Month: November 2017

Softies

TEN DAYS OF TWEE (5) : THE SOFTIES

You’ll have spotted that the bands featured throughout this week have all been new, not just to the the blog, but to my own ears. That’s why there’s been such a heavily reliance on the likes of wiki:-

The Softies were a musical duo consisting of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia, who are known for their minimal approach to pop music.

Beginning in 1994, the band was intended to be a side project for both artists. Along with an eventual career as a solo artist, Rose Melberg performed with Tiger Trap, Gaze, and Go Sailor. Jen Sbragia was known for her work with the band Pretty Face. As part of the Twee Pop movement centrally located in the Pacific Northwest, they were able to meet at performances for their respective bands.

After Tiger Trap disbanded in January 1994, the pair formed The Softies and recorded the four-song “Love Seat” 7-inch single for Slumberland Records. Calvin Johnson later produced their “He’ll Never Have To Know” single and the band’s debut album It’s Love on the K Records label. They released an eponymous EP on Slumberland Records in 1996. Within months, they would record the full-length Winter Pageant in Melberg’s childhood home in Sacramento, California. In 2000, they released their final collaborative work, Holiday in Rhode Island. It is sometimes speculated that their albums correspond with the seasons of the year as follows: It’s Love (Summer), The Softies (Autumn), Winter Pageant (Winter), Holiday in Rhode Island (Spring).

The Softies almost exclusively use two electric guitars and harmonizing vocal melodies for their recorded tracks and live performances. Their lack of accompaniment, inexcessive production, and brevity of their songs are recurring characteristics of their work throughout their three full-length albums.

The band undertook a few tours, including as an opening act for singer/songwriter Elliott Smith.

Here’s some fine tunes:-

mp3 : The Softies – Love Seat
mp3 : The Softies – I Love You More
mp3 : The Softies – Write It Down

And finally, possibly the most twee and excruciating thing I’m ever likely to post:-

mp3 : The Softies – Together Forever

Yup. It’s a cover of a Rick Astley smash hit!

JC

Summer Suns

TEN DAYS OF TWEE (4) : THE SUMMER SUNS

This fantastic sounding record from 1986 is completely new to me.

I only found it from shoving the words ‘summer’ and ‘twee’ into a search engine to hunt out stuff for this series.  Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good…cos it’s more indie-pop than twee….although the cover star is twee personified.

The Summer Suns were from Perth, Australia. They have been described perfectly as playing a melodious blend of ’70s influenced pop and ’60s folk rock.

These are the a and b-sides of their mesmerising and hypnotic debut single.  I’ve a feeling my dear friend Aldo will love these; hopefully he won’t be alone:-

mp3 : The Summer Suns – Honeypearl
mp3 : The Summer Suns – Rachel-Anne

JC

Honeybunch

TEN DAYS OF TWEE (3) : HONEYBUNCH

From wiki:-

Formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 1987 by Jeffrey Borchardt (aka Jeffrey Underhill) (vocals, guitar), with Peter Reilly (bass, vocals), Christine Jansky (drums), Chris Adams (keyboards), & Claudia Gonson (drums). The band’s debut release was the “Hey Blue Sky!” single on Bus Stop Records in 1989. The band then moved on to Slumberland Records, who issued the next two singles in 1990-1991. Several more releases followed on Summershine, and Four-Letter Words, with the last on K Records.

A compilation of the band’s work was issued in 1997, Time Trials 1987-1995 on Summershine in the US, and Elefant in Spain.

The band were a major influence on many American indie pop and “cuddlecore” bands that followed, with Allmusic stating “their smooth, minimal three-piece pop approach and independent aesthetics served as a template for countless other scenes and projects”.

The band continued on with a new line-up of Jeffrey Underhill (vocals, guitar), Lisa Underhill (vocals, keyboards) and Rafael Attias (guitar), for a new EP on Bus Stop in 2003. The EP was described by the Boston Phoenix as “vintage pop, with flourishes of rootsiness, the Association, and the early electronic pop of Depeche Mode”.

Here’s the debut single along with one of the other early songs that would be released as a 45 in 1991:-

mp3 : Honeybunch – Hey Blue Sky!
mp3 : Honeybunch – Mine Your Own Business

The single seems very reminiscent of The Goon Sax while the two minutes of the second track certainly channels the sound of Bellshill.

JC

Shermans

TEN DAYS OF TWEE (2) : THE SHERMANS

From all music:-

The Shermans formed in December 1997 by Mikael Matsson and Torbjorn Thorsen after the dissolution of the band Red Sleeping Beauty. They tapped the shoulder of bassist Chrisster Nilsson and began performing their brand of jangley pop in Sweden. Torbjorn left the band to form Aerospace. Ingela Karlsson then joined as the Shermans’ new vocalist.

The Japanese label Quince soon offered to release a Shermans album. Compiling all of their early singles and compilation tracks, along with new songs, the band released Casual in 1999. Also in 1999, the Shermans were recruited by Shelflife to release their music in the United States. The 2000 release of the album In Technicolor was their first full-length American release. In early 2001, Shelflife re-released Casual for an American audience.

The band continued to experiment with their mixture of modern indie pop, soft rock, and Motown influences. In the spring of 2001, Shelflife released the Falling out of Love EP as a split release with California’s Sky Blue Records. In the fall of that same year, the Happiness Is Toy Shaped CD was released, again on Shelflife.

This is from the 1999 LP Casual:-

mp3 : The Shermans – Summer In Your Heart

While this is from the 2001 LP Happiness Is Toy Shaped:-

mp3 : The Shermans – July In London

Told you I was doing my best to escape November!!

Just dance.

JC

Twa Toots

TEN DAYS OF TWEE (1) : TWA TOOTS

The onset of November means cold, dark and depressing days. I’ve a cunning plan to deal with it, certainly for the first two weeks, and it’s going to be through the power of twee-pop. Songs so light and airy that are totally out of place with the mood that normally envelopes me at this time of year.

I’m totally indebted to Sterling Cale from the now, very sadly, defunct Maggiot Caviar, for the bio on the first band in this short series. He penned these words back in July 2012:-

Here’s a band so obscure they’ve even managed to elude the all seeing eye that is Wikipedia.

Often linked with Trixies Big Red Motorbike, not only because they were considered to be mining similiar musical territory, but through a number of unusual coincidences: both groups were duos inhabiting small islands off the UK’s southern coast (in Twa Toots case the Isle of Sheppey); both groups rarely played live (if at all); both groups emerged at around the same time to record sessions for John Peel after sending him demo tapes; both groups faded back into the obscurity from whence they came soon after.

But unlike Trixies, Twa Toots were known to emerge from their bedrooms on more than one occasion to record their songs in proper studios on the mainland.

The group – Sarah Brown (vocals, guitar, bass, piano), Phillipa Richmond (guitar, vocals) – recorded their debut (and only) Peel session in 1983, augmented by Will Cassell (drums) and Sarah’s dad Frank on trombone. But it wasn’t until the latter part of 1986 that this seven track mini lp quietly slipped out on the Crystal Clear label (Cat. No. CC103) in a pressing of just 250 copies.

Long before the Stone Roses adopted a similiar ploy, it would be followed up five years later by a single, Don’t Send Me Flowers, on the Rootin’ Tootin label, which in turn would be followed up in 1996 by a 15 track compilation album of the same name (featuring mostly previously unreleased material) on the Accident label (who also simultaneously released a Trixie’s comp – more coincidences).

Four of the songs on this lp were not included on the Accident album. The title track and It’s A Lovely Day (both recorded for the 1983 Peel session) were eschewed in favour of alternate demo versions. Shoe Bop and Bewitched have, to my knowledge, never been commercially available since this release.

The opening track is on a cassette somewhere in a big box underneath the spare bed.  It’s one of dozens of compilation C90s put together by Jacques the Kipper back in the early 90s when we first hooked up via work and I keep telling myself I should pull the lot out and feature them in a series.  Maybe next year….

mp3 : Twa Toots – Please Don’t Play A Rainy Night In Georgia (Peel Session)

And here’s the two tracks from the 1988 single:-

mp3 : Twa Toots – Nobody’s Fool
mp3 : Twa Toots – Don’t Send Me Flowers

There’s nine more similar style posts in the pipeline.  Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

JC

New Order

THE NEW ORDER SINGLES (Parts 2 & 3)

Today’s first half is lifted from a posting back in May 2016:-

New Order had released a belter of a debut single in Ceremony. The follow-up hit the shops in September 1981:-

mp3 : New Order – Procession

It was quite similar to a number of the tracks on the debut LP Movement and it wasn’t a huge shift away from the Joy Division sound albeit it did highlight that with Bernard Sumner was a completely different sort of vocalist from Ian Curtis.

I bought the only copy of this single that my local record shop had and it came in a cardboard sleeve with a strange green design which I thought alluded to the title of the b-side. I soon discovered that it had been released in nine different coloured sleeves (as illustrated above) and while I wanted to own every single one of them, there was no way an 18-year-old student, who that month had just started university, was going to waste valuable vodka money on something as unworthy as a 7″ bit of plastic.

The b-side was a precursor to what New Order would become within a few months – a band of their own right delivering electronic dance-music.

mp3 : New Order – Everything’s Gone Green

This is ripped right from vinyl folks and is a bit shorter than the versions generally available on compilation LPs, so please forgive the fact that there’s also a wee skip and a jump about 3mins in…..

Second Half

In December 1981, Factory Benelux would release a 12″ version of Everything’s Gone Green, backed by two completely new tracks.  This merely added to the mystique of the original release with some considering it was a double-A single.  The import was ridiculously expensive compared to other 12″ singles of the day, but I still went for it. It was later re=released in 1985 and again in 1986, but I have the original with the solid gray/white label, blue type, and cat number of FBNL 8.

I’ve included all these images as the labeling caused confusion for years. The track names of the B-sides are correctly identified on the label, but, if you look at the sleeve, they are the wrong way round. This would lead to their being misidentified on subsequent releases; for example, the track identified as “Mesh” on the CD version of the Substance CD compilation is in fact “Cries and Whispers”.

mp3 : New Order – Everything’s Gone Green (12″ version)
mp3 : New Order – Cries and Whispers
mp3 : New Order – Mesh

Two hugely enjoyable and much underrated b-sides no matter what name they were given! And better than some of the cuts that were included on Movement.

JC

Orange Juice

DOING PENANCE

I’m barging the Saturday series out-of-the-way today so that I can follow-up after the welcome and varied responses to ‘True Confessions.’

First of all, as ever, a huge thank you to everyone for taking the time to fire over your view, thoughts and opinions; as I’ve said on so many occasions, it’s the quality of comments and guest contributions that make this venture all worthwhile. I had a feeling the idea of slaughtering a few sacred cows would prove controversial and so it sort of proved.

One thing I want to make very clear is that I’ve never liked the idea of using the blog to be negative and over the past eleven and a bit years, the percentage of posts that don’t celebrate music has been tiny. I’d even like to think that the ‘Had It. Lost It’ series is in some ways celebratory in that the idea is to reflect on how good, and indeed great, a singer or band had been only for it to go awry.

The concept behind ‘True Confessions’ was similar. This series, if it was going to be as such, was intended to look at one song in isolation by an act that I otherwise liked or admired; it also had the rider that the act had to come from a past era so that I couldn’t simply give the finger to something that was contemporary on the basis that I ‘didn’t get it’. I chose The Model on the basis that I have enjoyed a lot of the music produced over the years by Kraftwerk but had never warmed to their best known and arguably best-loved song, certainly among the general public.

If this comes across as conceited to some of you, then I’m truly sorry. But I do think there has been a slight misunderstanding of what I was hoping to achieve.

In essence, it was like trying to recreate an on-line version of an argument down the pub between folk who care and are passionate about music. This was never just to carp about a bad song as I don’t believe there is such a thing as a bad song – but there are quite a lot of songs that I don’t care for; indeed there are many more songs that I don’t like or enjoy than I have in the vinyl, cd and digital collection inside Villain Towers, but I have no intention of spending time or energy writing about them just for the sake of it.

I’ll try and illustrate this with an example from the comments. Alex considered that “the worst song ever in the history of songs has to be Paul Simon “You Can Call Me Al” which is from the “acclaimed” Graceland album.” I’m not sure if it is quite the worst ever in the history of songs, but it is one that I’ve never taken to. But at the same time, I’ve never really taken much to Paul Simon’s solo career and so don’t feel that I’m qualified to post a negative piece on You Can Call Me Al as I can’t consider it any sort of context.

It was also the case that any song that fell under the microscope for the series had to be one that was, on the face of it, universally acclaimed. As such, I’d never entertain the idea of any Oasis song featuring or the suggestion of Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds; in the case of the former, this was a band that divided opinion from Day 1 and in respect of the latter I think it’s fair to say that, despite its millions of worldwide sales, most Simple Minds fans don’t regard it as the band’s finest moment.

I agree wholeheartedly with Moz’s comment that “one person’s caviar is another’s fish paste sandwich, and we should all respect that”. The key word here is ‘respect’ and that was, I think, what C was alluding to when she said “I like the sound of this series….don’t mind the idea of interspersing the large number of posts about things we like with some about the things we don’t….want to understand the basis behind the opinions I don’t agree with …..as long as it doesn’t become too personal of course”.

Having weighed things up, and slept on it all overnight, I’m going to keep the feature going as an occasional series and will take guest contributions as long as they fit the criteria. That rules out CC doing anything on U2 and SWC is barred from frantically writing why The Smiths suck….but don’t worry too much buddy as I’m likely to make a confession about one of their songs.

One more quick visit to the box by me to wrap things up.

I could very happily go the rest of my life without ever hearing both sides of a particular 45 by Orange Juice. It doesn’t sit easy with me given how much I’ve written about the band over the years and that I was given a namecheck in the credits of the Coals to Newcastle boxset (such things should really be reserved for those who have blind faith!).

As I said in my OJ ICA ,

“The old adage of ‘musical differences’ had been was cited when Steven and James left the band after the debut album but in this instance it was the truth. This had left Edwyn and David to take things forward, augmented by the fantastically talented Malcolm Ross and a Zimbabwe-born drummer called Zeke Manyika but the initial fruits of their labour – the double-sided single of Two Hearts Together/Hokoyo – was a huge disappointment and nothing like any of the old songs. It was a worrying time.”

I actually understated how much I disliked this particular single that was released in August 1982. It sounded as if the band wanted to spend the rest of their careers somewhere down the bill on WOMAD festivals. The songs are a real mishmash of influences, none of which had been part of any of the Postcard era or the debut album. I wasn’t ready for it and to be quite honest, I’ve never ever steadied myself to fully accept it as an Orange Juice recording. It’s really strange as the work Zeke puts into the songs, particularly on Hokoyo, would later be replicated in parts on Soul Mining by The The, and that’s an album I will never allow a bad word to be said about. Maybe it’s about time and place.

mp3 : Orange Juice – Two Hearts Together (7″ version)
mp3 : Orange Juice – Hokoyo (7″ version)

So there you have it. Orange Juice getting slated on T(n)VV.

Who’s next for the confessional box?

PS

Echorich indicated that he liked the idea of B-Side Gems. The old blog was full of such postings – indeed it was launched with the intention of offering up unknown and rarely heard b-sides on a regular basis at a time when the back catalogues of many 80s and 90s artists were obsolete. One of my first postings was a Lloyd Cole track which was impossible to get a hold of without having a 12” single – it’s since surfaced on a boxset of rarities.

mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Butterfly (Planet Anne Charlotte mix)

I’ll try and dig out some b-side postings from the archives and put them up over the upcoming festive period.

JC

National

THERE’S JUST SOMETHING SO SEXY ABOUT PURPLE VINYL

Released at the tail end of 2010.

mp3 : The National – Terrible Love (alternate version)
mp3 : The National – You Were A Kindness

This 45 is a different mix from the version which opens the LP High Violet while the b-side was a previously unreleased track.

Sometimes lazy posts are the best posts.

JC

PS : I haven’t gotten round to listening to the band’s new LP Sleep Well Beast on account of thinking that 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me was a bit of a letdown and don’t think I could cope with two disappointing albums in a row.  Anyone wanting to write something on it for an end of year feature would be most welcome….

PPS : I’m going very retro over the next two weeks.  Tune in on Monday for more details.  For some of you, this might be the last straw in what has been 12 months of declining visitor numbers and hits in comparison to previous years!

Kraftwerk

TRUE CONFESSIONS

Once again, this is something that may turn into a regular series but it wholly dependent on reader reaction and offers to contribute further. It’s sort of a sideshow to the ‘Had It. Lost It.’ series.

The idea is to offer up some thoughts on a song that, to most reasonably-minded individuals, is held up as a classic but to the ears of the contributor is completely overrated.

I could kick things off with just about any song ever written and recorded by The Beatles. I do know, and I do fully accept, that they made a bigger single contribution to the development of pop/rock than almost anyone else you care to mention but for some reason or other I haven’t ever taken to them. I don’t have any vinyl or CDs in what is a fairly substantial collection although I do know, thanks to constant exposure to their hits and album tracks throughout my entire life, hundreds of their songs, some of which I do find passable while others just leave me cold.

Liking or not liking a classic can very easily be a generational thing, whether it being down to the song being released years before a listener developed a real interest in music or perhaps it comes from such a new era that the same listener isn’t keeping up with trends. As such, the one rule for any True Confessions features, is the song must be from the era when the contributor lived and breathed music.

My first ‘fess up is that I don’t like The Model, the song with which Kraftwerk conquered the UK charts in 1982.

While my first real love was new wave/post-punk, from which I would fall head over heels for indie-guitar from the early 80s onwards, I was someone who really enjoyed bands that incorporated synths/keyboards into their sound; indeed I think I’ve demonstrated this in a fair number of the blog postings over the years. Kraftwerk, however, are a band that I haven’t ever quite got to grips with, albeit I do have some of their singles on vinyl sitting in the big cupboard. But not The Model.

I haven’t, until now, actually sat down to think why this is the case and even trying to explain it with the sole reliance on the written word seems beyond me; it’s one of those occasions where I could do with a rammy in the pub with some close friends to tease it all out. I’m instead having to settle on an internal word-association exercise and I’m coming up with – Repetitive. Dirge. Off-key. Cold. Annoying. Hypnotic (in that it makes me want to nod off). Repetitive.

I’m even boring myself trying to write about it far less listen to it. And then, just as I get frustrated with myself and think about hitting the delete button as I’m not making much headway, I realise that, compared to other Kraftwerk songs, The Model is actually a novelty number; indeed, it’s almost a p!ss-take of the band and the sounds they were striving to develop in the infant years of electronica. Like most novelty records, the charms, if they exist to begin with, wear off very quickly and it becomes annoying to the point of never wanting to willingly listen to it again (although, wearing my DJ hat, I do accept and acknowledge that it can be the perfect tune for a particular time, place and crowd)

mp3 : Kraftwerk – The Model

Bring on the brickbats.

JC

 

Fields Of The Nephilim, U.N.K.L.E.

30, 20, 10 (Part 7)

The latest installment in the monthly series looking back at the songs which were #1 in the indie charts on the first day of the month 30, 20 and 10 years ago. A series that is under threat if too many of the #1’s get in via a loophole exploited by the majors…..

1 November 1987 : mp3 : Fields Of The Nephilim – Blue Water

From all music:-

Of all the bands involved in Britain’s goth rock movement of the 1980s, Fields of the Nephilim were the most believable. The group’s cryptic, occult-inspired songs were sung in a guttural roar by vocalist Carl McCoy. Live appearances were shrouded with dim light and smoke machines, while bandmembers stalked the stage in black desperado gear inspired by western dress. The group was also one of the longest lived of the original goth rock groups, finally breaking up in 1991 when McCoy left for another project.

Fields of the Nephilim formed in 1984, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with an original lineup of McCoy, guitarist Paul Wright, his brother Nod on drums, saxophonist Gary Whisker, and bassist Tony Pettitt. The quintet played many live shows and released the EP Burning the Fields in late 1984. Whisker then left the band, just as Peter Yates was added as a second guitarist. Beggar’s Banquet, also the home of goth rockers Southern Death Cult and Bauhaus, signed the Nephilim and released the singles “Power” and “Preacher Man” in 1986. Both did well on the independent charts; “Preacher Man” made it to number two, increasing the expectation for debut album Dawnrazor, which appeared in 1987. The album also did well on the indie charts, but later that year Fields of the Nephilim finally cracked the pop singles chart with “Blue Water.” In June 1988, second album The Nephilim reached number 12 in the pop charts, while the single “Moonchild” made number 28. A live video titled Forever Remain was also released in 1988.

The May 1989 single “Psychonaut” also cracked the Top 40, but the resulting Elizium (1990) proved to be the group’s last studio effort. The live double album Earth Inferno was also released in 1990, and the singles “For Her Light” and “Sumerland (Dreamed)” both charted, but Carl McCoy left the band — and took the name with him — in October 1991. Remaining members Yates, Pettitt, and the Wright brothers added vocalist Alan Delaney and released What Starts, Ends (1992) as Rubicon; McCoy formed Nefilim, and began releasing material, including the 1996 album Zoon. Beggar’s Banquet issued a two-disc retrospective in 1994 titled Revelations. Nothing was heard from the band until 2002 when Fallen appeared. Although the album looked new, it was a collection of outtakes released without the permission of the band. They truly returned in 2006 with Mourning Sun, and played live often during the 2000s and 2010s. Studio recording took place during 2014, and the band shared a pair of singles — “Earthbound” and “Prophecy” — for an album with the working title The Darkness Before Dawn.

1 November 1997 : Backstreet Boys – As Long As You Love Me

Oh dear……it all comes down to 2007 to see if the series will continue into an eighth month…..

1 November 2007 : mp3 : U.N.K.L.E – Hold My Hand

And breathe……………….

U.N.K.L.E. were founded in 1992 by James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have over the years employed a variety of guest artists and producers.

Hold My Hand is from their third album War Stories. It was an LP that again featured a number of guests including Josh Homme, Robert Del Naja, Ian Astbury and The Duke Spirit. This particular single had James Lavelle on lead vocals but Josh Homme was on backing vocals as well as adding some drums. The single was on Surrender All Records, a lebel established by Lavelle to issue material by U.N.K.L.E. and other dance/electronica acts.

JC