Category: Various

Today’s lucky dip is the last for a while, but I’m sure the series will return at some point in 2024.   It just happens that it offers a bit of a bargain, with four songs for the price of one……and it’ll be interesting to see if anyone likes all four.

This 7″ vinyl record came free with the edition of the NME that was published on 22 May 1985. It rotates at 33.333 rpm and the quality, which wasn’t all that great to begin with, isn’t the best on my copy, which is at least second-hand in nature.

The idea of the record was to acknowledge the NME Readers Poll Winners from 1984, the results of which the paper had published in February 1985.  The best album had been Treasure by Cocteau Twins, while The Smiths picked up the votes to be named best group.   Bronski Beat took the plaudits for best new group, while Bono was given the accolade of best male singer and Elizabeth Fraser was named as best female singer.

Fair play to those involved in persuading the various parent record labels to allow songs to be included.

mp3: Bronski Beat – Hard Rain
mp3: Cocteau Twins – Ivo (new version)
mp3: The Smiths – What She Said (live)
mp3: U2 – Wire (dub)

Hard Rain was a previously unreleased track, and as far as I’m aware, was never included on any future singles or albums by Bronski Beat.

Cocteau Twins offered a different take on one of the best tracks on Treasure, and I reckon the NME version is a better listen.

The Smiths supplied a live track from gig that had taken place at the Oxford Apollo back on 18 March 1985 (a show in which they were supported by James), while U2 provided a fresh mix of a track that had been on the multi-million selling The Unforgettable Fire.

Given how many copies the NME shifted back in 1985, it’s no surprise that this EP is really easy to pick up on the second-hand market.  There’s more than 200 listed on Discogs alone, with prices going from 40p to £50.45 – I’ve a feeling that the seller who has it listed at that price may wait quite some time before they shift it.

JC

mp3: Various – No Idea Where This Is Going (So Have Some Fucking Empathy)

For this edition of the monthly mix, I started off with a particular song to open things up, with the idea/concept that I’d try it as an imaginary live broadcast with no preparation. All I knew was that the next song and/or band would have to flow well from the previous one.

By the time I reached the 14th song, I wasn’t sure if it was working, which is where the inspiration for the 15th song, and the title of the mix, came from.  The 16th song was an attempt to finish off with a bit of pop, but then realising I still had a couple of minutes left, which is why song #17 was added to take it to almost the full hour, thus enabling the incoming newsreader to do their bit and on time.

Enjoy.

The Skids  – One Skin
Blur – Colin Zeal
Hinds – The Club
Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean
The Wedding Present – You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying To Break
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip  – Letter From God To Man
Joy Division – Disorder
Working Men’s Club – X
The Cranberries – Zombie
SPRINTS – Modern Job
Alvvays – Plimsoll Punks
Grrl Gang – Dream Grrl
David Westlake– The Word Around Town
Half Man Half Biscuit – Persian Rug Sale at the URC
Dream Wife – Leech
Jane Wieldin – Rush Hour
Soup Dragons – Whole Wide World

JC

I’ve been very lucky to get to know Jan Burnett of Spare Snare in recent years, after what was an initial chance encounter.  He’s one of the nicest persons you’ll ever encounter and he’s probably the most knowledgable person involved in the music scene in Scotland, which is why I was delighted when he agreed to come up with a mix for this monthly series.

Jan’s tastes are very eclectic, but his real love is for pop music with hints of electronica, as can partly be evidenced by this offering.    It’s a rather wonderful listen, with some ridiculously good switches between songs

mp3 : Jan The Man’s Hour Long Mix Tape

The Kane Gang – Gun Law
Simple Minds – The American (demo version)
The Evolution Control Committee – Rebel Without A Pause (Whipped Cream Mix)
Kylie Minogue – The One
Robyn – Dancing On My Own
Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (Feed Me Remix)
The Afghan Whigs – Be Sweet
Eno • Hyde – Who Rings The Bell
Depeche Mode  – Useless (The Kruder + Dorfmeister Session)
Sugababes – Freak Like Me (We Don’t Give A Damn Mix)
Junior Marvin – Police & Thieves
(interlude : Little April Shower)
U2 – In A Little While
Carmel – Take It For Granted
The Lilac Time – If The Stars Shine Tonight

JC

A GUEST POSTING from JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another dose of 3-valve glory! Today’s 11-song set is a mix of suggestions from the TVV faithful and a few of my own picks. Here goes…

1. They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse In Your Soul.

Not sure how I missed this one the first couple of times around. I’m a big TmbG fan and this is probably their most famous tune. Trumpet in the break courtesy of Frank London, a New York klezmer musician.

2. Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

Title track from Jeff Mangum’s magnum opus.  The wavering sound you hear throughout the song is a singing saw.

3. Soft Cell – Torch.

I know very little about Soft Cell, so cheers to DAM and Kieron Mullens for suggesting this killer song. I thought all the band’s music was electronic, but that’s a real horn you hear throughout. A single from 1982.

4. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago.

Sufjan can be a little precious, but he sometimes hits one out of the park (er, into the back of the net?). ‘Chicago’ is on a playlist curated for me by the Empress of Good Taste herself, daughter Jane, so I’m proud to include it here.

5. OMC – How Bizarre.

Our friends Hadley and Gareth got married last summer. It was a super posh and classy affair, so that means Hads arranged everything. But Gads was sure that the band played his favourite tune by his Kiwi compatriots Otara Millionaires Club.

6. Split Enz – My Mistake.

And while we’re in New Zealand, let’s have one from their best export. From way back in 1977, when the band dressed nuttily and sounded like Sparks. Possibly a suggestion from Dial-Ups lead guitarist/vascular surgeon Dr. Rigberg. I can’t remember, but I know he’s a fan, so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

7. Aimee Mann – Calling It Quits.

A track from her 2000 LP Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo. If you’re not familiar with the album, Do Not Pass Go and check it right out. Aimee Mann is the best lyricist this side of Elvis Costello, who co-wrote ‘The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist’ on this album. The pair co-wrote ‘The Other End of the Telescope’ on his 1996 LP All This Useless Beauty.

8. Brilliant Corners – Oh!

Another song I never heard from a band I’d only heard of. This was a suggestion by Jez of A History of Dubious Taste fame.

9. U2 – Red Light.

Man, I hate U2! It’s partly down to how obnoxious Bono is, and a little bit that The Edge calls himself The Edge and plays basic riffs through a pedalboard the size of a coffee table. But mostly I hate that Adam Clayton is the most boring bassist in rock. Every single U2 bass line can be played on one string. So, I’m pleased to dhow everyone here what they sound like with a legit musician in the mix. On the trumpet is Kenny Fradley from Kid Creole & the Coconuts, who luckily happened to be in Dublin when War was recorded in 1982.

10. Boo Radleys – Lazarus.

Thanks to Vinnie who suggested this track in the comments to Trumpets (1). From 1993’s Giant Steps. I love the moody build and the entrance of the trumpet about a minute in.

11. Tom Waits – Burma Shave.

My originals band is called Hypermiler and features author/screenwriter/chocolatier Craig on drums. Here’s what he had to say about the trumpet in this tune, from 1977’s Foreign Affairs:

“Brought to mind a moment, not in a rock song per se, but a moment that uses the instrument as achingly and plaintively as it’s ever been played, a moment that rips your heart out as only a soul-fed trumpet can. At the end of Tom Waits’ ‘Burma Shave,’ when the couple longing for freedom from their tiny little lives meet their ultimate fate on a nameless country road beneath the early morning ‘bat wing shadow’ of a derrick, that trumpet lick is as painful an elegy as any lost lives ever rendered.”

As always, suggestions for another go at a Trumpets ICA are most welcome!

JTFL

mp3: Various – No Rhyme Nor Reason

EMF – Children
Bodega – Can’t Knock The Hustle
Gang Of Four – Damaged Goods
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Britney Spears – Toxic
Nadine Shah – Holiday Destination
New Order – Dreams Never End
Longpigs – She Said
Steve Mason – Brothers and Sisters
Wet Leg – Angelica
Say Sue Me – Old Town
Robert Forster – When I Was A Young Man
James – What’s The World
The Rakes – Retreat
Bikini Kill – Rebel Girl
The Strokes – The Modern Age
Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (New Lockdown Version)
Half Man Half Biscuit– When I Look At My Baby

JC

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

No backstory for the August mixtape (or whatever you want to call this occasional series).  As my dear friend Dirk would say….ENJOY!!!

mp3: Various – Eighth Month Wonder

Propaganda – Dr. Mabuse
Magazine – Rhythm Of Cruelty
The Auteurs – How Could I Be Wrong
The Clash – Hateful
The Pretenders – Kid
Editors – Munich
The Cure – In Between Days (extended version)
New Order – Blue Monday
The Cardigans – My Favourite Game
The Lilac Time – The Girl Who Waves At Trains
A Tribe Called Quest – Can I Kick It?
Black Grape – In The Name Of The Father
Cocteau Twins – Pitch The Baby
Modern English – I Melt With You
Pet Shop Boys – I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing (7″ version)

JC

In the spring of 2010 Drew from Across The Kitchen Table came up with the idea of some of the bloggers from Glasgow and surrounding areas hooking up and playing some tunes.  He wasn’t only the brains behind the concept, but he was the workhorse, going out and finding the ideal venue, booking the dates and designing the flyers.

For this month’s marginally over an hourly mix, I’ve pulled out a selection from what was played on 12 June 2010.

It was a five-hour set, all spun on decks, as we were committed to using vinyl only.

The tunes on offer today are in sequential order from that evening and hopefully gives you an idea of how it all built up. In the main it was just Drew and myself, and while we turned up at The Flying Duck armed with vinyl we always intended to air no matter what, it became a night where we largely ad-libbed with the aim of satisfying those who were in the room.

mp3: Various – Songs From Blog Rocking Beats

BMX Bandits – Serious Drugs
Crystal Stilts – Love Is A Wave
Lone Justice – After The Flood
Pavement – Summer Babe (Winter Version)
Associates – 18 Carat Love Affair
Blur -Popscene
Orange Juice – L.O.V.E. Love
Johnny Cash -Ring Of Fire
The Clash – Bankrobber
Cameo – Word Up
Squeeze – Up The Junction
The Specials  – Too Much Too Young (live)
Amy Winehouse – Monkey Man
Magazine – A Song From Under The Floorboards
R.E.M. – (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
The Go-Betweens – Streets Of Your Town
The Wedding Present – Kennedy
Ballboy – All The Records On The Radio Are Shite

JC

The morning after the day before.

Thanks for sticking with me during the 60 albums @ 60 rundown.  Things will eventually return to normal, but I’m going off for a week-long break in Toronto as from tomorrow, so there will be a continuation of posts that have been prepared well in advance.  I thought I’d kick things off post-birthday with yet another 60 minute long compilation, only as it felt like a good and appropriate idea.

mp3: Various – Nothing Lasts With Age (So People Say)

The Style Council – Speak Like A Child
Gorillaz (feat. Thundercat) – Cracker Island
Pop Will Eat Itself  – Wise Up! Sucker
King Biscuit Time – I Walk The Earth
Pet Shop Boys – Sexy Northerner
The Fall – No Bulbs 3
Blondie – Dreaming
Dead Kennedys – Too Drunk To Fuck
Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude
Spare Snare – Have A Go
Go Home Productions – Making Plans For Vinyl
Sugarcubes  – Birthday
The Brilliant Corners – Delilah Sands
The Wedding Present – We All Came From The Sea
Basement Jaxx- Where’s Your Head At
Elastica– Connection
Blur – Got Yer!

The Go Home Productions tune is a mash-up involving a well-known XTC tune and the lyric from Oops (Oh My), a Top 5 hit back in 2002 by Tweet feat. Missy Elliot.

And, as if by magic, the whole thing comes in at exactly 60 minutes and 0 seconds.

JC

I’ll open with an apology to all the wonderful people whose blogs are listed on T(n)VV, either on the right-hand side if you’re using a laptop, or down at the foot if you’re on a mobile device.

I’ve not visited anyone for around six weeks.  I could make some legitimate excuses, but that’s not really the point.  No matter how busy I am, or how absolutely rundown and listless I’m ever feeling, I really should make some time, even if it’s only a few minutes a day, to take a glance.

It’ll take me days to get through everything, especially given my habit of offering up comments on posts that are weeks old…..but, just like the Four Tops (and Orange Juice), I Can’t Help Myself.   Today, I’ve spent time reading what Walter, Jez, Adam and Stevie have been saying.  Khayem is next on the list, and indeed I should be knocking on his door right now instead of doing this bonus post.

The thing is, I’m taken by a couple of the new series that Stevie is pulling together over at Charity Chic Music, and in particular the songs featuring ‘Jesus’ in the title.  I thought, ‘that would make for a great ICA’, and decided to act on it immediately.

SIDE ONE

1. Even Jesus Couldn’t Love You – Lord Cut Glass

The opening track from the album Lord Cut Glass by Lord Cut Glass, released in 2009.  This was the alter-ego of  Alun Woodward (now back in the business as a fully fledged Delgado) – it’s a wonderfully eccentric and playful album, described accurately on the Chemikal Underground website as one of a kind and quite brilliant.

2. Jesus Hates Faggots – John Grant

I’ve got this one courtesy of Jacques the Kipper including it on a compilation CD more than a decade ago, and it comes from John Grant‘s debut album, The Queen of Denmark, released on Bella Union Records back in 2010.   Musically, it’s a perfect follow-up to Lord Cut Glass, and lyrically it’s a wonderful put-down of all those followers of Jesus whose beliefs are more about hatred and anger.

3. Teenage Jesus Superstar – The Vaselines

Ah….the dilemma.  Originally released in 1988 as Teenage Superstars on the Dying For It EP, it was then made available on the 1992 anthology All The Stuff and More…. with the title Teenage Jesus Superstar.  And as a purchase of the latter became the first time I owned a copy of the song, then I’m inclined to include it.

4. Jesus Hairdo – The Charlatans

The third single lifted from the third album, Up To Our Hips, this reached #48 in the charts in July 1994.  It’s always, in my opinion, been one of the most underrated songs by The Charlatans.

5. Jesus Of The Moon – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Lifted from Dig, Lazarus Dig!! (2008) the fourteenth studio album from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, but what turned out to be the last to feature Mick Harvey who had more or less been Cave’s sidekick going way back to the days of The Boys Next Door, who would later morph into The Birthday Party.   This kind of slowly swings along and is a wonderful demonstration of just how adept the Bad Seeds are/were at taking on any kind of musical arrangement.

SIDE TWO

1.  Jesus Loves Amerika (Fundamental) – The Shamen

“I’m sick and tired of hearing about all of the radicals, and the perverts, and the liberals, and the leftists, and the communists coming out of the closet. It’s time for God’s people to come out of the closet, out of the churches, and change America. We must do it!”

From 1990’s In Gorbachev We Trust.   Not much has really changed has it, Governor DeSantis?

2. Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

The lack of DM songs on this blog over the years will give you an indication that I’ve never been a huge fan of their material, but this one from 1989 is a bit of an exception.  Was a toss-up to go with this or Johnny Cash‘s later cover version as found on America IV : The Man Comes Around (2002)

3. Jesus Saves, I Spend – St. Vincent

I’m off to Toronto again soon, flying out a couple of days after I turn 60.  My connection to the city began in 2007 thanks to a secondment opportunity that lasted five months.  The first gig I went to while living there was at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern, and was a show by St. Vincent in support of the debut album, Marry Me, from which this track is taken.  Little did anyone in the small audience realise that superstardom and mainstream acceptance was just a few years away.

4.  Jesus Walking On The Water – Violent Femmes

It would be disingenuous not to have the ICA include a song that was written from a Christian perspective.   From the Violent Femmes second album, Hallowed Ground (1984), it’s a demonstration of the Baptist faith professed by lyricist Gordon Gano, one that wasn’t shared by the other band members who nevertheless considered that playing songs with religious themes to their fans was a punk thing to do in the mid-80s.

5. Jump Sweet Jesus Jump – The Kingfishers

The Kingfishers lasted about twelve months in 1982/83.  The members were drawn from two ‘nearly made it’ bands – Douglas MacIntyre and Ewan MacLennan from Article 58 and Kenny Blythe and Robert McCormick from Restricted Code.  All four were barely out of their teens and were part of a Glasgow/Lanarkshire-based ‘scene’ (for want of a better word) who were attracting a bit of industry attention.  Songs were recorded in demo form and shows in support of bands such as Aztec Camera and Prefab Sprout were played, but a lack of confidence among the members of The Kingfishers saw them split up before anything serious could develop.

In 2022, Douglas MacIntyre, by now a veteran of the Scottish music scene, put together a new version of The Kingfishers and went into a studio to record the debut album – 40 years after initially planned. ‘Reflections In Silver Sound’ has just been issued by Last Night From Glasgow, and it’s quite wonderful.  Click here for more info and purchase options

So there you are.  Churned out in just about two hours.  I think it holds up well as a themed ICA.

Oh, and if you’re confused by the photo at the top…..he’s Jesus Sanjuan, a Spanish footballer who spent three seasons in Scotland at the end of his career in the early 00s, playing for Airdrie and Kilmarnock.

JC

A guest posting by Fraser Pettigrew

 [“An Elvis Costello fan struggling to re-fold his copy of Armed Forces.”]

Aside from the music, one of the chief pleasures of vinyl records is the variety and artistry of their physical format and packaging. From the moment Andy Warhol placed his peelable pink banana on the cover of The Velvet Underground with Nico and The Beatles commissioned Peter Blake to design the cover of Sgt Pepper, the LP became more than just a disc of recorded music and presented a challenge to every marketing department’s art director to come up with novel twists in sleeve design that would catch the attention of press and public.

[“Geogadi, three discs, five sides, double pocket sleeve, Jesus wept…”]

The unintended consequence of this creative compulsion is that anyone with a decent-sized record collection will possess LPs whose packaging fails the most basic test of a mass consumer product – usability. In their quest for gimmick, record companies have delivered discs that frustrate their owners in any number of ways, and some of the most common I will now illustrate with items from my own collection, and some others.

[“Armed Forces, harder than stripping and reassembling an AK-47.”]

For starters there are the numerous examples of pocket sleeves, or other unconventional wraps that require more than a simple tug or tilt to release the vinyl. This is definitely not a recent contrivance confined to such as Stereolab‘s Emperor Tomato Ketchup or Geogadi by Boards of Canada (beware: also features an unplayable side 6). In my shelves I have elderly examples such as an Australian pressing of Tommy by The Who, Roberta Flack‘s Killing Me Softly, and excellent Brit-disco album Four From 8 by The Real Thing. Elvis Costello‘s Armed Forces came in a famously complicated five-flap fold-out like a two-dimensional Rubik’s cube, containing a poster, four postcards and a bonus single as well as the actual LP itself, but none of that made it any easier to get at or put away again safely in your collection without the neighbouring LP getting jammed against a protruding flap as you tried to replace it. Good job Ballistic Bob wisnae a record collector.

[“Copping flack for nuisance value”.]

The envelope sleeve is the next nuisance to be dealt with. My original UA label British edition of Can‘s Tago Mago is a good example. Worth a bob or two to collectors, but fragile and prone to wear and tear with repeated use, to the point where the closure tab doesn’t really do its job any more, reduced to a flabby puff of frayed paper that won’t fit in your letter-box never mind the tiny slot it was designed for.

[ “No can do”.]

Inconvenience of format rather than packaging brings us to albums that are not played at the conventional 33rpm but consist of two or three 45rpm 12 inch discs. If you have a turntable with a speed selector switch this is hardly any issue at all, but if you have invested in some higher-end hi-fi equipment you may have to lift the platter off its spindle and manually move the rubber band to a different position.

Welcome to my world, in which cracking good albums such as Cabaret Voltaire‘s 2×45 (the clue is in the name) or Spiritualized‘s Laser Guided Melodies don’t get the turntable time they deserve because I find it all too much effort.

mp3:  Cabaret Voltaire – Breathe Deep
mp3:  Spiritualized – You Know It’s True

This of course is nothing to those (not me) who may have been tempted to buy the 1980 single Buena/Tuff Enuff by Joe ‘King’ Carrasco and the Crowns (I know, why would you?), issued by Stiff Records in a 10 inch 78rpm version. This is the point at which gimmickry becomes pure perversity.

mp3:  Joe ‘King’ Carrasco and The Crowns – Buena

The multi-disc 45rpm album became more common with the advent of the CD era. The Rough Trade version of Ultramarine‘s Every Man and Woman is a Star, as well as the Spiritualized debut just mentioned, date from the time when a 12 inch 33rpm disc simply couldn’t accommodate the 60-70 minutes of music that had become the norm for CD albums without loss of signal volume. For convenience, however, this format quickly gave way to double-vinyl 33rpm sets where the sides were simply a little shorter than normal.

[“Howie B, don’t get comfortable.”]

Even then, things could get out of hand. Sly and Robbie‘s Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone, mixed and co-created by Glaswegian hip-hop artist and producer Howie B, is quite a nifty, grinding rhythm work-out by the legendary Jamaican duo. But the ability to get a good sense of it as a whole has been severely hampered by pressing it on no fewer than FOUR pieces of vinyl. There’s about 75 minutes of music in there but the longest side only just manages to graze 11 minutes before you have to get up and flip it. Most of them are more like seven or eight. I mean it’s quite funky in parts so you MIGHT not want to sit down, but it’s definitely not one to stick on while you do some knitting.

[“Transparent vinyl, it’s all or nothing.”]

Coloured vinyl may be attractive but it can be a pig if you’re trying to pick out a particular track. The darker and more solid the colour the better – a judiciously placed light source can help you see the division between tracks. But if the vinyl is transparent, like my RYKO re-press of Bowie‘s Hunky Dory, then forget about it.

mp3:  David Bowie – Life On Mars

Everyone will have examples of records whose packaging discourages frequent playing on account of shoddy manufacture. Machine Says Yes by FC Kahuna is my example, whose two pieces of vinyl hide in woefully under-sized inners and are impossible to remove without gripping the rims tightly between thumb and forefinger, violating all the rules about contact between greasy skin and the playing surface.

On the plus side of that equation, my copy of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane was picked up about 20 years ago in an Amsterdam back-street pop-up shop for the princely sum of 3 Euros. It’s an original 1973 UK pressing that I suspect had never been played on account of the fact that the inner sleeve is too big to fit into the outer, and I think it had languished for years in the back of a record shop, unsold until it found its way into my hands. Three cheers for printers’ errors.

Plain silly packaging is not the unique preserve of vinyl, of course. One needs only think of the 12xCD ‘pharmaceutical’ blister pack edition of Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. It’s one of the truly great albums of the 1990s, but the pill-pack concept renders it nigh-on unplayable. Even if you ruined it as a collector’s item by opening the blister pack to get at the CDs, could you really be arsed popping each single-track disc into your player, especially disc 7, all 2 minutes 22 seconds of it? Seriously, fuck that for a game of soldiers.

mp3:  Spiritualized – Home Of The Brave

But frankly, nothing beats The Return of the Durutti Column for plain silly. First released by Factory Records (who else?) in 1980, its sleeve consisted of two sheets of heavy duty number 1 glass paper, specially designed to utterly ruin whatever sat next to it in your record shelves. The concept was nicked from situationist Guy Debord‘s book “Mémoires”, and was originally contemplated the previous year by PiL for their second album. Nothing could be less abrasive than Vini Reilly‘s delicate, jazzy guitar pickings contained within. I have a later reissue of the plain, black-sleeved edition that came out after DIY enthusiasts snapped up the first pressing. (Discogs notes: “All sandpaper copies were stuck together and sprayed at Palatine Road by Joy Division to earn some extra cash – although Ian Curtis did most of them as the other members were watching an adult film in an adjoining room.”)

[“Colonial crimes – NZ pressing of Tommy, polythene bag AND pocket sleeve”.]

My penultimate pet-peeve is the half-moon polythene inner sleeve, mercifully rare in the UK and America, but regrettably common here in Australasia. Trying to slide such bags back into the outer sleeve without the tops crumpling up into a bulging blob of plastic is like the proverbial effort of pushing jelly up a hill with your nose. Combined with the pocket sleeve as in my copy of Tommy, it was calculated to kill music much faster than home taping ever would.

And finally, to the mother of them all, an LP that manages to combine at least three of the above design defects and yet still holds a prized place in my record collection. Yes, it’s Metal Box. A tarnished tin film can that doggedly refuses to release the three 12 inch 45s inside, however much you tilt and shoogle it, vainly trying to keep your fingers off the surfaces as you winkle them out.

After I’ve hoiked the platter off my deck and flipped the speed regulator I can finally play it.

Ten minutes later and I’m up again changing sides, or trying to coax another disc out of the can.

The main reason it was originally pressed in this format was to give full rein to Jah Wobble‘s bowel-shaking bass, and the amplitude of the groove is so physically large it used to literally throw the needle into a jump on my old turntable. Even now I turn up the tracking weight on the arm when I play Albatross.

mp3:  PiL – Albatross

And yet for all this it’s the music that wins. It’s simply one of the greatest and most uncompromising albums ever released, and worth wrestling with on a regular basis. I could buy a CD version, or even the 2xLP ‘Second Edition’. But, well, you know… it just wouldn’t be as much fun, would it?

Fraser

As is now the tradition on the first day of each month.  60 minutes of music that should allow you to shake your bodies down to the ground, before it all ends with a different type of anthem.

mp3: Various – Out In Clubland (Having Fun?)

Pet Shop Boys – Shameless
Placebo – Teenage Angst
Interpol – Slow Hands
Lush (feat Jarvis Cocker) – Ciao!
Arab Strap – (If There’s) No Hope For Us
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Messages
Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
At The Drive-In – One Armed Scissor
Soft Cell – Bedsitter (12″)
De La Soul – Eye Know
Oui 3 – Break From The Old Routine
The Hardy Boys  – Wonderful Lie
The Specials – Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)
Gorillaz (feat. Mark E Smith) – Glitter Freeze
Wire – Fragile
Aztec Camera– The Red Flag

Finishes just in time to allow you to catch the last bus home.

JC

mp3: Various – You Always Went Too Far

Beastie Boys ft. Q-Tip – Get It Together
Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
Hifi Sean ft. Crystal Waters  – Testify
Steve Mason – Travelling Hard
Rhianna – S.O.S. (Rescue Me)
Soft Cell – Seedy Films
Leftfield ft. Toni Halliday – Original (Radio Edit)
Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibition
Bjork – Big Time Sensuality
Urusei Yatsura – Glo Starz
Wire – Three Girl Rhumba
British Sea Power  – Remember Me
Tracey Thorn – Babies
Honeyblood – Bud
The Wannadies- Hit
Ash– Burn Baby Burn
The Wedding Present – Gone

Comes in at 18 seconds over the hour.

JC

This month’s offering is sort of over the place.  A few risks have been taken, not least an eight-minute version of a song early on and the later inclusion of Sting.

All tunes included in this month’s mix comes from a bygone era.

mp3: Various – Just Fooling Around

Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug
Echo and The Bunnymen – Nocturnal Me
This Poison – Poised Over The Pause Button
Curve – Fait Accompli (12″)
Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria (12″)
Prefab Sprout – Bonny
Jens Lekman – The Opposite Of Hallelujah
Allvays – Adult Diversion
The Police – Message In A Bottle (7″)
Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (single version)
The Rakes – Retreat
The Drums  – Let’s Go Surfing
The Clash – Rudie Can’t Fail
Bodega  – Jack In Titanic
Hi Fi Sean and David McAlmont – All In The World
The Goon Sax – Till The End

Comes in at 13 seconds under the hour.

JC

The last, for now, of this mini-series as next week will see the unveiling of a new feature that is set to dominate these pages for a period of time.

October 2014.   All these arrived in one package.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark : Media and Sleeve graded as VG .  Cost – £2.00
Associates – Perhaps : Media Graded as VG, Sleeve Graded as VG+. Cost – £1.00
The Fall – Free Range (12) ; Media and Sleeve graded as VG+.  Cost – £3.00
The Go-Betweens – Spring Rain (12″); Media and Sleeve graded as VG+. Cost – £3.00
Everything But The Girl – Love Not Money; Media and sleeve graded VG+. Cost – £1.50
The Go-Betweens – Spring Hill Fair; Media and Sleeve graded as VG.  Cost – £10.00

It’s a purchase I remember well as I had gone into the seller’s Discogs site on the basis of Spring Hill Fair, an album I had long owned but was now virtually unplayable as a result of the scratches, skips and jumps.  I was a bit apprehensive about buying something graded only as VG as I had learned from bitter experience that what some sellers believed to be ‘VG’ turned out to be more akin to unlistenable as far as I was concerned.  But as the feedback from other purchasers was that this particular seller was very conservative with his gradings, I gave it a whirl.  And yes, I found the condition of the vinyl to be far better than described in the sales pitch.

As always, I couldn’t resist not browsing to see what else was on offer, and was really surprised at how low the prices were, which is why three more LPs and two 12″ singles were added.  The cost of vinyl added up to £20.50, on top of which I was charged £5.00 for P&P.

I’m sure the seller was, for whatever reason, just getting rid of his vinyl.  I recall, having been very satisfied with the condition of the records and the sleeve, going back a couple of months later to see if there was anything new listed only to find that the account had been closed.

It’s probably as good a bargain as I ever got on Discogs, and there’s no likelihood given the way that old vinyl is now traded, be it through that particular site, e-bay, second-hand shops or charity stores, I’ll ever get that lucky.

Here’s the going rate today, all based on UK sellers and the same condition.

OMD album : £4.50
Associates album :  £3.00
The Fall 12″ : £8.00
The Go-Betweens  12″ : £10.00
EBTG album :  £4.95
The Go-Betweens album :  £44.99

It all comes to the grand total of £75.44.   And there would need to be about £25 in P&P given there would be five different sellers.

Leaving aside the P&P, the rise in the cost of the vinyl is 342%.

mp3: Everything But The Girl – Ballad Of The Times

JC

Squeeze have been around since time began. OK, not exactly, but it’s fast approaching 50 years.

The two principal songwriting guitarists, Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook, first worked together in 1974. Their debut EP came out in 1977 on an indie-label part-financed by Miles Copeland, and was produced by John Cale of Velvet Underground fame.

They were soon signed to A&M Records for whom they would record five albums between 1978 and 1982 as well as enjoying a dozen singles reaching the Top 50, of which three went Top 5.

After a short break up, during which time Difford and Tilbrook recorded and toured as a duo, Squeeze got back together in 1985 and stayed together until 1999, albeit band members came and went at regular intervals. There were seven studio albums in that period.

The early part of the 21st century saw the two principals embark on solo careers, all the while remaining close friends who would occasionally show up at one or the other’s shows and perform alongside one another.

Inevitably, Squeeze came back into being, reforming in 2007, since when there have been spells where they have toured as a full band and times when it’s been down to just Difford and Tilbrook.  There have been just three new albums since the latest reformation.

All told, Squeeze can boast a discography of 15 studio albums and 49 singles/EPs, along with 4 live albums and 14 compilations.  It’s a highly impressive body of work.

This ICA, however, is going to focus, with one exception, on the initial period from 1978 to 1982, simply as I’ve loads of material from that era and very little beyond, other than one studio album and a couple of ‘greatest hits’ type efforts. Oh, and it’s singles heavy…….

SIDE A

1. Take Me I’m Yours

The debut single which reached #19 in May 1978 and can be found on the eponymous debut album released the same year.  It’s a fine introduction as the vocal talents of both Difford and Tilbrook are to the fore, as too are the keyboard skills of Jools Holland, whose look and sound were hugely important in making the band stand out that bit from many of their contemporaries.

2. Another Nail In My Heart

A #17 hit from March 1980. One of the main strengths of Difford and Tilbrook as songwriters was their ability to marry up catchy music with lyrics that told stories.  In this instance, Tilbrook came up with the tune, making use of a moog synth all the way through as well as a classic ‘tennis racquet’ guitar solo straight after the first chorus, while Difford sings of a failed romance while putting all the blame on himself.

3. Cool For Cats

The first of the huge hits, reaching #2 in April 1979.  This is one of the rare occasions when Tilbrook took lead vocal on a Squeeze single, but his voice is the one best suited to a tune which gives as good an indication as any of the band’s London and pub roots in the working-class south-east of the city.

4. When The Hangover Strikes

A flop single from 1982 and a track on the album Sweets From A Stranger.  It’s an album which sold well enough to the fanbase to reach the Top 20 on its week of release, but which was panned by the critics on the basis that it sounded nothing like the Squeeze whom everyone had a soft spot for.  Tilbrook has said he was inspired the 50s albums from Frank Sinatra when he came up with the tune, while Difford remains, rightly, proud of a lyric that captures that morning-after feeling rather perfectly.

5. Piccadilly

From the 1981 album, East Side Story, which was mostly produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian.  Lyrically, it’s a sort of throw back to some of the earlier material, telling the tale of a date night in the posh west end of London, but the music had advanced a great deal in a short period of time.

SIDE B

1. I Think I’m Go Go

An album track from 1981’s Argybargy.  One in which both Difford and Tilbrook take turns on lead vocal.  It’s a personal favourite as it just sounded so different and unusual from anything else they had written to this point.  The songwriters have since revealed it’s about the rigours and unpleasant nature of constantly being on tour to promote your new record.

2. Up The Junction

Here’s what I said about this song back in 2014.

“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.

1979. 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 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. But the male side of the species just never learn.”

Other than the fact I’n now nearly 60, every word from 2014 is just as relevant today.

3. Last Time Forever

The band broke up after Sweets From A Stranger.  They got back together in 1985, with the surprising news that Jools Holland, who had left the band in 1980 after the third album, Argybargy, was back in the fold having decided he could combine his television work with recording and touring.  This was the comeback single, one that is as close to an epic as anything they have ever recorded, with the full length version coming in at six-and-half- minutes, complete with sampled dialogue from the film, ‘The Shining’.

4. Labelled With Love

Two years after Up The Junction came another ‘some songs make great short stories’ effort, with a tune Tammy Wynette and George Jones would have been proud of. Sad songs say so much…….

5. Pulling Mussels (From A Shell)

A tribute to the joys of holiday sex only reached #44 in the UK Charts back in May 1980. It’s long been one of their most popular and enduring songs, cheered to the rafters whenever it gets aired in the live setting.  I can only imagine that the folk at the BBC weren’t fooled by the song’s subject matter and more or less banned it from the airwaves on Radio 1, which perhaps explains why it sold so poorly.

As with most of the ICAs I come up with, this doesn’t consist of the ‘best’ ten songs that Squeeze recorded in the period concerned, but it’s my effort at pulling together a cohesive album that makes for a consistent and interesting listen.

JC

Maybe not everything is better……you can make your own mind up.

All tunes included in this month’s mix comes from a bygone era.

mp3: Various – On A Nostalgia Trip

New Order – Thieves Like Us (instrumental version)
Justified Ancients of Mu Mu – Burn The Bastards
Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself (7″ version)
Everything But The Girl – Each and Every One
Elastica – Waking Up
Echo and The Bunnymen – All That Jazz
Pop Will Eat Itself – Touched By The Hand of Cicciolina
Paul Quinn & The Independent Group – Stupid Thing
The Chesterfields – Ask Johnny Dee
Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
Echobelly – Bellyache
The Fall  – The Man Whose Head Expanded
James Kirk – Felicity
The Popguns – Waiting For The Winter
The Cramps – Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?

I reckon it’s worth an hour of your time.

JC

The thing is……

If you like this month’s hourly mix, then I’ll take credit for being such a great DJ.

If you don’t like it, then you can blame SWC as all the tracks were part of his Top 40 Best of 2022 over at No Badger Required.

mp3: Various – Get Sett Go!

Slowly Seperate – Crows (#18)
Angelica – Wet Leg (#31)
Trouble – The Big Moon (#22)
2-HEH-V – DAMEFRISØR (#1)
Ballerina (Norma) – VEPS (#16)
New York, Paris & London – HighSchool (#10)
Earth Worship – Rubblebucket (#25)
Molly’s Got A Brand New Haircut – Ghostbaby (#37)
Men On The Menu – Flossing (#3)
This New Will – Scattered Ashes (#29)
Second Thought – MEMES (#19)
New England – Kid Kapichi feat.Bob Vylan (#17)
Circumference – Working Men’s Club (#8)
A55  – English Teacher (#13)
The Hard Part – Album Club (#12)
Statuette On The Console – Bodega (#23)
Untethered – PVA (#5)
Qurantine The Sticks – Yard Act

A couple of tracks from the NBR rundown have been left off this mix as they have appeared on previous mixes. Quarantine The Sticks has been included instead of The Overload, which was #6 in the rundown.

The running time is just under 61 minutes.

JC

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

(Our Swedish Correspondent)

Hi Jim,

It’s once more into the bleach – my summary of last year in Swedish music. For different reasons, pandemic mostly, some of my usual sources of finding new music were delayed so last year actually saw me discover music that rightly should have been included in my summary already last year. Therefore, this year (to save me from tears) I included a bonus 12″ with overlooked (on my part) Swedish music from 2021. I hope this “deluxe” version of the Swedish Annual is accepted.

2022, side A (a bit more guitars):

Martin

JC adds..…As I say every single year, I always look forward to Martin’s end of year round-up as there’s inevitably something in there that is of huge appeal, and this year is no different. These tunes are well worth a listen.

A GUEST POSTING by SWC

JC writes…..

Before I hand over to SWC, a little bit of explanation. One of his previous posts over at No Badger Required, in which he offered up the views and opinions of his daughter, made me laugh so hard that I asked if a future instalment could be offered up to TVV.   He’s been a as good as his word….in fact, he sent this over just prior to Christmas and I’ve had to sit on it waiting for the blog to get up and running again.  Given that yesterday saw a somewhat sad but brilliant post about the passing of Alan Rankine, I thought this made for the ideal way to try and put a smile on our collective faces.

Here’s SWC……

“For those of you who haven’t ventured over to my little corner of the Internet, which is more commonly known as No Badger Required, this is the fourth instalment in a series that I am calling ‘Kids, Eh’. It is a series in which I randomly pick three songs from my music library (or rather an algorithm picks them for me), give my daughter a pencil and some paper and tell her to write what she thinks about them.

“We started this series when she was nine, and I have learnt four things, firstly that she is a harsh critic, no song has yet to score more than eight out of ten.

How Did This Happen! – Bodega

“Secondly, she hates shouty, angry records that “Don’t say anything”. Thirdly, she has a knack of being able to bring some form of creature into every review she does, so far we’ve had hippopotamuses, toucans, crocodiles and cats and fourthly, now aged ten, and armed with her own Alexa, my daughter has developed a love of music by bands like Air, Four Tet, Boards of Canada and Massive Attack (but only the album ‘Mezzanine’, the rest are a bit “meh” apparently). She, dare I say it, has cool taste in music, so this might be quite interesting.

“All the songs today are randomly picked from an iPod Playlist that I called “Another Playlist” when I compiled it. There are over 4000 songs in this playlist and as we sit in the lounge five days before Christmas, armed with paper, pencils, custard creams, a half-eaten box of Roses, and some Wasabi Peanuts (they are mine) I’m ready to press the shuffle button.

““Will there be Christmas songs?” my daughter suddenly asks. I tell her there might be. I know that the Fucked Up version of “Do They Know Its Christmas?” is definitely on there, but I don’t tell her that, because she will definitely hate it. “I hope its not that stupid song that talks about the “the bells ringing out” J (name changed of irritating boy in her class) in my class keeps singing it to annoy the teacher”. That isn’t on there, I tell her. I finally press the play button and I have to say I grinned when the first song came on because it was this absolute banger.

Soon (Andrew Weatherall Mix) – My Bloody Valentine

Now in reality, this is one of the greatest remixes to have ever grace anyone’s stereo, full of loops, samples, twists, “Here We Go’s” and “Ahhh’s” it is extraordinary, outstanding, a proper floor filler. My daughter catches me nodding my head along to it and I tell her that the man who remixed this, was a genius and that in a perfect world he would have been Minister of Culture. She looks at me blankly and frantically scribbles on her pad.

About four minutes in she tells me that she likes the little “Ah ha” bits and then she puts her pencil down. I type verbatim the bits in italics are my interjections.

“It keeps saying the same thing, ’Here We Go’ but doesn’t tell you where they are going, they might be going to the zoo to see the giraffes [ ooh, she’s gone early on the animals] or to the shops. It’s quite good I suppose but it just does the same thing over and over again. I like the ‘Ah Ha’ bits but it is not as good as ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’”. [I might confiscate her Alexa, if she keeps up that nonsense]

‘Soon’ gets a six out of ten. Which on the Kids, Eh scoreboard makes it the fourth-best song in the world. So Far at least.

Next Up

Dead – Pixies

It’s the version from the ‘At the BBC’ album so it’s slightly faster and slightly rawer than the album version but all the same it’s still a bloody marvellous ninety seconds or so if you quickly skirt over the biblical violence backstory. Although I think a certain ten year is about to disagree with me and tell me off for playing a song which has the word ‘crapper’ in it.

“He said a rude word, I don’t like it [now thankfully, my daughter hasn’t grasped the full concept of a swear word, but thanks to Howard from the Big Bang Theory she knows that “crap” is a bad word. She hasn’t noticed, yet that someone has written ‘FUCK’ in red pen on the bench at the park, but she knows that is a very rude word], the singing is all weird and he keeps repeating the rude word. He sounds like he is going to have a sore throat in the morning, he should try singing a bit quieter, or let someone else sing, I’m glad actual Pixies don’t sound like that”.[She used to have a pixie living in her playhouse when she was five, only she could understand it because it spoke ‘half German and half Italy’]

That my friends, is all she has to say about it. She could be right about Black Francis letting someone else sing though. ‘Dead’ scores one out of ten. Which still places it higher than ‘Husbands’ by Savages, which was erm, savaged when my daughter reviewed it.

Finally, we come to the last song of the day, well actually I skipped one because Pixies came on again

Here Comes Your Man – Pixies

The last song of the day is this, which might go down quite well

Don’t Look Back In Anger – Oasis

Which, if we are all absolutely honest with ourselves, is one of Britpop’s finest four a half minutes, from the piano at the start, through Noel’s singing about “Starting revolutions from his bed”, the brilliant drumming and the way the song all moulds together rather excellently. ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ is definitely in the top five Oasis tracks.

“Who’s Sally, and why is she waiting, what’s too late, is she being dumped?” my daughter asks me. I tell her I’m not entirely sure. “Well, he shouldn’t tell her to wait, that’s rude and its rude to be late, Uncle Bill is always late, my chips went cold the last time he was late”. I nod in agreement, so did mine as it happens. “It is a nice song though. I like the singing, much better than the last one. I like this one best today. Can I add Oasis to my playlist please.”

With that she scores ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ a relatively unheard of seven out of ten and goes off to play Minec.

SWC