I love the smell of morning. Just waking up is a victory.

Just waking up
Originally uploaded by Southcoasting

• J Tillman - My waking days mp3

The Booth Museum

The Booth Museum in Dyke Road, Brighton (UK)
- a little museum of stuffed birds and animal skeletons, created by a Victorian collector



the laughing ape (above) and the alien (below)







bird heads and flutterbies



the big fish wall



and some music, possibly about dead things...

• Birdengine - Heads off Dogs (live in Bristol) mp3 - more here
• Fleet Foxes - Icicle Tusk (from 1st EP) mp3

all images copyrighted property of J0n S imm0ns

Poladroid stories

There's storm clouds amassing over in the West...




And then a strange purple light crept out of the vent...



It was a long shot, but...



What went on?

• Neil Young - Old Man (live at Massey Hall) mp3

More from the 'droid here

Chimneys

Chimneys
Originally uploaded by Southcoasting

Discover what you set out to find

This mix is a transitional one I think. I don't really know what I was doing, and I don't think this really works as a mixtape, or makes for a particularly enjoyable listening experience for sharing. It's more like a does of personal therapy, or an exorcism. It's all a bit stop-start. Still buried in cold winter.

I find it incredibly sad actually. I just don't know what I'm looking for here.

Still, as John Hiatt says, have a little faith in me.







A side

1. John Hiatt - Have a little faith in me
2. Mobius Band - I'll keep it with mine (Bob Dylan)
   
3. Haley Bonar - Save a horse ride a cowboy
4. Mellow Candle - Buy or beware mp3
   
5. Larry Williams and Johnny Watson - A quitter never wins
6. Frank Blood - Boss Eye
7. John Phillips - Malibu People mp3
   
8. That's The Spirit - Head for the hills
9. Pavement - Spit on a stranger
10. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Keep it
11. J Tillman - When I light your darkened door

B Side

1. Kevin Coyne - Do not shout at me father mp3
   
2. Jens Lekman - Your arms around me
3. Field Music - Pieces (change my dress) mp3
   
4. Portishead - Deep water
5. The Burning Hell - I love the things that people make
6. Karen Dalton - In my own dream
7. Boz Scaggs - I'm Easy
8. Diamond Family Archive - Here I go again (live, cover)
9. Sleepy John Estes - Milk cow blues
10. Belle and Sebastian - Scooby Driver

The mix kind of dies a bit at the end of side 1, and enters a new world at the end of side 2. Thank goodness for Kevin Coyne, kickstarting the proceedings again.

I really wanted to edit the crap off the end of the DFA track, but I've kept it because I was at this gig and it was wonderful and I'm really pleased the whole concert is available now because the over-riding memory I have wasn't the songs but Lawrence's chat and joyful smile throughout the set of covers (by the likes of Dire Straits and others - this one is a Whitesnake song).

Download the whole thing as mp3s, in two parts again:

- A side (55mb) here http://www.savefile.com/files/2001173

- B side (48mb) here http://www.savefile.com/files/2001218

Once again, after 100 downloads it's gone.

Enjoy. Or cry. Just open your heart.

Dark was the night

Buy it here

Snow on the Patch

Snow on the Patch
Originally uploaded by Southcoasting

Sunday on the park

Sunday on the park
Originally uploaded by Southcoasting

I've been loving my poladroid. More here

The dancing lady

The dancing lady
Originally uploaded by Southcoasting

Don't ignore me

A new mix CD. Free for the first 100 downloads and then it's gone. God bless you all.

This mix wasn't supposed to happen like this. I was making a list of songs from randomised playing on my MP3 player, but then the hard drive on my office computer broke, and while it's fixable I can't be bothered right now, so moved over to my laptop and had to start again from the tracks on there, and I wasn't really sure what I was putting together here but when it was finished it felt totally right and has its own stories. You can work them out for yourself.


This is a sociable mix, for playing in clubs I think, but the kind of clubs where people sit and talk rather than dance. A slow wintery start, with lots of old soul, and some fresh young Brighton sounds amongst other things. Aidan Moffat cuts it in half like a knife.

Take it in two bites, each being 60 megabyte downloads.

• Download side A (60mb)

1. Allo' Darlin' - Baby it's cold outside
2. Mary Hampton - The Bell they gave you
3. Ernie K Doe - Here come the girls
4. Wanna Moe Leaner - Un Dia
5. Santogold - I'm a lady (Diplo Mix)
6. Backyard Tire Fire - The Places we Lived
7. Climbers - Bookshop folk mp3
8. Martha Tilston and the Woods - A Surfer courted me
9. Elmore James - One Way Out
10. Aidan John Moffat - Good morning

• Download side B (60mb)

11. Kristin McClement - Bells Once Rang
12. Bruce Springsteen - Blinded by the light
13. Danny & the Champions of the World - Red Tree Song
14. The Brothers and Sisters - All Along the Watchtower
15. Crystal Mansion - Somebody ought to turn your head around mp3
16. Sweet Jane - You're making this hard
17. Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
18. Ronnie Spector - You can't put your arms around a memory
19. Robert Knight - Everlasting Love

No more Christmas anymore

Back to work on Monday...


No more Christmas anymore
Originally uploaded by Southcoasting

• Ed Andrews - Time ain't gonna make me stay mp3
  

(and as this song is 85 years old, we must assume it didn't)

Three Stories

Partly inspired by an excellent night of readings at Sam and Jay's Tight Lip on Friday, I went searching for some old stories and poems I wrote about a decade and a half ago. These were printed up in a limited edition xeroxed book, of which probably no more than a dozen copies are in circulation (I still have a box of them somewhere). It received a nice review in Factsheet Five; and was later placed on the web, on a site which has now closed down, hence why I went searching.

Anyway, I thought for a while this stuff was tired and jaded, but I've decided to like it again, so thought I'd make some of it available here. If you want a copy of the rest, drop me an email with your address.

These three short stories were based around a theme of alienation from modern life, and were written as pseudo film-scripts for short films that were never intended to be filmed. I guess they work as visual poems rather than stories in the traditional sense.

The stories, and some accompanying music...

story 1 - women are

mp3 Cat Power - Be a good woman (live radio session)

story 2 - men are also

mp3 Magnolia Electric Company - How to love a man

story 3 - big life v spontaneity
(aka, what is it that makes modern life so exciting, so fresh?)

mp3 Okkervil River - Our life is not a movie or maybe (radio session)