Daryll-Ann Again

A 2014 Daryll-Ann gig at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, more or less in its entirety? Oh, go on then!

Daryll-Ann Again

The reformation of Dutch maestros Daryll-Ann has been a huge cause of celebration round these parts this winter. The band are back playing gigs together and with a comprehensive anthology box set, Daryll-Ann Again, on sale, covering their entire recorded output from 1988-2004 plus loads of previously unreleased demos and outtakes. They are still sounding absolutely magnificent as well. If there's a better live band out there I've yet to hear them. Cop a load of these recent performances!

And this was them twenty years ago in the promo video for Stay, which I'd never seen before until Excelsior Records stuck it up on YouTube a couple of months ago. Unearthed treasure.

Buy the Daryll-Ann Again Box Set here

Song of the Day

Wonderful.



Buy Paulusma stuff

New album from Jelle Paulusma

For obvious reasons it's been a pretty depressing weekend, so I think some optimistic music is called for to lighten the mood a tad. In which case, cop a load of this.

Jelle Paulusma - A Little Better Every Day mp3

Erstwhile Daryll-Ann frontman Paulusma has released a new, third, solo album, Up On The Roof - which, sadly, is proving nigh-on impossible to get hold of here in the UK. The Dutch iTunes store have it, though, if you have an account with them. (Ridiculously, a UK iTunes Store account isn't sufficient to enable you to buy it.)

You can, thankfully, stream the album in the handy widget-type thing below, however, which is something at least.

Daryll-Ann - MTV's Most Wanted

A youthful Daryll-Ann play two songs - Ocean Girl and Doll - from their Come Around EP live on MTV's Most Wanted in 1994, introduced by the legendary Ray Cokes - who joins them on tambourine as they play out over the closing credits. Music TV gold! (Look out also for a young Steve McManaman on drums.)

New Acid House Kings & Christmas round-up

After a break of six years (six years!), Sweden's twee pop maestros Acid House Kings are back with new single Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends? Thankfully for them, after such a long absence, the song's a corker and well worth the extended wait. The band's new album, Music Sounds Better With You, will be out on Labrador in the spring.

Acid House Kings - Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends? mp3

The rest of this entry's devoted to Christmas songs so readers of a curmudgeonly nature may wish to look away now.

Sheffield duo Slow Club are giving last year's festive EP Christmas, Thanks For Nothing a belated release in the US. From it, here's their energetic and faithful rendition of the Darlene Love / Phil Spector classic, Christmas, Baby Please Come Home, a song I still love despite U2's best attempts to tarnish it forever.

Slow Club - Christmas Baby Please Come Home mp3

Buy Christmas, Thanks For Nothing at Moshi Moshi

Dublin's Indiecater Records have released a new Christmas compilation - their third - featuring mostly original seasonal compositions from the likes of Dolfish, Natalie Prass, Paisley and Charlie, The Very Most, Kate and After, Boca Chica, Ali Millstein, Adam and Darcie, Standard Fare, The Gorgeous Colours and Royal Fores. You can stream the entire album here while the agreeable country stylings of Boca Chica's offering can be downloaded below.

Boca Chica - Not On Christmas Eve mp3 (right click)

Christmas was better in the eighties - at least it was according to The Futureheads on their new single of the same name. And who could possibly argue with them, apart, perhaps, from anyone who didn't spend their formative years in that decade? Anyway, I'm with the Futureheads on this. The single's released on December 19th and is rather good. Here's the promo vid:



Finally, as you're doubtless well aware, John Lennon died thirty years ago today. We're marking the occasion here with a super version of Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by blog favourites Daryll-Ann.

Daryll-Ann - Happy Christmas (War Is Over) mp3

Ride On Time

I had that Anne Soldaat in the back of my cab the other day. Insisted I play his latest single on the stereo so he could sing along so he did. Well, I don't normally go south of the river at that time of night as you know, what with all the crime and the puking punters and what have you, but I made an exception for Mr Soldaat as he's a lovely bloke. He left me a great tip as well: "Buy my new album a bit sharpish, like". Or words to that effect. So I did, and it's bloomin' great. Gawd bless yer, guv'nor.



Anne Soldaat - Going South mp3

'Going South' is taken from Anne Soldaat's album In Another Life

Things I've Learnt Watching YouTube

Number 2:

The video for Come Around by Daryll-Ann was filmed on April 5th 1994, the day that Kurt Cobain died.

Anyone making any sick jokes about them both being shot on the same day can see me later!



(I've not got an mp3 of this song handy at the moment but if there's any sort of demand for it I can stick it up here on Monday, when I should have access to the CD. So pipe up if you're interested!)

See You, See Me

Daryll-Ann - Blind mp3

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact: Daryll-Ann took their name from Andy Renko's wife in Hill Street Blues. The Hill St homages didn't end there, though: the above track is from their first album, which they called... Renko! (Quite right, too. HSB was always my favourite cop show as well, and Renko a brilliant character.)

Three of a Kind #68

I know what you're thinking: if only there were some way I could get hold of a bit of Christmas-themed music on the blogosphere; like, say, three rather tuneful cuts from the 1998 Dutch yuletide compilation Zo, Dit is Kerstmis. If only.

Ho, ho, ho.

Daryll-Ann - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) mp3

Solex - Santa Monica (Kissing A Man With A Beard) mp3

Caesar - Hang Myself From The Tree mp3

(Probably best to give that last one a wide berth if you're feeling a bit forlorn at the moment.)

Song of the Day

Daryll-Ann - I Could Never Love You mp3

Download classic Daryll-Ann albums for a snipsome £5.95 each here. You won't be sorry!

Is it that time already?

Daryll-Ann - 10.45 mp3

(available for 7 days)

Buy Daryll-Ann stuff.

Three of a kind #38

Footballers can be an unsavoury bunch at times. Well, quite a lot of the time actually. With this in mind, today's Three of a kind is dedicated to Derby County manager Paul Jewell, who's been caught out by one of the tabloid newspapers playing away from home - and not in the footballing sense.

Paul's been a silly boy, you see, and allegedly produced (and directed!) home-made porn videos of himself having extramarital rumpo, strapping his lady friend to a bed and doing all sorts of saucy things normally reserved for the letters page of Fiesta. And now the papers have got hold of said tape - quelle surprise! - and the shit has really hit the fan; or rather hit the newspaper in question with the threat of legal action, and they've been forced to remove the story from their website.

Anyway, I'd never be so uncouth as to make any crass jokes about him being the first person on Derby's payroll to score this season, or about his boys taking a hell of a beating, so here, instead, are three songs on a theme.

William Bell - Headline News mp3

The Dylans - My Hands Are Tied mp3

Daryll-Ann - You're So Vain mp3

(mp3s available for 7 days)

NB: I was intending to include an old Juliana Hatfield B-side, Put It Away, in today's selection, but I rather tragically couldn't find my copy of the single it featured on. Ho hum.

Buy music here.

Three of a kind #35

Desmond. Crazy name, crazy guys. But who would have thought such a prosaic name could inspire so many fantastic songs? (Well, the occasional fantastic song.) If you've never heard Desmond Don't Go before, you're in for a real treat here.

Daryll-Ann - Desmond Don't Go mp3 (available for 7 days)

Smudge - Desmond mp3 (available for 7 days)

ABBA - Des Your Mother Know* mp3 (available for 7 days)

*a lot of people get confused and misremember the title of this song; I wouldn't worry if you're one of these yourself as it's quite a common problem - even the band used to do it.

In other news, there's been an ironic new development in the John Kettley (is a Weatherman)
saga. One of the manifold celebrities mentioned in the original A Tribe of Toffs song, ex-CBBC presenter Simon Parkin, has now himself become...... a TV weatherman! That's right. I saw him doing the forecast after the local news on Meridian the other night. What are the chances, eh?

Download the brilliant Happy Traum by Daryll-Ann at play.com. It's quite possibly Too Much Apple Pie's favourite album of the past ten years!

What can Do-The-Undo do for you?

I recently wrote of my love for erstwhile Dutch maestros Daryll-Ann, and the recent solo album of the band's co-songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Jelle Paulusma. What I failed to mention - basically because I hadn't even heard about it at the time - was the new solo project of the band's other co-songwriting, singing guitarist Anne Soldaat: Do-The-Undo.

Well, I say solo project, but this would be doing the other members of Do-The-Undo a disservice, as they are, clearly, a band. As well as Mr Soldaat, the line-up also features a couple of other Daryll-Ann alumni: bassist Dick Brouwers and one-time producer Henk Jonkers, who now finds himself on drumming duties. The quartet are completed by Thijs van Duijvenbode on organ and piano. But the project is very much Anne's brainchild.

The band's self-titled debut album is out now, and having heard it for the first time last night, I can happily confirm that Daryll-Ann fans will be more than happy with this one, as it sees Anne back on top form; I got exactly the same buzz listening to this as I used to get whenever hearing a Daryll-Ann album for the first time, which is really quite something.

It's also uncanny how similar Anne and Jelle's singing and songwriting styles are - I still have trouble telling them apart despite the fact that I've been listening to their songs for the best part of a decade and a half now (and also despite the fact that both are now recording completely independently of each other!).

Here's my favourite track so far from the album - Mary - which will be available for download for the next seven days:

Do-The-Undo - Mary mp3

There are also four other Do-The Undo tracks available to stream on the band's MySpace page.

If you like what you hear, you might care to do as I did: nip over and buy the album in its entirety from Legaldownload.net. Be rude not to really!

Daryll-Ann / Paulusma

Of all the great bands to emerge in the nineties, my favourite two would probably be, in no particular order, Sweden's Popsicle and, from the Netherlands, Daryll-Ann. The latter were actually the first band I ever blogged about on here. That's how much I heart them. Besides, what's not to love about a band who took their name from - and named their first album after - characters from Hill Street Blues?

Despite briefly enjoying (limited) success in the UK in the mid-90s when signed to Virgin offshoot Hut, most of Daryll-Ann's seven albums (they moved to Dutch label Excelsior Recordings after being dropped by Hut in 1996) never even received a release in the UK. This was a great shame as they actually hit their creative peak shortly after parting company with Hut, so they could and should have received far more acclaim in the UK than they ever did. I really can't recommend this band highly enough (or should that be 'too highly'? I can never remember how that's supposed to go).

The band split in 2004, after twelve years, but lead singer Jelle Paulusma resurfaced in '06 with the splendid Here We Are, ten tracks that essentially picked up where Daryll-Ann left off. From it, here's the sublime Serpentine Tomorrow.

Paulusma - Serpentine Tomorrow mp3

And, from Daryll-Ann's penultimate album, Trailer Tales, here's the more-fun-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at Serenades For The Lonely.

Daryll-Ann - Serenades For The Lonely mp3

If you enjoyed those tracks, you'll love Daryll-Ann and Paulusma's albums - seriously! Buy them here and here.

Three of a kind #13

Over the past few days Spike and me have been setting up our own chat site, the Square Eyes forum, which is basically intended to be a place for like-minded people to get together and waste time on the internet. Telly, music, sport, films, politics, the price of fish, anything goes here really.

Now obviously, with the place still being very much in its infancy, there's not an awful lot to see yet, but there's already a great, convivial atmosphere about the place, and it would be brilliant if some of you lovely folk from the Blogosphere would come and join us. You can find the forum here anyway. See what you think.

(above: the Square Eyes team pondering the universe, earlier today)

Still not convinced? Then perhaps we can bribe you with today's ever-so-subtle Three of a kind selection! (all are left click/up for 7 days jobs)

Saint Etienne - Join Our Club mp3

Daryll-Ann - Friends mp3

Orange Juice - Three Cheers For Our Side mp3

Buy Saint Etienne, Orange Juice and Daryll-Ann stuff here

Keep me and Spike company here

It's super Tuesday on a Friday night

Hello, and thanks for dropping by. You're reading the first ever entry in the all-new MP3 blog that literally two people are calling Too Much Apple Pie. Aren't you lucky? My name's John, and I'll be doing some of the posting around here. I'll also be joined by my great showbiz chum, Spike, who'll be contributing (much better posts than this one) on a regular basis.

We thought we'd kick things off with one of our favourite songs by one of our favourite bands, the now-defunct Dutch maestros Daryll-Ann, as a sort of mission statement (slightly pompous pronouncement ahoy!) for what we hope to achieve with this blog: to get some of our favourite, often largely forgotten, musical acts "back out there" as it were, even if only on one obscure blog.

Anyway, the track we've chosen here is three and a half minutes of pop perfection, Surely Justice, from Daryll-Ann's 1999 album Happy Traum. Hope you like it. If you do, I'd definitely recommend seeking the album out as there are 13 more equally great songs to enjoy on there.

01 Surely Justice.mp3

Buy Daryll-Ann stuff here