THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part sixty-three: JANIE JONES

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Here’s the thing.

I lost my copy of the eponymous debut by The Clash many many many moons ago.  Most likely 1984 or 1985 when the crowd of us haring a flat didn’t worry too much about who actually owned the record sitting by the communal stereo in the living room and as people came and went, so too did some singles and albums.

To be fair, my copy was battered, bruised and worn by this time, with loads of jumps and skips.  It wasn’t until 1990 that I realised it was missing when it came time to pack up all my possessions and move back to Glasgow again following the breakdown of my first marriage.

I never replaced it, but I did buy a CD version a few years later….which is what I also had to do with London Calling as it too was beyond saving from years of abuse.

I did buy a recent brand-new repress of London Calling not too long ago, and thoroughly enjoyed giving it a spin.  And now, at long last, I again have a vinyl copy of The Clash, having picked up a second-hand artefact (at least) while browsing round a second-hand store during a recent three-day break in Bristol (the same store where I picked up The Pastels 12″ single that featured last Friday).  It was very reasonably priced – £15 – and given how old it is, it was in remarkably good condition.

OK, it’s not a first or even second pressing as the inner sleeve is ‘Nice Price’, the marketing ploy used by CBS Records when they wanted to shift further copies of old albums through a reduction in price.  This particular pressing probably dates from the early 80s, but I’m more than happy with it.

Tempting as it was to give you the full near-six minutes of the cover of Police & Thieves, I felt things would be best served today by going with Side 1, Track 1:-

mp3: The Clash – Janie Jones

Still provides a thrill all these years later.

JC

ICA WORLD CUP 2022 : GROUP A

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Welcome to the first week of the ICA World Cup 2022.  Are you excited or totally indifferent?

Seventeen songs are competing for your votes today, with eight of them set to qualify for the knock-out stages.  All the songs, in the group stages, will be #1 from all the relevant ICAs, and they are listed below in alphabetical order of the singer or group involved.

Ash – Jack Names The Planets (ICA 190)

Cocteau Twins – Hazel (Peel Session) (ICA 310)

Dinosaur Jr. – The Wagon (ICA 312)

Dum Dum Girls – Jail La La (ICA 287)

The Fall – Crap Rap/Like To Blow (ICA 171)

Luke Haines – Rock’n’Roll Communique #1 (ICA 180)

Robyn Hitchcock – Kingdom of Love (ICA 190)

Buddy Holly – That’ll Be The Day (ICA 285)

Iceage – Hurrah (ICA 221)

The Jam – Pretty Green (ICA 152)

The Jazz Butcher – Next Move Sideways (ICA 158)

Mudhoney – In n Out of Grace (ICA 283)

Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (ICA 222)

Iggy Pop – Lust For Life (ICA 183)

Roxy Music – Virginia Plain (ICA 250)

Say Sue Me – Let It Begin (ICA 227)

Tracey Thorn – It’s All True – Escort Extended Remix (ICA 262)

As I said last week, the draw has been designed to split up contributions from various guest contributors, with each group also having a handful from my own ICAs.  Group A is quite eclectic, and many of the so-called ‘big hitters’ didn’t get drawn out, so it sets up for some tastiness in the remaining groups.

Voting closes at midnight on Saturday, 16th July.  Voting must be done through the comments section.

AND JUST TO AVOID ANY POTENTIAL CONFUSION, I’M HOPING EVERYONE COMING ON TO VOTE WILL MAKE UP TO 8 CHOICES FROM THE ABOVE LIST.

I KNOW……I’M ASKING A LOT!!!  BUT IT WILL GET EASIER ONCE WE REACH THE KNOCK-OUT STAGES!!!!!!!

Cheers.

JC

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #314: SPARE SNARE

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Spare Snare is a lo-fi band from Dundee. Founded in the early 1990s, the band have released 13 albums to date, released on their own Chute Records, or licensed to another label. They have also recorded four John Peel Sessions. In the 1995 John Peel Festive 50, the band were number 32 with “Bugs”.

Mike from Manic Pop Thrills has long championed Spare Snare and has suggested often that I’d like a lot of the material.  I’ve never found the time to dip into the catalogue, in all honesty, unsure of where to start.

It was last year that I found myself at an event at Big Blue, the HQ of the Last Night From Glasgow (LNFG) record label.  It was the launch of the book The Perfect Reminder, as mentioned within these pages last October.  I got talking to someone and found him to be an entertaining and informative individual on all sorts of aspects of the music scene in Scotland.  His name was Jan Burnett, the lead singer and mainstay of Spare Snare.  We found ourselves getting along very nicely.

We agreed to meet up further and have now done so on a couple of occasions, the first of which saw Jan come up with a great idea to get me introduced to the band when he gifted me a 3 x CD box set, The Complete BBC Radio Sessions 1995 – 2018, offering up 42 songs.  A couple of days later, LNFG re-released, on vinyl, a Spare Snare album from 2018. Sounds had been recorded at the Chem Underground studio with Steve Albini at the helm.

The collaboration came about after the band, as part of an idea to make that they had been making records for 25 years, got a ‘Yes’ after asking Steve Albini if he would be up for co-hosting a Scottish Engineers’ Workshop with the band, and to record 10 songs from their back catalogue for an album. The funding for it all came from Creative Scotland, the government-backed cultural organisation.

Having liked a lot of what I was hearing on the box sets, but even more so on Sounds, I sent off, via this Bandcamp page for a great deal of the back catalogue which I’m still working through with the idea of a compiling an ICA.  I had hoped to get it done for today, but the building works of the past couple of months put paid to that.

Spare Snare have also not long announced that a further collaboration with Steve Albini is in the pipeline, with an album of new songs being recorded later this year in a studio in Edinburgh.  It will likely prove to be one of the records of 2023 when it finally hits the shops.

In the meantime, here are a couple of songs to enjoy:-

mp3: Spare Snare – Bugs (Peel Session)
mp3: Spare Snare – We Are The Snare (Sounds version)

JC

FINALLY!!!!

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I’ve written about The Pastels a few times before, always owning up to the fact that not everything they have written and recorded has been to my taste and indeed that I don’t have all that much by them in the collection.

They are a band, however, that are long overdue an ICA, and my dear friend Comrade Colin has, on occasion over the years, threatened to come up with something (if you happen to be reading this post Comrade, I hope it shames you into action!!)

My favourite single by The Pastels dates back to 1986.  I’ve only, up until a couple of months ago, had a copy of the song via its inclusion on a compilation CD issued by Rough Trade back in 2004.  But a recent short break to Bristol took in a visit to a couple of second-hand shops and I was delighted to get my hands on a near pristine condition copy of the 12″ vinyl for a very reasonable price:-

mp3: The Pastels – Truck Train Tractor
mp3: The Pastels – Breaking Lines
mp3: The Pastels – Truck Train Tractor (2)

It was the group’s first release for London-based indie label Glass Records, having already, in just a four-year spell, recorded singles for Whaam! Records, Creation and Rough Trade.  There would be two further singles as well as a highly lauded debut album for Glass before Stephen & co. moved on again to fresh pastures.

Truck Train Tractor is a splendid piece of vinyl, with a harder edge to the music than might be expected from anyone who thinks ‘twee’ when confronted with the words ‘The Pastels’.  Having said that, the lyrics with much use of the phrase ‘choo-choo-choo’ will undoubtedly lead to an association with badges and anoraks.  Oh, and the equally enjoyable and excellent b-side, Breaking Lines, also happens to make reference to trains and train tracks.

There doesn’t appear to be much (if any) difference in the second version of the song, apart from a few seconds of dialogue tagged on at the end, in which one of the burning questions of the day is asked and answered…..

JC

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #317: TRUMPETS (2)

A GUEST POSTING  from JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

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Thanks to everyone who commented on the Trumpets ICA and especially all the folks who accepted the invitation to suggest their own favourite tunes.  More than enough for a second eleven, with selections by:

Bill: Prefab Sprout – Billy.  Not only does this tune prominently feature a lead trumpet, but the whole tune is about trumpets!

Friend of Rachel Worth: Pale Fountains – Longshot For Your Love.  This was a new one to me.  Seems like the Fountains came and went, but not before releasing “…From Across the Kitchen Table,” presumably the namesake of Drew’s blog. (JC adds…..it sure is!!)

Rol:  Feargal Sharkey – You Little Thief.  There might be a saxophone happening underneath, but this song’s really got the trumpet working.

Conrad: Bowie – Jump They Say.  Impressive how Bowie (David) was always looking for interesting folks to record with.  Bringing in Lester Bowie, a straight up jazz dude and co-founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, was a genius move.

The Swede: Housemartins – Think for a Minute (single version).  I never heard this version, but it’s ten times better with the trumpet.  Great call by the Swede.

DAM: Manic Street Preachers – Kevin Carter.  This was on a list of songs I sent to JC to see if anyone suggested ones other than my choices.  Very impressed with DAM for picking this one and the TVV crowd for coming up with so many stellar ideas.

FlimFlamFan: Allez Allez – Flesh and Blood.  I wasn’t familiar with this Belgian 80’s outfit so I found a clip on YouTube.  In their live performance, the horn part was played by a sax, but on the record it sounds like a trumpet.  (Might also be a synth, but it’s a great tune, so let’s go with it.)

JC: Billy Bragg – Levi Stubb’s Tears.  Probably should have included this classic by William Bloke, but it’s just so sad.

Mark: Eric Matthews – Fanfare.  This song made the whole experiment worthwhile.  I knew Matthews from Cardinal but was otherwise unfamiliar with his recordings.  ‘Fanfare’ is an absolute killer—my new favorite song.

Khayem: Julian Cope – Beautiful Love.  I had to decide between this one and the Teardrops song, so cheers to Kieron for making sure this one got in the mix.

Walter: Chumbawumba – Tubthumping.  Is there any reason not to play this infectious, banging song at every possible occasion?  No, there is not.

JTFL

JC adds……

There’s been quite a few more suggestions since Jonny fired over this second edition.  I’m surely not alone in asking that he come up with Volume 3?

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (66)

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There have been times during this occasional but well-established series when I’ve included an EP as the debut instead of a single.

This has given me a dilemma now that I’ve decided to feature Pixies.

Come On Pilgrim was the first commercial release, issued as an EP by 4AD Records in September 1987.  The EP contained seven songs, with a running time of a little over twenty minutes.  The problem is that the group never intended it as being released in that way, having made a 17-song cassette with the intention of getting it into the shops as a record, but these hopes were dashed when Ivo Watts-Russell decided that some of the songs, on what would later be called The Purple Tape, weren’t strong enough for a commercial release.

It was his decision to narrow things down to the seven tunes, and in doing so he also remixed things slightly to smooth out what he felt were some rough edges.

It did work in that the EP would go on to spend more than six months in the UK Indie Chart, helping to generate a great deal of positive press coverage while organically growing a fan base for the band.

So, for the purpose of this series, I’m going to make my way to August 1988, and the release of a debut 45, of a song that had been included on the debut album, Surfer Rosa, released five months previously

mp3: Pixies – Gigantic (single version)

It was a complete re-recording from the version included on the album. For one thing, it is some 40 seconds shorter. It also saw Gil Norton brought in to work with the band for the first time, with his more conventional approach to recording seen as more conducive to delivering a radio-friendly sound than had been delivered by Steve Albini:-

mp3: Pixies – Gigantic

The single, with its infectious and memorable bass line written by Mrs John Murphy (aka Kim Deal), was issued on 12″ vinyl and CD.  It didn’t break into the mainstream chart, but was again a success in the Indie Chart, and it paved the way for Norton to work with the band on the following year’s Doolittle, which took the band to new and possibly unimagined heights.

There were three other tracks on the single:-

mp3: Pixies – River Euphrates
mp3: Pixies – Vamos (live)
mp3: Pixies – In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song) (live)

River Euphrates, like Gigantic, was a Norton-produced version of a song from the debut album, and again is quite different from its Albini-produced counterpart.

The other two tracks are taken from a gig at the Town & Country Club, London on 1 May 1988.

Pixies would, in due course, enjoy chart success with later singles, but there is little doubt, among fans anyway, that Gigantic is up there as one of their very best recordings, and remained the most loudly received in the live sets all the time the original line-up played, much to the annoyance of Black Francis who never really understood why his lead vocals weren’t greeted with the same enthusiasm as that of the big song by Kim.

JC

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #316: MICAH BLUE SMALDONE

A GUEST POSTING FROM THE SWEDE

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17 years ago, curiosity led me to pick up a copy of Micah Blue Smaldone‘s solo debut album, ‘Some Sweet Day’, while on holiday in New York. I’d never heard of him or his music at that time, but was attracted by the cover artwork – a drawing of Smaldone looking for all the world like The Singing Brakeman, being watched over by a perched kingfisher and a clutch of bees. A year later I stumbled upon his second album, ‘Hither and Thither’ (still one of the all-time great LP titles I reckon), in similar circumstances. And that’s the way it’s continued, really. Self-publicity isn’t high on Micah’s agenda, so it’s just been a case of bumping into his new releases, side projects and one-off tracks more by luck than judgement, while remaining frustratingly unaware of his rare European visits until long after the event. In early 2014, however, I dropped by Micah’s infrequently updated (and now completely defunct) website to discover, to my great delight, that a handful of UK dates were imminent and in May of that year, in the unique and intimate surroundings of The Foundling Museum, near St Pancras in central London, I finally got to see the great man live in concert.

Coming out of the Maine punk scene of the late 1990s, by the time of his solo debut in 2004, Micah was, what can perhaps best be described as, an old-timey acoustic folk-blues troubadour. His later studio recordings, increasingly embellished by other musicians, headed in a thrillingly dark American gothic direction, though on that evening at The Foundling Museum it was just Micah and his 12-string guitar, intense and direct, delivering a series of lyrically dense, folk-noir songs interspersed with Piedmont blues instrumentals. It was a majestic performance, one I’d waited ten long years to witness, and I’m sure that I barely breathed for its duration. It really was among the key gigs of my life.

The 2014 tour was in support of Micah’s 4th studio LP, ‘The Ring of the Rise’, released the previous year. Since that time there have been no further records and indeed sightings in general have been virtually non-existent. I cling to the hope that one day I’ll spot his name on a new release page again, but in the meantime enjoy this brief introductory swing through his back pages. I can’t recommend his work highly enough.

1) Springtime Blues (Some Sweet Day 2004)

‘…everybody got a sweetheart, except for me…’

2) Summerbelle Winterbelle (Hither and Thither 2005)

‘…Summerbelle surely had eyes of fall, kept her arms folded in an ochre shawl…’

3) Sporting Sorrow Blues (Hither and Thither 2005)

‘…sorrow came a-courting some years before, a great beast sporting around my door…’

4) The Clearing (The Red River 2007)

‘…the vulgar men will yell, all within earshot, of the last tenable plot, for which our fathers fought…’

5) A Guest (The Red River 2007)

‘…not until our guest is full, wet with gore his handsome beard…’

6) A Derelict (The Red River 2007)

‘…in days to come when soils bleed and shores recede and winds cough hoarsely…’

7) Tell It to the Sun (EP Track 2012)

‘…from the razor to the straw, to the hard rind of reason…’

8) Heavy Bottle (The Ring of the Rise 2013)

‘…gone are days of passive light, here are days of molten…’

9) Dead Stop (The Ring of the Rise 2013)

‘…near I draw like a siphon, the highway is coiling…’

10) Time (The Ring of the Rise 2013)

‘…there is still time, oceans of time…’

THE SWEDE

JC adds…..

This is an ICA that should have been with you a long while back, but went missing in cyberspace.  It was purely a passing remark in a comment on another post that led me to contact The Swede and ask, if he still had the original e-mail, to send it again.  I’m delighted that he could as this ICA, by a singer I have never until now ever heard of, is a superb addition to the series.

I just want to remind everyone that all ICAs are gratefully received and none are ever refused.  I’m not sure if anyone else has previously submitted something but hasn’t seen it published; if so, it likely suffered the same ‘lost in delivery’ fate as Micah Blue Smaldone, so please feel free to drop me a line so we can try and sort it all out.

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part sixty-two: WHAT PRESENCE?!

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Six weeks on and the workies have finished the job on the roof.  All that remains is for the dismantled scaffolding to be taken away, and that’s likely to happen today.  My bank account is a lot lighter but my mind can rest a lot easier.  It was also a great feeling to get the turntable fired up again yesterday with a smile on my face as I read the initial and positive reactions to the next edition of the ICA World Cup.

There will, unusually, be a couple of fresh ICAs later this week, one of which was sent over quite a few months ago but went missing in cyberspace, while the other will be JTFL’s second instalment on ‘Trumpets’ having taken into consideration many of the responses from the TVV cognoscenti.  Having said that, he sent it over in advance of a number of suggested tracks being offered up, so don’t be shocked if there’s a later third volume at some point…..

The turntable being back in operation means a return of the long-running Monday series, in which a piece of vinyl from yesteryears is brought out of the big cupboard (or the now numerous overflow containers) and given a rotation while being converted at 320kpbs via Audacity so that the mp3 on offer can be of a far higher quality than other days.

I’m returning with one of Orange Juice‘s finest songs, Postcard-era included.  The 7″ single and album version are identical, coming in at 3:58 while the extended version on the 12″ vinyl runs to 4:07.

The extra nine seconds of music can be enjoyed during the instrumental break which comes just after the two-minute mark, where the harmonica mini-solo on the album version is replaced by Edwyn thrashing away at his guitar to great effect.

mp3: Orange Juice – What Presence?! (extended version)
mp3: Orange Juice – What Presence?!

Always happy to take suggestions for other songs to include in the Monday series, including guest posting – as long, of course, if I happen to have the tune on vinyl.

JC

LET ME TAKE YOU BACK FOUR YEARS….

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23 July 2018 when The Jam won the first ever ICA World Cup, beating Billy Bragg in the final.

If you weren’t reading all my nonsense back in 2018, I best explain.

The ICA World Cup was the idea of occasional contributor, jimdoes.

“…so I’ve had a thought… there’s 130 different teams in the ICA’s… what if there was a world cup between them to find which one was the best…?? it would all be very arbitrary but it might work…”

It got underway in January 2018, and it finished on 23 July 2018, the date of the actual final of the FIFA World Cup.  It was done on a straight knock-out basis, with 129 teams being whittled down round after round.  (A certain Manchester solo artist was excluded on the grounds of his abysmal human rights record).

The ICAs eligible were from #1-#150, but the reason for there being fewer than 150 ‘teams’ was that singers/band with more than one ICA weren’t permitted multiple entries.

For the 2022 World Cup, the ICAs from #152 – 314 are eligible – from The Jam (ICA #152) on 25 January 2018 to Cats On Fire (ICA #314) on 31 May 2022.

There remains the caveat on multiple entries, as well as excluding ICAs on themes, such as record labels, genres and producers (which is why ICA #151 about Factory Records is excluded).  It all means that 135 singers/bands can take part.

That number, however, is far too large to have a straight knock-out competition in the time available – the final of the FIFA World Cup 2022 takes place on Sunday 18 December, which is the day I’ll be aiming for the ICA World Cup to end.

To achieve this target date, there’s going to have to be a very severe cull from the group stages to the knock-out phase :-

GROUP A – 17 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 10 July

GROUP B – 16 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 17 July

GROUP C – 18 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 24 July

GROUP D – 17 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 31 July

GROUP E – 17 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 7 August

GROUP F – 17 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 14 August

GROUP G – 17 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 21 August

GROUP H – 16 teams (8 to qualify) : Sunday 28 August

Round of 64 : Week 1 (4 matches) : Sunday 4 September

Round of 64 : Week 2 (4 matches) : Sunday 11 September

Round of 64 : Week 3 (4 Matches) : Sunday 18 September

Round of 64 : Week 4 (4 matches) : Sunday 25 September

Round of 64 : Week 5 (4 matches) : Sunday 2 October

Round of 64 : Week 6 (4 matches) : Sunday 9 October

Round of 64 : Week 7 (4 matches) : Sunday 16 October

Round of 64 : Week 8 (4 matches) : Sunday 23 October

Round of 32 : Week 1 (4 matches) : Sunday 30 October

Round of 32 : Week 2 (4 matches) : Sunday 6 November

Round of 32 : Week 3 (4 matches) : Sunday 13 November

Round of 32 : Week 4 (4 matches) : Sunday 20 November

Round of 16 : 8 Matches : Sunday 27 November

Quarter-Finals : 4 Matches : Sunday 4 December

Semi-Finals : 2 Matches : Sunday 11 December

Final : 1 Match : Sunday 18 December

The arrangements for the draw, like all things in modern football, became a bit complicated as I tried to ensure a fair spread across the eight groups from the different contributors.  Of the 135 ICAs included, I’m responsible for 35 of them, and these will be spread evenly and randomly across six of the groups – A, B, D, E, G and H.

Group C, which has 18 teams, consists entirely of ICAs contributed by Hybrid Social Professor (HSP), who rather sadly seems not to have contributed at all to the blog since June 2020 having been ridiculously prolific up to then.

Group F has 17 teams, and consisting of six ICAs by Alex G, five ICAs by Middle Aged Man and six ICAs by Khayem.

All the remaining guest contributions have been spread out so that almost nobody will find themselves with two teams in the same group – for instance, JTFL has four teams and these will be placed in Groups B, E, G and H.  The almost nobody exception is SWC, who has seven entries spread across six groups, with one doubler (I warned you it was complicated!!!)

As you can tell, this is really depending on a decent level of audience participation, especially in the group stages, where you will be asked to submit eight songs to enable a singer or band to progress.  In the event of ties, the rolling of a dice will determine which side(s) progress.

Tune in next week for details of Group A. Voting will open as soon as the posting appears and will close at midnight, UK time, the following Saturday. All votes will be through the comments section – I had an e-mail option last time around, but it proved difficult to keep a track of, with some responses going into the junk folder and not being counted.

I’ll finish off this week with a very fine World Cup theme tune to get you in the mood:-

mp3 : The Scottish World Cup Squad 1982 – We Have A Dream

Featuring John Gordon Sinclair, of Gregory’s Girl Fame.

I’ll hopefully see some of you here next Sunday…..otherwise I’ll have a huge flop on my hands!!!

JC

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #313: SPACEHOPPER

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From last fm, and last edited in March 2006 by a member of the band:-

Spacehopper were a four piece band started in Glasgow in 1990.

Dave Spacehopper – guitar/vocals.
Sarah Spacehopper – guitar
Dave Bass – Bass
Bryn(me) – Drums

Punk rock art noise terror.

We were looking to scare as well as entertain.

We were into all sorts KLF, Dead Kennedys, Young Gods – you get the idea.

Released a couple of singles through Creeping Bent records based in Glasgow. Milk metal (creepingbent 001) and a joint single with the Secret Goldfish – Mars Bonding/Venus Bonding.

The singer David then moved to Denmark and that was that.

I’ve a copy of said joint single, and so here’s one half of it.

mp3: Spacehopper – Mars Bonding

I had no idea that Spacehopper had been responsible for the first record issued by Creeping Bent back in 1995.  Turns out it was a four-track EP released on 10″ vinyl.   I’ve also been able to find out, that the real names of the band members were David Aitcheson, Sarah Headman, David Fitzpatrick and Bryn Thorburn.

JC

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS

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It’s the first of a new month.  This mix was almost called ‘Let’s Hug It Out’.

mp3: Various – Thank Your Lucky Stars

Theme from ‘The Persuaders’ – John Barry
Goodbye Joe – Tracey Thorn
Safari – The Breeders
Purple Zone (extended version) – Soft Cell/Pet Shop Boys
Dreaming Of You – The Coral
Shut Up And Let Me Go – The Ting Tings
Natural Blues  – Moby
Grumpus – Lambchop
Easy Money – Johnny Marr
Hey Ya!- Outkast
Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Chelsea Hotel #2 – Lloyd Cole
Who Can Say – The Horrors
It’s For You – The Wedding Present
Never Fight A Man With A Perm – IDLES
The Last Significant Statement To Be Made In Rock’n’Roll – The Indelicates
The Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman – Half Man Half Biscuit

Twenty seconds beyond sixty minutes.

JC

PS : A small plug for a series that is warming up nicely in a blog curated some 450 miles south-west of Villain Towers. I’m referring of course to No Badger Required

SWC has come up with the quite magnificent idea of a rundown of the best 100 songs with one-word titles.  Where many of us would have gone about this in a dictatorial manner, he recruited a group of peers and got folk to vote on things.  I was one of them, and I know that some of the TVV cognoscenti also offered up opinions.

Part One of the prelude is here.

Further later musings are here, here, and here.

I should also mention that while it isn’t immediately obvious, it is possible to leave comments at No Badger Required.  You do have to click on the title of a particular post, and it will open in a separate tab with a comments box at the foot of the new page.