For Your Ears For Your Eyes #20

Hi – It’s Dave here at Mumubl.com, welcome to our recommendation email where I give you some tips on what’s great to listen to and watch in the world of music.

There’s been a summer hiatus here at Mumubl. A little longer than planned but quite a nice one. Unusually I haven’t been taking in that much new music during this period, it’s been a nice chilled summer with some old classics. Plenty of live cover bands, some decent pool side playlists and dips into older stuff via things like the Snow Patrol 20th anniversary release of Final Straw.

Whilst the Mumubl instagram has been kept up to date, the Three For Friday quiz not missing a week – if a little late in the day on one or two occasions. My use of social media has definitely been down. I used to use Twitter (no I’m not calling it “X”) via tweetdeck a fair bit but I’m refusing to engage in paying anything for Twitter at the moment with it being such a shit show so removing that from the workflow has dropped my usage a bit. Threads hasn’t picked up quite so well either, it’s still a lot of brands and it’s missing some useful tools, I’m not entirely disengaged like some though – I think it could get there. Also being away and being busy means I’ve not afforded the same amount of time to social media browsing as I might. I’m enjoying it, dipping in and out. It’s refreshing to not be browsing and constantly trying to get that push and reach on there.

Back to the task in hand though, it’s the return of our recommendations newsletter “For your ears, for your eyes” and it’s a single focus this week as recently the great music podcast “The Art of Longevity” hit it’s 50th episode. One of the great things about committing to blog more has been finding new stuff to watch and listen to and this is a podcast that has been a mainstay since I first discovered it. But read more below.

If there’s any things you think I should be listening to, reading or watching then let me know, shout out on the Mumubl.com social media wherever you reside.

As always – tell all your friends – every little share helps

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Currently checking out – The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons by The Hives

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In this edition

The Art of Longevity / MUMUBL.COM

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50 episodes of The Art of Longevity

For those unaware The Art of Longevity is a podcast based around / inspired by Brett Anderson’s artist journey and looking at how artists fall into that mould and their path to a continuing music career. All via a lovely chilled out interview with Keith, The Song Sommelier. I’ve been listening since very early on, tipped off by Fenner Pearson of Electronic Ears who popped up to interview Gary Numan on the show.

The podcast has featured many times in the For Your Ears, For Your Eyes newsletter and has recently hit 50 episodes with a great interview with Corey Taylor of Slipknot – I would never have guessed this is where the podcast would end up when the series started.

So to celebrate I thought I’d pick out 5 episodes I’ve really enjoyed, some good places to start off with if you’ve not listened before. Then when I’d made my shortlist it still had 25 episodes on it! Off the top of my head I’m not including the great chats with KT Tunstall, Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian), David Freer (Mogwai), Suzanne Vega and Grant Nicholas (Feeder) and so many others on the long list. That still leaves out the highlight of Brett Anderson of Suede being questioned about the “artists journey” that helped inspire Keith to start the show.

If you’re new to the podcast then go through the list, pick an artist and give it a go, or have a look at the five recommendations below and start there.

Turin Brakes

Episode one, a good a place to start as any, and this was Olly Knights of Turin Brakes. As with many of the interviews this was a group I listened to and long ago lost track of. And as with many of these episodes it spurred me back to listening to the songs and albums I’ve missed. This has been part of the joy, rediscovering old stuff I knew and finding new stuff I didn’t, catching all the bits from the intervening years. This is a great intro to the show as it settles into it’s groove.

Paul Smith

Paul Smith is front man of Maximo Park, an indie band from Newcastle, probably most well known for songs like “Apply some pressure”. I did, back in the day, listen to a few tracks and I think I have one of their albums but I never really took to loving the band. I still don’t and god did this interview make me feel bad about that. Paul talks so fantastically about his music, inspiration etc that I wanted to give everything a re-listen with this new perspective. I’ll be honest though it still does’t tick all the boxes for me and I feel bad for it not being on my wavelength when so much of Paul’s words and ethos chimed with me. One of the charms of the podcast has been enjoying the interviews even if I don’t always enjoy the artist’s music as much. It really struck me since listening to the interview, but there’s no accounting for taste right?

The Wombats

“Indie landfill” is the phrase to sum up this interview. The open honest talk of the tag applied by some critics to bands like Liverpool’s The Wombats is a definite highlight. A phrase that is seemingly embraced by drummer Dan Haggis. I’m still waiting for the announcement of a proposed indie landfill festival, no doubt featuring many other beloved bands of my youth.

Norah Jones

This was one of the many interviews that really got me sitting up and taking notice of the sheer calibre of artist who was keen to engage with Keith on the show. As “Come away with me” approached a 20 year anniversary and a celebratory release Keith spent time chatting with Norah Jones about the recording of the album as well as her career to date. The recording process, things she’d do differently both in her career and the album recording are all covered. This interview provides some great and interesting insight into being a recording artist and how it’s changed in the past two decades.

Ben Folds

A personal favourite as an artist and top of my list of people I’d hope to see pop up on the podcast since the start. Ben Folds is someone who strangely seems to be both mainstream and underground all at the same time. He always comes across as someone who spends a lot of time thinking about and exploring the creative process and music in general. On the eve of his latest release “What matters most” Keith chatted to the pianist about all things musical and life in general. I’m sure there was scope here for an interview that could have gone on for hours.

So there you have it, just 5 of my favourites but have a look at the full list below and pick an artist if you’ve never listened. There’s so much knowledge and insight in every interview it’ a great listen and the preview for the next series has just dropped with Goo Goo Dolls John Reznik.
Thanks to Keith and all the artists who’ve joined him for producing such a great podcast. I look forward to the next 50.

Art of longevity first 51 episodes

1.01 Olly Knights (Turin brakes)

1.02 Nile Rogers

1.03 Laura Viers

1.04 Gary Numan

1.05 Tim Booth (James)

1.06 Paul Smith (Maximo park)

1.07 James Skelly (The Coral)

2.01 KT tunstall

2.02 Ed Robertson (Barenaked ladies)

2.03 Fin Greenhall (Fink)

2.04 Steve Berlin (Los Lobos)

2.05 Jonas Bjerre (Mew)

2.06 Portico Quartet

3.01 Suzanne Vega

3.02 Grant Nicholas (Feeder)

3.03 Britt Daniel (Spoon)

3.04 Tears for fears

3.05 British sea power

3.06 The Wombats

3.07 Steve mason

4.01 Teenage Fan Club

4.02 Stuart murdoch (Belle and Sebastian)

4.03 Norah Jones

4.04 Divine Comedy

4.05 Calexico

4.06 Bruce Hornsby 

4.07 Nerina Pallot

5.01 Everything Everything

5.02 Waterboys

5.03 Interpol

5.04 Alela Diane

5.05 Embrace

5.06 Death Cab for Cutie

5.07 Brett Anderson

6.01 Aqualung

6.02 Blancmange

6.03 Delines

6.04 Rumer 

6.05 Gaz Coombes

6.06 Rditors

06.07 Gavin Rossendale 

7.00 Dave Rowntree

07.01 Rickie Lee Jones

07.02 Mogwai 

07.03 Joseph

07.04 John grant

07.05 Ben Folds

07.06 Ron Sexsmith

07.07 The Walkmen

Corey Taylor 

John Reznik

From Mumubl.com

The Mumubl.com website continues to get new posts and you’ll find one from me for a change, not a discussion of pencil cases but a look at the Foo Fighters hit Monkey Wrench. Head over to check out the latest pieces on there and also don’t forget you can sign up to add your own and share your musical loves.