Everything But The Girl

MONDAY MORNING…COMING DOWN (3)

Week 3, and hopefully by now you’ll know the script. If not, go back 14 days for an explanation and 7 days to see who else has been in the series.

Going with a cover today:-

mp3 : Everything But The Girl – English Rose

From All Mod Cons, but I think Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt‘s version, which was recorded for NME compilation tape Racket Packet in 1983, beats it hands down. Paul Weller may well have thought so too, given his approach to EBTG to record The Paris Match when he got The Style Council underway.

JC

Paul Haig

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 15)

So much promise within the press notes to accompany the release of the single….but when it failed to shift copies in any significant numbers, Circa took the decision to cut Paul Haig adrift, and in doing so chose not to release the album, despite Paul and many others thinking it was as good as anything in his career

All I’ve got to offer today is the 18 Feb release with the vocals provided by Voice of Reason:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Flight X (New School Mix)
mp3 : Paul Haig – Flight X (Music School Instrumental)
mp3 : Paul Haig – Flight X (Mantronik Mix)

The decison to put the album on the shelf really was the lowest point in a career which had promised much but inexplicably never ignited with the general public.

Some old friends did,however, come to his rescue……as next week’s edition will show.

JC

Jack Butler

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #147 : JACK BUTLER

Hailing from Stirling (a town in Central Scotland about equidistant from Glasgow and Edinburgh), Jack Butler were a four-piece consisting of Liam Kelly (vocals and guitar), Chris Lowdon (guitar), Allan Conroy (bass) and Greg Moodie (drums).

They released a debut 3-track CD single in 2006 on Whimsical Records, and as I said when I featured the band on the blog back in November 2013, lead track Velvet Prose did have a wee bit of the standard indie-pop sound that was all over the charts at the time but I was more taken by the two b-sides which took me back a fair bit to some of the best bits of the 80s. Candles seems influenced by the early Zoo Records stuff of the Teardrop Explodes and the Bunnymen with the angular guitar work found on Josef K songs. But it’s He Got No Game! which is by far the standout – it sounds as if the early Associates had reformed with Alan Rankine to the fore and a reasonable impression of Billy Mackenzie too….

mp3 : Jack Butler – Velvet Prose
mp3 : Jack Butler – Candles
mp3 : Jack Butler – He Got No Game!

A debut album would eventually surface in 2009, for which a writer with one Scottish-based tabloid paper went nuts, but it wasn’t enough to propel the boys to fame and fortune.

JC

Iceage

GREAT DANES

The boys at The Sound of Being OK, and in particular SWC, have been extolling the virtues of Iceage for quite a few years.

Some of you might well be asking who? Well, the fact of the matter is that SWC is a rather talented writer, so much so that he once held a gig with Melody Maker before growing up and joining the real world, getting married, having kids and embarking on a career in which every day is a true-life adventure.

Oh you mean Iceage? Sorry…………….

Iceage are a Danish punk rock band from Copenhagen. They were formed in 2008, when the members of the band averaged 17 years old. Elias Bender Rønnenfelt does vocals and guitar, Johan Surrballe Wieth plays guitar and provides backing vocals, Jakob Tvilling Pless plucks the bass and Dan Kjær Nielsen bangs the drums.

Debut album New Brigade was issued by Danish label Tambourhinoceros and by Dais Records in the United States in early 2011. They created a bit of a buzz, leading to them signing with Matador Records for whom they have released a further three albums, including Beyondless which made a number of ‘best of’ lists at the end of 2018.

I took the plunge and bought a CD copy of Beyondless with some of my Santa money. It wasn’t quite what I expected, being something of a curate’s egg with, once or twice, the bombast coming across a bit like Scandic Kasabian (which sounds like a condition for which you should go seek advice from your doctor).

On the other hand, it is quite special in other places, bringing to mind the ambition and variety of early Bad Seeds, but with increased levels of power and energy, thanks in part to a crisp production, but mainly as a result of the sonic vocal delivery from Rønnenfelt, whose influences feel like many – I could, at varying times, detect, Iggy Pop, Ian Curtis, Peter Murphy and Andrew Eldritch. But I have to quickly say that Beyondless is not a gloom-laden gothic record….how can it be when so many moments are lit up with horns, piano, strings and impish percussion?

The album opens with two jaunty and, dare I say it, danceable, tracks that I’m willing to now rate as among my favourite bits of music from 2018:-

mp3 : Iceage – Hurrah
mp3 : Iceage – Pain Killer

The latter is one of those on which the horns are used to great effect, as is the guest backing vocal from American starlet Sky Ferreira (and yes, I had to look her up to find out more…..if I had teenage kids, I could have just asked them).

Things don’t quite match the 1-2 pounding that comes straight from the bell, and indeed Under The Sun, the third track on the album, proves to be one of the weakest and least memorable moments, not even providing that annoying Kasabian-style hook to hang something upon (such as ill-defined and inexplicable prejudice), leading to a what I initially felt was a bit of a mid-album dip.

But….here’s the thing…..it’s an album with a number of songs that, on the first few listens, don’t seem to amount to all that much but ultimately prove to be pieces of music which provide an enormous amount of satisfaction.  I think my initial issue was that I kept waiting on something as ‘light’ and accessible as the opening couple of songs, but that never quite happened. Instead, there’s an ever-changing tempo, groove and mood throughout which had an initially unsettling effect, especially as the band was more or less new to me, but which proved to be a strength on the fourth, fifth and successive listens. It can be difficult nowadays, what with trying to write a daily blog and lead a busy life at work and play, to afford an album the time and space it sometimes needs to make the impact. I’m glad I did it with this one.

There is one other genuinely jaw dropping part of Beyondless anmd it’s when they go all cabaret on us:-

mp3 : Iceage – Thieves Like Us

Great fun.  And I will more than likely get round to getting the earlier albums.  In the meantime….

“Dear SWC

How about an ICA?

Yours most sincerely

JC”

Electronic

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #205 : ELECTRONIC

WE DON’T NEED TO ARGUE, WE JUST NEED EACH OTHER

An Electronic ICA

An abridged potted history.

Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner first worked together when the man from The Smiths/The The contributed guitar to Atom Rock/Triangle, a single on Factory Records by Quando Quango which the man from New Order was co-producing.

Five years on and the increasing tensions within New Order led to Bernard contemplating a solo record but instead he called on Johnny and they came up with the idea of Electronic, thinking of issuing instrumental house music for clubs via white labels only. Next thing you know, they’re talking to Neil Tennant and found that he was interested in helping out…but with his distinctive vocal delivery, there was no chance of anonymity.

First single Getting Away With It was released in 1989, going to #12 in the UK charts but more importantly in terms of the developement of the band, it was a hit in the USA and led to them being invited to support Depeche Mode on a stadium tour in 1990.

By the following year, the initial ideas had crystalized into a self-titled debut LP which really showcased their talents and abilities, with a largely upbeat package, from which two more chart singles – Get The Message and Feel Every Beat were lifted. It was an album filled with catchy melodies and choruses, with plenty for fans of the old bands to acknowledge and love.

They then went off and did things with their bands, getting back together in 1992 for Disappointed, a single which again utilised Neil Tennant.

The next burst of activity was in 1996/97 with the album Raise the Pressure (which spawned three hit singles) and then 1999 saw the release of Twisted Tenderness, an album which they made as a more conventional 4-piece band thanks to contributions from Jimi Goodwin of Doves and Ged Lynch of Black Grape on bass and drums respectively.

Three albums worth of top-class material has made for a few tough choices for this ICA….it’s packed with singles but that’s because the boys and their record labels (Factory for album #1 and Parlophone thereafter) knew what would sound huge blasting out of the radio.

SIDE A

1. Getting Away With It

The debut. One reviewer said “It’s nothing shocking, nothing that surprising, it’s just that every time you think you’re tired of it you can’t help flipping back the stylus to catch that chorus”. And that’s what makes it such a work of genius and a timeless piece of art.

2. Tighten Up

The third track on the debut album. One reviewer said “..the devastating marriage of Smiths guitars and New Order technology that nervously excited fans the globe over were anticipating from Electronic. Imagine a sublime splicing of ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ and ‘Dream Attack’, then multiply by 12” Indeed.

3. Forbidden City

The comeback 45 in 1996…quite different in sound to what had come before with Johnny very much recreating the guitar sounds of his first band at a time when his old mucker’s solo career was in a bit of disarray after the panning given to Southpaw Grammar. It felt like a two-fingered salute in many ways…and it sounded sublime.

4. Lucky Bag

The b-side to the debut single….and the only time that they came close to realising the initial idea of Italian house music. It’s unlike any other Electronic track, and while I won’t make any claims about it being among their ten best, it just seems to fit into the ICA at this stage quite perfectly. Little-known fact…Lucky Bag was used, for a couple of years, as the theme tune for a weekly showing of Scottish football highlights on the BBC.

5. Get The Message

From the debut album and the long-awaited follow-up single to Getting Away With It. It’s been said that Johnny was reluctant to layer multiple guitar parts as he was really unsure of recreating old stuff when he was so keen to move on, but persuaded otherwise by Bernard for which we should all be hugely grateful. Backing vocals are courtesy of Denise Johnson, probably best known for her work with Primal Scream

SIDE B

1. Disappointed (7″ mix)

The involvement of Neil Tennant in the early days led to the inevitable christening of Electronic as a super-group, which was used in a derogatory way by those who didn’t like them. This was the stand alone single from 1996 and in reaching #6, gave them their biggest UK hit. I’m thinking most casual listeners just thought it was a Pet Shop Boys effort.

2. Vivid (radio edit)

If, more than occasionally, the songs were reminiscent of the other bands they were all involved in, then there’s little doubt that the lead-off single from Twisted Tenderness is more than a nod to The The, with Jonny hitting the harmonica early doors. Again, not necessarily one of their best ten songs, but important to have it in an ICA to demonstrate what it was all about.

3. Idiot Country two

The original Idiot Country provided an adrenalin-filled rush to open the debut album….a couple of years later, it was given the remix treatment with some added dialogue and backing vocals as well as an extra 80-odd seconds. It was provided as the b-side to Disappointed and went some way to lessening the pain of paying £4 for a CD single!

4. Gangster

Track six on the debut album and the one which provides a reminder of Technique, the last truly indispensable album ever released by New Order, complete with a lyric in which Bernard makes a number of torturous rhymes.

5. Feel Every Beat (7″ mix)

A five-minute version of this closes the debut album and tempting as it was to use that here, I have to bow to the remixing skills of Stephen Hague who chops about a minute off the original and helps deliver something which captures perfectly what Jonny and Bernard wanted Electronic to sound like and what they wanted a band to be….’we don’t need to argue, we just need each other’

JC

 

Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij

SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 19)

A GUEST POSTING by SWC

from The Sound of Being OK

Hamilton Leithauser has been in two of the greatest bands that have ever been. Firsty he was in The Recoys and then when they disintegrated into ashes he formed The Walkmen and changed rock music for ever.

Then in 2013 he announced that the Walkmen were going on an indefinite hiatus (this was November 2013). Leithauser was never one to rest upon his laurels and decided to record some solo material. Then a few years back he teamed up with Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend (another band seemingly on a hiatus) to make an album of lofi torch songs. This appears to be a marriage made in indie heaven. One of the one side you have Rostam, who is one of the most talented and innovative musicians around. On the other hand you have Hamilton Leithauser, one of the greatest lyricists of the modern age. He writes tremendous songs, in his early days they were bitter and angry tales of rejection (see ‘The Rat’), isolation (See ‘While I Shovel the Snow’) and love (see most of the ‘Lisbon’ album).

The album Hamilton made with Rostam is called ‘I Had a Dream That You Were Mine’ which is utterly wonderful. It has brilliant songs written in Rostam’s bedroom (the same one he has had since he was a teenager). The plan was simple to take Hamilton’s voice, that distinctive raw croon of his and his incredible lyrics and set them loose on a range new styles. It has songs that are sad, songs with characters, songs that are happy, songs about love, songs about life. The pick of the bunch if you ask me is ‘You Ain’t That Young Kid’. A song so steeped in storytelling that you may as well put a cowboy hat on it and call it ‘Dylanesque’. You get a harmonica, then a slide guitar, then a choir of voices, then a harpsichord and a steel drum. Its utterly marvellous, and it tells a story that is highly visual and full of sentimental filters.

‘You Ain’t That Young Kid’ tells a story about a man and a woman whose relationship has just ended. The man is with a band and he is struggling to perform a certain song that he wrote for his girl

On the first night in June
In a very crowded room
The band was going on
When you told me we were done
So I couldn’t play that song
Cause I wrote it about you
Yeah it always seems to come back to you

(You see, here within seconds of the song starting there are strands forming. We know its June, the year is unknown. They are in a crowded room and a band is coming on – his band – but she has just told him that they are over and now that song, probably their best song or most popular song is meaningless.)

But I don’t have to tell you
Cause you’ve heard it all by now
I’m just one single voice in a choir
You won’t hear me anymore
Just a bassist thumbing a tune
But that rumble reminds me of you

(There’s the rejection and loneliness I spoke of, but that line about the ‘bassist thumbing a tune’, man that’s evocative, and even then the ‘rumble’ reminds him of everything that has been lost).

All the flash, all the fire
All the foggy drinks perspired
We were tucked into a booth
In a far corner of the room
And the music is loud
And it’s just bringing me down
Cause I know that I lost you

(and then we are in the corner of the room, the music is loud, so they are in a booth – I mean I can see them, I can see the bar, I can see hear the music, I smell the smoke, and the taste the foggy drinks. The mood of our hero is getting worse, everything is getting him down. So he does the only thing he can – he leaves).

The parking lot was dark
And I walked out of the bar
Found some folks hanging around
And we’re on some highway now
And the windows are down
And I never felt so sad
So I just tried not to think about you

(so he is out into the parking lot – that’s a car park – and into his car – and now I’m thinking should he even be driving? His drinks have been foggy. But hang on, ‘we’re on some highway…’. Who is he with. Has he hooked up with the folks he found hanging around. What has become a song about a break up is now all about something totally different. This is about forgetting everything. At least we know now he isn’t driving.)

Oh the final spot of sunlight
Is dying on the dash
On some way too long road with some way too young folks
If the man that you knew
Honestly wasn’t me
Tell me honey: who could that be?

(That line about the final spot of sunlight is wonderful, you can see it. The horizon with the speck of sun, you can picture him, probably in a 4×4 or a truck, him in the back with people who he doesn’t feel comfortable there is probably some beer in cans of course. The road to reflection via rejection. )

There’s a letter I wrote
That I’ll never send
Where I admit my weakness
And I ask to see you again
Yeah I heard you were sorry
By someone you call a friend
In a letter I wrote
That I’ll never send

(The song sort of takes a different route here, even the singing is different, the beat is slower – we are going into memory territory here, dreamlike almost. He’s reflecting about the past and previous mistakes – but here’s the clever thing – he sounds like he is drunk when he’s singing it. That’s really clever because we’ve all sat down and written drunken letters to lost loves and the ripped them up again in the morning)

Cause there’s ash in my heart
Where I used to burn
The young voices have vanished
The old whispers return
But there’s no one to hurt me
And there’s no one to hurt
Cause there’s ash in my heart
Where I used to burn

(The little mandolin (is it a mandolin?) that tinkles away through this bit is marvellous, as Hamilton continues to croon away, about voices and whispers, I think this is just a metaphor for the flame of love dying or something but the significant thing here is the drum and the way that pounds in, like the dreamlike bit is finished )

Pictures of us dancing
From a lifetime, a lifetime ago
You in a green dress and I in a tweed vest
In a blurry gang of ghosts
Pictures of us dancing
From a thousand years ago
Late enough to kiss you
Still too early to go

(I see an attic and Hamilton hunched over an old suitcase and sunshine fills a bit of the room through a small window which is probably cracked. We get this scene of him holding a picture when the lady is wearing a green dress and he is wearing (and its wonderfully rhymed) a tweed vest, in much happier times).

mp3 : Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij – You Ain’t That Young Kid

Outstanding.

SWC

Chic, Manic Street Preachers

CLAP YOUR HANDS, CLAP YOUR HANDS

There are days when I just want to wake up to something upbeat and glorious…..something which makes me think of sunshine and summertime and not the bleak midwinter that I’m looking out onto when I pull back the curtain, wondering whether I’m going to get down the hill to the railway station with falling over and possibly breaking my ankle, all the while wondering how late and overcrowded the train will be.

I played this on such a day last week and felt a whole lot better:-

mp3 : Chic – Everybody Dance (12” mix)

Takes me back to Sunday nights in a draughty church hall. I might have been happier in the bedroom that I shared with my brothers listening to my new wave 45s, but you had to get yourself down and on the floor of St Joe’s if you wanted the girls to take notice of you.

I didn’t know until gathering some background info that the tune had supposedly been borrowed somewhat by a Welsh beat combo on a single released in 2010:-

mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – (It’s Not War) Just the End of Love

Hmmm…there is a bit at the start where it can’t be denied, but it’s not a blatant rip-off is it?

JC

David Kitt

MONDAY MORNING…COMING DOWN (2)

David Kitt was born in Dublin in 1975 and he graduated from the famous Trinity College in his home city after a course in music technology during which he recorded and mixed the songs for his debut release, Small Moments, on a digital eight-track in his bedroom.

His next two albums, The Big Romance (2001) and Square One (2003) were absolutely massive in Ireland, and it was while I was visiting Dublin just after the release of the latter that I first came upon him, with friends absolutely raving about him.

I kept an eye on him for the remainder of the decade, catching him live a few times, including shows where he was the support act for Tindersticks, a band he would later become a full member of between 2010 and 2013. I haven’t followed him much since then, but if he is still in the business, then I’m sure he’ll still have a broad fanbase in his homeland.

This is a lovely, fragile and wonderfully-scored ballad from Square One and a Top 10 single for him in 2003:-

mp3 : David Kitt – Dance With You

JC

Paul Haig

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 14)

The lack of sales for Chain didn’t perturb Circa Records too much as they were happy enough to provide funding for Paul Haig a return to the studio to make a new album, scheduled for release in 1991.

The new material was being worked up in New York and Chicago with help from Mantronik and Lil’ Louis, along with contributions from The Chimes, whose drummer James Locke had been pals with Paul for years. In an interview given to Melody Maker at the time, Paul said:-

“This is essentially a dance album, but it has a lot of different elements in there that you don’t normally hear on dance albums. There’s a lot of hooks and pop influences, but no rock influences – thank God! The whole idea was to work with different producers and let them get on with it, which was a departure since I’d produced myself for so long.”

“We recorded the stuff with Mantronik at his Sound Factory studio. He works very quickly, rattling stuff off in a couple of hours. He replaced all my beats with a combination of programming and breakbeats, mostly ’70s funk stuff. Louis took a completely different approach. He replaced the rhythm tracks on two of the songs and one we left as was. He works with much more basic equipment – he’s not as computerised as Mantronik. There was absolutely no sampling with Louis, he’s much more into the ‘real musician’ school of thinking.”

The first single in October 1990 gave an indication of what to expect:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – I Believe In You

Yup….incredibly similar to how the Pet Shop Boys would develop their sound in later years…..Paul Haig was, again, ahead of the curve and yet again failed to sell many copies.

Here’s the 12″ edition with b-sides:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – I Believe In You (Life in a Dolphinarium Mix)
mp3 : Paul Haig – Flight X (Long Flight Mix)
mp3 : Paul Haig – I Believe In You (Loop Mix)

JC

Isoceles

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #146 : ISOSCLES

Isoceles were given a big write-up in The Guardian newspaper back in April 2008:-

Hometown: Glasgow.

The lineup: Jack Valentine (vocals, guitar), William Aikman (keyboards, vocals), Bobby Duff (drums, vocals), Andrew Wilson (bass, vocals)

The background: A year is a long time in pop music. And so it is that art scruffs Isosceles, typical of The Glasgow School (see also: Orange Juice and Josef K), have homed in with laser precision on CBGB-era bands for inspiration. Not 1976 or 1978, but 1977. To be really specific, their jerky, nervy art attack (featuring the sort of yelping Robert Smith/Tom Verlaine-ish vocals currently popular among the youngsters) recalls the first Talking Heads album (ie the one before they discovered Eno and funk), the first Richard Hell & The Voidoids LP Blank Generation, and Television’s epochal debut Marquee Moon (only the short, sharp, shockingly concise three- and four-minute tracks such as See No Evil and Friction rather than, say, the 10-minute title track with its lengthy rhythmic extrapolation of the central riff-motif)

Isosceles, featuring former mountain bike champion/music technology student/Belle & Sebastian LP cover star Valentine and maths prodigy Duff, only formed last year. They played their first gig at a rain-soaked DIY music festival cobbled together at a friend’s farm in the wilds of Scotland, the keyboards resting on bales of hay as electric fences buzzed menacingly in the background. The four-piece stunned the drenched revellers with titles such as Kitch (sic) Bitch, Get Your Hands Off and their eponymous theme song with its handclaps and wry, humorous self-aggrandising (“Look at what we’ve done, aren’t we having fun? Cos we’re marching…”). Suddenly the rain stopped falling, the clouds parted and the cows in the nearby field mooed as one. This was followed by a slot supporting Franz Ferdinand on their mini-tour of the highlands and islands in autumn 2007 after Alex Kapranos caught them live in a Clydeside warehouse. It was on this jaunt that Isosceles involved the audience by handing out triangles, at which point they decided they’d done the right thing by not calling themselves Parallelogram.

Their debut burst of ramshackle guitar pop, Get Your Hands Off, came out last autumn. Possibly the world’s first indie single to accuse women – drunk girls, rich girls – of being sex pests, its unlikely mix of Beefheart thrills and Modern Lovers drone augurs well for their self-produced second single, Kitch Bitch, which does a Common People by taking potshots at ladies who slum it. Good luck, fellas.

The buzz: “It’s no wonder Isosceles have been tipped as The Next Big Thing.”

The truth: So long as their female-baiting doesn’t repel half their potential audience, indie success is assured.

Most likely to: Make sub-editors sic (sic) with their misspellings.

Least likely to: Be played back-to-back with Hall & Oates’ Rich Girl on xfm.

What to buy: Kitch Bitch/Watertight is released by Art Goes Pop on May 5.

File next to: Talking Heads, Television, Scars, Kaiser Chiefs

As it turned out, they never got beyond releasing that second 45, seemingly fading away completely by the end of 2008.  I’ve a live version of the debut single, courtesy of its inclusion on a compilation CD picked up back in the day, but I thought I’d do a wee bit of villainous digging and come up with both sides of the debut single and the promo whch was made for the follow-up:-

mp3 : Isoceles – Get Your Hands Off
mp3 : Isoceles – I Go

Don’t know how the hell the Guardian writer invoked Talking Heads, Television and Scars…..but they are indeed as annoying as Kaiser Chiefs.

JC

Various

NOT HAD ONE OF THESE FOR A WHILE….

mp3 : Various – The Fourteen of February

aka Songs of Love from me to you

Track Listing

There’s A Girl In The Corner – Robert Smith
I/m Not Here – The Twilight Sad
Thieves Like Us – New Order
Party In The Dark – Mogwai
Alex Discord – Port Sulphur
Trees and Flowers – Strawberry Switchblade
F.U.U. – Dream Wife (feat. Fever Dream)
Lazy Day (version) – The Boo Radleys
Eject (over zealous mix) – Senser
The Rubettes – The Auteurs
Sparky’s Dream – Teenage Fanclub
Jack In Titanic – Bodega
Emotional Haircut – LCD Soundsystem
Fresher Than the Sweetness in Water – Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci

Oh and there’s also a hidden track at the very end to take it all way up to 59:59.

Sets things up for something of a crazy weekend….young brother is flying over from Florida for a four-day stay (and isn’t he in for a massive shock to his system with the near 30 degree Centigrade drop in temperature), as we have a family bash to celebrate mum’s 80th birthday.  I’ve also got the Rovers on Saturday where I’ll be playing the pre-match tunes and talking gibberish in between catching up with a mate who is coming up from England to watch it.

Happy Listening

JC

Gang Of Four

I LOVE A MAN IN A UNIFORM….AMERICAN STYLE

Gang Of Four had wowed the critics with the albums Entertainment in 1979 and Solid Gold in 1981 without ever really translating the column inches into sales and familiarity with the general public. Things weren’t helped by an hard-headed and uncompromising attitude towards their art, with one example being them eschewing the opportunity to appear on Top of The Pops after the show’s producer asked that the word ‘rubbers’ be replaced by ‘rubbish’; it’s worth recalling that someone like Paul Weller was more than OK to change the occasional lyric to appear on the show, and so maybe Go4 were just a bit too precious about things, given that getting their message(s) across to a wider audience would have paid dividends in different ways.

The third album, Songs of The Free, was released in 1982. It was preceded by an absolute belter of a single, one which could be said to be the perfect hybrid of punk and disco:-

mp3 : Gang of Four – I Love A Man In A Uniform

The use of the female backing vocals to shriek out the song’s title over the catchiest of bass lines and riffs on the back of the innuendo-laden line ‘The girls, they love to see you shoot’, made it ideal for shaking your stuff on the dance floor…..and easy enough to pay no attention to the rest of the lyrics that referred to the inadequacies of men who signed up for the army life and the fact they ran the risk of an early death.

The song stood every chance of hitting the charts and this time there wouldn’t be a word which would be of concern to the TOTP censors…..and then Argentina and the UK went to war over the Falkland Islands and a large number of songs, old and new alike, were banned from radio play for fear of causing offence. I Love A Man In A Uniform had no chance of surviving that cull……

Just the other week, as part of a wider on-line purchase of some second-hand vinyl from a shop in Berlin, I picked up a 12” copy of this single, one that had originally been issued in the USA by Warner Brothers, and which featured an extended remix and dub version of the song, along with a far from throwaway track which I’m not sure ever saw the light of day in any other format:-

mp3 : Gang of Four – I Love A Man In A Uniform (remix)
mp3 : Gang of Four – Producer
mp3 : Gang of Four – I Love A Man In A Uniform (dub version)

One listen and you’ll recognise just how many 21st Century bands, on both sides of the Atlantic, have been influenced by Gang of Four.

JC

IDLES

REASONS WHY I SHOULD PAY MORE ATTENTION (4)

I’ve read a lot about IDLES over the past couple of years. It’s all been very positive stuff, whether in the mainstream media or in blogworld. And yet, until last Christmas, I hadn’t bothered lending them my ears to see what all the fuss was about.

Santa brought me a CD copy of Joy as an Act of Resistance, the band’s second album which was released in August 2018, some eighteen months after their debut. I could no longer ignore an act that had been described as ‘Britain’s most necessary band’ and whose music has been described as the taking the best elements of old-fashioned punk and hardcore and giving them a 21st century twist. Nor could I feign disinterest when a band is prepared to write and record song which address and attack subject matters such as homophobia, racism, Brexit and the right-wing tabloid press so beloved, sales wise, here in the UK.

And having become acquainted with IDLES, I found myself thinking of John Lydon, who once, very memorably screamed that ‘anger is an energy’. If so, then I’d wager that Joe Talbot, lead vocalist and main songwriter with IDLES, is capable of single-handedly powering up a small town.

It took three or four listens to fully appreciate this album. The opening track, Colossus, starts off feeling a bit grandiose and OTT, almost as if it was a parody of the sounds and styles the band had been influenced by. About three-quarters of the way through, it changes tempo and after a Ramones-style ‘1,2,3,4’ count-in, it dazzles into life and, if you happen to be listening via headphones, will do unexpected damage to your hearing.

This blistering tempo, for the most part, continues throughout the album. It is often difficult to make out all that is being sung/shouted above the noise, but there’s certainly enough catchy headline-style sing-along chants to grab any listener’s immediate attention. It’s the repeated listens that show up the more nuanced and telling lyrics, revealing Joy as an Act of Resistance to be a truly remarkable piece of work, with as much humour, pathos and tragedy on display as there is out-and-out anger.

All too often, those on the left, certainly when it comes to music and art, voice their views and opinions when opposing something through a prism of pacifism. Not this lot. And the world, somehow, feels a better place for it.

I’m an old bloke….fat, middle-aged, middle-class and well beyond those whom IDLES would most likely be aiming to influence. I’m also the type who, if lucky enough to snare a ticket for a live show, would stand meekly at the back or the side while the majority of the audience moshed away to the point of exhaustion. The music is tribal, brutal, immediate and compelling. I’m in.

mp3 : IDLES – Danny Nedelko
mp3 : IDLES – Television

JC

Dream Syndicate

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #204 : THE DREAM SYNDICATE

A GUEST POSTING by HYBRID SOC PROF,

our Michigan Correspondent

In the Spring of 1981, I completed my time playing classical music in the morning on WSRN-FM, and took on the Saturday evening 60s show. I was barely 18 and loved the early 70s art rock of ELO, Genesis and the like… Searching around the shelves, I happened upon Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets collection. These were not the ‘60s I’d been raised on. I mentioned this “discovery” to the station’s music direction and he pointed me to the 10 LP Pebbles series… that was it. No more art rock, and punk finally made sense! Capping it off, the Fleshtones played our campus. The volume, charisma, joy, dancing, sweat and exhaustion. Nuggets and Pebbles were alive in 1982?! I discovered Ace, Stiff, Arf Arf, and Rough Trade Records and then the Warfrat Tales collection and a series of reviews by Robert Palmer in the NY Times introduced me to LA’s poorly named Paisley Underground.

The Dream Syndicate weren’t on Warfrat Tales but they were mentioned in Palmer’s review of a Green on Red show in NYC. By the summer of ’83, I saw the Feelies at Maxwell’s in Hoboken but missed the Dream Syndicate tour, despite having fallen in love with The Days of Wine and Roses (1982, Ruby/Slash) , I didn’t get to see them until the tour for Medicine Show (1984, A&M) . The show, “Burn” is selected from it in this Imaginary Album, was again at Maxwell’s – a tiny little venue behind a tightly packed little corner bar – on a hot July night. Chris Cutler was on guitar (Carl Precoda had left the band for grad school in English) and Mark Walton on bass (Kendra Smith had left for the Northern California woods) but they the blew the roof of the place… my ears rang for days afterward.

Playing ultimate frisbee seriously, and then starting grad school myself, I missed the next few tours and, while I liked Out of the Grey (1986, Chrysalis) , and Ghost Stories (1988, Enigma) – and they each have notable songs – they weren’t as consistent, as explosive, or as impactful, so I also didn’t make the effort to see them before they broke up in ‘89.

Going back to 1985’s LP, The Lost Weekend (A&M), put out as Danny and Dusty, I think it’s fairly clear that Steve Wynn, the primary songwriter for the Dream Syndicate, should never be allowed to sit with his songs or produce his own music. The Danny and Dusty record was put together with Dan Stuart of Green on Red and members or The Dream Syndicate, Green on Red and The Long Ryders all played on it. It’s great. Similarly, Wynn’s quick and dirty solo work, and his album recorded really fast with Thalia Zedek and the members of Come are really strong…the things he spends too much time on generally don’t pack much of a wallop.

I had hoped that they might reform for the 20th anniversary of the Hotel Congress venue in Tucson, Arizona,in 2005 but it wasn’t until 2012 that it happened and I was able to see them in 2013 on my birthday, in Chicago during the tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of The Days of Wine and Roses. They’re still loud as heck.

In sticking with the idea of Imagined Albums, I’ve tried to generate a coherent album rather than a list of favorites, though there’s a great deal of overlap.

1. Kendra’s Dream, from 2017’s How Did I Find Myself Here?
2. When You Smile (Live), from 1994’s The Day Before Wine and Roses
3. The Lonely Bull (Live), Syndicated Dreams Vol 6 – Roskilde 7-5-86
4. The Medicine Show, from 2010’s The Medicine Show (remastered)
5. Black, from 1988’s Ghost Stories
6. That’s What You Always Say, from 1982’s The Days of Wine and Roses
7. Out of My Head, from 2017’s How Did I Find Myself Here?
8. The John Coltrane Stereo Blues, from 2010’s The Medicine Show (remastered)
9. When the Curtain Falls, from 1988’s Ghost Stories
10. Burn, from The Steve Wynn Archive, Live at Maxwell’s 1985-07-13

HSP

Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins

MONDAY MORNING…COMING DOWN (1)

I was too late to join the party with the great bloggers who are offering up long songs for Mondays and so I’m thinking I might be best served by starting off a fresh theme of my own. It might take off or it might fade away altogether after a short period, who knows?

I’ve decided that Monday mornings need to be kicked off in a gentle fashion from now on and so the songs here will be gentle on the ear, not all the far removed from what you might hear on easy listening radio stations. It might not, on paper, sound all that appealing, but I’m hopeful the quality of the tracks will keep you on board.

Today’s offering is from 2006 and was the debut single from Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins. The former first came to musical prominence in the late 90s with LA-based indie band Rilo Kiley while the latter, whose forenames are Chandra and Leigh, emerged just after the turn of the century as singers whose harmonising talents seemed perfectly suited for any blend of country, folk or indie and thus perfect for Jenny’s first solo spin-off project.

Despite having an aggressive sounding title, this is a very sweet number, just perfect for car karaoke with your friends:-

mp3 : Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins – Rise Up With Fists!!!

The b-side was one which didn’t make it onto the parent album Rabbit Fur Coat. It’s worthy of a listen, if a bit more folk/country than indie and has a more low-key contribution from the twins:-

mp3 : Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins – Paradise

JC

Paul Haig

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 13)

In 1988, Paul Haig took a very bold and brave step by fully financing the recording of his next album himself without the safety net of a guaranteed release. He again worked with Alan Rankine and thankfully for all concerned, it was picked up by Circa Records, an offshoot of Virgin.

Hopes were high, particularly for the release of an oustanding and poptastic lead off single:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Something Good

Released in 7″, 12″ and 12″ remix form and tailor-made for radio play and an appearance on Top of The Pops. But….once again, Paul was denied by the pop gods with him again being in the wrong place at the wrong time with Madchester all the rage and synth-pop well out of fashion. And yet, when you listen to Something Good (especially the remix version), and indeed some of other tracks on parent album Chain, it’s not a million miles away from some of the less clubby tracks on Technique by New Order (e.g. Run).

Here’s the two other versions of the single:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Something Good (12 inch)
mp3 : Paul Haig – Something Good (remix)

Here’s some b-sides:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Over You
mp3 : Paul Haig – Free To Go (Public)
mp3 : Paul Haig – The Last Kiss

It was a really bitter blow for all concerned.

JC

Isobel Campbell

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #145 : ISOBEL CAMPBELL

Edited from wiki:-

Isobel Campbell (born 27 April 1976) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, cellist and composer. Campbell rose to prominence at age nineteen as a member of the Scottish indie pop band Belle & Sebastian, but left the group to pursue a solo career, first as The Gentle Waves, and later under her own name. She later collaborated with singer Mark Lanegan on three albums.

Campbell’s music has been described as either indie pop, chamber pop or singer-songwriter. Regardless of genre, Campbell makes gentle and sombre music, often using classical instruments and her bright, slightly nasal voice with bittersweet and ironic songwriting.

In 1999, Campbell released her first solo album, The Green Fields of Foreverland, on the same label as Belle & Sebastian, Jeepster Records, under the name The Gentle Waves. The follow-up to The Green Fields of Foreverland would become Swansong for You released on 6 November 2000. This album would be the last release by Campbell as The Gentle Waves.

In 2002, she collaborated with Scottish jazz musician Bill Wells on Ghost of Yesterday, a collection of Billie Holiday songs released by Creeping Bent. In 2003, Campbell released Amorino, her first solo album under her own name. Bill Wells was featured here again, along with other jazz musicians.

Her fourth studio album was released on 23 October 2006 entitled Milkwhite Sheets. It brings traditional songs from United Kingdom and songs written by Campbell. Campbell has stated that album was inspired by the works of Jean Ritchie, Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins.

In April 2004, Campell released an EP with former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan, titled Time Is Just the Same. They would later release a single entitled “Ramblin’ Man” for their collaboration album Ballad of the Broken Seas. Campbell wrote and recorded the majority of the album’s tracks in Glasgow, with Lanegan adding vocals in Los Angeles. The album was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize.

In 2007, the duo recorded a second album together, entitled Sunday at Devil Dirt, which was released on 5 May 2008. Three singles from the album were released: “Who Built the Road”(7”), “Come On Over (Turn Me On)” (7″) and “Keep me in mind sweetheart”(Cd, 12”). The five new tracks of the “Keep me in mind sweetheart” EP were later added as bonus tracks to Sunday at Devil Dirt.

A third collaborative album with Lanegan was released on 16 August 2010 entitled Hawk. The pair toured to promote the album, including a set at All Tomorrow’s Parties, 10–12 December 2010 curated by Belle & Sebastian. In July 2013, it was announced that Campbell and Lanegan had officially ended their musical partnership.

I’ve pulled out the lead track from The 2004 EP, Time Is Just The Same, was the first of her collaborations with Mark Lanegan in that they co-wrote one of the tracks and he sang on it, but most of the other songs were her own material, including the lead track, in which the vocals are shared with Eugene Kelly from The Vaselines, with the result being a sort of Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood style country duet:-

mp3 : Isobel Campbell – Time Is Just The Same

JC

Buzzkunst

A BELATED TRIBUTE TO THE LATE PETE SHELLEY

There were numerous tributes paid when the news of the death of Pete Shelley was announced. The vast majority of them, unsurprisingly, focussed on his achievements with Buzzcocks while others reflected on his solo career.

I may be wrong, but I can’t recall seeing any mention of an album he released in March 2002, one for which he again teamed up with his old sparring partner from the punk days, although to be fair it’s a work probably more worthy for its novelty value than being memorable for the overall quality of the music.

The album was called Buzzkunst and was released under the moniker ShelleyDevoto on Cooking Vinyl Records.

I suppose much of the disappointment around the album was that many fans from days of old were anticipating and hoping for something that was reminiscent of old school Buzzcocks, or perhaps something that was close with perhaps some Magazine fairy dust being sprinkled liberally. Instead, we got 14 songs, some of which had vocals courtesy of Howard and some of which were purely instrumental and almost completely down to Pete, with the sound being a 21st Century update of the electronica of his solo output. I don’t want to give the impression that Buzzkunst is a clunker of a record – it’s far from that – but it’s a work that has its moments but never quite manages to hit the spot – which is the way I would summarise the career of Luxuria, the duo formed by Devoto, alongside multi-instrumentalist Noko, in the late 80s.

As I mentioned in a previous piece on Pete Shelley, nobody should have been too surprised about the electronica nature of his solo output given his first love and forays into music had involved the genre at a time before it developed into such a commercial phenomenon. It’s also worth recalling that he initially bonded with Howard Devoto over electronic music and it was only the discovery of Six Pistols and their ilk that led to the strapping on of guitars. As such, the signs had always been there that the first collaboration in a quarter-of-a-century would have turned out the way it did and the fault lies in me, as a discerning listener, in failing to realise that in advance.

The record does start off strongly enough with an upbeat track which very much wears its 80s sythn-pop influences (of an alt nature) on its sleeve and at the same time provides a reminder of why so many of us enjoyed Howard’s distinctively sneering and often self-deprecating vocal style:-

mp3 : ShelleyDevoto – Can You See Me Shining?

The other real standout track is the one which was released as an accompanying single, which does seems as close to a Magazine song as we had heard in decades with a backing vocal that is reminiscent of Spiral Scratch:-

mp3 : ShelleyDevoto – Til the Stars In His Eyes Are Dead

It is only with hindsight that it is possible to see this is the track which with the past and Howard’s decision to reform the band in 2009 and to eventually release the album No Thyself in 2011.

Elsewhere, there are some OK moments on Buzzkunst along with stuff that really shouldn’t have been developed beyond the demo stage. As mentioned earlier, there are a number of instrumental numbers which hark back to Pete’s mid 80s solo output, with this, in my estimation, being the pick of them:-

mp3 : ShelleyDevoto – Wednesday’s Emotional Setup

Many critics at the time heaped praise on the work, but I feel much of this was out of reverence to the two protagonists rather than an honest assessment of the quality of the album. Any hopes some might have had that it would lead to a continued partnership weren’t realised, although it is worth noting that Pete did get a couple of writing credits on the Magazine comeback album a full nine years later, so they clearly kept in touch and continued to bounce ideas off one another.

If I hadn’t been on holiday when Pete Shelley died, I’d have likely pulled together a tribute piece on his band and/or solo years. I hope you don’t mind tha I ended up going down this particular pathway….

JC

Various

ROUNDING UP 2018 : FROM OUR SWEDISH CORRESPONDENT

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

Hi Jim,

Happy New Year and all the best for 2019!

I thought, why not round off 2018 with another Swedish EP for TVV?… It was another great year for new music to surface – also in Sweden. For accessibility I’ll stay, piu o meno, with tracks sung in English although it was a great year for music in Swedish. And I decided not to include Robyn as I assume most of you have had issues avoiding her return – the 2 singles released so far are in my opinion the two best tracks anyway so I won’t bore you with any of those here.

11 pm side

1. Henric De La Cour – Kowalski Was Here.

Former front figure of Swedish indie rockers Yvonne has gone all (goth)synth and on Gimme Daggers, his third solo album, the pieces fell into place. I believe he has some of the early New Order records at home. Did I see arms in the air?

2. ionnalee – Not Human.

Brought up in my home town she started out as indie rocker Jonna Lee, transmorphed into electronic audiovisual artist iamamiwhoami and in 2018 she moved into electronic (dance) artist ionnalee, releasing the magnificent album Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten. Excellent live as well. She’s potentially the secret child of Kate Bush and Bernard Sumner.

3. Junior Brielle – Love.

A mix of Swedish and some English but I’m pretty sure this can take you all to the dance floor anyway!. Two brothers from the grim north, placing The Strokes‘ drummer in the lime light for 3 minutes. All that you ever want for your indie disco night: New Order synths, a steady beat, nice breaks, witty lyrics (the chorus goes You can always lie to yourself, but never lie to me) and some falsetto singing. Their first singles I disregarded as petty copies of now disbanded Swedish icons Kent, but second half of 2018 saw the release of a string of tracks taking that sound above and beyond their influence and into my heart.

4. Red Mecca – What Is Coming.

File under darkwave. Red Mecca is, or rather was, the duo of Jan Strandquist (formerly keyboards in 80’s post punk/new wave band Brända Barn (Burnt Children)) and young vocalist Frida Madeleine. Unfortunately Frida decided to leave after the excellent 2018 album I See Darkness In You for personal reasons. The mix of Jan’s long history in Swedish alternative music scene and Frida’s enchanting voice was a wonderful cocktail. The band continues with new vocalist Susanne and have released their first single after Frida’s departure. I have still to be truly convinced, we’ll see if they show up here in a year or not.

4 am side

1. Lykke Li – So Sad So Sexy.

She’s back four years after the monumental hit remix of No Rest For The Wicked featuring A$AP Rocky with a break-up album. So she’s become a mother and split up since last album, but she hasn’t lost her talent – just using it to get all her sorrow out of her system. Not angry, she understands how the world turns, but she needs to get history out of her mind.

2. Nina Kinert – Chapped Lips.

The album Romantic, 8 years after her PC war-game inspired last album, saw Nina Kinert churn out exactly what she said – a very romantic, ballad laden synth-pop album. And in my eyes the crown jewel is this wonderful duet with Future Island‘s Sam Herring. Some lyrical similarities with a Smiths track when you think about it.

3. Grant – Waterline.

Grant, after Cary Grant, is 25 year old Caroline who puts all of her bullied, torn and tormented youth into her debut album In Bloom. At times just a bit too much, but in Waterline she gets it all in the right places. The song about am in the end not committed suicide is very personal. I saw her performing this solo on a piano placed on a ramp just over the surface in the middle of a swimming pool in August – it was pure magic.

Bonus track:

Little Jinder – London Calling (live radio session).

Probably this will put some of you off, a lot…. I have to say London Calling is one of my all time fave tracks in its original version, so I was mildly said sceptical when I found this on YT. But as I do very much enjoy the teeny but intelligent pop Little Jinder does (only understandable for Swedish speaking) I gave it a listen, and she has actually been able to do something completely different of the song, turning it to her own. Give it a chance, live by the river.

In the same session she did a version of her own track Goldwing with a short but kind of nice homage to Joy Division. Also on YT.

Little Jinder – Goldwing

A fantastic 2019 to all of you, your faithful Swedish correspondent.

Martin

Bodega

REASONS WHY I SHOULD PAY MORE ATTENTION (3)

I’m guessing that many of you will be familiar with a number, if not all, of the other blogs listed at the this little corner of t’internet. One of them is The Sound of Being OK (TSOBO), a development from When You Can’t Remember Anything, the brainchild of two friends/work colleagues SWC and Tim, who quickly cemented themselves as being as essential as Reeves and Mortimer, Laurel and Hardy, Pete and Dud, Morecambe and Wise, Lennon and Matthau, Fry and Laurie or Spit and Bob.

TSOBO was even more special thanks to the input from KT, a female colleague of the boys, whose inspirational postings and musings quickly became essential reading, being totally different in style and content from most other music bloggers, free from pretension and any effort to appear hip and cool (similar in many ways to Rol over at My Top Ten). KT is currently on maternity leave and rightly dealing with important things in life, but the lads came up with the great idea of putting out a ‘Situation Vacant’ ad on TSOBO, leading to Ed being recruited at the tail end of 2018.

The young man (he is a mere 40-years-old) has huge shoes to fill, but he’s certainly shown a great deal of promise if his early pieces are anything to go by. Here’s one of his as part of the rundown of best albums of 2018:-

According to the popular hairgel advertising sheet, the NME, Bodega are “the most exciting band to have come out of New York since The Strokes”. They are basing this on an appearance at the SXSW festival in Texas earlier in the year. I know what you are saying – these days the singing endorsement of the NME (sponsored by VO5) is enough to finish anyone’s careers. Bodega will be another fly by night over hyped band of nobodies who look identical to the last great hopes of the indie rock world. Yup, me too…

But…

Hang on naysayers…Steve Lamacq the current Lord of Indie is on the radio and he has just played me ‘How Did This Happen?!’

And its bloody brilliant.

Bodega are according to him, the band that literally everyone wants to watch at The Great Escape in Brighton in early May. They are according to him a band that sound like LCD Soundsystem that never went clubbing.

Now I was at the Great Escape this year (I went with my mate Brian) and based on that glowing recommendation from Lammo I queued for an hour to get into the pub that they were playing in, missing Japanese Breakfast in doing so, because its Steve Lamacq and he is always right, right? So in I go.

It was sweaty and it was packed. Folks, I’m 40 years of age, I am probably told old and too married to be seen squashed up against girls more than half my age watching a rock band. But, for once, the NME appear to have got it right, they are the best band to come out of New York since The Strokes (including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). It is a breathless 30 minutes or so.

Their debut album ‘Endless Scroll’ was released at the start of the summer and it is packed full of punchy, sarky, bossy post punk tracks. Tracks like Gyrate which is definitely the best song you will hear all year about female master debating and tracks like Jack In Titanic, which is basically Pavement wearing pop music hats.

He also offered links to a number of songs from the debut album and I gave them a listen, never having heard of the band until that point in time. The following week, I went out and bought the album on vinyl, delighted to find it came lovingly packaged with a 28-page illustrated lyric booklet, indicating that they and What’s Your Rupture records cared about things.

I’m loving Bodega. Consisting of Ben Hozie (guitar, vocals), Nikki Belfiglio (vocals), Montana Simone (drums), Madison Velding-VanDam (guitar) and Heather Elle (bass), they make music which ticks all my boxes. It’s indie-guitar music packed with wit, energy and ridiculous hooks, delivered with just the right amount of American sassiness that we over here describe all too often call cocky when delivered by one of our own.

mp3 : Bodega – How Did This Happen?!

They even manage to sound good when they slow it down and get reflective, such as on this tribute to a late friend:-

mp3 : Bodega – Charlie

There is a touch of the DIY about Endless Scroll, not in terms of the production which is of a very high standard, but with 14 songs in under 35 minutes, it’s akin to the breathlessness of Glasgow’s very own Breakfast Muff who made one of the great albums of 2017 and who, like Bodega, shift between male and female lead vocals.  Next month, I’ll be going, in the company of Aldo, to see the band play, what I think may well be their debut Scottish gig, when they headline the 700-capacity Glasgow School of Art.

There’s a lot of references specific to their own surroundings in Brooklyn and NYC, with a wry and satirical dig at the hipsters and purveyors of gentrification. There’s the occasional use of computer-voice simulations in-between songs which made me laugh out loud more than it should have, but why not when you hear “I use my computer for everything. Heaven knows I’m miserable now.” It’s pretty much a perfect summary of modern life, which can occasionally be rubbish.

It’ll be interesting to see if Bodega are any good in the live setting – Ed certainly thought they were – and if there is life beyond an exceptional debut. But for now, I’m happy in the haze of both drunken and sober hours to enjoy them

JC