Dub gardeners of the world unite

A big shout to Jesse Yuen who presents the excellent RTM.FM show North of the River Swan that specialises in downtempo dub and low end business on the second Sunday of the month from 4-6pm. Thanks to Jesse for sending us some pics (Thanks to Dee for taking them) of his great looking indoor planting scheme. The space is so bright and alive!

There’s a good variety of plants here even though us at Weeds are not the best when it comes to looking after plants of the indoor variety (we tend to overwater them then forget about them we’re ashamed to say.) There’s all sorts here including Kentia Palm, Chinese money plant (sometimes known as the UFO plant!), Prayer Plant, Tropic Snow, Mother-in-law’s Tongue, Devils Ivy, Parlour Palm, Umbrella Tree, Yucca, Mistletoe cactus (that looks well interesting) and the well hardy Spider Plant. (By the way whilst we’re on the subject of houseplants we have to mention a podcast to start following if you love gardening of the great indoors. It’s Jane Perrone‘s On the Ledge available here.)

And Jesse sent some of his favourite tunes from the North of the River Swan record boxes below to get stuck into. We didn’t know a lot of this stuff and that is what’s good about this music lark, once you open up that can of worms it’s never ending. There’s a ton of excellent tunes played on the show too so peruse the show’s mixcloud site here.

And do listen to the last episode of the show from 2020 featuring Jesse and Dubplate Pearl as it’s excellent stuff and full of some cracking tunes! Includes Prince Fari, Yabby You, Tradition, the great Depthcharge from Keith Hudson (What a tune!), a dub of Play fool get wise by Johnny Clarke and lots more great music.

Thanks again Jesse for sending the pics and the tunes!

Pigeons have a voracious appetite for brassicas

A big shout to Jon and George of the excellent Coughing Pigeon Radio Show on Brum Radio that plays “Not just sounds from across THE spectrum, but sounds from across EVERY spectrum” as the Brum Radio website desribes the show and they’re not wrong there!

On last week’s show they played at 19 minutes in Jazz’min & Madtone’s “Return to the branches” and at 42 minutes Stefanosis with Remembering Augustus off the great FREE Echo Chamber – Around the World in Dub Volume 11/12 on Dan Dada Records available here. Cheers Jon for plugging the compilation! Give Coughing Pigeon a listen if you’re looking for a great cross-genre listening experience!

Misty in dub

The weather’s been alright up until last night when it felt more like winter. We even had a visit from the Lewisham Heron yesterday who couldn’t get any of the fish in the pond due to the fine pea netting thrown over the top and gave up his statuesque posing after a few minutes. This morning we woke up to the above, mist galore. We reckon they’ll be a few jobs to be done in the garden this weekend, digging up dahlia tubers maybe one of them!

And here’s a great tune for those cold dark nights indoors, A man called Adam‘s Tic Toc (Disco Rockers Dub). It’s excellent stuff indeed, a nice off the wall dub mix reminding us of those great dub B sides on scratchy seventies seven inchers.

Which made us think of another great interpretation of dub from Bronx Dogs of Sizzla’s Rain Showers another piece of clever mixer madness with some nice cut ups thrown in plus what sounds like Tubby’s “Squawky”. A nice tune that works very well even at 33!

And while we’re looking back a few years here’s a great tune Imperial from Lazy Boy that has a lovely dub interlude at 1.16 mins in which could go on for ever in our eyes!

Dub don’t you just love it?

And now the end is near

The final Free Radio Skybird programme of this year (bar the repeat two weeks later) is on Sunday November 21st at 1200 UTC on 6070 kHz via Channel 292.

It features DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore with The Radiophonic Laboratory and Weed’s own One Deck Pete with “Tunes to cheer you up.” Tune in!  #shortwavesnotdead #freeradioskybird

Don’t touch that dial (again)

DJ Frederick‘s Free Radio Skybird is back on the 49 Metre shortwave band again this Sunday October 25th (and repeated the week after) as part of the station’s tenth anniversary. The broadcast goes out at 1200 UTC on 6070 kHz via Channel 292. Expect the usual mixture of stuff with DJ Frederick, The Radiophonic Laboratory and Weed’s own One Deck Pete. Tune in! #shortwavesnotdead #freeradioskybird

To all balearic gardeners out there

A big thanks to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore for passing on another great horticultural-related set, this time from Mazzo called Sound for Gardening.

Reminiscent of all things Café Del Mar, chilled house and summer afternoons, this is one belter of a balearic set. Our favourite tracks are: Cloud Mattress that could be on any of the Jose Padilla cassettes from the late 1990’s, Water Based has a real Moments in Love-ness about it and Clear Sky Cold Wind is as chilled as it gets! Any balearic gardeners out there?

What else that is sound for gardening, are the two containers (above) found outside a house with a sign with “Take Me” on it earlier today. They’ll need a good clean out and a lick of paint and then they’ll be well okay for some spring bulbs. It may only be the autumn but we’re thinking of the spring! Cheers again Justin for the tunes! #keepempeeled

Postscript: We have just learnt minutes after posting this up, that the great Jose Padilla of the Café Del Mar passed away yesterday. RIP Jose Padilla. To say we’re sad is an understatement, 2020 has been such a rubbish year…

Can’t live without my radio

We’re a week and a bit behind on This is a music show and this afternoon listened to show number 084 and there were some great tunes played (including thrift store finds and more Polish records too) alongside a shout for Free Radio Skybird too (Cheers Your Host!) We loved The Lost Generation with The Sly, Sick and the wicked. We’ve never heard of it before and it’s one hell of a tune!

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-084

And then a few records later Your Host plays the Leroy Sibbles version of Ain’t No Love which is another belter! The 12″ we own was obtained for a couple of quid a few years ago from the market around the back of Vauxhall Sainsbury’s which was not a place for the faint hearted! The only flea market that has heavy heavy security. God forbid it can’t be still there now.

Hearing that Leroy Sibbles tune we were brought back to a time when we used to own a cassette of the great Mikey Dread on his radio show in Jamaica from Christmas 1978. What a tape! Here it is in all it’s glory.

So do yourself a favour and tune into This is a music show if you like good tunes and across the board business! #thisisamusicshow #freeradioskybird #dreadatthecontrols

It’s Reggae time!

Big shout to Jesse Yeun for including One Deck Pete‘s “Weeds up to me Knees dub mix” (at 59.29 on the mixcloud below) on his great North of the River Swan show on RTM:FM yesterday. There’s a right old mixture of great downbeat on the show from Karminsky Experience, Tortoise and even one from a duo called One Deck & Popular. Have a listen in…

On the shortwaves on Sunday

It’s DJ Frederick‘s Free Radio Skybird on shortwave this Sunday 11th October (and repeated the week after.) The broadcast goes out at 1100 UTC (12 Noon UK time) on 6070 kHz via Channel 292. There’s a great piece on Numbers stations, Justin Patrick Moore‘s Radiophonic Laboratory and One Deck Pete with “Tunes to cheer you up.” Tune in! #shortwavesnotdead #freeradioskybird