Meat Whiplash

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #204 : MEAT WHIPLASH

I previously wrote about today’s featured bandback in 2015.  There’s little I can add to what was said before. There’s a lot of name-dropping for such a short piece.

Meat Whiplash from East Kilbride were amongst the first to be signed to Creation Records.

The line-up was Paul McDermott (vocals), Stephen McLean (guitar), Edward Connelly (bass guitar) and Michael Kerr (drums). They took their name from a B-side track by The Fire Engines. They then became The Motorcycle Boy when Alex Taylor (of The Shop Assistants) joined the group in 1987.

Meat Whiplash only ever released one 7″ record. It was in September 1985 with a sleeve featuring actor Robert Vaughan that had been printed up by Bobby Gillespie and hand-folded by their record label’s owner, Alan McGee.

The band were the opening act at North London Polytechnic on 15 March 1985 on the occasion of the infamous “riot gig” by Jesus and Mary Chain.

That one 7″ single was included on CD 86 and here it is along with its b-side. It’s a bit high on the noisy and tuneless scale:-

mp3 : Meat Whiplash – Don’t Slip Up
mp3 : Meat Whiplash – Here It Comes

JC

Inspiral Carpets

SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 32)

30 years since this was composed and recorded.   It’s a shameful indictment of successive governments, in both London and Edinburgh, that so little has changed across many communities with the result that the issues raised in this pop hymn to isolation, depression and utter misery are just as abundant as they were after a decade of Thatcherism.

Husband don’t know what he’s done
Kids don’t know what’s wrong with Mum
She can’t say, they can’t see
Putting it down to another bad day
Daddy don’t know what he’s done
Kids don’t know what’s wrong with Mum

So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all

There’s a funeral in the town
Some guy from the top estate
Seems they found him under a train
And yet he had it all on a plate

So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all

Husband don’t know what he’s done
Kids don’t know what’s wrong with Mum
She can’t say, they can’t see
Putting it down to another bad day

So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all
So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – This Is How It Feels

There is also a radio mix of the song, concerning two lines of the second verse.

‘There’s a funeral in the town’ was changed to ‘Black car drives through the town’, while ‘Seems they found him under a train’ is replaced by the less gruecome but arguably more chilling and moving ‘Left a note for a local girl’

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – This Is How It Feels (radio mix)

And while I’m here…..from the 12″ vinyl sitting in the cupboard:-

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – This Is How It Feels (extended)

JC

They Might Be Giants

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 15)

A GUEST SERIES


31. Birdhouse In Your Soul – They Might Be Giants (1989 Elektra Records)

Released as a single in March 1990 (Reached Number 6)

A song that reminds me of being a school and in particular about a girl who I’m going to call Lucy. Lucy was the first girl I ever kissed. A rather fumbled affair which took place on the corner of the road that leads to my dad’s house. About ten people inadvertently witnessing this embarrassment, including a lad who lived three doors down, Paul, who took great pleasure in telling literally everyone in the street what he’d witnessed. I didn’t mind really, my social status climbed about three rungs that week.

Another witness was Danny. He actually managed to break the kiss up (which lasted about ten seconds) by crashing his bike into us and laughing at me. Danny was an arse, and I am confident, that, despite not speaking or seeing him for 29 years, he is still an arse right now. I think he will still have the same high pitched squealing laughter and will probably have the same rubbish haircut and still be wearing chinos that are took small for him. Two years from that kiss, by the way, and it’s not relevant, I’m just sort of proud of this fact, my brother beat the shit of out Danny in a park. I say ‘the shit’ he hit him three times, once, in the stomach, once on the shoulder and third one in the face, before Danny ran off crying for his mother. I forget the reason why, it was probably something to do with football. That or the fact that my brother just didn’t like him.

Anyway, back to Lucy. We got to together on a school trip to a farm, about seven days before that kiss. It was dead romantic, I stood in a barn full of cows and shit whilst Lucy’s best friend, Penny, asked me the question. This was because Lucy had lost her voice. She genuinely had. I hadn’t really ever been out with girls at that stage, I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said “If you like”. For the next few days at school we walked around holding hands, and stuff, quickly shoving them in our pockets when the teachers ambled past.

One evening, the evening before the kiss, we went on our first (and last) date. This was to the Ice Rink, the place where everyone in the Medway towns goes on a date. We had a burger (or a cheese sandwich in my case, as I was proudly pushing my new found status as a vegetarian) and then held hands as we tip toed around the ice rink, trying not to fall over and trying not to embarrass ourselves. We had both ignored the fact that neither of us could ice skate or had any interest in it.

Eventually we gave up and we sat together in the little café on those rubbish plastic chairs that make it sound like you are farting when you wriggle around, we talk about life, parents, school, music, as I nervously pushed the tomato shaped sauce bottle around on the table.

It was then that I realised that Lucy’s favourite band on the planet was Bros. Something which you can’t ignore even when you are 14 and trying to be cool. I mean I don’t think Bros had been in charts for a good six months at this stage. Still she was my girlfriend and I could probably change rubbish tastes. I told her that Bros were shit and that there were a million better things to listen to (even back then I was a wannabe music critic)

When I got home after the date at the ungodly hour of seven pm, I made her a tape, with all my favourite songs on it – I mean that’s what you do when you have a girlfriend – right?

Side One – Track Two – was this song, because at the time it was one of my favourite songs in all the world. The next day I proudly handed the tape to her – which had a crappily drawn heart on it or something and she hugged me. After school I walked her home and the kiss happened.

The next day in the middle of a history lesson about Florence Nightingale, she sat behind and handed me a note. It said “Sorry, but it’s over.”

That is exactly what it said. Still eight days was my new record for how long I’d had a girlfriend for.

Let’s fast forward a bit.

Lucy for her sins, moved away at the end of 1991 (and I barely spoke to her after she dumped me in double history) but she stayed in touch with Penny. One lunchtime, towards the middle of 1992 Penny came up to me in the common room at school and handed me a tape and a little letter. It was from Lucy. I was surprised because I’d literally not given her a single consideration since she left the school.

The mixtape contained some fairly decent indie bands and such like (ok, it had The Mission and the Sisters of Mercy on it, but you know decent enough). The letter said (amongst other things), ‘I never got the chance to say thank you for the mixtape, it changed my taste in music totally. Bros were shit.” And there on Side One – Track Two, was ‘Birdhouse In Your Soul’.

This was also on the cassette, can’t remember exactly where though.

Box Set Go – The High

SWC

 

 

Various

THE BIG HITS…..30 YEARS ON (3)

 

The third month of the new feature. The charts of March 1990 had Beats International at the top for a while, but from the aspect of singles making their entry during the month, one act kind of stands out….and they are actually up first.

Elephant Stone – Stone Roses

Three months after Fool’s Gold had given Stone Roses a first major hit, a re-issued Elephant Stone matched the achievement with a #8 placing on the week of entry, 3 March 1990.  Rather surprisingly, it dropped down two places immediately after, eventually slipping out of the Top 75 altogether after six weeks.

A Lover Spurned – Marc Almond

In at #32 on 3 March and managed to crawl its up three more places the following week. A very rare instance of a Marc Almond-penned single cracking the top end of the charts. This was his 14th such single and only his third to reach the Top 40, with his other hits all being covers.

Love Shack – B52s

A band that had enjoyed minimal success prior to this over the previous 12 years, with just a 1986 re-release of a double-A single consisting of Rock Lobster/ Planet Clare selling in any sort of numbers. Tailor-made for radio with its catchy and shout-along chorus, it was no surprise that after entering the charts on 3 March at #33 it hung around for almost three months, peaking at #2 for three weeks, kept off the top spot initially by Beats International and then by German dance-act Snap, whose song The Power would first enter the charts later in the month and enjoy two weeks at the very top in late March/early April.

Loaded – Primal Scream (single version)

A band that had been regarded as something of a joke throughout the late 80s. This was something completely different. It’s an example of a song that actually didn’t do all that much sales-wise but whose influence would prove to be so much greater. It came in at #47 on 3 March and just over a month later it reached its peak of #16. It was out of the charts by the time the summer arrived, but it proved to be a massive hit in the clubs all year long, setting the tone for the huge sales of the album Screamadelica when it hit the shops some seven months later.

De-Luxe – Lush (from the Mad Love EP)

I didn’t think I was going to be able to salvage any new entries from the chaert of 10 March until my eyes got all the way down to #55. The debut EP disappeared as quickly as it had come in as would be the case throughout Lush’s career. Eight times they made the Top 75, not once did any of the singles stay longer than three weeks – even the big hits from the mid-90s which developed the habit of coming in high on the week of release (Single Girl : #21, Ladykillers : #22, 500 (Shake Baby Shake): #21) before crashing and burning.

Strawberry Fields Forever – Candy Flip

One–hit wonders with this debut effort, with the follow-up stalling at #60 and two further efforts not cracking the Top 75. In at #18 on 17 March and it eventually got as high as #3. The duo of by Danny Spencer (vocals, keyboards) and Ric Peet (keyboards) named themselves after candyflipping, the name given to the taking of ecstasy and LSD at the same time. It’s no surprise that they turned their attention to a rave/acid house take on the Beatles song

Made of Stone – The Stone Roses

The cash-in continues. At least Elephant Stone hadn’t been on the debut album so there perhaps were legitimate reasons for its re-issue so that folk could own and enjoy it.  Made of Stone had bombed exactly 12 months later with a placement of #90. This time around, it came in on 17 March at #20, which proved to be its peak as it dropped down immediately.  Silvertone Records weren’t quite finished mind you…..

This Is How It Feels – Inspiral Carpets

Having been linked into the Manchester/baggy movement, it was no real surprise that Inspiral Carpets were next to come off the conveyer belt as far as the charts were concerned. This Is How It Feels is an almighty piece of music, one that I featured just yesterday on the songs as short stories series. It’s a disgrace that the sentiments from the song are just as applicable today as they were 30 years ago. Entered the charts at #22, got up to #14 a couple of weeks later and was only ever bettered, performance-wise, by Dragging Me Down two years later.

Chime – Orbital

Further evidence that dance music from the clubs and the fields where the raves were happening was crossing over into the mainstream. Orbital, consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, took their name from the M25, the orbital motorway that circles Greater London and which was central to the rave scene and party network in the South East of England during the early days of acid house. Chime was the debut single and its appearance in the charts, initially at #28 on 24 March led to an invite to appear on Top of The Pops during which the brothers wore t-shirts making a protest about the impending introduction of the Poll Tax in England, a measure that had, on its earlier introduction in Scotland, created civil unrest, as it would also do in England later that very same week of the TOTP appearance (the director avoided any close-up shots of the brothers, concentrating instead on the audience….the single climbed to #17 the following week)

Orbital would prove to be one of the biggest, most important and influential dance acts to emerge out of the UK at any point in history – but that’s really for friends of this blog to highlight rather than me.

Your Love Takes Me Higher – The Beloved

The success of Hello, as covered in the first entry of this series, led to the label opting for a re-release of a single that had flopped in February 1990. An absolute belter of a track, one that found favour with the ravers and the indie-kids alike in terms of dancing, it didn’t transfer to sales as it came in at #40 on 24 March, going up one place the next week and then disappearing.

Pictures Of You – The Cure

The 18th successive single to go Top 50; there would be a further eight such successes before the release of Gone, which stalled at #60 just before Xmas 1996. It’s actually quite astonishing that Pictures Of You charted as well as it did, coming in at #28 on 31 March and inching its way up to #24 a couple of weeks later as it had been around for the best part of 12 months as a track on the Disintegration LP. Fans of The Cure again demonstrating brand loyalty, and even today the second hand market for many of their singles is a healthy one in terms of the price they fetch.

She Bangs The Drums – The Stone Roses

First released in July 89 when it made #36, a fairly decent showing for an underground band with no track record of success, Silvertone decided to re-issue She Bangs The Drums just two weeks after the re-release of Made of Stone. It meant that the chart of the final week of March 1990 had two Stone Roses 45s inside the Top 50. World domination beckoned, didn’t it?

Cobra Bora (Call The Cops Mix) – 808 State (from The Extended Pleasure of Dance EP)

Between November 1989 and March 1991, 808 State would release six singles/EPs, all of which, with the exception of The Extended Pleasure of Dance EP, went Top 10. I’d love to have been able to give you a reason but I can, in all honesty, say that I didn’t even know this EP existed until typing these words out. When I later go and track down a copy, it’ll be the first time I’ll have ever heard it.

Hope some of these bring back good memories.

JC
(aged 56 years and 9 months)

 

Beatles

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #244 : THE BEATLES

A GUEST POSTING by JULES

As a kid (I’m 59) I was sort of aware of The Beatles; All You Need Is Love, Here Comes The Sun, and of course Yellow Submarine but it was listening to the Ray Moore late night show on Radio 2 under the bed covers on a transistor radio that I had my epiphany.

The theme music was an instrumental version of Here, There and Everywhere.

Enthused with the knowledge that my top sleeping song was by The Beatles I saved up my pocket money and bought Revolver. Wow what a cracker not a duff track on it (er well see above) but this one made realise that popular music can be different

Tomorrow Never Knows

Next step down to the record shop for the “Blue” album – oh my what treasures as I discovered all the hits and random good stuff.

Back In The U.S.S.R.

Hey mum it will soon be my birthday any chance of the “Red” album? Well, what the thunder and lightning is this? No odd cool stuff just songs hmm…..Oh hang on these are good as well.

I Should Have Known Better

Back to the record shop

Sgt Pepper, later on at school we could bring an album to play at music class, never the coolest kid but this boosted my street cred (remained a virgin). Like a lot of things some lyrics ain’t aged well but at least we do try to improve.

I used to be cruel to my woman
I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved
Man I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can (Ooh)

I admit it’s getting better (Better)
A little better all the time (It can’t get no worse)
Yes I admit it’s getting better (Better)
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine
Getting so much better all the time

Getting Better

It was around this time that Dad informed me that Paul wrote all the music and John all the words, also if he wants to be Back in the U.S.S.R. no one is stopping him. As for myself I was getting to like George.

If I Needed Someone

Started trawling through The Beatles section on a more regular basis along with the discount box where I bagged Magical Mystery Tour double e.p. along with The Clash e.p. The Cost Of Living. And John Lennon’s Live Peace In Toronto. Sadly didn’t have enough cash for The Beatles In Italy, went back next week….

I’m A Loser

Some of the early LPs had good selection of covers for me the stand out track on their first album was a slow love song penned by Lennon and McCartney.

Ask Me Why

The last “proper” album I bought was Let It Be mainly because it was universally slagged off, and for good reason, Paul was pissed about the strings imposed on The Long And Winding Road (rectified with the horn section on Wings Over America) plus a rehashed charity song (Across The Universe) and studio out-takes and an old composition not considered worthy before, but on one track they got their mojo back and played like a rock band.

I`ve Got A Feeling

Oh bugger I forgot Ringo

The last album recorded was Abbey Road and featured the only Beatles drum solo.

The End

And his dulcet tones on the final obvious track

Goodnight

As a bonus bonus track The Rutles did the “Blue” album in one song.

Shangri-La

Goodnight and Good-luck

Love, Jules

Dracula Legs

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 14)

A GUEST SERIES

32 – Heartburn Destination – Dracula Legs (2014 Too Pure Records)

Released as a single March 2014 – Unknown Chart Position

I’ve told some of this story before. A few years back I had to pop over to a place called Dayton, which is a city in Ohio (and the birthplace of Kim Deal, Pixies fans) for a few days. I arrived around 10pm in the evening and after a quick pit stop at a bar for a spot of dinner I end up at my hotel. The hotel is ok, its downtown and in a relatively nice area. I decide that having been up for about 26 hours, I should try and get some sleep.

Try as I like, I can’t, as the moody bloke from Faithless, sang, get no sleep. For two hours I look out of the window at my surroundings, I take a few photos out of the window of things like traffic lights, a passing truck, I unfold and refold my tshirts and I still refuse to feel tired.

I think about going for a walk, but as I get to the hotel door I see a police car tear along the road and I think better of it. So I check out the hotel, the pool and gym are both shut. The lounge reserved for residents is pitch black. There is a small bar downstairs, which is empty, but open. I ordered a rum and coke and watch what I assume is a re run of baseball game (one of the teams are the Cubs). By now it’s about one am, still not tired (on reflection I was massively over tired). It was then I spotted the staircase.

When I’m away from home I tend to take a running kit with me. Running is a great way to see a city, especially if it is just waking up. However, in my sleep deprived state, call it delirium if you like, I thought for some reason at one thirty in the morning, it would be a really good idea to change into my running gear and run up and down the fire escape stairs in this hotel.

So that is what I did. There were eight floors, twenty four flights of stairs, and at first slowly I begun to trot up and down them. By the fourth loop I’d got the time down to just under 5 minutes. I was having fun. Then the somewhere between the fifth and sixth floor I was told to knock it off by the night duty security guard.

He marched me back to my room – gave me the number for room service, and wished me good night. I switched on my ipod and within an hour I fell asleep, which I probably should have done about five hours ago. The first song I heard was ‘Heartburn Destination’ by Dracula Legs.

Dracula Legs are a five piece band from London who burst out of nowhere back in 2014. They play a brand of indie rock that I once described as sounding like the kind of music that Nick Cave would make if he moved to countryside and took up organic gardening. I’m still not quite sure what I meant by that but I stand by it, because that it is what it sounds like. A rollicking four minute rockabilly indie stomper. The organic gardening analogy sounds better I think.

The single was backed with this

Cold Licks

 

SWC

 

 

Luke Haines

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF LUKE HAINES (23)

And now the end is near……and I think it’s fair to say that this series has demonstrated that Luke Haines will do things his way.

I’m a fan going back decades, but there have been times in listening to the back catalogue where I’ve been bemused and borderline-bored and so my thanks to those of you who have refrained from offering up your words of criticism when confronted by some more nonsense on recent Sunday mornings.

2016 saw the run of concept albums come to a halt with the release of Smash The System. One of the most noticeable things about this collection of songs is the comeback for the singing voice – there’s hardly any mumbling or whispering and next-to-no spoken word. It’s an album that initially leans on electronica, but before too long the acoustic and electric guitars are picked up and deployed to great effect….only for it all to descend into what could be a parody or tribute (it’s hard to tell with Mr Haines) of folk rock. The album veers all over the place, often catching even the most keen interested listener off-guard, and as such it provides further evidence to those who don’t like his stuff that Haines’s head remains wedged firmly up his own backside.

Maybe I expected a bit too much from the album as I wasn’t entirely convinced by much of its contents on initial listens – but at the same time I felt there were a handful of outstanding efforts that would always find a place on the i-pod. Over the past couple of years, my tolerance levels have increased and I can now listen to all the way through without reaching for the skip button, albeit the temptation is still there.

I think that there’s just too much going on lyrically, with countless references to real people, some of whom have featured in previous albums recorded by Haines in one guise or other. The song titles alone namecheck Ulrike Meinhof, Vince Taylor, Bruce Lee, Roman Polanski, Marc Bolan and The Incredible String Band, with many others featuring in the lyrics. As I mentioned earlier, the music is incredibly varied, ranging from experimental electronica to fill-on power-pop that, in a different period, would have earned regular exposure on the radio.

The title track was released as a single:-

I can’t, however, not let this review pass without drawing your attention to the best impression of glam-rock I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. If they still made the show Stars In Their Eyes, then Mr Haines would surely win…….

mp3 : Luke Haines – Marc Bolan Blues

Smash The System got a few songs out of Haines’s system and it really was no surprise that he returned to the challenge of more concept albums about fantastical subject matters and situations with the release of I Sometimes Dream of Glue in 2018. In these situations, it’s best to let the record label PR provide the explanation:-

It started sometime after World War II – in the late 1940’s. A convoy of British Special Services trucks had been dispatched to RAF Middlewych, their cargo – 10 tonnes of experimental solvent liquid. Sticky and deadly. The mission – to drop the toxic liquid over Germany and finish the job of carving up Europe for good. The trucks never made it to their airfield destination, coming off the road – most probably helped by saboteurs – some five miles out of London…

Just off the Westway, in the motorway sidings, you can see a small sign. Actually you probably can’t see the sign as it is the size of a child’s fingernail clipping. The sign says ‘Glue Town.’ The name of a village. There is little or no documentation of Glue Town. You will not find any information about it on the 21st Century internet. Gluetown is a rural settlement born out of mutation. Of the estimated 500 or so dwellers, no one is thought to be over 2 1⁄2 inches tall. The citizens of Glue Town exist on a diet of solvent abuse and perpetual horniness. The residents only leave to carry out daring night-time ‘glue raids’ on Shepherds Bush newsagent shops. On a tiny screen in the town centre, an old Betamax cassette of ‘Michael Bentine’s Pottytime’ plays on a loop all day and all night. The reduced size villagers go about their daily business pondering whether the lessons of Pottytime can show them a way out of their drudge lives of sexual abandonment and human sacrifice…”

All of which means it’s no surprise that the album is a bonkers listen. 25 years on from The Auteurs bursting onto the scene and the frontman is regaling us with strange tales of the unexpected in which sex and glue sniffing feature prominently. There’s also another ode about football hooliganism, but in a surreal way in which the boot-boys are Subbuteo figures come to life, with everything sung over what some reviewers at the time perfectly described as pastoral music – the sort of stuff that, as a non-Englishman, I associate with Morris Dancing….of the type in the Smash The System video.

Only one of the fourteen tracks on ‘Glue’ extends much beyond a duration of two-and-a-half minutes which means everything skips along at a decent enough pace. It also means that just as your brain is coming to terms with what you’ve just listened to, it’s time for the next one to begin. Overall, it feels like a creepy soundtrack to an X-rated version of Camberwick Green, Chigley or Trumpton, a series of stop-motion animated TV series for children aired by the BBC in the 60s and 70s…..and it provides fans with another decent enough listen without ever threatening to make a high appearance in a rundown of favourite albums of all-time. Much like almost all of the Haines solo releases.

mp3 : Luke Haines – Everybody’s Coming Together For The Summer

The year ended with a low-key digital only release of the Glue EP, three tracks that were possibly inspired by the process of piecing together the concept album. Here’s a fun filled few minutes from it:-

mp3 : Luke Haines – Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue

There were no releases in 2019 but this year will see the release of an album on which Luke Haines has collaborated with someone fairly well known. Here’s the promo blurb:-

Beat Poetry For Survivalists is the new collaboration between Peter Buck & Luke Haines.

Peter Buck was the guitarist for the biggest band in the world – REM.

Luke Haines was the guitarist for the Auteurs. The Auteurs were not the biggest band in the world. They were pretty good though.

Luke Haines also does paintings of Lou Reed.

One day, Peter Buck bought one of Luke Haines’ Lou Reed paintings. They had never met before but decided that the fates had brought them together and they should write some songs together and make an album.

‘Beat Poetry For The Survivalist’ is that album. With songs about legendary rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons, The Enfield Hauntings (of 1978), a post-apocalyptic radio station that only plays Donovan records, Bigfoot, and Pol Pot.

Luke Haines and Peter Buck will be touring the UK in April 2020, including Hebden Bridge Trade’s Club on 13th April and two shows at 100 Club in London on the 15th and 16th April.

I’ve got tickets and made travel and accommodation arrangements to go to the show at Hebden Bridge, which happens to be on Easter Monday. Jacques the Kipper is coming along for the adventure. It was only after doing all this and paying for everything up front was it announced that extra shows were being added……including Glasgow on 12th April! Typical isn’t it???

That’s the end of this particular singular adventure series. I’ll be holding off starting a new one for a short while as Sundays, for the next few weeks at least, will become a day in which SWC’s 45 45s at 45 will feature….which I’m sure will come as a welcome change to most of you.

JC

 

McCluskey Brothers

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #203 : THE McCLUSKEY BROTHERS

from Discogs:-

The McCluskey Brothers, Ken and David, are one time members of 80’s Glasgow band the chat-topping The Bluebells. The brothers released their first album “Aware of All” in 1987. It had to be deleted two weeks after release as the brothers found out that they were still officially members of The Bluebells group from which they had parted company with amicablly in 1986. Although still signed to the London Records label the Brothers toured widely until eventually released from London in 1990.

1992 saw the launch of the “Favourite Colours” album on their own label Kingfisher Records followed two years later by “Wonderful Affair”. In 1993 they were honoured to play for Nelson Mandela when he visited Glasgow to take up his Freedom of the City award. In 2000 the brothers released the compilation “Housewives Choice” (Linn Records, Glasgow).

David is currently a music therapist working with Sense Scotland and Ken is a music business lecturer at Stow College, Glasgow and contributes towards the college label Electric Honey Records.

Here’s one from the Favourite Colours album….one that reminds a lot of Roddy Frame:-

mp3 : The McCluskey Brothers – Better Days

JC

Massive Attack

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 13)

A GUEST SERIES


34. Safe From Harm – Massive Attack (1991 Virgin Records)

Released as a single May 1991 (reached Number 25)

For some reason I always associate this song with Gulf War 1, even though it came out a good three months after that invasion had ended. It’s probably to do with the title of the song and because during the war, Massive Attack were forced by Virgin Records to drop the word ‘Attack’ from their name otherwise they wouldn’t get radio play. I think I assumed that this was the song that was released during Gulf War but in reality it was ‘Unfinished Symphony’ I think. Which seems as good a reason to post that as you are ever going to need.

Unfinished Symphony

Anyway, let’s talk about war. That’s a happy and cheerful subject for those of you with a morning head. During the 1990 oil sponsored invasion of Kuwait and Iraq, a few of us wrote to a couple of chaps who were out in the Gulf. They were both local lads, one of whom, strangely enough, went to school with OPG’s brother, and we used to write to them about what was going on in Gillingham, sending them snippets from the local paper about the footballs fortunes (or lack of…) and scandalous gossip that we’d heard.

My mate Richard wrote to a lad who I’m going to call Wayne, I’ve changed his name, he was 21 years old and had been in the army for 3 years before heading out to the Gulf. He was in the Royal Engineers and used to write to Richard about the heat, the lack of alcohol, the terrible food and being spat at in the street. He seemed happy though.

In January 1991 it snowed in the UK, it snowed a lot – I mean those of you in Canada and parts of American and Scandinavia can understandably thumb your nose at that, but for us in the South East of England anything more than 2 inches of snow in a single morning causes society to breakdown. Actual fist fights break out at the Co-op for the last loaf of Morning Pride and thefts of goats rocket so that people can still drink milk.

Anything more than 3 inches and the Daily Mail goes into an apoplectic meltdown and rages about “Snowmageddon” and how it was all Neil Kinnock fault (they actually said that).

Where was I..? Oh yes, snow, Richard wrote and told Wayne about the snow and how we’d all found an old car bonnet in some woods at a place called Darland Banks in Gillingham and we were using the car bonnet to charge down the slopes of the Banks at breakneck speed before crashing through the hedge at the bottom onto the road. It was deliriously funny.

Normally Richard would get a response in a couple of weeks, but he got nothing this time, February came along, the snow all melted and the war ended in a 3 all draw. Still no response from Wayne. Richard sort of forgot about him – I mean we were 15 and 16 years old and we probably thought we had better things to think about.

March comes along and one morning I am out delivering copies of the Medway Times and there on the front page is a story about a Gulf War Soldier from Medway, aged 21, who lost both of his legs in an incident involving a mortar bomb and an army jeep. He’d been driving the jeep to try and assist some of his colleagues who had become stranded in a dangerous part of town. They’d come under attack and the result of that is what is documented above. It also pointed out quite angrily that this chap was being denied the services that he deserved.

I mean a Conservative run service treating people badly, who’d a thought it.

Of course, it was Wayne, you’ve guessed that. Richard, was deeply upset about it and decided to do something about it. He tracked him down and with the help of his parents and the local paper and about a thousand other people. Collectively they managed to get him some support, they got him some specialist housing, they got him some work. A women cleaned his house for him for free for two years, just because she could.

I’ve met Wayne, I’ve spent a good deal of time with him, through Richard, and he’s lovely. He is totally humbled by what people did for him. He still goes to see Gillingham on a regular basis, in fact the last time I saw him was down at the stadium, although that was some time ago. He also set up and runs a charity for people like him who have suffered horrific injuries through warfare. He does that in his spare time.

Wayne now works in IT, he is married with children (one of whom is in the navy, not that its relevant). Richard was his best man at his wedding. Which I think is lovely.

SWC

 

 

Associates

MOTOR VEHICLES OF A CERTAIN COLOUR IN CENTRAL EUROPE

This 45 from 1981 was, unsurprisingly, included in my stab at an Associates ICA. I don’t think I can better my words from that occasion.

A moody, majestic and magical few minutes to open things up, it demonstrates just how important both Alan Rankine and Billy Mackenzie were to the sound and feel of this band. My first exposure to the Associates, and one that was suggested by someone thanks to my love of Magazine – the eerie horror-movie soundtrack keyboards are akin to those of Dave Formula and the seemingly nonsensical lyrics would be the stuff Howard Devoto would have been proud of. Name-checking Aberdeen, Dusseldorf, Zurich and Munich in the opening few lines and giving us the wonderful rhyming couplet of “Anonymous as bathrooms, Androgynous as Dachshunds”. All albums, ICAs or not, should open with something as memorable as this.

I’ve plucked out White Car In Germany to commemorate the fact that, in the company of Rachel, I’m off to Munich for a few days – it was our Christmas present to one another. I’ll be going back to a city that I haven’t visited since 1995 when Raith Rovers played the mighty Bayern Munich on the UEFA Cup while Rachel gets to cross somewhere she has long wanted to go.

There’s actually a football element being incorporated into the trip with us taking in a game on Saturday. Not for us the glamour of the Bundesliga, with Bayern having an away game. Nor are we going to seek out any other teams in the immediate vicinity of Munich. We will be making our way to Ingolstadat to watch a third-tier game, which just happens to be against the second-string of Bayern. The link comes from the town of Ingolstadt being twinned with the town of Kirkcaldy in Scotland, and Kirkcaldy being the town in which Raith Rovers play. There are long-standing connections between the Ingolstadt and Rovers fans and we are meeting up with a big group of locals and spending the day with them. Ingolstadt, on the banks of the Danube, looks lovely judging by the pictures – the team is currently battling for a spot at the top of their league for promotion to the second tier of German football, in the same way the Rovers are here in Scotland. I’m so looking forward to it.

I’m also very hopeful that this won’t be my only visit to Germany in 2020. All being well, I’m soon to take my leave of work, leaving me with a considerable amount of free time in which to enjoy myself. I haven’t forgotten the efforts made by Dirk, Walter and Brian to come to Glasgow for a Blogger’s get-together a few years back and I’m determined to make my way to their parts of the world in the not too distant future. The UK-based bloggers can also expect to hear from me soon enough – life is too short to put off the things you’ve always really wanted to do.

White Car in Germany is a great example of how only Billy Mackenzie was truly capable of singing his lyrics without sounding like a total prat:-

Aberdeen’s an old place
Dusseldorf’s a cold place
Cold as spies can be

Lisp your way through Zurich
Walk on eggs in Munich
Rub salt in its knee

I’m not one for surgery
Premature senility
White car in Germany

Anonymous as bathrooms
Androgynous as Dachshunds
Try them out and see

If some brat annoys you
Do what’s felt impromptu
Kick them in their own

Is this your infirmary
On the road to recovery
White car in Germany

White car
White car
White car in Germany

mp3 : Associates – White Car In Germany

Here’s your b-side of what was a flop single.

mp3 : Associates – The Associate

Oh, and while I’m here:-

mp3 : Editors – Munich

See you all when I get back – in the meantime, there’ll be a few postings to keep you amused.

JC

Neutral Milk Hotel

THIS WAS MY BEST OF 2007

I was searching through what is left of the archives of the old blog – I reckon about 75% of the old posts are missing altogether and I’ve already mined the best of what is left and re-posted them at some point in recent years.

I’m not saying that this blast from the past is any sort of memorable or worthy post, but it’s interesting in that I picked out five of my favourite new songs that had been released during 2007 and a further five that I had only just picked up on or that they were old favourites given some sort of fresh life via a re-release.

From 30 December 2007:-

Just a quick final posting for 2007. Everyone seems to do extensive lists of what have been their particular favourites of the past 12 months. Here’s mine, and it consists simply of what I reckon have been the five new songs to give me most aural pleasure:-

Arcade Fire – Intervention
Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude
Grinderman – No Pussy Blues
Malcolm Middleton – Superhero Songwriter
The Twilight Sad – That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy

And among the albums I picked up years after they came out and the various boxsets/re-issues/Peel Sessions that appeared in 2007, I’m rather fond of these:-

Cinerama – Apres Ski (Live At Maida Vale, June 2000)
Jans Lekman – A Higher Power
The Lucksmiths – There Is A Boy That Never Goes Out
Prefab Sprout – Faron Young (acoustic version)
Tindersticks – Tiny Tears (Mark Radcliffe Show – October 1993)

But above all else, I at long last latched onto an album released back in 1997:-

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

2007 was the year that I spent a fair bit of living and working in Toronto and there was a big chunk of time when I didn’t buy much as I would have had issues trying to ship it all home with me on my return to Glasgow after 18 weeks away.

I bought the Neutral Milk Hotel CD after hearing it played in a record store in Toronto and while I was all over it for maybe the best part of six months after I came home, I soon found myself fully immersed again in the local music scene, and in particular making up for lost time by going to see bands that were emerging or growing in popularity, and it soon began to gather some dust on the shelf. I still enjoy giving it a listen every now and again, but I don’t hold it in as high a regard as I did 12 years ago.

mp3 : Neutral Milk Hotel – King Of Carrot Flowers
mp3 : Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy
mp3 : Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945

JC

National

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #243 : THE NATIONAL (2)

It was back in November 2016 that I pulled together a 10-song ICA featuring The National.

It was a tough task; at the time, the band had released six albums and I decided to go only with tracks from the third, fourth and fifth albums as I felt that was the era when they were truly at the top of their game and nobody came close to matching their quality and consistency over the five-year period concerned.

There were a handful of very positive responses which delighted me. As always, there were suggestions about songs that didn’t make the cut while some folk felt there should have been room for some earlier material along with songs from Trouble Will Find Me, the album released in 2013, the most recent at the time I pulled together the ICA.

The National have since released Sleep Well Best (2017) and I Am Easy To Find (2019), a situation which more than enables me to have a stab at Volume 2. This can also be taken in lieu of me wanting to talk positively about the most recent album and the fact that their live show, outdoors at the Kelvingrove Bandstand in Glasgow during an unrelenting downpour, was another highlight of the gigs in 2019.

None of the tracks on the previous ICA – Secret Meeting, Mistaken For Strangers, Apartment Story, Conversation 16, Abel, Daughters of the Soho Riots, Slow Show, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Start a War, and Mr November – are eligible today.

Side A

1. Fake Empire (from Boxer, 2007)

The difficulty last time round was there were just too many tracks that I wanted to include but couldn’t.  Fake Empire, from 2007’s Boxer went head-to-head with Secret Meeting from 2005’s Alligator for the right to be Track 1 on Side A, and whoever lost out wouldn’t get in as that was the only place they would have fitted.  In the end, Secret Meeting got the nod for the ICA only on account of it being followed immediately by Mistaken for Strangers and I didn’t want to open with the first two songs off Boxer.

Fake Empire gets in this time round with no doubt at all.  If you hadn’t by chance ever heard The National before this song, it offers a perfect introduction of intriguing and inventive music, topped by a voice that melts hearts.

2. Don’t Swallow The Cap (from Trouble Will Find Me, 2013)

Last time round I said that songs from Trouble Will Find Me hadn’t made the cut as I felt the album was just too much like the band going through the motions somewhat – it just didn’t match the really high standards of what had come before.

The gig last summer, and believe me when I say that the rain was of biblical proportions that somehow just added to the occasion, brought home the fact that some of the songs on the album were as good as any throughout their entire career.  Don’t Swallow The Cap came very early in the set, just at the point when the rain got so hard that if the band had been any less than stellar, it would have been tempting to go home.  They had opened with four tracks from the new album and just as everyone was wondering if it was going to be a show in which all the new material was played before old favourites were dusted down…..this gave everyone such a huge lift and it got as loud a cheer as anything else until…..

3. I Need My Girl (from Trouble Will Find Me, 2013)

….a few songs later when they introduced local heroine Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches who sang backing vocals on this and then stayed on for a one-off performance in which she and Matt Berninger paid tribute to the late Scott Hutchison with a rendition of My Backwards Walk, a song by Frightened Rabbit.

It was a two-day stint at Kelvingrove and I consider myself very lucky to have been there on the night this took place (the following night, the show was bathed in glorious sunshine!).  I Need My Girl sounded lovely and it feels just perfect to slow things down at this juncture.

4. Rylan (from I Am Easy To Find, 2019)

I Am Easy To Find was a very different sort of album. There was a bit of electronica (more on that later) but most noticeable was the cast of female musicians playing and singing alongside the regulars.  Matt Berninger even handed over lead vocal duties on a few numbers and it did take a bit of getting used to.  It’s one of those albums that improves on repeated listens, with many of the songs having nuances best appreciated when they become familiar.

Rylan was unusual for the fact that it sounded like vintage-era The National and was quite different from the other 15 tracks.  I took an instant liking to this one and it remains a favourite of all songs from all bands in 2019.

5. England (from High Violet, 2010)

In response to one of the comments last time out, I confessed that if the ICA had been 11 tracks in length, then England would have been included.  It’s one that highlights what’s so good about the band.  It’s a complicated and ambitious number that sees changes in tempo accompanied by all sorts of instrumentation, and a vocal delivery that goes from reflective and morsose to celebratory and joyous.  It’t the sort of song that ends one side of a piece of vinyl and demands that you flip it over.

SIDE B

1. You Had Your Soul With You (from I Am Easy To Find, 2009)

Curveball time. The opening track of the latest album was like nothing they had done before. Initially unsettling, it soon becomes intriguing and magnificent.  The co-vocal on this one comes from Gail Ann Dorsey, familiar to many as part of David Bowie‘s touring band for some 20 years from the mid-90s.  This is a band who have produced some very beautiful slow songs. Just feels right to start the second side with one of their finest.

2. Blank Slate (b-side of Mistaken For Strangers, 2007)

Regular readers will know of my love for the vocal style and delivery of Paul Quinn.  Let’s simply say that the first time I heard this, it took me back.  It’s also a more than decent tune and all told, far too good to have been thrown away as a b-side.

3. The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness (from Sleep Well Beast, 2017)

Sleep Well Beast is a very fine album and I found myself wanting to find room for four tracks but they ended up, as so many songs under consideration for the previous ICA, on the outside looking in as they just didn’t fit into what I think is a well-structured and balanced running order.  This track was the first single lifted from it, preceeding the album by a full four months, and its multi-layered sound gave everyone an idea of what to expect with the subtle use of the trumpet behind the piano, guitar and drums harking back to the classic era albums.  There’s a wee bit of noodling mid-track, but I can forgive them as it just provides a platform for a great vocal finish.  I can’t explain it any other way.

4. Graceless (from Trouble Will Find Me, 2013)

Another which owes its incusion to the Glasgow live show.  Matt Berninger is famed for leaping off the stage singing songs while making his way through an auditorium, but the weather on the night meant that wasn’t on the agenda.

Or so we thought……for the next thing we know he’s donned a rainmac similar to what we were all given free of charge on arrival and he’s on his way, not giving a care for his well-being or safety.  And the band are going full-tilt at one of the fastest and most energetic songs they’ve ever recorded.  He eventually got back to the stage in one piece…..looking quite stunned!

5. Ada (from Boxer, 2007)

The final words come from my dear friend Echorich from his gentle admonishment last time around:-

The National are one of those bands that keeps me interested in homegrown music. I am a shamless Anglophile, if that wasn’t already pretty evident, but there is something about The National that really hits that sweet spot for me. This is a great selection JC. My ICA would have to include Ada from Boxer the use of brass on the song provides a wonderful, timeless quality to the song. It would definitely be my song # 10 to close the set.

He’s right……….he usually is.

JC

Cud

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 12)

A GUEST SERIES

36. Robinson Crusoe – Cud (1990 Imaginary Records)

Released as a single in October 1990 (Reached Number 86)

More OPG today and a slightly extended mix of an old story that some of you will know.

Cud were for a long time, until she fully embraced the long hair and muscle Tshirts of bands like Soul Asylum and Soundgarden, her favourite band of all time.

‘Leggy Mambo’ was a record that we sorted of bonded over and in a daft kind of way ‘Robinson Crusoe’ is a song that I will always associate with her. Largely because after watching her dance to it in a pub in Chatham I could think of little else for an entire summer. It that’s simple. It’s not even a great song, to be honest the best bit is near the end when it sounds like a digital watch alarm gets set off by mistake in the background. The B Side if I remember rightly had a Nightmares on Wax remix of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ but I don’t have it, which is a shame because I think it was quite good.

In 1992, I went to see Cud (supported by The Family Cat) with OPG at a legendary London venue called The Town and Country Club. It ended badly with us splitting up on the platform of Kentish Town Tube Station, after we’d had a row in the pub before the gig (it was over musical differences – seriously). It also saw OPG get arrested for assault (after the gig)

She barely spoke to me the entire gig – Cud finished the gig with a rousing version of ‘Purple Love Balloon’ and filled the room with purple balloons and told everyone to “Go Home and Make Babies”.

Purple Love Balloon

OPG grabbed a balloon and smiled at me, I thought at the time, that maybe the row had been forgotten. It was the kind of smile that made my knees buckle.

We strolled back to the tube station and went down the escalator to the platform, half way down a bloke in a suit came charging down the escalator and pushed us out the way. He obviously wanted to catch the train and was running late, but he was out of order.

In the process of this OPG’s Purple Balloon got burst and she went absolutely mental. She charged after the suit and grabbed him on the platform and punched him in the face. I arrived to see blood on the floor, a scared looking commuter, and two burly looking security guards jogging up the platform.

OPG looked at me as I stood in the corridor between the Northern Line Up and Down and she said “This is all your fault” just before the guards grabbed her. To bemused faces I turned and walked on to the other platform and jumped on the first tube to anywhere. I spent the night at my uncle’s flat in Waterloo (after a midnight call to him) and I didn’t speak to OPG for around a year.

SWC

JC adds..…

I’ve gone digging again.

mp3 : Cud – Robinson Crusoe (Friday mix – Nightmares on Wax)

and just to add…..for those of you who don’t know, most London Underground stations, including Kentish Town, broadcast a pre-recorded three-word message in terms of public safety, warning passengers to be careful when boarding or alighting a train.   One of Cud’s better known songs is named after said safety warning

mp3 : Cud – Mind The Gap (Peel session version)

 

Elvis Costello & The Imposters

BONUS POSTING : GIG REVIEW : ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS

Reviews of the last UK tour undertaken by Elvis Costello back in 2018 were far from positive. The singer would later admit that he had returned to the stage far too soon after cancer treatment and that, from the very first performances he knew he was underperforming and the shows left a lot to be desired.

It was on the back of this that I had been reluctant to shell out what would have been considerable sums of money to get tickets for the 2020 tour, given the name of ‘Just Trust’, partly as a plea to forgive and forget and partly as the 1981 album Trust was going to feature prominently in the set.

The tour subsequently opened in Liverpool and there was an ecstatic 5-star review in The Guardian, with a number of other publications also heaping high praise on things. I sneaked a look at the set list, and noticing that it and the next few shows focussed highly on the older material, began to reconsider things but it was only at the 11th hour, when a work colleague passed on a voucher containing an offer for very cheap tickets, that I put the call into Rachel and we made arrangements to go.

I’ll cut to the chase. It was an amazing night. Maybe not quite up there fully with some of the shows in the early 80s in that the voice isn’t quite the powerful tool it once was, but in terms of a set list and the musical abilities on display, I’m struggling to think of the overall experience ever being bettered, which is no real surprise given that the keyboards of Steve Nieve and the drums of Pete Thomas were so often at the heart of everything. Huge praise also for the peerless Davey Faragher on bass, while it proved to be a genius idea to have the soulful and dynamic vocal talents of Kitten Kuroi and Briana Lee added to the band. Oh, and the frontman offered a reminder that he is a fabulous punk guitarist, whether playing as lead or offering the notes as part of the rhythm.

The opening songs really were a step back in time – Strict Time, Clubland, Green Shirt, Accidents Will Happen and Watch Your Step were hammered out in breathless style. My only concern was that EC seemed to be struggling to hit some notes when he was not singing at full pelt, but the band’s playing was more than compensating, particularly Nieve who seemed, from our seats at the back of the auditorium to be jumping between at least three and possibly more sets of keyboards.

And then they launched into Tokyo Storm Warning, a song that has long been one my all-time favourites. I was anticipating some sort of edited version, but nope, it was actually extended from the album version with EC thrashing magnificently and note-perfect at his guitar throughout while the backing singers demonstrated just how much they were ready to bring to the night.

If that had proved to be the highlight of the night, then I would have gone home happy. In the end, it probably just scraped into the Top 10.

Musically and visually (as there was a clever and inventive ever-changing background throughout), Watching The Detectives will be my biding memory of the main set. It was a genuinely breath taking piece of musical theatre in which EC was front lit and the reminder of the band were in near darkness as a series of film noir posters flashed up high over everyone’s heads, all of which were on display for maybe five seconds at the most. It was one of those things that if you were watching on TV, you would pause and rewind to try and made sure you captured everything that was going on.

Other memorable moments included (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, Pump It Up, Radio Radio, High Fidelity, Alison and Everyday I Write The Book, the latter extending to something like a seven-minute version with each musician/singer given their own opportunity to individually shine.

And then came the encore.

A haunting take on Shipbuilding in which EC sang part of it away from the microphone, and in doing so brought a few lumps to a few throats. And as the cheers got louder and louder, EC again strapped on his guitar and to huge acclaim, he played those distinctive and off-kilter notes which provide the musical introduction to I Want You.

As I mentioned earlier, I had sneaked a look at the setlists from the first four shows on this tour. Glasgow was the first time that I Want You had been aired. It was, as my North American friends often proclaim, awesome.

The show ended with the double-whammy of Oliver’s Army and (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, with an anti-war backdrop that seamlessly led into a lovely tribute to EC’s grandparents and their participation in the Great War of 1914-18.

2 hours and 10 minutes after he first set foot on stage, it was all over. If there was the occasional hint of a missed note through what could very well be a throat infection, then what was happening across the rest of the stage made up for it…..besides, when your front man is 65 years old and has not long kicked cancer’s butt, a few allowances have to be made.

The only thing…..this was such a fabulous show that I’d be nervous about going along next time round in case it didn’t quite live up to this one. But I suppose, when it comes down to it, I should always just trust EC and his Imposters.

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Watching The Detectives
mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Tokyo Storm Warning

JC

Luke Haines

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF LUKE HAINES (22)

 

Just when you thought the solo output couldn’t get any more surreal or off-the-wall bonkers……

2015 saw the release of Adventures In Dementia. A 10” vinyl release with just six tracks packed into less than 15 minutes, it’s more akin to an EP than a fully-blown album. The concept this time, and I still shake my head in disbelief as I type these words, is that of a Mark E Smith impersonator towing a caravan, only for his vehicle(s) to collide with a car driven by Ian Stuart, the late singer of the neo-Nazi band called Skrewdiver (me neither!!).

I’m not entirely convinced that the concept really hangs together and perhaps it is something that would have made more sense (or at least a semblance of sense) if caught live at the outset when it was part of a performance within a wider arts-related event, curated by someone whose main gallery describes his output as being “infused with a cunning media savviness that deftly navigates between product, messaging, and desire.”

You’ll come across all sorts of musical styles on Adventures….., not least a kazoo-led instrumental version of the hymn Jerusalem, a tune that a number of folk have suggested by adopted as the national anthem should England ever find itself wholly independent and not part of the UK……,none of which hark back whatsoever to The Auteurs or Black Box Recorder. Lyrically, there’s more than a passing nod to the seemingly free-style stuff that Mark E Smith was famed for – i.e., it leaves listeners scratching their heads and wondering what the hell he’s on about – and, as ever with any Luke Haines release, there’s a few folk who are provoked, nor least the Skrewdriver vocalist (who in fact passed away in 1993) and the comedian David Baddiel, whose material, shows and writings over the years have divided opinion.

As you’ve probably worked out by now, it’s a release I’m not too sure about. I’ve often wondered whether it was put out to antagonise and test Haines’s fanbase, given that the vinyl went for the same price as a full-blown album and that a couple of tracks were no more than throwaway novelties. It’s certainly the one I go back to least of all, probably not having listened to it more than three or four times all told. This might give you an idea of what I’m trying to convey:-

mp3 : Luke Haines – Cats That Look Like MES

Oh and ignore the sticker thay adorns the sleeve in the image above.  There were no singles lifted from Adventures in Dementia although Caravan Man was given a seperate digital release.

Later that same year, Luke Haines released another solo album. I’ll make things easy by lifting direct from the website of his record label:-

Beneath the surface of the UK lies a vast and secret network of abandoned nuclear bunkers. Sometime in the future the population of Great Britain has retreated into these bunkers. The reason for this exodus is not clear. Nuclear attack? Chemical attack? Germ warfare? Or perhaps even free will. What is known is that beneath the surface, in the bunkers, people live the utopian dream, communicating wordlessly via a highly developed new subconsciousness. There is no need for money and food is plentiful. The old gods have been forgotten. People now offer prayer to a piece of silverware, referred to as the ‘New Pagan Sun’, found in a bunker at Stoke on Trent, near to the location of the 1980 Darts World Championship final between Eric Bristow and Bobby George.

British Nuclear Bunkers is the new album by Luke Haines. It was recorded using entirely analogue synthesisers. Apart from an occasional vocal the only organic sound used is a recording of Camden Borough Control Bunker being attacked late at night by Luke Haines.

Maximum Electronic Rock and Roll.

British Nuclear Bunkers will be released by Cherry Red Records on October 16th 2015. It will be available on CD, Vinyl (with a free 7′ single) and the usual digital outlets.

Once again, it’s a fairly short piece of work, with its ten tracks taking up around 30 minutes of your life. It’s not hugely accessible but then again, it’s not totally unlistenable. It’s a work that hardcore fans of electronica would possibly lavish with praise, highlighting its merits with comparisons to others in the genre, but I’ll have to hold my hands up and say that I know as much about the folk-songs of Moldovia as I do about music which is released on a label such as Ghost Box.

I do, however, find myself switching in on and giving it a listen through the headphones when I’m looking for something to help me get over an unexpected bout of insomnia as it has an occasionally soothing ability.

Here’s the two tracks that came as the free 7″ single:-

mp3 : Luke Haines – Electronic Tone Poem
mp3 : Luke Haines – Hack Green

Tune in next week for the final part of this series. It’s actually one that borders on mainstream!

JC

 

Malcolm Ross

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #202 : MALCOLM ROSS

Malcolm Ross was the subject of ICA #143 back in October 2017. These words are cribbed from that piece:-

The only man who has recording credits on all three of the Scottish bands who signed to the original Postcard Records.

Malcolm Ross first came to prominence as guitarist-extraordinaire with Edinburgh band Josef K, whose spiky and angular material, combined with a rough and ready production, laid out the template for so many indie groups who would later come to some level of prominence in the middle part of the 80s.

Josef K messily broke up in 1982, but Malcolm was never short of work thanks to all sorts of offers from his contemporaries across the Scottish music scene. Edwyn Collins made him an integral part of Orange Juice after the initial line-up of that band had imploded, (by intergral, that includes songwriting and lead vocal contributions), while Roddy Frame, having recognised that, despite his own unique talents, a second guitarist was essential for the live setting drafted him into Aztec Camera initially for touring purposes and later into the studio.

Malcolm also continued to work with David Weddell and Ronnie Torrance, the rhythm section of his old band and contributed on the song-writing side to the short-lived The Happy Family whose vocalist Nick Currie would go on to later enjoy a lengthy solo career under the name of Momus.

He spent the latter half of the 80s and much of the 90s as a musician for hire, including stints with Barry Adamson, Edwyn Collins, Blancmange and Paul Haig, as well as contributing to a number of films either in an advisory or performance capacity. He also found time to record some solo material or as part of combos, releasing a handful of singles and albums on a number of different indie labels based in Germany and America. He’s been less busy in the 21st century but his name can be found on releases by Nectarine No.9 and The Low Miffs, always bringing a touch of class and quality to the recordings.

He was one of the key folk involved in telling the story of Big Gold Dream, the first of the documentaries about the Scottish indie scene made by Grant McPhee. This was a work that received its world premiere in Edinburgh in June 2015, after which there was a live performance by a specially convened ‘super-group’ consisting of past members of Subway Sect, Fire Engines and The Rezillos along with Malcolm Ross who raced through a hugely enjoyable 10-song set from the era, all of which only demonstrated just how great a guitarist he still is. He’s no longer a full-time musician, instead making his living as a taxi driver in the city that he has called home for so much of his life. Another example of how the music industry failing to recognise and reward its greatest talents.

Here’s a fantastic solo single from 1993:-

mp3 : Malcolm Ross – Low Shot

Worth mentioning that the great man is accompanied on this 45 by Steven Daly (ex-Orange Juice) on drums and Robert Vickers (ex Go-Betweens) on bass.

JC

Yung

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 11)

A GUEST SERIES

37. Nobody Cares – Yung (2015 Tough Love Records)

Released in March 2015 (Did not Chart)

I have tried to keep this list to tracks that I haven’t ever written about before but sometimes, tracks are just too brilliant to talk about time after time.

The first time I ever heard ‘Nobody Cares’ I was sat in my lounge with Tim Badger. We had just got back from seeing The Vaccines in Plymouth and had on the way back been discussing the idea of starting our own blog. That blog eventually saw the light of day a few months later under the When You Can’t Remember Anything moniker.

It wasn’t always going to be called that though. In fact right up the day before we launched the blog the name was undecided. I wanted to call it ‘Right Through The Groove’ a weak tribute to a Propellerheads song, Tim wanted to call it ‘Balanced On A Knife Edge’ a weak tribute to something related to his beloved Tottenham Hotspur. We kept changing the Title Page when the other one wasn’t looking.

Eventually we choose the name, in true WYCRA style, from a random quote site and selected the last five words from the end of the first page. It seemed kind of apt so we stuck with it.

Just for information we also discounted the following names using the same random quote page

“Candy All Over the place”

“Can’t Walk Away from It”

“Where would you Put it?”

“Hearing joy from your Neighbours”

None of these seem as good as When You Can’t Remember Anything

Yung are a guitar band from Aarhus in Denmark, and ‘Nobody Cares is taken from their debut UK release ‘Alter’ an EP of six tracks that bristle with anger and shimmer with glorious brilliance all at the same time.

Shitty Mind

‘Nobody Cares’ has this astonishing flow about it. It starts all jingly jangly (and fact fans sounds really similar to the opening bars of ‘Eat My Goal’ by Collapsed Lung) before descending into an onslaught of guitars which are met by a vocal that sounds like it sung through a broken microphone. It is one of my favourite songs of the last decade. Badger loved it as well.

SWC

 

 

Wild Indians

PENNILESS

From the notes that come with the Big Gold Dreams boxset:-

The duo of vocalist Fiona Carlin and guitarist Kevin Low made two singles as The Wild Indians, on which Pop Wallpaper’s rhythm section of bassist Myles Raymond and drummer Les Cook played. The second, a 12” made up of three tracks of designer pop, was produced by John McVay of Visitors and engineered by Chic Medley of Perth-based electro-pop band Fiction Factory, with whom Carlin would sing with on their second album track, Victor Victorious. As a designer, Low’s work went on to grace many a record sleeve, including ones for The Delmontes and The Blue Nile. Low worked as a theatre photographer for many years, and is now a painter of note.

Beyond this, it is quite hard to track down any further info – they are one of the few Scottish bands from the era who don’t get listed in The Great Scots Musicography by Martin C Strong, published in 2002, and to which I havce turned on many an occasion to fact-check/confirm or indeed get the basics!

The lead track from the second single is included on BGD and has proven to be one of my favourites of those I didn’t previously know:-

mp3 : The Wild Indians – Penniless

Turns out that Kevin Low has also posted up, on you tube, a rarely-seen promo for the single:-

I turned to Discogs and found info on the band’s first single. There were different personnel involved judging by the credits list:-

Fiona – Vocals & sax
Kevin – Guitar
Kay – Bass
Bo – Drums

As such, it would appear the rhythm section of Pop Wallpaper stepped in as replacements for Kay and Bo.

Sorry about the lack of info, but it’s the best I can do.

I do have some info on Pop Wallpaper, and indeed have a 12″ single of theirs in the collection, but that’s a story for a later installment in the long-running Saturday Songs from Scotland series

JC

Rainer Ptacek

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #242 : RAINER PTACEK

A GUEST POSTING by HYBRID SOC PROF
Our Correspondent Under Michigan’s Lake-effect Clouds

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM: Rainer Ptacek

My mom died from her second bout with breast cancer in 1994, the night between Dec. 30 and 31. She apparently didn’t want to see another year… but also waited until Diane and I had gone back to Massachusetts for the New Year. Still haven’t resolved my feelings about not being there… and/or how to understand the prospect of “intent” in that situation.

Nine months later, in September ’95, when Son Volt released Trace, I almost collapsed when I heard “Windfall.” I’d pretty much kept it together in order to complete my PhD and begin to look for a university position and then this song, Jay’s lyrics, his voice, the elegiatic tone… unceasing tears, it was great medicine.

Around that time, in a different context, I’d been one of the relatively few people who’d gotten their hands on Giant Sand’s CD, Glum, when it came out for the first of about four different times, in 1994… only to have Imago fold and the record disappear for a few years. I’d learned that some of what was going on in the writing and recording of the great, but strange, set of songs was that the band – and Howe Gelb, especially – had been helping Rainer, his wife, and daughter deal with his brain cancer, which Rainer beat! That battle and experience were part of what generated the title song and the staggeringly magnificent “Happenstance.”

So, learning of Howe’s devotion to Rainer, I read up on him and searched for efforts in his back catalog – I already had a vague sense of the parts associated with early Giant Sand and The Band of Blacky Ranchette. I discovered there wasn’t much, mostly two records, seven years apart, with Das Combo. At the same time, it was clear that Rainer was criminally unknown.

I could recount Rainer’s history – immigrant kid from East Germany, mostly grew up in Chicago, moved to Tucson, was central in all kinds of ways to the indie music scene, was apparently friends with everyone, etc. – but it’s not really hard to find (he has an Official Site) if you’re more interested and, tbh, I don’t want to write it.

To help pay for his medical costs – how I loathe the fact that the US doesn’t have national health care (didn’t I say that in relation to the Vic Chesnutt ICA?) – a remarkable collection of musicians Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Emmylou Harris and PJ Harvey, Jonathan Richman and Evan Dando, and Vic Chesnutt and Victoria Williams (the latter two of whom had benefitted from similar efforts tied to the Sweet Relief Foundation) got together and recorded a CD titled The Inner Flame. Rainer was able to play on two of the cuts – they are included here.

You see, after having relearned to use his body, and talk, Rainer had taught himself to play the guitar again, to write songs again, to perform again, to record again. And within a few months of the release of The Inner Flame, the cancer returned, and he died soon thereafter. Some. Things. Just. Aren’t. Right.

If we bracket the fact that the first nine songs on this ICA are REALLY good, mostly blues tinged, some louder, others softer, all intricate… and the man could play steel guitar and electric, what all this has to do with anything is that Rainer wrote the tenth song here. It’s to his wife and daughter. I don’t know when he wrote it, e.g., during the first or second bout with cancer, but it’s a goodbye. The most moving song I’ve ever heard. It makes me cry every time I hear it. So that’s why this ICA.

Rainer was a blues-rocker and the first song – from a live recording, in 1985, at the University of Arizona TV station – is a singular version of Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil.” When the band kicks in – oh, that bass – the song finds a deep groove and leaps ahead. “Round and Round” is also live, this time from a tour with Giant Sand in 1986 and part of a re-release/re-recording of The Valley of Rain called Beyond the Valley of Rain (my apologies for not snipping the crowd/interstitial conversation at the end.)

You can hear 1970s ZZ Top in “The Mush Mind Blues”… and, while “Life is Fine” is Rainer’s tune, it returns us to the world of Robert Johnson, only electric guitar instead of steel rules the day. “One Man Crusade” has only one flaw and that is the breathy 1980s organ underneath the cut… I’ve tossed in – as a bonus at the end – Kris McKay’s (see the Michael Hall ICA) version of this wonderful love song. It just might be better than the original.

“21 Years” is the collaboration with Robert Plant, from The Inner Flame… it slows the original down just a tad (as I recall) and deepens the emotions a bit. I’m kind of proud of the transition to “If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day” since – for all the seriousness of the lyrics – I can’t imagine anyone playing the song doing so without smiling. It’s got a locomotive beat and, while it probably doesn’t, feels to me like it accelerates all the way through the finish. It must have been a blast to play “(Making the) Trains (Run on Time),” as well, and that takes us into Rainer’s collaboration with Howe on “The Inner Flame” – their voices always strike me as perfect for one another.

saddest song I heard,
was so beautiful,
and in this light,
you look just like her…

hold me, hold me babe,
just hold me,
keep me warm

now don’t get wet
take a little step
you ain’t there yet
so take another step

everything
should come
from the deepest place

what do I
what do I know about love?

this story’s out of place
this story’s out of fear
how’d you come in here
how’d you get past the gates

all these coded messages
and then you come and give me a hug

love is a crucible
and it’s open to all
you can bring your valuables
jump in and let them fall

in this burning sun,
we are all one

that’s all I
that’s all I know about love
that’s all I
that’s all I know about love
that’s all I
that’s all I know about love

Those lyrics, the last two-thirds of “The Inner Flame” serve as the introduction to “The Farm.”

The majesty of music is the extent to which it can move us, draw us forward, hold us still, wake us up, help us sleep, leave us bereft with joy and joyously bereft, connect us, release us, and – through moments of sublime wonder – facilitate awe, revelry and flourishing. Rainer gave me, and I hope he gives you, that.

HSP

1. Rainer & Das Combo – Me and the Devil – Studio A, Nov. 12, 1985 (via Youtube)
2. Rainer Ptacek – Round and Round (Gronigen, 1986) – Beyond the Valley of Rain (Giant Sand, 2015)
3. Rainer & Das Combo – The Mush Mind Blues – The Texas Tapes (1993)
4. Rainer & Das Combo – Life is Fine – Barefoot Rock (1986)
5. Rainer – One Man Crusade – Nevermind: Glitterhouse is 20 (2004)
6. Rainer, Robert Plant – 21 Years – The Inner Flame: A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek (1997)
7. Rainer & Das Combo – If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day – Barefoot Rock (1986)
8. Rainer & Das Combo – (Making the) Trains (Run On Time) – The Texas Tapes (1993)
9. Giant Sand, Rainer – The Inner Flame – The Inner Flame: A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek (1997)
10. Rainer – The Farm (live, 1997) – The Best of Rainer: 17 Miracles (2006)

Bonus: Kris McKay – One Man Crusade – The Inner Flame: A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek (1997)

JC adds……

Actually, there is nothing that can or should be added to this ICA.  Thanks for sharing such amazing memories, my friend.

INHEAVEN

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 10)

A GUEST SERIES

38. Regeneration – INHEAVEN (2015 Cult Records)

Released August 2015 (Did not Chart, although I can’t confirm this)

Imagine this – you are in a band (called something cool like The Edith Piafs or something). You are from somewhere that is a bit edgy but a bit arty as well in South East London and you have just played a breathlessly brilliant gig at a local venue.

The next day a review appear of that gig written by some coked up music industry spaffer who refers to your band as ‘Indie’s Next Big Thing’. By the end of the day, your grainy self-recorded You Tube video of your band live at the Crappers Arms has had three million views and you are chased out of your local Wilkinsons Store by hordes of screaming fans, all wanting to just ‘stare at you’.

That, is pretty much, what happened to INHEAVEN, I mean I’ve embellished bits of it (ok, most of it, the South East London bit is right) but in 2014 this band were hyped beyond belief by certain elements of the music industry. By 2017 on the eve of the release of their debut album, a drooling NME journalist declared the album as “indie rocks, most dangerously exciting debut…” which doesn’t even make sense, how can a debut album be ‘dangerously exciting…’ It’s not a roller coaster with no seatbelts it’s a 36 minute long collection of musical tracks.

Usually the hyping of a band makes most sensible music fans run a mile.

However, INHEAVEN had something intriguing. Maybe it was the fact that they insisted on having their name spelt IN CAPITALS. Maybe it was the fact that Julian Casablancas the drainpipe jeans wearing frontman of still just about cool, The Strokes, declared them “the most exciting band in the UK” and immediately signed them for his own record company (that would be Cult Records). Maybe it is the fact that the noise that they make is utterly infectious.

Actually it is the last one. They make a bloody fantastic racket. Or rather they did. Their debut album failed to set the world alight despite its ‘critical acclaim’ and in 2018 they called it a day.

‘Regeneration’ was the bands debut single and it was released in the summer of 2015 and its excellent, a guitar shredding ear splitting onslaught of feedback and shouty vocals all about “just wanting to fuck around”.. It’s a glorious mess.

The B Side is pretty decent as well

Slow

SWC