front row with your dancing boots on.  They play the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on 19^th October 2013.

They have a track, “Encore, Encore” out on the Red Side of the 12 inch vinyl Best of Bristol and that track can also be found on their own EP “Everyone is Entitled To My Opinion”, but it is the vocal gymnastics and musical definition of “Call the Coroner” that I want to introduce in this show.  It’s a track about the death of conversation and the instruments very cleverly mirror the “my go- your go” of a conversation at the start of the track.  As the song progresses and the music and the lyrics get increasingly cynical of social interaction, the gaps get shorter so that the other person can’t get in.  The death of the conversation becomes inevitable as the emotion rises and the band gets stronger.  The St. Pierre Snake Invasion and “Call the Coroner”

www.tspsi.co.uk

Boom… and if you’d like to join the TSPSI dedicated fan base, or you’d just like to get your happy little hands on downloads and merchandise then go to www.tspsi.co.uk

For other links including how get those compilations I talked about The Musician’s Musican and Best of Bristol then go to my facebook page JosieJo Show and you’ll also find extra content including my photos of The Big I Am and others.  For new, events, gigs and releases follow me on twitter @JosieJoShow.  I also blog this show on tumblr and blogger and visit my website www.josiejoshow.com where you can contact me with suggestions for future shows and find links to the bands and the show that all started this Round At Milligan’s.  I am and always will be, JosieJo and you are and I suspect always will be lovely.  Thank you for listening.