2020, what a year! One to forget for the most part. No gigs, no festivals, no theatre shows. No parties, not even small gatherings. But then we did get some small blessings: the return of the cocktail hour (thanks in no small part to Stanley Tucci’s online Negroni class), the kitchen disco and the appreciation of music as a way to escape - right from within your own home. Whatever you are planning to celebrate the end of a shit year - and especially if you do happen to be locked down - don’t be a party pooper. Take heed - we have paired you five of our favourite cocktails with five of our favourite playlists from the TSS catalogue. Oh, and just because it’s you, a brand new Boutique Hotel Bar vol. 4. New year, new you, new booze and new music. What could be more fun? Happy 2021.
bond. alternative bond. vesper martini and a good bond movie? just one of tHOSE will have to make do.
No Time To Die - the next Bond movie (no. 25) was due for release in the spring of 2020, until Bond’s mission was of course delayed by COVID-19 (which sounds like a global criminal network that Bond should take on, except it is so bad, even he can do nothing about it).
Billie Eilish was chosen for the theme (not Dua Lipa, as earlier rumoured) and did a reasonably good job of it. But MGM, the studio that made the movie, couldn’t get it out there since the cinemas were all closed.
First, the rumour was that MGM was trying to sell No Time To Die to one of the major streaming platforms for circa. $600M and then just last month, MGM was officially reported to be seeking to sell something else - itself - for circa. $5BN.
Well what a year. While we wait to see what happens (who will take on Bond next - after Daniel Craig resuscitated Bond - whoever’s next will need to socially reconstruct him and indeed, when we will actually get to see the damned movie) we can at least take on Bond’s persona for ten or 15 minutes while we down his favourite tipple. Do yourself a favour while you wait for the real thing - be an Alternative Bond and play the soundtrack too.
stanley tucci mixes a negroni. look away now!
Stanley Tucci step forward. Like millions of others we watched your wonderful lockdown Negroni mixing ‘masterclass’. Like millions of others we were absorbed by your charisma and attracted by your magnetism. And like many, we were left deeply disturbed by the uneven distribution of parts gin, vermouth and Campari. And hey Stan, what’s so wrong with Martini anyhow? It has a retro charm does it not (as do you we might say, a)? And Stan, come on man, shaking the Negroni?
Some rules are rules for a reason. Even credible, arty and urbane Hollywood A-listers of Italian origin that age gracefully and still look amazing in a black polo neck must abide by some rules. Well, all we can say, is that your Negroni is served stirred. And let’s leave it there. God we miss going to a good bar. And a good Negroni. For now though, get yourself to The Boutique Hotel Bar and press play. Your gaff is now a good bar. Welcome in. And mix your own Negroni. Do not let Stan anywhere near your bar.
THE NATIONAL GET BUSY: TOO BUSY TO MIX PINK RABBITS?
No new album from The National in 2020, though 2019’s I Am Easy to Find still has plenty of room to grow on you, different as it was to previous National outings - full of beautiful duets. The members of The National caught the collaboration bug - The Dessner brothers producing not one but two Taylor Swift ‘lockdown albums’, while singer and frontman Matt Berninger produced the solo effort Serpentine Prison as well as keeping up his excellent ‘Social Distancing Distortion Playlist’. Well we didn’t have to worry, since our most played playlist of 1H 2020 was The National: Conversations. It contains one of their most illustrious low-key sad bangers, Pink Rabbits.
I’m comforted to find I’m not the only one to be touched by Pink Rabbits. On Soundcloud you can find over a dozen covers of the song (Caitlin Rose does my favourite). In his wonderful blog Beautiful Song of the Week, (no. 352) Andrew Moore is reminded of a very serious news anchor from his childhood. The National can do that to you if you’re not too careful.
Anyways, if loneliness strikes on New Year’s, put the playlist on and succumb would be my advice. And, don’t cry into your beer. Mix yourself a Pink Rabbit instead. Sipping, not skipping, is really the best way.
waiting for the vaCCine? cuban music medicine and a good daiquiri will do as a shot in the arm for now.
On March 22 2020 a brigade of 52 doctors were sent to Northern Italy from Cuba. I watched the news footage as the medics, in full protective clothing, descended the stairs from their charter plane - looking like they would be sent directly to the COVID-19 intensive care hospitals in Lombardy.
I had no idea about this ‘Cuban medical internationalism’. Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuba has been sending medical personnel overseas, particularly to Latin America and Africa. Cuban medics are based in over 60 countries, from deep in the Amazon jungle to the shanty towns in Africa and the victims of natural disasters such as the Haiti 2010 earthquake. And now, pandemic-ridden Europe. Remarkable. Just like Cuba’s music.
The thing with the music of Cuba is, it will always come back around. Mention that you love it, and chances are you will come across someone else who does. That’s when recommendations can blossom. The last Cuban discovery I came across was Orishas - a Cuban hip hop group from Havana, formed in 1999, just as Buena Vista Social Club was finding its way into living rooms everywhere, nice.
DARK & STORMY ADDS SOME MYSTERY TO LIFE: FOR EXAMPLE, TAKE SAULT.
In an age where everything is on display, dressed-up and bigged-up beyond any notion of reality, do yourself a favour, take time to reveal yourself through your actions and what you create and put out into the world. Let me give you an example: SAULT.
SAULT has been a refreshing talking point in the music industry since the band’s arrival on the scene in 2019 - because nobody knows who they are, but everyone knows how good they are. SAULT’s Spotify bio sheds no light whatsoever (quite rightly) but does provide direct advice: “add a little SAULT to your life”. London-based musician/producer/writer Dean Josiah has been closely associated with SAULT, (he has worked with two outstanding British talents Michael Kiwanuka and Little Simz which would make the quality associations ring true enough). British soul singer Cleo Sol has also been mentioned in the same breath too. Well, they are side-by-side on Dark & Stormy vol. 7 so: you decide. But ask yourself, do you really need to know? To enjoy SAULT’s music, you might instead simply enjoy the anonymity in the same we all do when we step back and admire a Banksy mural. There’s something to be said for a little mystery in these dark days, wouldn’t you say?