Daily Jam - From Auschwitz to Ipswich

The reunited Pulp have a new album heading our way very soon, and we're positively bristling with excitement about over here.  Today, let's listen to a song Jarvis Cocker made during the band's time apart.  Here's a track from his first solo album.  Listen to "From Auschwitz to Ipswich" below, our Daily Jam.

Pulp

There have been rumblings and rumors for the last several weeks, but now it's official.  We're getting new music from Pulp in June, their first now album in 24 years.  I'm always down for more Jarvis and Co.  Check out new song "Spike Island" below and pre-order the "More" LP here from Rough Trade.

Daily Jam - The Trees

One of my great regrets is that i was never able to see Pulp play live.  Even with the handful of American dates that have this fall, it's just not something that's going to happen (they never come anywhere near Texas).  And so, i'm gonna mope with a track from the band's final album, 2001's "We Love Life."  Listen to "The Trees" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - This Is Hardcore

The party is over.

When I was a freshman in college way back in the long, long ago, Pulp released their penultimate album, the amazing and forever listenable This Is Hardcore. Simultaneously a summation of the Britpop boom of the mid/late 90's and a signifier of its coming death knell, the record perfectly captured a moment of music pop culture on tape, and then transcended it. Front man Jarvis Cocker was only 33 years old when the album came out in 1998, but he sounds like someone who has lived a lifetime of rock star decadence and regrets it all. I remember hearing this album for the first time at 19, and thinking that it sounded like the end of everything. It was like the band knew something that the rest of us didn't. Like they would still party with us, but they knew we'd all wake up cold, naked, sick, and alone in the morning. It's beautiful and devastating. And nowhere is that more evident than in the dramatic, orchestral title track.

The drums come in slowly and steadily, followed by the swinging, cinematic horns, a jazzy piano line playing slinkily on top of it all, the song sounds like entering some grand old Hollywood set, flashes of glitz and glamour, sparkles and beauty. Jarvis then comes in, his voice like that of an old, embittered crooner, gradually stripping away the shine and exposing the dark and seedy underbelly for all to see. Grime covers everything. "This Is Hardcore" is the sound of the party ending, the soundtrack to the morning after. It's the dull, thudding headache and cold sweat of the hangover, the gritted teeth and achy jaw as the cocaine wears off.

Bleakness and regret never sounded so wonderful.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Jarvis Cocker

If you were going to pick someone to make a companion album for a Wes Anderson movie featuring a bunch of covers of French pop songs from the '60s and '70s, would you really even consider anybody other than Jarvis Cocker?  It's so obvious, that when i heard about it, i was just like, "yep."  Anyway, checking it all out, and of course it's wonderful.  Check out the animated video directed by Andersonfor the cover of Christophe's "Aline" below and order the "Chansons d'Ennui Tip-Top" LP here on ABKCO.

Daily Jam - Bar Italia

Pulp were one of those bands i often felt it unfair how much better they were than everybody else.  Just absurdly good.  Anyway, here's "Bar Italia," the closing track from 1995's seminal Britpop classic "Different Class" and our Daily Jam.

JARV IS

Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker is now making music as JARV IS, and so long as we're all still around in May, we'll get to hear a new album from the man, his first in over a decade.  Check out the video for "House Music All Night Long" below and get the "Beyond the Pale" record from Rough Trade.

Jarvis Cocker

Holy shit, we've got a new single from Jarvis Cocker out today!  I've long been a fan of Cocker, going back to his days in Pulp, and then grooving along with his two solo records and all of the odds and ends and appearances and collaborations ever since.  Anyway, it's been a decade since his last proper solo outing, and it appears that be changing really soon.  Currently, he's been performing new material under the moniker Jarv Is, and now we get a studio recording of one of those new tunes, the psychedelic and pulsing "Must I Evolve?"  It's great, and if it's a harbinger of things to come, i am stoked.  Listen below.

Feist with Jarvis Cocker - Century

It's pretty much standard operating procedure that if you put Jarvis Cocker on your song, then i'm going to pay attention to it.  From her upcoming new album "Pleasure" on Interscope, Feist has collaborated on a track with the former Pulp front man on the record's second single, "Century."  You'll be able to tell when he comes in.  It's all very Jarvis-y.  Listen below.

Marram featuring Jarvis Cocker and Margaret Bennett

"Sun Choir" is the latest project from Edinburgh based band Marram, a collaboration with a number of different artists recorded with and for the Light of Love's Children's Choir.  The proceeds benefit the Everything is New Project which helps children from India's "untouchable" Dalit class.  "Falling from the Sun" features a duet between former Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker and Scottish singer Margaret Bennett.  It's wonderful and the whole thing is for an excellent cause.  Listen below and get the record from Transgressive North.