Classic album postage stamps

I did a little series of posts in the run up to last Christmas about music-related present ideas, and if I see any more this year I'll add to that series. So we'll kick off in 2009 with some stamps. That's right, you heard me - stamps.

It's probably a good thing that this special edition of stamps isn't out until 2010 because hopefully by then the post will have sorted itself out after the strike and the inevitable Christmas rush. But this set isn't a bad little bit of rock and roll memorabilia and doesn't cost much either. Also, if the recipient isn't especially impressed with your gift, they can of course just use them as stamps.

I've never bought a special set of stamps before but I think you can just buy these in the post office (or online here) for £3.90, when they're out, and the record sleeves featured on this set include these stamps right here...



Sure, they're all pretty obvious albums, but the one I can't quite tell what it is is the one second from the right on the top row. Any ideas? Oddly, they don't appear to have an actual list on the Royal Mail website, almost as if the person writing the web page wasn't given a list either and could only mention the ones that they knew.

ADDITION: In one of those bizarre coincidences that sometimes happen, I clicked on a Tweet this morning from a journalist at The Word (Rob Fitzpatrick) who was claiming Age Of Consent by New Order to be the greatest song ever. Not true, obviously, but when the Spotify link sprang up there was the mystery artwork that I mention above and it was in fact New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies. So now I know. Thanks Rob.

Two music books YOU MUST OWN

I've been investing a little time and money in some music books lately, and if you have a look around you can find some great ones out there that I've never seen plugged in music mags or the like - Borders is particularly good for them, and that's where I bought both of these.

The first is simply called All Known Metal Bands. And that's literally all it is. A long list (on black paper, natch) of a lot of Metal bands.


It's thrown up some fascinating stats (if you like your metal-band name-based trivia). For instance, I bet you didn't know that there are 9 separate bands called Hate, and that doesn't include bands that start with the word hate, my favourite of which is Hatecrow. Not sure what the criteria for inclusion is (do you need to have released a record to get in? Or just be a bit evil and wear leather and/or studs a lot?), and also the selection process for the bands in it seems a little odd - Guns N' Roses aren't in there, but L.A. Guns are. Go figure.

But no sense complaining, it's already kept me amused for a good long while, and it looks like it's straight out of Mordor, as any piece of Metal nonsense should do. You can buy it for £12 here.

The second book is a wholly more uplifting experience. It's called Gig Posters (not Gay Posters as my friend mistakenly read), and has been put together by Gigposters.com. It contains shedloads of posters that can be detached from said book and framed - something I'm certain to do at some point. It's full of beautiful work and at £20 is a steal for that amount of art. There are dozens of greats in there, from artists as diverse as John Lee Hooker, Jurassic 5, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend, but below are three of my favourites. You can buy it here.

Jazz Covers

A belated addition to the 'what I had for Christmas' post, but one that's well worth adding on. My friend got this fantastic book for me, and a sign of a great present is when you'd seen it yourself but had decided not to buy it for financial reasons. Perfect!


It's called Jazz Covers, published by Taschen, and is available here.

It is, quite simply, a collection of some of the most engaging and artistically diverse album covers ever released, across any genre. The breadth of style is staggering, and whether you're into jazz or not, it's worth at least a look, if not a purchase. To give you a taste, have a look at this selection of some of my personal favourites...


Manny Albam - The Blues Is Everybody's Business (1957, Coral Records)


Ornette Coleman - Skies of America (1972, Columbia)


John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1966, Impulse!)


Chick Corea - Tones For Joan's Bones (1968, Vortex)


Luis Gasca - Collage (1976, Fantasy)


Stan Getz / Zoot Sims - The Brothers (1949, Prestige)


Thelonious Monk - Underground (1968, Columbia)


Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine - Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine (1970, Pierre Cardin)


P.S. I'm not the only one who thinks it's great - according to the Taschen website, "Joaquim Paulo, the author of our best selling book Jazz Covers, received the prestigious Prix du Livre de Jazz 2008 awarded by the Académie du Jazz".

My Christmas Presents

It was a good year for musical Christmas presents for me - I hope it was for you too. Here's some of them.

On the actual music front, my brother-in-law got me the excellent Neil Young live album, Sugar Mountain, which is funny because I got him the exact same CD. He also got me a very nice Okkervil River t-shirt, but it was pretty big for me, so hopefully I'll be getting that in my size soon. My father-in-law got me the Love/Hate album on CD and vinyl, which is awesome - if you're not familiar with them, they were a scuzzy LA rock band in the early nineties (their singer was called Jizzy Pearl, would you believe), and the closest they came to a hit was Blackout In The Red Room. It brings back a lot of memories but perhaps most surprisingly it actually holds up pretty well. My sister got me the vinyl of the Beastie Boys last record, the all instrumental The Mix Up.

I'm big on music books at the moment, and the word was out, so I got lucky on a few of those.


Top of that pile is a book based on a great idea. It's called I Shot A Man In Reno by Graeme Thompson. Its subtitle sums it up pretty well - A History of Death By Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease and General Misadventure, As Related in Popular Song. How could I resist? That one came from my in-laws too.

Next book down in the pile is called The Long-Player Goodbye by Travis Elborough and was from friends. I'd never heard of it before but it's a great little history of the record, through all of its guises.

Next is Love Me Tender by Max Cryer. Technically not a Christmas present as it was bought by me, for me. Still it was around Christmas, so I guess it was just a present for myself. It's an awesome little book telling the story of some of the most famous songs around the world, songs such as Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Greensleeves, White Christmas, Happy Birthday and some pop hits like Yesterday and of course the track the book's named after, Love Me Tender.

And the big book at the bottom of the pile is one of I've wanted for a while - The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross. It's received a lot of plaudits all year (winning the Guardian newspaper's book award I believe). I think I'm right in saying that it's broadly a history of classical music, but seen through the eyes of modern music i.e. how much classical music has influenced and informed more recent compositions. The upshot of reading this book, apparently, is that classical music becomes de-mystified and popular music gets looked at through new eyes. That might not be entirely accurate, but I haven't read it yet so what you gonna do?

Away from books, my final musical present was brilliantly something that I'd already put on here as a great Christmas present, and what did My Wife do? She only went and bought it for me! And there was me thinking she didn't read the blog. It was this frame, which I think we'd all agree carries a sage piece of advice...

Christmas Present #5

This might be a bit more expensive than you'd want to be spending on a friend (it's about £125), but it's a beautiful thing - says it all really, doesn't it? So perhaps you could buy it for that beautiful person in your life. I'd be happy to give it a good home, if I didn't live in a tiny flat.

Buy it from these people.

Christmas present #4

Roll up, roll up, getcha Goth Punk Barbie.

No, that's not a joke - this is a genuine Barbie Doll, brought to you by those hard rockin' people at the Hard Rock Cafe.

It's $70 and you can get it from here.

I'm not really sure who you might get this for as a Christmas present. Do you know Russell Brand? Robert Smith? Any goths whatsoever? Well if you do, then perhaps buy it for them. Or if you don't know them, just marvel in the wonder that is the Goth Punk Barbie.

Christmas present #3

If you know any little people, or anyone who's expecting any time soon, then these Rockabye Baby cds could be a great Christmas present.

I bought some of these for my sister when she had a little boy and they've gone down a treat. They've taken a bunch of good bands and turned their music into lullabyes. What a great way to introduce children to quality music!?!?

The bands they have range from the pretty straightforward like The Beach Boys, Eagles, Pink Floyd and The Beatles to some more unexpected ones like Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, The Ramones, Green Day and Nirvana, and lots more besides. For extra Christmas tie-in value there's even a Christmas Rock Classics compilation featuring songs from Death Cab For Cutie, The Killers and Sufjan Stevens.

These are hard to come by in the UK so I tried Amazon at first but actually found the main website to be the best place to get them from. You can check it all out here.

Christmas present #2

After I'd made the first of the Christmas present suggestions I was a little worried that it might be a short-lived series, but I've thought of another one, and it's a good 'un.


Legendary London record shop (and label) Rough Trade have an Album Club, and the members (of which I am one) get sent a new release album each month, along with a nice sheet of paper suggesting other new releases.

So if you know someone who likes new music but doesn't always have the time/money/inclination to go out and discover new bands, then the Rough Trade Album Club is probably right for them.

It's £12 a month for a CD or £8 for a digital album, and you can join or give it as a gift for 3, 6 or 12 months, with discounts for the longer periods. I've gone the whole hog and have it recurring for the rest of time.

Of course, some albums will appeal more than others but Fleet Foxes, Sonny J, El Guincho and TV On The Radio have all come my way first via The Album Club.

Oh, and the added bonus with this one is that get to look very 'cool' to your friends. Well, in my eyes anyway.

Check back soon for more Christmas tips.

Christmas present #1

This started off as a straightforward post about a great little book that I've just come across but it's turned into a suggestion for a Christmas present for anyone musically inclined that you know. It's a bargain, under £10 on Amazon, and it's been put together in a very cool way.

The book in question is Bands On The Road: The Tour Sketchbook.


Organisers Silke Leicher and Manuel Schreiner (I won't call them authors because there's little writing in it by them) clearly had a great idea in asking lots of bands to draw something whilst on tour, whether it was their tour bus, a hotel room or a memory.

My personal favourites include Manic Street Preacher Nicky Wire's impressionist take on St David's Wood and Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie's Hotel.

Complete with a double page per drawing (and there are 107 sketches in there), full description of the drawing by the artist and mini band biogs, it's a steal at around a tenner. Most of the bands are alt.rock/rock/indie but the selection is wide enough to appeal to most.

Keep an eye out for a few more musical present tips in the run up to Christmas.