In an international instrumental style

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s Shortwave Gold broadcast of Skybird Radio International on 3975/6160 kHz.

The show is all about grooves from around this world of ours but this time it’s about the instrumental. There’s some wonderful eclectic music in a true worldwide style as usual from all of the Imaginary Stations DJ’s including DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

At 29 seconds in is a mix from One Deck Pete, here’s the tracklistings:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Hermanos Gutiérrez – Cumbia Lunar
Mouth – Ooh, Ahh, Yeah
BackYard Riddims/Tommy Khosla (Sitar) – SchaantiDub
Bob Keene Orchestra – Comin’ on Again
The Supersonics – Second Fiddle

Have a listen to the show as it’s brilliant and you’re welcome to add the singing bits yourself!

Keeping them peeled in Cincinnati

A big shout goes out to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore in Cincinnati for sending us a couple of pictures of garden related stuff found on his journeys last weekend. As Justin writes  “On Saturday afternoon, I was walking the dog and what did I spy with my little eye, but a garbage can full of little wooden fence slats. We have long wanted to put some fencing around the compost all the way in the back to keep the dog out of it (she likes to sniff through the old food, no wonder she is so gassy). Here was my golden opportunity!”

“Then on Sunday my wife and I were picking up our daughter and her dogs to take them for a walk in the woods. Out in the neighbors trash on the curb when we pulled up was a box of pots that my wife Audrey immediately scored and threw into the back of the car.”

“Audrey was fond of this band Blanche, and their song “Garbage Picker” and I agree that it’s a real good one.”
“You never know what you’re gonna find, so keep’em peeled!” Cheers Justin!

Big shout going out in the direction of the lakes

A very big thanks to Rich R for sending us some great pictures from the Lake District over the last couple of weeks. The one above is from Derwent Water in Keswick looking towards Borrowdale. My gosh, now you’re talking! And the one below was taken on his evening stroll, you can’t any better view than that in our opinion.

And below is a very odd moon making an appearance up there, the other night below, crazy stuff. The Lake District looks like one wonderful place Rich and ta for the pics, they are always welcomed.

Also cheers for the confectionary goodies emergency parcel (from the excellent Village Shop, Braithwaite) last week from the Lake District Rich. To say they were appreciated was an understatement! Thanks very much for that.

And the musical accompliment to this post is this week’s episode of the always excellent Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA Radio (Tallinn). A big cheers to RD for playing Madtone’s WP1 at 54 mins in. It’s a wonderful 2 hour show and well worth listening to.

Who said electronica was boring

A big shout to our good friend actoss the pondJustin Patrick Moore (of the excellent The Radio Phonics Laboratory Book here) for passing on this great piece of electronica. It’s from GLOK / Timothy Clerkin with a lovely track called Empyrean. Starts pretty bonkers and gets even better, it’s a catchy bit of electronic malarkey. No idea what it reminds us of but it is great. Cheers Justin!

More things we didn’t know part 24

We’re just putting another shortwave mix together and picked this tune from Tommy McCook & The Supersonics called Second Fiddle. It starts off with a “Popeye the sailor man” type motif then into a very interesting rock steady number.

Then we found out by accident that The Incredible String Band did a cover of it. Well we never knew that! There’s a lot we don’t know we reckon, music is one big can of beans.

Since you’ve been away

You go away for a week and when you come back the garden has grown a little. We have a pair of cheeky cardoons at the bottom of the garden that have survived whatever is eating the leaves for the last couple of years. They are looking quite majestic!

As we didn’t have much luck with our pepper and tomato seedlings earlier this year, the plants we bought from B&Q are doing well and the few bargain ones we bought at Blythe Hill Festival are starting to grow a little even if they were a little late being put in. We can’t remember how many we got but it was 5 or 6 for £2, what a bargain!

The above was another plant bought at a summer fair. We think it may be Lambs ear, Mullen as we were told next year we’ll get some tall yellow spear flowers. It’s technically a weed but one that attracts pollinators galore. If it’s something else do let us know.

This blog post was written whilst listening to this wonderful soundtape put up by the great Dave Brown (in Mississauga, Canada) from November 1980 and a brilliant tape it is too! If you love the older soundtapes do have a look at his mixcloud.

And if you want to hear a slice of Jamaica from 1977, listen to the great Jah Love Muzik below.

Even more from north London

Just before we go away for a few days at the south coast, here’s some great gardening pictures from our friend in north London, Debby H. The cosmos patch is still going strong (above) and bright and colourful. The next is the cana lilly, now flowering for the first time this year (below).

“Then there’s the wonderful Ornithogalum (below) with four flowers now clearly visible.” it does look wonderful Debby!

Then there’s the sedum (above) and the great Zephyranthes Lilly flowers (below).
“And just up the road from here is a great front garden with a wonderful array of tomatoes all along the front border. There’s also sun flowers and other plants I don’t recognise.” That front garden is crazy! Love those climbing tomatoes! Cheers for sending those Debby.

Big shout to apprentice dentists everywhere

Big shout again to Dr Strangedub of the excellent Echo Chamber show on KFAI for the debut play of Jasmine Tutum & Madtone‘s newest tune called “Times and Tings” at 47.00 mins in after the classic track “Apprentice Dentist” from the great Lone Ranger. Tune in here.

As you know the good Doctor S with DJ Baby Swiss presents the show every Wednesday morning (available on archive here too) featuring the best in reggae, dub and downbeat and well worth tuning into from 8 am.

Much more music…

News just in! There’s a new EP release from Jasmine & Madtone and it’s up on Bandcamp here featuring the two tracks that were on The Rhythm Doctor’s excellent mix on Gilles Peterson’s Breakfast show on Worldwide FM. Expect more new music from Jasmine & Madtone soon!

Hats off to all of the bus related gardeners out there

We love a bus here at Weeds but it’s a different story when we think of bus stations. They never had a good reputation and they still conjure up scenes of just missing buses by a split second, waiting for the first bus in the morning in a different city after sleeping upright on a plastic seat all night after a gig years ago or aimlessly walking from stop to stop looking for the right bus scratching one’s head when on holiday in a different country.

Thanks to our good friend Debby H the reputation may be changing going by the photographs she took of the great flower display outside Nantwich Bus station (which has 4.5 star reviews on Google by the way fact fans!) Just look at those hanging baskets! We reckon there may be some comfrey liquid involved but we’re not complaining.

We love the named herb tubs under the massive hanging baskets (top and below image) and would love a cutting of the Mint Basil as we’ve never grown it before. Big shout to the gardeners/volunteers/bus drivers who maintain the patch as it’s immaculate, no deadheads on those hanging baskets we see. Thanks for those pics Debby, they are great. Now if only the Weeds’ garden was as tidy.