Month: May 2024

Alan Smithee

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #404: ALAN SMITHEE

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This is at least the third time that I’ve featured a track from this particular compilation as part of the series – previous entries have been Pennycress and Youngstrrrr Joey.   Here’s some background:-

It was back in October 2015 that Song By Toad Records decided to issue a sixteen-track compilation album called David Cameron’s Eton Mess.  Almost all the singers and bands were, at the time, unknown with very little more than a few tracks available online or via a limited physical release, most often cheaply done on a cassette.  Label owner, Matthew Young, said at the time:-

“Most of the bands are friends and a lot of musicians feature on several of the album’s tracks, one of the reasons why we’ve put the compilation together. It feels like there’s this pool of really talented musicians bubbling away and all sorts of excellent music is starting to emerge from the mix. Bands are forming, breaking up, and starting again all the time. When you see a loose collection of bands connecting like this you never know what is going to happen. A few will disappear, some will do okay, some might pave the way for others, and a few of these bands could go on to do really well.”

I can’t find much about Alan Smithee, but given the name the performer has taken, that’s not really a surprise.

From wiki:-

Alan Smithee (also Allen Smithee) is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project. Coined in 1968 and used until it was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) when directors, dissatisfied with the final product, proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that they had not been able to exercise creative control over a film. The director was also required by guild rules not to discuss the circumstances leading to the movie or even to acknowledge being the project’s director.

I’m guessing, without any facts to back anything up, that this one is the work of someone who is perhaps reasonably well known and simply wanted to put something out under an assumed name.

mp3: Alan Smithee – The Almighty Alan Smithee Blues

There’s a really good review of the album, penned by Chad Murray for the Echoes and Dust website back in October 2015, in which he breaks it down song-by-song.  Here’s what he had to say about this one:-

The bluesy waves of reverberated guitar and chimes of hi-hat accompany the assumed Alan Smithee as he croons through each verse in a vocal so relaxed it’s almost spoken word. The most dissonant moments in the track become almost jazz-like with stabs of guitar and deserty blues-rock solos flying through with a similarly suppressed aggression to the tracks seen elsewhere on this compilation. I can easily picture Alansmithee as a support for QOTSA, Yuck or the more recent Arctic Monkeys; the track makes for nice cruising music or background music for the final hours of a party.

A lovely piece of writing that I’m happy to concur with.

There will be a few more from David Cameron’s Eton Mess in due course as part of this series.

JC

Spandau Ballet

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (15) : Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short

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Friday 10 May 2024.

The date when this blog’s chief steward dug deep into the 7″ singles and more than likely lost hundreds of previously faithful regular readers.

mp3 : Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short
mp3 : Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short (version)

Feel free to mock.  I’m strong enough to withstand the brickbats.  I think this is a great single. Not their best, but a splendid way with which to introduce yourselves to the watching world. Released on 31 October 1980….it reached #5.

You can pick this up on Discogs for 10p…..plus P&P……but you don’t get the picture sleeve!

JC

Steve Albini, Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #366: STEVE ALBINI

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Yesterday’s news of the death of Steve Albini has led to a change of plan on the blog.  This was meant to be the slot for Dirk‘s latest guest offering, but that has been put back till early next week.

In terms of Albini’s career as a musician, I can’t really offer all that much up.  I have a handful of Big Black tracks, all downloaded from other blogs over the years, but across almost 50,000 tracks on the hard drive of the laptop, there’s nothing by Rapeman or Shellac.  The very name of the former is off-putting enough to have them permanently on ignore, while the couple of times I have listened to the latter didn’t lead to any detailed exploration.

I have a fair number of albums in which Albini’s engineering/production skills were utilised, and it’s from those that I’ve very quickly pulled together an ICA as a way of paying tribute. Most of what was written in the hours after the news broke went heavy on the well known and successful bands he worked alongside, but what I think really stands out is his involvement with loads of acts who were more ‘under the radar’, and how he seemed to have an uncanny ability to bring out the very best in all the musicians he worked with (albeit this ICA leans very heavily on the better-known names).

SIDE A

1. Bone Machine – Pixies (from Surfer Rosa, 1988)

The opening track of the debut album by Pixies seems as good a place to start as any. A record that has sold around 1 million copies worldwide since its release, but like anything Albini ever worked on, he received no royalties, thanks to his lifelong practice of charging a flat fee for his involvement.  I believe his stance on this was that looking to take any future royalties would be insulting to the band.

2. Have A Go – Spare Snare (from The Brutal, 2023)

Albini came to Edinburgh in late 2022 and worked with Spare Snare in a studio owned and managed by Rod Jones of Idlewild.  It was a big thing for Spare Snare as the record marked their 30th Anniversary and the end product turned out to be one of their best and best-received albums.  Both parties enjoyed the experience so much that the possibility of having Spare Snare, later this year or early next, head to Albini’s studio in Chicago for further sessions, was being explored.  Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

3. Fuck Treasure Island – Scout Niblett (from Kidnapped By Neptune, 2005)

Scout Niblett is an English-born singer-songwriter who has lived and worked in the USA since 2003, basing herself in Portland, Oregon.   I became aware of her in 2007 when I caught her live at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, the first gig I went to during my six-month work placement in the city that summer.   She was the support act, and I’d never heard of her.  In fact, all I knew of the main act, an up-and-coming female singer who went by the name of St Vincent, was that she had previously been in The Polyphonic Spree.  I went home that night with three CDs – the debut St Vincent album and two Albini-produced CDs from earlier in the career of Scout Niblett.

4. Heather – The Wedding Present  (from Seamonsters, 1991)

I’ve self-imposed a rule of just one song from any band.  Otherwise, The Wedding Present would have been all over this ICA.  Albini worked extensively over the years with the band,  but is probably most loved by fans for Seamonsters, a truly outstanding record in so many ways.

5. Wait In The Car – The Breeders (single, 2017)

The Breeders enjoyed most success with Last Splash in 1993, which just happens to be the only album of the five they have released not to have involved Steve Albini….go figure!!!  Wait In The Car was released as a single in October 2017, the band’s first new piece of music in eight years.  It really was a superb return to form, leaning heavily on the music that had won then so many fans back in the 90s, and it laid the table perfectly for the later release of the album All Nerve in March 2018.

SIDE B

1. Homewrecker! – Jarvis Cocker (from Further Complications, 2009)

Further Complications was a radical departure from Jarvis‘s eponymous debut album from three years earlier, and it caught out a few people, including myself.   It’s one of those albums that I only fell for many years later, when I gave it a second chance while lying on a beach on holiday.  Maybe it needed the warm Caribbean sunshine rather than the Scottish wind and rain to make some sense.   There’s loads happening on Homewrecker!, with the vocals not kicking in until well over a minute into the song.  Dig those horns!!!

2. Buddha – The Auteurs (from After Murder Park, 1996)

Luke Haines was astonished when his record label agreed to his suggestion of having Albini engineer/produce the band’s third (and what proved to be last) studio album.  It was all done and dusted in the space of two weeks in March 1995 – Albini never wanted to spend anything more than that amount of time on any one record.   It didn’t see the light of day for almost a year, as it was as far removed as could be imagined from the Britpop sound that was all the rage at the time.  The album has been described, with great affection, by one critic as a ‘monsterpiece’.

3. Rid Of Me – PJ Harvey (from Rid Of Me, 1993)

All that Luke Haines’ bosses had to do was listen and compare PJ Harvey‘s first two studio albums.  It would soon dawn on them that polished pop wasn’t Albini’s calling card, and that more often than not, the end product could best be described as raw and aggressive.  Rid Of Me has a huge amount of angry lyrics, a number of which Polly Jean has since admitted were autobiographical, and the genius of Albini is that his work makes the music sound every bit as psychotic and unhinged as the words.

4. Let’s Pretend – Cinerama (from Disco Volante,2000)

Forgive me if I don’t say too much at this juncture as Strangeways will, over the next couple of months, go into a lot of detail about Cinerama within his guest postings on Sundays;  I’ve avoided including any of the band’s singles from this era on the ICA, and instead gone with an album track that is one of David Gedge’s very best break-up songs. It also demonstrates that Albini was no one-trick pony in the studio.

5. All Apologies – Nirvana  (1993)

Even more quickly than I had envisaged Bone Machine as being the perfect ICA opener,  I had decided that this was going to end the ICA.  In typical Albini fashion, the recording of Nirvana‘s third studio album was completed in just two weeks in February 1993.   The record label bosses weren’t all that happy with the end product, and this led to Scott Litt, best known for his work with R.E.M., to be brought on board to remix the songs that were best reckoned as being suitable singles.  All Apologies was one of those.  It took until 2013, and a 20th anniversary reissue of the album which included bonus discs, for the original version to finally be given an official release.

If I had taken a bit more time, I might have come up with a different track listing.  This one has a lot of gut instinct.  But I really wanted the ICA to be timely, and I hope it’s one that you’ll appreciate and perhaps enjoy.

JC

Supergrass

AROUND THE WORLD : ST. PETERSBURG

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The second-largest city in Russia, with a population of 5.6 million, St Petersburg was  founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after the apostle Saint Peter.

It was the historical capital of the  Tsardom of Russia, and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1713 to 1918, but after the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.  The city’s name had changed to Petrograd in 1914 and again in 1924 to Leningrad before a city-wide referendum in 1990 returned it to its original name.

It has always been renowned as a bastion of high culture, thanks to its museums and its long tradition of opera and ballet productions. The first jazz club in Russia was founded in the city in the 1920s, and it has also been home to many of the Russian rock and pop bands who were in due course grudgingly accepted by the old authorities in the 70s and 80s.  Not that today’s featured band had anything to do with that period of time.

mp3: Supergrass – St.Petersburg

The first single to be taken from their fifth album, Road to Rouen (2005), reached #22 in August 2005.  It was the first release a year after the singles-heavy compilation album Supergrass is 10, and laid down a marker for what proved to be a significant change in direction to a far more downbeat and sedate sound, one which saw a drop in sales in comparison to the previous four albums.

It’s a move I welcomed at the time, and I still am happy to give Road to Rouen a spin on the CD player.

JC

Blondie, Clash, Earth Wind and Fire with The Emotions, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, McFadden and Whitehead, Simple Minds, Squeeze, Tubeway Army, XTC

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (May)

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The top end of the first new chart of May 1979 didn’t unearth as many gems as recent weeks, but there was the appearance of a bona-fide disco classic to get the limbs all movin’ and a shakin’

mp3: Earth Wind and Fire with The Emotions – Boogie Wonderland

This proved to be one of the sounds of the summer.  It came into the charts at #30 on 6 May and didn’t leave the Top 75 for 13 weeks, including seven in a row inside the Top 10.  It even pulled off that rare achievement of looking as if it was going to start dropping out of the charts when it slipped from #4 to #5 after 7 weeks, only to go back to #4 in Week 8 of its stay.

Two other new entries worth giving a mention to are songs whose titles have a word in common and provided Swindon’s finest troubadours and one of Glasgow’s greatest exports with their first entries into the singles chart:-

mp3 : XTC – Life Begins At The Hop
mp3 : Simple Minds – Life In A Day

The former was a minor hit – in at #62 and peaking at #54.  XTC‘s breakthrough was still a few months off.  The latter came in at #67 and peaked at #62.  Simple Minds would have to wait a further three years before they ever went Top 20.

Oliver’s Army had been one of the most surprising huge songs of early 1979, and just 7 days after had it finally dropped out of the Top 75 after 12 weeks, the follow-up entered at #71

mp3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Accidents Will Happen

An almost under-the-radar sort of hit in that it would spend 8 weeks in the Top 75, but never get any higher than #28.

A different type of new wave was the highest new entry in the chart of 13 May:-

mp3: Blondie – Sunday Girl

The fourth single to be lifted from Parallel Lines came in at #10.  Seven days later, it was up at #1, bringing an end to the six-week-long occupation of the top spot by Art Garfunkel.  It was helped by a brilliant piece of marketing from Chrysalis Records with the inclusion of a French language version of the song on the 12″ release, one that I reckon was bought by just about every teenager and young adult who was infatuated with Debbie Harry.

One of my own favourites from all of 1979 entered the charts in the second week of May:-

mp3: The Clash – I Fought The Law

It was hard to believe this was a cover version, given how it captured The Clash at their post-punk finest.  The lead track from The Cost of Living EP came in at #35 and then went up to #23 before falling back down to #32.  But then, gravity was somehow defied as it went back up again over the next three weeks to #24, #23 and #22.  Just imagine how big this would have been if The Clash had actually broken the habit of a lifetime and played Top of The Pops.

Coming in at #51 is one I have always considered as a bit of a classic:-

mp3: McFadden and Whitehead – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now

The one and only song with which the Philadephia-based R&B duo of Gene McFadden and John Whitehead ever tasted success in the UK.  The song, and later re-recorded/remixed versions, is reputed to have sold 8 million copies the world over. Both men would later die at young ages in the 00s. Whitehead was 55 when he was fatally shot outside his home studio in May 2004 – the perpetrators were never caught.  McFadden passed away from liver and lung cancer in January 2006, aged 56.

Those of you who pay attention to the companion pieces to this series might recall that back in March, I looked at a flop single called Down In The Park.

“They had started out as a guitar-based new wave band, Mean Street, but the dawn of 1978 saw a change of name to Tubeway Army, albeit the new wave element was still to the fore (they supported The Skids at gigs in the summer of ’78).  By the end of the year, a debut album had been released, with the lead singer changing his name from Gary Webb to Gary Numan, and looking to incorporate synths into the group.  The album sold modestly, but there was enough interest at Beggars Banquet to fund a follow-up for planned release in mid-1979, and Down In The Park was seen as being the advance single.  It didn’t sell very well, but things were about to change…”

The bottom end of the chart of 13 May 1979 was the first indication of said change:-

mp3: Tubeway Army – Are Friends Electric?

This is another one that I’ll always associate with the summer of 79.  In at #71……it took until its 7th week in the charts to reach #1 where it would enjoy a 4-week stay, not finally dropping out of the Top 75 until September had come around.   Turned out to be Tubeway Army‘s last single before breaking up, so it would be accurate to describe them as a one-hit wonder, albeit Gary Numan would enjoy solo success.

Looking now at the chart of 20 May, and the arrival of this tune made sure ‘one-hit wonders’ couldn’t be a label to attach to the doyens of Dunfermline:-

mp3: The Skids – Masquerade

This came in at #29 and peaked at #14. Not quite as successful as Into The Valley, but it would prove to be the second-highest position The Skids would reach in their career, despite the fact that later singles would prove, in my opinion, to be better and more enduring.

Masquerade was one of 13 songs to enter the Top 75 in this particular chart, but none of the others are fondly recalled in any shape or form.  Which takes us to the chart straddling the final week of May and the first few days of the month when I turned sweet sixteen.

mp3: Squeeze – Up The Junction

It’s now one of my favourite songs of all time, but it didn’t really ‘speak’ to me when I was a teenager.  As I’ve written before when featuring Up The Junction on the blog:-

“A soap opera story in just over three minutes.

The boy about town gets caught out with his trousers down. He can’t cope with the fact that he has to grow up and take responsibility. The woman of his dreams soon moves on and all he has left are bittersweet memories.

A massive hit and one of my favourite songs of all time, albeit as a 16-year old I didn’t quite understand the full nuances. But now I’m 51 nearly 61 and I’ve seen it this story play out in real life far too often over the years.

Tears and saying sorry are just not enough.”

It came in at #50, and in an 11-week stay in the Top 75, would peak at #2…denied the top spot by Tubeway Army.

JC

Interpol

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (6) : Interpol – C’Mere

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Here’s a re-post from May 2015.

Interpol are a very successful band from New York City, but there is a little-known Glasgow connection that helped set them on their way….

They formed in 1997 with an original line-up consisting of Paul Banks (vocals/guitar), Daniel Kessler (guitar/vocals), Carlos Dengler (bass guitar/keyboards) and Greg Drudy (drums/percussion). This version of the band only released one EP, which was entitled FukdID#3. It was released in 2000 with just 1000 copies pressed on Chemikal Underground Records which had just a few years previously been set up in Glasgow by the members of The Delgados. If you want to get your hands on that rare piece of plastic, expect to pay at least £50 for the CD and a lot more for the vinyl.

Drudy left the band shortly after the Chem EP and was replaced by Sam Fogarino. This particular four-piece proved to be one of the outstanding new bands in the first decade of the new millennium, with four critically acclaimed albums as well as countless sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic.

Carlos Denglar was regarded by many as being central to the band’s success in terms of his look, appearance and his bass playing, so it was a shock to when his departure was announced in 2010 shortly after the completion of work on the band’s fourth album. While the record itself was well received, the live shows on the tour at which it was being promoted came in for a bit of stick, and it was no surprise that the remaining band members decided to call a time-out on Interpol and pursue a range of alternative and solo projects.

The two-year rest certainly worked a treat as the band got working together again in 2014 and released their first new album in more than four years to huge acclaim.

I don’t own everything by Interpol, but what I do have I remain very appreciative of, including this #19 single from April 2005:-

mp3 : Interpol – C’mere
mp3 : Interpol – Public Pervert (Carlos D remix)
mp3 : Interpol – Fog vs Mould for The Length Of Love

The first of the b-sides is Dengler’s distinctive remix of a track from the LP Antics while the latter is a remix, again of a track from Antics, by Fogarino ably assisted by Bob Mould.

I’ve since learned that C’Mere was also release on 2 x 7″ singles as well as this CD version, with b-sides which were remixes of two other tracks from Antics.

JC

Cinerama, Wedding Present

CLOSE-UP : THE CINERAMA SINGLES (Part 1)

A GUEST SERIES by STRANGEWAYS

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Don’t touch that dial. We interrupt your regular Sunday Wedding Present singles series with…

Close Up: The Cinerama Singles #1

It all begins with a different pop group.

In 1996, The Wedding Present was as busy as any band in all indiedom. Late January: Mini, a six-track, predominantly motorcar-themed EP had zoomed out from Cooking Vinyl of Newcastle.

The record had been backed by a short UK tour which saw several cities – Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham – each treated to a couple of consecutive nights. And that spring, a North America trip followed, all prior to assorted summer shows across the mainland UK and in northern Europe.

In September, Saturnalia, the band’s fifth LP was released. The excellent almost-forty-year career-spanning concertography over at the Weddoes’ website confirms a sizeable tour in support of that record too. Once again, this happened across the UK, Europe and North American territories: welcoming locations hard-earned by years of past visits. In all, ninety-eight gigs are listed for 1996. Even by my dodgy arithmetic, this works out at a pretty punishing rate of better-than-one concert every four days.

https://www.scopitones.co.uk/concertography

Saturnalia is a fine record. At one time it was, and perhaps still is, Wedding Present main man David Gedge’s favourite of the band’s LPs. Opener Venus is as heavy and fast and thrilling as you’d like. And Montreal, the second single from the album, is one of the group’s most downright lovely moments. It was an era also that finally saw Where Everybody Knows Your Name (the theme from Cheers), which had previously been a live-only affair, given a proper studio take and released on the B-side of one of the two Montreal 7-inch singles.

Despite these tracks and others, it’s a fair assumption to say that Gedge, if he does rank Saturnalia in pole position, is probably in a minority here. For the band’s fans one from the holy trinity of George Best (1987), Bizarro (1989) and Seamonsters (1991) would surely occupy top spot.

Why Saturnalia, and its quality is relevant to this short Cinerama series – (short when compared to its inspiration: the recent and stellar Singular Adventures of R.E.M.posts) – is that due to the new band’s formation it was the last Weddoes LP for more than eight years. A glance at that concertography reveals just three WP shows for the whole of 1997, and all in mid-January – anathema to a group committed since day one to regular gigs and those lengthy globetrotting tours. The band, to use a euphemism appropriate for a pop group fixated on the trajectory of relationships, went on a break.

But it wasn’t us. The LP was well-received by the sizeable constituency of people who just automatically buy and enjoy each release. The tour too would have been as well-attended as those of the past.

It was them. As discussed in Saturnalia’s 2014 epic four-disc re-release on Edsel Records, there emerged the need to take a breather. And compounding this was the desire of Gedge to create largely alone, and to exploit increasingly easier-to-use kit like samplers and sequencers. Also, there was the opportunity to indulge in a passion for what in his Sleevenotes book he termed filmic music and classic pop records. Three Cinerama tracks are present in David Gedge’s stab at Sleevenotes (published by Pomona in 2019) – the series of books that sees musicians providing self-penned insight into key tracks from their careers.

So, with fans jilted and rather hacked off for the whole of 1997, a post-Weddoes era was characterised by this and that: the fast-fading smell and swirly embers of Britpop. The need to never again hear Three Lions. The realisation that sometimes even lemon Hooch can’t cheer you up. And pointing and laughing at the Tories: finally grinned to death by a typically rubbish, British-made version of Jack and Jacqueline.

Then, in 1998, David Gedge conceived a new band. Cinerama. And, thanks in part to those studio gadgets that had caught his eyes and ears, a new sound too. For a while, at least.

So, context over and done with, for the sake of chronology Jim has paused his Wedding Present singles series and allowed Cinerama to step in. Don’t worry, though: when this ten-part interloper is over, he’ll ping you back to 2005, and resume the second half of his posts.

This opening effort has already gone on a bit, so let’s call it a prequel and begin properly next week. Meantime, here are a couple of Saturnalia songs – examples of the last Wedding Present material heard for several long years.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Venus

The album’s first track is breezy and bright, and a pleasing little xylophone section contrasts with the distortion.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Kansas

Kind of twitchy, graced with bassist Jayne Lockey’s backing vocals and, if all that weren’t enough, Wizard of Oz references too.

Thanks to Jim, and to those who made it this far.

strangeways

Air In The Lungs

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #403: AIR IN THE LUNGS

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Being a patron of Last Night From Glasgow means that I receive albums made by musicians who are normally a long way out of my comfort zone.

One such example was the debut record from Air In The Lungs, released in April 2023.  Here’s the bio:-

“Air In The Lungs is the new project from Edinburgh-based musician Deborah Arnott.

The album is an atmospheric exploration into bereavement and nostalgia, covering subjects such as worker’s rights, adversity and hope. Upbeat, downbeat, with swelling synths, jagged guitars and atmospheric percussion, it is unafraid to be stark and bare, yet vivid and uplifting.

Deborah recorded the album with multi-instrumentalist Pat McGarvey (Southern Tenant, Coal Porters, The Arlenes) leading percussionist Rich Kass (Trio HLK, Evelyn Glennie) and Davey McAulay (Mogwai, King Creosote and Emma Pollock). It was produced by Paul Savage (The Delgados, Mogwai, The Twilight Sad) at Chem19 studios and funded by Creative Scotland.

Deborah is also known for her enchanting vocals and musicianship in well-loved and critically-acclaimed band Blueflint.”

Bluefint was another name that meant nothing to me, but here’s the bio from the band’s website:-

“Blueflint began in 2003 as a duo based around the close harmonies of Deborah Arnott and Clare Neilson whose voices, both ethereal and warm, interweave through raw, honest and beautifully-crafted songs. In 2008 they extended the band to incorporate fiddle, double-bass and drums in a line-up that deftly captures the atmospheric Blueflint sound.

Their critically acclaimed third album, ‘Stories from Home‘ released in 2015, sees the duo songwriters naturally evolving towards an alt folk flavour, incorporating electric guitar and keyboard into their acoustic sound. Stories of relationships, parenthood and life in a home town form the thread running through this eclectic yet captivating album, with Paul Savage (King Creosote, From Scotland with Love, Mogwai) in the producer’s chair.

After a successful spring album launch tour and recent live performances at ‘The BBC Quay Sessions with Edith Bowman,’ and BBC Radio 2’s ‘Drivetime with Simon Mayo’, Blueflint will be touring again this autumn.

In previous years Blueflint supported The Proclaimers on their ‘Like Comedy’ UK tour, and proved themselves to be a formidable live act whose evocative performances have gained them a strong reputation and following throughout the UK.

Selected as part of the ‘Made in Scotland 2013‘ Showcase, the band played to sell-out Edinburgh Fringe performances and have gone from strength to strength as a singular and unique act on the UK musical scene, playing prestigious venues and festivals such as Celtic Connections and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party.

Previously released albums ‘High Bright Morning’ (2009) and ‘Maudy Tree’ (2011) gained the band plaudits throughout the music press and national radio play.

Their debut single ‘Take your shoes off’ gained radio play on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Ulster and many other local and national radio shows.

Blueflint are Deborah Arnott [vocals; bluegrass banjo; ukulele]; Clare Neilson [vocals; clawhammer banjo]; Jo Jeffries [fiddle]; Hugh Kelly [double bass], and Ruairidh Saunders [drums].”

In all honesty, these are not the sort of bios that would have me rushing out to explore, but I’m more than happy to support the concept behind Last Night From Glasgow, whereby the membership investment is spent on recording, mixing, mastering, manufacturing and promoting music of the artists on the label, in the full knowledge and understanding that sometimes I’ll end up with a record that will do not much more than gather dust after an initial listen.  There will be other examples over the coming weeks and months of this long-running series, but for the most part, LNFG has provided more hits than misses over the years.

I say all that from a personal perspective.  Some of you may really enjoy today’s offering.

mp3: Air In The Lungs – Sweet Is The Dream

Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 played this one and described it as ‘a lovely gentle thing.’

Other tracks on the album have also received a lot of praise from many quarters.  But, sorry to say, it isn’t for me.

JC

Suede

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (7) : Suede – The Drowners

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This is a repost from October 2019 when it featured in the still running and occasional series, ‘It Really Was A Cracking Debut Single’.  The difference being that in the intervening period, I’ve finally picked it up on vinyl as opposed to the CD version.

“The debut single by Suede was released in May 1992. It has long been viewed as one of their very best but, contrary to popular belief, it was something of a flop in commercial terms, barely scraping into the Top 50.

There have been lots of things written about The Drowners, some of which make more sense than others. I’m surely not alone in wondering what the hell the NME was on about when, having listed the song at #104 in its ‘Greatest of All Time’, said. “Brett and co sashayed onto the scene with this swooner and soon turned indie an androgynous shade of jaundiced yellow”

Most of what has been written over the past 30+ years has concentrated on the lyrics, with praise for Brett Anderson’s daring in penning a debut single that was charged with homoeroticism, with the protagonist singing of being kissed in rooms while popular tunes play in the background (maybe listening to a specially compiled mixtape?) while simultaneously enjoying having his spine caressed, manfully resisting, initially, to what is being asked for – ‘stop taking me over’ but by the end accepting the inevitable and enjoying it – ‘you’re taking me over’ which is repeated endlessly as the song fades out.

I’ve long been someone who places a high level of importance and/or significance of lyrics in terms of them being able to transform a good song into a great song, but I didn’t pay much attention to what Brett was singing back in 1992. For me, it was all about the tune which sparked off all sorts of long-locked memories of growing up in the early-mid 70s listening to fast-paced and catchy glam-rock tunes dominate the singles charts. It took the best of the music from that era but sprinkled it with indie-knowing that harked back to the mid-80s and added a little bit of special flavouring with a nod to the slightly heavier sound of such as Pixies.

Suede turned out to be one of the bands lassoed into the Britpop genre. Britpop itself is largely defined by the anthemic nature of the songs from the era. And while there can be no denying that The Drowners is an incredibly anthemic number, anyone suggesting it is classic Britpop ought to be taken outside, stripped naked, tarred and feathered and tied to a chair while forcefully made to listen to Cast. They will soon realise there’s a big difference.

mp3 : Suede – The Drowners

The thing is, this debut single came with two remarkable b-sides, containing songs that almost none of the other newly emerging band of the era would ever be capable of writing and recording.

mp3 : Suede – To The Birds
mp3 : Suede – My Insatiable One

I made reference in a previous posting, in March 2016, to the quality of the first five Suede singles at which my dear friend Jacques left behind a comment that I can only echo, richly:-

“As a whole, The Drowners is one of my favourite singles ever.”

I ended that October 2019 post with the question – “Anyone care to interpret the NME and its reference to it turning indie an androgynous shade of jaundiced yellow?”

SWC cared enough to offer a well-judged comment

“Well as someone who was at the time desperately trying to write for the NME. I can only say that at the time it was by and large completely staffed by total fuckwits. That probably explains the jaundice yellow comment.

Much love SWC”

There’s really nothing else to add, is there?

JC

Magazine

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #055

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#055: Magazine– ‘Rhythm of Cruelty’ (Virgin Records ’79)

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Hello friends,

this is how discogs introduce Magazine: “Magazine were an English post-punk band active from 1977 to 1981, then again from 2009 to 2011. The band was formed by Howard Devoto after leaving punk band Buzzcocks in early 1977. Devoto had decided to create a more progressive and less “traditional” rock band.”

Well, I think there is no arguing that – in hindsight – Magazine were, at least in comparison to, let’s settle for “Buzzcocks punk”, more progressive and less traditional. But the question is: how did you see this development back in 1978 or thereabouts? I mean, if memory serves correctly, Devoto was seen as a bit of a betrayer to punk when leaving Buzzcocks … just in order to front this strange modern New Wave combo. Comparisons were inevitable – and, as it turned out, they were inevitable for quite some years to come, which was nonsense from the beginning on, as far as I’m concerned.

What I am trying to say is: a lot of people rather wasted their time complaining about Devoto having left Buzzcocks and blaming Magazine for it than closely listening to early Magazine with an open mind. I am convinced that that would have helped everyone a lot, the buying public …. and Magazine as well.

Me, I never had such problems. Why? Well, because I was too young again – I missed both ‘Real Life’ and ‘Secondhand Daylight’ and Magazine only came to my attention via ‘Play’, the live album from 1980. And boy, it blew me away! The quality is awesome and so is the delivery. If you don’t know this album, get hold of it now! But I digress, singles it is in this series and singles it shall be!

There are five Magazine 7”s which are almost equally good, and if my own rules wouldn’t forbid it, they were all included in the 111 – box: ‘Shot by Both Sides’, ‘Give Me Everything’ (because of its B-Side, ‘I Love You You Big Dummy’), ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’, the 2022 release of ‘The Light Pours Out Of Me’ … but no, this is the one, because it is a) marginally better than the other four and b) will meet with the approval of at least one overseas reader, one which probably would sue me unhesitatingly if I chose something else than this today, just because he can:

R-435672-1673054068-6361

R-435672-1673054076-5684

mp3:  Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty

Magazine’s fourth single, still a killer tune – for Jonny.

Take good care, you lot,

Dirk

Various

MAKE A CUP OF TEA……

tea

……and put this mixtape on.

mp3: Various – Make A Cup of Tea

Propaganda – Dr.Mabuse (A Paranoid Fantasy)
Arab Strap – The Turning Of Our Bones
Gang of Four – I Found That Essence Rare
Working Men’s Club – Valleys
Pet Shop Boys – Hell
Luke Haines – Smash The System
Yard Act – The Trench Coat Museum
Elastica – Waking Up
Blur – Barbaric
Spare Snare – Bleached (remix)
Alison Eales – Minuet
David Holmes ft. Raven Violet – It’s Over, If We Run Out Of Love
Bar Italia – Punkt
Coach Party – What’s The Point In Life
Pixies – Dig For Fire
Otoboke Beaver – Do You Want To Send Me A DM

If this is the sort of thing that you enjoy giving a listen to, then I could make no better recommendation than suggesting you drop over to A History of Dubious Taste, where you will find Jez‘s Friday Night Music Club, which is one of the best things out there across the entire internet.

JC