Billy Bragg - A Lover Sings

Always loved this one from his 1984 album, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg. The opening line alone is one of my favourite things he's ever written.

 

Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams

This may have been ridiculously overexposed a few years ago through being used in about twelve different companies' advertising but, erm, that's because it's really really good. I never realised she was "discovered" on Australian Idol, and actually did pretty well on it; the TV audience for singing competitions must be different down under because I can't imagine a twee-indie-folk artist getting beyond the first round over here. In saying that I suppose I have to admit I never watch those programmes anyway.

From her second (2008) EP, Welcome to the Afternoon.

The Star Department - Antlers

Newly-released track from these Dubliners' forthcoming debut album, The Pea Green Boat, though I swear this song has been kicking around for a couple years. The Star Department take bits and bobs from all the best genres, including indie-folk, twee, shoegaze and jangle-pop, and make a pretty nice concoction out of it all. I don't like this one as much as their previous best-known tune, "Embers" - it gets a bit meandery - but there's still enough in it to ensure them a place on the "ones to watch out for" list.

Seeping into Cinemas - Chipped Teeth

Dublin band whose debut album 100,000 Times was finally released this year to great local acclaim. Shy, quiet folk-tinged indiepop. The only negative thing about their music is that every time I see them I get really annoyed because I can hardly hear them play over people talking. People who talk at gigs by bands like this should be shot.

Chipped teeth by Seeping Into Cinemas

The Hermit Crabs - I Don't Know How

Glasgow band who walk the fine line between indie-pop and indie-folk. I bet they get compared a lot to Camera Obscura.

This is from a 2009 EP.

Ben Watt - Some Things Don't Matter

He's probably best known as Tracey Thorn's other half but Ben Watt was a singer-songwriter in his own right before Everything but the Girl came into existence. His one solo album, 1983's North Marine Drive, on Cherry Red, was similar enough to what he and Tracey would go on to do together (at least in their early years) although of course lacking EBTG's most vital feature - her stunning voice. Still, it's a very pleasant piece of minimalist jazz- and folk-tinged pop which more than merits a place next to your Marine Girls records.

The Lotus Eaters - Fishing Boat

Not the '80s Liverpudlians of "First Picture of You" fame. This was an American band (Boston, to be precise), active in the early 1990s, who managed only a few 7"s before disappearing.

This was a b-side to their first single, released on the Harriet label in 1992. It's a charming little blend of twee, '80s jangle-pop and what used to be called electric folk - that's probably the mandolin - with some of the purest and sweetest female vocals you'll ever hear. It's a pity they didn't stick around very long.

O Emperor - Only Comes to Pass

A band from Waterford in the southeast of Ireland who are often compared to the likes of Mercury Rev and Grizzly Bear. Not exactly my sort of thing but I have to admit they do it as well as anyone else does. Better than many.

This is from a 2010 EP.

God's Little Monkeys - You Win Some But Lose More

God's Little Monkeys were a left-wing indie-folk band from York, active in the late '80s and early '90s. I wouldn't have been a huge fan of theirs and they were definitely something of an acquired taste, but I always found this one irritatingly compelling. It's from their second album, Lip, from 1990.

Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone

Always liked this one from the Femmes' self-titled debut. It's aged better than a lot of the other tracks on the album, many of which were always a bit too testosterone-laced for me anyway. Though it does bear remembering that Gordon Gano was only a teenager when the album came out. It's hard not to be sort of impressed by that.

Honeybunch - Hey Blue Sky

Yet another gem from Providence, Rhode Island's incestuous indie scene. Honeybunch were active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and nearly perfected the folky-twee sound that most of their related bands (Velvet Crush, Springfields etc) were famous for.

This was their absolutely exhilarating debut single. For more, check out the compilation Time Trials 1987-1995.

Yo La Tengo - The Summer

Because I really needed to hear a summer song on a bitterly, bitterly cold winter night like this. From Fakebook.

Yo La Tengo - Alrock's Bells

Yo La Tengo's debut album Ride the Tiger seems to be generally viewed as something they did when they were still just a work in progress, but I prefer it to a lot of their later material - especially once they started getting into that spaced-out drone stuff. To me they were always at their best as a simple folk-pop group.

This is one of the nicest tracks on the album.

The Red Rose Café - Lines

The Red Rose Café is really singer-guitarist Philip Morrow, a Donegal native, who seems to be performing under his own name now. I've only seen him once, several years ago at the Hard Working Class Heroes festival; he was the first act on the line-up and there were maybe half a dozen people in the audience for his set. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that we were the luckiest half-dozen people in Ireland that night. Shame he doesn't seem to gig very often, at least not in Dublin.

This is from his 2006 album, The New Year Tapes. If quiet, delicate indie-folk is your thing, you really don't want to miss this one.

Billy Bragg - A New England

There's another kind of Billy Bragg video going around at the moment - check it out, it's worth it - but here's an early classic. I was a huge fan of his back in the day and could probably have posted any one of a number of wonderful Bragg songs from that era, but the Simon and Garfunkel thievery that opens this track always made it a particular favourite. I Simon and Garfunkel.

Kirsty MacColl also did a nice, if not entirely logical, version.

Peggy Sue and the Pirates - Spare Parts

You know when you go to a gig to see the headliner and end up being blown away by one of the opening acts, who you'd never even heard of before? That's how I discovered Peggy Sue and the Pirates a couple years ago. I didn't even know there was another opening band, and then these two young women got onstage and started playing these deliciously subversive songs on acoustic guitars while singing in perfect harmony with their gorgeous and very powerful voices. I was actually stunned by them. And I don't stun all that easily. Any more.

They've since swapped the "Pirates" for a drummer, and are recording their debut album, which I anxiously await.

This video was taken from a live performance in Exeter in 2007. Sound quality's not the greatest, but the song is deadly. And those voices!

Elliott Smith - Pictures of Me

Here's one that I think I will let speak for itself.

RIP Elliott.