AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #412: UNDERAPPRECIATED BANDS AND SONGS

A guest posting by swc (No Badger Required)

Hello folks,

A friend of mine from school, lets called him, Abdul, because I’ve not used that name before, once said that

“Every band who have ever existed have at least one good song in them”.

This caused much laughter amongst our social group because we would sit down in the pub and say things like,

“Ah Abdul are telling us that you are a secret Take That fan”.

To which, he would say

“No, but ‘Back For Good’ is a great little tune”.

And try as we might to disprove his theory, every time we mentioned a band, Abdul would come back with at least one song that someone in our group would reluctantly nod and agree with him, so despite Abdul’s obvious madness, there is method behind it, because there are some bands out there who have been, for the majority of their careers, utter dogshite, except for one song, one track that, despite how much we hate that band, we have to reluctantly agree that, is something of a banger or an epic or just plainly very good indeed.

(The only possible exception to this rule is Molly Half Head, everything they have done has been dogshite – but I haven’t spoken to Abdul for a while and so I can’t 100% confirm that the theory has been disproved)

Another friend of mine (I know, TWO friends, its hard being popular), let’s call him Pedro, once said that,

“You have probably never heard the band that will change your life”

By this, he meant that there are so many bands out there making great music that despite what you think is your favourite song of all time, the reality is that out there somewhere is a band or song that will change your life, you just haven’t heard it yet – and Pedro is probably right, which considering he didn’t think reindeers existed until he was 16 (genuinely true story), is quite an achievement.

With all that mind, welcome to an ICA of two halves – side one is inspired by Abdul and his ‘One Great Song’ theory and Side Two is inspired by Pedro and his ‘You haven’t heard it yet theory’.

Side One has been compiled by me and consists of five songs by bands that I don’t really like but can’t ignore the brilliance of one of their songs.

Side Two has been made up by four members of the No Badger Musical Jury, who don’t know that they have helped in this but consists of five songs by bands that I didn’t really know anything about until they sent me some of their music, and now I love them.

Anyway, lets crack on shall we – because you are all here for the music and not my inane blathering – but before I do if you happen to be a loose end and want to join the No Badger Musical Jury, then you can do so by emailing Nobadgerrequired@gmail.com and I will do the rest.

Right on with the ICA and we are going to start with this slab of squat rock excellence,

Side One – Abdul’s One Song Theory

This Is For The Poor – The Others  (2004, Mercury Records, taken from ‘The Others’)

99% of the songs released by The Others were terrible and by terrible I mean they literally stink the place out, but ‘This Is For The Poor’ is a genuine moment of bonafide genius and if the rest of their songs had even half of the brilliance of that, then we would have gladly ditched our Libertines records and replaced them with anything by The Others

Apple Green – Milltown Brothers (1991, A&M Records taken from ‘Slinky’)

I always thought that ‘Apple Green’ by the Milltown Brothers was the best song that the Stone Roses never wrote. The Hammond Organ that weaves itself around that is sublime and less than five years later the entire Britpop scene was copying it…the rest of the Milltown Brothers work is however, you know, a bit crap.

Info Freako – Jesus Jones (1989, Food Records, taken from ‘Liquidizer’)

Literally everything, that Jesus Jones have released has been awful, that is, apart from ‘Info Freako’. ‘Info Freako’ is an sizzling blast of electroclash indie brilliance that tosses and turns in different directions marvellously. How a band that created this could then release a song as awful as ‘International Bright Young Things’ remains one of the world’s greatest ever unanswered questions.

Grassman – Dodgy (1994, A&M Records, taken from ‘Homegrown’)

I mean just listen to ‘Grassman’. It has gospel choirs, solemn pianos, a mental guitar solo around two minutes in that lasts forever, and a vocal around four minutes or so in, that is just devastatingly good. Yeah I know, this is the same band that made a song called ‘In A Room’. Astonishing really.

The Hollow Road (Part 1 and 2) – Kula Shaker (1996, Sony Records, taken from ‘K’)

I know a lady called Chantal who will tell you that Kula Shaker are the greatest band that have ever trodden on the earth. They clearly are not. I’ll tell you something though, ‘The Hollow Road’ the five minute track that ends their debut album is pretty incredible, especially the bit when the organ and guitars all fly in around four minutes in. If they did more of that instead of spouting retro spiritualist bollocks then we might have taken to them a bit more….The numpties.

Side Two – Pedro’s In Reality Theory

Side Two starts with this slice of jangly marvellousness and all the words come from members of the No Badger Musical Jury, first up, Joe from Seattle.

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam – The Vaselines (1992, Sub Pop Records)

Why, why, why, why were The Vaselines not huge stars. They should teach kids at school how to play ‘Jesus Wants Me for A Sunbeam’ on the harpsichord, because the world would be a better place for it.

Next Up Sam From San Fran

Web In Front – Archers of Loaf  (1993, Merge Records, Taken from ‘Icky Mettle’)

I once turned down free tickets to a festival because I’d already promised my girlfriend that I’d take her to see Archers of Loaf in a basement bar in San Francisco…..ok, ok, I really wanted to go and see Archers of Loaf and I would have gone whether I had a girlfriend or not….

The next two came from the same person…that person being ‘Patina’, a talented musician from a band who most of you will have heard of, but I’m not telling you which one…

Ice Cream – New Young Pony Club (2007, Modular Records, Taken from ‘Fantastic Playroom’)

If you ask me New Young Pony Club are one of the greatest bands of the last twenty five years….

Freedom of ’76 – Ween (1994, Elektra Records, taken from ‘Chocolate and Cheese’)

‘Chocolate and Cheese’ by Ween is something of a masterpiece. Each track is brilliant in its own weird way…

And finally possibly the greatest underappreciated band of all time with words from Simon from Adelaide

California In Popular Song -The Lucksmiths (2008,Fortuna POP! Records, taken from ‘First Frost’)

The Lucksmiths have mastered song writing. They seem to possess a higher level of knowledge around melodies, hooks, riffs and just general details than any other band. They can make a song sound sad, beautiful and urgent all at the same time and that is quite something,

Everything written about the music on Side Two is correct. You can take Side One with as big a pinch of salt as you need.

Thanks for reading.

 

swc

 

JC adds…..

Underappreciated bands have been the main theme of things over at No Badger Required during the month of May, with loads of guest offerings.  I was, initially, too late to get involved, but swc then suggested that we use today in a slightly innovative way.  Which is why he has contributed this wonderful ICA, and I’m over at his place with a list of ten singers/bands that I wish more people would pay more attention to.