February 2014 – Page 2 – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

CULT CLASSICS : IN THE RAIN and EVERY CONVERSATION by THE JUNE BRIDES

This is a last-minute change of cult classic. I had something else lined-up but it’s now going to have to wait a few weeks. Blame it on the demands of the customer base…and specifically that of Jacke from Stockholm who just 48 hours ago asked for some June Brides in the next post.

I’ll confess that I initially missed out on The June Brides. They formed in 1983 and by the following year had released two singles on The Pink Label. This was an era when I was listening to a lot of music and I can only guess that the reason that TJB passed me by was that I was too busy getting lost in the music of The Smiths, New Order, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Friends Again, Orange Juice, Go-Betweens, etc to pick up on everything. It wasn’t till the early 90s, some five years after TJB had broken-up, that I became aware of some of the songs they had recorded and released in their all too brief a career.

More fool me.

I think it’s best therefore, to allow someone who did fall in love with them right away to express what it is that makes this band so special. I’m pinching the following words from a great piece put together by Andy Wood in a piece he posted on the great blog Manic Pop Thrills:-

I was still at school, struggling along and trying to find some kind of identity for myself. A friend gave me a cassette of sessions that he’d taped recently from the John Peel show and there was a session by The June Brides which really struck a chord with me and that was it, I was hooked. The four songs on that session really stuck out for me, there was a sense of beauty and lovely melodies, there was the mix between that loveliness and a sense of regret, even worldly-weariness but also a sense of the possibility of change and a defiance that things could be better, no matter how small the change. The words and music became very special to me. I began to get quite interested in the sounds being produced by independent bands and labels and discovered a whole world which influenced me and this got me into playing, putting on live gigs and producing fanzines as part of a D.I.Y. culture that seemed so vibrant and interesting and diametrically opposed to the world of the polished, dull mainstream.

I tracked down everything I could find by the band and looked forward to new records and the possibility of seeing them live. Alas, although they played Dundee once I had no chance of being admitted to a strictly over 18’s only show in Fat Sams. I hated being young, I couldn’t wait to grow up, I was impatient to taste this world of gigs and music, to be free from the strictures of school and my parents but I was stuck, as The June Brides suggested, simply waiting for a change.

Fate is a cruel thing. Despite having seemed to have been on an unstoppable rise, releasing an album and several great singles and touring incessantly – including with The Smiths (on an Irish tour) – the band called it a day. Those who added the lush viola and trumpet to the June Brides sound would go on to play sessions with a number of bands including while frontman Phil Wilson signed to Creation as a solo artist.

The influence of the band remained though, at times noticeable and at other points less so. I think it can be heard in the music of a number of bands, not necessarily in an obvious way but it’s there. Belle and Sebastian would be one band I’d say shared my love for The June Brides. Their Peel session was issued in 1987 which finally allowed me to replace my hissy second generation cassette. A best of followed a few years later then there was an album of covers put out. Cherry Red issued the double CD “Every Conversation. The Story of The June Brides and Phil Wilson” which collected everything the band and Wilson had ever recorded. It’s an essential album for anyone I think…..

And it’s thanks to that Cherry Red compilation that I really discovered just how good the June Brides had been and indeed how equally rich the Phil Wilson solo material was in quality. It is, without question, as Andy says, an essential compilation. It also led me to get a hold of a vinyl copy of their one proper studio LP, There Are Eight Million Stories…. which was scheduled for a posting on this blog in a couple of weeks time, but Jacke’s prompting has brought things forward.

With this being the cult singles series, I’m going back to 1984 to the earliest material. I really couldn’t make my mind up which of the two singles from that year to select, so I’m cheating and featuring both.

mp3 : The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3 : The June Brides – Sunday To Saturday

(catalogue # Pinky1, released March 1984)

mp3 : The June Brides – Every Conversation
mp3 : The June Brides – Disneyland

(catalogue # Pinky 2, released September 1984)

The b-sides are also from the top drawer.

30 years on and the band have reformed and are playing live. They came to Glasgow in late November 2013, but alas I was out of the country on holiday. I hope they come back again soon….

Everything you want to know can be found at www.junebridesmusic.com

Enjoy!!!!

Meat Whiplash

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 79)

From wiki:-

Meat Whiplash was an alternative rock band from East Kilbride, Scotland, that were amongst the first to be signed to Creation Records.

The line-up was Paul McDermott (vox), Stephen McLean (guitar), Edward Connelly (bass guitar) and Michael Kerr (drums). They took their name from a B-side track by The Fire Engines. They then became The Motorcycle Boy when female singer Alex Taylor (of The Shop Assistants) joined the group in 1987.

They only had one record released, Don’t Slip Up, which spent 19 weeks in the UK’s independent music chart, where it reached the No. 3 position following its release on 14 September 1985 as a 7″ single, (which had a sleeve featuring actor Robert Vaughn, printed up by Bobby Gillespie and hand-folded by their record label’s owner, Alan McGee).

They are notorious for being the opening band at The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s infamous “riot gig” at the North London Polytechnic on 15 March 1985, where they threw a wine bottle into the crowd and were, according to The Jasmine Minks, the next band set to play, then beaten-up on-stage by members of the audience who later rioted when the controversial main act performed. They also had a session in the Maida Vale studios for John Peel’s show on BBC Radio 1 on 15 October that same year.

“Meat Whiplash” was also the name of a mid-80s independent record store in Plymouth, Devon, run by Jeff Barrett, who later worked as a press officer for Creation Records and then founded Heavenly Records. After a concert in the city by the Jesus and Mary Chain, the store acquired a second sign and also became known as “Bobby Gillespie’s.”

mp3 : Meat Whiplash – Don’t Slip Up
mp3 : Meat Whiplash – Here It Comes

Enjoy!

Chesterfields, Orange Juice, Vic Godard & Subway Sect

THE BEST SONG TO PEAK AT #4 IN THE INDIE CHART?

A lot of the stuff from the C86 movement hasn’t aged well. In many cases, this will be down to poor production which nowadays grates on the ear while all too often the off-key singing which in its day seemed to be part of the charm now sounds annoying.

But there are still some songs that, almost 30 years on, deserve to be thought of as absolute classics. It’s a crying shame that so many of the small indie labels weren’t able to give the records the push they needed to crossover into the conscious of mainstream listeners. All too often, the label and indeed the band seemed happy enough to settle for a few playings on the John Peel Show, a positive review in the NME and then an appearance somewhere in the indie Top 10. I’m not saying that was the case with today’s tune, but there is seemingly something seriously wrong when a song as brilliant as this has to settle for #4 on the Indie Chart:-

mp3 : The Chesterfields – Ask Johnny Dee

They were in existence from 84-89 during which time there were two studio LPs and eight singles/EPs. They toured extensively (I saw them once as support act to Edwyn Collins on one of his earliest solo tours) and like so many bands picked up a decent sized hardcore following. many of whom (according to wiki) referred to them as “The Chesterf!elds”, with an exclamation mark replacing the “i”, following the example of the band’s logo.

Tragically, lead singer and main songwriter Dave Goldsworthy died in November 2003, at the age of 40, from head injuries sustained in a hit & run incident in Oxford.

One thing to mention is that The Chesterfields, like Orange Juice, did a cover of a great Vic Godway track. I thought it would be an idea to post all three versions:-

mp3 : Vic Goddard & The Subway Sect – Holiday Hymn
mp3 : Orange Juice – Holiday Hymn
mp3 : The Chesterfields – Holiday Hymn

Enjoy!!

Hole

BLUE JEANS AND CHINOS; COKE, PEPSI AND OREOS (Part 6)

I got thinking about putting a posting together about Hole the other week when I did the back-to-back pieces on Cope, McCulloch and Wylie. I had forgotten that Courtney Love, as a teenage tearaway, had lived in Liverpool for a spell during which she became very friendly with Julian. I believe him when he says they never fucked…

I don’t actually own all that many bits of music by Hole but then again they didn’t really release all that much material. They formed in the late 80s but took ages to get a settled line up – the other constant member was Eric Erlandson. The debut LP, Pretty On The Inside, was released on small indie labels in 1991 on both sides of the Atlantic and its rough and ready production combined with the lead singer’s confrontational approach to life and to performing got them plenty of attention and in very soon they were signed on a fat and lengthy contract to Geffen Records, one of the biggest labels in the world.

It took a while to get the material for the next LP together but that was completely secondary to the circus that was Courtney Love’s life….she had only gone and married the world’s biggest rock star and had his baby daughter.

But amidst the chaos surrounding Mr & Mrs Cobain, Hole (which had once again gone through further changes with seemingly nobody capable of working with Courtney & Eric for any extended period of time) announced that their debut for a major was set for release in the spring of 1994.

On 8 April 1994, Kurt Cobain shot himself. Four days later, the very unfortunately named Live Through This was released with an eerie cover of a beauty queen, similar in looks to Love, with mascara running down her cheeks as the result of her crying. You couldn’t make it up……….

It was known that Cobain had worked with his wife on the LP and critics and fans alike poured over it to see if the record contained any clues to his suicide. None were forthcoming, but what they found however, was an incredibly impressive record – one that showed Courtney Love and her band had talent to burn – with a very fine combination of rock and pop that was incredibly radio friendly. Or to put it another way…it sounded the way that the industry had hoped Nirvana would go on the back of Nevermind when in fact they had gone much heavier on In Utero.

It took another four years for the next Hole record to be released and in the intervening period the band had lost its bass player to a drugs overdose, the lead singer had starred in a Hollywood movie for which she and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance while the other band members did side projects. All the while the spectre of Kurt Cobain hung over everything.

Celebrity Skin again caught folk out being very friendly rock that was soon on heavy rotation on radio stations all across the States. Courtney had shown, as a singer-songwriter/performer that she was no one-horse pony. The album is estimated to have sold over 2 million copies worldwide, of which some 75% found homes in the USA.

On the road though, things didn’t work out well.

In the winter of 1998–99, Hole planned a tour to promote Celebrity Skin jointly headlining with Marilyn Manson, but after just nine dates they quit, partly due to the poor reception they were receiving from Manson’s fans who made up the majority of the live audiences.

For the next six months, Hole toured the world in a combination of their own headline shows or as part of festivals and then were dealt a blow in late 1999 when again those members who weren’t named Love or Erlandson quit the band.

It took another three years before the band officially broke up. In 2010, Love announced Hole would be reforming but in reality it was just her with new backing musicians and the subsequent LP, Nobody’s Daughter, and the live shows that followed were a pale imitation of the goddess who had conquered all in the mid 90s.

Here’s some of the great singles from that era:-

mp3 : Hole – Miss World
mp3 : Hole – Violet
mp3 : Hole – Doll Parts
mp3 : Hole – Celebrity Skin
mp3 : Hole – Malibu

Enjoy.

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (4)

This is actually one of the James singles that I don’t have a copy of..and huge thanks to those of you who got in touch to offer mp3s of various b-sides to help me complete the mission. I might take you up on the offers in due course but it turns out I’m ok for So Many Ways from July 1986 as the two tracks on the 7″ were taken straight from the LP Stutter:-

mp3 : James – So Many Ways
mp3 : James – Withdrawn

The additional track on the 12″ was an extended and different version of a song also available on Stutter and I’ve been able to hunt down a copy of it:-

mp3 : James – Just Hipper

I say extended…but even then it is only 1:57 long as compared to the LP version which clocks in at 1:46.

This single was an even bigger flop than any of their previous releases was deleted by the record label not long after release. As a consequence, it is one of the more difficult bits of plastic to get a hold of nowadays but then again the lack of any new material, certainly on the 7″ means it really is one for completists.

Enjoy!

David Holmes, Secret Knowledge

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT…WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (19)

Banging Heads and Banging Tunes

From the South West Correspondent : Whats in Your Box Part 19

Various Artists – ‘The Science Behind the Circle’.

You know when you get on a bus and there is always one joker at the back (baseball cap, tracksuit, sovereign ring) whose music you can hear above the sound of the engine – and its always techno or ‘happy house’ blaring out. That’s what listening to this weeks CD(s) sounds like. For today, I embraced dance music big style. Out of the box came a double CD of techno and house music from 1996 called ‘The Science Behind the Circle’ which features tracks by Secret Knowledge, Carl Cox, David Holmes and Andrew Weatherall. I however have no idea about the idea behind the CD or if it was released to tie in with a club or something like that. Further knowledge is scarce on the Internet as well.

The only problem is that today I am poorly, I have man flu. As you can image at times its been touch and go and I drift in and out of consciousness and I have the ambulance folk on speed dial. This CD is what I would refer to a ‘Bangin’ but only because I’m too lazy to think of any other words to describe music that involves the use of a 303 (again, I have no idea what a 303 is, or whether or not, these tracks actually do use a 303). What this CD has taught me is though is that someone out there is releasing records as Vinyl Blair, which is a frankly marvellous name. I await DJ Noel Edphones releases with baited breath.

Dance music sounds weird when you are too tired to listen to things properly, you miss things, the little bleeps and bips become annoying and the euphoria of doesn’t quite work when strongest drugs you have ingested is Lemsip. Normally when I am poorly I listen to things with acoustic guitars or I dig out Four Tet and play it until I fall asleep. It is impossible to fall asleep listening to this, and I have to say my headache got slightly worse whilst this was on – not because its terrible but because it does just bleep, whoomp and dof a lot.

The standout tracks for me as ‘Drive Me Crazy’ by Secret Knowledge (Secret Knowledge is the band formed by ex-journalist Kris Needs and I recommend them) and ‘Grumpy Flutter’ by David Holmes – which was the only track on here I’d previously heard. The Second CD is a little more laid back than the first one – although its still pretty uplifting stuff. It’s a good album, its got Andrew Weatherall on it, so it can’t be bad at all, its just a shame that right now I’m not in a place to enjoy it.

mp3 : Secret Knowlege – Drive Me Crazy

mp3 : David Holmes – Grumpy Flutter

Pass the Strepsils, see you next week.

S-WC

Bauhaus

REMEMBERING BAUHAUS

Bauhaus are one of the many bands of the early 80s era who could lay claim to having a say in the ‘invention’ of goth rock. It’s fair to say that most folk will recall the name of only one member of the four-piece, that of singer Peter Murphy. And yet, the fact is he only became part of the band when the others approached him, not because of his vocal talents, but simply because he had the right look.

There’s no disputing that Murphy was one of those blokes who it was impossible for even the most hetro and red-blooded male to deny was good-looking. Certainly, there were plenty of us who tried hard to capture the image, be it the impeccably prepared hair, the sharp as a razor cheekbones, or the piercing eyes made all the more memorable by the clever application of make-up.

Bauhaus never quite made it the way so many expected them to. I was surprised to find out that of the 11 singles and 4 EPs released at their peak between 1980 and 1983, only two of them actually cracked the Top 40, and one of these was a cover of Ziggy Stardust (indeed, this was their biggest success hitting #15 in 1982).

There are, in my opinion, two tracks that have more than stood the test of time and I’ve dug the bits of vinyl out of the cupboard. Possibly the greatest nine-minute long single of all time:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Bela Legosi’s Dead

I don’t have the original 1979 release but one from a couple of year later that has this fascinating little number on the b-side:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Boys/Dark Entries (demo)

A close second in my personal Bauhaus chart is this:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Kick In The Eye

The song had in fact been issued as a single in 1981 but had stalled at #59. On the back of the Ziggy success, the record label gave it a re-release on the Searching for Satori EP, but still public wouldn’t bite and it only reached a disappointing #45. And yet…..I could have sworn it was a huge hit…it was one of those songs that inevitably filled the floor of any student disco I was at. Here’s yer other tracks which by turn are surprising (ie not the sort of song you’d associate with miserable goths) and weird (ie unlistenable shite…..but feel free to differ)

mp3 : Bauhaus – Harry
mp3 : Bauhaus – Earwax

Oh and I forgot…..I’m also quite fond of giving this a listen every now and again, but I’ve only got a copy via a CD compilation:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Lagartija Nick

Enjoy!!

APB

CULT CLASSICS : RAINY DAY by APB

Being an American with a love of British pop and rock from the Punk and Post Punk Era, there are literally thousands of song which I consider cult classics, but with just the slightest attention on the interweb it can be determined that they were indeed hits in their native land.

One band that had the odd distinction of being quite bid in NYC in the early to mid 1980’s but only had a whisper of success in the UK was APB.

Scots with a massive love of angular guitar, funky bass and a pure pop sensibility, I just don’t know why each of their first 5 or 6 singles didn’t storm the UK charts. They gained attention from Peel and Jensen but went no where in the charts. Their biggest success was a Billboard #1 Dance/Club Chart hit with What Kind Of Girl in 1984 on the backs of a seemingly unlikely occurance – underground success in NYC at the hands of a few DJ’s and radio programers with their ears to the ground. Their NYC success was all but unknown to the band for almost 2 years, but their sound was right on target for the City’s college radio and the dance clubs like Peppermint Lounge and Danceteria. This was a time when ESG, NY Peech Boys and Material were spreading left of center funk all over the City.

The story goes that someone at one of the college radio stations called up their label in Scotland, Oily, for some more info on the band and that was the first time anyone at the label or the band were aware of the cult following they had in America’s biggest city and Tri-State area. A quick set of dates on the East Coast went down a smash…I was at 2 of those shows and they would come back something like a dozen more time over the coming years and I don’t believe I missed any of those shows. Their tours would usually start and finish at NYC’s The Ritz Club and they were sold out events.

For me the track of theirs that was the most personal and thus a classic as well was Rainy Day.

mp3 : APB – Rainy Day

I love Shoot You Down and One Day which are equal in power and hip gyrating attack, but Rainy Day had that plaintive, almost angry lyric that just grabbed me. It’s a song about a day with nothing going right and not knowing exactly what to blame it on.

I count it as one of my Favorite 50 songs of all time for all those reasons. It was also the track I always remember getting the crowd going mental – part angry anthem and manic dance groove. The middle section turns into a reel with three sets of lyrics playing off each other simultaneously creating a tense and intricate groove. The Ritz’s dancefloor would actually move as if a small earthquake was heaving and swaying it during Rainy Day. The middle section turns into a reel with three sets of lyrics playing off each other simultaneously creating a tense and intricate groove.

Richard Kolnsberg

Malcolm Middleton

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 78)

The man with the guitar in Arab Strap.

The shy, retiring one.

The one least likely to make it as a solo artist. A run of critically accliamed LPs would say otherwise.

I’ve all of his singles (bar the hard to find limited edition tour EP of cover songs in which our intrepid hero somehow lost half of the stock thus reducing, at a stroke, the number legitimately for sale to 250). I’ve plumped for one of his later efforts – it’s a shortened version of one of the tracks from Waxing Gibbous released in 2009 complete with bad rap!

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Zero (edit)
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Bad Stuff’s Free

On white vinyl too!

Enjoy