Girl Scout

‘I LIKE THIS BAND AND I INSIST YOU DO TOO’

A GUEST POSTING from STRANGEWAYS

PHOTO CREDIT : Jakob Ekvall for NME

Hallå där.

It’s a privilege to be gifted by Jim the space to share pop thoughts with the (New) Vinyl Villain’s many readers. And here I go again. But don’t look like that – this is a piece I wanted written quickly and, for a change, without going on and on and on.

So welcome to this, the latest ‘I like this band and I insist you do too’ post.

This time it’s Girl Scout, all the way from Stockholm.

I got to know Girl Scout via their opening slots for Alvvays in the summer of 2024 when a pal and I splurged on a few of those gigs. These culminated in one held outdoors on a roasting-hot evening in Bologna during which the local mosquitoes’ love of indiepop was trumped only by their penchant for my blood. There, from the stage, Alvvays’ Molly Rankin thanked Girl Scout on that final support date and commended them for toughing out – ‘always with smiles on their faces’ – the comforts-free odyssey that characterises the lot of the warm-up act.

By this time we’d fallen for these affable Swedes too, and hoped to see them again in Glasgow. We did – and twice, including a real beauty of a recent date at Room 2 in promotion of the Scouts’ new and self-produced LP Brink (Human Garbage Records/Awal Recordings). It’s a corker of an album; the kind of release that after a trio of EPs you kind of kept every appendage crossed for.

Led by Emma Jansson’s super-versatile deliveries – equally at home with pop and rock – below are a couple of Brink cuts.

Crumbs (Brink LP track, 2026)

There’s a few single-worthy tracks on Brink. The actual lead-off single is Same Kids – about finding kindred spirits a bit later in life. That one is lifted by a bratty skater-pop feel and Avril Lavigne-ish chorus. Next up there’s more of the same via the powerful pop of Dead Dog.

And then there is Crumbs. Its weary lyric rails against music industry movers and shakers, plus hideous ‘finance bros’ and hangers-on who ‘bleed me dry and leave me with…’ …the crumbs of the title of course. Here, a life – and its ambition – is summarised as an ‘afterthought’ and the hopeful artist diminished as being ‘just a lark’ by those pulling the strings. It’s a loud, guitar-heavy rocker, and if I’d been pranked – told Alvvays had returned with a newly minted ‘dream-rock’ genre – I’d have fallen for it. That might sound snide but it’s not meant to – after all, pop influencing pop is its lifeblood.

Anyway, Crumbs really is a standout – indeed the one complaint is that its thrilling tractor-beaming intro isn’t three times longer. Heralded by lyric of the year ‘Everyday’s a funeral‘ – itself deliciously rhymed in short order with ‘And I’m making jokes I’ll sue you all’ – Crumbs’ chorus is a soaring bully, its entry preceded each time by the merest beat of silence. Live, it could shred to ribbons, at one-thousand yards, all of those skyscraping flags you see on the Glastonbury horizon. It’d be like that bit when they open the lost Ark in Raiders – only with a fewer Nazis and more A&R men. And yes, I know there’s an off-colour joke in there somewhere.

Simple Life (Brink LP track, 2026)

My friend said of this dry and sarcastic song that if Olivia Rodrigo was singing it – and you could totally imagine that – it’d score a number one. To mix things up further, and it’s likely just me, Simple Life reminds me of the Velvet Underground’s After Hours – but mainly in terms of its nursery-room oddness and irreverence. It also has a kind of just-woken-up feel you’d maybe expect from slackers like Pavement. And the thrown-away, fourth-wall-breaking line ’OK, that’s enough of that, let’s do the chorus again’ always makes me smile.

Other Brink recommendations are:

Intro – It opens the LP – no surprise there – and the short song’s detached and dreamy call-outs are ripped into with brief stabs of distorted guitar.

Uh-Huh – this is a brooder, and it’s plodding in the best way possible. Uh-Huh’s words are predicated on a past infatuation – a character whose incessant presence pops up in laundrettes, on the radio and even in the rain. Not to keep banging on about it, but you could stick this one on Alvvays’ Blue Rev LP and not see the join.

Operator – loads of fun, especially at a gig. Listen out for the ‘beep-beep’. Could be one for Riot Grrrl fans. A review references Elastica too – for me a broadly correct shout when you think of the rampant likes of Annie, All-Nighter and Vaseline.

For making it this far, you’ve earned your Girl Scout badge and also one older song

And here it is: the poppy and infectious Honey. An amusing video features the band gadding around in the typical indie style. This is the tune that first turned my head, and therefore the one you can blame for this post.

Honey (Headache EP track, Human Garbage Records, 2024)

Want to learn more, but avoid odd looks at your favourite internet cafe? Then rather than inadvisedly googling the search term ‘girl scout’ – or, I assume even worse, ‘girl scout honey’ – head straight to the group’s website, and from there onto Bandcamp if you fancy it.

www.girlscouttheband.com

Lineup:

Emma Jansson: lead vocals, guitar

Kevin Hamring: guitar and bass guitar

Per Linberg: drums

Tack så mycket as ever to Jim for the space, and to you for reading. Always appreciated. Never taken for granted.

 

 

STRANGEWAYS

Dentists, Noseflutes, Soup Dragons, This Poison!

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 75, 76, 77, and 78 of 114)

The story of The Dentists was outlined in great detail in an earlier edition of this series (Parts 43-46), but a quick reminder that they were active between 1984 and 1995, during which time they released ten singles/EPs and four albums.

mp3: Peppermint Dreams – The Dentists

Track 9, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

One of five tunes to be found on the 12″ EP Down and Out In Paris and Chatham, released in 1986 on their own Tambourine Records.

The second time that The Dentists have featured and the second time the word ‘Dream’ has featured in the song title.

The Noseflutes, from Birmingham, released three EPs and three albums between 1986 and 1991.

The first two releases were the debut EP, Girth, which came out in 1986 and the album Several Young Men Ignite Hardboard Stump in 1987, both on Reflex Records which was based in Malvern, Worcestershire.

mp3: Perfect Cockney Hard-On – The Noseflutes

Track 12, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

The opening track on the debut album.

A columnist in a Birmingham newspaper once said The Noseflutes were a ‘wonderfully perverse avant weird outfit’.  If you want my take, there’s at least one too many words in that description.

The next two EPs would be issued by Ron Johnson Records in 1986 and 1987, while two albums would be issued courtesy of their own label, Rictus Recordings in 1989 and 1991.

The Soup Dragons, from Bellshill (see previous entries in the series) were initially active between 1985 and 1995, and again since 2023. There were sixteen singles and four albums first time around, and there’s been one single since the comeback, albeit there’s been loads of gigs.

An initial flexidisc release brought them to the attention of the Bristol-based The Subway Organisation, and their debut single, Whole Wide World was released in mid-1986, reaching #2 on the indie chart

mp3: Pleasantly Surprised – The Soup Dragons

Track 3 on side 1 of the C86 cassette; Track 3, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

Yup, one of the two songs on the b-side of the debut single was already known via its inclusion on the C86 cassette.

This was the only single the band would issue via Subway as they were then snapped up by Big Life Records, a label best known for dance music but whose owners thought The Soup Dragons would be the next big thing in indie music, while Sire Records took care of everything for the band stateside.  As it turned out, the band’s indie-style music never took them beyond cult status, but by 1990, having experimented a bit with drum machines and samplers and edged their way into what would be termed indie-dance, they really hit the big time, with hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Soup Dragons disbanded in 1995, and its members went into do all sorts of things in music via other bands, DJ’ing and mixing.

Spoiler alert…..Whole Wide World will feature later on in this series.

This Poison!, from Perth (Scotland and not Australia!) came together in 1985 and disbanded in 1989, and would release just two singles during that time.

Like many other bands of the era, their initial demo recordings were on cassette, copies of which were sent out to all and sundry in the hope of landing a record deal. The band members also thought that Perth, being a reasonably-sized city, could get a big enough audience to attract indie bands slogging their way around the UK, and so they set themselves up as promoters.

One of the bands who agreed to play in Perth was The Wedding Present, in 1986.  David Gedge liked what he heard on the demo tape and invited This Poison! to record and release singles via his band’s newly established Reception Records.  The debut, Engine Failure, was released in 1987, the catalogue number shows it was released between You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends and George Best.

Next up was their second and as it turns out, final single

mp3: Paused Over The Pause Button – This Poison!

Track 16, Disc 2 of CD86.

Another of the great lost 45s of the era, if very much of its time.  It was released, going by the catalogue number, immediately before Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm.  Derek Moir, the guitarist with This Poison! has since said that the inability to fully market the singles proved to be a hindrance, and in due course the collapse of Red Rhino Distribution meant there was no money for a planned third single, and so the band called it a day.

 

JC

 

Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway, Hifi Sean

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (38): Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top

Fire Island is a name used by the English house music duo, Pete Heller and Terry Farley, and in 1998, they recorded a version of The Style Council‘s hit single from 1984, Shout To The Top, and brought in the veteran American singer Loleatta Holloway to provide the vocal.

Musically it’s reasonably true in many ways to the original, but the vocal, as was so often the case when Ms Holloway got involved, quite sensational.

Loleatta Holloway died in 2011 at the age of 64, and sadly she wasn’t around to ever hear the amazing remix job delivered by Hifi Sean in 2021.

Seemingly there were no musical parts on the tape which landed in Sean’s hands, just the vocal, and so he went about rewriting the arrangement and, in the words of the record label which released the 12″ single “brings this beauty into the present day with three versions that include a soulful string laden soul groover, a late-night gospel house jam and a swooning orchestral reprise.

mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean Mix)
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean House Mix)
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean Reprise)

There has been many a day when I’ve thought this might just about the most joyous piece of plastic you’ll find in Villain Towers. Oh, and one of my proudest moments came when I sneaked the mix into a pre-match playlist for a Raith Rovers game during the few years when I was stadium announcer.

Happy Monday, everyone.

 

JC

#magazine45s

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MAGAZINE (3)

Give Me Everything (VS 237) : Released November 1978 on 7″ 

This was originally posted on 8 April 2010 (and re-posted on 7 August 2014) with the title ‘GET IT RIGHT UP YE’

– – – – – – –

For years, I thought that the Factory Records mogul was the brains behind the production of this, the third single from Magazine released on 17th November 1978.

Turns out it was a totally different Tony Wilson…one who for years worked at the BBC. Stupid me…..

For some artistic reason, Howard Devoto insisted that Give Me Everything be released without any marketing campaign and with no review copies to be sent to the music press. Almost as if he wanted it not to succeed. And almost as if he wanted to avoid dealing with any music journalists.

However, the review penned by Dave McCullough in Sounds showed that the strategy somewhat backfired:-

At last I have Howie and his chums sussed. They’re really The Muppets in disguise laughing their scraggy-heads off while the hundred thousand punks STILL take them seriously. This is dreadful – the lyrics proving more cringeworthy even than usual. ‘You’re so oblique and easy’. Look – Howie – you’re as much a poet as Len Fairclough is a poet – so why don’tcha sod off – you baldy little pain?

Or had it backfired?? Howard’s response was to send the journalist a cheque for £10 with the words:-

Your review of Give Me Everything was so unbelievably sympathetic, was so to the point that this £10 of my enthusiastic and shrieking money must go to you. You’re not so oblique but you’re so easy. You must have it. I hope you can see that. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more. Please cash it. Have a Christmas. Howard.

Which was of course printed in full in the following week’s edition of the paper…….an incident that helped inspire the later song Feed The Enemy.

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy

The b-side is a cover of a Captain Beefheart song (now there’s something I never ever got….and as a consequence have nothing of his/theirs on vinyl or CD). It remains one of the most popular Magazine recording ever as evidenced by its inclusion in the sets of the comeback gigs in February 2009.

I wonder if the journo and Howard ever kissed and made up??

Oh and as a wee bonus, here’s yer Peel Sessions versions:-

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything (Peel Session)
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy (Peel Session)

Broadcast on 24 July 1978, some four months before the 7″ single was released.

Happy Listening.

 

JC

Mt. Doubt

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #518: MT. DOUBT

Mt. Doubt first appeared on the scene back in 2015, thanks to a ten-song self-released CD.  It began as a solo project by Edinburgh-based singer/songwriter Leo Bargery, but in subsequent years, would expand to a collective of musicians who would come-and-go depending on their own availability or commitments to other bands.

There have been two further albums – In Awe Of Nothing (2016) and Doubtlands (2020).  The former originally came out on Scottish Fiction Records, but was later given a repress by Last Night From Glasgow, which was also the label on which Doubtlands was released.  There’s also been a handful of singles and EPs issued by both labels.

The music, certainly on the latter two albums, is often dark and brooding, perfectly suited to Leo’s baritone voice, which has been compared by some to Matt Berninger of The National.

mp3: Mt. Doubt – Stairwell Songs

One of the many enjoyable songs to be found on Doubtlands

 

 

 

JC

 

Arctic Monkeys

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (49) : Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning

Arctic Monkeys featured previously in this 7″ nostalgia fest.  On that occasion, it was Brianstorm, the lead-off single from their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare.  I feel I can just about repeat the opening two paras:-

“Fair play to Arctic Monkeys who indicated well in advance of any new material that they weren’t going to be content with simply regurgitating the indie-sounds of their 2006 debut album and 2007 sophomore album, and the various hit singles they had spawned.

But I don’t think anyone was fully prepared for the lead-off single for the third album.”

mp3: Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning

The band had more or less taken 2008 off with singer/songwriter Alex Turner embarking on his side project The Last Shadow Puppets.  It was then announced that Arctic Monkeys third album would be recorded in the USA and that hard-rocking Josh Homme, best known as the frontman of Queens of The Stone Age, would be taking on production duties.  The indie kids must have been trembling in fear.

The internet now recalls that the song was given its debut on 6 July 2009 on a Radio 1 show hosted by Zane Lowe, one of the band’s earliest and loudest champions, and made available that same day as an iTunes download the same day. It was well different from what had come before, with the opening few bars in particular being as hard or as stoner as anything Homme was normally associated with.  It was a bold move, and with the benefit of hindsight, can be seen as laying the foundations for the band to constantly shift and shape change with each passing year and new album with Alex Turner determined never to be accused of either resting on his laurels or being a one-trick pony.

The band advised that the single wouldn’t be available in any physical format until mid-August, some seven days ahead of the new album, which was to be called Humbug.  It was also revealed that the vinyl would be a limited run and only available via charity shops run by Oxfam.

The downloads alone in the first week took Crying Lightning into the singles chart at #12.  It fell back down the chart over the next few weeks, dropping to #72 before jumping back up again to #45 in the week that vinyl was released.

The b-side was a blistering and unexpected cover:-

mp3: Arctic Monkeys – Red Right Hand

Four years prior to Nick Cave‘s song becoming really well known thanks to its association with the TV drama series Peaky Blinders.

My copy of the 7″ single is second-hand and was bought at least five years later.  I got it from a charity shop on the south side of Glasgow, close to Villain Towers, but not Oxfam.  There was no sticker on the front of the sleeve, and from memory I paid £5.

 

JC

 

Kilgore Trout, Laugh, Nightingales, Television Personalities

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 71, 72, 73, and 74 of 114)

The Television Peronalities, from London, were active between 1977 and 1998, and then again since 2004.  There have been twelve albums, going back to And Don’t The Kids Just Love It (Rough Trade, 1981) through to Beautiful Despair (Fire Records, 2018). Discogs lists 36 singles/EPs, some of which were split releases with other band, on over 20 different labels, two of which, Whaam! and Dreamworld were owned and run by frontman, Dan Treacy. The debut single was the self-released 14th Floor in 1978, later re-pressed in 1989 by Overground Records, a label specialising in punk releases and reissues.

Given it had been so far back since the debut, it was fair to say The Television Personalities were veterans of the indie music scene and indeed already had with eight singles and four albums to their name. They weren’t part of the C86 cassette, and I’ve a feeling they wouldn’t have wanted to be, but Bob Stanley was never going to ignore their influence and significance when he came to curate the 2006 celebratory release:-

mp3: Paradise Estate – The Television Personalities

Track 24, Disc 1 of CD86.

Paradise Estate, was the b-side of A Sense of Belonging, a single released on Rough Trade back in early 1983. Lyrically, both tracks were far from cheery numbers, and were housed in a sleeve that had a photograph of the face of a young child who had been beaten and battered. Both songs can also be found on The Painted Word, the band’s fourth album, released by London-based Illuminated Records

The Nightingales, from Birmingham, were active between 1979 and 1986, and then again since 2004, with frontman Robert Lloyd being one of the most important and influential figures across the post-punk/indie scenes.  The first time around, there were ten singles/EPs and three albums, while there have been twelve singles and eleven albums since the band reformed. Huge favourites of John Peel, the band recorded eight sessions between 1980 and 1986.

They have released their music across a number of different labels. The debut single, Idiot Strength, was on Rough Trade in 1981, but much of the rest of the 80s was through Cherry Red Records or Vindaloo Records, which was established by Robert Lloyd in 1980 prior to any music being released by The Nightingales.

mp3: Part Time Moral England – The Nightingales

Track 6, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

This was originally recorded for the 1986 album, In The Good Old Country Way, which came out on Vindaloo.  The album which was written and recorded when Robert was, as he put it, going through his country music phase, listening a lot to Tammy Wynette.  Not that you’d recognise many of its songs as being country in the way we’ve long been used to.

Laugh, from Manchester, released one flexidisc, four singles and an album between 1986 and 1988. There were three singles in 1987 and 1988 on The Remorse Label, a short-lived operation which was based in Orpington in Kent, which were followed by a single and an album on Sub Aqua, an even shorter-lived label that was started up by Jeff Barrett, a former press officer at Creation Records and who would later be the founder of Heavenly Records, which is still one of the most important labels operating in the UK today.

mp3: Paul McCartney – Laugh

Track 13, Disc 1 of CD86.

Their second single for Remorse, released in 1987 and one which featured Craig Gannon, not too long removed from his brief stint as the additional guitarist in The Smiths.  Laugh would break up in 1989, but the following year two of the band’s members would be part of Intastella, who signed to MCA Records and enjoyed some minor chart success over the first half of the 90s.

The appearance of the lid of the C86 boxset should give you an indication that there’s not a lot out there on this lot, and they appear to be another of the obscure and, for the most part, wholly underwhelming acts that Neil Taylor pulled out from either his memory bank or past mentions in the NME when compiling this on behalf of Cherry Red Records.

mp3: The Peacock Nose – Kilgore Trout

From Last.fm:-

Kilgore Trout – an alternative rock band that was based in Nottingham and Sheffield in the north of England between 1985 and 1991. In that time Kilgore Trout released two EPs, contributed eight tracks to two compilation LPs, and appeared on a flexidisc. This band’s mainstay was Chris Trout, a seminal figure in the British alternative music scene, who has also worked with Bear, A.C. Temple, Spoonfed Hybrid, Lazerboy, Coping Saw and Smokers Die Younger.

If you say so.

 

 

JC

Drugstore

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (26): SUPER GLIDER

As mentioned previously, Drugstore were around for much of the 90s, formed in London but with a Brazilian born singer-songwriter in the shape of Isabel Monteiro. The band were one of those who always made for an interesting opening act and so fans of the likes of Radiohead, Tindersticks, Jeff Buckley and The Jesus and Mary Chain would have had opportunities to catch them.

My introduction to the band would have come from this song, just 1:33 in length, being included on a compilation CD:-

mp3: Drugstore – Super Glider (Volume 11 version)

A vocal delivery that is very reminiscent of Hope Sandoval.

It is lifted from Volume which was a magazine in the form of a series of compact disc compilation albums that were published in the UK in the early to mid 1990s. The albums typically contained exclusive tracks and remixes from a diverse range of indie artists. Each album was packaged with a 192-page booklet that contained features on the artists, and original articles. The booklet was the size and shape of a CD jewel case, and was usually packaged with the CD case in a cardboard sleeve. Volume One, the first issue, was published in September 1991. The series came to an end in January 1997, with Volume Seventeen.

Super Gilder was the opening track on Volume 11, which was published in August 1994.   A longer version of the song would appear on Drugstore’s eponymous debut, released in March 1995.

mp3: Drugstore – Super Glider

A case could be made to suggest that this could be defined as one of the great lost songs of the era.

JC

Whipping Boy

THE CULT CLASSICS :THE RE-RUNS (6)

26 January 2014.  This came from SWC who keeps us all informed and amused on a daily basis over at No Badger Required.

– – – – –

Not released on an indie label but very much an indie band.

Whipping Boy formed in Dublin in 1988 and started out in life as a Fall covers band. In 1992 they released their first album Submarine and then signed to the Columbia label. In 1995 they came to the attention of a wider audience with the release of Heartworm their second album.

It is from this that We Don’t Need Nobody Else was taken. It’s a brutal episode of love, betrayal and heartbreak with singer Fergal McKee at first speaking over the wall of guitars in the back ground, then getting angrier and angrier. There is one verse in the song that makes your hairs stand up on end and genuinely made me shiver it’s the bit where Mckee says

“I hit you for the first time today, I didn’t mean to It just happened You wouldn’t let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not Now I know the distance between us Christ we weren’t even fighting, I was just annoyed”

Is it misogynist? No, well probably not. What it is, is a raw and emotional account of a love lost. Follow the song through, you’ll understand. Listen to A Natural, the very last (hidden) track on Heartworm, and it all becomes very clear, well it did to me. To me, this identified how music can be a very powerful thing, in fact it can tear your heart out whilst you sing along. Lyrically this song is as beautiful as anything I have ever listened to, and yet they are not the household names they should be.

mp3 : Whipping Boy – We Don’t Need Nobody Else
mp3 : Whipping Boy – A Natural

Is it a cult classic? Yes it’s the very definition of a cult classic, it scraped the Top Fifty. The album is better received now than it was 19 (now 31) years ago. The band had very little success when perhaps they should have been megastars, Heartworm was recently voted one of the greatest Irish Albums of all time, I would lose the word ‘Irish’ there myself.

 

S-WC

Various

IT’S A NUMBERS THING…

mp3: Various – It’s A Numbers Thing

Someone’s Calling – Modern English (Track 1 from the album After The Snow)
Today’s Lesson – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Track 2 from the album Dig Lazarus Dig)
Venus As A Boy – Bjork (Track 3 from the album Debut)
Pump It Up – Elvis Costello & The Attractions (Track 4 from the album This Year’s Model)
Fluorescent Adolescent – Arctic Monkeys (Track 5 from the album Favourite Worst Nightmare)
Loved – Follytechnic Music Library (Track 6 from the album Ordered 81-85)
How Could I Be Wrong – The Auteurs (Track 7 from the album New Wave)
Death Of A Party – Blur (Track 8 from the album Blur)
Sports Car – The Wedding Present (Track 9 from the album Locked Down and Stripped Back)
This Is Love – PJ Harvey (Track 10 from the album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea)
Videograms – The Twilight Sad (Track 11 from the album It Won/t Be Like This All The Time)
Take The Skinheads Bowling – Camper Van Beethoven (Track 12 from the album Telephone Free Landslide Victory)
Swerving The Checkatrade – Half Man Half Biscuit (Track 13 from the album No One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut)
Never Here – Elastica (Track 14 from the album Elastica)
Mr E’s Beautiful Blues – Eels (Track 15 from the album Daisies of The Galaxy)
Sweet and Tender Hooligan – Nouvelle Vague (Track 16 from the album Bande a Part)

 

 

JC

#magazine45s

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MAGAZINE (2)

Touch and Go (VS 207) : Released April 1978 on 7″ 

This was previously posted on 5 November 2019 with the title ‘THE BARELY REMEMBERED SOPHOMORE SINGLE’

– – – – – – –

A previous instalment of the cracking debut singles series enabled the spotlight to be put on Magazine and the quite majestic Shot By Both Sides, released in January 1978.

It would be a further five months before the debut album, Real Life, hit the shops, comprising just nine tracks, one of which was a re-recording of Shot…., but noticeably absent was the single the band had released in the intervening period.

mp3 : Magazine – Touch and Go

It’s very much a song of its era, relying heavily throughout on the new wave guitar work of John McGeoch while Barry Adamson on bass and Martin Jackson on drums provide ample support as the rhythm section. And of course, there’s the unmistakable whining vocal delivery of Howard Devoto, seemingly almost breathless at trying to keep up with the relentless pace of the playing. It’s almost as if Dave Formula’s dainty keyboard solo, which comes in at exactly halfway through the song, is there to enable the vocalist to get a second wind.

Touch and Go isn’t a bad song. It’s big problem is that it is a very long way removed from the brilliance of the debut 45 and it didn’t have enough going for it to make it stand out among the other post-punk singles that were being released in 1978. It’s also quite unlike the other songs that Magazine were beginning to write and record – compare for instance with the opening track on said debut album:-

mp3 : Magazine – Definitive Gaze

I recently came across a review of Definitive Gaze that described it perfectly – ‘it switches between a sci-fi love theme and the score for a chase scene’ (Andy Kellman, allmusic). Touch and Go feels lumpen and unimaginative in comparison, and while there was ample space for it to be included on the debut album, it was a wise decision to cast it aside.

The b-side to the 7” was a real hoot:-

mp3 : Magazine – Goldfinger

Yup…..a cover of the theme tune to the James Bond movie as penned by John Barry and sung by Shirley Bassey. It’s almost as if Howie & co are auditioning for the right to compose and perform the next again Bond movie. The thing is, they would have certainly done a better job than what was used in the 1979 movie in the series – can anyone, without looking it up, recall what Moonraker sounded like?

Fun fact pop-pickers.

Despite being one of the most instantly recognisable of the Bond theme songs, Goldfinger only got as high as #21 in the UK singles charts in 1964, albeit it performed better in the USA by hitting the Top 10.

In fact, only one James Bond theme song has ever reached #1 in the UK. And very surprisingly, that accolade belongs to Sam Smith and his rendition of Writing’s On The Wall, which was written for Spectre in 2015.

Every day is a school day round here…………

 

 

JC

Mount Vernon Arts Lab

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #517: MOUNT VERNON ARTS LAB

I’ve only one song by Mount Vernon Arts Lab in the collection, and it comes courtesy of its inclusion on the compilation album Bentism that was released in 1999 by Creeping Bent Records.

Here’s some abridged stuff from wiki:-

Mount Vernon Arts Lab is a musical project of Drew Mulholland.  

Taking inspiration from Joe Meek, and from Daniel Miller’s work as The Normal, Mulholland began creating avant-garde/post-rock recordings in 1996, and soon found the support of independent labels such as Via Satellite and Earworm, who between them issued a series of vinyl-only releases during 1997 and 1998. Mulholland used a range of electronic and acoustic instruments including Moog synthesizers, theremin, and a specially-built unit which he calls a “Turbine Generator” The debut mini-album, Gummy Twinkle, was issued in September 1998, featuring guest appearances from Pete Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub.

He then signed a deal with Ochre Records, who issued his second mini-set, a collaboration with Adrian Utley of Portishead, featuring a single 23-minute track, “Warminster”. A second mini-set followed for Ochre, this time recorded 100 feet below ground in the abandoned nuclear bunker at Troywood.  A final album as Mount Vernon Arts Lab was released in 2001 on Via Satellite; The Séance at Hobs Lane and featured guest appearances from Blake, Utley, Isobel Campbell, and Barry 7 (of Add N to (X).

mp3: Mount Vernon Arts Lab – Bad Vibrations

Not specified in the wiki entry was that in 1997, there had been a contribution to edition #5 of the Creeping Bent Singles Club, supplying one side of a 7″ single with the other being courtesy of Future Pilot A.K.A. vs. Alan Vega / Revolutionary Corps Of Teenage Jesus.   It was the same track later included on the Bentism compilation.

 

 

JC

 

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #21

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

KINKY

What’s your favorite Kinks song? You know you have one—everybody does. So, it’s no surprise that so many artists have released Kinks covers over the years. There are far too many for a single set so, to narrow it down, the songs in today’s post must have been originally included on a studio album. It’s okay if they were singles, but they couldn’t have been bonus tracks on a re-issued album, or live versions, or a song recorded for a compilation album. I also left out songs from artists’ collections of their favorites (e.g. Pinups, by Bowie). And none from a Kinks or Ray Davies tribute album, of which there are several. Maybe we’ll get to some of those down the road. Meanwhile…

David Watts – The Jam.

Released as a single and then included on 1978’s All Mod Cons. Originally released as the B-side to ‘You Really Got Me,’ and an album track from 1967’s Something Else by the Kinks.

Stop Your Sobbing – Pretenders.

Despite the fact that every single song on the Pretenders’ debut album is a banger, the first single by Chrissie and the boys was this cover. An album side from the Kinks’ self-titled debut, released in 1964.

The Hard Way – The Knack.

Half of the twelve songs on the Knack’s sophomore album ‘…But The Little Girls Understand’ (1980) were singles, but not this one. An album track from 1975’s Schoolboys in Disgrace.

She’s Got Everything – The Romantics.

Another cover from 1980, this time from the Detroit power pop purveyors’ self-titled debut. I love this song so much that I put it on the Kinks’ version on the first mixtape I ever made for GTFP. Not that big a deal for the band, though, who recorded it in 1966 during the Face to Face sessions but left it off the album. It came out a couple of years later as the B-side to ‘Days’.

Act Nice and Gentle – Black Keys.

From Rubber Factory, the third studio LP from Akron, Ohio’s finest, released in 2004. Again, an afterthought for the Kinks; it was the B-side to 1967’s tremendous ‘Waterloo Sunset’ single in the UK. It never made it onto an album until the 1998 reissue of Something Else.

Victoria – The Fall.

From 1998’s The Frenz Experiment. It’s a testament to how great this song is that Mark E. Smith pretty much tries to sing it straight. The First single and leadoff track from 1969’s Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).

Time Will Tell – Holly Golightly.

The most appealing thing about Ms. Golightly is that she’s such an amateur. My bandmate Bess can sing rings around her. I could form a pickup band in 10 seconds that can play the track better than this recording. But I never get tired of listening to Holly because she’s absolutely all in, and you have to admire the effort. From her 11th studio album, Truly She Is None Other, released back in 2003. Originally recorded in 1965 during the Kinks Kontroversy sessions, but left off the album. The Kinks didn’t release it until its 1983 inclusion in a greatest hits package.

Big Sky – Yo La Tengo.

Hoboken’s favorite sons and daughter usually include a cover or two on their records, starting with this song on their 1986 debut, Ride The Tiger. An album track from 1969’s The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

Tired of Waiting – Lyres.

From the Boston garage rockers’ 1984 first LP, On Fyre. It occurs to me that all of the tracks in this set are pretty faithful to the original recordings, apart from this one which features Jeff Connolly’s signature Farfisa organ. A 1965 single (full title: ‘Tired of Waiting for You’) included on the second studio LP, Kinda Kinks.

This Strange Effect – The Shacks.

This one’s a bit of a mystery. The Shacks arrived with a self-titled EP in 2016, which included this song. I’d never heard it before and was surprised to find out it was a cover, since it doesn’t sound especially Kinks-like. It was originally a single for Dave Berry in 1965, and was covered by the likes of Bill Wyman, Steve Wynn, and Squeeze, among others. To date, the Kinks never released their own studio version, if there is one.

Days – Kirsty MacColl.

Second single off 1989’s Kite, by the late great Ms. MacColl. Originally a non-album single released in 1968. ‘Days’ has also been covered by Elvis Costello, Kate Rusby, and David Byron. My favorite version is by alt-rock mainstays Guster, but it came out as a bonus track on the 10th anniversary edition of 2003’s Keep It Together, so I had to exclude it.

Nah, fuck it: Days – Guster.

I hope y’all liked these Kinks Klassics, because there are WAY more than enough covers—by Queens of the Stone Age, Detroit Cobras, Green Day, the Smithereens, Raincoats, Big Star & co.—for at least one more round.

 

Jonny

 

 

 

bIG fLAME, Blue Aeroplanes, Pooh Sticks, The Turncoats

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 67, 68, 69, and 70 of 114)

Big Flame, or to be more precise bIG* fLAME, were from Manchester, active from 1983 to 1986 during which there were five singles/EPs, the debut on their own Laughing Gun Records in 1984 with the remainder being on Ron Johnson Records during 1985 and 1986.  They were also invited to contribute to the C86 cassette:-

mp3: New Way (Quick Wash And Brush Up With Liberation Theology) – biG*fLAME

Track 7 on side 2 of the C86 cassette; Track 18, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

This 1 minutes and 38 seconds of mayhem wasn’t made available elsewhere, but was included on a post-career compilation, Rigour 1983-1986, released in 1996 by an American label, Drag City

The very title of the song should give you a hint that bIG* fLAME were quite different from everyone else on C86.  Named after a revolutionary socialist feminist grouping, they were more punk than indie, with an uncompromising sound and attitude.  I have suggested they are an acquired taste, but there are times when their music just perfectly matches my mood.

After bIG* fLAME, we go to another extreme of indie music, and possibly the most jangly indie band to ever take the piss out of the jangly indie scene while still making great music.

The Pooh Sticks are from Swansea in South Wales, initially being together between 1987 and 1995, before reforming in 2010. Their first five singles were released in 1988,  all on the locally-based Fierce Recordings, and all being single-sided on 7″ in limited numbers.  Among the titles were I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well and Indiepop Ain’t Noise Pollution, but perhaps their greatest two minutes and forty seconds came via this:-

mp3: On Tape – The Pooh Sticks

Track 18, Disc 2 of CD86.

I’ll stand by my words from a few years back:-

“On Tape is a brilliant record on so many different levels. It sounds as shambolic and cheaply recorded as most of the C86 tracks were, it pays homage to the humble cassette which, after all, was the medium under which C86 thrived and above all else the lyrics gently mock the trainspotter obsessiveness of so many music fans (myself included!!) with lyrics such as “I’ve got Falling and Laughing – the original Postcard version” and “I sent for the Soup Dragons single, mail-order only; £1.30 to Martin Whitehead, but it never came!”

They would later sign to labels in America, and by 1991 had changed direction to a more power pop sound, through to the 1995 break-up.  There hasn’t been much in the way of new material since the 2010 comeback, which in essence was to play at the Indietracks Festival that year, and there have been just a handful of appearances since. Having said that, main man Hue Williams is very much part of the very active group Swansea Sound alongside many other indie alumni.

mp3: One Breath – The Turncoats

Track 22, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

This has proved among the most difficult to get info on.  The Turncoats had just one release, and it was the Motor Ball Meltbeat EP on Noiseannoys Records in 1986, which was the label That Petrol Emotion had briefly set up and which saw the release of the single V2 in 1985.  If the info on Discogs is correct, then V2 and Motor Ball Meltbeat were the only two released on Noiseannoys.  I’ve also found that The Turncoats supported TPE a few times in the mid 80s.

The band members were Nick Brown, Roger Hellier, James Murray and Chris Teckkam.  I’ve since established that Roger Hellier and Chris Teckkam were later part of an early 90s band called Swimmer.

And that’s it……………………………………

The Blue Aeroplanes are a band from Bristol who have been on the go since 1983 with thirteen albums and countless singles to their name. Their debut release was an album rather than a single.  Bop Art came out in 1984 on their own Party Records. One of its tracks was later included on the expanded C86 release:-

mp3: Outback Jazz – The Blue Aeroplanes

Track 13, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

It is genuinely impossible to summarise the band in a few paragraphs. Back in 2017, the comedian and writer Stewart Lee, described The Blue Aeroplanes a being “like Philip Larkin fronting Television”. Why?  Well, the band has long fused poetry and guitar-led melodies, while throwing in elements of folk. They have also been subject to almost as many changes in membership as The Fall, with some 50 different musicians/performers having at one time or other being in the band. And in Wojtek Dmochowski, they have engaged a dancer as part of their live shows since the very beginning.

Maybe it’s best I refer you to this ICA, penned for the blog by Mike Melville, a long-time fan of the band and whose own website/blog, Manic Pop Thrills, is always a fascinating read.

One final overall thought…..the foursome making up this latest edition of the series have very little in common, and as Josef K might have put it, it’s kinda funny that they all ended on up on releases associated with the C86 genre.

 

JC

Sunstinger

AN INTRODUCTION TO…SUNSTINGER

A guest posting by flimflamfan

Some of you may of course be conversant with all things Sunstinger. If that’s the case for the next few minutes or so, please feel to take the dog for a walk. If you don’t have a dog well, I’m not here to listen your canine inadequacies – he joked.

Sunstinger are originally from Dunfermline but have close ties to Aberdeen.

My first connection with the band is vague. I was aware of the first EP being released but I couldn’t tell you how I was aware? It seems the band had an association with a company called Lucid Shade from at approx. 2018 and have released videos for songs that were never released e.g.:

Sunstinger – All The Things You Wish I’d Say

Bandcamp now tells me that the band released at least 2 individual tracks available to download. I’d no inking of these songs till the debut 4-track EP, Beyond The Frame was released in 2021. It captured my imagination for two reasons:

1. I was taken with each song: and

2. I wanted to own them.

The price of the self-released EP was £20 plus £5 postage. It just seemed too much for me. I declined the purchase. Yet, every now and then ownership of the EP would float through my head and I felt like a fool as the limited-edition EPs were snapped up in short order.

It should be noted that in 2024 Sonic Rising Records (US) re-released Beyond The Frame to include 4 more songs. It was like an LP, right? Some limited to just 25 copies. I was in. I wanted this. I even liked the cover art variation more than the original. As might be expected, once postage and tax had been added via Bandcamp the price of the vinyl I was looking at rose to £44. I once again declined.

Sunstinger – Beyond The Frame

What we have next is all but a repeat of the above. The second 5-track EP Worthless was released in 2024. I was determined just to buy the EP having tortured myself about not buying the first. However, the same issue arose. The price. It was just too much. I decided not to purchase, again.

I do understand the cost of limited-edition vinyl production but there’s a point when my early 1980s vinyl radar pulses with “£1.99. £1.99. £1.99”.

Sunstinger – Sink

And so, bang up-to-date Sunstinger is set to release a new EP Spare Me The Rapture come mid-September. Again, it’s a limited edition. This time 100 on Absinthe Bloom coloured vinyl? I wonder if B&Q have Absinthe Bloom paint in stock? I think it’d cheer my kitchen up no end.

In the meantime, I’ve been able to acquire the first 2 EPs at reasonable prices. I’m pretty chuffed – although the US variant eludes me, for now. I bit the bullet and paid the pre-order price for Spare Me The Rapture. My reasoning – the music is beautiful, and we have to support grassroots music, don’t we?

Spare Me The Rapture is the only track from the new EP that is publicly available, for now.

Sunstinger – Spare Me The Rapture

And here’s the link to purchase the new EP: https://sunstinger.bigcartel.com/

Enjoy!

flimflamfan

Editors, Stereolab

SMALL SCREEN GEMS (8): Stereolab – Channel 4 (1994)

The Word was a late-night ‘magazine style’ show that was broadcast on Channel 4 between 1990 and 1995, consisting of all sorts of features loosely to do with entertainment in the widest possible definition of the word.  In a pre-internet era when print still ruled, particularly across the tabloid media in the UK, this was a show that set out to be provocative, chaotic and controversial, thriving week upon week on the column inches it generated.  There was one truly gruesome and very often repulsive and tasteless section entitled ‘I’d Do Anything To Get Myself on Television’ which was very much a forerunner of the ‘me me me’ format of the worst parts of social media.

And yet, it managed over the years to deliver some memorable live music performances, often from singers and bands making their first appearance on UK television.  I’m not sure if this, from September 1994, was such a debut, but it really is a great bit of footage.

This very decent quality footage is from Stereolab‘s own YouTube channel.

mp3: Editors – French Disko

A b-side from the 2006 re-release of the single Munich.

 

JC

Elvis Costello

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #416 : ELVIS COSTELLO

A guest posting by Fraser Pettigrew (aka our New Zealand correspondent)

Elvis Costello: the difficult decades : Yet another EC Imaginary Compilation Album

Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus is an artist who has embraced more musical styles than he has names and pseudonyms. Whether it’s Napoleon Dynamite, The Imposter, the Coward Brothers or plain old Elvis Costello on the label, you never know if it’s going to be pop, blues, ska, rock, folk, r’n’b, country, classical, zydeco or jazz coming out the speakers, and on many of his 34 studio albums you’ll get a bit of all of them.

I won’t even begin to mention all the people with whom he has collaborated or from whom he draws influence because I’m not writing an encyclopaedia. To fashion a compilation from his entire oeuvre would be insane, both for the research required and the futility of representing such diverse and prolific creativity, as the previous ICAs here have already acknowledged.

Consequently, for this selection I’ve ‘limited’ myself to his main solo albums from 1994’s Brutal Youth onwards, excluding all the various collaborations with the likes of the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach and Alain Toussaint, as well as the orchestral and soundtrack works, and the covers collection Kojak Variety.

Why start with Brutal Youth? No particular stylistic reason, just that the previous album Mighty Like A Rose (1991) was the point at which I became exhausted by Costello’s increasingly dense and convoluted songwriting and lost the desire to buy whatever he produced on its release, a habit I’d followed since 1978 with This Year’s Model. Everything he’s done since 1991, I have caught up with much later.

For those of us who followed him through that first decade or so it would only take the mention of a song title to cause the melody, the arrangement and the lyrics to flow straight from our memory. Since about 1989 however, Costello has written literally hundreds of songs that none of us will ever find ourselves humming at the bus stop. Even with eleven albums to choose from, filling two sides of vinyl with highlights wasn’t that easy.

Coming to it all after the event makes me realise I didn’t miss much by not being there at the time. Not because there’s nothing good there, but because there was nothing that time would render invalid and therefore had to be consumed fresh. Costello was writing in historical traditions, recasting established forms with adult lyrics that avoided or undermined the cliches and the condescending patriarchal stereotypes with which they were often associated.

Since the turn of the century, his immersion in Americana has infused a body of work that feels born in the (southern) USA, from Nashville, through Memphis, to New Orleans. Interwoven with all this are the strands of folk, the Dylan and Beatles influences, the retro 1930s pop-jazz, the smoky club torch-songs, and even the occasional new-wave banger.

Returning to him after many years away, the things that turned me off Costello in 1991 are still there. There are many wonderful moments where form, style, sentiment, melody and arrangement merge beautifully into a memorable whole. Those are the songs I’ve selected from below. There is also a fair amount that wouldn’t offend fans of the Doobie Brothers or Travelling Wilburys. And then there are the other melodically convoluted, lyrically over-concentrated, metaphorically force-fed stuffed ducks that grate on your ears as you try to extract some aesthetic comfort from them..

Amid the myriad influences that cascade over any Costello album, the one that I most frequently hear is Randy Newman. And that’s a pity because I don’t really like Randy Newman. No disrespect, distinguished musician and songwriter and all, but the style just gets on my wick, no less when it’s coming from Costello. It’s that sense of trying to cram too many wordy smart-arsed metaphors into a song until they blur the essential musicality of it all into an overwrought plodding rant. I seem to recall Costello himself relating some advice Burt Bacharach gave him about not forcing a lyric to fit the melody, but it frequently sounds as though the advice goes unheeded.

There was an inherent irony with the early Costello, that the man was much younger than he looked, while the music was always older than it seemed. I first saw him live on the Armed Forces tour, supported by Richard Hell and John Cooper Clarke (there’s eclectic for ya!). The lyrical content of his first two albums combined with his nerdy, horn-rimmed appearance formed the impression that I was watching a mature and world-weary man, embittered by too many failed relationships. On that night in January 1979 he was actually just four months past his 24th birthday. Old before his time, already experiencing the ruins of his first marriage and father to an infant son.

Even in its most vital and adrenalin-stoked new-wave moments, the music by contrast showed its retro roots. The Jailhouse Rock of Mystery Dance, Steve Nieve’s ‘60s bubblegum organ sound and the glitter-stomp of Pump it Up, the Beatles harmonies and musical quotations, the old-timey fairground barrel-organ of Sunday’s Best. And of course, the country and western. Stranger in the House, a free giveaway with This Year’s Model, was treated as a bit of tongue-in-cheek anti-fashion, but when a whole album of country covers was announced in 1981 there was some uncomfortable shuffling before people pretended they’d always known it wasn’t a joke.

Almost Blue was an entirely sincere excursion into a genre which almost all Costello fans privately regarded as the ghastly old wallpaper in their parents’ front room. But Costello’s eclecticism opened doors in people’s minds. In the process, I came across a quote that explained it all: rock and roll is about sex, country and western is about marriage. Didn’t Tammy Wynette literally spell it out for us with her greatest hit? So when you revisit Costello’s earliest work you find the same preoccupation, not with teenage kicks and drug-fuelled oblivion, but with jealousy, adultery, and drinking to remember. He was a country singer all along.

It’s arguable that some of his most innovative work sits not under his own name, but in a couple of those unlikely collaborations, particularly the Brodski Quartet and The Roots. On paper, Wise Up Ghost held out the horrific prospect of watching your dad dance to The Prodigy, but it’s surprisingly bearable. And then again, 2020’s Hey Clockface is liberally blessed with sounds that don’t fit snugly into any pigeonhole, proving that old Declan hasn’t completely sunk without trace in some Louisiana bayou.

There are only eleven tracks in this ICA because tracks 4 and 5 are just short of six minutes apiece and, Get Happy notwithstanding, vinyl only stretches so far. I haven’t purposely avoided the Americana in my selection, I have merely tried to select the songs that I like most. There’s no pretence of a ‘representative’ sample, just the random variety that emerges from my entirely subjective choice. If you’re not familiar with Costello’s later work, don’t get the idea that it’s all like this, or you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Side 1

American Gangster Time – From the notably above-average Momofuku (2008). The Dylanesque verses lead into a uniquely Costello chorus-hook. The seedy nexus of crime, prostitution and American patriotism seems as relevant now as ever.

13 Steps Lead Down – Critical praise for Brutal Youth (1994) as ‘back to form’ (over-generous IMHO) is largely based on this standout single which recalls The Attractions’ glory days.

Bullets for the Newborn King – ‘Somewhere in Central America, 1951’ says the sleeve note on National Ransom (2010), evoking CIA covert actions in this folky ballad for acoustic guitar and bass.

All These Strangers – A typically impenetrable Costello lyric, for which T-Bone Burnett takes a share of the credit/blame, more international political intrigue from National Ransom, but who cares what it’s about when it’s wedded to such a seductive tune.

It’s Time – Classic Costello from All This Useless Beauty (1996), an epic and impassioned post-mortem on a doomed affair, wouldn’t feel out of place on Imperial Bedroom.

Side 2

No Flag – Everything on this blistering track from Hey Clockface (2020) was done by Costello alone in a studio in Helsinki, using synths, loops, drum machine. You could call it unexpected…

Stella Hurt – Another Impostors stomper from Momofuku, surfing on a dirty guitar riff the likes of which was unheard in this neighbourhood since Blood and Chocolate’s Uncomplicated.

Suspect My Tears – Look Now (2018) is saturated in Burt Bacharach (including two collaborations). This is the best of Costello’s many emulations, most of which come nowhere close to the master. Though it’s a bitter and cruel song from a man’s perspective it would have been great to hear a young Dionne Warwick or Dusty Springfield singing it.

I Do (Zula’s Song) – One of the jazz quintet numbers from Hey Clockface, with a melancholy New Orleans funeral march refrain and a beautiful tune, keeping it simple for once.

The Whirlwind – Mostly just Costello’s voice and Steve Nieve’s piano delivering another poignant moment on Hey Clockface.

Mr Crescent – The Boy Named If (2022) leaves it late to produce something worthwhile with its closing track, a sorry tale of an untrustworthy lover swathed in a captivating melody.

 

Fraser

#magazine45s

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MAGAZINE (1)

Shot By Both Sides (VS 200) : Released January 1978 on 7″ 

No apologies offered if, during this short series, I delve into the archives as I’ve written previously about quite a few of the Magazine singles. This was previously posted on 12 January 2018.

– – – – – – –

January 1978.

I was just getting my head around punk/new wave. At 14 years of age, I was still more into playing and watching football than I was getting my kicks from music. All that was to change over the next few years and I think it’s accurate to say that by my 18th birthday in June 1981, my head had been completely turned by some of the most amazing bands and performers who were integral to what we now lovingly refer to as the post-punk era.

It was around then, just as I was about to gear up for going to university that I discovered Magazine – the only problem being that the band were on the verge of breaking up.

There was a really interesting comment left behind not that long ago – I think it was from Drew – in which he said he envied someone discovering a class act fairly late on in their career as there is so much incredibly good music to go back and discover, and this was certainly what happened to me with Magazine. I can’t now begin to imagine being able to develop and expand my musical tastes without owning a copy of The Correct Use of Soap, the band’s third and best album, although there are moments on each of it predecessors, Real Life and Secondhand Daylight, which can held be held up as equally outstanding and memorable.

January 1978 was when Magazine released their debut single. As I said many moons ago when I pulled together an ICA (it was #35 in the series), Shot by Both Sides is one of the great post-punk anthems that had the audacity to reach #41 in the singles charts and somehow trigger off an appearance on Top of The Pops. The sight of Howie & co. – even in an edited two and a bit minutes clip – was something that scared the millions of viewers as sales dropped dramatically the following week and the band didn’t hit the Top 40. Indeed, despite what would become an outstanding catalogue of singles over the next three years, Magazine never got as close to a hit single as the debut.

The tune is one that dates from the fag-end of Devoto’s days with Buzzcocks, as can be seen from Pete Shelley being given a writing credit. Indeed, the latter used the tune himself some ten months later for Lipstick, the b-side to the hit single Promises, albeit, for some strange reason, Devoto’s name totally absent from its credits.

Shot by Both Sides still has the ability, what is now 40 48 years on (FFS!!!!!!!) to amaze and startle. All 3 minutes and 54 seconds of it, from the opening riff to the magnificently timed climax via the snarling, paranoid and terrified sounding vocal. It’s as near a flawless and memorable a debut as there’s ever been. Such a pity that the world wasn’t quite ready to embrace fully what this most extraordinary sounding and looking band were offering.

Time has been very kind to Magazine in that they gained increasingly in popularity in the years after their demise and their comeback from 2009-2011 in which they toured and released a new album was praised and welcomed in equal measures; at long last, the band members made some money. The one down side was the sad and constant reminder that John McGeoch, whose guitar work had been integral to making the band such essential listening, had passed away in 2004, albeit Noko, who was Devoto’s side kick in Luxuria, did a sterling job in difficult and challenging circumstances.

Is Shot By Both Sides their finest 45? I personally don’t think so and would afford that particular accolade to A Song From Under The Floorboards. But nowadays, if I’m down at the old-fogies indie-disco, I think I’d rather hear Shot…..although if truth be told, I’d much rather dance these days to Definitive Gaze which, when played through expensive and modern speakers, does sound as if it’s from another galaxy altogether.

mp3 : Magazine – Shot By Both Sides (single version)
mp3 : Magazine – My Mind Ain’t So Open

PS :

The 2018 post made no reference to the b-side.  My Mind Ain’t So Open, and I want to rectify that.

It’s probably the most directly punk/new wave song the band ever wrote and recorded. You’ll see from the credits that the debut single predates Dave Formula coming on board to add the keyboards that would prove to be such a pivotal part of the band’s sound.  It means that the three musicians playing on the song can thrash away as fast and as carefree as they like under the guidance of producer Mick Glossop, who, as it turned out, wasn’t retained to work on the debut album.

There is no argument that McGeoch would prove to be one of his generations most revered guitarists, but on this one, he kind of dials it in; but in his defence, he was merely aping all his contemporaries.

But please….don’t get the impression that I’m not a fan of this b-side….it’s actually a brilliant two-minute blast of defiantly snotty punk, very much in keeping with a lot of what was being released in 1978.  It’s just that Magazine’s sound would quickly evolve and lead them to places where they were beyond comparison with their peers.

 

 

JC

Moth and The Mirror

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #516: THE MOTH AND THE MIRROR

I’ve only one song by The Moth and The Mirror in the collection, and it comes courtesy of its inclusion on the compilation album Get Into The Grove : 10 Years of Olive Grove Records that was released in November 2020.

mp3: The Moth and The Mirror – Bell Jar

The six musicians who made up the band –  Stacey Sievwright (lead vocals, guitar, and cello), Gordon Skene (vocals and guitar), Louis Abbott (guitar and vocals), Kevin McCarvel (bass), Iain Sandilands (percussion and piano) and Pete Murch (drums) were very much part of the burgeoning Glasgow indie-folk scene when they released their one and only double album, Honestly, This World, via Olive Grove in October 2011.

Bell Jar wasn’t included on the album, so I can only assume it was either left over from the sessions or perhaps was a track written later for a follow-up album that never happened.

 

 

JC

 

Fall

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (25): INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

In which there is a little bit of jiggery-pokery to squeeze this into the series

mp3: The Fall – Industrial Estate

The song was recorded for Live At The Witch Trials, the band’s debut album released in March 1979.  It has a running time of just over two minutes.

But when it came to including it on the compilation album 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong, which was issued in June 2004, the last twenty seconds of the song were shaved off.

I have no shame!

JC