Spleen Audioblog

Johnny Cash is a singer-writer of country music born on February 26th, 1932, at Kingsland, Arkansas. He sold more than 90 millions albums during his 50 years carrier.

He was very close to his older brother Jack, so he has been shocked when, aged 14, he hurt himself with a circular saw and died.

At an early age, he began working in cotton fields where he is imerged in folk, country and gospel.

He signs his first album with Sun Records in 1954. At this time, he plays with “the Tennessee Two”.

In the beginning of the 60s, he plays more than 300 times on the same tour. He begin to drink huge quantities of alcool, takes amphetamines and barbiturates. He is soon to become alcoolic and drug addict.

In 1965, on his way back from Mexico, he was arrested by the narcotics squad who seeks heroin. He was only carying amphetamines (legal at this time), he is released.

In 1968, thanks to June Carter and her family, he managed to quit drugs after a month of isolation.

Close to the end of his life, he meets the producer Rick Rubin with whom he released a serie of 6 albums on which we can find cover songs from various artists such as: U2, Nick Cave, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden or even Leonard Cohen.

He dies on September 12th, 2003, only 4 months after the death of his wife June Carter.

“my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt”

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Further information on Wikipedia [en]
‘Hurt’ Live on Youtube
Buy American IV: The Man Comes Around on Amazon.com

Sparklehorse is an American indie rock band sailing between pop and folk music. In 1995, the band, led by its frontman (Mark Linkous), released a first Lp : Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. A confusing opus: Travelling through melancholic pop and “starving rock”, Sparklehorse suggests a paradoxical music. Something like Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde !

If the American band knows how to make and build indie-rock hits (“Someday I will treat you good”, “Tears on a Fresh Fruits”), it is also gifted for “drumless” dark pop-songs (Spirit Ditch).

“Homecoming Queen” is one of these. The song serves at front door of this debut album and shows off Sparklehorse’s savoir-faire for straightforward, slow and black pieces to advantage. Shy notes are haunted by faraway ghost sounds and led by the bewitching voice of the singer.

The music draws its inspiration from nature, and especially animals. Pretty logical when you know that Linkous shuts himself away in his North Carolina farmhouse. His music is full of Spleen, haunted by two massive overdoses (1990, 1996).

After all, Linkous’ voice is one of his great qualities. Mixing his own singing with the pieces he composes, this artist has a talent for songwriting, especially melodies. Arrogant or intimist, it depends on the song.

“A horse, a horse
my kingdom for a horse
rattling on magnetic fields

Teeth what were sharp
are ground down and done
my crooked spine
becoming more brittle
what once grew straight
and tall towards the sun
absorbing back down
to dirt like a sponge”

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SparkleHorse Official Website
SparkleHorse Official Myspace
Further information on Wikipedia [en]
Buy Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot on Amazon.com

The music band ‘Les Escrocs‘ is composed of Eric Toulis, Hervé Coury and Didier Morel, who are all born in 1960.

Complete fans of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, they were never able to make a choice between these two. This is why they pick their inspiration in totally different music: soul, jazz, reggae, salsa, brazilian music and latin in general, texts of Serge Gainsbourg, Bobby Lapointe and also Charles Trénet.

This song: ‘Assedic’, was a real success during the 90’s. At this time, they even play in first part of Alain Souchon (french singer), at Paris’ Zénith.

“ASSEDIC…
Je t’écrirai de temps en temps,
Toi tu m’enverras mon virement
Directement,
Tout là-bas, dans mon île
ASSEDIC
Enfin ma place au soleil,
A moi les ciels vermeils
Et les beaux voyages…
M’en priver ce serait dommage.
ASSEDIC
Tu seras ma petite maman,
La Maman de tous les gens
Qui n’ont pas d’argent.”

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Assedic Lyrics
Eric Toulis Official Myspace
‘Les Escrocs’ Official Website

As stated in the title, S-pleen needs you! You may have seen that during the last couple of months, the S-pleen has not been regularly updated. For various reasons, the rythm of 1 post per week, which was my rule in the beginning, was not respected.

Due to other personnal projects, i simply don’t have enough time to make regular updates and post new articles. This is why i’m looking for new publishers (ideally 2 or 3) who would like to bring their spleen-esque culture to this blog and share it with us.

In the case of 3 publishers joining us, the posting rythm would only be of 1 post per month per publisher. Which seems quite do-able for almost anyone, and would allow S-pleen to keep existing.

If I don’t find any publishers interested in participating in the S-pleen project, this website may be closed in the middle of March 2009.

Some basic knowledge about Wordpress and blogging is not necessary but would be appreciated to make the updating process easier.

If you are interested to take part in S-pleen project, please contact me by email: music.spleen['@']gmail{’.'}com. (don’t forget to replace ['@'] by @ and {’.'} by .)

Steker

This british alternative rock band was formed in Abingdon by Thom Yorke (voice), Jonny Greenwood (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass and keyboard), Ed O’Brien (guitar) and Phil Selway (drums).

The track ‘How to disappear completely’ is extracted from the album Kid A, fourth album of Radiohead. This album is an important step in the carrier of Radiohead. It is more experimental, with electronic sounds and free jazz influences (huge inspiration of another artist: Nujabes).

Unlike most of the tracks of this album, in that song the guitar keeps a huge presence and stays all along to take us by the hand and lead us into this spleen-esque track.

“That there, that’s not me
I go where I please
I walk through walls
I float down the Liffey
I’m not here
This isn’t happening
I’m not here, I’m not here
In a little while
I’ll be gone
The moment’s already passed
Yeah, it’s gone”

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Radiohead Official Website
Radiohead Official Myspace
‘How to disappear Completely’ Live on Youtube
Buy Kid A on Amazon.com