This is the occasional series in which I feature the one song on the hard drive that I have by a singer or band. Most of the time, I’ve given the song in question a listen and thought to myself that it night be worth going down some sort of internet rabbit hole.
There are other times when I listen and think, WTF?, questioning just how a singer or band landed a record deal. When this happens, I really don’t want to share things with you – just because my senses have been offended doesn’t mean I should run the risk of doing likewise to you.
I say all this while remembering my mantra that ‘there’s no such thing as bad music, but there’s a lot of music out there that is of no appeal to me, whatsoever’
With that in mind, I offer up
mp3:The Star Spangles – I Live For Speed
This came on a compilation album, released via EMI in 2004, called The Alternative Album. The front cover proclaimed it contained ’20 full on guitar tracks from the best guitar bands around.’
If I tell that it contains Pyramid Song by Radiohead, a song where the guitars are almost incidental, then you can see that there’s a lot of lies hype involved. Coldplay are on it….indeed they open the compilation before handing over to Radiohead who in turn are followed by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Placebo and Blur, who are represented by We’ve Got A File on You, one of their least essential tracks, from the album Think Tank. But at least it’s all over and done with in 62 seconds.
As for The Star Spangles…..here’s wiki:-
The Star Spangles are a four-piece punk band from Manhattan, led by vocalist Ian Wilson. Formed in 1998, they released a single on Spain’s Muenster Records in 2000 followed by an album called Bazooka!!! in 2003, which includes the single “Which of the Two of Us is Gonna Burn This House Down?”.
After a falling-out with Capitol Records, followed by a line-up change in 2006; the Spangles released their follow up album, Dirty Bomb, in 2007.
The group dissolved in early 2008, but started playing live again in 2015.
I Live For Speed is the opening track on Bazooka!!! (and yup, the album title does make use of three exclamation marks).
Think about it….they were signed to Capital Records. One of the biggest and most famous imprints of them all. Sometimes, I don’t get it.
PS: You can sort of blame Dirk for this…..today had been set aside for the latest offering in his continually brilliant One Hundred and Eleven Singles series, but he’s been so busy at work that he didn’t get anything over to me this week.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 