Archives for April 2010

It's MPFree EP time once again - it's like having a birthday every week!

Each day TeamLaverne search the net for totally free and 100 per cent legal free downloads. Every Friday we then put all the links together on a page (this page in fact) and accompany them with some listener provided EP artwork.

The theme for the artwork this week was: send us a photo of your best 'sorry face'. Somehow, with no prompting from Lauren, this morphed in to photos of sad-looking dogs. Luckily we're a sucker for a sad-looking dog; and couldn't pick just one. Therefore, for one week only, you get a choice of three MPFree EP covers.

This one from Rob in Newcastle...

Or this one from Chris in Putney...

Or maybe Kingsley in Salisbury floats your boat...

Your MPFrees this week were:

Dom - Living In America

Health - USA Boys

Hundred In The Hands - Sleepwalkers

Interpol - Lights

Sleigh Bells - Tell Em

Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.

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Another Friday rolls around like the spindles inside a C90, and with it comes Memory Tapes; TeamLaverne's favourite feature.

Memory Tapes, for those not in the know, celebrates the listeners' compilation tapes made by them, or for them.

This week, the tape in question comes from James Cran from Edinburgh. He writes... "I can't remember the tapes I made years ago but more recently I got fed up of making iPod playlists for my girlfriend so last Easter when I went to visit her while teaching English in France.

"I made a playlist, popped it on a memory card and slipped that into a C 90 I bought off eBay, I even put the music on the C 90! Not that anyone has a tape player to play it on...! My girlfriend (Siobhra) was thrilled!"

If you're interested, the tape looks like this...

And the rather fine tracklisting reads....

First Girl To Leave Town - The Blizzards

In The Beginning - The Stills

Unforgettable - Nat King Cole

A Message To You Rudy - The Specials

And A Bang On The Ear - The Waterboys

Peace Frog - The Doors

Hip To Be Square - Huey Lewis & The News

Monkey Man - Toots & Maytals

It's A Wonderful Life - Sparklehorse

The Jazzstep - Courtney Pine

Such Great Heights - Postal Service

Tune in to the show on Friday 29th April to hear what Lauren plays.

If you're inspired by James' contribution and would like to submit a compilation for Memory Tapes, then you should send us an email stating that fact.

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It's a Friday, which means it's MPFree EP day. Whoooo! As you all no doubt know, every day we sniff out a free download, play it in Workers' Playtime, and provide you good folks with a link so you can get it.

Well, the MPFree EP is all five collected in one place (here, in fact) so you can download the lot. Plus, a lovely listener designs us some lovely artwork to go with it.

The task for the artwork this week was, in tribute to Malcolm McLaren, to perform a mini act of Mayhem (to tie in with the Minute Of Mayhem on the day of McLaren's funeral) and send us pictorial evidence.

This week we chose the handy work of Lianne in Bristol, who, in anarchic fashion, turned out her top draw. Hardcore. Here's the resulting mayhem...

Your tracks this week were...

BLKJKS - Zol

Wolf Gang - Back To Back

Crowded House - Saturday Sun

Mystery Jets - Flash A Hungry Smile

Blur - Fool's Day

Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.

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Another Friday; another Memory Tapes. Yes, the feature that celebrates your old compilations is back (it's only been seven days, but feels like a lot longer).

TeamLaverne's favourite feature takes one listener's mixtape, picks five songs from it, and plays them back to back on the radio whilst celebrating the home-made artwork and story behind it.

This week, the Memory Tape comes from... Georgie Agass!

Georgie writes..."The attached mixtape was made for me by a friend Keith Dinning, who, like me at the time (Feb 1996) was an English teaching assistant in north Germany. It was the one of the biggest years for British music (aren't they all, but when you're 20/21, it seems like the biggest year ever!) and we were miles away in the frozen north of Schleswig-Holstein with only good cheap beer for company.

"My dad would post NME out to me every week, and then, right on my 21st birthday (19 Feb 1996) Keef arrived with the best mixtape ever, and what made it really special was that he had coloured-in the index card (it's the little things that mean the most). It introduced me to McAlmont & Butler's "Yes" which got me through some dark days, and I will always be grateful to Keef for widening my taste in music.

"We're still friends, and when I told him I still had this tape and was sending it in to you, he came up trumps with another library of mix CDs (everything modernises, I guess), which I'm sure will come to be as liked by me as the original tape."

Nice work Keef. Keef's artwork looks a little something like this:

And the tracklisting reads...

Side A

Dizz Knee Land - Dada

Opposite view - Del Amitri

Purple love balloon - Cud

The only one I know - Charlatans

I can't sleep - The La's

World shut your mouth - Julian Cope

Day tripper - The Beatles

Superman - REM

Where I find my heaven - Gigolo aunts

Funny how - Airhead

David Watts - The Jam

Staying out for the summer - Dodgy

Traditional irish folk song Denis Leary

Side B

Loser - Beck

Never be the same - Crowded House

Let your hair down - Starclub

High havoc - Corduroy

Yes - McAlmont and Butler

Neil Jung - Teenage Fanclub

A taste of honey - Herb Alpert

Stuck in the middle with you - Steeler's Wheel

My lover's box - Garbage

The way I feel - The Lemon Trees

Lucky - Radiohead

Listen to Friday's show to hear the five tracks Lauren plays from the compilation.

Inspired? Email Lauren your Memory Tape.

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It's the game show that everyone's talking about...

Say Your Chords Right is the latest addition to Workers' Playtime. In a nutshell, Lauren selects an intro to a popular song, and plays it to one lucky contestant one chord at a time. All the contestant has to do is guess if the next chord in the sequence is higher or lower than the last. Simple.

There's no prize, other than seeing your name in the league table below.

If you fancy having a go, then email Lauren. Good luck musos!

Position:1st

Name: Shaun W Keavney

Number of Chords Guessed Correctly:11

Song: Prince - 1999

Position:2nd

Name: Faye Copeland

Number of Chords Guessed Correctly: 10

Song: Fake Tales Of San Fancisco - Arctic Monkeys

Position:3rd

Name: Rory McCarthy

Number of Chords Guessed Correctly: 4

Song: Radiohead - Karma Police

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Here at TeamLaverne Towers we love Memory Tapes; if you're a newbie to the show, then here's how it works....

Every Friday a listener puts forward a compliation tape or CD made for them or by them. We publish the artwork and tracklistings and then pick 5 tracks to play on the show.

This week's comes from Andrew in Edinburg who writes... "this compilation CD helped to celebrate me and my now Civil Partner, Keith's, wedding on Easter 2002. We got fed up waiting for the law to be changed, and were surprised when it did a few years later.

All our families, nephews, nieces and friends were there and it was a very Scottish doo with kilts worn by the men and some women too! We still regard it to be more improtant than the day we signed at the registry office..

We had 150 guests all day and night, each one getting the wedding cd. It is fairly ecclectic and has something for everyone. There is a bit of a French theme as they were the special songs, but many more were the trademark of the dj we had at the reception, our pal, Trendy Wendy, who really got the crowd going. She also designed the artwork."

Said artwork looks like this...

And the tracklisting reads:

1. Serge Gainsbourg/Mick Harvey - Pink Elephants

2. Jacques Brel - Quand On N'A Louis' L'Amour

3. Robert Burns - A Man's A Man For A'That

4. Jacques Brel - La Valse A Mille Temps

5. Pavarotti - Caruso

6. Shirley Bassey - History Repeating

7. Marc Almond - Jacky

8. Jacky - White Horses

9. Belle & Sebastian - Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie

10. St. Etienne - Who Do You Think You Are?

11. Neil Diamond - Crackling Rose

12. Kylie - Your Disco Needs You

13. Pulp - Common People

14. The Beatles - Revolution

15. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song

16. Gene & Mark - Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart

17. Shirley Bassey & Billy McKenzie - The Rhythm Devine

18. Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You

Listen to Friday's show to hear the five tracks Lauren plays from the compilation.

Inspired? Email Lauren your Memory Tape.

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It's MPFree EP time again kids! Every day we sniff out a free download, play it in Workers' Playtime, and provide you good folks with a link so you can get it.

Well, the MPFree EP is all five collected in one place (here, in fact) so you can download the lot. Plus, a lovely listener designs us some lovely artwork to go with it.

The theme for the artwork this week was to create a mini volcano, and we chose this offering from Ally in Watford:

Sage Francis - The Best Of Times

The Silent League - Here's A Star

The National feat. Sufjan Steves - Afraid Of Everyone

Johnny Flynn - Kentucky Pill

Teen Inc - Friend Of The Night

Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.

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On Tuesday's show Lauren was asking for the stories behind the first band you were in as a teenager. We got some beauties, especially in the names department, which led us to thinking....

Wouldn't it be cool if we designed a poster for a fantasy festival featuring some of your bands? Yes it would. But then we remembered we don't design posters, we make radio - but you lot are a talented bunch and could definitely do a better job than us.

Then arrived this splendid effort from Amy in Portsmouth:

Closely followed by this little beauty from Tara in Dublin:

So, who else fancies designing a poster for the festival? The best ones will be displayed right here, and have suitable praise poured upon them. Below is a list of our favourite band names, the only rule is you make Parcel Of Rogues, The Rigid Kids and Extreme Finess the headliners.

The other bands on the bill are...

The Psychedelic Bulldozers, Sans Merci, Riker's Kimono, Metropolis, The Active Girls, Love Me Naked, Tinge, Gnarly Deathchunks, Ritual Awakening, Warlock, Strewth, Jalopy, Flannel, My Radioactive Granny, Executive Vegetable, Wheels Of Avalon, The Agadoo Factory and The Thigh Masters.

As for the name of the festival (we thought maybe TeenStock), how many days, name of the main stage and where it's based is up to you. Keep it simple though we reckon, the band names are the real stars...

You can email Lauren your designs, and if you have any of your old band names to add, then you can send those too.

Get to it.

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In honour of Adam Buxton's new Sunday show 'Adam Buxton's Big Mixtape', TeamLaverne invited the man himself to take part in this week's Memory Tapes.

For those who don't know, each week Memory Tapes celebrates a listener's compilation album; either one made by them, or for them. Some album artwork is always nice too.

Adam writes... "Here's a picture of me with the first CD compilation I made for my wife in 1997. The cover featured pictures of things we enjoyed as a couple around then (mainly booze, cigs, watching TV and eating eggs apparently) as well as other objects of sentimental value (I was making The Adam & Joe Show at the time hence the teddies)."

Here is said picture:

And the tracklisting reads like this...

Changes - Bowie

Lord Only Knows - Beck

Who Loves The Sun - Velvets

Holiday - Weezer

Bittersweet Symphony - the Verve

Late In The Day - Supergrass

If Not For You - Bob Dylan

Patio Song - Gorky's

Uncertain Smile - The The

Amnesia - David Byrne

A New Career In A New Town - Bowie

Birds - Neil Young

Listen to Friday's show to hear the five tracks Lauren plays from the compilation.

Inspired? Email Lauren your Memory Tape.

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You've downloaded the MPFrees, and now what are you going to do with them? Well, how's this for an idea...?

We've collated all the links from this week, and one of Lauren's listeners has designed some artwork to go with them for you to download to your MP3 player. Massive.

This week's artwork comes under the banner of 'awards you have won'. John Nash sent us a photo of his certificate for 'being a substitute all season' for his school football team. We took pity, and decided to use it as the artwork.

Tracy Thorn - Oh, The Divorces

Band Of Horses - Compliments

Stars - Fixed

Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.

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It's officially, erm...1, 2, er, 11 weeks til Glasto opens its gates and to celebrate this essential date the photographer Liam Bailey joined us on the show today to talk about his forthcoming exhibition of Glastonbury pictures he's taken over the last twenty or so years.

So we decided to ask you, the great listener of 6music, for your archive pics of the finest festival in the land to see if we could match the professional. And of course you responded in your masses. Thanks to Alex Armstrong for the pic below:

The Gallery is looking pretty healthy so far, but we but we want more. Mud, sun, cider - up to you what they consist of as long as they represent the glory of the festival. Apart from blatant nakedness of course.

You can email your pics to Lauren or tweet us.

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We've all made them, and now we celebrate them... Lauren wants to know about the compliation tapes and CDs your friends, lovers and exs have made for you, and the ones you've made for them.

Dig one out, take a photo of it, scribble the tracklisting in an email along with your contact details and email it to Lauren. A bit of a back story about the compilation would be nice too; when you got it, who you made it for, whether you discovered some amazing new music as a result...

Then, Lauren picks five songs and plays them all on a Friday, exciting eh?!

"This week's Memory Tape comes from Pat Olver, who writes... "I turned 50 on April 5th 1999. Nobody offered to throw me a party, so I decided to do my own. I booked a room, hired a PA system, invited some people I knew, and pre-prepared 4 hours of music burned to CD to last from 8pm to midnight. It was carefully themed to start familiar and poppy so as not to scare the straights, gradually descend via metal and trance into feedback hell, and then end on a chilled, anthemic note.

"In the event the party was a bit of a disaster. The different groups of friends didn't get on and lurked in separate corners of the room, the mate with a van who picked up the PA didn't listen to the setup instructions and we couldn't get it working properly, and the CDs never got played. But they still captured my musical taste at a pivotal time in my life, so I'm proud of the result."

CD1

Millennium - Robbie Williams

Brimful of Asha - Cornershop

Think I'm in Love - Spiritualized

Ready to Go - Republica

Copper Girl - 3 Colours Red

Weekend - The Wildhearts

I wanna go where the People go - The Wildhearts

I can see for miles - The Who

It's Like That - Run DMC

CD2

Step on - Happy Mondays

Something Good - Utah Saints

Weaving Darkness - Global

Small Stone - Global

She eats the stars - Global

Shamanka - Global

Geomantix - Prana

I think we can - Doof

Underground - Sneaker Pimps

CD3

Man called Sun - The Verve

Bruise Pristine - Placebo

Song 2 - Blur

Anthem - The Wildhearts

I want you - Utah Saints

Nurse Maximum - The Wildhearts

The Rezwalker - Transwave

CD4

Push - The Wildhearts

Rusty Cage - Soundgarden

Be aggressive - Faith No More

Setting Sun - Chemical Brothers

Heroin - The Wildhearts

Slide Away - The Verve

Blue - The Verve

Dreaming in A - The Wildhearts

All you good good people - Embrace

Already There - The Verve

New star in the sky - Air

Tender - Blur

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You've downloaded the MPFrees, and now what are you going to do with them? Well, how's this for an idea...?

We've collated all the links from this week, and one of Lauren's listeners has designed some artwork to go with them for you to download to your MP3 player. Massive.

This week Lauren asked for your photos of DIY gone wrong in honour of the Bank Holiday. DJDarren sent us this little beauty, and writes..."This is my expert router hanging. Better signal, but it doesn't have holes to hang it properly". Nice work fella.

Ariel Pink - Round & Round

The Juan Maclean - Feels So Good

Team Ghost - Colours In Time

Gogol Bordello - Pala Tute

Rufus Wainwright - Who Are You New York

Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.

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