May 2017 – Page 2 – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #124 : SHIT ROBOT

A GUEST POSTING FROM SWC

Yup, Shit Robot. Bands with silly sweary names annoy me a bit. This is because by and large they turn out to be really good and their names stop them from being on the radio or the telly or even properly advertising. I mean Fucked Up, Fuck Buttons and Buggery Wotsits are three of my all time favourite bands. The last one being the name of a band I formed with my brother and Nick from down the road when we were aged 14 and 15. Ash we were not, but we did a mean cover of ‘I Should Be So Lucky’.

I digress. Shit Robot are amazing and if it wasn’t for their completely unnecessary name they probably would have been all over your radios and that over the last five years or so. They are signed to DFA Records, for those in the dark, DFA Records is the part-time of job of the LCD Soundsystem boys and they house a load of bands who make records that would not sound out-of-place on an LCD Soundsystem album – deep dancey anthems, full of bleeps, aahs, tweaks and breaks so big that you need a stretcher to get them off your stereo. Everything on DFA records is brilliant. Take my word for it.

So some history – Shit Robot is the brainchild of an Irish chap called Marcus and whilst DJing in New York, as you do, he befriended James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem and DFA records and the rest is history. They have released three albums of electronica that switches from progressive house to techno via big beat and breakbeats. Last year they released’ What Follows’ which for me was the sleeper album of the year – it gets better and better with each play. If you like Hot Chip, The Juan Maclean, Soulwax and Carcass then you will probably love them (well maybe not the last one – although first album ‘From the Cradle to the Rave’ does hint at a ‘Cradle of Filth’ angle to their music. It hints at it but doesn’t actually do it). Just on a tangent I watched a film the other starring the lead singer from Cradle of Filth, Dani Filth – it was called Cradle of Fear and it is 117 minutes of my life that I am never ever getting back. Up there with Joe vs Volcano as the Worst Film Ever Made. I digress again.

Here’s the music.

Side One

Do It (Right) – taken from ‘We Got Love’ (2014)

‘We Got Love’ is the second album from Shit Robot and ‘Do It (Right)’ is a throwback to the early house scene of the 80s. It features the words ‘Jack Your Body’ and then has this deep vibrating beat running through it. It is impeccably done and makes you feel that you are there in Chicago drinking Mojitos with Fast Eddie.

Wir Warten – taken from ‘What Follows’ (2016)

The reason why the third album is so good is that it marks a bit of an evolvement from the last two – this is progressive house with a meaty old beat behind which kind of sounds like a bloke banging a massive gong in the background. It also features a bunch of oddball vocals from a chap call New Jackson who I should have probably heard of but haven’t.

I Found Love – Taken from ‘From the Cradle to the Rave (2010)

One of the few tracks to actually feature vocals from Marcus himself, this is taken from the debut album. For some unknown reason he decides to sing this one with a deep Texan accent mixed with some heavy effects. It kind of works. What does work is the quirky keyboards which turn this into a glittering slice of synth pop.

Losing My Patience – Taken from ‘From the Cradle to the Rave (2010)

This features Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip and it’s wonderful. If you didn’t know better you could say that this was a Hot Chip song, it has the melancholy lyrics, the synths, and the usual funky vein running through it alongside Taylor’s trademark falsetto.

Take Em Up – Taken from ‘From the Cradle To The Rave’ (2010)

Finishing the first side is another track from the first album, this is perhaps the bands most well-known song. It features Nancy Whang on vocals. For those still in the dark as to who she is, she the keyboardist and backing vocalist in LCD Soundsystem and therefore someone you should love and cherish. This is basically what all electro pop should sound like it also features the word ‘Slowdive’ and not enough songs do that. Wonderful.

Side Two

OB -8 – Single (2016)

Taking its name from an iconic analogue synthesizer from the early 80s (that era again), this is a pretty fine single that preceded the latest album. At a first listen you might argue that there is nothing much happening. But listen to it again, there is birdsong, there is a woman sighing, running water, it has a hypnotic pull. Handclaps dissolve into a fizzy little blast of dubby magic. It is as mesmerizing as house music gets.

Is There No End? – Taken from ‘What Follows’ (2016)

This a five-minute trip into techno and acid house. There is a spoken word vocal about a man’s journey to a club and then his getting kicked out as the party reaches its peak. It’s kind of like ‘Blinded by the Lights’ by The Streets in its narrative (but totally different in delivery and music) as we follow a drugged clubber trying his best to follow the music as everything kicks in.

Space Race – B Side to ‘Teenage Bass’ (2014)

This is a sharp and crispy little number, full of punchy dance beats and as the name suggests there is something a little sci-fi about it. There are a load of glossy synths bouncing about all over the place here. It I think is supposed to sound like a futuristic soundtrack to an nineties space film, but the kind of film with a soundtrack that is a million miles better than the actual film. I mean how many soundtracks make you want to dance until the sun comes up?

Lose Control – Taken from ‘What Follows’ (2016)

This was the lead single from ‘What Follows’ and is another Nancy Whang moment of brilliance. It is also another example of where Shit Robot’s obsession with late 80s and early 90s rave culture shines through. Whang vocals here are markedly different from ‘Take Em Up’ – here she is an ice maiden, all sultry and direct.

I Got A Feeling – Taken from ‘From the Cradle to the Rave’ (2010)

Another slow building housey techno number that at around ninety seconds sees a mumbly little piano come in and then it all goes a bit LCD Soundsystem with the introduction of a cow bell and some echo-y synths and then it kind of relaxes a bit and around four minutes in the singing starts. The bass gets upped and the words bounce around off each other. Its euphoric and if you close your eyes you can even see yourself floating away to it at 3am surrounded by sweaty strangers. The perfect ending to this ICA.

SWC

Butcher Boy

BONUS POST : DID THEY CUT THE MUSTARD IN 2017? #4 : BUTCHER BOY

The past few weeks have been a bit frantic and the blog has largely been running on empty, relying on pre-written posts that I’ve pulled out of a file that is kept specially for such purposes. There were gigs which took place a few weeks ago still not reviewed and with your agreement, I’d like to roll up all of them over the coming three days with lunchtime bonus postings.

SATURDAY 22 APRIL : BUTCHER BOY

GOVANHILL BATHS, GLASGOW

It’s been over four years since Butcher Boy last played before a live audience. This gig, arranged as part of Record Store Day, was to support the release of a new limited edition of 500 3-track EP on 7″ vinyl on Damaged Goods Records. I had been involved in trying to find a venue that was best suited to the band, preferably one that would bring out the best of their unique, gentle and often fragile chamber-pop sound, but efforts across ten locations in Glasgow came to nothing due to unavailability and in the end it was their guitarist Basil who used contacts to have this highly unusual location pressed into use.

Govanhill Baths was a victorian-era swimming pool closed by the council, amidst much animosity, in 2001. A community-led campaign has seen the building handed over to a community trust which is trying to raise the tens of millions to bring it back into full use again. In the meantime, the space is utilised in a number of different ways, including the occasional artistic performance.

The band, literally, played in the deep end of the drained pool and the 120-strong audience sat looking down from rows of seats in the shallow end. It was quite a surreal setting, especially as the targets for the archery classes which would follow the band’s performance (it was a show timed for 6pm-7pm) were in situ.

What followed will, like every Butcher Boy performance, stay long in the memory. The line-up was slightly different from before with Anna Miles on flute and backing vocals joining the regulars of Maya Burman-Roy (cello), Alison Eales (keyboards and accordion), Fraser Ford (guitar and keyboards), John Blain Hunt (vocals, acoustic guitar), Findlay MacKinnon (drums), Basil Pieroni (lead guitar and mandolin), Cat Robertson (violin) and Robert Spark (bass and occasional percussion)

The 14-strong setist was superb, drawing from some of the earliest EPs , all three of the studio albums while there were debuts for all the songs released on RSD 2017. My fears of the building not being ideal for sound weren’t realised initially with opening instrumental Every Other Saturday being gorgeously note perfect. However, it soon became clear that the high ceilings and echoey nature of a former swimming pool weren’t conducive to getting the best out of the vocals which often got lost behind the lush orchestration and arrangements. I was lucky in knowing all the songs and being able to follow the lyrics but it must have been tough on those who were seeing the band for the first time. It was a real shame as the contributions from Anna, whose work in the past has also added so much to the studio sound of Adam Stafford, were particularly striking and took the band to a different level again.

Everyone played their part in making for a hugely enjoyable hour on an early Saturday evening, but a special mention to Findlay on drums for staying so magnificently on top of things when the nature of the building was such that it wouldn’t have taken much for him to drown out the subtle sounds of his band mates.

The gig was a resounding success in that all the copies of the single available on the night were sold, although small numbers may still be available on-line or from stores that participated in RSD 2017. The audience capacity for the gig was reached and all profits went to the Baths Trust to support current and future activities.

Very few members of Butcher Boy are full-time musicians and getting them together for live shows is a tricky task, especially with Findlay living in the West Midlands south of the border. It remains to be seen whether more shows will emerge later this year but I’ve no doubt that everyone treated to the Govanhill show wouldn’t hesitate in getting along next time round, no doubt joined by those fans who couldn’t get tickets or who were otherwise engaged on what was a busy weekend, musically in Glasgow.

Set list:

mp3 : Butcher Boy – November 1947 Storm Warning In Effect

Good luck tracking down a copy.

Velvet Underground

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #123 : THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

A GUEST POSTING FROM DREW (ACROSS THE KITCHEN TABLE)

“Modern music begins with the Velvets, and the implications and influence of what they did seem to go on forever” – Lester Bangs

My love of the Velvet Underground stems back to 1985 when I sought them out after the comparisons made with my then favourite new band The Jesus and Mary Chain in all the articles that I devoured regarding the misfits from EK. Up until I heard Upside Down I was a rather confused hippy/punk who also had a thing for the girl groups of the 1960s which I kept to myself, the pelters for wearing a Italian Army Field Jacket with the Steppenwolf wolf’s head painted on the back of it, Ozzy Osborne fringes sewn on the sleeves and Crass & Clash badges on the breast pockets and shod in moccasins was enough ammunition for the “cool crowd” without also divulging a love for Be My Baby.

Anyway it all changed late 1984 early 1985 with the Reid Brothers; I was intrigued by the Velvet Underground. I had of course heard Walk on the Wild Side and Transformer but not The Velvet Underground and Nico or to my knowledge anything else by the band. I eventually sourced a copy of the first album from a pal, Gregor’s older brother who was friends with a guy who was friends with a Soup Dragon and a sometime member of the BMX Bandits and who would give me my first taste of garage/psych in the form of a C90 a little later.

The Banana album was a revelation. I could not believe that this album was from the same period as Forever Changes, Are You Experienced and other records the hippy types had introduced me to. The edginess of Waiting For My Man to the nearly toothache sweetness of Sunday Morning to the strange cold out of tune vocals of Nico on All Tomorrow’s Parties (“like an IBM computer with a German accent” is how Andy Warhol described it), which I realised I knew from Japan’s cover, instantly won me over. I loved everything about this band; they were cool and sounded so different from anything else. I searched for a copy of the vinyl but none of the shops I frequented stocked it. A few months later it would come into my possession along with the follow up, White Light White Heat when a friend came back from his annual trip to Florida with both and after playing once decided he didn’t like them and swapped them with me for what I have no recollection of but at that point I would have most probably given him anything apart from my Clash, SLF or Motorhead albums none of which would have interested him anyway.

From that moment on I collected as much Velvet Underground as I could. By the end of 1985 I had all 4 studio albums. The following year I added Live 1969 and VU and then Another View and after that Live at Max’s Kansas City and I have been adding bootlegs, Anniversary reissues and a singles box set, so now there isn’t much left that I still want. The original singles would be nice but out of reach price wise.

Compiling this ICA has been a near impossible task. There may only have been four original albums but nearly ever track could be included in a Best Of along with about half of the two post split studio outtakes that were found languishing in the vaults before their release in the mid 80s. Or I could have just have had the 36 mins 54 second version of Sister Ray from the Complete Matrix Tapes cd box set. I was surprised when I came up with the final ten that there are only three songs from the first two albums, the ones that when I was younger I considered to be the real Velvet Underground albums. Also there is nothing from what for me is the best overall album, The Velvet Underground which is very strange, however when I realised this and looked to see what I would take out for What Goes On, Pale Blue Eyes or I’m Set Free I just couldn’t drop any of them. I know that once this is posted I will look at it and realise I have made a huge mistake but right now, at this very moment these are my favourite Velvet Underground tracks.

Side One

1. Run Run Run taken from The Velvet Underground & Nico

When I first heard this I was first gripped by the train like beat and then the shriek of feedback but not like the controlled feedback I was used to from listening to Hendrix, this was more like a mistake that was just left in. Similarly the guitar solos if that’s what they are, are about as rudimentary as they could be but no less effective than the more virtuoso solos by other guitarists at the time.

2. I’m Waiting For The Man taken from The Velvet Underground & Nico

Two in a row from the debut album, I know but this really did need to follow Run Run Run. Again it’s the throbbing beat that pulled me in, then those laid back vocal about going to score gear. I’m pretty sure that this song if heard more widely would have caused a stir at the time with its overt drug procuring lyrics.

3. Sweet Jane taken from Loaded

This was a difficult choice as most of the time I listen to the live versions I have of this, all from prior to the release of the fourth album when the song was still a work in progress and doesn’t have that little intro, is a bit more laid back with different verses. One of the Velvet’s best known songs due to the cover versions by the likes of Cowboy Junkies, Reed himself, Mott The Hoople and my favourite the live version by Lone Justice captured on the BBC Live In Concert cd.

4. Foggy Notion taken from VU

This is one of two of my favourite Velvet’s tracks which were never released when the band were going. It was recorded during the sessions for the “lost” 4th MGM/Verve album on 6th May 1969. The band were purged from the MGM roster by the new management at the label who wanted to offload the non profit making bands, of which the Velvets must have been near if not top of the pile. The tapes of these sessions were found when clearing out the vaults in 1984, mixed and released as VU the following year to huge critical acclaim and lot’s of “what if’s”, could these sessions have produced the album that finally break the band into the mainstream? As the songs from these sessions are the most accessible tunes that they did, certainly up until this point, as evidenced by Foggy Notion, what a groove!

5. Lisa Says (Live) taken from The Complete Matrix Tapes.

One of the great things about Lou Reed’s songs is that a lot of them mention people by name; Lisa, Stephanie, Candy and loads of others, some members of Warhol’s Factory which makes the lyrics feel more real, to me anyway. The studio version of this song is also included on the VU album. This take comes from the Matrix Tapes and is double the length. I first heard this on the Live 1969 album, an inferior quality recording of the Matrix tapes songs and Lisa Says is most probably my favourite Velvets song.

Side Two

1. The Booker T taken from Peel Slowly and See.

Technically this isn’t a song but a jam that the band used to play in 1967 and was never recorded in the studio sadly, so we only have this one 7/10 quality wise version that was bootlegged and then officially released on the comprehensive 5cd career round up in 1995, Peel Slowly and See. Now you are probably thinking that I am being wilfully obscure and wanky including this but I do love this tune. I can listen to it on repeat over and over. I found out that it was released on a bootleg 7” which of course I had to hunt down and was more than a little disappointed when I eventually got a copy to find that it wasn’t this at all but the instrumental part to The Gift from White Light White Heat which this jam evolved into. Don’t get me wrong it’s good just not this good.

2. I Can’t Stand It taken from VU

Another tune from the unreleased sessions for the “lost album”. This is another track that sounds effortlessly cool, that nagging riff, pounding drums and Reed’s drawl. Just about perfect.

3. Rock n Roll taken from Loaded

Rock n Roll recounts the story of Jenny whose life was saved by Rock & Roll. I read in notes to Peel Slowly and See that the song was about Reed himself, who wasn’t interested in anything until he heard rock and roll. “If I hadn’t heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet” It comes from the band’s final album, Loaded recorded for Atlantic. The band were on the point of implosion at this point but could still produce an LP “loaded” with hits or so Reed thought and it is definitely the most commercial of their releases.

4. White Light /White Heat taken from White Light/White Heat

My only pick from the band’s second album and final one with John Cale. This is probably the other song that those unfamiliar with the band will know due to Bowie covering it. The song describes how it feels to mainline methamphetimine. The bass solo at the end is Cale’s attempt to convey the throbbing ear-ringing that occurs when on the drug. Not something I have ever been interested in finding out if I’m honest. There is a 100 mile an hour nine and a half minute version of this on the Matrix Tapes which is pretty damned amazing.

5. I Found A Reason taken from Loaded

We finish off with the quite beautiful I Found A Reason where Reed goes back to his song writing roots with a lovely doo-wop melody. I have always wished that Aretha Franklin or Ruby Andrews had covered this song as I think that a strong female soul voice could really do the song justice.

I know that loads of you will disagree with some if not most of my choices probably the omission of Heroin and Pale Blue Eyes to mention just two. And of course the elephant in the room is the missing Sister Ray which I would have had to sacrifice three or four songs to include. So as a bonus here is the version from White Light/White Heat which is one of the shorter versions of the song I have. (JC adds….it’s still 17 and a half minutes long!!)

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Sister Ray

As I mentioned before if you haven’t heard it before you should seek out the 37 minute version from the Complete Matrix Tapes, it is epic in all respects. In fact just purchase the Matrix Tapes box-set, it’s worth every penny to hear the Velvet Underground when they were at their absolute peak as a live entity and in better quality than any other concert recording of the band.

DREW

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 11)

The third single to be lifted from Black Sea turned out to be the one that, at this point in time, provided XTC with their biggest hit:-

mp3 : XTC – Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)

Released in January 1981, this Andy Partridge number spent a total of nine weeks in the chart, getting to #16 in mid-February. It was some thirty seconds shorteer than the album version. It was just reward for both the band and songwriter after so many great efforts hadn’t captured the imagination of a wider audience. The initial copies of the single came with a comic book illustrating the lyrics:-

Nice bit of marketing given of course that Sgt. Rock is a comic book character dating back to the late 1950s.

Worth mentioning too that of all the XTC songs he’s written over the years, this is the one that makes Andy Partridge squirm:-

“This song embarrasses the shit out of me. Of all the tunes that I’ve written, that made it to tape, this makes me cringe the worse. It’s not the music, that’s solid enough. All the instruments in the track mesh nicely enough, but the lyrical sentiment, oh dear. It was supposed to be ironic, you know, nerdy comic fan imagines two-dimensional hero can help him with his unsuccessful chat up technique. It did not work. It just came out limply crap. Virgin insisted it be included in this set, otherwise I’d gladly erase it from our history. We all make mistakes.”

No new songs were available on the b-side but there was a tremendous cut lifted from a live concert at the London Lyceum on 12 October 1980 featuring two of the tracks from Black Sea running together:-

mp3 : XTC – Living Through Another Cuba/Generals and Majors (live)

Listening to that live track only heightens the loss from the understandable decision of the band to withdraw from playing live from early 1982 onwards with Andy Partridge suffering from crippling stage fright. And by crippling, I mean it literally.

It all began when he had a mental breakdown on stage in Paris in March 1982. It has been said that this was the result of him suddenly, and without warning, being separated from his ever-present Valium tablets. He had first been prescribed the drug as a teenager but had never been taken off it. His wife, increasingly concerned about the dependency with the band reaching new heights of popularity, threw his tablets away — without seeking medical advice — just before the Paris concert. Partridge particularly needed Valium to cope with what he saw as the grinding monotony of concert touring which he hated but took part in for the good of the band.

A few weeks later, XTC were scheduled to play at a sold-out show in Los Angeles but the audience was told that the show would not take place due to the illness of one of the band members. It was revealed some time later that Partridge’s ongoing stage fright was manifesting itself as leg paralysis. In the end, the rest of the American tour was cancelled as were all scheduled future dates in the UK and Europe. However, nothing could be done to resolve the problem and so XTC became exclusively a studio band other than occasional live-to-air performances from radio stations, and a handful of TV appearances.

JC

Dogs Die In Hot Cars

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #75 : DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS

From wiki:-

Dogs Die in Hot Cars is a Scottish band from St. Andrews consisting of Craig Macintosh (vocals, guitar), Gary Smith (vocals, guitar) Ruth Quigley (vocals, keyboards, French horn), Lee Worrall (bass and glockenspiel) and Laurence Davey (drums and percussion).

Macintosh, Smith, Worrall and Davey all met at Madras College and began playing together in 1993 at the age of 14. After having performed under various names they settled on “Dogs Die In Hot Cars” in 1997. In 1999 they moved to Glasgow where they met Ruth Quigley to complete the line up. The band listed their influences among others as Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beatles and Talking Heads.

Later that year the band signed a one off single deal with EMI subsidiary label, Radiate Records. The single included the songs “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To”, “Celebrity Sanctum” and “Somewhat Off The Way”. In autumn 2003, the band signed to V2 Records and Chrysalis Publishing.

In July 2004 they released their debut album Please Describe Yourself which included the tracks “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To”, “Godhopping” and “Lounger”. “Godhopping” peaked at #24 on the UK Singles Chart and remains the band’s biggest hit. “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To” peaked at #32 on the UK Singles Chart.

In 2006, following the departure of Gary Smith, the band entered the studio to record their second album but this was abandoned. In 2008 they released 17 demos that they’d written for the second album, for people to remix and rewrite how they liked, with the intention being that of the best mixes for each song, they would compile a final record and share any potential royalties from it 50-50 with those who contributed. Nothing however, emerged from the idea.

Here’s one of their two chart hits:-

mp3 : Dogs Die In Hot Cars – I Love You ‘Cause I Have To

JC

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

WHERE SOUND BITE POLITICS ARE SERVED TO THE FASTFOOD CULTURE

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy weren’t around with us for all that long, nor did they make all that much in the way of music. A group that aimed to fuse the rap of Public Enemy and the beat poetry of Gil Scott-Heron was an exciting concept to consider and indeed for a while it really did seem they were going to be the ones who really took rap to a wider audience, thanks in part to the fact that they were happy enough to go on the road and play support to the likes of U2, Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine among others.

They emerged out of San Francisco, coming to the fore at a time when America was pursuing an increasingly right-wing agenda that was creating and alienating a far larger underclass whose responses were threatening to get increasingly violent. Indeed the greatest awareness of the band coincided with the period just after the extensive rioting in Los Angeles with their debut (and only) LP Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury being released that same year of 1992. It was an album that addressed many social issues, including racism, homophobia, sexism and urban poverty. It also, rather timely, included a blistering cover version of California Über Alles, the Dead Kennedys song which many media commentators had referred to in their analysis of what had caused things to go so badly wrong in LA and the wider state.

The band was really two individuals, Michael Franti (vocals, production, misc. instruments) and Rono Tse (drums, percussion, programming), assisted on stage and in the studio by a range of talents. But Franti was on whom most attention was focussed. For one, he was a striking looking individual, standing at six-foot six inches. His life story was genuinely fascinating. He was incredibly intelligent, articulate and frank in his opinions, all of which made him a great interviewee no matter the media. His anger was a quiet, simmering and seemingly non-threatening type – where others rapped hard about injustices shouting and demanding action, Michael Franti preferred to ensure his words could be heard, understood and, above all, to be thought about by those doing the listening.

The DHOH album is an extraordinary piece of work made possible by a wide number of contributory elements including sampling and scratching amidst playing that incorporated jazz, soul, AOR rock and pop. Franti made great use of his rich baritone singing voice but sometimes his words were softly spoken in a resigned sort of way, with more than a hint of cynicism in the tone of delivery.

Their best and most enduring song was released as a single and deployed as the opening track. It’s an unparalleled attack on mass-media brainwashing, written and delivered in a pre-internet age, but whose message still resonates 25 years on. Possibly more so in an era of so-called fake news and alternative facts:-

mp3 : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – Television, the Drug of the Nation

The heading for today’s posting is taken from a line in that song.

But as I mentioned earlier, there were all sorts of social issues addressed within the album whose release was timely as it came at a time when many music journalists and media commentators were questioning whether rap should be taken seriously when so many of its exponents were proud of their homophobic and/or misogynist lyrics and whose view of all issues, literally, came down to black and white. Franti, while not ignoring race issues, was much more focussed on class divisions across American society, and again this seemed new and fresh in rap music, albeit he was merely the latest a what was already a long line of highly aware political protest singers.

mp3 : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – Satanic Reverses
mp3 : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – Language of Violence
mp3 : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – Music and Politics
mp3 : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – California Über Alles

The album is more essential than disposable and one that I feel every music fan should have either a copy of or access to. The duo, realising that they would probably never be able to top the debut, went their separate ways in 1994, with Franti forming Spearhead with whom he still records and performs to this day. Rono Tse, judging by a lack of product on Discogs post-DHOH, appears to have drifted quickly out of the music industry.

JC

La's

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED

It is nowadays regarded as an indie-pop classic but hands up if you knew that it was the third time of asking before it become more than a cult hit……

November 1988 was the first attempt. Having considered it had been lost in the tradiotionally crazy way of record sales in the run up to any Xmas period, Go-Discs tried again in January 1989.

Then the track was given the remix treatment by star-producer Steve Lillywhite and in October 1990 this version was the one that propelled The La’s to a #13 hit:-

mp3 : The La’s – There She Goes
mp3 : The La’s – Freedom Song

Even after all these years, it still has the ability to sound fresh and fantastic.

JC

Fine Young Cannibals

REALLY FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE

Don’t worry…..I’m not trying to squeeze in another posting about the bloggers weekend or Coldplay. The image above does give the game away somewhat….

I’m not sure what the world record is for most singles lifted from an LP, but in terms of % then the 7 out of 10 associated with The Raw and The Cooked, the 1989 sophomore album from Fine Young Cannibals must be up there.

Of the seven singles, four went Top 20 and only one of them failed to chart – possibly because the record buying public really had no excuse to shell out any further. The album itself was one of the best-selling of the era – it has been certified triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the USA – and is estimated to have sold more than three million copies worldwide.

Unusually for such a popular and huge-selling record, it has quite a bit going for it, successfully bringing together a number of genres such as pop, rock, soul and funk to good effect, albeit it also has a rather dreadful cover of a hit single by Buzzcocks.

It was actually quite surprising to see Ever Fallen In Love? on the album as the FYC version was already more than two years old having been recorded for the film Something Wild (directed by Jonathan Demme) and had been released as a single in its own right in early 1987. Indeed, film buffs might have thought that there was very little new about The Raw and The Cooked as three more of its songs had featured in the 1987 movie Tin Men (directed by Barry Levinson) in which the band appeared and performed within a film that was set in 1963…..

But I digress.

As with all hit albums, it was preceded by a strong single, one that dominated the airwaves in early 1989:-

mp3 : Fine Young Cannibals – She Drives Me Crazy

This unusual but fine sounding single was released in the first week of January and spent almost three months in the charts, peaking at #5, setting the tone for what would be a triumphant year for the band. Just as it dropped out of the Top 75, the folk at London Records released this in April:-

mp3 : Fine Young Cannibals – Good Thing

This had been one of the songs featured in Tin Men and so it is deliberately retro sounding. It is toe-tappingly and hand-clappingly catchy but in a way that avoids becoming annoying. It spent more than two months in the charts, peaking at #7. The label then waited until August to issue the next single:-

mp3 : Fine Young Cannibals – Don’t Look Back

Unlike the previous two singles, this one has dated pretty badly. It’s a run-of-the-mill and indistinct effort that doesn’t have all that much going for it. The record buying public obviously agreed as they didn’t part with their cash in the same way – it spent just four weeks in the charts and peaked at #34.

In most instances, a poorly selling single would lead a label to decide to call it quits on that particular album and to look to persuade the singer or band that it was time to get some fresh songs out there. However, the big problem was that FYC were not the slightest bit interested in doing anything new. Lead singer Roland Gift was determined to pursue an acting career and was certainly not the slightest bit inclined to rush back to the studio – it was also the case that the band weren’t tied to any rigorous and demanding contract and so could take things at their own pace.

The pre-Xmas boost for 1989 came via a fifth single in November, one that highlighted in particular the soulful nature of the lead singer:-

mp3 : Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not The Man I Used To Be

This spent ten weeks in the chart, peaking at #20 in mid-December.

All told, it meant that FYC had seen singles occupy a slot in the Top 75 in 33 of the weeks during 1989. The parent album, having entered at #1 in the first week of its release in mid-February remained in the chart throughout the rest of the year, and indeed was still as high as #18 at the end of December 1989. Sales wise, it was only out-performed by the toe-curlingly awful giants of the pop world like Phil Collins, Jason Donovan, Gloria Estefan and Simply Red.

The album would stay in the charts for a further five months – boosted by it winning Best Album at the Brit Awards in February 1990 (at which FYC were also named as Best UK band) – and only dropping out at the end of May 1990 by which time two further singles – I’m Not Satisfied and It’s OK – had been released with the former reaching #46 but the latter being a complete flop.

FYC never made another album after The Raw and The Cooked, although in 1996 they got together one last time to record two new songs to include on a 14-track ‘best of’ effort which, despite including no less than six tracks from the Raw and The Cooked, still went Top 10 and sold more than 300,000 copies in the UK alone. On that basis, it is somewhat baffling that they never wanted to take advantage of their continuing popularity and make more records.

JC

Uncategorized

THE FIRST BIG BLOGGERS WEEKEND (CONTINUED)

It all starts a bit unusual on the Saturday with myself, Walter, Dirk, Brian, Adam and Drew walking through the town in the direction of Mono. We get there are but it’s not yet open so we wait outside watching the Germans enjoying yet another smoke. CC’s cheery face appears unexpectedly as the doors open and in we go desperate for teas and coffees to take the edge off things. It’s Hangover City.

We gather collectively round a table but not for long as Brian makes a bee-line to flick through the vinyl in a scene that was so reminiscent of High Fidelity. Except there were no cute singer-songwriters and the shop staff were wonderfully helpful, friendly and far from judgemental. The piss taking continued as the caffeine kicked-in with things going up a notch as another pop star wandered in and said hello. Brian’s face when he spotted Stephen Pastel will live long in the memory.

T-shirts, books and vinyl were handed over to the visitors as gifts and thank yous where they were crammed into bags alongside the essential purchases by all and sundry. Back into drinking mode except for Drew who only wanted Irn Bru and Brian who just wanted a bed to lie down in and dream.

Tales of Drew’s scooter days out were told in which Buckfast and Chinese punks featured heavily while Adam talked of weekenders in Blackpool where the entire luggage consisted of a toothbrush and two E’s. Brian continued to pine for a bed in which to lie down and dream.

We then split into two with the tricycle boy leading some out to his native Airdrie for the football and others went out looking for a beer garden with decent scenery and better lager than Tennent’s. A good time was had by all although my own state of mind was partly ruined by the Hibbees.

We all hooked up again in the evening at the Bon Accord where Aldo was waiting and strangeways would come along later. After 24 hours, Drew’s accent was now beginning to be partly understood and so everyone laughed as he told of Brian’s confusion on how to eat a mince pie while watching the game. Dirk mused on why the women in the beer garden had all looked like models and Walter wondered whether he had taken the wrong decision earlier. Brian still just wanted a bed in which to lie down and dream.

We went next to The Griffin where Stiff, Tank and William were waiting as yet more drink was taken and more pish was spoken. Morrissey, Mark E Smith and Phil Ramone were still getting slated. Brian saw some Irn Bru behind the counter and declared it the drink of the devil. The joys of drinking far too much after an 18 hour plane journey and no sleep had clearly turned him insane.

It was soon time for CC to take his leave at which point Brian also decided to realise his day-long ambition of a bed in which to lie down and dream. The rest of us went to Sleazy’s where we found a booth in which we could just sit and take everything in. The lights, the sounds, the décor and the beautiful young people out for the long haul. Same story as Friday – lots of hugging, lots of dancing of sorts etc. etc.

After a while Drew had to head back home and so began the first of the big sad cheerios. More drinking, more dancing of sorts and then outside together to head our separate ways. The Germans though had other ideas and after a quick smoke went back in for a final hurrah while the rest of us sought out taxis and the likes.

On Sunday I went in to make sure everyone still left in town could get to the airport on time which just left the bold Brian who was now fully recovered and refreshed after his much needed bed to lie down in and dream. There’s stories to be told from the rest of the day but they’re more suited to a Coldplay song than one by the Strap.

We met up for the weekend, it lasted for ever; got high with our friends; it was officially summer.

77,000 steps in four days said the app on the phone. I got myself some sleep eventually on Sunday night after seeing the Blue Jays sneak an unexpected win. It was the perfect end to a perfect gathering. Meeting up soon with Aldo to recall the memories and smile about it all. Drink could well be involved.

mp3 : Arab Strap – The First Big Peel Thing (Peel Session, 25 March 1997)

JC

Uncategorized

THE FIRST BIG BLOGGERS WEEKEND

WITH APOLOGIES TO AIDAN MOFFAT AND MALCOLM MIDDLETON

So that was the first big bloggers weekend of the summer.

Starts Thursday as usual with Brian and Walter jetting in from the ‘Dam although Seattle and Frankfurt had been the departure points. I try to do my sound bloke routine by going in with them in the taxi and then spending the afternoon and evening being a genial host. I’m glad I bothered. We did lunch in the Griffin, some culture, some drinking and a hurl on the Glasgow subway. Ended up in the Pot Still chatting to Canucks, death metal bikers from Stockholm and posh folk from the RSNO. Before long it was Friday….

From Rhine Town to Rain Town, Dirk flew in to be met by CC and soon we all hooked up to head out west via The Variety and The Arlington where we were joined by Comrade Colin. I was wearing my Ponderosa Aces t-shirt so in some ways Jonny the Friendly Lawyer was also part of the entourage. The sun was blazing down and so we set sail for the Kelvin and outdoor drinking at Inn Deep amongst the students, hipsters and trendies. Why is it these places only serve the worst vodkas? There was no problem getting in but there were no seats available so we stood on the walkway leaning on the fence watching people come and go. This turned out to be sound as we soon spotted Ken from The Bluebells who was kind enough to pose for a photo with Brian before he flogged us CDs of this new band he’s working with called Pronto Mama.

Before long it was off to the Hug and Pint where Drew came in and immediately confused the German boys with his Lanarkshire guttural although they knew right away he was very sound and very funny. Or maybe they were just being polite. The next wee surprise was David from Kid Canaveral dropping by as he was playing there that night as the support act and he too posed for a photo with Brian as well as giving him some lovely vinyl. There was a long haul back into town to Sleazy’s where Aldo had hotfooted it straight from work. By now the lack of food was taking its toll so some crisps were bought and shared although the drink still flowed very freely.

A few changes of clothing ensued with Dirk now resplendent in yet another magnificent Clash t-shirt sourced in Japan worn underneath the coolest of leather jackets. Joey Ramone eat your heart out. We sat down in Tut’s, drinking ourselves even sillier and stuffing our faces with burgers and pizzas. All except Colin who of course had to be all bourgeoisie and have the beetroot falafel….mmmmmm dead tasty. Adam got in just after 8 and so the gathering was finally complete. Beers, wines, vodkas and peach schnapps were ordered and consumed but we decided to bail out before the 350 teenagers upstairs watching Seafret came back to cram us out.

CC went home but the rest of us hit the State Bar where Dirk’s jacket drew admiring glances from the ladies and in one case a sneaky caress. By this time there was some amount of pish being talked but it only added to the fun. We decided Moz and Mark E Smith were bigger tossers than Phil Ramone but it was a close run thing. At midnight it was time to go home.

But unknown to the rest of us, four of the gang went back to Sleazy’s where I’m not sure what happened as I wasn’t there and the others can’t remember. Before long it was Saturday…………

mp3 : Arab Strap – The First Big Weekend

(More to come later today)

JC

Coldplay

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #122 : COLDPLAY

A GUEST POSTING FROM KC

JC writes…..

I’m thinking that I’m going to wake up feeling a bit lost as all my blogging comrades head home after what I am sure will have proven to be a momentous and unforgettable weekend. I will, hopefully, find the time soon to put up a posting or two with my thoughts and memories but for now want to start the week off with what I think is one of the best-written posts to grace these pages.

It’s a TVV debut for KC who some of you will know as the wonderful new talent to be ‘discovered’ by SWC and Tim over at WYCRA. KC has chosen to dive in at the deepest of ends today without the aid of any safety devices…

An Imaginary Compilation – Coldplay

by KC from When You Can’t Remember Anything

“So how do these Imaginary Compilation Albums work then”?

I am sitting in the kitchen at work talking to SWC and Badger as we wait for the kettle to boil.

“Do you have to wait to be invited to do one or can you just jump in and do it”?

Slowly Badger explains it to me. I learn that you can write one about any band you like, any one at all is fair game.

“I mean some idiot even wrote one about Kanye West last year”, SWC chips in as his teabags leave a trail from cup to bin.

“That was you wasn’t it?” I ask him. He nods sheepishly.

“Are you thinking of writing one then?” he asks me before telling Badger about one that he had started last week at midnight when trying to sleep on the sofa whilst his wife was poorly.

It’s my turn to nod. “I’m going to write one on Coldplay…” there is a little choking noise. It’s Badger and he appears to have a small amount of brown crumbs around his mouth. I think he has just half swallowed and half choked on a Bourborn Cream.

SWC looks at me and is shaking his head, “they will never forgive you” he says. I look at him with confusion. He sighs…“One of the unwritten rules of music blogging; Thou must not write anything nice about Coldplay, Keane, The 1975 or Mumford and Sons and never ever admit to liking them even if you do”.

Well I do like Coldplay, and I like Chris Martin, I think he is a nice guy who is doing what he loves. He has an air about of him of a man who cannot believe his luck. He’s a geeky bloke from Devon who made a few records and then married a Hollywood actress. Last year at the Radio 1 Big Day Out, Chris Martin had 50,000 people eating out of his hands, people of all ages, all sexes, all races, religions and sexuality, and yet from what I can see even the mere suggestion of liking him or his music on various blogs is enough to get sneers of derision. Well to be honest you lot need to get over yourselves.

You know what I have a theory, and I’m telling this to Badger and SWC in the kitchen unaware that four other people are now listening to me. I think secretly most of you out there own something by Coldplay, and I think you play it more regularly than you will ever admit to it (aha, a nod from Badger).

It is far too easy to diss Coldplay, mostly this is just to pass them off as shit, most people who do this have heard two, possibly three songs by them. Well fine that’s your view, but let me tell you this. Chris Martin is more relevant than that chap from The Wedding Present ever has been or ever will be. He writes better lyrics than Morrissey and is a far nicer person. Every album Coldplay have made is better than anything that LCD Soundsystem have ever recorded (and when I say this it’s SWC’s turn to choke, genuinely choke).

Chris Martin has more charisma and stage presence than nearly every other front man or woman that I can think of. Face it indie boy, he is better than you at everything and secretly you know that and that is why you hate him. If you ask me it comes down to a question of what you want from your rockstars.

So I’m tweaking the nose of convention and I’m ripping up the rulebook. Because guys, here comes my ICA on Coldplay and I’m basing it on their first three albums, all of which are great records.

Side One

Trouble – Taken from ‘Parachutes’

This is probably one of those songs that annoys you all. Yet this is a song of gorgeous regret, an apology to someone somewhere – the lyrics show this “I never meant to do you harm”. It’s a powerful song because it is so simple and so easy for everyone to understand and get, and that’s why it is so popular.

Talk – Taken from ‘X&Y’

According to SWC this is the only Coldplay song worth listening to and that is only because it samples something by someone called Kraftwerk. It’s a different kind of Coldplay song entirely, much heavier than their usual standards but still really good.

Til Kingdom Come – Taken from ‘X&Y’

My Dad loves Johnny Cash and this song was written for him (Johnny Cash not my dad) by Coldplay and he never got to record it. I imagine that Cash would have recorded it different but this is a lovely little acoustic track and one that I really like. I especially like the way you get this at the end of the album perfectly contradicting the big sounds of the earlier parts of the album.

In My Place – Taken from ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’

This is a grower I think, at first people were unsure of it, they were unsure of Coldplay’s progression as a band. But then after a few listens you realise that it is a fantastic pop single. For me it justifies my claim that they have more presence that most of the bands around today.

Low – Taken from ‘X&Y’

I’ll end side one with perhaps the most frantic song that they have ever recorded. I really like the guitars on this but I’m not going to try to describe how they sound. They sound awesome and that should be enough.

Side Two

Don’t Panic – Taken from ‘Parachutes’

I saw Coldplay live a few years back and when they played this the crowd went absolutely bananas for it. It is something of a fans favourite.

Warning Sign – Taken from ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’

Coldplay are a band that are very much in touch with their emotions which is probably why they get so much stick. Personally I think it works in their favour. The vocals on this are passionate and heartfelt and again it is so simple when Martin goes, “The truth is I miss you”. Lovely.

You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party – Beastie Boys Cover

This is recorded live somewhere the day after one of the Beastie Boys died. I wasn’t aware of the original song until I heard this. I think the sentiment and the poignancy of this are beautiful and again it is heartfelt and sincere.

Square One – Taken from ‘X&Y’

Another thing about Coldplay and Chris Martin in particular is they have a knack of writing lyrics that affect individual on a massive scale. Thousands have fallen for his songs about love, hope, loss etc and ‘Square one’ is the track that gives them more than all the others with its lyrics asking “Is the anywhere you want to go…?”

Politik – Taken from ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’

This song opens the second album ‘A Rush of Blood To the Head’ and it is quite an intense song and it happens to be my favourite Coldplay song should I actually need one. It is an exhilarating, driving blast and most bands out there would give anything to record a song anywhere near as good as this.

KC

Ruts, XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 10)

Just as Towers of London was beginning to fall out of the charts a very peculiar decision was made regards the next single in November 1980.

A film called Times Square had just been released. It was not a critical or commercial success and you can read about it here. It’s not one I imagine many people can recall.

The film was accompanied by a 2xLP of 20 songs with what was mostly a mix of new wave and chart acts, mainly from the UK but also featuring NYC acts such as Talking Heads and The Ramones, and as part of the efforts to promote the movie and the soundtrack it was decided to issue a 7″ single. The tracks chosen were by XTC and The Ruts. The strange thing being that the XTC song was one that wasn’t available anywhere else while The Ruts effort had been a Top 10 hit only a year or so previously.

mp3 : XTC – Take This Town
mp3 : The Ruts – Babylon’s Burning

That it was released while the band were in the middle of their efforts to promote Black Sea seems baffling but then again it was a track that had been given to the film project some time previously and neither XTC nor Virgin Records were in charge of the timing of the release of Times Square.

The single was a flop. It’s not the band’s finest moment and was also out of step with much of the material on their new LP, albeit there was a hint of the ‘whistling’ that had helped make Generals and Majors such an enjoyable tune.

Worth saying that the song by The Ruts is still one of the best songs of the immediate post-punk era.

JC

Django Django

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #74 : DJANGO DJANGO

Another band I hesitated about before including them in the series.

David Maclean (drummer and producer), Vincent Neff (singer and guitarist), Jimmy Dixon (bassist) and Tommy Grace (synthesizer operator) met at Edinburgh College of Art but didn’t get round to forming Django Django until they were all in London. However, David and Tommy are Scottish; Vincent is from Northern Ireland while Jimmy is a native of Yorkshire. David has a family connection to music in that his brother John McLean was part of The Beta Band.

But any doubts I had about eligibility have been smoothed by the fact that both Django Django long-playing records released thus far have been eligible for consideration for the Scottish Album of the Year Award.

Theirs is an infectiously upbeat and joyous sort of electronica that will have you up on your feet and moving around a fair bit if played at a club. They’re also a decent enough live act, albeit like many others whose music comes via machines and gadgets it’s sometimes not the most visual of spectacles – at least it wasn’t on the couple of occasions I saw them promoting the debut LP in fairly small venues…it’s probably a different story nowadays.

That self-titled debut LP back in 2012 was a very confident and assured piece of work that yielded no less than six singles, none of which actually made the mainstream charts. But the critical acclaim was wide and it was a similar story with the 2015 follow-up Born Under Saturn.

mp3 : Django Django – Default

From the debut LP….it might be familiar to some of you as parts of it were used in various adverts

JC

Wedding Present

AN IMAGINARY VERSION OF A REAL ALBUM

A GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM STRANGEWAYS

JC writes….

On the day that so many people will meet up for the first ever time it does somehow seem appropriate to feature a guest contribution from one of the number.

Strangeways, like so many of the blogging fraternity, is someone who prefers to hide his light under a bushel. It takes all sorts of arm-twisting and gentle persuasion to get some words and thoughts out of him and I’m really pleased he has given me something so unusual and perhaps provocative just in time for this special and historic day; a post and concept that might well be worth talking about over the weekend….I think just about everyone coming along is a TWP/Gedge fanatic.

Strangways muses…..

Going, Going... is The Wedding Present‘s new – well, latest (Sep 2016) – LP. And weighing in at twenty tracks, it’s a monster.

For Weddoes nuts, the record delivers some absolutely scorching songs. To these ears, phantoms from both the Seamonsters and Saturnalia albums inhabit a fair chunk of the album and there are some massive, thrilling barrages of ‘go fuck yourself’ guitar throughout.

On that musical side, for the most part, it’s hard to imagine a bigger, noisier landscape than when the ‘loud’ component of the trusted ‘quiet/loud/quiet’ blueprint kicks in (check out Wales, with its remote, staccato first half and, in a happy case of influences returning home, its epic, emotional, sock-knocking British Sea Power-ish second). But that the entire thing opens with four curveballs – a quartet of instrumentals/spoken word tracks (special mention to the elegant and otherworldly Marblehead) – indicates that for at least a time we’re in entirely new territory.

I know of some Weddoes sympathisers – think by-election-only Green Party voters – who have been a bit scared off by the number of tracks and, perhaps, also by rumours of those left-turns that open the record. So if you’ve not heard the LP, here are four tracks to give you a taste.

Bells

Elevated by some really terrific female vocals – a welcome thread running through Going, Going… – Bells is a standout. Creeping guitar makes way for one of David Gedge‘s cruellest choruses – and am I finally losing it or is there something of The Cure‘s Lovesong going on in the music?

Rachel

In another world – perhaps even in the recent past on this planet – Rachel, with its classic, killer chorus, would be the Weddoes’ Losing My Religion or Smells Like Teen Spirit. You know the song, the kind of track that makes it, somehow, beyond the borders of the bedroom and the indie disco. The one that mugs you when you’re buying corn flakes. The one that you fell, hopelessly, in love with.

But that was two months and 15,000 involuntary listens ago.

And now you can’t stand it. Anonymously, you send it foul messages in the post. And it’s compelled you to set up a hate group.

Well, with the demise of the single as ‘an actual thing’, at least that won’t happen this time.

Emporia

It took a while for Emporia to grab me. But when it did, it didn’t let go. Don’t let the really lovely, David Lynchy opening fool you. This is a song of two halves in the tradition of say Bewitched or Perfect Blue (and like Perfect Blue, I wish the generously long tail-end was even longer).

Santa Monica

The perfect closer. A lengthy fade-in recalls Seamonsters’ Blonde, whilst, underlining the sense of something ending, a pensive fade-out is reminiscent of Mystery Date from predecessor LP Valentina and also 50s, the track that slowly, reluctantly snuffed out the 2006 Saturnalia album.

Santa Monica is tinted, also, by shades of Cinerama‘s Don’t Touch That Dial and the Weddoes’ Octopussy (a fellow LP-swansong). It matches the scale of Dalliance, whilst the trickling, bending guitar work reminds me of one of the band’s most charismatic numbers: Catwoman. Listen out, also, for a line-check from A Million Miles. It’s a poignant thirty-year echo connecting this latest album with the (touring-this-year) debut, George Best.

Going, Going’s… ominous title coupled with its last line may suggest that the game is up. On this evidence, that would be a shame. It’s one thing for a band that’s all out of ideas to call it quits. Quite another when it fires out an LP that can stand alongside the best of a formidable back catalogue.

Imagining Emporia…

Just to overdo things further, I thought it’d be interesting to grab half of the LP tracks and attempt to staple together a traditional ten-track album.

This is kind of an obnoxious thing to do – especially if you’re aware of the idea at the heart of Going Going… – that each track is linked, and that together, they contribute to a bigger story. It’s a bit like chopping up celluloid and gluing the strips into an under-the-counter Viewer’s Cut. Replacing the lovely sleeve (a shot from the thoughtful series of short films the band commissioned)? More blasphemy. And renaming it? Well, that’s just asking for trouble. Therefore, for those piqued enough to muck around with their LP or Spotify, here it is: Emporia – an imaginary version of a real album.

SIDE 1

Two Bridges
Little Silver
Rachel
Broken Bow
Bells

SIDE 2

Birdsnest
Bear
Emporia
Wales
Santa Monica

Bonus track: Marblehead because the third season of Twin Peaks is approaching, and this sounds like it could be on the soundtrack.

STRANGEWAYS

New Order

INTERESTING TIMES AHEAD….

Thursday 4 May 2017 is going to down in history in my home city, and not just for the fact it marks the arrival of the Walter and Brian as the first for the bloggers weekend…..

It’s also election day for the local council and without any shadow of a doubt the ruling Administration is going to be swept out of power. It’s almost unheard of for the Labour Party not to be running Glasgow City Council as they have held outright power for all but eight years since 1934. The last time there wasn’t a Labour Leader in office was a two-year spell from 1977-1979.

The Scottish Nationalists, either on their own or via a coalition with the Greens are certain to wake up tomorrow and have their first ever control of the magnificent City Chambers built as long ago as 1888. It’s a building I spent much of my career working in, for spells as an aide/advisor to some of the leading political figures in the council and so I know first-hand the complexity of the challenges in managing and delivering the vital and essential services that the residents and those working in the city are so heavily dependent on.

I might not agree with the politics of those who are going to take over but I really do wish them well in their endeavours. It will be fascinating to see how good a job they make of things and how they will cope having these new responsibilities for tough and difficult decisions, especially when there is such a lack of leadership experience. I’ve no doubt however, they will draw heavily from and lean on their colleagues who have been in charge of other political bodies in recent years.

This seems appropriate today.

mp3 : New Order – Times Change

JC

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

SAILING STRAIGHT INTO YOUR HEART

110726-shipsong

Up until March 1990, Nick Cave was best known for fierce and uncompromising music. There had been the occasional ballad but never an all-out soppy love song. His new 45 was as far removed from the goth-rock, dark- as-night singles such as Tupelo, The Mercy Seat and Deanna as you could imagine. It was the first sign of a singer-songwriter maturing as he aged and not being afraid to put his feelings down on paper.

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Ship Song

It’s still, all these years on, seen as one one his finest ever moments, always getting a huge cheer and prolonged applause whenever he plays it in the live setting.

The b-side also had a mode of transport referenced:-

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Train Song

Another stripped-back effort that took long-standing fans by surprise. It’s maybe not one of Nick’s greatest lyrics or tunes but it is still a sign of him looking to do things a bit differently than in the past.

JC

Echo & The Bunnymen

THE SLEEVE AND ITS CONTENTS ARE WORKS OF ART

I never bought this single. I have no idea why not as I’ve just about every other 12″ release by the band from this era. I reckon it was down to a combination being a bit skint in January 1984 and the fact that it had been bought by one of my flatmates. It certainly was a big failing on my part as the lack of purchase eliminated it from eligibility for the 45 45s at 45 series.

The thing is, I never thought about picking up a second-hand version either as I had already picked up the extended version and the live b-side when I bought the Crystal Days boxset a few years back while the album version was of course available via Ocean Rain.

Except…….I was looking at a copy on Discogs and noticed (in a rather sad anoraky sort of way) that Do It Clean on the 12″ vinyl of The Killing Moon was marginally shorter in length than that on CD4 of Crystal Days. My interest was piqued and so I looked closer – the vinyl version was from the Royal Albert Hall in London on 18 July 1983 while the CD version was on 19 July 1983. And having now listened to both of them, there are a small number of differences in the recordings.

All of which brings me to offering up, even though they have been on the blog before, all of the three tracks on a very special record that came inside, as you can see from above, a fabulous sleeve:-

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (All Night Version)
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean (live, Royal Albert Hall, 18 July 1983)

The live version incorporates vocal elements of a few other songs as the band demonstrate just what a tour de force they were in the live setting at that point in time.

JC

Uncategorized

BONUS POST : THE TIMES THEY ARE EXCITING

It’s been around 10 days since I last spent any time on this blog and it might well be about another 10 days before I can devote any real time to it again. But hey, there’s the very best of reasons why this is the case.

I initially met a golfing buddy who was over here from Canada before gearing myself up for an unforgettable weekend in which I took in three gigs in two days as well as……………………

HE’S A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY, I’M A LITTLE BIT INDIE ROCK’N’ROLL

Yup. I met Jonny the Friendly Lawyer aka Jonny Bottoms, the bassist with The Ponderosa Aces. I never imagined that anything could possibly top seeing Butcher Boy play a gig for the first time in four years but just 24 hours after that particularly momentous occasion I had the joy, honour and privilege of meeting one of the oldest friends of this blog. It was an amazing few hours that flew in far too quickly and is something I’ll return to in more detail in due course. Oh and I’ll also make time to review his band, as well as the gigs the previous day by the aforementioned Butcher Boy as well as TeenCanteen who also played a set in Glasgow as part of the celebrations of Record Store Day 2017.

The reason I’m holding off is the fact that in 72 hours time, I’ll be hooking up with more friends of this parish when Adam (Bagging Area), Brian (Linear Track Lives), Dirk (Sexy Loser) and Walter (A Few Good Times In My Life) begin to arrive in Glasgow where myself, Drew (Across The Kitchen Table) and Stevie (Charity Chic), supported by other friends of our respective blogs such as Aldo, Jacques the Kipper, Comrade Colin and Strangeways will be hooking up in Glasgow over a long weekend after Dirk decided a few months back that it would be a great idea.

I know a few others had been hopeful of making it along but logistics and other issues made it impossible on this occasion. But I’m 100% certain that Glasgow 2017 won’t be the last effort to get a group of like-minded souls together. Spending a few hours with Jonny has not only more than whetted my appetite for this coming weekend but made me really determined to hook up with many others at some point in the future. There’s something very special about the people who frequent this little corner of the internet and its associated partners and on the basis of past experiences when the blogging mate finally gets to shake a hand a give a hug, then I know this coming weekend is going to be truly special, memorable and worth writing about.

I met Jonny in the company of a long-time mate, Ian, and it was interesting that he said to me afterwards that anyone looking at and listening to us in the Manchester pub would have never believed we had only just linked up in person for the first time given how natural and relaxed we were with one another. That’s actually been true of every blogging mate I’ve been lucky enough to meet over the years and I am hyper-excited at the idea of seeing Adam, Dirk, Walter and indeed Stevie for the first ever time (although in the case of the latter we know we’ve been in the same audience at gigs and so we might meet up and recognise one another) and a reunion with Brian who I met for a very short while back in 2012 when he came to Glasgow especially to see Big Country.

I’m almost 54 years of age and I feel like a kid in the last few days before Christmas, including an inability to sleep properly!!

mp3 : The Lemonheads – It’s About Time

JC

Arctic Monkeys, Smiths

30, 20, 10 (Part 1)

Something new that I’m going to try to do on the 1st day of each month (or as close to the 1st if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday). And that’s bring the songs that were #1 in the UK Indie Charts 30, 20 and 10 years ago to the day. Unless they are pish and only qualified for the Indie charts thanks to a distribution quirk. So here we go with 1 May 1987, 1997 and 2007 respectively.

mp3 : The Smiths – Sheila Take A Bow (Rough Trade)
R. Kelly – I Believe I Can Fly (Jive Records)
mp3 : Arctic Monkeys – Brianstorm (Domino Records)

I’m actually quite pleased about it being these three. The Smiths and Arctic Monkeys are two of the biggest and best known bands who can be thought of as classic indie – i.e. guitar based bands on small, independently owned labels. R Kelly on the other hand shows up how ludicrous the chart was for a good number of years.

Inclusion on the indie chart was always about distribution. Initially, the record needed to be delivered by a distribution service that was independent of the four major record companies: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group and the genre of music was irrelevant. The major labels however got round this by setting up subsidiary labels and outsourcing the shipping of those singles to smaller distribution services. Thus a single that was part of the soundtrack to a Hollywood film and which had enough clout to pick up 3 Grammy Awards thanks to it being on Atlantic Records in the USA, was eligible to take the #1 slot in a chart that it really shouldn’t have been any part of.

It took until June 2009 to close this loophole when the industry altered the rules so that in addition to distribution criteria a single was only eligible for the Indie Chart is it was on a label that was at least fifty per cent owned by an entity that was not one of the main four record companies.

I’m sure this intended regular feature will throw up some howlers as time moves on, particularly in the 90s and 00s.

Oh and I meant to add that I was astounded that the Arctic Monkeys had a #1 on the chart as long as ten years ago from what was their second LP. I never thought they had been around that long. It’s a belter of a single too.

And as I just happen to own some vinyl, here’s the b-sides from the 12″ release in 1987 and the 10″ release in 2007:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Is It Really So Strange?
mp3 : The Smiths – Sweet and Tender Hooligan
mp3 : Arctic Monkeys – If You Found This It’s Probably Too Late
mp3 : Arctic Monkeys – Temptation Greets Like A Naughty Friend
mp3 : Arctic Monkeys – What If You Were Right The First Time?

Temptation features a cameo vocal contribution from the wonderful Dizzee Rascal.