Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

 Damn!

Since my antipathy for all things Time Warner forced me to finally get rid of cable, I don't see as much late night TV as I used to, but I caught Turner on Kimmel the other night and he and that Limey lot  promptly handed my ass to me.

I say again: Damn!

Kudos to Epitaph for snapping up Mr. Turner. He had been on my radar with his collabo with the mighty Jon Snodgrass and while Old Fast Songs is a great fucking tune, I didn't think I'd fall as quick and hard for England Keep My Bones as I did. My Irish affections aside, as you might surmise this is quite an English record. Turner has heard himself a Billy Bragg or two, but he's far from a carbon copy. Whether keeping it traditional with English Curse, upping the punks and skins in I Still Believe or taking it to the open road with I Am Disappeared, Turner gives it the business. You should give him yours and snap up England Keep My Bones in whatever format works for you here from Mr. Brett & Co. 

Up the punks!

R

Frank Turner and Jon Snodgrass - Buddies

The JS-NYC love for Jon Snodgrass is well documented, and he's been playing straight into our hands with a slew of collabo records over the last couple years. Everybody seems to want a piece of our hero, and the most recent collaboration to come down the pike is with Brit indie-punk minstrel Frank Turner. Called Buddies, the record is a ten track song cycle (with companion drunken studio banter) of quasi-extemporaneous documentation of the Turner/Snodgrass buddydom. If I could hang out with Snodgrass, I'd probably write a record too, but for the most part, the songs on Buddies are ok at best. I can't say I'm especially crazy about Frank Turner, but he does knock one out of the park with Old Fast Songs, a humdinger of a track that will definitely make the JS-NYC Best of 2010 comp that should be available by the turning of the year. That is reason enough to pony up some dough, but I'm pretty sure that Buddies is only available in a short run of green vinyl from UK indie Xtra Mile Recordings, and for that reason may not be the first record you should snatch up. There are rumors of iTunes availability after the 1st of the year. Keep an eye out, if only to snag that Old Fast Songs track. If you are already a fan, or just intrigued by JS-NYC sycophanty, Turner is here and Snodgrass HQ can be found here.

R